The Kevin Sheehan Show - Thumbs Up On Peterson's Return

Episode Date: March 14, 2019

Kevin opens the show happy about the return of Adrian Peterson on a 2-year deal. There are also reports of potential Skins' interest in a wide receiver via trade or free agency. Kevin has an idea on who it might be. Thom joined in with Scott Van Pelt to talk about the Beckham Jr. trade, Maryland basketball, the college scandal, NFL free agency, and more. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here. This show's presented by Window Nation if you're in the market for Windows. Call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them that we told you to call. Tommy will be calling in from Florida. Scott, hopefully, as well, I'll start with Game of Thrones because just before we started to record, Aaron, was explaining to me that he is getting into a pool on, explain how this one works because it's a death pool. It's a death pool, but it was, so there were, I think, nine or ten people in the draft, and you, so we each pick four people in, you know, snake order, and you get points if they die for each episode they survive this season. So the, you know, you want the longer they survive, the better.

The longer they, but as long as they die eventually. Oh, so they have to die eventually, but you're picking, okay, you're picking characters from the show that you hope will survive for five of the six episodes and die in the six. Exactly. And final episode. We are less than a month or right around a month and counting until Game of Thrones final season. There's six episodes. Ranging in length, Aaron explained to me, the first few are scheduled to be only about an hour. We were thinking that we were going to get full length movies like six of them.

but then I guess the final three or four episodes get much longer. Have you drafted yet or not? Yeah, we finished up the draft. So tell me who you have. All right, I have Gregor Clegane. Okay. It's a pretty solid first pick there. He's got to die in a major way at some point.

I figure he survives at least mid-season. Khyburn, I thought that was a sneaky second pick. He's going to die right with Searcy, I think. I have... Well, he should, I mean... Yes, he should die with Searcy whenever. she dies, I just don't think she's going to die early. And that's the good thing. Yeah, that's the good thing. Well, he, yes. Okay, go ahead.

I have Melisandre, the Red Woman. Yeah, I would, see, what are the odds? Are there odds on dying? I've got to think that she is up there. I'm sure she's up there to die. I just, I can't figure out exactly where she has to test die early in the show. That, that would be the one problem that she dies quickly. You know, she's beautiful in real life. I mean, she's, she's gorgeous on the show, but I saw her interviewed one. She's very pretty. All right, go ahead. And then my last pick, which was pretty much just who's still left on the board.

Because when you think about there's only about 40 like named characters left, I have Missande. Why? Mainly because I was out. Deneres is, I mean. No, but I could see them if they are looking for something to, something has to affect Dneras in a big way. So if you're taking, you know, you want her to go through a mental journey, taking out basically her only friend would be a way to do that. And also it got to a point where it was, you know, like the people who were going in the fourth round were, you know, John Snow went right before it, Harry Strickland, Padrick Payne, Robin Aaron. What about the Grey Jaws? What about Yara or Theon?

I mean, they win the first round. Oh, that's right. See, I keep thinking about who I'm thinking will die early. The first picks in order were Circe, Jamie. I picked Gregor Cleggain, the Knight King went after it, then Theon, Yaron, DeNaris, Yaron, and Tiri. Because nobody thinks Sansa or Ari are going to die, right? Yeah, I mean, they were picked both in the third round. Yeah. All right. I think it's a complicated way to do the pool.

I would just pick the pool based on picking people to die first or die last. Yeah, but then it gets boring. You want more points. Come on. Okay. We will be on this podcast. I guarantee it talking about each Game of Thrones final season episode. Aaron and I are both into it.

and hopefully some of you are as well, and I've said this a million times over the last six or seven years, probably five years. If you think it's a show that you wouldn't like because it's somehow a fantasy or sci-fi or whatever, I'm totally with you and I was with you until I actually started to watch it. And then I've convinced most of my friends that hate sci-fi movies and hate fantasy movies as well to watch it. and they've all thanked me for doing it. You will is also. Van Pelt's the one holdout.

Of all my friends, he's the one holdout. He will not watch it. And Tommy. And Tommy. Although Tommy has thought about it once or twice. All right, let's start with the Redskins. Enough of this. Lots of news yesterday with the actual official start of free agency in the league year.

Yesterday was the actual start of the league year in free agency. Not Monday, but we told you last week that you were going to start hearing things over last weekend and that Monday it would really heat up and it did. The skins released as we were on the air yesterday or as we were recording yesterday, they released Zach Brown and Stacey McGee, not a surprise. They officially announced the trade for Case Keenham. They officially announced the signing of Landon Collins. There are some reports out there that the Redskins would like to resign Haha Clinton Dix.

Ian Rappaport had that. We'll get to that in a few minutes. There was also a report or a tweet from JP 50. Finley, implying that the Redskins still have a potential splash trade or signing of a wide receiver. We'll get to that in a few minutes as well. They are resigning Adrian Peterson to a two-year deal worth $8 million. And so I'm going to start with that because that was the big news after the podcast yesterday. I will begin with, I am fine with it.

He was at times, not at, he was most of the time the best player on the team last year. Let me repeat that for emphasis, okay? Because on a team that lacked great performers last year, he had many more great performances or really good performances than anybody else on the team, other than the punter, Tressaway, part-time quarterback, according to Stephen A. Can Adrian Peterson do it again at 34 years old? I have no idea, but at the end of last season, not the beginning, at the end of last season, his age was 33. He had his best game. The game at Tennessee on December 22nd was a loss, but it really had a chance,

if you recall, to be one of the more improbable wins in recent franchise history. Really, I'm not exaggerating. I know there isn't much memorable from the Redskins of 2018. But that game in Tennessee, when the skins were actually still mathematically in playoff contention with a 7-and-7 record, they had nobody. They had their fourth quarterback in Josh Johnson. They had third and fourth string offensive guards. They had third and fourth string tight ends. They had guys called up for that game that got into the game with names and jersey numbers that none of us had heard or seen of. They were the most injured team in the league

and on the road against a team that also had to win to keep their playoff hopes alive. They were huge underdogs, 11-point underdogs to Tennessee in that game in Nashville at the end of the year. The biggest underdog they had been all year long, and yet they nearly pulled off a miracle win. It helped that Blaine Gabbert was playing because Marriota got hurt in the first half.

That certainly helped. matters, but it was Adrian Peterson's performance that day that kept the Redskins competitive. It was an incredible performance. It was his best game of the year, not even close. He was quick, he was decisive, he was powerful, he was trying to will the team to a win by himself. The numbers weren't the greatest you'll ever see, 119 yards on 26 carries, but he wanted so badly to carry the team to the playoffs by himself. He played that day like his life depended on it. I remember watching that game and saying, my God, what a physical competitive freak Adrian Peterson is today at 33 years old, late in a season in which he had already played 14 games

to that point. I have advocated for the blow-it-up strategy. This is what I think the team team should have done. But given that the team doesn't agree, they're of a different mindset, I can only now judge based on what their intention is. Their intention is to try to be the best possible team they can be in 2019. So I am more than okay based on that with them bringing Adrian Peterson back. The contract is a really good one for the team. I mean, this is what Bruce and Eric Schaefer do well. Two years, $8 million, but nearly half of the $8 million is incentive-based. So if Darius Geiss turns out to be a really good player and can carry the load next year, and it's not a shared load, it's just a geist load with Peterson's spelling Geis, well, then Peterson

won't be on the roster in 2020. He won't reach those incentives, and it would have been really inexpensive. It's an insurance policy, just like Case Keenham was, to a certain degree. Geis is coming off an ACL injury, a post-operation setback from that surgery, and there's a chance that he's not going to be what they want him to be as early as they want him to be it. So Peterson, again, like Case Keenham, a solid insurance policy, a very Bruce Allen-like deal, a good one for the team contractually. I'll go a step further, though. I like this deal because if you're trying to be competitive, now. You have now added your best competitor and simply put the best player on last year's team, period. This was the team's best and toughest competitor and best player. Adrian Peterson may be,

for the second straight year, the player, more than any other on that roster that can keep the team competitive in the majority of its games. Imagine last year's team without Peterson, a team that really struggled to stretch the field with Alex Smith, to throw the football period with Alex Smith. Peterson averaged over four yards per carry without a lot of room to run. Think about the games that they had a chance to win or actually did win. In almost all of them, he was their offensive MVP. This is low risk. It's an insurance. it's upside for next year anyway, keep some competitive next year again. Let me repeat my point here that I would have preferred the blow it up strategy.

I would have preferred not worrying about trying to be competitive in 2019, but that's not the direction they're going. So in going in that direction, keeping Peterson for the contract that they signed him to is a good deal. You know, if he's not physically close to what he was last year, it's not going to hurt you that much. He's a player the Redskins need to keep to keep themselves from potentially being a god-awful offensive football team.

He will save them from being god-awful offensively. They were awful offensively last year. Let's not forget. It's been a couple months since the season left. They were the 31st-ranked offense in offensive. efficiency per football outsiders. And that was with him last year. Imagine what it would have been without him. 32nd. Couldn't go any lower than that. But when they were competitive offensively, it was because of him. So again, for the purposes of avoiding, you know, in their case,

a potential another, you know, another terrible offensive season, I like they're bringing him back. He was their MVP last year on offense, not even close. One more thing, two, actually two more things. One, he wants to be here, clearly. He could have waited. You know, he could have waited for a better deal. This was not a great deal for Adrian Peterson. I mean, maybe he thought there was not going to be a better one out there, but if he had waited and there were injuries and people didn't get what they wanted in free agency or the draft,

it's very possible that he would have had a better deal waiting for him. But he wants to be here. I think that's the other thing that this says. He actually wants to be here. Not a lot of people want to be here. Adrian Peterson wants to be here. That's probably a good thing. I'll tell you who's happy.

