The Kevin Sheehan Show - Wimpy Wildcard Weekend

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on all six of the weekend NFL playoff games, their favorite Beatle, their favorite Ram, and who gave Kevin the Dundie. Lots of Washington Football Team discussion 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.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. I'm here. Tommy's here. Sorry about yesterday, but I'll make it up with a show over the weekend before the

playoff games. Eight teams left in the NFL playoffs. Didn't have a chance, and I'm glad I get to do it with Tommy, in talking about the six playoff games that were played, including the game last. night. Let me just start with kind of some breaking news. Jerry Jones skipped his normal Tuesday Dallas radio appearance. And apparently the last time he did that, Jason Garrett was fired a few days later. I had Tommy, I had Mickey Spagnola. We used to have him on the show. I've had him on the show a lot of

times. He's covered the Cowboys forever. And he was adamant this morning saying he believed Stephen Jones yesterday when he said Mike McCarthy's not going to get fired. But I heard in Mickey's voice a, I'm pretty sure that I believe Stephen, but not entirely. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Mike McCarthy were fired this week. Jerry Jones looked devastated after that loss. And that team is just a poorly coached NFL team and has been, I think, for a while and far underachieve their talent. But anyway, he just, he skipped his radio appearance. Now, there may be a story that comes out sometime after we've been recording this podcast that says why he missed the radio appearance. But he missed it.

How are you, by the way? I'm doing great. Awesome. I mean, you know, I mean, it's, I'm in. Miramar Beach, Florida, where, you know, it's going to be 58 degrees in sunny today. Tomorrow going up to 68 in sunny. You know, it's just life is good. Life is good, you know.

So I feel bad for you guys back there because I get the impression that it's not sunshine and lollipops back in D.C. I'm telling you right now, and you know how I, you know, follow weather, winter weather, in particular when there's a storm. Most of you know that, or many of you that are listening, know that. My preference, as I've gotten a little bit older, is if we're not going to have a big snowstorm to talk about in the winter months, I'd rather be 65 and sunny. I'd much prefer that.

Like the weather, you know, leading into Christmas, it was just so mild. I mean, New Year's Day was like 65 degrees. But you left at the exact right time. It has been cold. We've had already, I think, 12 to 14 inches of snow total, you know, in D.C. and more in other areas. And there's a big storm on one of the models. The euro has a massive storm for the weekend. And then the American model, the GFS, is showing no storm, basically.

So somewhere between like zero and 30 inches on Saturday is, it is, is the range. But it's supposed to snow tomorrow night into Thursday. And really what any weather, real weather person would tell you, like our good friend Sue Palka, who's retiring after 36 and a half years. And if I didn't say this on Friday's podcast or Saturdays, Sue was on the radio with me on Friday. Go find that interview at the team 980.com.

She's just one of the best people of all time. But anyway, I digress. there's going to be just massive cold between now and early February. Like today and tomorrow will be some of the warmest days we've had. I think tomorrow is going to be in the 40s. I don't think we're going to see the 40s again until February. I mean, that's what the long-range forecast stuff is indicating. So you got out just in time.

I just went out and I was like, I had to go somewhere real quickly and I parked and they're just big piles of snow in parking lots. You know, it's ugly, it's cloudy, it's chilly, it's chilly. It's winter. We haven't had winter the last two years, but we have it this year. No. And let me ask you one thing about Sue. Does she get behind your candidacy to replace her on Channel 5 as the weather person?

I don't think she would get behind it, but I did not actually ask her whether or not she would get behind your push for me to be a replacement at Channel 5. I don't know. Because I think that would lift your spirits if you could talk about the weather every night on TV. I think you'd be much happier about it. I think there are things that I'd rather be talking about every night. But no, like, nothing gets me more excited than the possibility of like a big snowstorm and tracking it and following it. Yes, I've always been interested in that. and the weather people in town have been very nice to me to sort of accommodate this this obsession.

You know, Doug Cameron and I text back and forth all the time and he was on the show. Sue and I, Sue, by the way, in the radio interview on Friday, she did say, she said, you know, over the years, she said, you've had like, you know, a steel trap memory when it comes to storms. and she goes, I've always relied on you, you know, for some of these big storms to sort of compare them to previous storms. And I said, and I told the story about you and I being at the Super Bowl. And I think we were out somewhere. And you looked down at my phone and it said Sue Palka and you just looked at me and said, why would she care what you think about the upcoming storm, especially since we're down in Florida?

And she said, yeah, but you came back, right? remembered the whole story. She said, you go. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, uh, anyway, if you don't like winter, this is not your winter in D.C. right now. We're going to have, I mean, we've already had a two-week stretch of kind of brutal winter and more is coming. Whether there's a big storm this weekend or not, it's just going to be cold. You know, like when you watch the, the, um, the local news and they put up the graphics that show the extended forecast, you know, the 10-day extended forecast. I was watching, and I don't know her name, she's Doug Camer's weekend or holiday. She's good.

I like her. She's excellent. Yes, I don't know her name either, but she's fabulous. You're talking about the African-American young woman, right? Yes. Oh, she's very good. She's really good on the air. So good on the air.

I don't know what she is as a forecaster at this point, but I think she's into the weather and probably a good forecaster. I don't know. I haven't watched enough of her. But I watched her part of this weekend, and I've seen her recently, and she's excellent on TV. You're 100% right. Anyway, she put up the 10-day extended last night because she was in for Doug, I guess, for the holiday. And seriously, like after tomorrow, there wasn't one day where the tempest. picture was like above 32 for the next 10 days. You know, so it is really going to be cold.

All the extended stuff says cold right through the end of January, if not into the early part of February, with lots of chances of potential snowstorms between, you know, over the next two, two and a half weeks. Now, this big one on the weekend, I mean, it's, nobody knows. Nobody knows. I got her name. Samar and Theodore. What's her name?

Samara Seador. Samara. Yeah. She's good. She's good. Yeah, I want to make sure we got her name out there. Yeah. She's excellent.

Very likable. And, you know, I will tell you over a period of time if I get to watch her more during these big events as to whether or not she's a good forecaster. I just haven't watched enough. I would assume, you know, sometimes you get these weekend people, that just really aren't the forecasters that the top dogs are at the station. Like Doug's a really good forecaster or a really good meteorologist. Sue is, Topper is. Sometimes on the weekends you get, you know, the Willard Scots of the world. But I don't even think that's true anymore.

I think the people on the weekend are all meteorologists, but she's excellent on the air, and I'm sure she's an excellent forecaster. Whatever. You know, quick kissing up to your competition, the people you're going to be competing with soon when you're on Channel 5. You know, seriously? I mean, because I worked in television very briefly when I was much younger, you know, what you do as a columnist, what you do and have done as a host of a radio show, co-host of a radio show co-host of a podcast, I, God, I'm going to tell this story.

about two years ago, I went into, what was her name, Aaron, the chick at Channel 7. What was her last name? Hawksworth. Aaron Hawksworth. Yeah. Aaron loved you and me, you know, and had us on her show every once in a while.

And I remember going in there one night to do a hit. I think it was like a Sunday night following, you know, NFL games or whatever. So, you know, they're right over Keybridge and Roslyn, is where Channel 7 is. So I go in there and I'm just hanging out in the waiting room and she came out and she said, hey, I want you to meet my producer, this guy. Hey, this is also my other producer.

And by the way, the producers at Channel 7 are great. And I say that and I'm being serious. But then she had somebody else that was like part-time. And I just said, how many minutes is your sportscast tonight during the 11 o'clock news? I'm only going to get four minutes tonight. And I thought to myself, my God, I mean, no offense to these people because they've got a, they have to have a certain look. They have to, you know, they got to be good on television and they got to look good on television. And you and I, we have faces made for radio.

