The Kevin Sheehan Show - QB Competition Or Not?

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Kevin and Thom today on whether or not they believe that Ron Rivera's assertion that he'll "play the guy that gives us the best chance to win" means there will be a full-fledged training camp quarterback. They discussed the ownership reports from yesterday, Thom's first Springsteen concert, the Nats' 2023 season, and 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. That's one of Tommy's favorite Bruce Springsteen songs. Tommy saw Bruce the other night. We're going to hear all about it.

We're going to get a concert review from Tommy on today's show. Boy, there is a lot to talk about. If you missed yesterday's show, Galdi was on with me, and both of us had just watched the. Ron Rivera, Presser out in Phoenix, and we reacted to a lot of it, but I want to get Tommy's reaction to it today as well. And of course, all the ownership news yesterday, and one of the bids may include RT3. We got to get to that as well. Good day, everybody. So your first ever Springsteen concert. How was it?

Well, this is what I posted on Twitter and Facebook after the concert with a picture of where we were for the concert. Hold on. Let me pull it up. Now I get it. I want to see it. Okay, go ahead. Keep talking. I posted just simply, now I get it. Now you get it. Okay. And I do. And what I mean by that is, I mean, look, I've been a Springsteen fan. I have lots of songs on my playlist of Bruce, but I never felt, the opportunity was never driven for me to go see him. Right.

And I realized, you know, that was sort of like a missed opportunity, and this may be the last time chance to do that, so I took it up this time. How couldn't you have gotten better seats? How couldn't you have gotten better seats? What are you talking about? They cost a lot of money. Well, you know people. You're Tom Lavelle.

Yeah, but at that place, I'm more like my name is persona on-Gra. Yeah, but the wizards don't have anything to do with it. But it's the same landlord, buddy. Okay. They're not doing any favor. I'll tell you, you know who would have done you a favor? Ted would have done you a favor. Ted likes you.

Oh, he would. I wouldn't, yeah. Ted can't stand me, plus I wouldn't ask him for a favor. I think actually Ted doesn't. I think Ted likes you more than you think. I think Ted, actually, I think Ted appreciates you. Let me say it that way. He may not like all the criticism that comes from you for his teams or even for him,

but I think he appreciates you. Remember he had us up, wasn't it, weren't we together the night he had us up to his suite to watch a hockey game? I've never been in his suite except once to question him for a column I was doing. Who was with us that? That was a long time ago. I thought we were together. Okay.

Listen, I mean, the story about Ted is one time on his blog, Ted's take, or whatever it was called back then. He wrote, after I kind of criticized him about something, he quote, I really like Tom Laverro. He's very smart and funny and very creative in what he writes. And then he said, but, you know? So I sent that blog to Stan Kasten, and I said, look, Stan, why don't you say such nice things about me? And Stan responded back because Ted's better at fiction than I am. That's good. So, but no, I mean, look.

Tell me about the seats. Your seats were upper deck here, it looks like. Yeah, but let me tell you about the seats because that's a story of itself. Oh, boy. Our seats initially were far worse. far, far worse. I mean, literally, the only seats worse

than what we had originally was the last row behind us. Where the stage was, we were 180 degrees in the opposite direction all the way up in the 400 section on the next to last row before the wall.

So you couldn't get any worse, except to throw a seat behind us. So I start making my way up the steps, and this usher takes pity on me and says, look, why don't you go to guest services and say, you know, there's a lot of steps, and you'd really not like to deal with it if you could get seats with maybe a better step situation? I didn't even know this even was possible.

I've told you about this before. You don't remember anything I tell you, but I'll tell my story after you're done. Okay. So I went to guest services, and they handed me a note to say, give this to the usher, and our seats improved dramatically. We went from being 180 degrees. We went from being at 6 o'clock, if Bruce was at 12 o'clock, to being at 9 o'clock, closer to 10 o'clock. Okay? Yeah. So our seats improved dramatically. Pity seats. Pity seats. Those pity seats.

Yes. So I had no book. What I'd love to have been closer. Yeah, but considering where we could have been, we had a pretty good view of everything. Okay. I was real happy with it. And so the whole seat situation, I wanted to think you wanted to tell me. Well, first of all, how was parking? Was your parking okay? Well, we part. I look, there's a lot I found a 24-hour lot on Massachusetts Avenue. right next to where I teach at Georgetown. Yeah. That's a really good lot.

And then you Uber? Well, it's only two blocks away from the arena. Mass Ave. Two and a half block. But you said Mass Ave like near Georgetown. No, Max Ave near, where I teach is the 600 blocks. Oh, okay, got it. Sorry.

I thought you were talking like, you know, Mass Ave at the top of Georgetown headed down. No, no, no. Okay. All right, got it. So we parked in that play, you know, because it's very convenient, 24 hours, easy in and out, and we walked to the arena. And we got there early because I didn't know what to expect. Right.

You know, I expected Matt's chaos. Yeah. You know, like at 4 o'clock in the afternoon for doors opening at 6.30, and that wasn't the case. So we kind of hung around. We went to Clyde, had a couple of drinks, and hung around. and we happened to get in first in line, though, because we were there to get in the door. So that was pretty easy.

We had a really easy experience. Good. I want to commend the Capitol One Arena. They really handled everything very well, I thought, at least from my end. How long did he play? He played almost three hours. I'd say about 245 or something like that. When we were outside hanging out, we were on 6th Street for a while.

and all the tour buses were parked on 6th Street. And I said to my friend Pete, my best friend, who I took with me to the show, I said, why would you keep doing this? You don't need the money. I mean, you're 73 years old. Why would you keep putting up with this? And then after I saw the show, I said to myself, why wouldn't you do this? If I could do what he did, I would do it until I can't do it anymore.

