Grant Paulsen, 106.7 The Fan Host

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And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today. Grant, appreciate the time as always. How you been? Zach, my pleasure.

You must have known I saw Top Gun Maverick in theater four times, including in IMAX with that intro there. Well done. Yeah, but we're not that intelligent as you give us credit for around here. Hickey is not very great with music.

Whatever's in the system, he just plays. I know how that goes. Sometimes we'll have guests on and they're like, oh wow, you knew that was my favorite band. I'm like, yeah, absolutely, man. We did our research.

Take it where you can get it, right? Unlike Dan Snyder, we are an honest radio program and an honest operation around here. That makes something I'm not used to talking about. But yeah, it was an incredible day here in D.C. You know, these bombshells come. For a lot of organizations, this would be a real game changer or some type of major sequence and moment. And for Washington, to be completely honest with you, it was Thursday, man. What did you make of this when the news did come down or you read through the long article that Dan Snyder is already plotting revenge if the NFL was going to remove him?

What was the initial reaction? Not surprised at all. I mean, this is how he's done business for a long time locally. This is how he's run his organization based on the people that I've talked to in various capacities that worked for and alongside him for many, many years.

You know, he kind of rules by way of trying to intimidate. And you don't want the 3 a.m. phone call is the way it was always described to me by people who had to answer that phone call from Dan Snyder. You know, when you paint a picture at the start of this eight thousand plus word report and column in ESPN, that's Wickersham, Don Van Natta and Trisha Thompson wrote where they talk about Snyder walking around with a drink in his hand, kind of furious and just screaming that he is going to essentially get after whoever comes after him.

And it almost seems seems like a scene out of a movie or something like one of the power players in Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon or something as they're walking around with their wine. But that's kind of the drill in Ashburn. It's a culture that is toxic, not just because of the harassment or the way that people are treated. It's because everyone's kind of afraid in many capacities of what happens if you get on Dan Snyder's bad side. So for a long time, fans have wondered why haven't voters, the owners rather voted him out. I think a lot of them are worried about the fact that he's not the kind of guy that's going to go down quietly, Zach. He's bringing you with him, man. He's going to have a gas can and a lighter and he's going to go down swinging. Here was my thought once I was able to process it and read the entire thing was so many people would be jumping for joy. And I think that's the understatement of the year.

If Dan Snyder was removed by the NFL as the owner of the commanders, the commanders fans do deserve better. I just wonder what he has that could be so damaging that would make people just not simply say, oh, this guy's just being bitter. This is just like your crazy uncle at the barbecue that you just go, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say.

And then you just try to walk away and forget about the guy. So it's a great question. I obviously don't have the answer, but I would just say that for most of these billionaire owners who are some of them in their 60s, 70s, whatever it is that, you know, whatever skeletons they've got in their closet, they don't want public.

Right. And each time an owner is forced to sell the threshold, the bar with which we consider a necessity to get you out of ownership is lowered in some capacity. And I just think those goalposts being moved closer in on them is not something any owners want. But here's something that I found compelling about this piece in ESPN today, Zach, is it does seem like, believe it or not, more so than sexual harassment allegations or even assault allegations or the toxic workplace or the losing for 30 years that cost them money because FedEx Field is dead last in attendance and there's just money that's being left on the table for the league. The thing that could actually haunt Dan Snyder with other owners is his inability to get a new stadium.

And what you are now seeing is for people listening all over the country. I mean, there was a time where D.C., Virginia and Maryland all were having a knockdown, drag out battle royale for this football team when they were the Redskins. And the last time they built a stadium in the mid 90s, that was the case.

And they went out to land over Maryland. Well, now none of the three want to touch them. And essentially all three have said we're not going to do business with Dan Snyder. And that is what the other owners in the sport are most upset about. It's what they're most worried about. And that if something's going to be as undoing could be the real shooting, the smoking gun, if you will, for these other owners is that they say, you know what, if we can't get another stadium built or a new stadium built when that's already the worst in the league until he's out.

Then we've got to expedite that process. And that stadium is horrible because I've been to games first off. It's filled with the other teams fans, it seems like each and every week. But getting there is a disaster. And then if you try to take public transportation, you've got to walk forever once you leave the game to try to get on the train.

It's just a mess. So it's one of two stadiums in the NFL. I saw a study done this year where there is not a bar or restaurant within a mile of the state. I mean, it quite literally is near nothing. OK. To your point, and this has been a point of contention here locally for a long time, you can't really take public transportation there. There are metro stops that get you to within a mile and some change, but you're walking on overpasses and things. And I mean, it is not a pleasant walk by any means. And it's a lengthy walk that not everyone's able to do.

