The Kevin Sheehan Show - Kornheiser & Could Alex Smith Opt Out?

Episode Date: July 31, 2020

Kevin opened with some thoughts on last night's NBA re-start and then brought Tony Kornheiser on the show. They talked virus, PTI and podcast from home, Hurricine Isaias, sports, the Washington Football Team, and more. Then Ben Standig/The Athletic joined the show to present a unique Alex Smith option that most haven't considered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, a busy show coming up. Tony Kornheiser is going to be our guest here shortly. Ben Standing will join us after that from The Athletic. Ben wrote a story on The Athletic this morning and proposed something as it relates to Alex Smith that I haven't read, heard, or watched anybody else present. So we will get to that with Ben a little bit later on in the show. I recorded the Tony interview, which is coming up shortly, so I did not know at the time. that the Cardinals and Brewer's game tonight had been canceled because the Cardinals, according to reports, have had multiple players test positive for coronavirus. Actually, ESPN now saying exactly two players have tested positive. The game tonight against Milwaukee's postponed.

The Marlins, by the way, had 18 or 19 in total. I think it was 18 players and two coaches. And all of their games have been canceled the last couple of nights, including the upcoming weekend set that was. scheduled against the Nationals. And with the Cardinals news, and again, when I talked to Tony here shortly, understand that we had recorded the interview together before the news about the Cardinals with respect to coronavirus and shutdowns and postponements of games.

But already I'm seeing on Twitter. All right, that's it. Shut sports down. This is where it's headed. It'll be the Cardinals today. It's going to be the Nats tomorrow. It's going to be the A's on Sunday. Again, my position is this.

I want to know how many of these players are asymptomatic, how many of these players are symptomatic, but not seriously symptomatic, and how many, if any, have actually gotten sick and have serious symptoms and are at risk having the virus. I think that information is important because this particular age group, especially if they don't have any underwerex. health conditions, based on what we know now, which could change tomorrow, is that they're not going to get sick. Now, you don't want them out there infecting other people. But in the bubble sports, as an example, the NBA and the NHL, you really shouldn't worry about positive tests. Now, they haven't had any, you know, in the NHL yet. I don't think they've had any inside the bubble in Orlando. Now with baseball, you just can't throw down the hammer and say it's over.

Like Boz did the other day, like Tommy has sort of done, you know, not as definitively. We have to accept that this is going to be sports and seasons like we've never experienced before. Look at baseball. I mean, already canceled games, postponed games probably won't be made up games in some cases. In the event that they do have a chance to make them up, they're going to be seven, inning doubleheaders played. You know, so what? And you're playing these games without crowds.

It's a strange situation. The NBA last night, I watched both games. It really wasn't that exciting. I was, I certainly tuned in thinking and hoping that it would feel like NBA basketball. What it felt like to me was an AAU gym or watching the NBA play. play at Summer League games in Las Vegas. It was sloppy. Both games were competitive, thankfully, for them, because I think if these games had been blowouts, there would not have been any interest in this. But you had two games, the Jazz beat the Pelicans 106, 104, and then the game that

was anticipated, the Lakers beat the Clippers 103 to 101. In that first game, there were 40 turnovers. In the second game, there were 36 turnovers. So you had 76 turnovers. in two games. It was sloppy basketball. It was exciting at the end from a basketball standpoint. But I don't know, man. I watched it. I'm hoping that it'll feel like the same thing. It didn't for me. The baseball where the noises piped in, I like that, you know, on Fox in particular. They did that with the basketball last night. It was a bit off at times. The gyms that they were in were dark, at least around the court. we'll see. We'll see. We'll tune into hockey and see what hockey looks like. Hockey gets underway tomorrow. The Capitol's first game is on Monday night. They play the lightning on Monday night.

You know, perhaps with hockey where the fans aren't really on top of you or on the ice necessarily and aren't nearly as noticeable as maybe they are in the NBA. But anyway, wasn't, necessarily a big fan of what I watched last night in either game. I fell asleep in the second game. I'm not going to lie to you. I would like to see Clippers, Lakers, and a Best of Seven Western Conference finals, but again, with no fans, man, it just feels completely different. Anyway, two more things real quickly before we get to Tony. One, the Nats, one yesterday, which was a good win for them, obviously. And it was really nice to see Michael A. Taylor have his second hit of the year, which was a home runoff of Ryu, a guy that he always struggled against.

The Nats are three and four. They needed these two games, and they got them yesterday, or two nights ago, and then yesterday afternoon. But they don't play again until Tuesday night. Hopefully they'll have Juan Soto back by then. It sounds like the D.C. Health Department is going to clear him tomorrow, and they've had these, they're going to have this weekend off without the Marlins being able to play. And then they'll get the Mets here. here next week. The other thing real quickly, the SECs decided they're going to play a 10-game conference-only schedule in football. The plans to kick things off on September 26th. So there are a couple of things about this. Number one is that you now have, with the exception of the ACC,

you have, most of these leagues are going to play a mostly non-conference, mostly conference schedule, excuse me, with no non-conference games. The ACC was planning to have at least one non-conference game, but that was, I think, for the most part, to try to keep open and available these rivalry games with the SEC. Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina Clemson, and Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Louisville to a lesser degree. Do you know that the South Carolina Clemson games been played 111 consecutive?

