00:00All right, joining me right now is Mitch Tischler. Mitch, of course, works for Monumental Sportsnet,
00:06covers the team, is a big part of J.P. Finley's Beltway Football Podcast, which you can get
00:12wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow Mitch on X, at Mitch underscore Tischler. I feel
00:20like when I have you on, we end up talking about other things that have nothing to do with the
00:26football team. And I'm going to start with that because I was just scrolling through some of your
00:31recent tweets, and it looks like you and J.P. maybe started to discuss how to define the DMV,
00:43like actually who lives in the DMV. And you tweeted out, if you live in the district or a county
00:52that
00:52touches D.C., you're in the DMV. Otherwise, not. Now, I'm going to come back to that in a second.
01:00This was a debate, I want to say, 10 years ago. I think I was doing this show with Cooley,
01:07and Zabe and I got into an argument, I think, in the bullpen about what makes up the DMV. And
01:14I
01:14had said basically to Cooley and Zabe, and you guys live so far away from D.C. because Cooley lived
01:21out in Leesburg. Zabe lives out even further. You guys are closer to West Virginia than you are D.C.
01:29You don't live in the DMV. I'm sorry. And I basically went through what I considered to be
01:37the DMV. And I expand it from where you say it is. See, you really believe that if you don't
01:45live
01:46in the district or in Montgomery County, PG County, or what, Arlington and Alexandria County,
01:53you're not a DMV-er?
01:56Yeah, I got a little bit narrow on the definition of it. The thing is, it's not a defined thing.
02:03And
02:04it's funny because this argument started between JP, myself, and one of our other co-workers who
02:09lives down in Waldorf, Maryland, who claims that he's part of the DMV. And I kind of politely tried
02:16to tell him it wasn't. A day later, Barstool DMV tweeted out this concentric circle thing graphic
02:23on Twitter. And part of that graphic had Baltimore as part of the DMV based on distances or whatever.
02:31And I think that the DMV is bigger than just the counties that touch the actual district. But
02:37it certainly doesn't go up to Baltimore. I don't think it goes as far west as Leesburg or Ashburn
02:45or as far south as maybe Fredericksburg, which is, I think, where JP drew the southern line of it.
02:51I just think that folks want to be associated with the DMV, which I love as a native, as a
02:58person
02:58from Montgomery County and somebody who considers themselves from the DMV. But, you know, as
03:04the defined neighborhoods kind of expand and meld together, and it's a little bit harder to
03:10define where Ruston is versus Herndon or Rockville versus Bethesda or, you know, Columbia versus
03:17whatever the heck is up around there. I think it gets harder and harder to define it. But I think
03:22that if you're in one of the counties that touches it, it's an absolute that you are part of the
03:26DMV.
03:27Well, yeah, that's a given. Do you remember when Bill Walton was trying to explain the DMV,
03:34the late, great Bill Walton, and he basically said, and I may butcher this, but I think I have
03:41it right. He said the DMV is Delaware, Maryland, Virginia. He said Delaware. I think that's what he
03:51said, if I recall correctly. You know, you know, it's kind of interesting, Mitch, and you're younger
03:56than I am. The DMV description was not a description 25 years ago, I would guess. It was also, we
04:05all
04:06always refer to it as, you know, the DC metro area or just DC. Like when I'm traveling and somebody
04:13says,
04:13where are you from, I say Washington, DC, I actually live in DC, but for many years I lived
04:19in Maryland, but I'll always say Washington, DC, the DMV acronym didn't become popular. I don't think
04:28until maybe 20 years ago, maybe even soon, maybe even more recently than that. Have you been alive
04:36long enough to know that the DMV description is relatively new? Yeah. So, I mean, you know,
04:44I grew up in the 80s, late 80s, 90s, you know, so I certainly was around the more quote unquote
04:51DMV. And I'm the same as you. I say I'm from Washington, DC when someone asks me where I'm
04:56from. And then if they try and drill down on it, I'll get into the specifics of it. I'd be
05:01curious
05:01of kind of a etymology of it. To me, it started with kind of, for me, college basketball recruiting
05:10as we started talking about all the players in the DMV, in the district area that started going
05:16elsewhere. And folks would say, well, he's from Virginia. He's not from DC. And it was like,
05:21or he's from Maryland, not from DC. And I'm like, yeah, but it's all, you know, that area,
05:25this small little area of, you know, call it a 20 mile circle between, you know, the northern part
05:32of DC, southern, east, west, is all kind of one, you know, different states and different districts,
05:38but it's all kind of one area. And so when I was, you know, rooting for the Terps growing up
05:43and
05:43going to games, and, you know, as the big names started leaving the area, and folks would argue
05:49whether, oh, why did that guy go to Maryland? You know, it was like, oh, well, he's from Virginia,
05:53so why would he? But it's all, to me, it's all kind of one area. So to me, that's where
05:58it kind
05:58of started was kind of those mid 90s, late 90s, maybe even early 2000s, probably more early 2000s
06:04teams as some of those big time players started leaving. Yeah, I mean, our closeness to sports
06:10would lead us into that answer. But I actually, when you said it, I think some of the early days
06:18of hearing DMV had to do with what you just said. And that is the recruitment of basketball players
06:28in this area. We're probably wrong about that. But that actually is interesting. I'll tell you what
06:35we are not and have never been. And that is, you know, the greater capital region or anything with,
06:44of course, we live in the nation's capital, but the nation's capital has never been a part of the
06:49local description of where we live. You know, it was DC Metro or just DC. And now it's DMV, by
06:58the way.
