The Kevin Sheehan Show - Teddy Bridgewater to the Redskins?

Episode Date: February 14, 2019

Kevin and Thom talk about the possibility of the Redskins targeting Teddy Bridgewater in free agency. Also on the show, Skins' stadium talk, the Wizards, the Terps, Joe Flacco, Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum, and more. <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. You're listening to The Sports Fix. Yep, Tommy is here. It's Thursday. The show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com and tell them we told you to call. Aaron is here to happy Valentine's Day to both of you. Happy Valentine's Day to you, sweetie. It's good to see you, sweetheart. Thanks to all that reached out and said, yes, they too remembered school holidays for Lincoln's birthday and Washington's birthday before we had the whole President's Day weekend thing. But most did not have off on Lincoln's birthday. No, I got a lot of people that agreed with me that said they remembered, too, having Lincoln's birthday off and Washington, Washington's birthday. I got a lot of people that said we didn't get Lincoln's birthday off. A lot of people got back to me and said they did.

So in Montgomery. It's probably a D.C. thing. Well, it was growing up in Montgomery County, all right, and going to elementary school in the 70s, we got Lincoln's birthday off on February 12th and then got Washington's birthday off on the 22nd. You know, I'm thinking the Lincoln's birthday was much more of a north of the Mason-Dixon line holiday. Maybe it was. Maybe it was not celebrated in the deep south. But you didn't grow up in the deep south.

No, I did. No, I did. I don't understand why that happened. All right, we have just a lot of things to touch on. But we're going to start with the Redskins because I did want to get your reaction to Governor Hogan in Maryland essentially saying the MGM, the National Harbor spot is going to be a no-go for the Redskins. What's your reaction to it? I don't know what the motivation is for Hogan to do this publicly at this point. I know you have speculated on the podcast that in a way, whatever talks at the American,

and had with the Redskins, the state felt like they wanted to back the Redskins off, maybe gain a little leverage by saying, well, we're out of it at this point. I don't understand what that leverage is because it's a simple deal. I mean, with the Redskins part of the deal for the state is simple. You know, you get the land. You pay for the stadium. We pay for the infrastructure. I understand that.

So I don't understand. It's not a leverage thing. It's more of a posturing thing because the discussions perhaps have not gone as simply as you just described. That's the position that D.C. will take, that Maryland will take. If Virginia were involved, which they're not, they would take, which is, hey, we got you the land. You're building the stadium, period. And we'll build some infrastructure. We'll get some roads.

So it makes it easy for people to get in and out of the parking lots here. But what I'm saying to you. you is that I think perhaps there's a chance that whatever conversations have taken place, that they didn't go to the liking of Hogan and they got frustrated and said, you know what, to hell with all of you. Remember, they didn't say they were out forever. They said they were out for now. Right.

Right. And I don't know if the MGM has any particular interest or influence in terms of seeing this happen. I don't think they particularly care. know if they do one way or the other to have the Redskins as their neighbor. It seems like a natural marriage in many ways with legalized sports betting coming everywhere. So I don't know what the business pressure will be or the business benefits other than the tax revenue for Maryland to go ahead and be in the Redskins Stadium business. The D.C.C. is so complicated right now because they didn't get the federal legislation that they wanted to change

the use of the land before the Congress switched at the end of year because they basically because they were locked out right there was a lot you know yeah so now it's it's that's not going to happen probably uh and the whole premise of dc is they would sell dan sneider on on having the development rights for valuable waterfront property along the anacosta that that just sat there with nothing on it for years in exchange for basically, you know, him paying for the stadium, a new stadium at the RFK site. I don't think they're going to be able to make that offer to them. They still may be able to make the RFK offer site, but Snyder's going to have to pay the freight for everything else, and they just give him the land. I think that's the best that

district will do. And to be honest with you, I think. I think the Redskins champion in this, it's Jack Evans, the district council member. He's got his own issues. Yeah, he has his own issues. I know that they felt that going into this Redskins stadium thing on the city council, they had a vote that was set up pretty much like the baseball vote, seven to six. I'm not sure that's the case anymore. And here's part of the problem.

And I think what happened with Maryland is, just as feasible. And again, I have no particular inside information. Nobody wants to stand next to Dan Snyder. Well, yeah, I don't think anybody's going to do this because they like the team. But, but I mean, I think sometimes when you have a situation like this, what you need to do is you need to sell. You need to have a larger-in-life presence to basically make a sales pitch. Edward Bennett Williams, who was one of the biggest, larger-in-life figures there was of the 20th century, the trial lawyer, when the Orioles were trying to get the new stadium in Baltimore

and they were looking for lottery funding, they had to convince the state legislature to approve that. And Williams, who was dying of cancer, had to go in front of the state legislature in Maryland and basically make the pitch and win them over in order to do that. And I think in a situation like this sometimes, you need someone like that.

And Dan Snyder's not that guy. There are a couple of jokes off of that. There are a couple of wishes off of that. Redskinned fans would have. I know. But we're not mean-spirited in that way. No, we're not going to do that. But Snyder's not that guy.

No, he's not. You know, but we keep hearing what a great salesman he is. So let me. What a great closer he is. Let me address that. Well, if he's a great salesman. and he's a great closer, this needs to be his biggest sales pitch. Let me address that.

That's an interesting thing that you just brought up, because over the years, I think all of us have heard what a great salesman, Dan Snyder is. And, you know, to have been the entrepreneur that he was early on, he had to have been able to sell. Yes. Just understand to attract some of the investors that he attracted to his early business. businesses, he had to be able to sell. I mean, he must have been not only a good salesman,

he must have also been relentless and energetic and, and, you know, all of the things that tend to make up a successful entrepreneur. However, in recent years, it's not that he isn't a good salesman. This is, by the way, based on conversations, but not knowing for sure. So I'm saying this as more of a gut feel based on being what I would call a keen observer of the human condition over the course of my lifetime. And I feel that you are as well. I think that he's become a recluse, Tommy, in I would say at least the last five years, as it relates to public speaking, as it relates to apparently league meetings. There is something going on where he's very uncomfortable as a communicator in front of larger groups.

And I think that's one of the reasons Bruce is here and continues to stay here. I think Bruce has been this security blanket. Bruce has more relationships in the league. He's been more of a presence in league meetings. I think Dan felt that he's better than I am in front of the public in these press conferences. And now Bruce has become a bit of a recluse in recent years. and they've pushed Doug out there. Now, it's not probably for the same reasons.

Bruce understands he's under siege to a certain degree. And, you know, and really he shouldn't be that fearful because the few opportunities that he's had in smaller settings have been a joke. Yeah. You know, like on Radio Row, Super Bowl Week. I mean, you know, he landed in very safe places. So he shouldn't be worried about that.

But I think that Dan is still a great salesperson, but my hunch is that he's a very good salesperson in a very small setting, one-on-one, one-on-a-couple with a group of people, including people like Bruce, there with him. But if he's got to get up and he's got to communicate and he's got to influence a large gathering, that would be a problem, I think. And I don't even think he'd do it. I don't think he would. I don't think he'd be very good at it at this point. and they don't, again, what do they have to sell a jurisdiction? What do they have to pitch to say, boy, you should build us a stadium because blank? Well, some people would say because if not, we're leaving the market.

That'll never happen. Right. So no one's going to take that seriously. No one would take that seriously. And I mentioned this yesterday that if it were five years ago or four years ago and there were no teams in Los Angeles and you know, he's got a lot of Hollywood connections, that that threat might be a little bit more legitimate. It's not going to be legitimate. Now, where the hell would he move the team? Like, what markets right now?

London. Well, that would be the one. You know what? I mentioned, you know, San Diego and St. Louis. There's not a North American market that is so desperate and would be such an absolute gold mine to move into. But Rick Snyder, actually, in one of his columns mentioned. London just the other day as a possibility.

You know, look, I went back and looked in my files for when Cook was trying to get a stadium built. And that was a 10-year process from the time he started until FedEx opened. And Snyder's walking in the same path that Cook did. We all love Jack Kent Cook and the memory of Jack Kent Cook. but he was known as the bully billionaire. He made a lot of enemies. And Cook, in the midst of a Super Bowl run from 87 to 92, couldn't get a stadium deal finished.

You know? So if Cook couldn't do it, who turned off a lot of people, but not to the level that Snyder does, couldn't get it done at that time and wound up, again, taking the, probably the least attractive situation, a piece of land in PG County that was difficult to get to

and building a stadium quickly out of a kit he got at Home Depot, what makes you think that Snyder's going to do any better than what Cook did? All I can say is I'm terribly proud to have won two out of three Super Bowls and the entire credit goes to Joe Gibbs to Bobby Bather, the assistant coaching staff, and a magnificent band of football player. I hope to be in a Super Bowl next year. There he is, the owner that we all loved, but he was a complex man.

