The Kevin Sheehan Show - Variety Show

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with a variety of discussion topics which culminates with their thoughts on Variety's list of The Top 100 Greatest TV Shows Of All Time. Before the boys get to that, Thom talks about his column in the Washington Times which took Ted Leonsis to the woodshed for basking in the glow of a "higher calling". Thom predicted Jacoby Brissett would play last week...his Washington-Jets prediction this week also involves a quarterback footnote. Much more on the Commanders plus Maryland vs UCLA and an early Kevin NFL "Smell Test" pick on the Rams-Saints TNF game.   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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show is always presented by Windon Nation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com for a great deal. Tom wrote a column that we're going to talk about today because I am wondering whether or not anybody reached out to you because that was really. really well done and man did you go after ted uh we'll talk about this uh coming up in the show but i wanted to start with this um with this from sam uh sam said tom was close enough kevin he gave you full credit for shotgun snaps on fourth and one so yesterday on the show or two days ago on the show. When I, at the end of the show, played back you predicting that Jacoby Burset would play and predicting the Rams would win in a route, which I had totally forgotten,

what I did notice about the prediction, and I think what I decided to cut out, but then I mentioned on yesterday's show that I cut it out was that your prediction was that Jacoby Berset would play, but it would happen. because of injury to Sam. You said Sam had kind of gotten lucky taking the pounding that he had taken, and you didn't think he was going to get lucky on Sunday. And so what Sam's referring to is, remember when you seem surprised about them being in shotgun on fourth and one? I think it was against the Cowboys, and I said, half the leagues in shotgun on fourth and one.

And Steinberg, I think, reached out to us to say he looked up the numbers, and it was actually like 43%. And you said close enough, good job. So I will return the favor and say, more than close enough, all you needed to have was Jacoby Brissette playing on Sunday for the win, and you got it. Thank you, Sam. Yes. I wasn't trying to take credit away from time.

I was just trying to state why he thought Jacoby Brissette would play. As you said when I told you the other day, What did you say something like close enough? Details. Details. Details. Yeah, details. You've got a prediction on the game Sunday. That's coming up. Cannot wait. And I'm going to make sure I've got my hearing aids in to listen to whatever footnote you have this week. So this email from Pete, if we get to the end of the season not sure about Sam Hal, then it's on to the draft because if you're not sure you have your quarterback, then you don't.

I think that's true, don't you? Yes. Yes, I absolutely think that's true. You're not very talkative here in the show so far. Is everything okay? Yeah, everything's fine. Everything's fine. You dropped some homework on me before the show began.

Oh. And I'm trying to catch up here. Oh, I see. You're going through that. list, aren't you? I'm trying to. I'm trying not to throw up when I, as I go through the list. We won't tell you what the list is. You'll have to stay tuned for that. So basically, you haven't been listening to anything I've said so far on the show.

You've got your... Yeah, you said how smart I was about predicting that Jacoby percent would start and that you're reluctant to give me credit for it. Isn't that pretty much what you said? Not really, but you know what? Keep the smart part in your mind. Just hold on to that. I also actually said you wrote quite a column. That's never far from my mind, which we will get to. From my mind.

Yeah, if we get to the end of the season, and by the way, we're kind of close to the end of the season, and you say, and by the way, it's not for us to say, it'll be for the new regime to say, we're not sure, well, then you don't have the quarterback. Yeah. And I think that you don't. I think the ship has sailed. I don't think Sam Howe is going to suddenly get better against the 49ers or the Jets defense or the Cowboys if that's an important game. I mean, these are potentially the three-the-tuffest games he's going to have in the whole season.

Yeah, you know, you asked me yesterday, I'm sorry, two days ago on the show, you asked me if I thought he might. might get pulled again or, you know, if Ron will pull him again. Or I think you said, can he pull him again? And I said, that would be really difficult to do because he already made that misstep and then, you know, had the comments to Nikki Javala the next day that Jacoby Burset would have probably been the starter had the game against the Jets been meaningful. You know, because of the teams they're playing, if Sam hasn't progressed speeding up the process, which I think is the frustration,

for everybody out there. Then it's going to be, one, maybe two of the three games, if not all three are going to look like some of the real ugly games this year. The Buffalo game, the Giants games, the Arizona game, which I think is an underrated bad game for him this year and the offense. And with that, I think that given that it's the end of the year, it might be a situation where they'll try to protect them by pulling them. So I actually think there's a chance.

I think they could. I think there is. Look, the saving grace on two of these games is, for one, the jets are horrible offensively. That may impact their defense to, you know, the people, they just may be packing up, you know, packing their golf clubs up at this point. And the Cowboys game may not mean anything at the end of the year.

Yeah, it's looking. more and more like the Cowboys game probably will mean something, although it is possible. But it is possible. You're right. It is possible that the Cowboys are eliminated before that season finale. It actually, what's interesting is it may come down to what it came down to last year. The Cowboys needing to win in D.C. and the Eagles needing to lose to the Giants for the Cowboys to win the division. It's possible because the Eagles once again play the Giants and Washington. Washington Washington plays Dallas. It could be a similar situation to a year ago. And look, the giants who knows where they'll be at the end of the year, but it could be identical to that game.

