EITM interviews Jason Wright

EITM interviews Jason Wright

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Please welcome your President of the WashingtonCommanders. Please say hello to mister Jason
Wright. Hello, sir, Hey, how's it going on. I am
doing well, man, How areyou? I'm doing great? Good?
Good? Good? Are things?Are things good for Jason? Right?
You know they are? I thinkthings are good for us in general and
the commander's family. The I wasgonna say better this year than maybe previous
years. You know, things havechanged. We'll put it that way.

(00:23):
Things have changed, things have changed, and there's some good momental Is it
is? It? Is it more? Let me back up a step.
What was your last job before youwere the president? Yeah, yes,
I had. I had two realjobs before this. The last one was
I was a partner at a bigconsulting firm here in DC called Mackenzie and
Company. Right before that, how'sthe running back in the NFL? The

(00:43):
okay, all right, so Isee where one of those gives you qualifications
the the But like when you werewhen you were playing in the NFL,
like you, you were never onthe business side of the team. No,
no, no, I mean whatI did do when I was playing.
I was always intellectually curious, right, and I had the opportunity to
have some great leaders around me thatwere on the business side of football while

(01:07):
I was in those locker rooms,and so I asked questions. I did
internships, so I did learn abit, but by no means that was
like working on the business side,doing marketing, selling tickets, all the
nitty gritty that my team does today. Would would the players that were around
you that you kept asking all thosequestions too, Would they say that Jason
Wright was annoying? They would sayI was a nerd? Oh really,
yes? Oh absolutely? Still amthe like, give me some academic paper

(01:34):
and I'm going to like tune everybodyout for two hours and I'm going to
read it. So that's more interestingto you than a playbook, not necessarily
because that stuff is interesting too.Okay, And this here's what people don't
understand about NFL players. Actually,there's this whole idea of like the dumb
jock, right, and that canbe because of personality, the way that
people speak, et cetera. NFLplayers in particular, because football professional football

(01:59):
is such a math and science basedgame. There are no idiots on that
field, right. Those guys aresmart, and more than that, they're
studious. They spend more time inthe film room studying plays understanding probabilities than
they do actually building their bodies everyday, No kidding, really, absolutely
absolutely. The film room is probablyfour to five hours of the eight hour

(02:20):
work day, and the rest isphysical training. And so people don't realize
that about these guys. So Ialways bristle and I get a little I
get a little snippy when someone dumbathlete or did you hear them on this?
I'm like, oh, yeah,maybe he didn't conjugate the verbs the
way you think. Guarantee he's smarterthan yours. Guarantee he is. So
is that like why they make abig deal when they'll go like like who

(02:44):
was like like the playbook or somethinglike. They'll talk about it and listen
like I would hear it. They'lltalk about like a like in preseason,
like guys just get to camp andthey got to study the playbook. Haven't
these guys been playing football? Yeah? No, it's yeah they have.
But I mean there are thousands ofvariants of plays that you have to be
able to understand. So I alwaysgive it a good example. I played

(03:05):
running back right, so I wasa third downback, which means I'm usually
in on plays where the defense isgonna blitz or we're in a passing down
and we need to do some creativeplays. When I get to the line
of scrimmage, I need to veryquickly look at the defensive front right where
they're lined up versus the offensive line, and my entire assignment can change based
on where the nose, whether thenose tackle is directly on the center or

(03:29):
slightly to the left of the center. And then I got to look at
the defensive back. Does everybody knoweverybody on the field on the offense knows
that you have to change what you'redoing, and they have to change what
they're doing too, And if somebodymisses it, the whole play gets left
up. That's that's the level ofrigor and study and information that has to
be flowing, and you try tocommunicate with one another. That's why the

(03:49):
center is really important, the quarterback'sreally important making sure everybody's on the same
page. Right. But there's severaldifferent reads you have to make within the
span of three to five seconds,right, And if you mess it up,
the whole play is messed up atthe end of the day. And
so that's why study, repetition,in the film room. All of that
stuff is so important, and guyshave to be able to process a lot

(04:10):
of stuff in their heads and reallyrapid success. Well, someone's trying to
beat the crap out of them.That other part that literally in your mind
at least, this is how itwas for me. I mean, it's
it's not real, but this isthe mindset I had when I was a
player. I was literally trying tokill the person across from me, right
sure, Like in my head,I'm like, I am trying to harm
you fatally. Right afterwards, we'rebest friends and we're laughing and joking and

(04:33):
asking about each other's kids and stufflike that. But while you're out there,
it is a violent game right rightBy the way, the guy,
the guy that you're trying to dothat too, is trying to do the
same. Is it is? It? Is it as fast as the like
I've never I've never played football anddefinitely not at the professional level, But
is it? Is? It?Is it? Like? Because they'll always

(04:55):
talk about like Sam Howell, Likethey'll talk about him at the beginning of
the year, he's holding on tothe ball too long and that's why he's
getting sacked so much, or maybesomebody's like missing something, whatever it is,
and then over the last handful ofweeks everything has changed. Is it
that fast when you're out there?It's a good question when people talk about
the speed of the game in thetransition from college to the pros. It

(05:17):
is very real, but it's notwhat people think because actually, just think
about it. You know, thetwenty two year old, twenty one year
old in college is probably physically fasterthan the thirty five year old over the
hill linebacker that somehow plays really faston the field, right right, It's
about it goes back to that mentalpreparation. For example, when I was

(05:39):
in the league, I was playingfor the Browns for most of my career,
and the Baltimore Ravens had arguably oneof the best defenses in the history
of the NFL at that time.Ray Lewis Bart, Scott, ed Red
Dailias, Thomas, Hellodi, Nadalike a group of veritable Hall of famers
across that defense. Every one ofthose guys hit you hard. They definitely
didn't I hit them hard, tobe clear. To be clear, but

