The Kevin Sheehan Show - RB Rachaad White Added

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Kevin and Thom today with a wide variety of items on the menu including the weather, Thom's weathered appearance, and Washington's Adam Peters continuing to cook in free agency. Towards the end of the recording of the podcast, the news broke that the Commanders were adding Tampa Bay RB Rachaad White. Kevin reacted in real-time to the signing. Also on the show, Thom red-flagged the players who didn't sign in Washington while also revealing that he had uncovered a long-held boxing secret. Terps, Hoyas, Kawhi Leonard, and a lot more as well.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Guess who is back? And he's in studio with me, looking a little bit, you know, weathered, let's just say.

Not as bad as the weather going on outside right now. How about that turnaround? That's amazing. 85 degrees yesterday. It has dropped 50 degrees in less than 24. four hours and we have heavy snow in the DMV. What's the big picture on that? What do you mean the big picture?

What's that mean? What's that mean for my life moving forward? I don't think it means anything for your life moving forward, including your drive home. I think it's going to be fine driving home. It's supposed to be. Sun's supposed to be out this late this afternoon. I know you were getting a lot of steps in when you were in Florida before you got sick. But I, you know, when the show is over, I will typically try to. go get a lot of steps since.

Good. Now, when it was really cold for some of those weeks and you were down in Florida, I didn't go, it was just, it was brutal. Did you try, like walking in Safeway or something like that? I'm just walking around a little bit. But no, no, and not really. I mean, I have a routine after the show, you know, unless I'm recording something or I've got to go real quickly.

Right. But I went out today when the show ended. And, man, that was the big flake heavy snow. Big wet, heavy snowflakes. I'm trying to see if Capital Weather Gang, which, by the way, is the only reason I'm actually keeping my post subscription. I've had it forever, even though I haven't read the paper regularly forever. But the Capital Weather Gang, you've got to have a subscription to the post to get it.

What's interesting is, you know, I dropped my subscription to the post. Yeah. Pretty much right away after the fiasco over there, after they cut everybody. loose. Right. But it occurred to me recently that I need access to their, to their archives, you know, for what they've written before. Right. You know, so I had to, I had to put my tail between my legs and re-up again for a subscription just so I could, you know, read what they've done in the past. Could you negotiate the renegotiation? As Liam Neeson said, we're here to renegotiate, negotiate the renegotiation? Is renegotiation the same as restructuring?

No, I think it's not totally different. Well, you know, what's interesting is a reporter, I guess, for some network said that the Ravens had renegotiated Lamar Jackson's contract. Yeah. And my youngest son, who's a Ravens fan, said, that's not right. They restructured it. They didn't renegotiate it. Right. And I said, well, you should be an editor.

That's pretty good. Actually, now that I think about it, I think to restructure, it does require some to, negotiation. Yeah, but I don't think it's technically renegotiating. It's not a renegotiation, but it's a negotiation of how the structure will look. The team can't just do it without the player saying I agree to it. But it's not referred to generally as a renegotiating. No, when you're already under contract, it's typically referred to as a restructure.

Right. When you're not under contract or you're under contract and you're getting an extension, that's a negotiated, uh, negotiated. extension although that's really an extension whatever why are we doing this anyway the temperature outside yeah it's melting the snow is melting as soon as it hits the ground all the grass is piling up quickly on the grass but on the on the on the pavement it's not right because uh based on my research because it was so warm yesterday that's your research the ground is warm and therefore it it's it down it speeds up the uh melting let me write that so the ground is warm from the high

temperatures yesterday. And so that means that the snow will melt at a fast rate versus the ground being cold. Yes. Wow, that's a good one, Tommy. That's like restructuring and renegotiating. So, you understand? For those that weren't, they don't live here, literally it was 85 degrees yesterday. And it is 35 degrees in snowing heavily right now. So I'm looking on Capitol Weather Gang to see if this is some sort of temperature record, you know, within a 24-hour period. I don't see anything. But this one's going to be looked at because this is not, we get wild weather in the springtime, but this is more like a Denver situation. It's 71 day. The next day, it's a foot of snow. We're not getting a foot of snow, fortunately. But man, at least you got back to see what we kind of dealt with this winter,

just for a brief moment. Well, I could have done without it. Yeah, I bet. I bet. How are you feeling? Oh, I'm a little bit beat up. You look beat up. I have. You look like hernes in like round two. Well, you know, I need a haircut. Huh? I need a haircut and a beard trim.

You need a haircut, definitely, in a beard trim. Yeah, I look like a homeless guy. Don't you love? More than normal. Don't you love the haircut beard trim in the barbershop? Well, I mean, usually my wife does it for me. Really? Because she's pretty good.

And if she doesn't, I go to sports clips. All right. Same thing. But that's kind of a relax. You know, 30 minutes. Sports clips is a little bit different. It's almost sex for crying out loud. You've said that before.

Yes. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, at some point in our lives, we're just looking for a kind word. Yeah. You know, that'll do. A little scalp massage will go a long way. Oh, my God, the scalp massage, that puts me asleep. It's not even, there's nothing sexual about a scalp massage at this point.

For me, it's like, help me sleep, and that does it. I actually will say to my wife occasionally, just rub my head so I can fall asleep quickly. No is usually the answer. Are you kidding me? I would think she'd jump at a chance to put you to sleep. Well, that's true, but it won't put me to sleep permanently. That's what she's looking for. So, yeah, I'm, I've been hurting.

I'm on the mend. I've been sick for about two and a half weeks. Yep. You know, when I was in Florida, I mean, I'm not. I was kicking ass and taking names. Okay, I was walking 9,000 steps a day. I was swimming a couple of times a week. No karaoke.

I was getting my upper body exercises in. I was going out to dinner a couple of times a week. I was pounding down beers. I was going on airboats. I was watching rocket launches. Yeah. And then I got sick the last week. Yeah, that sucks.

And, I mean, you know, it turned out to be bronchitis. Yeah. Debilitating cough to suck the energy. That's serious stuff. Yeah. Right out of me. And I went to the doctor. It's like a week.

We got back and I went to the doctor a week after I got sick, put me on antibiotics and steroids and an inhaler. And a cough medicine that was a pill. Have you ever heard of that? When I got, when I, right at holiday time, I got a bad cold cough. I guess it was a touch of the flu. I mean, you remember how much I was coughing. And I got the syrup with codeine. I got the cough suppressant with codeine.

But this guy, my doctor said to me, here, this will be better. This is better. Okay. Hill. Yeah. I don't really know if it's working because I've still been coughing. Oh. But I might have been coughing more without the pill.

Well, let me go to my medical background, which you always love when I, when I lecture you on medical things. But I did read during my bout with the whatever it was I had around holiday time. And I said, you know, after two or three weeks, I'm like, why won't this effing cough go away? I feel fine. I'm not sick anymore, but it's the cough. And it's called a residual cough. Okay. And it takes sometimes a month or longer when you've had a real, legitimate, you know, bad cough, bronchitis in your case, and that's probably what you're going through right now. So I think you're going to be fine. I think I'll be fine, too, except while I was really coughing severely, I either tore or pulled

a muscle in my stomach. Yeah, you told me that. Now, which is kind of a shock to me because I didn't know I had muscles in my stomach. Yeah. They're not apparent. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I can feel the nodding up.

There's a knot in my stomach. And it came from coughing. Now, I've thrown my back out sneezing before. Oh, look up Google, Google coughing and stomach muscle. I'd rather not. I'd rather not. I mean, the beginning of this show is now, we are skewing so old right now. But you wanted to talk about this. It's because you just really didn't look very good when you walked in.