But yeah, no, it's possible the Jets have packed it up now that, you know, there's no chance for a playoff berth or no chance for Aaron Rogers to come in and lead him over the final three games. But man, that defense has been great all year. And if they do play, hard. It's going to be a rough go of it, I think, for Washington's offense. Now, San Francisco will come in here. That's a tsunami. Yeah. That's a tsunami. Meeting to win to continue to be in the hunt for the overall one seed. Really, no matter what happens. Now, they'll be coming in, remember, short week, because they play Monday night against Baltimore. In a rather large game. Yeah. Huge game.

So I do think there's a chance that we'll see more of Jacoby Berset. But this time, I don't know if it'll be about frustration or performance related. I think it might be the next time we really did need to protect him because he was taking a... Well, that was such a funny reason. I mean, basically, I boiled it down to compassion. They felt sorry for him, so they wanted to protect them. I've never heard a quarterback being pulled for compassion. before. But that's pretty much what

happened. And if they wanted to be compassionate, they would have pulled them out of a couple of games earlier in the season. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. When he took a much worse beating than he did on seniority. Look, who am I to judge what kind of beating you take? But from my

from my cigar lounge viewpoint, it didn't look like he took that much of a beating. No, he didn't. That wasn't what Sunday was about. And, you know, Somebody mentioned to me, and I read it on yesterday's show, that while you and I were talking about sort of the fallout and how telling it was that that happened and how, you know, it clearly increased in a lot of people's minds. Now, the reality of where Sam Howe is, and it wasn't as clear before his benching and before Ron's comments to Nikki Javala on Monday that Jacoby Resett would have been the likely starter had the game been meaningful. You know, it was pointed out that we talked a lot about it,

but we didn't emphasize the fact that this year's been about development, but Ron has also mentioned several times and implied we've got our guy. You know, this is the guy. I'm not just talking about the preseason prediction of leaving, you know, a great team that would win a Super Bowl and he would be vindicated, but that during various points this year, he has said, no, we really feel like we got our guy that this is going to be

a guy that's going to be here for a while. And so it had to be on some level after the fact, because I don't think he thinks about these things before, tough to kind of swallow that one and admit that at the very least, we're not

sure. And if you're not sure, then you probably don't have one. So I want you to tell everybody about the column that you wrote. And I want you to tell me and everybody if you thought that that was one of your harshest, you know, sort of critiques of Ted Leonsis. And I'll leave it at that. Tell everybody the column that you read and then tell me what you thought about it. Well, it kind of spawned out of our discussion last week about Ted's

performance at the press conference at, you know, at Potalick Yards to announce the move from D.C. to Northern Virginia. And how he just seemed so clueless about the impact he was leaving behind. And instead, it was giddy in the celebration of the moment. And his ego so consumed him, he talked about a higher calling. that he was doing. You know, he sure choked on those words, higher calling. And I didn't really get to that in the column about, you know,

my initial column about the news was not so much about Ted's performance at the press conference. And I think it merited some look back and some backhand. So basically, that's what the column was about. about the com was about Ted's giddiness, his incentivesivity to the impact of the people he was going to leave behind. You know, this notion that the mystics and a new and improved Capital One arena is going to make everything right. It's insulting. And the whole thing was insulting. If you were a D.C. fan, if you were a D.C. based business or worker impacted by this or somebody who likes

to live downtown or go downtown, you know, this is an impact, and he showed a lot of insensitivity to that. And I took him the task for that, coupled with, like I typically do when he goes off like this, I went to his book, The Business of Happiness, is his manual for how to be happy that he wrote in 2010, and how much, how much books does it take to write a book telling people how to be happy? I mean, that's just, unbelievable. And there were parts in there where he sang Abe Poland's praises

for building the arena downtown and making the commitment to the city. And, you know, he talked about Abe, you know, saw it as a civic responsibility and all this. And he inferred that Abe was his role model.

And like I said, the colony, he's no Abe Poland. Do I think it was the hard I don't know. I don't know if it was. I have to go back. When you're writing a column like that, seriously, do you, does it, does it excite you? Because you're really going on the attack? Let me, let me read some of it. You've kind of referred to some of it, but let me just read some of it for those of you that don't get the times regularly. He wrote, at some point in the last week, I expected transparent Ted Leonis

to apologize, not for his decision to move the caps and wizards to Northern Virginia, that apology may come someday if and when he's forced to return to his broken down arena in the district when the $2.2 billion Potomac Yards deal falls apart. By the way, you think it will fall apart. I don't, but whatever. And then you wrote, no, I thought that someone may have sat transparent Ted down and told him that the dance he performed on the grave of the district at the morning press conference at the site on December 14th.

