We've got to go after this with everything we got.
They're going to come with everything they got.
I started off by saying I'm bored, I'm broke, and I'm back.
The Andy Pulling Show on ESPN 630 starts right now.
Should we call this an atypical Thursday?
Second week in a row, Tony's doing a Thursday show taking tomorrow off,
so we rolled till 11 o'clock today, and for three hours tomorrow.
I don't know if this is going to be permanent or just a few weeks.
Not sure, but you know, we roll with the punches around here.
Got to learn to hit the curve ball, and I'm sure everything will be just fine.
A lot of stuff to talk about with the NBA, and I'm sure if you've been listening all morning to KJM,
they've been hitting this Celtics Sixers game pretty hard.
We'll get to thoughts on that.
Also, Reggie Barlow was on yesterday with them,
and he of course was named XFL Coach of the Year with the defenders
finishing with just one loss and advancing to the championship game over the weekend.
They're going to be in San Antonio a week from Saturday to play Arlington for the championship,
and some interesting points brought up about African American coaches
and the opportunities that they haven't been able to get because of leagues like the XFL.
And I'm not saying that if they win the championship, this is going to automatically vault Reggie Barlow
into the conversation for a head coach in the NFL,
but I think it would be a significant step forward for him,
and he's somebody who played in an HBCU, coached at HBCUs for a number of years,
left Virginia State to take the job with the defenders,
and you know, as you look at more and more opportunities for coaches,
this is a great chance to see how they perform as a head coach,
and he got the opportunity to do that this year and shine.
He was also the general manager of the team,
and obviously knew what he was doing with picking players as well.
Also, there's a new book that's coming out called LeBron,
I think you know, the subject matter.
Jeff Benedict, who has written a number of books, New York Times Best Sellers,
has written this, and he was all with Dan Patrick the other day
and really gave some cool LeBron stories, we're going to play some of that.
And also, before I scoot over for Tony at 11 o'clock,
I want to tell you about the dumbest bet that I didn't make 38 years ago today
when I covered my first Kentucky Derby for UPI.
It's a lesson in betting, not that I'm anywhere near an expert on betting,
but I think it's a lesson on go with your gut,
and we'll talk more about that in the 10 o'clock hour.
So, before we get to the NBA, you may have heard this,
it's been reported by the athletic that Jeff Halpern is on the radar
to become the cap's next head coach.
Apparently, there is no official meeting set up to talk to him,
but the athletic said that the caps want to speak with him at some point.
Now, they haven't been able to until last week because he's been an assistant
with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they were eliminated by Toronto
in the playoffs last week.
So, he's only been freed up for a few days here,
but they are interested in him.
He's an incredible local story.
Jewish kid from Potomac.
I think you can count on one hand, probably one finger.
Jewish kids from Potomac who have played in the NHL,
much less play for their hometown team, the Washington Capitals.
Amazing story. He started out at Churchill, showed promise as a young hockey player
and went to some kind of a prep school in Canada,
and then went to Princeton, played there, undrafted,
made the caps, played 507 games with them from 1999 to 2006,
set about a 10-year career in the NHL, and got right into coaching
and the minors with Tampa and then became an assistant coach there
in 2018.
But if he were to become coach of the caps, he would be coaching
former teammates Alex Avidkian, Nicholas Baxter, and John Carlson,
and Great Trivia, it was Jeff Halpern who assisted on Ovi's first goal
in the NHL.
I guess that was probably his last year with the team,
2005-2006, and you just, you know, you think about that
and the great symmetry of all of this, you know, hometown kid,
the unlikelihood of leaving Potomac to go to prep school in Canada,
to become an NHL player, and now to come home and coach his team.
The only thing, the only knit I would have to pick with this,
and I don't say I know Jeff Halpern well, but I know him a little bit
and have always found him to be an absolute bench.
He's in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, of course, and just a great
guy to deal with.
A lot of people in the media really like him, have maintained a
friendship with him, and he would certainly be well-liked.
The only issue I would have with this, and again, I'm all for a
great local story, but the history under Ted Leonces of coaches with
the very first time in the year, and the last time in the year,
he was in the first half of the year, and he was in the first half
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team with veterans like Ovechkin and backstrom and Carlsen, I
don't know, do you want a former teammate coaching them? I
don't know, again, my hockey knowledge is somewhat limited.
