Final Texans-Cards predictions, Rockets beat Clippers, Astros trade market

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton share their final predictions for Texans-Cardinals, react to the Rockets' win over James Harden and the Clippers, and examine the latest Astros trade rumors.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Friday edition of the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety
In an hour from now, we will be on Space
City Home Network as well.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome into the program.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Got a lot to get to today as we get
to get you into yet another busy weekend for not
only your Texans, but for the teams in the AFC
surrounding them, as the jockeying will continue, hopefully by the
way wex by the time we come in here on Monday,
the Kansas City Chiefs will officially be eliminated. The Texans

(00:30):
will have won the first of two straight very winnable games,
and you know it'll be a little bit less muddy
as far as what's going on in the playoff picture
in both conferences.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
How do you feel about that scenario? Well, you know me, Hey, listeners,
you know me. You're gonna push back. Yeah, Why do
you want the Chiefs to be eliminated? Because everybody does
America does well. Why do you want them to be
eliminated this week? Because let's get it over with. Man,
who are they playing? I don't know the Chargers. Oh
we got a roof for the Chiefs. Now you don't
have to. But it's also not the end of the world.
If the bad under five hundred currently Chiefs make the playoffs,

(01:07):
I mean yeah, I mean that are behind them. That
what if they upset somebody else, then they have to
come through Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So now they've upset somebody, and now now they're not
in your way, this team that they upset for you.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Because you're going to just beat them again.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
It's just going to be assumed, Yeah, especially.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
To them right now. There's some things to look at
this weekend, certainly on that front. How much of a
rise in the playoffs standings and the Texans make. I
mean I don't usually like to do this because it's
all about the math, but I am totally overcome with
of course they're going to the playoffs at eight and five,
the same record as a team that isn't in the playoffs,

(01:46):
the Indianapolis Colts. And I'm not even considering what could happen. So, yeah,
go from seven to six, go from six to fifth,
go from fifth to third, which are all possibilities. With
what's going on with Jacksonville, what's going on with the Chargers,
and what's going on with the Buffalo Bills. Very very
likely you will have a better record than the team
that wins the AFC North, whomever that might be. If

(02:07):
it's Baltimore, that would be even better, especially if you're
a division winner and have the opportunity to hone the
tiebreaker over them. I mean, I don't know if it's
even better. Steelers seem like a worse team, but the
Ravens have to actually go win some games to prove
that statement correct. With four games left to go and
so many teams still uncertain of exactly where they'll finish.
Even at one and two, we got two teams that

(02:28):
have ten game winning streaks, but they share the same record,
and they both have games in front of them that
could be lost. I don't think the Patriots are going
to lose the division, but the tiebreaker they hold today
over the Bills is gone if they lose on Sunday
to the Bills, and they would then only have a
one game lead in that division. With three games remaining
on each of their schedules, Broncos are only two wins

(02:51):
ahead of the Chargers going into the weekend. They have
a difficult matchup this weekend, so it is a pretty
important weekend. Then the Texans need to take care of business,
finally seeing a team that just has not had much
success this year, playing a host of backups, and their
bird game guy confirmed a more empty roster again for

(03:11):
this Sunday's game. We were wondering if Marvin Harrison Junior would
be available. I said, I felt pretty strongly that he
would not be, and they confirmed that today seel injury's
gonna have him missing his fourth game in the last five.
Paris Johnson Junior, who's taken every snap all season outside
of one game at left tackle, and then obviously last
week's game when he got hurt in the third quarter,

(03:32):
he's also out. So you could argue their two best
non quarterback offensive players. I probably would say two of
the three. That's a disservice to Trey McBride, who's been
phenomenal yet again this year. And we will hear from
someone who knows Trey McBride a little bit better than
most as we roll through the show here that has
Texans ties. He works for them, coaches for them, but

(03:54):
it's not the best team to begin with, and they're
certainly not playing at one hundred percent. We'll find out
a little bit more information about the Texans on that
front in short order when the injury report for both
teams does come out comes out during our program each
and every Friday before Sunday games. Was that practice earlier
today inside the stadium, And as Demico Ryans indicated on

(04:16):
Wednesday when he pretty much called everybody that was nicked
up in some former fashion nicked up Nick Chubb day
to day, that that probably is true. Kamari last year
is going to play again. I don't think there's any
question about that. The only two players that seem like
there might be a question mark about her Sheldon Rankins,
who has practiced this week, and then Nick Chubb, who

(04:38):
did not practice Wednesday, did not practice Thursday. I am
imagining he will be a listed as a limited participant
today or a non participant. But we did see him
again when they're inside. Saying he worked on a side
field would be a lie. There are no side fields.
There's just one field. But technically, the way it is
set up for a practice situation on a Friday, that's

(04:58):
how it would be described that Nick Chubb was getting
some work on the side. A player trying to get
healthy enough to play on a Sunday. That's how they
go about their business there. Otherwise, I think most everybody
who has been you know, banged up a little bit
the last couple of weeks and has seen a dip
in practice time because of it. They should all be
good to go. And however Demiko and Frank and Nick

(05:21):
and Matt want to use them, they should be more
than helpful in that regard.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
You know who was more than helpful last night? The
Clippers and they're inbounding.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
That was one of the best games they've played all year.
How does that hit you? Fray six and ninety eight.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Did he not lose by forty to the Rockets like
this idiot predicted.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, it's it is. I think what I would say
after the game last night, after watching them play in person.
I've watched them play just not a full forty eight
start to finish, really analyzing it, and when you're in
the arena you can see a lot more they really
I think their roster is what is the biggest problem
with some of their injuries. And the fourth quarter was
as big an example as you could get. They scored

(06:01):
thirty one points in the fourth quarter. They got two
free throws from Chris Dunn, and every other point was
scored by their three good players. They have three good players,
and they are asked to do everything every night with
the roster they're currently playing with. Zubats was insanely successful,
and he was awesome in the fourth quarter, hit all
of his shots and had a thirty three point night,

(06:22):
tying a season high. James Harden was as he's been
most of the year. There's moments where he looks really good.
There's other moments where he defers to his teammates, and
then the inbounds play you're talking about was the icing
on the cake of here's why he's not going to
play for a very good basketball team pretty much ever again.
And Kawhi Leonard's just not the same two way player
he once was. He kind of fades in and out

(06:42):
of games a little bit. But all three of them
were good enough in the fourth quarter to tie it twice.
The Rockets let the Clippers take the lead late in
the first half and carry it all the way through
the third quarter. The Rockets immediately took the lead in
the fourth quarter, but even after extending it to a
multiple possessions, Clippers tied at one oh one, tied it

(07:02):
again at won ten very very late after the hard
and three, and then the Rocket's best player in the
fourth quarter last night. That was a men. Thompson put
the bucket on the board after a red miss and
an LP tip and an LP tip and an amend
tip that went in and a foul, and he made
the free throw, so it gave the Rockets a three
point lead. That is a lead they never gave up.

(07:24):
Wild set of circumstances followed with multiple reviews, multiple mistakes,
multiple offensive fouls, and what you mentioned at the onset
of this conversation. They screwed up an inbounds play because
the inbounds passer stepped over the line before he threw
the ball inbounds with under ten seconds left in no timeouts.
And I don't blame him at all because his teammates

(07:46):
weren't giving him any other options. Give me a break.
I mean, I think ty Loo is a good coach,
and we mentioned it during the game. There might not
be an assistant coach in the NBA that runs the
bench more than Jeff Van Gundy, and they have tennis coaches.
Is this on them for not telling the team what's happening,
or is this on their very veteran group of players

(08:09):
that was on the floor at the end of the
game to have absolutely no idea what the situation was.
First and foremost, you gotta send somebody to the basketball And
I was watching it live and I saw this happen,
and we've got multiple angles on the play since. Seriously, James,
if you don't want people to say you are something

(08:29):
other than we've seen and are inefficient on the defensive end,
I mean, that's a description of the way he plays basketball.
It's not a description of who he is as a
so called elite superstar money player, and those all those
things don't have to go together. First thing is true,
he's elite. Second thing is true, he's a superstar. And
the third thing just isn't. And I know it wasn't

(08:51):
a playoff game, and it wasn't game six or seven
of a playoff game, because then we would just say out,
we've seen that a billion times before. Go watch James
on that inbounds play. He stands forty feet or ninety
four or four, yeah, about forty feet from the baseline
back to Batom, looking at bog Don Bogdanovich, who's sixty
feet from the inbounds passer, and he's basically just standing there.

(09:12):
The defender doesn't have to go anywhere because James never moves,
never moves at all. All he does is waive his
other teammates to go do something while he stands there.
He did not want the basketball. He did not want
to do anything to help a teammate get the basketball.
He literally, I'm not even joking, I'm not exaggerating. It's
not effect. It's just a terrible way to try to
win basketball games. And it was like the fiftieth time

(09:32):
he did it. During the game, he plays one end
of the court, he gets burned on the other side
of the court. His teammates have kind of followed suit.
Nicholas Batoo makes some incredibly bad defensive plays, with Aman
Thompson making backdoor cuts. All that being said, the Rockets
just beat a six to nineteen team in Houston by two,
one fifteen, one thirteen. I mean, Kevin Durant, the money player,

(09:53):
not great, took one shot in the fourth quarter. Yeah,
did not score, and I'm not I don't. It doesn't
bother me.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Well, he came here in part because of the guy
who did take and make shots down the stretch in
the fourth quarter. Could he use that guy against the
Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Kevin Durant also played these sixth most minutes among Rockets
players in the fourth quarter. Good like he was out
there for about seven minutes, but five other players a
men played all twelve. Reid played eleven and a half
fourth quarter minutes. These guys did the right things. I
still can't believe it. I was watching it happen. Alpi
was two for eleven in the fourth quarter alone. They

(10:30):
were big shots he made. The shots that he made
were very big. The one free throw he made was
very big. The free throw that preceded it was very small.
It was very small because it didn't hit anything. Chuck
Hase thought that was that by Alpy.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
You know when Chuck Haes used to go up to
the line, it's Alpi and yeah, exactly, and Chuck, you
didn't know every time if it was gonna make it
to the ring or the rim, I should say, after
the hitch in his get up for each attempt.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
It was so scruciating to watch.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Albee has fantastic form, looks like he's been there and
made them a million times, but you just don't know.
In the fourth I think the rest of the game,
you're pretty confident but last year down the stretch it
became a thing. It looks like it hasn't for the
most part this year.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Just following the leader. Aaron Holliday did it right before.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
An eighty nine shoot is a good free throw shooter
eighty eight point seven.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
I want to say James smiss technical free throw as
he should. It happens ninety on the season, he's been incredible.
Look out Mark Price and Calvin Murphy. Bottom line, they
should have won. They played just well enough to win,
and they have a couple of more days off before
a very odd set of road dates lie in front
of them. They won't play it Toyta Center again until

(11:44):
the Cavs come to town on the twenty seventh of December.
I think the Rockets will be just fine between now
and then. It'd be nice if maybe we see the
return of Tarry Easton at some point before we get
to twenty twenty six, but nonetheless, a couple of games
against Denver over the next three a game against the
Pellic in between, then the Kings and both LA teams.
The alone game in LA against the Clippers the Rockets

