REShow: Chris Godwin & Don Van Natta Jr. - Hour 2

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Stop busting up my flow. Earlier on the show, Lions defense event Aiden Hutchinson. Coming up, ESPN senior writer Don Van Natta Jr. Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin. Fox Sports college football analyst Mark Ingram.

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And the Rokuchannel.com is a way to get us for free. Great chat in hour number one with Aiden Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions. This is the Lions world right now and we're paying rent apparently. And so great chat with him about what he thought about the league putting his Lions in Kansas City to start the season.

And the bandwagon being full and the expectation level. Just a great talk with him. We re-air as soon as this show is over, if you missed it. Two hours from now which means we've got a ton more to talk about. Mark Ingram, Heisman Trophy winner. Mark Ingram will be joining us in hour number three. We'll talk about the winnowing running back market with him as well as some college football.

The open championship is going on. Don Van Natta of ESPN will be joining us. He's the investigative reporter who's been covering the NFL in ownership for a long time.

Dan Snyder apparently is going to finally sell the Washington football team slash commanders away. So who better to talk about that than Don. And your phone call is 844-204-RICH. If you are on hold, please stay on hold. We promise to get to all of you.

But joining us right now, we're going to take the phone call. The last time, if I'm not mistaken, this guy was on the show. He had just dropped his phone into the Hillsborough River in the championship boat parade. So I assume he got a new phone because he's calling back into the show.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin. How are you, Chris? I'm doing great, Rich. Yeah, man, I got a new phone.

It's funny how things work out. My folks at Verizon looked out for me, man. But I'll tell you this, if there's a time for me to lose a phone, I'll definitely take that one. You'll take that ring for phone trade every single time, right, Chris? Every single time. Yeah, that Lombardi's got great reception, I would agree. So what's your mindset heading into this training camp season, Chris?

Walk me through that right now. I mean, I feel like for me, every time I go on a training camp, regardless of what our team's expectations are, I feel like my approach is always just to try to find different ways to get better each day. I feel like we all spend the entire offseason working on our craft and working to get better. And I never want to be one of those guys that once I get to training camp, we just kind of hit a plateau and then that's where you are for the season, right? I want to try to make sure that I'm growing every day and still learning. I'm going into year seven now, but I feel like there's still so much ball that I have to learn and so much I have to experience.

So I'm excited about this opportunity, man. Well, and obviously what comes as a challenge this year is catching footballs from a new quarterback. Whoever that may be, how do you go through a process of gaining chemistry in a quarterback competition as you have right now, Chris?

How do you do that? I feel like, honestly, I feel like the biggest thing is communication. I feel like whenever there's a lack of communication, I feel like that's when you see bad plays show up between quarterbacks and receivers. So, I mean, like you said, we don't know who the quarterback is going to be, but I think that from my perspective, I just got to make sure that our chain of communication between Baker and Kyle is as clear as it can be. And just try to be as quarterback friendly as I can of those guys. They have a lot of stuff going on anyway, the competition, but also playing quarterback is a hard position.

I don't know if everyone fully understands just how much they have to know, but I don't want to be a reason to add any extra stress to their lives, you know? So, how do you become quarterback friendly? What does that mean, quarterback friendly, from your perspective, Chris?

Well, for me, from my perspective, it's doing the little things right. You know, like if you're running an out route, not drifting up the field and allowing the DB to undercut the ball, it's like working on friendly angles when you're coming out of your breaks. It's seeing the coverages the same way that the quarterback sees the coverages so that whenever you make route adjustments, you're all on the same page and the plays just happen easy, right? And it's like understanding when you're running, when to sit in zones, when to run away from guys, understanding the general spacing of the plays. And so, obviously, like I take care of that by knowing what to do and then communicate with them to see how they see it, and then we just put it together on the field and like it's not going to be something that happens overnight. It's going to be something that we develop over the course of training camp, but as long as we're working in the same direction, you know, we're working on the same things, I think we'll be good. And obviously, you've been around Kyle Trask since he's been drafted, but Baker Mayfield is new to the scene. Chris, what's your impression of what you see out of him, from him, that you want to see in a starting quarterback?

What do you got for me there? I like what I see so far, man. He's been a really good guy back in the locker room so far, and that was like the first thing that stood out to me was just the way he carries himself. He's not like some arrogant guy that's going to come in and be like, oh, I'm the guy at all, you guys need to kind of like fall in line.

Did you, hold on a second, Chris, did you think he was going to be that guy coming in based on what happened in Cleveland a little bit? You can be honest. I feel like whenever you like, you know, like people have like different like perceptions that are portrayed, like whether it's in the media or like just through other people, you just never really know. And I feel like sometimes like quarterbacks may have like that, not like an arrogance to them, but like a confidence to them when they walk in and they're like, they try to over lead too soon. It's like it's hard to have, you know, like to get people to follow you as a leader.

