The Kevin Sheehan Show - Kobe

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

Kevin talked Kobe Bryant's shocking death, his career, legacy, etc. He spent a few minutes recapping Maryland's comeback win at Indiana. He finished with the NFL's Pro Bowl test of the onsides kick alternative. <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. Two seconds, one second, Kobe Pumpfay. He spins, he shoots. He's playing. Kobe pull-up, Joe. Kobe pull-up, Joseph. Five. The left hand is on James. Here's Bryant. Yes. 36 game winners during the course of Kobe Bryant's career.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, whenever you're listening to this. It's just Aaron and yours truly today. Crazy day yesterday, obviously. One of those days that, you know, for a lot of people, not everybody. Okay, I recognize not everybody was moved yesterday, even if you were surprised. But it is one of those days, and fortunately they don't happen very often, which is why when they do, they hit so hard. But yesterday's one of those days.

You're going to remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news that Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash. In my lifetime, you know, there have been, you know, I don't know, three, four super surreal days where it seems like a dream. You know, it really hit home. There's nothing in my lifetime that hit home in terms of an athlete's death. Look, 9-11, there was no more surreal day than 9-11. You know, that's not necessarily comparable in scope to what we had yesterday or to another, you know, entertainer or athlete dying. But it's comparable in sort of human reaction and emotion. But for me, the day that Len Bias died is a day I'll never, ever forget.

And it was certainly not a worldwide reaction like yesterday's was. But it was shocking in the same way. Sean Taylor's death was shocking because the night before he passed away, there was encouraging news, if you recall, that he was perhaps going to survive and be okay. But yesterday is just one of those days, total shock, total bewilderment. You know, you're hoping that it isn't true. Then you're dealing with the fact that it is true. And then there is sadness, and then there are the awful images. You know, human images in your own mind of how it happened, you know, the recognition of how it can all end so quickly. You know, no matter how old you are, you know, no matter what condition you are. It is a reminder, you know, how fleeting life is.

And especially for a younger generation when someone like a hero like Kobe Bryant dies, it's like their first experience with, oh my God, this can happen. The 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, being in that helicopter as well, is really a difficult swallow for everybody. I just, you know, you just hope as a parent, you know, and most of you are, many of you are, you just hope that, you know, Kobe was there with, you know, comfort for her, that they were together, holding each other, you know, and probably him saying it's going to be okay. knew. I mean, that assumes that they did know it was coming and that in itself is horrifying to even think about. But anyway, these days are shocking. They're horrifying. They're sad. And then, you know, they also are sort of influencing in the moment, you know, for a few hours or a day or two. You think about what's really important in life. You know, everybody takes a moment to recognize, you know, how fleeting life can be. And it becomes instructive. And you get people on

Twitter, you know, doing me. Give a hug to somebody. Tell those close to you how you feel. Tell people that you love, that you love them. There's all of that, of course. But I'll tell you, you know, personally, Kobe Bryant's death is a big deal for a generation that grew up watching him, appreciating him, idolizing him. And he was for my boys, they're, you know, my sons, they're Jordan. He was. My boys were crushed yesterday, Aaron. My oldest is not much. of a sports fan, but my two younger children, Corbyn, who you know very well, and my younger son, Ryan, were absolutely devastated. They loved Kobe Bryant. Corbyn was a massive Kobe Bryant fan. He used to wake up before school, middle school, and he would go right to SportsCenter,

you know, highlights if the Lakers had played the night before, and would read box scores. He knew everything and still does. To this day, everything about Kobe Bryant. Kobe was his guy, and my youngest son, because his older brother was a Kobe guy, he became a massive Kobe fan. And Corby was with me yesterday. We're watching the Maryland game, you know, the Maryland Indiana game, which I'm going to get to. I mean, we're going to do some sports on the show today. And it was just an incredible game, and we're watching that game together. And during, you know, big Maryland games, it's usually the three of us, you know, on a group text, if we're not in the same locations talking about the game.

And my son Ryan, who's at Penn State, sent us a text in the second half. He's like, Kobe died, question mark, are you guys seeing this? And we hadn't immediately went to Twitter. And from that point forward, the Maryland-Indiana game became insignificant for us. And I can tell you, you know, for my family, for that game yesterday to become a total afterthought, that's saying something. complete shock, you know, overtook the room and it became a massive search for information on Twitter, you know, and I remember I got a text from a friend of mine during this thing. TMZ just took the report down.

And I said that to my son, and he's like, well, maybe it's not true. Maybe it's, you know, and there's this brief relief or hope that it wasn't true, but as it turned out, it was. The internet was exploding yesterday during this. And I did read early this morning that for a few minutes, TMZ's website had crashed, which is why I got a text from a friend saying it's been taken down. But Twitter was in utter stunned disbelief. And the report first came, the first to report it was TMZ. You know, this TMZ, which has really gotten a lot of shit right for a long time now. You know, they are, you know, not traditional media, as we've known it for the majority of our lifetimes.

But we know who TMZ is. They've broken so many stories. They've gotten things wrong, too, but they've gotten a lot of stuff right. How did they get this one? Well, I did hear just, you know, about an hour ago that they were actually going to do a story on Kobe and this basketball league in his daughter. So they were sort of in the general vicinity. But still, when it's TMZ, you're thinking, eh, could be wrong. You're not totally sure, you know.

So then the LAT TV station, the local affiliate, I think it was the ABC affiliate. They were the next to sort of put it out there and confirm it. But still, for the first 30 minutes of this thing, it wasn't on ESPN, it wasn't on the crawl, it wasn't on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, it wasn't on any of the news networks. There was no crawl. There was no anything. So you are thinking, you know, is it true? You know, or because even in this day and age, Aaron, where sometimes the networks and the major newspapers are like the last ones to find out. And sometimes it's because they're the only ones that are going to make sure that it's completely confirmed in multiple sources, true journalism rules, all of that, perhaps even waiting for next of kin to be notified. But still, when it finally showed, up on television, it made it sort of real. Even though I think at that point it was starting to become real. And then we had at least an hour minimum of multiple reports that turned out to be completely inaccurate.

Like Rick Fox, former NBA player, former Laker, Mike Wilbon, was on radio with me this morning for a half an hour. And Rick Fox is one of Kobe's very closest friends. And for, you know, for a solid 30 minutes, we thought Rick Fox had perished. on the helicopter with him. There was also the report that was really devastating and troubling to deal with that all four of his daughters were on the helicopter. But as it turned out, it was Kobe.

