The Kevin Sheehan Show - Suspend Reality

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Kevin and Thom today started with mostly non-sports items including the "Rolling Stone Top 100 TV Shows" of all-time list. The boys talked a lot about the Dan Snyder/Jerry Jones picture from Dallas on Sunday. And plenty on Ron Rivera's Monday press conference and the need to suspend yourself from reality when discussing the Washington football franchise. 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 Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here with me today. Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify. We got a review and a five-star rating on Apple from G. Hiker Man.

G. Hiker Man wrote Tommy. I'm a longtime Redskin slash WFT slash commanders fan. and Kevin and Tom fan. I relocated to Illinois two years ago and discovered the podcast a few months ago. I love it. Been listening to you guys from back in the good old days. Finding you guys is like getting some of grandmother's cooking.

You guys make it tolerable even in the bad times. Love listening to your stories. Thanks, guys. Thank you, G. Hiker, man. We are like finding, you know, and being reacquainted with grandmother's cooking. Was your grandmother's cooking good? That's the analogy.

My Italian grandmother was good, good cooking. And my, you know, it's funny, I lived in this apartment house in Brooklyn. Right. And my maternal grandmother lived with us in the apartment when I was growing up. And my father's grandmother, my paternal grandmother, lived one. lived one floor down in the same apartment building. So I had grandmothers all over the place. No grandfathers, though.

Both my grandfathers had died before I was born. I think both of my grandmothers were good cooks. And my grandfather on my mother's side was definitely, I mean, I remember being a kid and him being up at 6.30 in the morning making pancakes for all of us, all of the grandkids. Or, by the way, I remember him, Tommy, taking us to hot shops for breakfast. Cool. You remember hot shops, don't you? I've heard about it.

I mean, when I got here, they were, when I got to town, they were still around, but I never went to one. That was a Marriott. I'm pretty sure that was a Marriott creation. it was a restaurant it wasn't 24-7 because nothing was other than you know a couple of places in town tasty diner obviously being the one in Bethesda that we you know were in many many times rarely if ever sober at 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning eating whatever they served and it's still there by the way even with you know I don't know if you're familiar with that area of Bethesda where Marriott just built built their new headquarters in Bethesda.

You know, it's right next to Woodmont Grill, which is right next to a Tasty Diner. You know the area that I'm talking about, right? Yes, I do. Woodmont Avenue right around there. Well, Tasty Diner, I believe this is true, was offered an unbelievable amount of money by Marriott for their property, and they refused. And so they're still there and sort of Marriott built around both Woodmont Grill and Tasty Diner in Bethesda. And they're, the headquarters, the new Marriott headquarters, which have always

been in Bethesda, for those of you that don't know, Marriott's worldwide headquarters have always been, it's always been in Bethesda, Maryland. And they used to be way out, like on Furn, off of Fernwood Road in that area, and they moved into downtown Bethesda. And over the last year and a half, two years, they've been building this incredible new, you know, corporate headquarters. There's also a new hotel as well. But why were we talking about this? Oh, I'm pretty sure that Hot Shops was a Marriott creation. There was a Hot Shops restaurant, Tommy, which had, you know, yes, it was a Hot Shops creation. I'm looking it up right now. It was a Marriott creation. They also had something when I was a kid called Hot Shop Jr., which was a fast food restaurant.

And it was located, the original one was located where the McDonald's is on River Road in Bethesda, which after Hot Shop Jr. closed down, it became Roy Rogers and then eventually became the McDonald's that is there. And by the way, I think I've mentioned this before, but I think that that McDonald's is one of the highest grossing revenue McDonald's restaurants in the country. I think someone told me that like a few years back. But hot chops was great, and my grandfather took us to hot shops all the time for breakfast, like on Saturday mornings. I remember that. Anyway, okay. How did we get started on this?

Oh, Grandmother's cooking. Thank you for the review. Grandmother's cooking. Thank you for the review, G. Hiker Man. Give us five stars. Write a quick short review telling Apple and others how much you like the podcast. It's a big help when you do that. And we appreciate it. So you sent me your column.

We can talk about that. You also sent me this Rolling Stone ranking of the top 100 television shows of all time. Now, I opened it, and it's not, you know, the top 100 comedies or the top 100 dramas. It's just the top 100 television shows, period, which includes, like, news shows and game shows. and, you know, all of, any kind of show. Yeah. Talk shows. Exactly.

Any kind of show that's ever been on television, they ranked them one through 100. So before I looked at this list, I want to tell you that I guessed that it would either be the Sopranos or Breaking Bad, because every single list I've ever seen of the best television shows of all time, it seems to be in some order, right? Breaking Bad or Sopranos. And on this list, also the wire. There's a lot of lists that put the wire at number one.

I haven't seen the wire at number one on these lists, but it's a consistent top five as it was here. It was number four on this list. Breaking Bad was three. The Simpsons was two and the Sopranos was one. And of course, I haven't seen the wire. But the Sopranos and Breaking Bad are certainly. there at the top, very top of my list, which I would also include, as you know, Game of Thrones

in terms of television shows. And I think that came in at like 20-something or somewhere around that. My big gripe, my big gripe with it. Well, I've got several, one thing I was glad to see that they included the odd couple on the list. It should be higher than 97. But at least that they included it on the list, I thought for sure it would be forgotten because it was such a great sitcom. And they also, they didn't have CoJack. Cojack is not on the list, or at least that I could see. Was Rockford Files? The shows that you and I both really love, you know, both of us love, and Rockford Files is one of them. Was that on the list? I didn't look at the whole top 100. You know, I have to re-look at it just to make sure. I can't fathom Rockford Files isn't in here

somewhere. It takes a long time to go through the 100 TV shows. I'm starting at 100 right now. I'm scrolling. Oh, Rockford Files comes right up. 93. Number 93 on the list. That should be higher. That should be higher. Much higher. Here's my biggest gripe.

Hill Street Blues is number 38. Hill Street Blues is the greatest drama in network TV history. I mean, everything else is second place. not TV history, but network television history. I mean, it changed television. Dramatic program that changed television, and it's certainly higher.

It's a top 10 TV show of all time. You know, I never watched Till Street Blues. I'll tell you the show in the same genre that I really liked, and I have no idea if it's on this list or not, was NYPD Blue. I really liked NYPD Blue. I thought that that was an excellent show. be on the list somewhere. It was a great show made by the same people. Yes. Now I, I, I, so I looked, you had sent me just a link to the top 50, so, but, but it's got links from here to

the top 100. I'm looking through the top 50, you know, you and I do share in common a lot of shows that we both really like, and then some that I think you've completely missed on, and the number one show that I haven't watched yet, which I think is your all-time favorite, certainly up there is the wire. But let me just tell you a major gripe that I have. The office, the U.S. version of the office comes in at 34, actually ahead of the British version of the office, which I think is 40-something on this list. And I would, you know, forever, and I've told you this a million times, the British office

was the reason that I didn't even give the U.S. office a shot. I was very pretentious when it came to that because I think the British, the two seasons of Ricky Jervais's British office is one of the greatest shows of all time. I don't think as much as I love the U.S. office, I don't think it's better than the two seasons of the British office. So that's gripe number one. Gripe number two is, how do you put, honestly, parks and recreation in front of the office? You don't. You don't, is the answer.

That's ridiculous. And the fact that Game of Thrones actually comes in at 31 is a joke, a total joke. Now, I'm not sitting here telling you that, you know, in the annals of great television shows, that it should be in front of the Sopranos or Breaking Bad or the wire, which I haven't seen, because they're often all sort of compared together. But that's really, I've seen a lot of these kinds of lists, and usually it is smack dab somewhere between number five and 10. Worst case.

And let me just tell you the show that I've never watched that every one of my friends says, there's several of them that they say, this came in at number 15. the Larry Sanders show I never really watched with Gary Shandling Yeah brilliant Brilliant I've heard it's brilliant

I was glad to see that rank so high Yeah I mean it's just I mean Rip Torn Is an unforgettable Right Figure in that show As Artie, the producer

Yes It's great I've seen episodes But never sat down And really consumed it By the way The Americans Which I was all over

From the jump in 2013 when it came out. Came in at 14. That's actually surprising to me. I think it's a really great show. I did not realize that, you know, I would have thought it would have been somewhere in the top, you know, somewhere from 50 to 100,

came in at 14. And then Veep, which may be one of the most underrated funny shows of all time because Julia Louis Dreyfus and that whole ensemble cast was so brilliant. That came in at 13, which I was happy to see. Because I think it deserves something like that. There were shows... But it shouldn't be ahead of Hill Street, Bluth. I like Vieth a lot, but it shouldn't be ahead of Hill Street Blues for crying out loud.

