The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington's Schedule Coming Together

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Kevin and Thom today with lots of schedule talk as some Commanders' games have been announced officially while others have been leaked unofficially. The boys talked Metro trouble at the new RFK stadium site, Jayden Daniels on Netflix's "Quarterback" series, Darryn Peterson's detached answer to how the Wizards interviewed him, the Preakness, and lots more on a fast-moving show.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Head to www.Chime.com/SHEEHAN. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.   Get 20% off your first order at www.FastGrowingTrees.com with code [Sheehan].   Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to www.quince.com/SHEEHAN for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. 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. He is Kevin. Tommy Sear, I am here. The show's presenting sponsor is always, Window Nation. 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com if you need new windows.

We are recording today's show at 2 p.m. in the afternoon Eastern Time. So by the time, many of you listen to this, The schedule may be out and complete or it may be furthered along with leaks. As of this moment right now, there have been 10 games that have either been officially announced or they have been leaked by what I would describe, Tommy, since I am familiar with this little cottage industry of NFL schedule people. There are social media sites that have been, you know, mostly accurate in recent years as they've leaked parts of the schedule. So I'm going to give you the 10 games that have been leaked and or officially announced. And that's what we'll have on the show today.

Tomorrow's show, I'll go through the whole thing because the whole thing officially comes out tonight at 8 o'clock. I know you don't care much about this. I'm just so interested. in its growth in popularity over the years. I mean, I remember Andy and I did a show together, probably 2009, 2010, because it was the first time the schedule was released on television. It used to be that it would just come out on the internet or it would come out in the newspaper the next day. Years ago, you'd have to wait until the next day to get it in the Washington.

Post Sports section. You're not getting that anymore. But I remember we did a show on 980 around the schedule. And that was like the first time it was like, wow, this is a big deal. And then it rated so well. It's become huge. And now the leaking of the schedule, both officially, you know, the games that get announced in advance and then the leakers, the capable leakers, the accurate leakers, we have this schedule thing being drawn out over like several days. And by the time we get to tonight, it's anticlimactic, actually, because I'm going to guess we'll have the entire schedule out unofficially by 8 p.m. tonight when the NFL network and ESPN go live with their shows.

But what do you make of all this? It's just the NFL, right? It's just the soaring popularity, the never-ending soaring popularity. of the NFL and anything it does. Okay, well, you're a business genius. Is there anything that the NFL does right now that we just take for granted? Is there anything left that they just take,

that we just, that's typical business that they could turn around into an industry like they have done with the draft, like they have done with the schedule, like they have done with the combine. Is there anything left for them to squeeze money out of? First of all, let me just answer your description of me before you asked the question. If I were a business genius, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you twice a week.

That's for starters. Secondly, is there anything they haven't squeezed? I don't know, man. Look at just this schedule that's coming out. They're squeezing every possible holiday moment. You know, Thanksgiving Eve is going to be football on that Wednesday night. Green Bay against the Rams. Triple header on Thanksgiving Day.

Black Friday games. We've got games on Christmas Eve, one game on Christmas Eve night, which, by the way, it's a Thursday night. So there's Thursday night football just scheduled typically. but if I were a parent of young kids, my preference would be Christmas Day games over Christmas Eve night games because that's kind of a sacred time with kids, Santa Claus, the whole thing at holiday time. But you've got a triple header this year on Christmas Day, so an added game on Christmas Day. They've gotten, I think they've exhausted the number of potential dates that you,

used to be no-nows. How about this? How about holding the beginning of free agency in some city where the teams are up on a stage wheeling and dealing? I don't know. I don't know what's left. I mean, what is left? I mean, we televise training camp. We televise, you know, intra-squad scrimmages. I don't know. I'm sure they'll find something. I'm sure they'll find. You know what they should do? Jim Zorn was always fascinated with player surgeries. He actually attended a player surgery. How about we get, you know, a channel that just for, I'm sorry, it was Chris Horton's sesamoid. No, he, that was the way he described Chris Horton's injury. He attended. Yeah, he attended the Chris Cooley surgery.

Right. Yeah. But he, maybe you have like an NFL injury channel. It's just constantly talking about the players that are injured. You know, doctors are interviewed because injuries are a big part of the game. I don't know. We're just, it's, it's interesting. So, I mean, that's it. What I'm saying is just illustrates, you know, what was just typical business

by the NFL 10 years ago is now a money-making operation in addition to the rest of their money-making operations. I think the person that came up with the idea to take the draft to cities and do live drafts from cities, that person should have been immediately elevated to senior VP level,

if they were much lower than that and had that idea. Because of all of their ideas in recent years, that one is the home run of all home runs. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, basically, for teams that don't get the Super Bowl, this is their Super Bowl. For cities that don't get a Super Bowl, this is it.

I wonder if the draft actually generates more revenue for a city, given that it's over a three-day period and over a million people are expected in D.C. next year over a three-day period in late April. Yeah, but I think the wallets of the events are totally different. I get it, but it's also a million two versus, you know, 150,000 that might come into town, you know, even though 70,000 are only going to the game. I mean, that's a lot of people to come into your city over a three-day period. And those people are spending, Tommy. You're right. The wallet size on average isn't the same, but they are drinking and eating.

And in a city like Washington, I mean, of course, much of what you can do in Washington that's interesting is free. It's one of the great things about our city is that most of the museums and art galleries, etc., on the mall are, free. But it'll be a revenue generator, that's for sure. All right. So here's what we have for the schedule so far. And I have done so far pretty well with my mock that I put out a week ago Wednesday. I had the Indianapolis London game exactly right on the October 4th date in which the league announced it yesterday. And I also mocked as my opener at Philadelphia 425 on Sunday, September 13th. And that's one of the games that got leaked today. It looks like if the leaked information is accurate, and I believe it to be pretty reliable, we'll find out tonight for sure. At Philadelphia

is the opener on Sunday, September 13th. We also had leaked today Seattle at home in week three. That's a West Coast team traveling east for a one o'clock game, usually advantage East Coast team. The Indianapolis London game in week four, week six at San Francisco on Monday night football, week eight, Philadelphia at home on Sunday night football. Week nine, the Rams at home, one o'clock. So the other West Coast team that is coming to Landover, Seattle, and the Rams. Both of them will play Sunday 1 o'clock games Eastern time, and that's typically, again, an advantage

for the East Coast teams. Week 10, they are playing Thursday night football against the Giants in the Meadowlands. Week 11, that's Thanksgiving week. It's that Monday night, November 23rd. They play the Bengals at home on Monday night football. and then they have home games in week 14 and week 15 at 1 o'clock against Houston and Atlanta. And then it would appear right now that Dallas is going to be the season finale, although I'm not sure where that game will be. I think there's a decent chance Dallas may be the week two opponent at home.

