The Kevin Sheehan Show - Owner Reaction To Bears' Loss Reported

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with a spectacular buffet filled with lively discussion and debate about playoff baseball, Josh Harris' reported reaction to the blowout loss to the Bears, Rivera saying Sam Howell has exceeded expectations, and a lot more! 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show is presented, as it always is, by Window Nation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation. For their deal of the year, which they always offer during the fall. I'm going to start with this question to you. do the Orioles come back and win this series? I want to hear about your experience at Camden Yards over the weekend, but can they come back and win this series? No. It's over?

It's hard to beat a team in three straight games, which is what they have to do now. You know, it's best of five. They're down 02. They have to beat the Rangers three straight. That's a hard thing to do. Now, you could argue this team has a track record of resiliency, throughout their whole year and may not be experienced enough to know if you're not supposed to be able to do that.

But I think it's highly unlikely that they beat the Rangers with Bruce Bochie in the dugout, one of the best managers of his time in three straight games. When the Rangers are throwing their best pitcher tonight. I'm just looking at the second half of their schedule. Do you know how many times they've won three games in a row or more? one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ten times just in the second half of the season from July 14th. It's not winning two games in a row. It's beating the same team three times.

Well, they did that once against Miami. They did that once against the Yankees. I'm sorry, against the Mets, actually. They did that against the Angels. three times, and they did it against, yeah, so they did it three times in the second half of the season. Okay. Okay. Okay. The reason I... All teams that aren't in the playoffs. True. Miami was in the playoffs. Miami was a wild card team. Yeah, they were a wild card team. Miami was in the playoffs, yeah. Right. The reason I'm, by the way, they did it in the first half of the season against the Minnesota Twins all three of the games on the road, right before the All-Star Break.

The reason I went and looked it up is because I had Barry on the radio show today, Barry's Verluga, and we were talking about a phenomenal baseball game. Did you watch the Phillies and the Braves last night? Yes. I mean, that's one of those, you know, riveting October baseball playoff games. I mean, it was just incredible, especially the way it ended. And we'll get to that in a moment. But I said, you know, the Orioles lost two as the higher-seated team.

The Dodgers lost two. The Braves nearly lost two. They were down four-nothing in that game. You know, what can they do to make sure that the higher-seated teams that have these buys aren't at some sort of disadvantage with the layoff with the other teams continuing to play? And he said, well, look, I mean, being down two-neutral. nothing, think about how many times teams have lost three in a row or won three in a row. It's just the nature of baseball, like the long season. My idea, Tommy, and I've already suggested this

maybe to you already, I think this round, and I know what it means, it means that the World Series ends like the second week in November instead of the first week in November. But I think this round should be a best of seven. I think a short series. in any sport always favors the underdog or the lesser team. And I just wish this series were Best to Seven this round. I have no problem with the Best to Five set up the way it is. I have no problem with the farther out you are from the most important series, the less opportunities you have to get there.

Now, it's like, you know, it's a best of three in the initial wild card series. I have no problem with that. I have no problem with the best of five in this series. I don't think you can keep playing for the middle of November, and they're not going to take away any regular season games, which would be the idea. Look, the ideal answer would be to take a week away from the regular season and then play, you know, then expand it to seven games.

But they're not going to do that. It's not going to happen. So I don't think this is a big deal. I think if you're good enough, you win. It's as simple as that. Yeah, well, the thing is, is like kind of like hockey. Because of the nature of 162 games and, you know, the Orioles winning 101 over 162, Texas winning 90 over 162, now you're only playing best of five.

Well, during a five-game snapshot at any point during the season, The Orioles lost three out of five. The Rangers won three out of five. So it's just, it's interesting. And look, basketball and hockey are similar, although they play half the number of regular season games. And then all of their series, you know, they start best of seven right from the jump.

But anyway, look, I don't mind it. It's entertaining. Last year, remember, Philadelphia and San Diego were the number five, I think they were the number five and number six seeds, and they made it to the National League Championship Series. This year, we're very much on pace here for two wild card teams potentially. Well, no, because Minnesota was a division winner in the American League. But two wild card winners potentially making it to the championship series

with Arizona and Texas, you know, on the verge of doing that. But real quickly, unless you want to go back to pre-1969 when there was just an American League pennant winner and a nationally pennant winner and they played each other in the World Series, you're going to have these discrepancies. The Orioles won 100 games in 1980 and didn't play in the playoffs because the Yankees won 103. If there had been a wild card, the Orioles would have played in the playoffs. So there's always going to be unfair disadvantages unless you simply go. The best in one league plays the best in the other league. And there's a lot of money in that. You know, it's interesting that the NBA was always after the money in expanding the playoffs.

You know, years ago, I mean, for me, the years ago was they had that mini-series to start the postseason. So what you had was you had six teams. You had two division winners and then the next four best records because there are only two divisions in each conference in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. You'd have the two division winners and then you'd have four teams play. Remember the best of three miniseries, which was crazy. In fact, the year that the Bullets won the NBA championship, they won a first round mini-series. over the Atlanta Hawks, Tommy. The only championship they have in D.C., they had to go best of three against Atlanta in the first round just to make it into a best of seven.

They won both of those games, by the way. They won it in two straight. And then they beat San Antonio, the 76ers, and eventually Seattle. But the NBA quickly said, no, we're going to go to eight, and we're going to go to eight, and we're going to have best of five in the first round. Then they went to, then they had eight, and they went to best to seven throughout. I think hockey had the divisional format there for a while, but I think it was always kind of eight teams.

But football resisted on the expansion for a long time, but baseball was the most traditional. You know, I remember just the controversy about the wild card game, you know, expanding it by one playoff team so that, the fourth seed and the fifth seed, if you will, ended up having to play a one-game wild card. I mean, that was controversial. And now at six.

Yeah. You know, I mean, I'm in favor of, I don't have a problem with the system set up the way it is. I tend to think that the playoffs are different. You play differently in the playoffs. And we've seen, at least my experience, has been. The teams that have been there before, the teams that have experience, whether it's in the dugout or on the field, then to have an advantage. I think the Rangers have a big advantage

with Bruce Bochie in the dugout as opposed to Brandon Hyde, who hasn't done anything particularly egregious, but, you know, in pitching decisions, they put all their stock in the first two games with their best pitchers out there, and now the Rangers didn't. And now the Rangers are throwing their best pitchers with a two-nothing lead. How was Camden Yards? I had several friends of mine that were there on either Saturday or Sunday, and they said it was great. It was fabulous. It was like it used to be. I mean, you hear people say the atmosphere was electric, but that's exactly what it was like. And even when they were down 9 to 2 after the Grand Slam on Sunday, because I was at Sunday's game.

