The Kevin Sheehan Show - Ranking the NFC East QBs

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

Kevin and Thom opened with memories of the return of baseball to Washington 15 years ago tonight. They discussed Urban Meyer's comments about Dwayne Haskins from over the weekend and then ranked the NFC East quarterbacks based on future potential. There was talk on about the NFL Draft, the virus, sports media pay cuts, and more. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. A capacity crowd here at RFK Stadium tonight. With him with a great nights in baseball. There goes a runner. High drive, deep to left field. Way back. Gonzalez takes a look. Goodbye, baseball. Oh, Betty Castilla adds a home run to the double and triple and now needs only a single. to complete the cycle. What a night for the great veterans. Five-to-nothing nationals. I don't know about you guys, but I feel this thing moving. This crowd is getting so crazy.

They are really into it. That was 15 years ago tonight. Baseball was back in D.C. The Nats had opened up the 2005, their inaugural season in Washington on the road. And the home opener was 15 years ago tonight. at RFK Stadium with Levan Hernandez, Tommy, on the bump. Chad Cordero finishing up. They won the game 5 to 3.

And actually for a brief moment, and actually several more moments to come, as you remember, they were in first place in their first season in the National League East in Washington. They made it to that halfway mark. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think 1531. And then finished 81 and 81 on this season. Sorry about yesterday. I apologize. I had something come up, and that may be the case here over the next few weeks where we take one day off during the course of the week. But certainly next week as we build up towards the draft, we'll do a show every week, every day that week. And Cooley's going to join us before the draft as well. We got a lot to get to because it wasn't on yesterday. Tommy's with me today. But just real quickly, What do you remember about that night? Well, that was a crazy day for me.

I started out at the White House interviewing George W. Bush that day. I was one of three reporters, Dave Shinen, from the Post, was another one, and Hal Bodley, from USA Today, that were invited to interview W about baseball, about the return of baseball to D.C. So I, you know, like right around lunchtime, I'm in the Oval Office sitting there with W. asking them questions about the return of baseball to D.C. So that was a remarkable day for me to be able to have the opportunity to do that. Why did you get invited?

Well, here's why I think I got invited. his press secretary at the time, I think, was a guy named Scott McClellan, I think. Okay. Well, I had been writing Scott McClellan is a Sig-Epp. He's a fraternity brother of mine. Okay. I mean, not from the chapter, but, you know, he belonged to my fraternity. So I had been writing him letters appealing to his brotherhood as a fraternity member to get me an interview with the president. about baseball. So this opportunity came up, and he included me in this opportunity to do that. So I think that's the reason why I was able to get in with the other two reporters

and no other reporters were involved. And, you know, I was obnoxious about it because what did I do? I brought a copy of my book, The Quotable Coach, and gave it to the president. Oh, my God. Oh, Jesus. You are, seriously, this was, this was 2005. Tommy was full impressed with himself at that point because he was still a big-time columnist for a real paper. You know, what did he say when you handed it to him?

Oh, he's, look, no matter, him and I were not, we're politically opposite. But as far as being a good guy, I mean, I knew baseball writers who covered the Rangers when W. Own the Rangers, and they loved him. He used to talk baseball with them for hours, and they loved him. And everybody I knew who had ever dealt with him, you know, talked about how personable and friendly he was. And he was like that then. He was very nice to me. You know, he didn't look at me and say, what are you bringing me this for?

I'm the president, not you, you know? but I thought it would be a good book for the president to have. Lots of a quote. Oh, Jesus. Some president. Assuming the other two guys, I'm sure Shina didn't bring one of his songs. You know, Dave's this singer and a songwriter. I hope he didn't sing the president of a song.

No, he didn't. But some presidents, we may have forgotten, actually use quotes, you know, when they're making speeches and talking. So I thought it would be helpful for it. And listen, I wasn't the problem that day. How bodily was the problem that day? Because how bodily dominated the questioning and just was so obnoxious about dominating it. I mean, I thought either me or Shining was about to jump out of our chair and shut him up. I don't remember how bodily.

Is he still a writer? I mean, should I know him? No. He covered. He was the, he was the leader. baseball writer for USA today for a long time. I don't know what how

situation is right now, but he made out life difficult that day, and at the end of 45 minutes, the president didn't give any indication he was ready to stop, and how bodily all of a sudden says, well, Mr.

President, we know how busy you are today. You know, so we'll wrap this up. He decides to end it. I mean, I think the guy would, I think he would have sat there for another hour. Did you say anything to Bodley? Yeah, after I said, Jesus, how you really screwed us in there. You know, I mean, it was, but it was still a great experience.

We still got to ask them questions. Right. What do you remember asking him? Like, do you remember asking them anything that was really interesting and the answer was interesting? Well, everything I asked is interesting. No. I just don't remember which question I particularly asked him.

Nothing stood out. I mean, I could go, I could go back. and look at a transcript of the interview, because after we did the White House interview, I had to get over to the ballpark, you know, for pregame stuff. Right. But I had to write a front-page story about the presidential interview, you know, for the time. And then I had to transcribe the entire interview to be able to print that in the paper as well. and then I had to write a column about the pre-game activities at RFK.

You know, the introductions of the old senators with the nationals players, they brought out an old senator player to stand at the position with each national player on the field. So I had a lot of work to do between leaving the White House and first pitch. And I don't remember looking up at my computer much to see what was going on. So I missed all the excitement of what was going on at RFK because I was pounding out stuff for hours. And I remember I didn't even stop to look until first pitch. Bush threw out the first pitch that night, right?

Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And I don't remember if the pitch was a good one or not. I know he delivered after 9-11, though, in Yankee Stadium. But, well, that's, I mean, you know what, Tommy, so I was new to the station, and I think I got to the station in 2003, four, but really in 2005, I was still basically doing updates. You know, I was doing updates, and I was a part of Tony show. And I remember, as a DC native, I was very excited for baseball coming back, so excited. You know, I've mentioned to you many times, I am just old enough to remember the senators.

And I remember my father taking me to Senators games at RFK Stadium. You know, and I remember 1971. I remember when they moved out. I had an incredible baseball card collection. You and I have both shared our stories of our beer can collections before. But I had an incredible baseball card collection. I was big into baseball cards and football cards too. my mother sold my baseball card collection, not intentionally, I don't think, but she sold the

house. It was early 80s, mid-80s, something like that. And I'm like, where's my baseball cards? Oh, those were, I didn't know that they were important. And I had, I don't know what I had in that collection, Tommy. I guarantee you I had some cards that were valuable. What I do remember is I had a lot of Senators cards. You know, I had a lot of, you know, Frank Howard's and Paul Casanova's and Casey Cox and Del Unser and Aurelio Rodriguez. I had Dick Bosman. I had a lot of

of Senators cards that I would love to have had right now, like to go back and look at them. But anyway. But listen, that's one thing on the Senator's cards. Yeah. Everybody had a lot of Senators' cards because they weren't very good. Yeah. I mean, they weren't

real valuable cards. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes, of course. You know, you got 10 cards of, you know, Bernie Allen or, you know, Ed Brinkman. I had so many Ed Brinkman cards. Eddie Brinkman. I mean, it was unbelievable, you know? Yeah. So that's why you had.

