The Kevin Sheehan Show - Mock Schedule Day

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with Kevin's annual Washington "Mock Schedule". Kevin revealed his season opener yesterday but has the rest of it today. How many prime time games? When are the Cowboy games? All of the answers on today's show. The boys discussed the report from The Athletic about the struggles the league is having with the Josh Harris bid. They also talked NBA Playoffs along with the passing of both Joe Kapp and Denny Crum.  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. All right. I am here. Tommy is here.

Today's mock schedule day, boys and girls. From Lawrence. Lawrence tweeted, why didn't you do this earlier in the week? Games are already coming out today. I hope you don't change what you first had. No, I never do that. I mean, the goal here is not to get many right.

it's just to I don't even know what the goal is I actually would like to get some right Tommy I would like to get some right this year I don't think I got one right last year I think I went 0 for 17 with maybe a couple of close calls but nothing that close if I recall

I know I know you like being right but I know you would not fudge your predictions if you found out something was wrong I know you would not do that No, in fact, somebody sent me a link to Joe Ferrarra, or Ferreira, who was long time with the NFL and part of the schedule-making crew. And I think he was on with Craig Hoffman yesterday on our station.

And he suggested that he believes that the commanders and cowboys are going to play on Thanksgiving Day. I will tell you, I do not have Washington playing Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. and I was actually surprised that he said that Dallas is scheduled to play an NFC team this year on Thanksgiving Day because they played an NFC team last year on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe he got mixed up and I'm going to be right. I don't know. But by the time my mock schedule is listened to on this podcast by many of you, perhaps a couple of games will be wrong already.

trust me, more of them are going to be wrong than right. In fact, the best I've ever done is four right. That was many years ago, and I've never sniffed that. I think I've gotten two right, and most years I'll get like one right. You know, the right team in the right location on the right date. But last year, I think I went over 17. Look, 17 should give me more chances. At this point, though, it really should. should be about the trailblazing courage you've shown in going down this path. I mean, right or wrong, I mean, you've plowed a field that was, that nobody was plowing before, and now everybody wants a piece. So that should never be forgotten.

Maybe this will be the last year I do it. Just like I've told you before, and I think I've said this to everybody listening, gambling to me is not, betting on sports is not as, fun as it used to be. I don't bet as nearly as much as I once did. And the reason is, and I've told you this before, once it became legalized, you know, and I started listening to all of these people who had never bet before, talk about how smart they were, it kind of made it less cool, I guess would be the way to describe it. And I'm ready to move on from gambling and maybe the mock schedule after today. Because now everybody's doing a mock schedule.

You know, I was the pioneer on this thing, and I've told you before, it's better to be the second or third guy in most of the time. You know, the original guy usually gets buried along the way. It ends up the pioneer. The pioneers get arrows in their backs from those that are chasing. And the chasers usually end up doing better. But anyway, what? Maybe you should try.

a mock schedule for the nationals next year. Now that, that would take a lot of work. That would be quite the exercise. But you know what? That would be. It would be certainly something that hasn't been done before. So I will consider that. I will consider that.

My mock schedule coming up. No, I don't have Washington playing on Thanksgiving because I considered the Cowboys to be hosting an AFC team this year. And by the way, there's no hard and fast rule on that anyway. Maybe Joe Ferraro knows something that I don't know. And yes, some of these games may be out by the time you listen to the podcast. But you'll hear my reasoning on everything. And Tommy on yesterday's show, I revealed my opener and the logic behind it.

And I will do that next segment. So we've got a couple of things to get to here in the open, including this story that just broke on the athletic, written by Adam Kaplan. Adam has covered, you know, the sale of the team. It's got Daniel Kaplan? Daniel Kaplan. What did I say? Adam Kaplan. There is an Adam Kaplan somewhere.

Somewhere in sports I'm talking about as a writer. I believe Adam Kaplan might be an ESPN.com. But yes, it is, it's in fact Daniel Kaplan. And he wrote a story about the hurdles facing the Josh Harris bid. And there's a piece of information in here that is actually very new. And whether or not he's right, who knows at this point. You know, I think Kaplan's done a good job. I think the guy that we've had on Cosman from the New York Post has done an excellent job.

Osmanian, the guy from Forbes, they've all whatever. I don't, I can't. The Sportico guy. have done a good job. Yeah, they've done a good job. Borico guys have done well. All right. So I'm not keeping support.

Let me see if I'm going to get this right. Okay? Yeah. Because you like, I mean, because, you know, I don't necessarily see these nuggets that you always see sometimes. Okay. You know, because my vision is a little blurry. Well, your hearing is worse.

Yes, that's true. But was it the nugget about Daniel Snyder loaning? Yeah. money. Definitely. Yes. Definitely. So now that late, yeah. Yeah. Wow. There's that. There's one other nugget in here, but I don't know that you're going to be able to find that one because you're not very good at finding nuggets. That's true. By the way, that was very, that was very self-aware. Tommy's usually excellent at finding the nuggets, but he missed the nugget, because we talked about this before we started to record today. In the

athletic story by Mike Jones on Jason Wright. But when I pointed it out to him, and you'll hear me pointed out to him again, he was like, oh, yeah. And you admit that that was a nugget. We'll get to that in a moment. Yes. But Daniel Kaplan's story today kind of lays out right now where we are in the process. Today, by the way, is a key date.

May 10th today in New York, the NFL's Finance Committee meets. And this is going to be a topic at the Finance Committee. and one of the things it was reported on, remember, and by whom I forget at this point, again, they're all blending together, was this conditional approval by the league for the Josh Harris bid. It may have been Maskey who had this story. Which they pointed out, which they pointed out, is rare for the NFL to do. It's like, is an example of them seemingly bending over backwards to try to get this deal done. Yeah, I'll read. And get out of the Dan Snyder business. That's right. I'll read from the

first two paragraphs from this story. With the NFL Finance Committee meeting today and owners met in owners gathering May 22nd, 23rd, which is in a couple of weeks, the long hoped for sale of the Washington commanders to a group led by Josh Harris for 6.05 billion could get a vote even if only conditionally. Elements of the deal would break the mold for an NFL franchise sale, underscoring how much the league appears willing to bend its guidelines to move on from the Daniel Snyder era. There is the possibility of an unprecedented conditional approval. Again, this is what, I'll add this. This is what Maski and Nikki Javala reported, I think, last week for the post. It may have been, there were other reporters on it, and I'm forgetting their names, sorry.

