The Kevin Sheehan Show - Stadium to Virginia?

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with reaction to the ESPN story that broke this afternoon that Josh Harris pitched his co-investors on the exciting possibility that Virginia would pay $1.5 billion towards a new stadium...the most by far of any local jurisdiction. The guys got to that story in the final segment of the show today as the story came out. Before that, plenty of discussion about the desire among the fans both past/present for a Washington team "re-brand". NBA Playoffs, RG3, Thom's surprise vacation schedule, Archway cookies, the movie "Air", and mattress consistency all part of today's show as well.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here from Hager C.G. via the Apple podcast review.

Hager C.G gives us five stars. Titles his or her review. More Tommy in studio. Love the recent episode with Tommy Live in Studio. It's amazing how. different Tom sounds in studio compared to on the phone. Maybe we can all chip in for some more Lorna Dunes as an incentive. Keep up the great work guys.

Yeah, he came in here. Look, there was a specific reason that he came in for, which is fine. But not only did I deliver on what he came in for, I over-delivered. See, I am an under-promiser over-deliverer. It's the way I've always operated. I like to kind of stay below everybody's radar and then just pop up and they say, man, who's that dude? And I hit you with a package of Lorna Dunes when you came in here is a little bit of a surprise. And it was the highlight of my day.

Rate us and review us on Apple, Spotify, anywhere else you can do it. It's really a big help. can also follow us. The follow button on Apple on your iPhone is in the upper right-hand corner. Following us on Spotify is easy too. The follow button is midway down the left-hand side. It's a huge help if you can follow us and rate us and review us wherever you get the chance. How was your, oh, you know what? Actually, speaking of cookies, all right? I had to run out, I had to run a few errands after the radio show today before we started recording this podcast. And I had to go to Safeway to pick up a prescription. And I also had to pick up

a couple of things for my wife. And as I was going through the checkout, there was, you know, one of these, you know, merchandised areas. You know, they call it in the grocery industry impulse purchase. You know, the impulse purchasing at, you know, checkout where you have all the candy and all these different things. But this was more of like what they were. referred to as an end-isle display right at checkout. And it was an end-dial display of cookies called Archway cookies. Are you familiar with Archway cookies? Very familiar with them.

Not from my own interest, but I know my wife's family was big into Archway. I think they're a Philly product. I don't know where they're from, actually. I mean, Archway cookies are, so what was sitting there were the iced oatmeal cookies, and they looked so good. So yes, I grabbed a box, and right before this show, I ate two of them, and they were excellent. But I remember, I don't think I've purchased Archway cookies in a long time. I remember these iced oatmeal cookies. They're excellent.

They also had a chocolate or I think it was called a cocoa cookie that was phenomenal. So good. I'm looking it up right now to see if they're actually a Philly. It's not a Philly product. It says it's headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, originally started in Battle Creek, Michigan. Okay, yeah, here it is. It seems like all food was started. It seems like in Battle Creek.

Is that true? I think so. I seem to remember every cookie or cereal I had growing up or else I would never would have heard of Battle Creek. Otherwise. So you're being serious? Battle Creek is some sort of food capital of the world? I think it is.

Interesting. I'm looking at that because, you know, Minneapolis has a ton of food companies. General Mills is... Battle Creek, Michigan. Oh, the home of Kellogg? where Kellogg's and post consumer brands were founded. Very good, Tommy.

There you go. Yeah. I've never heard of Battle Creek. When I was seven years old watching TV, I must have been paying attention. That's a lot for you to pay attention. Yes. Archway cookies have always been great, but I can't remember the last time. Actually, that's not true.

I think either this past Christmas season or the Christmas before, they had Christmas cookies as kind of an end-dial or a checkout impulse purchase item. And they were gingerbread cookies. And I bought a box of those brought them home, and they were gone in about three minutes because everybody was home. So they didn't last very long. But Archway is good cookie, and I'm looking it up right now. Soft Dutch Coco. That's a classic of Archway. And then they've got oatmeal raisin.

They don't make the molasses cookies. They've got something called windmill cookies, which actually kind of look like your short-bred Lorna Doon cookies. Because Lorna Dunes are basically shortbread, right? Cookies? Yes, yes. And then they've got the iced oatmeal and frosty lemon. and raspberry filled, so they do have a lot of brands here.

Very good, though. And I'm staring at the box right now, and it's taking all of my willpower not to go back to the box for a third cookie, which would be great. How was your weekend in Bethany? My weekend at Bethany was good. Something that didn't make it so good was

we have a very firm hard mattress at home. It's pretty firm, hard. And I've slept on this bed before at my son's place. It's much softer. I don't know why, but it really affected me slipping. I think I know why. I tell you why, I think I know why, because I didn't have the hard mattress before. We got this like within the last six or eight months.

The mattress at home. Yes. Right. Okay. So you had become used to that way. I've been sleeping on that. Yeah. And now I slept on this very soft bed, but very comfortable mattress.

I slept like a rock. But literally when I woke up, I felt like a rock. Right. Well, you know, I was stiff all over. But it wasn't as, it wasn't as firm. You're saying that it had more. Yeah, it was soft, very soft. Yes.

And it was nice to sleep in until you woke up. And then you're stiff all day. You're trying to recover from that. That's something I hadn't experienced before. I mean, I slept on soft mattresses before, like hotels and stuff like that. Never had that much of an impact that this one did. I mean, I feel fine now. Look, I think a lot of...

But other than that, it was a great weekend. I think a lot of... Well, did you make it out to the beach? in your all-black Johnny Cash attire, including black socks and black shoes? No, no, but we did go for a walk on the beach. It wasn't totally beach weather. It rained on Saturday, and Sunday it was sunny, but not real warm. So we walked on the beach on Sunday.

Okay. It was a pretty uneventful, nice weekend. What did you do? Did you eat at home, or did you go? go out to eat? What about dinners? We went to a lot of places that, you know, my son picked. We went to the restaurant in Rojoviz, where Biden goes, loves to go. It's an Italian restaurant.

Fabito's or Fabito's. Defebos, I think. Fibis. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, we had a great meal there. And Biden was not there, although he was apparently riding his bike near his house over the weekend.

So we missed that. Hopefully people riding beside him. Make sure that, you know, the riding goes smoothly. Okay. Well, good for you. I was going to say about the – let me clear my throat from these oatmeal cookies. I was going to say that mattresses are, you know, because – of the back issues I have had, and I've shared this with everybody before, for those listening

for the first time, I've had multiple lower back surgeries, L5S1, has been the surgery that I've had multiple times. But I, when I, you know, if we're away or if I end up sleeping in another bed for whatever reason, I would say 75% of the time, I wake up and I am stiff as a board and I am hurting. And I know that. And it's funny because I've gotten to the point where when we go away, we're in a hotel or something, I'll actually take to Advil before I go to bed to try to make sure that when I wake up, it's not, you know, as bad as it can be. But, you know, a lot of people have that issue. You know, you get used to your own mattress. And I love my own mattress right now. All right, enough about mattresses. I want to, there's, I have many times. I have many

for today's show. And we're just going to... What? We should get to some show business, though. What's show business? I have some business related to the show that I was going to discuss with you off the air, but I think it might be better if we do it on the air. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, please. Yeah, have it. One is the first week of June, okay, like June 5th, 6th, 6th.

