The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington's Name Date

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on the announcement about the announcement. The Washington Football Team will unveil its new name and logo on February 2nd. The boys discussed that, more on the Philly game, some of Ron Rivera's Monday presser, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Well, Tom, we have a date for the new name and new logo unveiling. Groundhog Day, February 2nd. Apropos.

Are you in Destin, Florida right now? Yeah, actually, technically it's Miramar Beach. Oh, Miramar Beach. I mean, most people know. No, Destin's right, like, five, 100 feet away. And everyone knows Destin. Nobody knows Miramar Beach. But, yes, I have been in Florida watching the news of all the snow and all the traffic problems.

I feel so bad for those people who I can't fathom what I would have been doing to have been stuck on I-95 for like 12, 13 hours. That's just unbelievable. You got out of town just in time. I have to tell you that this storm yesterday, first of all, the podcast, for those of you wondering, it got out really late yesterday because we lost power. We didn't have powered home for, I think, nearly 12 hours. We finally got it back last night. And the power was out here in the studio, and so I couldn't record the podcast. And, you know, it finally came back on.

they had a generator and it kicked in and eventually it came back on, but it didn't come on right away because no one was here because no one had made it into work. Anyway, I left for the radio show yesterday morning. I left the house at about 10 of 5, I guess, and it was snowing hard, but it was just wet. You know, it was starting to stick to like the tops of cars and the grass a little bit. when I walked out of here at 9 a.m. yesterday, because I was just going to go get some coffee and then I was going to come back. And you know me. I like driving around in the snow and seeing it. There were already in the three and a half hours after arriving at the studio, there was like five inches on the ground. And it was a heavy wet snow where trees were buckling, power lines were getting snapped. It was, I mean, all told, I mean, basically, anywhere from like seven to depending on where you live up to a foot or more fell in like six hours. That was the thing that it basically all happened in like six to eight hours.

And by the way, then got very cold and everything is ice right now. And there's another storm coming for Thursday night into Friday and then maybe another one over the weekend and another one next week. Like we went from the most pleasant fall, which you basically, were able to live through here into winter overnight, and you are in a nice place right now. Good for you. You don't miss it. Yes. No, it was cold here last two nights. It was 37 degrees. Really? At night. Yes, it was. And only like 52 during the day yesterday, but nobody was shoveling anything, except bullshit.

Yeah. It was the 95, the scenes of I-95 were people, I think in some cases, might still be in cars. I don't know. Yeah. Personally, I, look, if you're not mobile,

it's a serious situation, obviously. If you are mobile, at some point, you know, the car goes over to the side of the road, and I get out and I start hoofing it to the next exit. until I get to a place where there's, you know, a warm, where there's a bar, a restaurant, I can start drinking until an Uber can come get me and take me in some other direction around the traffic.

But I know it was a very serious situation. I don't mean to make light of it. But it does remind me of our good friend Richard Doc Walker and the winter survival kit that he would put together and put into his car in September. He had, he literally would spend hours in September. This is true. Our good friend Doc Walker has in the trunk of his vehicle every winter survival item that you would need

in case he had been on 95 yesterday and needed to stay in his car for 15 hours. Well, let's not forget. He's a California guy. I know. He is, but he's been here a long time. that's true you know look

one thing I will say and this is something I've done for a long time I tend to keep a full tank of gas as much as possible now I don't fill up every day but I don't let my gas

tank go below half a tank usually I think there was a time because of the event that something like this or something similar could happen and you need your car running all this time I think it was the

The Thursday before Christmas Eve, because I took Christmas Eve off, I left here and I think I had like seven miles left of gas. So I went to the gas station and I literally was driving there wondering if I was going to make it. I tend not to think about those things. As you know, I don't think I've ever let a mate. And we've had some major snowstorms. We had them when you and I were working together. you know, a couple of blizzards. And we made it to work, or I did anyway.

And then you came back on a flight early to help out from Miami that one year. I do remember that. That was the year I went back early when I told our fearless leader, Dennis, hey, dude, if you don't start sending people back now, there's going to be nobody to do shows on Monday, which is the day after the Super Bowl. And he said, yeah, we're not doing that. and I and and I remember what I did I took a flight to Richmond and drove home in that blizzard and I drove I drove I drove you to the Fort Lauderdale Airport on a Friday Friday afternoon right and yeah and you you

you couldn't get fly into D.C so you flew into Richmond flew into Richmond rented an SUV and drove in that blizzard on a Friday night back home look, it was really not about being available to come into work on Monday, which it turned out I was the only one back and ended up being on the air the entire day that following Monday because they didn't send anybody back. It was because I didn't want to miss the blizzard. I mean, this was going to be an all-time blizzard that weekend. I mean, it was like a two-foot, it was the second two-foot storm we had gotten that winter. And I didn't want to miss it, especially on a... a weekend and Super Bowl weekend and it's like, you know, most people would say, wait a minute,

you had a chance to stay? Which Super Bowl was that? Were we in South Florida or were we in Phoenix? Yeah, no, we were in Miami. We were in South Florida. That's right. We were in Miami. And I, but I didn't want to miss the blizzard. So I got back. And sure enough, like, you know, that day they're like, oh man, do you think you could get in early, you know, because Tony can't do a show and we can't do shows from down here because we don't have the line anymore and I'm like yeah it's a good thing I guess I came back and then you I think you were the first one to get back and remember my flight my flight uh was not canceled I flew out early Monday morning right and mine went at schedule so I landed at BWI like about 11 or noon or something like that uh and what were you going to

say. I mean, you remember, you remember, Dennis did not want to pay for a taxi. That's what I remember. All I remember was saying, do me a favor, just get into your car or get into a cab and get here because I can't do, you know, eight hours by myself. I really don't want to do eight hours by myself. Will you please get back here? And you're like, of course. And then they weren't going to pay the mileage or the cab fare for you to come back and work. Why do we need to do that? She is there. He'll do it the whole day. But you did. You came back. And you and I ended up doing that whole afternoon.

Was that the storm where Andy called in from the parking lot? Yes, it is. Andy landed later. And he drove to the airport. So his car was parked at BWI. And, you know, the shuttle took up to his car. And he was on the phone with us live. when he found this car

and he said, oh my gosh. That was so funny. Yeah, and then... And he had brought this little beach shovel he bought in Fort Lauderdale and he was so proud of this little beach shovel he bought that he was going to use to dig his car out. You know, he might as well have used a spoon

to dig his car out with all the snow. So we had that that afternoon, and then my recollection too, and maybe this was a different storm when you and I were hosting, because sometimes if we had issues or if they were off, Tommy and I would do like our midday slot, and then we would also usually fill in for Andy and Steve if both of them were out, and we would do afternoon drive if they were out. But was that the day then Zabe basically dialed in because he got home, and then the four of us basically did the final hour with Andy on cell phone,

Zabe from home and you and I in the studio, or is that another time? That might have been the same time. Yeah. That was fun. I remember that was a lot of fun, you know, and it was the day after the Super Bowl. I can't even remember what Super Bowl that was. And you drove me home. And I drove him home.

That was the Peyton Super Bowl where he won. Over New Orleans. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, over the Saints, exactly. Memories. Speaking of memories, so the breaking news this morning is that the Washington football team announced that they are going to unveil the new name of the team and the new logo of the team on February 2nd. That is, by the way, a Wednesday following the two championship games.

and the lead up to the Pro Bowl, which is between the championship games and the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is February 13th, the latest we've ever had a Super Bowl because we have a 17-game schedule. Now, anyway, simultaneous with the announcement, which, by the way,

simultaneous with the announcement about the announcement date, which is going to happen on the Today Show on February 2nd. They're going to make the announcement. Trust me, it's not going to be Dan, right? I think it'll be Jason and maybe Tanya, or maybe it's just Jason, but there's no way Snyders on the Today Show with Hoda and Savannah announcing the name of the new team, right? No. No.

No, absolutely not. Dan and his grizzly Adams beard with his sweatsuit? I don't think so. So they also launched the finale of their final. making the brand series, which they smartly, with a lot of suggestions from various people around town, cut off once the season started because it was getting such a negative reaction. And once the game started, it was like enough of this, you know, bullshit new name. Either tell us the new name or shut the F up.

