The Kevin Sheehan Show - Maye Day + A Daniels ASU Story

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with plenty more on the Wizards and Caps staying in DC. Thom found and wrote about some issues that Arizona State had with Jayden Daniels' mother when he was playing in Tempe. A quick Nats' and Orioles' season preview and then Kevin finished up with the latest Commanders' free agent signing, the Drake Maye Pro Day, and he had two Sweet 16 "Smell Test" picks. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! 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. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsors,

Windonation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com. Mention my name for a free, no-obligation estimate. Tommy's going to join me for part of the show today, not the entire show. We are recording this earlier in the day. He is heading to Camden Yards for opening Day and for the David Rubinstein press conference.

And I will likely do a little bit more on the show today, perhaps after Drake May's Pro Day. And I'll have some smell test picks for the Sweet 16 at the end of the show as well. But we'll start with the big news from yesterday, and that is the Wizards in Caps aren't going anywhere. In fact, everybody seems so happy. Tommy, when I recorded the podcast, yesterday, late yesterday afternoon, I had not yet seen the press conference involving the mayor,

Phil Mendelsso, and Ted Leonis. And I watched it afterwards. I mean, it's so nice that everybody's getting along so well. Well, you know why? Apparently, Ted and the mayor, they've been talking all along. Oh, they've had dates. They've had dates. Yes.

Yes, like the letter, like the Attorney General of the district sent to Ted saying, if you try to leave, we're going to sue you. Are those the kind of talks they've had? You know, that was actually a pretty entertaining part of what was typically with Ted a long-drawn-out kind of boring press event. Here's what it sounded like. The mayor pinged me, reached out to me, texted me, and then we started having our dates. We have the worst investigative reporting infrastructure anywhere.

We would go pretty much every week, every other week, to the main couch in the lobby at the Waldorf. and I would jump up and run to the bar and get some drinks, and we would sit, but we would talk about what's the vision for the city. How cute the two of them together at the Waldorf on the main couch with such a terrible investigative structure in town, because they were right there. Well, maybe nobody noticed him. Maybe nobody recognized him.

But I kind of felt like, you know, the press conference was, a bit of a spin job. Like he was trying to spin it like, hey, this was kind of the plan all along. And that's not necessarily what he did, but he certainly wanted to spin it into him being the good guy or everybody being the good guys. Because look, this was a big loss for Ted.

You know, I think these things can go away, you know, if your teams are good. And, you know, you put a world-class facility with these upgrades downtown. But we'll remember this. We'll remember how unbelievably excited and giddy he was in that press conference with Governor Yonkin and how he was out of here, brother. I mean, and maybe he had good reason to go.

We've talked about that a lot. Here's what he said. Yeah. The die was cast. They were leaving. The die was cast. Yeah. Yeah.

He was out of here. I'm just glad this is the result. Yes. I'm glad. This is the best thing for the city. Yeah. And I think everybody, I mean, look, this is my viewpoint, not everybody's viewpoint. I think if you live in the Washington metro area, you want the city to do well.

Okay, whether you live in Frederick, Rockville, or, you know, on Lover, Delaware. Or Dover. Yes. Yes. part of Ted land the northern fringes of Tedland that's right that's what you called it I was trying to think of what you referred to it I called it the super DMV

I didn't know I forget how he had referred to it from basically Delaware to the North Carolina Virginia border it's all wizards and caps and gogos and the e-sports team territory well you know what Tedland got a lot smaller yesterday now it's a back to being a corner on F street in the district.

Yeah. What else did you think about how... You predicted this. I mentioned it yesterday. You said from the beginning that you didn't think that this would go through, and you've said from the very beginning that the football team is going to land right where they currently sit in Landover. And that probably became an increased possibility with this news yesterday.

A little bit, a little bit more likely. I mean, I think, you know, again, it's the path of least resistance. But as far as Ted, when we think about the ramifications of this and step aside and say, didn't anyone, like, what about the board members of monumental sports? What are like Laurel Fernandez and his buddies? Didn't anyone grab him by the lapels and say, where's the money? stop this we don't have there's no money yet

you don't announce a move like this unless you've got the money in place you do not I could stand on a street corner in Alexandria and say hey I'm going to build a new arena

down here for the same level of credibility that this had the fact that he they jumped the gun on this I mean tells me that he got suckered by the governor I mean his buddy Yonkin Young can convince him, I got this.

I can handle it. I can get you the money. Well, that didn't happen. And I'm sure Ted is blinded by the notion that this was his vehicle, and you've talked about this. We both talked about this to take monumental sports public down the load. You know, a brand-new arena, an entertainment district surrounding the arena, very attractive to take monumental sports public,

which a lot of people think has been what he wants to do. And I think that died yesterday as well. In terms of people being able to grab them and pull them back and say, what are we doing here? This is far from a done deal. I think, A, he did probably get not necessarily duped, but I don't know that the people in Virginia saw Louise Lucas coming because she was clearly impactful in all of this.

