The Kevin Sheehan Show - Was There QB Interest?

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with more on Washington's draft and thoughts on Mike Jones/The Athletic telling Kevin earlier today on radio that Washington had interest in trading up in the draft to perhaps take Florida QB Anthony Richardson. The boys talked DC vs Landover for the new stadium, DC Defenders, James Harden/76ers win in Boston, the Lakers-Warriors matchup, and much 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.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. The show today is presented by My Bookie. This weekend, the UFC Bannamweight champion goes head to head with one of the most decorated combat athletes of all time in the main event at UFC 288. Tommy, are you going to watch UFC 288?

No, I don't think I'll be watching it, but I'll read about it. You know, I don't have the same UFC interest. that I used to have, but I'm in a minority. UFC is growing. It's massive, and MyBooky has the matchup between Sejado and Sterling. As a near coin flip, most of the early money has come in on Sterling. If you're asking yourself why you should choose My Bookie over the competition, it's simple. They give you the best bang for your buck, period.

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You know, Mike writes for the athletic now, not USA Today anymore. Mike... I read what you posted on social media. Yeah, I don't know if it's true or not, but it's certainly interesting. And it came from Mike, so we're going to discuss it for sure. I do want to talk some NBA playoffs later in the show. I promise it'll be later in the show. But I thought we should start with the fact that we were together on Sunday at the

DC Defenders game. The Defenders, I said, and they crushed Seattle 37 to 21. I talked a little bit about it on yesterday's podcast, but it was great to be with you. It was a surprise to me. I didn't know Doc was coming. I'm glad Doc was there. I see Doc. I didn't know Doc would be there either. I see Doc more than I see you, but it was great to see him, and, you know, John and Courtney English were great to host us. It was... Yes, they were. It was a great, it was a really good atmosphere for the game. Excellent atmosphere. Like I told you. Yeah. And that was on a rainy day, you know? Yeah. I mean, the sun started to come out later on, but it really is, it's in organically good atmosphere. There's lots of reasons why that happens. You know, it's not simply because they're not the commanders,

although I think that's part of it. You could tell every home game, there's an F. Dan Snyder chant that goes on in the stands, but they've got something special that goes on there, you know, among the 20,000 people to show up for games. I mean, it's very unique for D.C. right now. It would never happen, obviously. but it could have happened the last couple of years where they only had 20,000 or so tickets sold

to a commander's game to play the game there. I understand it would never happen. This is a pure hypothetical. I can tell you this, it would have been a phenomenal home field advantage if the 15 to 16,000 actual fans of the team that have continued to pay to go to the games in the last few years were all packed in with none of the opponent's fans in that stadium because that stadium retains the sound. It was loud. And I don't know what the crowd was. I know that it wasn't a sellout because the rain, you know, kept people away. But it was still well attended. I would

guess there were 12,000, 13,000 people there. And it was loud. It was, it was fun. And you know what it is too, Tommy? It's a I guess, and I didn't say this yesterday. it's a reminder to me of not about the RFK days, okay, because the RFK days are, you know, so long in the rearview. And you were when you were going to RFK going to a destination. You weren't going there to, you know, hang out at the bars around the stadium or post-game at the stadium. There was lots of tailgating, don't get me wrong. But it's more in line with what we.

get at Nats games at Wizards and Caps games at Capital One. When you have your arena or your stadium in the city within walking distance of things to do, it's a totally different vibe than driving on the beltway for, you know, an hour and a half to pull into a big parking lot. And yeah, you know, at FedEx over the years when you had good crowds, have to go back several years now, and the tailgating scene, was fun. I mean, hell, it was so much fun for me when I was doing the pregame show all those years when they actually had big games and not many of them, but a couple of big crowds to

walk through the parking lot and stop at one or two or three of the tailgates on my way into the pregame show at 9.30 a.m. That was fun, but that's still destination. Like, I want the new stadium downtown with development around it and I want, you know, people walking from, you know, bars and restaurants right into the stadium. There's just a whole different vibe when you're in a city going to a sporting event. You know, I was in Nashville last year, and not during, not for a football Sunday, but, you know, Broadway is their big party street with all the bars and restaurants, and it's on a hill. Yep. And you walk downhill, and then you have this old bridge.

bridge that goes across, I guess it's the Tennessee River. But now it's a walking bridge. You know, it's a big walking bridge. And then from there, you're just a stone's throw from the Titan Stadium. So I can't imagine. And they're building a new stadium, I think, right next to it. So I can't imagine what football Sundays are like in Nashville. Well, I mean, you know, hanging out on Broadway, taking that walk across the bridge over to the stadium.

It just must be a blast. I love Nashville too, and I mentioned this many times before. My sister lives there. And so I love the city. I love everything about it. Broadway is fun, especially, you know, if you haven't been, there's so many great neighborhoods and great spots in Nashville. But Broadway is obviously where, you know, all your hearing is, you know, open-aired, you know, bars that are music venues. And it's, you know, it's all kinds of music, too.

It's not just country music. But when you walk down that hill and you cross that bridge, you know, to get to Nissan Stadium, before you get to that, you pass the arena. I forget what the arena is called there, but the one where the Nashville Predators play. And that's become a big deal, too. You know, because Nashville, weren't they in the Stanley Cup finals at some point recently? Or maybe they were really close to the Stanley Cup finals? I forget.

But you have, you've got, you know, you get two, you get the stadium, which by the way, they're going to build a new stadium. And you've got, you know, you've got the Nashville Predators, no NBA, no baseball. But yeah. Well, plus, you know, that city's always, on Broadway anyway, always hopping. I mean, it's awesome. Always, always hopping. This is arguments I've always had with economists about the very very.

value of a stadium. If you build a stadium by itself, and you're contributing public funds to that stadium, it's really washing it down the train at that point. I mean, if you use that that stadium as an economic driver in a neighborhood that you know can be built up into what we've just, and what we've seen down Nats Park. Now, Nats Park is the only only, only thing that drove that, the Navy Yard development, others as well. But yeah, any stadium has got to have

a component of creating business around it or else it's just the way. This is why in Philly, it always drives me nuts. I know for convenience wise, all the stadiums down there, you know, Lincoln Financial Field, Citizen Bank

Park and the arena, they're all right next to each other, but there's nothing there. You know, it's where the old stadiums were, and there was nothing there either. You know, I mean, this is why Josh Harris is trying to build a new arena for his 76ers in downtown Philly, in Chinatown. There's a different vibe when it's an urban type of stadium. But I could tell you what, that they are, in terms of the commander's stadium, I still think the path of least resistance, is where they are now, and they have talked about plans for building a new one closer to the, what is it, the Morgan Station, I think, Metro Stop or something like that.

It's about a mile away now, and I think if you build a new stadium near it, maybe it's only a half a mile away. Right. And you're talking about the one, you're talking about the one in Landover. Yes. Yeah. FedEx Field. You know, and I mean, I think the idea is that you can create that kind of development between the metro stop and the stadium in that half-mile stretch of land that you would have

available to you. So what do you think happens? What do you think happens? I think that's where that's what's going to happen. I think the path to RFK is just too difficult. Do you think it's – is it difficult because of – the ability to get the land from the federal government, or is it difficult because that neighborhood is so different now

and there's money, there's influence, and they don't want the stadium in that neighborhood, the people who live there? Both significant contributing factors, and I think it's just going to be more expensive to build a facility itself in the district than it would be right next door to the existing stadium. I just think the cost of the stadium will be more. I don't base on any kind of construction experience.

