The Kevin Sheehan Show - Peyton Manning on Jayden Daniels

Episode Date: May 18, 2024

Kevin opened with the crazy day at the PGA Championship which included the arrest of the #1 player in the world, Scottie Scheffler. Steve Sands/NBC-Golf Channel jumped on from Louisville to discuss and also share some of what he's been hearing from Commanders' players about Jayden Daniels. Kevin reacted to Peyton Manning's remarks about Daniels at the Joe Gibbs Youth For Tomorrow event last night. Also on the show, Eddie C. with a Preakness preview and his 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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Our good friend Steve Sands is going to be on this show from Louisville, Kentucky, site of the PGA Championship, where this morning the world's number one player, Scotty Sheffler, was arrested. Sands coming up in the next segment.

Eddie C will follow Steve with a preview and pick of tomorrow's Preetness in the final. segment of the show. The show has a presenting sponsor. Windonation is that presenting sponsor. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com if you're in need of new windows. Mention my name and you will get a free, no-risk in-home estimate. Crazy day at the PGA. And I am recording this podcast just after Scotty Sheffler addressed the media following his second round in which he shot five under 66. Amazing. I can't tell you anything more about the Scotty Sheffler incident this morning than you've already read or heard from him about it. I would say this as of the recording of this podcast, always subject to amendment with more information. But as of now, it's clear that there are

two different versions of what happened this morning. Scotty Sheffler's version and the Louisville Metro Police version. In his press conference, which just finished up, as I mentioned, moments ago, he spoke to this being just a big misunderstanding. Meantime, among the charges filed in his arrest was a second-degree charge of assaulting a police officer, which is a felony. And the account of the Louisville Metro Police Department described the officer, in question as needing to be transported to the hospital to deal with pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee after Schaeffler's car accelerated with the officer reportedly trying to get Schephler to stop. At the very least, this seems to be a serious

situation based on the police account. Sheffler's account, big misunderstanding. I know many of you out there think this was just another situation of an overzealous police officer. And this was a chaotic situation to begin with because of the actual real tragedy down there this morning, which was a pedestrian being struck by a shuttle van and killed a few hours prior to the Sheffler arrest. And look, maybe you're right. I'm just pointing out that the stories are very different and that, you know, over the years haven't we come to understand that these things can change. Like your first blush conclusions aren't always right.

Now, if I had to guess, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that Scotty Schaeffler is exonerated and that it doesn't rise to much more than what he described. A big misunderstanding. But I did think it was interesting this morning. And I was up early and I was, you know, reading everything. everything and I was watching TV. And as the news is coming out in real time, it just seemed to me, based on what I was watching and reading, everybody just assumed with no real information, other than Jeff Darlington's eyewitness description, ESPN's Jeff Darlington was there to see what

happened. And he actually describes Schaeffler driving 10 to 20 yards after he was told to stop with an officer attached to his vehicle. But I thought it was interesting how many people seemed to jump to the conclusion that the police messed up, not Sheffler. And again, don't get me wrong. You know, maybe they'll be right on this. If I was forced to bet on it, I would bet that they're probably right, that this was, as Sheffler described, a big misunderstanding.

But nobody early this morning knew much of anything. and the truth is we now know that there are two very different accounts of what happened, at least based on the initial police report that came out. Again, we'll have Sands on to talk about it. And again, the round of 66 Schephler shot after he wasn't even sure he'd make it to the course for his tea time, he said it was great in the press conference. He always is. He said it was his first time ever stretching.

in a jail cell to get ready for a round. Yeah, I would imagine. He talked about being in shock and not exactly sure what was going on, being very confused. He also was asked if he ever mentioned to anybody who he was, and he said, no, I never name dropped myself. I just said at one point, I was trying to get to the course to prepare for my tea time. He's definitely a likable guy, has been. But whatever. We will get to the same. Scotty Sheffler's story and talk some golf and probably talk some Jaden Daniels and football team with Steve Sands when he joins us in the next segment. A few emails to start the show. This from Rob H. Kevin, you've mentioned a few times that you think the new coaching staff will contribute to an overall

