The Kevin Sheehan Show - Inside Commanders Draft

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Kevin opened with thoughts on a Commanders You Tube video that the team put out highlighting their behind-the-scenes during the NFL Draft. Michael Phillips/910 The Fan (Richmond) jumped on to talk about the Commanders' off-season which is now officially over. Eric Flack/WUSA-TV 9 was a guest discussing a DC sports study which produced an analysis of the economic feasibility of bringing Washington's football team back to DC in a new stadium at the RFK site. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Wind Donation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. If you've been thinking about new windows, they'll give you a free in-home estimate,

so you've got no risk. Just mention my name. I've got two guests on the show today. Michael Phillips will jump on with me in the next segment. to talk Washington football. It won't be the only Washington football discussion we will have today. In just a few minutes, I'm going to discuss what I just finished watching, which was a 50-plus minute video that several of you asked me to watch on the Commander's YouTube station.

More on that coming up. Eric Flack will be on with me in the final segment of the show. Eric's the Channel 9 chief investigative reporter. Did you hear about the DC sports study analysis that they did to identify if the football team coming back to the district into a new stadium would make financial sense for the city? Well, Eric's read it, he will explain the details of it and why they did it. So Michael Phillips followed by Eric Flack in the final. two segments of the show. If you missed David Falk on yesterday's show, he was great. He's such a great storyteller. I had him on to talk about Jerry West because Jerry West was his childhood idol.

Of course, it turned into a conversation about a lot of things, including Caitlin Clark at the very end. David Falk, you know, regardless of what you think about him, he's one of the most impactful sports agents of all time. And he's an excellent guest because he's got a great memory and he is a great storyteller. I know many of you enjoyed that. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, it's from yesterday's show. All right, tonight, game four of the NBA finals. I like Boston to finish the sweep tonight. If they don't win it tonight, they'll win it Monday night in Boston, they're going to win a record 18th title. They're tied right now with the Lakers with 17 NBA championships. By the way, if Boston completes the sweep tonight of Dallas and then tomorrow

night, the Florida Panthers complete the sweep of Edmonton in the Stanley Cup finals, it will mark the first time that both of those sports ended in sweeps in their championship series since 1995. I watched just a bit of the Stanley Cup game last night. I wanted to see what that crowd was like. There was a lot of discussion about how excited Edmonton was to host a Stanley Cup game last night. It was great at that Rogers place, I think they call it. I didn't watch a lot of the game, but I did watch the final period in which Edmonton was down 4-1. They rallied to get it to four or three, and they had opportunities to tie that game up. But three nothing there, three nothing in the NBA finals, which resume tonight in Dallas.

And I am interested in seeing this game. I know some of you will probably check out before tonight. You may have checked in at my urging for the last month and a half, and it didn't really work out in terms of great drama. But I'm interested in seeing how Luca plays tonight. Just like the pressure was on Kyrie Irving in the last game after the way he played the first two, there's some pressure on Luca Donchich tonight. Just two weeks ago, people were already anointing him as one of the best in the game,

one of the best ever. It was early to do that because he had not won anything yet. Make no mistake. Dallas is in the finals as a five. seed because of Luca more than anybody else. But on the biggest stage, the NBA finals, more and more people have gotten to see his overall game, which is lacking on defense to say the least.

And they've gotten a glimpse of his behavior towards the officials, which is nauseating to watch. So this is a big night for him. He's got to come out and play. big time, keep his mouth shut, which I don't think is possible, and win a game. It's amazing how these narratives on teams and players change so quickly. It's unfair because he's not healthy, and Dallas was a five-seat in a deep Western conference field. They got to the finals. Nobody expected that. But anyway, I think it'll be a decent game.

tonight. And if you want to have fun watching the game, how about downloading the prize picks app? PrizePix is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. It's DFS with you just playing more than or less than on player stat projections with odds. You're not battling thousands of others. There is a prize picks play for me tonight. I think Boston goes in and puts Dallas to bed. And I think Jalen Brown, who is going to win the MVP of these finals, will have another big night. His more than or less than number on prize picks is 24.5.

I'm going to go more than Jason Tatum's number is 27.5. I'm going to go more than on him as well. I know that's not my typical contrarian play. But I just kind of like Boston tonight. And I think Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum will get it done. That pays, by the way, about 3.3 to 1 if they both hit. Prize picks, fun way, fun way to watch these games, you know, whether it's NBA, NHL, or Major League Baseball games.

if you download the prize picks app today and use my code sheen, you'll get a first deposit match of up to $100. That is, the prize picks app, download that app, use my code Sheehan for a first deposit match of up to $100. All right. So I had a few of you reach out to me to say, you've got to watch something. something. It is a commander's video on their YouTube channel. I'm sure it's on their website as well, but it's called the commander's log. And episode three was titled Top of the Pile.

And it was about mostly about draft night back on April 25th, 26th, and 27th. Actually, all three days of the draft. and it was all the behind the scenes. They videotaped the whole thing with Adam Peters and Dan Quinn and Josh Harris and Lance Newmark and Doug Williams and Martin Mayhew and, you know, the whole staff that was there in their war room. First of all, I did think it was very well done, you know, and I thought it was informative. And I thought there was some interesting new information in it as well. And I'll share my thoughts on all of it. it in a moment. But why was it called Top of the Pile? The Commander's Log, episode three, titled Top of the Pile. Well, I'll let Dan Quinn tell you why it was called Top of the Pile.

It had to do with, you know, what they were looking for in this draft more than anything else. Here's Dan Quinn. I think as a rookie coming in, the number one trait, top of the top of the pile is a true competitor. Somebody that is absolutely willing to go the distance to get better, to find the edge, to find what that can look like. So at the top of the pile, making sure the competitor is right, because the best of the best teams, you better have that part right first. Dan Quinn shortly before the draft back in April, telling you that at the top of the pile,

the thing they are looking for, more than anything else in the players they will draft, they are looking for competitors. It's the same thing we've heard from him and Adam Peters since the day they were both hired. They've had this aligned vision on player traits, the traits they're looking for in players and competitive badasses is what they want, you know, more than anything else.

And that is why this video is called at the top of the pile. So I took some notes on this video. I would urge you to watch. It's very entertaining. And if you're a fan of this team, it's just cool to see the behind the scenes and to see the conversation. Look, it's 50 minutes of three days and three nights, you know, night one, night two, and day three of the draft.

But it's, you know, something we've seen the last couple of years and pretty much every team puts these things out now. It's just kind of cool to see how it works and see some of the interaction. I took some notes here and I want to get to some of the notes here in a moment. But before I get to my notes on this, there are two things that I wanted to mention. Number one is this. Adam Peters, from my standpoint, again, just 50 minutes of hours upon hours, you know, clearly an edited, you know, attempt to entertain. But Adam Peters was the most impressive person in the room.

