The Kevin Sheehan Show - SB Recap: The Field, The Call, The QBs

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with a recap of Kansas City's comeback 38-35 win in Super Bowl 57. Plenty on the Commanders' sale process, more reaction to Sean Payton's Friday comments, and Kevin and Thom's favorite Super Bowl commercial. Also, as the boys were finishing up the show, the news broke that Nationals' owner Ted Lerner passed away at the age of 97. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. For the lead. Butger. Got it.

All right. It's Monday following Super Bowl 57. Tommy is with me today. He accommodated my request to have him on the show today because Cooley's been out of the country and he needed to start much later. We wanted to get the show out earlier today, so hopefully Cooley will be able to join me tomorrow or Wednesday on the show to talk about Super Bowl 57. But that was the game winner from Harrison Butker, 27 yards out for a 38 to 35 Kansas City lead with eight seconds to go.

And it followed a couple of plays earlier, a very controversial call. third and eight holding on James Bradbury against Juju Smith-Schuster. On an incomplete pass, clock would have stopped with about a minute 48 left. They would have kicked a field goal. Jalen Hertz would have had a lot of time to go down and tie. If not win the game. I'll ask you first, did you like the call or not? I did not get worked up about the call like so much.

many people did after the game. You know, it's funny, I get worked up about calls that are missed. I don't get worked up about calls that were right, but shouldn't have been called. Okay. You know, and that's what that was. We're worked up about a call that was that the guy who made committed to foul admitted, he did, but we thought he shouldn't have called it. that's a totally different argument than missing a call.

That would get me worked up. Again, and it's always in the big scheme of things, there's so much more to fault in the game that's right at the Eagles' doorstep. So I had no problem with the call. Would I'd rather they just let them play in a game like that? Yeah. Did I think it was as egregious as the rest of the world? things absolutely not.

You know, I mean, you know, this whole argument of, well, they didn't call it throughout the game, you know, and I know you're a big fan on consistency, and I understand that. And I get that. But it's not a legitimate argument to me to say, well, you didn't catch it every other time, so how could you catch it now? You know, that's not a fair defense to me. I don't know. So I had no problem with it.

I don't understand why you get worked up more by the calls that aren't made versus the calls that are made if both of them are wrong. But this wasn't wrong. I understand that, but you said going in, take this play out of the discussion. You said the plays that you typically get worked up over more are the missed calls rather than the wrong calls. Okay, but this was not a wrong call. You see, what I meant to say is, calls that were made that we felt should have been overlooked. Okay. Okay.

That's to me. So that's to me. But, you know, Doug, generally, I don't have this newly acquired, you know, everyone's out to fuck us about everything, Gene, that the rest of the world seems to have. You know, I just don't have that in me. I don't think that that is a new thing. I just think it's a thing that's amplified because of social media. It probably is. You're probably right.

Because I can remember as a small young boy being just completely outraged by the Mel Gray catch that wasn't. And this city literally went nuts over. By the way, I know I've said this before, but just Google the Mel Gray catch for those of you that have never seen it before. It's a 1975 game between Washington and the Cardinals. It was a very significant late-season game. It was the game that cost Washington a playoff berth ultimately. Washington's up 17 to 10. It's fourth down for the Cardinals at the end of the game.

And Jim Hart, longtime Cardinals quarterback, who, by the way, became a backup quarterback in Washington for Joe Thysman in the 80s. He throws a ball over the middle that Pat Fisher knocks out of the hands of Mel Gray and they called it a catch. It's actually a lot of go look at the Butch Johnson touchdown catch against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl. That would have been Super Bowl 11. I mean, he never even comes close to catching it. So many of replay would have changed a lot of history, Tommy, in a lot of sports. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. My position on that play was, well, you kind of alluded to it. First of all, I do think that we see that called a lot. I mean, I think the first contact is the actual kind of brief hook and hold, and the second one they could have let slide. But I think the, first of all, I was excited that they called it. I have full transparency. I bet the chiefs plus one and a half.

And I knew once that happened, it was game. over, that they were going to have a walk-off field goal. I'm able to do the clock and the time-out situation pretty quickly in my head. And so I knew it was over and that I was going to win the wager unless Butker missed the kick, which he had missed a short one earlier in the game. But my biggest problem with that is I had made a note during the course of the game. They're really letting them play today, which I like. You know, Bradbury had a brutal hold on Juju Smith Schuster on a third and eight in the first half where Kansas City ended up punting on one of their few drives in the first half. Huge play because it was 14-7 Eagles at the time and they had to

punt the ball back and they let it go. So they had let Bradbury. They had given Bradbury and every other DB the idea that they were going to let this tic-y-tack stuff go. They weren't going to call it. And so any coach, any player, what they want more than any, you'll always hear this from coaches in particular, is just be consistent. Just, you know, when you call a game, we will adapt to the way it's called, but don't change like at the end of the game. You know, be consistent. And that's the one thing I would suggest is that call was not consistent with the way the game

had been called. And yeah, it also, as a football fan, if Jalen Hertz had gotten that ball back, there's no doubt in my mind, that they would have either gone down and won the game 42 to 38, or we would have been in overtime at 3838. Because I had three major takeaways from this game, Tommy, before we get to kind of our recap of it, the things we liked, didn't like, and some other observations. Number one, the field was an absolute disgrace.

I don't know how you have seven weeks since the Cardinals' last home game. to get ready to host a Super Bowl. And you've got a field where teams are changing cleats in the first quarter. Guys are slipping throughout. That is an abomination. How do they allow that to happen? You know what was funny? You know what was funny was before the game was played in the days before the game,

we read stories about the great groundskeeper, George Toma, you know, the God of Sod and how he was helping. to get the field in shape. That was a storyline before the Super Bowl. How great shape the field was in, which is really an indictment on those stories. I didn't read those stories, but I'm reading the headlines right now. All hail the God of Sod, groundskeeper for all.

George Toma, are you telling me he's been the groundskeeper for every Super Bowl? How old is he? It's like 94. You think he's like 94 or something like that. Oh, my God. That name is like a name from the 80s, Tommy. Yeah, that's the Kansas City guy. Yeah.

Absolutely. From the 80s. So, you know, it's funny. And I know I'm going to take everyone down a path that they don't like to go down because everyone thinks the world began when they started, when they were born. But in 1945, the Redskins were basically robbed of an NSK. NFL championship, another NFL championship, when the field in Cleveland against the Rams was so bad, the Redskins had brought special sneakers with them to use in case that happened.

The Rams didn't have them. The coach for the Redskins, Doug DeGroot, made an agreement before the game with the Cleveland coach, not to use the sneakers because Cleveland didn't have them. And they wound up losing the game, 15 to 14. and George Preston Marshall fired Doug de Groot at halftime for refusing to use the sneakers. What? Okay. Some of you are like, get back to the Super Bowl.

I don't want to hear about, you know, the end of World War II NFL championship game, which probably a lot of players that would have played for the team were probably over, you know, in the Pacific somewhere at that point. actually at the it was it the 19 was it December of 1945 because if it was December not January in 1945 the war was actually over at that point um but but anyway this happened to the redskins dudley de grute was the coach I believe so was Sammy ball the quarterback yes he was that would have been another NFL today lost 15 to 14 because of a slick field and refusing to use the shoe that they brought with them for that.

So you think they were robbed. It kind of reminded me of that last night. You thought they were robbed in that 1945 game? Yeah, but they did the day. They were the ones that held a gun at her own head. Yeah, I guess so. So if they had won that game and done the right thing and put on the right sneakers, then the Eagle story that you wrote the other day that people had a problem with

wouldn't have really applied. It actually doesn't apply now because they didn't win yesterday. It doesn't apply now. No, it was a... You assumed they were going to win. Yeah. It was a what-if. I predicted they would win.

