The Kevin Sheehan Show - Top Golf Thom!

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with the breaking news that Thom went to Top Golf. The boys talked about the Commanders raising ticket prices as well. The NBA's In-Season Tournament, yesterday's ESPN story on the Commanders, the Terps' win over Penn State all part of the show as well.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. This from J. Teal, via the Apple podcast review capability.

Give us five stars. Write us a quick one-sentence review like J. Teal has. He writes, I'm a commanders fan, and I love the conversation about the commanders, but I love when Kevin has conversations about the wizards. Please more. I don't think we've gotten that before. That may be the first request for more Wizards talk in the history of this podcast. What's the sign?

We get the occasional request for more Terps talk, you know, which I understand. And I went to the Maryland basketball game last night. But the Wizards, yeah, I love them. You know I love them, but I'm not even paying attention to them this year. It's painful, even though that Balal Kalabali looks pretty good. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. He looks very good so far.

I mean, they give up like $135 every night. Do you know that GQ magazine wrote a story that said Jordan Poole is exactly what the NBA needs because the NBA needs more fun? They really did. Jordan Poole is exactly what the NBA needs right now. And the point in the story is

the NBA needs more fun. I think Wizards fans would tell you they've had enough of that kind of fun. They're overflowing with that kind of fun. You know, Andre Blotch grabbing the microphone, Gilbert, pooping in his teammate shoes. They've had fun.

That's a long time ago now. Well, they don't need any more fun. What's fun about Jordan Poole? That he just kind of dribbles down and he takes goofy shots? Yeah, that's it. But he's goofy. He's unsurious. Yeah.

Well. I can't believe how bad of a magazine GQ has become. Used to be one of the standards. I did. I mean, I can remember. Oh, God, yeah. I can remember reading lots of stories of GQ. Yeah.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is pretty bad. They've got interns running garbage like this. The Washington Wizards are now officially the worst defense in the NBA, allowing 125.4 points per game. They also allow teams to shoot 50.4%.

That's a league worst against them. Yeah. I mean, it's like every night somebody's going for 130-something points. Last night, now, I didn't watch the game, and I really don't watch Wizards games this year. I mean, it's the first year I've just not even paid attention. But last night, Joelle Embed went for 50 against the Wizards in a 131-126 win. It's standard operating procedure against the Wizards. Look, I watched more from them this year already.

I probably have all of last year? Why? Just because I'm real curious about the kid, the rookie, France. Yeah. And I'm still excited about that guy. He interests me. Yeah, he interests me too, but you're the go-to now for this podcast on Wizard's Talk. So go ahead.

Tell us about Balakul-Libali. Well, I'm not going to talk about that too much. I mean, he's got teams to have tremendous court presence, good defense. He's a great shot blocker. Doesn't seem too overwhelmed by the moment. I mean, that's what this scout, who told me that the Wizards might be good, so God only knows what he's talking about. He told me that when they interviewed this kid, his composure blew them away.

He basically, he was the biggest presence in the room, and not an obnoxious way, but in a self-assured way. Wow. So that's something to be positive. You know, this front office, the new front office, winger, and I don't even know the name of the GM, Elliot or something like that. That's close enough. But, you know, they may be geniuses,

because when they sign Kuzma to a contract, and then they traded for pool, everyone thought, well, wait a minute. They're supposed to be tanking. Yeah. You know, they're not going to. tank with these guys. They're going to be a little bit competitive. This isn't what we want. We want bottom feet tanking. And we thought they were sabotaging that. It turns out they may be

brilliant. This may be the best tank anyone could have hoped for. Yeah, this is a pretty good tank job. I mean, you know, they're right there with the pistons right now. So Mbid had 50 last night. The last time they played the Wizards. He had four. 48. He's averaging. I know. That's what I said. Standard operating procedures for him. He's averaging. But the last game, and I wanted to pull it up just to make sure I was right about this, the last game when he went for 48, he had in the third quarter against the Wizards, he was a perfect 10 for 10 from the floor and 9 for 9 from the free throw line. He did not miss a shot in that game. That means nobody guarded him. So last night I went to the Maryland game. I'll talk about that here in a moment.

you Terp fans, but when I got home, I flipped on, and, you know, I can stay up late, you know, more often than I used to because of my schedule, which isn't so new anymore. It's six months in the making, I guess. But I turned on the clippers against the Nuggets because I love Nicola Yokic, love to watch Yokic play, and I really like the clippers because Kauai Leonard's one of my favorite players in all of sports. And, you know, they recently added, you know, James Harden in a trade, and it did not start off well at all. But I bet the Clippers last night getting a point in half at home against Denver because everybody was on Denver last night.

And being at the Maryland game with Harley from Window Nation and his friend David, we had a great time last night. I threw out that I liked the Clippers and Harley, who I love Harley dearly, but he immediately said, well, no, it's got to be the Nuggets, which made me really decide I was going to play the Clippers last night. No, Harley's actually a pretty sharp better, but he's like, really? And I'm like, yeah, it just seems like everybody loves Denver. Everybody, nobody understands that the Clippers have actually started to play better recently. I actually follow them a little bit in Denver as well. And the Clippers won.

They won outright 111-102. They've actually now won, I think, seven out of their last 10 games. They're back to 500. And who knows? Maybe this hardened thing, you know, where he's not the guy or he's not the number two guy even because really Paul George and Kauai Leonard are the two players on that team, maybe they'll end up being a championship contender. I'll tell you one thing.

They play really good defense. Well, I can understand why you would have an offense. towards the Clippers. Because Kauai Leonard is one of your greatest moments. I know. We don't have to go down. You were on top of the wizards drafting him that year. I mean, wait, several times before Ernie pulled the trigger on who was it they drafted that year.