Jay Gruden is happy. He loves Adrian Peterson. Loved everything that Adrian Peterson brought to that team last year in terms of performance and leadership and setting an example. The hope is that Geist becomes the steel in the second round, and that he emerges. and if he does, it doesn't cost the Redskins much with Peterson. Because again, half of that deal basically is incentive-based.

But, you know, the Redskins haven't been great at finding good running backs in the draft. They've missed on a bunch, and they have mistaking a bunch. You know, I personally wasn't the biggest Geiss fan. There were three or four backs. I liked more. Carry on Johnson, for those of you that were listening this time last year, you know I was a massive fan of Carri-on-Johnson. I wanted the Redskins to get him in the second round, and apparently they tried to.

Remember, the Schefter report was that the Redskins were going to take Carri-on-Johnson, but Detroit traded right in front of them and took Carri-on-Johnson, and then the Redskins traded back, and they got Geis. All right, JP reported last night, or certainly implied via Twitter, based on sources that he has, that the Redskins are not done yet with respect to free agency and potentially trades for the wide receiver position.

I will read you his tweet from about, I don't know, midnight last night, something like that. I keep hearing Redskins want to upgrade at wide receiver. A source tells me that's not confined to free agency and the team could be looking at trades have heard big splash more than once. Multiple people sent me J.P.'s tweet with guesses on the trading part of this. You know, who's left? Who's available via trade in terms of wide receivers?

That would really be splashy. Several of you suggested A.J. Green, that AJ Green, depending on what Cincinnati's really trying to do, could be had. For what? I don't know. You're not getting A.J. Green for a third. That's not going to happen. You're probably not getting A.J. Green for a mid-second, is my guess. But it would be interesting to see A.J. Green and Jay Gruden reunited. Are there other receivers that are out there via trade?

I don't think so. Like I was going through the list. Is Devante Adams available? Is, you know, T.Y. Hilton's not available. Like some of the guys that, you know, I mean, Hilton wouldn't be clearly because he's on a good team. I'm looking for the teams that have a player that has an expiring contract a year from now and they feel they could be in reboot mode a year from now.

Maybe it's A.J. Green. Maybe you guys are right. I would not have thought of A.J. Green. So I appreciate all of you that tweeted that. Because that is interesting. I will tell you this after my show on Tuesday, in which I said after the Land and Collins deal, that Dan Snyder is now influencing decisions

in a much more meaningful way this offseason compared to recent off seasons, has been confirmed to me by multiple people that would know. I got multiple texts, Aaron. I don't know if I mentioned this on the show yesterday. You done. With yesterday's show with a thumbs up emoji on Snyder and his influence. We already know that they were in on Antonio Brown.

We know that they've asked around about Josh Rosen. We know they tried to get CJ Mosley. We know they gave Landing Collins the biggest deal of safety's ever gotten. None of that. None of that is Bruce Allen. It's just not his MO. It is not his personality. Bruce is shopping from bargain bins late in free agency.

And he's providing all of those great names that we've had over the years. Deshawn Goldson, Chris Culliver, Terence Knighton, Pernell McPhee, Orlando Scandrick. And the list goes on and on and on. Subpar players signed to incredible contracts that Bruce and Eric would puff their chest out and claim victory. The problem was none of those players were any good. Zach Brown was good, but didn't fit, clearly. DJ Sweringer was a good player, but obviously wasn't a great fit.

Vernon Davis, good free agent signing. But for every Vernon Davis, we've had three to four average to sub-average players signed to great deals. Players you can't even remember anymore. Mike McGlynn, remember that big name? All right, next. Ha-ha Clinton Dix. Redskins reportedly interested in resigning him, according to Ian Rappaport.

That may come as a surprise to those of you who watched him play. I did too. Wasn't very impressed. But I've been told the Redskins were impressed with the way he played, especially in the final few games. That's surprising to me. He lacked excitement as a tackler. That was obvious.

Wasn't very good in coverage much of the time. a player who got beat more than he made plays in coverage, and his enthusiasm for contact was missing. I think we could all say that about watching Haha Clinton Dix play for this team over the final seven or eight weeks, whatever it was. You know, you could chalk that up to it takes time. It's a new system, and the Redskins are confident in their coaching staff to coach him up, and he's going to be a better player in 2019.

And he would be, if he's playing well, if he plays to the level we've seen him play at times in Green Bay, he would be the perfect compliment to Landon Collins. He's more of a free than a strong. He's more of a coverage guy than an in-the-box guy. If you consider they traded him for a fourth rounder before the trade deadline, and if you consider that they are always resistant and adamant about not admitting mistakes, then you're probably going to conclude that this one's going to happen because they want to save face.

If they do resign him, that contract will be as important as the player. They cannot overpay Haha Clinton Dix just to save face. They've got to pay him something that works for the team and the cap right now, or let him walk. He's not that good. Green Bay and their fan base, they weren't upset to watch Haha Clinton Dix, get traded. No one was. And we saw seven or eight games, or whatever it was,

of average at best. I'm hearing that they still love Monta Nicholson and his talent, but they're not entirely sure how much they can truly rely on him for lots of reasons, including his injury history. Zach Brown, gone. Their best defensive team speed guy is gone. This apparently was not working for them. He had trouble in coverage. We know that. He didn't have trouble running down a

ball carrier that had, you know, from a lateral position in particular. He was the most noticeable speed on their defense the last two years. I don't think anybody would disagree with that. I never understood if he was so bad in coverage why they would have him cover anybody. Let him rush the quarterback. And they did at times. And when they did, I thought he was effective. But it was much more than just the coverage issues. This was not a player that was getting it. It wasn't apparently easy to teach or coach this player, and he was not a favorite in the locker room. I remember hearing last year that they wanted to get rid of him, but Bruce wanted to bring him back because they just didn't have any other options. And most importantly, you know, he,

it turned out that they structured a deal, which they could get out of a year later with a $6 million cap savings. So that was a good thing. I'm still surprised that they didn't try him in more ways. They consistently had him in coverage when it was obvious he couldn't cover. They've got to add team speed defensively. Have to. More team speed.

They just let their fastest guy go. So a quick account... Whoa! I thought Tommy was in Florida. Tommy's in... You didn't tell me you were here. Sit down, put the headset on. I thought you were going to be calling in from Florida.

You know, how soon they forget. What happened? Really, how soon they forget. Who are you? I was lucky. I was able to get on the elevator here. Are you supposed to be back today? Yes, I'm supposed to be back today.

Did you tell me you would be back today? Yes, I told you back today. But you really don't keep information as well as you used to. Oh, my God. I'm telling you, you are aging by the second, buddy. You know what? I have to sleep more. I got to lose some weight. I have to eat more blueberries and spinach. Yes. Yes, I was supposed to be back here. I didn't know that. I swear to God. And I couldn't get in. All the doors were locked. Which doors were locked?

Oh, the doors are getting the kingdom here. We have to keep them locked. There are a lot of people that want to get in. We don't let anybody in. When you told me you were going to be in Florida with JFK this week, I just figured it was for the week. Just one show. So that's all. You went down Tuesday. Yeah. Well, we went down Monday, came back yesterday.

Okay. I'm sorry about that. Oh, that's okay. Well, you can join me now because I was certainly expecting you to call in. And I just finished going through the Redskins moves, the Adrian Peterson move, which I like. I actually like the move. Given their intention to try to compete and win next year, I'd prefer, as you know, the blow-up strategy, but they basically got him on one of those Bruce team-friendly deals.

How could you not bring back Adrian Peterson if you had the chance? That's what I said. I mean, my God, their season last year, I mean, people would have lost their jobs at the end of last year if Adrian Peterson wasn't a running back. I just essentially said the same thing. Simply put, he was your best player other than the punter. Yes. That's why he's coming back. Yes.

And you have a second round draft pick from a year ago who's coming off not only a knee surgery, but a post-op infection from that knee surgery. And even if that didn't happen, say for a brief preseason flash that we saw. We don't know. We don't know. I totally agree with you. Yeah. I don't know if he's an NFL running back.

I'm not confident about Darius Geis. Many of you are, and of course the team is, but the team's never gotten it right. at running back, except for when Doug Williams, behind everybody's back, said, hey, Adrian, will you come in and really work out for us? Just work out for an hour. Don't tell anybody you're here. I mean, without Doug Williams doing that, they would not have been seven and nine last year. There's a good chance. Would not have been seven and nine. There's a good chance Jake Gruden and other people lose their jobs. I didn't think about it from that perspective. All I said was they were, they were pretty bad offensively. Imagine what they would have been without their offensive MVP. Three win team, maybe.

Yeah, I mean, they would have lost more games. Yeah. They would have been six in ten or five and eleven without them. I agree with that. And that game that they lost to Tennessee was the game of the year by anybody on that team. And you got to bring them back. I mean, again, Adrian Peterson was essential to whoever was playing quarterback for that team last year. And now you have a situation where even if, you know, your dreams come true and you trade for Josh.