So, yeah, you're right. You're driving there. Traffic is terrible. They're gouging you in parking. I mean, at different points over the years, Snyder has even challenged to make it so that fans couldn't walk.

They now can because he wanted everyone, obviously, to come and park and pay that freight. But, yeah, it is voted in all of the publications that do these things at the bottom, if not dead last every year. I mean, they've had some embarrassing situations over the last couple of years, and frankly, there's enough to pile on football wise. So I'm not one of the people that compiles these lists, but they had a gate over top of the visiting tunnel fall that people may have seen. Yeah, with Jalen Hurts. Collapsed on Jalen Hurts, and they got people to sue them for that.

They've had pikes burst. They may not have been sued. I mean, every time there's a game there, something happens.

And what it honestly comes down to, I really believe this, Zach, I've talked to people about this. They have been thinking for so many years they'd be in a new stadium by now that it's almost like, imagine you thinking you're moving out of your house, your toilet breaks, and they just don't fix stuff, right? Or having to the extent that they needed to. Not this current regime, but the one previously, because they thought they'd be getting a new stadium. And now that they're not, all these things that for years they just kind of let go are hindering them.

So they've got a new group of people that's trying really hard now, but it's almost too little, too late. You've been asked this question probably a thousand times, and usually the answer is no. You don't think Dan Snyder's going to be removed as an owner because a lot of those owners don't want those skeletons to be aired that are in their closet. What do you think ends up happening here? Is Dan Snyder, and we're talking five years from now, still the owner of this football team? I would still bet yes.

I am less confident and adamant about that now than I was when we talked about this months ago. But I will say this, I think there are two avenues that could be driven that result in Snyder no longer owning this team. The first obviously is that the owners throw him out, whether that's because the stadium deal can't happen with him, or because something else comes out. There's another, a sixth, by the way, there's six investigations he's involved in right now. But there is one going on with Mary Jo White, who's going to come out at some point, she's been working on it for nine months. And one of the many things that could be in there is what actually happened on an airplane where there are allegations against Dan Snyder from a woman that was paid 1.6 million dollars from a flight that he was on many years ago coming back from the Country Music Awards. If there's a bombshell, if she finds something out, if there's details in there we haven't seen, that could move owners to vote. But the thing that I think is the real, only true possibility, Zach, is sponsors.

Why did Sarver sell, why did the name change after years without movement? FedEx, from FedEx Field, and other sponsors came forward and said, we're not doing business with you anymore. And so if the NFL starts losing money, or even just the organization itself starts losing sponsorships, they say sponsorships are up 30% over the last year with all these investigations. That would cost owners cash out of their pocket, and that's when I think everything changes. But those are the only two things that could cost Dan Snyder. A vote of 24 out of 32 saying get out, where sponsors are pulling to the point where the league says, you can annoy us, but you're not going to cost us cash.

This machine is moving on without you. Now this wasn't the biggest part of the story, clearly, Grant Paulson, but I did see that Carson Wentz in this story was really Dan Snyder driven. Do you have any knowledge of that, of that being true? Was this really more so Rivera and Wright?

Yeah, I haven't been able to confirm that. If that's the case, it's the least surprising thing I've heard all day. I mean, there hasn't been a quarterback move made here, Zach, since he got here, that his fingerprints weren't all over. And to be completely honest, I'm not sure how different that is in a lot of other organizations. Go back and there was an athletic piece about the Colts trade of Matt Ryan, and Jim Irsay had essentially told Chris Ballard, go get Matt Ryan. With the head coach, with the quarterback, these owners get involved. I will just tell you, though, the problem is that Dan Snyder's batting average on this is that of a AA player who got called up in a pinch and who's won for his first 33 at the plate.

Well below the Mendoza line. Dude, he just can't get on base in this regard. It's like my gambling picks these days, honestly, Grant. He calls his shot on these quarterbacks and he just hasn't been right. So I do believe he 100% was behind them going and getting a quarterback. He believes his silver bullet. He thinks he's got two kind of last-ditch effort Hail Marys, right? He thinks number one is the new stadium, which right now is on the back burner and just seems like an impossibility with current politicians and him going head-to-head. But second would be winning the quarterback lottery, whether that's Bryce Young or whoever it is.

