The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rivera's Fate Up To Snyder

Episode Date: December 31, 2019

Kevin opened with the news that Ron Rivera will be the new Redskins coach. He likes Rivera a lot but also believes that if the team is owned the same way it has been owned for 21 years, Rivera's fate is already sealed. Kevin talked Cowboys, Eric Shaffer, Jack Del Rio, and had three Jan 1 Smell Test picks. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Crazy day. We're recording this podcast a little bit later today. It's not going to be a long one. Corbyn's in for Aaron. We are going to take tomorrow off, potentially Thursday off as well, and be back on Friday, depending on all the news. What we do know here this morning is we're getting started. And I waited to get started this morning because I wanted to get all. the news in that continues to break throughout the morning. But what we know for sure, according to solid reporting from Mike Silver, who's been all over the Redskins story, Ian Rappaport, Jason Lachenfora, and now all of the Redskins beat reporter sources is that Ron Rivera is in, officially. You know, it didn't happen yesterday. It didn't happen last night. But it happened this morning. The reports are from Ian Rappaport in particular that it's going to be a five, year deal. Ron Rivera, the new head coach in Washington, and I'm happy about that. I really am.

There's something that I want to get to, and I'm going to spend a little bit of time here on the show talking about in a moment about the reaction yesterday to Bruce Allen being fired. But I will start with Ron Rivera. If you've been listening to the podcast, if you've been listening to the radio show over the years, you know that I've been a Ron Rivera fan. I just like the way his teams play. I've always liked the way Ron Rivera's teams play. I think they're smart. I think they're tough. I think he's an excellent defensive coordinator. And what's really interesting, too, some of the news that came out actually after the radio show this morning is that Jack Del Rio is the target defensive coordinator for Ron Rivera, not Steve Wilkes.

So there was some reporting that Steve Wilkes would be a lock to be the defensive coordinator. The reporting from Adam Schaefter just moments ago here, morning is that Jack Del Rio will be the defensive coordinator target for Ron Rivera. Sorry, I'm sitting here doing the show, also looking at Twitter as stories continue to break all morning long. So that's why I'm going to keep the podcast short and be able to come back, you know, on Thursday or Friday and recap everything that's done because so much of this is going to change. So we're going to stick with what we know, and that is Ron Rivera looks like he's going to be the head coach.

There's been no formal announcement from the team. I texted back and forth with the team this morning to see if there would be a press conference scheduled for today. They didn't even confirm the Ron Rivera thing, but I feel pretty good that Adam Schaefter, Ian Rappaport, Mike Silver, J.P.P. John Kime, you know, all have it right about Ron Rivera being the next head coach. And really what's interesting about the whole coaching situation here is, that there aren't a lot of openings, and one of those openings is his former team. So if he doesn't come here, where's he going to go at this point? Actually, just as a quick aside, how about the fact that as of right now, okay, Tuesday morning, December 31st, Jason Garrett hasn't been fired,

and he's got a second meeting today scheduled with the Jones brothers, with Stephen and with Jerry, or Jones and his son. Excuse me, Stephen. Schefter just reported 30 minutes ago, Cowboys and Jason Garrett are scheduled to meet at noon today per source. Resolution likely, but not definite. Expectation continues to be that Garrett and Dallas will part ways, but the Cowboys are run as a family. Garrett has been part of that family, and it's hard to part ways. All of that's really, really interesting stuff in Dallas. but that's not what we care about. You know what?

It would be so awesome if Jason Garrett's back. And you get one of those Jerry press conferences, you know, like he holds after each game, you know, where he holds court with all the reporters. Well, Jason's family here. And we, you know, we had some injuries and we had some bad breaks, but we still believe in Jason. I mean, when you think about Jerry Jones here for a minute, I'm going to take another 30 seconds on the Cowboys. Who the hell cares what Jerry Jones thinks?

Who the hell cares about the Cowboys? Why do the Cowboys get so much run? They have exactly two playoff wins in the last like 20 years. They are so irrelevant when it comes to contending playoff teams. They've had barely more success in the postseason than the Redskins have had over the years. But anyway, I digress because they have been a better team. And Jerry Jones is a better owner, and they're better in their front office than the Redskins. I can admit that to all of you cowboy fans that are listening to this podcast, and I know that there are many of you. All right, back to the Redskins.