Jan Vesely. Oh, Jesus. I mean, really, you should, you should, that's worthy of whole-of-fame prediction. You've given me, this is one of the only, you know, things that I've gotten right that you remember, and I'm glad that you remember that. But you remember that because over the years, I have rooted for Kauai Leonard. And when they won the title in Toronto, it was really one of the great post seasons by any player we've seen. It was a literal strap the team to his back situation. Now, they played the Warriors in those finals, and Durant got hurt, you know, the rest of his history. But, you know, a lot of people, like Legler has always said to me,

how, why do you, Kauai Leonard seems to be the opposite of the kind of player you would like. He's a load management guy. He's quirky. He's not always viewed as the best of teammates. It's true. It is true that he is a different cat altogether. But when he's healthy, I think he is. so much fun to watch on both ends.

Like I think you could make the case. He's been the best two-way player of the last 10 years in the NBA. I think you could. You could certainly make that case. But anyway, I stayed up and I watched the end of this game, and then Sports Center came on. And actually, Legler was on with Scott last night, and I watched it for a while.

And I haven't talked to Scott about this, even though I actually talked to him last night after the Maryland game. But he and Legler were good. going off on how exciting this in-season NBA tournament has become. And Scott actually made the comment, who knew? I didn't see it coming. I didn't get it. But this thing has just been captivating, I think, is what he said.

I haven't talked to him today about this. But apparently... The numbers. The numbers are bearing it out. I know. I can't believe this. The ratings are up. Attendance is up.

Attendance is up. The players are playing these games with great and almost playoff-like intensity. I am shocked. I didn't see that coming. Of course, the Wizards miss all. Another era, another promotion, another NBA chapter that they're left out of. It doesn't even require like 82 games to prove yourself. It's just get lucky for a couple of group round plays.

But yeah, I mean, the controversy of the Lakers' sons ending the other night was a big sports story. Now, you know, I know we know our audience enough to know that we should probably stop talking about this right now. But they do have the ability, and you do, to fast forward ahead, clearly. but Friday night you get the two semifinal games. I think it's Friday night. Is it Friday night you get to Tuesday? See, I don't even know now. I don't know.

Well, let me ask you a question then about that. Yeah. Is it Thursday night? Is it tonight? Tonight, tonight. Tonight is the semifinals. Tonight. Yeah.

Okay. Let's say a team wins the champion, this in-tournament title. In-season tournament thing. It's very soccer. Whatever it's called. Yeah. Okay. Would you hang a banner?

No, but there's apparently a huge trophy involved. I know there's a trophy, but you could stick the trophy like they did at the, at the, whatever it's called now, the Capitol Center. Yeah. I mean, years ago, it was revealed. They stuck the Wizards Championship, the Bulls championship trophy in a closet. You know? You can do that with a trophy. trophy, but a banner, everyone will see. Would you hang a banner if you won this in season

tournament? You mean like, if I were the owner of the team, would I say, let's hang a banner for this? No. No, I would not. Neither would I. I mean, it's not. No, it's, no, it's, the NBA was right about this. Okay, I give them all the credit in the world. Because I. Anything to get people interested in the NBA in November and December. It's good. And they apparently have pulled it off. And you've got the two semifinal games tonight, Pacers, Bucks, Pelicans, Lakers. And then the championship game is in Las Vegas on Saturday night on ABC.

And there's no football that night. There's the Heisman trophy ceremony, which will be over. Army Navy's played during the day. It's the one Saturday night starting from Labor Day weekend on. that there is no football. You see, this is one of the things that the NBA does good. They're willing to experiment, you know? Yeah.

They're willing to try new things. And the NFL, they don't have to, plus they're generally more conservative, so they're going to say, well, let somebody else try it. They will see if we're interested or not. But the NBA is willing to try certain things. I mean, I think their product still stinks, but I think this is an idea that has worked and they deserve credit for it. I think it's a distraction watching these games on these floors, though.

You know, these colored, painted, these. I think they could do away with that. I think that will disappear. I don't know. I think people like it. I don't think so. I think it's a distinguishing mark of a tournament game versus another game. You know, I was just thinking about this.

They get another break tonight with them. these semifinal games. By the way, the first one's at 5 o'clock on ESPN. Five o'clock. Pacer's against the Bucs. Pacers are a very surprising team this year. Is that the NFL game on tonight is probably the worst of the year, New England and Pittsburgh on Amazon? That's saying something. What do you mean? Two coaches that may be out of work that might be in Washington next year, one of them. One of them could be. Bill Belichick or Mike Tomlin. The end of the show the other day, You got me to think about Kevin Colbert and the tie with Pittsburgh and Tomlin. I still would not bet on it.

But, yeah, so they get that benefit, too. I don't think I'm going to watch. Actually, you know what? I'm going to watch some of this tonight. I was up watching the Clippers and Nuggets last night. These are the only two NBA games on tonight. The football game stinks. I'm going to pay attention to this.

Milwaukee's a five-and-a-half-point favorite over the Pacers. Milwaukee's fun to watch with Janice and now Lillard. The Pacers are fun to watch. If you haven't seen Tyrese Halliburton play, he is spectacular. And then the Pelicans are healthy. And they beat the Kings the other night. And you've got Zion Williamson, along with Brandon Ingram, and I forget who else is on that team now.

But I might watch some of those games. I might watch some of them. I'll probably turn it to the football because did you know, Tom? Did you know that tonight's Patriots Steelers game has a chance as of now to go off as the lowest over-under total game in the history of the NFL since they started to keep track of this? The game right now is the total is 30. And the last time a game was 30 in a regular season game, December 26th, 19. 1993, Colts at Patriots, temperatures near zero with 30-mile-an-hour wins. So that's why that game had a total that low.

There's no weather issues in Pittsburgh tonight. This is just about how these two teams can't score. There was a game in the playoffs in 2006, the Panthers and the Bears, that had a total of 30 as well. but this one, there are some spots where the game is at 29 and a half. Now, I've talked about this, not necessarily with you, Tommy, this year, but Iowa and college football had some of the lowest totals we've ever seen in football games, period. Yeah, I've read about that.