You think Mary Tyler Moore at 10 is right? And do you think that should be in front of all in the family? Yeah, I do. I think all the family should be higher, but I think that it is in this rating. I forget what it's rated, but I thought it was low. but Mary Tower Moore should be the top 10. All in the family is at 21. All of the shows that aired on CBS

when I was a young, young child that I would stay up and watch on Saturday nights on CBS. The lineup was all in the family, followed by the Jefferson's eventually, but I think it was MASH at first. And I never really watched MASH. But then it was Mary Tyler Moore,

Newhart and Carol Burnett. All of those shows, shows are in the top 100. You know how in the 80s NBC dominated with the Cosby show and family ties and cheers. Like that was the dominant night and NBC owned it in the 80s. Well, in the 70s, the CBS lineup of All in the Family, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, which is hysterically funny. And then the Carol Burnett show, all of those shows are in the top 100. and all in the family came in 21, if you were wondering. I think you just asked where it came in.

Came in at 21, and the Mary Tyler Moore Show came at 10. And that was a funny-ass show. Brilliant characters. Another brilliant ensemble cast. Cheers came in at 8. I love it. Cheers is a great show. Great show.

I'm okay with that being into top 10. I never watched and still haven't watched Mad Men. That came in at 7. Seinfeld at 6. I think that's way, way, way overrated, madman. Way overrated. Well, you're the first person that's ever said it's overrated. Yes.

Seinfeld at six. Flea bag, which I am not familiar with, came in at five. That's ridiculous. I tried watching two episodes of that show, and I said, this is garbage. I said, Jesus, I could write a TV show better than it. Unbelievable. The Wire for. Unbelievable.

Breaking Bad 3, The Simpsons. Do you know what? I never really got into The Simpsons. Neither did I, but I understand how good it can be. Yes. No, I've watched. There's an HBO show that's ranked higher than I would have thought. I'm going to guess. Don't say it.

Don't say it. I know what you're going to say. The leftovers. Yes. I did watch that. It was interesting and pretty good, but this is ranked way higher than I think it should have been right. Although it was interesting. I mean, the whole concept of the people left behind from this, from 20% of the population just disappearing.

Yeah, doomsday. From the face of the earth, you know? I mean, watching those, that behavior was really interesting, but I was tired of it by the third season. I think it really was a one-season show that lasted three years. So, you know, I thought it was too high, but I really enjoyed the leftovers, too. Is a true detective on here anywhere? I don't know. You know, I only watched season one.

Well, that's the only one. That's the only one that's great. Yeah. Season two could have been worse, and season three was okay. But season one was so good. Let me give you a show that is really, really hysterically funny, and I'm really pleased to see it. I'm surprised it's this high. It was a very short run.

I want to say there were two seasons, maybe three. Freaks and Geeks. Did you ever watch that show, which was a Judd Apatow show? Yeah, right pretty high. It's ranked 24th. I'm shocked at that. I think it's one of those shows that TV critics loved, that never really gained much traction. But if my memory serves me correctly, Jason Siegel, Seth Rogen, guys like that were early, you know, before they ever became anybody, were in that show.

It was a very funny show. I'm just looking through the list here. Better Call Saul came in at 32. I'm almost done. I've got like three episodes. to go in season five. Or I'm also almost caught up. I like Better Call Saul.

I don't think it's... I'm rewatching. I know, you told me that. It's not as good as Breaking Bad, but it's a great concept to do the prequel of this. Yes. One of the things I've found in rewatching it is like in that last season, I didn't understand why Kim was so willing to stick with him.

to kneecap Howard. Oh, yeah. She was the one, she was more into it than Jimmy. Well, she becomes, that whole thing. She becomes caught up in Jimmy's games. I mean, it's a rush for her.

Oh, I know. I know, but she really wanted Howard more than Jimmy did. And I didn't understand that. And I have forgotten, like, in the beginning, how much animosity, how much she hated Howard in the beginning of the show, and how much conflict they had. So now I understand, like, the end, why she was so willing to do this scam on Howard. Well, don't tell me, you know, anymore.

I'm still four episodes short of finishing up season five. I mean, she's obviously left and taken, you know, the Mesa Verde account with her to the new firm. But I, Kim's a great character. Do you know, I know we've talked about this, that Irman Trout, is from here. You interviewed, you know, you interviewed Jonathan Banks. And she is from the area. She went to George Mason University. I didn't know that. I thought I told you that recently. Pretty sure I did. Well, I don't remember everything you tell me. That's true. Also, let me just tell you, this is a show that so many people have said, and my wife included, is up there on the list of the

greatest comedies of all time, and I've never, I've watched episodes here and there if it's been on. I never watched Arrested Development, but I've heard it is so brilliant. Yeah, neither have I. Yeah, Hill Street, Blue's 38. So I'm not, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 39, a little bit underrated for Curb. Okay. Succession is way up there. I think it came in at 11. I know. I don't. I know. That's ridiculous. It's an okay series. Yeah, I didn't, I haven't watched it. I told you, I watched like the first couple episodes, and I was like, it's good. You know, I need to focus in on one thing at a time.

Here's something that's not on this list, since it's a new list. Is Stranger Things on this list? I didn't see it. It's got, how can stranger things not be on this list? It's got to be, right? You're right. It's got to be somewhere. I'm now down into the 80s.

It's always sunny in Philadelphia. Did you watch that show? Never watched that either. A couple of episodes. My son loves it. He thinks it's the best show ever, and so I've watched some of the episodes. Very funny. Stranger Things has to be on the list here.

Is Marty Miller on the list? Barney Miller has to be on that list. That was a great show. NYPD Blue, by the way, 67. It's so hard to read this list on my computer. Where is it? 67 NYPD Blue. Oh, okay.

That should be higher. You can't tell me that Stranger Things isn't on this list. It was really, really good. And we've got more coming. But I don't see it yet. We need to put together our own list. Yeah, but you've seen so much more than I have. And I don't know that I would be willing to rely on your judgment completely.

That's pretty pathetic. You know, that's almost like saying that Carson Wentzel played a full season for this football team. Oh, I was thinking about that. You know what I said yesterday? I'll tell you what I said yesterday. We're going to spend some time, obviously, on the commanders in their great season so far. Oh, my God. I don't see stranger things on here. That's stupid. Come on. That's really... This squid game that everybody tells me to watch is... Yeah, it just came out.

The squid game... Yeah, no, this is recent. You sent it to me. Yeah, this just came out. I know. Oh, Tommy. It's ridiculous. Tommy.

Did you ever see or watch news radio? Yes, I liked it. It's number 94. I wouldn't... I wouldn't put it among my top sitcoms, my top 10 sitcoms. 90... Well, it's 94 here. Taxi was.

was better. Taxi's got to be in here somewhere. Yeah, taxis. I haven't seen it. I would assume the taxes. I like news radio. I thought the characters were fun. Oh, wow. Band of... And I had a crush on more at Terny. Yeah. Band of Brothers is on here. What a great series that was. I still contend that the Pacific was actually better than Band of Brothers, but they're both so good. Um, yeah. I mean, I can't believe that I don't see stranger things on here.

I don't see it in the top 100. And I just binge that this summer and thought it was so good. Okay. Enough of that, I guess. Taxi 60, Tommy. Taxi 60. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Go look it up yourself. The Rolling Stone countdown of the top 100 greatest shows of all time. There you go. What, oh, I know what I wanted to say before we get to Washington. The rest of the league people is actually really interesting this year. There have been a lot of great games. There have been a lot of interesting moments.

You know, the defending champs, the Rams have really looked super average so far. But I would remind everybody that, you know, last year it didn't look great for them at times. Last year they got off to a great start. Then they really faltered, you know, as you went into. like late November, December. They had lost like three in a row or four in a row. But they got it together in the postseason and they ended up winning the Super Bowl. I still think the Rams will be there as a playoff team when all of a sudden done. But I got to tell you what, watching the 49ers and watching their defense and their pass rush

in particular. And it's just so much fun to watch the likes of Nick Bosa and, you know, and guys that can really run like Fred Warner and then Greenlaw. Like these, they are dominant defensively. And Garapolo, he looked terrible Sunday night against Denver. He looked like Jimmy G. last night. He wasn't great, but he was good enough. And, you know, they've lost a bunch of running backs, but this guy, Wilson, is super quick.

And with that defense, they certainly have a chance to, you know, be there at the end in the NFC. They won last night. The whole NFC West is two and two. All he's got to do is keep the offensive float. He doesn't have to have a great offense. He just needs to have a decent offense. Yeah. With that defense.

