The Kevin Sheehan Show - Thom Goes To The Supreme Court

Episode Date: November 14, 2019

Kevin and Thom open the show with talk of supermarkets and Supreme Court stories. They also discussed the latest on Colin Kapernick, the Redskins, and they had their NFL Power Poll for the week. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. Yep, Tommy's here. Aaron's here. I am here. I want to thank Mama Lucia up front. Man, they dropped off. It's the chicken sandwich craze era that we're in, Tommy. Yes, it is. Those poor little chickens. They've never been more popular. I told you the story about the Popeye's chicken sandwich and standing in line and rearranging the line. Kevin the peacemaker. In a much more efficient way at the Tenley Popeyes last week. Well, Mama Lucia has dropped off their chicken sandwiches. And by the way, they've got some really good oven roasted potatoes with those chicken sandwiches that they dropped off.

Those were really good. We just finished eating awesome chicken sandwiches. They've got their own now at Mama Lucia's. Got lots of dipping sauces. It's really good. It's also not served on a bun. It's like on really good bread. I would give the chicken sandwich at Mama Lucia's a really good shot.

Sandwich goes for $12. It's worth it. Five Mama Lucia locations in Montgomery County. There's one here in Bethesda right there on Elm Street. Rockville's got two locations, only Silver Spring. Go check out Mama Lucia and their new chicken sandwich with their oven roasted potatoes. Of course, their pizza is great and everything else at Mama Lucia's is great as well. Thank you to David and all the guys at Mamma Lucia for dropping off lunch for us today.

Have you ever heard of Anchor Bar in Buffalo? No. This is, I think, supposedly, I'm not sure where it came from, but I think they laid claim to the creation of Buffalo wings. Okay. At Anchor Bar. It's a legendary bar in Buffalo, and apparently they've started expanding, and they have, you know, a little chain.

and one opened up in Frederick. And I went there recently and had an unbelievably pleasant surprise. Really? Yes. They had on the menu for beer. And it makes sense, given where they're from, Genesee Creamale. Oh, yeah, Genesee Creamale. Sure.

I mean, Genesee Creamail, there was a time in the 70s and 80s where all you drank in the Poconos was Genesee Cremail. It was everywhere. And I love it. I think it's one of my favorite beers of green can. Yes, it was green can. Because, you know,

I collected beer cans when I was a kid. Yeah, it came in a green can, not Genesee beer, Genesee cream ale. And we used to call it the nectar of gods, and we loved it. The nectar of the gods.

And what was interesting is what you saw, you didn't even notice when it was happening. Yingling pushed them out. Really? Yingling now is the beer on, you know, the main beer on tap at almost every bar at least in northeastern Pennsylvania,

where for a while it was Genesee creamail. And Yingling just slowly, you know, ease them out and became a force in the beer business. I don't drink Yingling. And I was... I like Yingling. I think Yingling's a very good beer. It's okay, but it's no Genesee Creamail.

I don't think I've ever had Genesee Creamail. I do remember the can, and I remember that there was Genesee, Genesee Creamale. I don't remember, I didn't remember what was from. It's funny that you mentioned Buffalo. You know, we've talked about this before, but for many years, like for 15 years, I was on the road four to five days a week. And Buffalo is one of those places.

I've been to one time. I've never been to Niagara Falls. Really? Never been to Niagara Falls. Oh, you should go. Except for Jim and Pam's wedding. But other than that, I haven't been to Niagara Falls. But I've been to Buffalo one time, been to Rochester many times.

I've never been to Rochester. I've been to Syracuse. I've been, I actually, I was in Buffalo when the Caps beat the Sabres. Oh, yeah. Joey, Juneau. I was covering that. And drinking at a bar called Mothers until four in the morning. So, you know, I do remember I was there in the dead of winter when I was there.

And it was not pleasant. You know, it was cold. It was gray. You got to be tough to live in Buffalo. Anywhere in Western New York. Yeah. Because that western New York off Lake Erie, where you get the lake effect snow, it's really among, well, on the East Coast, it's the highest snow levels that you get is Lake Effect snow in terms of annual snow totals that only match, you know, the highest levels of the Rockies in terms of average snowfall. It would be miserable to live there unless you really love snow.

I love snow. I wouldn't want as much as they get year round. You know, there was a time, and I've talked about this before. always think it's unique to bring it up. There was a time where Buffalo had more major professional sports teams in Washington, D.C. Yeah. In the early 70s, at one point, the only team. Braves, sabers, and bills.

Yes. And the only team in D.C. at that point was the Redskins for a brief period when the senators left and before the bullets moved to Landover from Baltimore. So Buffalo was a bigger sports town than Washington, D.C. for a brief period. Two other things on Buffalo. Number one, you know, you know I'm an expert when it comes to supermarket chains. Top supermarkets and Wegmans are the big upstate New York supermarket chains. Wegmans, of course, has become a national supermarket chain and probably among the highest

quality supermarket chains that there is. And they've expanded down in this area, although they've really been. primarily in Virginia, northern Virginia. You know, real estate in Montgomery County is so expensive. Their prices are very expensive too, but it's hard to find the land and build it out. But there is one up 270. I think maybe it's Germantown. And now there's going to be one that's going to open up at that Fannie Mae location on Wisconsin Avenue.

I don't know when it's going to open up. But anyway, I got a supermarket. question okay uh what's the worst supermarket chain you ever dealt with oh god um all of the i okay so a lot of the northeastern supermarket chains you know the the supermarket chains in new york in new jersey yeah you know i mean like the shop shop right is not there aren't corporately owned stores they're all independent owners their franchise like i dealt with a lot of shop right owners way back in the day and then a lot of the a and p own stores is like Walbaum's on Long Island.

I spent a lot of time. And some of the nicest people, I certainly remember them, but some of the stores that you would go into, wow. You know, I loved A&P, only because of the name, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. That's a great name.

I remember that one time they changed their name as a company to Super Fresh. And I'm thinking... No, they didn't. No, they just Super Fresh was one of their store formats. Well, I thought, how absurd. absurd. You got this great name and you turn into something like super fresh. I thought that was ridiculous. Well, A&P was in this market with their super fresh stores primarily. They had in

Manhattan, they had their food emporium stores, which were more upscale stores. I remember spending a lot of time. In fact, the food emporium group, they were actually, their headquarters were in the South Bronx. And I, and I had to call. They were, they were. client of mine. And I would, Tommy, I spent so much time in my car in the late 80s, early 90s, in New York, New Jersey, Philly. And I'll never, that meeting was always a tough one because it was a bad neighborhood. It was not a good neighborhood. Security everywhere around their facility. And I had in, you know, they would let me come in and park in the facility if you didn't have the relationship with them and you had to park outside of the facility, you may not come back to a

car complete and in total good shape. So the other thing about Buffalo, you know, you mentioned the sports teams. The Buffalo Braves and the Washington Bullets played a series in 1975. Braves against the bullets. Bob McAdoo, Ernie D. Gregorio. Randy Smith, who was the fastest guard in the league against the bullets with Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Mike Reardon, you know, Nick Weatherspoon, Kevin Porter. This was the first team in Washington that made a big run. They came in 1974 from Baltimore, and the first year they were called the Capitol Bullets. It was called the Capitol Bullets. They lost the Knicks in a seven-game series. And then in 75, it was the Celtics and the Bullets who finished one, two.