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that's not the biggest support statement
i've ever seen yes he did say he's doing a great job
but uh... but that's that's not necessarily i think what mazula wants to
hear any sounds like he's a little bit sensitive
about the fact that he doesn't have experience you know he graduated college
in two thousand eleven so it is a is early thirties and
went into the season
expecting to be email dokas assistant
and they winds up with the head coaching job and now he's in the pressure
cooker spot of playing the seventy sixers who have the nvp of the league in
jolam bead who was not necessarily expected to play last night but did
uh... doc rivers complimented mazula after the game he said i thought their
ball pressure eight us up all night
thought they pressured us they denied us they played in our airspace all game
it's funny we talked about it this morning talked about it before the game
but you can talk intensity and force all you want but when you get on the court
it's actually being applied to you have to be able to handle it
we didn't handle it very well
we have to be better
uh... this was analysis after the game on t and t with their crew
barkley
kenny smith and shack
barkley actually said
uh... you know
the reason that the seventy sixers lost on paraphrasing but you hear this
here
sounds like he's saying the reason that the seventy sixers lost
is they actually played the nvp of the league in this game jolam bead i do not
like the fact he was in a couple reasons number one
uh... i think
james plays differently
when jol's out there
uh... he he's got a
in my pain he's got a mental block he's not nearly as aggressive
me
at night and day
from game one the game to because
they feel like in a rifle so they have to get joy of going
uh... but i think it hurts maxi
i heard i think it hurts to buy us harry's he said there's no ball movement
that's called joe has the ball
they played at a much more freelance pace when he's not out there
now they're better team no
but i thought they should have
gave him a couple more days
and see what worked but the biggest problem is earning
joe is such a great defender in the post
the sectors the set is going to get wide open threes
every game
there's nothing they can do about it you can't guard the paint and the
perimeter
because
the only guy who goes inside really is williams
harford stands out three point line
but if joe is going to stand down there they're gonna get they're gonna make up
they're gonna make up move and get a wide open three
would you say though chuck
he comes back in game three
you're in the same dilemma
of
going back to what really is going to be a championship mix of giving the ball
joe olympi
on a steady diet the mvp the best player in basketball this year
so
you're gonna have to do a game to you have to do a game you're not going to win it
you're not going to win a series of joe and bees not anymore
number one they were not going to win tonight no matter what that was my
original thought they were going to lose this game no matter what because
ball you think that the self I mean I think the sixes would have been
I know I think the sixes would have been better off
him coming home one one
he get his MVP trophy crowd's gonna be going wow
you're still gonna be doing that yeah but now the Celtics are like okay we
we know
because that was just a beat down
and they're not gonna get they gonna get those same shots
I think because the seltz would have been thinking in my opinion like
okay we beat them but we beat them without the MVP
and then to pick it back on kennis point so now
we don't know what's gonna have gone into game three and not only that
boston beat them by heavy margin without
without taking them going off
you know brown took up the slack broglie came and had a great game
again when you're when you're the superstar on the team you play against
other teams they play above their heads
first came think they underestimated James we all did like we haven't seen
James play like that in a while I agree with Charles we think he has a
mental block when it comes to Joel being again but he needs to realize
you can do both you can get yours and he can get his it's been done before
you know you just have to you know come now at times and you know throw at him
if he's not going to work then you're able to you know to go to work but
thought he was very very very passes and he'll be better but I think boston is
ready now because joe is back I think there'll be much more prepared
now boston did get some really good performances last night as brown gave them
25 points they also with the six man of the year
malcom broglie coming off the bench 23 that was huge now
James of course is James harden that they're talking about there and and
harden last night shot two for 14 he had 12 points
um if you're gonna be a pro in the NBA and you're gonna be thrown off by the
fact that the mvp of a league is coming back to play
i mean your best chance to win a championship
is with joe lm beat on the court and and what
barkley is suggesting and and kenny too is that is that it's it's messing up
hardens head to uh to have a great player with them on the court
well that's a problem you're not going to win a championship that way
yeah he carried them the other night when he had 45 points understand that
but uh but you can't be thrown off by that that's that's uh
that's really ridiculous hey hey this is this is I guess the nba
and the egos that are involved here is well i was the man the other night
and i carried this team so what are they throwing joe lm beat back out therefore
i can do this oh he's out there okay i well i mean how do you shoot two for
14 if you're not shooting two for 14 you're getting the ball more often maybe
you're getting up 22 shots and maybe you're hitting
you know 11 of them or 10 of them but they didn't
and they got their doors blown off 121 to 87 so
we will see as this series continues tomorrow night at philadelphia that will
be a 730 game tomorrow and then they play sunday
