The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rivera & Mayhew Speak

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Kevin and Thom today on last night's Georgia blowout of TCU in the National Championship game. Thom weighed in with his thoughts on Sam Howell's performance Sunday against the Cowboys. The boys recapped the Ron Rivera/Martin Mayhew season-ending press conference. The show finished with Thom's Malibu request. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. I'm here. Tommy is here. We're getting the podcast out a little bit late today.

We wanted to wait for the Ron Rivera-Martin-Mahue end-of-season press conference, which did you listen to it or did you just follow it on Twitter watching comments come in? Kind of like the game against Cleveland. Did you actually watch it or listen? to it or are you just going to comment on it based on Twitter? Let's address this then right now. Okay. Do I get paid more if I happen to listen to it?

No. Then follow it? No. In fact, I think your takes are better when you don't watch it or listen to it. Well, then I followed it. I didn't listen to it. You just followed it on Twitter. I actually watched it.

I watched it on the link from their website. I did want to read a couple of quick reviews. This one from 89 Gresham. Tom and Kevin listeners trust them to deliver the raw truth. Kevin and Tom are like friends trying to explain how new owners have moved in and wrecked the neighborhood and were loving every minute of it. On December 18th, my son and I visited Shelley's back room before the giant Sunday night debacle. We love the experience as lifelong Redskin fans. We shared old stories, joked with staff about years of Kevin and Tom's antics,

enjoyed great food, whiskey, and cigars. We'd never been there, but it felt like home. We've decided when they have late home games, we will tailgate at Shelley's. There you go, baby. Yeah. How about that? I mean, that's a perfect place to tailgate at Shelley's. Absolutely.

Shelly's back room. It's not that far of a drive from the state. maybe 15 minutes, you know, out to land over from there, depending on the traffic. Depending on traffic, yes. Yes. So 13th and F Street, that would be F Street, 13 and F Street. Shelley's backroom, they are one of our favorite sponsors, and yeah, that's a great place to go either before the game or after the game.

This from Ridgely, he also gave us five stars on Apple Podcasts review opportunity and wrote a fantastic episode talking about the discussion we had on Friday about Sonny Jurgensen. Ridgely said he ordered Tom's book, hoped to get it signed at a King's Soul show. And he said, I remember watching the 74 Sunny game with my sister and her husband. And I was referring to the Sunny game that Sunny always said was his Super Bowl when they got the Dolphins at RFK Stadium two seasons after the Super Bowl season in which he was out and could not play against the dolphins. Rate us and review us.

Anywhere you can do that, especially on Apple and Spotify. I do want to talk about the game last night. I did suggest Georgia as a lean, but really the under was my stronger idea. I didn't give out

to either one as a smell test pick. I'm glad I didn't give the under out officially. That was really, I mean, I was rooting so much for TCU. My oldest son was at the game. He and all of his friends called me before as they were tailgating at his place because you were not allowed to tailgate at the stadium before the championship game. That was apparently not allowed at SoFi last night. But for my son and all of his TCU friends,

it was a rough night. I don't know how they beat Michigan. I have no idea after watching them last night, how the hell they beat Michigan. Last night was one of the worst beatdowns in team sport championship history. Did you know, Tommy, the 58 point deficit is the largest point differential in the history of college football postseason, meaning every ball game that's ever played. That was the biggest blowout of all time. Yes, I know that. I mean, it was. It was, It was remarkable to watch. It was like one team was in slow motion. Well, going into the college football playoff,

I said that the best chance the TCU would have would be to remain as the three-seat in Face Michigan. That was the team that really Michigan's a great team, and they destroyed Ohio State in Columbus. But Michigan, the way they play, you know, would give TCU a better chance, whereas Georgia physically overpowering and also explosive. And Ohio State, I think what Georgia did to TCU last night, Ohio State would have done the same thing. I really believe that.

I don't care about, you know, in hindsight, did TCU just ruin it for future teams like TCU? they beat Michigan in the semifinals. Last night was the championship game. If they had played Georgia in the semifinals and lost 65 to 7, I think there would have been future thought given to teams like TCU, especially with one loss. Maybe not as an undefeated team you wouldn't have been able to avoid it. But they did beat Michigan.

Last night was a total mismatch. And I don't know, the SEC over everybody seems to be a total mismatch. And Georgia was just so good. And the biggest takeaway from the game last night was not the TCU got blown out for me. And I felt this way in other big spots for Georgia this year. And that is that Stetson Bennett is an NFL quarterback. I'm not suggesting he's a first rounder or, you know, at all. But I think he could be a second day pick, a second or a third rounder.

And he's definitely a third day pick. And what's really been impressive about him in the biggest games they played this year is how big time he's played in their biggest games and how out how athletically he how excuse me I'm having a difficult time speaking today how athletic he has been um this year he's fast and athletic uh much more athletic than people think he is um and i think he's going to get a really uh he's going to get a big time opportunity to go in to the NFL and certainly compete to be a backup in the NFL and he's one of those guys you surround them with weapons. And, you know, even though he's

5-11, I think, 5-11, 6 feet, that's probably the biggest thing. But he was impressive. Brock Bowers, so impressive. He's got another year. George will come back as the number one team in the country because they're just in a reload situation. But that was a beatdown. That was, you know, Tommy, how about this?

73-0 bears over the Redskins in 1940, which is the biggest, you know, lopsided win in NFL history. And the quarterback of the Redskins that day was... Sammy Ball. And Sammy Ball went to what school? TCU. He went to TCU.

Poor TCU got it on the, you know, has the worst defeat in the history of college football in a post-season situation. And TCU quarterback Sammy Ball was the quarterback of the worst lopsided defeat in NFL postseason. I don't know. Did you watch the game? last night? Yes, I did. Oh, you did?

I watched it at a local establishment right next door. Fun. I watched it. Yeah, well, it was fun, but it was like you said, it was over pretty quick. Yeah. Although in college football, you know, I don't watch a lot of college football, but I know enough to think even though I didn't think it was going to happen in this game, you can be down 30 to 7 at halftime and come back to win.

Sure. I mean, it's like, it's like arena. football in a way anymore. So, I mean, I didn't think it was absolutely over. But I'll be honest with you, I hadn't seen TCU play all year. So I didn't know what they had. Yeah, I mean, they didn't know if they had it in them to come back in the second half. Well, they did.

That's what they did basically all season long. I mean, they were down 17 to Oklahoma State came back in one. They were down against everybody all season long, which was one of the reasons that when they finally did lose to K State. in the Big 12 championship, some said, you know, how legitimate are they? I mean, you know, they had to come back against everybody against Kansas State. In their first game, they were down 18 in that game, 2810 and came back. But you're right. College football does kind of afford that opportunity, you know, the clock stopping on first downs, the more explosiveness they have in that game.

