The Kevin Sheehan Show - Maryland Out on Skins' Stadium? Not So Fast

Episode Date: February 13, 2019

Kevin opens with the news that Maryland says it is out as the location for a Redskins' new stadium. Kevin recaps Maryland's big win over Purdue with the help of Chris Knoche. The news about Joe Flacco breaks during the show, and Kevin gives his thoughts in the moment. Kevin also talks about the poll Kirk Cousins put out on Twitter yesterday and just how unbearable he has become. Also, Antonio Brown, Duke's comeback, and more. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now, here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here, and this show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for new windows, call 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com and tell them that we told you to call. Very good win for Maryland last night, Aaron. Important win. And we'll get to that in great detail here shortly. And Chris Nocky is going to join us. the show as well. But I do want to spend some time on that one for all of you that watched or were there. And if you were there, I feel your pain. Took me an hour and 45 minutes from Bethesda to get to the Xfinity Center and College Park. Much more on that coming up. Somebody tweeted me last night on the 630 starts, you're going to die on that hill, aren't you, you're damn right I am. Duke had a comeback for the ages for Coach K. anyway. We'll get to that. Antonio Brown says he's out. Not exactly his call, but more on that

in a bit. And Kirk Cousins, the day that I ripped him yesterday for tweeting too much, and I said he's become insufferable on social media. He went out and tweeted again yesterday, and this one was a doozy. Someone needs to send him this podcast. Wow. We'll get to that a little bit later on as well, But I'm going to start the show with the story written in the post this morning by Liz Clark and Ovetta Wiggins. Ovetta, if I mispronounced your name, I apologize for that. But the story is titled, Governor Larry Hogan informs Redskins. He is withdrawing effort to build new stadium at Maryland's site at this time. And I'll read you the first couple of paragraphs in case you miss this story.

I asked Liz to come on the show and she would have, but she's on a flight out to the West Coast this morning. So we'll get her on. We just had her on, I think, two or three weeks ago talking about her various stories. But we'll get her on, you know, when she gets back. But the story starts off as follows. Marilyn Governor Larry Hogan informed the Washington Redskins that he is withdrawing from efforts to persuade the team to build its next stadium in Oxen Cove Park, which is the MGM National Harbor site. And the quote finishes with at this time.

That, according to a spokeswoman for the governor last night. Liz and Ovetta continue writing in the story, Hogan's decision represents a reversal after acknowledging in December that he had negotiated a non-binding land swap with the U.S. Interior Department that could have cleared the way for the Redskins to build their proposed 60,000-seat stadium on the parcel of federal land in Prince George's County.

Moreover, barring a change of heart, Hogan's decision strips Redskins owner Daniel Snyder of significant leverage in getting his new stadium built, leverage Snyder was counting on when and if he starts negotiating with officials in the district on financial incentives and accommodations for the project. And then this last line from the story, it's a much lengthier story, but I want to read this last line. Hogan is not abandoning his effort to acquire the Oxenkov site for other purposes,

according to his communications director. He is simply halting talks with the Redskins, quote, we are not continuing discussions with the Redskins regarding this site at this time. However, we are moving full steam ahead with acquiring state control of basically the land. All right, so a few things on this, which leads to very different paths and very different reactions. But the first thing that this could mean, and I don't know anything definitively, the person that I have talked to about stadium-related matters, has indicated to me all along that it was Maryland or D.C. and that it was a 50-50, you know, shot on both of them,

and that person doesn't know what this means, although he had a bunch of ideas, and I'm going to share some of them with you. So the first thing, thing that it could mean is that everybody now knows that D.C. is going to be the spot for the new stadium and that Larry Hogan and Maryland didn't want to look like they just got passed over. They basically are, you know, conceding that D.C. is going to be the spot for the new stadium, and they wanted to come out and say, hey, we're not interested anymore because they didn't want to look like they had egg all over their face if they didn't get the stadium in Maryland. Although, to be real frank, I don't think that that's like a terrible.

thing to be passed over for a new stadium. I wouldn't really think that they'd go out of their way to publicly say they're not interested because they know it's gone, they know it's gone to a different site. But anyway, it's possible that Maryland knows that D.C. is going to get it, and they're just backing out in this manner. If true, that's great news. That's what we all want. You know, it may not help Dan and Bruce in their negotiation in D.C., but if this is an indication that D.C. is the clear frontrunner, I mean, major excitement for those of us that want it in D.C. and think that there's really no other option but D.C. in terms of what's best for the franchise and what's best for what's left of the fan base. Now, could the lack of another interested player, Maryland or Virginia? Virginia, by the way, I had heard once Northam got elected that Virginia was out. And now with all the issues they are having

with Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, the stadium is the last thing that they're dealing with. But I had heard a while back that Virginia was pretty much out when Northam got elected. But not having another party interested, one would, think reasonably that it's better to have two parties interested in providing land and funds for a new stadium than one party. So potentially that hurts the Redskins in their negotiation. So that's one potential meaning of this story. That DC's the frontrunner and everybody knows it and DC is going to work out a deal with Dan Snyder. I hope that's the answer. I don't believe that's the answer. And I'll get to what I think the answer is in a moment. I hope it's the answer. It's the best answer for

team. The other answer is just that Maryland is out because it just doesn't make sense for Maryland. It has nothing to do with D.C., has nothing to do with anybody else, but it's just not something that they, after looking into, really want anymore. Or, you know, with respect to some conversations with the Redskins, maybe it's just not the deal that would make sense for them. But that leads me to what I think a third possibility or third meaning of the story in the post, you know, is a post is and the one that I think probably makes more sense than any other. And that is that Hogan and Maryland still want the stadium at that site. But Maryland realizes that the skins don't have any other options. And recent conversations with Bruce Allen, Dan Snyder haven't been

encouraging with respect to the kind of deal that Maryland wants. So Hogan and Maryland have gone public with, hey, we're not interested. We're pulling out. For now, remember, for now. You know, if no other, if Virginia's out, and most people assume Virginia's not that interested, and D.C. has too much red tape to get through, and it's not going to be the kind of deal that Dan and Bruce want. Well, then Maryland has all the leverage. And if their conversations to date with Bruce and Dan haven't gone well, then this may just be a blow, you know, a negotiating blow to the Redskins to publicly say, we're not interested for now to push them along. I think this is the highest probability answer on all of this,

in part because of a conversation that I had with someone, late summer, someone in the organization about the stadium. I was actually asked about my thoughts, about the, many thoughts about the organization, but in particular the stadium. And I said, D.C. There's only one answer for this. It has to be in D.C.

and I ended up getting into an argument about Maryland versus D.C. It became very clear to me at that point that Virginia was out and it was a Maryland or D.C. conversation. But to net it out, there was a strong lean towards Maryland at that point. There was not this understanding that it wasn't the best place for the team. It's a debatable subject. The MGM property, you know, with the casino and with future sports books that will be there and with all of the retail and restaurant and the whole thing and a brand new, you know, beautiful 60,000 seat stadium, you know, it'll look great. The location itself in terms of what would be around it does make sense.

