The Kevin Sheehan Show - What About Chase Young?

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Kevin and Thom discussed the possibility of a Chase Young return to Washington this off-season. Plenty of Myles Garrett conversation after ESPN's Bill Barnwell wrote that the Commanders are "the most obvious and consequential landing spot for Garrett". Kevin nerded out on a Twitter/X account that mocked out the entire NFL 2025 Schedule and had Washington featured in five prime time games along with an international trip as well. Thom talked Nats' pitchers/catchers reporting and the boys reminisced about the biggest boxing upset in history which happened 35 years ago this week.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Window Nation. 86690 Nation.

If you need new windows, you can go to WindowNation.com as well. Mention my name. They'll take really good care of you. It starts with a free, no-risk in-home estimate. Tommy, this from Michael, who writes subject-heading, All in for Chase Young, question mark, but then he writes in parentheses, not kidding. Hey, Kevin, so much attention has been given to Miles Garrett. Not to be funny here, but why is there no talk of bringing back Chase Young?

He's past his injuries, no. At 25 years old and a better organizational structure around him, wouldn't he be a great pickup while saving us valuable draft stock? He seems like the type of player on which Peter's, would take a chance, isn't he better than the likes of Cleland Farrell would say you? Thanks for a great show always. You know, Michael, I haven't thought about Chase Young. I've thought about guys like Max Crosby in addition to Miles Garrett.

I've thought about, you know, the possibility of Dante Fowler Jr. being re-signed. So Chase Young, for those that were not paying attention, he had a good season in New Orleans. You know, he signed a one-year deal. It was kind of an on-the-come deal worth like $1.4 million, something like that, base salary. But I think, you know, with some incentives, he worked his way up to $2 to $3 million, something like that in earnings this year. But he is an unrestricted free agent after one season in New Orleans. They obviously have a coaching change. They have no cap space.

they have the worst cap situation in the league. Chase Young Tommy this past season played all 17 games for the Saints. Now, he did not start in any games. He was a situational pass rusher, but he played on 63% of New Orleans's defensive snaps. And for this season, Chase Young had five and a half sacks, which was second on his team. He was also second on his team in pressures this year. So good for him to bounce back after, you know, remember he was in San Francisco

after Washington cut him loose. He didn't really make that much of an impact in San Francisco. Although didn't he have a sack in the Super Bowl? Let me look that up real quickly. Last year's Super Bowl. I think he actually had a sack in the Super Bowl game. Yeah, he had a sack in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs last year in that game. Two quarterback hits in that game on Patrick Mahomes as well.

There's not, I don't think, going to be a big market for Chishung. I don't know that he solves the problem you're looking for to solve, Michael. And that problem is you've got to have a. a big-time run-stopper as well. And Chase Young has not proven to be that in his career. He was pretty decent this year in New Orleans. Good for him to kind of resurrect his career. I'm sure somebody will give him another short-term deal.

I don't think he's going to sign a massive deal. But you need a run-stopper even more than a pass-rusher. That's what I would say. You know, this isn't the first time I've seen this pop up. I've seen people raise this on social media about bringing him back and this is like remembering the good moments

when you had a disease you know and you wouldn't mind having it again what? It's just a third it really is like the one day during the disease where you really felt good like the medicine was really working yes again you think yourself

this wasn't so bad go ahead bring me another bout of Bring me another bout of something Idis, whatever it is, of Chase Youngitis. You know, he was, he's away from home. He's finding his way. You know, I don't trust the guy whose judgment took so long to come around to get where he is. And he isn't. He's not Miles Garrett.

He's not Mike Garrett, you know? Tell everybody who Mike Garrett is. Mike Garrett was a running back for USC and the Kansas City Chief. Right. He was, he was, the first of those running backs came out of USC. He was tossed power trap, 55 toss power trap or whatever it was at Hank Scrant. Hank Stram yelled out. Wasn't he?

I think he was the running back on that play. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was. He was the running back on those Super Bowl teams. I think he was number 21. Yeah. I'm not sure if he was. 65 toss power.

You know, you know. Chase Young, you know, you're out of it. You're out of the picture. Where's the nostalgia here? I don't get it. Okay, I have a slightly different opinion than yours. I would not compare it to bringing back a guy and just kind of remembering the good days during a disease that I was fighting through. First of all, I would never, you know, say that someone who is 25 now and was 21 when he was. arrived here can't change, can't grow up, can't evolve into a more mature human being. He was not a mature human being as a 21-year-old here in Washington. And it was not a great situation here. Of course, the injury didn't help either. Let's also not forget that the best day of the disease was the day that he was named Rookie of the Year on defense. He was actually the defensive rookie of the year. Let's not forget that.

