The Kevin Sheehan Show - Path to Washington's '23 QB

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

Kevin and Thom today provide a large menu of topic excellence. The buffet includes: the NFL's referee perception problem, Mahomes' greatness, Kyle Shanahan's culpability, Thom's early SB pick, the Wizards' 6-game win streak, why counting on Sam Howell is fools gold, Mow-beel or Mow-bull, Terps-Indiana, and more.  Go to https://www.chime.com/kevindc to sign up for a Chime Credit Builder Visa Credit Card today! Thanks to Chime for supporting the show.  Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code KEVINDC at Manscaped.com and shoot your arrow with MANSCAPED™ this Valentine’s Day. To get ready, Roman Ready, for better sex this Valentine’s Day. Go to ro.co/athletic today to get 20% off your entire first order. Place before February 8th for guaranteed shipping in time. Find the perfect piece of jewelry for life’s special moments and save up to 50% now at bluenile.com 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. The show today, presented by My Bookie. You asked for it, and they listened. My Bookie designed a unique deposit bonus that lets you cash in and cash out quickly.

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big game with my bookie, pregame, live-lines, Super Bowl prop bets. They've got everything. You can bet everything from the opening coin toss, the length of the national anthem, the length, Tommy, of the national anthem, with a silent G. To the

color of the Gatorade. dumped on the winning coach. I can't tell you exactly who's going to win the Super Bowl, but I can tell you where I will be placing bets. MyBooky, bet anything anytime anywhere. MyBooky at my bookie.orgie. Again, use my promo code Kevin D.C. Tommy's with me, and we just spent 10 minutes before we started to record the podcast complaining about various ailments. You hurt your shoulder carrying your beach chair down to kind of relax for the day. What happened? Yeah, I mean, it's just unbelievable.

I mean, this segment is also sponsored by AARP. I'm not there yet, but go ahead. Okay. You know, I just got over a week of Bursitis in my left knee where I was pretty much laid up, but that cleared up. You know, they put me on the miracle drug steroids, and that cleared up, and I was 100% again. So I went swimming yesterday in the pool, and then after that,

that, I took my beach chair down to the beach and somehow, put it strapping my beach chair over my shoulder, I strained my right shoulder somehow, and I woke up this morning and it hurt more. You know, and it's not a big thing. It's happened before, and it will clear up probably in a couple of days, but it's just a reminder of how fragile life is at this stage. You know, like somebody, my wife wanted to go bike riding with me, and I said people fall when they're riding bikes. And if you fall now, I mean, you know, God only knows what you're going to break. So, I mean, I limit myself to pretty much walking at this point. And even that was dangerous because I got persitis from that.

Well, that's why I wanted you to tell the story, because on Sunday morning, I got up. and it was early. And I've been doing this usually one of the two weekend days, either Saturday or Sunday morning. I'll get up at my normal time. I won't actually leave the house at my normal time because I don't think that's the healthy thing to do to leave the house at 4.45 a.m. when it's pitch dark on a weekend when I should be attempting to sleep in. But I just can't sleep in, whatever. Not what I want to talk about.

I have for, I don't know, four or five weeks in a row gotten up and by about 5.30, left the house with the dog and gone on a very long walk. Basically like an eight to 10 mile walk. That's a long walk. That's a good walk. I mean, it ends up being roughly like 18,000 steps on my Fitbit, something like that when I get back.

But on Sunday morning, this past Sunday, morning. My dog, Lainey, my beautiful English bulldog, who, as I've mentioned before, is my favorite thing in my life right now. She kind of was limping a little bit when we got back from the walk a week ago. And, you know, it was too long of a walk. Bulldogs actually, for whatever, especially in heat, they shouldn't be out a long period of time in heat. And so I decided to just go on this walk by myself. And you know where I come. kind of live now, just into D.C. And I walked basically around Georgetown for, I don't know, two hours. And Georgetown, on a Sunday morning that early, is so peaceful. It's so peaceful.

And I went into Holy Trinity, which I think is one of the most, one of the prettiest churches in town, prettiest Catholic churches in town, sat for a little bit. But other than that, it was just walking. but the reason I tell the story is that when I woke up yesterday morning, I was so sore I could barely walk. I could barely get out of bed. Really? From a long walk. That's ridiculous.

But I think it's really in part because I'm not, I used to be so much more active. And you know what really destroyed that for me was the pandemic. when everybody decided, you know, to start eating and drinking a lot, others went the other way. I ended up putting on weight during the pandemic year. And what really hurt for me is the basketball that I would still play two days a week, which I still think is the best cardio workout you can get, an overall workout. Even as you get up in age, it went away.

And I have not gone back to it. because a lot of the guys that were a little bit older sort of decided, you know, after, you know, a year and a half of not playing, it was going to be kind of too hard to get back into it. So, I mean, I do Peloton maybe one to two times a week. There was a period where I was doing it like three to four times a week. And that is a good workout. And then in the summer, you know, I was playing a lot of pickleball, but I injured myself. What are we doing here?

Why are we doing these ailments? I just wanted to tell you that because of the conversation we were having, I went on a long walk and then couldn't literally, I could barely walk the following day. That's sad. That's not a good state of affairs. But you don't have to walk. Look, actually, I read a New York Times article that I've kept, and there's all kinds of opinions on stuff. But I've read this before. once you get over 8,000 steps in terms of health benefits, you're not really helping yourself

that much unless you go extreme. You know, you know, you don't have to walk 8 to 10 miles a day to get the health benefit. Well, I wouldn't have a time to walk 8 to 10 miles a day just on the weekend. Oh, I know what you're, right. You're essentially saying the health benefits, basically, if you can get to 7,500 steps a day, You're good. And if you double that, the incremental benefit isn't really that much. Exactly.

Yeah. And I generally walk in Frederick a little over three miles, probably closer to four when I'm down here when I'm healthy a day. Yeah. And I do band exercises, and that's it. I mean, I have, you know, I do have a gym in my house and I've got a treadmill, I've got a Peloton, and I've got weights. But, you know, the Peloton is by far in a way. The Peloton bike I have is the most legitimate real workout I get now. Because I don't play basketball anymore.

I'd like to figure out how to start doing it again. but I injured my back playing pickleball for, you know, last summer, and I still, it's still not right. But anyway, whatever, let's move on because everybody. Really, is there anyone left? Is there anyone left out there? Is anybody out there? Hello? Hello?

Well, let's see if we, I'll tell you what, let's see if we can really alienate and push away the three or four people that are remaining by talking about the wizards. Because I am telling you, Tom, all right, let me, let me dial it back. They've won six games in a row. They haven't won six games in a row in eight years. Eight years it's been since they've won six games in a row. They hadn't beaten San Antonio in San Antonio since 1992, 22 years. As you know, I am still one of the people. that pays attention to this team and watches them.

I don't, you know, I'd be totally embellishing if I, if I said, I sit there and I tune into every game start to finish every night. I would do that if they were really good, like they were, or if they were a good team, like they were a few years ago. Their sixth game winning streak has included some wins over some horrible teams, including the team they played last night in the Spurs and the Rockets and the, the Pelicans didn't have anybody. but I did mention to you the other day before you cut me off and said enough,

is that they actually have some really good players. And when they are fully healthy, they're not terrible. Porzingis was back last night. And we ripped them for their draft choices when they traded Hachamura. But Denny Avdia is actually a pretty good player. He had a really good game last night. The more and more you watch Avdia, like from the jump, I think the first thing I said about him,

his rookie years. I'm like, this guy definitely is a guy that belongs. He acts like he belongs. I just don't know if he's going to develop into anything more than sort of a contributing player because he just doesn't have a lot of the offense that you need. And now he's developed that. He had 25 last night. He's really hard to guard from getting to the rim. He's high IQ, really high IQ player. Defends Porzingis, Beal, Kuzma. They've got a lot of contributing players that are good. I actually think that the Wizards are going to be in the postseason this year. And I don't know if that's the best thing for them from a franchise standpoint.

