The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Annual Shanahan Tree Reminder

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on the annual tradition of watching three former Mike Shanahan Washington Football assistant coaches lead teams in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Snyder's made thousands of mistakes over the last 22 years but his big ones have been so loud wrong. The boys talked about Fed Ex Field being dumped by FIFA and John Keim's report that WFT's discussed move up in last spring's draft was indeed for Justin Fields.  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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. The show today is brought to buy my bookie. Go to mybooky.com or go to my bookie.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C.

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I'm looking at their lines for this weekend right now. You're not going to have to, you know, play the Rams plus three at minus 145 or something crazy like that. Right now, by the way, ooh, I didn't even see. this. The Packers line keeps going up. It's now at six and a half approaching a touchdown. That line opened at five, five and a half. So a lot of sharp money on Aaron Rogers and Devante Adams and the Packers. That game's going to be played, by the way, in seven-degree weather kickoff. No snow, though, for that game. Tommy's with me today on this Thursday. We're going to talk about FedEx Field and it being turned down as a potential FIFA World Cup 2026 venue.

We've got other things to talk about, but how are you doing today? What are you up to? I'm doing great. You didn't see the other night, Tuesday night, I tweeted something out, and I tagged you in it, but I didn't get any response. What was it? Sorry. Well, I was at McGuire's again on Tuesday night. Okay.

And I took a picture of one of the walls with the dollar bills on it, and I said, drinking at McGuire's again, whose number is going up on the wall tonight? Well, I hope. Well, fortunately, you had taken my number down. So that was not, you know, if you sent out a picture of all the dollar bills, because you showed me that picture of the dollar bills and the dollar bills. in the dollar bill that you had taken off. Did you get what I sent you the other day?

Not on Twitter, but did you get the text that I sent you about the Beatles appearance at the Washington Conceum? Did you watch it? Yes. Yes. Okay. It was great. That was a great building. That's a very historic building.

I think it's still standing, isn't it? In some form. Well, it became many people that are listening, you have to be, you know, you got to be at least 50 to remember it being called the Washington Coliseum, which I remember the Washington Coliseum because it's the first, I've told you this before, that like in 1970 or 71, it was the first basketball game that my father ever took me to to see the ABA Washington Caps. You know, I told you my father was a big ABA guy. You know, he was a big AFL guy too.

And, you know, that was also when we were kids before the Capitol Center opened, which opened, I think, in 1973, that's where you went to see the Ringling Brothers circus. You know, the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus. You would go down to the Washington Coliseum if you were a Washingtonian. So I certainly remember the building, and then, you know, it was gone, but it is a very historic building. You know, but the... Later, it was called the U-Line Arena later, wasn't it? U-Line Arena, exactly. And I think that's what, you know, the shell of it might still be standing there, maybe.

I think it is. What I had remembered the other day when we were talking about the, when we were, you know, we brought up Ali was going to turn 80 years old. And then I, somehow the conversation got to the Beatles Get Back documentary on Disney, which I continue to recommend to everybody. And several of you got back to me and said, you know, you watched it that day or whatever, and it's incredible.

I mean, it's six hours, six and a half hours of documentary. It's phenomenal. But I had remembered, you had said, well, you know, Ali met the Beatles in Miami Beach, to which I said, yeah, I think that was before the Liston fight in 64, which it was. It was before the sunny Liston fight.

But they had come over to the, U.S. for the first time in February of 1964, February 9th, they played the Ed Sullivan show, the very famous Ed Sullivan show with the Beatles' appearance, which was, I think, at that point, the most watched television show in U.S. history, the night that the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. And two nights later, on February 11th, 1964, they played their first ever live show in the United States, at the Washington Coliseum. And did you just watch the video that I sent you, or did you read anything about that night?

I didn't read anything about it. So the owner had no idea who the Beatles were. He was just asked, hey, well, you booked this show? And he said, sure, not knowing anything about what was to come. The show sold out in like less than a day. They sold 8,092 tickets. and that was capacity for the Washington Coliseum. The tickets range Tommy from $2 to $4.

And the opening acts, you may remember these bands, I'd never heard of them, the Chaffauns and Tommy Roe. Do you know who they? Oh, yeah. Tommy Roe had a big hit called Sweet Little Sheila. Okay. And I think he had another hit called Dizzy. and the Chafans, they were one of those girl groups that existed in the early 60s.

Well, they were booked to open for the Beatles, but there was a snowstorm that day. We got hit with a snowstorm. By the way, the snowstorm this morning, complete dud. The snowstorm dropped eight to 12 inches across the area, which forced the Beatles, by the way, to take a train from New York where they had done the Ed Sullivan show. going to fly, but instead they jumped on a train. The Chaffauns and Tommy Roe had to bail, and they were replaced by a band called Jay and the Americans. Have you ever heard of? Jay Black. Jay Black, they had great hit songs of the 60s. Absolutely. One of the great bands.

All right. So they came down. They played in the round. They set the stage right in the middle of the arena so that they could fit more seating, because if they put the stage at one end of the arena, they would have only been able to sell 6,000 tickets. By putting them in the middle, they were able to sell nearly 8,100 seats, and the Beatles played a 40-minute set of 12 songs, and it was over, and if you watch the video, the video exists of some of that concert. All you can hear really is just the song.

screaming of girls in the audience, which is kind of what happened during the Ed Sullivan performance as well. But, yeah, the Washington Galiseum had a lot of significant events. It was used for a detention center during the May Day protests of the Vietnam War. It was obviously, you know, part of a building that was in use for the National Guard during the 68 riots. Bob Dylan played there. All the concerts came there. That was the place where all the concerts played because there wasn't another arena in D.C.

There wasn't the Capitol Center in Landover. That was it. Right. So. And I guess they didn't use the armory for that back then, did they? Maybe not then, but they did in the 80s. I remember going to concerts at the D.C. Armory in the 80s. I saw Rick James and the Mary Jane girls there as part of the back-to-school boogie.