Yeah, they had a game there towards the end that was 26 or 27 or whatever. I'm telling you right now, God, I have no smell test pick for tonight. Although I like the Patriots, but I can't put you people through the, Patriots again. I've given them out three straight weeks and they've lost all of them. I had them in Germany against Indy getting two and a half or three and they lost 10 to six. I had them laying the three and a half against the Giants. They lost 10 to 7 and I had them last week plus the five and a half smell test. That line went to plus four and a half. I actually believe it or not, I don't think I said this on Monday. I got it at plus six. I looked at it on Friday. It was at six briefly.

and I'm like, I'm going to play it right now, because I thought it might come down. And they lost six to nothing. So I actually pushed, but smell test-wise, it was a loss. And I like New England again tonight, but I'll tell you what, I am guessing that the publicity associated with this total will actually have the public betting the under. I bet you that there are public bettors that are saying, oh my God, have you seen the total? This thing's going to be six to nothing.

This is going to be seven to six, ten to seven. I just convinced me, I'm playing the over tonight. I'm playing the over tonight. But you're not giving it out. I'm not giving it out because I don't actually have, I'd have to actually ask for where the public is lined up. now. I'll tell you what, if I get information that my gut feel that the public is on the under, I will try to either give it at the end of this podcast or tweet it out at Kevin Sheen, D.C.

I do like New England, but that's not an official smell test pick. So the NBA play in tournament has really kind of hit it well here. You know, there are two semifinal games up against the worst Thursday night game of the year. The Saturday night, the situation they had that. figured out. They knew there was no game on Thursday night. And, you know, moving forward, on Saturday night, excuse me, moving forward, the college football

playoff won't be this coming Saturday either. So this will be the spot for the in-season tournament championship game in Las Vegas. Home of the Super Bowl this year. Excellent. Yeah. You want me to tell you what I did last night? Was it Christmas related? Because you're really into Christmas

this year. No, it wasn't Christmas related? but I'll get to that. Okay. Okay. But it'll surprise you. I went to Top Golf in Baltimore. Really?

Oh my God. I knew it would surprise you. Oh, my, hold on. I mean, it would obviously shock me if you said, you know, I actually went out and played golf and took a lesson or something like that. That would have been, you would have heard silence on this end because I would have passed out. But even Top Golf, to me, for you, you would just

describe it as this is another elitist thing, although it's not, and golf really isn't anymore. So tell me about top golf. Tell me about Top Golf. Tell me about your trip to Top Golf. My son

invited my wife and I to come down for a night there. He lives in Baltimore. It's right next to the stadium and the casino. You know, they're trying to have this whole entertainment district down there and he lives pretty close to there. So, you know, it was his treat.

And I haven't been to a driving range in 20 years. I used to like going to a driving range in Wack and Ball. Right. You know, I've only played golf, actual golf on a course three times. And one of those times I got kicked off in Miami because I was drunk and drove a cart into one of the water things they had there. Yeah. Yeah. So, but, but I like going to the driving range.

I like hitting balls. But I haven't done it in 20 years. So, you know, they have all kinds of these cool games and stuff that you can do there and stuff. And that was all fun. And, you know, we had food, we had drink. It's a hell of a setup, I have to admit. Oh, yeah. But there's a guy, there's a guy in the booth next to us.

And I'm hitting them, but I'm not hitting them that hard. They're not going very far because, I mean, you know, I haven't done this in years. Yeah. And there's a guy to booth next to us, an older guy, not as old as me, but he's hitting him like he's like a boulder. I mean, the sound of that ball coming off that club is like deafening. And that ball is just disappearing into the night. Right. And I'm thinking, okay, I got, I got a whip it here.

You just step up your game. I got it. I got a whip it. I mean, I'm not whipping it. You know, I was hitting it, but I wasn't really whipping it. Yeah, you got to generate clubhead speed. Yes. Well, that's what I wasn't doing.

Right. So I did, and I hurt myself. I thought you were about to say, and you wouldn't have believed how far I hit it when I started whipping it. I hurt myself. I did something to my right forearm. I don't know if I pulled a muscle or tore something or did something, but I hurt myself. I hurt myself at the driving radio. Did you sit down and grab a beer and watch everybody else at that point? I didn't tell anybody.

Until I got home and I told my wife. I said, don't tell our son, but I hurt myself on that. No, I just acted like I was fine. But, yeah, that was my attempt to really whack it. And, man, I mean, my arm hurts a lot more today than it did yesterday. So that's my one and done at Top Golf, but it was a lot of fun. Until I heard myself. I'm surprised that you didn't go to Top Golf with like some antlers on your head.

Like an antler hat on your head to continue with your, I'm enjoying Christmas this season. Well, I figured out why I'm enjoying Christmas. I left this out in the last podcast. Last Friday night for the first time, again, like I guess this is the first time kind of season. I went to Longwood Gardens. Have you ever been there? Longwood Gardens? No?

I don't think so. It's up in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. It's just beautiful, huge gardens and buildings and stuff with plants and green stuff and Christmas lights everywhere. And it's really festive. So I figured out that's why I'm in the Christmas mood. But last Friday night, we went up to Longwood Gardens. I know a lot of your listeners have probably been there. Where is it, Tommy?

It's in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. It's south of Philly. Yeah, right. You know, near Brandywine in that whole area. Hmm. And so that's why I'm in the Christmas spirit. And, you know, I know you're in the Christmas spirit, because I got a phone call from you the other night about Christmas.

Okay, easy there. Easy. Well, let me, I'll share with you the part that I can show. with all of you. Okay. I'm outraged by the price of Christmas trees. We're not an artificial tree family, all right? We just have never been an artificial tree family, although I have advocated for it in recent years.

That's well you should. Look, the Christmas tree experience can be, depending on, you know, the situation. I think a lot of you may be able to relate. It can be very stressful. You know, going to get the tree, picking out the tree, getting the tree into the stand. I mean, just getting the tree into the stand, getting it, you know, situated exactly the way your wife and everybody wants it situated. And then, by the way, you know, that's before you even get to the lights. But I...

How many fights have there been over decorating Christmas trees? I'll bet a lot. A lot. A lot. And so I think the one thing that I will share with everybody is this was the case last year, too. I can't believe how expensive Christmas trees are. I don't even want to tell you what I paid for my Christmas tree. It's embarrassing.