Maybe without her, this gets done in Virginia. Well, that's on the governor. That's on the governor and Ted. This is all on them. I mean, Ted should, should, I mean, it's not. I mean, people who have covered this kind of thing before. I mean, we've lived through this with Jack Kent Cook. You know, there's a graveyard over there for the Potomac Yards football stadium.

Right. I mean, you don't do this unless you've got the money locked up. Yeah. You certainly don't do it in the way that they did it because they were way too definitive sounding. They sounded, that day sounded so final. It sounded so done. And it was because of the way they behaved that day. I mean, we had people that were crying.

They had five, six people take the podium. A couple of them had tears coming down their cheeks. And Ted was just giddy. As I said that day, it was bad. There was no compassion whatsoever for leaving the district. I know that I thought it was. But at the same time, I think Tommy, maybe it was just he had had it with D.C. You know, when you read through that story that the post did back in, I don't know, February, January, when they documented blow by blow how this whole thing came together, you could see the city's, you know, just complete and utter failure and responsibility in Ted ending up in the position he was in.

And I can't blame him. I told you that at the time. I think we disagreed about it to a certain degree. But I just, I think he was emotional. I think he couldn't wait to hold that press conference and stick it right in the backside of, you know, all of the people that he's now super friendly with. As he kept saying yesterday, we're taking the high road. I don't know if it was Gordon Gecko from Wall Street, I think, who said this. Never get emotional about money.

Okay. And that's what he did. You're right. I mean, the district dropped the ball on this, and Bowser is lucky. I mean, she should send flowers every day to leave Lucas, who basically, you know, kept her from being the mayor who lost, you know, the basketball team and the hockey team from the city. But, yeah, the city's culpable.

Certainly they set up this situation to begin with, but you've got to be smarter. I mean, when you profess, you know, when you give this impression that you're some kind of visionary, you've got to have more smarts than this to let this happen. And, I mean, again, I mean, in a way, we always used to say about Dan Snyder. You know, there's no one around him to basically tell him this is a bad idea that this is wrong, okay? Anyone who did that didn't last long with Dan Snyder. Okay.

Well, who was around Ted? to basically say no, no, no, no, no. Don't do this. Not until we've got the money. Keep it quiet. Don't say anything. As long as the mayor knows, that's all that matters. Look, all's well that ends well, I guess.

I know that there's some people in Virginia that are upset. They wanted to see a professional sports team come to their state. There have been plenty of people that have tried now, and it just doesn't seem to work with the politics of that state, with the divide between, say, Richmond and Northern Virginia, which makes it almost two states within one. A lot of states are that way. But I'm glad it ended the way it ended.

Now, the part that would disappoint me is if this does impact the football team's potential move back into the city because that's $515 million that the city would have had to give to Josh Harris. And Maryland's going to be, you know, they're coming at the commanders and they'll have, I would bet, a pretty attractive offer for them to stay. And just as a reminder to everybody, they own the land that they're on. I know that there have been other parcels that have been talked about, but the state would have to basically give them the, you know, the land, somewhere else, like the district will. But it's going to come down to who's got the most attractive

offer. And maybe D.C. doesn't have to match Maryland's offer. But I don't think it can be so different from Maryland's offer that Josh Harris says, well, we're going there anyway, even though we have to spend a lot more money to build what we want to build. Yeah, I think what we've heard from Josh Harris both on the record and, you know, inside sources and stuff. I think everyone kind of agrees that, you know,

emotionally, speaking of a motion of money again, emotionally, people want the stadium at the RFK site. Okay. Realistically, like I've always said about the Maryland site, it's the path of least resistance.

And you see how hard it is to do these kind of stadium deals. They're very difficult. In Chicago, look what happened in Chicago. The Bears bought this land out in the suburbs. They were going to build their stadium there. Then they were looking all around to build their new stadium for the Bears.

Where are they going to build it now? Right next door to Soldier Field. Yep. And you know what? I don't know how Chicagoans feel, but I bet they prefer it to be right next to Soldier Field. I think so. I would. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Well, we'll see. I mean, right now you're still predicting Maryland and you probably feel stronger about that. Stronger, but not overwhelming. I'm not saying it's certainly not definitive because, again, I think there's a big emotional poll.

And I think the city has some cards to play in terms of, look, I think in order for the city to do this, they're going to have to set up some kind of one of these quasi-government public corporation kind of things to create the financing for their part of something like this. It's going to be a tough sell. But the city's part, the public part, it's not going to be right from the city. There'll be something similar to events, D.C. Maybe they'll go through events, D.C., where they can finance the, they can finance the

bonds for something like this. You know, when he's, like I call it, quasi-government, operations, where they manage to skirt the rules of government and do business like a business, even though it's still public money. The city needs to come up with that in order for their part, which I think is going to, they're going to need at least a billion dollars if it's a 50-50 split. Yeah. Anything else on this? Not really. It's a chapter we'll never forget.

