The Kevin Sheehan Show - "We're The Better Team"

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with the big turnaround on the RFK site courtesy of the government spending bill being in trouble. The boys also talked about Brian Robinson Jr.'s comments about the Eagles on the 106.7 The Fan where he said "we're the better team". Thom's prediction on Sunday's Commanders-Eagles game, Georgetown's big win last night, and Shelia Johnson's comments over the weekend about Caitlin Clark were part of the show as well.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. We are recording the show today in the morning because Tommy's a very important person

and he has very important obligations this afternoon, which means that this ongoing RFK site, part of the legislation with the spending bill, will it, won't it? Who knows what it will be by the time you listen to this podcast later on this afternoon. But whatever happens, we will be here to update the story. I will be here to update the story tomorrow. The show's presenting sponsor as always is Window Nation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. If you need new windows, mention my name. They'll come out and give you a free, no pressure, no obligation in-home estimate. Tommy's got his prediction on Skins Eagles. We're going to talk about what Brian Robinson Jr. said yesterday about the game. If you haven't heard that, we will share that with you. But I guess we have to start. It's just, you know, yesterday, Tommy, I had the mayor on the radio show.

I listened to it. I listened to it on my way into my appointment. Very good job. Well, I mean, I think she's been on before, but you could tell that she was a bit giddy. was excited. Like, this is, you know, this is going to happen. You know, they're going to move back to RFK. She might not be as excited this morning. I wish I had, I don't know, maybe I could have talked to Eric Flack about this instead of you, but I wish I had talked to you. Oh, that's classic. I wish I had talked to you because I do think that I should have at least thought, okay, well,

the bill hasn't passed. They're assuming it's going to pass. The announcement we got was that everybody agreed it would be attached as a rider to this spending bill. And it was a must-pass spending bill that everybody assumed

would just pass. The government shuts down. But I wish I had asked her, hey, is there any chance, because it hasn't been voted on yet, that this won't pass? I mean, I don't know how these things work, but I didn't think of it. Maybe you would have thought of it. These things usually don't, these things usually don't work

where a corporate leader decides to have the bill killed. Well, it's not just what. It's not just Musk. All right. You know, I was talking to somebody late last night. I'm going to net it out real quickly. Of course, what Musk tweeted out specifically about the RFK, the DC Stadium thing, He did not understand that that part of the legislation is not a government funding issue. It's a transfer of the property to D.C. I know that, but that doesn't stop him. Never stop. But what I would suggest, or what I suggested to a friend of mine who kind of understands all of these things at a much higher level than I do, maybe not than you do.

But I said, I imagine that if I committed to reading this and actually trying to understand, it, I think most normal people would probably say there's way too much in here. This is far, far too much spending. Of course. Of course. That's the way the wheel turns. Okay, well, one of the reasons, there's always going to be a segment, a growing segment. Yes. That's going to want to set it on fire. Okay. And what Musk did was gave them the gasoline. Yeah, because it would probably have passed, it's not just Musk, it's Musk and Trump in combo, you know, with their influence to say, hold off on this. Now, for those of you that don't know what we're talking about this point, at this point, I'm sorry, I should have started with the spending bill, which was going to get voted on this week in which the RFK site legislation was attached to. Remember that they couldn't vote on the RFK legislation as a standalone.

There was no time to do that. And the only way to get it through before the end of the year, which, by the way, is Saturday morning, was to attach it to an existing bill that was going to pass. And that's why everybody was excited two days ago, because the news came out that the RFK site legislation was going to get attached to this major. end of year spending bill to keep the government funded through March. Great. Now, it didn't mean that it was going to land at RFK, the stadium. It meant that D.C. could now negotiate with the team and get a deal done.

And then, you know, we would have gotten into the conversation about, well, you know, what's the D.C. Council going to say? What are the NIMBY's going to say in the RFK neighborhood? That would have been the next hurdle to clear. But the big hurdle of having the ability to do with the land, what they want to do, with the land was cleared. We thought until this bill got killed and it's not going to be voted on. Now, Mike Johnson may get a new scaled down version of the bill, you know, done here in the next 48 hours.

