The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins Dreaming

Episode Date: December 5, 2019

Kevin and Thom opened with the Terps win over Notre Dame last night. Is this the best Maryland team since the National Championship team in 2002? The boys talked LeBron's game last night which included the worst uncalled travel in recent memory and a clownish late-game celebration. Redskins "optimism" followed and a Smell Test for tonight's Dallas-Chicago game closed the show. <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. I'm here. Tommy's here. Aaron's here. Got a lot to get to. We're going to get to the LeBron stuff. If you haven't seen the video of LeBron's travel last night or his celebration late in the game where he came onto the floor, go look at it at some point. Look it up on your phone right now. Now, as you're listening to the podcast or delay the podcast, pause the podcast and look at it, because we're going to get to that. We have to get to that. Some Redskins today, a smell test pick to end the show for the Thursday night game, Chicago and Dallas. I want to start with Maryland because I went to the game last night. They played Notre Dame in the ACC Big Ten Challenge. So how did you get to the game?

How did you go? I drove. No, I mean, how did you get into the game? What do you mean? I mean, you know, did you get a ticket? Yeah, I had a ticket. Really? Was it a good ticket?

What did it satisfy the Sheehan ticket test? It was, they were fine. They were the station's tickets. Okay. The station gets tickets, pretty good seats. Okay. And what? What are you recognized when you were there?

I actually, you know what? Several people were very nice to me. Came up to me and said hello and. Why wouldn't they be nice to you? A couple of, you know, what's up, Sheehan? And then people just, you know, keep walking. I'm like, hey, what's up? I'll talk to you.

Well, let's chat. But nobody wants to sit there and chat, nor do I, actually. In that situation. I know that. But there were a lot of people, not a lot, but it was good to see some people who listened to the podcast and listen to the radio show. I went with my son. I picked him up. He lives in College Park, and he's out at Maryland, and I picked him up, and we went to the game.

And so, this is a really good basketball team, and I'm really so hesitant because I'm superstitious when it comes to my favorite teams. It's December 5th. I don't want to go crazy at this point. this is a really, really good team. I know that. Like it's a team. Gary Williams was on the radio with me this morning, and he said, look, if the season ended today, Maryland would be one of the two or three favorites to win the whole thing. You know, they're number three in the country. Right.

But it's more than that. Mike Bray after the game, the head coach of Notre Dame said, quote, they smothered us. That was varsity versus the JV tonight. We haven't played against anybody like that in a while, even in the ACC. I'm glad they're not in our league, closed quote. Well, this was their best performance, wasn't it? Let me just say to Coach Bray, I wish we were in your league. I wish we still were in your league.

And keep in mind, he's talking about last year's ACC. They did open up with North Carolina, but they haven't played the ACC schedule yet. Last year, the ACC was pretty damn good. Yes. You know, so they won the national championship. They won the national championship, and Duke was certainly favored to win the national championship, even though Virginia won it. Here's what they have.

They have a very good, they have very, very good players, Tommy, right now, and lots of very good players. That is, the depth that they have and the number of buttons that Turgeon can push is really amazing. You know, in college basketball today, you get a rotation. seven or eight deep, and you know everybody's got a role, you're not sure who's going to do it to you from game to game. So you have, you know, their best five players who is now started for, I think, two straight games, the Marquette game on Sunday and then last night against Notre Dame.

You've got a point guard in Anthony Cowan, who's a senior, who is a leader who hits every big shot for them, is great in transition, can score a lot, didn't even have to score last night. He had two points in the first half. They were up 12th. They've got a big in Jalen Smith who can rebound is a big-time shot blocker. I had five blocks last night and can stretch the floor and shoot the three. He's got a great stroke. They've got a wing in Aaron Wiggins who may be their best pro prospect, ultimately, who can really stroke it from behind the arc and is developing a much better drive to the basket game

and has become a much better defensive player. He's super long. And then they have a defensive stopper, but really an all-around player. Gary called Daryl Morsell this morning on the show, Byron Mouton, from the national champions. And it's a great cop. Morsell does everything. When Morsell was a freshman, you know, and you know all of my friends who are Maryland basketball fans, we obsess over this. And a lot of them were like, man, Morsell, he doesn't handle the ball well, he doesn't shoot, you know.

And I'm like, he's a Gary guy. This is exactly who Gary Williams would love. A tough kid from Baltimore who competes, who defends, who does everything well, nothing great. But he is a great defender. Then they've got a super high IQ, you know, everything guard in Eric Ayala. You know, he's sort of an old school game, although he had a vicious dunk last night, Aaron. You saw that on the breakaway. That was surprising.

I didn't even know Iala could get up like that. Yeah. There were a couple surprising dunks yesterday. Yeah. But he's an old school, calming presence, real high IQ, makes everything easy for everybody but can really get to the rim. He uses his body so well. But that's their top five. And then they come off the bench with just about everything, including two twin, six-foot-10, 240-pound freshman.

The Mitchell Twins. I'm telling you right now, these two guys are going to be really good players. and he's playing them more and more. He's playing the number 21, Mackay Mitchell, a lot more than his brother, Mikkel, who's number 22, if you're a Turp fan. They're identical twins.

But they both can catch, they both have good feet, and they're confident. Like, you know, typically you throw the ball into a big freshman big in one of their first few games, and they're hesitant. These guys are going to work.

They're going to work. They got moves. They got good feet. They don't always finish, but they're both rebounders. Then they got a tough kid from Philadelphia, Dante Scott. six, seven. He's already 220, 225. He can shoot it, but he's a physical player. And then they got

all these other guys that were factors last year, like Sorrell Smith and Ricky Lindo, who both contributed last night. It is a deep team. It's a good team. It's a high IQ team. But here's the part of it that I love about Maryland so far this year, because it was my single biggest complaint, if you recall, last year. Last year, they were 308 nationally in pace of play. Possessions per game. Right. And every game that they lost, and even several games that they want, I would come in here and I wish they would play faster.

Yeah, I remember. I just wish that they would play faster. They've got too much talent, and their talent looks like it would really fit in up-tempo game. Well, this year, Mark Turgeon's team is playing fast. They're 132nd in the nation right now in possessions per game, which is almost 200 spots higher than they were a year ago. They're looking at every opportunity to break. Their players are, he's less concerned about mistakes in transition.

He knows he can get with his talent, easy buckets in transition, easy looks for three-point shots. Now, we'll see how it translates to Big Ten play, where you're super well-scouted, where these teams are really well-coached, and, you know, teams like Purdue and Wisconsin and certainly, you know, a team like Michigan, even probably with Juan Howard, it's tough to fast break against them as much as you would like. This is a team, Tommy, right now that I think is the best Maryland team on paper and the best I've seen through nine games in a long time. It's certainly the best turgeon team.

Let me ask you two things. First of all, I watched a game last night. I was at Shelley's backroom. I saw you tweeted that out. Yeah. You tweeted that out with Bert Sugar's picture on it. Yeah. I miss my friend Bert.

But I watched the game last night with some Maryland fans at Shelly's. And two things, two things that they talked about. One is, and look, they loved the outcome of the game, but early on they were very frustrated. And they were saying that this is a mark of Turgent's teams that they get off to a slow start. They have this year. Right. And they said that this is a coaching issue.

I mean, to not have your team ready to play right from the start. start. If they're playing a team like Michigan or Ohio State or something like that, that could be a problem, getting off to a slow start and digging. You take a hole in yourself for basketball. It could last all two minutes. Right. You know, I mean, so I don't want to overemphasize that. The other thing that really impressed me is, and this is very, very small sample size, there's not a lot of love for Turgeon as a coach. I mean, you know, even if he's successful, there's a lot of people out there's a segment of the Maryland pop fan base that just doesn't think he's a good coach. Totally agree with that. Yeah, it's been that way really for a while now. Yeah.

Look, he's in his ninth season now. Is that amazing to anybody else that he's in his ninth season? It is his ninth season, right? Aaron, it's his ninth year. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. The 11, 12th season was his first. Yeah. So this is his ninth season. He's been to one sweet, sweet. 16. Right. He's been beyond the first weekend of the tournament one time. And that's why Maryland fans can't stand him. Yeah. Because Gary, for, you know, even before Gary won the national championship and went to the final four in 2001 and won it in 2002, there was a lot of frustration

for Gary. Oh, I know. You know, it, because Maryland constantly came up short. But back then, they were going to sweet 16s on the regular. Yes. You know, Gary had, you know, I think five, six, seven sweet 16s before he got to. to his first final four. I mean, I could go back and do the math. He got in in 94, 95, 95, 98, 99. So I think there are four or five sweet 16s before he finally got to the final four. Of course, you could point out his last eight seasons, you went to zero sweet 16.