It's just my gut instinct that it's going to cost more to build that stadium in the district than it would be in PG County. So all those factors. Tommy, will they be able to? I hope it's down at next RFK. That's where I would like it to be. Let's say it's in Landover and they build it closer to that Metro Stop, the Morgan Boulevard Metro Stop, I think you mentioned. They don't have to tear down FedEx to build the new one, right? They can play in FedEx?

I believe so. Just like the Giants did when they built their stadium. It's just like the Eagles did when they built their stadium. This is very common. You know, it's not atypical. This is a lot of times the past a team's take. So I think this is what the Titans are going to be doing. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Let me just ask everybody to rate us and review us on Apple and Spotify, if you don't mind, and also follow us, if you don't mind. On Apple, if you're listening to us on Apple podcasts, the follow button is in the upper right-hand corner. On Spotify, it's down the left-hand side about halfway down. It's big for us if you follow us. It's huge for us also if you do what DCHJ22 did, which is say I lost it when, Fred Smoot was naming the receivers that he liked in the 2023 draft. Jordan, Addison, and Jackson Enigma. Got to love him. He did call Jackson Nijima, the Ohio State receiver Enigma. But yes, you gave us five stars. And this one from SP McNamar, more Smoot, please.

Great show. I've been listening for four plus years. I've never missed an episode. Cooley, Tom, Doc are great, but none of them. bring like Smoot, please make him a regular guest. Yes, Smoot was on fire last week. And I had him on twice last week because I had him on Wednesday before the draft. And then because he nailed it on Forbes, I had him back on Friday. And look, if you think Fred Smoot's good when he doesn't know, when he's right, oh my God, he's phenomenal. And he was right on Friday. And he was a lot of fun. And then

This is from Tia L. The constant back and forth game of Thrones references with Fred Smoot is something you can do only with him, wink, wink. Yes, that's true. But then again, Tommy has nobody to talk to about the wire because I never watched and still haven't watched the wire. So there you go. All right. So what did you think about the draft? Well, you know, this is so difficult to talk about, you know, because it's not quite the illusion that we have to do normally when talk about the team.

But, you know, it's hard to talk about the draft when, hey, I don't know nearly as much as most of the people analyze the draft. and they usually eventually are wrong a lot of times. So if the experts are often wrong, how can I talk about the draft? Right. You know, but I'll give it a try. Okay. I'll give it a try. I love to hear the try.

Okay. Yeah. You know, do we think Eric the enemy was running around the draft room out there at the commander's headquarters saying, defense, Rod, defense, more defensive players. Yes. Yes. Go for those defensive backs. I don't know. Probably not. Probably not.

You know, it seemed like Bucky Brooks pointed out on the NFL network. He's good. I like Bucky Brooks. It seemed kind of foolish to bring on Eric B. enemy and wait until the sixth draft pick to bring on an offensive skill player. Now, granted, we know the commanders have good offensive skill players already. but I just don't understand the logic in what they were doing. Me, I would have been picking offensive tackles until the cows came home, offensive linemen, especially if you have to face the Eagles twice a year. But that's just me.

Everyone says they fill their needs, and they had a decent draft. Who am I to argue with that since I know less than them? Yeah, I mean, I talked to me. about this yesterday. I actually have a new observation, courtesy of my good friend Ben Standing, who I consider to have a really sharp opinion, and I'll get to that in a

moment, but no, that's I, like, you saw it set records for television numbers. I mean, it's, it's like, just unbelievable. And it, and it was on like 65 channels. It's on, I swear to God. It's on ESPN, ABC, and the

NFL network. No, no, no, listen. Listen, I was flipping channels, and I saw Mel Khyper on C-SPAN. I'm not kidding. He was on Me TV. That's where you watch Cojack, isn't it? I, uh, so, I mean, I said this yesterday. It's like, it's such, it's entertaining.

I love it. I love watching it. I mean, you know, Saturday's kind of boring. But, uh, the weather wasn't great. And I watched, you know, some of it during the day on Saturday. Um, to me, like, I don't know what I'll do when Mel Kiper finally retires. I'll be really upset. This was this 40th year on ESPN and they celebrated those 40 years. I watch the ESPN broadcast, not the ABC broadcast, not the NFL network. Do I flip around

occasionally? Yeah. But the point is that, like, you know, I'm being repetitive here, and I'm also repeating what you just said. Two-thirds of the players that were picked on Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday won't be contributors within three years. And none of the teams know exactly which one of the three is going to be the contributor when this thing is over. So the mock drafters and the so-called experts and analysts, they really don't know. So now with that said, there's such an importance to using the NFL draft to build your roster. In so many ways, it can become the foundation of your team and sometimes a good team.

I mean, you go back to, I mean, hell, we've seen it. You go back to the 70s, the Cowboys and the Steelers. They drafted better than anybody. They were also light years ahead the Cowboys were in the use of a lot of different things that teams weren't using back then. Things like, you know, certain kind of drills that ended up being in the Indy Combine and certain kinds of psychological, you know, profiling that they would do. But anyway, drafting is important to your team, but it's just a crapshoot. It just really is. So to be definitive about anything is kind of annoying to me. There are players that I like, and because I'm a big college football fan, I will say, I really like that guy, and I'll say, I think he's got a really good chance to be a good player. but even I know in saying that, there's a decent chance I'll be wrong because I didn't sit

in an interview this guy. I don't know whether or not he loves football if he's motivated. I don't know whether or not he fits the scheme necessarily of the team that he plays on. I don't know. There's just so much. And then there are certain positions, and we've talked about this before, like offensive line. Like, come on.

Like, I had, I'll net it out because I want to move on from this. I don't want to read an email about Washington's. draft and I want to mention something that Ben Standing mentioned to me, which I thought was good. But I had a lot of people say to me, my God, what are they doing drafting Juan Martin at 47 in the second round? They so overdrafted him. What are they doing drafting Ricky Stromberg? I mean, what do you know?

How do you know they overdrafted him? And, you know, I know. I mean, that's the point here is that you're going based off of the consensus of mock drafters, not the consensus of the NFL teams and their boards. And Tommy, I talked to somebody at length over the weekend who said to me, and I said this yesterday, but I'll say it to you. Drafting's different than it used to be, and you're going to like part of this. Number one is, if you go back 15 years, there wasn't nearly the emphasis on, you know, there was always, there's always been an emphasis on character and any kind of major red flags players have been avoided. But now the

amount of, you know, psychological, you know, in profiling, for the lack of a better description, is so intense. They want to make sure that this investment that they're making is into somebody that they can coach, somebody that is smart enough to get what they're doing, somebody that isn't going to be a major problem in the locker room, on and on and on. Number two is that there's much more today drafting for need than what Bobby Betherd and Charlie Calfield. Casserly would say over and over again, once you draft for need, you get yourself into big trouble. And the reason for that... Well, as you know, that would be my philosophy.

And we differ on this. I know. You would draft for need. Yes. And I told you all along, I wouldn't because Bobby Betherd, who is a Hall of Fame general manager, and Charlie Casserly, who was a, you know, many, many decade general manager in the league, said, you don't do that. that's what gets you in trouble.

