The Kevin Sheehan Show - Progress at RFK

Episode Date: July 8, 2023

Kevin is back from vacation and played some catch-up on some of the things he missed. He also weighed in on the breaking news last night that there is progress towards DC getting an extended and amended lease at the RFK site which would make a Commanders' move back to the city more viable.  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 Cheyens show. Here's Kevin. As Greenie used to say, back and better than ever. That's the way Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic on the Mike and Mike radio show for years on our radio station would open up every show back and better than ever.

Yeah, I'm back. I am Bach. I am Bach. That's the way Michael Scott said it. Remember after he applied for the corporate job, didn't get it, and then came back. And Dwight had painted the office, the manager's office, all black. Yeah, I'm back. Real vacation time over five days of no shows, no radio, no podcast.

That might be the longest run of no shows since August of 2018. I was thinking about this this morning. August of 2018 is when I launched this podcast. I can't believe, but it's coming up on five years, five years of doing this podcast. I remember when I launched it and why I launched it. Somewhere, by the way, in the neighborhood of now 25 million downloads of this show and counting over the nearly five years. And growing, which is a good sign. But then again, I think most podcasts that have some sort of reach or seeing growth.

But still, it was nearly five years ago that 980, the radio station, which was then owned by Red Zebra, which Dan Snyder was the majority investor and owner of. They sold the station to Urban One. Urban One owns a bunch of radio stations across the country, including in this market, very successful FM radio stations. Urban One purchased the station five years ago. It was the summer, you know, late spring, early summer of 2018. And for me, it was, hey, we want you, but we want you to do the show solo without Cooley.

And oh, by the way, we need you to take a 35% pay cut if you want to stay. And with that, I started to look at my options. And Tony is in Tony Kornheiser. He said to me, said, do a podcast. I promise you, it will work out. And I did. And by the way, he helped me at the start figured out because five years ago, not everybody was doing a podcast.

You know, now everybody and their family members are all doing podcasts. And it's easy to figure out how to do a podcast. Five years ago, I didn't listen to podcasts. And we were just starting to hear of podcasts. And really, the one that I listened to, and I didn't even listen to it a lot, was Tony on occasion. But I love doing this podcast. And I love that so many of you listen to it. I love that some of you who listen to it actually like it.

That means a lot. Devin wrote me earlier this week saying, so you really did take real vacation time. Do you mind communicating to us in the future how long you're going to be out? I guess that's a good point, Devin. I mentioned last week with Tommy on the last show that we did. And then I did one more show on Thursday of last week. It was the part two of the Howard Gutman experience last week.

And if you missed those shows, they were great. You know, Howard telling us about his days at Studio 54 in New York. And then Howard talking about his, you know, acting life, which we didn't know about. But I did mention, I think, Devin, that I would be off until late this week. I was planning on doing a show yesterday with Tom as the first show back, because I did get back late the night before on Wednesday night. But I had to take my dog in for surgery yesterday. And we picked her up this morning, and she's doing well. But it just took longer than I thought it would, and I just decided that yesterday was not the day to do a show,

and we had to pick her up this morning, and that's why the show is getting out late today. Anyway, I'm back. I was in Spain, by the way. That's where Tommy will be summering in a few weeks. It was great. It was just my wife and me. I don't know about you guys. I don't have a lot of endurance for the type of vacation that I just took. And when I say that type of vacation that I just took, I'm talking about the vacation where it's a lot of museums, cathedrals, lots and lots of walking. I bet we walked 10 miles minimum a day, maybe a lot more. I don't, I wasn't really keeping track of it. We've done a lot of these kinds of trips. They are, to me, more trips than vacations.

Vacation to me is like beachy. A good trip is what I was just on. I do have more vacation time coming up in August, and I'm going to use it. And that will be more beachy and golfy than it will be museums and cathedrals. But we had a great time, really good time. I'll do a better job, Devin, of communicating departure and return dates for the next set of vacation days. By the way, you're right, because I wasn't really paying that much attention

to social media until I got back. And I've got a few good tweets to read here in a few moments. Twitter is just too much of a time suck for me. I'm not, by the way, about to try out threads. It's called the meta threads. Tommy will probably try to convince me that it is going to be the new primary social media platform product when we're together next week. You know, he is much more. I think Tommy's effective. I know that not everybody likes what he tweets, but I think he's effective with social media.

