The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jay The Enabler

Episode Date: December 13, 2018

Kevin and Thom open the show with a brief discussion of last night's Wizards-Celtics game. They turn to Jay Gruden's reaction to Mason Foster's comments and whether or not Foster should have been released. Maryland Football Coach Mike Locksley is a guest on the show. Kevin and Thom talk Redskins ownership, Bryce Harper, the DC sports broadcast Mount Rushmore and finish up the show with their NFL Power Poll. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. All right, Tommy's here. Aaron's here. It's the podcast on a Thursday. It's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them we told you to call. I had a chance earlier this morning before Tommy got in on his long. commute to interview new Maryland football coach Mike Loxley. So you're going to hear that a little bit later on in the show. By the way, I have discovered a back way where my wheels do not touch interstate highway at all. 270 at all? Not one inch of interstate. So you clearly have to And I made it in an hour. An hour. So you basically. So you basically, basically end up on Rockville Pike at some point, right? No. Unless he crossed into Virginia.

No. No. Look, I'm not telling anybody because I don't want the whole world. Well, do you come through Potomac? I'm not saying where it is. You probably come through Potomac. I'm just saying that there's no.

There's no. There's no. There's no Rockville Pike, baby. Oh, I'm just telling you. You know, it took me that way, last, last Tuesday, it took me that way because there was an accident on 270. Mm-hmm. So I remember.

the way it took me. And I went that way today, even though Ways did not want me to go that way today, they wanted me to get on 270 like a moron, and I didn't. And I retraced my steps, and it was beautiful. Did you have a fresh baguette in your car to keep you company on your right in? I had a wah-wa soft pretzel. Oh, very good. A wah-wa soft pretzel. Yeah, and I sat in the parking lot for a while and ate the salt off my shirt. Yeah, you always end up with a lot of calories on your shirt. That's for sure. Look, we've got a lot of things to get to. I mean, a lot of stuff has happened since you were last year on Tuesday.

A lot of stuff. I mean, you want to get to Bryce Harper and Scott Boris. And, you know, it seems like he's got a lot of teams lined up for old, old Bryce. Yeah, he does. But I did want to start with, I didn't see the game last night. You didn't see the game last night. I was actually at my wife's company holiday party, which was very spectacular at the National Cathedral. She takes you to her office party?

Why would she take you? It was very nice. It was very nice. She shouldn't take me. No. But I'll tell you what, the food was really good. But the Wizards, meantime, I'm getting texts from one of my sons who is really a massive NBA fan and a Wizards fan. He's like, Dad, you're missing the game of the year. And I said, what do you mean?

He's like the game of the year? Like the Wizards game of the year? No, this is the best game of the NBA season so far. That was an exaggeration. But many people said it was one of the most entertaining games of the year. Kyrie Irving and John Wall went back and forth, possession for possession, end of regulation, and through overtime, before Kyrie Irving hit a 31-foot dagger. As Wall looked away, turned his head, big mistake. I'll get to that in more detail here in a moment. But the Wizards lost 130 to 125 in overtime. The Celtics, after starting slowly, Tommy, they are red-hot. They've now won, I think, seven in a row. And the Wizards, have now lost three in a row. They're 11 and 17, aren't they?

They are 11 and 17. They're 11 and 17. This is all you need to know about the situation of the Washington Wizards. How pathetic. How despicable. How disgusting. This isn't going to be a compliment? It is.

And I heard this, and I went back and reviewed it, and I heard it from numerous people, that at the end of the game, the crowd was chanting MVP. Yeah. But for Kyrie Irving. Yes. Because there were so many Celtic fans.

There always are Celtic fans in Washington. I know that. But in a game like that, you've got them cheering MVP for the opposing player. You can't just dismiss that. That's embarrassing. It's always, I know it's embarrassing. And I know I'm glad John Wall didn't say anything about that after the game. I don't think he's in position to say that or rip the fans and the crowds at Capital One.

But it's, I don't even know what to say about that anymore. It's what this town is almost everywhere, except for a couple of places. Caps games used to be that way with certain opponents, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, the Rangers, but it hasn't been that way for a long time. But for Redskins games and for Wizards games, and you've gotten that at Nats games before. Oh, yeah, you have. You know, I remember the Cubs series. I mean, there were games in that postseason series

where it seemed like they were being played at Wrigley Field. Yes, that's true. You have. But the point is Capone Arena is empty. And when it's not empty, the opposing team is show up. It's actually, Tommy, you know what? It is interesting because I go to Wizards games. It's rarely empty.

That place is not, you know, people show up for Wizards games. I don't know what their average at. tendencies. And look, I'm speaking from the perspective of the four or five, six games that I usually go to, they are good opponents. Yes. You know, I'm trying to go. Like this year, I went to the OKC game early on. That may be the only game I've been to this year. I may go to the Laker game on Sunday. But the crowds are usually pretty good for Wizards games over the last several years. I think you're wrong about that. I've not been in that building when it's been empty. There have been times where I've been in that building at the beginning of a game for a seven

o'clock tip where it is really, you know, sparse, but by the time you get to the second quarter, it's filled in. I think, I think that, but I get your point. The opponent fan bases, you know, tend to help. I wanted to say this, though, because I didn't watch the game live, but I saw a lot of the highlights. John Wall, first of all, he was actually amazing down the stretch, just willing his way to the rim. You know, sometimes when he gets that head of steam going forward, oh yeah, yeah. It's really, like, impossible to stop him from getting to where he wants to go. But he isn't Kyrie Irving, okay? Kyrie Irving can sit out from 30 feet a couple of dribbles between his legs, a quick, hard dribble as if he's going to go by you to get you to back up and, boom,

you know, drop the 30-foot, you know, three-pointer, you know, on you. John Wall, he's, can't do that. That's not, that's why, that's the limitation of his game is his, his shooting ability, his long-range shooting ability. But one of the things he has done over the years and in recent years in particular is he turns his head on defense all the time looking for where the screen is coming from. In that particular situation last night, it's 125-125. There are 18 seconds left in overtime. Kyrie Irving is in range when he crosses half court. You've got to know that. You've got to know that about a few players in the league. Steph, you know, Clay Thompson,

Kyrie Irving, you know, Damien Lillard, all the guys that will and absolutely, you know, have justification for pulling from 30 feet, you know, in a big spot like that. So you've got to know that he's capable of pulling that shot from there. And John always turns his head. He does it all the time looking for a screen. It's almost like this habit.

Tommy, defense? Let me just tell you something that, Any coach will tell you, one of the most important things on defense is to talk. Talk on defense. Talk on defense. Kevin, Kevin, look. And he should be getting that information from a teammate, whoever is coming up to set the ball screen on John. Whoever's man that is is supposed to communicate that to John so he doesn't have to turn his head.

Once he turned his head, Kyrie Irving's like, you're really going to turn your head defensively on me? Boom! From 31 feet. Game over. It wasn't game over because they were only. up three, but don't you have to have a certain level of instinct as to where that that screen is coming from? Yeah, I mean, you, you really, I mean, you really shouldn't be looking for it. Well, here's, look, you have, you have peripheral vision. Yes. That can tell you where it's coming from.

You've got defensive teammates, teammates that should be communicating to you where it's coming from. By the way, it never came. Yeah. You should never turn your head defensively. No, there's a certain Turn your head defensively like that. He should have at this point as to how to play those screens. And it shouldn't be looking for it. Does it all the time. By the way, Kevin. Yeah.

I spend too much time on the Wizards? Is that what you're going to tell me to do, move on? No, no, no. The Wizards, there's 30 teams in the NBA. The Wizards are 19th in attendance. They average 16,700 a game. That's an 82% capacity for the arena. That's one of the lowest in the NBA.

only five teams that have a worse percentage. Okay, but it's not empty. It's 82% full. There you go. You said empty. There you go. What was it last year? Do you have the numbers for last year?

No, I think, is that just this year? I think we just ended the conversation. No, we didn't. I'm curious as to what it was last year. I don't even care what it was last year. Whatever. Because I think, I think this conversation just, it just, you know what? Kyrie Irving just said this conversation is over.

One more thing, though, because it's just, it's almost. over. It's almost over. The Wizards always play up to a good opponent, don't they? Like, it's like John and Bradley Beale are like, we're going to show them what kind of back court we are tonight. Yeah, but they always tend to fall short. Yeah, they always tend to fall short. Whether it's a great opponent or whether it's a lousy team on a back-to-back with only eight players on the roster. They tend to fall short in those games too. One more thing, because we're almost over with this, we're almost ending this conversation. Talk to somebody recently

who said, you know, the Wizards, when they offer Bradley Beal, almost every team in the league is interested. It's just getting the right deal. When they offer Otto Porter, some teams are interested. When they talk about John Wall, nobody's interested.

Oh, yeah. The knees and the contract, it's going to be really, it's going to be really hard to deal him for anything of true. value for him. So I don't, the trade rumor thing is quieted a little bit. There was something yesterday or the day before about Miami being interested in Wall and

something the other day about. Can I offer a trade rumor? Yes. They're going to trade Ubre before the trading deadline. Kelly Ubre is going to get dealt. And if anyone else gets dealt, it'll be Beale at the deadline. Kelly Ubray can play, man. Yeah, but he's a clown.

You can't count on him. He'll do a stupid thing. with less than a minute left in the game, that'll cost you a game at some point. He's an immature clown. I promise just one more quick NBA thing for the few to care. Last night, I did get home in time to watch Toronto Golden State. Tommy, Toronto went to Golden State with no Kauai Leonard and destroyed the Warriors. I know.

