The Kevin Sheehan Show - WFT Ranked Behind DAL & NYG

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

Kevin and Thom today on several topics including but not limited to: Russell Westbrook, Elite 8, Jack Del Rio's assault, Kevin thinking he could've helped Kelvin Sampson last night, a false accusation from Thom, Washington Football's post-free agency ranking on ESPN, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The podcast today brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code Kevin, D.C., and you can secure a deposit bonus of up to $1,000. Make sure you use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., so they know that I hooked you up. You know, there's some interesting prop bets on My Booky. Right now, the third quarterback selected in the draft, the odds, because Zach Wilson is the heavy favorite to be the second quarterback in the draft. You can bet on the third quarterback. quarterback selected in the draft. Justin Fields is the favorite over Trey Lance and Mack Jones. Mac Jones is plus 300. I have this sense, and we'll talk about it maybe a little bit later on, that Mac Jones is going to be the third pick in the draft drafted by the 49ers. So plus 300 is a pretty good number. All of the NCAA tournament games tonight and then the final four games and the national championship game, by the way, the women's games also you can wager on at mybooky.com. AG, MyBooky, use my promo code. Kevin, D.C., totally worth it just for the match on the security deposit.

You get free money and you can use it as a place to comparison shop if you've got another site. MyBooky at mybooky.orgie.orgie. At mybooky.orgie. com. Use my promo code. Kevin, D.C. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. He is Kevin. Tommy's here today. We've got several subjects. to go through. I want to touch on the Elite 8 games from last night, which Tommy did not watch.

There's more to the Deshawn Watson story. The Skins over-undernumber for wins next year was posted and updated on Draft Kings. There's an updated power rankings post-NFL free agency. That should be encouraging on Washington. They had such a great free agency period. The smell test one-in-one last night. There was a bad beat, definitely, in the Houston game, but we came back with the Baylor game. Tommy's got some Jack Del Rio stories. I actually wanted to start before we get to your cherry blossom watching downtown yesterday. Did you, you didn't watch this. You didn't even watch the Elite Eight games. However, last night in the Elite Eight in the Women's College Basketball tournament, Yukon beat Baylor 69 to 67, and this was the most controversial call of the tournament,

men's or women's. I don't know if you saw the play, but this Baylor girl got fouled. Carrington was her last name, with just under five seconds to go with Baylor trailing Yukon 68 to 67, Dejone Carrington got absolutely hacked by two different U.S. Yukon players, one in the face and the other hitter on the elbow. And people started tweeting, I'm going to be honest with you, I was not watching the game. I did watch some of the Maryland Texas game from the night before. I was not watching Yukon Baylor last night.

LeBron James tweeted, come on, man, that was a foul. And then the best part about it is Gino Oriama's daughter, Alyssa, tweeted, that should have been a foul. His own daughter thought it should have been a foul. And Gina Oriama had this long basically explanation where he said, really? You know, LeBron James tweeted it should have been a foul. He goes, I doubt that in his career he's ever won a game and decided to give it back because he looked at it and went, eh, that was a foul.

Good point. And he had a great answer all along, his two-minute answer after the game. It was a foul, but these things happen. And Yukon and schools like Yukon and Duke over the years and LeBron James, they get calls. LeBron James would have been on the ground reeling in pain, writhing around as if he got shot by an AK-47 had he been fouled the way Carrington was. She seemed upset about it, but Baylor loses the game 69-67. The daughter tweets outstanding, though, his own daughter saying, Ah, they should have been at the free throw line for two free throws.

By the way, which you have no comment on this, because you didn't even know the story existed. You know, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Have I let you down here somehow? No, you've never let me down. You know, that's right. I never let. It seems like I have, though.

No. I didn't do what you expect of me. So I let you down. Now, you see, I'm familiar with this concept. about not doing what people expect of you because, I mean, it's something that you and I deal with from time to time. Let me take you back to last week. Okay. I asked you to do something for me.

I think it was Thursday afternoon. Uh-huh. Do you ask me to tweet out one of your stories? And what happened? I tweeted out one of your stories. No, you didn't. Yes, I did. No, you didn't.

Yes, I did. No, you didn't. Yes, I did. Okay. What are you talking about? You didn't? Well, I certainly intended to. I'm going back through my Twitter.

I'm going back through my Twitter account right now. Hold on, I got to click the tweets and retweet. Of course you intended to. No, no, no, I did it. I did it from my phone. I can picture myself doing it in the family room at my house, doing it. It was, you know, yeah, here it is. March 25th.

You retweeted Tom Leveros, the day. Dan Snyder column. What are you talking about? I retweeted it. It's right here. You're sure. A hundred percent. I'm looking at it right now.

Do you want me to send you, well, I got to put it on my phone to take a picture of it and send it to you. I'm sure you're not lying to me. I'm not lying. I'm looking at it right now. I'm sure you're not. Well, then why did you say that? Because I could find no record of you retweeting

this thing that I asked you to retweet for me. All right. Now I'm going to go to your thing so you can see that the people that retweeted it. You go to your thing and look at the people who retweeted it. I retweeted it. You wouldn't lie to me about it. Hold on. Retweets.

You might be sheepish about not doing it, but you wouldn't lie about it. There it is. Kevin Sheehan. At Kevin Sheehan, DC retweeted Tommy's column. Look, there have been times there have been times when you've asked me to do this where I have forgotten. and there have been other times, and I've told you, let me wait until I get the stuff regarding the podcast out, and I'll send it out late at night, and I've forgotten or I've gotten to it, you know, a little bit later than I thought.

But I immediately retweeted, you know, by the way, what you should, what you should require of me is that I retweet all of your stuff right when you ask me to do it. But you don't, which is nice. And if you really were adamant because I care about you so much, I'd say, I don't give a shit if I retweet his column in the middle of retweeting my podcast stuff or stuff from the radio show, whatever. There are times, however, where you're asking me to retweet a column that I have not read. And so when anybody sees me retweeting a column of yours, I think they have this feeling that, well, Kevin agrees with everything that Tommy just wrote because he's retweeting it. Typically, you don't retweet a column that you disagree with, right?

Unless you quote it. Yes, no, there is an inference that if you retweet something, you support the message in some way, shape, or form. And I don't agree with all of your columns. And usually when I don't agree with your columns, it makes for good radio and or podcast conversation. But don't I always say to you, if you're comfortable with that or if you're okay with it when I ask you to do it.

I always put a caveat in there. You don't text that. In the idea that you may not like it. You may not agree with it. You don't text it. And you may not want to retweet it. If you don't mind, could you retweet my column, if not, no problem? Yeah.

You basically say that all the time. You know that I would retweet your column every single. I retweet your column almost every single time unless I truly forget. at the end of the day, whether I agree with it or not, I don't really care. If it can help you, which by the way, you know, you retweet the podcast every day, which I appreciate very much, which you're a part of, and you, you know, you have a vested interest in it succeeding as well. And by the way, I don't have a vested interest in your column succeeding, but I want it to

succeed. I like, you know this about you the way I feel about your column writing. I really love your column. I've said this and this is not to be meant as critical. I think you write one of the more digestible, easy to get immediately short columns of anybody in town. And I can appreciate that because I think it appeals to a majority of readers in this day and age that want to consume it quickly and have somebody get to the point and you know exactly where they are. And that is you, not to mention, as I've always said about your writing, your feeling. fearless, which is precisely why I love that we've always worked together because you'll go after

anybody. Like, I sort of think, God, in this town, I'm biased because of you, and I think you are a very underrated columnist. I don't think you get it. I know you have a lot of awards in that shrine that you've built to yourself in your home and that you used to have in an office in Rockville. I'm looking at some of right now. Yeah, of course you are. But I think. that, you know, you're an underrated columnist in town because I think of the newspaper you write for. Of course.

