The Kevin Sheehan Show - A DC Sports Bog Day

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Kevin had Dan Steinberg/Washington Post on the show today for a conversation about Dan Snyder's exit, Josh Harris' arrival, and a lot more. Kevin also discussed Albert Breer's S.I. interview with Harris.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. One guest on the show today, Dan Steinberg's going to be on with us. Yeah, that Dan Steinberg, the D.C. Sportsbog, Dan Steinberg. A true pioneer of something that really caught on more than a decade ago at this point.

He has not written much in recent years, but he did write last week a column. He's been an editor for the Post for several years now, but I thought the column was really well done, and Dan will join us coming up in the next segment. The show today brought to you by the Circa Million and the Circa Survivor Pools. If you're out in Vegas, I would urge you to, first of all, go to the Circus, sports book. It's the biggest and the best in Vegas. And there's circa million pool. There's nothing like it. Six million dollars in guaranteed prizes, a thousand dollars per entry with a maximum of five entries per person. You pick five teams against the spread every week. And at

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That's by the way the trip that I'm taking where I will stop in to see Cooley in Wyoming. Still trying to get confirmation that they're going to be around that weekend. But that's going to be the trip out west. So I want to start the show with this email from Victor in New Zealand. I got a ton of response to the show yesterday. the show from Friday.

And I'm picking and choosing here. Don't forget, by the way, to rate us and review us on Apple and Spotify. That's helpful. Follow us as well. But I will tell you, for all of you that suggest that you want to move on from the name conversation, I would bet you that 75% of the correspondence I've gotten over the last few days has been about the name. I think there is definitely an increased interest because I think many of you believe that there's a chance they will change it at some point. I've been telling you for over a month now that there are people in that ownership group that do not like the current name and want it changed.

This is an issue that has been discussed and will be discussed and will be taken seriously. Whether or not it results in a name change, we don't know. But, you know, I mentioned yesterday the odds at Bet Online minus 400. I wouldn't make it minus 400. I'd make it a slight favorite that the name will change. But, yeah, this is something that interests a lot of you, even though much of our conversation doesn't center around it. But the beginning of the show today is going to.

center around the name because I want to read this email from Victor in New Zealand. Victor wrote, Kevin, I'm 42. I was born in D.C., grew up in Bethesda like you did. The first game at RFK for me was during the 1991 season against Houston, the game where Howfield missed the short field goal, and we won the game in overtime to stay undefeated. I remember that game very well. The crowd noise, the excitement, I was hooked, and the skins have been a part of me ever since. Like you, the Snyder years took their toll, but as recently as 2019, I made a trip back to D.C. for the holidays and went to the Skins' Giants' 4135 Overtime game, the game that led us to getting the number two pick for Chase Young. The name is a real thing

with the fan base. I understand that. It's hard for me to even say it. However, I see no end of this conversation, even if the name is changed. There's only one name that would please the largest percentage of fans, and that's the original name. I personally felt conflicted about Redskins. While I understand that most original Americans aren't offended and actually prefer the team to remain the Redskins, I think it would be a terrible move for the Harris Group to even consider it. You've said it before that after paying $6 billion for the team,

why stir things up with a group of people that will be relentless in their protest? test of it. The old name just doesn't make sense, and yet, I agree it would please the most people. You've been persistent over the years, but I compliment you on your compassion and thoughtfulness. Well, thank you, Victor. The best answer, and as you like to say, your mic drop, is that the name is used by original American high schools. Yeah, there are still plenty of Native American high schools, predominantly Native American high schools in this country where the school team nickname Redskins. And they've decided, despite the protests from non-Native Americans,

they've decided to keep it. It still cracks me up. I mean, the ball's on some people to basically tell Native Americans how they should feel. Like, you're too stupid to understand that this is offensive. And yet high schools, like well-pinned high in Washington and a few in Arizona and other people, places continue to keep Redskins. Anyway, I digress. Back to Victor's letter or note.

I think he writes, I think the idea that you started talking about years ago petitioning dictionaries for a second non-derogatory definition is the best idea I've ever heard when it comes to the old name. But the horse is out of the barn. I'm pretty sure that name is gone forever. Commanders isn't very good, but do you really think Armada? or monuments would be received well. I just think at this point it's time to move on. So anyway, thank you, Victor, for that. That thoughtful and compassionate and very nice email to me.

You can tweet me at Kevin Sheand, DC. You can also submit emails, as many of you do via the website. And again, rate us and review us, Apple, Spotify, follow us as well. So, first of all, I remember that game against Houston so well. That was part of the 11-0 start to that 1991 year, and it was really their closest call. Now, they had a game against the Giants that year in the Meadowlands where they were down 13-0-0 but dominated the second half in 117 to 13. Sunday night football, massive matchup.

The skins were 7-0, I believe, and the Giants were like 4 and 3. Those were the Ray Handley giants off of their Super Bowl year from the year before with Hostetler quarterback. But that Houston game, I remember, it should have been lost. It was not a well-played game by Washington against Warren Moon and company. But they won. I mean, they had the mojo that year for sure. So, yes, I understand that this is a complex complex. conversation because if they do decide to change the name and it's another nickname after

Washington, it's not going to please everybody. That's why I suggested in the defense of Jason Wright and Will Misslebrook and the team that really was behind the selection of commanders and that pitiful rollout of the name on 2222, that, you know, they had a challenge. Like they were never going to please everybody. It was pretty much an impossible task. I don't think they did very well with it, but it was still impossible for them to please everybody. And it's the same thing, which is why I would not use a nickname. I would just go with Washington Football Club or Washington football team or FC Washington or Washington FC. And then we can use the nicknames that we think are appropriate. Hogs, skins, it's

I would do it that way. I would make Washington the brand. But I do agree with you that those that say, hey, like, this is to me a conversation about this, not, you know, a lecturing on, you know, to people like me on this conversation. This is a conversation and a legitimate one. You know, he was conflicted with the old name, but he understands how many people want it and how many people want the new name. And he's not knocking people for wanting a new name.

He's just saying, but is there a solution to it? You know, no new name is going to please everybody. And by the way, Washington football team wouldn't please everybody. You know, when that came out, it was mocked by everybody, including a lot of people around the NFL. I mean, they went out of their way, you know, some of the announcers did. First down Washington football team. Shut up.