Yeah, I got a friend of mine that's probably seen Bruce a hundred times. No exaggeration. I get the repetition. I get it. He was amazing. Yeah. He was just amazing. It was a terrific show.

I had a great time. And, I mean, he's playing at Cannes. He's playing at Nat's Park. again, I think, in August. And it Camden Yards in September. I'm thinking of going again. So three hours, was it just one long encore or multiple encores? It was two encores.

The last one was an acoustic song. I forget what the hell it was. It was just Bruce playing a harmonica and playing the acoustic guitar. But, you know, they were there. like about five or six songs before the end, everyone thought it was the end, and everyone stood up. And then they came back out, and, you know, they played about five more songs. Awesome.

It was just, it's a three, 73 years old. And there was like no moment, you know, you've been to concerts where sometimes people will, like the performer will stop after a while, you know, wipe themselves off, you know, take a drink of water, talk to the crowd for about five minutes. Yeah. or something like that or 10 minutes to catch their breath? None of that. I just pulled up the set list from the show the other night.

Do you ever go look at setlist.com or setlust.com or setlust. I don't go to that. I don't go to that many shows. Okay. So the encore was Thunder Road, Born to Run, Rosalita Glory Days, dancing in the dark, 10th Avenue, freeze out, and then I'll see you in my dreams was the solo acoustic. That was the last one. At the end, yeah.

And the last song before the encore was Badlands. Yeah. So what I was going to tell you, and I've told you before, I know I have. I, it's kind of, look, whatever, I don't like sitting where you sat. And so in the past, if I ended up with seats like that, you know, like I got tickets from somebody else or somebody left me tickets and they were bad seats, I learned a long time ago that if you go to guest services with a pretty good. story, they have seats that are really good sitting there to hand to disgruntled customers. And so I've done that on an occasion or five over the years where quite the story. But I've told you, I've seen Bruce, I think, three times, I think.

And one of the times I saw him was in Philadelphia with my good friend Billy McGulrick. And Billy and I were there. and the seats that Billy had were not very good seats. And I said, follow me. He said, where are we going? So we're going to guest services. Came up with kind of a story of how, you know, somebody was a little bit unruly and they'd gotten sick

and we can't even sit in those seats. And we were literally third row on the floor. Oh, my God. Yeah. I didn't get that. I didn't get upgraded like that. No, but you don't. I was so happy not to be where we had been.

You don't always get upgraded to that. You don't always get upgraded to that. Sometimes you just get, you know, the minor upgrade like you got, which was, you know, somebody noticed you. By the way, that's good customer service. Yes, it is. I mean, she volunteered it. Right. She volunteered it to me.

Absolutely. Right. Yeah. And it was a hall. It was a hall. Look, I mean, it was a hall for me. But my buddy Pete, who's in much better shape, it was a hall for him, too. But he's the same age as me.

So you'll do it again. Maybe in August at Nats Park. Either there or Camden Yards in September. Here's a question. I may do it again. Here's the problem. I mean, I wanted to bring my wife, but she had a back issue and couldn't go. Right.

So next time you take her, you take Liz. Yeah. Yeah, but she won't want to go because she would think it would be too much money. She's not into it as much as I am. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, you know, there is a value proposition there. If you're not really into it that much, I know. Not now. Not for me. I understand. I will get better seats if I go again. Yeah.

Okay, I'll pay to get better seats if I go again this time. My question is, and I've heard he is still incredible, you know, at his age live. You, I mean, I've heard that from multiple people. I told you, I had a couple of friends that saw him at Bryce George. and went up to Penn State to see him. I had a couple of friends that went to the show that you were at the other night. And it's like there's not much of a difference from him 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I know you haven't seen him live, but you didn't think that this was an older person performing. No, again, I mean, for the encore, this is after two hours of playing.

Yeah. I mean, his energy was just seemed like the same as it had been at the beginning of the show. Right. I mean, you know, I don't see how you can, 73 years old, and to do what they did, what he did was just, it was part of the marvel about it. But, and the thing was, the crowd, I mean, the Springsteen crowd, and they sang every song. And I bet you Bruce put his microphone out to the crowd at least 20 times that night. Right. You know, or more, you know.

And that was a lot of fun. Um, that's by the way, what Bruce does. And I think a lot of bands understand this that, you know, you don't after all of this time show up and play all of your new stuff. That's not what people are there for. Um, and I don't even know what his new stuff would be. But I remember, I don't know, three years ago, I went to Wolfstrap actually to see Steve Winwood. Um, and he, he had an album out, you know, that he had just put out. And that's what he played the entire. night. And you didn't get any back in the high life again album. You just got his new stuff. That is not a good reading of the room situation. That's not why people come to see, you know, acts that are 40 years old, 30 years old. They come to hear the hits. So Springsteen played the hits, but I remember I saw the stones, Tommy, like 10 years ago, roughly 10 years ago at Capital One. And it was terrible. I mean, because I've seen the stones a lot, you know, going back to the early 80s, you know, the first time I ever saw them. Yeah, I saw them once in Philly at JFK Stadium in 81.

And this, and they were great. And I walked out of there and I said never again. I mean, it's over. I mean, it just, you know, they were older and it just wasn't nearly the same. But Bruce is still killing it, I guess. Yeah. All right. Absolutely. I am so glad I did it. Good for you. From Jack on Twitter, great show. I respect your hustle. Thanks, Jack, and you hadn't even heard about the way I got upgraded tickets at sporting events and concerts. And then from Rocco on Apple's reviews, five stars, enjoyed Tom's reports from Destin. We will miss it.

his confidence singing from Kenny D's. Thank you, Jay Rocko. Appreciate that review. Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify. And don't forget to follow us. If you're not following us on Apple and Spotify, that's really helpful, too.