Of course. I mean, yes. But I would put you in the category of Sally because you will attempt through a combination of facts, hyperbole,

and true wit to just eviscerate people that makes me, at time, laugh out loud. And Sally does that too. The big difference between you and Sally, and this is going to sound like criticism of Sally, I think Sally is a brilliant writer. But there are many times with Sally, and I don't think I'm the only person. Maybe I am. My math SAT scores were much higher than my verbal SAT scores. I think you know that about me. Like, I was not a big reader other than newspapers as a kid. I didn't read a lot of books. My verbal SAT scores were much lower. My math scores

SAT were off the charts. I was always a much better math student than anything else. But Sally, literally, I need a thesaurus half the time. I need a dictionary half the time. She will throw in three or four words that I've never even heard of. I bet even with you occasionally you're like, I think I know what that means, but let me just look it up to be sure. Well, Sally is my favorite. I love Sal. And I mean, she just won the Red Smith Award for her sports writing career, which is a very prestigious award. And she is the standard.

And here's what I didn't expect. I didn't expect you to turn this into a love fest for me because now you've taken all the wind out of my sale. I think you did expect it. No, because I had a whole plan here. And you've just crushed it. Well, because you were inaccurate, as you often are, with your original accusation. It was way off. It was inaccurate.

By the way, that's great for Sally. And there is something about Sally when she really goes after somebody that I just love to read. But I would say that I disagree with Sally more often than I disagree with you. I think sometimes even in the columns that I disagree with her on, I still am entertained by her reading. By the way, you mentioned that award. Did you see, and I haven't mentioned this, I can't believe I haven't mentioned this in two days of podcast or radio. Well, this is the second day of podcast. Did you see the 60 Minutes thing on Dave Kindred Sunday night? Yes, I did.

I thought it was really good. Do you know him well? I don't know him well. We're not friends. I know him. And I've spoken to him many times at events. But he comes from a different generation of sports writers. in me. I mean, you know, he comes from the Tony generation and Boswell. I mean, I didn't get into sports writing until I was 40 years old. You know, I mean, Kendron has been writing since he was, 1969. But he's always been very cordial and nice to me. And he follows me on social media. And he's always mentioned that he likes my stuff, particularly the boxing stuff that I used to write. And I love the 60 minutes piece. It was great. It was really good. For those that

don't know and haven't seen it, you can find it. I'm sure it's 60 Minutes.com or whatever. But it was basically a story about, you know, a Hall of Fame writer, sports writer. Kindred's been with, look, I remember him from the Washington Post. I don't remember him from the other places, but I've certainly known of Dave and have heard, you know, Tony and Mike and many others speak about Kindred so many times over the years that I've, you know, known Tony and Mike in particular. But the 60 Minutes piece basically focused on the fact that he's a retired writer, but not really retired.

Ten years ago, living near Peoria, Illinois, which is where he grew up, he started attending high school girls basketball games. The name of the team were the potters. I forget the town now. It's whatever. The name of the school. Morton, Was it the Morton Potter?

Morton Potters. And he started going to games, and he was going with his wife, who, by the way, since, had a catastrophic stroke that left her as an invalid, he described. He also lost a grandson who passed away, the details of which were not talked about in the 60 Minutes piece. But anyway, he started writing about this girl's high school basketball team because it's, as he said, it's what I do. and I couldn't sit there and watch this game without starting to write about it. And then he created essentially a blog where he was going to these games. And he's become over the last 10 years the documenter, if you will, of this very good, I think they've won like three state titles or something like that, girls high school basketball team.

And basically it's been, as he said, it's sort of saved his life with all the tragedy he's had in his life. He knows that three days a week, he's got a place to do and a job to do, a place to go to and a job to do. It was actually, it was a beautiful piece in many ways. Yeah, it really, it really was. And like I said, I mean, this is one of the giants of the business, but he doesn't act that way when he's when he's in a press box. I haven't seen Dave at an event in a long time. but he was always very open and generous with his time. He taught always.

I didn't realize this, but he was really close with Ali. He was writing for the Louisville Courier Express or whatever it was. What's the Louisville Paper Times? Courier Journal. The Louisville Courier Journal. And he became very close with Ali covering Ali, and Ali, and Ali nicknamed him Louisville. And he talked about a story in which he was at one of Ali's fights,

and Ali called him up to the hotel room. And as per usual, there were lots of people in the hotel room. But Ali was under the sheets in his bed, and he screamed to Kindred. Hey, Louisville, get over here. And then he said, get into bed with me. And Kindred said, I was the only one with clothes on. I know. That was a great story.

Yeah. But, yeah, you know, You know, it's great. He's 79 years old, did they say? I think 79. So he's not really super old. But, you know, he's living, God, he's living like in the middle of nowhere. Like, where he lives.

That's where he grew up. Yeah. And he has something, God, man, this is, you know, I know there are people listening that, I don't know. Hey, maybe Tommy's column. or even this podcast gives you, you know, sort of a habit a couple of days a week and something to do. I hope that's true. But that's probably giving us far too much credit. But anyway, the point is, you know, getting out of the house and having a reason and having, you know, a job,

God, man, that's, I think staying busy. I've seen it with older people in my life. and I have always been, it's hard for me not to like be doing something. Like even during this pandemic, it would have driven me crazy not to do something. Like I can't imagine Tommy, like let's just say radio dies, whatever. I can't imagine not at least continuing with this podcast for a lot longer. It's too much fun to do. Even if nobody's listening, you and I'll have fun.

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I always thought I'd have no problem pretty much when I retired. And I'm not retired, quote, yet, but doing nothing. You know, I'd have no problem doing that. Because I am not necessarily a go-getter. But I guess in the sense of what I do, I'm so passionate about it. And I like it. so much that I'd always find a way to do something with it like him. And I noticed this when we were down in Florida, you know, with the other couple we're with, they don't do a whole lot other than leisurely stuff. And they always comment about how busy I am. And it doesn't seem like I'm that busy. And I think in part because this is this is the way I think it'll always be for me.

I'll always have to do something, whether it's writing for myself or, doing a podcast from a college student at, you know, Podunk University or something like that, I just think I'll always feel the pleasure of doing that. You know, you just said something. You said, I'm not and I haven't been a go-getter. Yet your accomplishment would sort of be in conflict with your description that, you know, I guess that you're not ambitious. But it's only because I found something I'd like.

Trust me. Like I tell people, if what I do was hard, I wouldn't be doing it. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's probably the secret for everybody. I think, you know, you get to a certain point in your life and you realize that if you're doing something that you really love doing and it doesn't seem like work, it's a game changer. You know, at the same time, you know, it's, you know, for men. people it's got to produce enough to make it worthwhile and and by the way even if you love doing it there is also something to being good at it you know it just because you love doing it if you suck even though you love doing it it's not going to lead to something that likely

keeps you in it unless you're really really the opposite of sort of ambitious uh anyway um interesting. Anyway, back to what started this conversation. I did retweet your column last week. I did. Okay. Well, I had, I guess I could do away with all these notes. Yeah, cross out all your notes on that one. I mean, because my follow-up on that was what day was last Thursday? I'm going to stick with it anyway. I'm not wasting these notes. Oh, my God. What day was last Thursday? The 25th. Right. Any particular special day or notoriety that day? Anything noteworthy? Yeah. Tell me, I forget, but something popped up that day that made me think that that was interesting. Well, maybe it got lost in between the retweet that I didn't read, but last Thursday happened to be my birthday.