Okay. I mean, fans were still up on their feet, you know, really into it because they've seen this team come back so much this year. Right. So they still believed at 9-2, they had a chance, and it did wind up being 11-8. Yeah. You know, in the game. So, no, it was 46,000-plus both games. it was it was it was it was raucous it was loud it wasn't silly raucous but it was pretty good

it it has to rank when it when it's like that among the best atmospheres in baseball yeah i i heard it was just incredible i had a couple of people say look that the nat's playoff games in recent years were good but there's just a different decibel level that it gets to yeah at camden yards yes and i yeah a nat's fan's You know, Nats fans hate to hear it. I mean, I posted something on Twitter about the crowd and how true stuff it was. And immediately, I get attacked by these Nats. It's funny.

Because Washington, Baltimore, we always thought, had an inferiority complex when it came to Washington, except for baseball. Washington baseball fans have an inferiority complex. and anything you say positive about the Orioles, they see as an attack on their team. Well, look, I can recall, you know, I was not very complimentary about some of the crowds during these years. I was at, you know, I was at the same, I was at game one of the St. Louis series in 2012.

There was a game five of that series. I was at that 18-inning game against the Giants, which, by the way, at the end of the game, nobody was there because it got so cold. I was at some of those Dodgers games. I was at some of those Cubs games. And I was at the one world series game, the first one, which was game three, which really was like, I mean, it was like being at a final four or Super Bowl because it was like a corporate crowd.

It was like a need to be seen at this event crowd. It wasn't, you know, the people that had really been super bowl. fans of the game. But I can remember some of those games. It's like, you know, you stand up at a three and two, you know, at a two strike count and people are telling you to sit down. I'm like, what are you talking? This is, it's

the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, they were on their feet more often than they were sitting down at Camden Yards. Yeah, and I, I, I, I, I, you know, but baseball, I mean, it's, it's, it's different. And it's been around forever there. It's just different there. Yeah. Yeah.

It would be great if they could get it back to a game five Friday night. Imagine a game five Friday night at Camden Yards. Oh yeah. I'm going to tell you what right now. If they can get it back there, I'm going to try to go because I, you know, I love being in those environments. You know, there's just something so memorable about being in that experience. Now, it's much better when you've got a massive rooting interest in it. But like my son went to Columbus to see Maryland and Ohio State. He just wanted to go to the horseshoe to see, you know, a game. And he's like, oh my God, this is like real college football. No offense to my, you know, to my Maryland friends, because I'm one of you. But look, I mean, it's small time, you know, in college park for a college

football game. But you mentioned Philly. I love Bryce Harper. He's one of my. favorite athletes in sports. He was phenomenal in game one. Had the home run was two for two, you know, two walks as well. In the game yesterday, he had a base hit and his second at bat. He was one for four with a walk in that one too. He's just a clutch performer. He was built for it. We talked about this during the postseason last year. That game last night was just phenomenal. For those that didn't see it, first of all, Zach Wheeler, the starter for the Phillies, he's got a no-hitter through five-plus. They've got a four-nothing lead in the Braves, who really are, Tommy, the prohibitive,

they're the big favorite to win the whole thing. They had an unbelievable regular season, and most baseball people think it's just going to be hard to beat the Braves in a series, although I did hear people like Kirchen give the Phillies more than just a fighting chance. By the way, I saw Timmy at the Canton Yards on Sunday. Oh, that's awesome. I saw a lot of old friends. I saw Kenny Rosenthal.

I saw Timmy. It was good to see people. So they got a 4-0-0, and they're about to go up 2-0. And by the way, can you imagine with the 2-0 series lead? It'll already be nuts tomorrow night with a 1-1 series. And then all of a sudden, you know, just drama takes place. Trey Turner, who had two errors in the game. He boots one a run scores.

Then they're two, two-run homers, including Austin Riley in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Braves a five to four lead. The place is delirious. Here comes the top of the ninth. Harper leads off. Great at bat. He walks.

He's on first. And then there's an out. And then you get to one of the more incredible plays. You know, it's actually the first time this has happened. I don't know if you knew this. Castiano hits a deep shot to right center. Harper's on first. Harper takes off.

He thinks there's no chance this is going to be caught, and he's the tying run, and he's going to score from first. The problem was is that Harris makes an unbelievable catch at the wall, turns around, throws it back to the infield, Harper's rounded second. The throw gets away from the cutoff gun. By the time Harper is headed back to first, Riley, who had the two-run homer, backing up the cutoff guy, picks it up in one fell swoop and beats Harper back to the bag for the first time.

I can't believe this is true, but it's in the game story. The first time in Major League Baseball history that you've had a game-ending double play with an outfielder involved. I would have thought that it would have happened at some point. It was a base running error on Bryce's part. I get that. I didn't, Tommy, I didn't know it at the time. I was sitting there because the replay did not show how far he went by second. He obviously made the turn and was at least, you know, approaching halfway between second and third.

But I'll be honest with you. know if he had made an error or not, but in following up after the game, and I was trying to read as much as I could, the play there is for him to hold it second and wait to see if there's a miraculous catch, which there was. Then he makes it back to first easily. And if it goes off the wall, he still probably scores. Yes. So it was a base running blunder by It was a base running mistake. Let me ask you about Bryce Harper. Watching him, like you said, he's unbelievably clutch.

He's so, he's such a player that you can't take your eyes off of when he's there. And I've been thinking, God, you know, this is a once-in-a-generation kind of player, and Washington had him. Right. I know. You know? And he left. But I'm also thinking that his whole persona has changed in Philadelphia.

And I don't know, he's matured a lot. You know, being married and having a couple of kids, I think, has had an impact on him. He is seen, he is well-liked at Philly. He's seen as a leader. None of that was happening in Washington before he left. None of that. Was it his fault? Are you saying he was just too immature here?

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not sure because of his history here, if he might have been able to change that as he matured. I think, you know, it may be the case where he had to go someplace else to be a different guy than he was here. Because he had, trust me, he had a lot of baggage. in that clubhouse.

I know he did. I was here. I know he did. Let me, can we just revisit for a moment? They, he got the 13-year deal in Philadelphia and he took it. Just refresh my memory on why it didn't happen here. Was it more the team or was it more him? I have a recollection that I think I'm right on, but I want to hear it from you first.

Well, I'm always going to blame a Boris client put the onus on them because Boris wants to always take his player to free agency. And this was the ultimate player to take the free agency. So I'm not sure if Washington could have made an offer a reasonably good offer that would have been competitive. with what he wound up getting in Philly that would have kept them here in the first place. Now, the learners, as they tend to do, they go to change them on their offer. Why do you say that?

Because I think at some point, I think, you know, Boris would have said, no, we're going to go to free agency. Right. And then if you're the team that's been trying to hang on to them, you don't have any, you don't have any edge anymore. You're competing with everybody else, and you don't know what they're doing.

