The Kevin Sheehan Show - Magic!

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

Kevin and Thom with their reaction to the story that Magic Johnson has joined the Josh Harris bid to buy the Commanders. Both Kevin and Thom had additional thoughts and news to share on the potential sale as well. More reaction to Ed Cooley taking the Georgetown job, Cam Sims is off to Vegas, and Thom isn't backing down from his Taylor Heinicke was "betrayed" stance. Additionally, the boys discussed the perils of helping 2nd graders fill out their NCAA Brackets.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. One with two seconds to go. June of 1987, Tommy, Magic's Game 4,

Baby Hook, with two seconds to go. Dick Stockton, Tommy Heinzen, on the call in those 87 finals. And now Magic Johnson could be the ownership face of the Washington football franchise. Let me just tell you, because you know I did this right before the show, I went and found the highlight. I could have sat there and said,

let me call you back in about an hour and watch that game, at least from the fourth quarter on. I mean, the NBA was so great back then. Lakers went on to win that series four games to two. Remember, they won an 85 and 87 over the Lakers. after losing in 84. And Magic was, you know, one of the reasons I wanted to play that highlight, too, coming in, is you and I, we don't have a lot of, like, the same favorites in a lot of different things,

and some things we do. But you and I both love Magic Johnson, and have always had him near or at the top of the list of the greatest players of all time. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think. And now it looks like he could wind up being an owner for the Washington temporary commanders. Temporary, hopefully, temporary? Yes.

I mean, I had the guy from Sportico, his name is Eben Novi Williams. He broke the story yesterday that Magic Johnson is joining the Josh Harris bid for the commanders. and I've got some information on that, and Tommy's got some stuff that he wants to mention as well related to this and something that he tweeted out over the weekend. But, you know, there isn't an expectation that Magic's going to like invest a lot of capital, although he did invest $50 million of his own money into the Dodgers purchase back in 2011, and that purchase was at $2 billion, and the Dodgers are now worth. $5.24 billion.

I don't know if it'll be a $50 million investment or $100 million investment. He certainly won't be the majority owner in this bid. Josh Harris will be. But because Mitch Rails has been described as someone who would not be a person that would be out there as an owner. And by the way, Josh Harris has very much been in the background as an owner of the Devils and 76ers, maybe Magic would be kind of the front person for ownership.

Wouldn't be a bad thing. I don't know if he would be the front person. I think every time he'd be out there for you, it would be a plus for your ownership. I mean, it hasn't been the front person for the Dodgers, even though he owns a piece of the Dodgers. But when he's talking about the Dodgers, people wake up and notice. So, I mean, it's a good thing. It's no way it's not a good thing, and it certainly dresses up.

the Harris bid. I mean, you know, the NFL would love, I would think, to be in business with Magic Johnson. Tommy, the gentleman that I had on radio this morning that wrote this story, that broke this story, Evan Novi-Williams, told me that, you know, he didn't get into specifics, but said Magic was very much out there as a face of Dodgers' ownership. I don't think he was.

quoted often when it came to business or personnel issues. Okay. With the Los Angeles Dodgers. All right. Okay. You know, he was at the stadium. He may have been interviewed by the, you know, the guys with microphones, you know, because he's Magic Johnson.

And again, if, you know, if that's your face, but in terms of the leadership, you know, he's not going to have that cachet, and he's probably not going to be that, the face of the leadership of the organization. I mean, if Josh Harris and Mitch Rails are background guys, you're looking at a team president probably that will be higher, that will be very much the face and the voice of the team. Yeah. Yeah. Whoever, do you think it'll be the current CBO? Chief Blunder Officer? Yeah. Tommy refers to Jason Wright as the Chief Blunder Officer. Do you think he would be the face of it? God, who knows? I look, I don't know what Magic's role would be or wouldn't be.

adding Magic Johnson to a bid makes me smile a little bit the thought that he might be involved somehow because I'm such a big fan of by the way, not only one of the more transformational players that has ever played the game. I mean, people, you have to understand. And you can tell me about Oscar,

but Oscar was not a pure point guard. Magic Johnson came into the league as a pure point guard, a old school pass-first point guard at six foot nine inches tall. And he's one of the greatest passers in the history of the game. And for my money, and you tell me who's better, in terms of leading a fast break offense, the Showtime Lakers of the 80s with magic running the break

with, you know, worthy on one wing and Cooper or Byron Scott on the other, there was no more lethal fast break in NBA history than what the Lakers had during that era with Magic leading it. And I'm just, I've always been, look, I'll put Michael ahead of Magic, but Magic's always been my number two in the non-center conversation. Or, you know, at times he's been number one, but I think I've come around to accepting that Michael's probably the number one of all time. By the way, Larry Bird missed the shot. There were two seconds left when he hit that baby hook, and the Celtics called timeout, advance the ball to half court, and Larry Bird got a great look in the corner, and it hit off the back iron,

and went awry, and the Lakers won the game 107 to 106. God, those series back then were great. But I'd love to- Oh, my God. Yeah. We didn't really value how great they were. We knew they were great, but now, you know, when we see the NBA today, we recognize how great they really were those the 80s i think the 80s NBA is my favorite decade of the NBA by far and my team wasn't very good i mean i you know i do remember and i remember very much the title against the

supersonic's in 78 and the loss in 79 and i remember the 75 loss to golden state um but the 80s even though the bullets weren't that good the bullets weren't terrible they were going to the playoffs with Jeff Rulin and Ricky Mahorn and Gus Williams and Danny Roundfield. And they had a bunch of players that they would bring in and bring Jeff Malone became a big part of it. And they had a couple of really good series. They had a really good series with Boston the year that the Sixers

won it in 83. They lost five games in five games to Boston in the conference semifinals. But I'm telling you, all five games were basically decided by a point, and I think there were two overtime games in that series. I mean, the bullets weren't terrible then, but man, to watch the Lakers and the Celtics, and I was definitely much more of a magic guy back then and Lakers guy than I was a Celtics guy. Now, I loved Gervyn and the Spurs, and they would always get beat by the Lakers, but I loved watching

magic in those NBA finals and, you know, throw in the Sixers, obviously during that, you know, era, throwing the pistons, obviously, later in the decade. You know, and the Houston Rockets had some really good teams during those years as well. I mean, the NBA was phenomenal. It was really dominated by just a few teams, though. You know, it was. Yes. You know, actually, you know, for me, you know, the next, the 70s were the decade.

