The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rivera Regret?

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

Kevin and Thom today with plenty of discussion about whether or not Ron Rivera regrets taking the job here in Washington. Before that, is Miami's virus outbreak the beginning of the end for sports? Can Alex Smith beat out Dwayne Haskins? And Thom's concern about the emergence of physicans assistants. 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.

Show will get started here momentarily. Tommy joining me on a sports fix Tuesday. Real quickly, mybookie.ag. They are up and running and they are taking sports bets, at least for the time being. Baseball's up. Futures are out there for the NFL. If you've been waiting since March to bet on sports and you're looking for a legitimate shop to bet through, a place that's going to offer you fair lines, fair prices, and you'll get paid when you win. my bookie.ag is that place. You bet you win and they'll pay. If you're feeling good about an NFL futures bet, they've got all of the odds. They've got MVP odds. They've got defensive rookie of the year odds. Chase Young is a prohibitive favorite to win defensive rookie of the year

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You bet, you win, and they pay. You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. That's right. A Sports Fix Tuesday here with Tommy by phone, Aaron somewhere out in the Netherworld, and I am right here in our studio. Feeling great today. You know what, Tommy, last night, can I just tell you a quick story? Absolutely. I didn't feel well last night. And I actually started to get a little bit of

anxiety that maybe I was coming down with some symptoms. First of all, I went to my dermatologist yesterday. I do a one-year dermatology appointment. You know, skin cancer is one of those things. Like, you should go to the dermatologist once a year, if not twice a year, just to get a checkup, because that is the most preventable and treatable as long as you catch it early. And so I hadn't been, in over a year, and part of that was because of the pandemic. So I went yesterday, and they took my temperature when I walked in there, and my temperature was 99 and a half. Now, they didn't stop me from coming in, but that is a low-grade fever, is it not? Yes, I believe it is. I think it is, too. I immediately said to the woman, I think that's high, because we have one of those thermal scanners in this office

space and occasionally I'll walk by it and I walked by it two days ago and I was like 97.7 or something like that which you know there's a new normal on it's no longer 98.6 is the normal it's actually less than that but anyway they let me go in and I got my checkup and I actually had something cut out of my upper forehead which you know I've had these things before and I don't think it'll be anything serious knock on wood but anyway I got home last night And I was like, I wonder if I do have a fever. I feel a little feverish. And I took some Tylenol, and I, you know, was drinking some water, and I ate some dinner.

There was like some tuna in there, and so I didn't have a big dinner. And I went to bed early. I mean, when I say early, it was the fifth inning of the Nats game. It was four to one. It was like eight o'clock. And that was it. Next thing I know, it was 4 a.m. And I felt great when I woke up this morning.

But I think I was just in need of some sleep. And I got it. And I feel great today. I feel great today. But, you know, there is, I mean, how many times have you felt, I don't feel that well, but you don't give it a second thought. But now you give it a second thought. Like, well, do I have shortness of breath? Do I have a fever?

Do I have a dry cough? I actually have had a cough. It's not a dry cough. It's more of an allergy cough. But anyway, I'm fine and I'm feeling great today. Meantime, you survived where you live. A major fire in a building nearby. Will you share that with us, please?

About quarter to five Sunday morning, my wife wakes me up. She says, Tom, there's someone knocking on our door. and I said, what time is it? She told me, I'd say, well, that can't be good. Don't answer it. Is that what you said, really? Yeah, yeah.

But they kept knocking. So I went and answered it, and it was our neighbor in our condo building. There's about 12 condos in our building where we are, four on each floor for three floors. And they said, the building next door is on fire. you might want to get up and get out in case they start having to water down the building here. And so we walked around to our balcony and went outside, and whoa, there's fire trucks everywhere, flame shooting out of the building right next door to us. And I'm sitting there thinking, how did we sleep through this?

Yeah. How could we possibly not know what was going on? It was a circuit out there. So we got dressed quickly, and we went outside, and, you know, never did the ashes or anything, never did go to our building. But one of the buildings next door on the other side of that building did sustain some damage. And the whole third floor of the building was burnt. Nobody was hurt. Everybody got out safely.

and I don't know how it started, but it was quite a Sunday morning scene to wake up to. You sent me a picture. I'm looking at it right now. That's a real fire. Oh, it was a two alarm fire. There were two fire departments there. It was the real deal. Absolutely. It was pretty scary looking. Who's the guy in the picture that you sent me? What guy? There's a guy standing up on the... the right-hand side looking at the fire.

Oh, I have no idea. That's from a newspaper story. Oh. That picture. Okay. I mean, that was, I mean, I could send you one that we took, too, but that was the best. That's a picture illustrates. And so, no, it takes a while to determine cause.

Yeah. But there was no initial feeling as to what the cause was. No, I mean, there's neighborhood gossip. What's the gossip? Well, you'd have to talk to names. neighbors in order to get that. And I just don't do that. I was going to talk to neighbors. I actually, when you mentioned that someone was knocking on your door at 5 a.m. in the morning and it was your neighbor. Do you even know your neighbor? Uh, let's does.

Yeah. You're just, I bet you. That count. That count. You're not a neighbor person. You're not. No, you're not. No, you're not. Not unless they can help me somehow. Exactly, exactly. Unless there's somebody like really interesting, but you don't give it enough time to even find out if somebody is. Yeah. I'm kind of oblivious to it. Well, you're aloof too. There's an aloofness to you. A loof. That's rich. So four more Marlins test positive today, so we're at 17. The game's been postponed tonight. They postponed it last night. They postponed it today. They postponed it today. Rob Manfred said in his statement yesterday, and it was not a very alarmed statement on the subject. He said he does not believe this is a disastrous situation. I think that was the quote, something to that effect.

Nightmare. It was not a nightmare. I've got it right here. Yeah, he said, quote, we built protocols anticipating that we would have positive tests at some point during the season. The protocols were built to allow us to play through those positives. we believe the protocols are adequate to keep our players safe. I don't put this in the nightmare category, closed quote. You do now.

No, the nightmare is coming. This is a bad dream. This is July. Okay? Let me read to you what the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reported recently. Dets nationwide are predicted. to remain fairly level through August and begin to rise again around the fourth week of August with a more pronounced increase during September, although some states will see the increase

earlier due to increased mobility and relaxation of social distancing mandates. This is July. This was supposed to be the downtime. Right. No, September, October. was supposed to be that. So why, why are, you know, all of the, a lot of these projected, um, projected numbers on this virus have been off a little bit. So why are you so convinced about August, September and into the fall? Because there has not been any real, among experts who are credible, there has not been any, uh, difference of opinion that there is a second wave coming.

and the second wave is going to be coming in the fall and the winter but the fall is when it's going to start well the first wave was supposed to die out with the heat initially right right right and it has so they're wrong about that this is this is july i mean in september if they get to september that's when the nightmare scenarios are good at this is inevitable i don't understand how anyone didn't think this was going to happen when you start traveling around the country, even if it's a small part of the country, come into contact with different people who have come into contact with other different people. Are the Marlins still in Philadelphia?

