The Kevin Sheehan Show - What's Next Washington?

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

Kevin and Thom today with a theme of "What's Next". What's next after Snyder's lawyers sent a scathing letter to the House Oversight Committee? What's next with the football team with two games coming up on Sunday against Tennessee and Thursday night in Chicago? Thom's prediction on Commanders-Titans plus World Series picks as well. 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. We have a podcast today and we have a request.

And that is to rate and review this podcast on Apple and Spotify, especially on Apple. Give us five stars, if you don't mind. Many of you have done that. And write us, you know, just a quick one to two sentence review. Like this one, Tommy, from Orioles, 20, Never Miss Kevin. Analysis is great. Love Levero and the show is awesome. That's all. That's all we need. And it really is helpful because we now are approaching 4,000 reviews on Apple, which is a very healthy number of reviews of the podcast. But let me just say, once again, it reflects kind of a fraction and a small fraction of what the total number of people. people that listen to this podcast is. So it's, you know, it's basically, uh, if we get to 4,000 and we're about, you know, 60 something reviews away from 4,000 on Apple, um, it really

represents like one-tenth of the number of people that listen to this podcast regularly. So for those of you that haven't rated and reviews, if you can do it, it really, really would help. Um, yeah, you guys can do better out there. Come on. Let's go. You can do much better than that. We really do appreciate. I mean, every once in a while, I will spend, you know, 30 minutes just reading through all of the reviews, and they're all very nice. And there are a couple that aren't so nice, and you're entitled to your opinion as well. But actually, if you have a negative opinion, we'd actually prefer that you not review it or read it. Now let me ask you, when you read those reviews, when you sit down and you take the time to read the reviews,

which all, which are, most of which are glowing. Do you do it when you're feeling a little down in the dumps, not feeling too good about yourself? Maybe things aren't going good at work or home or something like that. And then you seek comfort in those reviews? You know, I don't, but, you know, unlike you who never feels down about yourself, unlike you who's always very fond of, you know, what you've done that day in previous days, there are definitely days where I think like, you know, didn't really love the show today. Didn't really, you know, I will tell you, I've told you this before, I feel that way, maybe I shouldn't admit this.

I know I've admitted this to you privately. There are more days where I feel like the radio show could have been better. Not many days where I feel that way about the podcast. And it all speaks to the fact that, as you know, and you know this about me, I just prefer to do the show and have somebody to talk to during the show. And not that my producers on radio haven't been great and they have been. But, you know, you and I have obviously been doing this together for over a decade now. You know, Kooley and I have been doing this together either privately or on the air for, you know, half a decade or longer, actually. six or seven years now. And by the way, for those of you that missed Cooley yesterday,

I have to say, and so many of you have reached out to me, he's really into it this year, and last year not so much. He really wasn't watching much football and he wasn't paying attention. But this year, for whatever reason, he's paying more attention. And, you know, I say this with respect for the effort that so many give in trying to analyze film. on Twitter. And some people, you know, actually do a pretty good job. And I think they sound like they know what they're talking about. Nobody. Nobody does it like Kooley does. There is an understanding of the game, not just from a player's perspective, because that's a different perspective to begin with. But Kooley, as Mike Shanahan told me a long time ago, he would be doodling in his little workbook

during meetings because he got it so quickly and the rest of the class didn't. If there had been an upstairs class we could have sent him to, an advanced class, we would have done that. But he really is, you know, chest to checkers in his film analysis. And let me just tell you, the biggest takeaway from his film analysis yesterday, which I would urge all of you to go listen to if you didn't, is he, you know, for all intents and purposes, he's really down on Wentz the last two weeks.

He's also really down on Scott Turner, and, by the way, also very much acknowledges that the offensive line has been, you know, awful. And says, you know, this is a team effort offensively into the ineptitude. But what he really was frustrated about more than anything from Sunday's game is that they ran the ball so well in the first half. and the stuff that comes naturally off of running the ball effectively, they didn't do. And he's like, why didn't they continue to run the football and then show the same runs and play action off the same run looks and bootleg off the same run looks?

And I said to him, I said, yeah, I mean, picture any Mike Shanahan coaching tree team, Kyle, you know, Sean, all of them. They start running the ball and then all of a sudden it's like that fake Zanagan. zone stretch handoff, and then here comes the quarterback on a bootleg, and everybody's wide open. As Cooley said, the best way to protect your quarterback if you're running the football is to keep them under center with the way you're running football and run play action and bootleg. Those are the alt protection schemes, and they're not doing that. And when they do it, they're doing it very poorly and usually from shotgun.

So biggest takeaway really is that, you know, the effort to run the football was great, and they did it at a high level in the first half, but playing off of that ability was done very poorly. And he just doesn't understand why. And it makes so much sense to me. That was my frustration. He also admitted, or he guessed, which is what I guessed this week, is that Carson really doesn't have the ability more likely than not to get out of a bad play. right now. And that's limiting to this offense. Anyway, with that said, I guarantee you Washington's

going to be a smell test pick for me tomorrow. In fact, I'm going to predict another win. Tommy, Tennessee is by far and away the most publicly bet team in week five, just like Dallas was last weekend. And so I'm not backing off. You know, like Cooley and I always talk about blackjack, you know, strategy. Sorry, but you have to hit the 16th. against the 7, 8, 9, or 10. It's just you have to do it. And so I will be hitting the 16 with Washington tomorrow in the smell test. Your prediction coming up before the end of the show.

How are you doing? Hey, buddy, I'm doing fine today. It's a beautiful day outside. We're getting 70 plus degrees with Sundays next couple of days. It's Bruno San Martino's birthday. It's a great Bruno San Martino. So I'm celebrating that as well. I'm getting ready to go out dancing this weekend.

We're seeing King's Soul, so I'm doing great. How are you celebrating Bruno San Martino's birthday? Well, I posted on Twitter and Facebook. A little bit of story about how when I was 11 years old, my father, and when I lived in Brooklyn, my father took me for my birthday to see Bruno San Martino at Madison Square Garden. And this is the old Madison Square Garden, before they'd be. built the one that they play in now. And when we got there, there was a sign that said, nobody under 14 allowed to see professional

wrestling live. That's hard to believe, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, now half the crowd is 14 and under. But back then, in New York, you couldn't see wrestling if you were under 14. So we had these tickets, so my dad walked around the building until he found a lot of the building. until he found a guard at a side door that he could bribe to sneak us in. And I wound up watching Bruno San Martino, wrestle Cowboy Bill Watts.

And I posted the ticket from that in 1965. I still have it. Wow, that's pretty cool. I'm looking at it right now. It costs four bucks. Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, that is one old-looking ticket. I mean, that is, you know, that is a ticket that looks like it came from well before 1965.