defensive improvement next season. Didn't Del Rio and Rivera have just as an impressive track record as defensive coaches. Del Rio coached multiple top 10 defenses in Jacksonville in Denver, including a Super Bowl trip, and Rivera coached multiple top 10 defenses in Carolina and Chicago, including two Super Bowl trips. Yeah, he was on Levy Smith staff in Chicago, I guess, right? Quinn undoubtedly has a great defensive track record, but don't you think JDR and Rivera's were equal, if not more impressive? Thank you, Rob. Yeah, I agree. Del Rio and Rivera had impressive track records defensively. Rivera is a head coach. Del Rio, you know, had occasional success as a head coach. But that's not really what I've been referring to. What I've been referring to specifically was last year. Last year was a season in which I think basically the season was sabotaged before it began. It was sabotaged. I shouldn't say sabotaged. That's the wrong way. to describe it. It was doomed before it began because typically with a new regime, new ownership, and not much success with the existing coaching staff, and not much time to do anything about it

before the season begins, it just led to this feeling that Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio, by extension, were in lame duck seasons. And, you know, add to that, you know, the dysfunction that ended up coming in the form of Eric Bienemy to the offense. But defensively, sticking with your email, I think Quinn and Del Rio and Rivera all have impressive, defensive backgrounds. I just think last year, Rivera and Del Rio in some ways had checked out. You know, Del Rio hired Brett Wieselmeyer to be the DB's coach after he lost Chris Harris, a friend of his who had coached high school football previously.

Now, I've had many people out there say that a lot of us in the media have overcooked the Vieselmeyer high school coach. They should have hired somebody with more experience. He actually does have beyond high school coaching experience. And I actually was told by somebody he's a pretty good football coach. But the point is that Rivera hired Eric B. Enemy. Who knows why he did it? Del Rio hired a friend in Veselmeyer. I think these two really saw this season as more likely than not their last.

Now, if they won somehow, and I don't think they were expecting to have a bad defense, I don't think that at all. But, you know, they probably put Forbes into some difficult situations, and then they didn't necessarily give him a ton of confidence by benching him. I don't know. It just was a rough season, I would say, for Del Rio and Rivera. Quins coming in with, you know, a very good recent defensive track record in Dallas with the exception of the playoff game against Green Bay and, you know, rejuvenated and pumped up to be the head coach, to be a head coach again. So it's just, I think, not exactly apples to apples.

This from Alex, who is a big fan of the show from the UK. He writes, during yesterday's show, you guys discussed how the Netflix Christmas Day games are on early to incorporate an international audience and how Americans must pay $1,000 to watch every game. We're talking about just the overall price now if you want to watch every NFL game, especially with all of the streaming services, are televising games. But Alex writes, just an FYI, in the UK, those Christmas Day games will not be on our Netflix, similar to how the Thursday night games are not on Amazon Prime for us. All of our games are shown on a channel called Sky Sports, who use the U.S. feed and commentary, but also have a studio

with analysts for when you guys go to a commercial. Sky Sports is around 30 pounds a month, and we get Premier League, Golf, F1, et cetera, et cetera. But for NFL game pass, which is roughly $200 U.S. dollars, includes every NFL game in Red Zone, but the Sky Sports games are blacked out. I just thought it was interesting how we in the UK got such a better deal watching the NFL than you do over there. Thanks. Yeah, well, but you're saying that you're not getting the Netflix games, and you don't get the Amazon Prime games.

By the way, my information that I shared yesterday on the show came from Ben Fisher from Sports Business Journal. Ben was on the radio show with me yesterday, and we were talking about the Christmas Day games, and I asked him, why are the Christmas Day games starting at 1 and 4.30 Eastern rather than having one of those two games in prime time, which when we've had games on Christmas Day,

we've always had a game in prime time. If there was just one game, it was in prime time. And he said it was because of the European audience. He said that Netflix wants internationally the game to be accessible with a decent start time, and they were able to convince the NFL to start the games earlier on Christmas Day. All right, so maybe that's wrong, but that's where I got it from. Scott writes, Kevin, I couldn't be happier with this schedule.

Yes, the mark of a great team is lots of primetime games, but from a fan's perspective, actually going to the event, 1 o'clock Sunday games are the best. I agree with that, very much, Scott. As someone who invested thousands of dollars going to the games with an RV and 10 other people during Gibbs 2.0, nothing was worse than those late December night games. No way am I ever doing that again.