When's my birthday, Tommy? It was a couple weeks ago because I retweeted on Facebook and Twitter on social media. I tweeted out, say, wish my boy, Kevin Sheehan, a happy birthday. birthday. All right. Happy belated birthday. Does that make you feel better? No. Okay. Secondly, just so you know, you cannot right now tell me what my birthday is. That's number one. I'm pretty close. Well, and here's why, here's, here's the other thing. I put it. Does that make us the same? On Twitter and Facebook, first thing in a morning, I put that it was my birthday. I mean, always to raise money for the DC Graze. I'm not on Facebook. I know, but you're on

Twitter. Yeah. Okay. You should be on Facebook. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Twitter, but I'm not on Twitter a lot. I tweeted first thing in a morning, it's my birthday, uh, in order to get people to, to donate money for DC Grace. That was the only reason I did it. Well, I would have thought maybe I would have donated. I expected you to donate. You're very generous to, to the D.C. grace. But I just thought you might have noticed that. And since we were on the podcast, as I continue to talk on the podcast,

I thought maybe at some point you'd wish me a happy birthday. But I guess I was asking for too much. Two things. One, birthdays are not a big deal for me. Whether that's right or wrong, I'm just telling you whether it's my birthday or other birth. I mean, obviously when the kids had birthdays, that was a big deal. I remember, I'm very good at remembering dates in birth dates. Obviously not yours, but birthdays in particular.

Birthdays in particular are not, like, I can name every single February birthday from like kids I went to school with. Like, I remember all of the birthdays that were around me. Like, Lisa Baldess, you were February 27th. I remember that. you and I were three days apart. And my aunt, Karen, and my cousin, Beth, were both February 21st, three days before me. Yeah, this is like savant-like almost. But here was the second part of what I was going to say. Are we the same sign?

Are you a Pisces? Well, they changed the signs. I don't know what that means. Then they were to say they changed the calendar. I was an Aries, but I don't think I'm an Ares anymore. Oh. Okay. So I may be a Pisces because they tinkered with the with the calendar somehow.

Really? I don't know. The guy spoke to somebody. I'm looking it up right now to see. I know the I don't know anything about what it means to be a Pisces. Don't know anything about what it means. I couldn't care less about astrology and that stuff. But the Pisces, neither do I.

The Pisces dates are February 19. through March 20th. So no, you would not qualify as a Pisces. Okay. Yeah, you're... Okay, they may be... Those states might be outdated. Oh, you think they are?

They might be. Okay. But, you know, there's some people... I just wanted to thank a couple people who did, you know, somehow figure out it was my birthday. Okay. And wish me a happy birthday. Can I do that? Yeah, sure.

It won't take long. Sure. Joe Jacoby wished me a happy birthday. You know what? That's very nice. Very nice. Wasn't that nice? Really nice.

Remember Wally Bruckner? Of course, from Channel 4. He's up in, he was in New York for a long time. He wished me a happy birthday. How do you know Wally? Because, well, we used to cover sports together. Okay, that was nice. Who else?

You know who? Billy Hahn. Billy Hahn wished you a happy birthday? Yes. Awesome. Billy Han wished me a happy birthday. You know, he was a guest on my podcast. This is the best part of this opening. segment right now. Keep going. I can't wait for the next name. Okay. Do you ever hear Earl Christie?

No. He was a safety and kick returner on the 69 New York Jet Super Bowl team. He wished me a happy birthday. Okay. Ernie Bauer. Well, Ernie's the best on all that stuff. Right. Yeah. D.C. Washington, the great national anthem singer in town. Right. He wished me a happy birthday. That's awesome. Jerry Royce. You ever hear of him? How do I know Jerry Royce? Major League pitcher won 220 games over 20 years.

Okay. No, no, what's... He wished me a happy birthday. All right. Okay. Why? Oh, because you're a baseball hall of a birthday vote. Okay, well, I get that.

What else? Give me a better name than the last couple. Jerry Royce is pretty good. Okay. Yeah. 220 wins. Right. Oh, Jerry Royce.

R-E-U-S-S. Yeah, got it. Lee Steinberg wished me a happy birthday. You know what? Lee Steinberg was always an excellent guest when we had him on radio. Oh, yes. Yes. I always like Lee a lot.

And Harry Fisher wished me a happy birthday. Who's Harry Fisher? He's the host of Bumpstock. Oh, okay. Got it. So all those people managed to remember. You know, it was it was that day. Do you know any, what about famous people that have your birthday?

Elton John, Howard Coasell, and Aretha Franklin. Wow. That's heavyweight right there, brother. Yeah. And I just saw an Aretha Franklin series, an eight-part series on National Geographic about her life. And it was, it wasn't a documentary. It was a, it was with actors. stuff like that. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And it was really good. Now it's on Hulu.

They've taken it off regular TV. But yeah, Aretha's March 25th as well. Um, the, hold on, March 25th. Um, Andy Truesdale, one of my very close friends from grade school through college, I think is March 25th or 24th. Um, you wish him a happy birthday? No. Um, that's a bummer.

I didn't. Uh, that's a friend. But I can just tell you that Floyd Mayweather has my birthday. I know that. And I also know that Steve Jobs had my birthday. And that George Harrison is one day after my birthday. My favorite beetle of all time. George Harrison was February 25th, 1940 something.

So there you go. And Tommy. And February 25th is the, February 24th is the date of Clay Liston. So there you go. All right. March 25th is also Marijuana Day. It is?

Yes, it is. Well, we should have gotten a bushel full of crabs and gone down to the Annapolis or gone down to the eastern shore, Han, and hung out and spent a day with some cold natty bows. God, you know what? That sounds so good. Do you like...

I don't even like crabs and that sounds good. You know what? They've got to be extra jumbo to make it worthwhile, but I love crabs in super cold beer near the water. That's a day right there. I don't need, by the way, to be on the boat all day. I'm more of a land lover, but I like sitting there by the water and watching others on the water. I like going in the water.

I'm just not a big boat guy. Actually, that was my life for the last three months. Yeah, I bet. Well, sitting by the water, not necessarily being on a boat. Drinking beer. Right. All right. Let's get to some of these topics of the day.

We'll do it right after this word. from one of our sponsors. Russell Westbrook last night, Tommy, had 35 points, 21 assists, and 14 rebounds in a game in which the Wizards won over Indiana, 132 to 124. Bradley Beale did not play in the game. Russell Westbrook's triple double of 35 plus 20 plus and double-digit rebounds. the first time that somebody's done that since Oscar Robertson did in 1961. And in the history

of 30, 20, 10 triple doubles, only Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson have ever done it before. And Russell Westbrook joins that crew. By the way, Russell Westbrook just had his 16th triple double in 38 games, and he became the franchise leader in triple doubles. Walker had been the holder of triple doubles, but it took him 238 games to do it. Russell Westwork has some of the most amazing box scores of the last couple of games. Last week, I think we talked about it. He had a box score in which he had 13 points, 18 rebounds, nine assists, four block shots, but also had eight turnovers and fouled out of the game.

And it was three for 15 from the floor. Last night, it was one of his best shooting nights of the year. his best three-point shooting night of the year. And, you know, it's weird, Tommy. You know how much I loved this player for so long, especially when he was in OKC. And I also recognized the limitations. And then this year, watching him at times at the free throw line,

it was painful. It's like he had the yips. But he is the stat stuffing, and I don't mean that in a critical way. He creates more. he kicks up more dust on a basketball court than any player in basketball. Good or bad. Oh, you're right. You're right.

I mean, he has tremendous talent. And now when he has pretty much not much talent around him, save for Bradley Beale, he has the opportunity to really press his case and do everything. Because who's going to complain? It's not like when he was in Oklahoma City and they had three stars or two stars or they were a competitive team. I mean, what damage can he do at this point by being total Russell Westbrook going all out? You know? Yeah, I might get eight turnovers, but I'm going to score 35 points.