There's the possibility of an unprecedented conditional approval, allowing more debt than his standard, and the prospective soon to be ex-owner, I think that would be Dan Snyder, extending a loan to the Harris Group to get the deal over the finish line. While the roughly 17 limited partners in the deal do not exceed the league cap of 25, they will require extensive vetting with investors from outside the country making the process more challenging. That's the first time that we've heard that, Tommy. That was the other nugget is that 17 limited partners we've heard about. We did not know that the vetting of these 17 partners was more challenging because there are investors from outside of the country involved in the deal.

We know that South American billionaire. But he's in New York. But he's a New York guy. I'm pretty sure he's a citizen and he's a New Yorker. Okay. I think I have that right. So then we get further down into the story where, you know, Kaplan starts to kind of explain that this isn't the easiest of sales because unlike the last NFL sale, the Walton's purchase. You know, the Walton Tepper, the Walton Penner, excuse me, family, as in Walmart, purchase of the Broncos for $4.65 billion.

They didn't have 17 limited partners. And before that, David Tepper's purchase of the Carolina Panthers for $2.275 billion, they basically, both of the last purchases were pretty easy. The primary, you know, controlling stake purchaser needed to be. be vetted, but not many more than that. This is a large group bid. And the reason for that is Josh Harris doesn't have the kind of wealth that apparently Tepper, well, the Tepper price was basically, you know, almost a third of what this price is. And the Walton family. And Kaplan writes, this is what appears to be happening. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hired an investment bank to consider a bid, but Snyder initially shut him out over his ownership of the post. Bezos

could have easily afforded the team on his own. And NFL owners may want to know why that avenue was blocked. So he throws that back into the story. But he writes, after more than two decades of Snyder's ownership, they're willing to overlook issues in the Harris proposal, evidenced by the Lee considering conditional approval before the deal is even signed by Snyder. Technically, other bidders, including Steve Apostolopoulopoulos, could make a run as Snyder has yet.

to sign an agreement. Now, I think we did know that. Now, here's the part that you picked up on and I picked up on and I was surprised by. Snyder has apparently offered or will be a part of the deal in loaning the Harris Group, $200 million. The $5.8 billion price is the price tag and then apparently to get it over the $6 billion mark, which Snyder wanted, there is like, for the lack of a better description, money and escrow in the event that a lot of the Snyder stuff ends up costing new ownership a lot of money. So they'll pay it to them if they don't have that cost. They won't pay it to them if they do have those costs. But the, but Dan is apparently loaning $200 million as part of the final sales price.

Asked why Snyder would seller finance. A person close to Harris said, quote, Dan wants to sell, closed quote. I think that's interesting. We certainly didn't know that, first of all, yeah. You know these kind of deals. Not these kinds of deals. These kind of deals.

I know. But you know business better than I do in terms of this. This group has the money to buy the team collectively. I mean, they do. I mean, they're not $200 million short, you know? Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know that. The family that we were talking about before, they are, according to Sportico, they are Colombian.

It's a Colombian billionaire Alejandro Santo Domingo. they have a net worth family of $12 billion. It doesn't mean that they're going to put it into the deal. No, it doesn't. But you know, you mean they can't go to Alejandro and say, hey, look, we need another $200 million, and he's going to say no? That's what I don't get. I mean, these guys have that money. It's possible that'll say no.

It's possible. Sure, because it's not like these people, first of all, I'm reading Alejandro Santo Domingo as a Colombian-American financier and philanthropist. And his estimated net worth is $2.5 billion. The family's net worth, the family business is worth over $12 billion. But his personal net worth is $2.5 billion. So he's, you know, right in that area with, you know, Josh Harris and Mitchell Rails and, you know, probably Magic Johnson. I don't know. But I don't know the answer to your question. I don't know that they have, they definitely have the money and didn't need to borrow $200 million

from the seller. I don't know that that's true. I know that put it this way, Tommy. The fact that they've got 17 limited partners in the deal tells you that it wasn't, you know, that Josh Harris wasn't capable, even with Mitchell, Rails and Magic Johnson, of just plunking down $6 billion for the team. You know, very few people are that liquid. There's one other part to this, too, and it's the league considering, hold on, where is that part? Buyers of teams right now can borrow up to $1.1 billion, you know, in debt. So they can borrow $1.1 billion and it's secured against the franchise, which Harris is proposing as part of the deal. So remember, Tommy, there are 17 limited partners, and I'm assuming they're equity partners, not debt holders.

And so if they're borrowing $1.1 billion, those $17 are putting up basically $5 billion because they're borrowing $1.1 billion. Harris also plans to add more debt against his other sports teams, the 76ers, the Devils, and Crystal Palace FC. And that is raising questions about what would happen if he defaulted on that debt. That's another nugget, by the way, that I didn't pick up the first time in reading the story. So what I've been hearing here recently is that the Harris group, is fine with the league. The Harris bid is fine with Snyder, but the hold-up is Snyder in the league. Now, this story still alludes to the fact that the indemnification and the Mary Joe White investigation,

the league is faced with Snyder's request for indemnification from potential lawsuits or fines. So they're still dealing with Snyder, who I, you know, I believe is still trying to get as much as he can on his way out, because obviously this is league pushing. him to go. But him loaning in sort of, I guess you would call it kind of a seller, uh, financed portion of the deal, um, $200 million. I'll tell you what, borrowing money right now, Tommy is not cheap. I mean, that's the other thing that I'm sure hasn't been easy is they're not borrowing $1.1 billion or $200 million from Snyder with 2% interest rates anymore. You know, the money.

is super expensive, which is one of the things I was told early on that a lot of the people, you know, when they first got a load of the business itself, which is not very, very impressive in terms of the individual team finances, like basically they've, you know, they're netting like less than $100 million a year. Their revenues have shrunk by like 25% over the last, you know, three to five years. And they would be paying an outrageous multiple. and then they'd have to go borrow money in today's climate of rates, of higher rates, and a lot of those people dropped out from the jump. Now, a lot of those people also jumped off because they figured that somebody like Bezos might come in.

