The Kevin Sheehan Show - Thom's Covid Results Are In

Episode Date: August 13, 2020

Kevin and Thom open the show with Thom revealing his Covid-19 test results. They weaved their way through many topics before getting to a Caps-Islanders Game 1 recap. Also, what Todd McShay's 2021 NFL Mock Draft reveals about the Skins. Additionally, the boys talked Juan Soto and Thom's column that described the reasons for a potential future renovation to Fed Ex Field. 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.

We'll get the show started here momentarily, Tommy by phone me in studio. Quick word about window nation. If you've been thinking about renovating your home, doing home improvements, and adding new windows to your home prior to us getting into fall and winter where you can save big on energy bills, I really want you to consider Wind Donation. I promise you that if you call Windonation at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com and mention that you were referred to Window Nation by me, it'll work. work out for you. It's worked out for everybody I know. I've never gotten one complaint from anybody

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All right, it's a Sports Fix Thursday. Tommy by phone, me in studio. We're going to get to the Caps game one loss against the Islanders. We're going to talk about Juan Soto and another bomb that he hit last night in New York. And we've got other things to talk about, including the NFL's coronavirus positivity rate, which is very low so far. But there could be reasons for that. And one more thing we will get to.

and that is Todd McShay put out his initial 2021, 2021, that is, mock draft. And there are a couple of things based on his projections that speak to Dwayne Haskins and the Washington football team. So we will get to all of that during the course of the show. Have you gotten your COVID-19 test back? Yes or no? I got the test on July 31st. I got the results in a phone call on August 11th. It's unbelievable. It's actually not that bad.

It's not even a full two weeks. And I tested negative. Very good. But my son, who flew to Spokane and back to get my granddaughter, you know, to visit us, basically he had a test a couple weeks before he left and got the results quickly and then after he got back he had another test at an urgent care facility somewhere in Howard County and got the results in two days and it was negative they were negative also I thought you were leading up to he was on a flight back and forth and no okay But we've got the results like in two days. My wife just told me about a place nearby that are turning the results around much faster now, too.

I didn't ask for details. But I am happy you tested negative. But the reason that she had brought this up to me yesterday is that late yesterday afternoon, early evening, I didn't feel well. I had a sore throat, I had a cough, and I had some shortness, some breath. And I, you know, I dealt with it okay. I took a shower, which seemed to help. I laid down, and I think I really, ultimately, by the way, by about 8 or 9 o'clock last night, I felt totally fine.

I think I was just exhausted because I had slept three and a half hours the night before. And, you know, like four hours the night before that. And I think it just sort of caught up with me in, you know, a moment late yesterday afternoon. But Tommy, I'm telling you for about an hour and a half, two hours, I was like, you got to be kidding me. I've got shortness of breath. I've got the dry cough. I did not have a fever. but I definitely had a sore throat with it, which isn't necessarily a symptom.

I looked that up, but the dry cough and the shortness of breath are two big symptoms of COVID-19. But I felt so perfect and normal after I literally took a nap for about an hour and a half, fell asleep for an hour and a half, woke up, felt totally fine and refreshed. So I was absolutely convinced that it was nothing and that it was just being exhausted from two back-to-back nights of not sleeping enough. And that's happened to me before, but I really did think for a little bit. Like my wife, we have a thermometer in the house because I don't even think we had the thermometer before the pandemic. I think she went out and bought it. Took the temperature.

The temperature was fine. And I feel great. I feel fine today. But I was sitting there going, you got to be kidding me, man. If I have it, whatever, you know, the chances are I'm not going to get seriously ill. But I just, I don't want it. Who wants this? Nobody wants it regardless of the fact.

Like, I never worry about getting a cold or getting the flu. And I can't tell you the last time I got the flu. It's been years since I've gotten the flu. But nobody worries about that. But, you know, with this thing, you're like, even though the death rate is much lower than a lot of other things you could get, you don't want to get it. There's too much unknown about it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you don't want to have to deal with that.

Bill Plasky, who's a great columnist in the LA Times. He wrote a column about how he got the virus. Right. And it's a great column. He's a terrific columnist. maybe the best in the country. And he didn't have to be hospitalized, but he described like about a five-day nightmare he had at home,

where he had 102 fever, he had chills, he was sweating through t-shirts and pillows, he was having hallucinations. It sounded like, while he never had to be hospitalized and it's coming out of it okay, he went through hell at home. And he was a 61-year-old guy with no underlying conditions who thinks he probably caught it was very careful, but thinks he probably caught it in a get-together with another couple, friends of theirs, outside when they had their mask off.

You know, like for the hour and a half or so that before I sort of fell asleep where I'm like, you got to be kidding me if I got this. There's no chance I would be able to identify where I had gotten it. And the reason isn't because I'm just out there, you know, ignoring all of the advice. I wear a mask. I socially distance, you know, especially if I'm outside of the house. But inside of my house, it's really hard to walk around a house with a mask and be socially distanced from each other.

You know, I don't, I don't do that. Well, I don't do that either, but I do actually, you know, with my sons, you know, it's not like I want to stand right next to them and have a conversation where we're breathing on each other because they've been out and about much more. They have definitely been in more exposure situations than I have. You know my situation coming into this studio. I don't see anybody. I come and go. And they, you know, I'm. you know, they're working. I mean, my youngest is working in a restaurant 30, 40, 50 hours a week,

you know, and then coming home and hanging out with friends. Now, is he being responsible as much as a 20-year-old can be responsible? Yeah, but that's not the way we're treating it. The way that that age group isn't nearly as diligent as, you know, we are or older people are. And, you know, I think I've mentioned this before. hard, and I think many of you will understand this, especially if you've got teenagers, if you've got kids that are teenagers, that, you know, have some level of autonomy, you know, going out with friends, hanging out, they have a car, they're able to drive. At this point, how can you stop them from living their life? You can't.

I mean, my youngest, it works in a restaurant 30 to 40, I think he had 50 hours a couple of weeks ago, maybe 55 hours. So he's working his ass off. He's not, you know, just slumping around all summer, doing nothing. He's working, and then he comes home, and he goes out with friends at 11 o'clock at night, which is what you do when you're that age. Now, are they going to bars and crowded situations? No, but they're with friends in large groups in gatherings of more than 10.

So you've got a big risk. There's no doubt that there's a, that my, home situation with them home is a bigger risk. Now, you know, I think we are much more, I think that the information about it not being a surface spread risk like we thought it was in the early days of the pandemic 2020, which seems like five years ago now, I think that that's made things easier. But, you know, we just have a couple of rules. I don't want them in my office. I don't want them in my bathroom or room. And, you know, as much as possible, we're going to be socially distanced when we're

in the house. But it's not like I'm not in the same room watching golf with them all weekend, you know? I mean, am I sitting right next to them on a crowded couch? No. But, yeah. But my point, Tommy, is they got to live their life. Like, we don't know how long this is going to last. I can't.

I don't want them. to be, you know, he goes to work. Like there are people in that restaurant that are coming in. They're hourly kitchen workers. He's, you know, working with bartenders and waiting tables or barbacking or whatever he's doing in the restaurant. And then he's going to go out and hang out with friends. Like, where's the bigger risk? Should I tell him not to work and not to hang out with friends?

No. I can't do that. And I'm not going to do that. Okay. Well, you're not going to do that. You'd say you can't do that, but if you would happen to get the virus, don't you think you'd be saying yourself, I should have been tougher? No. I don't know what I would.

I don't know what I would be saying, but I don't think, you know, it's really, actually, it's just a very, it's a really interesting conversation, isn't it? because if I did get the virus, knock on wood, or if my wife did, or if one of my other boys did from one of the others and somebody got sick, of course you would go back and you would say, oh my God, we should have just been quarantining and it shouldn't have left the house and should have been so much more careful. And, you know, for the first month or two months, we were like everybody was because we really didn't have any clue. But at some point, you know, it's not like he's going back to school shortly, so he'll be living up in state college.