I did follow that. Kyle Lowry has been playing great this year. They're my pick, and when they got Kauai Leonard, they were my pick, more so than Boston. They're my pick to be in the NBA finals. All right. I know there are a couple of things that we talked about briefly yesterday, a couple of more that we talked about in more detail. One of them is the Mason Foster, you know, direct messaging with this guy on social media.

I know you have followed the story, but Jay Gruden was asked about it in his press conference yesterday. I think John Kime asked him. And he said, quote, we talked to Mason about it. I don't know when it was exactly, but it was a private message. The guy, I guess, screenshot it, which is, I guess, against the code of private messages on screenshots.

The long, the long-handed-down code of Twitter. I know what Mason is. I know what he means to this football team, what he's meant to this football team, and anything he said in a personal message was personal, and I really don't take anything from it. I do, however, disagree with that guy, posting a private message out on social media.

He broke a code that I don't agree with. As far as Mason, I have nothing but respect for him as a person and a player. You know what's amazing? How many people in the media were willing to do the dirty work for the Redskins organization? What do you mean? I don't know what you're... And say, yeah, the guy who posted this, he's the bad guy. Who in the media said that he was the bad guy.

Well, there were some people on the station where I work. Really? who basically said that, who said their biggest problem was with the guy who posted the message. You know, I mean, I mean, you might have, I mean, you're doing the work of the Redskins PR. You're doing Jay Gruden's work if you, if you carry that ball. I mean, come on. Look, I'm not condoning what the guy did. He might be a weasel, but there's no code on Twitter and social media.

What kind of more, you know, Jay Gruden wouldn't know Twitter. I know. Somebody told him to say that. Clearly. That was not an original, Jay thought. There's no code. Yeah, some fan may have. No, somebody in the organization said, hey, you can't blame Mason for this. This was a private conversation. When you're direct messaging on social media with someone you don't know, you're an idiot if you don't think there's a possibility, that thing will be public, be made public. And why wouldn't Jay Gruden address what Mason Foster said? Mason Foster said,

basically the coaches stink, the team stinks, the fans stink, everything stinks, and he's a team captain. He's an enabler, Jay. I mean, seriously, how can anyone in that building out there that think bringing Jay Gruden back is a good idea? It's not about this thing. It's about all the other things. But here's the thing.

It's like what you just said, all right, is true. Also, the judgment used by Mason Foster would make me say, are you an idiot? Is this a close friend or a relative? You're calling my defensive plays for me on the field? If it isn't, how could you possibly think that this guy? Social media direct messaging. Okay, maybe there's a built-in sort of expectation that it's private, but you can't with somebody that you barely know

think that there's not a possibility of this happening. But more importantly, the fact that he thought it was private means that he was really being honest about the way he felt. So it's like, hey, Jay, you know, he may not have intended for that thing to become public, but don't you realize that it's the way he feels, all right?

You hit it right there, Kevin. I mean, what a dumpster fire this thing is turning into. And I seriously, based on the judgment he used, and based on understanding that, this is probably how he really feels, and I would add that he's not very good. Okay, he's okay. I cut him. If I'm Jay Gruden, enough of this stuff.

You're either with us or against us. And if you're against us, I can lose and go six and seven with somebody better than you. Yes, absolutely. Actually, the guy who should, you know what? Here's a situation where I'd be all in favor of the owner saying, I'm not paying that guy anymore. I want him gone. I want him gone. Well, then of course he'd say, well, the owner told me to do it.

Well, still, you know what? I'd have a little bit more respect. It's just, this is like the end of every season around here. That's the thing. You know, Mike Florio on Pro Football Talk basically wrote about what Jay Gruden's response was, and his headline was that Gruden basically glossed over it because he's got so much other crap he's dealing with. You know what?

It's a fair point. Yes. If Jay said to John Kime, John, do you know how much other shit I'm dealing with right now? Do you think I have any time to worry about what Mason Foster said about us? I mean, that's the remarkable thing. I know. I mean, this is, look. It's true.

You know what happened? Let me, a brief story real quick. In my last year at Scranton, University of Scranton, one of the colleges I bounced around to. And I wanted to get out quick because I was going to get married. married, but I was short a lot of credits. You know, so I wound up taking 25 credits my last semester. Whoa. You're not capable of doing 25 credits without it being like, hey, do you have an internship

you can give me 25 credits for? No, I took 25 credits my last semester. And here's what, and two weeks before the semester was over. Who was teaching, Michael Scott? Two weeks before the semester was over. The dean's office calls me up. and said, we want to see you. And they called me in, and they said,

we just got to look at your schedule. Because I had two classes where I had other classes at the same time. In other words, I was supposed to be in two different places at once. Right. How did that work out for you? So basically, they wanted to, they weren't, you know, and here's the thing. They looked at my QM and it was the best it ever was. I had a 3.3.

That semester? Yeah, that's the highest I ever had. How many people did that? you have to pay? No, I didn't have to pay anybody. They wanted to know how I did it. I told them I turned in 55 change in ad sheets in the week that you could change in ad classes, figuring by the time the paperwork got caught up, there was so much to deal with.

I'd be well into the semester and they couldn't be able to do anything. That's what's going on at Redskins Park. There's so much going on. Who cares what's happening at Redskins Park? How did you pass all of those classes that were at the same time? 3.3, baby. The highest cue of my head at University of Scranton with 25 credits. You always figure out a way, don't you?

You always have a path to victory. But there's so many change sheets going back and forth at Redskins Park. They can't keep track of all the dysfunction. And let's face it, this wasn't Yale. It was the University of Scranton. Hey, hey, hey, Jesuit school, baby. Oh, God. So, yeah, I mean, like, Jay.

just to scoff this off and for nobody to respond. I tell you what, they lay an egg against, well, I won't be there in Jacksonville. They'll be on the road. But if anyone has any guts in that press corps, if they lay another egg against Jacksonville, like they did against the Giants, somebody needs to bring this up again

in a post-game press conference. Jay, you've got players on your team, numerous players who are voicing their issues with the coaching staff. What's the problem here? I said the other day, if Redskins Park was the DMV and you wanted to get on the short line for service, you'd get on the line of players who think the coaches are doing a good job at Redskins Park. Right.

That's the line you'd want to be in. Look, you know, part of this too, if you start, I think a lot of people don't even care about this right now. I'm not saying that they don't care about you and I talking about it. Part of it is fatigue, Kevin. it's always fatigue at the end of Redskins seasons. But to pinpoint what's going on right now, there's a major issue defensively. You know, and there's a lack of leadership clearly from Greg Minnowski. And Jay Gruden is the head coach of this team.

Yes, the CEO of the football team. But your star players, if you even consider them, they're not playing well. They're getting absolutely shredded week in and week out. This was supposed to be the strength of the team. Your stars who are total posers are, woofing now, whether it's Zach Brown or DJ Sweringer a few weeks ago. I guess we're not really hearing that much from Josh Norman. This is going to be an offseason that really, I've been saying it for a couple of weeks now. It better be a total reboot. And by the way, from a personnel standpoint,

you keep your young talented players, but now is the time to start dealing for picks, the Kerrigans, the Jordan Reeds, the Trent Williams's of the world. Now is the time to get and extract value back for those players while you can. I don't even know what Jordan Reed's value is anymore. And get

picks and you start building with you have a good young nucleus on defense with Allen and Payne and Ionitis. You do. And I think, I also think they should resign Preston Smith personally. But it's, we're here. We're

We're here every year. Yeah. We're here every year. And I, you missed this yesterday, but I think I told you I was going to do it. I ranked the rock bottoms. You know, all of the Snyder era rock bottoms. There's got to be at least a half dozen. There are seven of them.

Okay. There's seven that I came up with. I mean, somebody may add one or two to them. But it's the moments in which, I mean, how many times did we do this show? Yes. This is rock bottom right here. How could it get any worse? How could it get any worse?

But you know what? It's going to get worse. There'll be another one down the road more likely than not. But I really believe that right now is the worst it's ever been. I think the erosion, the acceleration of the eroding fan base is you can see it, you can feel it. It's tangible in terms of the attendance in television numbers. Every time you go through this, I've always maintained this, you take a little bit out of the fans. band base. You do a little bit of damage.

But more has gone this year. But you're not just seeing what's going on this year. You're seeing the cumulative effect of the six other rock bottoms that they've had to live through. In that way, it's like, listen, I understand what you're saying. The spurious rock

bottom was pretty bad. And then they pulled out, I mean, let's remember how bad it was because we were so elated that they pulled Joe Gibbs out of a hat because we didn't think Snyder had any moves. at that point. So, and, but, but at that point, Snyder was only, what, four years into his ownership.

Five, yeah. Yeah. So, but now to go to, I mean, we've been through five or six others since then. I mean, it's just the cumulative effect. There's a fatigue. There's a weariness. There's a, there's a sense of, of feeling like you got to put a bag on your head when you go to a family of function because people know you're a Redskins fan.

I, um, you know, in thinking about those, those moments. because you just mentioned the spruyer thing. The spruyer thing, I can just tell you as a fan of this team, I was so angry when he fired Marty Schottenheimer. I thought it was the dumb thing to do. But, you know, the truth of the matter is, in 2001, 2002, even 2003, although I think it was the first one, you weren't totally sure how bad of an owner he was at that point.

It was early in his tenure. I mean, you knew he was making mistakes, but there were mistakes. Remember how they would get couched? Yeah, but he really wanted to. to win. Look at how much money he'll spend. It was pretty bad, though. I mean, remember, Martin's shot in the Heidmer said he wouldn't work

for him, and then he wound up working for him. And then he wound up working for him. But the end of the Spurrier season was the, was, wow, he is driving this thing into the ground, and then he came up with the miracle solution that made everybody forget about the first five years. I mean, of all of the rabbits,

he's pulled out of his hat. That is the all-time rabbit. Yes. Because Spirier, for some people, Spurrier was a rabbit. Yes, they were. I never thought that it was great. I thought it was a massive mistake to move on from Marty. But, you know, Shanahan was a rabbit. Yes, he was.

