The Kevin Sheehan Show - Commanders Mock Schedule Day

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

Kevin and Thom today with still a ton on the draft including whether or not they agree that Ron Rivera needed to tell Carson Wentz he was drafting Sam Howell. It's "Mock Schedule Day" for Kevin. The pioneer of the mock schedule unveiled his 2022 Commanders' Mock Sched. Also, Caps and Thom's column about FIFA passing on Ghost Town Field.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here today. I am here. It is mock schedule day, Tom.

I will have my mock schedule ready to go in the next segment, a tradition unlike all others. I wanted to read real quickly this email from Jordan because it was very nice. and Jordan rated us five stars, which was very nice, and wrote a review, and wrote, you and Tom have the best chemistry of any talk show ever. Andy and Steve are close, but I've always loved listening to you, and I just found the podcast recently. Kevin, I know you've been on radio, and I loved you with Cooley, and I loved you with John Riggins, but there's been no pairing for you like the one that you have with Tom Leverro. Keep up the good work, guys. Really appreciate it. I'm giving you five stars.

Well, that was very nice, Jordan. Very nice. And Tommy's had partners in the past, and I've had lots of partners in the past, and we've enjoyed all of our previous partners. But this is, for me and you, the longest running thing that either one of us has ever done. We were together on radio for seven and a half years. That's a good run in radio, a really good run. Now, Andy and Steve, Andy and Steve together, for me, in this market, were really, I mean, they were perfect together for so long. And remember, they also had Tommy as part of, you know, the third rotating chair on sports reporters. And Andy and Steve were together for 13 years, I think it was 13 and then they, you know, reconvened two years after that or three years after that for a

short period of time before the company got sold. But, yeah, I mean, and then, you know, Doc and coach were together with B-Mitch and Al Koken for a long time as well at the station. And to be fair, nobody has done it, even though it isn't, you know, pure sports talk, but nobody's done it longer or better than the junkies have. And people ask me about them all the time. And, you know, I don't really know them that well. I know Jason a little bit. But, you know, to have their run, which I think is now a quarter of a century,

is incredible in this business. And I get it. I totally get why it works. Yeah. Not only incredible, but seemingly stronger than ever. Yeah. And so that's, you know, that's awesome. But that was very nice, Jordan.

Tommy and I have always felt comfortable, even though, you know, we hear from a lot of you and you guys all like it. And then some of you, you know, one for a month or so, you can't stand me. And it's like, can we get somebody else with Laverro? And then the next week somebody else is, can we get somebody else with Sheehan, please? We hear all of that, but it doesn't bother us. We move and soldier on with things like the mock schedule, which has become quite the tradition, which I was reminded of this morning, and maybe you remember this,

I threatened that last year was going to be the last year of the mock schedule because I thought it had jumped the proverbial shark, and I was ready to move on from it. People started copying you. Exactly. And that was kind of a sign in a way that, you know, maybe it did jump the show. Now, I didn't think so. And I figured that once you put that out there, the demand would be so great that you couldn't ignore it to return. I don't think that the demand has ever been great.

I think it sneaks up on people. And when I do it, there is some enjoyment. But, you know, it's very short-lived. I mean, it's not, you know, the schedule usually comes out a few days later, and they're like, ah, she and, you know, oh for again, or he got one right. It's not a mock draft, but you nailed it. You actually just reminded me everybody now is doing it, and I think I was the pioneer of the mock schedule. I really do.

I don't know that when I first did it, which I think may have been 15 years ago, I don't think anybody else had done it. Now others are doing it. And I always did it during mock draft season because the schedule always came out before the draft. now it comes out after the draft. So there was always that aspect of it too. And you know what? What? The two events are equivalent in terms of mock because most people, from what I see,

they have just as much chance of getting their draft right as they do the schedule right. Perfect segue. Perfect segue. So I was thinking about a lot of different things with respect to the draft this weekend. And then I want to get your thoughts on the draft. And I read your column too today, which I thought was hysterically funny. And we'll get to that as well. But this is what I wrote down.

I literally in three minutes wrote down the following. Last year it was, man, that Diami Brown was a hell of a pick. Hell of a pick. And, you know, everybody talking about this guy's a deep threat. They've got somebody now opposite, you know, Terry McClor. You know, they added Curtis Samuel. Lookout. Diombi Brown didn't really play a significant role in year one. He had 12 total receptions on the year.

John Bates had more receptions than he did. In 2020, what did you hear? Man, that fourth round pick, Antonio Gandy Golden, that's our favorite pick of the draft, Sheehan. I mean, Sadiq Charles and Antonio Gandy Golden. They got the big receiver. and, you know, nobody, you know, I think a lot of people like Antonio Gibson, but the bottom line is Cameron Curl turned out to be, you know, a significant contributor.

Nobody talked about him. In 19, obviously people were excited about Haskins. The truth is, people thought Terry McLaurin was picked because he was a team captain and he was going to be an excellent special teams player. Excellent on special teams, Terry McLaren. We didn't even know during training camp unless you were. We're really talking to people, and I do remember a conversation that I had with somebody out there who said, McClorin's going to be the guy. But they were kind of holding them back in training camp.

How about 2018? Oh, my God. They got Darius Geist, Tommy. He's a steel. First round talent, end of the second round. Yeah, how'd that work out for them? And Tim Settle ended up being a significant contributor until he left, picked in the fifth round. but he was talking about him.

You know, we had, of course, my favorite year where I not only predicted Josh Doxon would be selected by Washington, thought he would be a great pro. And meantime, Kendall Fuller and Matt Ionitis, nobody had Ionitis being great out of that draft. Excuse me. Excuse me. You did. Excuse me. You liked Ionitis. Okay.

Because he was from East Ralesburg. No, Chris Neal. No, no. He went to Temple. Temple. He went to Temple. and my son went to temple, so I followed their football program. That was a good reason.

You might as well be my wife. The draft where they picked Preston Smith with the second pick. They picked Brandon Sheriff. Preston Smith, I mean, Preston Smith now during the course of his career, has over 50 sacks. You know, he's turned into a hell of a player in this draft. And Brandon Sheriff is a good player, too. How about this one? I'll never forget this one. Sheehan, my favorite pick in the draft, was the RG3's running back at Baylor Lake Seastrunk. This guy can fly. I remember all the talk about Lake Seastrunk.