Went to zero sweet 16s. Although he also won an ACC championship, won an ACC tournament championship, and had some very good teams that lost some. Absolute heartbreakers. Heartbreakers. You know, of course, his last thing, the Michigan State game. The 2010 Corey Lucius Dagger at the buzzer, which was almost a flute play with Draymond Green on the floor, as an aside. That team could have gone to the final four had they survived that play.

Absolutely. But so that's that's, that was my takeaway from watching the Maryland game. I mean, I was surprised that the guys I was watching with were so worried early on. I mean, like, you know, you looked up two minutes later. later, and Maryland had a 10-point lead. Yeah, I, so they have started off slowly, and when they've started off slowly previous to last night, it was more sloppy. Last night, they just couldn't make shots.

They were getting great shots. They were defending exceptionally well. They made it very difficult for Notre Dame. So I was less concerned last night with their start than I was against Temple, than I was against Rhode Island in the second game of the year. And there was one other game where they started off slowly, where I was, how to be halfway concern. Last night in watching it, I had not seen Notre Dame, but I could tell through the first

10 minutes that Marilyn more likely than not was going to win this game. They had better players. You could see it. Notre Dame was really laboring to get good stuff. Maryland was getting good shots. They just were stone cold to start the game. And then at the end of the half, they erupted for like 18 points in four minutes, and they had a 12-point halftime lead and were never threatened after that.

It's going to be interesting. Like, you know, you're really. right about the feeling about Turgeon, and it's because of the results, because I know that everybody, every Maryland fan that's even super frustrated with him and has been over the years, everybody likes Mark, and anybody that knows Mark, and I know Mark, you know, not like I'm a best friend of his, but I know him pretty well. You know, we play golf, you know, two, three times a summer together. I like him a lot personally, and everybody likes him personally. He's actually got a great sense of humor, which you wouldn't necessarily expect watching.

you know, his press conferences, but he's got a very quick in sort of self-deprecating sense of humor as well. And he's a good dude. You know, last year I was really frustrated. I think I told you this story. I know I told Aaron this story. So Scott and I were playing golf with him in the middle of the summer. It was four of us.

It was Scott, me, Turgeon, and our friend Joe Preston actually was with us. I think it was Joe that was with us. And so, I don't know, we're on the, you know, finishing up the front nine, and Scott looks at me in Turgeons for, he said, are you going to tell him or am I going to tell him? About what? About the pace of play thing. And I said, you know, come on. I mean, he's like, no, no, we got to tell him.

We got to say something about it because they have talent. We can't sit there and watch Anthony Cowan walk the ball up the court all of next year. And so, of course, what Scott did is on a team. key box. I don't know, like a hole later. He said, Hey, Mark, Kevin wanted me to tell you something. And so, Berturgeon had the best sense of humor about it.

He laughed. He's like, oh, you guys all think you got all the answers. And, you know, he told me many years ago. Because remember where he coached before here, at Texas A&M, where nobody cares about basketball. Spring football is 10

steps ahead in importance than basketball is, than men's basketball. So he was never really critiqued and criticized. And he came here. And I remember it was one of his first, maybe his first or second year here. And he came into the station to do something during the NCAA tournament. Remember we would have coaches come in prior to like the Thursday games. And he was in there one morning. And we know a lot of the same people. He lives in Kensington. I know a lot of the guys that are over there, a lot of the guys that are in the basketball community sort of over there. And he said, man, he said the big difference between here and the places I've

been is here, A, everybody loves basketball, and B, everybody thinks they're a coach. And he just laughed and I said, oh yeah, you're going to get that. And he said, in this fan base, he goes, I already can tell everybody's a coach. Everybody's got it figured out more than the coach himself. And I remember saying to him, I'm like, look, before Gary got to the final four, Gary was under a lot of heat. You know, that first Final Four season, they lost to Florida State at home in 2001, and Gary got booed walking off the floor of Cole Fieldhouse, the same season that they turned around and made it to the final four.

It has always been, as you know, and not everybody that listens to this podcast or listens to the radio show. A lot of Virginia people who aren't into basketball, they don't understand this. But you know this. Maryland has an incredibly long-standing passionate fan base. They are, people are into it. And as you know and I know and Aaron knows, you go to one of those big games at Comcast Center. They're in anything in town that matches that, I mean, or exceeds it.

You know, a Caps playoff game, the Nats playoff games, they may match the intensity. Nothing exceeds it when you've got a big-time game. People are really into it. And so when you're really into it, you have a passion. long-standing, loyal fan base, and you're not getting to where you think you should be getting to, and you've sort of regressed as a program, and when you only go to one Sweet 16, you know, in Aaron going back to, what was their last Sweet 16, 2003, the year after the national championship, before Turgeon got him there against Kansas?

So you had basically a 13-year run of No Sweet 16s. A lot of tournaments. You're in the tournament a lot, but Maryland fans, for a long time were a little bit delusional, thinking that they should go to the Sweet 16 every year. I've always felt this about Maryland basketball. It should never be, ever be worse than sort of a top 10 to top 15 program. The history, the tradition, the building, the fan base, the recruiting area, the league or the leagues that they've been in, you know, the Big Ten is still big time basketball. You just are set up almost naturally to be, you know, a a ranked team every year. You should be based on the talent you can attract. And I think, you know,

if you take a five-year period, they should go to three sweet 16s, they should be in a tournament four times, they should go to two sweet 16s. And in one of those five years, they should be contending for a final foreign national championship. To me, that's reasonable. I'm not saying they should be a contender for the national championship every year. They're not Duke. They're not Carolina. They're not Kentucky. They're not Kansas. But they're in that next group of programs below the elite, you know, below the Blue Bloods. And those programs, you know, they're in the tournament almost every year and they're in Sweet 16s on the regular. And once out of every four or five years, they're contending for legitimately the final four in a

national championship. I think that's what Maryland should be. And this year, they look like a final four contender. Okay. Well, since they do do that, and you mentioned the frustration of not getting past the Sweet 16, what happens if they don't get past the Sweet 16 again? This would really be the worst for him. Yeah. This would be the worst for him. Yeah, because the expectations, especially now, ranked third in the country. Yeah, the expectations are pretty high. I know they were high on the Diamond Stone team. They were. They got to number two in the country. Yes. Yeah, they were high for that. And that was a disappointment. But that was in the aftermath, that was chalked up more to the dysfunction of some of the players than it was,

That's true. This unit does not seem to carry that kind of baggage with them. Yeah, it's not like, you know, Diamondstone came here. It was a controversial recruiting thing with Wisconsin and Under Armour and the whole thing. And you had the kid from Duke. Suleiman transferred and, you know, you had Carter who was, you know, essentially looking for a one-year stop. And so all of that was true. And, you know, the other thing about his one sweet 16 is that.

they beat Hawaii in the round of 32 to get there. You know, Hawaii was an upset first round winner. So it's not even like you beat a big name team to get to where you needed to get to. They were very close last year. They had LSU on the ropes, obviously, in that second round game and had a chance to win that game, you know, to advance to a Sweet 16. And if they had beaten LSU, they lost the buzzer to LSU or with two seconds to go, the Georgetown recruit, the LSU point guard, Aaron, that made the game when he shot. Waters?

Yes. Tremaine Waters made that driving layup. And if Maryland somehow had held on and won that game against LSU, you would have had Maryland in the Sweet 16 at Capital One Arena last year with Duke in the same region. Now, they would have played Michigan State in the Sweet 16, and that was not a good matchup for Maryland last year. So I don't know that they would have advanced, even though they would have had a significant. home court advantage in the Sweet 16 game. But it's a shame that he didn't get, they didn't win that game. It would have put almost a different light on the program because it slipped a little bit here

in the last several years. You would agree with that in terms of importance. I've been to some of the games, some of the, I mean, this atmosphere that you talk about, it's not as prevalent as it used to me. No, it's not. It's not as consistently prevalent. No. Now, for the big games, it still is.