Yes, he was. And he wasn't easy to deal with. No, and for whoever you think was right or wrong, I mean, Cook had this great relationship with Doug Wilder in Virginia, the governor at the time. That stadium didn't get built because people, people in particularly in the Alexandria-Arlington area, they fight everything.

He had a falling out with Sharon Pratt Kelly, you know, because she was a woman didn't deal with Cook very well. And so that didn't get done. But, you know, Marion Barry was the mayor before that. And for four years, Cook couldn't get a deal done with him either. So, I mean, it wasn't just Sharon Pratt Kelly. And then he wound up settling because he felt time was running out.

He wound up settling for PG-KKKing. county. And ironically, I think Snyder's only option is going to be to basically stay where he is on the property that he owns. So is that your prediction here on February 14th that they're going to have to stay in Landover on the current spot and they'll tear something down and rebuild it there. And then where are they going to play for the two years while it's being built? Well, that's interesting. That's interesting. They could play at Birdfield. I heard they used to You can't call a bird field anymore, a bird stadium.

I heard they used to have football there, do they? Well, actually, they might have pretty good football there coming up in the next few years. By the way, I was sitting next to Mike Loxley at the Maryland game. Oh, you were? Yes, I was. I was. I mean, not right now. He was across the aisle from me.

Did you talk to him? No, I didn't. I don't know him for Matt. Why didn't you introduce yourself to him? He was actually. He's actually a really engaging good guy. Because so many people were walking up and talking to him. And there were a couple of media that talked to him,

and then Maryland PR kind of shushed him away. I mean, I wasn't there to talk about my thought. No, you were. And to be honest with you, if I was to go up and talk to Mike Loxley, I say, coach, I wrote a lot of bad stuff about this program. So I don't know if you want to talk to me. Well, I mean, that's all right. I think a guy like him would actually understand it.

I don't think he would be overly sensitive. But I don't know. Anyway, so that's your prediction. My prediction is. Because I want to move on from the stadium thing. My prediction is I think Snyder, nobody wants to stand on a stage with Snyder and say, yeah, we've got a deal. I think it'll get built in D.C., a new one in D.C., or it'll end up being at the National Harbor site. I think one of those two, and I think we'll have resolution on it within six months.

And somehow, some way, it's going to be, it's going to be financed. It's going to be built primarily out of his pocket. Yes. That's probably what has. changed more than anything else, although I don't even know if that's a significant change. I think that we were heading in that direction anyway. Again, I think the deal for DC has always been that. Right. Agreed. But the carrot they were going to give him was a chance to make money on that developmental property along the river. Now, they don't have that carrot right now.

I don't see that they'll end up in Landover. By the way, all of this, for those of you that have thought that, you know, oh, we're a few years away from a new stadium. No, this won't happen. They won't be playing in a new stadium until 2027. I mean, we're eight years away from them actually playing in a new stadium. By the way, while you were talking about, you referred to a Rick Snyder column. Yes. So Jeremy Huber, who used to work at the old old station and is a friend of texted me, he texted me, Rick Snyder did a poll on Twitter. Would you accept the old Cleveland Browns deal of Redskins leaving and an expansion team arriving a few years later?

76% say yes, 24% say no. And I did talk about this yesterday because I thought the two interesting reactions to the Maryland news were, who cares? Meaning a new stadium is not going to get me back. You know, not with this group of people. Winning's going to get me back, but a new stadium. And, you know, Tommy, there's been all this research done that if you're a down-in-the-dumps franchise, what the best chance of being lifted back up is a new stadium, star player, or significant winning.

And in the case of this franchise where they are right now, it's significant winning. That's what'll change it. A new stadium... There needs to be another word added to, though. What? Significant consistent winning. Yes, but I mean a winner with a star in a new stadium would be to trifecta. Yes, it would.

But they've gotten themselves into a place that a lot of other franchises really haven't been in. And I'm talking about the spot they are in right now. I'm sure Cleveland's been there. I'm sure the Raiders have been there. There are other various franchises that have been in at True Rock Bottom, the Cardinals, etc. If we're talking about the Raiders, you just mentioned the Raiders, they're leaving. They're leaving. Okay.

You know, I don't think there's... And Oakland doesn't want them to leave. No, and I don't think there's been any situation where you had a franchise that was such an elite franchise. Right. Such an elite. I mean, the Browns, it's a great football city. It was a great franchise, but they hadn't won a championship since 1964. Right.

I mean, the fall the Redskins have had from the Super Bowl era is unlike any other fall in the end. history of the league, I think. One thing before I get to a quarterback discussion about the Redskins and a particular story that was written on ESPN this morning that I wanted to touch on briefly, when you were here Tuesday, I didn't ask you about what you thought about the various reports. John Kime had it, Julie Donaldson, the NBC Sports Washington people had it, about the discussions between Adrian Peterson and the Redskins. your position about whether or not the Redskins should try to re-sign Adrian Peterson.

Well, again, from a football point of view, I think they should. We have no, look, everyone was hyped up about Darius Geis. Before he got hurt, we had no guarantee he was an NFL running back. We thought he was. I agree with you. He looked like he was going to be. I agree with you on this. So even before he got hurt, we didn't know.

Okay, so, and now you're going into a situation where whoever the quarterback is, they're going to need help. Whether it's Colt McCoy, a free agent they bring in, or a rookie quarterback, whoever the quarterback is for the Redskins next year, they're going to need help offensively. That's why you've got to resign Adrian Peterson. I wouldn't resign Adrian Peterson, but my strategy is to blow the whole thing up. I would blow the whole thing up, and I'd trade Ryan Kerrigan, I would trade Trent Williams. I wouldn't be thinking about anybody at 33 years old, and I'd thank him for his services because he was great last year at times. Why can't he be Rigo?

Well, he can be Rigo, but you're not, but Rigo had the hogs in front of them, had Joe Thysman at quarterback, had a Hall of Fame receiver and Art Monk, and had Ritchie Pettibone and Joe Gibbs as his coaches. So by the time they are ready to win with the new coaching staff and new players and hopefully a new team president, Adrian Peterson is going to be 37 years old or 36 years old. I'm just thinking about next year. Darius Geis next year.

And if you really are interested in a running back, you know, there are some guys out there if Darius Geis isn't going to be ready. Go get Tavin Coleman for less money. Anyway, I'm not going to have a problem if they resign them. I just don't, please don't commit a lot of money to Adrian Peterson. So there was a story that I was reading early this morning. and it's, you know, ESPN and everybody this time of year, it's every, it's three big NFL stories a day. There must be, you know, a meeting on the day after, or shortly before the Super Bowl that says, right, right when the Super Bowl's over, we got to have all of our, you know, columns and ideas ready to roll, because we need three of them a day, three NFL stories.

It's the only thing that probably truly draws eyeballs. And so every day there is which team's going to sign, you know, who's lay beyond? Bell going to end up with? Who's Antonio Brown getting traded to? What's the quarterback carousel? And how's that going to play out? Well, this morning, there was a discussion about Teddy Bridgewater and the predictive column on where he is going to end up. And I was really interested in the fact that a lot of people believe that Teddy Bridgewater is going to end up in Washington. It was, the question was asked to a lot of ESPN reporters, beat reporters for teams and just NFL writers. If free agent quarterback Teddy Bridgewater isn't in New Orleans, in week one, he'll be in, fill in the blank.

Matt Bowen, who I'm a big fan of Matt Bowen. I think he really knows football. Matt Bowen wrote, Washington. He said, drafting a quarterback on day one or day two should be on the table for the Redskins. With Alex Smith potentially unable to play, look for Washington to target Teddy Brown. Ridgewater on a two-year deal similar to the deal that Sam Bradford landed in Arizona last year,

which was a two-year $20 million, I think it was a $20 million per season deal, but there was a lot of incentives in that. And it was structured without a lot of it necessarily guaranteed for cap reasons. It was a team favorable deal. Then let me go through the rest of them, because I, I was surprised how many said Washington. Mina Kimes. I actually like her. Washington. Jason Reed, who writes for the undefeated.

Washington. Mike Sando. Washington. Kevin Seaford, who I actually like a lot. Washington. Seafurt writes, Bridgewater won't find a better chance to play regularly in 2019,

assuming the Jags land Nick Foles. The Redskins won't find many better options to replace Alex Smith. Although he hasn't started a regular season, in game since 2015, Bridgewater showed during the 2018 preseason that his right knee is healthy enough to support a return to the field. No other team had more than one guess. Actually, the Giants. Gratziano thought the Giants for Bridgewater and Field Yates thought the Giants for Bridgewater. So you had four Washingtons among the group. And we talked a little bit about

Teddy Bridgewater after the Alex Smith thing. I've always been a Teddy Bridgewater fan. I always felt like coming out of college and the few years that he had as a starter in Minnesota that eventually he would develop into a good starting NFL quarterback. But when I watched him in that one game that he started for Drew Breeze when they had clinched everything in the end, he looked terrible.