I don't know. I don't know if they are or not. I know the Yankees. How many of these 17 people have been hospitalized or sick? I don't know. I don't think any have been hospitalized. Are any of them sick? Are any of them symptomatic? I don't know. I don't know if they are or not. I mean, this is sort of an important thing, right? As we go through inevitable positive tests,

now, this is an outbreak, clearly of infection. This is an infection outbreak. I'm reading through the latest story. There's no report. on how many of these 17 people are symptomatic, how many of these 17 people are sick, how many of these 17 people are seriously sick? I think that's important information, don't you? It wouldn't change my opinion about wanting to be in contact with these people. I didn't say that. Not one bit. I didn't say that. Well, that would be your only concern. At this point, if you're concerned with your own health, You don't particularly care if they're sick or not.

Well, I thought you're speaking about yourself. I thought you're speaking about yourself and your age and your underlying conditions. I'm talking about any player who's playing Major League Baseball or their family members. Well, that's precisely why I think the information about how many of these people are symptomatic, how many of them have actually gotten sick is important. because look, I agree with you. The last couple of weeks haven't been promising. The information isn't encouraging.

It's not improving. We're on day four or five of this baseball season, and we've had a major outbreak of positive cases, a major outbreak of positive cases on a team, and that is shut down two games already for them, which is already leading to, you know, a snowball effect where the Yankees were coming into the Marlins locker room right in Philadelphia, and so they had to have their game postponed. And you can see the snowball effect of games getting canceled, the integrity of the competitive portion of these games being compromised,

ending up with an unfair competitive season if you even get to a season. But just right now, in the moment, like, I want to know what this means. You know, does this mean that other people are going to test positive? Or does this mean that they come in contact with them, the teams that they play, the teams that they're scheduled to play? Or does this mean that they're going to test positive and get sick? Those are two different things. But I don't understand what difference would it make to you if you came in contact

with a person who wasn't sick, who tested positive? It would make a difference to me, but it wouldn't. make a difference potentially to a 24-year-old healthy with no underlying sicknesses person. Oh, I think it would make a tremendous difference. Where there's an expectation that eventually they're going to test positive, but they're not going to get sick. Oh, then, look, they test positive. They're going home. They're done. I understand what the protocol is now. No, I'm talking about not their protocol. I'm talking about for most of these players, if they test,

positive, a lot of them are going home. You know what, Tommy, you've said that from the beginning, and this is the thing that you are dead right on. This is the thing that actually threatens the shutdown of these games and these seasons, maybe even more than the threat of sickness does. And I say sickness, not positive tests. And that is the fear. The fear of the players not only themselves testing,

positive and potentially getting sick, even though the odds seem stacked very much against it. But the threat that it would pose to the people that are in their lives and that they love in their homes and around them, this is the real threat. I don't know that the positive tests aren't the real threat. I'm just asking a question about or I'm very curious about these 17 people, especially the players, the younger players. I'm curious as to what happens. Are they all asymptomatic?

Are they all, you know, slightly symptomatic? Have any of them really gotten sick? Because in the bubble sports, take hockey in the NBA. You know, if they aren't going back to their homes and they're not putting their loved ones at risk and nobody's getting sick even though they're testing positive, although the hockey thing, I think it was like their last group of testing for the two bubble cities was like zero positive tests.

Where are the two bubble cities? Toronto and Vancouver, right? That's a different country, isn't it? Yeah, I think it is. Yes. I actually thought you were asking me because you really didn't know where the two cities were. But I just, look, I mean, this... You're right about the fear factor.

The fear factor. No, you were right about the fear factor. I'm giving you credit for being right about the fear factor. But I just wonder why, you know, if no one gets sick, but there's just a lot of positive tests, you know, we have to, we may have to advance to the point where these players, unless they have somebody at home that's at risk, just understand, hey, I'm going to test positive, but I'm not going to get sick. Oh, you can't ask somebody to do that. Why?

Because you don't know they're not going to get sick. Well, I don't know that yet, and you don't know that yet. But that's why I'd like to get the data on it. You don't know what kind of damage this could be causing within your body, even if you are asymptomatic. You know what I do know, Tommy? A hell of a lot of people for several months now who don't make anywhere near the money they make have been working six, five, six, seven days a week and coming home to their families. And trying to follow basic rules, which are wearing. a mask and social distancing and, you know, it hasn't, I understand the number of deaths.

I do. And I'm not advocating that everybody in every single situation just go for it and play the odds. And the odds are basically in everybody's favor that they're not going to get seriously sick or die. But with this particular thing, I just, I don't personally want to say it's all over, like many people where Boz basically wrote, it's over. Shut it all down. Other people are saying, all right, let's focus on

real life matters. Sports are diversion. They're an extra when we have a functioning society. I just would like to know whether or not these people are actually going to get sick or not, because right now it doesn't appear as if they are. Well, to me, that doesn't make any difference.

And I think he's got people, I think this was an arrogant an ignorant exercise, and it's going to prove to be. The NBA may – the NHL may really get away with it because they went to another country, and they may be able to pull this off. Well, they came from this country. I know, but part of the problem is that, you know, baseball came up with the 113-page, you know, manual on how to deal with this, and they operate in a country where the manual from the White House

was a mad magazine issue. And the guy running it says, what? Me worry? That's part of the problem. What was the phone call that took place in April between the president and the poor commissioners? It would have been great to listen. Would have been great to listen. You hear it now. I mean, what, did he go over his cognitive test score with him? God, didn't he do a great job of remembering all those things 30 minutes later? He did better than me. How's that? I doubt it. I doubt he would have done better than you. But I mean, that's also part of it.

They're trying to operate the best they can when they're living in a society where, you know, there's so many people just convinced that this is some kind of government conspiracy to kill them. Oh, God. It is a, you know, it's a very unique. situation when you have 335 million people in 50 states where a lot of these states are like different countries. Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot of, we have a lot of cultural and personality differences in this country. Yes. And I mean, when it comes to health, one of the basic things, the most basic thing, whether it's your health. I mean, money doesn't matter. Really, if you're, if, like, you know, Jack Kent Cook thought he had enough money

he could live forever and he didn't. So, I just, I just, what did that mean? What is that? What is that exercise? Oh, my point is, I mean, that was the use to say, he was convinced that he was too rich to die. Was he, I don't remember that.

Yes, yes. So, and I'm sure there's other people like that as well, but I just think this is, you know, like I said, The NBA may have a better, I think not traveling gives those sports a better chance at it. But, again, I think the fear factor and the fatigue factor of living in this bubble for a couple of months for young NBA players who may have a difficult time with that kind of discipline, I think it's going to do in the NBA as well. Well, football, football, the NFL, you know, they were painting, I guess, at FedEx Field, or they were painting Black Lives Matter in the end zone. Somebody said, I said in four weeks they'll be painting Send Doctors.

Are they really painting Black Lives Matter in the end zones on NFL fields? Let me see if I can find that. I haven't heard that. to reiterate that. So I, so predict, give me your prediction right now on all of these sports. I think baseball will be done by the, before the beginning of September. I think football will be done by the, by the end of October. I'm not going on the NBA or the NHL.