But let me just tell you that when you live in D.C., when you live in the immediate, you Maryland, Virginia suburbs, you know, in D.C. Look, they're probably out to get you a little bit, you know, and figuring that, you know, people will be able to afford whatever number they put on the tree. At one point I said, let's just go to Home God damn Depot and get a tree. This is ridiculous. Because one year I was walking through Home Depot before we had gotten our Christmas tree.

I don't know, this is like 10 years ago. And I called my wife and I'm like, my God, the trees here, they're like 30 bucks. And they're really nice trees. And of course, we're not getting a tree from Home Depot. We're getting a tree from one of the places that we always get a tree from. Anyway, the trees, Tommy, there were trees at this particular place. Just, you know, your regular Frazier furs, you know, they've got Douglas furs, all the different furs.

We usually get a fraser fur, all right? And the tree that we usually get is usually around nine feet. Our ceilings are pretty tall in the new house. The old house, they were not nearly as tall, so it was more like an eight-foot tree. The prices, there were trees you could have paid $395 for. the cheapest trees were like a buck 25 a buck 50 but you know everything's more expensive and I actually

so it can be fun although they don't do it anymore but you I said to him like I'll just tell you I said I see the number here on the tag and I said I'll give you this and we'll, you know, and he said, no, no. He said, if you've got all cash, I'll give, you know, I'll give you a, you know, 10% discount. I didn't have all cash for it.

So I ended up paying with a credit card and paying normal price. But you don't really even have a chance at these places to haggle like you used to. Back in the day, you could act like if you went into a Christmas tree place and you paid the list price, I mean, I mean, bless your heart. Okay, wait a minute. Yeah. Wait a minute here. What? A lot of these places are fundraising for organizations.

Some of them, yeah, a lot of them are. You went into a place like that? Not like that. Not like that. It might have been a place like that. I don't remember. Okay. But no, the trees were always marked up.

And you, I mean, it used to be a haggle fest, you know, buying a Christmas tree. Not anymore. But anyway, the guy was there and he was actually the guy that was running this particular Christmas tree place. And I said, I mean, are people turning around and walking away? And he said, yeah, some people are, but it's been that way for like two or three years. I remember it last year. And he said, for the most part, we're just talking about, you know, it's the transportation costs.

It's fuel. You know, that drives so much of it here. And so much of why we've seen, you know, prices and everything be much higher. But I'm like, good God. I mean, this same tree five years ago would have been $100. 90 bucks, $75, $75. Not anymore. I'll tell you one thing, man. It's much more important now for me to keep that tree alive for at least three or four weeks longer. We usually get the tree, which we did the other night right around, you know, like the week after Thanksgiving. We usually get rid of the tree very quickly. We're not a family that keeps the tree up much past New Year's.

I mean, my wife wants it down, you know, New Year's Day, and I'm like, let's keep it up through New Year's Day. We'll take it down tomorrow. But it's a beautiful tree. It's a beautiful tree. We have not decorated the tree, but it's being watered, and it looks lovely. Lovely for what we paid for it. It should have been. My wife's father, very good man.

He was an economics professor at St. Joe's College. Very smart guy. but he was an economics professor, and he watched his money. And he wouldn't buy a Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. Yeah. Because he knew that he could get them. Yeah. They got to get rid of them.

They got to eat them if they don't sell them Christmas Eve. They're no good to anybody. You could go in there and have it. Until Christmas Eve to buy one. Well, that wouldn't work. with us. And look, it's a much different thing now. I mean, obviously, we don't have young kids anymore. But, you know, everybody does come home for Christmas and we have a very nice tree. That's whatever. I'm actually reading this. I just pulled something on the table. Yeah, go ahead.

We have like a 12-inch tree on our dining room table. That's pretty much it. Yeah, no. You told us that the other day. It's the first, any, kind of decoration you've had in a lot. Here's my Christmas tree. Here's my Christmas tree story about when I grew up in Brooklyn. And I'm probably repeating myself, which you do when you come my age. But, you know, you didn't have many real Christmas trees in Brooklyn. Most people had artificial trees because it was in Brooklyn, New York.

There's not that many trees around. Right. So we had an artificial tree growing up. But once in a while, somebody would have a real tree. and then they would put it out on the sidewalk when they were done to be picked up by the garbage men. Right. There was no tree recycling back then.

Except we used to recycle trees because we used to set them on fire on the sidewalk. Yeah. Just like the Bowery boys. You know, we were like the East Side kids. We used to set Christmas trees on fire and watch them burn. It's better than what you did to that poor, Chinese family.

No, no, I'll forever feel guilty about that. All right. Well, look, I mean, we have, it's only December 7th, a day that will live in infamy, by the way. Live in infamy. It is December 7th. We have two shows next week, two shows the following week. We have the 12th and the 14th. We've got the 19th and the 21st.

We have four more shows after today. to talk about Christmas. I used to love Christmas. It used to be my favorite time a year. Obviously, and it's now I love the holiday season, but Thanksgiving's my favorite holiday, by far. By far.

Mine is Arbor Day. You like Arbor Day. You become my favorite tree guy. What's your favorite all-time Christmas movie? Because we watch a lot of Christmas movies, movies when the boys get home. There's always... Okay, I'm going to give you one,

but it's black and white, so it requires some level of intelligence and attention. Oh, boy. Okay. It's called Meet John Doe. And it's got combination Christmas movie, journal is a movie. It stars Gary Cooper.

It was made in 1941. I highly recommend it. The whole thing is available on YouTube. So you can watch the whole movie on YouTube. and it's got a very important political message in addition to Christmas. It was made in 1941. What was the political message? Well, sort of like what we went through in the previous administration.

Well, it may be important to you. Let's just say it's an important political message to you. What was it in 1941 that this movie Meet John Doe? I'm curious, based on the time period. Well, an egotomaniac businessman who decided he was going to use the media for his own purposes to take over the country, to run for president. Is that what the movie's about? But it's not part of it. It's also Gary Cooper, a hobo who used to be a baseball player.