It's first down. Washington. I mean, before the name was changed, a lot of the announcers were calling everything Washington did the Redskins did during a game. Washington, you know, Washington touchdown, Washington first down, you know, and then they were trying to, they were mocking it, including like ESPN and newspapers and various places that would put in the standings, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, Washington football team. Like they weren't putting Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Washington Football Team. They were putting Washington football team when they were just listing the city of the other

teams. Or they would put Eagles, Giants, Cowboys, and then football team. Like, it was mocked, but however you get around to doing it, I think the best answer other than Redskins, clearly, would be Washington as the brand. That would be my suggestion. It's been my suggestion for a while. I would go with Washington, I would bring back the old uniforms. I wouldn't even care if the helmets had the W on it. I mean, I'd rather the old logoed helmets come back or maybe go with the R helmets from 1970 and 1971. But yeah, these are worthwhile conversations and that's a totally legitimate answer. I know that it's not a new answer to this debate, but it's the way we should be talking.

Like, you just don't think there's an answer, so let's just stick with commanders, even though you don't like it either. I just wouldn't stick with commanders. I would go with something else, but, you know, something else isn't going to please everybody either. This is not easy. There's not an obvious answer to this. But thank you, Victor, for that email. Later on in the show, I'm going to read some Josh Harris quotes from a one-on-one interview that he did with Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated's Monday morning quarterback. There was some interesting stuff in that.

That'll be the final segment of the show. Up next, Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So last week was a crazy week. so crazy that Dan Steinberg decided to write about it and write about the Dan Snyder exit and the arrival of the Josh Harris group. And he wrote a really good column in the post title Daniel Snyder destroyed a DC institution. Maybe now it can heal. And we have Dan with us right now. I haven't talked to you in a while. I mean, occasionally we will text back and forth. But I'm just curious, when was the last time you wrote a column

before last week? It was really early in the pandemic, I think, and it was stupid. Yeah, it was, that was a random one. I'm going to purge that one from my memory. I think it was about the Philadelphia 76ers, believe it or not. And I think before that, the last one that I wrote

was, I think, was after the caps won the Stanley Cup. So, I mean, obviously this was a very significant event last week, but what made you come out of your brief retirement to write? I think J.P. Finley was actually the prompt. We were, we've been texting about some things, and he had asked me a long time ago to come on his podcast, and I said, I'm done doing podcasts, and he said, you have to promise to do it when Dan sells the team, and somehow I turned that into a, instead of, promise to write a column and Dan sold the team.

And now I'm actually on your podcast instead of his podcast. Well, I do remember it wasn't, I mean, I don't know, I could probably look through our text exchanges over the last few years and find when, because I do remember specifically asking you to come on the podcast maybe a year or two ago and you're like, yeah, I just, I don't have anything to say. What do you want to talk to me about? I'm like, I don't want to tell you what I want to talk about. We'll just have a conversation about things.

And you said, nah, maybe you did come on, actually, now that I'm looking at this, but whatever. So tell me, so JP was kind of the inspiration, but still, you had to have something to say, and you really did have something to say. And I think you nailed it in so many ways. You nailed it almost in the same way that somebody like me who was born and raised here, and this was, you know, a very important part of my life for so long. you clearly felt like you could nail this one and you had something to say, right? Okay, so after the most recent time that JP and I were texting, my son, who's three years old, takes a long time to fall asleep. So I sit outside his bedroom and I pack away at my computer doing work on it. And I started taking some notes about what I could write if I was going to write.

And it was really, really easy. I was like almost immediately, I was like there is actually something I want to say here. because, you know, I didn't grow up here, but I've lived here for 25 years now, which is a pretty long time, and I have a ton of friends and acquaintances and colleagues who grew up here, who have talked to me about what it was like when they grew up

and what it's been like since then. And I just felt like, and I grew up in Buffalo around the same time that so many of my friends were growing up here, and the bills, I think, had a slightly different, but a sort of similar. place in that community as Bill Redskins did here. But I just felt like I knew the stories so well, and I knew what it was when I moved here, and I saw every step of the way of, I mean, I've been following it as closely as anyone

has since Snyder bought the team, even if I didn't grow up here. And so I felt like I had this kind of really clear picture of how bad it got. And I mean, I listen to you all the time, and I think that you know that the last few years got exponentially worse than anything before that. For all the complaining that there's been for 25 years, there was nothing like how it was about just the last couple of years. And so I just had this kind of vision of like how far it fell and how maybe there was just like a tiny window here

to try to start building back something towards what it used to be. And I mean, I think there's a lot of reasons, a million reasons that it can't ever be what it used to be that go far beyond Josh Harris or Dan Snyder. but still it just felt like let's remember just how crazy and special it was here for just one moment as he exits. Yeah, it's funny that you just mentioned that because one of the things I want to ask you is what can it be again? Because I think I'm going to agree with some of the things that you're going to say. But I just want to read a little bit from the end of your column because I just thought it was really well done.

You wrote about, you know, sort of, you know, the memories of what it used to be, and then you wrote, then it decayed. First, it was the mistreated customers, the lack of class, the tackiness. Then came the losing, the embarrassment, the ruined reputations, the punchlines. It all seemed cheap, tinny. The team name for many made it worse. Irredeemably so. Finally, there were the scandals, the allegations of appalling misconduct, the hearings, cover-ups.

The football team vanished from the civic identity as much as any NFL team possibly can. Tickets could be had for a candy bar. Gear virtually disappeared from many neighborhoods. The new name was a bust. I would do a double take, a literal double take, if I saw a kid wearing burgundy and gold at our local elementary school. The franchise was more likely to start an argument than a friendly conversation. It was a ragged hole in the civic and the civic, the civic fabric, ugly and obvious. Now the guy responsible is about to depart, and a new guy

who also grew up in D.C. during the glory years is about to arrive. He will be building from a crater. The familiar warmth is gone. The asset is broken. Washington might be too cool, too urbane, too new to fling itself into a relationship like that again. Maybe it can never be what it was, but finally, at least, there's a chance. That was some really good writing. It really was. But beyond that, you know, I had this on my list to talk to you about. When you write, you know, he will be, Harris will be building from a crater. The familiar warmth is gone. The asset is broken. Washington might be too cool, too urbane, too new to fling itself into a relationship like that again. Maybe it can never be what it was.

I've been thinking about that because the city is just so different than it was back then. So what do you think it can become if these guys are good owners and the team is a competitive NFL franchise again? I mean, I guess I wonder. I wonder that, yeah. I don't know. I mean, during the caps and Nats, when they won, it was special and, like, euphoric and great and all that, but it wasn't the same as an NFL team winning, right?

I mean, you would know that better than I would, but it wasn't quite the same, right? No, we were a much smaller, more sort of almost a parochial feel to the city than it is now, you know? Right. Yeah. I mean, it was. Yeah, and so, yeah, and I think maybe. just sports fandom, I think maybe people are a little bit more likely to bring their loyalties with them and not leave their loyalties behind when they move necessarily anymore.

