The Kevin Sheehan Show - RG3 On Caleb Williams + Brackets

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with NCAA Tournament Brackets, a reaction to RG3's plea for Caleb Williams to pull and Eli Manning and refuse to go to the Chicago Bears, and a lot more including a column written on a popular music blog about "Tommy Purify". Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have a new sponsor to the podcast. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS. It's just you against the numbers rather than you battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. Football season's over, but Hoops Action is heating up, whether it's tournament season right through the end of this month or the fight for playoff home court advantage heading. into the postseason, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a first deposit match of up to $100. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin She and show. He is Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here.

Tommy's done brackets. I can't believe it. He texted me early this morning. He said, I can do brackets. I've filled out a bracket. I haven't even filled out a bracket. But we'll figure it out during the show. The show's presenting sponsor is Window Nation. Go to WindowNation.com or call them at 866.90 Nation. mention my name for a free in-home estimate. So, man, we have something we're going to do on the show today.

I think we're going to save it for either the next segment or the last segment. All I can say is that somebody wrote a very nice story about Tommy's karaoke saga down in Florida. And it includes a lot of different things. Tommy asked me to read it before the show. I read it before the show. And you know what? It was a history lesson as well. It was a very nice history lesson that this gentleman provided.

His name is Steve. It's on a legit website. It's not some guy's website at home. This is an American music website. Is it really? I didn't know that. Yeah. All right.

We'll read what he wrote about Tommy Purify a little bit. later on in the show. I want to start with this very nice review from Skins Fan 1-2-5. He writes, Can't Believe You Guys Haven't Thought About having karaoke at Shelly's, drinking, dining, watching, smoking, and singing to resurrect Tommy Purify. Give Shelly's a call and make it work. Love the show. And he gave us five stars. I don't know. Could Shelly's put a mic up and put some, you know, whatever you do to play the music for karaoke? One-night. I think I could for one night, maybe. I think I convinced Bob to go ahead with that.

Yeah. If he figured it would draw enough people, I think he'd pretty much do anything. Bob will do anything to bring people in to generate more revenue. This from Adam Z, love the show, but I almost did crash my car when Tom was hyping up the nationals. It's sad that he's always down on the Redskins and even sadder that he's almost always right. He sure did call that fiasco brewing in Virginia over the Wizards and Caps move. Yeah, he did. He called that from the jump for sure.

And I don't even know where that is right now. You know what I do know is that one of Ted's teams, the caps, are actually in the playoffs right now if the season were to end. They're in the second wild card spot as of today. They've won three in a row. beat Calgary last night on the road to end this long West Coast swing. And not only are they in the wild card, the second wild card spot and position, they're also now just one point behind third place in their own division, which would lock up a spot.

Ovechkin, by the way, two power play goals last night for the caps, who are surging at the right time. Yes, they are. that gives him, according to Kendall Baker's Yahoo Sports website, he joins Gordy Howell and Brendan Shanahan as the only players in NHL history with at least 20 goals in 19 consecutive seasons. Incredible. And this did not look like the season.

This looked like for a while this was going to be the beginning of the end for Ovechkin. Right? I mean, he had a very slow start. No, it is a very slow start. Yeah. He looked heavy. He looked slow. Yeah.

You know, I actually, you know I'm not a Caps fan. I think most of the people that listen to this show know that I don't really, I just never got into the Caps for whatever reason. I do like playoff hockey a lot. And given how bad the teams in town have been, remember, we had this conversation. I was mentioning it on the podcast yesterday. We had this conversation a month. a half ago or so about it. This might be the worst year ever for local sports teams. Four and thirteen football team, the worst baseball team, one of the worst baseball teams last year,

the worst NBA team, and the hockey team is not performing very well. I'd like to see Ovechkin in the postseason. I think I would be interested in watching the caps in a best of seven first round series with Ovechkin back in the playoffs. Two straight. years here without the postseason for him. And you know this about hockey. Anything can happen. Like if they're in it, they have maybe not as good of a chance as the better teams in the East. But the wildest things happen in the NHL postseason, you know, eight seeds, seven seeds. They win it all the time or they advance all the time. Boston, I think last year, had the best, one of the best regular seasons in the history of the sport, and they were out in the first round.

So I think that this area desperately could use at least a bit of playoff sports on any level at this point. So I think fans would love to see the cats make the playoffs. I know Ted would, that gives him some playoff home playoff revenue. Yeah, I mean, it's been a while since any of his team. teams have been in the postseason. Yeah, it's extra money. I mean, Ted's basketball team basically needs a couple of extra home games a year just to break even. I remember he told us that years ago. I don't know if that's still the case now. You know, NBA revenues are up. By the way, speaking of the NBA, did you see the Anthony Edwards dunk last night? Oh, yeah. You did?

Yeah. I've seen the highlights. Right. I've seen the highlights. That's a man's move. in any era. I mean, his head is way above the rim. This guy has been, I talked about him last week, and I forget if it was with you or it was solo.

When he was the first pick in the draft, he basically said, I'm not even really into basketball that much. It was a really strange circumstance around him as a player coming out.

there were a lot of concerns. His talent was incredible, but it's not like he was great at Georgia in his one year. And that draft, remember, was the pandemic draft, so it got pushed back into the fall. I forget when it was. I just remember it was not in June because they had the bubble, you know, that summer, the NBA bubble playoffs. And he had comments, and I read him a couple weeks ago when I was talking about him from back then. he's like, yeah, basketball's not really a priority for me. But they took him anyway.