But now that the season is officially over from a competitive standpoint, they came out with their finale of making the brand. And they announced what the name isn't going to be. Here's what Jason Wright and a legal advisor to the new branding team for the Washington football team. This was their conversation on making the brand about what name it's not going to be. Fan feedback has been crucial as a part of this process. And over the last 18 months, many of you

have shared very vocally your love for one name in particular, wolves and specifically red wolves. We noticed this early on, and we immediately started exploring it as a serious contender. And it made it all the way through to the end stages of the process. The legal team is part of the creative process, but also engaging in very technical work, right? Looking at all the similar names and logos that might be out in the marketplace and how to make sure that you create a number of. enough distance from rights that other folks have that you don't get yourself into legal trouble.

Searching the intellectual property landscape is extraordinarily complicated for something like this that's going to be this famous and this widely used. As a result of the comprehensive vetting process that we had to go down, we became aware that these names were not viable options because of existing trademarks held by other teams. So for you, Red Wolves and Wolves fans, it's not going to be that. Too much legal challenges, it sounds like, trademark issues, et cetera. So it's not going to be the Red Wolves or the wolves. You know, if you remember Tommy from back in, you know, early in the season when there was that list that came out of eight names and of that eight, it was going to be down to three. that was kind of the confusion with one of their making of the brand episodes.

And then Tanya went on and confirmed it on the Adam Schepter podcast. And then Jason came back and said, no, actually, that isn't what the list was. I mean, once again, you know, can't find their backside with either hand, the communication and lack thereof in that organization. But that list, if we take that list as legit of the final eight, That list included the Armada, the brigade, the commanders, the defenders, the presidents, the red hogs, the Red Wolves, and the Washington football team. I mentioned, you know, a few months ago that I had learned that it was not going to be the Washington football team or Washington FC or FC Washington. Nothing city-centric and name.

So if you take that out and now you take the Red Wolves out, I was also told that it was going to be a plural name. that there would be an S on the end of it. So now you eliminate Red Wolves, Washington football team, Armada, and Brigade. You are left with commanders, defenders, presidents, and redhogs. Now, somebody sent me this thing about admirals. Somebody tweeted it to me that there was a redirect from Washingtonadmails.com to the Washington Football Team.com. look, I'm not into doing all this research, because I'm going to tell you in a moment that I don't really care that much about any of this.

But anybody can squat on a URL and redirect it anywhere you want. So I wouldn't take that as an indication that's admirals. In fact, I'd bet against it. I would bet on the commanders because the new uniform that you could see in this new making of the brand video, first of all, reveals a uniform that's burgundy and gold with gold numbers, and kind of similar to their alt uniforms that they wear homecoming weekend. That's what it looked like to me anyway. I'm not a uniform expert.

But there are also stars on like the shoulders or the sleeves of the jerseys, like maybe general stars or commander stars. and it seems like a lot of people believe it's going to be the commanders. I don't know the reasons why, and maybe others in the market have more information on what it is going to be. But that would be what I would bet on. I don't care, though, Tom. Do you? No, I don't particularly care.

I mean, I think, and even for the people who do care, I think there's a level of exhaustion that I kind of kicked in about this, plus just the exhaustion of being. being a fan of this football team period, the everyday exhaustion. You know, Washington Admirals, there's a professional team in Washington called the Admonds. What team is that? They play this sport called Quidditch. Are you familiar with Harry Potter stories? No, I haven't read any Harry Potter. My wife.

I haven't read any. And the only reason I'm familiar with a couple of them is when my granddaughter was here this summer, where we watched a couple of movies. It's a game that was part of the Harry Potter movies, where players are mounted on broomsticks and played in a hockey-sized, hockey rink-sized pitch. It was created in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont. Oh, Middlebury.

But the Washington team for Quidditch are the Washington Admals. So there's already Washington Admiral But it's fictional Isn't it? Are you telling me this is a real sport? How can you You're telling me it's a fiction

You've just described a fictional sport Am I right or wrong? Yes Yes, I did But somebody made it a real sport Oh good They're flying around on broomsticks? Yeah

Really No, I mean they're running around on broomsticks I don't know Okay I'm just telling you Okay The Washington Admals are a real team, and they play in the Major League, Quidditch League. There's a website and everything, Washington Admals.

They're in the East Division. They have a head coach. They have assistant coaches. They have a manager. There you go. Well, so, look, this is for those of you that are interested in this. I'll get to my personal feelings here in a moment. If it's commanders, defenders, presidents, or redhogs, I would bet that it's not presidents.

That's just me. I would also bet that it's not defenders because of the XFL team. But I don't know. I mean, they played like three games before the pandemic. Again, the stars would be an indication to me that it might be the commanders, the little stars on the uniform, which, by the way, somebody reminded me on the air this morning. You know, the other team in the league with stars on their uniforms? That would be the Dallas Cowboys.

I mean, we stole their bench idea. Why don't we just start taking from their uniforms, too? And that's working so well for them. I think red hogs would be, well, I mean, it would have red in it. It would be a nod to, you know, the past tradition of the great offensive line, nicknamed the hogs. I also think like Red Wolves and Red Tails, not necessarily Red Tails, but Red Wolves, it kind of sounds a little bit like, you know, an eighth grade. boys basketball team name. Also Tommy, somebody mentioned to me, I think it was a caller this

morning that said something like, if it was the commanders, why two years? Why did it take so long? I think that the trademark part of it, the legal part of it, probably you can figure out pretty quickly, you know, if it's available A and if it's not available, is it getable for, you know, a price? I think the real issue with the time spent is really because of two things. Number one, they spent a lot of money quickly to turn everything from Redskins into Washington football team. And I think they wanted to get a little bit of run out of that and maybe to sort of see what the reaction would be to it. I know that it cost a lot of money for them to essentially redo the entire state. redo a lot of what they have out in Nashburn.

Now, they didn't even need to do it at the stadium, as it turns out, because of the pandemic and nobody went to the stadium last year. But I think the bigger issue is that with this organization, unlike, say, the Indians, which seemed to, you know, come up with their new name much faster, this organization had to be very, very careful. They had to really do research into any name, no matter how benign, sounding to make sure that three minutes after they unveiled it with its new logo, somebody didn't come out and say, oh man, did you know that back in 1832, this was a pejorative, insensitive term used to

describe a certain group of people? Like, I think that's really what took a lot of time. They could not fail on that front. Can you imagine if they ended up with a name that had some sort of, insensitive connotation from years ago. I mean, this is the world we're living in. And so no matter how long ago, or no matter how, you know, insignificant it might seem to a lot of people, they just can't get away with it. So I think a lot of the crossing, the T's and dotting the eyes on that front took a long time. You know, again, I mean, part of, if I'm a Washington football fan, I'm thinking, you know, they can't really screw this up. I mean, based on what we know, there's very limited options available.

And while it would pain me the fact that these people in charge are going to dictate the name for my football team for the guy for sake. I don't know how long in the future. They really can't screw this up, can they? I mean, it depends on what your perspective is. I mean, it should be pretty simple. Commanders? command. No one's going to be excited or outraged about commanders. Oh, I think this will be a polarizing thing one way or the other. I think there's going to be

people that really hate it and people that like it. There may be there be. Maybe there will be. I don't know. I mean, it seems like a pretty benign name, you know, to get worked up about one way or the other. No, but that's not it. It's the fact that there is going to be a new name. There's still so many people hanging on to the old name. And it's going to be the last two years, Washington football team isn't going to be as jarring or such an in-your-face you really did lose that name as a new name with a new logo. And so that's where you...

It will be like a sense of permanence. Right. Yeah, because there's been this like interim thing here. you know and it's like okay well the brand is still Washington you know and then all the sudden Redskins is actually really going to be replaced by a new name and a new logo and a new uniform kind of scheme not color scheme and you know that emotional you know that marketing branding emotional detachment thing that I've talked so much about in previous years then really starts to set in There will be people that will never, ever root for this team again.

And maybe already don't based on the loss of the name. And so I think that's going to be the thing. I don't care at all about this new name. When it's announced on February 2nd, I tweeted this out earlier. and if it's like commanders, I am reserving the right to be a little bit pissed off to feel a little bit nostalgic. It'll probably hit me a little bit.

I don't care right now. I don't give a shit right now. But when it actually comes out and I see it and then everybody starts referring to the football team here in Washington is the commanders. And next season, when you get the Fox intro music, And it's like, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And it's like live from, you know, AT&T Stadium.