And so it feels it feels like you're never going to have, I mean, obviously there were so many Cowboys fans here back in the day. But aside from that, it felt like those Cowboys are Redskins. And I don't know that, I just don't know that people who move here are going to pick up this team, or at least not right away, the way people used to move here and pick up Redskins. At least that's my experience talking to people, people who moved here from elsewhere and said they'd never seen anything like it and they got into it and they

bought in. And I just don't know that all these people who are in D.C. are in this giant metro area now are going to do that in quite the same way. But, you know, maybe I'm wrong. It's a lot of it a supposition. I would love to see, I would love to see what it would be like if they would win, you know, 11 games or 12 games. Like, as you and I have talked about before, one of the issues is even on the kind of

rare years under Snyder where they did catch a little bit of lightning. It was always like a little bit of lightning, you know, it was never like, it was never just an overwhelming experience. And so I would love to see what it was like, and maybe I'll be proven wrong. Maybe it is what it used to do you think, and I had Scott on the show last week, Van Pelt, and I said, you know, I kind of get the feeling sometimes that outside of this city, that people don't actually really understand what was done here by one person, by one owner over 24 years, the damage that was done. Do you think people outside of this city really understand it? You know, the day that the team was sold on Friday, there were two stories on Sports

Center that were ahead of. It was like, I forget what the big baseball game. It may have been the Orioles raise game. I think the Orioles raise game and then messy. Those two stories were much bigger stories. They were, you know, they trumped this story of new ownership in Washington. Do you think that anybody outside of this market will ever understand what happened here? No, because I think you have to understand what it used to be like, right?

And that, I mean, even like what Harris said, the Redskins and the Cowboys, they were like peers in terms of, like, relevance and importance to the league, right? I mean, they were like, and you know what it would be like if the Cowboys were sold now, it would absolutely be. Of course, it would be the top story on everything. And that's what the Redskins were, right? And I mean, I remember growing up in Buffalo, it was like you were scared of them. They were like a force of a power, and they were like a marquee prestige franchise. That's why, I mean, it never made any sense for them to be one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world unless that was the case, right? and so

for something to have gone from those heights to this like I mean the attendance the interest the excitement it was just completely bottomed out to the point where and I didn't think

this was ever really possible I think it did get to the point where it didn't really matter that much at the end if they want or lost people were out no matter what not everyone of course but with some people and so I think that you had to sort of understand that arc. And you have to be of a certain age

to understand that arc. And I'm like just there. You're just there. But, you know, there's a lot of people who program national sports sites who won't have remembered that. And a ton of people who grew up here who won't remember that. How good of a book? How good of a documentary

will this be? Because somebody's going to do it. Yeah. I mean, the problem is that it's a hate read or a hate watch probably, right? I mean, it's watching something fall, and it hasn't risen

up yet. So maybe it becomes a better arc if there's an upward slope at some point on the other side of it. But, I mean, I'm talking, I would rather hear your point of you on a lot of this. I know you've said these things for years, but when I moved here, it was just

such a dominant, powerful force in the town to have gotten to the point that it is. where people felt like, you know, local government officials felt like it would hurt them to somehow associate themselves with that franchise. It's just like an unimaginable fall. And I think for a lot of years, the media was probably, for better or worse, ahead of where fans were on it, more negative on Snyder and more sort of apocalyptic about where things were going. I know that you got, I think you got on that train earlier than a lot of your peers, probably, because I remember hearing you say, that it had fallen to a vast degree that I think other people hadn't yet realized.

But the acceleration over the last three or four years took it from, like, you know, kind of a local angst to like something far greater. I mean, but the amazing thing is for all that we talk about that in terms of mood and vibes and importance, all those things, the guy left here with $6 billion, right? Right. It's crazy. It's crazy how much money he made from ruining that franchise. Well, it's just such a testament to the power of the league. But he's also a pariah. I mean, he can never live here. His family can't live here. You know, he lost something. Yeah.

I know. There's like shame. I mean, shame is the punishment, right? That's the punishment. And I mean, he must know that, and it must be a horrible feeling, I think. no matter what you think about the guy, it must feel bad at some part of himself to see a city celebrate your demise like that. And, you know, I think the interesting thing, and I think we've seen this all along, is I don't think they have any clue.

Like, you even saw it in their exit statement. There's just kind of a detachment from, well, you nailed it. This was a slow trickle from 2000 to 2017-ish, And then it just started to accelerate in a big way. I really think that the end of 2016, the end of 2017 was the beginning of it. I'm not going to sit here and talk about Kirk Cousins being the trigger for it. But it was just everything was being handled poorly. And then, you know, and then obviously your newspaper and the story started in 2020.

It was a, it blew up the last five years. But I was even starting to feel it, you know, in the, you know, going back to 2010, 2009, Zorn, just the passion being slowly sucked out of me and my friends, you know, all of whom had season tickets and this was, you know, you didn't schedule anything on Sunday. Your Sunday was all about, well, what times the game and we'll figure out everything else after, you know, we've carved out the three to four hours for the game. Yeah. And you know what?

Like, it is like that other places still, for sure. Like, when I go home to visit my parents in Buffalo, it feels like the city is, that's what the city is doing. Everyone knows when the game is. Everyone wears Bill's gear. I mean, it's crazy. And it just reminds me of what it used to be here. I mean, it used to be the same.

And it's not anything like that now. But I think it makes, when I talked about making a community feel smaller, you know, Buffalo is like a small, one of those kind of like small, tight-knit communities, and it's crazy how a team like that can make even a bigger place like Washington feel like the small place on game day, and that's just

totally gone. Well, we should talk about the name, though, because I... I mean, I've been writing about the name for a long time, and I know a lot of people see me and my peers as responsible in some way for what happened with the name, and I really don't think so. I think there was kind of a crazy confluence of events that led to that happening, but

I think the name chased people off, some people off before it got changed. And I think other people left or were chased off when it got changed. And it's gotten to the point where, I mean, it had gotten to a point where there was no win for them, only like how big the loss was going to be. And I think picking commanders just made the loss even bigger than it had to be in my view. But there'll be people listening to this and people who still write to me who say that when they changed the name, they lost them.

That's when they left. I believe that. Look, I've been talking a lot about this. This is, anybody that thinks this isn't a major issue among the majority of the fans. And I'm talking about the significant majority of the fans is just naive. And in many cases, they're not really from here. And they have read about it, but they haven't felt it. And so, I mean, look, I think personally, I think they'll end up changing this name. I don't know what the right answer is. and I talked about this a little bit in the open to the show because I think the Redskins has no chance of coming back. And by the way, you're right. Look, this was a climate in 2020 in the summer of 2020 off of George Floyd's murder combined with Dan doing, you know,

Dan sabotage, self-sabotage things, not paying his minority shareholders, them starting to look in the books, them getting pissed at him, and Fred Smith, taking advantage of that climate to demand that they change the name. You know, so it was all of those things. And then, you know, and by the way, on the heels of the first few stories about all of the women in the organization in your newspaper, it was a confluence of a lot of things.