The bullets were actually in the central, it was called the Central Division of the Eastern Conference back then, and the Celtics were in the other division, probably the Atlantic. And the Bullets played the Braves in a Best of Seven series, and Elvin Hayes and McAdoo,

each in the series had 50-point games. Really? And that series is a, some of the key games are on YouTube. Oh, I'll bet. The CBS broadcast of them. And the bullets were, won in seven games, won the seventh and deciding game in D.C. And then they went on and played

the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals and beat the Celtics in six games. And that was the year they lost to Golden State. They got swept in the NBA finals by Golden State. By the way, odds-wise, still the biggest upset in NBA history. Well, I can believe that. Golden State was a massive underdog. It was a one-man team. Rick Berry. I mean, they had Keith Wilkes. They had Clifford Ray and guys like that. For all intents and purposes. Phil Smith was their shooting guard.

It was Rick Barry. Yeah, it was. And the bullets just seemed much more talented. They were. And they got swept. They got swept in that series. The Braves were a fun team to watch. They were a fun team to watch play.

What was the name of the building? Was it called the Odd? I don't remember. Short for Auditorium or something going? It might have been. Because I think that's where the Sabres played for many years. Yeah. But it's funny because I found that, I found some of those games on YouTube.

I don't, I know several years ago, and I was like, wow, these are like the first games I can really remember of the bullets being in Washington. You know, playing the Braves and McAdu was a star. That was the best of McAdu's career was when he was with Buffalo. He was great off the bench with the Lakers later on the square. Having lived through the McAdoo era with the Knicks, I can tell you his best error was in Buffalo. Well, he was a disappointment in New York. I could be wrong about this.

I'm going to look it up. But I think McAdu and Elvin Hayes were the top two scorers in the NBA. that would have been 1975. I want to look that up because McAdoo was a lethal score. We were so happy as Nick's fans to get McAdo and he was such a disappointment.

Sort of like Spencer Deadwood was. Yeah, Spencer Haywood. Spencer Haywood played for the bullets in the early 80s on those ruling Mahorn teams. Spencer Haywood was a part of that team. So the 1974-75 season, The bullets ended up 60 and 22. The Celtics ended up 60 and 22, but the Celtics got the number one seed.

This franchise won 60 games once. Wow. Yeah. They won 60 that year, and then in 1979, they won 58, I think. So your leading scores that year. God, on basketball reference, they don't make it easy. McAdoo was your leading score. He averaged 34.5 points a game that year.

Rick Barry was two. Elvin Hayes was seven. Elvin Hayes averaged 23 a game. Well, because they were... Macadieu was a leading score, and Barry at 30.6. Kareem was 30 a game. Three scores over 30. And then it was Tiny Archibald, Charlie Scott, Bob Lanier, and Elvin Hayes.

Tiny Archbold, another great player to watch. Yeah, great player to watch. Led the league and points and assists one year. Yes. Now, that series against Bowler. Buffalo. Honestly, I sort of remember their first year here

when they lost to the Knicks in seven games. Because, you know, the Baltimore Bullets had this incredible rivalry, as you know, with the Knicks. And then when they moved to Washington, that first year, they played the Knicks in a best of seven and lost in seven games. I mean, the

battles between Gus Johnson and Dave DeBusher were legendary. Between Wes and Willis Reed, legendary battles. So listen to this. Tommy. Oh my God, Macadoo. So Macadoo had 50 in game four in Buffalo. And then Elvin Hayes came back in a two-two series in Washington and had 46 in game five. You know, Macadoo, though, I don't know where I can find exactly real quickly what his average was. I can do it off the top of my head here. But Macadoo had to average 40-something a game.

For this series, he averaged 37.4 points per game. Here it is, I found it. And Elvin Hayes averaged 28.4 points per game. I mean, two of the great scoring power forwards of that era. Elvin Hayes is, I think, very often he gets very underrated in the conversation of the greatest power forwards in the history of the game. I know he was on the NBA's top 50 with Wes, you know, when they put that thing together. How many years ago was that now?

Elvin Hayes is one of the great power forwards in the history of the game. But power forward back then was considered a blue collar position. And Elvin Hayes was not a blue collar player. No, he wasn't. But, you know, Elvin Hayes was a great rebounder and shot blocker. I know that. I know that. But he was a score, first and foremost, as he was in college.

Yeah. You know, you think, like, I think when people think, about the greatest power forwards. They think Kevin McAil. Yeah. Don't you think that like Kevin McAil is always like first and foremost? I think Carl Malone maybe. Carl Malone, you know, depending on how you viewed Tim Duncan, you know, I sort of viewed Tim Duncan as more of a center. So did I. But with David Robinson, technically he was more of a power forward. Yeah, but that was pretty, that was only early in his career. Dirk is a power forward. Yeah. You know, Dirk's up there. I don't know,

Elvin Hayes was an Iron Man, too. He didn't miss games. He played 40-something minutes a night. That's because he was so selfish. So selfish. You know, some of my favorite conversations over the years, whether it was on the podcast or on radio,

have been with Phil Schneer. And always we'll talk about whatever the topic of the day is on the Wizards. And then I'll somehow always circle back to some of those teams. And he has really fond memories. But there's no doubt that Elvin Hayes was not an easy teammate. No. He was not an easy guy.

But what a great player. Yes, absolutely. I mean, part of that Bullets championship team, and that was a great era of basketball in this town for the NBA. It was. I mean, that's the thing you don't realize. If you're not of a certain age, when the bullets in the 1970s in Washington went to three NBA finals

and won at once. And then if you count Baltimore, in the decade of the 70s, the bullets went to four NBA finals. Yeah. You know, and they were always a threat, even when they weren't in the finals, they were one of the threats to get there. They were in the playoffs every year. Yes.

You know, it wasn't like they were ever awful. I mean, look, you had two future Hall of Famers on the team in West and in Elvin Hayes. If Sheneer hadn't had back trouble late in his career, he was on the verge of putting together, you know, certainly a borderline Hall of Fame career. Absolutely. And then Bobby Dandrich is just flat out when he came here in 1978. He was the difference maker. Yeah.

You know, he was the clutch playoff performer. He was there to Busher. When the Knicks made a trade in 68 or 69 with Detroit and got to Busher, that was the final piece that changed the Knicks. And it was the same thing with Bobby Dandrich, who had won an NBA title already in Milwaukee. Yes. Or with Lou Alcender. Was he Kareem or Lou Alcinder at that point? I think he was Lou Alcinder then.

Bobby Dandritch was one of the great clutch players in D.C. sports history. That's not an exaggeration. He was the guy that Hall of Famers, Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, deferred to in crunch time. He was also a great defender. He was the guy that essentially in the playoffs took Dr. Jay and guarded him. would guard Gervin. You know, he got the best assignment defensively. But my favorite Dandrich story of all time was told by Dick Mata.

In the seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals in 1979, they were playing the San Antonio Spurs as the defending champs because they had won the title the year before against Seattle, and San Antonio was in the Eastern Conference then. Game 7, which is a controversial game in NBA history, because of the officiating that went completely the bullets away down the stretch. They trailed by 10 with four minutes to go and got every call. And Spurs fans, before they started to win titles with Popovich and Duncan in that whole era,

they would talk about the Doug Moe team that lost to the bullets. That should have been their championship team. And it was robbed from them in the seventh and deciding game. Well, with 20 seconds to go in a tie game at the end of overtime in game seven, game seven Eastern Conference finals, I think it was 105 to 105. The bullets have the ball. And back then, you know, they would have mics in huddles and you could hear. And nothing's going on in the bullets huddle.

Nothing. Like Dick Mata, Bernie Bickerstaff, they were the two. Mata was the head coach. Bickerstaff was the assistant coach. They're just looking around. They had called the timeout. And then the horn goes off and Mata says, everybody gets together. Get in here.

