Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Ryan Reynolds here from Int Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices
So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless. How did you get 30, 30, how did you get 30, how did you get 20, 20, 20, how did you get 20, 20, how did you get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month? Sold! Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes each detail. ♪
All right, boys and girls, you are listening to Fox News Radio, and this is Ben Domenech. I am happy to be joined by my friend Lucas Tomlinson for a conversation that is unique in the sense that I know that you listeners are used to me talking about politics and foreign policy and everything that's going on in the world. And I am actually, I'm pulling rank here. I'm having a conversation with Lucas today about
about something that I care deeply about, and that is the Washington football team, the Redskins, the Commanders, the R-words, the C-words, however you want to refer to them, and also the future of football, because I think there's a lot of things that come out of this that are related to football generally. Lucas, you have the luxury...
of coming to us today from the great city of Las Vegas, an incredible city, a testament to American ingenuity. Tell me a little bit about where you're staying and why you're out there.
Well, Ben, it's great to join you. It's a real honor. And I agree. Let's put politics and the war in the Middle East on hold for a second. Let's talk about something that's near and dear to both of us. And that's our love for the Washington commanders. I'm in Las Vegas with President Biden. He came here for campaign stop. And while he will not be anxiously awaiting election returns in the primary tomorrow, let's forget. Let's not forget that he only won Nevada by about two points back in 2020. So I'm here with the president with with Fox.
He flies out later. But this is, of course, home of Super Bowl history.
It's a rematch from 2020 Chiefs and 49ers, and some think it'll be a presidential rematch as well this year. So can I ask you just off the bat, you know, is Biden doing anything, you know, to celebrate his likely success within that Nevada contest? You know, is he going down to the Bellagio and throwing chips around? Are you expecting to see him at the roulette tables? What's the plan there?
Well, the schedule is a bit light today, perhaps some late sleepers for the president. He'll be flying out later. Nothing on the schedule today. But last night he spoke at a campaign rally. You know, he once, you know, 2020 starts now. It's not just about the primary, but I don't think we'll see him at the crap table tomorrow.
the crafts table, but I'm also not sure he's going to be placing any futures bets perhaps on himself or on maybe the Nationals or the Commanders to make the playoffs. I would actually be curious. That's a good question. I wonder how he would respond to that. Who are you betting on in the Super Bowl? I would assume...
just given the dynamic there that he would probably say that he's betting on the chiefs just because of the politics involved, you know, you're, you're, you're more likely to sort of have a swing state dynamic there. Can I ask you when you, when you have to get the terrible assignment, Lucas,
Of going out to Las Vegas versus going to Iowa or going to New Hampshire, Wilmington, Wilmington, et cetera. What, how do you try to sell that to the Fox travel team of like the, the best possible situation for yourself? You know, I need to be in this casino because trust me, it's, it's safe. It's you know, it's, it's, it's the best place for me to be.
How do you go about that? The harder sell is actually at home, Ben, with my wife and kids. It's like, oh, I have to go to Las Vegas. Wait, what? This is not quite the Acela up to Wilmington or going out to Rehoboth Beach or some of the other spots or Valley Forge where the president spoke recently. Staying at the Cosmopolitan, great hotel here in Las Vegas. Very, very good hotel. And it has some great restaurants in it.
Great restaurants. It's sampled a few. Yeah. And I encourage you to partake of it as much as possible because this is going to be a pretty slummy 2024 election season, as far as I can tell, when it comes to traveling around. You know, I woke up early at about 3.30 local and I was like, you know what? Why don't you just get down there and just hit the table a little bit and just have a proper warm up here.
you know i i am a i'm a fan of the cosmo i'm a fan of the um the aria i'm a fan of the uh of the of the nomad at the mgm in particular that's the veteran here yeah no that's uh i'm gonna tell you a story uh lucas that is literally the best story that i have in life which is i was uh i was at the staying at the nomad at the mgm and uh in las vegas
uh, during the Lady Gaga residency. Um, and, and, uh, the concierge there is happens to be a friend of my wife, knew her from New York said, you know, Hey, come down to, uh, the library, the jazz club that they have there, you know, and, and we'll have in there. And there's a special show that they do late at night. And sure enough, we, we end up down there and it's like,
200 people maybe in a room. And it's clearly like the room that performers come to after they're done performing. Like, it's like where they, you know, where they end up kind of at the, at the end of the day. And he said, well, sometimes, you know, if Gaga's feeling up for it, you know, she, she comes in. So we're sitting there and,
And this nice old New Jersey guy and his wife come over and they start talking to my wife about how much they're fans of her and they support her. And we pretty quickly figure out that they are Gaga's parents.
