The Kevin Sheehan Show - Did They Or Didn't They Luck Tamper?

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Kevin and Thom today talking about the Colts' interest in an investigation into whether or not Washington tampered in their interest a year ago in Andrew Luck. Lots on Sam Howell, the NBA Playoffs, the potential delay in the NFL Schedule, the Nats, and more.  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. I am here. Tommy is here. The show today is presented by MyBooky.

Go to MyBooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code Kevin, D.C. And they'll give you a great first-time offer. By the way, they've got all the NBA you need. They've got all of the NFL preseason props. They don't have a mock schedule up quite yet. That's coming in their odds later on this week. I'm kidding. Tommy's in studio with me today. I get to look right at him.

Tommy came in for a number of reasons. We'll get to those in a moment. But go to mybooky.orgie.orgie.com and use my promo code. This is a review from Bree. Bree in Silver Spring writes five stars, by the way. Thank you, Bree. I rarely miss an episode of this podcast. The episodes with Tom are the best. I love Cooley, but he's hard to hear sometimes. Kevin with nothing but peace and love. Brian Robinson Jr.'s last name is Robinson, not Robinson Jr. Junior is a reference to his first name.

Please omit Junior like you omit the G in strength. Wait a minute. So am I supposed to say Brian Jr. Robinson? I don't understand that. I've never heard it phrased that way. If his father is Brian Robinson, right, then he would be Brian Robinson, Jr. Right.

I mean, he's also Brian Jr., among those that are very comfortable with them and are calling them just by their first name. Or junior, or junior. Or junior. That's what everybody used to call Cal Ripkin. Cal Ripkin, they used to call him junior. That's all they called them, for sure. We know another junior, too, don't we?

We know a lot of juniors. Which junior are you referring to? Feinstein. Oh, that junior. So it's good to have you in studio. Tommy came in. He was going to come in on Wednesday, and I can't do Wednesday now. So he was nice enough to change the plans.

Now, wait a minute. You're going to do the podcast Wednesday. I'm going to do the podcast Wednesday. We're going to do it early. I have a funeral to go to. Sorry to hear that. So I will be going to that right after the radio show. But anyway, it's good to have you in studio.

And I like what you've done with this. It looks a lot different, doesn't it? Since the last time I was here. Yeah. What looks different to you? Anything? Actually, there should be something much different. The soundproofing is totally different. Is it really? Yeah. Yeah, the soundproofing. We redid the soundproofing about a month and a half, two months ago. What did it look like before? I don't think you were in the last two months. No. What did it look like before? It was a different type of soundproofing and it was a different color. soundproofing. What was the color? It was brown. Okay. Now this is burgundy. Yes. You know, it is a burgundy soundproof studio. Why don't you paint the wall's gold? I don't think I could get away with that. I actually didn't ask for the burgundy, but our good friend Mike Nelson,

Jr., I think. Yes. Mike Jr. Nelson, he brought, he picked it out, and he's a big fan of the team. So maybe he just figured I'd want burgundy. And so I wasn't going to send it back at that point. But anyway, there you go. It's still, it's still pretty much resembles a studio for a guy who, who has to get out of town 10 minutes in 10 minutes. No, there's more stuff in here than was in my old office. You know what? I have a lot in here. And I'm going to, I'm going to ask you to take some of it if you'd like it. I have a lot of product in here, you know, from some of our advertisers in boxes. And it's, It's great product. Obviously, we love all of our advertisers. But, you know, in some cases, I got sent a lot of additional product, and I haven't even

used up the first, you know, wave of products. So I can send some product home with you, if you'd like. Well, whatever it is, my wife will eat it if it's free. She'll eat anything. It's not food. There are some drinks in there, however. No, no, the Magic Spooned cereal, we go through pretty quickly. Oh, you go through that. Actually, I did get you, I got you something to bring home today, Yes, you did. You gave me a present. A box of Lorna Dunes.

Let me show it to the camera. Yeah. Hold it up. Hold it up for News Channel 8. Yeah. Let me show it to the camera. Box of Lorna Dunes. Right.

You must really want something bad. No, I don't. I, um, well, I got us lunch today. Yes, you did. I was starving and I figured, well, I'm going to order lunch for me and you were coming in. So we did, I did, I ordered Chick-fil-A via Uber Eats, which was done with a an hour to go on my radio show timed out perfectly and as you were walking and we had just gotten it and then I had to run down to my car to get something and I walked back through Safeway

to get myself a yogurt and I saw the Lorna Dunes in the cookie aisle so I just I figured I'd get you a thing of Lorna Dunes you've not opened them yet no surprised because I usually have them with with a glass of milk and I dig I dunk them I dunk them in the milk you're a dunker yes I never was a dunker. Oh, I'm a big time dunker. Not a dunker. Now, I like a cold glass of milk with cookies, but not for dunking purposes. You know what I... My father was always a dunker. I like to dunk

bread. What? Bread. Oh, my God. What do you mean bread? Bread. You dunked bread into milk? Even sliced bread. I like the dunk. Because it tastes good. Then it's soggy, gross. I like it. Oh, you're disgusted. Seriously, you dunked bread. Yes.

I don't dunk bread regularly. Most people don't like soggy bread, I would guess. I've done it. I mean, I usually eat it within seconds of dunking it, so it's not really soggy at that point. It's fulfilling. Okay. I would imagine once you dunk bread, it's soggy.

It sogs pretty quickly once you dunk bread. By the way, in talking about dunking cookies. So I do, you know, I do love Oreos, but my father loved Hydrox. Remember the Oreo equivalent? Yes. Made by Sunshine, maybe? That sounds right. But he used to dunk the hydrox in milk.

I remember that when I was a kid. But I became much more of an Oreos fan. But I don't, Oreos isn't my top cookie. What's your top cookie? Well, yeah, I know what it is. It's Lorna Dune. But you know what? What?

I used to, when I used to eat them a lot more, uh-huh. I had a dunking technique where, I dunked and then I tapped the cookie against the side of the cup twice to get the, you know, get the drops off. Right. So it's not completely soaked like bread. Right.

Yeah. So I would do that. And I got to be such a habit that I would do with almost any food. I would have this like this Pavlov's dog thing where I would like tap whatever I was eating twice. Right. And my kids used to make fun of me when they catch me doing it. Especially with the bread because then the bread just fell apart.

It was all soggy. I hope you didn't tap the bread after you dunked it. No, I didn't. Okay. I mean, I used to do that. It was like second nature for me. So, but I don't eat. I rarely have, I have Lorna Dunes maybe two times a year.