It was his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. They called her Gigi. Seven others, not part of Kobe's family, were on the plane, including a legendary baseball coach from Orange Coast College in Southern California, John Altebelli, the son of Joe Altebelli, who was the manager for the Orioles World Series winner in 1983. And John Altebeli and his wife, Carrie, and his daughter, Alyssa, who was teammates with Kobe's daughter, Gianna. That's why they were on the helicopter together because they were headed to a basketball game. According to John Altebelli's brother, he would routinely fly with his daughter to attend games with Kobe on Kobe's helicopter.

Was Kobe's helicopter used it to get around everywhere for a long period of time? There was an assistant girls basketball coach named Christina Mouser who coached at a private school in L.A., a K-8 private school. She was on the helicopter, and there were three others as well, nine in total. You know, some of the details of the crash really started to come out late last night and early this morning. ESPN had an in-depth report about the crash. The helicopter was climbing at about 2,400 feet trying to make a turn before it dove to the ground. The ESPN story said that the pilot had only moments before he contacted air traffic controllers to say that he had begun to climb to go above a cloud layer.

It was heavy clouds in the area. We know that weather now was certainly an issue and perhaps a factor in the crash. The NTSB will eventually give us the cause of the crash. But it was shortly after 9.40 a.m. Pacific time, the helicopter turned for a third or fourth time, trying to climb to 2,000 feet above sea level. And then, according to this report, it descended and crashed into a hillside at about 14. 1,700 feet. And when it struck the ground, the helicopter was flying at about 184 miles per hour and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute. The video, we saw the video of all of the

fire and the smoke on that hillside. You know, it's an awful sight regardless of who's involved. But the fact that Kobe Bryant was on that flight, it turned a local story, a tragic local story into a worldwide story. It was sort of sports and pop culture colliding yesterday in total and utter disbelief, not just here in this country, but around the world. I had a friend of mine, you know, I'm sure like everybody, with your group of friends that you text with and you communicate with, I mean, texts are flying. And one of my friends said, bias, you know, and I said, yeah, in terms of the same level of shock for us. But, you know, and the comparisons would be, you know, an athlete so strong, so skilled, you know,

never thinking they almost look like nothing could happen to them. But the reaction to Kobe's death is worldwide. Len biases was more of a U.S. reaction. You know, Kobe's death is huge in China throughout Europe, throughout, you know, Australia. in New Zealand and all around the world. Basketball is either the second most popular sport in the world behind soccer or at least the third behind soccer and cricket. And I think I've been corrected on this when I've said it's the second most popular sport in the world because cricket is super popular too. But the NBA is so huge and in some cases as big in other areas of the world as it's almost as big as here. Kobe Bryant wasn't perfect.

All right, we know the story of Colorado and a 19-year-old hotel worker. He was very different, though. I remember having conversations about this many times. You know, he spoke multiple languages fluently. He lived much of his childhood in Europe, most of it in Italy because his father was a professional basketball player, as most of you know. He was very intelligent. You know, he was one of the great players of all time, you know, without a doubt.

But he was, you know, it's when you live outside of this country, when you live internationally, when you live in different places and different cultures, you're exposed to a lot more than perhaps a lot of his contemporaries were growing up. And it's one of the reasons, and Wilbon pointed this out on radio with me this morning, it's one of the reasons that this is being taken so hard worldwide. And why Kobe was so popular in places. international, even more so than a lot of the others that preceded him, including Michael and Larry and Magic. It's because there was this sense that Kobe was different. He had lived life in Europe in his formative years. He spoke all these different languages. He was more

sort of versatile as a human being, you know? And look, I mean, much of the world views America is very narrow. It's very self-absorbed. And it's not necessarily true, but that's the perception of it. And, you know, Kobe was viewed differently. He was viewed much differently, which is one of the reasons that he was so super popular around the world. He's one of the great players of all time. And we've done this prior to his death, and we will do this for years to come after his death, the conversation about how great was he?

You know, where does he rank? Well, you know, on a day like today, I'm not one of these people that's going to say, oh, you can't talk about that or it's inappropriate to talk about this at this point. Any reaction that people have to me, you know, in emotional, as long as it's not, you know, personally attacking, is fine. We all react in our own ways, but it's fine to talk about his career today, you know. I read on the internet, we're not talking about rankings and stuff, or we're not talking about this. Got to give it a few days.

whatever. Everybody, I'm going to talk about it right here. He's not a top 10 player of all time. I'm sorry, he's not a top 5 player of all time in my... Okay, I was going to fight you a bit on the top 10 thing. The top 10, a lot of people have him just outside the top 10. I've got him in the top 10. To me, he's a top 10 player. I think most would say that. He's not top 5. He's not. The thing that Kobe will forever be remembered for more than anything else athletically is his killer competitiveness. The Jordan competitive gene, the Tiger Woods thing, the Larry Bird thing. You know, he's always going to be thought of as right there with Michael. He had that something that you don't teach, you don't learn, you're just born with. He was a killer on the court, one of the great closers of all time, you know, with Michael and Bird. You know, he took every big shot, 36 career game winners. He won with and without Shaquille O'Neal, which remember, you know, at the,

In 2008 and those years when he got the additional two championships without Shaq, that was super important for his legacy. If he had retired with just the three titles with Shaq, he would have been thought about much differently as a player, much differently. He needed those championships without Shaq. He really did. He had 81, as we know, he had 60 in his final game.

His talent and skill were off the charts, but it's his killer competitive gene, that ability to close out that makes him an all-time great. And with respect to that category of who are the greatest hyper-competitive athletes of all-time, he's right there with Jordan, with Bird, with Tiger Woods, you know, all the people that we think about. You know, individual sports are completely different. And in team sports, the reason we sometimes focus in on a player like Michael or Kobe is because you see it so much more. And it's so much more impactful.

Tom Brady's a killer competitor, too. You know, they're killer competitive, you know, football players of all time. And we know that. But the impact they have on the final result of the game is not the same as one five on a court for a team and a basketball game. The 81 point night, so this was in 2006, it was actually on a Monday following Championship Sunday, you know, AFC, NFC, Championship Sunday. And I'll never forget this morning because it was really like at the beginning of my

radio career, which for me was sort of a second professional life that I've had here for now, you know, 17 years, something like that. And I was doing updates at 980. I was the early morning update anchor. And, you know, it was one of those deals where the first update happened at 6 a.m. And so on Sunday night, I'm going to bed thinking, I got, this is an easy update morning, because I just got championship, you know, talk. And I woke up the following morning, and part of the routine was, you know,

recording sports center, you know, the early, you know, five, four or five a.m. Sports Center and watching the first 15 minutes of it. And it was all about Kobe going off for 81. And I'm like, oh, my God, that sort of changes the rundown for your updates. Not, you know, it's not a big deal, but I'll never forget that watching that. And I'm like, oh, my God, 81 points. And I was listening to people last night talk about that 81 point night. And one of the more interesting stories, um, that I was listening to last night was Bruce Bowen, who was a phenomenal NBA all-time defender for the Spurs and how many of those classic matchups between the Spurs and the Lakers

with Bowen being given the responsibility of covering and trying to slow down Kobe Bryant. And a lot of the discussion about that 81 point night was how great Kobe was, but also how bad Toronto was. Toronto was a bad team and a bad defensive team, and Jalen Rose was pretty much a disinterested defender at times, and he was on him for some of the night and a couple of other players were on him, and they just couldn't stop him. And so Bruce Bowen told the story about the next day.