Right. But it's got to be the big games. But basically, the big games, you're talking two or three games. Yeah, it's like two or three games a year. It's Michigan State. It's Indiana. And the passion for those teams isn't anywhere near what it was for Duke or Carolina. So one other thing before we move on to another subject.

Because I don't think, Aaron, we talked a lot about this on the podcast yesterday. I asked Gary about this and actually gave him an idea, which he dismissed. Of course he did. I hate last night in the ACC Big Ten Challenge playing Notre Dame. I heard you talk about this. I just can't stand it. You talked about the Maryland Pia. How many of those people said, why are we playing Notre Dame?

Why aren't we playing Duke? Why aren't we playing North Carolina? You know what? We played Virginia twice in this thing. But we've also played Pitt, Syracuse, and now Notre Dame. You know, you and I interviewed Coach Kay. I know. He told us. And you know, you saw how, you heard how adamant he was and how frustrated and hurt he was.

Do you remember about Maryland leaving the ACC? Do you remember that their PR person said, you've got six minutes with Coach Shoshchewski? We did 17 minutes on the air with him and then we recorded it. He was going to run the night. And then when it was over, I stayed on the phone with him for like another 10 minutes because he said to me, before he hung up, he said, I sense the passion in your voice and the Maryland fan that you are. And I just want you to know we never wanted Maryland to leave the ACC.

It hurts that Maryland's gone. And I'm going to miss those games just as much as you're going to miss those games. And he also sort of said, and we're never playing them. And I think he's going to stick to that. Yeah. I don't think you're, unless circumstances dictate it, they're not going to play Maryland because of, their own accord. Business should dictate it. You know how big Maryland Duke

and last night would have been? I don't think Duke has to worry about the bottom line. I understand that. Before these leagues and these in college basketball in general, which doesn't get paid attention to until March for the most part. I get that. But the ACC will do with Shoshchewski once. They're not going to force him. I get it. So Maryland Duke is not going to happen. So I told Gary he should talk to Shoshavsky about it and try to convince them of it. But you ask why we're playing these teams. Well, because Pitt was Maryland's rival in the ACC.

Yeah, I know. For the final season. They were the official rival. Well, there were two crossovers. And it became Pitt in Virginia. But it would have been Pitt in Maryland. But the year, well, no, in basketball, you had two crossovers. There were no divisions.

In basketball, I'm talking about. Oh, yes. You still had, scheduling-wise, when they had the year. unbalanced. You had the two official people. Yes, it was Virginia and Pitt. It was just for that last year. It was Duke in Virginia the year before Pitt came into the league. But that's also because they knew Maryland was leaving. If Maryland were staying in the league, Duke would have been the crossover. It still was Pitt, though. It was always Pitt was the plan. Yeah, whatever. I mean, I understand that the league's all changed and the ACC is not the same. I

get that. I get that. It doesn't mean that I can't yearn and be nostalgic over what it used to be. No, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, and when you have not, look at what Syracuse and Georgetown do. Yes. You know, they play every single year. And you're set up with this ACC Big Ten challenge, which, by the way, Aaron, it's like 20 years old this thing is now, right? Yeah. It's, I mean, I'm not sure the exact number, but it's been around for a while.

Syracuse and Georgetown play because the two guys that run those programs, Beheim and Big John, wanted to be. keep playing. I understand that. That's why. You know who wanted to continue the Georgetown Maryland thing in the Gavitt games after those two years? JT3 wanted to continue. Did he really? I think so. I mean, because that would be great if those that continued. Right. All I'm saying is that, you know what, if K's not going to play Maryland and doesn't want to play Maryland, Roy's already played Maryland once. Right. In these, when we have these games, so Gary said, and I remember this being the case, that what the Big Ten and ACC have always tried to do is they've always tried to create the most attractive matchups for television. Well, Maryland was number seven

preseason. So matching them up against Carolina would have been, you know, or Virginia, even if it wasn't Duke, would have been preferable to Notre Dame. I mean, I know it's Notre Dame, and they've had some good teams. And Maryland, actually, if you go way back to lefties years, they had a tradition of playing Notre Dame every single year. Well, those that are John Shoemate years. Well, Dantley's shoemate those years, but even after that. Donald Duck Williams, who played at Mackin and a lot of those Notre Dame, Kelly Trucuka, Bill Lambere. Maryland played in the 70s and 80s, played every single year Notre Dame as a non-conference game. You know, they'd play here one year, and the next year they'd play in South Bend. Had some legendary games, too, like highly ranked

matchups. Albert King and Buck Williams, that team with Greg Manning and Ernie Graham, went to South Bend, I think is the number two team in the country, and Notre Dame was ranked fourth. They played a game. It was a huge game. Al McGuire, Dick Enberg, Billy Packer on the call for NBC. But anyway, I just would prefer that, you know, the Big Ten, it's better business for this tournament, for television, for Maryland in particular, if they're hosting it, to play a traditional ACC rival. Well, I'm sure Gary is working on it for you. He didn't sound overly excited about that. Real quick word about stamps.com. When I talk about stamps.com, I always wonder who in the world still goes to the post office

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I did want to mention this real quickly before we get to LeBron James and what happened last night, Tommy. You know, Georgetown had all of this turmoil earlier in the week. Their best player, Akinjo, which he was not accused of anything involving these sexual harassment allegations with LeBlanc and a couple of the other players. But they lost Echinjo and LeBlanc this week. and it seemed like, you know, oh my God, Georgetown basketball is in a heap of trouble. Last night they went to Oklahoma State as an 11-point underdog to play Oklahoma State who was undefeated. They weren't ranked. They weren't ranked 20.

They weren't ranked? They weren't ranked. Were they ranked, Aaron? Oklahoma State? I don't think they were. I think they ranked 25th. I think I looked that up and they were not ranked. Let's see if you're right.

Oh, in the coaches poll, they were ranked 25th. Yeah. Very good. 7 and O Oklahoma State. And they won the game on the road. Yeah, McLung had what? 31 points? Yes, McClung had 33 points. Yeah. Had 33 points in that win. That's a, it's really, like, when you do that with all the turmoil and all the issues, and you go on the road and you beat an undefeated team, and by the way, Oklahoma State is a basketball school. Yes. You know, that is one of the big 12 schools that is a basketball first school. They've got a lot of tradition at Oklahoma State and basketball. A great home court environment, too, and they went down there and won. One weird thing about that game.

The other two players, not McClung, but the other two. Played, right? They played in that game. That's going to be a thing. Their next home games against Syracuse, and that's something that they need to address before that game. I don't, you know, it is very difficult when you are in this position of making the call on, do you play somebody with these accusations out there,

or do you not play them and then have the risk that these accusations were baseless and you you essentially suspended them or sat them unnecessarily? You know, a lot of people go back to the Duke lacrosse case and say, it's crazy. Like you've got to wait for the facts to come out. Maybe that's what Georgetown's doing right now. I don't know. I mean, the optics of it aren't great. No, the optics aren't great.

And the school has to, the people, the decision makers have to have some kind of idea. at this point as to which way the credibility is leaning. I mean, you can't be an idiot about this. Right. I mean, yeah, there's a chance, like, in the due case, that you could be wrong, so you don't want the rush to judgment. Well, you also have some liability when you start to do that, right? Yeah.

I mean, because the implication, if you suspend a player like that, is that you believe that there's a chance that player is guilty. Either that or I don't know what Georgetown's official, policy is. I don't know if they have one, but if you have have an official policy that says, that basically spells out, if there's certain accusations against you, you're out until they're cleared up, then I think their liability would be covered. You know what? Every school should have that policy. If there's an accusation, no matter how baseless, and we're sorry about this, but our policy is that until we get all the facts, you don't play. Yeah. And you,

understand that coming in. Yeah. You know, that's a pretty good policy. That's a pretty safe route to take. And it hurts if that player, those group of players end up missing a bunch of games while the facts are being sorted out. And when the facts are sorted out, it turns out that these were baseless allegations. That hurts. Now, here's the problem with campus justice, is campus police have a terrible reputation generally, not at Georgetown. I'm sorry. saying, just that's a general rule. Campus police are not trusted in terms of conducting investigations that would shine the light on the truth.

I mean, they're usually, they're perceived to be in cover up mode for the school in most cases. Whether that's an accurate perception or not, that's the perception. There's a lot of mistrust among students of campus police and campus justice, as opposed to regular police off, you know, off campus. So that's part of the problem, too. Yeah. Is, you know, like, I mean, that's part of the reason why the school maybe should be overly cautious about protecting themselves in this situation.