He was 18 years old. He was one of those 18-year-old ridiculous phenoms in terms of talent. But there was real big concern. Tommy, he has just blossomed into a dominant player. Like he is, you know, there are several next things in the game, but he's one of the two or three that in three years he may be the, best player in the NBA. And he's developed in every way, shape, and form. He's always been that sick athlete that you saw in the dunk last night, but he now passes well. He's developed a really strong

mid-range game. He defends. He's incredible, and we'll see him in the postseason, because Minnesota's, you know, right now one of the best teams, I think they're a half game out or maybe a game out in the West. But that was an incredible dunk. I'm glad you watched it, and I'm glad you watched it, Glad you actually appreciated it. Did you see the Kyrie Irving left-handed hook shot from the free throw line at the buzzer on Sunday to beat the nuggets? I did not see it. I heard about it. I think Bob Ryan may have said the famous Boston sports writer who knows basketball as well as anybody,

that it may be the best non-dunk, like ball leaving your hand shot. game-winning shot he's ever seen. Well, so it takes Bob Ryan for you to actually appreciate it. I get it now. Yeah, it was, you know, he is, he's one of the most skilled basketball players of all time. Do you realize that? Can you appreciate that? I don't like Kyra Irving.

No, no. Oh, yeah. He is, in terms of overall skill, the combination of, of shooter, scorer, ball handler, he's one of the all-time skilled players in the history of the game. I'm not a big fan of Kyrie Irving. I think he's been a loser, basically, everywhere he's gone, except when he was with LeBron. But you got to, if you haven't seen this shot, it's two and a half seconds to go. It's a tie game. They're inbounding basically three-quarter court. They throw it into him, and he literally over Yokic makes a left-handed hook shot from the free throw line.

Now, Larry Bird once famously played an entire game left-handed, just to prove that he could score 30-plus left-handed. You don't recognize Kyrie Irving's skill level as all-time? I'd have to sit down and think about it, you know, to figure out who I would put on that list, you know, Alan Iverson comes to mind. I mean, I can think of probably a dozen others. But this is the NBA. And, you know, we might as well be talking about comic books or something like that as far as I'm concerned.

Damien Lillard tweeted out the other day that he is the most skilled player in the history of the game. Iverson's a good one Iversons are really good Steph Curry is obviously You know up there as well In terms of the combination of Ball handling and shot making and shooting For sure

I thought you would say somebody like Marevich Wasn't Marevich Outrageously Skilled? Yes Maravich was very outrageously skilled Nate Archibald led the league once in points and assists

Right Okay And he was 6 foot one He led the league in points and assists? I'm pretty sure he did. Larry Bird's one of the most skilled players in the history of the game. Yes. There's lots of skilled players.

Yeah. I mean... But I'm sure he's a very... He may be one of the top skill players of his time, but not of all time. Yeah, I'm just looking through, like, the list to see if we missed anybody so super obvious. I mean, Isaiah Thomas was outrageously skilled. Magic was really skilled. The difference, the reason I wouldn't put magic into that conversation,

and you and I are both big magic guys, magic just wasn't the shooter that, you know, Steph or Kyrie or Larry Bird, in terms of talking about overall skill. What he did well, he did better than anybody, and he was, you know, he was transformational in the game. game because we had never seen a six-foot-nine-inch point guard, true point guard, you know, running the fast break the way he did. Wasn't Oscar super skilled?

Wasn't that a big part of his, you know, overall? Yeah. Rick Barry. Rick Barry was super skilled. Orle Monroe was tremendously skilled. Yeah. But let's just stick to his error. Let's talk about comic books instead.

You know, the tournament starts this week. Tommy has done a bracket. Shocking. Right here, baby. Yeah, so we'll go ahead and we'll do some brackets coming up. But this tournament, Tommy, has a chance to be one of the least watched in history. I talked about this a little bit on the podcast yesterday. I, you know me, I love college hoops.

I've always loved college hoops, but my interest in college hoops isn't what it used to be. And Maryland not being good impacts that this year in the moment. But in everything that I've been reading, there's an expectation that the women's tournament could draw very close to the men's tournament. And if Caitlin Clark specifically is in the final, that the women's final could potentially outrate the men's final. It could be an all-time, and it could be a one-offer. You know, it could be just a one-off, but if she's in the final, and apparently, and I don't know the women's game enough, they gave Iowa like one of the toughest draws of anybody in the field. I was reading about that this morning, but if she makes it to the final, there is an

expectation that ESPN with that final, especially if it's against either LSU with with Reese or South Carolina, who's the number one team in the country, coached by Don Staley, that it could be the all-time most watched women's game, and it could outrate the men's final. And here's one of the quotes in the story that I read about the women's tournament versus the men's tournament. Quote, recognizable names matter. They are what draw interest from casual fans and keep them coming back.

It's something the men's game has been missing for a long time. quote. That was from who said that because it was in the headline here. Somebody smart. Somebody smart said it. Yeah. Or else you wouldn't say it unless it was somebody smart, right?