But that's what we know so far. again, that's a combination of what's been officially announced, and then what I would deem to be reliable social media NFL schedule leak sites. They've been right a lot more than they've been wrong in recent years. So I have a feeling that by the time we get to 8 o'clock tonight when the schedule is officially announced, we're going to know pretty much the entirety of Washington's schedule. Anyway, that seems to be the way it's gone, the last. couple of years. But I talked about the opportunity for stand-alone prime time or standalone nationally

televised games. I think a lot of people figured coming off a five and 12 season, there wouldn't be as many this year. But I mocked it differently because I thought Jaden Daniels would still be an appealing player to put in standalone windows. And as of now, they've got five standalone nationally televised games, which was my prediction. They've got the indie game in London. They've got a San Francisco game on Monday night football. They've got a Philadelphia game at home on Sunday night football. They've got the Giants on Thursday night football, and they have the Bengals on Monday

night football. There could be more to come, but that's what we have so far. Also, nothing on Thanksgiving, nothing on Christmas. Those two holidays have now. been completely accounted for and Washington's not going to play the Thanksgiving Eve game. They're not going to play any of the three Thanksgiving Day games. They're not going to play a Black Friday game. And the Christmas Day schedule, which includes a Christmas Eve night game, they're not in that. They're not in any of the three games on Christmas Day. So I actually, in my

Mock did not have them playing on Thanksgiving or Christmas or any of the days surrounding those days that are considered to be holiday standalone games. But that's what we have so far. If we get more in, and we probably will during the recording of this podcast, I will do my best update you. So it's good that the commanders are not scheduled for any of the holiday or near holiday games because it's almost like getting extra holidays now. You know, you get the regular holidays,

plus you get the Commander's football games. I prefer when they don't play on Thanksgiving and don't play on Christmas. Yes. I don't know who is in favor of it. Oh, I think a lot of fans love your team being in that big, you know, standalone nationally televised holiday game. I think a lot of Skins fans love playing the Cowboys.

on Thanksgiving. And the truth is, I hate it when the schedule comes out. I hate it leading up to it because my wife hates it when they play on Thanksgiving. But when we get to it, especially if the game's meaningful and most of them have not been when they faced the Cowboys on Thanksgiving over the years. But there is something cool about Skins Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. But you're going to get Eagles. Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.

I'll tell you who's got this schedule this year in terms of we're going to see a lot of them on national TV. The Chicago Bears are getting the star team treatment by the schedule makers. After the season they had last year, the season that Caleb Williams had, they are all over nationally televised stand-alone games. games. They have an early season Monday night game against the Eagles at home. They have a Thursday night game in October against the Patriots at home. They have a Sunday night football game in November against Tampa Bay at home. They play on Thanksgiving Day in the early game at Detroit. They play on Christmas Day at home against the Packers. And then, um, late in the season, it looks like they have a Saturday nationally televised game against Detroit.

They are getting the same treatment that Washington got after Washington's 2024 season. Yeah, kind of a busy day if you're into following this because it is dominating social media when it comes to NFL conversation. and yeah. All right. Oh, the season opener, we're going to get the Patriots, Seahawks on Wednesday night, September 9th in the kickoff game, a rematch of the Super Bowl,

which was an absolute beatdown. I thought yesterday that we wouldn't see that because of the Vrabble situation. Do they really want their season to kick off with, you know, all day long pregame shows with Vrable being a big topic. Apparently, they don't care. Patriots. They must not care because it will, I mean, it will be the number one story going into that game.

Yeah. He's on camera enough as it is in a normal game. Yeah. You've noticed that. You've been very, you know, interested in why the camera seems to fixate on Vrabel. Well, I had a theory was that they didn't have really, there weren't really any stars on that team until Drake May stepped forward. It seems like a crush that you may have had on Vrabble.

It's actually a perfect segue into this email that I got from Max. Max wrote, Kevin and Tom, been a listener for as long as you both have been doing this together. I have a small criticism. I hope that you'll listen to it. I've noticed that you guys have avoided some of the more controversial topics this year. That's a change for you guys. Diana Rusini, Tiger Woods's prescription drug addiction, the NBA gambling story, the Kauai Leonard's salary cap corruption store, story. And then even a topic like, should Joelle and Bede have his young son in his arms during

interviews, these used to be must listens with the two of you. What gives? So I read this last night and just, you know, knew that I would want to read this to you as part of the show today. First of all, there are a couple of these things we haven't talked about, but there isn't anything. including the Diana Rusini's story, because we have talked about it, a couple of times now, that we have avoided on purpose. We talked about the Tiger Woods prescription drug issue. We talked all about the Tiger Woods recent thing. The NBA gambling story, we didn't talk a lot about that. I remember that, but sometimes I think the gambling stories now, they're just out.

It seems like there's one every couple of weeks, and they all kind of blend together. I don't think we've avoided controversial topics recently. Do you? No, I don't think we have. I mean, a Tiger Woods getting arrested for DUI and on drugs, it's kind of been there, done that kind of thing. But we did talk about it. We talked about how he needs a driver.

He's lucky that he's not in jail having injured somebody or worse. Yes, we did. But here's part of the problem is we don't do it. You do a daily podcast. You and I don't. Right. We have two days together every week. Right.

And the news cycles change quickly. Yeah, they do. And there are new things to talk about every day. And, you know, those things tend to, like, maybe, but like today, we're doing Thursday. I mean, you've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Right. before we talk again. You know, there's a lot of things that can happen on Monday that would bury whatever happens

on Friday. So I think part of it was just, you know, it's the story in the queue at that moment. Yeah, I mean, Max, I promise you, I mean, when these things pop up and they're timely, and I think they make sense, we talk about them. I mean, I think what Tommy said is true, although I typically keep a running list of things for the two of us to talk about on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Like on my list right now, it's been on the list for like a week and a half, although it actually became official, I think late last week or earlier this week. Like, I don't think together this isn't a controversial topic necessarily, although it's a topic that's generated a lot of conversation and debate. I don't think we've talked about the NCAA tournament expanding to 76 teams yet.