And remember, putting a deal like this together is expensive. It takes time. They're lawyers. Like, you know, if you don't get this thing across the finish line, it costs you a lot of money to get close to the finish line. Yeah. Is there any advantage for Dan Snyder to be a bank in this? Sure.

Why not? Why not loan money against an NFL franchise that is pretty damn secure at, you know, a pretty healthy interest rate right now? I mean, it's pretty safe, and it's a pretty safe loan against an NFL team. So he makes the money on the sale, and then he also makes the money on the loan. Sure, he's going to make, he's not going to give it. It's not going to be an interest-free loan. I would doubt that, you know, that doesn't make sense to me. Right.

Unless it's somehow to get the deal over the finish line with, you know, maybe, you know, a much lower interest rate. I don't, I don't know. This is well beyond my understanding. There is a quote in here that I want to read. someone was asked So typically a seller and a buyer sign an agreement and then submit it to the league for approval.

In this case, Harris has unilaterally submitted the bid and the league is considering presenting it to owners for a vote that would be conditional on Snyder ultimately signing it. Yeah, the whole thing has been described. Remember, words like awkward, unusual, atypical have been words used involved in this deal for a lot of it. And then there's this quote, from a person close to Harris.

Quote, I still believe it will get approval. It's dragging through the NFL because they've never had to evaluate this type of bid. The NFL's choice is getting Dan out versus working through Josh's complexity. I think they'll find a way, but no guarantees, close quote. Another nugget. We just found a couple more nuggets in the story. No guarantees. I don't get it.

Even Josh Harris and his, his group, after two years going belly up, would be better than Dan Snyder owning the team. That's essentially what I think the league feels. I'm wondering, Tommy, if Josh Harris, with this kind of structure to a deal, could buy any other NFL team. It's this team that they just want the current owner out of. Yes. Yes. So, I mean, look, this story indicates that, you know, Harris's bid is very complex and that the league may conditionally approve it, but that it's not been the easiest thing for the league to get through either, essentially. And it certainly hasn't been the easiest thing you can tell

for the Harris group to put together. This is why eventually they're going to have to really change the purchasing rules. They're going to have to allow, you know, they're going to have to allow private equity into the NFL because the next wave of sales, and I would think a $6 billion price tag, Tommy, would be an incentive for other owners who have been thinking about selling to now think about cashing in because this is the highest sale of all time. It's just like, you know, no different than when something in your neighborhood, sells for a price that you could never have thought was possible. And now it's like, well, maybe we should put ours on the market.

See what we can get. So I said yesterday, I think on the podcast, about the Jason Wright profile written by our good friend Mike Jones in The Athletic, that God forbid for Jason Wright that Snyder somehow retains the team. because he's been out there just gleeful and super, super enthusiastic about the Snyder's moving on. And again, I will repeat this. He's not wrong. Everybody understands that the business has a chance to succeed with him gone, and it has not had a chance to succeed with him in it.

But, you know, Jason Wright was on CNBC last week, and he's incredibly enthusiastic about, you know, how great. the business has been just on the mention back in November that the Snyders would be selling. I would not certainly describe that kind of conversation as like insubordinate at all. It isn't, but it is incredibly direct towards your current boss, even though he's not going to be your future boss. But if he ended up being your future boss and your current boss, let me put that the right way, your current boss and your future boss, because for whatever reason, the Harrisby that bid fell apart, the first thing that would happen, I think,

is Snyder would fire Jason Wright. There's no way Jason Wright could work for Snyder at this point, right? No, I don't see how. It's kind of surprising that he wanted to. That Jason Wright has been so gleeful about Dan Snyder's departure, because I go back to what Jason Wright said after he got hired by Dan, and these are words that nobody should ever forget. I love when you do this.

August 2020, Jason Wright on Dan and Tanya Snyder front office sports, quote, they shared, I shared, and I think that transparency, authenticity, and the acknowledgement that we had shared values and a shared vision of what makes a good culture and a good organization made me incredibly excited to jump into partnership with them and coach Rivera.

His good buddy, Ron Rivera. Yeah. You're like, you're like, you know, the Sunday morning programs, you know, Stephanopoulos or or Chuck, you know, I don't watch that anymore, Chuck Todd and Meet the Press, when they have a politician on and they pull up something they said from like 12 years ago. that they're now voting for that they voted against in the reasons they voted against it. Yes. Of course.

He did not have to say that to get the job. My point is. And if he could say that, then he's capable of saying anything. So this story, and I asked you about it before we started recording the podcast that I talked a little bit about on the podcast yesterday, this story written by Mike Jones and the Athletica. It was a profile about Jason Wright. And I described it, Tommy, and you kind of described it the same way. And it's like I said, you know, the first half of it's like a book report on Jason Wright.

You know, there's no – and I'm sitting there waiting for, well, when's the list of blunders? When do we get into the CBO discussion, the chief blunder officer discussion? And Mike eventually did get there. But I asked you if anything specific – You know, beyond that, jumped out to you, and you couldn't, you didn't pull the nugget that I pulled. Today's show has a theme. It's called Nuggets. And by the way, the Nuggets looked great last night.

Yokic played really well. So I will just repeat what I talked about yesterday. I think that this line, as I was reading this story, completely, you know, there were two lines, two nuggets in this story. But this was the one that I immediately texted. a few people and I said what, you know, and they're like, oh my God, yeah, because Ron Rivera didn't just say, hey, I'm not available for the story. He declined to be interviewed for the story. Why would the head coach who is working in an organization side by side with the first ever black team president in the NFL, why would he decline an interview on what is like a profile

piece where they're looking for, you know, you to say nice things, you know, supposedly. Or that's the expectation, I would imagine. Mike, if he had gotten Ron Rivera, Ron Rivera wouldn't submarine him in this story. But maybe Ron just couldn't do it because he would have to tell, he would have to say things he doesn't want to say. Maybe, or maybe Mike Jones, I think, on and other media has suggested. that Jason Wright wants to run the football operation. Yeah.