And that he is coming off, you know, this particular season, he had the most pressures he's ever had in a season this year, 34, the most quarterback hits and hurries that he's ever had, not sacks, five and a half. He had seven and a half as a rookie, and seven and a half combined in his Washington, San Francisco season, I think, in 2023. So anyway, but, you know, here's my biggest concern, okay? I can move off Chase Young. Thanks for bringing it up. I had not thought about it, and I didn't see it on social media.

I don't think I was looking for it. Listen, he's no Brian Arakpo. He's no Brian Arapco, that's for sure. The thing that I don't want to see happen is I don't want to see Miles Garrett end up in Philadelphia. Yes. Like I read an email from somebody yesterday who basically said, you know, you can't let this happen because this isn't T.J. Duckett referring to when Washington, yeah, when Washington traded for T.J. Duckett because they were afraid the Eagles might get it. Yeah. much more severe impact if he goes to a team within the division.

I had Mark Dominic on the show. He's a really good guest. He was the general manager for the Buccaneers for several years and was a big part of their organization when they won the Super Bowl in 2002. He's an excellent radio guest. I've had him on before. I think I've had him on the podcast before. Maybe not.

But he said that he wouldn't trade for Miles Garrett. He said it's too much of your future capital. He wouldn't do it for one player. he thinks that the draft is deep at defensive end, which it is, which it is, and that there are other ways to do this. I disagree respectfully. I think that you're in a window. We talked about it the other day, and you go for it. And Bill Barnwell wrote a very long, you know, typical Bill Barnwellian story on ESPN.com today,

breaking down the whole Miles Garrett situation. And I'll net it out for you. You know, after saying that he thinks there's still a pretty good chance the Browns won't trade him because he's that great and why would you? He goes through the entire league to talk about every team in the possibility. And there are a lot of teams that, you know, are completely off the table, like every team in the AFC North. You know, the Browns would never trade him to the Ravens, Bengals, or Steelers. You know, there are teams that already have really good edge rushers. There are teams that are nowhere close to contending.

And then he gets down to the final category, three teams, which he calls the sweet spot for a Miles Garrett trade. And he's got three teams listed. The Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis Colts, and then he finishes with Washington. And he writes, I've saved the best candidate for last. The commanders are the most obvious and consequential landing spot for Garrett. they have the championship potential, the financial flexibility, and the clear and obvious need for pass rushing help. And then he gets into the Jaden Daniels, how great he is, rookie sensation on a, you know, rookie deal, et cetera, and how long you've got with him on the rookie deal. And then he talks

about how Dan Quinn was able to, you know, to coach, you know, guys like Bobby, you know, that his best defenses always had a star on it. Bobby Wagner, Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman in Seattle, Micah Parsons in Dallas. And he writes, Garrett would give Quinn a chess piece who makes everybody else on the defense a little scarier,

which could be hugely valuable for a team that's going to need to draft a lot of defensive help over the next few years. And then he says something that I just don't think is correct, but Bill Barnwell's pretty sharp on this stuff. And he said, the commanders have the number 29 pick in April's draft, and that would likely be in play as part of the Garrett deal. I don't think likely would be in play. I think definitely would be in play.

And then he writes, would they be willing to throw John Allen into the mix? The 30-year-old defensive tackle is in the final year of his deal, and Johnny Newton seems ready to move into a starting role next to Payne. The Browns have Dalvin Tomlinson on the Intrower. but Allen would give them a second impact tackle and soften the blow of losing Garrett. Washington could get a third team involved as a potential landing spot for Allen. Either way, if the Browns are actually willing to deal Garrett, the commanders should be the first team they call. So let me just mention real quickly, if all it's going to take is a first round pick this year and John Allen,

you make that deal yesterday. I think it's going to take a lot more than that. So do I. I think it will. It should. Now, if they had a top 10 pick, that would be different. Right. But they have number 29. And, you know, John Allen's only got one year left on his deal, and he's 30 years old. I like John Allen. I want John Allen back on the team.