Shanahan was a rabbit. A two-time Super Bowl winning coach. You know who was a rabbit? In the moment, Bruce Allen. Yes, because he had a level of credibility. Right. And he was replacing a guy who was the opposite of credibility. You know who else was a rabbit?

Who? Scott McLuhan. Yes, he was. Maybe that's the next segment. Let's list, let's rank the rabbits. Right the rabbits. Gibbs is number one of all time. I mean, he made everybody in town think that he was the greatest thing ever to be able to bring Joe Gibbs back.

Yeah, yeah. And Gibbs throughout his whole time, and since then, to his credit, whether it's his credit or not, but it just shows you, like, what a stand-up guy Joe Gibbs is, and maybe he made a lot of money from it as a result. He's never thrown Dan Snyder under the bus. Not once. Not once. Yes. But don't you think that he knows what the problem is?

He's got to. I mean, Joe Gibbs is a decent human being. A decent human being and much smarter than most people think. When it comes to winning and building organizations, look at what he's done. I know. He has to know. But he's not a flicker. Never.

No. Has not wavered on Snyder once. And look, even if he's profited from Dan Snyder's relationship with him, he probably has. I'm sure he has. Still, at some point, you got to think. Beyond the contract. How can he buy, how can he not say something at some point, but he hasn't? He's told somebody.

Oh, I mean, come on. I'll bet. He is told somebody along. the way, oh, God, they're never going to win if he owns the team. Seriously. I mean, Joe would know more than anybody else how bad this is and how little chance they have if he doesn't have some sort of epiphany about how to run an organization. Do you remember Joe was in one of the bidding groups to buy the Redskins with a car dealer magnet from Arisdine? Arizona, Sam, somebody.

Gibbs was one of the bidders to buy the Redskins when they were up for sale. I don't remember that. Yeah, he was. He was part of one of the groups. Yeah, but he wasn't. He wouldn't have been a financial investor. He would have just been a small equity. Yeah.

Yeah, he was the name of some very rich. Not Milstein. No, no, no, Southwestern businessman. Hmm. I remember sort of the Southwestern businessman. I'm going to find that name here. in a moment, but I don't remember. His name is Sam something or another.

The thing slips me. Can I throw in something while? Yeah. Veer off for a second while you're looking that up. Yep. I'm at Shelly's back room last night after I do Chad's show, which I usually, you know, wind up doing to let traffic out to have dinner and a smoke and stuff. And I'm talking to a friend of mine down there who's a big Cowboys fan and a smart Cowboys fan.

And I put this out on Twitter because all of a sudden it hit me. that the special hell that this guy is in and probably other Cowboys fans like him, he can't stand his head coach, Jason Garrett. He would like nothing more than for Jason Garrett to be fired. He can't stand his quarterback, Dak Prescott. He would like nothing more for them to get out of the Dak Prescott business. With every game, the Cowboys win. That coach and that quarterback is going to be there long.

longer and longer. So this guy is in a special kind of hell where the more success his team has, the worse it is for him because he can't stand the coach and he can't stand his quarterback. And I know a lot of Cowboys fans like that. So they're in their own special hell, not quite Redskins hell, but their own special hell. You know, Tommy, I would take right now as a Redskin fan, Jerry. Stephen, their personnel guy, Will McLeigh, Dack, Zeke.

I don't know if I want Jason Garrett. I don't know if I can do Jason Garrett. But their situation is infinitely better than the Redskins situation. I know that. I know that. But you have to admit, that's a special kind of hell when your team is having success and it's driving you crazy because it means they're going to keep the two most important guys

that you can't stand. I get that, but God, you know, I was having a conversation with Clay, actually, yesterday or the day before, Cowboy Clay. And I said to him, I said, you know, the difference between this team that you have and some of the other teams, not a lot of them, because they haven't had very many of them. But, you know, the team that lost at Lambo a few years ago after winning a playoff game against the Lions, Dax rookie year. Yeah. And the team a few years back before that that won the division and lost to the Giants in the first round, I'm like, the big difference. is you got a defense. Like they have a really good defensive football team.

And by the way, Sean Lee's coming back this week. David Irving's coming back this week. I think Tavon Austin, Aaron, is due to come back for them offensively. I know. It's Tavon Austin. It is, but perhaps he's better with them now with Amari Cooper on the field. But you know what, Tommy, they're a damn good football team. Like, I think they could go, they could definitely go to Los Angeles and win.

They could go to Chicago and win. They won't have to go to Chicago and win. They'll host a first round game as the division winner. And then they'll go to either L.A. or New Orleans, depending on where they're seating is. Unless they are Chicago in the NFC or go to Chicago in the NFC championship game. You know what? Right now in the NFC, the two best defensive teams are Chicago and Dallas. Okay, Kevin, here's what you're forgetting.

And I would think that at this point, you would take when I invoke these words as gospel. Okay. The Cowboys, like the Redskins, have the aura of self-destruction. They will find a way to screw themselves up. Guaranteed. They may not have the level of self-destruction that the Redskins do, but they have it. And at this point, having witnessed enough of it here with this team to know that I speak the truth about that, the Cowboys have it too. They are definitely dysfunctional. They are. But I think their dysfunction is actually a little bit less than a year.

Well, that's why they only got a $10 million salary cap penalty. The Redskin's got a $36 million. Sam Grossman. There you go. Sam Grossman was a Phoenix real estate guy. A real estate guy. He owns the Biltmore in Arizona. So he's got some bucks.

And he had Redskins coach Joe Gibbs as part of his bedroom. What a mind, huh? That's really good. Pretty good. buddy Howard Milstein we remember him because he was close he was with Dan Snyder's partner he was it was it was the Milstein Snyder uh you know they called Snyder from Snyder communications and upstart marketing and advertising conglomerate um David Bonderman a Texas buyout hedge fund guy there were there were the shot Chuck Dolan did you know that he was one of the

potential red or was a Redskins bidder I didn't know that there were the Scotty brothers. There was Ben and this other guy. Ben Scottie, I think, played football for the Eagles back in the early 60s. And him and his brother became big-time Hollywood producers. I think they were bidders at one point. Now, on this list, I'm reading an article from a 1999 story in Forbes. Ted Fortsman, who, I don't know who he was.

Peter Angelos expressed interest. You know, who else, Ted Lerner. The Lerner's day. The learners did. You know what happened there, right? I've heard this story. You've probably heard it too. Oh, run it by me.

Well, so Snyder and the Snyder group ended up paying $800 million. Yes. They had to dump. I mean, the NFL didn't want Milstein, but went to Snyder and said, you know, you come up with the money. We like you. God only knows what kind of drugs they were on that day. The learners in their effort to pencil it out, and they pencil everything out. Yes, they do.

Everything to the penny. couldn't see how it was worth more than $700 million. Really? Yeah. I've heard that story many times about how Ted and his financial people, they wanted to buy the Redskins, and he just didn't think they were worth any more than $700 million, so they bowed out at $700 million because they couldn't pencil it out.

They couldn't figure out how they would make money. It's worth $4 billion now. I've also heard the story, and I don't know if this one's true, that they almost got to that point with the nationals, that Ted was sitting there that, you know, the learners and their financial people were hemming and hawing over price, and they had it down to the penny, Tommy, and they're like, well, it's not worth more than this.

And then somebody came in and said, are you going to make the same mistake with this that you made with the Redskins? Pay the extra $50, $75 million, whatever the difference was, and you'll be $450,000. $450,000. And I think they didn't think it was worth more than $400. Wow, that's interesting. You know what else?

People don't remember that when the Orioles were sold to Edward Bennett-Williams, the learners were bidders for the Orioles then, too. I didn't know that. So they've been trying to buy a sports team for like 30 years and would have been ridiculous for them to let the nationals go. Here's a question for Ted Lerner or Mark Lerner, and you're going to answer it for them. If they had the choice right now of owning the Redskins or the Nationals, and they could pick either one, which team would they want to own?

Wow, that's interesting. I'm thinking the football team. Yeah, I think so too. I think the football team. I mean, you know, without Dan Snyder involved. No, I'm saying they would own it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, the football team, it's worth more. It's worth more. And, you know, the next, if there were ever a next owner in our lifetime probably isn't going to be one. And it's probably going to stay in his family and go to his son, right? I would think that Dan Snyder eventually has plans for his son one day to own the team when he's long gone. I wouldn't count on anything. I wouldn't count on anything, no? Do you think he's going to sell it?

Well, what did the guy do who owned it before Snyder? That was really unfortunate for everybody, as it turns out. So, I mean. Nah, in this day and age, I mean, you've already seen that mistake made. I mean, unless for whatever reason he didn't want that. But, I mean, we're talking. We're talking about 30 years from now. I know.

You know, that's what's... But that's why people listen to this podcast, because we're visionaries. How did Jack Kent Cook not set it up so that that team was willed to his son easily without all of the expenses associated with it? I don't know how somebody with that kind of money at that level could screw it up so badly unless it was intentional. Oh, yeah. I mean, you got to think that, I mean, look, I know we canonize Jack Kent Cook. But he was, he was, he was, he was a nasty guy. I know.

He was a nasty guy. But you know what, you know what else he was? A really good sports owner. Yes, he was. He was a really good sports owner. Yes, he was. And had been a sports owner since he owned the Toronto, actually the Toronto Maple Leafs AAA baseball team back in the 50s.

And then eventually the Lakers, and he was the guy that put up the money for the first Ali Frazier. Yes, the $5 million. Was it five or three? $5 million had they split between between. He was a sport, well he was a visionary, but he was a sports visionary in particular. He saw where this was going. Window Nation sees everything.