Now, they could completely go the other way when the schedule gets tougher and they lose players, which they inevitably will do because they always do from injuries. But if they stay healthy, they're going to end up being a 500 or better team, and they're going to end up in a best of seven series in the Eastern Conference playoffs. the best I can do. They're also fun to watch because they're really good offensively. Now, I'll end the conversation there. Do you have any questions that you'd like to ask me about the Wizards? Or have any comments? No, I would just urge everyone. This is my new, you know, my additional Surgeon General's Warning, not as strong as the one for the football team,

but still worthy of consideration. Please do not be satisfied, there with 45 wins. Ooh. Well, I didn't say 45. Satisfied. Well, that would pretty much be close to a winning record. Well, yeah, but I said 500 or maybe a little bit better. 41 and 41 would be 500.

45 wins from 24 and 26 would be quite the finish to the season. And if they got... It's not from 21 and 46. It's from 1979. That's what it's from. Well, they did win 49 in 2017. So, yeah. I mean, that's my point.

You know, I point is, I mean, don't count the new glory years as where you basically get one or two games over 500 and you play in a playoff series. Please don't settle for that. Do not get excited for that. No one is. Nobody is. I mean, people like me who actually follow the two. team and if they're in a playoff series, trust me. If we get to April or we get to early May and they're in like a best of seven after winning, let's just say they only have to win

one of the play in games because they end up being the seven seed or whatever, the eight seed. And they're playing Brooklyn or Boston or Milwaukee in a best of seven. This is a team, unlike the Westbrook team from a couple years ago, they got blew out by the 76ers. This is a team that would I actually like to see in a best of seven, but to your point, they're not going anywhere in the Eastern Conference with this group in terms of like contending for anything meaningful. But they are one of the best five to six,

seven teams in the Eastern Conference when they're healthy. That's what I would say. Do you have anything else? Okay. No, I've got nothing. Look, I haven't watched. them. I've read about them. I follow them online, but I haven't watched them because I really don't watch the NBA. It's all I can do to watch the NBA during the playoffs. I mean, because

the basketball stinks, you know, but I want to be able to discuss the wizards at least from a distance, if not with any kind of personal firsthand knowledge. So I've been following I know that they beat San Antonio, and I know that they seemingly have a group of good core young players for the moment. Yes, for the moment. That's true. And for the moment, they're healthy. And that's been an issue with basically all of their, you know, I think impressive young players. They don't have a superstar game changer top five player.

But Porzingis healthy is, you know, he's an impactful player for sure. But we'll see what happens. They play Detroit who stinks tomorrow night. That'll probably get them to seven straight and within a game of 500. And then they've got Portland, Brooklyn, Cleveland. They've got, you know, their next road trip includes Golden State. Anyway, they've made, here's what they've done in the last two or two and a half weeks. They've gotten themselves back to close to 500.

They've gotten themselves in position where they actually could be a winning record NBA team this year. But they've also done it courtesy of kind of a weak schedule right now. I know you don't like the NBA, so I'm not going to really talk about the NBA, but I'm going to use the LeBron play from the Celtics game the other night. You saw that, right, where he got fouled and it wasn't called. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And the, my God, It was like King Kong being shot on the Empire State Building. He's really amazing. He's really just such an actor. And you know what was funny about this is he was right, but it was hard to be sympathetic to him because he was such a jerk about it. Couldn't agree more. I just, it's real, the LeBron conversation is a tough one because I do recognize. you know, for those of you that are young and believe he's the greatest player in the history of the game,

and my boys believe that, I do recognize his greatness. I do. And look, he's going to pass Kareem here in the next couple of games, you know, and he's going to become the NBA's all-time leading score. And he's been much more than a score during his career. I get his greatness. And for me, you know, a couple of years ago, I finally, you know, elevated him into that Mount Rushmore category, certainly of the non-centers.

But my God, is he just insufferable at times as a, I mean, that tantrum that he threw after that, by the way, I saw this stat because, you know, they've been complaining about not getting calls. Apparently, there have been 34 calls that were incorrect in Laker games this year in the final two minutes of close games. and 21 of the 34, I believe that would be more than half, have gone the Lakers way. So it's not, you know, LeBron would have you believe and Patrick Beverly would have you believe that the league's out to get them. Let me just tell all of you conspiracy theorists when it comes to NFL rigged or NBA rigged. The NBA would, if it's rigged, then trust me, LeBron's going to be in the finals this year. there is no chance that they would get a higher rating or more interest than if LeBron's in the finals.

I mean, I used to say that about the LeBron Kobe era. Like if the NBA were truly rigged, and I watched the Tim Donagy, you know, Netflix special, it was great. And he was involved in some shady stuff and some rigged games, for sure. But if the NBA truly was rigged, we would have seen Cleveland against Kobe, LeBron against Kobe, at least one. We never saw it one time. If the NFL were rigged, you don't think that Dallas would still be alive right now in the postseason? I mean, come on. That's what frustrated me so much about the conversation on social media after the Cincinnati game

was the idea that the first move that people would think is that there's some kind of conspiracy and these brilliant conspiracies have put together this whole nils. network that manages to screw the Bengals and then keep quiet about it for the rest of their fucking lives. Right. Well, look, in the NBA, the Tim Donagy's story was a real story. And you know what? They couldn't keep quiet.

But that was more about insider information. That was insider information. That wasn't necessary. That was a referee. That was him fixing some games. No, that was a referee who knew what the league wanted to them to come. concentrate on on certain nights and bed accordingly. Right.

That was insider information as much as anything. But this whole thing is just, I mean, look, my go-to move is the head of the CIA, what was his name, General Petraeus? He had an affair, and he couldn't keep it quiet. Jesus Christ. Do you know how many people have to shut up to keep a conspiracy? Is he quiet? So what I wanted, the reason I brought up the LeBron thing, and then you went to Cincinnati,

Kansas City, which I was going to do as well, is I think there's a conversation about, is it worse officiating, A, B, if you think it is, what can be done about it? Because my view, and then I'll let you respond. My view is, as long as there's been. the human element in officiating, we have been complaining about officiating for years. For years. I mean, there's been controversial finishes and teams that were screwed and bad calls by human beings. And I personally don't think it's worse. In fact, I think it's probably better because of all the attention on refereeing. Secondly, outside of like, you know, maybe a

on the LeBron call, maybe replay being extended to non-calls, you know, in the final 30 seconds of a game or the final minute of a game where they could go over and correct that? I just don't think there are any big fixes. You know, I think they've got a perception problem. You may be right. But, I mean, my impression was watching me, I forget the name of the official, who was Ron Torbert. Making the cause.

Okay. He looked like he was passed it, Kevin. And this is from an old guy. Okay? I mean, I think that the NFL needs to put out the best crew they possibly can in these games. And that includes a number of factors. And far be it from me to be age discriminatory, but he looked like he was passed. Okay.

So, I mean, I do think that it's benevolent on the NFL to basically reevaluate their officiating every year with the goal of, in the playoff games, not rewarding referees, but putting the best possible crew that they can out there. Well, they do. And I'm not sure they do that the way they do with their system. Well, you know, in these playoff games, they don't take the crew as it was, you know, constituted. during the regular season. They do what they believe to be is an all-star crew. So Torbert's working with different referees on his particular team. But I want to go back to what you said at the beginning.