I know. He looked terrible. I know. This is the most activity I've had in weeks. I was going to take a picture and then tweet it out, but I don't think I'm going to do it because it's it's alarming how bad you look i know um but you know i have and you probably have a couple of these friends too where you don't talk to them but maybe four or five times a year and the first 30 minutes of the conversation did you hear about such and such did you hear about

i i didn't and i really don't want to i have what about some happy talk i have friends who my only contact with is when somebody dies or somebody gets sick somebody's dead oh do you see the obituary in the paper i get that i have one friend in particular he you're a pup compared to me i know that but still he for whatever reason you know it's and it's not three or four times a year we talk once a month and is there anybody you haven't told me about because he doesn't live here and i think one time like two years ago somebody got really sick a friend of ours nearly passed away and i didn't tell him about And I don't start conversations that way. It's not that I don't care about other people, but usually, you know, it's upbeat, it's

positive. Oh, yeah, you're Mr. Sonny's position. More so than him. And now every conversation starts with, is there anybody that you've forgotten to tell me about or call me about? No, there isn't. One last thing about my maladies here, my various foibles. Let me just point out, I was, again, what's,

frustrating is, I mean, I was running hard for seven weeks, baby. Yeah, you were in shape and you had the beard trimmed, you had the haircut, just driving back and forth here, drinking IPAs? No, what are you drinking these days? Oh, I haven't had a beer since we got back. Okay. Well, what were you drinking down there? Beer, yeah.

But your normal what? Amsela light? No, no, no, no. I was drinking Landshark. Okay. Stella when they didn't have any. Stella, so you like Stella. But Landshark, local loggers here and there.

Beach Blonde was one of the loggers. I was drinking. One last thing about what I'm going through is the torn stomach muscle is it's showing itself in a huge black and blue belt. We're not going to look at that. I can show it to you. I don't want to see it. I can show it to you. I honestly do not want to see that.

I'm telling you, you've never seen anything like this. No, I have. and even if I haven't, I don't need that. We got a lot of things to talk about today. Should I take a picture and post it on social media? No. This is like when you talk about your eye procedures, you think it's fun and cool to talk about what they're doing

when they take an actual needle and shoot it into your eye. Wait, I can't even say it. It's so painful. Oh, my God. Kevin, it looks like Joe Fraser pounded on my stomach for like 30 minutes. Speaking of Joe Frazier, that column, I want to hear about the column that you wrote about the fight that almost happened but didn't. Right.

Yeah. We'll save that for the end because it was the anniversary of the greatest sporting event of the 20th century. We can say that. No, I don't think it is. Oh, it isn't? No. I think it's maybe the greatest sporting event of the second half of the 20th century. Okay.

What was the first? I would say Jackson Robinson breaking the color barrier. But that was more, that wasn't a sporting of, well, it was, because he played in the game. Yeah. Played baseball. Yeah. Baseball is a sport. Baseball is a sport. And the U.S. almost got eliminated in the world baseball class.

I know. And we had to rely on the Italians. Yes. The Italians coming through, baby. They came through big time. Yeah, the piesons. I'll tell you what, we had a battle of some pretty good food countries, Italy and Mexico. and the Italians came through.

That actually, I'm not really following it, and I'm not watching it, but when it's on in the morning, typically, I will put it on. The atmosphere is incredible. The Dominican is just really roof. It's so good. I mean, every time somebody hits a home run for a Dominican,

it's like they're celebrating their freedom. Yeah. It's really amazing. I know. Juan Soto. Yes. All right. A couple of emails to start the show.

This from Jerry C. Jerry C writes, Kevin, your guest today, meaning yesterday, from the 49ers, gave some of the best insight I've heard from a guest on your show in a long time. And that's a compliment, so please receive it that way. Accountability has been lost on the 20-somethings of today. If Brandon Ayuk doesn't take accountability for simply not showing up for bi-monthly medical checks, which cost him millions of dollars, the commanders should be out on him. Thanks for the insightful conversation. So Dante Wittner, do you remember him? Yes. I listened to your interview with him on the way in. So I was looking for somebody to come on yesterday because it was looking like during the course of the day that Brandon Iuke at 4 p.m. like a lot of other players was going to get released.

Right. And people basically already have, I mean, PFF already had. him in a Washington uniform on their site apparently. That's out on the internet. And everybody assumed Washington's going to sign him. Which, by the way, real quickly, Adam Schaefter reported that the 49ers, because they owe him no money, there are no trigger dates on new money, they may not cut him until they have to because still they might get a team that's desperate that decides to trade something.

Some dummy might be willing off on something. So if Brandon Ayuk becomes a Washington player, it may not happen overnight. But yesterday I was looking for 49ers guests. I reached out to Feldy. I didn't hear back from him. Feldy's always great. Dave Feldman, who was in the market forever at Channel 5. He's been in the Bay Area now for 15 years maybe?

Yeah, at least. Something like that. And Feldy's always a San Francisco go-to for a lot of us in town. But I didn't hear back from him. two other guys that I have on regularly, didn't hear back from them. And then the guys that, you know, help this podcast from an ad selling standpoint and do it for a lot of sports podcasts around the country, I just shot my guy, Kevin, a text, and I said, 49ers podcast, guys, he's like, I got the guy for you.

He's really good. Dante Wittner, and I'm like, I remember him. He played the NFL. So he does a podcast with Patrick Willis of the 49ers. And he came on with me yesterday. the way, he finished his career here. His last year was in Washington in 2016. But he was really, really good in talking about Brandon Ayuk. And he said something that stuck with a lot of people, not necessarily you, Jerry, and thanks for the note, because I thought he was really good,

too. But he said, and used the term, he may have a mental illness, Brandon Ayyuk. And he's got to have the mental maturity or people around him. to get him help, get him therapy. And, you know, something's not right there with this guy, obviously. He, the millions of dollars, according to reports, is he essentially gave away $30 million by refusing to just show up to the facility, like a couple of times a month, so that they could check on his progress. That's worse than Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, driving down the street, throwing chunks of money from his bag out on the street. This is worse than that.

Yeah. Well, he was rather upset, if you recall, in the moment. I mean, judgments in question here with this guy because we don't even know the whole story. And that was something that, you know, Dante Wittner said. He said, we don't know the whole story. So the team that's, you know, interested in him, if it's Washington, they got to find out everything about the story. Why he did this?

Because it could be really a tell on his mental state. And then if they're, like, it could just be he's immature. Well, you've got to grow up at some point. But if it's something more than maturity, like he needs help, somebody's got to get him help. Like, it would be really interesting if over the next, you know, several weeks, there's no training. they cut him, and then all of a sudden he's just hanging out there.