But I did not think that there was any chance after about the third Georgia series, maybe the second Georgia series, although really it was the third Georgia series when they went up 177. I'm like, TCU's going to have to score 45 just to, or 35 just to cover, because George is going for, you know, for 50 plus in this one. And I, I did bet the under, even though I didn't give it out officially, I bet the under. And that really never had a chance, although it's funny in those blowout games, sometimes it was 50. The total was 62 and a half, 60. I actually bought it to 63 early in the day. So at 52 to 7 at 59 total points going into the fourth quarter,

knowing that both teams would probably start to play backups. Sometimes you can get a scoreless fourth quarter, but Georgia kept scoring, and they were close to scoring again. 65-7's bad enough. Imagine if they had scored again to make it 72 to 7. It got people to writing earlier today about the biggest blowouts in sort of championship, you know, history. You know, in college football championship history,

you had, this was the biggest one by far, but you had the Nebraska over Florida, those Nebraska teams of the mid-90s, Nebraska beat Florida by 38.62-24. The first game I thought of it was actually when Bama, when they went in 2012, when they went back to back, and they beat Notre Dame 42 to 14. That was such a one-sided beatdown.

It was like 35 to nothing at some point, but still that's only a 28-point deficit. But yeah, good season for TCU. I told my son, I said, look, we kind of told you that Georgia was the worst matchup going into this whole thing. And they didn't get George in the semifinals, and you had the incredible moment of upsetting Michigan

and beating Michigan in a semifinal game. Would you trade that to avoid the embarrassment of the championship game? You shouldn't, but I can imagine how most TCU fans felt last night. That was a grown men versus boys game that felt like varsity against the freshman. It really did. I mean, it was bad. Almost felt like Washington over Dallas on Sunday. Yeah, it did.

TCU couldn't catch them. When they did, they couldn't tackle. them. No. Okay, let me ask you about Stetson Bennett. Yeah. Two-time national champion quarterback. There have only been four quarterbacks in history that have won back-to-back titles.

Who are they? T-Boh. T-Boh? A.J. McCarran, Matt Liner, Tommy Fraser, and Stetson Bennett. That's right, because, right. I guess Tebow didn't go back to back. He won two, but he didn't go back to back. That's right.

Right. Okay. Now, people consider Tebow one of the greatest college football players of all time. Yeah. You think Stetson Bennett is on that list? No. No. No?

Why not? Well, I think you could talk about the conversation of one of the greatest winners of all time. But Tebow is a spectacular college football player. and quarterback. And Stetson Bennett has been, you know, much more of the game manager type in his role. Now, again, I think one of the things that he has shown in some of the biggest games this year, he has shown to be much more of a really good quarterback than maybe people gave him credit for. Tommy, like, you know, Tim Tebow in many ways carried Florida, you know,

to two titles in three years. You know, Tommy Frazier kind of did the same thing. Archie Griffin obviously did the same thing. If we're talking about running backs, Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson. These are the greatest players in the history of the game. Stetson Bennett was very much sort of viewed as a, you know, a nice quarterback with surrounding talent that was the best in the country and more of a game manager. But I think that he's undersold a little bit because that's what people, that's how people view him. They view him as don't screw it up, just manage the game, make the plays that are there, hand it off, great defense, great playmakers, and you'll be fine.

But I think he was more than that, but he wasn't, he's not one of the greatest college football players of all time. But I guess he'll go down certainly as one of the greatest winners of all time. I think last night was his fourth MVP in a playoff game. That's pretty damn impressive. Yes, it is. That's being big on the biggest stage. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he accounted for six touchdowns last night in that championship game. Six. You know, and I don't, I think in watching Georgia last night and watching Georgia all year long,

they were a weird team this year versus last year. They didn't really play well unless the opponent really fired them up. You know, they blew Oregon out in the opener 49 to 3. and then they kind of slept walk through what was not a very tough schedule until they got to Tennessee. I mean, they almost lost at Missouri. And then when they played Tennessee, even though the final score was 27 to 13, Tommy, it was a beatdown. That was the most, that score was the most least, or the least reflective of how dominating one team was of any game I saw all year long. They could have named the score against Tennessee. And then, you know, they muddled through a game against Kentucky.

They were actually, I think, only up by like three points against Georgia Tech at half time. And then, you know, they turned it on against LSU and the SEC championship game. Ohio State had them on the ropes. I mean, Georgia wouldn't have been there last night if Ohio State's kicker, who was a damn good kicker, had made the field goal at the end of their semi-final game on New Year's Eve. and then TCU, they obviously wanted to make a major statement in that game. And they did. And look, they were just bigger, faster, stronger.

TCU's got NFL players on their team. It's not like they don't have all. I had Stanford Steve on the show yesterday from L.A. And, you know, TCU's loaded with talent, but it's just not the SEC level. It just isn't. You know, I was thinking about TCU. When they expand to 12 teams in Texas, Texas and Oklahoma leave the Big 12.

TCU's probably going to be the biggest named program left in the Big 12, and they're going to go to a bunch of these playoffs in the next, you know, in years to come. They've recruited well. They've always had good coaches. I think they've got a top 20 recruiting class coming in. But, yeah, I don't know what happens to the Big 12 and the Pac-12 with USC UCLA and Texas and Oklahoma leaving to go to the Big Ten and the SEC respectively. but Georgia just turned it on in the games that got them kind of fired up.

You know, they kind of coasted through some of the other games. And I don't know, I think they would have beaten the shit out of Michigan, too. I think ultimately Michigan, even though they beat Ohio State and they beat them up pretty good in the fourth quarter in the second half, I think they would have beaten Michigan pretty badly, too, and they did last year. Preseason number one next year, a little bit of a dynasty in the making. I thought it was interesting with Nick Sabin on the set with. Reese Davis and all of those guys. As David Pollock talked about, you know, has Georgia replaced Bama as the program in

college football? Expect Bama to be back next year loaded and ready to go. I think they're the preseason number one next year in that way too early, you know, top 25 for next year. I think Michigan's three. Basically it was like Georgia Bama. No, here it is on ESPN. Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida State, Alabama.

Florida State, God, man, they come back with everybody, and they had a good season. Next year could be Florida State's big-time year. I think USC will be really good next year, too. Anyway, not exciting in terms of the national championship game. The semifinals were great, though. They were great. Yes, they were. What else you got on that?

Anything, I don't have anything else. I got nothing else on the game. I don't either. I got a few other things I wanted to get to before you get to anything. Okay, go ahead. Okay. You know, I had a special follower on Twitter, a guy who became my follower. I was very excited about this.

Okay. And it was because he read my Sonny Jurgerson Billy Kilmer column. Okay. Okay. Jack Youngblood. Wow. Yes. Jesus.

I mean, that's what I said. I mean, he played, let me just tell the boys and girls, he played in the Super Bowl on a broken leg. Yeah. Right? That's Jack Youngblood. Yes. For the Rams against the Steelers. He played in that Super Bowl on a broken leg.