No, if it fit what I wanted the result to be, I would have just read it like I just did. No, I yeah, I mean, I talked yesterday just about how NIL and the

portal have really impacted college sports, but more college basketball than college football. Because Tommy, college football is still football. And it's part of everybody's habit. Like, football's a habit. It's habitual. It's fall. It's Saturday, Sundays, Monday nights, Thursday nights. And people aren't going to stop watching football because players are moving around through portals or moving around because of NIL money or even the conference changes. The, you know, college football is number two to the NFL, which is a big number one. And then the drop off after college football is massive. But college basketball is, we've seen it coming for years, but the NIL and the portal

are killing it because that quote is perfect. It's like the sport is becoming less popular. that's going to hurt everybody, including players who want to get paid, because there's no appetite for name, image, and likeness if nobody knows your name or what you look like. And that's the problem with the sport right now. They don't know the players. They don't, and that was coming with one and done for a while,

but the transfer portal, you just, you, right now, a casual sports fan would not be able to name more than one or two, big-name players in the NCAA tournament? Yeah. I mean, Zach Eadie's probably the most well-known college basketball player. The big center from Purdue because he's stayed there for all five of his years, I guess, and they've been, you know, a highly ranked team during that period of time. I don't know what they're going to do about it.

eventually the money will dry up. I think it's going to have to crash before it can be fixed. Yeah. Chase Young got a deal. Did you see that? Yes. He's reunited with former Washington Times sports writer Matt Parrish, who now works for the New Orleans paper. Really?

How about that? I like Matt. That's awesome. They're reunited finally. It's probably one of the reasons Chase Young's chosen ones. To talk about Chase Young down with the Saints whenever you get around to doing that. You know what? That's the best idea for the show you've had in a long time.

Thank you for that. You usually don't come up with ideas for the show unless they deal with you. Unless it has something to do with you. But now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I did this bracket at like 1130 last night for you. You did it for me. Not for me.

Oh, you're sweet. For you. Yeah. I'm surprised that he got this fully guaranteed deal. I, it's, the actual $13 million, according to Schefter, is fully guaranteed. Okay, that's not what I think most people were expecting with Chase Young in this offseason, especially when we went the first week of free agency, and it didn't seem like anybody was interested. that that one year salary of $13 million puts them kind of like you know right around 18th or 19th in terms of defensive ends in the league and it's fully guaranteed I thought he'd have to earn it somehow.

It's not you know it's not the Montez Sweat deal that's for sure. You know, his running mate, you know, killed it with his first, you know, post-rooky contract deal in Chicago. But weirdly, I hope he gets it together, and I'm kind of rooting for him. I was definitely all in on Chase Young, man, four years ago. God, I was all in on Chase Young. I thought he was so special. I suspect that this will be the highlight of his NFL salary history. Yeah, I don't know.

We'll see. And he went down there, and he said in a press conference, a Zoom press conference, conference, I'm just happy to be someplace where there's a winning culture. He just came from the 49ers. Wait a minute. He said that about the Saints? Yes. Because that was his line when he got to San Francisco. Did he really say that?

Yes. Oh, my God. That's funny. So this guy, we know what this guy's about, and it ain't football. He really said it's nice to get to a place with a winning culture after in New Orleans. Or I want to play at a place with a winning culture or something like that. Because remember, he took a slap at Washington when he arrived in San Francisco and said, well, this is a winning culture. He played well in the Super Bowl.

I bet you the Super Bowl game where he had a sack and a couple of pressures essentially got him paid here. I mean, it's not a massive deal. I'm not making a big deal out of the deal. deal that, you know, that it was multi-years and the whole thing. I'm just saying that there were some people that didn't think he'd get anything other than, you know, minimal guarantees and a lot on the upside, incentive-wise. And the Saints paid him $13 million fully guaranteed, which would say to me, and maybe I'm wrong about this, I haven't done a lot of reading about the contract. It was my reaction late yesterday, and my reaction today is that there must have been more

than one team that was interested. Here's the exact quote from Matt Parris's Twitter account. Quote, The Saints, it's one of those places. It's a winning culture. That's what I wanted to be around. All right. There you go.

He just was in the Super Bowl with a team that's been there a couple times. San Francisco's got a pretty good culture. I know. I know. All right. RG3 said some things this week. that we'll get to. But up next, we'll do some brackets, I guess, right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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Okay, give me your upsets here. Well, in the East, my upset is Duquesne over BYU. That's a big upset. They're 10-point underdogs, okay? Yes, that's my east upset. My loan upset in the east. Everything else I've got favorite. That's a good one. All right.

All right. For me in the east, I've got Drake over Washington State, and Northwestern is a nine over Florida Atlantic, who was a final four team. All right, give me the teams that you have advancing into the Sweet 16. From the east? Yes, from the east. We're going to go region by region, yes. Okay, Connecticut, and Auburn, Illinois, and Washington State. Okay, I've got Yukon playing San Diego State, which would be a rematch of last year's national championship game. And I've got Illinois and Iowa State, a two and a third.

I've got Yukon, Illinois in what would be an incredible Elite 8 game with Yukon advancing to the final 4. What do you have Elite 8 and then the Final 4 team out of the east? I've got the same thing. Yukon and Illinois with Connecticut moving on to the Final 4. All right. Connecticut's really good. I've watched enough college hoops to kind of recognize. I think Houston and Connecticut are the two best teams, although Houston,

even scored in the Big 12 championship game. All right, let's go to the South. Give me your upset picks in the South by seating. Okay. I have Texas A&M over Nebraska. I have James Madison over Wisconsin. A lot of people have that one. I have Vermont over Duke.