But without Fred Smith, you know, feeling like he could do this in the climate that we had in that moment. and without Dan screwing his minority shareholders, I don't know, it might still be around, or it may have been swept up in the way a lot of things got swept up in the wake of that crazy summer. But yeah, you know, I think it's so interesting just about what's next because everybody's feeling great. And I was down at the bullpen the other day,

and there were thousands of people down there. And this was not Dan the same group. that for me eventually, you know, or occasionally I've got to go out and do events and you see the same people in recent years over and over again. This was different. And the NFL's super popular. You know, it's not hockey. It's not, you know, in this city, it's not the NBA.

I don't know. I think that there's going to be a rejuvenation for sure off of Jess and Dan not being here. But back to the name, I think that they'd be best. serve to take it very seriously at the very least so that those that feel like they can't come back without a name change, at least feel like they were paid attention to. Yeah, I agree with that. And I told, when you said there's like a naivete for people who aren't from here or who haven't lived here for a certain amount of time, it makes sense for me.

And when I was talked, I think you're right. I think you're right. And I think that people who said during the height of the debate, like, you won't. lose anyone. There's no harm in doing it. It was always like, to me, like a foolish argument, of course you're going to lose people. If you're the New York Yankees, you change your name, you know, you lose a massive part of your brand. And they were in the process of destroying the brand themselves anyhow. But then that's like one of the few things that people can still cling to, I mean, I think it's a huge cost. I mean, I think there's a question about whether, how you

balance that cost with, like, ethics or morality or whatever. That was always the question to me. thought that it should be changed, how can you balance it? But then I think they did such a, to me, they did such a terrible job of finding a replacement, and then everything that happened since then was kind of tainted with the, you know, the really worst days of the Snyder regime that I think that they would be helped personally if they had a different, I mean, I always thought that Washington football team was the best that they were going to do, and I think I sort of still feel that way. That's what I would do.

I would make Washington the brand and let everybody call them the skins or the hogs or whatever and get the old uniforms back. And it wouldn't surprise me if that's kind of the way it goes. I mean, you're, you love, you know, odds and gambling. You know, this bet online basically has yes as minus 400 on, you know, will they change the name eventually? I actually set the odds. I don't really trust, I don't really trust like, I know, odds like that. I know. But I set my, I set my odds maker odds at like minus 1.15 on a yes. the other day. Where would you put it? I mean, I don't know Josh Harris

from a whole. Like, I don't know anything about him other than what I've read in my own newspaper. You know, I think that he seems smart, certainly, and I don't think it's going to take them long to come to some of the same conclusions that you and I are coming to. And I think if they're doing, like, focus groups

that I imagine they will do. Like, there might be people who tolerate the commanders, but there can't be anyone who loved it, right? So, I mean, I think that they'll get to the point where they realize that it would be smarter to change. But, I mean, there's a cost in that. And if they get that wrong, too, then they'd be like,

you know, it could be an opportunity for an early self-inflicted trouble if they wander into that and it doesn't come out well. But I guess I would, I think I would go even stronger than you probably, like, minus 150 or something like that. Yeah. I think if you ask around, I don't know what the argument, the only argument for staying is like, it's like to not open up that possibility of doing worse,

but I don't see how they could do worse. I think the argument for staying is that if you're going to go with the team nickname, it's going to be you're not going to please everybody, and there's going to be a meaningful percentage that hate that too. That's why Washington should be the brand. Look, I increased the percentage of Redskins from zero to like 1%. And only because I thought about, imagine Magic Johnson goes reservation to reservation.

Imagine they do what I suggested 10 years ago. They petition dictionaries for a second non-pejorative definition of the word, which I pitched to the team eight or nine years ago and basically got ignored. But you see dictionaries amend and update definitions of words because language evolves. And that word hasn't meant anything to do with Native Americans for 50 years. years. But anyway, I'd sidetracked you, but I shouldn't sidetrack you with that one. But you know, I will sit back to when you were talking about the excitement and the sort of research and all that, I will say that when I talk about all the friends that I have who have sort of, you know, taught me

and I've like ingested from them what it used to be, a lot of them are legitimately like, in it like boyishly excited about this season now and like talking about getting their friends together to go to the first game that they haven't done in years. And I don't know how long that last. But I mean, I've heard from people who were saying, like, I put on my old jersey for the first time in, you know, 15 years today, stuff like that. So I don't know how long that lasts, but I think that there are people who are going to, they're like willing to give it a shot again. They're willing to sort of like test the waters and see if it feels good to go back to what they used to be, to try to go back to what they used to be, to try to explain to their

kids who they were fine with their kids ignoring it because it would keep depressing. But like, maybe now they want to introduce their kids to it in a way. So I think there's like a huge opportunity. I'm the same way as you. Like looking at that photo of the fans that they set up out at the park, it's like, wait what? It can look like that because it's always looked like a dump. Like a sad dump that, yeah, that attracts that group of people that there's nothing you could ever do to chase them away.

But it won't attract, like it wouldn't attract any kind of casual like, hey, should I take my kids out for a day at the park. Like, just seeing that, I was like, my God, what could this become if they actually, like, turn into, like, a classy, top-of-the-line organization? Yeah, well, I mean, we know it can't be worse. And I would guess, I just would guess that things are going to be done in a much classier way. And like you said in that last paragraph, and I think this is the feeling that everybody has. finally there's a chance because I do think that most people came to the conclusion, maybe in the last five, six years, but some even earlier, there's no chance as long as he owns the team that they'll ever actually have a chance to win. And now there's at least a chance. It's an amazing story. I know you have to run because you had a limited amount of time. But I do think while it would be kind of a hate piece or book, it is a

is a fascinating look into how one of the most incredible sports brands was essentially ruined in 24 years by one person and how it, you know, he went about doing it. Like I've always suggested it would be a great, you know, HBS or Wharton case study, but it would be a really interesting book. And you just wonder whether or not you could get him for it. You probably couldn't. It would be told by many other people. Yeah. You know one thing that when you said, this is totally off topic, I agree with you.

I would read it, obviously, and I would certainly watch it. This is just something else that's occurred to me in recent days, but you just reminded me when you talked about how in like 2009 and 2010 you were already thinking it might be sort of, you know, hopeless. That was like halfway through. It's crazy that, like, Jim Zorn was like the first half of his tenure. And like the last 13 years, what a just a horror show. At that point, as it became increasingly clear, at least to people like me and you, that like maybe you would pop off with one random good year here or there.

