The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington Power-Ranked 29th

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Kevin opened with Washington appearing at #29 on NFL.com's "NFL Preseason Power Rankings". Kevin played and reacted to his radio show interview with Joe Theismann earlier today where Kevin asked Joe about Stefon Diggs' request to wear Joe's #7. Ben Standig jumped on with a complete recap of today's Commanders-Dolphins joint practice. And then, Andy Pollin joined Kevin to discuss his near 50-year radio career which may have ended yesterday.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Search Whatnot—W H A T N O T—in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away.   Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with my link www.ThriveMarket.com/SHEEHAN for $20 off your first three orders plus you’ll get a FREE $60 gift. 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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Everything you need to know about today's joint practice with the Dolphins. We'll hear the next segment when Ben's standing point. Ben was there for the entire thing. Following Ben, Andy Poland will be my guest.

Andy's last day on radio, at least for the time being, was yesterday. So we've got some looking back. to do on Andy's incredible radio career. We'll do that later on in the show. The show's presenting sponsor is always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation, windownation.com if you need new windows. Mention my name and they will schedule a convenient, fast, free in-home estimate. In just a few minutes here in this opening segment, you're going to hear a part of my conversation on radio today with Joe Thysman, I asked Joe if he would grant the request of Stefan Diggs to wear Joe's number seven. NFL.com put out today its preseason NFL power rankings.

Now, these power rankings during the season don't mean a whole hell of a lot. They're really useless in the preseason. I think I pointed out a few weeks ago. before training camp talking about the unpredictable nature in the next few weeks of training camp and preseason games and how they're you know they can be an incredible head fake but last year's you know sort of consensus top five teams included three that didn't make the playoffs Kansas city Baltimore and Detroit and then Seattle was basically somewhere around 20th they won the super bowl new england was 28th they made this super bowl who the hell knows um

about the NFL season before it begins. But, but Washington in the NFL.com preseason NFL power rankings came in at 29th. 29th out of 32 teams. That's ridiculous. A team with a debatable top 10 quarterback, and that's precisely why it's ridiculous. 29th, Jaden Daniels is a debatable top 10 quarterback. Remember the ESPN top 10 lists, the survey that Jeremy Fowler spearheaded of 70 GMs, assistant GMs, coaches, scouts.

The quarterback top 10 didn't include Jaden, but Jeremy Fowler told us he tied for 10th with Caleb Williams and Sam Darnold. And then Fowler picked like a small group of the 70 to break the tie, and they pick Caleb Williams to plug into the 10 spot. But Jaden is a debatable top 10 quarterback entering the upcoming season. And yet, his team is ranked 29th, the lowest ranked team other than Washington with a top 10ish quarterback, the Chargers at 17 with Justin Herbert. 12 spots ahead of Washington. Get this.

Here are the teams just a lot of. ahead of Washington in the NFL.com power rankings. The Browns at 28. The Giants at 27. The Cardinals at 26. Arizona's got the lowest over-under-win total heading into an NFL season in nine years at three and a half. Washington's at seven and a half.

Four games better than the Cardinals, and yet they are three spots behind. Arizona. Atlanta came in at 25, Tennessee at 24. Absurd. Ridiculous. Teams without legitimate starting quarterbacks are ranked ahead of them. That's just dumb. But again, who cares? I would be fine with, and I'm sure we're going to see Washington in the high teens to low 20s, not 29th. I mean, maybe Maybe 23rd, 24th, worst case? 29th out of 32 teams? I mean, here are the teams that are worse than them.

One of them is the team that they faced today. But here it is. The Jets are at 30. The Raiders are at 31 and the dolphins are at 32. So the team they face today is 32nd in the NFL. Here's what they wrote. Stefan Diggs is now a commander, which is cool, but Washington season truly hinges on Jaden Daniels returning fully healthy and finding a way to stay on the field.

That and substantial improvement from the defensive unit that has been revamped with a large influx of veteran additions after finishing dead last in yards allowed in 2025. This is the year in which Dan Quinn must prove he has strong coaching chops or else. It's also the season in which Daniels must prove he's more durable than he was in 2025, a task that undoubtedly becomes more challenging after losing left tackle Laramie Tunsel to a torn triceps. There's reason to be hopeful, really, at 29th, but it feels increasingly as if the commanders have to thread the needle to find success in 2026. It's not the way I would describe Washington as a preseason, you know, sort of analysis. They don't need to thread the needle.

Jaden Daniels has been healthy his entire football career until last year. Look, it may happen that he gets hurt again, and it may be like a lot of quarterbacks. Joe Burrell, Lamar Jackson, and I'm talking about really great quarterbacks, that he isn't available all the time. That would suck. I'm not predicting that. It would suck. but there are a lot of other quarterbacks that are great that miss a lot of time and have missed a lot of time in their careers. If he plays the majority, the significant majority of games, and I'm talking about 16, 17, they're going to win more games than they lose.

I really feel that way. I just can't imagine the defense could be anywhere near what it was last year. Of course, that would be a difference maker. Jaden could have a phenomenal season like Joe Burrow did two years ago. go in Cincinnati, and they could go seven and ten or eight and nine if their defense is horrendous. It's hard to believe that it could be worse than it was last year. And I think, you know, I think it's going to be a better defense. I don't know why I think that. Well, I do know why I think that. They've got better players and a lot of players that are new and better. Faster, better tacklers,

higher IQ. It may come down to the coordinator. It may come down to the coordinator. It may come down to the head coach picking the right coordinator, finding out if he did or not. On another positive preseason projection note, pro football focus, PFF, for whatever it's worth, ranked Washington's offensive line dead last 32nd in the league. They said that the O line would have been ranked inside the top 20 if Tunsell were healthy. So without Tunsell, PFF ranks Washington's O line at 30 second in the NFL. NFL NFL offensive line analysis is tough. You know a good one when you see it. I certainly thought with Laramie Tunsell, if Allegretti turned out to be okay or at least what Beattish was, this is a top half of the league offensive line. But PFF thinks differently

without Tunsell. One quick note about the Nats before I get to Joe T. The Nats announced earlier today they're bringing up left-hander Jackson Kent to start tonight against the Cubs. The Nats lost last night to the Cubs, 8 to 6. There's a lot of buzz about this call-up. Kent was in AAA, Rochester, but really lit it up earlier in the year in Harrisburg, AA. they also, by the way, are essentially moving on from Miles Michaelos. He was designated for assignment. I think they're going to let him find, you know, potentially a contender to play with for the rest of the year. But Kent is a guy that there's been a lot of buzz about, and this is a very anticipated major league debut within the organization. He was picked in the fourth round back in 2024. and throughout this past year, really, a lot of executives in the actual organization and around the league have really become big fans of this guy's potentially.

He's 3-220. He throws pretty hard. He's got three pitches. He's basically got a fastball, a curveball, and a change-up slider and a change-up. Yeah, I'm going to watch. I've been watching them a lot recently. Last night was a tough one trying to win a fourth in a row. The Cubs are really, really good right now.

All right. Joe Thysman was on radio with me today, and we talked about a lot of things. I'd encourage you to go listen to it at the Team 980.com. He joined me in the first hour of the show. I love having Joe on. Joe has a really good memory and remembers a lot of the stuff that, you know, you guys remember and I remember about him playing, and we always get into some of that.