And the truth is, is Ryan Grant probably turned out to be the best player in that particular draft. Nobody gave Jordan Reed except for, I will tell you. Mike Shanahan thought Jordan Reed, the moment he saw him was going to be a really good player. Nobody talked about Jordan Reed in the 2013 draft. How about 2012? All about RG3 and cousins. You know, what do they take cousins for? RG3.

And by the way, as you reminded everybody the other day, you know, the French chef, Joshua Rebus, and we couldn't even find information on him. But Alfred Morris in the sixth round, nobody talked about Alfred Morris ending up being a guy that would rush for over 6,000 career yards. You know, the list goes on and on. This thing is important, but really the mock drafts

and the post-draft conversation. And those that fancy themselves to be experts, get a grip. Nobody's an expert on this thing. Nobody. I agree with you 100%. Even the people who are paying. made millions of dollars, as we just described, you know, get this wrong so often.

I mean, it's just, it's just absurd. Like people, I mean, like somebody asked me at quartermaster's, my cigar hangout in Frederick, you know, what do you think of the draft? I said, you know, I don't have any idea. I said, neither do they, you know? I mean, it's so hard to judge talent. before they're put in the place where they're going to have to perform, whether it's football or particularly baseball,

where you're judging 17 and 18-year-old kids how they wind up playing when they're 22, 23. It's a hard practice. And to think, because you have more information than ever, and you do at your fingertips right now, you have tremendous amount of data, video that was never available to you before. It doesn't make you a draft expert. Washington last year after the draft had, and this is what I found, five A's, five Bs in the B minus to B plus to B range, like four C's and there was like one D.

I just, you know, in finding all of the, you know, immediate reactions and grades to the draft. after the season, the NFL.com basically regraded the 2021 draft after, by the way, the rookie seasons of all of these players. And Washington's was ranked 22nd in the NFL with a C-plus. And it just, and again, it's like you were hoping that Jamon Davis would be the significant contributor in that particular class. But it turned out to be, you know, Sam Cosme was the significant. contributor. Diombe Brown didn't really contribute. Benjamin St. Juice got hurt. Bates ended up being a big

contributor. So it really is, you know, look, there are people in the league and teams in the league that have done it well, and the Ravens are one of those teams. And, you know, and there are teams that I would trust more with the process. But, hell, you know who gets criticized for bad drafting more than anybody is Belichick, you know, and the Patriots. Yeah, he got ridiculed this time around. Yeah, for taking. Like Sean Pate? Yeah, for taking the guy that he took when he took him.

You know, like there's not an understanding of value, but there's also not an understanding from people of what the teams really know. Like, Washington took Phil Mathis, Jehan Dotson at 16, and Phil Mathis at 47. And the first, you know, words out of players and agents in mouths were, well, we weren't even expecting to get picked that high. That may be true. But Washington, you know, I can tell you this, and I want to read an email to you in a moment from somebody else about something I said on the podcast yesterday. But they liked these players and they didn't want to risk it. And yes, there is, you can certainly evaluate.

based on projections, pre-draft projections, whether or not a player was gotten with value, meaning drafted after the point in which he was projected to be drafted versus didn't get value drafted before when he was supposed to get drafted. But you don't know. Look at all the surprises, you know, like the Patriots, drafting this guy Cole Strange. You know, what if the teams before him,

before the Patriots, let's say Devin, Utah, I'm sorry, Jacksonville, who drafted Devin Lloyd from Utah, loved Cole Strange. But they're like, we can get them in the second round. Don't worry about it. And they have them even higher rated on their board than Lloyd.

But the Patriots took them. Washington may have known that another team was going to take Jehan Dodson and didn't want to risk it. You know, they may have known that they didn't have a pick after their second round pick, I'm at 47 until 98, and they really wanted, you know, Phil Mathis. So I just think it's one of these things that almost, I've said this before, there are two things that we as fans know the least about and get wrong the most.

The draft and trade compensation. Like, I think it's one of those things that is so subjective. The evaluation of players is so subjective. And, you know, in a draft like this last one where there wasn't like an obvious top five or top 10 even, you know, it was even crazier. But the bottom line is when you evaluate these drafts, say, fairly at the end of like three years, a good hit rate is like 37 to 38 percent, somewhere in that range. Yeah. You know, if they can hit on a little bit more than one out of three, they've had a six. That's a successful draft.

Look, I have no problem with them picking the players they wanted, you know, having the courage of their convictions and sticking with the plan, whatever that plan would be. Now, I know in the draft you have to be aware of trying to guess what the other teams might do. Yeah. But ultimately, I mean, you don't want to feel like an idiot losing out on a guy you really. liked because you're gambling on another team taking him. You know, I've always had a philosophy and newspaper work when I was an editor, and it's not an absolute, but I lived by it for the most part, is I don't care what the competition is doing in the sense that it's not going to dictate what we do.

We're going to do what we do. That's how I always used to, you know, when I was an editor in charge of reporters and deciding what we would cover. Now, it's not being oblivious to what the competition's doing, but they're not going to dictate what we do, and the other teams shouldn't dictate whether or not you pick or lose out on players you like. Yeah, it's, I mean, the whole idea of, oh, you drafted him way too early, or you really got value.

You know, that's a guessing game to a certain degree as well. And, you know, I had somebody tell me, well, look, Kevin, on Phil Mathis, there wasn't another defensive tackle taken for 38 picks before the next defensive tackle was taken. Well, first of all, you don't know that somebody didn't really love Phil Mathis and would have taken Mathis had he still been on the board. That's number one. I mean, I think the lien would be that Washington was much higher on Phil Mathis than anybody else.

But the other part of that is, well, Washington did. didn't have another pick until 98. Pretty much the end of the third round. And this was a player they wanted and they weren't going to have an opportunity to get them. Well, maybe they could have gotten them at 98. Well, they could have, but then they wanted the running back. So look, there are a couple of things. I wanted to read this email real quickly that I got from Jack.

Jack sent me this email via the website. Where is it? God damn it. I had it here a second ago, and now I can't find it. Oh, here it is. Kevin, you said that it wasn't exactly a four-for-one haul for the tradeback, but it was. They got Dotson, Robinson Jr. Howell. We'll talk about Sam Hal here in a moment, Tommy. I certainly want your thoughts on Sam Hal. And Turner, Cole Turner, for a five-spot tradeback. This is a far better proposition than Chris Salave, don't you think? First of all, Jack, I didn't say that you misinterpreted me.