ghost town field, but I might consider an afternoon game. One of the building blocks for this expansion team, in quotes, will be getting Washington fans back in the seats. And Sunday games, not a lot of night games on Sunday and Monday, will definitely help. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I actually think, you know, the two prime time games this year are both road games. Now, last year we had just the one primetime game and it was at home. The other high profile game was the Thanksgiving Day game. But the NFL knows what a disaster the traffic situation in Washington is. You know, I don't know where it's ranked these days. You know, I think it's still top three with LA and maybe Atlanta. It might be number two to Los Angeles in terms of, you know, the worst traffic in the

country. I think they measure that somehow based on the average amount of time it takes to commute to and from work. But we all know what the Beltway is like on a weekday at night. So Monday night games and Thursday night games are rough. Sunday night games are different. Now, you don't want to be there and then have to get home and get up for work the next day. But in terms of getting to and from, it's not what a weekday night game is. But I'm with you. Scott. I love when they play Sunday 1 o'clock games, but if they ever are what we want them to be, that will increase the number of primetime games. And then this from Max. Max writes, per sources, I thought you weren't a reporter. You lament people who critique you as one,

but your wording says otherwise. Certainly looking for scoops around the mock schedule, SMH, shaking my head. The scoops actually were around the real schedule, Max. And I think he's referring to on Wednesday the day the schedule came out. I did have some information from solid sources, and I tweeted out that Washington was going to open up with Tampa Bay. And then I tweeted out that Washington was going to close at Dallas. And I had another piece of information that I'm actually forgetting. at this point that I tweeted out.

But anyway, no, I'm not a reporter. What I and people like me do in this talk show format is we don't report the news. We talk about the news and we have opinions about the news. But yes, over the years, as most of you know, I have had pieces of information that have come my way. typically I don't use it because either I don't trust it or I'm not able to confirm it. But when I am able to confirm it and I think it's worthwhile, I give it to you in the form of yes, say per sources, this is what I'm reporting. Maybe three times a year, four times a year, although the last couple of years I've actually had people who know how much I'm into the schedule

and know about my mock schedule, who know what the schedule is. That's all I'll say. I've gotten some information from those people. Anyway, did you see what Peyton Manning said about Jaden Daniels? He actually also had something to say about Terry McLorne, but he was a guest speaker at the Joe Gibbs Youth for Tomorrow event. I think that was yesterday or last night. Brian Mitchell was a part of it.

Brian Mitchell interviewed Peyton Manning as part of that event. Peyton Manning said about Terry McClurent first. Quote, I'm a big fan of Terry. He's an Indianapolis kid. I knew about him in high school, closed quote. About Jaden Daniels, though, he said, quote, I'm a big fan of your quarterback. I got to know Jaden. He was at our camp last year, meaning the Manning Passing Academy camp.

And he said, quote, I'm excited about him. And he said, you got to be patient with rookie quarterbacks, though. and then he joked about his rookie interception record. Yeah, back in 1998, Peyton's first year in Indianapolis, 28 interceptions. He also threw 26 touchdown passes. They went 3 and 13 in Peyton Manning's rookie year in Indianapolis, and the next season they were 13 and 3, and he was the runner up for the MVP.

behind. Who was he runner-up behind? I'm going to look that up. In 1999, that would have been the Rams. That would have been Kurt Warner, right? That would have had to have been the Kurt Warner year. Kurt Warner. Yep. Kurt Warner was the MVP in 1999, and Peyton Manning was actually tied with Marshall Falk for runner-up to Kurt Warner. And that was in year two when he lowered his interceptions from 28 to 15. All right, let's get to Steve Sands. We'll do so right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by Window Nation. Window Nation's semi-annual sale is going on right now through the end of the month, and that is a big deal for anybody that's been thinking about new windows, because right now, if you buy Windows from Window Nation, you'll get 50% off all windows and Windows styles with no interest charged for

five years. Plus, if you schedule your appointment today, you'll get additional savings and an additional bonus when you mention my name. 86690 Nation, windownation.com for a free, no risk, no obligation, in-home estimate right now. If your windows are 10 years of age or older, if they leak, if they get foggy or hot to the touch, you're paying high utility bills. That's a big deal. Save big with Wind Donation's semi-annual sale right through the end of the month, May 31st. Call them today 86690 Nation or visit Windonation.com. All right, as promised, jumping on with me right now is Steve Sands, our good friend, from the Golf Channel, from NBC.