But I did ask him about the Stefan Diggs request via social media to wear number seven. Now, you'll hear him discuss it. You'll also hear the conversation turn towards what he thinks of the Stefan Diggs signing. But anyway, it's a few minutes of what was about. about 30 with Joe earlier today. I got to get to this because I've talked about it the last two days on the show. I, you know, you know this and we've talked about, you know, in 2019, I was really, really pissed off that the owner would put it on you when it came to

Haskins. I thought that that was not the right way to handle it. And I know you won't necessarily say it and you didn't say it specifically then, but here we are again. And look, Stefan Diggs is a great addition. First of all, do you like the addition of Diggs? I do. I like the addition.

I felt like adding a veteran like him to the wide receiving core really, really makes a difference. I mean, Luke is there, the Army's there. Terry's, you know, healthy and no issues with contracts or anything else. And I think Stefan adds an element to this offense, which will make it dynamic. And you know what, in that regard, I know where you're going with this. Let me just say this. I've been going through the depth charts and both on offense and defense. If you look up the depth charts, the projected depth charts, the unofficial depth charts,

they list 12, 12 guys. What do you mean? Wait, what? The depth, oh, for a wide receiver. When you pull it up, they list 12 players, you know, the receivers and, you know, the receivers. and D. On offense, instead of 11, you're saying. And defense.

Yeah, no, no, you get, well, right. The depth charts. Yes, that's right, because you have an, you got a nickel corner and you've got an inside slot receiver that are added to the depth charts. And also a wide receiver. Exactly. But I mean, you know, and it's it. The other thing I noticed was, it looks like it's a lot of three receiver sets.

It looks like it's basically fundamentally going to be a three, four, which what really is a three, four today when you have edge rushers. I mean, who knows? But, you know, conceptually, I was looking at some of that stuff over the last couple days and think about it's interesting. But anyway, go ahead, ask you the question. I know what you're going to ask. Yeah.

So, you know, Stefan put out on Instagram, he's wearing 18 in training camp right now. And his high school number is seven. That's the number he wore at Good Counsel. And he said, for those that missed it on Instagram, you all got to help me get the goat. and he's referring to you to bless me with that number seven. So will you bless, I'll ask you just directly, will you bless him with the number seven? It's not mine to bless.

It's, that is a, that is a decision that is totally and completely up to the ball club. That, you know, that's, that is my, that's my belief. That's my feeling. Like you say, I've been down this road before. And to me, it's just, it's not my decision. It's up to the commanders to issue jerseys as they see accordingly. And that's where I leave it. And that's really all there is to say about it.

I know, but do you have a preference on, I agree with you. It is not for you to make the call. It's for the organization to make the call, but do you have a preference? All I'm going to say about it, Kevin. That's all I'm going to say about it. Well, then let me say, let me tell you what I think the organization. organization should do. And that is to tell Stefan Diggs, we're so lucky to have you. We can't wait to see how you perform. Pick another number. Number seven is protected. Number seven is one of those

jerseys at some point. We may decide to retire. So pick another number, period. That's as a lifelong fan of this team, and I would feel that way about a couple of other players too and numbers. But I hope that's their answer. I hope that's their answer. We'll see. But thank you. Number seven with me earlier today on radio. I think that thank you there at the end was a bit of a tell.

I can't be completely sure. But if I were a betting man and I am, I'd wager that Joe would prefer his number seven to remain protected, even though it wasn't in 2019. he was not happy about that, nor should he have been happy about that. That was disgraceful the way Snyder handled it. But until this particular organization now decides to retire it or not, it should be protected. Remember, because they started this process so late, we haven't gotten through jersey numbers

where the players have been retired for decades. I mean, Rigo's jersey is getting retired this coming season. I would expect Charlie Taylor's jersey, he retired in the 70s to be retired in 2027. If it had been an organizational practice to retire jerseys all along, we would know by now whether or not Joe's jersey was retired or not. But we got to get through, you know, the process of one a year catching up on all these years where jersey numbers weren't retired before we find out what they think about Joe's numbers. seven. But yeah, he handled it perfectly. Joe typically does. He's pretty good at communications. But I kind of feel like not only is this an organizational decision, but the decision should be to hold on to number seven until they are absolutely sure they're not going to retire it.

And then maybe you put those numbers back in circulation. At some point, we're going to get to, they're saying there are no more jerseys to be retired until the next wave. Maybe a Jaden Daniels down the road. Maybe a Terry McLaurin down the road, long time from now. But at some point, we'll get to, you know, okay, this is the list of jerseys that have been retired and everything else can be put back into circulation. I'll be fine with that when it happens, but we're not there yet. So Stefan Diggs should wear a different number. All right, Ben Standing was at the joint practice today.

Everything you need to know about it next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, I want to welcome What Not as a first time sponsor on the show. I have a feeling many of you are familiar with What Not. What Not is the largest dedicated live shopping platform where sellers are building real thriving businesses. It really doesn't matter what the product is. It can be beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury fashion, even cookies. Anybody can sell whether your business is big, small, or yet to exist. People selling on Whatnot sell 10 times more than on any other major marketplaces.

That's because you're not just listing products. You're building real connections with buyers. Across whatnot, the number of sellers making over a million dollars a year has doubled. Consistency pays off. This isn't a side hustle. It's a real path to building something that lasts. Whatnot buyers spend more than an hour a day on the app. They're not just browsing.

They're engaged, buying, and coming back. You go live, show off products in real time, and turn what you love into real income. Search What Not. W-H-A-T-N-O-T in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away. This second is show brought you by Window Nation if you need new windows or new doors. Window Nation is the place to call. 86690 Nation is the number. You can also go to WindowNation.com.

They offer more variety than any window company out there. Over 1,500 styles of windows to choose from. They're also a door company. So if you need new doors, have them come out and give you a free estimate. They'll leave you with a quote and then they'll leave you alone. That estimate will include half price off of everything, 50% discount on everything you purchase between now and the end of the month. Add to that, no money down, no monthly payments, and no interest charged until the year, 2028, two years of interest-free.

86690 Nation, windownation.com. Ben Standig has jumped on with me. He is on his way back from Ashburn, where Washington and Miami held a joint scrimmage today. So what are the headlines out of this joint scrimmage? First, I guess let me just say that, that whatever I'm about to tell you, understand that Miami is a really bad. their NFL team, but barely. So just keep that in mind. Jayden Daniels is really good.

I remember the first couple days of camp, you know, didn't look particularly accurate. You know, who was getting the rust out? They were playing all the red zone. However many throws he threw today, you know, it was a fair amount, maybe one or two were off target. But he was just dropping the ball into the receivers. hands over and over again, whether it was a deep shot down the right side to Traylon Berks,

whether it was a crosser right at the sidelines, Steve Van Jefferson, even if it's just like an underneath throw to a running back, you know, the ball was where it needed to be, you know, I just think that's, you know, for all the other conversations that we all have, and obviously, how is it going to be without Laramie Tunsell and all that, the quarterback looks sharp. So, you know, take that for what it's worth at this stage. And again, Miami not really good. But Jayden Daniels definitely looked apart. Now, because of the joint practice setup, the geography,

you kind of had to pick and choose. They wouldn't let us sort of stand in the middle of the two fields. So one field was where the offense was against Miami-D, and the other one to defense. So I was mainly with the offense. I did see some of the defense on the last series of an example of how dominant it appears the defense was today. Miami, like the last drive had like five plays.

They essentially would have had like three sacks if they were allowed to hit the quarterback. Malik Willis, I think on the other two balls, maybe threw one of them away, and the other one kind of didn't do much. They were just having their way with the Dolphins, again, not a very good team, but you still got to go out there and execute with the other teams in the past here that we thought could be good that fell short against supposedly inferior opponents, but they look on top of it today, the patch rush in particular. So, you know, obviously a really good sign, you know, on the first attempt here against another team.