He's the most polished person in the room. He's the best communicator in the room, even though he is a bit soft-spoken at times. It's his night. He's the general manager. This is his night. But in a room full of people, including the owner, including the head coach, including the defensive coordinator, and the offensive coordinator, and all the scouts and a lot of different people. Lance Newmark, Bob Myers is in there at one point. Rob Rogers, a bunch of the people in the front office.

he's just the one that is in control. He is the one that is thoroughly prepared. He comes off as the sharpest tool in that tool shed. That's just my opinion. And again, it's based on 50 minutes out of hours upon hours. But I was impressed with Adam Peters. The other thought, too, before I get to my notes, and the notes are really more kind of informational.

And I think some of it is new information. Look, I understand why they do these videos. Every team does them. They've done this before. I think they did it last year. Remember, we had the Martin Mayhew, Ron Rivera stuff with the potential trade with New England. And they should do these things. You know, the NFL between, you know, the draft and training camp, you know, they're looking to provide ways to entertain their fans.

I mean, there is mini camp and OTAs and that. stuff, but that stuff is, you know, not as important, you know, or as connecting to the fans as the draft is or as free agency is. And it won't be as much as training camp is in preseason games. So everybody does these things. I totally understand it. And I really understand it from Washington's standpoint because, as I've said for a few years now, they're in the customer acquisition game. They're not in the order-taking game. You know, most NFL franchises sit back, and if they have any availability, they just take orders. This team has been one of the very few that's had to, you know, reengage with a lost part of its fan base and try to acquire new fans.

And so all of this stuff is important. I understand the marketing of the team. They have to. You know, they've got to sell. They've got something to sell. They have availability. They have avails, whether it's sponsorships or tickets. They got a lot of that stuff available and they've got to market themselves.

But I bring it up just to say this. These things are so self-promotional, you know, and for 25 years, this is the time of the year that we've been sold a bill of goods. So it is a bit of the PTSD seeping in here. But like I've said for so many years, I cannot stand. over-promising and the under-delivering. And I don't want to be over-promised anything, but I totally understand why they have to, you know, build themselves up, make themselves seem to be the smartest people in the room,

which this video does at times. You know, how they've absolutely nailed it, you know, but we won't know anything about whether or not this video shows guys really getting it right or getting it wrong until they play games. plural and for not just one year but probably years. So yeah, I think some of you can identify with that. I think, you know, for so many years, it wasn't necessarily social media or wasn't these produced videos, but it was, you know, every time they had a chance to speak, they were patting themselves on the back. And look, they have to do that because they're not going to put

out a video that shows how dumb they are. That would, that doesn't make any sense. they're putting out a video that makes them look like they're really smart. So anyway, let me get to my notes here. So on night one before they take Jaden Daniels, you know, we've talked about how, you know, before the draft, are they going to put in the pick right away? How long will it take for them to put in the pick? Well, one of the things that's very clear is they are all in on Jaden Daniels,

which is exactly what Adam Peters told us afterwards, that this has been their guy. There's no discussion. There's no phone calls about potential trade offers being entertained, you know, on draft night anyway in this video. But he does admit that the league wants them to wait a little bit before putting in the pick. It's a television show. You know, we kind of thought that maybe that was the case. And maybe he said this before. But he in this video says to Josh Harris, yeah, we're not going to put it in right away the league wants us to wait a little bit. When you get to night two, the second round, remember that Washington had pick number 36,

their own pick, and they had number 40, which they had gotten from Chicago for Montez-Swet. So before their first second-round pick at number 36 overall, Adam Peters is working the phones. People are reaching out to him, you know, and they want to move up to Washington's spot. at 36. And you don't have a real idea of which teams are calling, but there's some activity there, and he's taking these calls, and he's listening. But the moment that they decide that they're not going to trade 36

is when they know for sure that Johnny Newton, the defensive tackle from Illinois, is available. That was clearly the guy they were hoping would drop to 36. Look, we felt that way in the moment, right? I think all of us understood that this was the highest rated player on their board because he was taken at a position in which we didn't even think about that high before the draft started. So they clearly loved Newton. And there's this moment where Atlanta is on the board at 35.

And he and Lance Newmark are looking at each other. And Adam Peters is on the phone talking to a team about. a potential trade. And then you hear in the background, Atlanta selects Rukei or Ahorro from Clemson, a defensive tackle. And Adam Peters looks at Lance Newmark and says Ruke, as in the Falcons took Ruke and he tells the person that he's on the phone with, yeah, we're going to stick here and pick a player, but check back with us at 40, meaning their next second round pick. So if Johnny Newton had been selected by Atlanta at 35, it's possible Washington would have dealt the pick. And they would have traded 36 going back.

That's the way I kind of read that exchange. By the way, he says to the person on the phone, check back at 40, well, we know that the team that checked back at 40 and ended up trading with Washington was Philadelphia. So it may have been Howie Roseman, who he was on the phone with. But when he picks Johnny Newton, they clearly got the guy that they wanted. And he turns to everyone and he says, we got a badass. Also on their board, they take his name off the board. And I noticed one thing about the board. He was the top player under a column that said three technologists.

defensive tackles. So top three technique de-tackle, for those of you who don't know, zero technique, one technique, two technique, three technique, et cetera, three technique is usually the detackle that plays between the guard and the tackle, the offensive guard and the offensive tackle. It's usually what they refer to as the B-gap. Anyway, that was the Johnny Newton selection. So let me move on to my next note. And that comes when Washington is on the clock at 40,

and Adam Peters is on the phone multiple times in conversations with Philadelphia's general manager, team president, Howie Roseman. Clearly, the Eagles want to trade up to 40, perhaps they wanted to trade up to 36. At this point, the player that they ended up selecting Cooper DeGine, the corner from Iowa, has not gone yet. He is still on the board. And there are multiple conversations between Howie Roseman and Adam Peters.

And I think some of you may have seen this already because it was all over social media. But this was kind of a reaction from many that said, wow, Adam Peters really got. the best of Howie Roseman, or Adam Peters didn't let Howie Roseman take advantage of them. However you saw it, I'll just give you a quick sort of recap. So Howie Roseman calls and they want Washington's number 40 and number 78 and number 152 for 50 and 53. And Adam Peters says, no, I don't want to lose a pick because that would have been a three for two. I want 161 back from you. That was Philadelphia's fifth round pick. Roseman says no, they hang up. Says no again, they hang up again.

Roseman at one point says, will you take 210, which was a later pick that Philadelphia had? Nope, we want 161. And then finally, with Washington on the clock, Howie Roseman calls back and says, okay, deal. And Adam Peters says, you're a pain. in the ass in a nice, you know, ribbing way. But they got that deal done. Washington sent 40, 78, and 152 to Philadelphia for 50, 53, and 161. And according to multiple draft value charts, including the Rich Hill draft value chart, Washington got the better of the deal by about 23 points or the equivalent of like a fourth round pick.