My middle son's going to be home. My older one is more likely than not going to be home more than he's going to be at his place downtown because he doesn't have to go into the office anymore. They're totally set up right now in a teleworking situation. I know we're boring a lot of people with this, But I do think that there are a lot of relatable stories going on in some of your families. And my overall writing, and my wife agrees with me pretty much, is that we can't be in lockdown mode. She's working, I'm working, you know, they're working, and they're also living their lives.

Are we doing it with masks? Are we doing it with social distancing as much as we can? and being aware of the risks in trying to minimize them? Yes, but to the point of basically shutting our lives down, no. That has not happened in the Sheehan household. What if, through circumstances, it would require another shutdown? You mean, like, it got so bad and... Yeah.

Well, then we would comply, as Jim Zorn once said. We would comply if it got so bad again that everybody, you know, was saying, well, I mean, look, if that happens, then restaurants aren't going to be open and retail's not going to be open and places, you know, large gatherings are going to be banned and, you know. But you could make the case that the, and I know every region is different, but nationwide, the growth is bigger now than it was back in March and April. Yes, you can. You know? And so if anything, I mean, all those places should be shut down now more than then. Well, Dr. Fauci, go ahead and do it. I mean, if they shut up, if we go back into another major shutdown as a country like we were in March and, you know, early April,

well, then we're going to be right there with everybody. You know, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be an Arkansas family. family out in the middle of a lake with my shirt off, you know, drinking beers from red cups. I mean, I'd love to do that. That sounds like a lot of fun. That sounds like fun to me. Yeah. I miss those days. But, you know, look, that's not going to happen.

In September and October, you could have carts going down the street carrying bodies, and they're not going to shut anything down. So that's not going to happen. Well, what we haven't had, you know, we got obviously, no matter, you know, where you, you know, where do you weigh in on on this? We ended up getting much more of the PPV. We ended up getting many more ventilators. We flattened the curve, which was the goal in March and April so that our health care system wasn't overwhelmed. And I know that it is being overwhelmed and stretched to the limits in certain areas of the country right now.

I do understand that. You know, I've been playing a lot of golf. I mean, you know, it's like it's one of the few things that you can do where you're outside and you're socially distanced. But, you know, you're not always socially distance on a golf course. No one's wearing a mask on a golf course. No golf courses are requiring masks. You're outdoors.

You're 95% of the time you're more than six feet away from somebody else. but, you know, when you get to the turn and you're drinking beers and, you know, you're walking by each other within six feet, you know, there are fist bumps every once in a while. So I don't know, Tommy. This is really, the whole thing is just so, it's depressing. I know it is. It's very depressing. I really feel for the older people like my mother.

and her husband who literally do not leave the house. Now, she broke her hip recently, but they don't leave the house. It's too much of a risk for them. But go ahead. What were you going to say? I read in an article, I kept the clip of it. It was an incredible article. The particles where they can be transferred when you're outside, they lose their

viability in six minutes of exposure to summer sunlight. so they don't last very long outside when they're traveling outside inside 125 minutes right yeah yeah I mean the you know and I've been reading you know I haven't read about this in a while so maybe the date has changed but just you know viral load has a lot to do with it like if you're taking in one little you know droplet of the virus it's much less risky than if you're in an elevator and no one's wearing a mask and the dude starts, you know, coughing, you know, three feet away from you. If somebody gets on an elevator and you're on the elevator and you've got a mask on and he doesn't

or she doesn't have a mask, would you get off? So, yeah, I probably, I would. I would. I mean, I'll tell you what this, I would definitely say something. I just get off. No, I wouldn't. To me, I don't want to want. No, to me, to me indoors.

No, no, no, no, no. No, no. Something's become pretty much a given now, at least in civilized places. And that is that if you are indoors in a place, in a public place, you need to have a mask on, period. You know, I don't go into any retail place now where everybody isn't wearing a mask. Now, I went to a restaurant the other night, and when you sit down at a table and you start to drink and eat, you're allowed to take your masks off. But if you get up and you're walking around, but if I'm walking in to a building, well, I had to go last week to the dermatologist. I also went to the dentist recently.

But I went to the dermatologist, and that required an elevator ride in a busy building. And, you know, I get on the elevator, and they were like, you know, they had the spots identified in terms of this number of, people you can have. I think it was three people was, but there were three people in there, including me, so they're me plus two. And everybody had a mask on. I don't, I don't, I didn't see any, but if somebody in that elevator in a truly confined closed, can't socially distance, confined space, didn't have a mask on, I would probably get out and I would say something. Okay. One last, one last question in this COVID quiz. Is your son signing a waiver to discharge Penn State from liability for illness, permanent disability, or death?

Did he have to sign a liability waiver? According to a story I've been reading in Newsweek, Penn State students must sign a COVID waiver. Interesting. Charging liability for illness, permanent disability, or death. Oh, God. I don't know anything about that. I want to tell your wife of me. No, I mean, she hasn't seen it either because if she had seen it, she would have given it to me.

I'm reading it right now, too. This is a story within the last 24 hours. He goes back on August 21st, I think, or 22nd. Now, he's living off campus. I'm sorry? Right. Yeah, it says the semester starts August 24th. So I'm not going to get it.

get into the details about the call I made to Penn State, but I was definitely looking for a discount on tuition, you know, with the significant percentage of classes being online. You know, I know a lot of families who are really pushing for their kids to take a gap year right now and to wait wait this thing out and maybe take classes if they're going to take classes online they can take classes online from through a much less expensive option something like Montgomery College where you know all the if all the credits will transfer you know I think there's a lot that makes sense to that because paying full freight right now just doesn't seem fair it isn't fair.

It's not what... No, it's not. Full tuition is for students to be at that school taking, you know, a certain number of credits, you know, 13 to 17 credits a semester and going to a physical place where they're holding classes or lectures with, you know, professors that are, that you're essentially paying for. And the online experience is completely different. Completely different. I'll be teaching this fall, Georgetown,

and their graduate sports industry management program, I'll be teaching via Zoom online. You didn't ask me if I was successful in my call. I figured you weren't. I was. I would have heard it from you the minute you were if you had. Yeah. I was not successful for a number of reasons that I'm not going to get into,

but the bottom line is I can't be the only person calling. you know, I would imagine that a lot of parents are like, you've got to be kidding me. Because most of you who have kids in college or have had kids in college recently or even beginning to look at it, you know how outrageously expensive colleges. And who knows what this post-pandemic world is going to look like anyway? I mean, I'm starting to think that college is becoming less and less important by the hour. and that experience, which you could almost make the argument, has always been more important, depending on, you know, the line of work, obviously.

But it's so expensive. And you're not getting a, it's not a legitimate value, you know, there's no value fairness to begin with in the tuition parent, student, you know, dynamic. But now there really isn't. Really isn't. And you know what? I thought that they would be in more position or in a position where some revenue is better than no revenue. By the way, I didn't ask for cents on the dollar. I'm not stupid.

But I think that there are a lot of different things right now where it makes sense. You know, Geico is my car insurance company. They automatically were giving their clients discounts. You know why? People are driving less. You know, what they were paying for before is not what they're paying for during a pandemic. They automatically gave all of their – I actually called thinking, you know, we're not driving as much. I mean, is there a different plan with a different rate structure?

And they said, well, we've already discounted your policy. and I think it was a pretty sizable discount. Well, I mean, if that's the case, something like your podcast here should be even more valuable to people. So you should be charging more for people to listen to this. This sports media industry right now is really, really, it's interesting.