(12:07):
will have all season comes up on the twenty third.
The Clippers will actually play two more games in Houston.
They'll do that together in early February, and then their
Christmas Day extravaganza the prime time slot, the seven PM
tip against one of the very very few teams in
the NBA with a better record than the Rockets. As
we sit here.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Today, right exactly right now, by the time they get
to LA for Christmas Night, that won't be the case.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Lakers are frauds. Well, do the Lakers play the Nuggets
twice in Denver between now and then.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
I'm not worried about that. Lakers or the Nuggets barely
beat the Rockets last time.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
I think were season started for the Lakers the same
night as the Rockets, the twenty first of October. Yep,
So we're not quite two full months into the season.
We got nine more days to get there, YEP. I
don't think I can wait nine more days. Like, if
you say the Lakers aren't gonna win the championship, that's fine,
but they're not frauds. Their record is not a fluke
Bronza fraud. Lebron's their third best player. Maybe definitely, Nah,

(13:05):
Maybe tell me. I mean, I know you're saying all
this for effect. But can you even get it's at
least to drop somebody ahead. It's at least a competition
with who really really, Hey, look at Lebron doing what
he always does, passing the ball to Ruie for the
game winning shot for the game winner. Because he didn't
he had it last, he wasn't gonna make it.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's why I mean, Austin Reeves is number two clearly
and Luca's clearly number one. Both will be All Stars. Yeah,
each team in that game will have two All Stars.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
So yeah, it is we are. We're gonna have to
watch it with how many players we send to the
All Star Game, like Denver, Jamal Murray's sequel, Jokich, Shake Gilders,
Alexander and chet Alpi and Kevin Durant, Luca and Austin Reeves.
I mean, we're gonna run out of spots pretty soon.
You don't think Lebron's gonna start that game though, But
just because of the fan vote, Yeah, the fan vote's

(13:56):
been pretty interesting the last couple of years. Obviously, Steph
and Lebron have been so far out front. If you
tabulated the last ten years of fan voting, they'd be
so far away ahead of everybody else called that casual vote,
but it's it's well, it's not about how you're playing,
it's about who you are.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
I mean, you know, I'm saying why people buy their jersey.
I'm talking about usual fans who buy jersey fans. In
other words, it's a fan vote. It's not who do
you think the best players in the NBA? No, it's
who do you like? Yeah, exactly, it's it's flawed or
who do you know? That's how it is in every league.
I mean, I guess I mean major League Baseball. This
happens where guys are clearly either on the decline or
but they're gonna start. I think baseball fans get it

(14:31):
right more often than not, though compared to NBA fans
plus the NBA.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
But it's also not a neither of them do full
fan vote anymore. It's a percentage of it.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Right.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
They include the media and then the worst vote of
all the player vote. Yeah, where they just I mean
grudges come.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I love that they.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Release all that information so we can see that the
fourteenth guy on somebody's bench not only got one vote,
he got like five votes because guys like him. It's
so funny.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
All right, We've got a lot to get to obviously,
as you can tell, and we will get to the
Texans first and forem most when we come back.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Wex mentioned his name.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
He was one of like a bazillion badasses in Sunday
nights win over the Chiefs. You want him out there
more often than not. But if he doesn't play, is
that necessarily a bad thing? This week you'll hear from
his defensive coordinator net quickly.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
As I mentioned going into the break, wanted to give
you a tote board update presented by Okarves Financial Group
for everybody that's been helping to make the lives of
those at Saint Juds a little bit better four hundred
and sixty seven two hundred and seventy three dollars as
of when the eighteen began earlier this afternoon. Look at
their thirty three more partners in hope at just nineteen

(15:43):
dollars a month at one eight hundred five eight eight
fourteen thirty three, one eight hundred five eight eight fourteen
thirty three, one eight hundred five eight eight fourteen thirty three.
Looking for those thirty three partners in hope over the
next hour and certainly appreciate those who participated in their
donation and getting that T shirt and hoodie from Saint
Jude last hour, Stephen Carmen, James, Rina Conrad, from all

(16:07):
across our listening audience, Lake Jackson, Richmond Conroe, Alvin and
right here in the h and we'll continue talking about
it here and elsewhere on our iHeartRadio stations. Those of
you that were listening to Sonny ninety nine point on
this earlier this afternoon may have caught my little visit

(16:28):
with them just before our show began. Doing some incredible
work there. And we're doing everything we can right here
as well and across all of our stations. So appreciate
everybody involved with it, that includes the Saint Jude Radiothon
presenting sponsor, our friends over at Gallery Furniture, but mainly
you guys, as you continue to make donations throughout the day.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Do they still call it continuous soft and relaxing favorites
or is that old?

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Why know you listen every now and then. I am soume.
I would say it is. Well, I don't know if
they say it of the year, I actually try to
avoid it. I shouldn't say as the other day if
I like Christmas music, and I said yes, And there's
many places you can find it. Obviously, Sunny's a great
outlet for it. Well, that's if you want on so
many of them. The reason, in my opinion, the reason

(17:14):
why Christmas music is appreciated like it is is because
you sing along and it gets stuck.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
In your head and it doesn't bother you.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
I was listening to some songs. Most of the song
right right, well, Mariah, not necessarily the songs you hear
constantly if you decided to go shopping, but some songs, well,
since you brought it up. I was Rudy the Reindeer
with the red nose, Rudy the Reindeer. I sing along
with that one. S the the the balls that are silver,
I sing along with that one.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Christmas Time in Hollis was used last week on the
victory you know good Morning video.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
It was December twenty whatever day, Yeah, and it was.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
One of several musical items that was used. And I
was thinking about this, like, that's a cheat game. That's
a big Monday Area Sunday night nationally televised affair.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Should I even do a video for these next two games?
And if I do, what's pending the circumstances, I would think,
like if it's a thriller, yeah, which hopefully it won't be.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Like that's what I'm saying. How can it be a
thriller against the Cardinals in the.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Rads or they're just it's just highlight full Like Texans
win thirty one to seven. Nico has an eighty yard touchdown,
they return it an interception for a touchdown. Well it's
just Marge touchdown.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Who knows.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, let's just say for the sake of our scores
another touchdown on his only touch. Are there any suggestions? Well,
I don't like to make suggestions unless it's Christmas theme.
I mean, I mean it's I'm not using Christmas time
in Hollis again. Well, what's Sunday. It's only December fourteenth.

(18:54):
They have another game before Christmas, right, that's what I'm saying. Well,
you don't have to use a Christmas song at all,
like all of December, like Sonny thinks is Christmas.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
I'm just saying, if that way, what would I Well,
I've got a Honica song. It's featured on South Park.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
If I'm not mistaken, my people have told me it
occurs this year prior to Christmas. Okay, your people have
told you this. I was asking questions the other day
because I didn't know the answers. Are you practicing? Not really?
I'm good at it already. I don't need to practice anymore.
That's the most that is. Are you practicing with your religion?
Look these attorneys, yep, still practicing. Good luck, keep grinding away.

(19:35):
I'm sure you're gonna get good at a prepracticing law.
When are you going to finish? Do you consider what
we do between two and four practicing sports talk radio,
because from four to six we got it down. I've
had it down for in my opinion, my very high
opinion of myself, I've had it down for a while.
You've practiced for over twenty years. What happens after you practice?
You become a professional. And I'm a professional. Worst terminology

(19:58):
ever used for a very important profession. And where do
you practicing law? When you go for an office visit
to get things checked out and maybe there's five, six
to seven doctors there, what do they call it? Well,
it's their practice. The doctors have a practice and you're there,
what are they gonna do? They're going to practice on you.
I hope it works out, just absolutely wild. All right, Well,

(20:21):
that segment's done, so we will come back. We will
eventually hear from Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke. But when
we return, we're gonna go to Best of X and
it's going to feature Houston's most eligible bachelor now off
the market, and the comments will be glorious.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
You just know it and posts.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
History repeats itself type banguels succeed.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
Never doubt that you're the one to plus we go
one building.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
You're the best.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
It's gonna ever top. You know, you're the best.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Posting ever single day.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
You're the best of X, breaking.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
The entire internet.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
All right, it's time we go to the best of X,
which means we go to social media frankly, and we
find out what's going on in and around our fair
city or maybe sometimes outside of our fair city.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
With that intro, were you suggesting that maybe I should
have written a different set of parody lyrics to ig
or the West of Big The best of snapchats doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
The best of it doesn't work. You can't you can't
do it. It's understood that the best of X means
the best of social media.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
That is correct.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
I mean people can't even decide what to call X. Still,
some people we're not quite done with Twitter formally known
as Twitter.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well, I just like I get I guess you know.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
It's kind of like, I mean, this company, we're called
iHeart now because our company wanted to change the branding
from our prior name, clear Channel, so they just took
the name of the app and made it the name
of the company.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Well, nobody calls it clear Channel anymore because that's not
who we are. But people call it Twitter all the
time because it's.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Also never say, oh, you work at iHeartRadio formally known
as clear Channel, right, And they never did not even
the first day we were talking out. Why is that
the case with with people? Just you know, to make
sure they know what you're talking about. But social media
did produce some information that the people in Houston are
very eager to learn and deal with. A six photo

(22:51):
drop on the Instagram account. First photo is with an
astro's player with his back to the camera and the
other person in the photo can barely be seen because
she's basically covering her up at Jay Pania two two
to one and at Julia Garosso seven. Together posted a

(23:15):
set of pictures and she captioned it it says a
lifetime with you engagement ring emoji Jeremsh Payne, Jeremy Paynia
and Julia his longtime girlfriend and athlete professional athlete.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, you use your context clues to gather what you're
about to say. They're engaged to be married.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I never would have guessed from this post. So according
to your teas, we have begun the search feverish search
here on the A team our number one goal before
the end of twenty twenty five. Who is now Houston's
most eligible sports bachelor.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
I mean it's a good question because I mean, if
you're looking at any number of young pups and they
all are let's face it, when you're a professional athlete,
your prime years are early twenties to early thirties, so

(24:16):
you've got a in most cases, so you've got a
wide range of possibilities.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, as you think about this, and you can share some,
all share some. There's a lot of people that you
guys know that jumped on the comments train with this
post for this lovely couple, it's very happy together. Has
posted lots of things together since they have been together.
He's been at her matches, She's been, obviously at a
bunch of his games. It's been on some vacations. They've

(24:42):
done a lot of things together. Now they're going to
do everything together. They're getting married. Know a lot of
these people, like I said, and at Daniellard's, which of
course is that's Carlos Corre's wife. I remember when he
got engaged. You remember what was going on then? Yeah,
Chris ours was trying to ruin it. Yeah, like he does.
That's what he does. He's an engagement runner. Eight emojis

(25:05):
followed her one word comment ric Flair's a bunch of
heart emojis, eyeball heart face emojis at Reagan Elizabeth posted
congratulations with a heart as Maria J. Hayter, Oh my MG,
congrats Reagan. Elizabeth is Reagan. Howard Regman and a friend

(25:28):
of the show and a friend of the show has
been on the show. Maria's husband has also been on
the show, saying for Reagan's husband, Astro's trained guy was
very happy. Felisa Dades the Astros account congratulated the duo,
and many other people around the Houston area that know
them or know the team also offered congratulations, and so

(25:52):
did one free agent pitchers brother, Ben Verlander. Congrats fire
emojis future Astro again, Ben is signing with the Astrost.
Well that's what you get when you sign Justin. Ben
comes with the package. I don't know about you, guys,
this is the best that Justin has ever pitched. The
Astros are lucky to have him back. The Astros are inevitable.

