The Kevin Sheehan Show - Playoffs?

Episode Date: December 30, 2021

Lots going on during the show today. Thom had a breaking Joe Gibbs story that was updated in progress and another story about a beer cart that killed his great grandfather. Kevin recapped Maryland's 54-10 Pinstripe Bowl win over Virginia Tech and predicted the 2022 Terps could be a preseason Top 25 ranked team. Kevin put $50 on Washington at +1300 to make the playoffs because he believes the Skins' chances are better than that. There was Kyle Allen vs Taylor Heinicke discussion, more on John Madden, and a Happy Birthday shout-out to a local PR legend.  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. Tommy's here. I'm here. Tommy's got a breaking news story,

which he tweeted out just a little while ago. We'll get to that. I actually have a playoff path for Washington that isn't as much of a long shot as you would think. I want to get to the Maryland. Of course you do. Of course. I want to get to the Maryland win over Virginia Tech as well, but I want to start with what you

tweeted out earlier this morning. I'll let you read or tell everybody what you tweet it out because I think this is really interesting, even though it has nothing to do with the actual game on Sunday against the Eagles. It has to do with all the other stuff related to the organization. So go ahead. Well, I tweeted out that I'm hearing that Joe Giff is going to make an appearance Sunday. field for the regular season home finale there, and he's going to be doing the coin toss as part of the ceremonies. Oh, my God. I've heard it from a pretty reliable source, and it wouldn't surprise me if they

change their mind based on the reaction I've gotten so far on social media, which has been contempt and critical and embarrassing. I mean, I haven't seen anybody react to say, oh, it'll be great to see coach there. Well, I'll just give you my reaction without looking towards the reactions from your tweet or looking at the reactions from your tweet. Number one is, I mean, it's their go-to move. You know, it's Sean Taylor and Joe Gibbs. I mean, this is an old, you know, go-to move for Snyder.

You know, it's an emergency break glass situation, and it's not going to work. I mean, I don't know what world they're living in to think that they can trot Joe out and garner some sort of empathy or, you know, create some goodwill or some credibility among the fans. We know what Joe is. We love Joe. We respect Joe. He's the all-time, number one, for most of us. You're a, you know, the management's association with him is a turnoff, actually. And they're using him is a turnoff.

So that's number one. Number two is it's going to be mostly an Eagles fan base Sunday at FedEx Field. I mean. And I don't think the Eagles fans will be very respectful to coach. You know what? I don't know what the Eagles fans would be. But it's, you know, it's a coin toss before the game starts. you know, it's not a half-time ceremony. It's not a

thrown-together last-second Jersey retirement ceremony. These are their moves, you know. Sean Taylor's the move. And I told, I said to you earlier this week or last week, you watch. I mean, when this season is over, there's probably going to be more things lined up related to Sean Taylor, you know, remembrances. And I don't know why they don't get at this point why enough is enough. It has nothing to do with Sean or his family. It has to do with them being so transparent, so obvious in what they're trying to do.

And this is obvious, too. It's stupid on their part. And let me throw this in there. You know what, Tommy, I know Joe will never more likely than not share with anybody publicly his real feelings about Dan Snyder and the organization that used to be, the organization that he was a big part of. Because Dan, I think, you know, donates a significant amount of money to Joe's, you know,

charity, the Youth for Tomorrow charity on an annual basis. And I don't even know if it's fair to actually say that would be the reason. I think Joe's got more, you know, I think Joe, if Joe really didn't want to be associated with Dan at all, I don't know how much of that would drive, you know, the reaction. But I don't want Joe associating with Dan or this organization until ownership changes at some point anymore. I think it'll never make him look bad because we'll never, ever. He could never do anything to make us have ill feelings towards him. But he's just such on a different

level of human being than the people that own and run this organization. I know he knows Ron, you know, or knows him a little bit. I know that I think you and I both believe and discussed that Ron and Joe spoke before Ron took this job. I just don't want Joe anywhere near the Snyders anymore. I mean, and by the way, not just near the Snyders, near an organization right now that has some serious, serious explaining to do. You know, has serious repairing them. So, Gives is very loyal. He's loyal to the organization, no matter who's running it, apparently.

He's just got a strong sense of loyalty. He's probably never going to abandon Snyder, at least publicly. And if he shows up Sunday, that'll be evidence of that. One of the other strange side stories of this is this will be the first time Gibbs will be at the stadium, I think. since Snyder's falling out with Dwight Schar, the poor minority partner of the team, who Snyder has accused of conducting a smear campaign against him. Right. And Gibson and Dwight Schar have been very close friends,

and it was Schar who introduced Snyder to Gibbs in the first place. Yeah, it's weird. So that's got to be awkward. Look, for all we know, Joe's disgusted with what Dwight Schar may have been involved in as well. You know, that's the one thing about all of the last year and a half or whatever it's been now. Yeah, about a year and a half. If somebody started attaching my name to Jeffrey Epstein in sex trafficking and drug trafficking, and I knew where that stuff was coming from, and it was coming from one of my business partners,

I'd be pretty pissed off too. You know, and again, we don't know for sure that Dwight Schar was behind this or Bruce Allen had anything to do with it, but Snyder clearly thinks that they did. But whatever. I mean, you know, Tommy, it's like you almost have to, I mean, let's think about this. Hey, Joe, before you come up here and stand next to Dan or walk out onto the field and then get the shots of you in the suite with Dan watching the game. Do you know that just in the last like three months, we've had DEA agents, you know, raid Ashburn, and we had our director of medical and training basically walked off the premises. He hasn't been back.

Did you know that there was a report that Snyder's lawyers paid hush money to the people that were alleged victims? There's some breaking news. What? What? Nikki, how do you pronounce? Nikki Javala? Javala. Yeah. Just tweeted out, was told this was scheduled,

which has since been canceled because of travel concerns during COVID. There you go. Okay, so. It was schedule. Right. Like I said, it Joe Kiv's schedule for coin toss, but it has since been canceled for COVID, and that makes sense.

Yeah. So it had been scheduled that he was going to do this late in the year. I wonder when it was scheduled. I don't know. Maybe they scheduled it before the season, unlike the Sean Taylor retirement jersey thing. Jersey retirement thing. But you know what? I just don't.