years. 111. You also have, I think it's 95 straight years for Georgia, Georgia Tech, and 62 straight years for Florida, Florida State. You're not going to get that. A 10-game SEC schedule means they'll be adding two conference games to the schedule, and then they're planning on playing the SEC title game December 19th, which would be two weeks after that championship conference championship weekend, which is that first weekend for Saturday in December. It's going to be, you know, hit and miss, I think, in college football all year long. Don't forget college football and the NFL. It's not just the revenue that goes to both of these sports. It is all of the ancillary business that impacts the economy. I mean, without college football, you talk about the

hospitality industry in some of these college towns in particular. being impacted without fans that come in. I have the last two years been in State College for Penn State, Ohio State in 2018, and then last year, Penn State, Michigan, and the economy in that little town of State College, PA around these football games is just bustling and booming. And to not have that, you're talking about a lot of small business America being affected, not to mention all of the people, you know, that have businesses. that are tied to these sports.

And I don't know that there are more businesses tied to the NFL and college football. In college football's case, too, you also have the whole issue of supporting the rest of the athletic department as well. There are going to be some impacts from this that will be irreversible. And college sports, as we know them, will be forever changed more likely than not. All right, quick word about Roman. if you were to guess on average how many days people in the U.S. have to wait to see a doctor, what would you say a week, maybe? Actually, on average, people have to wait around 29 days to see a doctor in the U.S.

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free two-day shipping if you use my promo code, Sheen, S-H-E-E-H-A-N. Tony Kornheiser is our guest right now. He's calling in from home where you've spent most of your time over the last five and a half months. How are you doing? I'm okay. We do the podcast. podcast in the dining room. We do the PTI show in the attic. We've done the Zoom things for social media for PTI in the computer room. So my first question was to my accountant saying, we can deduct all these rooms, right? Because I'm working. I can prove I've been working and I've been unable to work any other place. So he said, yeah, we'll talk about that. I said, okay, good. You're going to have to add up all the square feet, the square footage of those three. I think you can deduct for three different office settings in your home. We'll see.

I hope that's true. I hope I can deduct for clothing that needed to be bought or cleaned or anything else or whatever is going on. And not only that, but the extra air conditioning that has to be piped into the attic, which gets as high as 85 to 90 degrees every single day up there. I mean, how about, I mean, if I were still doing, you know, the news segment on your podcast or radio show or whatever it is you do now, in addition to PTI, we would have been talking about the hot weather, I think, every day. I mean, we never did weather in July, but we would have done it. This was the hottest stretch I can ever remember and the muggyest stretch at the same time. It was miserable, and you had to be in the attic.

So it's so fair to say, though, is that May and June were the coolest springs and early summer that anyone can remember, damp as well, but cool and not oppressive at all, so that when July struck, it was like, you're kidding me, right? Although, you know what's odd? You know, people have adaptability. It's like I'm working in my attic. You have adaptability, and as hot as it is, as awful as it is, you get somewhat used to it. I think it's like living in South Carolina now. I think it's that hot. Yes.

Well, I mean, it's always been hot here and muggy here. And the Potomac River has a lot to do with the humidity that we have in our city. But, you know, you just mentioned your layout there at the house. Pretty impressive for all of your various businesses. Do you think you're ever going to go into a studio again to do PTI? No. I'm too old. I'm in the danger zone. Until there's a vaccine, no.

And I miss it. Look, I know what's wrong with the work that I'm doing now compared to what it could be. I know how far it's off from optimum conditions. People are still happy with PTI to see us, and people are happy with the podcast to hear it. But, I mean, I understand that it is, in my mind, not a diminished, product, a different product, and to me, not as good, to me, you know. Well, a lot of that comes, especially with you, and I don't know about PTI, but I certainly know about the radio show and the podcast, with all of the interaction that happens, you know,

before the show and in between breaks and, you know, your studio when you were doing the radio show at 980, when you were in and during those couple of hours was one of the fun places to be. And, you know, this is really a creative job. Here's my feeling. What I do well is I get cues from people I'm with. I need to be around. I do better if I'm around the people I'm talking to. The podcast at Chatter or the podcast, you know, at the MAL studios, the podcast there, always had five people. Right. And so when you reached out to a guest, you reached out to a guest once for a segment. Now it is primarily a guest-driven podcast because I have my son here, but I don't know of other people around me. So there's,

Kevin, what you know, the sort of casual conversation that was the backbone of the show for me, that's gone. That's gone. So it's different. I don't think it's quite as good. Others may. we're reaching out a lot more for guests. It's fine. I don't mind doing it. It's just for me not as enjoyable as having everyone physically around me. I can just picture, because you know how much I love those days, just the visual cue thing that you rely on.

You know what? I mean, Cooney and I did a radio show together for two years, and we were rarely in the same studio, but we were on Skype and it was live and it was important, but I'm assuming that you're not doing that with the podcast. No, I don't know how to do that. Even if I knew how to do that, I wouldn't do it. No, we're not doing that.

It's so it's a different show. It's a different show. Is PTI different? It's a little bit different. Mike and I have been apart so much because Wobon liked to travel the world. He's basically Captain Stubing on some level without a boat, but he likes to travel the world. world. So we've gotten used to having long-distance conversations, but there is a delay. There's a

physical delay. And so a show that is called Pardon the Interruption can't really have interruptions on a delay. It's not quite the same. It's not. You'll go back if there's a therapeutic cancer, even without a vaccine. If there are meds that can be prescribed and somebody can go to CVS for you to pick up your prescription and bring it back, Like hydroxychloroquine, if they ever clear that. Well, the remdesivir seems to be, you know, promising there are others in the works. I think you... I'd rather there be something preventative, you know, than treatment.