His off-putting giddiness about leaving bodies behind in the city while he basked in the glow of the higher calling, in quotes, that led him across the river, was to put it mildly in bad taste. And then you give him the higher calling quote, and you wrote, it was insulting, but it was also revealing he's not the man who he claims to be. And then you say, this should come as no surprise, but to watch him say that we still have a responsibility to do a, a great job and continue to invest in Washington, D.C. with a straight face, revealed the height of the delusion of his ego, which appears to have no limits. So I thought as time passed, those who advised Transparent Ted might have suggested an apology was in order, that his higher ceiling remarks were offensive to those who have to pick up the pieces he plans on leaving behind. This is not to let city officials off the hook for their neglect in the attention that needed to be

paid to Transparent Ted. with his arena. No, this is about style and really being accountable. Part of Transparent Ted's hollow vocabulary. He appears to be capable of the act of apology. Before the Wizards opener this season, Transparent Ted sort of gave one to the fans in an interview on his monumental sports network when he said, to be honest, I feel like I have failed the fan base for the last three or four years. Speaking of the team's restart, reshuffle, rebuild whatever you to call it. It was several years too late, but it was a rare moment of contrition. Transparent Ted's act last week could use a moment of contrition. Whenever transparent Ted feels the need to

strut, I always feel compelled to refer to his book The Business of Happiness, in which he reveals the six secrets to extraordinary success in work in life. You have to admit, it takes a lot of you know what, to write a book telling people how to be happy, which we've talked about for years. And I just think it's so funny that he actually wrote that book because it really does. It takes so much ego to write that book. And so, you know, you get into the whole Abe and him paying homage to Abe, you know, for building in the city and, you know, being the steward and the whole thing. and then you write you know

Transparent Ted sought 600 million from the city to fix up Capital One and his deal in Northern Virginia could wind up costing more than one billion from municipalities taxpayers. Guess transparent Ted is no aide pollen although when he wrote the book in 2010 he cited the late owner as a role model of sorts

and so transparent Ted was born you know talking about him taking ownership of the Washington Capitals. Good luck waiting for Humboldtead to make an appearance. He's busy answering his higher calling. That one was a good one. You've got some really good ones when you really go after somebody.

I've said this before. I think in this town, there are two columnists that are at their absolute best when on the attack, Sally and Tommy. and I don't think anything you wrote was unfair. I think it's totally accurate. And you know how I felt when I was watching that press conference because we talked about it. I talked about it immediately and then we talked about it on the podcast. I just thought it was incredible to me.

Like you said, he was kind of, by the way, I thought about maybe he was dancing on the grave of the district that day because they had really neglected him. him and they had essentially called his bluff, and he felt like, you know, shoving it up their backside in that press conference. Yeah, I know, but just the act of the move did accomplish that. Just the move shoved it up their ass. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, he didn't, and, you know, there were people affected besides the people

who sat in a room with them at, you know, at the Wilson building, and, you know, and, you know, didn't pay attention to him when he was, you know, telling him, you know, I'm not going to put up with this. So, I mean, just the fact that he made the move, I think accomplished that if he felt the need to do that. This was salt. Salt and the wounds. Yeah. You know, and whoever needed to sit transparent Ted down and tell him not to dance on the grave should also tell him in future pressers to stop referring to the incredible brands that they've built. I, I, just the only two brands that really the significant majority care about are the Caps and the Wizards. And one of those brands is Luserville brand. I don't know how he doesn't see that.

That when he talks about these incredible brands, I know what he's referring to. He's referring to the Caps and the Mystics and the East Sports teams and the go-goes and the arena league teams. it's just that part really too just every time drives me nuts. You know, when he introduced all of the new people with the Wizards, it was, you know, 10 minutes of the incredible, smart brand-building operation that they are. And the only brand I care about a lot is the Wizards brand. And it's just been painful to be a Wizards fan like I've been for, you know, all of the years he's own the team.

And to be fair, for many of the years that abone the team at the end as well. Now, you talk about the Wizards, which brings up an interesting dynamic that's sort of taking place. And I don't know if it'll gain any momentum or not. But there's been an outcry, I think, maybe from the NAACP or someplace and other areas saying that the Wizards, not the Capitals, The wizards should not leave the district. Okay? And I've seen people who've criticized Ted sort of separating the two teams and saying, and I think in part rightfully so and think you could put the caps anywhere, you know,

around the beltway in and around the beltway, and they're going to have a following. you know, but the identity of basketball in the city and not having an NBA team is different. And I think there's sort of momentum for saying, you know, why don't you leave the wizards behind and just move the cats? Do you think there ever possibility of that happening? I don't think there is. No, I don't. I think that first of all, I think that the arena that's being built is being built for two teams, not one. I mean, we can sit here and talk about the caps having a more loyal fan base and having consistent attendance over the years. What if I told you that the majority of fans in the DMV that go to Wizards games come from Virginia? Would you be surprised at that?