I mean, if you're Washington, do you go to Boris and Harper and say, tell me what your best offer is out there and we'll want up it? Do you do that? My feeling so much more so after watching him in Philadelphia is that Bryce Harper didn't want to stay here. And whether or not the Nats ended up with the best offer or not, he has talked so many times publicly about how much he loves not only the Philly's situation, but the Philadelphia Sports Town mentality.

He is, even though he's from Vegas, he's a blue-collar guy. and I think he was looking for a different fit. City-wise, fan base-wise, it just is more important there. And I think that it's the perfect fit. That's my feeling. Look, it may be both things are true. You know, the Nats were never going to be able to come up with the right offer to satisfy Boris. And Harper also wanted to go to a place where,

he felt like it was a better sports town, a better, a more important thing. And I... And a place where he had no history. Okay, that too. By the way, just to answer that first part of what you discussed, I never disliked Bryce Harper. I never disliked the brashness. I understood that there was some immaturity and there were issues in the clubhouse. and we've heard some of the stories and, you know, including stories where it's like,

get over it. He's our best player by far. You know, it's like at the end of the day, great. He's immature. He's also the MVP of the league. Get over it. But maybe he has mature to. I just see a guy that just, you know, there are lots, they're not lots of guys.

There are few guys in all of these sports that you just feel. feel like are kind of built for the moment. And he, when he hit that walk-off to win the National League Championship Series against the Padres, and his reaction to it was, I expected this all along. He is a badass as a competitor and as a performer. He also made a terrible base running blunder apparently last night that at least This cost them one last chance to try to tie the game up with a runner on in the top of the night. Philadelphia will be insane.

I mean, it was insane for the two games against the Marlins in the wildcard round. It'll be insane tomorrow night. It will be. Yeah. Which I'm just looking at something real quickly. I hope that's the... So, tonight we've got Astro... This afternoon, we got Astros twins, Orioles Rangers tonight.

tomorrow all four are playing. Astros twins at two, and that is going to happen because they're tied at 1-1. Braves-Filly's 5.07 p.m. tomorrow. Damn. I wish it were at night. Orioles, Rangers, if necessary, at 7. Dodgers, Diamondbacks at 9 o'clock. Speaking of that, Tommy, because you and I haven't talked since last Thursday. Did you, now you didn't go to Camden Yards on Saturday. watch any of the Dodgers D-backs game Saturday night the Kershaw performance?

No. No, I didn't. I know he got he got rocked. Oh my God. Mike has been his postseason MO. I mean, he got rocked really bad. Well, this is the worst rocking ever. I don't think anybody's ever given up five runs

before recording the first out. It was painful to watch. I just, he's another player that I just love. How did it happen? How did that happen, though? So I was watching it. I know, I know how it happened.

No, but I was watching it. Let me just tell you. So the lead off batter for Arizona, he hits a shot to center field, and it's a catchable ball. It should have been caught. It was hard hit, and the center, center fielder is going back, but it should have been caught, and it wasn't. They actually ruled it a double. And even, I think it was Costas who was doing the game. I'm pretty sure it was Costas who was doing the game, said that is, that's a generous double.

That's an error. And it was. And Tommy, it just snowballed from there. He couldn't get anybody out. And it's not like he was, you know, walking people or not throwing strikes. He was getting ahead. Like, I'm pulling it up right now. I think he was ahead of almost every hitter.

So after the lead-off double, the next batter singles at 0-1, the next batter singles at 0-2, the next batter doubles at 2-2, the next batter falls behind O'N-2, and homers on a full count. And then there's finally a, he finally gets his first out, and then he walks, His last batter, no. Then he gives up a double on his last batter for the sixth run. And then gets replaced, by the way, by, by Sheehan, by, what's his first name? Emmett, Emmett Sheehan. He got replaced by because I saw Sheehan come out.

And I'm like, I don't think I've seen Sheehan in baseball. But it was, it was painful. You know, everybody that has ever come in contact with Clayton Kershaw that I know in media, and obviously, you know, Scott's one of the people that I know that have, you know, a lot of these guys. The top two or three athletes of all time. Humble, smart, self-aware, just and just a really great guy. I think I don't, I can't, I don't know anybody that has ever.

met him that doesn't feel the same way. And that was just painful. To your point, though, it's been his postseason MO. He's going to the Hall of Fame, first ballot, you know, but it's been his MO, and he's had some moments. Remember, he had that moment in relief at Nats Park. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. But nothing like the other night. If they get to a game four, Dave Roberts says he'll start. They've got to win game three. Oh, it's interesting. The front office says he'll start. Dave Roberts doesn't make those decisions in the Los Angeles. All right. Well, it'd be a great redemption story if somehow they win game three and he comes out and starts game four and throws a two-hit shutout, you know, goes eight, you know, goes eight innings or something like that.

That would be awesome. But the playoffs are great. I hope the Orioles win tonight. You mentioned game five if it got to game five at Camden Yards on Friday night, how great that would be. Yeah. And I have a credential, so I could certainly be there for that. Okay. Yeah, but. But my responsibility is not in Camden Yards next Friday night. It's that cap one arena.

The cap's home opener Friday night. I know that. I actually, I thought you're. I can't not go to our home team's home opener to go to a playoff game in Baltimore. Why? Why? That wouldn't be right. But Baltimore is kind of, I mean, I don't consider them a home team, but we both know how many people that listen to this podcast that live in the DMV that are sports fans or Orioles fans.

I mean. Yes, I know that. But that takes a back seat to Washington. Not a home opener of the first of 82? Yes, it does. The opening game, absolutely. What if we didn't have a baseball team and the Orioles were still considered the home team? Well, again, well, of course.

Okay. Well, would I go, you know what, that would make it different. But we do have a baseball team. Right. When you said, of course. They're a Washington national. When you said, of course, I thought you were saying, of course, I would then go to the Orioles game. But it sounds like you were about to say, of course, I would still go to

the hockey game. And then you rethought it and said, well, without a baseball team, the Orioles would technically be the hometown team. You know, let's talk briefly about this whole Baltimore-Washington baseball thing. Okay. Because I got a lot of pushback from being at Camden Yards about this. You in your social media group. Okay, go ahead. And I've talked to people in baseball about this. you know, other front office executives, other owners.

And they, I mean, they don't understand how deep the masson dispute affects how Washington fans see the Orioles right now. Let's take the whole history of the Baltimore, Washington out of it. I understand how difficult it is for Nat fans to express anything, even remotely about the existence of the Orioles that wouldn't be anything but negative since they believe and rightfully so that you know the owner of the Orioles is holding their team hostage financially that that's legitimate I get that but once that's out of the way at some someday it will be if you're a sports fan in Washington you should be in heaven but you've got two teams within a drive to go see at any time.

But you've got baseball 162 games a year within a short drive. And different leagues. Get to see every team. You can see every team if you want to. Yes. There's not many places in a country that have that luxury. And at some point. New York, Bay Area, Chicago.

You know, they need to get over that. Huh? New York, Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas. Yeah. Well, not Texas, no, not Dallas. Not Texas. Right. What are the markets?