I don't. Hey, Joe, are you paying attention to what this guy is involved in and what this organization is? We've got congressional hearings on this organization. We got a guy that tried to obstruct an investigation. We got a guy whose lawyers reportedly paid hush money to alleged victims of the, of by the way, the culture, which let's be fair here, and let's be honest, included four years of Joe Gibbs being a big part of the football operation. A lot of the stuff that was going on was when Joe Gibbs was here.

Yes, it was. These are dots. These are dots nobody wants to connect. Of course not. And by the way, there's no reason to connect the dots. No, there's not. Because if Joe knew something was going on, he would have taken care of it. Yes.

Maybe. Absolutely. Let's, I don't, I just, I don't need Joe near this place anymore. Well, thanks to COVID, one of the silver lines of COVID is Joe Gibbs won't be making the trip after all. Okay. So there we go. We just spent 10 minutes on something that isn't going to happen. But your report wasn't wrong.

It was scheduled to happen, but COVID concerns have, you know, whether by the way that's true or not, maybe they saw the quick response and they said, well, we can get out of this easily by just saying it's COVID related. Because you can pretty much get out of anything. these days by saying it's COVID-related. Look, this organization has earned every cynical response they get. Of course. But it's reasonable to believe that it was canceled because of COVID.

I mean, seriously, though, if he had walked out there and let's just say, I mean, I don't think Philadelphia fans are going to totally descend on FedEx field with, you know, this is a huge game for them.

I know, remember, I know from like three weeks ago a month ago that this game hadn't been selling many tickets at all. That's because both teams, for the most part, were not very good teams for most of the year. So I don't know what kind of crowd they'll have there. I would guess it's going to look very much like the crowds of early in the season. You know, 35 to 40,000 real crowd, not paid attendance. The paid attendance will be the 50 or the 51. they'll have, you know, 35 to 40,000 in the stadium,

and half of them will probably be Eagles fans. Maybe more than half, I guess. More than half, I'd say. Yeah. On a good day, on a good day from the games I was at the stadium, it was 50-50 if you were a Washington fan. That was a good day for Washington fans. Yeah.

If at least half the stadium was filled with, you know, fellow fans. Right. Anyway. Okay. Well, what about that Maryland football team, buddy? You know, I, first of all... You should strut your stuff here. I mean, this is a rare moment for this football team.

Well, I'm more interested in strutting my stuff because for two weeks I've predicted that Maryland was going to win in a blowout over Virginia Tech. It was very predictable because Virginia Tech, and yes, all of you Virginia Tech hockey fans who listen to the show, I am very aware of all of the players that had opted out. I had talked about that before. One of the reasons I liked Maryland a lot is Virginia Tech not only had a lot of players, including basically quarterbacks dropping out, opting out, transferring the whole thing with the coaching change that's going on.

But Maryland really didn't have that. And Maryland was going to be the motivated team. I could tell that they were going to be the motivated team. And by the way, the public was hammering Virginia Tech plus points. So I had Maryland. Maryland yesterday is a smell test pick, along with Iowa State, which did not work out last night. So there are a couple of things. Number one, you know, Loxley told me last week, you know, we, by beating Rutgers at the end of the year and becoming bowl eligible and getting

this game, and it's something that Ralph Regan, I remember, used to tell probably both of us together, that getting to a bowl game is so important for a college program, even if they're six and six, because it gives them another month of practices. And it's really like a second spring of practices. And it's very valuable for the following year, especially if you're returning the same coaching staff and a lot of the same players. And he really felt like it was a major step for the program

to become bowl eligible. And, you know, he's recruited very well. The coaching, you know, has been discussed. It's been sloppy at times. been a sloppy football team under him. They've been a highly penalized team, a team that seems to take a lot of dumb penalties a lot. They've been absolutely non-competitive in a lot of the games against the upper echelon, which, by the way, a lot of teams of their level don't have much of a chance against Ohio State. The Penn State game was super competitive this year until

the end. But yesterday, so remember on Sunday night when Dallas wins 56 to 14, and we said, look, Washington's going through a lot, but all of the excuses in the world, it's tough to really explain 56 to 14. Virginia Tech had a lot going on and a lot of missing players, but it's kind of hard to explain 54 to 10. It's kind of the same thing. Maryland really, really played well. They played their cleanest game under Mike Loxley, no turnovers, just three penalties.

They played one of their most, you know, complete games. in terms of their playmaking ability on defense and on offense. You know, just like Dallas played one of their best games of the year, even though Washington probably really wasn't ready for that game. Marilyn, listen to this, Tommy, in a 54 to 10 win over Virginia Tech in the pinstripe bowl yesterday at Yankee Stadium, Maryland at the at halftime had a 24 to 10 lead. The time of possession was Virginia Tech 23 minutes 35.

seconds. Maryland, six minutes, 25 seconds. They only had the ball in the first half for six minutes and 25 seconds. But they had scored on a punt return and they had scored on a one-play 70-yard bomb. And they had another drive that was five plays that took a minute 35. And then at the end of the half, they drove six plays and it took them a minute two. They were so explosive. And they do have talent. I mean, he has recruited his ass off. He's a, first of all, Loxley can really sell. He's a very good communicator. There's something about him. Like when you are with him or when you have a conversation with him, you understand how he's able to connect and sell the program, which, by the way, there's not a hell of a lot to sell.

I know he would say differently, but it's not like Maryland football is, you know, at a category that makes it, in a category that makes it very easy to sell. He's recruited very well, and now here comes the next part. They get the bowl win. They end up with a winning record. A lot of people roll their eyes and say, this is 7 and 6.

They got beat by 100 against Ohio State and Michigan and Iowa, and those things are true. But they have some of their best players, including their quarterback, to his brother, Talia Tunga Vailoa, coming back. They've got some really good running backs coming back. They're two best receivers. Rocking Jarrett is coming back.

and Dante Demas Jr., who was injured and lost for the year in that Iowa game, and both of them are probably draft choices in the NFL. They're both coming back. They've got defensive players, including this guy Hippolyte number 11, who is really good coming back. Nick Cross coming back. Tarheeb Still, who had a 92-yard punt return and a couple of past breakups coming back. They are going to be next year, not Ohio State, not Michigan.

