The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jayden's Wrapped To "Stay Warm"

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Kevin opened the show with more Jayden "is he or isn't he injured" conversation after the QB said today that the wrap around him is there to "stay warm". Kevin welcomed John Ourand/Puck News on the show to talk "flexible" Commanders games, Skins' TV ratings, NFL Christmas Day games on Netflix, and more. Joe Maloney/Former Head of Consumer Affairs for the team jumped on with his take on the RFK Site bill passing through the Senate Committee yesterday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always is Wind Donation. Give them a call 86690 Nation or head to WindowNation.com if you need new windows. I've got two guests on the show today. John Oran's going to be on with me.

John's one of my favorite people to have on either the radio show or the podcast. He is the king of sports business. and sports media. We will talk NFL media stuff like the Netflix doubleheader on Christmas Day after Netflix had issues on Friday night with the Tyson Paul fight. Does John think any of Washington's games the rest of the way will get flexed? We'll talk about that. And we'll talk about the commander's local television ratings this year.

You would think that the ratings would be way up, John. We'll share some information on that. After John, the former head of public affairs for the team, Joe Maloney will be on with me. I've known Joe for a while now. He's been on, I think, the podcast and the radio show. He headed up the stadium efforts, the new stadium efforts when he was with the team. He's not with the team anymore. But nobody can tell you more, other than Tommy, of course. Nobody can tell you more about the news that came yesterday about the RFK site bill passing in the Senate committee and what that means for the potential for a future stadium at the RFK site more than Joe Ken. He'll be on with me in the final segment of the show

today. I start with this and I'm kind of hoping that this will be the last day we talk about this. this was a good one and the timing of it and the timing of reading it was perfect. It comes from Adam, Adam from Rockville. Adam will email me occasionally. He writes, I've never seen our local media get tricked like Dan Quinn has done to you guys. Kevin, I'm most surprised at how easily you've fallen for it. Jaden Daniels isn't injured? Are you blind? Why do you think he's been wearing extra protection the last four games. Why do you think he hasn't run the ball? Why do you think he's short-hopping every throw?

This should have been a layup for you guys to criticize the decision to play him in all of these games. He should sit against the Cowboys on Sunday and the Titans after that. This is getting close to RG3 territory. Sit him until after the buy. This is heading towards disaster and you guys should be holding Quinn accountable, exclamation point. Who, Adam, RG3 territory? Really? Come on, man. That is a stretch. I mean, I'm not going to revisit that whole thing. We all remember it quite well. Other than to say this, a rib injury versus a knee injury, not exactly the same. But look, before I respond to Adam's email, let me quick.

play for you in exchange that just took place a little while ago out in Ashburn. It's Wednesday, and Wednesday is Coach Day and Quarterback Day for the media, and Jaden Daniels, after practice, just met with the media, and he was asked this question by Scott Abraham from Channel 7 on why he puts a wrap around his ribs when he's on the sidelines. You'll hear the question, and, And Jaden's answer. Jayden, I know fans are wondering, you know, during the game in between drives, you put on this wrap on your ribs,

what does that do for you and why do you do that? It's to stay warm. I mean, it's getting later in the years, it gets colder. You don't want your body parts to get cold, so it's just to stay warm. He does it to stay warm. I can hear all of you.

I can hear Adam. He's lying. just like the coach. Don't believe him, Kevin. Don't be so gullible. So, all right, let's just get to this and hopefully wrap it up for once. Because honestly, anything is possible. But to believe what Adam, and I think many of you believe,

you'd really have to believe that this coaching staff is committing malpractice in the handling of this. you know, once and for all, and I'm not just saying this because Jaden just said, you know, he has the wrap on to stay warm, which by the way brings up an entirely different issue. An issue that I've been talking about during the course of the year, and that is what will he be like in cold weather games if they end up playing them in January, etc. But we'll leave that one alone for now. I do believe Dan Quinn from the other day when he said, Honestly, Jaden is not injured. I believe Jaden.

And when he said today, I've got to wrap around me on the sideline to stay warm. More importantly, I believe my eyes. And I believe that the organization, the coaching staff, would not be putting him out there if he was injured. You know, you can call me naive, you can call me a mark or whatever Adam called me. I'm open, I am open to him having played these last four games with some pain, with some discomfort. I'm even open to the possibility that maybe he entered the Pittsburgh and Philly games feeling well, but then got hit so much in those games that as the games wore on, he wasn't the same player.

I think of the T.J. Watt hit in particular. Now, that one came at the end of the game. But maybe getting hit and sacked made the pain come back or much worse. you know, during the game, that's not unreasonable. You know, how much did it have to do with his performance? I don't know. We'll get to that. We've kind of talked about it all week.

There's been nothing about, by the way, the cut on his hand, nobody's followed up on that. I guess it was not an issue, even though we saw it on the sidelines on Thursday night, last Thursday night. But I'm open to, you know, some reasonable discussion here. You can call me a sucker all you want, but I definitely don't think,

definitely don't think, and don't buy that he's seriously injured or even moderately injured. I don't believe that. If you believe that, and I don't, okay, I don't, then you have to believe what Adam said about Quinn and company

deserving a ton of criticism. And playing him actually would be the least thing to be critical about. The play calling would be the thing that you'd be most critical about. It would be outrageous. You would start there with the criticism. If you believe that, you know, everybody's lying out there and that Jaden's seriously or moderately interested, injured, let's just say moderately injured, the play calling would be worthy of a scathing, scathing, scathing, rebuke and critical discussion. You know, even if he's just moderately injured, you know, moderately in pain,

calling multiple quarterback designed runs, the quarterback counters against Philly in particular, would be incredibly irresponsible. So if you believe that everybody that believes Quinn and Daniels are incredibly naive and that you guys are right, some of you are right, Adam's right, that he's playing injured, that would be outrageously irresponsible to call the number of designed runs that they called the other night against Philly. Or just over this four-game stretch, putting him in harm's way with read option style plays

where he's kept several of them during this stretch. Irresponsible, you know, not putting more quick game into the pass attack. irresponsible. Let's start there. You know, under the last regime, fine. This regime, this coach in particular, has given me no reason to believe that he'd put his star rookie quarterback in harm's way, not like that anyway, running QB counters with an injured quarterback. That's almost close to a fireable offense, given how much is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, from this young quarterback and the future that everybody believes that he has. If he went out there and played in any of these four games, let's just say not seriously

injured, let's say moderately injured. Like he was not himself. He was injured. And they're running read options. They're running designed runs. They're running quarterback counters into piles. Come on, man. You've got to believe that.

have to take it to that. It's not even just playing him. Because players play injured, or players play with pain. Some players play injured. But, you know, playing him, they could still protect him with play calling if he was compromised. But they didn't do that in any of the four games. So to think that people like me have been tricked, then you have to believe that they have committed coaching malpractice. And I don't believe that. I don't. And then really after that, for me, it's all logic. It's all, you know, if he was so banged up that he was totally ineffective

against Philly, then why closer to the injury against Chicago and the Giants was he so good? Why did he look like the rib injury against Carolina during the Chicago in Giant games wasn't a thing at all? We didn't even talk about it. They didn't call a different game and he didn't play any differently. The giant game, as I've said many times this week, was one of the best games of the season for him. You know, they took a knee on that final drive. They would have scored 34. They would have won by two scores. Was he taken off the injury report before the Pittsburgh game? You know, because if he was and he was injured and they're lying, they're risking fine and forfeiture of future draft picks if they're hiding something and they get caught.

the two games closest to the injury when he was on the injury report, he played great. The two games furthest away from the injury, when he wasn't on the injury report, he played an average game in one against Pittsburgh and not that great in his poorest game of the year against Philadelphia. So what was different about the two games closest to the injury and the two games furthest away from the injury? Well, Pittsburgh's defense and Philadelphia's defense were different. and not only are they great, they're well coached. Not to mention the game in which he didn't play well at all, because, you know, the Pittsburgh game, he played C-plus area.

He was an average game compared to the rest of his games. It was different, understood, but, you know, they had a chance to score 30 and beat the Steelers, you know, in that game. Did you see the way they, you know, handled Lamar Jackson on Sunday? You know, the one game in which he did not play well, that was the Thursday night game, and that's a short week into a Thursday night game with nothing but walkthroughs, which, you know, he also, by the way, addressed today talking about that he agreed with his coach that more practice reps definitely help a young player.