I don't think we have. Not together. I may have done it. I know we did it on a radio. You know what? Actually, what was this last thing about Joelle and Bede? I actually did take note of that. I probably should have written that one down for us to talk about.

But you've heard me talk about this before. Yes. Yes. I mean, and he did it in a loss. Yeah. You know? I mean, which is really, really heinous. But, I mean, I hate when players do it.

And coaches, I've seen coaches do it in a win. You know, it's shelter from having to answer any tough questions. I mean, if this is a workplace. I mean, for fans, it's not a workplace. For the media, it is. It's not take your kid to workday, people. I know that there are people out there listening right now. that, well, let me just make sure that everybody understands what we're talking about.

Joel Embed throughout the series and throughout the playoffs, playing for the 76ers, would have his young son in his arms during, by the way, interviews right when the game ended with whichever network was interviewing him post-game, but then also at the podium during his press conference. and when they got swept by the Knicks in this last round, he was at the podium after they got swept and the season was over with his young son in his arms. Now, before some of you say, so what? It's his kid.

Because I know many of you out there who don't have experience with media and covering teams in this kind of an environment, you know, a post-game interview on a floor, after a basketball game or in, you know, the press area from a podium. Just hear me and Tommy out on this. First of all, let me just say this. The little kid that runs into his dad's arms when the father's being interviewed on the field or on the floor right after a game, obviously if you're the father, you're going to embrace

the kid, you're going to pick him up, and so be it. that that interview is going to take place with the kid in the father's arms. But I'm talking more about the official press conference following a game where there's a podium. There is, you know, looking up at the podium, there are lots of chairs with media people who are there doing a job. It is a work environment for those people who are asking the questions and then going back, in producing radio stories, television stories, or writing columns or writing stories as reporters. That is their job. And part of their job is to be able to, in a professional environment, ask questions of

players and coaches following the games. And to Tommy's point, it is shelter for the player or the coach. It shields the player or the coach from potentially. probing, perhaps more direct and even more critical questions or tough questions for that player. And again, it's not take your kid to work day in that environment. It just isn't. And anybody that's ever worked in that environment feels that way. But I do kind of understand that people, you know, who don't know, don't know.

and don't and actually on some level it's a bit condescending when you say come on man it's no big deal you guys are just reporters you know no that's actually a profession and they're there to work and the player that's being interviewed or the coach that is being interviewed is also there with the understanding that you know there's this relationship between the coverage and what we do that sort of benefits everybody involved to a certain degree But anyway, I don't like to see that. I think it's unprofessional. At the same time, for those that don't know that it's unprofessional, I don't like hold a grudge against you for not knowing and your reaction being, what are you talking about? It's their kid. How are you going to stop somebody from holding on to their kid?

Well, you know, in your own work environment, if you've got a big meeting, are you bringing your kid to the meeting to sit in your lap during the meeting? No, this is the equivalent in this environment, in this sports media environment. I wonder if there's a media member out there who would have the gut to tell the people who are under the press conference, first of all, privately. You know, if this guy brings his kid out there to answer questions, I'm going to raise it during the press conference. Or I'm not backing off from a very tough question, and maybe even,

an uncomfortable question that I was planning on asking. This ties to, in a way, I can tie this to the Diana Rusini-Rabell story, which we've talked about repeatedly. I can't tell you how many times since this story broke, I've conducted journalism classes to people I've met at the cigar bar or someplace else. Right. who would say to me, what's the big deal? And I'd have to sit there and explain to them something that never occurred to them

about the conflict of interest or even the appearance of the conflict of interest. From her standpoint. From her standpoint. From her standpoint. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And this was like a revelation to so many people I've talked to about this.

Oh. And this is like, this is a lesser thing, the kids at the press conference, but still, like you said, people will say, well, what's the big deal? I've got that reaction on the Racini thing, you know? Oh, I've gotten that from people, too. I've gotten that from people too. And I've, you know... It's stunning.

Well, I mean, people who aren't in this business, they're ignorant to, you know, what it is. I mean... But I know that, but you're exposed to this business every day now. Yeah. Well, I mean... I mean, you know, you didn't just drop down from Mars.

I also think, Tommy, there is a little bit of responsibility that a PR person has in making sure that the environment remains, you know, a professional one. And at the same time, you know, if the team and the player and or coach chooses to, you know, try to shelter themselves with a child in their arms, and they don't treat it professionally and with respect to the people who are there covering it. I don't think the people that are asking the questions should shy away from asking tough questions. If they're going to put themselves into that position, they should ask, you know, the reporters should ask exactly what they were planning on asking. But I bet in many cases they don't. I'll bet it does too.

But it shouldn't. You're right. Look, the PR person has no power there. I mean, certainly not over the player. Yeah. Okay. But for that to happen, the PR person would have to speak to the general manager of the team, and that order would have to come down from the general manager. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think we just gave that guy what he was looking for, right?

I don't know. When I read that, I thought to myself, what big stories have we missed? Because there are sometimes some things that we have, we do, tend on talking about we don't get to. And then like you said, by the time we reconvene, it's kind of old news. But it's not done because we're avoiding it. We've never avoided those. In fact, those conversations for these two days of the week with Tommy are much more interesting, I think, to many of you than some of the sports conversations we have.

All right. Thank you, though, Max. it's a criticism that we listened to and hopefully we addressed. All right, we have lots of non-controversial things to talk about on the show today, and we'll start to get to those after these words from a few of our sponsors. I'll be honest. At first, I was skeptical about ordering plants online, like, is this thing actually going to show up alive? But that's what surprised me most about fast-growing trees.

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saying that currently Metro is able to handle about 14,000 people an hour from their DC Armory site, stadium armory site, but not capable of handling potentially 60 some odd thousand fans that may be traveling via Metro to get to the game. And the big change

between RFK back in the day and the new RFK is the lack of parking. And what the overall site will, you know, be. It will be much more

than a stadium. So you wanted to talk about this. So go ahead. Talk about it. What's the big issue and why won't they, be able to get something done? Well, according to Metro, the $65,000 figure is the, that's the capacity for the stadium.