It's going to change. It's going to change a lot. You know, most of the, of you who follow it, most of you don't follow it. For those of you that do follow it, you know you've been seeing all the layoffs. With a lot of local sport, you know, NBC Sports Washington just laid off a bunch of people. I think that's their second round of cuts. At the radio station, we laid off a bunch of people, you know, a few months ago, Greg Huff, who was, you know, a really good friend and my producer and the producer of Cooley and Kevin for several years, Greg got laid

off. Sali got laid off after all those years, although Sallie's back now, which I'm thrilled about, back on Zab's show. But in sports media, I mean, you've seen it in your industry with columnists getting laid off and reporters and cutbacks. I mean, it's just, it's ugly. No sports for four months, five months, whatever it was. And then on top of that, there may even be less interest in some ways in sports now than there was before this pandemic. But I think podcasts are doing better. Podcasts are doing well. This podcast has continued.

I think podcasts are doing well because, again, it's not radio in your car. It's something that most people, you know, can listen to on their device at home. And plus, it's high-quality stuff we're talking about here. Yeah, but Tommy, sports podcasts are not doing well. They haven't been doing well. But I mean, people know they get more than that here. Well, I think that's why this podcast, I mean, I'm not going to share specifically what it is, but we have not dropped that much at all during this pandemic. So I'm thrilled and I appreciate that.

And we always thank all of you that are listening and listening frequently. It is a huge help. You know, we need, we need advertising dollars for it to work. Now, the advertisers had gone away a little bit there for a little while, and the rates have been, you know, cut significantly, which isn't great for us. But the listenership to, you know, I can only speak to my podcast, but there are a lot of different podcast partners that I have from our platform company to a relationship that I've developed with the athletic and others that I learn a lot about what's going on. and we've been lucky in the sports podcast category. We haven't had nearly the percentage drop that most have had. And actually, over the last month,

and I would credit obviously all of the Washington football news to this, we're not down at all, if anything, we're a little bit up. But whatever. You know, trying to figure it out, it's going to be interesting, trying to figure this out moving forward. You know, if I listen to you every day, I'd be really depressed because you're convinced none of these sports are going to finish and football's got no chance.

And if football's got no chance, we're all in trouble a little bit in this town and in any NFL city. Well, and I mentioned this before, I'm willing to revise my positions on hockey and the NBA because they seem to have been so successful with their bubble approach to this, and particularly hockey, leaving the country.

And they're trying to accomplish postseason, not a full season. Right. So I'm willing to concede that hockey and the NHL and the NBA may be able to pull these off. Yeah, I don't have any idea. I have no idea. I know, you know, that football,

season is important to our line of work, much more so than anything else's. You agree with that, right? Oh, of course. Yeah. Does that include college football? No, not for us, but for a lot of people, yes. You know who's going to suffer significantly with no college football? You know, is ESPN, as an example. You know, the big broadcasters of games, not having that inventory of games to be able to sell to advertisers, not to mention all of the programming that they have around college football and the NFL. But ESPN televises many more college football games than they do pro football games. They have a Monday night game and that's it. Now, they've got a lot of business around the NFL and a lot of shows geared towards the NFL,

but they have probably just as much on the line with college football as they do with the NFL. The college football situation, it is interesting. I don't know what will happen with the SEC, Big 12, and ACC. They appear to be planning on moving forward. I don't know if that's going to be one of those situations where in hindsight the Big 10 and the Pac-12 look smart or the Big Ten and the Pac-12 look like they were way premature in shutting it down. Right. We don't know. One thing I was curious about, though, if you look at the conferences that are looking to move forward at play,

and you look at the states where those schools are from, they are among the poorest in the country. Right. I mean, like health care, education, quality of life in those states, they're all like in the bottom 40 to 50, and ranked in the country. And the conferences that, you know, Pact 10 and Big 10, Pac-12, whatever it is, and Big 10 that have declined in those areas, in those states, you have the higher level of quality of life. Well, sure. because you have many more, you have many more big cities in those leagues.

You know, you've got L.A. and you've got D.C. and you've got Chicago. So you don't have that in the SEC. You don't really have that in the ACC. You don't really have that in the ACC. You certainly don't have that in the Big 12. I'm trying to think of what is the biggest Big 12. I mean, Dallas is a huge Texas longhorn market, even though Austin, you know, isn't, you know, isn't Dallas. But the state of Texas in all of their big cities are big college football cities. So I retract that statement. But anyway, whatever. I mean, we'll see what happens.

I mean, I did want to real quickly, and I didn't plan on doing this, but I read this column. this story that Mark Maskey wrote in the post late last night about what the NFL plans to do. You might find this interesting. I don't even know if you know this exists. I think I knew this existed. I just didn't know the details of it. But, you know, a lot of people with the Big Ten and the Pack 12 dropping out are saying, well, if the other college football leagues end up not playing in the fall, the NFL will move to Saturday.

They'll move a bunch of games to Saturday. So we'll just, you know, we'll still have football all weekend long. it'll just be all NFL. Well, Maskey wrote, and I found it very interesting, the details of this, that the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, you know, which exempts the NFL from antitrust laws for its broadcasting rights, also protects college and high school football because it restricts the NFL from broadcasting games on Friday nights and Saturdays. Now, during high school and college football's regular seasons, the NFL is not allowed to broadcast on those days or on a Friday night.

Now, when those regular seasons are over, the NFL then can broadcast games on Friday night or on Saturdays or any other night for that matter. But that's because the regular seasons are over, and that's why you see the NFL at the end of seasons have Saturday games. You know, and the last couple of years, we've gotten a Saturday triple header, two of them in December, I think back-to-back weeks. But everybody just assumes that if college football shuts down, the NFL will just pick it up, if they're playing, we'll just pick up the load on Saturdays by moving, you know, three, four, five games to Saturdays. You know, and you've got one that kicks off at noon and one kicks off at four and one kicks off at 815, or maybe it's a couple of them at one. o'clock and a couple of them at four o'clock, whatever it is, but they would fill the void. Well, that act prohibits that. The NFL would have to get a waiver. And here's where I think some of the interesting things come into play. If independents just say, if anybody's playing

college football on Saturday, that law protects those college football games. So the NFL would have to get a waiver, and they may not be able to get a waiver as long as there are some college football games going on. So let's just assume. Who would they get the waiver from? I think it's the Department of Justice or whatever. Well, he ain't given the NFL a waiver. Okay, well, maybe that's wrong.

Where would they get the waiver from? It would be some sort of governmental group. It's got to be like the FCC maybe. Yeah, maybe it's the FCC. That may, yeah. But still, he ain't getting, they ain't getting the waiver. Oh, here it is. It's in his story. A waiver would have to come from Congress or the U.S. Department of Justice.

So I had the DOJ right. Yeah, I don't think they're getting that. Well, if it comes to that. So here's the thing. If there's no college football, Maskey sort of, based on his reporting, there shouldn't, they don't, the NFL doesn't think they'll have a problem getting the waiver. It's good for the country, right, to have football on Saturday and Sunday during the weekends and that they would get the waiver. I don't think that the guy running the country agrees with you.

Why? Because they're going to allow players to kneel before the anthem? I think that could be a problem. I don't know. I bet you get they get the waiver. I'll waver. I'll bet that right now if there's no college football. The NFL plays on Saturdays.

Not if the executive branch has to sign off on. But here's the worst case on all of this. The worst case would be, for football fans, college and pro, would be if in addition to the Big Ten and the Pac-12, that the SEC, ACC and ACC and Big 12 all decide, you know what, we're going to shut it down for a while. You know, we're going to look at it, you know, in January or February, or we're going to wait until the spring.

But some conferences, like Conference USA, and some independence like Army or Liberty, Notre Dame would be among that group, they decide to play. Because if there's any college football going on, college football is then going to say, whoa, wait a minute. We don't want NFL on Saturdays.