And it damages Ted's credibility to some extent. He's had a lot of losses, you know, the arena football thing that he, you know, made a big deal about. He bought the whole league, owned two teams, went up there and predicted that indoor sports is the wave of the future. No one wants to sit outside in the stadium anymore. And that belly, that went belly up after four years. He opened up a downtown East Sports Arena, that is a ghost town for the most part. You know, so he's had a few losses. That granted, that, you know, he could, he could buy and sell me a billion times.

And he's had a lot of wins in his career that have made him very, very rich and successful. And it is always comical when a guy like me who doesn't have a pot to piss. and criticizes a pissless man like Ted Leones. But that's my job. It's funny that you say that because as you were talking, I was thinking about that lunch with a legend that you and I did with Ted many years ago, probably at this point 15 years ago at Morton's downtown. And there were a few suggestions he gave to me during commercial breaks about our show.

And in fact, the suggestions, were all essentially the same suggestion, which is you guys really should be talking much more about hockey. You're missing the boat completely and spending too much time talking about the Redskins. And at one point, I finally said, Ted, all due respect, if I took your advice, we'd have no listeners. You can't do hockey in this town as much as you do football. I remember thinking back on that and saying, you know, can you imagine if I had said to him, I would never profess to tell you how to do your business. Don't tell me how to do mine.

But my business is to tell him how to do his business. That's what we do. That's exactly what we do. It's so hypocritical because we sit here and we tell, you know, we talk about what coaches should be doing, what general managers should be doing, what owners should be doing. But that is kind of part of the job of for you a columnist. But, you know, the columnist is really also equivalent and long form to the sports talk radio host. I mean, you've got to have opinions.

Yeah. Yeah, commentating on issues and events. It's a terrible existence. Why do I do this? It's so, like, I guarantee you a lot. of those people, specifically the owners who are, you know, worth hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, I doubt they're even paying attention, but if they were, they really would have every justification to say, tell those guys to shut the fuck up. But anyway,

um, uh, yeah, uh, yeah, I'm just glad they're staying. I'm glad they're staying. I'm glad they're staying. I'm glad that little three or four month episode is over and the caps and wizards are staying in town and I hope the football team ends up in town as well. One last thing. To show you the apple

doesn't fall far from the tree. You know, his son, Zach, the owns, is very involved in the monumental sports business. I think he's the leader of the whole monumental sports network operation at this point. He's the guy behind the

studio and stuff. He tweeted out yesterday, and either he has a great sense of humor, or he is Ted Jr., quote, the moment you've been waiting for, we're staying at Capital One Arena, and it's going to be

bigger and better than ever before. The moment you've been waiting for. Now, he went on to say... Yeah, I would on... I think it because he said, grateful, humbled, and excited. And, I mean, I'm sure he probably had to go to the SARS to find the word humbled.

But, yeah, he did recognize there that they have been humbled significantly. Well, good. That's, I actually like the self-awareness there. And an attempted humor, but then... If it's a joke, if it's a sense of humor thing, it's, I give him a lot of credit. Right. So I'm going to go with that. I'm going to go with the benefit of the doubt here.

Like, just like Kevin, Mr. Benefited of the Dow himself. benefit of the doubt kev yeah um i'm reading the tweet right now i'll give zach the benefit of the doubt for sure i think this was an attempt at uh sarcasm sense of humor followed up uh with i think a very gracious ending uh to that tweet and very kind of self-aware um unlike uh his father who i'm not going to give the benefit of the doubt to on this and i'm not going to give the benefit of the doubt to mayor bowser on this either i mean they really screwed it up i mean the reason we've lived through these last three months is because they weren't responsive enough.

I bet that there would have been a way to kind of avoid all of this to begin with. Maybe not. Maybe he always had his attention towards Virginia. But, you know, she's got to thank Louise Lucas, as you said earlier, because that woman bailed the city and all of us that want the arena downtown, she's the one that essentially delivered it. And her reaction to this is priceless. It's amazing some of these people end up in public positions.

But she certainly isn't one to handle victory with grace. She basically spiked that football and did an end zone dance that Dionne Sanders would have been proud of. Yeah. There was some tweet. Let me find it. This is a freaking legendary Smackdown, so now the incompetent losers behind the effort are all out-telling lies and

conspiracy theories instead of just admitting they got their asses kicked by an 80-year-old, affectionately called, gangsta legislator. It's hilarious. And she had this big, you know, rejected meme, basketball rejected meme. As monumental announces today, they are staying in Washington, D.C., we are celebrating in Virginia that we avoided the monumental disaster.

Thank you to everyone who stood with us in this fight. Yeah, let me point out, they didn't even get. The money part was just one part of this that they were going to have to overcome. They didn't even get to the NIMBY part. Right, yeah. Never even had a chance for NIMBY. to take over and kill it. No, which in Virginia is a big factor.