The league has a perception problem. Is it hurting the league? I don't think it is. I mean, the AFC championship game just drew 53 million viewers. It was the second most watched television show of the last year. Super Bowl being the number one. The ratings don't go down. They keep going up.

The interest keeps going up. I would ask you, I'm not debating as to whether or not they have a perception problem, and maybe perception doesn't match actual reality. But what is the perception problem doing to them? How is it hurting them? You're all right, but you could say that about the NFL, about anything. all the warts that the NFL has. You know, they're certainly not lethal in any way, shape, or form.

But you operated a business. Is that the best way to operate? Hey, we've got all these problems, but as long as it's not hurting us, we can just ignore them. I think that they should push back if perception isn't reality. And I think you could, you know, you could literally, you know, put something out there that suggests that officiating and the efficiency of officiating and the accuracy of officiating has actually improved. Because I bet if there was any kind of legitimate study done on it, I think that's what you would find. I think you'd find that actually that officiating has improved over the years from where it used to be.

Oh, I think replay has improved officiating. I think the big... I mean, I know that stack relates to say. I think it has. I think the big issue with perception being a problem is that. that it's no longer impacting just people with major rooting interests. It's impacting, you know, people who have bet, so many more people who have bet on these games. And, you know, you combine the legalized betting with social media.

And I think you're right. I think the perception that the officiating is much worse and it's the worst it's ever been is kind of, you know, it's magnified by all of that. And not as many people would be as moved by it 10 years ago. But I bet that the officiating with replay and everything else is better. Tommy, and I'm going to do this, I should have done it with you today, but we're not going to have time today. Maybe we can do it on Thursday.

But Super Bowl 17's 40-year anniversary was yesterday, the Wrigan's 4th, one run. And there's a play at the end of the game, and it's a play that I didn't remember until I watched the game, but basically Riggins on the drive after the touchdown run, fumbled, and he was called down.

And Merlin Olson, who was doing the game, actually says, that actually is a fumble, but they didn't have replay. And Miami would have gotten possession of the ball down 20 to 17 with a chance to tie the score in Super Bowl 17. Nobody really remembers that. Riggins

you know, is the all-time clutch performer, I think, in the history of this town when it comes to professional, you know, athletes and what he did in that postseason. And by the way, what he did the following year in the postseason as well. But do you remember, I mean, for me, the Mel Gray catch, you know, if you go back and watch the Mel Gray catch in 1975 against the Redskins in a game that they called it a catch and Washington ended up losing a playoff berth because of it, He never, it's such an obvious play. It would have immediately from New York been, nope, incomplete pass. There was a touchdown that was called out of bounds in the Oilers, Bum Phillips days, Earl Campbell days, at Pittsburgh in the AFC championship game that was a terrible call. There have been so many of those calls over the years. I actually think in many ways just like the New Orleans Rams' NFC title game when they miss the egregious interference call.

I actually think it adds to the lore of the NFL, these controversies. I don't think it hurts it. I think we can't say because of the legalized gambling, how that will play out in the future. I think that changes the equation a little bit. Look, you know, sports books, and tell me if I'm wrong, we'll go out of their way if they see any little red flag to basically mail. Well, I think the NFL needs to operate that way when it comes to perception.

I really do. I mean, if you want it, I mean, you know, look, again, it doesn't seem to be hurting them. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do everything you can to change it. I know, but what are the changes? Like, I think you brought up something like. I mean, I don't think that, like last, I'm sure that there are people that are much more sort of into the refereeing. crews in the NFL than I am. I'm not an expert on that. Like, Zabe

is obsessed with that. So I would refer you to Zabe when it comes to the ranking of, you know, officiating crews, whether it's Hocular or whomever. But I do think that the crew you work with all season long,

that the crews should be ranked and they should get the playoff games and you shouldn't mix and match. To me, that creates kind of a learning curve of working with the people you're working with that may impact something. Look, the worst play of the weekend for me wasn't any of the, you know, missed calls on blocks. Like, I think that punt return, everybody's so convinced that that was a block in the back.

I think that's a very, very 50-50-ish kind of call. I think the same thing on the roughing the passer on Burrow. I think the same thing on the hold that everybody's convinced was an absolute hold. You could call holding on every play. But the duo over on the duo. The due over on that third and nine, when the back judge was trying to whistle to play dead, they got to fix something like that. I'll tell you why, Tommy, that to me is more, what would be the word to describe something like that versus a call that's missed or a call that's bad?

That's like an administrative thing. And because they weren't used to working together, I'm not sure that that had anything to do with it. But administratively, if you're trying to whistle a play dead, but nobody notices that you've whistled the play dead and you let that play ultimately continue and you're not blowing that whistle as loud as you can with other referees blowing their whistles and jumping in the middle of the play to stop the play, I mean, you had the punt team and the punt return team out there. They played that play. Nobody, nobody hesitated on that play. It didn't appear. you've got to handle that particular having a do-over on a big third and nine was ridiculous. Well, that speaks to the perception because the play ultimately meant nothing. You're right because they didn't score on the drive.

Yeah. Yes. I mean, but that's the play that everybody, a lot of people are hanging their hat on. They can't even, I mean, they let plays happen that should have been stopped. So you're right. That speaks to perception right there. I just think that they need to be diligent about their officiating every year.

I think a little bit more than they do. You know, these guys, they employ full-time referees now, right? Yes. I don't know if all of them are, are all of them full-time? That's a good question. I don't know. I thought that they now... No, actually, I don't think all of them are.

I think you're right. I don't think all of them are. By the way, what are the... So we thought that was good, that was going to fix everything. And that didn't, you know. But, I mean, it's just, it's laughable that people think that the game was fixed. Well, NFL, absolutely. NFL rigged was like a hashtag going all day Sunday.

And I just laugh at that because it's, if it were really rigged, you, it wouldn't, look, the truth is any matchup in the Super Bowl is going to be watched by 100 plus million people, okay, so I understand that. But if the league were really rigged, you don't think they'd like to see the Cowboys playing this past weekend. You don't think that the Buffalo, like going into this postseason, what would have been the dream rigged matchup for the NFL? Buffalo, Damar Hamlin versus the Cowboys.

and if not, get Tom Brady in there again somehow with the Bucks. I think. I mean... But you look at the players, the players believe it. There were 49er players who were quoted saying that once Brock Purdy went down, it was like the league called the officials and said, make sure the 49ers don't get in the Super Bowl. Well, they had no chance of making it the Super Bowl.

When Josh Johnson went out, the chances for a half that they could even, you know, I think what I could really say yesterday, that they couldn't have beaten, that the 49ers would have gotten routed by the Texans with what they put out there in the second half. I think that they would have been in trouble against Georgia in the second half of that game. They had zero chance, obviously, of competing once Josh Johnson went out. They didn't have a quarterback that could throw a forward pass. By the way, which leads me to this. Because I do want to get your, you know, overall thoughts on the games on Sunday.