But, and, you know, most Nick's fans disagree with me about this, at least the ones who were born, you know, when they were 10 years old or something like that in the 80s. But the Bernard King era of the Knicks was in the 80s. And that, to me, was a better era than the Ewing era of the Knicks, the Bernard King era. Yeah, but the Ewing made it to the finals, at least. Bernard King never sniffed, you know, deep into the playoffs, because they were up against the 76ers in the Celtics. Well, they went to the Eastern Conference finals where they lost to the Celtics. in seven games.

The Bernard King's Celtics went to the Eastern Conference finals? What year? I'm pretty sure they did. They lost a series to the Celtics in seven games where the home team won every game. Okay. And Celtics had a whole quarter advantage.

Was that with Michael Ray Richardson on that team? And Bill Cartwright. Yeah. Hold on. I'm looking this up because, I don't think you're right. All right, let's look at the Bernard King era. I mean, it's the 80s.

He wasn't on that team in the 70s, and they didn't go to, you know. So Eastern Conference Finals, 79,86 or Celtics? I didn't say finals. I said semi-finals. Oh, I thought you said Eastern Conference Finals. No, semi-finals. Oh, yeah.

No, that's true. I think you first said the Eastern Conference Finals. People will be rewinding this now to see, but if you didn't say that, then I just didn't hear you. Like the Sbruder film. Yeah. Well, let's hope it doesn't get that ugly. Well, if I said finals, I believe I meant semi-finals. But by the way, in looking at this, it's crazy because this is a decade in which really the dominance, I mean, so are the 90s.

But it's Sixers, Sextor Celtics, Sixers, Bucks, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics bucks. I mean, that's the Eastern Conference finals for the first half of the decade. Then it's Celtics Pistons, Celtics Pistons, Pistons, Bulls, Pistons, Bulls. And then you get into the 90s. I mean, it's, I mean, the whole,

it became so dominant. It's so funny, by the way, to look at the NBA history and to see that the beginning of magic and bird was like the beginning, it was like the rebirth of the NBA, because the two years previous to the magic winning as a rookie in 1980 and then Bird winning as a second year player in 81 and them taking the league over,

it was the bullets and the Sonics for two straight years and games were on tape delay on CBS. You know, it was really the NBA was dead at the end of the 70s when the bullets were, you know, when they won their title. And by the way, you know, the C. 76ers had a very, you know, big name marquee team with, you know, Dr. Jay coming over from the ABA and joining Daryl Dawkins and World Be Free and George McGinnis. And, you know, the 76ers were supposed to win all those titles.

They lost to the Blazers and they lost to the bullets one year in the Eastern Conference finals with Dr. Jay. The year the Bullets won the title. They beat the Sixers in the Eastern Conference finals. But that was the end. That was like the end of an era in the NBA, and then a new one started, and it ran through Magic Bird, obviously Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, LeBron, you know, and here we are.

Yeah. Yep. And the Wizards missed all that. I know. But through all those errors. By the way, they are so bad. They played so badly in recent weeks. I mean, you know, and by.

It's really disappointing. I mean, you know, I mean, Tommy Shepard, I'm really disappointed with the way the roster's turnout. I mean, the funny thing, I think they've got more talent on this team than they've had in a while. I just, I don't know that Wes is the right guy. Yeah. I mean, he's such a nice guy. You know? I know, but that's a big hire for the guy, for the general manager, the coach.

I hear you. Let me read a couple of reviews before we get back to the story on Magic Johnson. This from Ten Hogs. Found a recipe for the hot brown sandwich on YouTube and made it. I get so much useful information from your show. Delicious doesn't do it justice. Love the show. From Fluff Bay, great podcast.

No callers make this a much better option. Someone said Leverro is always. always right, huh? Entertaining, yes, right rarely. And then somebody responded to that. I was also a Tommy denier, but after many years, you too can overcome that fear. Him, that smug face in the back of Shelley's with a stogie and inexpensive beer, he is so inside. You would think he was a beat writer posing as Danny's butler on one of his many toys. And then he writes, Kevin, quote, This was my quote last week about Sam Hal. Teams invest more time in their biggest investments,

while teams invests less time and lesser investments. Thanks Kamala for the insight. Did that come up in a pop-up book? L-O-L, great show. Never miss Tommy. Keep up the great work. Go Terps. Go commies.

Appreciate that from Seaman 626. I do want to just defend myself. I said it in the same way that I say, you know, is it better, Tommy, if you're losing in a game, to have more time on the clock or less time on the clock. It was kind of in that same general tone, or at least that's what I meant it to be. But really...

That'll clear it up just fine. I really appreciate. We really appreciate the reviews and the five-star ratings. You can do that on Apple. For sure, you can do it on Spotify, anywhere else you can do it. It really helps us. And as I've mentioned recently, the new thing that I'm being asked to push a little bit on all of you is to follow us. So there's a big plus sign with a follow button top right hand corner of your iPhone when you're listening to this podcast.

If you haven't followed us, just click that and follow us. And on Spotify, it's on the left hand side. And it says follow. There's a follow button there. and that really helps us as well. So it's much appreciated. So anyway, this story yesterday from Evan Novi Williams broke that Magic Johnson is joining the Josh Harris bid. And that was big news.

So we now know that the Josh Harris bid is Harris, Mitch Rails, and Magic Johnson. The, you know, Magic Johnson was, I did not know this until reading this story. I didn't realize this, that Magic Johnson was actually part of the Josh Harris B. bid for the Broncos. The NFL wants more black minority ownership. I mean, they'd love to have black majority ownership, but they're going to have to relax some of their restrictions on buying NFL teams. If not, the demand may be there, but the ability to do anything with that demand is really hard. It's really hard to buy a $6 billion NFL franchise. Because they don't allow private equity.