There's a big follow button in the upper right-hand corner on your phone for the Apple podcast app. And for the Spotify app, if you're listening to us on Spotify, the follow buttons on the left-hand side about midway down this screen. We're going to get to a lot of football today. I wanted to read this tweet that I got from Greg.

Kevin, I agree that the call at the end of the Creighton, San Diego State game, wasn't consistent with how the game had been officiated. As you said, it shouldn't have been called, but I'd ask you if there's another way to look at it. If it hadn't been called and San Diego State lost in overtime, Would San Diego State have whined about the missed call at the end of the game? I don't think so. Thank you, Greg, for the tweet.

I totally agree with that. You and I debated it the other day on Monday. I didn't like the call because it wasn't consistent with the way the game had been called. I mean, technically that was by rule a foul, but so were like 25 other plays during the course of the game. And it was called very loosely. They let them play. they let them beat each other up in the entire way,

and then you get a little bit of a hand on a hip. And yeah, I did think, and I told you this, Tommy, I thought it did probably affect the shot. But I don't think in that game, or maybe any game, if the whistle hadn't blown, that we would have been sitting there watching a bunch of replays with Iron Eagle and Jim Spinarkel talking about the missed whistle. And I don't think, as Greg said,

that San Diego State would have been whining about the missed call at the end of regulation if the game had gone to overtime and they would have lost. I totally agree with Greg. They absolutely would have because there would be constant replays about it. I just told you, I don't even think there would have been a replay. I think the whistle is... Oh, there would have absolutely did. I don't think so.

I think Greg's got a really good point. I think he's got a really good point on that one. You're talking yourself into something that wouldn't... Well, I'm not talking myself into. They replay everything. that the TV replace everything. That would have been replaced

constantly. It would have been a source of contention the next day. I don't agree. I don't agree. And it's not just because I don't think it should have been called because it wasn't consistent with the way the game was being called.

I think if the game had been called closely that that was such a minor infraction that there wouldn't have been a lot of angst over it. It would have been tremendous. It was a foul. He shoved him.

No, he didn't shove him. I tell you what, he pushed him. Remember, we decided on nudge. We decided on nudge. Nudge was the proper way to describe it. While he was in the air, taking a shot. If this is a Maryland game, you would have been going nuts. Well, and somebody pointed out when I read this tweet this morning,

somebody tweeted me and said, Stop whining, you lost your bet. Yes, over time would have been better for me because I had Creighton laying two and a half. But I think we decided that it was a nudge or a poke. It was not a shove. It was far from an egregious foul by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how the game was called. But I agree with you, Greg.

Tommy doesn't. All right. So where do we start today? Like, where do you want to start? Because I spent with Galdi yesterday 45 minutes going through the Rivera media encounter roundtable out in Phoenix yesterday. I'm assuming you've heard or read a lot about it, right? Yes.

Yes, and I have it here in front of me. I briefed through the whole transcript once. You didn't watch it? You didn't watch it. No, I didn't watch it. Okay, all right? No. So what are your big takeaways?

Well, again, it's not a big takeaway, but I mean, I'm focused on this, so I can't I can't get it out of my mind. You know, what does, okay, Sam Howe is quarterback one, but there's going to be a competition. So what specifically does that mean? Does that mean they will get equal amounts of snaps in practice, that Jacoby Perciet will get the same amount of snaps with the first team that Sam Howe will get?

and if that's not the case, then it's not really a quarterback competition. And if that is the case, then Sam Howe isn't quarterback anything. I'm going to play the sound for everybody, which is the money soundbite to address what Tom is saying or to make sure everybody understands what he's saying. This was Ron Rivera on the quarterback competition and whether or not it's open. I think it's open right now. I really do. I mean, again, all I said was Sam's going to get the first crack.

I didn't say Sam was the guy. He's going to have to come in and earn it. And if Jacoby comes through and earns it, I'll play Jacoby. I'm going to play the guy that we believe at the end of the day gives us the best chance to win football games. That was one of many different remarks about the quarterback situation, but that was the one that was most clear. Okay, I didn't say, all I said was that Sam was going to get the first crack. I didn't say that Sam was the guy. He's going to have to come in and earn it.

If Jacoby comes through and earns it, I'll play Jacoby. I'm going to play the guy that we believe at the end of the day gives us the best chance at winning football games. I talked about this with Galdi yesterday. This is obviously one of the big takeaways from this media roundtable. By the way, you know, I thought you were going to lead with. how hard he sold Sam Hal, talking about all the mock drafters that had them, you know, mocked much higher. I mean, that was embarrassing. I've already exposed. He's already been exposed because he didn't even want to start the guy in the season finale. So everything he says from here on in is all bullshit.

So now he is selling Sam hard, just like he sold Carson hard last year. And anytime you've got to sell a guy that hard, It means you're not entirely sure either. You're trying to talk yourself into it. But back to the soundbite that I just played. Yes. I mean, look, he's going to come up with something the next time he speaks. That'll sound completely different. As Galdi calls it, Ronis.

We've all learned how to speak Ronis. But, you know, that is to me, and I have had this sense, especially since they signed Brissette to an $8 million guaranteed deal. I think that Sam Howe was a PR move here in the offseason. I think they were trying to distance themselves from the end of the ugly ending to the season, the Cleveland game, and boy, Sam Hal beat the Cowboys, and he played pretty well, even though he only completed 11 passes out of 19 attempted, but he ran well.

