Hello everyone, and welcome back to the week Side Podcast. I'm Jenny Brentis and I'm here with Connor Or. We have yet another Monday with news in the NFL. This news was expected since the Washington NFL team announced ten days ago that it would be undergoing a thorough review of its team name. Today Monday, they announced that while the review is not over, at the conclusion of the review, they will be retiring the Redskins name and logo and will announce a new one at a point in the future. Uh. They have said that they hope that the new name and design will enhance the standing of our proud, tradition, rich franchise and inspire our sponsors, fans, and community for the next one years. So um, a little bit of a strange release, Connor. First of all, the fact that they are announcing that there is a name change before the review is complete raises a lot of questions. What more is there to review? They could just say their review is complete and we will announce the name later. But clearly the the pressure from sponsors, corporate partners, minority owners continued to ramp up and they needed to say something, so this was their response. Also it's notable that they continue to use the mascot and team name that they are changing, and mentioned sponsors before fans and community at every turn. So a lot to unpack here and really gets to the crux of the situation right now, which is nothing has changed. Native Americans have been calling for a team name. Again, it's a complex issue. Not every Native American feels the same way, but there have been uh there's been a groundswell of voices, of strong voices of activists, tribal leaders, you know, social workers, people who work in schools who have spoken out against the team name, and their voices have been ignored for decades. The first trademark suit against the Washington Redskins trademarks was in the nineties, before Snyder even bought the team, and so these calls are not new. But what has changed is now the sponsors are being pressured on their own with the Black Lives Matter movement and this racial reckoning we're seeing in America. Suddenly and belatedly, being racist is bad for business, and so now we see corporations and companies acting and they are the ones that ultimately forced Snyder to make this decision. I think that the entire release was a troll. I really do, because I think that if you were a public relations professional UM trying to help put this fire out, you would certainly not put sponsors before the Native American community or the fans in the order by which the people you're trying to pacify. You would not continue to use the name in the logo. UM, you would not do any of these things. But I feel like this is Daniel Snyder's way of saying, I'm doing what you're telling me to do, but not because I want to, you know what I mean. You know that he has notoriously had his hands in all aspects of of the pots in Washington, and this smacks of, yeah, I'm gonna rewrite this to make it look like, you know, I'm unhappy about it, and you know clearly is or else he would have changed it years ago. But the entire thing just looks ridiculous. It was tweeted from the account their official Twitter account is at the word that they're trying to change it. It's like, you know, whatever, this whole thing is just farcical. But I thought that you had a great column in the mm QB today that really got to the heart of this, which is that right. It's not about doing the right thing, it's about doing it for money. And I think that this is a pretty naked um another naked example from from Snyder, and I thought you you put that really well. Yet the right decision for the wrong reasons, And I think that's what we were trying to get at a couple of weeks ago when we were discussing this, or a couple of days ago, I guess on the pod that we were discussing this. It It feels icky because there's this uh long history of the team not even being willing to listen to Native Americans who wanted the name change, to not even be willing to consider that perspective, and so for them to suddenly say we're changing the name is a good outcome, but there's no effort, as you said, Connor, there's no effort in this release to say we've heard, we listened, we were wrong not to listen, or you know, we are going to do X, Y and Z in the future. I mean, they created a foundation that was supposed to give to Native American communities. That foundation petered out once the trademark challenge court battle was dismissed. In the team's favor. They seemed to abandon their push to reach out to Native American communities around the same time. They spent eight hundred thousand dollars in lobbying since to change the name. Money that or to excuse me, to keep the name, to prevent efforts to change the name. Money that could have been given to Native American communities or used for any number of other purposes. So it's it's just a long track record of ignoring, ignoring, ignoring, and then finally being pushed to the point of doing the right thing because the bottom line says it, which is what people have expected all along. You know, I thought I talked to Amanda black Horse, who was the lead plaintiff in the latest challenge to the Washington Team's trademarks, which you know, we talked about that kind of being the backdrop of the previous push to change the name. And the way she put it, this was one day before fed X spoke up and two days before the team announced that it was undergoing a thorough review. She said Snyder, she said, he Snyder is kind of like George Preston Marshall, who refused and was eventually forced by law to integrate his team. I think someone's going to have to make him to do it. So she was right as she was in fourteen, and as all of the Native American voices over the last few decades have been. Yeah, and it just leaves you like wondering, you know, Okay, I mean, we're gonna then soon hit a point where, um, we get to all these new options for names, or we hear the name. Apparently they have a name, but there's I think the Sports Business Journal or Sports Business Daily reported that there is a trademark issue that someone has been sitting on a lot of these names, which I think is absolutely hilarious, and there's a battle on, you know, how to get those names back and how to use them for the football franchise. I'm assuming this person just wants a payout of some kind to relinquish the trademark. But you know, we're going to be made to feel happy and excited about this new thing, and you know, really it's just, you know, we've said it before, it's just none of it feels right. But you have to take it with a grain of salt and say, at least