They don't allow sovereign money. They don't allow big time foreign money. So, you know, you're talking about a limited audience. And, you know, I'll go back to what I had said a couple of weeks ago. It was brought to my attention by someone, you know, on the periphery of what was going on. That, you know, several of the people that were initially had initially expressed interest. Remember, there were reports that up to a half-day, dozen bidders were in on that December 23rd date that everybody thought was like first round

when it was actually what it was. And it was like qualifying yourself as someone who was interested so that you could then receive the prospectus. But when people got a load of the prospectus, they're like, this team's not worth $6 billion. And we've gone through the reasons. I mean, their net profits dropped in the last five years significantly. You have to invest billions into a new stadium. and this team isn't the Broncos in regards to the fan base.

The fan base isn't here anymore. You've got to go out and spend a lot of money to get people back and interested in addition to a new stadium. So a lot of those people dropped out, and I think what we're left with is Josh Harris and maybe Jeff Bezos. Here's what I've learned, Tommy, and then I want you to talk about what you tweeted over the weekend. So my stance of this is going to happen sooner rather than later, and I think it's going to be Josh Harris, and I think it'll come in no more than $6 billion. That is now, I think a lot of people in town probably have gotten a sense that Josh Harris is on the verge of being the winning bidder for this franchise, and that an actual announcement could come any day now.

The owners are meeting in Phoenix starting on Sunday. Those meetings go Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the 26th through the 29th. And I think that there is an expectation, even though some owners have pushed back. I saw the Maskey Liz Clark, Nikki Javala story where some owners still think that the timetable for this is not, is way too aggressive if we're talking about next week. but I think we are on the verge of getting at least an announcement that says pending league approval, pending maybe some more due diligence or whatever, Josh Harris's bid will be the winning bid. It's possible Bezos could get one last opportunity where Snyder says,

you know, it came in at 5.8, I really want 6.3 or whatever. And maybe he turns to Bezos. for the first time and says, all right, I'll sell it to you. I don't know that that's completely out of the realm of possibility, but I think everybody's hearing right now, and I have heard that this thing is imminent and that Josh Harris is going to be the winning bidder, and it's going to be somewhere right around $6 billion.

Again, keep in mind the announcement of this is imminent. You still have, it took two months for the deal to close in Denver from the time that they announced that the Penner slash Walton bid was the winning bid until the deal actually closed. You know, and the league voted and the deal actually closed with funds wired, etc. So there's still a long way to go after that piece until it's actually finalized. but those are the things that not only are being reported, but I think many, including me, are hearing from people that are in touch with some of what's going on.

So, I mean, this is an exciting time for sure, but it hasn't happened yet, but I think it's going to. So you tweeted out something over the weekend. Okay, yeah, my information is, that it is Josh Harris, and it will be announced very soon. But, you know, let's remember the thing about, I mean, Dan Snyder is an owner who once had an employee pour sour milk in the suite of somebody he made a deal with once.

So he's capable. I mean, I'm not sure this guy is satisfied with a business deal unless he feels like he screwed somebody over. So there's always the room for chaos and something to get in the way. I tweeted out over the weekend that, okay, I tweeted out, first of all, back in November, I had heard that there was a big New York investment firm interested in bidding for the commanders, and that Michael Jordan would be part of their group. and I was not able to confirm that ever,

so I never mentioned it, I never wrote it, I never did anything with it. But then when the news came out last week that Jordan was selling his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets, that was also part of what I was told. I was told in November that Jordan would be selling his steak in the Hornets.

So I thought, well, you know, if this person, I mean, added a blue got that part right, then maybe there's something to this. Not enough to write as a column. I didn't feel that good about it. But, you know, Twitter is basically throwing your window open and shouting out to the people on the street. Okay. That's what it is. Yes.

So that's what I did. And I qualified it. I said for what it's worth. Yes, you did. I read your tweet on the show Friday, and I said, and I didn't even talk to you. But when you put FWIW, I said, look, this isn't a report because he just wrote for what it's worth. But I said, Tommy has sources, and a lot of times his hunches are 100% right, and his reports are 100% right. But I read your tweet, and I probably should have called you before.

but I didn't because I know you well enough to know that that wasn't you reporting something. That was, you know, trying to connect some dots. I did put in the tweet. I was never able to confirm that information. Right. So, I mean, I laid the groundwork to let everybody of semi-intelligence know that this isn't solid information, but it was curious that part of the information I was told did turn out to come true. That's all that was.

When you roll your window down and you start shouting things out the window, don't assume that everybody that's hearing you is intelligent. I know. I know. I know. But it did take off. And look, it doesn't seem to fit in at all with the narrative that's unfolding.

Right? Yeah. Magic and Jordan aren't both going to be part of the Harris pit. No. And Bezos doesn't need Michael. there is. Well, but Bezos might want, look, the NFL might want Michael. Yeah. I mean, the NFL, I mean, part of what I was told is that then the Jordan brand would be a big part of what the commanders do with their marketing and their uniforms and everything.