Right. And they're figuring more than half of that number will use mass transit. 35,000, let's say. Yeah, let's say 35, probably closer to 40. Okay. But we could say 35,000. And the existing stop there can only handle 14,000 people capacity. an hour.

Okay. So that creates some serious bottleneck situations. They're going to expand that Metro is going to, well, they want to expand it. The money has to come forward in order to do this. You know, bigger station entrances, more escalators and elevators. And they're going to have people there to, like, meter crowd control measures, you know, metering customers into the station. They're only let so many in at a time.

That sounds like a disaster, to be honest with you. But what they're also hoping to do is run buses to the stadium. Oh, gosh. Dedicated bus line. Oh, no, no. Like they're hoping that people will go to Union Station, you know, take the train to Union Station, and then get on one of these buses that they'll run from Union Station to the stadium.

Now, I did some research on this, and there are teams around the league that rely on this. I don't know how effective it is in those places, but let me see if I've got this right here. But I think the new stadium in Buffalo, all the new stadiums are going to be faced with this situation. of basically, you know, having to use buses because parking will be at a far less premium in many of these places than it's been in the past.

And I think, I forget what else, I can't see the money. Well, the price tag for building a new metro station, which apparently is not something that is going to be considered, it would be more than a billion dollars. and Metro is saying it'd be too expensive, too complex, and wouldn't be ready in time for opening day. Building a new station would lead to additional maintenance costs and the benefit from it would be marginal as it would also connect to the same tracks as Stadium Armory, the blue, orange, and silver lines. There's a study, I guess, that's going to be presented to Metro on this. But how, I guess, how wasn't this addressed during all of the discussion? about building a stadium in this site.

The transportation, the ease of getting in and out to the new stadium at RFK has always been front and center in terms of what would be important about moving it from Landover back into the city, is that you would have, you know, mass transit as an option. You would, you know, and then we found out that the parking wouldn't be, you know, what it was at the old RFK. there's just not enough geography for it with all of the commercial and and residential and all the stuff that'll be going up around it, retail, et cetera. But how wasn't this figured out and discussed and allocated for? How did they miss this? That's a good point.

I'm not quite sure how it happened. But now the parking, not in the stadium, is going to be a big issue. Now, stadiums that, like MetLife, uses a shuttle bus system of school buses, basically in Pittsburgh, and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, yeah. Right. So there are places where they do this, and I don't know how. Shoot me right now. If I had to go drive somewhere and get on a bus to be taken to the stadium.

You, a guy like you. And then wait for that bus and get on the bus to go back to the parking lot after the game. No way. No way. Oh. Come on. No. No.

Uh-uh. Obviously, somebody like you and your ilk would probably would probably take the metro. I mean, I would be more willing to take the metro to get to the stadium. But I like driving places. I like being in control. you know, of being able to go where I want to go, when I want to go. And I'd be one of those people that if I had season tickets, I would pay whatever the price was to have a spot in one of those parking garages,

although exiting those parking garages, I bet will be a nightmare. You know, absolutely. An absolute nightmare. So you know what I would be doing every Sunday or Monday night or whenever? I'd just Uber. I'd Uber and have them drop me off, you know, five or whatever. five blocks from the stadium and then walk. Yeah.

Yeah. That's what I said, you know. I mean, I think of how many spaces they're going to have at the new stadium. Not many, maybe 4,000. Jesus. This sounds like it's, I mean, what are you going to do if you find out that 35,000, 40,000 people are metroing to the stadium, this brand new stadium? into a station that can only handle 14,000 an hour. I mean, you're going to have to do it like, you know,

odd even days back in the gas crisis during the 70s. Like, we're going to get, okay, if you have these seats on this Sunday, you have to use the metro between 10 and 11 a.m. Sorry, you're going to get to the game two hours early. Then it's the 11 to 12 noon crowd and then the 12 noon to 1 p.m. crowd. This sounds like a nightmare that could be developing. As of now, they're going to build two 11-story garages that will have 8,000 parking

spaces. Okay. Now, there's a lot of people that don't want them to build garages that high. Right. So this number may be reduced, you know, to less than 8,000 parking spaces. Now, let me point out something. The team has the capacity, if they would. want to

to have additional parking spaces. They are developing all that land. The government may own the land, but they turned around and gave it to the team to say, here, go ahead and develop it, and they're going to make a ton

of money doing that. And, you know, they're not going to spend a lot of money on parking on that property to do that. So I don't know what the solution is to this. But, I mean, like you said, part of the sales pitch for RFK was the Metro. And if people can't count on the Metro, that seems kind of like a scam.

I mean, at FedEx Field, there was a metro stop a mile away. Yeah. Morgan Station. Yeah. They could have ran buses from there. 2030, by the way. I said 2031. 2030 is the opening, September of 2030.

You're thinking of 2031 when they can host the Women's World Cup. Exactly. I was, I had that on my mind. You're very excited about. I'm very, very excited. Yeah. You know, just out of curiosity, I'm looking forward in one of these stories. The Stadium Armory Metro stop was literally right next to RFK.

Is the stadium going to be built in the exact? footprint of RFK, or will it be... That's a good question. I mean, I don't know the answer to that. I'm wondering if it's going to be closer to that stop or further away from that stop. I mean, whatever it is, it's not going to be a long walk. I mean, it's going to be on that campus there. No, it's going to be close.

It'll be close enough that even I could do it. Oh, here it is right here. For those who don't take the bus, the Stadium Armory Station is about a 10-minute walk from the RFK campus. Well, that doesn't really speak to where the stadium will be built on the RK state campus, but whatever. Right. So this is something that it's going to be an issue moving forward.

What's the stop before? I don't know. I'm not a big metro guy to begin with. I'm a little bit familiar with the red line, you know, but I'm not familiar with whatever the lines are over near the stadium. but, you know, like with Navy Yard and the stop before it, I forget the name of the stop, but is there a stop that before Stadium Armory where you can get off and maybe walk an extra 10 minutes? I don't know. I'd have to pull up the Metro Map.