He's a tremendous culture guy, leader, and he's versatile. but if that's all it took my god i still think two first rounders you do it because yeah i agree look i i agree with you on this it's interesting that you know this mark dominic who you talked about yeah kind of raised the same thing i suggested in our last podcast where if it's if it's if you think you have a better chance of getting And if you look at the draft and you see what, when you're picking, what your best chances is of getting an influential offensive tackle or an impact pass rusher. And if it's an impact pass rusher, you know, then you do that.

And then you sign an offensive tackle like Ronnie Stanley. You know, I mean, thinking that, you know, I mean, those who you're two, I think those are your two biggest needs. and if you think it's more likely you can impact both of them through that formula, I can understand that except for Miles Garrett. You know, I mean, this is not a prospect. This is not a guy you're hoping will be good in the NFL. Okay, Chase Young was the number two pick in the draft, speaking of Chase Young. and look what, I mean, he's looking for, he's looking for a job again, probably.

You know, so there's no guarantees with these draft picks. I mean, Miles Garrett is a proven commodity, the proven commodity among past rushers. Yeah. Look, I think you do have to consider other things, like you said the other day. Like, you know, at number 29, if you feel really good, like your group has scouted, you know, one of these tremendous defensive ends. You've got the guy Stuart from Texas A&M. There are a couple of guys that might fall to that area of the draft. Or let's say it is a tackle. Let's say it's a tackle and you feel really good about one of the tackles in the draft because there are several of those

as well. And you're going to take Brandon Coleman, you're going to move him inside. He's going to play guard and you really like that, you know, more. And, you know, through free agency, you know, you think, or by the way, and I mentioned this on the radio show today, you know, there's been some discussion that Max Crosby might get dealt by the Raiders. I don't know why they'd want to deal Max Crosby. He's an elite defensive end and pass rusher as well, and this is year one of Pete Carroll. I think Pete Carroll would want Max Crosby on the team. He's only 27 years old. He's younger. You know, DeNeil Hunter, who's getting older, I don't think Houston's going to move on from him. Trey Hendrickson and Cincinnati.

They might franchise tag him. Who knows? But you explore everything. But nothing that I just discussed gives you next year, the year after, and the year after that what Miles Garrett, as long as he's healthy, would guarantee. And that is arguably the best defensive player in football. The situation is you're not following this process of rebuilding or as, as Dan Quinn called it, recalibrating anymore.

Okay, because Jane Daniels sped up the timetable for everything. You know, you're not taking steps, small steps, to get where you want to go. You took a big leap already, and you're knocking on the door of the Super Bowl. What's the next piece to get you there? Okay. Who would have made, who would have made the Jane Hurts' life miserable in that NFC title game, Miles Garrett. Yeah, who would have set the edge so that, you know,

Sequin Barclay didn't take the first play of the game offensively and go 60 yards with it? That's, I mean, it's just, this is not that hard. The hard part is getting him, but the part about pursuing him, this is an hard decision. One of the things Mark Dominic tell me, said, you know, I said to him, I said, you know, the other thing just to consider is, you know, Philly could go get him too. And then, you know, and he said, that kind of totally hit him as a

Howie Roseman kind of a deal. And I think you should consider that to a certain degree. Look, the part that I'm leaving out from all of this conversation, because we just don't know, and I had somebody on from Cleveland and asked him a lot about sort of the personality and, you know, the locker room guy and the culture guy. And, you know, there's been some conversation about Miles Garrett over the years that he'll take some plays off every once in a while. But there are no, you know, there are no red flags on Miles Garrett. But they have to decide they being Adam Peters, Lance Newmark, front office, Dan Quinn, as to what it would look like with a Miles Garrett personality in their locker room and whether or not it fits. Because I do think that the number one offseason priority is to continue the culture

that they've created. You know, don't deviate from that as part of this first window big swing. Don't bring in a bad guy because he's a great talent and he can get you over the top. You know, I mean, the Rams went out and traded for Matt Stafford and then signed and then traded for Von Miller, and then they took a bit of a flyer on O'Dell Beckham Jr. It worked out. He was great in that Super Bowl run in 2021, but he hasn't always been the guy that, you know, fits in every culture, in every locker room. He got injured in the Super Bowl, but he was great leading up to the Super Bowl. But I don't know, I'm all in for taking a big swing.