I was watching some of the ESPN pregame stuff, and I tweeted the following out because they did a piece with Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur all sitting there, and this is something that we have revisited many, times in recent years, so it's not like it's news. And I tweeted out, not that anyone needs a reminder, but very little speaks to the incompetence of this shit show of an organization, then Kyle McVe, LaFleurr and the godfather, Mike Shanahan, all being in the building at the same time and the owner's saying, no thanks. And, you know, people said, well, what about Mike McDaniel?

What about Kevin O'Connell? Yeah, well, Mike McDaniel at the time was, I mean, I've told the story. you and I were sitting doing the show, and I ended up to, Mike had been listening to the show, and I ended up having a 30 to 45 minute conversation, had no idea who he was, and I ended up, you know, running into Mike, and I said, who's that guy? And he said, oh, he's going to be, he's going to be something else down the road. He is so smart. And he was, and he was smart and interesting. But anyway, it's still, it's still every time I think about anybody that has the gall, to say, well, you know, it's not like he's coaching the team. It's not like, you know, he's quarterbacking the team.

The owner can only do so much. Whenever I hear that, which you don't hear very much anymore, he had all of those talents in the building. And I'm not saying that you could have envisioned Sean McVeigh becoming what he was or Matt LaFleurr or Mike McDaniel. But you had, you know, to me, a Hall of Fame coach, even though he did not get voted in the senior committee this time. I think Michael will eventually, Tommy, he should, given his coaching tree,

I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. What gets held against Mike, by the way, is that the two Super Bowls, John Elway was the quarterback. Okay. Well, you could say that about a lot of the coaches, except for Gibbs, that they had really great quarterbacks. But it's just so aggravating, you know, running Marty Schottenheimer off. you know, having somebody like take your job that is really good and knows what he's doing

and is hiring really competent people that, by the way, could be around in your organization for years to come. Like Kyle could have ended up being the head coach once Mike retired. And he could have kept some of these really good young assistants that he's kept and have moved on in San Francisco, Mike McDaniel, Sala, etc. But no, our dumb, dumb owner, decides that they're not treating his star quarterback the way he wants. So see everybody. Now, McVeigh wasn't that high up at that point.

He was basically like the tight ends coach, even though Kyle knew he was a talent. And so McVeigh stayed because he got the OC job. But it's just really so frustrating. And this is why I've said, as many of you have said, it's certainly not a big reveal. it'll never happen as long as Skipper Dan, as Tommy calls him, as Skipper Dan owns the team. They're just too dumb. Anyway, everybody reminding me, don't forget Mike McDaniel, don't forget this guy, don't forget that guy.

I mean, it was really incredible what they had in the building from 2010 through 2013. It really is. Okay. Do you want to get to some commanders talk next, including what Ron Rivera said at his presser? Yesterday was quite an interesting presser. Tommy had a column writing what he thought, that picture from Dallas with Dan and Tanya and Jason and Jera revealed. We'll get to all of that. And a lot more, I'm sure, beginning right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Well, we have a new sponsor on the show, and this new sponsor is sponsoring Tommy's appearances on this podcast twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tommy, tell us about our good friends down at Shelley's back room.

This makes me so happy. I mean, this is literally like my parents saying, we're going to sponsor you on the broadcast. I mean, Shelly's is my home away from home. I'm there a lot. I'll be there this Thursday night after I teach my class at Georgetown, and I look forward to seeing all of you there to say hello. And it's just such a comfortable place. I mean, it's one thing. It's the only place in town where you can enjoy a cigar and have a nice drink. And you can do it in really a comfortable setting.

They've got these great soft couches and chairs and. And they've got great soft lighting, and it's just a beautiful atmosphere. And the one thing that really, and I've made it great, is they've got a state-of-vety-art ventilation system that combines smoke removal and fresh air every 90 seconds and odor control. They're not a smoke-filled room. It's the opposite. I've taken my wife there a number of times, and she's very sensitive to smoke. and she commented about, you know, how great the atmosphere was and how she enjoyed it. What she also enjoyed was the great food.

Yeah. I mean, they have a really good menu at Shelly's, and they serve it a late-night menu as well. So if you're looking for a place to go after you've been out on the town to get something to eat, you know, come by Shelly's. It's at 1331 F Street, Northwest, right across from the National Press Club, building on F. F Street. It's, you know, it's my home. What can I say? Everybody knows that. Yeah, I mean, I have obviously been down there several times because of Tommy. You know, that's where his annual events been held. And as you know, Tommy, the Shelley's owner used to be my next-door neighbor

many years ago. And Bob's such a great guy. They've got such a great product down there. You talk about the menu, it's awesome. And I think it's, I'm glad you mentioned that, because not everybody, when they think about cigar bar, they're not thinking perhaps what they're thinking of, which is smoke-filled rooms. That's not what Shelly's is. It never has been that. They've got, you know, as Tommy said, a state-of-the-art ventilation system that, you know, constantly removes the smoke. And it's also just a great crowd down there. It is a lot of Tommy's crowd down there, which is so much fun. So go check out Shelly's 13th and F Street. By the way, plenty of parking everywhere right around there.

So it's really easy. But we are glad to welcome on Shelley's backroom as Tommy's sponsor on the podcast here twice a week. All right. Speaking of the crowd, let me just do one thing. Speaking of the crowd, recently it was not unusual to see Dennis Rodman there. I remember you telling me that. daughter played for the local women's soccer team. That's right.

The spirit. So Dennis was there quite often and very nice to the people who would come up and talk to him. Mike Rizzo. I was just going to say. It's not as usual to see Nationalist GM Mike Rizzo there. A lot of NBA players, a lot of baseball players. They'll stop in visiting players after a game for a cigar. So you can see some celebrities there at time besides me.

Besides you. Okay, before we get to the Rivera Presser yesterday, which was very interesting, go ahead and give me your whole take on that lovely picture of Dan and Tanya and Jason and Jerry on the field before the game on Sunday. Well, that was not an accident. That was not a coincidence that this is the first time that Dan Snyder's, Skipper Dan has been. been seen on a football field so far this year. I mean, he poses for a picture with Jerry. That was not for his scrapbook, like I said. That was a purposeful moment to send a signal to all those anonymous NFL owners that are talking to the Washington Post about the idea of ousting Skipper Dan.

Jerry was there with Dan, and that picture said, Dan isn't going anywhere because Jerry's got my back. And I think that's true. I mean, Jerry Jones is, not that it couldn't change, but right now, Jerry Jones is one of the most powerful owners in the NFL. And if he doesn't want Dan Snyder to go, Dan Snyder's not going. Let's not, simple with that. That's fine. Let's not forget. And Zabe reminded me this morning on radio because he came on with me that both of these gentlemen, Jerry in particular, you know, they tried to move on Roger Goodell and got shut down by the rest of the owners. They wanted Goodell out. And so we can talk about Jerry being the almighty and powerful. But, you know, it's not like he gets everything he wants in that league.

No. It's true. He doesn't get everything he wants, but he's the guy who brought them into the 21st century when it came to television. I mean, the whole Fox thing wouldn't have happened without Jerry Jones. Right. Your line where you basically refer to Skimper. Dan is Jerry's pool boy is pretty funny. And it's true, too. You know, you're probably right. And by the way, this picture got tweeted out by the Washington Commander's Twitter account. You know, this is where everybody saw it. I'm not saying that others couldn't have taken that picture, but they took that picture and they sent that out via their Twitter. And let me just mention, because I don't think I mentioned this yesterday

because we really didn't get to it on the podcast yesterday. One of the things that struck me is it certainly looks like Dan's hair. It could be the lighting. It could easily be the lighting. But it looks like it's been colored up a little bit. It looks like there's some blondes, you know, some very, very lightish hair he has.

Secondly, it's, you know, whatever. I'm the last person to talk and should be the last person to talk, But man, Dan's aged. You know, I mean, there's no doubt that the last couple of years have probably been very difficult on them and their family. You know, of course, they want to always be the victims. But remember also, he lost his mother, you know, in the last year. And, man, there are a lot of buttons on that jacket.

I think there are four buttons on that jacket, but it's not, you know, buttoned. But anyway, who am I to give out fashion tips or talk about people? who look like they've aged significantly. Let me just tell you, that game on Sunday, which we'll get to here because you haven't weighed in on it yet, I mean, Greg Olson and Kevin Burkart, who are the number one team for Fox, said it at one point in the game, they said, well, if you're just tuning into the Washington Dallas game and you think that you're on the wrong, you know, channel, no, this is Washington. They're the commanders, and they're wearing all black jerseys.

somebody called this morning on the radio show and said, could they have just worn burgundy, you know, their burgundy jerseys for the Dallas game at least? Do they have to go alt-black? I don't really care, as you know, as much about this, but there was nothing watching that game that made me feel like I used to when Washington played Dallas. Nothing.