Maybe Union Station. Oh, no, that's a long walk. Union Station to RFK campus is probably a mile and a half, don't you think? Yeah, probably. Um, that was sort of defeat the whole purpose. Yeah. So, okay, Potomac Avenue is the stop before it coming out of downtown and then beyond it, which looks much further as Minnesota Avenue or the Benning Road stop. Yeah, that's on the other side of the river.

Of the river, exactly. Yeah. So Potomac Ave would be, yeah, would be the closest in, uh, yeah. I don't know Now generally There's always Transportation projected nightmares with these things

and somehow they generally get resolved They do Okay I'll take your word for it I mean they generally figure out a way to get things done

you know You know Every time I think about the new stadium It just seems so far out in the distance. Like, I think by the time we get there, I mean, I don't go to a lot of games now. There are certain games that I like going to, you know me. I love going to a big Maryland basketball game. Love that.

This was the first year in my entire life. I haven't been to a Wizards game or Wizards slash bullets. I did go to one hockey game this year. They're easy for me because I don't live that. far away. It's not like I'm close to Chinatown, but it takes me, you know, on a weekend, 12 minutes basically from my house to get to Capital One. The football experience, I didn't go to one game last year. And by 2030, I think I'll be, have less desire to go to games. So this isn't going to apply to me and people of my age as much as it will for my boys, if they even

live in DC. And by the way, I'm certainly going to experience it, and it's not just going to be the stadium. I'm interested in what that area is going to look like and how good it's going to be for the city, the city that is my hometown. I think it's, you know, it's been an area of blight for so long, and it's going to be resuscitated. And it'll be hopefully a cool new area, kind of like the wharf. Now, the wharf has become, I think, very very. touristy

for people from out of town. I don't know what this area will be like because it's going to be an area destination on non-game days because of the retail they'll have. But anyway, they hope it is.

They hope it is. Yeah, they hope it is. What I was going to say, though, is that every time I think about 2030, you know, or 2013, when I got confused because I was thinking about the Women's World Cup, they have four more seasons in Landover.

The 26 season, 27 season, 28 season, and 29 season. And I said this before last year, and it certainly didn't work out last year. But given that they do have a quarterback with ability, it's very possible that the final four seasons in Landover, or if you take the final six, which would include 2024,

the biggest games that have ever been played in that stadium, are going to be played. And if there are playoff games and big playoff games in Landover, big regular season games, important regular season games, like by the way, there was at the end of the

2024 season. That game against Atlanta late in the season, the game against Philadelphia late in the season were big games. But it's very possible that the feeling about the stadium for those that experience what they may experience, what they may

experience over the next four seasons will be different than the first, you know, 20 or 30 plus years of the stadium. Like the biggest games may be yet to come at old FedEx field, old Northwest field. I know. I think that you're talking about deep rooted feelings that will not be, that will not be diminished by a smattering of good times. You don't think that last game in Landover in 2029 in December of 20209, you don't think people are going to be running out on the field, grabbing, you know, turf sods, you know, sod and putting it in jars.

No, that last game at RFK, December of 1996, when that game ended against the Cowboys, God, it was something else. It was a spectacle all night long. The biggest disappointment about that particular day is that the game was meaningless. And it would have been for the division title, had Washington beaten the Cardinals the week before in Phoenix, they were favored to win that game. They lost that game, and that eliminated them from the playoff race.

But that would have been unbelievable, had that game been for the division title, and then it wouldn't have been the final home game. But they played the Cowboys' Meaningless game, but oh my God, what an electric night. That game exists on YouTube with Summerall and Madden calling the game. And the way they talked about RFK and their memories of calling all those games at RFK was really special to hear that.

I've watched that before. It's worth it. And remember at halftime, all the old players came out and Reggans came out in full regalia, full uniform. Wow. I mean, that was

a night, for sure. I did not come prepared to that game. People, I remember people, I'm walking in and people have hammers and screwdrivers. Like, what's that? They were taking their seats with them. I did not take my seat with me. I do have my old, you know,

super old coal fieldhouse seats in my attic. I had to purchase those. You're attic? Yeah. Actually, I didn't have to purchase those. The guy that was running the auction for the coal field house seats before they tore down coal was a listener to the show. And he said, you know, if you promote, uh, you know, the fact that this auction exists, I might be able to find your old seats.

And he did. I will tell you this. Don't you remember I had him in my office at 980 for a while because he delivered him there and they were just sitting in my office? And God, they were so heavy. It was a pain in the ass to get them into my attic when we moved a few years ago. Why are they in your attic? Well, I don't have, I have not built the shrine to myself that you have. I don't, I have any.

What's the point of having you? Exactly. Honestly, I didn't. I mean, the gentleman that got them for me, if you're listening, I appreciate it. I do. That stuff isn't for me. I don't keep that kind of stuff. I don't have that stuff.

I have some Super Bowl stuff up in the attic. I have a big box. I've told you about this before. I have a big box with, first of all, old newspapers, which I used to collect. and I have an old box with like, you know, some things from way back in the day and included in that are some of the Super Bowls that I went to and some of the, you know, things that were given to you as a Super Bowl fan, you know, it was given to you in a seat cushion on your seat. And I think I mentioned this a while back, but when we moved four years ago, I was looking through it. And there were a bunch of football cards, rookie football cards from 1991 that I have from that Super Bowl. And I have it also from 92 because I was at that Super Bowl, which was Buffalo, Dallas and Pasadena.

And one of these days, maybe I'll get around to sing if they're worth anything. Probably aren't, though. Okay, enough about that. Okay, we need metro upgrades or, or, you know, you're going to have to jump on the bus at Union Station and endure that. Or wherever the buses would set up, what? You think any of those 8,000 parking spaces, there'll be any media spaces in there? No! Of course not.

No chance. Absolutely no. you're going to have to get on the bus you know, at 1115 a.m. You know, in Friendship Heights and take it all the way down to the stadium. That should be fun. All right.

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The D.C. Grays, Cigars, and Curve Falls Fundraiser, Monday night, May 8, starting at 6 p.m. You can purchase tickets by going to the D.C. Gray's website. There are $100 for a donation. And you can also buy tickets at the door, too, as well. And you want to be there. You want to show up a shelley's because, look, a normal Monday night at Shelly's is fun enough.