Some guys, I mean, the Miles Garrett situation is not necessarily, we're not talking about a locker room problem here. We're talking about a guy who like great talent, maybe a little temperamental from time to time. The greatest pass rusher we ever saw Lawrence Taylor, you know, used to barely show up for meetings. I mean, you used to, you know, coke it up on the night before a game, and on Sundays, he turned out, you know, to be a beast. My point is if we're talking about, you know, taking time off a couple of plays here and there, that's different from being a locker room problem. I know.

I don't recall ever being a locker room problem from Miles Garrett, ever hearing that. No. I mean, he had the one incident in that game, with Mason Rudolph and the accusations he made. There's a lot of that, but let me just say to your point, okay, by the way, let me just do my Belichick. Hey, Tommy, you're talking about LT now. You're talking about LT. Okay, Miles Garrett, you know, these are, but we're talking about LT.

There's no LT. You make, you make every exception for LT. That's the old Jimmy Johnson line apparently where, you know, he cuts somebody. who fell asleep in a team meeting in Dallas early on to kind of set the tone. And somebody said, what would have happened had Troy Aitman fallen asleep in the meeting? And he said, well, I would have told whoever was sitting next to him to wake him up. That's how you handle the LTs. And by the way, that's how Gibbs handled guys like Dexter and a temperamental at times Gary Clark.

Not a problem, you know, in Gary Clark. And if you are a true Super Bowl window team, sometimes you have to roll the dice on something like that. But I don't even know why we're talking about it. That's not Miles Garrett, by all accounts. So anyway. I know that. Yeah. But the philosophy being that if you're talking about, if you're talking about the culture,

you're talking about something different than what issues may be with Miles Garrett. Yeah. Agreed. just man because you know if he gets dealt now barnwell suggests that the other sweet spot teams are you know an a fc team in indianapolis and chicago which would be interesting chicago's got a really good you know cap situation as well and they got a new coach and he's an offensive coach and year two of of uh of Caleb Williams but he does have in the category before for the teams that would quote put, Garrett would put over the top, Buffalo, Detroit, the Chargers, and Philly. And he writes, the Eagles don't need anything to get over the top after blowing out the chiefs.

They're on top. They're at top of the football universe. But Josh Sweat, who he writes would have been my pick as the MVP for the Super Bowl, is a free agent. So is Milton Williams. By the way, Williams was phenomenal in that game, too. and Brandon Graham is expected to retire. So, you know, it would be Howie Rosemanesque to go get and trade for Miles Garrett.

Him and Jalen Carter and Zach Bonn in that defense. That would be bad. It'd be a challenge, but, you know, it's the NFL. All right. You wrote a column on the Nats, pitchers and catchers reported. We'll get to that. I'm going to nerd out on the schedule for next year and tell you maybe when the Redskins, I'm sorry, when the commanders will play their biggest games in the upcoming season.

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Go to MyBooky.orgie and use my promo code Kevin D.C. And they'll give you a cash bonus on your initial signup. They've got everything you need for college hoops between now and the end of the regular season. And then they'll have everything you need for the month of March. By the way, Maryland with a big one tonight on the road at Nebraska. Nebraska's won four in a row. They're a tournament team right now. now. They're inside the bubble. That place, by the way, Tommy and Lincoln, they fill up everything

out in Lincoln. They come see every sport Nebraska fans do. They sold out that football stadium for a volleyball game, a women's volleyball game in August. Tonight, Nebraska against Maryland, at my bookie, Nebraska is a one and a half point favorite. Does not surprise me. I don't view it as a massive trap game. They were an underdog against Ohio State on the road. The Big Ten right now has a lot of good teams that are really strong at home, and Nebraska's been

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are already up. We've talked about those. Washington in terms of Super Bowl odds for next year, sitting at plus 1,600. That's tied with San Francisco for the sixth best odds to win the Super Bowl. Philly, Kansas City, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Detroit are in front of them. MyBooky.orgie.org promo code Kevin, D.C. So, Tommy, I found somebody on Twitter who

is a bigger schedule nerd than I am. The Twitter handle of this person is NFL nerd. It's at nerding on NFL, actually the actual X handle. But he calls himself NFL nerd. And he put together already the entire NFL schedule. I can't tell you how much. I put together Washington's schedule one team, you know, a week before the actual schedule comes out in May. He did all 272 games of next year's NFL schedule.

