Grant and Danny
Full Show- Friday, August 30th, 2024
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Take on fall in a trail tackling Tacoma, or go for the powerful Tundra. Head to toyota.com for more info, or visit your local Toyota dealership today. Toyota, let's go places. [MUSIC] The seasons may be changing, but the deals of the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl, Tasha McKeea, and I need you to join the sharpest rides for their fall into savings events, where they're offering incredible prices on their massive inventory. That's right, everything is on sale now. Shot from sleek sedans to rugged SUVs and sporty convertibles. The sharpest rides has the perfect ride to match your fall adventures. Plus, with their exclusive financing options, getting behind the wheel of your dream car has never been easier. Log on and shop online at thesharpestrides.com, right from the palm of your hands. Or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides, located 2250 South Sea Home Street in Inglewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out, head on over to thesharpestrides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl, Tasha McKeea sent you the sharpest ride, affordable, sexy, sharp. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Good Friday afternoon and welcome into Grant and Danny. It's August 30th, 20, 24 and we are taking you all the way up to six, 15. And that's baseball pregame with Charlie and Dave about four hours, 15 minutes from right now. Excited to talk to Armin Kitek in who's a great storyteller was part of the real sports with Brian Gumbel crew for years. Armin Kitek on the show because he wrote a book about the state of college football and the business that it has always been but is becoming more and more now to the light. Yeah, he will be on the show at five o'clock to discuss that. We've got tickets for the final time this week to see Kevin Hart when he is performing a D. A. R. Constitution Hall. You want to see live comedy in a great venue in town this coming month in September. Make sure you're listening, try to win those final two tickets we've got right at four o'clock ahead of the blitz today. What's up, Danny? Hey, buddy. So the kids are home from school today. That's a I get it. Kids have been in school for almost two weeks. So we should probably just slow our role and have a nice day off with the day I've coupled on Monday. Again, I want everyone to know that I am in favor of the thing I'm supposed to be in favor of and opposed to all the right stuff. And I'm on your side and I agree with you 100%. I will say if I ever wrote for public office, I won't. But if I ever did, here would be my platform. The kids go to school. Whatever we got to do, people need extra money, people need more payment, whoever's got whoever I got to talk to. Those kids, they go to that school. If it's a weekday, we're going every time. Very few exceptions. Right around Christmas holiday. We will do spring break. That was fun too. But we're going to go. It's going to be open and it opens at a certain time and it closes at a certain time. But we're going. That's the, that's my platform. But again, I agree with every one of you. Good day overall. Anyway, how's it going for you? Seems like you're running hot today. Yeah, it came a little red, but yeah. I had a great time watching college football last night. I told you I was on my way to a high school football game when I left here. Big football day for granted. Got postponed and rained out. So I did go over this morning at 10 a.m. Because there was no school to your point and watch a little high school football with my son, which was nice. Over to West Springfield High School today. But last night, I watched Colorado and North Dakota State. The Buffalo's and the bison, pretty similar mascots, 31 26 final couple of thoughts from your guy. Go ahead. First of all, Travis Hunter, who is both a wide receiver and a cornerback and is considered one of the top five players in America at both position. Rightly so is an unbelievable talent. Now he got away a couple of times with very obvious offensive pass interference, which I really didn't see anybody talk about or acknowledge or care about. But it was very clear to me a couple of times either pushed off or the deep throw down the right sideline, started the second half. There was some hand fighting and then there was some pushing by one person. The most obvious push off ever, but that's great. He's really had a touchdown where he slung a guy to the ground back of the end zone, not called. Don't really care about that. That's not the point. The point is that guy is the best athlete on any field that he's going to be on this year. And I tweeted this last night, here's what's scary about him. I'm not sure that there will be a better athlete on an NFL field next year when he's on it. Maybe Lamar Jackson or somebody like that. Maybe. But there have not been talents like this. I don't remember anybody this side of Charles Woodson who could do it both ways. Champ Bailey, you remember, post Woodson 99, Washington drafted seventh overall to the University of Georgia, played wide receiver, played corner, a little bit in college, not to the same extent that Hunter does. And Bailey, even in the NFL, very, very limited capacity. But if you remember at the end of some lost seasons, I think it was the Spurrier timeframe. They asked him to play on both sides of the ball. He caught some passes, was targeted as a wide receiver. You just don't see it. It's like the show, hey, thing in football, it's too hard. People aren't good enough. Athletes just as great as you are to do that in college to do it in the NFL as a whole different ball game. I think this guy could play both positions. I don't think it'll be a star at both. But why wouldn't you at least let him give it a try in the NFL early on to see if you could have him run some routes, take some screens for you, design stuff, but then also have him be a primary corner. But to me, corner first receiver second, or why couldn't he do a little bit of both champ Bailey style? The longer it goes, the more it's worth finding out. You know what I mean? Like he is exceptional. Like to me, the playmaking ability on offense is what it's easier to see. That makes any sense. I guess he was he's graded higher as a corner as a pro prospect, which is fine. But I'd like the football on his hands also. You know what I mean? Like send him down the field a few times. Let's see what happens. Couple of couple of breakers, couple of crossers, maybe a go ball here or there. That dude is amazing. The first time I saw him catch a ball last night, he ran quite literally like a seven yard stop route, turned around a little hitch, caught the ball, then he shakes the defender for what would have been a five yard gain. Then the safety takes an angle that isn't perfect. So he outruns him and he goes untouched into the end zone for a 41 yard touchdown. Now in the league, a little bit different than against North Dakota State. I understand that. I'm not sitting here pretending like he'd be a 1000 yard wide out and the best corner in football. I saw CJ Gardner Johnson, the defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles take issue with Robert Griffin, who had suggested that he should get to do both in the NFL or try to do both. And basically, Gardner Johnson's point was it's just different up here, man. I get it. He's good. He's talented. You guys are all fawning on him. But he basically said nobody can do it up here the way he's doing it in college. And that's probably true if we're talking about majoring in both and being the number one receiver for a team and the corner that's going to shut down the best wide receiver. I'm just saying he should be your starting corner and be drafted in the top five or top 10 where he's going to go. And then also you should give him the occasional opportunity to touch the football. And you can't just throw him a screen every time he's out there. That's a tell. So you put him out there for 15, 17 snaps a game when you're an 11 personnel or you're spreading an offense out and three or four times you throw him the football or you give him a pop pass or you get him in jet action and handed to him. He's just two dynamic. He's too good. Yeah. I mean, Dion Sanders obviously did that at the pro level. You mentioned champ Bailey, Charles Woodson here and there. There've been guys who've, you know, sort of crossed that uncrossable threshold here in there because they were that exceptional. And who knows maybe he's one of them. But I know this just a couple of things North Dakota state frisky. That was fun. Right? Not a division one team, whatever you call, whatever the next layer down is the subdivision or FPS or whatever the names have changed used to be one double A. I don't know that. I know this. Did Colorado on their heels a little bit with halftime lead and everything else? That was a close game. That was fun. FCS. Yeah, the football championship subdivision, but North Dakota state is really good. And I think if they played that game again right now, they'd be in that game too. The difference was Colorado's offense is prolific enough. And they just have athletes, the likes of which Dakota state does not. There's nobody to stop horn or hunter that just they don't have that, but North Dakota state is a probably a better, more complete football team in a sense. And because of that hung, when they were up 20 to 17 at the half, it was 20 to 14 with a minute or so to go in the second quarter, and it ended up being a good game. Now to Colorado's credit while I knocked their defense, which was a borant, I thought in the first half, they gave up all of six points in the second half as late in the game after they were pitching a shutout. I think they held North Dakota state to sub 100 yards over a quarter and change. So it did a lot of things after half time, made some adjustments are very, very smart. But I also thought the officiating late was weird. I thought North Dakota state shot themselves in the foot of bunch by continually bringing in their backup quarterback to do some Tim Tebowie type stuff when Cam Miller, their starter, was just picking Colorado apart early. It's not like you couldn't move either. No, he was good. Yeah. Like please, listen, I don't know anything. I'm not sitting there. I'm not writing about North Dakota state. I'm not covering him every day. He ran for ADR. No enough. That guy do that one, the guy that was 18 out of 22 for two 77 and who ran pretty well, that guy, not the other guy, that guy. Where are you on Shador Sanders who threw for 445 yards and four touchdown? This is such a tough question because I know that he's an excellent college football player. I am sure of that, right, that he's doing some of those things like that one long pass he threw after what was it, 15 seconds. Kelly Williams style where he ran around, dodge seven people, pump fake for dudes, heading left off his side foot, slung it a dime, 50 yards down the field to somebody. You go, okay, he's, he's a better athlete than everybody there at the college level, especially against North Dakota state. He's going to be a pro. I just don't know yet, but it's, it's fun to watch. He's electric at a minimum. My only concern, I think as a player, he's going to end up being a top of the board type pick. Basically, he extends plays. He's a pocket pass. It's like all the stuff I love. He is a great arm. I don't know if I want to deal with the circus that's going to come with him. And you got Deon Sanders on podcasts already. I was watching a clip today where he says, we're going to Eli Manning, this thing, you know, there's certain cities he's not going to somebody asked what, what picks do you expect? Shador Sanders, the quarterback and Travis Hunter, the dual threat we were just talking about. It might be the best player in America overall. Like where do you expect those guys to go? And he said, they're both going to the top four, you know, one will probably go one. The other won't go after pick four, he said, but it's going to get complicated because we're also going to dictate where these guys end up. Whatever that is. I'm not interested in it. I didn't like it when John Elway did it. In fact, my dad despised John Elway his entire career after that. I'm not quite going to go that hard in the paint, but I didn't like it when Eli Manning did it. Like you just, it's not for me. And I won't like it when Shador Sanders does it. But also just the fact that it's Deon and he's jumping on the mic after the game to talk to the crowd and people are referring to him as coach prime. No, thank you. We are here to do football stuff. The sideshow, the credentials from CNN, like whatever else, I'm not interested. So that that would be really complicated for me. He's got to be heading shoulders better than the other corner. And he might be, honestly, for me to be able to engage in the business of Shador Sanders. But I think he's a really good player. I know that. Yeah, for sure. They are for good, better and different. It's like that old Howard Stern phenomenon where the people that like it, listen, the people that don't like it, listen, and everybody in between listens to find out what both sides are talking about there. That's what I've got going with Colorado right now. I'm torn. Like Sanders, Hunter, like these are unbelievably exciting players to watch. And Deont Sanders is drawing attention, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. I find myself not being able to help it. Like if you told me a team that's not the top 25 is playing an FCS team on Thursday night and go, maybe I'll catch some, maybe I'll watch it if it's on. That's what happened. I, every second I could that I wasn't dealing with kids or whatever, I'm sitting down watching that contest. That says something Brandon, I you got paid as we got off the air yesterday. So we had Adam Peters on it for 15. If you guys missed that interview, we'll re-rack some of it before you're coming up in just a bit on Grant and Danny and we'll break down some what Adam Peters told us. But we asked him about Brandon, I you can the possibility of a trade. He basically dodged it. He said, I'm not going to talk about that next question. Well, it's pretty clear that the book had already been slammed shut that they were putting together on I you because it was a couple hours later that we found out he agreed to a four year, $120 million contract with San Francisco, 30 million annual average value tied with Tyree kill back into the top five highest paid wide receivers in the game. What was the most compelling thing about the story though last night? If you notice was all the newsbreakers that were on the text chain, chef turn our buddy Rossini and some others. They right away put out that Brandon, I you accepted the offer that was made to him on August 12, 17 days earlier that he said, no, at the time he didn't want to take. And then immediately after that came out, our youth's agent said that's not true. So you've got the team clearly saying, yeah, I wonder who told me who what there, yeah, we paid him what we said. We were going to pay him. He just came around three weeks later and then the agent said that's not how this worked out at all. Oh, hum. Much to do about not that everyone's going to have their side, their version, their posturing. The agent wants the full amount out there. The team wants though. Yeah, this is what the guarantees are. The truth is somewhere in the middle and we had an odyssey, didn't we? Now it's not an odyssey. It's not an audible thing where you're going on a journey. It's an odyssey, an actual long journey. Just to get to a place that made the most sense all along, right? Really good player for a really good team. Oh, okay. There's everyone knows he's good. There's a huge contract offer. It's not going to be the one that resets the market. It's not going to be north of CD lamb, not going to be north of Justin Jefferson, but it's in that ballpark. You're going to be paid in that top five type range and that's what happened. Ta-da. Here we are. It was always made the most sense. My sincerest hope is that his social media shtick and all of the nonsense that he pulled publicly on the internet does not become the norm that when players are in disputes with teams, they conduct themselves professionally and they don't do this childish emoji era behavior that Brandon Ayuk did. And I tweeted this last night and a lot of people said, well, it worked. Why wouldn't other players do it? It worked. And to that I say, no, it didn't. Who says it worked? There's no causation between him posting a picture of commanders practice or videos of calling Jaden Daniels or tweeting at Mike Tomlin or any of the other crap that he was doing and getting paid. They both happened, but Justin Jefferson did none of that and got paid CD lamb did zippy of that and got paid. In my opinion, he got paid yesterday because deadlines make deals and he's really good and the team is really good. He got paid because it's time to play football. Camp is over. The preseason is over. The roster is formed and week one preparations and NFL buildings begin this weekend and add another one for San Francisco, by the way, and their long list of doing it this way and getting it done. Now, whether it's the truth is that's the August 12th offer, it's actually the August 17th offer. We don't care about that sort of stuff. Agents do the player does or whoever, but San Francisco multiple times over, whether it's with with Bosa, now Iuke and a couple other examples, Debo Samuel, I think they've basically said this is what it's going to be and they've waited. They've held their cards. They haven't gotten desperate. They've been smart and, you know, maybe taking some flak for it at times, but the players in camp are not camp, but the players in tow and they go and they're able to play football for the season. Yeah. And if you're brand than Iuke, it wasn't a net loss. I saw people beating up on him as if he didn't get what he wanted. You still got paid a huge contract. You're right up there with Tyree kill at 30 million a year and you didn't have to practice at all at training camp, which isn't fun for a veteran and you didn't have to play it all in the preseason. And now you line up and you go to work and week one. Now, I guess it's possible that if he shows up and he's not in great shape or he wasn't preparing himself, then maybe we don't see him until week two. But at that position, knowing the offense as well as he does as important as he is to the team, my guess is he'll be out there when they play their first game of the season next weekend. But, you know, the publicly tweeting at Tomlin, the posting of photos and video calls with Jaden Daniels, pics of other team's practices, call me old fashioned or crazy. A, it's not for me and B. I really don't believe it helped him any here. I think that happened and also he got a contract, but I would just point to every other wide receiver that's been paid this off season that didn't do it that way and took a little bit less of a public beating for it, by the way. You can actually make the case that they were better off. Like Justin Jefferson, CD lamb, these guys that did it in a more professional manner. Now, it also didn't hurt him. It doesn't look like or appear. It doesn't seem like it cost him money or cost money off the contract or something, right? It's not like they don't want to do business with him anymore, but I just saw people taking victory lap like, oh, he forced their hand. Oh, it worked. No, it didn't. Yeah, a lot less tweeting or Instagramming or tick-tocking, whatever want to call it and a lot more. The football season starts next week and he hasn't practiced yet. Like that's, that's more it and they'd like him in the full because they're at their best when he's there, which is pretty intuitive, pretty obvious now, right? It was almost traded a couple of times, you know, there were teams trying to acquire him. I mean, this was not a for people that are now looking back at it and going, Oh, this was all much should do about nothing and he was always going to be a 49er and this contract was inevitable. I don't think so. I think there was a moment where they tried to trade him to the Pittsburgh Steelers, you know, that they wanted to trade him to, well, we know the Patriots and the Browns, you know, where the commanders are talking in their close. In fact, Diana Racini of the athletic reported yesterday that the 49ers actually tried to trade a third round pick to the Denver Broncos for Courtland Sutton and if they could have pulled off the deal, Denver said no, that they would have shipped the pick, gotten Sutton and then moved to Pittsburgh. That was kind of the, the two prong plan. They just couldn't get the receiver to replace him and that goes back to what you and I have kind of been screaming all along, which is they're a Super Bowl caliber team with aspirations of lifting the Lombardi trophy at the end of the year finally, they're not going to take a big step back in 2024 when they've got a closing window to just get draft picks. They needed something else that helps them in the immediate season in return and they weren't able to figure it all out. So they decided 30 million for IU, keeping them around is the best answer. Yeah, there are a lot of teams that could absolutely afford to be a little bit worse this year at the expense of the future here in Washington, for example, they've given up to guys that would have contributed something. Who knows exactly what John Ridgeway or John Dodson would have done this year? Who knows? But that's more important to them to have future capital, future draft assets, you know, future young pieces for a group that's going to be patient. I know they hate the word rebuild and we'll never say it, but we can kind of look at it and say, yeah, that's what it looks like, right? It looks like, you know, prioritizing draft capital in the future, even if it means you might not be as good come, you know, week one. He's Danny. I'm Grant. You're listening to the fan. Adam Peters with us yesterday discussed what success looks like for the commanders this year. Want to get into that next on the fan. This episode is brought to you by progressive insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name your price tool from progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust progressive, progressive, casually insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDul America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play by play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's fanDul.