something made it happen. You know the fact that there are a bunch of places that are at least forcing the hands of these owners and whatever CEOs. All these things is a positive in itself, right, I mean that is a reflection of grassroots change and energy. And so I think that's the one thing you have to look at and say, that was pretty cool, you know, as as uncool as what Daniel Snyder is doing. At least it's cool that you can you can literally see the chain reaction of events working its way up to kind of the most powerful places in in America, you know. Yeah. And while the voices of Native Americans have been discounted through the years on this issue in particular, as well as many other issues, uh, they had raised awareness of this. There were two long trademark bottles years long, right, And the people who were participating in those battles sacrificed their their life, their feelings of safety, They faced a lot of scrutiny, and they did so to push the issue to the forefront. And while that was not ultimately enough to change the name, it did make it so that when our country had this racial reckoning, that the Washington Team name was front and center, and you had the trademark trial and appeal Board having determined that the name was disparaging to Native Americans. So they had laid the foundation for this to be the push, and so I think their efforts really should be front and center in this conversation. And while it was not the tipping point, they were the ones that were fighting this fight for years with no payoff, and so I hope they feel some sense of gratification that they got the outcome they wanted, even if it came in a way that was ikey. You know, when there was this push too against the trademarks, if Snyder had changed it, then he could have written a different story. You know, he had an opportunity then to say, hey, I've listened, I'm wrong, I'm changing the name now. But he chose not to do it then, and so now we have to be accurate with how we represent this. He's being forced to do this now, and he shouldn't get credit for doing the right thing when being forced to do it, Like, I'm glad that this is the outcome, but we have to represent it correctly and saying that it was done for the wrong reasons. Yeah, and in the coming days and weeks, you know, here's hoping you know, our our world is so entirely polarized right now. And I keep telling you know myself, and you know, I've talked to um some people who lived through the you know, as kind of sentient adults, lived through the fifties, sixties, seventies, you know, And and while I'm not comparing the two time periods, it's like maybe we all realized that, like, yes, I mean, there are these like real periods of intensity and change, and you know, everybody digs in and takes aside, and then you know, maybe five or ten years from now, once the storm clouds kind of clear, you say, Okay, I get it. I get why this name needs to be changed. And I think the focusing now on why certain people aren't upset about it, or why certain people don't care is is ultimately fruitless, right I mean, you know, people are either digging in for political purposes or because you know, they have a belief that is just you know, not square with where we're at as a society right now. And so you know, you just you you look forward to the future when we can have a real conversation about it, but right now it's sort of the whole thing is going to feel like, you know, digging up a plant by its roots, you know, and the plant just doesn't want to come out of the ground. That's a good analogy, Connor. I've been, I've been. I've been. I've been digging out a lot of trees at my house, and dead trees. I'm not taking out, you know, I'm not taking out live trees. And you find that the roots were pretty deep, very deep. Yeah, and so the tree still died. Yes, Okay, so there's like some kind of meeting in there perhaps maybe. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I didn't really think about that before I said it. That's super deep though. Yeah, well, like the roots. Lots lots of discuss here on the On the Week's Side podcast this morning, Connor. Before we get to our second our second topic, can I can I just tell you that over the weekend, we we got really excited. On Friday. We were going to say, we were going to say, this is a two year old daughter, it's gonna be your first movie night ever. She's gonna watch her first movie. And so we caved and we ordered Disney Plus and we got take out, and we got everybody comfortable on the couch and then Disney Plus doesn't work on my TV, which is like my TV was and you need a TV that has made or later and then write new information because neither of my TVs was made after and I believe one of them was made in like whoa, yeah, so yeah, not gonna get Disney Plus. And then okay uh um. So we were like, okay, we'll put it in the laptop and then we'll connect it via Hdmi cable to the TV. Disney Plus somehow knows that's going on and they and they shut that down too, They say, no, no, I can't do that. Got to buy a Roku firestick, uh some other one of these hundred dollar things in order to make the hundred dollar a year subscription service work. My goodness. So you know, it's just a very polar opposite version of a mega corporation just sticking it to the people, just to say, okay, right right, you're you're relating it back to the corporate corporate pressure there but nothing to do with football all. But as we transition topics, I would just like to say that you know, you know, wake up people, you know you gotta you gotta take care of the little guy. You know, you know, we wanted to watch The Little Mermaid and instead, uh Eb's first movie was The Secret Life of Pets, so it was on Netflix. It was a good movie. Yeah, it was a good movie. A lot of laughs. So Little Mermaids not on Netflix. Okay, another example here because they yanked it all, you know, they yanked all the intellectual property out, so now you can't you can't access the movies or anything like that. I was over the weekend, was at my in law's house, and they still have all the big old cassette tapes, which apparently are worth a lot of money right now, Like you can sell them on eBay for like eighty or ninety bucks a tape. Oh interesting, Fantasia Thumbelina. Yeah, at home, we probably have a Little Mermaid. I mean, we definitely have a Little Mermaid and one of those like puffey containers. Yeah, white, Yeah, we definitely for sure. Yeah. I don't know, but I just thought you'd like to know that I did not get to see Hamilton's. Then I still haven't seen it. Have you seen Hamilton's? I have not. No, So we're out on Hamilton's. You