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That's 86690 Nation or shopwindonation.com. Tell them that I told you to call. Okay. By the way, I went back and looked at the Wizards attendance last year. They were 20th in the league last year. Really? So their percentage of capacity was 83%. So 1% higher this year?

Yeah, except that was next to last in the league. All right. You know what? Here's the deal. When I go to games... Well, that people come to see you. No. Obviously.

It's just that I usually don't go to... Like, I'm not going to go see and play Cleveland this year. It's not the game that I'm typically going to go to. And so the game... Like last year, I think I went to the... You know what team I have not missed at Capital One Verizon Center for six years? I've gone to every OKC game because I'm such a Westbrook fan. You know, I saw Cleveland last year.

I saw Boston last year I saw San Antonio last year I didn't see Golden State I did go to the Golden State game last year was last year the game where Durant got hurt or was that two years ago now probably two years ago

You were there I was there with you No I don't go to Wizards games Remember I can't believe I forgot that How could you forget that? Yeah you don't go to Wizards games But I was there for the game

That Durant got hurt Well then you would know Yeah yeah But I think that was two years ago. Whatever. I don't care about the crowds at Wizards games. I just think every time I've been there, it's been a much better crowd than I thought it would be.

Obviously. I'm glad you looked up the information. You got me that information, and I got you Sam Grossman from Arizona today. It's a complimentary broadcast today. I heard, I was listening to Kirk Cousins basically take the fall for DiFilippo in a press conference yesterday. And he said, we're not holding up our end of the bargain. and we're not playing complimentary football.

And that's like the new term de jour if you listen to football guys and coaches playing complimentary football. It just means you're good on offense, you're good on defense, you're good on special teams. Anyway, so Johnny Holliday is leaving Masson. Yeah, I saw that.

He's been doing this for a long period of time. And the reaction on social media was what it should be. I mean, Johnny is a legend in this town. He's an iconic broadcaster in this town. But the one thing that occurred to me is, you know, I don't think of Johnny when I think of Johnny, I don't think of Johnny as the Masson pre and post game host for Nat's games. Well, that's because his presence as the voice of Maryland is so overwhelmed.

Since 1979. Yeah, I mean, that's his, look, Johnny Holiday has had multiple careers wrapped into one life. I mean, he was the top disc jockey in the entire country at a time where disc jockeys ruled the airwaves back in the 60s. He introduced the Beatles, I think, in their last concert at Candlestick Park. I mean, he's, look, he's just had. He was an athlete, too. Johnny was an athlete. He threw a no-hitter as a pitcher in high school, was the starting quarterback and organized these charity basketball teams around here. And one time played basketball out there, I think, with Rick Barry on one of his charity

teams. He's had a remarkable life. But yeah, his identity in sports in this area is with Maryland. I've enjoyed him over the years with Ray Knight. I really have. I think they've done a great job. But when Johnny, first of all, he isn't going to call it quits anytime soon at Maryland. When you see Johnny, Johnny still looks like he's 45 years old, you know, 40 years old.

He looks great. He's got the Dick Clark thing going on. Yes, he does. He just looks always so good for his age. But if he were, you know, way down the road to call it quits at Maryland, that would be the story. Yeah. Because no one has done what he's done at Maryland longer than Johnny. Johnny's done it. Johnny has been there coming up on 40 years as the play-by-play voice for Maryland

football and Maryland basketball. I mean, truly one of those college legend announcers. You only get them really in college, don't you? No, that's not true. You get them in baseball. You get them in baseball. Yeah. But you don't, who were the legendary NFL radio voices? Well, I mean, locally, I think you get them locally. Herzog was. Yeah, sunny. Yeah. I'm, I mean, I'm, I'm talking about play-by-play. A play-by-play. locally, I think you get them in local markets. I think you get them. Who was the guy in Pittsburgh who did football?

Myron Coe. Myron Coe. Was an analyst. Yeah. Well, I thought he was a play-by-play guy. No, Myron Coop, I'm pretty sure, was, I believe that he was. Okay, maybe it was. You might be right about that, but he had that incredible, distinct Western PA, you know, accent

and was, you know, theatrical. Do you know, when I had my first knee replacement surgery, the only person who came to the hospital to see me was Johnny Holliday? Really? Yes. Well, you told me not to come. No, that's not true. That is true. That's not true.

You just refused to come. I called you and you said no, you don't come. That's true. But Johnny stopped by to see me in the hospital. You're trying to make me feel badly? I was so touched by that. That is very nice. Yeah.

You know, that is really, really nice. Yeah. And I always enjoy talking to him because I'm a big, I'm a big disc jockey radio buff. I love talking about those days. He used to work with Murray to Kay, who was a legendary disc jockey in New York. And that's what I really like talking to Johnny about, is about music and music radio back in the 60s. Do you see the Hall of Fame inductees for this year, rock and roll hall of fame? No.

Finally, the cure should have been in a long time ago. They're into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Radiohead went in, which I don't have a problem with either. These aren't your bands. Def Leppard went in. You're looking at me. I bet Tom's a Stevie Nix guy. Stevie Nix is into the Hall of Fame.

I mean, as a solo artist, okay. You know, landslide's a pretty iconic song. It is, but that's a Fleetwood Mac song. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. pretty sure.

No, it's definitely Flewold Man. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. I'm not particularly impressed. So the reason I brought up the broadcasting thing is a bunch of people

were doing their Mount Rushmore of local broadcasters. I think it's an easy list. Yeah. I think it is like two of them are very easy. George Michael. Glenn Brenner and George Michael. And then I think Warner Wolf is on that list.

Warner was the first. What are you looking at me like that for? I don't know. Why? Because it's too long ago? Yeah. Really? I think so.

Tommy Warner Wolf was the most popular broadcaster. Sports weather news didn't matter in this city. I know, I know that. I had him as a guest on my podcast. I know who he was. I know all about him. You don't think. So who's the fourth?

Well, to me, Johnny is the fourth. But I feel the only thing I would say is that Rich Schvotkin's been doing games almost as long as Johnny, if not longer. I forget how long. But Johnny, for me, being a Maryland guy, Johnny would be number four. Okay, that's fine. Warner, Glenn Brenner, George Michael.

George Michael and Johnny. I can see that. Let's carve that out. What is your problem with Warner being? No, that's fine. You're right. I've all of a sudden revisited it in the last 20 seconds. No, you don't want to say something.

No, I swear to God, I've revisited it. Do you know how, I mean, Warner Wolf was a superstar. I know. And went to New York from here and had a national career as a broadcaster. And then, you know, Tommy, when Glenn died in 1991, right? Or it was early 1992, Warner came back. I know. And he wasn't quite a successful the second time. It was not. Was not. Yeah. I'm surprised you of Warner over Frank Herzog, though. Frank is somebody I would consider too. I mean, Frank was, you know, most people don't know this about Frank who are Redskinned fans. Frank called

the Bullets Championship. He was the Bullets Play-by-Play voice on WTOP in the 70s. And he called, the 78 championship win over Seattle. Interestingly, though, after that year, he left as the Bullets play-by-play guy, and Mel Proctor came in. And Mel Proctor took over, and I still think Mel Proctor is one of the real great play-by-play guys of all time.

I mean, TV, radio didn't matter. He was phenomenal, but Herzog was great. I almost remember Frank from those days, much more as the Bullets guy in the 70s, because that's my youth. And you couldn't watch. Watch bullets games. You had to listen to them.

Not Warner. Herzog. More than Warner? Yeah, because I mean, because he did play by play. Warner did play by play. He was the Senators' play-by-play guy on TV. You knew that right? Yeah.

On Channel 9, he was the, I'm pretty sure. Well, I know he was. I don't know for how long. But those are Senators' teams that were horrible. You know, these are not my guys. I know they're not your guys. I didn't grow up with any of them. It's why typical of you.

you don't, you know, you don't defer to the person that's got sort of firsthand knowledge of it. You've got your own answers. But, but yeah, I think, I think, well, Glenn and George are easy. Yes. Put him in whatever order you want to put them in. Personally, for me, it's Glenn and then George. I think Glenn Brenner is, was the best ever. And I was a Brenner guy more than I was a George Michael guy.

But you watched George. You watched them all and you had to watch the sports machine on Sunday nights, which was a, True innovation. Yeah. In sports television. But Glenn was my one, and George is two, and then I just had Warner and Johnny there. But Rich Schrocken is an iconic, legendary voice in this town also.

What about Mount Rushmore for Sports Talk Radio in Washington? Well, what's funny about that, as I was thinking, is there, Ken Beatrice would be the only guy. Right? I mean, are you thinking about Andy? Andy's been on radio longer than anybody in this town doing sports. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, he basically was part of the founding group of WTEM in 1992.

Absolutely. Actually, he was part of the team that helped start WFAN. He was. I mean, where it all began with sports talk radio. But I love you, Andy. You know that. And so does Tom. I wouldn't put you on the Mount Rushmore.

Of sports talk radio? Oh, sports talk radio? Lord's Talk Radio. Well, Ken Beatrice is the only, in my opinion, Ken Beatrice is the only true. And I know that there's a whole group of you out there that don't even know who Ken Beatrice was. Ken Beatrice hosted a show called Sports Call on WMAL. And then eventually on TEM, too, he was a part of WTEM in the early days. But this was before Sports Talk Radio.

And he did three hours every night. And if you were a Redskins fan or a Caps fan or a Bullets fan or, You know, or a baseball fan, no baseball team back there. Back then, and you were really into sports. You listened to that show every night. Listen, I went to an event Monday night, and, you know, I had people come up and talk to me about. The junkies would be, I mean, given their longevity, it's just.