It's not a four-for-one haul as in they netted, you know, three players for the tradeback. Because the Saturday trade was a two-for-two. They traded a fourth-rounder and a sixth-rounder for two fifth-rounders. Basically, an equal trade. They just wanted to move into the fifth round and get an extra pick in the fifth round. they would have, if they didn't make that trades, they still would have gotten two players. They would have gotten one in the fourth round and one in the sixth round, or another one in the fourth round and one in the sixth round. So it's not like they picked up an extra player by moving back five spots.

That's what I meant yesterday when I said that. Secondly, better proposition than Chris Olive? Well, Chriselave is not the player that I would have taken at 11. For me, it'll be judged in the future on whether or not Kyle. Hamilton and or Jameson Williams, who are two players that I would have taken or considered taking at 11, and Kyle Hamilton would have been number one, more so than Alave. I liked Dotson as much as I liked Alave. I liked Dotson. I think he's going to be a really good player. But this move back will be judged on whether or not Kyle Hamilton or James and

Williams. You could say Jordan Davis, too, because the Eagles took him in between there. And Washington did have a defensive tackle need. And Jordan Davis was one of the most athletic players ever evaluated in the history of the draft that the Eagles got. But no, I mean, for me, it's not a lave. I do think they would have taken a lave at 16 had he been there. I think they would have. but I also know, and I told you this before the draft, that after Drake London, who was their number one on the board, that's who they were going to take. If he had been there at 11, there would have been no trade back.

They would have selected Drake London. But I told you last week that London was the number one receiver on their board, and if he's there, they'll probably take him at 11 over Hamilton, and that they like Dotson, that Dotson's among the next group of receivers. I didn't know what order they were in. with Alave and probably Wilson and maybe Williams, although Williams isn't going to be ready to play right away, but I knew they liked Dotson. And I think Dotson's a really good player. I think he's going to be really good for Washington. I do. But it's not a lave that I'll compare this to.

And the four for one was, I was just explaining that it really wasn't like, that second day trade It wasn't, you know, one pick for two picks. It was two picks for two picks. So they would have gotten those players. Anyway, that's all I was trying to say. But thank you, Jack, for the email. You have to admit. Yeah.

You have to admit. And I agree with you. Again, I mean, you know, I mean, I don't see how you can judge anyone can prejudge these picks as being, you know, misses or hits. We just don't know. But it was kind of funny to watch, you know, like it seemed like, one draft pick after another, the first words out of their mouth being, I didn't think we'd be that high. It got kind of funny after a while. I know, and I, you know, that's, um, but by the way,

I bet if you went to 32 NFL cities for the reactions that there were several of those, you know, throughout the night, you know, on Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday. I mean, you know, there are a lot of thing is magnified. Everything negative is magnified here. Here's what I, let me just, since you brought that up, Martin Mayhew addressed that and said that, you know, we don't really care about the outside noise. We know more than you do. I'm paraphrasing there. This is where I just wish that the two of them didn't let it bother them. I wish that they just didn't hear that stuff. You know, let it just slide right off. I mean, ultimately, you're going to be judged on whether or not you got good players. Him and Ron. Jim and Rivera? Yeah. Yeah.

They have... I mean, Ron, in particular Rivera, and he's the one that faces reporters every day. I mean, I understand he's only human. I mean, I think it's wrong. I think you're right that it doesn't behoove him to keep crying about, you know, we shouldn't carry the burden of the past, but I understand why it gets to him. I mean, Martin May who appears before reporters, maybe treat him. maybe three times a year.

Yeah, true. No, I understand that. I just, it's been a hallmark of this franchise for a while now. Every, you know, you know who didn't really let it get to them? Jay Gruden. I'm not sure anything really ever rattled Jay Gruden that much. I think Jay Gruden had always had a bigger problem with what was happening inside the building,

no doubt. As opposed to what was happening outside the building. 100% correct. I'm not saying that Jay Gruden was a great coach, great head coach. I'm not saying that at all. But I think, you know, like even Mike, and I can say this, that, you know, Mike thought that the media was tough in this town. You know, Rivera thinks the media is tough in this town. You know, Bruce, Bruce Allen, well, I don't think Bruce Allen ever gave two shits about what anybody said.

But I just, I just think that, uh, I just think that, uh, you know, don't be overly sensitive about this. You guys have earned all of this. Now, just put your head down, go to work, pick the best players, coach them up, and win some games. That's what you got to do. I've got to ask you. I'm not asking you for your draft breakdown, obviously.

And by the way, let me just mention, I get a kick out of the grading. And I read a lot of the recaps. I like reading Kuiper and McShay and the Athletics Day and Bruegler and others. And by the way, our own Ben Standing, who won his third mock draft championship in the last 10 years against the best mock drafters in the country. I like, you know, hearing what people think, but you really have to take it for what it is. This whole process is very much a coin flip. And anybody that sits there before or after and professes to have all the answers, you know, take all of their action next season.

You know, count me in for being their bookmaker for the entire season. But anyway, so, I mean, the pick that will be, you know, talked about from now until Carson Wentz goes out there and lights it up will be Sam Howl. What did you think of it? Well, my first thought was the press, I never saw him play. I never saw North Carolina play. You know, I went back and read about them and looked at his stats. And on the surface, they seem very impressive.

It seems like based on what I've read, not what I've seen, they got a pretty good pick at number five in the court with this guy in the fifth round. But I thought it was hilarious and very telling that in Rivera's press conference, after the draft. The first question, according to the transcript, was this, on if they thought that quarterback Sam Howe would slide in the draft, nobody in that question, not one word mentioning Carson Wentz. Nobody even alluded to Carson Wentz.

It was just about Sam Howe. In that answer, he says, I had an opportunity to talk to Carson before he made the pick. I just wanted to make sure he understood that this was just all about developing a young guy more so than anything else. Nobody asked him about Carson Went. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my God, do they know what the problem is? Well, I mean, and I talked about this on the podcast that I did over the weekend and then yesterday as well with Ben.

And look, I mean, we know the history with Carson Wentz. He was been out of shape that Philadelphia selected Jalen Hertz in the second round. You could argue that Jalen Hertz had every bit, that Sam Hal has every bit the name recognition and the expectations going into this draft that Jalen Hertz had going into his draft. And so there was that for Ron to consider. the bottom line is he had to call Carson Wentz because it was Sam Howl. It didn't matter the round, Tommy. If they had picked, and I think I went through some of these yesterday, but if not,

if they had picked Mike White from Western Kentucky, he was a fifth rounder in 2018, or Davis Webb from California, fifth rounder in 2017, or Kevin Hogan, who is from, you know, went to Gonzaga here locally, fifth rounder in 2016. Or there's a couple of good ones here. Hold on. A guy in the fifth round, Easton Stick. I mean, Easton Stick got picked in the fifth round out of North Dakota State by the Chargers.