But I have no idea, and I'm curious as to what you think, as to whether or not the RFK stuff would be included if they get a scaled down version and they vote on a bill. bill to, you know, essentially keep government funded through March of 25. So what do you say? Okay. Well, I think there's less than a 50% chance because this is where the district is at a disadvantage. They really, they have no advocate of power within the halls of Congress. You know, they don't have a true representative, you know, they don't have that kind of,

That's why what Van Hollen was doing was so damaging, because there is no senator from Washington, D.C. to fight back. And so this is where I don't know, you know, if the NFL's lobby, and the NFL's lobby was the one that eventually helped push this through. I mean, you know, the team and the NFL were the two primary factors in getting it to where it needed to be on Capitol here. Hill finally. The NFL is a pretty powerful lobby as opposed to the District of Washington. So I'm a little bit less than optimistic, and which would be a shame. It really would

to have come that close, you know, and all of a sudden they move the finish line on you. And the bigger deal is the government was shut down, and there'd be a lot more people in Washington, D.C., who have jobs who are upset with that. But for our purposes, it's a lot of the government. It's about RFK Stadium. Yeah. I don't understand enough of this. I am ignorant to how this would proceed when we've been in these positions before, by the way, almost every administration, you know, in terms of pushback to spending bills,

government shutdowns, etc. Like, you know, if they were to scale back this thing and vote on it quickly, does RFK get included into it? if they were to quickly, you know, starting in January, scale it down and have a little bit more time versus 48 hours to understand the RFK site legislation isn't a funding of a new stadium. It's just the transfer of property. Could it get done without starting over? You know, could James Comer still be a major advocate of this legislation, you know, when the calendar turns into 2025 and there's a new Congress? or would it really have to start all over?

I do know because, you know, and this is what I remember reading at various points during the last year, there have been Republicans in Congress, actually just congressmen both sides, who have said that they're not necessarily in favor of just giving property away to the District of Columbia. Like they'd like something back for it. Now, there is a lot of federal land owned by the federal government, the Department of Interior specifically, that does get given to D.C. for purposes of parks, monuments, et cetera, but that some don't want it just being transferred for nothing. So I don't know how this plays out from here. I really have no clue, but obviously in the moment, it's a major blow to getting the RFK site, legislation passed and then, you know, getting to the next step, which is a deal. And if it starts

to drag out, like if it doesn't get done in the next 48 hours and then it drags out into 25, at some point I would think Mitch Rails, Josh Harris, Mark Eine, all the people especially who want D.C. might just throw up their arms and say, we want a new stadium opened in 2030. We don't want to wait until, we don't want to wait seven years, eight years. Right. And like you've said, all along, the path of least resistance has always been Maryland, and we've seen that for sure. And the governor there has not raised the white flag, even though, you know, there was an agreement of sorts made between the senators from Maryland, you know, to let this move through. The governor says there's more governor more says they still want the commanders you know in Maryland so it's

so you're right look uh it I I don't know what's going to happen either like you said some of this all could be moot by the time that the podcast comes out but it doesn't help that that Elon must call attention to this yeah it doesn't help yeah because you know there was a lot of He got it wrong. He got it wrong. But, you know, in this day and age, wrong doesn't matter. No, it doesn't. Both sides, by the way, Tom.

Both sides. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wrong doesn't matter. Yeah. You know, and so it, I mean, all the, it's funny, the parade that everyone held in Washington yesterday, you know, understandably so for the good news, you know, may have called too much

attention to this. By the way, for those that don't know Elon Musk's specific comments about the RFK site legislation, he retweeted this tweet from somebody who wrote, you know, buried in the 1,547 page bill as a provision to facilitate a $3 billion NFL stadium in Washington, D.C. He retweeted it and he wrote, this should not be funded by your tax dollars. Well, it's not accurate. That's not what the rider to this spending bill does. It doesn't fund a new stadium in D.C. It just transfers the RFK property to the district so that they can do something with that property. Of course, we would love it to be a stadium.

But the federal government's not pitching in anything towards the development of that new stadium, other than the transfer of the property. And it's a blighted, empty, you know, RFK's old stadium. stadium sitting on that property site right now. It would be much better for everybody in the city if that land was developed, even if it wasn't a stadium, but they can't do that without the district controlling the land. So he got that wrong, but the reaction was, yeah, like from people who aren't following the story, I'm not paying, you know, somebody in Oklahoma, I'm not paying for a $3 billion

DC stadium. And again, that was inaccurate. But it doesn't matter because it's attached to the bill that they want to kill. And that's not the reason they were killing the bill. You know, it was, you know, 1,547 pages of bureaucracy. God. Okay. Percent chance.