So I'm excited about Ron Rivera. Per DVOA metrics, pro football focus and others, Ron Rivera had a top 10 to top 11 defense in Carolina for every year, but one of the years he coached at Carolina. defensively Carolina in his years as the head coach, but also the lead defensive guy in the organization. That's his strength. He's a defensive head coach. If you didn't know that, I think most of you did. It is first year in 2011. They were 28th ranked overall in yards allowed. I hate that stat, but whatever, 28th overall. Then they went to 10th, second, 10th, 6th. Then in 2016, they were 21st. Then they were 7th and then 15th last year. And then this year obviously has been a very difficult year. They finished 23rd overall, but he has been a consistent

top half of the league, if not top 10 defensive coach. So that is four top 10 finishes as a head coach in Carolina. And again, six out of seven per the DVOA metric, which is a much better overall metric and statistical piece of information on. on defensive performance, he's been in the top 11 for all but one of his seasons at Carolina. Here's what you know at bare minimum. You know you are getting a really good defensive head coach, okay? That's what you know for sure. You also know something else. You know that he's a good man. Did you hear some of the reaction from his former players yesterday? I thought, I think we talked a little bit about it yesterday on the show. And if we didn't, and I'm just remembering,

that from the radio show. Gerald McCoy, who didn't play for Ron Rivera for that long in Carolina, went out of his way yesterday to say the following about Ron Rivera and what Redskins players were going to be getting. He said, quote, Redskins players, one of the greatest things in your career is about to happen, closed quote. Multiple people have commented on Ron Rivera, reportedly becoming the Redskins head coach yesterday, today. It's sort of become official based on the reporting, saying Luke Keekely, that he was a great coach and an even better person. This is a guy who was revered in the community in Charlotte,

was very active in the community in Charlotte, very good as a public relations person in an organization. He's a good man, in addition to being a good coach. His players loved him. What I found very interesting, Josh Norman had great things to say about him, too, is that typically in a situation like that, you will get one disgruntled former player to say something about Ron Rivera when he got fired in early December after they lost to the Redskins or now that he's going to get a new job.

I haven't at this point read or heard anything negative from a former player. Not one thing. I went back and looked at all of the reaction when he got fired in early December, nothing. He is universally respected and loved by his former players and respected in this league. I am ultimately surprised that the Redskins were able to attract somebody like Ron Rivera. They moved quickly. Dan is excellent in a one-on-one sales setting. I've been told that many times by many people over the years. He is certainly not nearly as comfortable in front of a large group.

We know that. He's reclusive when it comes to public. you know, appearances in public speaking. It's not what he is comfortable doing. But I've heard this for years and talked about this for years that one-on-one or in a small group he can sell. And very rarely do you walk away from a small gathering with Dan Snyder leading the pitch, saying anything but impressive things about Dan Snyder. It's always been that way. I'll get to my other sort of thing on Dan Snyder here momentarily. But it's not surprising that he's able to close a deal. Now, I would say definitively that there was no way this would have happened had Bruce Allen still been in the organization. They couldn't attract someone like Ron Rivera with Bruce still here.

Ron Rivera is going to come in, I believe, with some power. I think we're going to hear about that later today, tomorrow, the next few days. I think he's going to have significant decision-making ability. There were reports this morning that he may wait to fill out a front office staff until after the draft. he may want to evaluate all the people that are there. I hope he is coming in with contractual authority to make decisions on everybody in the football operation. Some of you don't want to hear that. Some of you would have preferred the GM get hired and then the GM hire the coach.

I'm not hung up on that. I used to be hung up on that, if you listened to me for a long time. I'm not hung up on that. And look, they do things so ass backwards in Washington anyway. I'm just happy that they were able to attract somebody like him and that Bruce is gone. You know, we still have another problem that's still there, and I'm going to get to that momentarily. But I like Ron Rivera. I'm excited about Ron Rivera as a coach. You know, I think that they will be a better coach team, and I think there will be more discipline in the organization as well,

and it will be more professional in the organization. I'm happy that he's the head coach. I am. I'm not naive as to what he's coming into with respect to the owner that is here. but if you wanted me to sum up my feeling about Ron Rivera's the head coach, I would say I really like the hire. I'm excited to see if he can make the right decisions from a football operation standpoint and coach him up on the field. But I'm also skeptical that it will work because I've got 21 years and nine other coaches is proof that it usually doesn't work. But I'm hopeful. It's funny.