If they had picked Easton Stick or the equivalent of Easton Stick in the fifth round, they wouldn't have had to call Carson Wentz. They picked Sam Howell. Perked up and noticed when they picked Sam Howe. Sam Howell two years ago was a projected number one, number one overall. Sam Howell has been at the forefront of the quarterback draft conversation for two years running. Sam Hal and Ben and I were talking about this yesterday because we both said to each other, you know, I bet we could find tweets from the last two weeks where somebody was projecting Sam

Howell to go in the first round. And after the show yesterday, Ben sent me this tweet from John Kime. It was a John Kime retweet. Kime retweeted Jim Nagy, who is the executive director of the Senior Bowl, who said, based on conversations, this was on April 15th, two weeks before the draft, based on conversations with NFL scouts during pro day season, Sam Howell sneaking into the late first round is one of the likely surprises of day one. and Kime, when he retweeted it, said, would not be surprised by this. So this is a totally different feel to a, like I said, on Sunday and Monday,

you know, this isn't a fifth round developmental, might make the team, have a guy in training camp pick. You know, I sent a pen yesterday, and you'll know the reference. This isn't Matt Hooper telling Chief Brody. this was no boating accident. This is Sam Howl. Sam Howell was two weeks ago, and you could find more of these, still one of those guys considered to be maybe after Pickett and Willis Sam Howell's

the next guy to go late in the first round. He's the guy, and by the way, I know this. People in the organization have liked Sam Hal for two years, going back to them watching a lot of Diami Brown. Now, the other part of that press conference, which was interesting, Tommy, was when they asked Ron Rivera if Sam Howell was the guy that he had referred to early last week when he said there was a quarterback in my mind's eye that I really liked and I would have considered, you know, we would have considered taking very early if not for, you know, basically implying the Wentz trade. and somebody said, was that the player you were talking about? Howl? And apparently he winked to everybody and then really didn't answer the question.

Now, I don't believe that that's who he was talking about. I don't. I think they probably had Howl as a guy that they liked. And if he slid, you know, that they would take him. You know, Ron's got some major bullshitting, you know, ability in him. And so the wink was, we got our guy. We got a guy that we might have taken early in the first round, but we got him at the top of the fifth.

I don't believe that because if that's true, then they would have taken him in the third or fourth round when he was still there because that was considered to be high value. Peter King's column yesterday, he sat with the Ravens throughout their fourth round. It was very, actually it was a really interesting story, just being in the Ravens draft. room. They had six fourth round picks, the Ravens did. Why do they have six fourth round picks? Because

they knew this was a draft that was super deep because of the COVID year. And yet at the top, there weren't necessarily superstars. Six fourth rounders. I don't know. I think that's got to be a record for the most picks in one round by one team ever. But as part of that fourth round day that he spent with Baltimore, when they got to their first of their six fourth round picks, Baltimore's highest rated player on their board was Sam Howell, according to Peter King, who was in the room. That was at the very beginning of the fourth round. Now, the Ravens don't need a quarterback, so they didn't select Sam Howe.

But I wonder if a team like the Ravens, I mean, who knows, maybe during the third round, Sam Howell was their highest rated player. There are a lot of people that liked Sam Howl. I had Sean King on the radio show yesterday. Sean played quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he's the guy Tommy that hosts the show with Tim Murray out in Vegas. He's like, Sam Hal, to me, it was the number one quarterback in this draft, and it wasn't even close.

So there are people that liked Sam Hal. There weren't a lot of teams that needed quarterbacks. Maybe he would have gone earlier. but he's so the question is how quickly before, well, you know, we'll get blamed as media people for stirring up quarterback controversy. I already read that email yesterday. But how quickly will the fan base, you know, to me it takes one preseason game of, you know, two touchdowns and 212 yards in the second half on 18 of 22, something like that.

Yes. Yes, it will take one preseason appearance. And it also depends on how Carson Wentz looks in the preseason appearance. If we don't see enough of Carson Wentz to say, oh, okay, he's going to be okay. And then you see the other guy who's lighten it up, of course that's all it'll take. Here's what Rivera still hasn't figured out yet. in Washington, a quarterback position is like a living organism.

You know, it's like, you know, that stuff cuts to that grows in the woods? Yeah. That vine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like that. Yeah. You know, or it's like a virus. You can't really control it. You may think you can control it. But in this town, it's like a living organism.

And this could get away from them just like, that. Yeah, and Moderna has not yet come out with a vaccination for the quarterback virus in this town. But Tommy, but Tommy, you can wear

your mask to the games outdoors to avoid it. You know, you're right. I think he probably knows that. You know, it's not totally specific to Washington. The backup quarterback thing. I'm sorry.

You're going to have to pick a town. for me that had a quarterback to beat like John Beck and Rex Grossman. Okay? That was just... That's the measuring stick. That was the two of us. I mean, I know that's the measuring stick. Okay. And look, I have no problem with Rivera calling Carson Wentz and telling them about the draft. I think that's smart management. I don't either. I don't either. I don't have a problem with it either. But I don't, I think it's very telling that he publicized it within the first 30 seconds of talking about the draft about the pick i had joe thysman on radio yesterday and i said i asked joe i said joe i'm just

curious in nineteen eighty four did bobby and joe call you to tell you that they were going to draft j shrader in the third round and he just started laughing out loud he's like Kevin. He's like, he just said that. He goes, that's great, but no, no, they didn't call me, nor would they have ever thought of calling me. But we live in a different day and age, obviously. Yes, we do. You know, and these guys are not as thick-skinned. But I think the issue is he had to go out of its way to publicize it. Yeah. Well, and Green Bay never called Aaron Rogers about Jordan Love. I don't have a problem with it.

You know, look, they have to make this Carson Wentz thing work. I am very, very happy. I'll repeat this for the third straight day. I am very, very happy. I shouldn't say very, very happy. I'm very, very impressed that they took a quarterback in this draft that they liked. My only regret would be to find out that they liked another quarterback a lot more and passed on that quarterback, you know, Desmond Ritter or Malik Willis or whomever.

