The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rafa Coming To DC!

Episode Date: July 8, 2021

Kevin and Thom opened with the news that Rafael Nadal will play in the Citi Open later this month in DC. Lots of Washington Football and Nats talk too, plus a Kevin pick on tonight's NBA Finals Game 2. 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. Rafa is coming to D.C., Tommy. Rafael Nadal. How do I know that?

Well, because this morning, roughly 20 minutes ago, my wife, who couldn't care less about sports, sent me the following text. I want to go see Nadal play at the City Open. Can you please get tickets? Okay? I mean, I had no idea that my wife was a Nadal fan. No idea.

Raphael Nadal is going, you know, he missed, he missed Wimbledon. Right. And he was sort of banged up off of the French. The City Open, which is the tennis tournament that has taken place at 16th in Kennedy, whatever they call that stadium now. I was a ball boy at 12 years old. that tournament for a couple of matches, including, I think I've told you this before. Like Kramer?

I was not nearly as disruptive as Kramer was. But I think I've told you this story before. Maybe I haven't, but I ball-boided Jimmy Conner's match at the... I don't think you've ever told me that. It was when it was the Washington Star Tournament. Anyway, that was a long, long time ago. This tournament has had many, you know, different... faces and sponsors and names to it, but it has been at that Rock Creek Tennis Center at 16th and Kennedy

for, I bet you, close to 50 years. Well, it's a Donald Dell creation. It was. It was. It was. I'm pretty sure it was, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's remarkable considering that the area has lived. lost two PGA events. Tennis. PGA events, yes. Yeah, still manages to hang on to the tennis tournament. And this year, a big injection of excitement with Raphael Nadell showing up. I don't know what the, the spectators are going to be at 50% capacity, according to the press statement for this. So.

Yeah, that's a shave. That's too bad. Nadal has I don't think he's ever played in Washington before I believe that's true I could be wrong about that but I don't think Nadal's ever

played this event before I wonder how that came about how they managed to land him you know and what his real commitment is you know is it one match and then a sore calf and I'm done like a lot of these guys do when they come to Washington.

That's a good question. I don't know how much Nadal's ever done that. There are some players that don't do that. Most of the big names I've found for this tournament, my impression is they usually bow out at some point with some nebulous injury. They just make a showing. Yeah, and it's not the tune-up for the U.S. Open

because this thing runs July 30, first through, you know, the first week in August. The U.S. Open is the last week in August into the first, you know, week and a half of September. Still very exciting. Yeah, I mean. Still very cool. I'm going to give you sort of my version of the history of this event, and it may be inaccurate in spots, but, you know, it was an event that I went to a lot as a younger person because I was into tennis and I played tennis.

And then as a young producer at Channel 5 working for one of our favorite people, Buck, Steve Buckhance, we did, and this is the God's Honest Truth. For the week of that tournament, we did a 30-minute live highlight show live from Rock Creek Tennis Center every single week night during that tournament. So we would do, you know, Buck would do his sports cast. And then at 1130 after, you know, one of those shows, I forget, what was the, whatever the, it wasn't America's Most Wanted that ran at 11 o'clock. I'm blanking on the show that would run at 11 o'clock following the 10 o'clock news. But whatever that show was, would run. And then we would go live at 1130, nobody there to do a 30 minute. tennis show on Channel 5.

And let me just tell you something because I don't think you're going to know this name, but there may be a couple of people out there listening that know this name. Buck hosted it. I produced it. And this was like for two straight summers. And the guy that directed it, his name was Glenn Weiss. Glenn Weiss has won 14 or 15 Emmy Awards. as a director out in Hollywood.

He's won Tony Awards. He's won Emmy Awards. If you ask me specifically what the big shows that he's done or the television shows that he's been a part of, I know that he was a big part, I believe, of the Regis Kathy Lee show early on. I think he directed that. Glenn's not listening, I am sure, to this.

And if somebody can tell me specifically what he won awards for, but I think he produced the Regis and Kathy Lee show for a long period of time. But he's been a very successful Hollywood director. You know, you see, listen to this. I know what you're going to say. I just remembered it. I just remembered it. I didn't remember it when you asked me before. It's this tennis thing that got me into it.

Not any Hollywood-type friends, and you beg ignorance, and then you trot out this story. Well, I would never have thought of Glenn without the tennis discussion that we just started and thinking back on this 30-minute show that we did, which, by the way, I mean, I can't imagine, even though tennis was much more popular back then, you know, we're talking about the, you know, the super late 80s, early 90s, than it is now. It still couldn't have been watched by many people. Let me just tell you, Glenn was the greatest guy, the nicest guy, and he also directed the 10 o'clock news back then.

He was a Maryland guy. I'm pretty sure he went to Maryland. Anyway, make a long story short, great guy, and I remember very clearly, Glenn saying, I don't really like tennis. I don't know anything about tennis. so you just tell me what we should be doing on this show. And Buck was never much help either, because Buck would show up for his 1045 sports segment at 1040.

And then, you know, after that was over. The five-minute drive from Chadwick to the studio, right? Well, it wasn't to the studio. He was coming down to the tennis center. We would do... Oh, okay. Yeah, we would do the sports cast in live. It took them a little bit longer to get there then.

