The Kevin Sheehan Show - Training Camp Play-by-Play!

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

Kevin and Thom on Thom's contempt for golf to start the show followed by more nonsense before the boys get to some FC Washington discussion. They discussed Kevin's curiosity for training camp play-by-play on social media. Then some Alex Smith, Dwayne Haskins, Caps and more. 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.

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one's talking about the Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. A sports fix Thursday, Tommy, still up in Wildwood Press, New Jersey. Just what, north of Cape May, if we took the ferry from Lewis to Cape May, we could jump off into an Uber and beat your place in, what, 20 minutes or less? Oh, even less than that, 10 minutes at the most. All right. How's the Beach Week been going so far? Oh, the beach week has been going great. Last night was miniature golf night. Oh, it was?

How did you hit them? Well, I got to tell you, it took me a while to get warmed up. It did? I had a 35 on the front nine. That's not real good. No, but the back nine, I had a 23, which won the back nine. Did you use that old club of yours that you had that used to bring to the golf events that we would do? What, the hillbilly putter?

Yeah, the hillbilly putter? No, I didn't have that. I probably would have done better if I had that. So I wound up finishing last in the field overall, but I was first in the back nine. Very nice. Do you like that I remembered your hillbilly putter? Yes, I do. I didn't remember the name of it. It was wooden, wasn't it? Yeah, it was wooden. I bought it in North Carolina in a souvenir shop. Uh-huh. That's awesome. And I wound up, and Zayvon and I used to have a one whole playoff, and he used the hillbilly putter.

That's funny. I do remember that. And he still beat me. I remember we did something, I mean, there were several golf events where we did our show, because our show being a midday show typically coincided with like a shotgun start, or maybe an hour before a shotgun start at a charity golf event. We did our show from Ryan Carragans event many times. We did our show from our own event, the 980 event that we did every summer. We also did some shows from Avanelle, right, and maybe even congressional for Tigers

tournament once or twice, I think. But you're not a big golf guy, and you actually, I don't know that, tell me if I'm describing this inaccurately. you're a bit annoyed by the golf the golf bug or the golf Jones that a lot of us have. I think contempt is the right word. That's worse. Yeah, contempt, I would say, is the right word.

Why? The same feeling I had when I was 18 years old, and I looked at all these old white guys playing golf, and I'm thinking, you loser. You know? And I have this philosophy that I want to hang on to as much of what I felt as I was 18 as possible. Well, hopefully that doesn't include, you know, throwing things at Chinese laundromats or burning fraternity houses down. You know, I would try to get rid of some of those things.

Well, I'm hanging on to the good things, like my contempt for golf. Yeah, you know But I like miniature golf Well, yeah, that's not really golf I loved miniature golf too when I was a child Or when my kids were young But it changes Yeah, but now you're grown up

Are you happy? You know, the funny thing is I did not grow up playing golf You know, I wasn't a member anywhere I didn't grow up in that atmosphere And I, but over the last I would say 10 to I don't know, that's not true. It's been longer than that.

I really got into golf probably in my early to mid-30s, but then the kids came along, and you just couldn't commit those long days. I mean, I had plenty of friends, trust me, who, you know, they might have three kids in their home under the age of five, and yet they're playing 36 on the weekend. That wasn't my preference at that point in my life. And then as the kids got older and they had sporting events on the weekends, that was much more interesting to me than going to play golf. But I, over the last five years in particular, man, it has, it is taken, um, I, I am definitely carrying that virus around. I am infected with the golf

bug. It is, it's Tommy. It is one of the more mystifying games. I love sports. I've always loved playing sports. I always played sports. You know, I played, there's my phone, I didn't turn my ringer off, I probably should have. By the way, that call is coming in right now. I have no idea. It's some sort of, you know, some sort of, you know, robocall. But it's coming in from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Do you know what Pine Ridge, South Dakota is?

Isn't that where the Mount Rushmore is? No, that's in, Mount Rushmore is closer to Rapid City, South Dakota. But Pine Ridge, There's a huge Indian reservation in Pine Ridge. And I know that because I believe that's one of the reservations that the team went to years ago. But it was also one of those trips that my son took, one of those high school, you know, service trips. And they went and he spent a week on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. It was so impactful to them that they, the group of friends that he went with, they want, they,

nearly went back this summer. They had plans to go back this summer just to drive out there to see some of the people that they had made friends with when they were there. But obviously, the pandemic stopped that. But anyway, I digress. And just think, the sad thing is they'll probably grow up to play golf. Yeah, this one actually really does love golf. There you go, you see? You see? And that little trip to the reservation will be a knack shot memory. Instead, he'll be playing 36 on the weekend. Do you want to go to Pine Ridge and help on the reservation for a week? Or do you want to go

to Bandin Dunes and play some golf? Anyway, yeah, golf, golf has me, man. It has me. It's definitely, actually, today I am scheduled to play with one Michael Wilbon. he and I have been attempting to get together to play during the summer, and he's finally back in town, and so we're going to get together and play today, and that'll be fun because I'll be able to talk NBA hoops with someone, because I know I can't talk about it with you today. I know you didn't stay up last night to watch the Mavericks and the Clippers and watch Luca Donchitz go for 28 points in 28 minutes. He was in foul trouble the entire second half. I'm into the, I'm very much now into the NBA playoffs, Tommy.

This is different than that, you know, bubble city nine game regular season stretch. There is intensity in these games, and it feels like a playoff series. Anyway, I'm rambling here. I wasn't sitting on my butt last night. I was competing. Yes, you were, and that's good. Anyway, I don't even know where I was going with. I was just, what I was going to say.

What do you do? You're not doing a show this. week. I'm not doing a radio show this week. You know, we had, it's been a weird year, I think, for everybody. We had plans for multiple weeks this summer. As you know, in the radio biz, you got to take your vacation before football season starts. I never, I'm not one of those people that takes every single vacation day that I get contractually. If I'm here and not committed to something, I'd rather, I'd rather go into work than not. But we had this planned and we're getting close to football season,

which means, you know, you can't take any days off. Anyway, here's what I was getting to. As we just ramble and get sideways here early in the show, which, by the way, is pretty typical for this show. Golf is just so hard. It's so hard, and those that do it so well, I'm always just so impressed by. And I know that you have a major distaste for that.

which is fine. But the guys that are really good typically are guys that learned their swing when they were really young. And it became sort of a muscle memory thing. Now, that's not true for everybody. And if you are an athlete, you've got a better chance of playing the game well than if you're not. But for the most part, golf, unlike a lot of other sports, and I know you don't even consider it a sport, is a learned skill. It's so much more of a skill than just an athletic endeavor. And if you learn that skill when you're young, which I did not, you've got a polished swing and you're probably a really good golfer. Somebody asked me, a friend of mine asked me this morning, I ran into him getting coffee this morning. And he's like, have you been playing this week? And I said, yeah, I played a couple times. And he said, maybe we'll get out soon. We just started talking. And he said, are you playing well? I'm like, you know, occasionally, but I'm never going to be really, really good.

