The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Simpletons

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Kevin and Thom today on tv shows, food exploration, movies, war, Covid, and the Rivera presser from yesterday.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Guess who is back home in Frederick after wintering in Florida. That's what they do when they get to his age. Tommy's back in the homeland in Frederick, Maryland, and you seem miserable about it.

Miserable. Well, I'm not happy. I'm not happy at deciding, well, you know, should be able to be. I go to the pool today or to beach? That is a good decision. Right. I'm not happy not having that decision available to me, which has pretty much been available to me since the middle of December.

And now I don't have those options. You rejoined us that have to spend winter and cold climates on beautiful days here. I mean, it was 70 yesterday. I played my first round of golf of the year yesterday. And it's going to be 70 today. It's actually beautiful weather. Now, it's not supposed to be that nice next week. But you came back on beautiful days.

I mean, the temperature right now isn't that much different than what you've been dealing with. No. No, it isn't. No, these are very beautiful days. And even next week, I'll even take the high 40s or low 50s as long as we don't get any recurrence of snow. So, I mean, I'll even take the temperatures next week. It's not the temperatures. It's the mentality.

You know, it's a different mentality. It's bleak. It's depressing. When you go through, and we actually had a stretch here that you missed, fortunately you missed it, because I don't know what the result would have been had you had to endure it here in this climate. But there really was a stretch in February where it just, just seemed like it was cold every single day, gray and cloudy every single day. And even though we were on the cusp of like three or four major snowstorms that we didn't get,

we ended up getting enough ice that ended up being a pain in the ass. It was a very, it was a very bleak February, one that really could, especially, you know, with people, you know, taking it. very carefully in terms of the pandemic. It could have been even worse. It was dismal. It was a dismal February. And I'm...

Come on. You're just saying that to make me feel good. No, you really hit it on the right year. Because we haven't had, you know, serious winters the last couple of years. And this year wasn't a serious winter in terms of, you know, snow accumulation, but it was cold. It was cold and gloomy. it really was. It felt, I mean, I can't imagine, like,

I've thought about in the past the people that live really in bad, you know, winter climates. I mean, dreary, cold, super cold climates, you know, North Dakota, South Dakota. And I'm talking about not even in major cities. How depressing that must get. I mean, seriously, I don't think I can handle it. You know, my wife. You know this, I think. Kara actually grew up in Minneapolis.

She lived there until she was 10, 11 years old. And Minneapolis is a great city. I spent a lot of time there before I got into broadcasting. Byerleys Supermarkets was a client of ours. Super Value, they were a big grocery wholesaler, was a client of ours. And so I spent a lot of time in Minneapolis. I actually really love Minneapolis. It's a great city.

And the truth is, even though it's brutally cold, you know, there's a lot to do there. But if you're in North Dakota or South Dakota or what, I mean, not it, what would you do during these months? You know, there's four states in these great United States that haven't been to. And two of them are North Dakota and South Dakota. I just can't think of a reason not even to drive through, you know, unless I took the northerly route across the country. So, no, I can't fathom what you would do in North and South Dakota. Here's the only saving grace. When I was doing the podcast down in Florida, I was doing it from a spare.

We shared the condo with another couple, and it's a big four-bedroom. You didn't tell me this. You never mentioned that you shared it with another couple. Never once. Did you know them? It's a big four bedroom. Yeah, they're out. My wife's twin sister.

Oh, okay. We get along with them very well. You didn't tell me that. Is this the Philadelphia crew? No, no. This is the Poconos crew. The Poconos crew, okay. So they really loved it because they escape the Poconos,

where they got snow all the time this winter. Right. 10 degrees colder than it is here. But I would do the podcast. We had four bedrooms, and so we had a spare bedroom. So I would do the podcast from there. And now I'm sitting in my office here in Frederick doing the podcast. And you remember what my office at the radio station was like.

Yes, I do. It's hard to. Well, this is similar to that. So I get to look at all my accolades and awards and photos. So that's making me start to feel a little bit better. Yeah, you missed the shrine that you built to yourself. Yes. Well, I've got a shrine here in Frederick, and that's kind of warming my heart a little bit.

So the only state I've never been to is North Dakota. I've been to all other 49 states. You've been to Alaska? I've been to Alaska. Yeah, we took a trip to Alaska. Wow. And that was probably, it was Alaska and North Dakota were the only two for a long period of time. But 10 years ago, more than that now, we did an Alaskan cruise.

I think I've told you about it. It was a lot of fun. But it rained, it was 45 degrees and rained every single day. So, you know, it was one buffet feeding after another. my brother-in-law titled the trip The Floating Food Prison, which is really what it turned out to be when we were there.

So I've been to South Dakota on my trip. Cooley and I've had this conversation, and I think you and I have, but you probably don't remember it. But when I was 21 after my junior year at Maryland, my best friend who was at Villanova, I know, the dog tracks thing,

the trip out wet. Why would you think I wouldn't remember I don't know. You don't remember a lot of things I tell you. But I remember we drove, you know, we took Route 90. We took the northern route out. And that meant that we drove through South Dakota, you know, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which was like the first city in South Dakota when you're traveling east to west, major city. That was depressing. That was not, like that is one of those places where, look, if we have anybody listening from Sioux Falls, God bless you. And I'm sure there's a lot of redeeming, you know, features in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

We were driving through in summertime. I can only imagine what it's like in wintertime. Now, when you drive west through that state and you get out to places like Rapid City, which, yes, we found a dog track in Rapid City, South Dakota in the Black Hills. And we did spend a night or two there. And, you know, we went to Mount Rushmore, which, you know, it's okay. Great. A couple pictures and then you're on. But the western part of that state is really beautiful, you know, physically beautiful. But I've never been to North Dakota before. Never. And I don't know why I would want to go to Minot or Bismarck. Or can I name another state? Fargo, obviously. The other states, I haven't been in Alaska. I haven't been to Montana. Those are the four.

God, Alaska really is beautiful. And Montana's great. Yeah, but from watching Yellowstone. Yellowstone, I think it's very dangerous. People get killed left and right in Montana. Yeah, well, they do on that show. Oh, you know what? Just speaking of shows, it's still like on my list to do the wire,

but for whatever reason, and I came home the other night, My son was watching an episode of Breaking Bad, and I got into like a three-hour, you know, watching four, you know, straight episodes. Good God, that show is just brilliant. It was amazing. It's so amazing. And I knew it when I was watching it, it always felt special. Where's the podcast on that show? Where's the podcast on that show?