And then, you know, he would walk in and he would do the sports cast, and then he would say, what are we doing here in this tennis thing? And I remember it was the first year that they went from clay courts to hard courts. See, when this tournament started in the 70s, and I think you're right about Donald Dell, I think it was very much just a clay court tournament. It was part of the Clay Court summer series. I remember all of the clay courters played the event, but the big time hard court players never played the event.

the guys that were tuning up for the U.S. Open didn't play it. So, you know, guys like Vlas, who was a great all-around player, number one player in the world in the 70s and then into the 80s was always there, Harold Solomon, who was a local from Silver Spring, and was a top-ranked men's tennis player, but was more a clay court specialist would show up. And then it seemed like a bunch of South Americans, because the South Americans were all clay quarters.

And so they changed it to a hardcore event, a hardcore event, because they wanted to become part of the summer tune-up series for the U.S. Open. And all of the events, and I'm going to forget some of the places, but I know Montreal and Indianapolis and D.C., there were, L.A., I think, there were a bunch of them that led up to the U.S. Open in the hardcore summer, series. But Tommy, I'll tell you what, when they were playing on hard courts here, it got so hot. Because, and this is, again, somebody may correct me on a lot of what I'm saying. This is my memory of it. They attracted good players, but they never attracted all of the best players,

because this event was always had a reputation of, it's too hot to play in D.C. in late July or early August. It's just too hot. And when they went to hard courts, it was brutally hot because it's much harder, and the temperature on court on a hard court is much hotter than it is on a clay court. McEnroe played it for a couple of years. I remember Boris, when they went to hard court, guys like Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg and Connors. Now, Connors was a really good clay court player as well. So he came here when it was a clay court event. But it then became, you know, again, an event that became a second-tier event because it was hard to consistently attract the top players in the world because of D.C. summer weather. That was always the problem.

In fact, I'm reading through the press release right now. This is the first time that any one of the top three players, the legendary Federer Nadal Djokovic, that this is the first time that any one of those three players has entered this event in 15 years. Wow. It is. It's great news. And I'm sure there will be more demand for tickets since they're limited right now. Oh, yeah.

No, Nadal's a – he's a massive draw. Yeah. A massive draw. I'll get calls from my – I usually get calls from my tennis friends this time of year, seeing if I can get them tickets, and it's usually very easy to do. I don't think it'll be easy this time. Do you get a lot of calls from your tennis friends this time? I get tons of them, tons of them.

Oh, man. I have many friends. I have a lot of memories about this. By the way, there's a statement in here from Mark Eyn. Mark Eyn, who is the owner of the team tennis, the Washington team tennis team. I don't know the name of that team right now. The castles. The castles, thank you. Mark's a

BCC guy. I've had Mark on the show once or twice over the years. Mark was a guest on Cigars and Curve Balls podcast as well. There you go. Good guy. Yeah, really good guy. By the way, Mark was a really good tennis player, and even when he became the owner of the castles, was still a nationally ranked professional doubles player. Because I remember having him on the show and he said, yeah,

every once in a while I'll still play a doubles event. And I said, are you ranked? He goes, I think in like the 400 or something, and I looked it up and sure enough, he was ranked as like the 483rd ranked doubles player in the world. That's pretty cool. But he's got to- He owns the city paper as well.

I didn't know he owned the city paper. Yes, he does. He owns the city paper. I don't know Mark well. I know people who know Mark well because he's a local and he went to BCC and he's a Montgomery County guy. But other than having him on the show once or twice over the years, I don't know him.

But here's his quote. In the 52-year history of our event, we've had many great champions over the years, but Rafa is a global icon, the biggest star and greatest player we have ever had. What a wonderful day for all of us. to celebrate the return of great summer traditions in our community like the city open. So is Mark, is this his tournament now?

I didn't know that. I think it is. Okay. I think it is, and I'll bet you, given his involvement in World Team Tennis. He's the one that made it happen. He was probably influential in something like this. That's right. I hope you.

You know, my memory of covering this tournament is this. was always the bottom of the wrong event. In other words, when you first got to the paper and you were low man on a totem pole, there's two things you had to cover. The Kemper Open and the tennis tournament. So my first year or two there at the paper, I had to cover the tennis tournament. Because, you know, there wasn't, I mean, this is the early 90s, 92, 93. you're right, it's always hot.

And there's no elevator up to the press box in that stadium. And that press box is really high up. And you've got to go down, you know, get close, and then you've got to go back up. And it was usually low man on a totem pole got to cover this event. So the first, you know, as I, you know, venturing, into broadcasting as sort of a second professional career, which I've talked about before. The first gig I got was basically doing some weekend updates for a couple of weeks when Meredith

Joseph, who was terrific at doing updates, left on maternity leave. And it was late spring-ish. And I said, look, you know, ask me to do anything. I'll do whatever you need me to do. either CJ or Todd, Castleberry said, we'd love it if you'd go down to the tennis tournament and do updates from there this week.