Throw it into Bobby and get out of his way. That was the play. That was the play. They threw it into Dandritch. And he worked the club. clock and got to that spot. He had this spot on the baseline, Tommy, where he, in the 10 to 15 foot range where he was money. He got to that spot, knocked down the shot. They won the game. Actually, the Spurs had one final possession, and Elvin Hayes blocked the final shot by James

Silas, who was their point guard that year, so the Spurs point guard. And the bullets won, went on to the finals and lost that year to the Supersonics in five games and the rematch of the year before. But I love that. Mottis told that story over the years. I've heard Dandrich tell the story. I've heard them all tell the story. It's like, what are we doing, coach? They're just sitting there. Throw it into Bobby

and get out of his way. And Bobby, go win the game for us. And Mata was a good coach. Yes, he was. I'm sure he had a good play he wanted to draw up. But he decided, you know what? The players are going to decide this one, one player in particular. When we

talked last on Tuesday, you said you were going to tell us the story of of a lawsuit you were involved in that made it to the Supreme Court? Well, yeah, we were talking about my coverage of organized crime in northeastern Pennsylvania. And actually, I was sued twice. And one of them I'm only going to talk about.

I'll just say the other one, I was sued. I was totally in the wrong. I'd gotten it wrong. And it went to trial. And the guy wound up winning a financial settlement. From the newspaper that you were working for. Yes, from the newspaper, the Easton Express, which was far less than what he would have gotten

if he had agreed to the settlement. So, I mean, I was kind of happy about that, but I was wrong. You knew you were in the wrong. Well, I knew the day after it was published that it was wrong. Oh, really? Yes. And you can't tell us about that one. I don't want to talk about that one.

Okay. Just the fact that I admitted, I was wrong on a story and got, and got roasted. It's big for you. And this other lawsuits happening at the same time. So two of them are happening pretty much. A paper must have been thrilled with you. The only reason I didn't get fired is because there were too many editors involved in the process as well. They would have to fire a bunch of people.

And that's the only reason I didn't get fired. That's when I learned that there's only three answers that you give when you're a witness in a trial. Yes, no, and I don't know. those that he only answers that you give in a court of law. How would Bill Callahan do with that as a limitation? He'd be an ideal witness. I mean, he would tire out the jury. All right, so tell us the one you can tell us about.

Okay, well, this is one that will be near and dear to your heart. I didn't cover the courts, but I had covered court before, and I was filling in for our court reporter one day, and there was a hearing on evidence of a wiretap in a bookmaking case in eastern Pennsylvania. A major bookmaker was being brought down based on wiretaps that the state police had done with an informant, a guy who had been into him for money,

who then turned state's evidence and went to the cops and became an informant. And actually had been into him for money and feared for his life. So I covered the hearing. there was a hearing to determine whether or not the wiretaps could be introduced as evidence. You know, the defense was arguing that, you know, for some reason that they couldn't be introduced. So I covered the hearing and the judge set out issue a ruling in like 10 days. So like a good reporter after the hearing, I went down to the clerk's office to look at the court file for this case, just to fill myself in on everything involved.

And I open up the court file and there's the transcript of all the watch. firetaps, all the conversations right there in black and white about, you know, about guys threatening to break this guy's knees and how much money is on the street here and this game here and threatening that guy there. So I'm writing all these notes down, you know, I'm word for word. And I go back to the office and I write a story based on that. And the editor's a little bit queasy. And they say, they say, well, let's-

Because of the way you. access the information? Well, no, because the information. Was it under seal somehow? No, no, that's, I'll get to that in a minute. Okay. Because the judge had not ruled whether it could be introduced as evidence. So they said, let's hold off, see what the judge rules.

You tainted the whole jury with this story. Let's go, continue. Hold off and see what the judge rules. And a few days later, he ruled it was admissible as evidence. So we ran the story. The next day, we got hit with an invasion of privacy suit. and a violation of state wiretap laws. Now, the state wiretap laws were written with police in mind.

In other words, the police department, the police or investigators, could not use wiretaps in a manner other than for prosecution. And what the lawyer said was because I had published these wiretaps and I wasn't part of the police, I shouldn't have been allowed to publish them. Now, the problem was they were supposed to be sealed. Oh, they were? Yes, but they weren't.

Someone in the prosecutor's office had messed up. And they weren't sealed. So that case goes to trial, and the judge, like an idiot, rules. Tell us the jury right from the start. This reporter did violate the state wiretap laws. This is a law not written for newspapers. It's written for the police. And he says, all you've got to do is to decide how much damage is done.

So I think that I forget how much they rule $10,000 or something like that. But we appealed it because it was ridiculous because this law did not apply to us. Well, and not to mention the fact that you accessed it because of their mistake. Anybody could have walked in off the street and saw the same transcript. Anybody. Right. I mean, that was the whole point. This was public information in the courthouse.

So let me just make sure I'm clear on this. The lawsuit brought against the newspaper was brought by... The defendant in the bookmaking case. Got it. So this is separate from the bookmaking case. Yes. How did that play out? Just had a curiosity, do you remember?

Did you continue to report on that? No, I didn't continue to report on that. And I don't recall if he got convicted. Okay, so the defendant brings this case against the newspaper. And so now do you have to appear in court as a witness? Well, it was interesting because by then I was working in Washington, D.C. So you had left the newspaper. Yes, because I figured it would be a good idea to leave at that point, you know?

Well, were you worried beyond the lawsuit about this information and disclosing it with respect to the bookmaking operation? And I'm assuming that this was, you know, a mob bookmaking operation? No, I was not. It just never occurred to me. I mean, look, I mean, historically, mobsters and criminals like that don't generally. we go after reports. Right. They just don't.

You know, either they don't take it seriously or their ego gets a kick out of their name in the newspaper. Yeah. One of the two. So, no, I wasn't worried about that. So I testified, I had to come up to court and testify on videotape. So I testified on videotape. And that was excrucied.

At an undisclosed location. Yeah, yeah. I remember one time the defense lawyer, I said, well, because, you know, This was in the courthouse. Anybody could come in and see it. That's why I published it. So the defense lawyer, this was pretty sharp, although the judge thought it was ridiculous.

He says, let me see your wallet. He says, give me your wallet. He said, it's in the courthouse. You're in the courthouse here. Your wallet's in the courthouse. Can I publish everything that's in your wallet? I thought that was kind of a smart-ass, pretty tricky way to do it.

But the judge had already ruled we had violated the law. And so we appealed it. We appealed it to the Superior Court. court, the Superior Court ruled, no, this judge is an idiot. This law was not written for newspapers. He didn't do anything wrong, and they reversed the lower court decision. So the plaintiff, the guy who was suing me, appealed it again to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in his favor, said that, no, that he did violate the state wiretap laws, and, you know, they're liable for this.

So then... How much were they seeking again? remember how much it wasn't a lot of money that the judge that the jury had decided that he was entitled to uh so then we appealed it and it goes to the supreme court and the supreme court reviews it and then they kicked it back to the pennsylvania supreme court and said you really screwed this up you need to look at it again and get it right and then the pennsylvania supreme court reversed their own decision upon you know after the supreme courts kicked it back to him and said we didn't violate the thing.

It's online. Do you remember who wrote the opinion? No, I don't. Judge? No. When was this, 80s? This was early 80s. Early 80s?

Yeah, early to mid 80s. So I've had experience. So I can go read that case. I'm sure I can. Yes. Because there is a record of every single, you know, court, every single thing the Supreme Court's ever heard. Yes.

So it went back to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and they got it right. at that point. And that was it? That was it. That was it. I was free and clear and I haven't been sued since. I found the case file online right here. There you go. Who wrote the opinion? Which judge? I'm just curious from the Supreme Court. I don't know if they have that or not. There was no opinion, I don't think. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. Because they didn't vote on it. Right. Got it. Yeah, they kicked it back. It's a good thing they didn't know about your history of just sort of finding things that weren't necessarily there to be taken. like seating charts. That's a great story, a great story.