I told the story on radio and I've probably told it. on the podcast before. When Jim Zorn was hired, Bram Weinstein and I were hosting the coverage for the station together out at Redskins Park when they made the announcement, and Jim spoke to the media and answered questions. And, you know, that was the famous where he said, I'm really excited about the maroon and black. And then you heard Dan Snyder say, and yellow. And I was like, whoa, we can't even get the colors right. The owner doesn't even know what the colors are. But I'm sitting there with Bram Weinstein and midway through the press conference for Jim Zorn. He hands me a piece of paper that says 2, 13, and 1 on it.

Like, that's what they're going to be with this guy. 2, 13 and 1. And I laughed and I said, yeah, I'm feeling the same vibe. So I felt differently when Shanahan was hired, obviously. When Gruden was hired, Tommy and I were doing the show together. and I said to Tommy four and 12, and that's the way I felt. It's sort of in the same way that Bram said 213 and 1. I said four and 12 after that press conference.

I was not excited about Jim Zorn. I don't need to wait for the press conference on Rivera. I feel like from day one, they're going to be a better coach team on the field. Again, they were a better coach team with Mike Shanahan and with Joe Gibbs and with Marty Schottenheimer too. And ultimately, it didn't work out with any of them. I mean, Coach Joe, to a certain degree, two playoff seasons and four years back. But that's where I am on Ron Rivera.

Now, the staff, I just hope he comes in with all of the authority to be able to make all of the football decisions, including on the football front office staff. Like, who's going to be the GM, who's going to be the scouting staff, all of that stuff. I want him to have a big voice in this. I mentioned yesterday, I don't want anybody that's been here unless he wants them to be here, because all of the people here have lost. They've all lost. And none of them, if you look at this, have ever been in the front office super sought after

in terms of the guys that are still there by other teams around the league. And that'll lead me to this real quickly. Lots of reporting this morning, started by our own Doc Walker at 980, my good friend, Doc Walker, that Eric Schaefer was out. That got confirmed by a couple of other reporters and then refuted and then confirmed. confirmed again, and right now, as I'm sitting here doing the podcast, I still don't know and have no idea if Eric Schaefer is in or out. Doc reported it, and then he talked to Eric Schaefer, and Eric Schaefer said, no, I'm still here, and then Doc pulled his report back.

Others had confirmed it, and they pulled it back. And then pro football talk said, no, actually, he is out. From what I can gauge in this, is that based on pro football talks tweeting at this point, is that, that Eric Schaefer had told people he was out last night. In fact, Pro Football Talk just tweeted moments ago. The leak was Schaefer himself who told people on Monday that he's out. But apparently he is still in. So there you go.

I have said about Eric Schaefer many times over the last few years. I have always been a little bit surprised as to how all-in-lawful, in on Eric Schaefer are fan bases and even the media members. And I say that not disrespecting of Eric Schaefer because he's been an excellent cap management contract guy, whether he was with Vinny, doing it pretty much all by himself or with Bruce over the last 10 years. He is smart. He's got that expertise.

He does. Now, I've heard recently that he'd love to get more into the football side and be more involved in football decisions, not just cap management and contractual decisions. And what I've said for a couple of years now is I understand what his expertise is. But sometimes as fans and even media members, we get wrapped up into, wow, such and such is so impressive. Well, you know, he's impressive compared to everybody else out there, you know? Like he may really only be a six or a seven, but there are a bunch of twos and threes in the bar late at night around her.

So he looks great by comparison, but he may not be a 10. Because if you were a 10, don't you think at this point after 17 years, you would have heard Eric Schaefer's name just once, just once, associated with a bigger job in a better place? Now, I've said that in recent years, but I'll also concede that maybe he's not interested in going anywhere else. Maybe he loves the area, and his family loves the area, and he doesn't want to move,

and he likes working in this organization. There's always that as a possibility as well. But when somebody is super talented and in the same place for a long period of time, And usually, especially if it's a bad organization that keeps losing, usually you hear better teams trying to pluck that guy, trying to hire that guy. I don't think we've heard a lot of that. And it's not just been Eric, it's been a lot of the guys in the organization in front office over the years. Coaching staff, a lot of people plucked.