I think most of you realize that all the opponents, you know, road, home, they've all been determined. And all of the host teams for the international games have been determined. and we do know that the Philadelphia Eagles will open up this season on Thursday night, September 4th at Lincoln Financial as the defending Super Bowl champion. So let me go through what he put together for Washington's schedule. You know, there's this idea that Washington could play at Philadelphia in the season opener. That would be exciting, a rematch of the NFC title game. But NFL nerd has the Lions opening up the NFL. NFL season in Philadelphia, but he's got Washington's season opener at Kansas City on Sunday

night football. Jaden Daniels and Patrick Mahomes opening up the Sunday night football slate on the first NFL weekend at Arrowhead. That would be pretty cool. That would be. Right? That would be awesome. Yeah. They're going to have a lot of games, and he's got Washington with plenty of high-profile and primetime games. Week two, he's got a Monday night football game at home against Denver. Week three, on the road at Lambo, in a high-profile late afternoon 425 game. Then week four, they're going to play their third primetime game in the first four weeks on Thursday night football against the Bears.

Man, they played the Bears a lot on Thursday night football in recent years. Then they're at Dallas, one o'clock game. Then another Sunday night game against the Eagles at home. So in their first six weeks, he has four primetime games for Washington. Chiefs Sunday night football to open with the Broncos on Monday night football at home in week two. The Bears on Thursday night football in week four. and the Eagles on Sunday night football in week six. Then he goes Cowboys.

That's a little bit odd. They'd play the Cowboys twice in three weeks. That has happened before with division opponents. He's got the Cowboys at 425 late window. The Lions are late window 425 games. So through the first eight weeks of the season, they've only played at 1 o'clock once. Then they're at Giants 1 o'clock, Seahawks 1 o'clock,

And then Tommy, this would interest you and me. I know what's coming. I know what's coming. What do you think's coming? Miami in Madrid. You got it. They have the dolphins as a road opponent this year, and the dolphins are the host of the Madrid game,

Washington in Week 11 in Madrid to face the dolphins. If that happens, I'm going to go. You want to go? Oh, me too. Yes. And I got places to stay. We love Madrid. We are going to Madrid to see Washington if they play Miami. Then they've got a buy week. By the way, another fairly late bye week, week 12. It's not a December by week, but it's a late November by week. Then they've got three straight one o'clock games, Giants at Vikings at Falcons, and then another primetime Sunday night football game. This would be their third Sunday night

football game of the year at Chargers, week 16. And then they finish with the Raiders in a spot that could be a Saturday game in week 17 at home. And then they finish week 18 at Philadelphia. That's TBD on Times because you never know about that last week. So one, they play five primetime games and they play in Madrid and then a potential standalone Saturday game against the Raiders, the end of the season. No Thanksgiving Day game

and no Christmas Day games. He has scheduled those out. The Thanksgiving Day games are Bears, Lions, Eagles, Cowboys, and Chiefs Chargers. And then he's got a Christmas Day triple header because Christmas Day is on a Thursday. Lions, Bengals,

Bill, Steelers. Packers, and Vikings. But that would be, you know, here's the thing. Their schedule, and you know me with the schedule game, it's tough to play that game because you just don't know year to year. But their schedule on paper is pretty tough. It's eighth toughest if you take last year's teams and their records, which is not the right way to do it.

It's better to take the over-unders for. the next season to do it. But they have five road games against teams that won 15 games the Chiefs, 14 games the Eagles, 14 games the Vikings, 11 games the Packers, and 11 games the Chargers. And then they also have home games against the Lions who won 15 games, the Eagles who won 14 games, the Broncos who won 10 games and the Seattle Seahawks who won 10 games. So it creates the opportunity for some really exciting matchups on paper going into next year. NFL nerd. He's a good follow.

He's into all the schedule stuff. How many hours do you think it took them to do the whole schedule? I don't know if he's able to do it with some sort of software program or not. He wrote something. Let me read to you. He said, I struggled. Well, Amazon. I mean, the schedule is put together by Amazon Web Services.

Exactly. Yeah. And then they go back and tweak. We've talked about this before. Hand. It used to be done by a mom and pop. Exactly. In their home.

But for the past few years, it's been done by Amazon. Yeah. The NFL uses an automated process to develop the entire schedule. They do have, you know, a lot of things they have to load into it. Things like stadium availability. you know, the travel, you know, things about, you know, trying to keep teams from going east coast to west coast for multiple weeks in a row. Like there are a lot of different things.