know, what are you gonna do about it? Um? So the other thing that we wanted to get into, which I thought was interesting this week, was you know, where would be a good place to see training camp? You and I were very lucky. You've done You've done the bus. I was at the MMQB post bus, so I did not get to do the bus. But you've been to probably I don't know, would you say all of the have you been to all? All? Three? Now pretty close? I don't know. The West Coast kind of gets a little. I never did the West Coast Swing, but most maybe half or so. Yeah, we did the big Jenny Ni's last training camp tour. We did a big East Coast swing, which is fly into Jacksonville one way, rent a car, and then drive our way home. And uh we pinged like Atlanta, Jacksonville, Carolina. Um where else do we go? Baltimore, there's one of missing. We went to um, West Virginia for Texans. But of course now all the teams are home this year, so I'm gonna miss the Greenbrier, like yeah, yeah, but yeah, I mean we were just discussing before we started taping where would be a good place to be socially distanced while watching practice, and so we were kind of racking our brains through the sites that we visited, and some jump out as being really not conducive to socially distance practice watching. One is the team that we both covered as beat reporters. That the Giants facility I just think would be very difficult because it's very tight quarters. Of course, it makes sense it's in a metropolitan area, but there's just like there's just fences and it's your sandwiched in. There aren't a lot of places to go, even when there aren't restrictions, So I just can't imaginin at that there would be a lot of ability to spread out while watching practice there. I have these like recurring nightmares of especially covering Giants and Jets training camp, which is that the team always seemed both teams always seemed to like enjoy the fact that they put the fans right on top of us. And I'm not saying that we're more important than the fans, I'm not saying that at all, but like immediately put us in conflict with every single person that was standing right behind you, and so you would always stand up to like take note of something or check to see if someone was there, to check attendants at the beginning to practice. I can't see. I've been standing in line for six hours to watch, you know, and you just turn around and it's just this massive, sweaty humanity all just stuck together, elbow to elbow, and you're like man and in these times an absolutely horrifying vision, right right. Yeah, For those who don't know, the Giants practice facilities kind of like this little island in the middle of the parking lot for MetLife Stadium, So there just is and a lot of give in certain places to stand. But I was thinking that the Falcons facility, since it's about an hour outside Atlanta and a suburban area and they've got this vast expanse where they even have dormitories back there, and there's that really big hillside. So I was thinking, if you are like socially distanced, you could stand on different places in the hillside, and since there's a little bit of elevation there, you could still have a pretty decent view. Uh. That hill side I think is normally for fans, but if there weren't weren't fans at camp, then you know, reporters could go there. And the other one that stood out immediately was I guess the Steelers since they um, since they can't go away as they normally do, um, they will be at Heinz Field. And that struck me as being a pretty Yeah, a stadium situation would be great because you could just go anywhere and watch and not be close to other other people. I like that idea. Now, would you, um, would you want to sit with with other people? Or if you have the entire stadium to choose from, would you be like, um, um, what's the guy you know, like a little kid when he's got his own movie theater and you'd want to sit somewhere like exotic, you know. I mean, I think it would depend who the options were, Like, I'd love to sit about ten feet away from you, Connor, but maybe there's others I wouldn't want it more than well no, you know, just like an extra extra buffer. And I didn't mean to, like, I mean, I just thought that was the closest that I would really want anyone. Um, But but you know, maybe there's other people you wouldn't mind being on the opposite side of the stadium from. But that seems like a pretty ideal set up because also the stadium locker rooms are bigger for the player safety. Like, That's what I've just been wondering too, is like some of these facilities, you know, the locker rooms are really tight quarters, and so they're going to have to build out some other areas for players to change anyway, And I know, as media or not allowed in the locker room. I'm just thinking about if you're utilizing a place. It seems like the teams that are at a stadium, you know, I guess the Patriots their facilities at their stadium, and same with the Bengals. So I guess anyone where you're at the stadium, whether or not you're using the stadium field would be a would be a better situation for the team. Yeah, before we started taping, we're talking about Watford, and I just remember, you know, in Carolina, like that felt like you were in the middle of a cast iron skillet covering practice, you know, and while they did have the vast hillside, it was not as spread out as the one in Atlanta right where it would almost feel like, you know, you could just picture like a tidal wave of Corona waving rolling downhill on that one. But they're not. They're done with Wafford, right so they're not They're not going there anymore. I guess everyone has to be at their home site this year where there's a little bit more control. So but yes, I mean you just can imagine, like it's not this is not based on science, but just wouldn't it feel like the coronavirus would just kind of hang and get stuck in the air more easily a place like Wafford. Yeah, again, based on zero science, it just feels like that would be the case. Yeah, you know, I think it's just one of those things where we all need to accept the fact that and and this is where I would challenge teams a little bit because I think there are are part of you know, every public relations director in the NFL that is probably giddy about this, not because of you know, what's going on with the world and obviously people being you know, sick and unhealthy and all that kind of stuff, but the fact that there's gonna be so much less stress on them to wrangle player interviews. You know, they whether they're going to do it virtually or just you know, a few these easily manageable large group settings. I