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real moneyweights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a thrallable bonus bet set expire seven days after receipt restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanDul.com gambling problem call 1-800-522-4700. Dear Autumn Leaves, you won't be covering roads alone this season. Toyota's lineup of cool, colorful vehicles is ready to ride by your side. Take on fall in a trail tackling Tacoma or go for the powerful Tundra. Head to toyota.com for more info or visit your local Toyota dealership today. Toyota, let's go places. The seasons may be changing, but the deals of the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl, Tasha McKia. And I need you to join the sharpest rides for their fall into savings event, where they're offering incredible prices on their massive inventory. That's right, everything is on sale now. Shot from sleek sedans to rugged SUVs and sporty convertibles. The sharpest rides has the perfect ride to match your fall adventures. Plus, with their exclusive financing options, getting behind the wheel of your dream car has never been easier. Log on and shop online at the sharpest rides.com right from the palm of your hands. Or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides, located 2250 South Sea Home Street in Inglewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out. Head on over to the sharpest rides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl, Tasha McKia, sent you the sharpest rides, affordable, sexy, sharp. Doors take us to summers away. Or winter adventures and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential, because doors were meant to be opened. Visit fidelity.com/wealth/investment-menimals-apply Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC member NYSE SIPC. With Danny, I'm Grant. This is the fan. We're taking you up to 6 15 tonight. Charlie Dave, Nat's pregame at that time. First pitch of the Cubs at the Nat's here at Nationals Park, just down the road. In the Navy Yard, set for 6 45, and I believe the weather should be mostly clear by that point. We'll get our official update on that before we get out of here on Grant and Danny. Armand Cutein talking college football at five. The book that he wrote is getting rave reviews. They did years, two, three years worth of work and research. It seems like and have relationships with so many powerful people in and around college football. It's just a really, really well done project. So we'll talk to him about the State of the Union of College football before the big first weekend of the season. That's at five o'clock here on the fan. And remember at four head of the Beltway Blitz, we do have those tickets. If you want to win tickets to see Kevin Hart, the time is four o'clock today. D.A.R. Constitution Hall. Great venue to see comedy. I've got two heavy rotation comedians right now that I've been like my favorite. Sing a lot of content on Dave Chappelle is my one seat. I think he does. I'm going to watch and generally love, but right now Shane Gillis is in heavy rotation. He's the it guy. Yeah. I watched that show tires. He did on Netflix. Was anything good? I thought it was funny. It's not. It's not going to be for everyone. Okay. My wife saw it for three minutes. It's very vulgar out. A lot of bad words. She did not like it. And then Nate Bargazzi, who's the opposite, I think he's pretty clean. Crystal clean. Yeah. He is as funny and smart. You have to be when you're clean, I think, as any comedian in the game. But those are two guys right now I'm working with. So Bargazzi, so funny, well, but him and Shane Gillis actually both have this. They come across as I don't know anything. I'm just sort of out here just chatting with you. That is the guys. And I'm not saying they're like putting on an act like they're not doing what Dan Whitney does. Who's there the cable guy. They're technicians. Yeah. They're not big giant frauds like Dan Whitney. But what they are is really, really, really smart and they're able to take these little things and you go, I'm not sure if I should laugh at that. And then within seven or eight seconds, you are gofalling. I saw the story about Bargazzi when he was way pudger had kind of a weirder haircut. We did the show in upstate New York at a winery five. It was a showcase style. He was headline. He did he did like a 30 minute closing set. Seven of us did like five, 10 minutes or whatever up front. And we just were eating bowls up. You know what? Just shoveling the worst of the worst while coming back like right into danger. They're really tough crowd, they're kind of snooty. They don't really like anything within a minute and a half. He's got people snorting red wine out of their nose just and I go, that's a star. Now I know it. And he's done as much as you can do. He's been hilarious. A rocket ship the last couple of years. Adam Peters was on our show yesterday. If you miss that interview, you got to find a way when we're done tonight to podcast the whole thing is he was both courteous with his time, but also kind of fun through the ball around with us and we enjoyed it. But we asked him about the finding success this year and what his metrics are going to be, how he's going to consider this year a win or a loss. This is what Peter said right here on Grant and Danny yesterday afternoon. Yeah, I think you do get in a trouble looking too far down the road. And so again, you know, you're probably going to get a radio show full of cliches here. But we're really, I mean, every single day, we're trying to get better. And I think that's how we look at it. And if we got better today, we had a really good day of practice today. Guys looked really good. The guys were into it before we have a three day break before we get back and start working for Tampa. So we went out and got a lot better today. I saw it and that's the outlook you have each day each week. You're getting better and you're stacking, you're stacking up days. And then if you do that and you get better each day, you're going to like what it looks like at the end of the year. So that sounds and even acknowledge this, just like the most football, cliche, yuck kind of cringy every day is its own day and all we could do is win today one and oh, whoa. I actually think in their case that may very well be how they're viewing this whole thing. And the bigger picture point, which is actually I think the takeaway from that answer is there is no real expectation. There is nothing they've got to do or accomplish this year to consider this a win. They don't have an owner and Josh Harris breathing down their neck that they've got to go stockpile victories. Now Harris did say in his press conference that he did and there's maybe we could grab this if you could find it from Sunday night that he wants the team to be better than they were last year. He didn't say meaning the four wins, but he did reference. They won four games. So my guess is if they win two or three games, he's going to be pretty upset and he should be honestly, but assuming you win more than four games, I don't think there's anything else they've got to do to show Josh Harris that they're headed in the right direction. And if that's really the case, if this is about development, if this, like it is for me, is solely really about Jaden Daniels and making sure you found the guy or did your draft class excel is Brandon Coleman, a left tackle by the end of the year is Luke McCaffrey looked like a weapon at wide receiver. Did you find a solution for life after John Allen, who doesn't have any guaranteed money beyond this season with Johnny Newton? Like if those things are yes, his and you went five and 12. So what who cares? There is no pressure, which is a really nice thing when you're a GM and a head coach. But the way that materializes, in my opinion, Danny, is that each day you can kind of live the way he's talking about that cliche that most teams actually don't get. The Packers can't view it that way. The Steelers can't view it that way. But here where you picked second last year and you've been bad for 30 years and you got a new owner and a baby quarterback who just came out of the womb ready to play some football here in his first days on the job and in the NFL, yeah, you can kind of say, was today a good practice. All right. Then we're doing fine because there's really not that expectation. Yeah, if you want to eventually win the 100 meter dash, we're in the crawling phase. So yeah, if today we took our first steps, that's, that's totally fine. I think that's a good way to do it. You can look up at the end of a certain amount of time. How long is that honeymoon? We don't know. We talked about this all the time as the end of the Snyder era happened in the beginning of the hog ownership group, we're going, at some point, the honeymoon's going to end. It hadn't yet for me. I don't, I pinched by myself. We have audio from Josh Harris, not on some phone call with a, with a gaming commission, bragging about Carson Wentz, but just addressing the media like a human being. I'm not taking it for granted yet. Adam Peters called our show, called us each by our names, not that I matter at all, but just like the, the, the wherewithal and the emotional intelligence just to be a good human being, right? And, and, and speak to people on a human level didn't call you Dave, they get the shortcut. You want to draw a contrast? There it is for me. One person called me Dave pretended we're buddies. You are Dave though. I mean, I am to agree. The other person, the other person, don't be able to first kind of pick in his book. No, but I mean, come on, dude. Like I'm not taking it for granted yet. Eventually we're going to say, okay, I'm looking at my watch. Now, what, what are we doing it? I'm not there yet. To me, it's very simple. It's a pass fail. Do we believe Jaden Daniels do we think we have it? Is he good? Even if he's not good yet? Is he about to be good? It's not super clear though. So that's the only gray area that would be a hole in that because I agree with you. If Jaden Daniels is the answer and we know that at the end of the year, record be damned victory. Now let's go get what we need around him and let's win some football games and I'll see you at the NFC champion. Yes. So my cop out is incomplete where if we need more time, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll do it again. But to me, incomplete feels like an L2 in a sense could be like, for example, if, let's say God forbid, he sprains his ankle, it's a high ankle sprain in, in week two. I don't mean injuries. And that's obvious. And plays football season long and we're not sure he's the guy. That's going to be disappointing. Fair. But I guess what I'm saying is I'm going to be talking about one where he's got to miss a season or he misses two months. Let's say he's hampered at, at a certain point at, or Terry McCorran has turf toe that, that keeps him from being effective. Like happened in the beginning of last year, wherever that was with his foot, a couple of different things happen. You go, what's really hard to evaluate Jaden Daniels turns out that Brandon Coleman ain't to do it. And they got a journeyman left tackle. And they're receiving course in any good or the kind, though, there are very, very rare cases when you hear fan bases doing that kind of explaining away their quarterback when the quarterback ultimately becomes good. That's what you heard from Justin Fields backers. That's what we heard with haskins here. You know, guys that didn't end up amounting really frankly, you overcome more, more often than not when you're good. Like even Josh Allen is a good example, Josh Allen's first year was not great. Statistically it wasn't. But if you go back to the end of his first year, there were a lot of people like me who were going, did you see that throws this guy made? Do you see some of them rushing attempts that this guy had breaking to like it was pretty obvious he could play. I didn't think he'd be a top three quarterback in the NFL necessarily, but after one season he had done enough. And that's my poem with Jaden Daniels is I think if you're on the field for the whole year, you're going to show the thing. You're going to show that you've got the breakaway ability, the propensity to run for 800,000 yards, whatever it is, the you're going to have touch and accuracy and make good decisions or you're not as a pastor. Could there be an incomplete? Yes, absolutely that there often is. My point is just to me, it's not like three categories where it's like he's the guy I feel great or he's not the guy I feel bad. To me incomplete gets filed into that one and you could still pull him into the other bucket next year, but for the meantime, it's almost like a binary, you proved it or you didn't. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, for me, I'm willing to offer more patience. Maybe I don't know what the right word is to be different. I don't know because I mean, I got to look at just you referenced Josh Allen. You like Josh Allen coming out. I didn't. Right. I was wrong about that. You were right. So you deserve credit for it. But at the end of his first year, he had 10 touchdowns, 12 picks and you're going this. What is this going to happen? And then in the middle of the second year, the conversion happened. And so I guess my point is if Jaden Daniels turns in 10 touchdowns, 12 picks, 52% completion percentage, that's not what people would be excited about it. It looks awful on the back of a football card, but watch the games. Sure. And it's so funny to say it was an impressive 10 touchdown. No, but I, and I'm with you. He did things that most guys can't do and you thought, all right, we got work to do with this guy, but this is an NFL pro. You can build things around. And I guess that's my point. So I would still offer that as an incomplete, but if you're going, I saw the thing that's good enough. I get that approach too. Well, and that goes back to like how you evaluate or view it. And I talk about this all the time. I just need to see the thing. The rest of it doesn't matter to me. I overuse my analogy of the scout watching the baseball pitcher. That is how I view quarterbacks pretty much. Story being a scout told me that he went to a game one time, he watched the first inning of this like high school pitcher. He touched 97 through a really good breaking ball. He packed up everything he had and he just called his GM on. He wrote a check mark and he's like, I like the guy we should take him. That's all he needed to see. He's got that. He's got the breaking ball. He's got a feel for spin. Like we can figure the rest out with a quarterback. I need the good stuff. I need the flash plays, not once every month or so, but enough of them. And I just think generally Herbert did it, you know, burrow did it. You can tell pretty quickly, doesn't mean it's gospel, you know, Griffin had some huge unbelievable moments. It went the other way, maybe because of injury. So sometimes you'll get fooled. I'm not saying it's a hundred percent, but I do think over the course of the year, if he's healthy, we'll have a real good idea of what he is by the end of the season. And maybe more importantly, what Kingsbury is with him, what the fit is like, what that's going to look like. But here's where we should get to next. I want to ask you this question. We can hit the phones. If in fact they're, they're evaluating this as like this day to day. Let's just get better. That's success this year process. Is there anything that can happen that would lead to you being disappointed non Daniels division? So if we're saying wins and losses, not the end all be all, not how you're going to grade this thing. And maybe you guys do feel differently. And that's fine. 800-636-1067. What would be your answer to the question of how do you define success? But is there something that could happen? Again, other than Daniels not playing well, that you would say, oh, that was an L for this group. Like if, if they're really bad and the draft class isn't good, or what would that look like? Is that even possible in a year where wins and losses don't matter to you? Grant and Danny on the fan. The seasons may be changing, but the deals and the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl, Tasha McKeea. And I need you to join the sharpest rides for their fall into savings event, where they're offering incredible prices on their massive inventory. That's right. Everything is on sale now, shot from sleek sedans, to rugged SUVs and sporty convertibles. The sharpest rides has the perfect ride to match your fall adventures, plus with their exclusive financing options, getting behind the wheel of your dream car has never been easier. Log on and shop online at the sharpestrides.com right from the palm of your hands, or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides, located 2250 South Sea Home Street in Inglewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out. Head forward to the sharpestrides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl, Tasha McKeea sent you, the sharpest ride, affordable, sexy, sharp. Dear Autumn Leaves, you won't be covering roads alone this season. Toyota's lineup of cool, colorful vehicles is ready to ride by your side. Click on fall in a trail tack lead to coma, or go for the powerful tundra. Head to Toyota.com for more info or visit your local Toyota dealership today. Toyota, let's go places. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance, too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casually Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Doors take us to summers away or winter adventures and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential because doors were meant to be opened. Visit Fidelity.com/wealth, investment minimums apply, Fidelity brokerage services, LLC member NYSE SIPC. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's fanduel.