So that was, so you're 100% right. Low man on the totem pole. Yeah, it was. And I would sit way up there at the top of that thing in the press box where Charlie Broughtman was. You know, I can remember many days when I'm sitting there doing updates,

it was just me and Charlie in the, in the press box. Charlie doing the PA system stuff from way up there. And at least we were undercover up there. But it was warm. And yeah, you know, so it's always been a secondary tier event. But for several years, again, I would say the 80s and the 90s, it was part of that series, which included the cities, you know, Toronto, Montreal, whatever it was, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis and all of those places leading up to the open. So, but a lot of the best players would like commit and then back out. Like, what's the weather going to be like?

And once they found out it was going to be 90s in humid, they're like, nah, remember recently, and I don't know the current history or the current situation with this, I just know the history is that there was many years ago they turned it into a women's event simultaneously. Is that still the case? Yeah. I don't know that. Okay. Well, they had a women's event as a way, I guess, to try to, to, to try to here's Tommy, on the PGA thing, the first thing you said, you know, we've lost two PGA events, but this thing has remained alive, not necessarily well, but it's remained alive for, for many, many years. You know, I've always been surprised that Washington's lost a PGA event, but the calendar date,

means a lot in this town. You know, because this is an affluent community for the most part compared to other major, you know, top 10 cities. And you have to get the right dates to make sure that enough of the people that you think would be interested in your event are around. The tennis event draws a very, very high-end demographic. and this is why I think financially having these events has always paid off. I don't know the last, I can't tell you the last time I went to that event,

but I will tell you that the price of a beer, the price of a sandwich or a hot dog, it's the most expensive you will pay at any event ever. It just is. By the way, one of the last times I went, and it's been a long time, but I remember this very well. I think it might have been my oldest, was very, very young. And it was summer. We had nothing to do. And so I said, we'll go to the tennis tournament.

And somehow I probably called up Buck or Joe Yashiroff or Mark Stern. Mark Stern's a big part of, you know, he now has a 10. tennis podcast that he's doing. He's a big part of the tour and he's doing a lot of stuff. But I, you know, somebody, you know, I probably called up and got tickets and I took my oldest down on, you know, a late July afternoon. And as we were walking into the stadium, a woman came up to us and said, hey, would you like to participate in, you, like to participate in, an event, would you and your, would your son like to participate

in an event where he races an electronic car, you know, remote electronic car against Yevgeny Kofelnikov, who at the time was the number one player in the world and was playing the tournament.

And it was going to be a part of like the pre-match or in-between matches before he played. And I said, sure. He'll do it. And, you know, in my oldest case, he was like, I guess I'll do it. So on court is my then, I don't know, six, seven-year-old son, something like that with a remote control, you know, car.

And it's him against Yvgeny Kofelnikov on the court with, you know, a finish line and the crowd there. And they introduce Casey and they introduce Yvgeny Kov. and Kofelnikov kicks Casey's ass in the race. I mean, he was so competitive. Oh, that's a shame. And he just, he's so into it. And literally, Casey's halfway still trying to figure it out at six years old. And Kofelnikov's car crosses and he puts his arms up.

And people started to boo him. And I go, and I looked at him because I had to be down there as his father down there with him. And I just looked at him. and I just shook my head and I go, dude, are you serious? He's six. And the person, this woman who was running the event goes, oh my God, that was not really the intent. And I go, it's all right, it's all right. Why don't we go two out of three? And let me handle it. But I do, Tommy, that may have been the last time I was there. And I would guess that was like 19, late 90s, early 2000s, probably.

I don't know when Yvgeny Kofelnikov, who was Russian, was number one in the world. But I'll never forget that. Tommy, he never even looked at Casey, never even came over and said, hey, how you doing? We're going to race. This is going to be fun. He grabbed the remote and just sped that car as quickly as he could across the finish line, and it was over. That's pretty good.

You know, the last time I was there, it's funny because this involves my son, my oldest son, Rocco. There was a summer going into his junior year in high school where he worked as an unpaid intern for Charlie Brotman in his PR firm. That's a great job. And he was 15 years old, you know? Yeah. And one of the things he had to do was work at the tennis tournament. I remember having to go pick him up. And we're always very grateful to try for that,

because that's really what got him started in PR and marketing, how much he enjoyed doing that job. So, you know, last time I was there was picking up my son who was working at the tournament. Yeah. I can't remember the last time I've been down there. But you know what? If my wife wants to go, I'll get tickets and I'll go watch Rafa play. Actually, I would love to see him play.

I do remember when McEnroe came and I was there. I hope you're wrong, though, about your initial thought, which is I hope it's not a one-match default. He's on to the next place. So do I. I hope, I hope, you know, I don't care about tennis or golf per se. Obviously, golf I really don't care about. But I don't like the idea that the DMV does not have a PGA event because I always feel like if you're a major city,

part of your resume has certain components to it. Right. You know, and a PGA event, to me, would be one of them as well as a professional tennis tournament like this. and that's just in my mind. I mean, I don't know if you're comparing cities, if that has any impact at all. But I always felt that that's an important, a small but important part of a city's,

a major city's resume. And I just like to have for the area to have a PGA event. Well, keep in mind, this major city didn't have a baseball team for 34 years. It's really... I know, but it's dramatically changed. Yes, it has. Yes, it has. But it was dramatically changed in the early to mid-2000s, too,

and we still didn't have a baseball team. That was really... Well, we were among the top 10 cities in America, the top seven cities population-wise, DMV-wise, metropolitan area-wise. I think for a while we were the only one without four professional sports teams, right? Pretty short.