So there is, you know, Josh Harris is nearby during this. Lance Newmark is there during this. Lance Newmark at one point when it's finally done, says it's a good deal for us. And Adam says, yeah, and he points to the screen. And Josh Harris, you know, at one point when they're going back and forth, says, do you think he's going to take the deal? He said he's going to take the deal. And then he called back and he did accept the deal.

So, you know, it was a spot in which one of the best in the game, Howie Roseman is negotiating with our general manager, Adam Peters, in his first ever draft that he's conducting. And it certainly appears as if Adam Peters does a really good job of extracting something that Roseman didn't want to give up. And it ultimately ended up being a net positive deal for Washington. By the way, there's my next point on here is during this particular discussion, They talk about gold tags.

There's a discussion about players who have gold tags, and that they've only got 20 players in the draft with gold tags. So I would assume that a gold tag is a first round designation or evaluation, whatever it means. They only had 20 of them in the draft. And I'll tell you that their first three players that they selected, Jaden Daniels, and then and then Johnny Newton and then Mikey Sanristil at 50, all were gold tag players for them. So Sanry Still, there is a funny back and forth because he's on the phone with somebody

talking about a potential trade from 50 back. And they're waiting for Cincinnati to make the pick at number 49. And 49, he's clearly, you know, know, on the phone with somebody, and then he hangs up and he calls somebody else, and it's Cincinnati who he's calling. And he says, who are you guys going to take? And they tell them, we're going to take a Michigan defensive player. Well, they did, but it wasn't Mike Sanry still. It was Chris Jenkins, a defensive tackle. Well, clearly the Cincinnati front office person that he was talking to knew that they wanted to take Santer still. And so he said, we're going defense,

and we're going Michigan. And then he told them who it was. But then Adam Peters, because Dan Quinn really wants Mike Santer still, says to Quinn who walks over after this brief conversation between Adam Peters and Cincinnati on the phone. And he says, well, and he says, yeah, they're going Michigan in defense. And Quinn, you can tell, is upset. And then he says, they're taking Chris Jenkins.

and Quinn goes nuts because Quinn says in that moment that the minute that he left Mikey Sanristills pro day, he said, I wanted to coach that guy from the moment that I met him. There's a lot of celebration after the Mikey Sanrystil pick, and there is an acknowledgement that Nick Saban said on the broadcast, on the ESPN broadcast, he was the best pound for pound player in the draft. But during a lot of this, what you see is other people kind of celebrating and having those conversations, but Adam Peters is dialed in to what is coming next. And what is coming next is three picks later.

They're on the clock again with Philadelphia's number 53, and they are interested in the guy they call Synott, Ben Sinat. I think the correct pronunciation of his name is Synod. But Adam Peters calls Cliff Kingsbury over, and he says, we're considering either trading back or taking Synod. And they all, Quinn weighs in, Kingsbury weighs in. Kingsbury goes, tough as shit competitor, you know. And then Josh Harris interjects.

And he says, will he play with Zach, as in Zach Ertz? on the team, meaning will he play if we pick him with Zach Ertz on the team? And Adam says, has to answer his owner. And he says, yeah, they'll be able to play together. And Cliff Kingsbury says the same thing. This was more of a Cliff Kingsbury, Adam Peters conversation. Quinn weighs in. But Adam Peter said before they took him, his athletic profile is excellent.

Remember, they really emphasized athletic profile. That was, I thought, an interesting moment there, selecting Ben Senate, especially with the owner right there. Look, the owner is kind of hovering, but he's not intrusive at all, not in this edited video at all, but he's there. You know, and they're communicating with him, and he's got questions during the whole thing.

He's not making decisions. You know, that's not what's happening. And I'm not telling you that I think that that's wrong. I'm just giving you the observation. They go through Coleman, they get to McCaffrey. So the McCaffrey thing is interesting, right? At the end of the third round, they select Luke McCaffrey, the number of 100 player, the last selection in the third round.

And what's interesting about this is that the player selected before McCaffrey at number 99 is a safety Cameron Kinchins from Miami. And Adam Peters says that didn't make things any easier. They both play the way we want them to play. I'm wondering if Cam Kinchins would have been the pick had he been on the board at a Maybe. But he wasn't. The Rams took him and they took Luke McCaffrey.

Yeah, those were like the observations from this. I think that's all of my notes. There is a sign up and there appears to be a sign in multiple spots of the building. Anybody, anywhere, any time. You know, they want competitors who are ready to take off. on anybody, anywhere, anytime. I thought it was well done. I thought it was interesting.

And there were a couple of things that, you know, I thought were a little bit new in terms of information. So there you go. Go watch it. Worth it. Michael Phillips next, after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, I want to tell you about Harry's Razors. I've been a customer for a long time, going back.

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between Dallas and Boston. And they've got all of their NFL futures bets up right now. MyBooky.orgie. dot AG promo code Kevin, DC. Jumping on with us right now is Michael Phillips. We love having Michael on the show. Michael's covered the team forever from Richmond locations around town. Right now, he does a radio show from 10 to noon on 910 the fan in Richmond. Michael also has an exciting new writing deal that he will be announcing in two. weeks, so we look forward to that. You can follow Michael on X on Twitter at Michael P in RVA. So Michael

was at mini camp this week, and I wanted to start with this. Yesterday, you know, all of us heard, and you did as well, Dan Quinn answer the question about naming Jaden Daniels the starter before training camp, and he said, no great declarations, not ready to do that yet, but he did say that Jaden's making unbelievable progress. So my question to you is this, assuming total health, all right? So the caveat in there is that Jaden Daniels is 100% healthy. What percent chance do you give Jaden Daniels to be the week one starter in Tampa? I think it's 100%.

I saw enough this week both on the field from him, but also from the coach. staff and how they treat him, how they're working with him. He is the week one guy. Yeah, you added the injury caveat, which is important. But he's going to be the week one starter. They've been impressed by him at every turn. He got almost all the snaps with the ones all week long, which is certainly something you're looking for at this stage of the game. They're going to give Marriota some of those as time goes on. But Daniels is certainly the leader of this team from the quarterback perspective and the players are rallying around him.