I suspect, I still think the NBA will collapse. But all they've got to do is get through their playoffs. You know, just sort of like the NHL. Those two don't have to go through its season. They have to go through the playoffs. No, but it's two plus months. We know how long these playoffs take. You're right.

I don't think football is going to finish the season. I don't think baseball certainly going to finish the season. I have no idea what's going to happen. I don't know how anybody does. week, although the last couple of weeks have been pretty consistent with being more, I guess, pessimistic than optimistic. And you're seeing today some football players opt out. The NFL, and I mentioned this yesterday, Tommy, but I'll mention it with you. You know, the NFL's players and owners had a much more collaborative, you know, effort in getting things agreed to than

baseball and its players. And we, saw everything agreed to. And one of the things that essentially the NFL allows is for a player to opt out, they'll get, if they don't have any legitimate health risks, they'll get a $150,000 stipend, which will be taken out of a future salary. If you have an underlying health risk, you're going to get a $300,000 stipend, and it won't be taken out of future salary. We're seeing some players opt out today. It's still just a few. It's just a few. It's just a few. It's training camps get underway if you even want to call them training camps. I don't, I just, I have no idea what this is going to look like a month from now.

I still believe that meds, the therapeutic answer, would change everything if we came up with, you know, remdesivir or some combination of whatever that, you know, everybody was sold, kept you from getting seriously ill, but we're not, we're not, we're not, yet, or not there yet. And I do... Okay, let me just make this clear. Jason Reed reported that during the NFL's kickoff week, the league is going to have social justice messages painting in the end zone border.

Oh, for the kickoff week. Not necessarily Black Lives Matter. Got it. You know, messages like it takes all of us and end racism and things like that. So that's the report. So I do think, though, that this Marlins thing happening, like, I'm just, I'm thinking through this right now with you because I didn't spend a lot of time, I spent some time on this this morning.

But I do think that how these people progress, like whether or not, you know, they get sick, whether or not they're symptomatic, how quickly they're back into the fold will be, at the very least, an interesting learning experience. And it may be, I don't want to say predictive, but it will be one of those things that could give people a different outlook in a few days. If these people get too quick negative tests, they were asymptomatic, nobody got sick, everybody's back on the field. They're doing the right thing.

Don't get me wrong by postponing these games. But I'd like to see how the Marlins case plays out. This is an outbreak. This is one of those things they didn't necessarily, even though Manfred said we had protocols in place with expanded rosters, et cetera, your plan for a major outbreak where you lose half your team is not, you know, isn't like they're not designed to handle that right now. Clearly they're not because they canceled two back-to-back games.

They postponed them. They didn't send in the rest of the roster that was negative. You know, I think you've got to see the Marlins taken out of. have commissioned for 14 days. Well, this speaks to something else that I talked about yesterday, and you just have to be prepared for this as a sports fan. If you believe that these seasons have a chance of starting and finishing, you are going to have competitive unfairness to all of these cities.

Now, the bubble cities for hockey and basketball seem to be a little bit different, and we'll see, because who knows, I mean, you could still have a major outbreak. but you're going to have a mate. I mean, right now it's very possible that the Marlins won't be able to make these games up against the Orioles. And the Orioles and the Marlins will have two less games played than everybody else. And in the NFL, it's very possible if somehow you got through a 16-game regular season that some teams had a major outbreak and had to forfeit two games and played two less games than everybody else. That's possible.

But you're just going to have to deal with it because, it's an oddball year and there's going to be there's going to be some unfairness to it competitively. Yes, I would agree with that. I have no idea how to predict the future on this one. I have no idea. The only thing that seems like it's certainly becoming a given is that high school sports are pretty much done in the fall. The WCAC, you know, one of the best high school basketball and football conferences in the country,

they've called off football until at least January 1. Montgomery County last week canceled football and basketball season. They canceled basketball season in July, which seemed to be a bit premature from my standpoint, but whatever. Well, you see what the smart people did at Google. What did they do? Google announced that they're keeping their employees home through the end of next summer. Yeah, that's a little bit different. You know, when you're at home, you're still working.

I know that, but it's an indication of what smart people, again, you know. But they have that option. They can continue to work from home. Their business isn't being shut down. I know that. But they're saying to them, you know, you can stay home for this long. I mean, they're telling them that because they don't think it'll be safe to come back to work until the summer of 20. Well, look, Tommy, in some cases, some of these businesses are realizing that they don't need offices

and real estate and a huge expense line to be able to operate their businesses. This is a trend in terms of teleworking that was already, you know, beginning to happen that's going to be accelerated because it's going to be cost beneficial to accelerate it. And I'm not saying that one one that the Trump administration was pushing against. I might point out. Teleworking? Yes. Yeah.

You know, because the whole idea of all these employees must be getting away with something when they're working at home. Well, I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think that it is a different output from home than it would be in an office. I think anybody who's ever worked in an office versus working from home realizes that. Yeah, it depends on what your job is. Of course. Of course. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, if you're a podcast or a radio talk show host or a columnist, you really don't need an office for that. No. And in fact, you can be much more productive without one. But anyway. So, yeah, it's interesting. By the way, real quickly on the Nats, one in three start. the you know you've got you've got some issues there with first of all Anthony Rendon hasn't played yet in in Los Angeles he has not I don't think he played last night he didn't play in the first three games because he was on the injured list I'm watching every night I didn't see last night the box score did the Angels play last night did he play last night

Nope, still hasn't played yet. But rough start for the Nats so far. Long way to go. I mean, another 56 games maybe. Yeah, yeah. Or you think it'll be done before then. Yeah, yeah, I do. But even if they managed to get to the finish line,

everybody makes the playoffs now in baseball. 16 teams. They did approve it, 10 to 16. Yeah. Could be exciting. Yes, it could. Can we just talk about one thing here? Like, what if, and it's very possible, what if baseball ends at the end of next month

and football doesn't make it past October or before then? And you just don't have sports in 2020. What is the result of that? What are the ramifications to that? Well, this, I mean, financially, you could speak to that more. than I can. I mean, for baseball, it'd be the worst-case scenario, because for all intents and purposes,

you would have played, you would have gone a year and a half, except for this blip that turns out to be an embarrassing situation for you, a year and a half without your game. Football, if it happens that way, too, you would have gone a long time without football as well. I don't think it will have a big impact financial. I think people are always going to be starred for football.

I mean, I think socially as a society, I think a lot of people have learned to live without it already. They like it, but it's not part of their oxygen. They don't need it to breathe. Yeah. I mean, the economy needs it more than maybe people do. from a mental standpoint, although I do think, and I've mentioned this many times, that the routine and the habit and the rhythm of football season, that's when it will become very apparent that our world has changed in a significant way for a lot of people.