7th, 8th, I can't do the podcast. So you're doing this for everybody to hear. Yes. This is show business. It's boring to everybody, but we're going to spend a few minutes here with your list of, you know, vacation dates. Fifth, sixth, and seventh. Check that. You're good.

That whole week, that week I can't do it, is because I'm going on a road trip with a couple of friends. We did this last year. Wyoming? One of my good friends. No, no, no, no, no. One of my good friends who hosts Bumstock, his wife passed away a few years ago, and he doesn't go out that much anymore. So me and another guy,

we took him on a road trip last year to the baseball hall fame. I remember that. And the boxing hall fame. Well, we're doing one this year. We're going to the rock and roll hall fame. Cleveland. Yeah, we're also going to go to a Cleveland Guardian scheme. And then from there we're going to Canton.

Oh, wow. To the pro football hall fame. And then from there, we're going to Pittsburgh to see the Roberto Comeney Hall fame and then go to a pirate scheme at PNC Park. You better make sure that the mattresses wherever you're sleeping are going to be solid for you and not so soft. That sounds like a Hall of Fame trip. Yeah. Which of those Hall of Fames are you looking forward to most?

Oh, the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. I've been there once. Oh, you have? Yeah. And it reminded me of the museum in its heyday in the sense that I felt like I could spend three days there. I went to the Rock and Roll Hall Fame when I covered baseball on a regular race. basis and was in Cleveland for, I think, a playoff game. So, in fact, I don't know if they still do this, but teams back then, like, used to have

pre-World Series parties, and they would have in places like the Rock and Roll Hall Fame and stuff like that, you know, for media and VIPs and stuff like that. So I've been there a couple of times, but I really enjoy it and looking forward to that. You know, I've never been. It's on my list. I'm going to tell you right now, I've never been to, I don't think, any Hall of Fame. I've never been to Canton. Obviously, that would be my first choice of the sports. Springfield Mass would be my second choice. I would love to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame too. That would be so much fun. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I was going to ask you, isn't the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fairly new? And when I say new, didn't it open? in the 90s? Because I had to go to Cleveland all the time in the 90s, first national supermarkets, finest, which by the way was an Ahol company, same company that owns a giant. But I used to have to go there all the time. And I, for whatever reason, I kind of remember

it being opened up in one of those years, like early to mid-90s. Does that sound right? Yes. Okay. Yes, it sounds right. Absolutely. And then you feel that's pretty good, right? That sounds like a good trip. Oh, yeah. Great trip.

Incredible trip. You don't feel, I'm looking at it, you don't feel like pissed off at me or anything, are you? No, no, those are good trips? These are the things you should be doing at this point in your life. Okay. Well, I'm glad you feel that. By the way, hold on, before you tell me what's coming next in terms of showbiz, I'm looking at the incoming 2023 class into the Hall of Fame.

I don't think they've been inducted yet. It was just announced recently. Oh, wow, a couple of my favorites are on here. Shaka Khan's going in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of my favorite all-time voices. Bernie Taupin's going into the Hall of Fame for the Musical Excellence Award. Don Cornelius, Soul Train. going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But for the performer category, because Shaka Khan and Bernie Topin are going in under something called Musical Excellence Award. The performer categories are Kate Bush, Cheryl Crow, Missy Elliott. I really liked Missy Elliott back in the OTS. George Michael's going into the...

I would have thought he would have already been in, to be honest with you. Willie Nelson, rage against the machine, and the spinners. The spinners! A good 70s. R&B. aren't in the Hall of Fame already. Jake O'Bahn is not in the Hall of Fame. That's absolutely unbelievable.

I know that's one of your favorites. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, the Hall of Fame opened in 95. 95. 95. There you go. I'm pretty sure that I was in Cleveland pretty much when it opened or like on the day,

because I remember that specifically. And I remember thinking, why Cleveland? But whatever. That's been a huge draw to have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame there. You know who else is not in Hall of Fame, which is really absurd. Warren Zvon is not in Hall of Fame. That's a big whiff, more so than Jay Giles. Yeah, that's a huge whiff right there.

So while you're feeling good about that, I'll tell you about the other time missed coming up. Okay. Okay. I'll be out of the country the whole month of August. Where are you going? I'm going to Spain for the month. Oh, that'll be awesome. That's a good trip. So as long as we're getting everything out, let's, you know, I am definitely taking more vacation this summer than I've taken in a while. Now, on occasion, you know. I've heard this. I've heard this song and dance.

so many times before. But first of all, I do have a trip coming up in June. It might be that first week, although we may have to change it now. But, you know, I told you a few weeks ago about Scott's fire. And I don't know if I told you that that following week, actually three days later, we were headed, I was going to be away because I told you. I was going to be away. Remember, I think I had you scheduled to do shows with Tim during that time frame, and I still had you do like one of them. And I took the day off anyway. But we were, We were heading to Paris, Karen and I and Scott and his wife, Stephanie, and that trip obviously got canceled because of the fire.

So it turned into a complete cluster, you know what, because, first of all, for him, they literally did not want to change to give him a voucher. And he's like, unless they could prove that somebody was injured in the fire. This was Air France, by the way. And eventually they got their voucher. For us, though, just being with the people that had the fire and having to change our plans as well, I guess technically we didn't have to change our plans. We didn't get a voucher.

We had to make a change of that reservation 24 hours or actually I think it was 48 hours before we were supposed to take off and change it to another time. pay a change fee, but at least not lose all of our money for that trip. So we ended up, you know, we were kind of winging it and we're like, let's put something in there for June. And if we have to change it again for $75, we'll do that. But we booked a trip to the UK and then from there to Madrid, to Barcelona, excuse me, to Barcelona.

Okay. So, but I don't know if we're going to make that trip because all of a sudden, everybody's kind of gotten busy and there are some issues with health and the family. And so we may end up changing that as well. So who knows? Maybe I'll just be here doing a podcast every day this summer. But my plan is to take some vacation as well. But the whole month of August, so you're going to Spain for a month? We're renting a house. Oh, nice. In this small town called Las Navias, it's about an hour outside of Madrid. It's filled with relatives during the summer from my wife's side of the family.

My wife's mother was born in Spain. So, I mean, she's related to almost half the people in the town. One of her cousins owns one of the two bars in town, which is very convenient. in for me. And basically, there'll be times when the whole family, the whole in-laws side of the family, will be over there, like 14, 15 people. How are you going to do it? How are you going to do with that?

How are you going to do with that? I've shared houses with people before. I know, but it's the in-laws. It's that whole side of the family. You've told me about that before. Yeah, but I'll be in Spain, you know. I mean, it's not like I'm. have a lot to do.

Right. You know? Okay. Anything else? So, no, that's it. So I won't be on the podcast for a month. Well, at least it'll be the slowest month of year. We will have training camp, you know, storylines.

I know. To talk about. I know. And I mentioned on the show yesterday, I did something I've never done before. Doc does it every year, you know, which is he picks out, you know, the undrafted free agents. you know, the youngans, and he picks like one or two of them that he's convinced are going to make the team, and he rides them right up until the final cut when they usually get cut.

But I picked up on something Rivera said on Friday about this guy, Kaz Allen from UCLA. They signed him immediately after the draft as an undrafted free agent. And Tommy, I had him on radio today. So for anybody that wants to hear it, go to the Team 980.com or the Odyssey app, I had Casimir Allen, or as Rivera referred to him, Alan Casimir. Ron messes up names all the time, but whatever. His name is Kaz Allen. He was a running back receiver, kickoff returner. And then in the shrine bowl, he returned punts as well.

and they love them as a returner prospect. But this guy was really good at UCLA overall, but he holds the record, the high school football record, for touchdowns in a season. In his senior season in high school in 2017 out in California, he scored 72 touchdowns. Wow. Oh, my gosh.