This won't be, you know, it won't be forced when Dan Quinn makes that announcement either. You know, there have been years where it's been a forced announcement of this is our guy and we're riding with him. But I think everybody, and you heard Terry McCloran's comments on Tuesday, just gushing about him in a way we really haven't heard him gushed about a quarterback in a while. There's a lot of trust in that building. Yeah, I'm with you as well. It's 100% that he is the story. starter September 8th in Tampa. Is there a time where it makes sense, in your opinion, for Quinn

to make it official? You know, I don't think it'll be before training camp for sure. I guess that's probably something you do, whether that's coming out of preseason game number two or out of it's into preseason game number one, whatever it is, whenever you kind of shut him down for training camp, right? A lot of times after that second preseason game is when you do that. I don't know what Dan Quinn's plan is. Certainly it's an interesting question now that that fourth preseason game is out. How do you manage the snaps? He's young. He needs snaps, but also durability is going to be a question. It's a 17-game season against some pretty good defenses. So to me, you do that

when you shut him down with an eye towards a regular season. You say that's why we're doing that. He's the guy we're rolling with that. I'm going to come back to some of the praise and it's been lavished on him literally since he was drafted back at the end of April in a moment. But other than some of the praise and some of the things that people are saying out there that you've observed or you've actually heard communicated, what did you observe? Like, is there anything about him that you observed in watching any of these? off-season days that tells you that it's different than it's been here recently? Well, I do think the work ethics a very big part of it, right? That's not everything.

That's how you get to the table as a quarterback. You have that kind of work ethic, and then we see if you can do it or not. But he certainly got the work ethic. And how I saw that manifest itself, Kevin. He looked like he had practiced the practices. And they do. They have walkthroughs. They have mornings.

could tell, and not just that he knew the kinds of things they were going to ask him to do, but he knew the script of the practice, and he knew the flow of the practice, and he knew what was coming next and how to move between those drills, too, which, you know, again, that's not, hey, he's going to light the world on fire this year, but that this kid is doing his homework and can retain the information. I saw, I'm sure, we'll go into what the Cliff King's very offensive look like. There were a lot of plays with a lot of optionality to him that they were working on, where it's not just, hey, this is a handoff, hey, this is a pass, hey, this is your target receiver.

But there is a lot of optionality to a lot of this. And he was running those under center. And that, to me, says the coaching staff feels he can mentally process that and do it in real time, which I took as a really good endorsement. I do want to come back to the Kingsbury offense and what we think it'll look like. And if you, you know, had any clues in watching. but I got this tweet from Scott S. He actually sent it to me and Galdi.

And it's something that I've kind of been talking about a little bit here recently. But he writes, would like to hear from both of you, and I'll add you onto this, hearing the praise around Daniels and wondering if collectively the acclaim this time is different or basically the same as it was for how, Wence and Heineke. Should we give any weight to it or just brush it off as annual optimism over a new QB?

I'll give my answer to it here in a moment, but I wanted to hear what your answer was. I want to throw a wince out of that pile. I don't remember. I agree. I don't remember a lot of praise for that guy. Fan praise. You know, delusional fan praise. But yeah, but not. Not the players and the coaches and the whole thing. I'd throw him out of there too. I'd actually throw Heineke out of there as well because he was never the starter, the perceived starter, or even, you know, in the starting conversation

in any of the seasons that he ended up starting games in. You know, it was going to be Ryan Fitzpatrick in 21. It was going to be Wentz in 22. But go ahead. Yeah, well, you know I'm president of the Taylor Heineke. I know you are. He was fun. He wasn't good.

He was fun. And my thought, if you're going to win eight, win eight with the fun guy, not like, don't make it a grim death march to eight. Like, he was excited. I don't think anybody ever suggested he was, you know, it's a couple of players. Oh, some people did. Some people did. Well, yeah.

Some people always do. How old the interesting one, because with Howell, he does have a lot of the trait. Even now, he does have a whole lot of those boxes that you're looking for. And then there's that one thing where when he's pressured, it's game over for him and he doesn't know what to do, right? And I think a lot of the narrative around that was like,

can he overcome that? And I didn't let you know you and now that I'm a radio guy. We lined up all these experts and we called him and they said, you know, hey, not good under pressure. That's something you never fix. Like once you get sacked a lot, it's not fixable, and essentially you should be tossed out as a quarterback. And I pushed back against that since when, right?

And, you know, since when is, do we make these definitive declarations about guys? But he didn't overcome it last year, and that's why he's in Seattle now. I think the Robert praise is probably your closest comparable here in terms of this kid is a star, and you can tell he's got that energy to him that people are attracted to him, that he's got star power. I think that's probably your closest comparable here. And I don't want to do revision of history that I wasn't praising these other guys, because like I said, I still do things. Sam Howell has a lot of great traits.

And obviously, Cousins got one to your praise in the local media and it's still doing good things in the NFL. I just think it's the fundamentals on this kid that we haven't had in so long, you know, the motion is textbook good. He's got a lot to learn. I don't trust this offensive line at all. but the really solid foundation is built here. Yeah, I think that was funny what you said. Why have the grim death march when you can have a fun death march, basically?

And it's true. You know, Taylor was fun. He was fun and he was a gamer and all those things. But, yeah, no, I, Wentz was never in the conversation for me. red flags on the trade. I mean, you had two decent organizations, one excellent organization, that did everything they could, including taking the largest cap hit in the history of the game at the time to get rid of them. And, you know, Heineke again wasn't really ever the starter. The thing about how, just for me, was always, I just wasn't bought in that he was the answer.

I was hopeful. You know, I knew he had some good traits. But how would any, know based off of a meaningless regular season game at the end of 2022. And look, the draft status has something to do with it too. It doesn't matter now. Once they're in the league, it doesn't matter. But the perception, you know, of a fifth rounder and team after team after team passing on him. By the way, this team passed on him and traded back and then took him in the fifth round. There was no guarantee he would be there versus the number two.

overall pick in the draft makes a big difference. And I would also point out something that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, and that is we've heard from coaches, Cliff Kingsbury in particular, when he's been asked about, you know, what he likes. He's been very specific, you know, specific to his processing, specific to his ability with real, you know, experience coming into the league at a high level in the SEC at, you know, processing, at identifying defenses, et cetera. And when you hear, oh, he's great and people love him and, you know, but he's able to get the ball out and he's got a big arm, but it's less specific than that than I wonder.

They've been more specific with Daniels. But, yeah, the grim death march. Taylor was fun. Yes, he was. So here's a question for you because I don't, I've not been able to find, and maybe you'll correct me, even one slight constructive, critical comment about him. It's all been lavish praise. So I would ask you, sort of dovetailing off of the tweet that we got from Scott S,

does that concern you? Does it excite you? Does it intrigue you? Or is it none of the above? You know, that we've gone through an entire month and a half of not even one constructive critique of the rookie quarterback Jaden Daniels? Yeah, and I think what's interesting is a lot of the praise has been national, not local. I think the national media is far more bullish right now on him than the local media is just because we've seen this show so many times. and, you know, maybe dip in our tone a little more hesitantly. You turn on the sports centers and those shows of the world. They've decided he's the next DJ Stroud. He's going to be this guy this year's a breakout guy, and that's not based on nothing.