Listen, there's not much that survived my moves over the years and my fraternity house fire, but that did. Yeah. Okay, we've got some things to talk about. I do want to talk about football, and I want to get your prediction and all of that, which we will get to. And I did want to talk about what coolie's frustration with Scott Turner. Yes. Because I have a theory maybe on that. Okay.

I'm going to write that one down so you don't forget. Scott Turner, Tommy. And you started off when I asked you, you know, what do you think? How are you doing with the weather? And it really is incredible to see the sun today. Because I can't remember a longer stretch of overcast, chilly, and rainy. I mean, it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. It was basically, you know, five and a half days of cloudy and rainy and very chilly.

But it is going to be beautiful today. It's going to be beautiful tomorrow. I am intending tomorrow to play golf when I get done with the podcast and have a nice weekend. It's going to be chilly this weekend, but it will be very fall-like. I love this time of year. I really loved it. My favorite time of year. I really loved it and enjoyed it when the kids were young.

I'm sure there are some listening out there that are going to take, you know, Saturday morning or Sunday morning and take the kids to a pumpkin patch or, you know, one of those places. That was always so much fun when the kids were young and they looked forward to it so much. We always went out to that Butler's Orchard, you know, way out in Montgomery County, almost at the Montgomery County. Frederick County line. That's a big popular spot and always has been for, I guess, Montgomery County and Frederick County residents, although I bet Frederick County has many more of those places than Montgomery County does. But it was always fun and we would end up in the, you know, in that little market there and getting, you know, pumpkins and apple cider and all that stuff. That was always fun. Now, it sucked when it was like in the, when my wife would say, hey, we're, we're going to

do it at two o'clock on Saturday. And then I'd be, then I'd, you know, even pre days of having a cell phone nearby, I'd have to go, you know, call a friend like Scott for a score update on all the bets that we had. But other than that, it was great. So we do have, you know, we do have the story that came out last night. The letter that Dan Snyder's attorneys wrote to Carol Maloney, the chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. So there are a couple of things here. Number one, let's start with the picture that you wrote from Sunday, which was this is the first salvo of don't mess with me, Jerry's my boy.

And then, you know, we had the hiring recently of Gene Medina as the new chief communications officer by the team. I learned yesterday that this was not a Jason Wright hire. This was a Dan Snyder hire. So they have a new communications person, which they need a new communications person. But, you know, I mentioned this morning between law firms and PR agencies and communications people, it's almost as long of a list as their quarterback list is over the last 30 years. They've had so many of them, or the Snyders have anyway. But for those that don't know, the letter was sent by Tom Davis, all right. Tom Davis is a partner at Holland and Knight. He was the former Republican Congressman from Virginia, who I didn't really remember this. I'm sure you did. But I read it in

the post this morning, had chaired the committee on performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball. Oh, yeah. I remember that well. I was front and center. a lot of those hearings, absolutely. So the letter essentially says that this has been a hatchet job from the beginning, politically motivated, designed to remove Snyder from the NFL. And it is clearly, you know, part two or part three, if you include, you know, the Snyder picture, the communications director, hire, and now this letter, something's going on, something's coming out, whether it's the House Oversight and Reform Committee's conclusion, whether it's the combination of that and the Mary Joe White investigation conclusion, which, by the way, there are league meetings on October 18th and

October 19th. I would definitely suggest that everybody pay attention because there could be something that happens there or before there. But clearly this letter and then leaking this letter is an attempt to, you know, make sure that everybody knows that, you know, once again, just if you had forgotten, this isn't Dan's fault. None of this is Dan's fault. This is a political hatchet job. And by the way, they fired Bruce and everything's been great since they fired Bruce. Did you read through that particular section of the letter that they sent? Yeah. Yeah. It's like it ignores the fact that Bruce Allen wasn't hired on that team until 2010. As I've mentioned for a year and a half. And so much of this stuff is

that their sighting happened before Bruce ever arrived. Yeah, I mean, as I pointed out to you, I don't know, a year and a half ago, why do they keep blaming this on Bruce? Do they not understand that we can do the math on the calendar? Like most of these allegations predated Bruce's arrival, or certainly many, if not, you know, a slim majority of them. But for those that didn't see it, I'm only going to read this one section. It's a section that is entitled,

I'm going to read the subsection of a section called Disregarded Evidence, where Tom Davis and the other two lawyers write, what's most striking about the committee's investigation is that it is embraced and protected some of those most embittered by their enforced separation from the team. The same people who were responsible for the toxic workplace culture and has given them a platform to settle old scores. with all the talented, dedicated, and high integrity individuals who work and have worked for the Washington Commander's franchise over the years, it's been truly a bizarre experience to watch the committee build its narrative around the following cast of characters. And I'll get to what they wrote about Bruce Allen. But I would just add real quickly, Dan was invited from the jump. He was invited from the jump to come and speak about all of those wonderful individuals, including how wonderful his organization has been.

and he was Skipper Dan, avoiding it forever. But they point out Jason Friedman, who we know made all the allegations regarding the financial improprieties, Melanie Coburn, David Pawkin, who was the team's chief operating officer back in the early to mid-2000s, and then Bruce Allen. And here's what is written about Bruce Allen. It is widely acknowledged that the single most significant step the team took to remedy its top. toxic workplace was to rid itself of Mr. Allen. The fraternity house culture that Mr. Allen instilled in the commander's organization is the principal reason that the commanders came under investigation in the first place. If the committee had desired, it could have interviewed any of the current employees of the

commanders whose tenure extended back to the Allen years. By the way, one of those employees would be the chairman of the board himself, who they invited over and over again. Those employees would almost universally have identified Mr. Allen's departure as the date that the team culture began to turn around. Prior to Mr. Allen's deposition, my law firm provided the committee with a small sample of his workplace communications, which of course we now know as the infamous emails, that the committee would nevertheless choose to sponsor such a witness and full awareness of the racist, misogynistic, and homophobic beliefs he tolerated and discerated. espoused in his email conversations with friends is truly astounding. I was informed that when confronted with these emails at his deposition, Mr. Allen's lawyer questioned their authenticity. Despite the fact that these emails had been relied upon by the NFL and its investigation of the team,

and despite the fact that a frequent participant in these conversations, former Raiders head coach John Gruden immediately resigned when even a tiny sample of them was leaked to the media. If these were not sufficient reasons to disqualify Mr. Allen as a credible witness, I'm informed that at his deposition, Mr. Allen attempted to dispute his own signed employment contract, which provided that he had responsibility for both the football and the business operations at the team. And then it goes on and on. I mean, the way these two men despise each other and hate each other's guts is really incredible. It's also kind of entertaining. But anyway, I'll let you go first.