Look, here's what I always say. One last lesson. Democracy is messy. It's not tidy. You know? It's not run like a corporate. boardroom. I mean, because it's arguably, even though it doesn't happen, it's supposed to be inclusive. And when you're inclusive, where the country would more than 300 million people,

it's messy to get things done. It's a messy process. Very frustrating, very hair-pulling. Yeah. Okay. So chance it ends up at RFK, where are you right now? Percent chance that we have a new stadium on the RFK site, 2030, or you know, 2029, 2030, 2031. Right now, where are you? 40%. I was 80% yesterday. I'm down to 50% today. And the only reason I'm not lower than 50% is I just feel like Josh Harris and Mitch Rails really want this and so do a significant percentage of lawmakers in D.C. I know not everybody wants it in D.C. And that somehow, even if it means being more patient and perhaps even starting over again, they may decide to do that. We'll see. All right. Brian Robinson, Jr. yesterday

made an appearance on the junkies yesterday morning. And he made a comment, among several comments, it was part of kind of an answer to the game on Sunday, he said, quote, we feel like we are the better team, closed quote. Part of that, he was talking about the last game, the Thursday night game that they lost, and said that, you know, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot, we didn't play our best, we feel like we can play better. Yeah, so that was it. But the headlines, coming out of this interview was we feel like we are the better team. So, you, by the way, I didn't even know this. You just told me about it.

So this is my first time hearing about this. So go ahead. You were pretty worked up over it. Well, let's remind everybody. They're playing the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Okay. Oh, that's right. Yes, they are.

Yes. Yes. So, you know, so, I mean, are you saying that Brian Robinson wasn't referring to the Eagles? No, of course. Of course he was referring to the Eagles. Okay. Did I say that he wasn't? No, you didn't.

No, you didn't. I see what you're doing. I see what you're doing. Yeah. So if you're Joe Gibbs, where do you think this comment is, and you're coaching the Eagles, Where is this comment today in the Eagles locker room? How blown up is this? Like 400, 500%, paste it on a whiteboard,

make sure that everybody in the locker room sees it? This is locker room material, locker room, bulletin board material 101 right here. I think it's more interesting to consider what Joe gives how he would have reacted had he been coaching Brian Robinson, Jr. and Washington, and he said that. And he had to deal with some of that. Remember, Dexter, you know, said he was going to knock Joe Montana's, you know, ring his clock or whatever

it was. He threatened, you know, came out and said he was going to knock out Jim McMahon, you know, all these different things with Dexter. I actually, you know, I want my team to believe that they're the better team and going confidently. You just can't say it. This is, you know, I'm with you. You just can't say it and you've got to be careful. I read kind of the context of everything. He did say that, but he also made a comment about how, you know, basically they felt like in the first game they would have won,

but they didn't control the controllables and they shot themselves in the foot. I'll remind everybody from that first game because it's a while ago now. month ago. The Eagles missed two first half field goals in that game and did nothing but shoot themselves in the foot in the first half of that football game. Penalties missed field goals. It was really a total shit show on behalf of Philadelphia in the first half of that game. That was really the story as to why Washington had a lead going into the fourth quarter or a big part of the story anyway. So it's a little bit of, of, you know, misremembering how it went. But that's okay. I want them to be a little bit delusional about the first one and go in confident and remember

only the good things. You know, they had a chance. Remember, there was the big, you know, fourth down in two, down 12 to 10 at the Philly 26, and they chose not to take the lead on a field You know, and they went for that fourth and two after they had had multiple negative plays, you know, and I remember, you know, I understood it from a certain standpoint, but at the same time, the context was they had been nailed. In fact, it was Brian Robinson Jr. who had been nailed on two consecutive plays for like minus two yards that set up the fourth and two, which, by the way, they should have had the first down on the Bates catch on first and 10, just trying to bring you back to that night, but they didn't give them the first down. And there they were with fourth and two,

and Quinn decided not to take the lead. And a few plays later, Seguan Barkley was in the end zone, and it was 19 to 10, and it was pretty much game over. So Washington was really the team that was, you know, Philadelphia was more self-destructive in that game. And then Washington did have a chance there, even with that. So I don't know. I, in this day and Is there even bulletin board material anymore with all the social media? Oh, my God, yeah. You think so? I think players do it more than ever to pump themselves up.