Wow. Jack Youngblood, it's one of the best pass rushers, maybe the best I've ever seen. He's like six on the all-time sack. I think he's got like 160 sacks or something like that. Is he in the Hall Fame? Yeah, he's in the College Football Hall Fame and the Pro Football Hall. Yeah, I figured he had to do. He was one of the most fearsome players I ever saw on a football field when I was growing up.

And, yeah, he's five. He read the Sonny Billy Calm and he liked it. And then he started following me. So I actually made a point of saying, to everybody on Twitter. I'm saying, most, you know, there's a lot of I don't really care about, but I really care about this guy following me. Oh, man, he was something else as a player.

I mean, I think that that story that I relayed, right, that is one of the, that's a legendary story. I think it was the Super Bowl against the Steelers. The year that they went with Ray Malavasi as the coach and Vince Farragamo is the quarterback, It was the last of the four Steelers Super Bowls of the 70s. You know, they beat Minnesota, then they beat Dallas twice, and then they beat the Rams in the 79 season.

And I'm pretty sure that was the game he played on a broken leg. I just pulled up his Wikipedia page. Yeah, he did. Yeah, fractured left fibula. Not only that, he played in the Pro Bowl with a broken leg. Here it is. One of the athletic feats for which Youngblood is best known is that of playing in the 1979 playoffs, including Super Bowl 14 with a fractured left fibula. He also played in the Pro Bowl that year with the fractured fibula.

Here's a quote. He did an interview with CBS Sports. Everybody asked me when we got to Hawaii, what the heck are you doing here? You got a broken tibia. Fibula. he said yeah he said shut up i'm not going to miss this party he had 18 sacks that year oh my god i'm looking at his career he played with just one team he just played with the rams every single year was with the rams five time first team all pro three times second team all pro seven time pro bowler

two times the sack leader in 74 and 79 made the NFL 1970s all decade team he's in the St. Louis football ring of fame because they were the Rams he didn't play for the St. Louis Rams. I know. I don't know what the hell that's all. Yeah, but yeah he was a great player, great player. So tell me. I'm very excited about that.

So now I'm nervous. I don't want to any, I don't want to post anything to make them go away. He might unfollow you once he reads some of your responses. That's true. I know. That's true. What else you got?

That's exciting. Like, I'm trying to think of, I remember getting really excited, and I don't know if he follows me anymore, but I know that Kevin Durant followed me at one point on Twitter, because he's a Redskin fan. I know that Vernon Davis, when he was, was playing in San Francisco was following me on Twitter. And I think that was more because of the Maryland thing. I don't know who followed.

I haven't gone through that list. I could probably do that. I don't know how that'll take some time. Well, again, I don't go through my list, but it just popped up. Oh, yeah, popped up as somebody who's now following you. Got it. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

Yeah. All right. What else do you have? Well, last night, as the game was starting at SoFi Stadium, it reminded me of the, remember the tour of Dan, Skipper Dan and Jason Wright when they toured SoFi Stadium in 2021? I remember when they were out visiting stadiums, yeah. And TMZ, TMZ, they, TMZ met them there and did an interview with them. Okay. And Dan was quoted as saying,

we're right now making big plans. This was in May of 2021. I just thought that was kind of funny. Because when I saw Sophysadia, that's it reminded me of. And they didn't have a clue what they were doing. Not a clue. No. Jason Wright said they were absorbing.

Oh, I do remember that quote. I do remember that quote. I think I was making fun of. That's a McKinsey quote, isn't it? I think I was making fun of all the McKinsey business buzzwords at that time. Yes, yes. And I got one other thing, but it can wait until the end of the show. Okay.

Well, you know what? Actually, I don't think I talked about this. By the way, everybody should go listen to Cooley from yesterday's show, too. He was great on Sam Hal. Clearly Cooley wants Scott Turner gone. I did I mention this with Cooley or not I can't remember but it's better to kind of bring it up with you anyway because I did not have a chance to update the podcast on Friday after the podcast was recorded and out there and I started hearing from the team in particular about the Frank Herzog situation however the only thing I'm glad about really glad about is Frank ended up at FedEx Field, at the game. They ended up inviting Frank to the game.

And he ended up in the booth, you know, not calling the game necessarily, but with Bram and Julie and London Fletcher, they let him get on to the mic. They interviewed him. And CJ, who, you know, is obviously a good friend of all of ours, CJ still produces the radio broadcasts. And CJ told me that Frank was really, really great. grateful and emotional that the team had reached out to him and ended up inviting him.

And he was thrilled to be there. And he gave apparently a touchdown, Washington Redskins call on one of their touchdowns. So, you know, from the time that we discussed that Herzog had not been invited, there was a lot of, you know, there was a lot of back and forth. And the team, you know, they called me up and they said, look, Frank was certainly on our list. but the Jurgensons wanted to keep it to a small, mostly family event. But then I guess after the conversation about Frank, the conversation with Frank blew up into a big deal,

they reached back out to Sonny's wife, Margo. And she said, of course, well, we'd love to have Frank here. So it was nice that Frank ended up coming up. I'm glad it worked out for him. Anyway, and by the way, the other thing, too, and I forget if I mentioned this yesterday, Apparently, they didn't botch the Sunny Jurgensen Jersey retirement ceremony. From what I've been told by everybody, now Sunny wasn't on the field.

They did this from, you know, they did it from an area in which the family was on the field where Billy kind of unveiled the jersey, but I heard that it was, you know, very nicely done. Did you hear otherwise? Well, yes. I heard that things went relatively. well. Whoa, hold on. Stop. It sounded like you were hesitant there. Well, there's just one, there was one little flying the ointment that came up. What was that? I don't know if you know about it. Nick Sunberg.

Dick Sunberg, who was the long snapper for this team for years, tweeted out when they unveiled jersey, wow, they really took this jersey off the wall of the equipment room. So damn lazy, man. The jersey was like the jersey to me was like the 1970s Sonny Jorgensen home jersey the Burgundy Jersey Well that may be But apparently they just pulled it off the wall of the equipment room Well at least they didn't put a command At least they didn't put

I was concerned That can't be your judgment That can't be your measure of judgment Of course it is Of course it is It can't be. It has to be. I mean, they got through it without any major bungle, any major blunder.

What did you call Jason Wright last week on my podcast? Somebody knows. The chief blunder all. Right. I mean, they didn't, it wasn't a major blunder. I don't know. I just pulled up Nick Sundberg's tweet. When I saw it.

A lot of fans pushed. A lot of fans pushed back on him on it, but I think he was just, he was kind of surprised that, you know, that the jersey that he saw for years on the wall wound up framed and given the sunny jerks. I guess he thought they would have gotten a better quality jersey. I mean, but that's a subtle thing. And most of the fans didn't know that. You're right. There was nothing that happened that if you were sitting in the stands, you would have thought, oh, my God, they screwed this up. I'm reading the comments to his, to Nick Sundberg's tweet, and somebody tweeted,

good chance they had a commander's number nine jersey ready to go until Kevin Sheehan reached out. Then they couldn't find, then they couldn't find a Redskins number nine in time for the ceremony. Actually, I, well, we did that during the show, and I did text somebody. I did text somebody there to say, make sure that he's not, that the number nine isn't a commander's jersey. That would be an absolute faux pas disaster for you. And I'm looking at the jersey, and to me it looks like the 1970s, Redskins, Burgundy Home Jersey. Like I said, on the surface, everything went smooth.