But, I mean, and I worked for Steve Buchance for a couple of years, one of my favorite people ever. But to do four to five minutes of a sports cast during a local newscast. versus what we do, it's got to be the easiest gig of all time. And she had like three producers, and I was thinking to myself, my God. I mean, I could do, look, I probably wouldn't be very good doing, I think I could do sports on TV.

I mean, I wouldn't be as good or look as good as, you know, the people. And there's a reason that some of those people are doing it. But, I mean, it really, Scott told me this a long time ago. Remember when Scott was doing radio. Scott did a radio show with Ryan Rissillo for years on ESPN radio. And when Scott got started doing radio at ESPN, when he was hosting sports centers, he did a show with Mike Tariko.

Both Tariko and Scott had that midday slot. And then Tariko decided, I forget how it worked out, but Tariko ended up getting more, you know, sort of play-by-play opportunities. And so Ryan became Scott's co-host. But I remember Scott saying to me after like a month of doing radio talk radio, he just called me and he said, there is no debate. The hardest thing to do in sports broadcasting is long-form sports talk radio. He goes, it's not even close. And, you know, Scott wasn't getting four minutes on a local sports cast.

He's doing an hour sports center show, which is a much more. You know, that's a Herculean task compared to what a local sports start. But when you're doing three hours or four hours a day every single day, you know, it is a, by the way, I'm not asking any for any, you know, sympathy. I love doing this, have always loved doing it. But it isn't, and by the way, it comes for a lot of us, it doesn't seem like it's that hard, not compared to some jobs, obviously. I'm talking about in relation to sports broadcasting jobs. It certainly doesn't seem hard. I mean, I won't lie to you.

The morning, doing early mornings can be a grind physically. There's no doubt. And it's why, you know, morning drive radio hosts over the years, you know, have, there's a physical wear and tear of getting up at 3.30, 4.30 in the morning every single day. But that's beside the point. The point is, is whether you're doing it in the mornings or middays or after. When you're doing three hours every day, four hours, every single day, a lot different than trying to put together for a four-minute sports cast at 11 o'clock, which, by the way,

can be a little bit different from your 6 o'clock or your 5 o'clock, but it's probably not that much different, except you might have a couple of highlights of a Wizards game or a Caps game. Imagine, you know what, you and I should have been doing local sports together. All right, the Sports Fix, Channel 4 SportsCast. By the way, Channel 4 doesn't even have a sportscaster. A lot of these places, the guy on Channel 9, who I always forget his name, because I'm... I think it's Darren Haynes.

Darren Haynes. Darren is a full-time sportscaster, I believe, at Channel 9. I don't know about Channel 7. I can't speak to Channel 7. Well, Scott Abraham. Oh, Scott, of course. Of course. What am I thinking?

And he has, I think, Olivia Garvey. Steve Garvey's daughter? I don't know. I think it is. I think somebody told me. Really? I think it is, yes. That may be.

I don't know. But anyway, I mean, Channel 7 is, yeah, Channel 7 is very, very, very active in their sports programming, I think on their local news broadcasts. Fair enough. And they specialize. They specialize. at least local football, local football, on Friday nights. They're all over the place doing that.

The high school football thing is. So I give them credit for that. Yes, the high school football. I mean, I don't even, I used to watch Channel 5. I used to be devoted Channel 5, you know, when Feldy was there, and before that, Dave Feldman and before that with Buck. But I don't watch them anymore. I mean, I don't even know if they have somebody on Channel 5.

I hear first of all I feel badly not immediately saying Scott Abraham because I like Scott a lot I have him on the radio show he has me on his show a lot I don't I mean I just don't I mean and look you know and I do I do it's about the only TV news I watch yeah well I mean old people watch local news seriously well because they do news stories it's not a talking head festival Fair enough. Fair enough. But when it comes to sports on local news, it's really much different, obviously, today than it was 20 years ago. I mean, everybody gets... Well, when people like George Michael and those people ruled the town, they ran the town, they ruled it. George Michael made in 1985, like $2 million bucks a year. Glenn Brenner got paid over a million bucks a year. You know, Buck was at Channel 5. Frank Herzog was at Channel 7. These were highly rated portions of a local newscast.

Now the only portion of a local newscast that gets any ratings is weather. This is why Channel 5 has to grab you now before someone else comes along. Oh, stop it with this grab you now. But let me just tell you that, um, I was going to say is that Channel 4 doesn't, I don't think they have a sportscaster. Heather's told me that. Heather McDonough, who's the producer over there. I don't think they have a full-time sportscaster because Doreen's doing it.

Sometimes I've, like, I. J.P. P.P.'s done a lot of football stuff. J.P. Finley? On the, on the news broadcast. Oh, really? Yes. Okay. A lot of Washington football stuff.

They'll go to him on the, uh, you know, the 5 o'clock or a 6 o'clock news or something like that. Yeah. I've, when I've seen, I've seen Doreen and Leon, I love Leon, by the way. Yeah, so do I. I've seen Doreen and Leon do sports. I've not seen an actual sportscaster. If you tell me that J.P. is doing it. That makes sense because of NBC.

In fact, it makes total sense. I don't know why they wouldn't just have one of the NBC Sports Washington. is they're the same company, why they just wouldn't have somebody like JP just do sports. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think, I don't know if he does anything but football, but he's on the news broadcast doing football. I'm going to ask him how often he does it. Whatever. By the way, this is the way, you know, we got talking about the weather, not the biggest event going on today is talking about the weather, not the biggest.

about the weather. Not the biggest astrological event going on today. Astronomical. What is? Today, the asteroid is going to come close to Earth. Asteroid 7482. It's the closest that asteroid has come

to Earth since 1933. I did read something about that, yeah. Since what year, Tommy? 1933. And how close to the Earth? Do you know? 1.2 million. mile. Wow. That is close.

But you know what? Scary? In 1933, the last closest asteroid, 700,000 miles. Wow. Under a million. And what's amazing is that in 1933, I would imagine that there wasn't much expectation of it. No, no. I don't think they could do like you can today. watch the asteroid on the virtual telescope project. Right. You can watch it live at 3 o'clock Eastern Time on the virtual telescope project.

They have a live stream. I don't know what kind of view you get at the asteroid, but whatever. I mean, you saw that movie, look up, get up, what's the movie? That's on Netflix. It's a political sat-times. I don't know what you're talking about. It's with Leonardo DiCaprio and what's her name? Jennifer Lawrence.

Don't look up. It's called. You've got to watch this. Don't look up. I'm not familiar with it. I haven't watched it. Oh, I think it's on Netflix. Okay.

Yeah, it's on Netflix. And it's a political satire. It's sort of like a Dr. Strangelove of its time. And it's about how an asteroid is going to crash into the Earth, and nobody believes it. Nobody believes the scientists. And they just pretty much, and all the farce it turns into, it's very timely. So I'd recommend it.

Who else is in it? You said Jennifer Lawrence? You know, DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill. It's done by Adam McKay, the guy who does succession on HBO. Okay. I mean, I'm kind of looking for something now to watch. Merle Street is in it. Okay.

I think she's the president. What's it called again? So don't look up. You'll like this. Okay. I have to tell you about one of my more, I think, well, I've had a lot of embarrassing mistakes on air before. Many. Too many to count.

So have I. But I had one this morning. I just totally went sort of brain dead on this one. So somebody sent me a tweet right before the show started, and it was a tweet from John Hinckley, and John Hinckley's looking for a band. Hold on, I'm finding the tweet for you real quickly. John Hinckley is looking for a bass player,

is looking for a drummer, and is looking for a lead guitarist because he is forming a band. and he puts out a PO box for you to send your bio and resume for it. So I don't know why, because I actually, it's not that I am an expert on assassins by any stretch of the imagination. But if you gave me, you know, just a list of, if you started listing assassins, more likely than not, 75% a chance, I'd be able to tell you who that assassin kills. and yet for whatever reason, I go, oh, so Hinkley is forming a band. The guy who assassinated John Lennon is forming a band.