Trozen at some point or draft a high-rank quarterback out of college, even if all that happens, anyone who's playing quarterback for this team next year is going to desperately need Adrian Peterson. I think so. I also, you know, Adrian Peterson really was the one guy that looked like he did not want to miss the playoffs. You know, that game at Tennessee that they had to win was really one of the best efforts by the team the entire year. But he put the team on his back in that game. I've been told that they drafted Geis to start, but it's a terrific insurance policy. If Geis isn't really ready or Geis doesn't turn out to be what they hope he is. And if Geis is all of that, if he ends up being

Kareem Hunt from a few years ago on the field, and you can't take him off the field, it doesn't really cost you that much. No, it's not a high risk. I don't think so either. So in the, you know, under the the umbrella of we're now sort of evaluating them based on how they best compete in 2019 rather than what is best for the franchise moving forward. This is a good move in my view. I agree. Did you hear me? You probably didn't. You were at the door. This was a shock that you're here. I'm glad you're here. It's so much better when you're here. That's not what I heard through the door. Oh, yes, it was.

That's not what I heard you say through the door. Yes, it was. It's absolutely what you heard. At least we're glad that he wasn't here for the very beginning of the show. He would have lost his mind. We talked about Game of Thrones. A lot of information coming out. You still haven't watched it, right?

Aren't you more open to it? Let me ask you a question. Yeah. This is kind of besides the costumes question. This is a show that has dragons, right? Dragons, yes. Okay. Then let's stop.

This is exactly. Let's stop. It totally, the same thing, exactly what Scott says to me all the time. It's got dragons. I just say to him, and I've said it to you before. I'm like, look, stop with the fantasy, sci-fi. I don't like those kinds of shows. I don't like those kinds of movies. Just sit down, give it several hours to watch the first three or four, and then just call me up and say thank you. You know, I had this argument with my son. I promise you. Would I ever

steer you wrong? Oh, absolutely. You would. You tried to lock me out of here today. What are you talking about? Does your son like it? My oldest son raves about it, and we argue about TV a lot. And I said that. I said, it's got dragons, right? And he says, well, you like Godzilla? I said, yeah, but I don't think it's on the waterfront. I don't think it's great.

I recognize it for what it is. I don't think it's good. Did you like E.T.? Did you like King Kong? E.T. Phone home. On the waterfront. God, I mean, he's got to give us a 1955 reference. Is that the right year?

or was that Marty? I think it's 54, I think. Yeah. That was on the waterfront versus Marty. Got it. You know how I know that reference. Oh, yeah, from Quist Show. From Quisho.

Very good movie. John Turturro was great in that movie. All right. Here's the last part on the Redskins. I mean, you just weighed in on Adrian Peterson, so you feel the same way that I do. Absolutely. We've already gotten your thoughts on Case Keenham and Landon Collins, right? Yeah, although, you know, on that.

Landon Collins, the more I'm thinking about it. How much did they upgrade from the position last year? From DJ Sweringer? Yeah. A lot. Not a lot. Not a lot. You go through every ranking of safeties through last year, and DJ Sweringer was in the top

five to ten, and Landon Collins was maybe third. DJ Sweringer had a good season. He did. Landon Collins is a better player. But how much of a better player? I don't think they upgraded that much considering the hoopla over it. And here's the other thing. I mean, look, I don't know who they could have brought in to do this,

whether it was Landon Collins or anyone else. But how much ground did they make up on the Cowboys and the Eagles? Oh, no, no, no. In fact, it's a perfect segue into what I was about to go into before you walked in. You know, if we take an accounting of the offseason to date, in Case Keenham, Landon Collins, Adrian Peterson.

Out, Zach Brown, Stacey, Ty and Secky, Alex Smith, I mean, is out for 2019. I think we can safely say that. They still have the following needs. Quarterback, wide receiver, guard, pass rusher,

another safety. Could be Ha Ha Ha, Clinton Dicks, another corner, a tight end potentially. What's next? Well, we all think that the quarterback is coming. in some form, whether it's a trip to Rosen or it's in the draft early. You know, like I've been saying, you know, people have come to live with the Case Keenum trade

because it's a no-risk deal and it didn't cost them a lot of money. But there's an underlying angst among Redskins fans that are waiting for the other shoe to drop. And if there's no follow-up to it, the anger about Case Keenum will resurface again. In other words, if there is not a corresponding futuristic move at quarterback for this team, then people are not going to be happy. I am expecting another quarterback move. I have been told that they're more likely than not will be an attempt for another quarterback move. I've also been told that Jay Gruden likes himself some Case Keenham.

Really? Yes. He thinks he's very competitive and thinks the battle with Colt will be a really healthy and a good one for the team and that they can do something. He thinks they can do something with Colt, but he was not opposed and in fact spent much of his time over the last couple of weeks heading into D&D Combine, not looking at rookie quarterbacks as much as he was looking at free agent quarterbacks. And he apparently was on board with Keenham.

I'll also just tell you real quickly, just because I had one of those conversations yesterday day for a while that, you know, I can't reveal who it was with. But they don't like Haskins. I've learned that. They're not, Jay in particular is not a big fan of Haskins. So we'll see how that plays out in the draft. They probably won't have a chance for Haskins unless Haskins drops, which I think he might. Cooley did a film breakdown.

He doesn't like Haskins either, but most people you hear say they love Haskins. So Haskins will probably go before. perhaps, but the Redskins are not a fan of his. They are a fan of Kyle. Two things about that. Let's not forget that one of Dwayne Haskins' friends is Dan Snyder's son. Yes. And the second thing is, remember Jay Gruden at his postseason press conference last year,

claiming that we all have to get on the same page here when it comes to coaching and personnel. That was what he said at the end of last year. I know. And so Jay Gruden's input may not be taken very seriously at times. Or maybe ignored. Well, I think that was definitely the case before, and we don't know if it'll be the case this year or not. I think that's what he was saying. Yeah, I mean, I just, I think that you can put to the side for a moment the fear that Jay Gruden just wants to start Colt and didn't want Case Keenham here.

I've heard differently that he is actually a fan of Keenham and had put in, you know, his input was taken with respect to Keenham. and his input was this guy's, this guy can play. So he decided to. He's a good fit for what I like to do. He decided to leave the party with the, not once this one, but the two last girls in the room. Exactly. He's got two of them. But it's late, you know, and you're desperate.

They, but anyway, just wrapping this up, taking an account of the offseason, they got a long way to go before you're going to see their over-under win total for 2019 move off of the six or six and a half month. Now, the Giants might be, you know, fast becoming a pick to finish last in the division, which we didn't see before a few weeks ago, but the Redskins aren't appreciably better as of now. That could change with the draft and with more moves, but right now they are still at best, the third best team in the division on paper, and no more than a six and a half, seven

over under total type of team. And it does not seem that they've gained any ground on the teams in front of them. I would agree with that. Scott's ready to go. Let me do a quick read here for scent bird, and then we'll bring Scott Van Pelt into the conversation. Sent Bird is a luxury fragrance subscription service. It's a way to discover new colognes or perfumes without having to buy an entire bottle. This is important because good colognes and perfumes can be expensive, and many of you aren't sure exactly what you want.

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I do want to talk about Maryland. and what I think is an important few weeks for the program, and I'm going to explain that to you when we get to it. But I wanted to start with just NFL free agency and the O'Dell Beckham Jr. trade and your reaction to just what I think the Monday and Tuesday, the legal tampering period or whatever they called, I thought it was as much of a true, like, frenzied, crazy NFL start-to-free agency we've ever seen, especially with the trades in the last week, too.

yeah I mean you and I think both really enjoyed this this sort of I mean however long it takes whatever the window of time is in terms of being a talent acquisition period and a change your franchise potentially period and it was the kind of the most activity involving just big name people whether it's levy on bell or whether it's Antonio brown and then adele beckon Junior obviously is a bombshell of sorts in it, and particularly as a red-skinned town, it's going to have an impact because it's one of your division rivals. So I was really interested in all of it. Just the landing spot for Beckham being Cleveland takes them from being the punchline of hard knocks last summer

to being the team everyone's talking about in the AFC North and suddenly is Vegas' biggest exposure for Super Bowl futures, which is incredible. But, I mean, if you look at the skill position guys they've got, they brought in Kareem Hunt, of course, after he was cut by Kansas City, to go in that backfield along with Nick Chubb, and they've got Baker Mayfield, who plays with a chip on his shoulder. And, yeah, they're really interesting. That's a really interesting team. I mean, you got to, I could go in eight million directions. So, I mean, if you. Well, I mean, hell, before the OBJ trade, they had two incredible edge-hours.

pass rushers on the same team in Miles Garrett and Olivier Vernon. And I said yesterday on the podcast that we probably should have seen the giant, you know, big changes coming because I was shocked that they traded Vernon. And I was very surprised that they didn't franchise Landon Collins. And he's a different player because he's 25, not different from OBJ, but different from Vernon. But Cleveland defensively was really good last year. and now you've added another

you know half the game plan for edge rusher and Vernon they're not as good as you're making them out to be they're 30th in the league last year in yards per game 30th yeah I watched him at the end of the year and they were a good defensive team coached by a very good defensive coordinator we agree and he goes to the jets now which will make the jets better and then how does that how does his absence impact Cleveland we agree that I'm just telling you they're not their numbers weren't like, wow, look at them. But I think they're a good team that they're interesting.