Yes, I would. So was I when someone told me that. Now, do I know it's true? I think this person would know, but that was surprising to me. It would not have been surprising to me if Montgomery County and Prince George's County combined were the largest percentage in terms of counties. And it was the state of Virginia that somebody told me, and I said, is that just Fairfax County and, you know, and Arlington County, Alexandria County?

They said, no, it's just the state of Virginia actually, if you break up in three pieces, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, people that go to the Wizards games, not the majority, but the highest percentage come to Wizards games from the state of Virginia. That is a surprise. But I don't even think that's what we're talking about here. I think we're talking about something that actually involves race. I think that there's this feeling that, you know, an NBA team because most of the players are black and perhaps, you know, the majority of fans are black, which I don't even think that's true. Is it, I don't even know the percentage of breakdown of NBA fans or people who attend NBA games.

I really don't. But that an NBA team should be in the city. And they would be the first to play outside of the city that they represent. Yeah. I mean, I think we're talking about an urban, what's seen as an urban product being moved to a suburb, a very close suburb. Yes. I mean, can you call? Is Potomac Yards a suburb? I guess it is, yeah. Yeah, but it's like literally so inside the beltway. It's not even, I know. It's not even a suburb. Yes. Right. You know, I mean.

It's not Bethesda or Rockville or anything like that. Well, I mean, I think, you know, the immediate suburbs are, you know, those that are inside the Beltway, but not D.C. A lot of Bethesda is inside the Beltway. Chevy Chase is mostly inside the Beltway. You know, on the Maryland side, there are plenty of areas in PG County, including like Landover that are inside the Beltway. They are immediate suburbs. And then there are, you know, the outer burbs, I guess. Outer, Burtz, yeah. But, I mean, you should pay attention to that discussion. See if it involved in anything, because that's an interesting take. Well, I can't see that happening. Again, the deal is for two teams to play in that arena for 82 dates plus a year. They're not going to do it for 41 dates, I don't think.

Ted's not going to get the deal, you know, which is a 3-X deal on, you know, whatever the district. offered. Just one last question on this column. Have you heard from anybody on this column? Would you expect to hear from anybody on this column? You know, there was a time where if Ted didn't like something I wrote, he would say something. But then when his comments about criticizing the column wound up in another column, then he sort of gave up on that. All right. Up next, Tommy's Skins' Jets prediction, but more importantly, what will the footnote this week be? I can't wait to hear it.

I'm going to pop the hearing aids in, and I'm going to try to pay attention and stay awake. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, Shelly's backroom is a great location to get into the Christmas spirit. If you're down in D.C., you know, in the final days before Christmas Eve or before Christmas Day, you know, maybe you've got some visitors in town, and you're bringing them down to D.C. You're taking them maybe to the holiday market, which is a great event that they put on in front of the portrait gallery. In Chinatown.

In Chinatown. Yes, you're only a couple blocks away from Shelley's back room at 1,300 block of F Street, 1331 F Street, Northwest. If you want to come in from the cold, the best place to get warm is Shelly's back in your room, where you can warm up not only with a nice whiskey, first-class stuff, top-shelf whiskey, but a top-shelf cigar, too. Shelly's back room, they have a cigar selection from the top 25 cigars named every year by Cigar Officiato Magazine. So they have that available to you,

and they have people who can help you pick the cigar that you think you would like if you're kind of new to cigar smoking. So if you're down this way, you've got some friends, take them over to Shelly's. They'll never forget it. It's an unforgettable visit, shelley'sbackroom.com. You know, I'm looking at their menu right now, and this is the time of year.

We're not going to have a super cold Christmas. We're not going to have a white Christmas. It's going to be pretty mild over the weekend. And the real winter, for those of you that care, like I do, may start kind of after the new year. And, you know, all the weather people still... Yeah, all the weather people are still thinking that we're going to have a lot of snow in January and February. We'll see. But this time of year, especially holiday time, where places like Shelley's are decorated and they're fun and you're in the city,

I like a soup and I'm looking, they have a lobster Bisk, they have a home style chicken noodle, they've got a beef chili, they've got a New England clam chowder, only thing missing, and I'm going to tell Bob, is a French onion soup. French onion soup this time of year is great.

But Shelley's is awesome. You know, that Christmas market down in Chinatown Pencorder apparently is phenomenal. And you went, right? Didn't you go down there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we went down there about a week ago.

Right. To the National Gallery of Art and then to the holiday mark. See, I remembered that you were down there for that, and that impressive. All right, Tommy. Meaningless game between the Jets and Washington second trip to East Rutherford this year. The first one was not good. A loss to the Giants. It would be the first of two losses to the Giants.

Jets, by the way, are three-point favorites against Washington. The Jets have lost, they've lost five of six out of their last seven games, and a couple of them haven't been close. But I think actually, if the Jets have checked out officially with no hope of resurrecting their season with an Aaron Rogers now, maybe Washington catches them, you know, Napa a little bit. I hope not. I want Washington to lose this game, but what do you say? Prediction with the all

important footnote prediction as well. Oh, I think this is a checkout game. For whom? For the Jets. They're checking out. Oh, boy. They're going to... And unfortunately, I see a Washington victory. Oh, my God.