I, um, boy, there are a lot of, what's interesting is I just Googled Hydrox and you know, it pops up. Hydrox versus Oreo. Like, this is a big, you know, debate. It's, is it really a debate? I would imagine Oreo in terms of cookie sales. What are the top cookie sales? What's the number one cookie?

It's got to be Oreos, right? I would think so. Cookie sales. Cookies buy sales. I would have to think it's Oreos. Best-selling cookie brands. Pepperidge Farms make some pretty good cookies. They're my favorites.

Hold on. Okay. I'm going to get this here. When I was a kid, I used to like social teas. That was another cookie that I liked. Sounds like a lot of girl cookies. Yeah. Let me ask you a question.

What's a man's cookie? What's a man's cookie? Yeah. Probably a... What? Well, a chocolate. There's no man's cookie. Yeah, there isn't a man's cookie.

A cookie reminds me of we are going to have tea with it as well. A little four o'clock tea with the girls. Okay. All right. This looks. like it's it. But they count little Debbie oatmeal cream pies.

Is that a cookie? Orio's double stuff is a bigger seller than Oreos. Then Belveda cookies. Chips Ahoi. That makes sense. Then the Oreo. I don't like any of them. Milano's are up there. Yeah, Milano.

I'm a big Milano fan. My wife is a big Milano fan. Yeah, I like the double I like the double dark chocolate Milano's. Those are pretty good. I'll remember that if you ever come. Come to your studio? Yes. Okay.

I'll have a bag on site for you. So I want to save the NBA because I know that you watched Denver Phoenix last night for either the next segment or the last segment. I can't hear you. What did you say? I can't hear you. Tell me about your ears. God, Tommy, I mean, look, look at me. I mean, I get him lunch.

I get them a package of Lorna Dune cookies. And I forget to mention his ears, which he told me to do before the show. How are your ears doing? A friggin' disaster. Why, what's going on? An absolute disaster. After the operation, I could hear fine. It was great.

And like an idiot, I listened to the post-operation directions, where they send you home with ear drops, and they say put them in twice a day. I'm assuming that's to reduce the chance of infection. I don't know. Mm-hmm. Well, by the third day, I couldn't hear anything out of either ear because of the ear drops. They were getting clogged or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's where I'm at. My hearing now is worse. It's worse than it was before the operation. So what are you going to do? Well, I'm going in to see the doctor Wednesday. Uh-huh.

You got to wait until Wednesday? You can't hear. I can hear. I mean, it's just like... You're lip reading right now. It's like 50%, you know? I mean, I tell you why. I wish I could walk around with headphones.

once I'd be able to hear fine. But, so I'm going in on Wednesday, and I don't know if there's anything, you know, she can do for it, really. Well, they probably have to drain the ears again. Well, I'm not going to go through that operation again. Oh, my God, you are a mess. I'm not going through that operation again.

I mean, get the eyes and the ears done at the same time next time. You know, you should show a little bit more sympathy or I'll tell you about my eye treatment. I know about your eye treatment. No one ever wants to hear about that again. All right. By the way, on or off the podcast. That's one you keep to yourself. Like, by the way, the commanders should have done last year when they were bragging about all the quarterbacks that they were interested in.

I mean, you know, seriously, I'm sure most of you by now know the story that apparently now the Colts want the league to investigate. Florio came out a little while ago, like as in earlier this morning, and said that the update to the story, I had it here a moment ago. hold on for one second. Oh, Jesus, God. Here it is. The update to the story is that the cults are, quote, seeking to learn more about what exactly transpired and whether any tampering occurred. So if you miss this, John Kime wrote a story over the weekend about Sam Hal. Very positive story.

I mean, everybody's really, I mean, they are. I'm not talking about John. It's all the quotes and the sources. that he has. They are into them, they are into some Sam Hal. Yes, they are. That's for sure. But in this story, John wrote, quote, they even phoned about retired Andrew Luck just in case. Now, what he's talking about was last year's pursuit of a quarterback. When they, you know, first tried for Russell Wilson, struck out on Russell Wilson and ended up with Carson Wentz, and recall that the organization had said that they're calling everybody.

You know, Kime had this story. Martin Mayhew said they're calling all 32 teams. They called about 40 quarterbacks or whatever it was back then. Well, the problem with Andrew Luck is if they called Andrew Luck directly, it is a violation of the tampering rule. If they called his agent directly to inquire as to whether or not he'd be interested in coming out of retirement. That is a violation of the NFL tampering rule. If they indicated interest in Andrew Luck to a media member, that could be a violation of the tampering rule. Here is the tampering rule in more detail as described in by ESPN. And this was I think a John Kime

follow up. The tampa, was this John? I want to know, it's Stephen Holder from ESPN. I think he covers the Colts. Any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, and another club's player, to that player's agent or representative or to a member of the news media is a violation. In addition to direct contact with said player, Kansas City got docked, a third and a sixth rounder back in 2016 for tampering with Jeremy Macklin when he was Eagle. The Dolphins lost their first round pick this year for tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton. So when they were, you know, telling everybody last year about, you know, crossing every T and dotting every eye as far as the quarterback pursuit went,

they probably mentioned, oh, by the way, Andrew Luck. And John wrote about it a year ago, but nobody picked up on it. And then he wrote about it yesterday and they picked up on it. It's not John's fault. No. I mean, John, is reporting what he heard. Now, is it possible that the way he wrote it in which, you know, he describes, you know, they even phoned about retired Andrew Luck that maybe if they didn't phone anybody other than the Colts, maybe that should have been described more accurately, because the only way they didn't tamper is if they called the Colts about Andrew Luck or they didn't call anybody about Andrew Luck. Right. If they called

anybody else, pretty much there's a potential tampering charge here. I have no idea if this leads to anything. I mean, you would think at this point, and look, it's still possible that you know, Ursa could just, you know, for the hard on these guys, for

Dan Snyder, just could be flexing his muscles on this. But you would think if the Colts are asking for further clarification, they would know if somebody in their organization had talk to the team about Andrew Luck.

You would think that they would know that. That's right. So if they seem unaware of that happening, it's more likely that it didn't happen. Or Ursa is just trying to stir it out. Yes. What's more likely, though? You know what's actually the most likely scenario for me? Everything's believable with them, of course.

Of course. Is that it was just a throwaway line when they were talking about, you know, calling everybody. and looking for everybody's quarterback. Or we even called about Andrew Luck. Actually, now that I say that to myself, I don't think that's the most likely. Because why would you just throw that out there unless at some point you were thinking about it?

And if you were thinking about it and didn't do it, then you knew it was probably something that could get you in trouble. So why mention it in the first place? Look, Mr. My Boy, if you were setting the odds on whether or not this team tampered or not, the odds that they tampered would be what? they would probably be the leading favorite of the odds. Right.