11 on 11, did you learn anything about the way the offense, you know, went out there with ones versus ones or defensive ones versus ones? You know, maybe Logan could give you some sort of nuance thing. You know, there, but he just not showing a ton, you know, on either side of the board. ball. You know, I mean, there were, you know, just looking at the receiver formation, you know, we're so used to seeing Terry McCorn on the left side as he was the last two years that when I see him in the right slot, they're like, oh, wait, oh, that's what they can do this. This is a thing that can happen.

And then it's like she got to the right. You know, Gaden was both under center. He did a little bit out of shotgun. You know, again, I just think that the timing looked at, you know, there were a couple things, you know, there was a holding panel here to a false start. It looked like, you can't always tell what's going on, but like it looked at a couple times at the beginning that Jane was maybe, I don't want to say checking out, but it looked like he was communicating with his guys after everybody kind of was set. I don't always know what that means they were playing like loud music, you know, over speaker. So they tried to some degree, simulate conditions.

So I don't know what that was going on. But in general, I just thought they looked, you know, pretty smooth with what they were looking to accomplish. How does he look under center? Yeah, I mean, looks fairly normal. Nothing too outrageous. You know, he seems to be pretty comfortable in whatever he does, as we know, just watching him and listening to him does never seem to stress. Yeah, I thought he looked pretty good.

It was fun. I think maybe the first play they did it out of shotgun is the one where I mentioned that Trailerberg sort of came from the left side of the formation all the way across to the right and Jaden hit up such that Barks caught it and I was able to immediately turn up the field down the sideline. So, you know, that just happened to be the first play they ran out of shotgun. But yeah, I know you look pretty good. I will say they've continued.

Now, look, Stefan Diggs is obviously going to be a starter once all said and done. They stayed sort of with the 11 look that they've been going with, which is McLaren, Berks and McCaffrey, Giggs will, you know, working with the second group, but he'll be there eventually. So that was notable at least that they stayed with that to some degree. I mean, Berks, if Birx can keep this, what we're seeing out here right now, it looks real. If he can keep this up, you know, I mean, we could be looking at a really potent passing game. You know, get on. I don't want to go crazy.

The golfons are bad. It's training camp, all that stuff. But, yeah, I mean, if he's healthy, if he can keep this up, you know, we already know he can be a weapon. If this can stay on the field to be consistent. and so far he's been able to do that. You and I have talked a few times on radio about Van Jefferson. We both know that they really like Van Jefferson. Where did he kind of stack up?

Did you learn anything about where he stands right now in terms of the receiver depth chart? He was, like, I think, generally running with the second set of receivers, but sometimes that was still with Jaden Daniels. again, it's a wash-wrench repeat situation when it comes to him running routes. They were doing one-on-one against Washington's receivers against Miami's defense backs. And they were, when they were lined up on the right side, if the receiver did it down and in, it was basically the defensive back had no chance because you have all the field to work with, right?

So they were making play-up to play. Then they were doing sort of corner, they were doing like straight line routes or corner routes to the end zone. And that's now with the sideline, right, the defensive backs had a lot easier time defending. But one guy who won his route was, again, Van Jefferson, he, you know, was able to just sort of drive the defender back, immediately, you know, stop, turn, and, you know, do a little bit of a comeback. Again, he's just so clean and polished with everything that he does that, you know where he's going to be. and he delivers, you know, again, this guy just not drop passes. If he's dropped when in camp, maybe I missed it, but again, I used a stat with you before. He has not dropped it in two years in the NFL.

So, yeah, just incredibly reliable. But again, as we've discussed, I don't know how it's all going to fit. You know, they just have a lot of receivers and not nearly enough spots. So that works, I don't know, but he's definitely made a strong case for sure. What did the running back situation look like to you? So, first of all, Jeremy McNichols has been out on the last couple days, and today I found out that he's dealing with a quad injury. You know, he was at, we saw him out there, so it doesn't look like if he's serious. But in terms of the rotation, you know, that affects things a little bit.

They didn't have a ton of success on the ground, like in practice against when they're going, you know, inter-squad, scrimmages and stuff. You know, Bill has been able to break a few out today. Not as much. It looked like the interior part of the long. you know, maybe wasn't getting enough push and, you know, in general. But, you know, Bill, Rashad White, Jerome Ford, were the guys getting the primary work there, again, without my nickel. You know, now that I say that I didn't notice Ketron Allen,

which isn't to say he didn't do anything. I don't know, maybe I just blank on. Was Kroski Merritt out there first or Rashad White? No, it's been pretty consistent, Bill was out there first all-camp. I mean, and, you know, it's setting up at a minimum, Bill the early down guy and white, you know, the passing down. I will say there was one moment where they ran a trick play out of, I can't really say what it was, but the ball ended up,

it was the ball ended up in Bill's hand, to say, and he's down the sideline, and the Miami defensive back came up and gave him a big pop, and Bill didn't budge, didn't fall, kept going forward, basically, and the teammate, it was right by their Washington sideline, and the teammates were roaring Terry McCorn, Warren King running down to him and you let your yell, you know, hey, Bill, good job, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, he definitely looks tough.

He looks sharp and he put on some clear bulk, you know, upper body in his arms. So, you know, he looks good and, you know, he didn't notice it as much today, but so far throughout camp, you know, he's been a factor for them in the passing game of the guy that, you know, they don't throw to, you know, some short throws, dump down, things like that, get him the ball in space. So, well, yeah, no, he's definitely looked apart for sure. I mean, it's kind of hard in these joint practices to really evaluate it or even really notice it unless you're really paying attention. But did you pay attention to Brandon Coleman and how he did?

You know, there are some pass rushers on that Miami defense. The kid from Penn State, Chop Robinson, I really like as a young pass rusher in the league. I love their rookie linebacker Rodriguez. as I don't know if he showed at all number 10, I think, is the jersey number he's wearing. But any noticing of Brandon Coleman and or just overall offensive line play? Yeah, so typically when they were coming down the field, Brandon Coleman was on the far side, so Josh Connerly was the lineman closer. So it's pretty hard to see anything.

That said, it wasn't like I was noticing a lot of patch rush pressure coming from that side. If anything was more coming from the Connerley side of the line, I thought he looked solid enough, again, it's hard to see. But, like, I didn't notice any jail breaks coming out of that side for the most part. So, yeah, I think he was fine. I think Chris Paul, there was at least one play maybe where he got beat a little bad. But other than that, you know, it's, again, sort of the same thing. I didn't notice anything too crazy going on over there.

I think the center play, it's kind of where it's been. It's not, you know, there's a reason why they've brought in some other guys in recent days. It was still mainly Julian Good Jones out there with Jane Daniels. I just don't, I just can't imagine, forget the fact that we're assuming Alighare, we're assuming Alighredi your back, but I still just can't imagine if they're going to feel good about Good Jones as the backup, but they're the ones that said it was a competition, and he was part of it, so that's all in them. And, yeah, I mean, I think Josh Connerly, you know, Again, from where I could see a little up and down, he definitely got beat on one play.

One of their pass rushers, the past rushers didn't get to the quarterback per se, but he did, Conroy had to take him down to got called for a holding penalty, or, yeah, a holding penalty. So, you know, still a bit of a work in progress. I mean, I would say he's had a little bit of a bumpy camp. Obviously, it's not great to hear when Leonard Me Tonsol's out. But, you know, sometimes in these situations, the practices, you know, game days, one thing, practices are another and, you know, I think with his size, you know, when you can be really more physical, I think is where he'll be able to do a bit more.

