The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cease & Desist

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Kevin opened with more reaction to yesterday's joint practice with the Dolphins before getting to the big Jayden Daniels-LSU story. One of the show's legal experts and good friends Howard Gutman jumped on with his interpretation and opinion on the Daniels cease and desist letter to LSU. Jayden's statement on the matter came out in the midst of the conversation with Howard so the boys gave their immediate in-the-moment reaction to that. Kevin finished up with a few thoughts on the Wizards' schedule which came out today.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Search Whatnot—W H A T N O T—in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away.   Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with my link www.ThriveMarket.com/SHEEHAN for $20 off your first three orders plus you’ll get a FREE $60 gift. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. He is Kevin. Howard Gutman is going to join me on today's show. We have a cease and desist letter for him to analyze. The show is presenting sponsors, always to Window Nation. 86690 Nation, Window Nation.com, if you need new windows.

A quick apology for the show last night on Apple and Solution. Spotify. It got out very, very late, actually, very, very early this morning. There was a hang-up with Apple and Spotify in distributing many podcasts. And I just want to remind everybody, and I've done this before, if you listen to this show, and most of you do, on either Apple or Spotify, that's how I listen to the show as well. I listen to it primarily on Apple, sometimes on Spotify. And I'm not telling you to listen to the show anywhere else. But you can always check the Kevin Sheehan Show.com if you think the show seems slow in getting out on the other platforms. That platform, those platforms, I don't control the kevin Sheeonshow.com. I do.

But I actually find it very easy to listen on Apple and spot-up. and I check all of the various distribution platforms for my podcast occasionally. Quality checks, I would call them. Last night was a bit of a debacle, so my apology. But again, don't forget that the show always goes up immediately at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. And sometimes, not usually, but occasionally, I would say infrequently, it goes up a little bit later and sometimes gets hung up on Apple and Spotify. All right, the NFL's preseason week number one in full gets underway tonight.

Six games tonight in the NFL preseason. Washington goes tomorrow night at home against the Dolphins. This weekend will be the first of 24 consecutive weekends with the NFL in action. I mean, if you want to call preseason NFL football action. Last week's Hall of Fame game, which, by the way, drew over 7 million viewers, which is more than any baseball game this year, Major League Baseball game this year, and more than any hockey game, including the Stanley Cup finals last year, that Hall of Fame game doesn't really count as the first weekend of the season

because it was played on Thursday night. So this upcoming weekend with preseason games, not only tonight, but tomorrow night, Saturday night, Sunday, will be the first of 24 weeks in a row with football on TV. Then you get the break between the championship games and the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl this year, the latest it's ever been February 14th, Valentine's Day, 2027. Yeah, it's just nice to have football on TV. Comfort food. This from Terence, Terence writes, Kevin, The Dolphins are the worst team I've ever seen.

I'm not sure what to think about the commanders after today's scrimmage. Terrence wrote that. Yesterday, the joint practice between the dolphins and Washington, I had been standing with a complete recap. on the podcast, which again got out very late. But if you haven't listened to it, Ben did a great job of covering pretty much everything that you needed to know about the joint practice. And yes, Ben also said the same thing, Terrence, and that is that the dolphins were terrible. But I will just remind you, as I did a few weeks ago, this time of year can fool people. I pulled this

from last year's joint practice with the Patriots. Here was a common takeaway. I'll read one of them. Quote, Marshawn Latimore is healthy and back to his old self. Look out. The secondary is going to be the strongest unit on defense. Closed quote. Now, I did find some things that were better indicators of what was to come.

I found this, quote, the wide receivers really struggled without Terry McClearn, closed quote, and found this too, quote, very impressed with Drake May and his receivers, closed quote. But yes, the dolphins are in rebuilding mode. You know, the dolphins and the Browns in Arizona are really the three teams that are very much more in, you know, no expectations at all. That's why this, you know, preseason power rankings put out yesterday by NFL.com that had Washington 29th and had Arizona in Cleveland in front of them was just absurd. I got the, I got this from Rich. Rich emailed me after listening to the show yesterday or early this morning.

He wrote, I got to give it to you, Kevin. You are a top five homer in the DMV sports. reporter Homer power rankings. I thought you might pass out when you read the commanders at 29 yesterday. Hope you're feeling better. Hate to do this to you, but netting it out, Washington is the fourth best team in their own division, and then he finishes his email with. How about them cowboys? I am kind of curious to know who's ranked in front of me on the the sports reporter Homer power rankings. By the way, Rich, I'm not a reporter. We've talked about that before. I'm the opposite of a reporter. I'm glad I'm not a reporter. I've been a reporter,

but I am not a reporter. That was a very quick part of my broadcasting career. So, yeah, Terrence. Apparently the dolphins stink. This from Aaron Rogers. He was quoted earlier this week talking about preseason games when he was asked about whether or not he thought he would play in the Steelers preseason opener tonight against his former team, his old team, the Packers. He said, quote, it's preseason. It's not real football. If I play great. If I play great. If I. not great. And then he was asked about joint practices, and he said, quote, teams don't run anything in the preseason anymore.

They just don't. Even joint practices, the first year we did them, it was fun because you got to play a team that wasn't going to play how they played in the preseason. They were going to show you a lot of different things that they were working on. It was like a real day at camp. As that got on, it just stopped. being like that. It just turned into fights and nobody showed anything because somebody's brother is on the staff and they might show him the film. I think those are a wasted day. I think preseason

football is good to see guys with the pads on under the lights and how they react to the nerves, but it's not real football. Closed quote. Yeah, I think those of us that have watched football many of you listening long enough understand that preseason football is totally worthless to the viewer in trying to assess what a team is going to be in the upcoming season. I thought it was interesting what he said, though, about the joint practices. I actually had somebody tell me that recently that the joint practices, because I made the point, and apparently not a very good point, that joint practices are a better tell than the preseason game because teams are going to play their ones for a lot more.