So, again, is it possible Jaden lied today that Quinn lied on Monday to keep this injury under wraps so that Dallas doesn't go after it on Sunday? It's possible, but it's a long shot. You know, the so-called, you know, open your eyes evidence of bad throws and not running as much actually has a reasonable explanation. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are really good. And in Philly's case, especially, they did an amazing job against Washington's overall offense and quarterback. And the lengths to which you would have to go if you believe they're lying include accusing them of a rather high. high degree of coaching malpractice.

And again, more for the play calling than just for playing him. That's really the piece that I'm like, seriously, they're putting him out there compromised and they're going to run him on quarterback counters. They're going to call read option style plays in which he has the option to keep it and run it. you really got to go a long way to believe that they're lying and that's where you'd have to travel. As of now, there's zero reason from my standpoint to hold him out until after the buy. Unless, of course, he gets injured again.

You know, most NFL players, 11 weeks into the season, aren't as spry or unscathed as they were in weeks one through three or one through four. and he's probably no different. And he did take a big shot to his ribs in the Carolina game. I understand that. That's why he was on the injury report. And we weren't sure if he was going to play against Chicago. But then he did, and he played well. And then he was on the injury report again.

We were kind of sure because we saw him play like Jaden Daniels against Chicago that he'd play against the Giants. And he played and he had one of the best games of his season. And then he wasn't on the injury report. so there were no concerns, and he didn't have a great game. He had an average game. They still had a chance to beat Pittsburgh, and he still made plays that were Jaden-like in the game.

And then came Philly on a short week, and probably the best team they've played, most complete team they played all year, and he had a bad game. He's a rookie. And, yeah, some of those balls short-hopped. By the way, Logan Paulson on his podcast with Craig Hoffman. played it on the radio show today. You could actually, you can go to the team 980.com. It's like a

three and a half minute. He went back and looked at the four games since the injury, and Logan basically came to the same conclusion I've come to. He does not think anybody's not telling the truth, but he had real specificity on some of the throws in the Philadelphia game and why they short-hopped it. And a lot of it had to do with he was unsure what he was seeing. And he got out of some of the mechanics that he needs to be a really good thrower of the football. But even in that Philadelphia game, and I've mentioned this, he had a great back shoulder throw to Zach Ertz for a first down. He had some good throws in that game. I mean, the drive down 12 to 10 when they were moving down the field before the 4th and 2,

that looked like Jaden Daniels. So why wasn't he compromised on that drive? Anyway, I'm done with this. On another subject, because some of you were wondering about this, about the offensive rookie of the year odds, Tommy and I were about to get into it yesterday, but actually my bookie hadn't posted the updated offensive rookie of the year odds. Well, they did. And my bookie currently has Jaden still as a sizable favorite to win offensive rookie of the year at minus 500.

and then Bo Nix has definitely made up some ground. He's at plus 320. But Jaden still right now is the hefty frontrunner for offensive rookie of the year. Real quickly before I get to my first guest, John Orand. Latimore worked on the side today, Dan Quinn said. Quinn also said, we'll see what tomorrow looks like, quote, to see if we're able to work him into Sondon. some of the practices, closed quote.

It'd be nice to have Latimore, but I don't want him out there with a hamstring injury in particular until he is 100%. Hamstrings, ribs, different. Knees, Adam, and ribs different. Rate us and review us if you get a chance, especially on Apple and Spotify, and please follow us on both. Hit the plus button or the follow button. It's really big for us. John Oran, next, after these. words from a few of our sponsors.

Hey guys, no man wants to lose his hair, but for men, it's actually very common. And now with Hymns, the solution is simple. Try Hymns hair loss solutions. You'll be joining hundreds of thousands who got their flowback. Hymns provides you with convenient and quality access to a range of hair loss treatments that work, all from the comfort of your couch. Hymns makes treating hair loss simple with doctor-trusted options. and clinically proven ingredients. You can choose from personalized chewable, oral, spray, and serum treatments to find out what works best for you.

The process is simple and 100% online, so there are no uncomfortable doctor visits. Answer a few questions and a medical provider will determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed, your treatment is sent directly to you in discrete packaging for free. No insurance is needed and one low price covers everything from treatments to ongoing care. HIMS has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers and they can help you get your confidence back with visibly thicker and fuller hair. Start your free online visit today at HIMS.com slash Sheen. That's HIMS.com slash sheen for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Hems.com slash sheen.

Results vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidil and phenosteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with a health care provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information. Hey everybody with the holidays creeping up faster than your aunt's fruit cake recipe, I've got something way better to share with you. If you want to look sharp for all those festive gatherings and maybe finally win that best groomed at the Family Dinner Award? Check out the latest masterpiece from Manscaped, the Chairman Pro Electric Foil Shaver. Trust me, it's like Rudolph for your face, guiding you to a smooth

irritation-free shave. Head over to Manscape.com and join the over 11 million men worldwide who trust Manscaped by using my code, Kevin D.C. for 20% off plus free shipping. So what makes the Chairman Pro stand out? Well, it's all about versatility and precision. It comes with two interchangeable skin-safe blade heads. You've got the skin-safe-4-blade foil for that close, smooth shave when you're looking to go completely clean. And if a clean shave isn't your style, that's okay. Just switch to the skin-safe stubble trimmer to keep your stubble looking sharp and polished.

And here's something that's going to make your grooming routine even easier. The chairman pro is waterproof. Yeah, you can use it right in the shower. And the waterproof feature doesn't just make shaving easier. It also simplifies cleanup too. Just a quick rinse under the sink and you're all set. Get the chairman pro today and experience a shave that is as smooth as you deserve. Get 20% off plus free shipping with the code Kevin DC at Manscape.com.

That's 20% off plus free shipping with my code, Kevin DC. at Manscape.com. This segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation. Give them a call, 86690 Nation. Go to WindowNation.com. Mention my name. You'll get a free estimate. You've got nothing to lose.

That's all I ask is if you and your spouse, you and your significant other, you and your roommates, you just living solo have been thinking about new windows, just give them a chance to come out and give you a free estimate. They'll come out in an hour or less. You'll have a quote. They won't pressure you into doing anything. And right now is a great time to buy windows from Window Nation.

They're offering 50% off all windows and Windows styles and 0% interest for five years. If you call them now, they'll come out, give you the estimate. They can have the windows in in just a couple of weeks before winter arrives. I was looking at the long range. First of all, we do have a shot of cold coming this weekend. but right around the week following Thanksgiving, maybe a couple of days after Thanksgiving, it's looking colder with chances of yes, snow, ice. Now, these long-range forecasts, they don't always work out,

but it looks like the pattern's about to flip into more of a winter pattern as we get towards the end of this month. And if you've got older windows, you're losing money. Your heating bills are much higher than they should be. Window Nation's windows are the most insulated windows you can buy. That means more of the heat stays in your home with Windonation windows than without them. 86690 Nation, WindowNation.com. Mention my name, they will take great care of you. All right.

Jumping on with me right now is my friend John Orant, who is a writer for Puck News. He can be followed on X on Twitter at Orand. O-U-R-A-N-D- underscore puck. Just flat out the best business sports writer, the best media sports writer there is. And, of course, we love John because he is a local. He's a Gonzaga guy. He is a fan of all of the local teams. And we'll get into some of the local stuff.

But I reached out to you just because on Friday night, I did not have any intention, honestly, of watching. Tyson Paul on Netflix. I was probably like you watching Maryland and Marquette because you're a big Terp fan like I am. And then I went to flip the fight on when Maryland and Marquette ended and it was just a buffering disaster.

So A, what happened that night? And then B, what about the doubleheader on Christmas Day in the NFL? So those are, that is the biggest storyline of what I've been covering all week, basically. By the way, thank you for having me on. I love coming on on this. I was watching, you got me completely got correct. I was watching Marilyn Marquette.

Very happy with Terps is here, by the way. It's early. It's early, but we got some scoring, it looks like. I think so. And just players that are like, you know, when they get punched in the face, they, they respond. You know, they don't wilt. So anyway, I knew when that ended, I immediately went over to Netflix.

