The Kevin Sheehan Show - Will It Be Better w/Heinicke?

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Kevin and Thom opened today with Taylor Heinicke back in a starter's role and whether it will lead to better, worse, or the same results compared to the Carson Wentz-led offense. The guys talked about the latest report regarding Dan Snyder which seemed to bore Kevin so much that he changed the subject to the latest rankings for the Commanders in various NFL Power Rankings Polls. The show finished with the story of a very interesting school in our area featuring students and student-athletes who must work real jobs to earn their scholarships.   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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I'm here. Good reviews coming in via Apple.

This one from Redskins for Life. I'm a lifelong Redskins fan from Central PA. Your chemistry with Tom is really outstanding. Cooley breaks film down like nobody else. Love the podcast. Keep up the good work. Thank you so much, Redskins for Life. Terp 1115, who loves Cooley and Tom as part of the podcast as well.

What do you mean? That is the podcast. I mean, during football season, it's Tom Tuesdays and Thursdays, Cooley on Wednesdays and Fridays. And then usually somebody like Doc, which we love and you guys all love Doc on Mondays or somebody else. Who did I have on yesterday? Oh, I had Scott on yesterday. If you missed Scott on the podcast yesterday, he was on it. Tommy Shepard.

Tom Levera was on with me. yesterday on the podcast. I actually really like Tommy Shepard. I like him too. But, you know, he may not be strong enough to turn around the ship. But what you just said is what we describe in the business as a menu of excellence. It's the menu of excellence. I mean, every day. You walk into the restaurant, you get handed the menu, and nothing but excellent options on the menu. Today's excellent option, is Tom Leverro and conversations about Taylor Heinecke. And will it be better with Taylor Heineke?

That's the number one conversation today. Will it be better with Taylor? We can start there if you'd like. We also have another day, another report about somebody, you know, investigating or an investigation turning up something. By the way, too, keep in mind, today is day one of the league meetings in New York. and who knows what will come out of those as it relates to the football franchise. But let's start the show, Tommy, with, will it be better with Taylor Heineke?

If people don't know this at this point, Carson Wentz had surgery on his finger out in L.A. I don't know why you have to go out to L.A. to get a finger surgery. I understand the whole James Andrews in Birmingham thing. L.A. is fine. The sun shines most of the time. and the feeling is laid back. Yes, it is. You know, I was out in L.A. recently

because my oldest son lives in Los Angeles, and it is lovely out there. It really is lovely. It is 75 and sunny every day, it seems like, and I know it can get hot, especially if you're in the valley in various areas. It's very lovely when the earth doesn't shake. Yeah, you don't want the earth to shake too much.

Yeah, you don't want that. You don't want fires either. Those aren't good things. that's a bigger issue sometimes than the earth shaking. Because the earth shakes every once in a while out there all the time. It's just whether or not it's a big shake or a little shake. And I've already been through a big shake on the air. I wish you had been there that day, 10 years ago.

I wish I'd have been there too. That would have been great. The Alzheimer's. Okay. I'll start, I'll let you answer the question first. Right now, by the way, we don't know whether or not he'll be placed on an injured reserve. We know that Taylor Heineke is going to start against the Packers, and we think Taylor Heineke will start for a few weeks, at least,

that Carson's going to be out for at least a few weeks, even though that has not been officially determined. And I think John Kheim reported here earlier this morning that a decision on whence will be made at the end of the week following three days of rehab, and then they'll have a better idea of how long he will be out. They did sign Jake Fromm to the practice squad. Jake Fromm has been with a bunch of teams and was the quarterback in multiple places,

including beginning at Georgia. Okay, so will it be better with Taylor? Yes or no? I hate to hedge on this. Oh, boy. But to be clear, I've never said that Taylor Heineke is better than Carson went. Okay. what I said is, particularly with this team as constructed,

that the offense may be more productive with Taylor Heineke a quarterback. Because, I mean, I just think his style of play, he gets the ball out quick, he's more mobile, is more willing and able to make plays with his legs, and with an offensive line that's having a difficult time protecting the quarterback, all that seems to come into play. So that's just basic logic that Taylor Heineke style of play would seem more suited to an offense with an offensive line that has trouble protecting the quarterback.

Okay? Just because Carson Wentz could throw the ball a long way down the field doesn't make him a better quarterback. Okay. He's a different quarterback. He's not a good quarterback. And neither is Taylor Heineke, probably. But he may be good enough to win on Sunday against a Green Bay Packers team that looks pretty mediocre at this point.

You could say Taylor Heineke's performance last year, you know, it was outstanding at some games, pretty poor in other games. But the weapons that he had available to him were nowhere in comparison. to the weapons that he'll have available to him this year. On the other hand, he had a better offensive line last year than he does this year. So he benefited from that as well. So I think they will be better. I think the team's offense will be better

and more effective and less risky and better for the defense than they have been under Carson win. Okay, I also think that, look, let me get simple about this, because when I talk about football, it's in simple terms because I don't have the depth of knowledge that people in football do. But it would seem to me, based on Brian Robinson's performance in the Chicago game, that they have a chance to have a multi-headed, impressive running game between him and, and Antonio Gibson. Antonio Gibson and J.D. McKissick,

I would figure out the way to use those guys as much as possible moving forward. I mean, not over-the-top possible, but they have, right now they have riches in their running back position. They need to take advantage of that, including Taylor Heineke, who could run the ball. So you started by saying you didn't really want to hedge. But it sounds to me like you're saying that you think it will be better. Maybe not significantly better, but you think it will be better because, given the team that they have right now, that he might be a better fit for it. Yes.

Okay. And that's what I've said all along. Do I think he's their quarterback of the future? No. Absolutely not. but I think he can be effective in this situation as long as long as which they haven't been able to do yet and maybe maybe Scott Turner is you know will be will be better at calling place for Taylor Heineke than he was for Carson Wentz as long as they have the right playbook

right so let me ask you a quick question before I answer the question will they be better off with Taylor Heineke? Have we seen the last of Carson Wentz as a Washington commander? I think so. Because if Taylor Heineke is good or they're good with Taylor Heineke and win games, then I'm going to turn around and bench him for Carson Wentz when Carson gets healthy. And if he's not good and they're losing games and they're clearly out of it, then the smart money would say you want to see Sam Howe. Yeah, that makes sense, but what if it's somewhere in between? What

if they're winning some games, but he's not playing particularly well? Because their defense has really stepped up. Or are the running games really outstanding? Well, I think they stick with, if they're winning games, and it's not because of him, you don't mess with that formula. It is possible.

I mean, it's totally possible that Carson Wentz's final game in Washington was on Thursday night against Chicago. And Tommy just laid out the reasons why. You also will have that 70% snap threshold at some point. But they don't have to worry about that now, especially if he misses a few games.

I think what would be really interesting is if Taylor Heineke plays Sunday, plays well enough, and they pull off a win over Green Bay, and Carson is then ready to play the following week against his team that he played for last year, The Indianapolis Colts. Again, most of the reporting says a couple of weeks on this thing, but nobody has said that for sure. But anyway, yeah, I think there's a chance that that's a possibility.

So before I answer the question from my perspective on whether or not they're better off with Taylor Heineke at quarterback, I wanted to read this retweet of an Albert Breer tweet with a quote that Nikki Javala from the Washington Post found from Ron Rivera back in March. So Albert Breer yesterday tweeted out, the commanders are waiting to talk to the doctors. But if Wence is out for an extended period, it'll be the Taylor Heinekees show, I'm told. And with his experience slash fit,

Heineke will open up the playbook for the offensive staff. He's going to open up the playbook for the offensive staff. I thought that was the point of having Carson Wendt. So Nikki tweeted out the Albert Breer, retweeted the Albert Breer tweet, and then added this Ron Rivera quote from March 17th of earlier this year, which would have been shortly after the trade for Carson Wentz, quote from Ron Rivera. I think one of the things it does for us,

it allows us to throw the ball vertical even more so than we have in the past. I know it's a big part of this offense, a big style of this offense when we were in Carolina. We did some of those things when I was with Coach Turner as in Norv, when we were in San Diego, when the Chargers were there. It was a vertical attack. The vertical attack opens up a lot more things, opens up some things underneath in the passing game. It opens up some things in the running game, knowing that defense is not going to be able to put eight guys up in the box, forcing them to choose between five, six or seven guys in the box. It will open up and I think will really help us to attack our opponents differently.

So the playbook was all opened up with the trade of Carson Wentz, and now Albert Breer's saying, now they can open up the playbook with Taylor Heineke. I actually think there are a couple of ways to look at that, like the Breer thing, because he obviously got that from somebody. So I think you can say, on one hand, literally, it may open up the playbook more because Carson was brand new to this playbook. I mean, that's a reasonable explanation. I'm not saying it's the explanation. but Taylor Heineke's been in this system.

It's the only system he's known in the NFL. I mean, he was in Minnesota briefly with Norve. But, you know, Scott was the reason Taylor He ended up in Washington. He liked Taylor. He had worked with Taylor and Carolina. And so, you know, Heineke came here. And so Heineke's been in the same system. Plus, he started 15 and a half games last year.

You know, he started 15 games, excuse me. He was out one game with COVID and played a half of another game in the opener against the Chargers. So it's not unreasonable. that it was still a process for Carson Wentz to get comfortable with the playbook. We know that a few weeks ago, for all intents and purposes, Scott Turner implied that he wasn't really able to audible. And then we saw more of the audibling in the game against Tennessee. So maybe he was just coming into his own or coming into a more comfortable feeling as far

as the playbook goes. But you can also say that maybe they're happy out there. Maybe Carson was struggling a little bit with some of the things they were running. And they feel like they can run more with Taylor Heineke, especially given his mobility. Look, your point is a good one, and it's a reasonable one. They're having major issues with protection. And that goes across all of the potential reasons for past protection issues. The quarterback, the receivers, the offensive coordinator, and yes, the offensive line.

We know that the pass block win rate per next gen is 30th in the NFL, or it was before Thursday night's game. It was before week six. And last year, they were ninth in win rate on pass blocking. They had a much better pass blocking offensive line last year with Sheriff and Flowers. And by the way, with Ruey when he was healthy, than they do this year. This year, it has been a sieve, especially up front in the interior. But Carson maybe not knowing the playbook, not knowing where receivers are going to be, not comfortable, getting skittish, being uncomfortable with pressure and under pressure. And then Scott Turner not adjusting. And I talked about this yesterday in the podcast.

Scott Turner's got a lot on his shoulders right now for me. Because I'm a fan of Scott Turner. I certainly have been in the past. But watching that Chicago game, which was dreadful to do again, but you can't have receivers running medium and long range patterns on. on third and five to six to seven, when you can't pass protect. There's got to be a hot route, as coolly described. There's got to be a quick throw, even if it's short of the sticks. And Scott Turner has not had an answer for that.

It doesn't seem like, and you've got to get some answers for that, whether it's Carson or Taylor, doesn't matter. Now, to my answer on this, I think it's going to be the exact same. I think that there are going to be plays, and if he plays games, plural, even a game or two, where we're like, well, that was better than anything Carson Wentz did. And then there are going to be moments and plays and a game or two we're like, oh, my God, it can't get any worse than that.

Because that's what he was last year, okay, with a much better offensive line. Not as many playmakers, okay? But really, you know, Terry McClorn and, you know, and McKissick and Gibson were still on the team. They've added Dotson and Curtis Samuel and Dotson are the big differences. And those are big differences, but Dotson hasn't played the last two games. And by the way, Carson Wentz on Thursday night was playing clearly compromised. You know, he had a broken finger.

And by the way, I want to just throw in here real quickly. How did they not take him out of the game with a broken finger? I don't understand that. You're going to tell me that at halftime they couldn't diagnose that that finger was broken or really damaged or at least badly sprained? Did he lie to them? Did he not tell them that it was hurt, that it was just sprained it or it was cold,

and that's why he kept flicking it around the whole time, and that's why he kept it in his hand warmer? Why did they put him back out there? And what was a code red game, must-win game, where he wasn't playing well, where the offense had three points at halftime, and he was hurt coming in with a bicep strain, then he hurts his finger, breaks his finger.

and then by the way he also hurt his ankle, had to have his ankle taped. Why didn't they put Taylor in? That's like the perfect spot for Taylor in relief. I think he's actually, that's like what he's built for, because he's fearless and you know he's going to make some plays and the other team hasn't prepared for him. It's weird that they didn't know that he had a badly injured finger and they put him out there.

Don't you think that's weird? It is weird. but this coaching staff has not shown a propensity to react in the moment, so to speak. So I think it's going to be the same. I don't think, I think Taylor Heineke, his mobility will definitely help. And I would love to see Scott Turner use his mobility better than he did last year. My biggest criticism of Scott Turner last year is I would have had more designed runs. I would have had more zone read in the game plan.

I would have had more quarterback draw. I would have had much more bootleg, especially when you were running the ball well. A lot of the play action stuff he did very well on, especially during that four-game winning streak when they were running the football with Antonio Gibson. He was excellent on some of that play action stuff. But I think that the,

I think that the Wentz versus Taylor Heineke debate, unless it's so clear that Taylor Heineke is either just, I mean, much worse or much worse. or much better and the team's offensive results are much worse or much better, I think it's going to be very nuanced, and I'll give you a couple of reasons why. Number one is, you know, Carson just faced three of the top 10 defenses in the NFL per the football outsider's DVOA metric. Philadelphia is five, Dallas is six, Jacksonville's 10. By the way, Tennessee's up to 17, Chicago is up to 18. Green Bay is 24.

Indianapolis following that is, well, they're 13, so that's different. Minnesota's 21. So this offense faced maybe the best defense in the NFL in Dallas's. In just terms of visually what it looks like. I think San Francisco's is dominant, but it's unhealthy right now. And I think Tampa has the potential to be really good defensively. Philadelphia really good defensively. Those were two hideous looking games in which they really did not have a chance up front.

And Carson then got incredibly skittish and incredibly flustered with the pressures, and people weren't getting open against Dallas. And so you had a lot of issues. So you're also going to have with Taylor, you're going to have better weapons, yes, especially if he gets Dotson and Thomas back here than Wenz had here in the last two weeks, but he's got to deal with a much worse offensive line than he dealt with last year. Yeah.

So I get that. That's part of the rub. Yeah. It's part of the difficulty in judging his performance last year because he really was, by the end of the year when he was not playing well, he really did not have any weapons by that. Even McKissick was out by then. McKissick and Thomas were out.

But, you know, there were some horrible performances. by him at the end of the year. But, you know, there was some real, you know, there was some challenges there. COVID and the week off and the week leading into the, I mean, his QBRs were about as bad as you can get for three out of the final four games. I mean, you rarely see QBRs in the league that low. He was not good. Not to mention that even when, you know, people were open, he was late, he was high,

he nearly got Terry decapitated in the game against Dallas or Philadelphia. I forget which game it was now towards the end of the year. But let me just say this, because, you know, I like Taylor Heineke as a backup quarterback in the NFL. There's so much to like about him. He's smart. He is a, like we've always said, a competitive gamer, fearless. And he does do one thing at a very high level. He is excellent at extending plays and playing off schedule. And Carson is not good at that anymore or certainly wasn't in the first six games here in Washington. So I would love to see Scott build in some other stuff that sort of emphasizes his strengths, maybe more than he did last year. But if they can run the football a little bit and

play on schedule as far as down and distance and you get a play action quarterback with some of the weapons you have, he'll do fine. But I think ultimately it'll be in terms of offensive results and wins and losses, it'll be pretty much the same. And that leads me to this. It is clear to me after six games of Carson Wentz that, A, I was very right about not loving the trade and not thinking he was the long-term answer. And despite what everybody, you know, said, you're such a hater and the trade will look super cheap. And, you know, it was all about jimmer, say, running them off because of the vaccine, whatever. But at the same time, ultimately, I was not right.

right that it would be better with him than it was with Taylor Heineckee last year. Through six games. Now, that is a short sample size for a new guy in a new system who didn't have, by the way, Dotson and Logan Thomas for two of the six games. And both of them were really important during the first four games when they were playing, you know, at times like against Jacksonville and against Detroit in the second half, relatively well. but they had horrible performances at the same time.

But really, the up and down, very average to subpar performance is exactly what we saw last year. So ultimately, you know, it didn't provide enough of an upgrade through six games anyway. Maybe it was on the verge of turning around. And they were going to hit a couple of teams that weren't as good defensively. And they were opening up the playbook and he was learning more and he was starting to have a chance to do more things at the line of scrimmage. But I doubt it. Carson Wentz is really such an inferior quarterback than he was several years ago.

You saw it at times last year. You definitely saw it in 2020. And, you know, you don't have any, and by the way, a quarterback with a big arm and can make all the throws, but has to be protected much more than he did several years ago. Has to. But Kevin, Kevin, what about the analytics? You know, the analytics that Ron Rivera looked at when he made that trade. Yeah.

You know, the analytics that he read over. What about those? He was the one looking at him in Indianapolis during that weekend. Not Dan. Jesus. The analytics. You know what? Let's question the analytics.

See what the analytics were thinking about that trade. The analytics. I mean, with coaches like Harbaugh and Brandon Staley and all these people. Oh, I know. For all of them, the analytics, you know, it's like, don't blame me. It's this guy, Mr. Analytic over here. I'm just doing what he said.

It's really, it really is such a crutch. I mean, it's such a deflection now. Oh, no, no, no, no. We've got an analytics department and this is what they said. Don't blame me for that fourth and one that we went for and didn't get and it cost us the game. when the wind was howling and our quarterback was on one leg, but we went with the numbers anyway. Yeah, the whole thing is insane.

If you're a coach with any kind of confidence or guts, are you going to stand up there and say it's the analytics? You know, it wasn't my decision. You know, the analytics. I mean, come on. Just don't even say the word. Yeah, don't say the word. You know? Don't say the word.

You're 100% right. And the funny thing is, the, the, the, the, the, you're the word. this analytics term is just really like this fancy way of saying, yeah, we're using sort of advanced statistics. We're just using statistics that aren't like these traditional numbers that, of course, don't make sense. Like yards allowed, you know, in terms of defensive rankings, is a terrible measurement of how good your defense is.

There are so many even traditional numbers that are much better ways to determine whether or not a defense is good or not. But yeah, I can't. For me, I don't think he was, he uses the word, but I'm not even sure that he really, I don't want to say this. I think what he was just saying is, I watched the tape on this guy. I looked at the numbers that my group gave me. I made the decision.

Boy, it really felt like, you know, we haven't talked about this because we did the show on Thursday. It really did feel like he was about to break, didn't it, in watching that? Yeah. Yeah. It did. Look, you know what? What? Look, I'm not holding a pity party for the guy.

He went through a tremendous personal struggle with cancer, and we all sympathize or we should sympathize with that. But he took the job here, okay? And if any job ever had a Surgeon General's warning on it, It's this job. So now, if he's feeling the pressure of failure and embarrassment and shame that comes with working for this organization, I don't feel sorry for him for that. I don't think it's as much embarrassment and shame of working for the organization.

I mean, maybe they all should eventually. I think it's frustration with him that he can't. escape this. Like at some point, like, every, like we say, it's the construction site chalkboard. It's every couple of days, you're erasing it and writing zero days since the last accident. I do think that his blame for a lot of this is way misplaced, because, you know, he has sort of blamed media for this in the past, and of course that's not true. He can just walk to, you know, or drive over to Mr. Snyder's house and see the reason for all of this. But you know, you're right, Tommy.

It's like the best way for him to address all this stuff is to not address it. It's to continue to focus on the football team, the football players, the coaches, and just doing your best to perform well in win games because he's not going to change the mind of the people who are more interested and more invested in seeing the owner lose or sell the team than they were in the game that he just coached in. That's what he's fighting against now. There are 31 owners. There's a commissioner.

There are investigators. There is a what used to be proud fan base. There are media members. There are probably many people in his own building that just aren't going to care as much about the game that he's coaching in as they care about the owner being gone. it's not his fault, but there's nothing he can do about it. It has nothing to do with him. You know, nobody's going to care until this guy's gone.

It wasn't, it's not his fault. I said this the other day. It's not his fault. It's not Jay's fault. It's not Mike's fault. It's not even Jim Zorn's fault. You know, a new stadium isn't going to do it. Winning probably doesn't even matter as much as it used to.

You know, whether he picked Wentz or the, owner picked wence. None of that really matters. You know, he can't tell us what we've lived for a quarter century with only two and a half of those years being with him. We've gone through 22 years without him or 21 years without him. Yeah. So it's not really, I understand the frustration. I don't think it's embarrassment and shame on his part. Maybe at some point it'll become that, But I think it's just the frustration of this place, my God, it never ends. It's always something else. And then on top of that, you've got to deal with the fact that you've got a losing football team,

almost always, that, you know, saddles up right next to all of the reporting and all of the stories and all of the dysfunction. But like you said, there's a surgeon general's warning on this job that every single person that's had anything to do with football for the last 10 years, if not 15 to 20, has known. And that is, this is not good for your health coming here and working for this organization. It is a danger to your health. I didn't mean that literally as far as his cancer goes. I'm not suggesting he got cancer because he came here.

But it's not going to work out for him and it isn't. And it won't be working out for the next guy either if Snyder. is still here. By the way, I had Seth Wickersham on the show, radio show yesterday. He, I finally, I just asked him, I said, so what happens here? What is your hunch? And he said, I just do not see the league, you know, a year from now having Dan Snyder to deal with anymore. He goes, I don't know how it happens. I don't know, you know, what the, you know, the actual mechanics are and getting him out, but the league just understands that it cannot have him in Washington anymore. We'll see.

We'll see. You know, I've wondered if, is there a price beyond the sale of the team to buy Dan Snyder off? Definitely. Doesn't Neil and Rockville said to me earlier this morning. Doesn't everybody have a price? Everybody does seem to have a price. But, you know, these owners right now today, they're going to be debating who's going to pick up the tab for the St. Louis lawsuit that the NFL has to pay for for Dan Cronkey to move to L.A. I mean, they're looking at, you know, each team shelling out, I think, I don't know how much, but it's at least, you know, $10 million or more, maybe much more than that.

I have to look it up, but it's become a big source of debate. And then you're going to turn around and tell these guys, well, we're going to have to come up with another billion dollars to buy Dan Snyder out. But what do you think the price would be, at least another billion? Yeah, I mean, so I was going through this this morning. Just if, you know, you've been saying this for a while, and we'll get to this other story here in the next segment. But I, so, Wickersham essentially said that, you know, this debt squeeze is maybe the out. It's maybe the piece that eventually leads to some sort of resolution with him moving on. By the way, I was very clear, I think, with him, and I've said this to you before as well,

this idea that somehow he turns the team over to Tanya and the kids, that's unacceptable to the fan base. And that's not criticism. I don't want to be presumptuous. I think that that's unacceptable to the fan base. And that's not an indictment or any sort of, you know, a major criticism of them as people. The kids I've heard are great.

But the fan base doesn't want Snyders involved at all. because if the family's involved, then Dan's involved. And that's what the assumption would always be. But, you know, this stadium thing, as long as, what was very clear in that story, and you and I talked about this, I think, on Thursday. And I talked to Seth Wickersham about this on radio yesterday. What's kind of clear is that the owners will be okay with Dan

if he can actually get a new stadium built, which is very incredible to me because I'd like to say to all of the other 31 owners in Roger Goodell, that's not going to bring the fans back a new stadium. There's only one thing that might work. And that might not even work anymore because people are so upset about the name, or a lot of people are. But Dan's exit is an absolute must if you ever want what this market once was.

As long as he's here, it'll never be that again, ever. But on the stadium front, Let's just assume that D.C., Virginia, and Maryland continue to stonewall him. They're not going to give him one penny. So now the league has essentially, you know, through that story, said, well, they're not going to waive the debt limit for him. He's not going to be able to borrow money to build this new stadium because he'll be beyond the debt limit and that'll be, you know, in violation of our rules. And also there's this $200 million that we give to owners for new stadiums. We're not going to give him that $200 million.

In Nashville, by the way, just got $500 million committed from the local Nashville politicians, government, and they're going to get their $200 million. They're going to get $700 million towards a new dome stadium for the Titans in downtown Nashville. So if Snyder can't get, if you can't borrow money to build the new stadium and no jurisdictions giving him any money to build it, then there's a lot. really only one avenue for him to get a new stadium. And that is to sell 40 to 49% of the equity in his team to a new group of shareholders. And, you know, the league would have to approve that group, but if he had a minority-led group of minority shareholders that paid, let's just say,

$2 billion, you're not going to pay the actual valuation for the team because it's not a controlling stake. You're getting a non-controlling stake, a minority stake with no voting shares, which is the way it typically is set up in the NFL. And so, and by the way, in a lot of businesses, when you have a minority equity stake, sometimes you have a majority equity stake and you don't have a vote. So that works, it works that way too. But if he sold, let's just say, let's say the team's valued, right? Let's say he could sell it for $6 billion. And let's say that the minority shares at 49% are worth $2 billion, you know, which would put it at roughly a $4 billion, just less than $4 billion valuation. So $2 billion would allow him to pay off the loan that he took from the league to buy off Shar, Rothman and Fred Smith when he paid $80075 million, I think for their shares when he bought him out.

And maybe have over a billion dollars left over or right around a billion dollars left over. There's the billion that at one point I think, you know, Virginia was actually talking about. and now he can take the land that he already owns and he can build a new stadium there. That's one avenue. But you have to have ownership approve the new owners. It'd be hard pressed for the other 31 owners to not approve a new ownership group that is minority-led when they have this big thing to get minority ownership into the league. What if Snyder brings that to him in terms of, you know, a 14-year-old.

49% stakeholder and the Washington commanders led by, you know, a minority group. You know, so it'd be hard for them not to approve that. Now, the other part of that is that will there be somebody that's willing to pay Dan Snyder $2 billion to be his partner? I can't imagine, you know, there are a lot of people that want, you know, a stake in an NFL team, but not this one. So whether or not he could raise that money is a question. If you're a minority partner in any sports team, okay, what it means is you've got a better seat at the stadium.

And that's pretty much it. I mean, your value, the team value goes up, so your investment goes up, but in terms of actually the perks that go with being an edit, the NFL owner, that's all you get. Right. You get a better seat. And ultimately, the frustration of spending all that money

and being, like, having no more power over Dan Snyder than the guy sitting in the, you know, the seats in the 300 level, I mean, nobody's going to do that. You know, and for a minority in particular, I don't want to speak for minority owners who might make this kind of move. But I would think at this point, if you get minorities with that kind of money to come up with that, they're not going to want to settle to sit in the back seat. They're just not going to do it.

Hold on, Tommy. You had some breaking news last week while we were doing this podcast. I might have some breaking news right now. on the subject we're talking about, which I think we're kind of done with this particular part of the conversation. Would you agree? Yes. Okay. Let me get more information on this. We'll take a break here. You'll listen to a couple of our sponsors, and we'll be back with more on the show.

False alarm. It wasn't a real story. Somebody texted me and said, you've got to check out this New York Times story right now. It's just breaking. And there are allegations that are even worse than the ones before. No, it really isn't much of a story. It's not even worth mentioning, actually. Anyway, this segment of the show with Tommy on Tuesdays and Thursdays is presented by Tommy. Shelly's back room, your oasis from all the turmoil and all the noise

and all the craziness of the world out there. you want a place where you can sit and relax and block all that out, come with me, the Shelley's back room at 1331 F Street, Northwest in the district. I was there last night watching the Monday night football game with some of my friends down there. And I've got lots of friends in Shelly's, and you can have lots of friends of Shelly's, because it's that kind of a friendly place. And you know what? I was remarked last night.

Like some of my friends, they have humadors at Shelly's, that they rent. Yeah. And in which you can do as well. And we actually auctioned off, thanks to the generosity of Shellady's, a humidor to use for a gear for our cigars and curveballs fundraiser that Shelly's allows us to host there every year. And, you know, I mean, I mean, people go and they get their cigars. cigars at an eumir door, and they come smoke them, and they say, how would you like to have one of my cigars? You know, quality stuff.

Yeah. Everyone's so generous with their cigars. That's kind of amazing to me. I mean, because we're talking about cigars that cost some money. So it was real interesting. And plus, if you don't have the opportunity for that, Shelley's own selection of cigars that they sell there is top of the line. Great stuff.

And they'll help you pick out just. what you like. Not only do they have a food menu, but they have a cigar menu that you can read in front of you that describes the particular aromas and flavors of every cigar.

So, look, I mean, you know, it is a cigar bar. Sometimes it doesn't seem like a cigar bar because it's a great restaurant and there's no smoke in the air, but if you really want to have some place to have a smoke, there's no place else to go,

Shelly's. You were down there last night? Yes. Why were you down there last night? Well, I had a D.C. Grazed board meeting. Okay. Before that, and then I headed over to Shelly's. If I'm in town for a business, whether it's teaching or a D.C.

Graze meeting, I mean, I'm stopping a Shelley's. Yeah, and it's always sports on in there. You know, the Caps played a game last night. There was Monday night football. And, by the way, there was not a game five of Yankees, Indians. That comes this afternoon. I'm actually excited to watch. The afternoon baseball, Tommy, during the playoffs, just reminds me of, like, years ago when you would

always have, and you could have a game seven or a game five, you know, with a four-clock Eastern start time. I always love that. Absolutely. But that's the cool thing about Shelley's. A lot of great guys down there, a lot of great people down there. They always have sports on. The menu is a menu of excellence when it comes to the food.

Yes, it is. Okay, so it was a false alarm on the story that I thought we were going to open up during the break, but really there was nothing there. But there was a story this morning from the Post on one of the many investigations. It's hard to keep track of all of them right now ongoing with respect to the team. but this is one that's sort of up your alley. You've been talking about these attorney generals and the three jurisdictions, especially the guy in Virginia, the Miria Sky or whatever his name is.

This one... Yeah. So this one, the Post wrote the following about. The Office of D.C. Attorney General Carl A. Racine. By the way, just as a quick aside, because I mentioned this on radio and several of you tweeted me. I was pretty sure that this is the Carl Racine, who was like a first team All-Met basketball player back in probably the 80s for St. John's. It is. He was a hell of a high school basketball player.

I forget where he went on to play college basketball, but I remember very good in some of those great St. John's DeMatha rivalry games way back in the day. Anyway, he is the Attorney General in D.C. The office of D.C. Attorney General Carl Racine is nearly completed. its investigation of the Washington commanders and their owner, Daniel Snyder, and is planning to take further action in the case, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Racine and his team are moving, quote, full steam ahead, close quote, according to that person who spoke on the condition of anonymity

because of the sensitivity to the matter. Adding Dan Snyder, the commanders in the NFL will soon face accountability for their actions. Snyder will no longer be able to dodge subpoenas or avoid testifying or answering questions. closed quote racine declined to comment through his office um Lisa Banks we know the Lisa Banks name very well the attorney who represents more than 40 former commanders employees said quote many of my clients participated in this investigation boy she's got clients participating in a lot of different investigations it's like uh which investigation do we have today let's go through our uh we got to go through our day timer here that's an old reference um what do we have at one o'clock okay we got we got

the Racine investigation at 1 o'clock. We've got the Merius at 3.30, and then we got the House Oversight and Reform Roundtable at 5. But Beth Wilkinson wants to do a redo. And by the way, the DEA would like to talk to us as well. I mean, it's just, it's one investigation after another. These people are probably getting tired of testifying. But Lisa Banks said, it really, it really is. I mean, it's just remarkable. Look, I always thought that... Can I finish? I want to just finish this just so people have an idea

because I want people to get a sense of this story because this is one of the things I want to talk to you about. Lisa Banks said many of my clients participated in this. Hopefully, you know, it'll succeed, where the NFL has failed, et cetera. This is the last part I wanted to read. It is not clear what actions are being contemplated by Racine's office, which includes more than 700 attorneys and staff members and is responsible for enforcing D.C. law through criminal and civil means.

This story just says that they're going to take further action on Dan Snyder, but it doesn't say what they're going to be taking further action on. So I'm not saying that it's not a story. It's just an incomplete story because we don't know what they're going after him for. We don't know what they have. don't know where it will lead, but we specifically don't know what their investigation has uncovered and what they're going to take action on. And to me, the only possibilities, but I'm certainly open to new ideas, are some of the

season ticket holders who are D.C. residents who may not have gotten their deposits back on their season ticket leases when the leases ran out as long as they didn't damage their seat. They were supposed to get refunded that, and that was part of the Jason Friedman allegation scheme. I guess it's possible that some of the sexual misconduct happened in D.C. But remember, this team doesn't play in D.C. They don't really live in D.C. And they don't practice in D.C. And their offices are in Virginia, and their game day venue is in Maryland.

So I am interested to see what they have, but I'm just saying I don't know what it could be. What do you think it could be? I don't know what it could be either. I mean, you covered both of the possibilities of what it could be. It could be the financial implications, or it could be, you know, the allegations of sexual misconduct. You know, I mean, this is a result of the letter that the House Committee sent to the FTC related to the financial allegations.

that were made by Jason Friedman. I mean, that's why the Attorney General for both Virginia and the district picked up this investigation was it was based on that letter that had been sent to the FTC. The FTC, I might want to point out, is also investigating. Right, yeah, forgot about that one. These allegations. So, look, I always thought that this is why I've harped on the Jason Liaris probe because I've always

thought that, you know, if there's a chance to get Dan Snyder, the district will try to take a shot at it. I mean, you know, the politics makes sense there. Okay? I mean, I know you've got the mayor,

you know, you know, talking about still trying to get a new stadium, but most of the political leanings in the district, and everything's politics, more or less. uh... doesn't mean you don't have credible allegations but uh... people make decisions on what to pursue one not to pursue all the time

in terms of charges and i always thought if there was a chance that the district uh... attorney general could get go after snider for something they would i just like stunned still to this day that for virginia attorney general is in a process of doing the same thing right now now they've been silent

silent about what they're doing, but it's, it, it, this has been going on since April, you know, and there's still no word about what they're, what they're looking into. So, uh, I doubt if it's criminal. I can't fathom that it would be criminal. I would think it'd be a civil kind of thing. And I think, again, uh, sometimes the point is, is to get your case on record. And I think if they file some kind of civil charge, against Dan Snyder, I think that's more ammunition to add into the record, whether or not they're successful, whether or not remains to be seen. You know, Neil and Rockville did remind me early this morning that there is a statue of limitations

on a lot of this stuff, you know, in terms of, you know, criminal, you know, proceedings. And, you know, it's funny because the attorneys that wrote that letter to the House Oversight and Reform Committee essentially said, hey, we got rid of the problem. when we got rid of Bruce, meaning the problems all happened under Bruce. And yet a lot of the stuff that keeps popping back up, you know, and let's just assume that this has something to do with the Jason Friedman allegations regarding financial impropriety. I mean, that stuff started back in the early 2000s.

Now, I'm not saying that it's going to lead to anything, but, you know, it's just kind of further proof along with all of the other, you know, things that were going on pre-2010 that that letter was nothing more than a marketing piece. So I don't know where any of this. I know, you know, I know how adamant you have been, that there's more there that, you know, is interesting to you. And I'm not saying that it hasn't been interested to me,

interesting to me. But I have a hard time believing that the financial impropriety stuff is going to lead to him losing his team. Because I just don't think that not refunding, you know, season ticket holders who, you know, very likely were required to reach out to the team on their own to get the refund. And, you know, as we've talked about in the past, a lot of those, you know, meaningful dollar refunds were with big block owners of tickets, you know, corporate, you know, season ticket holders, where they had blocks or they had, you know, suites or they had, you know, 10 to 12 club level seats. the person responsible at the company for, you know, getting the tickets in the first place is gone 10 years later when the lease runs out. And then they have a period of time contractually where you've got to reach out to get the refund.

I just don't see much. It doesn't seem to me that a lot is going to come out of that. Now, the other part of it, you know, holding back money from the league for some of the revenues that were due back to the league, I just can't imagine that Washington, if they were doing some of that. stuff that they were the only team. And we also know that in the... That's something to consider. And we also know that in the last couple of years, Washington has been...

You know, we saw this reported, right? That Washington was like one of the only teams that ended up getting refunded by the league because they paid in too much. So I hope any of this stuff leads to something that's really of substance. But... Okay. I don't know. Now, let's remember the Maryland Attorney General, Brian Frosh, has never said that Maryland is investigating him for these charges.

Oh, right. What Brian Frosh said when this, he said that if what is being described in the letter is accurate, then the commanders, quote, could be in violation of Maryland's Consumer Protection Act. He never said that they're investigating him for that. But he said it could be a violation. Now, here's interesting. From that story, I'm reading from the post story about the letter to the FTC, and there's an expert here named William Kovitzik, a Washington, George Washington University Law Professor,

and a former General Counsel for the FTC, said that, well, you general. I don't like to brush off a legislative committee, especially if you're the chair. It's your own party. They want you to do something. It's awkward to tell them, get lost. We have too much else. Indeed, they have money other things to do.

But understand the National Football League that would draw you into it. Now, here's what he said about possible charges. If the FTC found something that could be called a crime, they'd have to hand it off to somebody else, which means going to the criminal. division of the Department of Justice. Right. Or perhaps going to the state's attorneys generals. The FTC has no criminal enforcement authority.

No. Okay. Can I just say that... Well, actually, let me read this email because I read it on the radio this morning. Mark emailed me. He emailed us, actually, through the website. He said he really enjoyed the interview with Seth, Wickersham, on radio yesterday. Thank you.

And he said, you know, some of the stuff in terms of you asking him how he, you know, how an article like that and how a story like that comes together is interesting, which actually it was to me too. I mean, this is what you did for a living. But, you know, like one of the things I asked him, Tommy, was how often do you start down the path of, you know, thinking that you're going to find gold at the end with, you know, the story? but it turns up nothing. And he said it happens, you know, it happens. I mean, how many times did you, you know, get a tip on something? And you start going down that path and you start interviewing people, and it's like, there's nothing here.

It happens. I can't put your percentage figure on it, but it does happen. But I've always taken the philosophy of any ground that you plow is never wasted ground, because you never know what something will come up in the future. connected to what he just looked at. I mean, it may be frustrating because, you know, you're not getting the story. And again, it speaks to what I've always talked about, the story being the most important thing, to most of these reporters.

But, yeah, I've done that, and it's come up that there really anything there. Okay. But I always figured that, well, I'll just file this away and see if something comes up again. This guy, Mark, I'm just going to, he said basically it really, we got our answer on the Snyder thing. If he's able to convince DC, Maryland, or Virginia to help him, the owners will leave him alone on a stadium. We talked about this last segment.

But I want to get to the last thing in his letter because this is what I was thinking as you were going through and reading some of that stuff. And I felt the same way as I was reading the post story. I'm getting sick of this Snyder stuff, Kevin. Tell me when it's over one way or another. It's tedious. It's getting boring.

it's getting repetitive and I understand it's all connected to football. Trust me, this is the, you know, the reason the football team has been so dreadful and is such an embarrassment is Dan Snyder and him being out is the ultimate goal. Everybody can agree on that. but it's happening so often now with these stories and these reports and he's still there. And not only that, he seems to have dug his heels in even deeper. And by the way, that's narcissism too. Like it's the whole thing that we've been talking about Tommy for years. He's never thought it was his fault.

And he's put people around him that have told him, it's not your fault. It was, you know, Bruce's fault. It was Vinny's fault. It was everybody else's fault. It's the media. his fault. It's everybody else's fault. It's just, tell me when it's over. I can't say that we can't

we have to keep talking about it to a certain degree, especially, but it is getting, don't you think, for you, isn't it getting a bit monotonous? No. To be honest, no. Absolutely not. It is.

What are you kidding? It is for me. I wake up in the morning and I say, okay, let's see what kind of shit has befallen this franchise today so it could write my column for me. No, I'm not tired of it. I'm tired of it. Some days I am.

Some days I get fired up about it. That's true. Some days I get fired up about it. And then other days, it's just, it's like I feel like we're just doing too much of it. Like right now, as you were talking, you know what I was doing? I was just looking at power rankings from different sites because they're all up today. You were boring me with what you were talking about. I can't even tell you right now exactly specifically what you were talking about.

It had something to do with the Maryland Attorney General and the FTC. You lost me. You just completely lost me. So I started to just sort of wander. And by the way, I found that in NFL.com's updated power, rankings, Tommy. Washington is 30th and Chicago is 29th. Didn't Washington beat Chicago on Thursday night? Well, technically, if you want to be technical about it, yeah. Well, let's be technical. They won the game. They have, but Chicago... I don't know if they won the game. They had the higher

score at the end. Here's what's written... I don't know if they won the game. Here's what's written with their 30th ranking among 32 teams. The commander, didn't play particularly well on Thursday night. Yeah, no shit. But sometimes you can win simply by letting the other team beat itself. It beat itself. That's how it felt after two crucial bears blunders in the second half, a muffed punt and a goal line bobble, allowed Washington to escape Soldier field with a 12 to 7 win. With Carson once expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks after fracturing the ring finger on his throwing hand against Chicago, the commanders will turn to Taylor Heineke when they host the Packers on Sunday. I don't think this. I don't think

that they're much better than the third. Those were two bad football teams. Only the Panthers and the Texans are worse. Actually, I don't think the Texans are worse. But I'll tell you what they are either. Can I give you one positive thing about this football team, just talking football? They're getting better and better on defense every week.

And they didn't play a very good offensive team on Thursday night. I understand that. And they still gave up big plays in like over 400 yards. but their red zone defense was outstanding. They turned them over, although none of them were forced. They were both self-inflicted turnovers. Look, without that muffed punt, Chicago probably wins the game seven to six. So they needed that.

But they are getting better defensively. And they're getting better in terms of just being solid and like being smart. And Chase Young, John Kime tweeted out, it's going to see Dr. Andrews later this weekend. If all goes well, he could be back at practice next week. Duron Payne and John Allen are having pro-bowl seasons. And in Allen's case, maybe an all-pro season. Montez Sweat has just, I kept saying during the first few weeks,

man, I think he's playing well, but the results like the sack totals don't show it. But I think he's playing well. Montes Sweat has been unblockable the last couple of weeks. Now, he faced a rookie tackle on Thursday night. But Green Bay's banged up, Green Bay's quarterback is banged up. They have a chance Sunday against Green Bay, a legitimate chance to win this game. Yes, it's certainly a winnable game as it stands. Like, their defense needs to lead the way, and maybe Taylor will provide a, you know, a little bit of a jolt here and some juice to an offense that,

It's been pretty stagnant. But Green Bay's defense is ranked low, but every time I watch Green Bay's defense, I think that's a pretty good defense. You know, it's weird how some of these numbers come out. And then your eyes tell you a different story. Like I watch that jet game. The Jets needed special teams, plays, and turnovers to score the 27 points. The Jets are good. Don't get me wrong.

They have a young football team that's pretty damn good, especially on defense up front. and their running back, Breece Hall is excellent. But Green Bay's got some good defensive players. I mean, Reed and Walker and Gary and then, you know, the Savage, Amos and then Jaira Alexander. Like, they've got some good defensive players. So where are they ranked statistically? I don't know.

It seems a bit misleading to me. Well, you need to look further into those analytics. I do. I really do. I need my own analytics person. I take you too. So while you were yapping away about the FTC, I was looking at power rankings and thinking about whether or not they have a chance on Sunday. The game last night was another dreadful primetime game. My God. You know, the NFL scoring is way down, but the games have been really close. I think there have been some exciting games. Like the last night's game, and fortunately, you know, it ended up being a winner for me,

which meant the smell test won this weekend, five and four, giving out the Broncos last night plus the four, four and a half as the final pick. But man, you know, that team and those two coaches, I mean, the Denver people want Nathaniel Hackett out of there now. I think Brandon Staley is just out of his league here. And by the way, that's a whole other conversation about his analytics department, belief in the analytics. Justin Herbert last night, Tommy, became the first passer in NFL history to throw 57 balls in a game and not throw a touchdown pass, but his team won the game. That's unbelievable. It really is. He completed 37 to 57 for just 238 yards.

Russell Wilson, like, early on, you know, let Russ cook. Russ was cooking early on. He was 10 for 10. And then that team, oh, my God, they've got some issues. And they got people now that you can see, you know, Melvin Gordon is unhappy. There are a lot of running backs that are going to get. It's going to be interesting to see this trade deadline because there are some really good teams that need running backs, which is why I think I said yesterday on the podcast, if not Friday, with Cooley.

If Antonio Gibson is going to continue to get a lot less snaps and touches than Robinson, Jr., which I don't agree with, and it sounded like Ron Rivera doesn't agree with it either based on one of the comments he made in his Friday press conference. But I would think about trading Antonio Gibson prior to November 1 and getting as much back as you can. If you can get something good, because some of the really good teams in this league, Buffalo is one of those teams, Kansas City. he's one of those teams. You know, they're looking for running backs. It's weird. They're looking for running backs. Anyway,

what else do you want to talk about? Who do you like in the game today in the Yankees Guardians game? Well, they're now going to pitch Cortez, right? Off of the rest. I'm actually really looking forward, too, to watching Game 1 of the Phillies Padres tonight. because I've been rooting a lot for Bryce Harper.

I don't have a sense for the game today. Do you? I got the Guardians. I think the only one time the Yankees seen the win in this postseason is when Garrett Cole pitches. I like the Guardians to win this game. And I don't know why you got this infatuation with Bryce Harper. I just loved him.

I mean, when he was here, he was my favorite player. You know, he's not a good guy. I understand that he's a little bit different. Maybe he's matured. I know we both heard some interesting stories. I'll tell you one thing. I thought, and we haven't talked about this, but I think I mentioned it yesterday. What was really a truly incredible Saturday of sports, of live sports.

It was one of the, I don't remember a day like that in recent memory with the Bama Tennessee game, the TCU Oklahoma State game, the Utah USC game. And all the while, the Phillies. are finishing off the Braves. There's an 18-inning game in Seattle. The Guardians are rallying from a deficit in the bottom of the 9th. The Padres are rallying from a deficit in the 7th. You know, there was so much incredible drama in high-stakes games on one day. It was unbelievable. Start to finish. And it didn't end until the Padres had, you know, closed out the Dodgers, which is amazing. And, you know, Scott pointed this out yesterday, too. He's like, not only that,

you had two fan bases, Tennessee and the Padres fan bases, that beat the Big Brother Arch Enemy after never being able to beat him. This was a dream come true for Tennessee football fans and San Diego Padre baseball fans to beat the Dodgers and Bama. It was an incredible day. But the crowd in Nalen Stadium Saturday was incredible. It was phenomenal. But the crowd in Philadelphia on Friday,

and Saturday for the Phillies Braves games, I'm not sure there was a louder and more raucous atmosphere than the Phillies baseball fans. And Bryce Harper, I mean, and all of those guys, Reese Hoskins, all of them, just raved about how it was the best environment that they had ever played in. And Harper basically said,

this is why I came to Philadelphia. It was for a day like today. It was, and by the way, he's been delivering Tommy big time. Yes, he had. My God. I'm pulling up his numbers right now. I want to see what is. He's got at least three homers now.

And, okay, he is hitting 435, slugging percentage 95, OPS, 1.437. He's got 10 hits. He's got three doubles, three home runs, six RBI's, two walks. I mean, on-base percentage, 480. in six playoff games. This guy's always delivered in the clutch. Now, there are other players that are playing really well for them, too. But he's been incredible.

I mean, those two home games, Friday and Saturday. Two home runs, five RBIs. Four hits. That was great. Can't deny it. It's hard to deny it. I mean, I know as a young buck in the organization, here, he was probably insufferable to deal with at times, right?

Yes. That's put it mildly, but yeah. Yeah. The difference between him and the other guy at the same time that was insufferable to deal with in his organization, the football organization, is this guy was really good, Harper. Yes. All-time good. Two-time MVP. Headed towards a Hall of Fame career.

and it would be great if you were still in Washington. I'd much prefer that. So you like Cleveland and then, so we'll see. Cleveland, Houston. Who are you picking Philadelphia and San Diego? I mean, I'm going with Philly. And they seem like a team of density at this point. Density or destiny?

Both. Density, like from back to the first. future. Oh yeah, yeah, back to the future. You are my density. Okay, doke. All right, boss. I got nothing else for you. All right. Well, let's get that thing up to 87 miles per hour and get the hell out of here. Was it 87 or 88? And back to the future. 87, right? Oh, I forget what it was.

Okay. We're done, except I have something. else that I want you to listen to on this podcast. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. We're going to finish up the show today with something different because the thing that I'm going to talk about is kind of unique. It's a school in the area called Don Bosco-Christo-Cristore. It's located in Tacoma Park, and it's a school in which all of the students are on scholarship, but they earn that scholarship. They go to school four days a week, but they work, one day a week. And there are several employers in town who employ some of these students pay the school for

the student's services, which in turn then funds the scholarships. But these kids are also playing sports. And they've got two good soccer teams, a boys' soccer team and a girl's soccer team. And there's an event this coming Saturday at Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, right there on Rockville Pike. It's the Don Bosco Christo-Rae inaugural Christo-Ros. Ray Cup featuring the Cristo Ray girls and boys soccer teams playing against other Christo Ray schools across the Mid-Atlantic.

There are similar schools in Baltimore and Philadelphia. So if you've got nothing to do this coming Saturday, head out to prep. You'll see some really good soccer. Joining me right now to talk about the school and the upcoming event this weekend are Mark Shriver, Mark is the president of the school. And then two students, Breezer Hernandez, she's a senior, plays on the girl's soccer, soccer team and Brian Lopez, a junior, plays on the boys soccer team. Brizha, I'll start with you. Just describe what your typical week is like. So a typical week in Dombostow is I work on Tuesday.

I work on Tuesday and I have classes Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But Friday, all our students are in school. No students go out to work. I have practiced from for Dunbosco High School team every single day after school. But on Tuesdays, you're working? Yes, that's right. I work at a healthcare place in Arlington, Virginia. Awesome. So how is the team this year?

Oh, it's really good. I think our team is really, really good this year. We have a lot of girls that have potential. And as team captain, I think this Crystal Ray Cup is going to make a big change in the girls' soccer team this year. And who are you being recruited by in soccer? So far, I've been talking to slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and Florida, located in Tampa, Florida.

That sounds great, Breeza. Best of luck with that. Let's bring Brian on. Brian's a junior at Don Bosco-Cristore. And I'll ask you, Brian, the same thing I asked, Breezo. What's your normal week like? My normal week consists of, so I enter school at 745, and we usually get ready, get our lockers, and get all the stuff we need to go to classes.

So we have eight classes a day. And on Thursdays is where I work. I get up in the morning like around 8.30. I go to my check-in, and I enter work at 9 and get out at 4.30 at a law firm. So on Thursdays, you work at a law firm, and it's a full day. You're there at 9 and you leave at 4? Yeah, correct. Do you ever miss practice or do you ever miss a game because of your work schedule on Thursdays?

I try my best to be a part of the team. And if I play a Captain Raw, I feel like I need to be at practices. So I try to set that example for the boys too because I feel like it's important that we all go to practice. and we also up to the games ready and prepared. Sounds like you're doing a really good job as a team captain, Brian. Tell me what it's like to go to the school. What do you like most about your school? I feel like Don Bosco, Crystal Ray, does a really good job of getting their students

out of their comfort zone and just preparing us for college. And I feel like we're also very united and we know each other and we know we got each other's back if we need it. So I feel like, but most importantly, I feel like Don't Bosco, Crystal Ray is like well known for getting this to the comfort zone and finding, like, making their weaknesses, like, our strength. So let's get back to the soccer on Saturday in this inaugural Crystal Ray Cup. What kind of team do you have?

How well do you think you guys will do? I feel like we have a good team. I feel like we have the ability and, like, the tools to, like, like, to win the Crystal Ray Cup. I feel like we're very united and everybody that's in the team plays a role into winning. So I think we really have a strong chance of winning the Crystal Ray Cup. Well, best of luck, Brian, on Saturday and keep up the good work in school. Let's bring Mark Shriver on to the podcast.

Mark is the president of this school. And, you know, high school students work everywhere, Mark, as we know. But the setup there at Don Bosco is completely different. And, you know, it's pretty cool to have a day of the week working at a law firm or a health care company like Breza and Brian are doing, not just because it ultimately defraise some of those costs associated with their scholarship, but it's an incredible life experience they're getting at a young age as well. Tell everybody about the school in your words. Yeah, you're 100% right, Kevin.

And thanks for having us on the show. You know, Crystal Ray, Don Botsko, Chris Ray High School in Tacoma Park is unique in the DMV. Our students, as you just heard, work one day a week. The companies pay for the students to go to work. They're not working at McDonald's or, you know, Burger King, but they're working in professional settings. The companies pay, but that money doesn't go to the students. It goes to Don Bosco, Crystal Ray High School to help defray the cost of the student's education.

So our students are earning their scholarships. You know, we have to raise some money on the side to pay for the entire academic experience. for the students and the students put some, and the families put some money in for tuition, but they really do a big chunk of their high school education is paid for by the students working at these jobs. So whether it's an insurance company, whether it's a law firm, whether it's a hospital, Georgetown University, a cap of university hires our students as well. The idea is to get them into college and school college. You know, you hear different examples. So the seniors go to work on Tuesdays, the juniors go on Thursdays.

And both Breza and Brian are really committed to the sports program. A lot of our students, if they're working further away, struggle to get to practice or struggle to make it to games on days that they work, which puts us out of disadvantage. Right, Brian? So, I mean, we played the heights the other day. It was on Friday, so our team was there. but if, you know, you have a game today against St. Anselms, but it's going to be tough because

a couple of whatever it is sophomores are out. So that happens, right, Brian and Breeza? Yeah. But the coaches are fine with that. The coaches understand, and you're not going to let a coach go because he loses a game without some of his good players there, hopefully. Yeah, that's correct. But, you know, we don't have any excuses.

So it's the next person up. Right. Next man up, next woman up. Next person up, next athlete up. And, you know, kids have got to get themselves to work, whether it's in, you know, Arlington or Rockville or in Beltsville, they're going to get, you know, in some cases, if they're riding in Metro, the Don Bosco,

Chris Roy staff will meet them at Metro Center, make sure everybody's stressed and ready to go to work. So their students are making a huge commitment to go to Don Bosco, So Crystal Ray, it's the only one in this, you know, the DMV. There's one up in Baltimore, and there's one in Richmond and one in Philly. There's 38 Crystal Ray schools all around the country. And this cup is a chance for us to, you know, compete against the schools in Baltimore and Richmond and Philly.

Hopefully we're going to win it all. And you heard from the student athletes, they're committed. But we want to, you know, it's powerful. Sports is a powerful way to build a character, build commitment. and that's what we're hoping not only the Crystal Ray Cup does this Saturday the 22nd at Georgetown Prep, but all, you know, during the course of the year as well. The typical high school experience, Mark, includes obviously sports and academics, but this one day of week, which they're working in professional environments around adults with responsibilities.

I mean, that's a life experience and something that I think will pay off big time for them down the road. I think so. What do you think, Breza, Brian? I mean, you've had different jobs, right, in your four years. Obviously, the pandemic had a big impact. But, Brian, where did you work the other three years? So, well, I wasn't here for my freshman year because of the pandemic and everything. But I started working sophomore year, and it was actually at the plain law firm I am now. Well, this year, they call me back again because they, like,

like what I brought to the company and how much I helped them out. And I'm in the hospitality department in the law firm. And I feel like what it does for me is it like it gets me to talk to other people that are older than me. And it really helps me understand what's like what's it like to be like in their position or a day-to-day life of an adult. So I think it's important to our education like you said. that's awesome

don't grow up too quickly but that's awesome the experience you're getting is going to is going to pay huge dividends down the road all right this event I think Kevin I think we I think Kevin I'm sorry I know we got to go

but I think you know when our students graduate you know with four years of experience they go to college a lot of them are obviously on scholarship of college or have to earn their way through college so they got a lot of grit and hustle so they're coming out of college at 22

23 years of age with eight years of experience on their resume, and, you know, they got that track record. So it's a unique school, and so inspired by the hard work our students put in day in and day out. This event is October 22nd at Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, right there on Rockville Pike, and Don Bosco, Crystal Ray, is this host of this inaugural Crystal Ray soccer cup, their games, day long starting at 9 a.m. Final game starts at 2.30, goes off at 4. DBCR.org. That's DBCR.org to find out everything about the school. Breza and Brian, thanks so much. Good luck this weekend. Mark, thanks to you. Good luck with the school and have fun this coming weekend. All right, Kevin. Thanks a million. All right. That's it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Cooley.