The Kevin Sheehan Show - Hail to the....

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Kevin opened with the Washington Commanders' list of marketing themes for its 2022 home-game slate. The team will debut its new fight song on August 13th, will have a "black-out" game against Minnesota on November 6th, and more. Kevin breaks it down! Also, Kevin had thoughts on today's SI.com/Albert Breer story on Carson Wentz, Rafa Nadal's 22nd grand slam win, and the Warriors evening up the NBA Finals.   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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. That was the old song. On August 13th, you will hear the new song. I'm pretty sure that that wasn't the first song that I was exposed to as a child,

but I would bet you it was in the first 10 or 15 that I was exposed to as a toddler. Hail to the Redskins, the old song. The new song debuts, according to a press release that went out this morning from the team on August 13th at home in the preseason opener against Carolina at FedEx Field. Yeah, that will also be the first game day performance for the commander's marching band. I like the old song. Who knows? Maybe I'll like the new song. Remember Michael Jackson in the 25-year anniversary of Motown, which was probably in the mid-80s? It was a primetime television special, and he came out with his brothers, and they did all the Jackson five hits in a medley. And then Michael Jackson said goodbye to his brothers, and he said, those were the old songs. But I also like

the new songs. And then he played Billy Jean. Maybe that's what we're getting here on August 13th. The debut of the new fight song, 1 p.m. kickoff on August 13th, it gets the Panthers. How many people are going to be at FedEx Field for a preseason game in the middle of a Saturday afternoon in mid-August? I don't know. Look, this was part of the team's announcement of game themes for what they're its inaugural season. It feels like an inaugural season, but really what they're talking about is the inaugural season of the commanders, the new name, the new uniforms, the new brand, the new fight song. And for all 10 of its home games this year, it has a theme and a corresponding event or a corresponding ask. Now, before I go through some of these, I want to be really clear. I'm not

being critical of this. It seems very small market-ish. Some of it does, but I understand the position that they are in. Jason Wright and his team has essentially a mandate to create a stronger business that is losing resilient, as he's told me before, meaning they can't worry about whether or not the team wins or loses. The team is in, as I've mentioned many times before, they are in customer acquisition mode. It's like it's a new business for them. They're like launching a new retail restaurant and they got to get the word out that they play NFL football in a stadium that's not that far from D.C. And they play some really good teams. They play the Cowboys. They play the Giants. They play the Eagles. They've got to market themselves. I'm exaggerating here a little bit. But I want to be

clear when I start talking about some of these things, I get what they're trying to do. It's not what most NFL markets and teams have to do, but this one has to gain more customers. They are in the customer acquisition business, something most NFL teams are not in, and for many, many years, Washington wasn't either. But they are. And because of that, they've got themes kind of collegiate-like, small market-like, for all of their home games. They have the debut of the fight song as a theme titled Play Football in the preseason opener against Carolina. Week one is Commander's Kickoff.

There's a pre-game 9-11 tribute because the game is on 9-11, and at halftime they're going to pay tribute to iconic legends from the 50s, 60s, and 1970s. rosters. I'll skip ahead. I'm not going to read every single one. Week 7 against Green Bay is the alumni homecoming weekend. I don't like it being called homecoming weekend. It should just be called alumni weekend. That would be the advice that I would have given. They're going to pay tribute to each of the five world championship teams during that game, either pregame or halftime. I am assuming. Then in week nine, home game against Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings,

this is the first of two color-coded games. This is going to be a blackout game. Fans are encouraged to dress in all-black for the home game against the Vikings. I would assume the team will be in their black uniforms for that game as well. There's also a whiteout. game. That comes in the final week of the season. Home game, home finale. The theme is we want Dallas, and it is a white out game. Fans are encouraged to dress in all white for that game. Let's hope it's a meaningful game with mostly Washington fans, because it may be hard to get

the cowboy fans to dress in all white. There's a recognition of the hogs game in week 17 against the Browns. That game will also include the unveiling of a new mascot. The team is going to have a mascot. Details on the season-long fan engagement program to help select the mascot will be announced later on this summer. But the unveiling of that new mascot comes in the next to last home game, week 17 against the Browns. And then there is this. On November 27, home game against the Atlanta Falcons. It's going to include, the theme is season of giving. Okay, we're Thanksgiving weekend a couple of days after Thanksgiving that particular Sunday against Atlanta.