And I watched Netflix through Apple TV. And people that watch through Apple TV for some reason did not experience. And my picture was clear. There was no buffering whatsoever. But that was a really, really big problem. And so I've been talking to as many people. people as I could at the NFL at other leagues. And even though that was a massive problem for people like you and if you just are on social

media or following any of it, you saw that it was a big problem, none of the leagues view it as a big problem. They see that as a solvable problem for something that happened on a Friday night for, you know, what's kind of a, would you describe as an exhibition, you know, it was almost like, you know, seeing the three-armed man at the, uh, uh, at the circus or something like that. And the NFL is virtually certain. They're working around the clock with it with Netflix right now,

but they're virtually certain that on Christmas Day, that type of buffering is not going to happen at all. And I think one of the reasons that the leagues, because I thought the story coming out immediately was going to be, the leagues are terrified by Netflix. This is, you know, they don't want to entrust their programming to a company that's going to offer, you know, and that it was going to be, they were worried about that. But like, you had no intention of watching that fight, Kevin. Yeah.

But you watch it. It was a, the way the league executives explained it to me, it was like there was some cultural relevance to, to a, to a Friday night programming in November. That doesn't happen all the time. So were they not prepared for the audience size? Is that what you're saying, and they will be prepared for the audience size on Christmas Day? I think that I'm not sure if it wasn't that they weren't prepared. I think that you should view this as more of a test. And so the NFL and Christmas is what they're really interested in.

But they've had big audiences before. The Tom Brady was live, and they had a big. audience for that. They've also had big audiences. I think Love is Blind. They had a live show, and they had experienced similar buffering issues at that point. And then they fixed it within a week. And so they had done live before.

Why the buffering happened is I haven't been able to get to the bottom of that. All I can tell you is that I saw Brian roll out today, in fact. He was at a conference up in New York where I am. and he was asked about this, and he said that he has no issues at all with Netflix, and he's totally confident that those problems are not going to happen on Christmas. And what he says publicly is what I'm hearing privately, too. They don't think it's going to be a problem. I guess if they did think that there was any risk, wouldn't they, I mean,

what would the backup plan be? Would it be, you know, having a network? work bail them out with a distribution option last minute or not? No, this is going to Netflix. They're not going to give it to any kind of network. There is a potential, especially. I mean, they got Beyonce to come to do a halftime show. It's almost like a Super Bowl level.

If you look, I don't say that jokingly, actually, Kevin. It's like at the Super Bowl, the halftime show gets the highest ratings of the game, basically. You always see a huge spike there. And if you all of a sudden you get non-football fans that are coming in to see this halftime show and it buffers, I mean, that's one of the buffers when you get so many people trying to access to the show at the same time. And so there are a lot of issues there. But what Rolaps said, Brian Rolop said, and what I've heard is, you know, the league and Netflix, you know, they're taking their learnings from the fight and they're going to apply them.

for the Christmas game. And they're projecting confidence, and I kind of believe them. By the way, we talked about this before the season started or when, you know, the NFL schedule came out and they gave these two Netflix games on Christmas Day, gave the two Christmas Day games to Netflix. It's Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston. These will be massive games when we get there. And you had mentioned to me that, you know, Netflix was reaching out to Fox to CBS,

NBC to get help in producing these games, even announcer-wise, but those networks will be preparing for their own games that coming weekend. So do we know at this point who's going to call these games on Christmas Day for Netflix? We do know. It's going to be the two Eagles, I and Eagle and his son are going to be the play-by-play on the games. And I should have looked at it up beforehand. I forget who's going to be the analyst on it. Netflix is paying CBS a pretty penny to produce the games. So if it weren't buffering and you were able to see it clearly like I was on Friday night, Kevin, the production was terrible.

You had something as simple as like microphones going out and not being replaced. they were, they interviewed at one point, did you see the point where they interviewed Jerry Jones on camera? I didn't, listen, they buffered me out of sticking with it. I finally bailed. Oh, you didn't even say what to it. Yeah. Well, they interviewed Jerry Jones and Jerry Jones is talking about how great Netflix was, and his microphone didn't work. It was, it was a terrible production. That is not happening on Christmas because CBS is going to handle the performance. production of the actual game. NFL network is going to handle the production of the pregame and the post game and the half-time show. Actually, I don't think there's a post game. So the pre-game and the

half-time show, and the only thing that's sort of out there is a question right now. So the quality is going to be good. The only thing out there is a question right now is whether or not they can handle all the people trying to access the stream at the same time. So if it buffers and for everybody else again, it's going to be a disaster. But again, what you're hearing out of the league is that they're supremely confident going in. Is Beyonce doing the first game halftime or the second game halftime? Do you know? Not that I care, but I was just curious.

I forget. Okay. Yeah. You know, I do not cover Beyonce as hard as I probably should. Sorry. You know, Noah Eagle is so good. I an Eagle's son. He's like 27 or 28 years old, right?

Am I right about that? He's really young. Yeah, he's very young, and he just has a presence on these games. And most importantly, he has a voice, I think, good to do it. I mean, I know everybody talks about nepotism, but nepotism, if somebody's good, they're good. Joe Buck's good. Yeah.

I mean, I have a famous father. I think that Noah Eagle is the same one. Yeah. So I'm assuming that you've looked ahead in terms of, you know, Washington's schedule and the games that are potential, it changes in their schedule. You know, they have Dallas this week. They're obviously, you know, not changing that one. They play Tennessee the following week, which is the, you know, Thanksgiving week game.

And the Sunday night game, that week is, is, it's a good one, actually. It's San Francisco, Buffalo. The Monday night game is Cleveland, Denver. Is that the first week where you can, not that Washington, Tennessee would get flexed. But is that the first week that Monday night becomes flexible? Week 12, week 13. But I think they would have had to flex it by now. In order to flex something to Monday night, I think you need more than just a couple of weeks, right? Okay. So tell me of Washington's remaining games how you think it'll play out in terms of flex opportunities. Have you paid attention to this? Because usually you're ahead of me on this.

Am I ahead of you on this? You know what? I haven't paid it to a bunch of a lot of attention to it, and this is why. I'm going to be surprised if any of the games actually gets flexed out, because it's not, the way the NFL has gone is you don't have this, a ton of games in the 1 p.m. window

that you can just sort of pick and match to flex on. They spread the, they spread the games out so much that all of a sudden you're going to be taking a game from another national window to put into another national window. And it just becomes really difficult for the networks and for the NFL to do that. So they started, I think last year they started to where you could actually start to flex out into Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football. I think Monday Night Football got one flex out of the end. and they had a terrible schedule last year.

Right. So it's, you know, it's, um, I, I, I started paying a lot less attention. Let me give you. Let me give you one. When they play the rematch against Philadelphia on Sunday, December 22nd, they are penciled in 1 o'clock Fox. It's a CBS doubleheader week. They've got San Francisco Miami as really the biggest of the two, because it's Raiders

Jacksonville and the other ones. so I'm looking at CBS to see if there's any game worth moving to 425. But the Sunday night game is Tampa Bay at Dallas. Philly, Washington, flex to Sunday night. There is almost, not almost, there is no scenario that exists on the green earth, that they're going to flex the cowboys out of a prime time spot. They're going to be, they're one of the worst teams in the league. How much of the game Monday night did you watch?

You watched the whole thing. I did because I bet it. I bet it. That was only sure about rating. You don't think that that they'll flex, because Dallas has a couple of them. They play a Monday night game coming up, or a Sunday night game.