New York, Chicago, Bay Area, D.C. Baltimore. Oh, Bay Area, not for long. Right. Bay Area, not for long. Right. I wonder if Bryce Harper will want to finish his career with the Las Vegas Athletics. If the athletics can stay in Las Vegas. Yeah.

All right. Yes. No, I mean, look, for baseball people, it's a great opportunity. Not to mention the fact that if you're a Nats fan, the truth is, Camden Yards is such a great park. I mean, I— That's Park is a very good park. I think it is, too.

I think it is, too. But it's not Camden Yards. Camden Yards is one of the crown jewels of baseball. You got pickles, hon, at Camden Yards, but you got the bullpen. The bullpen at Nats Park is the best. By the way, speaking of that, perfect segue into the bullpen is hosting all of you for beautiful fall afternoons. Right there in the heart of Navy Yard, right next to Nats Park. they now have opened this thing up for football weekends.

They've got football on all day Saturday, all day Sunday. If you're looking for the ultimate outdoor destination to watch upcoming games, by the way, they'll have the baseball games during the playoffs on as well. Live music, beer, cocktails, gather your group together, head on down to the bullpen. The admission is free, as most of you know. They've got the games, they've got the drinks, they got the energy to make every moment unforgettable. Visit them today at the bullpenDC.com to see the game schedule. That's the bullpen DC.com.

All right. So can we switch to football? I think we have to. Sure. Josina Anderson from CBS Sports tweeted out some interesting stuff yesterday about Washington's new owner and his thoughts right now on the two and three start and the blowout. out-loss Thursday night. And Ron Rivera said a few things yesterday in his press conference that I want to talk about as well. We'll do that more coming up right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. MyBooky is

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MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin D.C. So a couple of things, Tommy, to get to in this segment. Josina Anderson has been a long-time NFL reporter.

I say long time. I don't know. 10 years, maybe longer. I don't know. She's been around covering the league for a while. She's also done a lot

of reporting on Washington through the years. She's with CBS Sports Now. She put out this long tweet yesterday. It's a very long tweet. Tommy, do you have to buy the blue check to be able to tweet as long as you want to tweet and you're not, you know, limited to the whatever number of characters it is? Because this tweet is a dissertation. It's much more than... I don't know. Than the 240 characters that you're limited to? Yeah. I don't know. So, I mean,

I'm going to read it here and it's going to take me, you know, a minute to read it. I should probably read it in parts here. Josina Anderson yesterday afternoon, quote, with the commanders coming off a 40 to 20 loss last week to the Bears on Thursday night football, I'm told as of today, meaning yesterday, managing partner Josh Harris's perspective is to continue to allow things to play out when it comes to potential staff to. decisions at this time per source. Harris is a seasoned sports owner who is viewed internally as generally patient. I'm told one of Harris's biggest concerns now, though, is the impact on the impact an emotional national loss may have on ticket sales, which always has to be taken into account too.

You know what, that's where I'm going to leave off for right now, because the next part gets into some Ron Rivera stuff on the defensive coordinator, and it's kind of a separate subject. Although she does come back at the end and says, well, I'll save the end. This part is just about Josh Harris's reaction, essentially to the loss to Chicago. His big concern, he's generally patient. They're going to allow things to play out, but his big concern is the impact, an emotional, national loss may have on ticket sales to which Josina Anderson adds, which always has to be taken into account too. So what's your reaction to that? Okay. Does he think it's more significant that it was a national game, do you think? Because if he if he's that upset about the Bears game,

imagine if they had lost to the Cardinals their first came out making the first impression with a packed house there ready to rock and roll against a team that everyone expected to beat. Well, let me just... It seems like a little bit of overreaction to me. I completely agree. First of all, a national loss doesn't mean anything, okay? A loss at a 40 to 20 loss at home.

Sunday at 1 to the Cowboys would have been a much bigger deal. You know, Sunday at 1 to the Eagles or, as you said, to, well, no, this was a, in the realm of lesser opponents that aren't important to the fan base, Chicago's right there. I mean, Chicago was 0 and 4 coming into this game. But if I had his ear, I would tell him, don't worry about the national part. I mean, if you're somehow embarrassed more because it was nationally televised, every single NFL result is discussed and recognized. I know that it gets singled out and it gets talked about more because it's a standalone game. And so Friday conversation, there's more about it. But trust me, you know, an emotional national loss to the bears, it would have been worse.

You gave a great example that I didn't even think of. it would have been worse to lose to the Cardinals in the opener. But getting, you know, absolutely embarrassed at 1 p.m. on Sunday by the Cowboys would be bad too, would be really bad. What else is your, what other reaction do you have to this? Because I have another reaction or two. I don't have any other particular reaction. I wouldn't expect a reaction by the owner in the fourth week of the season.

Fifth week, yeah. fifth week for a seasoned experience owner. Yeah, I'm kind of... Now, maybe everyone is, everyone is in tune to ownership in Washington more than any place else because it was such a sore subject for two decades. And you're trying to heal a wound. So every little drop of blood seems to have, me more important than it should be.

Yeah, I guess I kind of agree with that. Like I was kind of surprised to read this. Yes. What, you know, their perspective is they're continuing to allow

things to play out when it comes to potential staff decisions at this time. I guess that's a story. And it sounds like it came out from somebody close to Josh Harris, which would lead me to believe that maybe they wanted it to come out. My preference would be that they don't say anything. You know, it's just like, I mean,

I think I've shared this with everybody to a certain degree. I've had a chance to talk to Josh Harris. And I think maybe several people in town that aren't necessarily associated with the team have had a chance. Smart guy, passionate guy. The thing that I loved about the early press conferences to me came through in a big way, and that is really, really cares, has that mentality of an entrepreneur that, you know, he's sweating it right from the jump because he had to raise a lot of money to buy this team. He's got investors. He's got to, you know, provide, you know, some sort of return on back to them. But he also feels an incredible obligation to the fan base. So I, so far, I like him. I just, one of the things I would say to him is,

you know, we shouldn't hear from you or anybody in ownership except for two times during the year. Before the season starts, one person, you, the owner, talks about the state of the franchise, gives kind of a state of the union, you know, a real encouraging, upbeat, you know, perspective on the upcoming season. And then hopefully at the end of the season,

at the podium when Roger Goodell's handing you the Lombardi Trophy. Those are the two times me personally. This is a personal thing. Those are the two times I want to hear from my owner. That's it. And I don't want anybody other than the football people to be heard from once the season begins. Okay, this is, you know, I've said this about Jason Wright. And nobody in any other city, I mean, there are exceptions to the rule.

most sports fans have no idea who their lead business person is, who their team president who is, who their VP of business ops is. Okay, and I know Jason Wright's different because he was the first African-American team president hired in the NFL. So we were always going to know him. But fans, for the most part, don't want to hear from him. They know the owner, the general manager,

and the head coach, and the players. And once the season starts in particular, those are the people who should be doing the talking. I don't want to, look, this is honeymoon period, so this is not criticism and I'm not taking anybody to task. Because we've already won the Super Bowl this year with Dan gone. You can't make me upset about, you know, the situation ownership-wise for a while now. But my advice would be we don't hear from anybody, except before the season starts and when the season ends, period. That's really over a long period of time. More of the winning, successful organizations operate that way.