An ugly victory in 1913 win, which includes maybe the record-tying pick six, from Sam Howe? Doesn't he need one more to tie the all to the season record for pick sixes? Is that true? I think he does? I didn't know that. Yeah, let me double them. Let me check it out.

Have somebody on your staff check it out. I'm tired of doing your work for you. I'm going to do that. I'm going to have somebody check it up out right now. I'll have the answer to that. So Sam throws a pick six in the game? And that's the only touchdown that Jets get. Okay, they'll have two field goals. And yeah, and it'll be a 1913 Washington win. Okay. I'm looking, my staff just came back and they gave me the wrong information. They just gave me the all-time quarterback pick-six leaders.

Brett Farves, the all-time pick-six leader. This isn't a season. I know what you're trying to get at. Maybe it was games in a row with a pick-six, because he had three in a row. Maybe it was. And then he did not. a pick six against Rams. Maybe that was the record that they were trying to avoid when they pulled them. I think there were people out there with that theory. Okay, so 1913 Washington,

God, I'd hate to see that, and Sam Howell throws a pick six in the game, right? Yeah, but he survives otherwise, I think. He survives the entire day. I think so. Okay. By the way, If they do beat the Jets, you know, they could potentially go from fourth or maybe even better. New England plays Denver on Sunday night football, Christmas Eve football. And the Patriots are a game behind. And the Cardinals, you know, the Cardinals play at the Bears. I guess that could be a winnable game. So Washington might lose the opportunity by winning the game of going from second.

if they lost the game, if Arizona and New England both won, to perhaps all the way to ninth or tenth in the draft. Wow. This would be a devastating win. It could be a devastating win. Of course, there are two games after that. That's not going to wrap up this season. Right.

So I wanted to mention that Bob sent me this note. He wrote, longtime Terps fan here, wishing you would talk more about them like one of your emailers asked a few weeks back. I disagree with you on the best quarterback in Maryland history. It was Jack Scarbath, the runner up to the Heisman Trophy in 1952. He compiled a 24-4-1 record during his time at Maryland and defeated Tennessee in the 1951. Sugar Bowl. And then he went on to list his other accomplishments, including the most valuable... Sounds like he's got a case.

Including the player of the year in the Southern Conference, which Maryland was in at the time, and the most valuable player in the South, I did not mention... On yesterday's show, I mentioned that, you know, Talia Tunga Vailoa, Leah Tunga Vailoa is opting out of their bowl game against Auburn. I don't know if you know this, Tommy, but Leah is the all-time Maryland passing yards leader. I'm aware of that. He's the all-time Big Ten passing yardage leader. And what I said is he had a really nice career, but he's nowhere near the best quarterback in Maryland history.

Boomer Ossison is the best quarterback in Maryland history. And by the way, yes, to whomever asked me if the highlight that I played at the end of the show was the Maryland North Carolina game from 83. It was. I should have set it up. Al Michaels was on the call. Maryland was ranked 13th. North Carolina was three. It was Halloween weekend in College Park, and Boomer

led the Terps to their most significant win that year over third ranked North Carolina. Yes, at the end of yesterday's show, I played a highlight from that particular game, whoever reached out and asked me if it was that game. But anyway, Boomer's the best quarter. Look, I don't know

about Jack Scarbath. Sorry. I I've heard the name before. In fact, I think he was a radio broadcaster on Maryland games in like the 70s maybe. Maybe with Johnny Holliday when Johnny joined the group, although I think Jonathan Claiborne was there for years with Johnny. But if Jack Scarbath was the runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1952, obviously Maryland's never had a quarterback that was a runner up to the Heisman trophy. They've never had anybody other than it sounds like Jack Scarbath.

But can we stick to today's, you know, the last 50 years anyway? Boomer was the best quarterback. And Tommy, I had Scott McBrion as the second best Maryland quarterback. And a couple of you actually agreed with me on that. And I don't know where Leah ranks. It's not in the top two. He's in the conversation for three and probably no lower than fifth. There just aren't any memorable wins or memorable seasons.

Scott McBrion led Maryland to some big wins in his two years as a starter with Ralph in 2002-2003. He was a terrific, you know, quarterback, dual threat quarterback. But anyway, thank you, though, for the email. I do appreciate the email. and thank you for letting me know about Jack Scarbath. I've certainly heard his name before, and I know that he was a very important player in Maryland football history. By the way, just speaking of Maryland,

did a lot of Maryland on yesterday's show, too. Wow, this is getting out of hand. Tommy, Maryland plays UCLA Friday night at Pauley Pavilion. 50 years ago this month, Lefty Dresel, who, when he arrived at Maryland, as you know, proclaimed Maryland to be the UCLA of the East. They were going to become the UCLA of the East. Well, 50 years ago, December 10th,

so a few weeks ago, 50 years ago this month, Maryland made their way to Pauley Pavilion for a made-for-TV, massively anticipated college basketball game before college basketball became as popular as it would become. But it was Maryland as the UCLA of the East, against the actual UCLA who was led by Bill Walton. And they were on their 70-something game win streak. They had the big win streak with Lou Al-Sinder that Elvin Hayes ended in 1968.