at philadelphia before coming back to boston for
a game five which would be on tuesday night
um coming up andrew bran takes a look at the
lamar jackson deal as he was on with dan helley who was sitting in
the other day for rich isen and and why it happened
the way it did and the erin roger's deal why that happened the way it did we'll
get to that and more as we continue it's the anti-pulant show
on esp n 630 the andy poland show on esp n 630 the sports capital
until 11 today got a tony show this just cleared from the washington post and
i would say it's kind of breaking news um but you judge for yourself this is
something that's been discussed for a long long time as you probably know
the land that rfk stadium still stands on supposed to be torn down i guess this
summer but the rfk stanium site which is i think where most people would like to
see a new stadium for the football team that is on federal land
and it's zoned for residential and uh i don't think there's any kind of
commercial allowance there and if you're going to build a new stadium you've got
to have restaurants and hotels and shops and things around the stadium so
uh things have to change in order for the team to build on that site
and this is what is being reported this morning that just cleared within the
last uh 20 minutes or so sam 40a michael rice sadler and
magan flinn i'll just read the first few paragraphs here and
try and analyze what they have written here it says the commanders are lobbying
federal legislators to give dc control over the rfk stadium site
which would pave the way for the city to offer it as a potential new home for the
team hooray hooray hooray i add parenthetically in recent months a group
representing the commanders led by dent's lobbyists matthew cuts
and commanders vice president of public affairs joe meloney
has met with staff for the house committee on natural resources and the senate
committee on energy and natural resources according to a
spokesperson for the house committee and a spokesperson for senator joe
manchin from west virginia who chairs the senate committee
if commanders owner dan sneider sells the franchise to the josh harris group it
could spark a stadium competition among dc maryland and virginia
to be in the game the city would need to control the rfk land which the
federal government owns and leases to the district sports and entertainment
authority events dc or have clarity on what it could offer
the team the natural resources committee which has
jurisdiction over federal land transfers would be key in the city's efforts to
obtain the land or be granted a lease extension and
modification the rfk lease runs through 2038
who 20 now even though there's not going to be a stadium there
there's a lease that runs through 2038 wow and restricts the land usage to
sports entertainment and recreation which would prevent the commanders from
creating a mixed use development that they have pitched to
virginia in maryland and it's very similar to what i think the patriots were the
first team to do this and jury world in dallas is like this
you know this got to be more commerce got to be more reason
than to go to a stadium ten times a year for football games
um this is a quote from a commander's spokesperson is a statement that they
gave we are committed to supporting the city's efforts to obtain control of the
rfk campus enabling district leaders to contemplate
future use that will deliver social and economic benefits
for the surrounding community we are communicating with stakeholders at the
federal and local level sharing our vision for a potential venue
now there's another thing about this it's a little bit puzzling
who's actually who are they actually talking on behalf of are they
talking to me on behalf of the josh harris group
or are they talking on behalf of dannon dannon tanya snider who
still own the team the team has not been sold in fact all they have is an
agreement in principle so i wonder what kind of negotiations are actually going
on here
or this just occurred to me and again i don't know how these contracts work
but could it be possible that they are laying the groundwork
for harris so that when he does buy the team he can begin immediate work on
building a stadium in the district and this
sweetens the deal a little bit like if if they get approval
from the federal government for dc to control the land
does that is that maybe included in the six billion dollar price does that up
the price a little bit more
you know that that would be something that that i would be curious about
is is that something that's tied into the contract
that they have something in place an agreement with
the federal government that that land which by the way i i'm just reading this
for the first time has a lease through 2038
i mean you're talking what another 15 years no nobody's going to want to play
at feddex for another 15 years uh the lease there runs out in 2027
you'd like to be out of theirs as soon as possible
last year the district repeatedly failed to get congressional leaders to attach
a land transfer provision to several pieces of legislation
due to a bitter division among city leaders on how to use the land
Eleanor Holmes Norton refused to introduce a standalone bill
this year the district faces additional challenges including a divided
antagonistic congress and the march resignation of one of the leaders of
the project deputy mayor for economic development
john felicio within days of him stepping down to d c government employees
accus felicio of long-standing sexual harassment
there's always that going on in march the nfl owners meetings uh commander's
president jason right said the team could not select the stadium site until
a sale is finalized hmm okay uh so again
they're talking to the district according to the talking to the feds
according to uh the post here and here's jason right say oh no we
can't do this until the sale is finalist they're going to say but in
conversations with potential ownership groups he added