But the physical, you know, location from most of the fan base that has alienated or previous part of the fan base that has alienated the team, you're furthest away from them. And what I mean by that is I believe that the apathetic portion of the fan base or a significant portion of the fans, of past fans who have turned apathetic and don't care that much anymore about the team. We've obviously seen that in recent years. Many of them reside in Montgomery County and Fairfax County. And and Upper, and Northwest D.C. All right. So you have lost a significant percentage of your fans

who are the fans that have turned apathetic more than others when it comes to geography of the region reside in Montgomery and Fairfax County. And if you put it at the MGM, you're putting it in some cases further away than even FedEx Field is from a lot of them. I think people, I think the fan base, or a significant percentage of the fan base that has left the team or is apathetic about the team,

wants the stadium in D.C. I think all of the polling has showed that D.C. is the number one spot for all Redskinned fans, regardless of where they live, that they want the stadium back in D.C. I personally think if it were built on that MGM property, that it's not a significant bump for the franchise. I don't think it's a significant help. I think D.C. with R.C. with R. retail built up around it, RFK site, make a day of it, one o'clock games, it's down there for drinks and brunch and then the game or, you know, down there for the game and then lunch or dinner afterwards. And an afternoon game, you're in the bars before the game, watching the one o'clock games for the 425 kick at FedEx or a Sunday night game or a Monday night game you

got all day to get revved up. That's where it should be. Public transportation, easy to get to multiple routes in, not a 100,000 seat stadium, a 60,000 seat stadium, which you're talking about basically the equivalent in terms of an RFK attendance. RFK was 55,000. If you're in the 60 to 65,000 range, you're not talking about a significant difference in traffic. I think it needs to be in D.C. I think that this story is an indication to me that Maryland is not out. that Maryland's negotiating, that Maryland believes that the other two locales, Virginia and D.C. are on their way out as possibilities, and that Maryland has all the leverage in this negotiation. That's what I think. I don't know that. That's what my gut tells me out of this. I could be

completely wrong, and I hope I'm wrong, because I want the stadium in D.C. But the conversation that I had with somebody in the organization late summer was a clear indication to me that Maryland was very viable, if not preferred by some in the organization. Why? I don't know. I don't know. I think, you know, like everything else, they never really seem to have a grasp on their fan base, on the significant portion of their fan base. Remember, I refer to the Harvest Fest or Harvest Feast, whatever it was called. I don't even know what it was called. It was Harvest Fest or Harvest Feast. The thing that they've had for many years

where, you know, what I call the significant minority of the fan base, the fan base that will never take off the burgundy colored glasses. They're always going to think the organization is on the verge of winning. And the group out in Ashburn, over the years, they've been fooled by that. I've watched it up close at draft day parties in different, you know, events. I've watched them come away from some. some of those events where, you know, there were a few thousand lunatics, red-skinned lunatics, and I love you. I'm not being critical. I'm just telling you that they buy that as the majority

response to their team. They don't hate us. They're not apathetic about us. They're just disappointed that we've had all these injuries. It's so much more than that. And I think we all know that. And so anyway, I just don't think that they've really had a good reading, a good pulse on their fan base for a long time. I think the stadium has to be in D.C. I think it's a major blow to Dan and Bruce and the organization, if it isn't. But I believe that that story in the Post does not mean that Maryland is out. I think Maryland is still very much in. Now, two significant reactions to this story and other stadium news from the last few months. It's been intriguing to me. And the two reactions are, the first one is maybe he'll move the team if nobody gives him a site.

Maybe he'll move the team and then we'll get an expansion team with a new owner. I have been, I understand the reaction, but I've been blown away. When we had Liz on the show, what was it a month ago maybe? Yeah, about a month ago. A lot of the reaction to a lot of that was, God, I hope nobody gives him the land, and he can't get his new stadium built, and then maybe he'll move the team.

I got news for you. He is not moving the team. If he had to build a new stadium in Landover and play at Capital One Field in College Park for two seasons while the new stadium gets built, he's not moving the team. there is no chance that Dan Snyder is going to move the team. First of all, where is he going to move it?

L.A. is not an option anymore. If you had told me five years ago that no one's going to give him the land, nobody's going to give him funding, he can't get a new stadium built, and he's going to be incensed over it, and he's going to consider moving the team, and L.A. was still an option, then I would have given it, you know, a 5% chance. because a lot of his friends are Hollywood types. Believe it or not, a lot of the people that he would call his friends

are Hollywood types. Tom Cruise is a friend of his. A lot of you, Matthew McConaughey is a friend of his. So L.A., maybe, but L.A. is not an option anymore. Where's he going to move the team? San Diego? St. Louis? where the hell would Dan Snyder move the team and want to live?

Not that he would have to live in that place. And by the way, what city is going to want Dan Snyder in the Redskins at this point? What city without a football team that wants a football team would say, oh, I'm so excited that Dan Snyder is going to be my owner, and the Redskins are coming here. He's not moving the team. He doesn't think anything's wrong. think they're close. He'll be upset if he can't get his new stadium somewhere. He will, but he will get it. He's going to get a new stadium somewhere. I would bet a lot of money here

today that somebody gives him a deal to build his new stadium. I hope it's D.C. I think it'll be Maryland, or I think Maryland's got a very good chance to getting it. The other reaction, which I think is more significant because the other one is delusional and it's wishful thinking on the part of many of you. And by the way, if he did move the team, I do agree with most of you that DC would immediately get an expansion team. The league would immediately put an expansion team in Washington. Even if that meant 33 franchises in the NFL an odd number, there's no way like Cleveland that they'd go a year without a professional franchise in Washington. Yes, I do. For those of you that have asked me before, if he moved the team, would the Redskins get an expansion team in a second?

It would be the easiest decision for the commissioner and the other 31 owners not named Dan Snyder to give the Redskins an expansion team. There'd be a bidding war. And you know what? The franchise here, if Dan ever put it up for sale, or if there was an expansion opportunity, this market, what this fan base, could be the potential, because we know what it is and what it used to be. So that means that the potential will always be viewed as very high, very high. It would be worth billions, billions to the league. The other reaction is the more interesting one, and that is, who cares about a new stadium?

And there was an article that someone, it was a column that maybe it was Barry, maybe was Jerry Brewer, could have been a Liz story, and I apologize because I can't remember specifically, and I'm going to paraphrase here. But the significance for a downtrodden franchise of a new stadium is, according to the economics and all of the studies that have been done based on other comparables, is a big, big positive. It's a, it's a, it's a boon to an organization. When you're down in the dumps your organization, a new stadium gives you new life. It gives the, franchise new life. A new stadium does that. A star player, especially at the quarterback position, can do that, and then obviously winning can do that. So some of the reaction, and I understand

this reaction, and I can sort of relate to this reaction, because a new stadium's not going to do it for me. I mean, even if it's built in D.C., you know, it's not all of a sudden going to get me super excited about the Redskins, where I'm going to go out and buy season tickets. And I I've talked to a lot of people, a lot of my friends who used to have season tickets that don't have season tickets anymore, they're not going to be inspired to buy season tickets just because a new stadium is being built. I think a new stadium is nice, and trust me, I do understand the deterrent that FedEx Field has been on many a Sunday, especially many a Monday night, you know, with the traffic. I understand that it's a terrible stadium.

terrible stadium experience. And all of that factors in. But the lack of winning is number one, number two, number three on the list as to why the fan base has turned away from the team. FedEx Field doesn't help. But if they were having 11 and 5, 12 and 4 seasons contending for NFC deep into the playoffs in January, you're going to tell me you don't think FedEx Field would be packed? Of course it would be. If the last 10 years, years were four division titles, three trips to the NFC championship game, and a Super Bowl loss, and of the 10 years you were in contention six or seven of them, a stadium would be packed, no matter how shitty it is. And it's a shitty stadium. It's not, in this particular case,

with this particular team and owner and team president, it is not going to be as easy as build a new shiny stadium and they're all coming back. Could there be a bump? Yeah, there will probably be an economic bump. People are going to be intrigued. They're going to want to see the new stadium. They want to see what it looks like. They're going to spend a day.