And, you know, I mean, if your measure is, you know, they didn't screw it up for the world to see. Yeah, they did not do that. Well, that is the measuring stick with them now. No, I mean, other than Nick Sundberg's tweet, they got through the Sunny Jergensen Jersey retirement ceremony, I think relatively unscathed. And you're expecting a, I understand, you're expecting a big blunderer. And so if you don't get it, it's like a big win for them. But that's, you know, that's the bar, Tommy.

That is the bar. I know. I know. But it's really remarkable when you think about it. I mean, when you have an event like that, I mean, you would think, I mean, you would have to go out of your way to screw it up. If you're in fact any kind of knowledge or talent and you're given a chance to host an event like your retirement of what are the greatest icons in the history of the franchise, I mean, you know, you check off a few things. It should be easy. It should not be difficult.

Well, we understand that. But what's your point? I mean, that's what we've been saying for many years now. I forgot the Surgeon General. I forgot the Surgeon General. I mean, God, you should read the warning before each show. No, I also, I mean, from people who are very, were looking to be super critical, who were there, said that it was actually nice, that the fact that Billy unveiled the jersey,

they said that Jason Wright spoke and actually, you know, did a good job. The family was on the field. Sunny looked good. He had a cigar in his mouth. That's all you wanted to see. I saw that. You know, Sunny, healthy. And I think the only thing about the event is just that, again,

I would have insisted with, you know, Sunny and the family, we don't do this the final game of the year. We do this on a beautiful fall day when the season's still in play against an opponent that isn't significant. It's not going to load the stadium with their fans rather than having it, you know, in the final game of the year, which more likely than not with our track record is going to be meaningless against the Cowboys. But by the way, your column about Billy and Sunny, where you told me on Friday that they both wanted,

you know, they both wanted a win over the Cowboys. Like Billy really wanted them to beat the Cowboys and wanted to see that happen. They got that too. So, um... Yeah. I tweeted that out after the game. Maybe the best thing was that they won. one, they beat the Cowboys in front of with Sunny and Billy in the house, because it still means a lot to both of them.

Want to talk about the press conference today? Don't you want to talk about the game? I didn't get a chance to talk about the game at all. We can do that too. We'll get to all right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to my bookie. Go to my bookie.

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Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they will double your first deposit all the way up to a thousand bucks. So you wanted to weigh in on the game. I think just for the purposes of clarification, did you watch the game? Yes, I did. Okay. I watched the game at a nearby drinking establishment. Okay. With a lot of red stripe, this place right next door to me, has red stripe available.

It's become my favorite bar because literally I could crawl home if I had to. And I watched the game there. Good. Okay. Your thoughts? Well, you tweeted this out The most shocking thing Look how bad that Prescott was

Terrible I think I was like Like he was like I tell you why If you were trying to throw the game I don't know if you could look that bad Yeah

I mean it was stunning Absolutely stunning And You know the way they I mean they just were not ready to play Which is an indict with a Mike McCarthy because when the game started, it meant something, you know, for the Cowboys.

They were playing for a chance to win the NFC East. And the Eagles didn't look particularly good against the Giants either. No. You know? Giants had nobody playing. So, yeah. But, I mean, they would, they were behind, almost before the game even started. and the best thing that Sam HAL did was not screw it up.

He had the one interception where, like, a drunk prize fighter, he saw three guys, and he threw it to the one in the middle. Is that what drunk prize fighters do? They just swing at the guy in the middle? Like a punch drunk prize fighter. You know, if you see three guys out there, tell him we'll hit the guy in the middle. Well, that's what he did. They were all three cowboys.

He hit the cowboy in the middle. on that one interception. But other than that, he didn't cough it up. You know, he didn't lose the game for them in any way, shape, or form. And, you know, whereas all the Cowboys did was coughed up and beat themselves left and right. Plus, the Washington defense was really tough. I mean, against the running game of Dallas. They really shut them down.

And Dak had no – Without that running game, Zach had no answer offensively. Yeah. You know, Cooley said it yesterday. He's like, I know that they had something to play for, but he goes, I don't think they thought they had something to play for. Because, you know, nobody really gave the Giants much of a chance

once the Giants decided not to play any of their starters. And the Eagles were. You know, ironically, at the end of that game, the Giants cut it to 22 to 16 and had an awesome. onside kick. If they had recovered, they would have had the ball back with a chance to pull off the upset. But the Cowboys, it was, it was the, it had to be right up there with the worst offensive performances of the year by anybody in the NFL. It had to be Dak Prescott's. I know yardage-wise, it was the worst game of his career. I can't imagine that he's looked worse in any

game than he looked in that game. And at the same time, I don't want to take any sort of credit away from a defense that was dominant. I felt in watching that game like it was the Houston game. They've only had two games this year that they actually won that were comfortable wins. Sundays win and against Houston. Basically every other game that they won or, you know, and a couple that they lost were like these coin flip games, you know, going back to the Tennessee game in week five. And I just, if I were a Dallas fan, I'd be very concerned. But then again, as a better, I look at it and I'm like, the world is on Tampa and Dallas

is a three-point favorite. The odds makers didn't really downgrade Dallas much for the way they played on Sunday. So we'll see what they look like on Monday night. Prescott has not, just not impressed me when I've watched them this year. and yet it's been one of the most explosive offensive teams in the league over the last two months before Sunday. I know. And so, yeah, the whole thing was, if you're a cowboy fan, I don't know how you're not concerned going into that game, especially since Brady and Mike Evans, you know, connected three times in the second half last week,

or a week and a half ago. So the starters kind of sat after the first half in Tampa on Sunday, too, because they had nothing to play for. So they had a lead at halftime, ended up losing the game. But they played it like a preseason game as well. And that's kind of the way Dallas seemed to have played it other than the starters stayed in there until finally Cooper Rush came in when the game was kind of over. But it was kind of like it was that all-important third preseason game. Or now what would be the second preseason game? I don't know.

I forget how they play the preseason now. but the Cowboys, I don't see them advancing in this postseason. I don't. Neither do I. I'm not based on that. I don't know how you can be that bad without trying. But describe Sam Hal's performance again from your standpoint? He didn't screw it up?

Is that what you said? He didn't lose the game for them. Right. Is that all you got on Sam Hal? He was a game for him. Well, he played. He played okay. Are you going to crown them as the starting quarterback for next year?