mean, you know that is the give from us um you know, we're you know, we're relinquishing access for the betterment of safety this year. But I think that the return for us and for fans would be to make your training camp practice is a little bit more acceptable, are accessible and a little bit more open, like you know, maybe you have somebody perched up there on the ALL twenty two and your broadcasting practice, you know, and and let people watch it on a on a closed circuit or something like that where you know, there's still can be a closeness and an identity with the team. You know, don't do it, don't put it behind a paywall to try to drive subscriptions or something like that. But just you know, I'm sure there's a Steelers fan who has had a rough couple of months and just wants to watch Steelers practice, you know, get him a good view of Steelers practice. Let them watch the whole thing, like the reporters are allowed to watch the whole thing. I'm fine with that as long as there's sort of a give back, because from a team access perspective, uh, anything can be done now in the name of safety, including restricting you know, access to the players. So right are on understanding of the rules is that there will be a Tier two m for ten media members who will be allowed to attend practice in a socially distanced manner with masks and interview the coach afterward in person, but no in person player interviews, and then the rest of the media will be in a Tier three, which means no interview access UM. And so I think, just trying to think about I mean, at ten is a small number of people, um to have to like find a spot for them to watch practice, but it's definitely going to be an interesting situation, and I do think there will be a push from coaches to have as little UM recorded or as little reported on as possible. I've heard it likened a little bit too during the lockout, where they said, well, we didn't have the off season to work on things like installs, etcetera. And you know, in the off season only a handful of the O t A practices would be open, so they feel like they haven't had the chance to get in that work, and so I think in their minds, this is a chance to kind of limit what reporters can report on from the sessions that are open, assuming they're also closed, and then UM close to fans and then uh, basically saying we need this extra time to prepare for the season. So I think there is going to be an interesting push pull Connor. Yeah, and you know, let's always remember. Let's also remember I mean, you know, we are what we're taping this on the thirteenth, which means we're realistically what two weeks out from the opening of training camp. Um our Emma Baccarelli tweeting tweeted yesterday, let's check in on some baseball news from USA Today's website. Here the top five headlines rolled as Chapman test positive for coronavirus, Cam Gallagher test positive for coronavirus, Michael Kopitch out for the season, Buster Posey opts out because of coronavirus. Russell Westbrook just tested positive for coronavirus. We got a long way to go, you know, and no matter how safe, for how normal any of this feels, I mean, you know, it's just, uh, I feel like we're we're heading towards a situation where, uh, if we're not creative, if we're not careful, you know, we're going to be in the same situation that baseball, basketball, you know, golf, just the limited fans for the rest of the season. Um, the IVY League, the Patriot League canceled sports. There's no high school Texas football this year, you know, and so it's kind of like, you know, where do we fit in all this as the NFL about to unveil this sort of earth shattering plan that is going to make all the rest of the world, the leagues in America think, Man, I wish we thought of that. I doubt it, you know, And so you know, here we are, but I don't know. I think it's one of those things where we're I feel unprepared, just because you know, we're still talking two weeks out, you know, putting out our Great Football Preview issue, our Fantasy Football preview issue, and it's like we we still have no idea what's what's next, really what's next? And you know, I guess our our friends that have been covering baseball and basketball know that's a little bit better than us. But man, I mean, we're we're heading down the pike to some interesting times here, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And just to clarify something I said earlier, there are no fans allowed to camp, but teams can have to fan events at stadium. So I'm not quite sure what that entails, right, if that means like a fan practice where you could allow people in with strict protocols. So that's why I was kind of allowing for some wiggle room there. Um, I don't know all of the details as it pertains to that, but there are still, as Connor you said, a lot of questions unanswered. So we have the protocols uncleared exactly for what the season will be. We have a Washington team that is being renamed, but hasn't been renamed yet. So it doesn't really feel like we're two weeks away from when training camps are allegedly supposed to open. Connor, it feels like there's a lot more up in the air maybe than uh we're acknowledging. I know, this time two years ago, we're putting the finishing touches on the training camp tour. We were renting the car, booking the flights down to Jacksonville, Um, looking up a lovely seaside restaurant to have tacos and burritos on our first night of camp. And and here we are. Now. How how the times have changed? Yeah, a lot has changed. You know, we're moving in interesting directions on a lot of different fronts, but um, like we said earlier, you know it's at least there's progress in some areas like the team name, but uh fair to fair to put it in context and have a little further discussion. So from so we'll be back later this week on Thursday, and in the meantime hit us at week Side pot at gmail dot com. It's been a little quiet and there the last couple of weeks, and I do know that we have a couple emails that we have to respond to, so we will get back to some of you folks, but continue to write in so we can have another mail back episode coming up soon and in the meantime, we will see you on Thursday. The mm QB week Side Podcast is me, Jenny Brentis and Connor Or. We are produced by Shelby Royson s As. Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody. Ben Eagle is Director of Editorial Projects and product Mark Murray Vick is emeritus executive Director of the mm QB. Keep up with our entire lineup of podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify radio dot com, stitcher side dot com, or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the week Side Podcast. I'm Jenny Brentis and I'm here with Connor Or. We have yet another Monday with news in the NFL. This news was expected since the Washington NFL team announced ten days ago that it would be undergoing a thorough review of its team name. Today Monday, they announced that while the review is not over, at the conclusion of the review, they will be retiring the Redskins name and logo and will announce a new one at a point in the future. Uh. They have said that they hope that the new name and design will enhance the standing of our proud, tradition, rich franchise and inspire our sponsors, fans, and community for the next one years. So um, a little bit of a strange release, Connor. First of all, the fact that they are announcing that there is a name change before the review is complete raises a lot of questions. What more is there to review? They could just say their review is complete and we will announce the name later. But clearly the the pressure from sponsors, corporate partners, minority owners continued to ramp up and they needed to say something, so this was their response. Also it's notable that they continue to use the mascot and team name that they are changing, and mentioned sponsors before fans and community at every turn. So a lot to unpack here and really gets to the crux of the situation right now, which is nothing has changed. Native Americans have been calling for a team name. Again, it's a complex issue. Not every Native American feels the same way, but there have been uh there's been a groundswell of voices, of strong voices of activists, tribal leaders, you know, social workers, people who work in schools who have spoken out against the team name, and their voices have been ignored for decades. The first trademark suit against the Washington Redskins trademarks was in the nineties, before Snyder even bought the team, and so these calls are not new. But what has changed is now the sponsors are being pressured on their own with the Black Lives Matter movement and this racial reckoning we're seeing in America. Suddenly and belatedly, being racist is bad for business, and so now we see corporations and companies acting and they are the ones that ultimately forced Snyder to make this decision. I think that the entire release was a troll. I really do, because I think that if you were a public relations professional UM trying to help put this fire out, you would certainly not put sponsors before the Native American community or the fans in the order by which the people you're trying to pacify. You would not continue to use the name in the logo. UM, you would not do any of these things. But I feel like this is Daniel Snyder's way of saying, I'm doing what you're telling me to do, but not because I want to, you know what I mean. You know that he has notoriously had his hands in all aspects of of the pots in Washington, and this smacks of, yeah, I'm gonna rewrite this to make it look like, you know, I'm unhappy about it, and you know clearly is or else he would have changed it years ago. But the entire thing just looks ridiculous. It was tweeted from the account their official Twitter account is at the word that they're trying to change it. It's like, you know, whatever, this whole thing is just farcical. But I thought that you had a great column in the mm QB today that really got to the heart of this, which is that right. It's not about doing the right thing, it's about doing it for money. And I think that this is a pretty naked um another naked example from from Snyder, and I thought you you put that really well. Yet the right decision for the wrong reasons, And I think that's what we were trying to get at a couple of weeks ago when we were discussing this, or a couple of days ago, I guess on the pod that we were discussing this. It It feels icky because there's this uh long history of the team not even being willing to listen to Native Americans who wanted the name change, to not even be willing to consider that perspective, and so for them to suddenly say we're changing the name is a good outcome, but there's no effort, as you said, Connor, there's no effort in this release to say we've heard, we listened, we were wrong not to listen, or you know, we are going to do X, Y and Z in the future. I mean, they created a foundation that was supposed to give to Native American communities. That foundation petered out once the trademark challenge court battle was dismissed. In the team's favor. They seemed to abandon their push to reach out to Native American communities around the same time. They spent eight hundred thousand dollars in lobbying since to change the name. Money that or to excuse me, to keep the name, to prevent efforts to change the name. Money that could have been given to Native American communities or used for any number of other purposes. So it's it's just a long track record of ignoring, ignoring, ignoring, and then finally being pushed to the point of doing the right thing because the bottom line says it, which is what people have expected all along. You know, I thought I talked to Amanda black Horse, who was the lead plaintiff in the latest challenge to the Washington Team's trademarks, which you know, we talked about that kind of being the backdrop of the previous push to change the name. And the way she put it, this was one day before fed X spoke up and two days before the team announced that it was undergoing a thorough review. She said Snyder, she said, he Snyder is kind of like George Preston Marshall, who refused and was eventually forced by law to integrate his team. I think someone's going to have to make him to do it. So she was right as she was in fourteen, and as all of the Native American voices over the last few decades have been. Yeah, and it just leaves you like wondering, you know, Okay, I mean, we're gonna then soon hit a point where, um, we get to all these new options for names, or we hear the name. Apparently they have a name, but there's I think the Sports Business Journal or Sports Business Daily reported that there is a trademark issue that someone has been sitting on a lot of these names, which I think is absolutely hilarious, and there's a battle on, you know, how to get those names back and how to use them for the football franchise. I'm assuming this person just wants a payout of some kind to relinquish the trademark. But you know, we're going to be made to feel happy and excited about this new thing, and you know, really it's just, you know, we've said it before, it's just none of it feels right. But you have to take it with a grain of salt and say, at least something made