00:00Welcome back, Grant and Danny on the fan.
00:02We did have our listener fantasy football draft yesterday.
00:07First, thanks to all the listeners who came out, participated.
00:10We had a lot of fun.
00:11Many of them had never met before, so that was really, really cool
00:13to have a bunch of new blood in the listener league
00:16with people that won their way in via trivia challenge.
00:19Also got to say thank you big time to Pupatella Pizza.
00:22They take such great care of us, man.
00:24That was incredible.
00:25They go above and beyond.
00:26The owner, Michael, who's out there is making sure we've got drinks in our hands
00:30and is just so nice and comes out and hangs out with us.
00:33But they spoil us.
00:34They're so good to us.
00:35So, yeah, I would absolutely tell people, great spot for your family
00:39to go get yourself dinner after a soccer game or a baseball game.
00:43But they are so, so good to the show and the station.
00:45So if you haven't tried Pupatella Pizza, they've got 11 locations.
00:48Look them up, check them out, and thanks to Michael again, as always,
00:51for being not only a great friend of the show but a great friend of ours
00:54and just a really, really good dude.
00:55Dude, when people are just so kind and basically there's nothing we can give them back.
01:00I know.
01:01It always feels bad.
01:02I'm like, I don't know what I can do for you.
01:03We'll do the show tomorrow.
01:06Thanks.
01:06You know, it's just, you feel so, yeah, we're just so in their debt.
01:10They're awesome.
01:10He's the best.
01:11Mm-hmm.
01:12Speaking of events, though, and going out to places that we love,
01:15Friday, we're kicking off a third year now of our Field Trip Friday series.
01:21So when the team was good two years ago, this was a pep rally.
01:25This was just a who's who, everyone's coming out.
01:27We got former players showing up, random celebrities in the DMV are rolling out.
01:31It was awesome.
01:32Last year, it was the diehards.
01:34It was the P1s, and we had just as much fun.
01:36Yeah.
01:36But as the year went on and the team wasn't particularly good,
01:39you know, the crowds were good, but it wasn't a pep rally.
01:41It was more of a post-mortem.
01:43It was a dissection.
01:44You know, we did a little bit of an autopsy on the team every single week.
01:48We're kicking this off like we always do at our spot where we got to start the season.
01:55Spanky's shenanigans in Leesburg.
01:58This is the place where Toby Altizer spun his hat backwards as Toki
02:02and ate 53 pieces of their delicious, wonderful blackened shrimp.
02:10It is an all-time dish.
02:11It's what they're known for.
02:12Right.
02:12It's like a random thing at a sports bar that has great pub food in Leesburg.
02:17They have two indoor bars.
02:19Then they have the outdoor patio where we are, which is always beautiful.
02:23We're out there in September and the fall.
02:24It's covered, and it's sunny, and it's just perfect.
02:27They got a bunch of TVs.
02:28We'll have a ton of Commander's fans out there on Friday.
02:30We'll be out there all day, 2 to 6, 30.
02:32So come out.
02:33But this bar with great pub food then just randomly has this elite,
02:40high-level shrimp dish that it's addicting.
02:44I don't know what they put on it.
02:45You can eat them by the dozen.
02:47Until we did that day.
02:48Yes.
02:49Four dozen and change in the low 50s.
02:51And it's incredible.
02:53So everything that I've ever had there, I've liked.
02:55It's all good.
02:56That shrimp dish I tell people about.
02:59Like I'm in another state, and it's like, tell me about where you're from.
03:02Well, you see, there's this place called Spanky Shenanigans in Leesburg.
03:04They have this shrimp thing.
03:06It's unbelievably good.
03:08But anyway, I'll eat a lot of them.
03:09And I love this field trip Friday situation coming back, especially kind of to your point,
03:14early season, that fall situation where it's nice.
03:16We'll sit outside.
03:17And let's high-five and talk about what might be.
03:202 to 6.30, live show all day on Friday.