and and and he comes on fox here and there yeah he does and and so i you know i i'm not starstruck i'm like the opposite of starstruck i think it's the reason that i'm married to my wife in part like i just don't have that kind of you know hesitancy around famous people but
there's only one bar in this setup and you have to go up to it to order drinks. And so I'm doing the due diligence of going up and getting champagne for my wife and drinks for her friends, bringing them back to the table. And while I'm up there, I see this guy kind of
very desperately trying to buy a drink for another person. And he's doing so unsuccessfully. Like the bartender is saying, she doesn't want the drink. You know, it's not, this is not what she wants. This is, and the guy's a little, you know, into it in his cups. And he backs away eventually. And I said to the bartender, what was this guy trying to do? And the bartender said, oh, he was trying to,
buy a drink for Lady Gaga and he points and she's at the other end of the bar and I said well why wasn't like why was that not working and he says well she doesn't drink rosé she only drinks whiskey and I said and I said well
whatever she drinks, can I buy that right now for her? And he said, of course. And so he takes down, he takes down a glass of Jameson neat to Lady Gaga who raises it up and, and, and just like gives me a nod. And honestly, Lucas, that's the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. I'm never going to stop it. It's the best. Yeah.
He can give you a little salute, a little. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It's fantastic. So anyway. Yeah. So when you first heard that Washington was hiring Dan Quinn, how did you feel about that? I don't think anybody in Washington was jumping up and down about the hire. Ben, let's be quite honest. You know, he was our third choice.
after Ben Johnson said he was staying in Detroit and we lost out on McDonald to the Seahawks. But you know what? I've come around quickly. This is going to be a very bullish assessment today.
When I heard from Micah Parsons at the Pro Bowl, the Flag Football Bowl, whatever it's called now, speaking highly of him. When I heard from Logan Paulson, former tight end for the Commanders and Redskins, when he played under Dan Quinn in Atlanta and he said it was the best year I had in professional football in my 10 years.
My 10 years in, I mean, you started looking at the numbers of what Quinn did for the Cowboys. First of all, I think it's nice to have, you know, somebody from the inside coming. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think it's good to take away from your enemy, you know, as much as you can. Sure. We like that. We hear that. Let's face it. You know, you gotta, it feels like you have to be a player's coach these days. You know, the old hard ass that, that, that doesn't seem to work anymore. And so he heard all these players, uh,
waxing poetic about him. I was like, you know what? All right. You know, let's face it. The coaching search, Ben, is kind of like dating, right? You know, these things aren't always perfectly timed. You might be brokenhearted about someone, but then all of a sudden, you know, let's not forget about
you know, Shakespeare here. We don't have to go down that path, but you know, you all of a sudden, boom, you know, there's our new coach. So I'm excited about it. Obviously the office of coordinator hire was critical because Quinn being a defensive guy. And now with the hire of Cliff Kingsbury, I think there's reasons to be,
really excited. You know, Kingsbury coach Pat Mahomes in college. I mean, he's a former head coach. You have two former head coaches now or Quinn being the head coach now. So I have to have another story for you. I was watching the NFL draft as I always do. And during the COVID year, there was that weirdness of like, you know, having all these cameras within people's houses. And so I was watching, I was watching as,
Andy Reid was on like at pick number 32 and
And my wife comes into the room and she's looking at him and she's like, what is this guy? Like, what's going on with you? He's got this giant, you know, frozen Kansas City Chiefs mug and this big walrus mustache. And she's like, who is this walrus man? And I said, he's the best coach in the NFL right now. And then it goes from that to Cliff Kingsbury saying,
sitting in his horn studio pad like i mean respectfully calling it that you know in his in his velour uh slippers you know sort of and and she said is that guy a good coach and i said no he's not and i see he's a little distracted by scottsdale and she's like oh i know someone who had sex with him and so
look my my attitude is this i love this pair i love it and and the reason that i love it is that like quinn people forget quinn was like probably one of the biggest you know sort of uh big deals in terms of hiring right after the seahawks run that they had yeah legion of doom yeah and and and
He's not, in other words, he's not an incompetent coach. No. It feels a little bit like the Norv Turner hiring and sort of taking him from, you know, the Dallas experience. Right. And it's a bit of a retread and that kind of thing. But you know what? My point is simply this. I think he's a better coach. He's not, he's a better coach than Ron Rivera. And I'm very much convinced of that. And he's more current. But pairing him with Cliff is,
Cliff is a genius, but he's also like a bad head coach. He's just not cut out to be the top of the tier. He's an innovator and like
a great OC and he's a little weird and funky and that kind of thing. And he's gotten the best out of Johnny Manziel and out of my homes and out of, you know, all these different quarterbacks that he's had under him. Yeah. All, all these air raid offense guys. Right. But like removing the responsibility for personnel and like, and like managing a team from him while also having him. I think that's great. I think it's a perfect, uh,
sort of approach to a rebuilding team that wants to do innovative and fun things in the offensive scheme. And to me, as much as I was like, you know, Quinton's a fallback kind of a thing, and I'm sure both of us would have been gung-ho for Ben Johnson, this is actually a really good setup for them, I feel like.