Any night of the week at Shelly's, it's a good time with great cigars, great food, great liquor. but this is extra special because you'll be surrounded by some special people like Kevin Sheehan and myself. Okay? And if you're there, then you can bid on some of these items at the auction like this. David Bednar is a New York Yankees relief pitcher. He's a two-time all-star pitcher. He was on Team USA in the recent World Baseball Classic.

He's donated an autographed uniform from Team USA. for the event. That is unbelievable. I mean, the things that you're able to get, incredible. Yes. Yes. We've got an autographed baseball from Trey Turner. We've got so many items.

I mean, you know, Drew Brees signed football, right? Yes. Yes, Drew Brees signed football. And you've got to be there to win, okay? And if you just show up and don't bid on anything, you'll be a winner. because you come away saying, boy, I'm glad I came, and I'll be back next year.

You can find out more about our host, Shelley's Backroom at shelley's Backroom.com. Can't wait for Monday night. Cannot wait. All right. So right now, as we're recording this, the Nats are down 15 to 1 against the Reds. And I had on my list of things to talk to you about the Nats and how well they've been playing. and another offensive performance last night in the 8-7 win over the Reds. They're the second highest scoring team in baseball.

CJ Abrams and James Wood are having all-star seasons. And, you know, they were a game below 500 going into this game this afternoon in which they are trailing 15 to 1. Foster Griffin, by the way, who has pitched actually pretty well for the Nats, got absolutely lit up today. but they really have, we're more than a quarter of the season now into it. You know, 43 games, I guess, prior to this one. This one will be the 44th game.

And they have far exceeded what the expectations were, not only in, you know, wins, but in the way they're doing it offensively, they've really been good. What have you observed? What have you noticed? What have you heard about why they've played so well compared to what the expectations were? Well, CJ Abrams and James Wood have both bounced back, particularly Wood, because he struggled at the second half last year, started out strong in this first half. And those are two big, two of the best bats in the league, to be honest with you,

two of the best power bats in the league. And they've gotten some key. hitting from other guys. Their offense is legit. And you're right, they have exceeded expectations. And at a quarter away through the season, it's noteworthy to do that.

What's going to derail them is they're pitching, and today's a big disappointment. Because Foster Griffin had been one of the best pitchers in the league. Period. This is the guy they got from Japan. Yeah. You know, the free agent from Japan, the American pitcher

who went to Japan to pitch for a couple of couple years. And his last outing, I think, was phenomenal. His last two outings, I think, were really good. Yeah. And I remember tweeting, this guy is going to be a very valuable trade

commodity at the trade deadline. I love the way that's the way we think is Nat's fans. C.J. Abrams is building up. One year deal. Yeah. I know. No, C.J. Abrams is different. This guy's on a one-year contract. Okay. And if he put together a great season and

Washington, you weren't going to be able to sign them. Right. Okay, because some other, some contender was going to sign him. So this guy is definitely a good trading commodity, but today's outing certainly doesn't make them any more valuable. Yeah, just so everybody knows, Foster Griffin had a 2.12ERA before today in eight starts and had a four-and-one record. So he had pitched exceptionally well.

He's a big dude, too. because one of those games I actually, yeah. Nine earned runs today on seven hits, the free walk. Got lit up. In four in the third inning. So, yeah, they've had a rough out of it,

but overall, they've been good. And I just don't think they're going to have, I just don't think they'll be able to sustain this over the course of 162 game season. But there's a lot of players who are performing well, and they're all, they're pretty much Mike Rizzo's players, just to point that out. Well, yeah, I would imagine most of them are.

It takes a while to flip a roster, right? Yeah. Okay. Jaden Daniels is going to be a part of the Netflix quarterback series this summer. You didn't watch any of the first two seasons. It was really well done. That first year with Cousins, Mariotta, and Mahomes. I mean, Cousins was the star of that show over the summer.

It's, I mean, seven or eight episodes that, you know, drops on July 14th, the whole series. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm not expecting Jaden Daniels to be like a super big personality, but I think that what these shows have revealed in the first two years are like little nuggets about your team. You know, it's behind the scenes. Netflix has cameras everywhere. By the way, this is shocking to me, and I asked Ben Standing about this. I didn't hear anything about Netflix doing this on Jaden Daniels.

And I asked Ben, did you guys know and you just weren't supposed to say anything? He's like, no, we didn't know. He said, I think we got confused because HBO's hard knocks did the NFC East late in the season. That was late in the season. And we probably just thought the cameras were HBO cameras. but Netflix was there from the beginning of the year, probably going back to training camp. And nobody reported anything about this. Nobody seemed to know anything about it.

I kind of have this sense that it went that way last year, too. Last year it was Jared Goff and Joe Burrow. But, you know, there will be, I'm sure there will be some things that we don't find out a lot about, maybe, you know, on purpose. but there will be two or three or four nuggets, you know, out of this thing. And maybe, you know, more than that, maybe one or two nuggets an episode that it's like, huh, that's an interesting relationship or, huh, we thought it was different than that when we were talking about it. You know, and it starts with the whole Terry thing. You know, if this thing starts in the preseason of last year or shortly before the regular season,

it'll be interesting to see the conversations with, you know, the people around Jaden about Terry. Maybe they'll avoid all that. I don't know. I mean, I think the shutdown at the end of the year will be an interesting behind-the-scenes look. I don't know how they can avoid the, you know, it was controversial among the fan base, you know. We never got an answer because the question wasn't asked. how much was the front office involved in that shutdown. Right.

So I'm looking forward to it. Well, you don't have Netflix, right? No, I have Netflix. You have Netflix. Okay, well, let me just tell you something, sport, champ, friend. This is easy content for us in July. It's usually, you know, hard to come up with stuff in the middle of July. But when that thing drops on July 14th, we're probably going to have some stuff to talk about.

So, you know, look a little or sound a little bit more excited about it. You know, by the way, I was thinking about as this show's been going along. I think we glossed over the schedule a bit too quickly from this perspective. They're going to open up on the road at Philadelphia. That is a big game in week one. a huge game in week one. And remember last year, they are coming off the season in which they lost to the Eagles in the NFC championship game.