I'm not saying that some don't have their owners out in front. But certainly for those of us that live through the glory years, you didn't hear from Jack Kent Cook during this. season. It was Bobby Bethard or Charlie Casserly, and sometimes you didn't even hear from them during the season. Rarely. The games matter. The people involved in football matter to the fans. Ticket sales don't matter. Who's, you know, signed up which corporate sponsorship, you know, for the team. That stuff doesn't matter. No offense, even though it's totally important, understood. all the charitable things. Fans, this is a diversion to them,

and the part that's a diversion to them are the games. Football. But again, I talked about how this kind of thing is maybe magnified in Washington. The things that you talked about, ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, fans have cared about that here because it was a way to keep score about the damage that the owner was doing to the franchise. I understand that. I do.

You're right about that. They're much more familiar with those things. And now, you know, to stop cold turkey, a pattern of behavior that you're used to for years, it takes some time to get over that. I want them to stop that. I'm over that. I'm over that. Now, season ticket sales, first of all, you don't have this as a topic in a lot of

NFL cities because they don't have tickets available. They're not trying to resurrect a fan base from the dead. So I can appreciate some of the things that they've done from a PR standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, because they paid $6 billion for this team, and they have to acquire new customers. I get that. But win on the field, and that'll generate ticket sales. And then by the way, you know, the line here, biggest, you know, I'm told one of Harris's biggest concerns now, though, is the impact on an emotional national loss may have on ticket sales, which always has to be taken into account too.

Just so I think Josina would understand this, and I know Josh Harris understands this. what's also very emotional in terms of a loss is what you're going to have to take care of when the season ends too and that is the name and the brand. You want to talk about ticket sales? Well, let's talk about a real serious issue as it relates to ticket sales and interest. We all know that.

It's not number one. Okay? Winning on the field is number one. I understand that and I am on board with that. But trust me, they know, and anybody that's paying attention knows that, you know, it's not going back to Redskins. I promise you that. But a brand change, hopefully back to something that focuses on the city name, the area in which we live with the uniforms back, that's going to be a big deal too. So here's the rest of Josina Anderson's tweet.

Rivera's relation... Okay, but... Yes, go ahead. Wait, wait, wait. Okay. Real briefly, because we haven't talked about this, and right now it's very topical. What did you think of Magic Johnson's tweet about the way the team played? That's what I was going to get to here, because I'm going to read the rest of this, and I'm going to go to Magic's tweet.

So the rest of the tweet is a natural, so, all right, so, okay, separately, when it comes to any decisions on defensive coordinator, there's an internal impression that Ron Rivera would prefer to allow things to play out. Rivera's relationship with Del Rio goes back a while as well. A natural choice to potentially look to in the past, Chris Harris, who is the DB's coach here from 2020 to 2022, is now with the Titans. By the way, I mentioned, I think with you last week, that one of the things I have heard, no, it was Friday, actually, with Cooley. One of the things that I was told on Friday is that this secondary, Mrs. Chris Harris, dearly. Anyway, continuing with her tweet, it's long.

My understanding overall is that Harris, as in Josh Harris, does welcome consultation from other owners and also understands that early searches can be beneficial if he elects to go that route, but moves like that customarily occur closer to the beginning of the coaching carousel, which, by the way, really starts to move. That carousel starts to move. when we get to mid-December. And then she finishes up.

Now, while I'm told some of the other limited partners have their own thoughts, and you can read between the lines there, we'll see how things settle as the season evolves. There is still time for better results, but the clock is ticking. Well, when she says you can read between the lines there about other limited partners, let me pull up Magic Johnson's tweet, which I read on the Friday recap, the show. Magic at 1136 p.m. Thursday night. Tonight the commanders played with no

intensity or fire. We didn't compete in the first half and got down 27 to 3 heading into halftime. It was too big of a hole to climb out of and that is why we ended up losing 40 to 20. By the way, Tommy, I love magic. You love magic. He is among my all-time favorite athletes and players. And I love that he's associated with this team. But again, my preference, this is a subjective thing. My preference is that during the season, unless they're going to make a move, and then I don't need it tweet it out or I don't need it telegraphed, just do it. I don't need to hear about this stuff. And by the way, they got to get a handle on how many people are going to be doing the communicating because this is a large ownership group. And once again,

I'll give my recommendation. It's one person that handles the communicating for the ownership group. Not multiple people, one person. And that one person isn't then trumped by somebody inside the building who isn't with the football operation either. So anyway. Okay. First of all, if you're bringing Magic Johnson on board in your ownership group, you're not bringing him on board so he can just stay quiet in the background. Well, then let him be the lead spokesperson.

person. Let him do all the communicating. No, no, no, no. For the ownership group. This is in a way, this is a good, it's a good role for him. Because I think most fans loved to see that tweet. Me too. They were angry and they wanted, and they liked knowing that, well, the owner's angry as well. But it's one of the owners who wasn't going to say shit about who's coaching this team. Well, you know, he has no power over it. he gets a seat in the suite in the suite and a good parking space

that's what he gets for his limited partnership so in a way if you've got a high-profile guy like this that can connect with the fans' feelings at that moment without really any damage being done I don't think Ron Rivera sitting there thinking oh my God

magic said this I might lose my job well let me add I think I had no problem with this, and I thought, I think it's kind of good. Let me be clear on this. I don't have a problem with it. I just don't want a bunch of cooks in the kitchen doing the communicating. I want one communicator from ownership.

But let me just say, in addition to that tweet from magic landing, I think, with a significant majority of the fan base, it was juxtaposed against a box filled all night long as they were getting their ass kicked with a lot of people looking really happy and celebratory. You know, that was pointed out by several people to me on Twitter. I noticed it. I didn't talk a lot about it on Friday because it's not that important. You know, the game was important. But Josh Harris, the difference between magic sitting there,

stern and angry and fuming, at least it looked like it, and the tweet might reflect that that's what he was doing as he was watching as this championship, you know, person who's, you know, one championship's plural in multiple sports, not as an athlete, but as an owner as well. And then Josh Harrison, some of the others in ownership, having a grand old time as they're getting their ass kicked. That was pointed out too.

I can't blame them for enjoying this right now. My God, they paid $6 billion. They're taking pictures with everybody. I mean, they're enjoying themselves right now. But at the end of this season, that's when I think we look at Josh Harris as the managing partner and we say, this is on you. We don't need five different people tweeting or communicating from your group. I mean, you're going to consult with all of your owners and everybody, but you communicate how this thing's moving forward.