Because to be really, really good, you had to start when you were young, or you've got to be committed to practicing. Who wants to practice golf? The best part of golf, Tommy, is hanging out with guys and playing around to golf, and then when you're done, sitting around solving the world's problems, you know, over a couple of cocktails. That's the best part of golf. You can do that without golf, you know. You can. You can. You're right. You can do that without golf. Anyway, I don't know where we got.

Oh, I know. Okay. What's your, what's your handicap? My handicap, right. No, I'm not going to lie. My handicap, my index is 116, I think, now, which is about as low as it's ever been, which, you know, puts me square in, you know, the mid-handicapper range. Tommy, I can shoot 80. I can shoot 80. I can shoot 90. Today I'll shoot somewhere between 80 and 90, and if it's 90, I was really bad, and I've shot 80 a couple of times in the last few weeks and had a couple of 82s and 83s, and that's good. I mean, that's really, really good for me. I play with guys that are really good, though. I mean, scratch. I mean, part of our group today is Michael Cornheiser, Tony's son, Michael. Michael is an exceptional golfer.

The last time I was out with Michael or two times ago, he shot 66. Now, he's the example of someone who learned his swing at a very young age. Tony had him playing golf when he was a kid. He went to Penn on a golf scholarship. You know, he's a really, really good golfer. But yeah, like my index right now is about 116, 115, something like that. It's about as low as I think it's ever been because I've played a lot this summer. I've actually played a lot since golf opened back up after the pandemic.

because what else are you going to do? Anyway. You know, 82, if I remember right, that's what Mark Rippin shot his first round at the Temple Open when he got invited to play. I remember that well because my job was to follow him for all 18 holes. And did you? Yes, I did. That was my job.

I was there. That was a pain in the air. I was there that. I was there that day. Rippin coming off the Super Bowl, 26 MVP, played in the Kemper Opener, or whatever it was called at the time. It was the Kemper Open then. And it was at Avenel, not congressional at that point.

Right. And Ripon was a good golfer. Really good golfer. Still is. Better than an 82. Oh, no, no, no. But he's shooting 82 from the tips from the championship tea boxes. I'm shooting 82 from member T's, from the whites, as many of you, probably,

understand. No, I remember being there. It was a big deal. Rippin got one of those wild cards, you know, into the event. Ripon's, you know, won that celebrity event in Lake Tahoe several times over the years. He's been one of the best, you know, professional athletes slash celebrity golfers on that celebrity, you know, golf tour for a long period of time. Excellent golfer. But I do remember him shooting 82. But what I specifically remember is I think it was the 14th hole back then at Avenel, which was a drivable par four. And John Daly, I think, was playing in that event because he had just won the PGA championship. In fact, this was in probably July or August of, no, this was probably in May of 82.

No, May of, May of 92. Yes, exactly, which would have been just a couple of months after they won the Super Bowl. and would have been about a full year after daily, not even a full year, because Daly won, I believe Daly won at Crooked Stick in 91 was his PGA title, which made him famous because of how long you hit the ball. And Daly was a big attraction at that event, but so was Rippin for the locals. And Rippin, I'm pretty sure I may have this, and you were there, you followed him, but I think he drove the 14th green.

and it still shot 82, which, by the way, for an amateur golfer playing from the championship teas in a big time, you know, in a big event, the pressure on him, and with the gallery that was following him, it's actually not a bad round. He did not make the cut. It was considered an embarrassment for him. He felt embarrassed about it. And that was the way the coverage came off. Interesting.

Yeah. It was a massive failure. You know, I mean, because I remember. John Hawkins, who is a great golf writer. He used to work for our paper at times. And he knows golf very well, and he wrote a column predicting that Rippin would basically flop. And I remember Rippin saying to him out loud

in the press conference when he asked, when Hawkins asked Rippin a question, he said, well, I guess you were right, weren't it? So at the time, it was considered a failure on Rips part. I'm looking at what he shot in the second round. I'm trying to find what he shot in the second round. Here's the other thing that you mentioned. There's different keys for different people to hit from, right?

Yes. In golf? Yes. So in other words, there's compensation based on your ability, right? Exactly. So can you think of, like, in basketball, Are there different parts of the court if you're not good enough that you're allowed to, like, to shoot from, or baseball? You're allowed to get farther away from the pitcher or closer to the pitcher.

What kind of sport has a compensation for failure? Well, it's not a compensation for failure. It's a compensation for ability. And, you know, the handicap system sort of dictates that. And that... In tennis, do you get to play with a bigger racket if you're not that good? No, but what's great about golf is that you can be, you know, you can get together as a foursome with everybody having different abilities and capabilities

and have it be competitive because the handicap comes in. And so... You know, it sounds like socialism to make. It is a little bit of socialism. You know what? The golf handicap system? has a socialism aspect to it because it's essentially trying to make everybody even it's it's compensating those that are unfortunate

with the ability to to be right there with those that are more fortunate. So I just... So this is why it's, this is one of many reasons. I just found Rippins. So Rippin in that first of May 28th, 1992, first score in the Kemper was an 11 over par 82. I'm good. I had that right. Yeah, he was damaged by a quadruple bogey nine on the 13th hole.

He had a 9 on the 13th hole. So that was obviously a par 5. He was doing respectively 5 over par through 12 holes and then really blew up on the 13th. I'm looking for where the hell is his second round? They don't have the entire round by round here. Whatever. I don't care at this point.

And here's the other thing. What? I've golfed a couple of times, maybe four, five, maybe six times. I'm amazed at the amount of cheating that goes on in golf. I mean, nobody I've ever golfed with really counts their strokes. Well. Do you? What do you mean?

count, like, are there gimmee putts? Yes. Yes, there are gimmee puts. And if you put everything out, there's no doubt your score would be, you know, a little bit worse. It depends. Now, that's different than cheating, though. Gimmie putts. I don't think so.

Oh, no, no, no. There are, first of all, it's, I actually very much, this is going to sound crazy, actually, when I say it out loud. But I do think, I do think that it is a reflection. of someone's character if they legitimately cheat at golf. I don't, there are people that I played with that cheat, you know, they'll take a bad lie and they'll roll it over into a good lie or they'll give. It happens a lot, doesn't it?

Yeah, and now those people, depending on, you know, if you play with a regular group of people, you know, they find themselves searching for people to play with after a while, you know, it's not, it's not, it's, it's frowned on, Tommy. I mean, it is, look, the president of the United States apparently is a serial golf cheater, which certainly speaks to the kind of character he has, which I think, you know, despite your politics, I mean, certainly it's not a person of high character. But, but a gimmee putt is not cheating in golf. If I have a 30-foot putt that I roll to a foot and we're playing non-competitively,

somebody will just say, that's good. And you pick it up because it's a 95% chance you're going to make it anyway, and it moves the round along. If you put everything out, then it slows your round down, and then a course gets backed up. And one of the things that everybody encourages is fast play, because there's nothing worse than being on a golf course and waiting for that group that, first of all, is bad. And then secondly, you know, they've already, you know, taken seven swings on a par three.

