The Kevin Sheehan Show - Will Snyder Sell?

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Kevin and Thom today with a Roy Rogers menu of excellence today. They started with the Roast Beef, went to the Double R, and finished it off with the Fried Chicken. Mixed in was Kevin's hunch on what Dan Snyder might do, Thom's reaction to it, and why Dave Roberts pulled Clayton Kershaw last night. Also, Thom had a major announcement and major complaint to make.  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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here with me today on this Thursday, April 14th. We were just talking about Roy Rogers. Not the cowboy Roy Rogers, but the restaurant Roy Rogers.

Roy Rogers was a cowboy, right? He was a cowboy. Yes. He was one of those singing cowboys like Gene Autry. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Yeah, he had a TV show and his horse's name was Trigger. Gotcha.

Who was his sidekick? Did he have a sidekick? Yeah, his wife. I should remember her name, but I don't. Gene Autry, of course, you know, the owner of and the writer and the singer of many of our famous holiday songs like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I believe that that is a song that he wrote, he created, and he owns. I think that's true. Should we look that up?

Oh, my. Wasn't he also the owner of the California Angels for a while? Yes, he was. He was the owner of the Angels for a long time. And then when he passed on, his widow owned the Angels for a while. Here it is. This is his Wikipedia page. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films,

and between 1950 and 1956 hosted the Gene Autry show, yada, yada, yada, yada. His singing cowboy films were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience. In addition to his signature song back in the saddle again, Autry is still remembered for his Christmas songs, most notably his biggest hit, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, as well as Frosty the Snowman. Here comes Santa Claus. and up on the house top. Now, I want to see if there's any more about, like, owning those songs

and what the worth of owning those songs were, because I think that that was part of what created this massive net worth that allowed him to buy a baseball team. But maybe it was all the movies and all of the other singing. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, at the time, there were a lot of Hollywood people involved in baseball. Then Crosby owned a piece, I think, of the Pirates.

Right. Danny Kay and Bob Hope, I think Bob Hope owned a piece of the Cleveland Indians. There was a lot of Hollywood connections to baseball at the time. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer became the number one hit and the number one sold record of the 1950s. If I'm right about this, I think White Christmas is the all-time number one selling single. Is that not ringing a bell to you? Yes, it sounds familiar.

It sounds reasonably true. It sounds reasonably true. Well, typically on this show, which is our measure, typically on this show, reasonably true is enough for us to just go with it. I think that's true. I want to make sure, oh, this is speaking to the movie White Christmas. Okay, the title, Song, White Christmas. which is an Irving Berlin song.

It's from a movie called Holiday Inn. That's right. White Christmas, the song was in the movie called Holiday Inn. Right. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the world's best-selling single in terms of sales of physical media. Would that be like hardcore records? With estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.

When the figures for other versions of the song, I would assume digital, sales of the song exceed 100 million. So there you go. Every once in a while, the things that seem reasonably true are true. How did we get started on this? Oh, Roy Rogers. I was telling Tommy before we started to record that I have to take my car in for like a service.

And it's out in Rockville. and that's where we used to work for many years. We worked in Rockville. And Tommy and I endorsed Roy Rogers. They were an endorser of the show. They did, I think even more with Tommy than they did even the show. But they were the family that ran it. We both know, the Plymondins.

Pete, I think, runs all the Roy Rogers and Georgetown Prep family. Super nice guy. and anyway, whatever, we're getting sidetracked. I was just saying to Tommy that I think I might drop my car off and then walk over to Roy Rogers for lunch because I don't think I've had Roy Rogers since we moved out of that Rockville facility, which is now three years, at least, right?

At least three years, maybe more than that. Because you have a lot of Roy Rogers near where you live. I don't. The closest one is Rockville for me. And that's a hike. Well, we have at least four or five here in Frederick. Two of them are within two miles of where I live. So I am an avid consumer of Roy Rogers food.

I used to be devoted solely to the roast beef family. Oh, that's my favorite. That's how I got hooked on Roy Rogers. Yeah. That in the double arbor. But I can't go there and not order their chicken, their fried chicken. Oh, their fried chicken was always great. Yeah, yeah. I got, look, I mean, you know, I know everyone's house Royal Farms, and I had that the other night, and that's good, but give me Roy Rogers.

Royal Farms, but you and I were talking about some other things, including businesses before the podcast started. Actually, Royal Farms was a client of mine in a business 20 years ago when they were really blowing up in Baltimore and all throughout the state of Maryland, and we were. We had developed some technology for front-end ordering, which is, you know, Royal Farms was really at the forefront of all of that. So was, you know, that whole, you know, format of convenience store, but with a lot more. I mean, and their sandwiches, you know, the only time I hit Royal Farms is like on the way to the beach. Because, again, there are no Royal Farms really in the immediate D.C. metro area. There are some wah-was now. There's a wah-wah right near, right across the street from where.

Wilson High School near where I live, right off of Wisconsin. Well, you know, we have a couple of wallaws. We have a couple of Royal Farms up here. We got it all, Frederick, baby. Yeah. So you've just now absolutely 100% by listing your favorite items made it a given that I will be dropping off my car for hopefully a service that takes no more than an hour and walking down.

I can't go into Roy Rogers and not get a roast beef sandwich, but I also can't can't go into Roy Rogers without getting a double R burger because they're the best. But then now I'm going to have to probably get some fried chicken. I don't know. I may go in there and get a bunch of stuff and bring it home. Okay. Enough about Roy Rogers. We both love it.

I wanted to read this review that I got and actually got a note, really. This wasn't actually part of a review, although he told me that he gave us five stars. So rate us and review us. on Apple, if you don't mind. Spotify as well. And five stars and a quick one to two sentence review really does help us out if you can do that. This dude Ben sent me the following. You're going to love this one. Sheehan, start supporting our teams, please. Your hostility towards the team is constantly antagonizing them. We have a good coach, a new quarterback, and when they're 10 and 6 next year, and NFC East champs, by the way, it wouldn't be 10 and 6.

It would be either 11 and 6 or 10 and 7, Ben. They play 17 now. I hope you'll move on from Congressional Oversight Talk. I know how much you love this team, Kevin, but you've lost your way. So thank you, Ben, for your note. For the review. Well, you know, I used to get emails like that. Now you get them.

Well, you've gotten many more of them over the years, but I've always gotten them too. This is what I wanted to say, because attitudes like Ben's, you know, bless his heart, you know, I used to, and I used to kind of debate with you. I'm like, look, there's a loyalty, you know, even if it's an undying loyalty to this team, and I can appreciate that even if it is a bit naive. But now that attitude, and, you know, Ben's not the only one to express. it, you know, we get these things occasionally. It's the minority of whatever you would call this team's fan base. You know, it's not a majority opinion. Most people feel the way we do now.

But it's just such a simple, like, way to go about it. Like, I, it's always been kind of interesting to me, Tommy, fans who don't like hearing, like, the truth. the fans incapable of, you know, legitimate criticism of their team. But, you know, at this point with this particular team, with this owner, how can you actually criticize or have an issue with talking negatively or constructively critically about this team? Like, what planet are you living on?

And by the way, it doesn't even, if you exclude the owner, Like if you take the obvious damage done by this owner over a long period of time out of the conversation, you know, and you just said, how can't people like Ben deal with like a conversation about Taylor Heineke? Because I guarantee you Ben probably, and I just missed it at some point, reached out and said, come on man, jump on board. Taylor Heineke's good. You know, he's who we have. Let's get behind him. Let's support him. I don't understand that anymore. I mean, I used to kind of feel like... Well, I mean, there's a level of misunderstanding about the role of some media.

And there's different kinds of media. And sports talk hosts, I'm not saying, are the same as journalists. They're different with different roles, different responsibilities and things like that. But even sports talk show hosts, can't just blindly, you know, have blind loyalty to have any credibility. No.

You can't do that. No. It's your credibility at stake. Well, I mean, there have been moments because we were working together during these moments when I was really, really optimistic, the Shanahan years. You know how much I thought that that was going to head in the right direction finally? So did I. You know, and people accuse me of being a home.

and you know, and I can remember very much so specifically saying, look, if you can't stand the pain of trying, you know, of a first rate, you know, borderline Hall of Fame coach with some autonomy rebuilding this thing, you go out and, you know, an antique with your wife on the weekends and just tune in on Monday and I'll catch you up to speed on what's going on. You know, we used to joke that way. And, and I was very optimistic. But to your point is, your point is, your, your point. is spot on and we've you and I've told people in our business this that aren't you know that have never hosted shows that are in management if you're not honest about the way you feel you have no chance in this kind of long form format no chance because you'll get sniffed out as a propagandist from the jump and nobody wants that nobody wants that but this is what like guys like ben and again i think these people are few and far between you agree with me on that right there just aren't many of those left.

Yes, they've diminished greatly in the last six or seven years. But the people even recently that, you know, had a problem with anybody that criticized the new name or the way it was presented. Like, okay, you're entitled to your opinion, but don't think that me being completely, like, that was hysterical that day. It was so off. Everything they did was so incompetent. And there are people like Ben that would just prefer that we would have come on on the podcast the next day and said, Hey, hey, oh my God, I love the name. And how about the Today Show and how Jason kind of handed it off to Doug Williams?

And it was very spontaneous. And, you know, they were out in this field. They were at FedEx, man. And then they went to the stage. and they had this whole big setup with all these people, and Dan and Tanya were there. It was great. Well, that's not how I felt.

Can you imagine if we had said that? Because most normal people on February 2nd, 2022, thought that that was an absolute joke, a disgrace of an unveiling of a new brand. But, by the way, on brand for them, on label for them. Yes, absolutely. absolutely, totally predictable. I mean, but these are the same people that I guarantee you, you know,

and occasionally I ignore them all the time. But this one I just thought would be a good topic for you and I to discuss today is just, I mean, I remember during those Shanahan years, people accusing me of rose-colored glasses when it came to the team. Fine, but that's how I really felt. How could you really, really right now feel optimistic about any of you? of this. But if you can, that's your prerogative. But you're not going to get people to just kind of go along with it and say, hey, let's support them all. I don't have anything against

Chase Young or John Allen. I wish the best for the players and the coaches. They didn't volunteer for this mess. Most of them didn't. Well, they did. Well, the coaches did. The players didn't. Some of them did. That's true. Yeah. Some of them did. Like I said, the hostages. I said before the hostages, they didn't. Yeah. So Tommy has a big announcement today that we will get to in the final segment of the show. Okay, so Tommy's got to.

I have two announcements. Okay, two announcements. Well, you only told me about one. Well, one has just come up. Oh, okay. So now we have two announcements. Should we wait until the end of the show, or do you want to break one of them right now? No, let's do it.

The other one's not so much an announcement as much as a, a commentary. So we can wait. Personal commentary. I do think that we need to get to the Clayton Kershaw discussion from him getting pulled from a perfect game after seven innings with only 80 pitches thrown. We're going to touch on that subject coming up soon. We're going to touch on the Nats win last night. By the way, they're off to a decent start, relatively speaking.

They won a series on the road against the world. World Series champions. Exactly. You know? Yeah. But when they win games, they win them. There's not much room for error so far. But what I want to do right now with you is I want to share with you kind of a strong hunch

that I have about Dan Snyder. And then I want us to make predictions. Well, this hunch will tell you what my prediction is. but I want us to make predictions after, you know, the last two days, we can even talk about the last two days a little bit more if you'd like. I'd urge everybody to listen to the Howard Gutman stuff from the podcast yesterday. Neil and Rockville's been great weighing in on all of this as well. But my hunch is this.

I have a hunch that Dan Snyder is going to sell the team. And let me give you the reasons why. Number one, I just can't imagine that this isn't a massive strain on his family. Not that it wasn't before the last two years, but it really has increased. You know, he has become even more toxic than he was before July 2020, which is, you know, at the time would have been hard to fathom. But the workplace culture stuff and now the allegations about. financial improprieties and Congress House and Oversight Reform Committees looking into this, and Mary Joe White taking on multiple investigations and the prospect of this just never-ending saga.

It's just never-ending. I think, you know, it is intensified for sure over the last two years, and it's really even intensified in like the last six months. You know, I talked yesterday on the podcast, Tommy, about how Ron Rivera so badly has really pushed since the end of the season about how he'd like all of us to, just forget the past and focus on the future. But the shadow of Dan Snyder is just too large and it's too dark. He can't escape it.

And I think so I think that, you know, there's a chance that the strain on the family is at an all-time high. And, you know, some of you would say, well, Sheen, you've always said that they don't need, they're oblivious to that, you know, because they don't believe that people believe it's their fault. Yes, I think for a long time, you know, the narcissist that he is, it was always someone else's fault and he never really felt like all of the anger was directed at him. And look, the hashtag fire Bruce Allen was probably one of those things that emboldened him. He's like, see, they're blaming Bruce. Now, I've told everybody about the poll that they did, that they kept the results of internal,

which they did an approval rating for Dan and Bruce, and Bruce was like at a six out of 100, and Dan was out of five out of 100. This was three or four years ago, and it shocked them, like they couldn't believe it. And you're right. Like anybody that would say, you've always said they're oblivious to this,

and they get caught up in, you know, harvest feast and draft day parties. Yeah, but I think the last two years, there's got to be an awareness. And by the way, I think for a family like them, high-profile family that's despised, the father is despised for what he's done to the team, you know, the family's always going to feel the brunt of that. The family's going to feel the brunt of that if the high-profile person's polarizing, or even if the high-profile person is popular, you know, kids in schools and stuff.

So I think that's part of it. I think the other parts are the fact that this recent stuff, you know, if it doesn't oust him with a three-quarters vote of the owners, if you ever get to that point, and I wouldn't bet that it does, it could definitely impact the stadium, the new stadium part. And if he's left there having to pay

for every single cent of a new stadium, he can always stay in Landover. We understand that and play at FedEx Field and slop some paint on the old, you know, on the old hovel. He could do that. But, you know, the new stadium is what the league wants in this market. He wants it.

It's his dream. It's what he's been sort of creating. So the prospect of the last two years and maybe the last few weeks on getting any kind of help. And by the way, Tommy, the idea that he then have to go to the league to get money and get help to build this stadium, you know, when they've already loaned them money to buy out the shareholders, they may say no. So I think that could play into it. I think, you know, just what you've talked about, this potential of the disastrous day for the League of Goodell and Snyder being asked to testify in front of Congress, I think that's a day that probably he lives in fear of because he's been a recluse. He's not, you know, this is not where he wants to be, the public face of anything.

And then lastly, I believe that with the name gone, I think he's not. maybe even he feels differently about the team, that maybe he would never have sold the Redskins, but maybe it's more in play now that they're the commanders. It's a hunch. I just don't think that what we've been talking about the last few days will result in him getting ousted. Again, I wouldn't wager on it. I hope it happens, but I'm not really sure. Like I've listened to Howard. I've listen to Neil, I've used my own logic. I'm certainly not certain. I think we're closer because I think it's just the overall, my God, enough is enough. And the league's going to say, dude, you've got to go. You're killing us. You're absolutely killing us. But I just have a hunch

that he'll sell. And remember this. Put yourself into their shoes, which you really can't do. I understand that. But just try to for a moment. They are being, they're toxic. They know they're toxic at this point. Everybody can't stand them. They have to know that a parade would be held if they just went away. But if they did just go away, they'd get $4 billion for just going away. That's a pretty nice parting prize and gift. Yes, it is.

So that's why I have that hunch. Like, I just couldn't imagine being in their shoes and having any fun owning this team. Now, Ion, who calls the radio show, always points out the same thing. The reason he owns this team is because when he's on that yacht with all of those other billionaires, money doesn't do anything anymore. It's that he's one of 32. That's why Matt McConnor, he's friends with him. That's why Tom Cruise is friends with him. And he lives for that. And if he doesn't own the team, that all goes away. Okay, maybe, but $4 billion would certainly make the going away not be as painful,

especially when you're going away from the commanders, not the Redskins, which is what you bar. So anyway, that's my hunch. So go ahead. Everything you said makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. And particularly you brought up the stadium issue. This is the biggest thing that he has to deliver.

And every day he seems to get more and more distant from people who want to do business with them. So I think there could be a point where, you know, there's like when Goldwater and the Republican senators back in the day where politics was decent, walked over to the White House and told Nixon, look, it's over. You've got to go, you know. There may be a point where the NFL, a couple NFL owners and Goodell

have that sit down with Snyder, and he may react by telling him to fuck off. But I think that the stadium deal is going to have, the lack of a stadium deal and the unwillingness for governments to get involved with him on a stadium deal is also going to contribute mightily to lead pressure for him to sell. ultimately, I think if he refuses to sell, they're not going to, if they tell him to sell and he doesn't sell, they're not going to live with that. They're not going to live with that. You might be right. You might be right.

And then, you know, there's going to be a hell of a fight. Like if he really doesn't want to go, you know, it's so I have this hunch that it's a hunch. But I also then, as I do often, think about it from other angles and sometimes callers present angles. And there was a caller this morning that said there's no way. He is a rat trapped in a corner and he is not. He's not, you know, throwing up a white flag. It's not his MO. And I kind of think that that's part of it too.

Like especially if he thinks some of this stuff is bullshit and he wasn't really the one responsible for it. So I don't know. That's my hunch that eventually the family might convince him the no stadium, the fact that it's not the Redskins anymore. And I could envision what you described too, you know, a Barry Goldwater, you know, John Rhodes, everybody else that came to Nixon to say, you got to go. You got to go.

God, you know what, that's one of my early childhood memories. watching him resign and get onto that helicopter and fly away from the White House in August of 1974. We were at... It was remarkable. We were at the Chase's house. Or August 8th or August 9th, one or two? We were at the Chase's house. Neighborhood friends and we were playing outside and then the parents called us inside to watch the historic moment.

And I remember. I remember exactly where I was. watching that. Okay. Look, I always use that. Just one pre-thing. Yes. I always use that for people who think the world is coming to an end.

That's one of the things I always use. I always point out that everybody in the Nixon White House went to jail, including two attorney generals, the two leading law enforcement officers in the country, except for the president who had to resign. And we had a president and a vice president after that, who neither of whom were and there was no coup, there was no government overthrow, business continued as normal. So I tend to use that for people who think the world is coming to an end in this country. That's a calm and reasonable response to, you know, hysteria.

But, you know, I always use the example, and I think I've used it on this show before. When people talk about how, you know, things have never been worse, I point to the fact that in 1968, half of our cities, half of our major cities were literally burning to the ground. We had a civil war in this country in the 1860s, but everybody always wants to be a part of the greatest or the worst or the most divided or whatever moment in the history of the world. Just by the way, as people last night, Tommy, in Minneapolis, were probably saying, I can't believe I was here.

This is the worst decision in Major League Baseball history. They took Clayton Kershaw out with a perfect game after the seventh inning. Let's get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Seven perfect innings with 13 strikeouts, and Dave Roberts makes maybe the hardest decision of his managerial career here, but a decision that he ultimately feels like had to be made. What do you make of Dave Roberts pulling Kershaw last night with a perfect game through seven innings and an 80 pitch count. How do you do that?

Seriously? Well, again, this is a guy, and I'm not saying this was the specific decision here, although it probably was. That team is managed by the front office. He gets his marching orders from the front office. That is a totally front office managed organization, and Dave Roberts does what he's told. Okay? I mean, and here's the thing that's kind of disappointing. Kershaw didn't put up more of a fuss.

Well, he said... You imagine if he had tried to pull Shursar out? Right, right. Well, look, Kershaw, people thought his career was over after last year, you know? And, or maybe it was even the year before. He's one of my... You know that I've always, for whatever reason, just loved Kershaw. And Scott's told me before that he's one of the great dudes that's ever walked

through like the ESPN, you know, building and done promos and stuff. But anyway, I've always been a big fan of his, but he did ask for another inning and at least up to 85 pitches, according to the report. His quote was, I would have loved to have stayed, but bigger things, man, bigger things. Those are selfish goals. We're trying to win. That's what we're all really here for. So obviously it took the classy way out.

but Robert said that he consulted with Kershaw, and Kershaw told him one more inning with an 85 pitch limit. Now, one more inning more likely than Nottie would have gone past 85 pitches, but you're six outs away from a GD perfect game. I mean, there have been 23 perfect games in all baseball history, I think. This is, yeah. So this is absurd. I mean, the first batter he walks or gets a hit, you take him out.

Right. I mean, if nobody gets on base, he's not going to pitch very long. He's not going to throw that many pitches if nobody gets on base. Well, he could have some long at bats that he ends up retiring. Yeah, but I know. But at some point, three and two is going to become four and two, and he's going to walk somebody. And then he's out.

You just don't want three and two and seven fouled off pitches. And all of a sudden, you know, he's got his perfect game intact, but he just threw 27 pitches in the inning. Well, you know, let's not. predict the worst. Let's predict that he breathed through the first seven innings. He would breathe through the last two. Here's the other. I mean, go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead.

Well, yeah, I want to credit Mark Wicker with this. Mark Wicker is the recently retired columnist from the Orange County Register. One of the great columnist in the history about business, and he still posts stuff on Facebook, and he used to write about the Dodgers a lot. And he pointed this out four times in postseason situations. The Dodgers have started Kershaw on three days' rest. Yeah. For other times, they used him in relief. Including at Nats Park in game five, remember that?

And in game five at Dodgers Stadium. Yeah. Most of the time, they seem to get away with it, but the irregular workload was one reason Kershaw had such a sketchy playoff reputation. So, I mean, this is an organization that had abused him before, and now when he's pitching perfect game, they're not going to give them a chance to do that, please. Ridiculous. Yeah, I'm getting more angry as you're, because I didn't know which side you were going

to take on this. This is ridiculous. This is absurd. The baseball needs these moments right now. And to your point, if he walks the first batter and the 8thies out, here's another part of this. With the DH now, you don't have to worry about losing it at bat, and I don't know where they were in the order anyway.

They were up three to nothing. It's not like it was a one-nothing lead they were trying to protect. They had a solid three-run lead. Come on. That's absurd. It really is. It's a black mark on baseball. It really is.

That's what it is. The black mark on the game when something like that happened. The Dodgers hurt the game when that happened. Oh, the worst. You know, his postseason stuff, it's interesting because that's probably a big reason why, you know, how much pressure they put on him, how many days he was pitching, you know, on short rest. You know, overall, you know, the last few times he was in the postseason,

especially when they won the World Series against Tampa, he pitched pretty well. I think he did. Remember, two relief appearances, famous relief appearances, were against Washington in the 2015 or 2016, 2016 was the Dodgers. When they won game five at Nat's Park and he came in as a reliever in the ninth and had pitched the game before. He had pitched game four as a starter.

And then Tommy, I think I still, I'll never forget the image of game five at Dodger Stadium during the World Series run. When Kershaw came in and got, he gave up back-to-back home runs to Soto and Rendon in the next inning. And I'm trying to think of who he retired to end the inning before. But it was like this momentous, you know, at bat. He retired. I want to go back and remember this exactly the way it ended pitch by pitch.

But who hit, it was eaten. He got eaten out. in the last out of the seventh inning. He went back to the bench. He'd come in. It was a big deal. And then they sent him back out in the eighth. And Soto and Rendon and Soto went back to back on him.

And then he went back to the dugout. Don't you remember those indelible images of him by himself in the dugout after they'd given up that 3-0 lead? And then, of course, Howie Kendrick had the grand slam in extra innings. But, God, it was so. weird. I so desperately wanted the Nats to win, and I felt so awful for Kershaw that night. Because it was almost like his career was over at that point. The other part of this last night, I don't know if this has been discussed or not. It was 37 degrees at Target Field. It was a very cold night. But still... I get that, but he was pitching effortlessly. Yeah, 80 pitches.

He wasn't struggling at all. 80 pitches. You've got to see that true. Have to. Okay. What was the other thing I wanted to do in this segment? I think we're done with this segment. I think we'll get to your announcements right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

All right. Before we get to Tommy's two announcements to wrap up the show, I did want to mention the announcement that the team made yesterday. that they had hired social media influencer Katie Feeney to be the first ever commander's social media correspondent. The partnership is believed to be the first of its kind. The team put out a press release yesterday, sort of spelling out, you know, the benefits of this Katie Feeney.

Katie is a Penn State student, my youngest son. is graduating from Penn State. She's a Maryland native, a longtime Washington fan. I did ask my youngest son, Ryan, do you know who she is? And she's like, he said, yeah, I told you about her. A while back, she's become like this star on campus. She's got 10 plus million social media followers. Apparently, you know, Ryan basically said, I don't really follow it. I don't, you know, I don't know that much. She's, she's attractive, but she's really, really good front of the camera, whatever that means. The team said we are excited to welcome Katie Feeney

into our Burgundy and Gold family as our first ever commander's social media correspondent. We are lucky to be joining forces as she becomes an extension of the commander's social media team. Katie provides a youthful perspective that will reach new eyes and ears and help cultivate the next generation of fans as we enter the inaugural season of Washington commanders football. A Maryland native, longtime Washington fan, a freshman.

at Penn State, Feeney has seen explosive growth on her social media channels, including becoming a top YouTube shorts creator, amassing two and a half billion views worldwide. Her social footprint includes 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube, 6.8 million followers on TikTok, 870,000 on Instagram, and 825,000 on Snapchat. During her first year on campus, Feeney provided game day coverage at home football games and a variety of women's sports teams, including basketball, hockey, gymnastics, track, and field, and more. Her quote, growing up in Maryland, my family and I have always been massive Washington football fans. She didn't say commanders fans. I am so excited to become part of the commander's family.

There it is. The opportunity allows me to create content, which combines my passion for storytelling and broadcast sports journalism. I can't wait to get started, said Fannie. Please. Excuse me. I don't know anything about her. So everything I would say would be coming from a place of ignorance, which hasn't stopped me in a past. No. But don't even use the word journalism. You're a freshman in college. Okay? Don't use it. I mean, be happy with what you are. You know, you're an information entertainer. There's nothing wrong with that. But don't try to, you know. know, pretend that you're some kind of opinion leader here.

Can I read the sentence again? Give you a chance to perhaps retract. This opportunity allows me to create content, which combines my passion for storytelling and broadcast sports journalism. It's a passion of hers. She's not claiming to be a journalist. She said broadcast sports journalism. Her passion, it combined.

her passion. She's got a passion for storytelling and broadcast sports journalism. So in that way, if she has a passion for it, it gives her a chance to do that. That means what she will be doing is journalism, right? Yes, she's going to try to combine her two passions here. She's got a passion for sports journalism. She's not claiming to have been some long-time sports journalist. She just has a passion for. She might be one of your biggest fans. That might be why she's got a passion for sports journalism. Look, look, I think it's a great idea by the team.

I do too, actually. And it's a good thing that they hire a freshman in college because she still probably lived in a dorm, so she doesn't have to worry about renting apartment space around the DMV, you know, and get a short-term lease, like most of the people who work for this organization usually do. But, I mean, let's not. I mean, she's going to be.

me, she's going to join the media cheerleader. We're burying the lead here. Okay. You said it to a certain degree that you think it's a good idea. Yeah, it's a good idea because their target customer now, because they're in the customer acquisition business. They need fans. They need paying fans.

They have very few of those left. And the older crowd has checked out. and probably ain't coming back unless Dan is gone, they build a stadium in D.C., and they give them the Redskins name back. So they're targeting a young generation of fans who have never really rooted for this team, but they like sports, they like football, they live in the area, and they acquired 10.5 million social media followers, which the team doesn't have anywhere near that number.

And they're all young and all influenced by Katie Feeney, the influencer. And she's a fan of the team, and they're going to have a huge fan with a huge fan base. Her fan base is bigger than the team's fan base. I know. I know, Kevin. You're right about all that. It's the lead. Okay.

But here's the thing. And I know that they're targeting this group of people, you know, this age group of people because they don't have many choices. And they're not the only ones. All sports teams are trying to figure out how to target younger people into their sports. But here's the thing with the NFL, and particularly with this team. That group does not buy season tickets. Okay? They don't buy season tickets.

They decide on Friday or Saturday if they're going to a game on Sunday. You know what? Okay. So it's a shaky foundation to build your organization on. And they go for the event as much as the football. I agree with you. There's nothing about ghost town field that is an event. Yeah, but the next stadium might be.

Yes, it might. that's seven years or, you know, five years away. I understand what you're saying. And trust me, I see it with my boys. I mean, they go to the events. And then, you know, even my youngest son, who's at Penn State, he went to a couple of games this year. But they didn't even go into the stadium.

It was more about the tailgate. And like I've told you before, I know the way Jason Wright is thinking. And that is I have to build a business that's losing resilient. You know, that's his mantra, basically. And part of that is getting people to pay for product, including game day product, and game day, you know, stadium games and anything else that they would provide. And whether that's through a season ticket package or a last minute impulse purchase,

I don't know if it matters. They need all the purchases and all the fans they can get right now. I agree. I wonder what they're paying her to do this. I think it's a good move. Adam Schaefter got basically a dollar for every Twitter follower. She's got 10.5 million social media followers. She's got more than Schaefter has.

I wonder what they're paying her to do this. I bet it's a lot and a lot more than many of you think. Should be. I'm really interested as to what the compensation for this is. Oh, you got to get her on your, show. You know what? Damn it, that's a great idea. Now, it'd be pretty pretty unprofessional and crass to ask her what she gets paid. But still, we have, we have some young listeners who might be interested in hearing from

Katie. All right, let's get to your two announcements. Okay, I'm going to do the positive one first. Okay. One I promoted on Twitter yesterday, and everyone was trying to guess what it was. It's nothing earth-shattering. I didn't allude to it to being earth-shattering, but it is to announce the return of the cigars and curveballs fundraiser that I've done for six years previously for the D.C. grades. The D.C. Grays are the nonprofit baseball organization that I'm involved in that fields a team in the Calvents. Ripkin Collegiate Baseball League and also runs the baseball RBI program for 300 young boys and

girls in the district. And it's a total nonprofit fundraising operation. And from 2014 through 2019, every year at Shelley's backroom at 1331 F Street Northwest, I've held the Cigars and Curb Balls fundraiser where people pay a donation, a buy a ticket, and they get three cigars, you get appetizers, and we always do an auction of sports memorabilia and tickets. And it's grown into a pretty cool event. That's a great event. Yeah, Kevin's been there a number of times. The Kevin Sheen podcast is one of the sponsors of the event this year.

And as a result of that, one of the things we're going to be putting up for auction is two listeners of the Kevin Sheen Show podcast can come into Kevin's plush the Bedship studio It's not very big And watch And I'll come in and do the podcast live And they can watch Kevin and I Do the podcast in person

God, I'm going to have to clean this place up But yeah, we're going to do that We're going to auction off Yep Yes So tickets are $100 donation This is a great event. Last time, we had a really great time in 2019.

We had some unexpected celebrities show up for it. Yes, we did. The last time, yes, we did, which was a lot of fun. You go to D.C.grays.com to buy tickets. You can buy tickets right on the website, or you can buy them at the door with cash or check as well. There's a cash bar that's available, too. One of the items, let me just mention one of the items we have for auction is a D.C. Gray's jersey that's been autographed by members of the 2019 Nationals World Series champion.

That's awesome. They have, by the way, they have great-looking uniforms, great-looking apparel. I still, oh my God, Tommy, so help me God. I am wearing a D.C. Gray's T-shirt underneath. my three-quarters zip this morning. I swear to God, I'm going to take a picture of it right now and send it to you so you know I'm not lying. I swear to God, I just realized that. I love their stuff.

We owe you some new swag for, we owe you some new swag for 2022. Hold on, I'm going to take, I've got to flip this thing around so I can take it. I got to take off the top here, but I'm going to take a picture and send it to you. All right, keep going. So $100 cash donation. It's a fun night. I mean, hell, last time Mike Rizzo showed up, Davy Martinez showed up. That was right before they won the World Series.

And in fact, I'll never forget. There was some discussion about whether or not Davy was in trouble. Because remember, they were 19 and 31 that year. Yes. Yes, they were. It starts at 6 o'clock. Technically it ends at 8 o'clock, but people usually hang around for longer. had Doc Walker, the great Doc Walker, has attended this thing in the past.

So it's a really fun event, and I urge everybody, plus it's a good cause. Great cause. You know, to celebrate opening up baseball opportunities for minority youth in the district. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking in to the major leagues. What better way to celebrate that than buying a ticket to the DC Grace fundraiser to help minority opportunities for youth in baseball in the district? Look at what I just texted you. Okay. Do you have your phone right?

Yeah. There it is. Yeah. Yeah, I got it. I didn't want you to think I was making it up. It's a great shirt. All of their apparel was great. They had great hats, great baseball hats. And I love the logo, just the DC logo, is very.

really cool. All right. So can't wait for that night. The date again? The date again is Monday, May 9th at Shelley's back room in the district. Awesome. All right. What's your next announcement? Can't wait for that. We'll remind people as we head towards May 9th. What's your next announcement?

Oh, it's real simple. Fuck Southwest. Screw him. They didn't give you anything back? Screw. Southwest. I wrote a detailed memo explaining everything that happened to us and the thousands and thousands of dollars we lost because basically their system crashed. Okay.

And what did they send back? $150 certificate to use for a future airline, air travel trip. That would be like me saying, yes, sir. over, may I have another? Well, you know? You had to ask, you had to ask for it. They weren't volunteering it, you know? They weren't volunteering refunds.

No, you know, and here's the thing. That's funny. Here's the thing. I've seen these weasels, you know, give people $1,000 and a free round-trip air ticket when they're trying to deal with over-booking at a gate, okay? So they can do this. They have the option to do this. And this is just an insult.

Look, the airline industry is a mess right now. Southwest, I hope they're going right down the toilet. Right down the toilet. The jet blue and the spirit, you know, you had the experience with the spirit. With spring break, it's just apparently been a three-week total cluster, you know what? And you were right in the middle of it. And I'm hoping somebody steps up like Southwest did years ago. comes up with a new air carrier system that's customer-friendly, not customer-hating like Southwest is.

Those weasles, they are on the list, Kevin. Well, you don't want to get on Tom's list. It's really hard to get off of it. Unless, of course, you flatter him with gifts. And then all of a sudden it's amazing how quickly you're off that list. And $150 to use for future flight, that's. That's not going to cut it. Well, I'm glad you that went after it because when we had this conversation and you can go back and listen to the podcast titled nine hour long bus ride, I think was the title. You weren't even going to go after anything.

And I told you you have to. Think of all the people that have any, that just, you know, don't have the time or don't even know that if you ask, you'll get something. Send another letter. I'm going to. I'm not done. Yeah. I'm not done. I certainly think that you should have gotten all of that travel and hotel stuff covered, minimum. Yeah.

Along with a voucher for another flight. Yes. Okay. You feel better? That's it. Okay. My place is clean. May 9th for cigars and curveballs, and it's a fun event at a really good venue. easy to get to, easy to park around that area, and it's always a fun night.

All right, we're done for the day. I will be back tomorrow. Tommy, see you. All right, boss.