He's the perfect team for him because they're never going to play for anything. And yet he's going to be able to put up these amazing. numbers that will make people worship Russell Wilson, Russell Westbro. Look, 35 points and 21 assists is ridiculous, you know? Yes. I mean, it really is. I mean, it's like you get 35 and people start one. Typically that 35 comes with, you know, a few assists because you're not passing it a whole

lot to get 35 plus. He had 21 assists to go with 35 points and then 14 rebounds. He's fun to watch. watch that game. I was watching the Elite 8 games, which I'll get to here momentarily. But Westbrook is, you know, the way you just described it, it's true that there's less pressure on him to win. And it's also true that there's not like this demanding player like Hardin last year or anybody that he's played with in years past. But Beal needs to shoot more than Westbrook. Beal needs to be, and he is, your leading score.

But Beal wasn't there last night, which just goes to show you, not only was he good enough without Beal there, he was good enough to lead them to a win, you know, over a Pacer's team that isn't very good, but over a Pacer's team that actually had won four or five games coming into that game last night. I wanted to mention one other quick thing, because when they made this trade last week, I told you that I was a huge Daniel Gafford fan when he was at Arkansas and that I really hadn't followed a lot of his career, Chicago, but when he was at Arkansas, I mean, he was a highlight reel. He was incredibly gifted around the rim with leaping ability, with long arms. I mean, he was just a thunderous dunker in college. And he didn't get a lot of minutes in Chicago for whatever reason. In his first two games in Washington, something that my new producer, Brendan Dar on radio, mentioned to me, He's like, God, his per 36 minutes in Chicago are really impressive. I'm like, yeah, because he didn't get that many minutes and look at the production.

His first two games in Washington, against Detroit and Indiana, I'll concede that point, not good teams. But he played 14 minutes Saturday night against Detroit. He was six of seven from the floor. He had 13 points, five rebounds, and three blocked shots in 14 minutes. So, you know, well, let me tell you what his game was last night. Last night in 15 minutes, he was four for six from the floor. He had 11.6 rebounds and two block shots in 15 minutes. You know, you're talking about a guy that's unbelievably productive in limited minutes.

So the question is, well, why isn't he playing 30 plus minutes a night? Like all the analytics people, of course, would say, well, You got to double his minutes. You double his minutes. He's 26 points. He's 10 rebounds. And he's six block shots a game. He's an All-Star.

Look, I think they got themselves a real player, but I don't know why he wasn't playing more minutes. So you have to wonder why he wasn't playing more minutes. And the answer could be that he's only good in short doses, that the coaches realize that maybe if you play him for 25 plus minutes a night, there's some flaw that's exposed or revealed. But he is a talent. And then the other guy they got in the trade, Hutchinson, he had 18 off the bench last night.

I don't know anything really about Hutchinson. I'm just telling you, it surprised me in that draft that Gafford made it to the second round. And then it surprised me when I saw the trade, because I really hadn't followed his career, to see that he hadn't, you know, really done a lot in Chicago. but he's exactly what the wizards need. They need a rim protector, which they haven't had in years, and he is that. I mean, he's going to block a lot of shots,

and then he is a finisher around the rim on offense. I just think he's an interesting player to watch here. I mean, maybe Tommy Shepard found a gem, or maybe they just found a really good role player. I mean, that's possible, too. But he is a sick athlete, sick athlete. That's good. I hope it adds up to a couple more wins.

Well, there are only two games at a 10th spot now after the two straight wins in the East. Yeah, 17 and 28. It's impressive. It is really impressive, 17 and 28. And there are only two games out of the 10th spot. And that means they, you know, who knows, maybe Russ is going to be playing in a postseason anyway in this year where he can just put up numbers. I might want to point out while we fawn over Russ. also Westbrook's game.

Walt Fraser once had 36 points and 19 assists. I know. In an NBA game 7. Yeah, you told me that. You've told me that 100 times. Against Jerry West and the Lakers. Yeah, I forgot your birthday, but you bring out that Walt Frazier game seven line all the time

about how great he was in the game. That's a phenomenal game seven. A little bit. You know, I, you know, God, I'm going to Google this because I want to see what the best game sevens, of all time in individual performances. Because the game seven for me that I remember more than any other is a Bullets game seven, Elvin Hayes against the Hawks the year that they were the defending champions in 1979.

And they went seven games in the conference semifinals with the Atlanta Hawks. And they were at home at the Capitol Center. Jimmy Carter was at the game as the president at the time. And Elvin Hayes went for 39 points. I think it was 15 rebounds and six block shots in that seventh and deciding game. And the reason I bring it up is because Elvin Hayes was not a clutch performer during the course of his career. I think he's one of the greatest power forwards in history. And, you know, the numbers still are amazing what he did over the course of his career. He's still sixth all-time rebounds in like 11th scoring on the combined NBA-A-B-A list. But the seventh game against Seattle the

year before, he was on the bench, he fouled out. The series against Golden State, when they got swept, he had a horrific series. And that was the game seven in which he really, really played incredibly well. And I'll never forget that game seven. I'm pulling up a list of like the greatest game sevens. I remember one that Elijah won had because he's one. One that may be, oh, here's one. Worthy in game seven, 88 against the Pistons, Worthy went for 36.16 rebounds, 10 assists.

That's a pretty good game. That is a great game seven. Yeah. Walt Frazier did make the list, 1970 game seven, 36 points, 19 assists. as they beat the Lakers, 1139, at Madison Square Garden. And then, oh, yeah, the Cedric Maxwell, game seven in 84 against the Lakers. God, that series was so good. 24 points, eight rebounds, eight assists.

Yeah, there's some others in here. LeBron's game seven for Miami against San Antonio, 37, 12, and 4. LeBron's 2016 game seven for Cleveland against the Warriors, even though Kyrie had the big game. He was 27, 11, and 11. Kyrie had the big shot. Anyway, all right. You didn't watch the Elite 8? No, I was out enjoying the beautiful day and having dinner last night.

Okay, then I'm going to start with a question for you. Is it possible that someone like... me and others that are listening that coach basketball or coach any sport. You're a baseball manager at the youth level or you're a football coach at the youth level, hockey coach, whatever. Is it possible for someone, you know, and by the way, I've coached high school basketball, summer league high school basketball, never had a full-time job coaching high school basketball player, but have coached many high school travel AAU-style teams over a long period of time. But whatever.

I'm asking you the following question, because it's about me, but it's also about anybody else that would be in this boat. Is it possible watching a game that we could be called into the situation and help the major college coach that's in a game to go to the final four with something that he's struggling with? Yes. I think it is. And last night, Kelvin Sampson, who is one of my favorite coaches, Kelvin Sampson has won everywhere he has coached. And still, the Indiana thing in terms of what he got busted for,

seems so tame, you know, in hindsight, what they ran them for at Indiana. But Kelvin Sampson has won everywhere he has gone, and he's won big. You know, Washington State, Oklahoma, took Oklahoma to the final four, the year Maryland won it. They were in the final four, lost Indiana in the semis,

and has turned Houston, a program that had all of that success with Guy Lewis and Hakeem Elijah won and Clyde Drexler and all of the FI Slamma-Jama teams. By the way, Houston had great success with Elvin Hayes, a second mention of Elvin Hayes on this podcast

in the late 60s in the famous game that Elvin Hayes beat UCLA and Kareem Abdul-Bdule. Javar Lle-Sinder then in the Houston Astrodome. Some people say that that was the game that made college basketball popular or started to make it popular. But Kelvin Sampson last night was dominating Oregon State. They were up by 17 at halftime. And there was absolutely, if you were watching this game, no chance that Oregon State was going to come back. Houston's defense has been sensational all year long. And they were going to win. By the way, I had them laying eight last

night. And the coach of Oregon State Tinkle went to this zone. It was sort of a hybrid one-three-one zone. And Houston had no idea how to beat it. It was mind-blowing watching it. By the way, multiple texts from various people who are in the know coaching-wise, what is he doing against the one-three-one? He doesn't know how to beat a one-three-one zone. and Tommy for six minutes Oregon State basically took a 15-point deficit and tied the game at 55-55 because now they did some stuff on offense

but the primary reason is Houston had no idea how to deal with Oregon State's zone defense and I'm watching this I'm like no no you don't do it that way you can't have a guy trying to dribble through the one and the three at the top of the zone. You've got to get better. They're close together. You've got to have much better spacing. You would tackle one-three-one with a two-one-two offensively.