Well, the RG32012 year may have been the most exciting year of his entire ownership. Yeah, but even that was like, there were so many great moments in that year, but even that was kind of riddled with, you know, some controversies and like certainly the way it ended left the bad taste to everyone's mouth. I mean, yeah, there was, by halfway through the next year, no one thought that they had turned a corner. I mean, there was no corner turning. You know what I mean?

That's what it was. It was like there was going to be a spike here and there, maybe, maybe, but there was never going to be like a corner turn. And it's just been a long decade. Long decade. Yeah, I mean, we all knew behind the scenes there were things. that were going on. But I think for the fans,

2012 was the season. And I still think the game is the Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas when RG3 threw, you know, whatever number of touchdowns he threw. And all of a sudden they're getting back into the playoff race. And there was a real, you know, the Minnesota run, there was a sense that year that they had gotten the quarterback. And that was the only way to Trump Snyder, right,

was to accidentally. land on, you know, the next, you know, big thing at quarterback. And they thought they had it. And, of course, he ruined that as well. Maybe if they had drafted Peyton Manning, he would have ruined that relationship as well. Yeah. I can talk about this for 500 hours, though, as I'm sure you could too. I know.

I know. So are you going to write any more or not? I mean, I'm not opposed to it. It's not like you're very nice to say nice things to me, but it's not like there's like some groundswell of, like, readers demand. that I write columns. You know what I mean? I'm happy with what I'm much happier lifewise with what I do now. I think if I feel like I have something to say, I will. What do you do? I know you're an editor, but you know, most people don't actually know what

that means. They know the guys that write the stories as columnists. They know reporters. And you're an editor. So when Nikki Javala writes a story, do you go through and just, you know, edit the story? I'm not her editor. I actually edit our columnist. So I edit like Sally Jenkins, Barry Trujuga, Candice Buckner, Jerry Brewer. I edit Feinstein and Kevin Blackstone when they write. You know, I talked to them about ideas, about timing, about when things would make sense. When they file, you know, I will offer feedback.

You know, not a lot. Like I edited Sally's story on the Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova, if you read that one. Oh, it was so good. We talked about Tommy and I talked about that for 20 minutes on the podcast. Tommy thinks that's an award winner. I hope so. I hope so. But, you know, just to get that project off of it, I mean, I have to get buying from lots of other people around the building.

I have to, you know, line up the photographer to go down there. I had to, um, I convinced some video people to go down there for it. You know, there's like a lot of planning that's involved. You know, I do like headlines. And headlines that might be like, I mean, it might seem silly, but for us, especially in the digital world coming up with like the right headline and the right language to describe a story. It pays like a huge role in how many people read it.

Maybe I'm fluttering myself to say that, but I think it does. And so, you know, and I just do, I help with, you know, planning. I edit Neil Greenberg, who does a lot of our analytics stuff. And I keep myself busy in other ways. I mean, I could take you to the office someday and show you what I work. I'm not that interested, but I think people are, I'm kidding. But who came up for, who came up with light, D.C. as the headline for the Friday paper, Friday or Saturday. I think it was Friday.

That was actually Matt Rennie, who's our deputy sports editor and probably has a reputation of being our best headline writer. So he came up with that one. You liked it? Yeah, I thought that was good. What were the other options? Do you remember? I could tell you, but it would take a second on my phone. That'd probably be boring dead time. I know that they rejected Burgundy and Seoul just because it had become such a, you guys, and your chums had kind of beaten that one down. Right. But that was, that one had originally been.

I think hail and farewell was one that I had said. Would you say hail and farewell? Yeah. Okay. That's not bad. Light for old D.C. was great. It was good. That's a really good headline for that particular day.

How much over the last week did just, online readership, et cetera, go up. Because you've told me before, you know, this is always the needle mover, even when they've sucked over the years. This is the needle mover by a factor of whatever, you know, over the caps, wizards, everything else. So how much is it up in the last week? Well, I don't have exact numbers, but, you know,

The Washington Post has changed in a lot of ways to, over the last 24 years. And, you know, honestly, I'm pretty sure that, like, the Mary Jo White story that came out, when they released the report, or whatever they released, I think that that one actually did more than the, it got more readers than the, failed being finalized,

but it was also a weird process because there was no drama at the last minute. You know what I mean? We all knew what was going to happen, and we had all known what was going to happen, and it stretched out over three months. Right. Look, we never really knew, like, what's the official day? Like, what's the official day that you say, like,

this thing is happening? I mean, I guess it wound up being last Thursday or last Friday or whatever, But, you know, we had sort of telegraphed that was coming with, I can't remember what day it was, but there was a good day when we ran it on A1 for the first time. Like, but he's going to be sold to Josh Harris when he was, like, identified as the exclusive, whatever, negotiating rights, all that stuff. So it just wasn't like a surprise. And I think that for us to get a real, like, bomb of a story traffic-wise, now it requires something unexpected or something that people didn't know what's going to happen. That's interesting because I was saying all the way up. until the end of last week.

It's going to feel very anticlimactic. We've already celebrated two or three times. And yet, when we finally got there to Thursday and Friday, and maybe it was because of where I was, you know, at the bullpen, and it was an incredible turnout and reaction. Maybe that was influential in the way I felt. No, I agree with you. It felt that way.

Well, I mean, seeing Josh Harris walk out with Roger Goodell, and realize, oh, my God, Dan Snyder doesn't own this team anymore. Even though I knew it was coming, it definitely had more of an impact. Like, I made the analogy because Cooley, during the whole name change, you know, building up to 2222, he couldn't have cared less. He was like, I just don't care what they pick, whatever. And then on that day, he calls me, he's like, I'm coming on the podcast. And he said, I can't believe the way I felt when I saw commanders in these uniforms.

I felt like this was not the franchise that I played for. I can't believe how I reacted and how negatively I reacted to it. And I think maybe that's what Thursday and Friday, we knew it was coming, but it was official. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. all on that feeling that people had and the excitement that there was, but it didn't necessarily translate to like a all-time record-breaking day for us at all. I mean, I think that I could go back over the last five months and find sale stories that probably did better than the final one, like multiple stories. You know what? Did crazy traffic for us when they actually

changed the name to commanders. When they pick commanders, and I don't know that people, it wasn't people reading out of joy, but that story did an incredible amount of traffic. It was like new and like people didn't know what it was going to be. It was a big surprise or whatever. Right. So last one for you, because we used to talk about this all the time. So in ranking the teams in terms of importance to the most amount of people in town, it's still the football team won, but give me the rest of it.

And tell me how big the football team's lead is now. We're talking just like the top four teams? Yeah, the four professional sports teams. I mean, you and I both know that when Maryland basketball has been great, that's been a big deal. But, you know, we haven't had the championship contending teams to really push that into the conversation. So where are the four pro sports teams? Man, I don't know. I'm out of touch now.