(26:13):
Hey Ben, they're ten games back of the Mariners.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
That better.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
I swear If twenty twenty six sees the Astros ten
games back of the Mariners, I will light myself on fire.
Oh my goodness. Oh take it easy. I speak for
a lot of people when I say that.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I think.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
So.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
It's a Friday, and we'd love for your input on
this via our socials. You can find me at Adam J. Wexler.
He is at Adam Clinton. The phone lines it's seven one, three,
two two five, seven nine. If you want to mix
into your call about what do you think's gonna happen
between the Texans and the Cardinals this weekend? Who do
you think is gonna win Army Navy. You want to
sneak in a I think this is my choice for
Houston's most eligible sports.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
The ring just blinded me through the phone. See these
are the good comments. Uh, holy moly, I'm so happy
for you. I'm m f lyz.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
That's from some Madison. Let's see.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
I this is so special. I am so happy for you,
love birds. Most of these are standard, run of the mill,
but then you have you know, like the Vince gift,
the Vince McMahon gift, remember when he's in the centry.
One that everybody knows like this, well, the one in
the Andre documentary where he's asked about Andre passing and

(27:27):
when they get to the part of the spoiler alert,
he dies.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Andre the Giant. He's currently in that state. Yes, I
mean he hadn't come back. So that's quite the spoiler.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
So when they get to the point where he dies
in the documentary and they ask Vince about him, and
he goes, hey, we're special, and then he does the
you know, slashing motion over his throat.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
On social media, Yeah, so that was posted. There's a
an at let's see a post from Carly Grosso My
faves are engaged, and if you followed either one of
them on social media, you probably already know that that
sister of Julia's looks extremely similar to Julia.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well, by the way, this is the good stuff I
was looking for, Like Orpheez's comment O R P h
e e z y glad it was these wtf Jeremy,
I was waiting on us all caps with a sad
face emoji.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, where are the fan people?

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Because there were comments replying to that like brown sugar right,
promise not a stalker, but that dress slash skirt you're
wearing on your pick is fire. Look at these non
engaged people to Jeremy Payana propping each other up. Good
times ahead.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
He let all of us down. This is the same thread.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
So yeah, I mean I thought he is he not
the most he was he not the most eligible bachelor,
though I.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Didn't disagree, like right now, absolutely dreamy, right now? Who
would it be?

Speaker 1 (29:01):
I don't want to will and I.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Don't want to make any suggestions because Derek Singley Junior
just got engaged, so he's out. Well, I mean, is
it just oh, they play for one of the teams,
so they're the most eligible bachelor's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Most eligible sports bachelor. Yes, that's a qualification everybody on
the Rocket.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
You're just basically saying, who's Reeed Shepherd, who's the best
player on the team that hasn't married or with somebody?
Reed has a girlfriend? Still, right, Yes, Kad's why didn't
you say him first? Well, because he's thirty seven. How
do you know somebody that's thirty seven isn't going to
fall in love with him or hasn't. Well, maybe they
want a little bit more time with him. I mean,

(29:40):
I don't know how old k Adams is, but still
she's probably about the same age. I would guess they
should get together. That'd be sweet, well described, that would
be sweet. Yeah, I think it would great content. A
lot of people would watch that podcast. Well, I'd said
this during last night's broadcast, So we'll have to wait
for her up here instead of game, which must still

(30:01):
be in the future. I believe last night's game at
Toyota Center was the first game in Houston as a
Rocket that Katie's mom was in attendance. Why that was
sitting for a row and she had been in town
for a couple of days, so here over the holidays
participated in some the Rocket Season of Giving events and
there she was got to say hello to Jimbo Slice

(30:22):
and Kevin Durant stop calling him that. I think that
is one of the best, most underused nicknames for an
NBA player that should have absolutely been at I mean,
he has facial hair, so.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
We just defer to that. Why Timbo Slice is dead. Yeah,
but he wasn't when he was. It's perfect. Did he
uses the beard and the connotation similar similar looks. One
of them doesn't look like that anymore.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
I'm pretty sure it hasn't been seen in a while. Well,
if you were, never mind, he's next to Andre right
next to him, the giant here special they both were.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
One time he came into the studio and dropped about
five f bombs in a thirty second span, and was like, well,
I think the dumb button's broken now.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
I have had one in studio interview with a UFC
fighter and the exact same thing happened.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Well, he was sitting, like Dan Henderson two feet from me,
and I've seen him detach a guy's retina in a
fight sometime one time, so I wasn't.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
About to tell him, hey, don't do that. We've had
a bunch of other interviews with MMA athletes and UFC
fighters in general, and Burnon Maxwell, just not necessarily in studio.
That was the only one in studio I had, and
most of them recognized when the headset goes on and
you're not sitting on my couch in my living room
with some kid over there trying to work the roadcaster,
so you're not on a podcast, You're actually on a

(31:44):
terrestrial radio station. You probably need to keep the Todd
Bowles like language to yourself, all right.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Before we go to break seven ninety Saint Jude Radio
thom presented by Gallery Furniture is going on here on
our station for another fifteen minutes.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
You can become a part or in hope. Though you
don't have to wait fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
You can do this anytime today, pledging just nineteen dollars
a month to help kids Saint Jude facing cancer. Put
your gift on a card and you're gonna get the
new Saint Jude T shirt and hoodie. Text the word
kids to the number six two six two six two
and click the link from Saint Jude to donate. It
is absolutely a fantastic cause, obviously, and you can call

(32:22):
the number as well. One eight hundred five eight eight
fourteen thirty three. One eight hundred five eight eight fourteen
thirty three Again one eight hundred five eight eight one
four three three. We got Kamari Lassiter's status talk coming
up next.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Texas and Cardinals. We'll get together this coming weekend Saturday
at noon. Again a reminder that the Saint Jude Radio
Thon is ongoing here at our station, Sports Talk seven
ninety and throughout the iHeartRadio cluster. You can hear a
lot more about it on air over at Sunny. We
continue to hopefully encourage you to become a partner in Hope,
pledging nineteen dollars a month which will help kids at

(32:59):
Saint Jude facing cancer, obviously helping their families tremendously. You
can call now to make that donation. Along with it,
get your music gives to Saint Jude Kids, t shirt
and hoodie. One eight hundred five eight eight fourteen thirty three.
One eight hundred five eight eight fourteen thirty three. One
eight hundred five eight eight fourteen thirty three. When we
get to the top of the hour here we'll give

(33:19):
you a tote board update and again pass that number
along again as we remind you that the majority of
what Saint Jude's funding comes from is generous donors like yourself.
They allows them to have the freedom of focus on
what matters most, what we keep telling you about the kids,
regardless of their financial situation, continue to conduct more clinical

(33:40):
trials for childhood cancer than anyone else. It is a
research hospital. So we'll share that message with you again
when we hit the top of the hour. I wanted
to talk a little bit about the other side from
where Derek Stingley Junior resides. Derek Stingley Junior has long
been regarded as one of the best corners in football.
I say long been regarded as that pretty much since
Lovey Smith was fired. He's been regarded as that his

(34:03):
first season was bad. I don't mean Lovey, I mean
Derek Stingley Junior's, but I do mean Lovey because how
he deployed him, asking him to do things in a
defense that just was ill conceived for the talents that
he had, and really ill conceived for this era of
NFL football. And then he came and played under somebody
else's defense and has continued to play under somebody else's defense.

(34:24):
It's pretty simple. Go cover this guy, all right, break thanks.
I appreciate that done. And it doesn't matter if they
have him chasing a specific receiver throughout games, which they
don't do very often because they're so good on the
other side, or if he's just manning his position. But
to that point, they are so good on the other side. Yesterday,
the Thursday before Sunday games, the day that the coordinators speak,

(34:48):
Special teams coordinator Frank Ross talking about something I brought up,
and turns out I probably was wrong. I thought maybe
they were punting a certain way by design, and they weren't.
The punts that were not very long from Tommy Townsend
were not by design, but in fact, he thought the
wind conditions, which were changing throughout the game, actually held
a bunch of his punches punts up, so they just

(35:09):
didn't go very far and they weren't able to flip
the field as often as they would have liked. It
sounds like they were less afraid of Xavier Worthy than
I once guessed. Offensive coordinator Nick Kayley. I'll save his
captain obvious comments for a little bit later, and I'm
not saying that in a negative way. I'm saying it
as we all know what he should say, and he
absolutely recognized it and said it. But Kamari Lassiter was

(35:30):
the topic of conversation with a series of questions for
the defensive coordinator, the play calling defensive coordinator, Matt Burke,
and he was almost at a loss for words as
he continued to praise the work of number four. This
is just me or is that everybody? I don't think
it's playing. I can barely hear it.

Speaker 7 (35:50):
I'd argue, as he's the best tackling corner the league,
and he's the toughest.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Downer in the league, and real quick, thank you, I'm
going to play it from the onset.

Speaker 7 (35:58):
I don't even know how many suppose as I can
say about him at this point.

Speaker 8 (36:01):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (36:01):
I mean, he's I'd argue he's he's the best tackling
corner in the league, and he's the toughest corner in
the league, and and then you know he's making plays
on the balls downfield.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I mean, I don't know what else you want.

Speaker 7 (36:12):
I mean, he's he's everything that I think this program
believes in as a football player and represents what we're
about and so really excited and proud for him and happy,
and honestly, like, if we didn't have Sting, we probably
be talking about him as a different type.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Of corner, you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (36:27):
But the fact we got, you know, another great one
on the opposite side of him, it maybe changes the
perception of him. But I think he's He's an elite
corner at this level, and I think he's probably top
in the league at some of the skill sets that
he performs with.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
So really excited to have him. I think you would
get on board with the comment I made earlier this week,
the best duo at corner in the NFL place for
the Houston Texans. You could hear it on everything that
he had to say, even to the point where he said,
if we weren't watching twenty four every week, just absolutely
shut down whom ever is out there, then we'd be

(37:02):
asking Kamari to do that and he would be doing
the same thing.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Well, it's you're not even the only person to say that,
and I can't so many people were saying so many
positive things about the Texans defense, specifically in the aftermath
of Sunday's win, that I can't even remember who it was,
but they essentially said that same thing. You know, you
can talk about the Denver defense and if you want
to say, okay, this one has it's you know, it's it's.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Stars and this other unit over here has its stars.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
But like collectively, from top to bottom, you know, the
Texans are probably top notch, and definitely when it comes
to a cornerback duo because they're bringing they were bringing
up Denver because of PS two. If you want to
say he's the best corner in football, okay, but the
best tandem.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
There's no way you can say it's not the Houston
Texans and not know what you're talking about. The ad
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
What's Up, Houston, Texas, It's the A team Sports Talk
seven ninety and now Space City Home Network. Hello TV
land out there, if you are now watching us, we
will take you up until six o'clock tonight, one hour
already in the books.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
On this Friday edition of the program, He's WEX.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I'm Ac Josh Jordan, our fearless producer, as we take
you into the weekend with a humongous matchup between your
Houston Texans and the Arizona Cardinals. I'm sorry WEX. This
is even more lackluster than a Jags game. And I
know people think that they're good this year, including them,
but I always look at those Jaguars games as, oh, yeah,

(38:38):
we have two of these every year. But this, this
Arizona game, and then maybe next week when the Raiders
are the opponent.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
It's the Cardinals are playing losing football and have a
concern about how much money they have sunk into their
injured and not playing very well quarterback. The Raiders are
their disaster, are a disaster, probably hired the wrong coach.
They definitely are listening to people that are making mistakes,
among them Tom Brady, and they made bad personnel decisions
after hiring and firing another set of gms and executives.

(39:10):
They're in a really bad place. And they, I guess correctly,
committed an incredible amount of money to Max Crosby because
he's awesome, but it just doesn't matter. I mean, they
have one of the best players in the NFL at
his position, one of the five or six best defensive
players in football period and paying him accordingly, but it
doesn't make any difference to winning. And when you do
those sorts of things, it creates just a really bad

(39:33):
situation for that player whether he wants out, and then
you're in even worse spot what you can get for
him if he forces his way out. And that's just
one piece of it. The quarterback situation stinks. I do
think Ashton Genty is a good player, but unless he's
a like Jamier Gibbs went outside the top ten but
in the first round and he completely changed the framework
of the Lions offense because he's an absolutely insanely dynamic player.