Okay? And Walter Brennan's in it, too. How can you not like it, Walter Brennan's in it? You don't even know who Walter Brennan is. I think I know who Walter Brennan is, but it's not a definite. But again, I mean, that's my favorite Christmas movie. That and March of the Wooden Soldier star in Lorone Hardy, another black and white movie. Don't know that one either.

What's yours? I mean, in terms of like a pure Christmas movie, I do love it's a wonderful life, and it's an absolute must to watch it every year. You know, it was funny is on Thanksgiving night. it was on all Thanksgiving weekend. You could find it in a million different places on Thanksgiving weekend. So I do like It's a Wonderful Life. I think a very, very funny Christmas movie with Will Ferrell and Jimmy Khan is Elf. It's hysterical.

Have you ever seen Elf? Yeah, I've seen it. Not a big fan. I like, I mean, I don't consider die hard to be a Christmas movie. Everybody else does. do I? But I love diehard, of course. God, I got to think about this.

Not a big home alone person. I can't even think right now. What other, you know... I like home alone. Yeah. It's okay. I almost have to pull up a list here, which I'm going to do here. Oh, I got one.

I got one that's relevant, that that's not relevant, but that's modern. And it's hilarious. What? One of the all-time funny Christmas movies. Bad Santa? The Ice Harvest. I didn't see that. The Ice Harvest with John Cusack?

I swear to God, I don't think I've seen that. Oh, hold on now. That's it. Let's stop the presses. Everybody put their pencils down. Okay. You have got to see the Ice Harvest. Randy Quaid is in it.

Oliver Platt is in it. It's a Christmas movement. movie, but it is hilarious. I'm putting it right now into my phone, the Ice Harvest, for us to watch it. Yeah. Okay. Because I know you're not going to watch the black and white movies. What?

You're not going to watch the black and white movies, I know. No, I will. Of course I will. I mean, I watch it. It's a wonderful life. The Grinch is a given in our household every year. The Grinch is an absolute given. And then what's the one with Tom Hanks?

Why am I blanking on that one? We watch that one every year, too. That's... Tom Hanks? Yeah. Christmas movie? Polar Express. Polar Express.

Oh, okay. All right, let's talk some sports and then finish up the show because we've been going for a while here already. We'll get to whatever we're getting to next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by Surfside DC's fajita boxes. God, they are so good. We got it over the weekend. Your favorite spot for tacos in D.C. Now offers up a fajita box, which makes dinners easy,

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This is now becoming a go-to for us when we've got a bunch of people over watching football like last weekend. The fajitas are phenomenal. SurfsideDC.com. All right. So, Tommy, you wanted to talk about, and I want to talk about to a certain degree as well, the Washington commanders announcing yesterday that they are increasing their ticket prices. By an average of 8.9 percent, they are increasing ticket prices for two primary reasons, demand and investment.

The team has sold out six of its home games so far this season. which speaks to some level of demand, more on that in a moment. And they've poured $40 million worth of upgrades into FedEx Field, not to mention they paid $6 billion for the franchise. So, you know, the reaction from fans wasn't overly positive. The timing of this isn't great, obviously, for an announcement about increased ticket prices. But you have to do it now, Tommy,

because you've got to get these people renewed. You know, it's a process that takes time, and you've got to get it started, and then you need to know where you are by the time you get to the end of January with renewals. So, yeah, the franchise that is 4'9, and coming off two games where they've given up 90 points in a season which we discussed the other day

as one of the worst in franchise history, they are increasing their ticket price. You say what? Well, this is awfully bad news to Giants, Eagles, and Cowboys fans, right? Very bad news for them. Since they're the reason that the prices are going up, apparently since demand is one of the things that is driving the price increase because of the sellouts, the sellouts exist because of the opposing fans.

Yeah, that's the demand. I mean, this is really, this is double down on balls right here. First of all, the brag about the sell-out and then saying, our tickets are in such demand, we're going to have to raise our prices. That's really, that's a double shot right there. That's a lack of reading the room. I don't know what their finances are. Maybe they should have picked up another couple of billionaires on the bus

while they were driving around the country looking for people to buy this team. but really it's it's a tone-deaf foolish situation to do it this year you know of all years I mean

you do it I mean after you've hired a new coach a new GM you know after after you've done that the following year I can understand this but this year

it's a big assess pool as we've seen in a while and then you raise tickets foolish move they must have to but look, the one thing I might want to point out on your show earlier this year, Howard Eskin, the Philly Media guy, said that Josh Harris will raise ticket prices. He did. That's what he does.

He did. Yeah, he said that he's going to look for every possible way, too, to extract, you know, revenue out of the fan base. Howard Eskin, not a big fan of Josh Harris. There were other people in that market that I had on that. But he hasn't had to deal with Dan Snyder. So, I mean, you have to, you always have to temper everything with what the alternative was that people have been living with for decades. I don't mean to disparage Josh Harris' 10 years' ownership. I think this is just bad timing for this decision.

I think they could have waited a year. Yeah, so a couple of things here. First of all, the timing of it just is bad. I don't know what kind of rollout of this information was, you know, what the other options for it were. Because, again, there are, you know, renewals that they got to figure out. And then they've got to go, you know, their marketing strategy is based on probably how many seats are available. I think the idea to kind of present it as demand is really kind of a misread of what we, all understand the demand to be, and that is the demand from opposing fan bases other than the

Arizona game. The Arizona game was a total one-off in recent years, and it was a celebratory mood, and it's the reason I predicted in my mock schedule they would open up with Arizona because Arizona was the only fan base on their home schedule that doesn't travel. It's not they weren't going to bring a lot of fans. So every other. home game, the Bills, the bears even, the Giants even. I mean, everybody was surprised at how many Giants fans were at the game. Obviously the Eagles and then the Dolphins fans took it over. So it probably should not have been presented as we have like, you know, overwhelming demand. And so we're going to take advantage of that. You don't have overwhelming demand. You don't have

overwhelming demand from the fan base that is super happy that Dan is gone, super curious about what Josh Harris will be as an owner, but intrigued and looking forward to it, but are still waiting on a couple of big things. You know, the steps towards winning, meaning who are they going to hire, coach? Are they going to get rid of Ron Rivera? We all know they are. the name, big effing deal for a lot of people, the majority of people that have identified themselves as hardcore fans over the years. And by the way, a stadium at some point, you know, progress on a stadium.