But we have them now. And we have Rafa Nadal coming July 31st through August 8th to the D.C. Rock Creek Tennis Stadium, whatever it's called now, down at 16th and Kennedy. Great spot. And it'll be a hell of it. They will not have any difficulty whatsoever reaching 50% capacity for his matches, hopefully matches plural. All right. Let's take a break when we come back.

I want to talk about the Nats a little bit. Also, Bill Barnwell from ESPN, who writes really long pieces. Just put one out moments ago about NFL MVP favorites. We'll talk about that a little bit and other things Washington football team related, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. During our little break there, Tommy, I googled Glenn White. who I had worked with at Channel 5 many, many, many years ago, because I want to see exactly the details of Glenn Weiss's career. He has a Wikipedia page and there's, you know, a lot of information,

but what he's most remembered for. So he's an American producer and director, 14 Emmy Awards, six Directors Guild of America Awards, as a director and producer for various awards shows and reality shows. including the Tony Awards, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Academy Awards, okay? Wow. You know, it says, Weiss started his career working at the Washington, D.C. Bureau of CNN, became a producer and director at Fox at WTTG. That's when I got, that's what I knew him. His first national credit was America's Most Wanted, followed by other shows, including Studs, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Gladiators 2000, and talk shows hosted by Jane Pratt. and Tempest bledso in the years since.

I don't know why I thought of Regis and Kathy Lee. I'm wrong about that, obviously. A little bit off on that one. Yeah, because it's not mentioned here in any of this stuff. But here's what is mentioned after all of the other awards that he's won for. Like, he's produced Dick Clark's New Year's Rock and Eve, you know, the New Year's Eve thing, and Peter Pan Live and the Billboard Music Awards, American of Music Awards, all these other things. But this is when I remember, I happened to have been watching or I saw the highlights of this.

On September 17, 2018, during the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, Weiss made headlines by proposing to a longtime girlfriend Jan Svenson during his acceptance speech for outstanding directing for a variety special for his work on that year's Academy Awards. he proposed by saying, you wonder why I don't like to call you my girlfriend because I want to call you my wife. And that's what he did during those 70th prime time Emmys.

And I do remember that. I don't know that I was watching it live, but I think several people from the old channel five days created a group text and said, have you seen this yet? And that's how I saw it. He was really such a terrific guy is my memory. And now that you've brought him to my attention, I'm going to, I'm going to reach out to him.

I'm going to try to get him on the podcast and do an interview with him about his life and what he's doing, and then pitch him on a screenplay for a friend of mine. Two screenplays. Two screenplays. Can we go one screenplay at a time? Well, I mean, look, this is multi-shopping right here. It's like shopping at Target. We have more than one thing.

Okay. Before we get to the Nats, Bill Barnwell, who writes for ESPN.com, and writes a lot and writes extensively and writes in very long form, he has a column out today called, titled, 2021 NFL MVP favorites and tears. He puts the favorites in tears. And by the way, here's part of the title, 237 players. who could win. So you can already tell this is going to be a long Barnwell column. He's got 237 players who might win the NFL MVP in the 2021 season. I'm certainly not going to read this to you, but he starts off from what I can tell after a couple of pages worth of setting it up. He starts off by looking at quarterbacks. and I'm assuming he's looking at quarterbacks

because usually the MVP of the league is a quarterback. And he groups the quarterbacks into tiers. Group one, the Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers, Ben Rafflesberger, and Russell Wilson. So he says my favorite from this group is Mahomes. My least favorite from this group is Rothlisberger. I would agree on both of those fronts.

The MVP frontrunner overall is Patrick Mahomes, and maybe for the next 10 years going into any season. He's going to be either the favorite or pretty close to being the favorite to win the MVP. And Ben Rathlisberger really did look like he was on his last legs. Then he's got a tier two, and he calls this, the starting quarterbacks on rookie deals. And none of these quarterbacks really have a great chance, but he lists Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Sam Darnold, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson.

I shouldn't have said these guys don't have much of a chance. Of course they do. Lamar Jackson's already been an MVP, but he's still on a rookie deal. And then he's got actual rookies like Trevor Lawrence and, Zach Wilson. And he said, my favorite from this group is Murray. My least favorite from this group is Zach Wilson. Then he gets into the group three of quarterbacks. He calls them established, effective starting quarterbacks. On this list are Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jared Gough, Cam Newton, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Ryan, Ryan Tannahill,

Deshawn Watson, and Carson Wentz. By the way, I think that Deshawn Watson, you know, without all the other stuff going on, like if we could just view him as a football player, is a future Hall of Famer. I don't know that Cam Newton is, and he didn't consider Cam Newton to be a future Hall of Famer because he didn't have him in that tier. Matt Ryan, future Hall of Famer or not, he doesn't have Matt Ryan in that tier. Ryan and Cam Newton will be, you know, guys right now based on that. their career so far that people will start to talk about as potential Hall of Famers.