It seemed completely foreign to me. The only passion in watching that game was, for me to be right because I gave out Washington plus three. And I also predicted that they would win the game. And so the plus three was the most important thing for me, you know, throughout. And yeah, I mean, it would have been better. Like we always say this. It would be much better if they won than lost.

But I can't count on them ever winning. You know, I can't count on them ever being like legitimately good. We're going to have to drive those ratings on our own. We can't rely on them, but we haven't relied on them. We've only relied on them for the drama and the ugliness. But, you know, I don't know. There was just nothing that said this is like a rivalry game. And it didn't feel like a rivalry all week.

Doc came on the podcast last week and said it's Dallas Week. And I said, no, it isn't. It's not Dallas Week. Stop doing that. And he didn't really believe it either. And so all of that is over, people. It's all over. You know, it just is. It's sad, but it's been, it's been coming. It's not like this was jarring.

You know, what the Colts, what Colt fans went through in 1983 or 1984, that was horrible, horrible. But at this point, let's make sure we're clear on this. I would pay for him to relocate the team. I would pay for the vans to pull up, the Mayflower trucks to pull up. in Ashburn and for him to take this team to St. Louis. It would be the greatest thing of all time. You know, understanding that we're going to get an expansion team right away and stay in the NFC East, take your commanders, take your shit show, and move it to St. Louis or London.

I don't care. I would pay for that. Like real money. We could raise a lot of money to, Not to buy the team, obviously. That's too much money. But to convince him that it would be in his best interest, or be in the city's best interest,

for him to take the team and move it. It's just, it's really, uh, whatever. I don't, he deprived, he deprived an entire city. He took away. He essentially took away. I don't want to use the verb stole because that's almost, too harsh, but he took something from this city that was so sacred. So sacred. Yeah. And just seeing, you know, you talked, go ahead. You talked about, you talked about the cults,

and here's the difference. That was a quick death for those cult fans. Okay. Then they walked around like zombies for 12 years and then got a new team. Uh, but this for Washington fans has been a slow, painful death, you know, like, like water torture, torture over the years. to what it's become now. This is why I said, and you pretty much alluded to it, if you were a Washington Redskins fan growing up, this is not your team. They're not your team.

No. You know? I mean, the last straw, whether you agree or disagree with the name, the last straw was dropping the name. Definitely. I mean, to me, that would have said, okay, you know, they're not my team anymore. I mean, if they were really good, or if they had been consistently, or if they weren't an embarrassment in every other way,

then I think you could swallow the name change more, but it was just, just, I mean, one more insult to the injury of rooting for this team. So if you grew up with this team, this isn't them. And they're not going to be until this guy is gone. the other thing that I was going to say is I understand what your thought is with respect to this picture and why they put it out there you know it's sort of dan's hey steer clear because jerry's my boy but I think that the and I'm not about to pick on the social media team out in Nashburn or the sales team you know what you did to that poor girl two weeks ago or whatever was ridiculous. They have to generate interest. Their jobs, you know, depend on generating some interest and some followers, you know, some follows and some likes.

But I would recommend to them that none of their social media, none of their sales paraphernalia, their sales material should ever include the actual picture of the owner. It's sorry, and I'm not saying this with respect to physical. appearance at all. The mere presence, the mere mention of his name is repulsive to this community. It generates a lot of anger. And so when you put that out on social media, you're going to see what the responses are. And they do a lot. And I understand, and I feel for some of these young people that are putting these tweets out that don't have sort of the background to understand what the backlash will be. But, I mean, you know, the

responses to any mention of Dan or any picture of Dan, it's not going to be positive, just so you understand. You know, first message, rivalry is dead, redskins are defunct. Second message, I'm just here for the replies to this picture. You know, and it just goes on and on and on. One of the pictures, one guy tweeted out with the picture, Jerry looks like he's being held hostage by these people. And yes, somebody did write, Dan with blonde hair. It does look like he's got blonde hair. It could be the lighting.

I don't know. And God bless him. I mean, I don't, you know, whatever he wants to do. But I would not, if I were in that social media department, which I never would, I would certainly take chances with positive things about the team and players. Even after losses, you've got to try to stay positive. And I understand that. But I would have a fast and hard rule that we do not tweet out anything with

the owner's picture on it, period. In fact, we don't tweet out anything with the mention of the owner. But this was a message photo. This was probably on orders to go out. Maybe. Yeah. I would suspect it was. They wanted this picture spread far and wide.

Speaking of their social media, I thought this was a little bit interesting. When their social media account tweeted out the final square. score, it was in a picture, it said 25 to 10, they lost. And very prominently, right in the middle of the photo, is a picture of Carson Wentz. Not just any picture, but a picture of Wentz. It was almost like, this is why we lost right here. Oh, I'm looking at that. Final from Dallas, 2510. They're just showing the, they're showing the Washington huddle breaking with Wents, you know, breaking out of the huddle.

I mean, clearly most prominent in the picture. Yeah. Okay, so... I'm sure they didn't even think about it, but that's the message I got. So what was your... So give me your reaction to the game. Give me your thoughts on the game on Sunday, because I have not heard them and you and I haven't talked. Well, I've got to tell you, I've been surprised now for a few, for a couple weeks at how the lack of competitiveness. I really am.

I mean, I thought the Eagles game would be more competitive. I think the Dallas game would be more competitive. I'm just stunned at how inept they are, sometimes on defense, although they weren't this week, except in moments. You know, for the most part, defensively, they turned in a performance that Voodoo Jack could be proud of. But they seem just like inept, you know, with no direction and no passion. And no panic. And no anything.

They just seem like an opponent. Well, there's panic. There's panic from the quarterback and from the offense. Oh, yeah. I call that fear. I call that fear as much as panic. It's just that they're like a non-combatant. Now, I think that could change this week.

I mean, Tennessee's not that good. You know, they should be able to be Tennessee at home. Fatten and Frogs for Snakes, as coach would say. They've won two games in a row, and they should be three and one. And they're very well coached. And by the way, Derek Henry probably chomping at the bit to face. Although, look, the Washington defense has done a great job against the run two weeks. Yes, they have.

Outstanding job against two running teams. But, yeah, no, Tennessee. you know, gave up that lead and lost to a two-point conversion to the Giants. They've won two in a row over the Raiders and the Colts, and, you know, there are two-and-a-half-point favorite. Why they're only a two-and-a-half-point favorite? I don't know. Same reason I'll give you as to why the Cowboys were only a three-point favorite last week. Three-point favorite, yeah.

Because the odds makers actually believe Washington has a chance. By the way, let me just mention real quickly. You know, there were several stories written about how Sunday was the first NFL losing Sunday for the sports books. And my smell test did win for the week. It was five and four, but I was one and three on my NFL picks because the public really did well on Sunday, led by the number one team that the public played on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys.

And the Cowboys covering was hurtful to the house. Now, nothing ever really hurts the house badly because they went on all the prop bets and all the teasers and parley's. But, you know, they love when they get beat by the public. love to put out stories. They love for that to be written because it's then, then it entices more people to start gambling. Oh, the public, they're about to get onto a roll here. And the number one public bet, and I told you the guys this on Friday, the number one public side on Sunday, actually the whole weekend was Dallas. And that's why I liked Washington a lot. And I also,

by the way, used some reasoning, which I don't always do with the smell test. I really thought Washington would not come out and lay another, you know, stinker of an egg game, which they didn't in many ways. It was not the Philadelphia game. Philadelphia was a non-competitive, no-chanceance. This game was 15 to 10 going into the fourth quarter. And, you know, they had a 7 to 6 first half lead at one point. But, you know, like I mentioned Tommy all day. yesterday on the show. Everything they did offensively, I actually thought was the right plan, but it is very limiting. And that leads me to this before we get to the Rivera thing. So I mentioned yesterday that one of the frustrating moments for me was, you know, Sunday I was into it

because I wanted them to cover and win because I, you know, at this point now, it's about, you know, being right. And so they had followed the script that kind of I had laid out Friday. Cooley laid the same kind of script out on Saturday. They had to be, they couldn't become one dimensional. Scott Turner did a poor job against Philadelphia. You cannot drop the quarterback, the quarterback back over and over again with that offensive line in front of them, which is a terrible offensive line right now in pass protection. And a quarterback who gets incredibly skittish when there's pressure. So you've got to come up with a more conservative game plan. You've got to try to run the football. You've got to get the ball out of his hands on bubbles and screens, which they did.