That means the league knows something that maybe even reporters don't know. I'm going to be so interested to see how this plays out because the player in 2023 was an elite, elite level wide receiver. And the idea of being able to get him for no trade compensation and then on a prove it one-year deal where you can get out of it, that's what they'd have to. to do. You'd have to do with him a one-year deal. There's some guaranteed money because I would think teams are going to give him some guaranteed money, but you've got to be able to walk once you see the signs that he might have a screw loose, you know, that maybe you didn't see in

your due diligence. But if he's the Brandon Ayuk of 2023 teamed up with Terry McClorn, that's a top five worst case top 10 receiver tandem in the league. And then you just added Chigaconquo, one of my favorites. and one of the players on my wish list for free agency. And now, you know, maybe another receiver, another back will see with everything they've done on defense. But just the idea of Brandon Ayuk of 2023, I'm all in on a one-year, prove-it, high incentives, painless to get out of, deal for him. But anyway, Dante Wittner was excellent in talking about him yesterday. If you missed it, you can just go to yesterday's show,

and it's like at the 44-50 mark time-wise is where he starts to talk about Brandon Ayyuk. You know, I don't know if you can put a price on getting into the crazy business. You know, I think that's sports, Tommy. That doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. I mean, I know there's this whole school of thought that, you know, that what was it, that coach Thompson used to say, I'd rather try to calm a crazy man. He said the line was, I'd rather

call, I'd rather have to calm a crazy person than resurrect a corpse. Right. Yeah. Right. Well, I don't necessarily subscribe to that. It sounds like you don't. I don't think you have to do either necessarily. I think there's always a price you pay if you bring somebody like this in your organization.

The disruption that it could possibly. cause is could have some kind of limited to severe detrimental impact on your season at some point even if it's just a one game chaotic scene right so my inclination would be based on what we know is I don't want to be in the in IU business now I'm going to assume that Adam Peters haven't worked with the 49ers have has very good insight as to what, you know, IUC's situation is. And I think it's reasonable to think that if he's a smart guy like we think he is,

he's not going to put the team in a bad position to do business with this guy. So this is a more of a situation of having faith in Adam Peters, having the information he needs to make the decision. more than anybody else probably, okay, who would be out there. And, you know, you just hope that Adam Peters isn't like an Ernie Grunfeld. You know, Ernie never, never paid attention to that stuff. I mean, he didn't care. He couldn't spell character if you spotted him the first three letters.

Okay? Yeah. So you just hope that he doesn't operate under that premise, that he recognizes the value of personal relationships. and the culture that they brag about building in this organization. So my inclination would be if Adam Peters thinks he can bring him on board, then I would be on board with it. You know, the player that they signed, by the way,

after I finished recording the podcast last night, Charles Omenahoo from Kansas City, he was suspended for six games just a couple of years ago for domestic violence. So that's kind of the first player. I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody, but they've been very good from a culture standpoint of not bringing crazy into their building. Well, and also the whole domestic violence issue,

I mean, you know, I mean, they're not that far removed from inheriting an organization that underwent a congressional investigation. I understand that. And they have to be sensitive to that. By the way, isn't it interesting how when you said, what is it that the coach Thompson used to say, I feel like I say that all the time about him.

You know, there's one that was always my favorite too. He would say, you know, when coaches would, you know, take blame for something too often. And he would say, if you keep saying it's your fault, they're going to start to believe you. They're going to start to believe you. I guess that is, you know, the sincerest form of flattery, isn't it?

Yeah. I'm imitation. Because I feel like we. We have been using his sayings for forever. Yeah. Even when he was alive. Absolutely. It's just, again, I don't think you have to compromise your values for talent.

I think there's enough talent out there. The receiver thing, though, has gotten a little bit thin. They missed out on Alec Pierce. They need a receiver here. I mean, is Debo going to come back? I don't think so. They need another, look, we're going to, I want to get your thought. on what they've done in free agency. We're going to do that in the next segment. I'm going to update you guys on something they've done today so far, as we're recording here at about 2 o'clock. But they've got to give Jaden a little bit on offense. They've done a lot by improving the defense, if ultimately what they've done improves the defense. I think one of the things that Adam Peters said when the season was over in that season ending presser, and I totally agree with him. You want to help Jaden in the offense?

improve the defense. If you want the team to improve, you've got to be better defensively. I mean, this two-year run of every time the offense is on the field, it's like, we can't punt. Like if we punt, we're going to be down another score. You know, we don't have a defense that's giving us the ball enough.

We don't have the defense that's turning it over. We don't have the defense that's creating better field position and making it easy for the offense. I mean, in 2024, it was all the offense that won those games. Yes. And this year, the games that they did win or a couple of the close games, it was, I mean, I think about the Denver game or, you know, Marcus Marioita played great and they had a chance, not because of their defense.

But anyway, yeah, it's running thin on wide receiver right now. And Carnell Tate could be the pick, but he's a rookie at number seven. This is, you know, I like what they've done here. I want to get your thoughts on what they've done, and we'll start to do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, I introduced you recently to Thrive Market, the convenience of getting items delivered, and then also being able to filter by dietary preference for the entire family,

hard to beat. Thrive Market is a membership-based grocery service where you can shop from wherever you are. You simply just hop on their app. The membership breaks down. to just $5 a month, and it gives members access to weekly sales, personalized shopping with filters, auto ship and save, free gifts, and peace of mind knowing there's no junk in any of the products they carry. Thrive Market just makes it easy, especially with the kids at home. If the

kids want mac and cheese, sugary snacks, juice boxes, they're going to eat what they're going to eat. Thrive Market gives you versions with less sugar, fewer sketchy ingredients, and and more nutrition. You're paying a small monthly fee to offload the stress, research, and decision fatigue of eating healthy, and you can try it risk-free. And instead of paying delivery fees, service charges, or tips on every order, the membership bundles everything into one simple monthly cost. And the membership pays for itself anyway with their discounts and sales. I could spend way more on delivery fees or just pay $5 a month for a throttable. Market membership. This is a product that I love and you will too. Ready to make some healthy

swaps and become a member? Join Thrive Market with my link, Thrivemarket.com slash she and for 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky if you want to bet on college basketball during this month of March, my bookie is the place to do it. By the way, speaking of college basketball, Miami of Ohio, lost for the first time this year. They were 31 and 0 in the regular season, but they lost in the Mid-American Conference quarterfinals for the first time this year, a loss for them. They're going to get in the tournament. There was some talk that if they lost one regular season game and didn't win their

conference tournament, they might not get there even if they were like 30 and 2. They're going to be in, but they're going to be 31 and 1. going in. I don't know what the number was at MyBooky. I did not look at the early games today, but My Booky's got all of the afternoon games, all of tonight's games, tomorrow hoops from 12 noon until 2 a.m. Same thing on Saturday and Sunday, and then next week we get the tournament started. They have lots of contests for the tournament. Just go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag and use my promo code, DC Reload, D-C-R-E-L-O-A-D, and they'll give you a 50% cash bonus as a listener to this show. 50% of whatever your deposit is, they will add into your account.

So if you deposit $300, they'll add $150. You'll have $450 in your account. My bookies already got a lot of the NFL stuff up for next year. We'll go over some of that in the coming days. But MyBooky's the place to bet on March Madness. Go to mybooky.ag or mybooky.com. And again, the promo code, DC reload. So.

You know, Miami of Ohio is typically a hockey powerhouse. It is. It's been a very good hockey team. Yes. I think I've, I think I talked about this when I talked about the season they were having recently. I've been to that school. several times. First of all, my high school girlfriend went to Miami of Ohio. Uh-huh. So during college, I went out there a couple of times. Now, that's a long time ago. By the way, they were the Miami of Ohio

Redskins. Redskins. That's right. They are now the Red Hawks and have been for many years. But, um, and then when my kids started to apply to schools, I visited with them Miami of Ohio two different times. So in the last, you know, seven or eight years I've been out there, it is an unbelievable little Midwest college town. There's a heavy, heavy influence of mid-Atlantic and northeastern kids at Miami of Ohio. But it's really a nice, pretty school. You know, it's about an hour from Cincinnati. But it's one of those schools that, you know, you're driving and it's, you know, cornfields and farms. and then all the sudden this little town of Oxford, Ohio,

pops up and it's all the school. Cool. But, you know, that's the cradle of coaches, college football coaches and coaches in general, Ere Parsejan, Paul Brown, Sean McVeigh. I mean, they've got like 11 statues outside of their football stadium, and they call it the cradle, Miami of Ohio,

football, the cradle of coaches. How many kids do you think have wound up going to Miami of Ohio? thinking they were applying to Miami of Florida. I don't know. I'll bet you there's some. Maybe. If they didn't visit the school, quite the surprise.