There's a Toys for Tots toy drive. And then part of that week 12 home game against Atlanta will include the debut of a permanent installation at FedEx Field for sure. Sean Taylor. I told you guys, you know, last fall, they're not going to stop on the Sean Taylor stuff. The Sean Taylor stuff is their go-to. Even though they butchered it the first time, this is Dan's go-to. This is his guy. This was his moment as an owner. He's really had two of them, the hiring of Joe Gibbs, and the way the team responded and handled that particular tragic week. Now, when I read debut of a permanent installation, I am thinking statue. Look, I've said this many times. I love Sean Taylor. I loved him as a player. And I understand his jersey being

retired, even though I do not think it should have been the next jersey after Bobby Mitchell's to be retired. I think there were several jerseys that should have been in line to be retired before Sean's jersey. You could debate whether or not Sean's jersey even deserves to be retired. But I've made that a special exception. This was a player that was special to a large part of the fan base, very special to the owner, and to me that's the owner's prerogative. And I don't have a problem with Sean's jersey being retired as it was.

A statue would have been over the top, in my opinion. Again, no disrespect to the memory of Sean Taylor, no disrespect to his family, his wife, his child. But that would have been over the top. Now, I've been told that it's probably not a statue. It would be more like some sort of shrine. Now, what I would advise them to do is make sure that if they build the shrine to Sean Taylor, they put it in a part of the stadium that is accessible to all. Don't put it on the club level where only club seatholders have access to it.

Don't make that mistake. If you're going to build a shrine to Sean Taylor, you put it in an area of the stadium, inside the stadium, I would assume, where it is accessible for all. Now, November 27th is, will be 2022, will be the 15-year anniversary of Sean's passing. He died on November 27, 2007. Today, many of us, many of you guys, and a lot of us that were working in the media at the time, we'll never forget those few days, will forever be etched in my memory.

They were so sad, including the culmination of that week, which was the home game against the Bills at FedEx Field and everything that happened during that game. But I don't know, to unveil this shrine on the anniversary of his death, I'm not going to comment on that. I just hope that whatever they do, it's first rate, and that it's accessible to all, and that if they do some sort of ceremony to introduce this permanent installation,

whatever it is, I hope that they do it with class. And just a lot better than what they did last fall in the Jersey retirement situation that particular day. Anyway, look, they have to figure out ways to get people to games. You know, these blackouts and whiteout games, they appeal to young people. And this is who they are trying to attract. You know who else they appeal to? Perhaps very young people where parents might say, okay, let's put our black on and let's go to the game against the Vikings. Or let's get all dressed up in white and go to the game against the Cowboys.

So I get it. I don't think it's so typical for NFL teams. I don't think so. Look, a lot of these places are filled with jersey wearing fans anyway. So, you know, you watch a game in a lot of these places. It looks like it was a color-coded game, although there will be a lot of, you know, dark-colored jerseys and light-colored jerseys of the home team.

But anyway, there you go. The themes for the home schedule, 10 home games this year, and including the preseason games. and all that will be happening around it. So I would expect a lot of this stuff, you know, by the way, the other thing that these themes and these events, it allows them to market each game individually in a way in which, you know, let's just say the season ticket, you know,

I know that they are increased from where they've been the last couple of years. That's not saying much. But let's just say that, you know, you still end up with a stadium that has maybe 40 or 50,000 season ticket holders, but you're only getting 25 to 35,000 a game. It allows you to market each individual game. What would be much more effective for the business side of the building in promoting individual game tickets would be a really good record for the team

against a really good opponent, but a really good record really is paramount. if you're going to sell more tickets. But there you go. That is your inaugural season of the commanders and their game themes. Before the end of this show, I'm going to play something for you that Ryan Fitzpatrick said to Adam Schaefter on Adam's podcast that I think is instructive as it relates to Chase Young. I'll get to that in the next segment. Also in the next segment, Albert Breer wrote a story on SI.com that just broke about an hour ago.