There were a lot of people who had a lot of senators. No, no, that's fair. I mean, I understand what you're saying now. I didn't, I didn't know if, for whatever reason, losing teams, they printed more cards of losing teams. I almost thought you were saying there for a second. But anyway, I remember, you know, having at some point lost interest, you know, growing up with being very young in remembering baseball and remembering the senators, I never became an Orioles fan. I was one of a few friends of mine that didn't. You know, I'd go to Memorial Stadium.

I went to Camden Yards and went to a lot of games, but I wasn't a big Orioles fan. I always wanted Washington to get a team. And I remember, you know, the number one sign Redskins games during the fall at RFK Stadium was bring baseball, you know, baseball in 1979, baseball in 1983. You know, return of baseball. It was always such a big push. And I remember the opportunities, you know, in the 70s to get the Padres and other opportunities that came up. And I think I had finally just given up on it. But when they came back, going back to RFK Stadium for.

a sporting event, and I hadn't really been to a soccer game there. But that was kind of cool, even though it really was a dump. I mean, it was such a dump. And, I mean, it couldn't have been a better opener with the home opener, with the NACS winning the game. And everyone, a lot of people always remember how, you know, at one point in the game, the fans were jumping up and down in those movable stands. Trying to get the, yeah.

And the stands were literally, you know, moving up and down. And the players from both teams, like, were looking from their top of the dugout at this. They stopped to look at it. The Nats players had never seen it before. And, you know, the Diamondbacks and the Natch players were just stunned by the notion that the sands were literally moving up and down from the crowd cheering. And that, I mean, I mean, the crowd really energized the Nats fans. players that day. I mean, everyone who took the field that day has a fond memory of it for the Washington National. That first year was exciting. You know, they actually were a good team. I mean,

they were 50 and 31 at the, you know, at the halfway mark and in first place. And of course, you know, it went the other way and then it went the other way for several years in a row. but you know and I can remember you know when you and I were doing a show together and I think we started our show in 2008 I think it was 2008 or 2009 right around there 2009 and you you really were hard on the learners there for a few years you were really really hard on them and you thought that they you know didn't know what they were doing and that they were cheap and that it wasn't going to work out with them Am I right about that? Well, yes, and they don't know what they're doing. Mike Rizzo knows what he's doing.

Well, they've kept Rizzo in place. Yes, they have. Who I might point out, this contract is up at the end of this year. That's ridiculous, yeah. I know. And he makes half the amount of money that the other top GMs in this business make, even though he's probably, you know, next to Theo Epstein, the most successful GM in baseball right now. And Rizzo was hired by Stan Kasten, not by the learner.

Right. I mean, that was Stan Kasten's gift to the national. So let's look, at the end of the 2008 season, I called Bud Sealy, who was the commissioner at the time on the phone. And back then, you know, you were able, at least when Bud was commissioner, reporters were able to easily get them. And I asked Bud, and this is when they opened up the stadium in 2008. They lost over 100 games. I asked Bud if he thought he made a mistake in picking the learners.

Now, obviously, he said no, but the learners were extreme. They were probably more upset about that than anything I've ever written about them. They were very upset. I was told that I actually called the commissioner and asked if they made a mistake. What did the commissioner? He said no? No, of course he said no. He picked him.

But was there any hemming and hauling over it? No. No hemming and hauling over. So what was your column? Your column basically said you called him and asked if he thought he made a mistake, and that's what really upset them. Well, I didn't write that they were upset. I didn't know that they were upset.

No, no. But you wrote that you called them and asked them the question. Yes. Yeah, I did. And it was a valid question because, like, one member of the, well, like one member of the organization said to me, who opens up a stadium and loses a hundred games? Nobody.

It's just not done. Now, they were very fortunate because things went their way with two draft picks in particular, Strasbourg and Bryce Harper. But really, I told people, think of Mike Grizzle as a dam, and think of on one side of the dam, you've got all this putrid, horrible, polluted water. And on the other side, you've got this pristine, clear blue water. That's Mike Rizzo.

He keeps the putrid stuff from getting into the clear blue stuff. Yeah, I don't, I think they better be careful because one of these years, Mike's going to say, I got a better gig and a better offer for a lot more money. I don't understand this going short-term and underpaid. Neither do I. But it's the way they do business. I understand that, but you know, the World Series should have changed that. Yes.

I mean, Rizzo seems to like it here. You know, he seems to enjoy D.C., which is good news, and certainly nobody ever wants him to leave, but they're sort of rolling the dice a little bit on the way they handle him contractually. Yeah, they are. They're banking on the fact that you're right. He does like D.C. a lot. and he's very proud of what he's built here,

and he knows how difficult it would be to probably recreate it someplace else. But this is a matter of respect. I mean, he sees what other GMs who are just starting out in their jobs are making more than I think he's a $2.5 million that he makes right now a year. So I just think it's just the right thing to do. All right. Let's move on to a different subject, and this is something... But I got an...

Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. No, you go ahead. Well, I've got a baseball analogy that I was thinking of that really compares to what we're going through right now with the nationals and with the coronavirus shutdown. The coronavirus shutdown, what you're seeing is you're starting to see things pop up in the media and social media from critics who are saying, Well, look at the death pole. It's not nearly what we anticipated it would be. Look at the amount of people who were sick.

It's not as grave or as many people as we thought it was. So all this was an overreaction. And I thought this is like the Strasberg shutdown. In a way, you can't be proven right. In other words, like, I mean, they shut down. a healthy picture for fear of what would happen if they didn't, you know, for fear of injury that didn't exist, okay? And in a way, we shut down the economy for fear of the worst. And that has not happened. But that has not happened. You could make the case because

everybody, we shut down everything. But you can't, that can never be proven. You can't prove that. Well, you do have a little bit of a precedent for 1918 with St. Louis versus Philadelphia, a city that mitigated and socially distanced versus one that didn't. I think the problem, I mean, it's actually, you're right. I mean, in terms of the way people are talking about it, and we're not even there yet, right? We're not even at that point where people say, what an overreaction. only 41,000 people died or whatever. Right.

And, you know, we're not at that point, but I find it hard to believe that intelligent people won't say, well, just maybe the reason the number was much lower than anticipated was because we did what they told us to do. I mean, it doesn't, it's not that far of a leap. I mean, I love, I mean, whatever, I don't want the conversation to turn towards. this. I know. I know. Already, you know, you've got, you know, CNN and MSNBC and the left basically saying that the reason

the president keeps talking about these numbers and how they're going to be lower is to make that, you know, he inflated the numbers to begin with. He made him so large that he's going to be able to come in under the number and claim victory. Well, he didn't come up with the numbers. The modeling did. The doctors did, the scientific did. Well, I haven't read anything like that. Oh, yeah, I've already heard it already.

Not one thing. Oh, yeah. Not one thing. Yeah. Zero. Yeah. I've heard it not. Zero.

I've heard it at least a dozen times. Well, why don't you do some research and let me know about it? Well, I'll send you an article or a tweet or seven before the end of the day so that you can see it. But you're not, are you paying attention to the news? Are you reading a lot? Are you just? Yes. Of course I am.