Yeah, he did. He looked awful. Now, that's one of those games where they're resting a lot of people and it's hard to judge or take a lot out of that game, just as it should be to take a lot out of preseason games. I'd have to be really convinced that Teddy Bridgewater is completely fine health-wise and is back to where he was before a devastating injury, you know, when he was in Minnesota. But I do like Teddy Bridgewater, and as a fan of the team trying to think optimistically, at least, you know, in moments about what's the best case, if they're not,

going to use the blowup option in 2019 and they're going to try to put together the best team possible. Teddy Bridgewater would be on my list. I would consider him if you could get him for a deal that, you know, already accounting for 20 plus million with Alex Smith in 2019 where you don't end up with 20% of your cap dedicated to the quarterback position, which is going to be hard for them to do. But they could structure something with Bridgewater where hopefully, it wouldn't be a massive cap hit for the next two seasons. I like him. I would be for this. In the mindset, Tommy, I have two mindsets. I want them to blow it up. That's what I want. I think that's the best course of action. I don't think they'll do that because they think they're so close. So then you

move over to, okay, you don't want to blow it up. That's the best option. Fine. How do we put together the best team for 2019? I don't think you do that personally with Colt McCoy or Josh Johnson. So, and the rookie quarterback, it's possible, but the likelihood is whoever you draft at quarterback, if you draft a quarterback in the first round at 15, more likely than not, he's not going to give you what Teddy Bridgewater could give you in 2019 and 2020 as a veteran. More likely than not. I think Colt McCoy is going to be your starting quarterback. I don't think if he's not, it's a Dan Snyder-driven move.

I think that Colt will be the starter going into the season. I think they'll draft a quarterback, not necessarily at 15, not necessarily in the first round. But I think that Jay, look, if they didn't think that Colt, I mean, as fragile as Colt McCoy seems to be, and he seems to be very fragile. He's been their backup now for what, four or five years? Okay?

I mean, you're not keeping a backup quarterback on the roster and keep paying him because you don't think he can stay healthy. So I think that Colt McCoy is going to be the starter going into next year. Teddy Bridgewater, they're not bringing in Teddy Bridgewater and have him start over Colt McCoy. They're just not going to do that. Um, I don't think they're going to either. I mean, it's different from me saying that I would, that I would be okay with it.

Right. Um, I don't think they'll do it either. Um, and I think that you are right. I think that they're going to draft somebody. Yeah. Now I, you know, now I'm contradicting my, my bold prediction from a couple of weeks ago where I said, I don't think they'll draft somebody at 15. because my reasons for that were somewhat exaggerated because I said, look, Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder, Dan Snyder basically middle-fingered the fan base on Bruce Allen,

and now everybody's telling him he's got to draft a quarterback, so he's going to do the same thing in the draft. He's going to say, don't tell me what to do, and then he'll draft a receiver. He likes drafting quarterbacks. He doesn't like firing. So I think that next year's starter, to start this season probably comes from either it's either Josh Johnson or Colt McCoy. I don't know where you get this Josh Johnson love. I don't have love for him. I think that...

I just think they're going to try to resign him. If they bring in a... And have him compete with Colt. If they bring in a quarterback, it's going to be to back up Colt McCoy. I mean, Josh Johnson is not a capable backup. Josh Johnson is not a capable starter. But that's not the point. Either is Colt McCoy. And in their mind, they like both. They like Colt McCoy and they like Josh Johnson. Except Josh Johnson was their fourth quarterback. I know that. But when he played the game against Tennessee and the game against Jacksonville, those two starts, you could argue that the game against Jacksonville may have been the most effective start by a quarterback the entire season.

That's not true because Alex Smith had a good start against Green Bay. You might as well have been playing the cons in the longest yard. Not Tennessee. He played well against Tennessee. But a Jacksonville game was true. But a good defense that it just shut out the Colts two weeks before. But an absolute mess of a team at that point. I think if you do go in with Colt McCoy as your starting quarterback, knowing his injury history,

you've got to have a better backup than Josh Johnson. Oh, I think they want, I would, I think they're talking to Josh Johnson right now. I think that they are going to try to get Josh Johnson to sign, you know, a heavy incentive-laden deal, not a lot of guaranteed money. That's what they would like to do. Josh Johnson didn't put himself in position with two starts to have this big market. No.

All right. But he did put himself in position to have, team that he started three games for want him back. I don't know how this is going to go. I wanted to just say to you, what's your prediction? But I don't even know what my prediction is. I think it's going to be Johnson and McCoy competing for the starting job in training camp and Colt McCoy winning the job and starting the opener in 2019.

And still drafting. With a quarterback that. they may or may not take in the first round, I would lean towards not taking in the first round. I'm not convinced on that, but taking a quarterback at somewhere, somewhere along the way in the top three, four, five rounds that they can view as a developmental quarterback. I think that's what they're going to do. Because they think that Colt McCoy, had he not broken his leg in the Philadelphia game, would have led them to the playoffs.

know they think that. And they think Josh Johnson was very close to leading them to the playoffs in the Tennessee game by keeping them alive. Well, again, I think you're right. I think that's what's going to happen. But I think a smarter move would be to have a better backup than Josh Johnson. But again, it's not that. You know what? Let me just take it. What about Ryan Fitzpatrick? Instead of Teddy Bridgewater, would you take Ryan Fitzpatrick instead? Would I? No. Let me just point. What about Tyrod Taylor? No. Can I? What about trading for Nick Foles?

What, with the Eagles? Yeah. Trading with the Eagles to Nick Foles? Haven't, haven't we suffered enough? At the hands of the Andy Reed Tree? Yes. You know? Again, that can't happen.

They can't afford Foles, people. Right. Let me just read my Surgeon General's warning that that really pisses every, the, the five Redskins fans that are still out there off. It really doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. Who plays quarterback? Okay.

Who coaches the team? It doesn't matter. You know, I feel the same way now. I do. I just don't see it. Like I'm beating a dead horse here other than the fact that the NFL is designed to have a season here and there. Once out of every four or five years, other than that, I just don't see it. And I don't think it's ever going to change as long as Dan Snyder owns the team.

and if Bruce Allen's running the team, it's really not going to change. Again, and I think I've said this with you, but perhaps not. If you were totally outside of the day-to-day drama of the Redskins as a fan or a media member or just living in this market, and you were looking at this team, but you were a football fan, you would look at starting after the owner and after Bruce Allen, you would look at the coaching staff situation, and you would say, my God, people left there for lateral moves, not even promotions. Other people wanted to leave.

They wanted to get rid of their defensive coordinator, but no one would take the gig. Their head coach is for all intents and purposes, a lame duck. How can you possibly predict more than six wins for a team in this position? You can't. If you're being objective, universally they are going to be picked as a double-digit loss team. you may have some people say seven and nine. Not one preseason prediction will you be able to find in this off season that has the Redskins at better than 8 and 8 in a wild card team.

Not one. When you find it, send it to me. Yes. I agree. Not that that means anything, but it's a reasonable evaluation of the team as it stands now. Now, I say that because you're right, but what are we going to do? Not talk about the team? So you have to put it in the context of let's have a conversation about the best way to improve the roster.

See, this was my point of going back to the old ways and winning the off season. This is why they need. I'm all for it. I wanted them to trade for Flacco. I wanted them, I want them to trade for Antonio Brown. I want them to mortgage no future. I want those draft picks gone. You weren't on the show the day.

It was one of your seven vacations that you've taken since November. but I said if Dan Snyder is going to suck it being an owner, which he has, he might as well suck doing it his own way. Absolutely. Let's have a little bit of fun. And here's the reality of that. And it's not tongue-in-cheek. It couldn't be worse than what it's been.

If he went back to big-name trades, signing big free agents, winning the off-season in terms of free agency, et cetera, it wouldn't be any worse than it's been. There's no point. It couldn't. No, there's no point in being frugal if there's no payoff. No, Bruce Allen has been the master at signing average players to great deals. He's been phenomenal at that. And by the way, there's an opportunity for him.

Pierre Gerson is apparently available. San Francisco, according to reports, they're going to release Pierre. So Bruce might be able to get a great deal on Pierre right now. Anyway, I guess that's it. It's all good. I guess that's it. all good. That's what Pierre would say. It's all good. Remember that? Yeah, I do remember that. I do remember that. The season we had him as a regular on the sports

fix? He made big news with us. He said something. He shouldn't have said. It ended up being on the ESPN crawl. I can't even remember what it was. It was about Griffin. It was about Griffin. And then the next week he came on with us, we couldn't get a word out of him. The rest of the year. The rest of the year couldn't get a word out of him because they said, don't talk to these guys. Real quickly on the Wizards. Last night, you wrote a column about Ernie, the arsonist fireman column. The last night's game, let me just give a plug here for the broadcast. We both love Phil Sheenier, and I miss Phil.