Anyway, he says his favorite from this group is Dak Prescott and the least favorite from the group and he says, I'll leave Deshawn Watson in his situation alone. And he said, Jared Gough. And then he's got, and this is why I brought this story to everybody's attention. I knew there was a reason. I just had to wait for it. Look, I've shortened his story as much as it can be shortened. The group four of quarterbacks to consider, because he's considering every quarterback in the league is a potential MVP candidate.

Not really, but he puts him in tears. Group four, low-end starting, high-end backup quarterbacks. Teddy Bridgewater, Andy Dalton, Tassum Hill, Tyrod Taylor, James Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick. And he just says from this low-end starting high-end backup quarterback list. By the way, the other category above it established effective starting quarterbacks, on some level it would be a bit of a reach to put Ryan Fitzpatrick in that category.

Don't you think? Well, of course I think so. But there's this delusion going around. that Ryan Fitzpatrick is found money somehow for this Washington football team. Well, I mean, established effective starting quarterbacks. You know, I know Jared Goff started in a Super Bowl, and I know Jimmy Garoppolo started in a Super Bowl, and I know Carson Wentz was a potential MVP in his second season,

but I would not take Gropolo or Gough ahead of Fitzpatrick. I wouldn't take Cam Newton. I wouldn't take Cam Newton ahead of Fitzpatrick right now. I would obviously take Prescott, Ryan, Stafford, Watson, cousins, and probably Carr ahead of Fitzpatrick. I would take all those guys. And one TV you wouldn't, because I think there are,

upside is much bigger. And, I mean, I don't think Kham Newton's upside? Cam, I mean, he had a He could have gotten Kham Newton. He chose not to, and he coached him. I know. Yeah.

You consider that, but Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick chose to take him. That's true. You know, I tell you why, between Ron Rivera and Bill Bealeck, I'm going to go with this Super Bowl coach, winning coach.

So of the low-end, starting, high-end backup quarterbacks category, he says, my favorite from this group, like among these guys who could come out of nowhere. And he writes, by the way, listen to this, Tommy. A borderline starter winning MVP, we've seen quarterbacks who looked like they were fading out of starting work win this award in the distant past. You have to go back 40-plus years, but Ken Anderson in 1981, and John Brodell. in 1970, one years removed from their last appearances in the Pro Bowl. The year before he won the MVP, Anderson threw six touchdowns and 13 picks.

Nobody would have pegged the veteran as a plausible candidate. And yet that's what happened. Of course, that season in 1981, Ken Anderson led Cincinnati to the Super Bowl, where they lost to Joe Montana and the 49ers for the 49ers first win. Brody in 1970 lost, I believe he lost in the NFC championship game to the Cowboys at Candlestick, and the Cowboys ended up losing that Super Bowl to the Colts. So out of this group, if somebody were to emerge, he writes Winston. He goes, and by the way, I'm totally with him on this.

Winston, he goes, I'm tempted to pick Fitzpatrick, given that the Harvard product is joining a Washington, team with a great defense and has actually been a very good quarterback for most of the past two seasons. But Winston is the easy pick here. Playing for Sean Payton with Michael Thomas at wide receiver behind an excellent Saints offensive line, Winston has the chance to blow away expectations and is previously established label as a gath-prone quarterback. He certainly could lose the quarterback competition in Camp to Hill, Taysam Hill, and spend the entire year on the bench, looking for the highest upside, not the highest floor. By the way, he picked Tyrod Taylor as the least likely from that group.

I am so with him on James Winston. I love the Saints this year and their possibilities. I don't know why I love James Winston so much as a quarterback, but I just think that he is going to have a second part to his career, a second act to his career. And Sean... I think you're right. And here's one of the reasons why I like him.

I mean, besides the talent. And, uh, what I'm facing? He came out of Florida State, right? Yeah. Uh, with real negative, uh, baggage. Well, the, the public's, the public's incident. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. He came, he came out with, with negative baggage. There were other incidents besides that. Yeah. Uh, as well. But everything I've read or heard about him in Tampa was that he was respected and liked by all his teammates. Everybody. I told me.

First of all, let me just make sure, like, I think most people have heard the story about the public's, you know, shrimp incident or lobster tail or crab tail, you know, crab claw incident when they said he was stealing the, whatever the seafood item was out of a public's. that incident was simply put that the story's been told many times I believe you know this was something that was being provided to a lot of Florida state players like some free you know stuff Winston couldn't say that he accepted free stuff because it would have ruined his eligibility so they had to say that he stole it um so anyway that aside there was also the other incident with the with the woman um the female student as well Sexual assault charges. Yes. So there was that. But I remember when Brady signed, you know, 15 months ago or whatever it was with Tampa.

And I remember listening, and I forget the reporter, the columnist's name from Tampa, you would probably know him or know of him. And I'm blanking on the name. But he was a guest on Mad Dog Show in Sirius XM. And I was listening to this interview. and he just went on and on and on about how beloved James Winston was. That was not the narrative on James Winston. The narrative was all the stuff from Florida State, and by the way, he throws 30 picks a year,

which he had just done. Also 33 touchdowns, but 30 picks as well. And he said, James Winston is so respected, so well-liked, so well liked from media to fans to every single person, a player and coach in that locker room. And the guy said he had talked to various players and coaches and they were super excited about Brady. Don't get me wrong. But he said they really said to a man they were going to miss James Winston in their locker room.

