The Kevin Sheehan Show - Most Underrated Commander

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on plenty of things including the Snyder response to the Post on Saturday and the Football Outsiders pick for the most underrated player on the Washington Commanders' team.  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. Tommy's here. I am here. How was your Fourth of July weekend?

How was Rudy's up in the Poconos? I saw some of the pictures you sent from there on Friday, I think it was, right? Friday you were at Rudy's. I went to Rudy's Thursday night. And it was good. It's always good. Sometimes it's better than others, you know, but there's always people. in there that I recognize, and like I said, that was my 47th year drinking in the bar that has

not changed, literally at all. The whole layout is exactly the same, including the bar stools and the booths, and they have a fire cooker, a grill that is 75 years old, and they have to search the country for parts when this thing breaks down because it doesn't exist anymore. Well, it says that the bar opened literally in the early 1900s. I mean, it's, I mean, you weren't there in the early 1900s. The parts that you were just talking about that they have to go out and try to find, they could just have new equipment. But what kind of parts are we talking about?

for what kind of equipment? Well, whenever, you know, things break down on like a stove or something like that, or in this case a fire, an indoor fire grill that they have. And when they need a part, there are no parts to be had. So they have to search the country for old junkie, similar machines to get a spare part. Where they could just buy a new machine. No, that would take away from the glory of Rudy's. Yeah.

You know, and what was interesting is I saw the owner there, and she called over her husband, who is a big Washington football fan, it turns out. And he refuses to call him the commanders, by the way. Well, a lot of us steal that way. Yeah. And, you know, we're talking a little bit, and he tells me, and I remember this, like he said about a week ago, a guy came in here. He was dropping his daughter off at gymnastics camp up here,

and he came in here and had a beer and had some food. And he said he came in here because you told him to, which I did. Some guy had emailed me asking, you know, he was going to East Trousburg, where should you go? I said, you got to go to Rudy. So did he fill up your yingling glass with a beer? Let me tell you something. Nobody gets free drinks at Rudy. You can afford it.

I'm looking at the menu right now. It's not very expensive. When I started drinking there, you could buy eight-ounce glasses of beer for a quarter. Their food menu, they've got a little. But nobody, nobody drinks for free at Rudy. At least I never have. And I've drank for free in a lot of places. The liver worst sandwich is just $4.50.

Wow, Liverwurst. Oh, that is horrible. I know a lot of people that love liverwurst. It was never a taste that I got used to. Well, good. So you had a nice weekend. This is James Franklin's bar when he comes back to East Strasbourg, the Penn State Coast. Yeah. He always goes to, like I do. He always goes to Rudy's as well. When you come back in the town, you go to Rudy's. That's generally what happens. And somebody said to me on Facebook, he must be the norm of Rudy's. And I said, there's a lot of norms at Rudy's. A small town, you know, number one tavern slash bar is, you know, it becomes kind of a part of the community. It's legendary. When you're in a big city, you know, you have neighborhoods that have bars that have been there forever.

But, you know, Washington doesn't have, I'm saying this, and I'm not, you know, probably the right person to describe this anymore, even though I go to bars occasionally. But, you know, it's not like I hang out downtown. It's not like I'm in Adams Morgan all the time. Or it's not like I'm in, you know, 14th Street, you know, area or Logan or, I mean, we'll go down for dinner in various places. But I'm not a young person going to bars trying to figure out what the good neighborhood bar is. In Bethesda, there are a couple of neighborhood-ish kind of bars. There's one that is not that far away from my house. The Irish Inn at Glen Echo is kind of a neighborhood-ish kind of bar.

But you don't get as many of those in... I guess you do, though. Like in the Northeast, Tommy, even, you know, New Jersey and Philly and New York, there's so many more towns that are neighborhood-ish kind of feel. than I think D.C.'s had over the years. Yeah, and Pennsylvania is full of small towns. Right. And they all have way more bars than they do churches.

And this bar used to, like, there used to be a printing company about a block away called used printing, and they operated around the clock, 24-7, three shifts. Right. And it was interesting, at 7 in a morning, Rudy's would open its doors for the, the 11 to 7 shift that just come off of the job at uses printing. So it's that kind of bar. Plus it's a college town. It's a small college town, but it's a college town.

And I tell you another thing, I drank in a lot of bars before I was 21 there. Never Rudy's. They were adamant about carving. Never drank there before I was 21. Wow. Well, I mean, well, to the drinking. age was 21. See, for me, it was 18. I was grandfathered in. So we didn't have to worry about that. All right. Well, good. What did you do on the fourth yesterday? Anything's?

Well, actually, yesterday we came back from the Poconos and went to the fireworks at Baker Park in Frederick. Baker Park is one of the great parks in Maryland, and they have a very good fireworks show. So we went to that. On Sunday, we went to a family party. in Flemington, New Jersey. It was interesting is it was a party hosted by the next generation. In other words, a nephew

as opposed to one of my sister-in-laws or brother-in-laws or something like that. So there was like a changing of the guard moment where the next generation basically hosted the family party on July 4th. Oh, wow.

So that was kind of interesting. Yeah, we haven't gotten to that point yet. I mean, although we should be close. I mean, I have nieces and nephews that are now in their 30s. So we should be getting close to some of that. But there are no grandchildren anywhere across the landscape. All right. Well, I, God, I did nothing yesterday. I watched tennis, which I want to talk about here in a moment. And then, you know, like probably many people, which, you know, it's unfortunate. seems to be, you know, a once-a-month occurrence, you end up being glued to a news story.

In this case, what happened in Highland Park, Chicago, north of Chicago, a beautiful, beautiful area. I've spent time there. It's just, it's a great place. And that was obviously awful to watch throughout the day. And then I fell asleep early last night. We had, we did have a barbecue. My niece and her husband were in town.

back to Chicago, by the way, where they live. And they stopped by. And so there were two, four, five. There were seven of us. And I just did burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Nothing spectacular. And then afterwards, I think I was asleep by nine o'clock. I didn't stay up for fireworks or anything like that.

Although I think my son and his girlfriend went down downtown to watch the fireworks. because he said something, texted something about a ridiculous Uber charge to get home, which, yeah, if you go down there and then you're trying to get out of there quickly, it's going to be expensive on Fourth of July to get back if you Uber. But other than that, I played golf a couple of times this weekend, not yesterday. I played on Saturday morning and Sunday morning. And Sunday morning following, oh my God, Tommy, you weren't here for this.