I'm being on the broadcast. So do I. I really do think that Carol Lawson does a really good job. And of course, I am never going to be objective about Buck. who was the first person out of college that I worked for. And he's a dear friend. And I think he is flat out one of the best play-by-play people in all of sports. I think he's just so good.

But that broadcast is good. And Chris Miller does a phenomenal job. He's so good with the players in these halftime interviews and the post-game interviews that he does on the floor. The players clearly like him, respect him. And it's a good broadcast. Anyway, that's an aside to, you know, the games that the Wizards are playing right now, even the games they lose, are entertaining.

They are actually, I mean, you talk about fast-paced, up-tempo, many possessions, quick shots, lots of threes, lots of fast-break basketball. That's what they're involved in. They played a game last night in which they had a 12-point lead midway through the third quarter at Toronto. No, Kauai Leonard was not playing last night for Toronto. And the Wizards are knocking down shots from everywhere. Everybody's looking great. And they got a 12-point lead.

That 12-point lead went to an 11-point deficit. So a 23-point swing in four and a half minutes. Oh, my gosh. In four and a half minutes. You know what I'm thinking? And I haven't seen any, so this may be a reach. But it sounds like a G-League game. It's Summer League.

I always refer to Urban Coalition, because some of you who are of my age remember the Urban Coalition Summer League, which was primarily NBA players, played at Dunbar. And my father took me to some of those Summer League games when I was a kid. I remember going down there. And I think I've told you this story. A vivid memory, Gus Williams. You remember Gus Williams?

He played for the Sonics. Won the title and they got traded here and played in Washington to, I think he finished up his career here. He may have gone to another place after here. Williams was a six-foot-two-inch point guard but scoring point guard. He could score. And he was part of the back court with Dennis Johnson in Seattle that beat the bullets in 1979 when they played back-to-back.

The bullets beat the Sonics in 78 in the NBA finals, and then the Sonics beat the bullets in five games in 1979. DJ Dennis Johnson was the MVP of that series. I'm pretty sure he was the MVP. Sigma was really good in that series too. That was the team that had Lonnie Shelton and they had Marvin Webster. Marvin Webster was on the 78 team.

I don't think he was on the 79 team. I could be wrong. Sigma, Gus Williams, Dennis Johnson, John Johnson, you know... And Lonnie Shelton. Freddie Downtown Brown was on the 78 team.

Yeah. Shelton. Yeah. Gus Williams was a score. I was down, this is one of those memories you never forget. Gus Williams, Dunbar, Urban Coalition, I don't know what year it was, maybe 1983, 82, something like that. He walks into the gym, the game's already started, he's in a bright white fila sweatsuit.

Remember, everybody loved those feal, all the tennis wear, everybody wore. And he walks in, he peels off the fila white sweatsuit, checks into the game, way through the second quarter, put 73 up in about two and a half quarters, puts the suit on and walks out of the gym. 73! And it was just like, I mean, but that's what these games have looked like. Some of these Wizards games have looked like these NBA Summer League games from back in the day where nobody checked anybody.

And the final scores were 175 to 162. And, you know, last night it was 129-120. but Toronto scored 35 points in the final six and a half minutes of the quarter. That's what they scored 35 in the final six and a half minutes of the quarter. And this guy, Siakum, who, you know, has become a really good player, had 19 points in six and a half minutes against him. Meanwhile, did you see what Otto Porter did? Yeah, he had 37.

I was following it on Twitter. People were tweeting me saying, are you watching Otto? He's got 21 in the first half. But you know what? Portis has played well. Jabari Parker had 22 last night. Javari Parker at halftime, Tommy, had 10, 7, and 6, I think it was. I mean, he was near triple double at halftime. Anyway, they lost the game. They're not very good. They're terrible on defense. They have nobody to stop anybody from getting to the rim.

But it was the games that they're playing are actually entertaining games. Like the game they played the other night and lost to Detroit. Entertaining. You know what the Wizards can do? They can score. Like, they can really score. You know what? That's hard to believe in this NBA that you can score.

I know. I find that difficult to believe. That's an accomplishment. Sarcasm. But you're right. And you know what, Tommy? It's so hard to stop people. Like the Wizards are a bad defensive team, which is why they've got no, they're not

going to make the playoffs. I don't care how many games back they are. They're not making the playoffs. And they're bad. But you know, it's pretty much hard to stop anybody in the NBA. It really is hard to stop people. Yeah, it is. There are too many players in every single game that one defender cannot stay in front of.

I get that. But in a seven-game postseason series? It tends to change. Yes, it does. It does. And there's better team defense and there's more emphasis in caring and effort early on in a game. But, you know. But during a regular season, yeah.

It's hard to stop people. How many games, like, I would love to see how many 40-point-plus quarters there have been in the NBA this year. It seems to me to be a record. I can't remember more nights looking at games and box scores and seeing more 40-point-plus quarters. It's amazing to me how quickly and how often it happens. But one other quick NBA note, the Trailblazers. last night, beat the Warriors, and Steve Kerr got thrown out of the game on a terrible call. Terrible call. Terrible call. But I bring up the game. It was a terrible call made against Draymond Green.

I bring up the game because two things. Jake Lehman went off for Portland last night and he gave the Jordan shrug after one of his three-point. He made three of five from behind the arc. He had 17 off the bench in like 24 minutes. He's actually played at times pretty well. They're a good team. Portland's a good team. And by the way, Enos Cantor picked them over the Lakers yesterday. But the other thing that happened during that game is a player that I loved coming out, Zach Collins, who got drafted. Was he a top 10 pick at a Gonzaga?

He was pretty close to a top 10 pick. I loved him at Gonzaga. He's the guy in the championship game against North Carolina as a freshman that got into foul trouble, and it really impacted the game. that NCAA final against Carolina. He was the 10th pick. He was a 10th pick. Okay, so he's in Portland, and he got under Clay Thompson's skin last night.

He's one of these guys. He talks a lot of trash, plays with an edge, a little bit dirty at times, and the whole Golden State team was worked up. This is what led to Draymond Green and Steve Kerr eventually getting thrown out. The frustration level, Collins had a block. on a shot in the fourth quarter of a close game that was a big play. I'm going too long in the NBA again. Yes, you are.

And I understand this. But if you have a chance, go look at some of the video of him getting into Clay Thompson's face and dropping a couple of F-bombs into Clay Thompson's face. And then watch how Clay Thompson and Kevin Durant start trash-talking him, Zach Collins, from the bench. weak, really weak. Nobody took care of it on the floor. They took care of it or tried to take care of it from the bench. Portland really got under Golden State skin last night, and they ended up blowing them out down the stretch, which you don't see in a close game. Golden State getting, I mean, it was a three-point game with four minutes to go. I think Portland won the game by 22 last night. Anyway, okay, that's enough on that.

I wanted to talk about Maryland basketball. We'll get to that. I want to talk about Flacco 2 and Kirk Cousins and a couple of other things. Plus, I have a trivia question for you, which you're going to enjoy. You love it when I give you trivia questions. No, I don't. You know, I can remember a trivia contest that cost me $250. I didn't do it this year.

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All right, before we get to Maryland, which you were at the game the other night, let's talk about Joe Flack. real quickly. And I'm going to start with a trivia question because I want to see how many of these guys you get. Joe Flacco yesterday became just the sixth quarterback that won a Super Bowl that got traded. Can you name the other five? Oh, that's interesting. A lot of them in- Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath. Nope. He got traded to the Rams, didn't he? Yeah, but I guess this is post-merger because we're still like.

NFL, NFL. What do you mean? Did he get traded to the Rams? He's not on the list that I saw. Well, he got traded to the Rams. Did he get traded? Unless he got cut by the Jets and signed by the Rams. He wasn't on this list, but you're right.

He won a Super Bowl and ended up playing for another team. Okay, I'm going to say, Joe Montana. Yep. I'm going to say. One of them I don't think you'll get. Okay. I mean, I shouldn't say you won't get it, but it'll be harder. There are a couple that are very obvious.

Craig Morton. Craig Morton was not the winning quarterback in that Super Bowl. 77? No. Oh, he was quarterback for the Broncos. Broncos 77 when they lost the Cowboys, and he started the 71 Super Bowl that they lost in the Colts, but Staubeck started the Super Bowl they won. You're right.