And now they're going to put everything out and they back the whole course up. So really, Gimmie putts is about really keeping the pace of play up. Now, when you're competing legitimately and you've got a three-footer and it's downhill, And it's far from a gimmie. It's more like maybe you make it 60% of the time. And somebody gives that to you just to move it along. That's generous. And you never look a gift horse in the mouth.

But at the same time, to your point, if you putted every single thing out, most people would tell you you'd end up with a couple of more strokes per round. Instead of shooting 84, you'd probably end up with an 86, 87, 88, something like that. if you putted everything out, but your pace of play wouldn't be as quick. Now, if you're truly competing, a lot of guys will, they're not going to give you a three-foot downhill putt. I don't know why anyone would. I mean, what kind of sport is this?

They're not going to count that. That's okay. You're okay. You know, I mean, come on. Well, I mean, it's, when you play pickup basketball, Tommy, do you call every single time somebody palms the ball or do you call three seconds? That's, you know, nobody sits there in a pickup basketball game and so that's a three second violation, man.

I mean, there are dudes that'll come down and camp it in the lane and if I'm in the game eventually I'll say, dude, you just can't sit here. You've got to move a little bit. But it's not like you're blowing a whistle and making a call. So there are a, listen, we're not, we're not a people. Nobody camped in my lane. Yeah. By the way, switching subjects real quickly,

before we get to some Alex Smith stuff and some stuff from football team training camp, get to some cap stuff, maybe even some Nat stuff as well. You asked me, you just asked me a little while ago, so what have you been doing? But you asked me before the show,

what have you been doing all week? And it's been one of those weeks where I've been catching up on a lot of things. like paying bills that were stacked up on my desk in my office, but here's the big thing, Tommy, is getting like, I have the responsibility in my household of handling all of the health insurance stuff and the health insurance claims.

And, you know, making sure that you get paid for a claim that you put in, making sure that you file a claim, making sure that you pay the doctor bills that come, and then you get compensated, you know, you get it back from the insurance company. And I may have talked about this previously, but it's probably been a while. I don't think there's a bigger scam in so many ways than health insurance. And the whole health care system, obviously, it's a big topic every year, or certainly every four years. But I am absolutely convinced.

And if others out there think differently, tweet, me at Kevin Sheen, D.C., I think these health insurance providers count on people to essentially run out of steam in following up on claims and that a lot of the profit margin for health care insurance providers comes from people not following through on a claim to get their health insurance claim paid by a provider. It is such an absolute logistical nightmare. You get, you know, now, if you are in network, if every doctor you go to is in network, it's not hard. But not everybody goes to doctors that are just in network. And by the way, when you end up, you know, sometimes in an emergency situation, you're going to end up sometimes

with bills that are not necessarily just in network. The in network thing, you go. And you pay your co-pay, you're done, and that's it. You have doctors like a pediatrician. I mean, I can remember the days, you know, when the boys had a pediatrician, and we loved the pediatrician, and then she was under the group of doctors covered initially, and then she wasn't, but we stuck with her.

But the amount of follow-up and the, you know, keeping track of the claims that you have out there And matching it up and making sure you're being reimbursed properly is really a challenge. And I think that some of the profit margin for these companies is based on people just running out of gas in terms of following up and just giving up and saying, fuck it. I'm done. Whatever. I'll pay for that, you know, I'll pay that doctor the entire amount. And move on.

I agree with you. A hundred percent. I think they count on a fatigue level. Look, I don't mean this to be obnoxious or elitist, okay? I am obnoxious, but I'm never really an elitist, okay? Your last column some people thought was elitist. Yes, they did, didn't they? Wasn't that funny?

Yeah. You know, poverty and lack of education. Yeah. Horrible subjects to talk about. Attacking trailer park trash is sounds a big. elitist, but go ahead, continue. You've been a businessman, you've been a businessman, you've owned businesses, and you struggle, I'm sure, at times with filling out this paperwork.

Imagine the average, you know, guy with a high school education trying to cope with this. I think they count on it. No doubt. They count on it being difficult. Nightmare. This is why it seems like inevitable that we're going to go to some form of your universal health care, which will have its own set of issues. But anything that cuts, cut down the paperwork.

You know, I've been fortunate because, for one thing, given the grand old age of 66, I have the benefit of Medicare. Right. Yes, you do. So I don't have to worry about that. And we always had the benefit of my wife being in that, you know, golden, you had golden that velvet coffin, as you like to call it, as people like to call it, of the federal government. But we had great federal insurance that we still have as a backup.

So these are issues I've never dealt with except occasionally, but when we've dealt with them, our thoughts would be we know people that couldn't have done this. They would have just lost their money. the most frustrating part comes when there is a claim and you think it's been filed and then all the sudden you get this bill from the doctor's office for a lot of money for some sort of procedure you call them and you say yeah your insurance company didn't cover it and I'm like well what do you mean they didn't cover it oh actually we just we have the wrong insurance information so then with the doctors you got to give the insurance information again so

then they refile it. Then, you know, like, you've got a lot of time to sit around and then wait for the follow-up to that. And what happens with me is every couple of months, I'll just carve out literally six hours, four to six hours, and take the pile of doctor bills, insurance, file, you know, claim information, the reconciliation or not of a certain claim. and I'll spread it out all over the kitchen, Tommy. I'll just sit there and try to basically connect the dots. And it's not easy. And the problem is, is you end up, every single time you end up with like two or three

unresolved things. Oh, shit. I got to call the insurance company. So then you're on, you know, you're on a long call with somebody. Give me the date of service. Okay, here's the date of service. Okay, we've got this. Yeah, they put in the wrong.

code. You're going to have to call the doctor's office and they're going to have to give us a different code for that. So now you've got to call the doctor's office and say, well, the code you gave them, they don't cover that code. You know, and it could be something, like, I'll give you a perfect example. I think I told you this. This was three years ago. I had back-to-back root canals, which is not fun. I think it was one of the first conversations we had about pain killers, because I had an outrageous toothache and thank God for Percocet. But they didn't cover a root canal. And I have dental insurance.

And I was just, I was beside myself. I'm like, what do you mean you don't cover a root canal? Do you know how much pain I went through? Did you want me to just live with that pain? What are you talking about? It's a root canal. These things happen all the time. And Tommy, they're expensive.

expensive. They're really expensive. And I had back to back. Do you remember this? I don't know if you remember this. Basically, the guy that did it, I get home and I'm like, something's still killing me when the pain killer wore off. So I called him up and he said, oh, they'd give it another day. It's just, it's residual, you know, pain or whatever. And then it just got worse and worse. And I went back to him, he said, oh, you got another one we got to do. I was so convinced. that he just did the wrong tooth. I still think he may have done the wrong tooth. He probably did.