But this person told me over the weekend, they said, there's more drafting for need nowadays because there's more trying to get players to be successful early. And it's a combination of need and then scheme fit. Like you know what you play. You know how you play it. And you know whether or not this player may not have the measurables of another player, may not have the ceiling of another player athletically or otherwise, but you know he can play for you.

And you know he can play for you sooner rather than later. How good he'll end up being, you know, may be a mystery. But there's a lot more of that. And then with this specific draft in particular, it was really considered to be a bad draft by a lot of the NFL people. And that, you know, there was a lot more of, You know, this guy, you know, could be drafted in the second round or he might be in the fifth round. There was just a much greater disparity in opinion on players in part because everybody was trying to find the guys that could play because there weren't as many this year.

So I am annoyed by the people that are definitive in their opinion about a player that's drafted and or, you know, definitive in knowing that Ricky Stromberg, or Kwan Martin were overdrafted. I don't think you know enough to know that. I agree. Jehan Dodson last year, everybody said was over drafted. And there are multiple people that would say that Dotson wouldn't have lasted more than another four or five picks. This year, Emmanuel Forbes, you know, people, they over drafted for us. I saw him, I saw him on, you know, somebody's big board at 37 and at 36.

no way was Forbes going to last another five picks according to people in the no. And then, you know, if you're going to do that, by the way, as a way to criticize this organization and Ron in particular, then you must give him great credit for where they drafted Sam Hal last year because they got a steal with Hal in the fifth round. He was way underdrafted. He should have gone much earlier, so they're brilliant. And so that's a segue actually into an email that I want to read to you. But before that, let me just mention, yeah, go ahead. And before that, you know, now that you're on 10 to 1, and if I'm on the road, I get to listen to you more. Yeah, okay.

So I think it was on Monday. It might have been Monday. You had Ben Standing on, and I'm listening to Tilia. And the Tilia are really geeking it up about the draft, you know. You just can't talk enough about the draft, you know. And I'm thinking, I must really be a disappointment to you sometimes. No, you're not. Because I think, I know I think I've made this really clear,

and I didn't used to feel this way. But I think the last five, six, seven years, like, I can't remember the last time I graded the draft. I like just, it's stupid. I know what, I know what, I think I know what I don't know. some may disagree but this is what I described

but the truth is from a content standpoint there are so many people that are so into this but Ben actually Ben and I were talking a little while ago before we started to record this podcast and I'll tell you why in a little bit

but you know we were talking about this very thing and he completely agreed he said there's just one thing that I think you can actually get away with being you know, somewhat, like if you want to question something, he goes, I would question why they would go out in free agency and sign Nick Gates to the deal that they signed him to that looks like a pretty rich deal for a guy that's had some serious injury problems.

They clearly want him to be the starting center. They re-signed Tyler Larson to back up Nick Gates, presumably. And he said, I don't think it's crazy to be. critical, not of the player that they selected in the third round, Ricky Stromberg, but that they drafted a center in the third round. You typically want your third rounder, like last year's third rounder, Brian Robinson Jr. Or the year before, Benjamin St. Juice was a third rounder. Antonio Gibson in 2020 was their third rounder. You know, you'd like your third rounder to play and contribute. Well, for Ricky Stromberg, he's a center. He may be your third.

future center, but you drafted him in the third round, and more likely than not, if you got it right in free agency, he's not going to play, because center is a position in which only one player can be out there at this at the same time. You know, it's one thing if you've got two guards and you draft a guard in the third round, you know you're going to need depth because of injuries, etc. And they, you know, in their defense, they've had so many injuries to the center position in recent years. But I thought that that was a good point, that, you know, you can't be, you can't be definitive about the player unless you really have scouted and you've interviewed in the whole thing.

You can't be overly critical about where he was drafted either because you're so convinced the consensus mock boards are, you know, the Bible. But you can be critical of the fact that they went out and they paid decent money, more than decent money for Nick Gates to come in and be your center, and then they re-sign Tyler Larson, and then you drafted a center in the third round. I think that's a good point because you want your three. Now, if you drafted him in the fifth round,

that's your future center, hopefully, and you'll keep them, you know, on the practice squad, or you'll keep them on the roster. And I know that a lot of these linemen they draft have some positional flexibility, but they talked about Stromberg as a center, and that's the position he played at Arkansas. And he played it well.

And, yeah. And, you know, plus there's the problem of being able to reach him by phone. That's apparently a difficult situation for a football team. Did we? They struggled, tried to get him by phone. Did we talk about this off the pocket? No, we did. Okay. I mean, I don't think I mentioned this yesterday.

For those that missed it, when they went to call, like, they've been tweeting out, the commander's Twitter account, has been tweeting out the, you know, They tweeted out all these videos of Ron and Martin and Marty right before they make the pick. And then, you know, it's in the draft room. And it's like, you know, they're showing you what happened right before they made the pick. And for Ricky Stromberg, they had a phone number that wasn't working. So they couldn't reach Ricky Stromberg. Now, they eventually did reach Ricky Stromberg, but they put that out on Twitter, which, I mean, whatever.

I mean, I'm not going to sit here. and knock the fact that it kind of made them look foolish. But the part that was just, did you watch the press conference that night when Martin Mayhew and Ron Rivera, it was like a community theater, you know, a bad community theater skit where they thought it was the funniest thing that they'd ever been a part of? It was, it was dumb, the whole thing. to me, look, I can chalk it up to a technological mishap, and you're right, the press conference, the explanation before, it was like an Abinacostello skit. A bad one, a bad one.

Yes, yeah. But, you see, to me, and it's a mistake that could happen these days, you know, with technology and stuff, but the context of that, the context of everything, at the draft, And this just gets swept under the rug. Everything now for this football team with this coach is he didn't know his team's playoff opportunities at the end of his season. He didn't know that. I mean, that's the kind of thing that you pull a guy off the street and you ask him that question, you're going to get a 50-50 answer maybe as to what they know or what they don't know.

the coach. You know? I mean, that's just, that's like mind-blowing still, and it's just like just forgotten. That's the context to me. That's the guy who's picking your players. That guy. Yeah. Now, I totally agree with you.

And so if you're leading towards, you know what, it's just in the overall context of the buffoonery, of the other side of the building and, you know, the chief blunder officer and all the blunders they make. And the coach not knowing that they could have been eliminated from the postseason that night they lost to Cleveland after starting Carson Wentz and all of the going back and forth and weaving all around and answers about various topics. Maybe that's one you don't want to tweet out. Like, okay, maybe somebody thought it was cute and funny. And clearly Ron and Martin, I mean, they thought it was the funniest thing that had ever happened to him. But I get that. But I also want to say something that I've said before,

which is the truth is about Ron Rivera with personnel is that it's been worst case, a mixed bag. Best case, he has really done what he said he would do when he got here, and that has changed the culture of the football side of the building. with higher quality people and in some cases even players. And look, we can say all of their best players, he did not draft. It's true. Right.