You have fired this person, this person, this person, and you're in search for this role and this role, and then when you land that person or those people, tell us then. And I think that's coming. I think we are going to see in January, when this season ends, we're going to see a cleaning of house. I think the odds certainly favor that at two and three after a 40 to 20 loss to the Bears. Which, by the way, I'm reminded that the last time we did a show together and the last time we actually talked was on Thursday when we were previewing that night's game.

Which I told you, I told you, be careful here. This one doesn't smell right. I was giddy. I was dancing a victory dance. on this game before they ever took the field. Yes, I was. You mocked me when I told you that their offense is not what people think it is that they can do something.

Now, with that said, with all that, you know, I had to certainly fall on the sword for earlier in the week thinking that the defense wasn't much of a concern. Oh, my God, yeah. Because it is definitely concerning. I needed a redo on that. All right. Something that were, two things that Ron Rivera said yesterday during his presser I want to get to. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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They have good burgers. They have good burgers, and that sounds like a great burger on the specials menu. Yes. And you can top it off with dessert. They have chocolate cake on special and key lime pie as well. You can find out more at shelley's backroom.com. Again, I love the burgers there. I'm a big chicken tenders guy.

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No. All right, Shelley's back room, 1331F Street, Northwest. So Ron Rivera had a press yesterday. There were a bunch of quotes. By the way, we haven't mentioned. Derek Forrest is out with a shoulder injury. He's on injured reserve. And Jeremy Reeves is out as well. He's on injured reserve. It's going to create, I think, an opportunity for Juan Martin, the second round pick to play. He said it's Percy Butler, Kwan Martin that'll be looking to fill in for Derek Forst. What? Well, there might be opportunities for somebody else there, too.

because I'm going to read you a tweet from somebody, okay? And if I can just find it real quickly, because it's worth watching, it's worth paying attention to. It is by an old trend of ours. And it says, Washington knows, Washington knows I've been ready. Oh, I saw this. I saw this. Jay Swearings.

I saw that. Yeah, I saw that. He's not. He's played last year for the defenders. Yeah, I know. He's, they're not signing. And had a pick six interception for a touchdown. Yeah.

By the way, I'm just looking at this. Jeremy Reeves, I mean, what a story he was as a pro bowler last year, a special teamer. It looks like it's a season-ending ACL injury. Um, that's a shame. So they'll miss him on special teams for sure. Uh, by the way, on the, you know, on Juan Martin, I've talked a little bit about this, but I'm, and I'll just net it out. I don't understand the obsession with evaluating the 20, 23 draft five weeks into the season. But a lot of you have wanted me to do, you know, segments on this on the show, on the radio show, and talk about it more. I don't, I mean, you can't be serious. You guys have been football fans forever. You know how long

it takes to evaluate a draft class properly. And the truth of the matter is, as Ron would say, until this past game, they were healthy and they've got lots of young players playing. So there weren't as many opportunities. You may be right. You may be right that this draft class ends up being an awful draft class. But it wouldn't be because all of them weren't playing in the first five weeks of their rookie season. Now, Emmanuel Forbes has been bent, so that's not a great sign for him here early, but it's still too early on him. Can we move beyond trying to evaluate the draft class week five. Please, people. Let's focus on, like, serious topics here. Juan Martin, second round pick, is going to have an opportunity to play defensive snaps because

of an injury. It's typically the way it happens with players who aren't drafted in the first round. You know, they see a lot of action on special teams if they make the team, and they And they get the opportunity for offensive or defensive snaps when somebody's out or somebody's not playing well. And I guess you could certainly make the case on the offensive line in particular and in the secondary that there have been some players that haven't played well. All right. So Ron, there are two quotes I want to read. I don't have the audio of these. I apologize.

Usually we have it. I did not get the audio emailed to me. I just got the transcript emailed to me. So I'm going to read this. He was asked if anything surprised him or jumped out to him when looking at the film of the Chicago game. And Ron said, quote, I think probably some of the things that surprised us was just the missed opportunities. You know, you go back and one of the things we looked at obviously was the third down. I was looking at third down and just the opportunities we had on both sides of the ball, not just on the defense or on the offense, but on both sides of the ball.

We could have done some things better and things that would have sustained drives for us on offense and things that would have gotten us off the field immediately on defense, closed quote. So I actually did hear him say this, but I had to read it. Again, I didn't have the audio for the podcast recording here. I talked about this a little bit earlier, Tommy. There are times in sports where coaches, because they do this all the time. You know, they have their thoughts in the post-game presser, and then after they've looked at the film, they come back the next day. And there's always a discussion in a loss more often than not about just had a couple of opportunities that we couldn't cash in on.

As if to say, if we had cashed in on those opportunities, the game would have been completely different. And there are times when I think that it's true, you know, that one play could have really made a massive, difference early in the game. You know, it's, you're up 7-0, you're driving, you're dominating play, and you get to a first and goal at the two, and all of a sudden there is a fumbled snap, it's kicked backwards, you fall on it, but then you take a sack and you miss a field goal, and the whole game flips, okay? And what ends up being a game that's lost by a few points, or maybe 10 points. Let me just tell you, in my opinion, Thursday night was not about a couple of missed

opportunities. This was as thorough a beating as we have seen in the first half of an NFL game all year. Now, yes, they made it a game. And I think if Joey Sly kicked that field goal, that would have been the missed opportunity I would have referred to. If Joey makes that field goal, we are in really good position because we've got everything going our way and Chicago is gassed and Chicago's lost players. I mean, they had backups to the backups in the game at the end.

They were trying to run out the clock. But a few third down missed opportunities, I know which ones he's referring to. He's referring to third and 14 on the Bears opening drive. And they throw a touchdown pass against cover two wide open to D.E. J. Moore. Are you kidding me? That should have been a field goal. In most cases it is, especially on a condensed field. And then the first third and one on offense, when they got the ball back and it's third and one, I still think Logan Thomas, by the way, made a first down on the second down play. I do think that that happened. And I don't think they should have challenged it because it was

not a time where, you know, you probably thought third and less than a yard you're going to make it. But they didn't make it and they had to punt it back. And before they knew it, they're down 17, nothing. But this was not a game about a few missed opportunities. If you were going to say we had an opportunity after thoroughly getting beaten down to get back into the game and we missed a field goal, I'll buy that, but not a couple of plays early on. That was as thorough a beating in a first half of a game as I've seen all year. When we're talking about opportunity, I agree with you, but when we're talking about, when Ron uses the word opportunity, so much.

Okay? I think it's reasonable. Well, I think you would need to ask this question of him at some point when he uses the word opportunities. Were those opportunities missed in the play calling? Or were they missed in the execution?