Wow. I have NC State over Texas Tech. You got a lot of upsets. I've got Oakland. over Kentucky. Wow. There you go. That's a lot. I actually considered Oakland over Kentucky. I think Oakland's going to be a smell test pick when we get to that day this week. All right, I have upset wise. I have NC State over Texas Tech. I'm just hoping to see more of this guy, DJ Burns. I don't know if you got a chance to see him last week, but he is so entertaining.

six, nine, I mean three to four bills somewhere in that neighborhood. I considered Oakland, but not, I'm not going with them. I am going to take Boise State, who's going to come out of the first four, and then upset Florida. So my two-seeded, lower-seeded teams winning NC State in Boise. All right, I've got Houston, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Marquette into my Sweet 16. What about you? I've got Houston, James Madison, NC State, and Marquette. Wow. Going to the Sweet 16th. All right.

I've got Houston and I've got Houston. See, Marquette's best player hasn't been playing, so I don't know what to make of Marquette. So I'm going to take Houston and Kentucky in the Elite 8, and I'm going to move Houston into the final four. So far, I've got chalk with two number ones. Give me your Elite 8 and your Final 4 team out of the South. Well, I've got Houston and Marquette in my Elite 8. I wasn't aware of Marquette's situation with their best player. And I've got Houston in the Final 4.

All right. Let's move to the West. Give me your upsets. Okay. My upsets in the West. I've got New Mexico over Clemson. Okay. And that's it.

You know, what's funny about that is by seeding, that's an upset in 11 over 6. New Mexico is actually favored over Clemson in that game. All right, I have a couple of them. I've got Grand Canyon. I've got Michigan State over Mississippi State. I've got Grand Canyon over St. Mary's. I have Nevada over Dayton as a 10 over a 7. All right, second round into the Sweet 16.

Give me the teams you've got advancing. Okay. I have Mississippi State, Alabama, Baylor, and Arizona. I've got Michigan State upsetting North Carolina. I've got Bama, I've got Baylor and Arizona. And then I have Michigan State playing Baylor in the Elite 8 and Baylor advancing to the final four. What's your elite 8 and final four pick?

I've got Alabama versus Baylor with Alabama moving to the final four. All right, let's go to the Midwest. What are your upsets? My Midwest upset. I've got TCU over Utah State. I've got McNeese over Gonzaga, and I've got St. Peters over Tennessee. St. Peter's pulling off another shocker. I've got McNeese over Gonzaga, too. I haven't seen McNeese. I've just read about apparently how incredibly good they are offensively.

I thought about Samford over Kansas. Kansas is really banged up. I mean, they are limping into this tournament, and apparently Samford's pretty good. But I think that's like a big, you know, popular upset pick. I'm going to stick with Kansas there. I've got Oregon. I've got, no, I don't have Oregon. I've got South Carolina.

I have UVA coming out of the Colorado State game and up setting Texas. So that would be my only, McNeice and UVA are my only ones there. I've got Purdue. I've got Kansas. That's really risky. Creighton and Tennessee into my sweet 16. Who do you have into your sweet 16? I've got Purdue.

Anzis, Craton, and Texas. All right. My sweet 16th. I've got a Purdue-Creaton elite eight game with Purdue advancing to the final four. I have Purdue, Texas as an elite eight game with Texas moving to the final four. Wow. All right. Our final fours, mind Yukon versus Baylor, Houston versus Purdue.

Your final four is what again? UConn versus Alabama and Houston versus Texas and all Texas final four match. Yeah. I have UCon and Houston, and I've got Houston, upsetting UCon, Kelvin Sampson, winning a national championship. Houston over UCon. I have UConn and Houston in the championship game with Houston winning. the NCAA title.

Same thing as you. All right. We both have Houston. Unbelievable. That team is really good, great guards, so well coached. I still don't know how they got beat the way they got beat in the Big 12 championship game,

but they'll come into this tournament angry. You know, last year, the seeds were a four, two-fives, and a nine in the final four. I've got three ones and a three this year. I've got some head. chalk here.

Probably not work out that way. But this is a pretty good bracket, isn't it? Yeah, should we do a women's bracket? No, I don't think so. No? Let's not get nuts here. All right, we got some things to finish up the show with, including this letter, this column,

this story written about Tommy Purify, and RG3, something he said this week about Caleb Williams and a bit more, right after these words from a few of our. sponsors. Hey guys, if you're into DFS daily fantasy sports, listen closely. Prize Picks is a new sponsor and I recommend them. They're the largest daily platform for DFS in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS because it's just you against the numbers instead of battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. You can now win up to a hundred times your

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All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. You know, one of the things I've often preached to people here about Shelley's backroom, located in the heart of the district at 1331 F Street Northwest, is the notion of the family outing on a Sunday afternoon to the museums, and then you mentioned to your wife, hey, look, it's pretty crowded, it's tough to find parking, you know, why don't I just drop you guys off in front of the museum, and then I'll go, you know, maybe get something to eat somewhere, and then you make the dash to Shelly's and just wait for her text to come pick you up.