That is true. But when I said that a few days ago, somebody did reach out to me to say, you know, the ones do play more, but it's still dialed way back. And that's what Aaron Rogers was saying as well. All right. Let's get to the Jaden Daniels, LSU and desist, number five. Jersey situation. This story has blown up. It was trending as the number one story on ESPN.com for much of the day. And the overwhelming response to this story is not and has not been favorable

for Jaden Daniels. Now, I have, I think, a different perspective than many who have weighed in on this thing. And yes, I am a big fan of Jaden Daniels, as most of you know. but I promise I will do my best to approach this subject with a very sincere level of objectivity. I promise that, as I always do. And there is something that definitely irks me about the way this was handled from the Jaden Daniels or Jaden Daniels family perspective. But let me begin by describing to those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, what I'm talking about. The easiest summary, the quickest way to describe it, is to say that Jaden Daniels or the family of Jaden Daniels, or maybe both, are very upset that LSU gave his number five jersey out to a player this year. The player's name is DJ Pickett.

He was a very highly ranked corner out of high school. He played for LSU last year and wore a different jersey number. he's wearing five this year. And so that is the crux of the whole story. That is the impetus for what came next, which is that the fact that they gave out Jaden's number five to a player after apparently telling Jaden that they would protect his number five after he left LSU. So Daniels, by way of his attorney, has filed a

a cease and desist letter with LSU's athletic department to stop all usage of Jaden's name, image, and likeness. Now, I'll get to the details of that coming up here in a moment. We found out about all of this because a spokesperson for Jaden Daniels talked to ESPN. They actually, whomever that was, the spokesperson for Jaden Daniels, that's how it's described in the ESPN.com story written by Mark Schlebeah, who was on radio with me today. But that spokesperson speaking on behalf of Jaden Daniels and Jaden Daniels family laid out everything for everybody to read. They made it public. Now, a little bit more detail.

So the cease and desist letter, let me just start with that because Mike Garifolo from the NFL network, were from ESPN, had the actual letter out early this morning. It was written to LSU football attention, their athletic director, Verge Osbury, and it reads, regarding demand to immediately cease and desist use of lightness. It reads, our firm represents Mr. Jaden Daniels in connection with the matters relating to the commercial and promotional use of his name, image, likeness, voice, signature, photograph, biographical information, personal attributes, and other indicia of identity and publicity rights, collectively, his NIL. We've been informed that Louisiana State University,

including its Athletics Department, coaches, affiliated personnel, vendors, licensees, and or other persons or entities acting at LSU's direction or for its benefit, continues to use Mr. Daniels' NIL, notwithstanding the expiration of the contractual period during which LSU was, I'm sorry, was authorized to do so. Specifically, the agreement with Mr. Daniels that he entered into with his NIL with LSU terminated 180 days after the expiration of the agreement. agreement. So, the cease and desist letter sent to LSU by the attorney representing Jaden Daniels basically said,

no more using Jaden's name, image, likeness, voice, signature, photograph, biographical information, personal attributes, anything related to Jaden Daniels in the promotion or the commercial use for LSU sports or LSU football. And apparently, I guess the NIL deal, according to this cease and desist letter, now I haven't seen the NIL deal that Jaden signed. Nobody's put that out. But if you believe this cease and desist letter,

essentially the NIL deal that Jaden signed with LSU when he transferred from Arizona State to LSU, included them being able to use his name, image, and likeness for 180 days after the NIL deal with him terminated. So that would have been, you know, after he graduated or after the football season in 2023. So that was essentially the cease and desist letter. Now, why did they send the cease and desist letter. Well, that's where we get to the story that Mark Schlebeau wrote late last night that appeared that I read early this morning, where he writes, an attorney representing Washington Commander's quarterback Jaden Daniels, has informed LSU that it can no longer use his name,

image, and likeness, right? So he's talking about the cease and desist letter, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN on Wednesday at the center of the dispute, according to a statement from Daniels spokesperson to ESPN is that the Tigers, LSU, are allowing sophomore cornerback DJ Pickett to wear the number five jersey that Daniels wore when he became LSU's third Heisman Trophy winner in 2023. By the way, the others, Joe Burrow and Billy Cannon back in the 50s. Billy Cannon's jersey is the only one officially retired by LSU. They've got a couple of protected jerseys.

And obviously, according to Jaden Daniels, and I'll get to this in a moment, he believed his was protected. While Daniel's jersey hasn't been retired, Mark Schlebeau writes at ESPN.com, it's the first time a player has worn number five since he left the program for the NFL. Here's a statement once again from the spokesperson representing Jaden Daniels. Quote, the Daniels family is deeply disappointed and feels profoundly disrespected by LSU's decision to give Jaden's number to another player. Jaden and his family had every reason to believe that his number would remain a meaningful part of LSU's legacy and would be honored and protected in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the university. Jaden made it clear that he did not want his number given to another player,

and he believed his wishes would be respected. His Heisman Trophy winning season and everything he accomplished on and off the field cemented his place in LSU history. To see his number given to another player is incredibly disappointing and feels like a failure to honor the significance of what Jaden accomplished at LSU, closed quote. The story also points out that the number nine jersey worn by Joe Burrow when he was at LSU has not been worn since 2019. His jersey has been protected as well. Now, a little bit of detail that has come out post this story about the number five jersey and why it's ended up on DJ Pickett entering the 2026 season.

When he signed his NIL deal, he was a very highly touted cornerback nationally, number two, as high as number two nationally in the country. part of the deal was he would be able to wear number five. Now, apparently he would not have chosen LSU if he was not promised that he could wear number five. However, when he got to LSU last year, the then head coach, Brian Kelly, did not allow him to wear number five. He protected Jaden's jersey and DJ Pickett wore another number. Now Brian Kelly got fired. LSU hired Lane Kiffin.

Lane Kiffin came in and DJ Pickett apparently said, it's in my deal that I get to wear number five. And Lane Kiffin, the new coach who didn't coach Jaden Daniels, is honoring the commitment that LSU made contractually to let DJ Pickett wear number five. So, look, personally, I think LSU should, should have just protected the jersey. And even though this was a significant player, probably said to the player before they agreed

to it contractually, hey man, number five's worn by one of our greatest players in franchise history. We're protecting that number. There are a few numbers we protect. They protect Burroughs number. They protect Charles Alexander's number from way back in the late 70s, early 80s. He was a great running back. His number four has been protected.