titled Carson Wence is making the most of what may be his last shot. He's got a lot of access there to Carson, Wentz, and Ron Rivera during OTAs. I'm going to read some of that to you when we come back. But keeping with the theme of press releases received here in the opening segment, I got the press release regarding game themes for the commanders. I also got a press release from the University of Maryland titled Ralph Freedgin named to College Football Hall of Fame Back. ballot. Ralph Friesian has been named to the 2023 ballot for induction into the college football

Hall of Fame. I don't know anything about the College Hall of Fame. I don't know who's in it. I don't know who isn't in it. I don't know who should be in it. I don't know who shouldn't be in it. I did look at the list of the coaches that are on the ballot for 2023. They include Ralph. They include Paul Johnson, the longtime Navy and Georgia Tech coach. That list includes Mark Rickt. But let me just say this about Ralph Riegen. God, I hope he gets in to the college football Hall of Fame. I've always felt that Ralph has been underrated as a coach. I don't think people realize how respected in the profession Ralph Riegel was as a quarterback's coach, as an offensive coordinator, as an overall offensive guru. He had an incredible career in that Ralph was an assistant coach

for 32 years before he finally got his first head coaching opportunity at his alma mater in 2001. He was an assistant for Bobby Ross at Maryland during Ross's very productive years in the early to mid-80s. He was the offensive coordinator with Ross at Georgia Tech, which included, by the way, a phenomenal season in 1990. Georgia Tech went to a share of the national championship. Ralph was the offensive coordinator. They were 11.0 and 1. I think their tie was against Virginia, if my memory serves me correctly. He then followed Bobby Ross to the NFL, where he orchestrated an offense that appeared in the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl 29 against the 49ers with Ralph as the offensive coordinator. That was the Stan Humphreys, San Diego Chargers. They got blown out 49 to 26 in that Super Bowl. But Ralph stuck with Bobby Ross for a while and then got his first head coaching job at Maryland in 2001. Now, there are a lot of reasons why Ralph may have been overlooked for all of those years. Bobby Ross himself was an offensive guru and an offensive head coach. And Ralph was kind of paired and viewed as kind of. an OC kind of a guy wherever Bobby Ross went. But there were other reasons. Ralph's appearance may have

had something to do with him not getting a head coaching job for many, many years. But when he finally got a head coaching job at his alma mater in 2001, he made the most of it. Ralph's run as a head coach at Maryland, I don't think gets enough credit. In my lifetime, you know, Jerry Claiborne and Bobby Ross, are the two coaches that led Maryland to success to ACC championships. In Jerry Claiborne's case, Maryland played nearly for an undefeated season. They lost the Cotton Bowl to the University of Houston. In the 76th season, they went undefeated. It was the one season, by the way, they didn't play Penn State.

Bobby Ross won ACC titles at Maryland in the early to mid-80s. But Ralph Riegen had a 10-year run at Maryland. He went 75 and 50 as the head coach at Maryland. I understand it was in the ACC. He went to seven bowl games in 10 years and won five of those bowl games. He had but just one awful season out of the 10 as a head coach. They went 2 in 10 in 2009 and then he followed it up with an ACC coach of the year season and a 9 and 4 season in 2010.

He went five and six a couple of years. He went six and six one year and lost his bowl game, so technically it was a six and seven, but he made it to a bowl game. But Maryland was a legit competitive team year and year out in the ACC. They won their lone ACC title. Remember, this was a league with Florida State in it, okay? And they won that ACC title in 2001,

lost the Orange Bowl to Rex Grossman and Florida. but Ralph was a hell of a coach and what Ralph was and will always be talked about in coaching circles is he was a feared offensive guru I mean defensive coordinators defensive head coaches you ask any of them from that era

they know Ralph I remember having a conversation with Mike Shanahan about Ralph Regian and he's like oh one of the best one of the really good offensive minds Ralph Fregeon was a really, really good, borderline great college coach for a long period of time, not just as a head coach. You don't get into the Hall of Fame, I don't think, for being an assistant coach in college football, as far as I know.