Who would have won the left guard competition had Tunsel not gotten injured? Paul or Coleman? I think Coleman, I mean, that seemed to be sort of the general thought among myself and my media colleagues. You know, again, going into it, you know, Coleman is the better athlete of the two, more mobile, able to get to the second level, which is a bigger deal in this setup. So I feel like that's the case. And, you know, Chris Paul did drop by 20 pounds this offseason.

He didn't say he told me he didn't do it because of the offense or because the coaches said you've got to drop weight or anything like that. He said he wanted to see how his body felt lighter. And he said he really feels great. And, you know, hopefully that's the case because obviously they're going to rely on him a ton. I will also say in terms of the, like, obviously losing tons of the story, and hopefully Coleman can just be solid enough. He's never going to replace tons.

But it does further expose the depth, and the depth to me is a real problem. That's where, you know, it feels like they've got questions. It was, again, hard. Anything on the interior line in particular, it's just really hard to see what's going on. And, you know, like you can imagine working. It's a lot of ball watching. You know, that you're really making a point of watching a specific lineman. But I think that's an area where, you know, obviously they already brought in some guys.

It's not like there's a lot of people to sit at home who could have ready come in and play. But that's definitely an area where, you know, we're going to have to keep an eye on the rest of the camp here. At Ben's Standig on X, Ben's substack is must read. It's called Last Man Standig. And there is a deal going on right now, correct? Yes. Thank you for mentioning. Yeah, I'll screw Thursday morning 20% off the annual discount.

out. I would love to have you on board all the articles, live chat, you know, come on board. It's been great. I love it. And you know, thanks to people like Kevin from Peroni. I'd say, yeah, come on board. But do it. Do it quick. Hustle. I'm a subscriber.

I think you guys should be as well. And 20% off is really, oh, it's still just a couple of bucks a month. Go to at Ben Standing on X and you can link right to Last Man. standing.substack.com. All right.

I wanted to actually talk about something that you wrote this morning in covering the team on your substack because last year, Ben was very much the only person that saw Brian Robinson Jr. not being on the final roster, and this was before camp. Now, you know, you and I have talked about this before. I did say that if they drafted a running back on night two, Brian Robinson, Jr. would be gone. But they didn't. They drafted a running back in the seventh round. And so I thought Brian Robinson Jr. was going to stay. You had it right. You had it early. It was a hunch, along with some, you know, information perhaps that you had gathered along the way.

I think you wrote the column today that suggested the player that you think will be the surprise release between now and the end of camp or maybe a trade, who knows, but a player that won't be on the roster, why don't you tell everybody who that player is? And did I read it correctly that this is kind of not necessarily a Brian Robinson Jr. call? Because that was a bit of a long shot. This is still going to surprise some people, but I don't think at the level that Brian Robinson, Jr., did, but why don't you share with everybody who you think might be in trouble of making the final 53? Yeah, I think the safety room is deep issue.

You know, I think it looks like they've got some options. And the question is like, where does Kwan Martin kind of fit into this? Now, it's important to know, so Nick Cross is obviously going to be one of the starters. Jeremy Reeves again today, it was out there with the ones. And this is the core. I mean, what in the flow of the attention of all time. The guy kept getting cut, you know, before we've won to now, years later, moving up to look like he's going to start.

So the question, though, is, well, what happens after that? This is a team that's probably going to play a fair amount of three safety looks. Juan Martin's there. Will Harris is there. Percy Butler, Tyler, Tyler, O. And I don't know. It's hard to get a reason on what they think of Will Harris as well, because he's also been kind of gone back. But with Martin, you know, we go back to last.

year. He gets benched at the end of the year. There were a lot of people last year defensively who weren't particularly good, but I don't know how many that were getting benched in-game, and Martin got benched in week 17. Dan Quinn was, you know, set as much. And it didn't play really in the last game. And it just has not felt like he's kind of found the gear again this time. Now, my other point that kind of made this in the story is this is not, like Dan Quinn has not said anything along the lines of Juan's in trouble or anything like that, but just you know, pulling out, like going

with the body language deal, listening to how he speaks about some players versus other players, you know, when it comes to Jeremy Reeves, it's just nothing but positives up and down. Yeah, he's not the first coach to say that about Reeves, but nonetheless, in the context of the safety room, he's really going

hard for Reeves. One asked about Juan Martin, it's a lot of it feels like the equivalent of somebody saying, is she attractive, and then I'm saying, oh, she's a personality. Like it doesn't feel like it's, you know, it's like there's something that they're kind of holding back a little, a little bit. Now, if you ask me, what did he do today? I honestly don't, again, the defense was on the other field. I couldn't really say for, for sure, but he's just had a quiet camp. And I think the question is, do they feel comfortable with Will Harris as

the third safety? And then Percy Butler, Tyler, Tyler Owens, is that the plan that good with that? again, a situation where you're going to have extra, you know, seven receivers, possibly, four running backs, you know, 10 or 11 on the defensive line, can they keep six linebackers, all these kinds of questions, if you're going to do something,

the spot has to come from somewhere, and I just wonder, do they feel like going to need to keep six safeties? If they don't, is Juan Martin possibly the odd man out? Like you said, it's not, I'm not, I don't have the strong feeling a bad at all yet, in part because there's other people in the room that I still

also, it's hard to read. Last year, running back, you know, Bill was coming hard for that, for that situation, and, you know, he still had Austin Ecclars at the time. So that one was like, okay, I can see where this was going safety. Again, Will Harris has also been a little quiet, but I just feel like Juan Martin. I don't know. That's the one that if I get any kind of spidey sense, it's looking at him. Man, Steve Souter loved three players last year, I think, more than any others. He loved on offense, Chris Paul. He immediately said Chris Paul is their best

guard or the best guard at that spot. There's no way they can keep them off the field when Coleman gets healthy. And they didn't take him off the field. He loved Jacob Martin. I don't know how Jacob Martin's doing in Tennessee, but he got a deal there. And he even said recently with me, he goes, I just

don't know how they'll keep Reeves off the field. He's like, I don't care his status, he's special teams. He's too good to be kept off the field. He'd be playing a lot on my team, and it looks like he's going to be playing a lot on this team. Let's finish up with the kickers. How'd they do today? Well, the last practice, they were not good at all. This practice, bring out the fire emojis, combined 12 for 12, starting at about the 33 to kick, subsequent kick, goes back five yards, up to about like the 58. I've really, really, Where outstanding, I can't tell you if it was down the middle, but, like, they made them all.

And, you know, particularly with Jake Moody, you know, he had been not just one day struggle. He had been struggling four days, four sessions in a row. So good for him to get it, to get it back. Now, even that said, Stevens has been the more accurate kicker. And when you're watching, like, where we were standing, we were sort of standing, like, on, like, say, the 10-yard line looking at the goalposts. You know, Moody's kicking. It looks like a normal kick. Stevens is kicking it and at the ball of sailing past or sailing through the goal of the upright.

It's like at the top of the upright. It's just a lot of height, more speed. Remember Dustin Hopkins? Man, the ball just comes off his foot different than everybody else. But Stevens had a massive leg at Iowa. So it just looks different than Moody's kick. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I thought if Moody was going to get the job, it was going to be because he's the one

this was more accurate, more reliable, you know, trusting with that. But since he's the one that's had by far more misses and the other kids got what appears to be a bigger leg, again, they both made from 58 today. So kudos to Moody on that. But in general, Stevens is the one that's looked like, you know, more of a weapon in this era where kickers are routinely making field goals from 55 plus. So, you know, long way to go.