Like half the fan base is doing already? Well, you know, I'm not going to do that. But, yeah, half the – I don't know if it's half, but, you know, as we've discussed, the fan base isn't the sharpest in the NFL anymore. And there are a lot of them out – We don't need to draft a quarterback, number one. We've got one. There are a lot of them that now, you know, basically have reached out and are saying,

I mean, they don't have to go for a quarterback. First of all, Sam Howell's performance on Sunday was a good performance. Like, I gave him a B plus A minus. Cooley said it was a B plus from his standpoint. He played well. Like he showed, I think the most ridiculous thing not to beat a dead horse is why they were concerned about playing him in a meaningless game. Like, I mean, I'm actually a little bit now more suspicious about the motives of not playing him,

about Ron Rivera not deciding early right away. Sam Howell starting the final, we're out of it. Now, it did take them a little while to figure out that they had been eliminated. I understand that. But once he found that out, a week ago this morning, he was going to start Taylor Heineke. I don't know why that was ever thought other than to say, and this would be my suspicion, he wanted to get to 8-8-1. And he felt like Taylor Heineke would give him the best chance to get to 8-8-1.

And he didn't want another losing season. and finishing 8-8-1 maybe was important to him. It shouldn't have been because they lost two spots in the draft. But anyway, what? Here's what the bigger thing that Sam Howe's performance does besides solidify his position as the starting quarterback next year, it only further gives evidence that the coach has no idea how to handle the quarterback position. Absolutely no clue.

if you didn't know that this guy could perform like this, and you talked about giving your team a spark the week before when you've insisted on playing Carson Went and benching K.R. Heineke. And you didn't play this kid for the spark you were looking for, then you really are an idiot. You really have no idea what a quarterback is supposed to look like. or how to judge them. Sam Howe should have started that Browns game. Now, at least now we get that. At least you saw enough from Sam Hal.

I mean, other than just, you know, he didn't screw it up to say that he should have started the Browns game. I guess I'm just surprised that you weren't, you know, more in on Sam Hal. Not as the starter, you know, after one game like many people are. No, he played well. He played well. But the biggest thing was the way the Cowboys played is all you had to do, was not lose the game yourself. Yeah, right. I mean, considering how much, you know,

the Cowboys had 10, 3 and outs in a game, 10. I mean, I don't think I've ever heard of anything like that. And then you throw the turnovers on top of it. It's actually kind of amazing Washington didn't score 50. But, yeah, I mean, I, you know, I don't know why, and I've heard that not everybody felt the same way Ron did with respect to Sam Howell's readiness. You know, we talked last week about Logan Paulson saying, not that he felt this way, but that he had heard that there were people that didn't feel Sam Howe was ready and, you know, they needed to evaluate players and they were concerned about his readiness.

Well, that's now, they look silly on that. They 100% look stupid on being concerned about starting Sam Hal on a meaningless game. Now, the week before that, you know, their concern, I mean, if they really weren't, if, You know, we don't know what they were seeing in practice, although, you know, Martin Mayhew today talked about how they had seen Sam Hal coming along along in practice. And, I mean, pretty much Martin Mayhew told you today along with Ron Rivera quarterback. And the quarterback search is the number one priority. I mean, they've already said that, obviously. But that, you know, Sam Howe will be part of, you know, the mix that they like his arm strength.

I mean, Mayhew said specifically, you've got to have the NFL arm strength. to find somebody with, you know, legitimate NFL arm strength. They're going in search of a quarterback this year. There's no doubt about it. But Sam Howell, for a lot of people, I think, you know, is a big part of the equation. Tommy, Sam Hal's performance, and I told Cooley this yesterday, you know, I had three big takeaways. Number one was how silly it was that they didn't think he could play a meaningless game.

I mean, they just, that was dumb. Number two is how this is a phenomenal thing for us because he gave us an incredible path to lots of quarterback conversation around Sam Hal somebody who's on the roster who everybody now thinks at least deserves a shot. You know, some people think obviously it's much more than just deserves a shot. They think they saw the guy on Sunday. And then I forget what the third takeaway was. Whatever. Those were the two big ones. But, you know, he's, I don't know.

I have no idea if Sam Howells the answer. I saw a guy that has arm strength. I saw a guy that really can run. But anyway. Yeah, go ahead. But we knew that. We knew that he could run. You know, here's what we know.

We know that this crew cannot make the next quarterback decision. I think they're probably going to make it. Oh, they are. But they really, you know, the best thing to have. This is why I wrote my column today that if you're a commander's fan or a disenfranchised Washington fan and you're a Bank of America customer, you need to call your bank. You need to call your bank today. And talk to your bank managers if they don't get this deal done.

You tell them, you tell them, don't screw this up. The whole DMV is relying on you getting this done and getting this done promptly before the next owner's meeting. If you're not a Bank of America customer, call Bank of America and say you'll switch your funds to Bank of America if you guys can get this thing done. Don't screw it up. Because, again, if we go to another year of a quarterback search, of a lame duck quarterback search, you know, you're going to wind up with next year's version of Ryan Fitzpatrick and Carson Wentz. It's a go free agency. Yeah.

No, I mean, the only thing that you might say is that with different ownership, maybe if Aaron Rogers is available, you know, that's the kind of, with it with a different ownership group, that maybe you've got a shot there. But, you know, I talked about this on radio briefly this morning. and Cooley and I talked about it yesterday. Of course, you know, for those of you who actually think that would be stupid, I'm sorry, I can't help you on that. But Aaron Rogers, the dead cap money for Green Bay is, to me, if you look at that,

they either restructure his contract before trading him, which maybe he'd be willing to do, or they're not trading him. He's going to play for them next year. And then the year after that, maybe. But I think he's going to end up back in Green Bay personally. I think they'll bring Hackett back and let Hackett. it be the offensive coordinator. But, no, I know what you're saying.

You know what? You know what? Derek Carr would do just fine. Yeah, and Derek Carr is super expensive, too. Derek Carr is certainly not Aaron Rogers. I'm not the biggest Derek Carr fan. Like, the people that would say, no, we've got Sam Howell, you can go, you know, you can draft somebody or you can find another veteran that's not expensive or Garoppolo, and let's spend

the money on offensive line. Let's spend the money on more linebackers. Let's spend the money on depth, you know, that we have back with Carson Wentz being released, and let's go win 10 games and be a wildcard team next year. Okay, that's fine. But what if Sam Hal isn't a starting quarterback? Or you can't get even somebody at Jimmy Garoppolo's level. You have to have a major upgrade at quarterback and you've got to improve your offensive line too. I agree with the offensive line part. Even if Aaron Rogers is your quarterback, you've got to get better along the offensive line. Yes, you do. But you've got to improve at quarterback. I don't know where I'm going with this. I watch the whole press conference. I'm not very confident in either one of those two people to echo your thoughts.

