The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington Football Team

Episode Date: July 23, 2020

Kevin and Aaron start the show talking about the reveal of the Washington Football Team and their uniforms. Then, Kevin and Thom have a special vacation podcast to cover all the Skins' news of the week, preview Nats' opening night, and discuss mushroom logs. 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.

All right, a strange podcast today because we had breaking news once Tommy and I got done recording the podcast, the breaking news dealing with the team's name, the uniforms that they'll wear this year. Aaron is going to join me for a brief conversation on the breaking news that Adam Schaefter had moments ago. And then you'll hear the podcast that Tommy and I recorded a little bit earlier about all the news of the last week. etc. So Aaron's with me right now because this did break right after we finished the recording.

Adam Schaefter saying that effective immediately, Washington will call itself the Washington football team pending the adoption of a new name. That's what league sources tell ESPN. It's not a final renaming or rebranding for the team. This is the name it wants to use until pending adoption of a new name at some point in the future. The team will continue the process of retiring the Redskins name. and hopes to be entirely rid of it on physical and digital spaces in the next 50 days by the September 13th regular season opener against the Eagles. Washington will not have any change to its color scheme. It will still use burgundy and gold.

The Redskins logo on the helmet will be replaced by the player's number in gold. So Dwayne Haskins, number seven, on the helmet will be a burgundy helmet with the number seven written in gold, I'm assuming. That's what it looks like on his Twitter account. Yeah, it's a burgundy helmet with the number seven on it. And when they wear white uniforms with burgundy bottoms, they've got the burgundy helmet with also the gold number on it. Schefter continues here. Hold on. I had it here a second ago. Washington will not have any change to its color scheme. The Redskins logo. The Washington football team will debut its home uniforms in week one against the Eagles

and its road uniforms in week two against the Cardinals. I'm assuming that that's burgundy at home and white on the road. He doesn't specify that for those that find that sort of thing important. The Cardinals are the week two opponent. If they wear red at home, the Redskins have to wear white. So I'm assuming... In the heat, it's part. possible that the Cardinals would choose to wear white.

Yeah, and maybe the Redskins home uniform will be a white uniform instead of the burgundy tops. Who knows? The rest of Schefter's story, while the Washington football team uses these uniforms and helmets for the 2020 season, it will be seeking the feedback of players, alumni, fans, sponsors, and the community for the new name it will use in the future. fans will be able to purchase Washington football team merchandise from fanatics and NFL shop in coming days. Now, this is exactly what I'm not saying I was the only one because I'm sure many other people suggested this.

But I suggested that they take their time and name the team FC Washington. I think that would have been perfect. That's my complaint about it. The fact of they're going with football team into the football club is crazy. Yeah, I would have gone FC Washington because it actually would have been, I don't know, more brandable and they would have sold a lot of that stuff for a year and then they could have come with the new name and the new logo in 2021. I would have done it that way, but that's not the way they're doing it. So anyway, I'm looking at what Schefter tweeted out for

the uniforms. It's a burgundy with white tops. It's a Dwayne Haskins mock-up, well, you know, number seven jersey. And, you know, it's the color scheme of, But it doesn't necessarily look like a Redskins uniform. It looks to me, Aaron, like a University of Minnesota uniform. I was going to say, it's a University of Minnesota uniform, and it's the Alabama helmet with the number on the side. Right, Alabama, Penn State, right? Does Penn State put the numbers on the helmet or not?

I forget. Alabama does. I don't think so. Alabama does. Yeah. It's a very, by the way, you know, scaled down, you know, non-exciting uniform, which will please a lot of older people. Like, I kind of like the uniform.

Obviously, I'm going to miss the old one. But, okay. I mean, color-wise looks the same. The helmet clearly looks different. Okay, what do we think about this? I'm not a big uniform guy, as you know. I don't really, I'm not that passionate about whatever the new name debate involves. I'm not in that debate.

I tweeted out a little bit tongue in cheek that the Red Wolf sounds like a youth basketball team to me. It does. I wasn't lying about that. It doesn't mean that I hate the name. Warriors, Red Wolves, Red Tails, whatever it is, I'm really just not into that conversation. It's going to be hard to sort of pull myself away from what this team has been.

branding-wise for many, many years. The bottom line is, I just hope the team goes 11 and 5. What do you think? You're younger. This is more important to you. What do you think of the uniforms? I think it's fine. I do think it looks a little bit, bland,

looks a little bit too much like the, you know, like you said, the University of Minnesota, and actually, it was funny. I just got a text from one of my friends who said the exact same thing about the University of Minnesota. But for a year, it's probably the right call. If they had rushed this, they would have gotten it wrong, whether it's the team name the logo, that they would have gotten some aspect wrong if they had rushed this and tried to get it out by week one. So just having it, it's fine for what this.

I think they could have done that. Like it said, whether it's FC Washington or Washington FC, that would have sold. That would have, people would have gone out and got stuff. This, I don't know if anyone's going to rush out and get gear. And it's funny. This came at pretty much the same time as the. Seattle hockey team dropping their name and logo, and obviously it's a very different situation. They've been planning this for two years, but the reaction to that compared to the reaction

of this is like polar opposites, because I don't know if you saw this. The Seattle hockey team is going by the Seattle Cracken. The Seattle what? The Cracken, the legendary sea monster, and the logo's awesome, and people are kind of freaking out about it. And just to see the people freaking out about that, and meanwhile, I saw someone tweet, you know, Seattle is a team that gets L.A.'s and Washington forgot to show up to the test again. No, I actually, I would disagree with that. I mean, it's what I felt a couple weeks ago is I wouldn't have rushed into this.