03:25Spanky Shenanigans to kick off our Friday field trip.
03:29Tonight, you've got the Patriots and the Seahawks.
03:32And then tomorrow, the 49ers and the Rams, all leading up to a big, juicy Sunday in the NFL.
03:39It does feel to me like there's positive momentum for the Commanders right now.
03:44Now, I don't want to say locally that the expectation is that they're going to win.
03:48But for all of the national disdain toward the team, and I don't know where it came from over the
03:53last couple weeks.
03:54It's real.
03:55Yeah.
03:55I would say people went from having the Commanders in the 18 to 21 range of their power rankings
04:01to the consensus like 23 to 27.
04:03It can't all be because of the Nikki Javala tweet, right?
04:07Basically, that seems to have gotten so much run where I think she tweeted about the joint practice
04:12that they were inoperable.
04:13Inoperable.
04:14And I remember it was a screeching tires moment for us on the show where it did change the tenor.
04:19And we did talk a little bit more negatively after that about how bad the joint practice was
04:24and how ugly the preseason game with a lot of guys that aren't on the team anymore was.
04:29But they've gotten healthier.
04:31Players have returned to the practice field.
04:33Caleb on chase on and Bill are probably going to play.
04:35Did Afe always trending in the right direction, whether he goes or he doesn't?
04:39And I think if you're looking at a chart, Danny, the rock bottom where it dips way down
04:44is 10 to 12 days ago, like right after whatever that Ravens preseason game is,
04:49the 24 hours after that is like the dip.
04:52That's the absolute worst that it's been in terms of how people feel about this team.
04:56Yeah, when everyone turned in their season prognostications, everyone's got them at 4 and 13,
04:595 and 12, total disaster, pick and top 10 again, and terrible.
05:03But I feel like we're climbing at a 45-degree angle.
05:05I think so.
05:06Back toward, maybe not the apex where it was right after Diggs signed before the Tunsil injury,
05:10but we're closer to that locally than we were at the beginning of this thing because
05:15Allegretti's back and other than they got three injuries.
05:18It's Tunsil, Amos, and Johnny Newton.
05:21And so it's really two guys that are really, really good that were going to help you a whole lot
05:24and then Newton, who was a rotational piece of D-tackle.
05:27But otherwise, there's a chance everybody else plays as of right now.
05:30So here's how I view that, and I think you're right, by the way.
05:32I think you're on the pulse of it.
05:34I think it's a, they're telling us all these things are going to be fine.
05:38And for six weeks, they weren't fine.
05:40And what I mean is, all the guys that were hurt, yeah, it's day-to-day.
05:44They'll be back eventually.
05:45Bill wasn't practicing.
05:47Rashad White wasn't practicing.
05:48Allegretti tried to practice for a second time and couldn't.
05:50And he was out forever.
05:51And then you went down the list of all these guys that just weren't available,
05:54and they kept telling us they're there.
05:56We don't have to play anybody in the preseason.
05:57They had that joint practice with three of their five starters on the O-line
06:00and a couple guys that were allegedly competing for starting gigs,
06:03and they got the doors blown off.
06:04Everything we saw was negative.
06:06All these guys were hurt.
06:07It felt like last year again.
06:09And slowly but surely, hey, he's back.
06:11He's back at practice.
06:12This guy's back, to your point.
06:13And it's only a couple guys that are missing and maybe always in doubt.
06:17But I think everyone else pretty much seems like it's good to go.
06:20So all the quiet confidence that the team had now seems justified and warranted.
06:25So I think it's calmed a lot of people down a little bit.
06:26I want to pick our MVPs and our Rookie of the Year award winners.
06:31We'll do that next.
06:32We're continuing to take a deep dive into the National Football League.
06:36Things kick off tonight on Grant and Daniel.
06:38Remember, the Nats are playing an early game today in the 4 o'clock hour.
06:41So we're only with you until about 3.30 or so.
06:44You're listening to the fan.
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