The Giants are interesting because everyone's freaking out, oh, it's the end of the world. And, you know, you look at the last two years and you ask yourself, well, why would you pay all that money to Beckham? Why would you not take a quarterback second? Why would you be tied to this much money to a 38-year-old quarterback who is in decline? And I don't know the answer to any of those questions. Gettleman does. But it's got New York. pretty fired up.

You know, I think that Baltimore had the best defense in the NFL last year. They lose a guy at every level. You know, they lose Sucks at the end of his career. They lose Moseley,

who I was hoping the Redskins would get. They let Wettle go, but then they pay Thomas all that money. I mean, there were just lots and lots and lots of players whose names you know that are changing, changing uniforms.

And that, you know, that makes for interesting fodder for people like us. It's neat content. Yeah, one quick. thing because I was looking it up because I was surprised when you said that. Cleveland in defensive

efficiency was actually 20th, but they were, you know, they were eighth in turnovers and seventh on third down. They were a better defense than the 30th ranked defense in yards allowed, and they definitely were better at the end of the year. And Miles Garrett was turning into what they thought he would be as the first player in the draft. The Giants thing is very interesting because personally, Tommy and you haven't weighed in on this. I just didn't think that the Giants got fleeced in the deal. I thought getting peppers a first and a third wasn't terrible. It's certainly a hell of a lot better than what the Steelers did.

Big difference. AB's 30 and OBJ's 26. And the Steelers were, you know, everybody knew they had to trade Antonio Brown. So there wasn't a lot of leverage there. I don't think they should have traded them. I think they should have eaten the two and a half a million bucks and dealt with him and somebody else when they got a real offer. But I think the Giants did okay.

What was your reaction to everyone else's reaction that the Giants got fleeced in the deal? Well, I mean, it was the fact that I guess it was a second third, not the Brown's first third. I guess they thought they were supposed to get like two firsts for Odell Beckham Jr. That's not the way the NFL works for that position. just isn't. They got,

I think it would have been the first, the first third would have just, you know, would it look better. But they got, they got more back than Pittsburgh got for Brown by a lot. I mean, Pittsburgh,

they got like a, they treated Martavis Bryant last year for a third to Oakland. The difference between him and Antonio Brown is a fifth, because that's what we got back. Right. Those are two different, those are two different things. Like what Pittsburgh got for Brown for me was pretty stunning.

given what his impact is. What the Giants got back from Beckham, people act like they know what someone's market is, you know? Look at Levy on Bell. He thought he was going to get like this incredible deal. At the end of the day, he took less money in Pittsburgh offer last year. So people, it's real easy to say they should have done this. Nobody knows what the offers were.

We are almost always. You know the worst offer? Of course not. That's a great point. Of course he didn't take the worst offer, unless the best offer was from Dallas, Washington or the Giants or the Eagles. Maybe he didn't want to trade them within the division. But it's really amazing to me. And I mentioned this early in the week. And maybe it was with you, Tommy,

on the air that, or last week, we're always off on compensation and trades and contract value. We are very rarely. And when I say we, fans and even the so-called experts never seem to be even close. You know, I don't understand since we're so inside the workings of these NFL teams. I don't see how we could be so wrong. We've got all this information. We're all geniuses at our keyboards. It comes down to leverage.

So I just can't figure out why we're so wrong. Why Twitter's wrong? Yeah. You know, it's interesting about the player movement. What's an instinct phenomenon, this is out of the NBA playbook, player movement in the off season exciting your fan base. I mean, that's part of what the NBA lifeblood is now, is projecting who's going to play for who

and getting excited about that, which is kind of interesting, is now you have fans that love players moving around where for years fans professed they wanted loyalty from players. They wanted stability. They liked it when players played for the same team, their whole career. Now, what fuels all the excitement is players leaving and going someplace else.

Yeah. That's so true, Tommy. It is true. It goes back to a central point about player empowerment. And Rissillo had a really interesting tweet a couple of days ago, where he asked it kind of a rhetorical. Like, are we at the point now as fans where no matter what? what players do to wedge their way out of a situation.

Fans are going to have their back. In other words, what Antonio Brown did in Pittsburgh, now it turns into, well, Ben Rothesberger must be a bad guy. Look, people want to get that Pittsburgh, yada, yada. Antonio Brown quit on his team with a game to go, a game they needed to win to go to the playoffs. Now, as it turned out, they needed help and they didn't get there. But he withheld his services in a game

that magnitude and wanted to leave Pittsburgh. And it seemed like largely people have the players back. Like, as with Antonio Davis and the NBA with New Orleans, oh, well, New Orleans's front office sucks in this. He has a year and a half left on his deal and decide he doesn't want to play there anymore. And it puts the Pelicans in an impossible situation. And fans seem to largely have the players back. Like, I'm more player than I am owner.

But at what point do fans say, hey, buddy, you got a deal. You need to honor the deal. It seems like you can do anything you want to leave and force your way out now, and no one's going to stay fool about it, which seems strange to me. Well, it always, part of it comes down to nobody's buying an owner's jersey. Players, I mean, fans buy players' jerseys, and that's who they're going to be angry with the most, and that's who they're going to side with the most, I think,

except for the fans who are getting robbed, in this case, Steeler fans, you know. But for the rest of the NFL, I mean, particularly, look, nobody wants to side with management any place. Nobody wants to be the management guy. Of course not. Of course not. But at some point, at some point, like, especially in Antonio Davis's case,

you had the remainder of this year and all of next year. And, like, no, I can't. You're paying me $25 million, and then $27 million. but I really would rather be elsewhere. So do what I want. No, man. No, that isn't how it works. You shouldn't have signed the deal.

You entered into this agreement willingly. So that's where I tap out on being pro player. I'm pro fan at that point. I'm pro Pelican fan. You know what I mean? I'm pro, you know, practical. And, you know, the Steelers situation hurts the Steelers. It's painful, but on some level, they're responsible for it.

They didn't have to trade them unless it was Ben in there saying, if he comes back into this locker room, I'm retiring or whatever. It could have been. We don't know the whole story. But the Steelers taking a $21 million accelerated cap hit for a third and a fifth. I'm sure the rest of the league isn't happy about that. Now, I don't believe it'll be a precedent setter because you have to have, you have to be an elite player like Brown in a terrible situation like Brown was for him anyway.

And he may be straight crazy anyway, just like OBJ. But the Steelers really didn't have to do that. I still can't figure out why they did. We're missing some of the story because they could have paid two and a half million bucks to wait for a much better deal or, worse case, just avoid a $21 million salary cap hit. both of those things are better than a third and a fifth. So there's got to be... There's more to that to the story.

The Antonio Davis thing, too, the one thing I love, I love that it basically wrecked the Lakers for the season. I actually love the result of how that turned out, and I'm totally in agreement with you on Antonio Davis. I wanted to mention one other quick thing, and that is the compensation for OBJ, the Antonio Brown's an outlier, But it does go to show you that the Kaleel Mack deal was two first, and there was a lot of other exchanging of picks along the way, two firsts and a third, and I think the bears got back a second or whatever.

But the value on an elite pass rusher is, an elite pass rusher is just more valuable than a wide receiver, a great wide receiver, which isn't a revelation, but I think it almost proves out one year later with what the Giants got. and again, you have to assume it was the best offer for one of the great talents in the game, and Mac was much more expensive to acquire. Yeah, yeah, he was. Go ahead, Tommy. No, I'm done. I was just saying there are more players

that are similar in terms of production to the O'Dell Beckham Jr.'s and Antonio Browns of the world. Like, we could continue to go with Julio Jones and New Hopkins, and I could go down a list of receivers. There aren't that many Cleo Max. There is a small number.

That's true. That's true, too. And that's why they're more coveted. And also, as we well know, if those guys get to the quarterback, they can't throw the ball to O'Donel Beckham Jr. Antonio Brown. So, I don't know, it's been a wild couple of days, and it's been interesting to see how active so many teams are and then see the one team.

Like the juxtaposition of the Patriots, allowing two teams to pay way more money than they were willing to pay to Trey Flowers and Brown. And here's a picture of Phil Belichick diving off a boat in like Barbados. It's like, you guys do what you want, man. Have fun. We'll be there. I'm going to be over here in my board shorts at the beach. See you in late January in a game to get to the Super Bowl.

Exactly. You know, one of the big signings in free agency was broken right on your show the other night. That was exciting to watch. Yeah. That was an interesting moment there. I guess Adam felt like he needed to tweet it before he needed to say it, which we're on TV. You could break it right here, but he was tweeting. Sitting right there with Scott, sitting on the side.

And Scott's just talking because Adam's in his phone tweeting away. He's got all, he's got the Levi-on-Bel details, and it's done, and he's breaking news, but he could break it right there with Scott on ESPN television. But he broke it on Twitter first. I guess it doesn't count. It doesn't count unless it's on Twitter. I guess that's the currency of that particular job. You know, if you're one of those guys and I get it, you know,

Adrian Morgianowski is the same way in terms of being, you want to be first there. But I don't know, I would think if you were first on TV, you get credit. I don't know how that works. I was just told. I was told to vamp by Adam. That's what he said. So he was producing the show at that point. That's what I've been doing for the last minute.