one of the primary focuses was a new stadium okay so that answers that
question again i'm i'm reading this along with you i'm seeing this for the
first time it just cleared so let's go back to that
in conversations with potential ownership one of the primary focuses was a
new stadium he said he had brief perspective buyers and
outlined the visions of local leaders
okay so yeah that that's something that they would like to know
um and then here's more in the story d c council chair phil Mendelsohn
and council member charles allen have emerged as two of the biggest critics
of using rfk to host a football team well there was a lot of criticism
about nats part two and that worked out really well for the city
they've argued that the city should prioritize other deeds at the site
such as affordable housing mary el bowser and members of the business
community and fans of the team have been the strongest champions
bowser has argued that the hundred and ninety acre site could be used for many
purposes including housing retail and a stadium and that it is the
spiritual home of the team amen to that mayor in december bowser went directly
to house leadership to find other avenues for the land transfer now the
mayor is awaiting for the nfl awaiting the nfl to ratify the sale to harris and
believes there could be an opportunity to work with the new ownership group to
bring the team back to rfk according to people familiar with
her thinking oh here's somebody i know mark to a lawyer and former chairman of
the d c sports and entertainment commission
argued the city could use having the commanders at rfk to help address
uncertainty about its financial future spurred mostly by a dominant downtown
in the wake of the pandemic uh so okay so again this is more
i think positive news uh that they are moving towards
building the stadium at rfk they are moving along knowing that dance
nighter at the moment is still in charge but we're heading down the road of
and this was reported yesterday by the post
that the league may give the harris group
control of the team even though they haven't officially purchased that that
the the sale might not be approved officially
until august but when they meet later this month
they could give him temporary control of the team
the sooner you get dance nighter as soon as you get the sniders on their yacht
and sail the way the better this is going to be for the team i think that's
that's the the net takeaway here and the fact that the ball is rolling down the
the tracks here uh or the train is rolling down the tracks i guess is a
better way to put it uh is is encouraging here
and uh there are real real substantial talks going on with the district
so that the federal land can be turned over to control of the district
and we can have a stadium once again when rfk is uh is torn down
later this summer yeah that's good all right uh a couple things on these uh
on these deals i think you know the draft was was big but in some ways
overshadowed by two things finally the deal to send erin rogers
to the jets and finally the lamar jacks in contract which was announced
the afternoon of the draft last thursday those two are huge huge stories
andrew brant covers sports business for s i dot com
and uh first he looked at two things in his column one about the uh
about the green bay leverage in in getting this deal done to get rogers
to the jets and he writes leverage belongs to the party and the negotiations
that is most comfortable with the status quo the status quo for the packers was
one they had their quarterback on the roster
jordan love two they owed rogers no money until
september and three rogers was not around in the building to cause a
distraction the status quo for the jets was one
they had no quarterback rogers was plan a b and c
two they openly lusted after rogers after flying a contingent to his house to
beg him to play there and three their fan base was frothing at the mouth
at the trade so with all that the packers were able to move from 15
to 13th in this draft a second round pick in this draft a second round pick in
next year's draft that converts to a first rounder
if he plays 65 percent of the time and the removal of a 60 million financial
obligation for this year and potentially a hundred million
over the next two years all for a player who was never going to play for them
again the packers he says did very well here
and he believes the trade finally happened when woody johnson said to his
people the owner of the jets hey get this done and
andrew bran who worked in the front office of the packers who don't have an
owner their their public team uh he said he thinks that this actually
helped green bay quite a bit not having an owner
who is being pressured by the fans and gets a petuous and finally says okay make
the deal and winds up uh given up pretty big
call for a guy who may only play one year there we'll see
uh as for the deal that lamar jackson made uh and you know after months and
months of speculation that oh no way he's signing a deal that doesn't have a
hundred percent guaranteed money he signed a deal that doesn't have a
hundred percent guaranteed money this was the takeaway
andrew bran with dan helley in for rich eyes in the other day
this is one where was a two-year saga that was complicated
by the disjaun watson deal i probably think that disjaun i'm the march
jack and went into this before march a year ago saying i'm just going to try
to get the most money i can and basically come out with the best
average and the best deal i can get march twenty twenty one brought the
disjaun watson deal the first fully secured deal in the history of the
sport more like an ndba and and matrile bac ball deal
and lamar to his credit pushed on that he really pressed the envelope on that
now rasa wilson got a deal in the interim
hyla mary got a deal in the interim jaylin hurts got a deal in the interim and
they were all
traditional structures
you know two years maybe third year
with some security and then it's all on the come
no one is able to follow the watch and precedent
and neither was lamar at the end of the day
he took the best deal out there and it was really a trade-off he got
the win as you suggested on the average
uh... an average of fifty two a year the best average ever and a better deal
than hurts because the five-year deal
her to five-year plus the existing year six-year deal
but at the end of the day it's not the watch and guarantee and i think
dan were kind of left
where we're going to look back in ten years and say hey remember that watch
and deal
because i don't think where we have any presidential value of it anymore and
that's a little bit sad for the players but the owners
have fought this very hard whether collusion or not collusion
so lamar ends up with a great deal if
if
he continues to play where is they have the leverage in years four and five
if they want to move on if they want to lower it if they want to use their
power of a non-guaranteed year
well it is interesting because i
harken back to a conversation i had with kirk cousins right after he left
washington
signed with minnesota
got the fully guaranteed i believe it was a three-year deal
yeah and it was the first fully guaranteed multi-year deal for a
quarterback in nfl history and i'm
and and i knew i'm a little bit from our washington days and
said dude you just changed the game this is unbelievable he goes
but i didn't he goes i didn't
erin roger signed a contract matt ryan have signed a contract
neither one is fully guaranteed to me that was the window
especially when you had guys like rogers and ryan in their prime
who had all the leverage in the world and
obviously the disjean watson contracts and outlier but
were if we didn't get to it after the kirk cousins deal
cousins is getting a three-year fully guaranteed good nfl quarterback not
great nfl quarterback
they do you think will ever be to that point
here is the lesson and here's the difference between cousins and all those
other guys and sadly between disjean watson and these other guys i'll
explain that in a minute
pre-agency free agency is the best determinator of value for
athletes in any sport it's not even close
if you can get to free agency you've got the cards
erin roger did a deal two years before free agency matt ryan two years before
free agency lamar jackson got close
but they got the tag the tag is the determinator there
jaylin hurts a year from free agency plus the tag
russia wilson two years from free agency calamary two years from free
agency her cousins had it and by his own bad behavior which just
hurts me to even say it through his own bad behavior
just shawn watson created free agency the texans didn't want them
and they had an auction so i think this is the problem here
nfl players unlike nba and major league baseball
it's maybe it's the teams they just don't get there
part of it is the franchise tag but part of it is nfl players taking deals
early like jaylin hurts just did you know he could have rolled the dice
is joe burrow gonna take a deal or is he gonna roll the dice
jensen herbert are they gonna roll the dice
but nfl teams are smart i was there you throw a bunch of money at a young
player especially on a rookie contract they're not going to wait for free
agency right and especially in football where
you know it doesn't happen that often
but one play can well it can't really in most cases end your career but it can
alter your career quite a bit and your earning power now
the two instances he points to where there was leverage by the player
the dishawn watson won because of bad behavior because
kouston had to get him the hell out of there and and he knew that
uh he had that leverage and he also had the cleveland browns jumping in because
he had a no trade clause in his contract and they said
though we'll take you but we'll give you the guarantee money oh okay i'll go there
the other one of course was kirk cousins and why did kirk cousins hit free
agency because the stupidity of the ownership and
management of the then washington red skins
who you know couldn't have blundered this any worse
you know they had a chance to sign him to a very reasonable deal
at nineteen million dollars a year and they tried to lowball them and
bruce allen tried to embarrass him and then did that news conference where he
kept calling him kirk and uh and then finally they traded for
for uh alex smith and so they had to cut him loose
well he had free agency so if you have free agency
that's how you're able to leverage that to get the guaranteed money and he was
the first to get it now it's only a three-year deal
at that point it was about eighty five million dollars and actually
was reported to be less than he could have gotten from the jets at the time
wanted to go to minnesota got to go to minnesota
and the reason was because the organization that had him
and should have held on to him blundered it about as badly as you possibly could
what a surprise from the washington football organization which will
thank god soon have new ownership all right coming up uh in the next hour
um redgie barlow the coach of the dc defenders xfl coach of the year
talking to kishan j will and max yesterday we'll play some of that
jeff benedict has new book out about lebron with some really cool stories
we'll play that as well and a whole lot more as we roll into our two
of the andy poland show espn six thirty
the andy poland show we got to go after this with everything we got
bigger they're gonna come with everything they got i'll start on by saying i'm
bored i'm broken i'm back the andy poland show on espn six thirty
starts right now yep tony on a thursday yep this week last week
don't know about next week but we got tony coming up
at 11 o'clock just to catch you up on something that
broke within the last hour or so or reported by the post
in the last hour and this has kind of been ongoing for
several years but maybe this is a big step forward let's hope so
the commanders now the commanders still under the ownership
of dan and tanya snider which makes this even more intriguing
this team under that ownership according to the post
lobbying federal legislators to give dc control over the rfk site
which would pave the way for the city to offer it as a potential new home
for the team now as you know and this goes back to when the stadium was built
in nineteen sixty one it was built on federal land
fact that played a big role in finally integrating this team 15 years after
jackie robinson broke the color line george pressed and marshall
who used to go around saying you know i'll start hiring
negro players when the harlem globe trotters start
hiring white players uh and finally he was prevailed upon
by stuart utel who was the secretary of the interior by saying well you're not
gonna play in this stadium on federal land if you don't integrate the team
and they did finally and bobby mitchell became a great player for them and a
great person member of the organization for
thirty five years um and that happened because of that stadium so it was built
that served a great purpose at that point but now it's something of an
impediment for the new stadium to be built because
of the zoning and the way it is owned and its own for recreation and it's not
zoned for commercial and if you're going to build a new stadium you want to have
restaurants and hotels and things like that around that so
that's holding it up now i was curious as to how this could be happening with
the ownership of the team in flux and this paragraph and the story
kind of explains that in march at the nfl owners meetings commanders president
jason right said the team could not select the stadium site
until the sale is finalized but in conversations with potential ownership
groups he added one of the primary focuses was a new stadium
he said he had brief perspective buyers and outlined the visions
of local leaders quote the stadium is paramount
besides figuring out how to invest in a championship and get a better
performance on the field this is the second most important thing and
almost nothing else matters honestly so it appears
in negotiations with the josh harris group and this was reported yesterday by
the post he actually may be able to assume control of the team before the end of
this month even though the owners may not
be officially be able to approve the sale of the team until august
that he wants some certainty that he can get the ball rolling right away
to build a new stadium and that it can happen in the district i think that
that's where everybody wants it yeah maryland would like it to stay where it is
they'll build new infrastructure around fedex nobody wants that
and virginia no not way out now way out near louden county or ever else they
can build it no it needs to be on the rfk site
and they are going to tear down the stadium this summer so theoretically
uh something could happen within the next six months you could conceivably
begins construction on a new stadium if everything falls into place and
there's a lot obviously that has to happen
in terms of the federal government saying to dc okay you can have control of the
site or you can purchase the land however it works but
another problem with this is according to the story the lease runs out in 2038
so there's a lot of time left where the federal government would have control
over that land until 20 that's another 15 years nobody wants another 15 years
of playing in that dump of the stadium at fedex nobody wants that
so so there's that uh in the picture as well
and uh all i can say is keep your fingers crossed
hope josh harris gets approved as soon as possible they certainly don't want to
deal with dan snider and according to the story sniders not
directly involved in any of the talks on this uh the reporting says let me
read you the uh the people who they mention who are uh who actually talking
says in recent months a group representing the commanders
led by denton's lobbyist matthew cuts and commanders vice president of public
affairs joe meloney has met with the staff of the house committee on natural
resources and the senate committee on energy and natural resources
according to a spokesperson for the house committee and a spokesperson for
senator joe mansion who chairs the senate committee
so you have the team representatives talking to federal government officials
not to dc was mayor bowser has made it clear she wants the team there
this is this is the federal government that they're talking to saying can we
work out a deal so that the district gets control
by the land however it works but we get things moving so
that when the lease runs out at fedex in 2027
that they don't have to stay there any longer than they have to
you know they this is what happened with the raiders they eventually got their
stadium built in vegas but they had to stay i think another
two years in oakland at the oakland coliseum which was
you know clearly not not a an nfl quality stadium anymore
wasn't the 1970s but uh but was not by the time
they left so that that's again to me more encouraging news
more encouraging news that uh there were rolling down the tracks and there's
going to be a new owner in place sooner rather than later
as for the other football team in town all sunshine and lollipops they are
headed to the xfl championship game in san Antonio
a week from saturday regi barlow the coach of the team the coach of the year
in the xfl going for just a one-law season they lost one game all year
and that was to one win or lando but they've handled everybody else that they've
played including their playoff win last week against
seattle he was on yesterday with kj and max and
talked about what this season has been like and also
uh you'll hear this here he's he's chasing a little bit at the idea
that he suddenly discovered that he could be a head coach with what he had done
because he had been a successful head coach at the hbcu level and it left
virginia state as a head coach there to take this job so this is how the
conversation went with uh j will asking this question
there's typically like an inflection point um for coaches for players where
they recognize like okay i can do this at such a high level was there an
inflection point for you throughout the course of this season
where you recognize you're like this is this is what i'm meant to do this is who
i'm meant to be as a head coach yeah i i appreciate that question but i
won't i won't say that it happened uh during this season like
i i'm confident and who i am as a coach and whether it's on
division two level or fcs level it's it's all about
being a connector it's all about communication it's all about
being structured and organized it's all about
identifying and developing talent and we have had a real good history
of doing that so this was just a an opportunity uh that our great owners and
executive blessed us with uh it's about putting together a good staff
cohesive staff and we've done that we've had experience in that so uh
getting good players obviously gonna make you good and better
uh and we would ever do that with the helps of uh
bahutchen's our director player personnel and uh again we got amazing coaches and
about our coaching staff i mean we have so many hbc you guys that are on our
coaching staff right so uh we're really proud of that
uh hbc grads guys who've been a long time hbc coaches so uh but yeah we've
we've been confident and how we approach our coaching style and who we are as a
coach hey reggie go ahead reggie reggie be how does it
feel though you you wear two hats right you
you're the head coach in the general manager but the general the head coach
didn't let the general manager down the general manager didn't let the head
coach down and now you go you've gone on to become
coach of the year for the xfl what does it mean knowing that you're wearing
these two hats and how difficult the job is
yeah i mean you got to put yourself in a separate room it's almost like
you know and when we play ball there if i was the zebra right if you needed a
break and i need to go in for the x i had to put myself in the x room right and
all i was concerned with was the terms that are affiliated with the x right
and it's the same way with this deal when it's time to talk about player
uh personnel and i mean vahutchen's a guy directed player personnel i mean
this guy is amazing uh we're able to talk through that stuff there's no
ego uh in that and then when it's time to be
you know the coach the x and o's to talk about the practice structure
and how we want that to go then we're able to do that and you know again
um we've had great help we got great wings greg has been an nfl coach for a
long time leanin on him uh frek kaisau office a
coordinator who's been a long time college coach but
you know laying on all these guys and to be honest he is
asking for advice hey what do you guys think i think always got to be
here's what i want here's how we're gonna do it it's
you know let's let's talk this thing out so uh i think a combination of all of
that has uh worked out for it's regi barlow super bowl champion dc
defenders head coach and gm i don't know if there's a gm of the year award but
what gives regi here the gm too just the coach just just the coach of the year
shouldn't you also be gm in the year do they have a gm of the year award
i don't even know if they have that but i can tell you um it should be uh
coaching staff of the year because we do have that uh our group of guys that we
assemble cohesive group uh young a mixture of diversity old
young uh highly experienced uh some guys first time
you know coaching on a on a professional level whatever so
um but and then the players right it should be a team of the year so
uh it's really embarrassing to have that just associated with your name
because you know there's so many other people um that uh that donate they help
and give their help and and that's critical to the success that we've had
so we'll take it we'll appreciate it uh and we will use it to continue to build
our team regi coach the your team the dc defenders playing the
arlington renegades may 13th for the chip that's uh 8 p.m on
a bc give us your thoughts regi can we pull key out of retirement
yeah you need some eligible yeah we're we're we're thinking about that
i know he has at least one hitch route in him so
we might be able to pull on yeah but but no but i tell you what
bob stoops is the head coach of arlington and you want to talk about a football
coach this guy is an amazing coach a hall of
famer uh he's built this team the right way uh they have great players uh they'll
play hard he's done a great job all you do is win
i've always been a fan of his from afar uh but getting a chance to know him now
has been outstanding uh they i mean their defense line
is the biggest defense line i've seen uh physical uh they got their quarterback
Perez is playing outstanding so uh it'll be a huge challenge just as it is always
man it's his pro ball and you got to prepare and uh be ready rock and roll
tess regi barlow coach of the year in the xf l as the defenders play for the
championship a week from saturday i think the larger question and their
son it kind of hinting around with that when they're talking to him um is
immaterial to be a head coach in the nfl and i think
this is an interesting test case he's not necessarily lobbying for that
but this is pro football he did a phenomenal job with the defenders
he's been a head coach before in college in two different stops
he's played in the nfl he was a teammate of quiche on johnson
when the tampava buccaneers won the super bowl
he's got experience and i would think as they try and give more and more
minorities opportunities to be head coaches that you got to look at his
resume and consider him he's done an
an outstanding job this year and uh be curious to follow his career the next
few years and see what kind of opportunities are there for him
let me pivot to this dylan brook story which has been you know
percolating in the nba for the last few days
dylan brooks i thought made a fool of himself when he decided that he was
going to go after labron james and he called him old and tired and
said he wasn't as good as he used to be and then he got ejected in game three
this is the uh memphis player dylan brooks he got ejected in game three
after uh punching labron in the fellas and uh then chose not to speak to the
media after three of their losses resulting in a twenty five thousand
dollar fine and the athletics shams shiraniya
reported the other day that uh management of memphis has said or not
publicly said but has has come to this conclusion
that brooks will not be brought back quote under any
circumstances so um there has been backlash on that
that uh a number of african-american analysts have suggested maybe some
race issues are involved here that they have taken a guy who was a
good solid player for them a top-level defender 27 years old and they've
thrown him under the bus well this is a white reporter this is steve ash burner
from nba.com he was on with dan helley and uh he agrees
not only is that sort of bad form in um an employer employee relations in
general but i mean they're throwing this guy under the bus
um even even if he spun out of control for a couple weeks there of of the
postseason i mean this this you know dylan brooks has been a helpful piece
for them he was he was really important in in previous you know
playoff uh toad dipped in the water last year and such and
i you know i thought he would i did he did a very creditable
and at times thankless job for them this year he accepted that role as a
three-and-d guy and he guarded the other teams
most potent scores on many nights um he allowed
jerene jackson jr to thrive as a as a help defender and a room protector and
win the defense of player of the year award you know dylan brooks
there was ill advise i was standing right in front of them when we made the
comments about the bran uh in the post game locker room
in uh in memphis and in real time i mean it was as if
you could hear while he was talking in front of me
i could hear in my head oh this is a huge mistake do not do this you know you
were going to live to regret this um and you know
apparently he's he's he's gonna regret it in ways beyond what he would have thought
look it would have been easy for the grisleys to just let free adt happen
in the meantime they could have you know lied to um
media people and just said well you know we we'll certainly be competitive with
dylan and you know we wanted to come back and and stick to a
nope under no circumstances um policy uh internally
um you know stuff can leak out and i guess in essence this did leak out
but um was it see i'm still wondering was it a quote
or was it a characterization by someone who reported it
if you have if you have management there or the owner
of the memphis grisley saying under no circumstances with coat marks around it
that's one thing if it's a characterization by somebody you know
tweeting out their version of the grisley stands on
books even if true you know in essence but under no
circuit i can't i can't beat uh somebody up unless i know that's
exactly what someone said now they just said look we're done with him
um he can go out there and find something better we need to make a change of the
that might imply under no circumstances but that's pretty cold in harsh
language if it truly was said by official grisleys person
then you know i think they're going to hurt themselves they're going to hurt
themselves in in free agency with other mda players
who wants to go um you know work for play for an organization
that after you bust a gut for them will you know sort of you know put you out
there like that and and do you all i just i think it's uh there was no
profit in it for them to do this and they got a little emotional and carried
away um and i i i think that they've got some damage
control to do as a result and dylan brooks hasn't even hit
createncies that's steve ashburner nba dot com on the dylan brook story now
there's a postscript to this and this came out yesterday
mike george who is the agent for dylan brooks called out sham's serrania
from the athletic for reporting this and uh george is the founder of one legacy
sports management they represent uh several other nba players jimal murray
kenny lofton jr he ripped into serrania
saying uh he was spreading false news and even attacking players he says why any
player in the league talks to this guy
blows my mind um false news okay well you know maybe uh maybe he needs to prove
that that's false news i don't know there really hasn't been a lot of pushback
uh from the organization on this you know this came out and nobody from the
organization said oh no we we never said that
no it didn't happen of course the agent is going to protect his player you would
expect him to say something like that so dylan brooks will find a job you know
he's 27 years old he's still a very good defensive player
but probably needs to learn if you're going to be this guy if you're going to
be the the player that's going to try to get under the bronze skin
and it doesn't work out for you you get kicked out of a game you got to face
the media that that i think is you know this is not a
new thing dennis ronman did this a lot of players have done this over the years
but uh but if you're going to do it you got to face the music when it doesn't
work out and it didn't work out for dylan brooks in that series against the
Lakers and uh if he wanted to stay with Memphis uh that's not going to happen
and you know even if he didn't that hurts his leverage with other teams as
well where you've got a team almost publicly you know they haven't denied
what shim shirani have reported almost publicly saying he's not coming back
any under any circumstances coming up 30 all right uh that's a wrap for me
uh tony is uh not doing a show tomorrow but he's got one coming up next same
schedule for next week but then things get back on track i'm told
after that uh so looking forward to uh three hours of rolling tomorrow uh thank
you for listening for the last two and i will see you back here tomorrow morning
at nine a.m.