20 years. Yeah, but, but it. But, you see, what about us? God. What about us? Is that where you were going with this? That's the whole point of this. Not even you.

He just wanted his name to be on the law. That's the whole point of this. What about us? We had a great seven-year run together. You know, why wouldn't we be on that Mount Rushmore? In this business, seven years is a pretty good run. I mean, you're a little slow sometimes. The whole point of this is to put us up there.

I know. And then everybody else, you know, just fill them in. People that didn't know this already now know it for sure. You, it's always about you comes first with you. I know. I mean, like I tell people, people say, who do you root for? I say I root for me. Andy and Steve did 13 years together.

I think it was 13 years. Okay. That's a long run. In this business, we know that anything north of five years is a hell of a run. I mean, it would be a complicated list. Because like you said, the junkies obviously have to be considered 20 years. Well, they're probably number one because of the longevity. Nobody's approached that longevity.

But, you know, would you say that all 20 years have been sports talk radio for them? more what they've caught what they call in the radio business guy talk right that might be that I don't know I would probably lump it all together and just carve out four little small faces on the side of the mountain you know or little small faces or less or or carve out one big composite right so what big composite face so if you say beatrice the junkies uh-huh and the sports reporters yeah andy and zay who's number four well obviously it's got to be us Okay, I'm done with this conversation.

A couple of people tweet, well, not a couple. Lots of people tweeted about yesterday's show in which I disclosed that I've had conversations with people. This was not a Josh Norman reporting something, just so you know. You don't know about this, I don't think. Well, you do. You probably saw it on Twitter, but you didn't listen to it. But I said that it's not out of the question that RG3 is going to get an opportunity to

to compete for a starting job next year in the NFL. His run this year in Baltimore has gone very well for him. This is a first-rate organization, The Ravens. So if you come out of that organization with Ozzie Newsom and Eric DeCostin and John Harbaugh saying, you can't go wrong by giving him a chance to compete for a job. It's not the same person that he was at 22, 23 years old. He may get a chance to compete for a job. So I was told that.

And I was also told that the owner here in Washington, as you would say, is still very affectionate. What a shock. Has a lot of affection for RG3. What a surprise. And I think it's be, you know, there's a lot of privacy, and it's probably because of the HIPAA laws or whatever regarding Alex Smith's injury, and we hope he's well. But I'm hearing that this is a long shot, him playing next year, or maybe even again. So they're going to have a need for quarterback. Let me say this for the first time.

I don't think I've said it so far. I want them to draft a quarterback, but I also want them to look long and hard at the possibility of bringing Teddy Bridgewater to Washington. I've always been a Bridgewater fan. How much they're going to wind up spending on quarterback, Kevin? I know. It's hard. I mean, you can't because you're going to be eating that Alex Smith contract for a couple years.

You've got Colt McCoy. You've got to pay next year, too. You're not paying a Colt McCoy next year. Really? Are you? Is it his option? I think it is. Is it guaranteed for injury? Yes. Well, he's going to be healthy by the time the season starts.

He'll be healthy. So I think they could. They got to pay him, I think. I don't know if they, I'll look that up here. I mean, they could be paying $30 million to quarterbacks who aren't going to be playing next year. Would you put it past Snyder? Would you put it past him? No, no, absolutely not.

And you know what? I was surprised that people said to me, you're out of your mind. It'll never happen. You're smoking dope. I'm like, look, I'm not saying it's the right thing to do. I don't think it's the right thing to do. I'm just saying that it's within the realm of possibility. Let me just say this to make it clear.

If we're talking about rooting for me, this would be a big win. A big win for Levero to have RG3 back as the quarterback for the Redskins. But if he has matured, like you say he has, or the word is that he has, has, then he wouldn't come play for the Redskins. He would know that the pitfalls involved. If RG3 is smart and has matured, this is the last place he would want to play. Yeah. If he hasn't matured and he comes back here, it'll take four weeks before he's back to the old

RG3, running the locker room, telling people about his relationship with the owner, tell Talk about how they went out to dinner with Dan the other night, how the limo's picking up his family and taking them to the airport. And hey, coach, I can put in a good word for you. You're doing a good job. Four weeks. Yeah. I'm looking up Colt McCoy's.

Forget it. No, I'm interested. No, I'm interested. No, forget it. No, I'm not going to forget it. Don't make me come over at his desk. You better be careful if you do. Colt McCoy in 2019.

right now it's showing that he counts at three and a half million, but it's all base salary. It's $3 million in base salary. So I'm assuming that they can cut him. And then they would owe him, they'd owe him a half million bucks. So I think he'd count a half million if he were on the roster next year. They've got, I think most Redskinned fans realize now that we as a team are going to be in the market in the 2019 draft for a quarterback.

You know, whether it's a first round selection or second round slight. Somewhere in the top three rounds, we're picking a quarterback, a young quarterback that they think has a chance to become the starting quarterback for the franchise. Now, here's, I'm kind of curious, we might differ on this a lot. 2019 is going to be a train wreck. You know, it's just going to be a mess. It'll be an absolute disaster. Why would you want to bring in a new coach to be part of that disaster?

Why not just pay the guy who, like Jay, to caretake over that disaster, to let him live through it, to punish him almost. Well, they may for being that. I mean, and plus, look, as much as much as you would do that is because you don't want to pay two coaches simultaneously. It's not a healthy environment if you're bringing Jay Gruden back to just be the steward over, you know, a season in which you're going to, you know, go four and 12. But it's not a healthy environment to bring in a brand new coach, especially one without NFL head coaching experience? I want a new general manager and have him pick the new coach. You're right. You're absolutely right.

That's what I want. That would be the smart thing. That would be the thing they're not going to do. It's like such the default. That would be the smart thing. But of course, that's not the thing they'll do. No, because I don't like you. We differ on this, too.

I don't think Bruce Allen's going anywhere. Everybody keeps telling me that, and I keep saying I just would be shocked. The only reason I think you have to bring him back if you're Dan Snyder is for some reason you don't feel like you are capable of being involved in managing the stadium deal, the next stadium deal. Real quickly, on our conversation the other day, the one thing we didn't mention that was mentioned to me, somebody that listened to our podcast and said to me, surprised that you guys didn't pick up on this in the moment,

but that story in the post was not good for Dan Snyder and the Redskins and the city for the stadium to land. Oh, yeah. That that was not supposed to get out. That was an alarm bell. That was not supposed to get out. This was, they're hoping to slip this stuff in through the end of the year as part of the legislation with a Republican-controlled house.

Right. And that got blown up. And that's why I think yesterday you saw much more about the Hogan stuff and the MGM site. Yeah. And if that leak, it would just be another example, wouldn't it be? If that leak about that came from the Redskins, you know. It probably did. Another dumbass thing.

I know. I'm thinking that since Mike DeBonis was in on it, I'm thinking it probably came from somewhere on Capitol Hill. Explain to me why he's the Capitol Hill reporter. Well, he's on the news side. I don't know if he's a capital hit, but he's a news side. And I'm thinking that it probably came from the news side. So not from the Redskins. I don't think that they would do that.

You want to do something on Bryce Harper. We've got an NFL power pole, which is your favorite thing to do. And we're going to get to that in a moment. Let me tell you about Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge Jeep in Fairfax. It's holiday time if you're thinking about a new vehicle for a loved one or for yourself. and you're thinking about a Chrysler or a Dodge or a Jeep, consider Ferris, please. You won't go wrong.

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Mike Loxley, the head football coach at Maryland. Here's that interview. All right, let's welcome in new Maryland head coach, Mike Loxley. He's our guest here on the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast. Back at Maryland after a few more games as Alabama's offensive coordinator. Coach, first of all, welcome back. You know, I have spent years hearing from so many people around town in the basketball community where I've spent a lot of time about, they They know I'm a Maryland alum. They know I'm a Maryland guy. And they say, why not locks?

Why not locks? And here you are. You've called it your dream job. Explain to people who haven't followed your career or even in recent years, Maryland football, why this is your dream job. Well, it starts, Kevin, with being, you know, growing up right here in the shadows of this place, man. You know, I am what you call a hometown homer, man.

I grew up down in the southwest section of the city. I played and went to high school at Ballou High. I spent my formidable years roaming the parking lots of Coalfield House and at that time, Bird Stadium, coming in to watch games in the mid-80s, those Bobby Ross teams that were so dominant. And really, you know, growing up in D.C., we didn't have a university like of the District of Columbia that had football at the time.

So by nature, man, I'm a huge, I was a huge turp fan growing up. And so when I got into this coaching business, man, I just always, always started this as, man, if I could ever be the head coach at Maryland, that would be my dream. And anybody that knows me, all of my friends that I grew up with, and all the people in this coaching profession that have known me over the years knows that I have a soft spot in my heart for this place. And when I got the opportunity to take it over, I mean, it was just a dream come true for me. You know, you and I probably were walking right by each other in the 80s because I was at Bird for every Bobby Ross, Boomer, Frank Reich, Stan Gelbaw, Greg Hill, you know, Rick Bedanick, Alvin Blount, Tommy Neal, all those games. And for all of Ralph's run here, too, which you were a part of, it is a different day to a certain degree because it's the Big Ten, it's not the ACC anymore, it's the Big Ten East. What can Maryland football be? Well, there's no doubt in my mind that we can be a team that competes for the eastern side of this division.

I mean, this is one of the tougher. I mean, I'm just leaving the SEC West, which in my opinion is a tough division, but this Big Ten, this Big Ten east is a really tough division as well. But here's the thing that gives me hope. And, you know, our first year in the Big Ten, we went to Michigan and beat them at Michigan. Right. We went through Penn State and for the first time in however many years. beat Penn State at Penn State.