And it crosses over, right? I mean, it crosses over into every single demographic the NFL does and football does, college football does. And it's popular in every portion of this country. to not have it as part of your fall into winter routine will, you know, lend a level of seriousness to this situation that maybe some didn't really feel until then. I'm not saying that's not, that doesn't go for everybody clearly, but it will have economic impact. This isn't going to be one of those, oh, 1944 and 45, there wasn't sports played because of the war. So be it.

I mean, sports didn't have the same economic impact on the country back then that it does now. So there are so many businesses that will be negatively impacted by sports not being played. I mean, so many businesses that rely solely on these sports being played in small businesses, many small businesses, as we've seen, you know, whether it's in the hospitality industry, a lot of service businesses, you know, they've been crushed over the last five to six months, and no sports will continue that trend. And there will be new businesses because of the new world we're living in that will thrive and grow, but those associated and reliant on sports, and there are many of them, it'll be devastating. It'll be very devastating to our business.

Yes. Yes, it will. To go that long without sports, I think, I think, people, I think people in our business are looking to the football season as a life preserver. And if that life preserver puts a hole punch in it, it's got to be pretty bad. I agree. Quick word about Roman. If you were to guess on average how many days people in the U.S. have to wait to see a doctor, what would you say a week maybe actually on average? People have to wait nearly a month to see a doctor in major U.S. cities. If you're dealing

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struggling with ED, go to getRoman.com and use my promo code for get roman.com. It's Sheean, S-H-E-E-H-A-N, and you'll get a free online visit and free two-day shipping. That's get-Roman.com promo code Sheehan for a free online visit and free two-day shipping. All right, we'll get to Alex Smith and what Ron Rivera said just a little while ago about Alex Smith here in a moment. I also want to get to something that Ron Rivera told Ben Standing of the athletic in an interview that he had with him. yesterday. But you wanted to ask me a question that had nothing to do with either one of those two things. What was it? Right. And it popped into my head from, you know, listening to the read that you just did for the podcast. On ED? Yes. Yes. It popped into my head.

It just popped right into your head? Yes, it did, so to speak. Or did your head pop on that news? That was ridiculous. I'm not interested either. When you go to the doctor, do you see a doctor? When I go to the doctor, do I see a doctor? I did yesterday. I went to the dermatologist. I saw Dr. Jaffe over there in Bethesda. He's a big fan of the podcast.

So that's probably only because that's the only reason he probably sees you. Why? Otherwise, you'd be seeing what has been called a physician's assistant now. This is who we see most of the time when you go for a doctor's visit. You don't really see the doctor's visit. Are you saying because of the pandemic? No, no, no, no, no. It's a change in the medical industry where you have people now who are designated at almost a doctor, but not quite.

That hasn't happened with me. You sure, you pay attention from now on when you go to a doctor. And just see who is seeing you, you know, if it's a real doctor, or are physicians because I don't always tell you. You know, they don't always tell you. But this is a phenomenon and it's part of it is, I know, I get to

hold down costs to cheap out, however you want to call it. But this is a change from years ago. There were nurses and there were doctors before. Now there's nurses, physicians, assistants, and then doctors. Do you go?

Do you go? Do you go? don't go to medical school. I mean, they have training, and they make a pretty good buck. It's a pretty lucrative job, but they're not doctors. But they act like doctors,

and they treat you like doctors. Well, do you have a problem with it? Well, I have questions about it. I just wonder how safe it is. I've never had an issue with it, per se, but the fact is, If you took your car to get fixed by a mechanic and the guy fixing it is almost a mechanic, that would kind of bother you a little bit.

Well, it would bother me much more if they were working on my body instead of my vehicle. But I am curious, I am curious if the person that stuck the needle into your eye a couple of weeks ago was an assistant or the actual ophthalmologist. That was the doctor. Okay. That was the, that was, he's a pretty hands-on guy. That was him. But, but, uh, but for the most part, uh, a lot of times I see physicians assistance now. Do you go mostly to in-network doctors based on your insurance policy, like all in-network? So you don't even really know who you're going to. You don't have a consistent person you go to or not? No, I have a consistent doctor. I mean, I have a pretty, I have very good medical coverage besides Medicare, which I have, I have a,

now, Kevin. I'm a Medicare recipient. Yes, I do. How old do you think I am? Well, but I, you know, it's funny because I think I was having this, oh, I'll tell you why I was having this conversation the other day with my father-in-law. I went to pick up a prescription for my mother who broke her hip recently and needed a prescription. I think I told you about that. And do you know how much the prescription was when I got to the pharmacy? $0.69. $0.69. I knew it was something like that. I've never seen, I've seen the co-pays of $3 or $5 or $10. I've never seen $69.

So anyway, I dropped it off and I was having a conversation with my father-in-law that night, and I told him, and he's like, well, I've never heard of 69 cents. I've heard of a couple of bucks here and there. And then he started to tell me about, you know, Medicare benefits. And he said, they're unbelievable. He said, your mother, me, I mean, we're getting incredible benefits from Medicaid. and pay hardly anything for prescription drugs. Yeah, it's a pretty good deal.

Now, it doesn't cover everything, as you know from all the commercials you see on TV about Medicare supplement plan. You have to have a backup net to basically cover the stuff that Medicare doesn't cover. And since Liz was a federal employee, we still have that, even though she's retired. So we have a very good medical news. insurance in addition to Medicare. So I see regular doctors. I don't just have to go to

whoever my insurance company. Why are we doing this? Why are we talking about this? Because I think that the whole physician's assistant movement is a bit troubling. And I think it needs to be examined because you're not seeing a doctor. Sounds like a column for East

Strausberg to get after. I'm trying, honestly, I can't, I'm sure I have seen a physician's assistant at some point. I just can't remember seeing one recently, but I'm sure I have. When I went in to see the, they're not doctors. When I went in to see the dermatologist yesterday, there was an assistant. I have no idea if she's a dermatologist or a physician's assistant. She was a part of the examination. And by the way, she had the same

She had the same birthday as me. But anyway, can we talk about things that our audience here more likely than not is more interested in than physician's assistant discussion? Listen, our audience cares about me. No, that's way too presumptuous. They don't mind some of this. Let's get to Alex Smith as the starting quarterback for the Washington resident. So this morning on the, uh, a.

the press conference that Ron Rivera, or the Zoom conference call that Ron Rivera held with local reporters. He did say that Alex Smith did not pass the football physical. They put him on the physically unable to perform list, the pup list, and he said that they want to see more football movement, football types of movement before they can clear him. Said the same thing about Ruben Foster as well. But I did, you know, it was sort of unclear yesterday as to whether or not he had cleared that he had passed it or didn't. They just put him on the pup list. It's funny, Tommy, because the insurance policy that the Redskins took out, which, you know, isn't that unusual anymore on a high-priced big contract quarterback in particular.

they took out a policy that has a benefit of, I think, between $10 and $12 million if there's a catastrophic career-ending injury. But the thing that triggers it is not passing a physical before the physical that he had to take yesterday. And he didn't pass it. Now, they didn't say retire or cut him. They put him on the Pupp list to give him more time. But I don't know. I don't think that Alex Smith is ever going to take a snap again. I guess he did say this morning about Alex Smith that if he does pass a physical down the road,

then, quote, he becomes part of the equation, closed quote. He said that on the conference call or the Zoom call this morning. I just don't see it. I don't think Alex Smith ever takes a snap on an NFL field unless it's a ceremonial one, which I don't need to see. Okay. I don't think he's going to be able to play. And I mean, my own personal view is if you care about Alex Smith,

you know, hopefully he just, you know, take those home and spends time with his family and doesn't put himself at risk. Right. Again, on a football field after what we saw. But my point, which I made on Twitter the other night, and people, you know, Washington football team fans seem to have a hard time to come to grips with it, is if he jumps through all the hoops, passes all the gates, and is on that football field practicing alongside Dwayne Haskins and Kyle Allen, Alex Smith is your starting quarterback.