(39:56):
I think the belief is Genty can be that, but
usually if you are that, it's almost immediate. And I'm
not trying to dog the way he's played this year
in any way, and I think some of their lack
of success success around him is a huge reason why
they have Brock Bowers but playing Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals,
who at least have played good offensive football. I think

(40:18):
for the most part, with him back there is it's
a threat. The Cardinals are a threat, but Texans are
significantly better than Arizona are. Losing to the Raiders does
seem impossible. Losing to the Cardinals would be extremely disappointing,
but not impossible.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Well, their tight end is equally, if not more impressive
than what the Raiders are getting out of that position
for them. But you're right by the way I saw
this the other day. You probably saw this too, or
maybe you didn't. The revenue for the Death Star there
in Vegas highest grossing stadium, I believe, highest grossing NFL

(40:55):
stadium in the US over the past calendar year.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, I'm not sure what the probably part of it
newness of it, and the ticket prices for it are
probably a little bit higher, not a lot higher. Most
NFL ticket prices, aren't that the variance between stadium to
stadium from as long as they were relatively new and
they're not that much variance. Yeah, this was overall though,
it wasn't just NFL dates.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
And of course it's skewed because they just hosted and
will host again for a second consecutive year.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
That changes everything WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
But yeah, but when you say like attendance, you would
think that Jerry World would win that every year just
because it's a bigger stadium.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
They can hold one hundred thousand, that kind of thing. Yeah,
but they don't. Not for an NFL game. It can't
the super Bowl, but not a regular season game.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
But like they had the the Tyson Logan fiasco. But
then I don't remember. I think I think the internet
it wasn't Netflix because it was down. Yep, I think
I think what's his face is live feed out? I mean,
I don't, Well, who won that?

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Imagine what life would be like in Vegas if the
Raiders were ten and five heading into the final two
games of the season, they were battling for a playoff
spot over the final five six weeks of the season.
If they had, like I just mentioned, Max Crosby and
Brock Bauers might get there and genty might get there.
But what if they had four or five stars to
get behind in Vegas? What would an NFL team really

(42:19):
be like as Vegas's team, there is no baseball team currently,
they don't have an NBA team. Hockey currently wildly popular
hockey team and from the moment they got there, basically
they've been wildly popular. They also won at the onset
of their arrival, and the Raiders have done the opposite.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
That's what would have happened to the Titans, by the way,
if they had actually won that Super Bowl against the Rams,
but they didn't.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah, Cardinals last week, probably their last three division games
definitely stand out. They got their clocks cleaned by all
three of those teams. Seattle whooped them, San Francisco whopped them,
and last week the LA Rams whopped them. But all
their other games lost to Tampa by three, lost to
Jacksonville in overtime by three, beat the Cowboys, lost to

(43:03):
the playoff bound Packers by four, lost to the Daniel
Jones led Colts by four, and all of those games,
I'll stop. There are Jacoby Brissette games, and I'm I'll
look it up now, I would be I'm gonna say
he's had I'm gonna say he's number two in passing
yards since he became the starter league wide.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
He might be one.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Really yep, I guess I hadn't really thought about that.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Well.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
And so he does throw a lot and they can't
run the football, so they throw a lot.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, it's not gonna happen against the Texans, though, I'm
to the point now where I'm like, short of guaranteeing.
The Texans just absolutely annihilate any game plan you thought
you were gonna have, and then the subsequent went ones
after that as you attempt to adjust to what they
do to you on all facets of their defense. It's
not just the pass rush, but the pass rush does

(43:58):
obviously have to help the same secondary. And the secondary
is ballhawk everywhere, ballhawks everywhere. One side of the field,
you shouldn't even throw to it, and if you do,
good luck, because it's probably going to come back the
other way. But it's definitely, at a minimum, probably going
to get either intercepted or batted down. And then the
other side, which we were just talking about with Kamari Lassiter,
is almost as good as that, And he said it himself.

(44:22):
I look both ways in the locker room and I
see nothing but legends on this defense. He's right, the secondary,
everything about that defense. It's just a life ruiner. It's
an absolute life ruiner for any offensive coordinator, any head coach,
any offensive unit that either comes to Houston or sees
them coming into their stadium. And you can ask the
Chiefs about it if you don't believe them, and they

(44:43):
said as much. Chris Jones, who would know? Did you
see by the way he didn't talk about this. His
reaction to Joon Cold, Oh my gosh, Like that's how
you know it's a good and legal hit when Chris Jones,
one of the best in the business to do it
at any position on a defense.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Is like, ooh, that's I think he said. Darn. Yeah,
he said darn really really emphatically. Number one in the
NFL in passing yards over his last eight starts since
becoming the starter, Jacoby said, number one in the NFL
by almost two hundred yards. Guess what he's going to
be in dead place this weekend. Texans haven't even allowed
a two hundred yard passer since the third week of
the season. They've been incredible with their pass defense. Obviously,

(45:20):
you name part of their defense. Maybe outside of their
red zone goal to go defense, everywhere else they've been elite.
That's why they are the number one. I believe they
are the number one defense in the NFL by a
number of measurements and my personal eyeball test. Now conversely,
the Texans will be playing the Cardinals defense. Cardinals defense
has had some injuries and just simply did not have

(45:40):
great personnel. Buddha Baker's probably the best individual player they
have over there. I don't think it's the type of
defense that they should have any more trouble with than
any other copycat league. So if you saw the Chiefs
do something, or the Colts do something, or the Jaguars
or any of their recent opponents do something to this
current group of offensive linemen and CJ. Strod's offense that
you think will work, We'll probably see that from the

(46:03):
Arizona Cardinals defense. But it doesn't matter who's on the
other side of the ball when all they have to
do is get lined up and they get extra yards.
From the Texans offense, We've been talking about it for
multiple years, but certainly the year's worth of Nick Cayley's offense.
He was asked about where kind of the focus is
and where they think they can sharpen things up or
areas they can be better. I mean, we know that

(46:25):
they need to be better. Where's he actually see some
areas that they can be better as you described in
the rundown. And Nick Cayley wants to do some winter
cleaning because he said what we all say in not
so many words, got to clean up the pre snap penalties.

Speaker 9 (46:39):
I think playing clean football consistently eliminating pre snap issues
like we have to rid ourselves of that, and you can't. Again,
it's we've had too many of them happen for too
many weeks. Now we got to clean that stuff up
to give ourselves a chance to really, you know, stay
on schedule, play well. And I think you know, still
want to continue to move the ney in the red

(47:00):
area for sure.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
Stame thing on third.

Speaker 9 (47:02):
Downs short yardage has been a point of emphasis. So
those things I think across the board wouldn't prove on everything.
But I think first and foremost, you know, not beating ourselves,
especially prior to the ball being snapped.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Especially prior to the ball being snapped. In other words,
with no regard for anything the other team is doing,
you are making mistakes.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I no longer feel like they're already behind the eight
ball before the ball is snapped because of who they are.
Now they're still up against it because that the line
is just not what it needs to be. And I
hope they addressed that this offseason to improve on an
already good football team. But I think that that nails it.
And it is as you put, or somebody put in

(47:42):
the rundown next to that SoundBite, captain obvious, I put that,
of course, which, by the way, do you see the
cut underneath it?

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Tamiko Ryans from Wednesday. What's the first cut?

Speaker 3 (47:52):
Say?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Could you read the cut in its entirety on the
rundown there, Ryan's wed Yeah, number one, what's the slug
saying next to it?

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Injuries day by day, day by day by day, maybe
think of meet the parents, but it is it is obvious.
Yet if they just do it, the third and short
situations that you face are just so much more manageable,
regardless of a run or a pass, then third and
eight thirty nine, third and fourteen because you had a

(48:22):
false start or you had a holding penalty or whatever
you had that you aren't You're not letting the other
team do that to you. You're doing it to yourself.
And it sounds cliched, and it sounds obvious. It sounds
like captain obvious. But it's like, okay, then do something
about it, or in this case, don't do it. Don't
get those pre snat penalties. I swear if there if
there's an illegal shift, or I'll even take false starts

(48:45):
because they happen, but illegal shifts are illegal.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Men down the field, I swear that's so debilitating.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
When you get a huge or in some cases a
touchdown like Sunday night and you it doesn't count because of.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
A dumb penalty. Yeah, just reference, and I only looked
at one team. Currently, the Texans have thirty two illegal shift,
illegal formation, delay a game, false starts that have been
called on them this year. Jacksonvillez thirty seven of those penalties,
five more over thirteen weeks. It doesn't kill on your
ledger if the other team declines correct, Well, what I'm
looking at will signify whether it was even accepted. So

(49:20):
that's how many times it's been called on them because
the Chiefs declined I think two or three the other night, well,
they declined a holding penalty on Ursrie because there was
no reason to give him an extra down. And that
we've seen in the last two weeks a false start
or a five yard penalty on the Texans offense declined
because it was they were already backed up inside the four.
They're like, well, what's the point? All right, Well, switch gears,

(49:42):
we come back.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
We're gonna hear from another coach, this time of the
basketball variety, Emy Udoka joining the program or joining the station.
I should say earlier today he having the conversation with
Matt Thomas and Ross Virial.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
We will hear what he had to say about your rockets. Next,
it is the eight team Sports Sox seven to ninety,
who may or may not be having.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
A discussion with the misses about Jeremy peneys fiance's ring
about how awesome it is.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
It's the size of the rock That's what women do.
They talk about these types of things. Well, he has
not yet reached Bega payday status, but he does make
a lot of money. How much did he make this
last year? How much do you think he made this
last year? Fourteen?

Speaker 1 (50:25):
He's in the early stage.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
He's got what this year and next year of our
Irish years? And hang on, let me take that back.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Eighteen million. That's the best scene in an office space?
What would you say you do here? I come in
at about nine to fifteen. I take the side door
so Lumberg can't see me, and then I just kind
of zone out in front of my desk.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Zone out. Yeah, I just try to make it look
like I'm working, but I'm not really doing anything. Since
twenty eighteen, with his signing bonus and the years that
have followed, including last year's paltry salary, he has made
a little less than eight million dollars in salary as
a Major League bay What last year was the first
year of making any money? How did I not know
this till right now? He made a little over four

(51:09):
million last year. Each of the prior years, like Hunter
Brown is currently in, you make about seven hundred, seven
hundred and fifty thousand. That is just ridiculous. I mean,
it's great money for this kind of thing. You can
that's still chump change to buy a ring. And he
made the same amount of money. Whether or not he
even bothered to show up for work late in the year. Well,
most baseball players do. Yeah, it's guaranteed.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
But I just that is and I know it's all relative.
There's people that can't make ends meet. Listening right now,
like that, okay, it's all relative. Bard to the questions, Yeah,
I just that surprises me. He had to have gotten
a sweet bonus for mvping the twenty two World Series.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
It's not always baked into a contract for a player
that young. But I mean, doesn't MLB best upon that player?
But where does it come from? Maybe maybe enough in
that to get a ring with a diamond in it. Maybe,
I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Well, I'm sure he's done some autographs and that kind
of thing session.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
His initial season salary of several hundred thousand dollars was
more than enough to buy.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
I know who probably you know who probably did help
with that if it wasn't the Astros Funds. Shout out
to our boy, Ryan Fiterman and Fiterman Sports who he
is now the official I guess what do you call it?