Okay. Against the Dolphins, Super Bowl 6. Okay. Go ahead. Aaron wants to help out here. Go ahead. Brett Fav. Brett Fav. I thought would be one of the easier ones. Okay. And there's another very easy one.

One of the greatest quarterbacks of all time got traded because another Hall of Fame ended up replacing him. I said to a Montana. Oh, you did? Yeah. Oh. You were so eager to bust me on this. So you've gotten Unitas, Montana.

You just got Favv. What about Trent Dilfer? No. He wasn't traded. Look, I've got a list, and it could be wrong. I got this off NFL network this morning, and I just thought it would be perfect for Tommy. What are you punching into your phone?

Because I want to find out what happened to Joe Namish. Okay. But you go ahead and finish out the list. Stabler was traded to Houston. That's right. And Jim McMahon was traded to Philadelphia. Oh, okay. Okay.

I would not have gotten Jim McMahon probably. the one I didn't think you would get. So Favre Montana McMahon Stabler and Unitas is the list along with Flacco now. So I'm guessing if NFL network's right that Nameth wasn't traded. Well, that's when I'm looking up right now. Yeah. So we'll see. You look that up. In the meantime, on the Joe Flacco trade, first of all, I would recommend a column for people to read because it was the one column I was looking for. I was looking for. I was looking for the appreciation column of Joe Flacco in Baltimore, hoping that I would find one, Tommy. And I did.

And it was Jeff, and I hope I pronounce his last name correctly. Is it Zreiberk or Zrebeck? I think it's Rebeck. Okay. So he wrote it, he writes for the athletic, covers the Ravens, and he wrote a very good column on Joe Flacco, an appreciation column. And he touched on something that I've always touched on when I have said, I am a Flacco fan. And I know

that there's this conversation about Joe Flacco elite quarterback. He's never been elite. I've never said he was elite. I've always been a Joe Flacco fan for many of the reasons that Jeff wrote. Actually, Jeff wrote a lot about the kind of teammate he was, apparently beloved. You know, he also

talked about his lack of emotion and total indifference to the opinions about him, which is what we always said about him. We always said about it. The value of an uncuttered mind. And that's that was Joe Flacco. And one of the reasons I think that in pressure moments, he never was phased. And in fact, if you go back through Joe Flacco's career, he played his best football in the biggest moments. He had that incredible,

obviously, 2012 postseason. But there were many games late in regular seasons and other playoff seasons where Flacco, not the Ravens defense, was either responsible for the win or responsible for putting them in position to win the game. Flacco was a clutch performer. No matter what you want to say about him as a regular season quarterback, and if you want to cite all of the numbers that make him out to be, you know, a bottom third starter in the NFL for the significant portion of his career, when you go back and you look at the games in December,

in late November, against their arch rival, Pittsburgh in particular, he played a lot of great games at Hinesfield, that the Ravens won or had a chance to win. But if you go back and look at those games that were elimination games or postseason games, I'm not talking about the first part of his career, but when he got into that 2011 stretching on, Flacco played his best in the most important moments. And the Ravens would have had more postseason success in recent years if it hadn't been. for its defense. And I point that out because it was great last year. It was a great defense the year before, but it let them down in the biggest moments. They had a game on Christmas Day a few years back. It was essentially for the AFC North, and Joe Flacco drove him down the field in the final three minutes of the game for the go-ahead score. And then the defense gave up a quick, long drive that ended up with a

touchdown pass to Antonio Brown on essentially the last play of the game that knocked Baltimore out of the postseason. Last year, or 2017, Joe Flacco brings them back from two scores down in the fourth quarter to give them the lead in a game against the Bengals at home to clinch a playoff spot, and the defense gives up a fourth and 15 touchdown pass on the final play of the game to lose it. Those would have been two additional playoff appearances for the Ravens because Flacco put him in position to do it. Look, there have been times when I've watched Flacco where I've been like, oh, my God, he is awful. And all of us, all football fans feel that way.

But remember this, too. He had so many offensive coordinators. He never had much talent offensively to go with whatever scheme they were running. I mean, Kubiak had his best success with Kubiak when he was there. But this year, when they had. some speed finally with John Brown and Crabtree and a few others. They had some speed and some playmaking ability. He was actually off to a decent start. He had a couple of bad games, but he was right there with that defense. I think if he had stayed healthy, I think the Ravens

would have been a better threat in the postseason. Anyway, if you're looking for a good column on Flacco, that guy, Jeff Zrebeck or Zreiberk from the athletic, wrote the appreciation column. I don't think there were a lot of them. Although in Baltimore there were. He wasn't the only one in Baltimore. Mike Preston from the Baltimore Sun wrote a similar home. I haven't read that. That basically talked about what a great teammate he was.

Incredible teammate, incredibly classy. And all of his teammates yesterday, a lot of them were on social media saying, that was my guy. Yeah. And he apparently was everybody's guy. You know, I think I mentioned this during the Lamar Jackson. run late in the season when the players started getting asked when Joe Flacco was healthy enough to play. And Terrell Suggs, the clear team leader, said, I'm partial to Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks,

you know, which was a complete and unmistakable endorsement to go back to Flacco from the team leader. But they didn't because I think they saw the future. And whether they end up being right or wrong, in the moment, I understand it. They drafted Lamar Jackson one over. all. I understand it too. One in the first round. But Lamar Jackson has a long way to go. I agree. And I hope they don't waste what has been the best defensive football team here in the last

year and a half anyway of maybe the last five years in the NFL because that is a dominant defense right now. And that's why they got to the postseason. And Jackson was great too. Jackson really was a spark for them. And the offense that they were running with him is a run. running quarterback and a dual threat quarterback with that running game. They were Tommy, they had a couple of games where they were running 25 more plays than their opponents because

they were running the football, which helped the defense too. Anyway, look, I'll never say Flacco was an elite quarterback at any point in time. And I understand why a lot of you think that he stinks and that Denver's just made a huge mistake. But don't mistake his overall body of work with what he did in their biggest moments. He was a, he delivered in the clutch. Consistently, he played his best football in Baltimore's biggest games. And I think he's going to do the same in Denver. They've got a great defense. They've got to add another, they've got to add some playmakers. They've got the kid from SMU, Cortland Sutton, right? Aaron, Cortland Sutton. Yes.

So they've got Sutton. They've got, that's it. And Emmanuel Sanders. Emmanuel Sanders. Yeah, I know that. They need a tight end and they need another wide receiver. What about Antonio O'Brien in Denver? They need an offensive line too. They need help there too. Yeah.

But they have the defense that you can win with. One last thing on this. Boy, Elway, Tommy, he better get this one right. Yeah. Right? Well, he wouldn't be the first franchise icon to fail in the front office. I understand that. I mean, you know, we've seen it.

We saw it happen here in Washington with Wes Unseld. We saw it happen in Baltimore with a tragic ending from Mike Flanagan, and you could argue we're watching and happen with Doug Williams here. Yeah, different, though. D'A. L.A. L.A. is not L.A. Yeah, but in this town, you'd be hard-pressed to find bigger icon than Doug Williams. Doug Williams is an icon.

He's not a top four all-time Redskin icon. He's not a top 10, maybe top 10. Oh, I think he's top. Where is we going to do this now? No, we're not going to do this. Good. Okay. Well, Doug Williams is a top 10 all-time redskin icon, no doubt about it.

It's not top five. I think you're underestimating it. Okay. What else are we going to get to? You wanted to talk about Maryland basketball. You went to the Maryland game, you know. All right, go ahead. Yeah, I was kind of curious about your thoughts on it.

I didn't get a chance to hear you talk about it. You know, and I got to tell you, Kevin, you know, I went over to say hi to you. At one point, where was I sitting? You were sitting in the E section for a week, I noticed. You know? So I went over there. There is no E section for a leap. I went over there and some security thug stops me as I try to go up to see you.

And he pulls out this piece of paper, calls his other guy over. I couldn't even see what was on the paper. Was it Dave Elfin? No, no, it wasn't Dave Elfin. I couldn't see what was on the paper. There was some kind of sketch. I couldn't know who it was, but I saw the bold letters on the bottom. please keep this man away from Mr. Sheehan.

Was it Chris Cooley? No, it wasn't Cooley. So I just want to know, I didn't ignore you. I tried to get over there to see you. I appreciate the effort. But security kept me away. I told them I specifically had a short list of people that I didn't want to see and you were on it. I could see that.

You were holding court up there. What did you think of the game? I was very impressed with Maryland in that second half. I mean, impressed to the point, like you said, that they are a second weekend in the tournament. team. Absolutely. I mean, they're big men, Smith, and Fernando, what a combination they can be for any team that they've got to face. They play great defense in that second half. They beat a very good team. Do you think that's the best win Turgent has had at home for Maryland? No. No? It was pretty impressive win against a highly ranked team. No, I mean, they beat Michigan State multiple times.