And this is a guy that we can sell here, and we can move the conversation away from the end of the season to look at what we might have going into 2023. And he came up with that in probably, I can't remember specifically when he was interviewed, but it was like three or four days after the season ended. He slapped that QB one label on Sam Hal. And now he's kind of been backtracking ever since. So it kind of helped with a little bit of PR to begin with. And it's not a bad thing to continue to pitch that he may be your guy.

but I think that this is a competition. I think they are going into this year that Bienomi needs to coach a solid offense and prove that he can do it away from Andy Reid. Rivera, even though I don't think he necessarily is going to care much. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure he'd like to win, and I'm sure he'd like to get that last year of his deal. They're going to play the guy that gives him the best chance to win. do believe him when he said that. I do. Now, Ben thinks, Standing thinks, that the competition is this.

It's a 100-yard dash, and Sam Hal's got a 10-yard head start. And then let's see where it ends. And if Berset catches him and passes him, it's his job. That Sam Hal has a little bit of a leader. Any quarterback will tell you that's not a competition then. They will tell you about the importance of first-teen snacks. Well, Tommy. They all will call you about that. When it's not a competition, they tell you it's not a competition. Like the Falcons yesterday announced, Desmond Ritter is our starting quarterback for the upcoming season. There's no competitive, you know, landscape for training camp or off-season

with Taylor Heineke in Atlanta. That's not necessarily a 10-yard head start. You still have a chance to catch him pass him and win the job, which means that it is somewhat open. I don't know if I agree with Ben, but I don't think it's a 50-50. We'll just see, we'll give him equal reps. Because he has said we're giving Sam the first crack. Yes, I know that.

That's what I'm saying. Okay. I'm saying, but it's not a competition if it's not a fair split. It can be a competition. You know what? Jay Gruden, look, when Jay Gruden picked Kirk, finally to be the starting quarterback, he declared that it was a competition after he picked Kirk, even though before he picked Kirk, he said that it wasn't a competition.

And I remember Cole McCoy tell me, you know, if it was a competition, I wish somebody had told me about it. Right. You know, so this is not small shit, this language that he used. Look, I agree with you about the PR thing. And I think, like I said, on the last podcast, I think Jacoby percent is going to be their starting quarterback for the team this season. Because they are going to go with the best chance, the guy who has the best chance to win. So he's going to win the non-competition, because you don't think this is a competition with a slight head start given to Sam. No, I don't think it's a fair competition.

Oh, fair competition. Yeah, okay. I think it's a competition, though. I do think it's a competition. I think Jacoby Burset can win the starting job here in this offseason through training camp and through the preseason. I think, you know, you're predicting it. I definitely think there's a chance that Jacoby Berset is the starting quarterback on opening day. Now, I do think that the ideal situation for everybody out there, and by the way, I would also throw in everybody that roots for this team,

the ideal situation is for Sam Howell to emerge as the better quarterback. and to start next season and to have won the job, won the competition with a head starter without it, because we know what Jacoby Brissette is. We have a pretty strong feeling about what he is. He's a high-end backup, low-end starter. Now, is he possibly Gino Smith? Maybe, but, you know, I wouldn't count on that. You know, Jacoby Brissette is a nice player, but he's not a star.

He's not a franchise quarterback. So ideally, Sam Hal wins whatever you want to describe this. however you want to describe this, that he wins it and he is the starter. But I think that Percette has a chance to be the starter. Okay. Let's say in the preseason games, it wasn't a clear-cut situation. Yeah. Okay.

Or it wasn't obvious that Preset should have the job. And they name, my point is, would you believe, unless there's a clear-cut evidence that Sam Howe was clearly the better guy, would you believe that if they pick Sam Howell to be the starter, that it's a valid selection? I've told you before about preseason games. I just don't think, I think that's such a small part of what goes into a coach's decision. Unless it's obvious to everyone that Sam Howe should be the starter, do you think any selection of Sam Howe is a valid selection? Yes.

I don't. I think the coach has zero credibility. I don't think that there's anything obvious that we're going to see. I think what will be more obvious is if we're hearing things, we're, you know, every single day when the coaches are talking during training camp, whether it's Biennamy or Rivera or Zampezi or the quarterbacks themselves or other players. You know, we're hearing from the beat reporters who are getting to watch training camp practices every day. I think that if it's, you know, I think where we would fall into the category of disbelieving and having no confidence in the decision is if we're hearing and seeing all along and then also seeing it in preseason games that Sam Hal isn't very good and they start them anyway.

That wouldn't be a good situation. I just don't think we'll learn that from just watching the preseason games. Now what we will learn from the preseason games is if they start Brissette in one game and they start, you know, Sam Hal and the next, if they're giving them equal first team reps against first team competition. That's always a part of the preseason evaluation too. Well, who were they playing against? Who were they playing with? That's what makes that part of it hard. I think we're going to, I think, you know, if there's one, if one or the other is obviously much better, we're going to be here.

hearing that before they even play the first preseason game. That's what I think. Okay. I mean, I think you've got to coach with no credibility who has shown his inclination to back the horse that he picks no matter how shaky that horse may be. Yeah, but he's, this isn't, I mean, this is his call, I guess, but Eric B. Enemy is going to have a significant voice in who starts a quarterback. If he doesn't, then I don't think he got the job that he left Kansas City for.