They're either at practice or getting ready for a game. I forget what he said. But he's having a conversation with Tony Parker. And Parker said, man, not much defense last night. I mean, seriously, he goes, Parker's like, I think a lot of people could have gotten, you know, 81. And Bowen just looked at him and said, and Bowen's super competitor defender just said,

it doesn't matter who's guarding someone. 81's 81. Like, it's hard to get 81 against no defense. So he was blown away, as was the rest of the league, 55 points in a half. You know, he only had 26 in the half. I remember I was, I think that was the day, actually, I was a freshman at Maryland at the time.

I think that might have been the day we moved back in from winter break and we're all, you know, we're doing stuff, we're playing video games, whatever. All of a sudden, I remember one of the guys in our hall burst in and said it was probably halftime. Kobe has 55. Well, he had 55 in the second half of that kid. Second half of that, yeah. He had 26 in the first half.

So it was after the third quarter. It was when he really started going off. People started freaking out. We just all drop everything and go into the common room and watch that. Yeah, I mean, you know, his final game in Washington as part of that farewell tour, was I was there that night and that was an electric environment. And I remember saying the next day on the air that, or next day or whenever it was, I remember talking about how what it really was a reflection of was Washington as a basketball town.

You know, first of all, given the teams that the Wizards and Bullets had had for so many years, many of those years it was about coming out to watch Dr. J, Larry Bird, Magic, Johnson, Michael Jordan, and then, you know, the Lakers or the Celtics, or, you know, then it became Shaq and Kobe, and then it's been, you know, it's been LeBron in recent years. And, but the ovation that he got, and he got it everywhere he went, but there was some discussion about Washington being one of those remarkable and very, very, you know, sort of incredible scenes for his farewell tour in 2016. And it was so loud, and there were so many Kobe, and there was a video played in the Jumbotron,

and there was a standing ovation. And I remember the next day on the air, the conversations were about, this is sort of pathetic that we live in a city like this, where, you know, like, basically it was a road game for our... But we've seen that a lot for the Wizards over the years, not just for that night.

But that night was about him and about that D.C. is an incredible, um, appreciative basketball city. Something, you know, that has been discussed many times by many people and by me included that, you know, if you're not from here and you are a sports fan over the years, and not so much in recent years, but over the years, you think, oh, yeah, it's the Redskins, you know, they dominate. They're the number one story in D.C. And that's always been true in terms of the interest level until very recently.

But at its core, D.C. has more people interested, participating, actively involved in the sport of basketball than any other sport. You know, look at, we've talked about it all last week with the passing of Morgan Wooten, that it's, you know, arguably the number one high school basketball hotbed in America. For, by the way, both boys and girls. I mean, you've had the best high school basketball league in the country in the WCAC forever. Four teams in the top 25 here recently. And, you know, you combine, you know, the city to the north,

35 miles to the north. Baltimore, incredible high school. You put those two together, and it's the best. You know, you take all the talent that comes out of Baltimore in D.C. And the city and PG County and surrounding counties, it's incredible. And basketball is really huge. And that night was really sort of also a reflection of not only the respect and appreciation for Kobe, but just how good of a basketball town this is that people really love basketball.

It also made me think about this, is, you know, this death yesterday happened on a day, which was a Sunday in late January, in the middle of basketball season, college, you know, high school, pro. But more importantly, you know, every gym in America on Saturdays and Sundays during the winter are packed with basketball games, you know, overflowing with parents and youth and kids playing and coaches and referees. And then you also had the NBA games yesterday and the college games yesterday. And, you know, this generation, this younger generation, they loved Kobe Bryant. So yesterday, just for so many parents and coaches, you know, whether it was after the game informing the team or the team knew before the game and they were distraught, you had that going on all over the country yesterday. You know, if it happens in July, it's tragic.

It's sad. You know, it doesn't, you don't then have to participate in something. Yesterday was a basketball day in this country. I know this because I've coached for 30 years on and off. And weekends have been in January and February and March are filled with, we're in the car, we got a game, you know, here at 11, and then we got another game. We got this travel league game at 11 a.m. in PG County.

And then we got to be all the way over here in Kensington for a CYO game. or at St. John's for a CYO game, all of that. And that's what you had yesterday going on, you know, and kids and young people finding out and being devastated, look at the NBA reactions. Incredible. And, you know, the common thing to do last night in these NBA games were to take an eight-second back-court violation

and then a 24-second shot-clock violation to honor Kobe and the two jerseys, jersey numbers that he wore throughout his career. We saw that pretty much throughout the league. There were a couple of others that were a little bit different. 24, 24, I think was the first one in the Spurs Raptors. But then, yes, I can't remember who was the first team to do 824. But yeah, that caught on pretty quickly.

Yeah. So. Do you think they should have, there was kind of the sentiment out there about whether NBA should have suspended or canceled those games? I mean, I was thinking about it, you know, during the afternoon. And I was like, how are some of these people who not only played against him, some played with him. Some just grew up idolizing him and barely had any, you know, true, direct experience against him. Kyrie did not play in the game last night. But, you know,

I think, you know, it's one of those things where it's funny, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Pretty much, Adam Silver obviously decided that they'd go ahead and play the games and in part maybe to, you know, to say. this is probably what the, you know, super competitive Kobe Bryant would have, you know, would have wanted to do. You know, Kobe would have wanted to go out that night and try to hang 50 on somebody to honor Michael, if it had happened to Michael, you know, or whatever. But I don't think there's a right or wrong decision more times than not in these things. I mean, this was not impactful, you know, directly impactful, like something like 9-11 was, obviously, where you had cities like

hours, which were on high alert, you know, and, you know, not to mention just the honoring of over 3,000 people who had perished in the World Trade Center and in the Pentagon and, obviously, on Flight 93, Shanksville, Pennsylvania on that day. But it was, I mean, you just don't, you know, there are these days, and I know some people roll their own. eyes at this. It's a matter of personal perspective, but yesterday, much of the pop culture world and sports world in particular, this was one of those days. Absolutely one of those days that they will never, ever forget when they heard the news. For it to happen, the way it was happening in the middle of that Maryland game, which we'll get to, it was really dreamlike in many ways.