Not exactly Miami of Ohio. Coral Gables is a lot different than Oxford, Ohio. That is for sure. All right, there is some news. I'll just give it to you right now. Nothing major so far as of the recording of this podcast. Now, yesterday, a lot of the stuff that happened

happened later in the afternoon. Yes, it did. But Washington is resigning offensive lineman Trent Scott per a source. It's a one-year deal according to Ben Standing. They also lost another of their own. Last night, it was Chris Rodriguez going to Chicago. And this morning, it was Jacob Martin signing a two-year deal with the Tennessee Titans for $11 million. dollars. He was Steve Souter's one of Steve's fines. Like he said early on he said,

who's this guy? He kept talking about Jacob Martin. And he basically got signed for next to nothing. And he said he's going to get himself an actual deal when this season's over. Because anybody that turns on the tape, this guy's motor is insane. He's high

energy. He's the whole thing. And he had a career high in five and a half sacks. He gets a two-year, $11 million dollar deal. I know that Dan Quinn liked Jacob Martin a lot, but they were busy this week, adding one edge pass rusher after another, so they ran out of room for Jacob Martin, but good for him. So those are the two things related to the team that have happened so far, anything else that happens while we're on the air, we'll talk about, but more likely than not, it'll happen after we record today, if anything happens at all.

But they've been a busy bunch out in Ashburn this week. So have you been following it? Do you have thoughts on it? Yes. Okay. It's funny because, you know, the first day, you know, this fan base is still so damaged from the Dan Snyder era that the only point in a season

where it felt good to be a Washington football fan, was the first day of free agency because, you know, that's when Snyder pounced and, you know, went after, you know, and overspent on free agents. Right. You know, did what he had to do to bring his guys here

and then they would get the poison in their system and it turned out to be a disaster. But for many fans, this was the raising of the off-season banner that they would do. And it looked like early on, we kept hearing that, well, they were all in on Pierce, and they were all in on this guy,

and they were in on this guy, and it seemed like they were going for a participation trophy instead of the banner. So when they finally signed O'A, that's his name, right? Yeah, the participation banner. Right. Yeah. When they finally signed O'A,

it almost felt like a sense of relief. Yeah. And celebration. Finally, they signed somebody. Right. But then Adam Peters went to work after that. you know, yesterday. And he did what I said he needed to do in free agency was to really concentrate on building

up the defense. That's where all the resources should go. And he did that big time. I mean, it's hard to argue that they're not better defensively on paper than when they were than they have been the past two years. Not to mention they've got a new coordinator. Right. Yeah.

But so, uh, I think, I think he gets, the only thing that would be unnerving to me is, you know, if they were in on these guys, they didn't get those guys. Okay. They got guys and everyone's excited about the guys they got. But were they, were that, was that the plan A or plan B? And why, why have it, why didn't, why didn't, why didn't they get plan A done? So that's a good question. Um, I think that one of the things, this is just my opinion, but I think it's the opinion of some people in the sport too. I'll just add that. Adam Peters is very disciplined. Like he does the homework, not that they all don't, but he's got the price that he thinks is the right price.

And he's not going to budge, you know, above that. And, you know, he has his idea of what the player's value is, and he's not spending 30% above retail, you know, Dan and Vinny style, really more Dan style. So now, I'm not saying that he didn't perhaps up it a little bit on Oway with the guaranteed money. I think he probably did on the guaranteed money. But the overall contract is right in the line with his, you know, overall production and the position, which is number two to. quarterback, you know, edge pass rusher. So I think that's number one. I think number two is, you know, we're not talking about a lot of players. They got some players they wanted. I think O'Way was always part of the plan. I don't think they went away from O'Way because they didn't get Jalen Phillips.

I think they were always going to try to add multiple edge rushers, including Trey Hendrickson, who they were in on. But I think with him, just like last year in the offseason, he had an idea of what he was willing to do last year in terms of a trade, this year in terms of free agent money. And so there's some of that. And then look, the players have choices too. I mean, it's a two-way street. But the whole narrative about this organization the first two years was that people want to come to play here.

Well, they've signed more new players than any team in the league except for two other teams. I know that. But how come you're losing out to teams? But you got really good players. You got three of the top 20 free agents. But did you get your number one choices? I don't know. We don't know.

I will say this, that they were definitely, according to reports, and I think I can feel comfortable saying they were definitely in on Pierce. Count me as somebody that is glad they didn't get that deal done. I think it would just would have been too much for Pierce. I agree. Now, they're going to need somebody else here. And I still don't know why Joanne Jennings hasn't been signed. But anyway, O-Way was on my wish list to begin with.

I thought that it was Hendrickson and then there were a group of guys. I did not necessarily want Jalen Phillips. They apparently were in on Jalen Phillips, but the money got too high. So it was Phillips or O-Way. They went with O-Way. Hendrickson, I think they definitely had, you know, eyes for Hendrickson if the money was right. And Hendrickson didn't get what he was looking for until day three yesterday, right? Now, Baltimore, I thought it was very interesting.

It's a different subject real quickly, but I'll just weigh in very quickly. I believe Eric DeCosta, when he says he was gutted that the medical came back that way on Crosby and that their plan was for Crosby and Hendrickson, because he said that. He said after they signed Hendrickson, this was, you know, they really are taking a beating perception-wise that they just got cold feet and that, you know, they realized they shouldn't have given up two first rounders, and they used a medical that was never going to be perfect, considering its surgery a month ago, and backed out. I don't, it's, I believe Eric Dicosti, he was emphatic saying that's not true.

We were gutted. We were so excited to have Crosby, and we were going after Hendrickson. We're going to pair the two of them. Baltimore is in a win now mode, you know? But anyway, that aside, they've gotten several guys that were in the top of the list. like what they've done. Yeah. It's just, you know, the whole discipline thing that you're talking about, it looks good compared

to what we've seen from here in the past. You know, you're talking about somebody who with manners as opposed to a slop, okay? But, but, you know, sometimes you got to, you got to let it loose, you know? I mean, you can't be, you can't be, you can't be a victim of your discipline. Um, I don't know if that's true. Uh, but it's the only red flag I would raise. I can't, this is the only red flag I would raise. I want more red flags because I forgot to read this and I should have read this to kick off the segment.

Ben, Ben from Allney writes, the free agency stuff this week's been great, but I've missed my buzzkill Leverro fix. is he okay fingers crossed can't wait for him to get back so only one red flag the red flag being some of the key guys

Pierce and Linderbom's the one that I think I would have I think I would have gone that high I'll come back to that in a moment so your one red flag is just some of these guys they struck out on which by the way a lot of teams struck out on those players they're not the only one

but the narrative is that everyone wants to come here to play Everyone wants to come here to coach. And I think we've seen this offseason. After 5 and 12, that doesn't happen anymore. Okay. When you say the narrative, there are a lot of places that people want to go to and play. And a lot of places that people want to go to and coach. They're not the only place.