72. So I had him on the show today. I really like, like they need a returner. He could, I think he's going to end up being the punt returner and kickoff returner. I think there's a chance that that happens. But I said, how many games did you do that in? And he said, I think it was 12. It might have been 13 after all the playoffs.

But if it's 12, he averaged six touchdowns a game. It was a record that had been held by T.A. McLendon. for 16 years. T.A. McLendan was a high school football player in North Carolina and scored 71 touchdowns in a season and then went on to NC State where he had a really good career, played with Philip Rivers at NC State. And in a very memorable game for Maryland football fans, this was Ralph Regan's third year, 2003. Scott McBrion was the quarterback. Maryland was good. they were playing NC State late in the season in Raleigh. It was Philip Rivers' senior day game at NC State.

And the game was for the second place in the ACC in a bid to the Florida Citrus Bowl, I think it was. No, the Gator Bowl. It was a bid to the Gator Bowl. Because Florida State won the league that year outright. But Maryland missed an extra point. down 2423. Nick Novak, who was the kicker for the Redskins, remember, for a few years, kicked in a lot of different places, missed an extra point. And on the ensuing drive, NC State trying to run out the clock with a 2423 lead, T.A. McClendon, who was the running

back for NC State and a good college running back, and held the record in high school at the time, 71 touchdowns in a season. He got hit in one of the most incredible hits you'll ever see by the perfect name for a hit, Leroy Ambush. Am Bush hit him, he fumbled the ball, Maryland took over, Nick Novak kicked a game-winning field goal in the Terps 1, 26-24. And I remember, I mean, those years, Ralph Friedgen was a hell of a coach. I mean, he's one of my favorite all-time coaches in recent memory. He was so good.

They always were massive overachievers. He never promised anything, by the way. He was Joe Gibbs in college. Man, I don't know. We look terrible during practice this week. I don't know who we're going to play at receiver. Meantime, you know, we got Duke coming in, and the Terps are like a 27-point favorite. We got Duke coming in, and they've been playing well.

I don't know if we can win this game. We need everybody at Bird Stadium. Like, he was the Gibbs of college football for around here. But T.A. McLendon held that record. but 72 touchdowns. His record was, he had eight touchdowns in one game. And that was in a playoff game. He scored eight touchdowns in a game.

And he holds the record. He's like, I think he's 20th on the all-time list with like 130-something career touchdowns. But anyway, during the month of August when you're off, I think there's a possibility that the preseason hero might end up being Kaz Allen. Okay, we worked some sports into this opening segment. That was nice. Yes, so we'll have something to talk about when I get back. Yeah, we'll have a lot to talk about when you get back.

I'm sure we will. I wanted to, I was kidding, we've got more of this first segment to go. So I'm going to play this piece of sound from Ian Rappaport, who was on with Pat McAfee yesterday, and he was talking about the sale, and talking specifically about, you'll hear, about whether or not he believes, based on his discussions with new ownership, if a rebrand will be considered. Here's what he said.

Ian, you think the new owner was going to change it eventually? I asked that to people connected to the new owner, and basically the response was that's not something that's on the table. Like, that's not something that we have discussed. And I, you know, to me it's like all names are kind of, whatever, you know, it's like, if you will use it enough, they start to sound like what the name should be. So I imagine eventually commanders will feel normal, just like eventually the Washington football team felt normal. Look, he's on a show and he's talking about what he thinks. I don't

really give a shit what Ian Rappaport thinks about our team's branding and team branding. We've lived the day to day here. I'm much more interested in what, you know, people here and our fan base thinks. But I wanted to specifically point out something that he said in discussing when he said, you know, it's not something on the table. And then he said, it's not something that they've discussed. Like does, that's completely unbelievable. That's, that can't be true. I can't believe that somebody that's covered the NFL as long as he has said that out loud and then didn't immediately think to himself, well, that can't be true. Of course they've discussed it. I mean, Josh Harris, Mitch Rails, Mark Eyn, all fans of the team, lifelong fans, all locals,

you think that they haven't talked about the brand, the name, and whether or not a rebrand is going to make sense? You know, that kind of comment is from someone who isn't here or hasn't lived the day to day of this franchise like we all have. But beyond that, look, at a minimum, if you are a prospective buyer of the team and you are considering everything and your evaluation of the team and whether or not to make a bid, and then if you are going to make a bid what to bid as you're coming up with the overall value of the team, you better have considered the brand and what it was worth right now and whether or not it potentially could change and be worth even more to what you're purchasing or maybe, you know, be less. But it's something that has obviously been discussed.

And if it hasn't been discussed, let me be the first to say I'm concerned about the new ownership group. Come on. I'm not. You know, this is always been part of the problem with the national means. media and their view from afar of this football team. And in part, some of the local media, too, is nationally they have always treated the Washington football team for the past 20 years like every other NFL franchise, you know, and they operate like an NFL franchise does with NFL franchise issues and have NFL franchise problems and successes, and they've never quite understood that, no, not here. This is different.

Everything is magnified because there's so much of the bad. So everything is magnified. And the name issue, I'm not familiar with Ian Rappapoor's examples of people get used to the name. You know, the name doesn't mean that thing. He keeps saying enough. You get used to it. I'm not familiar with his NFL experience in that field. This is a ridiculous comment. You know, you're right.

I mean, obviously, look, it is it's number three on the list of Washington Commanders' Fans' wish lists versus new ownership. Second is new stadium. Third is new name.

Well, that's your list. I'm going to get to that in a moment because I put a poll out on Twitter and I did phone calls on this, but I want to make one comment on what you said. Even before the dysfunction, even before this organization became all about the aura of dysfunction and wasn't a normal organization, you know, wasn't a normal functioning organization.

The name always made it a little bit different. You know, there was always, you know, outside discussion and people that would come into the market that weren't from here that were very opinionated on the name. And I don't know that even the people that spent a lot of time here ever really understood the emotional attachment to the name and everything associated with that brand. You know, you had to live it, you had to feel it.

It's got to be part of your DNA, your sports rooting DNA. And so I don't even think it has anything to do with the aura of self-destruction. I think it just has to do with, you know, there is a long list of people who, you know, and that list is in the whatever, you know, hundreds of thousands, millions, whatever it is, hundreds of thousands probably now. At one point it was probably in the millions. That this is a major issue to. And not that this.

he's on a radio show and I understand like from afar I do that sometimes too where I understand that I don't know what the people in that market know but I have an opinion anyway and I'll share it and when you're doing what we all do you end up you know sometimes being dead wrong because you're you're missing sort of the the emotion of of that of that topic but you know there are lots of people that aren't just going to get used to it you know. know, after a while. Now, there are people that will get used to it because that does happen a lot. I, you know, I don't have the list of examples, but there are names and things that eventually you're like, yeah, I'm used to it now. I mean, hell, I think people started to get used to

Washington football team after two years. But I put a poll out, all right, and I took calls on the following question. Where is a rebrand, meaning new name, you know, and everything associated with a rebrand, where is it on the list of recommendations that you would make to the new owner? And I gave four, you know, possible answers. It's at the top of your list in terms of what you would recommend. It's high on your list, meaning like top five. It's down or further down the list or it's not on your list at all. So with 2,300 votes in right now, high on the list is 35.5.4.4.4.5.5.4.5.5.5.