And I'll just start by asking you for, you know, kind of your reaction to the day, Scotty Sheffler just spoke and, you know, not much detail other than, you know, a big misunderstanding as he described it. And he was incredibly gracious towards the Louisville Police Department and his experience with them and really saddened by the true tragedy of the day. Somebody lost their life there very early in the morning. But a wild day at the PGA at Valhalla, Steve Sands, what did you make of it? man, it's been going full speed ever since the sun came up, even before the sun came up. Listen, as you said, Kevin, it's unfortunate that people aren't really talking about what the big tragedy of the day is that that person lost his life. And then you have the Scotty Schaeffer thing, number one player in the world, trying to win a second consecutive major.

and just craziness ensuing outside the gates at Balhalla. You know, you have to wait and see how this all plays out. You have a police report that came out a little while ago, and we just said, as you alluded to, we just heard from Scotty. They have seemingly differing views on exactly what took place there. Scotty thought it was not that big of a deal, didn't want to talk about it, but he basically said, you know, as a misunderstanding, the police report says something completely different.

Right. Yeah, it did. It painted the picture of a police officer that was actually injured with this particular incident. So, yeah, it's like everything else. I think we've all learned enough over the years to sort of, you know, take it for what it is in the moment, but never be definitive because things change and there's a whole hell of a lot that we don't know. but yeah, I know you know Scotty Sheffler and everybody that works in the golf world loves Scotty Sheffler and we'll see what happens. I'll tell you this, that's a hell of a round to shoot 66 after the morning, as he described after stretching in a jail cell. Well, one thing that I would say about knowing Scotty Sheffler is when he sat at the podium and people who are listening to this podcast, you know, hopefully hear him at the podium, watch him at the podium, whatever it is, whenever they have a chance to do that.

He's a class act, Kevin. You know, I mean, this is such a surprising thing that just does not seem like in his character to do something like defy a policeman. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It just doesn't see, you know, it's almost like if someone called me and said, what do you think, I was like, well, I would never have thought

that was coming. You know, one of those deals. As for his round, I mean, my goodness. you know, I realize people think, oh, it's just awful, blah, blah. Let me tell you something. To have the mental capacity, Kevin, to have the strength from the collarbones up,

to be able to get handcuffs taken off of you and then put a golf club in your hand and go shoot 66 at a major championship is just astonishing. He called it the best round of his career, considering the conditions, considering where he is, what he's trying to accomplish, and what took place earlier in the day,

you know, at just a hell of a round, he is a great, great player. We'll have to wait and see if this sustained greatness goes beyond two, three years. A lot of guys have two, three-year runs in this sport, Kevin, as you know, McElroy 11 to 14, won four majors, speed 14 to 17, won three majors. You know, a lot of guys get hot. Can they sustain it? Boy, it's sure like Scotty. Sure, it looks like Scottie is in today's round was just sensational.

I want to get to this incredible run that he's. been on. But I want to emphasize something for those of you that don't play golf. Many of you do, but for those of you that don't play golf, this guy said that he was really shaken, that he was actually

shaking. Even as he arrived at Valhalla for a much shorter warm-up period before his round started. This is not a sport where a shot of adrenaline works for

you. It's actually a disadvantage. Like, these guys work on the opposite, you know, to get ready to play golf. Whereas, you know, in football or basketball or contact sports, you know, having that game adrenaline is a good thing. It's really not in golf. Wow, what a round. I mean, just a tremendous round of golf from Sheffler. Kevin, guys on the PGHA tour, Kevin, to topple on to that point. You know, this is not like me and you going out in a golf car with Van Peltin, another buddy of ours and having fears and just playing golf and messing around telling stories. You know, when these guys are playing, they spend their whole life trying to win major championships, okay?

And they spend their whole life trying to calm themselves down in pressure situations, not have adrenaline. You know, this is not mixed tasers, you know, in Indiana tonight, and people go in Bokkers and they're riding the wave of momentum and adrenaline. golfers are the opposite. You're trying to eliminate that and try to erase that from your heart pumping fast or your mind racing, that kind of thing. So what was going on today in his headspace and being able to play that well? Foof, man, that is saying something about Scott Schaeffler. So I know we've talked about him recently because I know you were on the pod with me recently or the radio show. I forget it was probably right before the Masters. But, you know, you talked about some of these runs, Rory and Spieth, and we of course know that Tiger had many of them,

but 2000, 2001 being, you know, among the most prolific in the history of the game. What do you think this is? Is it, you know, a fleeting few-year period of brilliance? Or is it what we're going to see from Scotty Schaeffler for the next 10 years? Well, we text a bunch, Gavin. As people know on your show, we're good friends. but we don't speak on the radio or the podcast unless it's usually before a big event or big major, that kind of thing, or something happens like this.