And really what I was trying to do is I wanted to segue into a recommendation. You just gave me one. I've given you this recommendation. I doubt that you have already watched it. But I've now watched it twice. and I just love it so much, which is Peter Jackson's Get Back. And I started to talk about Hinkley as the person who assassinated John Lennon, who is now, you know, forming a band.

And then it just, and I got in to get back and why it's so great. And you haven't watched it, right? I don't think you have. Well, I don't get, I don't get the Disney Channel. We'll get it. I don't get it. Okay. No, I'm not getting it just for a Beatles documentary.

Oh, you would love it. And I'm not even a super Beatles guy by any stretch of the imagination, but you would love it. Anyway, of course, John Hinkley did not kill John Lennon. Mark David Chapman did. All right. So Hinkley shot Reagan. So I had that off for a little bit. But as I said, when I came back with the retraction, I said, at least on this day after Martin Luther King Day, I didn't make the mistake and say it was James Earl Ray.

But anyway, that was embarrassing. To be fair, other people have made that mistake because the two events happened so close to each other. One in 80 and one in 81, yeah. And within a couple of months. It was December, it was December 80. It was December 80. And Hankley was March of 81. March 31st, 1981.

It was on the day of the national championship game. So the two events were very close. each other. So I've heard other people get them mixed up before. So it's an honest mistake. I mean, I don't think people are going to come down on you too hard for that. It's just that when you get rolling, nobody can stop you to tell you you made the mistake. Well, you, it's funny because several people tweeted and said, and I came back the next segment after multiple people texted me and said, you know, I have a retraction here for you.

But a lot of people said, you know, too bad you didn't have somebody there. And Brendan, my producer, of course, wasn't even alive for any of these things. Doesn't mean that you shouldn't know them. But anyway, okay, we've got a lot of football to discuss. You want to discuss some football? Can we do that? Absolutely, because it was such a glorious weekend of football. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Rams pressure is picked up. Kyler. Did he get rid of it? It's intercepted. It's David Long. Into the end zone for the touchdown. Yeah, that was not a very good throw by Kyler Murray. There in the first step, he looked overwhelmed and panicked in the whole thing.

We're going to get to football here in a moment. But during our little break, Tommy and I were talking about because I said, again, I said, you really have to watch Get Back. And some of you have reached out to me to say, great recommendation or you've already seen it. I've watched it now a couple of times. It's, it's fantastic just to see this period in time come to life. I mean, it was 70 hours or so of footage that was uncovered. Peter Jackson took it, turned it, you know, it was part of the Let It Be documentary that they were filming at the time. It ended up, it led to that final

appearance of them together playing live on a rooftop. Anyway, you said to, you said to to me, you said that, I said to you, I was never a massive Beatles guy. I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I like, I, I, I, I He's funny, he's sweet, he's quick, and, you know, the relationship that he had with the other Beatles is interesting. And Yoko Ono, by the way, is literally hovering. You know, she's no more than three feet away from him at any given time. And, you know, you learned that he very much, I think, viewed her as a mother figure because he had, you know, he had a tumultuous childhood, which I really didn't know the history of. Anyway, I really liked him. But you said something to me that you can, what were you saying about your favorite beetle reveals something about your

personality? There's some people that think you can tell, you can judge a person's personality by who their favorite beetle is. You know, it's kind of one of these pop things to, you know, I mean, like John Lennon, if you like John Lennon, you know, it's a level. of humor and intelligence and maybe being provocative if you like Paul you know it's a little bit shallow if you like George

you're very introspective and if you like Ringo you're just very fun-loving you know devil may care I think I've got those pretty much who was your favorite beetle oh John Liner was my favorite

look I remember watching a hard day's night when that movie came out I expect, you know, in 64, when the Beatles came over. And John Lennon was so funny in that movie, so great. I mean, that's when I really, you know, like, decided that John Linen was going to be my favorite beetle. The truth, let me make a concession here. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, you know, 9, 10, 8, 9, 10 years old, we argued about two things, our friends in mine and us.

We argued about baseball, and we argued about music. I mean, we used to go home and watch American bandstand. It was on every day. Right. For eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds, music was a big, big deal in Brooklyn. And I was on the wrong side of the Beatles argument. I used to argue with my friends that Dave Clark Five were a better band than the Beatles. Yeah.

And the Dave Clark Five were a good band. But obviously, I was on the way wrong side of that debate. But I've always liked John Lennon. He's always been my favorite Beatles. Yeah, I think that my favorite beetle, again, I'm not a Beatles guy, but my favorite beetle because my favorite Beatles songs were George Harrison's songs. I think my favorite beetle was always George Harrison. Plus, I think he and I share the same birthday. I think I remember that in February.

But like something, and while my guitar gently weeps are probably my two favorite beetle songs, and they were both written and sung by George. but after watching this documentary, John's my favorite. I mean, he's just, I don't know, by far in a way, the most likable. Actually, Ringo is the most likable, you know, because he's just going. Ringo's up for anything. Yeah, he's totally go along to get along. But I don't know. I think maybe also the fact that John's dead, you know, and you see this guy at that point,

you know, he is basically like 30 years old. He's a young person. He's super young at that point. This is 1969. So what, he was 40 when he was assassinated, right? Wasn't he 40? So he's probably 29 or 30 years old, you know, at this point. And there was just something. And by the way, the Paul thing that you mentioned, what you learn about this is Paul is very much, first of all, I think a lot of people will say he's the best musician that was in the band, overall musician. And there's no doubt that he was the alpha. You know, he was the one that sort of led the songwriting, led the big decisions. They all look to him.

And by the way, that's ultimately what sort of started to piss George off, is that, you know, George had this incredible creativity and wanted to write and was keeping all these songs to himself. I mean, Tommy, all things must pass, debatably, is the best, you know, album of all of their solo careers. George's album, All Things Must Pass. It's brilliant, which I actually like two years ago, I just kept listening to over and over again. But anyway, look, we could go on and on. Watch it. If you're a Beatles person, you've probably already seen it.

If you're not a Beatles person, you're still going to enjoy it. because you're seeing, by the way, you know, yesterday, and I think you tweeted this out, and my son sent this to me. I think my son sent me your tweet, actually, about this, yesterday would have been Ali's 80th birthday, right? Yes. And though the Beatles and Muhammad Ali, correct me if I'm wrong, those five people, probably the most recognizable faces on the planet there for about a decade. You could certainly make that case.

Certainly, Ollie. You know, it's funny. I mean, and remember, you know, you've seen the iconic photos of when the Beatles met Ollie. Yes, Miami Beach. You know, and Ali didn't have any idea who they were. He used a homophobic slur to describe them. He said, who are these, you know, Fs? He had no idea.

He didn't have any, no idea who they were, but there's some great photos that came out of that. Right. That was before the Liston fight, right? It was in the early 60s, and when the Beatles first came over. Yeah, I think it's before the Liston fight. I think they had just gotten to America because he fought Liston in February of 64, and that's when the Beatles came over with their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. And I think I have this right.

Their first live show before Shea Stadium was at the Washington Coliseum after their first appearance. Somebody who's a real Beatles expert will be able to correct me if I'm wrong, but I know they played either their first ever U.S. live show or maybe it was the second at the Washington Coliseum after they made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Well, you were right.

The photo was taken on February 18th, which was before the List of Fight. in Miami Beach, Fifth Street, Jim. Yeah, because the Liston... That's when the photo was taken. The Liston fight, I believe, is February 25th, 1964. I believe that's the date of that fight. But that was a week before.

By the way, Tommy, I would have thought, if you had said to me yesterday, if we'd been doing the show yesterday, and you had said, how old do you think Ali would have been today? Today's birthday? I would have guessed older than 80. I don't know why. But then again, I mean, it is what it is. So he was born in 42.

