The Kevin Sheehan Show - Alt Uni News + Mark Ein

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Kevin opened with a Lamar Jackson vs Jayden Daniels take before getting to the Commanders' tweet today announcing that they will unveil their 2025 alternate uniforms in one week. Mark Ein jumped on to talk tennis, RFK, and uniforms (barely). Nima Omidvar/Shell Shock was Kevin's guest in the final segment talking about the Maryland Basketball Alum team that will be playing in a national 64-team alum tournament this month. 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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Two guests on the show with me today. Mark Eind, of course, one of the team's limited partners and instrumental, really in putting the entire ownership group together with Josh Harris, is a longtime friend of Josh Harris's.

Mark Eind's been on with us before. He will join us today, and it's perfect. timing because the team put out a tweet today that one week from today, they will unveil alternate uniforms for the upcoming season. So yes, I will ask Mark about that. Another guest on this show today, Nima Omidvar. Nima was a part of Mark Turgeon's basketball staffs at Maryland in the mid-2010s, he runs a group called Shell Shock, which deals with Maryland basketball alums playing competitively in a tournament this month. I think for Maryland basketball fans, this will be an interesting conversation.

The show's presenting sponsor, as always, Windonation, 86690 Nation, windonation.com, if you need new windows. This from Dave to open up the show. Dave writes, Kevin, what is your issue with the Lamar comp? He's talking, of course, about the PFF ceiling comp for Jaden Daniels being Lamar Jackson. The floor comp was Kyler Murray. And Tommy and I turned it into a conversation yesterday about sort of who's the career ceiling comparable for Jaden? and what is the career floor player comp for Jaden.

But Dave writes, what is your issue with the Lamar comp? If Jaden's 2025 looked like Lamar's 2024, we're talking about 5,000 yards of offense and 45 combined touchdowns to just four picks. We're talking about the number one offense in the league, 12 wins and the MVP. Come on now, I'd take that every year if I could. Playoff success for Lamar is the only knock, and I don't think PFF was implying Jaden couldn't win a championship. He's being compared to a two-time MVP by age 28, who is the most terrifying offensive player in the league. Yes, I think it's a pretty good ceiling for next year. Thanks, love the show.

Dave, you know what? It's so funny as I was reading your email. I remember a year ago when we were coming up with comps and Lamar was a consistent comp. And many of our listeners and fans of the team said, I don't want him to be Lamar Jackson. I want him to be much more than Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson isn't any good in the postseason in the playoffs. And I said, hey, guys, if he's Lamar Jackson and we didn't know what he was going to become, I mean, some of us were more bullish and more optimistic than others. But I remember saying if he turns into Lamar Jackson and is a multi-time MVP winner, not bad.

But here we are a year later. And yeah, I know what you're saying in terms of PFF just looking to next year. What we were doing in our conversation is we were saying at the end of his career, you know, what's the ceiling for him? After seeing him for one year, come up with the comp, the player comp, in terms of a best case career

and then a player comp for sort of the worst case or the floor career. And I think a year later, I project personally that his career ceiling could be higher than Lamar Jackson's and could be something like, like Steve Young's. Now, Steve was only a two-time MVP, but he was a Super Bowl winner. And Steve

Young, let's face it, on a list of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game, Steve Young is way ahead of Lamar Jackson. I don't know where Lamar Jackson is at this point. A two-time MVP is certainly worthy of, you know, top 20, top 15 conversation. I honestly could not put Lamar Jackson in the top 15 of greatest quarterbacks of all time. Not yet. I'm not saying that he won't get there. But yeah, no, I know what you're saying, Dave, and I appreciate what you're saying, and comping, you know, any quarterback to Lamar Jackson, you know, even if it's a ceiling comp, is an attempt to be very complimentary. I understand that. I just think Jaden is a lot more. And I do think that he's just a better passer. I think he's a better in the pocket quarterback. And last year, Lamar made

great strides. And it was his best season by far. 41 touchdown passes, four picks, as you mentioned, you know, 4,100 plus passing yards. And of course, you know, another whatever he had, 900 plus rushing yards last year. And he's special. And he's going to be special for the rest of his career, but I just think that when Jaden's career is over, there's a chance it will be a better career than the career Lamar Jackson will have put together. That's all. So, earlier today, big news, and I don't say that with any sort of exaggeration or hyperbole, because the number of views of this tweet indicate that this is real big news among fans of our football team. So the team put out a tweet that read, new alternates unveiled in one week, as in alternate uniforms for the upcoming season, 2025.

Attached to new alternates unveiled in one week, and as part of this tweet, is a silhouetted, player in uniform with the date July 9 written on top of the silhouetted player. July 9 is a week from today. That's when they're going to unveil these new alternate uniforms. Now, before I get to what I've said for the last nine months since October of last year, let me just mention something because I just went back, I don't know, maybe 50 to 100 tweets. from the team. Trying to kind of get an average number of views for the tweets that they put out. This tweet already, as of right now, has 400,000 views. Probably climbing to something close to a million

views when all of a sudden done, maybe. I don't know. I mean, it's 400,000 and we're only an hour and a half after the tweet came out. As a comparison, you know, this is back of the envelope, but over the last week, you know, the average tweet generates about 40,000, a little bit less than 40,000 views. They had one tweet that generated about 220,000 views when they indicated how many Sundays were left before real football begins. But this is by far and away their most viewed tweet in days. I would imagine, you know, in months since they played games or since the draft, I would

guess. I would certainly guess that the draft picks and maybe some interviews with players, et cetera, you know, are comparable. But this is, you know, it's what we've talked about many times. And I know that there are some of you that don't agree with this. not the majority of you, but some of you that like to say this doesn't matter to anybody other than a bunch of old fans, and they don't matter anymore. So it's just not true. And there's plenty of quantifiable data to support that it's not true, including polling and things like this.