It's like if they don't know who you are, right, if they like if they don't know how you work, if they don't know like the type of work ethic you have, if they don't know that we're all like in it, you know, together, then it's hard to get people to follow you. And so, you know, so far he's come in and he's just been one of the guys. And I think that allows him to be able to like in times where he needs to be a leader, I think it allows him the space to be able to step in and like, you know, like just what we need to do because he's already working on building those relationships with God. Well, I think one thing that you can say based on perception with Baker Mayfield is there is a chip on the shoulder. I mean, he had it at Oklahoma, man, when he was planting flags in Columbus and, you know, doing what he did in Oklahoma and obviously what did was his birthing into the league in Cleveland. Guy had a chip on his shoulder and then, you know, a shoulder gets hurt significantly. And he shows up in your spot with an opportunity again here in this league for a first overall pick that you could say potentially has been humbled a little bit.

But that chip's still there. And there's a lot of guys on your team that won the chip, if you will, a couple of years ago. And do you think you're potentially being overlooked right now in Tampa, Chris Godwin? I mean, I think that like that most people on the team would think so.

But what I also know is like, you know, talk is cheap, right? I feel like like there are people like that that are out there like they're like, you guys are paid to talk, you know, like there's a lot of people paid to speculate about the season because, like, you know, I guess you got to do. But I mean, how I look at it is like if you look back just a year ago, right, like we were predicted to be one of the best teams in the league just based on the talent that we had on the you know, on our roster. But clearly, like when we got to the end of the season, we saw that, like, it's clearly not just the sheer amount of talent that you can accumulate. Like there is like there's a reason that we play the games. And so I like that that kind of thing kind of braids me, like some sense of like calmness, because I know that we just have to go out there and we have to put the work in. Like, regardless of who's playing, regardless of who the quarterback is, what plays are being called, like, if we don't have our team chemistry on point, like if we're not all working and pulling the rope in the same direction, it's going to be for none. You know, you have as much talent as you want. But if, you know, teams that are playing together, playing as a team, they can come in and beat the most talented team if they're not on their p's and q's.

So I think it's on us to go out there and actually put the work in and for us to determine what the season is going to be like based on the kind of work that we put in and how committed we are and, you know, and those types of things. So I'm excited about this opportunity, man. Like, regardless of like whatever the outside talk is, I'm excited to go to work with these guys and, you know, see what we can, see what we can craft up. Well, I mean, you're right. Talk is cheap. And, you know, I am paid to talk. I'm just really good at it, though, Chris. You know what I mean? I agree. Okay. I just want to make sure, you know, I have a chip on my shoulder, too.

You know, we all have. How different is the offense going to look like now that Byron Leftwich is out and that's the Arians era, one would say, on that side of the line of scrimmage? How are things going to look different, do you think, this year, potentially? I mean, I definitely think it's going to look different. I think, like, the presentation of things is going to be a bit different. Right. If you look at, like, what are some of the stuff that, you know, that Dave and Brad did when they were in Seattle.

Like, obviously, like what they did compared to what we've done in the past is very different. Right. And I think that, like, the interesting thing is, like, for them to be able to kind of come in, like, merge kind of like the two systems. Right. And it takes some of the stuff that they've been doing really well.

It takes some of the stuff that weird that some of our guys are accustomed to and kind of like merging like the systems. Right. So I think that, like, you know, I think that we're going to have to be significantly better running the ball. Right. And I think we might have been 32nd in the league last year.

So, like, it's only up from here. Right. So I think just like just like from that perspective, it's already going to look a lot different because of, like, just a commitment to the run game. And I think that if we're able to really establish that, then, you know, then a lot of other things open up for us. But I think it'll be interesting to see just, like, how Dave, like, kind of reacts as a play caller, not only to, like, adversity, but just success as well. Trying to find, like, our our our nation of things that we do well and to make sure that we're able to just, like, execute at a high level.

Right. Like, it doesn't have to be incredibly complicated, but we have to be able to make sure that all of our guys understand what we're what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish, and then figure out the best way to get them in positions to do that. Dave Fern, Dave, Dave Canales, the new offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach in Seattle last year. I spoke to Rashad White yesterday.

He seems ready for the challenge and excited for the opportunity. And then that that game you had with Seattle last year, I called it for NFL Network in Germany. That was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. I know you guys played your head off in that game as well. It might have been like the best game you played all year, to be blunt, I guess. But that was incredible. That was unbelievable. That game in Germany.

Chris, right? I'm right there with you. I really wasn't sure what to expect when we got out there. Me too.

Me too. I wasn't sure, like, how, you know, just like how the German fan base was going to react. I knew, like, there was a lot of excitement just based on, like, how fast the tickets sold.

