“Squeaky”

Summary

The Tony Kornheiser Show: Episode “Squeaky” Summary

Release Date: January 27, 2025
Host: Tony Kornheiser
Guests: Michael Wilbon, Barry Zverluga, Dan Byrne
Podcast: The Tony Kornheiser Show
Episode Title: “Squeaky”

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1. Introduction and Early Banter (00:00 - 05:00)

Tony Kornheiser kicks off the episode by outlining the day's topics, which include discussions with Michael Wilbon about the Kansas City Chiefs advancing to the Super Bowl, Barry Zverluga on the Philadelphia Eagles' victory, and insights into the Washington Football Team's future. The segment initially delves into a humorous and light-hearted conversation about a mouse infestation issue, reflecting Tony’s characteristic blend of sports talk and personal anecdotes.

Notable Quote:

• Tony Kornheiser (00:27): “I didn’t see anybody pointing their cell phones as if to take a picture.”

2. Guest Introduction: Dan Byrne and Mouse Troubles (03:04 - 05:07)

Dan Byrne joins the show to discuss his recent performance at Jam and Jam and Java in Virginia. The conversation seamlessly transitions back to the ongoing mouse problem Tony faces, highlighting the humorous rapport among the hosts.

Notable Quote:

• Dan Byrne (03:27): “I did have a few cheesery folks.”

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3. Musical Interlude: River Valley Kids (19:22 - 35:37)

The episode features original music from River Valley Kids, a band from Cincinnati, Ohio. Tony appreciates the submission from Maria Alexander, his father-in-law, and highlights the band's connection to Michael Wilbon’s coverage of recent games.

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4. Discussion with Michael Wilbon on Chiefs vs. Bills Game (20:09 - 31:33)

Michael Wilbon joins the show to dissect the recent playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. The conversation centers on Josh Allen's performance, comparing him to legendary players and emphasizing his growth and potential despite the loss.

Notable Quotes:

• Michael Wilbon (20:41): “Watching Mahomes now win these games, this is like watching Michael Jordan.”
• Tony Kornheiser (22:46): “They didn’t lose on the road to a team that has a thousand wins this year. It’s a really good team.”

Wilbon draws parallels between Mahomes’s dominance and historical greats, discussing Buffalo’s resilient play but ultimately Kansas City’s synchronization and championship pedigree.

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5. Analysis of Washington Football Team’s NFC Championship (35:37 - 48:08)

The conversation shifts to Barry Zverluga’s insights on the Washington Football Team’s performance. The team’s aggressive strategies, particularly on fourth downs, are highlighted as part of their DNA aimed at transforming the franchise’s future.

Notable Quotes:

• Barry Zverluga (43:23): “The Buffalo fan base, this is not some fly by night bunch of jerks and losers... This is a great fan base.”
• Tony Kornheiser (48:08): “There's an optimism that we haven't seen in 30 years.”

Zverluga emphasizes the strategic decisions that led to key turnovers and pivotal moments in the game, reinforcing the team's potential for future success anchored by talented quarterback Jaden Daniels.

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6. Alfalfa Dinner Experience (10:24 - 16:00)

Tony shares an anecdote from attending the Alfalfa dinner in Washington, D.C., where he encountered notable figures like Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader. The story underscores the networking aspect of the event and the unexpected connections made, including meeting Tricia Griffith, CEO of Progressive Insurance.

Notable Quote:

• Tony Kornheiser (11:11): “I walked up to him and I introduced myself and said how proud everyone at Binghamton was of him.”

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7. Coaching Strategies in Modern NFL (43:23 - 45:55)

Michael Wilbon and Tony delve into the evolving coaching strategies in the NFL, focusing on Washington’s aggressive fourth-down decisions. They discuss how analytics influence these choices and the broader impact on game dynamics.

Notable Quote:

• Michael Wilbon (43:23): “The formula to winning this game is Washington forcing two or more turnovers and turning it over zero times.”

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8. Listener Mailbag and Interactive Segments (51:07 - 74:50)

The show features a lively mailbag segment where listeners share their stories, questions, and humorous anecdotes. Topics range from electric bill woes in New Hampshire to experiences with jury duty and creative suggestions for future show content.

Notable Quotes:

• Tony Kornheiser (54:24): “How can that be? How can it be? Mine was $787. My delivery charges.”
• Listener (56:45): “The power bill was $787? Well, at least it's a palindrome.”

The interactive nature of this segment showcases Tony’s ability to engage with his audience, blending humor with relatable issues.

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9. Musical Performances and Jingles (52:19 - 73:45)

Barry Zverluga performs original music, accompanied by playful interactions with Tony and other hosts. The musical interlude adds a creative flair to the episode, with songs reflecting the show's themes and guest personalities.

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10. Closing Remarks and Final Banter (73:07 - 74:50)

In the final moments, Tony wraps up the episode by thanking his guests and sponsors. The hosts engage in humorous banter about ongoing issues and upcoming show content, maintaining the lighthearted tone that characterizes the show.

Notable Quote:

• Tony Kornheiser (74:50): “We’re wrapped around shadow brown we so not a car right to your side now we're all kind trying again back home...”

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Key Takeaways:

• Chiefs vs. Bills Game: A detailed analysis of Josh Allen’s performance and Kansas City Chiefs’ strategic excellence.
• Washington Football Team: Insight into their aggressive playstyle and potential for future success.
• Networking Events: Personal stories from the Alfalfa dinner, highlighting unexpected interactions with political and business leaders.
• Listener Engagement: A diverse range of listener stories adds depth and humor to the show.
• Musical Elements: Original music from River Valley Kids and performances by Barry Zverluga enhance the auditory experience.

Notable Themes:

• Sports Analysis: In-depth discussions on recent NFL games, focusing on player performances and team strategies.
• Personal Anecdotes: Tony’s stories provide a personal touch, fostering a connection with the audience.
• Humor and Lightheartedness: The show balances serious sports talk with humor and playful interactions.
• Community and Networking: Emphasis on the importance of connections within sports, politics, and personal life.

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For more detailed insights and discussions, tune into “The Tony Kornheiser Show” available on-demand through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Odyssey.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we'll talk to Michael Wilbon about the Chiefs advancing to the super bowl again. We'll also chat with Barry Zverluga about the Eagles win and what the future looks like for the Washington football team. And Dan Byrne is here. But first, as always, kids, Commerce.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

Episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify. Home of the number one checkout on the planet. Shop pay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today. Previously on the Tony Korniser Show. I asked her if it was bigger than the last mouse, the flushed mouse, and she said it was bigger. Was substantially bigger.

[Dan Byrne]

Oh, they've been training.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Was the size of a bird. I mean, I didn't know. I don't know how big it is. So we have a mouse.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Do we need to get Lt. Gerard on the equipment?

[Tony Kornheiser]

We called somebody.