Okay. Well, then you're really not... What are you watching? Are you just watching Fox? Is that all? Because I thought you were much more sort of a liberal. I'm not watching Fox. Well, then you've been hearing it on CNN and MSNBC. No, no. Yeah, I have. I haven't. I've read it in the post several times, too. But anyway, you really don't think that people think that those numbers, that he

He's going to try to claim victory for numbers that were set by the doctors and look at what I did. Let me give you a journal as a lesson. A talking head on a talk show is not reporting news. I know the difference. Stop being condescending. I know the difference between reporters. Have any of the CNN reporters actually reported information? talking about talking heads in Twitter.

Well, I don't take that seriously. Well, that's what I was referring to. It's like a kind of, if it fit your argument, you would say, have you heard some of the people that are talking about this? No, I wouldn't. Yes, you would. I don't pay attention to that. No, don't tell me what I would do.

What do you watch? I know what I would do. Tell me what you watch right now. Tell me what you watch at night. Tell me the reporters on CNN that you watch. Kevin, I watch very little television. I get all my news from print media. What newspapers do you read where you get your news?

I read the Wall Street Journal. I read the Washington Post. I read the New York Times. I read various publications. Those are the ones I read. But you don't read the op-eds in those papers? Sometimes. Okay.

But generally, but you don't pay it to. Because talking heads are the same as op-ed writers. No. Yes, they are. blurting out on a TV talk show. It's not the same as sitting down and writing an article. Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, are all the op-ed equivalent on television. They are opinion makers.

They're not reporters. You said that you only listen and believe reporters. And then I just asked you if you read op-eds and you said sometimes. Do you find yourself agreeing or believing op-ed writers, one way or the other, disagreeing or agreeing? Sometimes. Okay. But you don't take them seriously?

I don't take them. I don't consider those news reports. I don't consider those facts. I would advise you, really, that even some of these newspapers, and I'm not just going to pick on the newspapers that are obviously very sort of, liberal slanted, but that some of the reporting, I don't even know if I believe the reporting anymore that comes out of both sides. I think it's really hard for somebody just tuning in and not knowing where to go to know whether or not they're getting the truth. Because almost all reporting

now, almost all reporting now seems to be slightly, at the very least, slightly biased. That's a myth. No, it's not. Yes, it is. I don't think it is. I think it's a myth. I think it's what people want to be. A couple of the newspapers you read. I read occasionally, too, and I read reporters, and I'll find an example and send it to you, but I think it's very often biased. I think often the writer's political persuasion gets involved in the story.

No words, you mean often, which means happens more than, more than, I don't know. I'm not going to break it down into a percentage. Okay. because the Wall Street Journal, it's a pretty liberal newspaper. Yes, it is. I would admit it. I'd say the same thing about the Times and definitely say that about the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal is not a liberal newspaper.

Actually, I think almost every major newspaper in the country. I think the Wall Street Journal is less liberal leaning than the New York Times and obviously the Washington Post. But I would still, now the good thing about the Wall Street Journal is you can get more intense. tend to get more conservative viewpoints in that newspaper. And by the way, notice how I'm not leaning one way or the other in terms of which I like. I would love it if we actually had someone on television each night that gave you the news without any bias. Can you name that one person on any network? Kevin, I don't watch television news.

It's a waste of time. Okay. I don't believe that you don't watch television news. I think that's for the purpose of this conversation. Because that doesn't fit. I watch Rockford Files. I don't watch television news. One of the great show theme music themes as well.

You know, if you recall back to the Rockford Files in the 70s, the theme to the Rockford Files, I think, was number one on Casey Kaysam's top 40 one year. I can believe it. Mike Post. He did all the great TV themes back then. What was his name? Mike Post. He wrote the Rockford Files theme.

He wrote most of the big TV themes. He did the Hill Street Blues. I forget what else he did, a bunch of others. I'm just looking up to see if the Rockford Files theme actually made it. Here it is. The song spent four months on the charts in August of 1974 and became a top 10 hit in the United States. It was number 10 for two consecutive weeks in August of 1974,

the theme to one of my favorite shows of all time and one of Tommy's favorite shows of all time, the Rockford Files, starring the great James Garner. And he was the best. How long has he been dead for now? A few years, right? Oh, about 10 years, maybe eight years. What a great actor he was, and what a great role for him. Yeah. Big Raiders fan.

He always used to be on the sidelines for the Raiders games. Absolutely. All right. Real quickly, my radio show on the team 980, if you're listening to it, hopefully you are, has switched this week. I'm going an hour earlier. I got moved. I would describe it this way, Tommy. I was moved up an hour to 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Is that the right way to describe that? I don't know. Did I get moved back an hour or down? an hour or up an hour?

I'd say you got moved up an hour. That's what I think. I had a lot of pushback on that when I announced that on Friday that a lot of people thought that I had gotten that wrong. Whatever. I've been moved to 6 to 9 a.m. And that will mean more days now than not that the podcast should be available a little bit earlier

than it's been over the last eight, nine months as well. By the way, the station, everybody moved up an hour. Doc and Al go 9 to 12, B. Mitch in Scotland from 12 to 3. And Zabin's show actually goes 3 to 7. So tune in for the radio show 6 a.m. weekday mornings on the Team 980 and 95.9 FM, Team 980 app, Team 980.com.

And by the way, if you're at home, and most people don't have a radio at home, you can listen on Alexa or Google Home by just yelling out the day. Team 980, or you can yell out the Kevin Shee and Show podcast. And at home, you'll be able to listen that way as well. Anyway, I wanted to get to something that I would have talked about yesterday had we had a show yesterday. This was Urban Meyer over the weekend on FS1. Asked about Dwayne Haskins with the Redskins. Listen to what he said. Now, Coach, you expressed some concerns when

Dwayne Haskins was leaving in terms of his maturity and landed in Washington, not necessarily hitting the ground running just yet, but now he had the new coaching staff in Washington. What are your expectations of Dwayne? I'm a coach of Aaron. I really didn't know him before, but boy, I really like him and his general manager and spent time with him. They asked a lot of questions about Dwayne.

My concerns about Dwayne wasn't so much maturity is the fact of lack of experience. you have the best year arguably no he had the best quarterback here in the history of a high state one of the best years in college football history for a quarterback however it was one year and to think he's ready to go lead a franchise immediately you know the NFL is such a different game such a fast game it's everybody's all-star and learning a new system and you know so my concerns were only that lack of experience I think he's going to be fine if they stick with him and once again, what's the common denominator is, will they surround them with excellent players? If they surround them with excellent players, he'll be a great quarterback.

If they don't, you won't. All right, there are two pieces to what Urban Meyer said on FS and one over the weekend about Duane Haskins that we wanted to talk about. The first is that, you know, Ron Rivera and Kyle Smith reached out to Urban Meyer with lots of questions about Duane Haskins. And then that very last part of the soundbite is really the one. that I think, you know, makes for an interesting conversation, which we'll get to in a moment. But when he says, if they surround him with great players, if they do that, he'll be great.