That's the leader in the clubhouse. Down the list a bit, further down the list is 24.8%. Top of the list is 20.4%. And not on the list at all is 19.5%. But what that tells you is the people that deeply care about this issue, meaning it's high on the list, if not at the top of their list, that's 55.8% right now. So that is a majority of the people.

and 44.2% or whatever that is right now, I'm looking at the numbers they actually don't add up on the Twitter poll. That's Twitter for you these days. But, you know, less than half of the people think it's not as big of an issue. So this is a big issue. And, you know, this is 2,300 votes of, by the way, most of the people that are voting on one of my Twitter polls are, you know, fairly familiar with the team, I would say, most are.

If not, you know, big time fans of the team or used to be fans of the team. So I might, you don't have an emotional answer to this. You gave your, what you think you would recommend, right? If they came to you, your recommendation would be what again? Well, my first recommendation would be to fire, to fire everybody with any kind of influence in the building. Okay, that would be my first recommendation. To bring in your own team

in the top management levels on the football side and the business side. The second would be, obviously, be to prioritize the, you know, the lobbying for a new stadium. Then my third one would be, you're going to have to change the name. I mean, I think you're right. I mean, I have no horse in this race.

But I recognize the passion that a year, over a year later, that this fan base still has against the team's name now, the commanders. I recognize that that's an issue for a lot of people. Yeah, that's actually an important point because it's not just the people that want the old name back. It's a lot of people that just hate this name and feel like they botched it seven ways. to Sunday, which they kind of did. For me, with a horse in the race, number one, and I talked about this on Saturday's podcast when we did a special podcast after the announcement on Friday

that they had a deal, a signed deal. Number one is you've got to set the course for winning. You know, so that means, you know, by the way, let's also just mention, they can walk and chew gum at the same time. They can be working on all of these things simultaneously and will be. But this is more in terms of prioritizing. You've got to, you've got, winning is the most important thing.

It matters and you've got to figure out whether or not you have the people in the building on both sides of the building that will contribute to winning. To me, it's about time this organization hires a true general manager. and gets out of the way and lets that person do all of the decision-making when it comes to the football operation. So that, to me, is number one in terms of my personal priority. And I would also just emphasize, this is a personal thing. Like, I've seen people lecturing on Twitter about, you know, if the rebrand is anywhere near your top 20. You're not even a real fan.

Shut the fuck up. I mean, but seriously, this is a personal thing. You can't get somebody to feel differently because you're your keyboarding at them. It's so stupid. Of course this is meaningful to a lot of people, and maybe to others it isn't. I don't have any problem with somebody, even a lifelong fan of the team that says, honestly, I don't even care about that anymore. I just want a functioning organization.

with a general manager. I want a new stadium. Let's go win and play some games. I don't have a problem with somebody that feels differently than I do, but it's amazing. I'm convinced it's the same group of people, the same dopes that were screaming at me for absolutely panning the Carson Wentz trade.

And then they're the same people that are convinced that if you're saying anything critical about this Sam Hal situation, well, you're not a fan. Of course he's going to be good. Shut up. For me, the name and the branding is really important. I actually think it's as important as the stadium. It's not as important as winning.

That's the most important thing. Because if you don't chart set the course for the ability to be a competitive, sustained winning franchise, none of this other shit after all we've been through is going to matter anyway. But I think that getting the name right is important. And I don't like this name. I don't like the uniforms. I've said this a million times.

It very much felt like a bit of a death knell for me. And I know a lot of people. I mean, people that said they weren't even expecting to feel that way, like Coolly, like Riggins, said it doesn't even feel like my franchise. And I've said to you and everybody else, 2-22 is when literally it felt to me like, oh my God, this is an expansion team. And it's not my team anymore. So I would like to see Washington as the brand.

Not Washington football team. That was too clunky. FC Washington, Washington, FC, or just Washington. I would also like to see an effort to bring the logo back because the logo wasn't offensive to anybody. This was never an issue with even most of the activists, I don't believe. But if they believe that Native American imagery in any way is a non-starter, that's fine. Keep the W on the helmets. But bring the uniforms back, please.

Bring the uniforms that we've worn for basically my entire lifetime back or some version of it. I think it's important. It's important to me. Now, I'm not closed to the possibility that, in five years, if they're a really good team and I like the coaching staff and I like the ownership because it's my hometown team, that I won't say, all right, I'm used to it. I'm used to the commanders. That might happen.

I'm not discounting that as a possibility because I don't get so, there are things that I dig my heels in on, but I've on this name, as you know, because we've talked about this together for over a decade now. I was always open to if this really is hurtful to a large group of people, let's change it. There just wasn't ever any proof that that was true. I know the old name's not coming back. I understand that. I don't even know that I would advocate that they go down that path because why would you bring controversy into something that you just paid $6 billion for if you don't have to?

You know, it's different when you had the name because it was an 87-year-old brand, and there was a significant risk to losing it, as we've seen, by the way. That was predictable. But I'd like to see just Washington be the brand personally and bring the old uniforms back, and that would be meaningful to me. Not at the same level if I were making the recommendations of, You've got to find a real football person. You've got to turn that person loose.

You've got to empower that person. You've got to give him all the autonomy in the world. And yeah, so that's kind of where I am on this. I'm not surprised that more than half the people list it. I guess for me and my audience are the people on Twitter that follow me that would vote in a poll like this. I'm definitely not surprised. And I understand that, you know, perhaps a lot of people, People are old, not necessarily old, although more likely than not older, but they're hardcore fans that feel like, you know, it didn't have to happen.

And then, oh, by the way, since it did, couldn't we have come up with something a little bit better than commanders, you know? But those that are fans that the new ownership has to win back. No, they don't. Maybe not. Maybe not. Tommy, this is important because I'm not saying that they're not, that they can't do all of these things at the same time. Try to woo the people that have been lost back. But to me, and I talked about this on Saturday's podcast, I think one of the real interesting things to watch with this new group when they take over the team is what is their strategy?

You know, the rebrand stuff will tell you a little bit about their strategy. What is their strategy to build a fan base? because it doesn't have to be build back the fan base. This is a different market now. There are a lot of people, more people in this market that aren't a fan of this team, never were a fan of this team, and they are available to potentially be had,

to be targeted from a customer acquisition standpoint. And by the way, most of those people are younger and have more of what I would call lifetime value to the franchise than people, you know, your age, my age, a little bit younger, who were hardcore fans who have checked out to a certain degree. You know, they'd love to get everybody back. I understand that. But I wonder if they will focus more on the people that aren't so tied to the past because

the past for them was other. through and through, and didn't include any winning. It just included losing. And those people tend to probably be maybe lifetime value more valuable, because they'll be around for a lot longer. I mean, those fans who you think they'll be around longer, so there's a better, worthwhile investment in those people. those fans don't reciprocate with a similar investment back, whereas the hardcore fans do.

Yeah, but if they become hardcore fans, you know, it's the, it's trying. Part of who they are is they don't get hardcore about anything. Well, you're just describing just your opinion of what this younger generation is, you know. I mean, I'm sure what's coming next is they don't even have enough disparate. income to make a difference at this point in their lives, which in some cases, that's true, depending on the actual age demographic. But no, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is.