it happen. You know the fact that there are a bunch of places that are at least forcing the hands of these owners and whatever CEOs. All these things is a positive in itself, right, I mean that is a reflection of grassroots change and energy. And so I think that's the one thing you have to look at and say, that was pretty cool, you know, as as uncool as what Daniel Snyder is doing. At least it's cool that you can you can literally see the chain reaction of events working its way up to kind of the most powerful places in in America, you know. Yeah. And while the voices of Native Americans have been discounted through the years on this issue in particular, as well as many other issues, uh, they had raised awareness of this. There were two long trademark bottles years long, right, And the people who were participating in those battles sacrificed their their life, their feelings of safety, They faced a lot of scrutiny, and they did so to push the issue to the forefront. And while that was not ultimately enough to change the name, it did make it so that when our country had this racial reckoning, that the Washington Team name was front and center, and you had the trademark trial and appeal Board having determined that the name was disparaging to Native Americans. So they had laid the foundation for this to be the push, and so I think their efforts really should be front and center in this conversation. And while it was not the tipping point, they were the ones that were fighting this fight for years with no payoff, and so I hope they feel some sense of gratification that they got the outcome they wanted, even if it came in a way that was ikey. You know, when there was this push too against the trademarks, if Snyder had changed it, then he could have written a different story. You know, he had an opportunity then to say, hey, I've listened, I'm wrong, I'm changing the name now. But he chose not to do it then, and so now we have to be accurate with how we represent this. He's being forced to do this now, and he shouldn't get credit for doing the right thing when being forced to do it, Like, I'm glad that this is the outcome, but we have to represent it correctly and saying that it was done for the wrong reasons. Yeah, and in the coming days and weeks, you know, here's hoping you know, our our world is so entirely polarized right now. And I keep telling you know myself, and you know, I've talked to um some people who lived through the you know, as kind of sentient adults, lived through the fifties, sixties, seventies, you know, And and while I'm not comparing the two time periods, it's like maybe we all realized that, like, yes, I mean, there are these like real periods of intensity and change, and you know, everybody digs in and takes aside, and then you know, maybe five or ten years from now, once the storm clouds kind of clear, you say, Okay, I get it. I get why this name needs to be changed. And I think the focusing now on why certain people aren't upset about it, or why certain people don't care is is ultimately fruitless, right I mean, you know, people are either digging in for political purposes or because you know, they have a belief that is just you know, not square with where we're at as a society right now. And so you know, you just you you look forward to the future when we can have a real conversation about it, but right now it's sort of the whole thing is going to feel like, you know, digging up a plant by its roots, you know, and the plant just doesn't want to come out of the ground. That's a good analogy, Connor. I've been, I've been. I've been. I've been digging out a lot of trees at my house, and dead trees. I'm not taking out, you know, I'm not taking out live trees. And you find that the roots were pretty deep, very deep. Yeah, and so the tree still died. Yes, Okay, so there's like some kind of meeting in there perhaps maybe. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I didn't really think about that before I said it. That's super deep though. Yeah, well, like the roots. Lots lots of discuss here on the On the Week's Side podcast this morning, Connor. Before we get to our second our second topic, can I can I just tell you that over the weekend, we we got really excited. On Friday. We were going to say, we were going to say, this is a two year old daughter, it's gonna be your first movie night ever. She's gonna watch her first movie. And so we caved and we ordered Disney Plus and we got take out, and we got everybody comfortable on the couch and then Disney Plus doesn't work on my TV, which is like my TV was and you need a TV that has made or later and then write new information because neither of my TVs was made after and I believe one of them was made in like whoa, yeah, so yeah, not gonna get Disney Plus. And then okay uh um. So we were like, okay, we'll put it in the laptop and then we'll connect it via Hdmi cable to the TV. Disney Plus somehow knows that's going on and they and they shut that down too, They say, no, no, I can't do that. Got to buy a Roku firestick, uh some other one of these hundred dollar things in order to make the hundred dollar a year subscription service work. My goodness. So you know, it's just a very polar opposite version of a mega corporation just sticking it to the people, just to say, okay, right right, you're you're relating it back to the corporate corporate pressure there but nothing to do with football all. But as we transition topics, I would just like to say that you know, you know, wake up people, you know you gotta you gotta take care of the little guy. You know, you know, we wanted to watch The Little Mermaid and instead, uh Eb's first movie was The Secret Life of Pets, so it was on Netflix. It was a good movie. Yeah, it was a good movie. A lot of laughs. So Little Mermaids not on Netflix. Okay, another example here because they yanked it all, you know, they yanked all the intellectual property out, so now you can't you can't access the movies or anything like that. I was over the weekend, was at my in law's house, and they still have all the big old cassette tapes, which apparently are worth a lot of money right now, Like you can sell them on eBay for like eighty or ninety bucks a tape. Oh interesting, Fantasia Thumbelina. Yeah, at home, we probably have a Little Mermaid. I mean, we definitely have a Little Mermaid and one of those like puffey containers. Yeah, white, Yeah, we definitely for sure. Yeah. I don't know, but I just thought you'd like to know that I did not get to see Hamilton's. Then I still haven't seen it. Have you seen Hamilton's? I have not. No, So we're out on Hamilton's. You know, what are