Hold on them. Yeah, they play Monday night, December 9th at home against Cincinnati. Now, at least Cincinnati, you know, I mean, with Joe Burrow, et cetera. But if you've got the option of an NFC East showdown, maybe for the division, on Sunday, December 22nd, you don't think they'd flex Dallas, Tampa Bay out for Washington, Philly. Here's the most interesting story, media story that is happening in the NFL right now, is that the Kansas City Chiefs have eclipsed Dallas in terms of sort of being the team that the network

works want the most because they, you know, maybe, I mean, their winners, the back-to-back champions, Taylor Swift effect, a ton of reasons. It's taken Kansas City to go for a three-peat to win all their games closely, to have their star player date the most famous woman on the planet. And that's what it takes to get them to edge over a, what was Dallas' record, two and seven, two and eight. The networks they were three and six. They want three and six. So the networks

want Dallas, no matter what. They just they want to be able to show Jerry Jones on the sideline after a loss. They want to be able they would never have Dallas winning certainly, but they want Dallas. So there's no network executive that's going to be agitating

hey, let's flex this game out. Even if it makes more sense with a Philly Water in the game. All right. The next week, they play Atlanta. I'm not going to be proved wrong, but I don't think I will be. All right. I'll keep track of that one. I just, you're probably right. It's just that Dallas, like Philly, Washington in that spot probably doesn't do a better rating than Dallas playing Tampa. And it's possible Tampa could be back. Kevin, real quick. Here's what we don't know. And I've never been able to find this out because the networks are very key to you about all.

all of this. What games have the networks protected? Because the NFL just come in and say, like, oh, that's a better game. We're going to move it. Right. If I'm Fox, I'm going to have identified the commander's eagles and say, like, nah, I don't think that's going to anchor our 1 o'clock. I don't think I want to move it. So that's something that we don't know the answer to that would make that even more unlikely to happen. Well, didn't that happen with Baltimore, Washington? NBC wanted it flexed and CBS said no we're protecting it. Exactly. They have to do their protections well in advance. So it's not even though that it came up as a puzzle. So here's one for you. You know the Saturday that they're going to go with a triple

header. It's actually, it would be Saturday, December 28th and they hold five games aside. And we're probably within a week or two away of them announcing what those three games that'll get moved to Saturday will be. But Atlanta, Washington was one of the five, earmarked for a potential move to Saturday. The other games are Denver, Cincinnati, which actually could be a big game. Arizona Rams, that could be a decent game. Chargers, Patriots, Colts, Giants. I think Atlanta, Washington's one of the three that gets moved to Saturday. Although, I'll be honest with you, and you probably have the answer to this, and I don't know what the answer is.

do they try to put the best triple header together for Saturday or does it matter? I mean, how are those decisions made? It doesn't, they want to make sure that there's at least one top quality game on that Saturday to keep people watching. It's not necessarily going to be, it almost never is the top three games that they put. put in there. Right. But I will tell you this, the commanders, when they were making this schedule,

were a total question mark, a new owner and coach, rookie quarterback. The commanders coming out of this offseason, you better believe that the commander's going to be in a lot more of the primetime games. A quarterback that resonates, just the, the, energy around this team. I'm telling you they're feeling they, they, I'm a local D.C. guys as I might sound like I'm a homer, but I, I talk to the league executives all the time. I talk to the media executives all the time. They feel this energy, this new different energy, a positive energy coming out of this team. And it is a team that I don't want to pretend that they're like

the Cowboys or the Chiefs, but it's a team that they, uh, that they wouldn't mind having on air. Yeah, I've already talked about that, get ready next year for five to six primetime games, which are not my favorites, by the way. But we move on. Do you have a sense? I know I texted you maybe a month ago, but how have the local TV ratings for the Skins games been? So I looked into this about two weeks ago. I thought they were going to be through the roof.

And they are bizarrely down, like 5%, at least two weeks ago. They were down about 5% from last year. I'm not quite sure why maybe matchups. Sometimes it just takes a while for fans to start watching, even though it feels in my neighborhood, it just feels like the old team. Like they're starting to take over. I actually asked one of my really good sources at Nielsen about what was going on with that.

And they suggested, I haven't looked in since that point, which was like I said, about two weeks ago, they suggested by the end of the season that the commander's ratings, locally in D.C. We're going to be up probably, you know, single digits, maybe 10 percent or something like that. So not a huge jump, but a significant jump. and you will end up seeing an even bigger jump next year, because that's generally what happens, the first year, but that they come back. You know, it takes a while for people to come on.

The second year is when you really see a motor charge. But you know this because you live here and your fan. There are a lot of, you know, other factors in all of this. And sometimes I wonder whether or not, you know, what I do in, you know, in what I feel based on, from what I do. doing a radio show and doing a podcast every day. If it's this bubble that I'm in. And, you know, they didn't sell out a game until the Pittsburgh game.

I think that was the first sellout of the year. I think they were close against Chicago, but I don't think their first sellout was until the Steelers game. And you pointing out that the ratings are actually, TV ratings are actually down a bit from a year ago when they were horrible. it is interesting to me. I do get sometimes this feeling that I'm in this, you know, this bigger bubble because we know it's big compared to the other teams in town. We understand that.

But if there are still people that are like, yeah, I just don't feel it. I had the passion sucked out of me for 20-some years. The name is an issue with me. And, you know, I look out on the field and I see a team that's. not my team still, even though they're much better this year than they've been in forever. And I just wonder sometimes whether or not, you know, that's the case. And the TV ratings would be somewhat of a reflection of it is a bubble right now. Yeah, I go with the eye test. And so they haven't sold out, but the fans that have gone have been energetic, as opposed

of the apathetic for the past two decades. True. And if not sold out, like, you certainly see a lot more burgundy and gold in the, in the stand. Well, not against Pittsburgh. Yeah, not against Pittsburgh. That was a takeover.

That was a takeover. Yeah. Yeah. But I have a question, Kevin. Like, what are the metrics that you look at? Because I would think, for your radio show, numbers, like, there would be more, I don't know how you would look at this.

Would you look at it like calls coming in? Would you look at the emails that you get? Would you look at just the ratings? Are you seeing anything different with this team? Yes. Yes. Like there's a lot more energy around the team than there has been over the past two decades. Without question, yes.

Quantifiably, for sure, I think, you know, even more so for me is just anecdotally, you kind of feel it. And look, calls are, you know, a tiny, tiny percentage of your over- listening audience. But I've had more of those first time, long time, you know, first time caller, longtime listener calls in the last two months and I've had in the last probably two or three years. With that said, for me, it's like I still kind of wonder, is it, you know, and your TV ratings

numbers kind of make me feel this way, is it just, you know, a slightly bigger bubble. than it's been in recent years. I don't know the answer to that. I totally know the answer. You've been so scarred by a quarter century of Dan Snyder, Kevin. The NFL just signed $110 billion where the TV rights deal, no matter what market you go to, the NFL dominates rules, just like it did in the 1980s and early 1990s here in Washington, D.C.

It's not as though we're a bubble, the only bubble that, since North America that doesn't love the NFL. Like, it's a bubble that's just waiting for something to cheer with with the NFL, whether there aren't these off-field issues. It's so easy to talk about the commanders and the sort of fan support for the commanders. But if you just take the step back and just look at how powerful the NFL is and how popular the NFL is throughout the country,

Like, it's happening here. It really is happening. And we, I think that there's just a lot of people. And I'm like this as well, but just remember the past, like, I'm just not going to buy in because they're going to disappoint me. And they're not just going to disappoint me on the field. They're going to disappoint me just by doing something stupid off the field, like Sue or grandmother or something like. And those days are gone. They're going to start to build up again.

I agree with you. I guess what I'm saying is remember, like you know, Kansas City, New Orleans, Buffalo, you know, the markets where they're getting 30s in terms of regular season TV ratings. And, you know, we've been getting, you know, low teens, midteens for years now. And but back in the day, we were that team when it came to local television ratings. We were there with, you know, Denver and some of the, the really good markets that. that just kicked ass in terms of how many people, you know, the town would shut down. And I'm wondering if that is a possibility. It's clearly not there now based on 11 games. Clearly not there now. Probably won't even be there next year. But you're going to build to it.

And all of a sudden we're getting some positive news, RFK, potentially. It looks like it's coming back. You know, all of a sudden, do you remember? when Dan Snyder was looking around and all those markets were running away from him. Also now Maryland wants to keep the commanders, and Virginia wants to get the commanders. And like RFK, the DC one, and they're following public sentiment. And so it is going to be a slow, I don't think it's going to be a slow build, but it is going to be a build. And eventually, if this team continues to get better, if Josh Harris doesn't turn into a

Dan Snyder 2.0, I think that would see it happen. I mean, in terms of an eyeball test, you talk about the callers, I've been invited for the first time in probably 15 years, twice this season, come watch a commander's game over at somebody's house, like a neighbor's house that I didn't really even know that well. Like, there's something happening that's getting

outside of the bubble that I'm usually am. Just curious. How do Did the run-up to the election impact the NFL ratings? I know that they've always been impacted in presidential election years in the past. What happened this past October into early November? Kevin, I would have lost a million dollars on it. I thought that was the easiest bet in the world, that NFL ratings were going to go down. And what we've seen, actually, is that news network ratings went down.