But people are not going to get excited about the team because of a new stadium. And many of you have responded to Liz's story. If you look at some of the responses to Liz's tweet, where she tweeted out her story, and I was reading through some of those responses, and then I retweeted it, and I was reading through some of mine, same thing. It's like, who cares? When? Get rid of Bruce. It's still hashtag fire Bruce Allen. Stadium news doesn't change any of this.

And I agree with that. I feel the same way. All of this stadium news, it's interesting. You know, I hope it gets built in D.C. I would prefer that it gets built in D.C., but it's not going to all of a sudden, make me as a die-hard, born-and-raised Washington Redskin fan, all of a sudden become inspired about the team when they've wrecked us for so long. It's the way they operate. That has to change. They've got to give us a product, not just a place to watch the product. Anyway,

I wanted to get to this Maryland game last night, and Naki's going to join us here momentarily. Before we get there, I just wanted, while we're still on the topic of football, want to break in with this breaking news, Joe Flacco is going to Denver. Really? Yes. How do we know that? They traded him? Adam Schaefter reported that the Ravens have traded him to Denver.

Won't be official to March 13th, but it's getting done. Here it is. Reading it. Ravens Agreement in principle. What are they getting? Do we know what they're? We don't have any of the return. I'm going to guess that it's a third. Third or fourth sounds right to me.

I don't think it's a fourth. I think it's a second or a third. I guess a third. Joe Flacco, look, Joe Flacco has been this lightning rod of conversation after winning the Super Bowl in 2012 and winning the MVP, and is he elite, is he not elite? Is he worth the contract?

Is he not, you know? And then you've seen games in which Joe Flacco looks like he can't play, and then you've watched games in which the Ravens had to win over the last few years, and he's been brilliant, which he has been at times. But the league knows. that if you've got a really good defense and you've got a couple of pieces

that you can win with Joe Flacco. I'm actually very intrigued about it. We guess that it was Denver or Jacksonville. Right. And Foles seemed headed to Jacksonville, so this made all the sense in the world. Yeah, so Foles to Jacksonville is probably the next quarterback chip to fall.

I'm going to guess they're going to franchise him first. And I think the first day to franchise is tomorrow. I think that's the beginning of the franchise tag. Sounds right to me. I thought it was the 14th. But whenever it is, they'll franchise and then they'll deal foals to Jacksonville. That's my guess. Flacco to Denver.

Denver's interesting all of a sudden. Because, you know, they got a defense. They've got Philip Lindsay, who was the first undrafted free agent to ever make it to the Pro Bowl. We were on him early in the year about how explosive he was. By the way, Demarius Thomas is all of a sudden available again. Maybe they can bring him back. Emmanuel Sanders is still there. And they had Cortland Sutton as well.

Yeah. Who seemed poised for a second year breakout? You know, one of the more memorable playoff games of the last 10 years was the 3835 overtime win. Double overtime. Yeah. Was it two overtime? Yeah. And then Peyton through the interception for Denver in overtime and Baltimore kicked the field goal.

The year that Baltimore went to the Super Bowl because they beat New England the following week, they had to go through Denver first and Flacco through that 75-yard bomb that the safety misplayed. Rahim Moore. Yeah, Rahim Moore. And they scored to tie force overtime. That was a classic. That's interesting.

All right, I wanted to get to the Maryland game real quickly, and then we'll bring Naki in to talk about it in more detail. I'm going to start with this. I'm going to die on this hill. I will. But Maryland is the one team in the Big Ten where you can't. not play 6.30 or 7 o'clock games. Now, if for television purposes, everybody's got to have a few of them, that's fine. Maryland's had too many of them this year. I think this was their third or fourth

630 or 7 o'clock start in terms of a home big 10 game. It is a game last night in which Penn State is playing 830 in state college. I could have made it to state college for a 630 game faster than then I could have made it to college park last night. That's the difference. It's an exaggeration. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get to College Park from Bethesda last night. An hour and 45 minutes. It's ridiculous.

And because of it, those of you that got there, most of you got there late, and I heard from a lot of you on Twitter last night that you had the same issues, you had a crowd that was, Aaron, at the beginning of that game, it might as well have been a November game against, Detson, you know, Radford. But it's number 24 against number 12 in a huge, huge Big Ten game in mid-February. And they're going to start this game in a major metropolitan area at 630. The students were late to the game.

That was the weird thing. Do you know what they said? Did you see some of the reactions? Many of them just said, we didn't get out of class until 615 or 630. Some of them had classes until late. I think the shitty weather and the rain and the whole thing. Yeah, I don't buy that. Now, the students did get there, and the student section, by the time we got to the second half, was pretty much packed.

It's a disgrace that the Big Ten in Maryland don't understand this. Now, I've been told through various people that have reached out to me to say, look, your rant, when you rant about this, understand that we have pushed them away from this. We don't want the 630 starts anyway. By the way, why do we have 630 starts, period? Who the hell goes to a basketball game at 630 on a weeknight? It's ridiculous. It's stupid.

In the Midwest, when the Big 10 central time zone teams play 630 East Coast time, that's 5.30 their time. Now, you know, in Iowa City, no offense, they can get there at 5.30. You know? They get off the tractor, they get into their truck, and they're in the arena by 515 ready to roll. That's fine. In a major metropolitan area, D.C., with a beltway that has the second worst traffic situation in America, you're going to ask people to get there at 630? You can see.

You can see season ticket holders, Aaron. They don't show up for the 630 games. They're not coming. Now, that place by the second half was good, not Maryland good, but for most places it was good. It was not a sellout last night. You could see that. Wasn't really even, I think it was 14-5 or something. Is that what they listed? I believe that's the case. If they play that game at 830, it is, last night's game, it's a sellout.

Now, if it's Minnesota or if it's, you know, Penn State or Rutgers, you're not going to sell out that game, you know, 830 and a weeknight. 6.30, you've got no chance. Apparently, Maryland has pushed on. this they've told the big 10 look we're not Iowa City we're not Madison Wisconsin we are not Ann Arbor Michigan we are not East Lansing we are not West Lafayette all right we are Washington DC all right you've been here because you recruited us to come from the Big 10 you know we are just a couple of miles from DC and we sit just off the beltway which in rush hour is a nightmare 630 is a joke and it hurts the team and the conference economically

because there are fewer people in their seats spending less money if no money on concessions, parking, etc. It should be in the best interest of the Big Ten for Maryland to get the largest crowd possible to their games. If you start them at 6.30 on weekdays, it's going to be impacted negatively from a revenue standpoint. You're going to be impacted. If you can't figure that out at this point, you're stupid.

All right. John Delaney, Big Ten Network, get it together. Understand that it's a unique market that you have with Maryland. It's not the rest of your league. I understand the University of Minnesota is in Minneapolis, and they probably have a legitimate rush hour, all right? But it's not D.C.'s rush hour. I understand Northwestern is in Evanston, which is just outside Chicago,

and Chicago has traffic. I understand that. But you know what? Northwestern basketball, no offense, is not Maryland basketball. Play the conference games in the late window. If you have to have an early window at least one or two, have it again, have it when the students are there. That is helpful.

But you had three of them when the students weren't there. It's a joke. Now on the game, big win for Maryland. Big win for Maryland. Purdue had won eight in a row. They were ranked 12th in the nation. Matt Painter, I've mentioned this many times over the years, is one of my favorite coaches. I think he's one of the most underrated coaches in the country.

