Washington legend & 3x Super Bowl Champion Charles Mann joins G&D to discuss this new era in DC and talk about the NFC Championship.
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00:00Let's go to the Rood Guest Hotline. Rood, the most reliable heating and air conditioning products
00:05in the DMV, and it's always an honor when we get to talk to one of the best players
00:09in team history, and that's certainly what we're doing now. A three-time Super Bowl champion,
00:14a multi-time All-Pro, and a four-time Pro Bowler, one of the 80 greatest Redskins ever,
00:20Mr. Charles Mann is on. Grant and Danny on the fan. Charles, welcome back on the show.
00:26How are you? Good. Thanks for having me. Our pleasure. How are you guys doing? Great. This
00:33has been an unbelievable run. We cannot believe this team has done this. What do you make of
00:37this? This is just wildness. I have been super negative over the years. I've been in the community
00:47since I retired in 1995. It hasn't been good. This year, I came out just like I always do.
00:58People ask me when I'm at the gym or going around town, hey, what do you think? I don't think much.
01:05Then I went to the first game, and then I went to the Dallas game at home. There were some bright
01:15signs, but what's happened in the last five or six weeks is remarkable. First of all,
01:22Jayden Daniels is superhuman. As a rookie, I remember when I was a rookie, I would have been
01:30impede on myself in all the moments that he's had that he just looked calm, cool, and collected.
01:38It's baffling, but I'm loving it. Charles, does he remind you of any of your teammates
01:43in that way where there's no moment too big? Nothing? No, there's nobody. This kid,
01:51it's like he doesn't have a pulse. I know he's alive. I've seen him smile one time.
01:57I know he cares, but he just is a freak of nature. We may be watching the next Michael Jordan or
02:09or LeBron James or Tiger Woods or Serena Williams. This is crazy. It is really fantastic to watch,
02:19and he's on our team, and we don't have to go through. What did we have? 36 quarterbacks over
02:26the last 30 years, something like that. We can finally send the helicopters home.
02:31The search is over. We found the QB. It looks like Charles Mann is with us. It's funny because,
02:38I think we're all impressed whether you played or you didn't play with his demeanor,
02:42but when we bring people on who were great players, that's kind of where they start,
02:46which is telling to me. There is something about just his poise and calm. We had your former head
02:53coach Joe Gibbs on yesterday, and he talked about he was just cracking up. He's like,
02:57I've never seen the kid emote. I don't know if he has emotions. It does seem like that is what
03:03everybody locks in on for good reason. Yeah, and let me say this. There have been nine
03:10interceptions. I don't think he threw all nine of those, but there have been nine interceptions
03:15and over 390 yards for the season. How do you throw that many passes? That's 525 attempts
03:35and only have nine interceptions. I think Mark Ripken, even Doug, didn't play the whole season,
03:42but Mark Ripken was sacked nine times our last Super Bowl year, but I'm trying to remember how
03:51many interceptions he had. His numbers, he is the best quarterback left out there. Out of the four
03:59teams playing this weekend, he's got the best stats. Yeah, Mark Ripken, by the way, for reference,
04:05Charles, 11 interceptions in that 91 season, just to show you how different everything was. Charles
04:10with us here on GND. What about this team as well, Charles, because the Jane Daniel story is
04:16transcendent. It's there. It's obviously jumps off the page, but this is a group that I don't
04:21know that if you had a league average quarterback would be a double digit team winner or double
04:25digit winner, but here they are in the NFC title game. That's the most remarkable part to me is
04:31that everybody's playing great. Somehow we're all pulling the rope in the same direction.
04:34What do you make of that? Yeah, so the next person that jumps off the map is Dan Quinn.