Okay. But he was able to retain them and sign them to long-term deals. Terry McClorn and, you know, John Allen and Duran Payne didn't have to do that. They could have gone the franchise route or gone the free agency route and said, I don't want to be around this buffoon. players do like him. Players like him, his former players like him. And for whatever reason, as at times a little bit kind of clumsy that he comes off to to maybe us and many of you,

he doesn't come off that way in that setting when maybe he's more of himself rather than, you know, the bad theater routine that they tried to put on the other night wasn't wasn't improvved very well but but other than that uh you know what are you going to say I want to I want to read this email and then I want to tell you what Mike Jones said so this email this email came from Victor and it was really really good um hold on for a second I had for second I had a second ago here it is um and you can email us through the show's website at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. Victor's emailed a bunch. I've read Victor's emails on the show before. Victor, I think, has a pretty sharp opinion, and he wrote Kevin, I'm really confused at the

team's quarterback strategy. They have a nice team with no obvious answer at the most important position. They need to win this year to keep their jobs, and they're going with a promising maybe, but very inexperienced fifth round pick and or a journeyman backup. Every team in the lead, heading into the off season that had a question market quarterback did something with the exception of our team. The Jets traded for Rogers. The Ravens eventually kept Lamar Jackson, the Saints signed Derek Carr, and still drafted the guy you liked, Jake Hainer from Fresno State. The Giants re-s signed Daniel Jones, the Seahawks re-signed Gino Smith. The 49ers brought in Sam Darnold now have three guys to choose from. Even the Packers who decided on Jordan,

Love still drafted a guy. The Lions have their starter in Jared Gough, but because there are no guarantees, because it's Jared Gough, they drafted Hendon Hooker. The Bucks traded for Mayfield. I'll circle back to that one. The Panthers drafted Bryce Young, the Texans drafted C.J. Stroud. The Colts drafted Richardson. The Titans drafted Levis.

Even the Raiders who signed Jimmy Garoppolo drafted the Purdue quarterback Aiden O'Connell. The Rams who have Stafford still drafted a guy in Stetson Bennett. Hell, the Eagles, Chargers, and Vikings don't have QB needs, but they all drafted quarterbacks late in the draft. Drafting a quarterback every year should be the norm, especially for teams that don't have an obvious answer at quarterback. This was totally irresponsible by Ron Rivera. He put all of his eggs into the Carson Wentz basket last year, as you said to me,

as you said over and over again to all of us, and it didn't work. The point is you can't put all of your eggs into one basket when that basket has holes. To make sure you don't end up with egg or eggs all over your face, make sure you can spread the eggs out into several baskets until you find the one that is stable and sturdy. Ron is a joke. Martin appears to be in way over his head. I hope the first thing that happens when the new owner takes over is he gets a real GM. So let me just before you respond, and then I'll respond afterwards.

Let me just mention, the one team, and I went through this, and we were doing this on radio this morning, and a caller brought it up. The one team that he left out other than Washington that didn't do anything at quarterback is Atlanta. They're riding with Desmond Ritter, a third round pick from a year ago. They signed Taylor Heineke, but I'm talking about that didn't make a real, you know, significant move at quarterback. But to keep, to be fair here, Desmond Ritter played the last month of the season. He didn't just play one game. He was also a third round pick.

And many people thought he could have gone earlier than the third round. We're getting into the overdrafted, underdrafted thing. So I don't want to do that for much. And Arthur Smith has an offense in which, you know, whether it was at Tennessee or with Marriota last year, you know, he's got the quarterback involved in a run. dominant scheme. And so they weren't going to invest a lot in a quarterback. They haven't done that with his scheme, whether it was, I mean, eventually they invested in Tannahill. But so, but he did forget Atlanta in that, and all of that. And I also would take exception with the bucks trading for Mayfield. Like they really, I mean, I'm not a big Mayfield fan. I know he played well at the end of

last year for the Rams. And by the way, the Bucks, so by the way, won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, and they've been a contender for a while now with Brady. And maybe they're expecting Brady to come back. But overall, Victor, it was an excellent email, and I agree with you that drafting a quarterback every year when you don't have one should be the norm. Tommy, your response to Victor's email. Well, here's a quote I found going back and looking at

Rivera's comments after losing to the Browns and being shocked that his team was now out of the playoffs. There's also a quote about the quarterback position. And basically, he says that that's the one position we've got to solidify more than anything else. And a week later, it was solidified. It was solidified. Just like that. Just like that. you know that that's just stunning that's the one position remember for you remember all last year he'd bring up the quarterback remember the famous quote that he got in trouble with yeah quarterback you know when somebody asked what your problem is and he said quarterback he said why are you in last place and the other three teams aren't and he said quarterback quarterback quarterback and then he spent

the rest of the week trying to explain it so and then you know but but he didn't have now what What light bulb went off in his head? It can't be just the Dallas game, where quarterback was a problem when he had this guy on his roster. Then it was a problem on this day when he said they've got to solidify that position, and now it's not a problem anymore. Right. Oh, literally nine days later, they had their off-season QB1, and they didn't have to go look for one. Yeah.

That call is right. I mean, I would have drafted Stetson-Better in the third round if I were these guys. And I would draft a quarterback somewhere in my draft every year. Yeah, I mean, I just, I want to emphasize what I've been saying for a while. There is no possible way that they can be sure that they've got their quarterback of the future in Sam Hal. They can be hopeful. They can be wishful. And they can actually like the guy and believe in the guy more than they believed in anybody else that was on the roster last year. It would have been nice for them to have come to that conclusion a little bit earlier. They may have made the playoffs. But there's no possible way that they are 100% sure. And, you know, the proof is that they went out and spent more money than anybody else did on a backup quarterback in Jacoosa. Brescette. So, you know, a veteran quarterback that can play on a team that's pretty good

minus the quarterback position right now as we see it may change. Maybe Sam Hal really is the answer. But in the event that they find out or that Eric Bienemy, because I think Eric Bianemi is going to be given the autonomy to make these decisions about quarterback. And if Eric Bianemy goes into this big year for him, huge year for him, I think it's a bigger year for him, as I've said before, then Ron, who I think understands that this is probably the last year he's going to be a head coach in the league. And it might be okay with it. You know, I've said before, I kind of feel like he's resigned to the fact, like he's not as immersed in a lot of the detail. We've seen that in recent weeks with misstatements about various things, but whatever. If Eric B. Enemy, who has to prove

that he can be a head coach this year by making an offense hum without Andy Reed and without Patrick Mahomes, you know, that's why Brissette is here, because if they get to the point where that hope and that wish that Sam Howell, it was going to be the guy, that that dies, they have somebody that they can put in there that can be a professional quarterback with a pretty decent team around them and can make them competitive. I mean, they won eight games last year, people, with Taylor Heineke and Carson Wentz. So if they just get a little bit better quarterback play in a weakened NFC, no more Tom Brady, no more Aaron Rogers,

like they're going to have, you know, a chance to win nine games. Now, they're in a brutal division with maybe the best team in the conference, maybe the best team in the NFL in Philadelphia. Boy, that's gotten annoying in recent days, the Howie Roseman love. Like, this is where my Redskins passed fanatices, kind of creeps back into the conversation. I've gotten so sick of the last couple of days, everybody faunting all over the freaking Eagles.

I just, I can't stand that the Eagles are like this, now this gold standard franchise, Tommy. That's the part of me that still has a little bit of fire when it comes to the hometown team, because that is a rival, a division, rival, and we used to freaking own them. Own them!