What if the enemy says to Ron, I know that you'd like to start Sam, but we can't compete with Sam here early in the season if we start Sam. I'm not sure we could ever compete with Sam. I liked Sam too. I told you how much I liked him. We've gone through a complete offseason, a complete training camp, and a complete preseason, and I'm telling you that there's a significant difference. That is the X factor.

is Bienemy. He's much going to have much more of a forceful personality, and he has the resume to have an impact in what he says as compared to Scott Turner, who may or may not have been reluctant to speak his mind about Carson Wentz in those situations in training camp, whereas Eric B. Enemy, based on what we know from afar, is no shrinking violent. And he, he's not going to back down from what he possibly believed in. And his work will certainly carry more weight than Scott Turner's word would have. The other thing, too, is if they end up starting Sam Howell and it's not obvious to you during preseason, Ronald just tell you, I'm not saying that he will specifically or literally tell you,

but he would just tell those that said, hey, what are you doing here? You don't have any credibility. This guy, you know, didn't win the job. and you're just doing it because you slap the QB1 label, he would basically tell you that he doesn't remember slapping any label on anything, that he was telling you all off-season that this was a competition. We were going to pick the guy that we thought won the competition, and we thought Sam edged Jacoby out.

That's what it was always about. I mean, he changes his stories so often. So I don't know. I think that Sam was a label. the QB1 label was really kind of a gut feel by Rivera in the moment that he could sell this, that it would create some excitement, it would create some look over here, don't look back at the Cleveland game and the disgraceful way in which the season ended, and me not even knowing that we could be eliminated from the postseason,

which really was probably more embarrassing for him than even the Wentz start. Yes. That's a fire of all offense. to make. So he, you know, slapped the QB1 label on Sam, and he's been backtracking ever since, and I think we actually are going to have a competition. I would be shocked if Jacoby Berset was told anything other than, hey, you're going to have a chance to compete for the starting job. You know? I know that, but that's what they say. And what they say and what they do are often different things. The other thing that was big out of this, and what else? What else?

What other big takeaways from Ron's presser yesterday for you? What? Their lack of interest in Lamar Jackson? That we knew about. I mean, we've known that for a while, and Mayhew emphasized that again. No, that's... Right. I thought you would go to something else. Is there anything else? There was another big deal. Yes, that was the other big thing.

Because he basically blamed not being able to make a decision on Chase Young's option on the ownership situation. They've got to wait until the new ownership is in place so that they can get that approved. That's bullshit. That just doesn't make any sense. They didn't have to get Duran Payne. I mean, by extension, if you believe that to be true,

then the new ownership is already in place because they approved the Duran Payne extension. And they approved all the other stuff. So I just think that Ron was, you know, stumbling, bumbling, and being evasive in a way that wasn't smooth, and he just came up within the moment, ownership. Yeah, we've got to wait for ownership. And then somebody said, well, what if ownership's not in place by May 2nd?

Or do you know that ownership's going to be in place by May 2nd? And he said, no, I don't have any idea what to expect. It was the question, whoever I asked the question, that gave Ron the ownership opportunity. The question was, what kind of effect the transition of ownership will have on roster building? Yeah. And that's when he came up with the new ownership. No, but that's not on Chase Young's option.

The specific answer to Chase Young's option was different. You're looking at a different part of the... No, it was follow-up. Right? Yeah, that was the follow-up to Chase Young? Yes. Yes, I know. Right.

Yes. Yeah, but that wasn't the question about Chase Young's fifth-year option. Somebody specifically asked, where are you on Chase Young's fifth-year option? The follow-up after he brought ownership into the conversation. That's true. You're right. You did. Yeah, we have to go to them and find out.

You know what I'm saying? Oh, we know what you're saying, Ron. He absolutely know what you're saying. You don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. Anything else from yesterday? We'll get to the ownership stuff and the RG3 stuff in the next segment. Anything else?

No. nothing else. Except, you know what, it doesn't really matter who the starting quarterback is if they don't have a better offensive line. It certainly would help if the offensive line were better, yes. Because they do have Patrick Mahomes. I think if the offensive line is serviceable, I think they can be competitive with Jacoby percent. Yeah. And maybe Sam Howell, for all we know.

All right, let's get to the Apostolopoulopoulos. and the Harris bids, according to Schefter, being fully funded and submitted. We'll get Tommy's reaction to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Tommy, the over-under for Washington in 2023 for wins is seven and a half. You go on over. That's a familiar number. Yes, it's exactly the same number as last year, even though the number last year actually went up as we approach the season. There was growing confidence among betters.

seven and a half right now, over or under? I would say over. Over seven and a half, but probably at eight. You think they'll win eight games? Yes. I last year... Nine if they're successful. I loved the over seven and a half, over eight, over eight and a half last year.

I predicted eight, eight and one, so I didn't love eight and a half. I had it over seven and a half, and I won that bet, one of the preseason props. I would not be confident wagering either. side this year. But if I had to wager on it, I think I'd go over as well, but just barely over. This segment of the show is presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they will allow you to wager your deposit amount one time in cash out. It's perfect for the final four and the national championship this weekend. You go to MyBooky.ag in the area that says promo code. You put Kevin DC in there. If there's something already there, erase it, and write Kevin

DC, and you deposit whatever amount you want. You wager that amount. Doesn't have to be in one bet. It can be, you know, both final four games, prop bets, whatever, and they've got everything you need on the final four. And then you can cash out once you've wagered in aggregate your deposit amount. Go to my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin DC. I did put out a poll with the seven and a half over under number for Washington, and 62.5% of the respondents said over seven and a half. So people are a little bit more optimistic about the team this year. I think actually there was some optimism about the team last year as well. All right. Your reaction to the stories that Schefter had out yesterday about Steve Apostolopoulopoulos, the Canadian billionaire, and Josh Harris

Mitch Rails, Magic Johnson, that bid, both of them having submitted, fully funded $6 billion bids to buy the commanders from Dan Snyder, getting Snyder two bids at the number he wants. What did you think? Well, first of all, the Greek A, or can you pronounce his name? You do it so well now. Apostolopolis. Okay. Wow. That's magical when you do that. I don't know if it's right, but I think it is. Apostolopolis, yeah, the Greek A. Or as I, you know, teased people, Stephen A. Stephen A's bidding on the team.