(06:03):
ray Lewis was great, especially atthat stage in his career. When he
was much older and he had lostseveral steps, he was still fast on
the field because he could see whatwas going to happen before it happened.
Right it was, He had seenevery variation of an offensive play. Motion
didn't distract him. He could tellby your line, where you lined up,

(06:24):
how many yards you were from theline of scrimmage, if it was
going to be a pass or arun play. And so he could get
to the hole based on what hesaw and what he had studied. And
that's the speed of the game difference. Guys in the NFL have seen so
many different things so many times.Eventually it becomes intuitive, right, and
it becomes second nature and you canjust react. And that's what coaches always

(06:46):
talk about. When a player startsto get it, it's when they're no
longer thinking and they're just reacting.That's the difference, and that's when people
start to quote play fast at thenext level. When did you start playing
football? Like as a kid?Yeah, age seven? Did you really?
Age seven? I was second grade? Was my first tackle football team?
Yeah? Were you? Were?You always good? I was good
right away? But not everybody is. Not everybody is like some of the

(07:10):
best players I played with. Andyou know, my Pop Warner team growing
up outside in California, my dadwas our coach. And my dad was
a hell of a recruiter. Ohyeah. He would basically drive to every
major sporting event in our big oldmini van and see who are the best
athletes at a track meet, ata baseball tournament, whatever, and then
go to the parents and recruit themfor our football team. Are you serious?

(07:30):
I'm dead serious. My dad isincredibly competitive still to this day.
My dad in his seventies, incrediblycompetitive. And so at one point we
had nine on maybe ten guys inthe NFL from my Pop Warner team.
You must have never lost a game. We didn't lose a lot of games

(07:51):
in high school. Yeah, wedidn't lose a lot of games in high
school. It took us a minuteto get good in Pop Warner because you
know, people hadn't played before allthat. But by the time we were
eighth graders headed to the high school, we were pretty great. Because I
was going to say, like thethe and listen, I mean, I'm
not being rude. You weren't inthe NFL for twenty years, correct,
But just to even get there.Yeah, you had to be one of

(08:13):
those kids, and maybe you're right, maybe it was a little bit later,
but it's it's not easy to getthere, so you had to be
really good from a young ag.Yeah, it's one percent of one percent
of one percent of one percent ofhigh school seniors get to the NFL,
even just with a tryout or ona team. So it is it's a
very small percentage of people that getthere. And it's a combination of skill.

(08:35):
I think the narrative we always buildbecause you need to build this as
an athlete. It's like it's skillplus work ethic. That's true. It's
also a whole lot of luck,right, a whole lot of luck and
getting in the right situation at theright time, finding people that could see
your talent when others couldn't. Havingthe mistakes that you make, because all
of us made boneheaded, stupid mistakes, especially as young kids. Are you

(08:58):
talking about like like fumbling a ball? Are like just doing something stupid?
Both? Yeah, mistakes on thefield and mistakes off the field. What'd
you do off the field? Oh? Boy, I can't. We can't
say that on the air. Wereyou were? You were? You a
bad kid? You know, Ihad. I gave everyone the impression of
me being a really good kid.So you were, you were? I
but yeah, but I have mylittle, my little fun on the side,

(09:18):
and I tried to balance those twoworlds. What what what foot was
the fun? And I come onfootball, but on the other side,
come that's that is an off airconversation. If we're going to have it
in any candid fashion, all right, and we'll be right back. Okay,
the mics you're off. You almostgot me. I'm also very gullible.

(09:41):
I'm also very gullible. So whofrom who? From who? From
Northwestern found you? Yeah? Soit was a guy named Jerry Brown.
He was a recruiting coordinator for SouthernCalifornia and he started coming to my games
and Northwestern. At that time,I had a little bit of reputation in
Southern California because I had gone theRose Bowl for the first time. Oh

(10:01):
okay, in the in the midnineties, and that's when I was in
high school. And so I sawthe Purple come to Pasadena, as they
say, and I remember seeing themmarch in the parade. My dad's office
was right near the Rose Bowl,and so I had it in my head,
and my parents were sticklers about academics, so I knew it was a
good school. So in my head, I was like, Oh, that's
somewhere I could end up. Icould end up landing. But I knew

(10:22):
it was cold as crap, right, and so recruiting visits are usually in
the in January, right, SoI went out there in January and I
froze my butt off. I wasso cold. But unbeknownst to me,
it was actually wonderful weather there.It was forty degrees in sunny the whole
time, right, right, ButI'm freezing and I'm and I'm complaining to

(10:46):
the guy. And Jerry coach Browndid a fantastic job recruiting, which I
when I say that, I meanlying whereas that you know, Coach Brown,
I love this place. I thinkthis could be a really good fit
for me. But it's just toocold. I'm a California dude. I
don't think I can do this.And he was like, Jason, looks
me in the eyes, Jason,this is the coldest weekend of the year.
It never gets this cold. Ifyou made it through this weekend,

(11:09):
you can make it through any weekend. Just through his teeth lie to me.
My first winter there, I waslike, Oh, screw all you
guys. It was like negative tensideway snow, my car won't start.
I was like, Oh, I'mdone with this. And meanwhile, the
kids from the Midwest walking around insandals and flip flops and stuff. I'm
like, Okay, what is wrongwith y'all? No bearing for it whatsoever.