And I would think that anybody would want to be in business with that, particularly the NFL. So while Bezos doesn't need Jordan, I think the NFL would love to be able to say Michael Jordan is one of their minority investors. But again, I don't have no idea if that was the case. That would be the only probable way that this could unfold to actually turn out to be true. If indeed Bezos was getting a chance to still bid for the team, and that Jordan was part of that as well. But again, the way things are unfolding, that does not look like it's going to be the case. I wanted to mention one other thing, too, and that is it's not going to just be Josh Harris, Mitch Rails, and Magic Johnson. The cost of the team being $6 billion, like I said, there aren't many people that can just slap down, you know, $1.8 billion, 30% down.

and then, you know, even though you can borrow up to a billion dollars, you know, write the check for the rest of it. It's just a very, very small group. Obviously, Jeff Bezos is one of those people. And the Walton family, the Walmart family, you know, they're in that category as well. I think what you'll end up seeing when this is all done is that, you know, Josh Harris is the lead, you know, controlling owner of the team, majority stakeholder. but in addition to Mitchell Rails and Magic Johnson, there will probably be a group of another four to six, four to eight investors or investor groups. You know, if you put the price tag at $6 billion, making the math easier, and Josh Harris has $3 billion of it, Mitchell Rails is putting in a billion,

and they're able to borrow a billion dollars, well, then, you know, $4,250 million investors or, you know, $8,125 million, investors. That's kind of the way the group would be rounded out. I mean, people don't realize that the Washington Nationals, James Brown is minority investors in the Washington

Nationals. There are often groups that have numerous minority investors, some of which, you know, are brought in for their profile. I mean, the Orioles, Barry Levinson is a part owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

So it happens like that, absolutely. Yeah. So, and, you know, you said something that I think everybody still considers a possibility deep down in the depths of their minds. And that is he's not doing this unless he feels like he could really, unless he's really screwed somebody over. And I don't know if that's the right way to describe it. but there, let's not forget who's involved in selling this team. And the facts are that almost everything he's gotten himself involved in since he's owned this team and even outside of this team usually gets messed up.

And there aren't like five or six different groups hoping that it gets messed up with another group so that they can get jumped in, so they can jump in. Right now, you know, if he doesn't, want to sell to Bezos. It seems like the Harris group is it, unless Tillman-Fertita is still in it, but I don't think he's in it for anywhere near with Dan's asking. There's always that possibility that he messes the whole damn thing up. And also, let's also remember, he's being dragged into this, okay? You know, I mean, he's probably got a lot of resentment about having to sell. this team. Yeah, I don't think the family cares much about that anymore because I think they're a

driving force in this thing, Tanya, in particular to say it's enough, it's time. But yes, no, I understand. But remember, somebody had mentioned to me two months ago, they're resigned. They don't want to be there. He doesn't want to be there. But they're resigned to the situation, which is they really can't afford to keep this team with revenues continuing to drop and sponsors continuing to be limited. They just can't do it. I mean, they certainly can't do it and somehow build a new stadium. So I, you know, but to your point, by the way, remember what we read in the post recently

about him, you know, wanting to be indemnified or it's not going to happen. I do think he believes he has some leverage here on the way out, and his leverage is they desperately want him to go at almost any cost. Like they just want him out of the league the other owners do. So does Goodell. They want him gone, and they want this market, you know, which has been on life support for years, to be resuscitated. And they know, fortunately they know, it can't happen with him here.

So, you know, he's probably going to try to take advantage of that situation. You know, whether it's indemnification from the league or indemnification from the new owners or, you know, trying to squeeze the last few hundred million out of it. God, it's not Nichols. Yeah. But I think, you know, we're getting close. Amazing. I said to my wife last night because I hung up with one of the people that I was talking to about this.

And she said, what did you learn from that call? And I said, a couple things, but I said, you know, it's really amazing is we've been talking about this now since November, which is when the announcement came out about Bank of America. And I feel like we've been, you know, under the assumption that this was going to happen, you know, now for several months. And I'm almost feeling like we're not embracing the moment like we would have if we just heard on one day, he sold the team. But it's amazing he is selling the team. I mean, a year ago, six months ago, this wasn't really a possibility. Even though you and I have had many conversations about how the league wants him out, at some point, isn't he just going to realize, my God, this is miserable owning this team?

Nobody likes me. This isn't any fun. You know, I never thought that the league voting him out was a legitimate possibility, and who knows. but it's, I think it's going to happen, people. Like, Snyder's not going to own this team anymore. Now, I just hope the new guy comes in and changes the name. What? We need to maybe open up a deprogramming camp, okay, for fans.

I mean, to basically deprogram them about expecting the worst, about, you know, not taking this friend. franchise, which is really the way to operate for the last, I'd say 10 years, I would say, but definitely in the last four or five the way people have. Not take them seriously as a football organization. I know I'm going to have to go through that deprogramming. I'm going to have to say, well, this is not the Dan Snyder commanders anymore, and we need to recognize that every day when that happened.

Do you think if we open up a deprogramming camp, It'll be like the Michael Scott paper company when they use the Korean church bus and people will start getting on not knowing what it is. And we'll end up with a bunch of religious nutcases coming into the camp saying deprogram me from this cult I was in. You don't deprogram people who have checked out. You deprogram people who have been, right, who have basically, Uh, Ben, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? You know, when Patty Hurst was, you know, part of that cult hostage, she was held hostage, but what was the mental process? What's the word I'm looking for? Brainwashed. Brainwashed is what I'm looking for. Um, there you go.

When you deprogram people who are brainwashed, we haven't been brainwashed. We've just checked out and stopped paying attention. We need, um, it's almost like we need people to show up to say we've got to get you back into shape. You've gotten out of shape here over the last 10 years. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. You need to get people back into the building. Yeah.

They've left the building and you need to get people back into the building somehow. We don't need detox or deprogram. We need like one of those healthy rejuvenation programs that you go to Arizona to get. I'm sure that Sam Howe will make a line around the stadium. There'll be a line around Ghost Townfield. What if this happens really quickly and the new owners get, like, it doesn't take two months, it takes two weeks, and they come in and they just clean house right away. I know you hired Eric Bianemy, but that's not.

I've had this point. That was my point of hiring Eric Bianney me, is you basically handcuff the new owner. if best case scenario, a new order could have an impact by the end of March. Who's out there? I don't even know who's out there that they could bring in. I don't know. Sean Payton. Probably nobody. Probably nobody. Yeah.

Anyway. I'll let you make a move for a guy like Jim Harbaugh, you know. Yeah, I don't know. I think we are absolutely stuck with Ron Rivera, Jason Wright, the CBO, and all of the people that are out there for 2023. I think at the end of 2023, that's when they assess what happened in 20203 and they go from there. Well, that would be disappointing if I'm a commanders, man. I mean, again, that would be Ted keeping to Ernie in charge. It's too late to do anything.