It's the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Commanders. That is going to sting a little bit. It's going to sting a little bit, I think. And I – so – but at the same time, I've said this to you before, If this were going to happen for their purposes, this is the time for it to happen because the amount of people that are interested and passionate about this team is at an all-time low. This could have never happened in any kind of environment resembling something halfway pleasant. if they were coming off their third Super Bowl in 12 years in 1991. But now the attachment, the emotional attachment to the team has already taken a big hit

because of the losing and the embarrassment and the clown show that they've become in the league for so long now. So this is the time to change it. But I'm telling you, it's going to really hit when you see the team walk out onto the field in a big game against an arch rival and it's Eagles against the commanders. I mean, it's just not going to seem the same. It's hard to even say. And at the same time, I don't really care about this process. But I reserve the right to eventually feel a little bit angry or sad or nostalgic or whatever. When I hear for the first time, probably on draft night, when the commission.

missioner steps to the podium and says, with the ninth overall pick, the Washington commanders select Kenny Pickett, quarterback, University of Pittsburgh, it's going to seem weird. I mean, it's just, people are going to be analyzing and breaking this down until February 2nd. And somebody will get the story officially before then, I'm sure. And like you said, there's only so many choices. And you came up with a pretty good, reasonably deductive. way to eliminate some of the other ones. So, but we'll all be tired of the analysis of the uniforms and the helmets as to what that could mean for the name.

You know, two stars, three stars. It's already started. I have a question for you. I got an email, and it's, I'm looking for it here. Give me a second. it's from Richard. Richard basically sent me this email, which included the following. It's incredible that they didn't do anything Sunday to honor Ryan Carrigan, a video tribute,

a nicely misspelled message on the Jumbotron. But it's, you know, he went on and on about how outrageous it was. And I didn't think about it at all until I read this email. And I don't think it's a big deal at all. And I need your help on this because I can't think of a time when a former player came back on an opposing team and there was a big deal made out of it. Now, I went and checked, Art Monk never came back and played as a member of the Eagles or Jets in RFK Stadium. Gary Clark did as an Arizona Cardinal come back and play in RFK Stadium. But I don't think other than like that Tom Brady returned to Foxboro,

and I'm talking about all-time goat legend Hall of Famer, I don't, I'm not as off put as I am by so many of the dumbass things they do, this one doesn't really rise to that level for me. But you have to admit, it would have been a nice thing to do. I mean, it would have shown a semblance of intelligence and recognition. So, I mean, look, it's not an outrage. Part of the reason it's not an outrage is Ryan Carrigan wasn't a passionate player when he was here. He was a good player.

He was a very good player at times, but people didn't get worked up about Ryan Carrigan. People more worked up about Chase Young than they are about Ryan Carrigan. when they were about the whole time Ryan Carragon was here. But it would have been, for a professional organization that did think the right way, it would have been a nice touch. Is it an outrage? No, it's not an act. Like you said, on the list of outrages, that's, you know, way down near the triple digits.

Yeah, I just, I don't know that it's really done that often in general by good organizations. And by the way, you know, to the conversation that we were having on Friday about, you know, potentially Gibbs coming back to toss the coin before the game, like it was Philadelphia fans. I mean, they would have cheered Ryan Carrigan, too, but not for the reasons that he may have been honored with a video tribute. I just, I think it doesn't bother me at all, as much as a lot of the things they do have really rubbed me. the wrong way. This one, I don't think, is a big whiff. Now, I bet you they didn't even think about it because, again, they don't have enough people in the organization that know enough about the organization or the tradition or the history. I don't think they've done anything to honor the 30-year

Super Bowl champion, the last Super Bowl champion this year. I could be wrong about that. No, they did not. They did not do anything. You know, I don't think that a lot of the people even knew it out there. But this one, you know, also to your point, it's a good one. Ryan Kerrigan was a really good player, a really good player. He's the all-time franchise sack leader. But anybody of a certain age, and you don't have to be super old, does not consider Ryan Kerrigan to be the greatest pass rusher in franchise history.

Dexter Manly was, okay? And it's not really close. But Ken Harvey was a better pass, Russia, than Ryan Carragut. So I think that while Ryan did shitload in the community, he was such a great teammate and a really good player. A guy you didn't have to worry about, a guy who would show up, work hard, never embarrass for yourself, you know, the team out in the community, a stand-up guy who deserves everything he gets.

And he will be a ring of fame member, right? Absolutely. Absolutely, he will. But again, you know, like to me, back in 1994, 1994, 1995, whatever year it would have been, if Art Monk could come back into the stadium in a jet uniform or an Eagle uniform, there should have been something for Art Monk.

Now, the fans would have been packed in, and the minute Monk came out onto the field, there would be a standing ovation. If Monk caught a pass against the home team, there would be a standing ovation, you know, for him. And you know what's ironic about that is Monk would have hated it. He would have hated it, of course. He hated any attention. Right. But, you know, sorry to Ryan, he's not an art monk's class. You know, that's not the level. And again, the environment, too, wouldn't have been supportive of that on Sunday. By all accounts, it was 60% plus, if not more, Eagles fans.

And by the way, watching it on... From observers who I trust, they said 7525. Yeah, I heard as high as 80%. But I tend to take the lower because I think people are really trying to exaggerate it just to make a point. but it was definitely majority Philadelphia fans. You could hear that, by the way, on television like you could with the Cowboys game. So it would have sort of fallen a little bit flat anyway, kind of like the railing did. Fortunately, not on anybody's head, although there was some photographer that was injured from the Associated Press.

An AP photo runner, I think, was hurt. What's a photo runner? I guess I think that's what they said And I imagine the old days I would think who runs film back But there is no more film So I'm not quite sure what that is

Right Well Hey I'm But this is The whole rail thing is Of course Nothing simple with this team

You know Has turned into a squabble I know and an embarrassment beyond the simple stadium breaking down part. There's now a fight. You know, the team said that team mission, the statement said that they cared for everybody who was injured and they wanted to make sure everybody was okay,

and they were to receive medical attention. And the people who fell have told ESPN. None of that happened. Yeah, in fact, somebody mentioned that the only thing they heard from anybody that worked for the team or worked for the stadium crew was to get the FF. out of here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there's got to be a few lawsuits about that one. Well, I mean, somebody called in yesterday and said, don't you think this is a lawsuit waiting to happen? Like, I would have stayed on the ground until my lawyers showed up. Well, I mean, okay, that says something about you personally that I don't want to get into. In many ways, there wouldn't be a better guy to sue, you know, one of the most litigious people we've ever had in this town, a town of, you know, mostly lawyers. All right, let's get to something else.

We're done talking name and stadium and Ryan Carrigan. Tom wrote a column. We'll talk about that. Tom hasn't weighed in on Sunday's game or the end of the season for the most part. We'll get to some of that. The Wizards won last night. The Terps nearly won. And more on Joe Judge.

You'll hear what he said because I did not play that for you yesterday. I just read it to you. You'll hear what the head coach of the Giants said. When we come back after these words from a few of our sponsors. A request to subscribe to the podcast, if you haven't, really helps us. It doesn't cost you a thing. Also, even more important for us, especially the next couple of weeks, is to rate us and review us on Spotify and Apple in particular,

or anywhere you can rate us and review us. Five stars would be great, no less than four, and a one to two sentence review of how much you like the podcast. You can pause it right now. and do it. Many of you have, so I'm not asking you to do it again, but if you haven't done it and you can do it, that would be really, really helpful. Big push right now for us on the sales front at the beginning here of 2022, and ratings and reviews are a big driver of our ability to do that. Tommy's in Florida. That's where he winters in beautiful Miramar Beach, Florida near Destin. Did you watch the game on Sunday? Yes, I did.

A couple we're staying with, he is an Eagles fan, so we watched it together in a bar that had the NFL Sunday ticket. Okay. So I was able to watch it, and here's what I thought. You know, it's like, I've seen some fights that happen this way, where one fighter will, you know, start out real strong early in the fight and look like he's going to dominate the fight. But then as the fight goes on, they start to wear down because they can't keep up that level of dominance. And his opponent knew that. Their opponent knows that. It just waits for them to basically wear out at some point.