All right, what else did I have on this? You know, I did want to talk about. I did want to talk briefly about the TMZ aspect of it. I saw a lot of criticism of TMZ breaking this story, including from that LA County Sheriff, who in his press conference that was held, I don't know, 530, Eastern, something like that yesterday, where he said that the identities of those who were aboard the helicopter when it crashed would not be disclosed yet, that there were nine. I think that was the first moment that we realized that it was nine and not five, which was the number for the first couple of hours of this developing situation. But this L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villeneueva said, quote, it would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved one perished and you

learn about it from TMZ that is just wholly inappropriate, closed quote. And then the undersheriff, Tim Murakami, tweeted out for, from the LA Sheriff's Office, quote, I'm sadden that I was gathering facts as a media outlet reported that Kobe had passed. I understand getting the scoop, but please allow us time to make personal notifications to their loved ones.

It's very cold to hear of the loss via media, breaks my heart, closed quote. Look, here's my view on this. This is what TMZ does. That's their business, for the most part, is breaking news. They are not concerned about getting it wrong. They're clearly not concerned about next of kin being notified.

And that's their business model. And they have been right a lot more than they've been wrong. And by the way, every traditional media outlet would have loved to have had this story first, accurately confirmed, per all journalistic, you know, measures. And they would not have waited necessarily for family and friends to be notified. Let's make that very clear. That's the one thing I do well because I saw a lot of people say, oh, it was only TMZ that would do that. Never.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Most of these things are media first, hearing about it through the media and family members many times of famous people and famous celebrities hear about this information from media people before hearing from it from. you know, uh, you know, uh, the L.A. County Sheriff. And I know that these people are trained in,

in breaking this kind of news, et cetera. Um, but it's not something that gets me worked up. It really isn't. I, I, that's their business model.

That's what they do. I know some people find it unseemly. I know some people find it to be despicable. Um, but, uh, that's your opinion. Mine is,

this is, uh, what they do. Uh, every traditional media. outlet in the country, if they had had it first and they had the proper confirmations, would have gone with it long before the LA County Sheriff's Department or anybody else had informed family members and wouldn't have thought twice about it. It's not, you know, TMZ does not care. Remember,

they want to get it right. Their intention is to get it right. But really, their business model is to get it first and be the first out there. You know, and you can call that irisor. responsible journalism. You can call it a lot of different things. That's the world we're living in now. You know, there is, especially with social media, the ability to get information out immediately. It's funny because TMZ's been right. I think from my perspective, I can't list the times that they've been wrong. They've had a lot of shit right for a long period of time. But still yesterday, I wasn't going to completely believe it until I saw it on television. And that may be an okay boomer comment from some of you, but it was like until I saw somebody reputable,

truly reputable, tweeted, I believed it, don't get me wrong. When TMZ had it out there, and then the LA ABC affiliate, I think it was the ABC affiliate. Yeah, I believe you're called. When they confirmed it, I was like, this is probably going to be real, but there was that, you know, 20 to 30 minute period where it wasn't even on the crawl. And I was like, hmm, but they're really making sure that it is confirmed in every way, shape, or form. And, you know, part of it, may have just been sort of the accident itself. It's horrifying to think about this stuff. But, you know, you have a flight manifest, obviously,

but, you know, who knows what the condition of the people on the plane were, you know, and how hard it was to confirm that, yeah, this manifest says these people were on this, on this, not the plane, on the helicopter, but how do we confirm that that's true? I mean, poor Rick Fox's friends and family, if they didn't. know that they weren't sitting with them, you know, in the moment. Horrible, horrible story. Horrible story. Anyway, I think that's basically, I mean, all of the responses from all the players.

I think the one player for me that I was waiting to hear from or waiting to read was Shaq. That was the one, you know, we barely heard from LeBron. He basically said it was too hard to handle when he got in. on a east coast to west coast flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles the Lakers were where the night before, remember on Saturday, he had passed Kobe Bryant for third place and Kobe's last tweet was about, about LeBron James. And I'm going to read it right now if you haven't heard it, although I would assume that most of you have. But Kobe's last tweet on social media

was in response to LeBron passing Kobe for third all time on the NBA scoring list, now behind Carl Malone and Kareem still, who's at number one. And so he had tweeted out the following, quote, continuing to move the game forward at King James, much respect my brother with the hashtag the point total that he had generated and had passed him with. And then, I nearly forgot about this, came the story of Sharif O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal's son. And Sharif O'Neal is a basketball player or was a basketball player until very recently at UCLA. But he's transferring. He's leaving UCLA. And he was the, at least based

on what we know now, and this may not be true. I mean, he could have texted or private messaged a lot of people before he got onto that helicopter. But Kobe's message to Sharif O'Neill, Shaq's son, came at like 8.49 a.m. Pacific time. So it would have been basically, I'm sorry, 8.29 a.m. So it would have been an hour and 20 minutes essentially before the helicopter went down. And he tweeted to Sharif O'Neill, you good fam, you good family?

their family. It's the way they think of each other. Sharif thinks of him as an uncle and, you know, and as of Gianna, the daughter that passed away as a cousin. Even Shaq's tweet said, you know, my niece and my, you know, and Kobe. But Sharif O'Neal said he responded, but he responded basically as it turned out after the helicopter had gone down, but he didn't know it at the time. he responded, yeah, just been getting this work in trying to figure out my next move, how you been, question mark. And of course, that was never, never responded to. Really, really sad.

But I was sort of waiting for a lot. I wanted to hear obviously what Michael thought, what LeBron thought, with a lot of the great players, but Shaq in particular, because we know their history, you know, Shaq and Kobe were certainly, you know, not close. They were not compatible. Part of that is Kobe's killer competitive ways. It makes, as we know from Michael's career, for sometimes not the greatest of teammate relationships

because they're so demanding people like that. And he thought Shaq basically was lazy. But they had reconciled, and they were much closer in recent years, which of course is great to find out. I mean, there have been so many, there have been some of these tragic deaths in the past, and we mentioned a couple of them.

One that I wanted to mention that I had somebody mentioned to me this morning, I think either on the phones or on Twitter, they said, you know, the reaction to Dale Earnhardt's death, even though it wasn't worldwide, but the pain, shock, and suffering

of those people in that NASCAR world was indescribable. And I do remember that. You know, Scott, Van Pelt, literally got to ESPN and his first gig on his second day or first day was you got to get down to Daytona and cover this Dale Earnhardt story, which he did.