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports book partner of the NFL. I'm focused on our long-term goals, which is I want to be elite and playing deep into the playoffs or competing for Super Bowls season and season out and I'm focused on building and I think this will be a better season than last year across the board. I think we're going to be obviously the identity that Dan and Adam have been talking about. The team is front and center in terms of us being competitive, being punishing, competing at the end, and obviously the record was dismal last year and we better be better than that. But really, I think this is going to be a way better season for all of those things and a lot of the intangibles, Jayden, continuing, developing, hopefully, into what we think and all hoped it and know that he can be. And so, a lot of intangibles, and then you should see improvement across the board on everything, whether I've learned a long time ago in sports not to make bold predictions, so I will not, this is sports, and I'll leave that to the betters in Vegas and other things, people who are better at making predictions than I am, but for sure, we're all going to have a much funnier time. That's Josh Harris, Sunday in discussing what he would consider a successful year. I didn't take that to mean, though, let's not do the four-win thing, guys. Let's not go two and 15, three and 14, you spent a lot of money, you brought in a lot of veterans. By the way, this is not a young team, by any means. It's one of the oldest teams in the league? That's something that I think gets slept on when we're talking about rebuilding everyone's is, "Oh, they're rebuilding. What don't you guys understand?" Okay. Kinda, I guess, like occasionally they are, and when it works out, they say they're rebuilding, but they also signed a lot of veterans to one or two-year deals. And when you just look at the ages of teams in this league, they're one of the oldest teams in the national football league. The numbers I have were players with at least four years NFL experience. Dolphins have 37, Panthers have 35, the commanders have 33 tied for third in all the football. So again, that's usually reserved for the contenders. Being one of the youngest teams doesn't guarantee you success. Being one of the oldest teams doesn't guarantee you anything either way. It's just interesting. When you think rebuild or think retool, recalibrate what I'm going to call it, it is a prioritization and deference, usually, to younger players, right? Listen, I'm glad Bobby Wagner's here, but it's usually a lot less Bobby Wagner, a little bit more, you know, sixth round Sam out of your name that school to be your starting linebacker who can grow into the position. For me, it just means that they shouldn't be horrendous. You signed enough pretty good football players who have played for a long time that you should not be a pushover. You should not be a picking in the top two or three team. You could have gone the path where that was the expectation in the plan and kicked it 20, 22 Washington national style with a full on rebuild and a triple A ball club, but you didn't do that. You went out and you got Austin Echler and Bobby Wagner and real veterans that can actually play a little bit. So I think if you're Josh Harris and you signed those checks, you're going, we don't need to go make the playoffs, but let's not be terrible. Let's be better than we were in the win column. And let's make sure Jaden Daniels is the dude 806361067. So the question going to break. Is there anything? And again, take Daniel's out of the equation, him being, you know, disappointing or something is an obvious answer. But is there anything that can happen other than Daniel's this year that would actually bother you long term? Yeah. And it's unfortunate related to Daniel. So it might be cheating. With what I'm viewing as the simply easily correctable, unforced errors come back to bite this team and something happens to Jane Daniels or he doesn't develop the right way or isn't as near as prolific and they're forced to just be, you know, Justin Fields like offense, a cave, the receiver positions a problem or the offensive line is a problem. These were easily addressable things to try to improve and they did some, but not that much and with cap space and draft picks and they didn't do it. Similarly, maybe not as pointed, if they're draft class and free agent classes are really unproductive and bad, like Echler struggles. There's not as much tread on the tire as we thought. Bobby Wagner falls off age hits him at the wrong time, Brandon Coleman can't play left tackle. They've got to kick him inside. Luke McCaffery by week 15 is just a dude on the depth chart. You never notice. I don't think any of these things are going to be the case, but I'm just stringing some ideas together of bad draft, bad free agency and you're over one in both capacities. Now I'm feeling very different going into the off season and the honeymoon wears off a little bit with some of the people that we feel best about right now from a decision making standpoint. Things in Virginia on great and Danny, what's up Shane? I don't think they had that wrong Rivera at all, though I think they quit on him. They initially did. I mean, at least that was what everybody claimed, right, was how much they loved him and played for him. Remember that it was very positive and rosy with Rivera early on. Great, but he's a great guy and what they say, but I don't need a great guy running my football team. I need somebody's going to get in the ice and make sure that they're making plays and go out there. And like I always say, the Byron stage, that's the coach for me next day, but that's the guys that win. Look at the meaner, but look how much success they have. That's what we need. And I think that we finally got some number one organized here and now we're just stepping. Just got to improve. All these players on this roster got to improve every week. And the year goes on at your point, Shane, good phone call, buddy, thank you. That doesn't mean it's linear or like week one. You did this. So you got to be doing X by week two, but to his point in at a lot of positions, let's just feel better about the group in week 11 and week two. And it's not going to be this way forever. But in the first year of this regime, if somebody calls up and says, Hey, if there's no crazy off the field stuff, if by the end of the year, I like Dan Quinn more is a higher and I like Jaden Daniels more as a draft pick and I feel really good about Adam Peters as an evaluator. And they went five and 12. Great. Those are the most important positions in the organization. Let's rock and roll and now let's go kick button the off season and go win nine games in year two. Go back and look at the first year of a new program here, right? For your data points. Now, the only exception is a seven and nine team that it took a team actively trying to lose in week number 17 or whatever the hell number it was for Philadelphia for them to get that seventh win and go to the postseason in the worst division in human history. That was basically a six and 10. It's a six and 10 quality team, but everyone else, it's usually it's four and 12. It's five and 11 at six and 10 historically when you bring in and start your new program because you're busy. The first thing you're doing is power washing away the old. Well, they did that. They got rid of a lot of dudes that were here before. So expectation should be kind of tempered in that way who is feeling the heat players, coaches in the NFL going into the season. That's next on Grant and Danny on the fan. The seasons may be changing, but the deals and the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl Tasha McKeea. I need you to join the sharpest rides for their fall into savings event where they're offering incredible prices on their massive inventory. That's right. Everything is on sale now, shot from sleek sedans to rugged SUVs and sporty convertibles. The sharpest rides has the perfect ride to match your fall adventures, plus with their exclusive financing options, getting behind the wheel of your dream car has never been easier. Go on and shop online at the SharpestRides.com right from the palm of your hands, or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides, located 2250 South Sea Home Street in Inglewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out. Head on over to the SharpestRides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl Tasha McKeea sent you the sharpest ride, affordable, sexy, sharp. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Doors take us to summers away, or winter adventures, and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential. Because doors were meant to be opened. Get Fidelity.com/wealth, investment minimals apply, Fidelity brokerage services, LLC member NYSE SIPC. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDul, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's fandul.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch, and make every moment more with FanDul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bet set expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com, gambling problem, call 1-800-522-4700. Here autumn leaves, you won't be covering roads alone this season. Toyota's lineup of cool, colorful vehicles is ready to ride by your side. Take on fall in a trail tackling Tacoma, or go for the powerful Tundra. Head to Toyota.com for more info, or visit your local Toyota dealership today. Toyota, let's go places. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] As the exclusive sponsor of Grant and Danny, the law firm Condori and Murad, can guide you in your family in the right direction by helping you to draft your will, set up a revocable trust, or create a health care power of attorney. Schedule a free consultation with their estate planning attorneys at kmloyers.com. Be sure to tell them that we sent you as a show, that way you'll get a discount, kmloyers.com. Beltway Blitz coming your way in one hour at four o'clock. That is when we're giving away those tickets to see Kevin Hart at D.A.R. Constitution Hall. Danny thought we could go around the NFL here with some people, could be coaches, could be players, could be teams, and have to show some folks that are on the hot seat in the national football league going into the 2024 season. I'll start in New York, Robert Salah. I like Robert Salah. I am a fan. I was a fan of his when he was in San Francisco, was a fan of him getting the gig. The wins haven't happened. There have been reasons for that they've had a scoundingly bad quarterback play. He was saddled with that a little bit. They've had talented, strong rosters that hasn't done a whole heck of a lot over his three years, 4 and 13, 7 and 10, 7 and 10. Now if it went Aaron Rodgers is healthy for the entire season and then it'll make expectations all of a sudden, fingers might start getting pointed. I'm going to go with the dolphins in that division. The dolphins have been the best team in football in the first half of the last two years, and then they fall off as the year goes on. And the playoffs come and they kind of become a shallow themselves, a 9 and 18 that lost in the first round in 2022, and an 11 and 16 that again lost in the first round in 2023. That 9 and 8 record very deceiving again because of how they finished the season. And there's always ways you can explain it away. Last year they played in a playoff game that was the coldest postseason game on record in history in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium, that's no fun for anybody, but their offense is if you look at it from the first half to the second half, cool off, and then the team does as well as the weather does, and it's just become kind of the expectation that everyone's gotten paid. They kept to around huge contract. They kept Mike McDaniel around today on an extension as they show he's very, very smart, but I do think it's time for the dolphins to break through here or else. It just feels to me like they're the Phoenix Suns in the NBA years ago. When they had this great regular season team, 60 wins, Steve Nash and Amari Stautemeyer and all these guys up and down the floor, but when it came time to play like half court games against San Antonio, you had no chance and I'm starting to feel like the dolphins are trending in that direction stylistically. The Cincinnati Bengals cheating here a little bit, putting a big group together, but if I told you this hits any Bengals at the end of the season are five and 12, they're uncertain whether Joe Burrow will ever be the same again. And this roster that was primed to be a Super Bowl contender for the last few seasons, having gotten to one just a couple of years ago is sort of set a drift or their 12 and five won that division and are playing in the AFC title game against Pat Mahomes and company. I could absolutely 100% see both scenarios. This injury that Joe Burrow is coming back from, not a lot of precedent for it. No one's really sure what it's going to be, what it's going to look like. There are a lot of years and a lot of dollars, rightfully so, for the 26 year old signal caller headed his way over the next several years, but this could be something that we're not really prepared for here that Cincinnati, the bottom falls out. We also need to be prepared for them to be a juggernaut and awesome and maybe win the best division in sports. They're the team that I've got the biggest variants on heading into the season. And I don't know which way to lean. Sean Watson, if I'm going to just keep following you division by division, you won't do it. The Cleveland Browns quarterback got a five year, two hundred, thirty million dollar contract, which sounds like a lot. And then you find out that every single penny was fully guaranteed unprecedented crazy contract. At the time, it made no sense. I think you and I, if memory serves, were at a hooters when this story broke in Fairfax around the NCAA tournament a couple of years ago. That sounds right to me. That's what I remember being when I first saw the details on the Deshaun Watson contract. He's 28 now. He's been in Cleveland for two very bad seasons. He was outplayed two years ago by Jacobi Brissette and he was outplayed last year by four hundred year old street free agent Joe Blacko. His two seasons there, he's basically completed 59% of his passes. It's really ugly, bad, gross numbers for Watson. And what's amazing is this team around him is really good. They went five in one in his six games he started last year, despite having seven touchdowns for picks and struggling worse than those numbers would indicate. But it is time because here's why, even though it's fully guaranteed, the way they structured the contract, Danny, the cap hit last year for him was 19 million. This year, 28 million, not that big of a deal. Two years after this, $73 million cap hits for Deshaun Watson. Now they'll tack on all the voidable years and they'll lower those numbers and they'll get creative and they're screwed no matter what. But my goodness, if he does not play better this year, we'll know definitively that's the worst contract ever given out in the sport. Trevor Lawrence, are we sure the pedigree is unbelievable, but are we sure he's great? He got paid like he's great. He's got one really good season to his credit. There are reasons why the other seasons were as good. I'm aware of that. The nonsensical urban Meyer situation that made no sense at any point in time. You sort of take that away. That's fine. We're still talking about a guy that was pretty disappointing last year for a team that was also disappointing. Now, I know they finished with an identical nine and eight record, but everybody thought that was the team on the rise. Remember, they had one of these signature wins in recent memory that come back win against the Los Angeles Chargers. They took Kansas City, gave them everything they could handle in the postseason and then I think losing by a field goal. This is a couple of years ago. And last year, we're just kind of around. They were middling. They were okay. There are moments of brilliance from Lawrence, but at some point, great players play great, right? At some point, if you've been doing this for a while, and we just sort of give you a pass because you're going to more overall pick and everyone that you were ready to play in the NFL probably as a freshman, a dealing at Clemson, you've been expected. You've been anointed for a while at certain point, the production has to meet it, right? He's kind of in the cool kids club because he was drafted very high and again, he's had one really, really good season, but surrounding that it's been one bad one and one pretty mediocre one. At a certain point, are you going to be great? That's my question. All right. So we're going to the AFC South. You won't. I've got two and I can't choose between them, so I'm going to give you both. I'll be a little quicker with them. Both are GMs, by the way. The first is Chris Ballard of the Colts. I love Chris Ballard. I think he's really good. He's been the GM there since 2017. You're going on to year seven now and they're further away at this point. It feels like then they were four years ago, certainly early on in his tenure when they had Frank Reich, who everybody liked and a situation where it looked like they were a playoff bound team, 10 wins, won't lost in the division round in 2018, 2020. Remember, they got to the playoffs 11 and five, they've routinely been nine or better in wins last year, nine and eight with Shane Steichen in his first season? Ballard at a press conference I saw a couple of days ago where he said, basically, if the way I do things gets me fired or, you know, if I end up losing my job over, you know, how we've built this team, so be it. When you start saying things like that, it's a pretty clear indicator. You're being asked tough questions. The walls are caving in a little bit. I happen to think he's very good at what he does and I like him. So I hope he has success and keeps his gig, but I do think they've got to win this year. I think they've got to be a nine plus win team again. I like them. Ten or more wins or else, like if they're seven and ten, he could be in trouble. The other GM and that division is a ran Karthon. He is the general manager of the Tennessee Titans. Here's why he's on the hot seat for me or has some tough questions to answer. This is the guy that got into the spat with Mike Vrable, where they had to choose between the two. Ownership chose Karthon over Vrable, a former coach of the year that everybody really, really liked. Vrable who has not had, but two losing seasons each over the last couple of years, but early on, nine and seven, nine and seven, eleven and five, twelve and five, got to a conference championship at one point in time. They ran him out of town. By they, I mean, I think mostly his relationship with his GM, we butted heads with. Karthon decided to go the complete opposite direction, which I don't hate, but he went away from the defensive leader of men. He went with Brian Callahan, the offensive minded coach to pair him with Will Levis, who he chose last year as his quarterback. It's a big year for him. Did you make the right choice at quarterback? Did you make the right choice with your head coach, did firing Vrable, end up looking stupid or looking smart? It's now all on him. And whenever you have a huge stare down with a coach and you win, all of a sudden it's time to put up or shut up. So I put him in that category as we're looking at the folks in the NFL with the most on the line and the most heat on their seats going into the season. So this one, I don't agree with for the record, but I think the reality is, I think this is the case. Nick Sirianni, what if I told you, I'll go old school, 30 for 30 style, what if I told you that a coach that is one, exactly, not approximately exactly two thirds of his games. That is a six, six, seven rounding up, winning percentage is somehow on the hot seat. But he is. We all saw how it ended last year. It was the most violent market correction in human history when it when it comes to sports potentially Philadelphia coming off a Super Bowl appearance where they were very much in contention. Could have won the game. Well, I ended up finishing 11 and six last season, but they collapsed down the stretch. We all saw it. Assistant coaches were fired. Everything regressed. Everything was bad. Yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda, again, an 11 and six season Washington by point of comparison has not won 11 games in a season since before Ryan Clary was born. And it's like a decade before he was born. All right. Let's all settle down, but the expectations are high. The division is ripe for the taking Dallas looks to, you know, be fine. I think even pretty good. They'll be neck and neck. And the division never has repeat winners, but Philadelphia is in the best place to do it. Enter Kellen Moore, Jalen Hertz is an MVP candidate that offense has every weapon under the sun. It's well built. They are here and ready with one of the best GMs in the sport. So yeah, there's extra pressure and heat on Nick Sirianne. If you want a hot seat in the NFC East, I'll go Mike McCarthy, head coach Dallas Cowboys. Of course he's on the hot seat. It seems like every single year he's on the hot seat. This is the year I think where if they don't get to an NFC championship game, he's probably out of luck. And it's kind of silly, honestly, because he took over, you know, a six-win program and they've gone 12 and five, three straight years. But it's pretty obvious they're not getting closer from a personnel standpoint. And maybe he can mix some potions. Dak has a great year with CD lamb and, you know, they move forward with a bad running back room and their defense without Dan Quinn. Now they've got Mike Zimmer in there to run the defense and somehow they find a way to make a Super Bowl run. That would save his gig, but otherwise there's going to be too much noise. People just don't like this guy for whatever reason. Every single year they lose in the playoffs. It's his fault. He's a big idiot. He's a big boob. He's a big dummy. Possibly keep him analysts who are normally calm or screaming on national television. I don't understand why he's such a lightning rod and people think he's such a goof. When all the guy does is win 12 games everywhere he goes. It was only Aaron Rodgers. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is in Dallas. Now I'm sure it's only Dak, although he didn't win 12 games before he was there, but I digress. He'll be out if they don't make a Super Bowl run. This one's not a hot seat in the sense of losing your job, but I think this is a something to prove. You were just talking about the Eagles, killing hurts, man. It's back. Last year was not good. It was bad. He went from, you called him an MVP candidate. He certainly was after the 2022 season. He didn't play like it last year. I mean, that was kind of a phony pro bowl appearance season for him, but touchdowns down interceptions up, like everything about their offense, less efficient. He was a big reason why I'm still a big believer. He's only 26 years old, but really needs a bounce back season. Yeah, it was masked by those 15 rushing TDs. I say again, 15 rushing touchdowns. How many of those were from a half yard out on the touch push 14, I was going to say 12 11. Yeah. So my point is the numbers were, were, you know, people don't think of it as a disaster season because of those, but I think this should consider us. So this is a slightly different angle on the heat situation. So bear with me. How about Bobby Sloeck, offensive coordinator in Houston, okay? They were the league's darlings last year. They had a winner take all of that AFC South division game at the end of the season against the Colts. They want it good for them. What a playoff game. They're now crowned. Everybody's picking them as the, you know, every, um, talking head, hot takes, screaming show, are these the guys that can take down Kansas City, like they're the new number one challenger, right? The Cincinnati had their chance, Buffalo had their chance. Now it's Houston. I'm, I'm the lowly course. We're not so fast. My friend, those others. You're still pretty good. But there's now a ton of pressure. They went out and had a banner off season. They added everything you could possibly add, including Stefan Diggs to already really good receiving room. Bobby Sloeck, if there's any kind of regression, any kind of, uh, you know, sort of stalling out of this offense, it's got everything that you could want under the sun. This is a guy that was basically, you know, I thought of as one of the hot head coaching candidates in waiting over the last couple of seasons, especially with that performance last year. If it doesn't go right, all of a sudden, I'd say a lot on the line for him this year. NFC North is where I'll go next head coach, Matt Eberfluse of the Chicago Bears. I don't understand why they kept him. I know he did an incredible job defensively in the second half of last year. He took over play calling after they fired their DC. They became a top 10 defense. He's popular enough in the building from what it seems like with hard knocks with his new image. He's got a cool guy haircut and everybody seems to like him more than they did when he was about to be fired quite literally on the precipice of being fired reports were swirling. If they lost in Washington last year on Thursday night football, about four weeks into the season he was going to be axed, they put up 41 big and their season was saved, but he did some weird things. In addition to him having his job still with the number one pick in Caleb Williams, looming. I thought it was a no brainer. You could hire any offensive mind in America. You want college pro probably go do it. They decided to keep the defensive minded coordinator, whatever. That's weird. Then he hired Shane Waldron. I like Shane Waldron. I'm wellmed by him. I don't love him necessarily. I would say Shane Waldron is under some pressure too. You got not only Caleb Williams to play with at quarterback, but DJ more Roma doings a Keenan Allen at wide receiver. There's just no reason for this offense not to be excellent. There's no reason for this team to not be a playoff caliber team. Matt Eberflus as odd as it is after making a number one overall pick last year. I think has expectations of being a 10 or so win team. If it doesn't happen, I could see them trying to find like Ben Johnson or some other offensive coach this off season to come in there with Caleb Williams. Lamar Jackson has a rep that I've always argued and I think we've even argued about a little bit that isn't fair. The expectations for him are a little bit strange to me. This is a multi-time MVP who hasn't done it yet. No one else has done it in the AFC either as long as Pat Mahomes has been there. Joe Burrow got close. They got by him one time. Tom Brady did as well when the overtime rules were stupid, but Lamar Jackson, multi-time MVP without that commiserate playoff success overwhelmingly. So hosting Labardi Trophy, even getting into a Super Bowl that kind of goes with that. So this is a big year for Baltimore. Again, the division is a buzzsaw. They probably got worse on paper. That program is so good. I don't expect them to take much of a step back. I know you're a little bit lower on them than I am. I just feel like they get out of bed. They're going to win 10 or 11 games because that's what Baltimore does. They'll replace guys that we knew as household names with guys that we don't who become household names because that's a machine up there, but a lot of pressure on the multi-time MVP to kind of finally break through here this season. Last one I'll throw out there, Dennis Allen in New Orleans. This one's very simple. This is actually just a hot seat. This is what it looks like. If the Saints start slow, I could see him getting fired in the first month or so of the season. They've been stuck in neutral. It's a bunch of seven-ish type wind seasons. Now, at what point do you say, maybe there's a different path forward here and are we just going to keep spinning our tires in mediocrity. They play the Panthers to open the year. You have to win that game. Then they play the Cowboys. Let's say you lose that. You're one in one. The Eagles. You lose that. You're one in two. You play the Falcons on the road, a winnable game. You've got to find a way to win that because you've got the Chiefs. That's a loss. I mean, if they don't win both of the games, I said, are either toss-ups or should wins. They could be one in four or oh and five. And if that's the case, I would not want to be Dennis Allen and getting called into Mickey Loomis's office in New Orleans. Some of the coaches, players, teams with the most approved this coming season around the NFL. ESPN listed an X-Factor for every single team. Who did they list for the commanders? That's next on GND. Hey, NFL fans. You can start the season with a big return on FanDul, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. 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Grant and Danny on the fan and a half hour at four, our Beltway Blitz. That's what we've got those tickets for. If you want them, you got to be listening. Kevin Hart, D.A.R. Constitution Hall. We've got two more tickets this week to give away. We'll get you set for Nat's baseball before we're done tonight, taking you up to 6.15 and pregame with Charlie and Dave College football this weekend. And then Thursday night, six days from now, the National Football League is back, and it'll be better than ever Thursday night football. You got the Chiefs and the Jets on Friday night. Think about this first time ever. Okay. We got a game Thursday, and then we're not waiting until Sunday. We got the Friday night kick that is taking place outside the United States between the Green Bay Packers and Jordan Love and the Philadelphia Eagles getting the NFC East schedule started and Jalen Hurts. So we'll have a game Thursday, game Friday, and Saturday just got to deal with a bunch of really good college games. Yeah, he's stuck with that. And then on Sunday, commanders, Bucks, first chance to see Jaden Daniels in four quarters of football, regular season activity at Tampa, four o'clock window, too. Yeah, it's a 4 p.m. situation, the entire one o'clock slate available to you. What are you in about every game should be at one on close circuit television just in my house? No, but the four o'clock game is not going to be viewed by anybody. It's head to head with the national game of the week. So it's still just it's basically the equivalent of one o'clock. The only difference being we get to enjoy all the one o'clock games and then the commander's game starts at four. There are fewer games at four, which means more potential for eyeballs. We need to let the least number of people watching this is possible. You know that it's the time honored ax him until they're right until the house is in order. We shouldn't be inviting company over. Well, I'll just correctly continue to say that the dream is being able to enjoy NFL red zone in week one, all one o'clock window long rather than being at the X, rather than being Northwest X on my couch, watching the commanders and having to occasionally glance over at Scott Hanson and some of the other games, like you're just scrolling box scores to see who's getting off to a fast start, who scored the first touchdown of the season, who had a long catch in the first drive of their season opener. Uh huh. I'm watching it all. I see it all because the commanders are not playing until four o'clock. I will say as a broadcast mark, as you are as well, Grant, I am a little salty. Not the commanders are playing it for because we are going to miss Tom Brady's debut. He's been playing head to head against over their games going to be head to head against our games. We're not going to get to see Tom Brady's debut this week. Can't have it all. I would prefer to watch all the games at one o'clock than to see Tom Brady's debut because you could always go back pretty easily and check that out. It's a lot harder to catch up on seven hours of commercial free football or whatever it is that we're going to be doing on NFL red zone. But yeah, if you're asking me what my preference would have been Friday night in Brazil Thursday night at Kansas city at Arrowhead Monday night at a soldier field or something, I absolutely wanted a prime time game, a standalone game. I always want that so that I can enjoy one o'clock NFL activity on my couch. I pay for Sunday ticket. It's not cheap, my friend. Oh, I know it's not. I want to take advantage of it. Have you, have you been following all the back and forth with the lawsuit to, by the way, where it sounded like you guys are going to get something and now it sounds like you're not getting anything is that is there more to it than just initially the NFL lost and then it was overturned? Yeah. But they were like, no, we didn't really lose that. We're the NFL. We'll just kind of keep asking would have been pretty amazing if they lost. Yeah. They don't lose very often. No, they don't. Undefeated. They, I think good Elle would have just slid a note to someone said, are you sure they reconsidered somebody else that do you know who I am kind of thing? Yeah, I'm right. You can do. They're going to be a factor for every team. According to ESPN, they went one by one, all 32 clubs for the commanders. There's, give me a drum roll on this, please. The X factor who's going to be the biggest determinant in their season going one way or the other is wide receiver, the Ami Brown entering year four, 12 catches as a rookie, five catches in year two, the big career year last year, 12 grabs for a buck 68. And now listed as the X factor, I think specifically because until the Noah Brown acquisition, which is probably when they were putting this piece together, he was listed as the number two guy. I think his import got a lot less significant with the Brown acquisition. I also think you would consider him less of an X factor because if it goes poorly for the Ami Brown or he doesn't do the opposite of what he's done the last several years, he always does the, I'm really good at camp thing and he often does the, I'm really great in the preseason thing. Uh huh. He never does the, I'm also good when the regular season starts. That's a key thing. So we're hoping that's the difference this year for the Ami Brown, but if it doesn't happen, you have Noah Brown, you have Luke McCaffrey, you got alumni Zacchaeus. So I get why you would call him an X factor and I think that's probably fair. I don't think he's the X factor on the team though, I got to say. He's on my list, right? He's on my list of nominees where you dealt the former first round pick with three years of control left. You didn't go out and do a ton in free agency. I know at the 11th hour here, they went and got Noah Brown who I like a lot. I'm a fan of that, but it's not as if they got Randy Moss in his prime and they didn't just go trade for, for Hill and Waddle and I, you can, or T Higgins or something crazy. There's an opportunity certainly for down me Brown to, to, to play a lot, whether he's a starter or otherwise opportunity will be their form. So he, he, he'd make my list, to me, it's Brandon Coleman. That's the first day of my thought of here where everybody's kind of going, okay, I'm not really sure what the left tackle position. Then you release the guy that started over the last several seasons. Now it's not as if Leno's caught on somewhere else and he's going to start. Who knows? He's contemplating retirement. I think maybe at this point, but you've got a swing tackle and a dude we never got to see in the preseason, a third rounder that a lot of teams had as a guard. If he's good and you, I'm not saying you found your next credit, Chris Samuel or, or Trent Williams, those guys are rarefied air. Those are superstars or Hall of Fame caliber players, but if you got a, a really good solid left tackle for the least amount of reasonable cost possible, what a difference that would make. Brandon Coleman is a great answer and might be the answer 67th overall pick, a third round selection this past April TCU product. If he is a starting left tackle who plays at a high level, this team is better than you and I are expecting right now because if he's really good at left tackle and you've got a really good right guard and Sam Cosby and you've got what we are assuming to be a pretty solid center in Tyler Beottish, then it really doesn't matter what the former chiefs do. Nick Allegretti at left guard and Andrew Wiley at right tackle. The floor for your offensive line is that it's going to be fine fun. It's not going to be bad. It's not going to be a detriment. It's not going to be a liability. It's not going to ruin Jaden Daniels. If you've got a very solid left tackle, you've got a really good right guard and you've got a legitimate decent NFL center, you buoy the rest of the group pretty well because that's staggered along the front pretty decently and the interior where it might be most important for Jaden Daniels to hold up is going to be very solid at that point, at least like worst case scenario. Allegretti who played well in the Super Bowl had some great moments in Kansas City. We don't know what he is necessarily otherwise, but worst case scenario, two out of the three guys are really good and it might even be all three. We don't know, but yeah, I think that's a very good one, Brandon Coleman. I'll give you another one though. I think if you're looking for X factors and you don't want to go Brandon Coleman, the next guy on that list should be Emmanuel Forbes. The position group we asked Adam Peters about yesterday specifically was cornerback. That is my biggest gripe with this roster build. I look at that room in today's NFL and I quiver a little bit. I know that I'm going to play teams that are using three and four receivers constantly. I wouldn't you against against this group in general, but then against this group is special. 1000%. Yeah. That means just some quick math here, you need three or four corners you trust. They have zero for some people. I'm going to be nice because I like Benjamin St. Juice a lot and say one. Peters yesterday told us Emmanuel Forbes has been working his butt off. He said, I think the quote was he's gotten a lot better based as much as anything else on coaching the work that he's put in. But let's just say Emmanuel Forbes picks off five passes this year and starts in 16 or so games. And at the end of the year, we feel like, okay, maybe he's never going to be an all pro shut down corner, but he's got some D'Angelo Halta, like he's a playmaker, he gets his hands on the ball. Somehow some way that the Danquan Joe Whit thing happens. Remember where digs led the league and picks or bland led the league and picks and Dallas and like he's just constantly making plays on the ball and they're able to coach him up in that way. How different is the outlook on this whole thing the next couple of years when you've got young, cheap, controllable cornerbacks and you need to add basically a guy for depth at the position rather than maybe re-answering the entire thing. Rather than wholesale, yeah. Like that's a huge, huge X factor. Yeah. So the point sort of by definition is your X factor is if it goes one way, you're in dire straids. If it goes the other way, you're on easy street. That's a good one, right? Because that changes that whole room. What is the other definition of X factor? Just say like, hey, they can be pretty good this year or like someone we're not talking enough about like a sort of a hidden thing. Like an unsung hero. Yeah. Like this, this to me is like like, and I think it's a smart point more of, you know, I wasn't, I'm not prioritizing that side of the ball just in general. They give up a lot of points if they don't. This to me is a Jayden Gainell story. So everything I think about is through his lens, right about weaponry, protection and everything in between. But I think I do think it's a smart point, like there's no reason to go crazy and go wholesale shopping this off season for the cornerback spot, meaning this past one because you have a rookie under contract. You have in fact, another guy under under contract in, um, in Kwan Martin, who's kind of a part time corner, you drafted one. So you know, you're going to find out with proper coaching if these guys can actually do it or who can and who can't. The next step, if you'd like to be really good, now we can talk about going to find your, I don't know where, where, where you come from, where it's for agency or maybe your first Trump pick next year has to be one. If Forbes can't play or if, you know, Davis is washed up or San Resto's slide only or St. Juice can't hold up against somebody really good or you need more zone corners to go with Joe Witsky, whatever it is, this, this is a good find out here in, in that regard. And if we're going to find stuff out, you know, we're kind of a crossroads for manual Forbes in that regard. So yeah, that's a great X factor. So it's a tear point on, on defining X factor, just looking at some of the other names. I think a lot of different writers around the country for ESPN took it different ways. Like in some cases, the X factor is just the biggest question mark. And in sum, it's the guy that we don't know if he's good or not, like what we're talking about with a manual Forbes or a breakout candidate like the Ami Brown, the Seahawks as an example, Tariq Woolen, who remember went back and forth with sauce gardener with the defense of rookie of the year award and had this unbelievable first season as a fifth round pick back in 2022. They had six interceptions. And then last year just fell off completely and it was like, wait a second. We thought you were one of the better young corners in the league. Then last year, all of a sudden we're having to hide you because people are beating you like a drum. You're an X factor. Like, what are you? We don't really know. There's a little bit of all of those things listed here. Trent Williams is listed for the San Francisco 49ers. Does he play or not? Is he even going to be there at the start of the year? Those types of things. Two for Washington, much lower scale, I think, than a Forbes. Guys that I have certain opinions about, but I don't have convictions about. In other words, I think I'm very bullish as you're on Austin Echler. That's a great X factor. If he's not last year as Austin Echler, but two years ago, three years ago, or close to it, what a find, what a weapon, what an amazing upgrade for this backfield. I've clamored long for an Austin Echler type. And if you get Austin Echler to fill the Austin Echler type, what a coup that would be. I don't want to Zach hurts. I don't know what Zach hurts is going to be. I'm not confident. I feel like I have an idea. It's I can't remember which analyst we had on it, really smart, but said he's a catch and fall player. Look, I don't want that. That's not really dynamic for my tight ends, but if somehow the guy that you've seen in spurts over the last couple seasons, not the guy that caught 19,000 passes in a quarter against Washington, four years ago was available. If he was, he wouldn't be here, but if he's good and he's able to play for a while, that could be a nice boon for this thing. It's Friday, which means we will be winning off the field as our double play. Call us up. If you want to tell us what little mini moral victory has made your day better that nobody else would care about 800 6361067 is how you can win off the field with us next. In 20 minutes, we're giving away tickets to see Kevin Hardin DC this coming month. You got to be listening to the fan. It is time to figure out how you are winning off the field. You can call us at 800 6361067. Tell us about your little moral victory on this Friday. This is something small, something that nobody else would care about, but it brought a smile to your face. We do it today to honor goose because one day goo said this. We're winning off the field, but we got to start winning on the field. You could call us at 800 6361067 to win off the field. Danny, something a lot of people complain about wrongly, if I could be so bold as to make that kind of claim here, GP came to help me out today. Worked to my advantage. Live a salty mood today. That happened. It happens to the best of us. Happens to the mediocre of us to, but my guy, Ryan Clary was able to go out little team time to cup his coffee right down the street. And I enjoyed a pumpkin spice lot. But, Danny, it's the longest it was taught outside. Give it to me year round. Give me fall things. I want my nutmeg. I want my clove. I want my pumpkin. Put it in all of the things fall. Beers are the best kinds of beers. Fall beverages are the best kinds of beverages. Bring me the cider. Bring me things with pumpkin. Put pumpkin on all of it on my cereal, on my pizza, on my dessert, on my breakfast and on my lunches too. The fall is the best. I just drank fall and I'm in a better mood therefore I am winning off the field. Last night I was going to a high school football game that got rained out. I called my wife as I'm getting to the parking lot. And I'm like, "I don't know if they're going to play this thing. Doesn't look good right now." She said, "Oh, well, maybe it'll get canceled." I said, "Yeah, I think it will." She said, "Well, maybe you could run on over to Randy's or Patsy's. Get yourself some dinner." "Whoa." I said, "What do you mean?" "What are you talking about?" "Well, you're right over there anyway. You might as well." Now, I wasn't dressed for Randy's and I didn't feel like the back room at Patsy's which is an amazing establishment by the way. Because you really were right there, I mean, that's like a five iron. Couple of golf ball swings for your boy. However, while driving home, I did change my mind, I said, "You know what? I will do a little something, something. Stopped in and had delicious wings at Kilroy's restaurant