You know, we've beat Iowa here at home. So we've won some games in this league in the last past few years. We just haven't put it together consistently. And to me, for us to compete for the Big Ten East, it starts with being able to control the greatest asset we have at the University of Maryland, and that's the players in this area, the players in the DMV. If we keep the top guys in this area here at home,

you know, we will be able to compete with anybody anywhere. And it was shown here this season when you watch the way those guys fought against Ohio State and some of the other games that they had even facing the adversary that they faced this season. You know, the recruiting area is incredibly fertile. I'm wondering, because you've lived it over the years, we've always known those of us who were born and raised Washingtonians, we've always known what D.C. and the D.C. area has been as a basketball area. I mean, second to none.

When did it really change or when did football become so, when did this area become such a prominent football recruiting area? I don't remember when it started to become super prominent. Because it's really the last 20 years, right? Was it that way before then? Yeah, I think there's always been great athletes. That's the thing, you know, growing up and playing at Ballou High School, I can think of a ton of big-time players that I played with or against in my league

that actually played at smaller colleges and smaller universities that, in my opinion, now as a coach and as an evaluator, there's no doubt in my mind that they were talented enough to come here and play at Maryland. I don't think we really ever saw this as a big-time football area, but we've always had just great skill and great athleticism, and a lot of it can be attributed to being a basketball area. There's so many of those basketball players that would sure make big-time football players if they were to play.

So I think it really came to fruition, you know, in the late 90s when, you know, we had a resurgence here at Maryland and, you know, the Sean Merrimands and the Vernon Davis, the E.J. Henderson, the Leon Jones, Randy Starks, all these guys were homegrown DMV talent that we were able to keep right here. our backyard and keep them here at home and basically put them on one team and we were able to win 10 games a year for three years in a row, beat a big time Tennessee team in the Peach Bowl, competed against Florida in the Orange Bowl. And so again, man, this area is very fertile. You know, I look at the place that I'm coaching the next couple of games at and, you know,

we've got guys committed from this area and we have had big time players down there from this area that if we were to keep those guys right here in our backyard, There's no doubt in my mind we could consistently build a winning program. I mean, just mentioning the 2001 Orange Bowl and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta that year where you blew out Tennessee. And the following year when we crushed West Virginia in the Gator Bowl, it just, I've always felt this way. I know what the potential is. And Bobby Ross and Ralph Freedon were the last two coaches to sort of realize that because they were perennial. Maryland was a perennial top 25 team, a perennial bowl bowl.

team, bowl winner under those two coaches. And I think a lot of people are excited about what you can bring back as well. On the basketball football thing, you know this because you're from here. Maryland has been a basketball school over the years, a basketball powerhouse at times. Is that a help or a hindrance to the football program? I've always started to help me. Anytime you have a winning program that's part of your university. It's kind of like the front porch of your university and athletics kind of serves as that front porch that opens up the doors to the big house. And when you've got programs like our soccer program, we just won the national championship men's soccer, our basketball program,

it just to me adds value to what we can do in this area, what we can do possibly in football if we can just control the most important asset we have in this area. That's big-time athletes, big-time football players, and get them to buy into that vision of keeping it right here at home and doing it for your hometown team. All right. How much of repairing Maryland's image coach in the wake of what's happened here over the last several months

is part of your job moving forward? Well, it's a huge part of it. Number one, it's like I told the team, When you take over a job like I'm taking over here, you inherit everything that's happened good or bad, and it becomes your issue. So, you know, what I've tried to do here, the last three or four days is get into the psyche of our players. I've met with probably 80 percent, 85 percent of the team individually here the past four days and just really started on finding out where we are mentally, where we are culturally, a team and to a man, I mean, all these guys that we have in our program, I feel like we've been able to stabilize our current team. You know, we had some guys that maybe had put their

name in the transfer portal. We feel strong that we're not going to lose any of our guys from that, and now they're buying into what we're trying to get done here. But for me, I think it's really important that moving forward that we try to give everybody the opportunity. we bring in the right kind of guys and coaches just around these guys with. I told everyone on the team, everyone gets a clean slate, man. We're starting from ground zero and what's happened here in the past. We can't change, but what we can do is make things better. And that's what me and the staff that I bring in are going to try to do for these players is make things better.

Mike Loxley is back at Maryland, and he is the head coach, and the Terps have some talent on the team. and he's going to bring in a lot more. I think this is an obvious question, and you've probably been asked it 100 times since getting this job. What are the most important things you'll take from Alabama and working for Nick Saban? Well, I think the first thing, I've always said, I haven't spent three years behind the walls of that dynasty that Coach Saban has built, has shown me that the first thing that needs to happen is there needs to be in an alignment

between administration and in the program and having spent time and talking to Dr. Lowe, our president, and Damon Evans, our athletic director, you know, there is an alignment here that I feel everybody needs to be pulling in the right direction and the same direction to move the program forward. And I feel like we have that now. And the next step is just consistency. You know, we don't talk a lot about winning at Alabama. We talk about the process of winning.

And to me, that's coming in, being very consistent with how you work, giving things and maximizing every piece and every part of your program from off-season lifting to the classroom, maximizing yourself in the classroom, maximizing your time and efforts, you know, as you prepare and we start getting prepared for spring practice. You know, the consistency, the effort in which how we go about doing things, how we treat people, those are all the byproducts of what helps you win. And so if we can get really good at having a real strong culture of effort, toughness,

you know, respect amongst each other, the winning will come. Got a couple more for you, and then I'll let you run. I appreciate the time so much. What is your scheduling philosophy? You know, you've got nine big 10 games out of the 12. I think Syracuse is on the schedule next year, and then you get West Virginia back on the schedule. I love that, the home and home with West Virginia coming up.

Do you have ideas or a philosophy on how you'd like to schedule your non-conference games? Yeah, you know, obviously with the nine Big Ten games, that leaves your three games to kind of play around with. I'm big on the regional scheduling. I think any time you can play teams in your region or teams that we've played in the past, I've been very happy with, you know, when you look at our future schedule, I think administration has done a really good job of having a balance of the regional opponents, Temple, West Virginia, you know, programs like that as well as, you know, some of the local schools. I know we play my alma mater, or have played my alma mater, Towson here a couple years ago.

So, you know, I feel really good about the approach we've taken the scheduling from an administration standpoint. We haven't sat down to talk about future scheduling because, as you know, this thing is already scheduled for most part. for the next four to five years. But I have been happy with the way that they schedule things. Settle an argument for me because I'm a big college football fan and watched. I mean, it was impossible not to be able to watch every Alabama game this year. Who had the better defense? Mississippi State or LSU?

Man, I would say, I'd say Mississippi State. Yeah. You know, when I look back to both those games and having to call it against both of them, They both were really good up front seven. The thing that it made Mississippi State a little different was, you know, at LSU, they two-gap and play really physical, strong, keep, you know, two-gapping where you're holding up linemen where Mississippi State moved a bunch. They were moving and planning and angling their D-line,

and they have a really good scheme. But I would say Mississippi State probably, as we prepared, was the team that probably gave us the biggest challenge. Yeah, well, you just want to bet for me. But in watching that game, I thought it was the only time this year in the second half of that game where, you know, Bama looked mortal. Like you guys offensively looked mortal. And if they just didn't have any offense, you know, they couldn't move the football offensively. But the physicality of that game in particular this year, even I thought more than the LSU game was incredible to watch in the second half.

It was definitely a physical game now. I will say this. So this is a team that gave up nine touchdowns the whole season. Right. We scored three touchdowns in the first half. Yes, you did. And we do play complimentary football. Tua wound up getting banged up in that game, and Jalen was unavailable.

So we were very limited in the second half with Matt Jones and what we were going to do on all that. So we were able to move the ball early in the game. And then once we got ahead, you know, and having two injured and Jailen not available, I would say that we were also our own worst enemy in that game and that we were limited in how we could attack, much like what we did in the first half when Tua was available. But they, by far, in my opinion, was the toughest defense that we faced this season. I want to go back to something else, switching subjects, back to something you mentioned. You mentioned Ralph Friedgen a couple of times, and we mentioned that era.

I've always felt like Ralph hasn't gotten his due, is a brilliant offensive guy. and a really good head coach. What was it like to work for Ralph and to be on some of those teams? You know, I tell anybody that has ever talked to me, to this day, the processes and the practices and the way that I approach game planning is all pseudo-Ralph region. Literally, from the reports that we use in terms of our game analysis to the Self-S scout reports,

to how I go about studying how to attack defenses from an offensive standpoint. These are all things I learned in my time serving under Rouse, and I've used these from that time forward as a coordinator everywhere I've been. So by far, my offensive philosophy has wrapped around my time with Ralph Frisian. He's had the most impact on me as a coach, a play caller, how to attack defenses, brilliant, brilliant play caller, brilliant, game planner. and I've taken everything that I do based off of what I learned and how we did it here under Ralph. I do think that, I mean, the people in the football business,

they know and respect Ralph as a offensive mind and as a play caller. I also feel like what he did here is a head coach, and because of his familiarity, much like mine, coming back home, having played here, having grown up and cut his teeth here. A lot of similarities, and I can only hope that we can have a, a smidgen of the success like we had under Routes during my time here. Thank you so much for your time. Best of luck on the 29th in the semifinals and beyond that.

It's so good to have you back at Maryland. I know the alum base and Maryland football fans are excited about it. Can't wait to see it in action next year. Thanks so much for the time, Coach. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Kevin, for having me on. Thanks to Mike Loxley, the new head coach at Maryland. Really enjoyed that. Tommy, you wanted to talk about Bryce Harper.