But anyway, let's get to these alternates, because since last October, I've shared with you what I learned last October, and that is that the alternates in 2025 would resemble the uniforms of the past, meaning pre-2020, before, you know, they changed the team name and they change the team uniforms to what the uniforms are now. By the way, in this silhouetted picture, I forgot to mention, the helmet does have a W on it. It's very clear in the silhouette that the W is on the helmet. I think that they're sticking with that, even as they debut maybe an alternate uniform that looks like something from the past, and even if that uniform becomes something permanent in 2026, 2027, which is what I reported and had a very good source on all the way back in October. We talked about it last week

because the uniform thing popped up again in conversation because of some meme or some tweet with Jaden Daniels and a helmet with the spear and feather on it. So, yeah, I haven't learned anything new since last October. I just know what I was told then, and that is, while the name is still, you know, in flux, and this was last October, they were still very much considering, you know, what they were going to do with the team name. We talked about that when they announced that they were sticking with the command. Anders. 12 and 5 and two playoff wins gives you, you know, an opportunity to take the path of

least resistance. And they did that with the name. But when I was told in October that, you know, the name is separate from the uniforms, the name is still in flux, but they are certain that, you know, Josh Harris and Mitch Rails and Markine and so many of the limited partners who aren't just limited partners, limited owners in the team, but are fans of the team and lifelong fans of the team, they understand how important this stuff is. And they too want a look that brings us back to the team that felt like our team. And I think that's where this will go. I don't know if it'll be exactly what it used to look like. I'm anxious to see too. Now, there's a site called Sports Logos Net.

Several of you have sent me, you know, recent reporting on what the alternate uniforms are going to be. I don't have all of it in front of me, but I have this one in front of me. Sports Logos Net reported that the team's new alternate uniforms are going to draw inspiration from the team's classic look. Okay. Classic look, I think, is. debatable, right? I mean, my classic look is what I always refer to as the championship uniforms.

The uniforms that they wore in their three Super Bowl wins, you know, wearing white at home with burgundy pants, and then they also obviously had the burgundy top in the white pants. And I know that, you know, as the team got into this century, they would go burgundy on burgundy occasionally, white on white occasionally. But the championship uniforms, they were white at home with burgundy pants on the road. They wore whatever, you know, either the burgundy and white, burgundy tops white pants, or if the team that they were playing was wearing dark at home, they would wear their whites. Anyway, I'm getting deep into the weeds because this isn't even a conversation that I am an expert on. So many of you know so much more about the history of our

uniforms and where the stripes were and where this was and that was, I'm not an expert in that. To me, though, the classic uniform is the post-70s, you know, the George Allen gold pants, burgundy tops with, you know, the 47-year logo, the Blackie Wetzel logo helmet. They brought the gold pants back, remember, in 2010, Bruce Allen brought them back in 2010, I don't consider that to be the classic look or the championship uniform, but others might. So when Sports Logos Net says anticipated to draw inspiration from the team's classic look, which classic look. I just don't want the current look. I want it to look like the team that we rooted for our entire lives prior to 2020 and then 2022 in particular. And I think that

think we'll see something that represents the past when they unveil it a week from today. By the way, the alternate black uniforms of the last few years, I actually liked those uniforms. I know, I think I'm in the minority on that, because a lot of my friends hate the black uniforms. I actually thought they were the best-looking uniform the team has worn in recent years. All right, so there you go. The big news of the day, the team announcing, that the new alternate uniforms will be unveiled in one week. Hallelujah. Mark Eind, after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought you by Window Nation.

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And did I mention, they'll get the job done in a day or less. Their installation crews have over a decade of experience so you can feel comfortable knowing your windows are installed correctly the first time. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't procrastinate another day if I could save myself from another month of living in discomfort. Don't miss Window Nation's biggest deal of the year, 50% off on all Windows styles and zero interest until the year 2030. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com today for your free quote on replacement windows. Mark Eind joins me right now. Of course, Mark is part of our football team's ownership group. Mark was instrumental in helping Josh Harris put together the team and the group of

limited partners that bought the team nearly two years ago. We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of the sale of the team. Mark is a local. He's a born and raised Washingtonian, grew up in Chevy Chase, went to BCC, went to Wart. after that. I think Harvard Business School after that, I'm not sure I've got all of your degrees here, but Mark is a pretty smart guy and has been

one of the region's most impactful entrepreneurs for over three decades. He is also the owner and has been for quite some time now of the very successful City Open tennis tournament, which begins two weeks from Saturday with qualifying play down in Rock

Creek Park. We'll get to the tennis in a moment. We'll get to the tennis in a moment because I want to talk some tennis with you and I know you love talking tennis but it's coming up on two years. I mean late July 2023 when that deal finally got done and I know because you've told me this before that this was a deal that was never done until it actually was done. Take me back two years ago and give me a story or a memory or two of those final weeks leading up to the sale. My biggest memory of two years ago right now is how tired I was. How tired we all were.

It was a really, really long seven-month process that was kind of 24-7. Every night we would do Zoom, kind of starting at 10. On a good day, they'd end at midnight. They often went to 1 a.m. sometimes later, just reviewing everything that we had to do and the issues that came up. And it was not easy, but it, man, was it worth it. It was totally worth it, especially as we sit here now two years later, and just see how energized our community is and how much the fans are back in love with their franchise.