All right. We're going to take a quick break when we come back. Tommy's column today. It deals with Jaden Daniels and Tommy uncovering some reporting that was done about Jaden Daniels' time at Arizona State. You'll want to hear this. It's right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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or a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EE system. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. Look, today is opening day for baseball. It's the home opener in Baltimore, and the Nats are opening on the road at Cincinnati. So it's a baseball festival, the return of baseball.

And the best place to watch it is smoking a Stoge at Shelly's backroom in the district. Shelly's has eight high-definition big-screen TVs, and I'm sure a couple of them will have the Orioles game on, a couple of them will have the nationals game on. So you can sit there in your comfortable, you know, cushy, couch, or chair, And they have beautiful furniture that you can sit back and relax in and sometimes fall sleeping, like I've done, work once or twice, and almost burned myself, get myself on fire. And watch the Orioles on one TV. Burnt to death.

And the Nationals on the other TV. While you're drinking from their top shelf liquor at their bar or their great selection of draft beers and smoking one of the top-twenty. one of the top 25 cigars, according to Cigar of Fishery Nato. It's the best of everything. It's the best of all worlds coming together today at Shelley's backroom at 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district. You know, and now if you're in D.C., and let's just say you're with the family, and you're headed to a Wizards game, you know, in Chinatown, because you're going to be able to do that now for the next 26 years.

until the year 2050. But you don't really want to go to the game because the wizards suck. You can just drop the family off and then drive right, you know, at that point, it'd be six, seven blocks to Shelly's and be right there. It's the museum strategy. The museum strategy. Exactly. Yeah.

Tell everybody about your column about Jaden Daniels' mother. Well, when I was in spring training in Florida, I ran into somebody who knows the NFL pretty well. Let me just say that. And we were talking about Caleb Williams and the stories that had been out there floating about his father's involvement in his son's career and how he was a big part of it. And, you know, supposedly according to some reports, was a motivating big factor behind the rumors that Caleb Williams actually wanted a piece of an NFL franchise, you know. So the father was very involved. And for Washington fans, I would think that that should be a sensitive topic considering what everyone went through with R.G.3's family. And the access his father

had been giving, thanks to Dan Snyder and the owner. It certainly contributed to the chaos that went on there. So this guy says, well, if you think that's bad, you should check out Jane Daniel's mother. So I did. I went online, and there is a whole history of Jane Daniel's mother being, particularly in Arizona State, his first stop, being so remarkably involved in his career that she wound up being part of an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations at ASU. she basically, you know, bought tickets, $1,100 worth of flights for recruits and adults to accompany them on a recruiting trip to Florida. And the violation was this was COVID, and there was not supposed to be any face-to-face recruiting trips taking place at that time.

Well, she was, you know, basically working for Arizona State trying, you know, trying to, you know, break NCD. rules to get recruits to come there. There's an athletic story in February 2022 that I quoted in the story that says Jackson was given uncommon access to the program, particularly early in. Wait, hold on, hold on. You said Jackson. Is her last... Her name is Regina.

Regina Jackson. Okay, got it. It's Jayton Daniels' mother's name. Okay, you're right. Thanks for correcting me there. Some staffers in the past, jokingly, to Jackson as a coach. The dynamic became an issue inside and outside the locker room. One former athletic department staff member said Jackson's presence around the football facility was unlike anything he had seen in his career.

Now, she denied all the allegations that were in a Yahoo Sports report about the NCAA investigation. And it's important to know that her son was not implicated. in any of this, you know, Jaden Daniels. But this, the investigation was basically what resulted in her Medwood's, you know, tenure, eventually ending in chaos at Arizona State. Then she transferred to LSU. None of these reports have surfaced.

He transferred to LSU. He transferred to LSU through a portal in February 22. Uh, none of these issues have surfaced at LSU. you, but somebody familiar with the program, a source I spoke to, said that she's still very deeply involved in career and still considered a very influential voice. And the one thing that is particularly alarming is she went on social media after they left Arizona State and took some shots at not just the program, but the kids.

And the coach is there. She said, quote, a quarterback had that cat. to have chemistry with their team. You see the best quarterback, and here she goes, Tom Brady is not good without chemistry with his receivers. He's going to put the ball there, but if they are running the wrong routes and they are doing stuff, what is he supposed to do?

And the line, he don't want to run. He's been a Pac-12, that's a Pac-12 line that just collapsed. They're good kids, and we love them, but he's not going to sit there and take 60 sacks. That should be alarming. Should it be a feel breaker? No. But it's something that people should be aware of going in.