Okay, because I think every time he uses opportunities, he's saying, it's on the players. It's not me. We put them in a position. We gave them an opportunity, and they missed it. I think you're probably right. That's probably what he's thinking. He didn't say it that way,

but I think that's probably what they're thinking. And look, on that, you know, I don't think they're telling their safeties in cover two to, you know, play at where they were playing, which completely opened up the corner route for DJ Moore. I don't think they told Nick Gates to get completely blown up upon the snap on the play that stopped Brian Robinson, Jr. You know, there were a couple of other, you know, second and long, third and long situations that Chicago overcame in the game. But, no, I know what you're saying. Yeah. But my big takeaway there is there are times when, because I, look, I do that as a fan sometimes.

I'll watch a game and the final score is, you know, 34 to 20. You know, 34 to 17? And I'm like, let me, you know what, Tommy? perfect example. Maryland at Ohio State Saturday. I talked about this on the show yesterday. It's the perfect example of when a coach, and I don't know if Loxley talked about this, missed opportunities.

They're actually not wrong. Maryland lost by 20. They lost 37 to 17 at Ohio State. Anybody that looks at that final score says, yep, exactly what I thought. Maryland's not very good. Ohio State crushed them. Covered the whole thing.

That game was about a couple of opportunities. Maryland in the first half was up seven to nothing driving for points and they missed on a fourth and one. They brought in the backup quarterback to run a fourth and one. They should have come out of that drive with points. End of the half. They threw a checkdown short of the sticks with no timeouts left in chip shot fuel goal range, and the clock ran out on them. They didn't get points.

They had a first and goal at the four came away with three. they should have, when they were up 17 to 10 in the third quarter in Columbus against the number four team in the country, Ohio State, they should have been up by more. Like anybody that was watching that game, whether you're in Maryland, Urban Meyer at halftime, whatever you think of Urban Meyer, he does no football. Urban Meyer said, Maryland's winning this, Ohio State should be deeply concerned.

They're getting beat in this game and they're getting beat in the trenches. which never happens and hasn't happened in a long time with Maryland against Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State. That's a game where when the coach says, final score is the final score, we lost the game. We're not into moral victories. There were a couple of opportunities that we missed out on that would have made the difference. Yes, true. Thursday night at FedEx Field, the missed field goal was the missed opportunity. But it wasn't a missed third down or a made third down.

in the first half. That was an ass kicking. It really was. Even though miraculously, they had a chance to get back into it at the end. So anything else on that comment from Ron? I wanted to read one more. He was asked at the very end of the presser,

how Sam Howe is doing, and has he met or exceeded expectations through five weeks? He said, quote, I think he's a little bit ahead of where we anticipate, only because he is having to throw a lot of balls. That's unfortunate to a degree, but you do like what he's done, and that's one of the things that you really appreciate. You see who he is.

You see his grit. You see his toughness. You see his decision-making. Those are all good. Those are things that hopefully we get this thing going in the right direction that will benefit as we continue the season. It's a long, long year. We've got 12 more games left to play, and we're going to approach them one game at a time and

focus on playing the best we can each game. But back to the important part of his answer, I think he's a little bit ahead of kind of where we anticipated. So I'll ask you that question. Has Sam Hal met exceeded or fallen short of the expectations you had for him? I think he's exceeded my expectations because I really didn't have any. I expected to see a fifth round draft pick who the coach didn't want to play until he had to be talked into it for the last game of the season.

So I expected, I didn't expect a quarterback, I expected to see a young player who would fold under pressure and under duress of an offensive line I knew would not be able to protect him. he's been under duress and he's been put in bad situations and made some poor decisions because of that offensive line. But it's not because he's folded. It's not because he felt like the moment was too big for him. So, I mean, I think he succeeded what I expected. So for me, if I answered this question, then I would be one of those people that forgot what I said all.

off-season, which is I don't have any expectations. I have no idea. And you know that that's been my answer all off-season. However, I, you know, I did say on occasion, look, if you forced me to bet, is he the answer long-term or not, I would bet against it. So knowing that there was at least some sort of lean in the direction of probably not the answer. And that was based a little bit on, you know, what I thought of him coming out, which I wasn't, you know, super high on him coming out, his draft falling to the fifth round, all of that stuff

played into it a little bit. If I took that as I had a slight lean against it working out, then he's exceeded what I thought I was going to get from him. And, you know, it's exactly what Ron said. You know, it's a little

bit ahead of probably where they anticipated, where even maybe his most, for people, that had negative expectations, I would think that he has certainly exceeded those. But, you know, what you do see is what Ron spelled out and even more than what Ron said. You see his grit.

You see his toughness. I mean, those are the same things we said about Taylor Heineke, too. I love that about him. He really is tough. He is gritty. He's got a short, short memory. Nothing seems to rattle him. But it's also very clear.

He's got an NFL arm, which we've talked about you know, ad nauseum during the offseason. But it's nice to see that in actual NFL games. He can make every throw. When he's decisive, I think he's got a really quick release. I mean, it's not lightning quick, but it's good enough. He throws with anticipation.

He throws with touch. He hums it in there when it needs to be hummed in there. You know, all of the arm talent stuff is great. You know, all of the intangible stuff. appears to be there too. Now, I will mention what I mentioned after the Buffalo game, and it's still a concern of mine. You know, the flaws that he had at Carolina that people had talked about, he holds on to it too long, his decision-making isn't always great. We've seen those at the pro-level in five pro games as a starter this year. I also, you know, the other thing is, you know,

he's short. You know, some guys, it's fine. Some guys, he, you know, actually, you notice it. I notice it with him. It's my, it's my view. Not everybody has the same view. I think there are times when, you know, we've seen a lot of deflected balls. I don't know how many there have been in five games, but it's double digits of deflected passes this year. And under duress, when he's pressured, he disappears sometimes from your television screen because of the, Now, sometimes he reappears magically because he's so strong and he's so good at escaping. But some, you know, Sean Payton with Drew Breeze, they talked about this throughout. You know, Drew Breeze was a shorter quarterback, but they created with their offense passing lanes for him to see.

I think there are times where I've seen it be difficult for Sam Howell to see. part of that too is because the offense line isn't very good. Part of it is he holds on to it too long. Here's what I will say. If we continue to see what they've done the last two weeks, which is not drop them back as much. I'm not talking about pass plays. I'm talking about drop back pass plays, right?

Five step drops or more. And we continue to see more quick game and more screen and more, you know, sprint outs, moving the pocket. I think, I mean, I want to just keep seeing more because I do see kind of that prototypical West Coast quarterback where if you can just get better along the offensive line and, you know, and he continues to grow and evolve that you've got something there. Trust me, I'm not saying you've got a franchise elite quarterback. I don't see that necessarily.

but I do see Andy Dalton, you know, something like that. And that's a hell of a lot better than anything else they've had around here for a long time. I like what I've seen more than what I haven't seen. And I want to keep seeing more. So, you know, like a couple of weeks ago, I said, you know, anybody that says just give him 17 games blindly, I don't understand that mindset at all. What if he's terrible? And it's obvious that he's terrible.