He's always been interested in it, even though it seems to cause him great angst at times. But I bet you he's following this threads thing, and maybe he's got an account opened up on it already. Maybe he'll try to convince me to get on that. I don't know. But yeah, I enjoyed the time away. I'm glad to be back. I love doing this podcast. I really did miss it. But it was probably a good time to be away. This show today, by the way, is brought to you by My Bookie. My Bookie has every preseason NFL prop bet up on its site already. Washington's over under has not changed. It's still, as I look at it right now, six and a half. And if you think six and a half is an absolute joke, And I know many of you do. We'll bet the over because you can get plus 131 right now at My Bookie on an over six and a half Washington Commanders 2023 bet.

So $100 down pays $131 if they win seven or more games this year. So really the odds on favorite for them is the under. It's at minus 161. You got to lay money to bet the under. use my promo code Kevin D.C. to secure a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000. MyBooky.com or mybooky.orgie.ag. Kevin D.C. is the promo code you need to use. All right. Let's get to it. Look, I missed NBA free agency. I mean, who really cares? Not my audience that much. I did follow it a little bit here and there.

Really got caught up on it when I got back. I was a bit surprised. at the Kyle Kuzma deal to stay in D.C. four years, $120 million. But I actually don't hate the deal. I like the flexibility it offers. He's 28 next year. He's young enough. He's got enough talent where he could be a piece of a team, say two to three years from now that hopefully at that point has landed a guy that looks like a true superstar. No guarantees on that. I'm just saying if they were to do that, Kuzma could be a nice piece. that he'd still only be, you know, 29, 30, 31 years old, and maybe be the veteran guy in that team.

But here's the other part of this. His talent and the contract can be viewed potentially by a contending team next year or the year after as very attractive from a trade standpoint. So it's better that perhaps they, you know, have this asset in Kyle Kuzma under contract, you know, where potentially he's a piece of something, you know, favorable in a few years, or he's a trade piece that can bring them, you know, something in return. Remember, it's better to get something in return for him than nothing. You know, they could have easily, you know, departed this off-season by getting nothing back for Porzingis or Kuzma.

They got a lot back for Porzingis, or they certainly, you know, were able to leverage. Porzingis into, you know, a deal that ultimately brought him some stuff back. And Coosma could end up doing that a year or two years from now. Anyway, no downside, really, no big downside. There is a downside. I don't consider it to be that big of a downside. Maybe some of you do. But I'll get to that towards the end of the show today.

But, look, per usual, the overwhelming correspondence I got over the last. last week was Washington football team related. And I'm going to start with something that is not necessarily a continuation completely of some of the conversations we've had, but man, it is amazing this offseason how many people have been really, really, you know, upset, been made upset by the NFL's pundits or analysts or national guys. current opinion of Washington. This came from Mason. Mason wrote me, Kevin,

why don't the so-called NFL experts see what we see? ESPN ranking our roster 24th out of 32 teams is an insult and it's just wrong. None of the five teams in front of them, Green Bay, Chicago, Raiders, New England, New Orleans are better than our roster. Sure, an emphasis on quarterback is important, but none of these teams have their quarterback answers for sure, except for maybe the Raiders. The so-called experts are judging this roster as if it's a Snyder roster. Times have changed. Thank you, Mason. This from Cedric, did you see this? And he linked me to a story out of the athletic titled, identifying each NFC East team's biggest concern from a GM's perspective.

And the GM doing the identifying of the team's biggest concerns is former NFL GM Randy Mueller. Remember, he was with the Saints for all of those years. Now he's the GM of one of the XFL teams because the team that Washington played in the playoff game at Audi Field, because I went to that game with Tommy and with our good friends and who had great seats and appreciate John and Courtney taking us to that game, took Tom, Doc and I, all three of us to the game. They played Seattle?

I think it was Seattle. I mean, it was so long ago. I think it was Seattle because Randy Mueller was the GM, and he was sitting right next to us. I actually started to talk to him at one point and didn't realize he was on a headset communicating with, I guess, the coordinators and the coaches. I don't know, but I thought it was just,

hey, I know that guy. That guy used to be a GM. I'll say hello. He was in the middle of the playoff game. Seattle, I think, was the team they played. Anyway, Cedric links me to this story that was written in the athletic by Randy Mueller. And he said,