And they didn't get to play the Eagles until week 16. They played him twice in the final three weeks. And I remember asking Mike North, who I had on the show, and I am going to have somebody from the schedule-making team on the podcast tomorrow. I don't know if it's going to be Mike or somebody else, but I'll have somebody on the pod tomorrow. But I remember him saying, I said, I have one complaint about the skin schedule, and it's that why don't we play Philadelphia once early in the season when we know the game will be meaningful? There's too much risk in waiting until the last three weeks because it's

possible that the games won't be meaningful. And he said, that's a legitimate complaint taken into consideration by everybody. But the bottom line, and I remember what he said, he said, in the NFC East, the Eagles Cowboys games are the most valuable. And that's why the Cowboys opened up with Philadelphia on opening night last year. And I forget what the other

Philly Dallas game was, but they didn't, you know, they would much rather push off and risk Philly Washington games not being meaningful than Philly Dallas games. And that was part of his explanation. And I think I said, well, you could have taken the risk out of both of those

situations. But the opener against Philadelphia is a massive opening game. I mean, Washington will clearly be an underdog on the road. It'll be the first game for two coordinators, a lot of new players on defense. Jaden Daniels, after missing, you know, basically the entire, most of the season in 2025, you know, the expectations will be high for him. By the way, the spotlight will be on him big time. And then in Philadelphia, Jalen Hertz is in a perform or else kind of season. And they've got a new offensive coordinator and Sean Mannion. That's a hell of an opener for Washington.

You know, to go on the road and play a massive division game in week one with so. much that is new. And the Eagles will likely be without A.J. Brown, I'm sure he'll be traded, you know, post-J. 1, that's likely coming. That's a big week-one game. Excited about it. I think we sort of glossed over it too quickly. I saw we squeezed everything we could have out of the schedule. I don't think we did. What was that you to turn the car around? I don't know. And go back to the beginning.

Because I felt like, first of all, I thought maybe I had left something behind and I was looking for it and I couldn't find it in the car. But other than that, oh, there's another game that just dropped for Washington at Jacksonville in the next to last week of the season. So that's the latest. So we now have 11 games that have been leaked out. I don't know. I was, as we've been doing this show, not that I'm not that. I haven't been paying attention to the conversation because I have been for the most part. But I've been continually kind of refreshing the schedule stuff to see if anything else.

And I just kept looking at the opener. I'm like, huh. I mean, I got that right in my mock schedule, so I kind of expected it. Not really. That was just a guess. But that's a big time opener. It's part of a big time double header on Fox. Green Bay, Minnesota, I think is the other 425 game.

and, you know, I'm waiting to see what week two is, because week three is Seattle at home, and then you're in London against Indy. I mean, right now, of the first four games, there are three that are penciled in, it looks like, and they're going to be an underdog in two of the three. And the week two game could be, could be, let me just see who's left here,

It could be Dallas at home. So it could be at Arizona, too. I think we're down to two possible week two games. Dallas at home are at Arizona. What if they start the season at Philly at Arizona? That's not an easy start. And then Seattle at home and then London? What if it's Philly, Dallas to start the season?

You've got to get off to a good start this year. Yes, you do. And you've got Philly and Seattle in the first three weeks of the season. So I think we glossed over too quickly. I'm glad we turned the car back around and could talk about it a little bit more. I do have... You could have left me off at the bench. I could have dropped you off where the buses are waiting for you in that parking lot over there.

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DC Reload. It's very interesting, Tommy. I've been watching these NBA championship odds on my bookie kind of come down here in the last few days. At a sight out of mind a little bit with Oklahoma City who eliminated the Lakers in four straight. But what Wembe did the other night in their game five win over Minnesota, Oklahoma City was a big favorite about a week ago.

I think they were minus 240, minus 250. They're minus 176 today, and the spurs are plus 340. I'm pretty sure the spurs were plus 480 this time last week to win the championship. This is a collision course for a series that will be, I think, for people like me must watch. But I think just for basketball fans in general, if it's San Antonio, Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals, that's going to be just a hell of a matchup. And then, by the way, if the Knicks get to the finals, it doesn't matter who they play.

It'll be a big deal. Oklahoma City still is waiting for San Antonio, though. The Spurs have to finish off the Timberwolves. They are five-point favorites tomorrow night in Minnesota in game six. And then tomorrow night in Cleveland, the calves are four-point favorites over the Pistons at My Booky. The Cavs last night, nine down, with three minutes to go.

They came back, forced overtime, and they won the game in overtime. I watched that game. That was one of those games where if you're a Pistons fan, you're like at halftime the game should have been over. They were up eight. It should have been 28 because Cleveland was stumbling all over themselves in the first half.

They had 10 turnovers that led to 20 points. I mean, it was a breakaway dunk drill after all of their turnovers. Hardin had three or four in the first. half. He also had 30 for the game and hit some big shots towards the end. Pretty thrilling game with a controversial end-of-regulation non-fowl call. Asar Thompson for the Pistons made a really good defensive play on Donovan Mitchell. Thompson's an excellent defender, and he stripped Mitchell as Mitchell drove for the potential game winner with just a few seconds left. And after he stripped him,

he went to retrieve the ball, and he got tripped by Jared Allen, and it was a foul. It was an egregious trip, really. Now, the refs called it incidental contact. I thought the initial contact was incidental, but then you see Allen stick his leg out, and that's a trip, and they swallowed the whistle instead of making a call that would have sent Thompson to the free throw line with a chance to win the game with tens of seconds left in the game. A real huge decision by the referees to not make that call. Cleveland wins the game in overtime,

and now they go home with a chance to end the series. I wanted to finish with this, Tommy. I think everybody now knows the Wizards won the draft lottery on Sunday. They've got the number one pick in the June 23rd NBA draft, and that number one pick, most people have it narrowed down to one of two players. Now, it's possible that another player or two will be in that conversation for the number one overall. But most people have focused in on A.J. DeBonsa from BYU and Darren Peterson from Kansas. Now, I'll set this up real quickly because I'm going to play a soundbite from Darren Peterson from yesterday's NBA.

Combine. AJ DeBonsa played at BYU. He is 6'9. He is long. He is athletic. He jumped 42 inches, the best vertical at the combine earlier in the week. He can put it on the floor.

He can shoot it from the mid-range. He can finish at the rim. I think he'll be a really good three-point shooter. He's got a great stroke. Durant is kind of the comp for DeBonza. DeBanza played in every game over the final month and a half of the season. he actually played six games where he played all 40 minutes or more. There was an overtime game in there where he played 43 minutes.