But Ralph had a 10-year run. And by the way, remember, came back with Rutgers as the O.C. in 2014 and beat Maryland. I hope Ralph gets in, and I hope he's well. I know he was honored recently by the touch. by Steve Beck and the touchdown club. I hope Ralph gets into the Hall of Fame. I think he has always been very much an afterthought, criminally underrated,

as a really, really outstanding football coach in college, of course, but also briefly in the NFL, where he coached and coordinated an offense in a Super Bowl game. All right, when we come back, I want you to hear something that Ryan Fitzpatrick told Adam Schaefter on his podcast and what Albert Breer wrote about Carson Wentz and the way he is adapting to his new environment here in D.C. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple. I know most of you listen on Apple, but wherever you can rate us and review us, do it. Five stars, quick one to two sentence review on Apple is a big help. This from Captain underscore Colonel. Ashburned is the title of his review. If I ever want to be ash burned in May and early June, this is the place to be. Please more talk about Carson Wentz throwing a gorgeous fade to Cam Sims in OTAs,

five stars for you. Thank you very much for the review. We don't do a lot of breaking down OTA throws. That'll happen again this Wednesday in the third day of the third session of OTA. because that is a media day this Wednesday. And look, I don't blame many of the people that I call friends, not just professional friends, but personal friends, that cover the team on a daily basis as beat reporters.

There is clearly, you know, an audience for the hype of OTAs and the detail, the blow-by-blow of OTA days. That's not really, as I know, Captain slash Colonel knows this. It's not really what this podcast is about. I really don't take much stock in anything that's coming out of OTAs in terms of the play on the field. Now, I think sometimes you can learn a lot from listening to people talk, coaches talk in particular, and really the only news typically out of this thing is bad news, you know, injury news, and we hope that none of that happens. Speaking of injuries, Ryan Fitzpatrick retired officially, I think, over the weekend. And he was,

was on the Adam Schefter podcast, which I listened to this morning. And I like Ryan Fitzpatrick. I think he's interesting. I think he's smart. But there's this one part of the podcast that I wanted to play for you. It's a quick soundbite from Ryan Fitzpatrick answering the question from Adam Schaefter about how he's going to deal with retirement after having kind of the same routine for 17 NFL seasons. Here's what Ryan Fitzpatrick said. You know, last year for me ended up being kind of a preview of what was to come. Because after I got hurt and with the trainer situation in Washington, I was pretty much removed from the team probably three, four weeks after my injury. And so it was kind of a rehab for an hour or two each day, but I was removed from the day to day of the meetings and the football and being involved with that.

So gave me a glimpse into the future of what retirement would look like and drove my wife crazy. But I think it was a good preview for what was to come. And I think it's something that it was time and I'm ready for it. The trainer situation that Fitzpatrick was talking about obviously is Ryan Vermillion, the head athletic trainer who was escorted out of the building last October in the midst of a DEA raid on the facility. And that's what I wanted to talk about here, because as it relates to the most significant of injured players last year, Logan Thomas was significant, but Chase Young's injury, Chase Young has chosen to have his rehab and recovery take place in Colorado with the group

that rehabbed Von Miller after his injury. I'm not so sure that the team is thrilled with, with that, but, you know, according to them, everything is going well, but I think they would have preferred to have had it closer to home, but whatever, it's not that big of a deal, but it's really not that big of a deal if you consider that Chase Young is doing what's best for him. Look, Washington's been in sort of a stage of, you know, unknown when it comes to their head athletic trainer and medical staff. I mean, they just recently hired Al Bellamy, who was on Bubba Tire staff in the 80s. They were without a head athletic trainer for. a long period of time. And, you know, there was certainly a lack of, you know, confidence going back

to pre-Ron Rivera days. This has not been the best, you know, athletic training and medical situation in the NFL. So I just point that out to say, look, I don't really have an issue with Chase Young handling his rehab and recovery the way he wants to do it, especially when you consider this situation and what it's been in Washington for a long period of time. That is his injury, his recovery. He's gone to apparently one of the best. And maybe Washington will improve on this front. Maybe the staff under Ryan Vermillion wasn't that bad, but there wasn't a group when Chase Young was injured. There wasn't Al Bellamy in the building at that point. And when he started his recovery after surgery, I don't think Bellamy had even been hired yet. Anyway,