And that's based on their track record of screw-ups. Or some, and then second, in a close second, is Ursay, you know, they did call somebody. They called Greg Ballard or somebody in the organization, and they didn't tell Ursay or whatever. Yeah, that's possible. Yeah. That's certainly possible. But here's the thing that, and I talked about this on radio this morning, this is just so them, you know. it doesn't matter who's been here for the last quarter century,

and we all hope that it's going to change with new ownership, and it should change. But everybody that's been here under Snyder, really starting with Dan and Vinny, is they just talk too much. They just always talk too much. They're always trying to talk something into, to talk about something that'll make them look good in their own mind.

And, you know, that usually happens on days that aren't Sundays during the fall. You know, it's still one of my favorite dock lines is this organization does Monday through Saturday better than anybody. Sunday's the problem. And it's always been the case with them. They just, you know, my old mantra with them, which is they are the kings of overpromising and under-delivering. It's just always been part of who Snyder and the organization is. And it hasn't been that much different with Ron. Look at what they're doing and trying to pitch Sam Hal to us this whole off season. But it would be so like them. to have telegraphed how desperate they were for a quarterback, right? To start with. And so they didn't get Russell Wilson offered more than ultimately Denver ended up paying for him. And then they're in that desperate situation with Indy where Indy robs them blind. Yeah. But it was easy.

It was easy to because they knew how desperate they were. Yes. And they just allowed them to negotiate against themselves. And this has happened well before Ron got here. They were always on the wrong side of almost every deal that they did for a long period of time. Very few deals did they come out on the better side. They were the organization that every agent called first and every team called first to try to unload or get their player to sign because they'd overpay on the free agency contract side and they would overpay on the compensation side and a trade.

Bruce kind of changed that for a while, but the bottom line is this group. I mean, I remember reading, I think it was an Albert Breer story about Matt Ryan signing with the Colts. And Ron called the Colts up and said, my God, how did you get Matt Ryan for that price? Like, because you were an idiot. You told them how desperate you were. They had nobody else they were going to cut this guy. And you traded picks plural. And by the way, eight is $28 million contract.

And then all the while they're doing that, they're getting. absolutely, you know, fleeced by the Colts, somebody might, may have been out there talking about Andrew Luck, which will cost them another pick down the road, maybe. Like, you can't make it up with these people. This group talks too much also. You know, part of talking too much is, is trying to explain your mistakes. That's part of what they don't. They don't admit mistakes. But they are, But they are trying to do that. They're trying to explain that what they did was not a mistake. That's what the talking is.

They're usually behind the eight ball, and they're trying to tell you, no, no, no, we're the cue ball. We're in charge, you know? So that's what the talking comes from. You know, I listened to you on your show on the way in here today. And I wanted to bring this up to you because you've brought this up before about how, you know, I mean, we both agreed to maybe different levels that Ron has totally screwed up the quarterback thing since he's been here. But you tend to bring in this notion that, well, it's not because they didn't try. Right.

You know, they tried with Stafford. Right. They tried with Wilson. Wilson. But come on now. Okay. Imagine you're running the worst, most embarrassing radio station in the world. Okay.

and somebody comes to Kevin, you, and says, I want you to come work for us. And you have other options to go work at. What's the perspective? What's the thinking of the management of that worst radio station? Do they really think that they can get the best talent in sports talk radio to come work for them? No. You see, that's the problem.

That's why the chase was totally disdain. Because there was no way Russell Wilson was going to agree to come to Washington. There was no way Matt Stafford was going to agree to play for this organization. So their pursuit is disingenuous. So they get zero credit for it because it wasn't based in reality. I think their pursuit for these things being this organization for a long period of time. And I hope this time next year we're talking about, you know, a functional organization. organization for the first time and we can no longer suspend reality.

But I think what they have found over the years, in recent years, is they probably just had to pay a little bit more to get somebody. And I think they offered more to Russell Wilson. I don't think there was any amount of money. Well, you know, I don't know that Ron knows that. I don't know that Martin and Marty. They don't have a real perspective as to how bad of an organization they are. Yeah, well, you know what?

I don't know what the answer to that is. I don't. Maybe they don't. Maybe there's, you know, once you're inside it, and by the way, you feel like you're doing a pretty good job and you're changing things that you're in a different organization than the one that hired you. Because I do think there's some of that in Ron right now. I think Ron believes that because we heard it from day one, culture, we've got to change the culture. And I give them credit for changing the culture in that locker room. because it is. It's a decent roster.

Yes, it is. There's a different kind of, you know, leadership among the players than we've had before. And I think Ron deserves credit for that. So I do think they are living that their reality, no matter how delusional it is, is that they change the organization for the better and people out there know it and realize it. But the record really hasn't changed. And, you know. And the decision-making.

But John Allen stayed and Terrible. Mary McClorn stayed and Duran Payne just stayed. None of whom are Ron Rivera's player. No, they're not. But maybe that makes it even more impressive that he was able to keep them. Yeah. Look, we know players like to play for Rivera. Yeah.

I mean, in Carolina, they sung his praises, his former players. I think they like to play for Jack, too. And we'll find out if they enjoy playing for Eric at some point during the season. You know, I found another John Kimes story. It's a small little thing. It could be nothing, okay? But the whole Sam Howe thing, and I'm going to get to something that I think is really at the heart of our issue with Sam Howe. Okay.

This is what John Kime, and I love John Kime. Yep. This is not to single out John Kahn. Right, we love to. It's nothing bad he wrote here. Okay. He's done a great job of covering the team for decades. He wrote evaluating the 2022 draft.

When he got to Sam Howe, he said, my take, Washington. wanted a developmental quarterback and ended up with a quarterback, it would have considered higher, have it not traded for Carson Wentz. Some with Washington considered how the top quarterback in this class, pointing to his 2020 film when he was surrounded by more talented as evidence what he can do. But with Wentz aboard, Washington only wanted a quarterback who could possibly develop into a solid backup. Yeah.

Okay? Yeah. So they thought highly of them. But when they drafted him, they were just looking for a solid backup. Yeah. This gets to the Sam Howe problem. This problem with Sam Howe that I have is not Sam Howe. He could be the guy.

Okay? He's shown significant talent at North Carolina. He could be the guy. It's this honest process that they talk about to get to this point. It's full of dishonesty and deceit and bullshit. Yeah, it is. It is. I mean, in John's story from over the weekend, you know, they talk about how, you know, the opening paragraph is the commander said it all offseason.