I know that, but Google, Google the words sometimes. Okay. What, what, narrative? Dan Quinn players want to come to Washington to play. Yeah, okay. Well, I mean, and there are other players, places they want to go to play. You don't think they want to go to San Francisco? You don't think they like going to Baltimore?

No, they don't want to go to San Francisco because of the substation there. Yeah, the substation is a big issue. Yeah. So again, I give them good grades for what they did. They improved the defense. They recognized that even though they have a running back and a wide receiver skill positions that they need to improve on, this wasn't the place to do it necessarily. So I think that strategy was good.

I'd give them good grades for that. It's just, I just, I just worry about getting obsessed with, would say, nope, we're not, we're not spending that. We're not spending that on this guy who could maybe change our whole season. I would have, and I didn't feel this way in the moment, but after thinking about it, and I think I mentioned this yesterday, I would have spent the money on Linderbaum, the center. This is the one area which I'm like a little bit confused,

and I think many of you are as well. It's like they cut Tyler Biotta. Yes. And is Nick Allegretti really going to be our starting center? Well, they went hard after Linderbom, but the money did get insane. Yeah. I mean, the projection was he was going to make 20 million a year. He ends up making 27 million a year.

And it's all guaranteed for all intents and purposes for three years. But he's so good and he's so wise and he's stability. And you're going under center more than you've, then you've done in the first two years with your third year quarterback. Really, your second year quarterback, if you consider last year, was a redshirt year. That's what Stand it calls it now. I think that's a good way to talk about Jaden's second year. It's a redshirt, kind of a medical redshirt year.

But I think I would have invested in Jaden by overpaying the center. Because I don't know what their solution is at this point. It sounds like it's Allegretti. this is where I would love to know what what happened here. Like they went into this thinking to your, this would be one in which, you know, you'd look at him and you'd say, yeah,

maybe you should have just paid and kept Biotic and paid him the nine, whatever million for the third year. I know your guy, your film guy, Steve Souter. Yeah, he doesn't like it at all. He had him graded as their best linemen this year. Now he thinks tonsils their best linemen. Yes. But he said in terms of,

of the grades on the game, ultimately, Beattish was the highest grade. And we still haven't gotten an explanation from the team. No, we haven't. And he was under contract. That's the thing. You had to pay him, I think. The last part of it was like close to $9 million, I think. And so they, let's just say that they thought he was worth $6 million. And it was like, if he doesn't take it, we can get.

We're interested in Linderbom. No, he got hurt at the very end of the year. But it was one of those he was put on the injured reserve with a lot of the other players that, you know, we said, don't play these players. Right, right. You know, towards the end of the year in these meaningless games. But, yeah, I think there would be reason to be critical before we even see it, which we do anyway all the time, if they end up with Nick Allegretti as their starting center. Now, they added a player after the podcast recorded last night from Kansas City, second player from Kansas City, Charles Omenahue, who is,

He's truly like one of these dudes that is freakish, again, sort of a freakish, long-armed athlete, 36-inch arms at the Combine when he came out of Texas. I mean, when you watch the highlights, like Oway, he is tall, angular, aggressive, high-motor, long-armed. And he's made a lot of plays for Kansas City. However, there are a couple of things. number one is that he was suspended for six games to start the 23 season for domestic violence. And then in the AFC championship game, and he made some big plays in 2023.

He ended up with seven sacks and 11 games after the suspension was served. So he played 11 and had seven sacks, had multiple forced fumbles, and had a force fumble in the playoff game, the championship game, against Baltimore. when Kansas City went into M&T Bank and won the AFC championship game. But he also tore his ACL in that game. And so he didn't play in the Super Bowl two weeks later when they beat the 49ers. He didn't come back until November of 2024. So he didn't play a lot in 2024, but he did play all 17 last year.

And, you know, he's a player that's really talented, really talented. So they have really invested in pass rush. And he's also a guy that can play multiple downs. I don't know how it's all going to fit together. O'A and Chase on are definitely edge. Two-point stance guys. Louvo is going to be a part of that mix. Chanel's going to be an off-ball linebacker,

freeing up Louvo a little bit more. But Omenahue is one of these guys, man. He makes some plays with that size, that height, and those long arms. But we'll see. You know, my guy, Stephen Spector, you remember Stephen. Yes. Stephen came on the show and talked about Chanel the other night.

And he said, he texted me, he said, if you're going to ask me about a Menahue, he said, where is it? He basically, where's Spector? He said, it's worth a flyer, but he thinks higher of himself than anybody else does. Okay. That was what he said. But he was really solid before the injury. Yeah.

So, you know, a little bit of a one-year deal, seven million bucks. Here's what, you know, summing it up. They've been very active. They've been borderline aggressive, even on their misses. They have addressed a lot of defensive needs. Yes, they have. They have gotten younger. They have gotten faster.

And they haven't really stretched themselves in terms of the deal. They don't look silly on any of these deals that used to be our MO. you know, if anything maybe a little bit, you know, more guaranteed money for O-WA than what was expected, at least according to Mike Gianetti from Spot Track, who I texted back and forth with on the O-WA contract. He thought it was right in line, just maybe a little bit high on the guaranteed money. And we're not even done yet. I mean, we've got a long way to go here. But they took care of the business that needed to be taken care of.

Yeah. And now it's time to concentrate on the other side. They got four to five new starters on defense. They've got another two contributors minimum. And what they didn't get is they didn't get a running back yet, and they only have one under contract in Bill Kroski Merritt. They lose Rodriguez. Jeremy McNichols hasn't resigned yet. And they have only three receivers under contract, Terry McClure and Jalen Lane and Luke McCaffrey.

So those are two areas, and of course they do have number seven in the draft. And a lot of you want Jeremiah Love. Some of you want Cornell Tate. I want the best available player, even if it's a pass rusher, because, look, some of these deals are shorter-term deals. So, you know, even the Nick Cross deal, if Caleb Downs is there, it's only a two-year deal. You're not passing on Caleb Downs because you sign Nick Cross. They put themselves into a position to take the best player available, which should be the MO anyway. I know you disagree with me on that.

But they have filled a lot of needs, but they really do need another receiver and another running back or two, minimum. I mean, who knows? Maybe Austin Eckler and Debo Samuel are coming back with Chris Paul. Who knows at this point? But I still would say yes on Ayuk if everything checks out medically. If everything checks out that you think you're getting a motivated player and you can do a total prove it deal. I'd even look into Stefan Diggs. Love Joanne Jennings. Backwise, Rashad White's still out there. He hasn't signed with anybody as of now. He was Jaden's teammate at Arizona State. and they've got, you know, opportunities in the draft and more opportunities coming up. This is a multi-month process.

Free agency doesn't just last three days, even though, where is it? This was from Gary. Gary heard me read Danny's email yesterday where he lectured me on telling people to shut up and sit down, which I never said. You know, there was a lot of hysteria in the first three minutes of free agency. on Monday. Well, again, because like I said, I mean, this is usually the time that we're, where Washington fans get to strut. Look, bottom line

is, we built it up, too. You know, they had all this cap money, they had all these needs. Ian Rappaport said fireworks are coming. I think it was him. But Gary Z. wrote, sorry, I was one of those that laid the hammer to Peters on day one. Let him cook.

And then from Terp 81, I was ready to jump day one, Kevin. My bad. Let Peter's cook. Oh, here we go. Enough of that. Let AP cook.

I know. I know, because last year, everybody was, you know, let him cook and then let's fire him. Yeah. All right. There are other things to get to, and we will do so after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, you know, I'm almost reluctant to talk about Shelly's here. Why?