right off of the beltway. And because the wings were banging, as Adam Epstein would say, the wings slapped as a young person like Brian Clary would say. He could say that. They were just regular old delicious. "It's really good." They hit the spot as an old white would say. "Got to tell you, they're tasty. Therefore I am." "Wining off the field." "Let's go to Rich and only, Richard, on GND. What's up, Rich?" "What's going on, boys? How are you doing today?" "Hey, Bob." "Oh, well." "So I had been trying to organize an opening football, you know, a little poker game, threw it around some of the boys. They're all down. They're all like sweet. That sounds good. We've got the wages. We've got the people. They didn't really ask any permission from the wife yet, but she actually called me and said, "Hey, my little brother, you know, he's been kind of going through a rough time. But you haven't any of your poker games any time soon. Can you please invite him?" I said, "You know what? Let me get something together for next Thursday. I'll make sure I take care of him." "Now you're here up here for a minute." "Wining off the field." "I hope she's not listening, Rich. That's a double landing. Number one, you get to play a little poker and you don't have to ask her last minute and risk her being upset and/or telling you to kick rocks. But number two, you get to pretend like you're just doing a nice guy. You know what? I'll do that for you and for him, more importantly. Josh is an upper Marlboro. What's up, Josh? Hey, Josh. Hey, fellas. Hey, so my son, my eldest son, August is into basketball cards and football cards and I try to pretend like I'm not into him too, but it's brought me all the way back to my childhood and I'm loving it. I was in Walmart the other day and I decided on a whim, I would pick up a pack of Panini NBA contenders cards. That means anything to anyone, but a $7 pack, I just grabbed it on a whim and I pulled a LeBron James card that when I looked it up on eBay, it's worth around $300 and therefore I am winning off the field." That's a win. By the way, I cannot wait for that, Josh. Thank you for the call. I cannot wait till my son gets into cards because I was such a mark back in the day and they are way, way, way off my radar now, but I'm going to be the same way as him. I think I'm going to be right back in the mix and just pick. Yeah. Doing the cards. For you, son. Get over here. One of those. Those are the best fun activities. Yeah. Let me take these couple and take special care of them for you. You can have this guy that barely made the show. It's like when I take them to get donuts on come on, Vinny and seat pleasant. You're on Grant and Danny. Oh, yes. How you doing? Good day. All right, today was a pretty good day walking into work, trying to mediate over workload. Randomly was pulled into the office by my supervisor, told my review, for my annual review, I didn't know I was getting it. Showing in, I went great, 100% AOK, and I have received my annual phase. That's why I am winning on the field. Bruce ruled that out on the field. Bruce gave the distinction there. I glad for you. Yeah. We're happy that you're happy. Nothing wrong with it. I'm glad that you got a good report and that you got a raise. It feels a little bit like an on field win. That's a nine to five job thing. That feels like some money is being added to the paycheck. Yeah. That's a big deal. Now, if you'd found 75 cents in your pocket and can get a quark bar, OK. Or when you went into that meeting with your boss, he told you he got two sodas at the vending machine. Here's one. That feels like an off field win. Yeah. I'm good for you. We're happy. Mm. Matt and Stafford. Hey, I was talking to be Mitch on the be Mitch and Finley show earlier today. And he liked what I had to say. Therefore I am winning off the field. That is a good feeling. I think that works. By the way, I totally got that. I called into a show and they said I was on the right track. I will never forget this. The first time I called into Ken Beatrice's show doing nights, like my all my parents, everybody had already been asleep. It went really well. Now in retrospect, who knows how well it actually went, but he like, he agreed with me and like was nice to me and like, we went back and forth for the second. And it was good. I like could not wait to tell my dad the next day, was like, I called Ken Beatrice last night. And we talked about whatever it was, I remember it was like something, something baseball related. And it was a great back and forth. And he said, great call. And we moved and I moved on with my life. And I'm like, that was the thrill of a lifetime. So I get that feeling. I got one here for Dolo on Twitter, who says he ordered a three piece spicy tender from Popeyes and they gave him five. That is the ultimate version, Goose winning off the field. That was a plus two scenario right there. Plus two. That's unbelievable. It's never happened to me. I've heard about it in other States and other far off land. The plus ones have been done. I mean, the tongs, if it's close together, it just goes in the back front. The plus two, someone was just getting sloppy back there. Wow. But you are the beneficiary, sir. And that is why we do the segment here on Grant and Danny each and every Friday. All right. We're blitzing next right at the top of the hour and ahead of the beltway blitz. We do have those tickets to go see Kevin Hart at the AR Constitution Hall for the final time this week. He'll listen to the fan. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] The 10th caller right now at 800-636-1067 is going to win two tickets to see Kevin Hart at DAR Constitution Hall. It's the Kevin Hart acting my age tour Sunday, September 15th, couple of weeks out. DAR Constitution Hall tickets on sale now for tickets and more event information. Go to thefandc.com/events. Congrats to all of our winners this week and to caller 10 right now on the fan. Let's catch you the latest on the teams you care the most about in town, including the nationals who have called up Dylan Cruz and just took a series from the New York Yankees. All of our baseball coverage on the fan is presented by T-Mobile, switch to T-Mobile and you can get tons of benefits and still save on every plan against AT&T and Verizon. Use their savings calculator to find out how at T-Mobile.com/switch with the latest on the Nats, Dave Jagler, it splits time jags, let's start with Dylan Cruz. He had his first hit, his first homer, his first multi-hit game and his second multi-hit game and he showed pretty well defensively in right field as well. Also Stolebase, otherwise ho hum, I'm just, I need to see more. >> Yeah, all good, are we, I mean, isn't it what we've been dreaming on to see he and James Wood go back to back in the lineup the other day and you know, you have Dylan hit a home run to start and then Wood with a base sit and steals a base and scores a run and Wood drives in a run the next inning with a couple of steals. Yeah, I mean Cruz has brought, he plays hard, I mean, just talking to the guys who watch him in the minor leagues, you know, whether it's 300 people in the stands or 30,000 in the stands, he has one gear and you hope that that rubs off on everybody. He's going to play like Mike Rizzo likes to say with his hair on fire and so we've seen that in the first three games and he clearly is getting a jump start and, you know, when you look at some of the other notable nationals who've been debuted, usually they start, you know, down in the lineup a bit and then after a few games move up, I mean, he was hitting second in his first game and now he's been lead off the next two games as he's back in there today against the lefties. So they've shown a lot of confidence in him and with good reason. >> Mackenzie Gore, couple really good starts in a row, Dave, very encouraging. I mean, listen, this game humbles everybody, you're going to go through a lull where you're fighting it mechanically or, you know, maybe you're tipping something, who knows, but really encourage the last couple starts. What's the difference when it's good versus when it's not for him? >> Well, I think you talked about mechanically. I think that's kind of what they honed in on watching video and it was a side session before two starts ago because he's had two good ones in a row and it was before the start in Atlanta where they really worked on him and trying to raise his arm angle. They felt that he had lowered his arm angle a little bit and that was really affecting his command because what you saw is that the walk numbers were just out of control for what he normally would expect and that was driving up the pitch count. So the last two starts, I mean, we're talking about pounding the strike zone and being much more pitch efficient. We've been talking about Gore even when he's been really good, just trying to get that pitch efficiency a little better so he can go deeper in games. So I think that's been huge. The other thing, Danny, is the utilization of the change-up. I mean, there was a three-pitch sequence when he faced Aaron Judge with a runner at third one out. So basically, if the ball's put in play, there's going to be a run, they're playing the infield back. After all three of his pitches, and the first one was a change-up and he's thrown the change-up about close to 20% of the time, the last three starts, and it was such a nasty change-up and Judge swings and misses that he then blew the 97 by him. Judge was laid on it and then he tied him up with an inside slider. It was three consecutive pitches to make one of the best hitters in the planet look over matched. I mean, just that sequence alone is going, man, if he can just bottle this, what do we have here? It was pretty special. So it's a couple of good outings in a row. And if he can just keep those mechanics in line, you hope that that mid-season lull will just be a thing of the past and he can finish very strongly here in the second half of the season. Jags, oftentimes, a dropping release point is a sign of fatigue as the year goes on. Did they think that was part of it, or was it more mechanical that he just got out of whack? Well, I mean, it's probably a combination of both. I mean, I think they're hoping that it was just mechanical, but that stands to reason. I mean, he did pitch basically a full season last year. But again, second full season in the big leagues, that could have happened. They tried to get him a little bit of a respite in and around the all-star break, pushing his first start out of the break back a few days. But I think that could be a factor. But apparently now he's caught his second win. He's fixed the mechanical issue, and now we're hoping for a strong month of September. Jags, where's Kate Cavalli? What's going on there? Well, Davey Martinez said that he's down in Florida. He was with the team for a while. He's down in Florida playing catch out to 125 feet. So now you're looking at today's August 30th, the regular season ends September 29th. I mean, to me, the longer it goes before you see Cavalli on a mound, the less likely as you'll see him on a big league mound this year, I think the hope would be at some point. Maybe he could pitch in a few rehab games. I don't know if you could stretch that into Instructional League or the Arizona Fall League or something. The more days that go by, the longer a shot it is that he's going to be on the mound for the nationals this year. But Davey Martinez, the latest update is that he's playing catch and trying to progress. Basically two lost seasons from the TJ then, because obviously he got hurt in the spring last year, so he didn't pitch all of last year. This was his comeback season, he was supposed to have been ready, you know, 12 months was right around opening day, but then give him a little time to rehab at maybe the second half the season, and they have been very careful of how they worded it. They've said he didn't have a setback, they said he wasn't re-injured, I don't know what to believe. I mean, they often don't give us a whole lot of information on injuries, but something doesn't add up there. I mean, you don't just miss two years with Tommy John typically. Well, the problem is going forward now and assuming that he doesn't get a whole lot of innings, you know, be it on a rehab. He had a few innings on his rehab time and earlier, you know, you go in an X season and you're going to be probably looking at an innings-limited night, you're not going to go from zero to 170 next year. So it just, you're hoping this year that he was able to build up a body of work that would make him, you know, more potentially to be a six month starter next year. And it's hard to imagine that's the case with, with basically two lost years. Jags, thank you as always. Have a great call tonight. Yeah. Looking forward to it. The Cubs are hot. Hopefully the Nationals can keep it rolling. 615 pregame, 645 game time on the fan for Charlie and Dave. Thanks, Jags. You got it. Hit that NFL sounder, please. We bring on Daris Dameron, AKA dad, AKA Christian Darisaw, fresh off his enormous contract extension. AKA father, Daris. Father Daris talks about NFL, but why is Daris talking NFL, you ask? Daris. Well, cause I'm an NFL expert, of course. No, that would not be the case. Instead, we are just letting everyone know that we are doing the final scoring for the Grant and Danny listener league, fantasy league trivia contest. You see, that's, I think this is the right way to do it. Papa's got a good idea here. We are going to not talk about the NFL, but rather the Grant and Danny fantasy football league in this year, NFL portion of the beltway blitz. So where are we, by the way, in the scoring? We had this quiz, people were able to sign up if they wanted to. What's going on? So we have, so we had over 110 entries, which was, which was much appreciated. We are winding down to the final scores on most of these, excuse me, on most of these submissions. There were some that were very unserious, which I think was funny. There was a lot of people that did some funny bits. Sure. Some shit was there. There were a lot who did extremely well. Okay. Yeah. So this is going to be fun to see who's going to finally make it into the league and those 10 spots you're going to join us on Tuesday at Highline in Crystal City. So that's going to be fun. I also say, I saw several of the responses, you know, just kind of turn over the shoulder and looking. I caught a lot of shrapnel in these responses. It couldn't just be, you know, one of the answers and it was like, Danny's just doing this blank stupid thing because he's stupid and fat and dumb and no one likes him. It's like, whoa. All right. But it was, it was pretty aggressive. You came out fine. I caught a lot of golf, I would say Tuesday night Highline R and R is where we're going to be holding the draft. So if you get into the league, we're going to announce the folks that got into our Grant and Danny fantasy football listener league on the show today and then we'll reach out to each of them. We have their contact info, but if you don't get into the league, that is okay. You could still come to the draft, hang out with us, enjoy yourself. It's going to be a really fun time and we're just going to be eating, drinking and talking about football all night on Tuesday and let's announce those winners at five forty five. How do we feel about that? I am okay with that. I agree to your turn. I'm in on that. Give us a sampling of a couple of the questions really quickly. What kind of things we're being asked on this quiz of our listeners. So of course, the first question was what year did the show begin? Okay. You guys know the answer. We just celebrated 10 years. That's right. Start of the year. So 2014. That'll be correct. That was an easy one, I think. That was an easy one. We then asked what high schools that Grant Paulson and Danny Ria attend? Well, Danny Ria, the pride of St. Albans high school and the George Washington University. A George Mason guy myself. That's King George High School. That's King George High School. We also ask what recurring segment stars producer Clary. Now, here's a couple of segments, but there's one in particular that I really want you. There's one that he's known for. And one person I saw said, does Ryan know it? And that's fun too. We've done that one for a game here and there, but that's not it. That's not it. That's not it. This all began. Human history all began when he had actually seen a television show and was asked to describe it and struggle to do so. We said we got to have them describe and explain more stuff. So Ryan explains it all quizzes have been graded or in the process of being graded in their totality and we will get the responses to you later on in the show here on Grant and Danny. So very excited that the fantasy football league is taking shape in 2024. We will see many of you out at Highline R&R in Crystal City on Tuesday evening this coming week. Two days ahead of the kickoff of the NFL season, but let's keep the blitz move and talk a little college sports with the brand new associate VP and director of athletics. Yes. Speaking of George Washington University, Danny, of your college programs, Michael Lipitz joins us. Michael, congratulations. Welcome to DC. How are you, Michael? Thank you guys. Grant, Danny, it's good to be with you and excited to return home to DC. Great. Great first couple of weeks on campus. Absolutely. Congratulations. First of all, second of all, it's not that long ago. I know none of the young people are aware of it, but Michael, when I was in high school, when I was in even there at the George Washington University, this was a top 25 basketball program that made some noise that was, you know, unique had players and beat UMass number one in the country a couple of straight years. Marcus Canby and John Calipari and company. How do we get back there? What's your vision? Yeah. I mean, that's what's got me so excited. There's so many programs that hope to get there, GW's done it, right? We have that tradition. Championship basketball is very much in our DNA. We got 29 combined NCAA tournament appearances between our men's and women's program. So I saw some of that. I was, you know, I went to University of Maryland on the road and saw some of that first hand in those years and we played championship basketball at GW. So it's a new landscape. We all know that in terms of NIL, next year, revenue sharing coming online. We need to fully participate in those opportunities so that our coaches are positioned to recruit the talent to GW that can take us back to championship basketball. We want to play in March. That's the goal. We don't shy away from those expectations, but that's why I'm excited to be here is to work with Chris Caputo on the men's side, Carolyn McCombs on the women's side. We've got two great talented coaches that they can get this done. Michael, I'm curious. You've talked about recruiting and getting athletes there. Whether it's, you know, my buddy, Greg Ritchie, who's the baseball coach the last several years there, Caputo, or where I went, it maced him with Tony skin. One of the things I find so difficult now as a college sports fan is it feels like if you're a fan of programs at the level of GW or Mason or something like that, that it, getting the player there is cool, but they're leaving as soon as they break out and they get really, really good. It's like you have to re-recruit your own players and it just seems really frustrating at this point. What is the future of programs that aren't all of the tops in America at this point in this new landscape? Yeah. It's a new day. There's no question. At the same time, I think everybody is facing that challenge. I mean, you look at whether it's a power program, a bit major, a low major, I mean, roster turnover is real, right? So I know it's different. It feels different for everybody, but the reality is everybody's in the same boat. And so we have to do what works for GW. So first, get the right talent on a roster and then, yeah, you got to retain a core from year to year so that you can have that continuity and advance from year to year. But that's the same challenge that everybody faces. So I said at my press conference earlier this week, for those GW fans, alumni donors that haven't been engaged and haven't been participating, this is the moment, right? We need everybody. It takes the whole GW of community to support this program to provide the resources that we need to be able to get the best talent and retain the best talent. It's time for our folks to get off the bench, get in the game, and we're ready to go. Michael, it's such a unique experience going to school there. Obviously, I know that first thing as I did, but it's for some, a city school is a non-starter. For others, that location is such an appeal thing. And it's such an interesting thing to try to recruit and to try it, as you said, find the right fits for so many different kids. What do you think the biggest challenge is kind of non-new landscape division? What's the biggest challenge for GW to get athletically where it wants to go? I don't see it as challenges. I mean, I think what we're selling as GW, and we've got a phenomenal academic reputation, right? It's a great degree to position you for a lifetime of success. I think that's the starting point. And then from an athletic standpoint, I go back to, again, we've got the tradition, we've got the history. And if you haven't been in the Smith Center for those that haven't been to a game, it's awesome. I mean, it's a great environment, right? The 5,000 seats, the place looks, they've done the staff is on such a good job. The university is on such a good job making it a home court advantage for us. We've got, you know, 25,000 students, most of whom are right there on campus to turn out and make it a great home court advantage. And that's our focus is let's leverage all of that to build the kind of program. Again, we've done it before. We can do it again. And that's why I'm excited to be here. Michael Lipitz is with us new AD at the George Washington University. I have a little stake in this, it's my alma mater, and we're obviously rooting for your success. Michael, I will tell you that a long time ago, now so much has changed since then, but we at the athletic department did not feel the support from university presidents and the academic side and kind of the university side. I don't say we were pariahs, that's probably too far, but it sort of felt like there was a disconnect. I don't get the sense that's the case anymore. I'd love for you to go into that and kind of talk about the symmetry and maybe even the support that you've got from the main university. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you're hitting it on the head. I mean, alignment matters, right, on a college campus and President Grahamberg understands the value that athletics can bring, not just for its own purpose in terms of developing student athletes, developing young people, but we've seen this and, you know, back to the Mason example, right, right down the road, when you go to the final four, it elevates the entire university. So we've seen it in the past at GW, President Grahamberg understands that, is very supportive. That's what has me so excited about what the future potential for GW to play deep into marches because we have that alignment, we have that support. Everybody's pulling in the same direction. Great having you on the show and meeting you. Thanks so much and best of luck to you over at Foggy Bottom. Thank you. Appreciate it. Come out to some games this year. Look forward to seeing you. Thank you, Michael. Welcome. Come check out. That'd be fun. The brand new aesthetic director over at the George Washington University. Nice little weekend shaping up for the college locals, by the way. Maryland football, a noon kickoff at home over at College Park against Yukon tomorrow. They are clearly every favorites in that game. And then you've got a big game for Virginia Tech. They're supposed to be pretty good. They are returning a ton of last year's talent, almost all of their starters on offense and defense for Brent Pry, one of the few teams in America that can say that after the transfer portal just pillaged a lot of programs that weren't, you know, in the SEC or the Big Ten. The guys got something going and the guys are buying in. They're playing against Vanderbilt tomorrow. There's a real chance they start four and oh, five and oh, there's, there's a tiny little bit of buzz buzz and a couple bumblebees floating around there a little bit. I like it. They'd have a legit shot in the ACC if they get off to a fast start. You can hear that game tomorrow afternoon right here on the fan love it should be a decent little weekend in the local college sports scene. Well, football appetizer, right, to get you ready for the next week, which is sort of the deluge, right? That's the, the open up the dams and now we go Adam Peters feels really good about Cliff Kingsbury. What do you see so far in terms of the offensive plan, the tempo that they're operating with? I want to get into that next on Grant and Danny. [inaudible] Programming note, the Virginia Tech Hokies will be on 99 one tomorrow. Oh, yes. It will not be on one oh six, seven, the thing is we got Nat's baseball, Matt and a style right here on the flagship home for the nets and the caps. This show is brought to you every day by the law firm, Condori and Murad. They guide you and your family in the right direction. They help you to draft the will set up a trust, create a healthcare power of attorney, schedule a free consultation with their estate planning attorneys at kmloyers.com. Be sure to tell them the G and D sent you to get a discount, kmloyers.com. I want to get into what Adam Peters said about Cliff Kingsbury in just a moment. But Danny, I wanted you to know you might have a little company in the studio. What? Yeah. There's someone with a bit of a Danny Ruier tendency here for the second time in as many months. Yeah. Ryan Clary has come back to the studio with three chocolate chip cookies because that's generally the order. That's the batch. When we go to corner kopi to get our subs, sure, you get cookies. They give you three. Yeah. That's the serving. Yeah. When he today, I don't know where he got him from. Probably subway. It looked like. Yeah, it was subway. They're in the little paper sleeve. Oh, yeah. I know a paper sleeve of subway cookies when I see it. I was going to say you recognize that anywhere. I think if you could, you could like crunch the paper up and I could tell by sound. Well, you know, you know the thing that's going around where people taste diet coke, some various places or they taste milk from certain places. Yeah. You could do that. I think. I know I would pull a McDonald's Coke or Diet Coke 1000%. I think I could tell you the difference between that and Wendy's. We should actually do it on the show. That would be a fun little experiment because the way that I've seen it, I don't know if you're talking about the same thing, you like sit behind what is a box that's open. And the open face is tossed on the camera. Exactly. So everyone can see the different drinks and then you're guessing what you're drinking. Yeah. We should do something like that. I think that'd be fun. Clary over there, today brought back three chocolate chip cookies. So I want to rewind a two months ago when he came back with these cookies from Corner Copio on a day where I think they either only had one pack or whatever reason I didn't get cookies or something. And I just said to him, I said, would you mind if I had half a cookie? And he made this really weird face, big, I'm nervous, my face is red. I have anxiety about this interaction. And then it was like, he's always like half in the middle of a bite and he like acts like he's chewing and puts his finger up and stalls for a while. Like you gotta think of a way that's so weird. And then he's like, I've done that. And then it's this long pause and he's like, I guess, I guess like a high pitch. Because he doesn't want you to have any of it at all. And it's a hundred percent clear. Yeah. I now feel terrible for asking. There you go. You've made me feel awful. That's that's it. No problem. So this was a couple, a long while back and he was more that day almost saying no if I remember. But like then he came around and he's like, if you want, if you want, you're gonna. And it's like, dude, the damage is done. There's no chance. It's like asking someone to borrow a dollar and you're like, really, you're going to take my money? I don't have that much money. You want a dollar from me? And then you're like, you know what, take it, take it. So, or another one would be like, Hey, what are you doing Sunday? And you're like, nothing. Want to help me move? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One time. I can do that. Oh, I just remember it. I have something else. Anything. So what happened today, Clary? Tell Danny what happened. So what happened today was exactly that. I come back with three chocolate chip cookies from what I got from Subway and grants like, Hey, like kind of half of it. And I'm again, mid bite. And I'm just kind of sitting there like, uh, awkwardly, like trying to figure out a way to say no. Because I won't say no. I feel like that's me. But I'll say no with your actions. I say no with your body language and that yeah. Let me be clear. There you go. Let me back go. I need to make something very, very, very clear right now. I never asked him for the cookie that he's eating. He has three of them, more than any one person needs. He has a cookie that has not been touched still in the sleeve. And both times I said, Hey, you care if I have a little piece of that cookie. Now, having said that, I'm being introspective on the back end. I'll never ask again. And I probably should have never asked. It's probably a bad look. The difference is if someone asked me when I had three chocolate chip cookies, if they get out half a cookie, that's an easy yes every time. Okay. I don't need all three of them. I want all three of them, but I would not ask him for a piece of his sub to get the difference. Of course I do. I'm not going to ask him for a bite of his Kava or, Hey, would you mind scooping a little bit of your salad bowl out and putting it on a plate? But I view, and this is where apparently I'm wrong, I view this three cookie situation as you wanted a cookie. You wanted a taste. They gave you three. You're going to eat them because you got them, but you don't need three cookies. For him, it's very obvious. These three cookies are part of the day that they are part of the plan. He left here in search of those three cookies. He didn't just get a cookie and they gave him two bonus cookies where he's like, I don't really want it. Now, if he approaches it with, Hey, I just want one. These other two are for grabs, different conversation, but I expect this kind of behavior from you. That's right. It's kind of a selfish know that I'm getting with all the respect, Danny. Sure. I expect that from you after 10 years or right, rightfully so you should expect it with clary a happy go lucky, warm, jovial, fun, thin, thin, skinny, food, hating, cookie despising carbon sugar, avoiding allergic, right? I thought, what are the chances? All skinny old hymns going to tell big old me. No, you don't need a half cookie tubbo, but he looked right at me and those are the words he said. That's what his body said verbally, but he literally, and he does this weird smile and the whole thing. It's so uncomfortable. Yeah. It is a screeching car on the highway. I mean, it is just so uncomfortable. So what I, what I've always done is ever since Levar Erington demanded a fry and I said no to him, uh, and he could, could have taken my life in an instant and he decided that's it for Danny Rui. Yeah, that would have been it. If he like, now he's a nice person. He would never do that, but like he could have and he made it very clear at that time. Since then, my public stance on, I don't share food unless I'm done and then we can have any conversation you want has been, I lean into the fact that it's mine. It's selfish. 100% of this. I lean it. That's what it is. It's my meal. This is my selfish meal. You're ordering what I want. What I've always advocated for is why is the asker? Why isn't that viewed as selfish? Why, why is that? Why does that get away? Scott free. The onus is on the person with the thing that they want. I agree with it. It's selfish. What's more selfish than saying I want that and now you're rude if you say no. Now you're rude if you go, Oh baby, cause you're putting an awkward spot. Don't put me an awkward spot. Go get your own. All of things. I think there's some truth to that. I'm not going to 100% sign off on what you're saying because it's obviously a little bit over the top and egregious. Having said that, I think you're right. And then again, I'm being introspective and thinking about it like that's a bad ask to ask for somebody's food in general is just dumb and it was honestly very reactionary. I had not premeditated it. I didn't walk in there thinking I want to smell the smell. I want to cookie too. I was standing next to him. He's munching on a cookie. I see there's still two in the sleeve or whatever. And it was kind of like, I haven't had it. This was my thought process literally. I haven't had a subway cookie in here. I love subway. You're so good. And just without thinking, I said, Hey, can I have half of one of those? And had he have just been like, Oh, yeah, no problem. I would have eaten half, walked out, never thought of it again. But because he slapped my hand away, kicked me in the shin and told me I'm a jackass. Then I had to get introspective a little bit and I realized that wasn't a great look to ask for somebody else's cookie. But do you understand the difference in the three cookie thing that I'm talking about and other food or is it just black and white? So I don't make any discernments, but I see how one could. So the example I'll give you is in a world where normally when we have cookies, we get it with our sub and our lunch, okay? So if someone asked me for for my sub, I think that's a single unit, like or just like can I have a bite of that? I don't do bites. I don't share. I don't bite after my wife. I don't bite after my kids. I'm grossed out by the whole thing. I would never do that. But I would consider if someone had never had cornucopia or something and they really wanted to try it, I would consider grabbing a little plastic knife and like cutting you a sliver of the sandwich. I would consider that. Okay. Especially if it's a decent sized sandwich. I still think that's a strange ask to me. That's a bridge too far. The three cookie thing is not even a little bit. So yeah, this is where you and I again, so, so for me, I'll even go one step further. I've had an incident previously with one of the big bosses here where he wanted to fry and you go, well, that's one individual fry. That's part of a larger hole like you're taking the cookie example to the nth degree. Three units of cookie versus what, I don't know, 112 units of a French fry like how many French fries are in or in a regular sized container? I don't know. Sure. 60, 70, 80, whatever. I just need to get this off my chest. Okay. I would never ask for a fry. I would never ask for part of a sandwich. To me, like the, I don't know what the demarcation is. Interesting. Cookie is different. I can't explain it. I don't know. You've lost me that because I'm thinking of, because the way some people can think of it is, okay, it's a bite of a sandwich. That's one unit of sandwich. Like, you know, you see what I'm saying? Like, yeah, you're eating X percent of the sub. A one unit of fries is a single fry and you could spare that. It's a much smaller size. To me, the fries are the unit. I wonder if I'm thinking about it as if the meal is the meal. Don't ask me for my meal. Yep. But the cookies are an add on dessert. Like, in my mental, when we get cookies, in my mind, I'm always going, I don't need the cookies, but I'd like a taste of a chocolate chip cookie. And more often than not, I don't eat off. I mean, almost every time I don't eat all three. You don't eat all three? No, I would eat one or two max and then I'll have one sitting in front of me and I'll either toss it, you know, if Darris wants it or I'll give it to Toby or, you know, whoever's around. Sure, sure, sure. Or I'll just take it home. Right. Now probably eat it on the way home when I'm in traffic. It doesn't get back to the house, but I don't need it in one sitting and maybe that's my thought is, I see, in my mind, I'm going, well, Claire already had his lunch. He had his cob, right? He already had his taste of cookie. He didn't get three cookies to eat all three of them right now. He got them because he wanted some cookie and if someone else was around, they could have some cookie too. We'll struggle to get outside of our own thought process and see it from someone. Like walk them out on someone else's shoes. Exactly. I'm thinking of it the way I treat those cookies. I get those three cookies going, I'm going to eat one of these, maybe two of these. And the other one, we'll see what happens to it. And I'm thinking he's thinking the same thing and he clearly isn't. I think over the, over my lifetime, and I mean this, you could probably count on one hand. The number of times I have acquired my foodstuffs. Okay, this is what I want and not want it every ounce of it. You follow me? So in other words, like that, that three cookies is included in my total. Right. But I do in fairness, you're a maniac. Right. And I think you need to take how you do things out of this equation. No, but I, but I, but I think it's essential because that's, that's what you're struggling with here is. This is how you do it. A lot of people maybe, like when Clairey went and got his cookies or whatever it is, he plans on eating everything he has. The other thing is, and I didn't think about this in real time, he does this thing where he starves himself for two days at a time and then he'll eat a big meal and then he'll eat like next Thursday. And it's 11 am. He's like, this is dinner. And then you guys argue about whether it's dinner or not, he's like the definition according to Webster's. Yeah. So you probably, with a hungry person who does this, we don't angry, I'll eat a meal now and then I won't eat for five days. And then I'll leave. My car got towed and then I was on the treadmill in November, but not in December, like all this other crap he's doing, then I hibernate and then I'm going to sleep standing up and sleep in my hyperbaric chamber. I probably need to just steer clear of Clairey is the other thing I'm trying to figure out here with food. With food. Because I never know what like, what phase are we in? If he doesn't eat that cookie, he's got to live off of what he's he's eating today until September 9th. So you're like, like one day, he's like, hey, do you guys want lunch or the great? Okay, we can talk about it whether I do or not. That's fine. And then I'm like, then another day like, hey, does anyone want lunch? And he writes back like, I hope you choke on that lunch. I'll never eat again. I'm going to be able to eat lunch and I'm like, whoa, what? I'm sorry. I thought that thought sometimes we were the entrustry with the nest. So this is actually kind of something that today was a different story, though, because number one, it was a bad day for me. This bad morning, my car got towed last night. I was in a terrible mood. So they were comfort cookies. It was, it was a comfort. I beat my feelings. I went and I got coffee and I was just walking by that subway and I was like, you know what? Subway cookies. They never fail me. I'm going to get a subway cookie. I'm not suggesting you should have done this. Of course. This is going to sound like I am being a jerk and I promise I don't mean this. Was there any thought to? Hey, I know a guy who loves cookies more than anyone I know. Maybe I'll get him a cookie. Was there any thought to that? You know what? You're right. I probably should have hit up the group chat and been like, Grant, do you want to go to Danny Paris? One of the two hosts of this show looks out for his guys when he goes and grabs food. You know, his name doesn't rhyme with Shmani, okay? But, you know, one of us is like the Washington Post, the eats and darkness. The other one, we do things as a group around here. That's fair. That is fair. And I will say, I probably should have done that. But what I mean, it was a last second just, he just audible. Got to the line. Got to the line audible. You know what? And all of a sudden I'm in the subway entrance. I see the cookies there. Let me get three cookies. It was in segment. I didn't want to bother the show. I'm part of my job. Understand. So if I did that, I would have kind of thrown away the segment there. Didn't want to do that. I was thinking for the show, in that moment, Daris, where are you at on all of this? That last part was a little bit of BS, but, uh, well, yeah, it was like I was thinking myself. It was. But everyone put the show on such a pedestal. I can't text these guys. What if they see it during the big segment, the integrity of the 430 segment? Yeah. I also would like to add, I think Daris is with me. I think you would give a guy a cookie. Yeah, I would. I would share. I would share if you had three cookies, which is interesting because we're the two bigger fellas. Interesting. Yeah, right. Isn't that fascinating? The skinny guy and the pretty skinny guy are, are both like lay off me. I'm starving. And me and you who are out of breath coming up the steps from the parking lot, we're like, who needs a cookie? Got him over here. I'm sharing. Interesting. How is that? Like, what does that mean? I don't know how that, I don't know how that works. That's a weird dynamic. But yeah, I would totally, I would totally share it. Three cookies. So like, if you, if you cook, but if you're a Ryan situation where you go, I'm leaving to go get three cookies. You're just going to give one of those away. Like, if you wanted, I'm not saying if you wanted the grants, the grant taste paradigm is different than I want that serving, that unit, that three cookie situation that's in that plastic or the paper sleeve from subway. You would just go, here's one. One is tough, but a half. Yeah, easily. I would give up a half, which is what grand acts were. It's 15% of your cookies supply. I just thought of something too. I think the, the, the number matters. I was actually just thinking about this. It's not a dessert thing. If you went somewhere like that bakery down the street and you got one of those giant cookies and you had one of them, I don't think I'd ask for a rip. I don't think I'd say, hey, let me get a chunk of that cookie. I'm going to get the, I don't know why my own brain, it's weird, that three cookie thing. Interesting. You don't need three, do you? You know, but then who am I to judge how many you need? That makes me the bad guy again. Can we get one of those big cookies? Anyway, who wants to go get some cookies? How do we feel about that? Actually, pretty good. There's a bunch of chocolate. You feel so good. Go over to like, what's the, uh, we don't have a Wegman. So what's the thing down the street? Here's Peter. Yeah. Get one of those big giant buckets of the bite sized cookies. Well, those are good. Oh man. Uh, we do got to get to Adam Peters on, Adam Peters on cookies. You can talk more cookies. We should have asked him about cookies. He's probably never heard of it. He's a guy. I don't eat them. I'm handsome. Do you agree with him on Cliff Kingsbury's offense? We'll get to that next on GND. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With Danny, I'm Grant. This is the fan going back last night and listening to the Adam Peters interview. He was great. 25 minutes right here on GND. You missed the interview. You should podcast it at the fan DC.com. One thing that neither of us called attention to on the back end and we didn't really address after the fact that was some pretty good content was him talking about their offensive expectations. You asked him, I think, what does he feel best about? Like, what is he really excited about this season? And he went to their offense, not their defense, which I thought was telling, number one. Number two, he went to the tempo with which they've operated and basically- You've seen that already, right? The Cliff Kingsbury philosophy that he believes in, but this was Peters yesterday on GND. I couldn't be more excited. I can't believe it. It just felt like the blink of an eye that we're here now and just laughing at it on the field with a couple of coaches, how soon we got there and how soon we'll be in Tampa. I think I'm the most excited, but I think our fans should really, really be excited about this next week and what's to come with this team. And that kind of leads me to my answer. I think I'm really excited about everything. I'm really excited about our offense with Cliff and the way he runs it and the guys that are executing it. It's going to be a really fun offense to watch. It's going to be a fast offense and it's going to put defenses in a mind with what we do. And then defensively, I really love how fast and physical the guys are playing a mindset of the guys and the leadership on that side of the ball too. So honestly, just really excited about how we play and how we're going to play and the style of how we play. So I don't want to get too much into specifics on certain areas, but I just can tell you that, you know, I'm not exaggerating when I say how excited I am about everything. I don't want to overdo it, but I think when you ask an open ended question, the first item listed oftentimes is pretty revealing there. Yes. You say, Hey, what are you most excited about? He named a couple of things. He went on to say something on both side of the ball. Cliff Kingsbury was the first name out of his mouth. The offense he's running, the style of play, the way he runs this scheme. How fast we're operating. The fact that we're putting defenses in a bind, Adam Peters thinks number one, Kingsbury's had a really good summer. He seems fired up about the way he's running the offense and how fast they're going to operate. I think that's going to be a big departure from last year and teams in the past here, by the way, is there's going to be a lot of tempo. They're going to know it'll huddle a lot in my opinion. And I think Peter seems to like that, but also this puts defenses in a bind idea. He's suggesting schematically, we're going to be multiple enough. We're going to be surprising enough that defenses aren't really going to know what to do. That feels like 2012 when they had Robert Griffin ready to debut and a young hot shot coordinator in Kyle Shanahan and they came out against New Orleans and they ran something nobody knew was coming. Kind of gives you that vibe of the site and he's like, I don't want to get into the specifics, but I don't know if you heard the same thing, but when I was listening back last night, that's where I went. Because, so again, I'm trying to do the, you're, you're, you're parsing things up and trying to take puzzle pieces out to sort of figure out what the picture is, right? And if this was a, we went and got unbelievable weaponry, which we traded back into the first round and grabbed a left tackle and then traded for Keenan Allen or then, you know, added, I don't know, uh, a Latina Conkey in round number two, which they could have done just given where they were picking. We don't, I mean, if they've gone all in and really, really gone after this thing. And then he said, I can't wait to see this offense. I'd go, Oh, okay. Yeah. High flying. Well, their personnel doesn't jive with that. So we must be talking more schematically, putting defenses in a bind because they can't substitute on the fly. Everything's going fast. You've already seen that in the preseason a couple of different times. They tip their hand in that regard and they'll probably get faster during the regular season. So it's not a, we're going to, you can't stop us because you can't check any of these guys. This is more scheme and design and tempo and pace to run what we want to run over an individual player being a matchup nightmare. You know what I mean? Like if you've got waddle and tirey kill, a lot of people go look real smart. Yeah. You know what I mean? But you don't have that here. But what you got is maybe the other stuff that I was just talking about. Yeah. I mean, it's said differently. If you got the billies in the judge, you just line up and play football and do what you want. But when you don't, and they don't really, then X's and O's are going to matter more. And you're going to have to get a little more creative and a little more cute and a little more exotic. You're going to have to trick some people. Hey, you're going to have to pull some rabbits out of your hat. And I think, at least in listening to Adam Peters there, I think tempo is the way they're going to try to do that. And go and no huddle and keeping a formation, a collection, a package of players on the field for a defense that doesn't match up well, is probably going to be the plan. Let's get them to send their big bodies out there and then let's split Senate and Earth's out wide and be able to spread you out and ask them to cover us and see how those linebackers hold up. And then we'll go no huddle and they're not going to leave the field. That's one way to do it. But I just wonder if there's something we haven't seen that they got brewing to a lot 2012 with the pistol and read option, which is now ubiquitous. And we saw that in the preseason, but maybe there's a layer, maybe Kingsbury's been sitting in the lab wearing a white jacket, mixing potions with some, some lab glasses on. And they unveil that at an NFC South theme in a week one, just like the 12 Reds borrowing from a little bit of Greg Roman where there's three guys in the backfield and kind of that like diamond or pyramid shape with one of them being a tight end to two of them are running backs. Maybe it's, you know, splitting certain guys out wide. Maybe it's an aggressive amount of motion, which is not something he's known for. Who knows one of the massive stories and sports right now, Danny, is the changing landscape in college football. And this weekend is the first major weekend of college rock, not only in the area locally but all over the country. There's an excellent book that dropped that I've been reading from Armin Catayan. He's a co-author on how much college football has changed and where we're heading in the future. I want to talk about whether or not the sport is better than it used to be. And I want to talk with you about this idea of how teams can succeed in this era of college football. But let's talk to Armin Catayan first that's next right here on The Fan. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] It takes to win in college football's era of chaos has been one of the biggest talks in college football industrially over the last few days and he's kind enough to give us some time now here in DC on Grant and Danny. Armin, thanks so much for a few minutes. We really appreciate it. How long have you been working on this project and why did you decide to write this book? Well, it kind of dates back a couple years. And I had just finished this book called Gambler, The Secrets From a Life at Risk with Billy Walters, The Legendary Sports Gambler and that book was represented by a literary agent by the name of David Vigliano. And after I had finished the Gambler book, David calls me, he goes, I have a project I want you to take a look at and as it turned out, John Talty, my co-author had been collaborating with Paul Feynbaum, potentially on the price and Paul eventually just decided workload and otherwise that he was going to drop out of the project. And so David asked me, he was representing the same book, The Price. He asked me if I would take a look at the proposal and frankly Grant, I didn't know John. I knew of John. I read the proposal and it kind of reminded me, did not even kind of, it reminded me of the system of book that Jeff Benedict and I had done back in 2013, which was a deep dive into the state of Big Time College football at that point in time. And what we were experiencing now, obviously with NIL and the portal and realignment on the horizon again, it was like, that made the system look like child's play. So it began really in the summer of 2022 and John had already kind of ramped up some of the SEC reporting. And I was able to bring relationships and contacts I had at other schools, Michigan and the NCAA, eventually Arizona and other places. And it turned out to be a really good collaboration because of John's institutional knowledge of the SEC. We both had relationships and long term reporting on Nick Saban and others in the SEC. But it was like hopping on a speeding freight train, to be honest, because everything was you well known was changing, sometimes certainly weekly, sometimes daily, sometimes hourly, sometimes by the minute. And because of the embeds, the rare access, the behind the scenes things that we were getting, we felt really confident that we were going to be able to describe a landscape that as we say in the subtitle of the book that was just complete chaos. And so I think we got fortunate, thank God there was a deadline because otherwise we'd still be, I'm reading stuff now about the house settlement and how there's real questions as to whether that's going to be accepted in certain places. And so I think in the end, a lot of things fell our way. And certainly Nick's decision to retire was a huge thing. And then Jed Fish, who's a big character in our book, is now gone from Arizona to Washington. So there was a lot of chaos. But in the end, I think we've delivered something that, at least from the early reviews and what we're seeing has really been very well accepted. Oh, it's an incredible story in the storytelling from one of the greats to do it over the last couple of decades, Armin Catay. And with us on Grant and Danny, author, TV, film producer, six New York Times bestsellers. And this is a masterpiece in this genre, right, where we're still learning. I mean, you talk about how many changes there were while you were preparing the book. I mean, as we're talking in this conversation right now, there are going to be things changed and tweaked and done in college football and in college sports. But I guess let's start there. How would you describe the chaos kind of in a nutshell of the last couple of years? And where would you even begin to explain to someone who just woke up from their couple of your coma going, what happened to college football here? Well, I would start with the title of the book because the price has multiple meanings. It's not just the financial windfall, that price, the money that is poured into the sport, the billions of dollars now associated with grant of rights and certainly the upcoming 12 team college football playoff. But what John and I discovered that there was a tremendous emotional, physical and psychological toll being taken on the people who make their livelihood and love the game of college football. They're exhausted by what they're dealing with right now because no day is ever the same. There's always some cross-current or headwind or surprise around the corner. So I think that's one thing and I think the other thing that we have as the heartbeat of the book is that there's just a tremendous amount of greed and self-interest right now. And if you look at the chapter that we did on the destruction of the Pac-12 in a matter 108 year old conference, the conference of champions, the Rose Bowl and all those other great athletes associated with it starting with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tiger Woods and Bill Walton on down, and you look at what happened at that conference, it was really driven by greed because some presidents who really didn't know what they were doing or talking about believed that they're individual schools, the Pac-10 as a whole, but the individual schools, the Pac-12 as a whole, the grant of rights, these should have been $50 million a year. So that's big 10 in SEC territory and is one high-ranking SPN executive told me, he goes, if you're talking about volleyball and swimming, well, maybe there is a comparison, but when you're talking about football, there is no comparison. And so, but when USC decided to go to the big 10, that was the tumbling block. That was the domino that really started everything there. And sooner or later, UCLA goes and obviously now with Oregon and Washington in the big 10, which really makes no sense other than the fact that Fox was willing to put up in the case of certainly Oregon and Washington, $30 million per school in grant of rights money to get them to agree to make the change. So I think that in self-interest, everybody right now, because there is no clear picture, is most concerned about their own institution or their own conference. And that's not good for the greater good of the game. I say that understanding that last night we watched Colorado hold on to beat North Dakota State and there's a lot of great games on the field. The sport has never been, I think, more exciting and more popular off the field. It's never been more unsettled in turbulent. And that's going to shake out, but it's not going to shake out, I think, for a couple of years. It could be five years down the line before we finally figure out what, you know, a solid looking picture is for the future of college football. Armin Catean on Grant and Danny here on the fan in D.C. Armin, I'm curious. I think everyone lumps kind of all the changes in college football together, like the landscape over the last few years. And I was all for NIL. I thought and still think players should be able to make money off their names, just like I was able to in college if I was doing something, not as a college athlete. Having said that, is that tied to everything that's gone on with conference realignment and programs restructuring? We know that coaches are bowing out left and right because they don't want to deal with the recruiting of their own players. So I have a good buddy who coaches college baseball and, you know, his program was able to stay afloat because if they got some good players, everything was fine. But now he gets a good player and they have a great year. He loses them immediately in free agency. Are those things tied together or is it two different conversations when it comes to the unrecognizable conferences and NIL and the toothpaste not being able to go back in the tube? Well, I think it starts with the control, I would say, the influence, I would say, of the media companies. When you start with ESPN and Fox and CBS and NBC, they're really dictating realignment. And so when you have that, when you have no control over your future is Bobby Robbins, the president of the University of Arizona, soon to be walking away because he's having a hard time dealing with his faculty senate and some of the stuff out there and that's a great loss for Arizona. But his point was when you're at the mercy of the media companies and they're dictating your future, what conferences are going to look like, that's not a good thing. So then you have that as one pillar of the problem and then you add in, I think the second thing would be the portal because the portal is so chaotic and it's essentially free agency in college football, in college basketball, in college sports in general. And then you throw in the NIL issue and how opaque things are there. There's very little transparency right now in that market. When someone says a half a million dollars here, you don't know if that number is right wrong or indifferent at this point in time. So you're getting battered right and left and center by not just a minor force, but these are 10.0 earthquakes that are hitting you time and time again. And then you just add in the uncertainty of where the solutions are coming from. They're not going to come from Congress. I can tell you that, at least not in the near term, and you have a new president who's trying in Charlie Baker in a very pragmatic way to bring and wrangle all these wild horses in one direction and everybody's out for themselves. And so there really isn't any, there's no center now, there's no base to what's going on. And just to kind of shift it, if you want to look and it's in your backyard, if you want to look at a chapter or a couple chapters in this book that summarize where the state of a program is and how that program fits into the bigger picture, just look at Maryland and Mike Loxley, and those chapters are called Macy's, Macy's One and Macy's. And Mike Loxley, and this is his description, he finds his program in the middle, Macy's is in the middle. He's got sexist avenue above him and he's got target below him, a discount retailer. And so the sexist avenues of the world are the Michigan's and the Ohio State's and the Alabama's, we can name them all to top of her head. Down below are programs like let's say UNC Charlotte with Biff Pogie, who's trying to build the program, but he's pulling players out of Maryland who want to start right away at a little bit of a lower division in one school and he's losing players to the bigger programs who he's developed over two years and they go into the portal because Maryland can't afford a $20 million NIL budget or even a $10 million NIL budget. And at the same time as we say in the book, of course Loxley's getting hit by his own players, Talia Tongavioloa, right before a bowl game last year, came to him as other players did, but Talia being the big star of the team, really influenced by his father to say, "I need $50,000 or I'm not going to play in this bowl game." Now that's a, you can define that as extortion if you'd like, which is kind of what it is. And Mike had to find that money. Is that where the Mike Gundy comment came from a couple of weeks ago? Yeah. Where he said, like it's over now. Yeah, you've got players coming in and that's why Nick resigned, I mean, Nick's alluded to it, but clearly he had lost the one thing Nick wanted to do in his program and more than anything else was control. He wanted to be able to control the process and control the development of his players and control what happens on the field. And after they lost it, Michigan in the Rose Bowl and the semi-finals, Nick goes down to Florida to his beachfront estate down there, comes back to Tuscaloosa. He's got a line outside his door and that line is not from players who are wanting to talk to their coach about, "Okay coach, what do I need to do in the off-season to develop? How do I get on the field? How do I get better?" No, it was one after another saying, "Coach, if I don't get more money from NIL, I'm going in the portal and I've known Nick and been around Nick's, dating back to his days with the Miami Dolphins and I have a very good relationship with Ms. Terry, his wife and we were texting and talking during the season and I can tell you, there was a great deal of frustration over these new rules and they just rubbed Nick the wrong way and he didn't need the money anymore but he didn't need the agony at this point in time. So, when you look at where we are right now, you have Nick Saban out of the game and you have Jim Harbaugh out of the game for very, very different reasons as we explained in the book and Harbaugh's a big, Michigan's a big part of the book, there's three chapters on that in his Jim's battle with the NCAA and the Fendetta, those are my words that the NCAA Committee on Infractions had against Jim but when those two singular figures are not in the game for different reasons but they're both gone, that tells you a lot about what the state of college football is. >> Armie Catan with us here on Grant and Danny, I mean a long time ago, I was a former college athlete myself and you know, I had very little sympathy for a lot of college coaches that you kind of alluded to, everything was set up for their convenience, I was used to argue, like if I wanted to transfer regardless of the reason, sick family member or just different fit, I just sit out of here, there are all sorts of things that were just sort of set up for them, they could gracious, scholarships weren't guaranteed, there was all this stuff where they could take advantage of players for their own, you know, the benefit of their programs. Well, the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction where we were just hoping, hey, can I get paid 20 bucks to take a picture next to somebody at a local sporting goods store, it's now gone, as you said, guys walking in with their hands out, so I guess ultimately my question is here, to me the start of this or the blame should fall with the governing body that fought any kind of change, there were no rules or regs kind of set in place and they basically