(11:35):
But yeah, he did a goodjob recruiting me, and it ended
up being a right It did endup being the right place for me to
be. You know, I hada head coach there that my first two
years I really bumped heads with.But it's because he saw the potential in
me, and he also saw meunderperforming on that potential. He saw that
I trying to cut corners and notput in the additional work that needed to

(11:56):
be done. That he saw thatI would use charisma to try to get
my way out of things, andhe just wouldn't. He wouldn't let me
be s my way out of stuff. And so for the first couple of
years, I was like, Ireally don't like this dude. And then
I realized he was trying to helpme, and he became a father figure
and a mentor to me? Wasit was it the and like you said,
your parents were real sticklers on theacademics. Did you did you?
Did you do well? I did? I did do well at Northwestern.

(12:18):
I've always been like the nerd thingdid uh? Did comport to like doing
well in school? Like? Iliked school. I was good at tests,
so I didn't so I wasn't intimidatedby it. And I loved learning.
And so I was pre med atNorthwestern. I was gonna be really
I was going to be an orthopaedicsurgeon. That was my plan until I
realized, like, actually I findthat incredibly boring. But I had the

(12:39):
ability to do it. So Iwent all the way through. I took
the MCAT, scored really well.I took the MCAT during my last training
camp at Northwestern. I was readyto go to medical school, and then
I had the opportunity to go tothe NFL instead. And you know,
a few years into the NFL,I was like, maybe I should look
at something different. You know whatgood for you? Hey? Can I
ask you a question? I don'twant it to be rude when you so?
And you did very very well atNorthwestern obviously from an educational standpoint,

(13:03):
but also on the football field,and like when you start reading stuff,
they'll talk about like, oh,you know Jason went to the NFL.
You know, Jason Wright played forI think the the forty nine ers were
the Yeah, the first team Iwas with you. But they always,
well they'll always put before that.And again I'm not trying to be a
thick or anything, but it'll sayundrafted. Yeah, right, sure does
that? Is that a kick inthe balls or not at all? No?

(13:26):
I mean it was a It wasa formative thing for me. You
know. Number one, Today,I think athletes are much more sophisticated at
an earlier age, and they makebetter decisions. If I could go back
in time, I would have leftschool early, properly, trained for the
combine, got drafted, and madea whole lot more money in my career.
But at the time, I waslike, oh, my values are
around academics. I'm going to stickin this. Yeah, okay, sounds
good, right, cost me acouple million dollars. Trade that in that

(13:50):
you can always go back and finishthat damn degree. Right, But that
said, right, you know,I start to my principles at the time,
I don't begrudge myself for that,but I was undrafted. I didn't
run a fast forty Yeah, wasn'tsuper strong. Those are the things that
get you drafted, right, ButI'm glad I wasn't because that first year
and a half in the NFL wasthe most formative time for me. I
got cut nine times in my firstyear and a half. Yeah. The

(14:11):
first time when I was with theNiners, I came in from a two
a day practice. They don't havetwo a days anymore, they're soft now,
but we had two a day practicesin my day. We came in
from the first practice of the day. My name was off my locker,
all my stuff was in a blacktrash bag and there was a yellow sticky
note that told me where to putmy playbook in when a cab was coming

(14:31):
for me. And so in likeI'm holding back my emotion, holding back
all my emotion, butt neckd inthe shower, trying to say goodbye to
every all the friends I've made forthe last few months, Like I'm going
home, and like within five hours, I was on my parents' couch in
southern California, Like, what theFjust happens? And what do I do
next. So it was a testof a few things. Your crap is

(14:54):
in a bag with a sticky notethat says cab at three third. Yeah,
exactly, exactly. Now, Idon't think that's how most organizations would
let people go, and that staffwas not there very long, and that
might be part of it. Youknow, you don't typically want to treat
people like that, And the Fansare a great organization now, so they
would not. I don't think theywould ever do that to anybody. Right.
The president there is one of mycloser friends. But you know,

(15:16):
that was a for me. Itwas good because I had to learn one
friends, that part control your emotions, but more importantly, maintain my confidence
in the face of failure, right, because I hadn't measurably failed like that
and in your face failed like thatand anything. Yeah, I'm sure I
have personal failures. I made mistakesin my personal life stuff like that,

(15:39):
but not in like the formal pursuitof my career or academics or anything like
that. Never told like it's soin your face, like get the f
out of here, you are notgood enough, right, And I think
people go one of two ways withthat, especially when their whole career is
they've been good at something, theyeither go into a downward spiral where it's
like they start to doubt themselves,and then when people pull on the field

(16:00):
smell that doubt, you get yourass kicked and then it's sort of spirals
downward, right, or you learnhow to regain your swagger and you learn
techniques from maintaining your confidence that youcan go back their bold. And I
learned the latter, and it wasa really important thing for me, not
just through my football career, andeventually I stopped getting fired, even though
it took me running out of moneyliving with my aunt and uncle when I

(16:22):
was with the Falcons because I couldn'tafford a place on my own. They
weren't paying my car notes, werethey really? Oh yeah, yeah,
they took care of me, myseven year old aunt uncle when I was
living in Atlanta playing in the NFL, playing in the NFL, playing in
the NFL. It was not myrookie Yeah, yeah, my rookie year
was not glamorous, sleeping on atwin bed in one of those rooms with

(16:44):
all the creepy dolls right everywhere,like Doiley's and stuff everywhere. But you
know what, It's interesting you saythat because they'll talk about like, guys
who will make it into any sportdoesn't matter, baseball, hockey, football,
basketball, doesn't matter. Is thatthen they make it to the NFL
and for the first time or again, any of them, they start losing.