They're in a very difficult division, obviously, in the Big Ten. but they are going to be a team that at the very least gets votes for the preseason top 25. That's my prediction. They'll be at the very least teams that are others receiving votes. And they have a senior quarterback coming back in Antunga Vailoa who will get a lot of preseason recognition. And I know some of you are going to say, Sheehan, you told me that at 4-0 this year, and then he shit the bet against Iowa and Minnesota and other games. It's true.

But, you know, I was listening to Loxley in the postgame show with Johnny Holliday and Steve Suter. You know, Leah, to his brother, he played his first games last year during a pandemic in which they really only played six games or five games during the course of the season. All the other games were basically canceled. And he only played, I think, in four of the five. So this was his first year of starting. He's a senior coming back, and he finished strong. He played great against Rutgers, and yesterday, 20 of 24, 265 yards, two touchdowns, and he did something yesterday that I wish he would do more of.

He should be a better runner. I think sometimes he's hesitant to run. I don't know why. He's very, very good at escaping pressure, and he should be a much better runner. And yesterday he did that to the tune. of 10 and a half yards per carry, four carries, 42 yards. Three of them were scrambles. One of them was kind of a designed run.

I think Maryland's got a chance to take another step next year. Not Ohio State level, not, you know, national championship level, Big Ten East level, but, you know, a team that's going to have a chance to win eight plus games next year and, you know, be more competitive against the division that they are in the Big Ten East. You know, they lost to Ohio State this year the same way it seems like they always lose to him. 66, 17. They lost to Michigan 59 to 18. They lost to Iowa, even though they had, you know, even though it was a close game.

They had a lead at the end of the first quarter. They lost 51 to 14. Next year's going to be different. They've got a lot of talent coming back. His recruiting classes are starting to mature. The key is playing more disciplined, clean football like they did against Virginia Tech. But I am happy for Loxley. I know a lot of Maryland fans are not convinced,

and I'm not saying I'm totally convinced either. But I really like him. I'm hoping that they can take the next step. I don't think Maryland football is ever going to be a legitimate national championship contender, not in this league and not in a division they're in. But if they can win eight, nine games a year, have, you know, one out of every four or five years, have a chance to beat Ohio State or Michigan, you know,

and be more competitive, you know, that's pretty good for them. I was impressed with them yesterday, very much so, despite how limited and depleted Virginia Tech was. Is that enough on Maryland? Look, no, no, I just wanted to put in my two cents. You have every right to feel that way about all of it. And really, I mean, if Rocks,

if there are questions about his actual coaching abilities and strategies, I mean, those things can be taken care of with a strong assistant coaching staff, you know, recruiting being such an important part of the business. And if he learned from his mistakes from his first tenure as a head coach in New Mexico, this is all good. Right. Isn't it a little disappointing, though, that, you know, they're almost like the AAA world champion in a league that's a major that's a major. major leagues. I mean, you know, they're never going to win the Big Ten. And they could win the, they won the ACC.

Yeah, in 2001. And they never played in the ACC Championship game. They were close a couple times. But you're right, their chances of winning an ACC title are better than winning a Big Ten title. That's true. Yeah. And that's just a lot.

I would think for me, I'd be a little bit disappointing. I mean, it's more fun if you're eight and four, nine and praise. and your three losses are to Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State every year, or four, and, add in, you know, Iowa to that. But, you know, there be part of me saying, you know, I mean, I want more. I guess, you know, you're not, but since you haven't had anything, you're not in that position yet, and it was a great win, and there's every reason to be optimistic about what you said. They seem to have tremendous talent.

but and you know I don't think we'll get to this stage for a while where eight and four people will get tired of that I think people will welcome that for a while is the worst bowl loss for Virginia Tech ever I like that you know they recruit against Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech in their first few years in the ACC really walloped Maryland a couple of times badly um when Ralph was was coaching um I you know I don't think that their goals should be less than competing for a championship. I understand that mindset. I just don't know if it's realistic. Like Michigan and Ohio State, Ohio State in particular, is just at a different level?

I mean, Ohio State's at a different level than almost everybody else in the Big Ten. I mean, Maryland isn't by themselves, you know, in that. You're right. Michigan this year was tremendous, but Ohio State, you know, beat Michigan State 56 to 7 when Michigan State was ranked 7th in the country. I mean, that game against Michigan State, it was 49 to nothing at halftime. Ohio State had seven drives in the first half and scored touchdowns on all of them and had 500 yards and 49 points in a half against the 9.5.

number seven team in America. So like Maryland could be Michigan State in football every once in a while. Maryland's beaten Michigan State before in football. So I think that the Big Ten, Ohio State like Clemson had for many years in the ACC until this year actually, just had a massive advantage. The SEC's different. They're more schools, more capable of competing with Alabama. but in the Big Ten, it's really Michigan and Penn State for the most part.

I mean, that's it, you know. But I think Maryland can be Iowa in different years. They can be Michigan State. I mean, Minnesota has had a couple of really good seasons. Maryland can win eight and nine games with the way he's recruiting. I think you're right. I think you're right, but it's sort of like playing in the old American league, you know you're always going to finish behind you.

the Yankees. Yeah. No, I know what you're saying. And the ACC felt like that for a long time with Florida State in it. It really did. You know, there were a lot of years there in a row where, you know, Maryland was in that ACC Atlantic with Florida State. And, you know, even though Ralph had some really good teams,

it was pretty much impossible to, you know, finish in front of Florida State. And the other division, the coastal, was wide open. Like the Big Ten, it's kind of the same thing. They're in the East, which has Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Penn State. And in the Big Ten West, you know, teams all have a chance. I mean, Wisconsin's obviously really good all the time, so it was Iowa. But, you know, Minnesota's snuck up there on occasion. Nebraska's going to, you know, they just are in the wrong division in a great league.

They were in the same thing in the ACC. That Atlantic was the wrong division. in the best league. And, uh, but anyway, um, enough about Maryland. It was, it was a fun day.

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because I was, I do like Mike. I know the recruiting classes they're having. I know how up for this game they were. You know, I, I had talked to some people leading up to this that they were motivated.

And this, these bowl games, Tommy, if they're not getting canceled, it's all about, you know, the team's motivation level. And Maryland didn't have any, I think they may have had one transfer, you know, and maybe one opt-out, but that was it. Virginia Tech had a coaching change and all of these opt-outs.