It made all that hard work really worth it. I'm pretty sure I've asked you this before, but was there a moment? I forget if it was Josh who mentioned this or someone else who mentioned it. It may have been you, and sorry if I'm being repetitive. but that there was a moment very late in the process before Snyder finally, you know, officially accepted the deal, signed the term sheet, whatever it was at the very end, where it looked like you guys weren't going to get the team, that he had changed his mind. Is that true?

I mean, I think there was lots of moments through the process, even fairly deep in the process, where I don't know if it was him changing his mind, but it was more just at an impasse on something significant, and it was not a certainty that it would happen. That happened a number of times, and deep into the process. Those are when you test, you know, those are when you test yourself. I know, I know we didn't talk about tennis. I went through the same thing kind of saving the tennis tournament for our community

because it was going to get bought and moved, and it was the same thing. go into these things and think this isn't something important, this is something impactful, something I want to do, but they're never, they're never, ever easy. And both of them actually were quite challenging at that moment. All right, let's talk some tennis. The Mubidala City, D.C. Open gets underway two weeks from Saturday with qualifying and then two weeks from this coming Monday with the main draw. It's become a staple event in this town. during the month of July in a staple on the ATP and WTA,

both the men's and the women's summer circuit. You know, I was checking out the field that you have so far announced on the website. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to me to be one of the best, deepest, and maybe biggest name fields you've ever had. I think in terms of depth and breadth, I mean, at least in any recent memory and anyone who's followed the tournament, I think it's the best. We have seven top ten players across so far in what we've announced seven top ten players across both tours, the top nine American men, five former Grand Slam champions, two former number one. And then just some of the players that don't qualify from what I just said, but people love to see like Nick Kiro's and Gail,

Feast and Kay Nishikori. And then the other thing, Kevin, that's happening is for people following Wimbledon, is there are a lot of early upsets of top players. And we've been getting a steady stream of calls of players who are now saying, I actually want to seriously think about coming D.C., so I'm pretty sure you're going to see some additional pretty significant names added to that list here. How have you made that happen when you and I both know there was a period of time, where it wasn't the best of dates.

The weather was always considered for many players to be brutally hot and not worth it. What changed? I'd love to take credit for if we changed the weather. But I think that, I mean, that's obviously a given. Like, I, as you said, you were a ball kid. I was a ball kid. Then I was a fan. I came every year.

When I came as a fan, I was frustrated because I knew this is a really, important tournament. It was the only ATP 500 in America as one of the big tournaments in the world, but the fan experience just was not very good. And, you know, if you weren't in the VIP tent, there was nowhere indoor or air condition ago. The food was served by the same vendor who does the concessions in the park, which, you know, are fine for the basics, but not what you want when you're going to be out there all day and coming every day. And I'd say the same, thing happened was the same general experience for the players. And so the biggest thing we did was just make a complete commitment to transform the experience for everyone who touches the

event, starting with fans, second players, also sponsors and media even. Because in the end of the day, you know, the thing about a tennis tournament, it's not one-two-hour game. It's a week, and if you give people a good experience, they're going to come five, six, seven hours, and they'll come back day in and day out. And if you're a player, you're spend there, you're spending five, six, seven hours. If you're covering the event, you are. And I don't I feel like you have a real responsibility to make it great. And we have, obviously now there's all kinds of amazing venues, indoor air conditions. There's a tequila bar, a bar, a grill, a frosate terrace overlooking the side courts. We have, this year we have seven Michelin Star Chefs

and then Ben's Chili Bowl and Duke's groceries and King Street, like the best of D.C., and then fun drinks. And so what's happened, Kevin, is obviously you see it on the player side. It is now become an event that people really want to come to. And I'd say even off-site, we put them up in a fantastic hotel. They stay at the salamander. They love that being downtown. We've upgraded the transportation.

And so word gets around, you know, word gets around. this is a really great event to play it. And that is just a big event. We also upgraded on the women's side from a 250 to 500. So it's the fifth biggest tournament in the United States. It's one of only 10 tournaments in the world that have men and women together at this level. And as a result, fans and players all want to be there. Duke's Grocery, by the way, a hell of a burger.

I mean, really, really good burger. Francis Tiafo. I mean, he played really well in Paris. He lost today in the second round at Wimbledon. What do you think he's capable of? Do you see him being an eventual Grand Slam champion, something we haven't had in terms of an American male since Roddock back in 2003? I think any given tournament Francis could win it. And he just had to look back at the U.S. Open last year. He was up two sets to one on-serve against Taylor Fritz and the fourth set deep at five-six. So, P. Holds served. You're playing a tiebreaker to get into the finals.

Obviously, I think it was against Carlos. That's tough, but Francis played Carlos really well a bunch of times. So I think any given week, he can win the tournament. You know, the challenge is, and it's not just Francis, look how many upsets. Then at Wimbledon of top players is the game is so deep. And if you go and you watch the players practicing, you can't tell the difference between the 50th best player in the world and the fourth. You can't. Like on a practice court, they hit the ball the same.