He was born in 42 and then won the gold medal at 18 years old in Rome, right? In 60? In 60, yes. Yeah. Okay. You know, one of the thing, just one last thing. Yeah. When we leave Florida at the end of February, we're doing a road trip on the way back for a couple of weeks.

One of the places we're going to is Louisville because I want to go to the Muhammad at Ali Center. I thought you did that last year. Louisville. No. No, I've never done that. I think that was your plan last year. No, we went to, no, last year we went to Sarasota for a week after we left Destin just sat on the beach for a week. Remember I tweeted that infamous photo of me sitting in a chair on the beach, dressed in all black, saying I'm on the beach, leave me alone?

Yeah, I do, and I told you that I really like Sarasota. I love that. What is it, St. Armands or St. Ormond's. circle or whatever, you know, right before you go out to like Longboat Key. I like that area. So I'm going to go to the OLLI Center in March. I could have sworn you told me you were doing that once before. I think you did. I think you were planning.

Well, we're doing everything we can not to talk about these NFL playoff games, aren't we? So, all right. Let's start with the most recent and work backwards. You want to do that? Sure. The game last night, it was a terrible football game. And look, I understand that Kyler Murray, you know, that the offensive lines a little bit in tatters,

and obviously not having DeAndre Hopkins is a big deal. With that said, I saw a look in his eyes that you don't ever want to see in a guy that is supposed to be a franchise quarterback. By the way, I kind of saw the same look in Cliff Kingsbury's eyes. And sure. Yes, I did too. They both looked completely overwhelmed and nowhere near up to the moment. And Kyler Murray was the worst quarterback of the weekend. And there were a couple of bad performances.

Jalen Hertz had a bad performance. Dack Prescott had a bad performance. But Kyler Murray was. was shell-shocked. I mean, completely shell-shocked. Look, if you can't block Aaron Donald, he's going to ruin a game. And Von Miller now all of a sudden is starting to wreak havoc old Von Miller style. And that gives the Rams, by the way, a chance. I think in many ways the Rams chances come more because of what they might be capable of from a defensive standpoint moving forward than even Matt Stafford, which I'll get to here in a moment. But I think Kyler Murray

And I did this on Saturday where I, Tommy, I did this mini deep dive where basically I looked at all the quarterbacks drafted over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2020. I didn't count this past year. And basically 117 quarterbacks were drafted. Only 10 have turned into franchise quarterbacks. You know, of the first rounders, 32 quarterbacks over a 10-year period, only eight have turned into franchise quarterbacks. And of the top 11, because Washington selects at 11 overall, only 7. So that's 30, it's not even one in three. I did it just to understand what the true percentages of hit rates,

of what's the hit rate on actually finding a quarterback, your true franchise quarterback in the draft? Well, it's a long shot. Like, if you've got a top 11 pick, you've got your best chance because you're almost at one in three, but a first round overall is one and four, and it's an eight and a half percent chance just in the draft alone. And I counted Kyler Murray as one of those franchise quarterbacks.

And I didn't see a franchise quarterback last night. Again, missing DeAndre Hopkins big deal. Offensive line in bad shape. But I saw a guy who was completely panicked and totally overtaken by the moment. His brain was moving too fast. His body was moving too fast. His arm was gunning things to people and missing by miles. and then the interception that we came into this segment with was just, you know,

as old NFL films would say, a hairy high school play. I mean, it was really bad. He ended up with a – yeah, go ahead. You talk about Cliff Kingsbury. You would have thought that – and maybe they did. Maybe they had a plan like that. But you would have thought that the way – the pressure that they were feeling, from the Rams would have been expected, and you would have tried to have game plan with that.

And no, you know, every time with Jaylor Hurts, with Dak, and to a lesser extent, with Kyle or Murray, I mean, these guys can run the ball. And it seems to me like the game plan offensively should have included some significant running by their quarterback. I mean, that's the only way you're going to back off that kind of pressure is if they're afraid to come because you're going to blow by them. I mean, Kyler Murray had two carries for six yards in the game. This is a guy that in some of their bigger games down the stretch, okay, when they played the Rams and lost, seven carry 61 yards,

in the close loss on Christmas night against the Colts, four carry 74 yards, nine for 44 against the Cowboys in the win, five for 35 last week. Now, it didn't look like there was a lot of room to run. And the one thing that I would mention real quickly, in addition to them not having key players, is their field position throughout the game, their starting field position was horrendous. Yes, it was. But, yeah, I just saw a guy that completely freaked out.

And, I mean, a couple, there's one throw where he, they're deep in their own territory, and he gets out quickly to the right. and James Connor, the running back, is out there in the flat, and he throws a bullet zipping by over his head from like five feet away, and you're like, oh, my God, this guy is panicking. The Rams defensively with what they have, you know, in Miller and in obviously Donald and A. Sean Robinson, et cetera, Jalen Ramsey, a reader.

Remember, they were missing their safeties in this game. You know, they had to get Eric Waddle off the street. Weddle, yeah. Weddle. One of the big questions all season long, when people were talking the NFL, when the Cardinals, you know, had the best record at one point, you know, at 8 and 1, 9 and 2, is, are they for real? Well, we found out. Now, it would make a difference if DeAndre Hopkins was playing. I mean, you could certainly say he's one of the top two or three wide receivers in the.

the game. But they lost, you know, five of their final six games. You know, they missed out on an opportunity last week to win a division and to host a playoff game. And, and they just weren't all that. The Kingsbury thing, you know, look, they went, what did they win? 11 games or 12 games? I mean, that's a good season. We would take 11 wins and a playoff loss here. I mean, it was a good season for them, but it didn't end well. And I think there are questions about Kingsbury and Murray. I like a lot about Murray sometimes when I'm watching. And then other times I'm like, God, he's tiny. He can't see. And, you know, he takes big negative plays a lot. I agree. And you know, when it was 14-0, I tweeted out, there's only one answer for

the Cardinals now. And I tweeted out a picture of my guy called. McCoy. And I got a lot of response for that. And a lot of people, like Bill Simmons and other people, seriously, posted the same thing. Now, I was doing it jokingly because if Tyler Murray couldn't get away from that Rams pass rush, Colt McCoy wasn't going to get away from it. Well, you got. He would have been crushed probably by the pressure that the Rams were going to bring. Well, you did get cold at the very end of the game for the two-hand. handoffs to run the clock out, thankfully, because I had the under. Smell test ended up going three and three on the weekend.

I had the under last night in that game. Real quickly, my takeaway on the Rams is this. I love Sean McVeigh. I just, like we do this segment on Tuesdays called, What Did You Learn from this past weekend on the radio show? And there are a few things. But for me, is that Sean McVeigh is just an excellent, excellent football coach.

And I know that they go for it in terms of talent and trading picks and adding big time players like Bond Miller and Jalen Ramsey in the last year. But that team's really, really well coached by a guy who can super communicate and lead. And the funny thing about the game is, you know I've always been a Matt Stafford fan. Like I've always said, put him on a good team

with a good offense, with a good coach, and a good franchise, and the guy, would be an elite quarterback or certainly something approximating an elite quarterback. The truth is that Stafford has not played great. He's had moments, like he had the long drive against the 49ers to tie it up, or to give him the lead, 92-yard drive, had the big drive to beat the Ravens. But he threw seven interceptions in his final three games of the year. And last night, he didn't have to do much. You know, he was 13 to 17 for 202 yards.

And by the way, you know, the weapons. I mean, cup. And now, you know, now you add, you know, OBJ to it who looked great last night. And by the way, what a job by Cam Acres. This was a guy that tore his Achilles, you know, earlier in the year and he's back. I mean, it's really an amazing comeback story for Cam Acres, back, who I love. loved in this scheme. He's such a great zone run kind of guy.

