The Kevin Sheehan Show - Five Reasons Redskins Will Make Playoffs

Episode Date: July 10, 2019

Kevin went glass half-full today on the Redskins and gave his top 5 reasons why the Skins could make the playoffs in 2019. DC approved a mobile sports betting app....Kevin talked about it with Fenit Nirappil from the Washington Post. Kevin and Aaron finished up with the game Maryland Basketball fans are playing today....the all-time Terps starting 5 with parameters. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. I'm here. Aaron's here. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation. And tell them that we told you to call. Maryland basketball fans, do we have a game for you? That coming up a little bit later on in the show. the All-Star game last night, which was a staple midsummer watch for many years in my life, and has in recent years not been that at all. I watched some of it last night. I thought that the live interaction with the players that were miced up, especially Freddie Freeman, in the batters box. I mean, I've seen, you know, in recent years, players in the outfield in particular,

miced up. Bryce Harper was that one year when he started, you know, talking about the Cowboys and whether or not Dak was. is going to get it done for his beloved Cowboys the following season. But I don't think I'd seen it with somebody in the batter's box. And that was actually pretty cool. Freddie Freeman struck out, by the way, in that at bat. But anyway, I thought that was cool. But to be honest with you, I didn't watch the whole game start to finish.

I would imagine that going to an All-Star game is more fun than watching it. And, of course, last year, when it was here, I didn't take advantage of it because I was away. I've never been to an All-Star game. You know, Coe, last year I went to all of it. I actually would argue that maybe the All-Star game is the worst part of All-Star Weekend. Like the home run derby is such a great spectacle. And then the day before you have the Futures game and then you have the Celebrity Softball game, which is, you know, a lot of fun depending on the celebrity.

So the All-Star game might actually be the worst part of it. But last year definitely was kind of an eye-opener to me that that'll be All-Star Weekend is actually really cool. Yeah. I mean, this is not for me. The NBA All-Star Weekend isn't really for me anymore. I don't enjoy NBA All-Star Weekend. I don't even enjoy the game that much. I've been to an NBA All-Star game.

That was a ton of fun years ago here in D.C. But I don't know. Give me games that matter. At this point in my life, Aaron, I've gotten to the point where I like games. I like watching games that matter more than the other stuff surrounding the games. By the way, you're going to be able to bet on games in the District of Columbia beginning in September, and yesterday, the D.C. City Council passed the mobile betting app bill, all right, and assigned the contract to Intralot, which is the company that manages the D.C. lottery.

The guy that wrote the story on this in the Washington Post, Fennett Nerepill, will join us a little bit later on in the show to sort of explain all of. of this. But I'm going to start the show with a list that I put together last night. It's a top five reasons list. The Redskins could make the playoffs in 2019. Many of you have asked for more burgundy and gold optimism on the show. Tommy's not here today, so there's a much better chance of that happening. Today you're going to get it. Today you're going to get some optimism, And it doesn't really require rose-colored glasses. It doesn't require, you know, exaggeration or delusion.

It's the NFL. I mean, we know that any team in the league is capable of hitting an inside straight and making the playoffs. Happens all the time when you least expect it. The NFL is about talent, yes, about the quarterback, yes, coaching, team chemistry. That's all important in the NFL. But you know what's the most important thing in the NFL or certainly as important as anything else? Attrition.

How much of that talent and your quarterback, how much of that in combination can stay healthy enough to keep the potential for winning team chemistry is ultimately as important as anything else? So you start right there when you're talking about any NFL team and reasons that that NFL team can make the playoffs. in 2019. You start with health. The Redskins have to stay healthy. That's the number one reason. They've been the most injured team in the league the last two years. And if they had been healthier, they would have had a chance to make the postseason. Not saying they would have. In fact, I personally don't believe that even if they had stayed very healthy last year, meaning Alex Smith and the receivers and the offensive line and Jordan Reed, et cetera, I don't think that team would have made the playoffs. We've gone through this before. I just didn't see a team that was going to

make a run from six and four after the Houston game. Everybody always says, you know, Alex Smith was a six and three quarterback. He was on his way to becoming a six and four quarterback in that game in the game he got hurt in. I just didn't see a team that was going to win three games and go nine and seven and have a chance. I've said eight and eight, nine and seven at best, and nine and seven may not have been enough anyway. They would have had to win a tiebreaker with the Eagles at 9 and 7. They would have had to beat the Eagles at least once anyway to get 9 and 7 to be good enough. I just didn't think that last year's team, even if it had stayed completely healthy, was going to ultimately make the playoffs. I didn't feel that way. Now, I do think the team

in 2017, if that team had stayed healthy, that that team had a chance to make the postseason. Now, it ended up with a worse record than last year's team, but if you recall when that team, was healthy. When they went to Los Angeles and beat the Rams, before we knew the Rams were good, by the way, and they were, when they crushed the Raiders on Sunday night football, when they lost a close game, a winnable game at Arrowhead on a Monday night. That set of games early in that season showed that they had a chance to be a pretty good team that year. They did. Then the offense got decimated with one injury after another and defensively the same. Remember early in that year when they had Allen healthy and Ionitis healthy, they were a really good run-stopping team.