What the difference is is what happens in the match, how you deal with pressure and how you can keep your level, not have letdowns, especially on the men's side. Because if you have a little mental breakdown, you lose your serve, and then you lose the set, and then you're probably going to lose the match. And so a lot of it is just about that consistent weekend and wake out and within the matches. And Francis has proven he can do it, but it's a challenge for everyone. That's our part. And what makes the top guys, the top guys is that they always bring that level of intensity every match, every week. But Francis certainly has the talent ability and desire to win a Grand Slam or any tournament he's in. What kind of chance do you give Ben Shelton of winning a Grand Slam?

high. I mean, you can't someone with that serve. You can never bet against. He similarly was in the U.S. Open two years ago. You know, so he's been knocking on the Army. These aren't theoretical. These guys are making the semis of grand slams. And with Ben's serve, I was

at a bit of his match in Paris against Alcaraz. That was incredible. And that's on Clay, not his best surface. And he was right there. So Ben's another one. You know, Taylor Fritz is five in the world. That's one of the things about the tournament this year. You have all top nine American men, and you've got three in the top,

I think you have three in the top ten. Yeah, you do. You have Ben, Tommy Paul, and Taylor, and then right behind it. Francis. At 12. So American tennis is in a good place, and this is, I was on the board of the U.S.T.A., the U.S. Ten Association for six years, and when the whole program turned around, and the whole theory was like, you just kind of have to flood the zone and just, just try to get enough players in the top 10 or around the top 10. And then you just hope someone makes a breakthrough, either at a tournament or just in general. And they've done a great job. Same on the women's side.

There's three women in the top 10. And Madison Keyes won the Australian Open. So American tennis is in a good place. You know, to get to legendary icon status, the way Roger Rafaa, Novak, or now Carlos or Yonick, I mean, those guys are freaks of nature that it's very hard, very hard to train that. You either bring it or you don't, and hopefully one day we'll have an American like that, too. Who's the greatest men's tennis player of all time? You get asked this, I'm sure, a lot.

I think it's a really good debate. Who's the greatest that's ever done it? I mean, I think the greatest, if you have to, is Novak, only because he's won the most. And then if there's any debate about, you know, previous generations of players, Novak did that when you also had Roger and Rafa. So you have to say how many Grand Slams would he win, one, if you didn't have those two. I don't think Roger had the biggest impact. I mean, Novak had the biggest impact on the sport out of those three.

I'd argue in different ways it's Roger and Rafa. They both did it. You're saying that Novak did not, did not have the biggest impact. No. No. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. No.

No. No, I think Roger, in his way, brought something that captured people's imagination. Rafa did his, and then there have been other players over the years who had impact. But if you say who's the greatest player, it's hard to argue with Novak, even what he won, and who he had to beat to win those events. Do you have a favorite all-time player? I am not going to cop out. I don't.

I feel blessed. I love Rafa, and I love when he came here and got to spend a lot of time. with him a lot of time. And I just think he is unbelievable. I mean, the humility he has for what he's accomplished is extraordinary and his kindness. It's actually amazing. A great lesson on how kind you can be off the field and how ambitious he can be on. It's unbelievable. You know, I, nothing, I, in the later years of Rogers' crew, I made sure to, whenever I could see him live because just the grace with which he played was was unbelievable. And so, you know, I love both those guys in different ways.

I admire Novak a lot. He's actually a really good guy. And then, you know, honestly, Kevin, like, I really, I've been friends with Francis since he was five or younger, friends with the family. And I love that kid so much. And he does such an amazing job representing the DMV, representing the American dream. And I really want him that breakthroughs. I know he wants to win D.C. so bad, that would be super cool.

But I'm always rooting for Francis, wherever he's playing. Mubidala City, D.C. Open.com for all information, including tickets. By the way, I noticed you've got Curios here as a featured player. I know he's won it twice. He's not playing singles, is he, right now? That's the plan. He's signed in. And actually, interestingly, without getting in the nuances of tennis, he has a limited number of what's called protected ranking where you can say I was injured and you can use your ranking. But you only have a limited number of those.

You can use your ranking before you got injured. He used one of those to enter the singles in D.C. I was texting him last week about the doubles, actually. And we all love it when Nick comes. He's won the tournament twice. he lights up the crowd. He brings so much to the game, and I'm really hoping he's here both for singles and double.

You know, he's excellent as an analyst. I mean, I think he's definitely, that's his future, don't you think? Yeah, that and other things. I mean, he's obviously a big personality, and he's got, you know, he's got a lot of really interesting points of view. And to a lot of kids, Kevin, he's the most compelling player. I mean, he is compelling to young people. And I agree with you.

He's got a great tennis mind, and he's very authentic, and I think he's great. And then what a treat when Andre commentated. He was excellent. That guy's insights about the game are extraordinary. But we love Nick, and hopefully Nick's going to be here, along with all the others. It's really going to be a memorable week. and I don't usually come on and try to talk about tickets. I will tell you, we're almost sold out, and I do think we're going to have more big

announcements. So, you know, the other great thing is just this event now is sold out the last four and a half years. It'll for sure again, and I'm just grateful for our tennis community in town. People here are incredible, and now they have the tournament they deserve. It's been a great tennis community for so many years, which you've been a big part of, and it is a great event. It's a first class event to go to, that's for sure.

By the way, I think the most, you talked about how young people like Curios, I think the most dramatic, you know, week in tennis in the last few years was his second week at Wimbledon in, what year was that? Is that two years ago or three years ago now where he got to the final? Two or three.

Two or three, I can't remember. Yeah, that was, that was a, that was a, That was extraordinary. And, you know, look, this is just personal opinion. But, you know, Nick, Nick obviously often, you know, he kind of goes a little off the rails. I think sometimes he thinks that's helpful for him, and maybe it's helpful for disrupt the rhythm. What people forget is he played straight up and focused Nick Kier-Sennis, and he won the first set against Djokovic. Yeah.