And by the way, I read a story about his comeback, and they credit like the Rams training staff for helping him come back as quick as he did. And I guess this is what happens when your trainers aren't under investigation by the DEA. Well, you know, it's interesting. like this guy tore his Achilles before the season started.

It was in training camp. And that was a big blow, you know, to them because he was, you know, they moved on from their previous backs. And they were putting it all on Cam Acres. I remember thinking Jake Funk, the kid out of Maryland who they drafted in the seventh round, is like a perfect zone run kind of a guy. And I'm like, he's going to get a chance. And he got hurt too. but you know they ended up trading for sony michel brought him in but that is i i mean we'd have to

talk to trainers um and doctors but when you come back from an achilles injury so if it was in august august september november december so basically five months when that's an eight month eight to 10 month injury sometimes. That's got to be, you know, either you're a natural healer or you have something in you that, like, from a training or from a rehab standpoint, you're just able to do it. I mean, give RG3 credit, remember, he was back and ready to go at the beginning of that season in 2013. A lot of people thought that that was a devastating injury.

It was the ACL and it was the LCL. and it happened in January in the playoffs, and he was back and ready to go for training camp all in for week one. You got to have a special kind of work ethic, I think, to get back. Or a special innate healing ability. I don't know, that's unbelievable, but he looked great last night.

The last thing on this is that I love Sean McVeigh. You know, this is a guy that has just been his record, by the way, now as a regular season coach for the L.A. Rams, his overall record, hold on, I had it up here a second ago, and now it's gone, is 55 and 26 in five seasons in L.A. He's been to the playoffs. This is his fourth playoff visit. He just won his fourth playoff game. 55 and 26. The worst season was 9 and 7 in 2019. I mean, Kyle, Sean, take your pick. If you could go back, either one of them would do with Kirk Cousins as the quarterback. And this team here would have been, you know, winning a lot of games and going to a lot of playoff games and playing a lot of playoff games. Maybe they wouldn't win a Super Bowl. Who knows? You know, and maybe they wouldn't because Kirk has a limitation. Or maybe Kyle and Sean have limitations, but he took Jared Gough to the Super Bowl. They won a playoff game with John Wolford at quarterback last year

when Jared Gough was out in the playoff game at Seattle. But on Stafford, he hasn't played great, and they didn't need a lot from him last night. So I am going to be, I'm rooting for him because I like him, and I'm rooting for Sean. But a lot of people off the game last night are like, look out for the Rams. They play at Tampa.

It's a three-point line. I don't know. We'll see. Two really good defensive teams, that's for sure. But Brady over Stafford, yeah. And I like Stafford, but I think he still doesn't look totally comfortable. That's all I'll say. He had a great year.

Meanwhile, Brady looks like he's 22 years old. My God. Wow. I'm glad the Monday night thing is over. I stayed up till the bitter end because I had the under in the game and just waited to see Colt McCoy make the last two handoffs to make sure there was no pick six for the over. But these games upcoming this weekend, man,

these are games where right now, God, I don't have a good feel for any of them. The action is pretty much split across the board on all these teams. There may not be a smell test pick this coming weekend. And by the way, that may be a blessing. going back to the other games. The Sunday night game between Pittsburgh and Kansas City, we don't need to really talk about that. I mean, my God. I mean, so that brings us to San Francisco, Dallas.

Look, the bottom line is the Cowboys underachieved with that talent, which, you know, they did last year, but last year they had an excuse because they didn't have their quarterback, Prescott. but that's an underachieving bunch. I know they won 12 games, but six of their 12 wins came against the NFC East. Mike McCarthy is now six and nine, I believe, in his two years outside of the NFC East.

You know I'm not a Mike McCarthy guy. You know, we had the debate and the argument. I think Rivera is a better coach. I don't care what the records say. I think he's a better coach. It'd be nice to have Brett Farve and Aaron Rogers if you're a head coach, because I think he's a complete and utter dufous as a head coach.

And I think you saw that Sunday, as you've seen it multiple times this year. And if I were a cowboy fan, I would 100% want to move on from Mike McCarthy. That team was undisciplined. That team wasn't prepared. The final play running a quarterback draw with 14 seconds to go was crazy. It was way too high risk. You can make a throw with 14 seconds. And if you execute it properly against the way,

They were lined up. You can pick up 10, 12 yards, get down, and spike the ball. But a quarterback draw, that guy all year long was an in-game buffoon with clock management, as he's always been as a head coach. If I were a cowboy fan, I would be begging for them to fire Mike McCarthy, and I would take either guy more or Quinn. I'd prefer Quinn if I were a cowboy fan. and if I'm a Washington Giants or Eagles fan,

just like Eagles, Cowboys, and Skins fans are rooting for Joe Judge to remain, I'd be praying that Jerry sticks with Mike McCarthy one more year because they will come up short as long as he's the head coach. He's a terrible head coach, and he totally benefited from having Aaron Rogers and Brett Farr. Okay, I know that. I get that. You know, except for Joe gives, there are no coach. who haven't totally benefited from playing with a great quarterback. Parcells.

Phil Sims was a pretty damn good quarterback. Okay, but the second go-round, they did it with Hostelor. Yeah, I give that to Belichick more than Parcell. Well, they... Anyway, okay, go ahead. But most of what you said is absolutely right. I mean, it was... That was such a poorly called, gave 14 penalties.

14. 18 called. 18 called. 14 accepted. Yeah. 14 accepted. That's just, that's unbelievably undisciplined. And the last, I mean, to try to defend that last play of the game, or last attempted play of the game, I mean, to run a quarterback, there's no, there's no defense for that. There's absolutely no defense for that call. and it really just was just an idiotical.

And again, I think that, you know, given the pressure that that Dak was under, I just felt like, you know, he should have run. I know he's nursing an ankle. I just don't understand why he didn't run the ball more. Well, he's him running this year. Until the last play of the game. Right, which is their biggest run of the day. That 17-year-old room is their biggest run of the day.

Yes. I mean, I think, I just thought, like, if he had ran the ball more, and look, the 40-Iers didn't have a great game. Oh, I mean, you know, they didn't play particularly well. Well, they did in the first half. Okay. But then, like, Kyle Shattahan, what's his M.O.? This is a guy who blew, what, a 26-point lead?

25. in the Super Bowl, 25. You know, that's his MO, and it looked like he was trying to do it again in the second half. Well, it brings up a fascinating question about Jimmy Garoppolo, because the only reason the Cowboys had a chance was Garoppolo did what he does, you know, and that is, you know, look really competent at times, and then at other times he's a backbreaker. You know, a couple of things about this game in addition to the penalties,

which to me stands out as much as anything stands out. I mean, they were penalties of lack of discipline. I mean, Randy Gregory is a phenomenal talent. He was tackling people on third down. You know, the penalty from... He's only a good talent when he lines up on his side of the ball. Yeah, well, but... Instead of trying to line up on the other side of the ball.

I mean, there's constant, you know, self-inflicted false starts, jumping off sides. But the defensive hold on that last drive when he tackled the lineman was crazy. Gallimore's play where he ripped off the center's helmet. This was an undisciplined team, and the penalties were hurtful. It also hurt Dallas all year long when they didn't win the turnover battle. They were phenomenal all year long, led the league in takeaways. They only had one, and really it was a gift from Garoppolo. They could not run the ball, but in part because It was constantly second and 15, second and 20, you know, third and 25 because of the penalties. But the other part of this was Dak Prescott didn't play well.

I mean, we can talk about the penalties and the coaching and all of those things were significant influences on the outcome of the game. Prescott didn't do enough. You know, he's one of the top three quarterbacks in the league paid wise. And he didn't deliver. He barely threw for over 50%. he had a terrible interception. He missed some guys on the fourth and 11 at midfield when they were down 23-17 against the zero coverage. He hurried that a little bit.