And I wanted to get to a couple of other things as well. But, you know, Brock Purdy, as it turns out, has, it looks like a very serious injury. You know, he's got that elbow, that serious elbow injury that could take, it's that UCL could take six months to repair. It's that, this is the thing that, is this the thing that, is this the, the thing that Strasbourg has right now? No, it's, no, that's something else. It's the thing that Harper has. Oh, that's right. It's the thing that Harper has, exactly. And so a lot of people were upset that, like I got a couple tweets. Your boy, Kyle had Purdy out there. The

Shanahan's did it again. They put a quarterback in jeopardy. Well, they didn't really put them in jeopardy because they didn't ask him to throw the football. They just asked him to hand the off with what he couldn't throw the football. Obviously, he couldn't throw the football. So they had conceded on the game. And I did, for those of you that missed Cooley yesterday, Cooley, like I thought that one of the criticisms, criticisms, excuse me, of Kyle Shanahan could have been that he should have just gone with McCaffrey and gone 11 on 11 in the run game. But Cooley made a really good point. He said, McCaffrey doesn't know the checks, the run checks. He hasn't been in the quarterback meeting room.

If you're not going to throw the football with, you know, Purdy at least can check them based on the defense into a better running play, which is probably the reason he was out there, which I think makes sense. But no, I don't think Kyle Shanahan put Brock Purdy in harm's way. He didn't ask him to actually drop back and throw a pass. I think he threw two quick screens, and that was it. it. Right.

But I'll tell you what else he didn't do. It wasn't Kyle's finest moment. How so? I mean, that's a moment, no matter what Cooley said, that's a moment where the coach really needs to step up and come up with a system to at least try to compete. And going 10 on 11 is not competing. You've got to figure out a better system than that.

Instead, all he did was scream and rant and lose his composure on the sideline like his team did. There was a total meltdown by the 49ers and their coach. Man, I agree with you. There was major frustration. And by the way, just so we're clear, because I can hear the people saying, oh, here comes the Shanahan defense from Sheehan. I bet Philadelphia and I picked Philadelphia. and I was rooting for Philadelphia in this game.

And when Brock Purdy went out and Josh Johnson came in, I felt really good about my bet, and I wanted Philly to hammer the 49ers. Okay, but... Look, I think Carl Shanahan is a great coach, but this was not his greatest day. But... I mean, this is the kind of moment, Kevin. I know this is kind of abstract bullshit. But this is the kind of moment where you're John Belushi,

you gathered the brothers around, and you say, this could be our finest moment. Instead, it was the opposite. I'm not saying that you're saying this, but I'm going to try to use what you said about Carson Wentz. Anybody that thinks that it was a good idea to start Carson Wentz should be at the head of the dope school line or whatever your line was. Anybody that thinks, anybody that thinks, anybody that thinks, anybody that thinks, that Kyle Shanahan was instrumental in the 49ers losing to the Eagles. And I got a lot of, there you, your boy, Shanahan can't win the big one, can't get to the Super Bowl and win it. Anybody that literally thinks that Kyle Shanahan had anything to do with the loss to the

Eagles should be at the head of the dope class. Because you cannot win a football game without a quarterback in the NFL. That's why they lost the game. I think they would have, and I said this yesterday, I really believe that if Brock Purdy, after watching San Francisco's defense against Philadelphia's offense in the first half, I think if Brock Purdy doesn't get hurt, the 49ers are in the Super Bowl.

And I picked Philadelphia, and I bet on Philadelphia, even though I didn't have a great feel for the game one way or the other. But I think that they would be in the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy, and I'll go to. a step further. When McCaffrey scored on that drive to make it 7 to 7 with Josh Johnson, we were still, if Josh Johnson stays in the game, we're still in for a relatively competitive game. I don't think they would have won the game. Philadelphia would have won the game, but it would have been a competitive game. But if anybody puts that loss on Kyle Shanahan,

teacher dope in the dope class, because that's the dumbest take I've ever heard. dumbest. Now, if you want to say that his team lost, it's cool, and it got frustrated, and they could have, you know, that's different. They had no chance of winning the game. I know that. I'm not saying they had a chance to win. All right. I'm not saying they had a chance to win. I'm just saying he did not. He didn't, he wasn't, he lost his composure, and his team lost his composure too. And, you know, you can't, you can't afford to do that. I think the Eagles would have won. anyway, I think that the Eagles were winning the battle on the line of scrimmage,

particularly as the game went on. It was stunning how they manhandle the 49ers on the offensive line. I mean, the 49ers defensive front. Yeah, but that was when the game was over. I mean, the beginning of that game, the 49ers defensively were awesome. I mean, and that's why... But I think the Eagles, I do too. I do, too.

I think, by the way, I think the Eagles, the underrated portion of that game really is how good the Eagles were defensively. But it was a, it was pretty easy to be really good defensively against a team with Josh Johnson for a quarter and no quarterback for a half. So it's really hard to give them that much credit. But if you give the early portion of that game from, you know, the fumble where they forced, it was three and out, four and out, three. and out, and the 49ers were a wrecking crew. And the truth is that Kyle, the game-changing play in that game, there were two of them, is not challenging the Devante Smith drop on the fourth and three, which, again, I'm not sure why New York didn't jump in. We've seen New York jump in all season long and immediately tell the referees, that's an incomplete pass. We've seen that,

and it's a championship game. So what else are they doing? They're not watching 15. games at once. But, you know, and they're, you know, I think when Devante Smith jumped up and started signaling, hey, let's hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, and Hufanga, their safety kind of said no, that Kyle should have, Kyle should have challenged the play. And then I thought, and then I thought the other key portion was the Josh Johnson drop of the perfect snap fumble at the end of the half. It would have been 14-7.

They would have had a chance in the second. in half, even with Josh Johnson, with the defense playing really well. But look, bottom line is, a quarterback who doesn't play, you're going to have snaps drop like that. That's going to happen. And what do you expect? Well, I don't expect a veteran quarterback like Josh Johnson to just drop, you know, in his hands a perfect snap. And then, by the way, not being able to fall on the ball right at his feet. I don't know how much practice you need for that. You know, the funny thing about Josh Johnson is he's the guy that in Jay Gruden's final season here in 2018 when, you know, they were losing quarterbacks left and right, Alex Smith, your boy Colt McCoy, and then it was Sanchez. And then

Josh Johnson came in, played really well when they beat Jacksonville, and played a really good game against Tennessee when they were actually still mathematically alive. But that was, I've told Jay before. I think that may have been the best stretch of coaching he's ever done. He had nothing at quarterback and that team was competitive down the stretch. But anyway, whatever. It sounds like we've done the 49er Eagle reaction for you. Let's do the Kansas City Cincinnati reaction. And I want to talk about Washington's offseason quarterback path. We'll get to those things right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by Window Nation. Go to Windonation.com slash home show.

You'll get all of the Window Nation home show savings, which includes five years interest free. Also, you will pay half price on those windows. Buy two, get too free with no limit. 86690 Nation or Windonation.com slash home show. Mention my name. You'll get a free estimate. The Senior Bowl in Mobile is this coming weekend. It's Senior Bowl Week down in Mobile.

Ben Standing will join me all week long on the radio show, so you can tune in for that. Ron Rivera is not there. He is somewhere else, actually, and we'll share that with you here momentarily. But before we get to that, Chiefs Bengals, you haven't had a chance to weigh in on that game, what you think? Well, I think you saw, and no one can predict what's going to happen. I mean, you know, things come up, but that's going to be a hell of a rivalry, Mahomes and Joe Burrough for years to come. And what I saw was a quarterback who plays the position better than anyone I've ever seen played a position. I mean, Mahomes is just unbelievable.