And not everybody listening that lives in the area got this, but we had just an unbelievable rainstorm on Saturday night. Did you hear about this or not? No, I didn't.

Trential, flooding rains that were very isolated in terms of the areas that were affected. It was like Rockville, Bethesda, you know, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Upper Northwest D.C. And that was it. I mean, I awoke on Sunday morning, you know, late Saturday night, Sunday morning to rain like I have not heard in a long, long time.

There was record rain amounts for some of the areas in town. I think Silver Spring had seven inches of rain in like an hour, seven inches of rain. There were roads shut down. There were high water rescues going on all over town. And it was an amazing amount of rain in a short period of time. The Capitol Weather Gang always does a great job. I'm reading from it right now. Last night's flooding in northern D.C., southern Montgomery County, northern PG County was legit.

Five to seven inches of rain. near Silver Spring in Rockville, overflowing streams, high water rescues, flooded basements, people displaced, et cetera. I know this. I'm in Upper Northwest D.C. And at 1.30 in the morning, it woke me up, which it's kind of hard to do at 1.30 in the morning because I'm usually in a hard sleep by then. And I looked out and it was as if you were in the middle, you were standing in the middle of a shower, a flooding, you know, shower. And it was, just water pouring down. It was like a waterfall, but it was really an amazing rain.

And then I thought my golf would get canceled Sunday morning. It didn't. The course trained amazingly. And so we played. And then the other thing I did this weekend was I watched tennis. You know that I used to be a big tennis fan. And I've got it on right now as we're recording this because Djokovic is in trouble in his, in his fourth, round match. I watched Nick Curios' two matches over the weekend. Are you familiar with him or not?

He's the latest tennis cry baby, right? Well, he's not the latest. He's been this way. He's been tennis's bad boy for like five, six, seven years now. But he's never broken through at a major. He's never been beyond the quarterfinals at a major tournament, but Tommy, he's so gifted. And this has been the promise of Nicurius going back. He's Australian going back to when he came on to the tour back in 2014. He was 19 years old, something like that. And by the way, the match Djokovic is playing right now as a quarterfinal match. But anyway, he's incredibly gifted.

And the promise when he came out was this guy's. going to be a major champion. And he's that talented, but he's had major demons. He has suffered from depression. He's had a lot of issues. He's been defaulted from matches. He's been, you know, he's gotten into back and forths with other players, with lots of umpires. And his match on Saturday against Stephanos Sitsapas, who is a top four player in the world from Greece and has not broken through and won a major yet, but is kind of threatened that in recent years. Well, the match deteriorated into Sitsapas actually hitting a ball into the crowd, it banging off one of the walls and hitting a lady in the back of the head.

And that turned into Kiroz saying, well, he should be defaulted. I would be defaulted in a minute if I did that. And then the behavior from both of them was pretty bad, although really it was worse, I thought, on Sitsapas's side. But he just rattled the number four seed and ended up beating him in four sets, four brilliant sets. The four set tiebreaker was just so high level. Then he played yesterday and he was in trouble against an American that I had never heard of. Nakasimi was his name, Nakashima, I'm sorry.

Brandon Nakashima. and he lost the four set. It looked like he was about to do what he does often, which is kind of heading the tank, although he usually wins at Wimbledon in five-setters. And he destroyed this guy in the fifth set. And then this morning the news broke that he is going to be charged with assaulting his girlfriend back in Australia

and has to be in court in a month. So this guy is a personality. He's a problem. He's had problems. including major psychological problems, but he's just so talented that when he's playing at a high level, it's kind of hard not to watch him and root for him. So now here he is, you know, there's always something around him,

and the latest is alleged assault of a former girlfriend, and he's going to have to appear in a Canberra courtroom next month. He's not going to be, you know, he doesn't have to do that tomorrow. tomorrow he's going to play in a quarterfinal match to try to make his first men's semifinal appearance. But I don't know, sometimes sports need, and I think tennis in this country for a while has needed a major personality, even if it's a negative one, if the guy is good and talented. And I think people are watching this guy. The place was packed. He's Australian.

I know. He's Australian. It doesn't matter. Oh, I think it does to a lot of. of people in this country. I think the big problem, everyone acknowledges, there's no American tennis star, male American tennis star. I think that's been a part of the problem, but I think there's also not been a big-time personality. Federer and Djokovic and Nadal have all dominated, and none of them are overly compelling personalities. Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg,

Bjorn Borg because of his, you know, iciness and coolness. But there have been, you know, foreign players that were massive stars in this country. Only because they had a foil against them in this country. That's in the 70s and 80s, that's probably true, even in the 90s to a certain degree. There's some truth in that. But I think Boris Becker, you know, look, you're right. I mean, we've gone on now 20 years since the last. American Wimbledon champion.

22 years. Sampras was the last American Wimbledon champion in 2000. The last American male to win a major was 2003, Andy Roddock at the U.S. Open. I mean, that's pretty amazing that American men have been in the desert, tennis desert, for so, so many years now. But it's the domination of three players. that have just, I mean, we've never seen a tennis era like this,

like with the domination of these three players. Fortunately for the U.S., Serena was, you know, winning all those majors, and Venus was a big star at the time. But I don't know. Look, Kiroz isn't Nadal or Djokic or Federer, obviously, but he is one of the more gifted players. He's got, for those of you that have played tennis, and Tommy understands this,

I'm not trying to exclude Tommy from the conversation. You hear the expression he's got great hands. McEnroe had maybe the greatest hands and feel for the game of any player of all time. That's curious. He has some of the greatest, softest hands and feel for the game of almost anybody that's ever played, but he's been incredibly self-destructive throughout his career. So I don't know. I'm kind of rooting for him.

And then people will say, oh, you're rooting for a guy that just got charged with assaulting his girl. I mean, I'm not rooting for that, but I think the guy has been pretty cool to watch here over the weekend. So I watched literally sat there yesterday for three and a half hours. I haven't done that in a long time and watched a tennis match. I've done that with golf. I've watched five straight hours of a major golf on a Sunday lots of times on Saturday, but I haven't done that in tennis in a long time. And he made me do it actually.