The last time we spoke officially was before the Masters. And Scotty, you know, going on to win the Masters, Kevin, you know, and doing what he did and how he goes about his business, I was talking to Raymond Floyd. We have a lot of former Masters champions on our set with us at the Masters. And, you know, Jack and Tom Watts, and we used to have Arnie and Gary and Raymond Floyd comes on every year.

Ben Crench, all those kinds of guys. Legends in the sport. Raymond Floyd, Kevin, that's our kind of guy. He'll go out. He works art. He plays art. All right. He's got both ends covered, which I thoroughly enjoy.

Raymond's what the all-time great guys in the sport as well. But he's a tough, tough customer. I asked him, what are we seeing right now from Scottie Shepler? And he said, great players find their groove. get hot once, maybe twice, you know, over a two or three years span. But if you separate yourself in this sport, like Raymond did, Lee Trevino, Sado, Watson, Woods, Nicholas, those kinds of guys. I'm not trying to leave anybody names out.

Just don't like the whole list of like the 10 or 12 greatest players in history of sport. If you really are trying to separate yourself from, you know, those 10-12 greats of all time, Mickelson included in that, you have to have it over sustained. period. So I said to Raymond, what is a sustained period? He said right now, obviously Scotty is great. There's no debate on that. But he's also hot. You can be great and not be hot. Well, if he remains on leaderboards for years to come, Raymond said, that's putting yourself in a different category and winning these things. Right now, he's kind of sitting and waiting to see where Scotty is. But there's no debate. He's the best player in the world as we speak. Will he be that way next year at the

masters, I don't know. We'll probably talk about it on your podcast and on your radio show as well. You know, in mentioning Raymond Floyd, I think about my father, and he's probably listening to this, but my father's favorite golfer when I was younger. He loved Arnie, but he loved Raymond Floyd. Just love him. And he always said, if that, he's one of the best front runners, and didn't mean that critically, but if he gets a lead, he goes for the jugular, and it's so much fun to watch. And I kind of remember Raymond Floyd, certainly. I remember him winning some majors, you know, when I was young. I mean, I think he won the Open maybe at an older age.

I could be wrong about that. But is that what he- Chinnecock in 86, yep? Yeah, Shinnecock 86, right. So was that Raymond Floyd? Was he just a badass competitor killer when he had the lead? You tell Mr. Sheehan. You tell Mr. Shan two things.

He should be awfully proud of his son. is a fabulous human being. You should also tell another thing that Raymond Floyd is one of the great badasses of all time. And he is a lovely guy. He had the ability.

I ask him this every year at the Masters, and I love hearing it because he gives a little bit of a different answer because he can't remember for 12 months earlier, but he doesn't lie or stretch the truth. I ask him all the time, how are you able to turn it on and off? I go,

you're one of the great guys to go grab a drink with, talk sports, gambling and women and life and politics or whatever, kids, marriages, whatever. And then when you get inside the ropes, you're an animal, an assassin. And he just always winks and smiles and says, you got to turn it on, baby, or else they won't respect you. And he just is a badass.

He's a great, great guy. And my goodness, but he played golf. And when he was leading, he was one of those guys, Kevin. when he was leading, forget it. Like he said, when he was on top of the leaderboard, he not only went for the jugular, he was literally trying to rip your heart out. And he wanted to win.

You know, remember when Tiger was great, and he'd be leading by five? Next you know, he wins by nine. That usually doesn't happen in golf. When someone has a three, four, five shot lead, and they played defense, you know, three quarters of the way on Sunday and win by two or three, which in golf, by the way,

it's more than a touchdown win, you know, to win by two or three. and Raymond, ah, Raymond was like Tiger was when he was in his heyday. If he was leading by two, three, four, and he got up by four or five early, he wanted to win by nine. He wanted to kill you. And it was, that's a wonderful quality to have as a professional athlete, as a human being in any business, no matter what you're doing, to be great at what you do, but also be a great guy in doing so.

I love him. I'm Mr. Sheehan. He has great days. Well, I may be wrong about this. I'm right about half of what he does. I'm going to say. My father was at, as a, as a patron, he was at the 64 U.S. Open at Congressional, because I heard about that, you know, growing up. And Ken Venturi won it, you know, playing 36 holes. That's the way they did it back then in the final round, I believe, in ridiculous heat.

And which, by the way, I've read stories about that. Back then, they gave him salt tablets. Like that would, like it was just crazy. I think, I mean, you'd give them salt tablets to somehow prevent dehydration. That doesn't make sense. But I believe that Raymond Floyd played with him in the final round. Am I right about that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was right there. He was in contention.