Speaker 2 (52:27):
They're the official memorabilia autograph people for him now. Nice.
I like to give Ryan a shout out whenever I
can because they're they're good people over there. Plus, yeah,
we're talking about Jerry Payne's engagement to his girlfriend now fiance, Julia,
So just so you know, they're both athletes. Yeah, their
kids are going to be specimen spessional football player Julia.
He's going the JJ Watt route. He's marrying a football

(52:50):
player football. Both of the Watt children are young men.
They look like they were designed in a lab. Well,
his older son looks I think they're like catalog worthy.
He looks like JJ when he was kidded. Yes, and
his younger son is a little bit too young for

(53:10):
me to quite say that at this point in time.
By the way, doctor Watt took to social media to
keep everybody updated on his brother.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Earlier today. You know what I was wondering, So we
were talking about this after you left yesterday. I was
wondering how long it would take for JJ to weigh
in on this. It wasn't whether or not he would,
although I guess that should have been a question, because
it was just.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
That the I'm sure he made sure that TJ was
fine with mentioning this. He hadn't had his lung punctured
by a needle. So around noon today, if you heard
yesterday on the show, we mentioned that these Steelers put
out a release saying that he had been checked into
the hospital and he was having an issue with a
breathing basically a lung issue, and JJ posted today TJ
had successful surgery yesterday to stabilize and repair partially collapsed

(53:54):
lung suffered Wednesday after a dry needling treatment session at
the Fat Sounds so Fain Recovery Timeline. TBD all went
well being released from the hospital today. He and his
family appreciated everyone's kind words and well wishes. The Steelers
game this weekend, he was indicated they did. Mike Tomlin

(54:15):
indicated today he will not play in their game this weekend,
and isn't it a Monday game though it is the
Monday night game. The Steelers are hosting the Miami Dolphins,
two teams still with playoff hopes.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Crazy as Miami has won four games in a row.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yes, the Tua taga I Looa Mike McDaniel led Dolphins
have the same record as the Pat Mahomes Andy Reid
led Kansas City Chiefs. Does much of those coaches was
sitting on a pile of heat earlier this year. The
other one has multiple rings. Ye see heater on it.
I mean you think he keeps his job after this now,

(54:51):
coach McDaniel.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yeah, it's interesting because crazy as that was a few
weeks ago they fired their GM, so they must not
think they've put together a particularly good roster, at least
to some former fashion. But he can be the scapegoat
if you wanted to say, all right, we just had
a bad year, let's regroup, which happens, by the way,
all the time in the NFL, and coaches keep their
jobs and then the next season they bounce.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Back just again. I think we were paying attention a
little bit when they went out and beat the Bills.
The way they did that was a very surprising result.
It got them the first of those four consecutive wins.
They won thirty to thirteen. It was a convincing They
just severely outplayed Buffalo, and then they beat the Commanders,
who are quarterback lists, the Saints who are quarterback lists,

(55:35):
and the Jets, who are also quarterbackless. So a record
as nice as six and seven sounds after you started
two and seven, Sure you'll take it, but I don't
think it's much of an indication that the Dolphins, even
without Tyreek Hill, who's been hurt most of the year, now,
is they're headed in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
No.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
I mean, look, it's they finished with the Steelers, Bengals, Bucks,
and Patriots. All of those teams other than the Bengals,
who have an unhappy Joe, are playing for something, and
maybe the Dolphins will be two. But I don't know
if when we get to Stone Cold Locks, anybody jumped
in on Steelers' Dolphins, But we'll see. I did not.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
But I can tell you this, this is again just
the latest example, and we'll play emay next segment. Don't worry,
we've already screwed that up. There's just not enough time
now there is just this is why, this is the
biggest reason, in my opinion, why the NFL is king,
because even though it's not even the expected version of

(56:34):
what we always get, which is the P word parody,
it's still, bottom line, that is the name of the
game in the NFL. When you have the Denver Broncos
and the New England Patriots each with eleven and two
record high atop the AFC standings in a year where
you're probably not gonna have Pat Mahomes in the playoffs,
You're probably not gonna have Lamar Jackson in the playoffs.

(56:56):
And although you're gonna have Josh Allen the playoffs, his
TA currently sits as the sixth seed. None of that
was predicted even close at the beginning of this season,
and yet here we are.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
There's fourteen teams inside the playoff picture right now. Nine
of them currently have a two game winning streak or better.
There are eighteen teams not in the playoff picture right now.
One of them has a two game winning streak or better,
and it's the Dolphins.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Two of them have ten game winning streaks, and those
are the two at the top of the division or
the conference.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Yeah, might see both of them lose this weekend. We
shall see. I think we will. Frank Ross was talking yesterday,
as I mentioned, I think the idea of momentum and
what they've been doing was brought to his attention. He said,
winning streaks do not matter. Winning streaks. They really got
a game on Sunday. If we're not prepared for the
game on Sunday, if we haven't prepared for what the

(57:48):
special teams unit of the Cardinals are going to do,
then it doesn't matter if we want a hundred in
a row. He didn't say that, but you get the point,
and I think you see it in the standings. If
you're a player more than anything else, and you clearly
feel good about the things that you're doing, but there's
a point in time when you have it, like I
imagine because they reached ten, those two teams know they
have a ten game winning streak. But when it's with

(58:09):
seven or three or eight, I don't know that everybody
in the locker rooms like, yeah, we're on an eight
game winning streak. No, they're like, we're nine and two.
They know where they are on the standings, they know
what things have come to their favor because they've been winning,
but it is a weekly thing, and you know, we
haven't talked about it at all. Last night's game was
extremely unexpected and I can't believe we're this deep into

(58:30):
the season. There are only four games remaining for the
Carolina Panthers and they are in first place. They have
two games left with the Bucks, so those games will
still determine it. They can actually clinch the division in
two weeks, clinch a playoff ember last week clinched the
division with Bryce Young in his third season.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
You remember last week when we were talking about how much,
just how much al Michaels has lost his fastball.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Yeah, it's not in the system, but we could probably
reenact the call from last night's game winning last play
of the game field goal, which flipped a losing team
into a winning team. I'll be oult ready, Yeah, you'd
be the ball going through the uprights, all right, Tampa's
already used their time out here, so we should get
the kick here, Kirk.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
And there's the snap, and the kick is good, and
there's a bunch of people in Carolina probably celebrating the
kick just inside the upright. Oh, I forgot that part.
I mean, just Joe bucked it prior to Joe bucketting
at Personality.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
And it wasn't like there wasn't a bunch of lead up.
They were down twenty eight to fourteen. It was the
worst call by the last fifteen points of the game.
They converted a third and twenty eight and a fourth
and fourteen. I'm this particular drive.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Listen, if I'm a prime executive, I go in there
after the season is over and I say, al, sorry,
but here's why we're letting you go, or here's why
we're not renewing your contract or whatever the case. Just
I mean, it was brutal, And I think what makes
things like this more brutal is that you know what

(01:00:05):
they used to be. It just it sounded like he
didn't even want to be there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Yeah, there's too many other people that are much better
at it, that are on everybody else's payroll. And I
brought it up when we had the games like this
particular weekend because the Texans played at night, so I
watched a bunch of the other games with lesser paid,
lower profile announcers who are all better than Collins wad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
They should be That should be Kevin Harlan, that should
be Kevin Harlan's spot.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
I really believe it all right. When we get back
emy Udoka.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety, we worked.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
With some gifted and talented people. Before we get to
the conversation that Matt Thomas and Rossville Real had with Rockets,
heead coach Immy Doka an update on the Texans from
an injury standpoint, as it came out just a couple
of minutes ago, just as I described earlier and I
suspected it would be this way. No injury designation for
what he marks. No injury designation for Kamari Lasterer, same

(01:00:59):
for Sheldon Rankins and Denico Autry. All of those players
other than Kamari Laster we're also full participants as listed
on the injury report in practice today, but all four
with no injury designation are expected to be out there
and play. Questionable for both Nick Chubb and EJ. Speed
limited today for Chubb, limited all week for EJ. Speed

(01:01:20):
if he is unable to go, I would imagine that
you might see Christian Harris playing linebacker for the Texans
for the first time in a while. Has you've been
active the last handful of games, but only via special
team's work. The two other players listed questionable are Justin
Watson and Harris and Bryant wide receiver and tight end respectively.
Though they're actually not on the roster yet, their twenty
one day practice window was opened this week, they're both

(01:01:41):
still on IR and both are unlikely to be activated
this week. They have depth at both spots already and
unlikely that they'll be taking somebody's roster spot before Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
All Right, Rockets got to win last night over the
Clipper Clippers one fifteen thirty. It was not sexy, it
was not esthetically pleasing, it was not pretty, and it
was just as effective as it would have been if
they had one by forty, like I dumbly predicted on
yesterday's show. But as you can imagine, Ema Udoka had

(01:02:16):
some issues with what went on in that game, and
you heard that after the game. But I'm always interested
to hear what he has to say about the team
after he slept on it, and fortunately for us, he
joins the Matt Thomas Show with Ross featuring Ross each
and every week, and today was that day this week,
following that win over the Clippers and preceding a ridiculous

(01:02:37):
road trip to take the Rockets over the holiday week.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Yeah, it was asked if he felt like maybe they
were rusty during a first half. They they didn't blow
out the Clippers in the first or second half, but
specifically did he feel like they were rusty in the
first half.

Speaker 10 (01:02:51):
Yeah, it felt like we were in mind a little bit,
especially in the first half. You know their team that
we want to play with some pace, get up and
down and then really move them, and it felt like
we were playing at their pace and a little bit
slower than we would have liked in the first half.
Credit to Read and Aaron and some of our bench
guys coming in and kind of injecting some energy and
some juice into the game, and that's what really helped

(01:03:12):
us get the lead.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
In the third quarter.

Speaker 11 (01:03:13):
That was a really good quarter, and in fact, Kevin
was probably in his best and that during the game.
Is he and you've known him for a very long
period of time, does sometimes a game come to him
and he goes, all right, I'll take what they give me,
and then sometimes you have to force his way Because
it felt like to me, especially after the way he
kind of performed the first half, that he had a
little bit of extra spice and is going and he

(01:03:34):
wanted to get things going offensive for himself in the
third quarter in particular.

Speaker 10 (01:03:38):
Yeah, definitely. I mean he's gonna, you know, let the
game dictate. Teams are going after him.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
He has no problem getting off the ball and letting
other guys be the recipients.

Speaker 10 (01:03:47):
But at the same time, you still want to be
aggressive and look to your spots and your shots, and
you know, at times if they're doubling and we're picking
them apart and you're up fifteen to twenty, teams have
to kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
Relax on that and he'll get loose.

Speaker 10 (01:03:59):
But it being a close game, their game plan was
seeming to work in the first half, so he up
to his aggression up this pace. I think we set
some really good screens and he got downhill a little bit,
got to his spots.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
Well, I like to congratulate you, coach.

Speaker 12 (01:04:12):
This will be about the five hundred time you've been
asked about turnovers this season, So congratulations on that. But
in terms of you know, a lot of talk about
improving the turnovers and not playing in a crowd, and
so what is that process for you, like working with
the team how much is that game tape or practice
or talking to guys individually, What are the are the
steps that you take to trying to improve that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
It's literally all the above that you just mentioned.

Speaker 10 (01:04:34):
Obviously, we point out in film sessions with the with
the group, you know, especially halftime we had we had
nine or nine and halftime and I think we up
to ten in the second half. So we talked about
the reason that they're in the game is because we're
gifting them these points and then didn't get.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
Much better than the second half. So we do that
a lot of individual.