did you see this? This guy Mueller likes Ron Rivera, but doesn't want to give Sam Hal the chance. So I'll read what Mueller wrote in a minute, but one more note. This was an email from our good friend, Randy, who by the way was a very good sport a few weeks back when I made his emails a part of the show. And not so much in a positive way either. Randy wrote, does PFF know that Washington plans on Sam Hal being the starting quarterback. They ranked Washington 21st in their power rankings, but acted as if they had upgraded it quarterback because they signed Jacoby Brissette. Yeah, they did in their, first of all, I think we did the PFF power rankings before we left. I'm pretty sure we did. And in that power ranking, they did mention that they had added, you know,

an upgraded quarterback in Jacoby Berset. And that was, I guess, one of the reasons they had them ranked 22nd, which is kind of as high as we've seen them ranked 22nd, 21st, somewhere in that neighborhood with all of these, you know, preseason power rankings. Anyway, there was plenty more that I was getting caught up on. This from Val. Val said, can't believe Washington's roster is ranked so low by ESPN.

They have a top five defense and a top 10 receiving core. Howe looks no worse than Purdy to me. That would be Brock Purdy. And then from JD, Shee in time for your smell test on the seas. Is that what we're calling them? God, I hope not. Total disrespect, J.D. writes, coming from everywhere. They should be your lock to make the playoffs. And then hashtag a nose smelling something, I guess. Yeah, I mean, contrarian view against all of the national pundits would be, let's go big on Washington's over six and a half. That might be a preseason prop for me. It might be. I felt better last year about the over. I had them in the over last year. I did really well with my preseason over under

bets last year. So anyway, I've got a few thoughts. Four in particular. Thought number one on all of the angst over Washington being underrated a bit, you know, by the pundits. So thought number one, this roster is, is the best it's been in a long time. You know, I would say since 2016 or 2017, maybe overall this is a better roster than those two particular teams. It's just that the quarterback was more of a known than an unknown. on those two teams, and we know who that quarterback was. But I also have a sense that much of the national media, not all of it, but many, the majority, have overlooked this team's roster for what it actually is,

which is in parts, very good. In other areas, not bad. In a couple of areas, who knows? You know, and that leads me to thought number two. Those who knows areas are really important. Quarterback and offensive line. Those are areas where if you're an NFL analyst and you don't have a good sense as to what a team has at those two spots at quarterback in particular,

but O-Line as well, it's probably going to lead to a lesser evaluation of the team overall. But still, you know, while the defense may not be top five, it's talent and 2022 production, I think should lead any serious NFL analyst to discuss it as a legitimate top 10 defense entering 2023. With, by the way, and I would add if I were, you know, kind of a national pundit looking at Washington, I would say with two wild cards, you know, major wild cards, like kind of icing, on the cake players in Chase Young and I would also say Jamon Davis, you know, two players who they don't need to be top 10-ish, but if those two players come through and end up being outstanding,

this could be a defense that approaches top five territory. So, you know, thought number two is, you know, the early summer preseason thoughts on this team have been underwhelming. yes, I think a bit off. Not way off, though. But I don't think this talent in particular on defense gets enough love. I don't think it's been getting enough of what it deserves. But anyway, third thought on all of this. I do agree that the team's roster in particular has been somewhat underrated by the pundits. I don't think their overall ranking, however, is that far off. I really don't. You're just not going to convince me in

2023 with the way football is played where offense actually matters more than defense, you know, the old defense wins championships, offense puts people in the seats, no. Offense puts people in the seats and offense wins championships in 2020. So you're not going to convince me in 2023 that a team that is a total mystery at QB, along with an offensive line that is a bit of a mystery, can be thought of as much higher than where we continue to see them. Sam Hal is a total unknown. I'm not going to go through this again because it's gotten old.

But for those that think they know that he's the right guy and he's going to take the league by storm, bless your hearts. If you're right, awesome. But I don't think if you're right, it's based on some super smart evaluation. I think for many of you, it's just your default position when it comes to talking about anybody on this team. You know, the individual players, the team as a whole are always in your mind's eye better than what, you know, the pundits thinking, sure, better than what the local sports talk radio people think. It doesn't matter that you've been wrong for years on years. I guess good on you for continuing to swing and stick with it.

But who knows, maybe one of these days you'll finally be right. It won't erase how foolish you've looked doing the same bit that you do every summer for the last 20 years. But maybe you'll be right this time. Look, Sam Hal's got some talent. Randy Mueller's evaluation, though, is not that far off from mine. And I want to read it to you. He wrote in The Athletic, quote, What really would cause me to need medication to sleep is the decision they have made at

quarterback to go with 22 fifth round pick Sam Hal who has one career start. I have watched his game on tape more than once trying to see what all the hubbub is about. I even went back to reassess what I saw on him at North Carolina before the draft. I'm sorry, I just don't see it. I'm not saying he can't be good someday. I am saying I could never give him the keys to the car right now with the amount of information we have gathered and processed with my future on the line in the 2022 season.