And then in a championship rounds, they dominate. Right. The last four rounds. And that's pretty much what happened on Sunday. And that's the way I felt when I was watching the game, even when Washington got off to an early start, I said, you know, this Eagles team is just going to wear them down. It's just Washington just doesn't have the horses to sustain this at this point. And that's what happened, right? Isn't it?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good analogy. And as you were describing it, I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like, you know what? Well, it's not the analogy that I think you were trying to make. but it's kind of Hearns Hagler-esque, you know. Hearns came out and completely shot his wad, so to speak, and went for Haymaker after Haymaker, and then the better, more physical, smarter fighter

eventually came back, wore him down, and knocked him out in the third round. By the way, kids that aren't old enough to remember Hagler-Herns, please, I know Tommy and I both have, you to do this in the past. Just Google Hagler-Herns and watch it. It's three rounds. It's three of the greatest rounds and some of the most unbelievably intense boxing ever. Tommy turned me on to Lyle Foreman, right? The five-rounder? That's unbelievable too. Because when you turned me on to that like a year ago, I went and watched that. I'm like, oh, my God. But yeah, I think you're right. You know, I talked about this yesterday in the podcast, Tommy, but I'll do it with you.

There's a lot of, we got a lot of coaches in town. You know, we got a lot of coaches on Twitter, you know. And by the way, I'm one of them. So I'm making fun of myself here to a degree as well, especially when it comes to football. Sometimes I actually really do think I know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about basketball, but that's beside the point. I just think sometimes, and I bet every fan base is similar to a certain degree, you can't like admit that, oh, the other team is just better. That other team just outplayed our team.

And really, it's not that much harder than that. Like all of the, oh my God, and this was the big one after this game. I mean, well, you sent me the tweet from Joe Banner, the team president from the Eagles. Just all of the Scott Turner hand-wringing and Jack Del Rio. It's like, really? Okay, so tell me what you're, like I got into an argument with somebody yesterday after the friend of mine who called me after the podcast and said, well, what adjustments did Scott Turner make? And so I said, well, I know some of them that he made. why don't you tell me what you think he should have done because you claim he made no adjustments in the second act?

Well, that's the word that people, even I use it. Yeah, the adjustment thing, right. Yeah, the adjustment thing. Time for second half adjustments. Yeah. You know? And I said, well, I guess, you know, part of it is because some of the fan base grew up in an era where this coaching staff did make second half adjustments. Well, that's true.

They didn't know what they were, but they knew. that they made them. Right. You don't know that Richie went from, you know, basically exclusive man-to-man with four-man pressures to a lot of zone with blitz. But you know whatever he did in the second half, it worked. That's for sure. And there's a lot of fans out there that grew up with that. So they just said, do that. Yeah, that's fair. I think that the Scott Turner thing, like I said to him, I go, well, I know one adjustment he made. Once, it became very clear that they couldn't block Philadelphia at the line of scrimmage in the second half. He tried a couple of screens.

I mean, we all know enough about football to know that the screen pass is often used as a way to offset a pass rush that you can't block. You know, it allows the rush to come up and then, you know, you're able to get something off and, you know, hopefully block it downfield. They tried a couple of those, and those got swarmed. I don't know that Scott Turner made a number of adjustments, and it's very possible that he didn't do a couple of things that football people could have said, you know, he really should have done this or that. I do know this.

I know that in the first half, he had Philadelphia, or certainly the execution by the players, had Philadelphia completely off balance. And they moved the football up and down the field four drives, four scores, no punts. In the second half, before that final drive, they only ran at that point 16 plays. Philadelphia had the ball. And to Joe Banner, I think I addressed this on the podcast yesterday because you sent me the tweet.

I mean, the team president of the Philadelphia Eagles bless his heart because, you know, he worked in the NFL. He wasn't the football person, but he was a team president. but what he tweeted out may have been true that it was Scott Turner's fault, although I don't agree with that. But the reasons he gave for them were not true at all. Actually, the reasons he gave, the opposite of what he described actually happened. You're right. You pointed that out. You're right.

Joe Banner went on this tweet rant of how Philadelphia won the game because Scott Turner in the first half essentially through the ball. And then in the second half, started running the ball on first down. And I don't know why he did that. Well, no, actually, in the first half, they were completely balanced. 15 runs and 16 called pass plays. If you take the spike in the intentional out of bounds, throw out of it. In the second half, they didn't run it at all. They ran it on two of 12 first downs.

So he gave a kind of an emotional answer as to why the Eagles won the game and he thought, you know, watching it, it was Scott Turner's fault. And again, maybe he's right, but he's not right because of the reasons he gave, because the reasons were inaccurate. They were actually, what he thought was true, the opposite of that was actually true. They weren't balanced in the second half. They didn't stick with the run enough. And they really didn't have an opportunity to, to be fair, like the runs that they tried, the two runs that they tried on first down, he said that they ran on almost all the first downs. The two that they tried gained zero yards and one yard.

And so, you know, I guess he could have stuck with it, but Philadelphia just killed them at the line of scrimmage, whipped them. To your point, the better team took a bit of a haymaker in the first half from, by the way, an offense that could not be stopped except in the red zone. And they had to kick three field goals. and that's, you know, fair criticism. Still, would you rather have four drives and four scores or four drives and four punts?

They didn't punt in the first half, and there was no threat of them punting in the first half. And then the better team came back. And by the way, Tommy, Jalen Hertz played tremendously in the second half. He really did. He was outstanding. I'm watching that game, and I'm thinking, And what quarterback controversy?

People wanted Gardner Minshu to start over this guy two weeks ago? I mean, what are they talking about? I'll tell you the other thing. I understand the frustration at times with a guy like Hertz because he really, and I had Ruben Frank, who's been covering the Eagles for years up in Philadelphia. He works for CSN Philadelphia, NBC Sports Philadelphia. And he said, you know, there is this. laid back, you know, personality that Jalen Hertz has, and by the way, plays with, and it's

100% right. It's exactly the way he played at Bama and Oklahoma as well. And it sometimes looks as if he is really overly casual, and sometimes it leads to turnovers, but he's very competitive, and he's good. I, if I were Philadelphia, even with all of those first round picks that they have this year, and a lot of them aren't going to be nearly where they thought they were going to be at one point this year when Miami especially was one in seven, I think I'd stick with Hertz. I like Hertz. You know what?

If they don't want Hertz, I'll take them down here. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. But I just think sometimes the better team isn't recognized by the home team's fan base and media base. It's a lot easier to just criticize the team, the home team, when they lose and for their shortcomings instead of saying, hey, man, you know what? Truth is, Philadelphia is just better. And by the way, the fact that they had a chance to win the game, they were in the game, they led the game, I give him some credit for that, which I did, Washington, that is.

I agree with all that. I think Taylor Heineke played well. I do too. Okay. I think for a guy coming off of COVID and having to watch his team get manhandled by the Cowboys the week before, I think he did what he does. He responded. you know, there was talk about seeing Kyle Allen, Taylor Heineke, he responded. Now, people need to remember, he's playing without three of his top four offensive weapons. No Antonio Gibson, no McKissick, no Logan Thomas.

I mean, right now, McCorn is the only top offensive weapons that he had at, yeah, fifth center, issues at guard in the game. Yeah, no, I mean, all that's true. I think he played really well, and I'm not sure there are many quarterbacks who could have done better. Well, I don't agree with that. I think there are a lot of quarterbacks that could have done better,

but I think he played. With that hand that was the Eltham? I'm not sure. Well, I mean, I can't. Not a lot. I think there are plenty that could have done better, but I thought he played well. I gave him a B for the game.

I thought he was a solid B. He made, you know, a first half throw that was really one of those throws we see from him, but I think he got bailed out by the illegal contact. It was still, I looked at it on the All-22. It was a bad decision by him. I think the fourth and five, when they went for the fourth down at midfield,

which, you know, again, I didn't really, I kind of thought punt in the moment, but I sort of understood it and didn't have a major problem with it. I didn't love the play call because it requires a quarterback that's really good at three. throwing in timing and throwing with real accuracy and velocity. And he just, that's not his throw. You know, that's a real, you know, top half of the league NFL starting quarterback throw.

He can't make that throw consistently. You've got to be in timing, plant that foot, drive it, and that ball is off his back foot late floating. And again, I said yesterday, I don't know if that play would have resulted in a first down anyway, but he didn't give it a chance. and then the interception, I think it's really hard even after looking at it at different angles. I don't know that Bates would have been able to make a play on it, but I wouldn't say definitely that he couldn't have been more disruptive to McLeod who made the interception. But it was an overthrow.

It was a high throw, an overthrow. And he did have a couple of people open on that play. But, you know, they had no timeouts left. They were at the 20-yard line and they needed a touchdown, you know, and he took a shot. I thought he had put it this way. It was a near flawless first half, near flawless first half. But again, they were balanced. You know, they had third and twos, third and ones, third and threes.