And I remember sitting there listening to that going, I had no idea. Like I always liked him as a player, and I always thought that there was a chance that he could become a good quarterback, but I had no idea about that. But then, you know, think about it to a certain degree. You know, Sean Payton, for all intents and purposes, they signed him to a very cheap deal, obviously. But I think he believes Winston is Drew Breeze's heir apparent. I don't think he believes it's Taysam Hill. I could be wrong. I would agree.

I agree with you. I mean, I don't, look. Taysam Hill, like we're talking about upside. Tassum Hill seems to have a very limited upside. We've seen what he can do. I think we've seen the limitations of his abilities at a quarterback role. Winston, I don't even think we scratch the surface yet. I don't think we have either.

I don't think we have either. And, you know, he not only has a great coach, he's on a really, really good team. A team's got an excellent defense. It's got, you know, arguably the best offensive line or a top three offensive line in the game. It's got Alvin Kamara. It's got Michael Thomas. They need him healthy, obviously. And Winston is, you know, what is he? He's 28. I'm looking at up right now because I want to know exactly how old he is. A lot of these quarterbacks don't really hit their stride until, you know, mid to last. He's 27 years old. 27. Okay. Yeah. Wouldn't surprise me if the Saints are really good and Winston has a big year. And I hope I'm right about that to a certain degree,

not at the expense of Washington standing in the NFC, but I hope I'm right that he ends up being and having a second act to his career. I really do. He's got tremendous, you could tell this from Florida State. tremendous innate leadership skills, which has always been talked about with Winston. Remember, he had a chance to be a major league baseball pitcher as well. Yeah. Terrific athlete.

Right. I won't bore you with the rest of Barnwell's story, which includes, you know, going through like the MVP list, you know, running backs and wide receivers. And let me just see if he puts Chase Young into the conversation at all. Must be. What about Terry McLaren? On the wide receivers, candidates, 33. He does have Terry McLaren listed as one of the 33 wide receiver slash tight-end candidates. He says, Devante Adams would. What'd you say? I would as well. I agree with that. Absolutely.

Yeah, it's just, you know, superstar pass rushers. Does he have Chase Young listed here? He does. He's got Chase Young listed among the 31 superstar pass rushers as possibilities. In fact, he does, this is, yeah. So basically, and then he ends with kickers. NFL MVPs are usually quarterbacks, occasionally running backs, rarely wide receivers, very rarely defensive players, Lawrence Taylor, Alan Page, Lawrence Taylor, and Mark Gastino are the only three defensive. of MVP's in NFL history.

And then he's got kickers only because Mark Mosley won the NFL MVP in the abbreviated 1982 season. So the Washington football team, they've got players making lists left and right, don't they? Apparently they do, Tommy. Apparently they do. That's a big step, right? They don't usually make lists. You know what?

They haven't had a lot of players that have made a lot of these kinds of lists in recent years. No. Let me just see. I wonder if Montes Sweat is on the pass rusher thing. Let me just check that real quickly. I doubt he is. He's not. Yeah, because you're not going to put two pass rushers from the same team,

two young pass rushers from the same team in that list. As long as we're on this subject, Patrick Mahomes would be obviously my number one pick. to be the MVP, but there are two players who are going to be on very good teams, contending teams that are defensive players, that I think, like, this is, you know, a real outside the box pick, Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett, two players who are on two teams that are considered to be deep into the postseason kinds of players. if you told me a defensive player wins the MVP or is in conversation,

Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett. Well, I'll tell you what we'll negate that. If the Rams are in the Super Bowl, Matt Stafford's going to win the MVP. More likely than not, if they're in the Super Bowl, it's because Matt Stafford had the kind of year that I think he's totally capable of. And, by the way, flipping it around. If Cleveland's in the Super Bowl, it may not be so. because of Baker Mayfield.

Right. But. I agree. All right. I wanted to also mention that on the radio show this morning, we did a segment on, you know, in line with sort of what Tommy was talking about, people excited about Ryan Fitzpatrick, whatever. I am excited about Ryan Fitzpatrick. I think there's a chance he could be a really solid quarterback for Washington this year. but we did a Twitter poll and then we took calls on how many NFC teams are obviously better than Washington.

Just so you know, Washington pretty much consistently across the board in terms of futures, odds, are like ninth or tenth best odds out of 16 teams in the NFC. I know a lot of you think that they should be like the favorites or in the top five. they're not. Like the best you can find them is like eighth best odds. So like literally the middle of the pack of the NFC, but more likely

than not you're to find, you're going to find eight or nine teams with better odds than Washington to win the NFC championship. Personally, I think there are six teams that are obviously better. Tampa, the Rams,

the Packers with Rogers, Seattle, San Francisco, Francisco and New Orleans. I think those are the six that are obviously better than Washington going into the season. It's an NFL season, anything can happen. But on paper, those six teams, I would say, are obviously better. I don't think Dallas is obviously better, although I think they are better on paper. I don't think Arizona is obviously better. But if you force me to wager on one of the two teams winning the NFC championship, I'd probably wager on Arizona. But after that, you know, you'd probably pick Washington, but I just have six teams that are

obviously better. And I'll just keep saying what I've been saying about the Giants. I think they're very underrated. And if Daniel Jones turns out to be a decent quarterback, I think the Giants are going to be a good football team this year and be the surprise team in the division and one of the surprise teams in the NFC. And, you know, I'll just reiterate what I've said before. They beat Washington twice last year. And they were really close in about four or five of their losses. They very easily could have been the NFC East champs without their best player in Saquan Barkley.