It was a what-if situation. You know, people write that. People, like, people wrote articles before the Super Bowl. No one wrote an article before the Super Bowl saying, what if the field isn't in good shape? Somebody should have. So my three biggest takeaways from the game, the field, the call, which we've discussed, and then the quarterbacks, both of whom were exceptional. But for me, Jalen Hertz was the best player on the field in Super Bowl 57 yesterday.

And I really, okay, trivia question. I know you know the answer to this. Only losing player to win the MVP in the Super Bowl was? Chuck Howley. Very good. Chuck Callie. Dallas Cowboys. And he's going into the Hall of Fame.

He's one of the guys. He's going into the Hall of Fame in August. Yeah. And Super Bowl 5, which the Colts won, 16 to 13, I think on 15 to 13, maybe. No, 16, 16, 13. It was not five field goals. It wasn't five field goals. Okay, 16 to 13.

But yeah, Chuck Howie was named the MVP of that game. He was. Jim O'Brien kicked the game winner from 32 yards out in Super Bowl 5 to win Super Bowl 5. But I'm actually surprised that you said five field goals because I could be wrong about this. But didn't John Mackey, your all-time number one tight end? Yes, he did. Didn't he have a touchdown in this game? Yes, he did.

You're right. You're absolutely right. You did have a long touchdown. I think it's 75-yarder. From Unitas in that game. Yes. Yeah. Because Earl Morrill was the starter in Super Bowl 3 in the name of the Super Bowl.

Okay, so Jalen Hertz was incredible yesterday. Jalen Hertz was banged up and at the end of the year missed games, and I didn't think looked like Jalen Hertz in the two playoff games. Jalen Hertz yesterday, I mean, I thought throwing the football, he was just great throwing the football. He was so accurate. He was on time. He extended plays, made plays on the run.

He actually had a couple of balls too, dropped. I mean, the Devante Smith play was called back. He had one to Quez Watkins, that Watkins dropped. He was 27 of 38 for 304 yards in one touchdown and rushed 15 times for 70 yards, including down 3527, running for a touchdown, and then running on that power sweep for the two-point conversion. I really thought when he tied that game up at 35, I think I tweeted out then or maybe earlier,

I think Jalen Hertz has a chance to win this MVP, win or lose the game. Because I thought even after the fact, as good as Mahomes was, and Mahomes was outstanding too, Jalen Hertz was clearly the best player on the field, and I actually think deserved the MVP. I know they don't give it to a losing team player anymore. But, you know, I thought about if the hold hadn't been called, if Philadelphia took over, went down and let's say tied the game with more Hurts, completesions and plays, and it had gone to overtime, and they had lost, you know, 44, 41 in overtime. I think he would have won the MVP. Well, here's the problem, Kevin. They're not going

to give it to a losing player when there is a winning player who's deserving of it as well. It's not like Patrick McHolmes isn't deserving of it. No, you're right, but he wasn't the better player in the game. But there was still, but still, he was certainly an MVP candidate. He was out there. I'm going to give it to a loser. Okay. Look, I agree with you. Look, Jay and Hertz was so good that Patrick Mahomes and his press conference went out of his way to say how good he was. Okay. So, yeah, you're right about that. No, but you're right, too, because in Super Bowl 5, when Chuck Caller,

won. It was a walk-off field goal, so I think they had actually already voted him at the end of the game MVP before the walk-off field goal. So maybe they would have changed it had they not voted it before the end of the game. But there wasn't an obvious selection. It was a poorly played game, not a lot of great, not a lot of points. A terrible game. And yesterday's game was spectacular. And Mahomes, even though, you know, he only threw for 182 yards, he threw three touchdown passes. By the way, to wide open receivers. I mean, the Skymore and the Cadarius Tony touchdowns. See, I almost give like Andy Reid the MVP with the way he schemes people open.

I just still can't believe. Cooley said before the AFC championship game, he said, I know this is going to happen and still I'm baffled as to why it will happen. But he goes, Travis Kelsey is going to be wide open for like six catches, minimum. And sure enough, in the Super Bowl, two weeks to prepare. By the way, Vic Fangio, part of the preparer for Philadelphia. Did you see that story? Fangio hired.

He was hired as a two-week consultant. Look, Vic Fangio, I've been a big fan of for years. He is probably one of the top two or three respected defensive minds in the sport for the last 15 years. He's going to be Miami's defensive coordinator next year. He hasn't signed the deal. and he signed a two-week consulting gig to help Nick Siriani and company prepare for the chiefs. By the way, Denton pointed out to me on radio, a team that he didn't come close to beating when he was the head coach of the Broncos. It's like every game he got absolutely ambushed by Mahomes and company.

And they got ambushed again yesterday on very few plays. But my God, Andy Reid schemes people open, doesn't he? And maybe Bianemy has a lot to do with it. Andy Reid gave Bianami a lot of credit. And that's going to be a storyline here in D.C. this week. Adam Schaefter reporting that Washington and B.N.M.E., you know, Washington has number one target is Eric Bianney. We'll see what happens this week with that.

But no one really buys that. No, it's Andy Reed. Right. Yeah. You're saying nobody buys Bias B. That's why Eric Bianami needs to get out of there. He's got two Super Bowl. with the Chiefs. He's done everything he can in whatever his role is. He needs to get

someplace where there's no doubt that he's the guy responsible for the offense on the field. Yeah, and if Andy Reed continues to coach, which we don't know if he will or won't, he did say he's coming back next year. So he made that very clear at the end of the game. He's not retiring, but we don't know how many years he has. But like Matt Nagy came back, If Eric Bianami goes somewhere else and doesn't get the job done, Andy Reid will welcome Eric Bianemy back. I mean, it's kind of one of those situations where Andy Reid wants him to get a new gig,

will encourage him, they'll leave on great, you know, standing and footing, and if it doesn't work for BNamy, he'll be back in Kansas City in three years, something like that. If Andy reads there in three years. Anyway, the quarterbacks were great in this game. They really were great in this game. I just thought Jalen Hertz was better. And I'm looking right now because the QB.

numbers out. Patrick Mahomes's QBR was 96.4. I mean, that is just ridiculous. It's got to be his highest QBR of the year. It is. It's his highest QBR number of the year. His passing, his passer rating number of 131.8 is the second highest of the year.

Jalen hurts his QBR in the game, the ESPN QBR, which is a more all-encompassing number, was 79.7. He had one, two, three, four games this year where he had a higher QBR. I don't know. I thought he was willing them, especially when they were down 3527 on that drive.

I thought he was great. I thought he was great throwing the football, and I think there were a couple of other big plays he could have had. The fumble obviously was a bad play for him. That was his bad play. And I guess he could have led Devante Smith on that final drive where they tied it a little bit more in bounds. So it would have been a touchdown. And he threw one time into double, twice into double coverage with A.J. Brown.

One of them, a touchdown. One of them nearly got picked. I just thought he was great, though. Okay, let's get to the Game Take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. All right. It's more than just Kevin's game take today.

Kevin and Tommy doing it together. The things we liked, the things we didn't like, and a few other observations. I've already mentioned the number one thing that I loved from this game, which was the quarterback play. It was exceptional. Jalen Hertz. I've been a fan of Jalen Hertz.

I really thought Philadelphia was going to be a good team this year. Patrick Mahomes, though, Tommy, the fastest ever to a lock-haul of. fame status. We've talked about this before. You didn't need to win it for me. Two Super Bowl MVPs. Now, two league MVPs. I saw a number this morning that in his first six years, in team sports, he's one of three players to win two league MVPs and at least two championships. The other two players were Tim Duncan and Bobby Orr in hockey.