Because I don't think you can rely on your own police to be able to come up with the accurate credibility measure that you're going to need to make a quick judgment. You mean, like Officer Mulcaney, you know, down in college park and some of the basketball players are getting to. trouble yeah come here Adrian come here Leonard we got you covered yeah so uh by the way I'm not suggesting that Leonard or Adrian branch bias ever did anything I just as the first two names so it's a very touch it's a very touchy situation but in the end and this is like falling on deaf fears you have to remember your school at some point you really do all right and Georgetown in particular does oh what Maryland doesn't no come on Kevin come on Kevin look I teach at Georgetown I know the difference between the two. I do, I do too, but you know, that's sort of pretentious.

Well, I mean, it's only pretentious for you. It's true. Yeah, well, okay. LeBron James last night, there are two things we're going to talk about. First of all, if you haven't seen the video of him traveling, he crosses half court. They played Utah on the road, and he crosses half court, and he, the ball, he's dribbling. He's bringing the ball up the court. The ball essentially suspends in the air as he takes three or four steps. I mean, and Bogdanovich is sitting in front of him screaming. Are you kidding me? And it doesn't get called.

It's a travel in any game ever played in the history of the sport. And LeBron was embarrassed about it and said that he essentially said, I was distracted by a collision involving Contavius Caldwell Pope and Donovan Mitchell, and I just sort of, you know, forgot what I was doing. It was almost like, you know, when he did that, it was almost like he expected play to stop. Yeah. That's what it was. It was the kind of thing that, you know, well, somebody blew a whistle or something happened and play's going to stop.

You know what? It's like somebody heard a whistle from the crowd but didn't know what it was and they stopped playing. And then the referees, oh, we heard that too. Let's let's let you inbound the ball. No. No. He just traveled. Yeah.

It didn't get called. I mean, like you said, in any playground game I've ever played that if somebody did that, that is not that, they're not getting away with that. Yeah. So we didn't talk about the ratings of the NBA, did we the other day? No, we didn't. The ratings in the NBA are way down on the SPN and TNT. And it's understandable because the product they have is unwatchable. So the Wizards ratings are off 57%.

Now, you know the reason for that, right? Well, of course I know the reason for that. What? Because they changed their broadcast. Well, that's one of the reasons we would like to think because we're big fans of Buck. Yes. And actually this guy, Justin Coucher, who's doing the game, Is that how you pronounce his name, Aaron?

He's actually pretty good. I mean, I've watched a couple games. He's doing a good job. I like Drew Gooden a lot as an analyst, but I, you know, bucks in a different level. Buck and Phil were fine. Yeah, they were just fine. Yeah, there was no need for this kind of change other than for Ted's son, Zach, the flexes inherited muscles. Well, I mean, are they, they're flexing their muscles on this arena league football team, aren't they?

How's that going? Oh, by the way, the arena league El Foldel. What? They got two teams. No. They were at the forefront of this. I know. They were going to flip it and turn it around with all of their data analytics. I know. I know. Ted talked about the future of indoor sports. What happened? That outdoor sports were passe.

Yes. And the future was indoor sports. Was this in the book of happiness? I don't think. I don't think the Arena League collapsed. You know, this league? How are he and his boys doing gambling now that it's legal? I'd love to see one of, I would love to see one of, I would love to see. see Zach and all of his friends to see how much they're killing Vegas or killing the legal sports books. I can't wait till the sports book opens there. Yeah. Ace Rothstein opens a sports book

there. We're going to be customers, I'm sure. Absolutely. No, you know, it's funny because the Arena League in various forms existed for since 1987. I know that. And Ted managed to kill it. once Ted and all of monumental and all of the super smart data analytically driven AOL guys got involved, the thing tanked within less than a year, I think. You have such contempt for these guys. He bought two teams, not one team too. I know, I know. Maybe that was the problem.

Maybe the data that spit out said buy two teams, but really it meant to say buy one team. I don't know what happened to it. Funny, because John Bon Jovi and Jaworsi on the Philadelphia team, which seemed to be doing fine until Ted came along. Right. I mean, but, you know, don't worry about it because all, they're going to be able to gamble their way out of this loss. I'm sure, betting on sports using all of the data that they will have.

Now, I send aside real quick, since we're on the TED take here, so to speak, Ted state. And Aaron, I want to ask you about this. I asked you about this before. How's his team defensively? No. There is a UFC mixed martial arts cards Saturday night at the Capital One Arena. It's the first time UFC has been in the area, I think, since 2011. And they were at Eagle Bank Arena then.

And I think they've been at the old Verizon Center, maybe one time in like 2007 or 2008 or something like that. Because I remember being there for that. but a few years ago, maybe a year or two ago, Ted became an investor in a competitor for UFC called the Professional Fighters League. How did that go? Well, they're still operating, right? Aaron, the PFL is still operating, I think.

I went on their website, and they had one event in D.C. that did not do very well. Professional Fighters League is still active. Yeah, now they had one event in D.C. at Ted's mini arena, you know, the Little Arena. And I don't think it drew very well. And I don't think they've been back to D.C. But I find and find it.

And Ted was quoted in a Bleacher Report article about a year or two ago, basically saying, you know, basically taking shots at UFC and saying that, you know, we're going to do it better. We're going to do something different and we're going to do it better. And now I just think it's curious. There's nothing to it because, you know, I talk to somebody with UFC who's pretty high up who I know.

And, you know, there's nothing to this. But I find it curious that Ted is, is hosting in his arena the competition to the league that he's an investor in. I mean, do you think that's a little bit unusual? Yeah, I would think, yeah. I mean. That's your competitor. Unless, you know, it's such a huge, you know, profit opportunity.

And if it doesn't go there, it's going to go to Eagle Bank or it's going to go somewhere else. Ted runs Eagle Bank, too. No, I thought Eagle Bank was the Mason facility. Yeah, Ted runs. Oh, he does? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Isn't that right, Aaron?

I think Ted runs monumental. I think monumental, I don't know if they own it, but I think they operate it, and I think they lease it. It is, the first university venue to be managed by a private company. Oh, I didn't realize that. I didn't realize that either. Yeah. Just switching, staying on Ted, but a different, you know, topic on Ted.

I don't know if he's calling the defenses or not on the NBA bench that he sits on, but they really got to improve the defense. I would think that somehow, some way, they've come up with a lot of answers to a lot of different things. I mean, they're going to take down Vegas with all of their smart gambling takes. They're going to open up their own casino, which invite all their friends in, and they're going to have such a great time, you know, beating whoever's running the actual sports book in the restaurant that they'll have it in. Why can't he figure...

William Hill, by the way. What is it? William Hill. William Hill. Why can't he figure out a way to get the team better on defense? Well, that would require firing the head coach. No, no, no, no. He's more of like an assistant.

Oh, you mean Scott Brooks. No, Scott Brooks is the head coach. Ted is there. You see him communicating with the coaches during the timeout. I know. So that would require getting rid of the head coach. I wonder what kind of input. in all seriousness. I wonder what kind of input he actually does have.

I'm thinking he doesn't have much input. He's talking to players right when they come off and they're in the huddles. Remember, he said... Is it just encouraging stuff? After Ernie got fired, he said part of the problem was I didn't realize what was going on. And this guy sat on the end at a bench and didn't have an idea. Maybe the problem with arena football was he wasn't on the bench enough. Let me just say this because we mocked Ted a lot.

justifiably so for a lot of things. You know what? He's got a great hockey team. Every single time I go to Capital One Arena for anything, it's done in a first-rate way. Like he does, from his AOL days and probably other businesses he's been involved in, he does know how to build and operate a customer business, like with the customer in mind and making it convenient and making it better. And, you know, that's something the other owner-intosh.

One of the other owners in town has no idea on what to do. Getting back to the ratings, which somehow started this conversation about UFC and the competitor to UFC, the ratings for the Wizards games primarily are down because they matched up against like multiple World Series games when the season started in October. So no one watched like three or four games in October. So they probably had a true zero rating instead of like a one or one point two, whatever it is. But I wanted to get back to LeBron for a second because NBA ratings overall are down on TNT and ESPN. And when I watched the travel last night, but more importantly, when I watched LeBron at the end of the game, with the Lakers up by 20, he's on the bench, his shoes have been taken off.