There's no question. And also pairing him with Adam Peters, our new general manager who helped build this 49ers team that just arrived here in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. He's had tremendous success in his career. Another young guy, by the way, who was at the airport. I thought that was a nice touch of class when Dan Quinn arrived in Washington and out in Dallas. He was there to greet him and brought his wife. It was great, I think.
You know, good things. I'm also very optimistic. I mean, hey, new owners, the second overall pick in the draft, about 80 million in cap space, a bunch of draft picks outside of two. Kingsbury, you like his ability. And by the way, let's not forget to share where he came from. He comes from USC where he coached Caleb Williams.
A lot of talk about it. Does this mean Caleb is going to come to Washington? Of course, a Gonzaga High School product. He went to high school right down the street from the D.C. Bureau at North Capitol Street. Yeah, so I got to ask you, have you seen –
That Gonzaga-Dematha clip, have you watched that again from like five years ago? The 43 or 46, 43, whatever it is, the insane comeback that he had. I don't know if you've seen it, but it will get you
Charged up. That's for sure. I mean, is this the next Mahomes? That's the big question. Is this, he certainly projects that way. Not loving when I hear the father talk about partial ownership in a team, wherever he goes. No, that's the, that's a little red flag. I don't want, I don't want any of that RG three family business stuff. No, no, no. Although I blame the Shanahan more for RG three, but yes, I agree with you a hundred percent. I,
All these things we're talking about, new GM, new head coach, new OC, defensive coordinator now hired, also taken from the Cowboys, cap space, second overall pick.
I think you saw the picture at the UNC Duke game. Yeah. That was interesting. Drake May is a lot taller than Sam Howell. That's what I took away from that picture. That's what everybody took away. But also, is this the next Mitch Trubisky or is this the next Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas? Yeah. So let me ask you about Kalen Williams. So here's my problem. I'm always skeptical of the idea that, you know, you can trade up.
and get a much better quarterback than you would have gotten at your position. And I'm not saying that out of like, you know, it has happened. Obviously it happened with Eli. Okay. Though I would argue that Phillip Rivers easily could have won a Superbowl with the giants. Like, I mean, he's a phenomenal quarterback, but like there's, there is this idea that Kingsbury coming in all the other shifts that they're making equate to, uh,
Washington is going to bet the farm on moving up for Caleb Williams, trading with the Bears, etc. I got to be honest. I really hope they don't do that. I agree. Look at Carolina. I'm not sold on...
you know, Drake may, but it's more that like you're, you're betting all of this on one player, you know, who's, who's a good player. I mean, I'm not, you know, he, I don't think he's a bust. It's more like look at the Carolina situation and say, wouldn't you rather, you know, keep your picks, you know, not have to, I mean, they've got this extra one cause they traded Montez to the bears, you know, second round. I mean, I,
Do you have a strong opinion on this? I don't know if you're a college football fan or if you watch these games. Yeah. These are two sports fans talking here. We're doing great. One name we haven't talked about is Jane Daniels from LSU. I'm a little partial. My wife is an Ole Miss alumnus. I love the SEC. I love the SEC. Well, Jaden – I mean, Jaden looks – Jaden –
Could be Lamar. I mean, he could be CJ Stroud. We'd be happy with CJ Stroud. Yeah. I mean, he's, he's an incredible talent. So, I mean, okay. You've got these, you've got those quarterbacks. Who would you take?