Mike Shanahan brought in a pretty impressive staff. You got a lot of former assistant coaches under Shanahan, who are now head coaches in the league. We all know that story. There's a lot of talent on his staff. There's never been killers, super smart, super sharp guys in the front office here. Vinicirado, you know, Morocco Brown's been in different places, you know, and has had opportunities, but it's never, I don't think I could be wrong about Morocco, never, you know, elevated finally to the level of a general manager. You know, am I forgetting somebody?

I could be. I mean, somebody will correct me out there. It's never been, the people that have been here forever have never been sought after. I do know that. There's never been a major market for the people who are still here. Now, Kyle Smith, a lot of people think is a rising star and he's under contract this year. Maybe because he's under contract, we haven't heard a lot about it. But anyway, I know what Eric does well, and I've never disputed that. Eric has, if you think about the first 10 years of Dan and Vinny and overspending and trying to, you know, in throwing, 15%, 20% above retail contract offers out there and then asking Eric to go back and try to work it under the cap. And he was a master at doing that. He was very good at doing that. You know, J.I. Hallsell, who was in the organization,

who's been a guest on the podcast and radio show many times, he's been an agent, he's been in different organizations. You know, he used to tell me Eric was phenomenal at that. I mean, because they'd come back with these offers and we'd all be looking at like, what did you offer, you know, Adam Archiletta or some other, you know, free agent. Why would you offer him that much money? Well, we wanted to get them.

Okay, we got him. Now you got it. Now you guys have to fit it under the cap. And, you know, Eric did it. He was very good at that. So, but I didn't think that he would be given a football general manager title, but he might. He, as of right now, it appears he's still in the organization. It is interesting that he was, according to pro football talk,

his own leak on him leaving the organization. Really interesting stuff. I have no idea how that will play out. It will happen more likely than not after this podcast is over. All right, I'm going to get to something that I thought about after the show yesterday here momentarily, but did you guys, any of you see the tweet put out by all pro analytics? Okay, I don't know who this is. They claim to be a leader of NFL analytics, and they're based in Washington, D.C. They have 1,400 followers on Twitter. I had never heard of them. Doesn't mean that they're not reputable. I just had never heard of them. But they tweeted out last night. Ron Rivera left dinner tonight with Dan Snyder and Obama without a deal finalized. But I'm told the three of them will meet again tomorrow with all

signs pointing towards closing the deal. So I read that. this morning. And actually Al Galdi was talking about it on his show before my show this morning. And I thought to myself, can that really be true? That can't possibly be true. Would Obama, who believes the Redskins name is racist and should change? He has been an absolute supporter of a name change when he was president. Would he be sitting with the owner of that team, of that team with the racist name at dinner trying to woo Ron Rivera? Not to mention that Snyder is a Trump donor and supporter. It just didn't seem to be like a report that I could legitimately believe,

and then it didn't get picked up by anybody else. But then I heard Galdi saying this this morning, and he reminded me, you know, Ron Rivera was a Chicago bear, and the president's a Chicago guy, and maybe, and Ron Rivera is a very socially conscious and involved, you know, head coach as a minority head coach. And I just thought, well, maybe Ron Rivera's friends with the president. Maybe he knows the president. Maybe he asked the president to dinner.

You know, maybe that, now the report where it says Obama is going to meet that all three of them were going to meet again tomorrow, meaning today, I can't imagine that Obama would do two meetings with Snyder and Rivera. I think he's a little bit busier than that. I would hope. But somebody did tweet me, and I didn't follow. up on it and this may be all, I don't believe the story personally. I don't believe it. Somebody did tweet me and say that Obama was in Hawaii. I don't know if that's true either. But anyway, I just thought that that was really interesting to imagine President Obama, Dan Snyder, and Ron Rivera last night at dinner at Snyder's House, which is where I'm pretty sure they had

their meeting last night. I know a lot of people were texting me late yesterday and last night saying she and where would they be having the dinner? Well, they used to do things. things at Morton's in Tyson's, you know, big dinner, big room, the whole thing. But I'm pretty sure last night they were at Snyder's house, almost positive that that's true. Okay, quick word on my bookie.ag. If you're wagering and you want to wager on bowl games and I may or may not have a smell test at the end of this, still trying to figure out, still waiting on some information. but if you want to wager, try my bookie.ag. They're reliable. They've got quality lines. They have many ways to play.