We're Conference USA. We now have the whole country to ourselves. And we're going to kick it off with Marshall against Florida International at noon. And then we've got O.D.U. I think O'DU actually shut it down. Then we got Louisiana Tech against North Texas at 3.30. And then our primetime game is going to be U-TEP against Charlotte.

How about that as a triple header? And you'd have money on every game. And then all the while, you know, on CBS Sports Network, we got Army playing Liberty twice a year because they have to fill out a whole schedule. So they got a home and home with Liberty. Now, Liberty was pretty decent last year. That's where Antonio Gandy Golden went.

Golden Gandy, whatever it is, AGG. But that would be the worst. The worst. I mean, even without the Big Ten in the Pack 12, if the Big 12 ACC and SEC play college football in the fall, that's going to be enough to fill the television void. I mean, if the SEC were the only conference playing, it would be, it'd still be worth,

you know, tuning in on Saturdays, because you do have 14 teams, so you have seven games spread out over the entirety of the day. But Tommy, one prediction, I don't think the SEC is playing this fall. I think, out of those three leagues, the one that's definitely going to play is the SEC. So, I agree. Worst case, you know, you get Georgia, South Carolina at noon, and then the 330 kick is, you know, LSU, Texas, A&M, and then the night game, you get Bama and, you know, Florida or whatever it is. And, you know, you have other games on other networks during the course of the day as well. But if you have the ACC, SEC, SEC, and Big 12, you're going to have enough product to fill up Saturday, 12 noon until, you know, 1.30 in the morning when the whole thing ends, even without the West Coast.

Here's a great quote from related what we're talking about. Dr. Carlos Del Rio, a member of the NCAA's COVID-19 advisory panel, talking about false sports. I feel like the Titanic. We have hit the iceberg, and we're trying to make a decision of what time we should have the band play. Didn't you already read that? You read that to me last week. I've never read that to you. Somebody read that to me.

I thought it was you. Well, wasn't me. Well, I mean, you know, as long as I'm going down with Kate Winslet, I'm good. I'm good. By the way, I have no idea what you're talking about. I know you don't. I know you don't. Other than the historical version of the Titanic, since I've never seen that movie. It's still amazing that you've never seen that movie. That's a young, a very young Kate Winslet in that movie, which I think, 1997? Does that sound about right?

98? Something like that. I would bet you that my family wife, kids have seen Titanic no less than 25 times. Oh my God. It's always on TV, but the kids loved that movie when they were younger.

Loved it. Really? Yeah. You know, the funny thing, it's a great movie, I guess. And I, and I do like sort of the history of the Titanic and all of the stuff that's been written about it over the years but it's not

it's certainly not in my top 20 movies of all time like I'm not going to sit there and waste it's a long movie and waste three hours I you know I'd much rather watch a documentary or just go through an office of go through a season of the office again

I would rather do that Kate Winslet would be the person Certainly one of the people, though, I would choose to go down with. I think she's one of those people that's just gotten better looking as she's gotten older. One of my favorite Kate Winslet appearances was on Ricky Jerva's extras. Did you ever watch extras? No. Oh, Tommy.

You did watch the BBC. I forget. Did you watch a BBC version or not? Of the office. No, you know how I feel about this. Oh, my God, you would love it so much. You would love it so much. But the extras was phenomenal. It was, it was Ricky Jervase as, you know, working as an extra, you know, actor. Stephen Merchants are part of it, you know, the chick Ashley Jensen that's always with Ricky Jervase and all of his things is in it. And Kate Winslet makes a cameo in one of the episodes and does a thing. about making Holocaust movies that is just hysterical. And then there's another appearance where anybody that's just one of these days, do yourself a favor and watch extras. It is, I don't know, there's two seasons, 12 episodes, something like that.

It's phenomenal. So good. Okay. And you should, I mean, given that you're the biggest fan of the American office, you should watch the BBC version of the office. I think you would thank me. But then again, I've tried to get you to watch Game of Thrones over the years, and I know you would thank me on that one, and you won't even, you're just way too stubborn.

You know what it is about you? I don't want to spend the money on the costume. Well, that aside, and that's Scott's position too. But you're the same way as my good friend Scott Van Pelt, in that if you didn't discover the show, like, or you weren't in on this show early, then it's not for you. You know what? You're right.

I know. You're absolutely right. I have to admit, you are right about that. I mean, if everybody, I figure if everybody is piling on to something, it can't be that good. You know what? That's fair, but I'm a pretty good judge of this stuff. You and I have, when it comes to this stuff, we have similar tastes. I wouldn't steer you wrong.

and I, well, I'm convinced that both of you would thank me endlessly if you ever invested and watched Game of Thrones. But for you definitely, actually, you know what's funny about the BBC version of the office? This is my friend Scott who does the same thing. If he's not, if he doesn't feel like he's discovered it and he was in on something before the masses, you know, became immersed in it, then he likes to blow it off. as, you know, like you do. But he was the one when the office, when the BBC version of the office came out,

and by the way, it was only available on, you know, DVD. You know, there was no, it wasn't available on, there was no Netflix then. I'll never forget. And I want to say this is probably like 2004. I think the years of that show were 2003, 2004, maybe. Whatever, somewhere around there. I'll never forget him calling me up and saying, you have to listen to me.

You have to get the DVDs. I'm going to send you the DVD. I think he actually sent him to me. And you've got to take a half a day and watch this series, The Office. It's a BBC show. And I watched it and I was hooked and it was, and I've been hooked on Ricky Jervais ever since as just brilliant.

But that whole show was so good. But as I've told you, Tommy, I didn't get into the American office because I felt I had a pretension about the BBC version, and I didn't think the American version could live up to it, but it did. And it did in spades. And I've become, you know, just as much of a fan of the American version as well. Okay. I might consider, given the BBC office, a try.

I'm not a big Ricky Jervase fan because I think he's too much of a prick. Oh, no, no. I do. God, I think it's totally, when he comes off as one, I think it's totally tongue and cheek. I like him. Well, it depends on what side of the receiving end you are of that. That's true, but you don't come in contact with him. You don't have to feel the stick in your back.

So what's the difference if he's being a jerk to somebody else? No, I understand what you're saying. I did tell you about his recent show that I really, really enjoyed called Afterlife, which in the early days of the pandemic, remember those early days, I watched Afterlife, which was just incredible, so good. And that was one of those recommendations I gave out on this podcast that many of you thanked me for. I remember a lot of you saying,

thank you so much for that recommendation. It was so excellent. Others, though, really ripped me from my recommendation of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which I've now seen three times, and it's just like all of his movies. They just keep getting better each time you watch them. I liked it much more the second time I thought.

Right? Exactly. And I've seen it now three times because it's now on it's on one of those movie channels. I don't think it's on HBO. It might be HBO that it's on. And I watched it maybe last week and I'm like, God damn, that Tarantino.

Every single one of his movies, it just seems like the more you watch them, the better they get. And I thought this one was really good the first time. And you liked the history of that too. I mean, you lived through that. Yes. Yes, I did.

A lot of those songs in that movie were already on my place. Of course. But, I mean, you lived through the Manson murders of Sharon Taiton. And, you know, you're the one that said to me, I think you said to me, it may have been somebody else, that this was the OJ murders before the OJ murders, that this completely captivated America. Did you tell me that? I don't think that was me. I don't think that was me.

Well, is that correct? Well, yeah. I mean, I would have went back to, I would have went back farther. I mean, there were, Sam Shepard was a doctor back in the 50s in Cleveland who was accused to kill and his wife. And it became a mad, the biggest story in the country to try his trial every day. And then before that, the Lindbergh kidnapping. Right. You know, the Lindberg baby kidnapping.

I would have gone farther back than O.J. if I was making a comparison. What was the show that was recently on HBO? What? I would have gone farther back than the Manson murder to make an O-T comparison. But your Lindberg reference just reminded me there was a recent series on HBO, and I'm forgetting the name of it. Well, yeah, it was the plot to something America. I forget the name of it. It's based on a Philip Rock book, and it was done by my good friend David Simon.