Speaker 10 (01:04:52):
Work with you know, defenders and showing the crowd and
wanted to get off the ball, and then like you said,
individual meetings well and understanding the opera and Kevin the
attention they're going to draw, and you know, for our
guys getting to their spacing, you know, sprinting to the
outlets and kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
Not just leaving these guys on the island. And so
we'll go about a little bit differently.

Speaker 10 (01:05:13):
Obviously with Fred in the past, our turnovers has gone
down significantly with him handling, but we got multiple guys. Now,
Kevin's gonna initiate times. Alpera is going to initiate. Our
men's going to initiate and it leads to some of that,
but the balance that it will bring us in the
end of the season I think will pay off.

Speaker 11 (01:05:30):
Does Alpi still a practice? Is bringing the ball up
a courting?

Speaker 9 (01:05:34):
Mean?

Speaker 11 (01:05:34):
Is that a science? Is that just key fundamentals of
being a basketball player? Because you do give him quite
a bit of responsibility and doing that, you.

Speaker 10 (01:05:42):
Know, he starts our past break and I think some
teams that you know, we have twenty four at fast
break points a big part of him and I'm in
rebounding and pushing, and you know, it's great to have
a center that can leave the break and get out
and run and kind of find guys all over the
court and just puts an extra amount of pressure on
defenders and so something he does naturally, well, we encourage it.
Of course, he's one of our best passers and more

(01:06:04):
cerebral players, and so we want.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
Him to do that every chance he gets.

Speaker 11 (01:06:08):
I'm sure you man, if we were doing Denver Radio,
we would say, well, Jokic does this, but I'm worried
about the rocket says, are you the assist combination of
a men to Alpi?

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
And then vice versa.

Speaker 11 (01:06:21):
How many combinations in the NBA can do that where
each guy works as well with each other to finish
the baskets on the outfitsive side of the floor.

Speaker 10 (01:06:28):
Yeah, it's a uniqueness that they have both guys can
handle or be the recipient setting the screen and rolling
and popping and all those things so tough to guard,
you know, put people in different positions. But a man
work so well either way, you know, handling or sending
those screens and getting hit under.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
He's great. You know, some hard rolls last night, and
he's done that over the last year.

Speaker 10 (01:06:51):
It's not just been a ball handler, but played in
the dunker Playton's you know, setting screens and doing some
different things.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
So he has a lot more versatility to his game. Now.

Speaker 11 (01:06:59):
You may there are James Harden fans in this town,
and you and I talked before the game about the
amount of times against the free throw line, and that
wasn't much of an issue. In fact, I think more
than half their shots last night were from three. That
seems like not nearly as prevalent as it was four
or five years ago. But was that a huge part
of this kind of report is you know, what if
they're going to take those three, give them their chances
and kind of live and die by what they do

(01:07:19):
permanal wise.

Speaker 10 (01:07:21):
And you know Kawhi Leonard only got three and Harden
only got five, and so you know, we know those
guys are two of the most hardens, averaging nine and
Kauai about five and a half, you know, kind of foulbators,
and so we wanted to be disciplined, show our hands
and other than one one slapped down and think by
Reid and then the foul on the three pointed by
Jabbari did a pretty pretty good job on James, you know,

(01:07:42):
making them finish shots and Kui as well. So the
three pointers we were living with certain guys. We showed
a crowd and encourage other guys to shoot.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
It made a few early, but the numbers came back
to their norm and I think that really helped us out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
What do you think about.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
James Harden fraternizing with e May and the rest of
the team after the game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Yeah, I kept an eye on that a little bit
before Reid put on the headset to talk to us,
which was pretty quick. Surprisingly, hugged for Kevin Durant, hug
for e May, handful of others. Clint Capella obvious a rarity,
but a teammate here in Houston. It's always been like
that though, And when people on the outside of the
NBA media basically fans talk about James this, James that negatively,

(01:08:26):
it's not often mirrored by his teammates. Well, it's it's
often the opposite from his teammates. Not always, but often.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Yeah, speaking of James, he had some kind words for
e May and the rest of the Rockets organization following
last night's loss. The Clippers latest they're a six win team.
He's not used to that, and he definitely wasn't used
to that here in Houston. So when it started happening
here in Houston, he forced his way out. And now
three teams later, he's on the Clippers losing to the

(01:08:53):
Rockets in Houston. But like I said, he complimented them,
and you'll hear him do just that. When we come
back City Home Network, wexsay, see Josh Jordan with you.
We take you into the weekend. Texans Cards Rockets just kidding.
They're not playing again for three days, but when they
do resume their schedule, it'll be in Denver for the

(01:09:14):
first of two times this upcoming week that they'll be
in the Mile High City makes perfect sense. Got a
game in Denver, come back to New Orleans, got another
game in Denver. It's great scheduling.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
I know, I know they had the NBA Cup and
all that kind of stuff factored into it. It was
supposed to be a trip from Houston to New Orleans, right,
and then to the West Coast. Right, perfect sense? And
now what now's less sense that I was wondering what
the description would be, and well, you nailed it. But
they were pretty much relegated to be a West Coast
game regardless with the teams available. Let me ask you this,

(01:09:46):
one of them was going to be here, which was
last night. One of them was going to be there
most likely it was a West Coast game, and so
you could have it just was gonna be.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
It was gonna be like this.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
Why do they both have to be in Denver? Because
they were always going to be in Denver, but they
only added one Denver game, that's the game on Monday.
Why couldn't it be here since they're playing in New Orleans.
It could Denver could have come here on the eleventh
yesterday and then the Rockets could have gone to LA
on the fifteenth. I would have rather done that, Go
to LA on the fifteenth, then come back to New Orleans,
then go to Denver, then go to Sacramento, then go

(01:10:15):
back to LA. League was doing them a favor. No,
I'm just saying they only have so many options with
the available teams and so many of them being out
west because of how the NBA Cup Like, look who
advanced in the NBA Cup. Well, two teams from your
division advance, so you can't play them San Antonio and
Oklahoma City, the other LA team and Phoenix. You know

(01:10:37):
how you avoid this? You don't have the stupid cup thing.
You just put an eighth. You recognize that they're going
to be leaving on the fourteenth for Denver. They're going
to play a game, and then they'll come back to Houston,
and then they'll stay in Houston for a full day
and then they'll take the extremely short trip to New
Orleans the next day. I'm just it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
I guess I'm petty when it comes to this because
you've gotten all these days on either side of these games,
after playing two back to backs the week prior, where
you played five games in seven days. I just make
it a normal schedule by not having this hokey thing
you do, all right. I know you think I care
about it too much. I do.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
I don't care. I know you don't. That's why we
bring it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
I'm not alone in this either. There's a lot of
people that are like, this is just forced.

Speaker 2 (01:11:23):
Right, This is is the only one the first time
anyone's complained about their schedule. If the NBA Cup has
nothing to do with the complaints. Everybody complains about the
schedule every year, no matter what. So you actually found
a way to make it worse for a week. So
what if somebody got hurt during this span? Somebody is
gonna get hurt during this span. Talk on the Rockets.
I hope it doesn't happen to them.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
Me too.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
I mean, guys don't get hurt specifically because man, we
worked the We asked these guys to play too much basketball.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
You know who's hurt for the Clippers their pride, Well
that obviously Bradley Beal, But he didn't fact.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
I mean, if they didn't have so many games and
so many knights, he wouldn't have fallen on his hip
and broken it. Seriously, does that not sound like the
most eighty year old injury. What is he ninety fell
and broke his hip? Well, check did it two years ago.
Last man? Probably because they had too many games. Shit
at age twenty three.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
I fallen and I can't get up. He fell from
a pretty hut he got He fell from a high
place because he's at seven foot or wex no, because
he jumps, well, then don't jump. Why you jumping your
seven old? He was doing was playing basketball. He got hurt,
He's gonna get hurt again, and it's not gonna matter.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
That's why.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
That's how much I hate the Thunder, because it's just
not gonna matter when they get hurt. They've got so
much depth. Oh and they have all the draft picks.
They have all the picks. Not the kind of picks,
remember the Dennis Larry thing. We've got the bombs, They've
got the picks. They've got all the picks. They've got
the Rockets pick this year, they have your pick this year,
they've got my pick this year.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
They have all the picks. Yes, the Oklahoma City Thunder
potentially have a very high draft pick this year because
the Clippers are awful.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
I hate them. I hate them for this, and the
Clippers are the ones that started this mess. They're the
ones that traded Shay Gildess Alexander his rookie year because
their personnel people were so dumb they couldn't see. How
do you not see a guy like Shay is going
to at least approach what he has become.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Well, I'll ask you this, do you think it was
easier to see this coming for him versus easier to
see what James Harden did with Houston and beyond. Oh,
here's the deal, because I know you've been You've backed
a position of he was so good there, he just
was relegated to a six man role. You could see
the talent in his game. He's one of the reasons
they advanced in the postseason. He got them to the

(01:13:43):
NBA Finals with his Western Conference play. And I don't
disagree with any of it. I just did not even
remotely come close by saying I saw this coming. And
I would say the same thing about Shaye.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
You know what's funny is his first two games out
of the gate for the Rockets were spectacular.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
We all remember what he did. It was Detroit and Atlantas.
I recall it's probably because before those two games he
told the head coach the same thing he told the
current head coach, give me the ball. I am the offense.
Well he was back then because your star. Yeah he
never was before.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Yeah, but your prize offseason acquisition prior to acquiring James
Harden at the eleventh hour was stupid.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Jeremy Lynn. It's no offense to him, but much like
doesn't sound like it either.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
Okay, but listen to me and you guys, you can
be revisionist historians all you want, but that offseason we're
talking about twenty twelve, you go out, you signed Jeremy
Lynn for what cachet Because there's no one in their
right mind.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
Darryl Moury I would tell this to his face.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
You didn't think that Jeremy Lynn was the guy that
was linsanity for six weeks. You know why, because it
was a little six week thing while Carmelo was out
and he was getting the ultimate green light. Jeremy Lynn
was never going to be a superstar in this league,
and it bore itself out over time.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
I don't think anyone thought he was going to be. Honestly,
the people were trying to gms that were in there
trying to.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
Convince me that this was this like huge signing, and
I'm like, they're gonna win forty games tops this year
with Jeremy Lynn is the lynchpin of whatever this is
gonna be, just like they had been doing at that
point because their best player was Kevin Martin, they did
not have a good roster. Conversely, I saw what James
Harden had done and I was like, Oh, this is awesome.
You're gonna give him the ball whenever he wants. This

(01:15:27):
is gonna be great. And it was first two games
out of the box he scored. I don't know what
he scored against Detroit versus Atlanta. I know one of
those games was a forty burger. And remember the shot
of Darryl Morey in the stands. That's why we bleeping
got that guy. That's one of my favorite moments of
his tenure. But all that is to say he is

(01:15:47):
not in that place now. And when he was asked
about this rebuild by the Rockets, he had a very
interesting answer, We're im gonna play it now because we've
run out of time, because that's what we do. But
it it didn't surprise me in the sense that he recognizes,
you know, a good basketball team when he sees one.
It was just more surreal to hear him in the

(01:16:10):
visitors locker room at Toyota Center, on his third team
since leaving the Rockets, talk about how fantastic they are.
It just blows my mind that this is how it
all went, and it went this way in a relatively
short amount of time. So when we start the four
o'clock hour, we will get to that. We will also
let you hear from someone who is He's a guy

(01:16:32):
who's a serial sayer of dumb things and he's at
it again.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
We'll let you hear that when we come back Talks
seven to ninety. It is the A team.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
It is Sports Talk seven ninety and Space City Home Network.
It's wexit's AC. It is Josh Jordan as we take
you until six o'clock tonight and into the weekend. We
were talking last segment about you know, we heard what
ema Udoka had to say about the Rockets and talking
about the team being a little rusty in the first half.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Potentially, or at least he was asked about that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
One person that was asked about the Rockets following the
game was giving a sound bite in the visitors locker room,
not a place he's necessarily been used to over the years,
seeing as how he usually just kept on walking towards
the Rockets locker room for most of the time he
was here in Houston. But now he's going to the
visitors locker room. We're talking about James Harden. We're talking
about a guy who is at the end of his career.