I was totally into funk and R&B in the 80s in high school and college there for a few years. And so I saw a number of shows down at the Armory. But yeah, but I don't think when we got to the 80s that the Washington Coliseum or U-Line Arena was hosting much of anything anymore. I could be wrong. I mean, I went to the 930 club to see shows. I never went to you. I don't ever remember going to Uline Arena to see a show. No, I don't know when they stopped, but it was before the 80s.

Yeah. It's funny about that Beatles show, I, you know, I asked my mother and father, because they were both, you know, my father's always been a big music guy. And I was like, he's like, nope, tickets were sold out so quickly, could not get a ticket. they literally were gone in like less than 24 hours and and that was it. But the Washington Coliseum, a very, very historic venue and the first place that the Beatles played. In fact, that video that I sent to you, Ringo Starr still thought he was in New York when he got off the train. He didn't know he was in Washington, D.C. And they had, you know, they took a photo in front of the Capitol.

that day that they came down before the show that night. And it was, you know, it was a major, it was all snow covered. It was actually kind of pretty. But anyway, all right, enough about that. I know you want to talk about the playoffs and the quarterbacks, and I think Joe Burrow in particular, we'll get to that in a moment. But I wanted to mention real quickly that there was this video circulating on Twitter last night. It was a video of Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, and Matt LaFleur all together as Redskin coaches,

I don't know, 2010, 2011, 2012, before a game. chatting it up on the sideline. And it was just kind of our annual reminder of what was here. We've seen it before. I mean, these coaches have been, you know, prominent now in the postseason for several years running. Kyle's gone to a Super Bowl. Sean's gone to a Super Bowl.

Matt Lafleur's coached an NFC championship game may take his team to the Super Bowl this year. We know what was here. We don't need to be reminded of it. But we do need to be reminded of just how big. this owner airs when he airs. He's loud wrong so often. And, you know, we could do five days in a row of shows on just the mistakes that he's made as an owner since he purchased the team in 1999.

And they would be two-hour shows for five straight days. And we still wouldn't probably get to all of them. But the big mistakes he's made, my God, they are so, so wrong. Martin He had here. My God, if he just leaves Marty alone and admits, hey, I don't know anything about this, and the best way to own a team is to hire somebody really good, which I've done, and let him do his job, will be okay. But no, he wasn't having any fun.

And Marty leaves here after one year and goes on to win 14 games and 12 games and coach and playoff games in San Diego. And maybe he never coaches in a Super Bowl here, Tommy. Maybe he never does because he never did in San Diego or Kansas City or Cleveland. But Washington would have had a five to seven year run if he had just left Marty alone. If he had not chosen a 23-year-old self-absorbed young person that he had empowered as the face of the franchise to essentially go against coach's wishes, which ran Mike and Kyle and Matt and Sean out of town. That's Sean.

And Sean eventually coached, obviously, with Jay Gruden. He stayed he was the tight ends coach at the time and then became the offensive coordinator under Jay Gruden. But imagine what you would have had. You would have had probably Kyle and Kirk here. And you would have had a run of competitive winning teams more likely than not. You know, he goes into the draft room in 2019. He tells him to pick Dwayne Haskins. I mean, when this dude is wrong, he is so wrong.

I guess except for when he, you know, picked him. Joe Gibbs, and for the most part, leaving him alone to a certain degree, not totally alone, but leaving him alone much more than he left anybody else alone. Has he gotten anything else right? I don't know. I don't know. You know, I've always compared, you know, Peter Angelo's to Dan Snyder in terms of the meddlesome way they run their franchises and how they've run them both into the ground. the one thing with Angelo's I always said was in 1996, right before the trading deadline,

Pat Killick was the general manager, and he wanted to trade Bobby Bonilla, and I think it's David Wells at the time for prospects, because the Yankees were in first place by about 10 or 11 games, and the Orioles seemed out of it. But this was only the second year they had the wild card, and the Orioles were like five games out of the wild card. So Angelo's wouldn't let him make those trades. And then it wound up.

Both those guys were instrumental in getting them to the playoffs that year. They wound up being a wild card and making it to the championship series. Right. People have argued the worst thing that ever happened to Peter Angelo's was being right that year. Oh, yeah. Because he was convinced he was right every time after that. I don't know if Dan Snyder has ever had that moment. Joe Gibbs.

I was right about this. Joe Gibbs. I mean, that was. Yeah, but how much of a genius? How much of a leap with that? Well, no, but I mean. Hiring Joe Gibbs. Yeah, it's just that the four years that Joe coached here were, you could argue, were the most

productive years. They went to the playoffs two times in four years. No one else has done that over a four-year period, even though Joe also left with a losing record. But the point is. is that he just can't get out of his own way. You know, the combination of ego and arrogance and overcompensating for, you know,

whatever he's overcompensating for. It's just, it's incredible. And we get reminded of it in so many different ways all the time. But this time a year, playoff time a year, we get reminded of it recently by seeing Sean McVeigh have success, seeing Kyle Shanahan have success, and seeing Matt LaFleur having success. and knowing that if you had a real owner, if you had competence at the top,

you know, we'd probably be watching our own team with one of these three guys coaching it right now. Yeah, I mean, if it would have gone smoothly, there would have been a transition into one of those talented coaches. And now we have to include on the Shanahan coaching tree, Mike McDaniel. Well, Mike's been with Kyle for a while, and Mike was here. Right, that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah, he was an offensive assistant for a year. Why did you bring up his name?

Because, you know, I don't know Mike well, but he and I have had conversations before. He listened to our show. He loved our show. Well, he's a hot offensive coordinator right now for the 49ers. his name is I think he's got an head coaching interview really because it's funny Mike by the way is really smart like he I mean super smart

but he I just think he's just always enjoyed working for Kyle and being kind of in the background I mean you know that may be but he's the offensive coordinator now and you can't stay in the background in the NFL anymore when you're an offensive or defensive or defensive coordinator. Yeah, he, he, right. So I think you have to include that on the Shanahan coaching tree.