And with the same sort of quarterback issues that Washington, every team in the division last year had quarterback issues. Dallas started four quarterbacks. Washington started four quarterbacks. Philadelphia started three and the Giants started two. And that is the reason more than any other that the division was historically bad. If you don't see that again this year, the division will be much, much better. It would be hard for it to be worse, but it'll be much better.

You must have eaten your wea-weties this morning because I've got to agree with almost everything you said there. I agree with you about where the Washington football team probably ranks, about teams that are not obviously better, but if I had to pick between one or two, those teams who I would pick, and that the Giants, I think, are really underrated. If Daniel Jones, if they're healthy. Yeah, their offensive line is a big question mark.

We still don't know a lot about the coaching staff. Jones is everything for them, but they have talent, as does Dallas. You know what? Philadelphia doesn't suck talent-wise. I wanted to make just one other quick... But they have a whole new coach, a real quarterback mess. They're in trouble. There's a big difference between the AFC and the NFC,

and the big difference is the top teams in the AFC have no quarterback uncertainty. Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore, Cleveland, Tennessee. They all have solid, really good. quarterback situations with no uncertainty. You know, if you want to put the chargers into that conversation with Herbert, because a lot of people think the chargers are going to make a big, you know, step this year and be a playoff team. Indy is probably the only perceived playoff contender with quarterback sort of uncertainty, but not in terms of who the starter is. The starter is going to be Carson Wentz. You just don't know if it's going to be the Carson Wentz from the last time

he was with Frank Reich in Philadelphia, or if it's going to be the Carson Wentz from the last year or two. In the NFC at the top, you have major quarterback uncertainty. First of all, Brady's turning 44. Green Bay, we don't know anything about the Rogers situation.

New Orleans, we've already talked about. I'm a believer in James Winston, but it's uncertain. San Francisco, another leading contender, you know, Garoppolo or Trey Lance. the Rams have a quarterback that for me would make things totally certain, but it is the first year for Stafford and McVeigh together. Yeah, and obviously if you consider Washington a situation

where they could win nine or ten games, they've got quarterback uncertainty. Dallas doesn't have quarterback uncertainty in terms of who their starter is, but he's coming off a major injury in Dak Prescott. AFC much more stable. Are we in agreement on that, too? I'm telling you. Wow. I don't know what the point of the podcast is today because you must have been in a good breakfast

because your brain seems to be working in the right direction this time. All right, well, let me take a different path then. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Here's a point of difference between Tommy and me on the show today. I like the soccer and Tommy does. I've been enjoying the soccer. I thought you stopped. I didn't stop because of the flopping. I didn't. I did not watch yesterday's game because I played golf, but I watched the game the day before, and I will watch the final on Sunday between Italy and England at Wembley. But I am going to tell you that I did not realize that on a penalty kick, if it was missed, that you could then follow it up and score, that the game,

game was live after a missed penalty kick. I'm not talking about the penalty kicks at the end that decide the game. I'm talking about during the game, Harry Kane, the star of England, and one of the stars of soccer, Harry Kane had a penalty kick in extra time, missed it, but the ball bounced back to him, and he then scored on the follow-up. I thought if you missed the penalty kick, they stop and, you know, and that's it. But I was wrong about that. I'm learning. I didn't. I didn't. watch it live, I watched the highlights. I heard that the scene at Wembley with the crowd was just insane yesterday. Can't wait for the final on Sunday between England and Italy. So we don't disagree on that. This is not a conversation that you wish even took place. Conversation about what?

Soccer. Oh, I'm sorry. I kind of like nodded out there for a minute. Want to talk about the Nets? How about Juan Soto last night early? That was a bomb? Yes. Yes, it was. Set the tone right from the start in the first inning. And they wind up scored 15 runs. You know, without Kyle Schwabre in the lineup,

has to be a big emotional lift for them to be able to produce that kind of offense without the big bat of Schwabber in there. Josh Bell is operating on all cylinders now for this team. Right. I mean, between Swarber, before he got hurt, and now Josh Bell, Rizzo hit a home run with both of those signings, low-cost signings coming off of bad seasons for both of them. So, and, you know, again, they still are managing with Strasberg out,

and now with Swarver out, they're still managing to, tread water, you know, to keep this thing close enough that one hot run can put them on top of the division. So, I mean, it's a big win on the road against a very good team in the Padres. And the other news that came out is Juan Soto is going to compete in the home run derby, and he's going to be matched up in the first round against Shoney-Atani. That is going to be a marquee matchup. Yes.

That'll be exciting. Agreed. Yes. A couple of things. First of all, Josh Bell's turnaround is amazing. I think he went from hitting 206 at the beginning of January, June. He hit 3.13 in the month of June, and he's already off to a super hot start in July. Secondly, this is the third time.