And this may be the new NFL. You know, maybe when you get the kid, you get mom and pop as well. Wow. Well, I mean, I didn't know anything about this. So this is very, this is a great uncovering of the Jaden Daniels family story by you because I hadn't read anything about, Regina Jackson, Jaden Daniel's mother, in the issues at Arizona State. I think the first thing that I would say is the tweets that you just discussed, you know,

when she said a quarterback has to have chemistry with their team, you see the best quarterbacks. Tom Brady is not good without chemistry with his receivers. You know, that just so struck me as when RG3, not RG3's father, not RG3. mother, not anybody close to RG3, threw the whole offense under the bus and said, Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers in Peyton Manning

need their guys to do what they're supposed to do. And so it's good that Jaden Daniels has never tweeted something like that. It's good that Jaden Daniels has never thrown teammates under the bus, as far as I

know. Secondly, I would say that you wrote and you just said this was not an issue at LSU. And I can imagine... In part, because she was not given the same access. Well, I was just going to say, I can imagine that Brian Kelly isn't about to make the mistake that maybe Arizona State and Herm Edwards and others made, which is allowing that access.

You know, the reason that we all feel snake bit when it comes to this kind of thing is, because of Dan Snyder, he's not here anymore. This is professional sports. These are adults that are supposed to be at work. Parents don't go to work with their kids, but they did with the preferred students in a Dan Snyder-run organization.

You have to have, I have right now, I mean, subject to change, belief that it's going to be an actual real business It's going to be a real company. Sorry, your mother and what she thinks does not matter here. This is pro football. Okay? That's high school stuff.

That's Harry high school stuff. We don't allow that here. That's not happening. And Brian Kelly is certainly that kind of a guy, you know? No, that's not good. You come here. We get you. We certainly love your mother and your mother can come to games and we'll get her

tickets and if she has any concerns about your well-being, not playing time, not play-calling, but your well-being, of course, will be available for her, but you're now accountable. You're responsible for yourself. But the good news is, based on what you kind of uncovered, this was not an issue at LSU, and nobody would certainly hold it against, you know, Jaden Daniel's mother that she's super supportive of her son. There's just a line that when you get to professional sports, you don't cross. When you get to college sports, you don't cross. This is the mistake, by the way, Tommy, even at lower levels of sports. You see it all the time. It's like, I think I've told this story

before, but I'm just going to tell it right now. One of my son's basketball coaches in high school, it was the JV coach. He had a parents meeting before the season started. It's one of my all-time favorite memories of a coach, just totally, from my standpoint anyway, just getting it. And he had, before the season started for JV basketball, he had a parent get together and, you know, there were drinks and sweets and the whole thing. And then he addresses the parents. And he said, let me begin with this. Today, this evening, will be the last time I have a conversation with any of you until the season's over.

That's how it started. And he said, now, if you are concerned about your son's well-being, if there is a medical or a psychological issue or something that I should know about, of course, I'm not referring to that. What I am referring to is playing time, position, the plays that we called for your son, the way I handled the last couple of minutes of the game, I'll never have a conversation with you about any of that because your sons are now at the age where they should be advocating for themselves. There's an age in which the parents have to let the kids advocate for themselves.

I'm not talking about the kid that's being abused and needs an adult to step in and help. I'm talking about normal everyday stuff. You know, I'm sure my parents had a lot of the conversations about how I didn't have to, you know, I didn't have a military obligation. We grew up, you know, more pampered the whole thing. I think one of the biggest things that my kids and their generation have missed out on is they didn't face adversity as much as they should have because the parents jumped in front of it and wouldn't allow. allow them to face that adversity. Because when you face it, you figure out solutions on how to get through it. It's a life skill.

Anyway, that was one of my favorite coach meetings of all time. I'll never forget it. But Tommy, the best part of it was, you know, as he gets done with it, he says, any questions? And I was thinking to myself, please, nobody raised their hand. He's told you everything you need to know. And the questions went on for like 20 minutes afterwards. Oh, my God. I know.

But I That's a great story But I think that this is In a real situation With grownups in charge And now this kid's 24 years old Or 23 and a half going to be 24 He can advocate and handle these situations

On his own Without his mother When it comes to a professional work environment Doesn't mean that his mother can't be And maybe should be super involved in his life professionally from a money standpoint, from an emotional support standpoint, all of those things. I'm not knocking that at all. It's great to have your parents supportive in that way. But he will be working for the Washington commanders or the New England Patriots

or the Minnesota Vikings or, you know, man, it certainly seems like Antonio Pierce really wants them in Vegas or the Las Vegas Raiders. And those are the people that he answered. answers to when it comes to work. And RG3 answered to the owner. And the owner entitled him and his parents to be involved and to have access that other players didn't have. I would hope that it would be more like LSU here if he comes here. But it's a great job on covering that. I had not read anything about that. That's wild. I was shocked. I mean, you know, I never heard anything about her involvement. And again, it's not the red flag, but it's a yellow flag at this point. You want to make sure the quarterback knows that when he comes to play here in Washington,

you know, it's Dan Quinn and the coaching staff who are going to be, you know, making his decisions. And it doesn't matter how many sacks he takes. Nobody wants to hear from the mother on social media or other. wise about his teammates. Look, social media is enabled family members, and we've seen it, you know, everywhere in the league. I mean, Dax, you know, all the Dax Prescott stuff, whether it's Michael Parsons' brother or Dax's brother, you can't, the players can't stop that and the teams can't stop that. The players should be able to stop that, but relationships are complex.