All right. Well, if he winds up owning the team, there's going to be like a Greek sports empire in the DMV. True, right. I mean, between Ted Leone's, if Ted winds up eventually buying the nationals in particular, you're going to have Greek ownership of every sports franchise in this town. except for the United, of course. Of course. It's the only right to include them.

Right, yes. But even up the road in Baltimore, you've got Peter Angelo. Right. You know, it's like a Greek diner on every corner or something like that. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with a Greek diner. No. So, yeah.

What else? You know, I still think Jeff Bezos is going to. going to be in play. Okay. There's, so Schaefter reported these things yesterday. He had, you know, he said a source told Adam Schaefter. By the way, Brian Winthurst contributed to the Apostolopolis story again with Schaefter. Neil and Rockville said, you know, who does Brian Winthorce know better than anybody else?

Who's the guy that made Brian Winthorst? LeBron James. Maybe LeBron James is a part of the Apostoloburn. Opelopolis bid. Anyway, RG3 might be a part of the Josh Harris and Mitchell Rails bid. So I, you know, I talked about this earlier in the week. You know, I had an understanding and I was told that, you know, the Harris bid was in, but they weren't going to go to $6 billion. And that's still to me of the two tweets, although, you know, the Apostolopolis is a surprise too, other than we had heard the name last week. But the fact that he actually did bid,

You know, I don't know that any of us were expecting that. I hadn't heard his name before last Friday. The part of the Schefter story that, to me, I still wonder whether or not there's some fancy accounting going on or something. I was told that the Harris Rails bid was not going to get to $6 billion. They didn't think what they were offering that it was worth that. And they were not going to get to $6 billion. And, you know, it's possible that Snyder is the source for, these stories. And once again, he's trying to gin up, you know, Bezos, because Gasparino put out

a tweet again yesterday saying, you know, they wouldn't be, uh, they wouldn't be against Bezos making a bid that that's just all overblown that Snyder absolutely would accept a bid from Bezos. So maybe it's for Bezos to come in and say, all right, uh, I'll give you $6.1 billion. Let's wrap this thing up. I don't know. Um, but Schefter, it's Schefter. So I'm assuming that he's right and that, you know, somehow the Rails bid was at least creatively designed to look like a $6 billion bid. Or maybe they came up to the $6 billion. Maybe. But I've been told that that's not true.

Not as of last night anyway. But whatever. You got two bidders, serious bidders for the team. And I think the big takeaway from all of this, Tommy, is for anybody that was skeptical, you really would have a hard time being skeptical now. You can always hold out that 1-2% that Snyder changes his mind because he's such a – he's so impulsive and so petty and doesn't want to look bad and look like he lost, et cetera, et cetera.

But this is happening. This is happening. Snyder's selling the team. But I think it is happening, which is the only bottom-line thing for everybody, really. think in this case. But I understand the one or two percent that feel that he will make it messy and difficult and not as easy as it seems to be going. Okay.

Yeah. This may be part of it. I mean, I think that's reasonable. Again, I mean, he could wind up with a tractor full, trailer full of milk to dump on this thing and turn a whole thing sour. Yeah. You know? I mean, he's capable of that.

He doesn't seem to get joy out of winning without crushing his perception that he's crushed and embarrassed an opponent, which he doesn't get the opportunity to do very often, since he doesn't win very often. But if you assume that a lot of the leaking, or at least some of the leaking, has come from the Snyders to try to help generate more interest or higher bids. That, by definition, means he's selling the team. You wouldn't go through all of these machinations and leak stuff and try to generate a hotter market for your team if you really weren't legitimately serious about selling the team.

I think we can move beyond that. I mean, of course, that could be famous last words, and here we are sitting here a month, two months from now, and now it's about whether or not they'll vote him out. But the other story yesterday, there were a couple of others, but we've got to get to this one, which is Robert Griffin III telling Rich Eisen on his podcast, quote, after Eisen asked, you know,

hey, are you going to be involved in maybe buying the team? And he said, well, I'm going to be honest with you, Rich. When I hear that, I have been having some really great conversations with this group led by Josh Harris. And having an opportunity to come in on that ownership group, I'm like head over heels excited about that process. To be a player for that team, to not have my career go the way I wanted it to

or the way the fans wanted it to in that city would be a full circle type of moment to come back and try to help that team and that organization build a winner the fans deserve. Now he's going to build the winner for us. That's something I'm really excited about. It's nothing that I can announce at this point. The conversations are happening, and I'm really, really excited about the potential there.

At the end of the day, the fans will throw a parade when Dan Snyder sells the team, closed quote. They'll be so excited that Snyder sold the team that they'll be okay with RG3 back as a minority stakeholder. I don't know. Not a good move, I don't think, by Harris and that bid if they bring RG3 into this deal. What do you think? There's several vomit bags needed for this whole process. The first one is the continuation of the national media to have no grasp of what RG3 did here. What RG3's experience here in Washington, just to have a little perspective as to what a fraud he was and what a destructive force he was. Okay?

It's just amazing. That that doesn't exist outside of Washington. Are you sure you know your why? Are you sure you know your why? Come on. Now, the second vomit part is the idea that the joy of a new owner will somehow come with this big wart that RG3 is one of minority owners. and then he'll have something to say about this franchise, you know, five times a day

in between his daily pleadings of success and inspiration. I mean, look, there's not much that can taint the sale of this team. There may be nothing that can taint a new owner coming in. but at some point when the dust settles and RG3 would be part of it, I think that would at least be a bad taste in amounts of smart people who know what happened here. Yeah, I think the biggest disappointment would be that the ownership group that's about to replace Snyder wouldn't have been able to see this, you know, at some point. Because we've long complained about how people in the organization don't know anything about the organization.