But you never really know. You know, it was like their first real taste of, you know, of American football. And like you said, they did not disappoint at all, man. I still vividly remember, I think, like, as the game was coming to an end, you know, like the whole stadium is singing Country Road.

Country Road, that's right. I'm like, man, I don't know if it happens, people know where West Virginia is, but they're like, you know, verbatim in the stadium and they got the lights on. And it was just like, man, this is sick. I was very grateful to be a part of that experience, man.

It was like kind of like a mix between like pro football and like pro soccer kind of atmosphere. Yeah, it was a two minute warning. It was a two minute warning, by the way.

I didn't think that they know where West Germany is, but not West Virginia. Right. And it was my job. I was coming out of the two minute warning and, you know, and you guys needed one first down to get it, which Rashad White did get.

And I was just letting the audience hear at home what we were hearing at at the stadium, which was them singing John Denver word for word. And it was wild. The whole week was wild. And I know after the game, Brady said it was up there with a Super Bowl experience for him and his career. And that was, you know, that was great, man.

It really was. Have you have you spoken to Brady lately at all, Chris? Not a ton. I think we talked a couple of times since he retired, but not not within like the last couple of months, man. You know, I think I'm definitely a person. I like to give people like their space. And I feel like with Tom, like, you know, he's been doing this for so long, man.

And now he's finally retired. Like, I think it's cool to see him getting to spend as much time as he has with his family, but also like getting to see him like step out there and kind of like open himself up to as like a resource to like a lot of different guys. Like I feel like the thing that he was doing with the with the quarterback quarterback this year. Like, that's very cool to me, like just kind of like being able to pass, you know, to pass the game down to them.

And you give them like a little bit more tools in our toolbox to allow them to be successful. I'm like, my best up is very cool, man, because I hope I what better person to learn from, you know, then then the greatest quarterback of all time. So other than football's, what did he pass to you, Chris? Yeah.

What do you do, man? I mean, just a lot of knowledge on just how to be like how to continue to be the best product and be like the importance of making sure that you're taking care of your body all the time. Like the how how you have to make sure that you're that you're always in position to win.

Right. And trying to make sure that it's not that football isn't a more difficult game like than it needs to be. Like you can't just go out there and just like bank on like your guy being the guy that wins his rep every single time, because we have some extremely weak players in this league and like everyone like we're like the best, you know, the best in the world or what we do. So like odds are like, you know, you're going to win some or you're going to lose some.

So if you're just like banking on that map, it's not going to work. But so like understanding, like, you know, the things that you need to do to be able to put yourself in a position to win. But also just like, you know, carry yourself the right way, you know, treating people in the locker room the right way, things that I've already done.

But it's like it's cool to get kind of like the reassurance, you know, from someone that's been doing it for as long as he was, you know, that I'm just headed in the right direction. You know, your teammate Antoine Winfield Jr. says he doesn't think he's retired. Did you hear that one, Chris?

Yeah, I didn't. But, you know, honestly, I think that's pretty funny. I would be I'd be very surprised if he if he came out of retirement again, like he put me down.

I'd be very, very shocked. I'll put you down for that for sure. Hey, great chatting with you. Let's do this more often than every couple of years. And tell tell your your colleague, Mike Evans, not to make me feel like I'm twisting his arm when he comes on this program. He doesn't really talk much. He likes throwing.

He likes throwing milestone footballs into the stands more than talking. So let's say I get on about that. Tell him I said hi. But, you know, do this a little bit more. Oh, the creamsicle uniforms are coming back, right? Is that what's happening? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

They're going to be sick. When is that? I mean, do we know when that is? Do we know when that is? I think Mr.

Lion might be like week six or something. OK. All right. Cream cell. So what do you do? You've got a score and a creamsicle uniform, right?

I mean, like that has got to be sick. I want to score multiple times. That's it. There we go.

You've got to be you've got to be greedy. Chris, thanks so much. Greatly appreciate the time. We'll do it again soon. Yeah, that was good. Have a good one.

You bet. That's Chris Godwin. One of Penn State's finest. C.T. Jack and talk about other schools.

Penn State, man. That's right. He is Chris God. He is.

Right here in the Richardson. God. Well, that was great. Godwin's a good dude, man. Great talking to the player. He's so good.

It really is. I'm glad he got his phone. We got a new phone. Yeah, a phone. All right. Let's take a break. By the way, the phone slipped out.

So could the Lombardi Trophy. You know what I mean? I mean, flipping it from boat to boat.

Luckily, it didn't know. I mean, you're going to choose one thing to drop into that body of water. Oh, yeah. No doubt. Oh, there it is.

The dad. No, I'm sure I know you're playing music on a break. He can't do it. He can't have everything ready. Take a break. I'm not screwing up the breaking.