And Maryland's team speed was better than Virginia Tech's to begin with, even if Virginia Tech had been healthy. Maryland's got tremendous team speed where they have been, where they've had their problems in the Big Ten, it's been at the line of scrimmage, where they've gotten, you know, manhandled by some of the big. old country boys in the Midwest. You know, like Iowa's big old offensive line coming in and just completely dominating Maryland in that Friday night game. And Ohio State's done the same thing. They're going to have to beef up their depth as a program, and they're really going to have to get bigger, stronger, and more athletic on their offensive and defensive fronts,

although defensively, they do have some team speed, man, and they do on offense, too. But you know what they have, Tommy? They've got a quarterback. And like that next year, Lee is going to get a lot of attention going into next year. You know, I don't know what level of attention. I'm not saying that he's going to be a Heisman frontrunner at all. But it wouldn't surprise me on a list of, say, 15 Heisman candidates going into next year that he's like 15th or 14th.

Like he might be on the list. I might be carried away with that. I don't know. we've got other things to talk about, including a not-so-crazy path for Washington to make the postseason. I'll walk through it with Tommy and with all of you after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the podcast is brought to you by MyBooky at mybooky.ag and MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they will match your initial deposit, dollar for dollar, all the way up to a thousand bucks. easy place right now to go get extra money to bet with if that's what you're thinking about doing

with all of these bowl games and with still two NFL regular season weeks left and then all of the playoff games that start after that. My book is giving away free money to gamble with. You deposit 100 bucks, you'll have 200 to gamble with. Deposit 500,000. Deposit 1,000. Deposit 1,000. You'll have 2,000 to bet with. You've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And some times, and many of you have told me this, when you sign up, there is something already in the promo code. erase it and write Kevin D.C. type out Kevin D.C. in the promo code, and you'll get the initial deposit match dollar for dollar up to a thousand bucks. Okay, so no smell test picks today. I like Arizona State a little bit tonight plus the seven, and I like the under 41 in that game a little bit,

but it's not official. Maryland was official yesterday. Iowa State was officially yesterday, so I went one and one. I will tell you this, that tomorrow, Tommy, on the smell test, you know, it's really hard right now with COVID because you don't know the state of these teams and where these numbers are going to be by the time we get to kick off on Sunday. But there are a lot of NFL games that will totally fit the smell test criteria. And one of them is Washington. Washington's going to be one of the biggest anti-public plays, or Philadelphia, is going to be one of the biggest public plays of the weekend. They are a three-point favorite right now.

That's it. The line got to three and a half four. It's down to three. So sharp money right now on Washington, getting that number down to three. The public's all over Philadelphia. I'd be very surprised if in tomorrow's smell test I don't have Washington. In fact, I think Washington, this sets up perfectly.

It's so NFL. They get beat 56 to 14 on national television. And everybody thinks they suck. And the next week, they come back with their best effort of the year. And by the way, you're talking about a coach historically, like we talked about on Tuesday show, that gets the best out of his team when his team gets thumped. So the next week for Ron Rivera has been a really good week during the course of his career when he's really taken it on the chin in a game.

Now, to the playoff thing, Joe Ferreira was a longtime NFL person. involved in their logistics, in scheduling, and playoff procedures guy. Now he's a media guy, and he considers himself to be an NFL tiebreaker guru. So he put out yesterday how Washington is eliminated this weekend and then their path to a playoff berth. they get eliminated this weekend with a loss. If they lose or tie Philadelphia, it's over. They're not going to go to the playoffs. So if Philadelphia wins the game or if the game ends in a tie, Washington is out.

If they win the game, they could still be out if San Francisco, New Orleans, and Atlanta all win on Sunday. Now, there's some tie stuff in there. Just forget about the ties right now. If they win against Philadelphia, they could still. be eliminated with a San Francisco win over Houston. They're a 12-and-a-half-point favorite, although we don't know who's playing quarterback in that game, whether it's Garoppolo or Trey Lance. If New Orleans wins, they're a seven-point favorite over Carolina, and they're getting

their quarterbacks back, Taysam Hill and Trevor Simeon. And Atlanta win. So if those three teams win, San Francisco, New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington's out, regardless of whether or not they win or lose. Atlanta is a 14 and a half point underdog at Buffalo, a game that right now is going to be played in snow. There's a lot of weather for Sunday's games around the NFL. Some frigid temperature games in Green Bay and in Chicago. Snow games in Buffalo, potentially Cincinnati as well, maybe even Seattle again.

So there's some weather to keep an eye on, especially if you're playing fantasy or gambling. But Washington is eliminated. It's really simple with a loss or with a win and San Francisco, New Orleans, and Atlanta wins. It's unlikely that San Francisco, New Orleans, and Atlanta are all going to win on Sunday. Atlanta, that would be a pretty big upset as a 14.5 point underdog to win at Buffalo. Okay? So if Washington wins Sunday, the odds are they're going to be alive going into the final week of the season. So Joe Ferreira then spelled out all of the options, the paths that Washington has to the postseason. I can hear it right now, by the way, Tommy. People are like, what are you doing?

They suck. Did you see the game on Sunday night? Have you seen Taylor Heineke in his last two starts? They're not winning out. They're not beating Philadelphia. They might not even beat the Giants. Okay, fine. Just humor me here for a little bit.

Because I actually think they can win Sunday. There are three paths to the postseason for Washington, and two of them are not nuts. First of all, they have to win out. They've got to beat Philadelphia and they've got to beat the Giants. If they lose this Sunday, it's over. If they lose one game, they're done. Okay?

So they've got to win two games. Sunday, they're a three-point underdog to Philadelphia, And then they're, you know, if they have to win the game in the finale against the Giants and the Meadowlands, I bet they're favored at the Meadowlands to win. So if Washington wins out, there are three ways they can get to the postseason. And the reason there are so many different ways is there are so many teams alive. And there's so many different potential tiebreakers of potential teams that would be involved in tiebreakers. Understand this.

Washington, one of the reasons they still have a chance. is because they basically win every tiebreaker, except alone head-to-head with the Saints, because they lost to the Saints. All right, here's path number one to the postseason. Washington beats Philly, beats the Giants. San Francisco loses out. They lose to Houston and then the Rams.