I didn't watch it because I don't get HBO anymore. Oh, right. I watched half of an episode, and I was like, Winona Ryder was in it. I remember that part of it. And I... The plot against America. Right, but it was... It's a scenario.

What if Lindberg, I guess, had been run for president, and what would that have meant? Because he was a Nazi sympathizing. Right, and there's a lot about his, you know, his fascists, ways in his anti-Semitic um that's a big part of it right the anti-Semitism of linberg and the people around lindberg i guess his family i didn't i haven't watched it i i watched like half an episode i'm like maybe this is something i'll invest in but i just i never got around to doing it so anyway yeah i haven't watched it but uh i don't think people understand how big a hero charles

Flandberg was for flying a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. Right. Right. What year was that? I'm forgetting what year. I think it was 27. Yeah. Might have been the same year Babe Ruth had 60 home runs.

Wow. I could be wrong. All right. Let's do... Don't scream at me, everybody, if I'm wrong. They won't. All right, let's get to this Caps game here after we tell you about Indochino. All right, let's get to...

game one of the Caps Islanders series. Did you watch it, Tommy? Seriously, did you watch it? Because sometimes you say you do, but you actually didn't. No, I didn't. I didn't watch it. Okay. You know? I did. And this is the second time I'm going to make this observation. The hockey has been the best thing that I've watched in terms of the team sports since team sports returned to live play. It is the closest to the real thing that I've watched. Now, I don't know what it is. You know, they cover up the seats. It's the NBC production. It's the fact, as you've stated, you know, it's not a full season. They've gone straight to their playoffs. The Caps had this little round robin deal, but everybody else basically cedes five through 12 are playing, you know,

playing best of five playoff series. So maybe it's the intensity of that. But this game, yesterday start to finish felt like it really felt like an intense NHL playoff game. It was chippy, it was urgent, there was excitement from the announcers, there was incredible celebrations after goals. There was something in watching this game. I'm like, I'm watching the real deal. I know that there are no fans in the stands, but this really feels like an intense playoff hockey game. I'm not the biggest hockey fan in the world. Most of you know that, but I do really enjoy the NHL playoffs.

And as an aside, how about the fact that you had a five-overtime game on Tuesday, which pushed Boston Montreal back to yesterday morning. That game went to double overtime. Boston, Carolina, excuse me. That game went to double overtime. And because they're playing these games all in the same, you know, Eastern Conference in Toronto Western Conference in Edmonton. You're going to have, like, Caps game didn't start,

it was supposed to start at three. It started like 4.15 because the Carolina Boston game went to two overtimes. But I thought it was such an intense game. I'm sure many people who really know hockey would say it was a sloppy game, but it was chippy. The fighting started early. There was a big hit on Baxter from Andrewsley. I saw the Tom Wilson fight.

Yeah, well, first Carlson took him on, and then it was Wilson who basically asked for Anders Lee, and Andrews Lee came out and gave it to him. Trotsy, Barry Trots after the game said, Anders Lee is our captain. He's big, strong, and he said, played a playoff game. He hit somebody hard, he got in a couple of fights, and he scored a goal. That's what your captain does in the playoffs, is basically what Barryson. Barry Trott said. Now, the hit on Backstrom was really, you've seen the highlight, right? Yes. I watching it live didn't think anything of it. In watching the postgame on NBC Sports

Washington and listening to, I love Alan May as a postgame analyst, Brent Johnson, Rob Carlin's hosting it, and you've got, you know, J.B, you got Joe Beninati. and locker, they come in, they're a part of it. You know, Todd Reardon called the hit predatory. Carlson called it dirty. T.J. Oshie called it cheap. And Alan May went into this, you know, comparison to the Brooks Orpick hit on Mata in the 2016 playoff series against Pittsburgh, and Orpick got three games.

And he said, the time that you, the time between the hit and how much time you had to avoid the hit is very crucial in the. determination of a suspension or not. And he said that Anders Lee had a split second more time to avoid the hit than even Orpick did. And he said, if Orpick got three games and they're being consistent in this, then he said this guy, Anders Lee, should be suspended. Now, Brent Johnson didn't agree. And I didn't think it was a suspendable hit. It wasn't malicious to me. It didn't look premeditated. I actually thought he did try to hold up maybe at the last second, but we'll find out today, and if you're listening to this, we don't know the answer to this yet,

if he's been suspended. But I'm going to be surprised if he's suspended. So why? I'd be surprised, too. I mean, they don't want to let any aberrations get in the way of these playoffs, including taking out team captains out of a series, basically, and affecting the outcome of that series. I think their goal is get to the finish line however quickly and easily they can. But did you think, do you agree with me that you... I didn't think it was a suspendable hit in the context that I saw it. Right.

And, I mean, for me, I'm looking at the hit thinking, is it malicious? is it vicious? Now, if Baxterm's injured, that's a big loss, and it was a big loss to them during the course of the game yesterday. But I've seen hockey hits that are much more violent than that one. But again, I don't know how the NHL interprets that. And if Alan May, you know, sort of nailed it in terms of how much time did he have before the hit to avoid the hit? and you know Alan may also sort of you know winked and said you know if it's if they've been playing the penguins you know if the caps had been the penguins then the guy would definitely have been suspended you know saying that the league gives you know Pittsburgh preferential treatment but anyway I know I know I didn't I didn't think it was malicious yeah I didn't think it was malicious

now the game itself was really interesting because if you're watching this game you know, through the second period, it's like, well, the caps are going to be up one-nothing, and this looks really like a mismatch. T.J. O'She scored two power play goals. The Islanders were constantly in the penalty box. The caps had seven power play opportunities. And this is probably the most alarming thing about the game, which I'll get to in a moment. But what changed the game completely, at the end of the second period, Braden Holpey gave up a really soft goal to this guy, Jordan Eberley. Now, there was some discussion as to whether or not the puck was deflected,

but basically Eberley fired a shot that should have been easily gloved by Holpey. Now, the puck may have been moving and flopping around and, you know, sort of a knuckleball kind of a thing. But, you know, basically everybody's, you know, evaluation of that is that was a really bad goal for Holtby to give up if the puck wasn't deflected. and I don't think there's a replay that proves that it was. And, you know, it changed the game. It went from a minute to go in the second period,

and the caps headed towards a two-nothing lead going into the third with the Islanders holding no momentum at all, to the game completely changing on a dime. The Islanders came out after that goal in the third period, and they totally dominated the caps. They had more energy. They were, as you like to say, getting more people close to the net.

Traffic in front of the net. Traffic. Traffic in front of the net, baby. They got traffic in front of the net. Anders Lee, the captain, gets a goal early on to tie it, you know, 51 seconds into the third. And then the caps are on the power play, have a chance to maybe get back some of that lost momentum, and they give up a weak, short-handed goal,

where, again, Holpey plays the puck, very lackadaisically. Ovechkin is back there trying to, you know, he's trying to push it towards Ovechkin. That doesn't work out. And this guy, Brock Nelson gets to it, feeds Josh Bailey. They score short-handed, and that's the game winner. What was really interesting is the islanders were just smothering the caps at that point, so much to the point, where the islanders literally nearly scored another short-handed goal on that same power play. I mean, how many times do you see two short-handed goals on the same two-minute minor, you know, and they nearly had that. To me, like, you know, I mean, this isn't going to be a game or sport that I break down strategically.

But one of the things I thought was alarming was Holpe's performance, one, two, and perhaps even more importantly, is that the Caps were, you know, the Islanders played a stupid and poor game for basically two quarters, you know, two periods, two periods. And 38 minutes worth of terrible hockey, they're in the penalty box consistently. The Caps have scored two power play goals. They can't stay out of the box. And then in the third period, with the exception of one power play, which the Islanders scored shorthanded on, most of the play was five, on five, and the Islanders dominated the Capitals five-on-five. They outshot the Capitals by 11 shots in five-on-five play.