I want a pod. Zabe was telling me, I sat in on Zab's podcast the other day in the Zabcast Mobile or whatever. he calls it, The Van. And he said that there's a good Sopranos podcast out right now. But I'd love a... I think Steve Sharipa and... Exactly. The guy who played Christopher, Maltesanti,

I think they do one together. They're doing one together. Yeah. It would... I mean, if we had a little Brian Cranston, you know, Jesse Pinkman, you know, Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, what's Jesse's name in real life? Aaron... Aaron Paul.

Is that it? If we had the two of them, which that relationship really is so much a part of the show, if the two of them were hosting it, or maybe it could be Walter and Skyler, maybe the two of them, just please leave Hank's wife Marie out of any of the, she was the one annoying character on the show. But God, what a great show and what great memorable episodes, you know? you know, from that show. Do you know, I still haven't finished Better Call Saul.

I'm through the first two seasons, and I haven't gone back and watched the rest of the first three seasons, I think I got through. But I have not gotten through the rest of it. That's on the list along with the wire. But I love the first three seasons of Better Call Saul, because Odden Kirk is brilliant. Better Call Saul, it really ratchets up in the last season and it was on. Right. I mean, they're doing another season, but the intensity really starts to ratchet up. Because Gustavo ends up becoming a part of it, I'm assuming.

Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I recommend it to you an Amazon Prime series that I know you'll love. Sneaky Pete. I know. You and Clay all the time. Clay all the time tells me to watch that. It's right up your alley.

So why do I go back and watch shows I've already watched? I don't do that all the time. I've had this argument. I've had this argument with my wife. She doesn't, like, when I came home, one of the first things I did, when I watched TV, I watched on the waterfront again, which I have on DVR. Yeah. You know, I've seen on the waterfront maybe 200 times, you know, but I watched it again. And to me, and she doesn't do this, but to me, I compare it to listening to a record that you love.

I think that's a good comparison. You just don't listen to a record and put it away. I mean, there are parts of a movie that make you feel good, that you enjoy the writing at, the delivery at. I mean, and that doesn't go away. So there's certain movies that I always enjoy watching. Even if that's the whole thing when you're flipping the dials. If I'm flipping the dials and I stop by Gladiator, I'm watching it. Oh, my God.

You know? I never go away. from Gladiator. Never. I mean, there's so many of those movies. Some people that don't understand, some people just don't understand why you would watch a TV show or a movie repeatedly. And I'm not one of them. I love watching stuff over again. You know, we've talked a lot about, you know, Tarantino movies over the years. And by the way, I agree with you. I mean, why deprive yourself if you love it and you love it watching it again or listen?

to the same song over and over again or the same album over and over again, why deprive yourself if it's something that gives you pleasure? I mean, I don't want to do it to the point where I cut off all new things, and I don't think I do that, you know, but typically I need a really strong recommendation or there's got to be an act, like the movie that I told you to watch the little things with Denzel and Remy Malik that just came out recently on whatever it was, Amazon Prime or whatever that I watched. Like two really, really good actors, and the movie was really pumped up. And I don't even know how it was reviewed.

I enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty good. But why deprive yourself of it if you really liked it? But the Tarantino movie conversations that we've had over the years where we've said, you know, which ones we really like and which ones we don't, I think we both said the following about Tarantino movies. There are certain movies, In Glorious Bastards to me, is the single best. example of this. And actually once upon a time in Hollywood is the same, that every time I watch it,

like, it gets better. Like, I remember in glorious bastards the first time I watch it, I'm like, it's good. It was really good. And by the fifth time I watched it, I'm like, oh my God, this is a brilliant movie. Brilliant. Pulp Fiction is similar in that way, too. Like, you pick up more and more. I think once upon a time in Hollywood, I've now watched it maybe three times. It's another perfect example of a Tarantino movie that just keeps getting better and better and better. So that would be one of the reasons to go back and watch a movie multiple times. Yes. Absolutely.

I agree with you on that, but this is a basic philosophy of, and I've had this debate with people, of the notion, and you mentioned it just here, you don't want to watch something too much as to cut off anything new to introduce a new. into your life. I'm not a big fan of New. You know? Yeah, I know you're not. I mean, hence the constant cojack watching and Rockford Files watching. You would rather watch, you would rather watch an episode of Rockford Files not in high definition off of YouTube than you would a new show

like Game of, not a new show, just a show you haven't watched that's great that you would love. That's been highly recommended by some somebody who you spend, you know, some time with in your life. You would rather go back and watch Jim Rockford and Rocky and Beth Davenport. I'd rather watch Jim and Angel and Angel. And Dennis. And Beth Davenport. Absolutely.

But I've had this argument with people about food. You know, I have a very limited house. Yes, you do. You really are. And I always say it's. You're a rube when it comes to food. No, it's my simplicity that makes you so complex. Yeah.

Yes. And here's my issue. They say, well, why don't you order something different that you might like? And then I say, but what if I don't like it? That meal then is gone. It's gone forever. I'm not getting that meal back. Yeah, but what if you?

But how many meals do you think? Do I think I have. What if you like it? But what if I don't? But what if you do? That meal is gone. But what if you do? I have enough stuff, but I have enough stuff in my life that I like.

I don't feel a void for food. So if I order something that I don't, and I don't like it, you know, I don't want to be sitting on my deathbed someday saying, God, I wish I had that meal back. I wasted it. You only have so many meals left in your life. I'm not wasting it on something that I say, boy, that's not, that's no good. Yeah, but he's, with TV watching and movies.

Here's the problem with you, though. It's not about, you know, somebody saying, hey, I really want you to try this new Asian fusion restaurant. It's really good. You're going to love it. And you're like, you know, no chance. It's so, this simplicity is like simplicity to like the fifth degree. Because for you, it's like, I love ham and cheese, but like you would, but I'm not going to try chicken cordon blue. Like, like, I'm not talking about.

I like chicken cord on blue. Okay. But my point is, is it's like you don't make this. simplest of leaps. Absolutely not. Absolutely. You know, when I spout off, my simplicity makes me complicated theories to my wife, she always says, well, that's because you're a simpleton.