Anyway, you know, there have been a lot. The Thurman Munson, the Roberto Clementi, you know, Ping Stewart's death was so shocking because he had won that U.S. Open and he, you know, against Phil Mickelson and then was in a private jet, you know, another, you know, sometimes these horrifying, you know, deaths are so much worse than if they had passed away from a sickness or a sudden sickness. It just makes your mind go in places where you just think about those last moments. You're only human when you, to think that way. And again, I think I mentioned this earlier, but boy, I mean, to be there with his daughter, you just hope that the two were able to, and I can imagine somebody like Kobe Bryant

trying to comfort his daughter in those final moments. All right, quick word about mybooky.ag. Holidays have come and gone, but the Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. It's the number one sporting event that is wagered on year in and year out. If you are looking for a place to place your Super Bowl wager and more, you know, college hoops, NBA, et cetera, mybooky.orgie.ag is one of the most trusted places in the industry. If you're looking for a sports book to make bets with quality lines in many ways to bet, fast payouts, best promotions, a helpful customer service team, please consider mybooky.ag.

They've got more lines, better odds for the player than any other sports book around. And right now, if you join, MyBooky will match your deposit halfway, all the way up to $1,000. That means if you deposit $2,000, you'll get an extra $1,000 in free money. to play with. Deposit 500, you'll get an extra $250 to play with. All you got to do is use my promo code, Kevin, DC to activate the offer. MyBooky.ag and then use my promo code, Kevin, DC. All right, let's talk about what was going on and what you and I were both watching when the Kobe news broke. First of all, I have not asked you, Aaron, when it broke, how did you find out, or how did you find out about it. You were obviously watching the Maryland game. I know that. So, I don't know,

there were like eight, nine minutes left in the game somewhere around there, 10 minute mark of the second half. How did you handle it? So I was just, I was in bed. I had my laptop. I was watching the game and all of a sudden I see like the very early, one of the early tweets, the retweets of TMZ and my immediate thing was just, you know, kind of blasted out on text. And yeah, I don't, I might watch 30 seconds of the game after it. It was all. And I could hear, you know, I remember at the end saying, oh, and Maryland gets a big win. I was like, I kind of look up. I'm like, oh, they won.

Okay. But yeah, for those ten minutes, I was barely watching the game. Yeah, because when it first started to trickle out on social media, Maryland was down eight. They had gone from up 14 in the first half to down eight in the second half. And the game, let me just say this. It was a spectacular game, which I recorded and went back and watched the final ten. minutes of late last night because I really felt like I did not know what the hell was going on in those final 10 minutes as we were switching stations and watching the Kobe stuff and, you know,

on social media, you know, following the story. But this game started with a first half from Maryland that followed the second half against Northwestern, that if you add the two together, the back-to-back halves, they had scored 96 points in those two halves, 51 in the second half at Northwestern, 45 in the first half yesterday in Bloomington against Indiana. And it was like I had mentioned about the Northwestern game that he had gone to something that he typically hasn't done in the past. I don't know how much he's really done. And it's more of a five-out, free-flowing, you know, let your playmakers make plays, a couple of rules offense. You know, it wasn't micromanaging each possession. And it turned out, you know, really, really

well for them at Northwestern. So now you go into Indiana. And in the first, half, I mean, things are flowing. Now, they're running more half-court offense and more half-court sets, you know, than they did in the second half against Northwestern. But at one point, Maryland was shooting 67 percent, and they were nine for 13 from behind the arc early in that game. They could not miss, but either could Indiana. But Maryland did build a 14-point lead that was cut to nine at half, and I swear to God, I said to Corvin at halftime, Aaron, I go, I'm going to tell you right now, there's going to be a point in this second half where Maryland is going to trail in the game.

He's like, they're up nine. I'm like, they're going to be down at least one at some point in this game. Well, they weren't down one. They were down eight within, it was 20, they got outscored 24 to 7 to start the second half in like the first six minutes. Indiana went 11 for 13 to start that second half. And with, you know, they built a six, The eight-point lead was built.

Here it is. They won up eight with 1145 to go. So in eight minutes and 15 seconds, they had erased a nine-point deficit and were up eight. So there it is. That was the 24-7 stretch for them. And then it was sort of the rest of the way, a game in which Maryland was hanging in there.

There were a couple of moments where it could have turned ugly. You know, Indiana missed a couple of easy shots, missed a couple of open threes that could have extended you know, a seven-point lead to 10, and then who knows. But Merrillton hung in there. They really did. They hung in there. They kept closing it back to six, back to five,

and then it got, you know, back to seven on a breakaway dunk, right around four minutes to go. And then I thought, down the stretch, the first crucial play for the Terps. At 71-64, down seven, and you're heading for the under-four timeout. Indiana, Eric Iala misses a, A tough drive baseline and a layup, but it was a layup. He should have made it. They missed it.

And down comes Indiana with a chance to stretch it to nine or ten, and we're under four minutes now. And they missed, and Darrell Morsell grabbed a key rebound. And then he went coast to coast. It wasn't smooth. But he got to the rim. He scored, got fouled. They went to the under four television timeout. Marilyn's down five, and he's got a free throw. On the other end, they could have been up nine or ten, but instead they've got a chance. chance to cut it to four, which they did. Morsell did not play well in the first half at all. He sat a lot in that first half. Looked like, you know, Turgeon was a bit upset with him offensively, defensively. But we've seen this with Darrell Morsell before. Like in big moments down the stretch, he comes up with clutch plays. So they, that cut it to four. Then they fell behind by six,

73, 67, and then Cowan makes a huge three. You know, um, off a handoff screen, a handoff pass, and then screen set simultaneously by Sticks. And he makes this three, and it's 7470. But then they go up by six, and now we're down to close to a minute to go. And then Sticks makes a driving layup, which is not a comfort zone shot for him. In fact, I didn't like the shot at all, but he made it. And it's 7672 with a minute to go. Marilyn called their last time out after that bucket, and they set up the pressure,

and they got a steal. Cowan actually got his hands on a pass. Jalen Smith came up with it. They got it to Wiggins, and that's the shot right there, Aaron, because that's an impossible shot. He was guarded, it was contested, he knocks down a deep three, and with 50 seconds to go, it's a one-point game.