They completely shut down the Raiders. I thought the game against the Chiefs early on, and that was the game where they started to lose people. I think they lost Josh Norman midway through that game. But I thought that they really looked like a completely different team defensively early in that season. But that team got decimated, both sides of the ball. That 2017 team, though, when you think about it, they didn't have to.

to stay completely healthy to be a good team. Even unhealthy, they went to Seattle and won. They lost a shootout to Minnesota and then had New Orleans dead to right on the road with a chance to get to 500, in late November, right before their Thanksgiving night win over the Giants. But that New Orleans game pretty much ended the season. They lost that big lead. They lost Chris Thompson to a broken arm. They did beat the Giants a few nights later on Thanksgiving, but then if you recall, a game they had to have to stay in the race as a depleted team at that point from injuries. Jameson Crowder basically wrecked any chance they had to stay in the playoff race single-handedly in Dallas. The week after the Thanksgiving night game, he dropped passes, he fumbled punts. It was a one-man wrecking crew in that game and that season ended.

If it didn't end it in the New Orleans game, it certainly ended that night in Dallas. It has to stay healthy. You start there with almost any NFL team and you say it's got to avoid the crippling injury situation that the Redskins have been in for the previous two seasons. And if they hadn't been, I think that 2017 team would have been good. I'm not so sure last year's team would have ultimately made the playoffs. That's how I feel. The roster isn't the worst in the league.

It's probably somewhere between 20 and 25, but if you stay healthy, you know, in a norm, and you have one of those exceptional years in which, you know, that stat man games lost, Aaron, you know, they've got that running list of what they call man games lost, and the Redskins have been at the very top of that list the last two years, top three anyway, the last two years. They've got to be at the bottom of that list next year. They can't even be in the middle of the list. They've got to be at the bottom of that list, and maybe they are due to have a season in which they are not crippled with injuries to key players.

Second reason, second reason the Redskins could make the playoffs in 2019. Case Keenham starts 16 games and plays well. I think, I was thinking about this last night. This is not, by the way, an anti-Dwayne-Haskins sentiment or reason. This is an anti-Rookie quarterback sentiment. More times than not, a rookie quarterback that plays the majority of games in year one, his teams don't make the postseason. So, by the way, I'm not against Haskin starting.

I think if he's anywhere near ready, get him in there. He's the future. They've got to find out what they have, and they should start thinking about the future. But if you're asking me, and I asked myself last night and created these reasons, If you're asking me for the reasons the Redskins make the postseason in 2019, Keenham is the quarterback for 16 games, not Haskins and not McCoy either. You know, by the way, you know, the Keenum as the starter thing, you know, on an offense without a lot of support, and I'm going to get to that here in reason number three,

Keenom made plays in 2017 in Minnesota. He made plays outside the pocket with his legs on the move, throwing the ball, something Haskins doesn't appear to have this sort of a strength. Colt McCoy does, but my feeling about Colt McCoy has always been that if you start Colt McCoy for 16 games, you're going to go 7 and 9 or 6 and 10. With Keenham, if Keenham has a 2017 type of year and start 16 games, that would be reason number two the Redskins could make the playoffs. And I am not a massive case Keenham fan, but I think among the three quenact,

quarterbacks for 2019, the guy that gives you the best chance to make the playoffs is Keenham. Now, reason number three, the Redskins can make the playoffs. Reason number one is health. Reason number two is Kay's Keenum starting 16 games. Reason number three is that the supporting cast for Keenum has to be better than we think it is, or that most of us think it is. First of all, the running game has to be there. Whether it's Adrian Peterson or Darius Geis, or a combination of both with Chris Thompson, whatever it is, they've got to run the football for this guy to be effective. Minnesota ran it well in 2017 when he had his big year. They were a top 10 rush offense. They also had a great defense that year, and they also had Diggs and Thielen and

Rudolph. The Redskins ran it well last year before a lot of those injuries to the offensive line. So the possibility that they could be a good rush offense, I think, exists. Now, you've got to have Trent Williams there. I didn't list Trent Williams among the top five reasons. He is the first in the others receiving votes. I'll just mention that right now. Trent Williams has to be, needs to be a part of this because you've got to have a rush offense to make Keenham or give Keenham a chance to be effective.

Keenham is not a guy that you put it all. on. That's not him. Alex Smith wasn't a guy you put it all on. Kirk Cousins wasn't really a guy you put it all on, even though Kirk Cousins had significant production without a running game. Case Keenham needs a running game. Alex Smith desperately needed a running game, and they've got to give him support there. They also need somebody, whether it's Jordan Reed healthy, Chris Thompson or Geis out of the backfield, but they need, whether it's Richardson or Doxon or McCorn, they need somebody to step up and produce that wide receiver. That's a big if on this roster right now, a huge if.