You go first. On the whole Bruce Allen thing, and I wrote this about two months ago, Bruce's brother is George Allen, okay, the former governor and senator from Virginia, and still a very powerful political figure in the state. George and Bruce are still very close. Bill Close Brothers. George Allen was the mentor of Attorney General for the State of Virginia, Jason Mejarez, who was the first one to jump at the chance to investigate Dan Snyder for the financial improprieties

outlined by the committee in their letter that they sent to the FCC. see. I mean, Virginia, which was in the middle of negotiating a stadium deal for the football team, was the first one to say, we're getting in on it, we're investigating this. So this is something to keep in mind because politics is a blood sport, and Bruce Allen and George Allen are joined by blood. Keep that in mind because now we've seen publicly, not that we didn't know before, but this is full blown out, how bitter. this relationship is now. This is a war. It's a war between the Allen's and Dan Snyder, who's trying to get a stadium built in Virginia. I might want to point out. So that whole thing,

I think it's an interesting backdrop. You know, I mean, look, I think the committee did a good job of responding in their responses saying, hey, you know, we like all kinds of documents related to the Washington football team, but they won't give permission for the league to release them. And they won't, still won't let somebody's employees get out of their NDAs. So I think they did a good job. And here's the other thing, too. They said they haven't spoken to any about current employees. Well, nobody cares if you're, if you're, nobody particularly cares if you're, you know,

if your boy scouts now, okay, this is about accountability. Okay, and somebody has to be accountable for the decades, or at least, you know, there's people who believe, and I'm wanted them that somebody should be held accountable for the decades of abuses that went on in that organization. You know, don't, I mean, you don't get to appear in court and say, yeah, I committed all these crimes, but I kept my nose clean for the last year. You know, so forget about all those. That doesn't happen that way. So I don't particularly know why they'd want to talk to the current employees of the football team who are surely not going to bad mouth the owner and the operation if there was anything to say. But you're right, this is starting to heat up into what could be a really, really ugly fight between the NFL and Snyder and various government entities.

You know, you said something, two things. Number one, who cares about the last two years? Golf clap for you guys. That's great. But that's not what they're investigating. They're investigating the past. And it's, you know, in some cases the recent past, and in several cases, the much distant past. But that's, they're not talking about what you are now.

They're talking about what you were. and addressing all of the, you know, the dozens upon dozens of allegations against an organization, you know, with the backdrop of this kind of phony baloney, we want to make sure that corporate America can learn from this experience. Look, the second thing you said, or at least it sparked this thought, is it just doesn't matter about any of the other people. He has been the CEO and chairman of the board, and the ultimate, the only person, that's been there for the duration, and it was his job to oversee the culture and to ensure a proper culture, even if there isn't anything ultimately that directly links him to some sort of sexual harassment or sexual, you know, misconduct incident or anything else. I mean, this is where

I continue to say, and as I've said for, I don't know, a decade now, the reason it will never, ever work and we need to continue to suspend reality to talk about this football team and we're in a state of suspended reality is because he will never ever as a major league definition textbook narcissist ever take any accountability for this. It's never been his fault. It's always someone else's fault. And, you know, that leads me to this. I didn't read through the entire letter in all of the exhibits. I read through a lot of it. The Bruce Allen stuff is the most entertaining. But it really is incredibly insulting and stupid. This is another reason. They're also incredibly dumb, and they have been for 23 years. Another reason they'll never win. You combine dumb with arrogant and

narcissism, and it's the worst combination in a person or business, as I've mentioned, 150 times over the last 10 years. It's just the worst combination because they're too dumb to get it right, and they're too arrogant to admit that they were too dumb and got it wrong. So they'll never, ever fix it. It's never, ever been his fault. And this letter is clearly, and we'll get to what this is, you know, sort of portending about what's going to be coming here in the next few days or few weeks because it's clearly an offensive move because something's coming out and they want to, they want to be ahead of this story so that, you know, like they've done before. They want people to believe what Dan wants you to believe, which is, this wasn't me. This was Bruce.

It's insulting. Okay. Like I just went through before, and I didn't do this before radio, but I did it before the podcast with you. I just went back and skimmed, you know, all of the different stories and all of the different reports from so, so long. The fight night incident was 2004. The videos, okay, from the Costa Rican and Dominican Republican, where all of the, you know, lewd, you know, remakes and photos, that was 2008. Let me start with. Bruce was hired in December of 2009, all right?

Snyder settled, settled a $1.6 million. in-flight, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual something allegation with a woman on that flight from Las Vegas back to D.C. after the country music awards in April of 2009. By the way, the lewd videos from the swimsuit photos and shots that was settled. That was settled and it happened in 2008. The Tiffany Johnston employment was between 2002 and 2009. So whether her allegations are real or not, whether Mary Joe White finds anything, the bottom line is if there's anything there, it happened between 2002 and 2009. Jason Friedman was there from the early 2000s.

Many of his allegations go back to the original season ticket holders, all right, when we get to the financial improprieties. David Pawkin, who said that a coaching staff member groped a PR employee and Snyder refused to take action and said, don't worry about it. He was employed between 2001 and 2006. All of the post stories in the New York Times stories all speak to allegations during the Snyder era ranging from anywhere from 2002 to 2019 to 2006 to 2019. And Susan Miller, who was a headhunter in Virginia and used to place people with the organization in the early 2000s, said she stopped placing people in the organization because they were treated so poorly by Dan Snyder himself. Michelle Tesciet was the PR director from 2000 to 2004, an allegation where she said the stuff that went on in that office would never happen in a normal office. I could go on and on and on here. What are they talking about?

Stop being so stupid or thinking we're so stupid. This isn't a... Now, is it possible that Bruce continue to perpetuate this culture? Of course. But he wasn't the creator of it. He wasn't the overseer of it. Dan was. By the way, Howard Gutman said to me on radio this morning,

It's really kind of interesting that Vinny Serrato hasn't been called before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Yeah. You know? Yeah, it is. Which could indicate that Vinny was clueless about football and everything else. Yeah. I also wonder if Vinny would, you know, just, you know, take the fifth because he got paid and I don't know. Yeah.

I just, the idea that, oh, there's also this quote. Hold on. Where is it? Snyder has a quote in here. I got to find this now. I had it a minute ago, but there's a quote from a story in 2020. Go ahead. What's interesting is that Tom Davis says he hopes that the American people will see through this sham.

And basically, he's calling on the American people to be Dan Snyder's protectors. Now, I can't speak for the rest of the country, okay? But the people in the DMV, I think if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, it'd be nine to one overwhelming that they don't particularly care what the committee does as long as the ultimate result is literally Dan Snyder gone from football. Yeah. You know, there's a quote in here, and I, I had it marked and now I can't find it, but Snyder commenting at one point in 2020, you know, these allegations are over 13. years old and I just don't remember a lot of this stuff, but I vehemently deny it. And that just speaks to the fact that the allegations were pre-Brus Allen. Like, I mean, you know, if Tom Davis wants to, wants the Americans to see through this sham, I'm American and I can see through the sham. This was not a Bruce Allen issue.