You know, these are the things kind of in order. Certainly the winning and the going towards winning is the most important. Because look, here's the bottom line. If they end up winning, they won't have to worry about the demand because they'll have season tickets sold. And like a lot of places in the NFL, it'll be with their fans owning them. Because opposing fans don't buy season tickets to opponents' stadiums. They just buy the one game. So I have a problem with them presenting it as demand.

But overall, Tommy, I know that. that this is a pretty significant hike. It's not insignificant. It's not a 3% across the board, which really tends to be not noticed by most. This is going to be noticed by most people who are seasoned ticket holders now or who are people that are thinking about being season ticket holders. But my overall view of this is what I said when they got the team, and that is thank you, Josh Harris, Mitchell Rails, Magic Johnson, and all of the investors that ended up paying $6 billion for this team when nobody else was willing to do it. And so without them overpaying for the team, which they did, we might still have Dan Snyder. We may still be going through the process of will he or won't he?

will they vote them out or won't they? He wanted $6 billion, and there was only one group that stepped up and paid it. And then they had to make the stadium safe enough for people to even go to the games. And so they had to spend $40 million to do that. I think from their standpoint, you know, raising that kind of money to buy the team wasn't easy and they've got to start to recoup and put themselves into a position where they can operate the business that they want to operate. So I understand that part of it. The last thing I'll just say is there is a part of this that I think has to do with trying to keep opponents

fans out of the stadium. I think they're just as upset. Let me just say they are much more upset about it as an ownership group than Dan was. Dan didn't care after a while. He just wanted to sell tickets. He didn't give a shit who was buying them. But I think this group, you know, they knew about the problem, but the fact that the problem has continued this year, and they've been witnessed to it firsthand.

They don't like it, and they'd like to, you know, for Philly fans and for East Coast fans, Giants and Eagles fans in particular, FedEx Field's really easy to get into from a price standpoint and has been, whether it's the price in general or the aftermarket price. So they'd like to with the aftermarket price perhaps make it a little bit more difficult on that sort of broker-customer-customer arbitrage situation. And so I think maybe some of it might have to do with that. It's hard to explain that, I think, in a press release, but I don't really have a problem. The timing and citing demand as if it's their own fan bases demand is, you know, a little bit of a miss for

sure. But I can't, look, I'm not a season ticket holder, so those that are have a bigger gripe than I do based on the price. But go ahead. What were you going to say? I think if they put out a press release telling fans that in order to try to keep opposing, fans out, one of the things we're looking to do is raise prices so it's more difficult for them to get. I think people could swallow that a lot easier. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think that could be something that, you know, that they could at least swallow instead of, oh, my gosh, our stadium is so hard to get into, you know, we've got to raise

ticket prices. We've got to capitalize on the demand. You know, this is a bad advice. I mean, and you know, look, how long do they live on, I guess, you know, it could be years. You know, it's awfully difficult to really objectively cover this team now as opposed to before because, you know, they're, they're saviors. and who are you, who am I, to criticize Savior? Well, there's a honeymoon period. We acknowledge. I know there's a honeymoon period, but with Dan Snyder,

honeymoon period should probably last 10 years. It should last a couple. Yeah, but this is a bad move. This is just, this is tone deaf for when everything about what they need to do right now, is to win back fans and show them that they're different. You know, this is not, this is not show them that they're different. This is not a win-back fans move. Don't ruin my trip to Tahiti with my wife on my honeymoon right now.

We're enjoying ourselves. Stop with that. All right, we're fine. You know, we'll pay a little bit of a, we'll pay a premium to go on that beautiful boat ride. We'll pay the premium for that incredible restaurant. We're enjoying ourselves, Tommy, right now. You know what? We're doing a couple's massage tomorrow.

That should be really relaxing. Don't ruin it with season ticket price talk. You know, all they have to do, seriously, if they never want this to be an issue again, is just start winning. And then they will have season ticket holders. won't have to worry about stadiums being taken over, and if they're winning, people have

proven in the past they'll pay anything for a winner. And of course, some of the other things that we've mentioned as well, I think, are very important, and I think they think they're important as well, too. We'll find out what happens with a lot of that stuff in the off-season. But, yeah, I actually think that the honeymoon period for some is just focused on, well, they didn't have time to do anything with the football team.

Let's give them until next year. For me, it's, and I've said this, again, I'm going to repeat it. Nobody else was going to pay what they paid for the team. Nobody. The other offers were way short of this offer. And who knows what would have happened had they not gotten to this price. And so thank you, Josh Harris. and the saviors that came around at the right time when he was actually willing to listen

and maybe forced to listen. Does that absolve them of every move like this that might be bad form? For me, it absolves them of this. I would have recommended had I been in the room. Is there a way that we can wait on this? And oh, by the way, we shouldn't say demand because pretty much anybody that's paying attention, understands that the demand is actually not coming from your fans. They're coming from the opponent's fans, fan base.

So, but, you know, in terms of actually increasing the prices, they spent 40 million bucks. It's not peanuts to make sure that no rail came down on the opposing quarterback on his way out of the stadium. Now, we still had some issues with- keep the hot water on. We still said some issues with the water and the fire alarms. Yes. Yeah. What else on this? By the way, the score this weekend will be 27 to 10 commanders lose. Well, they are a seven-point favorite, a seven-point underdog to buy. Buy is a

seven-point favorite over the commanders this week. All right, enough of the comedy. Let's get to a few other things to finish to finish up the show. You hear that people? Kevin says, enough of the comedy. I think that's why you're buying this for the comedy, baby. 27 to 10. Okay. They're not playing this weekend.