We don't know how these relationships are. I mean, you'd be able to stop it. I would be able to stop it. I think. You know, if my kids or if my brother or my sister started tweeting things about our show or whatever, but I just, I don't know how you completely shut all of that down. The player has to be the mature one. You have to know what you're getting in the young man.

And that's where I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and figuring it out, in part because I want them to draft Jaden Daniels. So I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt as well. And look, you know, your finding that reporting on him was definitely interesting. But the good news is it is from, you know, a few years ago, and this is not a more recent issue. So anyway. All right. I wanted to close with you for the day by talking some gnats.

They open up later on this afternoon and get your thoughts. on what kind of season they're going to have? Well, you know, Atkins didn't make the heart grow fonder. I changed my, I was very down on them before I went to spring training. Then I was excited. Like everyone would be excited about seeing all those young kids and changed my view. I thought they'd be a little bit more competitive this year. But since I've been away, now I'm down on them again.

They're pitching. You're the worst. Their pitching's going to be a problem. I think Josiah Gray and McKenzie Gordert are, you know, they're two top studs, and they still showed a lot of inconsistency in spring training. They had moments of excellence, the moments where they blow up. And they don't have a bullpen that can afford to carry a staff that's inconsistent. They don't have a bullpen that can consistently come in in the fourth and fifth inning of games.

So, I mean, what they all want to do is get caught in this cycle early in the season where Dave Martinez is pulling pitchers in the fourth and fifth inning. And I think that's going to, that could be possible. And then that starts a momentum that you can't stop. I think they'll score some runs. I think they'll have a decent enough offense to score some runs. And I think once the young kids come up, and they'll be coming this year, I'd be shocked James Woods and Trey Limbscomb and Dylan Cruz do not finish the season in Washington uniforms.

And that will be exciting as far as offense and scoring runs. But their pitching isn't as deep as their position players. It's an unusual place for the nationals who have always had prospect pitching in depth, but not position players. Now it's the other way around. You know, Kay Cavali is going to be coming off. is Tommy John's surgery to pitch in May, but he's got a long way to go to prove that he's Major League ready.

So I just, the pitching, and, you know, Riesel wanted to sign a veteran pitcher to a contract. He knows they needed another veteran starter, and Mark Lerner just, you know, put the clamps down on the money. You know, still treating this team like. It's an office building with 40% occupancy. Right. Yeah. Is C.J. Abrams going to be a breakout player, a star for this team, a star in the league?

I think so. That's why I was so excited about seeing Trey Limbscomb, who they sent down at second base with C.J. Amos, they're almost alike in build. and it'd be a great double-play combination, both at the plate and on the field. He had a pretty impressive year without a lot of help last year around him. I think he could be a breakout star, an All-Star. I think he could wind up making the All-Star team for this team. All right, so over or under, 66 and a half wins? I'm going to say under.

Wow. Lightly under. I mean, good thing they start the season today. because on Tuesday you might have a completely different opinion about the upcoming season. All right, go do your thing. You're headed to Camden Yards, Orioles this year, big-time contender again? Oh, yeah. Over 100 wins. Yeah.

Absolutely. Let's see if they can get it done in the postseason. You love that Rubenstein owns this team, right? Oh, yeah. He's a real baseball guy. I mean, he's a media guy. I mean, he has his, besides being a billionaire, He carved out his own media career with these shows that he's done.

You know, he does, I think, for what? NPR or PBS and stuff. He does these American masterpiece. He's an excellent interviewer. Excellent. Yeah. So, yeah, he's a very interesting, intelligent guy who seems to get, you know, the mission in front of him. Did I tell you on Tuesday's show that I went to the Kennedy Center Sunday night for the Mark Twain Award given to Kevin Hart?

No. Yeah, I was there. No, you didn't. Yeah, I was sitting here wondering if I had mentioned that to you. Yeah, Sunday night we went to, for those of you that don't know what the Mark Twain prize is, it's the honor given out to the comedian. It's actually an award for humor. It's not an award for comedy, but same thing, whatever. And Kevin Hart was the award recipient on Sunday night.