I mean, we've kind of seen that move here a few times. I mean, look at what he did with, you know, Scott Abraham and Carson Wentz last summer. I mean, you think, if you people think that Ron Rivera was thrilled about that? No, no one was thrilled about that. That was completely unnecessary and not the role of the team's head of business operations. So this is Ron Rivera's rival then under new ownership. They're both positioning themselves for, you know, I don't know if Ron is as much as Jason is. Look, he's got a football background if that's the movie wants to make.

I think Ron is doing it. I just don't think he's very good at it. Yeah, there's some of him doing it, but I think Ron would be, Ron is 60-something years old. Jason is 40. Ron's football life may end after this year. That may be it for him in coaching and in football. And I don't know that, you know, that would be a super surprise to him. And I'm sure he's prepared for that as well.

And given what he's been through here in Washington since getting here, he kind of needs a break. But for Jason Wright, and look, he played in the league, and maybe he has a desire to move to the football side. you know, his background isn't in the football side other than playing as a football player, but we've seen out-of-the-box hires, you know, on the football side. John Lynch. So we've seen some of those. And so, look, Jason, I'm sure, can sell himself whether or not Josh Harrison, Mitchell, Rails and company buy into whatever it is he wants to do in the organization, whether it's his current job

or, you know, have it blend into the football side as well. I don't know. Personally, my hope right now is that, well, my belief right now is that the dysfunction in the organization has, you know, persisted since all of the changes back in 2020. I still believe that Ron's done a pretty good job with the culture of the football side of the building, but the record still isn't good enough. And it wouldn't surprise me if there are less arrogant and less offensive people in the organization on the business side than we're there before. But we've seen one gaff after another.

And I don't think everybody in that building at the highest levels get along very well. I would suggest that Ron declining the interview would be an indication of what Ron thinks about Jason Wright to a certain degree. I can't imagine a guy who talks to beat reporters at the drop of a hat would turn down an interview if he had a lot of nice things to say about Jason Wright, which leads me to, I just hope that when Josh Harris takes over this team, there's just a complete cleansing. I'd like to see a whole new start with all of the people he believes can lead this organization back to, you know, prominence. and if there are people in the building that he believes can get him there and there are going to be some people in the building that they're impressed with and that will stay and I'm not rooting for anybody to lose their job that's not what you know I don't want to do that but I just think we've seen the

I think we've seen a lot of the culture of and aura of dysfunction continue even if it's been at a slightly lesser scale. I mean, see, see Indianapolis Colts tampering NFL investigation. Right. For the most recent one. Did we talk about that on the show the other day? Or did that happen after the show?

Okay. No, we talked about it. Yeah. We talked about it. So you're right. While, you know, there may have been things that Ron Rivera has done, certainly to improve the culture in the locker room the type of players on their roster

the daily days without an accident zero still persists you know yeah it's still it still persists just you know cross out the seven and put zero again yeah anyway oh the other line in that story real quickly that I thought was interesting. Right before Mike Jones gets to the list of, you know, gaffs,

he writes, and I thought this was kind of interesting, he writes that, hold on, where is it? I had it here a second ago. The Athletics spoke to 15 people around the league with ties to right or with current or recent ties to the team for this story, some of whom were granted anonymity to share their candid thoughts without fear of retaliation. I mean, you had 15 people around the league with ties to write or with current or recent ties to the team for the story.

And some said, man, I'll talk, but I'm not talking with my name attached to it because I fear retaliation. Well, I mean, I understand that with Snyder. But anyway, I mean, what does that say to you? I mean, if you're writing a piece about somebody who's really done a terrific job and there's nothing but great things to say about them. You don't get anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Well, I mean, retaliation may have been too strong a word. Okay.

I mean, there's a price. I mean, for somebody to comment about another team's executive, I mean, that's not done. If they're going to say something negative in particular. Right. It's just not done. Look, I said yesterday, there's a lot of positive in this story about him. Lots, including quotes from people in the league who think he thinks he's doing a great job.

Julie had great things to say about him. Yes, he did. That was remarkable, wasn't it? All right, what else on this? You ready for my mock schedule? I am so excited. I've been waiting for this, Davey. I got up early in the morning just for this.

I know you did. All right after these words from a few of our response. All right, this segment of the show where I unveil my mock schedule for the Washington team, the commanders they're called, is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And they will allow you to do something that most books don't allow you to do. And that is you deposit, whatever you want to deposit, call it $1,000 or call it $500. And once you've wagered that $500, you're eligible to cash out. A lot of places make you wager your deposit amount around multiple times before you're eligible to cash out. MyBooky doesn't do that. Go to mybooky.com, my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., they'll take good care of you. Golden State tonight, a seven-point favorite over the Lakers.

I know everybody out there is saying the Lakers are going to take this game off and that, you know, they did it in the Memphis series, and that this looks like an absolute lock blowout win for Golden State. I would just be aware on that. I would stay off the game. Too many people are saying that this is going back to L.A. And it makes sense to me on why everybody would like Golden State, but it seems like too many people like Golden State. I mean, I was listening yesterday morning to that show Get Up on ESPN.

Greenberg said, The Lakers shouldn't even send LeBron and Anthony Davis. They can't win that game anyway. I mean, no offense to Greenberg, who, by the way, was great on the show a couple of. of weeks ago with me talking about his book. But when I hear people like that, absolutely 100% sure, that's when I usually go to the window on the other side. I'm going to back off the game tonight. I didn't love any game yesterday except for Denver a little bit, and I did

play them a little bit, and they won big. We'll talk about the NBA playoffs in the final segment of the show. But go to mybooky.ag or mybooky.com and use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, Tommy. My 2003 Washington Mock Schedule. So I unveiled in my mock yesterday, the opener that I picked. And I'll give you my reasoning because I don't think you've heard much of this. And for those that didn't listen to the show yesterday, I was looking for a season opener at home,

even though they've played three straight home openers. and typically that would lead me in my mock schedule to predict that they'll play a road game in the opener after playing three straight home games against the Eagles, the Chargers, and the Jags last year. I think the NFL is going to do them a favor and allow this celebration of Dan Snyder being gone with a season home opener. Now, a lot of people have discussed, well, don't you think it'll be a prime time game? I don't. I don't think an owner being ousted or selling is reason for a prime time opener. I think owners don't move needles. Players and sometimes coaches do, but players do primarily. But my reasoning for picking Arizona, Tommy, as the home opener is I think this is a game that they can sell out if they were playing, you know, if they were playing Blessed Sacraments, A team. I just think it doesn't matter who in the Rockville League, by the way, that's an old Rockville Football League reference for those of you in the know in Montgomery County.