I don't think I would have done it with Nadal. You know, I may have done it in the final, if it's Nadal Djokovic. But, um, right. Curios is, he's an interesting dude. Interesting. You didn't watch it, obviously. No, I didn't watch it. Did I just interest you in watching any of tomorrow's quarterfinal, Curios?

No. No. No. Not even a little bit. Absolutely not. Right. Did you ever watch tennis? Yeah.

In the 70s and the 80s, like everybody else did. Yeah. I used to play tennis. I wasn't particularly good, but I used to play when, I mean, I remember that when they built the tennis courts down by the playground in East Strasbourg, and we used to go down there and play all the time. And then went to Rudy's afterwards. Well, not until you were 21. Right. Now they're all pickleball courts.

Pickleball's a great sport. You know how much I like it. Unfortunately, I injured myself recently doing it, but I feel much better. All right. We got a lot to get to, including. a suggestion that maybe Washington would benefit from trading Taylor Heineke. We'll get to that and the stuff that was written about Snyder this weekend and a lot more, right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.ag or MyBooky.com and use my promo code Kevin D.C. And they'll match your first deposit, dollar for dollar, all the way up to $1,000. They will have everything you need for the upcoming football season. They've got everything you need right now for props on the upcoming football season. So go to my bookie, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. So Tommy sent me this thing before we started recording the podcast. It's something from some fan website, but it came from a bleacher report story

about a player that each of the NFL's 32 team should consider trading. And for Washington, it was Taylor Heineke. And they wrote, quarterback Taylor Heineke started 15 to 17 regular season games for the commanders last season. Clearly the team had seen enough. Heineke's a wonderful story as an underdog who rose to the occasion and got the most out of his ability. The undrafted free agent also had a stint with the XFL's St. Louis Battlehawks. By the way, I'll add parenthetically as a backup quarterback for the XFL's St. Louis Battlehawks. The 29-year-old showed he can play, even if he's not Kurt Warner.

However, the commanders traded for Carson Wentz and March. Heineke's skill set didn't do enough to open up Washington's offense. Head coach Ron Rivera believes Wences can. And then they've got some quotes from Ron Rivera talking about how we can go vertical and we can open up the passing game. And then they mentioned Washington drafted Sam Howe in the fifth round and also signed southeastern Louisiana's Cole Kelly. He's the big six-seven dude, by the way, as an undrafted free agent.

Two rookies with promise behind Wentz should be all Washington needs at quarterback. Other teams, meanwhile, could use a quality backup or a bridge in Heineke. That from the Bleacher Report story of the players that each of the 32 teams should consider trading. I wouldn't trade Taylor Heineke. I don't think Taylor Heineke is a starting quarterback. Most of you know that by now. But I wouldn't trade Taylor Heineke. Heineke. What are you going to get for Taylor Heineke? A sixth round pick from somebody? A seventh round

or a conditional seventh? And the truth is, he has proven himself to be a decent backup quarterback in the league. And if you are going all in on 2022 being the season in which you've got to start your turnaround, and you are all in on Wentz for at least 2022, I'm not saying keep Heineke in case Wence doesn't work out, you know, and then Heineke can be the guy in 2023. No, I'm saying you keep Heineke because in 2022, if Wence gets hurt and you're having a decent season, you've got somebody with experience to put into the game. I would never trade. I mean, you're not going to get anything for Taylor Heineke.

So anyway. If they trade Taylor Heineke, then that's because they've got a Carson Wence problem. Right? I guess. Yeah. I mean... But there's no good reason to trade Taylor Heineke, except he makes Carson Wendz nervous. Yeah, but if you've got to trade Taylor Heineke because you've got a Carson Wens problem with Taylor Hineke,

then you've already got a Carson Wens problem. Well, I would say that you probably, you may have. Okay. That's a possibility. Yes, it is a possibility. You may have one at this point. So what you've got to do, Since you're all in on Carson Wentz, you pretty much have to, like, play to his needs, however petty they may be.

You're not trading. If you can't convince, okay, Carson Wentz, as the head coach, that Taylor Heineke's not a threat to your job, then you should not be in the business of trying to motivate, you know, professional football. players and coach professional football players. If you, if sometimes, sometimes, this is stupid. So beyond your control. This is dumb. There's,

go beyond your control sometimes. I know they had to, you know, make them aware that they were drafting Sam Howell, but trading Taylor Heineke because Heineke makes him feel uncomfortable is a, we've entered a different conversation here. The Sam Howell thing's bad enough that they felt compelled to tell him that they were, that they were drafting him as if that, you know, a fifth rounder, but, you know, Sam Hal was a big name. But everybody's watched Taylor Heineke enough to know that they wouldn't have traded for Carson Wentz and given up what they gave up and, you know, eaten his full salary if they thought that Taylor Heineke was any

any bit of a threat to Carson Wentz. You know, didn't we talk about the ranking on CBSSports.com of the backup quarterbacks from two weeks ago? And the, um, of the veteran quarterbacks, not the new quarterbacks. Taylor Heineke was the sixth ranked backup quarterback in the league behind, and they had Garoppolo in Mayfield as the first two. And then it was Bridgewater, Foles, Minchew, and Heineke. Now, I wouldn't have ranked him that high. Case Keenham was behind him.

Andy Dalton was behind him. Tyrod Taylor was behind him. I think I would have considered those guys as better quarterbacks than Heineke. But he is among the 32 NFL. backups that start week one as backups, he'll be in the top third of backup quarterbacks in the league. I think you could make that case fairly. Yeah, the team is better with Taylor Heineke on the roster than not. Yeah, unless you had another backup quarterback that you were comfortable with,

but you can't have that right now. You don't have that. No. No, you don't have that. Yeah. I mean, going into the 2022-2, season, they are better off with Taylor Heineke as a commander than whatever they could get from trading him. And I don't think that they have a Carson-Wenz problem yet. If they do, you're right.

Then, I mean, we're talking about a guy who needs care, who needs, you know, care. Who needs, you know, medical care if they do. No, if they have a Taylor-Hineke problem, if they have a Carson-Wen's problem that evolved from Taylor

Heineke, it'll be one fans have seen Carson Wentz. Yes. I mean, I guess you could say that if Carson Wentz, if some of the things about him in Philadelphia were true, and he's not easy, and he's not easy to coach, he's not a natural leader in the locker room, and you start hearing some rumblings in training camp early in the season, that it's not going smoothly. But no, I mean, I'm

I'm not, I think Carson Wentz has to be at least feeling the pressure of, I got to make this work, or my career is in jeopardy here. So I'm not going to really focus on my backup quarterback. I'm going to try to be the best version of me that the league's ever seen. And so if Taylor Heineke becomes a part of the conversation, it will be because of injury or performance. I agree with you. I agree, and I think I'm not saying that's likely. I'm just saying that it's a possibility based on Carson Lentz track record in two organizations.