Oh, come on. Of course he is. Come on. You can't know football and not realize that. I know football. In what planet? In what planet? It's the owner's planet.

Dwayne has. Who's good buddies with the owner? I'm saying that it could be, and I don't want this, I don't want it to manifest itself in this way, but it could be, look, Alex is getting healthier. This is so good for him. He's a great presence in the locker room, and he can go through practice.

and he'll be great for Dwayne, but I don't think, and I could see the owner making the case for that, and Ron going in on it, because, but look, having Alex Smith around is not a bad thing in terms of, you know, his experience, his mentorship. He's not starting a game if he's there practicing. You're not getting it. You're not getting it.

Do you really think that Dwayne Haskins can beat out Alex Smith in a competition, if everything's equal. Yes. Oh, come on. Based on what? Based on what does Dwayne Haskins does. Explain to me all things being equal. In other words, Alex Smith is healthy.

100% healthy. He can play. Yeah. Dwayne Haskins. He can play. How can he possibly lose a job to Dwayne Haskins? That's absurd. No, it's.

I love when you get this one. No, it's not absurd. Alex Smith is going to be 37 years old. He can't be equally healthy. No, let me ask you a question. One more time, answer it honestly. Everything equal. Wayne Haskins beats out Alex Smith?

Yes. Well, that's ridiculous. Why? I mean, because you're baseman on a pipe stream. What does Wayne Haskins show you? to indicate that he can beat out a 13-year NFL veteran. What did Alex Smith show you in 2018 that convinces you he could beat out anybody? Playing in a bad offense, playing in the wrong offense for a coach who he still went six and three.

He still went six and three. I know. He wasn't very good, though. No, he wasn't. But you know what? What did Wayne Haskins do at you? What planet are you on to think that this guy, what is he done? What is he done?

Well, I'll tell you what he did. In his eight starts, it was eight, right? It ended up being eight last year. Thank God we saw him, by the way. He proved to me several things. He proved to me, number one. He's competitive as hell. He's much more mobile than I ever thought he was.

He has great timing and can throw the ball with anticipation, which is innate. It's harder to teach. He is very good feel in the pocket. He plays with a level of urgency. He played well with the game on the line. And in his final game and a half, he threw for 394 yards, four touchdowns, no picks with a 75% completion percentage, and got sacked the fewest number of times in all of his starts. So the arrow was clearly pointing upwards towards the end there.

And by the way, and I'm not buying into all this stuff. I want to see it on the field. But he appears to be based on all of the pictures he tweets out of himself and videos he tweets out of himself to be in phenomenal condition. And the future of this organization is Dwayne Haskins, Jr. And Dwayne Haskins and this football team this year, the Washington football team, isn't going to the Super Bowl. And it's a critical year for them to determine whether or not he's the guy or not. He wins the job, beats out everybody that beats out everybody that he faces.

And we never see Alex Smith on the field taking a snap for the Redskins unless Dan Snyder forces some sort of ceremonial, you know, kneel-down play at the end of a game. game. He wins the job based on he's the future. No, he went, no. Well, did you miss the first, you know, two minutes of what I said? Yeah, I know, I just caught the last ridiculous. Well, listen to the first part, because the first part is the, I've listened, Kevin, I've listened to the first part. Well, you, but you just focused on the last part as if it was the only thing I said. I see it and hear it on the Haskins network all the time. What are you talking? Who? Who's got the Haskins Network? Oh, you know who has the Haskins Network.

I don't actually. Who are you? Oh, come on. Okay. Are you referring to NBC Sports Washington again? I believe I am. Okay. I, you know this going back to last year.

I like him so much more than I thought I was going to like him. As a player, as a competitor, as a guy that appears to be very coachable, I don't, I absolutely believe he could beat a 36-year-old veteran quarterback out, given everything and all of the context around it. Yes, I do. Oh, that's ridiculous. Why? How can you claim to know?

How do you know? What makes you think Alex Smith can beat out Dwayne Haskins at 36 years old? Based on what? Because Alex Smith knows how to play in the NFL. Uh-huh. He knows how to find receivers. Oh, really? At 36, you think he's going to be finding all those receivers that he found when he was 33, 32, 31.

Did he look? You just admitted he wasn't very good when he was healthy. I think he's going to find more than a kid who barely got his feet wet. He's got less talent around him than he did in 2018 this coming season. And that's why the kid with no experience is not going to wind up winning that job if everything is. That's why the kid without all the experience, but with some mobility and fight and health, is going to win it out because look at what he did in those final, you know, couple of games. He actually carried that team for the last game and a half.

Kevin, that's the head of a pen. Yeah, it's not a lot of data. No, it's not. But it's not stopping you from not seeing the big picture. Well, it's such a ridiculous picture anyway that you're painting because he's not going to be fully. healthy. And all things are not going to be equal from a health standpoint. Okay. Well, that's different then. That's different. Well, I know it's different. It's also reality, more than the reality you're trying to paint so you can tell everybody how dumb they are

for thinking that Dwayne Askins would beat out Alex Smith if the 36-year-old came back and had a healthy leg after what we saw in that Project 11 where he had no leg left. I mean, that flesh-eating virus was going through that leg, like a warm knife through butter. It was terrible. It was grotesque. I know that. I know all that. My point is that if he can play, he's the starting quarterback next year.

Remember where you heard it. Okay. And just remember where you heard this. He's not going to be able to play. I believe I say that too. Okay. He's not going to be able to play. So this was a waste of a conversation because we both think he's never going to be able to play.

going to be in position to play anymore. It wasn't a waste of a conversation because he's been cleared. He's passed through one set of hurdles. He did not pass the team physical yesterday. No, he did not. Yeah, that's the physical that matters. Right. Here's the other thing real quickly.

On Alex Smith, this is not the organization to put him back out on a football field, Tommy. The organization of bad medical, bad training, bad everything when it's comes to health in recent years. I'm not talking right or wrong. Can you imagine that if he beat all odds and passed a team physical and was out there looking like, you know, Kansas City Chiefs 2017 Alex Smith, and they were in McLaurin was a star, and he knew the offense better than anybody else. And Rivera said, oh, my God, Haskins, he's a disaster. Kyle Allen's no good. This is our best chance to win. Even if happened. Can you imagine just the cringe worthiness to that first time he drops back in his

pressured? Of course. It would be horrible. And nobody needs to see that in this organization. If that's going to happen, it should happen somewhere else. Think about it. Think about how, I mean, could they overcome that if they were the ones to put him on the field and he were to get his leg crushed again and this time have it amputated? Or worse? How do they survive that? Well, that was the Washington Redskins. This is the Washington football team.