He had a chance to win. I wasn't able to, you know, wasn't able to get it done there. But, yeah, Raymond, oh, man, I love, right. You're never going to hear me saying about Raymond Floyd. Love the guy. All right, real quickly, because I know you've got to run. As we're recording this right now, Moracow is in with 65. He's at 11 under.

Zander is five holes into his second round. So we don't know what the leaderboard is going to look like when people are listening to this. But who did you have going in and who did you really like other than Zander before today? Well, you're going to last because I don't think we were on your show before the PGAA started. I picked Moracalla and Ben Choppel. Did you really? I thought Rory would play well. I did not think Scottie would win because I can't take the chalk and I also can't take someone to try to win two majors in a row.

because it just doesn't happen very often. Yeah. But I love Zander at 18 to 1, and I love Collin. because golf course is real soft. The fairways are wider because the golf course is soft. The ball's not bounding into the rough. And it's like Torrey Pines and Hilton Head combined. Ball Hala.

Huge ballpark, Kevin. Big ballpark. Like congressional. Like a big, big ballpark. But the greens are tiny. So that means iron play. Second shot. You're going to hit fair.

because they're wider than normal. You're going to hit more fairways than you usually do. But the second shot is trying to get yourself into contention and get vertialable chances. And when you get birdie chances, you know, you're hitting good irons on small greens. And I love more of Cal and Zander coming into the week. I touch ridiculous. Someone else is going to win because I'm telling you that on Friday.

But I'm telling you, that's who I picked before the week. You can check the pool. We're about the same pool. Well, I actually, I have Zander and Schaeffler, and then I think my third was Fleetwood. But of course I believe you, and I wish I had had you on Wednesday, because I had several people tweet me and say, where was Sands today?

I'm like, it's the PGA. I don't want to bother them. We'll bother them before the U.S. Open and the British Open. All right. Lastly, the most important thing, Jaden Daniels, your reaction. Hey, listen, all I've heard is how much everybody loves them. I talked to a couple guys who were on the teams who I happen to know, just luckily no.

And I asked him one thing, what's he like? And they all say he's a good guy. They all say he's, you know, great athlete. He's a little bigger than they thought. You know, they thought he was a little smaller, but he's actually 210, legit 210.

But the thing they said the most, that I love the most, is how much he loves football. I listen to your show every day, Kevin. Radio and podcast. And I love your show. You know how much I love you show, and I know how much you know,

I know how much you know about sports and how much people need to care about the game. You've said before many times that Jonathan Allen is different than Duran Payne, because Duran Payne sometimes doesn't seem like he loves the game. Well, all these guys keep telling me is Jaden loves football. He wants to study. He wants to be one of the guys. He's going to learn from guys like Eli Manning. So he used to take the offensive linemen out to dinner and hang out with him,

not being a loose quarterback or one of these rich kids who signs a great contract if he's a second round, second pick in the draft. I love, love, love what I've heard so far from Jayton. But he's got to go on the field and do it, so we'll have to wait and sit. All right. Thanks for doing this. I know you're busy. I appreciate it, and I'll talk to you this weekend. Of course. Anything for you, but. Steve Sands, everybody, making time for us on a very hectic day for people in that business down in Louisville. It is much appreciated Sands Golf Channel NBC as we know.

And how about that at the end on Jaden Daniels? Steve saying that some of the players he knows on the team when he's talked to them that Jaden loves football, that it's very obvious that Jaden loves football. And I know I'm being repetitive here. I think I've probably only mentioned this about a dozen times maybe this week. But I am so confident that when it comes to this quarterback, the thing we're never going to hear is he doesn't put in the work. He's not prepared.

We're not going to hear that. If he fails, it'll be for other reasons. And my guess is if he doesn't have the career that, you know, all of us are hoping he has, it probably has something to do with his build, his frame, and staying healthy. But even Sands said about some of his interaction with some of the players, is that they thought he was not as big or as strong as he is once they got to see him up close.