Plus, all of the TV requirements, you know, Fox and CBS get it, you know, they get kind of first dibs on a, like if you look at Washington's schedule for next season, right, there are going to be some games. Certainly the two Eagles games, for starters. Fox is going to want one of those games. Okay, so they're going to end up holding on to one of those games. And right now, he's scheduled one of the Eagles' Washington games as a Sunday night game on NBC, and then they would close at Philadelphia end of the year.

There's no guarantee on how that would work. But I would think they're going to want Philly and Washington as one of those protected games, at least one of them. I think they can only protect one of them. You know, they've got a game against the Lions at home. That'll be a massive game in the NFC. I would think Fox would want to sort of try to protect that game. That's why sometimes the games that seem like natural primetime games

don't make it to prime time because CBS and Fox get their chance to kind of protect certain matchups and keep it in their 425 double-header week games, which is a big spot too. But NFL nerd, Tommy. Give them a follow at nerding on NFL. All right, enough of that. You wanted to talk Nats. And by the way, there was an anniversary

of a major upset in sports that we missed the other day. We'll get to that more after these words from a few of our sponsors. So guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand, same type for a long time. Well, not anymore for me. I want to tell you about skims for men, something I've discovered recently, the softest underwear I've ever worn. I got a few pairs of the five-inch boxer briefs,

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It comes in multiple colors, multiple sides. Shop Skims Men's at skims.com and skim's stores. Let them know I sent you. After you place your order, select podcast in the survey, and select this show in the drop-down menu that follows. Mike's left eye is really close to not intimidated. He wants to keep it going. Mike actually has lost busted landing these. Oh, nice. I forgot. That was 35 years ago Tuesday, February 11th. We miss talking about Tyson Douglas, but we will do that here in a moment. But first, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's.

Well, you know, we talked about this briefly. Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street Northwest in the district. We talked about recently how it's become like the place to hold not just parties, not just camaraderie, but important business and political events. And look, it's getting harder and harder in this city to find a place where bipartisans can meet and at least discuss things rationally. Right. Shelly's has become that place because everyone can agree on a good drink, a good, good meal,

and most importantly, a good cigar. Shelly's recently hosted this event. Five of the major police and fires union associations from New Jersey. They hosted a private event at Shelly's back room for the governor's candidates from New Jersey. Wow. Wow. Why? Why did they, how did they get that event?

Well, because Shelly's has become that kind of place. It's a place that brings people together. It brings people from Jersey. Yeah. Yes. Wow. So, I mean, it shows the power of Shelly's, you know, the camaraderie. pottery, the spirit of Shelly's, and like I said, everybody can agree on a good cigar, at least

in that surrounding. So if you want to feel, and it's getting harder, harder to find, so I'm telling you, if you want to feel good about the people around you that you can share certain things that will unite us, Shelley's back room is the place to find out to do that. Shelly's backroom, go to shelley's backroom.com for more information. Man, governors just showing up from all over the country. From all over the country here for this. Yeah, why wouldn't you?

Yeah. All right, Tommy, 35 years ago, February 11th, I think in my lifetime, the biggest sports upset. I mean, I was alive, I certainly don't remember, but I was barely alive for, Super Bowl 3, Namath and the Jets over the Colts. That's the biggest probably football upset. But in my lifetime, I don't think there's a bigger stunner, and I watched it live, than Douglas knocking out Tyson. 42 to one underdog.

Well, heavyweight fights by their nature are more dramatic than most sporting events. okay and a Tyson fight in particular you know had the added drama of the way he basically disposed of his opponents you know so I mean like even look the New York Mets not just the Jets but the Mets win in the World Series in 69 and I think most people would would probably say

that the miracle on ice at the 1980 the semi-final went over over Russia yeah Yes, yeah. But again, like I said, heavyweight title fights have a sense of drama all their own. And the Tyson fights were even bigger. So I think I might agree with you that in the past 50 years, at least the biggest upset in sports that we've ever seen was when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson because Mike Tyson seemed invincible. and Buster Douglas just seemed like another opponent.

You know, just another stiff. Where were you? I know we've probably done this, you know, in previous years and talking about this fight. Look, the miracle on ice is probably number one on the list, you know, in terms of greatest subsets. Remember, nobody got to see that live. That was tape delayed. And if you knew the result before, and I remember knowing the result before, it didn't hit as much. It was a phenomenal upset, obviously.