And then they were on this other one with Bill Walton. And Maryland, you know, Lefty got the game. It was covered. There's a Sports Illustrated story written by Curry Kirkpatrick. And it was the cover of Sports Illustrated. after the game, UCLA by a whisker. They won 65 to 64. And it was a great game. Maryland was ranked fourth. UCLA was number one. This was the year that Maryland lost eventually to NC State and the famous ACC tournament final, when only one team from each league, and that created the rule that you could now,

they expanded the tournament and allowed at-large bids and more than one bid. They called it the Maryland rule. That was this season. NC State ended up ending UCLA's run of championships in the final four with the great David Thompson, and they went on to win the title against Al McGuire's Marquette team. But the lefty went out to Pauley with Tom McMillan and Len Elmore and Mo Howard and John Lucas. And I read the Curry-Curpatrick story. They were down nine to nothing in the game. They came back.

They took the lead. Then they were down eight with a few minutes to go and made a run. at the end and had the ball down 65-64, and John Lucas got trapped in the corner, threw the ball away, and UCLA was trying to run the clock out, and by the time Maryland fouled them, the horn went off,

and lefty sprinted onto the floor, Tommy, and went to the referee to say, games over, games over. He wanted the final score to be 65-64, didn't want UCLA to shoot free throws. I mean... Lefty was such a great promoter. Incredible.

Incredible promoter. And a really, and a great coach. A great coach took five different programs to the tournament. Yeah. Can you imagine, though, he's sprinting onto the floor saying, no, no, no, the clock ran out.

Instead of putting one second left back on the clock when they're down one and maybe they miss both and somebody, he just wanted to lose by one. Pretty funny. So Maryland plays at UCLA at Pauley on Friday night national TV game. Neither teams, you know, lighting it up. Neither team's ranked.

UCLA's actually lost three in a row. And it'll be Maryland's third trip to Pauley Pavilion. They went there with Adrian Branch in his freshman year in the early 80s and got blown out. And then the next year came back to College Park and beat UCLA. Maryland's played UCLA many times, including in the tournament and in neutral floor games. And then they got blown out by UCLA last year in college park. Jaime Hockes was great in that game.

He's become, excuse me, he's become an excellent pro so far for the Miami Heat. I thought he would be a good player. Anyway, all right, there's this list that came out that Tommy was asked to do homework on. We'll get to that. And I do have a Thursday night smell test pick when we come back. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment brought you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie.

Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and you'll get a cash bonus on your initial deposit. that my bookies got right now, the Rams as a four and a half point favorite tonight in Thursday night football against the New Orleans Saints. The public is all over L.A. in this game. The Rams have played well recently. This is a significant game, by the way, in the NFC playoff chase. And for the Saints in the NFC South Division race, the Rams have covered in four straight games.

They've won three of them outright. They've actually won four out of their last five. The Saints have actually played well in their last two games, but against terrible teams, Carolina and the Giants. So the public really likes the Rams. They perceive the number to be short. I'm not a big fan of the Saints overall, but I will give out the Saints plus the four and a half with a Thursday night smell test, the full smell test coming on tomorrow.

show, but an early smell test pick. Saints plus the four and a half tonight against the Rams out in SoFi in L.A. Saints tonight. Go Derek Carr. Not a big fan of Derek Carr, but need him tonight to come through. All right. So I asked you to look at the list that Variety put out yesterday. It's the list of the top 100 shows of all time, but it's not like the top 100 comedies or the top 100 dramas. It's everything. It's documentary, game shows, soap operas, comedies, dramas, you name it. 60 minutes is, you know, on the list. This is the top 100 television shows of all time. So you were doing some homework before the show. The show, Should I start with just the top 10 and tell everybody what number one through 10 was?

And then we can talk about the shows that we think were, you know, excluded from the top 10 that we think should have been top 10. How's that? Should we do it that way? Yes, I think we should do it that way. You're just not enthused about today's show. Well, no, I am. This is disgusting. It's despicable.

It's children. in charge of content. I Love Lucy, number one, all-time television show. You have a problem with that? You can make the case for that in terms of impact. You can make the case for that. They made a movie about the TV, about the making of the TV show. When they make a movie about your TV show, then your TV show is pretty impact.

What was the movie? What was the movie about I Love Lucy? I think Nicole Kidman played Lucy, and I forget who played Ricky. But there was a movie about a year or two ago about Lucy and Ricky. Number two on the list, Mad Men. Never watched it. Never watched it. I watched it.

I tried watching it. You know, it's an entertaining show. It might be top in the top 50. Number two, it's really. This is a joke then. It's a joke. I mean, I can name a double. shows that are more impactful and better than Mad Men.