But they kept committing penalties that really derailed them in their first three drives. But what really, and I mentioned this yesterday, the start of the second half, you could see Dallas saying, we got run on in the first half to the tune of 7.2 yards per carry. I mean, Washington rushed for over 100 yards in the first half against that cowboy defense, which you were. She is exceptional, exceptional. Yes. And so they came out and Dallas really loaded up the box, really got aggressive. And Washington didn't have a counter for it.

And I said yesterday, do they not have audibles? Do they not have the check with me's? You know, the can, can, cans, the kill, kill, kills that you see every quarterback screaming when they audible at the line of scrimmage to get out of the first play called and get to the second one? and I didn't, you know, I still don't know this for sure, but I started to think about it more after the show yesterday, and then I started to kind of look at some of the games so far. I didn't look at all of them.

But try to think. Has anybody seen Carson Wentz go to the line of scrimmage and start, you know, ordering stuff around? Kill, kill, kill. You know, 52's the mic. And do what, by the way, Cooper Rush was doing, for the game, many times during the game. And so I am wondering if, and by the way, I don't think this would be,

I don't think the reason would be because Carson Wentz isn't capable of doing that. We've seen him do that before. But think about this for a moment. He was in the same system in Philadelphia and in Indianapolis with Frank Reich, who would come from Philadelphia and Doug Peterson. And this year is a whole new system. You know, you can see the flip card on his wrist, you know, he's got, and he's looking at it every time he steps into the huddle. Is it possible that to keep it simple for the time being, they've also limited themselves to a certain degree by not allowing him to change the play, not calling two plays in the huddle with, you know, a can, can, can.

When you hear that with all the Shanahan people, that can means we're canning the first play going to the second play, as coolly explained to us many years ago. when you hear San Francisco and the Rams and the Packers scream can, can, can, they've called two plays in the huddle, and they've canned the first one. They're going to the second one that was called. Well, we have not seen, I don't think we've seen it. I could be wrong. And I also will concede that it's very possible that he's not the only quarterback that, you know, isn't able to change the play at the line of scrimmage. And maybe for a lot of quarterbacks with new systems, it takes a while. And you know, I'll, that's possible too.

But at the same time, if it's true, it is limiting them because they ran into an eight to nine man box for minus two on that first drive. Now, they ended up picking up a first down, but still, you know, if you're looking for other reasons as to why the offense may be struggling a little bit, they may be limited in what they can run right now. Now, Scott Turner again, I gave him credit for coming out with. the game plan that actually gave me a chance. You know, it gave them, you know, a small chance Sunday. They had to, they couldn't have all the self-inflicted mistakes, 11 penalties, 136 yards. But, you know, they were there, you know, at 12 to 7 with the ball twice in the third quarter. But they kept making mistakes.

And then, I don't know, that's something just to keep an eye on. And the other thing I wanted to mention is this. This is, by the way, across the board offensively, and everybody issue. You know, it's not just an offensive line issue. I had a coach who I respect very much in the area saying, and I know that he was a Wentz fan. You know, he was very high on Wentz, you know, after the trade,

thought it would work out. And he has told me, you know, the last two weeks, this offensive line is horrendous. They're getting into his vision with interior pass rush, et cetera, et cetera, which, by the way, is true. but it's also true that Carson Wentz can't handle pressure. No, he can't. I've said this from the beginning.

He needs a clean pocket, and there isn't a clean pocket. And you know, you heard Ron Rivera yesterday, and they've got injuries and more injuries to come. Sam Cosmey's injured. Okay, he could be out for a few weeks, it looks like. You've got, you know, you were on your third center on Sunday. They bench Trey Turner, I mean, mercifully. I mean, he was horrendous. He was a turnstile for two straight weeks.

How they even thought about putting him out there again, you know, to start the game on Sunday is beyond me. You know, you've got to cut bait sometimes when you know you have somebody out there that should not be out there. But this is an everybody issue. It's not just an O-line issue. It's not just a Scott Turner issue, although I put a lot of it on Scott Turner against Philly. And Logan Paulson was on with me. yesterday, and he puts a lot of it on Turner as well. And it's not just a Carson-Wenst issue. They're all culpable for what's happened here. But I do think that it starts with you've got to get

a better pass protection up front set up because you've got a quarterback that needs a clean pocket to throw from. His inaccuracy Sunday was embarrassingly awful. I mean, that was a bigger story to me than even, you know, the sacks and the pressures, which, you know, weren't numerous like they were the week before because of the game plan. It wasn't because the O-Line did a much better job pass-protecting. It's because they didn't have to pass-protect for that long because they didn't drop them back and pure drop-back as much as they did the week before. I also want to mention, yeah, let me just mention this one other thing, and then I want you to respond. I also just want everybody to know, and I'm not defending the organization right now. They're a bad

football team as I talked about yesterday. Three of the four teams that they have faced in their first four games are all in the top six in the football outsider's DVOA defensive metric. Okay, Philadelphia is the third best defense in the league. Dallas is the fifth best defense in the league so far, and Jacksonville is number six. Now, it's a small sample size, but we know what our eyes tell us. Dallas's defense is nasty and good. Philly is really good, too.

I actually think Dallas's defense is better, a little bit better. Logan Paulson agreed with me on that as well. Jacksonville, through four games, has the number six defense in the league, and Washington was the one team that actually put up a lot of points against them. I guess Philly put up 29, Washington put up 28. But it won't be that brutal all year long facing Dallas. Well, they're going to face Dallas and Philly again. You know, they're going to face the Packers.

That's a good defensive team. They're going to face the 49ers, an awesome defensive team. So there are some of the- Giants twice. Yeah, the Giants, I think, are definitely improved on defense. Let me see where they are. Yeah. Well, they're down there 24th right now.

Where's Tennessee? Tennessee is 21st, Chicago. Yeah, they're not that good. 18th. Well, I mean, as of now, I mean, look at the players. Like, Green Bay 17th. Green Bay can be very good defensively. So, I mean, I don't, anyway, there's just a lot going on.

I don't know if it's fixable. I'm not about to suggest it's fixable. I don't know what the solutions are, especially along the offensive line, because they're getting more injured by the day. And they didn't plan for this. You know, they ate the $28 million and they didn't do anything other than bring in two retreads to play guards for two guys who were really good last year in Sheriff and Flowers. And Eric Flowers.

Look, this is part of the problem. When you constantly have to rebuild and retool with new coaches and new front office people, you don't have time to build depth. You make draft along the way some quality starters like a Jahan Dotson and people like that. But you don't have the time to build up the depth. And this is where they constantly, when the injuries, start piling up, and they're no different than any other NFL team in dealing with injuries, they never have the depth to basically help them get through it.

So that's, with the injuries right now, they're going to get killed as a result of that. That's really going to kill them moving forward. The limitations that you talked about are the limitations you have when you have a bad backup quarterback as your starter. And that's what Carson Wentz is right now. Yeah, he's not good right now. He's a bad backup quarterback. Okay, let's go through Philadelphia.

Okay, he's not better than Jane Hurtz, is he? No. No. He's not better than Gardner Minshew, is he? I like Gardner Minshu. No, I think Gardner Minshu was one of the top three or four backups in the late. Okay. Okay.

He's not better than Dak Prescott, is he? Nope. He's not better than Cooper Rush, is he? I don't know. I think if he were the quarterback in Dallas with that offensive line, with that defense, with, you know, the running backs. I don't know. I mean, come on. I mean, are we going to get really excited?

I think Cooper Rush actually is looked good. Don't get me wrong. And I think, by the way, Dallas, let me just say, add this in here. I want you to continue down the path you're going. Dallas, I think, you know, Kellyn Moore's learned something these last three weeks because the way they have protected him by being balanced. by using play action, you know, is really, to me, the best thing that they should be, the best way to play DAC, too, because DAC's not an elite quarterback. DAC needs, you know, the run game and to be able to throw with some play action and some boot,

etc. But go ahead. I don't know about Cooperution. My point is two of your NFC East Division rivals have backup quarterbacks that are better than your starter. Okay. Yeah. He is, at this point of his career, a backup quarterback. He has little mobility other than when he takes off to run,

and that's pretty much a straight line. He seems to have lost the idea of stepping up in the pocket. His move is to step back further and further and fall back. There was one point in the game where he stepped up and completed a pass, which is the right move in a situation like that. But he's seeing his NFL career disappear back there. He's not watching a game get lost. He's watching the end of his career.

I mean, this is it for him. I can't disagree with you on that. And I got to tell you, Washington would have been a lot more competitive in that game against the Cowboys, I think, is Taylor Heinege had been the quarterback. Stop. No. He moves around, Kevin.