I think he did the wrong one. Anyway, I went back and forth and finally, I got to somebody after multiple calls that said, no, no, no, no, they just put the wrong code in. If they put this code in, it gets covered. I'm like, okay. But who's got the time to deal with all that? Anyway, to make a long story short,

one of the things I've done this week is I took, it was no less than four, four and a half hours of getting all of that squared away. Now, the good news is I should have some healthy-sized checks on the way to cover for what I've, you know, spent out of pocket on health care. God, one of these days, all three of these boys, they'll be off this thing. You know, I think they get to keep, I think they get to keep health insurance on the family plan until they're 26. I think it's into the... Is that what it is?

Yeah. Yeah, that changed about maybe 15, 20 years ago. Right. Maybe not that long ago. But it changed while we had kids, I remember. Our kids were still young enough for it to matter. All right. Let's get to some sports here right after I tell you about earnest.

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training camp. You know, this week reporters, those on the beat of the Washington football team, were allowed in to watch practice. You know and I know John Kime very well. He's a good friend. He does a phenomenal job covering this team, and he has for many, many years now. He's one of my favorite people. He's one of my favorite reporters and writers, and he's great. And I follow John religiously on Twitter. But I always get a kick out of guys like John who are there every day. And what they tweet out in terms of practice because I know there's an audience for this. Oh, there is an audience. I just know it's not me.

It starts very, you know, informally. No full pads today, just shells. John tweets out. Chase Young went through stretching, not going through individual. Adrian Peterson and Thomas Davis, both back on the field today. Thaddeus Moss not practicing today. not practicing today. Alex Smith getting reps in nine-on-nine work. More than a few had time off during full team and nine-on-nine work. Carrigan, Moses, and Sheriff. Also, no Christian, that would

be Jaron Christian, but not sure why. Next tweet. I mean, nothing extraordinary in the movement, slide, not run. Oh, this is a reply to somebody about Alex Smith. I'm sorry. In three reps of nine-on-nine work, Alex Smith completed one pass, had one broken up, one missed down field. He had to slide a couple of times, nothing extraordinary, but still. And then you get in one-on-one work, Terry McLorne had a nice hard plant inside to get open versus Morland. After the catch, McClorn told him, I told you I'd get you on the next one. Then John tweets out, Darby had good coverage on a deep ball to Quinn, patient off the line, turned at the right time and forced Quinn to break up a possible pick.

And it just keeps going on and on. I love Ben and JP and John, all of them. They do such a great job. This is not, I'm in media covering this team hosting a talk show and a podcast where most of the audience are a significant portion of the audience, Tommy, as we know, are Redskinned fans or Washington football fans. I can't think of anything more irrelevant than this information on a day-to-day basis. for me anyway. And then the best part after, you know, a comment about, you know, Terry McLorn beating, you know, Greg Stroman on a deep route and a seven-on-seven drill

is you get all these, you know, memes of Terry McLorn, you know, as a superstar and all these predictions that Terry McClorn is going to be a first team all pro, pro bowl McLaren after a seven-on-seven catch. Or you get the opposite. it, you get Haskins and you'll get, you know, a Ben or John or Riannon Walker or somebody will tweet out, yeah, Haskins looks a little rough, and then you'll just get people attacking Haskins, you know, as a response. Like, that's the part of it that's even more fascinating to me, is that these people are taking

seven-on-seven drills in shells, and they are making definitive proclamations about what's going to happen when they actually start playing against. teams in uniforms and full uniforms? I think I find it valuable. And I understand it. And basically what they're trying to do is, I know this sounds kind of goofy, but they're trying to bring their follower to training camp. Yes.

They're trying to be the eyes of their followers, of Washington football fans. And I think most fans, I think eat that up. They love that. They love to hear the details about what's going on, even if they're minute, boring details that won't mean anything in the long run. So I certainly understand it, and I think it has value. I think it has some value. What I'm saying is it doesn't have value for me, and I'm a hardcore fan.

I do agree with you that there is a group of fans. I don't know what percentage of the hardcore fan there is that really, you know, cannot wait for J.P. Ben or John Kime or Rie Walker or any of them for the next tweet from nine-on-nine drills or seven-on-seven in shells. In shells. Now, there is information every day that I am interested in when there is an injury. or when someone isn't practicing because of an injury, that's important information. But obviously there's very much interest right now in the quarterbacks and Alex Smith to see what level of work he's doing.

I do understand that. But I bet if we went back and we read these tweets from every August in the past that so much of it just when we got to actual games is like, well, what happened to that guy? What happened to that guy that you tweeted six times about that had that great catch after he made a really good inside move on Moreland? You know, I was reading Ben. Ben recapped all of training camp day number one.

I think it was Ben. Now I'm going to be confused. But some tight end name Baugh, Marcus Baugh really impressed with a couple of deep catches and it's that kind of thing that I bet if we went back and looked at it sometimes you're hitting on a guy that nobody knows of that's going to end up being a contributor

much of the time this person never even sees September but that's the definition of a long shot and who doesn't want to be on the ground floor of a long side if you can say you were the guy Yeah. Recognize that guy. And at the end, he turns out to make the roster. I mean, you can take some pride in that.

I mean, most of them are, you know, are going to be, you know, working as grocery clerks at some point. But, you know, I understand the mentality of pointing out a guy who performs that no one's ever heard of before with the notion being that, hey, you know, I had this guy before anyone else. A small little victory, I think. for people who covered a team. I get that. I just, I guess. And you know what's interesting, though, is some of the tweets I've read have talked about Ron Rivera's intensity in running his training camp. Right.

The tempo. In contrast to Jay Gruden. Well, yeah, it was Camp Jack. But we did not read from the people who covered a team during the Gruden years. pleased about how laid back and lackadaisical training camp was. Well, you heard it from Doc Walker and Brian Mitchell many of those days when they were out there. But the people who covered the team, you know, Jay was just conducting business as usual, and he was a good coach.

And, you know, and we didn't read, I mean, if there's a contrast between the right way to do things, if you think Ron Rivera is doing the right way and the wrong way, we didn't know Jay Gruden was doing it, the wrong way because no one ever told us, except for guys like Doc and Beamette, guys who obviously would recognize the difference. I can remember so many of those training camp days in Richmond with Gruden in particular where, you know, I would be talking to Doc as, you know, I was leaving or he was coming and he'd be like, this is a joke. He's like, I mean, he, I think it takes guys like Brian and Doc who played for a guy like Gibbs,

to understand what a practice looks like and what one doesn't look like. Remember, you know, no one was more critical of Jay in terms of team guys than DJ Swaranger. He's the guy that really called out Gruden, you know, and he was probably right about all of that. Yeah, he probably was. Yeah, the guy that, you know, you thought should have been punished by being made to stay on the team. No, I, again. So that's one thing. Well, you're actually levying a legitimate criticism here.