Obviously, there is a game Friday. I'm sure it would be fantastic for them to get, you know, a handful of opportunities, to get these guys out there. And, you know, if Stevens can go out there and make kicks in that situation, then, you know, I kind of feel like he's in the lead and may be comfortably, but good day for both of them today, for sure. Thank you for doing this. I will talk to you on Friday on radio.

Appreciate it. Yeah, man. See you. Ben Standing, everybody. Andy Poland will join me next after these words from a few of our sponsors. If you're tired of the following bad combination, inflated grocery prices and unhealthy shopping, I've got the answer for you.

It's Thrive Market. I've been telling you about Thrive for over a year now. It's a membership-based online grocery service. For just $5 a month, $5 a month, you get access to a curated selection of organic and non-GMO brands, 90-plus dietary filters, weekly sales, free gifts, and the peace of mind that a thousand, plus ingredients are already restricted. One annual fee, priceless piece of mind. My wife and I have

already restocked for the summer from their frozen section and for our dog from their very vast selection of pet food items. And we're doing it for a $5 monthly service fee and member pricing of up to 30% off plus weekly sales, plus price matching, plus free delivery on qualifying orders, All part of the membership. One membership covers the whole family, even when everyone eats differently. No more decision fatigue. Your filtered results only show what fits your household. The fact that I can filter the whole site by high protein or low sugar or any other number of examples in seconds makes this a no-brainer.

Ready to do your own spring reset? Join ThriveMarket with my link, ThriveMarket.com slash sheen, for $20 off your first three orders, plus you'll get a free $60 gift. If you get a chance and you don't mind doing it, rate for review this podcast. It's really big for us to get as many ratings and reviews as possible, especially this time of year heading into football season. Both Apple and Spotify give you a chance to give us up to five stars. If you think the show deserves it, you can write a quick review on Apple.

those reviews can actually just be things that you want to say about the show, and I'll read some of them on the air, which I've done before, of course. Also, following the podcast is a big deal. Hit the plus button or the follow button. All right. Joining me right now is my longtime friend, Andy Poland. Let me make a proper introduction of Andy. In May of 1992, just a few months after the Redskins won. their last Super Bowl.

Andy was part of launching the first ever 24 hour a day, seven day a week sports talk station in D.C. At the time, it was called the Team 570. Eventually, the signal would move to 980, and it's been there ever since. Andy, for all of us, is the godfather of 980. He launched it. He did every imaginable show that could be done on the station, the most notable being the 13 plus years he spent with Zabe on the sports reporters.

He taught and mentored so many of us that have been doing it for years. And along the way, Andy was raising two great kids. That's turned into three grandkids. And as of yesterday, after seven years of doing a show on 630 WMAL, he, like many in the business, was shown. the door. But nicely, I understand, in terms of you being shown the door, because you and I talked yesterday. But I'm going to tell you this. I would wager that you end up somewhere, that you land somewhere. You always do. I don't think you're done yet. Yeah, I hope not. I mean, I had set a

goal to get to 50 years, which would have been the end of 2027. And then when they got Jayden Daniels two years ago, I said, well, you know, let's see. And maybe they make the Super Bowl. So I'll do it a week after the Super Bowl in 2028. I didn't quite get there. About a year and a half short. So it is what it is. 50 years? So your first job, it was in Texas, right?

Wasn't it in Texas somewhere? Yeah. I went to American University. Yep. And that, I mean, I know Syracuse is the place and people like Mike DeRico and Andrew Siciliano and Bob Costas and all the great people that came out of there. But we had a pretty good group of people. make it out of that campus radio station and have careers.

And someone that you actually worked for, Joe Fowler, was one of my best friends there. And through an odd set of circumstances where he went home to do the Dodgers' AA team in San Antonio, he helped me to get this job in Port Arthur, Texas, at the start of 1978. So that's when I marked my professional career. My first paid job was January of 1978. But you went from there to what we both would call the gold standard in sports talk radio, and that would be FAN in New York.

You ended up there from Texas, correct? Well, yeah, I made two other stops. I went to San Antonio where I finished school at Trinity University. I worked at WI. And then from there, my news director had gone to Dallas at WFAA, and I worked there for two years, and that was my first encounter with the HR department as a change format. What a business. Yeah, and so that was okay because I don't even think I was 24 years old yet, and I had six years in Texas,

and I thought, okay, you know, now it's the time to go back home. And I did. I packed up my Toyota, and threw out the bed from my, my apartment and drove home. And one thing led to another, and United Press International had a radio network at the time. It was known as a wire service primarily, but they were making the move from New York to D.C. So actually, I did some work in New York, and then when they moved down to D.C., I were there full time. And then in 1987, I saw the Washington Post, the two-line story that this country music station that carried the Mets was about to become

all sports. And I called, we used to have what they called the Blue Book, and it would have the listing of all the media people in the markets, you know, based on teams. So this was the NBA Blue Book. And I looked in the New York Blue Book and the listing for W.H.N. The name was Howie Rose. And so I called. He picked up the phone. He knew what I wanted. He blurted out the address and hung off the phone. And I sent a tape and one thing led to another and I was part of the original staff there in 87. That's crazy. Who was on the original staff at FAN? I mean, Francesa and Rousseau weren't doing the show together at that point. Were they both with the station? Actually, the way this happened was they had built the station around the Mets and the lead into the Mets

was going to be Pete Franklin. Pete Franklin was from New York. But he hadn't been there for years. He was successful in Cleveland, very successful in Cleveland. And they paid him a lot of money, like $300,000 a year, which is an awful lot of money back in 1987. And he immediately had a heart attack. And so he was delayed in getting started, and they had several people fill in the three to seven shift, or the three to Mets pregame, which was like a 630. And then the morning show host, the original morning show host, was Greg Gumbull, Greg Dumbled, who had been at ESPN, and a wonderful guy and a great TV broadcaster, not cut out for radio at all.

And then in the 10 o'clock spot, they had, I believe was Art Shamsky for a while. And Arch Shamsky was a good guy and part of the 69 Miracle Mets. But once the conversation drifted away from the 69 Mets, he was a good guy. kind of lost. Right. So he left. And then, I guess, Jim Lampley had a midday show there, and he was still in New York, but shortly after the launch of the station, ABC fired him, and he went to Los Angeles to do

news. Right. And, yeah, in those days, you couldn't do, you know, the way they do it now, where you can have a home studio. You had to go someplace. And after a few months, it just got to be too much. And he was out. So Bill Mazur came in for a while.

Spencer Ross did shows. And then after a year, they bought the NBC owned and operated stations. This was MS Broadcasting. It was Jeff Smolian, who was the owner who later was in the mix to buy the Nationals, where they went to the Lurt. The Indianapolis guy, right? Yeah, yeah. And David Letterman was an investor in his group and a really good guy and a good group of people.

And they looked at sports radio as something that, because they were FM guys, FM music guys. Let me just stop you. What were you doing at this station during this? Updates? I was, yeah, and that's another thing that tells you about the time. In 1987, there's no internet, right? And so the only way that you can get scores, there's two ways. One is the all-news stations, W-CBS at that time in W-I-N-S, and sports phone, which the gamblers could call.