And that was the key to the four-game winning streak. And that's, you know, when you have that, by the way, offensively, it really is hard over a 17-game schedule to win nine. or more games when there's that fine of a line between being productive offensively or being utterly unproductive offensively. When you have

to be and rely because you're limited on being balanced and gaining yards on first down and having second and five and having third and two and I'm not saying that a lot of teams aren't in the same boat Tommy but you're you know

Aaron Rogers, Patrick Mahomes really a holding penalty, it's first and 20. We'll get it on this next play. You know, you don't have that here. And they've got to, they've got to aim for something like that. I don't know if they'll land on it. It's a lottery, really. They really miss J.D. McKissick. Oh, my God, I agree with that. So agree with that. He's, he's been, he's so effective as a pass catcher coming out of the backfield, such a safety valve for a quarterback who's in trouble, you know? And, I mean, they really missed him. They Mr. Logan Thomas, but McKissick they really miss.

Both of them. But McKissick, definitely. I mean, he was a real weapon. And really was, it's a shame. I mean, he obviously was much more injured than we ever thought, and he's been on the injured reserve now for two weeks. And by the way, he's a free agent, you know. So we'll see what they do with J.D. McKissick.

They're going to have some big decisions to make in the offseason. and he's one of them because I know that they really like him. And by the way, they should really like him. But he is an unrestricted free agent in 2022. And how old is he? 28? I mean, there wasn't a decent market necessarily when they signed him before the 2020 season. But I bet you there's going to be a market for him in this offseason.

I would think so. Absolutely. Tell me about the column that you wrote about the stadium. Well, or tell everybody else I read it and retweeted it. Okay. You know, it's funny, at the end of the game, when the game is over and Jaylen Hertz is making its way to the tunnel,

and that railing collapse full of Eagles fans, I said, oh, my God, sometimes the columns just write themselves, you know? I'm so happy. when I don't have to write about the game when they lose. Yeah. You know? Because, I mean, it's just such a tired subject. And like I said, it's almost background noise sometimes with this franchisee,

what they do on the field. And I used it to get into the idea that the post-reporter a couple weeks ago, that the team is moving aggressively to try to get legislation done for support for a stadium in northern Virginia somewhere, well, Loudoun County or maybe Prince William County. And, you know, I went out, I pointed out the first time I've written about that, and I pointed out, you know, some of the likely roadblocks in the way of them, including one that nobody had really written before.

I mean, I think it's fair to say that Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder are pretty much mortal enemies at this point, wouldn't you say? Yeah, it certainly would seem that way. Okay. Now, and Bruce Allen was Snyder Stadium point guy while he was here. Maybe he didn't do a good job, who knows. But that was the guy that all these government officials talked to when they talked about stadium. They talked to Bruce Allen. Now, as far as I know, Bruce Allen and his brother, George Allen, still have a relationship together,

the former governor of Virginia, who was very instrumental in, Len Yonkin's campaign for governor, and in fact, is on the transition team for the new governor. I didn't know that. So George Allen worked for Yonkin? Or is working for Yonkin? He's on the transition team. Oh, interesting. For him.

Yeah. I got to think that when you're looking for political influence for a stadium, you're not going to get much help from the Allen family. Just the opposite. Right. So, you know, you need a lot of political will. So you think Virginia is going to get knocked out, that this is bullshit, the Prince William Loudoun County. I think, yeah, yeah, it is. And I point out the district, I talk to somebody in the district who's really plugged in,

says that there's no momentum in the district. They've got no shot at the city, and they think their only chance is to somehow get the federal government, which owns the land, you know, and leases it. of Interior. Yeah. Runs it, right? Right. So, you know, to maybe

somehow an avenue through the federal government, which the Post had reported a few years ago that they were trying to do with Trump, but they're not going to find any friends in the Biden administration

willing to push that forward either. And, you know, this one guy, this source that I quoted, saying the hate for Snyder is a big hurdle to overcome. And this,

this, source that I talked to in the district, one of the quotes that I use was very telling is that the hurdle, that the hate for Snyder is a big hurdle to overcome. And I think that's true everywhere. Anybody say anything about Jason Wright and Jason Wright being involved in this and their feelings about him? Nothing. Okay. I don't know if he's met. I can't, I don't know what Jason Wright is done. I haven't heard that he's met with anyone in the district to talk about this. I'm sure he's probably met with Virginia officials if they've got this plan in place to try to revive the Virginia baseball stadium authority as a mechanism to create financing for the new

stadium. That's Snyder was a bitter for the baseball team when the expos were talking about moving. him and Bob Johnson, but no one took that bit seriously. But I haven't heard of people about Jason Wright, nothing. Do you think the Nash? That doesn't mean he's not doing anything. Do you think the Nats would have had the run, including a World Series title, if Snyder had been the owner? Well, here's the thing.

Mike Rizzo wouldn't have worked for. Right. Read Tommy's column. I tweeted it out, retweeted it, Tommy tweeted it out. It's a good column. And Tommy really, I think really of anybody in town has been pretty spot on as it relates to this stadium. I think, well, let me ask the John McLaughlin exit question. Thomas, one word answer. Where will the new stadium be built?

Next to the current stadium, right next door to Ghost Townfield. That's not one word, but you, sir, Thomas Leverro, are. Correct. All right, up next. So Ron Rivera had a long press conference yesterday. Before the name change stuff or the name announcement stuff, we were going to spend more time on this, on the show. But I just want to highlight a couple of things from Rivera's presser yesterday. First of all, for anybody interested, you know, he said what all coaches say,

which is on Sunday's meaningless game, we're going to play that game to win that game. That's who we are. We're competitors. And by the way, real quickly, you know, it's okay, like to root as a fan in this particular situation when playoffs have been eliminated as a possibility. It's okay to root for them to lose,

to get better draft positioning. It's okay. But teams, as a practical matter, the only thing teams can actually do to tank is to put their worst players onto the field. And by doing that, you know, they lessen their chances of winning the game. I mean, that is how they tank. Players don't actually go on to a field and say,

I'm going to really play poorly so we can lose and get better draft position so you can draft my replacement. You know, that's not the way it works. You know, they're playing for their current contract, their next contract, their next opportunity. Nobody's going out there saying, I'm going to try to run right into the pile and get tackled so that we have to punt on this drive. But what teams can do is play lesser players and do it under the heading. We really wanted to see what old Charlie had. We hadn't played them a lot this year. This was an opportunity to get Charlie some playing time, and we wanted to

see what he had. And maybe they knew all along that Charlie wasn't very good. I will tell you this, And I talked about it yesterday. It'd be really hard to lose to the giants even if you're trying. That's how bad the giants are. So anyway, they're going for that. Secondly, he talked about a couple of things that I thought were interesting. Let me read to you just two quick sound bites from the transcript. On the biggest challenge since arriving in trying to rebuild the franchise,

He said there's a lot of things that we looked at. And honestly, it hasn't been what's been on the field, but what has been off the field. And that's tough sometimes, too. Let me just say, parenthetically, all of the stuff, and I'm not talking about his illness. I'm not talking about COVID. I'm talking about all the organizational stuff. That has impacted. You know, it's all connected. Tommy says it all the time. It's all connected. He's right. I've had enough conversations with him. them getting asked about it, the family getting asked about it, you know, why would you want to work for somebody like this? Why would you work in an organization that had all these allegations? Well, none of this stuff happened when he was there. You know, this all happened before he got there. But I think that a lot of the stuff that's been going on since literally he took the job, certainly from July 2020 on, has been an impact. But he went on to say that I think really you got to find that. the players that fit. We've got to continue to do that. We've got to find the players that fit.

And then he said on next year being a step forward year and whether or not that's a fair expectation, he said, I'd like to believe so. There's a lot of things we've been working on, a lot of things we feel good about. There's some things that we, that were out of our control this year that really hampered us. But at the end of the day, if you map things out, you plan things out. This is really what we believe. I don't see why not. And again, I know expectations will be high. I know people will say it's your third season. This is what happens in the third season. And again, I get it. At the end of the day, we've got some holes that we want to fill. We've got some players we want to make sure are the right kind of guys to be on the football field. That's all part of the

process that I believe in. Believe me, I didn't come here thinking that it's going to be an easy turnaround. Those first two years are going to be that those first two years are going to be great. I think we outdid the expectations our first year. I thought coming into the second year, I told you guys, there's certain things that I was still concerned with. Now going into the third year, I'd like to believe that we've taken some big steps. He pretty much said, okay, it's my third year. It's time to get it done. Don't you think? I think so. But, I mean, look, I mean, it's. It's, His, whether, whatever you think of him, he tries to sound reasonably intelligent when he answers these questions. Right.