And by the way, I think he signed him and gave him to a fan. That's sweet and nice. There was a sequence underneath the basket closest to the Lakers bench where Kyle Kuzma was still out on the floor. and one of the Utah Jazz players, they're down 20, the game's over with two minutes to go, has one shot blocked by Kuzma. The offensive player, the Utah player, grabs the offensive rebound, and here comes LeBron off the bench onto the floor. He's now, you know, on the actual floor, waving a towel, cheering Kuzma on.

And game's going on. Game is, as he starts to walk on the court is probably 15, you know, 12 to 15 feet away from him. but he inches closer. He's inside the baseline. All right. So he's on the court. He's now moved inside the three-point line in the corner. He's approaching the actual paint, you know, about three, four feet outside the paint

where all of the actions going on waving his towel, cheering as Kuzma gets a second block. And then the action goes in the other direction. And LeBron's in the paint doing a dance on the floor. Jumping up and down, right. Jumping up and down. Then he turns around. And he does a dance back to the bench, and then in his socks, slides into the bench, high five, and all of his teammates.

And so these ratings that have dropped, I believe that there is a certain segment of the sports viewing population of basketball fans who look at things like that. And I know that this is going to be one of those OK boomer moments for a lot of you, a lot of you that are younger. But just bear with me. because it doesn't matter who, you know, and why someone is off put by this. But I guarantee Fing to you that a lot of people that watch basketball aren't watching as much because of things like that. They may be an older part of the sports population, sports viewing population. You know, there could be a lot of reasons. But when you turn on a game and you see somebody walk three or four steps with the ball.

ball in his hand and it doesn't get called. And then you see a guy on the court while the game's going on waving a towel, a near participant in the game at that point as a sixth man on the floor. And you don't see him whistled for a tech. And it's actually celebrated, you know, by his teammates. Now, the opposing television crew, the Salt Lake television crew called it incredibly disrespectful to the game. I don't know that that's his intent at that point, that it's disrespectful, but this is, you know, this is the era we're living in, and not to sound like anti-millennial and that kind of thing, but, you know, a lot of these players, it's more about them than it is the team. It's more, you know, it's just like fans. Like, more fans, you know,

they don't root for teams, I said this morning, they don't root for teams, they root for memes. Like, they can't wait to see what comes out of a game when goes viral. Yes. The result of the game doesn't matter. Certain players matter from a fantasy standpoint. I understand that. But you and I and people of our age, your age, my age, and even, you know, five, ten years younger, we rooted for, we enjoyed the games. We rooted for the teams. This sounds like an old man get off your lawn rant. I understand that.

I'm not stupid. Okay. And I got a bunch of OK Boomer responses on Twitter this morning to this. That's an intelligent take, by the way, OK Boomer. But you, exactly. But you can't walk out onto the floor waving a towel where you're in the action almost. Now, somebody said, he's not as close to the action as you said. And I said, so I went back and measured, you know, as much as you could from video.

He's every bit of three feet inside the baseline. He's every bit of eight to ten feet from the sideline. He's four to six feet from the actual action. to me. If it was a fight, he'd be kicked out of the game. Of course. For being on the court like that. He was on the court.

Yeah. If it was a fight, he'd have been kicked out and suspended. You see in the end. So he's literally on the court. There's no question about that. You know, in the NBA over the last 10 to 15 years, the benches have gotten further away from midcourt and much further closer to the baseline

to where a lot of the bench extends beyond the baseline. Right. And you'll see players standing up and cheering, and they're not on the court. But sometimes when the action goes to the other end and they're really fired up, they might accidentally step on the court or take a step or two into the court. LeBron is on the court, behaving like a child. First of all, like, I was also wondering, this was Kyle Kuzma. Like, this wasn't the last guy on the bench that just came off that never gets any playing time

and gets two back-to-back block shots. And everybody in the bench is really happy for the guy that never gets in. This is Kyle Kuzma, okay, who just happened to have still been in the game. So it's a bit of a phony response to begin with from LeBron, which I think a lot of people sort of get that with him. Okay. But again, like, you know what? If you want people to watch this sport in November and December, don't do clownish stuff like that. Understand that you may not care about an older generation that wants to watch, you know,

respect the game, play the game. But whether it's intended disrespect or not, the net result is disrespect to the game, what he did there by coming off the bench and waving a towel on the floor while the action was going on four to six feet away from him. If the crowd that you're talking about is offended by that, it's the same crowd that's turned off by the style of play. I mean, you're the exception for your age.

You're not the rule. No, I agree with what you're about to say. Go ahead and finish it. All the three-pointers. Yes. I mean, most of our generation, mine and youngers, I think, like for a 15 or 20-year age span, are turned off by the style of play of the NBA now. And I think that's a big contributor.

And I honestly think part of a big contributor for the television ratings being down is the NBA that matters. is on the West Coast now. Yeah, there are a lot of those reasons, the West Coast games with the clippers and the Lakers in particular. I mean, you know, so that's part of the problem as well. But I do think the product for me, who loves basketball, I mean, we talk, you know, I mean, everyone thinks I'm a baseball guy.

My first love used to always be basketball. And the NBA was always my first love. I mean, for years, I mean, for decades of most of my life. And I think it's unwatchable now. I agree with what you're saying that a lot of people are turned off to the game for a lot of those reasons, the way the game's played. And my God, this year. I mean, you talk about a year with no defense. I haven't seen any numbers on it yet.

But I have to bet that more points are being scored and have been scored in the first two months plus of this season than in recent memory. But anyway, I agree with that. But I think it's much beyond that, Tommy. because, you know, the playoff numbers, you know, especially when we had those Golden State Cleveland series, you know, four of them in a row, you know, I think the NBA playoffs are phenomenal. I like the NBA. I love the NBA playoffs. But I think it's more than just the style of play in the three-point shooting contests and the lack of defense. I think it's this, this like obsession with these players.

about, you know, sort of image and, you know, social media. And it's more, it just seems that it's not as serious to them, the actual results of the games. But you know, this is creeping into the NFL, too. It's creeping into a lot of different things. And I'm not here to say that people who are enjoying sports for different reasons are wrong. You know, you enjoy the NFL for perhaps fantasy reasons. instead of really rooting for a team, and it's hard to root for the team here locally. I just think that there are certain people that watch that last night

and then watch LeBron make big statements on China. And it's heavy LeBron, and then they see all of the teaming up to go together to places, and Anthony Davis demanding a trade when he's got contract left. I think all of that stuff adds up with the style of play that makes people say, I got better things to do with my time. But I do think it's an older demographic that feels that way, primarily. But it is. But it's, again, you know, people keep saying older demographic, and this seems foolish to say this.

And I know people dismiss it, but young people are going to get old. Yeah. Okay. And what makes, and I can guarantee you that what was important to you when you were 35 is not going to be the same thing that's important to you when you're 55? So your tastes are going to change. You're going to get old. You're going to age. And your likes and dislikes are going to be different than than they are now.

And I don't know why anyone thinks they're going to stay the same, that this NBA millennial tap-in that they've got is going to carry over to when they're closer to Social Security and then they are their driver's license. That's just not going to happen. God, can you imagine the young fan of the NBA now that got to kick out of what LeBron did like. Did you see that travel? And they didn't call it, which was smart, because it is LeBron. You should never call that. And it didn't impact the play at all. It's not like it gave him an advantage. And then how about him on the floor? I mean, he was,

but I would have loved Kyle Kuzma to have grabbed one of those block shots and thrown the ball to LeBron, you know, because he was that close. Yeah, yeah, he was. If you had looked in your peripheral, you would have seen a teammate on the floor. Now, I think the NBA recognizes, is Adam Silver is a smart guy. And the NBA, one thing, of all the leagues, they're more willing to be bold and make change. You saw the story that was released about two weeks ago about the dramatic changes they're talking about in the league, including an in-season tournament. Ridiculous. But they are concerned.

It would certainly appeal to the soccer crowd, to the 20-something soccer crowd that has no idea who's playing in these games, but they love a good party. cup time because that's what soccer does. Yes, it does. They're into friendlies and in-season cups. Yeah. So the NBA, they're concerned about what's going on, and they're willing to try, and it is a league that's always willing to try something more dramatic than the NFL or Major League Baseball might.