He literally runs the ball. That pass rush would not have been as teed off and severe if Taylor Heineke is behind center. And you know what? It's going to happen. Right. Well, It's going to happen. Let me remind you that his last two games against the Cowboys, okay, including the game when everybody was healthy and everybody was there,

okay, which was the game that they played after the four-game winning streak, he had a 5.9 QBR and was sacked four times and hit, hold on 11 times in the game he was let me point out hold on let me let me finish he wasn't the weapons that the weapons that he has available to him now are much better than the weapons he had available to him at the end of last year well now I'm not talking about the end I'm talking about the cowboy game after the four game winning streak there was no Logan Thomas there was no McKissick understood okay um both of those players there was no Johan dotson either no and there was no Curtis No Curtis Samuel either. That's pretty big right there. Those four players, pretty big on the offense. Yeah, but they actually were better along the offensive line in front of him for that first Dallas game. So, and he was, he was horrendous. He wasn't even, he was, he was, it was, it was the,

it was the game where I said to myself, I think I'd said it earlier, you know, after the Denver game, the end of that Denver game was, was really, really bad. But it was the game in which I said, okay, they just, I mean, I'd said it earlier, even before the four-game winning streak. The Denver game and the Green Bay games, I think I just said, this is not a starting quarterback in the NFL. So you may say, and you may believe that they would have been better off, that's a separate subject from you think he's a starter in the NFL. He's not. Okay. In my opinion, he's not.

No, I don't think he's a starter. Okay. But I think he is a better option for this. team. Look, the better option for this team this year would have been to put that $28 million in their pocket, draft a quarterback in the first round, go with Taylor Heineke, until there was an opportunity to put your young quarterback in the game. That would have been the better option. Yeah, let's not forget that in that first Dallas game, he was so awful that, and I can't remember right now, and I'm trying to find it.

He was either benched for Kyle Allen, which Kyle Allen then had a chance to get him back into the game after that stupid play by Dak on the pick six to Holcomb. He was dreadful in the game, just awful in that game. And he was awful down the stretch in general. No, I don't know. But he's going to be your quarterback this year. I don't want to see him this year. Let me just tell you what I said yesterday on the podcast. If they lose the next two and it's, you know, again, I think it will be a group effort on offense,

but that Carson can't overcome any of the other stuff. I mean, I think we'll know, some will know for the first time. I think we all know now for sure he's not the quarterback in 2023. Then I want to see Sam Howell. Now, I don't want to see Sam Howe if they, you know, say, look, we'd like to put him out there to see what we have. He's not ready. You know, it's not like he's a first or second round pick where there'd be pressure to put him out there. He's a fifth round pick.

But I know what I know what Taylor Heineke is. I all offseason didn't like the trade and said, Wentz probably is not going to be the long-term guy here. All right, I gave it a chance, wait and see mode. I've seen enough. Yeah, he's not been helped out by anybody, but I've seen enough. His inaccuracy alone, there's no chance. he is your long-term solution.

So at 1 in 5, the season this year in this division is really over. I mean, I know last year, 2 and 6, technically it wasn't. They ran off four games in a row, and they got back to 6 and 6, and they had the big game against Dallas at home, and Heineke laid an egg, complete egg in that game. So I know what Taylor is. I would want to see Sam Howell. I'm all for that.

But they're not going to do that. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think they're going to bench Carson Wentz. Okay. Unless, unless, unless, the reason that you thought as much as performance, you thought it could go south in other ways. And what we were saying after week one,

you know, he's saying, or after week two, he's saying all the right things, you know, or no, after week one, saying all the right things, yeah, but they haven't lost a game yet, right? You know, the two interceptions. Remember the two interceptions? Then he came back with two big time plays. You know, the touchdown pass to Terry,

the touchdown pass to John Dotson to win the game. Two big time drives, two big time throws, actually multiple big time throws, including third down throws early in those drives in the comeback from 22 to 14 down. but let's just, you know, let's just sit back and see what starts to come out if they lose another game or two. Because I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you right now, I am not going to discount the possibility that some of the same stuff that was said in Indy and Philly that it's not going to happen here. Of course it could happen here if they start to lose more.

It might be happening right now. It might be. I'm not telling you that I know anything. I'm just telling you it has gone south with him and others when the seasons have gotten away from them. Let's see what happens here. Then you get into a situation if, you know, others are looking at him where maybe Rivera and companies say, well, we're going to lose the whole locker room if we don't play Taylor Hineke or Sam Hal. That's possible.

That's possible. But you have a quarterback right now that doesn't look like he wants to be out there. I don't know how many people given what's happening up front. There are certainly some quarterbacks and many quarterbacks that would be able to perform much better, clearly. Yes. But of the backup quarterbacks, there aren't a lot. that would excel with what's going on up front right now. It's a shit show up front, a total shit show, especially in the interior.

I think, you know, the run blocking wasn't terrible. Logan pointed that out. But, you know, even Cooley last week going through the sacks and stuff, he prefaced all of what he with, you know, everything with, let me just explain this. It is really bad up front. And then he went through each of the sacks. And by the way, he agrees with you and others. he thought against Philadelphia

would have been better with Heineke in there. I don't agree with that. It might be better, but it wouldn't be tangibly better where like they had a chance to win the game. Not the last two weeks. Maybe I'll feel differently Sunday, although they're going to be facing one of the best interior defensive linemen in the game

in Jeffrey Simmons. Dominant. By the way, as Duran Payne and John Allen have been so far this year. They've been really good. Yes, they have. All right, let's take another quick break, and then we'll come back and we'll finish up with Ron Rivera's presser from yesterday. One quote in particular. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

The last segment of the show today is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And your first deposit will be doubled down on. You'll get a double deposit bonus. You deposit 500 bucks. You'll end up with $1,000 in your account up to a thousand bucks of an initial deposit and you'll get it doubled. You'd have $2,000 in your account if you deposited $1,000. MyBooky is a proven sports book. Makes it very simple to bet. Fair lines, fair pricing. You get paid. And I'm telling you, very few shops right now are offering that incentive of a double deposit bonus. I was looking through some of the MyBooky prop bet updates. Washington's over under total now for the season, six and a half.

Tommy, six and a half, down from eight, right around there. The lowest in the division by far, the Giants are at eight and a half. Dallas is at nine and a half, and Philadelphia's win total for the season is at 12 and a half. Tops in the NFC, by the way. That will be certainly one of the prop bets that I will win this year. I don't know. They got to win 13. I had it, well, no, I had it at, I had it at nine and a half.

So I have got a really good number in Philadelphia. you. Great number. I should hedge it, actually. I should take the under now, 12 and a half and hedge it. But anyway, what do you got? Over six and a half wins for the season, or under six and a half wins? I'm going to say over six and a half still. Really? Yeah. Why? Not much. Well, because I, you know, look, look at the Rams left, as much as I'm dumping on Carson Went, and I don't think he's the quarterback. Matt Stafford had six interceptions this year. Yeah.

There's a lot of guys who are playing bad right now in the league. Okay, so he's not alone in that sense. I just think that you've taught me that it is a week-to-week league, and I think they have the talent, even with the offensive lines. as damage as it is to compete with the Titans and end the win a game this week. You just brought up something like there's been some really good defensive football played here early in the season. And I think we talked about this last week. Scoring going into last weekend was down five points a game. That is a massive difference from a year ago. Now there was a

48-45 game on Sunday between Seattle and Detroit. So I don't know what I didn't really follow. I know the scores of the games, but I don't know if that average went up or down. But, you know, a lot of people, Steve Young talked about it the other night, said it's all about the preseason, the lack of any sort of, you know, cohesion offensively in the preseason. So September essentially acts as like the preseason for a lot of these teams. But there's some really good defense being played early in the season.

And yet, like Tampa's defense was the defense that I thought was, the best that I had seen in the first three weeks, and Mahomes carved them up. Just carved them up last night. So, anyway, six and a half, that means, obviously, they'd have to win six games out of their final 13, so they'd have to go six and seven to get to a seventh win. Six and seven over their final 13 games. I don't know. I mean, I don't know either.

I kind of liked the over and leaned the over at eight, seven and a half eight. Now I'm thinking, I'm not so sure. I think this season, the next two games are a season on the brink. This is it. If you don't, if you lose both of these games, this thing is going to implode. And it will be with the quarterback. It'll be with the coaching staff. It'll be with whatever is left of the fan base, which isn't much.