His teams are always tough. They are incredibly disciplined, well-coached, great half-court offense, always good defensively. It's just a good basketball team. But I was surprised, and Aaron, you and I talked about this yesterday. I was surprised that Marilyn was an underdog. That worried me because I thought Vegas knew something that I didn't. Because I thought watching Purdue over the last eight games and watching Maryland that these two teams were equals, And I thought Maryland at home would win.

I did. I thought they would win the game at home last night. They did not have a good first half. They didn't play well offensively. And they let some of the guys like Carson Edwards and Ryan Klein, who has no range, man. When he walks in the buildings, two of the three pointers he hit were from 27 feet, according to the play-by-play. I mean, those are, that's four feet beyond the NBA, three to four feet beyond the NBA line.

and they gave him some looks and they gave him some space. But in the second half, it was Maryland's best defensive half of the season. And they have played some very good defense recently. Maryland has some very good defenders. Darryl Morsell, who I know a lot of you Maryland fans get frustrated with offensively, and I've compared him to DJ Strawberry. To me, he's the kind of guy that by next year is going to be even much better, and by the time he's a senior, he's going to be hell to deal with.

He is their toughest kid on that team. You know, Mount St. Joe's kid from Baltimore. He's their toughest kid. He's their best defender by far, not even close. And he's not nearly as bad an offensive player as many of you, Maryland people, want to make him out to be. He's a slasher. I don't mind when he shoots. I actually think his stroke is decent.

He's not a great percentage shooter, but it's a confidence thing from my standpoint more than anything else. I would never tell him to stop shooting. You know, if he's got open things, threes, take them. Sometimes those open threes are available for guys like Morsell because the scouting report says you can leave him open. He's knocked down some big shots over the course of time. What he did on Carson Edwards in the second half was one of the best defensive individual defensive performances I've watched all year, but it was beyond that. Their team defense was exceptional. They played the pick and roll or the pick and pop with Carson Edwards with the big.

who was getting screen, whose man was screening, pushing Edwards out and helping and hedging hard better than any Maryland game I've seen all year. But Morsell, go back if you've got that game anywhere and just watch what he did to Carson Edwards in the second half. Carson Edwards is the Big Ten player of the year, right? Who else is in the running? It's Carson Edwards right now.

Oh, yeah. I mean, he's going to win the Big Ten player of the year. He's going to be a first-team All-American, too. He got completely shut down by Morsell. And then Cowan on Klein was exceptional. And when Morsell was out of the game, Cowan on Edwards was great. Cowan's a good defender. Marilyn's a very good defensive team right now.

Now, last night, what was interesting, it was the first time in a while that they got out rebounded. Marilyn's been, I think they are number two in the nation in rebounding differential or in defensive rebounds. It's one of the other. high up in the overall rebounding stat. I think they're two in the country, and I think rebound differential their top five. They've been one of the best rebounding teams in the country since the beginning of the year. And last night, they got beat up a little bit on the glass. They gave up a ton of

offensive rebounds. In fact, Purdue ended up with 20 more shot attempts than Maryland did, in part because Maryland turned it over early. They didn't in the second half. But really, it was the offensive rebounding. I think they had 16 or 17 offensive rebounds. That's going to create a lot of additional possessions. But their defense in the second half won the game. They held Purdue to 18 second half points. It was a show defensively for them. Crowd got into it when they, at a key part portion of the game, they were down 48, 42, and Eric Ialla, who's really become a very good player and a very important player for Maryland. And what's really good about Iyala is he's a four-year player. And as a freshman, he already looks in plays like he's a junior or a senior. And so it was a great

move by him to basically cross Carson Edwards up. It was at 48-42, crossed him up, he fell down, and then he passed it to Cowan, who got it back to Ayala. And Ayala buried a three. And Iala buried a the crowd went nuts. It was the turning point in the game. Now, I'm not saying that Maryland wouldn't have had a chance without it, but they were in a bit of trouble at that point, down six at that point in the game. From that point forward, it was all Maryland. They ran away with it. I think they essentially held, they finished the game on a 28 to 8 run over the final 10 and a half minutes of that game. Bruno Fernando, you know, he's uncheckable. He's, he's uncheckable. Every single team doubles him.

Every single team doubles him. And Maryland, at times last night, did an exceptional job, and he did an exceptional job. But other times they got a little bit flustered with the double. They should be used to it at this point. I think that there are a couple of passes that Bruno missed last night early out of the double. When the double came, I think Stick Smith was wide open on what would have been a quick pass and a dunk. But he played well in the second half after having a terrible first half. He went for, I think, 14 of his 16 in the second half.

and Maryland one going away, 70 to 56. So they are now 10 and 4, and in fourth place in the Big 10. With Michigan losing last night, that's not really a good thing because Maryland goes to Michigan Saturday. I would have preferred Michigan to have come in off of a win rather than being hungry to avenge a loss. But they've got two left with Michigan. They still have a game with Ohio State who all of a sudden is playing well. They've got a road game at Iowa next week. Maryland's in the Big Ten race.

They're in the Big Ten regular season race. Now, a lot would have to happen. They'd pretty much have to run the table or win five of the final six and have everybody else get beat. But what we've seen in this league is it is top to bottom loaded. There is no off night. Penn State proved it last night. Rutgers has proved it multiple times. Northwesterns proved it.

Illinois has gotten it together. There's no weakling in this league. There's no game that you play in the Big Ten that is an. absolute slam dunk win. Michigan found that out last night at Penn State in a game that should have started at 630, not 830, as we bring it full circle. All right, let's bring in, let's bring in Naki, who was on the call last night with Johnny and Walt, and I can tell you this, a lot of us were listening to the beginning of the game because we were stuck in traffic. You know, somebody tweeted me this, you know, because I tweeted it out and I just spent 10 minutes on it

I just, I'm so angry because you and I both know and all the Maryland people know what that place can be like and how intimidating it can be and what a true home court advantage it can be. And if you're going to start Maryland games in the only true metropolitan market in the conference at 630, it's going to be a first half disadvantage because it takes people, you're not going to have a full house. That place was half empty to start the game. It's half empty. You know, it's really unfair as what it is.

It is. You have the Big Ten network, which uses the DMV demographics for, you know, for ad sales and for all sorts of leverage that, you know, market leverage they're looking for as a network. And yet there's no accommodation to the fact that, as you said, we're not in Iowa City. You know, we're not in Champaign, Illinois. We have issues nobody else has. And, you know, we're not very far afield, Kevin, from. You know, Gary Williams always had a great line about, you know,

in terms of the ACC, we might as well be in Siberia. And to a degree, you know, we're sort of in that same situation in the sense that there is no recognition of the fact that we have a completely different, or unique set of circumstances that nobody else has to deal with. And to that point, too, I'm still not happy about the fact that they gave away one of our home games to play a game in Madison Square Garden against Illinois. And that's one of those things you, I guess it's a deal you make with the conference, but I'm not wild about that either.

Well, that was disgraceful. I mean, because you can't, if you're going to give away a game to play in New York, because they're a bunch of Maryland alum in New York, you play Radford in New York in in November. You don't play a home game when the students are back in late January. Because I've said this, and I'll stand on this. They don't lose to Illinois at Xfinity Center on a weekend. There's no chance they lose that game. I completely agree. And when this was brought up with a Big Ten conference official, he acted surprised that Maryland's kids were back, as if to say that he hadn't even done their research to see if it was during a, you know, during the semester. So it's just

It's crazy. It's frustrating. But, you know, it is what it is at this point in time. And I'm also not loud about TV. The FS1 schedule, which has a lot of Friday night games, there's a reason why we're seeing a lot of half-empty gyms. You know, it's because Friday night, for instance, we played the night we played Ohio State, you know, it was a 630 game when the Blue Jackets were playing in town, too.