And that sort of goes back to what he was talking about. Ron Rivera and everybody's kind of on, you know, their futures on the line in 2022. He continues to write. The prior decisions the commanders have made at this position add to my skepticism. Lots of QB bodies have been discarded the past three years.

He's not wrong, in my opinion. There are things about Sam Hal at Carolina that I liked, but I was far from blown away. I was not high on him coming out in the 2022 draft, but look, I'm just a fan. The team seems to think that they can sell him as a first-round talent, you know, but they didn't think that in 2022,

no matter how hard they try to convince everyone that they felt that way. didn't even really want to see him against Dallas in the season finale, which for me, you know, again, I've said this a million times. It was a nice game, but I put very little into that performance for all the reasons I've mentioned in the past, meaningless game, weird circumstances with Dallas. They just looked completely disinterested in the game. And Washington, you know, it was a preseason environment. Dallas looked checked out from the moment that game started. The punter drops the ball. Dax.

basically throws back-to-back pick sixes. To predict great things from Sam Howland, in 2023, based off of what you saw in that one game at the end of 2022, honestly, it's one of, I think, the most naive things I've heard from many of you, or some of you, during this offseason. But yeah, Washington's defense has been underrated. I think they're skill position players on offense. You know, most notably, actually, in my opinion, the running backs, I think, have been very underrated by national guys.

But to me, somewhere in the bottom third to bottom quarter of the league is where they should be predicted to finish. Because, again, their quarterback is a massive question mark. And to a lesser degree, their offensive line is one as well. And then add to that, you know, one of the best two to three rosters in the N. NFL sits atop the division in Philly. The second best team, Dallas on paper, has a roster somewhere near the top 10. And the team that will be picked to finish third by most, the Giants, have a roster that's at least comparable to Washington's, but with a better answer for now anyway at quarterback.

Last thought on all of this. Fourth and last thought on all of this. What are we doing? I mean, look, the summer. the offseason, it's always been built for these kinds of conversations as we've suspended reality, as Tommy always describes, suspend the reality that Dan Snyder owns the team. If we do that, we can have these conversations about Terry McClure and where he ranks and how good the defense is. But what are we doing this summer? I mean, let's, you know, we can, I get it.

We can do more than one thing at a time, you know, so we can talk about the defense and Sam Hal. and Terry McClorn and, you know, all the reasonable conversations that we have most summers, most off-seasons. But guys, in two weeks, Dan Snyder will officially be gone. That is what matters more than anything else. I still can't believe it. You know, I was thinking about this on vacation a little bit. This was never supposed to happen.

Nobody had this. I mean, I'm just going to gently pat my. myself on the back by saying, I always felt that if it did happen, it would be him voluntarily deciding to sell because eventually the family would say enough is enough. But I didn't think it would happen. I didn't predict it would happen. Nobody did. It wasn't supposed to happen. He was never going to sell. He was never probably going to be forced out. The nightmare was going to continue for, you know, because of his age for another 25 years. You know, some people stopped having those nightmares because they stopped caring.

A lot of people did. But Dan Snyder is leaving. He has sold the team and the new owner is on the verge of being approved. This effing disaster is going to end in two weeks. Apparently, Jason Wright is going to be a part of the new group. That news broke while I was away. I'll get to that and more. this from one of our sponsors.

So there's some breaking news over the last 24 hours. I am going to go back and touch on a couple of the things that I missed while I was away last week and earlier this week. But Megan Flynn and Sam Fortier from the Washington Post last night broke a story that James Comer, the representative, the Republican representative, House representative from Kentucky, chairman of the congressional committee that oversees D.C., is preparing to introduce legislation that could ultimately allow the district to build a Washington Commander's football stadium or another mixed-use development at the decrepit RFK stadium site, a major development in Merrill Bowser's pursuit to bring the team back to the city. So if you think about this in terms of kind of a timeline, we've talked about this before, but the first step in getting to D.C. is the site itself, which the federal government owns.