And I mean, I guess Howie Roseman is you know, the all-time general manager in this league. I mean, the showering of praise over the Philadelphia organization makes me want to throw up. But I know it, I know

they are good. Let me just say, I do know that they're really good. They seem to make better moves than everybody else right now. Yes, they do. You should always be thinking about the most important position in all of sports when the people you have on your roster playing that position are, A, not good, or B, you're not sure if they're good. And that's where they are. There's no way that they are convinced that Sam How.

Like Tommy said, the comment after the Cleveland game, like I said last week, to tell you. Tommy and to all of you, if they were so sure about him a year ago before the draft, why did they trade back in the fourth round instead of take him there and risk losing him? I liked what I saw in the Dallas game. I did. I have no idea if he's going to be a real NFL starting quarterback or not. But they should have drafted a quarterback. So that leads me to this. We've got a couple of segues on this show from one topic. Just easily transitioning into the next. It is what Mike Jones told me on my radio show about what Washington was perhaps willing to do in the draft to get a quarterback early. We will get to that right after

these words from a few of our sponsors. There was a lot of talk in the draft that they had made some calls about moving up. But to number seven, I was told. But at the same time, it was a lot to give up. And then there were questions about who gets to make the call on, you know, giving up so much a mortgage in the future. That was our good friend Mike Jones, who now writes for the athletic, covered, you know, the NFL for USA Today for several years, covered Washington for the Post for many years as the beat reporter. And the Washington Times.

He covered the Wizards for the Washington Times. I actually didn't know that. Yes, he did. I didn't know that. Yeah. I caught him everything he knows. I'm sure you did. Mike was on radio with me this morning and talked about, you know, the scuttle butt, if you will, around the league that Washington was interested in moving up to the number seven spot, the Raiders spot in the draft.

The conversation continued, and basically he kind of said it would have likely been for Anthony Richardson had he fallen, but he didn't. He went to, you know, he went at number four to Indianapolis. so that desire diminished once Richardson was gone. Now, let me just say these things, I'm not talking about Mike specifically, but these things get tossed around a lot, and you end up seeing a lot of these kinds of things before the draft and after the draft, and half of it ends up being real, half of it not. I would not expect if Washington sees this, you know,

what Mike said to me this morning for them to confirm it at any, there's no chance they would do that. they would put you i mean they've got sam how they didn't trade up you know they've got jacobi burset they're fine with their quarterback rooms so if it is true i wouldn't expect for them to do anything other than deny it but it's possible that you know this is just one of those things that was tossed around and sometimes they're right sometimes they're wrong mike heard it i'm not saying that he didn't hear it of course um but i i think you know what's interesting about this is first of all the conversation that we just had after victor's email about you know not about being

irresponsible. If they actually really were interested in going up to draft Anthony Richardson, I would applaud it because again, they don't, they aren't sure they have one. I'm not sure they have one and you have to have one. And Anthony Richardson is a guy that I liked as a college football fan. I recognized his flaws. But clearly the NFL liked him too. There's a team that took him fourth when some people thought he could go to 16. So number one, I would applaud it if it's true, that they were continued to think big about the quarterback position. You know, they thought big about Stafford after 2020.

They thought big about Russell Wilson after 2021. They think they thought big after they failed on Wilson and went out and overpaid for Carson Wentz. But they haven't swung big in the draft. They had a chance to in the first year with Herbert or Tua. They had a chance to last year with Pickett. You know, that may be the one more than any other that you look back on and say they should have drafted Pickett. They had a need for a quarterback.

He was the best quarterback in that draft. And he went, you know, 11 picks after Washington or whatever it was. That would have been the perfect situation. You take Carson Wentz out of the equation, you start Taylor Heinekegee to begin the season, and then you ease in Pickett as the season goes on. That would have been that best case scenario. Right. I'm looking at it.

Pickett was taken in 20. Washington had 11 originally. They wouldn't have traded back, or maybe they would have traded back and taken Pickett at 16. Who knows? But if this is true, number one, I applaud it. Number two, if it's true, it kind of says that they would have taken Richardson at 16 if he had dropped to 16. Number three is it says that what they've been saying about how absolutely optimistic and bullish they are on their current quarterback situation, they aren't sure about their current quarterback situation, which I think is the one definite true thing about what we've just talked about, is that they're not sure.

I don't know if people have suggested what was a smokescreen to make them to make other teams think they were thinking quarterbacks so that it's six. maybe if Richardson was there, teams would want to trade up, or they would want to trade up for Hooker, and they might get more offers to trade back, whatever. If it's true, then I applaud it, and it's just further confirmation that the quarterbacks they have on their roster right now, they're not sure of, which is 100% true, in my opinion, that they can't possibly be 100%.

percent sure about the quarterback. Did that make sense? There was a lot of 100 percent. Yeah, if you're a commander's fan, then this should be a little bit of relief that, you know, they're not that stupid. They don't, they realize that they shouldn't be sure that they've got the quarterback number one on their roster right now. And they do have some questions about the guy.

So, I mean, this is a little bit of relief. I mean, it's also frustrating that they didn't do anything about it, but at least they're not ignorant of the fact that there's good reason to be doubtful about Sam Howe right now. I forgot to mention one key piece of the Mike Jones thing is that remember, because we talked about this at the end of last week, I think. I'm pretty sure I talked about this on Friday on the podcast with Smoot, that there was the Albert Breer report that Martin, Herney was advocating inside the walls in Ashburn to draft Anthony Richardson.

So the two of them kind of go together, and so it gives it a little bit more, you know, validity in terms of the possibility of it being true. But I think a lot of these things sometimes, you know, the experience is, you know, you end up on some of these being 100% right and you end up with, you know, further confirmation of it down the road. and some of these things kind of go away and they're like, nah, they, they threw something out early on to somebody, but it wasn't really what, you know, perhaps it was perceived to be.

But whatever. I mean, I just, I had so many people push back on, this is my favorite. This is from, this is from Peter who tweeted, they have to commit next year to Sam Howl to find out what they have. This is what the Chiefs did with Mahomes. You give them the next year. Are you insane?

I mean, what are you talking about? This is to me, of all the things that we've talked about that are dumb today, and we've talked about a lot of things being dumb today from two dummies, What do you mean you have to commit 2023 to Sam Howell? You're out of your mind. He was a fifth round pick. Mahomes, they traded up to select. And by the way, they knew he was great.

There was no, they should have played him the year before for Alex Smith. They wouldn't have been eliminated in the first round of the postseason. But the reason they traded up for him to number 11 in that draft is because they were so super high on him being a potential. future franchise quarterback. Washington traded back in the fourth round. They weren't even thinking about how late in the fourth round. And then at the beginning of the fifth round, when they traded back, they were like, oh, he's still there.

We kind of liked him. If he can't do it, you don't invest 17 games in him. If he can, if there's an indication that he can do it, definitely. because I think we know what Jacoby Brissette is. Like if there's indication that this kid's got something, then you start talking about giving him ample room to develop that talent and that thing that you see in him. But what if Eric Bianamy says after the second preseason game,

oh my God, we got no shot with this kid. You think they should give him 17 games? That just doesn't make any sense to me. You know, and part that shows a fan base that's so conditioned to losing, they can just give away a year. You know, they can just say, up, you know, let's try this guy for a year, see what happens. You know, just give it away. It's just another year of losing, you know?