I'd rather it be preventative. But I'm too old. I'm in the zone, and I'm not going to do it. What is you? And they won't even let me do it. They stopped asking a long time ago. How were you? In fact, I think it's just, I'm now one step closer.

to being kicked in the behind over the rail. Ha! That's out. This is a fitting, this is a population thinning event, and it's gunning for you? That's not true. What is your biggest concern right now personally? That I will be in contact with asymptomatic people,

and it will be passed to me in some way, and I will get it. I don't want to get the virus. so I limit interactions to the degree that I can. You know, I do. And I think that's only prudent. I don't think that's heroic and I don't think it's paranoid. I'm watching the Today Show yesterday,

because I do watch the Today Show, at least the first 15 minutes of today's show every day. And they bring on the guy from the FDA, the head of the FDA, Han, maybe, Dr. Hahn, H-A-H-H-N, maybe. Maybe I have his name right. Maybe I don't know. Was this on the hydroxychloroquine? That was part of it, but mostly what he said. Every time he had a chance to say something where Savannah wasn't asking him, and even when she asked him specific questions, he always came back to this particular theme. And he said over and over and over again, you have to take this thing seriously. I'm sitting in my house thinking, if you're not taking this thing seriously by now with 150,000 dead, you're not going to take it seriously. You're not, which is exactly. what I think is going to happen on college campuses, where it will not be taken seriously, and it will spread like wildfire.

Completely changing subjects just for a moment. You know we have a hurricane out there that could be tracking up the East Coast next week. Isis? Is that how it's pronounced? I don't know how it's pronounced. I just read about it. Easeous? Easeous? I see us.

I saw Oeceseus today. I saw Roker's excited. He's excited. What kind of name is that? I don't know. I'm not familiar with it. I'm just saying that Rojobeath Beach could be, you know, a potential, it would be more likely swiped by it based on the latest tracking.

What day? Tuesday or Wednesday, I think it would be. Okay. That's great to know. Stay away. Stay away Tuesday or Wednesday, right? Because that'll wash out a golf course. It will. I really will. Hurricane will.

That's a great golf course. If you like to pronounce it, a hurricane. That's a great golf course that you play down there. So, Boz the other day, I mean, with the Marlins outbreak, he just essentially went alarmist, shut everything down. What do you think is going to happen in sports? They don't have any other positive tests. Exactly. In the entire league?

The whole league, 6400. They don't have any other positive tests at the moment that we know of. So did Bosch jump the gun? No, this is a problem. If it's just the Marlins, then it's isolated essentially to the National League East. And why would you shut down the West in the middle? Why would you do that? Well, he wanted all sports.

He said all sports are over. Okay. With the Marlins outbreak. Well, I guess he's going to take quite a long vacation then. Because that's what he does for a living, sports writer. I mean, all sports aren't over. the NBA and the NHL, do you think they might know what they're doing in Canada? The NHL has had no positive test.

Nor has the NBA in Orlando. So, oh, right, in the Orlando, right. In the bubble. Yeah, yeah. So it seems to me they probably know what they're doing, don't you think? Yeah, I mean, I don't think we know anything. I mean, that's been my position. I just don't know.

have a neighbor who's some sort of hot-shot epidemiologist? Yeah, my next-door neighbor. Both husband and wife worked for the CDC. They moved up from Atlanta. He's a world leading. Well, you know, it started with this. Let me give you the chronological discussions that started in early March. I wouldn't worry about it. Did you get your flu shot? That was his answer. He's a world-leading expert on malaria. Then mid-to-late March, yeah, this thing could be something. This could really be something. And then back and forth on all of the reports about the meds, because my position has been that the world will be a different place

if the significant majority of our population, like everybody under the age of 80, believes that they can get a prescription to keep from getting seriously ill. Like if it's remdesivir or something that, you know, it's the Tamiflu equivalent for COVID-19, that that actually would be more impactful than even a vaccine. There are a lot of people that won't take the vaccine, which is crazy to me. Good. More for me.

More for you. But they, you know, right now, it's, you know, for the last couple of conversations, it's been essentially what the latest thinking is, which is where your mask and continue to socially distance. But, you know, even in areas where they've done that, like in California, once again, those infections are on the increase. I just don't think anybody knows anything. I think it's impossible to predict. Remember the summer and the heat was supposed to completely...

That's done nothing. In fact, it's the hottest states that are having the most upright. Exactly. So, you know... No, I certainly don't know anything. But I always am amused. Who's that guy from Texas, the congressman, who now believes the Maskey War gave him coronavirus? Yeah, yeah, Louis Gohmert. Gomer? That is his name?

Yeah, okay. Yeah, little... He's a scientist. Yeah, but at the same time, everybody should follow the science. Tony, the most ridiculous thing is the people that have, and primarily on the right, have ripped old Fauci who's served five different presidents and is considered to be pretty bright. I think what people would deal better with is if he or Burks or somebody at some point would say, you know what, that's what we thought a month ago.

But the data's changed and now we think this. That's fine to say that. Science changes. Of course. It's not absolute. You have to discover it, and you have to live through it. I do think Fauci needed to warm up more before throwing that pitch. I do. I think he should have been in the pen. I think he should have been working with Suzuki. He had to warm up. He didn't have a bad pitch, didn't you think?