Yeah. They create, they create, there's just so much of it. phony stuff in order to pump themselves up. You know, and the Eagles, I mean, the Eagles, when they're not fighting themselves, are a pretty emotional team. and this is an emotional statement if you're a Philadelphia Eagle. You know, and look, I know what you're saying,

you want your team to think they're good, but it's sort of delusional to think that sometimes it's okay to recognize the other team is better, but that you can beat them, okay? Sometimes you can think, yeah, this guy's better to me, but I know how to beat him. Yeah, you're really getting into the depths of sort of intellectual, you know, athletic, competitive thinking.

I think for the masses at that level, not that I can speak to that with personal experience, but I think it's probably best that they think they're better than the team. Not to the point where you're overconfident and you don't prepare, but if you go in thinking, oh, that team's, We have to just outsmart them. We've got to do this. Look, there's a lot of strategy from coaches in understanding where they are at a disadvantage, clearly. Coaches can't be stupid and say, oh, we've got an advantage everywhere.

We're better. No, this is an area where we have a disadvantage. And as you said, but we think we can do this, this, and this to nullify that, or even turn it around and give us an advantage. I look at this game, honestly, on Sunday as a winnable game. I do think it's winnable. It's Philadelphia, Detroit totally healthy this year, and they're not anymore, and they haven't been for, you know, a growing number of weeks. They were the ones where it's like, wow, how do you stop that?

Philadelphia doesn't instill that kind of fear with their offense. I think Philadelphia's strength right now, it's everywhere, but they are just a dominant defensive team right now and so well coached. And that was really the issue in that Thursday night game is that, you know, the quarterback and the offense and even cliff to a certain degree, they were confused all night long. You know, Vic Fangio just had them, he had Jaden seeing shadows and not knowing what to do. There were guys running into each other on routes. You know, I don't want to go back and redo the whole, you know, it was his ribs. I mean, he was confused. It was a confusing night for the offense, and that's the part they got to fix.

Because they don't win this game with defense. Sorry, I don't think they do. They win this game by creating third and twos, third and ones, third and threes, and being really productive on offense. And you're going to need to score on Sunday. And you can't, you know, you can't rely on Philadelphia. to shoot themselves in the foot like they did in the first game. So I, you know, Austin Echler was a major part of that first game.

You know, just bringing you back to that first game. Echler had a big night. He was a big part of that one touchdown drive. Remember in the first quarter that was so impressive and we were like, oh my God, we're going to beat these guys. You know, he had a, he had a, bunch of catches in the game. He had, hold on, my computer's slow here.

He had eight catches for 89 yards in that game on nine targets. And now he's got, he'll have zero on Sunday because he's not playing. Zach Ertz, six catches, 47 yards in a touchdown in that game. Another zero, not playing. Noah Brown only had one catch for four, but didn't. Didn't he have a big drop in that game? I think he had a big drop in that game. So, man, I cannot wait for this game.

I don't know what it is. I couldn't wait for the last game. Couldn't wait for that Pittsburgh game. There's something about this time of year, our football team being involved in a massively relevant game, not just for the two teams, but for the league, for the conference, at holiday time. There's just something about that.

So many memories I have, Tommy, of, you know, the 80s into the 90s, is holiday weekends and massively important Redskins games. Because we had them every year. We had them every year for basically going back to George Allen for like 20-something years. But certainly during the Gibbs years, because the, the regular season actually was longer when you got to the Gibbs years. And there's something kind of exciting about that. I mentioned yesterday, I hope that it's not a Philadelphia crowd,

but I am concerned that it could be. That's a reasonable concern. They probably bought up a lot of tickets when the schedule came out. Long before, you know, we knew that this would be a year in which there would be big games late in the season. The Eagles are one of those fan bases that travel well, and they don't have to travel far for this one. I mean, they had a big contingent in Baltimore for the Ravens game that they won a few weeks

ago. All right. What else on Brian Robinson, Jr.? You know, back it up. Go back it up. I'm not a big fan of saying things like that. You know, it's part of it. of a long answer. The answer was like a minute plus.

You know, now you got to back it up. And if you provided bulletin board material, hopefully, and they kick your ass, hopefully you learn your lesson and you, you know, you show us with actions the next time in a playoff game. If you're the coach, do you say anything to them? I don't. I would. I would, too. I definitely would. I don't know how.