Number three, the Sopranos. I don't think I have any issue with the Sopranos being somewhere in the top five. Number four, and this was not a show that I ever really got into. And when I've watched it, you know, I've been entertained and I realize how creative and how funny it was. it just for whatever reason hit me during a time where, you know, probably starting to have kids at some point in the 90s and it was animated and I didn't get into it. But The Simpsons came in at number four. That surprises me. Yeah, that's not my thing either. I mean, I would argue that Rocky and Bowlingle was a better cartoon show than the Simpsons, to be honest with you. and more adult.

So I don't think the Simpsons should be top ten. Number five. I'm going through the list. I've gotten to 30. Yeah. I hate to interrupt your flow. But, I mean, I was ready to throw my computer, you know, through a window. And finally, at number 30, which means there's 29 shows better than Hill Street Blues.

Absurd. Ridiculous. The greatest drive. in the history of network television. Of network television. I don't know if I agree with that because I was not a big Hill Street Blues fan. I was a big NYPD Blue fan, and that's on the list as well. There's no NYPD Blue without Hill Street Blues.

Breaking Bad was five. Now, for me, if it hadn't been in the top five, then I would have been angry. But I think you can make the case that this is the best show of all time. and it's five and there's no way the Simpsons or I can't say anything about Madman but I can't put I love Lucy in front of Breaking Bad. Number six is sex in the city. I'll confess. I think I watched one season of it. To me, it always felt a bit like a chick show.

I didn't love it. Didn't love the characters necessarily at all. I'm still not, you know, a massive fan of Sarah Jessica Parker and things that she's done. It's not a top ten show. But it's not. Yeah. Number seven. I mean, when you name these shows, what you're doing, and it seems oblivious to the idiots that are doing this is look at the shows you're leaving out.

Okay. If you think they, do you think sex in the city is a better show than Mary Tyler Moore? Then Hill Street Blues? Then the Wire. The Worry Sanders show? I still haven't gotten a Wari Sanders show yet. Oh, that was one of the shows I immediately went to to see where it was ranked. Because I, we both discussed this.

I think it's one of the most underrated shows of all time. Seven was the Wire. I'm sure you're thrilled that the Wire was Seven behind Mad Men, the Simpsons, and Sex in the City. Eight was Seinfeld. It was surprising to me that it was eight. I thought as I was scrolling through this, there was a chance. Seinfeld was going to be one, two, or three. Mary Tyler Moore was nine.

I don't have a problem with that. Roots, of course, that very powerful 1970s ABC made for television series that lasted a week or whatever came in at 10. And that's your top 10. Outside of it, Cheers was 11, Sesame Street 12. Succession came in at 13. I know a lot of people that love Succession, and I know a lot of people that say basically, it's great for like a season or two, and then that's it.

I didn't watch Succession. I kind of want to. I watch Succession. That's an overrated rating. Yeah. It was an entertaining show. All right. Give me your biggest gripes.

Well, I'll tell you, Hill Street Blue one is my biggest, my second biggest. Nowhere on the list is one of the great sitcoms of all time, and that's the odd couple. I mean, the odd couple, I mean, I can't even describe to you how good the odd couple was. You know, there's a scene in the odd couple where Felix and Oscar, Felix is running a casino night to raise money for his, opera club. Okay? And he wants, he asks Oscar to help him run it, you know, because Oscar's a big-time gambler. So Oscar invites all his gambling buddies to this thing.

So they're playing the roulette wheel, and one of these, his gambling buddy buddies, a little tough guy keeps winning and winning. And Felix is worried that they're going to lose money on this night. So at one point, he grabs the ball off the wheel. And he says, well, you can't play now. You don't have the ball. You know, and he pops it in his mouth. And the guy says, then we'll use your eye.

I mean, it was that kind of show. Howard CoSell made guest appearances. Roy Clark made guest appearances. Alex Carris was on the show. Garelia Premier. It was just Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King were on the show. It was just a great show. And it's in the type of it.

It's in the, it's in the show. the top 50 of all time. It's not even in the top 100 on this list. So, you know what? If this was a piece of paper, I'd burn it. I'm surprised you haven't mentioned another show that wasn't in it. And I don't know that I expected it to be, to be honest with you, but I was hoping it would be because it is definitely one of my all-time favorite shows, and it's one of the shows that you and I have both always agreed on. The Rockford Files is not in the top 100. It's not. It's not. No. Seriously?

Yeah, it's not. Well, then what? Eracist from the podcast. We're given this too much, too much credit. We're giving us too much attention. But that's what this is. This is children. Okay?

This happens to ESPN all the time. But there was some idiot on Fox Network the other day who called the Othani signing, the biggest and most impactful signing in the history of the Dodgers. Okay? Like Jackie Robinson was forgotten, I guess? Yes. Yes. But that's a child. You know, in a position of content power.

It's disgusting. There you go. All right. So a Rockford Files not being in it. I was disappointed. I don't know that I expected to see it in it, because I don't see it on a lot of lists sometimes of great sort of police dramas, you know, dramas.