No, it's not. You can do something. You can do something. You've got to figure out how to do something. You're forgetting. Sam, Sam Howell's going to save everybody. That's right. I keep forgetting that. I'm sorry. All right. Let's talk about some other things, including Ed Cooley, being the Georgetown coach, which I talked about a little bit, but I want to get your thoughts. Also, back to the commanders as well, a receiver left the team yesterday.

And he was actually one of my favorite players. More on that, after these words. from a few of our sponsors. Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, I've told you this before about Shelley's backroom. I mean, the interior of the place is just exquisite. I mean, it's the kind of place you walk in, and it feels like one of those rustic alpine, you know, A-frame houses. You know, that's this great wood and leather everywhere.

you know, these great chairs and couches that they've got. Snow should be falling outside, and you should look through the window and see snow falling, but that hasn't happened at all here this winter. Maybe next one. No, but my point is that as good as it is inside with spring, first day of spring here, okay, it may take a while to get here, but there's nothing better than sitting outside in the outdoor seating area at Shelley's. and watching everyone walk up and down F Street with their briefcases and their bags,

hustling and bustling, and you're just sitting there watching the world go by, smoking your quality cigar, drinking your top shelf whiskey, and saying, boy, these people, if they stopped and looked at me, they'd say, well, I wish I was you. And you're looking at them saying, what, suckers? Yeah, absolutely. This really brings joy to your heart. Sitting outside with a Stogey and a beer watching other people work.

Yes, absolutely. And don't underestimate that. There's a lot of value in that. I guess. Shelly's backroom is the place to be whether you're inside or outside. 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district. Okay. Love Shelly's.

Anyway, so Ed Cooley's the new coach at Georgetown. I mean, he's going to get paid a lot of money. I talked about it yesterday in the podcast. I want your thoughts on it as well. But Ed Cooley sent out a long tweet this morning. And, man, the reaction to it is they feel betrayed in Providence, that's for sure. I mean, remember, he's going from one big East school to another. That doesn't happen a lot.

You know, unless you get fired, you don't leave a situation that you've got a great situation to go to another team in your own conference. but he tweeted out, Friertown, what a ride this has been. We created something so special for this school in this city when no one believed we could. From 2011 to 2023, we turned this program into one of the most special men's basketball programs in the country. I'd like to send a big thank you to our fan, student body, alumni donors, season ticket holders, current and past coaches on the staff, student managers, graduate assistants, and the incredible team at the Amica Mutual Pavilion, the city of Providence and the state of Rhode Island.

I also want to thank President Ken Saccard, athletic director, yada, yada, yada. Lastly, most importantly, I want to thank all of my current former players for believing in us. Thank you for putting it all on the line in every single game in black and white. Thank you. God bless, go friars. I mean, I'm looking, this always happens right in these situations, but you're a fraud. Providence fans deserved better.

Trader, fraud, coward, fraud, and then lots of, you know, different emojis and gifts and jiffs. I wish you no good luck, Ed. Thanks for betraying and giving up on your team mid-season. You know, he put his house on the market on March 3rd, apparently. That was out there yesterday. Man, it's brutal. I didn't, to be honest with you yesterday, Tommy,

I didn't even think of it in terms of, I should have. It didn't occur to me. for whatever reason to think about it in terms of leaving one school where you're under contract and you've been successful and then going to a rival team in your same league. That is bold. It is bold. Just think about the days when Maryland was in the ACC and if you had something like that

happened within the ACC, think, I mean, it would be horrific. for the fans who lost their coach. Right. It would be. I mean, you know, like if Gary left after, before winning the national championship, you know, it's the four sweet 16s and he leaves to go to UVA or something like that. Yeah, that would be, that would be. That would be terrible.

It would be bad. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like if he was going to, if he was going to a bigger program at a different conference, there probably wouldn't be nearly as much. much animosity. No, no. The animosity is because he's taking a job with, by the way, if you're a Providence fan, you look at Georgetown, you don't look at Georgetown the same way that, you know, others look at Georgetown. It's been a long time for Georgetown. They haven't had an at large bid in like

eight years. You know, they have been at the bottom of the league here during the Patrick years. And, you know, the Patrick Ewing John Thompson years, or even Alan Iverson years, we're talking about a quarter century plus, you know, from the Iverson years. And so, I mean, I actually had this debate a little bit with with Barry's Verluga this morning on the radio show, you know, and he said, look, Georgetown's brand, longstanding brand makes it a better job than Providence. I don't think it's that much better of a job. I mean, Georgetown does have a brand. It's a natural recruiting area, obviously. But, man, Providence, they're the only show. in town. You know, I know that they're a Boston, you know, town in terms of sports fans. I flew into

T.F. Green every single week, Tommy, for about two years, T.F. Green being the airport in Providence, because I worked in Boston. But I, they're really, you know, they're a big time show in Providence. They sell out that Dunkin' Donuts Center. They have a terrific practice facility. And the program's beloved. Look, they've had Rick Barnes. They've had Rick Petino. You know, They've had great teams. You remember Marvin Barnes and Ernie D. Grigoreo? They beat Maryland and an elite eight with lefty to get to a final four back in 1973. I mean, Patino took him to the final four.

It's a like John Fanta, who I absolutely love, who's a Fox Sports, Fox College basketball analyst. He's great. I have him on the show all the time on the radio show. I absolutely love him. I think he's really sharp. he said that Ed Cooley is going to Georgetown because you can win a national championship at Georgetown. I think you can win a national championship at Providence.

I know they haven't in Georgetown has. But look at the, you know, I think you can win a national championship in a lot of places. Butler was in a national championship game. You know, against... I agree with you. You know, I agree with you. but I do agree with Barry that Georgetown's probably a better job because of the brand, but that brand is hanging on by its fingernails.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, Georgetown, you could argue, is closer to being a Patriot League team than it is a Big East team. I mean, no, no disrespect, really, to Colgate or Navy or AU or, come on, help me. Holy Cross. Is Loyola, Baltimore a Patriot League team? I don't know. Is Army a Patriot League team?