Right. I'm familiar. Someone would spit out. But spit out, you know, 50 scores or however many they could get in in a minute. So they said, well, look, if we want to get the people listening, we've got to give them scores. And since the all-news stations are doing it every half hour and sports phone costs you 50 cents a call, we'll give it to you every 15 minutes. And so here I was interrupting highly paid talk talent like Jim Lampley. like Greg Gumble, to give, you know, the scores of Eastern New Hampshire at 10 o'clock in the morning.

I mean, it was like crazy. Yeah. And then, you know, as things began to evolve, then they made it to 2020 flashes. And now, with, you know, smartphones and everything, they don't even do updates anymore. Right. The whole foundation of the station was updates. They don't do them anymore at all. Right.

So Mike and the Mad Dog, how did they come together? You've told me this story before, but I want everybody else to hear. Well, there was another talk station in New York that was, I think it was WMCA, that was put together by a guy who's been very successful at ABC. And he hired, and this was an unbelievable hire because he was young and he has sort of a speech impediment. But he hired Chris Rousseau to be on this station. And nobody's really not as many people who were listening, but a guy by the name of Bob Raceman, who I think is still a media critic at the New York Daily News, said, this guy has got something here,

and he nicknamed him Mad Dog. And so he got released when the station, either changed format or got rid of the staff, and he came aboard part-time at first. And Francesa, who has quite an ego, and he had been working as a researcher for Brent Musburger at CBS. Now, this is pre-internet. So he knows a lot of things. He's able to pick up the phone and call Jimmy Johnson at the University of Miami and find out about, you know, the depths on his offensive line. So he's got access to a lot more information than most people have at that time. And he thought that he should be the afternoon drive guy. And they said, no, we've got

people to do that. And he wound up working with a guy named Ed Coleman doing a weekend show. and from there he started to get more traction and people were very impressed with his knowledge. But I'll tell you, the peanut butter and chocolate moment for Mike and the Mad Dog. This is after they had already flopped over from 1050, which was the original signal, over to 660, which was WNBC. And Imus conveyed, because Imis was making a million dollars a year, and you had to either pay him to go away or use them. And since Greg Gubble wasn't getting any ratings in the morning, they put him on. And Imus was on vacation. And this was the last healthy year that Donnatically had.

And Rousseau had become a San Francisco Giants fan. Right. Because his father had a traveling business, and somehow or another, they were in the same hotel as the Giants. And he got to beat Willie McCovee and Mays and people like that. So he's a lifelong Giants fan. And so he's on the air filling in for Imus. and he's gone on and on and on about how Will Clark is a better first baseman than Don Mattingly. Francesa is driving in because at this point he's co-hosting the Midday Show, and he's listening to this,

and he simply walks in the studio, sits down, and they go back and forth. And that was the birth of what became Mike and the Mad Dog, and the program director, who heard it, said, we got something here. When Pete Franklin's two-year contract expired, he put them together. and the rest is history. That's really amazing. I mean, because for those, you know, that have just listened to D.C. sports talk and aren't familiar with Mike and the Mad Dog, I would imagine they know who Mike France, most of you know

who Mike Francesa is and even Chris Russo, who has his own Sirius XM channel and has for now probably 10, 15 years, something like that. but as a sports talk listener before I ever became a sports talk host, I just consumed so much of it, and I spent a lot of time in New York, and I became addicted to Mike and the Mad Dog. They were on, by the way, Andy, as you know, from 1 o'clock to 7 p.m. They did six hours every day together. Well, they usually, since they had so much playboy.

Yeah, they would get out at 6.30 or whatever. Right. Let me net it out. Mike and the Mad Dog, you would agree, the gold standard in sports talk radio, that show. Right. Okay. It was addictive. They were so good together. And they didn't get along, right? It was not a relationship in which they got along very well. There were times when they actually would not speak a word to each other off the air. Yeah. It got that bad. And one of them had to do with, and this is the Frances. Ego, they were going to fly to Indianapolis to do their show from a Pacers-Nicks playoff game. And I don't know, there'd be something happened with their flight. It got canceled. They got rebooked on another flight.

And Francesa couldn't get a first-class seat, and he went home. And Rousseau, who's not cut that, you know, cut from that cloth, was really angry. And that led to a long-time feud. But that was, you know, that was part of what made them great, really, is that they could. they could put that aside and be professional on the air. It was really amazing. All right. Let's take a break and then let's come back and talk about you at 980. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Breaks that bets on preseason NFL football, My Bookie's the place to do it.

They've got every single game up with plenty of prop bet opportunities on each. Of course, My Bookies got all of their NFL futures and prop betting opportunities for 2020. up as well. Washington is a three-point underdog on Friday night at home against Miami. The total in the game is 36.5. In fact, in the full preseason week one lineup, only two games have an over-under number of higher than 40. Arizona and the Raiders are at 41.5. That may be because Arizona scored 30 in the Hall of Fame game. And then Minnesota and the Giants have a total of 41 and a half. If you decide to wager on the NFL this season,

my recommendation is to do it at MyBooky. Go to mybooky.com or mybooky.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and you'll get a bonus from MyBooky for either signing up for the first time or putting in a new deposit as a returning customer. MyBooky.com, mybooky.ag, promo code, Kevin, D.C. We continue with Andy.

So let's get to 980. Tell us how it all came about. Okay. So, anyway, I really did not survive the merger of 660 and, or they flipped from 1050 to, to 660. I remained part-time. I was doing weekends there, and I had another job at UPI to make an end to meet. And one day I get a call from the guy who had to do the dirty deed of firing me. That was, by the way, by second encounter with HR. And he, I'm sorry, yeah, yeah, second encounter. So he was telling me about this station that he couldn't tell me about. He

said there's a station in the northeast that I'm interested in you for, but I can't tell you where it is. And I'm thinking, okay, you know, it's probably better than what I've got right now because I'm, you know, stringing two jobs together to try to make ends meet. I got two kids and the whole thing. So, so I don't think too much of it. One night I get a call from my mother, and she says, they just announced that there's going to be a new sports talk station here, and they got the Redskins right. I said, really? You're kidding me. And that's what it was. That's what he was preparing to put together.

And so he wound up hiring me. And as I said to him, I said, it's a good thing when you fired me. I didn't tell you to F off. And he said, yeah, that would have been okay, too. So we got here, and we were operating out of the Rails Brothers offices. Yeah, Mitch and Stephen Rails purchased that station 570, and they, Mitch Rails is in the second largest shareholder of our football team. They basically were the ones that bought the station and launched Sports Talk Radio in D.C.

They were not radio people. They had owned both WGMS, AM and FM. They were simulcasting on the AM, and nobody was listening on the AM. And they looked at the success of WFAN, and they said, we want to do that. And they bought up 16 stations over the course of like four. years and tripled their money when they cashed out. They knew how to get in and how to get out. And so they hired good people. They built beautiful studios right across from White Flint Mall. And we launched with, you know, top people. We had a show with Tony Cornizer. We had a show with

James Brown. Initially, they had a show with Paul Harris. That didn't work out. They had Bruce Murray and Bob Berger for about a year, and then the IMAs show became syndicated. So we carried that. And, I mean, we did all kinds of crazy things. What was your role right from the beginning? So the Rails Brothers, they like you, and they hire you to be the actual program director, correct? No, I wasn't the program director. I was the sports director, and I consulted with somebody who was the program director,

who hired the talent, you know, and handled that kind of stuff. And I was the one who basically set up the newsroom, hired the people to anchor the reports, including some really successful people like Pam Ward. Earl Forci's had a long run here. I hired him. And I handled that. And then I could do a bunch of different things. I'd done sidekick stuff in New York. So when Tony said I need a sidekick, I was fortunate to do that.