Yeah. I mean, if Carson Wens, you know, finally gets it, then obviously, you know, there's no Taylor Hineckee threat. But the door is open to it. And until they start playing, it remains open. would there be a bigger indication of Ron Rivera's referendum on 2022 of this being a referendum on Ron Rivera in 2020 that it's not going well than Carson Wentz getting pinched is there any other thing that would signify that signify that this all all in for 2022 thing and this is a going to be the beginning of a sustained run isn't going well more than if I were to tell you

that Carson Wentz before week 14 got benched. Listen, if that happened, that would be you like walking down the street and a boulder hitting you on the head. And then you're saying, boy, this isn't my day, is it? Yeah. That would be a little bit of an indication. The answer to the question is there isn't anything that would be more. of an indication. Like if somebody told you right now, Carson Wentz gets benched in week 12,

benched for performance, then you know that through 11 games, they're like 3 and 8. Yeah. And it did not pan out the trade. And you know who would be laughing loudly? Bob Ursay. No, not Bob Ursay. He's dead. Oh, yeah. The other, Jim Mersey. He might be laughing. He might be laughing, too. The son Jim Mersey would be laughing. Yes. So did you read the post story Saturday, Liz's, Nikki, and Mark Maskey's story? Yes, I did. I don't recall any of it, but I read it.

I mean, Saturdays a few brain cells ago, but yeah. You don't really recall any of it? I've got it here in front of me. Okay. For those that didn't read it, it was a story titled, Daniel Snyder was not hands-off as an NFL owner. witnesses told committee. And it's a story that essentially, you know, a couple of weeks after the fact, but a story that, you know, describes what's in those 750 pages of sworn depositions and transcribed interviews.

Remember, as I said, Tommy disagreed with me, but my feeling was essentially that what we, you know, what we watched on what was that day at this point. I don't even know what that day was. Was it June 21st? It was June 22nd. Okay, 22nd. The hearing of Goodell, in my opinion,

didn't produce that much because it really wasn't much of a thorough questioning of Goodell. It was more political theater to me. But what I mentioned at the time is that the 29-page memo and a lot of the attachments, which include 750 pages of sworn depositions and interviews much more informative and revealing.

You know, we talked last week on the podcast about, you know, the story from this guy, David Pawkin, who was the CEO. We, neither one of us had heard of them. Several of his stories, including the spilt milk, you know, this intentional sour milk in the learner's sweet story. And, you know, a lot of the ways that, you know, he had treated the employees, et cetera. and so that was that was the gist of the story but really to me the story was all about dan Snyder a spokesperson for Snyder being asked to respond to the story and in this particular case actually responding with a statement the statement read from dan Snyder's spokesperson because how many of these stories Tommy have we seen

from the Post and a lot of different people. You know, the Post is, you know, from a lot of people are getting accused of bashing and piling on. They're not the only ones who have written stories about the team. And by the way, let's not forget that if not for the Post's investigative pieces back in July of 2020, a lot of this stuff still wouldn't be known. So many times we don't get a response from Snyder. You know, the team declined to comments.

The Snyder's, Dan Snyder declined to comment. Or there's, you know, a very minimal statement. This one, though, went on the offensive. From Snyder's spokesperson, quote, despite Mr. Snyder's continued apologies and regret for the historical problems that arose at the team, the Washington Post goes out of its way to assail his character and ignore the successful efforts by both Dan and Tanya Snyder, together with Jason Wright and coach Ron Rivera,

for over the past two years to bring about a remarkable transformation to the organization. The Snyders will continue to focus on their league-leading fight to bring greater respect and much-needed diversity and equality to the workplace in the face of constant and baseless attacks from the media and elsewhere. closed quote. So this was an offensive response and to me, no disrespect to Liz and Nikki and Mark in the story. I didn't think the story without that quote was that revealing to me, but I had spent some time reading through that 29-page memo and some of the attachments, not all of them. And we had talked a lot about what was in the story in addition,

you know, in the story already. Now, for some people who hadn't paid attention to two weeks, ago. It may have been a big reveal. But to me, it's that quote that's in there about Snyder and, you know, essentially going on the attack and doing the, you're attacking us without any justification. And oh, by the way, have we told you at all about our great diversity in our organization? Because you don't seem to be mentioning that at all. I have a response to this. What's yours? Well, I mean, I think it was like sort of like an expansion of sort of like a perspective expansion about the idea that Snyder had been hands off when he was still involved and piecing some of that information together. And there's a place for that. You know, it's not necessarily breaking any news.

But, I mean, there's a lot to consume with this story. and there's a lot there's many stories that can come out of those documents and and the memo that that that the committee produced so i thought it was an important story as far as sniders uh statement i don't i mean it ignored the shadow investigation the the elephant in the room from the hearing uh and uh it's we're still we're still talking about something that happened years ago when the question now should be what happened in the last two years. Yes. So let's start there. This statement is essentially dishonest. You know, first of all, despite Mr. Snyder's continued apologies and regret for the historical problems that arose at the team, you know, there are statements you can find where he talks about regret and talks about the fact that, you know, he was made, he's recently become aware of some of the issues that existed in the organization, always at, you know, a distance as if he didn't have anything to do with it. But acknowledging that as the owner of the team, there's some responsibility, but we know what his real feelings are. His real feelings have been reflected in even this shadow investigation.

He never wants to take blame or accountability directly. It's always someone else's fault. So that's disingenuous. Secondly, it's also very disingenuous at this point to attack the post solely for assailing his character and ignoring the efforts of Dan and Tanya Snyder with Jason Wright and Ron Rivera to make the organization so diverse. Everybody's been assailing his character. And everybody's been talking about how diverse the organization has been.