Don Van Natta on the day that the Wicked Witch of D.C. is out. You'll save time. Eat well and stay on track, reaching your goals. If you're too busy with summer plans to cook but want to make sure you're eating well. Well, with Factor, skip the extra trip to the grocery store and the chopping, prepping and cleaning up, too, while still getting the flavor and nutritional quality you need. Factors fresh, never frozen meals are ready in just two minutes. So all you have to do is heat and enjoy. Then get back outside and soak up the warm weather. This July, get Factor and enjoy eating well without the hassle. Simply choose your meals and enjoy fresh, flavor packed meals delivered to your door, ready in just two minutes.

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Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. When did you first know that you were part of something that was huge and becoming big? I'll give you one that I. This is will seem an odd answer, and I haven't said this. I haven't thought of this till you asked me this question. It's all incremental. Like, oh, you know, he went out to eat in California on a vacation and because I did the late show. Well, what does this Swami want to drink? You know, a 1981 thing. But that's more incremental. Nineteen eighty three.

You will laugh. The America's Cup race that we lost off Newport, the seventh race, the wing keeled land down under. OK, sailboat racing, right? Right. But it was like a Tuesday afternoon.

Don't quote me on that. And one of the Providence stations had a helicopter that they were televising in Rhode Island and some sort of commentary. And we picked up the feed at two o'clock when it was on the big seventh race of Australia's United States, the sailboat race. Two in the afternoon. I want to say a Tuesday with no we didn't tell anybody. I think they arranged it at one forty five. You know, typical the rating we got or the amount of people that saw this who just.

Well, if it's on, it'll be there. But that's 1983. We only started in seventy nine, Rich. So a sailboat race in the middle of a day of a week and people were looking for us because if they don't have it, nobody will. Right.

And so this isn't what old. Now I know we're going to be big time, but this is what I knew that people knew who we were, what we stood for and what potentially we could give them even without any promotion. I hadn't thought about that one in a long time.

I would not have dug it out of me. Here we go. I'd like to interview her, man. I got it.

Don't make me cry on the set. Oh, one of my favorites. The great Hall of Famer, Chris Berman. Back in the day, right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Rich Eisen Show radio network.

Back with our live stream on the Roku Channel. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger is the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by when I'm out and about anywhere. People ask you about me. Why do you do that? They know everyone knows DJ. He's not lying.

Like not everything needs to be what she said. Anyway, when I'm when I'm out and about. OK. And I get some folks coming up to me talking to me about, you know, NFL this, NFL that. And I'm thrilled to talk to people because, you know, I'm a man of the people.

And invariably I'll get, you know. Who's going to be the quarterback? What do you think of the coach? Does my team have a chance this year?

One of the camps that my kids goes to in Maine is a ton of Baltimore folks go to it. So when I just went to visiting day, is Lamar really going to do something good? I mean, is he worth I mean, you get all of these questions. But one franchise, there's one franchise of any fan base that I've come across that says to me. Are we going to get a new owner in my lifetime? It's the Washington fan base that that's it. It's never been, you know, what's with the the coach or what's with the quarterback?

I mean, for a split minute, it was RG three and then Kirk Cousins and what's going on there. But invariably, always are we going to get a new owner? And today, on this day, July 20th, 2023, it does appear. There will be a unanimous answer from the membership in the National Football League, voting on the sale of Washington commanders slash football team slash Redskins.

The answer apparently is going to come back. Yes, you will get a new owner and Dan Snyder. There is a door that will hit him on the posterior on the way out. Now he will walk out with six billion dollars. He won the Powerball a lot.

So today is finally it does appear to be the day that the house. Twirling around from Kansas lands in the football land of Oz, and underneath it will be the wicked warlock of the Mid-Atlantic. So we say ding dong to one of our favorites here on the program who's been covering. The story of Dan Snyder and the National Football League and his relation to the National Football League and his relations with fellow members of the National Football League and the fan base.

This guy knows all about it. Senior writer from ESPN, Don Van Natta, back here in the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, Don? Doing great, Rich. How are you? I'm doing fantastic.

What's going on? Well, the NFL's long national nightmare is finally over. It is right.

It's coming. That's it. This is great news for all of the owners. All the other 31 owners are thrilled to be finally rid of Dan Snyder.

He has no friends left. His last friend among the membership was Jerry Jones who protected him for a long time. I think even as recently as last year. But the NFL membership is thrilled. I think you're right. It will be a unanimous vote later today in Minneapolis.

And the Snyder era is finally over. And the reason for that is why? I mean, why? Why now?

Why would Dan Snyder after all this time and saying, I'm not going to do this. I am not changing the franchise team's name. I am not selling. I have no interest in selling. I am here.

Get used to it. I'm going to buy up radio stations and everything else so I can squelch dissent and do things that no other member, it seems, in the National Football League would ever think of doing. Why now, Don? Two reasons. One is he has led a toxic workplace, has embarrassed his fellow owners. There are sexual misconduct allegations still ongoing that are being investigated by Mary Jo White.

He just caused a lot of heartburn to the members. We reported, Rich, just last week at ESPN.com that he was actually free and clear last October. And yet he was one of the people responsible for those John Gruden email leaks which woke up Congress. There was a congressional investigation launched the week after those leaks, and that led to even more allegations.

There's a federal criminal investigation about financial improprieties going on in Virginia, as we've reported on. That's one reason. The other reason, though, and it's a big reason when it comes to the way the NFL owners view him, is he has been costing them money.

That is a big no-no among the membership. How so? His team has been last in attendance in the NFL the last couple of years. The FedEx field is ranked the worst stadium in the league. It's crumbling.

Snyder can't get a new stadium. He ran out of options to try to build back this once storied franchise. And so that's the other reason he's been shown the door.

So enough was finally enough? Because it never felt to me that he would ever sell. Never wanted to sell. This is the team he grew up loving. He got it for a song. Always was just going to stand firm, stand his ground. But was it the fact that he couldn't get a new deal in D.C. because nobody wanted to deal with him? Was truly the final straw?

Is that it? Yeah, absolutely, Rich. That's a big part of it, costing his fellow owners money. And remember, there was also the allegation that he had two separate sets of books hiding money from them. But we did a story at ESPN last October.

I did it with my colleagues Seth Wickersham and Tisha Thompson. That revealed that Snyder actually was telling fellow owners that he had dug up dirt on owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell. That story landed in mid-October of last year. If you remember, Jim Irsay came out in an owner's meeting just a week later and basically said, you know, we have to begin to think here among the owners of showing Snyder the door. And then just a few weeks after our story landed, Snyder announced that he was going to investigate selling the team. I think any goodwill that he might have had left, certainly with Jerry Jones, went out the window when it was discovered that a partner, somebody who they were in partnership with, is actually running around saying, I've got dirt. And if you try to take my franchise away, I am going to blow you all up.

That was, I think, also part of the final straw, which has led to today. So how much does he walk away with, Don? Well, he's selling for an American franchise NFL. Well, it's actually an American sports franchise record of six point zero five billion to Josh Harris and the Josh Harris Group. But he owes about a billion dollars on that. It's kind of a it's like a home equity loan. He's been taking money out and his former limited partner said he's been using the team as his personal piggy bank for years. So he owes a billion dollars on top of it. But yes, he walks away with about five billion dollars for being arguably the worst NFL owner in history. I'll give you the floor on what I've Powerball jackpot. Yes, that's true.

I'll give you the floor. Really, you would call Dan Snyder the worst NFL owner in the history of the league. Don, really?

I think so. Rich George Preston Marshall was the first owner of the Redskins. He's actually the man who coined the term Redskins. He was the last holdout to integrate his team in the early 60s. He was a big supporter of racial integration, a racial separation, I should say. And he was forced to segregate.

He was forced to integrate his team in the early 60s by the Kennedy administration. So I would put George Preston Marshall in Snyder's league. But I think I think Snyder goes down as the worst.

Remember, you know, you made reference to it. When Snyder came in in 1999, he was 34 years old. And this is a guy who rooted for the Redskins his entire life. It was his boyhood team. And he was seen among the owners and even Paul Tagliabue as the perfect person to own a team. And when he was introduced in 99, he said, I'm all about winning. And if you look at that standard, only one playoff win in 2005, a 42 percent winning percentage.

He failed miserably at what he set out to do. And then all of the off-field stuff, I think it makes him even worse than George Preston Marshall, Rich. Don Van Natta from ESPN right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Is it true? Again, I think this was in the piece that you referred to with Seth Wickersham. That the reason Gruden and Snyder didn't get along is Snyder called Gruden fat. Is that literally what the genesis of the feud is about? Like that led to emails coming out and stuff like that? Or did Gruden call Snyder fat? Or is that what happened?

Honestly, like a fat shame started this thing? Snyder and Gruden met up at a restaurant after a Monday Night Football broadcast years ago. And that's exactly right. Snyder called Gruden fat. Gruden responded, I'll take your head and dribble it into the asphalt.