Well, that's what my wife says, too. I don't use that line quite as much as you do, but, you know, there will be many nights and she'll just look at her, you know, her boys sitting there in front of a TV, getting all worked up over, you know, a Skins game or a Maryland basketball, game and she just sort of does the same thing. She'll just sort of shake her head and just go simpletons, simpletons. That's what we should call this podcast. Well, yeah. Too simpletons. Well, I think there's a lot of truth in that. I think there is a lot of truth in that. I think you of every, actually, you know what, it's funny. Scott is very much this way, too. He's not big

into trying new things. He's very much a creature of habit. I am not like a major risk taker when it comes to food or those things, but I am so far ahead of where you are. I mean, just sitting there watching you unwrap that same sandwich every day. Oh, my God. Um, well, you know, it's good to see that Scott, Scott has similar tendencies. You know, creative people have very similar tendencies. I don't know if that is actually a characteristic of a creative person. I think it is. No, I don't. I don't think it is.

I think creative people tend not to be people who are not open to change at all. I don't think those two things mix. It doesn't mean that they can't because I think in your case and in Scott's case that you both are creative people. You are very creative people. But I would bet, and I could be wrong about this. I would bet that people that are much more open-minded to trying new things and not resistant to change tend to be more creative than less. I don't know. What the hell?

You know what? They don't have any discretion about quality usually. I mean, they'll eat pretty much anything. Disagree with that. Just totally disagree with that. No, 100%. They'll watch whatever's on TV. First of all, whatever's on TV.

They all get. They're watching. They have no discretion of quality. First of all, that's a very subjective thing. Secondly, you wouldn't know quality in so many different categories if it slapped you upside the head. You know, for years, you have said, oh, my God, you have so many blank spots. And that's true. But so do you.

So do you. Listen, I'm sitting here in my office. look at all these awards that tell me I know quality. Keep looking at them because it's the only way that you'll stay convinced because it won't come from the outside. How did we get started on this? Because I actually had a reason for bringing up whatever I brought up and now I forget. Breaking Bad. You were watching Breaking Bad. I know, but what were we talking about prior to that?

Oh, I don't know. I'm just a simpleton. How do you expect me to remember? I know. Oh, well, actually what really started it was the repeating, yeah, Breaking Bad, which got into the repeating of watching shows, et cetera, et cetera. And with Breaking Bad, like, I would like a new podcast to listen to, you know, and I'm not talking about sports podcasts. Like I told you, you know, what I've listened to recently, the Brian Baumgartner stuff on the office, which is a show, to me, it's the ultimate. comfort go-to sitcom of all time for me. But I would love, like it would be to hear all of the Breaking Bad episodes and how the show came together and what the relationships were. I think on some of these shows that I've fallen in love with over the years, what I really want to know is I want to know what these people were like in real life and how they got along and, you know, who was an asshole and who was a good guy and all that stuff. So I'm I think Brian Cranston was like brilliant, right? Don't you?

And very well liked and respected and not a... He's good in pretty much everything he's done. Everything. He was even good in Malcolm in the middle, which was, you know, his claim the same before he did break and bad. I never watched that. I never watched it. You need to open yourself up to the new viewing habit.

Gladiator every time that's on. There are two movies that every single time they're on that I watch them, my wife absolutely is like, I don't want to watch it. I hate it. It's too violent. There are too, I mean, there are a lot of movies that when they're on, I'll stick with them. I mean, Godfather, Goodfellas, all the mob movies, and then all the obvious like Shawshank Redemption, all, you know, the ones that everybody watches over and over again. But Gladiator, I love Gladiator, and I love Gangs of New York. I think Gangs of New York is one of the best movies ever made in my wife every single time it's on, and I flip on it, and she's like, please turn it

now. Please turn it now. I can't watch that. I hate it. I'm like, why do you hate this? This is actually And you know the reason, the main reason I think, I agree with you. And the main reason is you can't take your eyes off Daniel Day Lewis. Oh, he's so good. He's such a compelling character. Oh, my God. It's just unbelievable. Everybody was great, but Daniel Day Lewis in that movie, I think it's one of the best roles he's ever played. And I think he was phenomenal in Lincoln. I think he was phenomenal in a lot of things. But God, he was so good in that movie. By the way, so was DeCaprio. He was so good. I know. You know, everyone was good, but Daniel Day Lewis was riveting. Yeah. It was unforgettable. And it's history. You know, I was telling somebody,

what was I? Oh, my friend, Billy Garrish. Billy, if you're listening, it was great to see you yesterday. Billy is doing a podcast. Billy is a well-known. teacher and coach in the area. And Billy asked me to be on his podcast, which he's been doing. And somehow we got into a conversation about shows. He said, the first time I ever met you, we were playing golf. And you and I ended up, you know, talking about movies the entire time because Billy's sort of a sports fan, but not a huge sports fan.

But anyway, to make a long story short, somehow the conversation turned to Band of Brothers. And recently, and I forget if I told you this or not, you know, that I think the Pacific is actually better than Band of Brothers. And I loved Band of Brothers. But the Pacific, the 10-part miniseries, which Hanks did, is so good. Oh, I know what brought it up. He was talking about movies and how he loved the Queen movie, you know, the Freddie Mercury Queen movie, which Rami Malik, you know, played Freddie Mercury in that movie.

And we were talking about that movie. And I said, just recently, and I did, I went back and watched the Pacific. a lot of the episodes that I really like from that show. And the only real star out of that show was Rami Malik, who was, you know, a significant character in that Pacific miniseries. And that was really, I think it could have been really his, you know, first big deal. I don't know he could have had something before then. But he was so good in that.

And then obviously he's been really good in a lot of things since. Well, the Pacific, one of the main producers of that is the D.C. guy, George Pelicanos. I think you've told me that before, yeah. Yeah, he was, I think, I mean, he was pretty much the guy who called the shots on that. So, yeah, that was a great mini-series. Absolutely. Well, it's, you know, it's another reminder of just, you know, sometimes I think about the generation, especially the younger generation. I'm not going to sit here and just nitpick and do the Boomer, the OK Boomer thing,

because I certainly am not old enough to have remembered World War II. But, you know, when Tom Brocault and others called it the greatest generation, when you see what, you know, what these soldiers, what these Marines went through in the Pacific, and so many of those places, you know, Pele Lu and Iwo Jima and Okinawa and all those places that were just, they were hell on earth places. You know, it was such a different war than the one fought in Europe for our troops that fought in Europe. And it was, I don't know, whenever I, like, whenever I think about, you know, you know,

I don't know how we're getting into this, but whatever, I'll get to this. Today, you know, is the year anniversary of Rudy Gobert testing positive. the, you know, and basically the whole world as we know it shutting down, which you had predicted, you know, and I've given you credit for many times, you had predicted two to three days earlier. You were ahead of it per usual. You know, again, your simplicity is what makes you so complicated. And you figured that one out before anybody else did. And I was looking back at, you know, some of the significance of that day. You know, the Rudy Gobert positive test was really what shut down the sports world and really what led to, Much of the country, you know, looking at, oh, my God, like sports is a part of the culture, right? And by the way, the Ivy League had it right, basically. One of the reasons you felt as strongly as you felt, I do believe, is because the Ivy League shut down before anybody else did. Exactly. Yeah.