The Caps didn't appear to have any sort of chance in a five-on-five game against the Islanders. Power play, yes, but how many games are they going to get seven power play opportunities, and they didn't win the game? If any hockey person had said the Caps are going to get seven power play opportunities, you would say, ah, they won that game, you know, four to one or, you know, four nothing or five to two. They lost the game, four to two. That would be the discouraging part of that. At the same time, it's hockey, right? I mean, the first goal, the OSHA goal was one of those off a skate, off behind the net, off the backboard.

And Varlamov, it has no idea. He doesn't even see the puck go to OSHA stick on the other side of the net, and he knocks it in for a goal. It was a complete, you know, random NHL fluke-ish kind of a thing. So as long as the fluke factor is around, it's impossible to predict this sport. But it was really an entertaining, intense game. Loved it. Okay. If the cats go out meekly, it means nothing, right? I don't think it means anything in this year.

You know, I've had a couple of people on the show. I had TARC on the show, J.B. on the show, Joe Beninati on the show earlier this week. And I think that is the, you know, I think this Trots versus his former team or even Trots versus Reardon, you know, and it being some sort of referendum on Ted's decision, you know, is in play here. Oh, I think it is. I don't think it will come into play into jeopardizing Reardon's position at this point. But I think among the fan base, they're always going to judge Reardon versus Trots. And I think in the locker room, there will be some players who will do that. Barry was on the podcast with me yesterday, Barry's Ruluga.

If you missed that, listen to it. Barry actually spent like an hour with me yesterday. And we talked about a lot of things. But I asked him because he really covers this hockey team. And I just said, was this just? just a simple case of being Pennywise pound foolish with Ted and Trotsey. And is there bad blood right now? And he really felt like it was an equal responsibility thing that, you know, Trots knew that was in the contract and had asked for it to be in the contract. And Trots also, you know, was nearly

done multiple times during the course of that regular season. And there was no plan to bring him back had they not won the Stanley Cup, you know, or if they had lost to Pittsburgh. And remember in that season, they were very close to being eliminated by Columbus in the first round. They lost the first two games at home to Columbus the year they won the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they appeared to be done in that Columbus series. And even when they came back and tied that series, they were dominated in game five by Columbus and somehow won in overtime. And And then, you know, Pittsburgh, they lost the first game. You know, Tampa, they're down three, two in the series.

Vegas. Tell me when you get to the part where they win the Stanley Cup. And it took a while. But then they won the Stanley Cup. Yes, they won the Stanley Cup. Tell me, because that part hadn't happened before in 44 years. Well put. You know, that part.

Yeah. And, you know, as far as Ted being Pennywise and town foolish, Ted expected Trotty to live up to that clause on the contract. Yeah. I mean, that was absurd. Yeah. I feel the same way. At the same time, you know, while Barry sort of alluded to maybe there was a chance for it to happen,

Trotsey basically immediately took the immediate reaction as an affront and he was off to New York. I don't, whatever. You know, here's what, to your point, get me to the point where they won the Stanley Cup, you know, tell me if they had ever won it before. It's really true. Like, if you own that team, I don't care what you were talking about in November, or in January, or in

April, or when you're down to nothing to Columbus. You won the goddamn Stanley Cup. And this was the coach that did it. And it took forever in so much pain as a franchise and a fan base. You do whatever you have to do

to make sure that he continues to be your coach, period. Yes, absolutely. And now, and now you really risk the idea of having this Stanley Cup that you've won, slightly tarnished with the narrative that they might have won more in the Obescan era, but they let the coach go who won the only one. Right. Yes. I don't think, to your point, no one's getting fired.

The Reardon's not getting fired if he loses this series. because this is a weird situation. If he wins the series, it's quite, it pretty much, it doesn't totally end, but it goes a long way towards balancing the Reardon trotsy to be. Well, they were supposed to win it. They're the favorite. You know, I don't know if they are after game one anymore. I'm going to look that up right now, but going into that series yesterday,

they were supposed to win it. All the experts had them winning this series, and Vegas had it as the caps being a. slight favorite. They were minus 140. Let me see how that's changed today. The Islanders now are a minus 165 favorite to win the series. Boy, that's a big change from a game one.

You're losing a game one to go from basically a minus 140 dog to a minus 165 favorite. I wonder if that's building in the possibility that Baxter is hurt. And I don't know if there's been any news on that. But anyway, no, I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm just telling you that watching the hockey playoffs, they have been very intense and the games have seemed like, you know, with the exception of them being played in August and without fans, it seemed very much like a late April, early May, NHL playoff game, that game yesterday did. And the other games I've watched, you know,

over the last couple of weeks that have been postseason games, you know, series games have been great as well. Yeah. Anyway, what else do you have on the Caps game? Anything else? I enjoyed it. I thought it was great. I'd like to see a long series. I still think they've got a chance to win this series.

One game in the NHL playoffs. Yeah, it's one game. Oh, I know what I wanted to say to you. It was one other thing that came up in my conversation with Barry yesterday. So two conversations, Tarek yesterday and then Barry. Tark said to me, and I didn't know this about the NHL, Tarek said that basically if they can't play games with fans next season, which let's understand, the hockey season starts in October.

So the 2020-20-21 season, if it were to go off in normal times, would be starting two months from now. They'd be heading to camp here in a few weeks. but he basically said that this is a sport that absolutely has to have the live gate and the live attendance or it can't survive and that if it doesn't have it they're not going to play a season next year they'll wait until fans can come back anyway i'm driving towards this alex ovechkin's 34 years old you know they won the cup and it was one of the great moments in the history of sports in the city and it was such a great redemption it was it was it was

All sports fans loved it. There's been a conversation about Ovechkin for a year, a couple of years now, about the window closing. Well, if they're not going to play hockey next year, because they're not going to be able to have fans in arenas, and they're not going the bubble city route because they just can't afford to pay players and pay staffs without having a live gate and they're going to shut it down for a year,

then this opportunity, in Toronto could be Alex Ovechkin's last legitimate chance in the postseason. Because the next time they play might be the spring of 2022, and he'll be 36 years old, going on 37. That's a good point. And remember as we were tracking during this season, he's marched towards, you know, Gretzky. But that's going to be cut off too.

Potentially, by all of this. Well, there's a lot of, there's a lot of records, a lot of milestones, a lot of personal achievements that are going to be lost because of lost time. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, netting it out. You know what? I'll bet you that if the NHL doesn't play for a year, then O'Bethkin goes over to Russia to play.

Probably. if they're playing there. Netting it out, this series has a long way to go because it's hockey. And you know what they need to do to get back into it is Holti has to be better. Because as many people say about hockey, it's, you know, who's between the pipes? Because that guy makes all the difference in the world. Speaking of records and record books, Juan Soto last night hit a bomb in. New York, 466 feet. It's the longest home run of his career eclipsing the 463-foot home run.

He had a couple of days ago. Yeah, he hit on Monday night. He has 60 career home runs, and last night that tied him with Frank Robinson and Ken Griffey Jr. for the most home runs by a player before his 22nd birthday. Now, he's going to set the record because he doesn't turn 22 until October 25th. So he may set it this afternoon when they finish up their series with the Mets, you know, with more than 60 before 22 years old. But Tommy, you know, I know that people have been talking about Juan Soto here for a while. You know, I understand that, you know, between him and Robles, really, you know, it allowed for the thought of losing Harper to be a more palatable thought.