But they, you know, Lane Kiffin said, a deal's a deal. He's given him number five to wear. Certainly, you know, look, they don't retire numbers. And Jaden, I can't imagine, has a legal claim to stopping them from handing out number five. Joe Burroughs number nine, we don't know that there's been a player that's requested number nine. So we don't know how they'd handle Joe Burroughs number nine. We do know that a player had it contractually in his NIL deal to wear number five, but for whatever reason was talked out of it last year by Brian Kelly,

but then went back to the new coach and said, I want number five, and Wayne Kiffin is giving it to him. Now, a couple of things. Number one, I don't know specifically what it says in that NIL contract with Jaden and LSU. I'm talking about the NI deal that he signed when he went to LSU from Arizona State. It's very possible that there is an absolute case

for Jaden to say, stop using my name, image, and likeness. It sounds like once the 180 days after his NIL deal ended, they couldn't use it anymore. Now, why is he going back now? He's going back now because he's pissing. off about number five or somebody close to him is upset about number five being given out.

Because if he had an issue with it previously, the cease and desist letter would have been sent before, you know, whenever it got sent here very recently after he found out that number five had been given out. But I can't tell you that the cease and desist letter will get Howard to weigh in on it when he joins me. I can't tell you that they don't have an absolute legitimate case legally and otherwise to send out that cease and desist letter. We'll get Howard to explain it, but I don't know what, you know, LSU would be able to do. I mean, it's promotional videos, it's photos, it's, you know, I would imagine the stuff

that's specific to just Jaden they could probably do something about if they decided to adhere to the cease and desist letter. But how are you going to get them out of, you know, team, you know, videos from his two seasons at LSU. You know, some of the games that they played, I'm sure they're part of the recruiting videos. They're probably, well, they, they, I am sure, part of the videos that get played to just new students at orientation

or students coming to visit LSU. You know, I went on a lot of those college visits with my kids, and, you know, the introductory videos were always heavy on sports as if the school was known for sports. I will say this. I can't believe that a school would actually basically give up its rights to use the experience that a player had at their university playing a sport as a recruiting, as a promotional tool. But it would appear that they did if the cease and desist letter is accurate. and again, if it is accurate, maybe Jaden's got a legitimate claim.

Again, it wouldn't be brought against the school, if not for this Jersey situation. I mean, I think that that's an obvious link to assume. If not, the cease and desist letter would have gone out last year or the year before. But anyway, yeah, so as it relates to their ability legitimately to say to LSU, using my name, image, and likeness? Okay. The schools giving up that right seems insane to me. We'll talk to Howard about that. The issue that I have out of all of this is this. I don't think they should have gone public with this. This is one of those, is the juice worth the squeeze to go public to turn this into a story with ESPN and then to use some of the quotes that were used

by the Jaden spokesperson, the Daniels family is deeply disappointed and feels profoundly disrespected by LSU's decision to give Jaden's number to another player. Look, first of all, I'm just going to guess here that this is more Jaden's family. and it says the quote is the Daniel's family is deeply disappointed, that this is being driven more by his mother, who's also his agent, or his mother and family members, more so than Jaden.

I just don't think Jaden seems like he'd be that obsessed with this. I'm not saying that he might not be pissed off about it, but to go to this extent and then to put out a statement that quite honestly makes him appear, the perception would be that you're deeply disappointed, your family's deeply disappointed, you're profoundly disrespected. Come on, man, let's focus on burgundy and gold. Let's focus on getting number five and burgundy and gold up into the rafters one day between Sonny Jurgensen and Sammy Boz jersey. You know, jerseys. Like, this is a big season coming up. I think this is a total

un-forced error from a public relations standpoint. If I had been in any conversation with Jaden's mom or any family member when they're going through this and they're pissed off and they don't like that the jersey number was given out. Okay, fair enough. But going public with ESPN, send the cease and desist letter and maybe it'll go public. But when you go public and you bring the story and the quotes are all from your. side and it's a month before the season opener. You got to also read our room. Our room includes, you know, 14 years ago having a quarterback whose family was

intimately involved with him and then with the team and we're very much entitled by the owner. Now, I have said so many times before, I don't think there are any comps, you know, football-wise or otherwise between RG3 and Jaden Daniels, but this will leave people who were sort of predisposed to thinking that they are similar. This gives them ammo.

And sure enough, the reaction's not been favorable, on social media anyway, towards Jaden. He looks kind of soft, petty, unfocused. I don't think he's unfocused. He apparently looked great. yesterday. Jaden's all about ball. He'll be ready for the season. But to put this out there and let people, you know, hammer away at him a month before this season just seems like it's

self-inflicted. It's an unforced error from a PR standpoint. I would have strongly suggested that nobody go public with any of this information and nothing about how the family feels or how Jaden feels. This isn't youth sports. Jaden is a professional quarterback at the NFL level. There is a point in which family can be too involved. Now, the mother is not only his mother, Regina Jackson is also his agent. So she's going to be involved in a lot of things. But you go back to that Netflix quarterback special. It was as much her as it was him. I don't have a problem with that. doesn't have a wife, you know, Baker Mayfield's family, wife and kids were a part of that. He's not married, doesn't have kids. Joe Flacco's wife and kids were a part of it.

Cam Ward's parents were a big part of it. But there's no doubt that she is very much involved and very much there. You know, I'm talking about there every day, yesterday, anything that's open. I think there is a point in which that becomes too much. even as an agent. Agents aren't at every practice, you know, open or otherwise. And I think that this was a mistake. And I would guess that it wasn't necessarily his mistake.

But it makes him, it opens him up to a ton of criticism, which is happening right now. I don't believe that he'll be any less focused on what he is, which is a quarterback, a gym rat, a worker. smart the whole thing. I love everything about him. You guys know that. I was disappointed to see this become such a massive story a month before the season began. And I would, at least based on what I know now, this story becoming what it became today, unforced error by those around him, most likely. Whoever that spokesperson is,

or whomever gave that spokesperson the ability to speak with ESPN, that was not the right move. Now, we'll see what happens, you know, today, later today, tomorrow. I mean, my advice would be let it lie. I mean, he's probably, they're probably backing up a little bit right now, thinking, okay, it didn't go exactly the way we thought it would go, from a PR standpoint, what's our next move? The next move should be not to do anything.

Not to do anything. Continue with your cease and desist if you think you have a case there, if you're really upset about the jersey number. But make sure that Jaden is away from all of this. And that the perception, and I believe he is, but that the perception of him is he's all about football and all about Washington football. That's his past.