Cedric Wilson had beaten his man. That could have been a big play. And he didn't play well enough. I mean, you had guys that I have on my list of franchise quarterbacks when I was going through the draft stuff. And Prescott's one of those guys. Don't get me wrong. I would take Kyler Murray and Dak Prescott. tomorrow if I could get them over what we have now, clearly.

And I think Dak, by the way, is a good quarterback. I do. I've always liked Dak, even though I thought his rookie year at times was rough. But they couldn't run the football. San Francisco, by the way, Dallas got lucky that Nick Bosa got hurt in that game because he was wrecking the game early in the game. And they got lucky. And I give Dallas some credit in the second half where the 49ers didn't have as much success

running the ball. Look, the first half, touchdown, field goal, field goal. Three drives, three scores, 16 to 7 at the half. They were really efficient, really innovative as they always are, like McVeigh's team, Kyle's same thing. The 49ers are good. The Cowboys, you know, had the fake punt and then the delay a game. They had, you know, the final call the game. By the way, the bottom line on the final play is they ran a play that was too high risk for the moment in terms of the clock. A pass over the middle and a quick give up by the receiver where he runs the ball to the middle, hands it to a referee. They would have gotten the ball clocked. Maybe it's a 10-yard gain instead of a 17-yard gain.

But running a quarterback draw is a longer play, and DAC didn't get down quickly enough. He went for 17 yards, and then what happened afterwards, you can debate it all you want, but the bottom line is whether the referee is slow to get there or not. The referee spots the ball, all right? The center does not spot the ball. And so, you know, DAC afterwards and McCarthy bitching about the officiating. It was very undack-like. You always say, you know, someone's track record has to be taken into consideration.

So when he said what he said about the fans, throwing stuff at the referees and complaining, I'm giving DAC a pass. It was an emotional moment. And there was a lot of pressure on that team. Going into the weekend, I think you and I talked about it on Thursday, I thought that Matt Stafford and the Cowboys had the most pressure on them going into this weekend. And the Cowboys failed. And Stafford did well.

They won the game. He wasn't asked to do a hell of a lot. But what he did was good. But Prescott, I think, felt that pressure, too, and they didn't deliver. They just didn't deliver. So they were frustrated in the aftermath. I think it would be nice to hear from Prescott to say, I really take back what I said about the fans throwing stuff at the referees.

I agree with you. I agree with you. I think that, you know, Dak generally, his track record is that he's a stand-up guy, and I think it was a heat-at-a-moment thing. because I'm sure he was embarrassed by the way the game ended. And I'm not just depressed, but embarrassed. It was an embarrassing ending. The other thing about that final play is like even if they get it clocked,

it's at the 24-yard line. I mean, it's not like the odds are still like all of a sudden in their favor. They still have one play to score touchdown from the 24. It may not be a Hail Mary play, but it's still, you know, a low probability play from the 24-yard line one play. Would have been an all-timer had they pulled it off because they did a beautiful job on that final drive to get the ball to the San Francisco 40-yard line

before the 49ers played the sidelines there on that last thing. There was one other moment in the game that I just wanted to mention, and that was, you know, Kyle had a chance on the second to last drive offensively with a fourth and one at the Dallas 49-yard line. and people were very surprised that Kyle Shanahan with that running game didn't go for it. First of all, Dallas had three timeouts left still. Secondly, it wasn't really fourth and one. If you looked at it, it was closer to fourth and one and a half, fourth and almost two.

And, yeah, I'm sure analytics say go for it, but Dallas had finally gotten a little bit of momentum. And if you gave Dallas the ball back there at mid-fifference, field with 250 to go versus punting it and having them have to go 85 yards to beat you, given that they weren't very good offensively at any point during the day. I didn't have as much of an issue with that decision as many did. The analytics people are going to say that it's fourth and one, and it really wasn't fourth and one. Again, if you looked at it, it was fourth and all the super long one.

And Dallas, sure enough, by the way, they punted the ball, okay? And Dallas started from their own 15, and they got it to midfield and then got stopped on fourth down. You know, they got stopped on that zero coverage blitz where, you know, Prescott didn't hang in there and throw it deep or accurately to Cedric Wilson, who was all the way behind the defense at that point. So San Francisco got the ball back. And anyway, whatever.

the 49ers are moving on. The Cowboys have once again not gotten close to the NFC championship game since their Super Bowl years. And the McCarthy question, I think, is going to be a big question this week. Tommy, the other three games, I think, you know, the Buccaneers, it was chess checkers, Brady against Hertz. I was disappointed because I really did like the Eagles all year long. Some of you, you know, on Twitter, my God.

You overrated them all year all along at 31-0. And I'm like, yeah, I overrated them when their over-under was seven and I played over-seven. And when they were two and three, I bet them to make the playoffs. I cashed on the Eagles this year big time. And nobody was saying they were going to win the Super Bowl. But I'll take my evaluation of the Eagles. And if you bet any of what I told you to bet on the Eagles during the course of the year, you're welcome. But I did lose some of it back on Sunday for sure because that was an overwhelmed team.

I thought there were a couple of calls early that were terrible. The roughing the passer penalty against Brady was terrible. The holding against Kelsey was terrible. I thought the Eagles had a chance there early to set a tone. But whatever. The bills were awesome. Josh Allen, one of the players of the weekend. I thought Josh Allen and Joe Burrow in particular,

were just phenomenal players on Saturday. I mean, Josh Allen was tremendous. They had, it's amazing. I mean, it's never happened before. The bills had, other than the kneel downs at the end of the half and the end of the game, they had seven drives and scored seven touchdowns. I mean, it's never happened in the history of the NFL playoffs. Seven offensive drives, seven touchdowns in bone-chilling

cold weather in Orchard Park. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of people are giving, a lot of people are giving the bills a chance at Arrowhead. I mean, they're only a two and a half point underdog. If there's one early smell test possibility, it would probably be the chiefs because the public really thinks Buffalo is going to go in there

and beat Kansas City. I kind of feel like they've got a chance, for sure. The early Saturday game was the other competitive game of the weekend. The inadvertent whistle, they fucked it up. I mean, the game got bogarized. This guy, I don't know how they keep putting Jerome, poor Jerome Boger out there to referee games. But the whole game, as many of them in the past have with him, just get totally turned upside down. The inadvertent whistle should have meant a dead play. With that said, I actually thought it would have been a touchdown without the

whistle. I don't know that the play would have ended any differently without the whistle. I agree with you. I agree with you. Absolutely. So, I agree. And Joe Burrow is phenomenal. My boys and I got into this debate. Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, or Justin Herbert, you get your choice. Who do you want? Josh Allen. I want Joe Burrow, I think. But God, it's such a good. good debate because it's so close. I mean, all three of them.

Where's Taylor Heineke fit in that debate? It's so close between the three. I just think, look, if you told me that I get Jamar Chase with Burrow, it's like a no-brainer that it's a burrow. There's something about Burrow that is, I think, special. What if you get Stefan Diggs with Josh Allen? Yeah, but I'll take Jamar Chase over Diggs. And Diggs, Diggs is awesome.

But, Burrow, man, I mean, how about just how about, listen to Joe Burrough's last three games, right? Playoffs, division on the line at the end of the regular season and then a playoff game. He's thrown, he threw for 525 yards in their win over Baltimore, four touchdowns, no picks. He threw for 446 in their win over Kansas City, four touchdowns, no picks. He threw for 446 in their win over Kansas City, four touchdowns, no picks. And then in the playoff game, he throws for 244, two touchdowns, no picks. This guy is rolling, and Chase is uncoverable, utterly uncoverable. I mean, to me, I think I just line up every single play and say,

Our play is for number nine to throw it to number one. And no one can stop us. They are really good. That's a really good first game. Really good first game, Cincinnati at Tennessee. The big mistake the Raiders made just from my standpoint, when they got it down there at the end of regulation with a chance to tie, they spiked the ball with 30 seconds to go in the game.