At home? Yeah. With Turgent? Yeah. They blew Michigan State out, I think, the first two times they played him at home. They had a game, the first year in the Big Ten when Maryland was, what, 15 in Wisconsin was three. Okay. I remember that.

Weren't they three? Yeah. Didn't they have a win against Virginia early on in? Okay. Okay, so, okay, everybody. Okay, everybody, you're major point. Beating the number 12 team at home is, I mean, it's a good win for him. It was a good win.

It was a good win. It may have been one of his more impressive wins in terms of the team. I've said this now for two months running. I think it's his best team. I think it's his most talented team. I think it's the team, the best Maryland basketball team in terms of its potential in the tournament since 2010, since the Vasquez senior year. I think you might be right. That's why there's a lot of pressure on him.

He can't have an early exit, not with this team. Nope. No, he can't. And, you know, that's the problem with this tournament is, you know, great teams and great coaches occasionally lose. Yes, they do. You know, in a 4-13 or a 5-12 first-round matchup. Yeah. And, you know, if you're a 5-seed, you're going to play a 4 in the second round to get to the second weekend.

And more likely than not, you'll be an underdog. So it's not somebody texted me the other day. Aaron, I may have told you this. Dude, get off Maryland's jock. Unless Hawaii upsets somebody in the other. the first round, they're not going to the Sweet 16. That's cold-blooded, because that's the only time that he's gotten them to the Sweet 16, Hawaii upset Cal, right? It was Cal in the first round. The only people he's beaten in the tournament are Hawaii, South Dakota State. South Dakota State

and was it U-TEP? It wasn't U-Tep. That was a while. The game that they beat before West Virginia. Right. When they lost to West Virginia, when Mello got who it is. Melo got hurt in that West Virginia game, and I think they would have had a chance had he stayed healthy, but, man, West Virginia bullied them that day. Oh, my God, they beat them up. They beat them up. They really did. Who did they beat in the first round that year? That's going to drive me nuts. But anyway, yes, he's had three tournament wins because they lost his Xavier in the first round in Melo's third year in his junior year. Anyway, I mean, look, I enjoyed the game. I love the fact that big men play such an important part.

in that. That was really great to watch. Valparaiso. Oh, that's right. And they just... It was a close game. Yeah. And they just need to keep... Again, you know, whatever was wrong in the first half,

whether it was, you know, whatever Turgeon was calling, I'm thinking, why aren't they feeding Smith and Fernando inside more? Because I'm looking at the Purdue big men. And, you know, they seem like nice guys. But they were soft. And they had a lot of turnovers in the... And I'm sitting there thinking, I mean, they could get these two big guys with five fouls by the end of the first half if they wanted to. So really, you know, a lot of you, we've talked about this the last week, are just starting to pay attention to college basketball.

And in the area right now, unless you're a Virginia fan, and I don't count Virginia as an area team, I never have. But a lot of Virginia alum, obviously they are a legitimate national championship contender. They're going to be a one seed. but this Maryland team is unique in that they have two six foot 11 guys that are versatile. They both can face, although Sticks, Jalen Smith, their freshman, is more of a face-up player. And he actually can stretch the floor and shoot the three. I actually think Bruno can shoot the three, but that's not part of what he's been this year for them. But they have legitimate low post players.

They're fun to watch. And rim protectors. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, now you talk about college. And they've got a point guard, and they got shooters, and they are a team that has really become in recent weeks a good defensive team. Yeah.

Go ahead. Yeah, they have. Now, speaking of college basketball in the area, I was at Shelly's back room last night. Watching Georgetown? No, watching George Washington versus St. Louis. And it was at the Smith Center. Who had that on? I don't even know.

But that was on the TV. Yeah. St. Louis beat him, right? Yeah. Although GW hung tight to it. until right near the end. I couldn't believe how empty the arena was at GW. I mean, I just, I guess, I mean, I covered them when, you know,

when they made the Sweet 16 in the Yankee jar. The Jarvis years. Yeah. And I mean, that, that arena was a ghost town last night. It was really stunning how empty was. Maybe that's the way it is all the time. But I was surprised. You know, this came up spontaneously here.

because I've been thinking about doing this on the show recently, but I'll do it right now with you, not for a long period of time. But someone sent me recently the Deadspin story on the GW situation with their athletic director, Nero and Mike Lonergan. How warped and ugly a guy. Let me just say this. And I know Mike, and I've known Mike for a long time. And personally, I think Mike is a very good basketball coach.

an exceptional basketball coach and had GW going in the right direction, by the way. He was completely railroaded in this deal. Yeah, he was. Completely railroaded in this deal. He absolutely was. And I don't, it has not gotten a lot of play locally or perhaps I've just missed it, but I was sent this story just last week actually and said, why haven't you ever talked about, you know, the GW situation?

And my immediate reaction is, I don't have an audience. it really cares about GW for the most part. But that doesn't matter because we don't have an audience that cares about a lot of things we talk about. But college basketball in the area is better when all the teams are competitive. But, you know, there were some unfortunate quotes from Mike Lonergan during this situation

that made him appear to be homophobic, which I do not believe that he is, based on all of the data and factual information that's come out after the fact. But there was a major problem with this athletic director when he was there. And, you know, Lonergan's not coaching right now. He should be. This situation should not prevent somebody from hiring him at least to start as an assistant at a Power 5 program. And then he could move on from there.

I agree. And part of the problem was a Washington Post story that was totally one-sided. One-sided. Adam Kilgur wrote it. Part of it, I went back and read that story, and there was a lot missing from that story that would have been more supportive of Lonergan. Yeah. And the situation.

And I don't know if they ever made that right or not. I don't know. I didn't follow it up to that extent. My point was, but you're right about that. You're right about Mike Lergan. By the way, I'll also concede this. A lot of the Dead Spin's story. is also based, some of it's based on sources that were anonymous.

Yeah. But some of it isn't. Some of it's on the record stuff. It was written by Dave McKenna probably. It was. Okay. I think Dave McKenna's a good writer and a reporter. So, I mean, if Dave McKenna wrote it, I generally tend to believe it.

It was, I mean, I just hadn't, and I've known Mike for a long time, and I like Mike, and he is, I'm telling you, basketball people, Tommy, know that this dude can coach. I called one of the first broadcasting jobs I had when I left what I was doing before to try to get into broadcasting at sort of a second professional life. The first gig I got is I was calling Catholic football and basketball games when Mike was at Catholic. So I did several of his games. And I can remember, you know, one of the first games I did, I called my father, who was, you know, who was a coach, you know, many, many years ago. and I said, this dude at Catholic Lonergan, he can just flat out coach him up because he was beating teams, Tommy, on a regular basis that had so much more talent than his team had.

But he can really coach. You ask Gary. Gary had him for one year as an assistant. Gary will tell you, Mike can coach. Like everywhere he went, Vermont he won, GW. You know, they won the NIT right before he was fired. Right. And he had that thing going in, and I think, a.

positive direction. Well, that program is a disaster right now. Seems to be. Yeah. MT Arena, not the GW games that I remember covering. No, well, I mean, GW has always been hit and miss. I know. You know, but yeah, I mean, in the 90s, they had a couple of the, they had a sweet 16 season.

My point, that's the year I covered them. Was it one or two sweet 16s that they had? I think it was one sweet 16. Yeah. That was the Yinkidari, Incadari team. I mean, there were years there. And that was when the Atlantic 10 was really good. Well, the 8-10's good now.

I know. I mean, although this year, it's not great. That was the Atlantic 10 when Calipari was coaching at Massachusetts, when John Cheney was coaching the temple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The A-10, because of all the conference reshuffling, is a different league now. And it's actually having an off year.

But, you know, VCU's had some really good seasons recently. Davidson's had some really good teams. actually Mason got off to a really good start in the conference this year. I don't know where they are now, Aaron. But at one point, I think they were like 8 and 1 or 7 and 1 in the league. Dayton's decent, I think. The only reason I know this is because I bet a lot. But GW is awful.

Davidson, VCU probably are the two best teams in that league. Yeah. But anyway. All right. I got a couple of other things, but real quickly. Fierish Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Fairfax. Consider them if you're thinking about something new. If you're thinking about, you know, a Chrysler Pacifica or a Dodge Caravan or a Jeep Rangler or Jeep Grand Cherokee, they also have a Subaru dealership. Consider Farish in Fairfax. First of all, it's easy to get to,

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A couple of things I wanted to mention real quickly before I get to Kirk Cousins because Mike Floreo wrote a story yesterday that I want to talk about briefly. But John Orand, who writes for Sports Business Daily, Tommy, and has been a good friend of the show over the years. He had a bunch of NFL schedule information that I think some of you may have missed in the last couple of days.