I'm just more curious as to the people that are sitting there, and I know that there are plenty of them, hanging on every single John Kime tweet about whether or not Terry McLorn in a seven-on-one or in one-on-one work, you know, planted inside and made a good move to get open against Air or Moreland. I just None of this stuff Let me take it to something else Because I've listened to Jason Wright

The new team president now On A half dozen interviews Listen to him on Galdi Who was in for me this week I listened to him yesterday on Mad Dog With Chris Russo And I am so

Absolutely convinced The conversation that we had the other day About a team president that's not involved in the football operation, that it's, look, the guy sounds impressive and the resume. We've said all that. Nothing matters other than winning on the football field to a football organization. This guy will not be successful if Ron Rivera doesn't win. And if Dan Snyder doesn't allow Ron Rivera and the football people to run the football operation in hopes of creating a winner or a sustained competitive outfit, which they haven't had here in 20-something years. Like there's nothing.

I'm listening, and by the way, he's made it very, very clear that there is, he reports to Snyder on business issues and has nothing to do with the football operation. He basically said, I've got spreadsheets in my office that Ron Rivera doesn't look at, and he's got a draft board that I'll never see. It's a very clear, which, you know, it's good to have that. There's a very clear org chart here. Ron Rivera and Jason Wright are both essentially at the same level, and they both report to the owner. And then everybody branches off those two. the football operation underneath Ron and the business operation underneath Jason. But Rivera's part is the most important part.

If the team doesn't win, they won't be able to generate the kind of revenue and ticket sales, corporate sponsors, you know, sweet sales, et cetera. And all of the community discussion about really invigorating the community and changing the culture, and he can do that on the business side. There's been an incredible arrogance on the business side. with this organization to go with a losing football team. He can change that and have impact on that day one. And it sounds like he sort of understands that that's been the culture on the business side,

to walk around as if you've just won three Lombardi trophies, which they didn't. It's been many, many years. But it's the football matters. And so this guy's getting a lot of attention, rightly so, because it is very historic in terms of the hire, although he pointed out Tommy Warren, you know, the commissioner of the Big Ten being the chief operating officer at Minnesota.

And he said basically he had the same responsibilities I had, but without the team president title. But anyway, Kevin Warren, last name Warren, he's now the commissioner of the Big Ten with a lot of pressure on him, by way, talking about being the commissioner during a pandemic of a group of 14 schools, Tommy, that absolutely have to have football to to essentially support not only every other athletic endeavor, but a lot of academic endeavors as well. Yeah, absolutely. I certainly understand that. I do think that the new team president for business operations is going to wind up involved in football decisions.

I think that's inevitable. He'll be dragged into it because Snyder's influence will. has always affected the business side. Snyder's influence on the football side has at times affected the business side. So I think he'll be dragged into this. And the one good thing is he has NFL experience, which would probably help him in those decisions. Yeah, I don't, you know, you're predicting the future. As of now, he seems to believe that his whole focus will be on the business side and they're going to leave Ron alone. Dan and Tonya will.

I think I texted this to you after our conversation the other day. In the interview with Galdi, he mentioned Tanya three times as much as he mentioned Dan. There's no doubt that right now, in my view, Tanya's got more of a voice than she's ever had in the organization. Much more. And that may be just simply because Dan's not in the country and hasn't been in the country for months. He may be back in the country. I don't know that he isn't, but I know that for the most part, he has been on his yacht in the south of France during this pandemic because he's a cancer survivor, as is his wife. Tanya is as well, and they have felt safer being, you know, away from population density, I guess you would call it, and the possibility of infection.

Well, that makes sense. It also makes sense that when you run a business that's being accused of being a misogynistic animal house, it's good to put a female face and voice on the decision-making moving forward as well. That's a good point. Real quickly from J.P. Finley, last 2-11-on-11 drills have included a pick, one for Joanne Haskins, and one for Kyle Allen. There have also been some dropped interceptions. So there you go on that. They're going to be two and 14. That's obvious, based on today's practice. JP and John and Ben, I'm not picking on you.

I just personally, I find it entertaining that people are sitting there, and I know that there are many of them just waiting for that next tweet. All right, I wanted to get to Alex Smith here for a moment. Alex Smith and Dwayne Haskins to a certain degree, because I want to read what Kevin Zampezee, Ken Zampezee said about Dwayne Haskins. But Alex Smith, after yesterday, spoke to the media. And there were a couple of things that, to me, are really interesting. First of all, one of the reasons, and he's been very clear that this trip to San Antonio

with all of those injured war participants was very impactful to him and his life, and that a lot of this comeback is to prove to them that he can do it. And also, there's a lot about him proving to his kids what he can do. He said he owes it to them to be a living example that it's possible to come back from a nightmare with the knowledge that even if he falls short of playing in games again, there's nobility and honor in trying. That's not a quote that is sort of a paraphrase. of what I heard him saying, and that he really can sit, you know, it's an incredible thing for him as a father,

that this is going to be a huge, huge learning experience. Here's the exact quote. When I became a father, it's something obviously that changed my life. I think you learned pretty quick that parenting wasn't always about me telling them things. It was more about the example that I give and lead with. And faced with this, the injury, the aftermath, and the recovery process, it was about how. how I was going to handle that, closed quote. So I think that a lot of this really is for him to prove to the people that he spent time with down at San Antonio

and maybe more importantly to his kids to, you know, you can never give up. And the goal has been to get back to the point where he can play football. And as he said, even if he falls short and he's got anxiety over it. He's got anxiety over being hit for, you know, the first time. And he talked about that a little bit. But it's, I still don't think it'll happen. He's participating in nine-on-nine today, according to Kime and J.P. and Ben. He was doing seven-on-seven, I guess, yesterday.

But to get to 11-on-11, you know, they're going to have to see a lot more before people are falling down around his feet, you know, even if he is wearing a yellow jersey. I would agree with that. They're going to have to see more. you're going to have to feel a little bit more confident about it. Look, Alex Smith knows what his relationship is with his kids and what he decides with his kids is his business. Just a little bit extreme. I mean, if his kids don't know who Alex Smith is at this point

and what he stands for and what he's taught them, then, I mean, this is just too much. I mean, look, for the thing, kids are. kids always revere their fathers. I mean, I've seen dirtbag fathers who their kids think are gods. You know, so I'm not sure how much this is going to make a difference. I'm sure his kids are probably in awe of their father for what he's accomplished already. And I just find this reasoning to give his kids an example a bit extreme.

and I'm a little bit cynical about it. I think it's doing it for, I think mainly, I think he's doing it for him. You know, that's why I love you, because, you know, it's, after listening to him yesterday, no decent person would say what you just said. But with that said, it's definitely, if you're really, if you've lived life long enough, that perspective isn't completely nuts. Like you can see a 36-year-old talking about the lessons that he wants to provide his kids is essentially, you know, he's creating a situation where maybe he can actually compete again because that's really what he wants to do.