[Dan Byrne]

You escalated this. You went straight to the top.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I went to adcom.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Oh, they are the apex predator, aren't they?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I mean, you know, and they don't kill them, they find them, they trap them, they release them. And I don't care where they release them, as long as they don't release them. Like near my house.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Can we give them a house that we'd like them to be released in?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I have lots of homes like the house.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

The Tony Kornheiser show is on now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You may hear an odd sound in the background. It's Chessy with a new large ball, and it still has the equipment in it that screeches when she bites at it. She'll destroy that by the time the show is over, so don't worry about that. From Todd Cooper in Omaha. I have no idea who I'm listening to anymore. He invaded your house. You don't trap the mouse and free the mouse. You have a slogan to uphold. So for the love of all things holy, crush the mouse and flush the mouse. Crush the mouse. We had two. Carol found two dead mice trapped a.

[Dan Byrne]

Couple of days ago and in the expected spot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right. And Adcock is going to come back today and set more traps to which they charge a bunch of money for which I say, okay, but it's working. Okay. Right. We have a special guest.

[Dan Byrne]

Like, we have new technology. These are the old Victor Mousetraps.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's right out of a cartoon. Yeah. 100 years. Dan Byrne is with us today. Dan played last night at Jam and Jam and Java in Virginia, and you got lucky in this regard. You played opposite a football game, but you didn't play opposite the Washington football game. Had you done that, I think your crowd would have been sparse.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Yeah. Yeah, I did have a few cheesery, folks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's great.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

At the late. Actually, somebody handed me a note because I mentioned that I was going to be here. And Kevin Ruckman can eat it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, There you go. That's important. This is what everybody once said on the air all the time. Someone can eat it. Was it a good gig last night?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

I thought so.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's good. Yeah, that's good. When's it. Where are you gonna be? In the next couple of weeks, so people can get ready if they want.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Just kind of all over the Northeast. New York, Boston, Syracuse, Northampton, Pittsburgh. You know that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And you drive yourself.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

I do.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And you have a van.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And you bought that van when?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Just like in the pandemic.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, so four years, let's say.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

How many miles you got on that?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Couple hundred thousand miles.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So driving is your friend. You enjoy it?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

I. You know, it's way better in the now, in the podcast era, because there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Are things you can listen to.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

You know, it's always great.

[Dan Byrne]

Books on tape, not so much.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

There's. There's. Yeah, the podcasts kind of get me.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Through it's not like in the old days when you drove long distances, your hand was on the dial all the time as you tried to find an AM station. You know, anything that would get you through the next hour and a half. Yeah. And that. That isn't the case anymore. None of that happens anymore.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

No.

[Tony Kornheiser]

First of all, there are no AM stations. There may not be any FM stations anymore. I mean, there are some. There are some local traffic and weather is always good, but other than that.

[Dan Byrne]

But there's nothing better than when you're driving back to what you consider home and you get that FM dial that you want to hear.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

You're the familiar voices on a station.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

But it is fun driving around your country and hearing the different. I mean, this is obviously back in the day, but hearing the different voices and different regions and stuff.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There used to be accents in this country.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There used to be discernible accents. You could go to an area and you would know that they would. When I first moved to Washington and heard people with that Tidewater, Virginia accent, I couldn't understand a word they said. I had a lot of difficulty understanding Sonny Jurgensen when we first met and began to do some talk shows together because he's from that area. The Newport News, Virginia beach area couldn't understand a word that. It was like. I remember when I went to the British Open for the first time, and you know the Scottish people who talked.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Oh, that brogue is very thick.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I couldn't understand. I know they were speaking English because they invented it, but I didn't understand a word they said. They swallowed their words. It was really, truly difficult to understand them. Did you ever encounter that, Dan, when you were like, regional accents?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Yeah. The big cities, you can still get the good radio. Yeah. And fm, you know, the. The very left of the dial, you get the. The good local independent stations. That there's a. It's. It's kind of a wasteland in between.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Couldn't understand people, I mean, would listen.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

We're still that way in England, the northern. You know, it's very difficult to understand.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That this happens to me. And now, of course, it happens to me when I get a call center and they're offshore and I say, please, we're going to have to go over this once or twice or three times so I can understand you and you can understand me. So I was going to. I don't know what I should do at the Open. I mean, I wasn't going to talk about the games because Wilbon is going to talk about the games. And Barry's going to talk about the Washington games specifically. And those are the two games, and both were very entertaining. You can say that Washington lost by 100 points, but going into the fourth quarter, that's basically a really good game.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yeah, it was.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And the other game is a great game.

[Dan Byrne]

Yeah, if you take, if you take the turnovers away in the first game, I mean, it's, It's a pretty even game. And it was electric from the start. When you think about the first play from the scrimmage for the Phillies and.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You have Saquon Barkley still running, you're.

[Dan Byrne]

Talking about local radio. This would be a day where if you just drove up and down the east coast to hear probably still anger at Philly, you know, in Philly sports fans voices, and then to go up to Buffalo and to try and hear people talk about that fourth down. When you have people in the booth.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Who are saying, which, which fourth down are you talking about?

[Dan Byrne]

This is the Josh Allen run that you have two. You have two officials on either side of the ball who, who disagree. But as soon as you place it where he gets it, short, even Romo admits it's hard to overturn that. But then they bring in Steritor and they go like, we don't agree with their spot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So. I thought he made it.

[Dan Byrne]

How can you ever tell?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, you just always assume he does. You're looking at his helmet.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yeah, the helmet surge, and you're like, okay, I think he's.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I thought he made it, but where they spotted it, he, he didn't make it. But he'd made about four others. I mean, look, Patrick Mahomes, great. You know, don't. You don't bet against Patrick Mahomes. We say this all the time. Josh Allen made no mistakes. I mean, he, he, he had the ball in his hands on critical plays.

[Dan Byrne]

At the end of the first half.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He ran all the time. I mean, he, he was great. And he didn't win. And he's got to go home and say, what do I have to do to win? What do I have to do?

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Salieri and Mozart, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. He didn't. He didn't. He. The last pass to Kincaid is in his hands. It's in his hands. It's like Mark Andrews the week before. It's in his hands. He's a professional football player. It's not, I'm not even gonna say he's supposed to make that. He makes that all the time. That's how you get a job in The NFL as a tight end. You make that catch all the time. You saw earlier in the. In the game, Travis Kelce dropped the ball. Yeah. So just turn it too fast. Never drops the ball. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

You're like, what.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What happened there? Yeah.

[Dan Byrne]

Turn in a double play.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. You see people drop the ball and you're amazed by it. But Alan got it into his hands. Anyway, I went to this fabulous event, and I'm not. I'll talk about it on Wednesday. I went to this thing called the Alfalfa dinner in Washington, D.C. i had gone once before with Vince Burke, my friend Vince Burke, who invited me, who is himself a member, and then he invited me again this year, and I went. And it's a very interesting combination, and I'll do this in depth, of political people from both sides, both Democrats and Republicans. It's a combination of political people and rich people. Like, really rich. Like, I didn't see Elon Musk, but.