We're back after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, you know, you talking about Surfside, got me thinking about food, good food. And, You know, next Monday night on the 11th, my wife and I are going in the D.C.

We're going to the National Gallery of Art, and then we're going to the Christmas market in downtown D.C. That sounds like fun. Yeah, and we're going to be looking for a place to eat dinner. So we're heading to Shelley's back room where they have specials every day, great food, great menu. And today's special in particular, I think would be really good for some people. They have a blue cheese chicken sandwich, grilled chicken breast, top with blue cheese and sauteed mushrooms, on a butter-told breech bun, served with mayo, lettuce, tomato, onions, fries, and a kosher dill pickle. Hmm.

Okay, that's pretty good, right? That's just one of the things they have on special today at Shelley's for 1495. You can find out more at shelley's backroom.com, and I'll be there next Monday night, eating their Monday night special probably 1331 F Street Northwest. Great idea. And you know what? You guys are going to have a little holiday night in town and join the holiday. Will you get by the ellipse to see the National Christmas Tree?

You know, we went to the Christmas tree lighting last year. Oh, my God, I remember that. I remember that, yeah. Yeah. And it was okay. It was freezing cold that day, I remember. and you have to get there early and you have to sit there for a long time

until they actually light the tree and then they light the tree and then that's pretty much it so I'm not a big fan of of the National Christmas Tree after last year we did we did several years when the boys

were young we would do the we would go down we would do the National Christmas tree and then we'd go to like Old Abbott you know which is always so well done decorated, you know, for dinner. And we haven't done that in a while. We haven't been quite in the holiday mood that you and Liz are in this year. Maybe we'll get into it here in the next couple of days. By the way, I mentioned earlier about the Steelers Patriots game tonight, having

the lowest total in 30 years. I missed on this story that is out there. that tonight's game between in the in-season tournament between the Pacers and the Bucs is the highest over-under total. It's five points higher than any other NBA game in 30 years. It's 257 and a half tonight. Oh, my God. So the NBA seems to be, in 1991, the Denver Nuggets, which would have been a Doug Mo coach Denver Nuggets team with Kiki Vandeway and Alex English. Like those teams were scoring a buck 40 every night.

They had a 259 total 30 years ago, actually more than 30 years ago. What are we talking about? That's 32 years ago in 1991. But 257 and a half, and I'm looking at my bookie right. now. And they've got it right now. If you want to bet the over, they've got it at 257. MyBooky.ag.a.g. Mybooky.com promo code Kevin D.C. Man, I might do an over Milwaukee, Indiana under Pat Steelers parley bet tonight. That might be my parlay tonight. I don't parlay. I don't put a lot of parleys together. And when I do, they're usually money on parleyes.

But I might bet the over in the Bucs Pacers game, watch that, and then watch the football game and root for the over in that game too. I said over, right? Yeah, I like the over in the Steelers Patriots game. That's 30 at MyBooky right now, and 257 is the number for Milwaukee, Indiana tonight, in the NBA play-in tournament semi-final game tonight. MyBooky.orgie.orgie.com promo code Kevin D.C. You've got to put Kevin D.C. in there.

Not, you know, ESPN 980, Kevin, not Kevin Team 980. Kevin, D.C. will get you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. So, yesterday I spent a little bit of time on this story that Jeremy Fowler and John Kime wrote. I know you read that story. What were your thoughts on it? Well, my thoughts were that a lot of it didn't really come off as surprising. It wasn't the typical, you know, Redskins, commanders, pre-death-Obit that you usually read. You know what I mean?

Before the body, you know, keels over, and there's usually this kind of national story saying, Jesus, it was really bad, you know? And here's how bad it was. Well, and then that's the end. Yeah, I mean, keep in mind that, you know, we don't have, you know, the investigative reporters. Why am I blanking? I've had them on the show many. Seth Wickersham.

Yeah, we don't have Vanatta, Wickersham, and Tisha Thompson writing this story either. So this was more of a football story. I know. But usually, like, at the end of Jay's era, at the end of, at the end of Shannon. And there's usually that kind of, you know, right before the acts false kind of thing. We've had those stories for years. Yes. Yeah, this was a bit milder. This was a bit milder. In part, I'm going to give them credit because I think this was probably a more functional coaching staff behind the scenes, in part because they didn't really have to deal with Dan as much as the other coaches did, because Dan was.

so preoccupied sailing the Seventh Seas and avoiding testifying before Congress. So it did not give a picture of utter chaos that these things usually do. But it also reminded me that Ron has a very good relationship with national media. That's what it also reminded me of. Why? Because there wasn't a lot of negative, there wasn't much negative at all. about Ron Rivera. Actually, that's not true.

There was a little bit. There was a little bit. There was the quote where they said that Rivera should have done more. That, you know, he should not have given as much, he should not have delegated as much responsibility to be enemy in Del Rio in particular.

Here's the quote. The coordinator changes cast a pall over Rivera's future because of how much faith and responsibility he places in them. Several team sources said Rivera deferred to his coordinators on decision-making, sometimes to a fault. And here's the quote, Ron needed to take more ownership, close quote. So there were, you know. Yeah, there were that. And in particular, even though Jack Del Rio is the one who's fired,

the damning one is probably with Eric B. Enemy. Oh, yeah. story, this story is really, you know, you get the Harris involvement at the trade deadline, you get the Del Rio firing, you get some on Sam Howell, but really, if you've read this story, if your big takeaway isn't that the Eric B. Enemy era here in D.C. hasn't, you know, hasn't been a, it hasn't been a smooth one. Then I'm not sure what you read or what you've been listening to with respect to a lot of us who have kind of talked about. Look, and I said this on yesterday's show, Tommy.