I think the exact quote is if they surround him with excellent players, he'll be great. If they don't, he won't. We'll get to that in a moment. But I don't really personally find it that, you know, interesting or, you know, like sort of conversation. worthy that Rivera and Kyle Smith reached out with lots of questions about Dwayne. Do you? No, I would say that's due diligence. Right.

I mean, I would say that that's a good sign that the coach is trying to do some homework and whatever Kyle Smith's title is trying to do. No, I think that's a good sign if you're a Redskins fan that they're doing some homework for themselves. So let's focus on the last part. which is Urban Meyer, Dwayne Haskins college coach at Ohio State, saying, you know, if they surround them with excellent players, if they do that, he'll be great.

If they don't, he won't. A couple of things. First of all, I have no idea whether or not he says that or would say that about every quarterback, you know, that they have to have weapons. Or if he's specifically saying it about Dwayne Haskins. You know, is he saying that Haskins isn't Aaron Rogers or Russell Wilson, but he's more of a system quarterback.

I don't know. And that leads me to this, Tommy, because I mentioned this on the podcast and give me a minute or two here to explain maybe two weeks ago that I heard Dan Orlovsky on ESPN describe quarterbacks as scorers or shooters. And I thought it was very interesting because it's a basketball sort of description. You know, in basketball, scores are those guys that, that can create their own shots, score on their own, maybe a really good shooter,

but also can get to the bucket and score in different ways. But the real sort of implication there is that a scorer doesn't need to be a part of a system, doesn't need others to help them score points, whereas a shooter in basketball parlance would be, you know, a guy that can really stroke it. But when you're just a shooter, you need guys to get you the ball. You're not a shot creator or a shot maker. Football terms, what Orlovsky was saying that particular day when I heard him say that, is a scorer is a guy that can make plays without sort of the best talent around them.

And shooters in quarterback terms is a guy that needs a really good team around them. It might also mean that that quarterback is sort of more of a system guy. So the scoring types would be Aaron Rogers and Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes, even though Mahomes has had a lot of weapons and a really good team around him. I think we all watch Patrick Mahomes. And if we had to put him in the category of scorer or shooter, we would say that's a guy that just can do everything and can make plays. Deshawn Watson, Lamar Jackson, scorers.

You know, Jackson's unique because he's not, you know, not all scores are sort of built the same way. Jackson, you know, Lamar Jackson does it differently than, say, Aaron Rogers. The shooters are guys like Matt Ryan and Kirk Cousins and Andy Dalton and maybe a guy like Sam Darnold. You know, maybe you would even throw a guy like, you know, Matt Stafford or Jimmy Garapolo. You know, Drew Breeze might be the best shooter ever. You know, he's a playmaker, yes, but there's a really good system for him, and he's obviously been much more successful as a winning quarterback with much more around him. He hasn't been a guy that's been able to elevate a team like Aaron Rogers has,

two double-digit wins when the team around him is bad. You know, Breeze had three consecutive seven and nine seasons when he didn't have a lot of weapons and the defense wasn't very good. You know, Ben Rafflesberger, to me, is more of a scorer. even though he's not a scrambler or a playmaker. He makes plays in the pocket. So whatever you, you know, it's not really a conversation today about where you would put various quarterbacks. It is sort of my way of getting to what Urban Meyer may have been saying about Haskins. And that Haskins might be more of the shooter, you know, more than Matt Ryan,

more the Kirk Cousins, more the guy that needs everything around him to be really good to succeed. If you put everything around him, he will succeed. If you don't, he's not going to elevate your team. Now, give me another minute here because I actually, I'm not about to argue with Urban Meyer who coached him. But what I saw from Dwayne Haskins at the end of last year was actually a guy that did elevate a bad team, you know, against the Eagles and the Giants in those last two games. You know, that was a bad team that he was playing with. You know, not a good offensive line, no tight ends, an aging running back, three rookie wide receivers, and a bad defense. And he made a lot of plays in those two games. It was encouraging to me.

It's one of the reasons I am encouraged. But, you know, I don't know that we've seen enough yet to be able to say confidently that he's any more than maybe the way Urban Meyer is describing him. So, you know, for now, I'll say, I'll go with Meyer, if that's what Meyer meant, and we can debate that. But if he ends up being a really good shooter, you know, a system guy that needs talent around him, which, by the way, Tommy, at Ohio State, okay, when he's playing in Ohio State in 2018,

he's got some of the best skilled position talent in the country around him. You know, and all he had to do is clap three times. Look over to the sideline, clap three times, and he threw 50 touchdowns to Paris Campbell and to Terry McCle. and to Terry McLaurin and to KJ Hill with Dobbins and Weber behind him in a big time offensive line. I personally don't think he'll ever have that kind of talent discrepancy. You don't get that in the NFL.

You get that in college. But I don't know. I'm curious if, you know, what you took from that because it's sort of, to me, some people said to me, nah, he'd say that about anybody. Okay, maybe that's true. I don't know that he would say that about Aaron Rogers or Russell Wilson because it's not true about either one of them. They've succeeded. They've gotten teams to the postseason.

They've won 10, 11, 12 games without great talent around them. But, you know, to me it's a question of if Meyer is right, it's one of the things he told Rivera and Kyle Smith. And it's one of the reasons that I learned, you know, two months ago or long. that the Redskins were really going to attempt to be aggressive in free agency to give Duane some weapons. They tried with Amari Cooper, didn't succeed there, they wouldn't go high enough on Hooper, and Kenyon Drake never became available because of the DeAndre Hopkins, David Johnson, with picks trade. What do you think, Meyer was saying? Well, I'm going to tend to think that, you know, your college kids,

coach is going to probably come down on the side of not criticizing you and heaping more praise on you than maybe a more objective person would. So I'm going to think that when Urban Myers said this about Dwayne Haskins, this is as far as he'll go in terms of complimenting him. and when the compliment includes an if, that's a bit of a problem. Yeah, well, let me just say that if he's saying that Dwayne is more of a system shooter versus score, you know, more of a Matt Ryan, not in Aaron Rogers, that's okay. If he became Matt Ryan, that'd be a massive win.

I mean, I know people are going to roll their eyes at this. If he becomes as good as Kirk Cousins, that would be a pretty big win. Because if you have a good defense, which Kirk never had, and you put some weapons around him, you know, and you've got a good coaching staff, you know, that's a top half of the league guy. You can win with that. But that's not the way the league is going. That's not the quarterback. Nick Foles won a Super Bowl a couple years ago and Matt Ryan nearly won a Super Bowl a couple years ago.

I know. That's a couple years ago. That might have been a lifetime ago for the NFL right now. Why? Because of one player, Patrick Mahomes? And Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson. Yeah. I think that the game has changed dramatically, offensively in the last two or three years. So Mahomes definitely took that game over, and the great quarterback, which I think is,

I agree with you to this extent, that having a great quarterback and a scoring type of great quarterback means that you're never going to suck pretty much as long as that guy's healthy. You're going to have a chance, and Mahomes proved that. Now, he had a ton of shitload of talent around him, but they were down in that Super Bowl and he rallied them back and won against a great defense with a game-managing shooter system type of quarterback. But I don't know.