This was, and has been from the jump. Dan Snyder pioneered, created, perpetuated, overseen, and everybody he hired, because they were working for him, many of the people participated in the culture that he created. Now, do I think this is a political hatchet job? Yes. Do I think it's totally political or mostly political? A hundred percent. Do I think that Bruce Allen is an angel? Not at all. but all of these things can be simultaneously true. Bruce Allen may have been a participant, and who knows, maybe a major participant in all of this,

but he was not the creator of it. This was going on for the years and years before he ever got here. Can the House Oversight and Reform Committee's investigation be political? It can, but it also can be producing of something potentially. Who knows? It could be a political public service. That's what it could be. A political public service.

Of course it's political. Absolutely. There's no greater good here of trying to improve the corporate workplace in America. No. This is to get a guy. Right. And he deserves to be gotten. Yes.

I think he deserves to be gotten. You know, like I've, said this before about him. And I do understand, and this is where I've said to you before, just be careful not to overreach. Don't give him small wins, whether it's Tiffany Johnston, if nothing comes of that. He doesn't, you know, the truth will do. You know, the Beth Wilkinson, you know, Roger Goodell's statement about what the organization was, you know, was a pretty damning statement, even though the $10 million fine wasn't a fine. It was a charitable donation, which was tax deductible.

You know, when he said things like highly unprofessional, you know, a workplace of sexual harassment, bullying was a word that was used over and over again, intimidation, you know, these were damning statements about a Beth Wilkinson investigation that went far back, far back beyond, you know, 2010 when Bruce Allen got here, December of 2009. I just They Remember when I told you

When this penalty came out The 10 million thing I said God they really fucked up again They're so stupid Just ask Godell for a suspension Make it seem like this is a serious thing That the Beth Wilkinson report Was a serious finding

They've suspended you for six months a year They find you 10 million And you basically fall on your sword And say at the end of the day, I was responsible for this as the owner of this organization. Now, some of these allegations I was not directly involved in, and I vehemently deny some of these allegations. However, the bottom line was there's enough out there that says my organization had a very intimidating and sexually misogynistic workplace culture. And I apologize for that.

And I accept this, you know, year-long suspension and this, you know, record-setting fine that I that I will pay. Boy, would that, would it have gone away? Would we be here today? I don't know, because he wanted, he wanted Bruce's Allen, he wanted Bruce Allen's hide. Yeah. You know, and, yes, he did. I mean, here's, that's, look, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out all along what the good public relations moves would have been throughout this whole thing, okay? But, and I'm sure he's, he's hiring. and paying money to very professional, very smart public relations people. Okay, but either he ignores them or they already know what he wants to hear.

And it's not that. Yeah, it's not. I mean, and again, like, I think at the end of the day, he only hires people that will tell him what he wants to hear. They're all sick of fans or they're fired immediately or they leave immediately. and he is a textbook narcissist, and narcissists can never, ever take accountability for things that they've done. It's always somebody else's fault.

And they always believe that they are capable of convincing everybody else that it's not their fault. But it's just not working, and it hasn't worked. And the disconnect for me in recent years, even though I think I've waned a little bit on this, is just how detached he's been from how despised he is and how this town would celebrate like it's never celebrated before if he was ousted or chose to sell the team.

He's delusional on that. He still believes that at some point people are going to say, way to go, Dan. You figured it out. Thank you so much. and there's not anybody left that feels that way. Now, I told you about, you know, what I learned two years ago about this internal polling thing,

you know, this approval rating, which was part of like an overall focus group thing or some sort of thing that they sent out to get sort of a sense of like, I don't know, a thousand fans, what they thought. And his approval rating was like a five, and Bruce's was like a six. and that internally in the building, I was told that the two of them were really surprised

that they were that despised. And so I do think there's been some sense in recent years, but there's no doubt he's got this fantasy, Tommy, of holding up the Lombardi Trophy with Roger Goodell and being forgiven for everything and then being seen for what he believes he really is. And you know what? I really think deep down that the motivation to do that. is not necessarily for joy, but for spite. Of course.

He wants to stand up there and point his finger at everybody who disrespected him over the years and say, look at me, look what I've done here. Yeah. Okay? It won't be a moment of joy. It'll be a moment of spite for him, a celebration of spite. I think you're right. And the problem is he'll not.

never have that moment as long as he is running this. It just won't happen. I mean, you know, the chances are so, so slim. But amazing to me. What's coming next? I don't know what's coming next. I mean, I did hear something yesterday, and I called you, you and I talked last night before this came out. And I said, I think that something's going to break during the October 18th, October 19th, league meetings in New York and that, you know, it might be Mary Joe White related. Now, personally, the Tiffany Johnson allegations, I guess that could get them, but how is she going to prove those allegations? However, somebody, you know, who's much smarter than I am, said, it's not so much that

she can prove it or will present something that she proved it. But if she says, I could not conclusively prove that this happened, but I believe her. And a he said, she said, I believe her. That could at least set the table for a counting of the votes. But I just don't think, unless it's race-related, I don't think, and it's not, none of this is, none of it has ever been, it has ever been. I just don't think they'll ever get the votes. And as much as I'd like to think that he would eventually,

realize how despised he is and how much he's damaged something that was so sacred in this town, you know, how he essentially stole it from this city. I don't think he'll ever realize it to that effect. So I don't think he'll voluntarily, you know, Jerry Richardson out, sell out. I don't think that will happen. He's not going to do that. That's not going to take his $6 billion and go sail around the world and be Skipper Dan the sailing, man. That's not going to happen. But I do think you're underestimating the impact of a sexual misconduct allegation that has more credibility to it as a result of the investigation, along with anything else that's uncovered. I mean, he's basically right now, you see those videos of people on the beach running from a tsunami. That's him.

I mean, that's what's coming. I mean, and he may stay dry in the whole thing, but there's a lot of waves coming. Yeah, but are there 24 of them? Well, I don't think it'll take much to convince the others. I mean, I just think a combination of things. Again, I couldn't withstand seven investigations into my life. Dan Snyder's not going to be able to come out of clean out of all these.

No. I know, but there's a level of dirty that it needs to get to for 24 other owners to say, okay, I'm going to do this. And by the way, I've done some things, and this guy is one of the most vindictive son of a bitches that's ever lived. And he's... That's a legitimate fear. And he's coming for me.