I think you have to go to events the way I used to. I used to talk to people all the time. And I would have like a way better sense. Like off the top of my head, I would say commanders, Nats, caps, Swiss. which is probably not different than I would say have said any of the last 10 years really. But I do think that the, I mean, I don't know if we're talking like the total, like some number of people who care or whatever in the area. I think a lot of commanders fans, people who do care about the franchise, have left the area and live elsewhere and follow the team. True.

I think they have way more fans out of this area than any of those other teams. Oh, yeah. Way more to you. Definitely. So I think that's like a big part of it. I don't know. I mean, it's also like warped by the nationals having been in this rebuild.

And they got totally robbed of having the chance to capitalize on their world series. But the pandemic everything happened. And so, I mean, I don't know what they could have become. If I just was talking to somebody yesterday who said that she went to a Braves game. And like every, every stand has like something named after the World Series. There's buy World Series gear everywhere, and that the whole thing is like a vibe of like World Series winner. And the Nationals just completely got robbed of that chance. And so it's not like they're like rushing up with like tons of momentum right now to catch the top dog, right?

I mean, they are like. Yeah, nobody is. Plateau, yeah. You know, I had Rizzo on the podcast two weeks ago, something like that. And I said to him, I said, do you think you would be in the position you're, in now, which is total rebuild if the pandemic didn't happen. And, you know, they clearly believe that the franchise would be in a different place. Just the revenue bump in that first few years off of the World Series would have more,

it would have carried the day. And let's face it, it went the other way because they didn't have the revenues, a franchise that needed the revenue. And by the way, the owners are in real estate, and a lot of commercial real estate. So everything conspired at, you know, post-world series to, you know, eliminate the possibility of them taking advantage of it

like most championship teams do. They'd probably be in a different spot right now. But they're not. Can I close with one story for you? Yeah, please. And this is a, I mean, this is like a completely unscientific. in every way. But I was, I didn't, we had an event at Nats Park. We're talking on Tuesday. We did it on Monday night for Washington Post subscribers. But we have access to a room through our partnership,

like our marketing partnership with the national. And so we did this event there for like 200 subscribers. We were talking about DC sports. And we were talking about some of the biggest DC sports moments of the last 20, I guess we're off this century. We're doing this century. And we planned this months ago. But, you know, we had to change our list, obviously. because we included on the list the sale of the commanders is one of the biggest moments. Obviously, there's the Capp's Stanley Cups on there, and the Nationals arriving in Washington,

the Nationals winning the World Series, and the biggest applause was for Dan Snyder's selling the team, which is, I mean, it was funny, and it's like recency and whatever, but this was like a nationals crowd, and everyone in the crowd was wearing national gear, and I think the biggest cheer was for Dan's on the team. So, I mean, I think that at least shows you,

a little bit of the excitement that could come out of it. Well, I did this segment last week on radio, and I talked about it here in the podcast. I ranked the top 10 biggest D.C. sports stories that weren't game-related. So, you know, we don't take the World Series or Super Bowl wins or Stanley Cup wins. And, you know, Tommy and I talked about it.

He actually convinced me that baseball returning in 2005 was the biggest non-game story. And I mentioned, you know, Mitchell integrating the football team in 62, and then I got to Snyder's cells in 2023. But I don't know. Gibbs's return in 2004 lit this city up like nothing had in many, many years. That was a big deal. And clearly the Redskins name change was a massive non-game-related story. But we came up with like a top 10 and we had all these honorable mentions and people sent in their lists, and I had forgotten about some of them that were excellent.

But yeah, it was a big deal last week, or, you know, over the last couple of months knowing that it was coming. And it doesn't guarantee anything moving forward. But look, you've been to a million press conferences. You've watched a million of them. What was your impression of Josh Harris and Mitchell Rails and Magic Johnson on Friday? Can I tell you the truth? I was at Bethany Beach with my family, and I watched clips and highlights later. I didn't watch the whole thing. Well, you're an editor.

You're not a writer anymore. You know what? I have a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old and a 16-year-old, and it's, like, just chaos, and I did as much like that last week, and I didn't carve out time for that, and I was, like, literally on the beach. Well, good column last week. Good to catch up. I hope you're well.

Thank you. I'll talk to you, Kevin. Yeah. Dan Steinberg, everybody from the Washington Post. Been a while since we've had Dan on the show. I enjoyed that. I hope you did as well. All right, we'll finish up with a few things, including Albert Breers' one-on-one interview with Josh Harris from last week.

I just read these quotes yesterday, late yesterday. We'll talk about that next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky. use my promo code Kevin D.C. to secure a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000. My bookie's division odds are up. I think we talked about this a few weeks ago, but Washington's division odds are actually becoming longer. I don't know if that's because Saquan Barkley is now in the fold with the Giants signing that one-year deal for like a million more than the franchise

tag. That was a bit surprising this morning. But the Eagles are the favorites in the NFC East at minus 134, so you have to wager $134 to win $100. The Cowboys are at plus 189, wager 100 on the Cowboys who win 189 if they win the division. The Giants are at plus 900, and Washington is at plus 1,600. There was a closer they were closer to the giants the last time I checked on these division odds. So Washington's odds to win the NFC East at plus 1,600 are the second longest odds in the NFC to win a division. Arizona is the longest shot to win the NFC West, but Green Bay and Tampa Bay both picked to finish last, and their respective divisions in the NFC are plus 800 and plus 400, respectively.

So Washington at plus 1,600. That means if you like Washington to win the division, you bet $100, you win $1,600. All right, you bet $10 bucks, you win $160. MyBooky.ag, mybooky.com for all that you need for your upcoming football season, betting needs. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. NFL network and NFL.com started their top 100 player list. This is the list that comes out this time every year that's voted on by the players themselves. And for the first time, Terry McClearn is on the list. He comes in at 94. Now, they're unveiling 10 players at a time every day. So the first part of this list is 100 through 91. All right. And Terry McCorn came in at 94. There's only one receipts. receiver in the top. And the first 10 mentioned, and that is Devante Smith, who came in at 100.

But Terry McClure at 94, imagine, with a quarterback that can throw the ball down field, with some weapons, with, you know, a good offensive scheme, et cetera. Who knows where Terry can go? Because he had 77 receptions last year. 77 the year before. That's the best. I mean, good yardage averaging over 15 yards per carry. but still, there you go. So that first 10 on that player list is out. I would imagine that the second 10 is coming later on today. I think Duran Payne and John Allen will be on the list.