But you and I both love that show. The Larry Sanders show coming in at 43, I'm just glad it was there because I think sometimes it just gets completely overlooked. It does. In fact, in the write-up of this show, shrewd and clever, the Larry Sanders show, is underd discussed in the story of HBO's rise as a home for truly original television. It's a master stroke. So that was... NYPD Blue is 73rd. That's not right.

I know. The office came in at 39. I just can't possibly have that below a lot of the comedies that are in front of it. I'm okay with Seinfeld being in front of it, but there are too many comedies that I think are in front of it that shouldn't be. I'm okay with curb your enthusiasm and being in front of it as well, because I do think that's brilliant. And then, you know, you know what I'm going to say,

Game of Thrones coming in at 21 is just way, way too low. That's a top 10 show of all time. I don't expect it necessarily to be in front of Breaking Bad or the Wire. Even though I haven't watched the Wire, I know how significant it is. And not one person who I respect has ever said anything other than the Wire is their number one or number two. But Game of Thrones should be higher than 21. And then, you know, we didn't talk about this when it happened a few weeks ago. but Norman Lear passed away, I don't know, two weeks ago.

All in the Family came in at 16. I think all in the family, you talked about impactful shows. That was an impactful show. Absolutely. An impactful show, but it doesn't age well. So it's like I've watched reruns of it, and I don't think it's quite, it doesn't really do much for it. It was impactful at the time, you know, but I,

I don't think it age as well. So you're not saying it doesn't age well because it wouldn't be. Obviously, it wouldn't be on television today. No, that's not. I just don't find it as entertaining. As funny or entertaining? Okay. I haven't watched an episode of All in the Family.

What's it even on? I never see it on anything. Well, it used to be on TV land. There's all kinds of networks that show Antenna TV, TV land. There's about half a dozen networks that show nothing but old reruns. And that's basically my wheelhouse, those shows, those networks. I watched them all that. I watch Barney Miller on Antenna TV.

Here's something that's an interesting placement. Number 90, the Cosby Show. The Cosby Show, and I didn't watch it that much. It wasn't my cup of team. I did. And I understand that the baggage that Bill Cosby brings. But the Bill Cosby Show was a far bigger impactful show than the 90th show in the list of 100.

I agree with that. I agree because it was really one of the first shows, I believe, that really showed kind of an upper-middle-class African-American family. You know, and it was very funny. It was also part of one of the great nights in television. You know, the NBC Thursday night lineup of the Cosby show Family Ties. cheers, and I think it was Nightcourt was probably the last one.

And then wasn't it Hill Street Blues on Thursday night? I didn't watch Hill Street Blues, but was that a Thursday night? I don't remember if it was. Offhand. I mean, I mean, I understand there's a bad taste that comes with ranking the Cosby show,

but you've got to be cognizant that it's far more impactful than the 90th most best show in history. television. Right. And I didn't even like, I didn't even particularly like the show, but I recognized what it did. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was, it was a great show. Mary Tyler Moore being ninth, you know, in the same way, not the same way, but as impactful as all in the family was in the same time frame. So was Mary Tyler Moore. Because it was, it was totally, well, first of all,

Dyke is on this list. I forget where Dick Van Dyke comes in, but that was the first show to kind of have, correct me if I'm wrong, to have a female who was, you know, in many ways kind of a sassy, almost equal partner to a husband rather than being sort of submissive and subservient and any kind of word that you want to use that reflected sort of a 50s, you know, housewife. Am I right or wrong about the Dick Van Dyke show as it relates to that? In some aspects, yes. I think it was just a very well-written show. I mean, Carl Reiner was a brilliant writer and creator of the show. And it was the precursor to smart comedies. Okay? Comedys weren't very smart until Dick Van Dyke came along.

But Mary Tyler Moore was significant in that single divorced woman working. She wasn't divorced. Oh, that's right. Unmarried. Single woman working, yeah, that was with a significant job. And that was one of the real great casts of all time. Oh, yeah. That was a very funny show.

Ted Knight, Ed Asner. Absolutely. Ted Knight was brilliant in that show. And it ended up with a spinoff, which was Rhoda. And it ended up with two spinoffs, which was Phyllis too, right. Her friend, her landlady, Phyllis, which was a show as well. And then it ran off a third spinoff because Lou Grant, you know, after he left the TV station, went out to become a newspaper editor in Los Angeles.

Right. The Lou Grant Show. Yeah. Betty White was on that show, too. I mean, that was, what was Phyllis', what's her name in real life again? Why am I blanking? Chlorice Lechman. Good job. Yes. In Young Frankenstein. Great role in Young Frankenstein. Right. Yeah.

All right. Anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss. I'm not going to sleep tonight now because of this list. I'm glad I gave you the homework then. 1913, another pick six for Sam Howl. That'll give us something to talk about next week. Back tomorrow with Jay Gruden. Thanks, Tommy. All right, boss.