[Dan Byrne]

No media inside covering it, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, you're not allowed to. It's all off the record. I'm all off the record means you can pretty much say what you want, but you can't film it. You know, so you got to give people deniability.

[Dan Byrne]

You don't have a room of cell phones recording.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, no, no, no. Well, I mean, I turned mine off. They didn't collect them. Sometimes at places they collect cell phones, but they didn't collect them. I guess they trusted people. And I saw people on their cell phones, but I didn't see anybody pointing their cell phones as if to take a picture.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Nobody smashing a camera on the ground?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No. Elon Musk was allegedly there. Jeff Bezos was allegedly there. Bill Gates was alleged. I'm sure they were there. And people like that, you know, you're.

[Dan Byrne]

Not at that table. You're not at that table.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, no, no. I didn't. I didn't get that table. But I will tell one.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Desh and Clayton, I'll tell one quick story.

[Dan Byrne]

You guys have a lot to talk about.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm going to talk about all of it on Wednesday because Dan is here. And I don't want to take, you know, I want to be able to talk to Dan. But I'll tell one quick story that one of the guests there and one of the people who was being inducted into the Alfalfa Club, I guess it's called, which has been around for like 120 years, one of the people inducted this year and sitting on the dais was Hakeem Jeffries. Hakeem Jeffries is the minority leader in the House. He's the leader of the Democratic Party. Nancy Pelosi stepped aside a couple of years ago. Hakeem Jeffries is the leader. He's a Binghamton graduate. So I walked up to him and I introduced myself and said how proud everyone at Binghamton was of him. And he looked at me and he says, well, what about you? You know? And I said, yeah, that's fine. And then we talked about the fact that the president's school, Harvey Stenger, is stepping away. He's going to leave in June, and how we both think he's great. And so I'm telling this story at the table. I'm at that. I say that Hakeem Jeffries is probably the most accomplished Binghamton graduate, but the most famous Binghamton graduate is Flo.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Sure.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Progressive Insurance. Flo, whose real name is Stephanie Courtney and who is an actress and a comedian and has been with the groundlings for 100 years. And it's very funny. I've never met her, but everyone takes a tremendous amount of pride. Even the dog takes a tremendous amount of pride that Flo is from Binghamton. So then Vince Burke turns to me after I tell the story and points to a woman who is directly behind him and says, that's the CEO of Progressive Insurance. I go, what? What? He says, that's the CEO of Progressive Insurance. So I introduce myself to her, and her name is Tricia Griffith, I believe. And I start talking about Flow. And she says, yeah, we talk all the time. I. I said, you're not gonna get rid of her, are you? Because you got these younger people in some of the ads. No, no, no. People love Flo. Yeah, people love Flow. And it was like the triangulation of Binghamton University, like the most accomplished and the most famous. And I was able to make an inroad to both people. I felt really good about that. That's fantastic. Yeah, it was like, really, like, right next to you. Right next to me is the CEO of Progressive Insurance. So, you know, that was great. Anyway. All right. What are you up to? You brought a guitar. We're not making you play. What do you want to talk to us about? Have you written songs? Have you written new songs for the show or for your real life to get. Did people ask you, is there a.

[Dan Byrne]

New Stinky and Dirty?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Oh, boy, I wish. I need a new Stinky and Dirty. That ran for two seasons. It was great. I could just wake up and write Stinky and Dirty songs, Drink a cup.

[Dan Byrne]

Of coffee, Snow cone Shuffle Come on, it's a hit. Cherry Red.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

You're your target audience.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So what are you doing?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

I wrote a whole bunch of songs on the piano this fall. That's why I was kind of in that mode. I think the Rickey Henderson one I sent. I sent you guys was with the piano.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

So once I'm done with this round of shows in the next couple weeks, I'm gonna stop by Nashville and maybe complete that record. Just a few embellishments.

[Tony Kornheiser]

How many instruments can you play?

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Well, many would say none, but you.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Would say, I mean.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

It'S just my guitar is serviceable for the songs and my piano now is too. I didn't play the piano at all until a few years ago. I stuck a couple of fingers in a snowblower.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, that's always fun.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

That was great. So I couldn't play the guitar for four months. My surgeon was from Binghamton, really went to Binghamton, and her best friend at Binghamton is now a singer songwriter. I should know her name, but she was the all time leading scorer basketball at Binghamton and she's.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And now she's.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

Now she's doing what I do and apparently she's very good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wow.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

I'll find out her name, but. So that's my Binghamton connection.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The all time leading scorer on the basketball team.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

I believe so, yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is a fabulous Binghamton day for me to know, to learn all these things. I wish somebody in Binghamton listened to this podcast, but of course they don't. All right, well, thank you for. For all of the songs that you send us, which are wonderful.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

It's a thrill every time, you know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We'Re going to play later. We're going to play the Tom Mosser song, right?

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yes, yes. By the way, is it Imani Watkins? Does that sound right? No.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

No.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Okay. Well, it says.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, we've had some. We've had some all Americans at Binghamton. In women's basketball, I think we've had two or three. Yeah, we're really good. We had somebody who almost led the country in scoring at one point within the last five years. But I don't know her name. I don't know her name.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Tough for the men's team this year.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, we're near 500. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

But they've been on a bit of a slide as of late.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but we used to win three games. Now we're winning 10 or 11 or 12 games. We used to win three. Let's take a break. Michael Wilbon will join us when we return yes, that's right. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show. The Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Dan Byrne]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

Which?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Unnamed Speaker 1]

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[Dan Byrne]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Unnamed Speaker 2]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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The Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is a band called River Valley Kids. They're from Cincinnati, Ohio. This is a song called on the Radio and it's sent to us by Maria Alexander who writes my father in law, who's a longtime fan, recently shared your podcast with me and as I was listening, I heard you share original music. Our band named River Valley Kids is from Cincinnati, Ohio and here's a link to our original music if you feel obliged to share, which is very, very nice.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yes, it is.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Again, this is called on the Radio and it is the River Valley Kids from Cincinnati and they play in Michael Wilbond and those games yesterday. And I don't, I understand that the Philadelphia game turned into a blowout, but those games were fun to watch. They were both fun to watch. Let's.