They've leased it to the city. That lease runs out in 2038, and that lease currently only allows for recreational structures or activities. And a stadium is part of that. It does not allow for all of the development that would go around the stadium. So when we've talked about this before, I've mentioned, you know, there are kind of three ways to address this. One is that the federal government, the Department of the Interior just gives the land to the city, which they've done in other parts of the city for parks, for museums, etc. They could sell the land to the city or they could take the current lease, extend it, and then amend it to allow for the development around. the area where the stadium would sit. And in this story written by Megan Flynn in Sam 48, there is the following paragraph. Two people familiar with the planned legislation who spoke on the condition of anonymity

to discuss sensitive negotiations said it involved a lease extension with one of those people describing it as a 99-year lease extension and modification, which would broaden the city's options for what it could do with the land. So it sounds like that third, you know, option, if you will, to acquire or to have land at the RFK site that you can use to build a stadium and to build everything that you want to build now around the stadium, that it would be done in the form of a lease extension with an amendment that would allow for it to, as it's described here to broaden the city's options for what it can do with the land. Now, in the big picture, that's the first step, getting the land and having the land available

for a stadium and for everything that you want in the development around the stadium. But once that happens, there's still the next big hurdle. And that is, how much is the city and its taxpayers? willing to foot the bill. The two most recent new NFL stadium situations in Buffalo and Nashville had significant taxpayer contribution. Okay, significant Nashville and Western New York contribution to the building of the stadium and everything that will go into making that stadium a great place to watch football

and to drink beers and bars before the game and have dinner after. towards. So, you know, it's still possible that they, this is, you know, one hurdle cleared, but the next one will be, well, how much are they going to put towards this new stadium and surrounding site? Because maybe Maryland comes to the table with more. Now, giving them the land to build the stadium on is a big contribution. I do understand that. Okay. But they're not, you know, giving them the land to own, which is what they own right now in Landover, they're just essentially, if they are leasing the land, I guess they're just a sub-lesser. They're sub-leasing it from the primary leaseholder, which would be the city from the federal government. I don't know how that would actually

work. But anyway, my point being is getting the land, and it sounds like through a lease extension with an amended lease, that has a chance of happening. And And then part two of this is, will the city and its taxpayers, you know, make Josh Harris feel like it's worth it to do it there more than what maybe the Maryland option will be or the Virginia options will be? I still don't see a Virginia Stadium at any point in time. I'm going to stick with that until it gets built there. I just don't see Virginia being an option for this new ownership group, so I still think it's D.C. or Maryland. But this is good news. This is good news. And now I go backwards to a piece of news that I missed from last week. And this was the story written by Nikki Javala and Mark Maskey titled Commander's President Jason Wright expected to be retained after sale. They wrote, Washington commanders president Jason Wright, who is hired in 2020 to improve the culture and business operations of the franchise, will be retained and given a chance to earn a continued role under new ownership once Josh Harris's $6.05 billion purchase of the club from Daniel Snyder is approved as expected by NFL team owners and finalized in late July.

Two people with knowledge of the new owner's strategy said. one of those people said right will quote absolutely have the opportunity to perform in his role and that no one should expect or allude to any changes with his role at this time that person did not specify how long the commitment to right might last or make any longer term proclamations about other commanders executives right by the way declined to comment for the story um so uh this got a lot of a attention. I was catching up on this. My reaction is this. You know, Howard's told us this all along that they are going to proceed slowly. Now, we've always understood that that made total sense on the football side. You know, they're getting ready to start a season when they take the team over preseason training camps a week away and their first preseason game is two and a half weeks away or three weeks away or whatever it would be at that point. But we've, you know, suggested that perhaps, you know, they'll have, you know, people capable of coming in and taking over on the business

side. But right away is not really that feasible. And, you know, Howard suggested all, you know, all along that if Mitchell Rails is involved, this will be done very slowly. This will be done with great thought with lots of information. And the bottom line is, is you're getting ready to open up a season and you're selling tickets and you're trying to generate revenue for the 2023 season. It'd be hard to shuffle everybody out and a whole new group in. Now, the other part of this is, because what I just said kind of implies that, well, they'll eventually get around to putting their own people in because there's, you know, as the story says, you know, this isn't necessarily a commitment for forever at this point.