Just how great. I mean, this guy is turning into a source. superstar in the game. Yes. A superstar. I mean, huge star. I mean, bigger than Bryce Harper. Right. He could be. He could be bigger than

Harper. I mean, because he's not polarizing like Harper is, although people would say that's a plus when you're talking about popularity and marketing. But this guy, this guy, we could be

watching the Mickey Manel of his time, the Frank Robinson of his time. Who do you compare him to? Who is his game compared to in terms of an all-time great? You know, because he's left-handed, I mean, it's easy to go into Ted Williams mode because he is so careful at the plate sometimes, not Williams-like careful. but he is very studious in studying hitting and studying pitchers. You know, with the left-handed bat, it's hard not to compare him to Ted Williams.

It really is, and since he plays left field as well. And has become a better outfielder over the course of his young career as well. It turned into a really good outfielder last year, and he never played left field. Yeah. You know, I'll never forget. As long as I live, I'll have this moment of when we first met Juan Soto in spring training a couple years ago. It was the first year Dave Martinez was here, and they put, I mean, you know, we heard about him a little bit, but they put him in a spring training game.

You know, he wasn't supposed to play much. He was with the minor leaguers, and I think he had a double, very impressive double. And in the West Palm Beach complex, there's the side where the major leaguers dress, and then there's the side where the minor league is dressed. You know, there are two different sides of the building. And we had to go over to the minor league side to interview Soto after the game. And none of us had a clue what he would turn out to be. But it's like talking about being on the ground floor or something.

interviewing Soto in his first spring training game in a minor league section of the ballpark now feels like I was at the beginning of what's going to be a remarkable Hall fame career. Is Ted Williams the greatest left-handed hitter of all time? Yes. Where is Barry Bonds on that list? Because Zuckerman this morning said there are people that have compared Soto to Bonds. Well, I think Griffey is a better left-handed hitter than Bond. She was Joe Jackson.

No, no, no, no, no. I'd have to go back. Right now I would say Griffey and I would say... Was Stan Musial a left-hander? He was, right? Yeah. Yeah, but bonds, I would put ahead of Musil. considering even with the steroid stuff, I put him ahead of usual.

It's a, I mean, it's a baseball season that's weird right now, but pay attention to what Juan Soto is doing because he's got four homers in six games. Perhaps his more impressive home run last night was the one that he hit off a left-hander to the opposite field. I mean, that's how good he is. He's a tough out right now, and he is, you know, I think, you know, doing just fine in the outfield, more than fine, as a defensive outfielder. But he is, it's funny. I mean, Harper, we thought, was going to be the superstar in this town for years and years,

and it looks like Soto could end up being a better player than Harper and a bigger star than Harper. Yeah. I haven't paid attention to what Harper and the Phillies are doing. I know they've lost to the Orioles a couple of nights in a row. There was one night I checked Harper, and he had hit a home run or two. But I have no idea what kind of season he's having. I'm pulling it up right now as we speak. Oh, he's actually off to a pretty good start.

13 games. He's hitting 3.41 on-base percentage of 491, and his OPS is 1.149. He's got four home runs in 13 games. He's actually off to a really good start. You know, the thing about Harper and all the criticism after the trade to Philly and the struggles that he had early in the season, he ended up having a good season last year. Yes, he did.

He ended up 35 home runs and 114 RBIs last year. And it was the start to the season, not the initial month, but it was that slow, I think, May, June, and then all of a sudden, like he seems to do, he got it together, and he had a great end of the year, I think, last year. But the final numbers were not a disappointment, you know, at all. I mean, they shouldn't have been if you were a Phillies fan. It's funny about baseball, right?

Numbers matter. Like, it's not about how many games you won when it comes to assessing an individual performer. It's like you played in 153 games or whatever. What were your numbers? That's the true measurement of how good you were. Yeah, the back of the baseball card. Yeah, with that stick of gum. It was always just rock hard.

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And Todd McShay put out his 2021 NFL mock draft here on August 12th, not even knowing about what kind of NFL season we're going to have and certainly now knowing that the college football season is going to be significantly impacted. But I always read these things because I find it interesting to see what people outside of the market who are very much football people think of what the football team here, what the skins are going to be like, because they give you a draft order. You know, it's a projected draft order. And so McShay's mock draft, his first version, has Jacksonville picking number one over. all in the 2021 draft and drafting Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence, I mean, I don't know that there's been a more obvious number one

pick, you know, two years before his draft class, than Trevor Lawrence has been. He is an absolute no-brainer. McShea writes about Lawrence and he'll be the highest graded quarterback since Andrew Luck in 2012. So, you know, Lawrence, by the way, really wants to play college football this year, Tommy. I don't know if you're following that. But they've got Jacksonville taking Trevor Lawrence number one overall. So then comes the number two position projected by Todd McShay for the 2021 NFL draft.

On the clock at number two after Jacksonville selects Trevor Lawrence is the Washington football team at number two overall. Now, what's interesting about a couple of things. Number one, it's just weird to see Washington football team. It's really weird. and an NFL logo. That's what they have. You know, I get Jacksonville Jaguars number one with the Jacksonville Jaguars logo,

and then number two, Washington football team with the NFL logo next to it. And then three Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers, et cetera. But anyway, the Washington football team is by McShay predicted to be the second worst team in the NFL and have the second pick in the draft for the second consecutive year. Now, I'll just mention, because most of you were thinking of it

or some of you were thinking it, that Todd McShay can't stand the skins. Remember, he told Urban Meyer steer clear of Dan Snyder in that organization. So he's not a big fan of the organization. Whatever, he's not the only one. But this also is reflective of basically what Vegas thinks. The skins have right now, and I'll check an update on this, but they had the second worst over-under number for the season after Jacksonville.

it was like five and a half wins. Right now, the over-under for the Washington football team is five and a half. The only teams in the league with a lower over-under win total on the season are the Jacksonville Jaguars at four and a half. And we're Cincinnati. That's going to be the only other one. Cincinnati's equal. So Washington and Cincinnati have the second lowest. over under totals right now, according to one of my offshore shops. My bookie, in fact, has it

that way right now. So that's not a surprise, but I give it out because for all of you expecting like this massive turnaround, nobody else feels that way, but that doesn't matter. The NFL predictions are always off. And I would actually be surprised if they have the second pick in the draft next year, Tommy. So would I. I think they'll be better than that. Yeah, I would not be surprised if the picks in the top 10 or the top eight, but I'd be surprised if it's number two overall.

Now, the player that he has the Washington football team selecting is also a bit revealing in terms of what McShay thinks, and I'll explain. He has them selecting Patrick Sertan the second, the son of Patrick Sertan the long NFL corner who was a pro bowler in the NFL. He plays for Alabama. McShea believes that he is arguably the best defensive player in the entire 2021 class and that he would be the second consecutive year for Washington to get the best defensive player in the draft, Chase Young last year, Patrick Sartan in 2021. But I think the other thing that this indicates, at least for Todd McShay, is that he doesn't think that they will have a quarterback need at number two

because this is a draft that has a big-time number two quarterback after Trevor Lawrence. Justin Fields is going to be very, very highly evaluated. And he's not going outside of the top three or four, depending on who's picking. Now, in this mock draft, he's got Jacksonville taking the quarterback, Washington taking a corner, Cincinnati, who remains. member took Joe Burrow last year, said they're not going to be in the quarterback market, taking a tackle from Oregon, and then Carolina with the fourth overall pick selecting Justin Fields. If he thought Washington was going to want a quarterback, if he weren't confident in

Dwayne Haskins' ability to prove that he can do it, which I think McShay is, then he would have had Washington selecting Justin Fields at number two, because Fields is going to be that good. He's certainly going to be evaluated as, you know, the number two quarterback in the draft and, you know, perhaps the number two player off the board if whomever is drafting at number two has a need at quarterback. I just thought that, you know, we might get an indication and we will with these mock drafts on who's in on Dwayne Haskins and who isn't if Washington has a selection in the top three or four and Justin Fields hasn't been mocked to another team yet. Well, it could also be an indication that since Todd McShay holds the organization in such ill-reput, that he's convinced that Dan Snyder would be stupid enough to hang on to a young quarterback who isn't getting a job done, and they could make a significant upgrade with the next guy next year. Yeah.