That was why. I figured if the smart people at Harvard think, if we should stop, then I'm going with them. Right. But when Rudy Gobert tested positive in the NBA shutdown, and then the context, tournaments started shutting down in the middle of games of the ACC tournament, right? It was almost like the rest of the country then realized, wow, this is a reality. Like the perception of the virus really changed with sports shutting down. Now, I also know, and I looked this up late last night when I was thinking about this and how much I would do on the show,

which I did not do much on the radio show this morning. It was also the day that Rudy Gobert tested positive a year ago today was also the day that finally the World Health Organization officially designated coronavirus 19 as a worldwide, you know, as a pandemic. Like it'd take it, I mean, there's a lot of revisionist history. I don't want to get into the politics because ultimately this became way too politically, political. It's, it's this virus divided this country politically, socially, culturally, as did many other things that were happening simultaneously. It's like what a year. But I'm using this as a way to say, you know,

we faced much more adversity as a country. We had a civil war in this country. The way our lives would be led, our way of living was on, was basically up for grabs from 1941 to 1940. And when you see, you know, in the Pacific and you read about the Pacific theater and what those Marines went through, I don't know if the generation, the young generation of today, I just don't think they deal with adversity. They could handle that kind of adversity. And they don't have to because wars don't get fought that way anymore. But I don't know. You know what? I'm happy about you're vaccinated. Vaccines are becoming more and more available. We seem to. to be on the other side of this. I believe that. I don't know what these variants could do,

but I think, you know, the availability of vaccines, it seems like more and more people are getting vaccinated. Everybody that really needed to get vaccinated hopefully has, and if they haven't, boy, I'm wishing you the best and hopefully you can get to it, but I sort of feel like we're on the other side of this, don't you or not?

Yeah. I think, you know, obviously, I don't know what has to do with it. The vaccination obviously are a big part of it as the number not only grows more and more, but the number of vaccines given out every day grows exponentially as well. But also it's a time of the season, I mean, where these kind of illnesses, respiratory illnesses, are not as prevalent as they are in January and February.

We saw the flu numbers way, way down because of social distancing and mask wearing. etc. We didn't have a flu season. Right, and I think that is in part mainly because people didn't go to work and killed kids didn't go to school. Yeah, of course. I mean, I think, you know, school children have a lot to do with spreading the viruses and then, you know, people take them to work with them. So I think that had a big impact there. But when are you getting your vaccination? Soon.

Soon. I mean, don't they know who you are? By the way, the other one last point on this, because you and I had a lot of conversations about this, and I think we disagreed on some portions of the conversation and we agreed on others. When all is said and done, and it's not over yet, knock on wood, because Sports are still being played, and there's still a virus out there, obviously. But basically, a year into this thing, not one serious, I mean, really serious sickness

with a young, fit college or professional sports athlete in this country. Am I right about that? Remember we had the discussion. I don't know if that's right. I don't know if that's right. I think there have been guys that have gotten sick and have been bedridden, but not No one was on a ventilator nearly dead. That would have shut down sports.

If that's your measure, if that's your measure, then that's probably true. Yeah, well, that, well, I don't want to say that that's my measure. That's my measure because a lot of the serious symptoms were no worse than serious flu symptoms. With that said, you know, like Scott, who had COVID, still doesn't. still doesn't, two months later, it's coming up on two months, still doesn't have full taste and smell back. And it's starting to worry him, you know, because what if, like he said, like, what if I never get it back? And I, you know, it's easy for me to say, but he agrees, it's like, well, it could have been a lot worse. You could have been on a ventilator. You could have been in

danger of losing your life. But, you know, obviously you don't want to go through a life. Well, look, if anybody could lose their sense of taste and not having to impact their life, it would be you. I like pizza, buddy. I know you do. Pizza tastes good. Yeah, pizza's great. Beer tastes good. Beer's so good. I had one last thing before we get to sports. Maybe he gets sports. So speaking of beer, I played golf yesterday for the first time in a while. Really, I think I think the first time since late December when it was really warm there for a couple of days. Maybe early January, whenever it was.

And, you know, had hung out with a bunch of friends and guys and, you know, had several beers playing and afterwards. It was a good day. It was a really fun day. But I ended up meeting two guys who I didn't know before, and they are anti-terrorism experts. One is at the University of Maryland, actually, as a professor and a researcher, and the other is, I think has a more formal position. But, you know, we ended up talking about a lot of this stuff. And I was just curious as to what, like, the most, what keeps people up at night? You know, what keeps people who are really in the know up at night, restless trying to sleep because of fear?

Why would you want to know that? Well, I think I told you this before. You know, several years ago, Josh Bolton, who was Bush's chief of staff, and his fiancé and Kara ended up representing, was their real estate agent. And she became very close with his fiancé, and they were buying a house together. And so we got to know them pretty well. And, you know, we had, you know, dinner with them a couple times, got together with them a couple of times. And I remember, because this was late 2007, 2008, 2009, you know, and I remember just, you know, he by the way, was a huge sports fan and all he wanted to do was talk about the Nats. And I couldn't have cared less about that.

I just wanted to know, like, so how many, you know, how many attempts? Like, what have we thwarted? Like, how close have we been to, you know, another 9-11? And he obviously couldn't get into a lot of the detail of anything. So I remember asking them a question, what keeps you up at night? Like, what's the real fear? And when the pandemic started a year ago, I remember telling you, you know, this is a real fear of people in government. They know that this is, you know, one of those things that can get completely out of control.

And it's something that is really, really something that's kept them up for, you know, at night for years. You know, pandemic. You know, obviously bioterrorism. but I remember him saying, you know, the water supply is a real fear. It's a very vulnerable situation. And this isn't like, you know, breaking news. He wouldn't tell me anything that was, but I was just curious. He's like, you know, you can read about it.