Perhaps the biggest stretch on this list is that the supporting cast offensively ends up being better than we think. But it has to be, or Keenham won't be effective. Colt McCoy won't be effective. Actually, Colt would probably have more of a chance to be a, effective, just not playoff effective in my view. And Haskins would clearly as a rookie probably struggle without a supporting cast. But don't kid yourself, Case Keenham in 2017, had a great supporting cast. A great supporting cast. They ran the ball, they had weapons

offensively, and by the way, they had a dominant defense, something that Minnesota actually didn't have last year, in part because of injuries. All right, fourth reason. The Redskins could make the playoffs in 2019. This one's easy, all right? And to me, maybe the most likely. And that is that they improve again defensively. And part of that improvement is consistency. You know, they don't become easy to figure out,

which I think was part of the issue they had late last year. Remember last year that the injuries were mostly on offense, not defense, but the defense regressed from a first time. half in which it was very good, especially as a run-stopping team. And then all of a sudden, it wasn't very good. What happened? Can't really blame it on injuries. I think the regression of the defense in the second half of the season last year was something that the organization, and maybe even Jay Gruden, blamed the defensive staff for more than anything else. That's why they tried to replace Greg Minusky. If Greg Williams or Todd Bowles had decided to take the defense

coordinator job, I'd be so much more optimistic about the defense and the team this year. But at a minimum, you do have John Allen, who is a terrific talent entering year three. Duran Payne, who really played well as a rookie in year two. Matt Ionitis, who's a very good player signed to a contract extension, and hopefully you get big-time contributions from newcomers, Landon Collins, and Montez Sweat in particular. glass half full, you end up with a defense that is nuzzling up against the top 10 area. That is, to me, of the five reasons I'm going to give you the most likely, or the thing that I'm most optimistic about, I don't think that that's a significant stretch to think that the defense will be improved from where it was in 2018.

and in 2018 it was significantly improved from where it was in 2017. But it has to make another step, and part of that step has to be consistency. It's got to play the way it did in the first half of the season for the whole season, and maybe it can. And then here's reason number five that the Redskins could make the playoffs in 2019. It becomes a team that doesn't beat itself, which is exactly what it was last year over the first nine games, or certainly in six of the first nine games last year.

An old sports talk voice in this town, really the first significant sports talk voice in this town. Ken Beatrice used to say all the time that more games in the NFL are lost, not one. That is what he used to say, and guess who agreed with him. Joe Gibbs, Bobby Bethard, Charlie Casserly. The Redskins made a living, not losing games. It's a big difference.

The Redskins have not been able to out dynamic teams in recent years, outscore teams, throw the 85 bare defense out there to win games. Last year, for the first time in a long time, through those first nine games or in six of the nine, they were the more disciplined team. The Redskins, by the way, finished plus seven last year in turnover margin. For the first half of the season, they were on the better end of penalty yardage. They never beat themselves during those first nine games, and they won six of them because of it.

They weren't dynamic offensively. They weren't dominating their opponents with unbelievable defense. And when they arrived at key moments in a lot of those games, the other team made the mistake. The other team fumbled or missed a big field goal, and the Redskins didn't do that. If you don't beat yourself with turnovers and penalties and missed kicks, you're going to have a chance to win most of the games you play in the NFL. I would not say that Jay Gruden's teams are disciplined teams, but last year, for that first half of the season, it was consistently the more disciplined team in the games they played. It was, and it served them well. They're not going to roll up 30 plus to win.

They're not going to be the 85 bears and shut people out five, six times this year. To win nine or ten games next year and have a chance at the postseason, they have to play disciplined football, which they did last year for the first half of the season. So those are the five reasons. There are more, but the top five reasons are they've got a number one stay healthy, number two, Case Keenham's going to have to be the quarterback. And again, let me emphasize, I'm not suggesting that that's the way to go if Dwayne Haskins is close. I just have the sense,

based on historical information that if Dwayne Haskins starts 14, 15, 16 games, the Redskins are more likely than not. They're going to be out of the postseason. It doesn't mean that it's not the best thing for the organization moving forward. And for his second season in 2020 and 2021 and beyond, but if Case Keenham is the quarterback for 16 games in 2019, the Redskins have a better chance of making the playoffs than if Dwayne Haskins is the starter for 16 games or Colt McCoy. That's my view. He's got to get support. They've got to have a running game to go with it. The defense has to continue to improve and make another big jump, just like the jump they made from 2017 to 2018. And the big jump there this year would be more consistency, more difficult to figure out

for opposing offensive coordinators. And then the fifth and final reason is don't beat yourself. You know, if they win the turnover battle and they win time of possession and they win the penalty yardage and they win key special teams plays, you know, they're going to have a chance like they did in those first nine games to win enough of them to contend for the post. season. So there it is, Aaron. Redskins' glass half full day, all right, here on a Wednesday in mid-July, less than a month before their first preseason game. What are the chances, in my view, of them actually making the playoffs? 20%. So one in five chance, in my view, that's pretty much what the odds are, too. I don't see it this year, but in the NFL, it usually

happens when you least expect it, although it just hasn't really been the case with this team. over the years. But if all of those things happen, I mean, these aren't, you know, these aren't huge revelations to NFL fans to most of you. But I think that the one that probably I would count on the most is the defense improving, and then I really don't see a playoff season if Colt McCoy or Dwayne Haskins start the majority of games. Could see it potentially with Case Keenham if the supporting cast is really solid. All right, quick word about window nation. The intense summer heat is back. It was hot yesterday, not as humid as it was over the weekend, but it was hot yesterday and it's going to get hot over the weekend as well. And the summer heat causes old, leaky windows to produce unnecessary high energy bills. It also allows damaging UV rays to fade your valuables and make your windows even less effective. Listen up. While the kids are at camp, families are taking vacation, my good friends at Windon Nation, Harley, Aaron, Eric, and all of the rest of them.