He won it. And then, you know, he got a little off the rails. And it was, you know, Novak totally kept his calm and it kind of distracted Nick. I've often thought if he just stuck to the tennis in that match, I think he might have been able to win it. And, I mean, he won that first set. And when Nick Curious is serving well, he just takes the racket out of him. There's nothing you can do about it. And I tell you, Kevin, just for tennis fans, the single greatest match I wasn't there,

I've ever seen someone play, is Nick played Rafa in Cincinnati. five years ago and you beat him like literally like two and four or three and two you literally like rock upsetting serves and nick is smacking it back on return like when that guy's on his level of talent is unbatched yeah no the talents you know never been in question i mean it's the same way i mean mackenroll obviously won you know seven majors right seven or eight um and but but the talent was unmistakable the hands all-time great hands but it was a lot of the other stuff that got in the way. Curios is similar, had a similar career without all of the majors.

Totally. I mean, yeah. You know, you're right. There's a lot of similarities there. And, you know, the interesting thing about John, who I've gotten to know, and he's also a really smart guy who has done great new car world. He's one of the great commentator, very versatile guy, his, when he would play senior tennis tournaments, he would do the same thing.

People thought it was an act. It wasn't an act. It was like who he was. It's part of his authenticity. But look, it's one of the, I obviously love this sport. And one of the reasons I love the sport is because you have these amazing characters, and they're not wearing helmets and they're not on a team. Like, you get them in their full glory to watch them.

And I think it's one thing that makes the sport. so compelling is the personalities and the matchups and the fact that you get to see it all right in front of your eyes. Yeah, McEnroe is probably my all-time favorite athlete and Serena in terms of that sport in this century was my favorite to watch and personalities have a lot to do with it. All right, you mentioned, you know, two years ago, there were Zooms that started at 10 and would go until one or two in the morning. Do you guys wish that's what the city council was doing right now to get this deal understood and voted on? Oh, I, Kevin, I want to get into the politics of it and what's happening there.

And obviously people are, there's lots of people talking about that and pontificating. I think the team's done an amazing case laying out why this makes a ton of sense for the city. You have not heard virtually any member of the city council saying they don't want this to happen. And so I believe this is going to, I believe that right outcomes going to end up happening here. Was it a productive night the other night at dinner in Georgia? I don't know what you're talking about. Well, you know, this is a big topic, obviously. And it's a big topic because this is what everybody wants.

You want it. You just said the city council wants it. The mayor wants it. The recent polling indicated that, you know, know, the city's residence of which you're one and I'm one wanted, which is unusual, by the way, because typically, you know, any tax dollars going to a stadium is not, you know, a majority opinion in terms of approval. So your best guess right now, two-part question, does it get done and by when? I think this gets done. When, I hope, I think it needs to happen. It needs to happen sooner.

then later it does. But I think it ends up getting done. And I think that's what Evans marching towards. And we talked about whether it was the commander's process or when I bought the tennis tournament and stopped it from moving out of town or any of the other things like this, these things are all processed. They have their ups and downs. But most of the time when there's a will, the right outcome happens. And I believe that's what's going to happen here. You said you hope it's sooner rather than later. Is there a point where it becomes, too late? I mean, eventually there's a time when it comes to late, but I'm not in the position

to talk about dates or anything. We have our team, you know, who talks about that stuff, and they have their strategy that they're executing. And but working collaboratively with the government to try to get this done in a way that everyone feels good about. I mean, that's really what everyone's trying to do. Everyone's trying to get this done the way that everyone feels good about. All right.

Let's finish it up with one more, and it's one of your favorites. Actually, it's not. I'm not going to ask you about the name today. But I am going to ask you about uniforms because the team, and you know how important this stuff is to the majority of fans, both past and present, you know, name, branding, uniforms, et cetera. But the team, if you didn't see it, Mark earlier, put out a tweet saying new alternates in alternate uniforms to be unveiled in one week.

So are you willing to give us a hint as to what we might see a week from today? No. Just one thing. Honestly, I can't, I can't, and I'm not even, I wish I was going to be in the country, but I'm going over to Wimbledon to try to round up our last players and make sure everyone's feeling excited to come to D.C., so I'm going to be following it from afar. But, you know, one of the things,

well, it's more than one. The thing that I feel the best about Kevin for this franchise is the leadership that's been put in place. I give Josh a lot of credit for really spearheading the recruiting of Adam and Dan Quinn on the field and now Mark Klaus as our CEO. And people probably have, you know, know, the CEO's a little bit more behind the scenes, but, and he, you know, he only started

the beginning of the year, but this guy's incredible, and he's a brand guy. The reason I bring it up, he's a brand guy, he ran Campbell's Soup, he ran lots and lots of some of the best consumer brands in the world. He fully understands brands and customers, and I think our fans are going to be so thrilled to see what happens over the coming years with our brand and how we relate to our fans, and we couldn't have picked a better leader than Mark to, to, to lead that and lead the team. Well, for him and for Josh, because I know he's said this, or he's certainly implied this in the past, that, you know, what you do with respect to sort of the branding of the team will, you know, pay homage to the past. It will, you know, certainly that the history

and the tradition of the team, you guys recognize how important that is to everybody, and it's important to you guys too. So is whatever, you know, Mark and others are planning, will, is it something that you can at least say ties in to the past? I honestly, Kevin can't. I cannot talk about it at all. But we know how much this stuff means to people. And we are so focused on rebuilding our connection between our fan base in this franchise. I think we've come a long way in two years, and I think in the coming years, it's

just going to continue to grow and build. Thank you for doing this. As always, have a good trip over there, and congrats on the field so far, and I can't wait to see what the additional announcements are before it happens. Thanks.