Like, why would you continue with it? But what I've seen through the first five weeks is he's anything but terrible. Like, there's enough there that, you know, I want to continue to see more, especially considering that the alternative is a, you know, just a high-end, backup, low-end NFL starter. I think we know what Jacoby Brissette's ceiling is. So barring injury, and by the way, he could get injured with the beating that he's taking, I think we're going to see him for 17 weeks.

I do. 17 games? Yes. You do too? Yeah, I do. No, I don't. No, I don't think he's going to be able to hold up. I think he's going to get hurt at some point.

I don't wish it on him. Right. But I don't think he's going to hold up for 17 games. All right. A couple of things just to quickly finish up the show with. I don't know if anybody saw Micah Parsons basically, you know, say about the game the other night. George Kittle, you know, had some comments about the Cowboys. And Micah Parsons, who plays for the Cowboys, who lost 42 to 10 to the 49ers, said,

Kittles my guy, but I'm going to say this. Laugh now, cry later. We got something for that. Just trust. If we see them again, just trust. you're going to make it personal, we can make it personal. I mean, I love Micah Parsons as a player, but shut the F up after you get your asking 42 to 10. So Debo Samuel, who played for the team that won the game on a podcast today, I'm looking at the podcast, said, quote, it's a Fandul podcast.

Quote, I don't think the Cowboys want to see us again. It might be a little bit worse next time, close quote. I don't know how it could be worse. That was humiliating. Humiliating. Okay. I was going to mention, because I didn't talk about it yesterday, the Mario Cristobal not taking a knee at the end of the game for Miami and losing to Georgia Tech.

Several of you said, is that going to be on your weekly coaching blunders? segment. I don't really do that anymore. But that is an all-time blunder, but it's not surprising. And by the way, real, real quick thing, it wasn't just the third down in which he should have taken the knee. He should have started taking the knees on first down. Like, you've got to know. I heard you say that.

Yeah. I was listening to your radio show. I heard you say that, and you were absolutely right. Yeah, the knee process, they could knee that game out starting on first down, even though Georgia Tech at the time had one time out left. There was a minute 22 left, so do the math. They could have need it out. They ran a play on first down, second down, and then third down,

and they fumbled, and Georgia Tech recovered, and they won. He did, you know, finally sort of understand and said yesterday, you know, that's on me, we've learned from it. He did the same thing at Oregon in a game against Stanford when he was there. He didn't learn from it there. No, it's really, man, in this day and age, like that's, that's really 101 stuff. Like if you're still running plays

when you can be taking knees. By the way, I feel the same way at the end of a half. Like it doesn't cost you the game in the moment. But I said this about Ron last week against Philadelphia. I forget which game it was. Like, if you're not intending to score at the end of the half, don't run plays. Why would you?

Get a player hurt for what? Fumble for what? If your intention is not to go try and score with, say, 20 seconds to go in the half and they don't have timeouts, take an effing knee and go to the locker room. A lot of coaches still run plays at the end of the half when they have no desire or intent to try to go and score. Now, sometimes it's a draw to open up the drive, and it's like if we get something, we'll go for it, whatever. I understand that. But anyway. Also, one last thing.

I don't think Kirk Cousins is getting traded people. I know that Jefferson's on injured reserve, and now people think now Minnesota season's truly over, and Kirk should get traded to the Jets, or Kirk should get traded to this team or that team. He's got a no-trade clause, and I don't think they want to trade them. And I think the key players in that organization,

like Justin Jefferson, don't want him traded. So for those of you that have reached out to say, are you going to follow Kirk to New York? Are you going to become a Kirk? I'll follow him as a fan anywhere, just like I did with Bryce Harper and Trey Turner and Brian Mitchell and Art Monk and Gary Clark and Mark Rippen. I mean, I do continue to keep an eye on the players that I liked when they were here and root for them as long as they're not playing us. I'm just telling you, I don't think he's getting traded from Minnesota. I don't think that'll happen. Could be wrong.

Anyway, you got anything else? Yeah, I got one thing. Okay. It's big media news. Okay. And I think it affects everybody in this town. Can I real quickly, before you give that news, just mention when donations, fall deal, buy to get too free, with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two years.

You can't beat that deal. Tommy knows this. an endorser of Window Nation for 14 years. I was a customer. Many of you were. They're trusted by over 150,000 nationwide customers. You can trust them. Call them at 86690 Nation. Go towindonation.com. Take advantage of their fall sale. Buy two get too free with no money down, no payments and no interest for two full years. When you call, mention my name. You'll get a free estimate. And I promise you they'll take good care of you. So if you've been thinking about new windows,

86690 Nation or windownation.com. What's the big media news? The Washington Post sent down a memo to all their employees saying that they're going to offer buyouts to about 240 employees. Oof, the newspaper business. With this quote, we have determined that our prior projections for traffic, subscriptions, and advertising growth,

for the past two years and in the 2024 have been overly optimistic. That doesn't bode well for anybody. Just saying. Yeah. I mean, I love your business. Always have. It's tough. It's a volatile business.

Not just the newspaper business. The media in general. Look what ESPN just went through. I know. with all the layoffs. No doubt. I mean, it's always something, whether it's competition, whether it's typically driven by change in consumer habit, you know?

I mean, look at, you know, the ESPN layoffs are because people now, you know, they don't have cable. They stream everything. You know, and in your business, obviously it's about, you know, instant, you know, news and everything else that you've described over the years. The podcast business is good. It could be better. And for it to be better, it would be helpful if you'd rate us and review us on Apple and Spotify.

Give us five stars. Give us a quick one to two sentence review. It is really, really helpful to our revenue generation for this podcast to continue to get ratings and reviews. It really is because it's what advertisers in many cases, in addition to the numbers that we generate, it's what they look at because it demonstrates audience loyalty, audience affinity to the show. And that's why those ratings and reviews are helpful. So a five-star rating on Apple, a quick one to two-sentence review saying how much you like the podcast is important. Subscribing to the podcast helps us a lot.

And following us on Apple and Spotify is important. The follow buttons in the upper right-hand corner on the Apple podcast. homepage, and it's down the left-hand side on Spotify. All right, good show. You did well today. Make sure you do this, people. Do what Kevin told you to do, because I don't want to be getting a memo from Kevin

talking about a buyout because it ain't going to be much of a buyout. It wouldn't be much of a buyout. I think the first memo that you would get is we need to talk. It's about that weekly stipend, because it really is more of a stipend than anything else. But you guys, great reviews. By the way, this one from James, who said, and I meant to read this earlier, love this show. It's always a great and positive outlook on the sports. seen in our nation's capital, especially when Tom's on the show. Thank you, James.

Thanks for the sarcasm. We're done for the day back tomorrow.