Because you know he... He will not lie down unless they all band together and they say, Dan, you're not good for the league. You're not good for your town. This is, you know, a massive missed opportunity for the league. It's not improving. It's getting worse. We've all decided, in addition to you selling for $6 billion,

we've rounded up another billion dollars among the 31 other owners to incent you to leave. By the way, with the condition of a confidentiality agreement on all of us. Like, they might have to pay for it. A non-disclosure agreement. That would be funny. Look, I think you're underestimating the power of the cumulative effect of paper cuts. Okay. I hope you're right.

You know, I hope you're right. I just look at Sarver. I look at Richardson. I look at, you know, John Gruden. and unless we've got a recent history with owners sterling, with owners only being ousted if there's something regarding race involved. Everything else pretty much gets a pass. I'm not saying a pass.

Here's what I, you know what, I do have a prediction on this. My prediction is that after the league meetings or after Mary Joe White and after some of these other investigations, that there is this time a very serious punishment that he has to. to accept. It's a year-long punishment, a suspension, it's another fine, but it's something this time, this is what they should have done off of the Wilkinson investigation and made him take it. It's something that has teeth and that at least people say, well, at least they're not ignoring it and giving them a slap on the wrist. And by the way, I don't even know what a year-long suspension

of an owner really means. I mean, I don't think it means much. And it certainly won't be a satisfactory ending to people in Washington, but it may be satisfactory enough for the other 31 owners. It may be. It may be. Is there any chance they punish the franchise on the football side? You know, that's another thing they could do. They could come after picks. But the problem is none of these allegations dealt with games or dealt with the integrity of games.

I don't think they will. Like deflategate and spy gate and other things like that. Yeah. Or like the whole salary cap penalty. It was football related. It was football related. It wasn't on, yeah, so I don't think they will either. Yeah.

So something's coming. No doubt. You can tell it in their actions. That picture on Sunday was a beauty. This guy just has no clue that we're paying attention to the dates and that we don't care what he thinks anymore. We just want you to end this nightmare for us and get the F out. please and have Goodell and the other owners end it for us, which I think is a long shot. All right.

I do want to talk some football right now. There's a big game for them on Sunday. They're playing twice over a five-day stretch. You'll have your prediction. We've got a couple of other things to get to as well. We'll start right after these words from a few of our sponsors. We've got a Thursday night game tonight, Tommy. Indy and Denver tonight.

Denver's a three and a half point favorite at MyBooky. My Booky is the sponsor. of this segment. Go to mybooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And you will get a double deposit bonus. Very few shops anywhere are doubling your initial deposit, especially a shop like MyBooky, where you've got fair points, spreads, fair lines, fair pricing, plenty of opportunities to bet on everything in every which way. But if you're going to double your money, why wouldn't you do that? You deposit $500 tonight before the Indy, Denver game. You'll have a thousand in your account to bet on not only tonight's game, but tomorrow night's

college games, Saturday's college games, and Sunday on the NFL. MyBooky.ag, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. If there's something actually in the promo code section, just erase it and write Kevin DC. MyBooky is a proven sports book. Make MyBook your sports book for what would hopefully be this year a winning season. MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin, D.C. This is a big game Sunday against Tennessee.

And I wrote down something here that I wanted to discuss with you. Because I do think that we're at a crossroads here, even though it's four games. It's one and three. This is a big stretch. These next two games are huge. You know, if you lose both of them, you're one and five. The season is practically over, even though it won't be mathematically over. And like I said earlier in the week,

at that point, I think everything's in play. Especially, you know, if Wents continues to play poorly with not a lot of help around him, as coolly pointed out, I think that I would look at Sam Howell if they think he's ready to play. Because at that point, you're all dialed in on, all right, quarterback talk. By the way, before or after November 1st for the first draft expert on either the podcast or the radio show for me, talking quarterbacks, before or after November 1st? Oh, I think before. You think I'm going to have a draft expert on before the end of October, before November 1st,

to talk about the quarterbacks that Washington might have a chance early in the 2023 draft? I think a normal person would. I think there's a possibility it'll happen. Yeah, I think it is. You know, you're so, you're so, you're so apportioning to the idea of Taylor Heineke. You want to go right to Sam Howe. I'm not. Listen, don't, don't, don't, at this point, when you've got a new brand,

don't you at least owe the people who are showing up your best chance to win the remaining games you have? Um, I don't know. I think at that point, who's showing up anyway? and nobody's showing up. You're now into the, what can we do for 2023 to try to get this thing back on track? And what would be best for the organization

would be to continue the now, you know, many decades search for a franchise quarterback. And you would know... Another young quarterback for the owner to abuse. Yeah, I mean, that's the other thing. I always say that, you know, if they hit the inside straight

and land on a franchise quarterback, that could get him out of this thing. But you have to acknowledge that the owner might screw it all up anyway. But not that RG3 was a, you know, truly, you know, franchise, you know, changing quarterback. But, yeah, I would, you know, I would focus. I'll tell you what, the exercise that I wanted to go through. And by the way, I'm not against Taylor Heineke. I like Taylor Heineke. I just know that he's not the answer long. term as a quarterback that's going to turn around your franchise. I mean, I think you came to that conclusion at the end of the year.

It's nice to change back because I know you like him. But I think, look, I think he's your best chance to win games, given the limitations of this football team. I don't think that that is a crazy notion. I don't agree with it. But, you know, I could agree with it in a week or two. But I would still stick with Carson Wentz because I still think his ceiling is much higher. And it's just four games into it.

But anyway, I would be looking at, you know, what the long-term solution is. But here's what I wanted to do is just play this little game of what's next. And I'll go first and then you can play off of it because I know you haven't given a lot of thought to it. But we are at a crossroads here. And it's very possible that, you know, a week from today, we're getting ready for a game against Chicago where they're a slight favorite with a chance to get to 500 if they went on Sunday. and it would look a lot rosier at that point. But here is my...

It's certainly plausible. Here's my prediction on what's next on October 6th, 2022. Three to four more wins this year, which would make them a four or five win team, either four in 13 or five and 12. I would then be predicting a change that would happen mutually in the coaching staff, that Rivera and the Snyders would come to some sort of mutual agreement for Rivera to move on. Because I don't know that at that point, Ron's going to want to be here. And at the same time, the team doesn't want to fire him because they don't want to pay him. So my prediction here is that three to four more wins and there's a mutual agreement

to part ways at the end of the year with Ron Rivera and his staff. My prediction includes also Martin Mayhew staying on as the team's general manager. Marty Herney probably moving on because he is a true Rivera guy. But Mayhew stays as the GM. And then Mayhew would certainly be propped up as the guy that's going to pick the next head coach. And they should position him as the person that is spearheading the search for the new coach. But we know that the Snyders would be involved if they're still there, which I think they will be. But what they'll end up hiring with Martin Mayhew, excuse me, as the GM,

they'll end up hiring a new young coach that doesn't have a ton of options because anybody with options isn't coming here and is somewhat on the cheap too. It's going to be a young coordinator. Maybe who's coordinating for Arthur Smith right now in Atlanta? That's a good question, actually. I'm going to pull that up because that offense right now is overperforming. And Arthur Smith is really a good offense. Dave Ragon, former quarterback at Louisville.