If you Google Washington Commanders' diverse, you know, diversity, you're going to find lots of post stories that reference the growth in diversity. So this is really disingenuous, but really to your point, what it continues to do is we discussed when Ron Rivera made that statement after the hearing with Goodell. They have to stop doing this thing where they say stop focusing on the past, We haven't been that organization for the last two years. Bullshit. Your owner was the same guy that he was years ago. He was running, if you believe the testimony under oath. And by the way, the commissioner who admitted it, he was running a shadow investigation.

Again, we covered this ground last week or two weeks ago. And I said, it doesn't matter to me if Roger Goodell says that his shadow investment. didn't impact the investigation. That's really not the point. The point was Roger Goodell and the NFL didn't say, hey, we're taking over this investigation, but feel free to run your own investigation. That didn't happen.

And oh, by the way, so what? It didn't impact our investigation. Well, that's not what Snyder's intent was. Snyder's intent was to impact the investigation, was to impact the way that the league received the investigation. He put together, according to testimony, a 100 PowerPoint slide dossier attacking those people who, you know, were testifying and attacking certainly Bruce Allen that we know of and blaming it on everybody but him.

But just stop with the, this is a past issue and it's not a present issue. We've become this guidepost of a franchise in the NFL. You know, it's just not true. They have to stop doing that. Ron Rivera, especially one of the few people in the organization with some level of credibility has to stop doing that. This spokesperson on behalf of the Snyders, we expect what comes out of Dan's mouth to be, you know, delusional and off base. But, you know, Jason Wright shouldn't attach his name to any press release in the future that speaks to all of these issues being harped on as being distant past. issues and that the post is, you know, going out of its way to assail Dan's character and ignore the successful efforts brought about by Dan and Tanya Snyder, you know, in the last two

years. No, no, he was behaving per usual, okay? He was behaving, you know, on brand for him recently in 2021. And that leads me to this, you know, the part of the release that says, you know, You know, the post goes out of its way to a salesist character and ignore the successful efforts by both Dan and Tanya Snyder, together with Jason Wright and coach Ron Rivera, for over the past two years to bring about a remarkable transformation to the organization. The Snyders will continue to focus on their league-leading fight to bring greater respect and much-needed diversity and equality to the workplace in the face of constant and baseless attacks from the media and elsewhere. Every single statement from the team, it seems like, over the last year or so, has focused in on the kind of organization they've become over the last two years related to diversity and inclusion. Or in this particular press release, much needed diversity and equality in the workplace. Okay, first of all, people have been talking about this. They have been.

the people understand we know because they keep telling us about how diverse they are, about how inclusive they've become. This is a, this right now, you know, it can't be on the field performance. It can't be, you know, anything ownership related. It is now about, you know, don't look over here, look here, where we've hired based on trying to emphasize diversity and inclusion. I have a problem with this, the constant harping on this. The fact that they have to keep going to this

is an indication that they have very little else to be proud of. But the other thing, Tommy, this does, is it really, you know, I wonder how it makes Martin Mayhew, Jason Wright, Julie Donaldson feel when the team keeps. keeps emphasizing the fact that they were hired because the team was really trying to become more diverse and inclusive. Rather than on merit, Jason Wright was hired on merit. He was a former player. He had an outstanding career at McKinsey. He understood the league. He had never run anything necessarily, so there was certainly a lack of experience there, but you could say

that he was hired on merit. Martin Mayhew was a previous general manager. How about just focusing on you've hired these people on merit? You can talk about occasionally that you've become the most diverse or inclusive organization in the sport. But really it's best if other people talk about that. Because it makes people believe that you're hiring was solely based on trying to to become more diverse and inclusive.

And in many ways, that diminishes the hires that you made. And they shouldn't be diminished necessarily. So anyway, I just, the whole statement is, you know, from Saturday that they put out there, the post asked them for a statement and they got one, was dishonest and to me just misguided, per usual. If I were them, I would just not respond to anything anymore and just hope like hell my football team wins games and can start to draw some people to the stadium

and some eyeballs to TV and to corporate sponsors who all of a sudden are interested in a winner. That's what you got to hope for, that somehow you get lucky and you start to win. You know, it's interesting. You know, they're relying on public relations, agencies to guide them in this. They're not relying on the PR people out in Ashburn, who have enough to do with the football team. I mean, they really shouldn't have to be able to deal with this as well.

So they're hiring high-powered PR people, but they're not hiring high-powered PR people to tell them shut up, you know? You're right, but these people, if they want to earn their money, they better present a strategy, even if it's a bad strategy. It's a bad strategy. They're They're not paying somebody to say, Dan, you need to shut up. We're done here. Well, you know what? If you weren't such a horrible owner and a horrible person as an owner, and I'm specifically saying that because that's what we know him to be as an owner, a bad guy, a guy that treated people badly, a guy that set the agenda for every other team executive to treat people poorly, then he wouldn't need a person. PR agency all the time.

Like this, but I get your point. I just personally, if they said to me, what would your PR strategy be? I would say, I know this isn't really good for my fees, for my ongoing retainer, but I would shut the hell up and try to win some football games. Because you are so toxic. You are perceived to be so disingenuous. There is no turning people around. with a PR strategy.

Tommy, there isn't. There's no PR strategy that can turn his reputation around. Now, the only thing that can save him now is time. Like you said, if he can ride this out and, you know, he can, that's the thing, he's such a self-destructive individual. There doesn't seem to be any amount of time that can pass without him creating another shitstorm. We're 22 years now, you know? I mean, like, you could say, well, if he just get past this and then kind of like be quiet for two years, maybe, maybe, and the football team plays better, maybe things will calm down.

But he doesn't seem, based on what we know, his track record, he doesn't seem capable of that. The strategy of attacking the post is, look, this is not about, you know, your own political person. persuasion thing and chalking it up to a left-leaning biased outlet trying to take down, you know, a pro-Trump owner and a bad guy like Snyder. That's not what it is. People have lined up from all corners of the media universe to weigh in on Snyder, and none of it has been positive. Nobody in any form of media is backing Snyder,

and nobody that's ever worked for him that is now gone back Snyder. Not one. Have we heard from anybody who has said, actually, my experience was he was incredibly generous, incredibly great with people. This was a positive environment that people were working in. It fostered this entrepreneurial spirit and everybody. Everybody had a chance to weigh in. His office door was open to everybody. I'm not suggesting that that's the right way to manage.