I mean, there's a lot of vetting. This is a year and a half, this is a year to two year process when you change a name and a brand. And they got to get this right. Plus, I can only imagine the legal hurdles with, you know, whatever they're trying to mark and whatever domain names they're trying to get. There's a lot involved in this. And the bottom line is, you know, I wasn't anyway, like, waiting for the new name to come out and so excited about it. I can live with this for a year. I can live with anything that they're going to do moving forward at this point. But I just would have preferred FC Washington. I think that's the thing. In some ways, it would have been a bit of a slap back at everybody to going with a soccer-themed name.

It would have also been easier, as you said, than Washington Football Club. But everybody's just going to refer to them as Washington. And people will refer to them, and you'll hear it on a broadcast many times, as at the very least the skins in this first year without a new name. So, yeah, I actually think waiting and not rushing is one of the smarter decisions they've made about anything in a while. actually the more I think about it and maybe

they would have they would have gotten something wrong had they wrong I don't know what they would have gotten wrong but they would have gotten something wrong and it's very possible that they have the name in their hip pocket but they haven't been able to clear it legally and they think it's going to take time you know marking things takes time anyway it's hard to rush that that process through so anyway

I've tweeted out sheftery I've retweeted Schefter's tweets which have the picture. It's not going to be hard for any of you to find the photos that have gone out on the Redskins uniform, but they will for the time being, and it looks like for the 2020 season, be the Washington football team. And they will take their time on the renaming of the team and the rebranding of the team, which I think makes a lot of sense. They could have rushed into this, gotten it wrong, and then had to change it again a year from now. And, you know, they did make that promise early on, which Schaefter writes about that they're going to, you know, seek the feedback of players, alumni fans, sponsors. Sponsors are

really important in this process for them. And that takes time as well. And, you know, they've got a new VP of media and content and Julie. And I would imagine that Terry and Dan and Julie are all huddled up together considering all these different options and it probably with new people in the organization they wanted to take their time on this. It makes sense to me. Anyway, what else do you have? Is that it? That's pretty much it. All right. We heard from Aaron today on this special podcast, but now you're going to get the earlier recorded version where Tommy and I had no knowledge of the Schefter News on the Redskins name and the uniforms. So enjoy that. And I will be back on Monday from the supposed vacation that I was on this week.

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You're listening to The Sports Fix. Yes, it is a special edition of the Sports Fix podcast. I was on vacation this week. Wait a minute. I am on vacation this week. But I'm back home. I was away for just a couple of days here and there. And I decided with Tommy's urging to come in and do a podcast today

instead of waiting until next Tuesday. It is Thursday, right? So this is a normal sports fix day. Yes, it is. There are a lot of people out there that Tommy have urged me not to take vacation at all, which I can appreciate that. And I'm happy that they miss the show when we don't have it. But we're going to take some days off every once in a while.

I heard your wife and your family were among those that didn't want you to take a vacation. Actually, they just want me to take a vacation by myself. That's what they want. They would like me to take me to go. go somewhere by myself. But we've had, you know, so much happen since our last podcast, which I think was on Friday. I think we did a Friday podcast. We've had a couple of columns from you. We've had all of the follow-up to the Redskinned statement, which was pretty much the last thing we commented on. We've got Terry Bateman's hiring or elevation within the organization. We've got Julie Donaldson's

hiring. We've got opening day in baseball. We've got some Rooney Rule, you know, infractions potentially for the team. And, you know, Antonio Brown in the span of about 48 hours, said his career was over, and now he wants the league to consider his case once again. I mean, this guy is bipolar textbook. But also we've got Sally's column, which I do. Actually, you know what, Tommy, I want to read from that. Those that haven't read Sally's column from yesterday.

I think it was out late yesterday afternoon. She eviscerates Dan Snyder. She nails it per usual. You and Sally are my two favorite columnists. I like Barry. I like shine. And I like a lot of columnists in town. But in terms of the wicked keyboard,

in terms of really being able to go after people, it's you and Sally. That's where the... Well, I always say that most people in this town write with velvet glow. Not you. No. And not Sally. And not Sally. Sally really went after Snyder. And, you know, the, the net of it was that Daniel Snyder is a problem for the NFL, but the NFL owns Daniel Snyder as its problem, because it hasn't done anything over the years. And real quickly, because I had a thought a few days ago about the Snyder situation in terms of the league, not really wanting him to be an owner, wanting DC, rescued as an NFL town. You know, Tommy, they made a mistake with the cheerleading scandal. They should have disciplined the Redskins for the cheerleading scandal. It should have served as a

warning that, you know, if you, if something like this comes up again, that's it. You know, they didn't find them. They didn't dock them any draft choices. There was no public that I know of reprimand. There's no private reprimand based on what I know. Because the story in the post last week, as we discussed, was as a standalone entity not enough to get him to get the owners to vote to force him to sell the team. But if they had been more proactive with the cheerleading New York Times story in 2018, in aggregate, the whole thing may have been enough. Yeah. No, you're right. I mean, if you're a multiple offender, And you've been before the court.

When you should go to before the court again, you're going to get hammered usually. Right, but they didn't. So they're sitting there with the story last week, which I have a comment on here in a moment because there's something, a couple of things that were interesting about the follow-up to that story in the post by the team itself. But I wanted to read this one sentence or paragraph actually from Sally's column because it deals with the radio station that you and I were both working for, and we were doing a show together at the time.

She writes, after basically going through all the different transgressions and the cheerleading thing, she says all of that stuff should have forced a sale. And then she writes the following. Remember in 2009 when the promise of wet cheerleaders was sold to contestants in that radio car wash promotion, with the heavy breathing on the sports talk station Snyder then owned, asking the audience to imagine a sopping cheerleader soaping up and scrubbing you,

and the station's website picture of women in thongs and high heels holding buckets and sponges. I don't remember that spot. I don't remember it either. I don't remember it. It doesn't mean it didn't happen. Right. But I'm going to tell you that...

We would have talked about it on the air if we came up on our show. There was a group text, you know, among several of us, you know, at the station saying, does anybody remember this? I don't... I haven't seen anybody weigh in. Everybody says, I don't remember that. Now, it's possible that it was outside produced and ran, you know, as a spot. on the station. I'm certainly not

disputing Sally's assertion. I just don't remember it, but what's really scary Tommy, so you and I were doing the show together in 2009. We started at some point in 2008. Yeah, and if you recall... Actually, we didn't

start until August. It was August 2009? Yeah, this could have happened before then. Yeah, but I was still at the station and you were still on the station. I know. I know. Because before that, I was doing a show by myself. Before that, I was doing a show with Doc, for a year and a half, and I did, obviously, the show with Rigo and Gary Braun for two years when Snyder bought the station

and launched Red Zebra. But one of the things I do recall from those early days of Red Zebra is there were a few of us that were always asked to voice a lot of spots. You know, I was, Zabe was, Andy was, Scott Jackson was. There were a few of us, you know, I think Scott Lynn, I mean, they would just say, hey, can you voice this real quickly? And I would do it, you know, because, you know, we're trying to build the company, trying to grow the company. And, you know, some people would balk at the rate or whatever.

I would just read it unless it was something terribly offensive. And then I would say no. I can't remember being presented with much that I felt was terribly offensive. as you know, I would have been willing to read anything back then, but I do not remember this contestant car wash promotion with a sopping cheerleader soaping up and scrubbing you add. I don't remember that. I don't remember it either.

It could have been a heavily promoted website then. I never looked at a website. That's true. I didn't either. We both blogged on the website, but remember, I mean, God bless whoever was managing the website. I forget what that dude's name was, but it was such a convoluted, cumbersome website. So I never, I mean, there could have been all kinds of stuff on the website.

I would have never paid attention to. But, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if it ran on the station, but I do want to make it clear because I read that this morning, and a lot of us were like, you know, who were all at the station and you were too, and this is the first you've heard of it, none of us remember this particular promotion or spot. And this is one that I think we would have remembered. Yes, especially if we had, especially if it had played during our show, we would have talked. We definitely would have.

Yes. We definitely would have. It is a really good column from Sally. to get to your columns, especially the one about Beth Wilkinson here shortly as well. But, you know, her overarching theme is essentially that he's done enough to be forced to sell the team. But one of her points, and it's a good one, is that a lot of times, you know, the other 31 owners are essentially in self-preservation mode because they know if they go after him, even though they realize that this franchise is an embarrassment to the league and that perhaps there is enough

there overall to really go after them. A lot of these people understand, you know, they're for the grace of God, go I. I've been saying that for weeks. Yeah, and they've got a lot of skeletons that they're protecting themselves. Yeah, look, look, this was Cuban's reaction during the Donald Sterling controversy. People forget. Mark Cuban was cautioning against riding Donald Sterling out of the NBA because, again, the owners have this idea. If they can get rid of him, then maybe they can get rid of me someday. Right.

Yes. They're all reluctant to do this. So before we'll get to your column, we're going to get to the hiring of Terry Bateman, the hiring of Julie Donaldson. We're going to get to all of the stuff that we've missed here over the last couple of days. I know you've done some radio this week with Chad, but I haven't done anything since Friday, but we're in here. We're in here talking about this stuff, and that way we won't have to spend all of Monday and Tuesday getting caught up.

Although there could be a lot that – in fact, there will be a lot that will happen between now and early next week, I am sure. But I wanted to just mention and go back to the press statement of last week that the team put out after the Post story. We read it. It was the, it basically came out while we were on the air, while we were recording, excuse me, not on radio, recording this podcast. And it was a statement from owner Dan Snyder that read the behavior described in yesterday's Washington Post article has no place in our franchise or society. This story has strengthened my commitment to setting a new culture and standard for our team, a process that began with the hiring of Coach Rivera earlier this year. And then he gets into the whole Beth Wilkinson a hire in what she's going to do. And I said to you, there's no

apology here. There's no taking of personal responsibility. You had already done a really good job with your column of comparing the Cuban thing and the Richardson thing saying this was more of a Cuban thing, not a Richardson thing, which you were spot on with. And I said, you know, the difference is Cuban took accountability and responsibility. And this has been the problem with this franchise for 21 years. And we've talked about this ad nauseum, especially in recent years, is there is an arrogance and a lack of self-awareness that he's the problem, that he can't and hasn't looked himself in the mirror and said, well, maybe it wasn't Mike, maybe it wasn't Jay, maybe it wasn't Bruce, maybe it wasn't Vinny, maybe it wasn't Marty, maybe it wasn't

all of these other people, maybe, just maybe it's me. And, you know, even if you don't believe that to be true. In that moment last week, your public relations people have to say and convince him, it doesn't matter if you think it's true. You've got to take personal responsibility. You're the owner of this organization. This culture that was created was created on your watch as the owner and the CEO and the chairman of the board of this company. And we talked about the quote from Cuban the day after the allegations. And whomever tweeted that that was a quote from later on is wrong. That was the quote. I tweeted out the quote from Cuban the day after the allegations, and then there were many more quotes from Cuban after the investigation where he was incredibly

apologetic. But he said the day after the allegations about the Mavericks, I didn't know and I didn't have an explanation. I can give you lots of reasons, but they don't matter. What matters is it was my responsibility and I have to be accountable for it. Well, that's obviously not what you got from Dan Snyder. You didn't get any of that. And what was really interesting is a couple of days later, I think it was on Saturday, Cuban on a podcast, Tommy said, whoever, and I'm paraphrasing here, if you know Dan Snyder, if you're involved with the Redskins, you got to tell Dan he's got to accept the mistakes that the organization's made, and he's got to take personal accountability for him. You know, that came out a couple of days after the fact. We still haven't gotten that. But this leads to this, and this is what I want to share with you.

I was sent by multiple people, people who work with the Redskins and are clients of the Redskins. And I had multiple people send me the letter that came from their sales team on Friday or Saturday shortly after the Post story. And I'm going to read just one part of it. I'm not going to read the whole thing. But this particular paragraph, I think, really sums up what the organization thought about the Post Story. story. I know there was a lot of wild stuff flying around on the internet social media the past few days. I assure you none of it's true. The attached post article is the only legitimate reporting on this matter. This came from the sales and marketing department to clients last week.

Tommy, that story, we talked about it briefly here on the podcast Friday. That story in the post given the buildup, which had Jeffrey Epstein and paying off refs and all of these crazy internet rumors, that story, believe it or not, emboldened them. That's unbelievable when you think about it. I mean, that's basically, you know, they thought they were going to be caught in a web of horrific crimes. And this is bad, but it's not as bad as bad as. as everyone thought it would be.

So you're right. It did. They thought it was like a moment. Like they said, wow, we dodged the bullet on that one. Right. I mean, how do you, they attached the post story. So that their clients, all of whom I'm sure have read it already, in case they missed it,

this is the only legitimate reporting that 15 women came forward and accused us of sexually harassing them. This one is legitimate. the other stuff, the internet stuff that was flying around was not true, but this is true. I mean, that's really, you know, the analogy within that organization is when the Supreme Court ruled on that Asian American rock band, the slants, that they had the right to use that name even though it was disparaging. It protected their First Amendment right to be disparaging. And when that ruling came through, that was essentially the ruling that protected.

the Redskins trademark. That was a huge win for the organization. What they should have done is kept quiet and not said anything about it. But they put a press statement out where the owner said he was thrilled with the decision. And like I remember having this conversation at the time probably with you. That how do you put out a press statement that says you were thrilled with a Supreme Court decision that gave you the right to use a disparaging name. Regardless of what you think of the name. It's just so ass backwards. And this from their sales department last week is essentially saying, hey, 15 women coming

forward and accusing us of having a culture that was hostile towards women in the workplace, this is the truth. The other stuff you heard, it's not. It's not the truth. We're fine with this. It's remarkable to me. It really is. But it just illustrates how clueless they are about who they are and how they act.

It really does. And again, you know, if you are out there listening and you're a Redskins fan and you're defending this, look around at the people in your house. look around at the people in your family and say, is this a side you really want to be on? I'm not talking about your fandom. I'm talking about defending the organization. There is no doubt, and this is going to be repetitive from last week, there's no doubt that some people read that story, and in the context of all the wild Internet speculation, said,

oh, it's not nearly as bad as I thought. But again, if that got delivered to your phone without any pre-cell, you would have understood, as we both do, that is a damaging, damaging story. You know, it's when you read these stories, typically it's one to two people that come forward. And you can be skeptical all you want, regardless of what you feel. But, you know, each situation, you can say, boy, I don't know, that sounds, I don't know. That sounds, I don't know who to believe here. When 15 women, 15 come forward, I'd lean heavily in the direction that there's a problem there. I would.

That's just me. And not to mention that obviously, you know, we've had, well, we haven't as women. We've had, you know, experience, you know, beyond what a lot of you who listen to us have, you know, have, you know, have, you know, have, you know, have. had with the team and the stories. And some of them true, some of them not. But there's, there's, we've been trying, we've been talking about a culture problem there for, I don't know, 10 years at least. At least. All right. Let me tell you real quickly about a new sponsor here on the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast on a sports fix Thursday with Tommy. We're going to get to Tommy's column here next. And then we'll get to the hiring of Terry Bateman, the hiring of Julie Donaldson,

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Go to manscape.com today and use the code, The Athletic 20. All right, we are welcoming of all new sponsors here on the podcast. We need them. We need all the sponsors we can get as we head into. Actually, some sports now, Tommy. Baseball gets started tonight. We'll get to that here momentarily. But share with everybody your column about Beth Wilkinson,

who the team has brought in as an independent investigator. Well, Beth Wilkinson is a big-time heavyweight lawyer. I wonder what the billable hour charge is from Beth. Wilkinson. I mean, it's got to be pretty significant. She's represented big-time clients. I mean, she's represented, I think, Microsoft. She's represented, I forget who else. Brett Kavanaugh, she's represented Hillary Clinton. Yeah, but I mean, big-time corporations, big-time corporate. Philip Morris, you wrote your column, if I recall. Morris, Pfizer, Georgia Pacific, you know, and she also, earlier in her career, helped prosecute Manuel Noriega, the dictator in Panama.

And I suggested that this would be good practice for her case with the Redskins to think of the team as Panama and Snyder as Noriega. Except this time she's got to protect the dictator, not imprison them. I don't care what kind of language the retainer said between Dan Snyder and, you know, Beth Wilkinson in terms of independence. He did not hire her to implicate him in any way, shape, or form. He is the client. She is the one getting paid by him, no matter what language may be in any kind of retainer. I mean, he is not going to risk hiring somebody who's going to, like I point out my column,

you don't need to be Beth Wilkinson to figure out what the problem is here. So I'm very skeptical of this. And I think people need to understand that this is not an independent investigation, no matter how many times they claim, you know, she's allowed to come up with whatever conclusions, wherever the conclusions may lead her, that's baloney. I mean, pay attention to what this organization has done for the past 20 years. And all of a sudden, they're going to do that?

No, I don't think so. Now, the league, and I'm looking for it, put out a statement last week as well. And I'm going to paraphrase it here. but essentially they will wait to weigh in on the Redskins situation, the skin situation with respect to the Post story until after the Beth Wilkinson investigation. So they are allowing the team to investigate itself. Is that the proper way to describe it? Yes.

Yes, they are. No, they're allowing to do that. And from what I've read, they differentiate between this and Richardson, which they investigated because Richardson was the direct target of the investigation, whereas this is about the organization. That's the way they differentiated. That's why the NFL is not investigating it now, the Redskins. This is about the organization as opposed to directly about Snyder.

Here's the league statement. Let me just read it. These matters as reported are serious, disturbing, and contrary to the NFL's values. Everyone in the NFL has the right to work in an environment free from any and all forms of harassment. Washington is engaged outside counsel to conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations. The club is pledged that it will give its full cooperation to the investigator, and we expect the club and all employees to do so. We will meet with the attorneys upon the conclusion of their investigation and take any action based on the findings.

Okay, so you don't think that there was any league involvement in hiring Beth Wilkinson or the league pushed Dan to hire Beth Wilkinson to do this? You don't think that... Oh, I think they did. I think they did. I mean, she's very familiar with the NFL. She's represented the NFL twice. She represented the NFL in a class action lawsuit, basically,

involving the NFL Sunday ticket package. and she also was one of the league top lawyers defending their position in a concussion lawsuit. In fact, this is the quote that everyone should remember when they're talking about the independence of Beth Wilkinson in this investigation. This is a quote to reporters during the concussion lawsuit. We strongly deny those allegations that we withheld any information or misled the players. That's what Beth Wilkerson said. And that was the league. The league hired her.

Yeah. So, no, I think the league connected them. I think Beth Wilkerson is going to find out if she hasn't already that, and maybe she doesn't care. And maybe it's been same with other defendants. But she's going to get dirty doing business with Dan Snyder. She's going to get messy. She's going to get dirty. Yeah, I'm just, you know, I was trying to think of, you know, the Wells investigation into Deflategate.

You know, the league hired Ted Wells to investigate Deflate Gate, the Patriots, you know, cult scheme. I think they're partners. Where they were partners. I'm not sure. Well, I mean, I guess the point being is I think that they hired Ted Wells in effect. A lot of the owners wanted to get Belichick. They wanted to get Kraft and Belichick. And we're not going to relitigate this.

The Wells report was like a seventh grade science study. I mean, it didn't even understand the ideal gas law, which was crazy after all the money the league spent on that investigation. But this is different. This is, I guess what I'm wondering is what do you think the league is hoping Beth Wilkinson will find? You know, we understand that many owners and, you know, maybe a significant majority of the owners, want this embarrassment of a team to change ownership. This is an important city for them. It's an important market.

And it's been an embarrassment of an organization that's represented it. What do you think they're hoping, when they go and talk to Beth Wilkinson at the end of this, what do you think they're hoping to find? If Dan's controlling this and this isn't going to be truly independent, they're not going to find anything. No, they're not. They're not. I mean, it's not going to.

Why would the league allow this then? Why wouldn't the league assign the investigator? Well, because, again, I'm not sure they want to push to get rid of Dan Snyder at this point. I mean, that's the only explanation. I mean, I love it. It should be easy to get rid of Dan Snyder. I mean, it really should. I don't know if it is.

I don't know if it is. I don't know. if it is easy. You know, what Sally writes, and what you've already said is 100% true, is, you know, they're very hesitant to, you know. But that's different. That's the, if they decided, okay, we want this guy to go, it should be easy. Once they decided they want him to go, it shouldn't be difficult to make the case.

But not if there's not direct implication like there was in the Richardson case. Not unless you've been building this case, which. which, again, I'll mention I don't think that they did enough in response to the cheerleading scandal. The league should have been really tough on him because it would have been part of building a case, formally building a case. I don't know that they've done that, do you? I just think Dan Snyder does not go along, whether the league recommended it or not, with hiring a lawyer who's going to implicate him. I just think this is just a whitewash exercise.

And she'll play ball. I mean, you know, she's, I mean, anyone who stood before reporters and made that kind of claim is going to play ball with the league. Or, or in this case, Dan Snyder. Meantime, Woody Johnson, you know, the Jets owner, who's also the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., is in deep trouble because of allegations that he's made racing. remarks in the past. And this is the kind of thing that definitely becomes an issue where you can oust an owner. You know, if something like that's proven, we saw it with Jerry Richardson. You know, if there's a direct link between the owner and the accuser, then the league is all on board and taking you out. We don't have that with Snyder. We just have a culture that's been,

that he's overseen that's been, you know, incredibly sloppy and toxic, which has led to, you know, the embarrassment that the Redskins that this organization has become. By the way, you and I have both agreed. I don't think I've ever heard any story related to racism with Snyder. Me neither. And, you know, I told you this. I would have been surprised had he been directly linked to some sort of accusation. I've not heard that about him.

Well, I can't say in the past week, based on conversations I've had, I can't say I would be that surprised anymore. Okay. But you're talking about on non-racist topic. Yes, yes. I was told like a year ago that Woody Johnson was actually one of the few owners. that Dan was close with, ironically. Of course. All right, let's get to the two hirings that the Redskins made here this week.

The hiring of Terry Bateman, who we know, and the hiring of Julie Donaldson, who we also know. Let's start with Terry. Terry was hired as the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the company, takes on that role effective immediately. this is the, I believe this is, I could be wrong. This is essentially now the number two position in the organization. It's certainly the number one position on the business side. You know, we have had these conversations in recent weeks about Ron Rivera being completely

overwhelmed and overloaded. Well, this and the possibility that they would hire a team president. Well, Terry didn't get the team president title like Brian Lafamina did. but this is a Laphamina role. You see it that way, right? Yes, yes, I do. So what are your thoughts about Terry? Well, here's my thoughts about Terry.

If you really want to get the goods on Snyder, you take Terry Bateman in a room somewhere, Law and order style, and you sweat them. because I'm sure that Terry Bateman knows where all the bodies are buried. And I hope I mean that figuratively. You do mean that figuratively. I mean, Terry, this is the third time Terry Bateman has come back to work for Snyder. I can't, I can't, it shudders me to think of what that man has seen.

All right, I'll keep this brief because we all, know Terry because Terry became the CEO of the radio station a few years ago with really the primary purpose of selling it. You know, that was ultimately what Terry was brought in to do was to try to prop it up and get rid of it, which he did. And, and I got to know Terry a little bit, not super well, but I got to know Terry a little bit. And, you know, compared to a lot of the people out there. I always felt Terry was a lot brighter than some of the other people that were out there. This definitely reeks of, you know, staying with somebody that Dan is comfortable with and knows and trusts. I agree with you on what you could learn from Terry, but I think he'd be one difficult

guy to sweat out the details from. I do. He would not be easy to get that information from. But, you know, whether or not this is a – but, you know, in many ways, you know, I read this story this morning on the Redskins. I think Jason Reed wrote the story about the Redskins being, you know, investigated now about a possible Rooney Rule violation in the hiring of Terry and even Julie. You know, Terry's basically, for all intents and purposes, really never left the. organization. You know, he's had formal positions. He's had informal positions. He's been an advisor or a consultant. He's been an employee. So I don't, and I know that, you know, he was the one, Tommy, who addressed the entire organization when Lafamina got fired. Terry was the one that addressed the organization. It wasn't Dan. It wasn't Bruce. It was Terry, who informed everybody,

uh, yeah, that, that guy that we brought on that, you know, was was a little bit too honest about our season ticket waiting list. He's gone. He's history. And he took his friends with him. And he took his friends with him. I have no idea what this really means. I don't know how the league would perceive it either.

And I don't know whether it's a Rooney Rule infraction or not, especially if he were already in the organization. And essentially they just gave him a new title. I don't know that. And I would think that I do know that the Rooney Rule extension here recently was to cover not just coaches and general managers, but front office hires, right? That's why this is an issue now because the matter, Jason Reed writes, the independent group that advises the NFL on matters of diversity and inclusion will formally request that the league investigate whether the Washington franchise adhered to the latest iteration of the Rooney Rule in its hiring of two high-ranking. executives earlier this week, the Fritz-Pollard Alliance, which assists the NFL in enforcing

compliance of the Rooney Rule, has questions about the hiring processes that resulted in Washington adding two officials in key roles at issue as whether the franchise flouted the updated rule in bringing aboard Terry Bateman and Julie Donaldson. Netting it out, I don't know if this is a Rooney Rule violation or not with Terry or with Julie. We'll get to Julie's hire here in a moment. speak to, though, if they did, you know, sort of just rush into it and just, you know, in the wake of the name change, in the post story, if they just did something without thinking about it and did it sloppily. Is that a word sloppily? They did it in very sloppy fashion. I mean, it would just go hand in hand with everything that's happened over the last 21 years where they just seem to always be a bit

disheveled in the way they operate. You know, it's very, it's very impulsive at times there. And at the same time, they kept Jay Gruden around for years, which was a shocker. Yes, yes, it was. But remember, if you want to look to an example like this of what we're talking about, they hired Jim Zorn to be a head coach. Yeah. Because he was the only one left.

I mean, think about that, Tommy. You know, the whole floating Jim Fossil out there, the fans went nuts up. Jim, I know we were talking about you putting together your staff and getting this thing done. It's not going to happen. I mean, I always think, you know, and this is such a small example, but very telling. I just think of last year when they did the London Fletcher induction into the Ring of Fame, and they spelled it, they chironed them on the big board in the stadium as London Flector. You know, it's these small things that.

that when you're bad, it just, you people will say, well, they don't pay attention to detail. You know, that stuff pales in comparison to 15 women coming forward and saying that they were harassed. I understand that. But it just goes hand in hand with the whole thing. And if they, if they forgot as an example that, you know, the Rooney Rule now also applies to front office people, it would be just like them. to forget that. You know, that's, this is just sort of how that stuff works out there. Look, Snyder, the organization, they have no friends left. I mean, publicly, in terms of public media, they have zero friends left.

Yeah. I mean, and in terms of the benefit of the doubt, they get zero, none. And they've done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt. they are guilty until proven innocent in everything that happens. And they've earned that right. Yeah, hard to disagree with that. Julie Donaldson, who was at NBC Sports Washington, Comcast Sportsnet before then, she got hired to be the senior vice president of media.

So she essentially is taking Larry's position where Julie will be in charge of producing all of the team-related content. You know, Larry was the play-by-play guy on radio, but Larry was also the host of Redskin Nation, and Larry, you know, co-hosted some podcasts, and Larry oversaw the, you know, all of the Redskins TV stuff, the Redskins website stuff, all that stuff.

And Julie got hired to take that position and be a part of the broadcast booth on Game Day. I know Julie, I like that. Julie, I wish you're the best of luck. I hope this really works out for her. It doesn't always work out great for people working in that organization. I wish her the best because I like Julie a lot. And I'm sure she'll do a great job. In terms of the booth, I don't know anything. So I'm just going to leave it at that. What I understand is that Julie isn't going to do play by play. I think I heard her say that on our station, but she's going to host the coverage. You know, radio game day

in the NFL for the Redskins radio broadcast included a pregame show, the game itself, and a post game show. You know, it also included Larry's show that he did remember Tommy that that aired an hour before the program, before the pregame that I did for 12 years. So I would, I certainly expect a lot of new ideas. You know, listening to NFL. NFL games on radio has been a diminishing thing for years now, especially in markets where the team stinks. And so it's especially been going down in recent years here because the team hasn't been any good. I mean, all you got to do is look at the television ratings. If the television ratings have sunk to, you know, new lows, it's not like all those people that stopped watching

it started listening to the games. They're not interested in the games. games. So the number one thing that will drive a larger radio audience and a larger television audience is winning. That's the number one thing. You know, of course. So they'll try, I'm sure, a lot of creative things, and I wish them the best of luck. And as far as the booth goes, many of you have inquired, I don't have an answer to any of that. I don't. Well, I push for you, buddy, when I was on with Chad Duke yesterday afternoon. That's... He asked me who I wanted in the booth, and I said, my boy, see him.

I would doubt that they would go in that direction. I'll leave it at that. I would highly doubt that they'd go in that direction. I mean, some of us have been in, you know, a position of frequent, long-form, intimate connection with fan base broadcasting for a long period of time. And therefore, a lot of people really know how you feel. I think people would understand, this is how I would think people would view me in terms of the fan base. They understand that I'm very passionate about the team, and I'm knowledgeable about the team,

but I'm also really honest about how I feel about the team. I don't think it needs any more description. And that honesty is, I know for a fact, hasn't necessarily. served me well at times with the group in Ashburn. But that's really never been my concern because you know this as a columnist and as a broadcaster in this format. If you aren't honest about the way you feel, you got zero shot. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So, anyway, opening day. Finally, 60 games sprint. I'm excited to watch tonight, aren't you? I don't know. I mean, this isn't opening day. And this isn't baseball. This is a joke.

I mean, I've no interest in this. I'm going to be watching. You know, the funny thing is I'm going to be watching and writing about it. But there was a time in a newspaper business where if you actually covered a game from TV, that was considered a no-no. You did not do that. that was unethical. You needed to be in the press box covering the game, but there's no point of being in the press box tonight

because they're reporters, they can't get on the field, they can't get in the clubhouse, and they have no actual contact with players. Everything has done to be a video, which I could do from here. So, I mean, I don't quite see the point. What's interesting is, you know, the Times once fired a guy for a cover and a game by television.

I just am sitting here listening to you talk about this, and I just have this flashback to the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000. Was it 2000? Yes. And Tommy's in Sydney, which, by the way, is one of the great cities in the world. And you enjoyed Sydney so much that you were covering events from a bar. What events were actually taking place in those restaurants and bars that you were in? Okay, I did not cover any sporting events from a bar.

Did you write a column from a bar? I covered the opening ceremonies from a bar in downtown Sydney. There was a time when that would have really been frowned on to cover the opening ceremonies from a bar. I didn't call my editor and tell them that, hey, I'm not going out to the stadium. him. I'm sitting here half loaded in a bar. I'll just cover it from here. I didn't tell them that. And how did you cover it? Was it on television? Yes. It was on television. I was there with some of my AP boxing writer buddy who convinced me not to get on the bus, but to stay there and drink with them. Just remember about casting the first stone there, partner.

No, I'm saying that, I mean, what was that? Now, let me just point out. We fired a guy once for doing that, but it was different circumstances. We sent him to Oakland to cover the Orioles on the road, and he covered the game from his hotel room in Oakland. Oh, if you're in Oakland, you might as well go to the game. I've been to that stadium. That was a pretty different circumstance.

Did I tell you that I've been to that stadium like three times to see A's games? Actually, twice, the third time we ended up not going to the game. Have I told you that? I think you have. It's not a great stadium. I've been there. Terrible stadium, but I had a very good friend of mine from high school, actually, and she worked for, lived in Northern California, and worked for the Oakland A's,

and when I was out in Northern California a lot during the 90s, went to a couple of games. Terrible stadium. Yeah, absolutely terrible. but yeah, so we fired a guy, but that was on the road. So I'm going to be watching, but 60 games, you know, an extra inning, you've got a runner starting from second base. You know, you've got, you know, social distancing. This is never going to see the end.

They're never going to see a playoff. It's not going to happen. Here's what I want to see tonight. I want to see after Bouncy throws out the first tip, I want to see them set up a table at home plate. I want to see Mark Lerner walk out there and Mike Rizzo walk out there, sit down, and Mark Lerner whip out a brand new five-year contract extension for Mike Rizzo, have him sign it, and then go home and come back in 2021. That's what I want to see.

That would be great. He deserves it. It's a joke that he hasn't gotten it. I am actually looking forward to tonight. I feel like this is the – actually, I think if I didn't share this with you on Friday, last weekend's memorial at Mearfield Village with Tiger Woods involved felt like the first real sporting event that I've been interested in since the pandemic began. That was golf. I know it was golf.

This is the first of the four professional major sports. this country to play since Rudy Gobert tested positive in early March, whatever date that was. And the fact that it is the Nationals and the Yankees on ESPN for the opener, I'm actually looking forward to watching, and we get Scher against Cole, Cole in a Yankee uniform. The last time we saw him, obviously, was in the World Series. I know that Kershaw is pitching tonight, too, for the Dodgers against the Giants. I don't know. I think I'm sort of with you in that I don't know how much I can really embrace this right now. Football will be different for me, but I am excited about tonight to see the Nats for the first time since Game 7 in Houston and to see something.

I'm also curious, Tommy, to see what it's going to look like and sound like and feel like watching it with nobody there. Right. Well, Fox is going to, when the Fox broadcaster are on, they're going to create the illusion of fans. Yeah, they're going to pipe sound in, right. And they're going to have, like, virtual fans there. And, you know, I mean, my God, what kind of idiot is going to buy into that stuff? Well, I mean. You know, I mean, and this could be taking place tonight's game could happen in an abandoned warehouse somewhere.

It might as well. It just doesn't do anything for me because I think I know the end game. And the end game is everyone's going to go home before this is over and pray with their family that they didn't get COVID. Yeah. You know, there was a report real quickly that the postseason, you know, that hadn't been determined. Right. Because, you know, there was this incredible, you know, standoff confrontation between players and owners, which didn't benefit either party. But, you know, one of the things that the owners really wanted was an expanded playoff format.

They are discussing that again. I read that early this morning. And you could have a 16-team playoff in October after a 60-game sprint. You know, if there were fans and it was a normal health situation, I think that the 60-game sprint would actually be very exciting. But I'm looking forward to watching tonight. I'm definitely going to watch tonight. I'm going to be. I'm very curious.

But I get your overall sense that this may be rooting for something that won't see its completion. And that's definitely in play. I mean, it's very much in play. And when do people finally realize that these players are getting tested and getting their results within hours. And you're having to wait a week or more to get your result. I know. When are people going to realize that?

Well, remember, part of what the NFL's statement was, or maybe this was Adam Silver, I may have my leagues mixed up, but I think it was the NFL, was the notion that they can't take tests away from a, essential workers, that if they feel like they are taking tests away and because they've got a test so frequently, so often, and to your point, they're getting fast-tracked on the results, that that won't be something that they would do, although for $10, $11, $12 billion, they just might do it.

Yeah, they might do it, but the results part in particular, it should be troubling to people. I mean, because people are getting tests in part to make decisions maybe in the next week or so of their life based on those results and they can't get them. Right. The quality of the game will be interesting, too. I mean, we've had no spring training, really. That was a while back. These are real games. You've got anxiety over, you know, social distancing and how many times you're getting tested and whether or not somebody's sick.

and concerns at home. All of that plays into this. It's just, like we've said so many times, it's completely interesting and troubling time as well. All right. Well, I don't have anything else. Do you have anything else? I got one thing I wanted to share with you.

Okay. A deeply personal thing. Okay. Have you ever heard of a mushroom log? No. I have a mushroom log in my house, and it's growing mushrooms as I speak. What is it? I mean, is it like the mushrooms that come out of the ground? It's, yes. It's a pretty long log that we had to cut in half.

A log, a log, you said, like as in not some sort of logging of how many mushrooms are in your yard on a piece of paper, but a log is in a tree log? Like you would buy, you know those fate logs that you buy for your fireplace? Right. It's like one of those except bigger. Where is it? Okay. It's in the kitchen right now, and it wasn't a pan next to the sink, and I had to look at it every morning. How did it get there?

Well, a friend of my wife, a very good friend, very nice woman, gave it to her as a gift, because she's, you know, my wife had suffered a broken leg and she's recovering from that and gave it to her as a gift, a mushroom lock. And sure enough, there are mushrooms growing out of it. But these aren't the, I mean, what kind of mushrooms are they? Are they Shatakis? I don't. I don't know, Kevin.

Look, I don't even like to say the word mushrooms. Oh, see, I love mushrooms. I can't stand mushrooms. the sight of them offends me, and now I have them growing in my house. I just wondered if you had ever heard of anything. No, I've not heard of it. I'm a little bit pleased that this thing that was so deeply personal to you isn't something truly serious, and I'm glad everybody's healthy and well, but I've never heard of a mushroom log.

I love mushrooms. love mushrooms. Well, maybe I should send this to you. No, I don't want a mushroom log just sitting there in my kitchen. Why not? You like mushrooms? I do like mushrooms. I like to purchase the mushrooms and then cook them and eat them.

I like mushrooms in my omelets. I like mushrooms on burgers. I like mushrooms as part of a pasta or risotto. Oh, God. I hate it. Mushrooms are good for you, too. But, I mean, I don't know.

I don't know if you eat these. I don't know what you do with them. I don't know what. You must eat them. I don't. You may want to ask if they are the, what we used to call way back in the day, the magic mushroom. That's a whole different taste and effect.

Yes. Oh, Tommy. Have you ever, have you ever done mushrooms? Yes. Yeah, me too. Yes. And it's not, I shouldn't say one time. I think I did mushrooms twice.

But I would never, ever do them again and wouldn't want anybody that I love in my life to do them. That is a true hallucinogen. Yeah. Yeah, I lived in Miami in early 70. What was your reaction to it? Because mine, I recall, was basically a lot of laughter. and then a massive headache, which I do recall from it, after the fact. Well, I remember outside the frat house laying on the hood of my car, looking up at the stars,

and, you know, waiting to see basically looking for aliens. I was looking for aliens and keeping track of how many aliens I saw up in the sky. And that's where I slept. I slept on the hood of my car all night. You know what? You were safe there. At least you weren't up somewhere high. Yes.

Or perhaps, you know, you may have decided, hey, that looks like an easy jump. Yes. But that was a lot more fun than having a mushroom log in my house. Well, yes. But kids, stay away from the magic mushrooms. Stay away from the hallucinogenic mushrooms. They're no good for you.

drugs are bad kids they're really bad um you know what you've talked me into getting some mushrooms and incorporating them into a meal somehow tonight i appreciate that i was wondering what we were going to do for dinner oh i'm going to send this thing to you no you're not i don't want that i don't want your mushroom log and liz wanted it anyway is she happy was it a nice gift for her listen Liz likes mushrooms but she doesn't want a mushroom log either It's an odd gift. Okay. But she's so nice.

This woman could have brought a plutonium cake, and she wouldn't get rid of it. Right. Right. Yeah. It's an odd gift. I'll grant you that. I mean, I had never even heard of one.

I did just look it up on the Internet, and it's just a log with a bunch of mushrooms growing out of it. They appear to be Portobello style. Shataki style, more or less. So... See, this gift should be yours. I should be sending it to you. No, I don't want that gift. But thank you anyway. All right, we're done. No podcast tomorrow unless there's a big story.

I will be back on Monday with a pod, and then Tommy will be back with me on Tuesday. Have a great day.