Right. You know, this way you get a family outing point on a Sunday, but it's just an excuse to go to Shelly. I'm faced with this situation right now personally. On Thursday, we have a visitor from Spain that's coming to town, and we want to take them down to D.C. on Thursday. You have visitors from Spain all the time. I mean, you have such – you've got visitors from all over all the time, but it seems like a lot of – of family members, close friends from Spain come to visit you a lot. You must be a great entertainer for people that come into town. Well, you know, again, my wife is from Spain. She has nine cousins

in Spain that we've known each other pretty closely for about, you know, 35, 40 years or so. And I know this woman very well, but we've talked plenty of times. So, you know, we're going to take down to see the cherry blossoms, whatever cherry blossoms are still left at that point on Thursday. And, you know, it's pretty crazy down there, and parking is very difficult to come by. So I'm preparing my scenario when while we get down, when we get down there, you know, because they want me to participate, you know, because you get participation points. Like I'm going to have any kind of great insight about, you know, walking around the title basis. Well, maybe you can just read something about, you know, the Japanese giving us all these trees in 1922 or whatever year it was.

And as a gift, I believe it was. And give them some history on the trees. On the Spain visits, I think this is a recent thing, though, right? Like 10 years ago, you weren't getting family visitors from Spain all the time. It comes in waves. It does? Look, we've had, we've had, you know, children of older cousins come stay with us up to a year, you know, to come here to go to school, to learn English, and we've sent our kids over there at various times. There's been, you know, a childhood exchange over the years that's benefited both sides.

I mean, my oldest son got to spend a summer in Spain, and it's one of the best summers he ever had. Right. So, yeah, we are very active and stuff. So they know me, and she'll probably want me to go along, but I'll do the whole parking thing and say, look, why don't I just try to drop you off right here at the tidal basin? You can walk around, and then, you know, I'll just drive around a little bit and maybe text me when you're done.

And then, you know where I'm going? Yeah, the Shelley's. I'm going to Shelley. Yeah. Shelly's back room. and if it's a real nice day, I'm going to be sitting outside in their beautiful outdoor seating area, drinking a Stella, smoking a cigar, and just thinking, boy, those cherry blossoms look really good, don't they? Yeah. I have not done the cherry blossom thing in a while.

My son and his girlfriend did it on Sunday and, you know, Title Basin and walked around. The crowds apparently, especially the day we had here on Sunday, he said it was so unbelievably packed. But, man, they're out early this year. And the cold weather now, we're cold again. We're going to be cold for a couple more days. We might have another cold shot over the weekend. I don't know. Is that going to, by the time you get down there, maybe after they get a quick glance at what's left of the cherry blossoms,

maybe the whole group will want to go to Shelley's at that point. Maybe they'll come up with the idea. That would be quite the trick. We're going on a cold day. I think it's a high of 46, although it's supposed to be sunny. Yeah. That day. But find out how you too can escape from your burden, from your family burden.

Go to shelley's backroom.com. All right, RG3 had some advice for Caleb Williams the other day on Twitter. Here's what he said. Caleb Williams should pull an Eli Manning and demand that the Chicago Bears do not draft him number one overall. After everything that's happened with just Justin Fields, can Caleb Williams really look at that and say, you know what? This is the organization that has my best interest at heart, and they're going to help develop me into the player that I want to become. Caleb Williams is on record saying that he wants to be legendary.

He wants to rewrite history, and he wants to be the best that. he can possibly be and win the most games he can possibly win after the bears took justin fields the 11th pick in the draft and turned him into a sixth round pick in the 2025 draft by trade him to the pittsburgh steelers can Caleb williams really look at that and say you know what yeah this organization is going to help get me where i want to go i don't think it's saying that you know i I went back and looked at the 2004 draft, the Eli Manning, Philip Rivers thing, and, you know, the Chargers taking Eli number one overall, but Eli basically pulling a John Elway, pulling a Bo Jackson who didn't want to get drafted by the Bucks, but Elway and Bo Jackson had baseball.

Eli Manning really didn't have any leverage other than not playing as a rookie in 2004. It was Archie who really said this is a dysfunctional franchise. AJ Smith and Marty Schottenheimer hate each other. The Spanos family has never done a good job running this organization. You don't want to play for this organization. Think about this. I know a big deal was made about it back in 2004, but Eli Manning didn't take a beating for doing that in 2004.

essentially saying, I'm not playing for the Chargers if they draft me. Who was Eli Manning to say that other than part of the first family of football? Yeah, I know. Kind of crazy that he got away with it. Maybe people still felt sorry for the beating that Archie Manning took when he played in the NFL. He took a real beating playing for the Saints in the early days of that franchise. So maybe there was some Manning sympathy from that. The, you know, they swap spots, the chargers, they swap players actually, but in essence, swap spots.

Rivers went to the Chargers along with the Giants' third round selection in that draft and their first and fifth round selections of the following draft. So they got, you know, a first, third, and a fifth along with Philip Rivers for Eli Manning. I think obviously it worked out better for the Giants because they won two Super Bowls. And Eli Manning made big plays and clutch plays in those Super Bowls, but I would still say that it was the giant defense that was super critical to winning those two games over the Patriots. But both of them had, in my opinion, well, Philip Rivers had a better overall career if you take the two Super Bowls out of the equation, which are hard to do.

I think they're both going to end up in the Hall of Fame. I think Philip Rivers is an absolute lock for the Hall of Fame. I don't know if it's first ballot, but he's definitely in it. And I think Eli's going to be in it too. I mean, I've always, Eli had some really good seasons that people kind of forget about. He was a very productive quarterback with some big-time numbers for a few years there. And he's got the two Super Bowls. But crazy to think that, you know, 20 years of

ago, Eli Manning, who was certainly a really good quarterback coming out of Ole Miss and a highly touted prospect, but he wasn't, you know, Andrew Luck or John Elway coming out, and it was a close call between Eli Manning and Philip Rivers in that draft. Yeah. But he got his way. Ernie of course he was the GM for the Giants there, and that's the guy he wanted. Eli Manning. I think they are both Hall of Famers as well.