No one's come forward to say that, as far as I know. The only people, the only people that can say anything resembling kind or not negative about him are those on his current payroll. The people on his current payroll, all they do is just focus on the Snyders and the incredible diverse, the diversity of their executives and being the most diverse organization in the league. That's all they can focus on. They certainly can't focus on wins. they can't focus on the past. Tommy, the parallel investigation, without it, you could make the case if you were on their side.

You could make the case of, I would never have a statement that said, you know, despite his continued apologies and regret, that's laughable. But you could certainly, if he hadn't been running this parallel investigation, and by the way, if he had taken the $10 million fine without calling people and saying that he wasn't fine,

taken a legitimate quasi-suspension and not called people and told people he wasn't suspended, you could say, look, it was really bad, and now it's much better. And that goes for ownership, too. And he could have taken a leave of absence. He could have suspended himself in a way. I mean, as a gesture with more powerful symbolism than what was done. But again, he's not capable of this because, I mean, you know, the thing, the Bruce Allen attack is going to hurt him. It's going to hurt him.

I just have a feeling that it's going to come back to haunt him. And he clearly, I mean, his bitterness towards Bruce Allen to the point where, you know, he didn't want to pay him. He was pissed off about Bruce texting congratulations to Ron Rivera at one point. and now he tried to lay the whole dysfunction, the whole campaign off on Allen. I mean, Bruce could be just as petty and evil as Dan. And I doubt if Bruce is lying low, letting this wash off his back.

One year ago, when they find him $10 million and, you know, announced this, you know, moving away from day to day and Tanya was going to be the co-CEo, I told you, and I said this, I said, and then when you told me that they were calling people, including you to say, no, no, no, he wasn't suspended, the team was suspended. We want to make it a point that you guys know he wasn't suspended, the team was suspended, the team was fined, excuse me, the team was fined, he wasn't fined, and there was no suspension. And I told you that day, this is just so par for the course, because he is just in case. of understanding, A, his role in all of this, and B, that it would be beneficial to him and the league

if the perception after July 1st when they announced the suspension or they announced the fine, if he had actually been suspended. Like it would have benefited them so much if Dan Snyder was fined $10 million for the for the organization's toxic workplace, and he was also suspended from his team for the next six months. Tanya Snyder will be the co-CEO and will run day-to-day operations. But no, he couldn't take that. So it made the announcement of that seem like a slap on the wrist. And I told you at that time, it would benefit him to have been suspended. But he's incapable of understanding that. Even to this day.

I agree. Anything else on this? You know, tomorrow? What? Tomorrow is another day. Who knows what tomorrow will bring with this organization? It's like that calendar.

You know, the daily Washington Commanders' fuck-up calendar, 365 days a year. I'm tired of this, but when I read that quote in that story on Saturday afternoon, I was fired up. I was just like, why do you people keep

doing this? Well, they do this because he wants to do this. He's vindictive. He thinks that it's a one media outlet attack on him. And look, he's had a history with the Post. You know, there's no doubt that the team and the Post have been at odds for a long time. By the way, after the Post at one point long time ago was a sponsor, I mean, of the team in many ways. But, you know, I don't, I can't remember where it started. I mean, but they've been at odds for a while, but this is not about the Post continually attacking him. Cook hated the Post, too, and actually boycotted them for a time. That's not particularly unusual in this town. So Cook was the same way. But again,

it's delusional to believe that your problems stem from the Washington Post constantly attack. attacking you. Again, it's another indication of trying to pass the blame buck. It just, it's, it's his move. Sally annihilated him. I mean, just annihilated him. Her last, um, her last couple of paragraphs, uh, how many, how many times now has Snyder claimed to publicly seed authority and pretended to be hands off for the health of the team? only to tyrannize behind the scenes and invariably whack others for his mistakes. Coaches, general managers, executives by the score, finding themselves slurred and slimed and used as human shields. He's an inveterate loser who exhibits all the forthrightness of a garden snail.

She writes, his fay conduct, F-E-Y conduct, and his clear lack of respect for a woman at a dais committee, chair representative Carolyn Maloney. Remind you of nothing so much as a line the great sports writer John Shulian once wrote. Do you know who he is? John Shulian. Oh yeah, I'm friends with John showing. Okay. With a great writer. He wrote about... Actually, wrote screenplays in Hollywood, wrote Zena Princess Warrior and Wise Guy. But go ahead. Okay. She writes, nothing so much as a line that the great sports writer John Chulian once wrote about a another sneering, shrinking little martinet of the sports world, Billy Martin. He is like a rat studying to be a mouse.

That's really a good line. That's pretty good. I remember reading that was great. She then wrote, she then quoted Maloney, Mr. Snyder's not been held accountable. His refusal to testify sends a clear message that he's more concerned about protecting himself than coming clean with the American people. And then her final line, Sally's final line.

That's because there's never any such thing as a cleaned house so long as he's still in it. And that's really the point. That's like the overarching theme to all of this. Took us a while to get to it. But the bottom line is, as long as he's there, it's dirty. It doesn't matter what the rest of the organization is done for two years. It doesn't matter how diverse their workplace is. He is still in it.

So it can't be clean. Sally, weighing in with another good one on what a rat studying to be a mouse, Stan Snyder is. All right, you got anything else on this? No, nothing else on this. Like I say, I'll be curious what this week brings, because every week that passes, there's a new revelation. The commanders have announced that tomorrow morning they're having a press conference for Terry McLaurin. So that will call some attention away from the daily grind, so to speak. Very happy for Terry McCorn, which leads us to our final segment of the show,

and that is the most underrated player on the roster for the commanders. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. We'll finish up the show with this Football Outsiders report. Football Outsiders is one of my favorite spots to go to. They are a site that has the DVOA stat that I always referenced during the course of the season many times. I think it's a much more kind of advanced number that really evaluates offenses, defenses, special teams better than some of the traditional stats. Football outsiders put together a list of the most underrated player on each of the 32 NFL teams. And they did so more subjectively.

I mean, they used some of their numbers, but they also essentially in their open said, underrated can mean several things. It could refer to a good player, conventional wisdom tells us as mediocre, or it could refer to a useful player who doesn't receive the star treatment from NFL fans. And so they had a list of players.

Washington's player, before I saw this, somebody sent me to link to it. You didn't send it to me, right? You didn't send me this link. Somebody else sent me this link. And before I opened it, I guessed that the most underrated player on the roster would be J.D. McKissick. That's what my guess was before I opened up and read this story. I think J.D. McKissick was really missed last year when he got hurt.