You can rely on them, and they will match your deposit halfway with additional funds. Half of what your deposit is if you use my promo code, Kevin DC. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C at mybooky.ag. I promise you that this is a place that's reliable. That's all you want to know. Is it reliable? Are you going to get paid if you win? Yes. Are they going to have real lines, quality lines, fair lines, point spreads, money lines, etc.? The answer is absolutely yes.

Are you going to have plenty of ways to bet on games? Absolutely yes. All right, straight bets, teasers, parlayes, in-game action, futures, they've got it all. MyBooky.orgie.org. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. So I was thinking yesterday after the show and last night about the reaction yesterday to the news that Bruce Allen had been fired. My reaction, your reaction, the media reaction, lots of reaction. And I thought about it and I thought about it as, wow, there was a lot of celebration yesterday, you know. I myself gave kudos to Dan Snyder for finally getting rid of Dan Snyder for finally getting rid of Dan night, getting rid of Bruce Allen.

Greg, my producer, made a promo out of it. Me, you know, essentially saying, you know, if he had kept Bruce Allen, it would have been a middle finger to the fan base. So kudos to Snyder for doing it. You know, we took him off the hook yesterday. We took the owner off the hook yesterday. If you want to say that I took him off the hook, go ahead. But I think we all did it to a certain degree, or a lot of us did.

There was celebration yesterday. There was joy yesterday. You know, you were thinking, I was thinking the bad man is gone. And he's going to hire a pretty good coach, too. So yesterday was one of those days, like it used to be on a Monday after a big win where you had a pep tear step, where you had some spirit, where you were bouncing around happy. Yesterday felt like that.

I was listening to callers. I was reading Twitter reaction. I was listening to shows. watching shows. It was a glimmer of hope day yesterday. You know, it was a crumb that you finally got, you know, as a hungry person. And you need a lot more of nourishment than what you got yesterday. I would ask you for a moment just to try to be completely objective. Because if you are completely objective, and this is what I thought about last night, about the reaction and like thinking, you know what, a little bit too much, a little bit too gullible, maybe.

Because if you're being objective here, if the owner continues to own the team in the same way he's owned it for 21 years, Ron Rivera is going out the same way they've all gone out before him. You know, the nine coaches under Dan Snyder that have been here, two of them in Tram, all right, Robisky and, of course, Callahan, nine coaches in nine out in 21 years. So nearly one every two years. but really it's seven new hires over it. So seven out of 20, one out of every three years on average. But if he continues to own the team,

the same way he's owned the team for 21 years, Ron Rivera and anyone else that comes in here is going to do the same thing that everybody else has done. And that is go through what a lot of people in the business, media and football business, refer to Washington as a reverse car wash. You come to Washington clean and you leave dirty. Mike Jones told me that several years ago.

He said, you know, a lot of football people, they call Washington the reverse car wash. And I said, really? And he goes, yeah. I mean, when people talk about, hey, you know, if you go to Washington, understand, it's a reverse car wash. You come in clean, you leave dirty. You know, even Coach Joe left, you know, stained a little bit. You know, he did more here than anybody else did. I mean, I think Marty was well on his way. Two playoff seasons in four years, which in hindsight,

think about it, was incredible. Like Joe did a lot here considering the situation. But Joe had a losing record when he left. I mean, this is a Hall of Fame coach. He had a losing record here in four years. Had one playoff win in four years. So even Joe couldn't avoid, you know, leaving here with a slightly impacted reputation from where it was before.

If the owner continues to own the team in the same way he's owned it for the last 21 years. Yesterday, today, the next few months, right around draft time, next August, all Fools gold. And we all intellectually know it. Because we've been the suckers. We've been the marks. We've been gullible for over two decades. Now, don't get me wrong, we've learned a lot over the years. Most of us got burned too many times and stopped putting money into the organization, you know, stopped buying tickets, stop going to games, stop buying merchandise, stop paying attention, you know, and are paying much less attention than we used to. But we haven't fallen for it in recent years.