I figured that would be near to your heart. No, it is. You know, since you know a few bookmakers here and there. Yeah, I mean, I am, I mean, I can't. I can tell some stories, obviously, without names and even times, but I know of a guy that I knew pretty well that, you know, it was an NFL playoff Saturday or Sunday. You know, it was January, and he had been, you know, tapped and they busted down his doors

and walked in on the whole operation. You know, there were a couple of others, too. But, you know, I never, you know, as just a better, I didn't have to, you know, I was just a, I was just a customer, you know, even though what, you know, betting illegally was still illegal. Right. But bookmaking was worse. Yes.

You know. So the cops have never. asked you to rat on anybody? Never. Not once. And you know, I mean, seriously, like I, I remember, a lot of these guys over the years, I've known well, some of them. And I've always wondered, like, you know, if somebody who really is, you know, not, not stable, it gets into them for big, big dough, that's got to be a concern with them. I don't think, I mean, there have been many times I've been down a lot of money. I've always, you know, I've always paid. Yeah. Always figured out a way.

You're here. I'm here. You must have always paid. I'm here. I'm trying to think, like, the guys, you know, especially at Maryland, you know, Maryland was one of those schools. I've told you this. First of all, huge state school.

A lot of New Yorkers. A lot of guys from Philly. A lot of gambling. You know, a lot of gambling. Including football players, as I recall. A lot of football players, a lot of people in general gambled. It was a big deal, you know, at Maryland in the 80s. But I don't really recall anybody.

using physical force to collect. I'm sure they did. Actually, that's not true. I do remember a specific book who went to somebody's frat house room and essentially walked in and started taking televisions or took stuff and said, I'm taking this stuff and you still owe me, you know, 500 bucks or a thousand bucks or whatever. Well, let me make it clear on my case. I mean, just because they were saying it on the wiretap, some of it could have been bravado.

Sure. You know, a lot of that is provado. And the informant, the informant had sued me as well. And then his case was dropped early because the informant said he was making stuff up on the wiretap to help make the case against the bookmaker. Oh, he did. So he claimed he was lying on the wiretap about his role in all this. And that got tossed pretty early. Bottom line, in my experience, they want money.

They don't want blood. They just want to get paid. Yeah. You know, but anyway, those are great stories. I'd really love to hear this story about when you knew you were wrong. That sounds like a good one too. That's not so good. All right.

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You play, you win. You get paid. I want to get to a couple of things, including the Kaepernick stuff, which I don't think we've talked about. I don't think it was out Tuesday. Was it? Maybe. I don't know. But we haven't talked about it. It's more of the follow-up. But I did want to mention that last night, I was probably one of the few watching the Wizards game.

They're so bad on defense. I mean, they are horrible on defense. And Tommy, here's the thing, and I talked about this on radio this morning. I have a feeling that they all sort of, you know, Tommy Shepard included, you know, in Scott Brooks, all of them sort of entered this season thinking we're not a playoff team. You know, they're better than I thought they would be in terms of their talent. I think they actually have some talent on the team, even without John. But I think they've got this mindset of we're not going to be a playoff team.

Let's go out there. Let's play. They're giving up an unbelievable number of points in some of these games. The Celtics scored 140 last night, and they were on pace at one point, midway through the fourth quarter, to have like a 48 point quarter, which would have given them a buck 50. That would have been the second team in regulation to score over $1,000. 50 against them. They gave up 140. Their second, or to, they're dead, 29th out of 30 teams,

second to last in the defensive rating that NBA.com has. Golden State's actually interestingly the worst and sort of makes my point in recent years. Not totally makes my point. I've always said that Golden State was a good defensive team when they had those lofty defensive rankings and people would say, oh, it's their defense. No, it was their offense. They're all. When you run the kind of of offense that they ran and you're so good offensively and you're making teams work on defense with ball movement and spacing and touches and passing, you're going to be helped out defensively because they're going to be gassed. And there's always been a correlation between running really good offense and then how much easier it is on the other end to defend that team

that just had to guard you. That's why I've always hated, you know, some of the ISO ball because you're not making a team work defensively. But anyway, Golden State's dead last in defense. They have different players, obviously. No Clay Thompson. They've got injuries, you know, so they're not running great offense and they're not as good defensively. But one of the reasons they were always, you know, top shelf defensively was their offense.

But what I was going to say about the Wizards is, you know, this Hachamuro looks good so far. I like him. I've seen two games. And I like the way he plays. The guy that I loved at Michigan, Aaron, that I loved when he got drafted by the Lakers, Mo Wagner can just flat out play. Do you know he drew three charges in the first half? Do you know how hard that is to draw three of them?

He does everything well. Bertans can play and can shoot it. You know, Isch Smith is a guy that can really handle it and push pace. Isaiah Thomas couldn't guard me. At my age, I tweeted out last night after the game, that there are 10 to 12 guys that play pickup at Bethesda Sport and Health on Saturday mornings that could have had 15 plus against the Wizards last night. And that's an exaggeration. But there are three or four guys up there now that could score buckets against the Wizards with the way they defend. By the way,

Chick Hernandez said, are you one of them? And I said, not anymore. And he said, well, now you're implying that you may have been. And I just wanted to say, it's been a long time. But there was a time watching the Wizards Guard last night. If I'd been on the floor, I would would have had a couple of open shots that I would have probably knocked down. So yeah, I would have. But that's several, that's many pounds and many years ago. But my point here is that I don't think they're as bad as they think they are. But the way they're approaching these games, they're going to end up being really bad, record-wise.

Well, here's what I don't get. And I've only seen The Wizards play twice this year on TV. And, you know, it's not a particularly fun experience watching and play on TV. Well, it's entertaining to watch. Well, because it's missing an important ingredient. And that's buckhands. Oh, yeah. I mean, I can't get over that.

I know I can't either. I mean, I can't either. But that aside, if you are trying to change the culture of an organization, the easiest and first place you can start is defensively. with the team as an identity. I mean... Well, that's not Scott Brooks. I know that's not Scott Brooks.

So he's the wrong coach for this. You know, so they can't even begin to change this culture that they've talked about with this coach because that's where you can start. No matter how bad your talent is, there's a certain amount that you can do defensively to change the identity of your team. And they have not done that.

and they don't seem interested in doing that. So this whole scenario of the whole front office sweep in the off season, bringing in this trifecta of John Thompson III and Sasha Brown and Tommy Shepard to reinvent the wheel. Well, the wheel is still round, and the wizard still can't drive that car. They still can't. I mean, I like Tommy Shepard. I do. and I'm rooting for them.

I just think when there are that many cooks in the kitchen, you know, Ted's, you know, the whole, whatever he calls that thing at Monumental, where, like, you know, 190 people are involved in making, you know, one decision for the day. I don't know. I want them to be good. God, I want the Wizards to be good. But could you agree with me?

Can you agree that you can make it, you can start changing the culture if you start to drill and a defensive identity? Yeah, they've just been trying to do that and they've had the wrong people doing it and the wrong players. You know, Bradley Beal, so many of my friends, people that I like and respect their opinion on basketball, they'll say, man, Beale can really defend.

And I'm like, really? He's a very inconsistent defender. When he doesn't want to defend, he's terrible. Like he and John both. They like have the ability to defend, but they're just sort of, so, like, sort of casual about everything. I'm watching Beale last night, and the truth is he's really expanded his game. He's a guy that now doesn't need help to get shots. You know,

he doesn't need screens, he doesn't need sets. He can create his own shot. He's a better ball handle. He's an improved ball handler, which was always a weakness. He always had a casual handle. It's why, you know, he was always up there in turnovers. He's able to create his own shot. He gets to the rim at will. He's a deadly shooter. Still hate his free throw stroke, which I've told Scott Brooks about a couple of times. It's still way too flat, which apparently his mother has told him the same thing. But he's not listening to anybody. He had another one late last night as they made a run late. He can really score, though. He can really score. But they're just not. Again, my point on this is it's painful to watch. It's fun to watch actually. It's like a summer league game that you're

watching when they're playing. I just sort of think that they're probably better than they think they are. And that if they actually said, you know what, let's try to win games, play harder on defense to win games, they might actually end up being better than they think they are this year. Would it be good enough for the eighth spot or the seventh spot? I don't know. But it really looks like defensively, they sort of realize they're just along for the ride here that they're going to go, you know, they're going to win 25 games, 24 games, whatever. Beal's going to put up massive numbers and they're shooting for next year when John gets back. That's a bad attitude.