The Buster Douglas knockout of Tyson, I remember exactly where I was, who I was with, watching it, and being just absolutely in shock at what I was witnessing, as it became more clear throughout that Tyson might be in trouble, and that Douglas, by the way, was unafraid and a big athletic man in the world. ring with Tyson. Where were you for this fight? You weren't in Tokyo for it. No. No, in fact, the interesting thing, and we've discussed this before, you know, look, there were a lot of beat writers who covered boxing still in 1990. A lot of newspapers had boxing writers who traveled all over the world to cover the sport.

For this fight, they thought it was such a foregone conclusion that Tyson would win that most boxing writers didn't make the trip. I think the only ones who were there were the AP writer in Japan, okay, the only American writers who were there, was the AP writer who's already in Japan covering, you know, Japanese events for Associated Press. Ron Borges from the Boston Globe. And I think Bernard Fernandez from the Philly Daily News,

that was it. All the other boxing writers stayed home because they thought, oh, this is a waste of time. Tyson's going to kill this guy. So that's what also made interesting. I watched it on pay-per-view in my house. That was before I started, I was a sports writer. I don't think it was a

pay-per-view fight. It was an HBO fight. It was not a pay-per-view fight. Okay, well, whatever, it's an HBO fight. Right. Yeah, I watched it. I watched it at home. So you stayed up because that thing didn't start until, like, after midnight. East Coast time. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And that was, you know, that was the beginning of the end. For Tyson, you know, he had the two fights with Razor Ruddick that were pretty close.

Razor Ruddick gave him a hard time. And then he was supposed to fight a Vander, who had, you know, beat Douglas in his fight to win the heavyweight for the heavyweight championship again, but then Tyson got hurt, and then he got arrested on rape charges in Indianapolis.

Right. And went to jail for three years. I was living in a townhouse off of Seven Locks Road in Bethesda with one of my really good friends, Mike. He was not home. He was away. What ended up happening, it's pretty weird, but my eventual future, brother-in-law, right, who I knew, called me up and said, because he knew we had HBO and he didn't have HBO. And he called me up probably at like 9, 30, 10 o'clock. And he's like,

are you going to watch the fight? And I'm like, yeah, come on over. I actually had a friend of mine with me. And she and I, let's just say we were not well at that point by the time he showed up. That had been kind of a long night, but I said, yeah, come on over. We had been maybe over-served a bit from a night out, and we had come back to my townhouse. And she was sound asleep on the couch when my future brother-in-law walked in, and the two of us watched it. I was kind of half, I'll never forget, because I was kind of sort of starting to crash a little bit and then all of the sudden he's like, look at this guy. And then the two of us were on the edge of our seats when he got knocked down. Remember, he got knocked down too in the round before the

knockout. Tyson knocked him down and you're like, okay, Mike's going to win this fight. But there was, I'll never forget the sense that I had in watching that fight. And I've watched that fight so many times. But even while the fight was going on, he was like the first. first guy that wasn't afraid of Tyson. He was, so many guys had stepped into the ring and you could tell they were basically soiling themselves before the first bell rang. They were so terrified. Michael Spinks. Yeah. Michael Spinks was like that. Yeah. And this guy. Frank Bruno, Frank Bruno, years later when he fought Tyson, blessed himself 12 times walking up to the ring. I don't remember that.

But yes, these guys were afraid they might actually die in the ring. That's how imposing and how threatening and how intimidating Tyson's and the aura of Tyson. But Tyson was not a big man. Tyson wasn't even six feet. And Buster Douglas was six four and like two thirty-five. And Tommy, he was an athlete. Remember he was recruited to be a football player at Ohio State. He was like all state and basketball.

And he had lost, his mother had just passed away. No, was it his father or mother? His mother had just passed away, I think it was. Yeah. And he went in there and just said, I'm going for it. Just like Washington should do in this offseason. And he went for it. And his athleticism and lack of fear, he was just a much bigger, more athletic man than Tyson was.

and it became obvious that that was the case, but it really didn't matter before if you were afraid, and he wasn't afraid. Yeah, and then, you know, the old Riddick Boe saying, you know, it's hard to do roadwork and get up at 6 in the morning when you're wearing silk pajamas. He didn't handle being champion very well. No, he didn't.

He didn't. Nope, the next fight. What did Holyfield knock him out in like two rounds, three rounds, something like that? Three rounds, I think. Yeah. But he made a bunch of money for that fight. That was the first fight at the Mirage.

Was that the first fight at the Mirage? Because I saw a couple of fights at the Mirage. No way. That was the first fight at the Marage. I think you're wrong. I saw Hearns and Leonard number two, which would have been the year before that at the Mirage. Oh, okay.