And it's almost like nobody's paying attention to the details of the schedule. Let's just put this game here. Let's just put that game right there. So they can be doing a lot better job when it comes to this stuff. Well, to your point, one quick thing on the Illinois game, you know, that's a one line in the seating difference moving that game. I mean, it really is. And not only that, you look at it now, it legitimately could cost, Maryland, and my understanding, Naki, and I could be wrong about this, my understanding

is that this was a Kevin Anderson thing more than it was a Big Ten thing, or that it was offered and Maryland stepped up and said, hey, we'll do it, we'll give away a home game, which we should never do. Because at 11 and 3 right now, we're tied for first in the Big Ten if you get that game back. But back to your point about the Big Ten not being accommodating. One of the reasons that the Big Ten wanted Maryland is because for their Big Ten Network, they wanted the DC Baltimore market and what it would bring in terms of advertising dollars for the Big Ten Network. It's the thing that the ACC still is upset about. If Maryland had been a little bit more open with the ACC, the ACC didn't want to lose Maryland. They didn't want to lose

this market for the ACC Network, which by the way is finally going to launch, I guess, here in a few months officially. Maybe, maybe, yeah. But you would think that they would be a little bit more accommodating. It really is stupidity at the highest level. It hurt them in the first half last night. It was a dead arena, and by halftime, it was great, and the second half is great, but it was not a sellout last night. And that game sells out at a different time, certainly if it's a weekend game, it sells out. Yeah, and trust me, in my advanced age, I'm not wild about any nine o'clock starts, but I can tell you, 6.30 is not getting it done. And it's just so, it's short-sighted. It just makes no sense to me. But we've beaten this horse dead.

Yeah, let's talk about the game. Talk about a great win. I thought that Darrell Morsell more than anybody else was the key to the second half. How did you see it? Yeah, I mean, you know, and he was tasked with something that's pretty difficult. You know, Carson Edwards is a pretty dynamic offensive player. I just, you know, I like the, I love the game plan where you basically tell Morseil, you know what, you're not helping on anybody.

you're not playing any lanes or anything like that. Anybody penetrates. You're just going to face guard Carson Edwards. You stay in front of him. You can try and contest every shot. And the amazing thing is Kevin, not only did he contest every shot, he really did it without fouling. You know, he might have got away with one or two,

but for the most part, he was physical without, I mean, he just played a really intelligent game defensively. And I'm happy for him, too. I think there's a lot of sentiment. There are a lot of people that say, gosh, Wiggins should be getting all those minutes because he's such an offensive presence. But I think when Morselle gives you that sort of thing, you know, he's really embracing the role right now of being a stopper. And as guys like that, just, you know, aren't coming off the floor much. You know, he's also a guy, I believe,

that will grow offensively in the same way we've probably had this conversation before, but I compare him to a guy like DJ Strawberry, who was a very good defender right from the start, a highly competitive kid, which Darrell Morsell is, and DJ was raw and inconsistent offensively for the first couple of years. But by the time he was a senior, you know, he had that year where he had the knee injury, but he became a very good offensive player. I think Morsell's going to become a good offensive player. Yeah, and you know, his game has come around. He's not, you know, last year was so, could be so ugly offensively for him. God bless him, but he's made threes at a much higher clip this year. He's also much more comfortable.

You know, a nice little pull-up around the, you know, kind of mid-range couple of shots last night. And, yeah, he's not hurting yet. You know, I mean, he doesn't have to be great offensively. He just want to be in a position where he's not killing you. And, you know, he's athletic enough. He's good around the basket. You know, he's a very good complimentary piece on the team. Did you think that the 48-42 Iyala, you know, drive? dropping Carson Edwards to the ground with the crossover that ended up in a three-pointer for him. Did you view that as the key turning point in the game? Well, I mean, that's a stretch where the freshman sort of took over.

And, of course, that's all part of it. Eric is one of those guys that, you know, I mean, he's just so good, wise beyond his years, and he's so much better than I think people thought he was going to be. Yeah, you know, I thought that was, that hole, there was like, That was like a three-minute stretch there, a three-four-minute stretch where the game changed completely. And, you know, I think Edwards, too, I think you have to make great scores. You have to force them to play both ends.

And Ayala has been very assertive offensively lately, and I thought that all of that took a toll on Edwards down the stretch. I mean, he didn't appear to have the legs in the last four or five minutes, certainly that he had in the first, you know, eight or ten minutes of the game. You and I have talked about it on the podcast and off the air about our preference of watching Maryland play faster, attempt to play more up-tempo, fast break more. I think the last two games, the Nebraska game and this game last night, now the scores wouldn't reflect it. They scored 60 against Nebraska, 70 against Purdue. But I have seen more of an emphasis to get out and push tempo with Cowan catching the ball.

more towards, you know, the free throw line or three-point line rather than coming back and walking it up the court. Have you noticed the same thing? Yeah, you've got a couple different forces at play here. First of all, up until last night, Maryland had been a... Rebounding. You know, such a dynamic rebounding team. And the better you rebound, the more you're able to run. Last night, just, you know, they... And I think it's because Produce took so many three-pointers, but last night, the TARps really

struggled to secure, you know, do you know, do you? defensive rebounds. So makes it a little bit more problematic to run. But, you know, one of the things, Kevin, I get a chance to visit with the opposing coach before the game, before each game. And I know in the last two games specifically, Tim Miles and Matt Painter, both of them, when I asked them about, you know, the most important parts of their game, the keys to the game for them, both of them said we have to keep Anthony Cowan out of transition. We have to, we have to, we have to make sure we eliminate that part of the game. And Miles's words were, we have to make Anthony Cowan play in a crowd.

And so that's one of the forces that play here, too, is that it's much easier to slow a game down than it is to speed it up. And these coaches, this is a really well-coached league, a lot of very good game planning. They really do put a premium on trying to slow Maryland, in particular, Anthony, down. And so, yeah, I think Terge would love. to Mark Torson would love to push it a little bit more. I just don't know, you know, there are number of forces at play that, you know, that dictate whether he can or not. Naki, they're good. This is a really good Maryland basketball team. I mean, I, you know, one of the things, too, the defensive performances

that they've had at times recently, I mean, against Nebraska and then last night, they really can win with their defense. Yeah, and, you know, one of the things, you know, you know, you We all sort of have a mental checklist, Kevin, you know, and particularly as we're in February headed to March. And you, you know, you think, are we big enough? Yeah, no question. We're big enough. Do we rebound well enough?

Yeah, and there's no doubt about that. Do we have enough shooting? Yeah, absolutely. If Eric I.L. and Aaron Wiggins are shooting like, yeah, hell, yeah, we have enough shooting. And then there's the defense. Do we – are we playing defense consistently? Well, I mean, you're checking a lot of boxes with his team right now. And I think I said at the end of the broadcast last night,

one of the great parts about where you are is the arc of this season. You know, I mean, how about how much better these guys are right now than they were against Seton Hall or than they were against Purdue the first go-round? Or they pissed away a really nice opportunity for a road win, you know? So, I mean, there's a lot to be, you know, to feel very good about it, to feel very positive about. You know, there's an opportunity this year that just rarely, exists and the opportunity is these final six games to make a run to being a top four seed in a

region because if they can get to that four line, they could be placed in the East Regional and those games are in D.C. at Capital One Arena. And I know they got a win two to get to the second week. But you know, you always look back and you're like, you know, if they had been a four instead of a seven, if they had beaten Ohio State at home, you know, like the schedule, by the way, just like, all year has seemed off. It just seems like we're playing so many more games on the road than at home, and we've got two massive road games now at Michigan Saturday and at Iowa, you know, a couple of nights later before we come home against Ohio State. It's like three of the next four are on the road, and it seems like three of the next four on the road have been

what we've been saying all year long. How does that work? Well, trust me, I'm the guy who's traveling with a team. It feels like I've been away forever. And then you throw in the Illinois game that was given away like you talked about. And by the way, you know, this all, the conversation now has come full circle, but you talk about the difference qualitatively in being a four-seed versus a five-seed and the lost Illinois, what that may mean, what that could potentially mean. And it's not an insignificant deal. There's no question about it.