So would Bobby Orr have won the MVP or would he have won the defensive player of the year award? Whatever. I saw that stat up there. A friend of mine texted me and said, you keep saying fastest ever to Hall of Fame, lock Hall of Fame status. I think he is, but my buddy pointed out, don't you think we felt that way after six years of Lawrence Taylor? Five or six years of Lawrence Taylor? Yeah, I think we probably felt that way about Lawrence Taylor pretty quickly.

Probably. Probably, but it's harder to quantify with a defensive player. Fair point. What was the number one thing you liked from the Super Bowl? The number one thing I liked was Patrick Mahomes. I mean, I thought when he, when he limped off the field, brimacing with that ankle, I thought, well, you know, Chad Hennie, here we come. And whatever happened, whatever they did, whatever, you know, if they shot him up with something, if they didn't shoot him up with something, I mean, he was, he was like El Sin out there, you know, sticking him on the horse. except he could ride. He wasn't dead like El Sid was.

I mean, it was Mahomes. I mean, look, I mean, I, you know, I went out on, I didn't go out on a limb, but for me, unusual to throw these kind of accolades over an existing player when I said Mahomes is on my Mount Rushmore of all-time great quarterbacks. And I feel awfully good about that today after what he did in that Super Bowl. him and Andy Reed Andy Reed too like he said

I mean it was like he was playing chess and the Eagles were playing checkers out there it's like the Eagles forgot how wide the field was you know

they thought they were playing in between the hash marks and the rest of the field didn't count when those players would wind up catching those touchdown passes so I mean the combination of Mahomes

and Reed I don't see Andy Reed going anywhere until he has to? Why would you retire when you have this guy as your quarterback? I mean, he's not going to go spend any time with his family. His family's a train wreck. So it's like he's going to go home and spend time with his family. I don't think, as long as Andy Reed can coach, I think he's coaching Patrick Mahom. And I think Patrick Hohombs loves that, you know, and I think the chiefs love that. So, you know, they are joined at the hip in some ways, but they also are so good.

Their individual accomplishments don't get caught up in their marriage like they did with Brady and Belichick for years. You know? I mean, Mahalm shows enough remarkable athletic skill to recognize his individual. greatness without saying, well, if Andy Reed wasn't his coach, he wouldn't be great. Yeah, he's really got a ton of humility. It's always about Reed and Kelsey and all of the stars on the team. You know, I was thinking about Andy Reed as you were just mentioning that, and I pulled this up. When they lost with Alex Smith in 2017 in the wild card round of the Tennessee Titans at Arrowhead, with Mahomes on the team, remember.

Andy Reid's overall postseason record at that point was 11 and 13. And by the way, you know, mangled clock management on the regular, always. He just really seemed to struggle with that portion of the game. I mean, it was kind of a running joke with Andy Reed. You know, he'd gotten to just the one Super Bowl in Philadelphia. He had a phenomenal regular season record, was in the playoffs, with Philadelphia virtually every year. And when he got to Kansas City,

he had already been to the postseason four times in five years. And the one year that they didn't go to the postseason, they finished nine and seven. So, you know, there was no doubt that Andy Reid was a high-level coach. But, you know, he was falling into the Marty Schottenheimer category. You know, couldn't get it done in the postseason, the George Allen category to a certain degree. and then along came Patrick Mahomes.

And now his overall postseason record is 22 and 16 with three Super Bowl trips, four Super Bowl trips, and two Super Bowl titles. That's what happens when you end up with, you know, a Mount Rushmore-esque quarterback. Amazing what they've done. And look, the Super Bowl lost to Tampa. were injured in that Super Bowl. Tampa was awesome. They dominated the game. But, you know, they would have been in the Super Bowl last year if they hadn't blown a 21 to 3 lead that they had over the Bengals in the AFC title game. But interesting, right? I mean, his final year of starting Alex Smith, they lost a big lead to Derek Henry and the Titans.

And he had an 11 and 13 playoff record. And at that moment, Tommy, you know, he was not a lot. a Hall of Fame coach. Not if Marty Schottenheimer's not in the Hall of Fame. Not if Mike Shanahan's not in the Hall of Fame. He was Marty Schottenheimer at that point. A great coach who couldn't win the big one. Couldn't win the big one. And by the way, had a lot

of people that would always say he's never this is true. People said he's never going to win the big one because he just always messes up in the fourth quarter of games. in close games. He is now an absolute lock for the Hall of Fame. And by the way, there's more to come.

I mean, they'll be the favorite next year. You know, they'll go in as the favorite to win it. They have apparently 10 draft choices. They're in good cap position. And they did it after, you know, let's face it, they did it after some people questioned losing Tariqil in particular, you know, what they were going to be like. Buffalo was the preseason favorite.

Now, I think Kansas City was the second favorite. And if you listen to Travis Kelsey after the game talk about, you know, put some respect on our name. None of you all thought we could do it. I was like, I was like, dude, you've been an underdog in like five total games in the last five years. Everybody thinks the Chiefs always have a chance to win it. But the truth is yesterday, you know, everybody was picking Philadelphia. Somebody told me this, and I was not watching a lot of the pregame activity, but that everybody on Fox picked the Eagles to win the Super Bowl.

I, by the way, Smeltest, lost my first half wager, because I had the Chiefs plus a half on the first half line. That was a loser. But the overall pick, the Chiefs plus one and a half was a winner. I also, by the way, personally, had the Chiefs minus six and a half on the alternate line. plus 212. I also took them minus 7.5 at plus 275 before the game.

I thought the Chiefs were going to win big. I was wrong about that. That was a great game. And a game decided by three points appropriately. But it would have been nice had McKinnon actually stumbled into the end zone as he was trying to kill the clock and give himself up there

and they had gone up 42 to 35. I also had Pacheco two touchdowns or more at plus 800. And he was great in this game. But in continuing on the list of things that we liked, Travis Kelsey is an amazing player. And by the way, he's a Hall of Famer now. Locke.

I mean, he's got many years to play. He's a great tight end. I think he benefits, certainly from the scheme and the ability to get him open as much as they do, but he is a phenomenal route runner. He's great after the catch. He's got some of the greatest hands ever. And yesterday early, I was like, oh my God, on the first drive,

he's wide open for a big chunk play, and then wide open on a great schemed up playing route for a touchdown, ends up with six catches for 81 yards, which I'll mention here in a moment is really impressive when you considered the disparity in play count and in time of possession. But Travis Kelsey was next on the list of things that I thought were really outstanding in the game. What do you got next?

Well, I would, again, I named two. Andy Reed would be my second, you know, in terms of his play calling. And, you know, clearly, I mean, the offensive schemes that he ran with that. I mean, look, the Eagles should have won this game. Okay, I know we're not at that point yet. but he managed to coach a team to victory that by all rights probably should have lost the game. Yeah, I don't necessarily feel like they should have lost the game, but I want to hear more on why you feel that way here shortly.

Here's the rest of my list on the things that I liked. I thought the offensive line play both sides was outstanding. Outstanding. Mahomes wasn't sacked once in the game. Jalen Hertz took two official sacks, but one of them was on a read option keeper where he actually was stopped prior to getting back to the line of scrimmage or a scramble, I forget. The offensive line was great, both ways. A.J. Brown, by the way, is such a good receiver. I know what we're going to do here in the offseason on a given day or seven. We're going to do the thing where we try to see where Terry McLaren ranks. a number one receiver in the NFL. A.J. Brown is better. I said that in the last offseason. I'll say it again this offseason. And there are probably 10 guys, nine guys at least, that are better. Doesn't mean that I don't think Terry McClorn's really good. They're just a lot of really good

offensive receivers in the league. Both punt returners in this game were outstanding. Obviously Cadarius Tony set the record for the longest punt return in NFL history with the 65-yarder. that set up the touchdown that gave him the eight-point lead. But Britt Covey was great, too. He had a 27-yard punt return. I thought even though Kansas City gave up 35 points and 412 total yards, 417 total yards, I actually thought the Chiefs had some good defensive performances. Nick Bolton had the one fumble return.