And there are a lot of you that have been very frustrated with Jason Wright. And let's face it, the public stuff that Jason Wright's had his, you know, his fingerprints on, the majority of it's been disastrous. But I've said all along, and I think this is really important, we're not there every day. We don't know what goes on every day. and what people's jobs are every day. And who's competent and who isn't when it comes to ticket selling,

when it comes to corporate sponsorship development, when it comes to a merchandising and a marketing plan. We don't know whether or not the people that he has hired. I know not all of them are there. Some of them have left. Some of the people that he hired have left, but some of them are still there. And I've suggested to you for two years now

that the group that came in at least wasn't as arrogant as the group that preceded them. That was obvious to a lot of us. Now, whether or not the competence level had increased significantly, there were certainly plenty of examples to cite to say, well, things haven't really changed that much when it comes to execution. But we're not there every day. We don't know who's good and who isn't. I guarantee you there are going to be plenty of people that survive this transatlantic.

transition. You know, it's, they can't take everybody from the Sixers and everybody from the Devils and everybody from Crystal Palace and just bring them to DC to Ashburn and to Landover and fire everybody. It's not the way it works. You know, when you buy, you know, an organization, you take the time typically to, you know, to find out, you know, who's good and who needs to stay. who's good but not in the right role and needs to move and who is not going to be a part of this thing because they're just not a good fit culture-wise or they're not a good fit from a competence standpoint.

But that may take some time. And, you know, right now to come in and to fire the first, like imagine this too from a public relations standpoint. If the first thing you did was to fire the first thing, first hiring of a black team president in NFL history, that's not the right foot for the new group to get off on necessarily. A lot of those things will be of concern. Now look, they're going to get the longest honeymoon period of any new ownership group in recent memory. I can't think of one that'll have a longer grace period than Josh Harris and his limited partners. I mean, they're not

Dan. We're going to give them every chance to succeed. And really, it's one of those things where Dan's gone, the new group's in, we almost have to just say, let's just watch and observe, and like two years from now, we start to come to some real conclusions on the job they're doing. We're going to come to this conclusion without question. And that is, well, it's much better than it Now, whether or not it's good enough, we're going to need time on all of this. I would not think that this story means that Jason Wright is the team president in perpetuity, or even for the next few years, or that he's going to get signed to some sort of, you know, contract, you know, a multi-year deal.

I think they're going to come in, they're going to take their time. Remember, they have not been allowed to spend. time with these people. They have not been allowed by the league to do anything in terms of team business. You know, they took a tour or two and that's it. They haven't spent a lot of time with a lot of people in the organization. Um, so we'll see. Uh, I think it's, is it possible that Jason Wright ends up becoming an outstanding front office executive? I guess it's possible. You know, remember who he's been working for, let's not forget that. And the impossible situation he came in and took over during, you know, during a time in which, you know, basically they were getting shot at

from every direction. And then he had, you know, unfortunately, because they did not do a great job with it. Nobody thinks they did a great job with it. But at the same time, and I've acknowledged this in the past, it wasn't an easy job. It wasn't a job that you were ever going to please everybody. And that was you know, handling the new name and associated branding. But if you're looking for me to be outraged by this story, like, oh my God, Josh Harris is keeping Jason right. I don't view that story this way. I view this as interim as temporary, as they're going to be deliberate. They're going to be, they're not going to make any big moves right now. They don't have the time to make those big moves. They've got the time to sit back.

and evaluate a little bit before they make some big moves. And if you were to say to me, you've got to bet right now on whether or not Jason Wright is going to be the team president long term. I'd probably bet no, but that would even be, you know, something I wouldn't wager a lot on because there's so much we don't know. What we do know hasn't been pretty. You know, the public facing stuff hasn't gone well for him, you know, and his staff. It hasn't.

The name stuff, the Sean Taylor stuff. I mean, 75% of the public-facing stuff has turned out to be clumsy and very much a continuation of what this organization's been for many years. But there's so much that they do on a daily basis that we don't get to see. But, you know, there were there been some red flags. I mean, the most recent was that Mike Jones story where Ron Rivera wouldn't even comment. It wasn't that he was unavailable to comment. He wouldn't comment on what was supposed to be a pretty positive piece about Jason Wright. Now, maybe that's more of an indictment on Ron Rivera.

Who knows? But we'll see. We'll see. I don't view this story as, you know, he just signed a five-year deal to be the lead business person and team president for the Josh Harris-owned Washington commanders. I don't read it that way. I read it as, again, this is what we're doing for now. We're going to evaluate. And, you know, I'm sure, you know, somewhere along the way somebody said probably wouldn't

be the best thing to do to come in and fire the first ever black team president in NFL history as one of our first moves, you know, even if they felt that was the right thing to do. And maybe it isn't the right thing to do. You know, I don't have the answer to that. I have a gut feel on the answer to that. You know, we've all in this media market talk to a lot of different people, but there's a lot that we don't know. And very often when you're getting information from people about people in the organization, they're people that are unhappy to begin with with this situation and have a bias.