Yeah. This is a new era. This is the Ron Rivera era. Get on board, baby. I wouldn't call myself part of the Haskins Network. And I don't even know if I believe that that's true about NBC Sports Washington. But anyway, I am. very optimistic about Dwayne Haskins. You know I am. I was last year. There's a lot about the way

he played last year that I was like, wow, that was impressive. There's a lot here that I think has a chance to flower into something really, really good. And the only, right now, see, here's the thing about Ron Rivera. There's no risk for Rivera starting Haskins this year to see what you've got in Haskins. He's not going to be blamed for Haskins if Haskins doesn't work out. And he's got to get to that answer on Haskins sooner rather than later. And this team isn't going to contend for anything

in this upcoming season if there is one. Although who knows, maybe they'll get to play every single team that has 12 guys on COVID-19 sit-down each week. But I just don't see any chance that anybody other than Dwayne Haskins, if he's healthy, starts game. for the Redskins this year, for the Washington football team this year?

Okay. Let's say, I mean, you know, I mean, you just, you don't take into account different scenarios that could take place. If Alex Smith is healthy and it's good, and like I anticipate, is clearly better than Dwayne Haskins, in the limited amount of training camp that you're going to have available, which will also hold Haskins back. How are you going to say to those players who play on that team, we're going with the guy who didn't win the top?

You just painted a completely different picture than the one you presented to me before, because you said he clearly beats him out. You didn't say that before. You said all things being equal. Of course he's going to beat him out. Well, that's your opinion. That's your opinion. You know I was not very impressed with Alex Smith's 2018, nine and a half games played.

Now, I've always liked Alex Smith, and I didn't hate the trade. I hated the contract extension, but I didn't hate the trade. And I always thought that Alex Smith was, you know, a serviceable mid-range starter in the NFL, knew that he had to have a running game, knew that he had to have weapons around him. He was not a carry the team on his back kind of guy and wasn't that in Kansas City. But I just was, I saw a guy that just wasn't very good or dynamic in 2018. That could have been a lot of Jay Gruden's fault. I'll concede that.

And he's worked with Norv before. So maybe Scott Turner. But again, what are we talking about here? He's not going to play football. And he shouldn't play football. All right, I want to get to this. Probably should. This is the thing that I really wanted to get to.

And I'm going to read through this because I'm assuming that you haven't read Ben Standig's interview with Ron Rivera from yesterday, right? I'm assuming that. Is that true? Why would you assume that? Because I don't even know if you're a subscriber to the athletic. I am. You are? So did you read Ben's interview with Ron?

I don't understand why you would you assume that. You know what happens when you assume, don't you? I do. But, you know, more times than not when I assume, I don't make an ass out of either one of us, and I'm actually right, especially when it requires a subscription fee from you. So you are a subscriber to the athletic? Yes. That's a surprise.

Okay, so. It's tax deductible. Why wouldn't I? That's true. It is tax deductible for your line of work. Yes, it is. I want to read this question and then the answer, because there was. was a lot here that really made me feel even better about Ron Rivera, and I've already felt

pretty good about him already. And I know that this is something that you're going to push back on to a certain degree, but let me read it quickly, as quickly as I can. Basically, the question, and I'll shorten the question, was a question that basically asked Ron Rivera, do you have any regrets about taking this job? Which I think we've all described. in recent weeks. Oh my God. Can you imagine like if he had a legitimate shot at the giant job, he and his wife saying, good God, how did we take this one? Well, here was his answer. He said, because this is where I want to be. I said that in my first press conference. I'll be honest with you. Maybe it's my own ego. But I really felt that this is an organization that needed somebody to come in

and lead. And I felt like I could do that. I could come in and lead this organization. And that's why I'm because I really do believe that. The second part of his answer, I like the young players. One of the things that really caught my attention, you guys heard me say this too when you look at the depth chart board, look at the guys when you go down that depth chart, that especially with the young defensive line, I like the players. I'm going to shorten this up because it was a nine-minute answer

that he gave to Ben. Ben estimated it to be nine minutes. So he talks about the roster, and he said, it reminds me very much of when I first got to Carolina. It's young, but there's some veterans, and I thought this was where I wanted to be. Then he said and referred to the team's history. He said, what happened this year, I've looked at it as it's just a part of what I'm doing, and one thing I'll always try to be true to is what I believe.

Believe me, I've made mistakes. I've learned from those mistakes as a person, as a coach, as a husband, as a father. And when I make mistakes, I try to correct them. I try not to repeat them. There's a challenge here, and I really think that there's an opportunity to have success here. That's why I'm here. And also, one thing that excites me, this is an original franchise. It started in 1932, and then he goes through a list of players, Sunny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer,

and Chris Hamburger was one of his favorites. He said Charlie Taylor's dad was in the military with his dad. So he goes, I understand the legacy, and I played at old RFK Stadium and felt the energy. So that's one of the things that draws me to this because I would love to see this happen here. I just think that there's so much possibility and promise. Then this next section, again, in answering the question, do you have any regrets about taking this job? This is a part, Tommy, that's really interesting. He said, Ben, it's guys like you and other local reporters that could help us.

Write all the bad articles now. Get all the past out of the way. But as we start going forward, write about where we are and where we're going. Help push us forward. That's my message. I'm trying to tell everybody. I get it. There are some things that were totally effed up.

And he says, okay, but let's stop telling everybody that everything's effed up and start saying to everybody, hey, look, look at what they're trying to do. Look at how they're trying to fix it. First and foremost, Mr. Snyder, Mr. Snyder knew he had a problem. And he made a decision in October, which was firing Jay Gruden, and then started researching what he had to do. And then I'll paraphrase the rest of it. He gets into the whole coach-centric thing that Dan had researched, and he came to the conclusion that he wanted to have a coach-centric system. And he said, like I said, starting in October, Dan made that initial move and then researched it. I talked to him, and I said, all right, we're going to do this.

We're going to work here. and everything about the way he pitched it to me basically made sense. And here are the last two sections of it. I got a letter from somebody that doesn't know me that said, you took this job for the money. And I would say bullshit to that. You don't know me. How can you write that and say that?