The next thing that I wanted to get to real quickly was Albert Breer wrote a story titled Carson Wentz is making the most of what may be his last shot. It was a story on SI.com. Albert Breer wrote earlier today. You know, there's a lot of the stuff about, you know, how Carson is kind of adapting to his new surroundings and, you know, how he played golf and he's trying to get to know his teammates. and, you know, it's all positive. There's not one negative thing in this story from Breer. So there's not, you know, I'm not about to get to something that is kind of an oh, wow moment at all. But I thought there were a couple of things that were interesting. And the first is this about Carson Wentz and his personality. Carson Wentz obviously has been criticized, you know, kind of over-the-top criticized by

the owner of the Indianapolis Colts and through various articles that have been written now stemming from his time in Philadelphia and in Indianapolis. And you would think that that would be something that a professional athlete, a high-level competitor, would be like, look, you know, they'll see. You know, like he's about to go on a revenge tour,

gets the Eagles twice this year, gets the Colts in his first year in D.C. as well. But Albert Breer wrote the following about kind of his mindset heading into this all-important year for him. He wrote, how he's approaching this is much different than you might expect. So many quarterbacks and players who have been in Wents's spot before find motivation in slights and vow to play with the proverbial chip on their shoulder. And for some, that really works with the doubt of others fueling resurgent play. Wentz for his part won't knock others for that, and he certainly felt it from those who gave up on him.

It's just not him to use that the way other players would. Rivera said, quote, I don't think he's scarred that much. Did it hurt? I'm sure it did. But I also think because he's a young man of faith that he looks at it as part of a plan. Closed quote. Wentz said, quote, there's for sure a human side, the I want to prove people wrong side. But it's what coach said, being a man of God, a man of faith.

This is a blessing. Playing this game is a blessing. It might not have gone the last couple of years the way I saw it in my head, but to know that I'm still healthy, I'm still playing the game I love, and have an incredible family that supports me. And I come home and my wife and daughters, they don't care if I threw five touchdowns or five picks, it doesn't matter to them. It's a blessing. Just knowing there's a purpose and a plan in place, and for me to just because of my faith go out and play freely and have fun and

enjoy it for as long as I can, the rest should take care of itself. Closed quote. I think this is interesting with every athlete that is super, super religious, and, you know, men or women of faith. They very much internalize the negative, you know, portions of their career as part of God's plan. And Wentz says, I'm not in the business of trying to prove people wrong. There's a human side, but, you know, that's not me. That's what Breer writes. This is just part of the plan.

You know who else I have heard say that over and over. over and over again. Every single time he has a bad moment or his team has a bad moment is one of my recent favorite quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins. He never blames anybody. He never talks about revenge or proving people wrong ever. Never talks about that. Now, we have the moments of you like that.

But in Minnesota anyway, with all of the criticism, you know, and again, he has polarized that fan base in the same way he's polarized this one, there's never this chip. I don't sense there is. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. You know, playing with that chip, playing with revenge in mind and as a motivation, I guess, can be effective, but only to a certain point. But this is who Wentz is. You know, Wentz is a man of faith. Rivera, I don't think he's scarred as much. You know, essentially saying, I don't think. these two experiences have really, you know, did it hurt? I'm sure it did, but he looks at it as part of a plan. I don't know. I always find that interesting whenever I see that from athletes. By the way,

there's another part of this that I wanted to reference. And this has more to do with Ron Rivera. You know, you've heard in the past the Carolina players that really loved playing for Ron Rivera. They were very upset when he got fired back in 2019. You've heard it here, too, from people. I think the players do respect Ron Rivera. I think Ron Rivera's taken on a different role in this organization than maybe he had in Carolina, where he was strictly the head coach-centric. I think he's taken on maybe more of a CEO role in,

in Washington than maybe he had in Carolina. And I don't know if that was the intent. Maybe the cancer scare, you know, sort of prompted that when he was out a lot. I don't know why that is, but I think his role, and I think I asked him about this at one point during the season on the radio show, I think he admitted that, you know, he's a different kind of coach here than he was at Carolina. But one thing that is true about Rivera is Rivera really tries to be very good to his players. He tries to create this family atmosphere. Ron Rivera knew, Albert Breer wrote, that Carson Wentz was probably going to be floored by the trade from Indianapolis. And Ron Rivera wanted to be there the moment, you know, basically this trade was made.