(17:06):
They're on a team that isn't thatgood, or they're in a rebuild
or whatever it is, and itreally is the first time in their lives
that they've gone on these extended runswhere you're losing. Like go back to
your Pop Warner too, seven nineguys going to the NFL, you probably
wanted twenty games, and then nowyou get to Northwestern, you're setting all
kinds of records. You probably wanta decent amount of games. And now

(17:27):
all of a sudden, you makeit onto a team. Everybody's good,
everybody's good enough to be there.People are losing for the first time.
That's got to mess you up.It does. It's another hurdle that I
think makes guys mentally strong. Andit's actually why I think former NFL players,
if they are able to make thetough transition to regular life, are
amazing employees and leaders in the organizations. They get into right, because you

(17:52):
have to continue to shift your mentalframe to find a motivation that allows you
to perform at a really high levelbecause the NFL requires you to perform at
the highest level. Or you areout of a job the next day,
right like the next day, thenext day, and so you have to
find a way to perform in anysort of circumstances when even when your normal
or core motivator goes out the window, if it's about winning and suddenly you're

(18:14):
out of the playoffs and you gotto find something else immediately or your toast
period, right, and so likethe big the big thing that you have
to do, at least for meit was, is start to treat it
really like a profession, right,like truly like a profession. Like this
is about me putting great film onfilm for all other thirty one teams,

(18:36):
not just the one I'm on.This is building my resume, This is
showing that I have work ethic thatI will show up consistently, and that's
going to help me have a joblonger term. You got to find those
ways to dig deep. And that'sthe split between fan and player, Yeah,
is the like for all of us, it's like this is our team.
We're emotionally invested yep. And foryou and and it almost sounds negative

(18:59):
when you say it, Ye,get your job. It is a job.
It is a job. And Ithink fans they understood what makes for
a consistent winning team. It isa football side that treats it like a
profession and treats it like a job. It's the day to day, detailed
preparation. It's the showing up ontime. It's the consistent performance that doesn't

(19:19):
go emotionally high and low, that'sable to execute even in the toughest of
circumstances. A professionalized organization is theones that will win championships more consistently than
others. Less so than you know, someone showing their bleeding heart emotion on
the sleeve. That feels good fora moment, right, but you want

(19:40):
someone level headed in the heat ofthe battle on the field. Hey,
as team president, you don't haveto cut players. I do not.
I don't have to do anything onthe football side except make sure the field
is in good condition. That's it. That it's painted right, that people
aren't straggling on the field beyond whenthey're supposed to. So when you come
up and you got sideline passes andget your ass off the field on time.

(20:03):
Those are the things that it's importantfor me to do and then to
you know, to make sure thatwe have uh the money to support what
the football side wants to do,whether that's improvements around the locker room,
like we redid the walkout from thelocker room to the field this year.
We have a DJ, we've paintedall the walls, We do smoke.
There's something to make the players feellike they are transforming and going to battle,

(20:25):
right, rather than just walking throughthe old, unpainted, peeling away
halls of a of a stadium.Right. So stuff like that is where
we lean in as well when theyneed new equipment, when they need renovations
on things like that. But otherwisethose guys got it, and I want
a supporting role. You do whatyou gotta do. But if I could
recommend, oh lord, garbage bag, garbage bag and a sticky out,

(20:48):
I'm saving money, saving money,right, And even if I did wrong,
would probably be politely ignoring me.In his head, he would be
like, phenomena, all right,mean, let me do this, let
me let me take a quick break. We'll come back Jason Wright is with
US President of the Washington Commanders.Give me a quick break. It's Elliott
in the morning. Elliott in theMorning, Italian in the morning. Jason

(21:11):
Wright is with US President of theWashington Commanders. How'd you get the job?
Oh, that's a good question.I want to see which version of
the story I decided to tell you. Let's see which one. Give me
the juicy one. Let it beboring. So, I mean it is
boring. I mean any any fora job is boring. For consulting company.
Yeah, So basically I was veryhappy there. So I did three

(21:33):
things at that consulting firm. Idid like standard business transformation work. It's
just like a company's in a aton of trouble, they're not making as
much money as they should. Igo in and help them turn it around,
produce costs, grow the revenues,whatever, like go do turnaround work
rich, which is part of whyit was a good fit for me to
come to this job. When itwas second thing I did there is I
ran a bunch of stuff internally forthe company on acquiring talent and making sure

(21:56):
we have pathways for talent internally.And the last thing, as I ran
a think tank that was about inclusivegrowth, so communities, especially black and
brown communities around the country, andhow investment could help the overall economy,
not just in those neighborhoods but everywhere. Sure, so I was happy.
I'm doing like core work that feedsthe family, and I'm doing work that's

(22:18):
that I'm passionate about it. Andthat's all here in DC. Yeah right,
Well, I mean my clients werearound the world, right, I
was living here. I was livinghere, you know, so I've been
here since twenty thirteen. In themiddle of that, a client of mine
reached out and said, Hey,there's this organization that I think needs your
help. Would you guys put togethera proposal for them? And it was
the then Washington football team, right, And so I went and pitched the

(22:41):
owners of the team at the time, and I was pitching them for them
to become clients of McKenzie. Ohreally, I wasn't. I wasn't trying
to get the job, right,I was pitching them. And afterwards they
called me and asked if I wouldinterview for the job. I interviewed for
a week negotiating tell your boss,yep, I mean I didn't really have
a boss at because I was apartner. So I kind of like,

(23:02):
oh I just had to tell Ihad I'll just heel it into the air,
I kind of, but I didhave to tell somebody. So yeah,
technically everybody has a boss somewhere,but like I didn't have like a
formal boss. But yeah, Itold the upper level folks like, yeah,
I think I'm gonna take this job, and you know, they blessed
it, and I bounced, Ibet three weeks later. So you said,