I just don't think you want to put Dallas or Philadelphia in that home opener or even the Giants or the Bears or the Bills. You can sell that game out with your own fans there to celebrate the new era beginning without Dan Snyder. and I took the game that has the least chance of the fans of the visiting team taking over the stadium, and that is the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, September 10th, 1 p.m. Do you like the reasoning or not? I like the reasoning. Let us remember that a sellout is not the 90,000 that Dan Snyder expanded at stadium too. It's not to 75,000 that Jack Kent Cook opened the stadium with.

It's 63,000. Oh, well, I don't think it's that. It's 58. No, no, I think a sellout is over 60. Are you sure? Pretty sure. Yeah. Okay.

I thought it was dropped to, it's something in the 50s now. I don't think so. Well, remember, they were, so the, in average attendance last year. Okay, you're right. You're right. What's the number Tommy, 61? I said 63.

Okay. All right. You know. All right. Yes, it's not a lot. Right. So, I mean, we're not talking about a Herculane effort, okay, to do that. Now, the likelihood of having the visiting fans show up for Cardinals game,

is significantly diminished, which is part of the attraction of doing that. You know, based on your logic, it gives the opportunity for commanders fans to show up. I agree with you. You're just so all in that it will be a sellout. It's a no-brainer to you. I'm not as 100%. I might be 80% on that. I'm not as 100% as you.

Okay. Look, I haven't, I've had zero desire to go to a game in a few years now. I actually would think about going to that game on opening day just to see what the reaction was and see a stadium and feel the stadium. That stadium was never great to begin with. But to be in a stadium where there's some electricity and some atmosphere. Like an XFLDC Defenders game, right? Exactly, yeah. All right, Arizona is the opener Sunday, September 10th, 1 p.m.

I will tell you. I like the logic because I think some people have suggested Miami, but I remember about four or five years ago, they opened with the dolphins, and there were dolphin fans all over the place. It's true. I was shocked at that. That was in 2015, the, The Redskins opened with the dolphins that year at FedEx Field.

That was the, you know, that was the first game Cousins started as the starter after Jay in that training camp said no for the entire season. And they beat the Rams the following week. But they've actually, it's interesting, you know, for Washington has opened the season against the dolphins. I believe three times in Washington over the last 40-some years. Dan Marino came in here and threw five touchdown passes in an opener back in 1980. In 84, I'm going to check that because I'm pretty sure it was 84. They got absolutely, in 1984, the Redskins opened with the Dolphins, 35 to 17. lost, and Dan Marino, 21 of 28, 311 yards, and five touchdowns.

He was pretty good in 84. Yes. Do you think that the schedule makers at the time thought there was some kind of symmetry to always have in Washington and Miami because of their two Super Bowl face off against each other? Yeah, maybe. I mean, I would bet it's, I would bet you that it's pretty rare. that an NFC and or AFC team has played a team from the other conference three times in a home opener over the last, you know, 50 years, 40 years. Washington played Miami in the 84 opener.

They played them in the 2007 opener. And they played them, as you mentioned, in the 2015 opener, which is weird. I mean, you know, you only play those teams at home once every eight years. with the 16 game schedule. You would play the dolphins at home once every eight years. You would play them once every four years, but then, you know, it would be at Miami, then home against Miami. That's why 2000, think about it, 2007, and then eight years later, 2015,

they played the dolphins in the home opener as well. The last two times Miami's been a home game for this franchise, they've opened the season with them. Maybe I'm, maybe I should change my overall. opener. I'm not going to. All right. Let me get through the record. I think the Cardinals, it gives the least opportunity for visiting fans to fill the stadium. That's what I think. I think that that's true. All right. Arizona, home opener, September 10th, 1 p.m. game. Washington, like every, actually, I think this is the first year where teams can

play more than one Thursday night game, and teams, I don't think need to be penciled into a Thursday night game. but I've got them week two at New York Giants in a Thursday night game. All right. So that's the second Thursday night game of the year, a week after the opener where the Chiefs will play. I don't know who they'll play. I think it's going to be an AFC West opponent personally. But I've got the skins at the Giants week two on Thursday night.

They've actually played the Giants, I think, three times previously in a week two Thursday night game, including in 2021. After they lost to the Chargers, they played four nights later at home against the Giants, and that was the game where Hopkins missed the field goal, but Lawrence was off sides,

and he got his second chance, and they won the game 30 to 29. Week three, I've got them at Denver. Week four at home against Chicago, and week five, I've got as an early buy week. It's been a while since they've had a buy week early in the season. They've

in more mid and last year, very late in the season, if you recall. I've got an earlier in the season by week after opening with Arizona at home, the Giants on the road, Denver on the road, and Chicago at home. Then on October 15th, the first of two games with the Cowboys, I've got it in a 425 Fox doubleheader. It could be a CBS doubleheader. Those things have now changed significantly in terms of the networks and the games they get. So Dallas at 425 on October 15th. And then, They'll play a Monday night game. Yeah, I've got them in a Monday night game as well. And this was kind of random, but we've seen a lot of random Monday night matchups at New England on October 23rd.

By the way, this year, the NFL, and John Oran's great at sort of spelling out all the nuances and new things to the NFL scheduling. They're going to do three Monday night football nights. with what they call side-by-side games. If you recall last year, we didn't get the double header in week one. In week two, we got a game that started at seven. It was Buffalo and Tennessee on ESPN. And then on ABC at 820, we got the Vikings and the Eagles. They're going to do that three times this year.