I just think they're better than that. It's a bad attitude. If you're talking about changing attitudes, that's a bad one. How about the caps though right now, switching subjects? Your guy who I've had on the podcast and on the radio show, I like him a lot. Adam Zalanka, who writes for the Times, tweeted out. The caps are 14, 2, and 4 through 20 games for 32 points. It's the best 20 games start in franchise history for them.

Best ever. They've never been, had this many points and had this kind of start in 20 games. They're 11, 0, and 2 in their last 13. You know, they won last night. They beat the Flyers in a shootout. The Flyers were red hot coming in. It doesn't mean anything when it comes to the postseason in this sport. Yes.

But they really, like I was thinking about their players and Ovechkin and all these, they are so talented. And their veteran players, you would think, should be past their prime, but they're not. They're playing the best. they've ever, it's like they've figured it out. I don't know how it'll translate in the postseason. I agree with you about Ovechkin. It was like

his maturity kicked in at a time where his talent was not totally diminished. I mean, it may have slowed down. Right. But you've got you've got this like these these two roads that intersected of he's still very talented

and his maturity sort of kicked in at the time where he realized what's important and what's not important. Now, you know, arguably still, and I mean, people just want to gloss over it and ignore it, and they've gotten a pass for it, but their best player,

their best player is Kuznetsov. And now he's... Most talented player, right? Now, supposedly, he's clean. Yeah. I mean, last year, they... They lost in that series. They didn't play well.

They lost it to Carolina. They lost the one game, I think it was game three. They lost five to nothing to the hurricanes. And he was invisible for the most part. And plus they had a rookie head coach last year who got out-coached in that first round in Todd Reardon. So they should be better this year.

If Kuznets off is clean and Reardon learned some lessons from last year, they should be better. You see who's right up there with them, though, among the best teams in the league? The Islanders. Yeah, the Islanders. With Trotsy. Yeah.

Well, I had Joe B on the radio show earlier this week or maybe late last week, and he said, you know, Boston's really good. You know, Tampa is not playing well, but they're extraordinarily talented. They were supposed to be good. They're down there at the bottom of the standings. The islanders are good. You know, you still got to worry about teams like Carolina who took them out last year and, you know, that the East is loaded, basically. You know, hockey's crazy. I mean, you get to the postseason.

It's like you're the top three. Wasn't it last year? Was it last year with the top four seeds in the east, all lost in the first round or whatever? Yeah. I don't even know that's true. Hockey's the most random, baseball, followed by baseball. And then look, the NBA, the best teams usually win.

And in football, for the most part. I mean, wouldn't you say the best teams generally win? Not as much as the NBA. The NBA is the sport where, you know, you just rarely have massive upsets. Right. It's best to seven, few players on the court. If everybody's healthy, the best team's going to win, and the best team usually wins the title.

But in hockey and baseball, the postseason's random, baseball in a five-game series, you know, one pitcher can change the whole thing. Right. And in hockey, you know, one overtime goal that gets missed by a goal can change everything. Right. So I wanted to talk about Kaepernick here for a second.

So yesterday, I thought it was really interesting. The buzz that was going on with respect to the – first of all, I think everybody knows at this point. Colin Kaepernick, the NFL set up this tryout, workout and interview Saturday in Atlanta. NFL teams are going to go there. I don't know how many of them, and he's going to get a chance to work out for the league. It's unprecedented. It's never been done before for a single player.

But yesterday, Twitter was a buzz because there was a big question, to whether or not the NFL had promised to give Kaepernick a list of the attendees for his Saturday workout in Atlanta. And I'm following, you know, all the reporters, the NFL reporters, and this is a big buzz yesterday. Did the NFL promise this to him or didn't they? Kaepernick's people said they did. The NFL said they didn't. Schefter, in order, his timeline.

After initially agreeing to provide the list of personnel executives and coaches that would attend Colin Kaepernick's Kaepernick's workout. The NFL's reverse course and said it will not per sources. Then he tweeted out, league never promised to provide the list of attendees to Colin Kaepernick workout and said multiple clubs are attending. Then Kaepernick camp says it was promised list of attendees and can prove it. And an NFL source said league did not make that promise. Another source says the Kaepernick's camp said he was on the phone call when the NFL said it would provide the names of attendees. On it goes, Schefter. This was like for several hours yesterday, the big thing. You know, the day after there was a lot of discussion as to why the league was doing this,

the whole thing. But yesterday I'm watching this. I'm like, are you kidding me? At this point, the league must be totally regretting setting this thing up. Kaepernick, do you want to play again? Do you want to go to the workout? Who gives a shit if they promise you a list of attention? attendees or not. This is a chance for you to work out. The league's not clowning you. Like they're not getting you to show up to an empty field with nobody there to sort of make you look bad. You know, there are real people that are going to show up.

I just, I was sitting there thinking to myself, Kaepernick and his people just say, thank you. This is very nice of you to do. We appreciate it. We will be there on Saturday. and it's not important to know whether or not the Falcons are going to be there or the Titans are going to be there or not. It's totally meaningless. Okay, Kevin.

Oh, my God, it drove me nuts yesterday. Speaking of lawsuits, I suspect that the tryout is part of the settlement that the NFL reached. By the way, that's been refuted by both sides, that it was part of the settlement, that he would get this. Yeah, but I thought that was a possibility. But they can't disclose. They signed a non-disclosure agreement. So they can't say what was in the settlement.

Okay. The reports have been that it wasn't a part of this settlement. Right. Well, I suspect that it is because of the half-ass way it's been done. I mean, it's done on a Saturday instead of a Tuesday. Right. It's done on a day where the top decision makers in organizations are getting ready to play football on Sunday. I totally agree with all that.

I want to make one thing clear. I'm not defends. What I was saying, I'm not defending the league or the way this has happened. I'm just saying, how if you're Kaepernick and his people, are you going to get hung up on whether or not they promised the list or didn't promise the list? Who's on the list? Enough already. You know, go there on Saturday.

Don't be high maintenance during this process. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity. I'll be there Saturday. Boom. The other part of the conversation you're getting into is different. I just want to make that clear. Go ahead.

Okay. And, you know, it's possible that in negotiations, you know, I don't know if they, if they spell this out in the actual settlement or verbally, that they agreed to provide a list of people who would attend such workout to guarantee that it would be a legitimate workout. They're arguing that it was done verbally. So maybe it wasn't in any kind of settlement. Look, I'm not as worked up about the issue as you are. here's the problem I mean the Kaepernick thing is so complicated because I think

if he can play the only way you can bring him in to your team is as your starting quarterback he can't be the backup you can't have that kind you can't do that to your starting quarterback

have Colin Kaepernick behind you behind him and all the political pressure that would come with every mistake that that starting quarterback would make on the field to then play Kaepernick. So he can't be a backup quarterback. To think he could be and to think that would work is really foolish and unrealistic. If he's going to play for your team, he has to be the starter.

I have said, and I've been consistent on this, I've had no problem over the last three years with an owner who said to himself, using your favorite expression is the juice worth to squeeze it because if he's not coming in here to start why would I bring him in to be a backup? This has not been an issue of owners didn't like what he was protesting

racial injustice police brutality to young African-American men nobody is for that everybody understood what he was protesting but it was business People in this country thought, and a lot of their customers thought that he was being unpatriotic. I didn't think he was being unpatriotic. I understood what he was trying to do.