So you have to be careful on that front too. But we shall see. I would, yeah, if you told me I had to wager on it, I would probably wager against him being the long-term team president. of the organization. But for the short term, this doesn't seem unreasonable to me at all. All right. A few other things to finish up on right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So last week out in Phoenix, the sons introduced Bradley Beale to the media out there. And he had a couple of quotes, the second of which I'll get to, which is going to lead into a bigger discussion about a player that played here doesn't anymore. But I think is surprising.

information to some, although we've mentioned it in the past. But the first quote from Brad I want to read to you really deals with Brad. He said, quote, I'm super ecstatic that every single day I've got a chance to play in a meaningful game. I think that's one of the biggest decisions that impacted me with coming here, knowing that every single night I'm going to be in an important game. Every single night I may have a chance of being on television. Every single night teams are going to have to give us their best, closed quote. Well, first of all, every game he played in was on television. I know what he's saying, national television, but he was on television every single night.

And people all over the country could watch it on NBA TV or if he had the NBA package. But of course, he was on television every single night. But I know what he's saying, national television. That's not the part that bothers me about this quote. The part that bothers me about this quote is him saying that every single day I've got a chance to play in a meaningful game. And I do understand that what he's probably trying to say is that we sucked and we didn't have meaningful games

when we got to the end of the year, or maybe even by the time we got to the last 20% of the games. But this goes hand in hand with one of the criticisms that I always had of Bradley Beale. And look, I had my say on him last week or when the trade happened. I consider him to be one of the top five, totally reasonable to consider him to be a top five all-time Washington bullet slash wizard. He's the second all-time leading score. He's in the conversation of the top four to top five

players that have ever played in Washington. I'm not counting the Baltimore players. But Brad had a chance to play in meaningful games a lot more than maybe, you know, he thinks. You know, a lot of those games were meaningful. And if he had treated them as more meaningful, than maybe he would have had more meaningful games at the end of the season. And I'm not saying that he went out there and tanked or coasted after he got the big deal, but there was a casualness to his game that always bothered me. It was the word I always used to describe. So many, you know, days I would come in and say, my God, how did he turn it over in that spot?

He's just so casual. It just doesn't, the intensity, night in and night out wasn't there. It just wasn't, you know, and that, he was a great score. He's, you know, one of the great all-time scores in franchise history. He's a top five all-time DC bullet slash wizard. But, you know, playing in meaningful games could have happened here more often had he treated every moment of every game as meaningful. There was also this quote from him talking about playing in Phoenix. He said, quote, I'll be pushed.

The last time I was around someone who pushed me, it was Russ, right? Seeing Russ is in Russell Westbrook. Seeing Russ every single day, his work ethic, his mentality, that took my game to another level. And I think it'll be the same thing here. Now, I hate the fact, first of all, that he needed somebody else to take his game to another level, to be pushed, you know, to see somebody else's work ethic. But, you know, that speaks to what Bradley Beal really was when he was here, which was he was never the alpha. John was when he was here.

And by the way, Neney and Gortot and Trevor and Pierce were more alphas than Bradley ever was. And Brad just wasn't, and he's not going to be in Phoenix. He's not the guy. And Russell Westbrook, even if he wasn't a better player, you know, was an alpha. But this is something that I think surprises a lot of people. People who have played with Russell Westbrook respect him so much. Russ every single day, his work ethic, his mentality. It took my game to another level.

Listen to this, okay? This was Thomas Bryant. Remember Thomas Bryant? Thomas Bryant played in Washington with Russell Westbrook when Russ was here. He played, by the way, this year on the day. Denver Nuggets. He got a ring this year. But he was on a podcast, the out-of-pocket podcast. I don't know who does this podcast. I don't know who the hosts are. But I read this quote because he was asked about playing with Russell Westbrook on this podcast. And he said, quote, this is Thomas Bryant.