First of all, you may recall, because I think we mentioned it here, that the NFL more likely than not is not going to have the Super Bowl champion open up the 2019 NFL season in that Thursday night, you know, NBC opening game of the year's spot. It's the 100th year anniversary of the league, and there's going to be a heavy focus on national television games having, you know, 100-year anniversary connections. Right. So they're going to the origins of the league. So the Packers and the Bears who have the long. longest running rivalry in the history of the NFL are going to open up the NFL season,

according to Oran. This isn't definite, but this is what he's reporting will likely happen. It'll be the Bears and the Packers on September 8th, Thursday, September 8th to open up, or September 5th, I think it is, to open up the NFL season in Chicago. So Aaron Rogers and the Packers at the Bears to open up the season. He also had, a lot of reporting about the Thanksgiving Day games. And for the first time, the Redskins played three straight years on Thanksgiving. Cowboys, Giants, Cowboys. The Redskins are not going to play on Thanksgiving this year.

I'm happy about that. The Thanksgiving Day games are going to be Chicago, Detroit, early, then Dallas hosting Miami. And this is interesting, because when I read this, I'm like, man, you know, and Miami have played, they've played a lot on Thanksgiving. You know, you had the famous Leon Lett, you know, snow, ice storm game. This will be their fifth meeting. In AFC and an NFC team, Miami, Dallas, fifth meeting on Thanksgiving Day. So it'll be Miami, Dallas in the afternoon game. And then the night game, Eagles at Vikings is being reported that the NFL is

leaning towards an Eagles at Vikings Thanksgiving night game. The Sunday, Monday night opener will involve New England. And John wrote in his column that he thinks because the NFL schedule is an interesting deal because, you know, you get CBS, you get Fox, you got NBC, you got ESPN, and then you get the NFL network. But this particular season upcoming, the marquee matchups on paper anyway, are heavily tilted towards NFC matchups. like the Rams play the Saints, the Rams play the Bears, the Rams Saints rematch will be a big one. By the way, it's going to be in L.A. And the AFC matchups aren't as numerous.

So CBS is going to try to keep all of their AFC matchups, which means a lot of the NFC matchups may go to NBC and ESPN. So you may see a heavily weighted NFC schedule in prime time this year. So he said that New England may open up with the Giants instead of the Chiefs, which is a game that CBS is going to want to have at some point later in the season. So that was his guess that it'll be the Sunday night opener will be New England against the NFC team that they face at home, which will be the giants. But anyway, so some NFL schedule news there. I would think given the 100th year anniversary and the emphasis on, you know, rivalries that go way back, that the Redskins are going to be in a primetime game against the Cowboys,

which is usually a given anyway, or the Giants, one of those two. The Redskins' Giants, I think, is the longest-running NFC East rivalry. I think that that rivalry is longer than Giants Eagles. Yeah, I believe it is. I think I could look that up very easily, but that's my guess. But anyway, that's some NFL schedule news. Then I wanted to get to Kirk Cousins because on Tuesday, I told you that I was really, really getting to the point where I was starting not to like him on social media. He's just, he's become unbearable on social media.

I mean, almost, you know, the look at me, the need for attention is Griffin-like in some ways. Listen, I mentioned this yesterday when I was on with Chad Dukes on 106-7 to fan. There's got to be a page somewhere in the Bible that tells him, you know, to shut up on social media. Right. There's got to be some book or some proverb or something that talks how wise it is after you've basically angered your entire fan base, not to show your face until the start of football season again. Isn't that true? there has to be.

There has to be some sort of humility passage or proverb or verse that somebody could cite back to him to say basically what it says in 2019 terms. Shut up. The Lord says to shut up now. But he isn't. No. It's unbelievable. And so when Flacco got traded to Denver yesterday and Denver admitted that they're going to move on from Case Keenham, Mike Florio on pro football talk wrote a story, could Case Keenum end up back in Minnesota?

And he writes, the possibility will be quickly dismissed because the Vikings have quarterback Kirk Cousins under contract for two more years at fully guaranteed compensation packages of $28 million in 2019 and $30 million in 2020. But let's not dismiss it immediately. He says about trading Case Keenum back to Minnesota. And then moving on from Kirk Cousins after a year. If the Vikings could find a trade partner for the balance of the Cousins deal, they'd only take a cap hit of $2 million. And the reason for that is the deal was all guaranteed. So it's all salary. It wasn't signing bonus.

It was all guaranteed salary. And he says the three teams to be possibly watched as potential suitors for Kurt Cousins after one year are the Bengals with new coach Zach Taylor, who worked with Sean McVeigh. and the Jaguars with former Vikings offensive coordinator John DiFilippo, who is now the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville, even though DiFilippo has ties to Nick Foles too. I mean, he was the offensive coordinator. And some people think DiFilippo was the problem in Minnesota. And didn't get along with Kirk, I thought.

And then he writes, the third possibility is the Giants. Perl league source, Giants coach Pat Schumer, was the one that lobbied. the Vikings to sign Kirk Cousins in the first place before taking the head coach position in New York. Anyway, let me just say before we get to the Kirk Cousins and the social media thing, no chance this is going to happen. For those of you that were sending it to me saying, look, the Vikings are trying to trade him.

No, this was not the Vikings trying to trade him. This was Mike Floreo suggesting that it's a possibility. You know, it wasn't a report, all right? It was him, you know, throwing this out there as a possibility. But they're not trading Kirk Cousins after one season. And I will tell you why, because if you read in Minnesota, if you follow the Minnesota feeling about Kirk Cousins, yes, there are plenty of people who thought he was terrible

and thought it was too much money and don't want him there. But the football people and the writers in town in the media, in that particular market, recognize more than anything else that they had an offensive line problem, not a quarterback problem. Anyone will tell you that, that followed the Vikings this year and watched them,

that in fact, during the first portion of the season, and yes, they lost some games, like to the Bills, as 17-point favorites, and Kirk didn't play well in that game. He didn't play well in a lot of games, but in a lot of games that they won, they won because of him. Right. Early on, when they had no running game, when the defense wasn't playing well,

and their offensive line was as bad as any all year long. With that said, my God, if people wanted in Minnesota to give him the benefit of the doubt, his social media crusade here in the off-season that makes him appear to be completely detached from the results of his first season are a major turnoff. You know, he's so desperately, I think, after being under the thumb here in Washington, he so desperately wanted to be a star in his own mind. And now he's got the contract that a star gets. I think he doesn't understand why he's not a star. You know, somebody sent me his interview with Dan Patrick.

I guess he was on with Dan Patrick. last week. I think it was last week. Anyway, he said that with respect to the 2018 season, could it be viewed as a success on any level? He said, the short answer is no. We didn't make the playoffs. There were high expectations. We didn't deliver. And I've been frustrated since the season ended. I wish the 2019 season started tomorrow. I'm ready to go and make a Men's for 2018. You know, that is, that's the Kirk Cousins that, you know, people, you know, Nate Burleson said something the other day in talking about Kirk Cousins.

And he said, one of the reasons that it'll be better in year two is that he never once threw anybody under the bus. He took accountability all year long, despite the fact that the offensive line was terrible. And teammates respect that. And the Minnesota teammates are going to respect that about Kirk. And that's always served him well wherever he's been, as he's never publicly thrown anybody under the bus, and he's taken accountability.

That's fine. But stay off social media because I can't imagine Stefan Diggs and all of their playmakers are sitting there watching him throw on a beach and putting a poll out about the things that, you know, his fan base wants him to give away. Yeah, you know what they most of them said, your salary. Your salary. Yeah.

I mean, you know what? Again, everything you said about, you know, they're not moving on from Kirk Cousins. They didn't just bring in Gary Kubiak as the new offensive advisor, coordinator there, whatever his title is, to turn around and trade Kirk Cousins after that. No, they want to give this. They think they brought in the quarterback guru to help Kirk Cousins with what. whatever issues he may have had. And like you said, the offensive line was one of his biggest issues. That said, he is, he's getting bad advice.

He's walking in Robert Griffin, the third shoes. You know, he should know more than anybody how this can backfire. Yeah. You know, it's really, I don't know, he's not the only one that does this, you know. But it, he's a target. Yes. He should understand that he's a target. It really, it either makes, you could either say he's trolling the term the kids used today about social media.

And he's basically just saying, look at this. I'm going to put out a picture of me lifting weights, because this was the tweet yesterday. Big thanks to Chad Cook in whatever the weightlifting or training group is for getting me ready for the next season. He posts a video of himself, you know, lifting. some weights and I'm like, dude, what are you doing? I know. I mean, that was really embarrassing. Look at your, look at the responses. You know, I just, it's an immaturity. It's an immaturity. It speaks to something that's troubling. Like, you know, I love Kirk Cousins. I think he's a good quarterback. I think he's going to get better and I think he will be productive and I think he will be successful.