People want, people were, I think they made up their mind on who they were going to vote for early. They decided not to watch CNN and MSNBC or Fox News, and they just wanted to break. And they wanted to go and they ended up going to the NFL. And the NFL is saying, I thought they're going to be down close to 10 percent, because that's generally what happens in election years. And they've been up. And it's been a big surprise to me. I think it was a big surprise to the league, and the election had almost no impact whatsoever on the NFL games this year.

Thanks for doing this, as always. By the way, the weekend of December 20th, 21st, 22nd, where you have the college football, you know, first round playoff, you got a game on Friday night, three on Saturday opposite the two NFL games. And then you got a full slate of NFL. that's going to be one of the great football weekends ever. Oh, it is. And one thing to watch there, because the NFL hated the idea that college football is encroaching on that Saturday. That was the NFL Saturday.

So when you talk about what games is the NFL going to put opposite college football, take a look if it's going to be one of the better games or one of the worst games. I think they're going to want to put one of their better games and try to, quote, unquote, teach college football a lesson on that. Well, it's the games. It's the Christmas Day teams. They just, you know, they're playing on that Saturday because they decided to play the Christmas Day games Wednesday. So it's Houston, KC, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, you know, and a double header. Oh, right. In fact, the NFL already made that decision. You're right. I totally got about that. Yeah. And put some, you know, high-profile teams there. Exactly. Yeah. You're the best. Thanks for doing this. I hope you're well. Talk soon. Talk soon, man. Thank you.

Hey, guys, no man wants to lose his hair, but for men, it's actually very common. And now with Hymns, the solution is simple. Try Hymns' hair loss solutions. You'll be joining hundreds of thousands who got their flowback. Hymns provides you with convenient and quality access to a range of hair loss treatments that work all from the comfort of your couch. Mims makes treating hair loss simple with doctor-trusted options and clinically proven ingredients. You can choose from personalized chewable, oral, spray, and serum treatments to find out what works best for you. The process is simple and 100% online, so there are no uncomfortable doctor visits. Answer a few questions and a medical provider will determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed, your treatment is sent directly to you in discrete packaging for free. No insurance is needed and one low price covers everything from treatments to ongoing care.

Hymns has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers and they can help you get your confidence back with visibly thicker and fuller hair. Start your free online visit today at Hymns.com slash Sheen. That's HIMS.com slash sheen for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Hems.com slash sheen. Results vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidil and phenosteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with a health care provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information.

Are you interested in free money to bet with? Well, that's what MyBooky is essentially offering right now. They're offering a 100% deposit bonus when you use my promo code, Kevin DC, at MyBooky.ag. Few shops, and I've been mentioning this for a week or so, few shops at this time of the year are offering this kind of deposit bonus. They're going to double your money. You deposit $100,000, you'll have $200 in your account.

You deposit $500, you'll have $1,000 in your account. You deposit $1,000, you'll have $2,000 in your account. They're giving you free money, doubling your bankroll right from the jump. Go to my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code. Kevin, D.C. Right now, Washington, a 10-point favorite Sunday against Dallas. The total is 44.5. How about this one for tomorrow night?

Pittsburgh, just a three-and-a-half-point favorite on the road at Cleveland. Stay tuned on that one tomorrow's show. I'll let you know if I've got it as an early smell test pick, but it certainly would seem that Pittsburgh has much of the attention of the betting public tomorrow night with that short number. MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin, D.C. So we had the news on the stadium yesterday with the RFK site bill passing in the Senate committee. The guy that worked on that forever with the team, and we've had Joe on the show before, is Joe Maloney. Joe was the head of public affairs for the football team for several years.

Now he is the senior VP of Communications at American Gaming. He's involved in the sports gambling lobby and arena. And Joe's always a great role. resource on anything stadium related because he was the guy conducting all of the meetings with Virginia, Maryland, D.C. while he was with the team. So I'll just start by asking you to take us through what happened yesterday and then what's next. Sure. Thanks, Kevin, for having me on. And yesterday was a really, really important development for the fate of the RFK parcel in Washington, D.C., and the ability for the city to have some control over it, finally.

And what took place yesterday was what's called a markup in the Committee of Jurisdiction for Public Lands in the United States Senate, which is the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, currently chaired by Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. this is a really crucial procedural step. The bill, which was the House-passed bill, which passed in January of this year on an overwhelming margin of 348 votes for 55 against, finally meandered its way through the United States Senate, and it made its way to this committee of jurisdiction. This committee overwhelmingly reviewed this bill and overwhelmingly passed it

by a vote of 17 to 2 in committee. So, in any normal circumstance now, Kevin, the bill would go to the Senate floor and await consideration before the full United States Senate. We are bumping up against the end of the year. And not only the end of the year, Kevin, the end of a session of Congress. So we had the elections recently. Next year, we'll mark a new session of Congress, a new majority party leader in the United States Senate. The Republicans will now take control.

a whole new cast of characters in the United States House of Representatives. So if the club and the city want to get this bill officially passed into the president's desk, so much needs to happen between now and the end of the year for that to take place. But yesterday was just a huge moment. And for someone like myself, as you said, who had the opportunity to work on this and be at the front lines of this effort, just a really, really awesome moment. And it's really exciting for fans that now want to see the team have this opportunity, just have this opportunity to negotiate with the city and perhaps

with the stadium at RK. All right. So now that you're involved in the gaming business, let's talk some odds, because we understand, you know, that what you described, it took a while to get there because of Senator Daines from Montana, right? I mean, this could have been done a lot sooner, and there would have been an opportunity to perhaps wrap this up in the Senate as a standalone vote or as an insertion as a rider onto a bill much earlier than down to the, you know, wire with this lame duck Congress.

I think that's accurate, correct? I might disagree there. There's a really long answer to why I might disagree. At the end of the day, what I would say is this bill was batched yesterday with a lot of other, quote, unquote, public land bills. And it was always going to be batched with a bunch of other jurisdictional, germane, pieces of legislation because there's not going to be a markup for a single bill, Kevin. So this was always going to be pulled into a suite of other pieces of legislation that are

similar. And while, like, yes, Senator Dane slowed the process a little bit, I'm not sure this exact markup hearing with all of these bills. I mean, there were a lot that were under consideration yesterday would have happened that much sooner. We would have loved for it to have happened probably in September. So we had more time to work on what the next step is. But I don't think it was unduly burdened necessarily, Kevin, by Senator Dane, but it certainly caused, you know, I think some additional friction and some of the negotiations. But that much is absolutely true. But, Kevin, I came very prepared for this question, right? You would expect nothing less for someone that now works in the legal enforcement industry.

So here's what I have for you, okay? I'm listening to the odds of D.C. landing the team in the state, right? Okay. There's only one site in D.C. that's the RFK parcel. There are no other sites. I was part of a very exhaustive process and diligence process to determine if there were other sites. There are not, Kevin. There's just one site in D.C. It's the RFK parcel. Okay. So let's just say that this process officially began with this current session of Congress, which went into session in January of 2023 after the 22 election.

Interestingly enough, previous ownership signaled an interest in selling the franchise on November 1st of 2022. Okay. That said to me at the time and to our team president, Jason Wright, oh, wow, let's capitalize on potentially some momentum politically around maybe a change in ownership. So off we went. So January of 2023, okay, was pretty much the official start of efforts, anewed, renewed in the three jurisdictions, okay? I would say at that time, the odds were probably of D.C. landing the club, okay? Probably plus 2,200, okay? Okay. Long shot. A year later, a long shot. A year later, January of 2024, the House passes the bill and is going to send it over to the Senate. 348 to 55. Overwhelming bipartisan vote. Odds increased to plus 850. Plus 850. Okay. Still, by the way, what were the odds on the other jurisdictions in January of 23 and then January of 24?