04:42I mean, he really does. I attribute, y'all had my coach on there yesterday. He was amazing,
04:51Joe Gibbs was, and he takes a lot of the credit for what we did, even though he didn't ever step
04:57on the field and make one play or tackle or catch or throw, but Dan Quinn has got these guys
05:04believing in each other, and that takes a long time. It's built over training practice and in
05:15the locker room and week in and week out, night in and night out, game in and game out. I remember
05:24Norv Turner when he was here, one of the several coaches we had come through here,
05:30and Norv would be calling out players. I don't remember Dan Quinn calling out any player
05:36negatively. He's fallen on the sword himself. He's not calling out his players. His speeches
05:47are not the same. I think of Ron Rivera. Ron Rivera was kind of like, just whatever. Hey,
05:54this happened and that happened. No, Dan Quinn is coming at this differently than these other
05:59coaches. His second chance at head coach has really turned out to be just eye-opening because
06:08he's approaching this the right way. He's got these guys believing they can do anything.
06:13Redskins legend Charles Mann is with us on Grant and Danny. It's been probably,
06:20shoot, almost five years now since we had you on. This was around the time of the name change,
06:26maybe it was four years, originally to the Washington football team. I remember being
06:30taken aback that day, and you were so honest with us, but I had no idea that you'd felt that way
06:34where you basically said, and I don't want to paraphrase, but something to the effect of you
06:38felt more appreciated by the 49ers at that time than this organization. I know for a lot of us,
06:43that was heartbreaking to hear because you just meant so much to this organization. I'm curious,
06:49what your relationship has been like if you have one with the new ownership group, and
06:53if they're as classy and decent to you guys as it seems like they've been to all of us.
06:59First of all, they have Magic Johnson, so we could almost stop right there. Magic is a winner.
07:07Magic is just everything that he's touched, he's won at, he's done well with. The fact that they
07:15pick Magic said they're going to go a different path, and they're going to do something different
07:20than Dan Snyder. Then secondarily, there's a process. The number one thing they had to do,
07:32this new ownership is, and I'll answer your question, but the number one thing they had to do
07:36was get a better product on the field. That was number one. Number two, they had to fix the
07:42stadium. There was a mess at the stadium, railings falling, urine coming down out of the stands, and
07:49all kinds of other stuff happening, so they had to do those things. Then number three, and not
07:54necessarily in this order, is they had to win back the players that felt abandoned. Let me just
08:02say this about that. That's not their job to make us feel good. Look, I got my three Super Bowl rings,
08:10and anybody taking those away from me, doggone it. If I just want to remember, I just pull one
08:16out, or if I want to go to YouTube and look at a highlight and say, okay, yeah, we were pretty
08:20doggone good, by the way. No, these guys have, even though they're doing all these things,
08:29there has been an inclusive nature about them. They have invited me a bunch of times to games,
08:37not just me, but my friends. We were at Daryl Green's retirement, Jersey retirement. We were
08:43all there, a bunch of us. A lot of guys I hadn't seen in a long, long time had felt comfortable
08:49with coming back out. It's a process. It's going to take them a minute, but I tell you what, I feel
08:56a lot better about this team and about coming around. I live six minutes away from the facility,
09:04and one day out of nowhere, out of the blue, this was about three months ago, Doug Williams called
09:10and said, hey, Dan Quinn wants to meet the badasses. I said, huh? He said, Dan Quinn said
09:18he wants to meet the badasses. I said, who are they? He said, you and Dexter. I said, oh, okay.
09:23So the next day I was over at Riskin Park and taking a tour. I hadn't been in there. That was
09:30the place I worked, but we took a tour at some of the new stuff in there and the cafeteria with a
09:37chef. That was a racquetball court. Now it's a cafeteria with a chef. We met the chef. We
09:45ate lunch and then Dan Quinn and Adam Peters and Josh Harris and everybody came over there to us,
09:51and it really felt good. I felt wanted and they were respectful. I didn't need any of that. They
10:00didn't owe me any of that, but it was nice. I think that's the key, Charles. I'd love you to
10:06speak to it because I got the sense over the years, obviously I'm not in your position,
10:10I'm not an alum, didn't play for the team or anything, but they would try to trot out the
10:14legends whenever they needed some good PR or they needed something from you guys. I imagine that
10:18probably wore thin. This is just trying to put some deposits in the friendship bank, I think.