But anyway, the news, there it was. It was right through on the TV. I would hope. And Twitter. I would hope that you had a discussion with him and let him know who you are. Didn't we have, didn't we have Adam? I haven't had that. I haven't had that talk, Tommy.

Didn't we have Adam on a show a few years ago where he said, guys, you're going to have to wait a minute. Oh, yeah. He did that. Wait a minute. Yeah. And it was live, radio. And he said, you have to wait a minute. And then you heard him.

He's like, I'll be right there. And then he, I can't remember what it was. And it wasn't a big deal. But immediately, I went on Twitter. And I said, oh, so this is what you were just working on. Listen, I'd hate to have a hard attack. Well, the way I'm Bell News was, it was a big. Yes, it was.

Yes, it was. And I understood it. And I guess now I know the order. I guess now I know the order. The order is we'll get to you on your little TV show here after I tweet. And now that that's been established. You know, I hate to have a heart attack without Schaefter in the room. Yeah, right.

Especially during NFL free agency. All right. Hold on. We got a tight end. We've got a tight end who's going to leave. We'll get you that DPR just a second time. You'll be all right. Take a deep breath.

Yeah. I mean, he's tweeting before calling 911. All right. I wanted to talk about Maryland because I had this thought yesterday, and I wanted to save it for you. We've talked a lot about, you know, Turgeon and what, you know, we think Maryland basketball should be, et cetera, et cetera. But I want to focus on what I think actually right now

is an important few weeks for Maryland basketball. And I'm not even going to say for Mark Turgeon, but for the basketball program from this standpoint. You and I both know that it's not what it used to be. Did you read Barry's Rulugas column yesterday? On Maryland basketball? Yesterday? I didn't see it.

Okay. Go read it. It's on what Maryland basketball used to be, what it is now, what, you know, it's a lot of the conversations we've had. But he wrote it well. But anyway, the thought that I had was that, you know, if he doesn't win a couple games this weekend, but definitely a couple of weekends, a couple of games starting next weekend. And the season ends in sort of a thud, a disappointing thud,

like it did a few years ago when they lost Xavier after losing to Northwestern in the first round of the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament. There's no juice for the program going into next year. Versus if you get, let's just say you make a big run here and you have an exciting weekend. This is a big weekend. It's championship weekend. It doesn't mean anything compared to next weekend. But still, if Maryland's playing in the Big Ten final, that would be a big deal. And then if they are in the Sweet 16 because they have two, you know, exciting wins in that first weekend of the tournament,

immediately the outlook for next year, even without Bruno Fernando, is they're going to come back ranked preseason, without a doubt. If they're a Sweet 16 team this year, they will come back even without Bruno, as long as sticks come back. back as a preseason top 20 team next year. That provides a lot of juice for the program. The fact that they got to the Sweet 16 and we had that, you know, two, three, four extra games starting this weekend and good wins and some potential memorable wins. But if it goes out in a thud, the, it's really, it's disappointing, but it's more than that. It'll hurt the business of Maryland basketball going into next year versus the opportunity that exists to have a lot of momentum going forward. Okay. I won't disagree with the idea that if they have a couple of good weeks is important.

But win or lose, they're going to come back with a bunch of guys that were very, very young this year that played meaningful minutes. And look, we all presume Brunold go to the league. We all hope he goes first round. He's worked his ass off and he's become a much better player this year, first team all big ten. He kissed him on both cheeks and say, go get that money. But if the rest of the guys are coming back, then there's no reason you couldn't be ranked next year.

I understand what you're saying. It has more to do with the fact that since the title in 2002, there's been two Sweet 16 appearances. One of them was the year after the title. So, okay, one Sweet 16th in 2003. It's a long time for a brand that we in our head, this fans be as better than it maybe is viewed nationally to get a little bit of shy, to get a little bit of attention over the course of these next couple weeks, and to, you know,

who knows what the off-seasonal bring. I'm sure they'll be in the market for a 50-year kid. Who knows who that could be? Maybe they're not done recruiting in 19. So, yeah, it's important. But I would argue that if they lost, and even though if at first, say there are five and they lose to 12, I mean, that would suck and everybody would be bad. but it wouldn't mean that if the core group came back,

that they wouldn't still have an opportunity to be good next year. I know that, but there's not going to be any excitement for it. You know, when you finish strong, like that all, when the tournament ends, the all too early top 25 preseason, a lot of that is off of what you just saw. And if they go out in the first round or before the end of the first weekend, now if they're a five seed and they lose to, you know, a really good four seed and a compelling game, so be it.

But there's an, I guess I should have phrased it as there's a huge opportunity here for the basketball program. And they're good enough to take advantage of it. And if they don't, it's going to hurt a little bit. We agree. And here's another thing that they need to do. And this is a different piece of the conversation, but I believe you and I agree. If you create a bit of excitement, what they need to do is they need to schedule more aggressively.

They need to be back in tournaments like Maui. They need to be in a tournament like Atlanta. They need to be bringing in somebody that's an out-of-conference. You know, Gary used to bring in when Stanford was really good, when Kansas was really good. They played a couple of games in D.C., as I remember there. You know, get home and homes with people like that. People want to take that on. They did it with Seaton Hall.

Okay, that's not a bad out-of-conference game. as it turned up, they lost this year, the one at home. But, you know, just if you get that buzz, capitalize on it by giving fans something to be excited about beyond just the team. And, you know, maybe you're going to say, well, it's because the schedule, the league schedule is so long and so difficult. You're really not penalized for losses if they're against good teams. So that would help, too. I hope they do that. They, they, what was I going to say?

Oh, two things. One, I, the most juice we've had in recent years for a season was off of that first tournament season. You know, his first tournament season, they lost to West Virginia. Mello got hurt in that game in the second half in Columbus. They lost to West Virginia. They got beat up a little bit. They came back the following year, if you recall, with Diamondstone and with Robert Carter Jr. and Suleiman, and they were preseason ranked number two in the country.

they had that game against Georgetown, which probably in the Turgeon era is the most heated environment, the most electric environment we've seen in that arena, felt more like a big game against Duke or Carolina from the olden times. And I just think if they have a run here, and I'm not talking about to the final four, but if we've got three more weeks of Maryland basketball at least, this week, next week, and a following week, you're going to come back as the pre-sees. in number 15, 16 team in the country without Bruno, maybe even better than that, and there will be a ton of juice. And without it, it's just not going to happen. By the way, the other thing you said, and I think we've had this argument before, but I hate when people talk about, well, you know, Gary, the program wasn't very good with Gary when he left. You know, they'd only been to one sweet 16. I didn't say that. Okay. But some people, you and I both know, You and I both know that they were better than that.

Yeah, I mean, they won. I'm not saying, look, we know that they were better. But listen, that, that grave's team was awesome, and we had a great year, and they tied for the ACC's regular season, but they lost in the buzzer Peter to Michigan State, and it still hurts me to this day, but they didn't make it beyond that weekend. So you and I both know that they had a more meaningful, more buzz, we were in the ACC still, you know, I'm not saying the program. Okay, but let me just say for those that do say that, that are listening,

because I don't know how many, if I've said this very often in the past, but the run, when people say it was not going very well with Gary either since the championship team, or they haven't had a sweet six, hadn't had a sweet 16 since 2003. He won an ACC championship, an ACC tournament. He won an ACC regular season championship. He was in the tournament four or five times, and they had three second round losses by a total of five points. That's a much different run than the run since Mark's been here. They're not comparable, despite the lack of sweet 16s.

I understand that. And there was more juice than that had to do with the ACC. And really good teams. And good teams, a couple good teams. And a very good player in Gravis Vasquez, who was a big part of that. Without a doubt. But I'm just telling you that, like, getting. to that next weekend became a birthright.

And in many ways, the Sweet 16 became this something of an albatross for Gary because people are fans in their perpetual wisdom convinced themselves. He couldn't, he'll never get beyond that. Or he'll go to back-to-back Final Force and win a title. So, I mean, I just, I think that you said, and I'm anxious to go read what Barry wrote, they could use some juice, we agree. We agree. All that we agree on, and we agree on the past, too.

So I think we agree more than we disagree. I still think that most people, you know, hold the Gary Williams success, you know, over the Mark Turgeon era. And I know you mentioned they don't have to get to a final four. But if they got to a final four, that would be the start of the Mark Turgeon era. Well, Gary, the Gary era, Scott sort of alluded to it, the Gary era before the Final Four trip in 2001 to Minneapolis was, an era of should have been to two final fours already and he didn't get us there.

It was. I mean, there were sweet 16 losses that no one thought we should lose to St. John's. We weren't supposed to lose to Yukon. I know. I remember the Steve Francis team that losing the St. John's? But again, the final four changes everything and it would change the whole kind. I mean, you're talking about directing conversation a little bit in one direction. I'm saying it would be a dramatic change.

Oh, I agree. No, if he were to make a final four run this year? Then you're talking about, people were talking about the Mark Turgeon era. And here's the thing. And Scott, I'll let you finish up on this. But Mark Turgeon's not a bad basketball coach. I mean, our fan base gets carried away, and most of them have no idea what they're talking about. No one wins as many games as he wins being a bad college basketball coach.

Because it's not like he's bringing in four one and duns a year. But, you know, the bottom line is the results. I think most people that root for this program and follow the program, most of us think that they should be better. I think it's reasonable to expect the things that over the times that you and I have talked about this with Tommy as well, obviously here on the podcast, is we've established what those parameters are. You'd like to be ranked.