But for those of you that used to say about Tommy and I and then Cooley and I talking about Griffin and his, you know, you would never say that about Cree. I'm saying it about Kirk Cousins. It's off-putting. When athletes do this, there is this sense that they have completely detached themselves from the reality of their results and their team results. And it makes them look incredibly self-absorbed. Yeah. It really does. He needs to stop.

He needs to stop. He does. So I responded to somebody who sent me the tweet about him lifting the weights, and I said, and I responded. I thought I was just responding to this one guy. This is what an idiot I am, but I apparently was also responding to Kirk as well. I responded as he's lifting those wets. He's getting stronger for all those five-yard checkdown throws. Oh.

Oh. And I had so many people say to me, oh my God, you've lost it. You're done with Kirk. It was like Cronkite on Vietnam. I really, I can't tell you how disappointed I am. Like you and I have one thing in common, and that's basically it. We can't stand conceit. We cannot stand people who are so.

so fond of themselves. Except for us, of course. Except for us, of course. And especially when they have not accomplished. Yes. You know, what it is. Yeah, exactly. And this guy is out of his mind.

Yeah. He got paid. And I went back, and if you look at the tweeting from Washington, it was never at this level, volume level. He tweeted a lot. He was active on social media, but not the look at me. stuff. I think, again, as a psychological profile from afar, I think he desperately wanted to, I think he thought, well, now I'm the star quarterback in Minnesota. I'm out from under the

Redskins thumb. I'm the highest paid player in the history of the NFL. Now I'm a star, and I get all the trappings that come with being a star. And that includes everyone hanging on, every word I say on social media. You know, who knows? Maybe he thinks he's, maybe he's, I don't, I have, I don't know what the motivation is. See, that's the hard part. I mean, what I just did there, that was a stretch. I don't really think that's the motivation.

I don't know what the motivation is. I don't know if he's helping some kind of ministry by doing this. If he's getting some kind of charitable donations by, by tweeting like he is, I just don't know the motivation. And you know what? I think you just hit on something. I think there is a I think you know he is smart

He is thinking about The brand You know I hate when these athletes think about their brand Their brand should be thinking about winning And if you win all that other stuff will take care of itself But he's thinking about his post careers Father's a preacher he's very religious

You know we heard That the religious things thing in Washington wasn't the favorite of several people in management. You know, that he's, you know, he's very, very religious. He's very much a teetotaler. He's very, you know, anyway. He does a lot of ministry work around the world. Right.

So this is what he's thinking about, I think, post-careers. So, you know, while he has the spotlight, while it's focused on. him, you know, he's going to use it to a certain degree to try to build up the congregation, I guess. I guess so. I don't know. I mean, I know this, that he better play well next

year. You know, in any situation, if he... And I tell you what, not just that, but they better win. Oh, yeah, they better win. That's what they better do. They better win. No, you're right. You're right. There's actually, he has now, he's probably given up the opportunity

to throw for 5,000 yards, 35 touchdown, 7 picks, be a Pro Bowl quarterback on a 9 and 17. Yeah. That team's got to be better than that. He's being judged by team results now. You know, again, and I am not, even though many of you believe that I am, per, you know, other people's, you know, portrayals. But I'm not a stats person. But the truth is that Kirk is coming off his best season, statistically.

I mean, that's the irony of this, is that he actually had a decent season in aggregate, in total. 30 touchdowns, 10 picks, best on both fronts, threw for 4,300 yards, set over 70% completion percentage. But this is the difference between this past year and other years, in my view, because I watched a lot of these Vikings games. some of these games were winnable by him had he played better. In Washington, the defense was so bad in 15, 16, and 17 that a lot of those games, they were just in it because of him.

In Minnesota, Chicago was a good defensive team. He played poorly in that final game that they had to win to clinch a playoff berth. The offensive line was terrible too, and the defense wasn't any good in that game, but he was bad in that game. He was not good enough in the game at Chicago on that Sunday night. He wasn't good enough at Seattle, although that's an interesting game because there was a terrible miscall that prevented them from a chance to tie the game late. The final score was not reflective of the game.

If you recall, Bobby Wagner jumped over to block the field goal. It was a clear penalty. It was called. They picked up the flag, et cetera. But, you know, there were games that, you know, He needed to elevate the team, and he didn't. I felt like in Washington, in 2015, 16, and 17, that there were plenty of examples of him lifting the team

to be competitive in games that they either won or lost, but most of the time when they won or lost the game, it was because they had one of the worst defenses in the league, which they did with no running game most of the time as well. Anyway, yeah, I'm sick of them. I am sick of Kirk Cousins right now. I'm going to root for him next year. I want him to have a good season.

I want to be proven right on this more than anything else. I just want to look good. I want to be proven right that he is capable of being a quarterback. You know, Aaron, what an honest moment that is when we think about it. I've always said that about Kirk. I want to be right about him. But Kevin just said, I want to be proven right. You know, ultimately, privately, this is a little secret that we need to reveal.

Not just about you, but about everybody in this business. Well, it's about fans too. Yeah, I know that. But for us, that's what we want more than anything. We want to be proven right. You know what? That is 100% true, but I will give you the exceptions. The exceptions are when it comes to the teams that I really have a significant rooting interest in.

Yes, I know. That's different. When I've predicted them to be lesser than I want them to prove me wrong in those cases. I would much prefer that. But look, I've said, so you're acting like this is a big revelation. No, I think it is a big revelation. I don't think it is. I want to be proven right about Kirk Cousins, but I will also say in the same breath that to a certain extent, I was already proven right.

I was proven right when no one thought he was worthy of being a starting quarterback. Of course he was. And that you couldn't win with Kirk Cousins. And to a certain degree, he got him to the playoffs. and in a franchise that's had zero success, he broke, he shattered six or seven franchise records as the quarterback here. Doesn't help because they didn't win anything with them, but if they had given him a better defense and a better coaching staff, they may have won something with him. You know, you just don't know when to stop. You just don't know when to stop.

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So do I. I tell you, it's my favorite part of the week. And it's a shame I'm not going to be here for next week. Going on another vacation. Well, no, actually, I'm working. next week. Huh? I'm working. I'm going to spring training. I know. I'm going to West Palm Beach. When I land on Sunday, the weather will be 82 degrees and sunny. And it's going to snow here over the weekend. But some of the trips that you've made, like there was that one year where you and Chuck went

down to spring training and you did the show from a bench. A picnic bench in the middle of a field. They wouldn't even let you inside the facility. You know, that's the greatest accomplishment in the history of 980. Not only that, but we did it from a picnic bench in the middle of a field, ordered lunch during the broadcast, and it got delivered to the picnic table in the middle of the field. And then we get Mike Rizzo to ride over on a golf cart from the stadium to sit at the picnic bench and be a guest. But I'll take this quick opportunity for some inside baseball stuff that you and I have talked about sort of subtly or directly in the past. This is why it was so frustrating for those of us at 980 to work with a team that had no interest in helping us but helping the competitor. Literally, we were a rights holder and we were owned by Dan Snyder and his Red Zebra Company and they would go out of their way to not help us but help the competitor.

And then in the Nationals case, they do the right thing. They stuck with their rights holder. They stick with their rights holder. And if you're not a rights holder, it's really hard to get that, you know, to get access. Basically to get to broadcast from the stadium, which was reasonable. Yeah, it was really quite remarkable for all of us, you know, over the years to be like, wait a minute, we're the rights holder. And your owner owns us. But yet, we can't get that person on our show, but you're going to put them on 1067.

Oh, okay. That makes sense. Anyway. Speaking of 1067, let me just do a little. little plug. For your parents with Chad. Not only Andy and then you and Andy. Andy and I, Saturday and Sunday mornings, starting at 9 o'clock, but Andy and I will be

filling in for Chad Friday afternoon. So we're doing tomorrow. As in tomorrow. As in tomorrow. So we're doing the afternoon drive. Is that four to seven? No, Kevin. Those are bankers hours.

I'm sorry. That's two to six. Two to six. Two to six. Three to six. Two to six 30. Tomorrow, you and Andy. Yes.

Filling in for Chad on 106. the fan. I will be listening to that tomorrow. I'm going to listen to that. All right. And I'll tell you this, when you guys do your Saturday morning thing, it's great. It's awesome. And if you're in the car on Saturday and Sunday morning, listen to 1067 the fan for Andy and Tom. All right. Have a good trip to spring training. I do want to talk to you from there because there could be a lot of news next week. Look, I'll be calling in, baby. I'll just be a phone call away for you. How's that? That'd be great. All right, have a great day.