10:24Yeah. No, it doesn't feel like modern day slavery. No. That's what it felt like under Dan Snyder.
10:33These guys aren't trying to make a buck off of us. They just want us to feel welcomed.
10:40And you can start, you feel that. But it's going to take some time. I haven't seen John
10:48Riggins out there. There's other players, Ernest Biner, I haven't seen out there.
10:55Mark May, I haven't seen. So there's some guys, and I don't come around that often.
11:01What happens is we get in patterns in our life. And I'm in a pattern right now. I'm an entrepreneur.
11:08I own my own business and I'm doing what I do. And now that the commanders are asking me to come
11:16around, I've got to do a new groove now. I got to cut a new path because I've just taken the
11:24commanders out of that path. And now I've got to make room again, which it's easy to do. And I love
11:29doing it. But and I tell you this, I don't have Super Bowl tickets. People have been asking me,
11:38but certainly if they win on Sunday, I'm going to the Super Bowl. If I got to just stand outside
11:43the stadium or something, I'm going to that dog on Super Bowl. Oh, wow. That's cool to hear.
11:47Charles Mann is with us on Grant and Danny. I want to go back, if you don't mind, to January 12th,
11:5392. And the last championship game you guys played, you had a sack in that game of Eric
12:00Kramer. You guys dominated the Lions 41 10. Just any memories you have before kickoff or during
12:06the game, obviously. Oh, my God. Yes. Well, number one, every time my wife was pregnant
12:12with a child, we won a Super Bowl and I have three children. So that point first.
12:18So in 1991, my son was born and that season spilled over into 1992 as we played in the playoffs.
12:28Well, I was going against, so the night before the game, and first of all, I couldn't believe
12:34it, but all week long I was watching the Detroit Lions roster and their roster had a guy named
12:40Conover and he was a rookie and he was starting at right tackle, which I would have been going
12:46up against. And I was just waiting for them to put a new guy in there, a veteran in there.
12:53And, uh, and so I walked out on the field, uh, the day of the game and I stood there and watched
13:00as they warmed up on the other side of the field. And I saw Conover and the starting lineup. And I
13:07said, Oh my God. So I dreamed that night about what I was going to do to that young kid. I was
13:13a 10 year vet and I was going up against a rookie. And I said, there's no way a rookie is going to
13:18hang with me. I'm sorry. I don't care if he's the Heisman trophy winner or whatever. He's a rookie.
13:24And, and so I had dreamed up overnight that I was going to blast off into this guy,
13:31no matter what the first play of the game, whether it was a run, pass, draw, whatever it was,
13:37I didn't care what the, I wasn't going to read any keys. I was just going to blast into his chest as
13:42hard as I could and, and let what happened happen. And so here's the, here's where we're
13:48the first ones on the field. It was defense. I got to start first, which I loved and I lined up
13:55and Conover was right there and I didn't care what the signal or whatever we were doing on defense.
14:02I blasted in this guy's chest, knocked him. He kind of just gave and turned and I grabbed the
14:10quarterback's arm and he fumbled at the ball and Fred Stokes picked it up and boom, within seconds,
14:17you know, we had a touchdown, uh, Mark Rippon had to go about 10 or 11 yards and, and we were
14:22off to the races. That was that first play. It was the first play of the game. I had already
14:29dreamed that play. So that's amazing. Charles, like having now heard from you about it. I wish
14:35you had like nine or 10 kids. That would have been really cool. We'd have had a lot more trophies.
14:40You know, the mailman would have to be the guy because I'm done. Well, you great. You sleep on
14:47this, but I threw a tantrum in the supermarket to make my mom buy us a whole week's worth of
14:53Swanson hungry man dinners. Cause Charles man told me that is a fact. People said more meat,
14:58extra portions, extra good. I remember my line. Oh, it's so good that, but that 91 team just real
15:04quick, Charles, just this is just for me. What did you guys know? Cause there's other Superbowl
15:09years. I think that, I don't want to say there was doubt, but it's like, it was competitive,
15:12right? That 91 team was so unbelievably dominant and excellent. When did you know?