Right now, I'm leaning towards Jayden Daniels just because he's an exceptional athlete. We've seen what he can do, not just with his legs, but with his arms. He comes from a great system there in LSU with Brian Kelly. He was a phenomenal player this year. And where I get just a little nervous with Drake May is, you know, I know he's a foot taller than Sam Howell, but UNC, ACC, I just –
I don't know. The level of competition is not the same. Right. I've gone through the tape, just like you. We've studied. And I see some of these narrow openings he's thrown into it. I'm like, would a professional corner pick that off? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. But it's hard to see. I mean, I mean, Micah Parsons talked about following Dan Quinn wherever he would go. But Micah Parsons is still going to be on the Dallas Cowboys next year. And he's going to be picking off a lot of those Drake passes. I mean, like that, he's big. I mean, one of the problems I think in Carolina is
young. He's just a little short. These are big guys, fast guys. But also, like you said, when you mortgage the future for one player,
It's tough. And as we were seeing with Brock Purdy, let's talk about the 49ers. I mean, he's got the knock on him. He's the 10th best player on the team, whatever. Dude, he's playing in a heck of a system surrounded by incredible athletes. You want to put as many talented guys around the quarterback as you can. And in the Niners' case, going all the way to the Super Bowl. More of the Ben Domenech podcast right after this.
This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all-new Prologue EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class-leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com slash EV to see offers.
Reporting live from under my blanket, I'm Susan Curtis with Dunkin' at Home. Breaking news, pumpkin spice iced and hot coffees are back. I'll pass it to Mr. Curtis with his blanket for the full story. That is so right, Susan. You know, it's never too early to get in a spicy mood. I'm talking cinnamony goodness that's so tasty, people don't want to leave their blankets either. Back to you. No, back to you. All you. The home with Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice is where you want to be.
So you have these teams descending on you in Las Vegas who are going to be, you know, rounding around things. I did think it was a very cruel thing that they said that none of these players can even be in a sports book, I guess, until after the game. That's very mean. Probably very mean. Yeah. But I'm curious about your take on this game. It's a... Obviously, it's a rematch. Right? 2020. I am...
I'm torn. I will confess, as I've told you offline, that I had a pre-season future on the 49ers to win the Super Bowl. Ooh, well done. Look at the big brain on Ben. But my problem is I'm now torn because I feel like I'm going up against...
The younger version of Tom Brady. And like, he's just, he's going to figure out a way to do it. I had, I had the, I mean, I didn't, I didn't actually lose money. No, I didn't lose money on the, on the chiefs Ravens game.
But if I had bet that game, I would like bet it hard. I would have lost money because I would have. The Ravens are just a better team. The Lamar Jackson phenomenal season that their defense is incredible. Their offense, you know, under this new design. Excellent. You know, run the ball and the Chiefs is a down team.
But then they ran the ball eight times. Like, what the hell? You know, it just doesn't make any sense. So it's just head scratching. Yeah. I mean, I would have lost a lot of money if I bet that game is as aggressively as some other people who I know did. And it just I look at this Chiefs team. They deserve to be beaten like this. This 49ers team is better. But there's something about this.
Mahomes and this moment and it's not an Illuminati thing and it's not a you know this is not I'm not turning into Charlie Kirk you know this is not some ordained from on high thing but it does make me feel like
they're going to find a way to do this. How do you feel about it? And yet all I agree with you. And yet when I go to the sports book here, the Niners are two point favorite. And you're like, wait a second. If everybody is loving the chiefs, it's, it is incredible. It's hard to bet against my homes. Cause you don't have to go on a limb to say that the guy, all he does is win his whole professional career. He's been a winner and the team is,
You know, not to bring it back to D.C. here, but I mean, it reminds me of the 2019 national team. Like when you get hot at the right time. And that's what this whole thing is about. Nobody cares about how they played in September, October. It's about now they're playing at a very high level. And I think it's very hard to bet against the Chiefs.
uh are you gonna be there during the game or do you have to come home to your family unfortunately not i i do have to get back to the family although boy wouldn't that be nice to uh stay in las vegas a boy can dream my friend a boy can dream and it'd be nice if he flew in and we can enjoy it together yeah no i i think that's a that's a great idea but look when you're when you're looking at these teams obviously there's a
There's a star quotient that's different. When you're looking at the two tight ends in particular, Kittle, Kelsey, how do you feel about them and their competitive play? Because I'm trying to figure out a way. I need to hedge my bet. I need to hedge my 49ers future and say, okay,
If I feel like the Chiefs are really on this run, you know, is it a player prop for Kelsey? Is it something... It'll be a parlay. Yeah. I mean, there's got to be a... I mean, I'll figure out a way to do it. But, like, I mean, we are living in this era of excellent tight ends, you know, in terms of the dominance that they have over the sport. No question. And do you... When you look at that kind of, you know, is there...
Is there a feeling on your part that like one is particularly better than the other? Because Kelsey, I mean, as great as he's been, as phenomenal as he's been, you know, off the field as much, you know, Kittle is arguably the better tight end in terms of what you want a tight end to do.