Well, I wrote a column in the Washington Times. You could read my work in Washington Times.com or follow me on Twitter and Facebook where I usually post this stuff that basically said that Mark Lerner, who was now the managing general partner of the Nationals, he took over as the headman when his father, Ted Turner, stepped down last June. basically he was insulted by Scott Boris out at the winter meetings in Las Vegas. At least I think he was insulted. When Mark Lerner did the radio interview on 106,7 a fan, and didn't necessarily close the door on them talking to Harper again,

but gave a truthful, honest and realistic viewpoint that A, they made their offer that they feel comfortable with, that B, Boris doesn't like to leave money on the table, so he's probably not going to give him a discount. And, you know, C, he'll probably be able to get a lot more money out there than the learners might be willing to pay. All that is true. So basically, but he was not saying it's over. But that's the way he got interpreted. So Boris reacted to it by basically accusing Lerner of violating the,

the labor agreement between players and management with his comments, which is a ridiculous assertion and not to be taken seriously. But more embarrassing and more insulting was basically he fluffed them off and he said, I usually deal with the father. Yeah. You know, that was an insult. And that's what I wrote. I said, Mark Lerner needs to pull Scott Boris into a room somewhere

and say to him, don't you ever, ever insult me or embarrass me. like that in public again. I'm the guy in charge now. You'll deal with me or you'll deal with or you can leave your messages at the switchboard from Mike Rizzo. That's what that's what I wrote basically. I mean, it's important for Mark Lerner to do that. I mean, because if the perception is that that Scott Bores can just go behind Mark Lerner's back, go to the old man like he does usually every winter and come away from his Palm Springs home with some kind of. a huge contract for one of his players, then that just

makes Mark Lerner look bad. That's all. Look, I don't know how good of an owner, Mark Lerner, is going to be as the managing general partner and the head guy, but he needs to straighten Scott Boris out. It's bad judgment by Boris, who doesn't,

you know, there's no win in doing what he did publicly to submarine Mark Lerner in that way. Unless he believes it's the truth. Unless there's still no benefit of saying that publicly. I know, but he can't help himself sometimes. He's so full of himself. And I'm not saying the, I'm not saying the national. You know who has to fix that? Ted's got to fix that. Well, Mark's got to fix it. Mark, no, Mark has to fix it, but

Ted has to also say, don't you ever, ever talk about Mark my son in the guy who's running this franchise that way? Or we'll never deal with you again. You know, you're right. You're right. Ted should speak up as well. But it, I mean, it was an insult. He basically accused him of violating the labor agreement. And then he said, he doesn't matter. Right. That's what he said. So that's all I wanted to say. Where's Harper going to end up? I think that the Dodgers and, you know, look, I know this is bad form because we're all in the business of journalism. But there was a big story of been in the Washington Post today about the Dodgers and their possible interest in Bryce Harper. I think this is where he's going to wind up. In that

entire story, unless I missed it, and it's always possible, there's not one mention of Stan Kasten. Not one. One of the primary reasons. What's his role? Well, he's the president of the team. I understand that. He's one of the owners of the

Dodgers. He was the president and one of the owners of the nationals when they drafted Bryce Harper here in 2010. And had, I know if he still has, had a good relationship with the Harper family, particularly the father. How you can leave that out of a story about the Dodgers' interest in Bryce Harper,

I don't get. I just, that's a mistake. Right. That's a mistake. And, you know, at one time in this business, when there were editors, an editor would have said, hey, what about Stan Kasten? You know, doesn't he have some kind of role? Sounds like you're playing editor right now.

Yeah, I know. I'll probably, you know, again. You're going to hear from anybody on this one? Well, I probably will. And, you know, who's going to say, who's going to say something to you? I don't know. I don't know. Look, haven't we gotten to the point, seriously, where.

We don't care what they say about us. We don't care. Well, in your particular position, in your particular position, what, what do you care what anybody says about you, especially from the other newspaper? Well, no, I like those people. I like those people. So do I. Who should have hired you as a columnist a long time.

time ago, but apparently that ship has long sailed. So what's the point? You don't care. That's true, but you don't have to tiptoe around this anymore. These people are friends in mine. I know. But that just drives me nuts. How you can have that whole story and not mention that. There's a lot of reasons, other reasons, my own opinion, why I think that he's going to wind up with the Dodgers that people will disagree about that speak to the bigger issue of the competitive nature of attention, advertising, corporate sponsorship, all that. The LA market is more competitive than any place right now in the country.

I mean, because, I mean, in the past two years, they've gotten two NFL teams. Well, they just got the NFL times two. Yeah, times two. And one of them is coached by a rock star and probably going to take play in the Super Bowl or at least playing the NFC title game. So you've got that to deal with. And you've got LeBron now in town playing for the Lakers.

So the Dodgers need to respond to that. The Dodgers need to sort of respond to that. And I think that's going to be one of the contributing factors to their push to try to get Bryce Harper is that they need to stay relevant on the sports landscape of a place where you've got two NBA teams, two NFL. teams to compete with. There is, I know it's L.A. And I've said that here in Washington.

You're missing the sometimes number two in that town, which is Southern Cal football. Yes, yes, absolutely. College football. People from L.A. will say, you know, in many years, Southern Cal has been number two to the Lakers, ahead of the Dodgers, clearly the Clippers and hockey and everything else. People don't take this into account. and I don't understand why, because they don't understand the business of media, particularly sports media.

Other teams impact other teams, even though they don't play in the same sport. I guarantee you that the Phillies push to sign Harper is in response in part to the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. I mean, there's a big, there's been a competition for years between the Eagles and the Phillies front office. They don't like each other. and there's competition for sponsorship.

That's never happened in this town. Do you think? I tell you what, I think it happened this offseason when you saw 70,000 people downtown for watch parties, for the capitals, and then all of a sudden you saw an army of suits show up at Redskins Park. I think in part somebody looked at that and said, those people are not coming to see our games. Those people down there, they're not coming to see us.

Yeah, but they've got to listen to the suits that showed up. Well, that's different. If not, you're going to have Bruce in a suit, the same suit he's had on forever, along with Jay Grimm. But I'm just pointing out that now in this day and age, what other teams do affect teams and other. I've always maintained that what's hurt the Orioles far more. There are markets where it doesn't matter. I know. But what's hurt the Orioles far more than the Nationals has been the Ravens, far worse.

That makes sense to me. Because Baltimore is a blue-collar town with limited incomes. and those fans who are going to Ravens games, not as many as they used to, just like in Washington, have to make a decision as to where they're spending their money as to where they're going to games. And for 12 years,

the Orioles were the only act in town. And that was when Camden Yards opened as well. So they did very well with it. But once the Ravens came, once the NFL returned to Baltimore and they won a Super Bowl in their fourth year there, that's what hurt the Orioles. far more than a baseball team in Washington.

You know, we are, the Ravens have now been in Baltimore, 23 years, right? Am I right about? 96 was their first year. So this is the 22nd year of Baltimore. How long were the cults in Baltimore? Didn't they arrive in the 50s and then they left in 1983, right? 82? I think probably almost 30 years.

Yeah, so, I mean, you're almost coming up on the same length of time for the Ravens in Baltimore as the Colts were in Baltimore. Yeah, you are. You know, I'm going to the Ravens game this Sunday. Really? Well, because the Redskins aren't home. So I'm going to the, in part because I'm doing a column about the new world order for the NFL when it comes to ticketing and trying to get people in the stands. The Ravens are doing a mobile phone offer to their fans where if you buy tickets over the phone, you know, like through this mobile app, you can get two tickets to the last two home games for $44. Basically, to try to get millennials

who do everything on their phone into the stadium. What they're also doing is for the first 25,000 fans who come to see them play Tampa, they're giving away scarves. The NFL doesn't do that. Scarves? Yeah. Baseball does this. Giveaways, bobbleheads, things, helmets, hats, things like that. The NFL does not do this.

No, they've never really had to do it. Well, now they've got, you know what the NFL has to do? They've got to start selling. What they used to do was they'd sold their season tickets and then they'd be done. Well, during the Monday night loss to the Eagles and then during the, you know, at one point when they were down 40 to nothing, one of the ads was for a really good deal for the Eagles game. You know, I mean, the Redskins have advertised available tickets for the first time ever. Yes.

Well, the whole gallery place Metro Stop was past. By the way, you- pasted with Redskin ads. You just reminded me of something. So on Sunday, the Redskins are on CBS Sunday at Jacksonville. It's a CBS game. Because it's a road game, Fox will have a one o'clock game. Now, they'll probably have Buccaneers, Ravens, right?

Not Cowboys Colts? Because I was thinking, as you were talking, imagine- It's not going to be Cowboys Colts, I heard. It'll probably be Bucks Ravens. We usually get the Ravens game. You look in that up. Aaron? Yeah, I'm pulling it up now. It is, it is the Tampa Bay Baltimore game as the sole Fox game. Because if the Cowboys Colts, if Baltimore was, let's just say, playing

a night game or four o'clock game, and you had Cowboys Colts head to head with Redskins, the Cowboys Colts could have, may have outrated it on Sunday. You're right. You're right. I mean, I'm actually, I still haven't seen what the Chiefs Ravens numbers were from last week. Let me just, let me just circle back and, and my, my, my, My point is that the NFL is now finding themselves. They've got to sell every day. Yeah. They sold their season tickets and then they'd be done.