And there were multiple things from Rivera and from Carson Wentz on how welcoming Ron Rivera was. This was from Wentz himself. He said, quote, I felt it from the jump. Honestly, within minutes of getting the call from Chris Ballard about the trade, the Indianapolis GM. I heard from Coach Rivera. He was very forthright, and he couldn't express his excitement more, which meant a lot to me. It's a huge transition. It's a lot of things. It's been well documented, the ups and downs and the being caught off guard aspect of it. But coming in and talking to him right away, a guy, I know I've said this on record multiple times.

I've had a ton of respect for from afar meant a lot. Rivera didn't waste much time before backing up his words with his actions. soon after the trade he and his wife Stephanie invited Wence and his wife Madison out to spend a day at their place and capped it with dinner at Dan and Tanya Snyder's house. The Wences brought their daughters, so over the course of a few hours, the coach got to see his new quarterback interact with first, his kids, and then his new boss.

He was just so natural and comfortable, Rivera said, I liked who he was. So in reading this one portion of Breer's story, I had a thought. It's not an original thought for me, but I want to repeat it again, I guess. And that is that Ron Rivera is a good leader. Ron Rivera is a good leader. I don't think all of you agree, and that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion. But Ron Rivera has the ability to lead people in that environment. I think Ron Rivera, I think Ron Rivera, I has a high EQ, maybe a higher EQ than he does in IQ. I don't know at all for sure, because I don't know him well. But I think from afar, what you get from this little passage in Breer's story and what we've gotten in the past is that Ron Rivera relates to people. Ron Rivera and his wife together are a likable pair. And players have liked him wherever he's gone, as an assistant coach as a head coach in Carolina.

And as far as we know so far here as kind of a head coach slash CEO in Washington, he leads with encouragement, with empathy. You know, he's got that military side to him as well, which, you know, I think that, you know, we've seen some of those passionate, you know, post-game speeches, you know, during that four-game winning streak in particular. You know, I think he's got a command to him. He's got, you know, a gravitas to him as well. well. But I don't know. I guess I read that because it just, you know, reinforced for me,

I mean, I may not love everything about Ron Rivera and who knows if he'll last, but I do think that he's a quality person and a good leader. Look, I like Jay Gruden, and I think Jay Gruden would be a lot of fun to hang out with, and I love talking football with Jay Gruden, but would Jay Gruden have worried that much about Carson Wentz's feelings after being traded twice in, you know, in 12 or 13 months. I just think Ron Rivera gets it when it comes to people, young people. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. There was another part of Breer's story that I'll just mention real quickly. It dealt more with some football stuff.

There's this line that the commander saw in Wentz with some of the. obvious, how his ability to push the ball down field could unlock the potential of Washington's speedy cadre of receivers. And some things a little less obvious. How his downturn last year coincided with the Colts becoming more run-reliant on early downs behind Taylor, Jonathan Taylor, which seemed to knock wince off rhythm a little bit, but should be. But should be easy to correct. Scott Turner said in this story, quote, I think when you look at the way he played last year and really over the course of his career, he's a guy who's a big physical guy and he's going to make a lot of big plays. He's a good athlete. He can extend some plays with his strength and physicality and then his ability to just push the ball down the field. He's got a rare ability to do that. Not many guys in the league can do that. The way we've built our offense, we've got some speed on offense. And I think having a guy like that, really helps you get the most out of it. So I, you know, and then, and then Breer writes, in the minds of the commanders, there wasn't a ton of rebuilding that needed to happen in Wence's

game. More so, it would be about having the right personnel and the right scheme for Wence, the kinds that would match his talents, that from the Breer story. You know, look, this story overall is really positive. You know, Breer also was the one that wrote the story before they went after a quarterback about what a great place Washington would be. Breer's a professional long-term writer. I mean, I'm not accusing him of writing puff pieces. But in his conversations with Rivera in particular, you know, there's been just a lot of positive about the situation. And maybe it is positive right now. And maybe Rivera is telling the truth. Time will tell. But the point here is that there's a lot of, you know, kind of getting the word out that the situation just wasn't

right in Indianapolis. You know, early down runs, concentration on John Taylor, on Jonathan Taylor being the go-to guy. And by the way, they went on their win streak when Jonathan Taylor started to get the ball a shitload of times. I've gone through this several times,