Quarterback Sam Howell was their guy. Then during last week's draft, their actions spoke even louder. The commanders did not draft a quarterback, as some analysts projected them to do, which means how really is their. guide, just like they'd been saying all along. And then a couple of paragraphs later, and by the way, I love John, too. He's one of the highest quality of reporters covering this team for decades. But it's three paragraphs later. One team source said the only quarterback who would have tempted them was Tennessee's

Hendon Hooker, but only if he was there when they selected in the third round. So there was a quarterback that they were actually considering taking, which is something I had mentioned like a month ago. I know they were really blown away impressed with Hendon Hooker. Now, he didn't make it to the end of the third round. He was 29 picks earlier to Detroit. But you couldn't have said they really believe in Hal because they didn't draft a guy, but they did think about drafting a guy.

But no, to your point, like, it's the, I have no idea of Sam Hal's going to be any good either. I think there's some things about him that I actually really like. I liked it, North Carolina, and I liked in the Dallas game. and even the preseason last year. And then there were things that Caroline I didn't like. I really felt, and I said, it's one of the reasons Sam Hal wasn't one of my favorite quarterbacks in that draft. I thought that under pressure, he put the ball up for grabs a little bit too much.

Not Will Levis-like, but that he wasn't my favorite in a year with terrible quarterbacks. But just the whole notion that, and it's this paragraph, and we've been through this kind of before. But according to sources, John writes, with knowledge of the commander's draft process, Washington Scouts gave him, this would have been in 2022, a grade that equated to a second round pick. Some of them gave him a third round equivalent, but others had him in the late first. One source said leading into the draft that had they not traded for Wentz, they would have targeted Howe on the second day, which means a second or third round pick.

When he was still available in the fifth round, the commanders pounced. Well, like I've pointed out a couple of times in the last few weeks, I don't, at this point, the grade, whether it's a first, second, or third, it's much higher than where they picked him, which was the fifth. It's much higher than where they could have picked him in the middle of the fourth, but traded back. They were so interested in this dude and thought he was such a steal in the fourth round, because they had people with a second round grade, third round, grade, first round grade, that they passed on him in the fourth round and traded back. and then took them with the first pick in the fifth round. Now, maybe it's because of what you said. At that point, they weren't looking for a starter.

They were just looking for a good backup because they had Carson Wentz. The whole thing is all, it's kind of their attempt to change the conversation in this offseason. A, they couldn't go after and take a big swing this year, whether it was a worthwhile swing because they had, you know, or not. for an Aaron Rogers or Lamar Jackson or a big trade-up in the draft, et cetera, because it's not what the ownership situation this offseason would allow. My take is if we had had a normal, when I say normal, not normal, but a typical Washington offseason with Dan Snyder still as the owner, they would have gone and swung big again.

It was after the Cleveland game. You pointed this out last week. He was still talking about. They got to get the quarterback problem solved. Well, in this story, they said by mid-to-lawful, late season, which is, you know, before the Cleveland game and at the Cleveland game, they were already starting to realize this guy's got the, you know, a chance to be. No, he said after the Cleveland game, we got to solve the quarterback problem.

Maybe in his own mind, he was thinking, we got the solution here. I just can't tell everybody about it. I'll tell everybody in about nine days. Yeah. But then, you know, we go from this end of Cleveland game to nine days later, you know, he is slapping the QB1 label on a guy. that he wasn't even willing to start in a preseason environment. I think if we had a typical ownership situation,

they would have been out swinging big again, and maybe they wouldn't have landed, but they wouldn't have slapped the QB1 label on Sam Hal. I'm not saying that they don't believe in him to a certain extent, but I don't think they're convinced by any stretch of the imagination, nor should anybody really be convinced. but it became a good way to deflect from the horrific Cleveland game, the forgetting that you could be eliminated from the playoffs on that afternoon,

to no hope on quarterback, and then, you know, to not start, not wanting to start him, and then all of a sudden he starts, he plays, you know, relatively well. By the way, one of my favorite lines in the Kime story about Hal is the touchdown pass to Terry McCorn, which was his first pass. remember. Hal read man coverage at the line. It was prepared for how the Cowboys played McLorn. He also knew how McLaurin would react on his choice route, continue to run across because it was man coverage. Rivera said Hal made the play because of his pre-snap read. The throw in the

touchdown was as good as it gets. You know, and he's got other things in here about, you know, Rivera said he began to notice how players reacted to Howell in practice, whether a scout team or with the starters. Privately, by season's end, players felt he was ready to start. Some even predicted he'd do very well in the NFL. Rivera said, quote, the first thing you'd hear from was the defensive guys. I was trying to make the play. I just couldn't get to the ball because he throws such a perfect ball. The old saying is that players know players. As you listen to them talk about it, the receivers would say his ball's so catchable. He threw that to the only spot, you know, where I could catch it. I mean, there is

an incredible turnaround from where we were on that Sunday, Monday after the Cleveland game and before the Dallas game to where we are now. And I would just go back to the story about Andrew Luck that we started with. They run their mouths a lot. They talk a lot. And at some point, I, many years ago, started to say they are the kings of overpromising and under-delivering. And I stopped listening to all the bullshit or stopped believing it because,

it's just who they are. And this group isn't any different. I think with this group, it stems or the root is less from Dan and more from a general insecurity about the job they're doing. And I don't think they should feel insecure. You know, Ron coming up with this thing a few weeks ago about, oh, we are now focused on building out the roster. Yes.

You know, he needed a theme, you know, just like when he got all sensitive about the Van Natta story, which, you know, said that, you know, Snyder picked Wentz. you know, to a certain degree. And Rivera went, you know, in the press conference after the Chicago. No, that's my guy. I did the analytics. I don't even know if he knows what the analytics mean. And he's going on and on.

By the way, you think you'd like to take that back at this point? Yeah. But it's like they're just a little bit insecure and sensitive, and they're trying to make their case. And now you couple that with they're trying to make their case for the new owner, to keep their jobs. Yes, they are. So here we are with the Sam Halse story.

and hey, Josh, we got our quarterback. We drafted him in the fifth round. How about that? And if there is real competition, well, Ron has never said there's going to be a quarterback competition on this. He has said that Sam will have a chance to win the job. Right. That's different from a quarterback competition.

Okay. So if, you know, I'll be real curious to see how that unfold. And I brought this up to you before. And I'm going to, if no one's ever going to ask Ron, and I don't think they have, I'm going to ask them the next press conference I'm at. What does that mean exactly? Does that mean that they'll get the same amount of snaps with the first team? Will they get the same amount of work? Or will Sam get more work?

Because he's key number one. I think it's the latter to start with. Okay. Well, then then of course he's going to have a chance to win the job. He's going to get the opportunity to work with the first team. Yeah. We've said this before. If it's a tie, if Sam wins the, you know, this whatever they want to call it, he's the starter.

If it's a tie, Sam's the starter. If Jacoby beats him out by just a tiny bit, I think Sam's still the starter. But what they don't know, and they're not going to know, because they've never had him in this role. And by the way, remember, this is not year two of Sam Hal on the same system. This is year one of a new system with Eric B. Enamey. And then you throw all of his inexperience. on top of that. I mean, I can't fathom any way that Jacoby Brissette isn't going to look much more ready to play

in the summertime. So it's going to have to come down to, and I think it comes down to Bianami. I really think this is going to be a Bianmi call. Is he far enough along and close enough to ready to ride out the rough games, the rough plays, because you really believe that you see something that's worth cultivating. If they think during training camp or this whole offseason in training camp that it's a long shot, then Jacoby Brissette's got a chance. If they think that Sam Howe, if he doesn't wow everybody in training camp,

but there's something there that Eric B. Enamey in particular thinks is worthwhile and they're not going to lose the team over, then maybe they ride it out. And they let them make mistakes because they really see something. I think we've had this conversation before, but I think it's an interesting one with Eric Bienemy. I think I talked to Nikki Javala about it on Friday. Nikki was great. She was on Friday's show.

And I said, to me, this is a bigger year for Eric Bienemy than it is Ron Rivera. And I think Nikki agreed with me. I just think Ron Rivera understands that this might be it. And he may be okay with that after a long coaching career. Eric Bianami has to really move the needle here to get that head coaching job opportunity that has alluded to him. I mean, look, the OC jobs weren't out there for him either except for this place.

So there are two ways he can achieve that. He can achieve that with Jacoby Brissette, an experienced quarterback with a great supporting cast, an outstanding defense, and the offense ends up having much better results, and they win nine, ten games, and they go to the playoffs, and everybody says, wow, Washington's not near the bottom of the league again in passing offense. Or they could go six and eleven, but Sam has. shows great promise because Eric Bienemy's developing himself a starting caliber, top half of the league kind of quarterback. And you see it as the season goes on. And the offense gets better and better. And at the end of the year, they're not playing in the playoffs because he made a lot of mistakes in his first year of starting.

But Bianemy gets credit for developing the guy that looks like the starter in the future. I don't know which way. I mean, maybe he'll have both as viable options. What complicates it to is the new ownership, okay? Because I know, you know, you've lived under Dan Snyder for years and years of ownership meddling. Okay. And now you're going to have a new owner takeover and basically more than likely watch a stadium crowd disappear before his eyes as the season goes up. on. Okay, they'll be an initial bump. Big bump. Yes. That home opener I'm predicting right now is a sellout. They haven't had a sellout for a year. What kind of sellout depends on who they play.

I don't know if it does. Yes, it does. I don't. If it's an eagles or giants or cowboys. Well, definitely. But I don't think it's going to matter. I bet you that that home opener, because remember, I'm in the midst of putting together my mock schedule right now. And I've thought a lot about the home opener a lot and what the league will want and what the team will want. And I think it would be a big mistake. And this is a little bit of a clue on my mock schedule that I'll do with Tommy on Wednesday's show. But I think it would be a big mistake to have the home opener be Dallas of the Eagles. Well, so why? Yeah. I think it would. I think you want to create the opportunity for commanders' fans to be there. I'm sorry. I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about just in the ability to sell

out the stadium. No, no, no, I think you want the opportunity for commanders fans to be there. That's why somebody like, you know, in Arizona or a Miami or somebody like that makes more sense for the opener. By November, if you're Sam Howe six and eleven but shows promise materializes, those crowds will be a lot. We'll be typical. That's okay. Ghost Townfield. Oh, you know what? You don't own the team. You don't own, you didn't just buy the team. But if I did, if the prize. process was the right process. And we have an owner.

To build a winner. And we have an owner who in Philadelphia was known for the process. The process. If the owner is a good owner and he's trusting his football people, which I think. They're not his football people, though. Well, my first move is to bring in a football person to oversee all this. If the football person that he brings in that he makes, he tells Ron, you're going to coach a team. You're no longer the general manager of the team, nor is Martin Mayhew.

You guys continue to work for us, and I'm going to have this guy, whoever that guy is, he's going to evaluate it. When that guy says to him, they're doing the right thing playing Sam Hal. He's got the potential. This is a chance to have a franchise quarterback here. And every franchise quarterback, for the most part, almost all of them, took their lumps in the first year starting. Absolutely. So. Absolutely.

And, I mean, previously, it would, it would. be a foolhardy errand because we had no confidence in this ability and this team's ability to develop quarterbacks. Right. But there'll be a new owner. You seem very soft-spoken today. I'm not. I'm probably because I can't hear.

Probably because I'll tell you, I might have to have you boosted here at the end of the day. I'm a little pissed off. About what? About my hearing. I would be too. Jesus. Come on. I hear you.

You know? I hear you. I stick the airdrops in my ear like an idiot. it, you know, following the instructions. And before you know, my ears are full of medicine and I can't hear anything. We're going to get you better somehow. I would have a Lorna Duna Duna three on the drive back. No milk to dip them in.

You can pick up some milk. Pick up some milk on the way. I don't think I can dip while I'm driving. Oh, come on, you can dip while you're driving. You should be able to dip, you should be able to dip, text. You know, sometimes I end up driving with my knee. Oh, I don't even want to. You are such an irresponsible driver.

No, I'm not. Oh, you are too. I'm much better now. I used to be way too fast of a driver. I'm not anymore because the photo enforced just, I mean, when you're getting one of those, you know, every two days, that's bad. All right. There is some news on the NFL schedule. I want to get to that.

And then we will get to the NFL schedule. NBA playoffs. Tommy watched last night. If he hadn't watched, I don't know what I would have done today because I so want to talk about the Denver Phoenix game. We'll get to all of that and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's before we get started on our second segment of the podcast today. Okay, Shelly's back room. My home away from home at 1331 F Street Northwest in the district. It's got this, you know, it's, If you're looking for great cigars, cigar aficionado publishes a list every year of the top 25 cigars. You can find them at Shelly's. And if there's something else you want, you'll likely find them as Shelly's too. They have a great selection of cigars.

They have a staff that's willing to help you find the cigar you want. And they have a great menu. The whole concept of Shelly's is a menu of excellence. From the comfort of the chairs to the food you might want to eat, to the cigar you might want to smoke, to the drink you want to have, it's all there at Shelly. Shelly's back room, 1331 F Street, Northwest. Make sure you get down there. If you happen to be bringing the family down to D.C.

Or if you're bringing visitors down, you know, who want to see the sites, tell them lunches on you at Shelly's backroom. Great spot. Probably rocking last night for the NBA playoffs. Yes. A lot of NHL hockey yesterday as well. So, all right, what did you watch? You watched Phoenix Denver? Yes.

Did you watch the whole thing or just parts of it? Parts of it. Which parts? The end. Just the end. No, no. The second half. The second half.

Okay, go ahead. What am I supposed to say? I don't know. You watched it. You told me you said, I want to talk about Phoenix Denver when you walked in here today. Okay, well, that was only after, because you would want to talk about it. Okay. Okay, I'll tell you what.

Do you want me to start? No, no, I'll start. I mean, I have to admit, it was what in a great offensive performances I've ever seen. And that's, I mean, as much as I love Jokic, Jokic. Yokic. Yokic. Yeah, the Joker, if you can call him that. Booker was unbelievable.

I mean, I don't know if we've seen a performance like that in recent memory in a game. Was it genius? I mean, it was pretty good. close. I mean, and I mean, to hit like he did, even if there was nobody on the court, to have hit like he did, just would have been amazing.

I mean, he put on a spectacular show, and I haven't seen Devin Booker much, and I was blown away by his performance. Do you know what he has shot in the last two games? So you're unfamiliar with game three? I don't know what he's shot, no.

I know that Chris Paul's been out. Yeah, Chris Paul? And he's been playing point guard as well. He's been playing everything, but on Friday night when they won game three, 121 to 114, he scored 47 points on 20 of 25 from the field. He shot 80% from the field. And then last night he scored 36 points, and he was 14 of 18 from the field. He also had 12 assists. He also had 12 assists. And you know, you brought this up on the radio show, and I think you're on to something, that their pace without Chris Paul may be better.

Well, it's definitely faster. Here's what he has done in nine playoff games so far. He is averaging 36.8 points per game. He is shooting 61.7% from the field, 51% behind the arc, 87% from the free through line. And he's averaging 7.5 assists a game and five rebounds a game. Booker was incredible last night. So I've told you that there have been just some outrageous games.

I had Chris Miles from NBA TV on the radio show this morning. Chris used to work, remember at NBC Sports Washington a few years back. And he hangs out with, you know, the NBA TV group is right next to the TNT group. So he hangs out with Shaq. You know, they're all watching the games in the same green room or whatever. It's not a green room. Green room is usually for the guests. Whatever it is.

And he said, he said, you know, we were all talking about this, and he said, I just think it's the most entertaining, high-level postseason I can ever remember in a long, long time. And I said, I've been saying the same thing. There's just every night there seems to be a game like last night's game or even like the Celtic 76ers game. Now, yesterday was Saturday night, it was terrible. You had two massive blowouts. and the Knicks didn't play well and the Warriors didn't play well. And that's one of the first days we've had that. Yesterday you had the 76ers blowing a big lead and then winning on a three by Hardin in overtime.

By the way, this guy Joe Missoula, remember I said to you in game one, I'm like, how do you give the ball to Marcus Smart instead of Jason Tatea, who couldn't be stopped? And there he is last night. He's got two timeouts left. He doesn't use either one of them, and they don't even get a shot off. And they lose by one. the series is now deadlocked a two, not to mention they doubled MBEed and left Hardin open for the go-ahead three. But the Nuggets Suns game last night, Tommy, was like there have been a few games.

You know, there have been probably a half dozen games at this point in this postseason, where it's just if you're a basketball fan, it's like, I can't believe the level of play. I can't believe the level of shot making. Last night, they weren't shooting. I mean, Yokic was 20 of 30. Yes. And by the way, and I was thinking about you and people like you, because you're not the only person in my life that doesn't love the NBA,

and for some of the same reasons, this is a guy that plays center. Yes, he does. Now, he can shoot the three, understood. But he is, like, he's so good on that duck in, and he's in sealing his defender and getting his defender on the back. He's also great at backing a guy down, and he's got every move imaginable. He had 53 points on 20 of 30.

He only made two three-pointers. It was a remarkable. Okay? It was a remarkable game, I have to admit. And then Booker and then Durant's shot making, and the first three quarters of that game, I think I tweeted this out. I think we're the highest level offensive basketball

without bad defense, offensive efficiency, the passing, the shooting, the shot making that I've seen this entire postseason. I don't honestly remember seeing a game for the third. first three quarters that went back and forth the way it did between Yokic and Murray and Booker and Duran. And then the fourth quarter, they grabbed that 10-point lead, and then they had a chance, and Yokic actually turned the ball over in that big spot at the end.

But it was one of those games, and I feel that way this way, you know, probably a dozen times a year. You don't want it to end. Like I was praying for overtime. If that game had gone to overtime, Yokic would have ended up with 60 plus. And Booker probably would have ended up with close to 50. I doubt there's ever been a game in which somebody's gone for 60 and 50. Now, they would have needed overtime to get it done.

Now, the other thing out of this game was did you see Yokic go into the crowd and the guy holding the ball was Ishbiyah, the owner, the new owner of the sons, who, by the way, bought the team from Sarver for $4 billion after he was right. And who was a college basketball player? He was a walk-on for Izzo at Missouri. Michigan State. Right. So you've seen that.

Yes, I have. So Yokic got assessed to technical, because for those that didn't see it, you can look it up, but it was the ball goes out of bounds, baseline, end of the baseline, into the crowd. This guy who is very,

unassuming looking, grabs the ball and he's holding on to it and won't let go. And Yokic, I think, wants to grab the ball and go. Let's continue to play. And he yanks the ball out of he thinks it's a fan, his hands, and then shoves him a little bit, not hard. And then Ishbiyah, who played college basketball, not a lot of it, but he was a walk-on.

Look, if you're a walk-on at Michigan State, you can play. Yes. And he flopped. He does this major flop. And so they assess Yokic at tech. And now the discussion, and as of now, nothing's been, I'm looking right now, to see if anything's happened. There's been conversation about whether or not Yokitch will get suspended for game five.

That would be absolutely criminal if that happened. In fact, the owner, Ishbia tweeted out, Great win for the Sons last night in an amazing series so far. That should be and is the only story. Suspending or finding anyone over last night's incident would not be right. I have a lot of respect for Yokic, and I don't want to see anything like that. Excited for Game 5, goes Sons. Good for him.

Let me just point out something here. Let's take the owner out of the equation. he put his hands on a fan. Okay? This is a line you can't cross. He didn't put his hands on the hand. Yes, he did. He put his arm on him.

Well, he physically pushed a fan. Okay, but it wasn't. It's a line you can't cross. You can't do that. You can't have NBA players putting their hands on fans. Fans can't shouldn't, yeah, unless you're celebrating together. Okay. Right.

Yeah. Unless you're celebrating together. So, look, there's part of me that thinks it's ridiculous. that they'd even be talking suspension. On the other hand, this is a line that can't be crossed and has to be enforced. I don't think they're going to suspend them, but you can't have a player touch a fan like that under any circumstances. That's what the referee, that's what security is for.

So what do you think should happen? Sounds like you're leaning towards you'd suspend. If you were Commissioner Silver, you would suspend him. I think I would. Oh, come on. I think I would. Oh, my God, I'm looking at it again. And it's not even really, it's, he's not even, by the way, he's not even looking at the fan.

He's continuing to try to get the ball and it's his left elbow and it nudges him. Oh, stop it. And he nudges him. If somebody did that to you in a crowd, you would turn around and pop. No, I wouldn't. Not if it was Yokic. No. No.

I mean, first of all, he shouldn't have held onto the ball. Oh, what is. I mean, I love watching this over and over again from the one angle that they didn't have last night where, uh, Shoebaea just goes back and, oh, it froze his arms up in the air. No, you don't suspend it. It was a flop. But that's a line you can't cross. I didn't think, I didn't think Draymond Green should be suspended.

But Draymond's got obviously a major history. These are not, you know, similar situations. You mean a major problem. Yeah, major problem with getting tossed and losing his temper. Well, you know, creative geniuses like him usually do. A lot. Sometimes they cut off ears. Yeah, they do.

You know, you just, I mean, they're nuts. So yeah, I think he should be suspended. I think you just came up with that take. Why would I do that? I don't know, because as I was going through it, it seemed like since we're in studio together, you were like, yeah, it wasn't that big of a deal. And then all of a sudden you thought about it,

and you're like, well, you can't put your pans on a... No, there's two sides to this thing. Yeah. And that's a big deal. Okay. I bet they don't suspend them. Oh, they probably won't. Okay.

They probably won't. but imagine if that was your son standing next to you and an NBA player put his hands on him that way if my son was holding on to the ball and wouldn't let go I'd say let go of the ball Jr. By the way, get rid of the ball, Kevin Jr.

Sheehan. It doesn't matter what the reason was. Kevin Jr. Sheen. It doesn't matter what the reason would be. Yeah. Well, that means nothing. The NBA is a game. You're allowed to grab it and go.

You know, they don't have to. mark the ball into play. That's right. All right. I loved the game last night. I can't wait for tonight's games to watch Jimmy Butler go against your Knicks. He was great the other day. The Knicks, I don't think, I mean, Miami Heat, I think, are going to be in the Eastern Conference finals. These aren't my Knicks. I know. I mean, I like Jimmy Butler. He's one of my favorite players. I'll be pulling for him. And then the Lakers Warriors tonight. I don't like either game. By the way, I had Denver last night. I had Denver big.

I loved Denver last night. So I was not only into the game, but I was into rooting for one side. They were only a one-point underdog after losing on Friday night as a three-and-a-half, four-point underdog. Tonight, Lakers are minus three, minus two and a half on my bookie right now, and the heat are minus four and a half. I don't like either game, but I am interested to see how the Warriors respond to that woeful performance on Saturday night. By the way, it was one of the worst. games Draymond Green's ever played in the postseason after a phenomenal game two. Like last year when they were down two to one against the Celtics in the NBA finals and in Boston,

that was one of Steph Curry's signature career performances. 43 points on the road, even up that series and they didn't lose again during the series. I really am rooting for Golden State. I just don't want to see LeBron in the NBA finals. You sent me something that was interesting. you sent me this story about NBA ratings, which I did read. And it's kind of a mixed bag on how you would do it. But basically, it doesn't have the information about this postseason so far.

No. And Chris Miles, who was on with me this morning, he knows what the numbers are because he's in that business. He said they're through the roof for the Golden State Lakers series, which I figured would be the highest rated non-NBA final series in years. and it is so far. And he said the Phoenix Denver series is through the roof. The NBA TV, the NBA TV numbers for Miami, Milwaukee in Series 1

were the highest NBA TV ratings of all time. Okay, Little Adam. Yeah. Let me just point out. What's Little Adam? I don't know. Little Adam, the NBA commissioner. Oh, Silver.

Okay. Yeah. The story is about how they were, for season, they were the worst ratings in the past 29 or 30 years. No, that's not exactly what it's. said. Yes, it is. No, it's not. Did you read the story carefully? Yes, I did. Okay. Now I've got to go back and get the story. Yes, you do. The share numbers are actually up. It's, the ratings are, the actual ratings, the Nielsen ratings are down. Yeah. But the, the share numbers are up.

I don't think they were the, they're among the worst in the last 20 years, not the worst. Okay. Okay. I think it's like the third or fourth worst. Which is the point of the story. Of the regular season. Yes. Not the playoffs so far. Yeah, well, we don't the regular season, too? We shouldn't. Because it is a... I'm with you on the regular season. It's not a good product. The NBA is not a good product. The NBA was a great product

in the 1980s when they'd have one game on a week on Sunday afternoons in the winter. You know, on CBS. All right. You've got some stuff. I've got some stuff, including some schedule news. We'll get to all of that and finish up the show when we come back right after these words from

a few of our sponsors. All right. So, when we're on on Wednesday, and we'll have that show out earlier than typical, because we're going to try to get that done before the radio show on Wednesday. I will have my mock schedule done. Well, isn't there some news about the schedule? There is some news. Peter King, I think, reported that the NFL is contemplating holding off on the release of the schedule, which was previously reported to be released on Thursday night. But it's not going to change my schedule. It won't change I mean, should I give Peter King some news and tell him that the mock schedule might be delayed?

No, no, no. I think you should make sure that he knows that the mock schedule will go on as schedule. Yeah, that's a good idea. Apparently, and it's not, this is an interesting thing because you know how into the schedule I am. Except when it comes out, then you're not interested in it at all. You don't want to talk about it once it's out. Well, I don't want, I'm not going to go game by game and predict records, even though we've done that many. times. So you're not that crazy.

I'm crazy about the way they pick things and the way they put it together logistically. And they're having a challenge apparently because this year, you have your normal Thursday night game to open up the season on Thursday night, September 7th, and it's going to be the Super Bowl champion chiefs who

will host that game at Arrowhead. And their home schedule includes their AFC West opponents, Denver, the Raiders, and the Chargers. And then they have the Eagles who they played in the Super Bowl playing at Arrowhead this year. They've got the Bills and the Bengals who they played epic playoff games at Arrowhead the last couple of years. They have the dolphins who were, you know, a playoff team from last year.

They've got the lions who people think could be a playoff team this year and the Bears. So there's so many games for the NFL to choose from for the opener. And then you've got, you know, your Thanksgiving Day triple header. And this year, Christmas Eve is on a Sunday. Christmas Day is on a Monday night, Monday, Monday night. So there's a Thanksgiving. double header for Christmas Day to work out. And you've got the Black Friday game the day after Thanksgiving this year. And you've got incredible matchups on paper right now. You have the Aaron Rogers factor.

The Aaron Rogers to the Jets is a major, major factor. And I'll tell you why. On the road, as an example, they play the Cowboys. Well, the Cowboys, what do they do every Thanksgiving? They host a game in Texas, in Dallas. I can see the Jets definitely playing the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day there. They also have, you know, a home game against the Chiefs. Aaron Rogers against the Chiefs.

That's a big deal. Yes. They also have a home game against the commanders, if anybody. That reeks to me as a Sunday 1 p.m. game. One of the few for Aaron Rogers this year. But they're probably right now, John Orrin, you know what? I'm going to have John on the show. show before the schedule comes out.

John would be a good one to answer this. Because the Chiefs have this incredible home schedule, and you've got all of these holiday games, these additional holiday games this year, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. And then, by the way, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, it's like, how do you do it? Well, you don't have to have, excuse me. Did you just burp on the year? I did. That chick-fil-A sandwich was excellent.

You don't have to open with the Chiefs against the Bills or the Chiefs against the Eagles. I bet we do not see Chiefs Eagles at all because that's a game that I bet you Fox wants and wants to protect. And you don't need the Chiefs to play the Eagles in the opening game of the year on September 7th, Thursday night to get an audience. That's going to be the biggest audience regardless. Right. Because everybody would watch any two teams. They'd watch Washington play the Jets without Aaron Rogers. Yes, they would.

So I think the Chiefs are going to open up with somebody from their division, like the Raiders or the Broncos or the Chargers. Maybe it'll be the dolphins. Maybe it'll be the lions. The Broncos? They could open with Sean Payton. That could be a good one. A hundred percent. Dallas for their home Thanksgiving Day possibilities, it's the Jets.

I mean, unless they want to put it. the Eagles on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys, which would be a big deal. So you've got all of those challenges with the schedule. They've already announced, I think, some of the international games, and we'll probably hear more about those than the next day or two. But, you know, there is this like cottage industry is not the right way to describe it, but there are all of these Twitter page accounts that spring up this time of year with fake information on the schedule,

because there's a real desire for schedule information. Well, some of it is practical because people want to jump on certain games. Yeah, sure they do. I mean, if you're a commanders fan, especially of recent vintage, you probably invested your money more in going on the road to see your team play than seeing them at home. Yeah. So there's a segment of the fan base that's really interested. You know, there's a segment that says it doesn't matter.

I'm going every game. But there is another segment that really wants to know what that schedule is. Sure. I mean, I can guarantee you this. The Vegas Raiders, they have been a popular road trip for teams. Yes. So let's just look at their home schedule. Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, Patriots, Jets, Packers, Vikings, Steelers, Giants.

I think there will be a few giant fans in Vegas for the Giants Raiders game. So back to the conversation that we had. earlier in the show about the kind of home opener that Washington should have with a new owner. They have eight home games this year, the Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Cardinals, 49ers, Bill's, Dolphins, Bears. So I don't personally think that they'll have a Cowboys or an Eagles or a Giants opening up. I don't think they will. I don't think they should. Yeah. Like we said, I think they should create, if we have a new owner by then.

If we have a new owner by then. Is there any news on that today? I don't think so. I think there's going to be some news this week. Okay. Well, if that doesn't happen, if there's a new owner in town by then, then I think you want to give the franchise every opportunity to fill that stadium for the first game with commanders fans. I agree.

And I think that's what they'll probably do. All right. Do you have anything else? How about is Otani going to get $600 million? I don't know. I don't know if he'll get that much. I want to talk about the Nats? I mean, what they did yesterday was remarkable.

Yeah. I mean, after having their hearts pulled out of their chest on Saturday night, coming back only to blow the game on Kyle Vinick and walking in the winning run, to bounce back from that, to be down by six to three in yesterday's game and come back to win that. The team has a lot of heart. They play hard. And I don't mean to be the gloomy Gus, which I never am. No.

But this is, I mean, this is, it's going to take its. toll on this team over the course of a season. To win games like this with that level of talent they have, it's going to take its toll. It's going to be a long August and September. You think so? Yes. That's doom and gloom. Well, I mean.

Playing competitive baseball. Yes. I mean. At least get through your event when there may be, you know, a manager or GM in town that will be there, staying positive. Yes, my event, May 22nd. Yes. Shelly's back room, you go to DCGraise.com, buy tickets.

It gives you a chance to bid on such items as two ringside seats to the next Beltway Battles fight in June at the D.C. at the entertainment and sports arena in D.C. I went there Saturday night to see Beltway Battles 4. That's Beltway Battles 5 is in June. It's a series of fights that local promoters are putting on. Okay. And it was fun. A lot of it was club fights, you know, not real high-level talent,

but very entertaining fights and a very entertaining main event against two very competitive fighters. One locally out of Silver Spring named Sulaiman Sagawa by way of Uganda. And he won, he stopped. Uganda or Uganda? Uganda. He stopped his opponent like at 226 of the 10th and final round. Wow.

I mean, it was a fun night of. fights and and the promoters are donating two ringside seats to the next boxing show in June at the entertainment and sports arena, which is a great facility for boxing. Are we going to donate anything? Oh, I think we have to. We do. I think we do. A studio.

Look, we did very well with this last studio visit. It was a very, I mean, John and Courtney are a nice, normal couple. We did very well. I mean, we've had some of these in the past going back to the radio. station where we had some, you know. Yeah. No, we did just, we did pretty good by our podcast visitors. Are you going down to San Antonio to cover the XFL championship? You know, John talked about it.

Did you hear him at the game? No. He talked about like right in the plane and going down to see it. I remind him it was Mother's Day weekend. Yeah, okay. Well, that would pretty much keep me from going. Well, it would keep me from going, too. But, you know, I think that, well, for John, he'll be going, maybe he'll take his mother,

who was, his father was at the game? Yes. Or was that Courtney's father? That was Courtney's mom and dad. Yeah, Courtney's mom and dad. So, no, but I'll be watching. Mother's Day always reminds me of what I ask my, I asked my wife for Father's Day. I ask her if it would be okay if I could play golf on Mother's Day.

day as my father's day gets that's mean um all right are we done i think we're finished all right back back tomorrow uh i'm not sure with whom but got a couple of feelers out there have a good day