I get it. People have an opinion, but don't come at me if you don't know me because I really wanted the money. You don't think I would have pitted the Giants, Cleveland, Washington, and Dallas all against us. each other? No, I was enthusiastic about this job from the beginning and this is where I am. This is where I think everybody needs to understand. I didn't come here for the money. I made a lot of money

in Carolina. I could have sat out the year. I could have collected a very good paycheck, played a lot of golf and got my handicap down. I just look at it this way and think to myself, this is an opportunity and that not too many things are going to dampen my spirit about this. I know it's going to be hard, believe me, it's not all roses, it hasn't been all roses. There's been a lot of thorns, but that's a part of it. To get to the roses, you've got to go up on the stem, you've got to get past the thorns. So that's what I'm going to do. The biggest thing I tell everybody is to understand it's about culture, trying to build and develop a sustainable winning culture. I will do the best I can, and hopefully in three, four, or five years, because that's how long the military says it takes to

change a culture. If I have time to do it, I believe, believe me, I'm going to do everything I can to do it. I just like where I am. Now, there are parts I, you know, shortened there. But going back to the beginning, he says, I know it's my own ego, but I felt this was an organization that needed somebody to come in and lead it. And I felt like I could do that, that I could come in and lead this organization. You know, he's talked about culture, Tommy. He's, since the very beginning. I believe his answer that he doesn't have regrets

because I think even though it's gotten worse since he got here, and much of it was unpredictable like the pandemic. I think he looked at this with his understanding of what it's been, that it needed a big culture change,

what it was historically, and he looked at it like, you know, here's the Charlie Brown tree. I can give it some love, and caring, and I can be the person that turns this thing around. I think part of that is in play here. I believed him. What did you make of his answer? There's more to it I want to get to, but I want you to give your thoughts on what he said to Ben. Okay, stick with me here for a minute. Okay. He doesn't have any regret.

Isn't that a bit alarming to you about his intelligence level? No. Come on. That's funny. A smart guy would go home every night to his wife and say, what the F did we get ourselves into? A smart guy would say that. But can't, let me interrupt for one sec. Let me interrupt for one sec.

Let me interrupt for one sec. I think if he were presented with this opportunity today versus, say, the giants, after the sexual harassment stuff, after the name change, after all of that, I don't know that he would take this gig. But I think he took the gig and he's sticking with the gig because he saw the opportunity to take something that used to be great that he remembers because he's a league lifer and he understands how fucked up it is and how fucked up it's been. And that he as a guy that has a ton of respect and a lot of discipline

and understands how to fix things, he looked at this as, I can fix the Redskins or the Washington football team. Okay. First of all, I'm sure when he looked at things and saw how fucked up they were, they weren't as fucked up then as they are now. Okay? And he hasn't even coached a play yet for this team. An intelligent person would have to have regret.

And I think he's a smart guy, so I think he's just telling a party line there, and I don't believe a word about that. I think if he could turn back the hands of time, he wouldn't be the coach of the Washington Redskins. The Washington football team. The Washington football team. Excuse me. Okay, so you said stick with me. Is that all you got? That's all I need.

That's all I need. I mean, how smart. I mean, if he's a smart guy, he's lying. Does nobody with any intelligence It's going to sit there and say Yeah, I'm glad I'm here This is great This is just what I want

Pile it on Pile more on me I love it You know what's interesting And you're going to push back I think on this I think most people Spend a lot of time looking back

And regretting and oh God Why did I make that decision But I think there are certain people And I think competitive professional athletes would fit into this group that don't look back a lot and just look forward. And he made the decision, and he made the decision for the reasons that I described. I think he saw this as an opportunity. And let me also say that I don't want to minimize what Mike Silver, remember, wrote in the day that he spent with him the weekend before he took the Skins job, that he liked this roster.

He didn't write it. He told me this on the year Silver did, that he really liked the roster and saw an opportunity. with good coaching on defense in particular to turn it around, especially given that they had the number two pick in the draft. I think also the conversations with Joe Gibbs were probably very helpful and influential. But I don't, I believe him because I think that he is cut from that mold of what's done is done. Now it's about solutions. Now it's about, you know, moving forward and getting through this and proving why I was the

guy to be the guy here to finally be the person that fixes all this mess. But that's not regret. Kevin, that's not the issue. Regret is, again, turning back the clock. Yeah. I don't think people like him turn back the clock. But if you could. I think you and I do, I don't think he does.

Look, I don't. I do not live my life with regret. But ignoring history is foolish and stupid when it comes. a decision making. And I'm sorry, but any intelligent person, if you could go back in time seeing what you've seen, you're not going to work. But I think you could make the case that, because you think he is intelligent and therefore you think he's being disingenuous here and that he does have regrets. But if he were really that intelligent based on the way you feel, he would have never taken the job in the first

place. Well, look, I mean, there have been other guys who have been other guys who have take, because a lot of, this is where it comes to play, this athletic mindset that you're talking about, this competitive mindset. There are guys out there who think, well, if I get my hands on it, I can change things. There are guys who are convinced of that, no matter how bad a situation is, because their ego demanded. They think, well, once I put my stamp on that organization, I can change it, you know, ignoring the aura of self-destruction. that has engulfed the franchise for more than 20 years now. It's not very smart, though.

No, it's not, that's not very smart. That's competitive ego. That is competitive ego getting in the way. A lot of athletes think like that, or else they couldn't compete. If as an athlete, you couldn't put failure behind you or explain failure, your competitive juices would be drained from you. Of course, you can't live in your failures. If you're a competitive athlete in this case,

you have to be able to explain them or forget about them or rationalize them. But that's not the same thing as intelligence. So, all right, I mean, the bottom line is in reading through that answer, and I talked to Ben this morning, I had him on the show, and he said he was really passionate, you know, It was a Zoom interview that he did with him, that I think they got the right guy. I don't know that it'll work. I would still bet against it, but that's because the number one risk factor is the owner.

And that's going to be the risk factor for this organization forever, as long as Dan Snyder owns the team. But I do believe that he thinks he's the right guy for this situation. and that, you know, what we do know about him, we do know this. We know he's very well respected among coaches and players in this league. I mean, the over-the-top compliments that he got from players who aren't even going to play for him, you know, here, and his former players and other coaches around the league. And my general feeling about him before they even hired him, which is I always felt he was a very good coach,

maybe a bit underrated, and I love the way his teams, I thought, overachieved, you know, over-delivered. you know, on what they were. And I also like that he doesn't seem to be coming in here naively. His eyes are wide open. He said and talked about a culture change long before the name and the post story came out. And long before COVID-19 started, this was something where he walked into understanding how FD up it is. So he understood, and how many times have we heard him talk about that military line, the three, four, five years, which by the way brings me to this. And that is the last, you know, few lines of this answer to Ben Standing.

What he says, again, the biggest thing I tell everybody is to understand about the culture, trying to build and develop a sustainable winning culture. I will do the best I can. And hopefully, in three, four, or five years, because that's how long. the military says it takes to change a culture. And then this line, Tommy. So if I have the time to do it, believe me, I am doing everything I can to do it. I just like where I am. I think that's another self-aware of I'm telling the owner here it's three, four, five years in that there's a major culture change. Give me the time to do it. I don't know if he will or not. I actually believe a of what you've said about, he better do something quickly.

Like, he better show improvement quickly. Because the lack of self-awareness, the hubris, the arrogance, all of that will then, you know, basically rear its ugly head again if he doesn't get results. But I like Ron McHerra. I like them, too. I think the whole military culture thing is a bit overblown. Maybe, maybe. I hear you on that.