It's really easily a picture in your mind. You have one, you have three in the middle, and you have one behind the three. So you do two where the one is. You always go even front against an odd-fronted zone, odd-front against an even-fronted zone. So it's one-three-one against a two-three zone. This is like there's a lot of other stuff involved. But traditionally, conventionally, a one-three-one offense against a two-three zone

and a two-one-two offense against a one-three-one zone. And the weakness is in the corners. You can picture it, right? There's one guy that's got to cover that whole end line. So where's the weakness in the corners? And so you reverse the ball, all right? We reverse the ball side to side. some people called swing the ball side to side.

You move the ball against a zone with passing side to side, and then you move that zone, get it moving, and then you hit either the middle of the corner or you go right to the corner from the wing. And they didn't know how to do it. They had 10 possessions, at least, where the shot clock's winding down, they're throwing up absolute garbage,

or they turned it over. They're trying to dribble through it. He called a time out. They still didn't know what to do. one time the ball went to the corner and they knocked down a three. And I just, I was like, wow. And sometimes I see this in watching games. And by the way, sometimes the answers are these guys that have been doing it for a living

and have much more experience than some father out there that's listening or some high school coach that's listening or somebody like me who's sort of coached for a long time at various levels. sometimes there's just a different answer on how to beat it that you've never thought of because they've been doing it a lot longer and they're much more expert at this stuff. But there is no doubt that they were completely confused or at least his players were. And Oregon State came all the way back because of Houston's complete debacle against their zone and they tied the score at 5555. and then on the next possession after they tied it up,

for some God-known, unknown reason, the coach of Oregon State, Tinkle, decided once he tied the score up, to then go to man-to-man. And on the man-to-man possession, Houston knocked down a three-pointer, took the lead, and never gave it up again. Now, the guy went back to the zone after that possession, that debacle of a possession

and then went back to man a couple of times too. But instead of just staying in the zone after he tied the game up, the one thing more than anything else responsible for the comeback, he decided he'd get fancy and go man to man on a possession and they took the lead by three

and never gave up the lead the rest of the way. It was a fascinating last 10, 12 minutes to watch because I think Kelvin Samson's one of the best coaches, and he was utterly, utterly confused as to what to do. Or, to be fair, he was explaining it, but the players didn't execute it, which, by the way, is often the case. Many times it's not the coach. It's the players aren't doing what the coach told them to do.

I couldn't believe that. I mean, so the bottom line is, yes, the guy sitting at home at that moment. Sometimes? can know more than the person in the heat of the moment. You know who would say I'm absolutely insane? I can hear right now. No, no, I think you're right. I think you can no more.

Look, there's lots of obvious cases. The one that comes to mind is the Seattle New England Super Bowl. When Seattle has the ball second and one. Yeah. Second and goal on the one-yard line. Yeah. With Marshawn Lynch. and they call pass play.

Yeah. Nobody in the stadium would have done that. Right. So yeah. I think like the, a play call or like the clock management stuff that I focused on so many times and I'm absolutely convinced that I, you know, that a lot of you out there and I would put myself into that group could do it better than a lot of the coaches do it. And Cooley's explained it many times.

Coaches don't watch games. film. It's one of the reasons they're bad at it. I think that's a very, you know, interesting and very believable explanation. You know, over such a long period of time, coaches don't watch games. They just watch film. And so they're not caught up in the game situation. They're caught up in what kind of defense the team plays on third and nine, you know, at a certain point on the field. But what I was going to tell you is the one person who would say, motherfucker, you don't know anything compared to Kelvin Sampson. Coach Thompson would absolutely mock me for this conversation. He would walk in after we were walking out of the studio just laughing and saying,

motherfucker, you crazy? And he would say, you would, and this is what he would always say when I would do the clock management stuff. He would say, do you really think in the heat of the battle that you'd be able to remember all this stuff that you could remember from your couch? And it's a good point. Like, you know, you could definitely freeze up. But last night, coaches watching this, basketball people watching this, were like, dude, what are you doing? But he has assistant coaches. He's not a long voice.

I know. But these guys were dribbling next to each. Does everyone get brain freeze at the same time? It was weird. I mean, there were a couple of possessions where this guy, Jiro, who I really like as a player, is dribbling towards the guy that's at the top of the zone with one of his teammates just on the other side. spacing in basketball is like it's so important, especially in today's game, Tommy, because of the shooting ability from long range, if you space the floor, especially when you

have shooters and you make defenders cover more ground to cover players or to come out further to guard a shooter, it creates, you know, much more space in the middle of the floor. And so you always offensively, except when you're setting screens for each other, you want really good spacing, especially against a zone, you know, and that kind of a zone. Now, they could have screened the top of the zone. There were different things, you know, it's not the only way to beat it, but they didn't have any answer, and I just thought it was really interesting. By the way, the game ended painfully for betters because I had, and some of you probably had Houston Leng 8 or 7 and a half if you got it at a good number. And there they are.

They're in really good shape to pull away. And there's an intentional foul at the end and there's free throws and they've got a nine point lead, 67 to 58. They missed a ton of free throws. And then the Oregon State kid nails a three at 67 to 58 on the other end. And then Oregon State called time out. So you're thinking there's three and a half seconds left. They're down six. Hey, they'll foul. We can get to the free throw line, make two, and get a push out of it. But they let the ball come in bounds and let the clock run out. That was one of those bad beats. The second game last night features the team that I think's going to win it all. I wagered last week or the week before, I forget when it was. I wagered on Baylor to win the whole thing at plus 250.

I've seen enough of them. I think a Baylor-Gonzaggot. Tommy, I can't remember the last time. I've been more in anticipation of a game that I want to see than Baylor versus Gonzaga in the final. It will be and should be a tremendous final. These are the two best teams. Earlier in the year with Michigan, I thought Michigan was in their class. Without livers, they're really not, in my opinion. If they had livers, I think they're right there. good God, Baylor's defense is just so good.

And the player, and I was talking about him yesterday, he's become my favorite player in this tournament. And I think he's going to be an exceptional NBA player. Davion Mitchell, he's the best defender in the tournament. It's certainly an on-ball defender. And he's such a big shot maker. I love his game. I love everybody that plays for Baylor. Arkansas gave it a yeoman's effort.

But the thing about Baylor is you need to slow. them down, and Arkansas doesn't want to slow down for anybody. You can't beat Baylor at their own game. So they win and they get the cover. So the smell test went one and one last night. Let me just tell you right now, I'm just going to ruin it. I don't need to tease it. I have no smell test picks for tonight's elite eight games. There's not one game that fits the criteria. If you told me I had to wager on both games, I'd take both dogs. Sorry, I would take the dog against Gonzaga plus eight and a half plus nine with Southern Cal in the first game, and I would take UCLA plus six and a half against Michigan. But neither side nor total fits the smell test criteria. The actions

pretty much split right down the middle on everything. So I am 12 and 13 against the spread. I'm not going for anything unnecessarily tonight. I still have two final four games in a national championship game to try to get to above 500, so I'll wait for that. Anyway, the tournament's been good. You haven't really been into it, right? The games that I've watched, I watched a lot this weekend. You know, I've enjoyed it. I think it's been a good tournament.