You'd like to think you could make a tournament. You'd like to think a second weekend's not beyond your capabilities with the occasional team that could make a run. Now, that last thing is the caveat, because Gary Williams had a Steve Francis team that could have made a run. They got beat by St. John to the game. That was still – is a bummer. It's hard to win three games in a row. It really is. And winning two in a row, as Maryland fans are now reminded, is certainly – it's more fun than you remember it. But it is also the cratering that people pretend that Maryland is done here under Mark Turgeon is.

completely totally false. Yeah, I agree with that. That has, that has not happened. They haven't been some, it had not been an embarrassment. They haven't gotten there. You know, they've lost some games, sure. You'd like to win more. Okay, let's start with Nebraska today at 3 o'clock, and then take it from there. What Maryland basketball can be, and I think this is, you know, a repetition thing here, because I think we talked about it last week or the week before. every five years they should be in the tournament four of those five. They should be in two sweet 16s, and one out of every five years they should have a legitimate chance to go to the final four.

That's less delusional than some in the fan base that think it should be a final four team every year. But I think four out of five years being in the tournament, within three of those years being pretty good, like two sweet 16s and maybe one year being really, really good, is not delusional. No, but you just, you know, a lot has to happen for that level of consistency. And maybe they're finally building towards it with, you know,

you hope that they have a decent amount that comes back from this year because they are young. But I don't know, man. Like, I just, I think people convince themselves that it's been so much worse than it really is. and I keep going back to like, look at a wake or a St. Johns or Oklahoma State or somebody that's in a similar spot to national perception that's had decent runs that just falls into a chasm. And people act like, oh, this has been an embarrassment. No, it is. It's just not as good as you wish it were. And that's fine.

You can want it to be what you just described, Kevin. But you just can't lie to yourself about what it is and act like it's been some absolute wasteland. How are they going to do? this weekend. I just want to play Wisconsin because I think Maryland's better than they are. And I just want to get to that game and then the weekend's the weekend.

What's the number today? Aaron is it's... I have no idea. I went to look for it last night before I went to bed and it wasn't up, so I have no idea. Five and a half. Five and a half?

Okay, I thought it might be six. It actually, it looks like it just moved to six. It was five and a half earlier, I'm seeing six now. All right, good. There we go. I didn't want it to be four. That would make me go,

but the Bresca's really banked up. They've got like five scholarship guys at the moment. So, I mean, you know, one of them is Palmer who can score. He can really score. Yeah, played it back to America. Don't lose it. Otherwise, all of the people out there that are upset, you know, they're going to have a lot of justification for that.

Right, because at this time of year, it's very possible that you only have two games left. And that's what's, and the, the last time they were in this position two years ago, that's the way it went. So I just hope for him and the program, it doesn't go that way again. I'll talk to you later. Thanks. All right, boys. You guys have a great weekend. All right, Scott. Appreciate it. Quick word about Window Nation. Window Nation right now has a really good deal going, and I'm going to start with this. If you think you need new windows, just give Window Nation a shot. I've given them a shot twice over the last 10 years. and it worked for me. It's a free in-home estimate. If you call 86690 Nation or go to wind donation.com,

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I've got a few things for you, and I bet you've got a few things for me as well. But I wanted to start with this college scandal story. You did follow this, right? Yeah, you know, I forced myself to get interested in it. Why did you force yourself? Why did you feel compelled to force yourself? I mean, I don't know. I mean, I guess the Hollywood connection didn't really excite me.

It's not just Hollywood. It's just people of significant means, right? So the, I'm going to, I'm going to read. You know what the big college scandal is in Canada right now? That tuitions have gone as high as $6,000 a year. Wow. In Canadian universities. That's, that's a pretty good deal. Yes. That's a big scandal, the college scandal in Canada. Go ahead. Vote for Bernie Sanders if you want to. So basically, the story, and I think many of you have probably heard the story by now. But dozens of parents, including some high-profile actors in Hollywood, Lori Loughlin. Is it Loughlin or Loughlin? She played Aunt Becky on Full House. I've never watched Full House. I neither died. All right. So I grew up on it. And then Felicity Huffman, who was one of

the Desperate Housewives. And I didn't watch that show either, Tommy. I don't know if you did. I didn't watch that show either. I haven't watched Network TV shows in years. You know what I think it was? a lot of these shows that I missed, and I think this is the case for a lot of people out there, when your kids are young, and I'm talking about from birth until 11, there's like a 10-year period in there that you're checked out of a lot of things. You miss out on a lot of things. Kooley and I have had this conversation a lot of times because he'll say, did you see, didn't you watch such and such? When was that on? It was on in 2002. No, I did not watch that. And I can imagine that I didn't watch it because I was probably exhausted from not sleeping the night before.

That may have been. I don't know what it was. But you did your own thing. You didn't really participate in the rearing of your children. So you probably saw everything. I did just the opposite. I raised my children on television according to what they should watch. Not as opposed to all this crap.

At least they got Rockford Files. Yes. Yes. Rockford Files, Godzilla movies, happening at Costello and WCW wrestling. Anyway, this story, I think it's really an interesting story, especially if you are familiar with people who have really tried to go over and beyond what is appropriate to help their children. But Kevin, here's why I don't like it.

Here's why I don't like it. You can only relate to, I don't want to do this. Uh-oh, go ahead, do it. No, I'm not going to do it. I know what you're going to say. I know what you're going to say. I know what you're going to say. Go ahead.

I mean, I cannot relate to this story in any way, shape, I know. I know. So we have slightly different perspectives on this. I can't relate to it in terms of what the parents did. Right. Let me explain that and be very clear on that. I believe you 100%. But I do know people who have gone well beyond what is appropriate to help their kids. And for those that haven't seen the story, most of you have, basically those two actors and a couple of private equity people and and very wealthy people basically were bribing schools to get their kids accepted. In some cases, they were bribing coaches of non-revenue generating sports in colleges to basically take a doctored up athletic resume for crew or tennis or bowling

when their kid didn't even participate in those sports, but as another way to help them into the school. Lori Loughlin, is it Loughlin or Loughlin? It's Loflin. And her husband apparently paid a half million dollars to get their two daughters into Southern Cal. Not a half million dollars to get them into Yale or Harvard or MIT or Duke or Stanford or Michigan into Southern Cal.

I mean, that's crazy to me. Like if you're really going to try to put your kids into a position to get ahead in life, you know, it would have been an Ivy. But by the way, I know Southern Cal, and some of you tweeted me on this yesterday, I do know it's a very good school and hard to get into. I realize that. But would you agree with me that it's not Stanford, that it's not MIT or Harvard? It doesn't come to mind among elite institutions. But you know what?

Just as a quick aside, a lot of these, like Maryland, a lot of these big state schools that maybe many years ago were not very difficult to get into are all now. difficult to get into. Maryland's so hard to get into, especially for in-state students. And I do know, because I've got a couple of friends who have actually daughters at Southern Cal that Southern Cal is difficult to get into as well. Well, go ahead. Your thought is, first of all, you don't feel connected to this in any way, nor do why necessarily. I don't know anybody that paid this kind of money or did these kinds of things. You know, I mean, it's hard for me to relate because, hey, for one thing, when I was growing up and going to college, I mean, parents were not that involved. I know.

I mean, kids made these decisions. Parents did they just weren't involved. I mean, you know, I made the decisions about where I was going to go and stuff. And, you know, here's a ball, be home by dinner. Yes. Exactly. That was pretty much it. And it was the same with college.

So I can't relate to it. And look, when my oldest son. who's a very good student was picking colleges, we gave him a figure, an amount. And we said, pick a college that costs this amount or less. Right. That was pretty much, that was all. And we went on visits with them, but that was it.

Yeah. I mean, so I'm not, I can't connect to the helicopter parent. And in this case, the Apache helicopter parent. Yeah, I don't even, yeah, I don't even know what the right description for it is. No, you hit on it. I mean, there's the obvious, you know, person or group of people that are hurt, and those are the people that actually didn't get in because these people basically bribed their way in. That's obvious. But there's this, I heard somebody describe it last night as entitlement.

Entitled mania. That's a great description. You know, the entitlement that many children of privilege in particular, but not just privilege. The entitlement that just many children in period have at the expense. of those kids learning how to accomplish and advocate on their own. You know, it's a terrible thing. I've seen it as a coach, parents calling about playing time or questioning why their kid wasn't in the game at a certain period of time.

Not a lot. I've had really good, for the most part, in the last 10 years anyway. 15, 20 years ago was even, there were a couple of parents I could share stories with. I'm going to write a book on that one day. But, you know, questioning different things. one of my favorite meetings ever. I'm going to share this with you because it's a coach that totally got it. It was one of my sons, I won't name which son it was.