You know, their lame attempt at telling us that they're close, you know, the lame-ass teams that they've put out there, the damn good culture bullshit, it's all fallen on deaf ears recently. So we've learned a lot and we've gotten better. We're not the suckers and the marks that we were for the first 10, 12 years anyway. You know, and the truth of the matter is we made him feel it. You know, you guys made him feel it. A lot of you did.

You know, the barely half-filled stadiums for the last few years, the cratering television ratings locally, the hashtag movements. You know, that hashtag fire Bruce Allen had some impact, man. It did. And all of it was a reasonable reaction, a mature reaction. to being insulted for so long, which is what we were. But yesterday, he fired the big bad guy, and a lot of us ate it up, man. I admit it.

I was mostly thrilled because I had predicted it two months ago. Most of you called me completely nuts and delusional. I had friends in the media telling me, what do you know? Why are you going so strong on Bruce Allen being gone at the end of this year? Well, I did know, and I shared this with all of you, back in late October, early November, that I had talked to various people that had informed me that the relationship between Dan and Bruce had deteriorated, that it wasn't anywhere near what it used to be, and that it wasn't going to go well for Bruce unless he were able to pull a rabbit out of his hat, you know, record-wise.

So, yeah, yesterday I was glad that it happened for that reason to a certain degree, but it was much more than that. you know, the big bad man was finally gone. And even better than that, from my standpoint anyway, they were on the verge of hiring a guy that I've always felt was a quality coach. You know, and I mentioned the reaction. Take note of that reaction from his former players and remember it. Remember what Gerald McCoy said. Remember what his former players said about this guy. Remember, don't forget, that on the day Ron Rivera was fired and on the day that it was announced that he was heading to Washington, all of his former players were incredibly complimentary of this man, unsolicited, and not one disgruntled guy that I've heard yet. Maybe you'll find one. Take note of that

reaction and remember it. Why? Because Ron Rivera is coming here with an impeccable reputation. Good coach, even a better man, some people say. So in my view, it is now up to the owner. to finally do the things from an ownership standpoint, to make sure that when Ron Rivera leaves this place, 10, 15 years from now, hopefully, that he leaves with that reputation intact, that there's no more reverse car wash at Redskins Park. You know, and if you think that reverse car wash went into business when Bruce got here, nope, it was here for the 10 years before he got here. The owner has been the problem.

let's not let a day like yesterday where he did something that was so obvious, okay, it was so obviously the right thing to do. Let's not yesterday cloud the root cause of this 21-year gutting of our favorite team and franchise. The owner's been the cause, the root cause, and he's still here. He doesn't get a pass for doing what he did yesterday, okay? You can give him some credit, and I did, but he didn't get a pass. He should have done this three, four, five years ago. You don't get a pass for firing Bruce Allen. A monkey could have done that three or four years ago.

Anybody with a brain could fit. We were all saying it as early as 2016, if not 2017. It started with me after the absolute gutless leaking of information to the Washington Post about Scott McLuhan. because it was on that day, I'll never forget coming in and doing radio the next day, and saying, this is more than sinister. This is more than bad idea, bad management, bad, you know, form. This is mean, it's mean-spirited to leak information about a guy who was drunk at work.

and that came, I believe, from the front office because it was quoted as an anonymous source from high up in the front office by the Washington Post. Somebody sent me a tweet, and where is it again? I was looking for it here earlier. Here it is. Kevin, what a great day today was. A corner turned by this owner.

He's maturing. You know, again, Yesterday, firing Bruce Allen was the most obvious move of all time. We shouldn't take it and be gullible and soak it in and start praising the owner as if the owners turned things around. That guy was here for 10 years, 3 to 4 too long for most of us. The Trent Williams saga went on and on and embarrassed the franchise and probably hurt the franchise in many ways.

And it was the owner who allowed Bruce to be petty. vindictive in the way he handled it. The Scott McLuhan embarrassment happened because the owner allowed it to happen. He could have stepped in and said, no, we're not going to handle it this way. We're going to get this guy help. We're going to get him help. And we're going to be supportive. And nobody's leaking shit to anybody about this guy, no matter how much you think it'll make us look better. It's not what they did. You know, Ruben Foster was signed at the height of the Me Too movement. And Doug Williams, beloved by any long-term Redskin fan, is sent out there to address this. That was gutless.