But, you know, I look at this, and I don't see anybody on the schedule. You've seen every, you haven't seen Michigan. Michigan yet. You haven't seen Iowa yet up close. You know, you've seen Minnesota, you've seen Ohio State. Penn State, that's not going to be an easy game up there, as we know, from last night. But I don't view anybody as significantly better than Maryland in the league. Do you? Well, I mean... Michigan State? Well, Michigan, you know, I mean, it depends on which Michigan team you're talking about. The Michigan team in November was better than everybody in the league.

but they're just not playing at that level right now. One of the common threads that Michigan and Michigan State have is they've got really, really good point guard play. But, I mean, there's no reason why Maryland should feel inferior or like they can't compete. I fully expect that we'll play very well at Michigan. You know, Iowa's a little different animal. I mean, they're just very, they score a lot of points.

Iowa has played a very fast pace. That game will be up and down without question. So, hey, man, at this point in time, 10 and four in the league with four roadies. You've won four road games. I mean, I think that instills a little bit, that should inspire a little bit of confidence in you for sure. Yeah, I agree. It's, you know, I guess, you know, the coaching, the coaching staff takes them one at a time. You know, the fans look at the bigger picture, and I look at these final six, and I'm like, if there's a way to get four or five of them, you're going to inch your way into a top 16 seed, top four seed, and now you've got a

legitimate chance to make a deep run, especially if somehow they place you in that East region. But anyway, because you know what, Capital One Arena is actually easier to get to the college park. I've got a metro stop right there, so 630 would be fine for me on a Friday night, if that's where they are. All right, well, enjoy the trip to Ann Arbor. What's become your favorite trip in the league? And I'm not talking about Arena. You've told me that Indiana Assembly Hall's the best in the... Big Ten. Yeah, I got to tell you, you're going to roll your eyes at this one. You know, I love Lincoln, Nebraska. I love the town. The arena is awesome. They pack the place. There's never, there's never an empty seat. There's some fun places to go

hang out there. Ann Arbor is cool. Ann Arbor's a lot of fun. They've all got their charm for sure, but except for Champaign and for Happy Ballet. Do you, do you guys, when you go to Ann Arbor, Do you fly into Detroit and then just bus to Ann Arbor? Do you fly it in? Yeah, it's a commercial. Generally, it's a commercial airport. We charter in, so it's not, we don't fly into Detroit. It's an airport sort of closer to Ann Arbor.

And it's a quick hit. It's a short trip. Yeah, that's a short one. Yeah, for sure. All right, have a good trip. Last night was great. I thought, you know, I thought that that was as dominating a second half defensively. that we've seen, but we've seen some good defensive performances by Maryland, you know, all season long.

But last night was unique and really fun to watch. Yeah, we shut down a red hot team, and it felt good, no question. All right. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks. All right, Kevin. All right, great to catch up with Naki. And, yeah, we probably have spent too much time talking about the 630 starts, but it really is aggravating.

You know, and it's not aggravating to those of you that don't really understand. what the difference is. But, Aaron, Maryland has, in college basketball, what would be called a true home court advantage. And it's very important in that sport. Now, they are undefeated at home against the Big Ten this year. They've lost one home game, right, to Seton Hall? Oh, and Virginia. They lost to Virginia at home. But they haven't lost a home game in the Big Ten. But this is where their butter, this is where their bread is buttered. Are these games in January and February when people aren't paying attention to anything else because football season's over, etc. And, you know, these games, you need to sell these games out. And to give them the best

opportunity to do that, you can't play a game at 630. Anyway, I'm done with that. Let me tell you about Window Nation. Harley and Aaron are good friends of mine, and they have a great company. They are two of the best entrepreneurs I've ever met. Window Nation is the place to go for Windows. I promise you that you won't be disappointed if you give Window Nation a shot. Now if you just if you don't need windows, don't call them. But if you're, you know, during this winter, you've realized that the house is a little more drafty than it typically is or it's a little bit colder and you're losing some of that, you know, warm air in your home. You should probably have them come out and take a look at your windows. They are very good at coming out and saying, look, this one's fine,

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Kareem Hunt yesterday and you tend to have the same view that you didn't really have a problem with the Browns and the way the Browns handled it was well done. Read Sally Jenkins this morning in her column in the post. It's, she's just, I just really am a big fantasy. Sally Jenkins. I don't always agree with her. In fact, I would say it's 50-50, but I love the column that she wrote on Kareem Hunt this morning, or yesterday I read it this morning. And she essentially says, you know, this was the right thing for the NFL to do. And Sally's been anti-N-FEL with a lot of different things, you know, and very much anti-Gadel, as most people, reasonable people are. But, you know, her first paragraph is giving Kareem Hunt a second chance in the NFL is not just the right thing to do.

it's the only thing to do. The alternative is to designate him as incurable, a lost cause at 23. It's to say that his character is permanently set, and he's incapable of making a willful better choice. That's not right, and it's not true. It's just a really, really good column. So read it if you're interested in, and if you've had this debate with friends about whether or not Kareem Hunt should have been signed by Cleveland, whether or not the Redskins should have given Ruben Foster a shot, you know, and so on and so on. Ray Rice, Tyree Kill, all of them, all of them, all right? You know, we went through, and you can listen to yesterday's show

where Tommy and I broke down the differences between Ruben Foster signing and Kareem Hunt signing. I mean, the biggest significant difference is that Kareem Hunt, this was a first incident, wasn't charged, by the way, and two and a half months passed between the time that he was waived by Kansas City and somebody signed him. The Redskins had a guy coming off two domestic violence cases in less than a year, four cases altogether over a year and a half,

and they signed him 72 hours after a domestic violence charge, in which there's no chance they could have done the proper due diligence in that short period of time, and the Redskins were coming off their own scandal, the cheerleading scandal, and we just thought that it was not the right thing to do. But it was never about whether or not there was a presumption of guilt or innocence, and it was never about whether or not someone like Ruben Foster deserves a second chance or Kareem Hunt in the case of the column that Sally wrote this morning. So I would urge you to read it. One college basketball thing that we did not talk about from last night was Duke's comeback.

Wow, I did catch it. I didn't catch the first half of the game. I only caught the last nine minutes of the game, the best part of it. But Duke was down 23 with 948 to go. Turned out to be the biggest comeback in Coach K. history. Not the most memorable comeback, however, in Shoshchewski and in Duke's history. The most memorable comeback, and one of the most stunning comebacks of all time, was gone in 54 seconds, down 10 at Colefield House in the year 2001. And the year that Maryland eventually would turn around and beat Duke on senior night, Shane Batti, a senior night. And, played Duke in the final four, Maryland's first final four, but earlier in that season in January,

Maryland blew a 10-point lead in 54 seconds at a stunned and very silent Cole Fieldhouse. One of the games that in my sports rooting career as a fan, I remember so vividly because I could not get out of my seat when that game ended in overtime. It was so shocking, so disappointing, so appalling that it took me about 15 minutes to get up from my seat and leave the arena. I was so upset.