Yeah, I mean, Walls was one of the all-time worst. Karin Butler had one. It was just embarrassing. Carl Lewis's was terrible. The mayor of Cincinnati. Yeah. Terrible. But Fauci didn't really appear to be much of an athlete. Although that's not true.

He was a basketball player. He was a basketball player. He was a captain of his high school basketball team. As a point guard. So he was an athlete. Yeah. You just need to warm up. You can't just walk out there cold and throw.

Can't. There's a great story like three months ago when he was just sort of emerging as a guy that we were all listening to in the journal about him and the leadership qualities he had, you know, as a young person and throughout his career, which started really as the point guard and the captain on his high school basketball team, even though he is all of what, five-foot-five? I have a friend, well, in those days, you know, you could be small and you could still play. I have a friend as a doctor in Florida who worked with him at one point, 20 and 30 years ago, and called me when he saw him on TV and said, this is the smartest man and the best doctor I have ever been around.

So that recommendation has stuck with me. Did you miss sports at all? I did. You really did. It was baseball that you missed. Yes, I love it. It's blissful to watch. Absolutely blissful to watch.

You hear my dog? Yeah, so what? Nobody cares. Oh, I'm just saying. I love the dog. Oh, I wouldn't tell her to shut up. I just wanted to know if you could hear it. Right now, my dog, I don't know if I've told you this.

We got an English bulldog back in October, and she is essentially the only living thing in my household that enjoys my company. That's wonderful. Wonderful to know. Yeah, I think people get sick of each other when they're home all the time. I do think it's probably a blessing to be home all the time as opposed to having to go somewhere to work in a situation where you encounter strangers all the time. my great admiration for people who do that. But you did miss sports because I felt, I personally didn't miss them as much as I thought I would. I'm upset that the NCAA tournament wasn't played because Maryland had a legitimate chance to go a long way.

You're upset. All the guys from Dayton are upset. Yeah, exactly. In other schools, like Rutgers. Rutgers had to be. I didn't care about that. I understood that. I thought we'd be back earlier.

I got upset when the contentiousness would be. baseball and an incredible amount of time off the basketball and hockey have taken. In the last week, I've just been able to watch the Nats, so I guess I can't watch for a few days because they were going to play the Marlins. And I've really enjoyed that. I mean, that has gotten me back into what I consider to be the rhythm of summer for me, and I've enjoyed watching golf. I've really, I just normalcy to me, if you ask me to define normalcy in my life,

it would be taking a nap on a Saturday or Sunday with the golf on and waking up and the golf is still on. I love that too. That makes me happy. I love that too. And I cannot wait until next week. I actually think if Tiger is in the hunt at Harding Park that it'll be the most watch thing that we've had since sports has been back on, although I think the ratings for last night. But unlikely he's in the hunt.

Unlikely. The ratings for last night are going to be through the roof. Yeah. All right, one last thing. You know, this, we had a whirlwind of news related to the football team in this town in about a three to four week period that was just incredible. I mean, in three to four weeks, the team lost its name, introduced an interim name, had a story in the Washington Post written by Liz and Will Hobson, about 15 women who stepped forward and claimed that they were sexually harassed. It was an incredible couple of weeks. What did you make of all of it?

I have thought for quite some time that because of ownership and because of lack of results on the field and because of the particular nickname for many years, Redskins, that the team was under more scrutiny, you know, not the same kind of scrutiny as the Dallas Cowboys are because they're the Dallas Cowboys. It was under a harsher scrutiny as people, sort of maneuvered to see what they could do to get rid of the name, to get rid of the owner,

to change the course of things. I just thought it was sort of a long time coming, and it didn't particularly surprise me. I think a lot of it could have been avoided, and I think that the, I thought the story was a really well-done story in the post without particular ties to the owner. and I think that people, and I've said this a number of times, I think that the clamor to change ownership of this team would be far, far greater than the clamor to change the nickname. I'm sure you agree with that. I do.

So, I mean, there's a different direction now. I think if Dan Snyder's words are true, it's a really different direction in terms of the people they hire. Ron Rivera seems to be getting pretty good notices. so far. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen on the field, but I think he's probably a better head coach, has shown he's a better head coach than the last one that they had. You know, this is an interim name, but it enables people to sell t-shirts. And I have to tell you that the sort of burgundy t-shirt with the yellow lettering that simply

says Washington football team, I think that's pretty nice. I really do. I mean, you know, I think they're going to sell some product. And then there's a grace period of a few months to a year. I'm not sure there'll be a football season. Maybe there will be. And I assume they'll get a new stadium at RFK as a result, don't you? You know, I don't know as long as he's the owner. I don't know if the name completely clears the way for a stadium at RFK.

I hope it does. I'm dispassionate about a lot of this stuff where I used to be so much more passionate. I think he has sucked a life out of people like me over the last two decades, the last five years in particular. I don't know that there's a lot of support for a stadium in that neighborhood based on some of the conversations I've had, especially with him being the owner. You know, he's been incredibly antagonistic towards everybody over the years. He's not well liked. You said something, which I think is true. Most fans would have given up the name for him to sell the team as a quid pro quo in a New York.

second. We've had these stories about the three minority owners wanting out. The story in the post, I don't think, is a standalone, Tony, gets him forced to sell the team. I think they should have gone harder on the cheerleading scandal as sort of a warning back in 2018, and then maybe everything in aggregate could have put the owners together in a position to force him to sell. But do you think that it'll ever happen, that he'll ever either be forced or decide to sell the team? I think if there was a direct connection to abusive behavior that he could be forced out, but I have not seen that. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I'm not saying it does exist.