But, you know, our water supply, our reservoirs are very vulnerable, you know, and all that needs to happen is somebody could just toss something into a reservoir. And it could, you know, it could impact thousands. thousands and thousands of lives. And so I met these two guys last night, and we were having an interesting conversation, and I asked them that question, and I was wondering if they would tell me water supply,

and they said, electrical grid. Like, that's the real fear. And, you know, if the electrical grid got messed with and shut down by the Russians or the Chinese or anybody who's messing with, you know, the Russians did it in the Ukraine, it would be real devastation. I don't know. This stuff interests me.

Anyway, I was thinking about it. Good God, if we lost electricity and couldn't get it back on, think about how hospitals that rely on it. People are sick. You know, transportation systems, every computer in the world that runs everything economically, lights, just everything. Can you imagine no electricity?

So as we're coming up, out of this pandemic, just remember it actually, there are bigger fears out there. Look at you. I can't even look at you right now because you're on the phone, but you're like, oh, my God, why did you tell me about this? Why did you tell me about this? No, that stuff doesn't bother me. It really does.

What does bother you? The pandemic bothered you. Well, you bother me, but other than that. The pandemic bothered you. It puts you in a state of fear. a little bit? Yeah, it did. It did.

I mean, because I saw the real possibility I could wind up on a ventilator or dead. Right. But, you know, I mean, worrying about things, but I had some level of control in that. And I exercised it as much as I could. Right. You know, by taking precautions. You and I have no level of control if somebody wants to sabotage, you know, the electrical system.

We can't stop it. Okay? So I can't worry about something I can't control. I had limited control over the chances of me getting COVID. And so, I mean, while I was worried about it, I felt good about the way I was approaching it. And if something happened after that, well, then that's winning the bad lottery. cyber war on basically you know your your power grid is a big concern of you know a lot of the smart people in the country so you know what it was a hundred years in between serious pandemics i i bet you that we're not around for whatever the next big thing is hopefully hopefully you know what the truth is in our day to day lives there are much bigger danger

than worrying about that stuff. All right, kids, I don't know how we got sidetracked into all this, but I do want to spend a little bit of time talking about what Ron Rivera said yesterday during his presser, and we'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. So Ron Rivera had a press conference yesterday, Tommy, and there were a lot of interesting things that he talked about, And I want to go through a couple of them and just respond to them. You know, some of it is on the current football situation.

He said about free agency. He said, you know, we're not desperate. There's no immediate need to have to, got to, must have. We're looking to do it the right way. We're looking to build a winning, sustainable culture. By the way, the word culture once again was used throughout his presser yesterday. I'll get to more of it in a little bit. But he said, we want the football team built the right way.

A lot of good things happened last year. We did something that was a little unexpected, which I acknowledged. But at the same time, just because of that, I really don't think you throw the plan away, you throw the plan away and you start reaching and doing things you don't need to do right now. First of all, that answer, it's such the opposite of what they would have done off of a flu. luke-ish kind of year in years past. They would have leveraged that playoff loss to Tampa Bay into a magical, you know, headline grabbing offseason.

So close. So close. And even before the Bruce Allen's so close, it would have been like, oh, my God, if we have a big off season, imagine the tickets we're going to sell, the sponsorships were going to do. It was always about revenue. It was always about what do we need to do to increase revenue, not what do we need to do to ensure that we're building a winning sustainable culture.

But it was always about what can we do to take advantage of that year that, you know, that 2005, went to the playoffs. What can we do now? Well, in 2006, we're going to have all of these free agents. We're going to go after Adam Archeletta and Antoine Randallel and all these people and we're going to trade for T.J. Duckett. and we're going to just have a fun time here in the off-season. It didn't work out very well, did it, in 2006? I love when I hear this from him.

I think he gets it. I think he gets the past. I think he knows what it takes. I think you're right. I think he does get it. Now, again, I mean, part of the problem here in Washington, and it has nothing to do with him necessarily, but we are so used to stupid

that when not stupid comes along, we think it's genius. Yeah. You know, I mean, this is not that hard. No, but he's talking about. I know, but don't call him, I wouldn't refer to what's going on here as, oh, it's just that it's not that stupid.

He built, he built, they had a good culture, they had a good culture at Carolina. I know that, but I'm saying, look. I know it's not genius. We are at the base now where you're starting at the same starting line as other NFL teams in the sense that you have intelligent people faced with decisions, and they could get them right, they could get them wrong.

This is a new concept for this organization. that they might get them right. That they would have intelligent people making these decisions. I know. But that intelligent organizations, you have intelligent people make decisions. They get some of them right and some of them wrong. Well, maybe this time we're going to get some of them right. Yes.

But there's going to be something wrong. But the reality is they could get them wrong, too. Right. But still be professional. All you're getting here is a fair shake finally in the NFL game. as a fan face. All you're getting now is, you're, okay, we don't have to start the race 20 yards behind because of the dumb people in the building. So then the last two questions of the presser that I wanted to get to because it sort of dovetails off of that answer. He was asked about the certain type of player that he's looking to bring to the team because obviously free agency starts next week.

And he said, quote, to me first and foremost, you want to bring a guy in that fits, a culture fit, a coaching fit, a playing fit. I think all three are important as far as the fit is concerned. If you've only got two out of the three to me, you're taking a little bit of a chance that somewhere along the line you're going to have a guy that doesn't fit, period. So I hope to get a guy that's a cultural fit, a coaching fit, and a schematic and playing fit. That's what you look for. And then he said, well, what kind of player fits the culture, you know, in Washington in your organization? And he said to me, it's about team first and foremost. It's about having the right type of character, things that are important to you, little details that are important to you.

And then he gets into this example of how, you know, he felt the maturity in the organization, you know, starting with some of their coaches and some of their trainers like Ryan Vermillion really handled COVID very well. He said, you know, it was a testament to the player stepping up. The coach is stepping up and really taking it very seriously and doing the things they needed to do. They showed a lot of maturity and a lot of selflessness. It would have been easy to go out and do something and get themselves in a bad situation and then test positive and infect their teammates and other coaches. They didn't. They kept their guard up.

And again, I really, really truly appreciated the way they handled that. To me, that's what we are talking about with a cultural fit. That's important. We were able to do that because of the fact. that the guy paid attention to the little details. Of course, Dwayne Haskins didn't. Yeah, I mean, could he slap around the departed quarterback anymore with those comments? I know.

I mean, everything he said was everything that Dwayne Haskins did in terms of not doing. But he's right. I mean, you know, part of it is a luck, but you can't argue with the results. Washington was one of the most seemingly most careful organizations in the NFL when it came to COVID protections. You can't argue with the results. Yeah. There's no doubt.