[Michael Wilbon]

The second was more than fun. The second one to me is an all time playoff game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Let's get to. Let's start with that. Let's start with that because Barry is going to be on later and Barry can talk a lot about the first game with Washington. Let's get to the Kansas City Buffalo game. And my overview is this. Josh Allen last year everybody said, well, he turns the ball over. He doesn't turn the ball over anymore. If they need to run, he runs the ball. If they need to do something, he does it. He was as good, Mike, as you can be. And they still didn't win.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Yeah. And Tony, I'm going to go straight to an analogy that people may think is typical of me and maybe it is. But watching Mahomes now win these games, this is like watching Michael Jordan. And watching Josh Allen is like watching Karl Malone or John Stockton or Patrick Ewing or Charles Barkley. Guys who, as Charles once told me, were born at the wrong time because they can't beat him. Yeah, they couldn't beat Jordan and these guys can't beat Patrick Mahomes. And I know that Mahomes didn't make that stop on fourth down. I get it. Teammates do come through. So did Jordans at a given point for about six years in a row. But you watch it and you just think, wow, Josh Allen was great. Buffalo. Buffalo yesterday was great. It played so well, and so I'm hesitant to even turn on the TV because I don't want to hear people talking about the mistakes Buffalo made. Yeah, they weren't flawless, but they were great. And Kansas City was better. And I know I told you. Well, maybe I didn't tell you. I think I said it on the show last week. I just did not think that Buffalo as good as the Bills are, I didn't think that they could beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. I thought there was one team that could do that this year, and that was Baltimore. And Baltimore blew it by not getting to the previous week. But, man, I mean, yeah, Josh Allen was fabulous. So Buffalo was fabulous. And they lose to me again, an all time great playoff game. And so I guess there were people, if we go back, that were born at the wrong time and had to, you know, play against Brady, you know, although the closest competitor who had to play against Brady repeatedly for a generation, Peyton Manning, did win.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Won a couple.

[Michael Wilbon]

A couple.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Won a couple.

[Michael Wilbon]

But. But this reminds me of that. It's just like, okay, they're gonna, they're gonna go forward here on fourth down Kansas City is what kind of play they're gonna run. Something that almost looks easy in his execution because he's that good. He's that great. So I, you know, I'm watching this now and I'm thinking, okay, like, maybe it lasts. Maybe it doesn't even last a week. Although I think it does. Maybe it lasts a couple more years. Maybe it lasts five years. Who knows? But watching this guy. And so, you know, people say, well, it's inevitable that Lamar Jackson wins the Super Bowl. What the hell it is.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Why is it inevitable?

[Michael Wilbon]

What are you saying? Yeah, why people should know more about sports than to say something that Dumbledore.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, I agree. He's. He's the best football player on the planet. You have confidence. The game started out so weirdly in that neither Josh Allen nor Mahomes could hold on to the ball. Well, yeah, both dropped the ball. Josh Allen's first two passes could have been intercepted. And after that, he did nothing wrong. Yeah, I thought he made the fourth down play. Me, but okay, I thought he made the fourth down play.

[Michael Wilbon]

And so, by the way, was it Sarah Tor who's in the booth?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. He thought it too.

[Michael Wilbon]

He thought it too.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So.

[Michael Wilbon]

So.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But those, Those things happen. I mean, I don't, I don't know that there's a story of the game beyond the fact that Mahomes wins these games here. This is, and I mentioned this the other day on the show, if they win three in a row, they'll have done something that nobody has ever done. It's really hard. Buffalo got there four in a row, lost them all. But win three in a row is unprecedented. And they will have this very, very small point differential, you know, and you'll be able to say, well, this guy almost beat him and this guy almost. A lot of people almost beat him. But they don't beat them.

[Michael Wilbon]

They don't actually win.

[Tony Kornheiser]

In the end, Kansas City wins these games, right?

[Michael Wilbon]

And everything's in sync. Like Andy Reid and his staff are completely in sync with Mahomes, and they're completely in sync with Chris Jones and that defense. And they're just. They're champions. Yeah, they are champions. And I do. I think Philly could beat them. Yeah, they could, but again, I'm not going to the betting window on that one. And, you know, Philly, obviously yesterday was, you know, playing a team really on the. Come on the rise, but they're not Kansas City just. I have nothing but admiration for the Chiefs right now. Nothing. And, you know, it took me a long time.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, you were screaming dynasty of one.

[Michael Wilbon]

I'm not. Yeah, I ain't giving it to you on one.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right, right.

[Michael Wilbon]

You know, the Bulls weren't great after one. A lot of people have won, so you have to have multiples and they got multiples and still working on it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Feel bad for Buffalo. I do. I mean, it's. It just that really distinguishes.

[Michael Wilbon]

You mentioned those four years I was in Buffalo a lot for the Washington Post, covering pro football at the time where the Bills lost those four in a row. And I was trying to explain in my house yesterday, for the people watching, you know, them all, I was trying to explain to them, they were like, well, why do you have so much more tolerance for Buffalo and their fan base? I said, because, see, I'm not doing this off what somebody says on a show. I went to Buffalo many over those four years. I probably went to Buffalo, I don't know, 12 to 15 times. And there were road games, of course, too. But I went to Buffalo that many times and you know, Bill's mafia, and they kept showing it. And I said, you gotta understand something. The Buffalo fan base, this is not some fly by night bunch of jerks and losers and just vulgar people. This is a great fan base. It may be the best fan base along with, you know, Green Bay and, yes, Kansas City. And I always loved going to Buffalo. I loved going there, watching the Bills play when they Were great. And I have a sense of what it means to the community of Buffalo. They still don't have baseball, they don't have basketball anymore. They had it once upon a time, but they have some time ago.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And hockey, they're not good.

[Michael Wilbon]

They have hockey, but it's been a long time since the Sabres any good? Were great. Yeah, they have, they have the Bills. This is what they have.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And, and people drive from long distances to go there. People have season tickets in Binghamton, New York, to Buffalo Bills games. And that's a long drive every week. You know, it's a long drive.

[Michael Wilbon]

So I have a sense of what it means to them. And I, I, I, too, I feel for them. I do.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. And they played great. And I mean, if you, Josh Allen, you just look in the mirror and you go, what, what, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? Yeah, what am I supposed to do? And then you have the heartbreak of Kincaid dropping the ball, which, you know, it's like Mark Andrews dropping. It happens. Sometimes it happens. That, that.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. You know, How'd that get there? Yeah. So, yeah, that game's all time classic. But I have no, again, I'm hesitant to turn the TV on because I don't want to hear, you know, I don't want to hear a bunch of nonsense about what Buffalo didn't do. It's nonsense.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, they could have, they could have won. I won't say they should have won. They didn't. They wouldn't, wouldn't say that. But they could have won. They could have won. And had they won, you'd be able to say, finally, they beat this team. But this team doesn't lose. They just don't actually lose this game. They win this game.