Ghost Town Field will be legitimately Ghost Town Field with the exception of the cowboy game, which you'll fill it with cowboy fans. It will just be the worst possible scenario for this team. At a time, at a time when they're trying to introduce a new brand. Good luck. So Rivera yesterday's presser was, really interesting, and I watched it last night. I'm going to play two answers. There were a lot of interesting answers, including, by the way,

I just wanted to mention that Brian Robinson Jr. is off that non-football injury list, and now they have 21 days to activate them onto the regular roster. And Rivera actually said he's optimistic about the possibility he might play Sunday against Tennessee. What an incredible story, that is. Yes, absolutely. And good for him. From their standpoint, they talked him up a lot. They've talked him up a lot since they haven't had him.

Like what they're missing without him. Rivera talked a lot about injuries yesterday. He even talked about not having Chase Young and Brian Robinson, Jr. So maybe he is the missing piece to a playoff season. Anyway, it's such a great story. So Rivera was asked a couple of questions by Scott Abraham from Channel 7. And the last of which he asked was how, Ron, you would evaluate yourself and the coaching staff in trying to get this turned around. Here's what Rivera said.

Well, we have a good feel for what we've got to do, Scott. I'm not going to put that type of stuff out there because I don't need people judging and engage it. At the end of the day, what it really comes down to is whether or not we're winning or lose. I'm not going to put that type of stuff out there because I don't need judging and engaging, he said. I mean, God bless him. Bless his heart. Because everybody's judging him and everybody's engaging with him right now. And by the way, the preference would be for even more people to judge and engage, but most people don't give a shit.

So it would be better if they cared more and judged and engaged. Let's remember what Ron Rivera said on the first day of training camp. I'm here to be judged on that, okay? The judgment starts with winning or losing. So he called for people to judge him. All right. Here's the part of the presser yesterday that a lot of people are talking about. He was asked by, I think the guy from Channel 9, Darren,

Darren Haynes. He was asked by Darren Haynes, the guy from Channel 9, if he feels the pressure from the fans, and by the way, the question was phrased where he mentioned Twitter pressure from the fans

on how upset they are with the team. This is a long answer, but listen to this answer from Ron Rivera. A lot of things that I do is not dictated to me by what's out there on social media. I'd like to believe I'm responsible and I understand enough to know, though, that the fans are going to be frustrated. I don't doubt that. I really don't. I understand the history of what's going on here for a while, and we're trying to change that. But it's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to be easy.

If anybody thought it's going to be easy, they're crazy. I honestly tried to get that across last season. But let's just be realistic about it. I get it. I understand it. And we're going to keep playing hard. That's the only thing we can do, Darren, until we get to the situation and to the point where we're We really believe that this is what we need. Everybody's in place. Everybody's healthy. Everything's rolling. You just, it's not going to change.

We're going to continue to work hard and continue to try and mature and grow as a football team. This is going to take time. It's a process. Now, how much time do we have? That's up to you guys. Whatever, whatever, however, and whenever it's looked at. You know, if we can paint a picture of hope, we can paint a picture of growth and development, painted a picture of doing things the right way,

we got a chance. And that's what I'm going to preach with our players. We're going to focus in on what we try to do and what we got to do. Like I said, I understand. I respect their frustrations as fans. I get it. You know, I shoot, I was in Carolina when we showed up there and they were 2 and 14. I heard the frustration.

We worked our butts off to try and get it to where it was. I got here. I understand everybody's frustration, especially how proud this organization is. This organization's got five championships. You fucking kidding me. I get it. I understand how important it is to win.

Okay, but I got to be realistic with what we have and what we're going to do. Now, some of it we can improve on as coaches and get better at, and we have to. There is a sense of urgency that these things have to happen. But they're not going to happen until everything's in place and it's ready to happen. So we've got to continue to work and make sure this is happening. As far as the players are concerned, they've got to continue to grow. They've got to mature. I got to understand what their responsibility in this as well.

So, yeah, we get it and understand it. You know, whether it's the average fan on the street or it's the average fan that's on Twitter, I guess, or social media that wants to gripe. That's great. They're entitled to, but just understand. We understand it. We get it. When you're in this league long enough and been doing it for as long as some of us have, you know that with the downs, things get tough. With the ups, things get happy and everybody's, you know, enjoying life.

So we just have to understand what's at stake, continue to work hard and keep pushing in the same direction. And when it's ready to turn and flip it, well. And we've got to do everything we can in the meantime to try and expedite that. So I told you it was going to be a long quote. And he got pretty emotional in there. He dropped some, you know, expletives on you. And he referenced, you know, all the championships and the fan base and the frustration of the fans. But to me, Tommy, the biggest takeaway I had from watching that last night and seeing, by the way, him be animated in his answer is, you know, you just said on the last answer, he said at the beginning of training camp that he's, you know, it's time to be judged, you know, on winning or losing. He said multiple times during the off season. This is the season that we have to take, and we're expecting to take a big step forward. You know, this is the third year.

It's time to go. This is going to be, you know, he set expectations for the upcoming season when he really didn't have to do it. And what this answer was, for me more than anything else, was he moved the goalposts. He moved him back to, no, no, no, no. We just got here. This is a long process. You know, this is going to be, anybody that thinks that this is going to get fixed, this is going to take time. It's a process, you know, and he said, now, how much time do we have?

Well, that's up to you guys. You know, it's not up to us. And you didn't just get here. And all of the players are your responsibility as well as coaching the team. And you told us during the off season, it's time to be judged and it's a big step forward season. And now you've moved the gold posts and said, no, no, no, no, no. No, this is a process, man. You guys know what this place was.

No, can't do that now. All right? This is go time. He told us this was go time. They took on a $28 million cap hit for a quarterback and didn't restructure them to add pieces because they told us, you know, they got their guy. The owner told the Maryland Gaming Commissioner, we finally got a quarterback.

You know, get excited. Now, you can't do that. Now, I understand he's emotional and he's, you know, feeling it a little bit right now. But, hey, we should be better. And he did say that. And we're not, one in three is a very disappointing start. And you know what?

It's on me. And we're going to get this goddamn thing fixed. Because we're better than this. Not, you know, as he said multiple times yesterday, players have to be better. People got to step up. And, you know, we're going to work hard and we are working hard. But, you know, this is a process here. Anybody thinks that we're going to get this turned around and that it was going to be easy?

You're crazy. If anybody thought it's going to be easy, they're crazy. I tried to get that across last season, he said. We just have to be realistic about it. You know, this line. The only thing we can do until we get to the situation to the point where we really believe that this is what we need, where everybody's in place, everybody's healthy, everybody's rolling, it's not going to change. You know, and he used the word maturity over and over again.

I mean, you know, we're 11 days away. Thursday night soldier field, if they lose Sunday to Tennessee and if they lose to Chicago from the Rivera era, is officially over for anybody that thought it might be extended. Now, I don't know if that means he'll get fired. And I don't know if that means he'll retire at the end of the year. But any of the stragglers left, and I've been one of them, I thought it was a good hire. I think Ron Rivera is a good man and a good coach.

I do. Not a great coach. It's kind of like the Cousins thing. A lot of you guys twist it. By the way, I don't think Cousins has been that good this year. They're three and one. I don't think their offense has been really that good. Last year I thought he was great, but they only won eight games.

This year, they've won more games, but I don't think he's very good, but I think it could change. And I think Rivera has been a good coach, you know, and I look at the losing seasons, and I understand that. But I also know when they had it going there for a few years, that was a well-coached football team. Hard-nosed, disciplined. Things have changed. Maybe the game's passed them by. he's not as interested. I made this point on me during the summer. I think he's more of a CEO coach here than he ever was in Carolina. And maybe cancer had something to do with that.

Maybe it's a totally different thing. That was his first head coaching job. Yep. He couldn't afford to be his CEO at his first head coaching job. He had to be hands-on. He had to have his fingers in everything in Carolina. True. And by the way, he has the responsibilities here of being coach-centric head of the organization. I asked him last year when I had them on every Friday. I said, are you a different coach here than you were in Carolina? And he said, yeah, it's different. You know, I'm more willing to sort of delegate and, you know, bottom line is we are, you know, if they can beat Tennessee, beat Chicago, win one of them, even just win one of them and look impressive. That's right. Just win one of them. Just win one of them.

Absolutely. But this is not a playoff team. You know, it's not a contending team. It is a team that, by the way, in all these power rankings that are coming out today, somewhere between 30th and 32nd, they're bad right now. Let me ask you a question about Ron. Do you think he believes he's immune to any action as a result of his failures? I don't know.

Why? Is it because you think that they can't fire, you know, goes against their whole diversity, you know, mantra about how diverse and inclusive they are as an organization? It's like, it's a soup of dysfunction. In other words, I mean, they can't, they keep, they keep firing coaches, okay? you know, they gave this guy a big contract, which we don't actually know exactly what they're paying them, do we? Eight million something like that? They gave him control. Okay, so my point is, he may think,

well, what are you going to do, fire me? You're not going to fire him. So he'll ride it out, get a high draft pick next year, maybe he'll get his quarterback next year. He's not going anywhere. I have no idea. I mean, it's hard to turn down two years of all that money by leaving. If he gets fired, he gets the money.