(23:22):
you you you interviewed for a weekor negotiated for a week, interviewed
for a week, negotiated for aweek, and then a week later I
started. Did you have hesitations aboutit? Absolutely? Absolutely? But I'm
trying to think, so that's that'swhat year twenty twenty, twenty twenty.
Yeah, how knee deep into intoit being nast controversy and all that.
It wasn't yet that happened on mysecond day, the Post story here on

(23:47):
your second day, second day,you bet you don't have a boss to
call back at Kinzie, Hey rememberwhen I quit. Nobody it's but yeah,
I certainly have reservations. But thatthe Post article came out on the
second day of your job. Yeah, yep, all my second day,
I know, would you have takenthe job? Probably? And here's why

(24:08):
to me when I see my backgroundas a football player and all I learned
that I just shared with you guys, right all the trial, the triumph,
my deep love for the game,I respect for the players, what
I think it means, and evenmore so, what I think it means
to our society. It's like it'sthe still one thing that brings us all

(24:29):
together. Sure, all right,very few things that unite us right now
across society, and football is oneof them. So there's that. And
then there's what I built in mybusiness career, my inter nerd coming back
alive, solving these interesting problems forcompanies around the world and doing really hard
work to help companies do better.Right. I never thought those two world
would come together. And the factthat they were coming together at a serendipitous

(24:52):
moment in the town that I consideredhome, right on topics that I cared
about, with a fan base thatwas reflective of the American populace. We
have the most diverse fan based inthe NFL. And that's dope, Is
it really? Really? Yes?It is a true cross section of this
area and a true cross section ofAmerica, and all of those things coming
together. I was like, youknow, no matter how hard this is

(25:14):
or how ugly this looks, orwhat somebody tells me about this organization,
or how bad it could be orwhat it could do to you on the
other side, like, I havea lot of faith in God, I
have a lot of faith in myself, and I'm like, you know what,
I'm I'm gonna take this on becausethe opportunity of what could happen is
worth it, right, and ifit flames it, I'm gonna be all
right. I'm gonna be all right. Did it did? Did job change

(25:37):
on day three? Though? Yeah? It did? Absolutely. It went
from it went it went well,just changed completely. It went from something
where we were looking at a growingthe business and doing a big marketing effort
around a new name and brand andall of that stuff that all felt very
like hunky dory and positive to crisismanagement completely evaluating the staff in the organization

(26:02):
because those articles implicated people who hadbeen working in the organization for a long
time, complete evail top to bottomof talent in the organization, and it
turned into a complete turnaround. Youknow, like we spent the last three
years completely transforming things. Eighty threepercent of the people in the organization are
new since I joined, right,I didn't plan to play grim Reaper and
do that, but it was whatwas necessary for a time period to re

(26:26):
establish a way of working that wasmore in line with the values we needed
to be to do well in thefuture. And thankfully we were able to
do a lot of that before thenew ownership group got here, because they
if they had inherited what we hadat the beginning, the way that they
are raising the bar again for us, right in terms of expectations, in
terms of what they demand in thefan experience, in the pace of work,

(26:49):
There'd been no way for that organizationthree years ago to be able to
do that. And so now we'reat our second evolution. But I'm just
going to say, like you talkabout having to be the grim Reaper,
is it's not like you were goingand in going Hey, listen, thanks
for thanks for eight good years ofservice. But we just we have to
budget reasons. We got to cut. Sorry, times are tough. You're
going into people going you know what, you're bad people get out like,

(27:12):
I mean, yes, it's I'msure it's not fun to fire people,
but at least you don't go homeand go like, oh, you know
what that sucks. You know,one typically involves lawyers and one doesn't.
That's the complicated factor, my friend. That's fair. If I never,
if I never have to work soclosely with legal again in my career,
will not be mad. By theway, when you when you got the

(27:33):
job and you like, you've neverbeen a team president before, did you
even know what you were doing?I mean no, I mean not in
the you walk into you walk inthere, you got to there and you
put your little brief briefcase down,which actually yes, I mean yes,
and no, like I knew howto run a business, right, that's
what I knew how to do.What I didn't understand was the external facing

(27:57):
role and the community facing role thata team president has to play. You
knew who to call it the painta field that, yeah, like that
that I could do that you canfigure out pretty easily that I wouldn't even
know that that's my job. Thatyou can figure out pretty easy that I
knew, you know, I figuredall that out in the interview process.
But within running a business. Yes, we can do that. I can
look at a profit and laws statement. I can understand where we're overrunning on

(28:18):
costs. I can understand how topull it back. I understand what we
need in terms of setting sales goals, all the wonky, uninteresting business stuff.
Okay, I've been doing that.What I didn't know was that this
role was so much more than abusiness leader's role. It is a representative
in the community. And very quickly, because of the controversy within we were

(28:41):
in, I was thrust into thatrole. Sure, and it's been as
important for me to be out inthe community as a representative of the team,
showing that we weren't in our ivorytower in Ashburn, but instead we're
out in the community, out inwards seven and eight, out in Prince
George's County, out around very areasin Virginia, in the Commonwealth, showing

(29:02):
that we were now present with ourfans again, thinking about taking making uh,
making efforts to change pricing to makeit more accessible to folks, you
know, like things like that thatI didn't realize we needed to do initially.
I thought you were just going torun this business. It's been healthy
and in good shape, but weweren't. We were in crisis mode and

(29:25):
a big part of us coming outof that was to re establish our reputation
with folks, right, And that'sand that's tough. You got to sit
let folks yell at, You gotto let them express their discontent. You
got to be able to you gotto be able to listen. You got
to be able to listen with humility, not take offense, not get defensive,
let people vent and then get topragmatic solutions on the other side.