15:19We don't get enough. Can I say something about that? I'll talk about, I'll answer that real
15:25quick. And I know we're running out of time. I talk long, sorry. First of all, we shut out
15:31three teams that year, three teams, our defense shut out. That means goose egg, zero, nothing,
15:38not a field goal, nothing. Three teams that year that hasn't been done since
15:47they haven't gotten one shutout since. How do you do that? And nobody on our defense,
15:53except Darrell green is a hall of Famer. How does that happen?
15:59That's great.
15:59Preaching to the choir, including the Philadelphia Eagles.
16:02I'm just, so, okay. So first of all, the turnover ratio, that's how we won this weekend. That's how
16:09all the teams won this weekend. One had five turnovers and of course there were, that was
16:14our game and we were going to win with five turnovers. You win the turnover battle. There
16:18was, we were plus five, uh, the next game, the next day they were plus three. You're going to win.
16:25Um, we went, we won the turnover battle in every single game we played. We turned the ball over
16:33to our offense, gave them a short field and easy touchdown to make. And that's the difference. I
16:39think our plus our turnover ratio after the 91 season was plus 45 plus 45. That's how you win.
16:48You win with great defense. And, uh, but right now these guys are doing it a different way.
16:55The defense is making enough plays to be dangerous. Uh, Saquon Barkley ain't gonna run for
17:02255 yards. He may get 155 yards, but he ain't gonna run for two. Um, and what we're going to,
17:08and how we're going to stop them. How do, how do, how can I make that comment? We're going to have
17:13the ball longer. If we win the time of possession, we're going to win the game. And how are we going
17:19to win the time of possession? We're going to methodically go down the field. Every time we get
17:24the ball, we're not going to punt the ball. We're going to go for it on fourth down. They are too,
17:29but we're going to stuff them somehow that push push ain't going to work. Or when they're not
17:34going to get them in a fourth and inches, it's going to be fourth and five or six and they won't
17:39be able to do the tush push. But that's what I'm believing. I'm a believer now, man, this is,
17:45this is serious. Yeah, it's getting real. Let me last question, less, uh, comment.
17:51What if we play the Buffalo pills? That will be a remake of the last risk in Superbowl symmetry.
17:57That's what a lot of us are pulling for, for that reason. That's why I want to be there.
18:02That's why I want to be there. Relive some of those memories. By the way,
18:06you guys didn't even play a close playoff game at 91. They aren't supposed to be close
18:14fans to worry about. We don't want you guys having a conniption.
18:17So relaxed. So y'all can relax. I mean, 24, seven, 41, 10, and then 37,
18:2224, 14, two turnover margin in the playoffs. Is that good? But that's why, and I don't know,
18:29Charles, you know, um, from your generation, obviously analytics is now so different and
18:34part of the game in a way that I don't know how much you, you follow or care about it,
18:37but there's all these things I do. So there's all these sites that have the data on every team
18:42that tries to bridge gaps and the 91 Redskins team gets spit out more often than any other is
18:48maybe the greatest team ever. But why don't we, why don't we have more players getting, um,
18:55accolades because of that? Why is that? I've always honestly thought it was the name,
19:01which was unfair and ridiculous. I didn't know. I mean, growing up as a kid, I could never answer
19:06that question. When I was a young kid, my earliest memories of the team are after the Superbowl
19:10itself. But I always thought it was ridiculous that the hogs are not represented guys like
19:15Jacob. No, I mean, defenders like yourself. And I mean, it takes forever for Dexter,
19:20Art Monk or Daryl green or any of these guys to get their accolades.