(01:17:24):
And I guess I think you put it this way
yesterday kind of being asked to carry the clippers right now.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
I mean, we can't bother Kawhy to do something like that.
I mean, carry the clippers offensively, stand around and watch
people do stuff, and don't box out and don't even
have your face facing the basket on rebound attempts. Oftentimes
you don't want the ball at the end of the
game kind of stuff. I know, he hit the three
to tie the game, but after that, hey, you guys
got this. I know we have an inbounds play down too,

(01:17:52):
but certainly not asking you to pass it to me.
I want somebody else to take it in and then
I'll bust it to get open so you can find me,
which doesn't happen ever in any game if he doesn't
have the ball at the onset of a possession, he
not involved.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
That's true. I mean, it's it's it's kind of sad,
but it's not really surprising. And it made this conversation
all the more surreal because James Harden was asked about
the Rockets rebuild and I just he said nice things.
Obviously I figured he would, but it's just crazy because
in some weird way, and I don't even mean this

(01:18:27):
in necessarily James's mind, I'm talking about all the guys
that are still wishing the Rockets would somehow bring him
back here. Don't you feel like those types of people,
and maybe even James to an extent, want to be
given They want James to be given credit for what
the Rockets have built. I mean, if he didn't demand
his way out in that fat suit, none of this
is ever happening, right, That's how they look at things.

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
I'm telling you people with egos like that, it would
not be surprising if that had if that thought had
crossed his mind.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Oh, you're I'm talking about James specifically. I'm talking about James,
and I'm talking about James Sam stuff. Yeah, I don't
really care what they think, because there couldn't be more
clueless about it from what I gather about how they
think about where his career is, what he could do
for a good team. But does James think that like
there's some credit that needs to be heaped upon him
for the trade that he the only trade that mattered

(01:19:20):
while he was with the Rockets that he didn't basically
orchestrate himself. He orchestrated that trade. He's not the one
who got them all those assets. He got them all
the other assets and all the other trades he forced
them to make. Well, he pushed his way out of
town and they got it back. Yep, but they could
have had Ben Simmons. Would he want credit for that? No, right,
because he doesn't have anything to do with it. Well,

(01:19:42):
he was the guy traded, but he's not pulling the
strings like he was for all the other deals. He
was telling Daryl Moore, he make this deal, make that deal,
to do this, do that, telling Darryl, I think you
should go get Philadelphia's assets, get draft picks. I wouldn't
look at Ben Simmons as an asset. But yeah, it
did go down.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
And he was asked last night about this rebuild and
how it's quickly become a contending team.

Speaker 8 (01:20:08):
Amazing, you know what I mean, Like i'fee and and
a man and you know Guyabari.

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
Uh, they're bill.

Speaker 8 (01:20:15):
They got some very very good structure and obviously you
had Katie instead mix and then you have the vets
around him, you know what I mean, and Steven Adams
and you know other guys like that. So, uh, you
know they're a good team.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
Do you think that somewhere deep down, considering he was
brought back in for kind of an interview with Ima Udoka,
you think, deep down here regrets it not working out
to where he came back here.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
Uh that I could say there's a maybe there he might,
but it doesn't look like the way he plays basketball.
He doesn't changed the thing. He plays the same way
he has for the last decade plus. He's just not
quite as capable of doing some of those things. Gives
the same amount of effort defensively, Occasionally he's not part
of the offense, so he doesn't even buy coming within
forty feet of the basket. He just hangs out at

(01:21:02):
the logo and not to shoot it because he's not involved,
and he gets lost on defense all the time. It's
just there's things that he just never really cared to do.
The Rockets were geniuses in figuring out what he could
do defensively. Well, you're huge, and you don't like to
run around the perimeter, so why don't you hang out
in the paint because he was a good paint defender.

(01:21:23):
He was a good post defender. He was actually above
average at that. Well, he doesn't do that really ever.
I don't remember him doing it in any of the stops.
He's made sense here, and he certainly doesn't do it
with the Clippers. He still could. He probably could. He's
even bigger now. It's it's hard to hide him on
a roster. The Rockets actually put a roster together where
they didn't even reluctantly put him down there. They gladly

(01:21:45):
put him there. It's they had to put a roster
together that could compensate for that. No other team has
done that. The other teams that he's played for don't.
I really don't think they understand that. Well, half the
game you have the ball, and half the game you don't,
and half the game you don't. That he's on the
court for thirty five minutes a night. Well, you're playing
five on four and it's tough. I mean, they are

(01:22:05):
just countless instances. Last night I wasn't even focusing on
It was just impossible to miss to miss it right,
it's a glaring And when I think I said yesterday,
and I quote myself, they don't give a crap. They
the team played like they do last night. Kawhi did, done,
did tomb did. Obviously, Zubots did. I think Kawhi did.

(01:22:27):
But they also aren't quite as good as as their
former careers suggest. Outside of Zubots, he's still playing at
a probably the highest level of his career, but nobody
else is, well, nobody else on the entire roster.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
The funny thing about that is that Vanessa Richardson actually
said this last night on the broadcast. Afterwards, she and
Calvin were talking about the rosters that were involved in
that game last night. And you can't prove this because
you can't necessarily get into all their minds, but I
absolutely agree with what she said, which was that there's

(01:23:00):
talent you can put on a roster that will play,
and then there's talent on the roster you put together
that actually likes playing with each other. And I think
the Rockets are that team, and I think the Clippers
are the first team that she mentioned.

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
Yeah, I didn't see any lack of not wanting to
be out there with one another.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
No, not that, but just from the standpoint of it's
because it's a good fit, because everybody has bought into
the system.

Speaker 2 (01:23:24):
Like, I'm sorry, but is Tyler not the most overrated
coach in the history something buying into the system? Who's
buying into the system on the Rockets? All their recent
draft picks, right, mm hmm, Okay, why wouldn't they They
they kind of have to. That's kind of what is happening.
Why would I not like this? Well, I'm winning, I'm
Jabbar is a big part of things. Alpern's a huge

(01:23:45):
part of things. A men's a huge part of things.
Reed Shepherd, you know, put some work into the offseason.

Speaker 1 (01:23:50):
Now he's a huge part of Course they buy They
weren't buying into Steven Silas a lot of those name
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:23:55):
So these are the same guys, right, but now there's
something to believe in, and they're young and impressionable, and
they have the veterans we talked about. The first group
that you know, obviously Fred's still here. But you know
when all those guys came in together to help install
all of this attitude that they have, and they play
a certain way because they have an attitude. So it's
all about believing in it. Well, go go to the
other team, just last night's opponent. They have zero young

(01:24:21):
talent on the team. There's not even one. The last
team in the league, Well, there's nothing to believe in.
They're all individual basketball players now, but that play as
a five man team. By the way, how much do
you think Jeff van Gundhi is in hell right now?
I actually had to look on the X platform during
the second half of last night's game to see if
somebody with the Clippers had posted anything that said Tylo

(01:24:42):
has gone to the locker room or tylu is ill
because I was looking on their bench. They have ten
assistant coaches. One of them is extremely easy to recognize
when you're sitting behind the bench up one hundred feet.
That's Jeff. Very easy to see his left head, yes,
and it's it says very light skin tone. Many of
the other coaches, especially since I don't know them by face,

(01:25:05):
is quite as well as I do. Tye and him.
There was one coach walking up and down the bench
the coach's box from where they sit all the way
to the scores table, and it was Jeff for about
a seventy five second stretch. And I looked on their bench,
I'm like, that might be ty Lou's still sitting there.
But why is he sitting there when the assistant is
walking up and down the bench. I don't want to

(01:25:25):
say Tylo's over eighted, Like, how could I put this
on him? What is he doing wrong? Unless you want
to say the inbounds pass was wrong? But that's a
player's fault. Man, Bogdanovic is out there, Leonard's out there,
eighty year old Batom is inbounding it, and the beard
is out there. Do you need to coach them to
go get the ball? Do you need to run a play?
They made a free throw. You have no time outs.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Everybody knows that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:48):
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 1 (01:25:49):
Let's just keep it to Los Angeles, swap the two
head coaches. Do you think jj Reddit gets more out
of this roster?

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
He might get more out of this roster, but he
would definitely blow up more. Oh my god, he blows
up every day. He blows up at the Lakers roster
all the time, and it doesn't even matter who you are.
He's blown up at all their stars. He's blown up
at everybody last year and this year's roster. And they
also play very good basketball. They do play much more cohesive,
for sure than the Clippers. But I mean, look at

(01:26:17):
any good team in the league, and you know, some
of these might be not quite as young as the
Rockets cores, but all these good teams have something to
build on the players that want to buy in because
they're young and learning, and hey, man, this is great,
We're winning basketball games. Here's my role.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
You know, I like it here.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
It might not be true for every player on the Rockets,
but for the most most of the guys in the
rotation currently and healthy, it is. And and the Clippers
just don't have that. They don't have anybody. There's nothing
there for them, like and they added Chris Paul to it,
like come on, man.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
Yeah, it's by the way, seeing just they're probably not
even rumors, not even that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
And I said I liked what they did in the
off season. I can't help but remind people how stupid
I was, because I can't believe that.

Speaker 13 (01:27:00):
The same.

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
The only thing that's truly different is they don't have
Norman Powell, who was awesome for them last year and
even better this year in Miami, and it totally derailed them.
They needed somebody else that could put the ball in
the basket with regularity without having to lean on Leonard
or Harden, who may or may not. I mean, obviously
Harden's gonna be there, but Leonard might not be out there,

(01:27:22):
and he could fantastic shooter. They're missing all of those
things this year and they're relying on only three players.
I mean, my god, I said it three times during
the broadcast. The lack of respect the Rockets showed for
Chris Dunn when he was on the court offensively was
it was shocking. It was john He's not a terrible player,
he's just and he's not a terrible three point shooter either,

(01:27:44):
but they just didn't. I thought it hurt the Rocket's
rotations because they were so unused to playing defense where
they didn't care about one of the players that was
out there.

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
He fouled Jabari like three times before Jabari caught him
in the face, and then he flopped to embellish the contact.
In that review, and stupid Mark Lindsay, who looks like discount.
Adam Kinzinger is one of the worst officials in the NBA.
That's rapidly climbing the charts in that group.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
The Rockets Radio Network broadcast last night, the analyst said
he thought they got the call correct. Well, the analyst
was wrong. That's me. Yeah, I know, I know who
it is. He was between Done and Batom. Batom definitely
fouled him, but it was also definitely after Jabbari hit
Done in the face. I just didn't think there was
enough contact to warrant a common foul on one of

(01:28:29):
the Clippers players before the contact of the face. Well,
you're wrong, and we'll hear from Ryan Clark when we come.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
Back the A.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
So, if you were to take the most extreme position.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
On the Colts, potentially starting Philip Rivers at quarterback, what
might that sound like. Let's just say you're Adam Wexler
ESPN analyst, and you may Let's just say, for the
sake of argument, you've been told by the producers we're
gonna need you to really cook up a hot take here.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
What would you go with? How many years do I
have left on my contract?