So that adds another three potential Monday night opportunities. I think Washington will play at least once on Monday night. I've got them at New England in Foxborough. on Monday night, October 23rd. Then home against the Eagles on October 29th, 1 p.m. Then at Aaron Rogers and the Jets, second trip to the Meadowlands on November 5th. Then at Seattle on November 12th, 425 game. They have three West Coast trips this year, Tommy.

They play at Seattle. They play at Denver, and they play at the Rams. And so you have to take that into consideration when you're doing a mock schedule. because they're not going to make them play at Seattle and at Denver in back-to-back weeks, you know, or at Seattle and then at the Rams. They're not going to make them play at Seattle, come home and then go back to the West Coast the following week. So I've got them at Seattle, November 12th. Then they come home to play a Sunday night game.

Now, this is, you know, when the flex scheduling is in place against Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers. So I've got three primetime games. The Giants Week 2 on Thursday. night, the Patriots on October 23rd on Monday night, and the 49ers on a Sunday night, November 19th. I do not have them playing the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. I've got them Thanksgiving weekend playing in L.A. against the Rams. Then Sunday, December 3rd at home against Buffalo, Sunday, December 10th, at Atlanta, where they may face Taylor Heineke. And then I've got a weekend of December 16th, December 17th.

They'll play the Giants at home, and it'll either be on Saturday or Sunday. Late in the season, the NFL earmarks, typically five games that will be held out for a triple header on Saturday, December 16th. Washington and New York will be one of those five games that will be held out as a possibility for a Saturday game that weekend. That's my, by the way, proudest mock scheduling moment of the last few years. when I predicted that Washington would face Tennessee in 2018 on December 22nd on a Saturday afternoon game. And I got it right. I have no idea how I got that one right.

I've got Miami here on Christmas Eve. I've got a game at Philly on New Year's Eve, and then they'll close at Dallas. So the final two games at Philly at Dallas, the at Dallas game would be January 7th. So there it is. They closed with Dallas last year. At home, they did.

Right. Yep. So again, Arizona at home, at the Giants, at Denver, Chicago at home, by week. Dallas at home at New England on a Monday night, Philly at home, at the Jets, at Seattle, San Francisco at home on a Sunday night, at the Rams, Buffalo at home at Atlanta, the Giants at home, Miami at home, at Philly, at Dallas. There it is. Twenty-twenty-three mock schedule. Any questions? Eight home games, right? Yeah, the NFC plays eight home games this year and nine road games. The AFC gets the ninth home game this year.

And just to go over again, the prime time games, last year, Washington played two prime time games. Right. And they were both on the road. That's right. You haven't played three prime time games, and are any of them home? Yeah, one's at home, and that would be at San Francisco at home. Yeah. Okay. Right.

Okay. Yeah, last year they played, last year they played the Bears on the road, and they played the Giants at home on a Sunday night, which was flexed. Yes, which was flexed. Right. That's true. That was a home game. There you go.

So that wound up. three prime time games. Yeah, and the Eagles, when they pulled off the upset at Philadelphia to end their hopes at a perfect season, right? Those were the three. So they had two scheduled last year, ended up with three. This year I've got three scheduled. They could end up with two because the Sunday night game in November could certainly be

flexed. They could be flexed back to a Sunday afternoon game. This year, by the way, for the final six weeks of the season, and there's Monday night flexing. So you can be flexed at a Monday night football starting this year. That's a change to the scheduling rules as well. All right. Let's finish up with a few things, including NBA and a couple of passings that I want to mention as well.

We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, Tommy, the schedule show is tomorrow night at 8 o'clock on ESPN and the NFL network. there's a lot of NBA and NHL going on. Baseball as well. Do you think Shelleys will have the NFL schedule show on tomorrow night, for those that want to go down there, grab a Stogey, a cocktail, and watch the NFL schedule show? Look, Shellies does good business, and good business in bars is putting the NFL on your TV.

That's good business. Whatever is something worth to. So, yes, I would think that the schedule show would be on at Shelly's as well. Let me tell you, Shelly's back room is a cigar bar. Now, it's also a very high-quality restaurant, and it caters to everybody, smokers and non-smokers. But it is essentially a cigar bar.

And cigars are, they're like a piece of art, okay? It's not like manufactured at, you know, I mean, it's rolled. They are rolled. I mean, if you've ever, you ever see cigars guys who roll cigars? I have. Yeah, I mean, I, I, you know me, I'm not a cigar smoker and I don't know anything about cigars, but I've watched guys roll cigars. It's really interesting. Yeah, it's, it's really interesting. There's an art to it. And you know what's funny? Uh, uh, sometimes if I'm smoking and I'm walking and I'll pro my cigar, but like on, on the ground, kind of hidden a little bit, not like right out. me open and I'll step on the cigar to grind it into the ground a little bit. Right.

And I've had people give me grief about that, okay? And I have to point out to them that this is not a cigarette butt, that this is a cigar, and cigars are made of leaves, and leaves decomposed. So I'm just feeding the earth when I drop off my cigar butt on the ground. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay.

But specifically about cigars, and this is important, a good cigar requires a certain conditions to stay fresh for a long time. You have to take care of temperature, moisture, and humidity. Therefore, you need a cigar eubidor to maintain the humidity of your cigars so that you can enjoy them for a lot longer. Well, Shelly's back room has over 200 humidor's available for annual lease. Seems like a lot. walls of, yes, they're on the walls of both dining rooms. They provide easy access to your cigars and preserve them, so they'll be at their peak when you want to have a smoke. And the owner, Bob Matarazzi, who's so generous in donating the Shelley space for our cigars and curveballs,

B.C. Grace Fundraiser on Monday, May 22nd at from 6 to 8 p.m. he usually also offers a one-year lease of a humidor at Shelley's as part of the bid for the auction that we have. So not only, I mean, you have a chance if you go to Shelly's to maybe get a good deal. If you go to the event, you get a good deal on a humidor there as well. So your cigars are there all the time for your picking. Shelly's back room, 1331 F Street, Northwest. in the district, and to buy tickets for the D.C. Grace fundraiser, go to D.C.grays.com. Sounds like a great idea. I love Shelly's, and we really appreciate, you know, Bob and

and Shelley's being a sponsor on this podcast. All right, so before we get to the NBA, there were two deaths yesterday that, you know, caught my attention. Joe Cap passed away at the age of 85 years old. I'll be honest with you. I don't remember Cap really as a player. Obviously, I've seen many times the highlights of Super Bowl 4 because that is the Hank Stram's Super Bowl, the, you know, matriculating the ball down the field boys Super Bowl. And Cap was the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in that Super Bowl. And by the way, the Vikings were massive favorites. Everybody remembers the Jets win over the Colts being the biggest upset in NFL history.