Well, you include Zach Taylor who worked for Sean McVeigh in L.A. Yeah. Even though, Zach wasn't here. Mike was, though. Mike was here for a few years. Yeah. He, uh, he worked under Mike Shanahan. I haven't seen his name.

And he was hired in Mike by Mike in 2005 with Denver as an intern. Is that where it started? Yeah, I didn't know. I just knew when he was here. Yeah. He was another one that liked our show. I know this. Mike always, Mike listened to the Monday morning quarterback that Andy and I did.

I know that he listened to that. Shanahan. And I think Mike McDaniel did too. But he, he's a, he's really bright, but like doesn't have. But then again, you know, then again, I don't know that Kyle always had that either, although Kyle's got a little bit of an authoritative, you know, gravitas, I guess, more than Mike did. Mike's an interesting dude. I just always thought that he would just work for the Shanahan's work for Kyle, wherever Kyle landed, because he's followed Kyle everywhere he's gone.

Kyle's brought him everywhere he's gone, like, you know, to Cleveland, to Atlanta, and then to San Francisco. You know, for that one year, I think he went to Cleveland with him. I'm pulling up his resume right now. The dolphins are interviewing Mike McDaniel for a head coaching job. Interesting. How old is Mike? Is he in his 30s? Here's his thing. Okay, 38 years old.

He went to Yale. I didn't know he went to Yale. I knew he was bright. He was here in 2011 and 2012. So he actually wasn't here in 2010. He was coaching running backs for the Sacramento Mountain Lions. But he was with Kyle. But he was here when he was here when.

Yeah. But he was here when. when Mike was here. Yeah, no, he was. And Mike was the first guy to hire him. Yeah, well, that's how we got to know him. Right. Right.

And then Kyle, like you said, took him to Houston with him. Right. Where he was an offensive assistant there. Yeah. But you know what? Here's what's on. All those guys like Sean and Kyle and LaFleur, they all play football at one point in their lives.

Right. I don't know how important that is, but I see no record of Mike ever playing football anywhere. Oh, Mike. McDaniel, he didn't play football at Yale? It's not on his Wikipedia. Okay. I just...

Nothing about playing. You know, I remember having a couple of conversations with him, but I think we may have had, did we ever, no, we wouldn't have had him on this show. Why would we have had on the show? I've never spoke to him. Yeah, yeah. I've never talked to him. Yeah. So, God, it says here, and I don't, I didn't remember this, that he was here in 20,

2013 also, which meant that he coached under Gruden when Gruden got here in 20. No, I'm sorry. 2013 was Mike's last year. Duh. Yeah. And then Gruden got here in 2014. I didn't see his name listed on any of the coaching searches. That would be interesting and it would be another guy, you know, off of the tree.

Can you imagine? Yes, it would. Yeah. I mean. It absolutely would. And, you know, here's the thing. I've always said, like, people argued, how did they let Sean out of the building? or how do they let the floor out of the building?

Do you think that, okay, do you think that if they fired Jay and offered Sean the job, would he have taken it? I don't know, but I can only tell you this, that Chris Cooley on the air, on the air, said, I think that they should ask Jay to be the offensive coordinator, and they should hire Sean as the head coach because they're going to lose him. This was when Sean was like the tight ends coach, or maybe it'd just become the O.C. Cooley said from day one about McVeigh, this guy, the minute he interviews for a head coaching position, he will be hired immediately. And he was right.

I get that, but my point is it takes a little balls to step into the job of the guy who you were just working for. Sure. But would he have said no? Well, surely, Sean McVey knew he was going to get hired someplace. And by that time, he knew how bad this organization was. Yeah. So I'm not sure if they had fired Jay and offered their job to Sean, I'm not sure he would have taken it.

A smart man would have turned it down. Yeah, I can tell you this. The bottom line is, if Sean had stayed in the organization, then Cousins probably would have stayed. I think that was the nail on the coffin. The offer was never going to get it done. They would have had to, he would have been more interested in pushing the negotiations of the offer, which Bruce was way off on.

But once Sean left, that was it. By the way, don't forget, you know, off the Mike Shanahan coaching tree is the whole Gary Kubiak coaching tree too. You know, that really, hold on, I've got to sneeze. Thank you. Because Kubiak was his OC. You know, and, well, Kubiak was the backup to Elway. So, and then Kubiak became his, you know, offensive coordinator. So he's got all of, you know, he's got that whole thing, which then, you know, started the Kevin, you know, got Kevin Stefansky.

You know, I'm talking about other head coaches. They're all, you know, Stefansky and Arthur Smith, you know, coached for, replaced Matt LaFleur when LaFleur was in Tennessee as the O.C. and now Arthur Smith is a head coach. All of it kind of falls off the Mike Shanahan tree, you know, for the most part. You know, by the way, and, you know, it sort of falls off, I guess, the George Seaford tree because Shanahan was Seifert's O.C. Which ultimately goes back to Bill Walsh. Which ultimately goes back to Bill Walsh.

But Shanahan also was a head coach before. remember he was the Raiders head coach. Yes, I remember. He was the Raiders head coach, then came back to Denver, or came back to Denver and then went to San Francisco to be the O.C. for the Steve Young Super Bowl in 94. I think he was Jay Schrader's coach in Oakland. He was Jay Schrader's coach.