I mean, imagine playing for him. Imagine what the players feel like. I mean, you know, I remember Ernie, of course, he talking about the value of a quarterback, the former giant. The bus line. Yeah, and he gets on, they look at him and they say, well, we got a chance with this guy. I mean, that's the ultimate with Mahomes. Everybody on that Kansas City team must feel like they're going to win every game because they've got him. He's so good.

he is so good I mean he is so creative and so quick I mean and he wasn't even quick the other day I know yeah I I can't believe how good he is

I think he's well I said this recently and I forget it if you and I had this conversation together I can't think of a player that's ever been a lock hall of Famer faster than Patrick Mahomes. You may tell me Unitas or Gail Sayers or somebody like that. If he never took another snap in the NFL, he's in the Hall of Fame first ballot. It's not even

close. I agree. I agree. I've never seen. I mean, I've never had anyone basically take my breath away in terms of the conversation of the greatest quarterback of all time. It took Brady six Super Bowls for me to get to that point, okay, in terms of accomplishments. But the greatest quarterback I've ever seen plays for the Kansas City Chiefs right now. Wow. Wow. Think about that, boys and girls. All right. Old man, Tom just said Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback he's ever watched. I can't tell you how many times that if somebody made a statement like that, he would start with laughing and then just, I mean, these people today, they didn't see Unitas, they didn't see Autogram. I mean, you would have had the list Bart Star, the whole thing.

I can't put him in, because I think that accomplishment, you know, goes up there too. So Brady is still number one for me. But I would be very surprised if Patrick Mahomes plays another three years or four. And at that point, I'm not willing to say he's the greatest of all time. Because at that point, a lot of the accomplishment will be there with it. I do think that Mahomes and Rogers, in my lifetime of watching quarterbacks, and I would put Elway and Marino into that conversation, are the most gifted quarterbacks that I've ever watched. Like Brady and Manning are different than Rogers and Mahomes and Elway and even Marino to a certain degree. And I know Marino from a mobility standpoint is more like Brady and Manning, but I don't

think I've ever seen anybody throw the football like Marino from the pocket with the quick release, with the accuracy, with the velocity. I mean, I just, I still, when people tell me that Dan Marino is not in their top 10, I do the Tommy laugh and just say, please, stop. You're now, you can't be in this conversation anymore. It's a big boy conversation. Because Dan Marino, I mean, Dan Marino threw for 5,000 yards before basically anybody other than Dan Fouts was throwing for 4,000. And I just, I, Marino is one of my all-time favorites.

And Elway was my number one of all time because Elway is like Mahomes. and like Rogers, you know, well in advance of Mahomes and Rogers. But Mahomes is the most creative. He is, what he did the other day really added to his legacy, too, because he was, he was, you know, coolly called it 60% of Mahomes. Whatever it was, it wasn't the Patrick Mahomes that were used to sing, and he did it from the pocket. And the throw that he had to Valde, Scantling on the 3rd and 10 that gave him the 20 to 13 lead, where he basically ducked pressure,

kept anybody from hitting that ankle and still threw it off basically one ankle on a dime with incredible velocity is one of the better throws you'll see all year. He was brilliant on Sunday. They had no chance. He carried the team on one ankle to the Super Bowl. Yes. Yes. So You thought that that was roughing the passer at the end, right? Yes, I did. Okay. Yes, I did. I thought it was a foolish.

Look, I'm not a believer in one play costs the team a game. There's lots of moments in a game where it can turn, but it was an inopportune moment for them. And yes, it was roughing the pay. It would have been called under any circumstances, I think. I think, you know, the one thing that I'm glad to see, I'm assuming that this hasn't happened because I haven't read about it. And yet when New Orleans lost that NFC title game to the Rams, and people forget that New Orleans actually won the toss and had the ball to begin overtime. And they lost the game when Breezed through the interception in overtime.

But remember how the, you know, basically the fans and the city and everybody was suing everybody. They wanted to sue everybody for losing that game. I've not gotten that from Cincinnati, which is nice. And even the mayor from Cincinnati, who was called out by everybody, including Travis Kelsey calling him a jabroney, he had a pretty self-deprecate. That was great, by the way. He had a pretty self-deprecating tweet the mayor did. He wasn't calling for lawsuits against the NFL like the Saints fans were in the New Orleans,

you know, political people were after that loss. But yeah, that was roughing the passer. I mean, that's called 95. A lot of people reached out to me, said she in 95% of the time, that's 100 out of 100 that gets called. Once the arm got extended, whether he flailed or not was immaterial. You know, that flag was coming out. And I tend to agree. So do you have a first thought on the Super Bowl, Philadelphia at my bookie right now, minus two?

I like the Eagles. I think the Eagles will wear down any opponent they face, and they're like the fighter who wins the championship rounds, you know, the last four rounds of a fight. I think the Eagles are like that because of the way they play so physically. I think they'll keep it close, and I think they'll wear down their opponent, in this case the Chiefs. and I think, oh, I mean, you know, I think, I mean, when you saw that Jalen Hertz sustained drive where he ran the ball, what, five or six times in a row, I mean, I think that's symbolic of what they can do near the end of a game.

The funny thing is, is I said this to Chris yesterday, because I love Jalen Hertz, and I've been a fan of Jalen Hertz, and I thought that he could, you know, turn into a really good quarterback. I thought it was so unnecessary. The game was over, and he's not 100%. And he took some shots running the football there at the end. He's a badass, and apparently, you know, he is the leader of all leaders. You know, Merrill Reese, I've had many times on the radio show, you know, at least twice a year typically before the Washington games, the longtime legendary play-by-play voice for the Eagles radio network.

And he's been telling me, and he told me last year, and he told me before this year, he said, Jalen's the absolute most respected person in that building. He is a total leader. That's one of the things about Jalen Hertz. I just remember when he got benched, you know, for Tua in that championship game. And then the following year,

he got a chance to come in the SEC title game. And he never bitched and he was always ready. I just always loved Jaila Hertz as a college player. But with that said, I don't think he should have run as much on that drive. But after what we were just talking about with respect to Patrick Mahomes, that's why I'm going Kansas City. I just think that another two weeks for him to get healthier, hopefully. I think they need to have some of those receivers back because he was without receivers too in that game.

But I'm going to go with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Or I'm just going to go with Patrick Mahomes and believing in ultimately the importance of the positions the greatness in Mahomes, and somehow they get it done. I'm actually surprised they're an underdog, and they didn't open up as an underdog. They opened up as a slight favorite in most places, you know, pick them in most places. I'm surprised that a lot of the money is on Philadelphia here early in the Super Bowl, you know, lead up. I'm surprised at that.

All right. So I saw our good friend Chris Russell retweet. a junkies tweet with Ron Rivera playing golf out at Pebble Beach. That's where the tour is this week. They're in Pebble this week. And then next week they're out in Scottsdale for the waste management as the Super Bowl's out in Scottsdale. When you get the Super Bowl and the waste management in the same week out in Arizona, going to be some late nights.

I've done it twice. Yeah. All right. So there's a picture of Ron Ravis. Rivera playing at Pebble Beach, playing golf at Pebble Beach. And the junkies tweeted out the picture earlier this morning, are you okay with Commander's coach Ron Rivera playing golf at Pebble Beach this week when he still hasn't hired an offensive coordinator? And then our good friend, Chris Russell, retweeted it and said, no offensive coordinator, the senior bowl going on,

not a good look in any way. Sorry, but that's the truth. And of course, right now, Russell is talking about it on his show with Pete Medhurst on our station 980. I don't have a problem with Ron Rivera playing golf at Pebble Beach today and probably the pro-am this week. I don't have a problem with it at all. First of all, I don't even know that he'll be the coach here by the time we get to the end of March. But, you know, even if this were a normal situation, I don't have a problem with it. He can interview these offensive coordinator candidates by Zoom. He can interview them at Pebble Beach. He can interview them last week back at the office,

and this week back at the office a little bit later on in the week when he's back after maybe a two-day or three-day trip to Pebble Beach. I don't have a problem with this at all. Do you? No, I have no problem with this. Look, Ken Sam Psi ain't going anywhere, okay? Pat Shermer's not going to get hired by anybody else. Right.