And on the other end, Maryland gets a stop. They don't have any timeouts left. They get the rebound, and Anthony Cowan gets a quick, you know, high ball screen from Smith who dives to the paint. Cowan hits him. He catches it, puts it on the floor and scores. I saw a lot of Indiana people saying that Jalen had walked on that play. No, he didn't. I mean, what planet are you on to think that he traveled on that play? Tracy Jackson Davis on the other end on what should have been a game winner for them clearly traveled or carried the ball. And it wasn't called, and you're not going to get that call either, but sticks made a really good

catch, got himself together, took one hard dribble and laid it in with 14 and a half seconds to go. And then Marilyn got the stop on the other end, but it was really a lucky stop in many ways because Indiana got hard to get anything better than basically uncontested from three feet. Because Sticks was actually stumbling away from Jackson Davis who missed the floater. And Marilyn grabbed the rebound and they had won 77 to 76 by scoring seven points straight to the game after being down six. Crazy game. Both teams played well.

A couple of things stood out before we get to what happened at the end of the game with Jalen Smith. Number one is this. Anthony Cowen was absolutely unguardable in this game. Unguardable. And what's really interesting is I got a lot of friends and you do two probably. They'll read the box scores. He's only six or 15 or the other night he was only two for 10 or whatever. Watch the game.

Okay. He's impacting the game. in many ways on many nights without scoring a lot or with bad shooting. You know, he's had an off-night shooting here recently, but played very well. He got wherever he wanted to go at any point. He was the most difficult cover on the court. I'm going to make time to go watch the arch. I like watching the press conferences after to hear the coaches.

I haven't heard Archie Miller, but they had no answer, no answer for Cowan. They also did not have an answer for Stick Smith, who got set up by Cowan and Dialla, a bunch in the game. But wow, the jump that Sticks has made here in the last couple of games, Aaron, you know, do you know how many people, including my sons who are massive Maryland basketball fans, who just thought Sticks was way overrated for much of last year and this year? And I kept saying, uh-uh, when you got to, first of all, he's playing the five spot. He should be playing the four spot.

But he's, how many times have I told you in the, since we've been doing the podcast, I've said, he's got to shoot more. Like keep shooting those threes. He's got one of the best strokes on the team. He's four for six from behind the arc yesterday. A career high 29 after setting a career high of 25 the other night. Another double double, his third straight double double in this stretch of wins over Purdue,

Northwestern in Indiana. He was incredible yesterday. Dominant and more block shots yesterday. He's got more low, he's getting more comfortable with his post moves. I don't know Because as of Probably three weeks ago

I definitely had conversation Where he were like Oh there's no way he's a first rounder now At least we get him for another year So I don't know where exactly it happened How it happened But he's definitely kicked into a completely different gear His mentality just seems completely different

Yeah He was he was I'm not going to say passive But he definitely wasn't assertive Early on and now it seems like he's in All right I'm not going to you know It's Kowen

team, but he's the guy. I mean, Sticks is a difference maker. When you got a team, and I was going to get to this point next, but when you got a team that does have scores, and I'll talk about here about this momentarily, and now you've got to guard

a five man out to the three point line, and you've got guys like Cowan, who with an open floor and open paint are going to really dice you up, you're dangerous. So, here's the other thing about Maryland. Look, a lot of you think that I always get way too excited after a win or too

bullish and don't criticize them enough when they lose, whatever, have at it. I tell you how I feel. And I've been critical. Last year, I was much more critical of this team in their pace of play, particularly than I've been about this team. Because this team does have scores. They do have shooters. Maryland's three-point percentage shooting this year has been terrible, but I've, multiple times I've said on this podcast and on the radio show, it doesn't make sense to me because, you know, Wiggins has a great stroke. Cowan can really shoot it. Iala can really shoot it. Jalen Smith can really stroke it from deep. Dante Scott can shoot it. Surrell Smith can shoot it. And that, you know, remember with Wiggins a couple times and I said to you, there's going to be

some of these, there's going to be a night here where he's going to go five for ten. from behind the arc, and he's going to end up with 26. He's coming off the bench right now. I don't think he's playing enough minutes. I will just tell you, he played 26 minutes yesterday, while Cowan and Smith got 36 and 35 respectively. He's, I think, just as important in some ways. But whatever, he seems to be comfortable, and he hit a huge three, ended up with eight points on two for five from behind the arc. But they've got guys, and see, this is what makes them very, very dangerous. is more nights than not, they're a good, good defensive team. I thought they were not very good defensively yesterday,

but I also give Indiana credit. Archie Miller runs great stuff. They get people open and it didn't matter about zone or man. I mean, I don't know what Turgeon was thinking and that bench was thinking because they tried so many things defensively, and Indiana kept getting shots at the rim. They missed some in the first half. They didn't miss any at the start of the second half,

but they ran good zone stuff. They ran good man stuff. They have a good team. They have a very good team. They're 15 and 5. And Maryland had beaten them by 16 or 17, but they had a 30-point lead in the game in College Park, you know, a month ago. But Maryland is hard to cover, and I know there have been these games where they've really

struggled to score. But I think it's a product of this league. and how tough it is defensively and how tough it is on the road and how well-scouted teams are. But they have, I mean, you're crazy. Just try to be objective about it. You can say whatever you want about Turgeon. You can say whatever you want about their team. They are dangerous.

They can and have the ability on any given night to put it together and beat anybody in the country. They have that kind of ability. I love Lindo. Lindo can stroke it too. You know, I think he should play more and shoot more, but they got into that situation where he went with Tamiych because they were getting out rebounded a little bit, so he had him in there. I actually thought he subbed Tamiych for Sticks once or twice.

Certainly in the first half, I think it was, where he gave him a rest maybe for the under eight, and I'm like, don't do that. Sticks doesn't have one foul. He's just, or it may have been late in the game where he had a couple of free throws and he was getting a breather there. play your best players, you know, and he is. I mean, Cowan played 36 minutes and sticks played 35,

and he got good contributions. I mean, I like the way Sorrell Smith is defending, and I don't mind when he shoots it. He's not the greatest of ball handlers necessarily. That's a hell of a basketball game. A hell of a basketball game on a truly strange and bizarre and surreal day because of what was going on in Los Angeles. But Maryland wins it. And, you know, for all those people that were tweeting me and friends of mine are saying, oh, dude, come on, you can't lose to Wisconsin because you can't get the ball in bounds. And it was frustrating. It was bad.

That inbounds pass was bad. But they played well against Wisconsin. And if you look at Maryland, they've now won six of eight games, and they've only played poorly in one game, and that was the game at Iowa. And since Iowa, just as a matter of fact, Since Iowa beat Maryland on that night, they've now won four in a row, okay, and they're ranked. And they beat Rutgers over the weekend. Rutgers has been rolling.