(29:48):
You know, I don't know howmany conversations I've had where they're like,
you know, I used to comethere in the games and then this happened,
and I I will listen to everysingle one of those stories. And
that was a big part of myjob. Those are the things I didn't
know about being a team person andlisten. The the whether it was the
Redskins wouldn't like go back, thefan base was unbelievable and fanatic. The

(30:10):
opposite of that isn't I just don'tcare. The opposite of that is I
hate you. So that's that's whereyou're gonna get all right, And that's
the beauty and the challenge of runningan organization like this. Football is in
everyone's hearts, and especially this teambecause of its championship legacy, because its

(30:32):
legacy while winning those titles was beingthe great uniter around a very diverse community.
People believe this and bleed this sopassionately. On the inside. This
is core to their psyche, theirsense of self and connection to others.
Family memories are wrapped up in it, and so when it's gone south,
not just on the field, butalso in the public eye reputationally, it

(30:56):
hurts in a way that few otherthings hurt. And so a part of
the transition that we've gone through isnot just getting the organization cleaned up,
having it be able to operate atthe pace of business, having good ethics
and all of that stuff in place, but also allowing people to express that
deep amount of emotion so that theycan start to heal and move forward.

(31:19):
And we're gonna be on that journeyfor some time, because those those wounds
don't heal right away, sure,you know, And they don't heal with
just one winning season, though thatkind of stuff helps, you know.
But i'd like I'll even tell youthe the the like the part about it
taking time, right. We usedto do like way back before before it
started to get bad. And Idon't mean all of the how toxic it

(31:41):
was and all of the you know, the sexual harassment and all that other
stuff, but we used to doa ton of stuff with the team.
We went to Osaka with the team. Yeah yeah, yeahh our winner got
caught smoking on the team playing,but that's okay, that's okay, that's
all right. The like, butwe would we would do stuff at the
stadiums all the time. And thenthat got freed, and you go,
okay, you know what, that'sthat's how Dan's gonna be. That's how

(32:04):
Dan's going to be. Fine,We'll go do our thing, he'll do
his thing. And then it gotreally bad and then it was like not
only not only you go do yourthing, I want nothing to do with
you at all. So then itchanges, right, And then and then
the hairs group and Mitch rails andeverybody comes in and people say really good
things. I know so many thatknows that knows Josh, and you go
like, okay, now it's nowit feels okay to embrace It takes a

(32:30):
little bit because you were like thatthat's right, and now it's like,
Okay, now I'm in that's right. Like so, Josh, Mitch,
Mark Irvin, they understand this history, right. They understand this history really
well because especially for Josh, Mitchand Mark, because they lived here longtime
fans of the team, their friendshave gone through that exact transition that you

(32:53):
that you described at one point diehard, and they've faded into either apathy
or anger, you know. Andso they understand that intimately, and the
decisions they make reflect that. Andwhile the sale of the team allowed a
bunch of people to come back andbuy in, they also understand what we
understand, and we're all aligned onthis, is that we still have to

(33:14):
show and prove that this new ownershipgroup does understand that the that the fans
need to see consistent investment, thatthey need to see us taking their insights
seriously, that they need to seereal money and effort behind things like renovations
on the stadium and the guest experiencethe stadium. Man, come on,

(33:37):
come over the where's it going?Oh so I need to turn the mics
on? Take me off? Willwe know soon? Will you know?
We're moving really fast on it andthat's one of the that's one of the
great things about this new ownership group. We do not know. Oh god

(33:58):
damn it, we do not know. But the new ownership group and their
reputation has allowed us to talk topublic leaders, community leaders and others in
openness and transparency in a way thatwe weren't before. So things are moving
across all the different possibilities that exist. I think everybody knows our case the

(34:19):
spiritual home of the team, andthat there's activity to see how we could
bring the team back to its spiritualhome. But we also have great leaders
in Prince George's County that have aplan for economic development there that could be
where a sports anchor development could bea big part of it. And as
we look across the Commonwealth for opportunitieswhere a venue of our scale and scope

(34:39):
and our rabid fan base could driveeconomic development there too, we're looking for
those opportunities. Can I say someof you with you getting banned, that
was the most business. That's exactlywhy I said, what did you expect?
What did you expect? And askme again, you're going to get
the same thing. We're for freakingword, go on somewhere, Hey,

(35:07):
the the the do you do youtravel? Have you seen every stadium?
Almost almost every stadium? Like whenyou look at like, like a buddy
of mine's in Vegas right now doingsomething that stadium. It's my favorite NFL
stadium? Is it really? TheAllegiance Stadium is my favorite NFL It's beautiful,
beautiful, and I've never been there. He was just sending me pictures
of it. Like when you getback to FedEx, are you like,

(35:28):
oh God, you know? No, No, we know, we know
what we're with the answer, no, we know. This is a real
answer, probably more real than Ishould be, But no, we we
know what we inherited, and weknow that in the past there were restrictions
on what we could do to makeFedEx a great experience for folks. Those
restrictions are off right now, it'snot going to be Allegiant, Yeah,

(35:49):
sure, but till the new place, yes exactly, A new place should
outperform Allegiance. We should have thebest stadium in the NFL when we build
the new yes, right right,And I'm confident we will with this ownership
group, their vision, their willingnessto invest, like I have no doubt
it will be. It's going tobe It's going to be a new major
attraction for the DC area, nomatter where it has to be. I

(36:10):
mean, listen, before Legion,it was so far before so Fi,
it was Dallas, So they haveto keep getting exaggerated. Yeah, and
it's going to be dope and hopefullywhat we do nothing will surpass it for
a long time. I think wecan do something really unique with the minds
that are in the DC area thatsaid, what can happen at FedEx is
we can put real money into it. We're number one. There's not stuff