Well, that's not the way it's going to be done anymore. They're going to have to sell every game any way they can every day. They've got to sell all the time. Tommy, in September, I was out at the park meeting with one of the new people, as you call them the suits that they brought in. and you know we were talking he was we were having a conversation about the team and what they had to do and and um he said he made the comment to me about you know uh what do you think about us doing a deal with jfk 106.7 because and i said well you've always provided them with significant help even more

than 980 but that's beside the point but i said to him i go look you you guys need to be nice to everybody. You have a ticket selling problem. You have an image problem. Every media outlet in this area, you should be siding up next to. I mean, you should be right there doing anything you can to promote your product. They're in that position now. They've never been in that position. They're in that position now. Yes, they are. They need help. But, you know, the arrogance over the years is that we don't need any of you people. We don't need you. And now I think there's some, recognition, you know, obviously Brian Lafamina came out, you know, before the season started and said, we've got tickets available. And when asked about it, he said, I just thought that if we

had tickets available, we should tell people that we have tickets available, which they've never done in the past. Right. I don't know that that went over so well. No. I'm hearing. No. I don't think so. Remember Bruce on that opening, that home opener for Indy, he went on TOP and said the game was basically sold out. Yeah. I remember that. Look, Brian Lafamina, look, I think he's soon to be gone, but Brian Lafamina used the word transparency when he first met with reporters to introduce himself. That's not a word that exists at Redskins Park. Never has, and as long as Dan Snyder owns the team, it never will.

I think there's some regret about the attempt to be transparent because I think that there's some thought that it hurt them this year with respect to live attendance at games. Yeah, well, it may have. Aftermarket, you know, ticket sales. It may have hurt them, but you got to take your medicine. Yeah, I guess. All right.

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Call today for an exclusive free two-day trial. 240, 86714. That's 240, 86714 for an exclusive free two-day trial. Or you can just go to launchworkplaces.com today to find out. find out more. Let's finish up the show with our NFL power pole. Rangham, one to five. It's time for our weekly NFL PowerPole. All right, our top five in our NFL PowerPole, plus a couple of other teams to keep an eye on. Tommy, your top five. This is always like going to the dentist for me, but I'll go ahead and do it.

Number five, the Chicago Bears, who are probably going to clinch a postseason berth when they beat the Packers on Sunday in Chicago. They've got a... They'll clinch the division on Sunday with a win. Okay. They'll clinch the division with a win. Number four, I'm going to say, are the Los Angeles Chargers. One of my favorite teams, and I am polling for here, because the number three team are the Los Angeles Rams.

And what I am rooting for is a Los Angeles Rams Chargers Super Bowl, which would be absolutely a fabulous story, even though it would be in Atlanta. I mean, look, you had the Jets and the Giants in the same city, they never played each other in the Super Bowl. You had Oakland and San Francisco in basically the same market. They never played each other in the Super Bowl. You never had a situation like this before.

When the Rams and Raiders were both in L.A., they didn't play in Super Bowl, even though simultaneously they had great teams, as the 49ers and Raiders simultaneously, great teams. Yeah, there was opportunity, but it never happened. In fact, the Raiders, I'm going to say right now that the Raiders and the 49ers were in championship games with the opportunity to face each other in the Super Bowl multiple times. Well, the Redskins Raiders Super Bowl. The Redskins beat the 49ers in the NFC title game. Oh, yeah, the opportunities were there. I'm really rooting

for that, just for the curiosity factor. And then number two, what, number two are the chiefs and number one are the Saints. Okay. This is getting harder to do there. For a few, almost a month, if not two months, it was like, all right, Rams, Saints, Chiefs, Patriots, basically. Right. But then a couple of teams started losing. It's getting harder on this top five, Tommy, because for a couple of months, I mean, the top three or four were absolute givens. And I think you could probably say the top three are still givens, even though I don't think the Chiefs are going to go to the Super Bowl. But my number five team, the Los Angeles Chargers. They play tonight against the Chiefs.

No smell test released tonight. I don't. The Chargers were close and the under was close tonight. People love the over tonight. And I may play the under tonight. I think it's 53.5. Aaron right now, 53.5, something like that. But I don't have an official smell test release on the game tonight.

But the Chargers are number five. But Tommy, there are a lot of teams. for spots four, five, and just on the outside. I considered the bears. They should be considered. You know who should be considered right now for the top five? The Cowboys. I knew you were going to say that.

The Texans, even though they lost last week, I still think they're really good. What about the Seahawks? The Seahawks, I've got written down here too as a team that's really coming on. A team you wouldn't want to play right now. I think that's true. But my number four team, I've got the New England Patriots still, and they lost last week on a crazy play.

They're banged up, you know, in spots, but they're going to win that division. They're going to have a home game. And more likely than not, they're going to be in the AFC championship game. Probably. I don't, you know. I think that's where it's going to end for them.

And it'll probably be at Arrowhead or maybe even at Houston, which is a possibility. But I think, I've got New England at four. got Casey at three, and then I've got the Rams still at two, even with the loss to the Bears. They're not going to have to play the Bears at home, and I've got the Saints one. I'm sticking with the Rams, it may be crazy. You're smarter than I right now in this, because in just thinking about what they did to the Rams, I'm nuts not to have the Bears in my top five. I am, but they're good. You know, this whole offensive year, it's going to

going to be really interesting to see how that plays out in the postseason. Yes, it will. With really good defensive teams this year, too. Yeah. You know, in the AFC, Houston, Baltimore, if they get in, in the NFC, Chicago, definitely, and Dallas. Both of whom will play a first round game at home, which will give them a chance to get into the divisional round at New Orleans and at L.A. Anyway, that's my top five.

Teams to keep an eye on, some of the teams we just mentioned, the Bears, the Cowboys, The Seahawks. I still think Houston's very dangerous. Keep an eye on Green Bay, these final three games, because if they went out, if they were to beat Chicago this weekend and went out, there's a chance for them to backdoor their way into a wild card game. And I'll tell you what, if you're the Bears or the Cowboys in that first round wildcard weekend, you don't mind seeing Minnesota at this point come in. You don't mind seeing Washington come in somehow if they were to back. in with an 8-and-8 record. I don't expect it. You probably would prefer Seattle over Aaron Rogers coming to town for a playoff game. I think you would. I don't think so. I think Russell Wilson is a younger Aaron Rogers. Aaron Rogers never won a game throwing for 72 yards in a game, which is what happened Monday night. I mean, it really, and Russell Wilson's had a lot of those games. He's a winning quarterback. He makes winning plays and the winning play the other night after the botched field goal flag pickup was the 40-yard run. But he was 10 for 20 for 72 yards. No touchdowns,

one interception. And a bad interception at the end of the first half, a terrible interception. Aaron Rogers is a bigger fear for teams game planning against him than Russell Wilson. And I'm not minimizing Wilson, but Rogers is probably right now along with Mahom. in the New Orleans offense, the most difficult guy to game plan for. What are you looking at me like that for? Are we going to discuss briefly

before we go what's going to happen on Sunday? Oh yeah. I mean, God, I'm thinking about tomorrow. Am I really going to do a segment Redskins beat Jaguars if? I've done it before at the end of years. Like I said, all week,

we've been here before. Go ahead. What's your pick on this big game at Jacksonville Sunday? I think it's a beat down. I think it's an absolute beat down. Redskins will score 10 points. Jacksonville will probably score, let's say, 28, 14 of them on defense.

You know, they've got, they're starting a new quarterback. I think they've got a new offensive coordinator. And I just think they'll be licking their chops at the notion that Josh Johnson, who everyone got excited about after the team was down 40 to nothing and came in and rallied them to do something. I just think that this is setting up for a beat down that in some ways might be worse than the Giants game. I have the same sense.

I mean, I'll make my official prediction on the show tomorrow, but the one thing that Jacksonville's been really good at at home this year has been defense. They shut out the Colts two weeks ago at home. Their home game prior to that, I believe was Pittsburgh, and they had the Steelers shut out through three quarters. If they're interested, if they're actually engaged, like want to play defense, I'm afraid the Redskins may not score more than three or six points,

like maybe two field goals in the game. Maybe Kessler will throw a bad ball and we'll go three and out but kick a field goal, be in range. I don't see any way the Redskins can win this game if Jacksonville's interested. Right. If they've checked out. But I think they will be interested because I think they'll be licking their chops at the opportunity of going after Josh Johnson at quarterback.

They've been excellent on defense at home in particular recently, really good on defense. Okay, enjoy the Ravens game on Sunday. Yeah. The Ravens still have a chance to win that division. Yes, they do. They're only a half game out, and they've got an easy schedule ahead of them. Pittsburgh's got to play.

But your boy got benched. Flacco officially benched. I know. You know, I don't think he had a choice, but I still think that this Tampa game is a game in which John Harbaugh can say, okay, we're playing another bad defensive team, another bad run defense. Right. And so I'm sticking with him.

I'm going to make it official, but Joe's going to be the backup. They play the Chargers next weekend in L.A. On Saturday night, it's the Redskins Tennessee play Saturday early, and then it's Ravens Chargers Saturday night on the 22nd, I think that is. I think if Lamar Jackson once again can't do it throwing the football, I think, I don't think it's dead yet. I think Flacco could still play against the Chargers or the Browns to end the season because those are the first two decent defensive teams the Ravens Will have faced during this Jackson

stretch. Remember, Jackson faced the Raiders, the Bengals, the Chiefs, who am I forgetting in this stretch that he's played? It's been one bad defensive team after another. Bengals, Raiders, Falcons, Chiefs. Four horrific defensive teams in a row. And they've been able to move the ball by running it against these teams. And they should be able to run the ball against Tampa.

Yes, they sure. But the Chargers and the Browns, two different defensive teams to finish up the year where he's going to have to make some throws for them to win. They've got to win two of the final three, I think, to basically lock up the wild card. And the Steelers have, you know, the Steelers right now have this weekend, the Patriots, and then they play at the Saints. Yeah. And so the path to the division title is there for the race. Yes, it is.

Okay, have a good weekend. You too, boss. All right. Thanks to Mike Loxley for giving me time today. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to all of you. Have a great day.