All I'm telling you is it's going to be interesting to watch because, you know, what Howard said on yesterday's podcast and Howard's close to Mitchell Rails and, you know, is familiar with the people, you know, involved in the Josh Harris group. And there are a couple of people that I'm familiar with as well in this group. And he said that essentially, look, the bottom line with this group is facts. Data is going to drive the decision. If the facts, if the data says rebrand, they'll rebrand. If it says don't rebrand, they won't rebrand.

They're not going to make these decisions based on emotion. And like, you know, like he said, I think the example is if Mitch, if Mitch, if Mitch, comes to the table. Josh Harris says, my wife's always loved the name admirals. And we didn't have it in Philly or Jersey or anybody. We're going to name them the admirals. They're not going to do it that way. But we shall see. But yeah, this is an issue for people.

And those that don't want it, don't think it's an issue, you're stupid. If you don't want it to be an issue, that's your own problem. You know, nobody's lecturing you on the fact that it's not important to you. don't lecture people on it shouldn't be important to them because it's an emotional thing. It's not logical. It's emotional. And you're not going to change what's in the hearts of, you know, people who have rooted for this team forever and in recent years have felt detached from it. Tommy, for all of those years, when all of those people were saying, oh, just get rid of the name and it'll be a financial boon with the new name.

And I always described my experience that I had with Procter and Gamble in particular when I spent much of a year in their branding and marketing area with the company that I had. And they talked about this thing called, you know, consumer emotional detachment. And essentially, like, once you have an established brand and you think about changing it, think again. if it's an established brand with a loyal following and customer base, you will lose big unless you win right away with the new brand. And of course, this one was a big loser with the debut of it. But people became detached even further, even more so than they were. All right.

What else do you have on this? Anything? No, I got nothing else on this. I think we have educated. the populist properly here. Do you want to talk about RG3's reaction to the news on Friday? We'll do that, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky.

Go to mybooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code. Kevin D.C., NBA Western Conference finals tonight, people. Denver's a six-point favorite to beat the Lakers in game one. Tommy, I'm really looking forward to this series. I really hope you watch this series, and we can talk about it on the podcast rather than me just talking to myself about it. You've already said that you love Nicola Yokic and you love his game. And now he's going up against LeBron and Anthony Davis and the Lakers in what should be a really good NBA finals. I don't like the game tonight, by the way, one way or the other. And I don't like the series that much, although I'd lean. Denver for sure. But you can play that game. Tomorrow night's Eastern Conference game won Boston's an eight-point favorite.

The Boston win, by the way, over the 76ers cost Doc Rivers his job today. That is not a surprise to me at all. I thought both of those teams were horrifically coached during that series. But my bookie allows you to cash in and cash out quickly too. What that means is once you've made your deposit, it, let's call it $500. Once you've wagered that, even in one bet or in an aggregate number of bets, you're eligible to cash out.

Most sites don't let you do that. MyBooky does. Go to my bookie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. Are you going to watch the NBA Western Conference Finals? It's 8.30 tonight. Good start time for the game. I'm not going to be able to watch it because I have a commitment.

The commitment is that. I'll be at the Georgetown AMC. I will be moderating a discussion about the movie. It ain't over. It's a documentary that's making a debut around the country this week about Yogi Berra. Oh. And it was produced by his granddaughter, Lindsay Bearer. And after the film, I'm going to be moderating a question-and-answer session with the

crowd with Lindsay Barra and the director of the film Sean Mullen. So I have a lot of fun. Yes. It is. I know. I mean, you know, people don't, I mean, people don't, I mean, people don't realize the story of Yogi Berra in the sense that he was one of the greatest, the biggest winner. You've told me this so many times.

It's history. Yeah. And his personality overshadowed that. I mean, he became the biggest ad man on Madison Avenue. He sold everything. And it was just because everyone liked Yogi Berra. And he didn't go out of his way to seek any of it. Wow.

And that's what he's known for now. Instead of the fact, he won 10 World Series as a player, and went to the Hall fame as one of the greatest kickers. of all time. He really was, wasn't he? Oh my God. Yeah. He's one of the greatest players of his time. He won three MVP's. Yeah. 18 All-Star games. He's also been quoted many times

over the years. See, that's what I mean. That has overshadowed the athletic accomplishments. So I won't be watching. So I won't be watching. your little NBA playoff game. Well, many will be. John Orand had in his sports business journal that the Lakers Warriors game on Friday night was the most watched NBA conference

semifinal game in 12 years, dating back to the Lakers and Mavericks back in 2011. John was on with me on Friday on the radio show and said these NBA playoffs are through the roof, ratings-wise. It does not surprise me. me, they've been great. And one of the things is they've been unpredictable. You know, you don't have the lock, you know, Cleveland, we're going to see Cleveland Golden State in the finals. So what's the point of watching up until then? By the way, real quickly, before we get to the

RG3 thing, what did you make of the NFL and NBC slash peacock making people pay for a playoff game this coming January. A playoff game, January 13th, Wild Card Weekend, the Saturday night game, will be streamed on Peacock. You'll have to pay either commit to $4.95 a month with Peacock, or pay $49.95 for the year to watch an NFL playoff game. Is it Peacock or Peacock Plus? I think it's just Peacock, isn't it? Okay, well, I already get, Peacock just popped up on my net, on my TV once. Well, you have to pay for it. I have to pay for it. You're going to have to pay for it.

Really? Yeah. You know, when Peacock launched just a few years ago, they launched Tommy with the office. Because they purchased the office rights and it left Netflix and it's now on Peacock. And that was their big, you know, draw is we've got the office. office on Peacock. So you know what there, do you know what Paca, NBC's paying for paying the NFL for this one game to be streamed? Have you seen this? No. $110 million for this one game to be streamed.

And so, look, the, the Amazon games last year still drew $8, 9, 10 million, much less than, you know, know, Thursday night football when it was on cable. But if you, for a playoff game, you're going to get 5 million people to commit to, you know, basically between 50 and 60 bucks a year. It's going to more than pay for itself. Yeah, you know, I mean, on the surface, you know, it appears very selfish, a money grab, All of these things, because the NFL doesn't need the money. They don't have to go out of their way to be charging their fans to watch their playoff games.

On the other hand, somebody had to be the first, you know? And it's ironic, it's surprising that the NFL is doing this because they don't like being the first. They like to have somebody else make the jump and see how it turns out, and they'll say, okay, now we'll do it. but somebody, I mean, this is, if you believe in streaming, this is the inevitability of the future. So, you know, the NFL could have said, no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to have our fans put up with that, but then they might get left in the dust. And that's not like the way they like to do business. I'm actually surprised by it, but I shouldn't be because we've seen a push towards streaming.

I mean, the Thursday night football games, you know, are on Amazon. on Prime. But these playoff games have been sacred for, you know, football fans for really almost pop culture in this country. Like, there is a time of year, and it's January through the Super Bowl, and it's like

it's the NFL playoffs. And, you know, they've added, you know, they added two playoff teams, you know, one to each conference, and that, you know, created the triple header, or I'm sorry, the six games on Wild Card weekend. And they do two on Saturday, three triple header on

Sunday in the game on Monday night. I mean, the anticipation last year for that Dallas-Tampa Bay playoff game on Monday night football was huge. But it's always been available. You know, it's always been free. I have Peacock. If I didn't, I would certainly be paying for it for an NFL playoff game. Absolutely.