I thought initially that the message would get masked by the means, and it did. It did. But I totally understand an owner that would say, that you say, it's worth the squeezing. Why do I want to bring this dude in to be my backup and then have all my, many of my customers pissed off at me? I wouldn't. I wouldn't do that. He couldn't be the backup. The other thing is the Redskins are reportedly sending a representative.

And the Redskins are the team that could least afford to sign Kaepernick, and the Redskins are the team that Kaepernick could least afford to play for. He couldn't play for the Redskins. Oh, right. You brought this up years ago, yeah. And Kevin Blackstone wrote a column in the Washington Post saying the same thing. And there's no way that Kaepernick given his views on, social justice and the fact that he has appeared with Native American tribes in defense of their

culture and stuff. There's no way he could turn around and put on a Washington Redskins uniform. Why couldn't he say this would be so impressive to people like me? Why couldn't he say, you know what, I've done my research on this. I didn't just take the word of various people who said that this was a term that was insensitive to Native Americans. I've done my research on this. I've gone to a bunch of reservations.

I've read all of the polling on this. And the fact of the matter is is that Native Americans really aren't that offended by this. I can absolutely play for the Redskins. And I've got a bunch of people here who are Native American that are saying, go for it. They're our favorite team. That would cost them some money.

That would cost them a little bit. That would make his Nike stock drop. Oh, my God. And the Redskins, Dan Snyder, and one of the things he said in a story that was reported, I think, by Don Van Nata and at ESPN, when they first had the owner's meetings about this years ago, was Snyder stood up and said, you know, that the backlash he was getting from his customer base and spoke of, like, the defense contractors, the military connection.

So of all the owners in the league, Snyder would be the most negatively impact. I mean, well, there are markets where, you know, the demographics of certain markets, the politics in certain markets, where there are other owners that would feel the brunt as well. I forgot about that, Tommy. That's such a great point. How many, you know, corporate sponsors, corporate advertising money for this team has been government, defense department, you know, driven, and just the backlash from that. And it's, again, I don't think that the backlash would be justified. I understand that he wasn't being unpatriotic, that he wasn't anti-military, that he wasn't anti-armed forces. I understand that.

But again, it doesn't matter what I understand or believe. It matters what customers of these NFL teams believe. The ratings took a hit that year. And, you know, the NFL, I don't know the reasons they're doing this. I'm going to give you a couple of other potential reasons. The ratings are great this year. Yes. You know, they're up this year.

They don't need this. They don't need this headache right now. No. You know, so, but I wanted to mention, you mentioned the first reason that I thought of when I heard this story the other day. Well, this has to be some sort of part of a settlement or trying to avoid some other lawsuit or legal situation. But I also thought of, remember last year when the Redskins signed Mark Sanchez and he sucked so bad that people were saying, Are you kidding me? Yeah.

Like you've lost two quarterbacks. The Redskins, I don't think any other team has faced what they faced last year. Two quarterbacks, broken legs, within two weeks of each other. And trying desperately to sign quarterbacks that can play. And they go out and they sign Mark Sanchez. Josh Johnson ended up playing pretty well. And people were saying, why not cap? Well, you've already answered the question.

Yeah. It'll never happen here. No, it'd be untenable. even though this would be one of those East Coast primarily liberal cities that probably would have a significant percentage of fans that would be for it. But it's the corporate money that you're talking about, which is a great point. But I was thinking, you know, this is the time late in the year. You know, Matt Stafford got hurt together. They started Jeff Driscoll.

You're going to get teams that are going to have potential injuries. And, you know, the possibility that this could happen to another team like it happened to the Redskins last year, and the NFL wants to say, we just held a workout for them. You know, we invited all 32 teams. We're open to this. You know, the teams, they signed, you know, Jeff Dr. Who was it that started for Detroit? Jeff Driscoll? Who was the backup? I mean, they're going to be signing quarterbacks here down the stretch. Right. And I thought of that Mark Sanchez situation. Then I thought about, you know, for teams, and it was reported that teams had and were interested in working them out.

and, you know, this collusion, blackballing, you know, narrative that's out there, true or not, that it may have been uncomfortable for them to do it as a standalone, and that this just sort of takes people off the hook. They can go there with all the other teams, work them out, and you're not going to get criticized by your customer base for working them out, because all 32 teams are invited to do this. And maybe that's just an easy way for the league to take some of these teams that may be interested off the hook and just working them out. Because there's controversy in just bringing him in as a stand-alone team to work them out. Yeah, obviously there is.

You know, but, I mean, you've got to wonder, I mean, as far as the league was concerned, you thought this was behind them. I mean, this was pretty much over. It is behind them. This is why they're taking the risk here. Well, this is why I don't think they're taking the risk. This is why I think they're being forced to. I think this is part of what they agree to.

The reporting is that. No matter what, no matter what's being reported. I mean, I mean, what would most. motivate them to do this at this point? It's a really good question. That's what drove me nuts yesterday in watching the whole thing go back and forth for several hours about did he, was he told or was he not told about the list of attendees? And I'm like, who cares? Like at that point, with all of this publicity and the league's looking bad, like they promised this and then they didn't provide it,

like they must have at some point yesterday said, you know what, do you want to come work out or not? Because just this PR backlash right now isn't good for us. Our ratings are up. Nobody's talking about this issue anymore, the anthem issue. It's behind us. And we're bringing it back into play here. Yeah. Like, how about thank you?

We appreciate it. We will be there on Saturday. And, you know, really, what, I mean, Kaepernick's people, what are they going to do? Back at her to work out if they don't get the list. You can take role when you're there. Exactly. You can have a guy with a pen. And a clipboard saying, your name, sir, your name, sir, who are you with?

Right. Well, roll call. Yes. And not only that, Tommy, didn't the league as part of this announcement say they were going to videotape the workout and the interview and send it to all 32 teams? Or it would be accessible to all 32. I don't know why this became such a big thing, but Kaepernick and his people made it a big thing. That was my frustration. It's like, dude, oh my God.

Three years you've been out of the league. I know, but you want to get worked out. I understand their distrust. Oh, I do too. I understand that. I can't even figure out really the true motivation for the league to do this. And I'm sure there's some sham components to it, you know, the Saturday, not on a Tuesday, although the Tuesday, you know, that's not easy either because which team's going to open up

their facility to all 31 of the other teams to come in to work them out? You could do it at a neutral location, but then Tuesday's the day they work out a lot of players at their own facility. We know we've been there. You know, maybe the Redskins could do it at Ghost Town Field. That way, they'd get a crowd. They could get a crowd. They'd get some people. You know, last week, I told you, I think I told you, I was like, you know, I'm all in on Antonio Brown now. Why not? Why not? You know, I've been in on it from day one. And now with Kaepernick, why not? I mean, you know, give, but, you know, you can't,

obviously a team like Washington is not going to be a team to sign Kaepernick. They're starting a rookie quarterback. They're not going to throw Kaepernick into the mix. The teams that would be interested are the teams that play football the way he played it best. But Baltimore's got RG3. You're going to love this, by the way. Somehow I stumbled on to this this morning. Have you been following Griffin on Twitter? No, but people forward his stuff to me all the time. Here's the last like four or five days this morning. Haters will see you walk on water and say it's because you can't swim. Yesterday, eliminate from your life what doesn't help you evolve.

The day before, know that while you're steady working towards these blessings, the devil will try to intervene. The day before that, never give up on your dreams. It's difficult to wait, but it's worse to regret. I got one for you. I got one for you, buddy. You ready? Yeah.