Yeah, thanks. Look forward to seeing you there, Kevin, and hopefully everyone in our community comes out. If you love tennis, you love it, and if you just love a fun night out, the summer, come out and check out the tournament. I appreciate you, Kevin. Thanks. Appreciate you too, Mark. Thanks again. Mubidala City, D.C. Open.com for tickets, and they're going quickly. That's Mubadala City, D.C. Open.com. We'll finish up the show with something that I think will be very interesting to Maryland basketball fans. We'll get to that right after these words from a few

of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by MyBooky. If you want to bet on sports, my recommendation is to go to mybooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. MyBooky will give you a cash bonus when you sign up. They've got plenty of baseball. They've got plenty of tennis if you're interested in betting on Wimbledon.

I've got a friend of mine who kills it betting on tennis, or at least that's what he says. They've got all of the NFL futures for the upcoming. coming season, all of the week one and week two point spreads. Go to my bookie.orgie.org. Use my promo code. Kevin, D.C. All right, joining me right now as an old friend, Nima Omidvar was a part of Mark Turgeon's staff in College Park in the mid-2010s, 2014 through 2018. He saw three teams that he was a part of go to the NCAA tournament, including the 2016 team, which made it to the sweet 16 in Louisville, where we lost to Kansas in the Sweet 16.

But NEM has been involved in running a group called Shell Shock, which involves Maryland men's basketball alums. And it's getting ready to compete in the annual TBT, which stands for the basketball tournament. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to you. because I'm not sure everybody's familiar with this. I think this is going to be something that's interesting to a lot of Maryland basketball fans, but not necessarily familiar. So I'll just let you tell everybody what Shell Shock is and what the TBT is.

Well, Kevin, thanks so much for having me on. And it has been a while. I still stay connected to you through your podcast and a big loyal listener. Love all my commanders' updates. Shell Shock is the alumni basketball team for the University of Maryland that competes in the TBT, which stands for the basketball tournament. The basketball tournament has been going on now for 14 years. They've had a lot of increase in popularity and traction.

And obviously, in our neck of the woods, we're trying to make this more of a thing every single summer. We participated in this event once before. We did get a win against the Florida alumni team, but we're looking to take. it up another notch and do a little bit more than what we did last time trying to advance deep into this tournament in an opportunity to win a million dollars, which should we win, we're putting that towards NIL for the University of Maryland. All right. So is it a winner take-all tournament?

It used to be, Kevin. So now it's got a little bit of a different format. It used to be you got picked to get into this thing based on the quality of your roster, similar to NCAA tournament, things of that nature. Now, there's a $15,000 entry seat, and you've got to be pretty good. But because of this entry seat, which really they just wanted teams to have skin in the game so that they don't have no-shows, you do get a payout per round, and those payouts are designed to help offset traveling costs, lodging, food,

things of that nature, and then obviously salaries. We got a lot of professional basketball players playing in this tournament. And some of these guys are giving away time from their families, as well as taking the risk of getting hurt, which could cost them in their subsequent contracts wherever they're playing. So that's kind of where those dollar amounts come in. But those are kind of inconsequential compared to obviously the million dollar price. All right. Well, this is interesting, I think, to a lot of people, because it really is primarily, correct me if I'm wrong. It is basketball, you know, powers from, you know, the sport of college basketball, the alum teams,

and it's got to be a good alum team to qualify, and then there's the, you know, the entry fee as well. How big is the tournament? How many teams and give us a sense of the schools that put together alumni teams and enter? Yeah, so it's 64 teams just like the NCAA tournament. You have eight, you've got eight regions. we're going to be this year participating in the Virginia region, which would be hosted by James Madison University. Just to kind of give a little bit more of a peek behind the curtain,

a lot of this stuff is really hard to wrangle in for any particular team. UVA was originally the host. They had a change in their coaching staff, as everyone knows, and then things kind of went in different directions. I'm not trying to throw shade on the cavaliers, but they weren't able to kind of maintain and retain their team, and so they had to pull out. teams like Louisville, Kentucky, Yukon, Syracuse, Wichita State, Houston,

are just some of the names that come to mind that are alumni-based, but then you also have some just straight-up all-star teams that, like, Shaquille O'Neal has got a team, for example. So it runs the gamut. Our overall goal, Kevin, and this won't obviously happen this year, but by next year we would love to bring this event to Xfinity Center at the University of Maryland where we could make this be a revenue driver for the athletic department, similar to what Louisville and Kentucky are doing.

They're selling 13,000 tickets for a game. Seriously. Yeah, that's big money. So that's really where we want to take it. But we've got to put the left foot in front of the right foot. We want to have a great show in this year, led by guys like Juan Dixon, Joe Smith, Byron Mouton, Andre Collins as the coaching staff. That right there she gets turf fans excited.

We obviously got a good squad that's not limited to just turf. I think that's the other thing to really know is, yes, we've got Maryland Alums. The lion's share of our team will be Maryland Alums. But we're trying to win a million bucks. We're using our relationships and the infrastructure that we've built as an organization to put something together that can be sustainable in the true sense as a pro basketball organization. that's pretty wild. You know, I remember something, and I think you and I have talked about this before.