He also had another one, which, by the way, I do not think was. a fumble. I think that was an incomplete pass. Miles Sanders caught the ball, got both feet down, but did not make a football move with that third step. I thought Pereira explained it perfectly. That was correctly called as an incomplete pass. But I thought Bolton was all over the field. I thought Justin Reed was hitting. I thought the hitting in this game, for a game that produced so much offense, I thought the defenses were flying around and doing the best they could and hitting really hard. There was a hit on Pacheco, but I think Gardner Johnson, that was just brutal. I thought Legerius Sneed back was so crucial for them. They really missed him down the stretch

in the Cincinnati game. I thought Justin Reed was great. I thought Thornhill was great. I thought there were some really good defensive performances in a game that produced. I mean, it's crazy to say, that produced 73 points. Also, the last thing on the list of things that I liked. Philadelphia's quarterback sneak play and formation with the strongest lower-bodied quarterback in the NFL. I mean, what he squats and what he leg presses, I guess, is like legendary at this point, Jalen Hertz, we're talking about.

When they line up in that formation that I think is a new, I don't think I saw that formation during the regular season. we've seen it since the beginning of the postseason. I could be wrong. And an Eagles fan would know more than I. I think it's the best quarterback sneak formation and play that I've ever seen. Like they quarterback sneaked from the two for Jalen Hertz's touchdown at 35 to 27. That was a quarterback sneak from the two-yard line.

I mean, and then by the way he had the two-point conversion run. anything a yard or less, I can't imagine there's any chance that play could get stopped. They line two guys up in a scrum formation. They push him and he's already got the strongest legs and he's already a great runner in the NFL. I mean, I don't, if I were Philadelphia, I would never run anything on third and one or fourth and one

other than that play. They don't have to. It's a game, like fourth and one from their own nine-yard line should be a first down. Why put it with that with that play? I just can't imagine that that play will ever get stopped. Well, here's the thing. There are people in the league that have been calling for what they call teammate assisted quarterback sneak.

Right. To be outlawed. Yes. I mean, that's what it is in part. In part, that's true. This is going to be a point of controversy. in the league, what they call teammate-assisted quarterback

sneaks. A linebacker for the Patriots tweeted something about it during the game, and I read stories about it, a couple stories about it before the game. The Athletic did one in January that said the Eagles ran more quarterback sneaks than any other NFL team

since at least the year 2000 and gained a first down on 91% of them. When Hurt was doing the quarterback sneaking, it was like 93%. Yeah, but I'd love to know the yardage on that, and I'd love to know the formation, because what I'm really specifically referring to is the scrum formation that I don't think we've seen, that I don't think we saw until the giant playoff game, so that it would be three games that they've run it. I could be wrong.

By the way, they did emphasize the rule this year that you can't, you know, you can't assist a runner by grabbing him and lifting him off the ground. But they did not, they have not done anything about the push from behind. And I think you're right. They should probably do something about that. But I would. I'm sure that, you know, when it becomes so apparent, it will probably come up before. the Rules Committee, which consists of coaches, for the most part. Yeah.

I understand it. Look, one of the things that you said about, and you included the offensive lines in your things you liked. Yeah. I was going to include that specifically the Eagles offensive line. I mean, the Chiefs offensive line and things I like, but more in the Eagles pass rush in things I did like. Okay.

the Eagles lost this game in the trenches. I mean, I expected a much more dominant Eagles pass rush on Patrick McHolmes. And they thought the Eagles, the Chiefs knew at the end of the game, Orlando Brown saying we should have T-shirts made, zero sacks, because that was extremely telling. I mean, this was the best pass rush in the league, so good they felt they didn't need. need to blitz because they had four pass rushers with over, you know, with over 10 sacks per game. But I was stunned that they never adjusted. There was only one guy that could beat them on the field,

and they never adjusted to him. I mean, you know, when it was apparent that they needed to do something about Patrick Holmes, I didn't expect the chief offensive line to perform that well. That said, on the other side of the ball, I thought the Eagles' offensive line should have performed. I expected them to perform better. Look, there were a couple of plays. There were a number of plays, I thought, in the second half, where Jay and heard as soon as he went around,

as soon as he got the ball and tried to set up the pass, he was running for his life. Okay? There were a couple of plays where he had to throw the ball away, or he was throwing from an angle that he really couldn't make the throw because he was running from the pass rush. I didn't expect to see that happen. So I thought the Eagles lost this game on both sides of the ball

in the exact places where I thought they would win the game in both sides of the ball. So a few things in response to that. Number one is this. I thought, well, I think the Eagles' offensive line is phenomenal and I think it'll go down as one of the great offensive lines of this era and of all time when all is said and done. But I said in my preview of the game that I didn't think that the difference in the trenches was what everybody was making it out to be. I really felt like Kansas City's

offensive line was outstanding as well and I really felt like Spagnolo would scheme up some pressure, which he did against Burrow as well. Now, I actually on the list of things that I didn't like. I mean, I'll start with a couple of things. Kansas City, well, let me finish off of what you said, because I don't want to lose train of thought. I actually thought a couple of Philadelphia's pass rushers played well. I thought Josh Sweat looked like at times he was unblockable, and Mahomes did what Hertz did. You know, when he was pressured, he was able to elude it and get the ball off, whether it was incomplete or just a typical great Mahomes play, including a couple of runs. I actually thought Reddick got some pressure at times, too.

But I think ultimately, the numbers with respect to the Eagles defensively, you know, Mahomes only had 27 dropbacks in the game. Now, he actually probably had more than that because some of the runs, a lot of the runs were scrambles. So there were more than that because he ended up having six rushes for 44. But the Chiefs only had 53 offensive snaps in. this game. I mean, they only had 20 in the first half. The time of possession in the first half was 21 minutes and 54 seconds to eight minutes and six seconds. The final numbers overall were basically 36-24. It was 35, 47, 24, 13. So, you know, they had a 12-minute advantage. They ended up in the first half running 44 plays the Eagles did to 20 for Kansas City,

For the game, it was 72 to 53. So part of it was that the Eagles defense just wasn't on the field that much, you know, in terms of why they didn't get some of the same results. The Eagles' best defense was their offense in this football game and controlling the ball. The other thing is Kansas City ran the football. They did not give up on the run at any point. Isaiah Pacheco should, I should have mentioned him, because. 15 carries 76 yards.

I thought he was outstanding. Man, there are very few running backs in the league that run as hard as Pacheco does. McKinnon had four carries for 34 yards. He averaged eight and a half yards per carry. Pacheco averaged 5.1 yards per carry. Philadelphia, and I mentioned this on Saturday or Friday, one of those two shows, in my preview, that I really thought Kansas City should stick with the run and try to run the football because teams had run the football at times against Philadelphia.

So I think some of what you're saying is, with respect to Philly's defense anyway, is that they just weren't on the field a lot. And Mahomes didn't drop back 45 times, you know, in a game. You know, Philadelphia had the lead in a lot of games this year, turned teams one-dimensional and teed off, you know, like we saw in the San Francisco game there with no quarterback really in the game. And then they were, obviously they just had to run the football. But I thought the Chiefs did a good job running the football with Pacheco.