And that's the last time they ever had a conversation together. Now, whether that's what motivated Snyder to green light, as we've had sources tell us, these racist and homophobic and misogynistic emails that Gruden wrote a decade ago to Bruce Allen, who was then the president of the team, I don't know. We had other sources say that Snyder did it to try to ingratiate himself with Roger Goodell, because Snyder last fall, or in the fall of 2022, I should say, was quite upset that he could not get back on the field and go back to owners meetings. And he knew that there was bad blood between Gruden and Goodell, which we also lay out in that piece. But, you know, it backfired. It completely backfired, because as I say, just a week after these leaks for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Congress opened a wide-ranging investigation of Snyder personally, of the Washington commanders, as well as the NFL. And that caused Roger Goodell to have to testify before Congress. If you remember, Snyder was dodging subpoenas in the Mediterranean on a superyacht from Congress, and it just was this drumbeat of bad headlines and more embarrassment that went on and on and on involving the commanders, which I believe contributed to leading us to today in the sale. So I imagine Snyder selling doesn't mean Gruden is going to stop giving up his hunt to figure out where those emails came from and get his pound of flesh, right? So where does that stand right now? Right now, that's before the Nevada Supreme Court, Rich.

So you're absolutely right. Gruden has sued the National Football League and Roger Goodell personally, accusing the league and Goodell of leaking those emails and costing him his career and his $100 million 10-year contract. He sued in the state of Nevada. Gruden won at the district court level and with the appellate court.

The league is trying to put the proceedings before arbitration, before probably a very friendly league lawyer and keeping it out of the public. Discovery will be behind closed doors, but so far Gruden has won. He's two for two, and the NFL has appealed before the Nevada Supreme Court, and we will have a decision later this year. If Gruden wins, it's very bad news for the NFL because we will have discovery.

We'll have the proceedings in open court. Goodell and others will be subpoenaed. And there's a chance that those 650,000 emails that were amassed in the Beth Wilkinson investigation that the handful of Gruden emails were cherry picked from could also become public. And Bruce Allen has told people there's bad news in those emails for everybody in the league. So that is something the NFL is fighting very, very hard to try to stop. Wow. So are you saying, based on all of this, Don Vandana of ESPN, that if after that Monday night football game years ago, Dan Snyder walked up to John Gruden and say, hey, man, you must be working out, eating right.

I mean, you look great. Like he would still be the owner of the Washington commanders. Is that what you're saying right now? I'm not saying that, Rich. There's too many other elements here, but that was certainly a spark of something.

There was no doubt that was a spark of some very bad blood that continues to this day between John Gruden and Dan Snyder. Yeah. I mean, you must be working out. What do you get at, five in the morning?

You're running? I mean, oh, my gosh. So what do you know about the first order of business for Josh Harris other than I'm not Dan Snyder and that will increase the value of his franchise? Like, seriously, like what is on the to do list when Josh Harris takes the reins tonight, Don? All he has to do is the opposite of everything. Like Costanza? Like full Costanza?

Is that what you're saying? Go full Costanza, do the opposite. That's it. Full Costanza. That's right.

Do the opposite. And this is going to be the longest honeymoon we will see in Washington history that Josh Harris is going to get. He's going to get plenty of runway to turn around the team. You know, a longtime commanders fan was telling me this morning. So can you imagine what will happen if the commanders win the Super Bowl?

They're not going to win it this year, but next year or the year after. You know, how will that make Snyder feel? And, you know, we keep talking and laughing about the fact that Snyder is going to walk away with five billion dollars, this incredible payday.

But this kills him. His entire identity was being the owner of the team he loved since he was a boy. And people in his inner circle say he is just destroyed, that he has to walk away from the team. And the cherry on top of this for the Washington fan base is if if Harris is able to turn things around relatively quickly and get to a Super Bowl and maybe even win it in the next few years, how that's going to make Dan Snyder feel. Do you think it's possible that he even changed the name just to get rid of just this remove all trails and traces of Dan Snyder? Do you think that's possible? I think so.

Yes, I think there I think there's a pretty good chance of that to erase any part of the Snyder legacy to have a complete do over. I would not be surprised at all, Rich, if we see a name change and a complete rebranding soon. Don, thanks for the time, brother. Greatly appreciate it. You're the man. Appreciate it, Rich. Anytime.

You bet. That's Don Van Natta at DVN JR on Twitter. Must follow Don Van Natta of ESPN. I'm Josh Harris. First thing I do first thing I do is send out a letter to all the season ticket holders and maybe put it in the you know, in the Washington Post, Washington Times, all and any any publication in Washington, D.C. is an open letter to Washington football fans. That's what you call them.

Washington football fans. This is a new day. We are so excited to get to meet each and every one of you.

Here's a Web site. Send us your ideas. We are open to any idea. What do you think we need to do? Even if you don't intend to follow it, you reach out to the fans and say, I am here.

Yeah, the new. Ownership group is here and we want to hear from you. Then I call up whomever or I'm sure this person is hired. There's somebody who is on the management team whose sole job is to reach out to the business community of the Mid-Atlantic and re arrange the entire landscape.

That has been wrecked by Dan Snyder. Reengage the business community on the spot. Start finding the one individual or individuals who can help you build a new stadium.