We know that you're not getting fired. We have this sense that, you know, the cash flow situation for the franchise isn't, you know, what it used to be. Forget about valuations, et cetera. I mean, unless you're selling the team, that doesn't mean shit. they're clearly top line making much less in revenue, generating a lot less in revenue than they used to. You know, I've heard that the travel is different this year and last year than it used to be in terms of, you know, going, you know, total, you know, over-the-top first rate everywhere. But I don't know. I honestly have no idea.

I just know this. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. if he's here or the next group is here. I mean, I know that. I know that. I know that. I've just saying this for years.

You know, when I used to go on Chad show on 106-7, the fan, and I would preface everything. I'd say, you know, I'll answer this question, but, you know, it really doesn't matter as long as the owners here. And then you get so frustrated with me. I'd say, what am I supposed to do? Take a stupid pill before I walk in here and come on. the show and think that all this is really going to matter?

None of it's going to matter. Who would get frustrated with you? Well, at the 106-7, they'd say, well, you know, how can we talk about the team if it doesn't matter? Well, yeah, well, that's what I, and I said that to you too, and I said that to a lot of people, we have to, that's what I've said to you many times before. We have to suspend reality for the purposes of producing content. Okay, we know that.

There you go. We've been saying that to each other for years. Like I think I was the first one to say to you, okay, I agree with you. I know that as long as he owns the team, it's never, ever, ever going to be great. But what are we going to talk about then? We have to suspend reality so we can say,

man, that Terry McLorn, they better get a contract extension, you know? I mean, what else? are we going to do. Suspend reality. That's a good way to put it. And the truth is, we all, even though we all kind of, everybody out there listening, for the most part, understands the reality, okay, is able to suspend reality because the truth is we like football. You know, football's great. Sundays are great.

It's different, obviously, when you don't have, you know, a dog in the race, in the fight, as much as you use. used to or feeling like you had a dog in the fight. But, you know, you can sit there and watch the games and we can talk about the team. Again, like I've said for how long now. Why are we still able to do this? Because weirdly, very weirdly, while people have less passion for the team and even don't go to the games anymore and even maybe watch the team less because they'll pick something else to do on Sunday or pick another game to watch, very oddly.

they love the conversation about the team. There is this drama and this wo is me community that is just it's rubbernecking. Like it really is. It's like a wreck on the highway and you're just sitting there watching the people turn around to talk about it. I mean, it's the only explanation I can have because I promise you, this podcast would do much better if we had a perennial. winner. But it doesn't

suffer dramatically in numbers when we go through this every single year. So I don't know, I guess I chalk it up to we're among a lot of people like us and for whatever reason we like commiserating

together. Is that a good explanation or not? I think suspending reality is the perfect description. That's what we do. We're like Hollywood We suspend reality Yeah

It's just a long bad movie You know I do think that Ron's a good man I do and I think that he actually does really know football It is very possible that the game to a certain extent Has passed him by You know the younger coaches The offensive oriented coaches

You know I say that and Sean McDermott's a head coach and a very successful head coach, but he's got an offense that Brian Dable ran for the last couple of years, where his quarterback is dual threat, and by the way, he has a quarterback. You know, you said something earlier, and I forget what it was, but I jotted down this because it was also mentioned by a caller on the radio show this morning about, you know, rebuilding, and, you know, you're always caught up in the rebuild. Every single team in this league, and I'm not, Washington obviously is in another capital, because they're just so dysfunctional.

But every team in the league that doesn't have a quarterback has a common bond. They're always rebuilding for the most part. They're always retooling. That's why when you don't have a great quarterback but one year you have a great defense and you make a really good run, it's not sustainable without the great quarterback. Look at Jacksonville. They were within like two minutes of a Super Bowl a few years ago. playing the Patriots in Foxborough with a dominant defense that year.

Dominant. And Blake Bordell's as their quarterback. And it was so fleeting. If you don't have the great quarterback, you're always to a certain degree in rebuild, retool, have to get better mode. And that's why, like, this idea of, you know, and I used to feel this way. to feel, build up the offensive line, build up the defensive line, build up the depth, get good, and then get the, you know, and get a quarterback that's just good enough.

No, swing big and keep swinging big until you land on one, especially if you're Washington in an organization like Washington, where the only chance you have of getting out of this is what happened in Indianapolis, when the Ursa's, when the old man owned the team, and they were able to draft Peyton Manning. He covered up the smell. He masked the odor of a bad franchise. Now, Bill Pollian was there, to be fair. I understand that.

But, you know, Kurt Warner, you know, basically it was, he kept the stink away for a few years in Arizona with the bidwills. The old man anyway. I, this is the only shot you got. So every year you just got to keep swinging big at quarterback. And to their credit, they did swing big. They went for Russell Wilson in a big way. By the way, it could have backfired.

You know, maybe Seattle was right to deal Russell Wilson now. Who knows? They really tried for Matt Stafford the year before. You know, and this coming year, the draft is loaded with quarterbacks. Last year's draft wasn't. They're going to probably be a five or a six-win team, and they're going to have a high draft choice, and so you've got to swing big on the quarterback.

And by the way, I'd swing multiple times in the draft. If you've got, let's just say, the third or fourth pick overall this year, let's just project them to be a top three or top four pick right now in the 2020 draft. Take one at number three or four, and then if another one you kind of like is there in the second round, take another one. Just keep swinging until you land on the guy.

especially in this organization, because nothing, you know, you do like old style is going to work as long as the Snyders are still here. And by the way, the new quarterback, if you land on a great quarterback, that may not work either because we know that the owner loves to saddle up to young, you know, stars. And that usually, you know, that usually sabotages whatever you've got going on that's positive, like we saw in 2012 and 2012. 2013. And I'm not saying Griffin ultimately was the right guy, but the Shanahan's were and everybody that was here. And so he, you know, fucked himself seven ways to Sunday by picking the quarterback over a coaching staff

that, you know, has littered the league in multiple spots with winning teams and winning programs. So, anyway, suspend reality, people. You know what? On tomorrow's show, we will suspend reality. Cooley will jump on and we'll do the film breakdown of Sunday's game against Dallas. All weeks, we're suspending reality all week long. Cooley tomorrow with film breakdown. Tommy on Thursday with a preview of the Tennessee game with a prediction and Friday, Cooley's preview of Tennessee. There we go. What else you got? By the way, is Aaron Judge going to hit it at 62 or not?

I don't know. Oh, my God. He's only got two days left, right? Yeah, two games left. That's it, right? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I was watching the ad betts last name. That would really be something if he doesn't do it. I really want him to do it. So do I. They have...

I'm going to do it too, because I love reading all the stories about how this is the new home run record. They have three games left, Tommy. Three games left. Okay, three games left. A double header today. It's just sticks it in the face. That's it. That's it.

They got a double header. today. That just sticks it in the face of all the steroid nerds. So I want him to do it. I mean, he's not going to get to that 65-66 number that he was on pace for two and a half weeks ago, that's for sure.

No. No, but 62 will work just fine. So last night, the Phillies clinched. They beat the Astros, so they clinched that final wild card. The Brewers really choked over the weekend. They lost two games to the Marlins. If they had won those two games, it would be, Philly would be

trouble. But, you know, the National League playoffs are going to feature all of these X-Nats all over the place. You know, Harper and Philadelphia, the Padres with Soto, and Josh Bell. Trey Turner in L.A. Max Turner in New York. Yeah. Yep. It'll be a party. It's going to be an ex-national National League postseason, which starts on Friday with these best of threes next weekend. which are going to be, this coming weekend, excuse me, which are going to be fun. I said this before, and somebody corrected me. I said it was a mistake to end the regular season on a Wednesday and start these playoffs on a Friday, on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday going head to head with football, which it is.

But what pushed this was, I guess, you know, was the delay, the brief delay before the season started. and remember it for a while it looked like they weren't going to play 162. So the season started awkwardly and I think a little bit late. Is that what happened? Which is why it's ending on a Wednesday and not on a weekend. If not, we would have had these best of threes starting tonight, you know, like the wild card games were played tonight and tomorrow night. So, okay.

I'll talk to you on Thursday. Did you have anything else that you wanted to add to the program? I got nothing else for you, boss. All right, you did well today. Good job. Thanks, boss. Appreciate it. And thanks, by the way, to Shelley's backroom. We're so excited to have them as a sponsor for Tommy's shows on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All right, back tomorrow with Cooley.