That's, you know, that's based on conversations. But I think the national media is in large part driving a lot of this, which is fascinating to me, and they're, of course, well-connected as well, and they see a lot of the same things we see. I think there's a natural hesitance locally. But also the concerns aren't going to show this time of year. I've got two very major concerns, Kevin, and number one is his durability. When he got hit at LSU, it looked like a looney-toons cartoon. You've got body parts flying every which way,

and I've got to go sweep them up off the ground. How's that going to play in the NFL over 17-game season? Anybody tells you they know they're lying to you. We don't know. And number two is this offensive line, which is going to have to protect him from that, and defenses that know this is a guy who you need the pressure in order to get good defensive outcomes. Teams are going to be pressuring Jaden. Jaden doesn't have a great offensive line. Certainly not on the edges. I'm coming around on the interior, but not on the edges.

I think that's a potentially dangerous combo for a kid in a turkey season. Yeah, I mean, in talking about the national media, that's true. And I mean, Lewis Riddick has led to charge. I mean, the comments from last week maybe where, you know, he said he's talking to people down here and the ball never hits the ground and he puts it exactly where he wants to put it. And, you know, people are gravitating towards him and they want to do well by him. They want to be accountable to him. I mean, you know, it's been, it's been incredible.

You know, even with respect to what you just said, you know, I had Santana Moss earlier this week on the podcast and Santana said, you know, one of the surprising things to me is he's not as skinny as I thought. You know, his frame is totally, you know, a quarterback frame when you see it up close. So, yeah, it's just interesting is just how much praise there is. I'm not really spooked by it, people, just so you understand. I just would prefer that everybody lay low. everybody just say, yeah, he's doing great, progressing. We'll see, though, because he hasn't actually played in an NFL game yet. All right.

You mentioned the offensive line, and there was a couple of mentions of Brandon Coleman, the third round pick from TCU. I had Sam Cosmi on the radio show two days ago. He specifically mentioned Brandon Coleman as a guy that's been super impressive. So what do you think we're going to end up with when we get to opening day? Is it going to be Wiley, Lucas, Allegrety, Cosmi, Biotish, or does a guy like Brandon Coleman have a chance to break through early? Yes, your interior, I think it's pretty much said at this point,

with Cosmi at right guard, Biotish at center, and then Allegretti at left guard. I can't see anything changing that outside of injury. And then you're looking on the edges, right? I think you really want him to unseat Cornelius Lucas for that left tackle position because that says he's coming along at a quick enough pace. I'm curious if that will happen or not. I'm not ready to declare that in the books. And certainly that's a long ways from here. There's a lot of training camp practices, and this week they didn't really get dirty with the defensive linemen, right?

The pads weren't on. They weren't doing actual blocking. I think this will be an interesting training camp in the sense that he's going to test himself against guys who are testing themselves, right? Doran Armstrong and K.J. Henry, and these guys not like pastures, or you know, you've got, you know, more established stars at that position. I think we'll learn a lot from some of those padded practices and the joint practices. I think we'll have a really good feel for this by the time the second preseason game comes around.

I'm going to declare that a little too close to call at the moment, but you know which way the team wants that to go. They want the kid to win the job, but he's not going to be given that job. It's far too important. Yeah, I agree with that. So tell me about what you think, what you've learned,

about what we're going to see from the Cliff Kingsbury offense in 2024. Well, I think they'll go up tempo a lot more than they did an indirect vienna, and that's not a bold prediction because the enemy didn't use that nearly often enough to match with what the NFL is these days. and also then shows trust in Jane that he can do that.

He can get to the line. He can make the hot reads all those things. I think that's going to be a big part of this offense. I am curious, the shotgun versus under center split. It does sound like they're going to put a lot on Biotish's shoulders as far as, you know, calling off the protections and keeping things simple for Jayden Daniels, which means you can bring him under center if he's not as responsible for that. And that way you can do more play action, things of that nature.

one of the interesting things we saw Luke McCaffrey working on handoff after one of the practices, not that he's going to become Christian or anything, but I think there's going to be a lot of versatility, a lot of different looks to how these guys are used, and I think there has to be, given the personnel you have here, you're going to have to come up with a lot of creative ways to use them, but I think it's going to be an offense with a lot of different options, and we may not even see the full playbook, so to speak, by week three or four. a while for that to unravel. You know,

Quin yesterday mentioned in an answer where he was talking about defensive players that have stood out in terms of their versatility and he mentioned chin, he mentioned Kwan Martin, and he mentioned Frankie Louvo. He said, you know, even offensively, there's some wide

receivers that we have some versatility with in terms of lining them up in the backfield. Which receivers is he referring to? Do you know? Yeah. I mean, I think McAfree is probably near the top of that list.

Really? I don't think he means Dotson or McLaren. And, you know, I'm curious who down-raster is, because this is going to be an interesting cut-day decision here, right? James and Crowder's a return specialist in a year where return specialist would seem to be valued, but also we've seen Dotson work on that. We're seeing Emmanuel Forbes work on that. So, you know, maybe he's in, maybe he's out.

You know, Tinsley was the preseason All-Star last year. He'll get another bite at the apple. DiMi Brown had a nice catch this week. If I'm Adam Peters, I've seen enough DiMi Brown tape to figure out that that's not a long-term building block and feel all right with moving along. But if he develops comfort with Jane Daniels, you know, who knows, I do think they're going back to what Kingsborough will be. I think we'll have a lot of two tight ends. I think that will be a staple this year. I remain curious how much Zachert has to give, but I do think their plan is for him to give a lot this year and him to be a regular out there. Yeah, Luke McCaffrey would surprise me, just in part, I guess, because I'm thinking about his size. He's actually probably their biggest

guy. I was thinking more Crowder, Zakias, maybe Dotson, but I also think, I'm curious about Armani Rogers. I know technically he's not a receiver. But, Last year, that regime, the Rivera regime, they had big plans for Rogers before he got hurt. This was a guy who was a college quarterback, you know, and they had a lot of ideas for him in terms of lining him up in the backfield and having him potentially as a runner. And I wonder whether or not a guy like Armani Rogers is a part of the plan. I'd love for him to be out. I was excited by what he had, what he brought to the table last year. I can't say I saw a lot of him this week, which could be a good sign too, right?

You know, because this is the week where we're allowed to watch. Maybe that means they've seen a lot in the closed practices they've had in the last few weeks. Whatever it is, I'll be watching him closely at training camp because I agree. That's one of the more intriguing players and pieces on the roster, and even aside from that former quarterback designation, he can do a lot of different things. He'll be a fun guy to watch for sure. Right now, if you had to guess, on the two returners on kickoffs, because most teams will have two guys back there.