I hope Duran Payne and John Allen are both on the list. John Allen was the only player on the list last year at 88. Again, this voted by the players. This is a list voted on by the players. but if Duran Payne's on the list, he'll probably be in the next 10. And if he's not, it may mean that he's not on the list at all. So, by the way, a couple of things real quickly. How about that news from this morning that Brony James, LeBron James' son,

had cardiac arrest during a workout at USC yesterday. He signed to play with the Trojans. Andy Enfield coaches the Trojans. Remember Andy Enfield coached the Trojans. remember Andy Enfield coached that Florida Gulf Coast team that beat Georgetown many years ago. During a workout, he had cardiac arrest, but was in intensive care for a while, but now is in stable condition as of the recording of this podcast. But scary stuff with that.

There are a couple of other sports stories. Jim Harbaugh expected to be suspended four games for false statements to the NCAA during an investigation over recruiting violations. Now, I would assume it's the first four games of the year. They play East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green, and Rutgers at home. So he's not missing any major games. I shouldn't say that. I have no idea if East Carolina, they occasionally have decent teams. UNLV, Bowling Green. Bowling Green's had some teams that can really score. I don't know what Rutgers is supposed to be like this year. But there are four home games in Ann Arbor to start the year, and it looks like Jim Harbaugh is

going to miss the first four games of the year. He would be back for at Nebraska in Lincoln on September 30th. And then there was the story of Jalen Brown's contract. I mean, are you kidding me? The richest deal in NBA history, Jalen Brown signs a... five-year, $304 million supermax extension with the Boston Celtics. The dude is going to make over $60 million a year. That deal exceeds Nikola Yokic's $276 million extension with the Nuggets.

Some of these contracts are going to make Bradley Beale's recent contract that he signed here look like, you know, chump change. It's like we've always said, you know, going back to the time Field Yates, I'll never forget it as a guest on my show in talking about Kirk Cousin said, don't forget, today's overpayment is tomorrow's bargain, which I've used many times since, stealing it from Field Yates. So, anyway, yeah, some news today in the world of sports. But I wanted to read from a column written by Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated MMQB. I didn't see this until after the show yesterday, but he had a one-on-one with Josh Harris in Minneapolis last week. Now, he didn't write the story until yesterday, but there are some really good quotes in here from Josh Harris

that I think really describe the way he intends on owning the team. So I will get to those in a moment. I wanted to mention one thing, and it's kind of inside baseball stuff, media stuff. But I do hope that the new organization, when they do these one-on-ones, give the locals more of a shot. Look, we have a really good beat

reporter group, you know, the Nikki Jabalas, the John Kimes, Ben Standigs, Matt Paris, J.P. Finley. I'm forgetting somebody, I'm sure. Sorry about that. But they do a really good job. And occasionally, they will get some of these one-on-ones. But the last organization was like enamored with the Adam Schaefters and the Ian Rappaports of the world. And I remember, I don't know, five, six, seven years ago in a meeting suggesting that the bigger bang for their buck would be to do a lot of that

stuff with local people, you know, like me. But seriously, I am serious about that. I would love to have those opportunities, and I've had a lot of them in the past. I'm not saying that, you know, we've been completely shut out. But, you know, seeing this late yesterday, you know, the bigger bang for their buck is to do these kinds of things now with the local media that have a far bigger reach into their fan base. You know, Ian Rappaport and Albert Breer and these people, I understand they have millions and millions of social media followers. but those are NFL fans. The connection with their fan base is through, you know, local media, local hosts, you know, like me and others.

And so we'll see what happens. But anyway, I digress. I wanted to get to some of these quotes because they're really good ones. You know, he does get into how lucky he feels that he didn't get Denver a year ago because Washington came the market and Washington is, you know, is something that's much different for him. There's this quote in here where he says that when they were doing some due diligence at FedEx Field, the group that was with him that had gone through the Denver bidding looked at him at one point and said, wow, this is different for you. And he said, I was lucky. It was very lucky. It worked out in a very

lucky way for me. This is something that's really emotional for him. Buying the Denver Broncos would not have felt the same. You know, he talked about growing up in D.C., Chevy Chase, and, you know, walking down East Capitol Street into RFK, talked about the Garrow-Uprimean blocked kick, Mike Bass picking it up as an early memory. And then he got into

some of the things that I think are interesting that Albert Breer got out of him. So Breer talks about, you know, his ownership experience with the Sixers and the Devils. And he writes, Harris knows, knows, you know, the pitfalls, the traps, because he had to confront those both as an NBA owner and an NHL owner. And he sees that experience and should be better equipped to not let such situations lead his team into a ditch. And he says the following Josh Harris does, quote, certainly I think a lot of people who are great business people or are great at something else come into owning sports teams and they believe just because they're smart and they're knowledgeable fans that they can start making player decisions and they make mistakes.

I mean, that's what Dan did. My learning on that, has been to attract and retain the best possible, in this case football talent, and to watch, to learn, and to listen, to not come in and just think because you're a great fan, you know what's going on. That's what we intend to do. I think the other thing that people don't realize, unless they've been through it, business is very transactional. It's about building value, building a company. In sports, you're a steward for the city, and it's very very, very much. It's very, very emotional. It's not about money. It's about much more intangible things. I loved that quote from him. Clearly, there's some self-awareness that no matter how big of a fan he is, you know, he's not going to make the mistakes that Dan made.

He's already been, I don't know that he's been through that with the Sixers and with the Devils. but you know they intend on finding the best talent hiring that talent and letting them do their job but i also thought when he talked about business being very transactional it's about building value building a company but in sports you're a steward for a city and it's very emotional it's not about money it's about much more intangible things you know he's talking about a lot of the things that we've discussed over the years you know this emotional attachment this This dovetails right into the name conversation. And I think he's going to be very sensitive to it.

You know, and here's the interesting thing. If you're sensitive to those things and you recognize that there's this emotional, this visceral connection to the team with a lot of people and you, you know, you own that way, then the money's not going to be the issue. You know, you're going to have people that understand that you're doing things that are in the best interest of what they think they're interested in, what they are interested in, what they're emotionally invested in. And the two things in many ways sort of go hand in hand. So Breer was talking about the process, you know, the Sixers process. You know, he bought the team, Sam Hinkie was the GM, and they tore it down.

They tanked for a few years. and in the last six years after a lot of those draft choices led them to Joel Embed, among others, you know, they've won 50 plus games four times in the last six years, 49 games once and 43. The other time, and they've been to the postseason, six straight times. And Breer writes, there's something to be taken from the process with the Sixers. Two things, actually. The first, as I see it, is that Harris will think outside the box.

The second is that there will be a strong focus. on building something sustainable that's not just for the here and now. And so here is the quote on that from Harris. Quote, there's a big arbitrage in sports on thinking and acting for the long term. And we want to build elite organizations and teams that win consistently over the long run. Every situation is different. Washington has a good young team. so I'm not sure that that's the right analogy.