I have a sense that Cliff Kingsbury probably wouldn't say anything to him. Dan Quinn is such a players coach. He might say something like, look, I know this was part of a long answer. And in context, it wasn't that big of the deal. But look what they took out, just this one piece of it. So that's not necessarily, you know, in our best interest to go into a game against a team that beat us last time saying we feel like we are the better team. even though I agree with you, I feel like we're the better team, and we're going to win Sunday. But let's just keep it to ourselves and show everybody rather than say it before we get there.

That's part of, that's the culture that you want, right? It is. You know? Exactly. That's exactly the culture you described is what you want. Because as a fan, I lived that culture with Joe Gibbs for all of those years. This would have mortified him. Mortified him.

And the players other than people like Dexter, they knew. No, no, no, no. We were a franchise that goes out and kicks your ass, and you didn't even see it coming. And I've always preferred that, sure, because it's what, you know, some of us were familiar with for so many years. All right, let's get to Tommy's prediction on the game on Sunday. we've got other things including a big win for Georgetown last night in basketball. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, no man wants to lose his hair, but for men, it's actually very common.

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team isn't the Creighton team of the last few years, but it's a good team. They were really close against Alabama the other night losing by eight on the road. And last night, against Georgetown, the Hoyas went to 1 in O in the Big East. First time they've had a winning record in the Big East in a while, 9 and 2 overall, and they destroyed Creighton, 81 to 57. Jade Naps, big game, Micah Peavy, big game. Georgetown beat Syracuse on Sunday. Syracuse isn't that good this year.

And they've got two losses. They lost to Notre Dame, and they lost to Wessexie. West Virginia, but I think Georgetown fans are probably a little bit more optimistic after destroying a team that's pretty much been one of the really good teams in the Big East in recent years. So good for them. They had to Seton Hall on Sunday. I didn't mention on yesterday's show just how impressive my Terps were the other night. Now, it's not a team in which they face that was going to give them any trouble, St. Francis. The Terps were 34. and a half point favorites.

But my God, is this Maryland team something else? Right now, they're 17 in Ken Palm. They're 19 in the net rankings. Their margin of victory is number one in college basketball right now. They beat St. Francis 11 to 57. It was the most

points they've scored in a game since 2005, a Gary team. And they just have a lot of talent. I mean, they turn this team completely around through the portal and of course with the recruitment of Derek Queen who has shown everybody why he was a five-star. He looks like a top 10 to top 15 lottery pick in next year's

NBA draft. And I think Tommy the Terps are in for a really good season. They play Syracuse and Brooklyn Sunday. 12 noon start. That's going to kill me because I'm going to turn that thing off. I'll have it on the other screen, but the skins start at one. And then they get real deep into the Big Ten schedule starting after the first of the year with a West Coast swing playing Washington and 10th ranked Oregon. That Oregon game will be big. But anyway, all right. It really is that you get, let me ask you. Let me ask you. Yes. You sang Ed Cooley's praises. I like Ed Cooley a lot as a coach, yes. Really liked him at Providence. I know no one really likes to talk about this because he's such a revered figure,

but the Ewing era was an absolute disaster, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. You know, and what's funny about that is I never thought watching Georgetown during those years, especially the first few years that Patrick was there, and I think Orr was on the staff. I forget who else was on the staff. I never felt watching some of those teams early on that they weren't, that they were poorly coached. I actually thought that they were kind of well-coached.

They just were lacking in talent some of those years. Remember, they won the Big East tournament that one year. Was that COVID? They won the Big East tournament, you know, stunningly. And, you know, went to the first run. I think it was Colorado blew him out, Tad Boyle's team. But those last two years were just hideous. Yeah.

I mean. I mean, that's a shame. I mean, you know, it's funny because, I mean, you know, for years, people talk about Ewing not being given a chance to be a head coach. And, you know, in the NBA, period, where he was an assistant for almost 20 years. And then he finally gets a chance at Georgetown. And he'll never, I mean, he'll never get another chance. Georgetown was 2 and 18 in the Big East last year in Coolie's first season.

in Ewing's last season and O'N-19 the year before. So in three years, they were four and 55, if my math is correct. 56. That's a hole that they got out of. Yeah, that's not good. And they started off 1-0 with the win against Creighton last night, so good for them. All right, let's get to your pick. You're not going to go, right?