Yeah, I think the Eli argument is a reasonable argument for those that would say, you know, four Pro Bowls, you know, one all pro season. I mean, come on. Seriously, like the most touchdowns he ever threw in a season, I think was 35, and he only threw over 30 twice. But he had some, and he had, I think it was four straight 4,000 yards seasons and had like seven or eight overall and had a couple. of seasons where he was close to 5,000 yards passing. But he's got the two Super Bowls. Rivers is way up there in a lot of categories. I don't know how you would ever keep Rivers out of the Hall of Fame. But anyway, let's get to RG3's comments.

What did you think? Well, I mean, I've come to expect this outrageous act from him saying, you know, something to get him attention. I don't even think he believes it anymore. And it doesn't matter. And I don't even think he thinks it's possible. I just think, you know, this is a guy crying for attention all the time. He does it when he's on television.

He does it when he's on the podcast. I mean, I watched a little bit of video of this. You know, he even animates himself to try. Like, he's putting on a show. He's putting on a show. It's a show. And he's in show business. I mean, I get that.

You know, he's, look, he's not stupid. He's in show business. but I think his act is going to wear thin at some point. And that'll be the time for him to go into politics because he really is cut out to be on the floor of the house. Yeah. So look, Caleb Williams, first of all, is the number one quarterback in this draft as far as we know.

There are some questions about Caleb Williams. I don't know who has, or, you know, in comparison to Eli Manning, I don't know who's got more leverage. I don't know. Maybe Eli had more leverage. Maybe Caleb's got more leverage than I think. But here's the one thing that I would say to RG3. The Bears situation is not a bad situation. You know, typically the team with the number one overall pick in the draft is the worst team in the league.

Chicago was 7 and 10. They got this pick from Carolina. in the trade last year. You know, they've got, they just added Keenan Allen. They got DJ Moore from last year. They've got a young emerging tight end in Cole Commet. They've got a decent defense. This was a team that was playing some really good football,

you know, towards the end of the season last year and nearly knocked Green Bay out of the postseason there at the end. I wish, you know, Dallas, I'm sure wished they had knocked him out. I mean, Chicago was not really eliminated. I looked at this the other day. They won four out of their final six games, five out of their final eight. But the three losses were all winnable games. They blew a lead, a double-digit lead and lost to the Lions.

They blew a double-digit fourth-quarter lead and lost to the Browns. And they were right there with the Packers in the final game of the year where the Packers had to win. RG3 is kind of creating this idea that Chicago is a terrible spot for kids. Caleb Williams. It's not a terrible spot. You know, it's a better spot right from the jump than Washington, you know, in terms of their readiness to compete and contend in what will be a tough division, by the way, with Detroit returning and Green Bay on the rise. So it's a bad argument to say that he should try to avoid this terrible, you know, kind of franchise, this franchise that's not, you know, a good franchise. And it's not a good franchise. And it's not a good.

good situation. It's a better situation probably than Washington, other than if he wanted to come home, and that was the sole reason. Look, if Caleb Williams is as great as everyone thinks he will be, you've seen what Michael Jordan did in Chicago. I was just going to say the same thing. Yes. If you are that big, if you bring championships to the Bears in Chicago, And you're that, you know, you're an NFL quarterback. You can, you're a superstar for life. Right.

No doubt. I mean, the Chicago opportunity in terms of, you know, building something and creating something because it's been so long is the exact same as it is in Washington. You could argue that that fan base hasn't left the team like much of this fan base has over the last 10 years. And, you know, there are a lot of things keeping. you know, a lot of the fan base from coming back, as we know. In Chicago, I mean, you only have to look at the 80s to see just how wildly popular

the Bears can be in that town and how much they are yearning for a winner. And when's the last time the Bears had an elite quarterback? Well, again, you'd have to go back to Jim McMahon to the point where they had a very good quarterback. You know, he never could stay healthy enough probably to be elite. And plus he didn't need to be because he had Walter Payton. And that defense. In the backfield. But you got to go back to Sid Luckman in the 40s, who won four NFL championships

with the Bears at quarterback to an elite quarterback for that franchise. RG3 said something else about why his career kind of came to a crashing halt. I'm going to save that for Thursday's show. because that was pretty rich as well. But we've got to finish with something that Tommy sent me before the show began, and I read it. And I have to read the entire column. But Tommy, why don't you set it up?

This is a music website or blog called Americana Highways.org. Is this like a highly trafficked music website? Yes, it is. It's a legit website that is devoted to music. They write about the Rolling Stones. They write about all kinds of things. And this guy, Steve Wachala, I think I'm pronouncing that right. Wasala, who's a writer for them.