He's one of the most brilliant, accepting guys that I've ever played with, always had the best attitude ever that you'd ever think of. You know how guys say the attitude goes a long way? It does go a long way. With Russ, he's always coming in with a great attitude and he's always there for you. He said when it comes to Westbrook as a teammate, it's the off-the-court tendencies that really resonated. He said, say you needed some shoes. He'll get you like four pairs of shoes. He'll get you like four pairs of shoes. You wear the same size as him. He'll give you the shoes off his feet. Always looking out for guys, always talking to them. He's always trying to make the game so much more easier for everyone. I've always found that, you know, the Kevin Durant Westbrook thing was Durant didn't think he could

win a title with Westbrook. And by the way, he was right. He needed Steph Curry. He needed Clay Thompson. He needed Draymond Green. You know, and that's how he got those titles. And Durant's a little bit different of an animal. But everybody that's ever played with Russ, almost everybody, says the exact same thing. This guy, first of all, has tried harder than any NBA player in the last, you know, 15 years for sure. And secondly, he's a apparently a great teammate. I remember Tommy Shepard telling me this. He's like, you know, we were talking one day and it was not on the show.

We're talking and I'm like, man, I wish Russ could just slow. down a little bit. He's like, I know, I know, but do you know how much the guys in this building, everybody in the building respects this guy? It's amazing what a leader he is. And he just resigned, by the way, with the L.A. Clippers. Look, I think Russ is a disaster at times watching him. And I've been one of his biggest fans over the years, but I did finally come to the conclusion that you can't win a title with him. But I just thought, you know, the Beal comment and then the Thomas Bryant comment about him were really interesting. Real quickly, back to, you know, the signing of Kyle Kuzma. I was a bit surprised that they re-signed Kyle Kuzma, but as I said earlier, I kind of

like the flexibility that this gives them. He's young. He's going to be 28 next year. He's got talent. He can really score, you know, there's the remote possibility, I guess. that he's a piece on a contending team two to three years from now. But more likely than not, he's a trade ship, you know, at the 24 or 25 deadline. And you get something back for him. You get first round compensation back for him where it was possible you weren't going to get anything back for him. And it was possible you weren't going to get anything back for Porzingis as well. Now, the downside to the resigning of Kuzma, many of you believe, is,

Now with Kuzma and Jordan Poole, they're too good. They're going to win too many games to get a top, you know, two or three pick next year. It may not be that draft that they're looking for. It may be the 25 draft that they're looking at. You know, Carlos Boozer's son, I think, is in that draft. And accumulating picks for the 25 and 26 drafts. I don't know. I don't think that Kuzman and Poole lead a team that wins more than 30, you know, games

next year. I mean, look, I'd rather them be in the 17 to 22 range. Detroit was at 17, San Antonio was at 22. And I guess you could make the case. I'm not going to make the case now. I need to see it first. But I don't think that Kuzma and Poole is your two best players is a 35 win team or a 30 win team. I could be wrong about that. By the way, I did see the story. Many of you sent me. the ESPN layoff story, which included Jeff Van Gundy. I was very surprised at that. Look, I'm not a Jeff Van Gundy fan. He drives me crazy.

I think he drives a lot of people crazy. I think it's probably one of the reasons he's not going to be a part of that anymore. There's just far too much of the, you know, the bellowing about rule changes and things that have nothing to do with what's going on in the game at that moment. like very unsurious moments, trying to be comedic moments that just fall flat for most. With that said, his analysis, when he's dialed in on the analysis of a game, I think he's always been first-rate. I think his brother's outstanding, too. I was surprised at that.

I guess Doris Burke's going to get a chance potentially to be a part of the Mike Breen team with Mark Jackson, maybe. I don't know. And then I did read about Jeff Van Gundy potentially taking on some kind of position in the Wizards organization. That's interesting. Very interesting to me. You know, he was a damn good coach. Wes Unsail Jr. is still the head coach, though. That would be interesting if Van Gundy was on his bench.

Anyway, one last thing before I leave for the day. I'll be back on Monday with Tommy. read Sally Jenkins from earlier this week. I think it was when I read it. It was the story that she wrote about the relationship, lifelong, professional and personal between Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova. It is an incredibly moving piece, but it also just speaks to what a great writer, Sally Jenkins is.

agree with her or disagree with her. This isn't one of those things where you agree or disagree. This is just a beautiful, beautifully written piece on one of the great rivalries in the history of sports that sometimes doesn't get discussed that way, but it should. Chris Everett, Martina Navratilova, and the battles that both have had with cancer and the friendship that they've had over all of these years. If you haven't read it, I promise you it's worth the, you know, 10 to 12 minutes to read that column. It was outstanding. All right, good to be back. I will be here on Monday with Tommy.

Have a good weekend.