Well, because one of the things I was hoping to do. as soon as I got back from Florida was the head down to Washington. And you can't do it. And I can't do it because I mean, even if you felt good, you definitely need, I mean, you need some grooming at the very least before you expose yourself to the outside world, especially your friends and your fans. Yes. At Shelly's.

Yes. So I had big plans to hit the ground running at Shelly's. You know, maybe a couple of visits the first week I was in town. I mean, because that's the one thing I missed the most was Shelley's back room at 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district when I was in Florida. And, you know, I was going to go there and have a great dinner, have one of their great burgers. They're custom blend beef burgers. Custom blend burgers. Brisket beef.

You know, have a great order of fries. Yeah. You know, smoke maybe a Romeo and Juliet or, you know, any other kind of cigar. that they have because they have the best cigars you can buy at Shelly's Backroom. And you can see their menu and their cigar menu at shelley's backroom.com.

So, I mean, here I am talking about it and just reminds me. Do they have the Monte Cristo, your favorite sandwich? No, they don't have the Monte Cristo. I think you've got to talk to Bob about that. You know, they used to have an open-faced turkey sandwich. You've told me about that.

That I said was my death row meal. Is that the, what do they call it? the old brown or whatever from Kentucky. No, big brown or something like that. Oh, God, what's the name of that? I know the same. It's not that. Okay.

It's not that. I mean, I used to drink shots of gravy with that thing. Listen, there's never a meal where gravy doesn't fit for me. So, so. Ladles of gravy, keep it coming. Hot brown. Was that a hot sandwich, yeah. So I'm going to wait to, I'm healthy.

Wait to them a little bit cleaned up a little bit. Yeah. And then make my appearance at Shelley's backroom. You probably don't have to do that. You can head to Shelley's back room right away. Right now. Yes. I'd recommend you do that and have a drink for me while you're there and smoke a cigar for me.

Do you know that I brought up the Monte Cristo because for whatever reason I thought at some point maybe they had it like on the special menu down there. But that's your sandwich. You love the Monte Cristo. Yes. But last weekend, I made myself a tuna melt at home, which is still one of the great sandwiches, especially if you're in a diner. And I had tuna. It was already made. It was from a place that sells, you know, tuna salad made.

Got some Swiss, got some English muffins. Man, when you make a tuna melt at home, it's really, really good. When we used to go. Silver diner. Is that what you used to order? That's every single time. Really? Every single time the Tuna Melt, because their Tuna Melt was so good. So good. All right. So a couple things here. Number one is Maryland's basketball season is over.

The worst season of my lifetime ended yesterday. They lost to Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten tournament. And God bless you, you were excited about the game when I talked to you during it. I was? Yeah. You said, I'm going home to watch Maryland. They're winning. They're winning. They're winning. They were winning. And you were making plans as if they were going to win. You were excited about it. Don't let them get hot here.

Don't let them get hot. They lost to Iowa. They were up by 11. They were up by 4 in the second half. And then there was a 21-0-0 run. But in Iowa lost today to Ohio State. I mean, Maryland would have had to win six consecutive games. That's how big the Big Ten tournament is.

But anyway, their season's over. I've said it several times. I'm looking for somebody sent me something and I can't find it. I want to say his name was Nathan. And he just said, really quiet on the Maryland front this year, huh, Sheehan? Actually, I don't think I have been quiet. I've talked about him probably too much considering the season. Bottom line is, I think I've said it to you a couple of times.

I know I've said it on the show. This time next year, whether they're still in the Big Ten tournament or out of it, they better be preparing for a game next week. as like, you know, no worse than like a six seed. Because if they're not, buzzes, you know, trip to College Park is over in two years. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And he's won everywhere he's been. What's it? His contract is outrageous. It's outrageous. But this isn't football, okay? You can't find $13 million to buy out Mike Loxley because not enough people care about football. They care about basketball. And there's no way that two.

consecutive seasons of not being good will stand. I think they'll end up being good. They've got one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming in. They have two freshmen that played high level this year, Mills, and I do want Adams back for you Terps fans that maybe don't. And then

Farrell Payne's the big one. They're big guy that got hurt this year, the guy that was their center and was their best player, and a medical red shirt return. They're going to have to pay him again. How about that? He gets paid. I don't know. Let's just call at a couple million bucks last year, and he barely plays.

He doesn't give the money back. No. And he can still jump into free agency and pick some other place. So let me see if I understand this right. College NIL money is guaranteed, but a lot of NFL money is not. College athletes, for all of you that wanted them to get paid, I've been saying this now for three or four years, not only do they get paid, they have the most freedom of any athlete on team sports anywhere.

They have annual, unrestricted, free agency, and they can jump from wherever they want to jump to. And in fact, until recently, it was almost twice a year, free agency. Yeah, it's a good gig. If you're good enough and there's a need for players. Georgetown won last night. So they're still alive in the Big East tournament. They play Villanova tonight in the second round.

And then by the way, they finally, if they, the winners of tonight's games just get to the quarterfinals. So maybe actually in the Big East, because it's fewer teams, maybe tonight is, yeah, tonight's a quarterfinal game, my fault. Because Villanova was really good this year with Kevin Willard coaching them. They had a much better season than most predicted. But Georgetown's still alive. I mean, Ed Cooley's season was terrible. Yes. They had a losing record.

I got to think Georgetown fans are getting to the end of their. rope, don't you think? I would think so. I would think so. And then George Mason is playing right now. They had a decent year with Tony Skin. They won 23 games in the Atlantic 10, but they have to win the tournament to get to the NCAAs. And they're the last hope. Howard's the other one. All right, I forgot to mention Howard, I think, last week. But Howard's in the Miak, and they'll play tomorrow night in a semi-final game, I think in Norfolk, Virginia. Okay. But we are, we are, the threat exists right now of no local teams in the big dance for just

the third time in 44 years. So Navy got ousted in their tournament, if you want to call them local. Howard is the favorite to win the Miak. They won the regular season. Mason and Howard are the last two standing. I don't count Virginia as low. local. They're very good this year. So that's the college basketball talk. The NBA talk is this. Well, first of all, you didn't weigh in on BAM. 83. Right. Did you know that he passed Kobe?

Did you know how he did it? Yeah, going to, I mean, kept getting fouled, going to the foul line. Well, they, they kept fouling the wizards to ensure they had more possessions. Right. Yeah. So what do you think? Well, I think, I think, I think, I think it's symbolic of the, of today's NBA. I think all you need to know about today's NBA is an average player can score 83 points. That's, that's, that's an interesting way of putting it. Yes.

He certainly wouldn't have been my choice. No. To pass Kobe. No. You know what's interesting? I do find, I do find it interesting that people think it's sacrilegious that he passed Kobe. Like out in L.A., they're just beside themselves.

Yeah. Like he shouldn't have done it. He should, he should have given himself up to preserve Kobe. I mean, my God, come on. That's what's interesting to me about this, is that Kobe's 81 is the second most points in NBA history.

But it's treated almost like it's number one because everybody realizes no one's ever going to top Wiltz 100. And no one saw Wiltz 100. And no one saw Wiltz 100. There's no video. Although, you know. And that's the way we live these days. I forget who was where I read this,

but, you know, there was some, you know, shenanigans at the end of that game, too, in a different way. The Nick players were intentionally fouling other Philadelphia players so Wilk wouldn't get to 100. So the game was a bit of a mockery at the end of that game. Now, Wilk did get to 100. In Hershey, Pennsylvania. Sonny Jurgensen played in the prelim game. Yes, a charity. Charity Eagles pregame.