Well, the next year in Super Bowl 4, the Vikings were like, 13 and a half point favorites over the Chiefs. They weren't supposed to lose to an AFL team either. And the Chiefs beat them handily, 23 to 7. And Joe Cap was the starting quarterback for those teams. I remember Cap more as a coach, you know, at his alma mater, Cal, for the years that he was there. But I'm assuming that you remember Joe Cap. And he also, wasn't he also in that first longest yard movie with Bert Reynolds?

There you go. Yes, he was. He was in the first longest yard. Yeah. He played one of the prison guards. He even had a couple of lines in it. Was he any good? Yes.

I forget. Yeah, he was good. And, you know, let's face it, when we say the first longest yard, there's only one longest yard. I agree with that. That's true. Yeah. I'm with you. By the way, you know...

Here's what else. Yeah, go ahead. I mean, I remember seeing Joe Cap play. And he was, he was, you could tell you, he was a tough guy on the field. And he was unpredictable with his passing sometimes. I mean, I think he's had like five or six touchdown passing games in his career. Now, I think, you know, according to this, I'm looking at the Wikipedia page. He was with the Redskins in 1959.

Wow, I didn't know that. He was selected in the 18th round by the Redskins. After the draft, Washington did not contact him, so he took an offer from Jim Fink, the general manager of the Calgary Stampeders, of the Canadian Football League. So he was drafted by the Redskins. But then the Redskins didn't bother the call.

Wow. I didn't know. He wound up playing for the CFL. I think he might be the only quarterback, and I'm looking for this if I can't get it. We're playing a Rose Bowl, a gray cup, and a Super Bowl. All right. And also. Yeah.

Go ahead. No, go ahead. I want to see what the also is. It might be what I was going to say. Okay. From what I read, and I don't know if this is accurate because I didn't back check it, only Joe Namath now, is remains of the eight starting quarter. backs in the Super Bowls that featured the

AFL versus the NFL. He was the only Namath is the only one living now? Yes. With passing of cap. You know, before they did AFC and NFC. Yeah, so the first the Super Bowls that were

the AFL, the merger was in 1970. So that means that the first Super Bowl that wasn't AFL versus NFL, correct me if I'm wrong, would have been the 71 Super Bowl, which is Super Bowl 5, between the Cowboys and the Cults. So that means the first four Super Bowl. So you had Bart Starr passed away.

Daryl Lamanica, Lenn Dawson. Lend Dawson passed away recently, right? I want to say that was recent. Daryl Lomonica is no longer with us, right? Yes. Then Jets, Colts, Unitis and Moral are no longer with us. And then Joe Cap and Len Dawson and Super Bowl 4. So, yeah, Namath would be the only one out of the...

out of those quarterbacks. So, I don't know, I don't know if you've ever seen a YouTube video a few years ago, Joe Kapp got into a fight on stage with a guy named Angelo Mosca. And it was like two old guys. I mean, Angel Mosca had a cane, okay? And it was like two senior citizens fighting. But it was a pretty, pretty interesting fight. They had been teammates in the CFL together.

and there was some long-standing bad blood. And Angel Mosca would on to become a very well-known professional wrestler for years. Well, so how did the fight turn out? I mean, the other guy had a cane. Did he get hit with the cane? Joe Cap may have been hit with the cane, but I think Joe Cap won. Okay. It's on YouTube.

All right. If anybody wants to look at it. Sounds like... But Joe Cap was a colorful, was a colorful tough guy. and he took a team to a Super Bowl. He was also the coach of Cal on the day of the Cal Stanford game in 1982. The Stanford Band is on the field game with that incredible toss-it-around play. He was the coach of Cal that day.

The other passing that I wanted to mention, because this one actually is more in my wheelhouse, is that Denny Crum passed away. 86 years old. Denny Crum built Louisville, and it is pretty, pronounce Louisville into a powerhouse in college basketball. He was there for 30 years. They won two national championships. They were, Louisville was, you know, I wouldn't put him in blue blood territory, but they were at the top of the next group for all of his years as the coach at Louisville.

He went 675 and 295 after 30 years. with two national championships. The Daryl Griffith, 1980 team, Dr. Duncanstein, when they beat UCLA, he coached under Wooden. He was one of Wooden's assistants at UCLA and left UCLA to go coach Louisville and then beat them in the final in 1980. And then won the national championship in 1986 with Never Nervis-Ellison beating Duke in Coach K's first championship game as the head coach of Duke.

They didn't win that one. And he was a hell of a coach. Those teams were always so well-coached. He and Lefty during the 70s and into the 80s, they had a relationship because Maryland played Louisville a lot. That was always one of the Tarkhanian and Louisville. Crum and Tarkhanian, Lefty was close. I don't know why or how the relationship with Crumb developed, but they played, they seemed to

play home and homes with UNLV and Louisville a lot through those years. And he was a great coach. I mean, he was a coach of a team and a state where there was only one team that mattered, and that is the team that plays in Lexington. And that state ended up with two, I mean, super high profile programs. And in fact, Joe B. Paul and Denny Krum for years did a radio show together in Kentucky, you know, from the two arch rival schools. But yeah, Denny Krum passed away. And he was a great coach, Tommy, just an incredible basketball coach and had some

great, great teams. I mean, they were, they were, they were, he went, he took his teams to final fours six times. By the way, one of those final fours was in 1975, which was Wooden's last title at UCLA. And they beat Louisville in the semis with Denny Crum. And then they beat, by the way, Kentucky in the final. And that was Kevin Grevy's Kentucky team. Kevin Grevy, I think, in that 1975 NCAA final had 35 points, I think it was. Kevin Grevy was a hell of a college He was hell of an NBA player. But UCLA beat Louisville in that semi-final Final Four game.