I mean, you had quarterbacks, you know, it was picket, and then the rest of them came off the board in the third round, started to come off the board in the third round. That would be my only, that would step back the level of impressed that I am if they passed on somebody that they liked a lot more than how. But I'm glad that they didn't avoid taking, you know, the highest rated player on their board in the fifth round, a quarterback, which they should be taking quarterbacks as a general practice, you know, as much as they can until they find one if they like them. I was concerned that they wouldn't take a quarterback at all, even if they liked quarterbacks, just because they're all in on making Carson Wentz work. And look, I'm,

I mentioned this yesterday, I think. There are 28.3 million reasons why Carson Wentz is going to get every opportunity to succeed. And they've already fulfilled their promise of going out and finding weapons to surround them with and more protection. They signed Trey Turner to a one-year $3 million deal, another Carolina, former Carolina offensive lineman played obviously in Pittsburgh last year. And, by the way, just for those that would say it's another Carolina player, I don't care about it. that. I'm not, first of all, they've actually earned my trust as far as the offensive line goes. John Mats goes maybe their best coach, you know, in the building. And why not draft players that are familiar with what they want and how they want to play? I don't have a problem with that

at all. But Carson Wentz is, there's no, there's no training camp competition. And Carson Wentz is going to get every opportunity to succeed here. Let's just hope for his sake and for Ron's sake that it doesn't start off poorly because the volume, the Sam Howl volume, not the Taylor Heineckee volume. I don't even know if there's a volume dial for Taylor Heineke after they drafted Sam Howe. But if there's a one in four or a two and six start and he's not playing well, get ready for it. Whether Howe's ready or not. ready for it. And let's not forget, let's not, let's not forget about the guy who led them to seven wins last year. And if his defense had delivered like they were supposed to, could have

been nine. And that's Taylor Heineke. I have forgotten about Taylor Heineke. What about the other quarterback they signed? The big dude? Yeah, I mean, wow, what a big guy. Yeah, he's a, he's, you know anything about? him bought? No, I don't. He's training camp, you know, he's a training camp guy, I think, for the most part. But yeah, he's six, seven, two-fifty. We need to get on that guy. Maybe they'll move him to tight end. That's, you know, they've got, they've got a couple of coals on the team. They've got several coals on the team in Kelly, Turner, and Holcomb. And they've got a bunch of Turner's in the building too.

Now, I like Turner as the pick from Nevada in just watching his tape, and I really like Jehan Dotson Dotson the player. But what, like I said earlier in this segment, it'll turn out that probably Percy Butler and Chris Paul will become the big winners of the draft because we don't know anything. I am very intrigued, as I said yesterday, that they drafted Brian Robinson, Jr. And the more and more I think about it, and the more and more I talk to people, look out Antonio Gibson, because I think Brian Robinson Jr. is going to have a chance, you know, in camp over the next few months, to become a significant part of what they're going to do in the backfield.

And I don't know what that means for Gibson, but clearly there are people on the offensive side of the ball that aren't thrilled completely with Antonio Gibson and thought they needed a lot more out of that position. I don't think it has to do with just fumbling either. Okay. Are you ready for my mock schedule? Yes, absolutely. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Tommy Monday, May 9th, 6th, 8 at Shelley's backroom.

I'll be there. So many people will be there. Tell everybody how they can show up. I want everybody to show up. This is going to be fun to hang out with Tommy, drink some beers. The only problem I have is I've got to work the following morning. Should I take that day off? Oh, I think absolutely you should.

Tell everybody how to get involved in this. Okay, well, like Kevin said, it's a great event. You go to DCGraise.com and scroll down to buy tickets. It's a $100 donation, tax deductible. We're a 501 organization. You get three cigars. you get free appetizers. There's a cash bar available, and we have an auction of sports memorabilia and tickets and services.

And there's been one more thing added to the auction. I just got in the mail. A Sugar Ray Leonard sweatshirt from his clothing collection. Wow. Autographed by Sugar Ray Leonard. Other items as well. He loves you, doesn't it? He also sent some other items.

Yeah. You know, it's funny. I covered one of Ray's fights his last one in 97. But I've gotten to know him over the years, and, yeah, Ray really stepped up. And remember, this is all for kids in D.C. Poor kids in the districts in D.C., where we pay for everything for them, equipment, uniforms, coaches, the work so they can play baseball. DCGraise.com, Monday, May 9th.

Does Bob still own? Shelly's back room. Does Bob still own Shelly's? Bob. Matarazzi still owns it. Yeah. Bob's a great guy. Bob was my neighbor, actually, for a few years.

By the way, Shelly's is so easy to get to 13th and F. Plenty of parking. It'll be a fun night. Come out a week, come out this coming Monday night. So a week from last night, Monday, May night. And I wanted to mention something else to you, Kevin, if I could. Please. I won another award.

Of course you did. I won first place in sports column writing in the Virginia Press Association annual contest. That's phenomenal. What column did you submit? Do you remember? Well, you have to submit a collection of three columns. Okay. What were they?

And then they pick from the collection. I don't remember. One of them, definitely I remember, because I thought it was one of the better columns I've ever written, was when I, about A-Rod and this whole reclamation project of A-Rod and all these businesses and stuff, and people just forgetting that he was a two-time steroid abuser in baseball. That was one of the columns, that one. But I've been in this business for 45 years, and I'm still getting it done. baby. You are. You got a lot of awards. I mean, you in the shrine that you built to yourself, which was the office at 980 at 1801 Rockville Pike, I mean, it was amazing. Just the trophies and the plaques that just lined the shelving and the walls. I mean, you had a box of stuff that you

didn't even get up because there wasn't enough room. I know. It was amazing. I know. As it is here, we might have to move. I may need a separate room. for all these. But here's what I don't have, Kevin. What? That you have. I don't have a Dundee. I've got a Dundee. I do have a Dundee. Courtesy of Tommy. Tommy gave me a Dundee. And the Dundee is right here.

And I don't know what the Dundee is for. But let's just say it's for Stanley's sales record. Because that was the only positive Dundee that went out in the Dundee's episode. And I want to just remind people that you'll get a chance to see the Dundee if you come to cigars and curveballs and bid on a chance to come see Kevin and I do the podcast in person in his palatial Bethesda studio. It is palatial. Yes, you will be able to do that. That'll be fun. All right.

Time to get to my mock draft. All right, the annual mock draft here. on the podcast is brought to you by my good friends at Window Nation. All right, Harley, Aaron, Eric, the whole gang. They got a great deal going right now. Buy to get to free, no limit, right? So you're paying half price on the windows. That's totally worth it.

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All right, mock schedule time, Tommy. So, yeah, I don't know how long I've been doing this. It's been certainly double-digit years. I think it's probably nearing 14 or 15 years that I've done this. And I don't even know what the results are. I have much better data on the smell test than I do on the mock schedule. I know one year I think I got three exactly right and that was the best year ever. You know, I got three games on the correct date, you know, even at the correct time, right.

But typically I get none right and, you know, every once in a while I'll get one right. My favorite of all time for me was when I, in 2018, in my mock scale, predicted that Washington would play Tennessee in a late season game on Saturday at 4.30. It was like Saturday, December 22nd, 430, and back in April of 2018, I said, you can mark it right now if you want to go to Nashville. They're going to play on Saturday, December 22nd against Tennessee. I have no idea how I got this. that one right, but I got that one right.

I remember Cooley was amazed by it. But I think that was the only one I got right back here. This is predicting the future. This is like that TV show where the guy used to predict like the headlines in tomorrow's paper. That's what Kevin's doing here. Tomorrow's headlines today. That would be a great moniker to some sort of, you know, site, crystal ball site.

Okay. So a couple of things to consider. or that I considered. And the reason I'm putting it out today is because you're going to start seeing different parts of the schedule leaked this week. You're going to get some international games leaked this week, according to Peter King. You're going to get probably some holiday games leaked this week. So Washington will not play an international game because they don't, all of the teams that are hosting the international games,

they don't have a road game against any of those teams. They have home games against some of those teams, but they don't have a road game against any of those teams. And I've been assured that those... Well, they're not allowed out of the country, we know that. They're not allowed to leave the country. Yeah, the holiday games, certainly possible. You've got Thanksgiving Day games, of course. This year, the NFL may actually roll out a Black Friday game. The Friday after Thanksgiving, there's been some discussion.

Peter King had this in a recent column that Amazon Prime may have a Friday night NFL game on the day after Thanksgiving. That's always been a day reserved for college football. And the NFL may intrude on that. You have Christmas Eve games, which will be the primary part of that week of the schedule, but a triple header on Christmas Day has already been announced. So that's why I wanted to get it out today,

even though the actual schedule doesn't come out until a week from Thursday on May 12. just in the event that Washington gets leaked is one of these teams that are going to play one of these holiday games. Anyway, a couple of things that I considered going into it. Number one is the last two years they've opened up at home, so I've got them opening up on the road this year. Also, the last three years, they have finished the season on the road. So I've got them finishing at home this year. Another thing I considered in the mock schedule this year.

I know for a fact that one of the preferences, each team is allowed to ask for a couple of things from the schedule makers. It doesn't guarantee that they'll get it, but they can give them a couple of their priorities. And Washington's priority was to not have the travel schedule on the short turnaround that they've had in a much more disadvantaged way than some of their division rivals, specifically Dallas in recent years. Now, they only have one West Coast trip this year to San Francisco. So I have the buy week after the San Francisco game, acknowledging that maybe the schedule makers will make sure that after a West Coast trip,

they don't come back for, say, you know, a Saturday game, or that the West Coast game is a Monday night game and they come back for a Sunday game on the road. So I tried to accommodate them there. I also had to think about national TV games. They were a 7-10 team a year ago, and they're not projected to be very good this year. No matter what you guys think, they're over under a 7-5.

They are a distant third in the NFC East odds. Philadelphia has closed the gap on Dallas in the NFC East. And, you know, if you look at the NFC championship odds, they're anywhere from 10th to 11th out of 16 teams. So it's not like they're going to get a ton, I don't think, of national television games. But every team's got to play a Thursday game or a Thursday night game. And, you know, I think they'll be scheduled for three total primetime games.

So with that in mind, here we go. All right. The opener is actually Sunday, September 11th. So you will have, you know, a lot of 11-year – I'm sorry, 21-year anniversaries of 9-11. On the 10-year anniversary, they played the Giants at home. They had New York and Washington playing. And last year was the 20-year anniversary, and even though Washington was obviously one of the cities hit, they had them playing at home, if you recall, against the Chargers last year.

I've got them opening up on Sunday, September 11th. At Indianapolis, Tommy. Carson Wentz against the team he quarterbacked last year, the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, September 11th at 1 o'clock. Not a primetime game. It's not that big in the NFL. Carson Wentz, you know, returning to Indianapolis. It'll be big for Carson Wentz and it will be big for the two cities.

I've got it as a one o'clock game Sunday, September 11th. Washington at Indianapolis, 1 o'clock. Week 2, home opener against the Tennessee Titans 1 o'clock game at Ghost Town Field. Week 3, week 3, I've got them at Dallas on Monday night football, September 26th. You know, at 815, 820, whatever time they start Monday night football. Monday night football against the Cowboys Week 3. Why did I do that? Well, Monday night football is getting a better scheduled issue.

with, you know, with Troy Aitman and Joe Buck now as the Monday Night Football pairing in broadcast booth. And, you know, whether we think Washington's irrelevant or not, Washington, Dallas always gets ratings. It just always does. And I see a Washington, Dallas Monday night game this year for Troy Akeman and Joe Buck to call. I've got it in week three of the season on Monday night, September 26th. Sunday, October 2nd, home against Jacksonville. By the way, remember Washington plays nine home games, eight road games. Last year, in the first year of the 17 games schedule, they played eight and nine,

eight at home, nine on the road. The NFC has the extra home game this year. Jacksonville, week four home, one o'clock game at FedEx Field. Week 5, this is a big one. This is Kirk Cousins returning to FedEx Field for the first time. Wow. As a Minnesota Viking quarterback, I've got it as a Fox late afternoon, doubleheader special, Minnesota at Washington in week five on October 9th

at FedEx Field, 425 kick. The next week they go to San Francisco, also a 425 star. in the Bay Area against the 49ers. And then the buy week, go ahead and schedule all your plans for the weekend that includes Sunday, October 23rd. That's going to be your buy week. Actually, don't make your schedule around that. But I've got a buy week following the game in San Francisco.

So your first six games at Indy, Tennessee at home, at Dallas on a Monday night, Jacksonville at home, Minnesota at home. San Francisco by week. They come back after the by week, and they play at Detroit. And then, that's a one o'clock game on October 30th, and then comes their second primetime game. A matchup at FedEx Field, Sunday night football, Mike Toriko on the call, along with Chris Collinsworth, Sunday night football against Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers. They played Green Bay, if you recall, during the 2016 season on a Sunday night game.