In fact, you know what? I was at that game with my father. Scott was with us. It was my brother, Scott, my father. We were all sitting together watching that game. I think that's what it was at Cole Field House. Just unbelievable. That was, that's, you know, that story's been told many times,

and you can watch that one on YouTube if you've never seen it. But they came from 23 back last night at Louisville. I think Chris Mack, personally, is a really good coach, and I think Louisville will be a power with him there. But if you watch this comeback, it was all self-inflicted. Like Louisville completely panicked. They turned it over nine times over the final eight and a half minutes of the game, and it was all because they got sped up and they were frantic,

and they saw Duke chipping away at this lead, and they got... It was a complete choke job. Now, Duke had to make them pay for it on the other end offensively. And Cam Reddish, who I had a chance to watch last year as a high school senior in a DeMathis showcase event, play my son's high school team, actually, in a great game that actually my son's high school team beat them. They were number seven in the country, Westdown of PA. But Cam Reddish was on that team, and I watched him twice that weekend.

He was so good. He had 34 against us. The next day he went for 51 in a game that they, they won. And you could just see the stardom. But, you know, Cam Reddish out of the freshman this year, especially the big three, right? Zion, Barrett, and Reddish. Reddish is the one that's been slow to come along. He was unbelievable down the stretch last night. And he's got ridiculous range. And, you know, this is what I hate about college basketball is it's, you know, I didn't want Duke to win the game. I still don't root for them. But I would love to see Barrett and Reddish

and Zion Williamson one more year. All three of them will be gone. All of them, all the freshmen will be gone. And Trey Jones, where's Trey Jones being projected? Is he going to come back? Will he come back as one of the freshmen? I can't remember where he is in the mock drafts. But anyway, most of them are going to be gone, and all of them will be taken in the first round. It's not the college basketball that we used to love. But anyway, they're fun to watch. And Louisville totally melted down. Do you have a mock draft in front of you. I don't, but most people are saying that he is one and done now. Trey Jones? He is a, he's an exceptional defender, an exceptional defender. Here, I've got ESPN's latest mock in front of me. It was put out late last night. Zion's one, Barrett's two,

Reddish is three, and then Trey Jones is 24. Okay, so four of their five, four of their freshman, first rounders. Jesus. Where's Bruno in this latest mock draft? Wow, not until 30. End of the first round. Bruno right now. I don't think he's going to last that long by the time we get there. S.I. Has him at 20.

I've seen him as high as 10 in recent mock drafts. Oh, yeah. I think. But this one was an ESPN put out. Who did this? Jonathan Giovanni. I don't know who that is. Let's get to the Kirk Cousins thing. Kirk Cousins yesterday on this show with Tommy.

I just said, you know what, I'm getting to the point where, I mean, somebody needs to tell Kirk Cousins to stay off social media. It's insufferable. He's, I mean, he's become Robert Griffin III on social media. I don't know what happened to this guy. And, you know, for those of you that are going to say, oh, he's always been self-absorbed, didn't you see how he handled the contract? Stop it.

being shrewd with respect to your contract is not self-absorbed. Those things are totally different, completely different. You know, I'm not officially, like this isn't breaking news. I'm officially done with Kirk Cousins, but it is going to be breaking news soon that I'm going to be done with Kirk Cousins if he continues this. I'll get to the tweet in a second. But just on the point that I made, because it just sparked the thought. I don't want to hear from all of you who say this is what he's always been. Didn't you see how he?

No, no, no, no, no. The Redskins put him in that position. I'm not going to go through all of it, but you should all know by now. Redskins, it's simply put, they never made him a market offer. So therefore, he never had a chance to accept an actual market level offer from the team. That being said, he has become what he has. wasn't here in Washington. This contract has made him completely full of himself.

Kirk, the size of your contract did not validate you. It didn't make you. Your play will validate you. This was the tweet yesterday. He put a poll out. The poll was the following question. The season feels so far away, So I want to do a giveaway to keep all you Vikings fans excited.

What do you want me to give away? Question mark. Four answers. A signed jersey, a signed football, signed mini helmet, or other. Well, he does have 25,000 plus votes, and signed jersey was the runaway winner, 73% of the vote. But you've got to read the responses. He must not be reading his responses.

Good for him. I urge all, and anybody on Twitter that has any meaningful following not to read your responses, because more times than not, they're not good. But this is a setup. Like, are you, are you an idiot? Like, what are you missing about a season in which your team was in the NFC championship game and then paid you $90 million, $84 million, $84 million, guaranteed for three years, and your team didn't make the playoffs.

Now, I know why you didn't make the playoffs. I watched a lot of the Vikings games, and most Minnesota fans know that their offensive line was the worst in the NFL, statistically and subjectively. The giant offensive line was terrible, too. The Minnesota offensive line was a mess. They couldn't protect him. They couldn't run the football. It was a mess. They have to fix it.

They were injured. Everything about their offensive line disrupted their ability. to be a consistent offensive team. And the truth is, if you watch them, early in the year when they were winning games, it was in part because he was throwing them to wins. But still, you didn't make, your team didn't make the playoffs. You did not play well in the final game of the season

to clinch a playoff berth against the Bears at home. You didn't play well at all. You actually played scared. You look scared. Now, part of it is you had no time to throw the football. football. I saw that. Everybody that knows football and is being fair would say you never had a chance in that game against the Bears defense with that offensive line. But it doesn't matter. You didn't elevate your team. You didn't elevate your team in key spots during the course of the year where

an $84 million quarterback would elevate his team. Now, the money does not equate to the kind of quarterback you are. I understand that. But stay the F off social media. Here are. some of the responses to what people want Kirk Cousins to give away. How about you give the Vikings back $33 million? How about you give back your contract? Give yourself away to another team, exclamation point. I did see a resignation letter as a suggestion. A resignation letter as a suggestion. Half of your guaranteed contracts of the team can sign a quality tackle to protect you. So at least that response is recognition of what part of the problem is in Minnesota. But one of the reasons that they may have a bad offensive line is because so much money is going to him.

So much of the cap space is going to him. There were so many people that talked about its contract. Almost 80% of the responses were some of that cap space you can give away, your contracts so that we can trade you. Give away anything but the ball. How about a playoff berth and not losing to the bills and bears second string quarterbacks? I missed that option on your poll. And then somebody tweeted out, T.O. That's my quarterback.

Oh, my God. The timing of this Aaron couldn't have worked out better because yesterday I went off on him just saying, get off social media. And then later yesterday, after the show, didn't see this until afterwards, he put this poll out. Kirk, my God, stay off social media. We don't want pictures. of you throwing on a beach. We don't want pictures of you and your family and your dog and your kids.

I'm sorry, you have a lovely looking family. Pleasant enough. Those of us that are fans of yours, in part were fans because we thought you could play. And in part, because you came off with this feeling, like the feeling of getting it. Like, you just sort of got it. You understood it. I mean, one of the things I remember Mike Shanahan saying about Kirk, in addition to you can win a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins, and he can be a Super Bowl winning quarterback, is that he was just so coachable, so easy to get along with, so humble. Man, I don't know what it is.

You know, he tweets a lot of religious stuff like a couple days ago, and what does the Lord require? of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah, six, I mean, you know, he's citing Bible, you know, passages. You can't put yourself out there. I mean, you've made yourself such a mark. Go away. Just go away. The next time we should hear from you should be the opener.