I just think, you know, and I've said this in earlier shows as we're leading up to free agency, if you're sitting there and some of you do this, you know, and you map out what your free agency plan for the team is, like who you want them to sign, etc. You must use as a significant sort of decision-making data point or criteria the kind of person that they're going after. They're not going to sign a player that's been involved in, that's gotten in trouble, that's been an issue, that's been a diva. You know, everybody's talking about wide receivers and the wide receivers that they may be going after may not be divas. I don't think that Kenny Ghaladee, who was not franchise tagged, is considered a diva. Or, or Corey Yenai.

Davis or maybe other Smith-Schuster. But like this should be a guiding principle for you as you're thinking about what they are going to do, whether it's a top line guy or a second, you know, group of second tier guys. Like last year's group of second-tier guys, J.D. McKissick, you know, Logan Thomas, you know, they really did a nice job last year in free agency on the second tier. and they got guys that were higher character, higher quality, smart, dependable, selfless, you know, mature, team first guys. So they took a big swing last year for Amari Cooper, but Amari Cooper's got a great reputation.

They took a big swing already in trying to trade for Matt Stafford, but Matt Stafford has a great reputation as being, you know, team first guy. This is going to be a big part of what drives their off-season. season. And by the way, back to the first answer that I read about the short, you know, the long and short term goals in free agency. Again, you know, he's not, they're not going to swing for a guy thinking that that's the difference in 2021 between the Super Bowl and, you know, losing in the first round. I think he does have a sense of where they are realistically. They got lucky this year. They were in a terrible division. And they did some nice things.

things. And in many ways, the result of having a playoff game puts them a little bit ahead of schedule. But if they didn't make the playoffs, and it was seven and nine, and Dallas was 11 and five, it still would have been on schedule. Like they did a lot of good things this year. They made a lot of improvement. I agree. And all that is true. But I think if you want a culture build and you want the opportunity to culture build, you can't take a big step back this year. Yeah, because you fear the owner. Right. All right.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you fear that if they have a bad year, the owner is going to say not good enough. What do I need to do to fix this? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you're going to have to listen to me now, Ron. I want to come back after the break and talk about what he said about quarterback. the quarterback situation.

And what I thought was the most honest he was in this presser yesterday when he was talking about Alex Smith. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, I want to talk about some of the things he said about the quarterback search and also about Alex Smith. But before that, I am curious as to your thoughts on the answer to the following question. Because I had a thought, but I'm going to let you go first because I think you're going to have an immediate thought. he was asked about the findings of the ongoing investigation into the workplace culture with the organization, the Beth Wilkinson investigation, and whether or not the Wilkinson investigation should be made public, which you think it should. The organization has said, we want to be transparent, et cetera. They've made a point of that.

And his answer was very short and very, you know, much without sort of, well, I'll read you the answer here. His answer was, quote, I'll tell you this much, that's beyond me right now. That's not for me to say what I'm here to talk about right now is the draft free agency and our football team as far as we are today and where we're going forward, closed quote. Should he have said more? Well, there's nothing to say yet. There's no report yet. That's not what he was asked.

It's not what he was asked. He was asked if he thinks that the investigation should be made, public. Okay. Well, if it's, I mean, why answer a question that you won't have to answer if it is indeed made public? There's no point in answering that. Now, if it's not made public, it's, it's, you're damn right, you should go back and

ask that question of him again and press him on it. I mean, because that flies in the face of everything that he and Jason Wright, the team president touted about transparency. But right now, look, if it was legitimate question, I understand his answer because the NFL just may make it public, and then there's no point of him, you know, there's no point in him going out on a limb and saying it should be public because there's nothing to debate. Now, if they don't make it public, then I think he's fair game for that question. I think he's... He's a fair game for the question anyway. I agree. And here's why he's fair game for that question.

Because he's not just the football coach here. He's the face and voice of this franchise. We were told that the day he got hired, and nothing has changed that. Jason Wright runs the business operation. And I know that that has something to do with what we're talking about here, but Jason Wright is not the face and voice of the organization. Ron Rivera's. I don't, look, I don't have a problem with him and their PR department, you know, saying this is a football pre-free agency presser.

But as the face and the voice of the franchise, I think the answer was a bit terse and a bit too short. And I think it should have included, we are cooperating and we want to cooperate in every way we can. We want this investigation complete. We have already started to put, you know, a lot of practices, protocols, you know, different things in place to address a lot of what's been going on. We've made tremendous progress, Tanya, you know, Dan, Jason, the whole organization. And, you know, when that report, it comes out, you know, in terms of the people who may have asked for anonymity, I would certainly protect those people, but I have no issue with that report when it's done if Beth Wilkinson and the League thinks it should be made public.

I think it should be made public. We're ready to respond to all of the recommendations, and we've already begun that process. I think just blowing off the question as the face and voice, I'm not, look, trust me, this is not a big knit to pick at all. Okay, it was a free agency presser. But what we've heard from them is he is coach-centric. He's the number one guy in the organization. The owners are recluse.

We'll never hear from him. Okay, so except for reports about who he's suing and who he's squabbling with. Jason Wright is very available and accessible, but he's not the face and voice of the franchise. Ron Rivera is. And I think this is a very serious organizational issue in question, and I just thought he could have added more to it rather than just. completely blowing it off. That's all. Well, that's reasonable. I can't argue with that position, except if he started to, you know, use words like progress and Tanya and Dan, he could

wind up choking on those words if the report indeed does come out that the owner was doing everything. He could have just said the organization. It could have said the organization. The organization's been putting and implementing a lot of new, you know, practices and protocols and best, you know, learning, practices, et cetera, best business practices. And, you know, we've learned a lot from just the stories that have been written. Remember, our sales team put out the actual letter that said this, you know, this post story is true. But anyway, all right, I wanted to move on to the quarterback thing real quickly. So he said about the quarterback situation, quote, the biggest thing is we're going to continue to look.

We're going through this process. Free agency starts next week. The draft is in 50 days. I understand. We still have time. We're going to continue to explore all the options that are out there. I get it. You guys want answers, but we don't have answers for you right now because we're still working through the process.

Again, we've got a lot of time. It's free agency next week and the draft is in 50 days. Close quote. So what this says to me, first of all, he didn't answer. There's no answer in there. But the answer that he didn't give, which is, you know, by extension, it means they're continuing to look, which is what I think they're doing, but I think this just confirms it, is the answer wasn't, we are really, really happy with Taylor and with Kyle.