And as I've told this story many times, he first met me and he said, are you going to be funny? And I said, well, I'm certainly going to try. He said, well, it doesn't matter because Lupica says this is going to hurt the column, and I'm only going to do this for two weeks. So it was our initial encounter. And yeah, and then it was, you know, it was 570, and we didn't have much of a signal. We didn't have any ratings. We went through the same thing that WFAN went through in the early days, spending too much money. it going to survive, is it not going to survive? And we fortunately had a very good sales manager

slash eventually became GM Bob Snyder, who had some creative ideas and saved the place. And it was great. I remember being so excited that we were going to get a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week sports talk station in D.C. because I was very familiar with it. As you know, I wasn't working in the business. I was in a completely different profession, and I was traveling a lot, and I spent a lot of time in New York, where I fell in love with Mike and the Mad Dog in WFAN. I was in Boston. I was in Philly. I was in Chicago. San Francisco and L.A. had sports talk radio. In fact, I think D.C. may have been out of the top 10 markets, D.C. may have been the last one to launch 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-weeks,

Sports Talk Radio. You got to remember this. There's no baseball here until 2005. I know. And at the fan, and this I think it makes New York stand out from the other markets, baseball is number one. You can talk about the Yankees 365 days a year. It's just different.

That was a challenge here, right? When it started is that there was no baseball. And you've told me this story before, but didn't either Francesor or Russo say to you, How are you going to do it in D.C. with no baseball? No, no, we were already well into this. So this was at a Super Bowl, and this was maybe even 10 years into the station. He says, I don't know how you do it. What are you doing this summer without a baseball team?

We talk about the Redskins. We talk about the Redskins. Yeah. Yeah, because he was used to the two baseball teams, plus his own team, the Giants, and in New York, you got two of everything. Right. So it's a lot different than it is here. So the early days, and I remember very much as a listener, there were so many lineup changes.

And the truth was, Andy, and I think you'd agree with this, you know, some of the shows were really rough. And, you know, it was hard to, you know, find the eventual, you know, mix that was going to work. But was there a moment where you knew early on in those first few years, you know what? This is going to work in this market. I think this was, again, a really. really smart move by Bob Snyder. He's listening. Now, Tony's show was 10 to 12, okay? And he would listen to it, and like I think almost everybody said, that's the best show on the station. And he had this idea that was kind of related to the David Letterman show, which was a show that was filmed like

5 o'clock at night, but run, what, even after the Tonight Show, so close to midnight. And he said, what if we do the show like it's done at that time period, but with the mindset of its afternoon drive? And he said, what would do is we'll make it three hours, so he paid Tony some more money, and then we'll just simply rerun the show in the afternoon, and we'll put in new updates. And that really worked, because now we had the best talent doing the show in the drive-time spot. and so I would do the updates and then they'd be taken out and Norfolk or somebody like that would do the afternoon updates and on rare occasions like you know like I remember Jim Lyon got fired at like you know one o'clock or 1.30 so I had to do a new show in the afternoon but didn't happen very often and it was and people people would even say yeah I would like because Tony was selling like auction items you know the charity auction come in and sit in on the show and somebody say, yes, the afternoon doesn't work. No, the morning doesn't work

for me. I'd like to sit in on the afternoon show. Actually, it's just watching two reels been around. Yeah. All right. Well, forever, you've said, I'm going to write a book. So, give me some of the chapters in the book. Well, I actually wrote a book of lists with Len Shapiro. I remember. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But that's, yeah. But I'm talking about you were going to, you've always said there's a book about 980 at some point. Yeah, I mean, all the characters that came in and out of there. I don't know how, I mean, the whole bookwriting business has changed, too. But what I will probably eventually do is put out a really long Facebook post on this at some point.

But it, you know, it's a business that has changed dramatically. It's not anything like, you know, what it was when I got in. And then, you know, even when did you, when did you start it? It's 20, it's 22 years now, if you can believe it. Okay. Yeah. So it was different then. And, you know, certain things that we did, like, I think what we did on Monday mornings

was the gold standard for, you know, red skin follow-up shows. I think that that was great stuff that we did. And I don't think that the economics could dictate that now. you know, the crazy stuff with Tony with repeating the show. That was something. And then the show that Zabe and I did with a rotating third person, you think they pay that kind of money now to have a show like that? Right.

You know, I mean, that's so a lot of what I did, and the last seven years at 630, I did a show by myself, including running my own board. Yeah, I was it. Yeah. When they come to me and ask me to run the board, that's when it's over. But the show you did with Zabe, and you know this, and I've told you this before, and I've told Zabe this before. I think it's the best show that's ever been on in this market.

And for afternoon drive, it was must listen to for, you know, 13 plus years. I'm assuming that you would say that that was the best thing and the most special thing you were ever a part of. Yeah, I mean, look, I had some great, great opportunities, including the shows that we did on Monday morning. I always look forward to that. Me too. You and I both had a lot to say about the games. I'll never forget that the day that there was the 7-6 cowboy win and you were insisting how physical Redskins were. And I kept pointing out that they scored only six.

Yes, yes. Your thing was always about how many points. You got to score 21 points to win in the NFL. NFL. And I'm like, well, sometimes you can't and you can still win. Yes, you had a lot of, you didn't, you didn't like my analysis that morning. True. Yeah, that's what made that, you know, that thing happened. And then we'd have probably Jake would come on and stock would come on. We'd get calls. And that's what you really want. You want that kind of follow up after a game. And that sadly doesn't exist. I love doing that show. That's so much fun.

And, and you know, and Tony was nice enough to call me today. And I told him, I said, you know, we were doing the local show, and they, the ABC radio, which is what ran ESPN at that time, they recognized his talent. They hired him to go to ESPN, and he took me with him. And that led me to do weekends with Mel Kuyper, and between that and continuing to do the show with Dave, I was able to put two kids throughout state colleges, and none of that would happen without that. So, you know, people, people would give you the, put out something on Facebook, and I got a lot of sad faces and stuff like that. I don't know.

This is the business. This is the way this works. And I've milked it for a long time. And if there's more, that's great. But, you know, nobody should have as much fun as you and I have had doing this kind of work. Do you have a show, a specific show that's more memorable than any other? Or maybe it's a couple of them. Yeah.

I mean, we had various things one time. One time. They had set up, I think we were, you know, there were two different runs where we had the Redskinned game. So it might have been the second go-round when we had them. And they had set up some guy from the team to come on and talk about these solar panels that they were putting over the parking lot, a certain part of the parking lot, that they were going to get solar energy out of that, which is, you know, a three-minute conversation. Oh, you got solar panels.

Hey, how about that? So as we're talking to him, we find out he's responsible for more. And this is when I think there may still have been blackouts in the NFL. And to avoid those, Snyder kept covering up more and more seats and, you know, turning them into like, you know, discos or whatever he was doing. And the guy, and we asked him about some of the seats, and the guy goes, oh, we couldn't sell those anyway. And that was when they were still claiming the 200,000-seat waiting list. And so we went, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. That was that.

I mean, that was one. But nothing tops the Spurrier shows. The Spurrier shows were the best. Hello, Steve and Andy. Yeah, they were the best. And so one time he's on, and this is when it was the second year, I guess. And they had, I guess it was a former quarterback. It wasn't a former gator.

but it was a backup quarterback that Snyder had signed. He cut Worfell in the preseason. Remember he had the right to do that as the GM. And so the starting quarterback, the guy from Tulane, remember that year? Yeah, Ramsey, Patrick Ramsey. Bram, Patrick Ramsey. So he was getting the crap beat out of him because Spurier was running four wide on every play. And Dave said, well, I think it was Johnson, was Dave, Doug Johnson or something like that.