And everything about him this week at the Combine has been super positive. And right now, I think the odds are, and I think my book he has, DeBanza as a sizable favorite to be the first player taken. The second favorite is Darren Peterson, who played at Kansas this year. And the narrative, the storyline about Darren Peterson all season long was two-pronged. Number one, wow, what a score. He's 6-6-6-6-and-a-half. He is so smooth.

He is so effortless in the way he scores. Comparisons to SGA, to DeMar de Rosen, to Kauai Leonard. I had John Wall on the show on Friday. He likes Peterson. He just loves the way he is super patient, can't get sped up. There's a lot to like about Darren Peterson. Personally, let me just say, I really like him as a basketball player a lot. And he is one of the smoothest scores at the college level that I can ever remember watching.

With that said, I personally, Tommy, don't believe that he's going to be a top five superstar player. down the road. But anyway, that's one part of the story of Darren Peterson. And the other part of the story is that he didn't play a lot. Out of the 35 games, he started 23 of them, played in 24 of them, and left five of them during the game. He had ankle issues. He had cramping issues. And there was a lot of attention paid to him missing in action. There was a specific game in early February at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, where number one Arizona came into the building and 30 minutes before tip-off after going through pre-game warmups up until that point, he pulled himself out of the game, said he didn't feel right, didn't feel well. That seemed to frustrate the

hell out of Bill Self, the head coach and the Kansas staff. And look, the bottom line is the story about Darren Peterson was too pronged, but the bigger prong was, and the bigger storyline was about his not playing in big games, on big occasions. They had a game against BYU in DeBonsa, in which he had a great first half. They had a big lead, but he took himself out of the game early in the second half, and his BYU made a comeback and cut the lead to within 10. He just sat there on the bench, never got off it, didn't get back into the game. Now we've seen now, many stories and so much attention paid to this part of the Darren Peterson story. There are stories that have come out that said he had legitimate hydration issues,

cramping issues, was in the emergency room back in September with full body cramping. He said he thought he was going to die. The story last week about overuse of creatine that led to the dehydration issues. And so there may be legitimate reasons for all of the basketball that. he missed. But it's a big part of his story in 2025, 2026. So at the Combine, yesterday, the Wizards had a chance to sit down and interview him. They did it with DeBanza the day before, and they've done it with other prospects as well, including Camboozer from Duke. After the interview, he did an interview with media, and he was asked about, you know,

how it went with the Wizards. I want you to hear his answer. I know you talked to the Wizards. Did you learn anything new about the organization through those conversations? I was surprised about how much they wanted to talk about, like, Darren as a person today instead of basketball. I probably asked two basketball questions and the rest was about, like, me. So this guy, Darren Peterson, who played this season in a pretty big, you know, program at Kansas,

under a pretty big spotlight all season long. And that spotlight got brighter as all of the questions started to swirl around why he was missing so much time in so many games. This guy was surprised that in an interview, the Wizards wanted mostly to get to know him as a person more than him as a basketball player. Two of the questions were about basketball.

Everything else was about him. And he was surprised by that. My question to you, Tommy, is would this concern you in an interview if you were the Wizards, that somebody was that detached or just that dishonest about the narrative around him over the last five months? Yeah, it would. I mean, you know, this is not the guy I would be drafting and investing my fee. future in, especially the future of this franchise. The basketball is out there to see.

Of course. I mean, why would you spend an hour interviewing a guy about basketball? The interviews are to get to know the player, even if he doesn't have any baggage. I wonder if he expressed that surprise during the interview versus expressing it in the press conference about the interview. because if he expressed surprise during that interview with the questioning about him more so than his basketball, first of all, I mean, I had Brian Keefe, the Wizards coach on the show yesterday, and I asked him about these meetings, and he said it's always about finding out about the person.

You know, the basketball stuff they know, you know, they know about. So even if he didn't have all of this swirling around him, a lot of the questions would have been about. him and, you know, trying to learn more about him the person anyway. But if he had expressed surprise over that, I would have certainly explained to him why we do it this way and why we're even more interested in doing it this way with him to gauge his reaction to that. Because, I don't know, there's a detachment or a dishonesty in sort of expression. pressing surprise over this.

Maybe a little bit of, it's probably one of those two things. It's either he was so sheltered by his circle of people that he really didn't know. I have a hard time believing that. Or it's just him kind of being disingenuous with and somewhat combative. Like, you know, how dare you? That sort of was the tone. I could be wrong.

And look, again, as it relates to all. of the things that cost him so much playing time, they could have been legitimate, you know, in terms of real physical ailments. But the flags were red on this guy all season long. And after that interview, they haven't gotten any less red for me. I had John Fanta on the radio show Monday. John's excellent as a college basketball, play-by-play guy, reporter, et cetera, for years. and I said, what would be the concern of most teams about Peterson?

And he just said, his circle, they've got to get, he said, Peterson and his circle have to get comfortable with, you're now a professional, and the people around you don't have a say anymore. And if the team doesn't think that they'll take kindly to that, you can't pick them. No, can't do it. All right. Are you excited about the Preakness at Laurel? That's where it is, is they rebuild Pimlico, right? I'm not particularly excited because, you know, the Kentucky Derby winner is running, which has been a continuous problem.

Right. And they need to figure out how they can extend the calendar to give the Cucky Derby horse a chance to run. But at Laurel, because they're refurbishing Pimlico. and, you know, they're only going to have 4,000 spectators. That's it. At the event. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. So it's definitely got to be a TV event of right now. I'm looking at my trifecta that I'm going to box. I'm looking at Taj Mahal, Iron Honor, and talking as a long shot. Okay. excited for you. Good luck. All right. Do you mind if I turn the car around one more time and just go back to the schedule just to see if they've added anything to it?

Can I put my blindfold back on? Tennessee week 13 on the road at 1 o'clock. So 12 of the 17 games are out there. back tomorrow to talk about the whole thing. And I'll have somebody on from the schedule-making team in the NFL office. Plus, Eddie C will be on the show with his Preakness picks. He did pretty well, I think, for the Derby. All right, Tommy, I'll talk to you on Tuesday.

Okay, boss.