So in January of 23, I would honestly say, you know, again, we were still sifting through so much wreckage in Virginia after what went down in the summer of 2022. I don't need to go through that process again, but it pretty much ended with a defensive assistant coach saying something. casual and nonchalant about January 6th. About a dust. The dust up comment. Yeah, the dust up comment. And, but again, it was a lot more than just that. So, but, but I would still say, like, Virginia, it wasn't really on the board.

You know, it wasn't a, it wasn't a legal betting market, let's just say. Okay. Yeah. Maryland has always, and I've, and this was memorialized and enshrined in many different ways. And notably, notably me in a news article in Washington Post back in March, it was, Maryland was always a betting favorite. And so Maryland's odds were probably always around that like plus 150 plus 200. Okay.

So even in January of 24, when D.C. went to plus 850, you still had Maryland current site and landover as an overwhelming favorite at say plus 150 plus 200. Yeah. I mean, again, like political stability, you know, I think public appetite or both, you know, investing and being a partner in the structure as well as just a real. really suitable piece of land out there and landover, you know, 250 acres inside the Belway, proximity to metro, broad, broad municipal and state supports for doing something really exciting in that site. And that has not changed. Like, I still think that that is a very suitable and a very

attractive parcel. Let me just be really clear. I'm very sober about this. I can understand the sort of spiritual ties and the historical ties to RFK. But my job inside the club was just to deliver a very sort of sober, dispassionate analysis and run legislative and communications efforts, you know, to that end of just preserving that optionality and delivering optionality to the new ownership as they came in. Sure. So after the bill gets passed, plus 850, okay, because again, you saw so much work to do federally to do this, and there's so many different things that could upset a very delegate partisan and multi-stakeholder process when you're talking about getting something

done federally, especially during an election. So we get past yesterday, and it's pretty dramatic right now, Kevin. And I guess what I'd say is I'd probably compare it to the NFL MVP odds right now. You know, you have Josh Allen sitting at plus 150, and you have Lamar Jackson sitting at plus 200. So which one is Josh Allen and which one's Lamar Jackson? Is D.C. Josh Allen? I have Maryland. I have Maryland at plus 150. Okay.

I have D.C. at around plus 200, plus 220. I think D.C., I mean, look, these next eight legislative working days, we can talk in more specific if you'd like to about what needs to happen. But it's still, it's still, like, look, this is a, there's a lot of work left to be done here federally. and then obviously, but then it just puts D.C. on par and at the table with Maryland, and what I continue to believe is a two horse race, which much like the NFL and VP at this point. You're the best. You know, I've known Joe for a while now. He speaks the language.

Now, I just want to make, he speaks my language. So you just did it beautifully because I would have eventually got to, you know, where are we right in this moment, chances, percent, chances, odds, et cetera. I just want to, for the part of the audience, that, you know, is unfamiliar with this kind of discussion. Joe, after the House committee passed the RFK site bill yesterday, now has Maryland as just a slight favorite to land the next stadium over D.C. Virginia's off the board. You can't bet Virginia. Virginia's essentially got no chance.

Is that the best way to describe Virginia? I think just to be fair, I just think that the exercise that took place with monumental, and it just exposed some really deep misgivings that some really important leaders have about investments in multi-use facilities that include sports and entertainment. And I also think there's some just general unease, Kevin, in northern Virginia, around growth and around development. They're very crowded communities, land is extremely expensive in Virginia, and there just aren't available parcels that are very close

into the Beltway. It's why the Snyders were focused on things very far outside the Beltway. And when you combine the availability of land to be really difficult with the political exercise that took place and that ultimately was not successful, it's just – and this isn't informed by anything. I'm not in communication with the club. This is just my own observations having worked with leaders in the Commonwealth and watching what happened after Ted ended up, and monumental ended up, you know, focusing on Washington, D.C. I just don't think it's a legal betting market. I mean, I'm joking, of course, it's not a legal betting market. I do think it's off the board.

By the way, I remember during the discussion about I'm even forgetting the names, you know, I think Woodbridge was one of them, but there was a place even further. Dumfries. Dumfries. Thank you. Like, I remember just saying there is no way on God's green earth the NFL's other 31 owners are going to get, are going to allow Washington to move to Dumfries, no offense. Was I right about that in the moment? I would have a hard time believing that after a very careful political process that was built around diligence and it was accompanied by a sound financing structure, that an NFL committee or the commissioner would stand in the way of ownership's desire to locate a facility within its own home marketing area.

So I don't think ultimately the NFL would have stood in the way if some handsome package came together on an attractive parcel in a place, you know, as far away at Dumfries, Kevin. But at the same time, I think that, you know, leaders in Manhattan and in the league office, They never made it at any point explicitly clear. So I want to really be clear about that. They did not, you know, predestined or communicate any specific desire on a site. But I think from a revenue standpoint, I mean, my gosh, like we can all agree that, you know, the symbolism of an NFL stadium 13 blocks from the United States Capitol, Monday night football,

a blimp shot, a drone shot. I mean, it's certainly something that is probably. probably attractive to other NFL owners in the league itself, right? That's uneniable. But yes, I'm sure Dumfries gave people a lot of heartburn. Well, was it ever serious within the team, Dumfries? Dumfries itself ended up not being particularly serious. I think the site planning was just not attractive enough.

I think the issue with Dumfries, as I recall, was there was not a really great public transit option, VRE. You know, there's been long-time efforts to get a VRE stop closer to dump freeze and it just hasn't been successful. So while land was cheap and accessible, some of the infrastructure requirements would have been extremely expensive and that would be something that you'd look to the Commonwealth take on. Woodbridge was absolutely very much in play. Much closer. Much closer. Much closer. And absolutely in play. that was really the only serious site we were in discussions on.

Even then, that encountered just, you know, a lot of local pushback given its proximity to 95, right? And that spooked a number of legislators, and it spooked a lot of community members. You know, you have folks that could get in snarled in rush hour traffic, and they're just trying to drop off their kid at school in that part of I-95 and Woodbridge specifically. I think those are all things that can be overcome, by the way. But it certainly encountered some of the unrest. And so forget about Kevin anything sort of inside the Bellway in Virginia, right? There's just, you know, you need at least 50 acres for an NFL stadium.

The structure itself is almost 20 acres, right? I mean, downtown here, Cap 1 Arena, which my office is right next to. I mean, that in of itself is that structure itself is about, you know, I think it's somewhere just under like 10 or 12 acres, right? And just to give you another sort of comp, like Camden Yards, and it's sort of like near associated development, is about 60 acres, right? So you need significant amount of acreage to do a mixed-use NFL football stadium that can also do other major events, right?

And that's another component of this, is attracting final fours and other types of larger events. And so there's just not that availability inside the Belway over on the Virginia. thought. All right. So let's get back to, you know, these eight remaining legislative working days. I would assume that D.C. is a slight underdog here because of this, because of the potential that they won't be able to get it done, get it as a rider to an existing bill between now and December 20th. Tell me what your thoughts are on that. Yeah, so there's, there'll be an omnibus spending bill. They have to fund the government. The deadline was back in September. They did what's called a short-term continuing resolution, which allowed the government to be funded at current levels. So they now need to fund the government with it running the deadline being December 20th. There's these large spending packages that move forward, Kevin, during these times. And I thought Eric did a decent job. Eric Flack did a decent job on the radio program yesterday, describing left at stake. But let me just sort of simplify it a little bit more.

here, okay? There are lots of smaller policy bills known as policy riders that can get attached to larger pieces of legislation that are moving, okay? But they sit in two categories, Kevin. One, they are really, really big stuff, like things that move percentages of GDP, things that you have to do internationally from a diplomatic perspective. And I'll give you two examples. In my previous life prior to the commanders, I was a consultant and worked out a lot of campaigns that had a lot of sort of, you know, appetite to getting something attached to an omnibus spending bill. Okay. So one example, I think, when they recently did a CR in the last 18 months, okay, one of the big things that they attached to that funding CR was funding for Ukraine. I was just going to say, it would be something

like Ukraine funding. Right. Okay. Another example was, another example was the lifting of a natural gas and coal export ban at the time. Okay. It was this idea that other countries wanted our energy production. So why wouldn't we try to move it out? Again, percentages of GDP. So big stuff is category one, category two. Non-controversial things. Things that have procedurally taken all the steps that enjoyed wide bipartisan support and will not piss off anybody if they get attached, okay?