It was the teacher over the student with UCLA beating Louisville. And then Louisville got UCLA, not John Wooden's UCLA team. Larry Brown coached that 1980 UCLA team, but he beat them in the final. But hell of a coach, rest and peace to both of them. All right, you did watch. Actually, the one- thing I wanted to say about Kat, the game I was talking about, I think in 1960, he threw seven touchdown passes against the Baltimore Colts in one game.

Wow. Yeah. And this is when the Colts were defending NFL champs. What is, does Foles still have the record? Is it Nick Foles that has the record for touchdown passes in a game with eight? I don't know, but what a career of that guy. No, seven's the record. Seven's the record.

Nick Foles had seven. Drew Brees, Nick Foles, Peyton Manning, Y.A. Tittle, George Blanda, Adrian Burke, Sid Luckman, and Joe Cap. Eight quarterbacks have thrown seven touchdowns in a game.

So there you go. By the way, he did it against the Colts. Yeah. All right. Did you watch the NBA games? last night? You said you did, so I want to get your reaction first. Yes, I did. I watched them. Okay. So you want to get my reaction now? Well, yeah, I just said I'd like to get your reaction first. Hence, you do it now. Okay. That's a little asleep on the wheel.

This is early in the morning, you know? We're doing this early in the morning. We are today. And I don't usually like to talk early in the morning, you know, pretty much. So do you want, So just give me... I can go. Okay. I'm ready. All right. I'm ready.

Okay. You know, you just call me a little bit unaware. Yeah. But I'm ready. I might have been nodding off a little bit. Mm-hmm. I'm there. I'm there.

You know, the Celtics, they don't look like they're a very well-coached team. Terrible. Yeah. I really want them to lose this series. Way too much. That team has too much talent to be able to be losing to the 76ers. Agreed. Like that.

Yep. So, I mean, that was my takeaway from that. I love Joel and the terrific player. Not as much as I like Yokic. That guy. Yeah. Like I said the other day, he's the old guy who walks on the court and has these old-school moves and can do nothing else but put the ball in the basket every time he wants to. Yeah.

I mean, him and Murray are a tremendous one-two punch. Yokic, by the way, last night, 29, 13, and 12 is 10th career playoff triple double. He breaks a tie with Wilts Chamberlain for the most by his center in NBA history. He's got the most triple doubles for a center in NBA history. That game's significant takeaway is Devin Booker. And he, you know, rolled an ankle a little bit. He was not right during that game. You could tell.

I like Denver going into the game. And I really want Denver to win this series time. I want Yokic to get that NBA finals exposure. I just don't think that there are a lot of basketball fans that are really, he's a two-time MVP, but like you're even kind of discovering him here. And it's me pushing you to discovering him. So I would love to see Denver in the NBA finals so people could see just how good he is. that was a hell of a stretch during the second quarter of that game

when Phoenix came back with Durant and Booker and they were making shots from everywhere to basically turn a double-digit deficit into a lead briefly, but it was all over after the third quarter. And Booker's health, you know, last night he was 8 for 19. After going 34 for 43 and two games, he was 8 for 19, still 4 for 7 from behind the arc, still had 28 points, but they're down 3-2, and you're 100% right, man.

Boston, Portland, poor. coached. Look, I'm not a big fan of Doc Rivers either. I mean, I'm not. Others are. I'm not the biggest fan of Doc Rivers as an ex-as-and-o's guy. I guess, you know, he's great with players, I guess. Joel Embed needed to do that last night. He, and he did it pretty much in the first half. He was awesome in the first half when they took, you know, a nine-point lead that felt like it should have been more like a 16-point lead. They gave up some, the Sixers have some real mental lap. as well. I am rooting for the Sixers to put the Celtics down here because I don't think the Celtics deserve it with the way they've played in this postseason. And then I also think that Miami's got a

better chance of beating the Sixers. I want to see Miami, Denver in the NBA finals. It would be a nightmare for ESPN ABC. But those are the two teams that I think deserve it, although I'm not going to short shrift the Lakers and how good they are. That is right now by far and a way. way in this postseason the best defensive team by a lot. And I mean, I think defense matters in the NBA playoffs, not in the regular season, but it matters. And we're seeing that with the Lakers who are just outstanding defensively. I hope the Warriors win tonight, because I'd like to see the Lakers have some pressure at home to put it away and avoid a game seven. And I would expect Curry to have a big game. But I think there's something wrong with the Warriors, Tommy. And

goes back to the Jordan Poole, Draymond Green incident. You know, they gave Jordan Poole that money. He's clearly a problem on this team. He's not a guy that fits in with the championship pedigree players that they have, and yet they gave him that money. And he looks like he has, you know, after missing that shot in game one, he's lost all confidence. And Kerr and the teammates have lost all confidence in him.

but we'll see. It just doesn't seem to be the Warriors team that we've seen. And there may be big changes coming for them. But I'd like to see it get back to. I'd like to see a Friday night game in L.A. That would be interesting. Tonight you get those two, you get that game and you get the Knicks in the heat, which is really the least interesting.

I'm surprised that the Knicks have played this poorly, but it's a lot to do with Miami and a lot. to do with Butler and a lot to do with Spolstra. And by the way, they're supporting players. I mean, I've been so impressed with Kyle Lowry. Man, he is another guy that has just played really, really big in the postseason. You know, how old is Kyle Lowry now? He's got to be 36 years old.

He's playing great. He's 37. Just looked it up. Wow. He's playing incredible basketball. All right. Do you have anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss.

You've got a weekend away, right? this weekend. Yeah, going to Bethany Beach for the weekend. Why don't you post... Maybe I'll run into FedEx Frank. Or maybe you'll post a picture of you dressed in all black on the beach, including with the black socks and the black shoes. That would be a really good look for you.

We look forward to that on Twitter. We are done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow.