The Kevin Sheehan Show - Uni Talk + Harris Not So Sunny In Philly

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Kevin and Thom today with plenty more on Washington's "throwback" uniforms. The boys also talked about a scathing column written in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Commanders' owner Josh Harris. They finished up with more on the Mike Rizzo firing along with thoughts on the passing of Tim Strachan and a pick-up basketball friend of Kevin's. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. He is Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor is always,

Window Nation, 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com, if you need new windows. Tommy, I could just sit here and read emails and tweets about the uniforms for about 20 minutes. I could do it for an hour. if you wanted me to do it. But I don't think you want me to do it because you sent me a very, I think, sarcastic text last night that read as follows. All that uniform talk is nice. Maybe sometime you can maybe retweet my column for me about the nationals. Were you sick of the uniform talk yesterday? No, I was trying to just get your attention. Well, you got it.

You got it. I know. I always retweet your column. Always. I know. I just got to chase you down sometimes. Well, sometimes you do because, you know, I'm not, I don't know exactly when you're going to be putting your columns out. Uh-huh.

You know, you know exactly when I'm putting my show out. I'm not sure when you're going to put a column out. I'm not sure if it's going to be today or tomorrow or next week. Although you've been busy recently. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. I'm rejuvenated. You are?

I'm rejuvenated by the new uniforms. No, but you actually really have been busy. You've been pumping out. I'm going to guess, and then you can tell me, I'm going to guess that you've been pumping out three columns a week. No. Two? It's been the two, but I must say, with all due modesty,

I've been on a run with a lot of good columns. Your column about West Palm, Mark Lerner was great. Mark Lerner, West Palm Beach, Line 3. So I think that's probably why the subject matter has been better maybe than some others have been. And that's why it might seem like three, but it's been two. Okay. We'll talk about some Nats in the final segment of the show today. So honestly, I could read.

forever. I said this on radio this morning. Nothing generates the kind of passion, the kind of response, the outpouring. At least in my world, I can't speak to everybody else's, but I have a feeling it's not that much different because a lot of the people that do what we do or do it in other ways, we talk a lot. Nothing generates this level of response and passion other than maybe a Monday during the regular season after a game, like talk of name, brand, uniforms, et cetera. Yesterday, and I guarantee you they know this. Yesterday was not an eye-opening day for them. I think it was validation for many in the organization or confirmation for many in the organization

that this thing's not going away. It's not going away. it was an emotional, you know, connection that was broken and it was devastating for a lot of people. You know, they're at 2 million views in counting on the initial release of the new uniforms. They haven't had anything close to that since the championship game against the Eagles, not the draft, not the schedule release, not, you know, any of the free agents they signed. Nothing. And I, you know, I had, let me look for this one email. From Denny 44, Kevin, bad day for the nobody cares about the name in uniforms crowd. The tweet by the team was the most viewed tweet of the year for them. I'm sure they noticed.

They knew it was coming, Denny. They knew it was coming. One of the reasons they did it when they did it in this very slow week, July, is they knew it would get the most bang for the buck, not that they needed it, you know, the timing. But yeah, incredible. Like, I, every time I think that maybe, maybe those that lecture about, you know, enough about that, nobody cares, you know, they got a quarterback, they got a winning team, that's all anybody cares about.

whenever I've even given myself a moment to think maybe it's heading in that direction. Maybe it is. I'm brought back to reality on days like yesterday. This was a devastating emotional bond that was broken that they're doing the best they can to reconnect. And I think yesterday they nailed it. I think they nailed it yesterday on this specific project. would have preferred the logo to have been brought back, and I certainly would have preferred

Redskins, which wasn't going to happen, but Washington football team to be the name of the team right now. But I think that, you know, they got yesterday and they got this specific thing right. Here's what yesterday was to me. Okay. Just the way I would describe it, being kind of an observer of it. It was not a blunder. That is that low bar to clear. It was not a blunder.

It was a big moment, and it was not a blunder. In fact, if anything, it helped erase a blunder. Yeah, because the truth is when they were forced to change, the name and then they decided on a total rebrand, they could have just kept the colors exactly the way they were in the uniforms and gone with this wretched name that they ended up, you know, picking Jason Wright and the other guy from Australia that was involved in it. But, you know, they were getting terrible, terrible advice from nobody that really had any

true historical or institutional knowledge. And, you know, it was a fly-by-night, you know, the thing that they put together. And trust me, I said this yesterday and I've said this for months now. If they had had a bad season or just a mediocre season, I think this off-season would have included the new, you know, name, or at least the process of determining what the new name would be. which, you know, they may have involved fans and voting in different things.

And, you know, that all may have been part of it. But the 12 wins in the regular season, the two playoff wins, gave them, you know, a different path to take without having to put, you know, go through the process, which would have been a very costly one. And then land on something that, you know, I've been told by people that are very much involved in this stuff, that there was nothing that was going to please everybody, which I understand other than Redskins,

and Redskins wasn't a possibility. So this is what they could do in the moment. I think this could have been done before, but I think the logo could have been a part of it. But it was more than just not a blunder. I am sticking by my guns, even though a lot of people weren't necessarily as thrilled as I was because the logo wasn't a part of it.

But I think that they absolutely, for this specific project, they nailed it. They nailed it. I think they did. And I think it, you know, I think there's still more, I think the door is still open for some more nuance changes. Yes. I think the logo is going to be in play for more than what it's been used for, you know, whatever they're doing out at the stadium, et cetera. I think the logo is going to be in play.

And real quickly, in case you missed yesterday's show, because this was something I actually reported during the radio show yesterday, they had four alt-uniform opportunities. That's the league rule. They used three of them on these throwback Super Bowl-era championship uniforms against Seattle on November 2nd, Denver, November 30th, and the Cowboys on Christmas Day. They chose not to use the fourth availability for these uniforms.

Instead, I had somebody tell me, and then I confirmed it yesterday when I was on the air, that they're going to use those alt-black uniforms. Now, no one told me specifically the game they're going to use them for, because that'll be another press release. But you can pretty much bet it's going to be the Chicago Monday Night game, because the Hail Mary game was in those alt-black uniforms. And they're using the other alt uniforms for primetime games as well. So this is the other primetime game they play at home against the Bears on October 13th.

And I think we'll see them in their alt-blacks on that particular day. That part I don't have confirmed, but they are going to use black. I know some of you, when I mentioned that yesterday, were disappointed. You hate the black uniforms and you would have preferred the uniforms, unveiled yesterday to be used all four times. I'm with you on that. I'm with you on that. I would have preferred that too. And I don't hate the blacks. I actually like them. This from Paul Tommy. When you say people don't understand our passion, you are correct. Tell the Yankees we've decided that's offensive and they'll need to change their name and logo. They'd blow their tops. On sponsors

going back, on sponsors' reactions to going back to the Redskins, so upsetting that we have to bow down to Coke, McDonald's, Budweiser, because they're selling us such clean and healthy products. You know, the Yankees at one point in the dictionary was an insensitive term. I know that from all of my research during those shares. I'm sorry? About Northerners? About Northerners. Yes. But the dictionary was updated for that not to be an insensitive word anymore. Like I've said about Redskins, what it meant, you know, 100 years ago. And there's debate about what it meant 100 years ago.

It does not mean the same thing today. And it hasn't for a half century or more, closer to 75 years. But who cares? Who's listening? What else did I want to read? A lot of people just wanted the logo as a part of it. This from Andrew in Darnestown, Kevin, I felt the way you did when I saw them, but it's not enough. I understand, like you do, that the Redskins is a non-starter with the league,

but the commanders still lingers in unbreatable air for most fans. Why didn't they just go the whole way and do Washington football team like you've suggested? Put the logo back on the helmet, and then we can just call them the skins with Washington being the front and center brand. Not sure why this is so hard. I'll tell you why. It doesn't seem hard to you, Andrew. It doesn't seem hard to me.

But they'll tell you that Washington football team would be mocked and would be polarizing as well. And there'd be a whole hell of a lot of expense that would go into it. I actually think it's better than what not doing anything and leaving it with the commanders. But remember, when Washington football team first came, came out in 2020 before the 2020 season, it was mocked by everybody. But that was because it was kind of unique. It would not be as unique now. But I know.

I would, if it were made, I would, look, I don't think the commander's name is a great name. I think it is something that could grow on a lot of people. And I would prefer it over to Washington football team, which to me is like giving up. we can't figure out what to name it, let's name it this. Yeah, I wouldn't view it that way. I've never viewed it that way. I understand why you would feel that way, but to me, it allows for everybody to call them the skins without having another team nickname, you know, get in the middle of it. And Washington becomes the brand.

It's very soccer-esque, obviously, where soccer teams have their own nicknames, but they're not part of the team names. I would have done that. I would have done that. By the way, I hated Washington football team in 2020, but I hated everything in that moment after the actual name was lost. But I think that would be the least polarizing and the easiest to sell if it came with, the uniforms we saw yesterday, the old logo, and an understanding that everybody's just going to call them the skins or the redskins. This from, hold on, who did this come from?

Colin. Colin writes, long-time listener and fan of the team. Been very frustrated with the rebrand since the rollout and really think they nailed the new championship uniforms. Just a thought on the name issue at hand. Have you or Tommy ever heard of? The Wolverhampton Wanderers. They're an EPL soccer team that essentially no one refers to by their official team name.

Everyone just calls them wolves. Tommy, you've heard of the Wolverhampton Wanderers, right? I've got, you know what? I can't believe this. I have one in her t-shirts hanging in my closet. Yeah, it's a medium. He writes, I feel like this logic could be applied to our team and we just refer to them as the skins.

Yeah, that's my logic. You know, that's Washington football team logic. With the championship uniforms and a potential Blackie Wetzel logo return, I could stomach our current name. If fans, media broadcast, et cetera, just added skins back to their vernacular. Could an NFL team have an official nickname? Thanks for the shows over the years. I mean, there are teams with kind of nicknames, right? The dolphins are the fins, the Eagles or the Birds,

Seattle or the Hawks. I mean, I know those are, you know, just either synonyms for or just, you know, part of the name. Yeah, I mean, I don't think we should care about what the NFL's had or will have. the most unique situation when it's come to name and brand in the history of the league. So, yeah. All right. I think you'll see them take more steps.

But I think doing it slowly and gauging reaction each time, I think what they did is this week is smart. you know and I think I think you'll see other steps along the way you're not going to get the full enchilada look when I told you guys back in October that this was going to happen what is coming next is going to happen I'm more convinced of it than I was even last October this is step one to this uniform becoming the permanent uniform now will it be tweaked with the logo next year I don't know I would guess not, not that I think the logo is going to be excluded from everything, because I think it could be a part of what they do in branding, but I would guess today that it's not going to be a part of the helmet. But I told you last October, the alt uniforms were going to be, you know,

the uniforms that we knew and that it was going to be the first step to something more permanent in either 26 or 27. And I hope they can get it done for 26. I hope that 26 isn't another because of league rules with respect to the current merchandise that they have. I hope it's not another three or four games. I hope next year they get to go to all of this. From Connor, and I read Connor's entire email on the radio show. I'm just going to read a part of it.

Connor is someone I know. A couple of these emails that I've read are actually from younger fans, and Conner's, you know, right around 30 years old. And, you know, real quickly, before I read it, it's, I've been in a couple of conversations recently on calls on the radio show in back and forth on emails about this young versus old when it comes to the name and the branding and everything. This is what I think. I'm not saying it's a hard and fast rule. I think if you are, you know, in your teens, 20s, 30. that it's not important to you if you didn't grow up here or you grew up here with parents that weren't fans of the team.

And you became a fan of the team, but you weren't raised as a fan of the team, the team being the Redskins. Because, you know, Connor, and I'll read some of his email in a moment, you know, two of my three boys who really care, a lot of their friends whose fathers and mothers, are die-hard, lifelong redskin fans, and, you know, Washingtonians are long-time Washington residents. They care. They don't like the name.

They want to go back to the old name. But I think younger fans that don't have that connection and that family connection to it, I think they feel differently. That's just my observation. Conner's father, because Conner's father was a friend of mine, we went to Maryland together, grew up a Redskins fan. His father was a huge Redskins fan. And he's 30 years old. And he writes, I think everyone's giving the new ownership too much credit. This was obvious. And we couldn't even get the W with a feather on it. The commander's normal uniforms and merchandise as a whole is

bland and uninspiring. We went from an iconic and unique look to a clunky name in bold font on colors that weren't even the same. Mark Klaus was named president in early December and Josh Harris didn't announce that they were sticking with the commanders until February. For them to decide that this name was worth keeping is short-sided and cheap. Winning doesn't make the name better. It makes it tolerable. That shouldn't be the goal. Our team's identity was taken from us, and we were handed a rush job by Jason wrong.

Isn't Jason right? Or, as Tommy referred to him for a few years. the chief blunder officer, the CBO. And he had several of them, but this was the winner. This was certainly his, you know, this was number one on the resume. This was his Super Bowl. Look, a day later, I'm so happy they're going to be wearing these uniforms in three games next year. I'm very happy that hopefully, starting in 2026, this is going to become the uniform.

I would love for them to, you know, reconsider on the name. I don't think Redskins is coming back. I don't know if you saw this, Tommy. Mike Florio, you know, this morning, pro football talk. Yeah. He believes that, you know, this is the uniform announcement yesterday is laying the foundation for a potential return to the old name. We all know what Mike.

At the stretch. Yeah. We all know what Mike Florio is. He hated this team. hated this franchise, he hated the name. When I read and heard him, I thought this is a move in which what he's trying to do is rally all of the anti-name people to just make sure they're on high alert in case Josh Harris even starts to consider it.

He's not. He's not considering it. And he's not considering it because of what I've said the last couple of days. You know, I hate it, but FedEx and Nike and Amazon and Anheiser Bush and Apple and Toyota and P&G, they had to deal with this as the league did as CBS and NBC and ABC and, you know, Amazon and Netflix and everybody else. And now that it's gone and they don't have to deal with it, they don't want it to come back. If it were still here, it wouldn't be an issue. But you're right.

You see, once, I mean, it's been. Look, it's been a thorn in the side of every owner, I think, since Edward Bennett Williams. Okay? Yeah. So I think, you know, if, at constant thorn, you know, may have been more bothersome at different times than other times. But I think a lot of these owners, besides Snyder, if you had told them that, you know, if they could magically wave a wand and have a different name and nobody. would care, they would have done it.

Yeah. Yeah, it's... So they're not going back. They're not going back. They went through the hard part. In fact, these guys didn't even have to go through the hard part. I think these guys would be willing to go through the hard part. I just don't think there's a choice for them. It's the league in the $26 billion worth of partners that have the last word on this. The hard part was getting rid of the name.

These guys didn't have to deal with that either. That would always be the hard part for the owner of the team is getting rid of the name. Yes, it would be, you know, in a way equally as hard to bring it back. But you're right. You know, unfortunately, the fans are not the biggest voice in this. You know, in 2020, and we talked about this for how many, years leading up to 2020. But it is true. And I talked about it then with you. I said, you know, if it's ever going to happen, this is the time for it to happen. Not that I was advocating for it or

wanted to see it. But the fan base had already checked out to the tune of two-thirds of the fan base. And as we mentioned many times during that era, it was the biggest, you know, space. You know, space. And, you know, part of the fan base. They had a lot of back of the envelope and deeper when it came to what they had lost. Two-thirds, essentially, of the fan base long before 2020. And we're talking 2018, 2019, and it was building up and accelerating as those horrible years were going by, especially in 18 and 19. and Snyder was, you know, continuing to botch everything, you know, that he was involved in.

Two-thirds of the fan base had left. So that was the best time for it to go. And I talked a lot about that in the moment. Like if you had been, you know, required as new owners to do it, taking over for Dan Snyder with two-thirds of the fan base gone, that would have been the time to do it. They didn't buy the team in 2020. They bought the team in 2023.

But it was, you know, just the fewest number of people cared about anything related to the team in that moment in which the name was wrestled away from Snyder by FedEx and Fred Smith. And, you know, who knows who else would have been coming for it. All right. Anything else on this subject? no boss but as an outside observer based on the fan reaction they got this one right i think they did i think they did and you know hopefully somewhere down the road they're not the commanders that would be nice all right um josh harris got this thing right most people think but in another city they don't think he gets anything right we'll talk about that after these

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All right, you sent me something this morning. It was a column written by Mike Sealski, I think, is the way you would pronounce it, from the Philadelphia Inquirer. fire sports columnist. Yeah. The way we feel about Josh Harris down here is not the way they feel about Josh Harris in the city of brotherly love. Not even close.

And this column beats him up pretty good. You know, we've heard that he's not a fan favorite in Philadelphia and maybe not a favorite of writers either. But this column is written with the context being that Josh Harris, just purchased, if you didn't see it, a WNBA team for Philadelphia. It's kind of weird that Philly didn't have a WNBA team to begin with, but they don't. And he purchased a WNBA franchise, which will start playing in Philadelphia. It looks like in the year 2030. So the headline of this column reads, Sixers have become stale under Josh Harris. Here's how Philly's WNBA team

can avoid the same fate. And I'll read from the first paragraph of the column. The announcement had been made and the applause had subsided and it was official that Philadelphia would have a WNBA franchise in 2030. And now it was time for Josh Harris to do his thing, to get everyone wincing at his words and hoping he'd stop talking and wondering how this bill. billionaire businessman, who is such a killer behind the scenes, always manages to be so cringy and phony in front of an audience. Down in Washington over his first two years as an NFL owner, Harris has

reaped the benefits of not being Daniel Snyder. He has cleared the lowest of bars for people to be satisfied, even overjoyed, with his brief stewardship of the commanders. Here, though, despite the money resources Harris has poured into the 76ers to improve their infrastructure and their roster. The franchise hasn't felt so irrelevant in years. And then he goes on to talk about all of the Philadelphia 76er, you know, missteps, you know, Joel Embed's health, the Paul George signing. And he writes, there's a.

soullessness to the Sixers operation, a failure to connect, a history of talking big and coming up small. The gulf between the organization and the fan base has rarely felt wider. And that press conference last Monday in Manhattan was a reminder that with Harrison charge, the same problems could end up plaguing Philly's WNBA team. There's a lot more in this column. I'll let you pick it up from here, what'd you think? You know, I follow the whole Philly thing pretty closely. But, I mean, this is a pretty stunning contrast to what we experience here in Washington, you know, with this guy.

See, I've had, I've seen him in public a couple of times, I've had the opposite reaction. I didn't think he was cringy or phony in front of an audience. I thought he was confident and relaxed. You know, I have a, in the times that he spoke here in Washington. So I didn't get that. You know, but, I mean, which is the real Josh Harris? I guess the question to me is which is the real Josh Harris? He's been with the 76ers for 14 years.

you know and that that's a long time to establish who you are and uh you know philly is a different animal than washington too you know nobody likes to believe this or realizes but philly is a more passionate place no doubt i think most people you know yeah this is why this is why uh he talks about in the column about how Pat Crocey, who used to be the 76ers owner, was such a great

owner for that city, a guy who basically fired up the team, very public relations-oriented. Apparently, he once climbed the Walt Whitman Bridge in a pep rally-like PR

stunt to rally fans around the Sixers. But Josh Harris can't be who he's not. He's not. Pat Crotie. He's just not that kind of guy. And I'm sure if the Sixers were good,

they wouldn't care what kind of guy he was. But the Sixers have the – although let me tell you something. They don't know the meaning of the word irrelevant to Philadelphia until they've come down to Washington to find the NBA franchise. That's true, yeah. So I was just, it was stunning the contrast in perception. A little bit alarming if you're a Washington fan, just a tiny bit, just very little tiny. And maybe perhaps a realization, not that we need more, as to how important Jane Daniels is.

You know? Yeah. now another another let's say another four and thirteen season here and uh you know uh i don't certainly don't think he would be as beloved as he is now uh so uh you know he's got what his hometown it's funny ironic this is his hometown and he's well received there but in philly where he went to college he's hated yes so um you know When Josh Harris first became owner of the team, which were coming up on the two-year anniversary of that, I had a bunch of people on from Philadelphia on the podcast, on radio.

Howard Eskin, Howard Eskin just eviscerated him and has every single time he's come on with me. Howard Eskin, long time WIP sports radio host, kind of a legend in Philadelphia as a part of the Eagles broadcast team, etc. and, you know, basically, I remember saying to him, Howard, we've had Dan Snyder. And he's like, well, good point. He's going to be at least a little bit better than Dan Snyder, but not by a lot. And the consistent theme of what the Philadelphia people said was actually different from this column, is that it was all about business. It was all about making money.

And that was the problem that they had had with him. The beginning of this column where they talk about him being cringy and phony, I think there is at times with him as an interview. It can be, you know, cringy is, I think, too negative of a word. But it's not his thing. You know, doing media, doing interviews, doing press conferences is not Josh Harris's thing. You know, it's not where he's most comfortable, clearly. We've seen him in that role, but I don't sense phony.

I sense genuine, at least as it relates to this team that he owns. And maybe, you know, this is a different animal for him because this is a team that he grew up loving and being a fan of. I don't think any of the teams that he owns anywhere else in Jersey or Philadelphia or Crystal Palace are teams that he grew up rooting for. So I've never sensed phony. Look, I was frustrated. I got frustrated at times with him when he kept putting off the name as in, you know, we're focused on winning now. We're focused on embracing the community. We're focused on getting the stadium up to snuff.

We're focused on, you know, the future stadium plans. You know, it's not on our list of priorities right now. Now, I knew differently, and I think a lot of people knew that, of course, they were talking about this. And I think I learned as time went on that he wasn't going to talk about it until, at the very least, the city got control of the land again. And that didn't happen until the end of December, you know, so, or in the middle of December, whenever that happened with Chuck Schumer. But I thought that he was putting people off. I didn't like when he announced that they were sticking with the commanders, because he talked about how inside that building,

people had really, they liked it and they had accepted it. He didn't say anything about the fans. Yeah. But that was a mistake. Because... That was a mistake to take that tack. But overall, I don't think he's been cringy. No.

I mean, your initial, you know, criticisms as to what he said, not how he said it. I think, I thought he was pretty comfortable. I don't think he's, I don't think he's been very. comfortable in any of these things that I've watched. I just don't think... I was at the press conference in person when they announced the name of the stadium. Yeah. You know, they announced the stadium naming deal. That was out the stadium. That was before game. I thought he was very relaxed and comfortable in that setting.

Being relaxed doesn't necessarily mean that you're good. Dan was terrible and uncomfortable and not relaxed anytime he had to do. any of that. I mean, Cringy's the wrong word. I would say, because I've said this after his press conferences or any sort of, you know,

interview, and he hasn't done many of them, I've said almost immediately following it, look, he's not the smoothest of communicators or the most comfortable of communicators, but I think it's genuine.

And he's clearly very smart. And, you know, I, I don't care as long as, you know, what he's saying, I believe, and the actions, obviously, are more important than the words. But I don't think Josh Harris is the smoothest of communicators. It sounds like we might have a slight disagreement on that. Yeah, I think so. Look, I have to, I have, there's a little part of me that has a level respect for Josh. Harris because he was a wrestler. Okay. And not just a wrestler, but a college wrestler. Okay. I was a bad high school wrestler, but I know what it takes to do that sport.

Okay. And so I have a level respect for him being that guy. And I always think of that. Do you know what weight class he wrestled in at Penn? No, I'm thinking like 125, 1.30, something like that. 118. 118. Yeah. Okay.

He's not a big guy. No, he's not. But that's a great thing about sport like wrestling. Yes, it is. You know, and to reach the college level, the Ivy League college level, as a college wrestler, I think it's an impressive accomplishment. Look, he may be. be everything that Philadelphia says about him, but it may be because it's Philadelphia.

And I, we have not seen that. And yes, there was a low bar to clear. You know, we were going to take, I mean, we're going to take anybody, you know, in prison or out of prison, as long as Dan was gone. And so it was a low, it was a low, you know, bar to clear. But I think that they've, basically gotten 80% of what they've done correct. And, you know, at a competent level, highly competent level. So, so far, so good. And certainly the results in the field, although, you know, they had to pick Jaden Daniels, but he also had to be available. And so there is a little bit of good fortune in, you know, the immediacy of their success on the field. Anyway, all right, anything else on this?

No, that's it. All right, I know you've got some... I know you've got some... Nats, you know, business to tidy up here after the firings of Davy and Mike Rizzo. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's.

Well, Shelly's backroom at 1331 F Street, Northwest in the district. I'm going to give you a rundown on Shelley's menu specials for this week, because like we've said many times, they have a great selection of food on their menu. In addition to be a top shelf cigar place and a top shelf liquor and beer establishment, do you like hot food? Do I like hot food? Oh, spicy food? Yeah, sure. Really? I don't.

Okay. So you might like one of their special. Any food with El Diablo, I would think you would like. That sounds like it might be spicy, yeah. Yes, the El Diablo chicken sandwich, a grilled chicken breads with pepper jack cheese and grill halapeno, peppers on a butter toasted roll with spicy mayo, fries, and a pickle. Sounds good. Sign me up. Okay. I would... I'd like one right now.

I would prefer the double-h burger, one or other special. Nothing wrong with that. half a pound at her Shelley's custom blend, hang its beef, top with honey ham and cheddar. Okay, that to me is a combination that can't be beat right there. You can find out more about their food selections at shelley's backroom.com as well as other information as well. All right. We are now four days since the firing of Mike Rizzo and Davy Martinez. Rizzo was on with the junkies yesterday morning.

I don't know if you listened to it, but I know you had some thoughts. Tommy's column, I retweeted it the other day. You can find it on Tommy's ex-Twitter account as well, but it was one of his better columns recently and funny as well. So I'm curious, by the way, real quickly, did you hear back from anybody on referring to Mark Lerner as Mark from West Palm Beach on line three? Well, since I've called him a liar in the paper numerous times,

since he made that statement in the interview with Dan Coco, that any time Mike needs resources, all he's got to do is come tell us, which is a blatant falsehood. I've never heard from him. So if I've called a man a liar in print several times, I don't know what else I could do to basically, you know, basically make him reach out. No, I have not heard anything.

Okay. Okay. But I have not heard anything that said what you wrote is wrong. Right. Yeah. Just to fall out of some of the stuff from the Rizzo and Davey Martinez firing, especially from the children, you know, the kids. I know the kids are our future, okay?

and that doesn't make me particularly pleased, but they are. They are our future. And they love their statistics, don't they? Yeah. They love their analytics. Yep, they do. And look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that that's wrong, okay? Analytics are a tool, just like any other tool, that decision makers use and make decision.

You know, if you want robots, then analytics would come in very handy, because robots can't make decisions without data. Okay? I just find it curious that a lot of people are just like creaming themselves over now, the Nats are going to be a real analytic-driven team. Okay, they used analytics before. But Rizzo believed in letting the manager manage the team, which included make out the lineup card every day.

okay. Mike Rizzo never went into Davies office and told him who to play and where to hit somebody in the lineup. They would meet every day after a game to discuss the game, talk about what went wrong, every game. I mean, that's why you guys for eight years after every single game, they would meet and talk about it. But he let Davy manage, and that's the kind of team I would prefer to have. have to let the manager manage. Let's point to what are the most... This was never a... This was never a Billy Bean art house situation. No. No. Let's point to maybe one of the most analytic-driven teams in baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers. Okay. Their manager, Dave Roberts,

manages according to what the front office tells them to do. And it's cost them in the postseason a couple of times with pitching changes that were dictated. by analytics, by what the front office wanted. Okay. For all their analytics, if you don't count the 2020 COVID year, they won one World Series. Last year. And that was last year. Yep.

Okay. And I might want to point out that when Dave Roberts makes that lineup every day, he pencils in three Hall of Famers in that lineup. Freddie Freeman, showing Atani, and Mookie Be. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That is why the Dodgers won the World Series.

It's players, okay? It's players and commitment to winning. The Dodgers have both three Hall of Famers, none of which were drafted by the Dodgers. All were brought in either free agency or trades. Right. So, I mean, we'll see what happens. good luck to Mike DeBarnelow, the interim GM. I don't know what this team is going to do moving forward.

But, you know, if the commitment isn't there financially, you're in for a long call. And I mean, we're talking bottom-level commitment with this team. I sincerely think that last year's team, which won 71 games, which outperformed expectations, They spent $60 million on their active payroll last year. Right. If you had doubled that, I think that team could have competed, not won, but competed for a wild card in September. You do? Yes, I do.

I think they could have won another 10 games. And if you're in the 80-win category, you're competing for a wild card. last year in the National League the wildcard teams had 89 wins, 89 wins, and 93 wins Okay Well the year before I think Arizona was in with 84 wins The year before

Arizona was in with 84 wins Correct Yeah So was Miami I'm not saying they would They would win it But what you want, especially for development of young players, is to play meaningful games in September.

They always talked about that. Okay, so I think with a reasonable financial commitment last year, they could have competed for a wild card. Everything that went right for them last year has gone wrong for him this year. Trevor Williams is now out, I think, with Tommy John surgery. Last year, he was like, one of the best starting pitchers. So it's just, that's all. The analytic stuff just makes me.

I know it does. It really does. I know it does. It really does. I'm not dismissing it. I'm not saying it's stupid, but it's a tool. And I believe in human beings. I just can't stand people who think that's the only way to either, you know, manage, roster build, or analyze.

It's a tool. And look, analytics in baseball, I think, are much more impactful than they are in other sports. Because baseball is a sport in which almost everything that happens on the field can be measured, can be quantified. That's not the case in basketball, football, and I'm sure in hockey. but I'm sure even in baseball, it should be just a tool. You know, I mean, look, if you don't hear it, you may not be able to identify that he's got a difficult time as in trouble with the curve.

Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. Yeah, that's right. I love that movie. Such a good movie. Amy Adams is good in everything, don't you think? Yes, she is. she is good at everything she may have had her best

role in the fighter yes no doubt she was great in the fighter she was great in the movie uh American hustle great in American hustle yes so good

and great in our favorite show as Katie in the office that was her that was her first thing or one of the first things that she ever did um now on pocketbook

Handbags. She was selling handbags. Dwight went in there to try to buy one and also get a date in the same process. But she ended up going home with Jim, not Michael or Dwight. Yes. All right. I wanted to close the show with just mentioning two passings, Tommy. Tim Strachan passed away a couple of days ago.

For those of you who are from here and have followed sports in the area, high school sports in the area, For you Maryland fans, you know who Tim Stracken is. Tim called Maryland football games with Johnny Holliday for two plus decades. They were a phenomenal team, and Tim was great calling the games. But Tim was an incredible high school athlete at Damatha back in the early 90s. And he was one of the highest ranked quarterbacks in the country entering his senior year. year, which was 1993, 93, 94, he and Peyton Manning were essentially the top two high school quarterbacks in the country. Peyton went to Tennessee and he was, you know, debating offers from

everybody. But Maryland and Penn State and Penn State was probably where he would have ended up more likely than not. Had he not had a terrible, tragic accident in Bethany, Beach body surfing. He became, you know, a wheelchair bound for the rest of his life after that accident. But still, Tim, you know, made the most out of it. He was an incredible and very inspirational speaker, great analyst. He got his law degree from Georgetown. You know, I got to call three or four games with Tim when Johnny wasn't able to do games. I got one of the thrilled of my life, Tim and I called Maryland's upset on Labor Day weekend back in 2017 in Austin against Texas. Johnny had a family commitment. I think there was a family wedding that weekend, and I did the game with Tim.

It's funny because Kevin Anderson was the athletic director, and I had gone down to the team hotel early in the morning to grab some breakfast, and I saw Kevin sitting over there, and I had met Kevin. before and I walked over and I said hey Kevin and he looked at me and he just said hey Kevin and I said something like I'm I'm actually here to call the game Johnny's got a family commitment he said yeah I heard and then I swear to God I mean he did not have a ton of personality if you recall he just kind of got up and walked away well Maryland took like a big lead into the halftime locker room and here comes Kevin Anderson to the booth hugging me and hugging Tim. He's going nuts. And I'm like, you're a little bit different than you were this morning. But I got to call, you know, a couple of games with Tim and

he was such a great football analyst. He really knew the game. I think I probably said to him at some point, you should have been a coach. But he passed away the other day, 49 years old, far too soon. cancer. And I just wanted to send my condolences to his family. I know a lot of his, I know his brothers, Bo and Brett and Poo. I know his father, Rich, and my condolences to his mother Mary and his wife, Leslie, and their kids. He had not long enough of a life, but an incredible life after an incredible tragedy. And, you know, I had Kevin Rica, who was one of the all-time greatest quarterbacks at Catholic University, probably the greatest quarterback at Catholic University. And he played at St. John's, and he played against Tim, and then they were the best

of friends throughout life. And he was on radio with me and told stories about Tim. And he said about Tim, because I asked him, I said, what kind of college quarterback would he have become? And Kevin said something to the effect of good enough to become a Sunday quarterback. That's where he would have ended up. He was, in high school, he was 6'4, 220, 225 as a quarterback. You know, played for McGregor, who was the coach there, you know, a Hall of Fame High School football coach, played basketball for Morgan Wooten. Really sad.

But my sympathies to Tim's family. Also, and I learned this this morning, I told you about this before the show. It was a bit of a shocker. I woke up to like multiple sort of DMs and a couple of text messages from guys that I used to play basketball with all the time. You know, there was, you know, up until four or five years ago, really the pandemic, I was still playing basketball two to three times a week. Maybe not three times a week, but twice a week. And there was, you know, in my 20s and 30s in particular, and even into my 40s, Bethesda Sport and Health, was like one of the places in Montgomery County,

any, you know, in our area, to go play pickup basketball. I mean, there were always really good players. It was competitive. It was fun. And you got to know a lot of those guys over the years and stay in touch with some of them, but I've lost touch with many of them. But I heard from some of them this morning that a guy that we played with, Ted Peterson, passed away suddenly a week ago.

Ted was such a great guy, Tommy. He was older than me, but he was a phenomenal athlete. He was, I think he was an All-American soccer player at Bucknell in like the mid to late 70s. He was one of these guys. He was always in shape. He loved hoops. He was the guy that, I think he was probably like you. He was going to outrebound everybody and he was going to set some of the best screens that anybody could set.

but he also was a really interesting guy, a very talented builder, an architect. Like, he's, I, and the reason I'm telling this story is to remember Ted and to his family, my condolences as well. But literally, he passed away on July 1st and two or three days, max, before that day. I ran into him in the parking lot of where my studio is because he had his business, in the same complex. And I would run into him, you know, occasionally, but I hadn't seen him in a long time.

And I ran into him. It turned out it was three days before he passed away. And we sat in the parking lot. It was like 5.30. We sat in the parking lot and talked for a half an hour and caught up on everything. He was such a good guy. One of these really intense competitors, you know,

when the game's going on, you know, I would refer to him as coach, because, you know, if I wasn't using the screen that he set for me, he would scream and yell and I'd be, settle down, coach, all right? But he, once the game was over, he was such a sweet guy, he was smart. Man, that was hearing that this morning from a bunch of guys that were always a part of those games at Bethesda Sport and Health in the 90s and the, you know, the 2000s, really. it was sad because and just, you know, one of those things that you just hate because I saw him. And he looked, I said, you healthy? He said, I'm great.

Everything's fine. And they said in the obituary that it was sudden. So to his family, who I didn't know, I didn't know his family, but I'm sure they will hear from a lot of people from the Bethesda Sport and Health Days that played basketball with Ted Peterson. because Ted was one of those guys that was kind of unforgettable for so many good reasons. And anyway, rest in peace, Ted and T. Tim Strachan. All right, Tommy. We'll be happier tomorrow on the show. Ben Standig is in Vegas for the Wizards Summer League, which starts tomorrow night. He's going to jump on.

We'll do very little wizards. We'll do a lot more skins and football team. talk. Anyway, all right, I'll talk to you later. Thanks. Have a good weekend. Okay, boss. Have a good weekend.