His attorneys and other people will handle that. And they should do it privately. That ship has already sailed. They've already made it public. That would be my advice. I don't know that he could say anything at this point that's really going to turn the tide. But it certainly shouldn't come from a spokesperson anymore.

All right. God, the Eagles game cannot get here fast enough. Howard Gutman will join me next. We'll get his thoughts after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, I want to welcome What Not as a first time sponsor on the show. I have a feeling many of you are familiar with What Not. What Not is the largest dedicated live shopping platform where sellers are building real thriving businesses. It really doesn't matter what the product is. It can be beauty, collectibles,

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selling right away. Discuss one of the major trending sports stories of the day, if you want to call it that, is my good friend Howard Gutman, who I have not had on the show in a while. We've talked some football here and there over the last couple of years, but, you know, all of the investigations, all of the Snyder stuff, all of the ownership stuff. went away, but that doesn't mean Howard's gone away. He travels the globe constantly, meeting with the very well-to-do in one country after another. When he's here, when he's here, he still does the radio showdown in Richmond on

WRVA Radio. It's a show called As I See It, and correct me if I'm wrong, he will be doing the post-game show following Washington games. this year on the station down in Richmond as well. You are going to do that again this year, right? Absolutely. Who could pass up the opportunity to have their son make fun of their father for being out of touch and an old man? So yes, Colin and I will be back for him to tell me how data has changed since the time

of Jim Brown and the cloud of dust. Yeah, well, the problem with you is you get that from some of your friends in contemporaries as well. But that's another story. together. All right. You know why I reached out to you because we do need some help with the cease and desist letter. You know, you've followed this here today. Where would you like to start the floor is yours? So I think Jaden is getting a bum rat. I think the blame really is LSU. They have been toned at and maybe Jaden has handled the immediate wrongly. But, but, but, but

Basically, when Brian Kelly was in charge of the football program at LSU, he understood that they weren't going to let a recruit or anyone take Joe Burroughs number, and they weren't going to let anyone take Jaden's number. And that was because they valued them both. And that was Jaden's understanding. It was a fair understanding based on the Heisman. and Jaden was his loyal to LSU and as good as an alumni. When Jaden is a friend to you, just go ask Sam why he's still the third or fortunate quarterback on this team. It's because Jaden is a loyal friend, and Jaden has your back, and he had LSU's back. Yeah, I want to make sure, I want to just jump in because I think I heard you say it,

but Joe Burroughs jersey and Jaden's jersey is what you said. I think if it didn't come across clearly, yes. Both of those were to be protected. Right. Protected. Such that when Pinkett had on his deal that he would get number five, Brian Kelly told him, sorry, it's off limits. Right.

And the reason it was off limits is the proof that you need that Jaden had every right. It was his understanding that his jersey like Joe Burroughs was off limits, the two greatest quarterbacks in the school history, the national tie of the Heisman trophies, the, you know, what they brought, what they meant to the school. And it's what the school meant to Jaden. It was a perfect marriage. Now, what happens is it was the bride who changed, not the groom, not Jaden. because when Wayne Kiffin came in, he did something worse. He not only said, you know, for the future, I would love to give it to you, but we have a deal with Jaden, but in the future, you know, we will make sure X or Y. He reneged on their understanding.

It may not be in writing. They may not have any way to enforce it, nor does Joe Burrow. But what they basically said, LSU to Jane, is we will value Joe Burrow. We do not let anyone request Burroughs number, but we're going to give five to someone who we know is willing to play for our school for a different number because he has, because he understood that we promised it to you. And you know what? We've now changed Lankif in his year. He's not associated with you, and so we don't value you as much. That's their prerogative.

Jane had no right to preserve the number. This goes back to Seisman and the club. He has no right to insist on it. It's just about how the other party feels about you. And if they said to me, we feel differently about you than we do about Joe Burrough, and we feel so differently that we're going to breach our word. Because Brian Kelly will say Jane understood it because I told people it's off limits because I told them I would. And we're going to breach our word.

And we're going to breach our word for a guy who it's not necessary to recruit him. He's here. Well, let me interject there. Obviously, there was some sort of an agreement. At least that's what's been reported with DJ. J. Pickett, who was one of the most highly rated corners when they signed him. And part of the NIL deal or the contract he had was to wear five. Brian Kelly obviously got him not to wear five in the first year. But remember, Howard, every year you have to re-recruit your own players

or they hit the portal. So, you know, especially when there's a coaching change. So he may have been willing to wear the number he wore last year, which wasn't five. But I would deduce that if Wayne Kiffin gave him number five, it was to keep him at LSU. Seven, this is what I do for a living. For wealthy people and institutions, I fix problems. And I can tell you, in this problem, if you have two Venn diagrams, one keeping Jay and happy and one keeping pink it happy, it's not impossible to keep both. Five has value to them. there are lots of other things that would have value.

Sure. I was just making the point that you said he was already there, but that isn't necessarily the case in college sports anymore. These guys have unrestricted, you know, twice a year, although now it's down to once, free agency, and they can leave for any reason. But of course, there's always a way to make everybody happy, yes. Of course.

And so what LSU shows is what we're going to, to do basically is say, thanks. Don't let the door hit you in the back, Jane, for what you did. It's about this year. And we'd rather make it right by just giving him your number despite what we know we said to you because Kelly confirmed it. We'd rather do that than cough up some more money, give him a new NIL deal. Have you and him do something together? Lots of ways to fix this. Wayne Kiffin just said, forget yesterday, but not to Joe Burrow, but not to Joe Burrow. So what out did they give Jayden? Jayon should say, oh, here's what I think you should do.

Well, let me interject again. This is your area of expertise, but we don't know that another player has requested number nine from Joe Burrow. We don't know that there's an analogous situation with Joe Burrough's number nine. So maybe they haven't had to say no or yes to another player. Well, Wren Kiff and they may not, but we know what would have happened because we know it exactly with number five. Pinker requested five. Brian Kelly told them it was off limits. And they went ahead.

And so we know they can do it if they're willing to. We know they will do it if they're willing to. Right. But when you said they didn't do it with Burrow, we don't know that anybody came in and said as part of, of their deal, I want to wear number nine. Pick it did. Who's going to do that now? Who's going to do that now, knowing what it is, of course not.