I haven't seen it. There's nothing that I have no particular knowledge of it. I asked Liz Clark this question about a week ago, and she said for the first time ever, she thought within the next five years that was a possibility. I think if indeed the culture has changed, I think if indeed Dan Snyder's, takes a more public position and is accessible in a way, far greater way than he's been for, I don't know, four, five, six years. He has a chance to turn things around to his own benefit. I'm not saying he will, but he's got that opportunity. To my knowledge, he's not even in the

country, right? No, he hasn't been. You know, he and both he and his wife are cancer survivors, and I think from what I've understood, they've been concerned. Yeah, they've been concerned, so they've stayed, or he has stayed certainly on that boat, you know, in the south of France for a long time. Makes sense, but at some point, I assume he comes back. I think you wait to see what Ron Rivera does. I think you wait to see if there's a sincerity in this. I don't know. I mean, I know how he has thought of. I also know that I worked for him for how many years? Eight, ten years? Yes. Radio station? Something like that. He never once. Never once. Never once.

was critical of anything that I said or called me out about anything that I said. The only time he ever interfered with the show is he said, would you put George Allen on when he was running for Senate? And I said, sure, can I put Tim Kaine on too? And he said, sure. I said, Papyrton. That was it. No matter how critical I was, that was it.

Well, Tony, I've been asked that question so many times over, you know, because I was essentially the first on-air employee that they hired Red Zebra when Bennett hired me in 2006 to do the show with Rigo. And Gary. And we, I've been asked this so many times. I think he stepped foot into the radio station one time during the 15, 16 years he owned it. And never once were we told that we could say something or couldn't say something. So if that person is the person that owns the team and changes the culture for the better, okay. But the person we've seen so far has created a terrible, terrible organization both on and off the field.

No doubt. So far. I don't think he's been among the two or three worst owners in all professional sports for a long period of time. He's ruined something that was treasured in this city. He really did. How much more longer do I have to go with this? Isn't that funny the way I said that? We can end it right now.

I knew I would get an extra five minutes or so out of what the projected amount of time was at the beginning of this conversation. All right. I will see you soon. Thanks. Goodbye. All right. Love catching up with Tony. Ben standing coming up next. Quick word about window nation. If you've been thinking about Windows,

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about an option that Alex Smith may have for 2020 during this very odd season that I don't think anybody that I have listened to, read or watched, has suggested as far as he's concerned for the 2020 season. but I want to bring Ben in right now. And I want you to first of all just give the high-level headline of what you wrote. And then we can get into the detail of why it might make sense for Alex. And I have a question about something that the league has sort of structured here heading into this season that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

But start with the headline. You think Alex Smith has a move he can make for the 2020 season that may really benefit him. What is it? Yeah, and first, always, thanks for having me. Second, once we get into things like accounting and contracts, I mean, I'm definitely outside of my element. I ask a few people about this theory, if I'll do my best to sort of explain this. Give us the headline first.

The headline of the story is just basically that there is reasons why Alex Smith may or should consider, or not should consider opting out for the 2020 season. The basic reasoning is for any player, if you opt out of the season, your contract toll, meaning if you have a two-year deal starting in 2020, that just gets pushed back to 2021. So he would still have the same deal that he has. And that's important in his case because what is the number one thing for Alex Smith that he needs most of all? I think we all agree with time. I have no idea, but what his status is.

I don't know if he can run on that lake to play in an NFL game. take a hit. None of us know. I don't know if he can pass a physical. But if he really, really wants to do this, not just go out there and take a snap or two, but actually legitimately be the starting quarterback for this or some other team, he needs more time, I would imagine, based on the fact of where we are right now, he's on the Pupless and so on. This would give him an opportunity to buy some time. And because of his contract with the high salary cap numbers, Washington really can't, wouldn't be able to get rid of him. He would, he would buy himself, more time and that becomes interesting for other factors that he would basically be able to

extend his career on some level while still rehabbing and so this whole situation is very weird and unique because of the coronavirus that the league of letting players opt out in some unique ways but for him specifically because of the injury I kind of think it makes some sense to to strongly consider it again without knowing exactly where he's at with his rehab right now All right. So what Ben is suggesting, and let me make sure everybody's clear on this, is that Alex Smith consider opting out because of concerns over the coronavirus, which the league is allowing players to do. We've seen this over the last several days, players choosing to opt out. And by the way, there are two opt-outs that the NFL is allowing.

One, for just absolute concern over coronavirus, but you've got no underlying health risks. You've got no health risks in the family. and you'll receive a $150,000 stipend for the season that will actually be taken out of future salary. Now, if you have an underlying health condition that puts you at risk, then I think it's a $300,000 stipend that ultimately does not get pulled out of future salary. These are small numbers for NFL players, but my first question for you is, if Alex Smith did choose to opt out, and we'll get into a little bit more detail as to why it might make sense, you've outlined some of the bigger picture bullet points, but would he be able to do so with an underlying health risk?