I don't, yeah, I have no idea what the motivations are. I don't know how sincere he is versus, you know, insincere on this. I'm going to take him at his word. I know that at 36 when my kids were super young, it was important to me to always think about the example that I was setting. And I think as they got a little bit older, you realize that actually, you know, it's important when they're young,

but it's much more important when you have sort of an adult relationship with them in so many ways where, you know, they're not, they're watching, but they can also be skeptical and you can end up in a conversation about it rather than just taking it at face value. Actually, my favorite conversation sometimes are with you and my kids. But anyway, the other thing that I wanted to get to was Haskins. So I'm going to find exactly, because Ben wrote about it in depth. And there were a couple of...

Not looking too good in training camps today, according to the tweets that are going out. Really struggling. Yeah, there we go. Where is this? Give me a second here because it's from Ben's story in the athletic. Okay. Why don't you have your staff do this stuff for you before the podcast? Yeah, right. Staff, exactly.

So, he, Ben called Haskins practice, I guess, yesterday, uneven. He said there's always a throw or two that reminds him that he's got considerable gifts. he connected with his former Ohio State teammate McLaren for a deep in completion, and the quarterback celebrated with a fist pump, and then Haskins later delivered a direct throw to Dantrell Inman in the end zone. However, the concerns were obvious. Ben writes Haskins misfired several throws. At times he chucked balls away after being unable to find targets in seven-on-seven drills without a pass rush.

The staff last season, and this is what I wanted to get to, the staff last season had issues with Haskins' inability to remember play calls. after one errant throw, offensive coordinator Scott Turner told the young quarterback, he'd run the wrong play. Rivera said, there are some good things. You watch him go through his progressions, his reads, and he does some things that he needs to do. And then as Rivera was continuing to speak, a quizzical look ran across the coach's face, Ben Standing Road.

Quote, and then a couple of times from Rivera, and then a couple of times you see him not going through his progressions, not keeping the right tempo or pace to it, just a little detail thing. Again, he's still learning and growing. We're pretty excited about that, closed quote. For the second straight day yesterday, Haskins took all the reps with the ones, followed by Kyle Allen. That quarterback competition Rivera promised months ago remains in limbo for now, though every snap and drill counts.

So what I wanted to get to on this is that you just said it, that the tweets coming out of the practice today are more sort of that there's a struggle there. So what I wanted to get to is this. So I think a lot of people, you know, understand that without a preseason, that no preseason means it's going to be very difficult for coaches to really have a feel, a definitive feel, for roster spots, let's just say 45 through 53. I don't even know how many roster spots are really open up. But that, that's always the case, that these preseason games do, do you influence those last few roster decisions? Now, I don't know enough about Ron Rivera or his coaching style,

but I know in most cases, Tommy, preseason games are not as important as these practices are. So that's why I bring this up. Again, I'm not sitting there waiting for every JP, Ben, or John tweet like maybe some of you are. But I do think what, because look, it's like anything else. I mean, if somebody's really bad and had an awful practice and then Rivera comes on and says how awful it was, well, then everybody knows how awful it was. Other than that, sometimes we don't really even know, even if we're sitting there watching it. But my point is, is that for the quarterback competition, maybe because it's a new coaching staff,

etc., these preseason games would have been important. but in most cases, when you're talking about starters and absolute guys that are going to be on the roster, it's the practices that matter the most. That's where the coaches... This is what we heard from Shanahan all the time. All the time. All the time. We heard it from Gibbs all the time.

You know, these preseason games, you know, really help the, you know, coaches make decisions on players that they don't know who have never, they've never seen them with the lights on. so to speak. Well, all the players we're talking about right now at quarterback, everybody has seen them with the lights on. So now it's, are they getting it in practice? Are they getting in and out of the huddle in practice? Are they getting the right play called in practice? Is the ball hitting the ground? You know, I remember Mike Shanahan telling me years ago about, you know, these practices and the tempo. And it's a lot of the stuff that I'm hearing from Rivera too. And it's the tempo. And it's in the passing stuff in the seven on stuff, seven on seven stuff. You don't want to see the ball hit the

ground. That means you want to see good crisp throws from the quarterbacks and nobody dropping balls. You don't want to see balls in the dirt and you don't want to see balls drop that are well thrown. You don't want to see balls behind a guy where he's got to reach back and then the ball hits the ground. You want to see seven on seven with no pass rush. The ball never hit the ground. It's like for you basketball people out there, when you work, if you're coaching and you're working on your zone offense, that ball should reverse two or three times before it ever hits the ground. You don't use dribble to beat, you know, to beat a zone. You use passing.

You don't use dribbles to beat a full court pressure. You use passing. Ball shouldn't hit the ground in practice anyway, in practice. And in football, it's the same thing. So yesterday there were some reports that the ball kept it in the ground. It hit the ground too much. But I did want to read this one thing from Ken Zampeze. Ken Zampeze is the team's new quarterbacks coach.

And Kime wrote a really good column on ESPN.com about Haskins and titled for Washington's Dwayne Haskins' Leadership Body Top Year 2 checklist. And there's a lot about how he's gotten into incredible shape. And Ken Zampese said that he was keeping an eye on the Haskins videos that he was sending out via social media. And he said, quote, I saw how serious he was about his conditioning, serious about his technique and working out. And then he said the following that I wanted to read to you. He said, not being tired. If your body is tired, your mind gets tired.

And if your mind is tired, the ball goes to the other team. He's talking about the condition that Haskins has gotten into. He said, then he said this, just because you're in shape doesn't mean you're a good player either. But it is one thing in your control, and it's always a good place to start. Rivera said that he wanted to see Haskins, remember early on, become more of a leader. And he said being the leader is not just what you do on the football field, but what you do off the football field as well. So in Kimes column, there's a whole section about just the conditioning that he got himself into.

But I liked Zampeze's line because, you know, how many people have you talked to, Tommy? I certainly have. Have you seen the shape? Have you seen the weight he's lost? Oh, my God. This dude's going to blow up in year two. Well, it's the thing he can control in the offseason. And it's a good sign that he's got the discipline to get into shape because I was surprised last year at how much body.

fat, how much less body fat he had from when he was at Ohio State. Now he's lost essentially 20-something pounds. He's down to 2-18. I thought he was pretty good at extending the play last year. This is a thing he can control, but it doesn't mean that he's going to be a good quarterback. The tweeting out videos of a cut body doesn't mean that he's going to be a good quarterback. He's got to master all of the other stuff, which we've seen plenty of fat, quarterbacks be really good quarterbacks in this league. You know, being in shape is the thing he could control during a pandemic with no OTAs and no mini-camps.

But, and that's great that he did it. I'm not knocking it. But it does not necessarily mean that he's going to have a big year two, even though I do believe he's going to have a good year too, but not because he's in great shape. And when we run into this in boxing over the years all the time, a guy like Ken Norton who was built like Hercules, fighting a guy like Larry Holm, who had basically a soft body.