They beat Michigan last week. So Iowa, are there rankings out yet for today? Because Maryland's going to jump up and Iowa's going to jump up. Yeah, they usually come out around noon, so not out quite yet. Okay. So Iowa's going to jump up from 19th to inside the top 15. Maryland's going to clearly move up from 17th inside the top 15. So Thursday night in College Park with the students finally back.

You got a big time matchup. And I think we talked about it on Friday, Aaron, how many big games Maryland has on their schedule. And winning Sunday, we both said it. This would be a massive win. For those of you saying, this is Turgeon's best road win ever, shut up. Indiana's not even ranked. I know that they hadn't won at Indiana. I understand that.

Maryland's won a lot of road games. I know that they haven't won a lot of road games against ranked teams. Iowa last week was the first time that that's happened. They've won plenty of road games, against good opponents during the Turgeon era. I don't consider that to be the greatest road win. I think it was a big win. Don't get me wrong. It was a really big win and an important win because it keeps them in that top two, three in the Big Ten, only a game behind, believe it or not Illinois. But the upcoming games for them, all right, listen to this. at home Thursday night. Iowa's been playing great. They're going to be in the top 15 when they come in here Thursday night. And they got pummeled by Iowa in Iowa City. Then they're going to

play Rutgers who was playing exceptionally well. They were ranked 24th last week. Ruttkers. Yeah, Rutgers was ranked 24th. And they won a game last week and lost a game last week, right? They beat Nebraska, lost at Iowa. But a close game. They may not fall at all. It wouldn't shock me if they're still 25 or so. Yeah. And then they get Illinois, and this is the real surprise of the Big Ten. Illinois currently is in first place in the Big Ten after beating Michigan. They've won six games in a row, including three on the road. A league that you have not been able to win on the road this year, the Eli and I have won at Wisconsin, at Purdue, and at Michigan in the last three weeks. And they play Minnesota on Thursday, and they have another game coming up.

Iowa on Sunday. Okay, Iowa, and then they get Maryland at home. Maryland's game and their win over Illinois is one of only two Big Ten losses for Illinois. And remember, Maryland was down big in that game and came back and took pretty much their only lead on that Cowan 3 to win it, 59, 58. And that's going to be a game that we look back on and Maryland fans are going to be very thankful that they got Illinois early on because Brad Underwood completely changed his system this year. He figured it wasn't. what he was doing, wasn't working in the Big Ten. He studied, he just kind of changed this whole system. And it took a little while to implement. That's why he took a weird loss to Miami, not necessarily why I lost to Missouri. But all of a sudden, it seems to be working, and they've reeled off six straight.

Cowan hit that three to tie it and then got the steel and got fouled on the other end. At the end, it was a wild ending. And it was pretty much the last time the students were still in College Park for a game because that was in December. So you should have phenomenal environments. But Maryland's, I mean, look, they've got Illinois, they've got Iowa, they've got two games with Michigan State, they have two games with Rutgers,

they still play Michigan, they still play Ohio State on the road, they still play Ohio State. Don't they play Minnesota? I think they play Minnesota on the road as well. They may have another game against Northwestern. You've got right now, January 27, We got a month and a half before the tournament starts, and you're going to have 8 to 10 Maryland basketball games that are going to be considered heavyweight, 2020 college basketball matchups

the rest of the way. Those two games with Michigan State, the one in East Lansing, which is, they play their first and then here in late February. Both of those games have not been assigned at time yet because both of those potential are ESPN Game Day sites. I don't think ESPN game day's been back to college. They were there for the Duke game in 05 or 06, something like that? 05, yeah.

They haven't been back since. Wow, that's unbelievable. Of course, part of that is we haven't had for six years a big Maryland Duke or Maryland Carolina game in College Park. We're still getting used to what our big games in the Big Ten are. But Maryland's right there a game out of first. And then Aaron, after a massive win for Maryland, and really one of those stunning sort of, you know, come from behind wins in the final minute of a game, Jalen Stick Smith really showed the kind of of 3-2-1. And then Aaron came the very end of the game after Marilyn had won and after Indiana had missed that final shot.

and Jalen Sticks-Smith, who clearly, more likely than not, had been heckled by an Indiana fan base or group of fans or perhaps even an individual fan, headed over towards the area of the court in which he was having an ongoing interaction with some of the fans, and that you had seen it from a couple of minutes earlier in the game, and basically started screaming, my effing house, okay, to the point where he was demonstrative, where people were throwing things at him from the crowd, and here comes Turgent sprinting across the court and very emotionally grabbing Jalen saying, get out of here. We don't do this.

And Turgent opened up. I have not heard the press conference. I'm going to watch it. I read the opening remarks where he spent, you know, a minute or two apologizing to Indiana basketball, Hoosier Nation, Archie Miller. and the Indiana fans and players for Jalen, you know, doing what he was doing. He said Jalen was taunting the crowd and said it's a great environment, tough environment. The emotion got to him.

And we know this as Maryland basketball fans. That's not Jalen Smith. No. You know, that's the opposite of his personality. Yeah. And so Turgent defended him and, you know, during that press conference by saying those of you that know Jailen, that's not his personality, that's not who he is. And then Jalen tweeted out something at the end. and apologizing as well.

So my reaction to this is not really worked up over Jaylen Smith's reaction. I sort of like the fire. I like the intensity. It's certainly something where I understand the coach's reaction. Okay, I do. I understand that coach's reaction of we're going to win with class. We're going to win, you know, with understanding that we may be playing this team again in maybe a month. in the Big Ten tournament or a month and a half or whatever.

But you know what? I mean, I'm a Maryland basketball fan. College Park was the only place that Coach K wouldn't let his players come to. His players' family, their families come to. He wouldn't let his own family come to games at College Park. I'm a Maryland fan. I remember when Gravis Vasquez used to taunt the fans at Cameron Indoor. How about when he took that last minute three against NC State?

And did the shimmy. Yeah. Yeah. And so it seemed out of character completely for Jalen. We don't know what was being said. I can tell you this, that Indiana fans, according to a lot of Big Ten, long-time Big Ten fans, are really rough on the opponents. In the same way that Maryland fans tend to be really rough. I mean, you want to see behavior by fans towards a player.