Eric B. Enemy may actually be exactly what this organization needed, but this group with Ron still here and kind of the ease in which these players were handled in very much a player coach-friendly environment, you know, it certainly didn't work. they haven't won anything and Eric B. Enemy's got two rings. So I didn't like some of, you know, he's gotten better at respecting our time. You know, some of these quotes about, you know, working too late, working too hard. I do think that ultimately, though, that if you read this,

what you understand is that Eric B. Enemy's style has not been the favorite for a lot of the people out there. We saw the beginnings of this during training camp when Ron very stupidly in public said that players were coming to him to complain about Eric Bienemy. So when we got it that quickly, I said this morning, we realized after the Buffalo game why Sam Howell was drafted in the fifth round and not the first of the second round because he takes way too many sacks. And I think we've gotten enough of a sense of Eric Bienemy as to why Washington was the only team interested in hiring him. It's not that he isn't competent. It's that his style rubs people the wrong way. Maybe not everybody. And maybe they're the problem.

Maybe the people who aren't, you know, reacting in a way where, hey, man, whatever you do, I'm all with you behind you, no matter what you say to me. And he says, he's admitted, I'm your harshest critic, and I will get on your ass, but I also will be there to build you up when you do it the right way. They're just, he's not going to be here next year. He's not going to be here next year. And it's not just because of this. It's because they're probably going to hire a GM who's going to want to hire his own coach, and it's probably going to be an offensive coach.

And why would you, if you're an offensive head coach, why would you keep around an offensive coordinator assistant head coach? I don't think you would. That's, I mean, you might, but the odds are that you wouldn't. I thought that was the most interesting part of this story, too, by far. Yeah, it probably was. Yeah. All right, what else?

I don't think I have anything else for you, boss. I'm going to, you know, go to a cigar store and nurse my sore arm. I did remind myself here. I think I need to stick to windmills and dinosaurs when it comes to golf. Well, you certainly can't hurt yourself doing that, that's for sure. You shouldn't be able to. So I did mention at the beginning of the show that I went to the Maryland game, and I said, you know, those that love the Terps talk, and they like Maryland basketball talk,

I didn't talk about the game. So real quickly, they've had a very rough start to the season, Tommy. This was a team that was thought to be easily an NCAA tournament team. They got blown out by Villanova in one of the ugliest offensive performances by any Maryland team ever. They almost duplicated that, not to the degree that it happened at Villanova at Indiana in their Big Ten opener last Friday night. And then last night in their second Big Ten opener last night, and then last night in their second Big Ten, 10 game before they play other non-conference games, including UCLA, by the way, at Pauley Pavilion on December 22nd. They had Penn State a league game, Big 10 game, and they won last night,

81 to 75 in overtime. And it was a big sort of exhale, thank God you didn't lose this game. They were down seven in the second half. They could have easily lost this game. Penn State was good enough to beat Maryland. But Jemir Young, you Terp fans know this. Without Jamir Young, I mean, Maryland would be a bad basketball team. You could have said that about them last year. He's that good. He was a preseason Big Ten, first team all selection. He had 28 last night. Juju had 24 and 15 last night. They can't continue to be a team where two players score and no one else scores and expect to be a factor in the Big Ten and expect to get themselves back into NCAA tournament contention.

It is so early in the season. They've played two league games. They're 18 more. Plus they've got more non-conference games to go. But they're five and four overall. Their net ranking people is 185. It was 205 last night. I don't think I've ever seen Maryland with less than.

like a 65 net ranking. And that's like a bad year for Maryland. They've been to the tournament, what is it, eight out of the last nine years or whatever. And so they got a long road ahead of them to build that net ranking up. But all it takes when you're playing in the Big Ten is, you know, a win over Purdue or a win over Michigan State or Illinois.

And all of a sudden, you know, you're right back in the mix. But they have got to get somebody else to step up. And I think it's got to be Dante Scott. I was impressed with Jamie Kaiser, their freshman last night. He can really shoot it. He's the one guy that can shoot it. Tommy, this is such a bad shooting team right now that they got to 81 last night because they had 23 offensive rebounds and they got to the free throw line

and shot 39 free throws in the game. But if Dante Scott really more than anybody else doesn't step up and become a 13, 14 point a night score, somewhere 12 to 14. It's going to be a season which I don't think they'll survive, you know, in the top half of the Big Ten. They were picked to finish, you know, third or fourth in the Big Ten before the season started. And I think Dante Scott's capable. A lot of Maryland fans are frustrated by Dante Scott.

I'm not. I think he needs to shoot it better, no doubt. But he's valuable on defense for them. He really is. And I think they're going to need him. him to step up. And if he does, and you get the freshmen to come along, Deshaun Harris-Smith and Jamie Kaiser, and get some depth. I mean, Jihari Long right now is pretty much, along with Kaiser, the only guy off the bench. They didn't even play Bachelor last night. I don't think they did.

You know, they can get back into the mix here. But last night was huge, huge, to beat Penn State in overtime. By the way, the kid for Penn State, Clary, who is a sophomore, wow, he is a legit. score in the Big Ten this year. He's going to be, I don't know if his name got mentioned a lot before the Big Ten season started. He had 25 last night. He's already had multiple games of like, you know, 20, 28, 26. He is a big time score. It was quite the back and forth between two lefty point guards, Tommy, scoring point points last night with Jamir Young for Maryland and, and Clary for Penn State. But anyway, it's a long season. College basketball changes a lot, and I expect Kevin Willard to get it figured out, and last night was big.

Would have really felt awful to be 0-2 in the Big Ten, and four and five. I mean, I can't remember the last time Maryland was four and five. You know, when your team like Maryland and you're in the top 25 discussion pretty much year and year out, and you're in the tournament pretty much every year, you usually start every season something like nine in one or ten and two. because you've got all these non-conference games that you build up a lot of wins with. They've lost every non-conference game against opponents that, you know, were more their speed. They got blown out by Villanova. And then they lost to Davidson and UAB, you know, in Asheville early.

So we'll see what happens. I'm still, you know, relatively, you know, unmoved by the start because there's just a long way to go. and they've got some talents. We'll see what happens. All right. That's it for me. Did you want to discuss the Wizards anymore? No, boss. I think I'm all wizard out. You did a great job today. I will talk to you on Tuesday. No Tommy prediction for the game on Sunday, but he did throw out 27 to 10 over by.

Goodbye back tomorrow with Jay Gruden.