That was the you like it, you know, a game. I think it was, whichever one Kirk said, the Tampa game, the Green Bay game, whichever one he said coming off the field. Yeah, after they blew out. Well, he said something to Scott McLuhan on the way off the field. Remember when they lit up the Packers on that Sunday night, 42 to 24. I've got them playing the Packers at home Sunday, November 6th, 815. then Sunday November 13th at Houston, Sunday November 20th, Atlanta at home.

And then are they going to play on Thanksgiving? I have them not playing on Thanksgiving Day. You know, they've got three chances to play on Thanksgiving this year because they play at Detroit. They play at Dallas. And then there's always the Sunday or the Thursday night game on Thanksgiving night. I've got them playing Sunday, November 27th. of Thanksgiving weekend at Philadelphia to start a seven game closing stretch in which they are going

to play five division games. Remember last year they ended with five straight against the division. I don't see that happening. That was really a scheduling anomaly. But there is emphasis now for a lot of division games at the end of the year for a lot of the teams. I've got them at Philadelphia on November 27th. Cleveland at home on December 4th at 1 o'clock. The Giants at home December 11th at 1 o'clock. And the Cowboys at home on December 18th, scheduled for kind of a doubleheader Fox special at 425. That's three straight home games to start December.

And then their last primetime game comes on a weekend where there's going to be a lot of football. There's going to be a Thursday night game. There's going to be Saturday games, and then there's going to be a triple header on Christmas Day. I've got them playing the Thursday night game, December 22nd at Chicago. This would be a Tennessee from 2018 home run if I get this one right.

I just have a weird feeling they're going to play a late season Thursday night game. They usually in their Thursday night games play them early in the season, like the Giants last year. I got them playing a late season, December 22nd, Thursday night game at Soldier Field. It'll be cold. And then January 1 at the Giants and January 8th closing the season at home against the Philadelphia Eagles. At Indy, Tennessee at home, at Dallas, Jacksonville at home. Minnesota at home at San Francisco by week.

Green Bay at home on a Sunday night. At Houston, Atlanta at home, at Philly, Cleveland, the Giants, and Dallas, three in a row at home in early December, at Chicago on a Thursday night, at the Giants on New Year's Day, and Philadelphia at home to close out the 2022 campaign. That's my mock schedule. I will tweet that out later today. Okay. So you'll be able to see it that way. Do you want to go through and do a record on it?

No, we're not going to do that. No, we're not going to do that. I've got them between seven and nine wins this year. I think that's where they kind of are in the mix. Nine, if everything goes their way, and they could be in the wild card race at nine games. But some, you know, the low end being seven. I think their disaster scenario in 2022 is kind of high.

I think they're good enough to avoid like a 3 and 14 or a 4 and 13 kind of a season. Oh, the over under, as I understand it, that's been established at 7.5. That's it. That's it currently. All right. And I would bet you'd be over on that. Let's finish up with Tommy's column and the caps getting ready to open up their postseason tonight against Florida. We'll get to that right after these words from a few.

of our sponsors. NHL playoffs are underway. The caps open up their best of seven tonight at Florida. They are prohibitive underdogs against the best team in hockey. And I had Joe Beninotti on the radio show this morning. I love Joe. He's one of my favorite people, by the way, to interview. And he said that Florida's awesome.

They're one of the most explosive offensive teams in recent memory. and that, you know, the caps are like plus 290 underdogs in this series. But I said to him, I go, you know, Florida hasn't won a series since 1995-96 in the postseason. Washington's got a lot of Stanley Cup pedigree. And for the first time, when you think about it, Tommy, there's no pressure on the caps. It seems like there's pressure every year in this first round just to get out of it, you know, against teams that they're favorite against because they typically are. And this one is, I mean, they can kind of play carefree. There's not going to be any, oh, they're choking, you know, in the first round or they're, you know,

they've got a game seven, a big game five or a big game seven at home and you can cut the tension with a knife. There won't be any of that. They're playing as, you know, a major underdog with nothing to lose for the first time in a while. I would agree. they have not had the strong regular season. They're usually known as the regular season champions that they typically have had. So, yeah, there's no particular pressure on them because people don't think they're very good. Yet they've got a lot of players that won a Stanley Cup just four years ago. It doesn't seem like that long ago.

Their big issue is goaltending. and even Joe said this morning he's not sure who the starting goaltender will be tonight. They've had issues with both of them. Look, they haven't been right since running Barry Trots in Braden-Holtby out of town. They have not been the same team. And they've lost three straight series. I mean, I know they had Holtby for at least the first one. I forget whether or not they had them for the Islander series in the bubble.

But they, you know, they lost to the Carolina in game seven at home. that first year is the defending champs, lost to the Islanders in five, lost to the Bruins last year in five. It's three straight first round eliminations. I wonder if they could go back and do the Barry Trots thing over again if they would do that. I think they would. I think they would. Since the coast that they hired to replace him, it's gone already.

Yeah, I think they would. The Islanders didn't make the playoffs this year, but he lost, you know, in the conference finals in year two, with the Islanders and, you know, the semifinals last year. So he's had much more success than Lovillette's had since he took over with the caps. Joe seems to think they've got to play kind of a real buttoned-up grinding physical kind of game to slow Florida down. Florida's highly explosive, but inexperienced in the postseason. So look, it's hockey.

We've seen eights beat ones before. We've seen eights make it all the way to the Stanley Cup and win it. So anything can happen in this random sport, which is the NHL in terms of, you know, a puck bouncing off a couple of pads and a post and either going in or going out and that being the difference in a game. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I don't know anything about hockey. I'll be the first to admit it. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Caps with their experience make this a real difficult series for the best. best team in hockey?

Wouldn't surprise me, no. I agree. I don't have a prediction. I don't. I have no idea. I know Florida's really fast, and the caps aren't. The caps have major goaltending problems. So, you know, as Tark El-Bashir has said to us in the past, the NHL in the postseason, you can sum up in one word, goalie.

If you have one, you've got a chance, and if you don't have much of a chance. and they don't have one apparently, so I'm not expecting big things from them. All right. Tommy wrote one of those Tommy columns. They titled, they had a party at Ghost Town Field last week to celebrate the team's drafting of hostages. But it really morphs into a conversation about FIFA's World Cup and the bid for 2026. Why don't you tell everybody about your column? read some of the really good lines.