Look, that final drive was Pacheco running the ball and Mahomes running the ball. You know, Mahomes had that scramble. And I think Kansas City offensively is, like, Philadelphia's defense was great all year. Their pass rush was great all year. But they hadn't played Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes. We know the schedule the Eagles face this year was not murderers' row when it came to offensive football teams. And by the way, some of those teams put up some big numbers against that defense, even when the defense had sacks. But I thought one of the real amazing final results of this game is that the Chiefs had the ball so little yet scored 28 offensive points.

And look, one of the reasons they didn't have the ball in the first half is because, they scored a defensive touchdown, you know, and so the Eagles ended up with six drives and the chiefs had four. But the chiefs for the game had eight offensive drives. That was it. Eight. And Philadelphia, and by the way, in the second half, scored on all four. Scored on all four. Which is why, you know, I would ask you why you felt like, I don't think you said it this way. I'll say it this way. Why you felt that the team, the better team lost. the game. Well, because I thought the Eagles were the better team going into it.

Oh, going into it? I thought that they... Yeah, going into it. I thought you said during, as you were watching it. I thought they were exactly better on both sides of the ball in the trenches, on the line, on the defensive side and on the offensive side. You know, so I was stunned. I wasn't stunned, but frustrated, I guess, at the lack of pressure they were.

really put on the homes when, again, he was the only reason you were going to lose. And I don't understand, and look, there's a lot that we don't understand about coaching. I don't presume to know anything about coaching. But one of the things I don't understand is when it's clear in a game that the only reason you're going to lose is because of that one guy, why isn't your game plan then to go get that one guy. One guy on one leg, I might point out. I know he's hard to get.

That still should be your goal at that point. I just think that... All the rest of it, all the rest of it doesn't mean shit if you can't stop that guy. Yeah, but nobody can stop that guy. Nobody has stopped that guy, which is why he's already on your Mount Rushmore. But I think that that narrative about Philadelphia. is by far and away the better team with one exception, Mahomes. I thought that was overdone.

I thought Kansas City has a really good offensive line, and I thought Pacheco could be a factor in the game, and they've got Travis Kelsey as well. And look, they've got the better coaching staff. In my opinion, the Andy Reid Spag's combination was going to be prepared for Philadelphia. You know, whether Vic Fangio was consulting them or not. not. Look, the bottom line is watching this game and thinking about it here this morning is a great football game, played by the two best teams in the NFL this year. And it could have gone either

way. At 2414, did I think Philadelphia was going to win the game? I did because the quarterback Mahomes went in looking really hurt. And whatever they did at halftime, give them credit, and it's, you know, the 29-minute half time, you know, probably helped. You know, there were, the Kansas City had like over an hour that elapsed between their last offensive play of the first half and their first offensive play of the second half. But, you know, the bottom line is, and this gets to my list of things that I didn't like, from a Kansas City perspective, in the first half, you know, I think it was closer

than the score indicated. They had a third and four off-side. that extended a drive. They had a fourth and two neutral zone infraction that extended a drive. Both of those drives ended in points for Philadelphia.

They missed a field goal. Those were things that I think contributed to Philadelphia being up 2414. Now, at the same time, the Jalen Hertz fumble and the fumble return for a touchdown made the score 2414 as well.

It could have been worse. But Kansas City was off the field They scored a touchdown. They drove the field, kicked a field goal. Then Bradbury got away with a hold on Schuster on a third and eight. And then Kansas City did punt. They had a penalty, ended up punting on their last drive of the first half. But I thought defensively, trust me, I thought Philadelphia was great.

But Kansas City helped them out with some key penalties, you know, that extended drives, where maybe they were off the field without it. And I just thought it was, you know, and then Kansas City comes out and they, you know, four drives. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. And then the last drive, if they needed a touchdown, would have been a touchdown, but they kicked the walk off field goal. Philly, obviously, the mistakes were, you know, the fumble by Hertz, a couple of delay of games, one they took, and then one that cost them a second half

timeout that they really needed. And then I thought their coverage defensively, especially on a short field, was really woeful. But I give, again, Reed a lot of credit. But those touchdown passes to Tony and Moore, I mean, please. And then I'll just end with this and then let you give me other things that you didn't like from the game. The hold on Bradbury, Mr. X, who's a fan of the show and a friend of the show, sent me this long note. and he said, you know, as analytically inclined and as smart as Philadelphia is supposed to be, shouldn't the number one message before that third and eight have been whatever you do,

you cannot hold, you cannot illegal contact, you cannot defensive pass interference on this play, because if you do, the game is over. And, you know, in the other part of it was, and if they complete a pass, beyond the first down marker, you have to let them score. Now, that's a lot there on a third and eight in which the goal really is to get a stop, force a field goal and give Jalen Hertz the ball back with a minute 45 to go down three. But you do have to message your defensive backs. Don't do anything.

You can't do anything here. It's better if they score a touchdown here. you get called for a defensive flag? Because the game's over if you get called for a defensive flag, we have no chance. That's a good message. That's a good message. I mean, that's the easiest way to explain it. You know, if your choice is committing a penalty or letting them score, let them score. And they tried to after the fact, but Kansas City at that point was, you know, already clued in and McKinnick's slid down at the one. But it was on the third Nate that Mr. X was really, telling, he's like, don't you think? And I said, yeah, I think that's true. But when you're going

out there defensively for Philadelphia, you don't want to say, hey, no defensive penalties. You can say that. But oh, by the way, if they catch a pass and it's near the first down marker, just let them go in and score. You know, you're thinking third and eight isn't a probable make, and they're going to miss it, and you're going to force a field goal, and you're going to give your ball, give the ball back to your quarterback and tell them to go down and not just tie the game, but maybe win the game 42 to 38. What else is on the list of things you didn't like from the game? Well, I mean, nothing else in particular.

I didn't keep a list of things I like and don't like. I'm busy drinking during the game. I don't have that. What were you drinking yesterday? Were you drinking Red Stripe? No, I wasn't drinking Red Stripe. I was drinking Stella. I was drinking Stella during the game.

Good for you. Pounding them down. So I have different priorities during a game than you do. Yeah. So I wasn't keeping a list. Okay. But I want to go back to something that you mentioned. Okay.

You know, when you mentioned about AJ Brown and the Eagles receivers, they have two number one receivers. Yeah, they do. No doubt. I mean, Devonte Smith is the number one receiver. Yep. Yep. And he had that, he had the one catchover turned. Yeah.

I mean, I just want to point. Do you think he's better than Terry McClure? Boy, Devante Smith is more like Jehan Dotson, because I think Jehan Dotson has a chance to be a true number one as well. I do. That's fair. With the right quarterback, that's fair. Yeah. Look, you know, it's almost unfair. You just brought up the point.

It's almost unfair with Terry. and to really say anything about where he ranks, the fact that he's been able to accomplish what he's been able to accomplish with the quarterbacks that he's played with is pretty damn impressive. You know? You're right there too. So you give him a quarterback,

like just a reasonable NFL caliber starting quarterback. You know, maybe Terry ends up with 105 catches and 15, 1,600 yards and, you know, 14 touchdowns, you know, but he hasn't had that kind of a year. But he's really, the thing I love about McLaurin is I just think he is incredible as a route runner. He obviously has the speed. The one thing that I think about Terry, when I don't think he's as good as some of these guys after the catch, and I don't think he has the same hands that some of the best receivers in the game have. But he's up there.

Devante Smith and Terry, Devante Smith is really good, Tommy. He's really good. He's an exceptional route runner. And by the way, Goddard's good, too. I think what's been a bit of a revelation, not that Philadelphia fans don't know this, but they don't just have one back. I think Gainwell is really explosive. I think Boston Scott at times has been really explosive.