Turn that pain into passion and made it happen. Yeah. Yeah, what's he made happen? This is not RG3. Oh, who's that? This is Dwayne Haskins. Turn that pain into passion and made it happen. You know what?

I was really impressed with him yesterday in that press conference. I thought he did a good job. I think he did a really good job. Yeah, I thought he did well. I mean, he's a hell of a lot better than his interim head coach. Yes. Who's got the longest press conferences and the longest answers to the simplest questions of anybody I've ever heard. Well, you've got to remember.

He's been waiting years. years to talk. He's been waiting years to get in front of a microphone again. It's so true. He's got a lot to, he's got a lot of pent up things to say. I am, I am, like he loves using the word juncture at this juncture of the season. Oh, he's got all the, the annoying, you know, business terms. He's talking synergy. He's talking all of these things, you know. The self-scout from last week was the funniest, referring to the self-scout, the self-scout. We're going to have the self-scout. and we've got some synergy here as we approach self-scout. The guy is insufferable.

I mean, if he comes back as the head coach next year, no one will be at that stadium. He doesn't bother me as much as he does you. I know he's a nice guy. Chris has told me for a couple of years he's a super nice guy. Man, he just keeps taking shots at Old Jay, though, doesn't he? Yes, he does. I mean, he really does.

But I wanted to say this about Haskins. I am rooting for him. I'm really rooting for him now. And I was not a big fan of his at Ohio State. I didn't think of him as like a true, you know, lock guy coming out in the draft. And then the Redskins picked him. And I was critical of the pick. And, you know, as it turns out, a lot of the football people in the organization didn't think that he should be taken at 15th overall.

I've liked what I've seen so far. I think he, I really was very impressed yesterday with. the way he handled that first press conference as a starter. There's been, you know, he's playing for just the worst group of people and the worst organization. You know, I know that he wanted to get drafted by the Giants. I think that that was the first preference, you know, and that's why when Daniel Jones got picked, you know, he said the league done messed up and all of that, you know, and he went to high school here locally bullies. And, you know, this is, you know, certainly a hometown situation as well.

there are four or five teams that we're going to be difficult for anybody, you know, to get a quarterback to get drafted by, and this is certainly one of them. Yeah, and they're playing another one on Sunday. They're playing another one? Yeah, they are. I'm not a big Adam Gase fan. I do like Sam Darnold, though. But, you know, and then over the last few weeks, you know, the national media saying the Redskins are

sabotaging him because they're playing them in the giant game. And then he's got to play for a head coach who didn't want him in the first place. but why would he, because he's being told he's got to win or else, you know, is so dysfunctional from that standpoint. Then the leaks start with, you know, how ready he is and he doesn't know the playbook. And I hope, I think he's got some talent. He's better at things that I didn't think he was good at at Ohio State, just in the limited things that we've seen.

We'll see what happens. I mean, I wouldn't bet on him to be elite or to be a true franchise quarterback, but I'm sort of rooting for him to play well here over the last seven games. As a fan of the team, it would be much easier if he turns out to be the guy that can play. Then you don't have to think about drafting one in 2020. But also just personally, I guess I am empathetic or sympathetic towards this situation he's in. It can't be great. Like I would imagine that the people, like Sean Springs, you know, was a mentor to him.

I had him on the show yesterday. You know what Sean said about the roster? He said it's one of the worst rosters he's ever seen. You know, and I know that there's some defense of Dwayne, like, don't be totally upset if he doesn't play well because he's got shit around him. Yeah. It's not the worst roster in the league. You know, they got, they have some talent on defense. Their coaching staff is, you know, not very impressive.

No. Not very. And that was that was going into the season. Yeah. I mean, that's not, that's not something that just happened. So, so what do you think? What do you think we're going to get from him? him on Sunday against the Jets because this is your chance to pick the game.

Okay. I'm kind of conflicted because I think that Greg Williams, the defensive coordinator for the Jets, would want to punish the Redskins because he likes punishing everybody. And the Redskins, I'm sure, are particularly sweet. But he doesn't have anything to punish him with. The Jets are not. Jamal Adams is a really good player. Yes, he is.

But generally, I mean. He took the ball from Daniel Jones. last week and took it to the house. Just stole it from him. But quarterback's, rookie quarterbacks, have thrown on this Jets defense. So what I'm expecting from Dwayne Haskins is not just handing the ball off.

I'm expecting him to air it out a little bit. Even under Bill Callahan. I mean, I think you really have to see more in terms of him taking chances and asking him to do more. And I think this is the week to do. do it. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's a lot of discussion about how bad the jet defense is. Their past defense, the run defense is actually pretty good. They've got 10 sacks in the last

two weeks if anybody's paying attention. You know, they're not a great defense, but they do have 10 sacks in the last two weeks. They can stop the run. I would expect that this Sunday that we're going to get a Callahan game plan where you're trying to stay. the run, but that they're going to take more play action chances off of it. The weather, I think, is going to be okay, cold, but I don't think stormy or anything at this point. You know, I don't know what to expect. Now that we're off the by week going into these final seven weeks, I said this morning, I think they'll win one more game. We talked about Haskins specifically the other days, so we didn't need to get back into that. I think they'll win maybe

one more game. This could be at Sunday. It could be, you know, it could be, against the Lions without Stafford next week. Could be against the Giants. They've got winnable games coming up. A couple of them. Yeah. And then some games that aren't winnable. Yes.

They're not going to go to Lambo and beat the Packers. No. Probably not going to go to Charlotte and beat the Panthers. But, you know, the Cowboys game at the end of the year, for all we know, the Cowboys may have nothing to play for. You know, that's possible. Yeah. Well, that hasn't stopped this team from losing those games.

No, that's true. So. That's true. Who's the best team in the NFL? We're going to get to that right after I tell you about. the app. Our app is available. If you've got an iPhone right there in the app store, download the Kevin Sheehan Show app. If you've got an Android, it's in the Google store. You don't have to use the app, but if you do, let us know how it goes. But we've got our

Twitter feed, my personal Twitter feed, Facebook feed, et cetera. Aaron's updating those pages every day. And it's another way to listen to the show. But if you like the way you're listening to it now, that's fine too, because a lot of the podcast platforms are great. as well, and the website. We still put the show up there on the Kevin Sheehan's show.com every day. All right, let's get to Tommy's favorite thing, but actually I think

it's a really good exercise to go through this week because I think it's really hard. There's no such thing as a good exercise. Let's get to our NFL power pole. Rangham 1 to 5. It's time for our weekly NFL Power Pole. This is hard now. The NFL

this year, Tommy, is really hard to you know, come up with, like, simple question to you right now, before you give me your top five, I want you to give me your number one. What's the, who's the best team in the league? Baltimore Ravens. That's my number one right now, but it's a really debatable conversation. Well, of course it is. Lots of teams. I opened it up for phone calls today on the show, and people were calling in with Seattle, with Green Bay, with, you know, not the, not Baltimore, not New England. You know, Kansas City, they lose last week. Now everybody's off there.

It's a hard conversation. The 49ers are in that conversation. They are for me. Yeah. All right. You want me to go first since you're still putting it together? Yeah. Okay. My number five team, I've got them in my top five, because it's hard to imagine that the Kansas

City Chiefs aren't one of the best five teams in the league. They're six and four. Mahomes threw for 446 last week in his first game back, but they lost. They're just still so explosive offensively. I just, I've got them in my top five, and that means that there are a couple of teams that I'm not going to have in my top five, but they're in my top five. I still think the chiefs are dangerous. Defensively, they're very aggressive, although they are very vulnerable defensively as well.