Who are they? Crowder and Dotson, if I had to guess right now, I just think that, you know, you want ball handling offensive guys in those roles more often than not given how many touches they're going to be and how important those touches are. I think you want to trust that to guys who know what they're doing with the football. Yeah, I mean, the idea is a lot of these kicks are going to be squib kicks. So you've got to get your best hands and best fielders of squib, you know, kinds of kicks. Yeah, I'm curious about Dotson on that as well.

All right. If I told you that we got to the end of next season and just one side of the ball improved significantly from last year, because both sides of the ball last year were disasters. But just one side improved in a major way, which side of the ball would you guess it was? Am I predicting or ordering it up? Because obviously if I'm ordering it up, I want to pick offense because that means Dave Daniels is the guy.

No, you're predicting. Yeah, then you'd have to predict defense. I just think there's a lot of underutilized talent there that's going to come out under this coaching. And, you know, any time a team goes 4 and 13, there's going to be that big pile on the next year with the stories come out about how bad the coaching was. But I feel like we kind of took care of that last year. I feel like we saw how bad the coaching was last year in real time.

So it's maybe not as much beating up the dead horse, so to say, as it is just acknowledging the coaching is much better. And a lot of these guys, right, Emmanuel Forbes kind of the one I've been used as an example. Sure, maybe he was overdrafted. But other teams would have taken him and taken him pretty quickly. quickly thereafter. And he wasn't going to make it out of the second round of that draft. You know, so we're not dealing with zero talent here. We've got football players with talent on the roster.

St. Juice is a guy who we saw that talent live in front of us for a whole year. You're telling me he's just not good anymore. I think new coaching will unlock a lot of that. I think just the funniest thing to me, Kevin, is that we saw, you know, that Ron Rivera signed every guy from Carolina over a four-year stretch. he leaves and all of a sudden they brought two guys in from Carolina. And their boat is really good. Right.

Yeah, that's pretty funny. Yeah, I wonder on some of these guys, too, what they really think. Remember, the part that we don't know is whether or not some of these guys who we think had talent and played well at times, if they fit into the Kingsbury and the Quinn Witt Jr. schemes. You know, if they're perfect, if St. Juice isn't exactly. example is a good fit for what they want to do. If Forbes is a good fit for what they want to do, if Jamon Davis is a good fit for what they want to do. Yeah, I think that's going to be really interesting to watch. What do you think of the rest of the division right now?

Well, I think that the Eagles have the most pressure on them. I know people want to say it's the Cowboys, but the Eagles, you forget last year we're so good, and there was a point where we were all talking that Eagles 49ers rematch was inevitable. before the wheels fell off. There's still that level of talent. They pushed their chips in this off season. While the Cowboys owner said he was going to and then didn't, just that they're all off season,

that to me cranks up the pressure on the Eagles. Now, I think the Eagles and the Cowboys are still clearly the class of the division right now. And I don't buy into this talk of, oh, Dax contract will be a distraction. It's not. Everybody in the league is year-to-year at all times, no matter what their contract does. once the season starts, they'll talk about that on first take, but that won't impact the locker room or the play on the field. That's going to be just fine this year.

I think both those teams will be really good. I think there's more pressure on Philly than Dallas, honestly, even though a lot of the conversations about Dallas, I think the Giants ended up in just this brutal spot. I don't feel bad for them, but in terms of, you know, they had that great first year and gave Daniel Jones all that money after Davele had a little bit of success, and that money kind of crippled what they tried to do going forward. And then this year you end up in a spot to draft a quarterback, but you're still kind of

committed to Daniel Jones. They not only didn't trade the pick and get the King's ransom for it, they also didn't take a quarterback in a year where this was the year you needed to take a quarterback. I think they've got big structural problems because of all that. Yeah, I mean, I think all three teams, the Cowboys Eagles, and Giants all have a lot of pressure. I think Siriani, McCarthy, and Brian Dable are all hot seat coaches entering this season. I mean, Siriani almost got fired after the, you know, collapse and the playoff lost to Tampa. And I felt like there was no chance McCarthy was coming back after that loss to the Packers in the postseason.

And Dable, yeah, I mean, the 2022 playoff season with a playoff one. win is a distant memory, I think, for, you know, for ownership up there. Whoever does Jerry Jones's marketing needs to get to work, because Jerry has this reputation of being like the most impulsive guy in the world. It could not be farther from the truth over the last two decades with them and coaches. No doubt. Actually, you know, Dan in those last, in that last decade, ended up being more patient than the reputable. mutation said he would be. But in part, it's because Jerry and Stephen want control. They want input, and there are only so many people that will put themselves into that position,

and obviously McCarthy's okay with it. I think that's part of it, too. It's wild. It's wild, no doubt. All right. We'll talk again between now and the beginning of the season, I am sure. I appreciate you doing this. Michael, of course, again, does a great job on radio now down in Richmond. Tune in to 9-10 the fan, 10-noon weekdays. Now, that's when I'm on the air on radio, but you can listen to the podcast of that show as well at 9-10 The Fan.

And he's got a new writing gig that he will be announcing in two weeks. So we look forward to that. Thanks, as always. Always a good time. It should be a fun season. Michael Phillips, everybody. Love having Michael on the show. Up next, Eric Flack from WUSA TV 9 to talk about the long-awaited sports study that D.C. did and the results of that.

And how do they relate to the likelihood of a stadium ending up in D.C.? We'll get to that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Not sure if you've heard but a major heat wave coming next week. to the East Coast temperatures in the 90s during the day, upper 70s at night. Pretty early for that. We've got a whole summer to go. But if you've got older windows, you're going to pay dearly with high air conditioning bills. That's why I would urge you to give Windonation a shot.

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He's been doing a lot of sports stories in recent months, really more than recent months, the last year, year and a half. Eric can be followed on X on Twitter at Eric Flack TV. Eric tweeted out the other day that D.C. released a sports study, which kind of described what the new stadium in DC, if the commanders moved back, would do for the city. And I don't know a lot about this study. And so I want to start there, because my sense is a lot of people listening, Eric, don't know a lot about it either. So, first of all, what is this study? Secondly, why did they do it? I think that's a good question, and I think it's a good place to start. I think it's very significant in that it is in many ways a symbolic opening of the D.C. effort in earnest to bring

the commanders back to RFK. And because they know they being Mayor Bowser, Kendra, McDuffie, and various other leaders who won a stadium, they know it is going to be a tough sell for the no-stadium. people, especially those on D.C. Council, that they wanted to present a picture, a report of how good this is going to be financially for D.C. So last year, they paid two different firms, one of which is a consulting firm of Jack Evans, former D.C. council member, who was, if you follow D.C. politics, has always been very, very pros to the stadium.