But that's not the answer. They're not going to say, oh, Jay and look, had anybody said to us, I want nine. Instead, we would have done this to Joe. We would have screwed him, too. Not going to happen. So the question is, say you've got a top five NFL quarterback. He has been wearing the LSU colors and coming down and supporting the school. You bring in a new coach, and the new coach basically kicks in the teeth and says,

we have one great quarterback who we will celebrate not to because someone on our team wants to switch to your number, and it's not important enough to keep our ties with you, then Jaden can't, then the most true statement is the one issue that they're sorely disappointed. And if that's how they're going to be, Jayden's not coming down to celebrate national championships or something. They ultimately left a bad taste. You know who would have made this move? Every one of your listeners will associate with this. You know who might be running LSU this year?

Dan Snyder? It might be the Danny. It might be the Danny. Okay. But hold on. I want to make sure I'm clear that I understood what you just said. So you believe that if someone had come in as a corner two years ago, requested number nine, they put it in his NIL deal, the Borough jersey, but Kelly protected it,

that Lane Kiffin wouldn't have given up nine to a highly ranked corner this year, that he would have treated Borough differently than Jaden. Is that what you said? Well, I'll say two things. Probably yes and second it doesn't matter. Because it's being stupid enough to do it twice once. Doing it twice isn't much better. You treat your alumni who are the top five quarterbacks in the NFL and proud of your program and giving back.

And part of the reason guys like Pinkett Pick your school, you treat them with the respect they deserve just like you do for Gallo Green and Rigo. Yeah. Why do you say he probably would have handled it differently? with Burrow? Well, I don't the answer, no one happened to want nine. If you want, I will go right now

ask my friend chat how many people on the LSU squad wore nine in high school, but they just didn't pick the fight. And Brian Kelly had no trouble. Pind came to the school with Brian Kelly telling him you're not getting five.

Right. And came and had a hell of a year. And if he said, I'd really like five now, I would say, look, I understand it well. That means a lot to Jayden, but we owe you more. Let's figure out what can fix that. Yeah. And there would have been a lot of fixes, but they didn't value Jayden's relationship

enough with them. Right. And I guess I would say that I don't disagree with you that they should have told Pickett, sorry, and figured out a way to skin both cats. keep him, keep Jaden happy. There's always a will, and they certainly could have paid him to wear number three for a second straight year. Where it gets a little murky for me is a lot of the conversation that they wouldn't have done this with Burrow. You might be right.

I don't know that you're not right, but there's no way to know for sure because that situation wasn't presented. And not to mention there are differences with Burrow and Jaden Daniels. Burrow had the greatest single season in the history of college football for a quarterback and won a national championship. But LSU doesn't retire jerseys. They've got one retired. They've got a couple protected. And they gave Jaden or somebody did, Brian Kelly, gave him their word that it would be protected. So I'm with you.

They should have worked out with Pickett a way to keep Pickett happy and to keep Jayden. Jaden happy. With that said, they didn't. So let's move to what the reaction was from Jaden's family or Jaden's attorney. Tell me about the cease and desist letter. So Jaden's properly sitting there with his mother, I'm sure, saying, you know how much value I bring daily to LSU? You know, when they recruit, they show my picture. You know, where we're all over the stadium, and they, they, LSU, are profiting from my public relations, from my likeness, just like a studio can do so from an actor, but that goes as long as the contractual rights in this day and age. Before NIL, there wasn't an issue. And so if he was

on your team and you can go say, you know, go back to the great college. teams and show their teams, but today, I have no doubt that a court will find that they are prof-they, LSU, are profiting from the public affairs, from the good relationship, from the goodwill of Jay and Daniels, and not paying them, and the question is the fact that he was an alumni, does that give them the right to use that profit from that, goodwill, from that, and I, in perpetuity. Now, interesting if it was saying, blank me out of team photos.

I think a court would say the team photo does not belong to the individual player, and that's probably property of the school. But you know all over that stadium and all over that campus are the pictures of Jaden and the, and I don't think it would be hard for a judge to find that they paid him his NIL

in the contract up to 90 days after their relationship ended. 180, 180, yeah. 180, yeah. 180 days when their relationship ended. So he would do certain endorsements, certain, and they got what they paid for. And they didn't buy in perpetuity the right to market. Can you imagine of Howard University's bed, Jay and Daniels were thinking of coming here once, and they blast his picture all of the stadium?

Does Jay and not get paid for that? Well, yeah, well, he never had a contract and didn't get paid by Howard University. You know, I'm hearing what you're saying. And by the way, the team photo thing makes a lot of sense. I can't imagine why a school, Howard would give up the rights, 180 days after the NIL contract terminated to the player moving forward beyond. that. I mean, these schools, it's videos, it's pictures, it's recruiting, it's promotional to continue to leverage what Jaden Daniels did at that school, to continue to prop up the school, to prop up the

football program, the athletic department. It seems insane to me that they would give up those rights, that there would be any giving up of the players' NIL rights once the players been paid and to limit it to 180 days? So let's separate different things. Can they show game film? I suspect the court will say you can show game film. You can, and can you show the team photo? You can show the team photo.

But it's not hard to prove when they are trying to profit from Jaden's goodwill, from Jaden's endorsement, they can certainly show the team film and the like, but when it crosses the line, and so that would be the same as whoever was left tackle that year and, you know, middle linebacker, but when they then start trying to profit by his likeness, particularly, not from the team three years ago and four years ago,

They're going to cross the line, and Jane is perfectly, look, it's a, it's a poor public relations thing to do to your alma mater, just as a nasty thing to do and say, I wouldn't give you a nickel. I want to have this going forward. It's a proper thing to do when your alma mater mistreat you the way the first part of our conversation said. Yeah, I just, I don't look, if we don't know specifically what that contract said, but if it is as the cease and desist letter spells it out, I just think that's really on these major programs, you know, on the part of these major programs, it's really silly to give up those rights and not be able. You don't have to pay for him, Kevin. Yeah, but you're talking about, you know, it's almost impossible to get him out of that stuff. And maybe that's what you're identifying here,

is the stuff that it's impossible to get them out of. You know, team photos, team films, which would be used not only for the football programs, recruiting and promotional, it's used for the schools. I mean, I can't tell you how many school, you know, college visits I went on with the boys where, you know, the introductory video at a big sports school had mostly, hey, this guy won the Heisman trophy or this was our national championship team, you know, and look what, you know, Saturday

afternoons that, you know, what at Happy Valley looks like. But maybe it is more specific to what you mentioned, like just using his picture on, you know, a stadium ad or him and his Heisman trophy being in the, you know, lobby. Uh, they, might have to take that picture out or whatever, but stuff that's specific to him. I guarantee you every general counsel's office today is reworking their NIL agreement to detail the relationship between the school and the former player post-graduation. And they will say things like you assign to us all by coming to a school and agreeing to play for LSU, you assign to us the right to use games.