Wasala, yes, wrote a story about Tommy Purified for the website. Let me read it, and then we'll read it. and then we'll react. Steve Wasala writes a story titled, Is the Dream Really Over for Tommy Purify? For those that don't know who Tommy Purify is, well, listen to the podcast more often. Tommy purifies Tommy's alter ego,

his karaoke alter ego, where he's performed for many years now down at Kenny D's in the panhandle of Florida, Destin, Florida. but he hung up his karaoke chops recently because of something that happened that Steve has heard us talk about. So the title of the story is, is the dream really over for Tommy Purify? And he writes, Margo Price announced that she recently came to New York for a piano recital at Carnegie Hall. But after leaving the storied building that has been graced by Maria Callis, George Gershwin, and the Beatles, Price snuck out to sing karaoke to a room full of strangers.

in a Kava bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side. During the pandemic, Price shared with New Music Express that she loves a good karaoke bar and used to live next door to her favorite Nashville karaoke bar, Franz. One night she and Brittany Howard went to the bar that's in a tiny house, almost like a trailer price described, and Howard took the house down. Franz cheap beer, pool table, and toothless bartenders is the perfect ambiance for Price to sing her favorite karaoke song when home. Prince's

kiss. But for mere mortals who toil with day jobs and dream of stage glory, stepping into karaoke bars is like flirting with fantasy. The alcohol makes us braver. At the end of the night, the reality is that we can't sing

like Price or Howard. I would add parenthetically, Prince. I will not disclose my own karaoke appearances appearances, except to say that I may or may not have taken the stage in and out-of-body experience to channel Elvis Presley in suspicious minds. I would like to hear old Steve's suspicious minds karaoke style. One of my favorite Elvis songs.

My number one favorite Elvis song. The memories of karaoke can linger long past a few minutes of being in the spotlight. I once attended a morning meeting where we passed around a mic and someone paused before introducing himself. Holding the mic for a few seconds, he said, I'm sorry, I just had a bad karaoke flashback. All right, here's where it gets to the Tommy Purify part. For the last month, I've been following a developing karaoke story. The Washington, D.C. sports writer and Washington Times columnist Tom Leverro has been reporting about his karaoke appearances from the Florida Panhandle where he winters. Since he revealed his alter ego Tommy Purify had covered

Johnny Rivers summer rain at Kenny D.s on Miramar Beach, Leverro hinted that a recording contract could be close. Quote from Tommy, Sammy Panama of Elwatusi Records was there. We may do some business, closed quote. That's what Tommy told us on the podcast. Kevin Sheehan, host of the DC podcast, The Kevin Sheehan Show,

where Levero appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays, built up expectations when he dropped a recording of Tommy Purify covering Warren Zevon's lawyers, guns, and money. A listener also wrote into Sheehan that he had seen Purify perform live. That's true. Through his bewildered wife, though his bewildered wife wondered if she was looking at Ernest Hemingway. That's true. Somebody wrote in and said that.

By the way, you know, I don't even know if you know this because you don't listen to the podcast. You're just on it. But at the end of a lot of podcasts, when we've been talking karaoke in time, Tommy Purify, I will play some of your karaoke appearances at the end of the podcast. So Steve has listened to the very end of the podcast and heard some of Tommy Purify. He continues, it wasn't the first time Tommy Purify had gotten airplay on the show. His rendition of Lee Michaels, Do You Know What I Mean, closed out one of Sheehan's podcast and got me through a rough time. To quote John Landau, upon seeing Bruce Springsteen in 1974, on a night when I needed to feel young again,

he made me feel like I was hearing music for the first time, close quote. But things are not always what they seem to be, and the dream of a karaoke recording contract came with a hitch. This is where I don't like reading the rest of this story, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. Sammy Panama wanted Tommy Purify, no relation to the storied soul singer Bobby Purify, to put up $1,000 to cover production costs.

Leverro seemed heartbroken when he appeared on Shien's show to announce that the deal was dead and lamented, I thought he was a beach guy with a record company. The attempted contract that fell through uncovered a scam that Panama had been running throughout the panhandle, all the way from Mississippi through Lower Alabama, into Georgia, and over to Florida. By the way, is that true? Did you say that? Yes. Okay. I didn't know that you had talked about this scam. being, you know, throughout the southeastern United States.

The subterfuge felt like a real-life version of Ozarks had more intrigue when Levero revealed that Sammy Panama wasn't who he said he was. According to the writer, he was one, he was one Angelo but a Foucault, a mob figure purportedly in witness protection with ties to the Lucchese crime family. Leverro broke news of Panama's arrest by a county sheriff on Shian show, though the intrepid reporter disclosed he could not find anything online to confirm it. He and Sheehan speculated he might be working at a Cineban in Omaha by now. That's true. We did. Should we not be talking about it on the podcast? A nervous Sheehan wondered aloud about

discussing the underworld. But Laverro was nonplussed. As a former crime reporter, he covered the mafia and once published the attendee list of a tribute dinner to mob boss Russell Buffalino in Wilkes-Barre. When the mob figures went into a hotel conference room, Leverro flew in and took the attendee list off the table and ran out as fast as he could. A year later, an FBI agent spotted him at a crime commission hearing and said, you're the guy who went in and took the list.

How did you know it was me, Levera wondered. We had cameras running in the van across the street for everyone who came in and out, the agent said. That's one of my all-time favorite Tommy's stories. You know, just going in there and ripping the seating chart. It didn't rise to the level of John Lennon declaring the dream is over, but that the Panama deal fell through seemed to devastate the writer with his dashed dreams of stage glory.