[Michael Wilbon]

In my further analogy. I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's the 90s. Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz, Indiana Pacers and those guys, what Reggie Miller, what was he supposed to think after they would have these epic series, a couple of them, or Cleveland and Mark Price and Brad Dougherty, what were they supposed to think? They would go. They would look in the mirror in the locker room, just like you described, and say, what? What else am I supposed to do? I hit a shot with three seconds left and this dude with the tongue and the baggy shorts hits one at the buzzer. This is Mahomes. It just, yeah, he comes back. That pass, he throws. I guess it was fourth and three or something. And you. They just go, they're going to seal it. They're going to take a knee. They're going to go to victory formation. And so, you know, people better watch it and enjoy it because you don't know if you're going to see it again in your lifetime.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And no, no roughing calls, no controversial call. I mean, you can set a controversy. No controversy.

[Michael Wilbon]

There's nothing to, there's just. There's no criticism of the game. That's why I don't want to turn TV on. I don't want to hear it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, well, that seems reasonable to me. Did you have any. Well, I would talk to Barry about, about the Washington game. Did you have any thoughts about the Australian Open, by the way? Too many.

[Michael Wilbon]

No, I didn't get to see it. It was a weekend of travel and football, you know. Well, not in football. I was moving in Chicago.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, okay.

[Michael Wilbon]

But I mean what you watch wasn't able to. Yeah, I wasn't able to see that. Especially with the hours you got to be in tune with. I saw a little bit the previous week, the first week while I was in Arizona because it sort of just worked out with the extra time difference, the extra two hours now. But no, I didn't see it. I'm glad. Madison Keys won.

[Tony Kornheiser]

29 years old. Good for her.

[Michael Wilbon]

29. She's 29. Good for her.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Good for her. She won something and she took out the two and the one on successive matches. That's. That's great. Like that's an all time performance. And the one thing I'm happy about on the men's side is I do think now that, that we can say that it sets up Sinner and Alcaraz for the next five to eight years, don't you think? I mean that's probably. Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

And maybe longer if they're the turn out to be of the same ilk, you know, as Joker and Federer and Nadal. Maybe it goes on longer than that, but. Yeah, and I think, you know, I wonder if Shelton. I almost said Brian. That was his father, of course. What's Shelton's name?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Ben. Ben.

[Michael Wilbon]

If Ben winds up, you know, just another. Not even a full step, a half step to get to that place because two years ago he wasn't there and now he's knocking. And so I'd like to see him get, you know, go all the way there and make that a group as opposed to a, to a duo. So. Yeah, but I didn't, I didn't see.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's okay. All right.

[Michael Wilbon]

I didn't see much of the Open.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right, so. Well, I'll talk to you later. We'll be fine.

[Michael Wilbon]

All right, Tom.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Michael Wilbon, boys and girls. We'll take a break. Barry S. For Luga will join us when we return. I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. This is the Cars for Kids read. Selling a car privately can be a real headache. Endless negotiations, tire kickers, paperwork hassles. There's a better way to get your unused car off your hands for 30 years. Cars for Kids, I keep thinking the song is going to start playing. Has perfected the car donation process to make it truly effortless. They'll take your car in any condition.

[Dan Byrne]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Unnamed Speaker 1]

I have.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No.

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It's a great system. It gives you peace of mind. It's very inexpensive, very easy to deal with. And the getting them on the phone is great. And you just feel. You feel safe, which is an important thing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Unnamed Speaker 1]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Those agents see and talk to them in real time. Hey, hey. And they'll activate spotlights and even contact the police. Spotlights. I'm going to dance. All before the intruders have a chance to get inside your home. Simplisafe also does not have long term contracts or cancellation fees and their monitoring plans start affordably at about a dollar a day. They also have 60 day satisfaction guarantee or you get your money back. And SimpliSafe has been named best home security system by US News and World Report five years in a row. So start the year with greater peace of mind. Visit SimpliSafe.com Tony to claim 50 off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and your first month free. That's simplisafe.com Tony there's no safe like simplisafe. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show once again. These are the River Valley kids from Cincinnati, Ohio. This was sent to us by Maria Alexander. And she's in the band. Yes. And the band is good. Everybody who sends us music.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yes, they're all good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Michael, if people like the River Valley kids from Cincinnati want to send us original music, anybody else wants to send original music, how do they do it?

[Dan Byrne]

Send us your music by emailing it to jinglesonyconnizershow.com it plays in Barry's Verluga.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Who knew what his day was going to be like yesterday when the Washington team got into the NFC championship game in Philadelphia. And I watched that, well, everybody watched. That doesn't make me special. But I would ask this to begin with right before the game when that eagle flew around, that was unbelievable. Did you, did you see that or were you working? What was the reaction to that? I'd never seen anything like that.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

So they do it there with some frequency. And my seat happened to be at the end of the fields where the eagle landed. And it, I mean, you and I have seen a lot of pre games, pregame shows, displays, hype videos, all that kind of stuff. And I mean Detroit last week was just incredible. I think any franchise should, should go there and take notes on how to get your crowd into a game. But when you're talking about a live animal flying into a stadium that's packed with standing people and a Full football field sized American flag is stretched out and the eagle swirls around some to the point where you're briefly like, wait, is this dude lost? But he knows exactly where he's going. And there's a guy standing on a little platform off to the sidelines and he flies right there. I did not expect to be talking about this this morning, but it was definitely, definitely a moment.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I watched it. I couldn't believe it. That's a real eagle. That's not a crow dressed up as an eagle. That's a real eagle.

[Dan Byrne]

And on tv we got to see the blink.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Yes. The Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, I've never seen that and I was just mesmerized by it. I imagine everyone in the stadium was too. And that would you. What you fear is that there'll be some crazy amount of shrieking by fans and the bird will go nuts and attack someone. Right?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Well, I mean, Philly fans are subdued, so I didn't think there was any danger of that. Let's not get crazy. No, it's. I mean, it's a real live performance involving an animal in which you think anything could go wrong at any moment. It didn't and it doesn't. And it was a perfect way to kick off the game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And then they had a fly. When was the last time the Washington football team had a flyover?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

They've had flyovers this year.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Really?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

From our. Yeah, they have. And you know, it's convenient because it's right near Andrews Air Force Base. So it's, it's made maybe more of a jump over than a flyover for, for Washington. But yeah, they did it. They did it upright. It's a huge game. You don't host these games every year and I think you take advantage of it when you do that. That crowd was jacked up and ready to go like you would expect a Philadelphia crowd to be.

[Tony Kornheiser]

If I were writing a movie about a football game, I would write that on the very first play that my team had the ball, my team down three, nothing at that point on the very first play, a guy goes home run and gets a touchdown. Running touchdown. What was that like to be there and see that?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Well, I mean you just get the feeling that, you know, all the pre game talk was like, how are they going? How are the commanders going to stop or slow down? Saquon Barkley. And the immediate answer is, oh, they're not right. He is just a force. And Washington's weakness as a team, if you were to to rank their weaknesses from you know, 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. I think rushing defense is probably number one. And they're meeting the guy who is an absolute home run hitter, who I think what they, their hope was, and they did this in the first two games, limit him to these little 2 and 3 yard gains, but then eliminate the home run ball which he, he had against them in the first two matchups. And the home run ball came on the first, first play.