They don't understand this fan base. Look, there are people that would be very happy with that, but it is a small fraction of the people that were excited about him in 2012. I mean, you know, the movement, hashtag the movement was the hashtag when old Mike had finally moved on and they could do things the way they wanted to do them now. You know, we're hashtag the movement. We get to do what we want to do now. They're in charge of the team now.

So, you know, we don't need another movement. So that is, if that's true, it would be disappointing, like you just said, that the new owners wouldn't do their homework and have people speaking to them that, you know, could give them a better perspective as to what's happened here. You know, instead of getting caught up in the RG3 Starfest. Yeah. You know, I mean, small minority stakeholders, whatever he would invest, or I don't know if they, God forbid, they actually think that he should come in as like an advisor or something like that and be involved somehow. But if it's just as, you know, like he obviously doesn't have the money to be a big stakeholder.

He doesn't have a lot of money. No. So if they let him come in as part of, you know, another, you know, a limited partnership group for a small taste. he's still going to be out there. You're still going to know it. There's a lot of people that are owners of sports teams that you would never guess, that have small stakes in sports teams, but they don't say a lot about it. They don't put it out there.

They don't promote it. There isn't a hashtag. I own part of the Detroit Lions. But with this guy in this franchise, you would know it. No matter how small the steak was, you would know it. By the way, if he were involved, Lamar Jackson would be here yesterday. He would have already been here for whatever Lamar Jackson wanted. All right.

What else? Jerry Jones, did you see his comment that, you know, he wants, first of all, Gadell continued to promise transparency with the Mary Joe White investigation. And then Jerry Jones said, that he knows what's in the Mary Joe White report and he wants to see it. He said he wants the Mary Joe White report about the commander's owner to be released. Why? Because I know everything in the report. I don't know what that means though. I have no idea if it means that Jerry Jones knows there's nothing in it or there's a lot in it. I don't know that if he knew that there was a lot

in it, why he'd be pushing for it to come out. Unless Dan, you know, and he are really on the outs, he's kind of suggested they're not as tight or, quote, lovey-dovey as they used to be. Well, Jerry Jones is 80 years old, and hopefully with a lot of luck I'll be 80 years old someday. And hopefully I have a better grasp of what I'm saying than Jerry Jones did. Because like Roger Goodell said, that's not really possible. I mean, you know, I mean, they haven't spoken to Dan Snyder yet, so there is no complete investigation. So I already know everything in the investigation. Well, he knows everything in the investigation as of now.

As of now. We know that Dan Snyder has declined to be interviewed by Mary Joe White. I'm not saying that he knows everything that's in the report as if the report's final. I'm not sure he suggested that, although it's probably close to final, because I doubt Dan Snyder is going to talk to Mary Joe White. He's got no reason to talk to him as an outgoing owner. Yeah, I doubt that as well. I just think Jerry doesn't know what he's saying him.

time. All right, let's get your thoughts on the Nat season. Opening days tomorrow. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about our good friends at Shelley's backroom. Well, there's so much good to talk about with Shelley's back room. It's not just the obvious, the great cigar selections that they have, and the top shelf whiskey that you can by there and a great selection of beers. One of the best beer selections you'll find in Washington, but their food. People don't realize how good their menu is.

Their menu is top-not. Like this weekend, their specials included, not just a cheeseburger, but the cheesiest burger. Shelly's custom blend. The Cheesiest. Yeah. Yes, swift and cheddar on a buttered toasted roll with red onions, lettuce, tomato,

and then you can get. which is one of my favorites, the Shelley's cordon-blue sandwich. I love cordon-blue. Grilled chicken breast, top of bacon and blue cheese on a deli roll, with ranch dressing, fries, and pickles. And these are all reasonably priced. Right. I mean, these are, you could feed.

Look, for Washington, D.C., food is expensive. Shelly's not so much. I mean, really good prices, family prices. Like I've said before, I know you don't think so. But Shelly's is the place that you can, if you want to come in, bring your family after walking around the museums, all the Spitsonians and stuff. You know, Shelly's would be a unique experience. More unique than maybe any place else you can bring them in Washington to have lunch. Will they be upset?

Hold on. Will they be upset when you and I ask for the cheesiest burger with no tomatoes? We can get away with that, right? Oh, we can get away with that. All right, good, good. We have the Kevin and Tom menu. We have this special kitchen menu. We just sit in the kitchen and they just bring us food.

Shelley's back room 13th and F Streets Northwest. Great spot. Yes. So I was reading about the, you know, rules changes in baseball and what's happened during spring training. The pitch clock has shaved an average of 20. minutes off spring training games this year compared to last year. Last year, the average length of a game was three hours and one minute. This year, it's two hours and 35 minutes.

So the pitch clock is definitely speeding up games. And the violations on the pitch clock, remember this was thought, you know, the first time we saw it early in spring training, it was like, oh, God, are we really going to see this? The number of violations in week one average 2.03 violations per game, and it fell to week four all the way down to just barely over one violation per game. So that's good news. I think that baseball, you know what, I don't have a strong feeling about this. If I go to a game, I don't care how long the game takes.

If I'm watching the game on TV, I do care because it's really hard. to consume a three-hour baseball game, a three-and-a-half-hour baseball game in mid-July, you know, game number 87. That's hard to do, or game 115 or whatever it would be at that point. I know we've talked about this before, but real quickly, before we get to the Nats, what is your overall view of the pitch clock, of the bases being larger, which led, by the way, to more stolen bases per game in spring training? the shift has increased batting average.