You know, what's not particularly muscularly defined. It doesn't always translate to the skills that are needed to compete in those various sports. There have been plenty of muscle-bound fighters who have gotten their butt kicks by guys who look like they were grocery clerks. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I mean, I'm really, I'm rooting for Dwayne. I really am. I want to, I think that they, that they have a coach right now and they have a defensive mindset with some talent. But, you know, you keep coming back to one thing. Like if you're, if you're a believer that this organization is going to turn the corner and become like a professional NFL franchise and it's going to have a chance to win. And they've got all these pieces. like Rivera and Del Rio and talent on defense.

Chase Young didn't practice yesterday. He's got a hip flexor. And all of that. All of that can be completely summarined by inadequate quarterback play. We've seen it in recent NFL. If you don't have that position right, you're not going to win big. I mean, there are occasions where you get, you know, a Jacksonville run from a couple of years ago where they make it to the AFC championship game

and they've legitimately got New England on the ropes. If you want to say that the Peyton Manning, Denver team that beat Carolina, did not have good quarterback play, it certainly wasn't the Peyton Manning we remember, but it was adequate enough. You've got to have that position nailed down. It's the exception to the rule where a team wins big without having a legit upper tier QB.

And you need at least a guy. It's in the top half of the league. And so that's, to me, the biggest question mark, other than the ownership stuff and all the other stuff that we don't know about, but whether or not they got it right with Haskins. And I would – Well, again, go ahead. No, go ahead. If Dwayne Haskins after training camp is not considered the best quarterback for them to win games this year,

do you still want him to be a starting quarterback? No. Okay. Because I think that's what you need to say if you really believe this organization wants to change. I... As painful as that may be, you need that. That's the answer. Well, see, it's not for the reason that you think, which is they have to win quickly. No, no, no, no, no, no. No. I mean, it's an indication that the coaches are, making football decisions based on football situation.

I would like them to have the ability to play the quarterback that gives them the best chance to win. First of all, it's going to be an odd season. Who knows? I mean, they could take advantage of something, you know. But I would be very, very disappointed if it wasn't Dwayne who proved to be the guy that gives them the best chance to win. I know. I would be very disappointed and I think it would be an indictment of him. And again, I mean, I'm not talking about Kyle Allen starting the opener because, you know,

because Dwayne just isn't there yet and Dwayne's going to be there in week two or week three. I think that would be a problem. Don't get me wrong. I'd be a little bit alarmed about that. But I'm talking about like a decision that says Kyle Allen's are starting quarterback. He gives us a chance to, he gives us the best chance to win. That would be a major, major indictment. I just want to real quickly just share with you something because I swear to God I'm not making

this up. A very good friend of mine. Twitter play by play from practice, question mark. Has everybody gone nuts? Question mark. And he attached a tweet from someone who covers the team. I'm not going to mention who. And it's just, it's hysterical. Like this guy, you know, I haven't heard from him in a couple of weeks. And he's a big fan of the team. I guess that's what caught me, caught my attention this morning, Tommy, was just getting onto Twitter and just seeing the constant play-by-play from training camp practice. Okay, though. To be fair, we've had in terms of actual sporting things to report on nothing for months and months and months.

So any kind of sporting activity is going to receive even more of the spotlight, even if it's stupid training practices. It's going to receive because it's sports. Chris Russell, do you remember, I think you and I were leaving training camp in Richmond after doing this show one day, and I'm pretty sure this is the way it went down. It could be somebody else that I'm thinking about. but I think you texted me or you called me and you said, are you listening to this right now?

And Chris Russell was doing a show on our local Richmond station where he was breaking down the kickoffs, not even field goals or extra points, the kickoff differences and abilities of the three training camp kickers. And who was the best guy for kickoffs? Do you remember that? Yes, I do. I was driving out of Richmond listening to it on the radio, and I couldn't believe it.

Well, I mean, what we're talking about is sort of similar to that. I mean, again, I love you, Chris, and I love all these guys, and they do a phenomenal job, and I'm not disputing that there isn't an audience for this. I just think, you know, it's almost like, I used to do this. I would take those, you know, the Street and Smiths from over the summer, or the, you know, which, you know, as you mentioned to me the other day, is going to be defunct. And I would just hold on to them. And then at the end of the year, I would look at, you know, their predictions versus what happened.

And there's nothing, you know, there's nothing in August that anybody knows about the NFL. It's just such a different product from everything else that's out there. It's so unpredictable. And I just remember, you know, at some point in February or January, I would go back and and say, all right, let's look at the preseason predictions from everybody. I mean, not even close more times than not. The NFL is the hardest sport to bet. It's the hardest sport to predict.

Yeah, I thought it was you that called me about Russell that day. That was hysterical. Yeah, it was. Let me tell you real quickly about my bookie, because there are other sports going on. The NBA playoffs are going on. The NHL playoffs, the Caps have a big game tonight, try to get back into this series legitimately against the Islanders. You've got golf going on.

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with just this. I did watch the Caps game the other day. They were much better. They got off to a faster start. Hockey, to count anybody out down 3-0, we saw the Kings do it a few years ago, and they made the deep run after being down 3-0 in the first round. Everybody that I talked to that is a massive hockey fan said, look, they were dominated in those first three games. They really were five-on-five, but the Caps, you know, are still have the firepower to win four in a row against the Islanders. Now, it's not likely that it'll happen, but it can happen. And at 8 o'clock tonight, the Caps could really put the pressure, Tommy, on the Islanders, by winning and forcing this series to a sixth game.

Yeah, no, you're right. The Caps have the capability. I just don't think they have the coach. Yeah, you know, Ovechkins come up big in this in this series time. He's got four goals. You know, I think they only had five total goals in the first three games. Now they got eight, I think, in four games at this point. He's got four goals so far in this series. I've enjoyed the NBA playoffs here to start. I've enjoyed the NHL playoffs, you know, going back to the play-in series. I'm not going to sit here. Tommy's not going to sit here and break down the X's and O's of game five here tonight between the Caps and the Islanders. I did see that the Caps, I think, were a slight underdog in the game today. I think the Islanders are like a minus 115 favorite. At least that's what I saw last night. To me, you know, it's what Tarek sort of said on the radio show to me last week.

you know, this is a series where when they were, I think they were down one nothing at that point, maybe two nothing at that point. And he's like, it's going to be all on Braden Holteby. And Holpey was, you know, came up pretty big the other night. Stopping, I think, 27 or 25 of 27 shots. He's going to have to be huge for them again. And they're going to have to be better as they were the other night,

five on five. They had, of their goals the other night, they had, they had, you know, after falling behind two nothing, I think of their three goals. Only one of them was a power play goal, I'm pretty sure. So they were better five on five. And by the way, Tommy, after the first period being down two nothing the other night to the Islanders and three nothing,

they didn't go away, you know, with their tail between their legs. We've seen that with this group. I'm talking about pre- Stanley Cup, where, you know, in some of these big spots or hopeless spots, they've come up really small. They didn't the other night. They got down early in the last. the first period, two nothing. They were in deep trouble, you know, down three games to none. Before the 10-minute mark of the first period, they're down two-nothing. That guy, Barzell or Barzal,

the real fast guy for the Islanders scored, and they could have gone home meekly, and they didn't do it. They hung in there, and they got a win. And now, you know, these things are strange. If they somehow win tonight, now, the pressure would seem to be back on the Islanders. They might start to feel it. I would think so. Yeah. Yeah. Two pieces of news that broke this morning. One, on Zoom, Cal Ripton Jr. announced he had prostate cancer. Really? Yes.