If you go get C.J. Stroud or you get the best quarterback in the league and next thing you know you found your Josh Allen and you're 12-5 or 13-4 every year, all of a sudden people hate you a lot less. And he's probably right about that in all honesty, but Carson Wentz ain't that lottery ticket, man. So last year of this offseason, I should say, they went through the list. Aaron Rodgers wasn't a possibility. They offered three ones for Russell Wilson. I know they were willing to trade three ones plus.

He didn't want to come here. They moved on, I think, probably to Garoppolo, realized he wasn't healthy. And then it was Carson Wentz or roll the dice with a Mariota type. And I think that's where Dan Snyder said, we're going and getting a name. Let's make a move. Rivera's on board.

All of the football people that I talked to all offseason and said all the right things, I think they wanted him as well. So I don't think that's as big a story or a surprise here. But I guess why it matters, Zach, is that the league has at least, and the team has pretended as if Snyder's nowhere to be found. Yeah, which is just BS.

Come on. Oh, yeah, exactly. Like he's under some quasi-suspension. It's like, well, his wife is running the team. Do you think they might see each other maybe at dinner or I don't know? Yeah, have a conversation or two.

In their living room? Yeah. That suspension, or I know it wasn't a suspension, but him stepping away from day-to-day operations of the football team was the biggest load of crap I think I've ever heard. Well, it's hilarious. And again, he stepped away and appointed someone to run the team.

Who is his wife? Right? I mean, so it's like you don't think he rolls over and then every now and then goes, hey, how's everything going with the commanders?

I thought about something I wanted you to do. Like, it's just so silly. Well, even how they messed up the whole Sean Taylor when they were remembering the life of Sean Taylor, like he was on the sideline then. You know, wasn't he supposed to be away from the team? Like, he still goes to these games in the stadium, right?

Oh, absolutely. A spokesperson said last week he's been at every game this season. He can do whatever he wants. The sham of this suspension was always that it was kind of up to him to remove himself, but he doesn't want to talk. I mean, he hasn't publicly done a sit-down interview where he actually faced questions in years.

He doesn't want to go to the owners' meetings because as it was stated in the piece on ESPN today, you know, he doesn't have many friends among owners. So Tanya Snyder goes to the owners' meetings. She's the public face now who will occasionally be at events. Not that she's taking questions.

She's done one interview I can remember where Adam Schefter asked her what her favorite food was and what her favorite color was. And I'm kidding a little bit. It was just a softball interview.

Just a fluff piece that the team had Adam Schefter do. But yeah, I mean, that's kind of the extent of what's happened. He picks and chooses what he wants to do and what he doesn't.

And that's how it works. Last thing I'll ask you, Grant Paulsen, from the fan in D.C., talking about this Dan Snyder story. I've always thought heading into this year that even though Ron Rivera probably should be on the hot seat, he wouldn't be. Because even though Dan Snyder is a disgrace, Ron Rivera is basically that point person, the face of the organization. He does all the tough press conferences. In terms of football matters, with how bad they've been this year, is he on the hot seat?

Does Dan Snyder say, man, that's like one of the one thing about our organization that nationally people just like Ron Rivera, so I'll keep him? I think Ron Rivera will be safe and his feet will be comfortable to sit in as long as this season doesn't go sideways to the point where it gets completely off the rails. Like if there's three in 14 or four in 13, then he's on the hot seat and he might have a hard time coming back. However, I think he'll be fine. I think they probably get to six wins, something like that, and they'll roll with him in the future.

That's my assessment. Now whether or not he should be on the hot seat is a different question. He's in full control of personnel.

He's the VP football ops, the GM, the head coach. Their personnel decisions since he got here have been well below average. The team is trending south every year. They were seven and nine in year one. They were seven and ten last year.

They're one and four right now. He has not done a very good job, but I think he's insulated enough. He was involved in helping rename the team and he's dealt with so many things off the field.

He's become something of a confidant in some ways behind the scenes to the power players that he probably has a little more stability than the average coach here would. Enjoy the game tonight. That's how it shows the state of this franchise. You've got the Bears and the Commanders playing tonight.

We even asked you a question about that. Always appreciate your time and thanks for carving it out for us. I appreciate you. Thanks so much. Yeah, now I got to flip the switch and remember that there's actually a game.

Pretty crazy. Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team. Your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real time updates on everything you care about. Miss your show?

Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand.

Wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today. Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team. Your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real time updates on everything you care about. Miss your show?

Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand. Wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.