Minnesota loses one game. They play the Packers and the Bears. New Orleans loses one game. Atlanta loses one game. This is the least likely. of Washington's paths to the postseason. Why? Because San Francisco is probably not going to lose to Houston on Sunday. You know, Minnesota losing a game is very much in play. They play Green Bay Sunday night at Lambo. New Orleans losing a game is a possibility. They play Carolina. Then

they play at Atlanta. Atlanta losing a game is definitely a possibility. They play at Buffalo this week. But San Francisco losing out is unlikely, very unlikely. So that path is not the one I want you to focus on. Option two or path number two is Washington wins out. They beat Philly and they beat the Giants. The Eagles lose to the Cowboys in the season finale. Very possible that Dallas will be playing for a number one seed or a number two seed in that game. So more likely than not, Dallas will have something to play for in the season finale against the Eagles. Washington wins out, Philadelphia loses out, meaning they lose to Washington, they lose to Dallas.

Minnesota wins a game. They have to win one of their final two games against Green Bay or Chicago at home. New Orleans loses one game. They finish at Atlanta. And Atlanta loses a game they play at Buffalo. It's not that much of a long shot. Okay? I mean, it's unlikely, but it's not.

It's not impossible. You know, the hardest part there is Washington winning their final two. Philadelphia losing to Dallas isn't nuts. Minnesota winning one of their final two isn't nuts. New Orleans losing one of their final two isn't nuts. And Atlanta losing one of its final two isn't nuts. But here's the one that I think would get everybody excited if Washington beat Philadelphia on Sunday.

This is the third and final path to the postseason. Do you think we've lost our last? listeners at this point. No, I think they're hanging on. They're laughing, but they're hanging on. They are laughing, though, aren't they? Yes, they are. Washington wins out. Philadelphia loses to Dallas in the finale.

Minnesota loses either to Green Bay or Chicago, one of those two. Atlanta loses to Buffalo, and Atlanta beats New Orleans. So let me walk through. this. If Washington beats Philadelphia on Sunday and what also happens is Atlanta loses to Buffalo, which is very likely.

Minnesota loses to Green Bay, which is likely, even though there is six and a half point underdog which reeks a little bit. We would go into the final week of the season needing to beat the giants and then just hoping Dallas beats Philly and Atlanta beats

New Orleans and then you're in. That's where you get to Wait, wait, tell me that again, Sean. If Washington beats Philadelphia this weekend, and Minnesota loses to Green Bay Sunday night, which they're a six and a half point underdog, and Atlanta loses to Buffalo on Sunday, they're a 14.5 point underdog,

then we will go into the final week only needing to beat the Giants and have Dallas beat Philly, and Dallas will likely have something to play for, and Atlanta at home to beat New Orleans. They're plus 1,300 to make the playoffs, Tommy. I've already put 50 bucks on them to make the playoffs. I just, you know what?

Because I'm sitting here thinking. That's putting your money where your mouth is, baby. Well, you know, it'll win 650 bucks if they make the postseason. I just think plus 1,300, a 13-1 chance isn't actually truly reflective. I think I'm getting some value there. I think their chances are more like 8 to 1, 7 to 1. You know, I don't think they're 13 to 1. I think beating, of course, the key is beating Philadelphia.

By the way, breaking news, Sam Cosby just put on the reserve COVID list. Oh, God. Well, these are the things we can't. Top Sharmer, too, but, you know. These are the things. Cam Cosby, who's been a pretty good player for them, pretty good rookie season for this kid. Had a great rookie season. So if they somehow were to beat Philadelphia, just understand that more likely than not,

they won't be eliminated and they'll go into week 18 needing to just beat the Giants, which at that point you all will think that they'll beat the Giants. They'll probably end up losing to the Giants. They'll probably beat Philly and lose to the Giants. Like they have two other times. in recent history. Yeah, but not... When they had to beat a hapless,

either a Giants team not playing for anything, or a hapless Giants team for a season. No, they only had... And they lost both of them. Well, they only had one game against the Giants where they had to win to get into the postseason. That was the one at home. No, no, but right on again, you dismissed this.

Yes, I do. But before, the game I'm talking about is Jay Gruden, and you can call him on this next time he's on your show if you want, made a big deal about finishing with a winning reference. finishing 8 and 8 or winning record or something like that and put a lot of value on it going into that Giants game. The Giants team that had only won two games that year. It was one game.

Yeah, and Washington had only won three. And Washington had only won three. And every single player looked at Jay. No, no, no, no. No, they won like this was going to be to decide if they had a winning record. Oh, this was 2017. I got it. Yeah.

Yes. But they were out of it. They weren't playing for anything. But the coach said they were playing for something. Whatever. The players have one foot out the door when nobody's playing for anything in week 18 in the final week. Why don't you ask Jay about that next time? Okay, I will. The next time I have Jay on, I'll say, Jay, the game at the end of 2017, when you went,

and wouldn't that game like in seven-degree weather and wind sideways with cousins, by the way, on his way out, and a bunch of players not, you know, dressed for the game. Whatever. And the Giants were a two-win game. Whatever. These games never mean anything. It's a preseason game. The point is that they're setting themselves up to play.

It's another season finale against the Giants team they should beat. Right. And they could lose. Right. Well, look. They've got no right losing that game. Like they did the other one. If they win on Sunday, then they will play the,

Giants with the Giants having nothing to play for and Washington having everything to play for and yeah, it wouldn't shock me if that's the game they end up losing, although the Giants are really bad. They're really bad. Terrible quarterback situation. But again, if we get to Sunday night, late Sunday night after the Minnesota Green Bay game, which is going to be a game played, game time projected temperature, four degrees at Lambo. If Minnesota loses that game, and earlier in the day, Atlanta lost to Buffalo, which, you know, again, both of those results are likely.