New England's my number four team. They haven't beaten anybody, period. But man, we're going to get tested here for the New England Patriots here over the next few weeks. You got tested in your last game against the Ravens. You got beat badly in Baltimore. Now it's the Eagles on the road this week. and the Cowboys on the 24th in Foxborough, then at Houston, and then the Chiefs in Foxborough. So we're going to know whether or not the Patriots are truly the 85 bears here in the next five games

because they had not been tested until the Baltimore game. They had the easiest schedule in the league. They were destroying the Redskins and the Giants and the Jets twice and the dolphins. My number three team, Tommy, in the league, is Green Bay. I think we are about to see the best of the Packers. They're very good defensively, and how about the year Preston Smith is having in Green Bay? Yeah.

And now offense... Almost as good as Ryan Carrigan here in Washington. Almost. And now we're about to see, I think, Aaron Rogers in this offense become more consistent. They've got a running game with Aaron Jones. He's got, you know, he doesn't need a lot of weapons, but he's got some...

I think the Packers are really good. I've got them at number three. I've got the 49ers at number two. Garoppolo is a major liability. I understand that. I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl. I don't. But if they had a kicker on Monday night, they'd be 9-0.

The kicker missed a 44-45-yard field goal in overtime. Seattle got set up with three turnovers for 21 points. I love the 49ers defensively. I think they're fast. I think they're aggressive. They have playmakers, and they can run the football. You know why? The Shanahan's, they know how to run the football. I like the 49ers as my number two team and my number one team.

It's Baltimore. I was skeptical early in the year because I thought they lost too much defensively, losing Weddell and Suggs and Smith, etc. They've added Marcus Peters here recently. He's got two pick sixes. Somebody called him the best guesser in the NFL because he takes a lot of risks, but because of it he makes a lot of plays. They may have right now the most.

dynamic playmaking set at corner with Humphrey and with Marcus Peters in a corner and they've got Lamar Jackson and you know I just love what Harbaugh and this staff is doing you know they're taking their talent and they're coaching to their talent and it's awesome to watch Baltimore the offense is is is indefinable right now I almost said indefensible there the Jackson's not checkable right now it's impossible right it's impossible right to deal with him right now. And then you got Ingram back there as well.

It's really exciting to watch. And Hollywood Brown is the deep threat that they just haven't had here in recent years. John Brown, when they had him Aaron, last couple of years, not the same as Marquise Brown. Like, this dude is a legitimate deep threat. And the thing about Jackson is he can throw it. Like, he can throw it and he throws accurately. You know, there are issues with him when he gets past that. first read. But when he starts to extend and he's still behind the line of scrimmage,

he can make great throws. Baltimore's my number one team. I got a couple of teams to keep an eye on, but I want to hear your top five first. Okay. My fifth team are the Green Bay Packers. I mean, I'm surprised at how well they played. I thought they were collapsed under Matt and Lefrew. I didn't know much about Matt Lefrewer, except the fact that I thought he was too young and experienced. I didn't think he was Sean McVeigh, too. As a head coach, he seems to have got his handle with his relationship with Aaron Rogers moving forward. I like the Packers at number five.

I like the Seattle Seahawks at number four. You know, I mean, Russell Wilson is an MVP candidate. You wouldn't, I'd tell you wouldn't want to play the Seahawks in the playoffs. It's hard to keep him out of the top five. That's true. I did, but it was hard. Yeah, my number three team would be the San Francisco 49ers. You're right.

You know, save for a kicker, they'd be 9-0. I've got the same issues at quarterback that you do. I almost wonder sometimes if their backup quarterbacks, either one of them wouldn't be better than Garofalo on that team. The New England Patriots at number two, and it's very rare whenever I've done the power pole over the years where I haven't had the Patriots as the number one. Yeah. It really is very rare.

Glad you remember all those powerful. Yeah, I know that because I keep records of them at home. You know, and I like to look at them and study them. I know you do. Yeah, and then the Ravens at number one. Yes, by the way, on the 49ers, you know, it's working out pretty well with Kirk in Minnesota right now. I think Gary Kubiak and Kevin Stefansky,

they're all on the same page this year. They're a little bit healthier, a little bit better on the offensive line. Certainly as a run-blocking team, and Dalvin Cook's turned into a star, so I don't think he's going anywhere. But if he were available, trust me on this. Kyle would have Kirk as his starting quarterback right now if he could. So there will be a landing spot for him if it doesn't work out in Minnesota, but right now He's having a big, big time year.

Two teams, just to keep an eye on, I know I'm always on this team, the Chargers, but they play the Chiefs Monday night in Mexico City. If somehow they were to win that game, Aaron, they'd be 5 and 6, and the Chiefs would be 6 and 5, and they'd get them another time at the end of the year. The Raiders, you know, they play Cincinnati this week, so they're going to move to 6 and 4 more likely than not.

I just think the Chargers are too talented not to figure out a way to get to 8, 9, 10 wins. And then here's a team for you gamblers out there to just really perhaps ride coming in. Atlanta can flat out score and move the ball. And they're going to be getting points the rest of the way and they're going to be a good bet. I'm not saying that just because they beat the Saints. I should have had them last week as a big dog at New Orleans, but they're a big dog. They weren't sort of a smell test pick.

But I got news for you. They're going to be a smell test pick this week. They're catching a short number this week. I think at Carolina. Atlanta can score. I'm not saying they're making the playoffs. They're two and seven. Right. But would it surprise me if they won four games four out of their final seven? No, wouldn't surprise me at all. They're too talented offensively. They're very, they're still very capable offensively putting up 28, 30, 35 points in games and winning shootouts. So I would keep an eye on them, not as a team that's going to be a playoff team,

but for betters out there, you're going to have plenty of chances with Atlanta taking points, and they're going to win some of these games down the stretch. One last, did you have something else? No, that's it. Just tell me real quickly, who wins the MVP's tonight? I think Bellinger, Cody Ballinger will win. Over Yelich. The Dodgers are a higher profile team, and Bellinger is, you can't argue he's not deserving of it.

I mean, it's a close race. He's stunk in that series against the Nats. Yes, he did. He really did. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. If I was doing it based on the series, I give it to Matt Muncie, the guy who's right. Yeah, but no, I think Bellinger will win. I think if Anthony Rendon managed an upset to win, I think that I think he's perfectly a legitimate, fair choice. I think Yellich is a fair choice. It's a close debate. It's not going to be a Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera situation.

I think most people, you know, may have a candidate, but could live. with any of those three guys as the MVP. And you got Trout winning the AL MVP, I'm assuming, right, Aaron? Trout wins it. Yeah. Yeah. The Cy Young Award went to DeGrom. I think you guessed that on Tuesday.

I think Aaron, or Aaron did. He was an overwhelming favor. And I think he was named number one on every ballot. Yeah, Scherzer finished third in the voting. And I would bet Rendonel finish third tonight in the voting. But guess what? They have a World Series rate. Right.

You know, that's- Yes, they do. They have the hardware to counts. Exactly. Anything else you want to add to the show? I want to go back and talk about the case that you were wrong on? No, that's okay, boss. Maybe we'll save that for a different day.

Yeah, maybe we'll say it if you give me enough alcohol. All right. I'm back tomorrow. I think Cooley will be on the show tomorrow. At least that's what we are trying to get done for tomorrow. Don't forget, I'm back on radio if you didn't know that. I'm on the team 980, 7 to 10 a.m. in the mornings. Tune in for that.

We're on an FM signal as well, 95. 5.9 FM. And in most places, it actually really comes in well. So Team 980, 95.9, 7 to 10 a.m. Weekday mornings for the Kevin Sheehan Show, radio show. And I just want to remind everybody, you can hear me on 106-7 a fan, Saturday mornings with Nick Ashue and Wednesday afternoons with Chad Dukes and read my stuff in the Washington Times, Washington Times.com slash sports.

All right. I'll see you Tuesday. Thanks. Thanks, Aaron. Have a great day, everybody.