And that's the category you want this bill to fit in. Something that is non-controversial, something that has passed in a bipartisan manner, has taken nearly every procedural hurdle on, and overcome them. So I would argue, Kevin, we are at that point, and I would think the club and the city are making that argument to the Senate majority leader, to the Senate minority leader,

and saying, hey, when you guys come together and make a deal on me on me and you're considering policy writers, this one's got every rubber stamp possible aside from Senate floor passage. Let's get this one engrossed into the overall bill, along with all these other non-controversial things. That's the goal.

So how many of those bills between now and December 20th would this potentially category two non-controversial thing get attached to? There has to be something that they're going to pass between now and December 20th. How many opportunities exist, do you know? It's really just, there's just two, right? There's two big things that need to happen before the end of the year, the spending bill, and then the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA renewal. And so reauthorization, I should say.

So it's just those two things. You've got to get, you're trimming the Christmas tree at this point. So you want to get, if the RFK bill is an ornament, you want to attach it to one of those two Christmas trees as it leads out. So that's, that's it, that's it. And there is no standalone consideration of all of these many things. It's all a negotiation that happens with committee chairpersons, with majority leaders, with minority leaders, you know, So who convinces Schumer of this? Who has to convince Schumer?

Because it's not Boone yet it's Schumer. You're exactly right. And this is where, right? Like, because of, you know, federalism and because D.C. doesn't have senators. Like, this bill lacks an actual Senate advocate, right? And that's the shame in how it's set up. But it lacks an advocate. My guess would be that Mansion is empowered.

wants to see things that his committee passed. This is his last month as the United States Senator, as you know, he's retiring. So I'm imagining that the things that got out of his committee that were non-controversial, he might request they'd be included. I think the city is going to do a great job in terms of leveraging on, I think, democratic sentiment around this issue and others like it when it comes to federal disposition of lands that are being underutilized or unused. Democrats believe, let's give it back to locality.

They can use it for economic development. That's this. Republicans like this stuff because they want to shrink the size of the federal government. Federal government shouldn't own land if they're not doing anything with it, Kevin, right? That sort of GOP dogma. So this is something that's totally non-controversial. I'd argue it should happen. It should be palatable to these majority leaders and let's hope that it can do it.

So, again, I think to answer your question, I think the advocate probably has to be some combination of Joe Manchin, other Democrats on the committee that voted in support of it. And obviously, I think the mayor's office and the mayor's senior advisor, Beverly Perry, who I would, I would, it's just such an unsung hero in all of this, given her expertise. I know they're working really hard on this. And obviously, in coordination with the club, too. All right. So, I mean, I know what your odds are currently, but that plus one, that plus 220 slight underdog is based on this happening. So will it happen?

I'm optimistic that it will happen. I would agree with Eric Black's sort of capture that at the coin slip here in the U.S. Senate. If it happens, I do think it's even odds. You know, there's just so much, there's so much politics at play. You have the Speaker of the House that just wants to do a short-term CR. That's not a popular take right now. He wants a short-term CR because he wants Republican rule in January to send Trump a budget that he wants. I don't think that's ultimately going to happen. I think the United States Senate, both

Dems and Republicans, want to not deal with a funding deadline in a new session of Congress with a new president. So I think they want to kick it forward into the further end of the next year. If that happens, I think there's a high likelihood that a bunch of things do get attached in the form of policy riders. And, you know, that's why I'm just hopeful for the district and for the club to have this optionality. And, you know, obviously for fans that want to feed back at RFK, I think this is an important shot. Let me just quickly answer one thing. If a short-term C-R happens or if- By the way, what's CR stand for? What's the acronym?

Continuing resolution. Okay. Continuing resolution. That just fund the government at current existing level. Got it. Yeah. I think. So, you know, you have the Speaker of the House yesterday advocating for a short-term

CR, meaning let's just kick this into the early months of 2025. So Republicans, both in the Senate and the House, can work with the Republican and President Trump on a budget more suitable to their specific policy goals. This is, in effect, the last Biden budget if it gets passed, right? The last Biden and Senate Democratic budget. Okay, so you think that, you know, coin flip maybe a little bit more than a coin flip, but this is still the critical time here is to get this thing as part of a lame duck Congress final eight days prior to December 20th bill.

Yeah, it's hugely important. I mean, truly the fate of RFK is in the hands of a very few set of stakeholders at this point in the United States Senate. And again, if it gets attached with the spending bill, you don't oppose it on the grounds of one minuscule non-controversial item that will go to the president's desk. It will get signed. The governor will get funded. And the city will have every opportunity now to,

program that site to their own goals and objectives. And if it includes an NFL team, they're now officially at the table. Right. So I do want to finish with that, which is if it does happen, you know, how likely is it that they would get a deal done with D.C.? But real quickly, on these next eight days, will Chris Van Hollen be able to impact it at all? I think so. I think so. I think he would have been in a slightly more powerful position. prior to the election, particularly given, you know, Senator Chuck Schumer, a majority leader prior to, you know, any election. His or her main job is to preserve the majority. That ultimately ends up not being successful given the elections. I think Senator Van Hollen and Senator Cardin are going to continue to advocate for the interests of the state. You know, it just has to turned out, Kevin, neither one of them sat on the committee of jurisdiction. So that was certainly

a factor in its success yesterday. I'm, I am, I'm at a loss on what procedurally they can actually achieve. It, it is, I'm a Maryland resident. I'm, I'm, I'm proud to be served by Governor Moore and Senator Cardin, Senator Van Hollen, and soon, Senator elect Angela also Brooks, who's a good friend of mine. I, I don't foresee too many procedural options for them to throw sand to the years at this point. But, you know, it's just I'm sort of, so he can't, he can't hold it up. Van Hollen can't, you know, protract this thing to the point where they just say, yeah, let's let the next Congress deal with it. Yeah, it would be, it would be at the cost of holding up funding for the entire government and Biden's last budget. And I just have a hard time.

contemplating, fathoming even a Democratic senator who is a party stalwart and a big supporter of the current president and of the current majority leader. And it's in the name of something that, you know, again, under Democratic dogma is giving an opportunity for the city to program something that is of economic blight right now, you know, in Ward 7. So I don't, but that doesn't mean it's over. There's so much work to do after this. And I'm not even sure it's easy. even odd, even after D.C. had the opportunity to formally negotiate with the team. Yes, it's an attractive site, but there's still a lot more to do politically and procedurally with the city council and the mayor's office and club. And then Maryland sits there with, again, a very

attractive site and political alignment around wanting to keep the team. All right. So, I guess we can wrap it up with this. If it doesn't get done in the next, you know, month, the last eight working days for this Congress. And then it has to, from my understanding, and this is what Eric said, tell me if it's true, that basically it's like an etchice sketch, you wipe it clean. It's got to start all over, including going to the new house. And we start that whole process over. That's all over. Okay. So if it does not get done here, and the process has to begin anew with the next. Congress, where did the odds shift from plus 220 to plus what?

Honestly, I think we're back up slightly to like the plus 500 to plus 600 range. And the reason for that are I think President Trump is still a bit of an unknown on this issue. But even optimistically speaking, I think if Chairman Comer, you know, can build the right relationships, you know, with the incoming president, which I'm sure he clearly has. I do think Mr. Comer reintroduces Bill. I think he gives it a speedy reception in the House. I think it's something, again, that would be non-controversial in the House. I think the problem that Eric pointed out yesterday on your program is the incoming chairperson for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is Senator Mike Lee. And he had some serious questions around a whole separate issue

related to federal lands, which is fair market value. And that's just not something that I think intellectually has a lot of intellectual precedence for the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia does not pay for unused federal resources. Those are typically disposed. And so that is a big unknown, and that might drive the odds slightly higher. In fact, I didn't know that. I'm not following this issue, but when Eric mentioned it yesterday, it definitely, but my odds calculator sort of immediately went to like, okay, you know,

the odds might go back up. It's not plus 2,200 where we started. January of 2023 because they're still motivated House members. And look, I think President Trump would be really, really interested in, you know, I think if from what we know about President Trump and his passion for real estate and his passion for real estate development and his previous investments and entertainment, I think he might be interested in a federal disposition of land for something that can deliver, you know, a multi-use sports entertainment complex.