But yes, we want to be innovative. We want to encourage long-term decision-making. Look, ultimately, you win with the players on the field. You draft them. You get them in free agency. You trade for them. Unfortunately, free agency is generally something where you pay a lot. Trades are very opportunistic.

So the draft is what you ultimately have to fall back on to build your team over a long run. And we'll just have to see what we have. have here. I'm not saying that's what we're going to do, but I think that we'll do what we have to do, which is about attracting the best and brightest, thinking outside the box, and creating edges in sports science and analytics. Closed quote. So the part of that quote that's interesting to me is when he says there's a big arbitrage in sports on thinking and acting for the long term, and we want to build elite organizations and teams that win consistently over the long run. Every situation is different. Washington has a good young team, so I'm not sure that that's the right

analogy, meaning, you know, the Sixers and the process. That's really hard to do in the NFL. You know, first of all, basketball teams have, you know, one-fourth of the players that NFL teams do. And by the way, that would mean one-fourth of the contracts that NFL players have. Now, not everybody's under contract beyond the next year, but you can't strip a football team down to nothing and start over unless you're an expansion team. You know, Washington has massive salary cap commitment here over the next few years. And by the way, with a lot of really good young players that you'd want to start the process with John Allen, Terry McCorn, Duran Payne, and they're all under contract for a while.

You know, when he says every situation is different, Washington has a good young team, so I'm not sure that's the right analogy. Yeah, they've got a good roster. We know that the quarterback is still a big issue, obviously, a mystery. But he doesn't have to come in, and I don't even know if you can do it in the NFL and strip it down to the stuff. You can't do that, A, because of the commitments contractually. By the way, B, it'd be almost hard to field a competent football team. Okay, great. So that's going to land you with the number one pick next year and the year after.

These quarterbacks that you're 100% sure are going to be franchise. Quarterbacks don't always turn out to be that way. It's kind of the same in the NBA. But, you know, you've got to have a roster around it. You know, that position is a very dependent position, even if you were to land it by sucking and snagging, you know, one of the top two or three picks in the draft. In basketball, you can't win the whole thing without an elite player. You know, you can't even, you know, win 50 games a year without an elite player for the most part. So it's just different.

He's not thinking about the process and tearing it down and tanking. You don't do that in the NFL because you can't do it. There's not a clean slate unless you're an expansion team. You've got too many contracts, too many players under contract, and you need so many players under contract. You know, if you basically cut most of the players on your NBA team and you just signed a bunch of UFAs and, you know, maybe one or two players that had to make money to get up to the minimum threshold on the salary cap.

You know, you're pretty much going to guarantee yourself an 18 to 25 win season and, you know, a very high draft choice. In the NFL, the line between the really bad teams and the really good teams, it's pretty thin. You know, it's almost as hard to lose 17 as it is to win 17. Anyway, there were a few other things here. Breer writes, Harris has a lot of catching up to do, and he readily admitted that when I asked how closely he's followed the commanders and the NFL at large. Here's what Harris said. Quote, growing up I was a huge football fan. I'm getting to know the team again.

I'm coming in. It's the eve of training camp. I've had very limited interaction with Ron and his staff, although I've had some. I've had no interaction with the players. Really, I know what I read. Obviously, I'm aware of what it means to be the owner of a sports team. I know a lot about Joelle Embed. I know a lot about James Hardin.

I know a lot about Tyrese Maxie. I know a lot about Nick Nurse. I know a lot about Daryl Morey. I don't have that kind of intimate knowledge of the Washington commanders yet. I will. And so that is, look, he talked about this on Friday. They just got here. They haven't had the access. And the calendar is such, they can't do anything about the football people right now. They can't do anything about the

general manager people, you know, group right now. This is a sit back and wait and observe for a season. He also said, you know, that he'd yet to meet Martin Mayhew. He's had limited exposure to Marty Herney and to Rivera. He's had more, obviously, he says, reasons to communicate with Jason Wright. But anyway, he has a few more quotes here. How do you compete in the NFL? You try to create the best team. What does that mean? It means hiring the best front office, maintaining the best coaching staff, attracting the best people. It means developing analytics, developing any edge you can, whether it be analytics, whether it be sports science, whether it be how you treat your players, whether it be the opposing team, not wanting to come

into your house because they don't like it. It's a million little edges. We know how to do it. We're not going to meddle in the roster day to day, but obviously there are times where we've made changes. They made a basketball change in the off season, firing Doc Rivers in Philadelphia, hiring Nick Nurse. You've seen it in Philly. Saw it in Philly this off season. We do what we have to do and we make decisions that we think are right. Right now we're going to do the best we can in learning and getting to know the people. He writes, it's being a fly on the wall to a large extent. I'm not going to be watching the 40-yard dash and calling plays. It's about starting to get to know the staff, the key staff, and the key

players and then understanding the decision-making that's going to go into the roster and how they're configuring the team and going from there. And look, this year is a big year for the franchise, obviously, and we're going to learn a lot. So I think it's unlikely that you'll see us or me meddling early. We're going to be watching results and what happens. Obviously, we know how to build sports franchises that win over the long run. We've done it.

It takes a little while. We have to see what we have. There you go. I mean, that last part, you know, I talked about this, I think, yesterday and maybe even on Friday's show. I don't really want to hear about how successful they've been in other places, you know, when he says, obviously we know how to build sports franchises that win over the long run. Let's be fair here, Philadelphia does not have a championship, you know, during the Josh Harris era. The Devils don't have a title during the Josh Harris.

era. But, you know, New Jersey, the devils are on the rise. And the 76ers have been to the playoffs six straight times with four 50 win seasons. That's not bad. So they have, look, the equivalent would be imagine if they go to the playoffs four out of the next six years, with four out of the next seasons having 10 wins or more. I think, you know, over the last 24 years, we would have paid for that. Super Bowls are the goal. I get it. Of course, Super Bowls are the goal. But, yeah, I mean, he does not own a Stanley Cup quite yet, and he doesn't own an NBA Lawrence O'Brien trophy either. But both of those franchises, I mean, New Jersey really bounced back this year. ended up having a great regular season winning, I think it was 52 games out of the 82,

and they won the first round of their postseason against the Rangers, and I think they lost in the second round to Carolina. I think that was it. The only reason I know that is because, remember, the number one seed in the NHL playoffs, Boston got eliminated in the first round. Man, hockey is weird. All right, that is it for the show today. I thought a lot of that stuff from Josh Harris, he was a lot more than we got on Friday. But I wanted to share all of that with you.

All right, I am back tomorrow with Tom. Four seconds remaining in regulation. Houston, tied at 13. Perhaps the Houston order career of Ian Halfield.