If your college coach says that he'll be really good if everything around him is really good, that's not a great endorsement. You want the quarterback who can get your team to win when things aren't so good. Now, I agree with you. In some of those games at the end, we saw Haskins did pretty well without much around him. He did perform well. I thought he did. I think he did too.

I think he did, he did too. So, you know, I mean, the point may be moot. But it's not a glowing recommendation. Whatever you like, I mean, you know, if you do this, he'll be good. That's not glowing. Your perspective is one in which you're not, you know, you're not a Haskins guy. So it's not surprising that that's the way. you read that. I think there are...

But I just said, I thought he did play well as well. I understand that. But you don't, but you don't think he's going to be a great quarterback. I don't know if he'll be a great quarterback. My issues with Wayne Haskins are between him and the owner. Your perspective, I think, makes, it creates this, this impression of what Meyer said that's different than from mine. That's what I'm saying. Okay. You don't think it's very complimentary. I think it's one of two things. I think either, this is what he says about every quarterback, that if you don't have the weapons in that league, you know, that you can't be a great

quarterback, which isn't necessarily true, although, you know, the truth is you don't really win a Super Bowl without a really good team and without a good defense. But we've seen Aaron Rogers and Russell Wilson in particular. And I'd throw Lamar Jackson in there last year, as guys that elevated their teams to a level that gave them a chance. They were postseason teams without great teams around them. I mean, the Baltimore team was decent, though. But I think it's either this is what he says about any quarterback that he has a conversation about, or what he's saying is Dwayne is one of those guys like Matt Ryan, like maybe Drew Brees,

like maybe Kirk Cousins, that really is going to struggle if you don't have a good offensive line and weapons, you know, and a good team around him. And I don't think that that's criticism. I think he's just identifying the type of quarterback he is. It's not criticism. It's just that, I mean, what is your college coach? Well, it's not criticism either. It's not particularly complimentary if your college coach is basically saying he'll be great

if you do this. I mean, it's basically saying that you need to be coddled. That Coddle's not the right word. Okay. You need to have a comfort level around you. You need talent around him. By the way, it's the same thing you would say about 85% of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL, at least 85%. They're very few.

That was college coaches. I don't think it's what, I mean, what does Urban Meyer have to lose by giving a glowing recommendation of Dwayne Haskins? What's he have to lose? You know, it's funny that you say that because part of that interview, it was the lengthy interview on FS1. I think it was Jason Whitlock who asked him, how do you handle the conversations with pro coaches

when you have a relationship with this player and you want to make sure that this player is thought of highly, but at the same time, you've got to be honest because these guys are relying on your opinion and eventually they won't even believe you. if you steer him in the wrong direction. And he said, he said, you develop relationships with these NFL guys and you're able to speak to them very candidly about your players.

And, you know, in most cases, there's a lot of positive to say about the players that I've coached at Ohio State, you know, in Florida before then, because he's had very good teams. But you have to be very forthright and very honest about some of the negatives, you know, if asked. He said, oh, he also said essentially, and I'm paraphrasing here, what they really want to know is they want to know whether or not the person, you know, is going to be easy to coach. You know, and that's something that the head coach is going to know. You know, another head coach is going to say, what kind of guy is this?

Does he have good character? Is he going to be easy to coach or is he going to be a pain in the ass? You know, and I think one of the questions, and he didn't say it this way, but one of the questions that I think scouts always, want to know from these college coaches. And it's something that, you know, Cooley mentioned to me several years ago. He said, one of the most important things for a scout and for a general manager to find out is how much a guy really loves football. Because all those professional football players have seen incredibly gifted players

completely self-destruct and be out of the league within years because they didn't love it. They just didn't love football. They wanted to be doing something else. and there are a lot of those guys out there that, you know, don't really want to do it, but they don't really have a choice. But anyway. Okay, let me ask you a question. How many quarterback has Urban Meyer had where he could have said anything glowing about?

Could have said only glowing things about? Yeah. I mean, how many Ohio team quarterbacks are there in the NFL? Tim Tebow? Yeah, I know. He hasn't had many good great quarterbacks. No, he's not great NFL quarterback. No, you're right.

Ohio State and general over the years with all coaches have rarely had quarterbacks succeed in the NFL. I mean, I can't. I mean, Arch Leisure obviously was incredibly talented, but, you know, the quarterbacks that he's had, guys like Braxton Miller and Cardell Jones and Barnell Jones and, Barrett, you know, Barrett's not an NFL quarterback. You could have seen that in college.

Braxton Miller's playing another position. Cardell Jones didn't make it. And by the way, the XFL's done, Tommy. Yeah, I know. They're filing for bankruptcy. Now, that could be protection, and they might come out of this thing on the other side. Who knows? But it looks like the coronavirus claimed the XFL as a victim.

But you're right. Ohio State quarterbacks over the years, not good NFL quarterbacks. And what he had at, you know, Florida, when he had it, you know, when national championships, obviously, was, you know, was Tim Tebow. And I wonder what he said about Tim Tebow as a pro prospect. That is interesting. Spurrier had some guys, you know, a couple of guys that were here, Danny and Shane. Anyway, I think the comments are interesting comments.

Look, I asked a question today about Dwayne, Haskins, and I'll ask it to you. Right now, Dak Prescott, Carson, Wents, Daniel Jones, and Dwayne Haskins are all the projected starting quarterbacks in 2020. Rank them right now in terms of future, you know, potential. Not who you'd want today or this year, but future potential rank them one to four. Carson Went, Dak, Prescott, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins. That's the way I ranked him. Are you surprised? Well, you always surprised me when you think like I think.

It shows a light bulb went off usually. I would barely give Daniel Jones a nod over Haskins. Yeah, it's not. I don't feel great about it. I don't feel super confident picking him over Haskins. You're right. It's a nod. It's a nod.

I mean, here's the thing. Didn't see Haskins a lot. Saw him here. Saw him play the Redskins and throw five touchdowns, you know, against the Redskins in December. Daniel Jones looks the part. And if you're, if you think otherwise, you're missing it. I understand he threw a lot of picks and had a lot of fumbles and took a lot of sacks.

You know, a lot of rookie quarterbacks throw a lot of picks, you know, fumble the ball and take a lot of sacks. He also, you know, was in year one and now he's going to be in year two with Who knows if Jason Garrett's going to be the right coordinator, Joe Judge is going to be the right coach? You know, in many ways, Dwayne with Alex Smith still here as a mentor, and Scott Turner and a better coaching situation than he had last year may have a better chance here in the next few years.

I think it's a nod and just by a whisker because I really believe in Dwayne. I think he can do it. I mean, I have concerns, you know, and a lot of the concerns are the same concerns that you bring up all the time. You know, I hope that he is not too thin-skinned to be elite. I hope he's not too consumed with other things other than football that will absolutely result in him having a shorter career versus a longer career. But I do like what I've seen on the field from Haskins. And I'm encouraged by that.

But I think Daniel Jones looks at the part too. And I think the thing about Wentz and Dak, I put Wentz first. A lot of my callers had done. Dack first in part because, mostly do in part because of the Wents' injury situation and how many games and how many big games he's missed. But there's not another quarterback in the division that was well on his way to an MVP season like Carson Wence was in 2017. Right. Absolutely. Let me ask, let me ask you question about the Redskins quarterback situation.