He nearly died a year and a half ago with sepsis. I don't know if that makes him more vulnerable to viruses, but I'm wondering whether or not he would have any health risk and could opt out with. You know, citing, I feel like I've got a health risk by coming in and being in a large gathering. Yeah, I think that's a great question. I did try to ask that. Obviously, you know, when you're dealing with people's medical situations, you know, nobody's going to talk about it. I wasn't really trying specifically to ask about Alex, but just in general, if somebody had this situation, could that be an issue?

I wasn't able to sort of get a definitive answer on that. But, yeah, that's an absolute question. But even if he decides to just do it on his own, other players, you know, all these guys. Caleb Brantley opted out, opposite, for what it appears to be a high-risk situation based on the designation he was given. A lot of other guys are just opting out for whatever they're choosing to do. So, yeah, there is that underlying question.

What is his specific deal because of that infection? And the damage that caused to his body, could there be something to it? get breaking his leg again. You know, what if there's a, you know, a cut or anything else? I don't know. I definitely think that's something I haven't thought about prior to this exercise either. Yeah, I mean, there may be doctors out there saying, no, guys. I mean, sepsis, broken leg, infection. You know, there's no, you know, ongoing health risk. But I was just wondering if you had an answer to that. The other thing, too, before we get into the details of how this might work for him and the team, is this.

unique thing in this agreement that the NFL and the Players Association have essentially come to an agreement on to proceed with a season that is likely going to end with a significant revenue shortfall. And that is, and I need you to explain it to me, but you wrote about this, that some players are opting out of the upcoming season because an interruption or a shortening of the season would impact guaranteed money. And as you said, if they opted out and their contract told into 2021, and let's just say they had three years left in the deal, well, then the deal would go to 2021, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

There would be less risk of losing guarantees. Am I describing that accurately or not? Yeah, I mean, first of all, a lot of this is still up in the air. I mean, in checking with some league sources last night as I was writing this, A lot of the details are still sort of up in the air about how, not this specifically, but just how a lot of the salary cap and other implications are going to work. So just keep that in mind.

But at a basic level, like as we know, most NFL contracts are not guaranteed. So if a player is earning, say, $10 million this year, and the season only goes halfway, you know, they get paid over 17 weeks, but regardless of just to say halfway. So he earned the $5 million. That other $5 million, basically, if the season ends, is just going to go away. That's right. is not going to get it.

Now, for players with a guarantee, like Alex Smith, who's owed $16 million this year, my understanding is it works like this. He would get, so again, using the halfway example, so they said he gets $8 million, he earns that. What happens to the other eight? Well, for a guarantee, he's still going to get that money. It goes to the next year of his contract

that has no guaranteed money. For him, that would be the 2021 season. He's owed his contract is for $19 million salary that year. what I'm told is it's not 19 million plus 8 giving you 27 it's 19 million but of that 19 now 8 are guaranteed so he effectively if he were to play as a full two seasons instead of earning what is that 16 plus 1935 million he would actually earn 27 million because they wouldn't that that 8 effectively they're just taking the 8 out of the next year right so that's why that's why people around the league are saying if you're owed significant guarantees they're going to argue to be made.

If you're not confident if this season finishes, forget being concerned with the coronavirus. If you're not confident with the season finishing, it kind of makes sense to wait. I mean, again, obviously if you want to win a Super Bowl and all that stuff, that's a separate issue. But in terms of the money, there's an argument to be made to wait, push your contract back, and then keep that, keep everything intact so you would earn that money the next year and the year after that and so on. Yeah, that seems like one of those unintended consequences slash loopholes created that they're going to have to fix here because it really doesn't make any sense. If they play an eight-game season and half the season is lost, then that guaranteed money needs to stick. And even the players that just have, you know, $10 million salaries and they earn $5 million of it have to be given the opportunity,

given that they would have played more likely than not the entire season to get that $5 million back. That doesn't seem to make sense. And it seems like one of those things that probably wasn't, was maybe overlooked a little bit. All right, let's get to Alex Smith and him opting out. So the time thing is an interesting thing because the time thing suggests, you know, first of all, I agree with you. He needs more time. More time's better than less time for him.

I would think that that would be the case, even though he is getting older as he's waiting, and he's getting further away from the last time he played. But still, that leg, we saw it. The more time it has to heal and get stronger would seem to be a good thing. But that's if he actually legitimately believes that he's going to make a run at playing in the NFL again.

do you really think he believes that so this is the big this is part of the unknowns and I laid out at sort of the top of the article there's a few unknowns we don't know the status of his leg we don't know of the team

would ever really pass him and yeah we don't really know what his actual intentions are what his reality is we haven't we haven't heard that we've heard about this comeback which again to be clear

amazing amazing he's able to get back even just to the point of walking when you saw you know, those horrible images in the documentary and the things, you know, we've all watched it for the last year and changed. But the idea of actually playing in an NFL game,

putting yourself in position to take hits from the JJ Watts of the world and risk going through who knows what if you take a really bad hit. I don't know. Will he walk up to that finish line and say, you know what, I just can't do it? Or does he like, yeah, I'm all in. I desperately want to get back at there,

not just take that ceremonial snap, not just go out there for a few plays. I want to be the starting quarterback for this team or an NFL team. And it's that latter part until we hear otherwise. Everybody keeps, you know, the reports we're getting, he's only basically talking to ESPN at this point. You know, everything keeps talking about determination and building up this, you know, story of this ultimate comeback.