(36:32):
falling apart, and we've done alot of that work. We've done a
lot of that work, but there'smore we can do in the future to
really tighten it up. Even likethe art that fall with the players,
well that that we fix, thatwe fix and things like that. You
know, we we actually made thebold move even before Josh and them took
over to fix all of that stuff. And just assume that Josh would have

(36:53):
wanted us to do that. Dollarsinto the building. That's awesome is either
way, and that's the kind ofstuff we are doing. And Josh and
the leadership team did appreciate that becauseit is in line with their values and
they would have wanted us to doright, so it was good that we
did. And then they made additionalinvestments beyond that. But for example,
some of the things that we cancontinue to do. They made a bunch
of investments in parking and traffic whichallowed us to reduce in and out time

(37:19):
by forty minutes. So attendance isup twenty percent, but the time in
and out of the stadium is downby forty minutes. So these are these
are the types of things that wecan continue to do this off with another
off season. As we think abouthow we do parking and how we do
flows through parking lots, we canprobably reduce that further. We can have
better scanning technology and tickets heading in, we can do different stuff with grab

(37:42):
and go and automated food and beverage. So instead of like spending time in
line trying to get your burger andfries, can grab and go, You
tap your phone and you're back toyour seat more quickly. Because what people
really want us to be able tosee football, you know, those are
the types of those are the typesof things that we'll be able to do

(38:02):
heading into this next offseason, we'llbe able to bring on some new cool
premium products. Like we have areasthat we weren't using because there wasn't enough
demand for fans in the stadium.Right we have a whole entire loage area
that we turned into offices for ourbusiness staff. Well, now we have
the demand for it. We areselling out of suites and premium space.

(38:22):
So we're going to spend the offseason bringing that online and do some sort
of cool concept, whether that's aday club concept or an exclusive like space
for meetings and private gatherings and thingslike that that is also active on game
day with food and beverage and bottleservice and things like that. That's like,
we're going to be able to dosome cool stuff like that. So

(38:44):
there are going to be some majorimprovements in the fan experiences next year because
this group is willing to invest,even while we're looking at a future home
down the road. I remember yousaying that I can't remember where it was.
It may have been a during oneof the preseason games. Actually,
I think it was because they weretalking to you about it's another preseason game,
and I remember you going, dude. Preseason games for me were like

(39:05):
the Super Bowl where that's where Imet I got a job because the preseason,
Yes, yes, And they weretalking about somebody like he doesn't even
want to be here, and youwere like, these games matter, That's
what I'm telling you. Like whenpeople didn a great preseason, this is
where I said, I get alittle snippy, probably a little too in
my feelings defending players. I'm learninggene and others are helping me moderate that.

(39:27):
But but with preseason games, yeah, like that's how the bottom of
the roster is decided. You know, I'm sure forty let's call it forty
to fifty roster spots are decided,right then there's thirteen to three to thirteen
spots that are up for grabs,and you are fighting and clawing to have

(39:47):
a job that can sustain your familyright for the next year, that can
help you achieve whatever goals you havein having an NFL career. What that
sets you up for in the future. And this is rare air. There
are only fIF fifty three spots acrossthirty two teams in the world, in
the biggest sport in the in thebiggest media draw of anything in the world.
Right that that's that is worth,that's worth it, treating it like

(40:13):
a super Bowl? Right, Andyou were a three to thirteen guy.
Yes, absolutely every year? Right, And by the way, are you
made it? And you were stillsleeping on Antie's cap. That's right,
that's right, that's right even theneven then. No. But the other
thing that you said, and Ithought it was interesting, you were talking
about how after the ownership change wasannounced that one of the things and I
guess like the vote had already beenYeah, if we were in preseason,

(40:35):
the vote would have already been done. In everything is you were talking about
how shocked you were at how quickgames started selling out, how quick businesses
wanted to come back and partner upwith the team and go like it's okay
again, let's do business together.Were you were you? And I understand
being shocked when when insulated in thatbuilding And I'm not saying that you just

(40:55):
put your head down and you wereinsulated in there? What what was everybody?
And they're not aware of how hatedit was wrong? Now we knew,
I mean, we had to dealwith those calls every day, like
if anybody, if if I'm happyfor anybody, right, it's my staff,
right, because they especially are ticketingfolks and our sweet sales folks.
They are the front lines of hearingevery bad thing that this organization had ever

(41:16):
done to anybody. They were onthe front lines of that. They had
to hear that every time they approachedsomebody and said, hey, we'd like
to bring you back into the building, and well, let me tell you
a thousand reasons why not, andwith colorful language, sure, and I'm
you know, and I'm gonna dumpon you on this. So no,
everybody was keenly aware of it.What I thought was that it would just

(41:36):
take a little more time, right, And what we're finding is it is
going to take a little more time. We had an initial huge jump,
which was fantastic, especially with Joshand this ownership group going to their friends
who are leaders in this business communityand saying this business community and saying,
it's not just that we want youback to help build our business. This
is the way we bring back theteam together. It's our sort of duty

(42:00):
to lock arms and make sure thatthis franchise is healthy financially so that we
can fund a championship team and buildsomething of prominence, bring back home field
advantage, and bring something of prominenceback to the city, the play the
way that this team is supposed tobe historically, and so they they're the
ones making calls just like us tobring in people into the suites and all

(42:20):
of that stuff. So they werelike hands on the ground, hands and
feet on the ground right doing thiswork. So that's part of what surprised
me and how quickly it came back. They put in real muscle and effort
behind it. But we still havea long way to go. The season
ticket member base is way up fromwhere it used to be, but to
be a healthy season ticket member basethe way that the best teams in the
league are, we got a longway to go. We got a long