Shit, now you're going to make me look this up. I can't. Okay. But my point is, I know what your point is, but they're not going to be relegated. Colgate, Navy, Lehigh, Army, B.U, Lafayette, A.U, Loyola, yes, of Baltimore. Holy Cross, and Bucknell. I should have gotten Bucknell. They've had some really good teams Bucknell has. And Georgetown. And Georgetown fits right in. No, they don't. It's George. And by the way, he's going to turn it around quickly because you can do that in college hoops now with the portal.

He's going to get some transfers and they're going to be knocking on the door year one. I don't even know what they had this year or what they have coming back. But he will get a bunch of transfers in there. And by the way, Patino will at St. John's and both of those teams will be knocking on the door for the tournament, if not next year or the year after. Probably. Anyway, Cam Sims left the commanders to go to Vegas. When I saw that news, I guess it wasn't like a major shock. He was an unrestricted free agent, and he signs a deal.

I haven't seen the terms of the deal for Cam Sims. But, you know, I always felt like he was not utilized to what they could have. Now, part of that is the quarterback and the quarterbacking, and I'm sure a bunch of you will blame Scott Turner for a lot of that as well, fine. But he was their big receiver, especially when Logan Thomas wasn't an option. I mean, he's 6'5, 2.30 or whatever he was. And I still remember the game that he had against the Steelers in 2020, which really is Ron Rivera's best win.

I mean, you could say the Philadelphia win on Monday Night Football this year. I mean, remember, Washington ended an 11-0, Pittsburgh Steelers attempt at perfection. And this year ended... And that was on the road. That was on the road. That was in Pittsburgh. And so was the Eagles game this year on Monday night when the Eagles were... What were they?

9-0? 8-0, 9-0? Something like that when Washington went in there and won. I mean, they've had two really solid wins. The 2020 game was played on a Monday afternoon because Pittsburgh had played a COVID-rescheduled game on the previous Wednesday against RG3. and the Ravens because Jackson was out. And I remember Tommy, I mean, I usually remember my losses more than my wins. Every gambler does. But I remember I had Washington as a smell test pick against the Steelers,

and I bet them on the money line that day to go in there and beat Pittsburgh. And Pittsburgh was like, you know, coming in on five days, you know. And Washington had played Thanksgiving Day 12 days earlier. And so they had all this rest and they were still down in that game. But Cam Sims had a monster game. He caught five balls for 92 yards and had a huge one-handed grab on a big third down in the fourth quarter when they drove down for, I think it was a field goal or maybe to go ahead touchdown. But I was like Cam Sims. I always thought that they didn't get enough out of him.

Look, they must have liked them because they kept bringing them back. Yeah. And so he'll be with Jimmy Garoppolo in Vegas as a Raiders wide receiver. I think he was the longest tenure team. I think he was their longest tenured player. Is that true? Really? Yes.

We talked about this before. We have? It's last summer. Yeah, and you went through looking it up, and I think he's their longest tenured player. Holy shit, that's unbelievable. Because he's been with the team four years. That can't be possible. That's not right.

John Allen's been with the team longer. John Allen's definitely been with the team. He was drafted in 2017. Okay. Did we really have this conversation? Yeah, we did. We had this conversation. Well, it's not Cam Sims.

John Allen was drafted by this team in 2017. Cam Sims was a rookie in 2019, I think. I mean, I'll look it up. Bill 2018. 2018. So John Allen was here. He was signed as an unrerafted free agent. 2018.

In 2018? Yes. Okay. Yeah, so John Allen's been here a year longer. Maybe it's the longest tenured offensive player. Maybe that's what you're thinking about. Tressway's obviously been here longer than anybody. Maybe.

Tress Ways been here longer than anybody. That was it. The longest tenured player on offense. It was? Okay. Well, we'll change it to that. Yeah. there was something else football wise

Kuiper came out with his updated mock draft board and he's got for those of you that really want Witherspoon the corner from Illinois he's now got him up to number eight overall to Atlanta so that is you know that's eight picks before Washington he's got Washington taking a corner

Emmanuel Forbes from Mississippi state. He ran a 4-3-5 at the combine, but he did weigh in at just 166 pounds. By the way, he's got Deonti Banks, who really played well at Maryland as the pick after as a cornerback. But he's got all the quarterbacks gone by. He's got Richardson as the last quarterback of the four being taken at number five. So he's got four quarterbacks in his top five, Stroud won to Carolina, young to Houston, Andy trades up and takes Levis, and then the Seahawks take Anthony Richardson at five, even though, you know, they re-signed Gino Smith on a three-year deal. Apparently, the Gino-Smith contract really is more of a one-year deal that reads like a three-year deal,

like a lot of these deals end up being. But that was one thing I wanted to mention. And then the other thing is, you know, Ron Rivera has talked a lot. lot about being fine with the tight end room that they have with Logan Thomas and Cole Turner and John Bates and Armani Rogers and the real big kid, what's the big kid's name from Arizona State? Fuck. The guy that was in camp last year, this is happening so often, though. This is not, is this, this can't be a good sign. Hodges, Hodges, Curtis Hodges, Curtis, was a tight end. I think still on the roster. I may be wrong. He may not even be on the roster. But anyway, I believe him now

because all the free agent tight ends and traded tight ends, Dalton Schultz signed a one-year, $9 million deal in Houston, Gasekys in New England, and now if they want a new tight end, if they feel like they need one, they'd have to address it through the draft. So he must really think Logan Thomas is, you know, last year was the year after the injury. the serious injury, and that this year is going to be a much better year for Logan Thomas at age 32. I like Logan Thomas. I think he's got a lot of ability. I don't think Cooley loves him. But he's got to be healthy because he was not. It didn't appear to be the same Logan Thomas last year as we saw. I mean, there were some massive miss blocks. Think about the giant game in the Meadowlands when they were driving in overtime and they got stopped on that second down two-yard long.

loss or three-yard loss or whatever it was, it was Logan Thomas completely whiffing on a block. But yeah, so you've got that. Lastly, I do want to circle back to Taylor Heineke's comments and get your thoughts on what Taylor Heineke said in his introductory press conference last week. I didn't forget that, people. I wrote it down. I've got it right here to bring it up with Tommy to see what his reaction is now about Taylor Heineke leaving. and we will get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. That was very tough.