It was a diagnosis came after slight elevations in PSA, his PSA in February. But he's already had the surgery in March. His accorded to Dan Conley of the athletic is resume full activities now. And he appears to be okay. That's great news. I mean, that's one of those cancers that is pretty, you know, it's pretty common in people when you get to a certain age. And it's also, you know, very treatable, you know, when caught early. So the best day.

And Cal will be 60 this month as well. Amazing. The other piece of news, did you see this? I don't know. Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon was arrested this morning? Yeah, I saw that. What was that for? I saw it just as we started to go on.

What was he arrested for? Had something to do with a wall? He frauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a border wall fundraising campaign. He was actually arrested. He wasn't discharged. He was cuffed and taken away, I think. Well, Roger Stone had basically a whole SWAT team show up at his house in Florida

when he got arrested. That's true. That's just a shocking news to me. That's all. A little bit of shocking news. Yeah, I'd have to spend more time looking at it. What are the odds that Trump will tweet out? Steve Bannon, I barely knew the guy. He was just on something the other day.

Was he on? He was on one of the Sunday morning programs, either this past weekend or the weekend before. Was he on with Stephanopoulos? I forget what I was watching where I saw him. You know what we did in talking. talk about at all was just the Darius Geis thing. And because I think that happened after the show on, um, on, on Tuesday, uh, two women's,

the USA Today story, right? Yeah, the USA Today story saying that two women claim that Darius Geis raped them when he was a freshman at LSU. They said they shared their allegations with multiple people at LSU, including at least two coaches and AD and a nurse. The women said the school failed to investigate and didn't interview them. were potential witnesses. And, you know, I'm telling you, Tommy, this is, this goes back a couple of months now. I was just hearing that there weren't a lot of people that were, other than the talent,

that were 100% sure that Geis was going to be a guy that Rivera would want to want to hold on to, that there was just, the word that kept coming up was immaturity, immaturity. None of this stuff. I didn't know any of this stuff. I don't know what they knew either. But the point is that if they really are going to attempt to change the culture, somebody like this, even if they, from a personality standpoint, believe that, you know, let's just say he's off a little bit, you got to move on if you're changing a culture.

You know, if you have real, you know, suspicions. This would be massively damaging to LSU if they did. if their allegations about going to coaches, you know, an athletic administrator and a nurse, and they were ignored massive implications in this environment. In any environment, there should be. You would think so, but it's college football in the South. And as I pointed out, they don't value certain things down there as much as they do in the rest of the civilized world. Right.

How's that for you? Yeah. I hope we get some Southern college football this year on Saturdays. I enjoy the product a lot. Anything else? Did we forget anything? That's what I got, Bob. I'm ready to head to the beach. We didn't talk about Tom Brennaman. You saw that, right? Yeah, that's a got to go situation. Got to go. Did you listen to him say it? Have you listened to the video? Yeah. Yeah, it's got to go. I'm sorry.

When that usually happens, off camera or off mic, that's who you are. That's got to go. Look, I don't know if it's who he is or isn't. I listened to it. It was awfully comfortable with what he said. He said he thought he was off mic. He was calling a Reds game against the Royals, I believe. And off mic, he said one of the F.A.

capitals of the world. He said the word. And then he immediately got into thinking he was back on Mike and continuing with his play-by-play duties. He's been a Cincinnati Reds play-by-play guy for years. He's been a huge Fox NFL guy for years. When he found out that the comment was made, he attempted to apologize on the air, which was actually hysterical because he starts his apology, and then there's a home run, which he immediately then calls the home run and then gets back to his apology. but he essentially almost conceded as he turned the mic over to his, you know, whoever was doing the analysis or maybe it was another guy that came in to do the

play by play. He essentially conceded that, you know, he may have just made the last call of his career. Like, I mean, that's, I guess that there. I think he did. Yeah, I mean, they suspended him. be hard to think in this environment that they could bring him back. Yeah. I mean, you just can't do it.

You can't verbalize that in any way, shape, or form like that. I mean, if he said it, if he said it, you know, in a small group to a bunch of reporters who were just shooting a brief, you've got to write that. You'd have to write it. Like if he was sitting in the press box talking to a couple of us and he just offhandedly said that, you can't get away. You can't let him get away with that. Well, I mean, I think there's also a question.

If you listen to it, look, it's total interpretation. And I don't know if it's right or wrong. I listened to it. It sounded like a guy that, you know, was talking about something for not the first time with a group of people that weren't shocked. by the way he was talking. You'd wonder about the other people as well and whether or not they just have put up with it, you know, over the years. But again, I don't know that to be a fact.

I do know this. I would agree with you. I think it's, I think he's absolutely done. I don't think there's any way you can survive that. You know, there, remember, you know, that word being used in the midst of competition with Kobe Bryant many years ago. and I actually debated with you, I believe, that that is not what he was intending to say, that he wasn't using it as an anti-you-know, as a gay slur in the midst of competition.

Essentially, he was using that word as a substitute for asshole. But this isn't that. This guy was talking about one of the F-A-G capitals of the world. Now, where was the game? I mean, this wasn't in Cincinnati. It must have been in, was the game in Kansas City yesterday? I don't remember where the game. But we don't know what city he was referring to.

We don't know what he was referring to. But it was, yeah, the game was in Kansas City yesterday. Okay, we're done for the day. We both agree that he's not, that that ended his career. Long career. I think he's in his mid-50s. I think he's, you know, his father was a long, Marty Brennan was a longtime play-by-play guy, you know, in Cincinnati.

Marty Brenneman did ACC basketball games for years. years. Tom Brennaman's been doing Reds games for years. There are Cincinnati family. And Tom Brennaman's been, you know, how many years has he been calling NFL games on Fox, you know, a long time? And it's always been a solid guy. It's not like, I don't know that I've ever been like this massive fan necessarily of him. But, you know, he's been one of those names over the years that you've, you know, even if you didn't know you were listening to him, you've listen to them many, many times, especially if you're an NFL fan or a baseball fan. All right, we're done for the day. I may do something tomorrow or Saturday morning to put out

a third podcast this week, especially if there's any big breaking news. I mean, look, if Haskins went eight for 20 today and seven on seven, that would be a big deal. I mean, we'd have to do an emergency pod for that one. All right, Tommy, enjoy the beach today. Okay, boss.