That was a big mistake. Huge mistake. They had plenty of time. You don't waste a down on first and goal at the nine with 30 seconds to go needing a touchdown. You want all four opportunities if you need them. And they wasted it. And that leads me to this final thing in terms of the weekend, Derek Carr. So many of you all out there love Derek Carr.

I like Derek Carr. I don't love Derek Carr. I really like Derek Carr, the adult, the leader. he's got a little bit of a clutch gene to him. I like all of that about Derrick Carr. I don't know where the accent comes from. He's from Northern California, and you'd think he comes from Appalachia in the hills of North Carolina or Virginia or Kentucky.

I don't know why he talks that way. His brother doesn't talk that way. But that aside, Tommy, I think he's a good quarterback. I don't think he's a top 10 quarterback. And I think you'd probably end up if you were going to sit here and do this with him in the 13 to 16 range. But there is a leadership about him, what they were able to navigate this year with all of the issues the Raiders had. There's a lot about him personally that I think is really, really positive. But then again, I keep saying this to myself anyway.

If the Raiders wanted to trade him, wouldn't that be a red flag? considering they don't have a replacement. It's one thing for the 49ers to want to trade Jimmy Gropolo. They trade it up to draft Trey Lance. Why would the Raiders want to trade Derek Carr? You're going to have a new general manager.

Right. You're going to have a new coach. Maybe, yep. Right. So, I mean, those alone could be the reasons. You know, new GM wants to pick his quarterback. Mm-hmm. You know?

I mean, it could be something simple like that. Yeah, but the thing is, you still have to find the quarterback. You have a guy that's a top half of the league starter in the NFL. We've been through this for like years and years. If you have a top half of the league starting quarterback in the NFL, the only reason you bolt from that quarterback is because you think you've got an elite quarterback in waiting.

That's the only reason you do it. Derek Carr But if you're convinced Derek Carr is probably not the guy The longer you wait To pull the trigger on him The less patience The less time you'll have in your tenure

To do something about it if you're a GM You put a good enough team around Derek Carr You can keep going to the playoffs I know that But if I'm the GM there I want my quarterback And if I got any questions about Derek Carr The time to trade him

Is the minute I get there because the clock is running once you start the job. Well, the Raiders have the 22nd pick in the upcoming draft. I think it is something like that. Right. Well, good luck with that. They get some draft picks if they trade them. Yeah, but, you know, he's got one year left on his deal,

so you're going to have to extend him, and he's going to get a big deal from somebody, okay? So that factors in. I think that Derek Carr pulls back a first round pick. I do. And I'm not, by the way, if Washington ended up with Derek Carr, I would think that there'd be a red flag in my head over the whole, over his availability. But it would be a big upgrade. I just don't think he's going to be available. I think he's good enough and he's a good enough guy and leader that you're going to be hard pressed to think you can just, you know, find another Derek Carr out there. You know, the 49er situation is different.

And as far as Jimmy G goes, there's a lot about Jimmy G that I like. And again, he'd be an upgrade over what Washington has currently. And he's not going to cost, I don't think, as much as Derek Carr. And he's got one year left on his deal. So you're going to have to, you know, if you trade for him, you're probably going to have to extend them. But, you know, it depends on what you have to give up. Look, they got to, they got to shake every time. tree in this off-season. Every tree they got a shake. And I think those are, I think that's what's

going to fall out of these trees. The Jimmy G's and the Mitch Trubiske's, not obviously the Rogers or the Wilson or the Watson. And I don't even think a Derek Carr is going to fall out of the tree. I just don't see him being made available. I don't see it. You're probably right. You're probably right. Anything else on these games? No, I got something else I wanted to talk about, though. I have a couple of things, too. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already.

Also, rate us and review us, especially on Spotify and Apple in particular. If you can rate us five stars and write a couple of sentences, really one sentence we'll do on Apple's review spot. That would be a big help for us. Also, this segment of the podcast is presented by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Somebody tweeted me over the weekend and said, I didn't get the offer. It's because you've got to put my promo code into that section of the signup page that says, do you have a promotional code? Put Kevin D.C. in there. If there's something already in there, erase it. Put my name in it. You'll, get your deposit match dollar for dollar all the way up to a thousand bucks. We've got, you know, seven playoff games left for this weekend to the following weekend and then a Super Bowl game. Lots of basketball as well.

By the way, I just wanted to mention real quickly because I meant to mention this at the end of the last segment. But this morning, first of all, Mike Garifolo from NFL Network. Is he from NFL Network? I think he is. Suggested that Russell Wilson, Washington should be interested in Russell Wilson, and Russell Wilson should be interested in Washington, and vice versa. However, I said that if I messed it up.

You get the point. I don't think Russell Wilson's going anywhere, people. Even if he wants to go somewhere, I don't see it. But would I be interested? Of course I would. Somebody tweeted me and said, you know he is going to be 34 years old next year. Okay, he's Russell Wilson. He's got three to five really good years left. And then Jeremy Fowler wrote a story this morning for ESPN where he interviewed a bunch of NFL executives predictions on quarterbacks for next year. And the prediction here was that Washington will trade for Jimmy Garoppolo. And one NFL exec said, quote, I have some concerns about Garoppolo outside of the Kyle Shanahan offense. But Washington has some in-breaking stuff that would be similar, it wouldn't be as much of an issue if you can define

throws for him, closed quote. Anyway. Okay. Okay. You have a couple of things that you wanted to get to, and so do I. I'll let you go first. Okay. I just have one thing. Did you read my call? I have not. Not yet. You sent it to me early this morning. I haven't read it yet. Yeah, like early this morning, like one in the morning or something like that. Okay, well, I, you know, I didn't see you yet. I'm sorry. Give me at least a few hours. You don't have to apologize. I wasn't looking for an apology. I was just looking for information.

Okay. What do you want? Okay, well, I wrote a column about the nationals. Oh, the phenomenon guy? Yeah, the international free agent, they signed. This kid, I mean, this kid, if he was in the MLB draft, he'd be a top five pick. His name is Christian Vaccaro. he's from Cuba but he moved to the Dominican in 2020

he's 17 and here's the MLB dot com scourner report on him a potential 5-tool player with lots of potential but Carroll is one of the most dynamic international prospects on the market he's also one of the most athletic

this kid is 6 foot 3 190 pounds and he's 17. Wow. He's a switch hitter. He's a physical specimen with tons of raw strength and power. He can really cover ground in center field, shows a strong arm, and has a chance to be a plus defender at the position. He plays hard with lots of energy and has lots of natural instinct in practice and in games.

So the nuts, I mean, you know, before they went into the lockout, you know, and the Mets signed Scherzer and there were some other free agent moves, and then that weren't doing much of anything to feel hopeful about. And I don't know what they'll do when the lockouts over in terms of free agents, you know, and addressing this season, the 2022 season. But right now, last week they made a big move to the future by signing this free agent. One of the top international players on the market. Yes, a friend of mine who's massive Nats fan will occasionally send me these long things,

and this one was subject heading the phenomenon or L phenomenon. Yes, that's his nickname. Yeah, and I briefly read it. Okay. Now, what the Nats also, the news also last week, that it looks like they have a verbal agreement that Juan Soto's brother, Ilya Ili and Soto is going to sign with the Nationals

when he's actually allowed to sign. Oh, really? 16. Yes. There were reports last week that, you know, he was an Instagram account. He was dressed in Mets gear, and everyone reported he was going to sign with the Mets.

Oh, boy. Because they thought one would? Well, I don't know why they thought he was going to sign. Oh, he was wearing Mets gear. You know, he was working out in a Mets outfit. But there was a change of heart, and apparently Juan Soto really wanted his younger brother to sign with Washington. Well, that's good news. If you're reading Teele's, that's a good Teele.