The owner should have been out there at the podium. He should have been giving us straight up why they did this and the reasons for it. Jay Gruden came back in 2019 as the head coach because Dan Snyder, the owner, fell for Bruce's work-close crap. We're close. We can bring Jay back. We're going to be all right. I mean, what a dysfunctional idea that was. The first round of the draft last year was dysfunctional because of him.

May have gotten it right on Dwayne Haskins. I like Dwayne Haskins a lot more than I thought I would, but it was dysfunctional in there because of him. Kyle Shanahan is coaching the 49ers instead of the Redskins to greatness because of the owner's relationship with a 22-year-old self-promoting quarterback, who that relationship sabotaged this organization for two years. You tell me with a straight face that you wouldn't take Kyle Shanahan right now as the head coach of the Washington Redskins with Kirk Cousins as your quarterback in year five together.

You don't think the results would be a million times better than they've been. I mean, we all know what the problem is. We all know what the problem has been. Yesterday felt good, all right? It did because it felt for a moment like someone would, was paying attention. The past season, it was so bad, the team had become so irrelevant, one embarrassment after another. They got the big things wrong like bringing the head coach back for a team that wasn't anywhere near winning. They got the big things wrong by not taking

the salary cap hit for Alex Smith in 2019 because they were so delusional about how close they were. They got the little things wrong consistently. How about the day? They honored London Fletcher and couldn't even spell his name correctly. Most of the fans in the stadium that day were rooting for the other team anyway, and they were looking at each other saying, who the hell's London Flector? This is what the organization's been under this owner. The effort to make the owner realize just how destructive the last 10 years was by all of us,

all of you, that was impressive, but that should only be the beginning. That's the beginning here. No taking him off the hook for something that was so obvious, so obviously needed to be done yesterday. Don't rush back and buy tickets. I don't think you're going to. I like Ron Rivera. I think he would do a great job almost anywhere else.

I hope he does a great job here. If he doesn't, I think we all know that the reason won't be his fault. It won't be because he sucked. It's because he couldn't operate in the way he's operated before because of the dysfunction that surrounds him. somebody tweeted me after this morning and said,

Are you serious? What an idiot you are. If he fails here, it's on him. Okay. Joe Gibbs a Hall of Fame coach. He had a losing record here. Mike Shanahan, borderline Hall of Fame coach, two-time Super Bowl winner,

he had a terrible record here. Was that all on him, or would you put that somewhat on the organization that surrounded him? Marty Schottenheimer was 8 and 8 here. Marty Schottenheimer left here and people were like, you fired Marty Schottenheimer after one year? Why would you do that?

Marty must have been a pain in the ass. Marty didn't have it. Nobody knew at that point how bad the organization was. Anyway, he trusted the wrong person to make decisions for his franchise, guys, and I want him, I do, I want him to sail away somewhere for a few years and come back and see what Ron Rivera and others have done. Some of you would say, well, wait a minute, you don't want him to be involved, yet you're ripping him for not having gotten involved here recently. Yeah, recently, definitely. He should have fired Bruce Allen three years ago. Jay Gruden, he shouldn't have allowed Bruce Allen to bring Jay Gruden back. 10 years Bruce Allen was here.

The first three, four or five, I was like, stay out of it. Of course they didn't. They traded for Donovan McNabb when the head coach didn't want him. He got involved with his 22-year-old quarterback to a point where it was dysfunctional for the entire organization. And by the way, as I've mentioned many times in the past, really hurt Robert Griffin the third personally in his career. Ultimately, he would have been much better off staying with Mike Shanahan and then

eventually playing under a guy like that. Kyle. Anyway, just remember yesterday, it's great that Bruce is gone. Today, it's great that Ron Rivera is the new head coach. If the owner doesn't own differently, it'll be the same predictable now ending. Ron Rivera will be gone in two, three, four years with a losing record and a reputation that, you know, is less than when he got here. At least record-wise, it will be. I do think most people now know that when you come here and you leave here, It wasn't necessarily all your fault. All right.