How well does he know the office? Rob Johnson. Rob Johnson. Yeah, right. Because we knew he was eventually going to have to play. His Purrier goes, Rob Johnson, I don't think he knows which way to turn his head. Yeah.

So good. And so he, you know, and then I think he was cut the next week, and that's when they brought in Tim Hasselback. That was the next move. And then I think it was the last show that we did. and he said that he had intended to come back. This is before he had the 5 and 11 not too good, you know, press conference and then resigned from the golf course.

So this was going into the last game of the season. I think they played Philadelphia in a Saturday night game. But he said he intended to come back, you know, no matter what happened in that game. And I said, well, since you are coming back and it's at most going to be a six-win season, do you have anything to give to the fan base for providing optimism for next year? And he goes, hmm, no, I can't say that I really do. Nope, I don't. It might be able to say something, get the fans all fired up.

But no, I don't really have anything on that. The best. He was the best. I mean, I'll still never forget the show where you and Zabe, you, Tommy and I got back before you guys did from the Super Bowl in Miami during that blizzard of 2010. And we're doing, we did our show, then we did your show. Actually, we did everybody's show. We did our show.

We did coach's show. We were on the entire day. And you got back and you were in the parking lot looking for your car. That was, Andy couldn't find his car. He had a little hand shovel. No, no. Here's the story. We're in Miami, and we're supposed to leave Saturday.

Well, I left Friday. You left early. Yeah. Yeah. We had an idiot program director whose name I show that menu. Yes. Who we said we need to leave because there's going to be a blizzard. And he said, you can't leave because they're bringing clients in on Friday, which they never did.

Right. And so we stayed, you left. And, you know, we knew the plan was to leave Saturday, but we knew we were going to be sucked in until Sunday. I got a flight out on Sunday, but I knew what was coming, and I knew I had parked my car, this was National Airport, parked it outside. So I bought a small sand shovel, which I still have, to go off the car. And so I got on the phone with you on the shuttle bus to go to the car. And I get off the shuttle bus, and I kid you not, the car was covered from,

the top of it to the to the bottom. I mean, you could just, you could just make out the gray Honda, you know, color underneath the snow. And so when I saw that, I said, oh, my God. That was, I wish we had a recording of that. I have it. I have. You have to send that?

Oh, you have to send that to me. Okay. Yeah, I played, I played that on the air a few times over the year. You got to send that to me. And I'll attach it to this show if you send it to me today. If not, I'll do it a few days later. But, God, I remember it was a Friday morning. Tommy and I did our show.

Or right before the show, I said to that idiot program director, I said, look, you know, this is a Super Bowl. And I'm going to tell you right now, and I'm not being alarmist, but if people don't leave today to go back, you're not going to have anybody to do shows on Monday, the Monday after the Super Bowl. And he said, no, no, we're not doing it. It's going to be fine. The storm's going to blow over.

I'm like, it's not going to blow over, all right? And you're not going to get people out of here tomorrow. I mean, I'm just, to D.C.'s airports are going to be shut down. And so I ended up getting on a flight late after the clients that they said are going to be showing up that never showed up. And I got on a flight. but I had to fly to Richmond. The airport was closed on that Friday night. I got into Richmond, rented like an SUV and drove home through that blizzard from there.

And Tommy somehow got home. I forget how he got back. And we did that whole day, that whole Monday. Yeah, that was wild. And I remember my nephew when I was talking to you tried to use the shovel. I said, forget it. Oh, yeah, that was nothing. My nephew had been visiting my son at Indiana.

He's a year younger, so he was considering going to Indiana. So we met up at the airport, and I was able to take him home. I remember there was somebody else with you when you got to the parking lot. Yeah, he wound up going to Penn State. All right. So when's your next gig start? I'm open. You told me that some of this is going to run on 980.

Yes, I'm going to run it on the radio show, too. I would just like to say that when I signed off yesterday from my own show, I said, and I'll see it tomorrow at 9, which proved to be a lie. But if this is running on 980, I believe it is my first time back on 980 since I was Felix Ungered the day before the first Trump inauguration, which would have been January of 2017. So if these are the last words that I ever speak on radio, I'm doing it on a station that is near and dear to my heart and helped to get off the ground over 34 years ago. And it's been a pleasure. A station that if they ever built a statue out in front of the station,

that statue would be of Andy Poland. But as I've often said in the post-Joe Paterno world, no statue you should ever be erected to a living person. And since, and I know it pisses off Tommy when I say this, but the plan is to live to be 100, so you're going to have to wait a while. That's been Andy's plan all along. He's been talking about living to 100,

and he stays in shape and he rides his bike everywhere, and now he's got grandkids to chase around as well. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for doing this. Thanks. Talk to you. Andy Poland, everybody. He did send me the recording of his arrival back at the airport on that Monday in February of 2010 following the Super Bowl.

It was the Super Bowl where the Saints beat the Colts in South Florida. Tommy and I had made it back. We were the only ones to make it back. We hosted everybody's show that particular Monday following the Super Bowl, our own show and then Coach Thompson's show with Doc, and it was probably Al back then, Al Koken. And then we were hosting Andy and Steve's show when Andy called, in from the parking lot looking for his car.

Kevin Sheehan and Tom Levero sitting in for Andy and Zabe. Zabe is home. Andy is at BWI. He just flew into BWI. Andy, we've been talking about you for the entire show because we understood that you decided when you went to BWI last week to park in the long term outside parking. Are you at your car yet?

I'm not quite there, but let me tell you something. It's going to be a long night in the day. parking lot. You are looking live at the most incredible snow scene I have ever seen. Now, I got to figure out where I am. Oh, you know, that's not with... Because I can't even see the signs now. Is this K-Rocay? There's a guy here with a shovel digging you out, but I may, my car may be completely buried by snow. I'm not sure. Okay, I'll want to go through a couple of things with you. First of all, you sound very famished. Is that what you said?

Famish, wait a minute. I think I've found my car. Yes, I have found my car. I'm not kidding you. There are five feet of snow completely surrounding the car. Are you the cleanup crew, guys? Can you dig me out over here? Andy, just give them your shovel to use.

My nephew's got it. It's like using a pocket knife to kill an elephant at this point. We heard. Oh, my God. Oh, the humanity. The humanity. It's insane. It's like the Hindenberg.

Wait, wait a minute, Andy. Who are you talking to? My nephew's here. I've given him the snow shovel that I bought a Kmart. The sand shovel. Why is your nephew there? Yeah, he said, Ari, forget it. They're going to dig us out of here.

Yes, my nephew, to visit my son at Indiana. Ari's the senior at Wooten, and he's considering colleges. So he hung out with my son. He was supposed to come home yesterday like I was. Okay. He's got one more minute. I've got to dig out the SUV. I can't believe I found it. A. B, I'm telling you,

it is completely covered by snow. Hold on for a second. So your nephew went fluent at the same time and you're giving him a lift? Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to get that straight. Secondly, the other person you were talking to is in the parking lot digging cars out? Yeah, he's the guy.

He's the digger. He's the digger. Andy, I hope you give him more than you did pay for the shovel. Well, first of all, I'm assuming that he digs you out for nothing. But Andy, if he does that, you know you have to tip him, right? I know I have to tip. What do you, my dad?