Yeah, it's been a good tournament. It has. I mean, the theme to me, and I mentioned this on the podcast yesterday, the best defensive teams are winning, period. You know, Baylor, Houston, Michigan, and, you know, UCLA's played excellent defense at times. The best defensive teams are winning. Gonzaga, Tommy, is not the best defensive team. They haven't had to be because they're so good offensively.

Yeah. And you know, it's funny, I mean, like, it's almost like Gonzaga, the games, I've watched them play. you know, they're almost like a championship fighter in the sense that, you know, maybe the seventh, eighth, and ninth rounds, you know, they let their opponent pile up some points. And then in the championship rounds, they pull away. I mean, they always wind up like with a 16, 17 point lead.

It's amazing. When it's like nine points at one point, eight points at one point. They have four players that are going to be selected. in the first 35 picks, 40 picks of the NBA draft. Four. I mean, you really have to go to, like, Kentucky and, you know, maybe Duke a couple of times to find that many from one team. I mean, it really is quite remarkable the powerhouse that Mark Few is built at Gonzaga.

It's, you know, it's 20-something-plus years now in the making. But they're a real powerhouse. They have not won a national championship, and everybody believes that this is their best chance. But, man, Baylor is, I think, a better all-around team. But that's why I want to see. Look, Baylor Houston, the two best defensive teams, maybe in the tournament, to watch them go head-to-head in Saturday's Final Four. Baylor, I think I saw as a five-point favorite.

Houston's really good. I think I like Baylor to win the game. But Houston's exceptional. And Samson, even despite what I said, and how they attacked the zone last night, I just think that he's really good at what he does, especially on defense. Gonzaga should beat Michigan or UCLA pretty handily. This Michigan team is playing well, but missing livers is huge for them. He's just been, you know, you could say that he was their best player.

So without him, you know, they've been a different team. They've been a more beatable team. I think they could lose tonight to UCLA. I do. I think that they could lose that game. I think UCLA's got a couple of players that have been so much fun to watch. And Mick Cronin is outstanding as a coach. All right, there are a couple of Washington football team-related topics.

We'll get to right after this word from one of our sponsors. So yesterday, Tommy ESPN came out with their post-wept. free agency NFL updated power rankings. And I was thinking, you know, from what I've been hearing and what I've been reading, and based on my callers and the people who tweet me that listen to the show, whether it's the podcast or the radio show, Washington had a great free agency. Not that it's over. But I mean, you add Ryan Fitzpatrick and Curtis Samuel and Will Jackson III.

And now Adam Humphreys, you've had yourself quite an offseason, and they're well on their way. I mean, a lot of my listeners believe that Washington should be the favorite to win the division. They're not. Dallas is. But certainly— I think they're actually called the final pieces of the puzzle. The final pieces of the puzzle. And to have a—what would the completed puzzle be?

Just like a nice little thing to look at or championship? chip caliber. Oh, oh, I mean, playoff caliber, minimum. Okay. Minimum. So ESPN, you know, all these sites, they do all these power rankings stuff. And by the way, just so you know, I couldn't give a shit about these power rankings. I just think they make for interesting conversation to sort of tie into what the belief is about our team in particular. And what you get with this is more of what is the rest of the country's NFL writers think, or at least at ESPN. I mean, my view is that these things

are never right year year out. I mean, the NFL changes so much. But beside that, I had time on the radio show this morning. You can go listen to it using the radio.com app or go to the Team 980.com. And I asked John, I'm like, so when they come to you, how does this work? And he said, well,

there's some criteria. I don't think I really can explain it. I'm not supposed to explain it. I'm like, well, okay, that's fine. That's fine. But whatever proprietary, you know, formula ESPN has for their power rankings, I don't think it's going to be a cure for anything. You know, it's really not that important, but because I know, I just, I don't think I'm supposed to say it. I said, fine, no worries. I said, but do you get a ballot like you vote for every team

and you place them? He goes, yes, we do that, but it's supposed to be based on certain criteria, but we rank them one through 32. So anyway, the number one team in the post-free agency, and again, post-major free agency at this point, are the chiefs, followed by the bucks, Packers, Bills, Ravens, Rams, Browns, Titans, Seahawks and Colts. That's your top 10. So after I'm scrolling down,

I'm like, you know, after the top 10, it's very possible that we're getting, we're getting closer. We're getting closer to where Washington might be. And I am definitely curious to see where they have Dallas. So at 11 is Pittsburgh, 12 is Arizona, 13 are the 49ers, who by the way, Kyle Shanahan basically said yesterday. I mean, they made no bones about it. We traded up to draft a quarterback, period.

I think it's going to be Mack Jones. Somebody said, oh, did you see this? Let me just digress for one moment because I want to pull up this tweet that somebody sent you, me, and Cooley. Did you see this or not? I don't know. Oh, here it is. It comes from Mike on Twitter. Hey, Sheehan, are you a Shanahan smoke machine?

Mac Jones at 3? Really? At Tom Levero, at Coolie Zone. Get your boy! Because I mentioned that I think that Mac Jones is a possibility at 3. I mentioned this on Saturday. Now, apparently there's been a lot of reporting since that Mac Jones is at 3,

and there's two workouts today, pro days in Tuscaloosa and in Columbus, and apparently the 49ers guys are going to be in Tuscaloosa. The only reason I said that on Saturday, it's true. I'm not smoking anything out for the Shanahan's, but I know the way Mike thinks, which is also the way Kyle thinks, and that is they want really smart, they want somebody who processes very quickly, and they want somebody who throws with anticipation,

naturally. And Mack Jones, the one thing everybody has said about him are those three things. He's really smart. He processes very quickly and he throws with anticipation, which some of you would say, how do you even know that at Alabama? Everybody's wide open. But you can see in some of those games against better teams, him go one, two, and then throw with anticipation to number three. Like Mike, I remember so many times him saying, if you don't do that naturally, you can coach. it up, but you'll never be great at it, and therefore you'll never be a great quarterback. You can be adequate, you can get coached up to a certain level, but you've got to be able to throw with anticipation naturally, meaning in college they wait for guys to get open.

A lot of quarterbacks do. In the NFL, you can't do that. You have to throw them open, as they say. You have to throw where he's not open yet, but you have the sense he's going to come open before he gets there. And so that's why I said Mac Jones. I'm not smoking anything out or putting anything out there on behalf of the Shanahan's.

That's not the relationship I have with them. Back to the power rankings. Arizona at 12, the 49ers at 13, the dolphins at 14, the Vikings at 15, the Saints at 16. And I'm like, huh, where's Washington?

The Chargers at 17, the Cowboys at 18. Oh my gosh. Now, I was not surprised that the Cowboys were in front of them. I was not. The Patriots at 19, the Raiders at 20. Now we're getting into that area where we're now into the bottom third of the league, basically. A familiar place.

And now the next one floored me. 21, the New York Giants. And they have what their current rank. ranking is, which is 21, their current power ranking, and they have it compared to what they called their way too early ranking, which was right after the Super Bowl. The Giants have moved up four spots. Well, I was told that Kenny Gallaudet was an overspend and that Washington's had a much better, you know, offseason so far than the Giants have had. And then at 22, down a spot from where they were at 21 is the Washington football team.