The one that isn't is Washington beating Philadelphia, but it's not, you know, it's not massively, you know, improbable. I agree with you about the- We're going to the final week just needing Atlanta to beat New Orleans and Dallas to beat Philly and Washington to beat the Giants. to make the postseason. I agree with you about the Eagles game. I don't think it's far fetched to think that Washington can win this game. Now ask me if I think that they're

going to make the playoffs. Really? Just ask me. Let me rewind the string in my back. Okay? Let me pull it back out again. You're bouncing up and down. Let me turn it back out. Yeah. Look at you. By the way, by the way, it's really hard to hold

you on this string. Kevin, do you think they're going to make the playoffs? No, I don't. You know who I think's going to make the playoffs? I think Philadelphia and San Francisco are going to make the playoffs. Because I think if Philadelphia loses Sunday, that they will end up beating Dallas next week at home. And that will be, you know,

and they'll sink those games up to play them at the same time, you know, whether it's the one o'clock window or the four o'clock window, you know, whatever. And so it'll be one of those. scoreboard watching situations in the final week. But I think San Francisco is going to beat Houston. I don't know what they'll do against the Rams. I think they could beat the Rams.

And I think that Philadelphia will win one of its final two. And if they lose to Washington, that they'll come back and they'll beat Dallas next week. And that'll be what will eliminate Washington. I also think New Orleans is so good defensively that they should beat Carolina being a little bit more healthy on offense. Sunday, and then even though the game is at Atlanta, that the Saints with their defense might have a chance to win that game. By the way, they're the team that if they get in, they can't beat anybody. You know, I heard on Monday night, the Monday night crew, Greasy and Riddick, they were saying nobody wants to face the Saints in the postseason, the Saints defense.

And it is nasty. But the Saints, and I know they've got Alvin Kamara, but their quarterback situation is such garbage. They're not winning a playoff game. The teams that you'd have to be worried about in the NFC if you're among the higher-seeded teams, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and then Minnesota just because they're so hot and cold. They're so capable of playing so well,

you know, 500 yards, 34 points against Green Bay, and then they're also capable of playing poorly. But if you're a playoff team seated hot, you'd rather see Washington or New Orleans end up in one of those final seeds because I don't think either one of those two teams is a threat to win a game or even push a team if they were to get there. That's my feeling about it. But anyway, just so everybody understands, there is, you're saying there's a chance,

there is a chance. And I don't think it's 13 to 1. That's why I threw a little taste on it, Tommy. because to me it's not even money. It's not two to one. It's not four to one. It's probably more like a one in seven or one in eight chance, not a one and 13 chance. And it's because of their tiebreaking situation.

They win all these multiple team tiebreakers. And so if they can win out, that's probably the hardest part is most people don't think they can win out. Because you know why? They're not very good. That's also true. Meantime, Tommy, what do you make of Rivera's comments about the quarterback stuff? I get a chance to talk to him this afternoon, and I'm obviously going to ask him about it, and you can hear it tomorrow morning on the team 980 at 8 a.m.

But, you know, he said the other day, we might, you know, Kyle's probably going to play. We'd like to get a chance to evaluate him a little bit more. And then yesterday, he said, you know, it's really not about evaluating these guys. just if the situation presents itself, Kyle will play. And then, like, they said, well, what kind of situation would you envision Kyle coming in? And he said, well, I don't want to put anything out there, but you'll notice, you'll see it, and we'll go from there. I think I have an idea of what the plan is. I don't know.

It's just a guess. It's not a report. What do you think it is? Well, I don't know what it is. I don't have any idea what it is. I don't have an idea what I think it is. I don't know why he would volunteer that. What's the upside for him throwing Kyle Allen publicly into the mix?

Why do that? Why not just go ahead and do it like on your own, like your own plan and not tell anybody about it? You know, it's, I mean, but what do you think the motivation is? Is it just he just wasn't thinking, just likes to talk? I don't know what he's doing here. Like, is he trying to make the Eagles prepare for both quarterbacks? That may be. Is he really...

But they're the same quarterback in a lot of ways. Yeah, I mean... Kyle isn't as off script as Taylor Heaney could be, but he's capable of it. We've seen him. He can run. He can move back there. got a better arm I think he is thinking and by the way if he's thinking this then I wish that he would just make the move

I think he believes there's a chance that Taylor's not going to play well and if he doesn't Kyle's coming in and if they lose you already set him up for that now I know like I think the only goal for Sunday should be put your players

out there to give you the best chance to beat the Eagles if you're already thinking that Kyle might play, well, then you're already thinking that Taylor may not succeed. So just play Kyle then. Yeah. I said it yesterday on the podcast. This is not the game where you think, well, you know,

I don't want to mess with Taylor Heineke's mojo. I don't want to bench him yet. You know, like you said, their only purpose should be to win the Eagles game. Sunday. Nothing else matters. Yeah. That's what I think. We had, I want to get your thoughts on Madden. You have a story to tell, too. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Just a reminder to subscribe to the podcast. If you haven't, really helps us.

Doesn't cost you a thing. Rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify, if you haven't done that. All of those things really do help us and will really help us. heading into the first quarter of 2022. Our rankings, our reviews, all of those things really do help drive and increase our ability to generate revenue for the podcast. So thanks for doing that. If you haven't done it, it takes, you know, pause us right now and do it if you can. One sentence review about how much you like the show and a five-star rating would be great.

We'll take four. We prefer five. By the way, before we get to your thoughts on John Madden, I had Joe Beninati on the radio show today. One of my favorite people to have on as a guest. He's just such a great guest. Joe is a class act and a very talented broadcaster. So talented. So the Caps won last night in the resumption of the NHL season.

They beat the Preds, Nashville, 5 to 3. And the Caps right now have the second most points in the NHL. But man, Joe laid out the logistical challenge right now in the NHL. And the real challenge are these Canadian teams. They are, you know, you can't essentially, you can't really play games in Canada right now. And their protocols aren't changing because the NHLs change theirs. You know, the NHL, like the NFL, cut the quarantining in half from 10 days to five days per, by the way, the CDC recommendation. Well, they're not doing that in Canada.