But Tommy, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, you know, Jimmy Fallon, all of these people were there. Chris Rock was hilarious. I mean, I just love Chappelle. I love everything about Chappelle. And he was great, and he was the last one to go. actually before David Rubinstein came out to actually present Kevin Hart with the, to introduce Kevin Hart for the award. But it was, it was a wild night. I mean, to be there for, you know, an hour and 45 minutes, two hours, and to have, you know, Chris Rock, Chappelle, Seinfeld, actually, Jimmy Fallon

was great. He had written this short little song and had a guitar and played it. He was funny. Chelsea Handler, Tiffany Haddish. Who else am I missing who was there? I'm probably... Well, I got a thing for Chelsea Handler. Oh, okay. My kind of girl. Yeah.

A little rough around the edges. She is that. But anyway, yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome to go to. I had actually, last year, wanted to go because Chappelle got the award last year. And I think we may have talked about that. And I, you know, couldn't figure out a way to go, other than, you know, paying lots of money to go. We were guests of a friend and someone that Kara works with.

But anyway, all right, go get them. I'll talk to you on Tuesday. Okay, boss. All right. Up next, I'll give you some smell test picks and more likely than not have a quick thought or two on Drake May's pro day. Right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This final segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. Go to mybooky. A.G. Use my promo code Kevin D.C., and they'll give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit.

You have to use exactly as I described, Kevin D.C. to get that cash bonus. They've got everything you need for tonight's Sweet 16 games, tomorrow night's Sweet 16 games, the Elite 8 games, over the weekend. The final four next weekend, over 100 prop bets per game. Every money line total and of course, point spread. MyBooky is fair with numbers across the board, including pricing. They've got a sweet 16 contest bracket that you can enter as well before the games start tonight. Go to mybooky.orgie.org. Use my promo code, Kevin, DC. All right, let me get to Drake May's pro day here in a moment. As I mentioned with Tommy, because we recorded the first two segments of the show earlier

this morning, that I was going to wait to put this show out until May's pro day was over. By the way, Michael Pennix Jr. had a pro day today as well. I did not watch any of that. But I'm interested in watching his pro day for whatever a pro day is worth. But I'll give you my two cents here in a moment. But before we get to that, Washington actually made another free agent signing today. They signed wide receiver Olamedi Zakiaz. He had played with Atlanta for four years, played in Philadelphia last year.

I certainly remember Zacchaeus's game against Washington here Thanksgiving weekend 2022, the 19 to 13 win over Atlanta. That was the game in which Marcus Mariotta down at the goal line with a chance to win. had the ball tipped by Duran Payne and picked off by Kendall Fuller in the end zone. Washington in that moment, by the way, was seven and five. But Zakias was really good, and I remember mentioning him the next day saying they couldn't cover him. He had five catches for 91 yards. I went back and looked it up.

He is definitely a slot receiver. They've got Crowder in that position for sure, who they've re-signed one-year deal. I'm assuming that the Zekias deal is a one-year deal as well. I haven't seen terms of it. But he's 5'8, 190 pounds. And that's where he pretty much lined up for Atlanta. And I think with Philly, I don't, I remember him with Philly this past season. It's not that I don't.

He had 10 receptions. Played in every game, actually, but only had 10 receptions. Last year in Atlanta, 2022, he had 40 catches for 533 yards. He's got a career 104 reception. averaging 14.3 yards per catch and has 10 career touchdowns, eight of them with the Falcons. So Washington adds a player today in Olamedi Zechias. I believe that's how you pronounce it. I could be wrong.

All right, let's get to Drake May's Pro Day. So I did watch, you know, Jaden Daniels yesterday. Yesterday I was impressed. And I was impressed with Drake May, too. He measured in at just over 6'4, 227 pounds. so essentially where he measured in at the combine. He's a big strong dude. You can see it.

You know, he looks like a big strong NFL quarterback. I thought his pro day was fine. I mean, you know, I read after yesterday's Jaden Daniels pro day that, you know, they thought a couple of the deep balls missed and they hit the ground. And today I was reading people talk about Drake May's early portion of the pro day wasn't very impressive because he was missing things. look, the tape is the important part here. I just, and it's not from the pro day, he had a fine pro day.

To me, he looked the part. He certainly looked the part. You know, everybody said, I didn't watch it last year, that Bryce Young's Pro Day versus C.J. Strouds, it was like people were watching Bryce Young up close, and they're like, wow, he's really tiny. You know, nobody here that Washington, New England, Chicago, anybody that's, anybody that's trading up is looking at any of these top four quarterbacks or the perceived top four and thinking they're tiny. They're all well built. The only thing with Jaden Daniels, of course, is his skinny frame,

but he is nearly six four. The actual measurement yesterday was six, three, and five eights. But I thought Drake may look fine. I thought he looked apart. I think he, if they end up taking him, I'm not going to have a problem with it at all. I'm going to trust that they've got real, you know, evaluators, and they've got an owner that's going to let the evaluators do their work. He's going to let Adam Peters do the job here. But my big thing with Drake May versus Jaden Daniels specifically is I think Jaden Daniels throws the football better. I think his delivery is more compact.