With the Raiders. He was. I think it was L.A., but I think he was Shraders coach, yeah. Yeah, and he always says, that working for Al Davis was just a nightmare, you know, and that was not the best of experiences to be that. But he was the OC in Denver with Elway, you know, before he got the head job with the Raiders and then went back to Denver and then ended up in San Francisco and then came back to Denver again where he, you know, became the head coach for, you know, 15 years

or whatever it was, however long it was. Okay, that was far. Well, his fingerprints are all over these playoffs. Yeah, well, in this style of football, you know, that he and Alex Gibbs really created in terms of his own run scheme, you know, are all over. You know, those fingerprints are all over the NFL. I mean, they just are. And it's, you and I had this conversation about Marty Schottenheimer. Both of them, I think, deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I think Mike was such an innovator, you know, even if you think, you think, you know,

him being a two-time head coach Super Bowl champion, and one Super Bowl champion as an OC for the 49ers isn't good enough, which I think it should be good enough. You know, it's him as an offensive innovator that should get him in there. You know, you've had... I would agree. I agree. Anyway, do you want to, since you're not, you know, this is going to be the last time we talk,

What interests you about these games this weekend? What are the games that you're looking forward to watching? Well, I'm looking forward to Bengals and Titans because I'm mesirized by Joe Burrow. You know, a cigar guy like me. So, I mean, I don't know if you remember this. In Cincinnati, in the early years of Bengals, they had a young quarterback named Greg Cook. And Greg Cook, for the first two years, I think, he was with the Bengals. He was like the hottest thing in the NFL.

Wasn't he a hot-shot young quarterback? Was he a number one overall pick? He may have been. Okay. He may have been. And then, I mean, and then he got hurt, and he was never the same. And, you know, it's one of the greatest what-if stories of all time, because I think Bill Walsh said he could have been one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

That's how much they liked Greg Cook at the time. And, you know, Joe Burrow, you know, he wasn't coming off an arm problem. He was coming off the knee surgery. But you don't know how people were going to respond. And he just responded so fabulously coming off that knee surgery. I think Joe Burrough is the most intriguing quarterback in the NFL right now. Just back to Greg Cook for a moment. He was a fifth overall pick, first round, fifth overall.

overall in the 1969 NFL draft. So what happened to him? Because Ken Anderson was the quarterback of the 70s for the, you know, the 70s into the 80s for the Bengals. Well, I'd have to read. I'd have to read. I know he had some kind of arm problems. Okay.

You know, that got, that got in the way and he was never the same. So. So I'm real, I'm real kind of, I'm really hooked on Joe Burrow. And I'm really, I mean, there's so much amazing about Joe Burrow. the least of which is, how did Dwayne Haskins start in front of them? How did that happen? I know Haskins had a great year in Ohio State. I had a Burrough-type year, 50 touchdowns.

You know, but wow. Yeah, I mean, Burrow was, I guess, kind of a little bit of a late developer. And, you know, it didn't, I mean, it certainly benefited LSU. him transferring there and having and breaking all of the records that he broke that year. It's funny, as you mentioned, Burrow, I'm just looking at the eight teams. And it's like, wow, you know, one of the real challenges with this weekend would be to rank the quarterbacks. Like rank them one through eight. Like, to me, Aaron Rogers would be one.

You know, number two, I would probably go Mahomes. Three, I would probably go Brady. for now you get into you know you're talking about Burrow Allen Stafford you know and I'd probably go right now even though I think I'd take Joe Burrow for the long term I'd probably go Alan Burrow Stafford and then it would probably go Tanna Hill Jimmy G Jimmy G would be at the bottom of that list but Okay, let's just talk long term. Long term. You get one of these quarterbacks to be your quarterback for the next, well, 10 years.

That obviously eliminates Rogers, and it may eliminate Brady unless he plays until he's 54. I would tell Joe Burrow would be my guy. I take him over my home. Yeah, I did this with Cooley yesterday and with Brendan on the radio show. I said, because I got into this debate with two of the three of my boys over the weekend. Burrow, Allen, or Herbert. Right now you get one of them for your franchise. And I said Burrow.

And I think that it's really, really close. And I would be thrilled. I'd be thrilled with any of the three. But I think I would take Burrow of the three moving forward. I really love the way Josh Allen plays. and I love the competitiveness. I love the toughness. Like, he's perfect for Buffalo.

But I think Burrow, by the way, it'd be great if you also told me, like, I get Jamar Chase with Burrow because then it's a slam dunk. But I just think Burrow looks like Aaron Rogers. Like, I think we're going to get an Aaron Rogers kind of career from Burrow. He's just, everything he does, he does at a super high level. And he's coming off, remember, you know, a serious injury. last year. I know. Absolutely.

But he, every moment he seems up to. I mean, hell, he threw for 525 yards, you know, against the Ravens. And then for 446 against the Chiefs. I mean, in two must have games to win the division or to get to the postseason. And then, you know, he was outstanding on Saturday, too, against the Raiders. I expect him to play very well. I expect Jamar Chase to play very well. But yeah, Burrow would be my choice.

But to be honest with you, it's hard to even articulate why, because they're so close. All of them are tremendous competitors. All of them are super bright. All of them can make every throw. All of them have mobility. I mean, Josh Allen is one big, strong dude when it comes to mobility, and they use him differently in Buffalo than the way they use Burrow or Herbert in Cincinnati or in L.A. My impression is, and Buffalo fans may argue with this,

is Joe Burrow has the bigger ship to turn around with the Bengals. You know, I always talk about turning a freighter around in a harbor and how difficult it is sometimes. I think Joe Burrow, to change the mentality of that franticer which he has briefly done is a bigger turnaround to me. Yeah, I guess so. I guess, you know, Buffalo had some really good defenses in Johnny. And by the way, Josh Allen's start to his career isn't anywhere near comparable to the start to Burroughs career before he got hurt last year and then obviously year two.

You know, Allen was labeled, you know, midway through the second year towards the end of the second year is a bust. You know, at number seven overall. Another one, by the way, that Kooley's like, don't watch the stats. Watch them play. This guy's going to be phenomenal. And I, and Alan, you know, of the three, Alan's had some games where you're like, wow, that's a head scratcher. I didn't see that coming.

Like, he's had some games that have been bad games. But he is, he's, they're all ballers. Like, look, if you're a believer, like I think we are, and that is in the theory, you've got to have the quarterback. If you're going to have sustained success, you know, a five-year run, a seven-year run, a 10-year run, you've got to have the quarterback. I think that's been proven. You know, you can have a good year.

You can even get to the Super Bowl with Jimmy G. You can even win one with Nick Foles. But if you're going to be in the hunt every year, year and year out, for a long period of time, you've got to have the quarterback. Well, look at the playoffs right now. You know? I mean, you've got Josh Allen in the postseason. You've got Joe Burrow in the postseason. You have, I mean, you don't have Justin Herbert in the postseason, but you were close to getting him in the postseason. You've obviously got Patrick Mahomes in the postseason. You know, Stafford and Rogers probably still have five years left at a high level, certainly three to five years in that range. Brady doesn't. But these are the guys that are going to be in it every year.

Cincinnati's going to be in it every year unless Burrow gets hurt. You know, Josh Allen's going to be in it every year unless he gets hurt. Pat Mahomes has already been in it every year, you know, and you're probably going to get Justin Herbert. You know, and I think he's in that same category of potential eliteness. Look, I think Deshaun Watson obviously had a stepback season in his final year. That was a bad team. That was an injured team, you know, in 2019. They are 2020 during that final year where they went four and 12 COVID year, the whole thing.

Watson still had a big year. It was just a terrible team that was in flux. The organization was in flux with, you know, Bill O'Brien playing GM, which he wasn't a very good one. But I think Watson, if he comes back, you know, comes back to play is in that mix. Obviously, Baltimore's in that mix with Lamar Jackson. You know, if you've got the quarter, you know, and the only one, reason they weren't in the playoffs is because he didn't play enough. He was injured. You just have, you got to find that next guy. Kyler Murray's in the mix. Um, you got to get the guy.

I mean, you know, somehow Washington's going to have to find the guy. It's easier said than done. Do you have any picks that you want to make? Does anything stand at? Who's your Super Bowl pick right now? Well, my Super Bowl pick at the beginning of year, I believe. I know what it was. We're the Packers, the Packers and the Titans. Yes, it was. You had the Titans making the Super Bowl. So I'm feeling kind of good about that. Yeah, you got the two number one seeds.

It's pretty good. Yeah, so I'm sicking with that since I'm so close to being right for change. I had the Packers and the Chiefs, so I still have a shot. But you picked the two number one seeds at the beginning of the year. And not many people were picking Tennessee. Not many people. No. I like to say it's because of my vision.

Yeah. But your vision's not. I'm looking forward to this weekend. I mean, I think that we've got four really good games after what was really a bad weekend. And by the way, to me, I forget if I said this or not. For those that say, oh, seven teams, too many playoff teams, I think, you know, I think that that just was an aberration. I mean, we had pretty decent games last year with the seven. And the bottom line is you see, you know, lesser teams beat really good teams.

We just got six games and four of them were awful and only two of them were competitive. But I don't think it'll be that way every year. I don't think it's because of the added team that you had bad playoff games. Now, this weekend sets up where every single game's got a chance to be competitive. You know, every single game's got a chance to be a really good game. with the first one. I mean, I really, I like both of those teams, and I said this to Cooley yesterday, that I can't say that I would be surprised, Tommy, by any Super Bowl matchup at this point. Like if you said it's Rams, Bengals, wouldn't be shocked. If you said that it's Bucks, Titans,

wouldn't be shocked. I don't think there's a matchup that I would be shocked at. I think that everybody has the capability of winning two more games. I think that's accurate. I think you're right. I'm not picking the Titans or the Bengals to win two more games or the Rams to win two more games. I think it's going to be the Packers and the Chiefs' Bills winner that'll end up being there. And I think it'll be the Chiefs. But we'll see.

All right. When we come back, I want to talk about FedEx Field being eliminated as a potential World Cup site and the reasons why. Also, we'll get to the Wizards loss last night. which was an impressive loss, actually, to the Brooklyn Nets. It's Kevin and Tom on the podcast today, and we will continue right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Don't forget to rate us and review us on Spotify and Apple. If you haven't done that, it's a big help.

So the 26 World Cup is a split, first time ever, between three countries. It's Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, all hosting the 2026 World Cup. I actually like the World Cup. You don't. You can't stand soccer. And I'm not a big soccer guy by any stretch of the imagination. But the U.S. Go ahead.

It's not that I can't stand soccer. I mean, I find it boring. but I can't stand hipster American soccer fans. I know. I'm with you on that. I'm with you on the fake soccer fans. The posers. Like I always say, soccer is a sport for people who don't like sports.

Yeah. I think I told you this. I mean, this is exactly what you're talking about. About during the last World Cup, which would have been in 2018, right? Because there's one coming up this summer. cutter, right? I think so. Yes. I was getting my car washed, and it was like a Saturday morning, and there was this coffee shop right around the corner. And while the car was getting washed, I went around the corner

just to get a quick coffee. And there were these two dudes in their 20s, early 30s, with their wives and kids running around sitting outside at this coffee shop, watching the, uh, watching the, uh, World Cup games on their phone and talking about it as if they were experts. And I just sat there and I listened and I'm pretty sure that not one decent point about anything that was going on in the games was made by either of these two characters. I don't think they were they wearing any soccer jerseys? No, they weren't wearing any soccer jerseys. But they were talking about it in such kind of vague macro terms.

like, hey, you know, this is, it's the Netherlands versus Greece in this game or whatever. I guarantee you if I had asked either one of those dudes to name a player that played on either team, they couldn't do it. And it was just like, really, you know, Saturday morning, you're why, they're both crowded around this one dude's phone watching this game. And the conversation I could tell was not a conversation among two hardcore sports fans or soccer fans. They were posers, complete and utter posers. They come out of the woodwork every four years.

They kind of do. There will be all of those watch parties with all of those 20-somethings that will also, by the way, be sporting their brand new commanders gear, which will be out in less than two weeks. Anyway, so Washington was going to, it had been presenting to be a venue, a U.S. venue for, you know, some of these games, which by the way, it was in the, when was it 1990? It was 1990, right? Or was it 94? 94, I think. I don't remember. I think it was 94. You're a soccer nut. I'm not a soccer nut.