And so there's going to be a challenge to get to an 82 game finish here. The caps have already had multiple games postponed. Their next game, which was scheduled for Montreal in Montreal in January 4th, has already been postponed. It's going to be quite the challenge. I did learn something from Joe this morning. You know how last year in baseball and in the NFL during the pandemic, you know, the league said,

If we end up with an odd number of games, meaning, you know, some teams play 16, some teams play 15, we'll just revert to winning percentage for playoff, you know, positioning. Well, the NHL is the only league that is based on points. They have a point system. You know, it's not a winning percentage thing. It's a point-based system. So you've got, you know, a much better chance if you play more games to end up with more points. Well, Joe explained to me that it would be point percentage. It wouldn't be winning

percentage. It wouldn't be point percentage. So if the caps ended up playing 82, but just say Carolina ended up playing 78 games, it would essentially come down to what were your potential points? Well, for 82, that would be 164 potential points. How many points did you have? So what percentage of your overall point possibility did you? Did you? did you achieve? So it would come down to that. I thought that was interesting. Probably not to many of you. All right. Go ahead. What did you think of the madden passing? What was your reaction to it? Well, look, I mean, he was, he had such a remarkable life in terms of these three careers where he was, and the third one, I don't even know if he called a career. You know, I don't

what you call his Madden football time. But he's the winning his coach of any coach with coach over 100 games in history to league. I mean, he had a remarkable – they went, I think, to the AFC title game like six times in the 10 years he coached. He lost five of them. Yeah. And that's when the AFC, when you were playing the Dolphins and the Steelers and every year. And as a broadcaster, I mean, there's no one that's come close to matching him since in terms of personality and knowledge.

You know, I mean, there's just nobody that's that's been around since Madden stopped doing games who's come close to him. And the whole Madden football thing, you know, it's a foreign concept to me. I never played mad at football. My kids didn't play mad at football. I certainly recognized the huge impact it had in the video game business. And he was involved, I guess, in the planning of it, you know, every year to some extent. But I read somewhere he's worth over $200 million.

Oh, is it too? That's so funny because I was wondering what his net worth was, and I estimated it would be close to a half a billion dollars. I thought that's what I thought. Now, I saw a report that said $200 million. I said to my wife, I'll bet you it's $500 million before I even saw that report. Yeah.

So you read that his net worth was $200 million? Yeah, that seems low to me. The game itself has generated to date, $7 billion. in revenue since Madden put his name on it back in, you know, 1989 or whatever. I don't know what his deal was. If he got essentially royalties, you know, a percentage of revenue, whether he got equity in the company, I don't know.

I've looked for that. And I'm looking for, you know, somebody sent me something, but it didn't look like it was totally right. but if you think that he got 5% of the revenue, well, that's, you know, $350 million,

just in the revenue. And, you know, if he made that off of that, along with all of his other forms of compensation, along with, you know, what he did with his money along the way,

I would have estimated it would have, he would have been worth at least a half a billion dollars. I agree. Here's something. I think 200 million. is pretty low. I just found this. Let me just, EA's share price rose from $7.50 in in 1989 to $70 in 1999, according to ESPN.

Okay, so 10X, basically. The company went on to become one of the leading game development companies in the world behind a Madden franchise that has sold more than 130 million games. The Madden games have equated to more than $4 billion in sales. I read $7 billion in sales and have appeared on more than 30 different platforms. EA Sports's FIFA, the soccer game, is the only other sports video game to surpass $100 million in sales. It's funny, my boys love Madden football and they love FIFA. Madden later said not buying into EA was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life. Madden did agree in 2005 to a $150 million deal with the company to use his name and likeness

in perpetuity, along with getting annual royalties. Okay. So what he's saying there is he didn't take equity. You know, as their share price rose, he was not an equity holder in EA. What he had was probably some sort of revenue deal or royalty deal. And then in 2005, which is 16 years, you know, after the game was launched, they paid him 150 million in perpetuity to use his name and likeness, 150 million to use his name in likeness in perpetuity,

along with getting annual royalties. Well, I don't know what the royalty deal was, but 200 million is light. I would bet that his net worth at death the other day was worth is more than $200 million. I agree. And look, to a lot of people out there, his personality,

and I wrote about this in a column in the Washington Times. You could read it on Washington Times.com slash sports. I tweeted it out. And you can find it. Retweeted it. Oh, thank you. You can find it on my Twitter account and my Facebook page, Tom Laverro. In that, you know, everything I've heard about this guy is that he was so approachable and loved and, you know, liked meeting people.

The Madden Bus, the crew, the Madden Cruiser. that would drive around the country. I remember reading a Stephen King's story where he said it reaffirmed his belief in humanity, those trips because of the people he would meet. You'd hear about how terrible the world was,

and he'd say, I don't really believe that, because the people I meet are so nice and then friendly. So, I mean, here's how I describe some people. What's your first move? His first move is to be a good thing. guy. You know, in pretty much anything.

Pretty good advice. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's his first move. I mean, that's his instinct. And I think that came across to people who didn't even know him.

But I also put in, he did, I mean, him in Summerall, or legendary, obviously, they did the last game at RFC Stadium.

Yeah, no, I talked about it yesterday. Right. And the post did a story where I, I picked up the quotes from it and attributed to the

post, obviously. And I said, in addition to being a great football coach, television personality, a video game legend, Madden became a profit. Quote, I'm sure the new place will be bigger and nicer and more parking and more efficient and all that. But the tough part about it is you'll never have this again, and there's not a whole bunch of these places left. There's no place like it, and there never will be again.

To me, that's kind of sad. It just makes sort of the hair on the back of my neck stand up in watching that, you know, because we played it last week to, you know, to remember 25 years ago the final game at RFK. And, you know, Madden's last, you know, sort of goodbye to it at the end of the broadcast is spectacular. And he loved RFK. Just loved it. And, you know, I had Ernie Bauer on the podcast yesterday, and I know that you included some Ernie's stories in your column. as well.

And Ernie said he loved RFK and he loved the fan base. And, you know, it would have been interesting, you know, over these last, you know, five, ten, fifteen years to get Madden's perspective on this franchise and how, you know, it has fallen so, you know, it's fallen so much over the years. And I'm sure he just like us is like, God, it would be, you know, those people. poor people. He probably thought those poor people, they were so into this thing. It was so great. And I was there and I remember all of it, you know? And yeah, there's, and I read some of these yesterday on the podcast, but if you haven't read it, I would recommend reading it because I think

you'll love some of these stories. But ESPN.com reposted a story that they published in April written by Ryan Hawkinsmith. I don't know who that is. But it was basically a series of of Madden stories. There were like, I think there were like 12 or 13 or 14 of them. And they were just different stories about Madden. Many of them I had never heard before. But some of them you would love, including what happened on 9-11 and who his passenger was with him on his bus going back to California from New York.