Now, they've got a lot of free agents. He had a tremendous run. Boston Scott had a tremendous. run. One of those runs that he had, I mean, he knew where he juked them out. Absolutely. They've got a bunch of free agents. They're going to have to sign Jalen Hertz. You know, the Philadelphia team is going to look a little bit different, I think, in the next few years than what, you know, happened last night and what we saw last night. The Kansas City team, however, has like 10 draft choices, and they've got, in Philadelphia, by the way, has, what, the two first rounders, right? So, it is two first rounders, right?

I mean, Philadelphia, that's the scary thing if you're a Washington fan, no matter how optimistic you may be about a new day. I mean, Philly is an organization. They're not just this team, you know, and that organization has shown the ability in a couple of years to basically retool itself and get back to the Super Bowl. So there's no reason to think that the Eagles, won't be in this conversation for the next few years to come.

Oh, definitely. They'll come back. I'm trying to find odds, actually, for, okay, here's the early odds for next year. Kansas City is the favorite. Buffalo is the second favorite. Then Buffalo, then Philly. So KC plus 550, San Francisco plus 600, bills plus 650. Eagles plus 800, Bengals plus 900,

Cowboys plus 1,600. Where's Washington? They're way down the list. 32, 31, 30, 29, 28. 27th pick plus 7,000 to win the Super Bowl next year. So there you go. Those are the odds on that. Yeah.

All right. Well, a couple of other quick things from the game. And then I want to get to a couple of Washington-related stories that I've talked about, but I don't have Tommy's opinion yet on them. First of all, at the end of the first half, I actually thought for a team that's so aggressive in Philadelphia, they threw a pass to gain well. He got stopped with 11 seconds to go. And they had one time out.

They could have called it right there and taken two shots at the end zone from the 15-yard line. And instead, they let the clock wind down and kicked a field goal with four seconds to go. I thought they could have been more aggressive there. I thought, as I said, the Miles Saunders incomplete, the fumble, the second fumble return by Bolton was the right call. I thought the Goddard substitution. The Goddard challenged by Andy Reid. Andy Reid blew a time out there.

They had so much time to look at that because there was a substitution reset because the refs didn't let Kansas City substituted. He had all of that time and then challenged that Goddard catch when it was clear that he had regained possession with that first. foot still down, so got two feet in. What else did I have on other kind of notes? Yeah, we've talked about the end of the game already. Yeah, a couple people tweeted me about Philly not calling a timeout before the two-minute

warning at the end of the game. Yeah, you didn't, there was only like 205 left after that play. I think they ran that play right before the two-minute. warning with like 207 to go. They could have called those plays earlier, timeouts earlier, but right at the two-minute warning, you can't do that because then you give Kansas City free license to throw the football. Bottom line is it cost them a few seconds, but the bottom line is the penalty killed all

hope for Philadelphia, the defensive penalty. Overall, though, I thought it was a really good game. Like this one's going to go down as one of the great five Super Bowls of all time. 3835, walk off field goal for the most part. It's just a shame that Jalen Hertz didn't get a last chance with the ball. Because we could have ended up with like an all-time overtime. 38-38, you know, somebody kicks a field goal, somebody comes down, scores a touchdown, 44, 41. Or, you know, you know, with the new overtime rules,

You know, you could have had them going back and forth with touchdown after touchdown forever. Really good game, though. Well, you couldn't have gone touchdown. I watched it with a couple of people who don't like to watch football, and they thought it was a great game. They were really into it. They thought it was very compelling and exciting. So it really was a great game.

Really good game. All right. I've got some things. I want to play the Sean Payton sound again from Friday. I commented on it on Saturday mornings podcast. By the way, I would remind anybody that didn't hear my interview with Josh Cosman from the New York Post on Friday to listen to that. Tim Legler was phenomenal on everything. Had him on, actually had a long conversation, split it into two podcasts.

He was great on his thoughts about the commander season. He's totally with Tommy that Ron Rivera committed malpractice by St. starting Carson Wentz, had a lot of thoughts about the offseason, and he was just great on the NBA, especially the whole Kyrie Irving Brooklyn Nets situation. Those were the two shows I did on Friday and then Saturday. But we got more to get to, which we will start to get to, right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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You're eligible to cash out immediately. Go to MyBooky.org. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. bet anything anytime anywhere with my bookie. All right. I'm going to play again like I did on Saturday show. The Sean Peyton comments about prospective owners of the commanders reaching out to him about coaching the team

and some of the nice things he said about his memories of Washington as a franchise. If you missed it, this was Sean Peyton on Friday with Adam Shine from Mad Dog Radio on XM Serious. Was there ever thought about? going back to New Orleans. That was out there. Yeah. And look, it's a, it's a trickier one because, look, it involves someone that I've hired Dennis Allen and we've worked together on two different stints. But I think in the end, for me,

it was looking really closely at these teams. And then there was a, you know, everyone's waiting to see what happens in Washington. And there were some interest from some potential ownership groups that are going to be bidden. on that currently have bit on that team that were getting ahead of the game saying, hey, if we get awarded this team, would you? And so there were a lot of different things that played. That's interesting. And that's a place that's had great tradition. Like when I came into the league, Adam, my first two years were Philly. Of course, yeah. My next four years were New York Giants. So you know all about that. And then my next three were the Cowboys.

My whole entire NFL career prior to New Orleans was NFC, NFC East. And what happened to that program. Was that one that made you think a little bit? Listen, that place, my uncle loved the Washington franchise. Last year, we go there to play. And I'm pregame, I'm looking up in the crowd. A third of the fans are Saints fans. And I'm like, what happened to this place? That was one of the six pillars. They used to fight for tickets in divorces. I mean, there's a 50-year wait list to get tickets. It said. That was a special place. It was. So it'll come back. Tommy, would you think of Sean Pays? Peyton saying that the prospective bidders on the team that he had been, you know, reached out to.

It, by the way, backs up a little bit of some of the reporting from that week heading into championship Sunday, the Diana Rusini, kind of cryptic tweet about, you know, there's somebody lurking in the wings if they get their ducks in a row. You know, everybody thought she was referring to Washington. Rex Ryan remember saying the possibility of Peyton and Tom Brayton. Brady to Washington. So maybe there was some truth to that reporting, but what did you think? Well, I mean, I think it's something that I'm sure I brought up earlier that if I was a bidder, an interested bidder for the team, this is a phone call I would make. I would have my team in place ready to go.

And whatever Sean Pate, look, you have to understand what Ted Leonsis refused to understand when he bought the Wizards. Not a similar thing, but there's some similarities. You have to make a move quickly to tell everybody that it's not going to be business as usual anymore. Even if it's a costly move, you have to do it. If you're going to buy this team, you have to do something quickly to say there's a new sheriff in town. Things have changed. It's not business as usual.

And Sean Taiton and the cost. you know, that comes with a hiring of Sean Payton certainly would have fallen under that category. Would have been a signal to anybody who's interested in buying a ticket to go see this team in the future that things are going to be different. So I think we've discussed that beforehand. So it makes sense. I think I read somewhere, I don't know if it's accurate, that Sean Payton is interested in Rex Ryan. Yes.

I saw that as well. I think Jay Glazer reported that. Yeah, so there's your connection that gives Rex Ryan's speculation a little bit more validity to it. You know? And if that's the case, would Tom Brady have retired if that was going to happen because Tom Brady was part of the Rex Ryan prediction about coming to Washington? So that's real interesting. Rex Ryan, Sean Payton, and Tom Brady. We could have been on the verge of having them at the end of March.

