The Kevin Sheehan Show - Winning Time
Episode Date: April 19, 2022Kevin and Thom on "Winning Time", the Commanders' letter to the FTC, why Kyle Hamilton makes sense, the NBA, and the USFL! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted b...y Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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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.
Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify.
Five stars on Apple with a quick one to two sentence review is very helpful.
Tommy is with me today.
I had Neil and Rockville on the show yesterday after the reports of the Washington response to the FTC.
and I had Howard Gutman, excuse me, on the radio show this morning.
So we will talk about that.
I'm sure you've got some thoughts on it.
I've got more thoughts on it as well.
But you just told me before we started
that you are up to date on winning time.
So what do you think, seven episodes in?
Really a drag.
Very boring.
I mean, really cartoonish.
The only thing that interested me
was the story about Spencer Haywood circumcise.
himself.
Yeah.
Which is true, apparently.
Really?
It's a true.
That's true?
That is true, and I looked it up, and I'll tell you the story.
This is a quote from him.
We lived in a small town in Silver City, Mississippi.
It ain't no silver, and it ain't no city.
It's a population of 370, and they had no doctors.
There was no anything.
So my mother was doing it in a biblical standpoint that you've got to be circumcised.
Haywood said he had help from his brothers during the procedure.
Oh, my God.
And had a perfectly logical explanation for taking care of business himself.
We did it to hogs, so why not do it to humans?
It's country, it's country folk.
He admitted later he went to a doctor to get it cleaned up.
Oh, my God.
I don't even think we should run this on the podcast.
That's painful.
Just to think about it.
I mean, you know, when he first got into the locker room after arriving, you know, two episodes ago or whatever in this show, the guys were talking about it.
But I just thought that was part of sort of the caricatures of everybody.
I had no idea that was real.
It's real, baby.
There was something with Spencer Haywood and being one of the first players to be able to come out of college hardship.
I know Phil Schneer was part of that too.
I remember Spencer Haywood was the first.
He was the first?
He was the first one to do it, yeah.
And he came at it, I think, University of Detroit.
I think he played for Dickie v.
Maybe not.
I'm not sure.
But I think he came out of University of Detroit.
I'll have to check on the Dickie V thing.
On the Dick Fri Telfth.
He was the, he's the pioneer of that.
He was the first one to do that.
Is he the Kurt Flood of the NBA?
If you think that high school players coming out to play in the NBA is the equivalent, yeah.
You know?
He played in the ABA.
Well, he played in college.
He wasn't a high school player that came to the NBA.
He came out early from college.
Yeah, right, he did.
Yeah.
He played, you know, he played for the bullets on the teams that had Jeff Rulin and Rick Mahorn.
And then Gus Williams was on that team and Dan Roundfield when they played the Celtics a couple of times in those early years.
In 82, they played a miniseries.
Remember they had the best of three miniseries for the teams that didn't have a first round by?
and they beat the Nets, the New Jersey Nets, and then played a series against the Celtics.
Now, this is, you know, post-Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld. Unseld had retired.
Hayes was probably in Houston finishing up his career.
But the 80, and Rulin and Mahorn had kind of taken over the team.
But they had a series against Larry Bird Celtics when the Celtics were the defending champions.
that only went five games, Tommy,
but like four of the five games were overtime games.
And Spencer Haywood was on that Bullets team.
It was at the end of his career.
He was an older dude.
And he was still pretty good.
But, you know, I can remember him from that.
I don't remember him from this Lakers team,
which I certainly remember when we got to the playoffs
and what happened, not to be a spoiler for anybody
that's watching winning time.
But I don't remember him as a big part of that championship team.
I guess I'm about to find out whether or not he was.
So other than Spencer Haywood circumcising himself,
which apparently is true and really kind of gross to think about,
you don't like the show?
No.
Yeah.
I think it's ridiculous.
Okay.
I mean, they're all cartoonish, cartoonish characters.
You know, there is no way that Paul Westhead is that pathetic.
Yeah.
That's not possible.
He really comes off as spineless.
I mean, not just spineless, but clueless.
I mean, everything, everything you could think of just put a west there,
and that's the way he comes across.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
Yeah.
I'm really enjoying it, although I will say that I think the last two episodes have been kind of slow.
You know, I think the Kareem Magic episode and episode six was a little bit slow.
I think this episode's been a little bit slow, although, you know, the winning in Boston,
I don't even know if that's true if that game in Boston was the one that kept Westhead and then Riley, you know, on the bench for,
Jack McKinney. I have no idea
of Elgin Baylor. Here's what
I don't know about this show. I'm
enjoying it. I think it's entertaining.
I think it's really well done.
But
what I don't know is I don't
know how much. Clearly I have this
sense that Jerry West's character
is outrageously
exaggerated. I don't know how much of
Jerry Buss's character,
and I think John C. Riley is phenomenal
playing Jerry Buss.
in this. And I don't know how much of how he was on the verge of losing the team and how he got
the great Western bank to sort of, you know, essentially fun the rest of the season. I know what's
coming the rest of the season. You know, I know they win and they get to the playoffs and they win
the title. And I'm sure that's what eventually was the springboard to Showtime. But, you know, Jerry
West's character seems outrageous. And a lot of this stuff is.
outrageous, but I think it's outrageous and entertaining, too.
But what I don't know is how much of it is really based on real fact.
Yeah, I'm tempted to read the book by Jeff Perlman.
Yeah.
But I'm thinking the book is much more, is accurate.
Jeff Perlman's a quality writer, so I'm thinking the book is accurate.
And, you know, Jerry West, apparently he's had depression issues, his most much,
of his life. Right. I think I knew that. Yeah.
And, you know, I mean, depression manifests itself in many ways, including anger.
So maybe he was this raging guy, but maybe not to that effect, but he had something going on, you know,
and they've kind of like ridiculed them, made him look like an idiot.
They have made Jerry West look like, you know, someone who's got a major anger management
problem. They have made Chick Hearn look like a complete and utter ahole of the highest order. I don't know if that's true.
We already talked about Jack Kent Cook in the first two episodes and how bad they made Jack Kent Cook.
Jason Segal, by the way, plays Paul Westhead. Paul Westhead, you know, had a very long coaching career and a very successful coaching career.
You know, he coached Bo Kimball and Company on those Merrimount teams, you know, of the late 80s and early 90s that were the highest scoring teams in America.
And by the way, made it to the tournament a bunch and lost.
I remember the year that UNLV won the tournament.
I'd like to go back and see if I'm even close to the score.
But I think they played Loyola Marymount in an elite eight game.
UNLV did the year they won it in 1990.
And I think the final score was like one third.
31 to 118 or something like that.
Like a college game, a 40-minute game, was that high scoring.
I'm going to look it up here in a moment.
But, you know, he went on to coach at Mason for several years,
so he was in the area for a few years.
And then coached at Oregon before Dana Altman got there,
you know, probably 10 years ago or something like that.
But he was always considered a really good coach.
and an interesting coach.
You know, he had all these philosophies, these offensive philosophies.
He was never, you know, his teams were never very good defensively for sure.
But he came from the Jack McKinney tree.
I mean, that's who he, you know, coached for, and that was his mentor.
And then McKinney had the bike accident.
He took over.
He is an NBA champion head coach, as we both know.
You know, that's coming here soon.
And then he stayed on until, you know, what's coming down the road in this show,
and again, if this is spoiler alert territory, then you're not much of an NBA fan or a Magic Johnson or a Lakers of the 80s fan.
But, you know, what's coming is that eventually Magic wanted Pat Riley to be the head coach.
And so they ran Westhead after, you know, a year or two maybe, Tommy, something like that.
something like that
listen
Dick Vital
was not Spencer Haywood's coach
they both were at Detroit
but Vital came much later
after Spencer Haywood
briefly played there
at University of Detroit
and here's the other thing
I'm familiar with Spencer
Haywood
because
when I was a Knicks fan
we used to call him Spencer Deadwood
why
I mean
because he was terrible
with the Knicks
and Bob McAdoo
got traded to the Knicks and Bob McAdoo and Spencer Haywood were on the Knicks at the same time and they were terrible.
They were horrible.
That's funny.
It was unbelievable.
Yeah.
I mean, have that kind of talent.
And, you know, I mean, Spencer Haywood had a cocaine problem.
Yeah.
Right.
Of course.
Yes.
You know, he's been clean for, I take a number for about 30 years now.
But back then he had a cocaine problem.
And I'm thinking, you know, we're going to win an NBA title with Bob McAdo and Spencer Haywood.
That was a disaster.
So I just looked up the 1990 NCAA tournament.
I didn't get it exactly right, but I'm pretty impressed that I got UNLV score right.
The final score in the Elite 8, UNLV 131, Loyola-Marremount, 101.
I mean, I personally think that the 1990 and 1991 UNLV teams are the greatest college basketball teams of my lifetime.
I don't think there's ever been a combination of just great defensive teams and incredible, just overwhelming, suffocating defensive teams with teams that could score any number on you.
And those Tarkanian teams, and by the way, I didn't realize that Tarkanian was that close to coaching the Lakers.
I don't know if that's really 100% true.
But I think that is true, actually, because we talked about that was an assassination of, you know, his good friend by the mob in Vegas that didn't want Tarkhanian to take the Lakers job because they loved Tarkhanian.
But anyway.
Well, again, I think that the reason that Tark's friend was killed was because he owed people money.
I don't think the mob would kill a guy just because they didn't want his buddy to go coach the lake.
Maybe not.
That's based on my experience.
Maybe not.
That UNLV team, though, coached by Tark in 1990 with Larry Johnson and Stacey Ogman and Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt, that those,
team was so good and they destroyed Duke in the final four. They beat Georgia Tech in a game in which
they were down at halftime. That was the lethal weapon three team of Georgia Tech with Dennis
Scott and Brian Oliver and company. And the other one. Jesus Christ, lethal weapon three.
Dennis Scott was the three-point shooter. Kenny Anderson, duh, one of the greatest point guards,
most talented point guards in ACC history, college basketball history, in my opinion.
But Anderson, Oliver, and Dennis Scott actually had the lead against UNLV.
I remember Tommy exactly where I was watching that game.
I was in Portland, Oregon.
I've told you before that there was a period in my life, and it was like early 90s,
where I spent a shitload of time in Seattle and Portland.
And for that particular final four, I was watching it at a bar in downtown Portland, Oregon, both final four games, rooting for the ACC teams, because that's what I did.
I rooted for the ACC teams.
And Georgia Tech and Duke were both in that final four.
And Georgia Tech had a chance and then got run out of the building in the second half.
And the final against Duke, and I watched that game from a bar in downtown four.
Portland because I had been there for like a week and a half.
They got beat by 30 by that UNLV team, 103 to 73.
And then the next year was the year that I think the 91 team was even better than the 90
team.
And that, you know, that team went undefeated during the regular season and was threatening
to be, you know, become the first undefeated team since the Bobby Knight team in 76,
the Indiana team.
And they lost to Duke in the final four in a great.
great college basketball game when they were, you know, 30 and O or whatever they were at that
point, 31 and O.
But those two teams, those two UNLV teams, best college teams of my lifetime.
Best college teams of my lifetime.
And they beat Loyola-Marie.
Absolutely.
And they beat Marymount in 1990.
Coach by Paul Weston.
I can believe that.
So you spent a lot of time in Portland.
I did.
I spent a lot of time in San Francisco.
Portland, Seattle, and L.A. in the 90s. A lot of time on the West Coast. I mean, I loved the Bay Area.
I did not love Portland. Although it was beautiful, physically beautiful. You know, literally,
you know, it could be a beautiful sunny day. There were a lot of rainy days in the Pacific Northwest.
But Mount Hood was 45 minutes away and snow capped pretty much year round. And then you weren't that
far from the ocean.
You know,
it's a while.
Right, like about an hour away.
Yeah, exactly.
But,
I was in Portland for a
reporter's convention one year.
I think it was 86.
The investigative reporters and editors.
And the one thing I remember about Portland was I stole
a giant poster of the local dog track out of a bar.
Of the wall of a bar.
Of course you did.
Going out the door,
I just grabbed it and took off.
And I kept that poster for decades.
You kept it for decades?
And what was the poster of again?
A dog track?
It was a dog track.
It was a dog track.
Muthanoma?
I can never pronounce this, right?
Multnomah County, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Greyhound Park.
I'll send you a copy of the poster.
I still have a photo of it.
Well, do that.
you know, Portland was fine for somebody, you know, in his, in his, you know, 20s.
I would not want to live out there now, clearly.
Seattle was also beautiful.
I think I told you this before.
We almost moved to Seattle in 95 when we almost merged with a company that was based out there,
and we would have had to move out there for, you know,
I'm very glad it didn't work out.
but yeah, yeah, I mean, Seattle is both, the Pacific Northwest is just physically beautiful.
If you told me I had to live in another city and raise a family, I would have done it in the Bay Area.
I would have done it in New York.
I probably would have done it in Chicago.
Those would have been the other areas.
But, you know, spending time for like 15 years minimum in a lot of these other places, you realize, you realize.
D.C. is a really good town.
It's a really good city.
It's a great city to raise kids in.
I think it is anyway.
But what do I know?
All right.
You want to get to, what else do we have
before we get to the whole Washington
commander's response to the FTC?
Well, I want you to know that I got my second booster shot,
my second vaccine last night.
So I am so protected.
So.
Doing very good about that.
So let me ask you something that I don't have the answer to.
Is that an official CDC recommendation to get a second booster shot?
I don't know if it's official.
I've read if you're 16 older.
That's right.
If you're 60 and older.
Okay.
I think I've,
I think I read that too.
Yeah.
So you got your second booster?
Any reaction to it?
No.
I've still never had any reaction to any kind of vaccine I've ever got.
I've been very lucky.
And you still haven't gotten COVID.
No.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Especially since we spent, what, two days in a theme park in Florida, you know,
surrounded by thousands of people dressed in Harry Potter costumes.
And I didn't get COVID.
Yeah, that's pretty amazing.
All right.
Not to mention.
nearly having to sleep in an airport with a bunch of angry people.
So, all right, let's get to the Washington stuff right after these words from a few of our sponsors.
So yesterday on the podcast, the news had just broken that the Washington commanders had sent the letter to the FTC.
We didn't have a copy of the letter at that point.
So we were kind of reading summaries of the letter from, you know, the post and the,
athletic and other places. Now we have the letter written by the team's attorney, Jordan
Seave, with all of the attachments, et cetera. And, you know, it's certainly a rebuttal and a pretty
effective one. So Howard Gutman this morning, and I would urge you to go listen to Howard. Howard's
really smart, long time, you know, prominent D.C. attorney. As many of you know, you've listened to
him on the podcast and most of you love them.
The Obama ambassador to Belgium and very active, you know, especially in democratic politics
over the last many years.
But he said to me this morning and I'll just net it out and then I want to hear your reaction
and then I will sort of update my reaction from where it was yesterday after reading much
of this letter.
But he essentially said that the concern that I had raised with him a couple of weeks ago when all of this started to come out that, you know, you don't want to swing and miss too many times because you could actually start to create some sympathy for Dan Snyder, which I don't really think is possible.
But the point being is you don't want them, you don't want people swinging and missing on a consistent basis on this stuff because you will get people that will say, well,
enough of this now. They're just trying to get them and they're trying to get them with stuff that
isn't necessarily true. And Howard really believes that this response addressed a lot of the
Jason Friedman allegations. And clearly it minimized Jason Friedman as somebody that was capable
of making these declarations. And what he really, you know, said as well is the fact that
the, you know, the House Oversight and Reform Committee with, you know, Democratic majority would send this to the FTC and have it be so public without even asking the team for a response was pretty obvious that it was kind of political.
Now, there could be responses to this and Lisa Banks and Deborah Katz and the FTC and everybody will have at it.
But his net was this was a pretty effective response from the team.
And he thinks that ultimately this just comes down to Mary Jo White's investigation of this
in which she tells Roger Goodell.
Well, what I don't get is why would anyone assign any credibility to the team's response based on what?
Well, three affidavits, for starters, signed sworn affidavits.
by Dave Donovan, the General Counsel,
Paul Sosensky, the Director of Finance,
Mitch Gershman, as we both know, the longtime C-O-O-O.
Okay, that guy?
Yeah.
That guy? That guy?
Yeah.
An affidavit from that guy?
Yeah, I understand.
I know what you're saying.
Okay.
In other words, I don't get why people are so willing
to assign credibility to this organization
that their belief is capable of anything.
Don't you just want to...
Until this comes out in a hearing, until this comes out, and I mean, we could be talking about basically, you know, semantics in terms of whether money was stolen or whether money was not stolen.
I mean, that could be subject to interpretation.
I just don't get why people are so willing to jump out and say, well, you know, look at this response is what the team has to say.
There must be nothing here.
I think you're wrong about that.
I think most people are hoping that the response wouldn't be adequate.
I think most people are hoping that this all leads to the ouster.
I know that.
Yeah.
I know that's what they're hoping for.
But I don't get why you and your buddy are quick to say, well, look at this team's response.
They pretty much shot down Jason Freeman based on why.
Well, don't assign that.
Based on affidavits from people who work for Dan Snyder.
Don't assign that.
Who are beholden?
Don't assign that to me.
Don't assign that to me quite yet, okay?
I'll give you my follow-up after reading through much of the stuff afterwards
because I think there are some holes in the team's response,
and I expressed those during the podcast at the end of the show yesterday.
But, yeah, look, I mean, you're not an attorney.
I'm not an attorney.
This was an attorney's view who, by the way, wants Danny out just as much as we do.
Yes, I get that. I understand that. But, I mean, I just don't know why. The names you mentioned have zero credibility as far as you and I are concerned in terms of what they would say about this team.
Well, I don't know Paul Sisenk. I don't know Paul Sisenk.
Okay. I don't know him either.
And I don't know him. I know Dave. And Dave was actually one of the people that wasn't necessarily a first-rate asshole in the organization.
But, yeah, certainly Mitch was one of Dan's henchmen, for sure.
Right.
So I just don't, I just think this is now that we expected a response from the team.
I mean, it took them a long time to do it, but it was a pretty lengthy response and very detailed response done by lawyers.
So I understand why it took a while from that response.
So now I think we just have to let this thing unfold and see what happens.
It could collapse.
And, you know, it could collapse.
It could not collapse, and it may be partly true, but it's open to interpretation.
Or if it could be totally true, and there are, you know, there are other agencies in states like Maryland and other places who may decide to go after Snyder if they think this is a valid and truthful accusation.
Look, I love you dearly.
A week ago when all this stuff came out, you declared it a gots to go situation.
And I said, I'm not so sure yet.
And so now you want to be patient on all this.
And by the way, I think that's the right answer to all of it.
You're putting words in my mouth.
I said if it was true, it's a got to go situation.
You pretty much said this is a got to go situation.
No, no.
Yes.
If it's true.
You assumed it to be true.
I mean...
Well, I believe this team is capable of anything.
That's criminal.
Okay.
So I think there are a couple of things...
And I don't know why you would have any reason to believe otherwise.
Well, what I'm interested in actually is, number one,
I would love all of the Friedman allegations to not only be true,
but for them to rise to the level, which was more of my...
question when these allegations came out a week, week and a half ago, whatever it is at this
point, rise to the level of being unique so that something could be done.
My biggest pushback when we first read these is a refund policy, man, a lot of businesses
would be in trouble if people weren't getting their security deposits back.
I hope it's a unique thing, skimming off the top.
I hope they're the only one that's doing it and that this could lead to something potentially.
skeptical as to whether or not that, you know, assuming that what they was reported was true,
whether or not these would lead to his ouster. I felt like we were getting closer, but still,
I was skeptical, especially in the security deposit. But, you know, at the end of the day,
as much as I want this to lead to his ouster, the truth matters. You know, just because he's
been a terrible owner, a terrible manager, was the overseer as the owner of this team.
of what's already been, you know,
what they've already been fined for,
$10 million, which was a toxic workplace culture.
Like, all of that stuff is all true.
We know it to be true.
These recent financial impropriety allegations,
I'd like to know what the truth is.
I would think anybody would.
Even if it actually, you know, results in, you know,
no wrongdoing by him or the team.
The problem with that result is,
result from my standpoint is I do think we're living in this, you know,
a court of public opinion thing to a certain degree.
And I don't want them to have PR wins.
You know, the Tiffany Johnston allegations worry me because I think ultimately Mary
Joe White might come back and say there's just nothing that we can prove.
And that'll be another PR win from them.
And if they start stacking them up.
That's not a PR one.
Look, he said, she said it's not a PR win for the team.
Oh, you don't think that they'll, they'll, they'll, they'll, they'll,
bitch it as a...
No. Okay. I think you're nuts.
He said, she said, it's not a PR win for the team.
Absolutely not. Just the opposite.
This is the Me Too era.
And he said she said, which should carry a lot more credibility than it does.
It's not a PR win for the team.
Not at all.
I think when you start stacking, if you start, I'm not saying when you do,
if they start stacking some of these things together,
then they all start to make it, then it all starts to look like.
like this pattern of going after.
Why?
Why doesn't it make sense?
Because you think that all this is going to get Dan Snyder to sell the team.
He's going to be tired of it.
So it must amount to something.
Yes.
True.
Some kind of weariness.
True.
Some kind of damage.
But the weariness that I want caused is by accurate allegations.
I want the weariness to be caused by accurate and true.
truthful allegations.
Why? Because that would make them more weary.
If they're not true, it'll emboldened him more.
I don't look. I don't think we'll ever know if they're true or not true. Maybe we will.
I don't. If it's a he said, she said situation with Tiffany Johnson, I think that's damaging for Dan.
But, I mean, at this point, we don't know what's true.
And you already think that the pressure is so difficult for them to deal with that they might sell
team. Yeah, I do. I do. That's
a hunch, but then now
every week things change. We get
more information. Let's also not forget
that the Tiffany Johnston
one allegation was corroborated
by one Jason Friedman.
So if this thing doesn't go
well for him, that's another reason
why that may kind of fall
apart in the eyes of people,
even if it just ends with
he said, she said.
Let's remember, we've got
But we have all the best Wilkinson stuff that was held back by the league that still may come out at some point, you know, when the committee decides to hold hearings or issue reports.
So the best Wilkinson stuff is still out there on the table.
And the emails, the emails between Bruce Allen and John Gruden, if that winds up in court, and it may not, you know, John Gruden suing in the NFL, you know, he may not.
You wind up with a hearing on that.
But if he does, those emails could potentially be damaging as well.
So there is a tight-away with tsunami.
And you're talking about, you know, you're talking about turning the faucet off a sink.
There's no stop in this.
No, no, no, no.
First of all, now you're putting words into my mouth.
First of all, a week ago, this was guts-to-go situation.
You were absolutely buying it, hook, line, and sinker, gots to go.
And this was going to be the one.
I mean, I don't know why you keep saying that.
Because you said it.
This is true.
Because you assumed it was true.
You assumed it was true.
I said, well, because I said, I assume anything from this team.
Yeah.
I've said, I've said that all along.
Okay.
They're capable of anything.
Listen.
So I would, I mean, think about how the car was.
Hold on for a second.
Hold on for a second.
The people that wanted to get Dan Snyder, the people who wanted to get Dan Snyder.
that the people wanted to get Dan Snyder, his partners, you know, floated this rumor that he was involved with, what's his name, Jeffrey, what's his name? Epstein.
Epstein. I mean, they did that. Yes, they did that because they believe that people are capable, would believe anything.
I understand that. Okay. You were pretty, you were pretty sure that this was going to be a got-to-go situation. Let's just leave it at that.
fine, if proven.
No, I'm going to leave it at that.
No, I'm going to leave it at that.
It's because you're saying, you know what, I'm going to go back and listen to how,
Adam and how much you were buying into it being true.
Here's the irony, this, if you want to keep this going.
I actually thought those allegations were true too.
So I know you thought they were true and they might be true.
And they might be true.
But what, what I, what, where I was skeptical,
was whether or not it would be a gots to go situation because I wasn't sure that those allegations,
which I thought were probably true, would rise to the level of being unique.
But let me just mention this.
You know, you talked about the title wave that's coming.
What really is out there more than anything else is why Beth Wilkinson's conclusion was,
if you believe the reporting, which, you know, started with, by the way, Jason Bishop,
from 1067 the fan and the junkies,
that her recommendation was he be forced to sell the team.
Why did Beth Wilkinson recommend that?
That's what we have to get to the bottom of,
because that's probably something that is real,
or more real than this is right now,
because they eviscerated Jason Friedman in this letter to the FTC.
And they eviscerated him in ways in which, by the way,
they've got emails to back some of this stuff up,
with Jason Friedman admitting that his conduct wasn't great
when he asked to Jason Wright in January of this year
that he'd like to come back and work for the team again.
I'll just say what prosecutors say about criminal trials.
Usually witnesses for the prosecution are not choir voice.
Okay?
Yeah. Well, clearly, you know, if clearly he was not. And I mean, let me, let me just, because for those that haven't heard this and haven't read this, I'm just going to, I'm just going to emphasize some of the highlights of this letter as it relates to Jason Friedman. And then I'm going to work back to something that I talked about yesterday that I'm still not clear on. And, you know, in terms of whether or not there was a little bit of slight a hand in this team response.
to the FTC.
As it relates to Jason Friedman,
all right, they start off.
There are sections at the end of the letter.
Jason Friedman has demonstrated himself to be wholly unreliable and motivated to damage
the team and its personnel, yet the committee credits his assertions without any effort
to test or corroborate them.
That was in the opening paragraph that the team can't believe that the House Oversight
and Reform Committee sent this to the FTC without ever, you know, reaching out to the team
for any kind of response, which they claim they could have done this with the House Oversight and Reform Committee
before they ever sent it to the FTC. They said Friedman provided false testimony to the committee on a host of
tangential issues. Just bear with me, by the way, before you respond, because this is leading to something.
I'm not saying anything. Friedman verbally abused his staff and had a hidden sexual relationship with his
subordinate. I'm going to read from this one. Friedman was fired for professional misconduct in October 2020 by
Jason Wright the team's president.
He was fired for engaging in violation of the team's conduct and fraternization policy.
Friedman repeatedly berated his staff, including minority women.
His staff stated he was dismissive and heavy-handed and abrasive, yells and curses,
threatened to terminate an employee for taking PTO, paid time off, and created a culture of fear.
By his own admission, he had a reputation for saying really, really crude things in the workplace.
For example, Friedman referred to someone in a work email as a fucking Korean nut job.
He wrote emails to team employees about engaging in sex acts with sluts.
These are all emails that the team attached to the letter.
He admitted to using the FUCK word about 500 times a day.
This use included his allegedly common refrain to make love to the customer
not F the customer.
And by Make Love, he apparently meant,
according to one employee's reported allegation,
to engage in certain graphic sex acts to make a sale.
During his employment with the team,
Friedman engaged in a secret sexual relationship with Jane Doe,
all right, they don't name her,
who was 15 years as junior and who directly reported to him.
He exchanged sexually explicit emails and photographs with Jane Doe,
who later became a part-time employee at the team,
still reporting to him,
on their team email accounts and sometimes forwarded those photos to himself, also on his team email account.
Specifically, Friedman was photographed in a sexually provocative position with Jane Doe while wearing team credentials in a restroom in a suite at FedEx Field.
Also, Jane Doe sent Friedman a sexually suggestive photograph of herself, which Friedman sent himself from his team email account.
Friedman took steps to conceal his impermissible sexual relationship, including discussing purchasing privacy screens for the
phones to hide their text messages from other employees. He even lied to his own mother in an email
sent from his team account that Doe, Jane Doe, with whom he was having a sexual relationship,
works at the stadium, but not in my department. Evidence of this inappropriate relationship was
provided to the committee, but not referenced in the letter. Friedman can thus hardly be heard
to be the voice of truth upon which a commission investigation is to be based. Then the next section,
Friedman's testimony to the committee cannot be reconciled with his lengthy,
campaign to get his job back and effusive praise for Dan Snyder, at least not as anything but
the retaliatory efforts of a jilted employee that was dismissed for professional misconduct.
Shortly after the team terminated Friedman, Friedman sent an effusive letter to Dan Snyder
stating, among other things, I know our direct interactions were limited.
I will never forget your kindness.
This garbage in the newspaper is bothers.
The article was a hit job, and regarding my loyalty to you, my termination changes nothing.
I am eternally loyal to you.
Consistent with these statements of complete support for Dan Snyder and the team,
Friedman spent well over a year after his termination, sending unsolicited texts and emails to team leaders and Snyder family employees,
including team president Jason Wright, human resources manager Hillary Fox, the CFO of the Snyder family office,
and an assistant to Tanya Snyder expressly asking to be rehired.
He contacted the team nearly 20 times between October 2020 and January 2020,
receiving exactly one response,
a polite but clear denial of his request for his old job back by Jason Wright.
The tone of the requests is impossible to reconcile with Friedman's current criticisms of the team and its leadership.
messages included, quote, not being on the team has pretty much reduced me to nothing.
I do anything to be back on the team.
I give my left arm to be back on the team and I'm left handed.
I sure miss the team.
I miss the fans.
I miss teammates.
I had a year to reflect on my past shortcomings.
I've learned and I am remorseful of these shortcomings.
If you welcomed me, I'd be back there to help at a moment's notice.
I can do more than just tickets, yada, yada.
just keeps going on and on and on.
So one of the purposes of this letter, no doubt, was to answer the allegations yes,
to claim in their, you know, sort of non-direct way that this was political with the House
Oversight and Reform Committee not having the courtesy to reach out to get their response
before they sent the letter to the FTC.
and then really to totally smear Jason Friedman as A, not having any access to what he represented in his position that was located, by the way, at FedEx Field, not where the CFO and the financial and accounting departments were back in Ashburn, and then to really assassinate his character as an employee there.
And the reason I bring this up is that the response from many of the women who are represented by Lisa Banks and Katz, who are also representing Jason Friedman, came to his defense.
And they spoke of this besmirching, you know, his name.
They spoke of, you know, defamation.
So I would expect, given that they all believe this was a defamation of character,
some sort of defamation lawsuit that should be coming on his behalf from his attorneys.
Do you agree with me on that or not?
I don't know.
I don't know if I would assume that.
I guess I shouldn't assume it either.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know what goes into a defamation lawsuit.
But they started a week and a half ago,
with him being defamed, you know, by Washington's original response,
which was not naming him by name, but saying that that person committed perjury,
and they said that they had defamed, you know, Jason Friedman, their client.
Okay.
Let's just take a possible scenario.
One possible scenario.
And again, like I said, most prosecutors in criminal cases don't have witnesses who are
choir boys.
they usually have criminals themselves who are witnesses and have done very bad things.
Okay.
When you work for a criminal enterprise, these are the kind of people.
You just refer to it as a criminal enterprise, but go ahead.
Right.
I know I did that.
Yeah.
Okay.
As far as a defamation lawsuit, I have no idea if they would, if they should, when they would.
But I know that if you want to file a civil lawsuit against somebody,
the best way, and there's a possibility that other charges in another case, say a criminal case,
could be filed against this person, you wait and see if that happens.
And you wait to see what kind of evidence comes out in that kind of proceeding.
And then you file your civil situation.
Sure.
I mean, just presuming there's a possibility that if there's hearings on this, that they may be waiting until,
So let's see what comes out in the hearings.
Let's see how these weasel damage themselves when they have to testify under oath before the committee if this happens,
and then possibly will file out defamation suit.
I have no idea if that's going to happen, but that's a possible scenario,
that they may be waiting to see if these guys have to put up or shut up in a congressional hearing
and use that evidence as part of their defamation suit.
The team in its opening paragraph in this letter said essentially in conclusion,
based upon all the information provided herein, no investigation is warranted.
So the next step is to find out whether or not the FTC decides to investigate this or not.
They have a lot of, you know, bigger fish to fry, I would assume, than get involved in this case.
But this is a high-profile case.
Now, let me just, I want to just tell you this because while I think this was a very, you know, and described as a very forceful response, and I think in many ways the most impactful part of their response was sharing all of these emails of the key witness or the whistleblower, if you will.
But with respect to his allegations, you know, when we first read them last week, I believed them to be true.
I believed, well, let me just say the security deposit thing, I believe to be totally true.
And I still have this gut feel that a lot of businesses and certainly a business like theirs with their owner
who tried to extract nickels and dimes out of season ticket holders for parking for training camp would certainly be looking to, you know,
make it difficult for people to retrieve a security deposit put down on tickets.
So the other part, the skimming off the top, you know, I don't think it amounted more likely to that much.
And that was, you know, the initial thought as well.
But to me, that would have been the bigger issue if he was the only one that was legitimately stealing from his partners,
from the other 31 partners.
So there were two other areas, though, that, you know, I talked to Howard about this morning.
And I admit, like, these could be insignificant, but I wanted everybody.
to kind of hear what his reaction was.
Number one is I asked him, you know,
the three sworn affidavits were Dave Donovan General Counsel,
Paul Sosensky, Director of Finance,
and Mitch Gershman, who was the C.O.,
the chief operating officer.
And I just said, isn't it strange
that the highest-ranking financial person in the organization,
the CFO is, there's no sworn affidavit from any CFO during this period of time?
And he's, and he said, yes, that would be,
you know, what we call in law or in legal disputes, you know, a wild card that's sort of out there.
Because it's very possible that Mitch Gershman and Paul Sosensky, even though he was the director of finance and Dave Donovan,
because I don't know how long Sisenkki was there.
It's possible that they don't know, you know, as much as Dan and the CFO know.
So I think that that is a little bit of a hole in their response.
I think that they would have been better off having a CFO.
who was there and in charge of the entire financial operation of the organization as a part of the sworn affidavit and as a part of this overall letter from Jordan Seave.
The other part, Tommy, had to do with the security deposits.
I've said all along on the security deposits again.
I don't know if it's unique, but that's immaterial here.
because in their response to Friedman claiming that they, you know, held back $5 million roughly, right?
It was $5 million in security deposits that they booked his revenue eventually.
Their response was, quote, over the last 10 years, the total amount of security deposits applied to revenue,
all due to defaults is just over $200,000, an immaterial amount in comparison to the teams overall.
income, close quote. Well, look, the $5 million would have been immaterial amount in comparison to the
team's overall income. But here's where, and I talked about it on the podcast yesterday, and I said to
Howard, people weren't putting security deposits down after a period of time. They were putting them
down when the stadium opened and for the first several years of the stadium being opened, and they
were to get it back at the end of their leases. Well, they take you back 10 years. And,
talk about $200,000. That takes you back to 2012. Well, most of the leases would have started
to expire in 2007. So the real information that you need is whether or not they booked to revenue
security deposits the customers didn't get back between like 2007 and 2011. I thought it was a
little bit of, you know, if we say it definitively, over the last 10 years, the total amount
of security deposits applied to revenue is just over 200,000. Well, he's owned the team for 22
and a half years. What about the other 12 years? That's not really addressed in the response.
And one of my beliefs is just a thought is that they did withhold security deposits and they did
make it difficult for people to get their security deposits back. And by the way, I bet it's not a
unique practice. You know, with this franchise or any other franchise in the NFL or sports
franchises, we know it's not easy. And a lot of businesses where you do business with people
to get security deposits back. Some businesses, it's very easy. Others, you got to fight for it.
And in this particular situation, you know, Friedman spoke to the passage of time working in
the team's favor. You know, people,
forgot about it, you know, after a 10-year lease. And, you know, people may have died or, you know,
there were corporate accounts that had somebody else in charge of it. So I do believe that they probably
made it hard to get security deposits back. And I bet that it's more than $200,000 that they
applied to revenue. But over the last 10 years, well, there weren't many security deposits that were
due back at that point because you didn't have to put a security deposit down after
the early to mid-2000s.
So I bet that there are some holes in their letter that the FTC or the House Oversight
and Reform Committee or Lisa Banks and Deborah Katz can maybe punch holes in.
But I will be patient and wait for some of those to see if they happen,
including a defense of their client who was clearly smeared in this.
Well, smear's the wrong verb.
he was clearly diminished as someone without the access
and without the character to be believed.
Oh, that was their goal.
That was their goal.
And the audience that they're trying to reach,
I'm not sure they accomplish that.
When you say the audience they're trying to reach,
the people that just want Snyder gone?
Yeah.
Yeah, but I bet you there's some of those people
that, you know, read through this and said,
like I've said
if you're going to get them
get them with the truth
and I'm not saying
counting you there's five
there's five people like that
no that's you're wrong about that
you and four others you're wrong about that
it's more than that
it's a lot more than that
and and
10 no no no
it's it's in the
thousands
um
that think that way
and if let's let's see
if there's something else coming, where their response gets completely debunked by the other side.
Maybe the FTC will look into this.
There's always something else coming.
Okay.
I mean, how much of a track record do you need to presume that this does not end?
I'm talking about specific to this.
Look, this didn't even exist a couple weeks ago.
But.
Okay?
That they all spin.
off the basic core of corruption.
Well, you've got to prove corruption.
You can't just assume it just because he's been a terrible owner.
Actually, in this case, all you have to do is believe it.
Well, you know, I don't think that's true.
It's not true for me.
Nothing will ever change my mind.
Trust me that he needs to go.
as long as he's the owner, they'll never win, ever, unless they land on Peyton Manning or Aaron Rogers.
Okay, he's a terrible owner.
And by the way, oversaw a terrible workplace culture specifically for women.
That's already been, you know, proven by the Beth Wilkinson investigation.
And by the way, the league said as much, even though a lot of the detail we'd like to see.
and what I'd like to see is why Beth Wilkinson recommended that he be forced out.
I'd like to know what that is, if it's the $1.6 million settlement on the plane or if it's something else.
But the latest scandal du jour are these financial improprieties, which is the latest scandal
where everybody leaned in the direction, media in particular, this is the one that's going to bring him down.
And right now today, as we sit here based on their response,
It doesn't look like it.
Could change tomorrow, or we could be back to the Mary Joe White, you know,
investigation of Tiffany Johnston uncovering something, you know,
and maybe something will come of that.
But if it isn't this and it isn't Tiffany Johnson, it'll probably be something else.
You're probably right.
It always is.
It's always something.
But it won't be this, maybe.
I mean, let's not read.
Let's not forget.
Like I said, this spins off, and what they're doing is they're trying to create momentum for a hearing
and going to the FTC, whether the FTC declines to pursue the case helps create momentum.
There's more momentum.
The Washington Post questioned all the attorney generals in the three jurisdictions that are in the stadium hunt last week
about these latest allegations.
According to Maryland Attorney General, Brian Frosh, said if what is being described in the letter is accurate,
then the commanders could be in violation of Maryland's Consumer Protection Act.
Right. That was over the weekend.
The Democrat.
And now the team responded.
And they're...
To the committee.
Yeah.
We don't know if there's an investigation by the Attorney General yet.
Yeah, but the Attorney Generals would be investigating these claims, which the team, you know, in their mind's eye,
with this letter to the FTC.
When they hear from the Attorney General's,
they'll probably, did they, I wonder,
I wonder if they copied the Attorney Generals on this letter.
I actually didn't look for that.
I don't know if they did or not.
But, I mean,
if you're Brian Frosh,
and I'm assuming
Brian Fosh is a Democrat,
I mean, because it's Maryland,
and even though Larry Hogan's a Republican,
he's kind of an outlier there.
But if he's a Democrat,
he's going to have incentive to look into this,
which is separate from their response to the committee.
That's separate.
I would like whether they're Democrat or Republican
if there's a reason to look into it for them to do it.
But it's not always the case.
Right, because we talk about,
if the Republicans take over, control of the House in November,
all this goes away.
We know that.
Well, this part with the House Oversight and Reform Committee with what Congress has involved probably goes away, yes.
But I wish it wouldn't if there was something there.
I know.
I wish it wouldn't either.
Okay.
So the last thing on this, because actually I'm bored now.
Ultimately, this, all of this, you know, the potential for the league, as you discussed with me on Thursday, to go to snow.
nighter and say enough is enough. The stadium and the new stadium could have been the driver in that,
you know, with these latest allegations being, oh, really, you defrauded customers, we can't
give you a cent for anything. And then all of a sudden, they're staring at FedEx Field for the next
15 years with a new coat of paint. So I still do think, and you know, and you emphasize this,
and others have as well, I still think that for the league, what they ultimately want is they want a better run franchise, obviously.
They want the fans to come back with a better run franchise, and that ain't going to happen unless there's a new owner here.
But they also want a new stadium.
And Snyder's toxic to most of these jurisdictions.
And after these allegations from Friedman, he became even more toxic if especially the security deposit thing was true.
because then he was taking advantage of, you know, consumers in these three jurisdictions.
So if these things aren't true, do you think any of these jurisdictions, mainly Maryland and Virginia,
will continue to move forward and consider the $400 million infrastructure help in Maryland
and whatever is going to come out of the Virginia thing, which was, you know, $350 million out of the $3 billion cost.
You know, it had already been from a billion down to $350 million.
They still haven't voted on that, right?
I think they have.
They have voted on that?
I don't know.
I thought there was some sort of special assembly that was going to get called for this.
Okay.
Well, maybe that's the case.
Okay.
That's the case.
Look, in Virginia, I'm sorry.
You know, in Virginia, these allegations are water off a duck's back for the current administration and charge in Virginia.
Right.
They could care less.
Okay. And the district where I don't think there's any momentum politically for a stadium one way or the other, it significantly works against Snyder. In Maryland, not as much, but still, in Maryland is a democratic stronghold. And there'll be a new governor in office soon. And I think it works against him in Maryland, enough to actually pursue a, a,
a case, not right now.
Not right now.
Although it doesn't take anything for the Attorney General to tell one of his lawyers,
hey, look into this, see if there's anything there.
Just takes that.
That's all it takes.
All right.
Let's finish up with some sports discussion somehow, some way.
We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.
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I did want to mention real quickly because I know that you have something to talk about too.
And I forget what it was that we were going to talk about because we just talked to.
about it during the break and I've already forgotten.
But I just wanted to mention real quickly,
Matt Bowen, who played for Washington and now, you know,
is a big-time NFL analyst for ESPN.
And he's doing a great job as a draft analyst.
I'm trying to get Matt on the podcast before the draft.
He is very much in demand.
But he said about Kyle Hamilton,
who visited the team yesterday,
along with Drake London and Garrett Wilson.
And I think those three players right now are at the top
of Washington's list. I do. He said, quote, I have a hard time passing on Kyle Hamilton if he's there
at 11. He can be a game changer on defense. I don't care what he runs in the 40. He plays fast on
tape, closed quote. That's what anybody that's watched Kyle Hamilton at Notre Dame would say about
Kyle Hamilton, that the 45940 time, the 470 Pro Day time, that's not what you watch when you watch
him in a football uniform on the field playing football. He anticipates well, he's got great
instincts, and he looks anything but slow. He's a big man. I mean, he is a big dude and he can
play all over the field. I really do think that a week from Thursday night, if he's there at 11,
even if they're receiver of choice, say it's Drake London or Garrett Wilson,
I think the team would select Kyle Hamilton.
So we'll see what happens.
But we know how important Landon Collins became for them when he got moved to that,
you know, Buffalo Nickel position, which is really that hybrid position,
safety linebacker.
You know, Collins didn't want to be called a linebacker.
I don't know if Kyle Hamilton will give a shit about what he's called.
But he can play in the box.
He can play that Buffalo Nicar.
nickel, and he can play your deep safety.
He can play as a cover two safety.
He can play as a cover three deep safety, cover one deep safety.
He can do anything, and he is ready to go day one.
And, you know, as I've said previously, in a season that Ron Rivera believes is very important.
So this first round pick this year, guys, needs to be much more impactful than
Jamon Davis was a year ago.
And I think
Kyle Hamilton has the best chance
to be that.
I don't know if he'll be there at 11,
but if he is,
I think they'd be nuts not to take him.
Okay.
What were we going to talk about here in the last segment?
I don't know, but you just talked about it.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
There was something, you had something, and then I mentioned...
The USFL.
Oh, what about the USFL?
You're the one who mentioned the U.S.FL.
But then you said, oh, I've got something on that.
No, I didn't.
I mean, I can talk about it.
Okay.
But I haven't watched any of USFL.
What were we talking?
Jesus.
It's a stupid subject.
You brought it up to me, and now you're asking me, what do I got?
Well, because I said, I said something about the U.S.FL, and then you said,
I don't have anything.
And then you said, wait a minute, wait a minute.
And then you said, I do have something on that.
So let's do that.
So maybe it'll jar your memory.
No, I'll tell you what, what I have about it?
Yes.
Because you mentioned, I don't know why all these summer leagues.
Spring leagues.
Spring leagues.
Yes.
Spring leagues.
Yeah.
And I was going to mention that the original USFL was considered moving towards success.
That's right.
when Donald Trump, of all people, supposedly forced them to go head to head with the NFL in the fall.
Right.
And that contributed to their demise.
So I think this is all based on the fact that people remember that the original USFL seemed to have some momentum towards success.
That's the only thing I can think of.
Okay.
I mean, I don't think people are crazy about football as much as they're crazy about NFL and college.
football. Yeah, it just, the bottom line is every single attempt. And now in recent years,
and one of the reasons that keeps driving these attempts is, A, it's football. And now B, with so
much legalized gambling, they believe that the interest with many more involved in gambling would
lead to interest in anything that you can bet on. So let's put it out there. It's just been one
big bust after another on these spring leagues.
You know, the last one was the last one, the XFL or the AAFL.
I forget the pandemic basically shut it down two weeks into it.
Washington had a team.
But real quickly on your reference back to the 80s USFL, you know who bet this shit out
of the USFL in the spring of the mid 80s, early to mid 80s?
You're talking to them because my friends and I at the University of Maryland, I mean,
mean, that was the height of the USFL. Oh my God, it was great to continue to be able to bet on football.
But, you know, the eight teams in this league have the exact same team names of the USFL teams in the 80s.
The teams in the current USFL are the Birmingham Stallions, the Houston Gamblers, the New Orleans Breakers, the Tampa Bay Bandits, the Michigan Panthers, the New Jersey Generals, the Philadelphia.
Philadelphia stars and the Pittsburgh mallers.
Those are the exact same names as the teams in the USFL in the 80s, which was the best attempt of all time.
You know, it lasted four years.
I mean, Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie and Kelvin Bryant and Jim Kelly and all the players, by the way, that ended up in the NFL, Steve Young.
But, you know, they had big money and they were paying players out of college, big name players.
They got Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie.
They got back to back.
Heisman trophy winners to commit to that league.
But they have the same team names.
But here's the most interesting thing about this league that I bet you didn't know.
Did you know the league is owned by Fox Sports?
Of course I knew that.
What do you think I'm an idiot?
You've told me during the break.
You didn't know anything about this.
But I know I was owned by Fox Sports.
Okay, then let me add the twist.
I mean, listen, Chuck Johnson, I can't believe this.
You said to me, what are you got?
I just mentioned something, and then you've gone on for about seven minutes.
So do you know the other twist to this Fox Sports Ownership thing?
Do you know who televises these USFL games?
Isn't it Fox in NBC?
It was Fox for the opener, but it's primarily NBC in all of the NBC properties that televise that.
Don't you think that's weird?
Oh, I think it's so weird.
I think we should do a whole podcast about it.
I don't think we should do a whole podcast,
but I wouldn't mind to talk about it for another seven minutes if we can do that.
I'm sure you wouldn't because you got a lot more for somebody who didn't know that we were even talking about it.
Isn't it strange, though, that Fox owns the league and then they sold the rights to NBC to televise it?
It is strange.
It doesn't.
there's something going on.
Something beyond, something beyond you and I.
Just like most things in this world, it's something that's going on beyond you and I that we can't figure out.
Did you know that all the games are played in Birmingham?
Oh, my God.
Are you kidding me?
Yes, I knew that.
You did know that?
Yes.
Unbelievable.
I mean, you're incredible.
I mean, from, I don't know anything about this.
I don't want to talk about this.
Oh, wait a minute.
I do want to talk about, you know, spring football.
And now you know that they're owned by Fox Sports.
You know that all the games are played in Birmingham.
You knew a lot more than you said and led on to it.
But I thought we were going to talk about the actual product of which I didn't watch one minute of.
Nor did I.
Can you name any of the coaches of the eight teams?
Yeah, Bob Stoops.
No.
No?
He's not a head coach.
Really?
Jeff Fisher is a head coach.
Jeff, no, he's not a head coach either.
At least the list I'm looking at, he's not a head coach.
Jeff Fisher is a head coach.
Maybe these guys are assistant coaches.
The names that I, skip holts, Kevin Summung, Larry Fodor, Todd Haley.
Jeff Fisher, Mike Riley, who I always liked as a coach.
Bart Andrus and Kirby Wilson are the coaches.
of this league.
Have you watched any of the NBA playoffs?
No.
Steph Curry scored 34 points in 23 minutes last night off the bench.
It's pretty good.
And I would tell you because you played shortly for that brief period for the Knicks in the NBA,
you would actually really enjoy the Boston Brooklyn series because Boston's very good defensively.
So is Miami.
two really good defensive teams.
Okay, we're done for the day unless you have anything else, boss.
I got one more thing.
Okay.
I want to remind everybody about the Cigars and Curve Balls fundraiser for the D.C. Grace.
It's Monday, May 9th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Shelley's back room in the district for $100 ticket donation.
You get three cigars, appetizers, and a chance to bid on some great auction item.
I mean, the auction items that are coming in are just fabulous,
and we'll probably print a list at some point that we've got.
And one of those things up for auction is Kevin has donated a visit for two people
to come see the Sports Fix Live in his magnificent Bethesda studio,
and I'll be there doing the show with him that day.
So that's one of the things that are up for auction,
a chance to see the sports six in person.
You can buy tickets online at DCGraise.com.
All you got to do is click on the part on the website,
where the tickets can be purchased.
And it's a great time.
And I urge everybody to show up, baby,
because you'll have a good time and you'll talk about it for days.
Like the USFL.
I can't wait for that night.
Yes, I can't wait for that night.
And I do have one more thing about the USFL because our good friend John Orand put through his
sports business journal newsletter, which I get, I just opened it up as you were talking about
cigars and curve balls, which I can't wait.
Monday night, May 9th, Shelley's back room, great location.
We will have a bunch of fun.
And by the way, if like the caps are playing,
that night time. It seems like every single time we have, you have that event, there's a Caps
playoff game going on. Doesn't it seem like that? So if there's one going on that night,
we'll have it on the TV for people to watch. There will be, by the way, big name guests that
show up. Not you as the host or me as your friend, but some big named, you know, guests that
will show up for this. And people will enjoy that. But John Orand says,
said that the Fox NBC simulcast, Fox televised, as did NBC, the first game of the USFL over the weekend.
And that was the first game since the 1967 Super Bowl won between the Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Tommy, do you remember where that game was played quickly?
Los Angeles.
Coliseum, that game was shown on both CBS and NBC. NBC was the AFL's network and CBS was the NFL
network, and it was shown on both networks simultaneously. So there's another fun fact to know and tell
about the USFL debut. If you're going to give me a test, give it to me at the beginning of a podcast
because I'm kind of tired by the end of the podcast. Did you see this? I can't answer many questions
Did you see this Apple deal with the NFL for Sunday ticket?
This is another thing in John's newsletter.
Did they finish it?
Is it a done deal?
He writes Apple is poised to get the NFL Sunday ticket for $2.5 billion per year.
You know what that means that the Sunday ticket and the red zone and all of that ends up on your phone.
So you're out and about and you're going to be able to watch your phone.
on an I if you've got an iPhone
right I don't know maybe I'm
wrong about that that seems obvious
to me
God this
this this was fun
it really was
it was really good to catch up with you today
and it's a good thing we don't have
the winner of that auction
item in the studio today because the studio
got flooded the other night I haven't even
shared that with the group
but we we got flooded
out and I am doing it from a makeshift
location here
That may be the reason that I got a little carried away with the USFL.
All right, that's it for the day.
Wait a minute.
Kevin, the flooding, do you think it's sabotage?
Do I think it's sabotage?
Who would be trying to sabotage the podcast?
Well, you have many enemies, I'm sure, Kevin.
I don't think I have many enemies.
Really?
Who would be an enemy of mine?
How could you be in this business and not have a lot of enemies?
What are you talking about?
I think somebody like you has a lot of enemies.
I don't think I have any enemies in this business.
I think you've made a lot of enemies.
Everybody loves Kevin.
No, it's not that everybody loves Kevin, but I'm just, I don't spend a lot of time worrying about other people in this business.
Okay.
We're talking about other people in this business.
Okay, the man with no enemies.
Well, maybe I do have one.
But no, this was a leak from above, and it damaged some of the studio.
But we'll have plenty of time to get.
get it all fixed up before the winner of the auction item comes in and spends a little bit of time.
Did Montgomery County Police do a report about it?
I don't know.
Do you think I should reach out to them, have them investigate?
I think you should.
Well, I mean, if you had enemies, you should, but you don't have any enemies.
You know what you just reminded me of, though?
You just reminded me, I've got to reach out to the head of the D.C. Podcast Association,
because we have to have him on the show.
So I think it's Brian.
I think Brian, it's Brian.
I'm pretty sure I've got him in my direct messages on Twitter.
I have not forgotten about you.
You are on my big list of things to do.
And Tommy just reminded me of that.
Yes, Brian, we will definitely reach out to you to get you on the show at some point
after you created an incredible, an incredible group.
All right, that's it.
I'm done with you for the day.
Back tomorrow.
All right, boss.