This goes back probably 20 years, maybe 15 years, where some of the SEC schools were trying to do this with former football players. And I'm like, wow, that's a hard thing to put together. And football, you know, at a certain age, becomes unsustainable. But, you know, at basketball places, and look, we like to think of our place as a basketball place, and it is. It's a basketball first school. We all know that, and there's a great tradition in the whole thing. But when you're talking about Kentucky and Louisville, they, so what are they, they don't pack Rupp, but you're saying 13, 14,000 at Rupp to watch a game? Yeah, so it's interesting.

You mentioned Rupp. And at Louisville, they played it at Freedom Hall. Oh, they did. played in our first in the TBT, our game was pretty much empty against the Florida alumni team. We go into the locker room, we celebrate, we come back out, and the place is jam-packed. I had to go sit all the way in the top of the stadium to scout. But what they've done has been pretty clever in terms of marketing. The team that sold 4,000 tickets first, which this year was Louisville, they clinch home court advantage all the way throughout, so long as they're still in the tournament. So if they get bounced, then we don't have to worry about going to play at Louisville.

But everybody else is that is the host, Kentucky, Wichita State, West Virginia is a host between both Marshall and West Virginia, Syracuse. They are, you know, vying to be that second, third, fourth team. So there's an opportunity for us to possibly bounce around to a couple different venues. We know for sure July 18th will be playing at James Madison University. But then from there, you know, we could be shipped around. just like in the NCAA tournament, which is going to add a new element. That's new this year. But what they did that season and every year since, you know,

whoever sold the most tickets gets that next home game, and then when you got regional rivalries like the Louisville, Kentucky, and, you know, they've got Indiana, Purdue, and Butler all doing the same thing in the Indianapolis region. Now of a sudden you've got fan bases buying tickets just to be able to get the opportunity to wear the home uniform. That's pretty cool. did they try something like this in football in the South 15 years ago or so?

Do you know? Kevin, we did talk about it. When you and I talked about it, kind of just nodded my head. I don't really remember. Yeah. Be honest, when they first came to us while I was still coaching at Maryland, I thought like, whatever, man, this is kind of a gimmicky deal, because it is gimmicky in a sense.

Elam ending is a little different. There's no game buzzer at the very end. they set the score eight points beyond whatever the highest score is at the last media timeout. And so every game is ending on a buzzer shot, if you will, a ending conclusion point. Wait, I didn't follow that. How are the games played? So you got four quarters. We get to the last quarter at the four-minute media timeout.

let's say the score is 70 to 68. When that timeout is called, they're going to attack eight points to the highest score. So now the target score is 78. So you're going to play until somebody gets the 78 points. I got it. It's the whole dynamic of, you know, guys trying to make the game-winning shot.

You wear Pumas. Now a sudden you get $1,000 to make the game-winning shot. So now we've got this whole new dynamic of who's going to pass. and who isn't. It creates a whole different strategy element that's really unique and exciting. So we love it. I'm watching it year after year

and having some of my former players playing it. We say, you know what? We have to have representation in this tournament. It's in the middle of July. There's not a lot of other sports going on. The University of Maryland needs to be able to compete and put themselves in that conversation as we deserve to be as a top 10 basketball program.

And so we're just doing our part to bring it all together. Is any of this televised? All of it is televised. Our first round matchups are going to be on YouTube. A lot of the games, however, will be on the Fox Sports Family Networks, whether it be FS1, FS2, et cetera. And, you know, every single one of the games will be broadcast in some capacity.

We do plan on helping put together some game watches within our local community in Montgomery County, in College Park, in Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. So if there are any restaurants or places that would like to help bring that to life, we'd love to partner up with you. But, yeah, every single one of these games will be visible at some capacity. Do they seed the field? They do.

And so we were fortunate enough to land a two seed in our field and our region. Penn State got a number one seed. you know, there's some gamesmanship that goes on with this thing. We had to submit eight rostered members by a specific deadline. Our roster includes Mellow Trimble, who's obviously our headliner, Darryl Morsell, who was our guy that made the game-winning bucket, the last go-round, Xavier Green, LG Gill, and we even added Bruy and Rob a fan favorite to go with guys like Jeff Allen,

he played in Virginia Tech, Anthony Tark, who played for one, Dixon at Cobby State and then got the chance to play with the Pistons and Will Cherry who played with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Beyond that, we've got up until July 15th to add a couple more players. I will tell turp fans out there that we do have a couple other turps on the radar that we're working with their representation to try and get them to play on our team. And then we have some other non-turps that have some local ties that we've been talking to to kind of bolster the roster.

So we're excited about where we are with our team, obviously becoming the number two seed. It's good, but it doesn't guarantee any points on the scoreboard, but we're committed to making a deep run in this thing. I mean, you've got some Mellow Trimble and Darryl Morsell are your probably two most recognizable names on the team. But like you said, with Juan, Joe Smith, and Byron Mouton, and Andre Collins is all part of the coaching staff.

And I'm assuming they're just too old to play in this thing, right? Well, you know, they could potentially suit up if they want to. I don't know if that's going to be in our best interest or in their best interest, whether they want to pull a hammy or not. But, you know, there's a whole other kind of side story that goes on with all this, Kevin, is, you know, we all saw kind of what happened around the NCAA tournament. Again, we're not looking to point fingers of cast in a shade, but the former Maryland basketball players really kind of came together through the conversations that we had surrounding TBT. There's been an alumni coalition that's been formed that's being headed by David Neal.