It was JV basketball. The coach had a parent meeting before the season started right after the team was selected. This was like four or five years ago, maybe three or four. It's one of my favorite moments from a coach ever. He got the parents together at the school, introduced him. himself, congratulated the kids for making the team, told the parents how much he liked the kids so far, and then he said the following, Tommy, this will be the last time I talk to you about basketball the rest of the year. He said, you can call me about a concern about your son that's non-basketball

related, and I'll be happy to discuss it with you. I promise I have your son's best interest in mind, but if he's depressed or if he's struggling with academics or he's unable to make a game because he's sick in the hospital. Of course, call me. Anything not basketball related, you can call me. Anything that's basketball related, this is our last conversation for the year. He said, I will not discuss playing time, your son's position, game strategy, or anything else that has to do with basketball. If your son has a problem with how much he's playing, or why I call the time out at a certain time, or why he was taken out of the game after he made three shots in a row, he can come to me and talk to me about it. You can't. That's really good. That is essentially what you were saying

and is one of the root issues of this problem is that these parents have never allowed these kids to accomplish on their own without their help or advocate on their own. And it's ultimately, it's, it's one of the sad things because, you know, these kids, the embarrassment that they are going to, that they have suffered, last two days. These kids that are in these schools that are now, it's now a national story about how their parents bribed their kids into those schools. It would have been much better for those kids as 18-year-olds to face adversity, to find out how hard it was to get into college, perhaps get rejected by a few colleges before they picked the one they got into, then the embarrassment that they're dealing with today would have been a hell of a lot better. I agree with

everything you say except this this notion of embarrassment Kevin we are not living in the age of embarrassment you don't you don't think those kids with this their parents being arrested and the reason they were embarrassed that they were arrested aren't embarrassed the last two days aren't mortified the last two days they can't handle adversity I think it's minimal oh I think that they it's more they they have already been conditioned not to handle adversity their tone deaf to embarrassment Kevin, it doesn't exist anymore. All right, that's not really the argument here. Okay.

But you agree with the other part. Yes, I do. Absolutely. This is the thing. And, you know, like, I think about it. Of course I have as a parent, and many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. At the same time, we have intervened at times. We have advocated, but more times than not.

I mean, I've always felt it in the way of academics and sports with my kids. It's like, you got a problem, really with the coach? You talk to them. I'm not talking to the coach. It's basically... Unless the coach is abusing you... Well, that's protection, Kevin. That's completely different.

That's when you're protecting your kids. That's the difference. Right. The difference is you don't give up protecting your kids. That's right. But, you know, you let them live their lives. You protect them as much as you can, but you let them learn how to make decisions. They've got to, I mean, to your point, too, it is,

they've been raised much differently than I was raised. My kids have been. It's just a different world. First of all, just the technology has made it a completely different world. The connectivity without face-to-face connection makes it so much different. There's so many things that are so much different. Parents have become much more hypersensitive to things that I know my parents were not sensitive to. No one, none of my parents, neither one of my parents, ever worried about me walking to school by my

at six or seven years old, I walked to school by myself. Well, I only had a block to walk. I only had three blocks or four blocks to walk, but that doesn't happen really anymore. Yeah. You know, because the fear of, oh, my God, somebody's going to snatch my kid or something's going to happen. But, you know, and that creates, unfortunately, and it's not the kid's fault in many cases.

And in fact, it's not their fault at all when they're super young, but it creates the, there's like there's no responsibility. We had so much more responsibility. And you in your day, which was much before my day, had even more responsibility. I mean, look, my parents never came to see me play any kind of sports. And part because my mother didn't drive and my father worked nights. Like my father worked three to 11. So when the games would be going on, you know, he wouldn't come see me wrestle,

let's say, which is good. because I was a bad wrestler, and it would have been embarrassing. But I made the decision to join the wrestling team on my own. That was my idea, you know, and my parents knew about it. Right. But, I mean, they weren't involved in it. You know, so. It's different.

I just, I do, I know that you say they're not embarrassed. I do feel for the kids. Now, apparently one of the daughters basically is some YouTube star, right, Aaron? There you go. One of the daughters all. Instagram influencer. Okay, so she already, apparently, there's a video out there of her saying, I'm here for the parties and the games.

I don't really care about the academic. There you go. You saw where she was when this news broke, right? No. She was on the yacht with the USC official. See, you see, this is what I mean. There's no sense. Kevin, we have people in public office in this country right now who 10 years ago would have been shamed from

office. And I'm not talking about the guy. I'm talking about AOC. Well, I'm talking, no, I'm talking about this woman in Hartford County, a state legislator in Maryland, who basically should be out of vote. My point is, people feel empowered because there's a lack of shame. There is, there is no, and if there's no shame among the highest people in the land, why should these kids feel any shame? Look, they may not feel shame or embarrassment, but this is, this will be. a situation for them that you could describe as adversity, and they're not, they're not skilled in handling it, given their parents. I mean, they're just not. And I will, I will totally,

totally say that my kids aren't anywhere near, you know, equipped to handle adversity like I was. They just aren't. But hopefully they're equipped to a certain degree to handle it. But not always. I mean, everybody's got their own struggles and everybody's got their own situations and context is everything, but my God, I mean, a half million bucks to get your two girls into Southern Cal, or, you know, what's interesting about these non-revenue generating sports is once I started reading that portion of it, I'm like, yeah, that opportunity definitely exists. To create a biography that's phony. Of course, and who pays attention to these sports to know that this person's even on the team,

you know, so if a coach, you know, these coaches at that at that level, get, paid nothing. So if somebody gets a, you know, the crew coach gets approached, hey, my daughter is not a crew person, but I'm going to pay you 300,000 bucks to say that she is and to say that because she's a good crewer or whatever you call those people, that she can get in academically, because that's the way it works. And I don't have a problem with that. Like a lot of the non-revenue generating sports for athletes in our area, lacrosse is a big sport in this area. It's a non-revenue generating sport in college. But what lacrosse helps kids do is the kid that wasn't going to get into Yale based on academics can now get in because of lacrosse. There's nothing wrong with that. We see that

across the board universities. If you are a legitimate athlete and they want you to play on their team, now you can't be a C student and get in as a lacrosse player to Yale. Like me. Like you, but if you are perhaps a B-plus student and your SATs are slightly below the level, the lacrosse will lift you over the level. But this is not that. That's not what we just described. The parents, by the way, they're not going to go to jail.

I mean, the same way they got their kids into school, they're going to bribe their way out of any real punishment, don't you think? Or they're going to be able to, I'm sorry, they're going to be able to afford the best to keep them from going to prison. Okay. Should they go to prison for this? You know, Kevin, I mean, this is tough for me. me because I think we put too many people in jail in this country as it is.

Right. For everything. But these people, you'd love to see you in jail. No, no, because, again, it's not going to stop the next rich person from trying to do the same thing. Right. And what's going to happen to these people? What are they going to learn in jail? I mean, really, what's the point?

So, no, I'm not particularly hot on seeing these people punished. You know, I'm not a, yeah, let's, let's grind them into the ground kind of thing. I just, we just, I'm not, I'm not a big fan of. jail. By the way, the coach story that I told you, I forgot the capper to it. So after he goes through, this is the last time we're going to talk about basketball,

you are not to call me for Sun's playing time position. I sat there and I was like, I was smiling, I was like, this is how you do it. And then sure enough, his last thing is any questions. And I'm looking around, no one's going to ask a question

now, hopefully. Five questions at least. What do you do? I'm like, couldn't it have been more clear? All right, the conversation about basketball is over. And I think a couple of the questions were like, you know, what about team meals and stuff? Do you have the sign up for that or whatever? But I think there may have been one or two about,

well, what if he isn't getting the time and he's complaining, how should I tell him to add? Come on. Anyway, last thing today, Westbrook didn't get suspended. Not a $25,000. It tells you that, you know, Silver, the guy that got banned for life, basically, from the Salt Lake Arena, that whatever he was saying was probably so out of line. Yeah, but I know exactly. Has anybody gotten a recording of that, Aaron? I don't think anybody has, right? I don't think they got a recording. No, I don't think so. It was, I mean, he was backed up by his teammates. He was backed up by Utah. Yeah. Okay. And the reputation of that crowd. Yes.

And that arena may have played into this. All that said, and I got roasted yesterday for a column I wrote about this. I didn't read it. Sorry. Go to Washington Times.com is it really doesn't matter what the guy said. You can't have an NBA star on a viral video going worldwide telling a customer, even a bad customer, I'm going to F you up and F up your wife. You can't have that.

You just can't. And $25,000 doesn't send that message. You can be disgusted with what was said to Russell Westbrook and still say to Russell Westbrook, we can't do it. You're in a business. I mean, look at the message that was sent out across video. I mean, you didn't bump into this guy in a club. This was in a public arena.

I know that. I'm with you that the message has, to be you cannot respond. Period. Doesn't matter unless you're being physically assaulted. Okay, but if you're being verbally assaulted, your only reaction can be coach or assistant coach or trainer or whatever. Can you get the security guy to address this issue? Now, they may have a fan problem in Utah that needs to be addressed. They have had that. Okay, well, I, but again, you just can't have an NBA star saying he's going to F up a guy and his wife. I know, but you know, you're probably right, but on some level, if what was said was really racially and, you know, homophobically vulgar and attacking and

threatening, you know, most of these guys aren't going to sit there and just take it. I understand that it's hard, you know, that it's not good business for your players to be threatening your fans, but everything, every situation is, this may be the one example where it was pretty hard for Westbrook to just sit there and be quiet, especially by the way, security is not doing anything about it. But I am more with you. You can't have this. You can't have, now, 20, he got fine, $25,000. $25,000. But I mean, for Silver, I think that means that he knows what was said. Yeah, I get that. And probably looked at it and said it would have been hard for any player in our league not to respond. Also, he's worried about what the players will think of them, too. I mean,

that's got to be a two-game suspension. Finding him does nothing, especially finding him $25,000. It's got to be a two-game suspension. In other words, you may feel like you're right to do that, and I understand the emotion, but we can't have that. Now, that's a situation where you want to send a signal to the next guy saying, if you choose to do this, you know, and instead of doing it the right way, it's going to cost you. Yeah. They have much more of the information than I have and than you have. But again, I know it doesn't change your mind. It might change my mind. Let me just be clear on that. If it were really super threatening from a racial standpoint or from a homophobic standpoint, it might change my mind in terms of the fine being, you know, adequate, being

satisfactory. It's not a big fine. I get it. But it wasn't no punishment. He could have said, nope, there's rusted nothing wrong. $25,000. A couple of things I just wanted to end the show with real quickly. First of all, Golden State beat Houston last night. Most of you aren't paying attention to the NBA, but here's why I wanted to bring it up.