Figured out if it's the you know, the old RFK side or whatever it is, I'm not terribly familiar with the landscape there. And then you change the name. Change the name because you're going to just erase every trace.

Erase every trace. And then you know what actually might be the first, first, first order of business is fix that Sean Taylor. Oh yeah, man. The statue. The statue that's not really a statue that's behind glass.

Get an actual bronze damn statue. That would be the first order of business to say we understand you. Because that was awful.

Terrible. We understand you. First order of business. We're getting a new Sean Taylor statue and it's an actual statue and it's going to be actually in front of the stadium that we're intending to raise down to the ground and get the hell out and go back to DC and change the name and everything that just happened over the last 30 years.

It's part of our history, but we are turning the page. My name's Josh Harris. I approve this message.

That's not a bad idea. 844-204-rich number to dial right here on the Rich Eisen Show. We are back with your phone calls. We're going to take them. I've been promising.

I will fulfill that promise next. And a guy goes, hey, you ever done any acting? You might be right. Just right for this part. Legendary casting director and producer Don Phillips. I come back and they do what's called a makeup and wardrobe test, meaning they're shooting another scene one night. I'm just going to show up. Directors going to step off the set and come and look and go, great.

I approve. Well, he comes and looks. He goes, Jesus, this is Wooderson. It's great. He goes, listen, you're not scheduled to work tonight, but we're over here at the top notch drive through.

And you think Wooderson might want to pick up on the redheaded intellectual? And I'm like, sure. And he goes, want to shoot it? I'm like, sure. So I go get in the car, shoot my first scene ever in a film of your career, of my career. And I had been listened to a lot of 70s rock and roll at that time. There was a certain live recording of a Jim Morrison concert in Amsterdam or somewhere where he barks at the crowd. All right, all right, all right, all right.

Four times real aggressively, though. I'm not thinking about that, but this comes back. So I'm in the car and I'm like, who's my man? I'm nervous about your act. Who's my man?

Who's worse? And I said, well, I'm about my car. And I go, well, I'm in my 70s Chevelle. There's one. I said, I'm about getting high. I said, well, Slater's riding shotgun.

You know, he's got a do-boy rolled up. There's two. I said, and I'm about rock and roll. I said, well, I got Nuju Stranglehold in the eight track, man. There's three.

And I hear action and I look up and in my mind I go and I'm about chicks. I got three out of four. Let's go get the fourth. All right. All right. All right.

Does it ever set on screen? Oh, man. All of Matthew McConaughey's appearances on this show in New York and here in Los Angeles on our YouTube page. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, eight four four two oh four. Rich is the number to dial.

Let's go to the phone lines. Greg in Arizona has been hanging on forever. What's up, Greg? Good afternoon, Mr. Eisen. Mr. Greg, what's going on? Well, I have a question for you, and it might take the whole crew to come up with this estimate.

What is the estimated number of days that will take for you to recover if Geno Smith and Sam Darnall are starting quarterbacks in the playoffs and the Jets aren't? All right, Greg. All right, Greg. All right, Greg. First of all, how dare you? Secondly, I'll give you the answer. And this is the truth. It will take me zero days, zero days to get over it.

Zero. Because Sam Darnall got a raw deal. And, you know, and and Geno Smith has I couldn't be happier for him because in all honesty, the Jets didn't do right by either of them.

And that's the problem with the Jets, is they constantly churned. And thank you for the call and your attempt to troll. But I appreciate it. I mean, I really appreciate it. I know you all did. I mean, very few callers get such a hurrah from you can go home now.

Yeah, very good. Even even Jokic thinks it's over. Run that back tomorrow.

I don't know. In all honesty, Sam Darnall comes in. Todd Bowles gets bounced. Adam Gates. Oh, yeah. I'm you know, he's right. I mean, the case is seeing tacos and and and and Donald Skipp winds up seeing ghosts.

So. And then Geno Smith. The he he he got Rex Ryan post championship years when when Rex's bravado started running out because the salary cap that they totally put on the credit card to get to those two championship.

Game seasons, the bill started coming due and it was time for Geno to figure that out. So I couldn't be I, you know, obviously I hope the Jets make it. It would be tough for me to let's just put it this way. It would take a while for me to get over the Jets not making it at all.

But Darnold and Geno making it wouldn't add like that's not salt in the wound. He doesn't dislike. I don't blame them. I blame circumstances.

That's for sure. Let's go to Dave in Nashville, Tennessee. What's up, Dave? Hey, Mr. Rich. Hey, what's up, Mr. Dave?