but if you go back to the 2021 season, during their streak of winning, they won, I think it was eight games in 10 to get back to 9. and six before losing those final two games of the year. Jonathan Taylor went over 100 yards in all of those games except for two of them and had a 172-yard game and 185-yard game. They beat the two best wins they had over New England and Buffalo

went through for 106 yards and 57 yards. In their 27-17 win over New England went through for 57 yards. It was all Jonathan Taylor. So anyway, they're trying to get the message across through this story Breer is and through Scott Turner and Rivera, et cetera, is that he wasn't really used properly. They didn't leverage his best strengths. So we'll see. Washington's going to have a chance to do that. By the way, Breer writes at the very end of this story, let me find the line. He said there's a lot riding on Wences 2020.

really for everyone in Washington. Yeah, this is a referendum year for Rivera in Washington. He's raised the expectation levels to a point in which they need to succeed. They need to be a playoff team. Now, I don't know how that would sort of manifest itself if it doesn't turn out to be one. I think he's here for the duration if he wants to be. But it is an important year for everybody in Washington. All right, a few things that we haven't touched.

on including some of the weekend's biggest events when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Holden's date with another stop trying to close out this third quarter better than they did in game one. It's a good thing that I am not betting and haven't placed a wager since the final four. If you want to wager, go to mybooky.com or my bookie.orgie.orgie. And use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll double your first deposit all the way up to a thousand. $1,000, but I would have bet last night Boston plus four, and I would have been dead wrong. There are a couple of things that stood out for me in the 107-88 win for Golden State last night to even up the NBA finals at a game apiece.

Number one was this. I thought it was one of the better Steph Curry games defensively that I've ever watched. I don't know that I've ever said, wow, Steph was great on defense. And I felt like he was really good on defense last night, exceptional on defense last night. I thought the Warriors in general were exceptional on defense last night. And they really took the life out of the Celtics. You know, Jason Tatum came out last night after a three-for-17 game won. His team won the game, but he only scored 14 points, and he was three-for-17.

And he was hunting shots. Too much, I thought, even though he was knocking down a bunch of them in what was a thrilling first quarter. Ended up with 28. But none of the player, I mean, that game was over at the end of three quarters, courtesy of Jordan pulls back to back threes. He hit the near half court shot at the buzzer, but also in a two-for-one situation made one from about 30 feet on the possession before. But, yeah, Tatum had 28 in the game, and he's a great player, but he looked hurt, he looked tired, Boston looked tired. They got two points combined from Marcus Martin Al Horford, all right? That is, you know, after in game one getting a combined 44 from those two players. Jalen Brown really had it going well early in the game. Al Horford looked like he was 75 years old last night.

I mean, he was horrendous, looked out of place. Rarely do you say that about anybody on an NBA floor, especially a guy that had 26 in game one. He looked like a guy that was playing at your health club on a Saturday morning with a bunch of old men. It was awful to watch. Hopefully he'll be rested when they get back to Boston. Curry was great.

Clay Thompson continues to struggle. He just doesn't look right. He's a catch-and-shoot guy. and he's being forced to put the ball on the floor a lot. I think that's part of the problem. He was four for 19 in the game last night. But overall, I thought, you know, Golden State's defense was just tremendous. And Steph Curry's defense, tremendous.

They didn't care about switching Curry onto Brown or Curry onto Tatum. They were switching a lot. And I just thought he was tremendous last night overall. defensively, obviously as a shooter, but as a score as well. This series goes back to Boston for games three and four. You know, you really can't in an NBA playoff series say, oh, so that's what's going to happen. After watching the previous game or referring to the previous game, just like game one, I kind of made the mistake of saying, you know what, I think Boston is just better.

Now, I said that right before the series, and I picked Boston in seven. But man, they look tired. They looked worn out. You know, Jason Tatum's got a shoulder injury clearly that he's playing with. Golden State actually looks deeper. They got Peyton back last night. Yeah, I don't know where this series is headed. I'll stick with my prediction, Boston and 7,

but I was impressed with Golden State defensively last night. And we cannot get, you know, a game that comes down to the final two minutes. In any of these playoff games, it seems like. The best two games were games six and seven. of the Miami-Boston series. Rafael Nidal won the French Open. Won the French Open, apparently, after taking a shot of anesthesia for his left foot.