Knowing what people on the outside are thinking, and he seems to try to take that in a consideration. I mean, even here, he recognizes, he says, you know, I know expectations will be high. I know people will say, well, it's your third season. You know, so he doesn't dismiss that. He says, you know, kind of like, well, they're right. It is my third season, and expectations will be high. And in a way they should be. So, I mean, he's real good at that.

I'll give him that. He addressed what the question was, and he did it in a way how people were thinking, but he also did it in a way that defends what the organization has done so far to get to that third year. So I think, yeah, I think you're right. I think he's basically saying, okay, now you can judge me. Yeah, okay. I think we're saying kind of the same thing. I know what you're saying.

You know, he wasn't out there saying, okay, this third year, we're going to be 12 and 4, and we're going to win the division, and we're going to have a chance to go to the Super Bowl. But, you know, when he said, I know expectations will be high, I would say to him, him actually, coach, I don't know that the expectations are going to be very high. Now, in general, like the third year of a five-year deal, you know, you better start to do something in that third year or the fourth and fifth probably won't be guaranteed, you know, but I don't know that there, anybody believes that they're going to be good next year. Like, what would make you believe that they're, I mean, in fact, I said this yesterday and I haven't told it and said it to you,

though we were talking about the game from Sunday. The environment this year compared to last in terms of expectations going into the offseason is much different. Last year you had a playoff game, which some people think they nearly won, and you had a defense that had played so well with the defensive rookie of the year, and you thought you were returning a potential Chicago Bears' 1985 defense, and all you had to do was find a few weapons, get a linebacker, get a corner, get a couple receivers. find a quarterback, and boom, boom, boom, you're going to the Super Bowl or you're going to contend.

You know, a lot of people thought this was going to be 10, 11 wins, you know, this year off of the ex-off of the way last year went, which was 7 and 9, I'll remind everybody. Nobody's thinking that now. The defense, it was a major stepback season. They don't have an answer at quarterback. The linebacker they drafted in the first round, he admitted yesterday may have to change positions. so other than it being the third of a five-year deal and what typically comes with that, there aren't really any expectations.

There's no optimism like there was last year heading into this off-season. Well, here's where I think would be more accurate, and let's deal with it from a negative point of view, which is pretty much the only way to deal with this organization. I don't know if expectations will be high, but frustrations if they don't prefer, form will be higher. So you just flipped it around. Yeah. Yeah, basically, if they don't perform, the patience will be gone.

Is frustration and emotion? I don't know. That requires somebody like you. My point, my, yeah, not really. I'm suggesting to you that to express frustration would require some level of caring. Okay. And I still think that we are in this bubble. We talked about this earlier in the year when we saw some of those television ratings and the crowds.

And I think that it's a wonderful bubble to be in with all of you that are listening. And we enjoy this a lot. But when it comes to talking about this football team, you know, there are, you know, whatever, three million people or four million people that live in the DMV, whatever the population is now. and most people that used to care don't care anymore and they're not going to be frustrated. That's my only point. But I kind of think we make that point.

But the narrative will be one of frustration and lack of patience. The hot seat will emerge. Let me just get to one other thing you said because this was pretty interesting, I thought. So he was asked about the office. season, you know, and how the offseason will help with injuries. And he gets into this long answer. He says, well, the biggest thing with injured players, for the most part, most of them, those are the things that you just can't control. That's the hard part, obviously, is that you can't control certain injuries.

The thing that you hope for is we get these guys back. And one thing we have to understand is just how important the off season is for us. Hopefully the COVID situation will be in control. Hopefully it won't be a battle to get guys here, to get guys to be here. When we're working together so we can develop this cohesion that you need to go forward with, there's a lot of things that come about when you do get together during those nine weeks that you have as far as OTAs and mini camp are concerned. Those are valuable opportunities. Hold on. Those are valuable. Those are opportunities to build it. It's an opportunity to introduce certain elements of what you want to do. It's a chance for us to evaluate going into training camp. Then once you get to camp, it's an opportunity to sit there and see

if things that happen during OTAs and mini camp are things that we can rely on as we build and go forward. That's the thing and that's going to be the truth of the matter is that this offseason is going to be very important, very vital to what I think is part of the plan. It's time I think that we see this team start to take that big step forward. And so the follow-up to that came a few questions later about Chase Young's off-season plan. Oh yeah, most certainly, that's one of the things that we want to get across. Again, there will be certain things he will be able to do, and we'd love to have him do. Again, I get it. It's a voluntary situation, OTAs. But to me, this is one of these things, and in our situation where we are in terms of our rebuild,

it's one of those things that this is where you're looking for everything to be put together, and that's the kind of way that I'm going to approach. I mean... I'm surprised that he said that. I'm not. I'm being facetious. I mean, remember the abuse we took from people when we both pointed out that they were upset, that Chase Young wasn't there for OTA?

and now you've got the coach pretty much saying exactly that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, whatever. We had the same thing with Trent Williams. And I mean, the problem last year is that he had a see on his chest. He was a team captain. And there were 90 players eligible to show up for nine scheduled OTA days. And there was only one player.

that did not show up for any of them. And it was a team captain going into a second year. I told all of you, and so did Tommy. They were not happy about it. Because regardless of what you heard about when he said, you know, it's all about the money. Got to go get my cash or whatever that line was when he was asked about it, you know, y'all would do the same thing.

The bottom line is there were opportunities for him to show. show up for at least a day or two, and he didn't do it. And so the coach is telling you that they're voluntary, but he would like Chase Young to show up for at least one of them this year. That's going to be a really interesting period of time for those of us in the bubble of paying attention to this. Will he or won't he show up to OTAs? And let me make one thing clear for about the 70th, 75th time. I don't think that him showing up for OTAs or not showing up for OTAs is going to actually impacts the performance on the field or his readiness. But as Doc said to me last spring, leaders don't give you a reason to question their leadership. And that's exactly what he did by not showing up and being the only player not to show up for at least one of those.

and that's a big deal. That part is a big deal. And the coach just told you yesterday. That's kind of a big deal that he actually shows up for this. Now, he's obviously recovering from a serious injury too. So his readiness, who knows? And maybe the commercial opportunities won't be nearly as plentiful as they were after last year. I don't know.

Well, let me just go on the record. My prediction, there will be a marketing campaign from Under Armour as far as Chase Young's rehabilitation. We'll be full-fledged like all in for week one, but it'll be close. Are you predicting that or do you know that? No, I'm predicting it. I'm predicting it. Got it.

I'm predicting that there will be a marketing campaign by Under Armour around Chase Young's rehab. Last thing from Rivera yesterday. on Jamin Davis, on if he's changed his opinion of where Davis should play defensively. You know, he's been playing middle linebacker. By the way, I wanted to mention one thing that I didn't mention yesterday. I mentioned this earlier in the season when John Bostic was lost to a season ending injury, and I told you guys that they really think it's a big loss, and it's hard for us to see because we don't see Bostick performing,

and we see him out of position and we see him missing tackles. But Bostick really was the extension of Del Rio on the field. And I remember talking to somebody last year, they loved Bostick. They think Bostick's a terrific communicator. He's really smart the whole thing. And I think if you were to ask them now about the loss of Bostick, they'll say that it impacted Jaman Davis's rookie year. Anyway, he said about maybe changing positions.

He said, I think that's something we got to really look at and see if it is better for him not to have the kind of pressure that the middle linebacker has on them. So that's the first time that he's kind of admitted as it relates to Jamie Davis that maybe he was playing out of position, maybe they didn't get the production that they wanted. And certainly his snap count on Sunday, he was only out there for 21% of the defense. offensive snaps, whereas David Mayo, a special teamer, was out there for many more of those snaps. It's certainly a disappointing rookie year for Jamie Davis. Doesn't mean that that's what year two and year three and year four are going to be,

but a disappointing rookie year for Jamie Davis. Remember you dismissed me when Richelot passed away, and I said that the football team and and Jamie Davis should be lucky if he has the career that Rich Malotte had. I think they take it now. I guess, but you hope for a lot more from a first round pick. Yes, he normally would. I'll be stubborn and stick with my same answer. I'm expecting more, and I think they should be expecting more too.

God rest, Rich Malott's soul, because he was a wonderful player, and a champion for this football team as well. All right, the Wizards won last night. I want to talk about that. The Terps nearly won. I want to talk about that. And a little bit more on the Joe Judge rant from after his game on Sunday. All of those things after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Two point game. Kyle Kuzma last night. Wow, what a game. He has really become the Wizards' clutch, late game clutch performance. big-time three-point shooter in the clutch. 36 for Coosemah last night. 14 rebounds, six assists in the game, and some clutch threes down the stretch.

They rallied to beat Charlotte, 124 to 121. By the way, Bradley Beal with 35, and he's put together a couple of excellent games. He had a really one of those turnovers, and I know I mention them all the time, but my God, he just exposed the ball and just had it taken by Rozier. in a key possession with about two and a half minutes to go.

But anyway, the Wizards won the game. They are 19 and 18. The game Saturday night against the Bulls, Tommy, was so entertaining. And Demar de Rosen, oh, my God, what a season he's having. But they've really gotten it together here with many missing pieces, including Montrez-Harrel. And they beat the Cavs. They certainly could have beaten the Bulls. And last night they came back and beat a team that's given them problems, really.

in the Hornets, and they are 19 and 18. It was a really good win for them last night. Look, they stopped. It looked like they were about to collapse, and they put the brakes on, and they stopped it. Now they're back to keeping their head above water. And you're right, they're doing it without some key players. Yes, still don't have. No, Hachamura.

No Hachamura. He was close, and then he got COVID. Yeah. So we'll see. I think we're getting close to Thomas Bryant, perhaps, being ready. But they really need, you know, well, I say they really need. It'd be really nice to get Hachamura back. And again, the mystery surrounding that long absence is interesting.

I have no idea what it was. I would certainly guess that it was something personal with him. But anyway, they get Houston tomorrow night. Houston's terrible. Houston actually won a few games there for a while, and then they've been awful. I think they've lost eight or nine in a row, and none of them really have been very close. Is John Wall playing for Houston these days or not? No, no. But he's collecting. No, but he's making $43 million for not playing. Good win for the Wizards last night. They're 19 and 18. They keep hovering around that 500, and they keep threatening to go below 500, but they're playing well.

I would remind all of you that, you know, told me early in the year what a great defensive team they were. And I said, I would put the brakes on that for a little bit. I think a lot of it has to do with teams are just missing some shots against them. If you're watching the games closely, you know, they're improved. They're emphasizing defense. They're better coached defensively. But I still question whether or not they could become a really good defensive team. And, you know, the truth is, last night was 124, 121, Saturday night was 120 to 119.

You know, they played a game against the Knicks recently that was 126 to 117 or something like that. It's, you know, part of it is just the NBA in the way the NBA is being played. They've got to get better on defense right now. And Harold, you know, and some of the pieces that they have that they've been missing can help there. I like Avedia a lot. I actually really like him as a defender. I like KCP as a defender, too. I wanted to mention too.

Maryland opened up now, you know, the exclusive run of Big Ten the rest of the year. They had won three games going into their game last night at Iowa. They had beaten a ranked team in Florida in Brooklyn a few weeks back. And then they had beaten like Brown and Lehigh. And they went into the game last night as nearly a double-digit underdog against a pretty good Iowa team, an experienced Iowa team for sure. And they played really well.

I was really surprised at how well they played. Fats Russell was outstanding last night. They got down 12 early, and he really sparked the comeback. Eric Ayala had another really solid game for them. You know, Wahab, the biggest issue with Wahab, the center, Tommy, he's one of these big guys. He just, you know, he gets way too comfortable in the post when he's being doubled. The ball comes down.

He puts it on the floor. So he ended up with, you know, a couple of key turnovers, you know, turnovers that big guys will have every once in a while, but you can't have you. You know, you're big. You can't bring the ball down to the level of smaller players. Really, the only issue with them last night was their transition defense early. Keegan Murray, who is a sophomore for Iowa, a 6-8-230-pound forward, is the leading scorer in the country, which surprised me. To be honest with you, I barely remembered him from last year's Iowa team, which was really good with Luca Garza, etc.

This is his coming out party this year. He's averaging 24 and a half points per game. He hit 35 last night, and Maryland couldn't stop him. But Maryland built a lead. They were up four at halftime. They went up by as many as five in the second half. The big thing for them last night really is they missed a lot of wide open threes that could have been big. And they were 10 of 17 from the free throw line.

And that really hurt them last night. Iala had a chance at 78, 75, after they fouled intentionally with four seconds to go to either make the first, intentionally miss the second, or make both of them and extend the game with 4.3 or whatever was left, and he missed the first free throw, and then they intentionally missed the second one. So those were big free throws. If you could have knocked them both down, it would have been, you know, it would have been 78 to 77 with four and a half seconds to go. And, you know, who knows?

I mean, it's still probably, they're still going to have to foul. But they played really well. You know, they're not as talented as I think some people. thought and maybe I thought, although I didn't know what these transfers would be. But, you know, they were picked pretty much fourth or fifth. They were a preseason ranked, you know, team 20th or 21st or whatever they were ranked preseason. They've got veterans.

They've got some good players. They're going to win some games. And then the last thing I'll just say about Maryland's the game, for those of you that tweeted me and said, whoa, Shan, did you check out the second, the adjustments that Danny Manning was making in game? Um, yeah. And as if Turgeon didn't make in game adjustments, you guys are, you're on crack. Turgeon was switching all the time defensively. The 2-21 full court was put in by Turgeon. He used that a lot. He played a lot of zone in recent years, you know, switching from that 3-2 back to man to an occasional 2-3 to an occasional 1-3, which they've played with Aaron Wiggins, you know, at the top, you know, or Jake Lehman, before that. Please. If you don't know what you're talking about, it's okay, but don't throw out something stupid like Danny Manning is making in-game adjustments, and Turgeon never did. It's just

stupid. But I was impressed with them last night. Of course, it doesn't get easier. They play at Illinois Thursday night and then come home Sunday night against Wisconsin, who just knocked off the number three team in the country on the road last night, Purdue. Big Ten is a gauntlet, man. It really is. Yes, it is. All right, last thing. Did you hear what Joe Judge said? Yes, I did.

Yes, I did. Okay, so... My God, that's one soul it's about being a Washington fan is you can look at the Giants and say, well, look what they have to deal with. So, exactly. I talked about what he said. It was an 11-minute rant after the game in Chicago on Sunday. where they got absolutely annihilated, where they completely tapped out, they didn't even try.

They threw 11 passes in a game for 24 gross yards, negative 10 yards passing as a team stat when you factor in the 34 yards lost on sacks. It was an abysmal, horrendous performance. It was unprofessional as a performance. So he ranted for 11 minutes. He talked about how his team is together, how you'd never see his team tap out, about how players have bought in, about how players show up and they come to work. And he's talking in that Philadelphia accent where he's from. He's like, you know, you don't know what we've got here in our building.

You don't know what we've got in our building. You know, you don't know. I mean, the guy just sounded like a complete, not because he's from Philly. I love, by the way, the South Jersey Philly accent. I love it. But he just sounded the entire time like a total rub, a rub, and a sensitive, you know, soft Nancy rub, too. Like he was so hurt that anybody had the gall to criticize his team after they had lost their fifth straight and he had been blown out without even trying to win. At one point, Tommy, listen to what he admitted.

admitted he goes, I get a dozen emails a day. Half of them are really positive. Half of them are really negative. But this is New York. I understand. It comes with the territory. You want to boo me? Go ahead. I I know, I know what I got in my building. I know what I got. Like, dummy,

idiots like Tommy and I get 30 to 50 emails a day. You only get a dozen emails a day as the head coach of the Giants? Are you kidding me? I mean, you got big issues. Nobody cares about your team.

Kevin. What? Kevin. Yeah. Did you hear what he said? I don't know if it's the same press conference or if it was a different one where he mentioned, you know, that you don't see teammates on, you don't see guys on our team fighting on the bench.

Right. Well, that's what I'm going to play right now. This is the part. Okay. Yeah, this is the part. Okay. I just wanted to give everybody the whole, you know, a flavor for the whole rant. It was a very defensive, sensitive kind of rant.

and he's talking about things that were just ridiculous, including, like, you know, you don't see guys bringing in golf clubs to our locker room, to which, by the way, Ryan Clark apparently said, well, nobody brings golf clubs into the locker room. He picked an odd time for the rant, you know, after they got their ass kick. But this was the part that I talked about yesterday.

This was the shot that he took towards the Washington football team, soon to be a Washington actual name that is plural on February 2nd. This was Joe Judge as part of that rant on Sunday afternoon. This ain't a team that's having fist fights on the sidelines. This ain't some clown show organization or something else. That was the shot as part of the rant on Sunday talking about fist fights and clown show organizations. Not an indirect, a direct swipe at his upcoming opponent.

What did you think? Absolutely. And you know what? You know what? You can respond to that is, you know what? We may be a clown show, but we're not that clown show. Yeah. I mean, yes.

So I talked about it a little bit, but I went and did some research. Because I think what he did is he awakened a few of us anyway to how bad the giants are. because I knew that the Giants haven't been very good, Tommy, for several years. But the shots that he took about Washington, you know, by the way,

he's not wrong. We all know he's not wrong. Right. Okay. You know, he's... That's why I said, we may be a clown show. Yeah. But we're not that clown show. It's not a revelation that Washington's a clown show. But what he did is

he basically awakened some of us to the fact that, you know, Washington's been the default, you know, clown show, punching bag for the NFL. You know, whenever people want to get, you know, a giggle, they do it at the expense of Washington, you know, NFL fans or media members and certainly behind closed doors, coaches, players, team executives. I mean, they're laughing about the shit show that Dan Snyder has created all the time. But this idiot, Joe Judge, you know, is actually working in an organization that while it doesn't have the reputation Washington has, is more incompetent on the field, less productive on the field than Washington's been for a decade. Tommy, I went back and pulled the numbers. He brought this to my attention. I knew the Giants were on a bad run, but still, I think of them as they won two Super Bowls with Coughlin. not that long ago, you know?

But his dumb-ass comments made people like me go back and look this stuff up. This guy, first of all, is 10 and 22 in two years. That's tied with Matt Ruhl for the worst of all the coaches, the new coaches that entered the 2020 season. But more than that, the Giants, since winning their last Super Bowl, which is now 10 years ago, they've got the worst record in the NFC, the worst record in the NFC East, worse than Washington's.

There's 61 and 99. Washington during that same stretch is 64, 95, and 1. I would have absolutely guessed that Washington had the worst record over the last decade. Not only that, the Giants have had only one playoff appearance in 10 years, zero division titles, zero playoff wins, and four different coaches, including three in the last five years. They have been embarrassingly horrendous, the worst in the division on the field. Washington, 64, 95, and one better, three trips to the playoffs, three division titles, right?

They won one in 2012. They won one in 2015, and they won one last year. They don't have any playoff wins either, but the results are better than New York's. I think this moron essentially highlighted just how bad his organization is. Like, they're every bit the clown show on the field anyway that Washington's been. Yes, they are. I mean, he is a moron. You got to, I mean, you got to wonder how him or Gettelman is going to survive. Well, Mara's expressed his desire to bring him back.

John Mara has said over and over again, Joe Judge's, my guy. I'm a hundred percent behind Joe Judge. I'm a big believer. I think Mara's falling for this mean-faced tough talk guy, you know, fake tough talk guy. Like this is what he is. Remember, this is a guy, okay, who made his team run win sprints after a fight in training camp. You know, I'm Johnny Tough Guy coach. He didn't have a pair of cleats that fit his first round draft choice when the first round draft choice showed up for the first day of minicamp. He fired his offensive coordinator in season, and the offense has gotten exponentially worse.

This guy, I hope John Merrill loves him. You know, like what Doc would always say about Jason Garrett. I hope Jerry keeps Jason Garrett. It's much better for everybody else in the division if Joe Judge continues to coach the Giants. Now, in all seriousness, by the way, I have no idea if he's a good coach or not. I don't think he's Tom Coughlin. But that is not Belichikian to start running your mouth as long as he did after an ass kicking to the tune of 26 points in Chicago with negative 10 passing yards.

negative 10, the least amount in like 100 years of professional football. You know, now you realize this whole rant of yours goes out the window if Washington loses to this. No, it doesn't. Stop it. Oh, it does. Oh, bullshit. Oh, come on.

Out the window. If they lose to that team, that coach the way you describe him, then then out, gone, finished. Look. You shouldn't even be allowed to say a lot about the giant ever again. Well, look, they already, let's not forget, lost to Washington when their special teams, which by the way, do you know what he coached in New England under Belichick for many years? Yes, I know.

Special teams. And they jumped off sides on a game missed field goal. And Dustin Hopkins got the other opportunity. So maybe Sunday. doesn't mean anything. We can just go back to week two. But no, it doesn't change anything related to this rant because it's dumb. You know, there's no way Belichick would have ever, ever. First of all, he would have never given a rant like this. Secondly, after an ass kicking, after a fifth straight loss where their margin of defeat is an average of 18 points, where his team, by the way,

Brendan, my producer on radio, pulled the sound bite from a year ago. When Washington beat Philadelphia, when Doug Peterson tanked or was ordered to tank in the second half by putting Nate Sudfeld in to that game, he went on a rant the next day saying you'll never see something like this with one of my teams. And on Sunday in Chicago, they're down double digits almost before the game started. They threw the ball 11 times. I mean, you talk about surrendering. What a tap-out job that was. What game have you ever seen other than terrible weather conditions where teams getting their ass kicked and they're not throwing the football?

You know, Kevin, if Washington loses on Sunday, you're going to have to come in on Monday and say, never mind. No, I wouldn't. It has nothing to do with his stupid-ass rant. Who rants like that after an, absolute ass kicking. And who loses to an idiot like that? Look, this is not, by the way, any sort of declaration on Washington being like a much

better franchise. I'm not suggesting that. I am just pointing out that until I looked it up, which he gave me reason to do it, I didn't realize how bad the giants have been for the last decade. Did you know? Yeah, I had an idea. Really? You thought they were worse than what?

Washington record-wise? I would have never guessed that. I thought they could be. They don't have the same off-field issues that Washington does. So the spotlight is as glaring. Let me just point out that the coach, Ron Rivera, like Jay Gruden did years ago, for a meaning of giant game. I read what you tweeted.

Has called this the character game, basically. This is where you're going to see their character. So if they lose on Sunday, then this whole culture, change, this whole building of character flushed down the toilet. So let me flip it around on you, Mr. Flip Around. If they win the game, do you declare that the culture has been repaired, that they've got a great culture because they beat the Giants in a meaningful, and a meaningless game in week 18? It will show that they're not going in the wrong direction.

Really? Now, I think Sunday's game showed that. I think Sunday's game was a big test against Philadelphia because they got beat in embarrassing fashion on national TV to an arch rival, 56 to 14. And they responded. And they played a really solid game, which I expected them to do.

As far as this game on Sunday... But the coach has called everybody out. As far as this game Sunday... This is a character game. Character game. These games are never... character games. That's what the coach says.

So if it's a character game, let's see who ends up playing the whole game. But again, so if they win it, the cultures, totally, it's a 180 on the culture. You're going to be all in on the culture. It's not going in the wrong direction. Oh, okay. So you'll declare that it's going in the right direction if they beat the Giants on Sunday. It's not going in the wrong direction. They're two different things.

Okay, so it's at least neutral. It's spinning its wheels at least instead of going backwards. You'll at least say that. Yes. Okay. Let me be clear. There is no result Sunday that could make me think any differently than the way I feel right now about this football team. Zero result that could change the way I feel right now.

These games are the most meaningless. Sunday's game was meaningful to me. Sunday's game was a big deal and like they did last year and, like they did this year, two and six after the bye week, I think that his players do respond. I think the normal thought for players in these kinds of games in the final week of the season is, you know, is my B&B, is my Airbnb and Turks and Kekos going to be ready for me on Monday or Tuesday? That's what I think most of them are thinking about.

And I don't think that's a reflection of the coach or the culture. Okay. You got anything else? Are you about to head to one of those bars on the beach and drink some beers and smoke some cigars? That would be the plan, although it's not that warm today. I may wait until tomorrow because it's supposed to be 68 and sunny tomorrow. We got another snowstorm heading our way for Thursday night. You really got out of town just in time. All right. I deserve it. See you. We'll talk to you on Thursday. All right, boss. Back tomorrow, everybody.