We could have been six weeks away from that. That would have been good for us. That's wild. And if you're a hopeful Washington football fan looking for change, the speculation that people are talking about hiring coaches for this team, who want to own this team would indicate that, you know, that there's real movement in the sale of this team. Yeah, I mean, my reaction was number one. I thought Sean Payton was a little bit low rent, you know, mentioning that.

He's the head coach in Denver. Ron Rivera is the head coach here in Washington. Basically what he was saying is, hey, Ron, you're lucky. You're lucky I took the Denver job. But more importantly, is that Ron Rivera, if he makes a lot of that, if he makes a lot of the it to 2023, the opener, which by the way, you now have to wonder about Eric Bianamy and the OC search. Like, you know, if new ownership takes over, let's just say at the end of March and decides to clean house. I mean, what if Eric B. Enemy commits to being the offensive

coordinator this week? It may be the shortest tenure of all time. So that's why maybe the Ravens and other teams have a chance, even though Schaefter reported, you know, Bianemy and didn't even mention the Ravens in his tweet yesterday. But Ron Rivera, if he makes it to the 2023 opener, is the number one most likely coach, you know, or the first coach to be fired in 2023. He's on the hottest of hot seats. And I also think what you just said is true, too, you know, but I say that. And, you know, there's a lot of conflicting information on the sale.

And in my follow-up interview, in follow-up to my interview with Josh Cosman, which is why I urge people to listen to it, I talked to several people who said he was spot on on a number of things, specifically the price. The price of the franchise, and I think I explain this a little bit on Saturday's podcast. But there are just so many moving pieces, like when we think about this, big picture we think, all right, it's being reported that it's, you know, $7 billion Snyder wants, and the bids were at $6.3 billion. Well, the athletic reported that those bids are kind of non-binding, you know, expressions of interest. It's kind of like you go in with your realtor and you tell the owners, hey, I'm really interested in the owner's agent, you know, because it's an upper bracket home, says, well, we need some qualification. Are you qualified to buy this home? And they provide that.

That's kind of what that was. and now the next step is, well, they actually put the earnest money down, where if you don't go through with the deal, you'll lose some money. That's kind of where they are on the next step. But one of the things that was pointed out to me in a couple of conversations I had, and I got a bunch of calls from various people after this interview with the guy from the New York Post, is that Josh Harris, number one, apparently is not liquid enough to buy the team right now at a $6 billion price tag.

but he owns the 76ers, and he paid $280 million for the Sixers in 2011. And the Phoenix Suns were just sold for $4 billion. So if he really wants Washington, he has a 100% ability with that and other things he owns to get liquid enough to buy the commanders. Number two, in terms of that mystery bidder, because the other four that initially expressed interest apparently have gone by this wayside time, they essentially look at, at the prospectus and said there's no way that this team is worth this much. And they bowed out. The mystery buyer, I would just point you in the direction of a sports owner. I think the league

wants somebody who's already a sports owner if it's not Bezos. And so, and I would not think local. I would think rest of the league. Also, lots of moving pieces. Like what's involved in the sale? Is Landover involved in the sale? A new owner, Tommy, think about it. May not want landover of the stadium. They may just ask to rent it for three or four years until the new stadiums built. So if you cut that out and Snyder keeps that property, that lowers the price. Is Ashburn available? Ashburn should be available. And then apparently Snyder really values the sports betting license that he just got and opened up that book at FedEx Field. Would that be included? And then there's another part of this altogether, which I think is the most interesting part,

and I'm pissed that I didn't think of it before. Denver sold for $4.65 billion. We keep assuming Washington's a much better situation than Denver. But the new owner has to build a new stadium, billions, okay? They didn't have to do that in Denver. Number two is, and this was something emphasized to me, In Washington, they have to resuscitate a fan base, something the Walton's didn't have to do in Denver. They've got to spend a lot of money on what they call customer acquisition, marketing, to get the fan base back.

They're not buying the Redskins. They're buying an expansion team. They're buying an NFL market at this point. Now, you could make the case if you were Snyder. He would never make this case. Hey, once I'm gone, everybody's coming back, you know, that kind of thing. But the point is that this market is problematic in trying to get to the numbers they're trying to get to sell it. And a lot of people around the league, a lot of the prospective bidders look at it and say,

it's not that much different than Denver because of the incredible experience. of a new stadium and then the expense of basically a startup business. They almost view it as like, okay, we're getting an NFL franchise in a really favorable demographic-wise market, but all of the brand and the customers that were there, it's gone. We have to start over. I think it's really interesting. You know, you're right.

You are right about that. something I've thought about in terms of this. First of all, in terms of the stadium, people who operate under the assumption, you know, once Dan Snyder's out of the way, you know, the stadium will just be smooth sailing. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, it, well, Dan Snyder's absence turns the stadium from an impossibility to a possibility. But not a probability, right? But not a probability.

Look, forget Virginia. Please, everyone, just forget Virginia. They might as well be drawing pictures with crayons over there. It's not going to go in Virginia. It's Maryland or the district, and most likely the district. But the path to a stadium, even if you have an owner who's beloved or whose people can't wait to do things for, the past to a stadium in a district is very complicated, and it's going to be difficult no matter who owns the team. Okay. What's interesting that you brought up is something that I'm going to probably write about in a next day or two is, look, I know everyone thinks Jim Ursay is crazy, and he probably is. But he was crazy enough to wake everybody up to the fact that, yeah, this team really is going to be for sale when he made his comments about, you know, about Dan Snyder after that owner's meeting a few months ago.

He was actually, you know, not the canary in a call mine, but a guy who was letting everybody know that it's not going to be business as usual, that Snyder is being pressured to sell the team, and in fact now the team is for sale. Jim Ursay said in September, he talked about with Bloomberg the possible sale of the Seattle Seahawk. Yes. You know, Paul Allen, the owner had passed away.

And now it's in a truss. Right. And he thinks that in the next year or two, the Seahawks are going to be for sale. That's a tremendously attractive franchise for anyone interested in buying into the NFL. Including Jeff Bezos. Yes, you have this rabid fan base there. I mean, the fans, that's the 12th man in Seattle. You have a stadium that's not bra.

brand new, but it certainly seems to be, you know, I think it's like 15 years old, and in much better condition than what you'd be inheriting if you wound up getting the stadium, you know, the, you know, ghost town field. So, I mean, and Bezos,

you know, a team in Seattle and a Pacific Northwest with all the granola crunchers out there, that may be attractive to him. So if the Seahawks wind up put up for sale, since they are in a trust, and everyone believes, that will wind up being likely in 2024 at the latest.

Well, you know, you've got a franchise that you can buy, go sit in your ownership and enjoy right away as opposed to one. You've got to buy and then start rolling up your sleeves and say, now how do I turn this into a real NFL franchise? That's a problem. You're right. The other thing I didn't mention to is that, you know, and this goes hand in hand too with the whole brand change, which you know, you know, I railed against all of these, you know,

activists who said, oh, it'll be a boon for revenue once they change the name. The net profit on this franchise is dropped from 205 million five years ago to 150 million today. Another thing that was startling, I think, when some of these bidders looked at the books and said, yeah, this thing's going in the absolute wrong direction. I would also point out that Cosman from the New York Post pointed out that Bezos has made it very clear that there are two franchises he wants to buy. Seattle or Washington. Seattle, because obviously he lived there.

He built Amazon there. Washington now because he's got a big presence here, including a beautiful mansion in Upper Northwest D.C. And so those are the two teams. Now, all of the hand-wringing over the valuation and what Snyder wants and what he thinks it's worth, it does concern me. There's no doubt because I think he's going to want to look good in the sale. And if he ends up selling it for something close to what Denver got, he may view that as, I'm going to look awful. I'm going to look like I totally messed up the sale of this team now, too. But Bezos lurks.