I hear you on that. You know? I think what he's saying is it's going to take a long time. This culture is really effed up. Yeah. And I think, I think, like he brought up, which I brought up a long time ago when he first got hired, he needs to have, it's like a Joe Torrey George Steinbrenner situation. And Torrey got the upper hand on Steinbrenner early because he won right away

and became an icon and the guy responsible for winning right away and became more powerful than the owner in that situation. That'll go a long way through helping Ron Rivera if somehow he can win early. And he may be thinking that when he's looking at his three quarterbacks working out in his training camp and saying, wow, I got a chance to win a lot more games with Alex Smith than I do with the kid who's barely played in the NFL.

There would be no bigger indictment. on Dwayne Haskins than Alex Smith on one leg winning the job. One last thought on this, because he talks about culture and building and developing a sustainable winning culture. I've mentioned this many times before in the past, but it makes me happy and encourage that I hear it from him as well. One winning season does not make a good franchise because the league is designed for every bad team and bad franchise and bad owner to have an occasional good season. The best franchises develop and sustain a winning culture over a long period of time. And that's always the goal, but it's never been attainable in the Dan Snyder era.

And it may not this time. I would bet that it isn't, even though I really like Ron Rivera. and I'm really hopeful. The other last thought on this is, you know what we still don't know anything about when it comes to Rivera in Washington? Is anything about his contract? I haven't seen anything reported on his contract. Have you? Not really, no. Isn't that strange?

Yeah, it is. It is strange. It's very unusual. I mean, we don't even think we, I think we know that it's a five-year deal that he got, but we don't know anything about the, money, you know, we've always suggested that if you're going to take a job in Washington, you have to get some level of contractual authority to run the football operation or, you know, to coach your team without interference. But we don't know anything about the money.

I mean, you know, if we found out that it was a John Gruden kind of contract, we might feel differently about whether or not it's for the money or not. But anyway. Yeah, we might. Now, one last thing for me about, you know, Coach Rivera and so far his reign as Redskins coach, one of the first jobs, one of the first things he did was hired Jack Del Rio at defensive coordinator. How's that turning out so far? The lunatic defensive coordinator, the crazy man on social media.

I didn't see this until you told me about it before the show. didn't see it this morning. Go ahead and tell everybody what you're referring to. I mean, we know what happened a few weeks ago. He's made his politics very clear on Twitter. He's, you know, and by the way, the First Amendment allows you that, even though it doesn't seem like it in days like we've had here over the last couple of months, but, or people seem to be trying to quell First Amendment free speech. But go ahead and tell everybody what he tweeted out last night or yesterday or whatever. Well, you had this doctor that was posted on social media, some kind of voodoo doctor,

who basically talked about the benefits of what's the drugs? Hydroxychloroquine. Hydroxychlorine. And I've used it on hundreds of her patients, you know, as a cure for the treatment, and effective treatment for COVID. And that's very disputed at this point. So much disputed that Twitter. took the video down, took it off off off of social media.

And Jack Del Rio tweeted, if this video was taken down, then shame on those seeking to make a large profit rather than treat Americans. The doctor clearly explains the benefits of the drug and has used it on hundreds of her patients, getting exposed and you know it. What is the defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins do in this course? I don't know. But you didn't really... You know, whether he believes her or not. You just referred to her as a voodoo doctor. I mean, this is some woman from...

Where does she practice whatever she practices? I read something briefly about her essentially believing in alien DNA, demon sperm, and other crazy, you know, I guess potions to make people better. I don't know enough about her. She's a doctor in Nigeria, or was it somewhere else? Was it Ghana? I don't know. Or where was it?

Anyway. I don't know. Look, the bigger issue here is that, you know, when you are new to a place and you have a diverse group of people that will be reporting to you. and you're in a climate like the one that we're in right now, and you're an adult. I don't know why you're spending so much time on social media. I don't know why you're making your politics known on social media. I don't know why you continue to get duped by fake tweets on social media

and seem to be completely unmoved by it. Let's, I mean, I'm not suggesting he can't multitasked. and that he doesn't have the right to express the way he believes. I firmly believe in that. I just don't think it's very bright. I understand he's a guy that's established. He's not an up-and-comer that he has some stature in the league as a former head coach and a successful defensive coordinator in mind in this league.

I don't know. You get to a new place, especially when that new place is as toxic as this place. You're trying to change a culture. And in just a few days, you're going to have a lot of young players who, you know, have a lot of different beliefs in a very much volatile time politically. I just don't know why you'd go down this path. Where's the game for you unless your goal here is not to be the best defensive coordinator and leader of a football team, but potentially to have some sort of active. role in your life when you're done with football. I don't get it. I don't think it's very bright.

Is that a conversation that the head coach should have with his defensive coordinator? I thought there would be a conversation the last time. You know, remember, his politics line up completely with the owners and maybe line up completely with Ron Rivera's. But Ron Rivera's, I don't know what his politics are. I would bet that he probably leans a little bit more conservatively. But that's a total guess, but he's smart enough to understand what his constituency is, which is a bunch of young players who have a lot of different beliefs, although in an NFL locker room, probably the majority are very much a liberal leaning. I mean, he talked about yesterday he's not going to kneel during the national anthem.

He's going to kneel during the coin toss because he really believes in the military, but he's totally supportive of players who will kneel during the National Anthem and supportive of their First Amendment rights, which, by the way, Jack Del Rio, when he was a coach in Oakland, did come around, had to be convinced of it being something that he would go along with with his players kneeling during the National Anthem. I don't know. I thought when he made those stupid comments and got duped by the AOC tweet

and was liking tweets, from, you know, super conservatives, both black and white, on Twitter. I thought he might get a talking to then, but clearly he didn't. Or if he did, he didn't care. You know, not a good sign for the new era of the culture change of Ron Rivera. Well, again, I don't, you know, I don't have a problem with him, you know, speaking his truth or what he believes in, I just think in his particular situation, new place, toxic situation to begin with, unbelievable climate that we're in right now as a country,

as a world, that, you know, if he really was dialed in on football, that he'd just lay low and save all of this stuff for another time. the only thing on his radar should be what's the best thing for the football team? Right. It's not this. I mean, you don't think that if things don't go well that at some point somebody in that locker room isn't going to say, well, he's a Trump supporter. He's a racist, which, by the way, is the default for a lot of people when discussing people who either supported Trump in 16 or going to support. him in 2020. You know, and this guy's made it very clear what his politics are, and they are going to be

at odds with much of his locker room. I just don't know why you would do that, and why in a new place, you know, without these people even knowing who you are and even having had one live conversation with you, if this is the first impression you would want them to have of you. It just doesn't seem very smart. Again, I'm not, I don't have a problem with, you know, his beliefs or him wanting to speak out on his beliefs. I just don't think that the timing makes very much sense.

But what do I know? That's just me. What else? That's all I got, boss. That's all I got, too. We're done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow. I think I'll have a guest tomorrow.

I'm not sure who it'll be. I've got a couple of possibilities, and then Tommy will be back with me on Thursday. All right, have a good day.