I think he's a really valuable player. I think they're lucky to have re-signed him. I think, you know, those of you who are counting on this team to have a big year should be glad that J.D. was re-signed and is in the fold, I thought he was really good for them. So that was my guess. That wasn't who it was. The player that was listed as the most underrated player on the commanders was Antonio Gibson, another running back, just the wrong running back. And they wrote, Gibson finished sixth in rushing DVOA as a rookie in 2020, then rushed for a thousand yards on a bad team with no passing game and while playing through multiple injuries.

His reward was the team bringing back J.D. McKissick, even though Gibson is more than qualified to be a good receiver. And then the commanders drafted Brian Robinson, Jr. in the third round. Gibson at 6-2 and 220 pounds has feature-back size and has showed feature-back skills. But the commander's moves might be preventing him from being one. So I'll ask you first, who do you think the most underrated play? on the roster is. Well, I've been trying to run them through my head to find somebody a better choice than McKissick, and I can't. I agree with you on that. I think he's more valuable to the offense than Antonio Gibson is.

I think this is kind of not putting lipstick on a pig, but certainly putting makeup on, what would normally be maybe an attractive one, but not as an attractive as these guys make him out to be. Okay. I think they're dressing him up to be a little bit prettier than he really is. Okay. By the way, I did this on radio this morning, and my producer weighed in as well. And there were a couple of others that would be good answers. Cameron Curl would be a really good answer as an underrated player on the team. And then you could go, if you're talking about, you know, two players in particular that don't get maybe the national attention that they should. You could say John Allen and Terry McLorne.

I mean, both are obviously viewed as very good players, but I think sometimes, I mean, John Allen did not make the all-pro first or second team. And there were two or three players in front of them in vote getting that I thought weren't as good as John Allen was last year. Terry McLoran isn't even as rated as high at his position as John Allen is. We've talked many times about the receiver stuff, but Terry McCluren, some would say, is actually underrated in the view maybe of those outside of Washington. Somebody mentioned Logan Thomas, and I actually liked that one.

I think Logan Thomas's potential is sometimes under-discussed. I don't know what he's going to be like coming off the serious injury, but I thought that in 2020 and before he got hurt last year, there was the promise of a big time. I'm talking about upper echelon, pass-catching tight end. I think Logan Thomas has that skill and talent. He's 31. I understand that.

But, you know, especially for a guy like Carson Wentz this year, if Logan Thomas is healthy, maybe he'll realize that. I'm not that upset with the Antonio Ghibit. thing. Because I like Antonio Gibson. I think Antonio Gibson's better than pro football focus. Thanks. The pro football focus really downgrades Antonio Gibson for leaving a lot of yards on the field. I think the team does that. I think that's why they drafted Brian Robinson Jr. I think that they are down a little bit on Gibson. And I don't think it has, you know, I think it has something to do with the fumbling problem. He had six fumbles last year lost four of them. That's a fumbling problem by any definition. He has a fumbling

issue. He's got a fumbling issue and that's a big time issue. And if you don't protect the ball, you know, at some point, no matter how much promise you show, you're not going to get the opportunities anymore if you don't protect the ball. But I thought he improved with his vision last year. I think 6-2-220 with 4-3 speed having not played the position in college, I like a lot of what Antonio Gibson is. I think Antonio Gibson was massively, massively impactful. And one of the one of the top three reasons for their four-game winning streak that they had last November into the beginning of December when they beat Tampa, Carolina, Seattle, and then the Raiders in Vegas. I think he was a big part of that.

So is he underrated? I don't know, but I do think he's a good player. And I think that they would be nuts not to give him this third season to see if he is kind of a big-time, you know, bellwether running back, like a guy that you can hit your wagon to when you need to. Because I think he does have that kind of potential. But that's what I, I mean, that's me. You know, I think you're right, but I don't necessarily see the team.

like they do as to blame for these problems. Wait, say that again? I'm blaming the team. I mean, they're blaming the team. Oh, football outsiders. Not realizing his potential, yeah. I don't necessarily agree with that. Oh, I don't agree with that either.

I mean, they conveniently leave out the fumbling problem from their description after they've called them the most underrated player on the roster. So that's a problem. Number two is that, well, look, I do think when they say he's got featureback size and has shown feature back skills, I think he also has feature back speed, and I would say feature back versatility. I actually agree with all of that. And I think that maybe with a quarterback you might even see that more than you've seen it in the first two years.

I mean, when you don't have the ability, to really stretch the field at quarterback, which has been part of their problem the last couple of years, with the exception really of Haskins who could throw the ball down the field for the few games in 2020. I think that he could thrive even more.

But what's weird is, I think them drafting Brian Robinson Jr. is an indication that they don't think he can be that guy. You don't draft a running back in the first three rounds. Yeah. So, they know more than we do, but I like Gibson. I don't like his fumbling problem, but I like him as a back a lot. I think he has the potential to be a star running back in the league.

I hope they're not bailing on that idea, but they might be. But I would still go Jady McKissick is the most underrated player on the team. I think they really missed him last year when he went out. I think that was a player they really missed. He is phenomenal as a playmaker in space. And with Taylor Heineke a quarterback last year, you needed just your playmakers more than anybody else to make plays. The quarterback, especially off schedule, could make some plays. McKissick was one of those guys.

He was crucial in the early part of the season and keeping them super competitive when they were losing games, but they were losing games in kind of, competitive fashion. And then obviously the games that they won, he had a massive impact. I mean, J.D. McKissick last year, when you look at some of the games, he had, you know, against the giants in that game where they won the game, you know, 83 yards and pass receiving yards. He had eight catches for 65 yards in a Kansas City game that was much closer than the final score indicated. Remember, Washington had a lead in that game.

and Hopkins missed that field goal to extend the lead in the third quarter. And then the Denver game, he was great in. Eight catches 83 yards. The Atlanta game, obviously, he was phenomenal in with that final touchdown. I liked McKissick. I like McKissick a lot. I think they've got a lot of weapons on offense. They could be dangerous on offense.

What else you got for the show today? What about the Nats losing four of the hearts? They have a lot of untested weapons. on offense. Well, McClearn and, you know, McKissick aren't necessary, and Curtis Samuel aren't untested. It's just whether or not Samuel will be available and healthy.