By the way, if you guys missed this yesterday, they did tender Kyle Allen, so he's back at 850 grand. They did the same thing, by the way, with Cam Sims. We expected that. There are also reports that they're going to pick up the fifth-year option on Duran Payne, another thing that we all expect them to do. But on this, what he didn't say is, you know, guys, Kyle and Taylor battling it out in August, we're comfortable with that.

You know, we're really excited about it. We tendered Kyle today and we're looking forward to a real, you know, competition when we get there. They swung big for Stafford. The reports are that they've expressed interest in Marriota and even Darnold, if Darnold becomes available. There have been reports about Derek Carr and Jared Goff before he became a part of the Stafford deal. They're looking to upgrade at quarterback still, even after missing out on, like to me, the Stafford play was equivalent to the Amari Cooper offer of a year ago. They swung big and they missed, but they still are looking for a quarterback answer. You know, maybe I'm going to give Rivera some credit.

I don't know if he deserves all it or not for being really smart about his words and how he chooses them here. Because if he said, oh, we're real happy with what we've got, and then they turned around and made a trade for another quarterback, it would seem pretty disingenuous. Well, yeah. That's why he didn't. That's why he couldn't say it, because it's not true. Yeah. Well, that hasn't stopped. Look, like Mike Shattahan said, I'm going to tell you to this time for once, you know. Coaches tend to lie, okay? And I don't know, I don't know Ron Rivera from Adam. I've never met him. I don't know what he's like. But his commitment on

the quarterback position, you know, just may be that. I want to be real careful about saying, yeah, we're happy with what we got. And then we wind up making a deal for Sam Darnold. So I thought it was a good answer. No, I'm not saying it's a bad answer or a good answer. What I'm saying is the answer is we're still looking. We're trying to upgrade the position. Because if they weren't trying to upgrade the position, they would have told you they're really excited about Taylor and Kyle

and looking forward to that competition. They missed on Stafford. That's not the only guy they're interested in. So I have said and predicted that Kyle Allen would be the starter opening day 2021. But I didn't say that because I thought they were going to stop looking and stop, you know, trying to upgrade. I just didn't think that they would be successful or, you know, that they wouldn't be successful. Either a free agent wouldn't want to come there or in a trade it was going to be too expensive or a trade up in the draft. it was going to be too costly.

So that's my prediction, but I just think it's going to make the next several weeks really interesting because they're looking. They continue to pursue a quarterback. We're not sure which one or which two or three, but they're trying to add a third quarterback, an upgraded quarterback situation, to what they have under contract,

which right now is Allen and Heineke. They may need free quarterback. quarterbacks given the fragility of the two they've got. True. Very true. To me, that would be one of the reasons that they should be looking because they both have, you know, proven to be injury prone. All right.

On Alex Smith. So he was asked about the conversation that he had with Alex Smith last week before, you know, the, I guess joint decision, even though he says again, and I'll read this to you in a moment that Alex asked for his release. But the, you know, Alex Smith getting released. And he talked about the conversation that the two of them had and even referred to the GQ story. And here's what he said, quote, I think it was a very good conversation. It was very positive.

It was one of those things that we both had a chance to see the other side's perspective. To be quite honest with you, I don't disagree with a lot of the things that he said. I don't, meaning in the GQ story. The biggest thing he and I talked about really was that there was really no roadmap to get us to where we were. I told him, I said, Alex, to be quite honest, I was scared. to death. I had no idea. I didn't know what to expect. What I believe he appreciated was that I just told him exactly how I felt and how hard it was for us. I think that's the thing everybody forgets. Alex did a great job. He worked his butt off to put himself into a position to come back and

play. But like I said, there was a part that people just didn't understand. That is, we as a coaching staff had to look through this and think through this. It was always in the back of my head. What if he gets hurt again? What if he hurts that leg, that specific leg? I don't want to be the guy that put him back on the field to let him get hurt again. I told him I fought with that, struggled with that every day. Every day. That was tough. As we talked more and more, I think the realization that, hey, there are two sides to it. As he said, coach, there really is no roadmap to get to where we got to today. I really appreciated him saying that. And that he said, another part here that I think you're going to find interesting. He said,

I don't, he said, Rivera said, I didn't disagree with some of the things that he said in the article. I think they were fair because you don't know. You come in as a player and a new coaching staff comes in. There are no ties. But the one thing I did tell him, I said, I want you to understand this. If there was anybody that was behind you, the whole way, it was Mr. Snyder. Mr. Snyder was the first guy. Mr. Snyder, you know, had me come to his house to meet him and tell him, you know, that I, Hold on for a second. Alex was the first guy Mr. Snyder had come to his house to meet me and tell him, this is your new head coach.

Alex and I had a chance to sit down and talk. We had a great conversation. When he walked out, I said to Mr. Snyder, this reminds me of the Thomas Davis story. When Thomas was coming off his third knee surgery, he wanted to come back and play. My thinking was that it was crazy, but we'll see what happens. I told Mr. Snyder, and Mr. Snyder said, if he plays, Ron, if he plays, I'm betting on the old guy. There's a whole story to that. A lot of people don't know. I get that because we don't talk much about it, I really appreciated Alex coming to meet me for breakfast and having the conversation we did.

Knowing Alex just this year, he'll get an opportunity to play again. He really will. He'll do a great job at it because that's who he is. So two things real quickly, and then I'll let you have at it. Number one, of course, he was frightened to put him out there. This is what we were talking about up, the GQ story. They had every right to move forward and not expect him to come back. And then when he was there available, they had every reason to be the franchise out of 32 that was taking the biggest risk of putting him out there. You know, Rivera didn't even talk about it organizationally.

He talked about it, what if I'm the guy that puts him back out there and he hurts the same leg? And then the other part of this is just the whole Mr. Snyder thing and the Mr. Snyder thing with Alex. and we know they were paling around, especially when he got rid of Bruce as his paling around guy. And Mr. Snyder basically told Ron shortly after he hired, I bet I'm betting on the old guy. You put him in there if he plays. I'm betting on the old guy. So Ron had a quarterback that the owner drafted,

and a quarterback who was coming off near death and near amputation, who was basically his pal. And let me just point this out, the quarterback he Ron really wanted to play was the third guy. Right. Actually, he wasn't the third guy because the third guy ended up becoming the second guy. Right, but I mean, of the three quarterbacks, the two you mentioned, neither of them were Ron's guy. Right. Ron wanted the other guy, the guy he traded for that he had in Carolina.

So did Scott. So it was a screwed up situation. What I don't understand is, and he just probably a throwaway line. He said what people don't understand when he was talking about his fear. Well, we understood it. It was what we talked about. Right. When it was going on, of course they were scared.

I know, but I think what he was saying is I made Alex understand the fear that we had. You know, not only I had, but really the organization, like I said, it was a big, risk for this organization to play him. They didn't have to do it. One thing people didn't understand, and I thought we understood it just fine. Oh, I agree. I totally agree with that. Yeah.

Totally agree. That's what I mean. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that was hard to figure out that you should be very worried about putting him out there. And that's why I said about the GQ comments, come on, Alex is smart enough to know that any team wouldn't, especially. knowing what he went through, wasn't going to plan as if he was going to be there.

They had to plan to move forward without him. And when, you know, when he came back and they cleared him, you know, there was a sense of, well, we already have our plan for moving forward without you. And oh, by the way, we don't want to put you out on the field. We fear doing that. We would be crushed as an organization if you went back out there and got hurt. And, you know, I think the most interesting part of all of that is that when he did finally go out there, he was tossed around for 30 minutes of football by Aaron Donald and

company. And it's a miracle that he survived that beating. A miracle. And what's so amazing is everybody's holding their breath for that half. It's a game they can't win. It's a game you're wondering why, why the hell are they still having him in the game? And after the game, Ron Rivera said, well, we didn't want to put Kyle back out there to risk him. Because you know what? Why? Because he's the quarterback. I really want. Exactly.

And this is the last point on this, is remember when they benched Dwayne, there were several people, a lot of people in the know said this is just a bridge to Alex. This is nothing more than a bridge to Alex. Kyle's going to play for a couple weeks and then when Alex is really ready, he's going to play. That's who they want. Uh-uh. That's not who they wanted. They wanted Kyle Allen.

They wanted Kyle Allen to be the starter, you know, in that first game. that he started against the Rams. He started in that game because he's the one that got hurt in that game. And they wanted him to be the quarterback the rest of the year. And by the way, moving forward into this year, that's who they wanted. That's why they traded a fifth round pick rather than letting him get cut and having him sign with somebody else. They like Kyle Allen.

They also like Taylor Heineke. Scott does definitely. But Kyle Allen was never a bridge to Alex Smith. They were fearful of playing Alex Smith. The other part of this is when the Rams game ended, if you recall, one of the things that Ron Rivera did is he's publicly protected what was one of the worst quarterbacked games anybody has ever seen. Haves, for sure.

And he said, Alex has actually been much more impressive in practice. And we, you know, if we have to put him back out there again, we won't hesitate. Because this was just him rusty, getting his feet wet after two years, but we've seen some really good things in practice. But Kyle Allen was the guy. There was no bridge to Alex. Right. Absolutely. I agree. All right.

I got one thing before we go. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. Don't forget. Subscribe. If you haven't subscribed, it doesn't cost you anything. Also, rate us and review us if you can and you haven't done it already. By the way, March is here. It's gearing up to be a great month for sports and by extension, a great month to take some extra money in with my book.

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And like there's always stories crossing the wire about companies that are investing in A-Rod, The latest one was Slam Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, backed by Arod, raised $500 million. There was another company called CGI Merchant Group, that Arod was going to be a partner in their hospitality opportunity fund with $650 million to invest in hotels. So I said, why would you want to do business with a guy who basically committed fraud and cheated and lied to his coworkers, his employer, and the public repeatedly, and probably earned most of his $400 million over the course of his career under false pretenses. Why would you want to do business with this guy? And I thought, well, maybe they don't know. Maybe they don't know about this. Maybe it's possible that they don't know.

So I contacted them. I contacted the CPAC, and I asked them basically, do you know that Alist Rodriguez admitted to using steroids and all this? And I laid it all out for them. I got no response. I did CGI. I got no response. So it seems ridiculous, right?

that they wouldn't know, that seems absurd. Completely. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Last year, Anheuser-Busch announced that A-Rod had become a co-owner and chairman of the Dominican Republic's Presidente Beer, which was acquired by Anheuser-Busch in 2012. Now, Daniel Deneviz is a reporter for Fox Business.

She reported A-Rod's deal with Presidente and wrote the following. throughout his 22-year career, the athlete rose to the pinnacle of the American pastime. Now, this is not a press release. This is a news story by Fox Business. Nowhere in the story are there any mention of a steroid use or denial. Nothing. Zip. So I contacted her, and I asked her if she was aware of him.

No response. Okay. So I went to Fox Sports, where he's an analyst. on baseball games. And I looked on their website for his bio. Nothing. Nothing about it at all. So I went to ESPN.

Yeah. ESPN is a legitimate news organization, right? Yeah. You know? Okay. He's a baseball analyst there, too. Not one single word on their website in his biography about

basically, you know, all his steroid use. They did mention. that that, you know, that he was the founder of the CEO of Arod Corporation and all this. I contacted ESPN

and asked him if they were aware of this. Nothing. Zero. No response. Well, this is absurd. That there's this world where none of this exists. So I pointed out

to hypocrisy of the fact, particularly ESPN and Fox. See, I disagree with you on this. sports sites. I don't, it's not. You can't separate. It doesn't matter. It's part of a bio on a sports and an entertainment site where I think it's a much

bigger issue. You can't be just a little bit of a news organization. Either you are or you aren't. And to totally ignore it, it's just absurd. I think to totally ignore it as part of like a prospectus that he's involved in, you can't do that. Like if somebody's making some sort of an investment into an A-Rod company or into an A-Rod venture, that has to be, you know, that is one of those disclosable, you know,

I think things that has to be disclosed. I mean, the number one thing you look for when you open up a prospect is to look at, you know, whether or not it's a good investment opportunity is management. Who's running this thing? What's their background? Can I trust them or not? Have they done it before or not? Um, that's weird.

Well, here's what I point out in the end of the column. There's a world where none of this exists. There is only A-Rod to slick baseball analyst, A-Rod to slick businessman, A-Rod, the slick philanthropist, and of course, A-Rod, the slick J-Lo accessory. You know what? I'd like to be this slick J-Lo accessory. I would like to do that. All right, we're done for the day.

Just go ahead and read my column. And we will, at some point, on a slower day, I will read your column. We will on a slower day talk about Ali Frazier 1, which the anniversary was on Monday. Yeah, we'll do that at another time. I want to, Maryland, Michigan State's about to start. I like the Terps today. I'm giving you this before the game starts. So I hope I'm right.

All right, Tommy, have a good day. All right, boss. All right, back tomorrow with Cooley. Thank you.