Nothing that we haven't been through before. If the argument is, look, you give him 17 games, and if he can do it, he can do it, that's great. and if he can't, then you're going to suck and you're going to have a chance of Caleb Williams or Drake May. This team won eight games with Taylor-fricking Heineke and his pop-gun arm. Are you kidding me? They're not losing 14 games or 13 games.

They're too good on defense. I mean, of course it could happen. Injuries are the thing you can never predict. And maybe the quarterbacking is so awful that, they end up losing, you know, 14 games. But to get Caleb Williams right now, you've got to lose 14 plus games.

That's not going to happen. You know, if you, and if you end up playing him all 17, you're also going to, you know, and he's really bad, you're going to do to the team what, you know, Jay Gruden understood

what was happening, you know, at times with RG3, what, what, what Rivera understood Haskins, rest of soul, was doing early in 2020, and that is you're losing the locker room when you're playing somebody that can't do it. I mean, we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but if that's your argument that that's why you would play them, I just don't see, you know, Caleb Williams being a possibility. The teams, I mentioned this yesterday, there's all these all, you know, early,

mock drafts for 2024. But what's interesting to me is where they place the teams. And the Cardinals

not only have their own first round pick next year, but they also have Houston's number one pick because Houston

traded with the Cardinals to get back up to number three to take Will Anderson. Right. And so almost all the mock drafts

have something that looks really odd, and that is Arizona picking one and Arizona picking two. And they've got

Caleb Williams and Marvin Harrison, Jr. And so then Drake May goes in Washington. Let's say Washington has the kind of year that they had a little bit worse than last year. You know, and they play Sam Hal. And he's just average.

And he's not the answer. But they win six games. Now you're talking about, you know, the J.J. McCarthy's of the world of Michigan or the Quentin Ures of Texas. A lot of people like him. And Sam Hartman's, you know, who's going to be the Notre Dame quarterback, the Wake Forest Transfer. I mean, you're not getting Caleb Williams, I don't think. You have to lose 14 games to get that. Yeah.

Anyway, anything else? You think the new owner is going to do that? I know Josh Harris was a big believer in the process, quote, in Philadelphia, but the NBA is not the NFL. And that Sixers franchise is not this Washington franchise. Right. That is damaged. Some people have considered being.

beyond repair, you're not going to come in with a new owner and play that card. I just don't think you are. Once again, a show of perfect transitions. Josh Harris's two teams that he does own, both won huge games last night in the NBA and the NHL. We'll get to that and a few other things to finish up the show right after these words from a few of our sponsors. That was a defense of Horford. Difference of two seconds, game clock and shot clock. Hardin, sizing up Horford.

It's a three. Time out. That was James Hardin last night in Boston, game one of that series between the 76ers and the Celtics. No Joelle Embed in that game. He will likely get the MVP award tonight. And Hardin ended up with 45. We're going to talk about that in a moment and a few other things. But first, Tommy, tell us about.

Shelly's? Well, on Sunday, in between, with the XFL Defenders game, as the in-between, I had a double-header at Shelly's. I started out my day at Shelly's backroom. That's where I went around noon. I parked my car near there and took an Uber over to Outie Field. So I walked in the Shelly's at around 12 o'clock, and, you know, Bob, Matarazzi, the owner, he does a podcast. He does? He does. Really? With, yes, with a couple of my friends, Keith and Keith Pettigrew and somebody else who I don't recall his name. Close friend. Yeah, no.

And so I sat in with them and did their podcast with them. I didn't expect that. So I walked in and they do the podcast right there, like in the front, right by the window at a front table. And, you know, we talked about all kinds of stuff. And, you know, I enjoyed a good smoke before the commander's game. And then after commanders game, defenders game, and then after the defenders game, I made my way back via Uber to Shelly's. and had a post game, celebration, smoke, and a great burger. Man, they have unbelievable burgers at Shell.

Yesterday, you know, they posted daily specials every day, and yesterday's special. This sounds like what I had. The cheesiest burger, a half-pounder, a half-pounder, beef short ribs, and beef brisket, with Swiss and cheddar on a buttered-to-taught. roasted roll with, and I didn't get the onions, lettuce, and tomato. You never have all that stuff. I don't like anything to get in the way of my meat, okay?

You know, except cheese. Yeah, and a bun. Yes, cheese and a bun. And that's pretty much, that's pretty much it. You can enjoy a special like that or some of the other great items they have on the menu. at Shelly's Backroom, 1331 F Street Northwest in the district. All right. So, um...

Oh, the name of the podcast is called Backroom Sports, and it's on speaker. Spicker, Specker, speaker. Stitcher, you're talking about. Is it Stitcher? No, S-P-E-A-C-E-R. All right. Speaker, I think, just with a C instead of, you know, the normal spelling. All right. So I watched again. I've been watching a lot of NBA.

Steph Curry was incredible. I talked about that the other day. It was an all-time performance. One of the great performances, what was the best performance in a game seven of all time, scoring-wise, 50. Last night, Boston and Philly opened up their series against each other, Tommy. And Joel M. Bede, who's going to be the MVP tonight, I'm pretty sure of it. I think he's going to win it over Janice and Yoke. He's out. He's injured, and he may not be available until this weekend when they get back to Philadelphia for game three. And last night, I mean, it was a foregone conclusion that Boston would beat the 76ers without the league MVP. I mean, that's a reasonable conclusion to come to. The point spread was 11. Boston was an 11-point favorite.

And they lost the game. That three by Hardin with 8.7 seconds to go gave Philly the lead, and then Boston had an inexplicable last possession of the game. This guy, Missoula, is in way over his head. I mean, it's bad. And the Celtics, who should be an NBA championship contender, you know, lost last year in the finals to Golden State, I don't know what to make of them right now. But when you have Jason Tatum, who's got 39 points, and you've got Jalen Brown, who's your second best player, who's got 25 at that point or whatever it was, and you decide to drop your last shot down to go to Marcus Smart, you need your head examined. I don't understand what they were doing. And I love Marcus Smart. He is one of my favorite players in the league. but Jason Tatum could not be stopped.

Jalen Brown was 8 for 10 from the floor. Hit 23. I'm looking up the box score right now. You know, it was the odds of them tying the game or winning the game on the final possession with 8.7 seconds left down 117, 115, with what you would watch during the course of that game defensively by both teams was even money or better. And they went to Marcus Smart and he turned it over.