You've been to the stadium, Yankee Stadium plenty of times in your life, I suppose. Yes, sir. So you remember you talk about Seinfeld quite a bit, how Elaine got bounced because she was wearing an Oreo. Oh, Dave, by the way, you sound like you're from Ballmer. I heard I heard a little bit of mid-Atlantic in you. I know you're saying you're from Nashville. Are you originally from Nashville? Trenton, New Jersey. OK, OK, OK. That's that's that's on the borderline, just above the mid-Atlantic, I would say. I suppose. Suppose I've been harassed at Yankee Stadium for wearing an Oreo hat several times when I didn't do anything.

These callers are on fire. OK, I didn't do anything. The first time the gates open two hours before the game, there's nobody walking around. I'm like the only one I go down to the Orioles dugout.

The Orioles are taking batting practice. I got a camera with like a zoom lens. I'm taking pictures when the ushers comes over to me and goes, where are your seats here?

Like, you know, I said they're up there a little bit. He goes, you got to go to your seat. Nobody around. I got to go to my seat.

You can't take pictures near the dugout. Were you wearing any O's stuff on that day? Of course. Of course I was. All right. OK. But look, man. I got one more real quick one.

Sure. Cal Ripken's last game at Yankee Stadium. It's a nasty day. It's on and off rain. They come to the bottom of the ninth as the game is tied.

On top of the ninth, Ripken comes up for his last at bat. It starts pouring even harder, harder all day. People are moving down to try to take pictures of Cal. There's maybe a handful of people even left in the stadium and the ushers are yelling at everybody. You've got to go back to your seat.

They're moving down in a downpour. That's what happens, man. New York's a tough place. But congrats on what's going on with your O's right now. And thanks for the call.

It's Dave in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm not a, you know, historian by trade. But July 20th, 2023. That's today, correct? That's the date? Correct. It's today. The anniversary of the moon landing. Yeah. Today? OK.

So this is maybe akin to the moon landing. For the good people of the mid-Atlantic. That and I understand I'm throwing I'm not including the Ravens in here right now. But on this day today, the Baltimore Orioles are in first place in the American League East. And Dan Snyder is about to sell.

His football team in Washington, D.C., honestly, party time. I understand there has to be has to be a large if like if there's a Venn diagram and the circle is Washington football and Baltimore Orioles baseball, there has to be a mesh point where there's a lot of folks in the mid-Atlantic who have been sitting through one O's nightmare of a season after another, after another, after another. Peter Angelos is still there. But Dan Snyder is selling today. It's happening like there's not going to be any, you know, frozen, concentrated orange juice emergency that you have to turn the machines back on. Like this is happening. Yeah. Like stunning margin call like it's it's happening.

This is coming. Snyder selling the team and the Orioles have overtaken the Tampa team that started out house of fire. And if you show if you saw on that day when the when the Rays were they 30 or 30 above at one point, I believe.

I felt like they were close enough. If I told you, if I'd given you a choice of the rest of the four American League East teams that would eventually overtake them by July 20th. Yeah. Which would have been the last team you would have chosen to overtake them by July 20th?

Correct. No, not the Red Sox. You would have chosen that.

No, no, no. You'd have chosen the Orioles. Because, you know, they're young and whatever. Who are they? What a day in the mid-Atlantic. They should go out and play the Powerball, even though it's reset to nothing. Mega Millions tonight. Tomorrow. I know.

I got you there. Did you know that the person who sells the ticket gets a million dollars? I saw a video. I saw a video of the guy who owns the store that sold the winning Powerball ticket.

And they had video of him checking to see if it was his ticket. Oh, the guy because he bought some himself. Think about that. He probably was his first thought person. Right. But he's definitely the only person on the planet who knew when he was checking his numbers. The floor was a million bucks.

Yeah. He's getting a million. Question is, is it a billion? Do you upgrade from million to billion?

No, it's funny. Every time I buy a ticket, I tell the person who sells it to me, I'm going to buy you something nice when I win this. But now I'm like, I don't need to do that because you're going to get a million.

Why would you do that? They made a whole movie about that. Oh, that Nicolas Cage movie, the Cage movie. Yeah. Well, that was about a cop tips. Waitress, like 10 million is what that was or something.

No, I promise you to give you half of my winnings. No, I don't remember this. Yeah.

It was like a true story. I believe is a movie, I think. If I'm not correct. All right. Our number three coming up, Mark Ingram will join us. We're going to hit the running back market a little bit again. Saquon said something on a pod that's gone a bit viral. I saw that. We'll hit that and we'll update you on what's going over at the open championship at Royal Liverpool. We got some people you've never heard of who were in the clubhouse leading it.

As a matter of fact, that's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings.

Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. Collision has been struggling a little bit out of the gate with these ticket sales and a little bit out of the gate. This was a major show announced on a major network with what everybody thought was this huge star, CM Punk. I said he was going to be the biggest financial flop in wrestling history, and I think I'm being proven right every minute of the day. Eighty three weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.