You know, I think Martin Mayhew seems like a really nice guy. I certainly think he's bright. And again, I've said this a million times, and who cares at this point? I don't think Ron Rivera is a terrible coach. I just don't trust their ability to go out and find the next quarterback. I agree with you. I agree with you. And, I mean, they could wind up doing something really stupid investing a lot

of money in the wrong quarterback. And then the new owner comes in and he stuck with it, he or she, it stuck with that financial anchor on them. It's possible. This team could get sold in the next two months and they could approve a new owner by March. It's possible. It could happen.

Yeah. And that's before the draft. You know, that's a month, six weeks before the draft. Let me give you just a couple of big takeaways from the press conference today. Number one is this. Ron ain't going anywhere right now. All right. They're just the ownership situation.

And by the way, I think even if Dan Snyder continued doing this team, I don't think Ron's going anywhere. I think unless the new ownership comes in quickly, as you just described, you know, and has somebody on Stan. by I think Ron Rivera's going to be the head coach. I think Martin Mayhew is going to be the general manager for the upcoming 2023 off season and then the regular season. Number two, I definitely think Scott Turner's in trouble. They asked him about Scott Turner. He said, I think Scott did his job, did the things he tried to do, and we're going to self-evaluate and go through the process. It was a very short soundbite. I think Scott Turner is going to ultimately be kind of the

scapegoat for this season. And again, I, I think, don't know who they can attract to replace him, but, you know, it'll be somebody. Number three, I think definitely Duran Payne is a priority. Martin Mayhew basically said, and I wrote down, I wrote down part of the quote, so part of it's sort of paraphrasing. But he basically said that with respect to Duran Payne, he's very important to us to bring. him back. Now, how they go about doing that, who knows? I mean, they've got a franchise tag ability. But there's no doubt that both of them made it clear that bringing Duran Payne back. Here's the quote, actually. We're working, this is Nikki Javala, she actually quoted it.

We're working through that process. Obviously, Duran is a part of what we're doing. He played outstanding football for us. It'd be difficult to move forward without him, close quote. There were a couple of those kinds of quotes about Duran Payne. Ron Rivera interestingly said when he was asked what they're thinking about Duran Payne was last offseason kind of alluded to the consistency issue with Duran. And then this year was the most consistent year. So if we get from Duran what we got this year, it's a no-brainer to franchise him. But, you know, the four years prior to that, you know, were years and

which Duran was inconsistent. He was up and down. Well, if they think that he performed because it was a contract year, they have to be careful about that. They should franchise him then. Yeah, but the franchise... I give him a lot of money. That means, because if you franchise him, then he's got to do it again.

Yeah, it's just the franchise tag, we know where that goes. You know, we know how that ends, and it's never good. I think he's a tremendous talent, and I thought that since the day that he started playing for them, and you could see it. And maybe it just, you know, he's only 25 years old. I mean, he's entering his prime. He's not Albert Hainsworth, where he just had a big year and a contract year. You don't have to worry about that.

Duran Payne's a good guy and a good teammate, good locker room guy, et cetera. But you just said they may have thought he was inconsiderate. They did. They did, but I don't... It's kind of a coincidence. He got consistent on the year he's going to get paid. I agree. And you've got to really feel confident about that. But if he just matured during his contract year and it was coincidental, you don't want to see him go and blow up, you know,

and do what he did this year with somebody else. Look, that tandem of Allen and Payne is really, really what I think. along with the defense as a whole, got them to 8-8-1 this year. That's what led them. I mean, they ended up with the number three defense in the league, the number one third-down defense in the league, the number nine DVOA defense in the league.

You know, they were seventh and points allowed this year. That defense was awesome this year. Everything we thought it was going to be before 2021, and it turned into a disaster, turned out to be great this year. That's a top 10 NFL defense. And Duran Payne and Allen were the absolute root of that resurgence this year. You don't get to that.

You don't get to 8-8-1 without that, buddy. I'll tell you what, without that defense, that's a four-win team, five-win team. Do you agree or disagree? That you're strutting over an 8-8-1. I'm not strutting over an 8-8-1. I'm strutting over a defense that was outstanding this year. With the exception of the first two games of the year, when they struggled to stop the run, and they didn't have camcourl, and they didn't have, and they had William Jackson in there,

which obviously was a problem, and then the Cleveland game, which they got absolutely torched and shredded without camcourl, without St. Juice, with John Allen out of the game, you take those three games out of the equation, and they won one of them. They won the Jacksonville game, even though they got run on in that game. Every other game, the defense led them to either a win or a super close loss. And I just think this would have been a four-win team without this defense this year.

I'm just giving kudos to an incredible defensive season. I mean, every single statistical, traditional and advanced, measurement says this defense was a legit top 10 defense in the NFL this year. And they're young. I would like to see Duran Payne back. Moving on. All of the conversation about the quarterbacks was made it very clear. They're in the quarterback market. Not that Ron hadn't said that the last, you know, a couple of weeks anyway. It was also very clear whence is gone. Not that we had any doubt about that. And, you know, they like Mayhew. And, you know, I, Mayhew. They like Sam Hal. Martin Mayhew had a lot of good things to say about Sam Hal,

you know, arm strength and off-schedule ability, and that he had improved as the season went on and practiced. They could see that, and they were really happy to get a chance to play him in the game. I'm wondering, I still don't know why Ron even thought twice about that. Here's the other thing that came out of this press conference, and this bothered the hell out of me. they kept both of them. They kept referring to the formula. Our formula is to run the football and to have a quarterback that then can,

you can play off running the football. That was the formula that they wanted to employ when they picked Ryan Fitzpatrick, and they said it was the formula that they wanted with Carson Wentz, but they couldn't get to that formula early on because they didn't have Brian Robinson Jr. And the defense, you know,

and Mayhew pointed this out. And by the way, it's true, the defense in the first two games of the year wasn't great. You know, Jacksonville, Detroit, torched them in week two of the season. And he said, you know, we just didn't have as many chances with the ball. The score, you know, and the Detroit game got to the other, you know, sideways. And we had to throw the ball a lot more because we were down 22 to nothing. He didn't say that. But he talked about the game circumstance.

But they kept referring to like this formula. I'm sorry. But that formula is tried and true in terms of you got a chance to win some games and stay in some games with that formula. But that's not the formula to win 12 games or 13 games and be seated, you know, one or two going into the playoffs. You got to be able to throw the football up here, as Coach Joe likes to say, unless you're going to play football like Baltimore plays. And they can't even play football like that because Lamar Jackson doesn't even want to play anymore, it would appear. I just, I sat there and I watched these two guys talking, by the way, didn't they say about Carson Wentz when they acquired them, you know, now we're going to be able to really extend the field? Yeah.

You know, so it's a very convenient thing. And it's also a convenient thing to kind of defend the Carson Wentz acquisition with, we never had a chance to play Carson with the way we like to play football. You know, like early in the year, the defense wasn't good. the defense wasn't good against Cleveland. Early in the year, we didn't have Brian Robinson, Jr. So we couldn't be the team we wanted to be with Carson. No, when you acquired Carson Wentz, Scott Turner talked about, now we can really go down.