[Tony Kornheiser]

First play.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

And Tony, not just the first play, but in a manner that it wasn't just like, oh my God, he opened. They opened a giant hole and he ran through it. It was like, no, I'm going to bounce off people, spin, cut back and then run away from you. It was like all the skills on display in one play, like vision, balance, strength and speed. Yeah, that was that. Washington, I know the final score absolutely makes it seem like the blowout that it was in the fourth quarter. But I did think that Washington bouncing back from that and getting to 1412 was something because it seemed like. And Barkley was dealing with a calf issue and it seemed like I think he had 14 carries for the game. So they weren't going to ride him for 25 or 26 times. But as a tone setter and just a statement that we are the Eagles, we have this guy. You don't. And that's a problem. That that was pretty impressive.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Very competitive game going into the fourth quarter. Every time you thought that Washington was out of it, they would come back. Jayden Daniels played very well and Philadelphia played very well. Hertz played very well. Hertz threw a lot of passes, a lot of very good passes. They're just small things to ask. Dan Quinn goes for it all the time. He went three on the first drive of the game. He went on fourth down three different times. And much like Tom Brady said on the air, I thought to myself, well, why didn't you go to last time? Why'd you take the three? He goes a lot. Does he ever talk about the philosophy of that?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's not just a Dan Quinn thing. It's a, you know, analytics people would tell you going for it more often is. Is the right play. It does it by this point. It is part of Washington's DNA. And I think what it does. And you could feel this in the crowd. Normally when the home team makes a big stop on third down, the crowd goes crazy, you know, oh, it's fourth and three. Like the defense got off the field. Yeah, it sends a little bit of trepidation through the stadium because all of a sudden fourth and three isn't a stop. It's another opportunity for the offense. And I think Quinn is going to do this in future years. If they were, amazingly, during the regular season, 20 of 23 on fourth down, which is just staggering and they weren't, you know, yesterday he also did the fake punt.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That was so great. That was so risky and so great. Right?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Yeah. And yes, absolutely. And it again sets a tone like we're not going to mess around here. Like we are going for it. We are here to win this game. We're going to be aggressive. But they also just do it as a matter of course. Like the. You know, there are now times, Tony, when it gets to fourth down for the Washington offense and me in the press box, my colleagues in the press box, anybody on the sideline, like, there's no flinching or wow, this is amazing decision. Like you just kind of know that this is the course of business. They're going to try to go forward and they, they make it at a very, very, very high rate, which extends. I mean their first drive, even though it did end in that field goal, was 18 plays converted, four down. So just part of the team's DNA and personality.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's so interesting to me in this sense. I've never going all the way back to when I started writing about them, you know, I don't know, 45 years ago, whenever it was, I never thought of them as a daring team. I respected many of the coaches. Joe Gibbs was not a daring person, but nobody was. Then when you went on fourth down, you went on fourth and less than one and you had to go. It was just not the way it is now where you elect to do this and you are daring. And I don't think of the Washington franchise as daring. And maybe I should, right?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Yeah. And I think. But I think daring is also now some version of normal. And if you think about what it takes to get seven points in a game and if you, if you have two possessions and you kick two field goals, you haven't reached what you'd get with a touchdown and an extra point. So one possession, being able to produce more then two possessions is a good math way to think about why you would go for it more often. Because if you extend those drives and make them even 50% of the time, your expected points is going to go up. Dan Campbell in Detroit is more aggressive even than Dan Quinn and does it in even some more oddball situations on his own side of the field with More yards to go. Stuff that I think is a little riskier. I think Dan Quinn's mindset and he's really good, he's explained this too. And Cliff Kingsbury, the offensive coordinator has explained this, that he will start the drive by telling Kingsbury, hey, if it's 4th and X and we're inside the Y yard line, I'm going to go for it. So call the game accordingly. Which allow Kingsbury, if it's fourth and four inside the 40 and he knows that I've got two plays here instead of one. He doesn't have to throw a pass that goes beyond the line of scrimmage. He could run the ball that gains three and know, okay, I'm gonna have a play to gain one. It does change the math and the flow of the game in a way that I think is pretty interesting and pleasing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

A lot of coaches do it now. It's a difference in this, in the game of football on the NFL level. Last week in Detroit, Washington, no turnovers, Detroit, five. That's the end of the game. This, I know it's four, but the fourth one doesn't count. It's the three fumbles, it's the O and three which lead to points all the time. Right. I mean, that's just the way it goes. It's turnovers.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Absolutely. And I mean, before the game in Detroit, I said the same thing as I did yesterday before the game in Philly. Like the formula to winning this game is Washington forcing two or more turnovers and turning it over zero times. And I think you know, those, those three fumbles by Diami Brown, Jeremy McNichols on the kickoff and Austin Eckler in the second half, you could point to each of them as a pivot. And I would, I would argue the McNichols play on a kickoff return right before the half when Washington, you were going to give the ball to Jaden Daniels with more than 90 seconds left and a full complement of timeouts in a situation where Washington could have scored to take to tie it up, make it 20. If they got the touchdown in two point conversion, make it 20 to 20. In a half that began with Barkley's run and felt like they had been outplayed. And McNichols puts that ball on the ground and instead of going giving your superstar quarterback a chance to manage a drive down the field like he has done so much over the past two months, it's just an incredible feeling of confidence to give him that ball in that way instead, Philly scoring a touchdown. It's 27 to 12. You get a late field goal and it just feels like you're on the brink of there. That one to me really stood out as a pivot point in the game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I agree with that, you know, but the notes I took, I would write the score down and I would write over with a question mark and then Daniels would come back and do something. He's really, look, what is the takeaway of this season? It's Jaden Daniels. And overall, and I respect the fact that players say, no, we can't look at the overall. We just got beaten. It's terrible. And that's fine. But the rest of us, Barry, look at this as a transformational season with a quarterback that if he stays healthy, is going to be a top five quarterback in the league. And there's an optimism that we haven't seen in 30 years. Yeah, there's.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