But would it add another year to the president? process, and would that turn off Harris, if true? 100%. It would add years, potentially, right? It would add years potentially to the overall timeline for the new structure. And again, I'm not in touch with the club, and I'm not sure the calculus on that, but, you know, obviously from a commercial standpoint, I think the full potential of the franchise, you know, despite its recent success, despite potentially a transformational quarterback. You know, it's still a revenue environment that is not ideal because of the current structure. So I think there's still obviously all of the, all of the rationale on the revenue

side of the house to get into a new structure as fast as possible. All right. So now let's go with the, they got it done. They got it attached. They passed it. And now DC has the RFK site for the next 99 years to do with it what they choose. At that point, there still has to be a deal negotiated between the team in the city. So just give me a minute on that, you know, the likelihood of that happening where they might be already in terms of figuring that out, because I would assume that there have been some conversations between the team and the city if they were to get the land, how a deal might work. If it happens, it passes. What are the chances it actually gets?

done. Yeah. So, you know, again, using the NFL MVP odds, this would be the equivalent of, you know, Lamar Jackson going to San Diego next Monday night, throwing for 400 yards and beating Harbaugh and Justin Herbert, right? So I think at that point, you know, you assume Josh Allen has a good game this weekend. I don't know who the bills are playing. I still think Maryland is a slight favorite.

Here's what happens, and we have the monumental example to look at very easily, right? So basically, monumental, Ted and the city and the mayor's office came together. They worked on a deal, and then they came to an agreement on a deal, and then that deal went to approval to the city council. So the same process would take place here. If they were to sort of formally negotiate in that manner, I suspect that they would continue a multi-jurisdictional approach. I called it multi-jurisdictional when I was there. Some people called it competition. I do think that the club would then, you know, set forward a process to more formally negotiate.

I think to the extent that there has been any conversation between any of the jurisdictions and the club, I honestly think it's just like back of cocktail napkin type stuff. I don't believe anything to be formalized at any point simply because, you know, Josh and the club have been very, very clear about wanting to take the time to realize this potential opportunity and have optionality with D.C. So I think once that optionality takes place, you'll see the club set forward a formal negotiation process. What that is, I don't know. You might offer an exclusive negotiating window, a period of 60 or 90 days to one jurisdiction over the other, see what they come forward with, see what could become an agreement on, and then come to a deal. Each one of those agreements would have to go through legislative bodies, Kevin. So if you were to do a deal with the Moore Miller administration, that would then go to the Maryland state legislature. And then, obviously, if the mayor and the club were to do a deal here in the district, that would then go to the city council. So let me just make sure I'm clear in this.

If we get this bill passed as a rider to an existing bill before December 20th, you improve the odds, but you still make Maryland a tiny slight favorite. Yeah, I do. I really do, Kevin, because I think Maryland is definitely sophisticated with this. They have a financial facility in the form of the stadium authority that can issue bonds. They're very professionalized in their approach. They're super motivated. Obviously, you have an enormous advocate and evangelist, you know, and Governor Moore. Obviously, the mayor is the same way, too. Again, I just think having already owned the land, being able to purpose it, I just think that there's a lot of political alignment,

which is why I would describe it as a slight favorite. However, it's a slight favorite. I do think that the council will have some political considerations. I think the Washington Post publicizing a poll, I think it was just a few months back of kind of widespread support across all wards of the city for the club to come back, I think was a big, big, big tell. I was so close to this issue for Kevin for many, many years. If you asked me to guess how the city's residents felt about the club coming back, I actually would have said it would have been a minority. The Washington Post poll had it as a majority.

So that's quite a bit of political cover for city council members to throw in not once but twice. for sports and entertainment facilities receiving public subsidies, which I would not have guessed in the moments after, you know, Ted was able to strike this deal with the mayor. I almost thought in a way, wow, that's going to make it really politically tough for council members to take another vote. But I think the city's residents want it. And so long as that these jurisdictions have financial health to partner in such a project,

I think they'll continue to make the case to the city's residents that this is important for economic development. in each of these respective jurisdictions. But again, it's just a feeling, Kevin, that I think Maryland just kind of stayed with a slight favorite. Does the D.C. contribution to whatever they develop, stadium and otherwise, need to be the best offer or just a comparable offer to Maryland? That's a great question. And again, the financial diligence I'm not close to. I mean, I would just say that these structures are expensive and only getting more expensive, right? You know, you're talking about a structure that when I landed at the club, the closest and cheapest comp at the time was the Raiders complex, which was built for a price tag of $1.97 billion.

I think estimates on the construction now of similar type size facilities is $2.5 to $3 billion. That's an astounding amount of money. I know we throw around like billions a lot. It's a lot of money. And I think, you know, Josh and his team are just, they're the best at assessing these types of money. of economic opportunities and investment. Mark I and Mitch Rails, they're not like hobbyists when it comes to running businesses.

Josh co-founded Apollo Global Management. Mitch has been running the most successful company is based on stock performance. So they're going to approach this with, I think, a financial acuity, keenness and diligence that is probably going to be unlike a lot of other NFL owners. This is not a scenario where it's cron money or Walton money, right? This is something that I think

will come down to, you know, what is something that is going to give us the right amount of partnership with a locality or a municipality or a state, and what is something that we can go into, you know, a private investment market, you know, provide for equity and make sure that those investors see a return on that equity is also going to be really, really important. So I don't, in other words, this is not a Stan Cronky deciding to build some megastructure for $5 billion entirely privately funded and he doesn't necessarily care how it performs. Right. Right.

Right. This is something that ultimately is going to need to perform. form in whatever jurisdiction it does, and that will be predicated upon season ticket holder habits, non-football events, what you can attract in music and entertainment, how you can do, revenue per square foot, premium spaces, standing spaces. I mean, the coverage of Steve Balmer's arena for the Clippers is really, really interesting and how they're trying to sort of monetize each area of the stadium for maximum revenue opportunities, as well as other sort of like non-basket all events as well. So all of those considerations are going in. Thankfully, you know, I'm not an

NBA. I didn't have to work on that stuff. That was stuff that team president, Jason Wright, was deeply involved in, as well as the HBSE team, which is highly sophisticated when it comes to that when you consider all of the properties they own across their sports team portfolio. So there's just so much expertise being delivered to that. To answer your question, and I spoke so long, I'm sorry, it's just not to the highest bidder. I just don't think that's how this ownership group is going to operate. All right. I do have one last question. for you, totally unrelated. You know, when you mentioned that, you know, you go back to November of 22 when Dan and

Tanya decided that they would look into selling the team and that immediately, you know, raised the odds across the board that jurisdictions would want to deal with the football team again, that was, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, when the announcement came out about they, had a secured Bank of America to sort of handle and look into a potential transaction. I'm just curious. When do you think the two of them were he decided legitimately, I'm going to sell this team? How much before November of 22? How long had he been considering selling the team?

I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I think the moment where I realized there was a potential for the environment to get very, very uncomfortable for him was September of 2022. And I'm not sure if you recall what happened in a different sport, but that's when Robert Sarver was effectively forced to sell the Phoenix. In Phoenix, yeah. Yeah. And so I think at that moment, you know, based on the set of allegations that took place. and, you know, what took place there, what led him to sell.

And, by the way, right, it's selling for $4 billion. Right. I just think at that point maybe, that's my best guess, right? That, like, it was going to get potentially very uncomfortable, but I cannot pretend to have been anywhere remotely close to those discussions, either, you know, with ownership, with Dan and Tanya, nor any of, you know, their closest advisors when it came to that stuff. But, you know, again, just from the environment within the club, you know, you sort of knew it was about to get very, very uncomfortable.

And then again, there were, you know, successes of ESPN stories like detailing, you know, some of what was to come, you know, based on, you know, the ESPN sort of expose during that time as well. And so, you know, maybe it was around that time. I don't know if six weeks from that point to November 1st allows enough time to sort of go into negotiation with a bank to agree to begin. the process for selling the team, but certainly the environment was really, really difficult around that time. You're the best for doing this at Joey Maloney on X on Twitter. Joe was with the team for several years and was intimately involved in all of the stadium stuff as the head of public affairs.

I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for doing this. Thanks, Kevin. Take care. All right. Done for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.