19:24Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's why I don't understand if we're one of the greatest teams ever
19:29statistically and you know, realistically, how do we not get any do? And we're just not,
19:37and that's frustrating. And the older I get, I'm 63. So the older I get,
19:42the more I think about it, my wife said, just relax. If it's supposed to happen,
19:45it'll happen. If something's going to go down, it'll go down. But, but it's just frustrating
19:51that, you know, my peers, I went to the Pro Bowl with Reggie white and Chris,
19:56and Chris Dolman and, uh, and Richard Dent and, and, uh, you know, I didn't go with Michael,
20:03Michael Strahan cause he was right after me, but I mean, those guys, my stats are right there with
20:09theirs. Why, what happened? You know, what's the deal? Why did, why did I get overlooked?
20:16And Dexter could say the same thing. Um, but you know, and then every time I have a surgery,
20:21I've had 26 surgeries. So every time I have a surgery, my wife is reminded me, you know,
20:27uh, you know, this, that football was brutal to you. I know it was brutal and,
20:32and, you know, be honest, if I could do it all over again, I might not have played.
20:37I might not have played. Why do you say that? I'm just being honest. I've had, I got two new
20:42knees. I got a new hip. I just had my wrist fused. You know, I mean every, you know, I,
20:48I get, uh, body work done. Like I'm going to the dentist and getting my teeth cleaned,
20:53but I feel fantastic now. So I'm almost ready to golf again.
21:00When you're back on the golf course, that's when, you know,
21:03that's how, you know, you're feeling when I know it's been five years. So I'm trying to
21:06get back on the golf course. Who do you think just before we let you go? Um, we're taking too
21:11much of your time, but we apologize. It's fine. Charles Mann, Redskins legend. So this past year,
21:17they retired Daryl Green's Jersey and they're now starting to actually do that, which for a long
21:23time, they didn't just as awkward thing where no one wore the number. And then guys like Joe
21:27Theismann are getting phone calls from people to wear their jerseys. Right? So that's no fun for
21:31anyone. Who do you think should be next? Art Monk. 81? Yep. He quietly did it. Didn't speak for
21:41himself. You had to speak for him, but he just quietly got it done. He made those clutch catches
21:48over the middle with Ronnie Lott and, and safeties that could attack the head and, uh, and, and art
21:55just held onto those balls. He made all those catches. It's a different time with those head
22:00hunters, by the way. Now everybody's getting kicked out and flagged and can't do it, but that's what
22:04that's what anyone was going over the middle Charles. During our era, you could do that.
22:08And so you had to have a big guy and art was six, you know, art six, three, you know, one 95 to 10,
22:15somewhere in that area. Um, and you just, you know, he was the one that endured those Gary Clark
22:22and Ricky Sanders, the fun bunch. They got to run down the field, catching those long bombs
22:27and art had to go over the middle and do the grunt work. And he did it quietly. Didn't make
22:32any complaints, caught all the, all the catches he needed to catch when he needed them when they
22:38needed to be caught. So I was at art monkey played 16 years in NFL. And so he's all a famer. Um,
22:46to me, that makes sense, but I don't, I don't know. I don't, I don't call those,
22:51those shots. So retired the all time leader in catches when he was done.
22:55Well, I hope we see you in new Orleans. How about that? It'd be fun. Amen. Amen. Y'all make sure
23:00you come up to me. I'm going to go down a media row and make sure I got to talk to you guys.
23:06We will track you down. Rest assured. Okay. Thanks, Charles. Thank you, Charles.
23:10All right. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. There's Charles man on Grant and Danny Redskins
23:15legend. Sorry. He's the best. Sorry about that. Everybody. I love him. He is so good. I first met
23:21him when I was 10. He was working at channel nine. He was on their sports. That's right.
23:25And uh, yeah, got him to sign some stuff for my mom for mother's day.
23:28And you're just the coolest. What? Obviously it couldn't be a nicer guy.
23:32You sleep when it was hunting time, when the quarterback would drop back to pass that old
23:36school style where they actually backpedaled, not like the shuffle back now. And Charles man's
23:40coming around the edge. Good heavens. Grant and Danny on the fan.