And Bezos, you know, can overpay a little bit if he wants. wants this team. And then, by the way, all of the jurisdiction financing, private, you know, financing or public financing, all of that goes by the wayside, because he can just buy the land and build the stadium on his own. Not that he'd want to, you know, he'd want, you know, D.C. to participate. But, you know, the best way, right, to get this thing back is to get rid of Snyder and build a downtown stadium and then start winning some games. And the branding, uh, and the branding, uh, will be interesting as well. All right, I want to ask you about the commercials

to finish up this show from the Super Bowl. We'll do that next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Actually, Jesse, it's just basic ingredients. We don't eat our own supply. Mr. Why? Jesse. Everyone's going to want to taste,

and I know Jist they've got to talk to. What are these? We call them popcorners. Say their name. Popcorners. How much of this stuff do you have? We've got six signatures flavors, y'all. Seven!

You make seven! Seven works. Popcorners. Break into something good. That was the commercial that I liked, Tommy. The Breaking Bad commercial with not only Walter and Jesse, but Tuko as well, was in that commercial. What a nice touch. That's a great touch.

What a nice touch to have Tucco. in there. The product is Pop Corners? You think that's a Doritos product? I didn't even look into this. I probably should have. But that was my favorite and that was your favorite too, right? Yeah. And absolutely. I might

want to point out, Tucko, which was a great character in both Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. He's not the original Tucco. The original Tucco was Eli Wallach in the good, the bad, the ugly.

his name was tucco when I think a tucco I think that you like Wollock and the good and the bad and the ugly for those of you who have never watched that give yourself a gift and watch the good to bad and the ugly but yeah that's the only commercial

that stood out for me there are so many great tucco scenes in breaking bad but I think my favorite tucco scene is with Mike in Better Call Saul when Mike traps him into you know beating the shit out of them with the cops on the way that that is a great scene

And so we're not going to spend a lot of time in the commercials. I will tell you that I thought that Bradley Cooper's commercial with his mom was kind of funny, but my God, is she short? I can't believe how short she is. And then the, hold on, there was one other one. There was a commercial that made it appear as if the remote control had popped up the, you know, the guide to all of the other. you know, Hulu and Netflix and all of your other choices. And I walked, which fooled everybody in our room.

Including me, because I came back in and I yelled at Corbyn, my son. I'm like, well, you turn it back? I think the game's back on. He's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, what are you doing? Give me the remote back. He's like, I don't have the remote. And so I got completely duped by it. And then Corbyn was like on social media. He's like, you wouldn't believe that everybody got completely fooled by this. And everybody apparently is saying that they yelled at their wife or their kids to give them the remote back,

which was kind of funny. The dumbest dad was binky dad. That was the dumbest dad I've ever, ever seen. Totally stupid. And then Michael and Sons was a local ad that ran. You know, I think Michael and Son is a plumber. And Tommy, you weren't here for this because this was probably a local spot.

You know, if you can't, if you can't do it, we can, I think is their slogan. And they had a big balloon that they popped as the ad, which was really, really well done. Meantime, what the hell are we shooting down all over the country? How many more things have we shot down today? What's going on? Anyway, you got anything else? Did you like Rihanna? It was okay.

I mean, it's not my music. I had no problem with it. I thought it was funny. All the guys dressed in hazmat seats who were part of the show, you know. But I didn't have any problem. I'm impressed she did it while she was pregnant. Yeah, well, that was the surprise. I mean, my wife and I were sitting there.

Well, clearly, she's pregnant, right? But we didn't know if it had been reported or not. It was reported afterwards that indeed. indeed she was pregnant. I like Rihanna. It's been a while. She's 34 years old now. It was fine. I saw some people saying it's the best ever. No, it isn't. That was not the best ever. You two was great. Prince to me is the number one all-time half-time show in the rain in Miami.

I thought Bruno Mars. He was excellent. He was excellent. He was excellent. Yes. 100%. He was great. And remember, you and I used to get the opportunity. We did a couple of these together. Maybe I did a couple of them without you, but when the halftime performer actually holds a press conference on Thursday of Super Bowl week and then plays an acoustic set. And you and I remember we went and saw Daltry and Townsend. We saw The Who? That was pretty good. That were songs acoustically. They did on stage right in front of us.

How good was that? They were so good. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You got anything else? Well, there's newsbreaking in the past seven minutes. The Washington Post is reporting that Ted Lerner, the guy who brought the Washington Nationals,

the real estate magnet here in Washington, has died at the age of 97. Yes, the cause of what's complications from pneumonia, a national spokeswoman, said. So that's a big deal. I mean, he was a philanthropist, well-known throughout the community, an important businessman, who actually tried to buy the Redskins at one point, and the Orioles, and wound up by the nationals. and, you know, manage to get them to a World Series championship. There's a lot of flaws in Ted Lerner's ownership,

but you can't argue with the resume that includes a World Series title. 97 years old. Ted Lerner, yeah, I'm seeing it right now. Breaking News, Ted Lerner has passed away. You know, we can spend the next time we're together if you want, talking about Ted Lerner in more detail and his ownership. What I would ask you right now is do you think anything changes with respect to the team being up for sale? I know that the more recent reporting was now that perhaps they're not going to sell the team or if they do,

they're just going to bring on a minority share group to take a percentage of the business. but does anything change dramatically one way or the other with his passing? You know, I don't know. I can't really say what I wrote earlier this last week, I think still holds that the complication of the sale is Masson, and Masson are the Orioles. So as long as Peter Angelo's is still breathing, and the Orioles, are owned by the Angelo's family, I don't think the nationals are going to get sold.

I think once Peter Angelo's moves on and he's been incapacitated for quite some time now, it's in his will from very good sources that the team is going to be put up for sale. And Major League Baseball will dictate who buys that team and will have to include

untangling the mass and mess. So I don't think the national get sold until the Orioles get sold. I'm sticking by that. Man, he got to see, he got to see the Nationals win the World Series. Yeah. Yeah. You know, this is a guy, correct me if I'm wrong, right? He is a, the learners are born and raised Washingtonians. I mean, they are from here. They have lived here. They've done business here. This is Ted Lerner grew up in D.C., right?

Pretty sure he did. We should know that. Yeah, I think so. He was an usher at Griffith Stadium when the senator used to play there. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and at 97, that means he was born in 26 or 25, which means, you know, he was a young boy when they were last in a World Series in 1933 before making it in 2019.

So I don't know if he was a huge baseball fan as a kid. I imagine most kids were baseball fans in 1933 because it was the top sport along with boxing and horse racing. But, well, sympathies to the learners. And it's quite a life. That's for sure. 97 years old amassed just an absolute fortune via their real estate. state, you know, holdings and empire. And, um, you know, brought, look, bottom line is we hadn't had baseball here in 34 years. And the learners helped to bring baseball back to D.C. They built a

beautiful new stadium. Um, it's still not my favorite location for the stadium, but I think it's a, it's a good location and a really good stadium. And it's amazing now. We've had baseball here, okay for eight. I think this will be season 18, something like that. So it's no longer like, oh, you know, Washington now has a team. No, they've won a World Series. They've been in a lot of playoff series.

They have, you know, they got some history. All right. I will talk to you later in the week. Thanks for doing this on short notice. I did. I had to scratch the plan that was in place, change that. And Tommy, as always, was available for me. So I will talk to you later in the week. Thanks.

Okay, boss. All right, back tomorrow. Perhaps with Cooley and his recap of the Super Bowl.