I think it's a slightly quicker release. Drake may may have a stronger arm, but Jaden's. Daniels' arm is plenty strong enough. He throws a great deep ball. By the way, I had a really good guest on radio this morning. Jacob Hester played at LSU, played in the NFL, and has a radio show and is an analyst down in Baton Rouge. And he was on talking about Jaden Daniels Pro Day and about Jaden Daniels in overall what he knows about him and he's gotten to know him well. I would urge you to listen to that if you're interested in a Baton Rouge, L.S. perspective on Jaden Daniels. You can find that at the Team 980.com or by downloading the

Odyssey app. But anyway, his pro day was fine. My thing is I prefer Jaden Daniels. Jaden Daniels is a running quarterback, but he's not a running quarterback like that's what he does. He can run, and he'll be a lethal runner at the NFL level and playmaker. So can Drake May. Drake May can really move. He's super athletic. Now, nobody in this draft is, as athletic as Jaden Daniels. Nobody's as fast. Nobody's is good at avoiding pressure and turning an off-schedule play into a home run caliber play.

But Jaden Daniels can throw the football, and he'll be able to throw it in almost any offense. And I think he throws it better than Drake May. I think the delivery is more compact. I think it's a bit quicker in the release. I think his accuracy is solid. I think he does throw with anticipation. I think He can absolutely make the intermediate over the middle throw. And in watching Drake May at times, the accuracy wasn't always there. The decision making wasn't always great.

But there's plenty of great decision making and great accuracy from Drake May as well. This is a matter of preference. It's really, I think, you know, from a fan perspective, anybody that says, you know, Jaden Daniels is clearly the second best quarterback. And anybody that would think about taking Drake May is insane. That's ridiculous. And anybody that would say, I don't even know what we're talking about. You know, Jaden Daniels is a running quarterback.

Running quarterbacks don't survive. It's got to be Drake May. You don't know what you're talking about either. Like, I think there are things to love and things to be concerned about with all of these guys. But I do think that almost all of them, with the exception, of J.J. McCarthy. I can be convinced otherwise after I watch him start to play and throw the football as an NFL quarterback. It's just my watching college football and watching Michigan. I never, ever watched J.J. McCarthy and thought that is a top three pick in an NFL draft. I'm not saying

he's not an NFL quarterback, but I just don't see him at the level personally of Daniels in May. but these four quarterbacks, there are sharp opinions out there, and everybody has a different one for different reasons. This is a matter of preference right now, and the truth is nobody knows. Nobody knows the teams don't know, because if they did know, then two of them wouldn't make a mistake. Because you know out of the four, more likely than not, two of them aren't going to work out.

So if they really knew they wouldn't take those players. But I thought Drake May looked fine. I thought he looked fine. And I think, you know, I think there are some clear intangibles with May that, you know, probably with McCarthy too and probably with Caleb Williams to a certain degree, they're all extroverts. And there's no doubt that Jaden Daniels is more introverted and he's more of a leader by example, I think. But anyway, there you go. That's it on ProDays. Let's finish up with two Sweet 16 smell test picks. And I want to tell you about the prize picks app as well. PrizePix is the place to go for Daily Fantasy Sports. I've got the prize picks app. In fact, I've already made a prize picks DFS play for tonight, which I'll tell you about in a moment.

But it's just you against the numbers. It's not you battling thousands of. of other players. You pick more than or less than on a two to six player stat projection with odds. So as an example, I don't know if you knew this, but Atlanta and Boston are playing in the NBA tonight. It's a rematch from the other night's game where Atlanta was down 30 and came back in one. Well, tonight, I think Boston wins and wins big in Atlanta. And there is a two-player point DFS play that I'm making. Jason Tatum more than 26 and a half points and Jalen Brown more than 22 and a half points. If both hit, it pays three to one. So on a, you know, $30 bet, it pays $90. On a $100 bet, it pays $300. On a $20 bet, it pays $60. If Jason Tatum scores more than 26 and a half and Jalen Brown scores more than $20.

I expect the Celtics to get some revenge tonight. But download the prize picks app. It is a really fun way to play daily fantasy sports. All right, the two plays tonight, smell test plays. I'm 10 and 9 through the tournament so far. I don't have any business being 10 and 9, to be honest with you, with the bloodbath that the house took, the casinos took, the sports books took over the weekend.

But I am one game above 500, and there are two games tonight that fit the smell test criteria. Number one is Yukon. They can't make a line big enough on this game to get people to play San Diego State. So I will. There are some 12s out there. I'll take San Diego State plus 12. And then Carolina's four and a half late tonight against Bama. The world is on the heels.

Bama is a terrible defensive team, but man can that. they score, look for Mark Sears to have a big game, he's averaging 28. I like Bama plus four and a half. I actually think Bama on the money line is a decent play. So the two smell test picks, San Diego State plus 12, Alabama plus four and a half. All right, done for the day, back tomorrow.