A Facebook group of Winter Snowbirds posted that he went off stage for the final time at Kenny D's with shouts of, purify, purify as he left the building. That's pretty good. Yeah, Leverro controls the masters of his karaoke covers. Thank God, Tommy. Don't give up those masters. All right, that's where the money is in those masters. Leverro controls the masters of his karaoke covers, and they are still available on his YouTube channel. Now migrated north with the start of baseball season looming. He seemed resigned to announcing the retirement of one Tommy Purify. He will set his sights on writing about the Washington Nationals and the plight of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards as their owner, Ted Lerley,

Leonis, whom he is dubbed Transparent Ted, tries to move the teams across the Potomac into Virginia. Mr. Leonis is said to have tired of the loud street noise outside Capital One Arena offices. His Capital One Arena office is overlooking H Street in Chinatown. But below his windows is the heartbeat of a city, and one suspects Mr. Leonis has not ventured out into the neighborhood and experienced its many delights. It boasts the venue 6th and I, where Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein spoke about her book, and I saw Amanda Shires. I'm going to be honest with you, Tommy. I'm not familiar with 6th and I as a music venue. Neither am I.

Just past the Metro Gallery subway stop is walk and roll, is walk and roll restaurant where the best dish is not actually on the menu. fabulous egg noodle soup available with beef, chicken, or vegetables will be made by just asking for it. Were Mr. Leonis to sample it, he would no doubt be a frequent patron, and the plans to move the team would immediately fade away. He might also note the plaque on the building which commemorates the site of the Surrott Boardinghouse, which was where conspirators met to kidnap and subsequently assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Is that where the Surat Boardinghouse is? where that walk and roll is? I don't know.

I didn't know that either. That's pretty wild. So that's probably like that's that's 8th Streetish, 7th and H, 6th and H? Yeah. Something like that. Upstairs at walk and roll is a carry oaky room. As Levera returns to town, we know he will be sitting outside on the sidewalk of cigar bar Shelley's back room. But the lure of bringing Tommy Purify across town to walk and roll could dispel this, could dispel the self-debel

declaration that the karaoke star is done. Leverro could learn a thing or two from Mc Jagger, who was out on the road this year approaching the young age of 81 and always quick to remind, we never said it was the last time. Perhaps Levero could bring Liancis to the karaoke stage, and they could start a charitable karaoke event. That's a great idea. Leonsis could pull out a set list from the Tommy Purify catalog and bring a cavalcade of stars with him. In sports parlance, it ain't over until it's over. Or as Lee Michaels once asked, do you know what I mean? Yeah, look, the operain over until the fat lady sings, Tommy. I think you got to get out there to this spot where the Surratt boarding house was.

Oh, Mary Sorrette, wasn't she the first or the only woman ever executed? Wasn't she hung? I think she was. I think she was. for, you know, for basically conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate Lincoln at the Ford Theater, which, you know, is a couple of blocks over. So what do you think? I got to tell you, this inspires me. It does inspire me. Nice job, Steve. It's tremendous. It's tremendous write-up.

And just to point out how legitimate this is, you know, like all these websites will post their list of the most. red stories, their top posts and pages. Number three today is, is the dream really over for Tommy Pirac. Is it really? Yes, just ahead of reviews for Dion's record and for the Rolling Stones record. Seriously? So it's the number three red column on the website? I'm pretty sure I sent you a text with the screenshot of it. Yes, I did. Yeah Yeah

Yeah So you know what This is taken on a life of its own So I don't know We'll have to see how long that flame flickers Steve that was excellent That was so well done And I think

You know it took somebody from the outside Because we know Tommy doesn't listen to me He certainly is never going to take advice from me It took some very nice writing And by the way some nice stroking of Tommy Purify to get him to consider rekindling his karaoke career. I think you should do it. And by the way, if you do it with Ted, that would be, certainly that would be a Dan Steinberg column.

It might bring Steinberg. Scott Allen would write about it, but Steinberg might actually come out of retirement to write about it. Maybe. All right. You need to send that out for people to read. Well, I posted it on my social media accounts. Okay. All right.

I am going to do a smell test for the NCAA tournament from, you know, right from the jump, right through the final four. I do not like either game tonight. Wagner is a three-point dog against Howard in the first four 16 versus 16 game. Then Colorado State is actually favored over UVA tonight by two and a half at my Booky. I don't like either game. I might have a pick tomorrow night. I do like a lot of games on Friday in particular. But MyBooky's the place to bet the tournament. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code. Kevin DC, you'll get a cash bonus on your initial deposit. They've got so many fun prop bets. They've got a prop bet right here. How many game-winning buzzer beating shots

will occur during the 2024 NCAA men's basketball championship tournament. The odds on favorite is zero, zero buzzer beaters at minus 145. If you pick five and you get five of them, it pays plus 3,000. This is just an example of what MyBooky's got for the tournament, both the men's and the women's tournament. MyBooky.orgie.org promo code, Kevin D.C., if you want to bet the tournament, and you want to get some extra cash in your account for the tournament. All right.

What else? I got nothing for you, boss. I mean, you feel good, don't you? When people write things and they notice things about your life and then they take it to that level, I mean, you're on tiptoes today, aren't you? Well, who wouldn't they? You know? Of course.

All right. I mean, I'm human. I mean, I've got blood flowing through my veins. Of course I do. All right. Well, you know what? I hope people remember this part of the show rather than the brackets, which we were just winging throughout. All right, I'll talk to you on Thursday. I'll be back tomorrow, everybody. Okay, boss. I was gambling in Havana.

I took a little risk. Send lawyers, guns, and money. Get me out of this. Hey!