film, some photos, and they can, by the way, take a 10-year right to promote his, to use his likeness in any way they want

for all promotions. Right. And take a hundred-year right. Right. It's just he has to agree. Yeah. And what happens is, I suspect the standard agreement

gave him monthly payments that ended 180 years, days after the graduation. And so the contract, I'm sure, I imagine,

had an expiration clause to protect the team, the school, from owing him continuing payments. But when one part expired, the contract expired. Now, there'll be tails, I imagine, negotiated. And it will depend on what the agents now negotiate. There will be as to, if you win particular the Outland Trophy, the Heisman Trophy, we can promote that for, you know, 10 years. And I suspect a freshman will sign that with whatever the agreement is.

But we had a different case here now. We had a case of Jaden feeling mistreated by LSU talking to a lawyer and asking if they're going to treat me that way, do I have any rights back to them? And a smart lawyer would look at the NL agreement. They had terminated by its terms 180 days after graduation, primarily, as I noted, to protect the school from having to pay Jaden more, and that termination clause would then terminate their rights to use a likeness. Every school will now, at a minimum, detail what rights they continue to have the right to. The agents might fight it and say, you have the right to use team film, but not, you know, not individual clips. And they can cut any deal they want.

It's a contract. Yeah. Any deal they want that two people agree to. But the standard contract before this had a termination clause. Yeah. It certainly would appear that way, which enables them to tell LSU to stop all the marketing with anything in it. But we'll see if they don't cease and desist, what's the next step? So if they don't and they're unnoticed, Jaden can certainly sue them for the value of having taken his likeness.

And there would be a hearing. And they can show what that value is. And by the way, every year his value goes up, see what Nike's paying them or whatever his shoe kind of. is. And they can say that they have misused his likeness, violated his rights to his likeness and image, and seek damages in the amount. And then you can seek a stop order, but if they don't stop, they continue to owe you. You can't really put someone in jail for publicizing that Kevin Shee and show thinks my ice cream's the best. But Kevin can keep doing and saying, if you're going give an endorsement, you're sure going to pay for the value of it.

Yeah. And that's what they will continue to do. But the points already been made. It's not about the dollars. It's not about, it's about feeling disrespectful. Yeah, no. That's the, from this seat, and it sounds like from yours, that is 100% the motivation for the cease and desist letter was giving picket number five to wear.

this upcoming season. I do, there's another part to this that I want to get to, but I just want to mention this. This is the one thing that I, and it's not specific to this Jaden situation, but it goes back to before players got paid and the NIL was created and now we've got a salary cap and players are legitimately getting salaries. I think the NCAA has done a poor job of discharges. and even promoting the value they provide to the players. Because to me, this is a very mutually beneficial relationship.

Jaden's bringing any college football player, college basketball players, bringing this extraordinary talent, helping the team to attract, you know, fans, to win games, et cetera. But the institution itself has always been the star. You know, LSU football's been around for 100 years. years. And without college football, Jaden can't sit out three years from his senior year in high school, have Uncle Charlie coach him up in the backyard, and then enter his name into the draft and get picked number two overall. The platform provided the opportunity for him to use his talent

to help the school, obviously, and the school put him in a position where if he played well, he entered the NFL at a level, at a contract level. He would have never entered without college football. And with endorsements flowing day one that he wouldn't have had without the platform, the marketing platform that is college football, the SEC, LSU, et cetera. That's the only thing that I think the NCAA, I think they've done a shitty job over the years of not spelling out the value they provide to these great. players. Kevin, if you were on the Washington

Manor's postgame gut check with my son and me, he would now welcome you to my old man's club. You're thinking institutionally like that. The market has spoken and we're wrong, Kevin. So Indiana loses their quarterback and Mark Cuban doesn't sit there and say, you know, some quarterback should thank Indiana. They're a championship club. He should be delighted to come. Look what they've provided. him. Mark Cuban said, you know, I never contributed before, but he paid, I guess, a TCU quarterback

to come to Indiana. The market is said, we're not sitting here saying you're not worth it. We are tripping over each other to see how much money we could throw at you because you are worth it. Because when Indiana wins, it's, look, I haven't paid anyone to go Columbia University. It would cost too much to fix my alma mater, I assure you. And it has nothing to do with sports. It costs, there is no lack of funders, of wealthy people, of AI, you know, billionaires willing to show out for a quarterback. And not saying that 17-year-old ought to be glad the NCAA exists. they say you want two million bucks or three million bucks come to my alma mater.

Well, let me just say in my defense, I'm not wrong that the NCAA has done a shitty job of explaining their value to this entire equation. But the point that you're making is it doesn't matter anymore. And I understand that point. I know that that ship has sailed. That horse left the barn several years ago. But that's part of... In your defense, in your defense, I don't know,

eight years ago or the like, I attended a high-level meeting, at which I said they ought to form a union now and get ahead of the issue because they will lose in court and it will be a free market and they cannot imagine what a free market will cost them. So I was right with you back then

if they had gone ahead of the issue. But what they did is say, you're all amateurs, you get nothing. In fact, if someone gave you a job as a busboy, we're going to disqualify them for a year. They stuck with that line so they ate it. By the way, as we're sitting here, Jaden Daniels has put out an Instagram post, and I'm going to read it with you here on the show.