The Nats have scored like 13 plus runs in their last, I think, 12 games. games. Like, they've had explosions. They were struggling so much offensively. They had that wild game remember against Philadelphia. Then they crushed Tampa last week, Tommy, with Schwerber going 0 for four. Like, their two biggest offensive games of the year, 15 to 6 over Tampa with, I think it was 18 hits in the game. And then last night, 15 to 5 over San Diego with, I think, 17 hits in the game. Well, Schwerber didn't play last night, but he didn't help him. and they're 15 to 6 win over Tampa either. So they are capable offensively without them.

But they just, you know, Trey Turner in the lineup is a must for them. You know, they lost those four games to the Dodgers over the weekend, and now they've won two of three against San Diego. I don't know if you're following this. The Marlins have beaten the Dodgers three straight. The Marlins. Baseball's crazy. You know, the Dodgers seem to be turning back into that juggernaut.

Red hot, I think they had won nine in a row. and they lose three straight after sweeping the Nats to the Marlins. But it's a good win. You know, this whole 17-game stretch leading into the All-Star break and then coming out with the three games against the Padres on the other side. It looked like it was starting to go south with the four losses to the Dodgers, but they're hanging in there. You know, beating a red-hot and a great team in San Diego,

two out of three so far with one more tonight. and it's Max against Darvish tonight. It'd be massive if somehow they took three or four in San Diego after that disappointing weekend at home against the Dodgers. Absolutely. You have to feel very good about themselves coming off of something like that. Yeah. I'm really psyched up looking forward to, you know, the one stupid thing about the All-Star game this year, I'm looking forward to it.

But, you know, somebody in Major League Baseball made a decision to have the teams wear the same uniforms, the American League players wear AL All-Star uniforms, National League, NL All-Star uniforms. Instead of their own? So they're not going to be wearing their own uniforms. Oh, that sucks. That's stupid. Stupid. I agree. God.

We agree again. We agree again. I don't like doing these shows with you. I know. I like the Bucks tonight plus the five, if anybody's wondering. I picked the Sons to win the series in five, but the Bucks, I think, are going to get that thing that always seems to happen in a playoff series where they only shot 16 free throws. The other team shot 10 more, and then they complain about it, and somehow they get the benefit of the whistle tonight. Wouldn't surprise me if that happens. Now, them going to the free throw line is not a great thing, especially with Yonis. But I like the Bucks tonight plus five. It was five and a half. It's down to five. now, so there's some sharp money on Milwaukee.

But that's my pick for the day. I gave you Milwaukee the other day in game one. That didn't work. So don't, you know, for entertainment purposes only, of course. But there you go. Well, here's my NBA contribution. I'm working on a future column, and I was doing some research, and I just wanted to drop this on you.

It's no revelation, but it's all. always helpful perspective. Since the last time the Wizards won 50 games in a season and went beyond the second round, which was 1979, this

franchise has a record of 1,442 and 1,894 losses. Why are you still doing this? I mean, I'm doing it for a future column. Okay. That's five, nearly six straight seasons of losing. That difference.

You mean a difference, the disparity between wins and losses. Six straight seasons of what, losing all 82 games? Yes. Okay. Yes. Scott Brooks. And that's going to be incorporated in a future column I'm working on. Okay.

A bigger picture column. Will you include that Scott Brooks got an assistant's job with Chauncey Billups in Portland? Why would I include that? I don't know. I just wanted to throw that out there for anybody that didn't hear about it. I was surprised at that. I'm not surprised that somebody wants Scott Brooks to be a part of the organization, but that he would take an assistant job.

Well, apparently, the line around, the line for coaching the Wizards is around the block. According to NBC Sports, Washington, they have a large field of coaches candidates to choose from. So I wouldn't worry about the next Wizards head coach. They're lining them up, Tommy, and they're saying, all right, make your best offer. Yes, that's it. Who can do it for just under a million? All right. I'm done for the day.

Are you done? I got one last thing. Oh, yes, Sunday. Sunday. Tell us about Sunday, please. Sunday. Sunday, the benefit concert for the D.C. raise, the nonprofit youth baseball organization. I'm a big part of.

King's Soul, the great band, the band that will change your life, is playing a benefit show Sunday, July 11th at Caddison Cordell from 2 to 5 p.m. Ticket donations, tax-deductible donations, are $25 a piece.

You can go online to dcgrays.com in order to purchase your tickets. You could even do it that day on your phone if you walk up to the door and do it, you can buy them on your phone right there. So you can even buy them the day of, and there's a bit of news, I think, that you should know about, buddy. What? There's going to be a special performance, a special performer at this event. Who's the special performer?

I can't say. I can't reveal it. Well, we already know the main act, but this is a special appearance from somebody? Yes. I'm excited about that. I can't reveal it. I'm excited about that. All right. Yes, be there or B square? Yep. Just so you know, I'm going to try to get there, but you know, and we've talked about this, I did have a previous commitment for that day before you put this together, but there is a chance

that I'll be able to make it for some of it. Not that anybody cares. Well, let me just say, if you and whoever you're with want to really have a good time and be there for a moment that you'll wish you didn't miss, you should be there at some point. It'll be a great event. It'll be a great event at a very easy place to park and everything else at Caddys and Bethesda. All right, Tommy, thanks.

All right, boss. I'll be back tomorrow. Enjoy the day.