I just, I kind of like the World Cup. last one I bet on, and I bet on the euros over this past summer. I think it was the 94 World Cup games. They held them at the, at RFK Stadium. RFK, yeah. Yeah. And Washington was still playing football there. Yeah, Washington. No, not in 19, yeah, not 1999. Yeah, they weren't. They were at FedEx Field. No, in 94 they were. Oh, in 94 they were. Yeah, right. 99. 99, now I remember why 99 just popped into my mind. Because when I read this story, the 99 Women's World Cup had games at FedEx Field. So anyway, let's cut to the chase here.

Washington was bidding to be a venue, a host city for some of the World Cup games in 2026. The problem is that the FIFA group loved the presentation, but then when they came to visit FedEx Field, they said, no, no, no, no. We can't have any of our games at FedEx Field. And so Washington may have to consolidate its World Cup bid with Baltimore because they loved M&T Bank Stadium. Of course they did. Yeah, it's a great stadium.

It's a phenomenal stadium. Downtown Baltimore, you know, just a hop, skip, and a jump to the Inner Harbor. You're in the Inner Harbor. And so Washington's... Well, that, Kevin. know if you've been in Baltimore in a while, there's not much inner harbor less. I know. Well, I thought my son lives in Fed Hill. I like Baltimore. I think Baltimore's a great. I like Baltimore too. I think it's a really good city. My son lives in Locust Point. Yeah.

So the day after touring Washington, the FIFA group visited Baltimore, attended a Ravens game, you know, and essentially said, yeah, you got to combine your bid with Baltimore so we can use this stadium. That's so embarrassing for Washington. It really is. I mean, Washington thinks of Baltimore as an afterthought. Right. You know?

I mean, really. I mean, it's just the way it is. And Baltimore fans know that, and they hate it. You know, not that they want to be part of Washington. No, they don't. But they hate the snobbery that they perceive comes from Washington. That's right. And this is like the help

at a big dinner party in a mansion, all of a sudden, put in charge of the party. Okay. You know? All of a sudden, all of a sudden, the hosts are serving drinks and food to help. You are the nation's capital. You're Washington, D.C. You're an international city. You're a very eclectic city. You have so much to offer,

except for a stadium. to host a World Cup, you know, early round, you know, group stage game or two. And you have to go to Little Brother to say, can we borrow your car? Because ours isn't working right now. And it isn't. No, it is. You can't host a world-class event there. You can't have sprinklers going off.

You can't have sewage brakes. You can't have, you know, railings falling over. this is the World Cup. I know. Look, look, let me just make this clear, too. I hope neither one of them

hosted, for their own sake, because dealing with FIFA, the organization in charge in the World Cup, it's like dealing with the Sopranos. Right. I mean,

they're hiding under this notion that they've cleaned house now, that they've cleaned out all the bad guys. And this guy named Infantantian, Infantino, Johnny Infantino now is in charge, says he's been a new sheriff, he's cleaned it all up, but in Switzerland where their headquarters is, you know, they had a special prosecutor removed from a case.

They forced because of their political contacts. They got a special prosecutor removed that was investigating this guy's stealing off the books with elected officials. So it's still, the two most corrupt sports organizations in the world are the IOC and FIFA. And, you know, poor Brazil, they did business with both of them within two years, and the country was wrecked after that. You've said that about the IOC for years. You said that the worst thing anybody can do is get, is be a host city to the Olympics. And this is why it's getting hard to find host cities. Yeah, I understand. I understand FIFA.

But, but, and, I'm not, I'm not saying that Washington officials are going to have to bribe FIFA. But what they're doing in doing business with FIFA is they're putting money in a corrupt organization's pocket. Now, that may not matter to some people, but it would matter to me. So I just assume they not do any business with FIFA and have no World Cup activities. Well, I would like to see the return on investment. and I'd like to see what D.C. or now the combined D.C. Baltimore bid would get out of it. I mean, you shouldn't host one of these things unless it's a boost to the local economy. You know, you shouldn't, you know, I guess one of the reasons that they would want D.C. Tommy is D.C. has a lot of soccer fans because it's a major international city.

You know, so you're going to point to the cities to try to, you know, host some of these. games, you know, I'm sure, I would guess, I don't know this, I would imagine that the actual semifinals and then the final, it's going to be like a combination of L.A., New York, and Chicago. I'm guessing, you know, I don't think. Yes. And maybe Toronto. I think this is like a North American. It is.

It's a North American. You know, it's not just an United States bid. But they have the other cities that are also making presentations. kind of simultaneously in the U.S. are, you know, MetLife, you know, the Meadowlands, Boston, Dallas, and then L.A. I would imagine, I don't see Chicago here in this offer. Oh, here it is. Philly, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Cincinnati, Nashville, Houston, Denver, L.A., Seattle, San Francisco, Kansas City, New York, and Boston and Dallas, and D.C. but now it's going to be a D.C. Baltimore. Because Baltimore, well, I mean, why couldn't Baltimore make its own bid?

What do they need D.C. for? They have made their own bid. That's the thing. Baltimore has made its own bid. And publicly, they're not jumping at the chance to marry up their bid with D.C. Baltimore made a separate bid. Yeah, I mean, if Nashville and Cincinnati are bidders and contenders, why couldn't Baltimore be a contender on their own? Well, I think that's what they think in Baltimore.

I don't think it's a done deal that they're going to say, okay, unless Thiepa says, well, you're not getting it unless you marry with Washington. Switching subjects real quickly, the new governor of Virginia, Glenn Yonkin, is, you know, pushing lawmakers for the stadium, the new Washington football team stadium to be in Virginia. I'm just curious as to what your latest thinking is because you've been all over this. He told the General Assembly Monday, you know, after his inauguration, that he wants Virginia's baseball stadium authority to now also become an authority that takes into its purview football stadium decisions as well.