Eagles charity game and had 30. Yeah. He told me, and stuck around and saw Wilt's score 100. Now, now, here's, here's the other thing that, I mean, this is good. This is really old school, but new school sucks, okay? You know, how could anyone on the Wizards let him do this? How could, how could somebody, not to spend some justice to save the embarrassment here? How could they let him do this?

how could they look their teammates in the eye come back to the huddle and say we're really going to let this this guy score 83 points against us isn't there i guess there's no shame at all anymore none you know it's interesting because several people that i know they felt the same way and i didn't feel that way i felt like like you said like the NBA i mean we're now into basically a quarter of the teams intentionally trying to lose By the way, that's the big difference between Bam and Kobe and Wilt. He was playing a team that's openly tanking. Yes. You know, so it should be easier to get big numbers. I mean, they scored 150 points in the game. I didn't really feel as a Wizards fan like it was embarrassing or like this is going to be remembered.

But as far as the fan to feel that way, as far as the pride. I expect the players to feel that way. Yeah, I mean, their best players just aren't playing enough. They're not, you know, they're not trying to win. I mean, Anthony Davis wasn't on the floor. Yesterday was Anthony Davis's 33rd birthday. Was it? Yes.

Happy birthday, AD. Three, three. Can't wait to watch you next year. No words, when they're about to make the playoffs next year, he'll be 34. So, you know who else is 34? Who? And this is what I wanted to talk about. My guy, Kauai Leonard.

Yeah, I hear you. just a season for his age, for the ages. Yes. He is, to me, right now, deserving of the MVP. Last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a very good team in the Western Conference. He had 45 points on 15 of 20 from the floor. 15 of 20.

That's amazing. Six of nine from behind the arc. He's a 90% almost 91% free throw shooter. He's a 50% shooter plus from the floor. He's nearly... 50% is good? 50%'s good. Yes, it's very good.

It's not 41% is it? 41%'s not terrible, depending on the position you play. Okay. But for him, I know where you're going with it. Trey Young's played very well and shot the ball very well in his two or two games now. Kauai has a chance to be a 50, 40, 90 guy. He's at 38 point something percent from behind the arc. he has at various times been over 40% from behind the arc.

He is, I don't know why I love him so much. It's the style as much as anything. There's like an artistry to the way he plays. Yeah. And the way he's, I love him too. I think he's, I think he's one of the great players of his era. But what's interesting is, and you can tell me if I'm wrong on this, because I'm not plugged in to the NBA as, as you.

are, he should be higher profile. He plays in L.A. Yeah. And he should be more celebrated. But he's not. You know? He's not interested in a lot of, a lot of self-promotion.

Oh, my God. No. He's the, he's like a recluse. He is. Yeah. But I think that he's not celebrated because next to load management in the dictionary is his picture.

Yeah, that's true. You know, but it's not been because he's chosen to load managed to avoid injury. It's because he's had serious injuries during his career. And the way things went down in San Antonio, you know, it was not a great look for him. He's also got a, you know, crazy uncle who's involved with Balmer and this, you know, circumventing the cap, you know, there's a lot around Kauai. But the player, I've said this several times in watching the run that he is on. He is right now having the best year of his career, 34 years old, knock on wood that he stays healthy,

that I think if he didn't have the injuries, it's kind of like the Walton conversation, different position. But if he didn't have the injuries that he had and miss the games that he's missed over the years, I think he'd, first of all, he'd probably have another title somewhere along the line. He's got two of them. I mean, he carried Toronto to a title.

Yes, he did. He's a two-time NBA Finals MVP. He's a two-time defensive player of the year. But I think if he hadn't, had these injuries, he'd have more playoff success, and I think it'd be a no-brainer that we would be looking and viewing him as a top 10-ish player of all time. And his peers think that way of him. Anthony Edwards said last night after the game, I mean, this is one of the young superstars in the game, he's just flat out one of the greatest players that's ever played the game, and all of

his peers think that. And when he played in that All-Star game and had thought, 31 and a quarter, you know, a few weeks ago. They were going nuts. Players get it. Like, it's his peers get what he is. Because he's not just a great and unique offensive player. He's probably with LeBron, the best two-way player of his era. He's a great defensive player.

So, yeah, 45 last night and 32 minutes. You know, he said, 32 minutes. You said he's a two-time NBA finals, VP. Yeah. You know who else is? A lot of players. Willis Reed. Willis Reed is? Yeah. He won it twice? Yeah. Seventy-three and 72 and 70?

70 and 73. 70 and 73. Against Wall Chamberlain. Against Chamberlain. Do you know when I was looking at the BAM stuff? Of the top, hold on, where is it now? Of the top 28 scoring performances of all time, Wilts got 15. I know. It's just, like, I know we've said this many times before. There is no buddy even close to the statistical outlier that Wilt is in a team sport.

And no one's close. And I pointed out he played against 14 Hall of Fame centers in his career. Incredible. I mean, I think I did this on radio, not on the pod yesterday, but he had 100. He also has the fourth highest scoring game of all time, now fourth, at 78. He scored 73 twice, 72 once, 70 once. He scored 68 once. He scored 67, four times.

He scored 66 once. He scored 65 three times. He scored 63 twice. He scored 62 in a game six times. And 61 in a game six times. Oh, 63 times. I mean, it's just, it's insane. It's like a cartoon.

For people trying to consume this who have never seen them, it's like they're talking about a cartoon character. It doesn't make any sense to anybody that is into this sport and then sits down and looks at basketball reference and looks at the records and looks at the scoring. And somebody did this years ago. You may have been, you may have been the person that shared it with me. but if he had been like a 70% free throw shooter, so not even that good, rather than the 54% free throw shooter that he was, like he would have had, instead of a 50 and 25 season, it would have been like 57 in 25 or something like that. Well, the all time, the all time scoring what if is Pete Marevich.

I mean, because if they had the three-point play. Three-point shot. three-point shot when Pete Marrival. You can say that about a lot of players. Oh, no, no, not like Maravich. Maravich averaged 44 points in college. In college. In college for his career.

I know. At LSU. Yeah. All right. I do want to ask you about your column that you wrote last week. We'll finish up with that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Some breaking news as we are recording this podcast today, Tommy. Adam Peters back in the kitchen and he's cooked himself up a running back.

Finally, Rashad White, Tampa Bay is signing a one-year deal, according to Adam Schaefter, to come to Washington. Jaden Daniels' teammate at Arizona State, Rashad White's been with the Bucks all four years of his NFL career. He was kind of in that second tier of free agent running backs, the first tier, Kenneth Walker the third, Travis ETN, Brise Hall, who got tagged and then extended. And then in that other group, guys like Tyler Algier, who I loved, he signed in Arizona, Rico Dowdell with Carolina, he signed in Pittsburgh, Kenneth Gainwell, you know, guys like that, and Rashad White. And White had not yet signed, but now he is signed.

I like Rashad White. He's a dual threat back, meaning he can carry. the ball 15 to 20 times a game if you need him to do that. I do believe that about him. And he's a guy that definitely can catch the ball out of the backfield. In his second year in Tampa, 2023, he rushed for 990 yards and six touchdowns and caught 64 passes out of the backfield for 549 yards and another three touchdowns. This past season, you know, is Tampa Bay kind of beefed up their running back situation with Bucky Irving being drafted two seasons ago. And even this guy, Sean Tucker, I've actually been very impressed with in his time in Tampa. He was a free agent, kind of considered to be in that next rung down.