And helped make Nats Park a reality and helped get the taxpayer money for Nats Park. And they gave them money to say, look at the economy of D.C. sports. Not all stadiums everywhere. D.C. sports. Do stadiums, arenas, baseball parks, soccer fields, do they help drive our economy here in D.C.?

And, oh, by the way, what would be the best financing model that we could use that other people, other cities have successfully used to finance the stadium here in D.C. And I think they wanted to be able to present that to the public as their opening. So every time from here until this is done, when a reporter like me or a host like you says, Mayor, but what about the money? Aren't there other needs in the city? She's going to trot out this study and say all the rosy things that the study said about what sports, professional sports arenas and stadiums mean for D.C.

economically and specifically the windfall, the financial windfall that they have predicted a Washington Commander Stadium on the RFK site would bring to D.C. How much did this study cost? $400,000, $394,000 collectively. I don't know the breakup. There were two firms. So Jack Evans' firm, for instance, did not get all $400,000, but it was a total of $400,000 to these two firms.

And these are firms that have done similar studies for other professional sports organizations. nationwide. The Oakland A's and some of their stadium studies are an example of projects this specific group has worked on. All right. So the results indicate that there would be a financial windfall bringing the football team back to the city, quantify that financial windfall? They are predicting $1.26 billion annually for the entire D.C. economy and $26 million in tax revenues, specifically into D.C. government coffers. These are dollars that they were clear to point out are not going to be there if there is no football stadium. In fact, they had it broken down in growth and net financial impact. The growth would be this is how much D.C. is just going to make in general,

but that money would be there if there's no football stadium because you're spending it other places. This is specifically the extra money that they're predicting D.C. economy and the D.C. government would get from the football stadium. Right. But it's not just the football team. playing in the football stadium. It would be based on all of the other events that they would plan on having in that stadium, correct? The study is predicting, and again, these are not plans, to make it clear, there are not sketches and diagrams and mock-ups of what this looks like. This is a study that says, if we spend X amount on this, if we spend X amount on this, if we spend X amount on this, this is what we can expect in return.

The study is predicting those financial windfall numbers off of a football stadium, an entertainment venue, which is a standalone, hotel, office space, housing, and residential as well. And then I think, obviously, restaurants and bars. Those are the main categories. So they allotted the cost of the project, a project like this, as three-point. $1.1 billion, but $2 billion of that is the football stadium. Then another huge pot of money would be the entertainment complex. So the total cost of the project is over $3 billion. They are predicting $2 billion for a football stadium, which is on the less expensive side, but I mean, I guess

possible, but, you know, I mean, every time a new statement has announced these costs go up. But That's what they're using for their model. So I think hopefully everybody grasps what this study really was. It was essentially at the end of the day part of what their pitch will be to not only city council members, but to their constituency on why we should fund and help fund and pay for a stadium because it's going to be a financial windfall from the state. stadium. But you said, and you pointed out even in your comments on X on Twitter this week, that there's nothing specific in there about how much they would pay for the new stadium, how they would fund that. You know, I had you on just a couple of weeks ago after you broke that story, your conversation, your report that you had learned from, you know, the chief financial

officer, et cetera, that, you know, would they even be able with their debt, their current debt on the books, especially after the keeping of the wizards and capitals in Chinatown and the commitment there? So, I mean, isn't it somewhat telling, Eric, that is part of this study, there isn't detail on how they would fund this? here's here's what i can tell you kevin i know from multiple sources that there is a section in this study this report let's call it that does address that there are unreleased pages by dc government and i know that for a fact i have been fighting through open records request i believe that the only reason they're their hand was forced to to go public with this studied out is that i

I filed an open records request 27 days ago to get the study. They are legally required to release it, which they didn't do in the proper amount of time, but they released part of it. Why are they legally? Why are they legally? Because it was paid for with tax money? Correct. Correct. Because it's a government document because it's a piece of paper. Right. But there is a piece of paper that exists that is not protected by some privacy, the public, not just me, you are entitled to it. So they have released this part, but they for whatever reason, and I continue to fight for it,

have not released a section, which suggests the financing piece of it. How are you going to create a taxing district? What are you going to do when you have so little borrowing power left to create, and I don't know what it is that they don't want to, put out there. It's confusing to me because they're going to have to do it eventually anyway, but that is the piece that's left out that I think is like the elephant in the room, so to speak. Yeah. You know what I mean? Of course. Now, I'm trying to think why they wouldn't, like, you know, giving them some benefit of the doubt of maybe they're maybe strategically disclosing how they'd go

about it might hurt, you know, the negotiation of rates or whatever, right? I think that's correct. I think if we're searching our mind to give the D.C. side of this, why they don't want to put this out there or why they're trying not to, you could argue that it could hurt their negotiating power against Maryland, against Virginia, and with the commanders. Well, even the funding mechanisms, you know, however they go about it, then the, right? I mean, right. I mean, I mean, if they disclose exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it up front, yeah, I could see where they could make the case that it reduces their leverage in any kind of negotiation with, yes, with the team and with potential funding mechanisms. For sure, for sure, which is a huge miscalculation on their part to pay, you know, public dollars and do it in this way and then not realize that they are obligated. to share that with the public. They're going to have to eventually. I mean, they know, they, I think deep down they know that, because people are not going to stop asking this question.

But for now, they're trying to focus. And, you know, also, they may not have wanted to muddy the rosy picture of what this is going to mean financially for DC or what this could mean financially for DC with the other part of the story, which is, well, there's this. whole funding issue. And I guess it is possible strategically that they don't get as much shine from $1.26 billion annually for the economy that's not even counting the one-time construction caused, you know, $26 million in tax revenues for the city. They want people to focus on that for a while before they focus on the much more difficult other people. Yeah, don't look over here on how we're going to pay for it. Look at what the results will be. All right. Two more questions.

Two more questions. You would mention that the overall project stadium to the rest of it, including something I think right next to the stadium, another entertainment option, maybe a small arena, something equivalent to the anthem or whatever. But the total price tag somewhere around $3.1 billion. What is your guess today in terms of what they, could sell and get done in terms of their contribution to this. A billion dollars. Somewhere in the neighborhood of, I'm looking at what, and some of this is off the top of my head, Kevin, I'm sorry, but I think Jacksonville maybe gave like $900 million to their

stadium renovation, $800 million. I think maybe, Tennessee was a huge. amount of money that they gave. But I know that there are multiple stadium projects, and I think the bottom line cost of entry to be reasonable is high hundreds of millions around a billion. So I put it at $800 million to a billion dollars. I mean, if you give $520 million to renovations at Capital One, just by scale, you're building a whole new, I mean, you know, you've got to Josh Harris is going to want a fair shake on this deal if they're going to happen. Now, there is a program from the NFL, which will help.