Kittle is awesome. There's no question. Although the combination of Mahomes and Kelsey, they just broke that duo just broke Gronk and Tom Brady's record for most touchdowns in the playoffs. They get it done. I mean, Kelsey has been arguably the MVP of the playoffs. I mean, it's obviously next to Mahomes, of course. They're dangerous, man. They're so dangerous. They're tough to cover. Now, the Niners defense is awesome. You know, it's,
I'm going to give the edge to Kelsey here if pressed. Okay. I mean, my feeling is just that it's so different in terms of the way that they use these players. And I am a fan of the Shanahan system, of the two-back, sort of that amazing rhythm that they can develop with their running game. But to be honest, that system...
hasn't won a lot of super bowls recently you know it's not been something that has been able to to overcome you know the challenges presented to them by by the other forms of offense um so lucas let me ask you this that just uh because i i know you have the experience now being out there in vegas during this you know so-called contest that is happening you know um
Is there any attention being paid out there to politics versus the Super Bowl? Like, do people even know that there's a primary or a caucus going on? Ben, I'm not sure if they even know the president's in town. Let's be honest here. Let's be realistic, okay? This is not like, you know, Gaga performing and, you know, thousands, you know, rushing in to catch a glimpse.
or to buy a cocktail. I don't think anybody's buying drinks for Joe Biden here. That's just, you know, some window ethnography here, just walking around and sampling the taste. You know, people are here to have fun. People are excited about the Super Bowl. And, you know, really all the acts. I mean, you too, you know,
One of my colleagues saw you two twice. Twice? Twice? As if once wasn't good enough. That's cruel. They went twice. Can I tell you something, Lucas? I have started playing the video from that
inside the sphere performance on youtube for my daughter because she loves uh sing too where they play uh that youtube song repeatedly and where bono is like a it's like has like a cameo and so she she just thinks of it as like connected to that um are you gonna try to get in that sphere
You know, I have fond memories, Ben, of seeing you two in the rain at FedEx Field in PG County. And, you know, when you have those wonderful memories as a kid, short answer is no. I, you know, really. What are the tickets going for? They've got to be ridiculous. Oh, my goodness. Oh, they are ridiculous. I mean, there's some, you know, off market side acts you can try, but, you know, you're spending at least.
you know, two, $300. And that's for off market. I feel like, I feel like the only way that you should go into that, uh, go into that sphere is if you're absolutely high. We're talking about the seat location. No. So, so Lucas, Lucas, what will you be doing instead?
You know, I'm taking in the sights. I'm actually at the end of the trip. You know, I've enjoyed the tables. I've enjoyed the wonderful delicatessen here in Las Vegas, as I mentioned with Cosmo earlier. It's great restaurants.
uh actually went to old las vegas last night oh that's fun that's all the steakhouse you know guys like us like to kick it old school right i mean oh yeah no you you walk into the you walk into the places that that dean martin used to just wander exactly you know off the street and it's a very different experience oh big time when i look up and see rat pack i know i'm in the right place yeah all right lucas well thank you so much for talking to me about this it's uh it's
I'm very optimistic about this season. I don't think they'll be good right away. And I do feel like they've been so bad for so long that it'll take a couple years to grind out of it. But I'm more optimistic than I probably should be in terms of just...
I feel like they're making a lot of good moves. And I think that there's going to be, I think that there's going to be some, some competitive games, which is, you know, the thing, the thing that I most hope for, I will never forget, you know, walking out of FedEx field, um,
You know, and walking, walking out of this field and also before that, walking out of RFK, you know, and having people around me singing, Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. And that's that's just it's a great feeling. And it's it's something I hope to feel again.
You have to be excited. If you have any blood in your veins, burgundy and gold blood in the veins, you have to be excited. New owner, new GM, new head coach, new offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator, second overall pick, picks, $80 million in cap space, $10 million.
stretch move, a new stadium coming down the road. That's for another podcast. But there's a lot of reasons to be excited and be a Commanders fan. And hopefully change the name, by the way. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. I mean, come on. Jonathan Allen was talking about that the other night. He's like, dude, yeah. No, it needs to happen. Come on. Jonathan Allen was in that 2017 draft. I was looking up when Mahomes was taken. Yeah.
That's where we got him. Oh, that's rough. All right. Lucas, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. Ben, it was great. All right. I'm Ben Domenech. You've been listening to Fox News Radio. We'll be back next week with more to dive back into the fray. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. ♪
Hi, everybody. It's Brian Kilmeade. I want you to join me weekdays at 9 a.m. East as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and, of course, what you think. Listen live or get the podcast now at BrianKilmeadeShow.com.