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No obligation, no pressure. Call them at 866.90 Nation or head to Window Nation. All right, as I'm sitting here in my studio talking to Howard Gutman, the former ambassador to the country of Belgium during the Obama years, and Howard, has been a longtime attorney, a prominent attorney in town with Williams and Connolly, and a massive Washington Commanders fan, Washington Redskins fan, Washington football team fan. And as I mentioned, a host of the post game show down in Richmond on a station down in Richmond. Howard's always been a tremendous help with all of these legal issues, all of these congressional inquiries over the years. And as we were talking, Jaden Daniels, clearly feeling the overwhelming response, I would say that most of it has not been feeling. favorable. The following statement is out right now from Jaden Daniels on Instagram. It reads, quote, I've been locked in on training camp and that's been my number one focus. I have a lot of

gratitude for my time at LSU and I'm proud of what my teammates and I accomplished there. Obviously, there are issues to be worked out between my team and LSU, and my hope is that it will get done privately. My sole personal focus is on commanders football. I realize the business of football is unique, and I trust this can all be resolved. Closed quote. There you go. A plus. Solid statement. Yes. A plus on damage control. But Kevin, we've missed the real question. What? We've missed the real question. The question is people are now saying, and you thought Caleb Williams was, to prima donna who would be a headache. And it turned out it's Jay and Daniels.

The question is, the only question that Maz is not whether Lane Kiffin screwed Jaden and whether James The question is, what kind of teammate is Jay and Daniels? What kind of person is he? Is he signing autographs for the kids? Is he friends in the huddle? Like, I was there in training camp the day Steph Diggs reported. and I saw the most important thing I needed to see to know it was a fabulous signing. He taught the wide receivers a new celebration handshake, and they're all on the sideline.

He hasn't caught a pass yet. They're all on the sideline practicing this handshake together, and the leadership, I don't care if the guy had no speed, right there, the wide receivers took a leap forward. The question is character and people. By the way, there is no one greater in the world than Jeremy Reeves. I was there. I played three things at training campus the past three days. I was there as press.

I was there having meetings with some of the owners, and I was there as a grandfather. So I had my five-year-old grandson in the kid's zone. Jeremy Reeves not only signed footballs. He took two of the kids through the fence where they couldn't be and played catch with them. and if you've got that kind of character and go ask Sam Hartman, go ask the players there, they will go into battle for Jayden. They don't care about his mother being there. Of course.

They don't care about his mother being there. And by the way, yesterday, I was waiting for a meeting after the, and his mother was leaving the friends and family zone, and two guys asked if they're going to the parking line in his room, and she said, yeah, just hopped in, and she gave them a lift. So we don't have a prima don't have had a misjudge PR on how it was handled with LSU. I think LSU got taken over by the Danny. But I think Jay and Daniels is as talented in the locker room as he is on the field, and he's really talented on the field.

So the statement, here's the part, and this was what I was going to get to. When he says, by the way, of course I agree with you on everything you said about Jaden Daniels, his character and the way people feel about him. I mean, there's no bigger fan of Jaden than me. But when he says, my hope is that it will get done privately, that's where that's the issue that I had with all of this and I opened with it. And that is, go ahead, be upset, have this, you know, prompt a cease and desist letter, leverage that into whatever you can, especially if they're not going to take that number

back from Pickett. By the way, Pickett's father apparently just spoke and said, my son, you know, wearing number five this year. So now we got the pickets involved. But the issue that I had much more than anything else is that from a PR standpoint, I think it was an unforced error. I would not have had whoever the spokesperson for Daniels was, and it wasn't Jaden Daniels because Mark Schlebeaut told me that on the radio show.

So I'm sure we all have a pretty good guess as to who it was. and maybe it was somebody other than his mother. But I would not have said that Daniel's family is deeply disappointed and feels profoundly disrespected by LSU's decision. Because I would have known from the jump how that would have been perceived. And when he writes that he hopes that this gets done, meaning, you know, between him and LSU, that he hopes it gets done privately, well, that ship sailed. You know, that ship sailed when the Jaden Daniels spokesperson took the story to ESPN and laid it all out for them with quotes.

If they had wanted this to be done privately, then they shouldn't have gone public with it. And that was kind of what my big pushback was when I talked about this, Howard, in the open, is that this was kind of an unforced PR error. and it was somewhat predictable on what the response would be. And now it kind of forced him to make a statement. Look, I think this is a solid statement. I do. But again, you know, it wouldn't have had to have been made if they themselves, the Jaden Daniels team,

hadn't gone public with it. You might be right. What we don't know is how far they had gone down the line trying. And if basically Wayne Kiffin, and now it sounds like Pickett's dad, put up their middle finger to him, then there was no, then Jaden needed to say, you're entitled to it, but you're not entitled to my NIL. And it's not about the cash. That they would say, okay, you know, we'll take your off. It had to be the mistreatment of Jaden. So we don't know.

Look, I started this by saying if someone had called me first, I would. resolve this. I can even resolve Ticket Stother. Right. Right. We can fix this. It should never have gone to that stage. But I don't know where Wayne Kiffin was trying to exercise his authority,

whether he was trying to show he has his players back. You don't have your players back. Of course, you have your players back if you're Dan Quinn, but not against Joe Seisman or not against Rigo. You have your players back to be smart enough to say, let's work

these things out. and get it done, and there's plenty to get it done. So we don't know how much they tried before they went public. There were two things that would be shame. It's a shame. If either without J&B and being exercised and giving it a lot of thought, his mom had been too quick on the trigger, or if the lawyer they hired was trying to get his name in the press,

just fell my name right, I would have told them, look, let's handle this quietly. But if the answer was, we've tried now for eight months, and Wayne Kiffin is, as Brian Kelly's saying, you are correct. And Wayne Kiffin and LSU are saying, take a hike, then you deserve better. Thank you, as always. Where are you headed next? So I left training camp yesterday.

I did not take the ride with Jayon's mom. I had a meeting in the building, but I left training camp yesterday. I have a speech in Buffalo next week, and I will be up for the Baltimore. more interest squad game. Oh, well, that should be a good one. Probably better than Miami. Yeah. Kevin, yesterday, look,

Miami was, I have seen JV at Whitman would have given Miami an even practice yesterday. It was, I have never seen anything like that. Whoever we cut, they might as well just take the jersey after practice just and put on Miami's jersey. any receiver in our, including Jalen Bradley, would start at Miami. So they've got a long way to go. All right. You're the best. Thanks for doing this.