I give them credit for that. The NBA's more willing to be progressive, but the problem is they need to look back, not look forward, as to figure out what's wrong. You think the whole China thing piss some people off as far as the ratings go? in China maybe where they were told to be pissed off.

I think people forgot that quickly. I think you're probably right on that. I mean, that's not a national anthem sticking issue. It's not. I think you're right about that. Anyway, I still like the NBA and I like the NBA playoff time, but I definitely know people for years.

You and I've had this conversation before. I've known people for years that can't stand the NBA. I can't wait until Washington gets in. NBA franchise. That's what I can't wait for. Oh, God. That's going to be great. They play the Sixers tonight. And we're supposed to be, we're supposed to be happy about this team. You know what, Tommy Shepard? That Bertons deal is going to produce a first round pick.

Look, I know that. And he made great deals. But this progression of this changing the culture isn't going to happen until they have a coaching change. I know you like Scott Brooks. Well, no, I mean, you know how I feel about him from, I didn't. okay C. Legler would be on with me during the playoffs and I would say what were they doing there at the end and Legler would say well they weren't doing anything that was planned.

So until they I mean a culture change on the court has to start with the coach and this culture change that they talked about with the three headed front office that Ted instituted isn't going to do

Didley until they changed the mindset of the players on the court. All right. We'll get to the Redskins here in a moment. It's an exciting time for sports. None more exciting time of the year than when the NFL's coming down, it's home stretch. And Lamar Jackson's a huge story, and the odds on Jackson to win the MVP race are now. He's the favorite. You know, they were 50 to 1 to begin this season.

MyBooky.ag's prop selection is more attractive than ever. There's so many props. You can bet right now on teams that you think are going to be in the playoffs that are sort of teetering. can still pick division winners, MVP, more coaches to be fired. They've got plenty of prop bets. Next week, switching subjects as it relates to MyBooky.ag, one of the most stacked UFC cards in a long time. Three championship fights on the 14th, all highly anticipated right in the betting capital of the world, Las Vegas. Without a doubt, people are going to be looking to get in on the action, and I've got a place for you that works. MyBooky.ag. If you're looking for

quality lines and reliability, that's mybooky.ag. If you join right now, MyBooky will match your deposit halfway all the way up to $1,000. That means if you deposit $2,000, you get an extra $1,000 in free money to play with. All you got to do is use my promo code, Kevin D.C, to activate the offer. Once again, that's promo code Kevin D.C to get your extra cash from MyBooky. MyBooky.ag, you play, you win, you get All right. So I wanted to share with you what I did on radio this morning. I don't know if you heard this, heard me do it or not. I did a Redskins at 8 segment that I wanted to do with you. And basically it is more of let's take a break from all of the dysfunction and let's act like this is a normal franchise for a moment and that we are a fan base. You're not a fan, but I'm a fan. And it's a normal conversation about a team. You know, it's not a, You know, the owner, it's not the team president. It's not the team name. It's not hashtags.

It's not Ruben Foster. It's not any of that stuff. It's, you know, transporting ourselves into normalcy, you know, into a normal NFL fan's body. This is the medicated portion. This is the medicated portion of the show. Okay. And it's taking a break from all of the other stuff and just fake for a few minutes

that you are the fan of a real NFL franchise. You know? I mean, how do you do this? I don't want to look on Tommy's face. How do you do this? Like I said, you know, I'd have to take a pill. I'd have to literally take a pill. So.

In order for this to happen. I understand that. But I want right now for us to not act like the victims we've been for years and years and years where we've been treated like idiots by people like Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen who have essentially looked at us all like were marks, you know, over the years. Those of you, by the way, who continue to spend money on this outfit, show up and profess your loyalty. You really are similar to, like, persecuted groups of people. You know, you just haven't figured it out.

Some of us have risen up as a resistance, all right? But there are some of you that are just afraid to do it, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Listen, I would just say that you got nothing better else to do. I would warn all of you who are doing that. If they start giving out Kool-Aid at Ghost Townfield, don't drink it. Don't drink it. Don't drink it. Personally, I consider myself to be a very loyal fan,

just one that prefers not to be insulted over and over and over again. But let's pretend. Let's play make-believe for just a few minutes and act like, you know, we're talking about the players on the roster, the coaching staff, all the people that play the games, and we're having a normal conversation about a normal NFL team. So my question to you, with that context, what are you most optimistic about?

because I have become very optimistic about one thing. Do you want me to start? Well, I would, yeah, give me some guidance here because I'm really trying to understand what I'm supposed to do here. What I don't want to hear, and what I didn't want to hear on the phones this morning is somebody saying, I'm actually really optimistic for the first time that they're going to get rid of Bruce Allen and that Dan Snyder might sell the team to Jeff Bezos. That stuff doesn't exist in this alternate universe, pretend, make-believe universe we're living in

for the next 10 minutes. Okay. But if I do this. We're rooting for an actual NFL franchise. You say they're not an NFL franchise. Right. Or they're not an NFL team. We're pretending for a moment that they're actually a legitimate NFL team

and you're having a normal fan conversation about what you're excited about. Okay. But if I do this, you've got to let me go down the path I want to go on. But I don't want to hear about the aura of self-destruction. No, you're not. Okay. As long as all of that's eliminated, go ahead. I'm most optimistic about the coaching.

This is acceptable. I mean, I think that what I've seen from Bill Callahan so far in terms of a more disciplined team, in terms of accountability, I mean, I don't think there's any ping pong anymore going on at Redskins Park. You know, players are complaining about having to practice more. I think that's a good thing. I think that's part of changing the culture.

And I think that Bill Callahan, who once took a team to the Super Bowl, I might want to point out. And was accused of sabotage. Yes, he was. By his own players. But if I recall, Charles Woodson and Jerry Rice. And Tim Brown. And Tim Brown and Jerry Wright. That's what it actually accused Bill Callahan of throwing that Super Bowl.

Here's the story, if I recall. I'm going to let you finish. Because you know what? We haven't talked about this, actually, since Callahan became head coach. No, we haven't. Bill Callahan in the Super Bowl that Oakland lost to Tampa Bay, where he was the head coach for Oakland, and John Gruden was the head coach of Tampa Bay, and he had worked with John Gruden, was friends with John Gruden.

The week leading up to the Super Bowl, they had installed a game plan that essentially said, we're going to try to run the football, run the football, run the football. And on Friday, before the game, he came in and switched the entire game plan to a one in which he was going to ask Rich Gannon to throw the ball 60 times, which he did in the game. I think something like, 50 or 60 times, whatever it was. Several years after that game, after they got absolutely blown out, I think it was 48 to 24 or whatever, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown both accused Bill Callahan of throwing the Super Bowl. They said sabotage was the word that Tim Brown used.

What's the difference? Well, there's a difference. sabotage, you can sabotage something unintentionally. Throwing something is unintentional. They accused him. No, they accused him. No, because it was a John Gruden thing that he wanted John Gruden to win the Super Bowl.

Well, that may be, but also, I mean, part of what was going on there was their center went AWOL, went to Mexico, Barrett Robbins. Barrett Robbins, right. And that was... He had major anxiety issues, yes. And that was seen as part of the reason for what they did, for what

Calhian did. For changing the game plan. Yeah. But, you know, Rice and Tim Brown didn't necessarily buy that. Others, who was the fullback from Penn State? Was it John Ritchie? Look that up, Aaron, see who the fullback was on that Raider team. You know who stood up for Callahan? This one's surprised you. Rich Gannon.

Bill Ramanowman. Yeah, Gannon, Bill Romanoffsky did. Outspoke, but, you know, he's a lunatic. He's a lunatic. But you know what? We had him on a couple of times at the Super Bowl. Of course. He's been on every radio program in the country.

He was always selling something. Yeah. And I think one of the stories about that came out, and I think we asked him about it. He completely backed Callahan. So, so I look at John Ritchie, by the way. John Ritchie, starting fullback. He was also, I think if you, I could be wrong,

but I think John Ritchie said publicly, he totally agreed with Rice and with Tim Brown. Oh, there were a lot of players who agreed with, who had issues. They said they had no chance to win the game by changing. changing the game plan that late in the week. Yeah, but still, he took the team to the Super Bowl, and I think that the coaching has gotten better. I think that I think you're going to have more stability on the football field.