Do you think, you know, we've had this story out there for, you know, about a month now, what do you think about Virginia in Washington football team? Well, again, I don't think it's happening in Virginia. If you were the governor-elect or the governor just taking over, now he's the new governor, what would be the most publicly political, popular thing to say, that you're not interested in hosting the Washington football team in Virginia or this? I don't know. I'm still very skeptical. To me, publicly, this is the public.

this is the popular statement to make. You know, privately behind the scenes, I still have my doubt. Like I said before, one of his close advisors is George Allen. Bruce Allen's brother. You know, I got to think that's going to have an impact

and not in a positive way for Dan Snyder and his bid for a football team. But even without that, you know, I mean, Virginia has a history of, these projects just dying, you know, I mean, by the wayside. I mean, Virginia is great, not in my backyard. They're there.

And in northern Virginia, they're real good at it. So I'm very skeptical. Plus the whole thing of losing the fan base in Maryland if they moved to Virginia. Again, I'm sticking with, he's going to build an erector set stadium right next to the old one. Yeah, I think the first part of what you said, I wonder if it is popular to say we're interested in working with Dan Snyder and the Washington football team to put their new stadium in our state. I think most people who are interested are football fans. There's a segment that rightfully so should be offended by the notion of doing business like that. but generally, you know, the majority are going to be football fans that just care about the football.

It would be really interesting if, I mean, not that Dan Snyder isn't going to ultimately have the say-so on all of this, but it's just that, you know, new name, new stadium in 2027 in Prince William County or, you know, Loudoun County. I mean, like, you couldn't make a worse decision. The first one, you couldn't help because you got forced into it on the name and the branding. And the second one, you've got some level of control over. You don't have to say yes to Virginia if they were to say yes. You can't put this stadium in Prince William County. I mean, you can't draw more than 25,000 people to land over.

And do you really think anybody's going to go to Prince William County to see your product? You're out of your mind. By the way, if they ever had a good product, that would then become a major issue. You know, I just, that would be another loud, wrong decision by the owner. All right, I want to finish up with a couple of other things, including the Wizards game last night. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, before we get to the Wizards loss last night, which was a close one to Brooklyn, and, by the way, an incredible performance last night in the NBA.

one of the all-time performances in the NBA last night. And I know, Tommy, you've got a story that you want to share with us about another one of your nights out last night down in Florida. I forgot to mention something that I had on my list of things to mention on the show today, and that is John Kimes' recent story on ESPN.com, where he wrote yesterday about, you know, Washington's pursuit of a quarterback. I mean, that's the conversation we're all having. and we will be having until they land that quarterback or quarterbacks.

But in a story that John wrote, he talked about the offer that we know was made last year, the first and third to Detroit for Matt Stafford. They ended up losing out on Stafford to the Rams. The Rams ended up offering two first rounders, a third round pick in Jared Gough to Detroit for Matt Stafford. So Washington really wasn't even close. But John also wrote in his story, Tommy. He wrote, during the 2021 draft, Washington tried to move up to select quarterback Justin Fields, but the asking price was too rich. Now, you know, over the last, you know, eight, nine months, you know, right before the draft and then after the draft and many times since, we've talked about, you know, Washington's pursuit of a quarterback in the offseason last year as very much kind of a way to kind of a way to kind of.

contradict Rivera's. We're going to build it one block at a time and then we'll get the quarterback. Well, their actions last offseason and going after Stafford and turning over every leaf on every other quarterback really spoke to a different mindset in the offseason last year. But before the draft last year, I had mentioned that I had sources that had told me that people in the organization, at least some in the organization, really liked Justin Fields. And that there was discussion about moving up potentially to take Justin Fields. Well, they didn't do it. And they didn't do it. Ron said because, you know, and he had said this a few times, we considered moving up, but, you know, it was too expensive. We didn't want to mortgage the future.

Well, Kime confirmed in this story, I don't think I've seen it confirmed before, confirm that in fact the move up in the draft would have been for Justin Fields. So for those thinking that it may have been Mack Jones, or maybe they were looking to move up even higher for Trey Lance, no, it was fields. You know, but the asking price was too rich. Now, the Giants moved back from 11 to 20 with Chicago. Chicago swapped first rounders, gave up this year, the 2022 first rounder, and also gave up a third and a fifth round pick. So basically two first, but really it was a swap of first, a third and a fifth. Well, you know, at some point down the road, if Justin Fields turns into a star franchise quarterback, well, Washington wasn't aggressive enough.

And this will make them look bad for not being aggressive enough. Now, it's possible that the Giants would have never dealt with Washington, given that they wanted a quarterback. You know, Dallas and Philadelphia dealt with each other in the NFL's first round last year. Cowboys moved back. The Eagles took Devonte Smith and the Cowboys still got Micah Parsons. but maybe the Giants knowing that Washington would have been drafting or moving up to take a quarterback, maybe they wouldn't have dealt with Washington. But that's where, you know, if you think you've got the right guy, you've got to be aggressive. And you can't think in terms of what the asking price being too rich or overpaying to move up for a guy that you really like.

Now, maybe ultimately they just kind of liked him, you know. And so that's why the asking price was too rich. I think Justin Fields showed me something last year. I thought that, you know, I liked him a little bit coming into the draft, and I think he's got a chance. You know, no guarantees on any of these guys. There's nothing definitive in on any of the guys that were taken in the first round. Hell, Davis Mills probably had the best of all of the rookie years last year.

Mack Jones actually did, but Davis Mills came on late as a third rounder for Houston. But I kind of like Fields. Like if they had made that move, I would have applauded. I would have said you're going for it. You recognize you need one and it may not work out. And you may have spent too much, but this is where you've got to go for it. And you're going to be in competition with people going for it. And this particular offseason, you can't come away saying, well, the asking price was too much for like a Deshawn Watson or for, you know, if one of the big guys especially is available. Now, at 11 in this draft, they may have.

have a chance to get the guy, if there is a guy in the draft they want, without having to trade any future picks. But if Fields turns out to be the guy for Chicago, well, Washington saying that the asking price was too rich, they will have been wrong. Well, you're more excited about him than I am. I really don't know that much about him. And at times I saw him, he was running for his life. Yeah, it wasn't a great team necessarily. And he didn't look great all of the but I'm not really speaking from my own opinion on him. I'm just saying they were interested in Justin Fields, but they said John's report was the price was too rich.