We can be vertical now. We can be more vertical, was the quote. You've got to be able to throw the football in the NFL. The idea, and I'm not against teams that that's their only way of playing because they are limited. quarterback, and they did figure out a solution and a formula to be competitive and to win games with great defense, with a running game, with a quarterback who made some critical big-time plays in latent games.

But it's like I sat there and I watched like a press conference from like the 1990s or the 1980s. These aren't the guys. And by the way, oh, if you get Aaron Rogers. somehow if you swing big again like you have the last couple of years, and I've complimented them on that. You know, they went for Stafford. They went for Wilson, and maybe Wilson would have been a disaster. It looks like he would have been. Although I'm just going to say, if Sean Peyton ends up in Denver, I don't be surprised if Russell Wilson has another big year or two.

But it was a lot about this emphasizing run first. This is what we want. What you saw Sunday is what we want. What you saw Sunday is what we were. we want to be. You know, Sunday was the day that you shouldn't have run the ball 41 times and passed at 19. You should have been trying to evaluate Sam Howell more. And he did a great job, and maybe you were concerned with your offensive line, which has been a major problem.

You know, early in the year, all the discussion about this is a Carson Wentz problem. It was that, but it was a big time offensive line problem, too. It was with Taylor Heineke as well. It was Sunday at times with Howell. They were a terrible, terrible pass protection offensive line. I don't know if it wasn't coached well because Matsko is supposedly one of the best. I don't know if it wasn't coordinated well with Scott Turner,

but they could not win as a pass blocking unit at all this year. That hurt this year. Heard everybody involved. But I didn't like, it was like there was too much of this. We got a formula. Really? You got a formula for what? coin flip games, which you, you know, did.

Ultimately, you were 8, 8, and 1. Like, that's a formula for 9 and 8, 10, and 7, and maybe a wild card game. I don't know. Unless you don't hear. What? You don't hear, you never hear, particularly from Rivera accountability. You're right about that. You didn't hear that today either.

A lot of injury discussion. You did? A lot of tough circumstance. Here's what you heard. from Rivera today. It's not always on the one loss record to show you've grown or not. Okay?

This is what he said at the start of training camp this year, talking about his record. I'm here to be judged on that, okay? The judgment starts with winning or losing. Yeah, well, we know that he talks in circles

and basically contradicts himself all the time. I mean, I agree with the first statement. I very much agree with that. I think sometimes, you know, I'm not a big believer. Ultimately, over the course of time, you know, you are what your record says you are. 12 seasons? Like 12 years? He's got a winning record. If you want to play it that way, he's got a winning record. And he's got three winning seasons. And he's been to the playoffs five times. Three winning seasons. He's got, he must be a hell of a, he must be a hell of a nice guy and

friendly guy to be around because nobody surprised, nobody survives in this league with that kind of record. Well, he's eight games over 500. That's, that's his record. If you want to play it that way, his record's 98, 90, and two. And he's been to the playoffs five times and he's three and five, and he's got a trip to the Super Bowl. Rewinning seasons in 12 years.

Ridicrous. 98, 90, and two. I hear you. Nobody gets chances with three winning seasons in 12 years. So why has he gotten a chance? You know why, Tommy? Because football people think he's actually a good coach. Because football people...

No, it's not because he's a nice guy. No. I think he's a likable guy. I disagree. Okay. I think it's because football people have thought, and by the way, I think at times justifiably so that he's a good coach. He's not a great coach.

That's clear. You know, he's not a terrible coach. This is my position. I know it's very much waffling the middle, you know, riding the fence on him. I've never thought Ron Rivera was a terrible coach. I don't think he's done a terrible job here. And I think when you look at seasons where he did end up with a losing record, 7 and 9 or 7, 8 and 1 or 7 and 9 here,

that he actually in some of those seasons did some of his best coaching jobs. And so, I mean, again, if you're going to be literal, you are what your record says you are. He's a 98, 90, and 2 coach. He's been to the playoffs five times in 12 years, which is almost half his seasons he's ended up in the playoffs. He's a three and five postseason coach with a trip to the Super Bowl. We could do this all day, and I don't think you're wrong, and I don't think the people that say three winning seasons in 12 years, most people don't get chances. And my response would be what it just was. Why do you think he still gets chances? Because he's a nice guy? No. Because people who have hired him and people in football

think that Ron Rivera is a good coach. That's why. They may be wrong. He's worked for two owners. He's worked for two owners. One of which got, well, Tapper got rid of him. Yeah, he did, but he worked for Tapper. Okay. Right. He worked for, he got hired by two owners. Right. One of which was kicked out of the league. The other one is about to be. That's your best point. The two owners that hired him that were really confident in Ron Rivera, one had to sell his team, was basically forced to sell his team and the other one the same thing. Fair point. But I think football people actually think that Ron Rivera is a decent football coach. Not great, but decent. And I think he's actually

actually been a good defensive coach since he's been in the league. But he's also, by the way, a nice guy and got hired by two owners who basically lost their teams. Anyway. So that was kind of most, that was pretty much the highlight of everything. They're going to, they're going to turn over every single leaf like they did last year on the quarterback front. They tried to defend their process in getting Carson Wentz. Ron Rivera made some comment, you know, we ended up where we wanted to be. No, you didn't. That's just not true. Okay, you ended up, you ended up with trying to get Russell Wilson, nope, trying to get Jimmy Garoppelo, nope, and then panicking and going to Carson Wentz. Maybe Carson Wentz was in, you know, option three, it was in the option three bucket,

but he wasn't in the option two or the option one bucket. Yeah. Bucket being the operative term here. They did say too. They did say, and it was a very short answer. Ron Rivera was asked about Taylor Heineke returning. I'm just looking through my notes. And he said, look, we're going to evaluate everybody,

and Taylor's a guy that's done some really good things for us. It was more embracing of Taylor in body language, end in words than it was whence, that's for sure. But I still think that there's... Yeah, I don't think he is either. I don't think that they... I certainly don't think if there's competition for him, which I'm not sure if there will be or won't be.

I don't know what the answer to that is. I think people around the league probably look at this guy as a guy they'd love to have in their quarterback room, and they'd love to have as a backup quarterback. But the issue is, What are they going to spend on it? And Washington, this group anyway, knows him. I don't know what's going to happen with him.

I have no idea. I would say my guess with Cooley yesterday was Sam Hal and a quarterback that's currently not on the roster. We'll be the two guys. And the guy that's not on the roster may be your clear cut number one. You know, Derek Carr, Aaron Rogers, Jimmy Garoppolo, or somebody. like a veteran. Again, I wouldn't count on the first two. Or it could be, it could be, you know, a draft choice with Sam Hal and they'll battle it out, that kind of a thing. But let me just tell you something, Tommy. Year four is the big year for Ron. If he comes back, if he gets an opportunity to

coach year four with a new owner or with this owner, however, that plays out timing-wise. You know, and he was asked about that and it was a very short answer. He smiled and he understands They better take a step forward next year. You know, it better be a step forward in record next year, like a big step forward. Not a one-game step forward. They better be a double-digit win team and be in the postseason with a chance to win a game. That's a step-forward season. And so you're not going to do that with Sam Hal starting as essentially a rookie starter in his first full season

or a rookie quarterback that you draft. So anybody that thinks that veterans should be off the table, I bet you it is not off the table. I don't think so. No. No, Ron's going to be getting a quarterback to save his job. He's going to need a quarterback that he thinks will fit with a really good group of receivers, which they do have.