You know, that's, I feel like that's a home for me. You know, I built a lot of great relationships there. There's a lot of great memories there. You know, they gave me my second chance at football. And there's a lot of special people up there. But, you know, I'm going from one home to another. So it's a pretty easy process. But I'll be lying to you not to say I was, you know, a little heartbroken to leave those people up there.

Atlanta said they were interested. from the beginning. I didn't know how much, how interested they were, but there was some interest there. And honestly, I was about to sign back with Washington about two or three days ago, and Atlanta comes in with a better offer. And I sat back and thought about it. And, you know, my family's from around here. I'm from around here. You know, my little nephew's going to be able to come see me at training camp and go to the game. So, you know, that was a big part of it. And I'm just happy to be home and, you know, do that for my family. That was Taylor Heineke last week when he was introduced to the Atlanta media after signing with the Falcons.

I'll ask Tommy for his reaction to that. I will repeat my reaction to it that I had on Friday when I played it. But I do want to mention to everybody that this segment is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and you can essentially deposit your money, wager that amount one time. and then you're eligible to cash out. Most books don't let you do that. My Booky does.

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and they'll let you deposit and then cash out quickly once you wager that first deposit amount one time. So that was Taylor Heineke in his introductory press conference last week, you know, saying very nice things, talking about how, you know, it's heartbreaking to leave Washington, that he really thought that he was coming back to Washington, that he was about to resign, but Atlanta came in with, you know, a better deal and there was a chance to go home, et cetera. It didn't sound to me like a guy that had a major problem and that there was no chance that he was coming back because Ron Rivera was still here. Assess. Again, I don't know why we're going through this again.

I haven't changed a bit, okay? I'm going to stick with what is good friend and former college coach, Bobby Wilder, told Al Galdi, who said, I can't reveal the private parts of my conversation, but what was very apparent is that at one point, there was a disconnect between Taylor and Rivera for obvious reasons. We all saw it, okay? We saw what happened. And then he said, between Taylor, his agent, the conversations with Scott Turner, with Ron,

it became clear that it was time to move on in a different direction. You know, Taylor is going to say all the right nice things, because that, I mean, because he's not a rock to vote guy. But this is one of his closest confidants telling you what happened. I'm sticking with that. Now, again, would he have come back to Washington? If he didn't have any other options, he wasn't going to cut off his nose despite his face. But I think the emotions he's talking about are with the locker room, not with the coach.

Yeah, I just, I don't know. I mean, it sounds like there were, you know, the Falcons were interested and Washington was interested, and he was about to resign with Washington, but Atlanta came up with a better deal, and he took the better deal, because in part he gets to go home. but it sounds to me and I go back to what John Kime told me the morning that he signed with Atlanta literally 20 minutes before

the announcement came out that he had, or the report came out that he had signed with Atlanta. Kime was absolutely convinced he was about to sign a two year $10 million deal to stay in Washington and that that was close. Look, I agree with you. He's not a rock the boat guy and I certainly

would hold out the possibility that he's just going to take the high road regardless and that his intention was to never come back to Washington. I'm not saying that that's impossible, but he sold me on that it was really close. Again, it's possible that he was able to sell me on something that wasn't true. But in listening to that, I kind of felt like he was... Is it possible that he had two choices? And that's it. Atlanta and Washington? Is it possible? Yes, it's possible.

Okay, well, if that's possible, like I said, he wasn't going to say, well, I'm not going to play in the NFL. Yeah, but Atlanta had expressed interest early on, so there was a deal there and he was ready to sign with Washington, but Atlanta came back and offered him more money. Right, and that could be agent leverage. Whatever. I'm just, I don't believe that the only reason he would resign with Washington is if no other team had been interested. I'm not saying I'm right. He liked the locker room. He liked his teammates.

But his godfather was gone, and that was Scott Turner. Right. All right. Whatever, it's Taylor Heineke. How about Goodell signing a new contract? I know. Multi-year extension, $63.9 million per year is what he was making per a 2020 New York Times report. he's made

$500 million since becoming the commissioner in 06 and now he's going to sign a multi-year extension next week per Adam Schefter. We don't know for how much let's just say it's a slight raise to 70 million per year.

I knew that he made an unbelievable amount of money but my God is that ridiculous money for a commissioner of a league. I don't... Like Tony Soprano would say, he's a good earner. He's a good earner.

Exactly. That's what he makes them money. Right. We make money with Roger. This is what they would say in the mob. I know. I just think that you can make money with Roger and pay him, you know, 10 million a year, not 70 million a year. Seems like $10 million a year would still be an unbelievable salary.

It's really unbelievable. Like, what does Adam Silver make? I mean, it's no way near there, right? It's not even close. I don't think it is, but Adam Silver, actually, his name has come up. Ten million bucks. Really? Yeah, he makes ten million dollars a year.

It's a possible new head for Disney. I know, I saw that. Yeah. Look, are you going to watch at WBC tonight? Is it Japan in the U.S.? Yes, this is a title game. That thinks have been fantastic. I know.

I've heard that it's been really good. I mean, it's during March Madness. I haven't watched any of it. There are no games on tonight. So what time is it and what's it on? 7 o'clock on. 7 o'clock on FS Fox Sports 1. Okay. I mean, when did this become like a big deal?

Oh, Tommy. Well, I mean, it's been a big deal on and off. It's an every four-year thing. But the fact that there were so many U.S. players that committed to the American team this year, I think made it a much bigger deal. And with Mike Trout leading the way, you know, all the other players were willing to sign on for it.