Okay. I could be wrong. I'm almost positive. I'm going to look up that... Well, you were there, so you would go. Well, it could have been Caesar's Palace. but I think it was the Mirage, too. Let me just see if I'm right about that.

I don't think the Mirage is even open anymore. It's not. They closed it down last year. No, you're right. I saw Hearns Leonard two at Caesar's Palace, which was, as you know, right next door. But I saw several fights at the Mirage, so I thought it was the Mirage. I saw the fan man fight at the Marrage.

I saw a couple of fights at the Mirage. Yeah, the Mirage closed down just a couple months ago. That was such a great hotel and a phenomenal sports book. Remember that was the sports book for like the 90s in the 90s. All right. I don't know. I always thought the Las Vegas Hilton. Well, that was old school.

Yeah, that was old school for sure. All right. You wanted to mention catchers, pitchers reporting and your column on the Nets? Yeah, well, spring training opened up. Pitchers and catchers got their physicals yesterday, and today they took the field for the first day, and I wrote a column about the continuing big lie that Mark Lerner

uttered a couple years ago when in an interview with Dan Coco, he said whenever Mike Rizzo, the general manager, needs the resources. We're there. We're ready to give it to them. Well, this winter, the Nats wanted to add some power to the lineup, and wanted to add about 60 home runs to the lineup

between First Basin, D.H. And they were in on Christian Walker. He was a free agent from the Arizona Diamondbacks. It 26 home runs drove in 84 runs last year, the year before he hit 33 home runs. for Arizona. And they were in on Walker. They met with Walker.

They went to Walker's house. Things were progressing. It looked good. But then when it came to time to come up with the money, three years, $60 million, they couldn't get it. It wasn't there. And they lost Walker to the Eustra.

Now, Rizzo went out, turned around and made a trade. It got Nathan Lowe. the first basement from Texas, but that's a step down from Christian Walker, certainly power-wise. The point of this is that that was a lie. That was a blatant lie that when Mike Rizzell and company wanted to spend $60 million over three years to get a slugger at first base, they were turned down. Right. Okay.

The tax payroll this year for the guys on the roster is like $60 million. Jesus God. Yeah. So, and here's what, it's funny, I posted this on social media, and here's the reaction I get from some people. Yeah, but it's fun to watch these young kids, you know, it's going to be exciting, you know, maybe next year's their time. And they're not catching the point.

The point is your owner. would not give your general manager the resources he needs to feel the team he wants. That's the story. You should be angry about that. Yeah, I mean, there are people, Nats fans, I think, do get angry at this. They want the owner to spend now. If you're not going to sell the team, which they haven't been able to do, or at least not for what they want to get for it,

you've got some young players. you've made all these trades, you've got some young talent. Now, add to it, and let's see if you can go out and be a wildcard team this year, or at least contend for it. Yes. But that's not what's happening. No. The learners operate this team like it's a vacant office building that's falling apart.

What did you think of Alex? They don't have basically the gist of my column. And they're going to be fun to watch. They do have a core group. of young players and young pitchers that will be fun to watch. But the Mets are fun to watch because they got one photo. The Phillies are fun to watch because they have Bryce Harper. The Braves are fun to watch because they won the National League East for the past five straight years.

Right. Okay? You've got to commit to contend. What did you think of Alex Bregman going to Boston? $40 million a year. That's a lot of money for out of break. It's 10 million more than anybody else was offering per year. I know. I know, but he went for the yearly amount, and I think he's smart to do that rather than go for the length of contract.

Yeah. So, and I think it's good for the team. If I'm a team, I'd rather pay more for a guy for a shorter amount of time. You know, then take the risk of that he gets older, you know, him falling apart. and you're still paying a pretty substantial amount of money. I mean, I don't think it's a bad contract for the Red Sox. I don't think it's going to help them in the American League East compete like they need to. But I don't think it's a bad deal for the Red Sox.

Again, I'd rather pay more over a shorter amount of time. Nats, a week from Saturday, open up their spring training slate against Houston. I think I could talk my way in the spring training again this year? Are you going to do it? I'm going to try. We'll see. I'm always amazed when they say yes. You know what?

Ownership never says no to you. Even on this podcast, ownership never says no to you. No matter what you ask for, you get. All right, I'll talk to you next week. Have a good weekend. Okay, boss. You too. I'll be back tomorrow.