I can't imagine many NFL fans are going to let a playoff game on a cold January night in most places in this country. where, you know, it's mid-January, it's freezing, you're not doing anything, and you're going to sit there and, what, follow the game on your phone, you know, they're going to make a mint on this thing. This is going to be the biggest draw ever to Peacock. But, and I hope it's not, I mean, it probably is, but I hope we're not sitting here 10 years from now where you've got to pay basically for almost everything.

If you're in the local markets, by the way, of the teams that are in the game, you'll get the game free on NBC, your local NBC affiliate. So, you know, for Washington fans, Sam Hal should have them in one of those wildcard games. Maybe it'll be the peacock game. All right. So actually, I'm thinking about this. You were on with me Thursday, and then the news came Friday about this sale being, final. So why don't you give me your thoughts on that before we pay, before we play the RG3 reaction to it? Well, you know, it's funny. I didn't seem to get as excited as some other

people did. Not as much as I, you know, excited about from a news value as other people did, because I thought, you know, this had already been announced for all intents and purposes with the with the agreement and principle. I know these things fall apart, but they already drove down a road where they really couldn't turn around and go the other way I felt. So, I mean, the initial,

the initial announcement to me was a much bigger deal than this was. And that was my reaction, kind of. You know, I felt that this, with inevitable, the day that Jim Ursay walked out of the owner's meetings

and tried Dan Snyder publicly to reporters. I thought there was no turning back after that. I knew it would be a bumpy road, but I thought the inevitable result would be Dan Snyder would not be the owner of the team. Yeah, I think...

So it was almost an anti-climatic view from May. But I can understand people's concerns about their insecurity about, you know, Snyder doing something to screw the deal up. That's legitimate fear. That's legitimate concerns.

I get that. I, you know, I don't, I disagree with you, but I understand because I've been talking about how when we finally get the official official, which, by the way, still is an official official until the league approves it, it'll feel a little anticlimactic because we've kind of been worn down by the process

and all of the reporting and, you know, the, you know, everything that's since Bank, like the real stunner was Bank of America, you know, and the announcement that the team had retained Bank of America. It's funny, I don't know why I've been doing this, but I played, I think I played one of the soundbites that I found from Snyder on this show yesterday and the day before. But I, I've watched some Snyder interviews from back in the day when he would do interviews. and I don't know why I'm doing this, but I've been doing it, and I found that he wasn't that bad of an interview. Like, he really wasn't that, you know, terrible as an interview.

In fact, I mean, I remember telling Larry Michael once, like this would have been 2006, 2007, telling Larry, you guys should let him do more. And he said, no, he doesn't want to do more. And then eventually he became really uncomfortable. And then a recluse. Like he became, he had huge anxiety over doing it. I mean, we remember happy Thanksgiving on the day that Ron Rivera was announced.

But the reason I bring that up is I found in looking for the various things, watching some of his interviews from way in the past, I stumbled across the night this past season when Al Michaels was calling Thursday. Day Night Football with Kirk Herb Street in Chicago when Washington was playing Chicago. And Al Michaels basically laid it down for everybody. And this was before the Bank of America. And I remember on the show, and I think the two of us talked about it, because Al Michaels basically said, the league wants him to sell the team.

This is what they desperately want. And he said that during the game when they showed a picture of Snyder sitting up in a soldier field, you know, a suite with Jason Wright, and I forget who else was there with him. And Al Michaels, for Al Michaels to say that, he had to feel pretty comfortable saying that, you know, and that was obviously what they really, you know, wanted all along. By the way, I'm remembering now, in addition to the fact that we did the show on Thursday, we didn't do it. We did the show on Wednesday. Because you did Monday and Wednesday last week, and you haven't said anything today. It would have been the first thing that I would have said

to you. You haven't said anything about me getting three right on my mock schedule, including the season opener against Arizona. I congratulated you on social media. You know I'm not paying attention to that. Of course you weren't paying attention. Well, I can't help that. Jesus. Yeah. I mean, do you really think I wrote like on the problem? of my hand and didn't wash it for the last five days. Kevin Mock's schedule results. Whoopee. You know what I do when I want to say something to you, whatever it is. I put it into my phone and I have it remind me 15 minutes before we're supposed to start recording the podcast together. That's what I do. And you know what's in here today? Make sure you talk to Tommy about Saturday

night's four hour delay. Now that isn't something personal, but you know, to you, like a compliment or whatever, but that's what I do. I would have thought with my mock schedule, given how complimentary you've been of the mock schedule over the years, that would have been something that you would have written in the palm of your hand. Don't forget, Tuesday, remember to say on the podcast, not through social media, wow, that was a hell of a mock schedule this year. Tommy, I'm retiring. I'm retiring the mock schedule. It's over. I got three right. I got the season opener right. First time ever I've got the season opener right. I'm done. Everybody's doing a mock schedule. I just did my last one. You know what? I think you're right. Go out on top. Why not?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's put. And let them beg. Let them beg for more. Let's play what RG3's reaction was. By the way, this is another thing. this was in my phone as well. This was for yesterday, though, when I started planning the next day, save RG3 for Tommy, which, by the way, I think I said on the podcast, I'm saving the RG3 discussion for Tommy.

But this was Robert Griffin III on ESPN Friday when the news came down that Snyder and the Harris Group had a signed, sealed, and delivered deal. Our G3, as a person who was once the face of this franchise, what's your reaction to this news? Oh my gosh, Field, yes, yes, yes, come on, man.

Listen, the fans, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, let me calm down. The fans have been waiting for this moment for, it feels like a decade. Yeah, decades since he played just about. Look, it's kind of true, actually. That's the last time the fan base was really excited. So what you didn't see if you haven't seen it you were just listening to it is the fist pumping. I mean, the pumping his fists.

Just so excited. Like, literally, like he was a fan his whole life of the team. And finally, Dan, that terrible, terrible toxic owner is gone. And yet, Griffin was so tied to Dan Snyder. This is so embarrassing. This was my response on social media. I didn't see it. And using the words that the announcer, I don't know who the guy's name was, you know, used to RG3.

As a person who once used commander's owner Dan Snyder yacht to go on his honeymoon, dot, dot, dot, dot. That was my response. I thought we weren't supposed to talk about that. I don't know who you're talking about. I never made any vow not to talk to anybody about that. Okay. You know. Why?

Well, because there were some people that were worried that it was a bit of a circumvention of the salary cap. Yeah. At the time. I mean, there's got. 11 years ago. There's got to be a statute of limitations on salary cap violations, right? Yeah. Yeah.

That's 11 years ago. I think it's safe. I think it should be safe. Yeah. Look, I mean, is it. anybody really surprised. I mean, this is someone who lacks so much self-awareness and is delusional about his time here. Nobody really wants him. Like, just that idea that he put out a few weeks ago about maybe being a part of the Harris group, I mean, that would be another one. Like, if the

Harris group actually included him in part of the deal, and clearly they didn't, we've seen the list of people, that would be a total. total swing and a miss on understanding what the fan base would want. I think, you know, on one hand, I want to go back to what I said way back then, and it's no longer applicable. But he was a young person, and he had been entitled all along, and he went to the worst owner in the league to be a young and entitled star. because Dan was a star effer his whole ownership time.