John Kime writes, does the write-up, he writes, Washington let talented young executive Kyle Smith leave this offseason. He worked well with Ron Rivera, but they added two experienced front office men, plus a third and former GM Chris Polion to help Rivera. The short-term gains by new signings such as Curtis Samuel will provide a big boost, but for this team to build a sustainable winning situation, it needed more front-office help. Mayhew is adept at dealing with agents, and Herney knows Rivera well.

for many years Washington's front office and coaching staff weren't on the same page. If this group meshes well over the long haul, Washington has a shot. So John's best offseason moves were Mahehoe and Herney. Didn't mention anybody else players-wise. I'm just curious, though, all of these NFL writers covering all these teams, we've heard a lot of people think, you know, Washington, man, there's doing some good things. And yet during free agency in which pro football focus ranked their Free agency at one point as the number one class in in terms of improving their team,

they're 22, barely ahead of the Carolina Panthers, the Atlanta Falcons, the Chicago Bears, and the Philadelphia Eagles. Anyway. You know, that's difficult to explain because normally I'd say, well, that shows people's lack of confidence in the most important position. but so many national writers thawed over the notion of having Ryan Fitzpatrick as the quarterback in Washington. It wasn't just the local guys, national guys. Yes.

Everyone loves this guy. Look, the response to Fitzpatrick, I think, has been weighted heavily in, all right, that's the answer at quarterback. We didn't know what the answer was. This is better than not having an answer. They are in better shape with Ryan Fitzpatrick. They've got a chance. They needed a leader.

They needed a guy that could make some plays. They needed a veteran. They got a defense that's continuing to grow. They'll step up. They've added some weapons in free agency. They added a top flight corner. And so, you know, I expect, I swear to God, when I open this thing up, I'm like, I'm going to see the highest Washington power ranking I have seen in a long time before

a season started. And they're down there at 22, behind the Giants, who I've said several times over the last couple of months. I think all of us are overlooking the Giants. You know, it all comes down to Daniel Jones. I do understand that. And Daniel Jones was getting better before he got hurt last year. But the Giants have a roster. And they, you know, the coaching staff, we don't know Joe Judge, Jason Garrett, etc.

But they added Kenny Ghaladay. You know, they have Evan Ingram. They added Kyle Rudolph, and they've got the best player on their team coming back in Seguan Barclay, who we didn't get to see last year because he got hurt. And they've got talent on defense, too. You know, it must be this secret formula that we just can't figure out. Could be. That's holding Washington back.

The 17 games schedule, the over-unders on draft kings came out yesterday for win-totals. and Washington's was eight. Keep in mind, that's based on a 17-game schedule, which more likely than not will be approved here in the next 48 to 72 hours. Washington's number is eight. That's the over-under number. And you're laying 110 either way.

So it's basically, you know, eight is the number. The Cowboys number is nine and a half. The Giants number in this thing is seven, and the Eagles number is six and a half. Washington's over under number eight. I don't know. I would sort of lean over, but I keep coming back to the same thing that I've mentioned a lot of times. And I know it's in conflict with my overall theory about schedules and not getting wrapped up into schedules.

But the quarterbacks that Washington faces next year on their schedule is murderers row, if they're all available. And they're not all injured. And they just added another one in Buffalo. Yeah, Josh Allen. I mean, they played Josh Allen. They play Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert from the AFC. I didn't even mention Derek Carr. And then in the NFC, they play Heron Rogers.

They play Tom Brady and they play Russell Wilson. And I didn't even mention Matt Stafford or, I'm sorry, I didn't even mention Matt Ryan or James Winston or Dak Prescott for that matter. But I think, I think eight wins is a reasonable conclusion. I guessed that it would be seven and a half, eight, but that was based in the 16 game schedule. So I would have guessed probably eight, eight and a half. I think it's right. I think it's the right number, too.

Yeah. You had some stuff that you wanted to mention. Well, I wanted to mention a couple of Jackdale Rio stories. Speaking of USC, now I managed just to come across just through some random research. You know, Jack Del Rio was an All-American linebacker at USC. Right. He was also a catcher on the base. baseball team there.

Yep. And they have a very good baseball program at USC. And there was this story I read that one time they were playing Pepperdine and tempers flared between the two schools. The USC pitcher through a few high and tight fastballs following a Pepperdine home run. Then following another home run, the next Pepperdine batter was hit. That did it. entire Peppodyne team, not a very large one physically, started to charge out of the dugout.

That's when Del Rio stood up, took off his mask, and took one step toward the Pepperdine team bench. In unison, the Pepperdine team stopped, turned around, and returned to their dugout. Really? He was that big and imposing? Yes. Wow. Yes. that apparently very big and imposing to Otis Taylor.

Do you remember Otis Taylor? Of course, Kansas City Chiefs. A great wide receiver. You know, one of the best in the old AFL. I don't know how I came across this story, but I did. This is from 1987. Otis Taylor, a talent scout for the Kansas City Chiefs, filed an assault complaint against linebacker Jack Del Rio

following an altercation during picketing last week at Arrowhead Stadium. Strike here. Yes. Taylor claimed in report that Del Rio used profane language, grabbed them around the neck, and then they fell to the ground fighting. Taylor got a bloody lip. Apparently, according to the story...

How old was Otis Taylor at the time? 45. He was 45 years old. Yeah, because he was long out of the league at that point. Yeah. Jack Del Rio thought he was. a scab player. Didn't recognize him. Didn't recognize Otis Taylor.

He was a scab player trying to cross the picket line and beat him up. Oh, my God. Yes. Wow. I thought that was interesting. So you don't want to cross voodoo jack. No, I mean, he's clearly got a loose

screw or two. I mean, you know, Tommy, I remember the 87 strike, and I remember, you know, the scab players crossing the picketing line, but I don't remember a lot of violence associated with it. Was there? I know that there was a lot of NFL players heckling, but was there a lot of violence for the players that crossed? Not that I recall. This is the only one I remember.

I never heard of this one until I just happened to come across it somehow. I think I was doing some Otis Taylor research for some reason because I wondered why he's not in the Hall of Fame. And I came across this story. He was a scout for the team and Jack Del Rio beat him up. No, that's who you want as a defensive coordinator, right? Otis Taylor's not in the Hall of Fame? No, he's not. Does he deserve to be?

I don't even know what his numbers are. I just know he had that. It's borderline. He was a great player in the state. in the early 70s with those chiefs teams. And he was great in the Super Bowl where they beat the Vikings. Yeah. Yeah.

But those are my two Del Rio stories I wanted to share with you. I also wanted to share with you before we get done here, something from my column today. Before you do your column, I think this is really interesting about Del Rio because I didn't know this. So we know that he's, he, we know his politics, obviously, because of, of his activism. And, well, I shouldn't even call it activism. His, his tweets. I mean, we, we know where he stands. He was a big trumper.

And, you know, but I did not know that he was like this loose screw badass. And I say loose screw. Maybe it was justifiable what happened. You know, you, I don't know the details of what happened with. with Otis Taylor. But, you know... Apparently there was a lawsuit and they settled out of court is what I read. But remember, you know, it was basically a year ago, or certainly as we approached the summer

and Del Rio was incredibly active on Twitter, especially post-George Floyd. And we both, you know, had a conversation about how this would play in a locker room with, you know, players who were primarily. or certainly majority African American and, you know, maybe even majority Democratic leaning. You know, I know you've said certainly in baseball locker rooms that most of those players are conservative, certainly fiscally they're conservative because of their wealth. But, you know, what we never heard anything about, not one player at any point in time that I can recall ever had anything to say. social media-wise, you know, in an interview with anybody about Jack Del Rio's politics?