I think you're going to have less club J like there used to be. And I think that Bill Calhahn, I think, has got this team going in the right direction. Are you serious? No. Well, you asked me to fantasize. I'm fantasizing here. I know. I'm doing what you asked me to do.

You do know that Doc is 100% all in on Callahan. There you go. Doc thinks he's the second coming of Bill Walsh. And actually not Bill Walsh. Vince Lombardi would be a better comp. Okay. For Callahan. Well, that's pretty good, isn't it?

Yes, it's pretty good. That's better than the second coming of Jim Zorn. That's true. I know you're not serious, but, you know, like we talked about the other day, and I talked about on the radio yesterday, if they win Sunday or they're even close to winning Sunday, Callahan coming back is in play. Yeah. That's in play. And as well, it should be. All right.

So let me play pretend, make believe here and pretend that I'm talking about a team that's a real NFL team with real NFL issues and, you know, not the stuff that always becomes an issue with this team. I'm really excited about Darius guys. and it's so surprising to me that I am because I did not think I would ever be excited about Darius Geis when he came out. I thought there was some injury things. I liked him. I didn't love him.

I liked a lot of other running backs in that draft, which was a heavy, heavy running back draft. And, you know, if Bryce Love had been in that 2018 draft, there probably would have been four first round running backs taken. He was the last of seven or eight taken in the first two round, which is a hell of a lot for the running back position. And, you know, I wasn't expecting anything. When he went down in week one, I'm like, we may never, ever hear or get the opportunity to see if Darius Geis was any good.

What he did Sunday was unique. First of all, 10 carries 129 yards, but it was the way he did it. He 112 of the 129 yards were after contact. He is a guy that makes your offense. The running back position doesn't do it a lot. It doesn't do it a lot. It became for many years a commodity position almost. And you can win with fifth round running backs. You know, you can win with guy undrafted running backs. Philip Lindsay, they're not winning in Denver, but Philip Lindsay was an all-pro as an undrafted

rookie last year. You can find those guys. But he, there's something in watching him Sunday, and even the two weeks prior to that, specialism play with him. Like he could be one of those special running backs. And if he is, you got something to build around. offensively. And he's got to stay healthy, and that's a big if. He got injured at LSU. He's already been injured twice here in two years. And, you know, availability is everything. But if he is available and he stays healthy and he has a 16-game season with an actual coaching staff, you know, he's the kind of guy that could go for 17, 1,800 yards and be a dominant back. I'm excited about that. And what would that mean? What would that mean for the team? Well, I mean, because

this team had a running back like that years ago named Clinton Portis. And what did it mean to the team? Well, the team with Clinton Portis was a better team with Joe Gibbs as the coach. But what did it mean? I mean, they never won more than 10 games. I understand that. They never got to the NFC championship. Right.

And the time that Clinton Portis is here, if you take their one loss record, it's a losing record. Yes. So what good is it for Darius Geis to be great? Well, I mean, I think you could definitely say that, you know, a guy like Zeke Elliott is the difference between the Cowboys or certainly without. The Cowboys have talent. I know they do have talent. They do, but Zeke Elliott's been a big part of why they won a division and they could potentially win a second one, although I don't like him tonight. No.

And they're still not, they still haven't gotten to the Super Bowl. And they're still seed as an underachieving team. even with Zeke Elliott as they're running back. The convoys are not a good comparable because... Adrian Peterson did not take Minnesota to a Super Bowl. Okay? Zeke Elliott has not taken the Cowboys to a Super Bowl. And thinking of the elite backs of the last few years,

like the guys that were true difference makers, none of them have really taken... I mean, they haven't. I mean, Gurley wasn't even a part of the Rams. No. A significant part of the guy off the street. that got more carries than girl he did. Sequin Barclay is a difference maker.

David Johnson was a difference maker in Arizona and probably the difference of two games a year, something like that when he was great. Alvin Kamara, what are the Saints without Kamara? They're probably still a good team, but would they have been in the NFC championship game last year? Remember, they had three consecutive seven and nine seasons in New Orleans,

and then they got better defensively, really important. And they added a guy like Kamara. And Kamara is not a good comp for Geis. Look, I'm just, you're right. You can't take a running back here in recent years and say that team won the Super Bowl because of the running back. It didn't happen with New England last year. It wasn't a Philadelphia running back story the year before. And it wasn't, you know, in Denver when they beat Carolina. Was that the year before that? I came around. I'm getting my Super Bowl's mixed up. But I'm trying to just take a day off from, you know, essentially talking about an NFL franchise that is bottom rung and really isn't a typical NFL franchise with the typical

conversations that take place among its fans and have a conversation here briefly that typical fans of a real NFL team would have. I'm excited about guys. You're going to have a chance to do that for real after they win Sunday. After they beat the Packers. You'll be able to have that conversation for real. What a dilemma. You won't have to pretend. What a dilemma.

It really is amazing. I mean, it really is, I mean, you know, this could be one or their, this could be the most satisfying win since their Monday night win over Dallas a couple years ago. Marshawn Lynch was a big difference maker. I know Russell Wilson was the biggest difference maker. No, he was.

Sean Lynch, in terms of a team getting to the Super Bowl and winning a Super Bowl, was a massive difference maker at the position. And you know what? He's my comp. He's the guy that I think is the comp. I know. I know. But the Russell Wilson part isn't there.

I mean, but Redskins fans are facing this situation where, I mean, contrary to my fantasy, I think most fans realize that they don't want Bill Callahan as their head coach moving forward. But yet they also recognize. that if somehow the Redskins win some kind of glorious victory Sunday, that Bill Callahan is much closer to being your head coach for the next three or four years. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know that anybody really knows. I think Bruce Allen's going to be gone.

I think if they play well down the stretch, that Callahan's in play. That would be my guest today. I still think Bruce Allen's gone. I do think that if, you know, and we talked about this, well, I talked about it yesterday in the podcast and we started that conversation on Tuesday, I think if they beat the Packers at Lambo, I'm telling you, that limo ride that comes out of Lambo field and is headed to that private airport in Appleton, Wisconsin, or wherever it is, those two dudes, Bruce and Dan are going to be chest bumping. They're going to be rolling down their windows screaming, we told you so.

And it's going to be, it'll be insufferable for anybody to. it's around it that knows better. And it would certainly put in play, everybody's coming back. Because as we talked about two days ago, a win over Green Bay is not a win over Carolina or a win over Detroit or a win over Miami. It's not. If they go to Green Bay and beat Aaron Rogers and the Packers at Lambeau Field and they've got a three-game winning streak and Dallas loses tonight and they're actually alive,

everything's in play, even though, I mean, from what I'm here, hearing, I'm hearing just that the Bruce thing is definitely coming to an end. But, you know, I felt that way last year and was hearing a lot of the same stuff last year. So what the hell do I know? Nothing. But the Callahan thing would be a disaster. I think we talked about this. If they do beat Green Bay or they're really close and they get really excited and they, you know, they builds the coach here next year. We'll have the same conversation a year from today. The same conversation will be taking place about a four, nine, or a five and eight, you know, six and seven football team.

We'll have the same conversation of Donald Duck is the head coach. That's fair. That is fair. One more thing before I'll finish up the show with a smell test. In between the podcast or the radio show and the podcast today, I read this story in the post by Neil Greenberg, you know, the analytics person for the post. And I really found this very interesting. Dwayne Haskins had a ridiculously low QBR number.

You know, the QBR number is the ESPN number that ranks quarterback overall performances. It's much different than the passer rating. It encapsulates everything a quarterback does during a game. And Dwayne Haskins' QBR rating from Sunday's game was a 9.7 on a scale of 0 to 100. It's terrible. It's terrible. And I never, you know, I look at those things, but it never, it never influences me really if I think I saw something different. I thought he played pretty well. I thought he had a lot of drops that the receivers potentially could have helped him out to a much better statistical day on Sunday against the Panthers, whereas the receivers against

Detroit really helped him out by making great catches. Well, they didn't so much on Sunday against Carolina, but I thought he managed the game really well. He thought he had some good throws that weren't completed, good throws that were dropped, made some good decisions in running the football, a couple of good decisions on throwaways. Well, anyway, Neil Greenberg wrote this story that pro football focus, which is, again, one of these analytics, you know, evaluation services. Is pro football focus the one that Collinsworth is an investor in? Yes.