And so this was going to be the latest in the line of people that he wanted to be his pal. But my God, I mean, he entitled him, he empowered him. Griffin had, you know, according to everybody that was there at the time, you know, privileges that other players didn't have. And ultimately, you know, Snyder picked him over Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, and Matt Lafleur, to name a few. And I've said this a million times over the years. It's so ironic.

But my God, if somebody in his life had said, don't let Mike go. He's the best thing for you. Kyle is the best thing for you. Matt Lafleur, all of these people are really, really good for your career. They'll get the most out of you. But no, it was, you know, it was go catch. your dream, you know, no pressure, no diamonds, light you up, work hard, stay humble.

You know, it was get rid of him and let me go trademark as many hashtags as I can. I don't think the self-centered attitude can be chalked up to maturity. Even back then, I just don't think it can. There are plenty of young quarterbacks who recognize the value of leading their teammates, not alienating them. You know, plenty of young quarterbacks. Most, I think, recognize that. Coming. Once you've reached the NFL, even as a rookie,

you've already experienced that in college and the importance of that. And he just didn't care because it wasn't about him. No. There's actually some somewhat breaking news. And we're going to take a break and come back and we're going to talk about it next. It deals with Josh Harris and a document that Harris put together titled The Commanders Investment Opportunity, and it was labeled privileged and confidential. But apparently Seth Wickersham and John Kime, I guess, have seen it.

So this may reveal some of what Josh Harris is thinking. We'll get to that because quite honestly, that's much more important than RG3's reaction to this. Right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, there is a story that we want to talk about here in the final segment of the show. But before we get to that, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, on a beautiful day like today, and if you're at work in downtown D.C. Or you're visiting one of the great many museums down in Smithsonian, and you're looking to take a break and just watch the world go by, head over to Shelley's backroom, 1331 S Street, Northwest.

Buy a cigar from the helpful staff there, sit outside, and they're a beautiful outside seating area. They're on S Street and enjoy life because that's what this day kind of is. This is a cigar kind of day. Okay, it's a day of celebration when you have weather like this, and there'll be more days to come like this. The place to be then is at Shelly's backroom. I'm telling you, the outside seating area is so cool at Shelly's backroom, sometimes for who you see sitting out there, but also just to relax and watch. If you like people watching, it's a great place to do that.

D.C. is a great place to watch people from all walks of life walking by, and Shelly's makes it easy and affordable to do that with a great menu. of food and an excellent menu of the best cigars that you could find anywhere. Shelly's back room, 1331 F. Street Northwest in the district, the home of Monday nights, May 22nd, Cigars and Curveballs Fundraiser for the D.C. Grays. Yep. From 6 to 8 p.m. You can buy tickets. Go to D.C.grays.com. I will be there for Tommy's event on Monday night as well.

All right, so what broke as we were recording this podcast is a story by Seth Wickersham and John Kime, ESPN.com. And Tommy, you've read it now and I've read it now. So here's what I would say sort of the big takeaways from this story are. Number one is that because Josh Harris, unlike the Walton group, couldn't just write a check for the team, he needed to raise money. needed to find partners. He actually developed his own prospectus. Rather than using the prospectus that the team put out, he developed a prospectus around the purchase of the team.

And in that, there are two big items highlighted. I've not read the Harris prospectus that his co-investors and people that he's co-investors and people that he pitched to become a part of the deal got to see. But ESPN obtained it. And what they've written about, the two big takeaways for me are, number one, this idea that Josh Harris pitched to his co-investors that the financials as they exist now will totally change once Dan Snyder is gone. There will be a windfall of revenue once Dan Snyder is gone.

This is something that we've kind of all understood. The number one stumbling block to revenue, whether it was ticket sales or corporate sponsorships or any of the, what let's just call it, the other revenue after you get your 132nd of media revenue. I mean, Jason Wright's been out publicly saying, you know, on CNBC a couple of weeks ago, look, once our former customers and former season ticket holders got win that Snyder might be gone, immediately, you know, we were open for business again. So this is a big part of what he pitched to his co-investors. Last year, the commanders generated $173 million in local revenue.

Okay, that's, you know, tickets, sponsorships, parking, other things. In his estimates, he projects that number will more than double within 10 years to 380 million. and could hit $466 million that year if the team opens its new stadium. So, you know, that again is local revenue. That doesn't count the media revenue, which is, you know, the big chunk of revenue that NFL teams have. So that's takeaway number one, that he basically presented the opportunity as this is a, we're buying something at rock bottom. And once we acquire it, doing nothing, just the,

old owner being gone, we're going to see immediate revenue and significant media, significant revenue increases immediately. The second thing that came out of this is Virginia as a stadium target location. I'll read from the paragraph. The commanders think Virginia will quote, offer the best incentive package potentially up to 1.5, billion dollars for a new home. The sum would nearly double the American record of 750 million in public funds the state of Nevada put towards the Raiders Stadium in 2017. So this was a big part of the prospectus in talking about what without Snyder, what Josh Harris believes Virginia would be willing to do for a new stadium. Now, they do say,

in the prospectus that other opportunities are FedEx Field Site and RFK as potential locations. But Virginia is the one that he highlights and predicts that they will offer the best incentives for a new stadium up to $1.5 billion. No specific location in Virginia, Tommy, unless I missed it, is mentioned in this story. What did I miss? that the commander still owe a billion dollars to the NFL? Did we know that? Yeah, but it's unclear as to whether that's something that they owe.

I think that's the Snyder loan that Snyder's going to have to pay off. That's what I think. It doesn't say that in the story. Let me read from because there is a line in that. Where is that part? Do you see where that part is? I'm looking for it right now. Here it is.

The prospectus also shows the commanders owe $1 billion to the NFL, but the document does not detail the terms of the debt. I think it's the Snyder debt that he borrowed from the league to pay off the minority shareholders, Schar, Smith, and Rothman. Okay. And maybe there's more in there, too. Because remember, they waived the debt limit. to allow him to buy out those minority shareholders,

which, by the way, he got a really good deal on. But anyway, so I don't... Another thing is, and the other thing is, this document is dated March of 2023. Right. And the story says there's a number of versions that have been produced of this document throughout the bid process.

Yeah. That's not unusual. with, you know, that kind of prospectus is that, you know, as things change or you learn more, you got to go in and make certain changes to, you know, especially things like numbers. And maybe there are other things they learned as they went through due diligence. But it's unusual, at least according to this story, for somebody who is buying the team to then turn around and rather than just handing the prospectus that Bank of America put together, for the commanders, for the Snyders, and handing that to prospective investors, he put a whole

pitch together by himself, which, by the way, it's so interesting to me because I think Snyder's best pitch for the best possible price would have been to say to all of the prospective bidders, hey, once I'm gone, everything's going to change. I'm the problem. But I guess the prospectus didn't say that. So Josh Harris had to say that. Yeah. I doubt if Stan Snyder would approve of a perspective, even to make money that says,

when I'm gone, you're going to make a lot of money. Right. You know, I doubt if he would do that. Look, you know my feelings about Virginia. I mean, in 20131, that's three governors away. Yeah. Well, that's the other thing.

That's what they're talking about of a new state. Yeah. Yeah. But that's the other thing is it's not 2028 anymore. It's 2031. I mean, we're talking about, you know, and actually there's something in here that says it's actually could be a decade before a new stadium opens because he can't write the check himself. Right. And he also is in the process of fighting, like I talked about, to get in a new arena built in Philly.