you gonna do about it? Um? So the other thing that we wanted to get into, which I thought was interesting this week, was you know, where would be a good place to see training camp? You and I were very lucky. You've done You've done the bus. I was at the MMQB post bus, so I did not get to do the bus. But you've been to probably I don't know, would you say all of the have you been to all? All? Three? Now pretty close? I don't know. The West Coast kind of gets a little. I never did the West Coast Swing, but most maybe half or so. Yeah, we did the big Jenny Ni's last training camp tour. We did a big East Coast swing, which is fly into Jacksonville one way, rent a car, and then drive our way home. And uh we pinged like Atlanta, Jacksonville, Carolina. Um where else do we go? Baltimore, there's one of missing. We went to um, West Virginia for Texans. But of course now all the teams are home this year, so I'm gonna miss the Greenbrier, like yeah, yeah, but yeah, I mean we were just discussing before we started taping where would be a good place to be socially distanced while watching practice, and so we were kind of racking our brains through the sites that we visited, and some jump out as being really not conducive to socially distance practice watching. One is the team that we both covered as beat reporters. That the Giants facility I just think would be very difficult because it's very tight quarters. Of course, it makes sense it's in a metropolitan area, but there's just like there's just fences and it's your sandwiched in. There aren't a lot of places to go, even when there aren't restrictions, So I just can't imaginin at that there would be a lot of ability to spread out while watching practice there. I have these like recurring nightmares of especially covering Giants and Jets training camp, which is that the team always seemed both teams always seemed to like enjoy the fact that they put the fans right on top of us. And I'm not saying that we're more important than the fans, I'm not saying that at all, but like immediately put us in conflict with every single person that was standing right behind you, and so you would always stand up to like take note of something or check to see if someone was there, to check attendants at the beginning to practice. I can't see. I've been standing in line for six hours to watch, you know, and you just turn around and it's just this massive, sweaty humanity all just stuck together, elbow to elbow, and you're like man and in these times an absolutely horrifying vision, right right. Yeah, For those who don't know, the Giants practice facilities kind of like this little island in the middle of the parking lot for MetLife Stadium, So there just is and a lot of give in certain places to stand. But I was thinking that the Falcons facility, since it's about an hour outside Atlanta and a suburban area and they've got this vast expanse where they even have dormitories back there, and there's that really big hillside. So I was thinking, if you are like socially distanced, you could stand on different places in the hillside, and since there's a little bit of elevation there, you could still have a pretty decent view. Uh. That hill side I think is normally for fans, but if there weren't weren't fans at camp, then you know, reporters could go there. And the other one that stood out immediately was I guess the Steelers since they um, since they can't go away as they normally do, um, they will be at Heinz Field. And that struck me as being a pretty Yeah, a stadium situation would be great because you could just go anywhere and watch and not be close to other other people. I like that idea. Now, would you, um, would you want to sit with with other people? Or if you have the entire stadium to choose from, would you be like, um, um, what's the guy you know, like a little kid when he's got his own movie theater and you'd want to sit somewhere like exotic, you know. I mean, I think it would depend who the options were, Like, I'd love to sit about ten feet away from you, Connor, but maybe there's others I wouldn't want it more than well no, you know, just like an extra extra buffer. And I didn't mean to, like, I mean, I just thought that was the closest that I would really want anyone. Um, But but you know, maybe there's other people you wouldn't mind being on the opposite side of the stadium from. But that seems like a pretty ideal set up because also the stadium locker rooms are bigger for the player safety. Like, That's what I've just been wondering too, is like some of these facilities, you know, the locker rooms are really tight quarters, and so they're going to have to build out some other areas for players to change anyway, And I know, as media or not allowed in the locker room. I'm just thinking about if you're utilizing a place. It seems like the teams that are at a stadium, you know, I guess the Patriots their facilities at their stadium, and same with the Bengals. So I guess anyone where you're at the stadium, whether or not you're using the stadium field would be a would be a better situation for the team. Yeah, before we started taping, we're talking about Watford, and I just remember, you know, in Carolina, like that felt like you were in the middle of a cast iron skillet covering practice, you know, and while they did have the vast hillside, it was not as spread out as the one in Atlanta right where it would almost feel like, you know, you could just picture like a tidal wave of Corona waving rolling downhill on that one. But they're not. They're done with Wafford, right so they're not They're not going there anymore. I guess everyone has to be at their home site this year where there's a little bit more control. So but yes, I mean you just can imagine, like it's not this is not based on science, but just wouldn't it feel like the coronavirus would just kind of hang and get stuck in the air more easily a place like Wafford. Yeah, again, based on zero science, it just feels like that would be the case. Yeah, you know, I think it's just one of those things where we all need to accept the fact that and and this is where I would challenge teams a little bit because I think there are are part of you know, every public relations director in the NFL that is probably giddy about this, not because of you know, what's going on with the world and obviously people being you know, sick and unhealthy and all that kind of stuff, but the fact that there's gonna be so much less stress on them to wrangle player interviews. You know, they whether they're going to do it virtually or just you know, a few these easily manageable large group settings. I mean, you