Matt Rado, who's a former player from the early 90s, been really successful in the business side, has joined up and really helped us from a business operation standpoint. But without exaggeration, this organization is now over 50s. former players that have worn the uniform that are putting in effort and coming together on the common goal of how can we help the University of Maryland men basketball program be successful. So there's going to be more than just this tournament within the shell-shock realm of events that will have to offer. We're going to be doing golf tournaments throughout the state of Maryland and northern Virginia, game watches, other things that we're going to be able to bring the,

the men that have worn this uniform in the past to the fans, and together kind of collaborate to do something special with Maryland basketball in mine. Does Duke have a team in the field? Well, their pinkies are up as they sit their cocktails. I think they think they're too good for this. Okay. What about Carolina? Same thing. Same thing. Same thing.

I did spend some time down that way. Most recently I was coaching in Durham at North Carolina Central. I poked around on it. They've got their brotherhood. They're doing their thing. And candidly, we've got our thing that we're doing. I'm the only member of this organization that did not play at the University of Maryland. Every other person did play.

And what we've been able to do, you know, similar to those guys in blue, you know, to give them a little bit of credit, is through this alumni coalition, connect dots for guys that are recently retired from playing to the business work, world to do some special things. So it's more than just, you know, guys going out and playing in a professional basketball tournament. And so, you know, tip of the catch of those guys, we'd love to find a way to play those guys, the alumni, as well as the current dudes. We know that there's a lot of politics that go within that.

But between now and whenever that happens, we're just going to continue to do what we do and try and bring all of our former Maryland basketball players together in a united front as we compete and raise dollars for NIL and other charitable ventures. Well, I'm sure you've thought about it. I mean, you could certainly sell a lot of tickets at Xfinity Center for a Duke Maryland alumni matchup. I don't know if you could pack it, but you'd sell a lot of tickets if the player mix was right.

All right. This really actually, I'm looking forward to watching some of this. you know, YouTube or the Fox family of networks. Tell everybody about the golf tournament that you guys have coming up and how people can help, Nima. Yeah, absolutely. So July 14th at Whiskey Creek Golf Course in Inesville, Maryland, we're going to be having a large collection of our former players. I just name a few. Obviously, we talked about all the guys that are coaches, but Tony Massenberg, Drew Nicholas, Matt Kovarck, Chris Wilcox,

Sean Mosley and Travis Gerson, who are helping as general managers within our organization. Grievous Fasquez, Johnny Rose, Rodney Elliott, Derry Williams. The list goes on and on. We're going to have all these gentlemen participating in this event. You could sign up by going to shellshocktt.com. We do have some forsooms left and some sponsorship opportunities. The funds that are raised through this were putting dollars to work,

both with the alumni, some of their foundations that they've got. We've actually partnered with the John Brown Memorial Fund. John Brown, the owner of Bentley's made fresh and peace. His family has set up a memorial scholarship in his honor, so we're doing some activities to raise funds to benefit that as well. But it's going to be a fun, fun day. And, you know, our plan is after we get our feet underneath us and get after this tournament,

is to kind of take this show on the road and hit all the different counties within the state over time so that Maryland fans can show how much they love the Terps in their own backyard. So we're not trying to tax anybody by, hey, man, drive all the way from the eastern shore to this side of the state to be part of this. We can bring our guys over to you.

That's kind of what this thing is all about is really connecting with the fans, with these former players for a common goal. What's your all-time favorite game that you were involved in as part of a coaching staff at Maryland? Okay, so great question. Wasn't prepared for that, but I appreciate it, Kevin. So I got to go through two, okay? The comeback win against Georgetown at Georgetown, year two of that series, that was a lot of fun.

At Capitol 1. Kevin heard of shot at the end. I mean, Anthony Cowan really stepping up. That was a lot of fun. Our first ever Big Ten games at Michigan State, yeah. You know, I believe this was right before the football bowl games. It was double overtime. I happened to have the luxury of sitting in that first chair back then.

So I was coach Turgent's psychiatrist, is what I would call it. he would just flash out at the rest and have no clue what he was saying. And there was a juncture where he got teed up. And I just went and bear hugged him and walked him back into the coach's box. And, you know, didn't want him to get thrown out because we had some momentum going at that point. And Des Wells, who is going to go down as the all-time best warrior that I've ever had the fortune of coaching, is looking at us all in the eyes like, we're going to win this. We're going to win this thing.

And so I had a little bit of role to play there by saving us from an extra technical by bear hugging coach. And then at the end of the game, I'm like, coach, sorry about that, man. He had no idea what, like, what are he talking about? He just completely blacked out of that moment. Those two of my favorite moment of all time, man. It was fantastic. Yeah, that game was so memorable because it was the first Big Ten game. But I'll tell you what, that Georgetown game at Capitol One Arena, the end of that,

game, the comeback down nine with like two and a half to go or whatever it was, and the satisfaction of beating Georgetown in back-to-back years. And by the way, remember, that was it, too. Like, that was the end of this quick, you know, Gavitt game, you know, commitment of two years. And it was like, you know what, we don't need to play you anymore. This is fine. Although they are going to resume the series this coming year. It's the opening game of the year. No doubt. No doubt. Yeah. Goosebubches here. It was that game, I don't know, there's, there's so many games that are incredibly satisfying, but there was something about that one that just, you know, remember that game, it was a 630 start for TV,

and the place was half empty to start, and by the end it was packed, and many more Maryland fans, even though it was, you know, on the road technically at Georgetown. but it was an electric arena and an incredible comeback. Cowan with all of those plays and, yeah, love that game. Great job. Everybody, you can find out everything you need to know about Shellshock by going to Shellshock tbt.com. Shellshock t, B as and boy, T.com. Nima, thanks so much, best of luck with it.

Thank so much, Kevin. Really appreciate it. All right, that is it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.