But I liked Sean Tucker, and they essentially chose Sean Tucker ahead of Rashad White. Now, I say that. Maybe Rashad White didn't want to resign there and wanted to be you know, the lead back, and Bucky Irving is more of that in Tampa. But Rashad White's a good get. He's a good back. He is, again, a guy that can give you the carries that you need from a lead back and certainly give you the pass-catching ability out of the back field. Six feet, 215 was picked in the third round back in the 2022 draft, and again, played with Jaden Daniels when Jaden was the quarterback at Arizona State in his His final year in 2021 of Arizona State, he rushed for 1,0006 yards and 15 touchdowns

and also caught 43 passes for 456 yards. I've always liked Rashad White. I've always thought he's been a little bit underrated. I still would have preferred Tyler Algier or Rico Dowdell in terms of the backs that were in free agency. Obviously, a Kenneth Walker, the third, would have been interesting, although I think he got paid a lot of money. He's a great back. Don't get me wrong, and I've always been a fan. But Algier or Dowdell would have been for me, a home run. Rashad White kind of a little bit after

those guys, but I like Rashad White. I've always liked him. You know, there's a little bit of Kenneth Gainwell in him, but he's more of a lead runner, where I think Gainwell's always been, for sure, a backup runner, but a very versatile back of a guy that's going to catch, you know, a bunch of passes out of the backfield this year in Pittsburgh, by the way, Gainwell, had 73 catches for the Steelers. So running back, at least for now, solved. Does that mean Jeremiah loves out of the picture? No.

I think they're putting themselves into the position of picking the best player available. And obviously, Rashad White on a one-year deal. and I haven't seen the terms yet, does not mean that Jeremiah Love would be off their board. All right, let me just mention that this segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation. Window Nation is offering 50% off everything right now. Anything you purchase, you're going to get a 50% discount. What I would do if you're interested in Windows is call them at 86690 Nation. head to windownation.com.

Mention my name for starters. They'll come out and give you a free estimate in an hour or less. They'll leave you with a quote. You're not going to be obligated to move forward with them. They're not going to pressure you, but get it taken care of this month so you get the 50% discount. If you work with Window Nation, I promise you, you're not going to work with a company that's more customer service driven.

Rank number one by Forbes magazine for window installation companies in the United States. 45,000 five-star reviews on social media. You won't go wrong every single person that's ever taken my advice and used Windonation has enjoyed the relationship and certainly enjoyed the product. 86690 Nation, Windonation.com. Tell me about the Ali Frazier column that you wrote. Okay.

It was the 55th anniversary of the March, eighth, 1971, Ali Fraser fight, which was much more in a fight. It became a social a social cause a historical event that went beyond the sports pages because it was at the height of the

opposition to the Vietnam War. Muhammad Ali was somebody who refused to enter the draft. He had become a symbol for those who were opposed to the war. Joe Fraser who no fault of his own had become a symbol on the other side of the argument.

I mean, Joe Fraser, you know, was a poor guy who grew up in a sharecropper family in South Carolina, and he didn't have any political interests or aspirations one way or the other. They were both undefeated. Ali had been banned for three and a half years from boxing, wound up coming back in 1970, had a couple of fights, before we fought Fraser in 71 at Madison Square Garden. What I found out was, you know, when the FBI was a functioning organization,

I did a Freedom of Information request on Ali. And one of the documents that I got, because Ali was constantly under surveillance by the FBI. Right. I mean, for his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, for all that. And I found a, note where the FBI wrote a report that said that there were secret negotiations that took

place in 1970. Ali had been banned since 67, couldn't get a license to fight, for Ali to fight Jimmy Ellis, his former sparring partner who had since won his vacant title while Ali was gone. So Jimmy Ellis was, it's kind of complicated. Jimmy Ellis was wasn't Ken Norton a sparring partner too? No. Oh, no. Okay, so I'm thinking of Jimmy Ellis. Yeah, Jimmy Ellis was the WBA heavyweight champion. He won it in a tournament after Ali's title was vacant.

Joe Fraser wound up being the New York State Athletic Commission heavyweight champion. New York just declared, well, Joe Fraser is the heavyweight champion. But Ellis had the backing of the WBA. And there were talks that took place for Ali to fight Ellis. in a championship bout in 1970 in a Miami TV studio with no live audience. What? Yes. It would just be closed circuit TV.

That way they thought they could circumvent getting a license. If there was no audience, if they were not selling tickets to something like that, they could just do it in a TV. And Howard Coasell was going to do, was going to call the fight. Oh, my God. And it never came to fruition. But if that had happened, Ali, probably would have beat Ellis.

Ellis wasn't blown up middleweight who wound up, you know, becoming a heavyweight. And he ended up fighting Ellis. Yes, yes. Yeah, he did. Like two years later. Yeah. Yeah. That meant Ali would have had the WBA title when he, when they started negotiations with Fraser

for the big fight. Right. It would have given him a lot more impact in the negotiations. and could have complicated. I think that Ali and Fraser would have fought eventually. I'm not sure it would have happened on March 8, 1971. It might have been delayed because Ali at that point would have won his title back. Okay.

Now, there's a lot of people who would have believed that Fraser was the champion. Right. But it would have certainly complicated what turned out to be a very historical moment. And nobody else has ever written this but me. That's crazy. Yeah. So did you, did people respond to this since they had never heard the story before? Well, some did, but you know, it's boxing, Kevin.

It's like in, and yeah, but there are people that still love it. And that, that's, that's an unbelievable story. Yeah. You do think that they would have eventually fought. It just would have been a more difficult fight because Frazier really wanted to fight Ali and did him. Like, there's a lot of favors that Frazier helped him get his license. Did for Ali to help him get his license. Loaned them money, helped him get his license,

because Joe knew there was a big payday down the line. That was the big payday. And, you know, if you watched the videos of that fight, it was such a great fight. And for Fraser, you watch him in the 15th round. You know, you see the knockdown where he puts Ali on the canvas with a devastating left time. And Ollie gets up.

And Ollie gets up. But after that, you watch Fraser work on Ali the rest of the fight, the rest of that round. nonstop. Brutal round. I mean, just absolutely brutal. Joe Fraser is so underrated as a fighter. You love Frazier.

Well, you know, George Foreman once told me, you know, George Foreman knocked down Fraser six times. Yeah. To win the heavyweight title. Down goes Frazier. Down goes Frazier. Well, here's what George would always say. Yeah. I knocked him down six times, but he got up six times.

Yeah. Yeah. That was Joe Fraser. All right. Well, good. That's a pretty big reveal. Yes. I mean, can you, what would have, it would have felt weird.

Like, no crowd. Yeah. Howard would have figured out how to build it up, but in a studio somewhere. But it would have sold. It would have sold. People would have lined up to buy that thing. Yeah. I mean, I saw the fight, Ollie Fraser, at Allentown Fairgrounds at closed circuit TV.

That March 8, 1971, you said the biggest sporting event of the second half of the 20th century but my god the buildup and the stories around there I mean there'd been so many documentaries you know it's it's it's hard to explain the people how how the feeling in people's the feeling that people felt the day to fight like it had finally half it was finally going to happen yeah there was such an electric excitement every place and it was in the garden yes people dressed to the nines for that one yes Frank Sinatra was taking pictures for life magazine. Yeah.

All right. Good to have you back. You've looked better. I know. I know. I know. We're done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow.

Down goes Frasier. Down goes Frasier. Down goes Frasier. The heavyweight champion is taking the mandatory eight count and Foreman is as poised as can be in a neutral corner.