No, I'm not, unfortunately. You know, I'm in my holdback mode because of my eyes. Maybe it's only temporary, hopefully. But to produce a story on deadline in a press box, given my vision problems right now, would be more difficult than I need to deal with. Right, got it. So you'll be watching and then writing from home.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You know what, it'll be a nice, day to be at home. It's going to be very cold Sunday. Game time temperature 29, 30 degrees. So we get to see Jaden Daniels in his first legit cold weather game. Oh, boy. Yeah. He's going to be bundled up on the sideline. Yes, he will. I don't think that's going to help a situation that's not going to be good for him for the commanders. I have the Eagles winning 35 to 24, and it's not

that close. Okay. The 24 comes from some garbage points at the end. My highlight or low light in this case is two turnovers from Jayden Daniel. Two turnovers. Whether they're interceptions or fumbles,

I'm not saying, but there'll be two Jayden Daniels' turnovers. Yeah. This goes without saying Barkley will have rushing and receiving over 200 yards. Over 200. would you say?

I shouldn't even have to say it anymore. Yeah. I'll have my prediction tomorrow, and I really, I'm pretty sure it's going to be the opposite of yours. I think I'm going to be leaning towards a win Sunday. I actually... No, because I understand that in a way, because they're a better team. No, that's not what I would say. They're not the better team.

But this is, this, put it this way, from a gambling standpoint, I think Washington will be in the smell test this coming weekend. The line's three. I did see some three and a halves out there. I'd love it to stay at three. I mean, I'd rather have three and a half, but I'm saying the three and a half would indicate maybe some sharper betters are on Philly, but, oh, the public thinks this line's way too short, way too short.

because Philly, you know, they've only won 10 games in a row. And the big games they've played, you know, against the Ravens, against the Rams, against the Steelers here recently, they've won convincingly. You know, it's the games against the bad teams, the Panthers, the Jags, in which they've kind of fooled around and played with their food during the game. And, you know. Well, I tell you what, I think Brian Robinson got their attention for this. Okay. I think this has a chance to be a really good game, but Philly's defense is no joke right now. They are so well coached. Jalen Carter is heading for not this year, but in future years, defensive player of the year kind of territory. I mean, I don't even know where he is right now on the odds. I would bet that he's probably in the top seven or eight. He is just dominant. Their defense is just so good. It's so young.

now on the back end. And wow, I'm impressed with them defensively more than anything else. I've never been blown away with Philly in recent years with the way they attack offensively. I think it's kind of basic, but they have so much talent. You know, Barclay and Brown and Smith and Goddard. And it's going to be a really interesting Sunday to see how Marshawn Lattimore, is used. We saw a game in which a Washington cornerback wasn't thrown at one time in the entire game. Look, a big part of that is they had backup quarterbacks and not great receivers. So why attack

Marshawn Latimore? Philadelphia has a great receiver and a really good receiver. They're not going to shy away from throwing at Latimore. And how will Washington play it? Will they line up Latimore on one side and keep them there? Or will they have them travel with A.J. Brown? There's a lot to this game that's going to be interesting. I think Washington's got a shot. I think they do.

But no Echler. Echler's the big loss, Tommy, of these injuries recently. Of Brown-Eerts Echler. Echler's the one I think they miss the most. I don't know that they would say that, but I bet they would. I haven't heard that from anybody. From my standpoint, Eckler is the one that really gave them something completely different than what they have at running back and is such a good receiver,

and was a hell of a kickoff return or two. You could argue that their biggest loss might have been Austin Sebert. Cybert. Cybert. Well, they chose not to, you know, keep him as much as they, you know, he was injured. He was injured, but then they went with Gonzalez. By the way, both kickers yesterday had babies, or they were supposed to have babies. I don't know if that actually happened.

Yeah. I don't know which kicker will kick Sunday. I would guess Gonzalez. That's my guess, but I don't know for sure. All right. Let's finish up the show with something that we wanted to talk about on Tuesday, and we will get to next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. You know, step around that hot take and make a play today with Robin Hood.

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How about that? That sounds good. That sounds very good. Sign me up. That's one of the specials. Absolutely. So it's Feliz Navidata. at Shelly's backroom.

Look, over the course of the holidays, and I'll mention this again, you have visitors coming in town, and you're making a checklist of places to go in D.C., make sure Shelly's is on that checklist. You'll surprise your visitors, and they'll go home, not talking about the National Gallery of Art. They'll go home talking about their visits, Shelly's Backroom.