And then who is, is it still, is it still Shane Waldron in Seattle? Shane Waldron and Seattle, that could be the next guy. Now, Shane Waldron's probably not going to come here if he got opportunities. If Seattle continued to have the kind of offense that they have right now, Waldron is the next, you know, on the Shanahan, Kyle, McVeigh, Lefleur, you know, tree. but my prediction would be Mayhew remains GM. They hire a cheap, young coach that doesn't have a lot of options, and they end up with a very high draft choice at 4 and 13 or 5 and 12,

and what is now being described and has been described for a few years as a quarterback heavy class, unlike last years. And we will spend 3.5 to 4 to maybe 6 months, depending on when those three to four additional wins come, talking about what quarterback they will take and debating which quarterback they will take with the top five pick. That is my what's next prediction on October 6th. Now yours, unless you have any questions about mine.

No, not necessarily. I mean, I would agree with a lot of them as a real possibility. I'm going to predict that when the weather gets cold, that they're going to break out the new Washington commanders heated benches, and that's going to be a big hit with the fans. Okay. The heated benches for the players? Yes.

Why would that be a big hit with the fans? Well, because it was such a big point of controversy last year, remember? Yeah, well, Jerry did it. When the Cowboys, yeah, when Jerry imported the thing. So that's not going to be an issue this year because they're going to have commanders heated benches when the weather gets cold. And that's going to be a big hit with the focus group, with the commander's focus group. Okay. What else?

Okay. What else? I don't think Ron Rivera is going anywhere. There's too much money, I think, on the table. and I think that I just think that they will once I think that they will able to for the focus group that remains

I think the storyline that we're going to get our young quarterback in the draft we would have done it this past year but there really wasn't anybody we liked but there's a lot of guys to like you know we took a shot with Carson Wentz it didn't work but it's not going to affect this

moving forward, we're going to get the quarterback of the future in this draft. I think that will sustain them on the football side of it through the rest of the year. In other words, I don't think it will do any more damage than it's already been done. I want to make sure that everybody's clear. These are football what's next predictions, not with the investigations, because it would take too long to go through all 27 of them. But I, I, there's no doubt that once this season really, really spirals out of control, which I'm kind of feeling that it might, even though I think they've got a chance to win Sunday.

This is not a playoff. And that would be one of the three or four more wins for me. You know, these next two games actually are really, you know, I love the people that, you know, continue to say, well, I mean, they still play the Giants twice. They play the Texans. They play the Falcons. I mean, come on, Sheehan. They can win those games. The Colts aren't any good.

Yeah, but Washington's not good. They're going to be underdogs in almost all of those games. The early line on next Thursday night's game is pick them against Chicago. Okay, that is, I don't know that Houston actually on the road is the worst. That's not a guarantee to be a favorite. Houston's actually kind of feisty. They're pretty decent. Atlanta's two and two and is really the surprise offense in the last.

league right now. I mean, we may get to November 27th. Washington might be a double-digit underdog against the Falcons at that point. I'm being serious about that. I mean, it's funny, the Colts look like the most beautiful team on the schedule. Right. They do right now. They're completely banged up. They've been banged up all year. Jonathan Taylor's out tonight. They had two of their three receivers, or three of the receivers out two weeks ago, or three weeks ago. They beat the Chiefs. But yeah, I mean, but let me just tell you, Indianapolis is capable. You know, Washington hasn't really shown in two weeks of being very capable of much. Anyway, some of you might be saying, I think they're going to beat Tennessee and beat Chicago,

with three and three Sheehan, and then you've got a big game against the Packers after a long layoff, you know, after kind of a buy week, quasi-by week. Okay. We'll see. It would be better if that happened. but I'm not predicting it. I really do, by the way, I really do kind of think that if this season goes the way that I think it might go now, I do think that Rivera, that it's going to end.

But I don't think they'll fire him, but I think that Rivera will want this to end. Can you imagine just again, last night somebody sending him and his wife, did you see this letter? on the day that we announced that Brian Robinson Jr. What a great feel-good story.

Brian Robinson Jr.'s back at practice. We had them up there talking to the media. It's such a great story coming back from multiple gunshot wounds just over a month ago. He might play. We've got this great story. And then here are the dumb-dums again,

leaking out a letter to grab the headlines away from the field good story. They do that all the time. By the way, they are just not sent up from a communication standpoint. Not at all. So I just, I think that, you know, Ron, it's like, oh my God, another thing. You know, he says to his wife, Stephanie, did you see this? They just sent this to me.

Look at this letter. Jesus Christ. What's coming? There's going to be investigation. Actually, he might say maybe this is good. maybe this is good people stop paying attention to the football team for a little bit. Look, I don't think, I think that he's probably built up a certain callousness, like on your skin.

You build up, you know, you build them up calluses against this stuff at this point. I mean, my God, I mean, already what he's had to deal with in the outside noise with this franchise. I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on him. Maybe it will. But he, there's $14 million he'd be due in his final two years. Is it $7 million a year? I thought it was $8 million a year. That's what I've read.

$7 million a year. So, look, Mrs. Zorn said to Jim, you're not going anywhere. He's going to have to fire you. and I think the same thing's going to happen to Ron Rivera. He's made some good money over the years, but $14 million is real money. And I just think that he'll be able to. I think he's already in. And one thing, I mean, if he coaches like we've been told and like what I've heard,

you know, a lot of the assistant coaches carry the burden of this. He's the face. He's the spokesman. But as far as the real football, know, eight-five probably gets Jack Dale Rio in a room and says, Jack, fix this. Goodbye. Yeah, I think that he's definitely, and we talked about that the other day, sort of a different coach maybe here than he was in Carolina.

I mean, the wife, you know, the Mrs. Zorn call that you overheard that day in the parking lot, which is an all-time great story, you know, when Jim Zorn said out loud in the parking lot. No, no, the head coaching opportunity. I've got to come home and get my suit. I'm going to Mr. Snyder's house. I think that, you know, it goes back to kind of the DJ Swarendger thing that you said that time. Like, you know, they really wanted to punish him. They'd make him stay.

And so I think that Rivera might be in that mode when we get to the end of the year. And if there's a mutual buyout opportunity to move on where they come to, you know, he's like, I've kind of had it. You guys have kind of had it. You got bigger fish to fry here. You know, why don't we, why don't you pay me $8 million for the next final two years in total? Snyder's going to tell him to quit then. Well, I don't know.

The point is that... He's never done what you've said before. No, he's never done that before. No, he hasn't. No, he hasn't. But this is, you know, it's just like, let's just assume here, I'm not telling you that this is what's going on, people. But let's just assume here that, you know, the relationship. as it normally happens with the Snyders and their key people.

Let's just say the relationship is not as great or rosy as it was six months ago with Jason Wright. Hypothetical. They can't fire Jason Wright. It's hard to fire Ron Rivera too. This has been an organization that for a year and a half has basically, you know, backslap themselves to near, you know, injury over their inclusiveness. and they're hiring practices. And so they're not firing Jason Wright.

They're not firing Julie Donaldson. They're not firing this new gene, whatever her name is as a communications director. They're not firing Ron Rivera. But I don't see Ron Rivera wanting to be here at the end of the year. That's why I'm predicting some sort of mutual, you know, come to Jesus. All right, I'll leave.

You'll get what you wanted. I'll get what I want. But, you know, we'll come. call it a mutual parting, not a firing, so it doesn't make you guys look bad. But you're going to have to pay for that. I don't see that happening. What do you see happening Sunday? Can we get to your prediction? Yeah. Absolutely. I think it'll be. Okay. We're going to do that. Hold on. We're going to do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, we got a new sponsor on the podcast sponsoring Tommy's visits to the podcast twice a week. Tommy, tell us about

Shelly's back room. Well, if you follow me on social media, if you heard me on this podcast and the radio over the years, you know that Shelly's back room is my home away from home. I like to think of myself as the norm of Shelly's back room. And it's a lot like cheers. Is that a promotion? You're the norm? Yes.

Okay. Yes, it's a lot like cheers in a way because, I mean, you walk in. Oh, Norm Norm, Norm. Norm. I thought you were saying like you're the norm is in the normal person. No, I got it. No, no, I'm norm. Yeah.

Who walks in the cheers. Am I Cliffy? And it's a lot like cheers. It's a lot like, no, you're not Cliffy. You're not there enough to be Cliffy. I'm Sam. I'm Sam. I could bartend. Yes, you could.

I'd love to do that with Diane. Is Diane behind the bar? No, Diane is not behind the bar, but the greatest bartender in D.C. is Tony Rubo is behind the bar. So I can tell you, you'll get first-class service at Shelly's. And it's very, that's the thing. I run into a lot of people from out of town, people who are visiting, businessmen, tourists, and they hear about Shelly to they stop and they're always amazed at how friendly it is and how welcoming it is and how they feel so comfortable there.

And then they always wind up coming back whenever they come back to town because that's the place. And not only is it friendly. It's comfortable in so many other ways. It's got a great selection of cigars. It's got an award-winning food menu, and they serve food late night, quality food, very late at night. On a nice day like this, they have an shaded outdoor cafe area where you can sit on F Street, and everybody can look at you and be jealous, thinking, boy, I wish I was sitting in front of Shelly having a stogie and a beer right now. So it's 1331 F Street Northwest.

Shelly's backroom. I'm going to be there tonight after class. I teach class Thursday nights at Georgetown, and I usually stop into Shelly's for a post-class cigar. So I'll be there Thursday night if you want to come by tonight, if you want to come by and say hello. Go see Tommy. Go see Tommy.

It's a great spot. All right, we'll get to Tommy's prediction for Sunday here in a moment. but you said something earlier that I wanted to remind you about, and that is that you had a comment about some of what Cooley broke down in film yesterday about the offense and Scott Turner. You know, I'm wondering if, I mean, you talked about, like, you know, the things that Cooley was upset with with Scott Turner in this past game. And what if the possibility exists that Scott Turner is saying,

You know, we didn't bring Carson Wentz here to run this kind of offense. I mean, we didn't, but Carson Wentz is here for the big strike. We didn't bring Carson Wentz here to run this little play action and stuff. And we could have done that with Taylor Heineke, who I liked, he might want to point out, you know, who I wanted to be here in the first place. Not that he hasn't liked Carson Went. He's been nothing but positive about Carson Wentz. But he had to move from the booth to the field to call plays.

You remember he called plays in the booth the first two years. Right. And he's calling him on the field now to hold Carson Wentz's hand on the field. And just maybe the play calling is the possibility that, you know, we could do this with Taylor Heineke. We've got to take shots with Carson Went. That's why he's here. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that's unreasonable. I think that the conversation out there very much includes the, you know, the obvious issues they're having with the offensive line as well.

You know, it's, I promise you that the conversation out there is not that this is all on Carson. And even Cooley, you know, said, look, Carson hasn't been good and he's clearly uncomfortable in the pocket. but they've got major issues along their offensive line. This is one of the worst pass blocking offensive lines in the league through four weeks, and it's likely to get worse with the injuries to cause me and, you know, the fact that Rue is not coming back anytime soon. So I think that what Scott Turner did last week was for the first time, say, I got to dial back some of the stuff that I wanted to do when I was hoping to do with this big strong-arm quarterback that can make all the throws because he's not comfortable and we're

not very good up front. Somebody sent me something. God, I got to find it. Did you know that with Brandon Sheriff out during Brandon Sheriff's time here, Washington was a remarkable record. Was four in 24. Yeah, I know. It's really stunning. Yeah, so you saw that as well. I know I have it here somewhere with what the record was. Yeah, I don't know. Whatever. The point is they were horrible when Brandon Sheriff was out of the lineup and much better when he was in the lineup.

The loss of Eric Flowers and Brandon Sheriff, and we didn't expect Brandon Sheriff to be back. The Eric Flowers thing was a bit of a surprise, for sure. Along with they're on their third center is a major problem right now with the team. It doesn't matter how much you might be because I'm not a Carson Wentz fan either and didn't think it would be the long-term solution here either. But in many of these plays, it is immediate. And it's clearly something he's not handling well also. And I'll point out if I didn't point this out to you earlier. One of Cooley's, I think, really revealing takeaways from the film is in the game against Dallas on Sunday,

the receivers weren't open. They were doing a poor job. So even if he was more comfortable and had more time, there wasn't anybody open. Now, Dallas is very good defensively, and so is Philadelphia. So we need to kind of, you know, factor that into the horrible performances of the last two weeks. But Scott Turner dialed it back last week.

He dialed it back because it was the only possible chance they had of moving the football. And they did move the football in the first half until they hurt themselves with penalties. And Cooley's point was they did a great job running the football. And it was penalties that derailed those drives. But they were in the game, but they never did what they should have done off of their ability and their success running the football. What they did wasn't complementary. The big shots should have been there off of the running game.

It was the – it's the best. you can provide a quarterback is a running game and then real true play action and bootleg. That's the ultimate in protecting the quarterback and then you can take your shots. Like I said to him, I said, any Shanahan offense, we know we see they're running the ball, running the ball, and he just, he finished the sentence. He said, and then it's play action and George Kittles wide open down the middle of the field for 35 yards. Or Debo Samuel's wide open, you know, on the bootleg. 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and then he's running for another 25 afterwards.

And he's like, they never did that. And when they did try to do it, they did it out of gun when they were running from under center. And it just, it wasn't going to work as well. He didn't understand why. So to answer your question, I'm sure Scott Turner is frustrated that he can't do some of the stuff he was planning on doing. And I'm sure some of it he is saying, I got a quarterback that's skittish right now. and that's troubling. But I also have an idea as to why he's skittish

because we're not doing a good job up front. And by the way, our guys aren't getting open consistently. They didn't last week anyway. It's a multi-layered thing. But Cooley's convinced that Carson's struggling, the line's struggling, but Scott Turner had a chance Sunday to call a different kind of game after the run game was working and for some reason didn't do it.

And that would have provided Wentz with his best opportunity to get big plays. Yeah. Yeah, so let's get to the game Sunday. All right. Who do you like? It'll be a very competitive game. You know, I thought the last two were going to be competitive.

I was wrong about that. Tennessee is not that good. They're not Dallas. They're not Philadelphia. I think they win the game 20 to 17. Okay. Well, that would be a push. It's not a great game.

I think that Carson went to. has sacked three times, but I also think the Washington defense comes up with two interceptions in the game to make it a competitive game. I don't think you're going to get much from the offense again, but in terms of points scored at least. So that's my prediction for Sunday. How about this stat? Right now, through four games, Washington dead last in takeaways with one. Yeah. One. And next worst are the Raiders, Colts, and Lions with three apiece. You know, Washington was in the bottom third last year on takeaways.

Now, they did get two interceptions last week, except they were both, you know, overturned by penalties. But two interceptions, you know, winning the turnover battle would go a long way for them at some point, you know, because it is a fine line for them right now in trying to hang in these games. When you think about it, I, I think. This is how I remember, and I could be wrong. They had a lot of good field position in the Dallas game. They weren't down in their own territory much, and they weren't able to take advantage of that field position, which is what turnovers usually help you do.

No doubt. So they weren't able to do much with good, I thought, relatively good field position most of the game. Yeah, I mean, I think they did. I certainly know in the first half, other than the kickoffs that went into the end zone and they started at their 25. I think you're right about that.

And I pointed out, I think a big problem or a big stretch in the game was when they gave up the field position that they seemed to have an advantage on early in the third quarter. When Tressaway had that 40-yard punt after I thought he got roughed or run into and they didn't call it. But yeah, turnovers would help. I mean, Washington, you know, had two last week that would have been huge.

And the two they gave up. I mean, the first one at the end of the half is, you know, they took a shot there. And that wasn't necessarily on them. Like a punt. Yeah, the second one was a bad one. But yeah, I mean, overall right now, their turnover margin is, let's see, they are second to last in the league at minus six. So a team that's, you know, working on razor-thin margins to begin with is minus six in the turnover margin category. through four games. That's why they're one and three. Actually, that's really not why they're

one and three. Sometimes you can point to that and say, that's why they're one and three. That really hasn't had much to do with why they're one and three. They're one and three because they have had truly three horrific offensive halves. The first half against Detroit where they're down 22-0, first half against Philadelphia where they're down 24-0. And, well, two bad halves. And a lot of penalties. Like after last week, they've got to be up there. I would imagine they're pretty up there in penalties right now overall. I could find that somewhere, but I'm not going to look for it now.

All right. I did want to ask you real quickly. The playoffs start tomorrow, and you get, you know, quadruple header Friday, Saturday. It's best of three. The matchups are set. Who do you like to win the World Series? I want to ask you to go series by series here. But who are you picking to win the World Series?

Well, in the World Series, I have the U.S.S. I have the U.S.S. versus the New York Mets. Okay. In the series. I have the Mets making the series. And I'm sure this is from the heart more than the brain, but I have Dusty Baker finally win in its first World Series with the Astros. You would like that. They made it to the World Series last year.

They'll make it back this year. And I think the Mets with the World Series. Grom and Scherzer. I mean, that's what you call playoff baseball when you can throw those kind of pitchers out there against the opposing team. I don't know why this is. Maybe you can help me with this. A team that won 111 games in the Los Angeles Dodgers are really not being like overwhelmingly picked to win the World Series or even get there. People like the Mets and or the Braves more, at least with what I've been reading. And I know the Mets situation is, obviously the pitching situation.

But why aren't the Dodgers being given more love? I mean, their run differential was plus 334 this year. I mean, they won 111 games. Well, just because to use your phrase that you like to use so well, they usually shit the bed in the postseason. Well, they didn't two summers ago, or two falls ago. No, they didn't. And when they were 60 games in a regular season.

True. In the COVID year. Yeah. So that's an asterisk if I've ever seen one. But a lot of people look at the Dodgers and see a manager who can't manage in postseason because he's handcuffed by a front office that is wedded to analytics on nearly every move. And I think they built up this reputation that in a postseason, I mean, there's a lot of people who think you need a manager's instincts as much as anything in a postseason,

and they don't let Dave Roberts manage. Boy, he's been there through a lot of playoff series, hasn't he? How many years has he been there? I mean, he was there for both of the series against Washington, both of them. Yes. The one they won and the one they lost. So I'm going to go, I'm going to say that 111 wins says something about your team this year. And I know the pitching in New York and I know the prowess of Atlanta

and being the defending champs as well. I'm going to say Dodgers, Yankees in the World Series. I will tell you, though, I would be great. I would love to see that. Dodgers and the Yankees. That would be a classic matchup. I will tell you, though, I am rooting for Bryce Harper to really come up big in the postseason for the Phillies. This is his first postseason since he was here in 2017.

And he was a clutch performer in the postseason for us. That series that you and I talked about forever, the giant series, where the pitching was so outstanding, but they couldn't generate offense. Well, it was basically him who generated all the offense in that series and gave him any sort of chance. And, you know, he missed a big portion of the year this year with an injury. He actually had an MVP kind of season going as a DH before the

injury. It wouldn't surprise me if he comes up super big, you know, in the postseason with, by the way, you know, Kyle Schwabber and Hoskins. They've got some players. I don't think they've got the pitching. But I'm kind of rooting for the Phillies to be around for a while. But it may be just this weekend. They play the Cardinals. It's a better matchup than playing the Braves, which is what the Mets have to do. Yeah, they've got, but there's nationals, X-Nats all over to playoff. Trey Turner in L. Juan Soto in San Diego, Bryce Harper and Philly, Max Scherzer in New York. They're everywhere.

Be fun. It starts tomorrow. All right. You got Tennessee 20 to 17. I will talk to you on Tuesday. Have a good weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with Cooley in a game preview of the Tennessee game. Okay. See you, boss.