So if that's the case, if the comeback is the, not to say it, not just taking a snap or two, but actually starting, then, yeah, that's why. to me this whole time thing is important because you're right. He would be older. He'd be 37 next year. But here's another thing to consider, at least I think, he could rehab this whole season, Kazan, right? He could get his $16 million and worry about what happens next year next year. But we all assume that based on next year, his cap hit is about a little over $10 million. Washington most likely releases him at that point. You know, again, we don't know what

happens with Wayne Haskins or other things, but most likely he gets released. at that point, what NFL team is signing him? Who's signing a guy who hasn't played now since 2018 and 37 coming off that injury? That may be the end of, this could be the end of his career on an NFL team in any capacity if he plays this year. But if he opt out, he pushes it back a year. And who knows where things are at? He gives himself more time to rehab. What if Dwayne Haskins doesn't step up and really claim the job?

Smith would still be on the roster. He'd have to be at least considered in the mix if he's able to play. So he could essentially extend his career by waiting. Again, if he thinks he wants more time. And to your point, if he really, really, really want to actually start play games, do all that. If that's what he realistic things could happen, then I think all these things are why buying time for him makes a lot of sense.

So let me just make sure I have this clear on the optimist. out. Actually, before that, if he were on the roster this year, Pup, you know, whatever, injured reserve, whatever it would be, and he doesn't see the field, he's going to earn 16 in base, he's going to earn, you know, if from a cap standpoint, there's five plus million, I think whatever it was on that $27 million signing bonus that he had, because I think that basically is where you get the $21.4 million cap hit. I think that's what it is. for the season. If he were to go this year, then it would be like a 31 million, something like that, dead cap hit because it would be, it would take the 21-4 plus what's remaining, which is like over

10 million and accelerated into this year, although they could spread that out. I think they're able to spread that out. But they should take it in this year because they have so much space. And as you mentioned, there's a thought that the 2021 through 2023 cap will actually come down if there's significant revenue shortfall in the 2020 season. Now, if he were to opt out, though, the 2020 salary tolls it moves to 2021. So what is the accounting for this year? How does that work? If he, if he opts out for concerns over the coronavirus and then 2021 starts the first of the remaining three years on his deal, what does he count for on 2020? Nothing? Yeah, no, it's a great question, and as part of what I, it's sort of the one part I could not quite 100% figure out.

But it would have to be, right? If the contract pulls and you get three years starting in 21 through 2023, then 2020 would have to be a zero cap hit. Right. The impression I had was that the signing bonus that spread out over five years, so a $27 million signing bonus, it comes out to basically five point four million. I was told that for him for this year, technically, only four points. million because they get a $1.1 million insurance payout, so whatever. But anyway, that number would stay that would not toll. So I guess maybe his entire cap hit would just be that number as opposed to the larger number.

But yes, obviously it would be. Oh, okay. So the base salary would toll, but the signing bonus part would not. I think so again. Do not consult me for your economics information, but basically something like that. interested in that insurance deduction. Was that based on the policy that they took out in the event of a catastrophic career-ending injury? I was just told that the team received an insurance payment.

I don't know specifically I did hear separately that they had taken out that there was a, yeah, an insurance in an event of catastrophe. So presumably yes. I don't know definitively yes. So I don't know if there's some other clause or something out there. So what I'm driving towards is this. This may be something that could benefit Alex Smith, but one of the reasons it could benefit Alex Smith

is the reason that you identified early in your answer. And that is right now the Redskins can absorb a $32 million dead cap number on Alex Smith. But if that contract tolls and now, you know, next year's number is $21.4 million, or maybe it's, you know, 4.3 million less than that. And he's still got the two years left and he's in now the dead cap money. Maybe it's not 32, but it's 28 million. It's less, it's not as easy to cut them loose at that point, you know, and absorb all of that dead cap money in a year in which the salary cap is projected to go down.

Did I get that right? Basically right. He wouldn't, so as best I can tell, you mentioned 21.4 million. I think that's his number on the book, but if they were to cut him before June 1st, what I was told is it would go up to over 26 million, and that would be, so that would be the number, the dead cap number if they were to release him on that June 1st date. Yeah, and that's sort of part of the point, like,

obviously it feels like Alex Smith and Dan's Matt have a very good relationship. Right, so I'm not suggesting that they're... Right, I'm not suggesting he's looking to screw him, But if he were to wait, they basically would be in the same positions they're kind of in now. They really can't waive him, and especially because of the fact that, like you said, the salary cap could go down. And also, like, part of all this is, you know, let's not forget, this year, Ron Rivera, I'm not saying he's getting a pass or anything, but he's probably going to accept the fact to some degree,

this is a work-in-progress kind of a year. Young team, no off-season, essentially. He'll see what happens. But by next year, he's going to want to ramp this thing up. They'll have, in theory, have some Deacon's Tats-based. You know, he'll have a better sense of what he has on this team, including the quarterback. He's going to want to move forward, and part of the prediction must be that you're getting Alex's number off the book. So you're not factoring in that you're going to get more of it.