You can find out more at shelley's backroom.com. Real quickly, no smell test pick. I know a lot of you thought I would have Denver tonight. The action's kind of split. It's not a heavy public side one way or the other, but there are definite games this weekend. And also, this came from Charlie. Why didn't you give out bowl games this week?

I do look at the bowl games, and if there's a bowl game that I really like, I'll give it out. I almost gave out Cal last night. I'm glad I didn't. But yeah, keep tuning in. And if there's a bowl game, because basically they're college football games, every single day and night from now through the first part of the new year, I will put them into

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only with my bookie. Yeah, tonight starts a stretch of football that's insane. You get, I mean, I've been talking about this since the schedule came out and the playoff schedule came out for college football. Tonight, Broncos Chargers, this was a flexed Thursday night game from about a month ago. And then we get college playoff game one tomorrow night in South Bend, the triple header on Saturday, starting with Penn State SMU and Happy Valley. Texas and Clemson in Austin, and then it finishes up Saturday night with Ryan Day, basically coaching for his job in a home game against Tennessee in the first round of the playoffs. All the while, Texans at Chiefs and Steelers Ravens.

And that's before we get to Sunday. God, this is going to be fun. I told my wife said to me the other day, she said, hey, Friday night, there's this thing. And I just said, no, no, I told you this like two months ago. When we get to December 20th and December 21st, nothing. I don't care who's throwing a holiday party. I have waited for years to see college football playoff games in home site venues.

This is going to be spectacular. And I know people are like, well, it's Indiana, it's SMU, and then Boise in the next round, it doesn't matter. I mean, the scenes in places like South Bend and State College and Columbus and Austin are going to be awesome. If you're a college football fan, this is, this is going to be great. All right, we wanted to finish up with this. This being, we meant to get to it the other day, but the comments that Sheila Johnson, Sheila Johnson, you know, one of the most successful business people that we have known from a female perspective. She's the owner of the Washington Mystics, has been.

She was interviewed last week about the league and the health of the league. And part of the interview dealt with talking about Caitlin Clark being named the Time Magazine Athlete of the Year. and Sheila Johnson said, quote, we have so much talent out there that has been unrecognized, I don't think we can pin it on just one player, closed quote. Talking about Caitlin Clark getting Person of the Year, advocating for maybe the League having been named the Athlete of the Year. That's not how it's done, by the way.

You don't get teams named Athlete of the Year. And, you know, I read this and I watched and listened to it. I just can't believe that they just won't say because it's so obvious, Caitlin Clark is the main primary, maybe only reason why the popularity of our league went through the roof this last year. I mean, there are facts to back it up. Why can't they just say it? I don't get it at all.

You know, I'm with you 100%. When I saw this, I just couldn't believe it. Here's the WNBA with an athlete named Athlete of a Year by Time magazine, and they're complaining about it. I mean, it's just stunning. This is why, I mean, I have a hard time taking this league seriously because they act like amateurs all the time. They have their nice little niche that they want to run the way they want to run it,

and they don't want anyone to mess with it, you know? That they have this little league, you know, and they want it to be big, but on their terms. On their terms, you can't make it on your terms when you've never made a dime. Like, this is the part that's so frustrating for me and maybe a lot of you. It's like, wait a minute. The only reason you've existed for all of this time is because the NBA has covered the losses of the league and kept you afloat.

Like, this is Business 101. 99 out of 100 businesses would have been long gone years ago, defunct. and the NBA has funded you for 27 years. And this gift was given to you, this incredible lifeline named Caitlin Clark. Who cares what color she is? Who cares what her sexuality is? She is a gift that just kept giving all season long.

Record crowds, record ratings, record revenue. I think it's petty jealousy. I don't know any other way to explain it, but it's so short-sighted and it's so biting off your nose to spite your face. Because that kind of reaction really turns people off. And by the way, it's put her into a position in some of these interviews, including the Time magazine interview, where she's had to bow a little bit too much to, you know,

race and other issues. This is not hard. God, thank you for delivering us, Caitlin Clark. And it's the same thing that the NBA did. They didn't do it. They did the opposite. They said, thank you for giving us Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the same year. This league was on life support. And by the way, they did not have Big Brother to keep it alive. This just isn't that hard. And yet, these people are just insufferably stupid. Yeah. They're going to turn people off.