I mean, that's the column. I mean that that is. Yes, that's what happened. And you knew, Tony, even before kickoff, there was short of Daniel Jaden Daniels suffering a gruesome injury. There was no way that Washington fans couldn't come out of that game and wake up on Monday morning and think, you know what? The future is out there. It is all there for us. And now the NFC Championship Game, a game, a stage that they haven't appeared in in 33 years. That's the new floor. And now we have the quarterback who we know can get us there. Now we have a roster that we believe can be enhanced through another draft and more than $100 million in salary cap space. There's no reason to think we won't be back on the stage in years to come. No reason to believe that stage might be in Washington and not on the road. No reason to think that you would be favored, that you wouldn't be favored in that game rather than an underdog, and no reason to think that you can't get have super bowl runs in the future. Everything, everything is not in place yet. But the set of circumstances to put everything place in place is there. And that's largely because Daniels is such an amazing talent. And then you get into the salary cap stuff where he's on a rookie contract and you can pay other people because you don't have to pay him. That matters now, too. I think for a lot of Washington fans, they're like, probably like, can opening week be like now because I'm ready for 20, 25?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, the only thing I would add to that is you did you lost on the road to a team that has a thousand wins this year. It's a really, Philadelphia is a really good team. They have the best offensive line in football. They have the best statistical defensive positioning in all of football. They're a really good team. They can run and pass. So you didn't lose to a bunch of bums. You lost to a really good team. So for sure.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

And I think if you're an Eagles fan, you're waking up this morning feeling like, okay, we knew that Barkley's awesome and the line is awesome and the defensive front is awesome and all that stuff. But you also got some answers on Jalen Hurt.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Absolutely. All positive.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Played a great game. Looked like, I mean, not just the tush push runs, but he scored on a nine yard run that he looked every bit as mobile as he needs to be. He had his feet under him when he threw. That's about as good a performance.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

As you could expect headed into the super bowl in another matchup with Patrick Mahomes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And a really good game until the last 10, 12 minutes. They're really good. Congratulations on being in a position where you got something to write about for years. And it's not all negative. It's good. It's good. Thanks, Barry.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Yes, thank you, Tony. I appreciate it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Barry Zverluga, wonderful writer. A conversation with Barry Zverluga was brought to us by fanduel. Make every moment more. We will take a break. We will have email and jingle when we return. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. This is the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Tony Kornizer show.

[Barry Zverluga]

Here comes Tony's mailbag Gonna read some faxes and your notes Here comes down his mail back Gonna read some for all you folks Gonna read some for all of your. Aw.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Did you enjoy recording that with Tom Masser? You both paint and you both sing one better than the other.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

He's what a great guy to hang out with.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He's hilarious and I say this all the time. He has this fabulous painting of me coming out of a toilet after flushing a mouse and I'm wearing mouse ears. And because of the owners of the company, I'm reluctant to put that on.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yeah, it's Tough to put that one cast member.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, it's great. You wanted to Bethesda bagel ad, please. Yes.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Got the bagel sandwiches in.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Dan can have a sandwich. Yes. Getting that van with a. With a bagel sandwich sandwich.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Just go to Bethesda Bagels.com for location in the DC area nearest you. Then pop one in, my friend, and you will be thrilled.

[Dan Byrne]

I've been thinking about nothing but you live in a van down by the river.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Before we get to the mailbag, let me just say. Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble. Ancient footprints are everywhere. You can almost think you're seeing double On a cold dark night on the Spanish stairs. Gotta hurry back to my hotel room where I got a date with a pretty little girl from Greece. She promised she'd be there with me when I paint my masterpiece. That is to Dylan original. I know, but it's the band.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And it's Garth Hudson. Garth Hudson. So it's our goodbye to Garth Hudson.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Exactly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's why I figured you picked it. Yeah. It's a really great song.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

It's a great song and he's a great song. I don't know. I think he's playing the accordion on that. It's just he makes the song beautiful.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Thanks to our guests today, Michael Wilbon, Barry Sreluga and Dan Byrne. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple podcasts Spotify and Odyssey. Get show through Apple. Please leave us a review from Chris Harrison in Apex, North Carolina. I got that one wrong, figuring it was at the top of the stadium. Did you say the mouse might have gotten caught in the trash compactor? If it did, then why we say flush the mouse when you play bad? Can we now say crush the mouse if they play good? Jalen Hurts threw two picks and flushed the mouse, while Jaden Daniels threw three TDs and crushed the mouse against Philly. P.S. apex got its name from the Chatham Railroad, which ran from Richmond, Virginia to Jacksonville, Florida. Before that, Apex, known as Log Pond, was the highest point on the route where steam locomotives would refill their engines with water. It's also the town you pass through if you're heading to Pinehurst from Raleigh.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

How about that?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, well, I've headed to Pinehurst from Raleigh, and I don't got to watch your speed. Don't remember Lee Gordon in Boynton Beach, Florida. I commend you for dealing with your most recent rodent infant infestation in a humane manner by calling in a trap and release company. Rather than an exterminator. I imagine their slogan must be Adcock's Trapping Service. We don't flush the mouse. No, but if they get caught in a trap, well, then, yeah, you know, I'm sorry.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Things happen.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. As Elvis would say, caught in a trap. I can't tell Ron to eat it. Ron Pell has to eat it. Ross Bridges, Lexington, Kentucky. Maybe time to retreat to little house, huh? Sounds like the animal revolution is in full effect with your mice and moth infestation. Can't wait for Dan Burns jingle on this one. Okay, here we go. Brian Becker, Chuck and Roxy, number 83 in Derry, New Hampshire. Long time, third time as a New Hampshire resident that just paid my electric bill last Thursday. I have never felt a stronger call to email the show than I did at the end of your discussion about your Pepco bill on Friday's show. Tony, you know what it made me think? What are the bills like in New Hampshire? Like, where it's cold for months? What is your electricity like? And if I find out that somebody living in New Hampshire is a $200 bill, I'm going to say, get me that. Get me that guy's bill. Well, I am that guy. And here is my current electric bill. Picture attached for news channel 8 supply. Usage charges 75, 73. Delivery 102.15. Total 177.88. I'd like to point out this was down from 196 the previous month. Granted, I do live in southern New Hampshire, but it's still cold here. Try to give an apples to apples comparison with your heating situation. I do a New England. I do fit a New England stereotype by using a wood pellet stove that has a blower fan running constantly. And we do occasionally use one space heater. Maybe you ought to call my area's electric provider, Eversource and have them send you a big box of cheap electricity. How can that be? How can it be? Mine was $787. My delivery charges. I never saw the truck pull up. Yeah, where's the electricity truck, huh? Brian Granger in Charlotte. Wait, the power bill was $787? Well, at least it's a palindrome. Kevin Pomstein. I live in Edina. Or a Dinah, Minnesota. I think it's a Dinah, Minnesota. And my bill for December was $206.78.