(42:42):
way to go. We still needpeople to come back, and we're still
at affordable price points, like ourtickets, especially for like the median income
in this market, are very cheaprelative to that. So we just need
to do a better job of gettingout into the community, out getting to
people, reminding them that it canbe a great family experience serience, letting
people know that it's easier to getin and out of FedEx and that things

(43:04):
have been fixed and it's not thisterrible experience any longer. Those are the
types of things that we need todo in telling our story because it's so
important we get back to that fiftythousand plus person season ticket member base,
right, because that's a home fieldadvantage for our guys, right, and
when those people choose not to selltheir tickets, which is important too,
because right now we got a lotof season ticket members that you know,

(43:27):
when things go south or when there'sa really popular game comes in town,
we'll sell those tickets sure, andwe see a bunch of opposing fans come
in. That does impact us onthe field, and so us on the
business side. We're going to tryto do everything we can to change incentives,
work with pricing, do real gooddeals for our season ticket members to
incentivize them not to sell their tickets, improve the experience, to draw more

(43:49):
people back because we need it tobe a true home field. Has this
your been a success? I sayso yeah on the on the business side.
But you know what the on thebusiness side, is this a fair
statement? Like I look at itand go listen, it's it's the team's
at five hundred right now games underright, that's fine? And even if
they if you told me they lostthe rest of the season, and I

(44:10):
get it, winning winning cures alot of evils. I would just think
people go into work and feeling likethey're human beings. Yeah, that's it's
a win. That's it. That'sit, I'd say. I'd say it's
a it's a success because new ownershiphas established a vision. I think the
public sees it as credible and theyknow that this organization is going to return

(44:31):
to prominence. Right takes a littlelike the momentum has shifted. Right,
that said, you want to win, right, sure, you want to
win. You want to win,and I think Josh wants to win.
I know Ron wants to win,and so I don't think Ron would by
any means be like this is successful. He he knows how good this team

(44:51):
could be, he knows the talenton the roster. He's built in that
way. But you know, thethirty thousand foot view, right, the
way that the businesses start arding torecover, and more importantly, the way
that Josh and those folks have seta vision for where we're headed and that
people can see it and that it'scredible, doesn't feel like bs. That's
a that's that's a win. DoesJosh like you? I have no idea

(45:14):
if Josh likes me, I likeworking with Josh. Yes, I'd say
Josh likes me. I'd say Joshlikeswea I'd say Josh likes me. I
like working with Josh, and wewere we we we work, we work
well together. We work really fastand really well together. The thing that
I love about working for these guys, it's not just Josh, it's Josh,

(45:37):
Mark, Mitch Irvin and a setof limited partners Magic. Nobody calls
him. Everybody calls him Irvin.Actually, oh do they really? Oh
you know what, well, youtell them or mister Johnson. Really it'll
be yeah, it's Irvan or misterJohnson. But I mean, the the
elephant in the room is what happensafter this year? Right? Yeah?

(45:58):
That that is something that I trynot to think about because it's actually an
irrelevant question. Well excuse me,Yeah, it's the important question is how
do we continue to build momentum thatimproves everything for this fan base? Okay,
that's it period. And if meand my team are focused on getting

(46:19):
the business in shipshape, where moneyis going to the right places, we're
invested in allocated properly. We're investingin the guest experience, and we're taking
advantage of this ownership's group willingness toinvest in improving the fan experience. If
we are continuing to recruit and keepthe best talent within our organization, and
we're giving the right people promotions,we're giving them the leeway to do their

(46:43):
jobs creatively, and we're allowing themto engage fans in a way that we
haven't always done. Right, we'redoing all of that. Then we're setting
up the organization for the long haul, and we're doing the best that we
can do to acquit ourselves to thisnew ownership group. So it actually makes
no difference about what happens. Whatwhat you have to think about is doing

(47:04):
the work incredibly well and doing itat the new pace and rigor that's demanded
of us by this new ownership group. And that has changed. That has
changed, and it's really good.Last things, Yeah, since he left,
have you even heard of peep fromDan? Have not tucked to Dan.
I have not talked to Dan sincehe left. Do you think you
ever will? Have? No idea? If your cell phone rang right now,
would you answer it? Of course, Oh you would yeah, of

(47:25):
course, would it be a friendlyconversation. Yeah, let's call him the
What are you doing for Thanksgiving?I mean, I know we're playing.
We'll be in Texas, So mykids are going to meet me in Texas.
I really Thanksgiving. My brother livesin plane. Oh uh, so

(47:47):
I'm gonna we're gonna do Thanksgiving withhim, my parents. Uh and the
game. Yeah, be out therefor the game. Like, yeah,
my kids are gonna fly out fromCali with my parents and we're gonna spend
it in Texas. That's pretty fun. Way, it's gonna be fun.
That'll be good, all right.So here's what I want us to do.
And I know I got to letyou go. I want us to.
I want us to do something funtogether. Like I don't talk to
the league. Maybe we go backto Japan. You figure that part out.

(48:09):
But the I want us, Iwant us to. I want us
to do something fun together, somekind of promotion. I don't know what
it is. I'll take over thatmuch. You're coming with the recommendation.
I was getting I was getting ready. I was like, okay, what
are we doing? No? No, no, no, no, because
I don't know if the answer wouldbe yes or no, but we'll figure
something out. But I want Iwant to get back and do something.
The last piece of gear that Ihave is a branded Noble. No,

(48:30):
I'm not asking for anything free.I'm just saying, that's how long it's
been. Yeah, we need toYeah, we need to do something proper.
Since we've done so, we needto do something proper. Excellent,
dude, thank you so much forcoming. I really appreciate you coming in.
Give me a quick break. It'sElliott in the morning.