I mean, remember the Players Union, the WNBA Players Union, wanted Christine Brennan banned. I know. Banned from covering the league. I just... Because she dared to ask some questions about some of the play that Caitlin Clark had to endure this year.

Aja Wilson just signed this historic deal with Nike, a contract extension, worth millions of dollars. And let me just tell you, I swear on my boys, a year ago, I couldn't have told you who Aja Wilson was for all the money that you wanted to provide me with. And I know she's a great player in the WNBA. I didn't watch the WNBA until this year, had zero interest in watching the WNBA. I don't have girls. I bet if I had daughters, given how much I love basketball and have been a participant in basketball,

I absolutely would have been probably more aware of the WNBA and probably would have taken my daughters to games if they played, especially if they were interested. This year I became aware of who Aja Wilson was, and my God, she's good. Like, she is a dominant player. But these deals are increased. They are at the very least enhanced because of Caitlin Clark. She is the needle mover, period. It's okay to say it.

But they don't want to, for some reason. season. And Sheila Johnson is a smart lady. So successful. That's just a dumb thing to say. I know that. I think she's trying to connect to her to the players. Yeah. Well, you don't, you know what? You can, don't worry about, connect to your players by saying, hey, this is a gift. She's a great player who, by the way, set every freaking rookie record, imaginable for that league. It's not like it was just about this great college player and what she had done at Iowa.

She turned into a great player in the league in her rookie year. And most people think she'll eventually be one of the best players, top five players in the game. I don't know. I could go on and on. I just think it's amazing that this league doesn't recognize the gift it was given and somehow acts as if, it's been viable for 27 years without her.

And that really it's just as much about, you know, you know, Reese and the other players that came before her and all of that. No, there's one reason, one reason I watched the WNBA and so many millions more did for the first time. Caitlin Clark, it's okay to say it and embrace it. Still can't believe that she wasn't on the Olympic team. One of the dumbest things I've ever seen. All right, anything else?

I got nothing else for you. I thought you said you had something to tell me. I don't want to, you know, press you for time here. Well, tell me real quickly. We got a couple minutes. Okay. Well, yesterday, you ever hear Longwood Gardens? Yeah, why have I heard of Longwood Gardens?

It's just like 1,100 acre outdoor. You've told me about it. Yes, you've told me about it. Really? Yes, you've told me about it. Okay. Yeah, the place in New Jersey, the place in Jersey. No, it's not in New Jersey.

It's in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Oh, right, right. You've told me about this. Yeah, it's like beautiful grounds, and they really go all out. Christmas. And decorate for Christmas. You know, they've got an indoor conservatory. It's just, and the amount of people that go see this place are unbelievable.

I mean, you have to have a time ticket, you know, to get in. because it's so crowded. Well, I'm looking at pictures of it right now. It's beautiful. Yeah, I went yesterday with some family members, and I enjoyed it, okay? It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but I enjoyed it, but it was funny. I was looking at the faces of all the men around me. And the best way I can describe it, it looked like they had been in bed, bath, and beyond for a season.

So it's that experience. I'm looking at pictures. It really looks pretty, though. It really is. And for Christmas time, it's a great experience. That's what I'm saying. I'm looking at the Christmas decorated Longwood Gardens. That sounds like a column.

That sounds like a column. I guarantee you that 90% of the people who went there, that decision was made by somebody other than the guy. we used to when the kids were young we would go down you know a couple of days before christmas to see the national christmas tree and then go to old ebbett afterwards for dinner where it was all decorated and you know that was nice that was fun but it involved food and maybe a beer or two in the process uh i i bet a lot of the guys were like where are we going for lunch when do we get to eat and drink well they have a beer garden there. Oh, they do? Yes, they do. And about halfway through, we stopped to eat. And then when they started up again, I said, that's okay. I'll stay here. All right. So I skip the second half. All right. So, God, you get out there, you know. For somebody that can't see very good, you get out there and you experience it. All right, enjoy the weekend. I will talk to you. You and I are going to do.

a show together. You don't know this yet, but we're going to do a show together for Christmas Eve that Tuesday. We'll figure out when we're going to record it. I will talk to you about this over the weekend, but I would like

to put out a show for Christmas Eve. These people are in their cars and they're driving around and they're doing last second shopping and maybe they'll want to hear us Babylon rather than listen to Christmas music. So we'll do that. My future, my future is in your hand. Please, you don't want that. I'm back tomorrow with Jay Gruden to preview Washington,

Philadelphia.