[Dan Byrne]

Just rubbing it in.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Are you keeping the temperature in your house set to the Tropic of cancer? No, 70. 70. And I put it to 68, but it's a woman in this house who's it goes crazy even at seven. Matt from Connecticut Good morning, Mr. Porthouser. Like Michael, I too lost my faith in the justice system when I was picked for jury duty years ago. I was selected to serve on a jury for a civil case involving a car versus motorcycle collision. Myself and the rest of the jurors were sitting in the deliberation room waiting for the trial to begin and began chatting with each other about who we are and what we do. One of the other jurors became the center of attention by revealing he was a professional clown. That's right, this case was going to be partially decided by a clown. The jury of defendant peers included an actual professional clown. Luckily, the case was settled after the opening arguments and we didn't actually have to make any important decisions like what balloon animal to make or what giant colored shoes to wear. Even the Great Linguini wouldn't have made it through the voir dire process. Tell DC Dime Don Childs there will be a J peak in mid March if he wants to hang out on the tram and swap podcast stories. Can't believe there's another skier that actually listens. From Ruffin Bailey in Charleston, South Carolina. What's the expected tip after jury duty? Tell Nigel that as with any government employee, you're supposed to rush up to the judge as he or she leaves the courtroom to present them with the obligatory roll of quarters, two of which within a week of Christmas. Nathan Ackerhelm in Charlotte, North Carolina. So if Caitlin Clark goes to game time to get tickets for the Chiefs AFC Championship game and click seat view, you're telling me what will pop up as an image of a box seat with Taylor Swift?

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Apparently so, yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I guess Alan Cohn from Falmouth, not far from Revere, just rented a car in Miami. Guy behind the counter was especially tall and the woman to whom I'm related via marriage asked if he played basketball. He mentioned he played professionally in Europe after playing at Binghamton. I asked if he knew Mr. Tony and he lit up with a big smile and said he remembered you attending their heartbreaking one point loss to Boston in the 06 Conference Championships. 66 forward Dwayne James Yes, LeBron's cousin says hi. Connective tissue. Isn't that nice?

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

How about that?

[Tony Kornheiser]

A monkey update. I'm glad to hear all the escape monkeys are back in their home, as we will be in that part of South Carolina soon and I didn't want to find one of the escapees in my backyard. Best of luck with your current mice problem, maybe a monkey could be of assistance. Well, I don't even know who sent this to us. Tony Beeson, Cincinnati, Ohio. How many pints do you want? This is Greater's Ice Cream Skyline Chili Spice Ice cream. Oh no, don't want any.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Get that five way.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

I would rather have the Progresso Soup drops than that. That sounds vile.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, that's not. That's not for me. This is for anybody. That's not for me. Walter Coffee in Anderson, California Showing the Northern Lights Showing the Northern lights on Friday show you feature lyrics from a Jesse Winchester song. It may have been his one hit, but one of his other popular songs has a lyric that remained with me since I first heard it sometime in 1976. It's the chorus from Blow on Chilly Wind. Blow on chilly wind. I got a real high collar that's worth a many a dollar so I don't feel a thing. I'm sure he considered I've got lined pants, but it didn't scan. I'm wearing my line pants now. I have lined pants that were indispensable during my trip to Iceland, chasing the northern lights, which I found. Okay, so it's in Iceland, not in California. I don't have your total recall of classic lyrics, but it does seem to me that every time I'm in a facility playing songs from 1950 through 1980, I've heard every one of them. Thus, there's no room in my memory for where I left my glasses from. Reese in London, everybody knows the Plow King did the best work. And while we're at it, Dawson's Creek over the oc Are you with him on that?

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Okay, I believe.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Dan Kilday in South Austin this morning I received the annual survey for the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. I put in my request for Dan Byrne, Eric and the Slappy Boys and post sex nachos, if selected. Can the summer of Littles get pushed to the fall and head south this year? Have you played that ever? Austin City Limits no, not yet. You want to? Oh yeah, that would be good. Keith Gertie's Chapel Hill thank you for the Rocky Raccoon lyrics in Wednesday's Mailbag. I'm at the midpoint of my 20th year as an English teacher at East Chapel Hill High School, and For the last 7ish years or so, day one of every 9th grade English class has begun with Rocky Raccoon. Our quarter one focus is narratives, and it's the perfect story to begin the year. It has a clear exposition Inciting incident. Rising action. Climax. Poor Rocky's conflict does not go how he hopes it will. Falling action. Who doesn't love a drunk doctor stinking of gin, lying on a table dishing out both medical and personal advice and resolution. That Gideon's Bible from the Rising auction pays off at the end. I love Old Man Radio. Keep on. What do you think of that? Like that great explanation. Yeah, I love that breakdown. And one more from Will Green in McKin, Texas. I had some soup today, Wisconsin cauliflower soup. It was good. If you're out on your bike night, everyone, as always do wear white.

[Barry Zverluga]

Salad sandwiches.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So.

[Barry Zverluga]

We were younger Ched wasted all the time and we almost made it we when you cut the line it was all your fault. Your soul, it was mine Every believe and try I know you heard me on the radio we were caught up in the afterglow we were reeling in the faded night we were out of our mind, you see see I know you heard me on the radio we were caught up in the afterglow Driving up and down the interstate we were out of our mind, you see But I'll make it right on the upswing it falls and we figured out all the empty spaces that we filled around and we touched the place Everything's erased It's a whitewashed way to cave I know you heard me on the radio we were caught up in the afterglow we were reeling in the faint night we were out of our mind, you see I know you heard me on the radio we were caught up in really after blow Driving up and down the state we were out of our mind, you see But I'll make it right I know this is not a new life so hear me out we built this carefully so I not try why not try? We were younger, cheated Wasting all time and we almost made it when you come alive it was our fault no soul it was mine we believe in trying I know you heard me on the radio we were caught up in the after clothes we were real and ever fading light we were out of our majesty I know you heard me on the radio we were caught up in the afternoon Driving up and down the interstate we were out of our mind, you see But I'll make it right Months roll past I see you change growing further away this just so that I can say to reverse the train now Going tall, running fast hair Time flies by under your feet Just some channel machine now at the bottom of the sky and on a cloud years we completely let go now we're all kinds trying to get back home yeah we're round and round this shadow holocaust Nothing you could say that would drag me along this now we're all kind trying to get back home and we wrapped around this final years we completely let go now we're all kinds trying to get back home Wrapped around shadow brown we now we're all kind trying to get back home and we're round to round this hallow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Sa.

[Barry Zverluga]

Just so that I can say to reverse the train now this moving tall running fast here Time flies by under your.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Feet.

[Barry Zverluga]

Just some channel machine now at the bottom of the sky and on a car ride to north side now we're all kinds trying to get back home and we're wrapped around this tribal ground we so sweeting sun Gustav.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Sweeps.

[Barry Zverluga]

All you could say that would track me out of this now we're all kind trying to get back home.

[Michael Wilbon]

And.

[Barry Zverluga]

We'Re wrapped around this final.

[Dan Byrne]

For years.

[Barry Zverluga]

We completely let go now we're all kind trying to get back home.

[Unnamed Speaker 3]

And.

[Barry Zverluga]

We'Re wrapped around shadow brown we so not a car right to your side now we're all kinds trying again back home and we're round to round is.