06:59So if I recall, the way I kind of defined it when we were having this conversation many years ago,
07:06and what we used to call our bullpen area, which was outside the main studio at 980, when our offices
07:12and studios were in Rockville, I basically said, look, I mean, you take everything in and around
07:18DC, the obvious Montgomery, PG, you know, Arlington County, Falls Church, Alexandria is a county,
07:26I believe. See, Fairfax doesn't touch DC. But Fairfax, to me, is definitely part of the DMV.
07:32I also think that Frederick is a part of the DMV. Maybe you cut Frederick in half,
07:39the county, but, you know, a lot of Frederick is a part of the DMV. And then to me, when
07:46you got out
07:47to beyond Dulles Airport, and you're talking about Western Loudoun County, you know, Fauquier County,
07:54I remember, I don't know my Virginia counties, let me just be honest about that. I was like,
08:00you know, you're closer to West Virginia than you are downtown DC. I mean, you know,
08:06it's interesting, you know, the football team's players and coaches have always lived so far away
08:16from the DC, true DC metro, you know, close in areas that they, they didn't get to experience it.
08:24I, Cooley and I used to have this conversation all the time. He never came into DC. Players never came
08:30into DC. They lived in their world at one Loudoun and in Loudoun County. And they thought they were
08:36living in DC. And I'd say, no, you're not living in DC. The people that are going to your games
08:41are
08:41from areas much closer to a big city that you're not actually familiar with. But you know, the Capitals
08:49and the Wizards players and the Nationals players, they've always obviously lived close to where they
08:56work. So they've lived in and around close in DC, whether it was DC itself or the close in Maryland
09:03or Virginia suburbs. But I think that that was, I think I basically said it's everything, including
09:09Fairfax and some of the counties. I think maybe I threw in a couple of the Maryland counties, like
09:14maybe Charles and half of Howard and half a Loudoun and half a Frederick, something like that.
09:22I mean, I may be, you've limited, limited it to a much smaller size than I would have limited it
09:32to
09:32and did limit it to when I had this conversation years ago. Yeah. So growing up in Maryland, I feel
09:39more strongly about some of the Maryland takes I have on it versus the Virginia ones. Sure. And the
09:44one that I think that I, for you talking about Frederick, Frederick is closer to West Virginia than it is
09:50downtown DC. Well, sure. Harper's Ferry. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Yes. Right there. I don't think,
09:57I don't think it extends west of the end of Montgomery County. And I think even at that point,
10:02we're getting a little, little out there with the, with the Northern Western portion of Montgomery
10:07County. But this is something that you and I and folks from this area, whether you're from here or
10:12lived here for a long time, could argue in circles about, about forever. Yeah. In case, in case our good
10:18friend, Daryl Johnson is listening, just agree. Do you agree with me that Waldorf is not a part of
10:23the team? Yes. I mean, look, I mean, I know that when we get east of this city into the
10:30Maryland
10:31counties, going all the way down to the, you know, to, to, to ocean city and Salisbury, I know that
10:37there are a lot of skins fans and DC sports fans there, but that's not part of the DMV. And
10:43when I hear
10:44people from outside the DMV try to put Baltimore into it, then, you know, they've, it's not only
10:51that they're not from here. I don't think they've ever been here before. Um, as you and I both know,
10:58Baltimore and Washington are two completely distinct and separate cities and surrounding areas.
11:07We do share, you know, a love DC, Maryland anyway, with Baltimore of Maryland sports teams. And there
11:15is a dividing line somewhere in Howard County, somewhere in Frederick County, maybe. Um, but no
11:21Baltimore is not, you know, there's nothing about Baltimore that is DC and vice versa.
11:30I hope you don't have too many listeners out in Baltimore, but Baltimore is DC's little
11:33brother. We kind of tap them on the head and say, yeah, you guys are, you guys are great
11:37out there. It's all good. There's a solid rivalry between, between the two. And I think that
11:42the bigger point, I had a lot of people coming at me on Twitter talking about like, well,
11:46I'm a commander fan, skins fan that lives down in Blacksburg or whatever. You know, fandom
11:52doesn't have a defined border. You could root for this team from anywhere.
11:55Oh sure. Yeah. Rooting for the commanders, rooting for the skins and living quote unquote
12:00outside of the DMV is, is, is totally okay. And everyone is welcome on board. It's not
12:06a, it's no, there's no, you know, border to this thing.
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