He's certainly been tested. Well, that would. We know he's a good player. That would, well, he hasn't been a good player here. Well, no, but he was an excellent player in Carolina. Right. He just has been hurt here.

Yes. unrealized. Therefore, he's untested. Unrealized. Unrealized. Here in Washington. There you go, Webster. Unrealized.

Thank you. A lot of the, that's, you know, one of the things, I said at beginning of the year, a lot of things would have to go right for them to be competitive. I would have thought one of them was the opportunity to play the Marlins 19 times in the season. That hasn't worked out. I mean, to get swept. By the way, it's a second straight year they've been swept on July 4th weekend

last year. It was by the Dodgers. That's a little bit better than being swept by the Marlins. But yeah, they're pretty bad, aren't they? They're bad. They're 2008 bad. But the only two things that matter right now, really, three things.

And the main thing is Mike Rizzo's draft will be coming up. How he does in that, they've got a high draft pick, like the fifth pick in the draft. You know, it's been a long time since they've drafted that high. So Mike needs to make the most out of this draft, and who's going to own the team? Everything else is on hold.

Soto? Pretty much. Well, I don't think Soto gets decided until the new owners come in. Okay. Hard to watch them. I mean, you know, by the way, the trade. deadline, I mean, I would think you believe that Josh Bell is going to get dealt, right? Yeah.

And what about Cruz? I don't know how much they're going to get. I don't know how much, you know, Cruz will get dealt too probably. You know, he's been a disappointment. He hasn't been the productive player he had been when he hit 32 home runs last year in Minnesota. That was one of the other things that needed to go right for them. He needed to at least match his 20-21 season, and he hasn't done that.

But, I mean, I don't know how much they're going to get out of trading deadline. Obviously, they'll trade some players for prospects, but, I mean, they'll have to get lucky to get somebody who will help them down the line in those trades. Do you think somebody like Patrick Corbyn gets dealt? No, I don't think so. He's kind of, they owe too much money still. I think he's got an untradable contract. Okay, because he has really pitched well. I mean, he pitched well yesterday.

Yes, he has. You know, he's pitched really well his last two outings. That was one of the other things I said needed to go right for him. They needed the 2019 Corbyn. Yeah. So almost everything that was supposed to go right went wrong for them this year. And that was only just to be competitive, not necessarily to be good. What do you think about the Mark Spears, the NBA writer, report that Golden States interested in Kevin Durant might trade?

for Durant. I have no opinion. I don't know how the NBA works anymore, Kevin. Do you? Do you know how it works anymore? Do I know how it works? That's a really good question. I mean, what these executives are looking for, what they're thinking, what the players

are thinking? I mean, I'm so far removed from the thought process of an NBA player. I don't have a clue. I mean, Nicole Yokic got the biggest deal in the history of the league, five years, 270 million. He's really good. But then Bradley Beal got five years for 251 million. He's just good. John Wall got paid $47 million last year not to play basketball. Russell Westbrook, who really can't play basketball anymore on a winning team, just picked up a player option for $47 million. dollars. Kairi Irving is one of the most dysfunctional team sport players in recent memory.

And he just, because they couldn't trade him, picked up a player option and is getting paid $36 plus million. Kevin Durant got every single thing he asked Brooklyn for, including Kyrie Irving and really not a real coach, just a guy like Steve Nash who would let Kyrie and Kevin sort of help him coach. And now he's demanding a trade. And now we're realizing that Kevin Durant, and good for Brooklyn, if this is what's going on, because I said to Wilbon, Will Bonn was on the show Friday. If you didn't listen to that, it was really good. I said to Wilbon, and he totally agreed, I'm not trading Kevin Durant unless I get back

what I should be getting back for Kevin Durant. I did everything he asked me to do for the last two and a half years. And now he wants out with four years left on his deal, really? well then I better be getting back young superstars and draft choices for the next 10 years, you know, to trade Kevin Durant. And then you look at Durant and it's like, okay, he joined Golden State. He's a great player. He's not a good player.

He's an all-time great player. He wins two titles at Golden State, and he's largely responsible for those two, even though they've won a couple of titles without him. He was great last year in the series against Milwaukee and was an absolute warrior for the nets over the last year and a half when he was playing when Kyrie wasn't and Hardin wasn't very good and all the things that were going on. But you're going to leave, you're going to leave now. And then, oh, by the way, you might go back to Golden State. Oh, my God. What does this do for the people?

The long-term legacy of Kevin Durant. like couldn't win one in OKC joined up with the team that beat him one two leaves to prove that he can do it on his own and then says you know then can't do it on his own and goes back and joins Steph Clay in Dremont I mean I don't I don't know I saw the I can't help his legacy I wouldn't I wouldn't accept the trade that was being floated out there by Spears Pool and Cominga and Wiggins and draft choices

and maybe Wiseman. Apparently they can't even make that trade anyway because of rookie deals. If I'm Brooklyn, man, I need a potential superstar back. You know, I need Devin Booker in picks. I need Zion Williamson, who just signed the Big Macs extension, and lots of picks, or at least Brandon Ingram and lots of picks. If not, I go to Kevin Durant, and I just say,

I really tried. I couldn't do it. You got to play for us. sorry. It's not in the best interest of our organization to trade you for peanuts just because you don't want to be here anymore. We did everything you asked us to do. Including trying to trade you,

but we're not going to do it. It's a league where the owners have zero power. There's no sport that is more player-driven and player-run than the NBA. And now LeBron apparently once after basically throwing

Kyrie Irving out, as everybody else has because he's in the twilight of his career and realizes in the West next year, they're not going to contend without another third great player. Now he's going to be able to handle Kyrie in L.A. So let's see if Kyrie gets dealt to the Lakers. It is a drama. I can appreciate those that say it's not a drama for them, though, that it's a little bit too much in the way of, you know, players running a league with very little. kind of slowing down the madness, it would seem. On the other hand, there's no drama in Washington.

It's smooth sailing. Smooth sailing with those wizards. Well, we'll see. Yep. It's a 45-win team at best. All right. You done with me? Smooth sailing, baby.

Yeah, I'm done with you. I'm done with you, too. Go ahead. Dismiss me. I'll be back tomorrow with a guest, I promise. That's it for the day.