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vote by the D.C. Council, but the D.C. Council yesterday approved a sole source contract for the company Intralot to manage the online sports betting program here in D.C. We know that Maryland and Virginia haven't moved forward with this. D.C. has. But this allows mobile betting, which you and I have both thought for a while, would be crucial to potential revenue associated with sports gaming. And the guy that wrote the story we've got on the show today, his name is Fennett Nerepel. He wrote the story in the Metro section this morning, and Fennett, I appreciate you giving us some time. So I want to make sure that everybody understands what happened yesterday. The D.C. Council was voting on mobile betting more than just overall betting, right? Because

that had already passed. Yes. Last year, the D.C. Council legalized a sports bet. and it allowed for several ways to place their wagers on games. So the arenas, they are allowed to have sports books at their locations. Businesses and retailers can have sports betting machines, similar to the lottery machines that you already see at a convenience stores and places. And then the most popular way to make bet is going to be mobile sports betting. What they voted on yesterday was a sole source contract to let an Intralot manage that piece of sports betting. and that's expected to be the most lucrative for the city.

What are, I'm just out of curiosity, do you know what they're projecting in terms of revenue when this becomes available? So I know they just lower their revenue projections, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million over four years. Okay, and just to be clear and make sure that I understand this, revenue is essentially a net number from a larger handle, right? I mean, typically in gambling, you have the volume, the amount that's bet, and then for the actual, in the case of the way it used to be a bookmaker or a legal casino in Vegas, sports book in Vegas, and now in the states in which it'll be legal, $80 million in revenue would be what they would actually make before their direct costs.

That sounds about right. Okay, I was just curious. do you know why they lowered their projections? They lowered their projections because they weren't able to launch the mobile sports betting app as quickly as they expected it. Okay, so that was part of that too. All right, so the council voted seven to five in favor of this, but it was a contentious vote. Why? So normally when the government is awarding contracts, they do competitive bidding.

So several companies will put forward their proportion. say how much it'll cost the city and the city will look at all these proposals and decides what's the best deal for taxpayers what the what's most likely to work that didn't happen in the case of mobile sports gambling the DC lottery and DC City officials said they they didn't want to go through the process of competitive bidding which might lead to challenges or bid protests and they wanted to try and get the sports gambling program up as quickly as they could so that's why they tried to do a sole source contract. This was controversial for several reasons because this

suspends the normal procurement rules that are considered good government practice. And there's questions about Intralot's ability to deliver on this app. Intralots have financial troubles after they lost a gaming contract in Turkey and they had their bond rating downgraded by several ratings agencies. And they don't have experience doing mobile sports betting in the U.S. market. So just a few days ago, Draft Kings and FanDuel, they penned an op-ed in our newspaper where they made the case that it would be better for consumers and taxpayers if you have an open marketplace and let multiple providers try and do mobile sports betting. And whoever has the best app, that would be the most popular choice for consumers.

Yeah, I mean, not only that, it would lead to potentially a better deal for the city. This is interesting because they have given this contract, and I don't know the value of the contract. I'm going to assume that it's in the tens, if not. It's $215 million over five years, and that's a maximum, and it hinges on how much a revenue they're able to bring in. So $43 million a year for Intralot, a company that doesn't have any experience in providing mobile sports betting in the U.S. market. Why did they pick Intralot? They picked Intralot because Intralot already managed the D.C. lottery. So the thinking was this is a company that's already been involved in gambling in D.C.

So let's let them expand into sports gambling as well. And another point on the value of the contract is most of this contract would actually go to local companies, would actually go to local companies, including a local company that already, that Alderty manages the lottery for the district. And several of these local companies that are getting a piece of the contract also have political connections. These companies include a marketing firm led by a former campaign aide to Mayor Muriel Bowser, a friend of one of the council members in a key swing vote for the contract. We also have a law firm that lobbied for the legalization of sports betting.

So that also raised a whole other host of concerns about, is there cronyism going on? Is there cronyism going on here? And is it a bad look for D.C. to award all this money to a host of politically connected companies? That's hysterical. It's so D.C. Council. And you haven't even mentioned it my name, but I'm assuming that the Intralot relationship with Jack Evans is the primary reason that Jack Evans isn't going to be on the council anymore, right? And that's another hand of worms. So let's unpack that. So Jack Evans, he's the councilmember from Ward 2, and he's been the biggest proponent for the legalization of sports betting and this approach to give Infraud, the monopoly over mobile sports betting. He's under a federal investigation right now because he's done a side of consulting work for a variety of companies that have interest before the D.C. government. And then we reported earlier this week that Jack Evans also had a business relationship with one of the lobbyists associated with Intralot. Jack Evans said that the lobbyist, William Jarvis, he was only helping him do the paperwork to set up his consulting firm,

but my colleague, Steve Thompson, found emails that showed that Jarvis was involved in negotiating legal contracts with some of Evans' private consulting clients. God. You know, so back to the mobile betting app, just so everybody understands this, right, in layman's terms. When it becomes legal, which I think I've read, it could become, well, it's already legal, but when it becomes available sometime, you know, I think sometime in September of this year. The mobile piece would be early 2020. Okay, so the brick and mortar bets, that would be September.

Okay, so beginning in September, you. you'll be able to go into various places and place a sports wager legally in the District of Columbia. And then beginning in early 2020, you'll be able to do that via a mobile app. Now, just from a practical standpoint, if people don't understand this, it's probably because they haven't bet before. But the reason most betting over the course of the last half century has happened illegally with people betting from their home over the phone or over a computer in recent years, not in an actual legal sports book in Las Vegas, which was always the problem I had with,

and the reason that I tended to think that Ted was a little bit overzealous, thinking that people were going to mob, you know, the green turtle or whatever restaurant he was going to open up next to Capital One to bet on sports. It had to be made convenient for the consumer, and a mobile app will do that. What bothers me about what you've described is the fact that they're using a company that doesn't have experience with it, A, B, they're subcontracting a lot of this stuff based on political ties to people in the D.C. Council. Are we going to end up with a product that works for the consumer? That's a key question here. I mean, I've talked to several sports betting analysts who said that they're really skeptical that you're going to have an app that's going to be good for consumers. And it's not like the district government is directly developing this. app. But the last time the district government had a high profile of foray into the mobile app world, it was to try and create a competitor with Uber and Lyft that consumers could use to hail taxis.

And that was a shutdown and seen as a failure. Yeah. So, I mean, sports betting, and, you know, it seems very simple, but, you know, just the back end alone from a management standpoint, I would think you'd want somebody experienced handling this. I mean, I don't know why they haven't gone to the offshore guys that have been doing this for years and contracted with them. It bothers me as a potential consumer of this that they're picking a company with a little experience. It'll be interesting to see. And by the way, just going with one company, don't you, and I think you've certainly alluded to this, but ultimately the consumer is going to end up paying more.

without the competition in the contracting process, the city's potentially going to overpay and that's going to be passed on to the consumer. That's another big area that we're watching because what analysts have been telling me is if they end up with an inferior app or an app or an app that's going to be more costly for consumers, it'll be hard to get people to shift from doing from the illegal bets they're already making and coming into the legal market. It's not all that dissimilar from legalizing marijuana. And if you have taxes that are too high, people aren't going to go into the legal dispensaries and will still rely on their drug dealers. It's a great point because as someone who has wagered and gambled on sports for a long period of time illegally, you know, I have sort of scoffed at the legalization of sports betting. I think it's going to make the casual better, the person that didn't have access before. it'll give them an opportunity to do it.

But those people probably wager in smaller amounts. That's why I always thought that the revenue numbers were too aggressive for a lot of these places. And the bottom line, Fennett, is that if you don't have a credit opportunity, which you have when you bet illegally, it's just not going to be the same. I mean, when you actually have to put the money up front rather than betting on credit, It's a different dynamic in terms of the way a better actually wagers, in terms of the amount and how often, et cetera. And I think that's going to hurt the market as well. But to the point of the mobile app better work, get better work because they, you know, I'm not saying that they won't get a second and third shot at this. But when it becomes available, the people that haven't had access to gambling are the ones that are going to try it first.

And if it's not a great experience, they may not come back. And that's an interesting point because the whole point of doing mobile sports betting the way the D.C. Council has been doing it is that they want to be first to market. They want to be first in the Washington region. Maryland, Virginia, haven't taken any steps to legalize sports betting yet. And they want to be the first to market and have a good app and establish themselves as the place to go if you want to make a wager in the Washington region. But if it doesn't turn out, if the app doesn't turn out well, that kind of undermines the whole premise. behind the council actions. Yeah, it does. I'm betting right now. I'm wagering right now, not online or in a brick and mortar, but I'm wagering that somehow this turns into a disaster for the district when it launches based on the way they put this thing together. While I have you on the phone and I appreciate your time,

what can you tell us about a new stadium, a new Redskinned Stadium? Is there any recent developments or do you have any thoughts on that? I wish I had more of an update for you. I'm not aware of any recent updates here. The complication is that the federal government owns the land currently, and the mayor and others were trying to get that to purchase that land back. And they've been framing the issue as this land should be for D.C., regardless of whether we have a stadium or not, and that's a fight,

and that's a fight for another day. but Democratic House leaders have signaled opposition to giving D.C. that land if they're going to use it for the Redskine Stadium. Yeah, I think most Redskine fans that really understand this issue are praying somehow it works out in the district. And it's too bad that before Congress changed during the last, you know, 2018 November elections, midterm elections, it's a shame they didn't get it. it through when I think they had an opportunity to sort of get it through there before the end of the year. With a lot of federal budget. Yeah. And then of course, you know, we had everybody, you know, basically the government shut down. Didn't help either. Fennett, thank you so much. And I urge people that that haven't read this story to read it in the metro section. Fennett Nerepill wrote it.

The D.C. Council approved yesterday by a very narrow margin mobile betting. So when sports betting becomes available, it won't be available right away via an app, but it will be by early 2020. And it'll be interesting to see how it goes. I envision a lot of hiccups, you know, early on, especially if this company's never done it before in the U.S. market. It's crazy that they will be watching closely. Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it, Fennett.

All right. Thanks for having me on. So what do you think? about mobile betting and a company that's never developed an app for sports betting in the U.S. getting the contract. I see disaster written all over it. It's so frustrating because New Jersey really did lay out the blueprint for how to do this right. It might not be quite as good, but in May, they took a higher handle than Vegas did. And it's in large part because they have a number of places,

but especially Fanduel and Draft Kings going head to head with the mobile app and having some crazy promotions and things in there to make sure people are choosing their app over another one. I think there are 18 different companies that have mobile app capabilities in Jersey right now, but those two are the main ones, and because of it, New Jersey is doing great. So I looked this up when you and I talked about this before the show in Jersey. First of all, let's understand what Jersey is. Jersey is, you know, is New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia.

You're talking about probably more gamblers per square, you know, mile than any place on the planet. But you do have to be in Jersey to place a bet. So if you have a mobile bet. It's geolocated. Oh, really? Interesting. Okay. And that, and same with it. This would be geolocated.

You have to be inside D.C. limits. So after a very slow start to sports gaming in New Jersey, the mobile app helped a hell of a lot. You're right about that. In fact, Draft Kings generated 26.7 million via their online or mobile betting app in May in just 704,000 at Resorts Casino, where they have a brick and mortar operation in Atlantic City. Then you had Fandul. Now, Fandual generated 42 million online, but a lot of that is associated with, Meadowlands Racetrack.

A lot of that is horse betting, included, but not what we think of in terms of sports betting. But still, the key to at least reaching some of these target revenue numbers is convenience without mobile online, you know, betting through an app or through a website or whatever it is, you're not going to get people to show up to Capital One arena without an event or even with an event. to bet the NFL playoffs. I mean, you're going to get some people to show up, but the opportunity, obviously, is to make it available to everybody in their home

or wherever they are via their phone. And then I mention this to our guest. I still think that they won't reach the revenue numbers that they've projected in any of these places without credit. Because someone like you, someone like me, is more likely than not, we're not going to bet this way. We're not going to bet via DC's online mobile app. We're going to continue to bet illegally as long as it's available for a multitude of reasons.

Credit being one, still convenience. By the way, probably a system or an online application that's easier to use. And the other reason, Aaron, is that we're discerning when it comes to VIGs, when it comes to the fee that you're paying on a lost bet. And I can tell you right now, and I didn't mention this defendant, there are, going to be minus 103s for an NFL game. No. You're going to be paying minus 110 to minus 120 on your NFL bets. And that's the most frustrating thing about the lack of competition, is that with competition,

you're forced to keep it, you know, pretty normal, pretty standard. Yeah. You're not forced that way anymore. Whenever we talk this way, some of you will say, can you just explain it a little bit more? Basically, when you wager, let's just say, $100 on a game and you lose, you typically lose $110, right? So you pay a 10% what they call vigorous or fee. And most, you know, if you bet in Vegas, you're going to pay, it's called minus 110.

You're paying 10% on a bet of, on a lost bet. If you win that bet, they don't pay you an additional 10%. That's their fee for handling the transaction. What you've gotten over the years, especially offshore and online, is you've gotten favorable fees. Instead of paying 10%. on certain games. Maybe you only pay 7% or 5% or in some cases 2 or 3% and you're able to shop. You know, let's say you like the Redskins this week plus 7. You could go to multiple online casinos and get the Redskins plus 7 with the best possible fee situation. Redskins plus 7 minus 105, 5% rather than minus 110.

You're not going to get that in D.C. I will guarantee. you that they will not have competitive fees on wagers. That's my guess because they've gone with one company. They didn't, they didn't bid it out. You didn't have competition for this. I bet a lot of the people on the D.C. Council that were interviewing these companies or the D.C. lottery, whomever is involved in the actual relationship with this company Intralot, I bet they didn't even know to ask for what their typical fees on lost wagers. They might not know yet. Indriot doesn't know yet because they've never been involved with gambling before.

Maybe it'll create an opportunity for us early on until they figure it out. I don't know. I doubt it. The other frustrating thing is one of the things I love. And I actually have some friends who live in Jersey who I've called to place bets for me. Like draftings and Fanduel, because again, they are so competitive, they have so many different types of bets, so many different props. So many, so many different things that were just not going to get here. They had basically every player draftable and the NBA draft and like an over under for that.

Every single one of them. By the way, in reading the story, when you told me that Jersey in May exceeded Vegas, exceeded Nevada in total revenue for sports betting, one of the reasons why is that Jersey counts futures bets and Vegas doesn't as part of that revenue number. So if Vegas counted all their futures bets that are still out there without a return? without a conclusion yet or a result, Vegas would still have been bigger. Still, New Jersey is doing very well. New Jersey is doing very well.

All right. So that's that. We'll follow this and it's not going to be available in September. So if you don't have a guy, if you don't have access to wagering in September, you're going to have to go to a brick and mortar, you know, whether that's the MGM or Capital One Arena. NGM won't be a guy because that's in Maryland.

Right. But Capitol 1 Arena, Nats Park. Now, I am surprised that he said that September was still people were going to be open, because the more I had read it more, it sounded like they might miss out on football season, which would have been a disaster. Exactly. At least there's that. If you are a small business, think about stamps.com,

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Click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in my code, Kevin, D.C., K-E-V-I-N-D-C, that's Stamps.com, Kevin, D.C. So this is going to be for the portion of the audience that's into Maryland. Maryland basketball. Sorry for the rest of you. But Aaron gave me something this morning that among Maryland Basketball, Maryland Nation is going, it has gone viral. And that is something that to Studeau Times, which is, you know, one of these, you know, sites. It's the SB Nation Terps. Oh, that's the SB Nation Terps site. They basically cover all Maryland sports. And they put something out there this morning, I guess.

And it was, you have, it's creating your all-time Maryland basketball starting lineup. But they did it in a way in which they assigned dollar values to players. And then you had $15 to spend to create the ultimate Maryland starting lineup. So the $5 players were Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Len Bias, Buckwood. and Joe Smith. The $4 players were John Lucas, Gravis Vasquez, Walt Williams, Len Elmore, Tom McMillan. The $3 players were Mello, Trimble, Steve Francis, Albert King, Lonnie Baxter, and Chris Wilcox. The $2 players were Kevin Herder, Des Welles, Adrian Branch, Jake Lehman, Bruno Fernando. And the $1 players were DJ Strawberry, Keith Booth, James Gist, Derek Lewis,

and Alex Len. Now, I'll just tell you off the top of my head, I don't know that they got the top 15, I'm sorry, the top 25 players correct. I think there might be one or two missing and one or two that shouldn't be there, but I'll just go with this list. And so basically, for $15 spent, you had to create a starting five. You can't spend $5 on Len bias, Juan Dixon, and Buck Williams, as I would like to do, because then you only have three players in your starting lineup. You're all out of money. You could play that way. You could play that way, but that probably wouldn't work. So Maryland fans are going nuts over creating their, you know, all time starting five with these parameters. You can only spend $15 and the dollar, you know, the dollar amount assigned to each

player. Personally, Steve Blake would not be a $5 player for me. All right. Gravis Vasquez and John Lucas are more $5 players than Steve Blake. Steve Blake's probably a $4 player, certainly no worse than a $3 player. He's not a $5 player. I'm not so sure that I'd have Joe Smith as a $5 player. But anyway, Lenn-Bias, Juan Dixon, Buck Williams, John Lucas, have always been my top four. The order

that I put them in is Bias Dixon Lucas Buck. It's always been my top four. And then after that, for me, it's always been very debatable. It's not the way that Tustuto Times did it. So I'll work with their list. Bias and Dixon are on my team, period. They're the two greatest

players in the history of Maryland basketball, and that means I just spent 10 $10 of the 15 allotted on my starting five, and I've got three players to go, which means now I cannot pick another $5 player and I can't pick a $4 player because I wouldn't have enough to complete a starting five. So I've got to go to the $3, $2, and $1 lines. All right, the $3 players are Mellow Trimble, Steve, Francis, Albert King, Lonnie Baxter, Chris Wilcox.

And then you've got Herder, Wells, Branch, Lehman, and Fernando. be on this list. He's not a top 25 player of all time. Strawberry Booth, Gist, Lewis, and Len would be the $1.00 players. This is where it gets really hard, really hard. I think I would probably spend $3 on Steve Francis and make him my starting point guard. Although Steve Francis wasn't always the point guard. I mean, they had Terrell Stokes. They had different guys. But Dick, Dick, Nixon, Bias, and France is a pretty good team to start with. You know, Maryland's all-time team, if you put it together, really ranks up there with any university's all-time team. I mean, they've had just great college basketball players.

But now I'm, now I've got $2 left. You're going to get to do yours in a second. Now I got $2 left, which means I've got to spend it on two, $1 players to create a starting five. And if I do that, I'm going to spend it on DJ Strawberry. He's on the $1.00 line. And Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis was a 6-7 shot-blocking machine. Super long arm, super quick off his feet.

He was a very good defensive center at 6-7. But if I put Derek Lewis next to Bias, and I've got a backcourt of Strawberry, Dixon, and Francis, I've got great defenders in Dixon and Strawberry and Lewis. Bias was a good defender, not a great defender. And I've got all the scoring I need with Francis Dixon and bias. I don't need Strawberry and Lewis to score at all. I think that's the $15 team that I put together.

And it all starts because I cannot keep Dixon or bias off the team. And God, I'd want Buck Williams on that team, but I can't because I've got to pick two of the three and I'd pick Dixon and bias. So my $5 spends are Dixon and Bias. I've got a $3 spend in Steve Francis and $1 spends in DJ Strawberry and Derek Lewis. I think that would be a good mix of a starting five. This would, Aaron, this would be a hell of a defensive team. It would lack size, right? You wouldn't have a guy over 6-8.

Derek Lewis was 6-7-68, but he was a center in college and a terrific shot blocker. I think he might still be one of Maryland's all-time shot blockers. He may be number one. His brother was a really good shot blocker too. But because he played all five years, he may be Maryland's all-time shot-blocker. Look that up if that's available. But that would be my five. I was always a huge DJ Strawberry fan.

I thought he, by the way, competitively to have Dixon bias in strawberry on your team. They'd be killing each other in practice. Killing each other in practice. And then, you know, my one concern. would be Francis and how much how ball dominant he would be on that team I if Vasquez had been been a three dollar player I would have been I would have put him there but Vasquez is probably more of a five dollar player than he is a three dollar player all right so that's my five what's yours oh I've been going back and forth on this so much so my original idea I went your way I did uh won dixon and

lend bias right away I thought that was a must and then just my dream right now is to put Len Byes and Chris Wilcox in the same front court, just because that would just be so much fun to watch. So I've already used $13. The only way I can do this, and this is going to make some Maryland fans cringe, but it's doable, and I can hope it works, is to have DJ Strava Berry play point guard. We saw that a little bit in 2006. It wasn't great, but it can, you know, it's doable. And then I have Keith Booth as my three.

You know, the problem with that team is what you said, because Dixon was never really good when he had to handle the ball, you know, handling responsibilities as a point guard. And occasionally he would be put in that spot. He was not good in that spot. DJ Strawberry is better in that spot than Juan Dixon would be. You know, Francis is ball dominant and can handle the ball. And even though at times he played off the ball, a lot of the times he played off the ball, in my lineup, I can have Francis B, the point guard with Dixon as the two guard. you're going to have some issues if you get pressed and if you get really defended, you know, getting an offense. But let me just say, you know, with your team as well, you know, Wilcox is going to block shots, he's going to rebound and you're going to be off.

I mean, this would not be a team, by the way, and I love Mark Turgeon. This would not be a team for Mark Turgeon to coach because we got to turn these guys loose. I mean, for my team, it's take it off the rim, Derek Lewis. Lewis, Len bias, and get it to Dixon, Francis, and Strawberry, and let's run. Because Francis was an unbelievable closer. I mean, an unbelievable finisher, as was Dixon, an incredible finisher. On my team and on your team, the issue is, who takes the big shot? I mean, on my team, it's Dixon or bias.

I mean, Francis is not taking my end-of-game situation, you know, big shot. situation. I'm going, I'm going Dixon or bias. You have two incredible choices there. Dixon really is, I think, for my money, the all-time clutch player in Maryland basketball history. And that's taking the big shot. And by the way, Vasquez is top three on that list in terms of all-time clutch performers. You look at every big game they had, big shots. Look at Vasquez's senior year and the big shots he hit in the big games down the stretch, including his final game against Michigan State when he scored, I think, 12 of the team's final 14 points before Corey, blanking Lucius made the game winner.

All right. So I've got Bias, Dixon, Francis, Strawberry, Lewis. You have Dixon, Bias, Wilcox, Booth, and Strawberry. Yeah. So if you wanted to tell, I mean, there's so many ways to go, I've been seeing so many, I also, you know, just right now, I was like, okay, well, what if I take Juan Dixon out of it, just to free up some money. I came up with Lucas, biased

Wilcox, Herder Booth. Wait, say that again. Lucas at the point, got a herder at the two, booth at the three, and then Bias and Wilcox in the front court. Yeah, the problem with that team is you're not going to get great defense necessarily out of that team.

I mean, I mean, God, you know, in looking at these 25 players, Maryland's had some great players, but some great competitors, too, like, Blame. and Dixon and Bias and Buck Williams. I want to get Desal on one of these teams just to see him. And Des Wells, you know.

But like if I'm thinking about Maryland's all, you know, all, here's a couple of problems with this list. First of all, you know, I personally don't think that Steve Blake's a top five Maryland player of all time. He's in the top 10, probably closer to 10 than five. John Lucas is. And Gravis Vasquez's career. Blake won a national championship, and Blake was a great player. Don't get me wrong.

I'd take Vasquez's career over Blake's. I would take John Lucas's career over Blake's. I'd probably take Len Elmore's career over blakes and even Joe Smith's. Joe Smith played two years here. I mean, you can look at McMillan's career and say unbelievable. Albert King is, I think, is a top 10 Maryland player of all time. He's not in the top 10 on this list. I probably put him ahead of, ahead of McMillan and maybe even ahead of Joe Smith. Albert King's junior year may be the best individual season by any Maryland player in Maryland basketball history.

It's certainly up there. But anyway, I mean, we were provided the list, and I'm going to spend probably too much of the rest of the day looking at the teams that everybody else put together. So much fun. That was fun for some of us. And for some of you, it wasn't. Too bad.

All right. That will waste too much time the rest of the day. Real quick before we go on, we want to mention it. We didn't get to talk about this. Brita Fernando actually signed a three-year guaranteed deal. I did see that. That's great for a second round pick, but remember, the Hawks traded up. Yeah.

Traded a number of picks to get up into that position to draft him. What was it, 34th? Yeah. So the fourth pick of the second round. Yeah. And, you know, it just shows some people, you know, are so obsessed over the first round, second round thing. It doesn't really exist anymore in the end. But as long as you find a team who actually wants you.

Yeah, but there are second round contracts that are not guaranteed. Sure, right. But I'm saying if you have, you know, it's- Jake Lehman got a guaranteed contract. It's about where you go and who you go to, not necessarily the position you go to. Yeah, agreed. All right. If you're listening to us on iTunes, rate us. If you haven't done that, review us.

If you haven't done that, that helps subscribe as well. for people that don't know about the podcast, tell them that they can listen to it at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. Tommy's with me tomorrow, and I'll share with him my Redskins optimism from today's show. Have a great day.