Well, the Giants swapped first round picks, 20th to 11th, or 19th to 11th, or was Washington 19th, Washington was 19th, 20th to 11th, and then they gave up a first, fourth, and fifth. Well, you know, that's not too rich if you end up getting a franchise quarterback. If they really liked him, they should have done it. Now, again, the Giants may not have done the deal with the team in the division that was looking for a quarterback. Maybe. I don't know. I wanted to real quickly just mention the Wizards have really been playing well recently.

And they've been playing well with this guy, Joseph Blair, you know, the third coach, because the other two are in COVID territory. And they weren't back last night either. And they played Brooklyn. I mean, they came back from a deficit in the fourth quarter, and they had a look, multiple looks, one by Coosma and one by Dinwiddie at the end, to beat Brooklyn last night, which would have been a really big win for them.

And Coosma missed that first three, and then Dinwiddie threw up one with the clock running out where they had a chance. But they have played exceptionally well. I think there was that stretch where I was like, and by the way, they're still giving up way too much defensively. They gave up 74 in the first half last night. They're not playing great defensive basketball, but that would have been a big win over Brooklyn,

who's obviously playing without Kevin Durant, understood. Kyrie Irving had a big night last night, went for 30, Hardin went for 18. You know, they could not stop Lamarcus Aldridge in the game last night, who was outstanding last night. but, you know, Beal had another solid all-round game. Dinwiddie had another solid game. Kuzma, another really good game. D.N. Herald were great off the bench. Hachamura's really starting to play well.

14 points, five rebounds in 17 minutes. Beal made the comment the other day. This is the deepest team since their 2016 team. I would say that it might even be deeper than that team. But that would have been a really good win for them. There were a couple of controversial calls. but they're playing well. You know, this is...

They're not sinking. They're not sinking. They're not. And by the way, this Joseph Blair is a good list in the press conference, which is their moving. I'm thinking is their move. Yeah. And they're not doing it.

Got three interesting games. By the way, Westbrook got bench last night, you know, at the end of the... I saw that. You know, and I saw that. I mean, it was... That had disaster written all over it from the jump. Yeah. And then Tommy,

Yeah, the NBA train wreck. I don't know if you saw this. Did you see what Joelle M. B. did last night? 50 points, right? 50 points in 27 minutes. Wow. He also had 12 rebounds and three blocked shots in 27 minutes. Here it is.

M.B. joins Iverson and Wilts Chamberlain is the only players in team history now with multiple 50-point games or more. And he became the, he said, the 50 points in 10 rebounds plus, according to Elias, in 27 minutes, is the fewest minutes for a 50-and-10 game since 1955. Quite the game from Embed last night for the 76ers. All right, you said you had something else. What did you have?

Well, I figured you would want to know this. since you only seem to be interested in what I'm doing when I'm down here. You know, I told you Tuesday night I was back at McGuire's drinking and considering posting somebody's phone number, but I didn't. Last night, we went right next door to Kenny Dees, the bar that I could crawl home from, because it's literally right next door. And I did karaoke last night.

You did? Yes. Would you sing? Well, I sang three songs. I sang Willie Nelson. My heroes have always been cowboys. I sang Jimmy Buffett, a pirate looks at 40. And my go-to karaoke song, Cry Like a Baby by the Box Tops. I think I remember saying that. So for you to go, like, how many people were there listening to you sing? About 20, 25 people. Were you, were you well-served?

Not over-served, but well-served. No, by the time I sang my third song, I was well-served. I mean, I hadn't even finished my first song when I went up to, I had my first beer when I went up for the first song. I like Goun karaoke. I think it's fun. What's your soul band that you always go see at Bethesda? King Soul.

King Soul. Because didn't they invite you up on stage to sing with them at one point? I sang a song with King Soul during the fundraiser I did for the D.C. grade in July. Right. Yeah. So why do you do this? Are you a good singer? No, I'm not a good singer.

Here's how I would honestly describe myself, but I'm not a bad singer, you know? I'm not like, oh, my God, this guy needs to sit down. But there were guys who went up besides me, and you'd say, wow, that guy's got a voice, you know. Now, I wasn't one of them, but I wasn't the other way either. I'm right in the middle. So what was the reaction? The reaction is, well, everyone gets pop. Nobody ever gets food on karaoke.

Right. Was Liz there? Was Liz there? Was your wife there? Yeah. And what is she? You'll be interested in this. She took video.

She took video of it. I'd actually like to see you. If you could please send me the video. I'll be posting it later on on social media. Okay. You are brave when it comes to that. You certainly fancy yourself to be quite the dancer. I know that.

Yes. And, you know, look, all I know is that, and this is my bonafite right here. We were at a wedding many years ago, and we were dancing, and there was this black woman who was dancing with somebody else, and all of a sudden she pushes my wife aside and starts dancing with me. Oh, God. This probably didn't. happen, but go ahead. No, this is absolutely 100% of truth. And she's after the dance, she said to my wife, I'm sorry, but I just had to dance with that white boy. Okay. That is the truth. That's your fantasy

story that came true. Your fantasy story that has not come true, of course, is riding the train with Carly Simon, because you're convinced that if you were to do that, she would fall in love with you, and you'd be, you know, off to your new life with one of the hottest singing stars of the 1970s. Unfortunately for her, that train ride hasn't happened. Okay, what else he got for me? That's all I got. Drury and Rainy here today. Yeah, dreary and rainy here today, too.

All right, that's it for the show. Back tomorrow to preview these four NFL games with a guest.