Right. So these guys, they're not going anywhere. And the so-called big swing that they want to take with Eric B. enemy, I mean, that would just be ludicrous, you know, that he would come to take a job with a franchise where a new coach may exist in a month or two or within a year and run it off. defense, the exact opposite of what they run in Kansas City. You know, imagine calling plays for, and if he does, call plays for Patrick McComones, and then call plays for Sam Howe in the run first offense of the Washington. Well, he doesn't call plays.

That's part of the problem, is that he doesn't call plays. Yeah. That's why a lateral move for Bian and me kind of makes sense. He's got to get, you know, out of the shadow of Andy Reed. But this is the wrong place to do. that. Well, it's always the wrong place to do that. Yeah. It is always the wrong place. So, no, I don't have a problem with it. This is an ultimate lame duck situation for everyone involved. You know, they're going to be lucky they get a body to fill the role. And, you know, if they're not

going to dig up George Hallis from his grave to be the offensive coordinator, then it really doesn't matter. Yeah, I mean, I first of all, he didn't go to the senior bowl last year either, just if my memory serves me correctly. I'm pretty sure I'm right on that because I think Ben told me that this morning, or maybe

yesterday we talked about that with Ben on the podcast. I mean, that's a Mayhew, that's a scout trip. And I know Ron is coach-centric Ron. He's the head of the football operation, but he didn't go to it last year.

He was busy looking at Carson. Wentz film. But I just, I mean, this is like kind of ridiculous to me. Like a couple of days out in Pebble Beach. If you weren't a lame duck, if we were talking about year two of a five-year deal, I just don't think that this is, I think this is overdone. Here's the thing that I think is going to be interesting. And I mentioned this to Ben yesterday.

I think that the Eric B. Enemy stuff and the Anthony Lynn stuff, if they're able to hire one of those people and they pull it off and they have to commit, you know, just say a two-year deal for, you know, $2 million a year, something like that. That's with some of these good OCs. They're two to three million bucks a year. I don't think Scott Turner was at that. I think it's going to be really interesting to then react to, okay, the owner's okay with making those kinds of. of decisions. What does that mean with respect to the sale? Now, that's not a big investment. You know, that's not a Lamar Jackson investment. They're not going to make that. They're not going to make probably even a Derek Carr kind of commitment. But I think that the more interesting is the

flip side to that. What if, and I said to Ben, what if we get an announcement here shortly that Ken Zampeze has been given the interesting, offensive coordinator job. And I just thought of that because I thought, if this Rex Ryan stuff, which came from Diana Rusini's tweet last week and a Colin Cowherd segment on it, and I know you want to talk about this. And for those that missed it, I'll play it here for a moment. But I just thought, if you end up on the offensive coordinator spot getting, like, Ken

Zampeze is going to be our interim offensive coordinator, that pretty. much tells you, I think, that there is a major spending freeze, that this thing's going to get done quickly, as in the next few months, which Jay Glazer reported over the weekend, that the ownership thing's going to be taken care of by the end of March, and that the new ownership's coming in and cleaning house the moment they get in. I mean, they're basically going to clean house, and they've got some people maybe lined up, who knows, maybe Sean Payton. Now, I know you went away in on the Rex Ryan stuff. But real quickly, don't you think that that would be a major tell if Zampi was given the job or even worse, given the job with an interim tag?

I don't think you need to give him an interim tag. He's already working for you. Yeah, but you got to elevate him to the OC position and give him the pay that corresponds to that job. I know. I know. I don't think if they hire him, period, as offensive coordinator, I think that's a reasonable conclusion that it's a bookkeeping move that things are going to change dramatically real soon. So yeah, I agree with you. All right. Let's play the Rex Ryan thing. I played it yesterday. We talked about it with Ben yesterday, but I want your reaction. This was Rex Ryan Sunday on the pregame show on ESPN, suggesting that Washington is the potential landing spot for not only Sean Peyton, but

Tom Brady as well. Brady, this is why I say it could happen. There's a strong possibility that there's going to be a change in ownership, all right? And when that happens, these owners aren't tied in to that coach. And to me,

I can see the Sean Peyton, Tom Brady. We talk about Miami. Well, let's just, the Miami contact in Brady, it was the Sean Peyton. It was going to be that marriage of those two. So I could possibly see that down in the road.

He doesn't sign with the Raiders immediately. I could see this as a possibility. Before Tommy, you give me a reaction, just for those that missed the show yesterday. There was some context for this. I mean, it could have been just Rex Ryan having a source or just

giving some thoughts to this. But Diana Rusini sent out a tweet last week that was kind of cryptic. It was in a quote tweet form of a guy out of New Orleans that was updating everybody. on Sean Payton and where he was interviewing. And Diana, who was in this market for a while and broke a lot of stories,

wrote, I was told there's also a team waiting in the wings watching all of this and could make a move if they get their ducks in a row. Colin Cowherd took that on Fox and said, Diana Rusini has ties to D.C. Washington is the sleeper market for Sean Payton to land in when they get the new ownership. And the only reason that Colin Cowherd's comments, might be significant is he had Sean Payton on his show every single week this year as a contributor to the Cowherd Show as part of the overall Fox commitment that Sean Payton had this year.

So go ahead. What were your thoughts on this? Well, I thought that was pretty interesting. I think it's indicative of what you said. I think they're, and what Jake Laser reported, this is going to happen quick. It will happen quick enough for them to make dramatic changes. I mean, unless there's some kind of snafu, and when you're dealing with a major business deal like this, there's always the possibility that

something could come up at the last minute to screw it up. But I mean, if this happens, you know, by the March owner's meetings, yeah, you can pull this off. You can clean your house. You can start over. You can bring in the big guns like a Sean Peyton

and if you really want Tom Brady. So I think it's a, I think the idea of Sean Payton coming here to coach. If I was a prospective owner, I would have already talked to Sean Payton and had discussions with him about being my coach. That doesn't mean that would be my final decision,

but I would have had multiple conversations with Sean Peyton at this point if I was bidding for the Washington football team. Yeah, I think that's true. I think what you just said is true. Like if any of us were in the position of being one of the bidders and potentially being one of the front runners, you would be talking. You would have, you'd be planning. Like, okay, what are we going to do when we get this team? You know, because it's stale right now.

We need some life. And by the way, we need an overall better football situation. Okay, Ron Rivera is a respected guy. And, you know, the people that they have in the building are more respected than they were before. but we're bringing in our own team. You know, Tom Landry was cut loose when Jerry Jones had Jimmy Johnson sitting there waiting to come in and take over the Cowboys when he bought the team from TechSram and company. So, yeah, I mean, if it's a Josh Harris or a Bezos or a Feliciano or whatever,

the California group, and they've reached, and who knows what their relationship might already be with Sean Peyton, they might know them, or they may know somebody close to Sean Payton. And maybe they've said, this thing's going to get resolved. It's going to happen quickly. And I'm going to clean house. And I want you to be my coach. And I want also Tom Brady or the quarterback of your show. Hopefully the owners, I want the owner that says to the coach, who do you think the quarterback should be?