So they had him as the second best passer of week 13 last weekend behind only Deshawn Watson. You know how I read about that and know about that? I don't. Because I read about this on Dwayne Haskins' Twitter account because he retweeted the pro football focus. Did he really? Yes, he did. I mean, how many players pat themselves on the back like this? He retweeted.

He retweeted it. Yeah, and then I tell you what, he not only did he retweet it, but retweeted it a second time. And, Aaron, you may have to help me with this. The hashtag TMC, what does that mean? Do you know? I don't know off the top of my head. Well, he has retweeted it a second time with the hashtag TMC. TMC.

Now, I don't even know what that means. So that's how I found out about the pro football focus one, because Dwayne Haskins himself retweeted it twice. What is hashtag TMC? I don't know. I don't know what it is. I'll have to Google it maybe. To whom it may concern?

Maybe. Yeah, that's possible. Okay. So that's it. In other words, in case you didn't read it the first time he retweet. He wanted to make sure that if you were concerned about this, you got a chance to read it the second time. Oh, yeah. And that was after he retweeted the latest sale on his clothing line.

I would have asked him how Cyber Monday went for him. Yes. I would have been interested to see how he did because I think it was a huge day for the economy last Friday and on Monday. Oh, my God. Yeah, I'm wondering if it was a big day for what's. The Kingdom of Pride. He retweeted this. Yes, he did twice.

To whom would make him certain. Dwayne, Dwayne. Sean Springs. Tell your guy not to retweet compliments. Yeah. Okay? It's a ridiculous look. It's sort of, that should be social media 101 stuff. But not for his age group, because this is what they do.

Because other people were we treated for you. You don't have to do it. Everybody's going to retweet it for you, dude. You had Neil Greenberg in the post writing a story about it. It's on the front page of the sports section. Anyway, I found that so fascinating that you've got, you know, all of these advanced statistics services and benchmarks, and you've got, you know, ESPN's QBR telling you that he was horrible.

I mean, the worst quarterback in the league and pro football focus on the, the same game looking at it and saying second best quarterback in the league. And I know they all have different ways of evaluating, but at the end of the day, if one service is saying second best in the league and the other is saying worst performance of the week,

how could you trust either one of them? You know, I wonder if this is going to cause... Just watch the game yourself. I wonder if this is going to cause some kind of showdown when the geeks have their meeting wherever their secret meetings are. It was funny because Greenberg

he had a sense of humor about this. Hold on. Oh, that's hard to believe. I don't know him, do you? Yeah, I know him a little bit. Oh, okay. He's a weasel of the first order. Really? How's that?

Really? Yes. Okay. In fact, he'd have to rally to be a weasel. I don't know Neil at all, but he had a sense of humor about it here, and I'm trying to find... Trust me. He doesn't have a sense of humor. Okay. Well, he wrote with a sense of humor at one point.

How to explain the disparity? It's important to note that. the pro football focuses grading system isolates quarterbacks performance on a given play, not the end result, meaning as I get to the, all right, meaning that two quarterbacks could throw a touchdown or an interception and get vastly different grades. To PFF, the numbers themselves, where's the, he had a line in here about, you know, many of you may be sort of shaking your head about the geek factor. I'm sure it was Rickles-like.

Well, it wasn't Rickles-like. You know, I can't believe you're wasting my time with a Neil Greenberg story. I just thought it was fascinating that you have two of these. This is a bad side of yours. They had two so completely different evaluations of the same guy and the same game. I thought he played well. I gave him a B-minus. I thought he played well, too, and what I didn't watch the game,

but the highlights that I've watched, I thought he had some very impressive plays, actually. I'm looking for the part of the story that indicated that he had at least slightly a sense of humor and I can't find it, which means maybe I read that somewhere else. Maybe you did. Maybe you did. I thought I read it in his story. No, not quite.

Not quite. You know what? I read Barry. I read Sally. This is not a referendum on the post. I'm talking about one guy. Hold on. I'm going to tell you right now, one of the things that I don't think the post does really

anymore, maybe they don't want to do it anymore. They don't break stories. you know, they're not a news breaker. I don't, I mean, maybe that's their intent. I mean, most of the stories about teams in town get broken by other places other than the Post. But I do like the columnists. I think Barry's a good columnist. I think Dave Shinen's an excellent columnist.

Well, he is sort of. No, he's not. You think he's a reporter? He's a feature writer. Okay, what's the difference between feature writer and columnist? Well, a columnist will write their opinions. Like Chuck Culpepper is a feature writer? Yeah.

He's excellent. Yes, he is. Tommy, he's a beautiful writer. I know he is. I really like Sally. So a columnist is just straight like talk show opinion maker. Well, no, not necessarily. A columnist can write a feature column as well.

Okay. You know, but a columnist has the leeway to inject, and it's expected to inject their opinion. That's why I always get a laugh out of people when they say, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're bias in your writing. Well, you're supposed to be. You know, that's the job. Yeah, exactly. I think I did this the other day when people will say to me, you know, you need to be

objective when it comes to this stuff. And I'm like, actually, my job description says the exact opposite, that I'm not supposed to be objective, even though I try to be on some subject subject. Let's stop talking about this. All right. What else? Oh, I've got a smell test pick. Early smell test pick.

This is good. Oh, Aaron, last night. I didn't say this on the air But I think I told you I had Purdue for the maximum They were favored over Virginia I also had Ohio State I told you that that number was short

They were getting three Ohio State is Really good Didn't we have the conversation about Ohio State At the end of the show yesterday? Yeah And I ended up playing Maryland And Penn State also So I had a four-no college hoops night last night

Sorry I didn't give those out on the show But there are lots of times Trust me where what I tell Aaron after the show. If I'd given it out on the show, you would have been really upset with me. So last weekend, I ended up going five and five, if you count the Thanksgiving Day games, five and three for the weekend. So step forward after, you know, a terrible month and a half. Chicago's getting three tonight at home against the Cowboys. The public believes because the Cowboys have to win the game, they don't have to. You know, they could fall to six and seven and still be okay

in the NFC East. But, you know, the Jerry pressure after the loss on Thanksgiving and we're going to run the table and all that stuff. People are buying into it. The public's all over the Cowboys tonight, laying three at Soldier Field. Give me the Bears and the smell test plus three at home. The Bears are good defensively. They're still very good defensively. Trebisky's terrible, but he came off, I guess, the best game he's ever had in the Thanksgiving Day game. This is not your typical short week game because both of these teams played on Thanksgiving. a week ago, so they've had the full week. And Chicago at 6 and 6 is still in the playoff picture.

Not really the division picture, because Green Bay is sitting there at 9 and 3. So there are three games behind the Packers. They're not going to catch them. But there are two games behind the Vikings. They could catch the Vikings for that last wild card spot, and they play the Vikings in the final game of the year. So I like Chicago tonight plus the three. What do you think, Aaron?

I agree. I mean. You like that side? It's just so hard. I'm asking Aaron now because I'm so gun-shy after having such a terrible month and a half. And Aaron's got a sharp opinion, which is also why I'm asking. It's one of those things where I just, you know, with your process, yes, it absolutely fits the process. I just hate everything about, really about this game.

Both teams can do anything, any game. I'm staying away. I might play a couple props or something like that, but in general, I'm staying off this game. He can't hold his nose enough to do that. I don't hold my nose and take a pick. Well, you know, last weekend, you know, I had a couple of teams that you truly have to hold your nose to play like Cincinnati. Yeah. You know, to play the Bengals as an O and 9 team and to give it out confidently, which I didn't give it out very confidently because of the stretch that I've been on.

But I gave out the Bengals last week, the Jags. The Bengals didn't get it done. The Jags did. The Jags didn't. The Giants did. but then I came back with Houston on Sunday night. So ended up having a decent weekend overall. Chicago tonight plus the three, that's a small test pick.

And if the Cowboys win the game, the Redskins are officially eliminated. Let's make sure everybody understands that. If the Cowboys win tonight, all of you people that are actually thinking that the playoffs could be a possibility, they will die tonight. This is why I'm rooting for Chicago to win. Because I want Sunday to mean everything. I'm rooting for Chicago to win because it will benefit me if they win tonight. Although if they lose by two, I'm still in good shit.

There you go. All right. Thanks. Have a good day. All right, boss. You too. Aaron, thank you. Thanks to all of you back tomorrow with a football Friday, including a preview of Redskins, Packers.

And I think Cooley will be on the show tomorrow as well.