know that is the give from us um you know, we're you know, we're relinquishing access for the betterment of safety this year. But I think that the return for us and for fans would be to make your training camp practice is a little bit more acceptable, are accessible and a little bit more open, like you know, maybe you have somebody perched up there on the ALL twenty two and your broadcasting practice, you know, and and let people watch it on a on a closed circuit or something like that where you know, there's still can be a closeness and an identity with the team. You know, don't do it, don't put it behind a paywall to try to drive subscriptions or something like that. But just you know, I'm sure there's a Steelers fan who has had a rough couple of months and just wants to watch Steelers practice, you know, get him a good view of Steelers practice. Let them watch the whole thing, like the reporters are allowed to watch the whole thing. I'm fine with that as long as there's sort of a give back, because from a team access perspective, uh, anything can be done now in the name of safety, including restricting you know, access to the players. So right are on understanding of the rules is that there will be a Tier two m for ten media members who will be allowed to attend practice in a socially distanced manner with masks and interview the coach afterward in person, but no in person player interviews, and then the rest of the media will be in a Tier three, which means no interview access UM. And so I think, just trying to think about I mean, at ten is a small number of people, um to have to like find a spot for them to watch practice, but it's definitely going to be an interesting situation, and I do think there will be a push from coaches to have as little UM recorded or as little reported on as possible. I've heard it likened a little bit too during the lockout, where they said, well, we didn't have the off season to work on things like installs, etcetera. And you know, in the off season only a handful of the O t A practices would be open, so they feel like they haven't had the chance to get in that work, and so I think in their minds, this is a chance to kind of limit what reporters can report on from the sessions that are open, assuming they're also closed, and then UM close to fans and then uh, basically saying we need this extra time to prepare for the season. So I think there is going to be an interesting push pull Connor. Yeah, and you know, let's always remember. Let's also remember I mean, you know, we are what we're taping this on the thirteenth, which means we're realistically what two weeks out from the opening of training camp. Um our Emma Baccarelli tweeting tweeted yesterday, let's check in on some baseball news from USA Today's website. Here the top five headlines rolled as Chapman test positive for coronavirus, Cam Gallagher test positive for coronavirus, Michael Kopitch out for the season, Buster Posey opts out because of coronavirus. Russell Westbrook just tested positive for coronavirus. We got a long way to go, you know, and no matter how safe, for how normal any of this feels, I mean, you know, it's just, uh, I feel like we're we're heading towards a situation where, uh, if we're not creative, if we're not careful, you know, we're going to be in the same situation that baseball, basketball, you know, golf, just the limited fans for the rest of the season. Um, the IVY League, the Patriot League canceled sports. There's no high school Texas football this year, you know, and so it's kind of like, you know, where do we fit in all this as the NFL about to unveil this sort of earth shattering plan that is going to make all the rest of the world, the leagues in America think, Man, I wish we thought of that. I doubt it, you know, And so you know, here we are, but I don't know. I think it's one of those things where we're I feel unprepared, just because you know, we're still talking two weeks out, you know, putting out our Great Football Preview issue, our Fantasy Football preview issue, and it's like we we still have no idea what's what's next, really what's next? And you know, I guess our our friends that have been covering baseball and basketball know that's a little bit better than us. But man, I mean, we're we're heading down the pike to some interesting times here, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And just to clarify something I said earlier, there are no fans allowed to camp, but teams can have to fan events at stadium. So I'm not quite sure what that entails, right, if that means like a fan practice where you could allow people in with strict protocols. So that's why I was kind of allowing for some wiggle room there. Um, I don't know all of the details as it pertains to that, but there are still, as Connor you said, a lot of questions unanswered. So we have the protocols uncleared exactly for what the season will be. We have a Washington team that is being renamed, but hasn't been renamed yet. So it doesn't really feel like we're two weeks away from when training camps are allegedly supposed to open. Connor, it feels like there's a lot more up in the air maybe than uh we're acknowledging. I know, this time two years ago, we're putting the finishing touches on the training camp tour. We were renting the car, booking the flights down to Jacksonville, Um, looking up a lovely seaside restaurant to have tacos and burritos on our first night of camp. And and here we are. Now. How how the times have changed? Yeah, a lot has changed. You know, we're moving in interesting directions on a lot of different fronts, but um, like we said earlier, you know it's at least there's progress in some areas like the team name, but uh fair to fair to put it in context and have a little further discussion. So from so we'll be back later this week on Thursday, and in the meantime hit us at week Side pot at gmail dot com. It's been a little quiet and there the last couple of weeks, and I do know that we have a couple emails that we have to respond to, so we will get back to some of you folks, but continue to write in so we can have another mail back episode coming up soon and in the meantime, we will see you on Thursday. The mm QB week Side Podcast is me, Jenny Brentis and Connor Or. We are produced by Shelby Royson s As. Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody. Ben Eagle is Director of Editorial Projects and product Mark Murray Vick is emeritus executive Director of the mm QB. Keep up with our entire lineup of podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify radio dot com, stitcher side dot com, or wherever else you listen to podcasts.