So the Tom Brady. Absolutely. Yeah. Because to me, Sean Payton made it very clear during the season in an interview when he said, I'll go back to coaching, but only in the ideal. situation when it comes to ownership and stability in an organization, which means Washington would have never, ever been a possibility for Sean Payton had the Snyders continued to own the team. But I, you know, I didn't discount this completely with Ben yesterday. I still think it's a long

shot because of something that Sean Payton said, which was he thinks a lot of these coaching things are going to be resolved during the week in between the championship games. in the Super Bowl. And maybe he was referring to himself. Maybe he was referring to others. But we are, by the way, I think, going to be later than typical with a lot of these coaching decisions being made. Usually they're made pretty quickly.

Ron Rivera, remember, was hired on the day after Thanksgiving, Tommy, if you recall, back in 2020. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. But it was the day after New Year's. The owner at the time was confused with which day it was. But I'll tell you what, seriously, you want to get P. Sean Payton, the Tom Brady thing I think would be really interesting. Sean Peyton and Aaron Rogers would be the dream for me and then drop commanders and go to Washington.

And now we've got something to get, you know, interested in again with the new owner who I would prefer be somebody less high profile. than Jeff Bezos. I don't know anything about these owners, so I really can't say with any certainty who would be a better owner than the other. Josh Harris has owned sports teams before. He owns the New Jersey Devils. They're having a really good season. He owns the Philadelphia 76ers. And a lot of good things by media members and critics in those respective sports have said that he's a pretty good owner. And he's also hands off. I mean, So, yeah, but I don't know. You want an owner, I think, who recognizes there's need for dramatic change immediately, that you've got a sick patient on life support, and you need to bring the paddles in right now with a dramatic move. Yeah.

I mean, I was going to say something that would have been, I think, distasteful. But you absolutely need, you absolutely need to. the defib machines immediately to the patient. Yes. And look, the bottom line is, you know, that first shock is going to get the patient breathing again, and that is that Dan's gone. Immediately the patient now has survived and is alive again. And now getting them really interested in terms of buying tickets.

And, you know, I think there are a lot of other things that have to happen. I think they've got to do away with, you know, Corporal Tutty. and the name of the team, the 2222 brand. I think a lot of that stuff, the Will Middlebrooks, the Will Missilebrook disaster, which he calls the greatest rebrand in his LinkedIn profile and NFL history, whatever. I'm not going to kill him for that.

Again, I want to be clear on something. They had an impossible task, okay? After, you don't, coming in and changing a brand that's been around for 80 plus years and trying to satisfy everybody, it's impossible. I just think that they butchered it so many different ways as they butchered everything else. But yeah, I mean, the patient's going to live once Dan's gone. And whether or not, you know, it comes back to full life and is healthier than before will, you know, be contingent on all of the other moves that the new owner makes.

but Sean Payton on March 28th with the new owner in place, that would, you're going to sell. That would do it. But Aaron, and Aaron Rogers is still out there as a possibility. Yeah. Justin Fields is still a possibility before the draft because the Bears want to trade Justin Fields and draft Bryce Young. A lot of possibilities exist out there.

I'm all for Tom Brady, actually. coming here for a year. Fine. Year to year with Brady at this point. Yeah, but Rogers makes an absolute contender. I think Brady certainly makes him, obviously Brady's going to be an upgrade

over what they've had, but man, he's much closer to falling off the cliff than Rogers is. All right, I want to finish up the show with more Washington quarterback discussion and a quick preview of Terps, Indiana. I think really at this point

the biggest game of the year for Maryland tonight at Xfinity against 21st ranked Indiana. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about our good friends at Shelley's back room. Well, if you're a loyal

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They have Davidoff, they have Romeo and Juliette's. They have all kinds of different cigars. Shelly's backroom, 1331, F Street, Northwest. You had said during the break that you wanted to mention something about Mobile, Alabama? Well, I'm only two hours away here in Destin from Mobile. And we're going there this Saturday, not to watch the Senior Bowl, but we're going to a festival, the spirit of our ancestors festival that takes place there. There's a great documentary I'd recommend to everybody called Descendant. It's about the search for America's last known slave ship.

It was called the Clotilda, and it was found just outside of mobile, just a couple years ago. Why are you pronouncing it mobile? Is it mobile or mobile? I always pronounce it mobile. I thought it was mobile. But I'm open to other interpretations. But I mean, we watch this documentary. We were fascinated with it.

I recommend it to anyone descendant about the search for the last slave ship. And this town called Africa Town, the small little part of Mobile, and what they've had to go through. And the key part for me is one of the community active. this there is a guy named Cleon Jones. Cleon Jones was a left fielder for the New York Mets. He made the last catch on the 1969 World Series Championship against the and hit 340 that year. He was one of the best hitters in the history of the Mets organization.

And he lives in Mobile, and he's a community activist there. So I'm hoping to look him up and interview him and do a story about him while I'm there. So that's why I'm going to be in Mobile this Saturday, not for the Senior Bowl. If it's a Senior Bowl on Saturday? The Senior Bowl is on Saturday, correct. Yeah, I won't be there for that. Apparently, the Post has a couple of reporters down there for it, but that's not where I'll be. I think maybe your day will be much more interesting, actually.

You know, I have not been, because, you know, we haven't been reporters. You have been more than I, but I haven't been to Mobile for the Senior Bowl, but I haven't been to But I've been to Mobile. You know, I've told you before that one of my best friends was in flight school down in Pensacola when we were much younger. And so we went down to Pensacola a few times. And then we would go into Mobile. And then we, of course, would eventually make our way on I-10 through the state of Mississippi

into New Orleans and get down to New Orleans on a lot of those trips as well. Since you brought it up with the senior ball, I thought I'd mention it. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for that. I'm going to write it. Hopefully meet me, Cleon Jones, one of my childhood heroes, and write a story about him. That was part of the buffet menu dessert options, the mobile conversation. Yes. Yes, it was.

So, I'm fascinated with all of the people that have pushed back on some of my conversation recently about Aaron Rogers or Anthony. Anthony Richardson at 16, he's not going to be there at 16, or a trade up, or a trade up for Justin Fields if the bears end up wanting to trade him. I'm just so fascinated by those that are absolutely sure that the right way to go is Sam Howell and building up around Sam Howell. And I didn't do a lot of work here because I've done this before, so it was kind of available to me. I just updated everything.

But you have to just, if you look at history, the chances that a fifth round quarterback ends up being your franchise quarterback, it's needle in haystack territory. It just is, people. I'm not telling you that, you know, Sam Hal can't be a nice quarterback and that I'm not intrigued with his physical abilities, you know. I mean, I was with him coming out of college. I wasn't the biggest fan of him coming out of college. I certainly am not convinced one way or the other after the game against the Cowboys.

We're only through the ball 19 times. But of the 18 of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL were drafted in the last 10 years. If you look at the draft in the last 10 years, 18 of the starting quarterbacks, 18 of the starting quarterbacks, came from the draft, 12 of those from the top half of the first round, and then six of those from the second round or earlier. Only Dak Prescott is below in the last 10 years, a quarterback that is started in the NFL that you would call a regular starting quarterback. And he went in the fourth round, Derek Carr in the second round, Gino Smith in the second round, and then Hertz in the second round. And then you've got Pickett right now in Lamar Jackson kind of late first

round. All of the other guys that are starting came in the top half of the first round. And then as far as the other 14 teams, well, they're either in quarterback purgatory, you know, quarterback hell, like Washington, which you could argue is one of the worst three or four situations in the NFL at quarterback, or they've got veteran quarterbacks that were at one time high draft choices, like Matt Stafford, who was the number one overall, overall. Kirk Cousins was a fourth rounder. Tom Brady was a sixth rounder. We understand that. But we're talking about Dak Prescott essentially the only guy in the last 10 years out of the draft that's turned into a regular

starting quarterback after the second round. It's needle in haystack. I'm not counting Brock Purdy at this point. First of all, that injury may be so serious. It may have really limited his chances to be that guy. I just want the path to the next quarterback to be continuing to think big, continuing to swing big until you land on the quarterback that is a franchise quarterback. You know, if you want to say, well, I don't want to swing too big, but I'll give you, let's try second and third round guys. Okay, but for the most part, zero chance with those guys, too.