All right. We'll finish it up with our guy, Eddie C, previewing and picking the preteness. Try to say that three times really fast. Previewing and picking the preteness with Eddie C next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. You want to bet the preteness tomorrow? Do it with My Bookie. Open up an account. with MyBooky at mybooky.ag or mybooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And MyBooky will give you a cash

bonus on your initial deposit. You have to use my promo code, as I just described it, Kevin, D.C, and you'll get free cash into your account. You can bet the NBA playoffs, the NHL playoffs, and the second leg of the Triple Crown tomorrow, the preteness. MyBooky.com. promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right, jumping on with us right now to talk about tomorrow's running of the 149th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico is our guy, Eddie C, local, but not really, very mysterious, but he's been picking and previewing these Triple Crown races for us for a couple of years now, and we've got the middle leg of the Triple Crown, and we've got a winner that just

barely edged out your horse at the derby trying to keep a triple crown alive. Tell me what you thought about that crazy ending to the derby to start. Well, as always, first of all, thanks for letting me come on, Kevin. It's always a pleasure. But yeah, the derby, I mean, it turned out to be one of the greatest finishes in the history of the derby. You had a three-horse photo. And, you know, the winner, Mystic Dan got just a beautiful, phenomenal role. ride by its jockey Brian Hernandez, who kept them along the rail and then kind of bullied his way through a hole, even scrape the rail and got a little cut up at, you know, they saw that he got cut up by hitting the rail after the race. But he shot through and got like a three, four length

lead. And then, you know, my pick, my top pick Sierra Leone came flying at the end, along with the Japanese sensation. And they were bumping as well all the way down. And, you know, Mr. Dan, who's going to be the favorite tomorrow, more than likely, held off by barely a nose. It may have been a little bit less than a nose, but I was really happy for Mystic Dance trainer, Kenny McPeak. He's a friend. I know him well, and as a matter of fact, I interviewed him earlier this week, talking about everything when he announced that Mystic Dan was going to run.

So happy for him, but disappointed that my top pick got nipped out by a nose. Yeah, just a nose. So Mystic Dan is the favorite right now, but perhaps wouldn't have been if Baffert's horse hadn't been scratched. Baffert back in to Triple Crown participation. Talk about him and the horse that he had that just got scratched. Yeah, we talked about his horse that's smooth. M-U-T-H. We talked that he was going to be running in the pre-knit

and he was going to be the favorite and he was the morning line favorite. And then, you know, I mean, it was nice to see Baffer get back into the Triple Crown races because Churchill Downs has banned them for the last three years and that's a story unto itself. But when they shipped them over from California to Pemlico, you know, a lot of times horses, you know,

they come a little bit early, in case they do develop a fever. They have time to recover, but he shipped them over, and when they landed, he spiked the fever of 103, and they had to scratch him because he was going to miss some, you know, some workouts, you know, galloping, training type things. So, but the backward does have another horse, the number nine horse imagination, who,

even though in the morning line, he's six to one, he might go off as the second favorite or third favorite, you know, down to three to one or something like that, just because it's Baffert and that horse is going to end up being on the lead more than likely. Eddie, why do we always see a significant drop-off in the number of horses from the Derby to the Preakness? You know, that's something that I guess probably started happening somewhere around the early 2000s.

where breeding has become, this is just my opinion, not a factual thing. Breeding has become such a huge money opportunity to where if you've got a really good horse that's won the derby or has won a couple of big stakes races, they run in the derby and they don't win. It's like let's skip the preakness because it's only two weeks and maybe run into Belmont or save the horse for other big races like at Saratoga for the Travers down the road because you can syndicate a horse in today's market for breeding. If he's got a couple of big wins, you can syndicate a horse for $50 to $100 million. And so it's not like the old days where horses just ran all the time, even your great horses.

I mean, look at how often Secretariat ran, even. Look how often spectacular business. ran. So it's just a change in, I don't like it. Most horse people don't like it, but I mean, if I owned a million dollar horse, maybe I'd do the same thing. Rain in the forecast for all of the Mid-Atlantic tomorrow. So how does that affect tomorrow's race? I think it hurts a couple of horses' chances, and I think it helps a couple of horses' chances. You have, you know, Mystic Dan, who's going to be the favorite, you know, the horse that won the derby. He won a big race, it's called the Southwest in Arkansas in the mud, just back in February.

He's got the rain. He's bred for the rain. So he's already performed well in the rain, so don't see any reason that it's going to hurt. him, the six horse and the seven horse, both trained by D. Wayne Lucas, you know, the coach, they call him because he's an all-time great. It's going to help both. It could help both of them because they both performed well in the mud, in the rain. And it sure to help, who I think is my top choice, is Tuscan Gold, who super well-bred for the, for a wet track, has a good, one of the top jockeys on him and Tyler Gaffleone and he's trained by arguably the best trainer

in the country in Chad Brown. But I just like the way the race sets up for Tuscan Gold and the rain should not bother him at all. All right. Give me your best pretenous story because I'm sure you went many times. One that you can remember. The best prequist story, which is also like the worst preakness story for me, is, you know, we've all gone growing up into the infield and, you know, and the whole point of that is just to be able to survive and walk out alive. That's true. Yes.