By the way, Lane Kiffin was asked about it today. So I'm going to find that audio and play that to finish up the show when we come back. Howard, thanks. Appreciate it. All the best. Take good care, Kevin. Bye-bye. The incomparable Howard Gutman, everybody.

at the Howard Gutman on X. Still, Howard's best stuff is when he talks about his days working at Studio 54 in Manhattan during the 1970s. That'll be an entire show at some point. We've gotten some good stories on that over the years from Howard. All right. Up next, the wizard schedule is out. And, okay, in addition to Lane Kiffin weighing in on the Jaden Daniels situation, the player himself, DJ Pickett, has weighed in on the situation.

So I'll try to get all that together and finish up with that after these words from a few of our sponsors. And that was a situation that was promised to him in recruiting here for him to sign here. and I've done a lot of research on that with the family and the representatives and the people. And so really, I didn't have a decision to make. It was promised to the kid. It wasn't done for whatever. I'm not going to get into that. I'm not going to judge something that I wasn't here of.

But when a kid's promised something to come to a school, you should wear it. And so at that point, I don't really think that's my decision. You know, you should be honored what he was told. And so. It's wearing it. LSU coach Lane Kiffin. That was actually from a few days ago. It was not from today.

He was asked a few days ago about DJ Pickett wearing number five and said, look, that was a deal that was done when I wasn't here. It's a contract. We're going to live up to it. He's wearing it. And yes, he is wearing it because he weighed in today to address the Jaden Daniels situation, saying it's a. number that he's worn since he was a kid.

He wishes Daniels the best, but he's going to remain in number five because it's the number he was promised. That was DJ Pickett a few moments ago. There's another story off of this story that somebody's reported. I'll get to that in a moment. If you want to bet preseason football, the place to do it is MyBooky. mybooky.com or my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C.

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MyBooky.com or mybooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right. So there's another story that broke just a little while ago on this same subject. This comes from Matt Moscona. Matt covers L.S. football. He works for a Baton Rouge radio station doing sports. He's got the Locked-on LSU podcast. And he tweeted out just a little while ago, the LSU Jaden Daniels saga, takes another strange turn. Sources confirm that Daniels Camp wants LSU to return its copy of the Heisman Trophy. something LSU has no intention of doing. Daniels contacted LSU leadership before fall camp.

Lane Kiffin has personally spoken to Daniels. So this is getting ugly. I don't even know what a copy of the Heisman Trophy is. I would imagine it's a replica that they've got, you know, somewhere in their football house or their lobby of their football house. but Jaden and his team, they want to go after anything that, you know, represents his name, image, and likeness. And with DJ Pickett saying he's not turning over number five, I do agree with Howard and sort of alluded to it in the open. There is a way they could figure out a solution here.

You know, pay the kid to not wear five. you know, say that it's retroactively being retired or protected or whatever. But it doesn't look like they're going to do that. But Jaden's focused on football. That's the most important thing. And that's what he needs to be focused on. Let his lawyers, his agent, his mother, and other people handle this. But from this moment forward, this should be, you know, a private matter among

the people on his side. No more, you know, going to ESPN, no more public statements, no more quotes, nothing even from the attorney publicly at this point. You just need the perception of Jaden Daniels right now to be that he is all about football. And I believe that he's all about football. But if this is going on and this continues to be a story, the perception will be, it's not all about football. Before I finish up with the wizard's schedule getting released today, I did want to mention Maryland football had a really tough injury the other day in practice leading up to the season. This is a big season for Mike Loxley, huge. Bottom line is he's got to have a winning record and go to a bowl game. I would imagine to have a chance to come back in 2027. Maryland's defense on paper

looked really, really good heading into practice here. And they've got Malik Washington a quarterback. Malik Washington getting a lot of preseason praise. I've seen them listed among the top five or six quarterbacks in the Big Ten, new OC in College Park. But defensively, Maryland was pretty good last year, and they had a pair of pass rushers in Sydney Stewart and Zahir Mathis that formed really one of the best pass rushing, edge pass rushing duos in the Big Ten, if not in the entire country.

Well, Zahir Mathis, season-ending injury lost for the year because of a knee that was injured in practice. That is really a major blow because Merrill needs to be a really good defensive team, as they were last year. at times and then get it going offensively with the sophomore quarterback. But that's a big blow because both Mathis and Stewart return to College Park, despite getting a lot, a lot of transfer portal interest. All right, the NBA schedule is out in full, and your 2026, 27 Wizards, a team that should be competing for a winning, record. If Anthony Davis stays healthy, maybe more than just a winning record, maybe

43, 44, 45 wins and potentially a six seed, five seed, something like that. I think all of that's in play if Anthony Davis ends up playing, you know, call it 65 plus games. So the Wizards are getting a little bit more love nationally. I don't know that they had a national TV. I don't know that they had a national TV game last year. I think they had one or two. But there is the opener that is not nationally televised. They will open with two home games, Wednesday, October 21st against the Bucks. And then Friday, October 23rd, Toronto comes to town. And then they will make the first of what looks like three, six national TV appearances. On November 9th at Detroit, that game will be on NBC Sports Network.

Then on NBC, NBC, November 24th, Boston at home. Then they've got a nationally televised game on ESPN on December 16th at Boston. Then they're back on NBC. at Philadelphia, the Sixers with Jalen Brown and Joelle Embede and the incredible team that the Sixers are going to be fielding this year as long as everybody is healthy. Of course, LeBron James as a part of that team. The Sixers will be certainly one of the two or three favorites in the East. I think New York is still the favorite. But the Wizards with a nationally televised Tuesday night game on NBC at Philadelphia on January 12th. Then they're on Amazon Prime Saturday, February 27th at Utah. That will be a matchup between the top two picks in the draft, A.J. DeBonsa and Darren Peterson.

And then their last nationally televised game will be on NBC Sports Network at Phoenix. on March 1st. So the wizard's getting a little bit of love from the national NBA networks. Not a lot of love, but a little bit of love. But look, I'm not going to sit here and break down the whole schedule and talk about, is it easy, is it hard, where the tough spots, where aren't the tough spots? The bottom line is they've got a young team with two key veteran players that need to be.

be healthy, they need to play Anthony Davis in particular the significant majority of the games. And if he does, I do think that even in a loaded east, the Wizards can be a playoff team. And I'm not talking about a play-in playoff team, but I'm talking about a top six seed opening up with a best of seven first round series against somebody. All right, that'll do it for today, back tomorrow.