Yeah, I thought you were going to tell me he was all dressed in Metskier because once Juan becomes a free agent, he's headed in New York. Okay, well, that's good. No, just the opposite. Now, he's 16. It doesn't become official until he's 17. But, and, you know, I mean, my question at the end of the calm, you know, will any of these guys get a chance to play with Soto when they wind up being major leaguers? That's still the question that's going to hang over this franchise every day until Juan Soto is signed or gone.

How old's Juan Soto now? I think he's 23. Jesus. And, you know, you just got all ginned up over a seven. 16 and a 17-year-old. It's crazy about that sport, you know. Crazy. I know, because you're projecting what a player will be like in three or four years. Right. It's really an art, not a science, no matter how many numbers you use.

I mean, you know, picking these players to projecting how they'll be like three or four or five years into the future, it's still a remarkable thing in baseball. More of an art than a science, no matter how many numbers. and statistics you can come up with. Yeah, definitely. But it was good news for national fans. All right, I have just a couple of things also to finish up the show with. Number one is when we were having the football conversation, we failed to mention the game that Ryan Carrigan had.

It was great to see Ryan Carrigan out there and playing as well as he did. He got the benefit of facing Tristan Worf's who was banged up, and that's a big injury. Two huge injuries, by the way. this weekend. The Bosa injury for the 49ers and the Worf's injury for Tampa. And also Garoppolo, to a certain extent. But God, man, Carrigan still does what he does and has always done well. He is a bull in terms of strength, man. An absolute strong man. The Wizards had their best performance yesterday. I watched the game because I bet the Wizards plus two. That was their best game I thought of

the year. They were down to their third coach, Tommy, because Wes Unseld Jr. and Pat Delaney were both in protocol. And so Joseph Blair ended up coaching the team. So the third string coach ended up coaching the team. He was a former, they said this during the broadcast, a former Harlem Globetrotter at one point. But man, the Wizards were really, really good against the team that had been playing well in the Sixers. Just an overall balanced performance with a lot of really good performers and performances in the game. Kuzmo once again, I mean, 15.16 rebounds, three block shots. I mean, the guys really had an impact for this team. And now Hachamers back. Thomas Bryant had 15 points in 16 minutes. You know, the Wizards are 23 and 21.

they're a good team. The East is just so damn competitive. It's too bad. It's not one of those years, although maybe it's better if you get to the postseason, but it's one of those years where you just have somebody who's great and somebody who's decent and then, you know, like five or six or seven teams, you know, that are all average

because the Wizards would rise above it. But the East is crazy because the difference between the number one spot and the number 11 spot is six games. the Knicks are in the 11th spot at 22 and 22, and they're only six games behind the top spot in the east. But the Wizards really have played well. This is a good stretch for them to come through this with all of their COVID issues, you know, the coaching stuff, not having Beal. And I know that they got lucky there with the schedule facing the magic twice in the thunder,

and they shouldn't have lost to the Rockets or the Blazers, but whatever. I thought that was such an impressive performance just. The last thing I wanted to mention, though, is this. So yesterday, there was a, you know, having all the basketball on all day long on the holiday. Yesterday, there was a phenomenal college basketball game. But that's not really what I'm going to talk about as it relates to Purdue and Illinois, which started at noon on Fox yesterday, matchup of, you know, two really good teams. Like Purdue's got a chance to be a final four team. I think Illinois is good enough. to make a deep run in the tournament as well. And Purdue had a big lead. They blew it late.

The game went to overtime. Then the game went to a second overtime. And at the beginning of the second overtime, Tommy, Fox. The game was on Fox. They say as the second overtime of this thrilling game. I mean, an absolute thriller of a college basketball game. For those of you in the Washington, D.C. market, we're going to take you away from this game.

and to the start of your game, which is Notre Dame against Howard. That was like, what? So sure enough, as the second overtime starts, but you can watch the game on our Fox Sports app to watch the rest of this second overtime. Well, I had no idea what was coming. What was coming was Howard on Martin Luther King Day, was hosting Notre Dame who, for the first time in school history, played a road game at an HBCU school,

at a historically black college or university. And Kenny Blakeney, who's the coach at Howard, had played for Mike Bray when Bray was, you know, an assistant at Duke, and then when Bray was an assistant, and then was an assistant coach under Bray when Bray was at Delaware. So Mike Bray brought Notre Dame in ACC school into D.C. to play Howard in their home gym. It was a great atmosphere. Now, I didn't tune into that game until I finished following the Purdue Illinois game online.

Purdue won the game, 96 to 88 and double overtime. But Howard played great in this game. The guy settled, I don't know anything about Howard's team, The guy settled number two, excellent player. And they really were very competitive in this game. They were down 11 late, and then they made a run, closed it to one. They had a three-pointer to tie it at the buzzer that just missed. But 71-68, they lost to Notre Dame.

But I thought that was a really good basketball game. I watched a lot of that game. I was upset in the moment. I was about to take it to Twitter, and then I thought, Probably not the best idea to complain about losing Purdue and Illinois in the D.C. market for Howard's game on Martin Luther King's birthday. No, not a good idea. Yeah, but Howard played great. The atmosphere was phenomenal, and it would have been awesome if they had pulled that out. I was so rooting for them at the end of that game.

But anyway, the Purdue Illinois game was ridiculously good. Big Ten is really good again. It's funny, you know, last year they shit the bed in the tournament, you know, after being the best league all year long. And who knows, that may happen again this year. The ACC, by the way, is terrible. I think the ACC's got like one ranked team and it's Duke. I think they might be the only ACC team in the top 25.

When's the last time that happened? Seriously. The ACC, when's the last time they only have? had one ranked team. Of course, I'm looking at the top 25 right now, and there may be a team that I'm staring at right now, Tommy, that is an ACC team right now. I just didn't know it with all the changes there.

But no, Duke is the only ACC team in this week's top 25. The Big Ten has a really bad team in Nebraska, and then they've got other teams towards the bottom of the league, like Maryland, who actually aren't terrible. But they're not good necessarily, but they're not terrible. They're totally capable. Maryland should have beaten Rutgers over the weekend. They were up 11 and just totally, you know, turn the ball over way too much in the second half.

They play at Michigan tonight. That game, Tommy, when the schedule came out, Maryland at Michigan tonight, this was going to be a big, big game. When the season ended last year and over the summer when they came out with the schedule, all Maryland fans wanted was a home game. against Michigan. Remember the Joanne Howard, Mark Turgeon, sideline brawl in the Big Ten tournament, the dust up between the two? Oh, yeah. And Hunter Dickinson being a total dick when he played in College Park last year. So that was going to, this was going to be, they only got Michigan once and they're playing it in Ann Arbor tonight. Michigan's, you know, obviously Turgeon's gone.

Maryland's not very good. And Michigan may be the biggest disappointment in the country. a team that was preseason top five is seven and seven overall and one and three in the big ten. They haven't won a game since mid-December. Now, they had some cancellations because of COVID. And their Big Ten games, they haven't even been close in the games they've lost. The only Big Ten team they beat was the worst Big Ten team, which is Nebraska. They're a six-point favorite tonight in Ann Arbor over Maryland. Anyway, I think we've covered it all.

What do you think? I think so. Where are you headed? Headed somewhere fun? Well, actually, no, I think it's only like, you know, it's only 1130 here, not going out for lunch today. But I'll go out later for, you know, my usual happy hour rendezvous. Do you have a black magic marker in your pocket? Pompanochos.

No. No, no, no, no. I learned my lesson. All right. That's it. You know, I still have that dollar bill. I'm going to bring it back to you as a gift when I get back. I'll put it right next to my Dundee Award statue that you brought to me. Did you bring that to me or did somebody else to it? You brought that to me, right? Oh, my God. You're so pathetic. Of course I did.

I knew you did, but then for whatever reason when I said it, I'm like, wait a minute. Did somebody else bring that to me or was it Tommy? All right. I enjoyed this per usual. All right. That's it. Back tomorrow.