I'm fading on him. I am, you know, the personality has a lot to do with it. I still think he will become a very good quarterback. I do believe that. But these are the kinds of things that turned me off to Robert Griffin the third. And Robert Griffin the third had talent and had, it was coming off a great season. And, you know, he was so self-absorbed. He was so into his personal brand on social media. You know, it was, it was insufferable to watch. And it was, Kirk's becoming that.

I'm surprised by it. I am. And it has, don't, again, don't tell me that you saw this coming because of the way he handled his contract. Those are two totally different conversations.

He handled his contract perfectly for him. What else did we have today? Do you want to talk about, or at least mention Mike Loxley flipping the cross? Yeah, you tell me about that. know it's a big commit, another Florida state commit that decommitted and committed to Maryland. Yeah, this is the number one player out of Maryland. He's out of DeMatha. He, I believe,

the fourth overall safety in the country. And I'm pretty sure the best prospect that Maryland has signed since Stefan Diggs. He was committed to. Is he a five star or four star? He's a four star, but 55th overall in the country. Well, Stefan Diggs was a five star. Yeah, that's why I said, Best Sense. Okay, best sense. But they've had a couple of four stars this year. But not as high overall as Nick Cross. He was at FSU. His parents barely said, for whatever reason, no to FSU,

so he decided between Penn State and Maryland and decided to go to Maryland. All right. That's good. I mean, you know, this is, when Mike Loxley became the coach, what was the number one given about Maryland football moving forward?

He was going to be able to recruit some really good players to come to Maryland. This has been his number one, you know, attribute. as a coach, at any place he's ever been, people say that if Mike Loxley gets into the room with the kid and the parents, the competition's in trouble, that he is a master recruiter, and he has a phenomenal reputation in this market with kids, with parents, with the football community. So already off to a good start. Now, their class overall is smaller in size and won't

be nationally ranked. But getting the quarterback to flip from Florida State, now getting the kid from DeMatha to flip from Florida State is big news. And as Scott told us, I think last week, already to 2020 class is shaping up to be a blockbuster. You know, having a full year as the head coach. Maryland football is going to be interesting next year. I mean, they had some talent last year. They had some talent last year. Here's the thing that we hadn't talked about that I wanted to get to. Antonio Brown and Antonio Brown's tweet yesterday that basically thanks Steelers fans for, you know, nine years of, of, you know, happiness for him, I guess. So he wants to be traded.

So there are two things. Number one, what will, what can the Steelers get for him, you know, and then two, you know, who's a likely trade partner? There's a third thing. And the third thing is the salary cap hit that the Steelers are going to take by trading him. You know, it's a significant, you know, cap hit because there's a lot of dead money there. You know, Brown right now is due a $2.5 million roster bonus by March 17th if he's still on the roster. The problem with the Steelers trading him before paying him that $2.5 million is that they would immediately, excuse me,

absorb a $21 million dead money cap hit in 2019. You know, so they almost have to wait until post-June 1 so they can spread out his cap hit over two years and not take it in one. That's my guess. This is where it becomes unfair for the team that has just, you know, recently, and I think it was 2017, that he got this new deal, right? 2017. When the player becomes where the situation becomes untenable, and apparently it's untenable between he and Tomlin. The Tomlin has sided more with Rothelisberger in the issues that Rothelisberger and Antonio Brown have had, and that's why Antonio Brown wants out. But Antonio Brown wanting out means this accelerated salary cap hit for the Steelers that is painful, that kind of dead money.

You know, when you trade a player or cut a player, all of that remaining cap money gets accelerated into that year, unless it's post-June 1, and then you can spread it over two years. but it's painful for the Steelers. So he's dictating or he's saying he wants a trade. Well, you know, Pittsburgh may have more to say about this. They may say you may want a trade, but you're playing for us. You sign this deal, and it's too painful for us to trade you. First of all, we don't think now we can get a first round pickback for you. And I'm telling you right now, I don't think there's a first rounder available for him.

I think his second rounder is a lock. And if it were a first rounder like a late first rounder, like a New England, giving up a first rounder, maybe. But I don't know that you're getting a top 20 pick for Antonio Brown and his salary. And by the way, at his age, how many legitimate years does he have left? I would say he's still got three solid years left at 31, you know? I would be less fearful of that. He is a great receiver, a great receiver. But he's not, to me, as Tommy always says, is the juice worth the squeezing.

It's big money. You're going to have to trade a high pick, even if it isn't a first. It would be a second. There's no way you'd get away with anything less than a second. And you're going to have a diva wide receiver coming in. And you better have a quarterback to throw the ball. Now, you know who just became a player? Denver, although they don't have the cap space.

The Raiders. You know, teams, San Francisco, teams with a lot of cap space are probably, and the teams that believe that they are, like, if you look at the 49ers, if Garapolo comes back healthy, they probably think that with a great receiver to go with Garapolo, that they could potentially contend for a playoff spot next year. Those are the kind of teams I would think would be in the market for him. But who knows, it could be, you know, it would be amazing to see like, Antonio Brown end up in New England for their first round pick, which would be the 32nd overall. I just can't imagine Pittsburgh trading him to New England of all places. They do everything they can. The interesting thing about Pittsburgh, even though it is a lot of cap, with what happened with Levian Bell this year, are they willing to risk Antonio Brown possibly sitting out next year if they don't trade them? Yeah.

The answer to that would be no. I mean, you can't go into next season without both of them because now all of a sudden, you know what the AFC North just became? Cleveland's division. Seriously. I agree with him. It's amazing. Well, what's going to happen if Antonio Brown is out in Pittsburgh and Levion Bell is out in Pittsburgh. And I think Ju-Jew Smith-Schuster is a great receiver. He's a legitimate number one receiver. He's a legitimate number one. He's not Antonio Brown, but I would call him a number one receiver. But still, going into next season with Baltimore. I mean, Baltimore's defense would probably make them the favorite in the division,

but Cleveland's going to get a ton of preseason love in the AFC North if both Bell and Brown are gone in Pittsburgh. A ton of it. All right. Real quickly on launch workplaces in Bethesda and throughout town. If you are looking for office space, you're looking for a place. You're looking for a place to have a small office or just a desk for a few days a week. Consider launch workplaces in Bethesda. If you live in the Bethesda area, Upper Northwest D.C., Chevy Chase, Potomac, just over the Virginia, you know, the American Legion Bridge in northern Virginia,

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a cafe, free parking, 24-7-axis. access, find out more at launchworkplaces.com or call 240-86714 for a free two-day trial. Ran into a bunch of people last night in College Park at the Maryland game. And it happens all the time. I want to listen to the podcast. I just haven't figured out when. I don't understand that anymore. But I guess I do because friends, like my good friend Ken, who is a big cowboy fan, took him

a while to figure it out. But he's sitting in here listening to the show. I have too many cowboy friends, but I don't care. They're good guys. Anyway, Clay, that includes you. Anyway, I ran into a bunch of dudes, and they said, want to listen to it, man. I've heard it's, you know, I heard it's good, and I'm trying to get, just, it's the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. Just tell people, the Kevin Sheeonshow.com.

Actually, I talked to a guy last night, and I showed him on his iPhone. I showed him the purple podcast icon. Just click it. Search Kevin Shian Show. Boom, it's right there on your phone. Anyway, a lot of us are just too old and don't want to change and don't want to be told how to access things technology-related. Anyway, I'm rambling.

That's it for today. Tommy will be with me tomorrow, and then Cooley will be with me on Friday. Have a great day.