Philadelphia won the game. So I want to just say to you about this particular game because I think I texted you during this game. I know I texted Legler during this game. And I just said, this is the kind of game that gives people like Tommy incredible fodder. The irony is it was actually a thrilling game from a shot-making standpoint,

and from like a closeness and tension at the end. But the game was played with no atmosphere, no urgency, no intensity, zero defense. It was a summer league game. It was treated that way by both teams for nearly three quarters of the game. And it's the opposite of what I've been watching throughout the postseason. And then on top of that, when you don't have Joe L. Embed, and you've got James Harden in Houston mode,

which is he dribbles the life out of the basketball. There's only one person that touches it on a possession. This is what people like Tommy can't stand, and I can't stand. I hate that. And all we've been watching throughout the NBA playoffs is just incredible intensity, physical, great defense, incredible passing, you know, five players being involved in the game. But with Philadelphia, without Joelle and Bede, you get back to

my least favorite star player in the league, and that's James Harden. He's always been my least favorite star player in the league. It's a, the game grounds to a halt. There must have been 20 possessions where he, including the last one, where he's the only person that touched the ball offensively. Now, he's a shot maker. He is incredible as a score. I don't think it's ever been, I don't think it's ever sustainable playing that way. And it's never been sustainable for him playing that way. Now, with Joelle Embed, they don't play that way all the time. They play through Embed a lot of the time. But what you saw last night was what people like you, the reason people like you have turned away. Now, not the closeness of the game, not the,

you know, the shot making, but it's like all you're doing is giving the ball to one guy, everybody else stands around and watches, and then this guy, you know, tries to get himself into position to take a step back three. Now, if the defense overcommits, he'll drive by you. And the irony about James Harden is he's really an excellent passer. I mean, he led the league in assists. But then it becomes two-man basketball if he has to pass it. I hate watching that.

Hate it. And I thought last night it was a disgusting game to watch from an intensity and from a defensive standpoint. It was terrible. And whatever Missoula drew up in that final. shot for Boston. And I didn't have a horse in this race. I didn't bet the game. He should throw that one out because you've got, and by the way, how about double teaming the guy that's got 42 points on the last possession when you're up one? How about making sure he doesn't hit another dagger? Because he really can score. I mean, there's no doubt about

James Harden as just an all-time great score. But he's not one of them. my all-time favorite players because unlike Curry, he doesn't play basketball. This is more of what Tommy describes a lot of the time, which is everybody stands around and watches one guy go one-on-one, and then more times than not, it's a step-back three with, by the way, the elbow, you know, push-off, which is a patented, hardened move, and the step-back that would have been called a walk 20 years ago. But other than that, I still think Boston, wins this series. And I may be nuts. Maybe it's there. Maybe the coach just isn't good enough to lead a team that's clearly more talented, especially without Embed in the lineup.

Do you have anything to say about this game? No, not about that game. I watched a little NBA. Yesterday I watched the, I was it last night. Yeah, I watched it. Was it last night? The Phoenix. Oh, you watched, you watched, yeah. Now that was, that was a more intense. you know, kind of like the playoff games that we've seen so far. Yeah, that was intense, and I thought Phoenix acquitted themselves well defensively, actually, in the first half. It's very well. But Joe Kitt, he reminds me of a guy who, remember the old guy who would show up on the playground sometimes

and want to play with you guys? We had a guy who drove a delivery truck, and he would show up once in a while, lunchtime down at Danesbury Park to play. And he had a big body, but, you know, he was old and he had these old simple moves, but nobody could stop him. You know, that's a joke that it reminds me of. That old guy who would show up at the playground, you know, it just back you down and then just bank it in, you know?

He's an interesting player. It was an interesting game to watch. So I watched that. And I also watched the Devil's Rangers' seventh game as well. Right. Josh Harris' Sixers' one, Josh Harris' Devils one. But hold on, hold on. I don't want to move off of this because I think I've made some headway with you. Because I've told you, and I've suggested to you in the past, just give Yokic a try at least.

Because I think you might like him. I totally agree with what you just said. I know exactly, I can picture the guy. He just flat out can play. He doesn't look like he can play, but he can flat out play. I mean, Yokic last night, I mean, this is a two-time, Tommy, welcome to Yokitchville. So it's a pleasant place to be. He's a two-time MVP.

You understand that, right? I know, I know. I understand. And they won that game last night with him being brilliant with Murray on a terrible, terrible shooting night, after he could not miss in game one, which really for me tells me, like I liked Phoenix before this series. God, I'm going to be wrong about a lot of these playoffs series. I like Phoenix.

I like the Clippers, of course, they lost Kauai. I liked Milwaukee to come back against the heat, and that didn't happen. I just told you I like Boston, even though they lost game one. I liked Phoenix before this series started. But Murray, you know, he was three for 16, I think. And Yokic had 39.16 rebounds, you know, two block shots, three steals, you know, five, six assists, whatever it was. He's just incredible. By the way, you know who's really playing well for them is KCP, Contavius called Well Pope?

Another guy who was with our team here, like Hachamura, with the Lakers, who's playing really well in the postseason. He really is shooting the ball exceptionally well. But by the way, Jeff Green is playing really well. Also played with the Wizards, the Georgetown Jeff Green. Yeah, Denver was impressive last night, overcoming a bad shooting night by a guy that really led them in game one, Jamal Murray and looked like he did when, you know, that you're in the bubble. And both teams defensively were awesome, awesome in that game.

So tonight, Tommy, you have Lakers Warriors. game one. I would say, without trying to be hyperbolic here, I think that this will be the most watched. The problem, of course, is the late-night nature of the games on the East Coast. That's going to hurt it. But this should be one of the most anticipated, most watched, and most followed non-NBA finals series in a long, long time. I mean, I know the Sixers Celtic. I mean, I know the Sixer Celtics when they used to play like almost every year in the Eastern Conference finals. That was almost as good as the finals. But you've got LeBron and Davis and the Lakers against Steph and the Warriors. I mean, I like the Warriors in seven. I predicted that on radio this morning. I'm going to

stick with Warriors in seven. But I could see the Lakers winning the series. The key for me for the Lakers is Anthony Davis. He has to be great every game, not every other game. And his inconsistible, consistency, you know, and he's, let's face it, he's a bit soft. I mean, he gets hit around, knocked around, and then all of a sudden he's, you know, on the bench for a little while and missing time. But this should be a hell of a series. Your basketball genius may be too much in awe of LeBron James to be able to play his back. Oh, that's right.

That's what you texted me last night. Right. Tell everybody what you're talking about. According to Mark Spears, Draymond Green, asked the war. Warriors for permission to miss some of their road trip to watch LeBron James become the NBA's all-time leading score. That's unbelievable. And they told him no. They told him no. Yes, they said no. They said Steve Kerr said it would be best for Green to be with the team. So the night before game in Portland instead of going to L.A. to see James.

He should have just gotten himself suspended. It's pretty easy for him to do that. And then he could have gone. I mean, that's unbelievable. When you sent that to me, I can't believe that. I mean, the truth is, he strikes me as way too smart genius-like, actually, to come up with something like that. That's incredible. When you consider, like, they have three Locke Hall of Famers that have won, is it four titles now? Four titles, right?

Yes, four titles. It should have been five, but Dream on Guts. suspended in the Cleveland win. But how you could possibly say, hey, I want to go watch somebody on another team break a record. I'm going to miss a couple of games. Is that okay? That is dopesh.

I can imagine if you were to coach how that would look over. Oh, my God. Well, I mean, look, Steve Kerr is super, you know, Mr. Progressive, you know, open-minded the whole thing. And my God, I think he shut that down. Immediately. By the way, I'm just looking at some news on ESPN.com. The Grizzlies are not going to resign Dylan Brooks. This guy may have been emasculated more than any player we have ever seen in the NBA playoffs. He ran his mouth over and over again, called LeBron James Old. He talked about I poke bears, you know, and they got their ass kicked. And he was. so cowardly not talking to media after the game. It's a shame because I actually love the way Dylan Brooks plays and defends and competes.