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Over 700,000 small businesses are using Stamps.com, including the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast. I would urge you if you're a small business and you send out invoices or packages to sign up for stamps.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. You'll get everything you need and at least give it a try because it is a much easier and much more cost-effective way to make. mail all of the things you need to get mailed, especially during the holiday portion of the year. All right, I have a smell test here in a moment, but I wanted to mention two other things real quickly. One, Larry Hess got fired yesterday. He's the longtime head trainer of the Washington Redskins, very close friends with Dan Snyder over the years. He was close friends with Bruce Allen as well.

You know, you read a lot about the medical and the training, and I think part of what Dan's trying to do here, And again, I'm not going to overly do it today in terms of praising him. I want to see a continuation of the right moves and then eventually a complete stepping aside and letting the football people work without interference. But firing Bruce Allen and Larry Hess on the same day, that's a big deal because those were the two closest people to him in that organization. Larry Hess with the training thing and the Trent Williams situation and a lot of the other stuff. A lot of that stuff's medical more than training.

but Larry Hess, it's very interesting because when you talk to people in that building, they'll tell you a lot of players loved them and a lot of players didn't. But my sense of it is that a guy like Ron Rivera has his own ideas about who's coming in in some of those positions. All right, let's get to, oh, the one other quick thing. How about the Wizards last night is a 12-point underdog at home blowing out the 24 and 8 Miami heat? It's crazy because they didn't have any of their plans. players last night. They had no Beal, they had no Davos-Bertans, they had no Mo Wagner.

Everybody was out last night. Nobody was available to play. And they ended up getting a performance from Garrison Matthews off the bench, 28 points. He had never scored more than six. Jordan McCrae, who can score, had 29. And Jan Maheimie, 25 points last night for the Wizards. All right, let me give you a quick smell test to end the show. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. All right, a terrible week last week, and we'll recap last week on Friday when we give you the playoff picks.

I have a feeling that the smell test may apply to all four of the NFL wildcard weekend games. So we'll have that on Friday. Already a game has started today. Virginia Tech's got a lead over Kentucky early in. the Belk Bowl in Charlotte. So I did lean Kentucky in that game. They're down three. They were getting two, but it wasn't going to give them out as a smell test pick. So today, I would lean Florida State plus three against Arizona State, but not an official play at all. Let me get to the official plays, which are tomorrow on the January 1 games. Michigan plus 7 and a half against Alabama.

Michigan's a major anti-public side. I think I've had Michigan in the smell test a couple of times this year, and it hasn't worked out, but I've got them in the smell test. Actually, it did work out against Notre Dame. I think I had them that day. Michigan plus seven and a half, the public's all over Bama, laying the seven and a half. I'll take Michigan on the smell test theory plus the seven and a half in that game. Minnesota is a major anti-public play against Auburn, who's laying seven.

I'm going against the SEC here. That is dangerous. I understand that. Minnesota may be the more motivated team, you know, in this particular game tomorrow. I think that's a possibility with Auburn. You know, it's Auburn. You know, they're a big-time team. Minnesota had this really good season under PJ Fleck.

I think they'll be more motivated. They're sharp money, too, on Minnesota. Give me Minnesota plus the seven. And then here's a game that I actually really, when I first saw the point spread on this game, I knew it would be a smell test pick, and that is tomorrow's Rose Bowl. Wisconsin's favorite over Oregon. They're laying three over Oregon. The public absolutely believes the line is wrong.

They think Oregon should be the favorite team. Give me Wisconsin minus the three in that particular game. So there you go. Three smell test picks. They're all for tomorrow. Michigan plus seven and a half in the Citrus Bowl, Minnesota plus seven in the Outback Bowl against Auburn. and Wisconsin minus three against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

The January 2nd games, I'm probably not going to have a podcast on January 2nd, and I think there are two games, and there's no play. No play on either game, okay? There you go. Three plays. Back on Friday, if there's a real reason to be in here on Thursday, I will be. If not, I'll talk to you on Friday. We'll recap all the Redskins news from today, tomorrow, and on Thursday, and I will definitely have lots of playoff preview on Friday.

Excited about all four of the NFL playoff games this weekend. Thanks to Corbyn, thanks to all of you. Enjoy the day. And happy new year.