Does it delay in the NFL season, if that happens because of the coronavirus, concerns, does that increase Alex Smith's chances of being the quarterback next year? Alex Smith? Alex Smith? No. Give them more time to recover and get ready. I don't think so. Not from what I've heard.

Really? Yeah. Okay. I've heard it's never going to happen. I tend to believe that. Yeah. I mean, but we haven't heard it yet. No, we haven't heard it yet. One other Redskins related item.

So this popped up over the weekend that ESPN reported that the Redskins were one of seven teams with, quote, varying levels of homework done on Utah State quarterback Jordan Love, who's been rising up sort of draft boards and mock draft boards. and, you know, now looks like, you know, at worst case, a mid to late first round pick. Some believe that he could be taken before Justin Herbert. But the other six teams, Jeremy Fowler from ESPN, reported that were doing homework and had reached out to Matt Wells, who had recruited and coached Love at Utah State. He's now at Texas Tech. Seven teams reached out to him and were doing varying levels of homework on love. And the Redskins were the only team in the seven listed in the Fowler story that had a young quarterback drafted really high recently.

The Dolphins were on the list. Obviously, they are, well, they do have Josh Rosen, but we know that they're in the quarterback market. The Saints were on the list. The Patriots, the Chargers, the Packers were on the list. And they're probably thinking about, you know, a post-Aaron Rogers, you know, answer at this point. and then there were the Redskins. And I thought that was interesting. You know, it would have been one thing if there, you know,

there were other teams on there. The Redskins are really the only team that shouldn't be thinking, well, if you believe in Dwayne Haskins, shouldn't be thinking about the quarterback position. But we know that the Redskins met with Joe Burrow and Tuatunga Viloa at the Indy Combine. And now this report that they met with Jordan Love, that they have, that they're doing,

homework on Jordan Love. Why do you think that they're doing this? I don't know. I don't know. The due diligence. Maybe they want to be the first NFL franchise to have two guys named Love on their team. The Love brothers. Love and Love. I bet they wouldn't be the first team with two loves. Oh, I bet they would. You think? Oh, absolutely. Okay. And that would be a great marketing tool.

You know, a backfield with Jordan Love and Bryce Love? Are you kidding me? The Love Brothers. The Love Brothers. Yeah, all right. Absolutely. I have no idea why they're doing. I have a theory. I have a theory. You want to hear it out? You want to listen to it? Sure. Okay. So my theory goes like this. They're going to draft Jordan Love. I'm kidding.

Can you imagine if they traded back and drafted Jordan Love? My theory is that they're doing what they should be doing. You know, if they get this killer offer that they can't refuse to trade back in the draft, and now they have Miami's number five and Miami's number 18 and Miami's number 26 and Miami's second round pick for Miami to move up to take to Otunga Viloa number two overall, Well, there could be another trade-down possibility from somebody coming up to get Jordan Love. I think it's one of the reasons that they did all of their due diligence on Burrow or as much of it as they could before the shutdown of sports at the Indy Combine of Burrow and Tungaviloa. I think that the Redskins want to be prepared that if they get an offer from somebody, they know what that somebody is trying to get. and they know the value of that player.

I think that's smart. I don't think it's because they're thinking about trading back and then maybe taking Jordan Love in the draft in the mid to late first round. I don't believe that. I still absolutely believe, and I don't know this, I just don't think that, and you're going to say it's a terrible thing, but I'm going to say that Ron Rivera sort of bought into this because he believed it. so it's not a terrible thing right now.

It would be a terrible thing if Dwayne Haskins was not any good, and we found that out midway through the season or at the end of next year, and Dan said, no, you've got to stick with Haskins. But I think Rivera bought into Haskins for 2020. I think it's the reason he's here. I just don't see them. They've already traded for Kyle Allen. I don't see him drafting a quarterback.

I think this is just part of, in the event they were to trade back, which I still don't think will happen. They know what somebody might be trading up to get if Jordan Love is on the board. So what happens if Kyle Allen is your starter game one? What do you mean what happens? What happens if for whatever reasons, the shortened preseason, knowing the playbook better, whatever,

what happens if Kyle Allen is the starter week one? What does that do to Dwayne Haskin? Well, context is everything. The only reason I think he would be a starter, and I think this is even a long shot, is if we basically have hardly any offseason, any training camp, et cetera, leading into the first game. And then maybe they say, Dwayne, we're going to get you there by week two or week three. Kyle's going to start this game.

We've got to be able to call the plays and run some offense here. It's just the, you know, this is a very unique situation. So I don't think. How do you think Swain Haskins and the owner won't? handle that? Well, I think that they would understand. I was hoping you'd say that. Yeah, I know. That's why I gave it to you. Well, I mean, you are one funny guy. In all seriousness, if, and we have no idea what's going to happen, if the NFL says, you know, everything's off and they came up with this virtual schedule and rules,

Did you see that yesterday about when teams can virtually start working out together, you know, and the teams with new head coaches are going to get a head start, whatever. It's, it's, I don't even know what it means. But let's just say, you know, this thing continues and all of a sudden it's August 1st, and the NFL says, here's the plan. We're going with a live opening of camp on August 15th or August, you know, 18th. There will be two weeks of camp. there will be one preseason game and the regular season will be extended out a week or something

like that. Get ready, here we go. And if it's something like that and they're working and we're hearing, you know, they're splitting reps and they're trying to get Dwayne up to speed on the playbook and Kyle's really comfortable with it. And then they say, look, and Ron Rivera holds the press conference you know, after that final preseason game or the Monday, the week of the first regular season game, and says, look, Duane's making an incredible progress. This is a new system. It's a very unique world we're living in right now. We didn't have enough time to get Dwayne up to speed on it. Kyle's going to start the opener next week against the Panthers at home. That might be my mock schedule week number one. And then we think we'll have Dwayne ready to go week two.

What could Dan say? What could Dwayne say? Yeah, yeah, I know. What could they say? You know, you buried the lead. We should have done this at the beginning of the podcast. Because you buried the lead, that would be news that Dan Snyder and Dwayne Haskins would say, sure, we understand. No problem. What if Rivera goes to Dan before this press, this fabricated press conference that I just came up with, this hypothetical press conference and said, look, I have to start Kyle. Dwayne's going to be the guy.

I'm going to have him ready week two or week three. But if I put Dwayne out there in the opener, it's going to be bad. He can't call the plays in the huddle yet. Hasn't learned him. He's a fast learner. He's smart. He's getting it. We could go with a major scale down.

By the way, hold on for a second. If it's a problem for Dwayne, won't it be a problem for everybody else to except for Kyle? Yes. Okay, so, you know, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's not. If it did. No, because they'll go with a scaled-down playbook for everybody.

For everybody, for everybody's going to need a scale-down playbook. Terry McClorn is going to need it. That you have drawn up. Trent Williams is going to need it. Understanding about something like this. It's ridiculous. I mean, it's absurd. But you're right.

It ain't going to happen. You missed what I slipped in there. Yeah, I heard the Trent Williams son. Okay. I heard it. Trent Williams better be gone by the time that season open. I would hope that two weeks from today, the draft is over, two weeks from today that Trent Williams is gone.