Not a word. I was surprised. Not just here in Washington, but I was surprised throughout the league. You didn't hear more week to week from players who I've always felt have a platform speaking out about various issues. It was for considering the furor that we went through last summer, it was a pretty quiet fall for the NFL. Yeah, it really, it definitely was, but I'm bringing up the Del Rio because maybe it's just people didn't want to cross them. You know, maybe they were scared of them. By the way, I just pulled up his Twitter account for the first time in months. And this is awesome. Magic spoon cereal.

A sponsor of this podcast. Jack Del Rio's favorite flavor is my favorite flavor. Magic Spoon Coco. Yeah, the chocolate Magic Spoon cereal is really good. It's really good. I am staring at a whole new group of boxes, a whole new package of boxes that they sent me, which includes some of the flavors that I'm not a big fan of,

but all of the flavors that I am. So there you are. You know, here's what you've got to do. You've got to get some free products. sent to Del Rio. I have a feeling since he mentioned it. Maybe he's already promoting it. He was retweeting a Mike Golick Jr.

tweet. So Mike Golick Jr. is obviously promoting the, oh, no, no, no, no, my fault. Oh, actually, it's different. Mike Golick Jr., so this is Golick's son. Does he do radio? I think he does. Didn't he replace his father? He put out a tweet of,

his favorite cereals. Waffle crisp, cinnamon toast crunch, which is excellent. Team Cheerios frosted many weeds and oops all berries. And what Jack Del Rio was retweeting is he retweeted Magic Spoon Coco. And yeah, you know what I'm going to do on that one? I'm going to like that one. You got to fix your boy up with some product. Remember one of the, remember I responded to a tweet that he sent out that was, you know, that I had a problem with. And you're like, oh, you're not going to do it. And I did it. What was that about? I can't remember what that it was about. He never, he never responded. Whatever. No. Now, speaking of loose cannons, what I wanted to refer to is my column today in Washington

Times.com slash sports. It's about, you know, opening day is Thursday night against the Mets. Randy Noor is the new first base coach for Davey Martinez. Randy Noor is the institutional knowledge of this team. He's been with them since 2005. Right. He was the Class A manager in Savannah, and he's had almost every job in baseball on the baseball side with this team. He was Matt Williams' and Dave, Davy Johnson's bench coach for a couple of years.

And he's managed at every level, AAA, AA, single A. And he's got, he had some great stories. One of them is about Elijah Dukes. When Randy Nour had, was in Potomac managing the class A team there, the nationals, they usually got all the rehab assignments from the major league team because they were so close. So if a player had to go get, you know, go on rehabilitation, they'd go to Potomac. Right. So Duke, Elijah Dukes, the head case, the problem child.

Right. He had a rehab assignment in 2008 with Potoment. And Randy told me, I only had two rules. Just give me your best effort and show up on time. If you don't give me that, you won't play. So the first day, Duke's miss his batting practice. Oh, God. So Randy says, I called, he called Jim Bowden and asked,

do you still want this guy to play? And Bowden says, yeah, he's coming back from an injury, so I need him to play. So he brings Elijah Dukes into his office and he says, Elijah, you got to be here for batting practice. If you're not here, you're not going to play in the game. You know, Randy's saying, I got my whole team looking at me and wondering if I'm going to have the same rules for him that I have for them. So the next day, Duke shows up late for batting practice. Oh, my God. It's a Fred Davis situation.

Yeah, I told him, you're not playing today. You can just go home. Now, nobody at the Major League Club would do this, apparently. So Bowden calls Randy up, and he's screaming at him. And Randy says he's not playing. And Bowden's screaming, there's only so many days. say he can be on rehab. And Randy says, Jim, tell him to show up on time.

So he never played him, and they moved him to a different team. They moved into a different minor league team. God. What a motorcycle gang the Nationals were back then. They were. They were. It was unbelievable. This gives you a little insight into that.

By the way, as you were describing your column today, I was going to your Twitter account to see if it makes sense for me. to retweet it. I have read it and I just retweeted it. But what I noticed is your last tweet, you were on with Rigo and Todd. Yes. How was that? That was great. You know, it's great going on. Look, there's a certain kind. I know you did the show with Rigo for years. Yeah. And I mean, I can always separate my awestruck from my business, but there's a little bit of awestruck doing a podcast. with Rigo. That's okay. Yeah, no, I get it. You know, I mean, I look, I go back to Riggo as a jet. I know. You know, I was a Jets fan. I didn't tell many of this. I'm, this is a business thing. What is this?

What is this show? Are they doing something on, um, because it looks like it's video. It is video. So what is it on? They do it with Dexter and during football season. I think it's just Rigo and Todd. It's YouTube. It looks like it's YouTube. It looks like it's YouTube. Yeah, so I was the second time I've been on with him. Oh, that's awesome. You know, obviously working with you, I worked, I've worked with you longer than anybody by a lot, you know, seven and a half years with Tommy. And it was more like two and a half with Cooney and two plus with Rigo.

And a year and a half with Doc, too. Those are really the four partners that I've worked with. And I've loved everybody. actually there hasn't been one terrible experience, not one. And obviously, you know how I feel about the show that we did and the show that I did with Cooley. But I loved working with Rigo. You know what is really interesting about him? And I actually put Cooley into the same category.

I'm sure your book at some point will dispute what I'm going to say about Cooley, but whatever. It's amazing how little ego Rigo has. like ego less. Same with Cooley too. Like it just, I remember, I don't know that I was ever, you know, at the beginning, like, oh, this is John Riggins, because I was so focused on just doing a good job.

But if there was any sort of like feeling about that, it went away so quickly because John is such a normal dude. And by the way, extremely smart and interesting in all of that. And, you know, Kara and I became friends, and Kara became friends with, and his friends with Lisa Marie. And I love them both dearly. But working with him was so easy. And I remember people saying, what's it like? You know, is it hard?

Like, is he demand? Riggins was the, it's amazing that somebody with that level of accomplishment, I mean, you could speak to this too, has so little ego. Absolutely. I mean, look, I mean, he may be comfortable. And, I mean, I love going on the podcast, you know. It's a lot of fun talking about the Washington football team with him. So, yeah, I agree with you. I mean, you know him a lot better than I do.

Yeah, he's just, he's the best. And Todd's great, too. And they're good friends, so I'm sure it's, I'm going to go watch it with you on it right after this show. It's on YouTube. I don't know how you would find this. Hold on, let's see. Let me give them pub here. If you go to YouTube and it looks like it's called the John Riggins show.

So you just go to the John Riggins show on YouTube and Tommy was on the show on the 29th, which was yesterday. Did they wish you a happy birthday? No, they didn't wish me a happy birthday. I wouldn't expect them to. All right. Have a great day. On Thursday, we will. have some guesses on the Nat season. Opening night is Thursday night against the Mets. By the way, Tommy,

it is going to be frigid on Thursday night. I don't. I'm going to be there. No, I thought you were going to be there on Saturday. No, I'm going Thursday night. You said the first game I'm going to last week is that Saturday game, the second game. That's what you said. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, because I said it's during the final four. You have, now I know there's something going on with you because you're creating conversations that never even came close to existing. Because it couldn't have been your, you know, not remembering it accurately. Because after all, you thought I didn't retweet your column last week. This one, I'm right.

The reason I remember it was Saturday is I said, oh, yeah, I'm not going to go because the final four is on that Saturday. I'll be watching the final four. And you're like, yeah, I know, but, you know, whatever. I never said anything like that. I did. I know. In your mind. I'm done with you.

We'll talk on Thursday, thanks. Bye. Back tomorrow. I don't know with whom, but Tommy's scheduled for Thursday. Cooley's on vacation this week. He actually texted me from Vegas the other night, wanting to know who to play in the college basketball games. I think I gave him a one-in-one night. So there you go.

Back tomorrow, though. Enjoy the day.