started a wildfire and have no idea how to contain it. >> You're absolutely 100% right, and in the book talks about the history of the NCAA's and denial of athletes rights and really going back to the days of Walter Byers in the 1950s where he took over the NCAA as the executive director at that time and had a 36 year run where he ran that organization like a third world despot and created out of whole cloth the words student athlete and amateurism as for no other reason than to protect the association against workers compensation claims. So these were not employees of the university, they were just playing for God in the good of our country basically and that original lies, it's been called, perpetrated and went on and on and on as commercial as the commercialization of college sports just exploded in whether it was March Madness and then it was the SEC on CBS and then it was the Big Ten network and then it was the SEC network and on and on and on. Well it takes you up to Ed O'Bannon and Sonny Vicaro and there's a chapter called Oppenheimer which I really like and it gives you the history here where you look at the court cases in one court case after another, the NCAA was losing these court cases or they were settling them and then lawyers were making a ton of money and no one else was making anything. And what happened was is that the O'Bannon case finally cracked the wall and opened the floodgates and then that led to the Austin case which led to the House case which led to the Supreme Court ruling, the 9-0 ruling, the unanimous ruling that really was the beginning of NIL. And so if you want to point a finger in the direction, the leadership of the NCAA from the President's on down is a pretty good place to start. Well the last one for you, Herman, is about the players themselves. Again, I argued that NIL was about, hey, earning some extra scratch or I could sign an autograph for $5, $10, $100, more high-profile college athletes should and deserve more. I get that. But we're now to the point where there's no collective bargaining, there's no one really watching out for these players' interests. You can be promised a lot and it should an 18, 19-year-old that's trying to decide whether they're going to go play to the highest bidder. Made in Rashata. There's the whole chapter on him and what happened in Florida in that lawsuit now. So do you anticipate a CBA? I guess my big question here is who's looking out for these players in this kind of Wild West? That's a really good question and I don't think you have a kind of a player's association with Ramaji Holgi and people like that but I think that all has to be settled out. Right now Charlie Baker is trying to get a framework on NIL, he's trying to get transparency on these contracts, they're fighting in Congress for some sort of antitrust exemption, whether that happens, it's not going to happen certainly this year or even early into next year with the presidential race and everything. But you're right. There has to be some formula, some framework in place where the universities or the conferences decide that okay, this is how we're going to share the money, that $2.8 billion settlement. Yes, there's supposedly now $20 million per school and revenue sharing but how is that really going to work and how do you control it so it doesn't, it's not ripe for criminality because right now some of these kids are signing these NIL deals without counsel or without advisors and they're signing away their life rights in perpetuity, meaning that this agent or this entity now controls your life rights even if you become an NFL star and that's a recipe for disaster. So hopefully cooler heads are going to prevail, hopefully self-interest will be put to the side so the greater good becomes the primary focus of these discussions but if history is any sort of lesson here, you've got to have a lot of hope that something like that's going to happen because I think self-interest here right now is really overriding everything. Armin, fantastic. Still working my way through it but it has been an incredible read. I think the research is so obvious and there's nothing else like it right now at a critical time in college football and college sports and as we kick off this season, I think it's a must read for all of our listeners. Thank you for the time. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Did you would say about where people can get it or what you'd want to say that we didn't ask you? It's on Amazon. It's in Barnes & Noble. Books a million. It's everywhere right now. I mean, and certainly Amazon is the place easily to get it because I know that a lot of my friends have been telling me that they just picked up the book and John and I are really proud. I mean, you said I think we hit something and it's one of the best books I've ever done and that is saying something, consider Tiger Woods and the system and our recruits and a few other things. But I'm really proud of it. And I think if you're a college football fan and you're trying to understand this brave new world, this book goes a long way to help you do that. It's eye-opening. Very cool. Thank you, Armin. We appreciate it. Thank you. Armin Katayan, awesome. Loved him, by the way, on Real Sports with Brian Gumbel back in the day. Next is college football better or worse than it was five years ago? We'll discuss that. We want to hear from you guys on that as well on the MGM National Harbor listener lines, 800-636-106-7 is how you can join us on Grant and Danny. Thanks to Armin Katayan for joining us. Welcome back, Grant and Danny, on the fan. Virginia Tech footballs at Vanderbilt tomorrow, Maryland's got Yukon in town. We are ready for week one. Last night was a blast. I was watching games all evening long. Colorado and North Dakota State got the majority of my attention. And we bring up college ball with the Katayan interview, though, as it kicks off through the lens of the book he wrote and the chaos that is ensuing. This was all very obvious. I think anybody who didn't just care about pay the players, that's the only thing that matters. Okay. What about everything else that's going to change when you do that? So I think it is good that NIL exists. I think the unregulated version that we have as a disaster and it's bearing out that way. Pretty easy to see at this point. I don't know where we go from here. I don't think two super conferences is a good thing. I don't think the SEC and the big 10 essentially becoming, you know, the under the NFL version of the National Football League is good and then everyone else plays college football. I don't know. I know that when I'm watching games, I enjoy it otherwise. I find a lot of it off putting in the turn off and I don't think the sport is better than it was five years ago. I don't know how anyone could think. So there's a balance sheet, right? There are certain positives. And I'll say this. There are more good players. There's more good teams. There's more fun. There's more chances for teams that weren't good to get good, right? I mean, you would think the opportunity, especially with the transfer portal for him of movement, something I've long advocated for to a degree for players. Remember, it used to be punitive if you wanted to transfer. Like I think of one of my teammates, for example, who came from California. If something had happened to a family member of his or his circumstances had changed or whatever, if he wanted to transfer to a school back closer to home, he had to sit out for a year. That's absurd. It always was. It was to deter that sort of thing, right? Where coaches could just take your scholarship away just because they felt like it. They had all the power. So I've always advocated for more player rights and things like that. But now the pendulum is swung to such a degree. And nobody can touch anything. Because all this happened is the NCA lost as as the team was pointing out at every possible court case. They just got swatted away and smacked. They weren't ready for it. So they finally said, fine, good luck. And now you've got just sort of great one more thing. You basically got these legal slush funds. And there's a negative connotation to that. And there should be. It's basically just this big old pile of money. And it used to be it was supposed to be, I'm Grant. I want to endorse my local Ford dealership and I play water polo at George Mason. Here's 20 bucks for that. I'll do a meet and greet. Now it's I need a million dollars out of this fund if you'd like me to play defense attack for you. It was never intended to be this and there are no rules in place for that. Well, that's the problem. I mean, a bit of big part of me goes, you got what you wanted. Honestly, I remember I was doing a Q and A. I spoke at an event and I was doing a Q and A and it was a bunch of listeners. Not everybody was familiar with the show, but it was at a dinner that I did somewhere in Maryland. It's probably been seven, eight years ago now. And they were asking one question after another about the commanders. It was still the Redskins or this thing, that team. And then we got to should college athletes be paid. And I remember my answer being I absolutely think that college athletes should be able to benefit off of their name. I still feel that way. I think you should be able to make money when your jersey is sold and you should be able to go to the local pancake house and do an event there. I think that that's all true, but my point was it's going to change everything irreparably and no one wants to think about all the other ramifications and figure it all out. They just want it's a good versus evil thing like the students are these victims and they're good and the schools and the coaches are evil and it was never really that binary to me. There was more nuance to that. And if you suggested that having a scholarship and being at the school and getting an education was in any way any type of exchange for you playing a sport. You were the bad guy. Like it was just an awful take and you don't know what you're talking about. And I do think a lot of people feel like Chris and Hyatt's Village just tweeted us this at Grand H. Paulson had funny Danny who said this is the sound of the world's smallest violin playing a song for all of those poor souls in the NCAA for football having to deal with the unsettled and turbulent times, arm and contains talking about. Let's go back to the days of unpaid player exploitation and I think that's all it is for people. The players are paid. So nothing else matters, right? Mm hmm. My work here is done. Sorry to say that that that is not the whole ball game here. At the sport in every single way has gotten worse other than that guys are now paid. But even that part is the Wild Wild West. It's uh it's not fair from one school to another one player on a team to another. When you've got guys going to coaches saying I need 50,000 to play in this game or you know I'm having to re-recruit the very players that I'm coaching and I can't yell at any buddy. I can't coach anybody because they'll just go to the other school that's promising them will be nice and more playing time. You're not making better people. You're not making better men. You're probably not making better students. What are we doing here? So there's a reason at the NFL level that Josh Harris can't go to Jaden Daniels. Hey, I'll give you a million dollars for if you do a charity appearance, right? Because that's payment on top of the salary cap. It's collectively bargained. Does that make you see what I'm saying? Like these distinctions. There are no rules like that at the NCAA level. My point isn't necessarily a player getting paid or not paid is good or bad. My point is there's no CBA. There's no there's no rules for any of this stuff. So what you're going to have are parasites. You're going to have duplicitous folks. You're going to have again, also you're going to you do you do and it's in in the coaches that want to deal with it. Again, I have no I have very little sympathy for coaches because the entire thing was set up for them forever. So yeah, it's harder. It's harder now. Enjoy your $10 million a year or whatever else. You got an advocate. That's hard. But to me, the the the the fact that as we've said many times, it is the absolute Wild West and it's chaos. That's not fun. Like I understand it may benefit a player who's taking advantage of the ultimate free market. You get your million bucks to go to Auburn. And if you can get more to go Oklahoma next year, take it by all means. Do what you want. It's your choice. It's your decision. You can vote. You could work. You get your money. You can export more. Absolutely not. I want to squeeze in Andre. Manasse has been waiting. We got less than a minute. But I wanted to get you in on this. Hey, what's going on guys, but I mean, I think it's a loaded question. I mean, it's cause football, you know, worse or better. I mean, compared to 30 years ago, when the big 10 and the Pat 10 were married to have to go to the Rose Bowl and, you know, the number one team can never play the number two team. Yeah. I mean, I think it's better. But yes, obviously compared to like five years ago, where you know, you know, you know, it's coming. We're coming up the heels of the Olympics and everybody was arguing about how the worst sports in the Olympics are the ones who have judges and stuff like that. And what is cause for both, particularly when you look at the polls and all of the stuff, the whole season starts off with a poll, a bunch of judges telling, you know, who's the number one team? Who's the number two team? I think ultimately it's worse, but I think like the old edges is things have to get worse before they can get better. And I don't know how much further the shoe has to drop, but I like to believe somewhere in the back of my mind that things are actually on their way to getting better. What are they? I don't know. I think, you know, cost football. It's like a hundred teams. And I think ultimately that's the problem. You have a hundred teams, too many teams and most leagues, you know, twenty eight teams. And I always believe that's probably going to end up looking like European soccer, you end up with different tiers and people can be regular, rather than promoted. That's smart, by the way, it's a good call. That's a great idea. Because he's right. What they should do is level one, two, three, four, whatever. He's right. Also that we've come a long way in terms of playoffs in terms of actually getting a national champion through football play instead of just voters a couple of days after the season ended. And so it is better. The conference restructuring, but that's worse, dissipating, that's all worse, terrible. I think the current state compared to five years ago is better for the players and worse for everybody else. I don't know a single other group that it's worse for now. I'm not saying that I'm not happy for the players in some way. It's better for them. That's good. But the amount that it has gotten worse for almost every other person involved, including the fans who year to year 40 new players are coming and going from your program. It happened way faster than I think a lot of people probably anticipated. Let's look at some commanders burning questions going into the season next on Grant and Danny. Grant and Danny on the fan. And the next play tonight, 615 pregame, 645 start time at Nationals Park. They're taking on the Chicago Cubs this evening. We'll get you a preview of the game coming up in just a few minutes. It is time to get you some burning questions on the commanders going into week one. This will be our final show of the week. We're off on Monday for Labor Day and then it's NFL season and our first scheduled week of commanders build up as they play the Bucks next Sunday. So with that in mind, Danny, burning questions that still need answered for Washington Johnny Newton, the health. We didn't see him in the preseason. We're told it's day to day or maybe it's other day to other day or a couple of days. Last week he was supposed to be full go. Now that's been pushed to next week, as you said, we're off on Monday. So we'll see how the week progresses, but what's it going to be? We have not seen much of the second round pick. I'll see your injured rookie who didn't play in the preseason and I'll raise you an injured rookie who didn't play in the preseason. Hello there. Brandon Coleman. I was headed towards starting left tackle. I went out to camp a few days into the training camp and he was already getting left team, first team left tackle reps. He was the starter at left tackle the day I was out there and the consensus every person I talked to with the team in the media, whatever, was this guy's good. This guy looks the part. Dan Quinn said last week, if you remember, that he did not need to see Brandon Coleman play in a preseason game to feel good about starting him in the first game, but that he would like to he didn't get to fast forward to now. He's practicing again, supposedly healthy. Do you really want to throw him out there in the first game of the season against the Todd Bowls, blitz happy bucks to protect Jaden Daniels blindside with so little experience this summer, or do you just let Cornelius Lucas handle those duties and get Coleman up to speed for a couple more weeks behind the scenes? I am really interested to see how they handle that. Here's a burning question. You mentioned Tampa Bay. That's week one. Third down eight yards to go, Tampa Bay football at their own 42 yard line, Baker Mayfield drops back to pass freeze time. Who's rushing the passer on this down? You think it's Allen. You think it's paint. You guess maybe Dorn's Armstrong, but as Cleveland Farrell in there, who gets the first crack at it? Is it Dante Fowler? Is it Jim and Davis? Is it a bear package that involves Johnny Newton somehow? They're going five down. I don't know. I don't know how this pass rush, especially on the outside is going to be. I got a good feel for pain for Allen. Those guys, everything breaks right for him could be eight sack guys. That's who they are, right? You're going to cause enough disruption. You're going to be a pain in the butt. They feed off each other. These are good solid football players, not world beaters, not Aaron Donald, but who is, right? That outside pass rush. I don't know what it's going to look like could be good could be non-existent. How quickly can Noah Brown get up to speed for Washington? How quickly can he learn this offense? How fast is he able to prove to them that they can trust him to know the entire playbook to run the correct route? It takes one play where you're not on the same page with your quarterback for a game-changing snap. I thought you were going inside through it that way. You went outside pick six and that's an important position to know the playbook and how often you hear a quarterbacks receivers talking about getting on the same page. I loved yesterday. Music to my ears to find out that Jaden Daniels acting like a vet, acting like a leader stayed on the practice field, working with Noah Brown on routes and going through the playbook. I'm sure they're going to do that every chance they get up until week one. But is it the first game against Tampa that he's starting with Terry McClorin and Alumadez Igias perhaps that he supplants the Army Brown? Is it going to be a couple of weeks into the season before we start to see him really climb the depth chart? For all I know it's week six and he's still just kind of in the building and they're trying to get him up to speed. I'm really curious to see the burning question on this for me is how fast before Noah Brown can prove he needs to be on the field because he's better and bigger than the other guys. Saying that receiver position, not unlike Moses for 40 years wandering the desert, unsure of where to go and how to proceed. And all of a sudden the seas parting as an opportunity down the ground. He of the 29 career catches over three years, less than 10 catches per year on average, which is full back territory, like that's not active full back. That's Brad Kozlowski, full back type territory. He's got an opportunity. He has it. I know Noah Brown is here. That shouldn't preclude you from being on the football field an awful lot. There's a lot of confidence in you. They traded away. John Dotson basically saying you got it number two. Go ahead. Be out there. Be an outside receiver block for us. Get down the football field. A chance for him to break out is still very much on the table. Do we see it? I personally am not confident, but it's a burning question. They're pretty confident in him remains to be seen running back position. My question would be how do the roles get divvied up between Brian Robinson and Austin Echler, both of whom seem like they are primed for a big season. Robinson, the early down thumper, Echler, two minute, four minute, third down kind of past catching back out of the backfield, but how often do we see B-Rob catching passes? How often do we see Echler getting carries on early downs? I want to see how they decide to divvy up touches and usage between those two players. I'd say that's another burning question for the commanders next on Grant and Danny Tom Brady's got a big question. He's got an answer for the NFL before he makes his broadcasting debut and we will announce the 10 people who got into our listener league that we will be drafting fantasy football Tuesday night. Crystal City. You can come hang out with us. We'll give you all the details in a moment. This episode is brought to you by progressive insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? 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