What do you think about these rules? Look, I think you had to acknowledge. It wouldn't matter to me how long the game is, okay, whether I'm watching it on TV or in person. And, I mean, I'd be okay, personally, with baseball, everything remaining as is, although I really didn't like the shift at all. But you've got to be smart enough to recognize that, you know, We're not talking about the Ten Commandments being brought down from the mountain here.

You've got to be open to change, you know? And baseball is the least of the sports to make changes. So I think it's important to open yourself up to change and see how it works. So I'm happy. If the games are shorter, I think most fans would be happy with that. You know, I think if there's more stolen base is an exciting sport. It's an exciting part of the game, even though most geeks will tell you that it's not a great offensive weapon to rely on. But I mean, those Cardinals teams with Vince Coleman and Willie McGee's still on those bases, those were exciting teams.

Mori Will's one of the all-time great base dealers, the D.C. legend. So I think the changes are good. The changes are worth. implementing and let's see how it goes. How bad are the Nats going to be this year? I think they're going to be bad. I mean, you know, 55 win bad like last year, maybe not that bad, but they would need a tremendous amount of things to go right for them

this year, just like last year, for them to even compete. I mean, they have to play 57 games against the Mets the Phillies and the Braves during the course of the season. And that's $700 million in payroll combined. And that's have an $80 million payroll. Okay, it's embarrassingly low. And it wouldn't have taken much to spend a little bit more

to make this team a little bit more competitive because like I've talked about before, this is a young franchise. I mean, this is what, the 18th year, or 17th year that they've been around. And that's not even a generation of fans yet. So what are you saying that they've got to be, they can lose interest, people can lose interest? Yes, yes. I mean, this is what the learners did in early their ownership.

Okay? They drove people away from the stadium. Now, they validated it by turning around and winning, you know, with those number one draft that they got in Strasbourg and Bryce Harper, winning the NL East four times, winning the World Series. But they never got that foundation built of a fan base that can get you through these tough times. And these are tough times right now. And I think you could be looking at an all-time low in attendance that next part this year. Last year they barely drew two million fans.

I think it will be well under that this year. Look, they have some promising young talent. They have two young pitchers in McKenzie Gore and Josiah Gray, who both had relatively good spring training. Gray had an outstanding spring training. So they have a small group of core young players on this team. And I know they have more players in the pipeline, you know, as a result of the dismantling of the team with the trades of Scherzer and Trey Turner

and then Juan Soto. but they're a couple years away. And again, it's important for people to believe when they go to the ballpark that their team has a chance to win, okay? Not to win every game. If winning the World Series was the thing that most fans demanded, you know, most people wouldn't show up at the ballpark because, you know, your team might win a World Series once every 10 years,

once every 20 years, it doesn't happen often. It's not like the Yankees of the 50s and 60s. So, and you have an ownership that's checked out. You know, I mean, the learners, they were trying to sell the team that had stalled because of the massive deal that's kind of like handcuffed everything. So they're not going to put any money into it. Any million dollars is pathetic. I know it's not what the front office wanted, and I think they're going to suffer.

And I think they're going to drive away fans, and I don't think they can afford to. Yeah, that's the interesting thing. I mean, attendance last year, they finished 17th. I just looked it up. Now, you know, they, I mean, they just didn't have the chance post-world series because of the pandemic. That was almost an unrecoverable blow that they took for a franchise like this. They had a chance to really lock in, you know, a solid 30 to 35,000 a night. for the next several years had they had that opportunity,

not to mention all of the other revenue that would have come their way with a normal season. But, you know, they were averaging, you know, in the, you know, top 11 to 14 in the league in attendance, you know, over 30,000 for several years in a row, starting back in like 2014, 2015. Last year they finished 17th averaging 25,000 a night. And I think you're right. I think it's going to drop. significantly. I think they're going to be down like around 20,000 average attendance, bottom third of the league. But it's more than that because people, you know, like the night out going to baseball

games. I like going to the park, whether I'm super into them winning that night or not. I think the interest level overall from media, you know, sports talk radio, podcasts, the television, you know, viewers, that could really dip. significantly, especially if they get off to a bad start, because we're in the midst of an owner selling Washington's football team. That's going to be the number one story here over the next couple of months in this town. And then before, when that ends, we'll be in training camp. You know, getting ready for the season with a new owner for the first time, you know,

fresh off of a parade, you know, figurative, I think. I don't think we're going to actually have a literal literal. raid downtown. I don't think that'll happen. Maybe it will. Let's see what the mayor decides to do. But, you know, they could really get lost this particular season unless somehow they're surprisingly competitive. And by the way, surprisingly competitive means, you know, having a winning record, you know, through the month of June. And that just doesn't seem likely. No, it doesn't. And again, this is, these are owners. that never understood the value of creative marketing,

of going beyond the norm in trying to sell their product. They've never grasped or understood the value of that. What's ironic, and I'm writing a column about this for tomorrow's paper, because they're honoring Ted Lerner tomorrow before the game, the late owner. He's going to be inducted into the ring of honor as part of the festivities. is that he spent years trying to buy a sports franchise. And then when he got one, he treated it like another shopping center.

You know, they ran it like they do their shopping malls. And I just don't understand that. If this was your dream, why didn't you treat it like that? Yeah, I mean, you covered that in the early days. You thought it was horrible. And then they did start to spend on players. they did. They spent on players. Look, Scott Boris

ran the Nats in the early days. I mean, Boris was almost a family member for the learners. Okay. So, I mean, when they talk about the plan, that was the Boris plan. Okay. Yeah. All right.

We're done for the day. All right. Good job today. I will talk to you next week. I'll be back tomorrow. Okay. I'll see you. Bye.