Well, I mean, you know, Washington has a group called D.C. 2026 that's hoping to host some World Cup games, the World Cup in 2020-6 being in North America. There's a bunch of cities around the North America, including on Mexico and Canada, that are bidding for that, right. and Baltimore also had a bit, a separate bid from Washington. Now, you've got to consider Baltimore, long shot, to, you know, host an international World Cup game. And D.C. would seem like a natural. The soccer hotbed, it's the capital of the free world. But as it turned out, once FIFA officials got a look after COVID, you know, after they stopped doing the virtual president,

and it's got an actual eyeball presentation of FedEx Field, Ghost Townfield, as I call it. They said, if you kidding me? You can't use this? You know, we're not going to host a World Cup game in this toilet bowl. FIFA officials may have tried to flush a few toilets and wondered what the duct tape was for the railings. And they looked at the group and said, got any place else? Baltimore. Let's go to Baltimore. And one of my favorite lines from your column is the line where

you write, Lost in the Sea of Embarrassment that sweeps over this organization seemingly on a daily basis was the fact that in Washington's bid for the host 2026 World Cup games, the gangsters at FIFA that hand these out got one look at Ghost Town Field and said, how about Baltimore?

It's so dismissive of both Baltimore and Washington simultaneously. They got one look at goes down to field and say, well, how about Baltimore? And then your next line is, is there anything more embarrassing for Washington sports fans than to hear, how about Baltimore? Yeah, that's funny, but that's what happened, right? They took their tour of FedEx Field. They said, well, you got anything better? Yes, and so the two groups have combined for a single bid where they have basically a cocktail party in D.C.

Right. And then the actual game in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium. And my favorite part was, in the beginning of this process, the football team, the commanders, they were all in. Oh, they were on board with hosting this. They said it'll be a chance for the world to see what a great. stadium, you know, we have here in Washington, you know, for our football team and all this. And by the end, basically they withdrew as if it was their idea to pull out of using ghost town field as a host for the game.

So it was just, you know, just really, it's really embarrassing. Well, it's really embarrassing. It's really embarrassing. It's what they have. I mean, they can't play at an Audi field, obviously. It's not big enough. But let me just tell you, the Hay Adams is a beautiful hotel for a big party and a cocktail party. We can go one night there.

We can go to the Reagan building one night. We've got so many beautiful places to host parties. But then we're just going to scoot up the road, you know, 30 miles to watch the games. We're going to go. I mean, if it's not good enough to host the World Cup game, how come? much good enough to have a football team play there and have your fans watch that team there. Oh, my God. Maybe, maybe the franchise should see if they could lease space at M&T Bank from when the Ravens aren't there. Yeah, well, that won't happen.

Like the Jets did when they left Shade. Let me tell you something. Can you imagine what Bashati would charge Snyder to do that? By the way, by the way, Dan, what do you? What do you would charge Dan rather than telling Bishotti to call him Mr. Snyder, which is, you know, one of the legendary stories. No, I don't think Bichotti's going to let Dan play there. No, it would be closer from Ghost Townfield to go seat him in Baltimore than it would in Dumfries or West Virginia what they want to build in their case. A lot closer and a hell of a lot more convenient.

Tommy's column starts with They had a party at Ghost Town Field last week to celebrate the team's drafting of hostages After all, that's what they are, hostages. Players rarely come to Washington to play football of their own free will. They wanted a quarterback and no one would come, so they went out and got a hostage

who had no choice but to be a commander, Carson Wentz. When Wentz found out he was traded from Indianapolis to Washington, he prayed, Okay, God, I'm going to just take the next right step. I'm going to be obedient wherever you have me, whatever it looks like. That's not exactly a prayer of thanks. Funny writing.

And this one I'd submit for next year's award, whatever set of awards. Yeah, this one was a good one. You know, this is a phenomenal soccer town. I mean, you know. I know. Washington, L.A., obviously, New York, Chicago. I know, you know, kind of the Pacific Northwest has been a huge soccer, you know, hotbed for even the MLS.

But, yeah, I mean, you know, when the World Cup was here in 94, they played games at FedEx, right? They didn't play any of the big, you know. No, they played at RFK. Oh, that's right. It was at RFK. What am I talking about? Yeah, FedEx wasn't built.

was at RFK. There was no FedEx. Right. Maybe they should play it at RFK. I'll tell you what, seriously, if I'm going to go to a World Cup game or two when it's here in 2026. I've heard that they are phenomenal. My brother, I've told you, goes to the Champions League final every year. In fact, I think it's the end of this month because he told me he was heading over there to see the Champions League final. And he always tells me, he's like, look, I'm about as much of a soccer fan as you are, although he's a bigger one, but he said, you just would not believe the scene and the

electricity of being at one of those events. It's really incredible. And I can imagine it is. I'd like to do that in 2026. Great column. I tweeted it out. You can follow, you know, go get it from Tommy's Twitter page as well. You got anything else for me?

I got nothing else for you today, boss. I got nothing else for anybody else. Back tomorrow, I think we'll have Steve Sands on the show. You know, the Wells Fargo is in town this weekend at Avenel. We'll certainly talk with somebody on the show about the Caps game one, and we'll have a lot of Washington commanders talk. You know what? Somebody mentioned this to me recently.

They said, you're getting more comfortable. with commanders. I'm not getting more comfortable with commanders in terms of my passion for, you know, the changing and the brand. I'm just using it more because that's the team name. And we talk about the team. And at some point, it's going to sound ridiculous if I keep saying Washington football team. I mean, I do slip up all the time. Sometimes it's not slipping up and say skins or redskins. But yes, I think I've noticed myself referring to the team. more and more as the commanders, well, that's the team's name. And if it were an expansion team in another city, I would be referring to it as that name. That's still my feeling right now about

this team for me is that it feels very much like an expansion team in a different city. Sorry, it's the way I feel. Maybe when we get to the season and they're opening up at Indianapolis and then they beat them and they beat Tennessee in week two and then they've got a game. at Dallas, as I've projected on Monday night football in week three, I'll get excited about the commanders. But you know what, Tommy? If that's the case, and it's Monday night football, dun dun dun da da da da da da da. And it's in Dallas and it's got commanders, it's got Cowboys versus commanders. I might vomit. I might be really, really distraught to see that in full-screen Kyrons on the Monday night football broadcast with Troy Aitman and Joe Buck saying first down commanders.

Yeah. Okay. It will be a bit of traumatic. We're done for the day. Back tomorrow.