If you could interpret it that he's convinced that there's no way that Snyder will abandon Dwayne Haskins, no matter how good or bad he is. Yeah. Boy, you just have no faith that old Ron can last at least through next April's draft with some decision-making power. Well, you know what? Like I said, if I took the right kind of pills before I did this, then maybe I could. Right. But I don't have those pills.

You got a lot of others, though, in your little pill jar and your little setup there with all the pills you take to remind you to take them. Okay. Tell everybody what your column's about today. No, you tell everybody what my column's about today. Your column basically suggests that... Go ahead. Tell everybody what your column's about. No, go ahead.

No, go ahead. I want to hear it. Oh, really? Is this a book report? Yes. So Tommy said to me before the show, did you read my column? And I said, I haven't yet, but I can do it real quickly. Because if you know anything about Tom's columns, they are digestible in about three minutes or less. This is true. You would not disagree with me. It's one of the things I love about your columns because I think you're so good at getting your point across in so few words. I think that's a compliment. That's generally the idea of writing for a newspaper is to make it easy for people to read. You do that.

I know there's some newspapers that don't subscribe to that, but I do. Right. Well, you do that. So I'll net it out for you. The World Cup in 2026 is going to be in the U.S. D.C. is one of those projected cities to host. D.C. would like to have the semi- finals and or finals of the World Cup in 2026 here.

In part, Tommy, and you don't necessarily write to this, there's a big soccer, you know, soccer's popular in this city in the U.S. compared to most cities. Now, I think Seattle and Portland and some of the Pacific Northwest cities are very much into soccer, but D.C. because it's such a culturally diverse and worldly city in many ways, with the federal government being here. Soccer is popular here. But to host the semifinals or finals, you would think that that would be in a new stadium.

But your column indicates that it wouldn't necessarily be in a new stadium. It would have to be at a renovated FedEx field. I'll let you pick it up from there. How did I do? You did okay. You did okay. better than I expected. Okay.

You didn't think I really read it, did you? No. No, I did. Okay, the bid, the 2026 bid by the FIFA was awarded to Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It was a three-country North American bid. By the way, this shows you how pathetic and how corrupt the World Cup bidding has become is you know who the competition was between North America and the other top bidder for this? A combination of North Korea, Russia, and Syria?

No. Morocco. Morocco? Morocco. Oh, my God. That's what the World Cup has come to in terms of corruption. There hasn't been a World Cup in this century where somebody hasn't gone to jail for bribery. Is that a true fact?

Yes. That's unbelievable. Yeah. But the North America already won the bid. So it's a three-country combination, Mexico, the United States and Canada. And then there's a committee that's going to decide among 16 cities who will host what game. Right. Among those three countries.

And Baltimore has put in a bid to host a game, not necessarily a semifinal or a final, but to be one of the host cities. D.C. has its site set on hosting the semifinal or the title game, and they've made it clear their plan centers around FedEx Field. FedEx Field is going to be where they plan on hosting this. I've been told privately that there's no hidden new stadium in this plan whatsoever, which is typical for, you know, the World Cup. Or Olympics.

Or a stadium built, you know. Olympics, you pretty much have to build new stadiums to get them, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was part of your story, if I recall, from a few hours ago. Yeah, part of it was that they could have gotten, the Redskins might have gotten their new stadium if D.C. had won an Olympic bid, you know, and that would have been the easiest way to have gotten it done. but I thought it was curious and make no mistake about the Redskins are part of this bid.

One of the Redskins team officials is on the D.C. 2026 committee. So the plan is for if they would get awarded this for FedEx to host the game. That would require some renovations, some upgrades to the stadium, including expanding seating back up to at least 80,000 seats, maybe 85,000. seats for that. That doesn't sound like the kind of project that a team would be involved in

for a stadium that they're about to abandon. Right. They're about to lead. Yeah, you just buried the lead. That's the lead here. Yeah. That doesn't say. So, I mean, it's an indication I think that the Redskins, unless somebody

pulls a rabbit out of their hat, are probably moving forward with the idea they're either staying at FedEx Field or possibly building a stadium next to it. But the World Cup bid to me is a hidden message that the Redskins are going to be at FedEx Field for a while. I totally saw that and felt that. Any plan that involves renovating FedEx Field for a major event, Now, remember, 2026 is a year short of the lease running out, which, by the way, when I say running out, they don't have to leave.

It's their, it's their thing. No, it doesn't mean any. It means they're locked there until 2027. But it doesn't, and there's also, I've heard discussion that a new stadium on the RFK site would almost have to get started now if it were going to be ready by 2027. Am I right about that or not? Yes. I mean, that's not, you know, that's not. shovels in the ground today, but it's plans and everything that goes into permitting and all of that

stuff before you can, you know, before you can actually build the stadium. So maybe because it's in 2026, Tommy, they just know that they wouldn't have the new stadium ready for a 2026 World Cup. Is that possible? It's possible. Not likely, but possible. But I think your larger point is, would the Washington football team put significant improvements into FedEx field so that they could host a semi-final or a final of a 2026 World Cup if the next year they were going to move into a new football stadium? I don't know the answer to that. It doesn't seem like the answer would be yes, but I don't know what it would mean in terms of revenue to host a World Cup semi-final or final.

Now, all this said, I don't think D.C. is going to be hosting that. I don't think it's going to happen. I pointed out that Bob Kraft is the honorary chairman of this selection committee. He's seen FedEx Field a few times. I don't think he's going to let the World Cup championship game happen at FedEx Field, especially six years from now.

So I don't think there winds up getting a bid to host the semifinal or the final game. And then, you know, then it really will matter. But I just think that, you know, the Redskins are part of this. The Redskins, the Washington football teams are part of this. I would agree with you. You're not playing a World Cup final in D.C. outdoors in July. Like, it's usually in July, right?

I don't see that. I see a much bigger city, whether it's L.A. or Chicago or New York or whatever. Although they are playing. Is the next World Cup, that's not this summer? It's in Qatar. Cutter. Yeah, Qatar, Qatar. And I was going to say, that place is outrageously hot. Yeah. Everywhere.

Yes. Yes. You know how you would know that? by all the workers who have died building the stadium. I know. I mean, I've read some stories about this. This is about the most corrupt situation, one of the saddest situations there is,

is this poor country, you know, which, by the way, is not a poor country necessarily because of the oil. Not at all. Yeah, not at all. But, you know, the building of this ability to host the World Cup is just completely out of control and corrupt. and as you mentioned, just in conditions that are just horrible.

You know, I've always thought that the Redskins would play a preseason game in Cutter someday. Why? Because Cutter Airlines does a lot of sponsorship in advertising at FedEx Field. They do? I don't even think I've ever recognized that. We're seeing it. Okay. That's just a guess.

she got? So look, this would go hand in hand with your thought based on the conversations you've had with people in D.C. That, you know, even if they don't have to pay a dime for any of it, they don't want to do business with Snyder. No, no. And they want some, the people, particularly in the neighborhoods around RFK, have a different idea of what they want for that land. Right. Okay. What else you got for me? that's all I got today boss I'm heading to the beach next week I know you are but you're going to be calling in for the podcast

yes I am I'm excited about that as of now I'm just looking on Twitter I don't see any news about the Anders Lee hit yet on Baxterum I'm sure the NHL they don't play a game until tomorrow night so I guess they don't have to have that answer until later in the day or maybe even tomorrow morning

but I think I would be surprised if he's suspended, but what do I know? All right. That's it. Back tomorrow. Have a great day.