They really do. They've got some really good skills. position players and an outstanding defense that is young and that is top 10 and has a chance to get better. And so, and by the way, just off the, right now, this is a competitive 500 football team in 2023 with that defense. Now, I want to know that Duran Payne's going to be a part of it because I think he's significant, very significant. But even if they lost Ron Payne and Phil Mathis, you know, who they really liked and they drafted in the second round,

and they end up adding a couple of other pieces, this still has a chance to be an excellent defense next year. Bring everybody back and add another linebacker and some depth. And you're talking about a defense that could be top five in the league next year. Well, the big wild card there is Chase Young. If Chase Young ends up being the true discreet, as a pass rusher. Then all of a sudden you're talking about a top three to five defense in the NFL next year, and you got a chance to be a 500 or better team, even if you don't have the

quarterback. They actually have a decent roster. They do. Okay. Let's... A couple of other things to finish up the show right after these words from a couple of our sponsors. I don't know if I said this yesterday, Tommy. Mike Tomlin's coach 16 years and has never had a losing season. I know. I find that amazing. And I know Searer fans that don't like them. Me too. Big Tony.

Big Tony is not a big Tomlin fan. I know. Give me Mike Tomlin right here. Absolutely. But I also wanted to mention just the situation in Houston. I don't know why they fired Cully last year and then hired Lovie Smith. Like they knew they weren't going to be any good this year. They knew that if they weren't good this year, they'd end up with a pick in what was supposed to be a quarterback-rich draft.

And now they're taking just a beating on being an organization that is racially insensitive because both of these coaches got one year and they're both black. And by the way, Romeo Cronel, I think the year before that, like, if you're planning on being terrible, just keep the coach that you had last year. Like, first of all, the hiring of Cully was insane anyway. The dude had never even called plays. The hiring of Lovie Smith.

In some ways, I love Lovie Smith as a coach. I've always loved him, but he's been in college for a while. I mean, I think the time has kind of passed him. I just, it was kind of, they're just, like, Washington's been the bottom barrel, but man, Houston is right there with them. Oh, yeah, absolutely. What a shit organization they are. And Lovie basically, I guess, gave them the middle finger on the way up by going for two

and dropping to number two in the draft. Do you know they had to convert that their touchdown pass that ended up before the two-point conversion, the end of the game was a fourth and 20 play. It was fourth and 20, and they threw a touchdown pass with 50 seconds to go. I mean, the things that had to go right for Houston were wrong for Houston to lose the number one overall pick and a chance to draft Bryce Young. I think it's going to be Bryce Young. I know Stanford Steve said, you know, he thinks it's going to be Bryce Young, but thought Stroud really closed the gap a little bit there with his semi-final performance. But The Houston situation is horrible.

They got rid of that Jack Easterby finally. They got rid of him. They got rid of a lobby. I don't know who they're going to hire. They've got a bad owner. Like in Washington, they have a bad owner. They do. You said you needed help with something.

What do you need help with? Yeah. Well, I'm planning, we're planning a road trip in May. Who's the Pacific Coast Highway? My wife and her. Okay, yeah. Not you and me. Well, you said we.

I mean, I wanted you to be more specific. Isn't I? Right. We're planning a Pacific Coast Highway road trip. Nice. Probably about nine nights, starting up in point race, national seashore and going down to L.A. Oh, pretty. And I've got all my hotels booked, but I haven't been able to find anything that I like that's,

in my price range around the Malibu area. You know, and I'd like to stay on the coast, if possible, but I'm kind of flinching at the price range. Yeah, Malibu is pretty expensive. So if anybody has any recommendations, it doesn't have to be Malibu, in or around Malibu, near Malibu, that would be along the coast,

that would be a reasonable price, okay? Not like a four-seasons price. Right. You know, just drop me a line. Send me a message on Twitter or an email on Yahoo. Tom Laverro at yahoo.com. And I could use some help out there. You know, I was out there.

For the final leg of the trip. I was out there whenever it was in the summer, August, or whatever, because my oldest lives out there. And so we went out there. And this was, um, Actually, was it the summer? I was out there in the summer, but actually, we went to Malibu when I was out there. Remember last spring when I went to my niece's wedding in Palm Springs?

I told you about that, right? And so we went to California first, and we did a day in Malibu. God, it's so beautiful there. But we didn't stay there. We stayed in L.A., West Hollywood actually near where my son lives. But, yeah, maybe you could figure out through George, town to get you some help with Pepperdine University. What a beautiful university that is.

To find you a place to stay. They're up right there in the hills overlooking, you know, Malibu below it. It's gorgeous up there. You're in academia. You're a pretty far. I mean, smart feller. Well, you know, that's pretty good. You're a teacher.

I'll have to work on that one. See if you see. the way, Pepperdine, we were driving around when we were out there. And, you know, we drove up to, we drove by Pepperdine and I said, I want to pull in. I want to see how beautiful the school is, because I've heard how beautiful the school is. And it is beautiful and it's in a beautiful area. I mean, those kinds of schools that are in just beautiful areas, you know, I don't even know. Is Pepperdine even a good school? I have no idea if it is or isn't. But like you see Santa Barbara, Like some of these schools, like especially in California and warm weather locales,

would have been nice to go to one of those schools. It'd be really hard to get any work done with the weather that they have out there. All right. You've heard the request. Help them out, Malibu, really cheap out in Malibu. Did you look at Airbnb's or are you just looking at hotels? I'm just looking at hotels I'm not an Airbnb guy

Well I mean it's just that some of those places Right on the beach there aren't hotels Right on the beach You know they're up kind of elevated Overlooking I know The whole thing there I know So

It's gonna be a hell of a trip But I did that trip I did that trip many years ago Driving down Route 1 It's gorgeous Looking forward to it Absolutely So you will

You'll do the whole down you know, through San Francisco, through Big Sur, through, you know, all of that stuff you'll do. Then through Santa Barbara and then into L.A. And that's where you're going to end it. Okay. That's the plan. All right.

I think we, you know, I think we put our best foot forward today. Don't we always put our best foot forward? Yes and no. Yes and no. Sometimes we just go through the motions. When you do it as much as we do, Some days are go through the motions days. But not really.

We don't really ever mail it in. We don't do what the Cowboys did on Sunday. Or what TCU did last night. No, we don't DAC Prescott things. All right, I'll talk to you on Thursday. All right, boss. All right, that's it. Back tomorrow.