Go back and just see if you can find the FJ. J. Reddick chance. You know, the things that the Duke players had to put up with. So I sort of understand it from every side. I'm just telling that from my perspective, I have no problem that he got super emotional, super hyped up, super pissed at the interaction that he had during the game and the heckling that he was probably taking from the Indiana fans. And I saw a fire in his belly that I hadn't really seen, but we've seen here in the last few games.

and so I'm not really I'm not that worked up or upset about it to be honest with you I'm going to take it a step farther I'm glad I'm happy to see it as you said I wanted to see that fire it's part of basketball and as long as it doesn't cross any lines

as long as he's not going into the stands of course and I don't you know the profanity too takes it to a different level and the this is my house my floor I have no problem with that I don't really I think there's

way you can, I don't know, here's the thing about Vasquez. When Vasquez used to interact with opposing fans, there was sort of a lovable aspect to it and a good-natured aspect to it with a lot of those fan bases. Depending on the fan base. By the time he got to be a senior and people knew him and knew, you know, I think a lot of ACCC fans hated Vasquez. They hated him. And there were, I mean, he took a lot of abuse. And he loved it though. He loved, well, to an exact, like the NC State one was after they were just chanting racial slurs at him the whole game. Oh, yeah. That's true.

And I think it may have been at Virginia Tech team where he had some of that in that game where he went for like 41 in double overtime. In double overtime on the road. But, you know, it's sports, it's emotional, it's intense. You know, as a Maryland basketball fan, I've been looking for, you know, some real new rivalries, new controversies to get ourselves involved in. while winning, of course, because it's really been sort of a square peg into a round hole here for the first six seasons. And now, you know, it's six years.

I mean, now we're sort of ingrained in this league. And it's not always pleasant to be a part of this league. But this year's really interesting because the league is so, so competitive and so good. And the one thing I will say, do you remember when Dan Dockich did Maryland's, right from the get-go, early in Maryland's, Big Ten life. Dockage did a couple of games at Xfinity Center, and he was in love with Xfinity Center. He talked about, oh, my God, this may be the best environment in the Big Ten. And he's like, but you know, Marilyn, just so you know, you're in the Big Ten now,

you can have some places to go to, and I thought, who the hell is this guy? Have you ever heard of Cameron Indoor? Have you ever heard of the Dean Dome? Have you ever heard of U. Hall back in the day or Carmichael back in the day or Little John back in the day? I mean, the ACC had some, it's had plenty of venues that were really difficult to play in, not to mention Maryland's two, Coalfield House and Xfinity Center. But I have to say that this big 10 for basketball, you know, take Northwestern out of the equation, is there a place that you go to?

Well, Penn State's not a great home environment. Penn State Northwestern are the only two. Every other home venue is first-rate. Like, by the way, and has, real history. Assembly Hall may be number one. I don't know. East Lansing, Brezlin Center. Maryland's clearly in the top three in this league in terms of home environment. West Lafayette, Purdue's got a great home environment. Illinois hasn't been good in recent years, but when they've been good in basketball, they've had a great home environment.

Michigan? Michigan, Chrysler, you know, yeah, it's really a grind. Turgeon said on Friday, I think it was, he said, look, part of this year of the road teams having a difficult time in this league is that everybody's good this year. You know, Northwestern was close against Ohio State last night at home. They've been close against everybody. But anyway, the Sticksmith thing, I'm fine with it. I'm really not that overly worked up about it. I don't think it's classless. I think it's emotional. I think it's competitive. I understand from a coach. perspective, and I guarantee you, if I were the coach in that position, I wouldn't want my players doing that necessarily, but at the same time back in the locker room, I might say that was awesome. We came back from six down in the final minute won a game, and Jalen's all fired up, and he's feeling himself now. I mean, he's confident. Some of that I like. One last thing

before I run. So yesterday in the Pro Bowl, which I did not watch any of, but I was told that they had this rule in place. Did you see this for onside kicks? Yes. The rule that was proposed last year by, I believe it was Denver. Exactly. Where instead of an onside kick, you can take the ball at your own 25-yard line for a fourth and 10. Fourth and 15. A fourth and 15, excuse me. Yes, fourth and 15. And so whatever happens on that play, if you get stopped, they get the ball there. If you make it, you keep the ball, you know, it's fourth and 15 at the 25-yard line. I actually love the idea. I really do love the idea. But with that said, and yesterday I think it was Kirk Cousins, who was the quarterback for the play. I didn't realize they did any. I haven't. Yeah, Cousins apparently,

I didn't see any of the Proble, but Cousins apparently came in as the third quarterback for the NFC behind Breeze and Wilson. I guess he was the, was he the first alternate after Rogers dropped out? Probably. Probably. Maybe Dak. Why wouldn't have Dak played? I don't know. whatever. But apparently he had thrown for two touchdowns and it was a close game and they chose the onside kick, you know, alternative. And they didn't make it. I was told I didn't see the play. But I was thinking about this, especially with the Super Bowl upcoming. Like if I were the Redskins and the Chiefs just scored to make it, you know, 3834, that'd be a good game to be a part of. Let's make it more realistic Redskins way.

27 to 21, you know, and they're lining up for, we probably shouldn't take the chiefs and say 27, 21. Yeah. But my point is, if you're the chiefs and your Mahomes, like the Mahomes Russell Wilson stuff, the fourth and 15 isn't enough. It should be fourth and 20. I mean, I think fourth and 20 more reflects the probability of an onside kick or increases it just slightly. Fourth and 15, I don't know, for Mahomes, wouldn't that be like 30% at least? Yeah, I mean, especially when, you know, against certain defenses, like you're just almost throwing it up and hoping for a flag if nothing else. I mean, all he's got to do is move around a little bit and all of a sudden. There he is.

Tyree kills wide open all of a sudden. If they adopted and I was Andy Reid, I would at least strongly look at it. It doesn't matter when the game is. I'm just going for it because why not? I know. That's sort of my point. I mean, you don't want to give up field position at the 25-yard line that much. But certainly, I think that, I don't know, maybe it's fourth and 18 that needs to happen.

Fourth and 15 for certain teams and certain quarterbacks is going to be so much higher, Aaron, than what they're looking for the on-side kick probability to be. Let's just say they would like on-side kicks to be recovered instead of 6% of the time, which it's way down. You know, they want it to, whatever it used to be, 12%, 11% of the time, 14%. Fourth and 15 is, for too many teams, is going to be a 25 to 35% probability. Maybe not 35. But I would say definitely a 1 and 4.

I'd say a 25% chance for, you know, Russell, Wilson, Aaron, Rogers, Patrick Mahomes, certain teams. And that makes that thing too high and too, I don't know, make football really interesting at the same. time. But if I'm if I'm the team that's I'd much rather see Kansas City line up and try an onside kick than have Mahomes go for a fourth and 15. Yeah, I think the target is on. You want something that can be converted like 10 to 15% of the time. Yeah. I think that's the target. It's those onside kick where it's at like 3% now or whatever is way too low. That's gotten out of control the other way. I think 10 to 15 is where you're shooting for. All right. That is it. We're done for the day.

enjoy the rest of the day back tomorrow with Tommy