They had lost six of ten games, including a game the other night to lowly Phoenix, Golden State had. Kevin Durant was hurt last night, didn't play. If anybody's, like, concerned about the Warriors, they went to Houston, the hottest team in the NBA without Durant, and won. So when they take it seriously, no one's beating them four out of seven.

Nobody. The other thing I wanted to mention is just this one thing that happened last night that I thought was interesting. The Wizards one. Jabari Parker, you know, Jabari Parker is good. He's much better than I thought.

He's got to improve his ball handling. He's got to improve his shooting, his defense, definitely. If he improved those three things, and it's a lot of things I get it, he'd be an all-star. He is, he is so much more athletic and explosive and a score near the rim than I ever thought.

He gets to the rim with, he's unstoppable when he gets close to the rim. I'm surprised. I had no idea he was that good offensively. Did you see what Scott Brooks said about what they did last night compared to the game before that? I did not. Apparently they had a lot of turnovers in the game before that. Right. So in order to fix that problem,

Scott Brooks said the coaching staff sat and watched a film of every turnover from that game. Who knew? Who knew that that would work? You know? In other words, maybe they were watching Walking Dead reruns before that. When you started, I thought you were serious and I'm like,

wait a minute, they should be watching the turnovers after every game. This was some kind of revelation. Like, oh, my God, you mean we could watch these and figure out what's going wrong and try to correct it? He said that. He said, we watched and broke down every turnover from the game before. Like it was the first time. Javari Parker had whatever they had in turnovers last night, Jabari Parker had most of them.

But he also had 19 points on 9 of 12 from the floor. Almost all nine of those made shots were probably within 8 to 10 feet. of the basket. He is, he's much, much better than I thought he was. I, I just wasn't paying attention. And I put, I, I tweeted out last night, Jabari Parker is good. And a lot of people tweeted back saying, I had no idea either. And I think what it is, Tommy, he's only 23. He's 6-8-250. And he can score. He's not a good defender. He turns it over too much because he is a sloppy ball handler in traffic. But he can post you, he can face you. He's still not a great or consistent shooter, especially from long range. But listen to his last several games, all right?

9 of 12. This is his shooting percentages or his field goal, made field goal attempted numbers. 9 of 12, 7 of 13, 6 of 9, 6 of 12, 10 of 11, 9 of 13, 5 of 10. He's shooting from the floor. This is not Will Chamberlain. Yeah, I know. All right. He's shooting 65% from the floor. Very, very impressive. You know what? I'm sure he's going to go on to have a fine career someplace else.

Well, they can't pay, like Ben Standing was on with me the other day, and he's right. You didn't get rid of Otto Porter's contract to replace it with Jabari Parker's contract. But I am really surprised at how he's so much better than I thought he was. I was a Portis fan. I mean, he's had some moments, too. But here was the last thing real quickly. And then you can finish up with whatever you want to finish up with. Last night, the Pistons were playing the heat.

The heat had to lose the game. It helps that the Pistons lost, but really the Wizards wanted the heat to lose also, which is why I was halfway paying attention to the game. The Wizards are three and a half out behind the heat. The heat outscored Detroit, 33 to 8 in the third quarter. 33 to 8. Eight points in a quarter. How does that happen?

to start the quarter. They didn't score until there were five minutes left in the quarter. So I was curious as to how many times we've seen, you know, eight or less in a quarter this year. Four times this year we've seen eight points or less in a quarter. Three of them, Miami holding the opponent to eight or less. They have been a really good defensive team. They're going to be in the postseason if they make it as the eight seed. I mean, they're right there on the edge. and they would be potentially Milwaukee's first round opponent, but they're a really good defensive team. The other thing we didn't get to really, and I'm sorry,

but Teddy Bridgewater did not sign a deal in New Orleans. It's still possible, as we speak right now, that Miami's in play. That would help the Redskins if you want a quarterback in the first round, if Miami were to sign Bridgewater, because that takes a team that's got a quarterback need in front of the Redskins out of the quarterback need business. And there were a couple of other things from yesterday. Well, supposedly Teddy Bridgewater's worried that Sean Payton won't be there beyond next year.

He's worried that Sean Payton's going to wind up in Dallas. And I guess he's a Sean Payton guy. So he doesn't know who the head coach is going to be. Okay. So that's what I've read. You know what? That makes sense. I mean, that actually makes more sense than Breeze retiring next year, the way we've seen Breeze play.

Eric Barry was released by Kansas City yesterday, and a lot of Redskin fans are like, what about Barry? Look, he hasn't been able to stay healthy. He's not been the player that he was. Kansas City's let some defensive players go, including, you know, they traded D. Ford to San Francisco, and they cut Justin Houston. I don't know who's going to pick up Eric Barry, but Eric Barry's been a shell of himself. He only played, I think, I don't know how many games he played in last year. Not many. He played in the postseason, but I, I don't think he played a lot of regular season games. How about Mark Ingram to the Ravens?

And Tevin Coleman, who I've always been a fan of, going to the 49ers in the perfect run scheme for Tevin Coleman. Yeah, absolutely. But nothing, the Raiders also signed the receiver from the Chargers. Tyrell Williams. Tyrell Williams. Signed him to like a four for 44. So now it's Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams in Oakland. I mean, we could see a massive, potentially a massive turnaround in the AFC with Cleveland being a legitimate, you know, championship contender.

Seems crazy, but their talent says they should, but they have a new coach too, a new staff. And the Raiders could make a big jump in a division where Kansas City went 12 and 4, the Chargers went 12 and 4. Denver really just need, I think Flacco is going to do well in Denver personally. They need a receiver there too. But with Denver and Oakland improved, as a quick aside so I don't forget, did you see Flacco's farewell on Twitter yesterday to Baltimore? Did you see read through the responses to it?

No. He's beloved in Baltimore, beloved because of two things. Number one, he's a class act. Three things. Number two, the way he handled this year with Lamar Jackson. And number three, Baltimore fans bitched in. screamed at times, but they also realized what I've been saying for years, because they called them, you know, he was January, January Joe, that that dude is the best quarterback in that franchise's

history and was a big time, big game clutch performer. And I just, I read through the responses to his tweet, and I could not find one negative response. Good, good. He deserves, he deserves, I think he deserves it. He deserves that. And I'm rooting for him in Denver. Did you see Bryce Harper's goodbye? Yes. No, he didn't say goodbye. Oh, I didn't see it. No.

You know why? You know why? Because I read something yesterday about Bryce Harper's goodbye. I didn't really read it. No. But I thought maybe it was true, but maybe it was sarcasm like you just, you know. Yeah, there has been no goodbye from Bryce Harper. Instead, there was the ESPN interview, which we talked about the last time I was on,

where basically he blamed the fan base for driving him out of town by saying, And everyone kept saying I was going to leave. Everybody said from the time I got there, I was going to leave. Would you see the other thing he said, too? It's going to be nice to look up into the stands and see a full house all the time. I know. And this is what I told you. I think that being in what he perceived to be a much better baseball in Sportstown was important to him.

I think it was all about the money. It was all about the money and having some kind of semblance of a record deal. That was your original position. So you're not going to change it based on new information. It's just the way you do. it. I don't know what new information you're talking about. Oh, you know what I forgot to bring up up with Scott was Game of Thrones. We'll do it next week because he's such a fan of the show. You know where I'm heading?

Florida again? No, I'm heading over to Redskins Park right now to make sure I'm there for the landing Collins press conference. I'm going to watch it. Okay. I'm going to watch it, but I'm going to be watching Maryland here at 3 o'clock today. They should beat Nebraska. None of these big 10 games have been easy, but they should beat Nebraska. I feel like we've said that. in every big ten tournament lately. The Big Ten is so, it really was a great league this year. They're a double-digit seed. If they were a single-digit seed,

Mark Turgeon still hasn't beaten a single-digit seed in any postseason play while at Maryland. Really? Really. So none of the Big Ten tournament wins were double, were single-digit seeds? Correct. That's because they were so highly seeded. So they beat the double-digit seeds and then they lost to a decent team. Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And the win that he had, the wins he's had in the tournament were double-digit. Hawaii, Valparaiso. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, maybe today. Maybe, well, it wouldn't be today.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. All right. Thanks, Tommy. I had no idea. This was a big surprise. I'm so happy about it because it's so much more fun and it's easier when you're here. Thanks to Scott.

Thanks to Aaron. Enjoy the day.