But I got, I was very fortunate to meet the trainer, Michael Matts, and the owners of Barbaro back in Florida. in January before the Derby. And I got invited up for the Preteness after he won the Derby. So I went to this farm called Fairhill, which is about an hour and a half outside of Baltimore, and got to see him a couple of days before the race. And I was invited, and I sat with the owners for the race. So that was just that whole experience, that whole week leading up to the race, was just one of the coolest things ever.

Obviously, the bad part was Barbara broke down. And that was a crushing blow because I had developed. I just, I love that horse. It's probably my favorite horse of all time, part of it because of the experience, but also I had a big bet on him in the Derby that year and he won't. That wasn't the story I was looking for, but we'll move on. Give me your, what? Did you want an infield?

We've all got in-field stories. All right. Give me who you like and your picks for this race. Well, as I said, I really like Tuscan Gold. I think he's got a really good running style because you're going to have a horse like imagination, and you may have this other horse, the seven horse, just steel. Those are my two horses, I think, are going to go to the front. And Mystic Dan, the Derby winner, has to be up.

close to them as well because, you know, it's a small field. There's only eight horses, and they can't let the nine horse imagination. If he gets away by himself and runs like 46 seconds in change for the half mile, he may not stop and keep going. So they're going to have to pressure him. And Tuscan Gold should be sitting right behind them. So he will get what we say, the first jump turning for home on the leaders. and I just think with the weather forecast, the breeding, the trainer jockey, and his running style, this is a really, and he's also been improving each and every race that he's run. He hasn't run that many times.

He's only run three times, but he's improved every time. And I just think the race sets up really well for him. I think Mystic Dan, so long as he really didn't get scraped up and injured too badly, I think he's going to be very tough. I'm probably going to use Mystic Dan's second. And then if, you know, always trying to look for a price horse, I'm probably going to use the seven horse Jess Steel. Okay.

Morning line 15 to 1. What I like about Just Steel is he's run a couple of really good races. As I said, he came second in the mud in the race that Mystic Dan won in Arkansas. But it's a really big jockey change. yet they, Duel Rosario, who's one of the top jockeys in the game, is taking them out.

And I didn't think Just Steele, he got a terrible ride in the derby. And I don't like saying that because I don't like criticizing jockeys, but he didn't get the best of rides. So, and then the other horse of interest is a horse called Catching Freedom

who came forth in the derby. I just don't, I think he's going to come from way back, and I don't think he's going to get there. So I'm just going to go with Tuscan Gold as my top choice. And then I will use them in exactives with Mystic Dan and with just steel. All right. So Tuscan Gold and then a couple of exactas with Mystic Dan and just steel. No trifecta? If I do a trifecta, it's going to be using just steel.

So, you know, as I think I told you for the Derby, I'll use my top two choices and then maybe play an all-ticket or just use the highest-pric horses. Because when it's a small field like eight horses, I don't think the trifecta or the Superfecta is going to pay very much like it does in the 20-horse field like the Derby. Notebook Picks. That's the Twitter X handle for Edd E.C. at Notebook Picks. Give them a follow. We'll be watching tomorrow. Thanks, as always. Hey, can I plug one thing real quick?

Yeah, please. So three weeks from tomorrow is the Belmont States. It's up at Saratoga this year. Right. And if anybody from the D.C. area that knows me is going up there. There's a place called Old Friends Farm, which is they take retired horses and give them a second life, take care of them, give them a purpose instead of them going to a slaughterhouse or something along those lines. And I will be doing a Belmont show there on Thursday morning before the Travers.

I mean, before the Belmont. So I will, people can contact me on Twitter and for my friends, they know my phone number. And last thing I will tell you is this is probably the last year. The Preakness will be at Pimlico. it'll be run at Laurel for the next probably two years. I don't know if you knew that or not. You know what? I did know that, but I wasn't sure when that was going to happen. So thanks for the update on that. Eddie C., I mean, he is Mr. Saratoga, Mr. South Florida, and for those of you familiar with the DMV Montgomery County specifically, he's Mr. K-Town. I will talk to you later.

Thanks. Appreciate you, Kevin. Thank you. thanks to Eddie C, thanks to Steve Sands. I am done for the day. Have a great weekend back on Monday.