But God, did he go out like, you know, I don't know how you sign this guy. I mean, he just embarrassed himself beyond recognition. They all did. That whole team. Sounds like a wizard to me. All right. Yeah, I'm hoping I'll be able to watch the game. night because it is on late.

Yeah. But I have to get up early tomorrow, but I have to have an operation. What's your operation tomorrow? One of the, we've talked about this before. Oh, you're, I don't know. Is this the I thing? No, no, no, it's not the I thing. No, this is very calm and peaceful.

I get fluid that gets stuck in my ears occasionally. Oh, yeah, your ears. And I have to get little tubes put in my ears. So the little time. Fluic and drain. Little Tommy needs tubes in these ears. It's a child operation. Yes, it is.

It is. I had a one that needed tubes, I'm pretty sure, I think. Yeah. All right. Do we have anything else? I was just going to mention that, I don't know if you saw this or not, but they redid the Super Bowl ratings after, I don't know, I didn't get into the minutia of why the Super Bowl TV ratings got redone.

But the new number is that a hundred. 115.1 people watch the Super Bowl, making it the most watched television program of all time. It eclipses the 2015 Super Bowl, which was the Patriots Seahawks close Super Bowl. You know, the key is having a close, it doesn't even matter the markets, you know, Kansas City, Philadelphia. Not in the NFL. It doesn't make any difference. What matters if you're going to set the record is that the game's competitive. and close. And that game, 3835 was, you know, and the last one that it eclipsed was that, you know, dramatic Patriot Seahawks Super Bowl as well. The NFL. I was looking through a list,

Tommy, of the all-time watched shows, the most watched. Hold on. I had this list up a little while ago. And it was interesting. Wikipedia anyway has the top 30 watched shows in television history. Now, they include what they call news events. If you include news events, the Apollo 11 moon landing is actually the most watched television broadcast of all time. July 20th, 1969, one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind, Neil Armstrong. And Richard Nixon's resignation speech, August 8, 1974. I remember where I was. I was at the Chase's house in my neighborhood.

We were watching that with their family. That was number 10. But if you take the news events out, the Super Bowls own basically the top 10 spots, and then you get to the MASH Farewell, which true 105.9 million viewers on February 28, 1983. Wow. I remember that because they were viewing parties. So actually, it may have been, it should have been a bigger number because there were viewing parties. I went to one.

I was working at the Eastern Express and somebody there had a viewing party. So it was probably bigger. I never... I never watched MASH. That was not my show. I always enjoyed it. I always enjoyed it. Although I liked it better when Wayne Rogers was there more than Mike Farrell.

Got more preachy with Mike Farrell on the show. I don't even know what that means. It just goes to show you. By the way, in the top 30, Tommy, it's almost all Super Bowls, but there's one non-super Bowl that's a sports. event that's in the top 30 of all time. It drew 90 million viewers on September 15th, 1978 on ABC. Do you know what it was? Yeah, Ollie Spinks. Very good. The rematch. Exactly. That's number, it's number 28 on the all-time

list. Yeah, that was on ABC. ABC. I mean, I kind of, I remember it. I mean, I remember when he lost to him, it was a stunner, and then he came back and he beat him. And I mean, to think that he went on and fought for like three more years after that is because that was not Ali anymore in 1978. That's the summer, one of the summers I spent with him up at Deer Lake. Oh, really? Was him getting ready for that second fight with Spinks. Yeah. Wow.

That must have been. That's really cool. How many books do you have about Ali in the time you spent with him that I can get? I have no books. No books about Ali, buddy. You've got me. You don't need the books. Did he... Just say, Tommy, tell me another Ali story. Now, here's a question for you, and I don't know the answer to it. I know that he fought Holmes in 1980. So if that was September 15, 1978, did he fight anybody before he fought Larry Holmes? No? No. He retired after the second state fight.

Oh, right. He retired. Got it. Yes. came at a retirement, King dragged him out of retirement, you know, promised him a lot of money that, you know, he never got to fight homes. And I was up at Deer Lake a lot for that,

preparing for that fight as well. That happened in October of 80, and he took a severe beating. Oh. You know, that was so sad. And he fought it. And he fought after that.

He fought Trevor Burbick, exactly. And what happened in that fight? lost, right? He lost. Yeah, he lost. And then was that it? That was it, right? That was it. I mean, by all rights, he should have stopped after the third Fraser fight in 75. But he fought about eight or nine times after that. Yeah, the Manila fight is one of the more violent fights. Yes. And just bringing yourself to the unbelievable extremes that, you know, sometimes you see in sports, that's as far as Ali went.

Like, I remember the Norton fight, which would have been after the Manila fight at Yankee Stadium, that he really lost. He won the fight, but he really didn't win the fight. And then, I don't remember. Oh, oh, he fought, who did he fight at the Capitol Center? He fought Alfredo, Alfredo, and Evangelista. No, no, no, no, no.

At the Capitol. Yes, at the Capitol Center. Oh, I thought it was somebody else. No, he fought Evangelista at the Cap Center. I'm almost certain. Hold on for a second. I need to look this up now. Okay. Okay.

Pretty sure that's right. Where's the list of his fights? Here it is. Professional boxing record. Okay. Trevor Berbick, Larry Holmes. Sping, Spinks. Evangelista.

Evangelista Capital Center. May 16th, 1977. I thought it was... Oh, Jimmy Young. He fought Jimmy Young at the Capitol Center. That's the one I'm remembering. April 30th, 1976, he fought Jimmy Young. And he lost that fight too, but he got a decision.

Oh, yeah, because it says he won the decision in 15. But you're saying like the Norton fight that he didn't win that fight either. Yeah. Yeah, so they were giving him. It was the, you know, you got to knock the champ out. You got to knock Ali out to be him. Because Evangelista, God, I don't remember. So he fought twice in D.C., twice at the Capitol Center.

Wow. I remember the Jimmy Young thing. I remember what a big deal it was that Ali was fighting here. Huge deal. You know, Jimmy Young was the guy who retired George Foreman. In 77, he beat Foreman tremendous upset over Foreman, and Foreman had the religious vision that he talks about in the locker room. About the grill?

after the fight and retired and didn't fight for 10 years. You know, there's a movie out now called About Source Form. His biopic is out now in the theaters. Tommy, who was it Larry Holmes who, he was a sparring partner for Ali, right? Larry Holmes was, yes. Yeah. Wasn't there somebody else that he fought that was really, really good that was a sparring partner for him? Or am I thinking of maybe?

was Jimmy Young a sparring partner for him? No, Jimmy Ellis was his sparring partner for many years ago. Jimmy Ellis, got it. Yeah. And then when Ali was banned during his three-and-a-half-year band, Jimmy Ellis bought in a tournament to take his title and wound up holding Ollie's title as the world champion, heavyweight champion. But Ollie beat him after he lost to Fraser.

Fraser beat him. Okay. Fraser beat him. and then and Ali eventually fought him. But Jimmy Young was a blown up middleweight. The fact that he won the heavyweight championship is really amazing

because he should have fought as a middleweight. So anyway. All right. We're done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow with Cooley doing some film breakdowns of some of the draft ease for Washington. You got anything else?

I got nothing for you, All right, back tomorrow.