For his other sports team, the 76ers, which is run into its old shoes. of difficulty. I mean, really, it's, I can't believe that anybody familiar with the history of the politics, particularly on this issue, actually thinks that Virginia would be a viable option. In particular, as we have both had a good laugh about, the possible locations of a stadium in Virginia. I think that what's not mentioned in here, but I'm going to assume, is they're talking about Loudon. They're not talking about

Dumfries. Like you said early on, the league is not going to let them move to Dumfries. Like, no offense. But they're not letting them move to dump freeze or down to, you know, whatever county that is, Stafford County or whatever. Now, Loudon County

is a bit different, especially with the Silver line now, all the way out to Loudoun County, right? Or no. I get that. I get that. Yes, it is. It's a little bit different. But philosophically, like I said they leave Maryland or the district, they're going to lose a lot of this fan pace. I mean, people have, since 1937, people from Virginia have driven across the river to come see this football team play.

Now you're going to ask people on the other side to do the same thing. I don't think they're going to be so willing to do it. I just think Virginia is a non-starter. It's a pipe dream, and it's a state that has never done anything like this before, say for Amazon headquarters in Arlington. This is an Amazon's headquarters we're talking about here. The path of lease resistance where I still think they're going to wind up is right next to FedEx field. and it's a little bit bothersome that this perspective would put this Virginia thing out there,

except only as a carrot that they know won't happen. I mean, who would write a perspective like this? You know, I mean, Josh Harris himself would obviously, he has bankers write something like that, and they're going to put the rosiest, you know, picture out. These things are sales documents, of course. Right. They read the Washington Post. They read the stories about Virginia offered this and that,

and they don't either know or care about any of politics involved in it. Right. So, look at this. The state offered the Redskins, the commanders, when even Snyder was the owner, this amount of money, plop it in there, cut and paste it, baby. I would love to see this 43-page document titled Commander's Investment Opportunity. I would love to see that document and read through that document. I, you know, what's not in here, well, first of all, one thing that is in here is something that Kaplan, Dan Kaplan from The Athletic told me last week on the radio show, I think.

but I think Howard disagrees with, which is that this is basically based on the structure of the bid, this is the only team that Harris would be able to buy because there's this paragraph in here. Because Harris, whose net worth is $7.6 billion, according to Bloomberg billionaires index, I didn't know there was a Bloomberg billionaire's index. He needed help to assemble a $6 billion plus bid. recruited at least a dozen others, including NBA legend Magic Johnson, to buy a stake in the team. The move adds risks. Owners have wondered, if the commanders were to sink into financial trouble, what reserves does Harris have to fix it?

But in league circles, it's not as risky as continuing to have Snyder involved in the NFL. Several league and ownership sources have said that if not for the disdain for Snyder, there's no way owners would approve the Harris bid. Now, I've had people tell me that that's not true and that they have the wherewithal, especially after they land the team, to do a lot of things that they'd want to do. And, you know, the limit... For what I know about Mitchell Rails, he could easily be the majority partner in this if he wanted to. Right.

He has the financial wherewithal, maybe even more than Josh Harris, to be the majority partner. in this if he chose to. So between him and Harris and the others, I find it difficult that their bid would be that shaky. You know, I, um, I, yeah, look, if it were really, really shaky, you see, the, the problem with this is that just there weren't, you know, and I talked about this, there just weren't a lot of suitors for this deal. Bezos didn't want it, whether he, it may have been because he was excluded from the process early on. Apostolopolis and Tillman Fertita's bids, the Fertita bid was less than Harris.

I mean, this is the surprise about this process is that there weren't people lined up to buy this team because $6 billion per everybody I've talked to was at least a billion dollars more than what it was really worth. But, you know, but this group really wanted it. And it was personal to them too because of, this being their team and their hometown. There's a quote in here from a couple of quotes from Jason Wright,

not for this story, but they're older quotes. And, you know, Wickersham and Kime Wright, those sources who spoke to ESPN on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of these circumstances and the confidentiality of the prospectus, believe what Harris argues, believe what Harris argues in the document, that a quick rebound for the team is within, reach due to a large base of fans who love the team but hate Snyder.

Look, this is obvious to all of us. We've known this forever. And then they've got it to sentiment shared at the top levels of the commanders. The Snyders knew the business side would get much better on the other side of this. They're not dumb, said Team President Jason right back in March. I mean, it's amazing how direct. And we talked about this last week. He's not wrong.

And I said it last week. He's not wrong. but I don't know, it would be hard for anybody as long as you're still working for that person to essentially say, look, the business side's going to get much better on the other side of this once they're gone. You know, anybody looking at this, they're not dumb. You know what's funny? You know what it's like?

It's like Don King bringing one fighter into the ring and then stepping up. over him when he's on the canvas. Exactly. And going home with the other fighter. He did that a lot. That's exactly what it's like. Yes. All right.

Anyway, okay. So, you know, more on this maybe tomorrow or the next day. But, oh, what isn't in here? What's, you know, somewhat obvious based on its absence is at least, according to the story, there's nothing in here about the name. Now, I bet that in that perspective, I bet that that is such a sensitive issue. That's being discussed among the, you know, Rails and Harris and Eyn and Magic. You know, no need to like alarm everybody about, hey, we're going to have to, you know, ditch this current name and go with something else.

But again, I'm not saying that that's what they believe at all. I'm just saying that what Howard said, and I trust Howard on this, they're going to let the facts and the data drive the decision. And if they have figured out, which wasn't hard, that this is a good purchase because immediately the business is going to turn around just because there's a new owner and the old owner is gone. They understand that, you know, right now on my poll, 57% of the people say that this is a top five issue or higher. Okay. What else? Oh, I might want to point out. Yeah. I might want to point out that's not in the story, but I think front office sports reported it that Magic Johnson has already met with Maryland Governor Westmore. Yeah, I know. They did report that last week. Yes. Yes. We'll save the Nats conversation for Thursday. And I'm also going to make a note of that. I'm going to switch my reminder for Thursday to ask you about what happened there. Saturday night. And we'll have a couple of more Nats games. They're playing very well. They crushed the match yesterday. You know what? What? I don't know what happened Saturday night. I wasn't there. Okay. Well, then you know what? Covered. I watched the movie Air. I forgot to mention

this on yesterday's podcast. You know the movie I'm talking about, right? The Michael Jordan. Oh, yeah. I've heard nothing, but great reviews about it. Oh, great movie. Even from people I know who don't care a lick about sports. It's such a good movie with an absolute all story. Well, it's free right now on Amazon. They made it free over the weekend. And it's, you know, I think it's still in theaters. But I mean, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck. By the way, Ben Affleck directed this movie. I think everything Ben Affleck directs is great. Didn't he direct Argo and the town? I think both of those he directed. I don't know. I don't know if he did. He's made some clunkers as an actor, though. As an actor, yes, but not as a director. Jason Bateman's in this. Marlon Mayans is in this. Chris Messina, Chris Tucker is great playing Howard White, who was an early guy at Nike, play basketball. There's a lot of Maryland basketball ties in this. George Ravling, Howard White, you know, David Falk, who I think John Lucas was one of his first

clients. I think he told us that when we did the lunch with a legend years ago. And Anyway, loved the movie. I thought it was great. All right, we are done for the day, Tommy. We're back on Thursday together. Have a good one. Goodbye, boss. Robert Greta, the 3rd, 6 to 6 on the Redskins' first possession.

He fires downfield. He's now seven for seven. The Air Guard war in his NFL career.