I mean, again, you got the Prescott and the Hertz situation. Gino Smith and Derek Carr, I mean, Derek Carr is a good quarterback, not necessarily a franchise quarterback, where you're guaranteed double-digit wins for a long period of time. And it took Gino Smith 10 years, nine years. You know, more often than not what you get every year in the fifth round, if you want to go back 10 years in the draft, is you get Tom Savage. I'm talking about guys that have played.

Garrett Gilbert, okay? You end up with Sean Mannion, who might still be in the league. Brett Hundley, Trevor Simeon. You know, these are the kind... Jacoby Brissette was a third rounder. He's still in the league. But almost everybody ends up out of the league

after the fourth round. Everybody. people that you have never heard of. There are countless numbers of Brad Kaya's, Chad Kellys, and Logan Woodside's, and Alex McHughes, and Danny Etlings, okay? And Luke Falks. I mean, that's more likely than not what Sam Howell is. And I know that he came with a bigger billing understood. And I talked about that because the year before, he was supposed to be a much higher draft choice.

Jake Fromm was a fifth rounder in 2020. At one point when he was at Georgia, people were thinking maybe first rounder. Same thing with Jacob Beeson at Washington. If he'd come out a year earlier, he may have been a second or a first rounder, not a fourth rounder. You know, it's not unusual for the Howl situation to develop where, well, Sheehan, if he had been taken a year earlier, he would have been a first round pick. Okay, but when he came out, everybody passed on him. except for Washington when it got to the fifth round. So that's what he is.

He's a fifth rounder. So again, I'm not saying you're going to be wrong. He might be the needle in the haystack. But it would be a long shot if it turned out that Sam Howell was the answer, like the long-term answer at quarterback for Washington. So I would rather look at moving up to draft a quarterback if you really like quarterbacks, you know, being aggressive in the draft, being aggressive if an Aaron Rogers is actually available. And I don't know what they're going to be allowed to do anyway because of the ownership situation.

But I'm just, I'm really fascinated with those of you that believe. And I think Brock Purdy has something to do with it. And Jalen Hertz has something to do with it where you're like, no, nope, nope, nope, nope, stop doing that. It doesn't work. It absolutely doesn't work. They've got the situation they need. Now let's just invest on building a really good team. And by the way, getting a really good coaching staff around Sam Hal.

I think more likely than not, what you will end up being is what more teams that try to go that route end up being. And that is, you know, the teams like Denver and Buffalo before Josh Allen and the Jets before, you know, well, the Jets period, where you had some really good teams but you didn't have a quarterback, or you end up being a Houston with Brock Osweiler and Tom Savage and whomever else they had before Deshawn Watson, winning nine games but not doing anything in the postseason. I mean, best case maybe being a Tennessee with a really good coaching staff and a really good team and a really great player in Derek Henry

with just average to sub-average quarterback play, winning 10 games, 11 games, but not. not getting it done in the postseason. Like maybe you can hope for that, but that's even a long shot. I just don't get it. I totally disagree with the not thinking big and continuing to swing big strategy, because that's what I would do. Yes.

And you know, I'll just end on this, but if you have anything else, I want you to add to it. Like, the Justin Fields thing to me would be interesting. if he is available because I could see Justin Fields if you had to give up, let's just say you had to give up Duran Payne in a second rounder. I honestly don't know what the compensation for him would be. I'm just guessing. Or maybe you just give up number 16 overall and a player for Justin Fields. But I don't know if it's Duran Payne because that's almost like giving up two first rounders

for Justin Fields. And I don't think that's what you have to give to move up. to trade for Justin Fields. But Justin Fields could come in here with this team, and Washington with the right coaches could play like Philadelphia has with Jalen Hertz, because they're very similar. So that would be of interest to me. But nothing would interest me as much as the possibility of an Aaron Rogers

joining this team and turning this team into an instant contender overnight. But I don't think that's going to happen. I just, you know, I don't think that I don't see that happening. I think he ends up in Green Bay or with the Jets. And I think Washington, by the way, will be limited to its solutions as well. And more likely than not, the solution that they'll have for next year, unless the ownership thing cleans house and brings in Brady or does something like that, you'll probably get your wish some of you, Sam Hal.

Okay. Anything else on this? I got nothing else for you today, boss. Can I just tell you real quickly that Maryland plays Indiana tonight? Indiana's ranked 21st in the country. By the way, if you listen to my podcast through the end of the podcast yesterday, I predicted that Marilyn would be favored tonight. I just had this gut instinct at having bet on a lot of college basketball games over the years and followed this, that the home team against a ranked team was going to be favored.

Maryland's a three-point favorite tonight against 21st ranked Indiana, who's won five in a row with just incredible performances recently. from their center, Trace Jackson Davis, who's a 6-9 senior, who in his last five games, has gone 18 and 12, 35 and 9, 31 and 15, 25 points, 21, and rebounds in their win over Minnesota, and then 18 and 10 against Ohio State. He's also got a game from earlier this year against Northwestern, where he had 18 points and 24 rebounds. College game 40 minutes. He's playing a lot of 40 minutes or 38, 39 minute games.

Maryland's favorite over Indiana. This is a big spot for the Terps tonight. They have really played well in the last two weeks. They're the only team that's been close, really, with Purdue here recently. They had a chance to tie that game late. They blew out Nebraska. They blew out Wisconsin. But those two teams aren't very good.

They're playing a really good team tonight. And I think it's going to be one of those crowds. The students are back. And it's going to be an opportunity for Maryland to get a signature resume win. They've got a couple already. Their win over Miami early in the year. Miami's been ranked much of the year is going to be impressive. Their win over St. Louis actually could be impressive.

But other than that, they don't really have a signature win. They need this one tonight because if they got to be. get to 500 with like one of these kinds of wins on their resume. And so tonight I think the Terps take a major step towards being a tournament team in Kevin Willard's first season by beating Indiana at home and covering tonight the number. I'm not going to go though. A lot of people, a lot of you reached out. Are you going to be there? You're going to be at Bentley's before. No, I'm not going. It's a nine o'clock start. That's for me now the nine o'clock starts, though I prefer them from a crowd standpoint because I think the crowd will be great.

9 o'clock starts Friday nights, Saturday nights, perfect. Tuesday nights with the rest of the week is harder. But, you know, I'll tell you what, if they were playing Purdue tonight, the number one team in the country, I would be there. And they play Purdue on February 16th. Purdue's clearly the best team in the league, maybe the best team in the country. And they'll have a number one in their building, I think, in a few. weeks. So I'll probably be at that game. But go Terps tonight. I'm hoping that Kevin Wilder and gang

get it done. All right. Anything else that you want to add? Not today, boss. All right. I'm done as well. I am going to do that Super Bowl 17 recap with a lot of highlights. I'll either do it tomorrow or maybe Tommy and I'll do it together on Thursday. Have a good day back tomorrow.