It's like $250 million, right? $300 million, and it's a loan, but you pay it back through what you've already paid, already would be paying. You don't pay it back, basically. It's a financing tool. So that would be my guess. Yeah, so I guess the follow-up would be, would it be enough for the team to say that's a much, that's a comparable deal to Maryland, we're coming back to D.C.? You think it would be? I think, I think, I think they want back to D.C. Just recovering this and talking to you and just seeing the way the wind keeps blowing and trying to talk to the team and they're being very tight-lipped and Josh Harris being who he is and talking about RFK, if he can get anything really.

will done, and especially since it fits, as we've talked about, his philosophical model of uplifting a community that needs to be uplifted, and he's doing the same, trying to do the same thing in downtown Philadelphia. It is the exact same thing. Trying to do in downtown Philly, he'd be doing in downtown D.C. I think they want to come back. I think it's just, like, at this point, trying to make sure that they can get a reasonable deal. I don't think agree to do it at all costs. You had mentioned when you had read some of the released portions, and we now know what wasn't released of this sports study, that they're talking about a 65,000 seat stadium.

Do you know yet, did it say whether that's domed or retractable roof? It did not. And that was something I was looking for, word searching for. It absolutely did not. And I think that's a big key. You know, they predict 70, their calculations. sorry, their calculations and projections include 70 non-football events a year. Now, I think that's including the entertainment complex as well.

But you and I both know without a 70, without a dome? I mean, that's ambitious. They're talking about five concerts, something like that. But it doesn't specify a dome. and if they're allowing for $2 billion for the stadium, which is what they were allowing in these projections, that is very conservative for a brand new dome stadium that you're going to start building in 2026 and beyond.

With inflation, construction costs, all that stuff, it just seemed blow to me. You know, the other part of that, too, first of all, I do think 65,000 is like the right number, you know, maybe even a little bit less than that. I've always felt like... 65 will get you, 65 can get you a Super Bowl, though. I worked into that.

That was my next question, because, you know, if part of this... It is the bottom level because it would be expandable to an acceptable number. I said, yeah, yeah. I went through this because I thought they were much higher, too. And again, it's... There's a couple of recent Super Bowls that have been around... 65,000. That would be like the just enough to be considered, in my opinion. Like, I don't know what the NFL's actual rules are or what they accept. But based on past Super Bowls, when you say,

okay, we're going to add some standing room. And again, with these stadium designs like Jerry Jones did out in, you know, with Jerry World and stuff, if you have open spaces, you can sell standing room only general admission tickets and add five, 10,000 people at the drop of the hat who just want to be inside the building even if they can't see the field. Yeah, you answered the question in terms of where I was going about a Super Bowl. I'm assuming that that sports study did not have anything in there about what those, you know, what that revenue windfall would be if the new stadium also came with a commitment from the league to play a Super Bowl in D.C.

It did not. It did not. It did not. There was nothing about that. Yeah. Well, they probably came. can't get that commitment, although, you know, it's one of those things where I would think if the stadium size is acceptable to the league, given how important this market is to the league, how excited everybody is that it's no longer owned by Dan Snyder, I think a new stadium would come with a commitment for a Super Bowl down the road. If it was a wink, wink, nond, a thousand percent. I mean, the politicians, the local celebrities. It would be a big deal. It would absolutely be a big deal in a unique way. It would be a

unique Super Bowl for the NFL being in the nation's capital, all the fun, Washington, D.C., tie-ins. And if there's one thing the NFL is always trying to do, be different, the unique. It fits the international mold because D.C. is an international hub because of, you know, the politics and the embassies and everything that runs through here. honestly think it would be a no-brainer. I have no doubt. I think the stadium being in D.C. would help that pitch a lot more than, no offense to Maryland. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, yes, although, you know, we've certainly seen stadiums off the beaten path of major downtown areas. But, you know, the one thing that it would have to be is it would have to be either domed or

retractable route. They're never going to do what they did in New York ever again. No, that was the one one trick pony for sure. Thanks for doing this, as always. Great information. I appreciate it. At Eric Flack TV on X on Twitter. I'm sure we'll be talking soon because there will be another story. And at some point, like you said, they're going to have to disclose the plan to fund the stadium in downtown D.C.

By the way, I haven't asked you this. Where are we on the Senate portion of the RFK site bill? It's been a week, week and a half, two weeks since we've heard anything about that. Yeah, I mean, Gaines is still the senator from Montana, who is demanding now that the Washington commanders meet with the Blackfeet tribe in his home state of Montana. That's who he's getting involved. He's inserting himself into this because the Blackspeet tribes are constituents of his because that very small tribe. is out in Montana. And, you know, of course, the Blackbeat tribe,

and a member of the Blackbeat tribe is the source to genesis of the old Redskins logo, back before the name and the logo were changed. He is demanding that the commanders meet with them until he signs off. Again, I think this has really become a nothing burger. I could be proven wrong. I think the NFL very much once, Washington, D.C., in this stating conversation, The NFL has the most powerful lobby of any professional sports organization in the world in Washington, D.C.

I think he's already kind of toned down his own rhetoric about what he would take before he signs off, which says to me, people are talking to him behind closed doors. Because whether or not it ends up in D.C., I think the NFL wants D.C. to be in the conversation. and I just tend not to believe that he's going to stop. I don't think that's going to hold it up either, but what do you make of what my partner, and he's on this podcast twice a week, Tom Levero reported, about Chris Van Hollen,

has made it clear that he wants, you know, the commanders to stay in the state of Maryland, and that he could potentially be the major stumbling block to the Senate bill. gosh the same thing is happening with the FBI headquarters so you know what I mean I mean like they're turning whether it ends up in Virginia or Maryland like the senators who represent those districts are are using their power in the Senate to kind of you know influence and block that progress gosh I hope not I don't I don't I certainly Tom's reporting, I'm sure, is spot on, that that's a possibility.

Gosh, I hope not. Because I just don't think that that's in the best interest of this kind of like going back to the Louise Lucas thing and the Northern Virginia thing with the monumental move. It's like, let the districts have their conversation about who's going to give them the best deal and what makes the most sense for this team. Don't try and, like, you know, force your agenda for your own political purposes in a way that impacts an entire sports franchise and fandom that aren't all located in Maryland. So, gosh, I hope not, but I guess in Washington and on Capitol Hill, anything is possible. Well, I think the irony of that is I think most of the team's fans that live in Maryland would actually tell Van Hollen know we want it in.

DC as well. Everybody wants it in DC. That's right. Great job, Eric. Thanks as always. Hey, I appreciate the opportunity, Kevin. Eric Flack from WUSA Channel 9, everybody. All right, that is it for the show today. Enjoy the weekend. Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there. Back on Monday.