God, I hope that they can figure out an answer to that. One last Redskins thing, actually. So I got this simple tweet from this guy. bit obnoxious, but basically, Sheehan, you keep saying the Redskins aren't going to contend next year. What the hell do you know? You've been wrong about so much yada, yada, yada, yada, went on and on. And I read that on the show today.

And I said, you know, when it comes to the NFL, nobody knows. Nobody knows. That's true. It's, here's my basis for thinking that the Redskins aren't going to. going to contend next year. It's twofold. One, they're not just, you know, bringing in a new coaching staff and reshaping a roster. They're bringing in a new coaching staff and asking the coach to be responsible for not only a football team and the reshaping of a system and a roster, but the actual changing of a culture. That takes time, especially when the culture's been as

toxic as this one's been for 20 years, but for really the last couple of years in particular. And last year, I don't know if it was the worst moment because we could create a top 20 of the low moments here over the Snyder era. But having a coach return and a team president return where they had no chance with either one of them was just stupid. And then drafting a quarterback and asking him to sort of exist in that environment. But he's got a culture to change. That's number one. Number two is the quarterback, no matter how encouraged I was by watching him last year, is still a question mark. That's why they're not going to contend next year. I don't know the actual answer to that question. If I did, I wouldn't be doing this show, you know, getting

berated by Tommy every other day. I would be doing something else and making much more money doing it. But yeah, I mean, that's my, that's my reasoning. I think it's, I think it's, those are the two biggest reasons, the franchise and the quarterback. And that's always the two biggest reasons in every organization. You know, are you well run and do you have the answer at quarterback? And with the Redskins, he's got to change the way it's been run for so long. And then we're still not sure on the quarterback. Why would anybody jump to the conclusion that the Redskins are going to be are going to contend next year. I think it's a crazy leap.

Do I think they're going to be better? Yeah, I think they're going to be better because I think they're going to have a much better coaching staff. So I think they could be, you know, six wins, seven wins, and if there's six and six going into the month of December, it'll be exciting next year. But yeah. So what were you going to say?

What's your response to that? No, I agree with you. I mean, you can't say they're going to contend, but, I mean, I think that, the new coaching staff is worth two wins. I think the better personnel that they'll have on the roster is worth two. I think they can win seven games. And if you can win seven games, one or two others go your way, maybe you can win nine games.

And if you can win nine games, maybe you can make the playoffs. Yeah, but contending, typically, you know, contending for what? They're not going to win the Super Bowl in 2020. They're not going to be in the Super Bowl in 2020. They are, could they be a playoff team? Sure, because every single NFL team, all 32 of them, even the team, which is the Redskins, by the way, that's predicted to be the worst team in the NFL. They've got the lowest over under number on wins per Vegas. They had the longest odds to win the Super Bowl or the NFC championship.

Even that team occasionally shocks people, wins nine games, and at a lot of. ends up as a wildcard team. Okay? Could that happen? That could happen? They're not going to win the Super Bowl. They're not going to be in the Super Bowl. And they're not going to be playing in, you know, on championship weekend.

And that's as far as I'll go. So if contending means... This was always the one of the many issues with Bruce Allen. And they grew for that matter. When they say we're close. I mean, close to what? close to actually making the playoff? Right.

That's not close. That's right. No, that's not close. They've never been, in the Dan Snyder era, the closest they've been to contending for something big, like a Super Bowl, was the RG3 season. They were on a roll. They had a 14 to 3 lead in a playoff game at home.

They would have gone to Atlanta, following week and had a very good chance to beat the Falcons in that playoff game, the way they were playing. And then they would have played Harbaugh and Kaepernick and the 49ers in the NFC championship game. That is to me during the Dan Snyder era, the closest. Now, some of you will say, well, they had a 13-0-0 lead in 1999 season, the 2000 playoffs in Tampa to get to the NFC championship game. I heart, you know what, I don't even think about 99 is a Snyder year. He took, he grabbed ownership in in April or May of 1999 that he hadn't had a chance to put his footprints and fingerprints on the team yet. So yeah, I think the RG3 team had he

been healthy, the Redskins were on a roll that year. And, you know, they were close in Seattle that year in 2005 to an NFC championship game and lost that game to Seattle. But, They haven't been close recently. As much as I love Kirk Cousins and think he's a good quarterback. This wasn't a, they had a terrible defense. Terrible. They weren't going to contend for a Super Bowl. They should have been in back-to-back playoff seasons a years.

And I think 2017, had they been healthy, would have been a playoff season potentially. But, yeah, no, you're right. Haven't been close to anything. Right. So last thing. This Seton Hall, Stillman School of Business, this was the polling, the poll that came out a week ago, about 72% said they won't go to a stadium for a live event until there's a vaccine. They had a poll out yesterday that 46% of the respondents said that the NFL season should be delayed. 36% said it shouldn't and 18% had no opinion.

I don't really care about these polls because they're going to change as all of this stuff changes. You were the first to call sports getting shut down, the tournament being shut down. We're a long ways away until the NFL season is supposed to start on September 10th in Kansas City. Do you think we'll have an NFL season start on time this year? No, I don't. You think we'll have NFL season? You know, it really depends on ways. whether or not they'll be able to create a TV-only event safely.

Other than that, I don't see how they're going to be able to do it. I read an article in that leftist publication, The New York Times, about an expert panel that was assembled to talk about life after the pandemic. There's a guy in there named Deke Emanuel. He's director of the healthcare transformation. Institute at University of Pennsylvania. He's pretty smart. Large-scale gathering, such as conferences, sporting events, and live concerts,

won't be safe to attend until fall 2021 at the earliest. Say that again. Live-scale, large-scale gathering, such as sports events and live concerts and conferences, won't be safe to attend until fall 2021 at the earliest. That's 2021. He said you can't just flip a switch and open up the whole society. It's not going to work.

The virus will definitely flare back to its worst levels. Now, it's just in one opinion. Nobody knows what's going to happen. But this is a smart guy. This is what got me so depressed this morning. You were depressed this morning? Yeah. Like this guy says, when people say they're going to reschedule a conference or graduation for October 2020,

I have no idea how they think that's a plausible possibility. Realistically, we're talking fall 2021 at the earlier. Yeah. Okay. That's a bit depressing. Yeah, I think there's a – I just – I don't know how. anybody can predict any of this stuff. I think...

No, but there's informed there's informed opinion. I mean, this guy, this guy, just what this guy does for a living. Right. And there's your opinion, in my opinion.

Yeah, I, I would say that, you know, a lot of these predictions have already sort of come up short of the mark all along. You know, starting with some of these,

modelings and, you know, the University of Washington thing, whatever that's called, and, you know, and a lot of the, you know, left-leaning, I'm kidding, newspapers and magazines, no, I don't know what to think, Tommy, to me it comes down to this. If we have a medical treatment for coronavirus that essentially pretty much increases the odds exponentially of you not getting seriously ill, then I think we get back to some level of normalcy. And I don't know that we'll ever be back to the old way of normal. It'll be a new normal, but it's not going to be this. And I think without the meds, I think it's really going to be a problem.