And what great thing about this is that people don't realize this is a total partnership between the union and baseball. This isn't a baseball thing. It's like a 50-50 partnership between the players' union and baseball. So for a business, has had so many fractured labor negotiations in the past, it's good that they have a business that they cooperate with, and the WBC is the cooperation between the owners and the players. And I think it's great. I think it's a great event, and I think baseball, which does a poor

job of marketing itself, can use events like this. Who's going to win? I'm going to go with the United States. I'm going to go with Mike Trout and Trey Turner, who probably have four home runs tonight. Who's the U.S.'s starting pitcher? I think it's Adam Greenlight. Wainlight, I'm not sure. Don't ask me who the Japanese starter is either, okay?

Well, I mean, is it U. Darvish? I mean, I don't know. I'm just kidding. No, it's not. It's not U. Darvish. And I don't think it's Otani, but Otani will pitch, I think, at some point. I could be wrong.

Okay. seven o'clock yes I can't wait I'll watch it I mean I've heard that it's been very exciting

other than the injury to Diaz right that was not that was not a good thing for him but I and Jose Al Tooby

Altooby got hurt too oh geez yeah okay so I should watch that instead of watching the Wizards game tonight against the magic

Oh, my God. I'm begging you. I think I can do that. All right, you got anything else? Oh, I know what I have. Hold on, hold on. There was one more thing that I wanted to talk to you about. Did you see this story with this woman, Taylor Mathis?

Do you know that name here in the last 24 hours? Yeah. So Taylor Mathis was working for an organization called S, sport book. It was one of the Superbook, excuse me, Superbook. It was a sports gambling site where they've got somebody

in a young female who's kind of attractive who's, you know, talking up sports betting and giving analysis and you see a lot of that with not only the sports books, but a lot of the sports tout services. You know, the help services like BetQL and others.

But so I'll read what happened in her words. So she's working for this super book. The name of the company is Superbook. And last Thursday, she writes, I went back to Illinois for my sister's baby shower. She asked me to come in to her classroom. Her sister is a second grade teacher. Asked me to come into her classroom and help her out.

Our original plan was to show the classroom. class how a scorecard works in baseball, as baseball is what I concentrate on professionally. Then I said, why don't we do a bracket? It's March Madness, and it can be relevant to them because it's going on now. She said that they loved it, especially a group of basketball crazed boys in her class. So she went in Thursday. The teacher told her sister that they'll love it. She goes in Thursday. They work on brackets for an hour and a half. She's explaining. you know, what the one seed means and the 16 seed. And she said, we went around in a circle and each kid said their name and an interesting fact.

And I told them about what I did. And we started picking teams and I was explaining the seeding process. And when it was all over, you know, the entire group had picked Alabama to win the whole thing. And then we had pizza. We had a big pizza party. Well, she tweeted out about the fun that she had with her sister's second grade class picking brackets. Well, people were pretty supportive, but her employer was not.

This is what her employer said. She gets an email from her boss at Superbook. She was told Superbook got an email from a gambling reform group. The group accused this young woman, Taylor Mathis, and by extension, Superbook, of child grooming. She was fired by Superbook for showing up to a second grade class and helping them fill out their brackets. I mean, I read this this morning because Denton, my producer, sent it to me. I mean, second graders and third graders are seeing these ads for sports books and gambling legalized. And every time they sit down, every time they go to their phone,

if they have a phone, every time they turn on a game. to watch with their parents on any on any network i mean first of all let me just tell you teaching kids how to gamble isn't really a good thing but if you learn how to gamble or you learn about sports you're also learning about numbers it's a very good math lesson for kids and she actually said it's you know it's great for their math skills the conversation that we had but she wasn't pushing three team parley's she wasn't pushing you know super book over bed MGM, you know, and by the way, don't forget, sign up today, and you know, you're going to be able to get, you know, a $1,000 free bet if you lose your first $1,000 in bets.

She just was filling out brackets. She got fired. Where are we now? Seriously. You've got to be smarter than that, though. You've got to be smarter knowing the risk of putting it out there. Putting it out there on social media? Yeah.

Yes. I mean, you've got to be smarter than that. Of course there was going to be some kind of blow. You may think it's ridiculous, but there was going to be a blowback. Somebody somewhere was going to say, you're teaching them how to gamble. Okay. I'll agree with you that if I had been asked to go do that with a second grade class, I probably would have just tweeted out something like it was great visiting with Mrs. Harris's second grade class.

The kids were great. They asked me a bunch of questions about the NCAA tournament, and we talked about the, you know, the tournament. That's true. That doesn't mean, that doesn't mean that she should have been fired. That's ridiculous. But this is of the school thought is not everything, the world doesn't need to know everything you do.

And take it from me. That's from a guy who tweets out a lot of stuff that I do. God damn, you do. But I just said to you, that's fine. I'll agree with you that it probably wasn't smart to tweet that out. but it's ridiculous that she was fired ridiculous if she went back and told her employer what she did and they didn't fire her that would be fine

she did apparently right now she explained everything to them exactly what she she did and they fired her anyway yeah I know that but without the tweet she's been hired immediately by some other outfit you gotta get her on your show Some other gambling company hired her. Some of their sports book, I think, hired her. But the whole thing's ridiculous.

I mean, there are kids, second graders, third graders, all over the country, filling out brackets. Whether it's with friends or with family, you know, on ESPN.com or sportsline.com, family brackets. Kids are filling out brackets. Seven and eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds all over the country. Stupid. Calm down. Calm down, buddy. You don't think a lot of seven and eight?

year olds have filled out brackets? No, I don't think a lot of seven and eight year olds have filled up brackets unless they're bracketing. What's their favorite PBS kids show? Barney? Is Barney still on? No. I don't think a lot, a lot are doing that. I bet you they are. A lot. Yeah, a lot. Okay, buddy. Okay, champ. I'll talk to you on Thursday. And I don't know what we'll have to talk about, but probably maybe something on ownership. All right, have a good one. Bye. Bye.