That doesn't even seem right to me. I mean, a painkiller, a super, you know, anti-inflammatory, maybe, but anesthesia, numbing up the area, he said he couldn't feel his foot. And he beat this guy 6-3-6-6-6-love. Raphael Nadal now has 22 grand slams, 14 in Paris, but 22 overall. For those that would say he's the greatest of all time, you can't be wrong. You cannot be wrong about that, because here's the thing.

You know, it would be one thing to say, ah, he's just a clay court player. You can just play on the red clay at Roland Garros. his majors came from there. But it's not true. He has 14 majors in Paris and eight among the Australian Wimbledon and U.S. Open. By the way, eight grand slams that aren't in Paris are more than John McEnroe had, more than Boris Becker had, more than Stefan Edberg had. I mean, more than some of the greatest to ever play had. He's got more majors than those players not counting the French Open wins. He's 36 years old, just turned 36 years old. His record in Paris, 112 and 3. A hundred and 12 and three. Like those are stop dead in your tracks numbers. 14 French opens,

the next closest is six. All right, Borg's got six. French opens. Borg had 11 total, six and five at Wimbledon. Did not win the Australian, did not win the U.S. Open. And by the way, retired after losing the U.S. Open in 1981 for the second straight year to John McEnroe at the age of 26. Also, by the way, Bjorn Borg today is 66 years old. June 6th is his birthday, 66 years old.

Bjorn Borg. But 112 and 3 at Roland Garros, that's just unbelievable. You know, when he got to 20 last year and lost to Djokovic in Paris, the thought was Djokovic was going to go on and become the all-time major leader. You know, he beat Nadal in Paris last year, won at Wimbledon. They all had 20. Federer had 20. Nadal had Feder, uh, 20 and Jokovic had 20. Fed, we have to assume, is done at the age of 40. And then Jokovic, you know, couldn't play in the Australian open. Well, first of all, he lost in the U.S.

Open final. Um, and then couldn't play in the Australian because he wasn't vaccinated. He loses to Nidal in the quarters in Paris last week. Look, Jokovic is only 34, and he's probably going to be around and playing a lot more majors, and he may end up passing Nadal. But if you want to say today that Nadal is the greatest of all time have at it, you cannot really be on anything but solid ground as far as that's concerned. For me, I think the greatest I've ever watched at his height was Roger Federer. But I understand the argument for Nadal.

I do. And if he can get that foot worked out by Wimbledon, he might be a threat there. And then at the U.S. Open in September. We are watching, as I've pointed out many times, the greatest in the history of tennis. I mean, these three guys combining for 62 grand slams. So, you know, as much as I love the era of McEnroe and Connors and Borg and Lendell and Becker and Edberg and V. Lander, et cetera, et cetera. You know, then kind of moving into the Sampras Courier Agassie era. We've kind of missed it as American tennis fans because we're not nearly the fans we used to be. Most of us aren't. The sport isn't super popular in the U.S., but we've missed the greatest run of men's tennis players. And by the way, the greatest run of female tennis players led by Serena as well.

Although I think Everett and Navratilova, that era, you could claim is a better era. But Raphael Nadal, 22nd Grand Slam, 14th and 17 years in Paris, and he did it with a shot of anesthesia that numbed his foot. That doesn't make any sense to me at all. By the way, Maryland baseball tonight against Yukon to advance to the Super Regional's. Good luck to them. They staved off elimination with a 7-6 win in 11 innings yesterday. which was good for them. And then there were the Nats over the weekend. They won three straight against Cincinnati

after losing the first on Thursday to the Reds, which means that as we speak, the Nats are at 21 and 35 and do not have the worst record in the National League. That belongs to the opponent. They just beat down three straight, the Cincinnati Reds. June 6th, that's it for today. June 6th, D-Day.

that would be the anniversary of D-Day, which happened in 1945, 1994, so 56, 22, 78 years ago today. The Allies invaded Normandy. If you've never been to Normandy, my God, what a trip. And the American cemetery at Normandy is unbelievably moving. So, we're done for the day. I'm back tomorrow with Tommy. Hail to the Redskine.