You know, because I don't know that this thing can go away. And how does this thing stop threatening us if we don't have a vaccine or medication to address it? again we've talked about this before to me the meds from my standpoint are more important than the vaccine I want to know that if I get it they can you know call up to CVS or or Safeway pharmacy and prescribe some sort of medication that I can take and I'm going to get better I mean once I know that I'm going to have a completely different outlook and I think most people will a vaccine would be great too but you know you could get it before the vaccine before you got the shot or got the vaccine for the year. The vaccine would be the best eventually, but for now I want the meds.

Once we have the meds, I think we go back to work. I don't think it's that simple anymore. Well, if you have the meds, if you have a, you know, a prescription that can be written that can keep you from getting seriously ill, then what's the difference between coronavirus and the flu? Or strep throat? I get that. I understand the difference now. By the way, let me just interject. I understand. the difference now. And I did, you know, watch Bill Bennett the other night. I thought it was absolutely absurd. You know, the people that continue to try to compare the flu to coronavirus. Like, the flu doesn't need worldwide shutdown mitigation and social distancing to keep the death numbers down. I don't know if he knows that or not. But I don't know. I just, I just want the,

I just want to me if the meds are there then it's not that much different from the flu. Right now it is. I haven't read anybody of notes and when I mean anyone of notes, anyone other than the president, who thinks that

the meds are going to be there. Oh, I have. Now, not hydroxy chloroquine combined with the antibiotic. You know, I don't know that everybody believes that. But I have, you You know, even talking to my CDC neighbors, you know, they think that, you know, the vaccines much further off than the meds.

That the meds could be, you know, three, four, five, six months away. And the vaccine, you know, 12 to 18 months. And then the vaccine being readily available to everybody, you know, perhaps even longer than that. But I've read more than just the president suggesting that the therapeutic, that the medical answer could be here. you know, in a shorter period of time than the vaccine. I think they're more hopeful on that than they are on the vaccine in terms of a timetable. But again, who knows? Six months would still be a long time.

That's right. Four months might not be. Right. You know, and four months might say football season. It might. You know, here's another follow up to all this. What happens to, well, I mean, you can make the easy jump. like sports talk radio in most areas, this podcast, it essentially gets its air from football.

It breathes because of football primarily. Now, if there's no football season or football seasons delayed, trust me, I'm going to be doing a podcast here with Tommy two days a week. And maybe we'll have to increase it at that point to three or nine days a week. But without football, think about how much of sports media relies on football season. I agree. Look, I said to my wife this morning, you know, I've talked about it for years that, you know, I love what I do. And people say, when are you going to retire?

and I always say, why would I retire? I talk about sports, and I go to sporting events. I mean, it's not work. Somebody will retire me when they'll tell me that we don't want you to do it anymore. I never considered the possibility that there won't be anything to do as the way that kind of ends it all for me. But I really do. I'm, you know, I'm thinking that, like, this may be it.

I know. Look, I'm writing for the Washington Times. I'm writing once a week instead of three times a week. If there's no sports for six months, are they going to keep, let me keep doing that? I don't know. I think anybody that makes their living on, you know, sports, media-wise, there's a whole lot of angst already. I mean, we've seen major cutbacks, major furloughs, major firings.

You know, I mentioned... You saw USA Today furloughed a bunch of air reporters for a week. Well, did you read the story about ESPN? ESPN's executives are taking massive pay cuts, and they've asked all of their on-air talent that make more than $500,000 a year to take basically a 15% pay cut over the next three months, a 3.75% pay cut

over the entirety of the year. And by the way, who's going to say no to that? You say no to that. I know. You're at great risk. I mean, even if contractually, they can't do that to you. I mean, they can just fire you at some point. I mean, everybody should take that, especially in environments like that when you're

talking about people who work with you and for you losing their jobs if you don't take a pay cut. And it's not, you know. Anyway, yeah, I, I, I don't know that sports radio in cities that rely on football as the primary part of the conversation. If there's no football season this year, you're going to lose a lot of sports talk radio stations around the country. It doesn't mean that they won't come back when football returns or when sports returns, but they're not going to be able to afford to stay on the air with that format if there's no ad dollars.

No, no bond. And not only that, no listeners because there's no sports to talk about. We've been very fortunate here with what we do on the podcast and on radio, Tommy on radio and in a column, me on radio as well, to have had NFL free agency in the NFL draft to look forward to. Already I've been asked multiple times by people that I work with. So what are you going to do after this draft? And I said it's going to be what we do in late June and July.

basically. It's just going to be for a longer period of time. You've got to be creative. You've got to come up with things to talk about, things that are interesting to people. And you know, sometimes that's a challenge, especially when you're by yourself. You and I always figured it out. When Tommy and I used to do the show together, we both essentially would sit down after a show to start planning the next day's show. And then we would get to a point in planning for it and we would just say, ah, something's going to happen the rest the day. And nine times out of ten, it did. You know, between the time we were off the air and the time we were on the air the next morning, you know, four or five things happened that ended up being very topical. But without games and without drafts and without, you know, what's going to

happen every day? I agree. I mean, I mean, there's no NBA playoffs. There's no major league baseball season to talk about. I mean, how many lists can we put together? You know? Well, I do have, and I did this, I don't know, three weekends ago, I just created a list of like 25 things if it really, really gets super slow. And, you know, those things are not going to appeal to everybody. Look, no matter, even if they're games, there are things you talk about every day that

appeal to some that don't appeal to others. I mean, it's, you know, everybody's own opinion. But, you know, when you get to the point where there aren't any games and there's no draft and there's no news, you know, like Tommy, did you watch the horse thing? No. Didn't you tell me that you were going to watch it or not? No, I, so, you know, it's just like a regular NBA game. What's the difference? Oh, yeah, right.

It was dreadful. It was so bad. But, yeah, I mean, you got to, well, we'll. We're going to be here. I mean, sports is going to come back. You know why it's going to come back? Because it generates so much money, so much money. And it's part of the fabric of this country.

You know, there's so much about it that's good for this country. And it'll be back. But I'm with you. I don't know what's going to happen with the NFL season. I don't know how anybody could predict that at this point. I would bet that it starts on time, but I would bet that there's at least a 50-50 chance that we get to September, and sports are being played,

but they're being played with the way we thought they were going to be played in March, and that is without live audiences, live crowds. I think that until you have a medical answer, you can't I just don't see that people would want to go to games unless they they're immune because they got the antibody test that showed they already had it and they've built up an immunity to it. But even that, you know, some of that stuff's coming out from South Korea. People are getting it for a second time. Yeah, I know.

All right. What else? I got nothing else, buddy. I'm just going to go back into the fortress of solitude. All right. Go back into the fortress of solitude. stay safe, stay healthy. Same to all of you out there.

Tomorrow on the show, J.P. Finley will be my guest, and we'll really start gearing up and ramping up to the NFL draft because we do have that to look forward to and a lot to talk about. And I'm sure there will be something that will happen between now and tomorrow that will add to the conversation. All right, have a good day. Talk to you on Thursday. All right, Kevin.

I'll talk to you on Thursday. Thank you.