Do you know, do you know the story I'm talking about? No. Peggy Fleming. Peggy Fleming was making a speech in Wilkeshire, Pennsylvania, probably a town you're very familiar with. Is it Wilkeshire or Wilkesbury? Wilkeshire. Wilkeshire, Pennsylvania. She was making a speech the morning of 9-11, 2001.

And when the speech was over, she couldn't get back to California because obviously air traffic had been halted. And she called her agent, who was an agent at IMG, and the agent said, you're going to have to hang out there for a couple of days. We can't get you back to California. And then she got a call five days later saying, you're going to get picked up by John Madden and his bus. And she told the story, she said, as the bus pulled up, she sat there with her baggage out in front of the hotel with her thumbs. stuck out in the air. And the door of the bus opened up and mad and said, get on in here. And they spent 52 hours together going from Pennsylvania back to California where they

both lived on his bus. And they became very good friends. That was a cool story. There was a story where they were in a hotel in Chicago and a Ritz Carlton in Chicago. and a guy with big glasses and a thick British accent walked up to him and said, look, we only get one broadcast a week in the UK, and I only watch when you're doing the games. And he said, oh, that's really nice. Thank you very much.

The guy walked away, and his agent, Sandy Montag, said, that was Elton John. And, you know, it's kind of like the Ali Beatles thing, remember? When the Beatles came to visit him down in Miami before the first Liston fight, and Ali had no clue as to who they were. Yep. You should, there were so many good stories, many of which I had never heard, and you'd love some of the stories about Madden. By the way, the other one being, did you know that he was the inspiration for the first down yellow line on Fox?

Yeah, I had heard that before. Okay. Yeah, I didn't know that. Anyway Tell I got a story I know Tell this story

Real quickly Before we say goodbye For the day Go ahead Okay I found out recently I know a lot about My father side of the family

The Louverro side But my mother's side Donlon The Irish side I don't know Anything at all Pretty much And a friend of mine

Who's doing like Ancestry research as a hobby, offered to do some research on the Donlin name for me. And they found out that I didn't even know who my great-grandfather was. My great-grandfather's name was Patrick Donlin. And they found a story in May 6, 1905, Brooklyn Citizen newspaper that Patrick Donnellon of 78 Raymond Street was pushing. a hand cart along Ashland Place yesterday afternoon when a big wagon owned by the Kipps Bay Brewing Company

came along the Cab Avenue on the way to the bridge. Apparently, it ran my great-grandfather over killing him, and he died at the age of 30. Oh, my God. By a beer cart, by a runaway beer cart. Oh, my God. When the picked up by eyewitnesses of the accident, Donald was unconscious and bleeding from several wounds about the head and body. Oh, my God. The driver of the cart was arrested on a charge of homicide. Was he convicted? I don't know.

That's all I've got. I don't know. Was your great-grandfather? My great-grandfather. He was, I'm assuming he was first generation, right? I see, I don't know that. I mean, I didn't even know what generation of Donland's was the first one over here. Oh, my God.

I know anything about that guy. Hold on, 30 years old, and he got run over by a beer wagon. Yes. Oh, my God. I think that explains a lot about me. In Brooklyn, in Brooklyn. Yes. Yeah.

On the Cowb Avenue. And what was the beer? I didn't say that. Oh, Kips Bay Brewing Company. Kipps Bay. No longer in business. Yeah, like Valentine, I'm hoping my great-grandmother, my great-grandmother sued a hell out of them,

but I don't think people did that back then. Well, that's what I was going to ask. Like, if they were negligent, if they were at fault, I mean, you certainly could have sued. I mean, it's 1905. It's not 1805. Right. Well, listen, if they got, if they did sue, I don't know, they couldn't have gotten much money because I didn't get any.

There was no generational welfare, I can tell you that. Kipps Bay Brewery Company opened, oh, it says it opened in 1910 and closed in 1913. Well, that doesn't make sense. Got the article right here. No, actually, here's something that says it opened in 1895. Okay. Well, maybe they put them out of business. Oh, my God, that's a terrible story.

30 years old, your great-grandfather. And so this was your- I thought it was kind of amusing myself. Yeah, so this was your mother's grandfather. Yes, my mother's grandfather. Yeah, and your grand, you know, and your, and, yeah, that's, and your grandfather's, it would have been your grandfather's father. Yes, I didn't know my grandfather.

He died before I was born, on both sides of my family. Both my grandfathers died before I was born. Old Patrick Donlin. And both my grandmothers I knew. Yeah. So who knows what we'll find out? I want to make a trip to Ireland sometime soon when things calm down. So I got to do some more research on the Donlin name before I go over there.

Maybe the Donlins and Sheeans were friends over in County Cork. That's possible. It's possible. That's... One last thing. Yeah. One last thing before we go. Yes.

I want to let everybody know that we're wishing a happy birthday today to one of the legends of Washington's public relations. The greatest public relations guy I've ever had a chance of knowing. The great Charlie Broughtman turns 94 today. Oh, my God. Charlie, happy birthday. Yes, happy birthday, Charlie's impacted a lot of lives in this town. And I love the guy. I love Charlie Broughtman.

Who doesn't? Every single person in media in this town is at some point a long way needed to rely on Charlie Broughtman. My favorite Charlie Brotman was when Charlie, you know, during the tenant, Charlie was the PA guy of the tennis tournament downtown at 16th and Kennedy for years, you know, introducing players. Right. Introducing everybody. And he's he's the best. 94 years old, Charlie, I hope you're well. Happy birthday to you.

Okay. Oh, since we're not going to talk again until Tuesday, do you want to make a pick on the Washington-Philadelphia game? Yeah, I'm going to pick Philadelphia, 24 to 10. 24 to 10, Philadelphia. Okay. I will do a podcast tomorrow, just previewing the game, some thoughts on the game, a smell test, prediction on the game, maybe a guest as well.

That's it. What a story about Tommy's great-grandfather. When I talk to you next time, it'll be from sunny Destin, Florida. Oh, that's right. You're heading to Destin. Down there in the panhandle. And you know what? When we talk next, it'll be 2022. God, this year has flown by. All right, safe travels, happy new year. I'm back tomorrow. Happy year to you. And Tommy and I will be back together on Tuesday.