You know, again, to be clear, all this is just my hypothetical wondering, what could this happen and would it make sense for Alex Smith to do it? In talking to people around the league, when I brought this idea, I was like, yeah, you know what, that actually does kind of make sense. for him with the one caveat. He's gone through a lot. Does he just want to get going here? Like, depending on what he wants to do,

if he put himself in such a position that, look, I don't want to wait anymore. I've waited enough to even get back to this possibility, and I don't want to wait another minute. And that seems like the likely scenario. You have put in obviously a lot of work. But, you know, again, it's just a rare opportunity that you can buy time in life,

and he can't buy time chronologically. He's going to age himself, but he can buy time with his contract, and he's made a ton of money in his career, presumably. He's okay if he doesn't get the $16 million this year. What do I know, but presumably. But what he can't do is convince somebody to put him on a roster next year when maybe he's closer to being healthy, but he can do that himself if he waits,

and that's why, to me, this seems pretty interesting. Yeah, I think that the one, thing he wouldn't want to do, what do I know? But I don't think he'd want to put the team in a more difficult position by opting out. I also think that if he has a legitimate concern about the virus, that pup list to injured reserve or some sort of season-ending mechanism that doesn't, you know, that doesn't say goodbye to him, you know, is in effect, you know, opting out without, you know, because he's not going to be required to be there. And then I had one other thought, oh, the, you know, that dead cap number for this year,

whatever it is, I think the Redskins have roughly 25 million right now in available cap space. I'm pretty sure on that dead cap number that you can spread it out over two years. So they could theoretically release him, get the insurance policy, because he didn't pass the physical, the $12 million, which would help. also if they got that $12 million cap relief in the form of an insurance policy to take all of that dead money this year. I mean, in many ways from the team standpoint, I would cut bait at this point. I mean, I certainly wouldn't cut off the relationship. He's been great and you're thrilled with everything we've talked about for the last couple of days. You're thrilled that he's been able to get

yourself into this position. But if I'm the team and I'm trying to move forward as an organization, a 36 or 37-year-old quarterback who, quite honestly, wasn't that great in 2018 to begin with. We've got a lot of salary cap space in 2020, and we get an insurance benefit of $12 million if he doesn't pass our physical going into this season. I'm moving in that direction, and I'm going to offer him a chance to be a part of the organization if he wants to post this, but if he wants to continue to play football, I'm going to wish him the very best. And I'm going to try to help him, you know, and find the right spot for him.

But it's time to move on from Alex Smith. Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately, I mean, to two points. One, yes, in terms of the creative accounting, yes, there's definitely things that they can do, sort of just laid out the starkest scenario, you know, what the cap hit would be. But, yes, I mean, they can sort of do some things, and, yes, the insurance component is another,

somewhat unknown, you know, to exactly what they could get. Yeah, but yes, there would be some relief there as well. And in terms of the other aspect of this, you know, one of the reasons it makes Bill Belichick as great as Bill Belichick is, is he views everybody with a price tag and there's no emotion or very minimal emotion. And because of that, he determines what somebody's value is and makes a move up or down accordingly.

If he were sort of running this ship, putting all the sentiment aside, he definitely looks at Alex Smith, similar to what you're doing and thinking, well, we need to move on from this on a multiple front, you know, accordingly. But obviously, you know, I don't know what this is going to do. This is definitely a call that Dan Snyder, you know, regardless of what power Rivera has, Dan Snyder is going to be involved in this call. They've obviously been friendly.

We saw Alex Smith and the owner together at multiple games last year in the owner's box. That one game, when I was, when myself and a couple other reporters were stalking late after a game waiting to see for Urban Meyer to come out, and instead we get Alex Smith coming out with Dan Snyder three or four hours after the game. You know, that's a tight relationship. And look, at this point with Wade Dan Snyder, things have gone for that team. I don't know I see him cutting bait with a friend, to be honest. So I think that is something to consider.

But, yes, I mean, to your point, I wouldn't be viewing it as, hey, Alex Smith is somebody we should be moving forward with. Even if Ron Rivera, even if Alex Smith was able to play today, I still would rather lean on Dwayne Haskins because my first, future, whatever Dwayne has to do. My best hope is this guy turned into something versus, I guess if you want to make an argument that Alex Smith is where he was a couple of years ago and the defense turns into a top 10 and that combination gives me wins. But like, you know, realistically, I can't project that for a guy that is coming off his injury. So I would move forward without,

but between the sentiment and then, of course, the money, it becomes a little trickier to say the lose. This is a Ron Rivera Rob Rogers. You know, Rob came in. and took over essentially Eric Schaefer's position. This is a Rivera-Rob Rogers, sit down, put together a short little summary, give it to Dan and say, if we're truly in charge of the football operation, we love Alex. We'll do whatever we can to help him, but this is the right move right now. We can take all of it right now, get the insurance policy, and move on.

Now, if you can't legitimately fail his physical and, you know, it's, but I don't, again, I would lean in the direction of without even knowing for sure that that is something that wasn't very hard to do. All right. Ben, as always, in the athletic, the whole read on why Alex Smith's best move may be opting out of 2020. He wrote it earlier today. It's out on the athletic. You can get a big discount right now if you're not a subscriber. I promise you it's worth it. Also follow Ben on Twitter at Ben Standing.

Thank you, sir, very much. Have a good weekend. Dude, appreciate it. By the way, again, today somebody hit me up on LinkedIn and told me they like myself, but they also say they like to hear me on your podcast. I get more people telling me they hear me on your podcast than telling me they like my actual writing. So who does you? Well, you're a great guest and you're a great reporter.

I hope people occasionally also say they like hearing you on the radio show because you appear on both. That helps me, too. That does. They do say that occasionally, although I don't know if my 7 a.m. call was a gym. It was perfect. Thanks. Have a good weekend. Yeah, man.

All right, thanks to Ben. Thanks to Tony, and thanks to all of you for listening. Have a good weekend. Be back on Monday.