Speaker 9 (01:29:08):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:29:09):
You're good, you're protected, you have a good standing in
the company, and you are absolutely under club control.

Speaker 2 (01:29:17):
I cannot believe the state of developing quarterbacks in the NFL.
This is embarrassing for every GM, every scout, our, every
coach in the NFL. Forty four year old grandfather, Philip rivers,
this is the best we can do fourteen weeks into
the season. Fourth on the depth chart coaching high school football,
ten kids, one grandkid. This is the best the Colts

(01:29:39):
can come up with. Let's get it together, people. That's
not bad. It's actually not far off from what Ryan
Clark had to say. Well, I also you asked me
to do something, so it also might indicate that I'm
ill informed. Well, who's to say that he wasn't asked
to say something like that. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:29:57):
I don't know, though.

Speaker 1 (01:29:58):
I don't know how it goes on there at the
Letter Network. They've got some real boy, They've got some
real talent working there these days. I'll tell you Ryan
Clark another day, another week of him just going off
on whatever, doesn't really need to be prompted or anything
like that. This was his thoughts on the Colts potentially

(01:30:18):
starting Philip Rivers.

Speaker 2 (01:30:20):
I believe this is foul.

Speaker 6 (01:30:22):
As the question asked, I believe this is incompetent, and
I also believe it is irresponsible.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
This is not Michael Jordan coming.

Speaker 6 (01:30:29):
Back to play basketball after three years off of the
Washington Wizards. This is a man in Philip Rivers, who
was always a stationary target, taking five years off to
coach high school football and then come back to play
against the Seattle Seahawks. Who will get after your keyster
if you were freaking Michael Vick. The one thing that

(01:30:51):
Riley Leonard can do, because I watched him do it
for fifteen games last year, is get out of the way.
He's been working out. He's been prepared to be an
NFL quarterback. Philip Rivers has not to care how much
you handed to John at the tailor. I don't care
how great you think your defense could play. Philip Rivers
should not be starting this game.

Speaker 2 (01:31:12):
Incompetent and irresponsible. He was just talking about health. I mean,
he's worried about Philip Rivers getting hurt. He can't get
out of the way. He's too old. He no longer
can move like he used to as during his nearly
twenty years in the NFL. He has yet to play
defense more capable than the Seattle Seahawks and hundreds and

(01:31:35):
almost hundreds of NFL games, he's never been in this
situation before where he was slow a foot and needed
to get rid of the ball quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:31:44):
In all seriousness, like, how much of this decision that
the Cults made has to do with familiarity over everything else.

Speaker 2 (01:31:53):
It's gotta be the number one day priority. Dumb to
say more than one hundred percent, right, because there's no
such thing. No, all right, well, I'll leave it at
one hundred. Then, no, you can say more one hundred
and twenty percent. More that sounds dumb, I'll say the
one hundred percent. I'll leave it at the number that
makes sense. And he knows that. That's why I said
what I said earlier this week when they did it.
I get it. I completely get it. And the other

(01:32:14):
part of it is you gotta give me. His alternative
is they need to start Riley Leonard, which is fine.
I don't think that's a terrible idea either. And they
haven't even committed to Philip Rivers yet, so it's still
possible that Riley Leonard starts. Maybe they watched Philip Rivers
take first team reps and throw the football and said,
man can he can still throw the football, okay, but
there's no way we're going to be able to operate

(01:32:35):
our offense with him. We just can't do it. And
they might not even bring him up. You have him,
he could be the emergency quarterback on the practice squad.
And where Daniel Jones seventeen Jersey that he's letting him
wear the rest of this year because he's on IR
and NFL allowed it. Texans did the same thing by
the way they issued the number of fully fought Akasi
to Naikwan Jones. Fadakasi is still on the roster. He

(01:32:56):
just on IR, but number ninety one is gonna be
warm by somebody else if they need him. But they
haven't even gotten to that point. We're here at Friday
and they haven't announced it. I don't think this is
a competitive advantage thing for the Colts heading into this weekend.
You can have whatever opinion you want, but it does
sound almost like you're ignoring what I'm sure you know

(01:33:18):
at some point during your time seated at that desk
and whatever prep you do, and whatever information they feed
the people that are on the air.

Speaker 1 (01:33:25):
He's aware.

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
I mean, heck, I've even seen video of much younger
Shane Stikeen and equally old Philip Rivers on the Chargers
sideline sidelines talking to each other during a game. One
of them's wearing a headset. He's the coach, well that
is the head coach running the offense that Philip Rivers
knows very very well. There's nobody on the street, there's
nobody on anybody other's, anybody else's practice squad other than

(01:33:47):
Sam Ellinger, who knows their offense better. And before they
finalize things with Philip Rivers, they did reach out to Ellinger.
Ellinger's been with the Colts for a couple of years.
He's now on the Broncos practice squad, and rather than
being signed to the Colts active roster, he chose to
stay with Sean Payton, their quarterback crew, and be a

(01:34:09):
part of their practice squad for the remainder of the year.
So then they signed Philip Rivers. You know how badly
I want the Colts to win now, I mean, I
just want him to be I don't want him to
get hurt anything else. I don't really have much of
a I don't really. I don't want the week well,
I don't want the Colts to win because the idea
that the Texans missed the playoffs is based on only

(01:34:31):
one team. It's them. They're the only team that I
think can keep the Texans for making the playoffs. So
I prefer they don't win. Well, they won't. I don't
think they're gonna win.

Speaker 3 (01:34:42):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
If they win this game and their last game, they're
not going to beat the Texans. Though, pretty tough over there.
They're not going to beat the Texans. Okay, they're gonna
play I mean, I mean you just said, I can't.
I want them to win badly. They're playing the Seahawks
this week. If they can beat the Seahawks, they can
definitely beat the Texans.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
That game against the Texans, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:35:01):
At impossible to win. Best home field advantage ever at
Archie Stadium, Yeah, house of horrors for all who visit.
It's loud there, loud it can be. I mean it was. Listen.
I will tell you if anybody cannot handle a silent count,
it's going to be a seventeen year vet like Philip Rivers. Yeah, well,

(01:35:22):
I can tell you this.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
When the battle red night against Josh Allen and the
Bills on Thursday Night Football. That place in that especially
in the fourth quarter when they were having to make
those plays, it's as loud as I've heard of it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
Okay, I'm okay with the Texans making the playoffs this
year and then us talking about it on the first
Monday of the pre opening round of the playoffs, saying,
just like I thought when the season started, the Texans
would beat the Ravens this year, they would beat the
Bills this year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:48):
They would beat the Chiefs this year and lose to
Philip Rivers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:52):
No way, no way, that is going to happen. But
it's opinion on this, it is it out of the ordinary.
It doesn't happen often. Making a comparison to Michael Jordan's, Wow,
that actually was the one that I thought made the
least sense. Of course, it's not that Michael Jordan was

(01:36:15):
trying to play basketball at a very high level and
win games for the Wizards when he was no longer capable.
Philip Rivers wasn't trying to come back to the NFL.
He wasn't planning this comeback. He didn't go get in
shape to become an NFL player. They called him and
saw and said, hey man, we think you can help
us because we're in dire straits. We have three quarterbacks,

(01:36:35):
only one of whom is healthy. Our fourth quarterback is
even worse than our third quarterback, and you might be
better than both of them, even if you're forty four
and our grandfather. What do you say, in all seriousness,
how do you think that conversation went. It probably wasn't
even out of the blue, because I bet you it
had been broached multiple times over the last couple of seasons,
pretty much since Shane Steichen became a head coach, because

(01:36:57):
we're led to believe from some of the reporting this
week that they had stayed in pretty close contact. They
talk offense because the offense that head coach Rivers runs
in high school with Gunn or his son is the
Colts offense, basically Shane's offense. It's about familiarity. It's not
that hard. We don't have to make this bigger than
it is. You know, if Cam Newton or any other

(01:37:19):
recently retired quarterback who probably is in pretty good shape,
had a strong, long term, still permanent relationship with an
OC or a head coach who was in a terrible
quarterback situation, and I imagine a phone call would get
made in that situation too. This is a very unique
situation that those other quarterbacks. I'm not even sure who

(01:37:41):
else i'd Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan has been called before
to join a team. It didn't make enough sense in
his mind to go do it. He's he was more
athletic and more capable of moving in the pocket and
running with the football if he had to. He didn't
do it very often, but he was more capable than Philip.
And he still said no. I mean, he's actually lost

(01:38:02):
weight since he played. If you've seen him, and Philip
Rivers has definitely not lost weight. Now, phil stop playing.
Philip's not missing any meals, and those meals are not salads.
You better quick get to the table quick with all
those people around the table. Also, although they don't all
live there anymore, I imagine his daughter and husband and
son don't live with them. Well, I bet Thanksgiving and

(01:38:23):
they were all back there. Maybe they had a football game.
Something tells me it's the biggest house in the family. Still,
we got to get a lot of people over here.
We want to have a Turkey Bowl. This weekend, we'll
get the Rivers family and then like twenty other families
so we can fill out another roster, because that would
be one side of it, would be the River's family.

Speaker 1 (01:38:40):
All right, We've got our signature segment every single Friday,
especially during football season, well only during football season. It's
our stone Cold Locks of the Week. I have had
not one, but two zero for five weeks. So let's
see if I can just get a win. It's pathetic, honestly,
my effort this year, especially in light of recent seasons

(01:39:01):
where I was far more respectable.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
But we'll give our picks on all the games coming
up this weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:39:06):
Next locks Stone signature segment time on a Friday, halfway
through our number three.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
That means we hit you with our stone cold locks
first weekend. Outside of conference title games, there are a
couple of college games this weekend, but as you heard
earlier this week, the panel on our selection committee for
a college football Game of the week decided you're not
forcing the crew here to pick one of those two

(01:39:37):
games to play as the college football game of the week,
but you can if you'd like. Otherwise, anything goes for
the four selections you make. Plus of course, Texans Cardinals.
Cardinals are nine and a half point underdogs. Chexas are
favored by almost ten points this weekend over to NRG
Stadium on Sunday afternoon. A couple of weeks ago, Josh

(01:39:58):
had his maiden voyage into the Stone, Cold Locks, Guns Blazing,
got four out of five games right. I warned him
that this has happened before. A producer has jumped onto
the scene and beginner's luck said, hey man, this is
easy four and one opening week. It's happened before. This
past week, as we'll see with our week fifteen results

(01:40:20):
board up on the screen, didn't go well. As a
team here, we are a team. It's the a team.
We work together. Sometimes well, we worked together to correctly
select four games. I got three of them, Josh got one.
You didn't get any zero for five for the second
time in three weeks. Guys can both go to where

(01:40:41):
you're riding a robust two and thirteen streak over the
last three weeks into a college football free if you
choose week of selections, you can't wait to go five
and zero. So I'm still flirting with trying to get
more right than I get wrong. Josh is right, at
five hundred, his ten selections five of winning. I just

(01:41:02):
need a lot of help too. Yeah, you're seventeen games
under five hundred, so to speak, seventeen picks under five hundred.
So we will leave Cardinals Texans for the end over
under a forty two and a half, and Josh let
her rip on your four other selections, which will hopefully,
in your case, move you above five hundred.

Speaker 14 (01:41:20):
Yeah, we shall see. I'm gonna go with the Lions
plus six at the Rams. Lions need this game for sure,
so I'm gonna take those points. I'm also gonna go
with the Broncos. They're at home plus two and a half.
Why not, I'm gonna take the points, hope.

Speaker 2 (01:41:34):
That's always the way to go when you go to
the window. Is this what you answer? Why not? Why not?

Speaker 4 (01:41:39):
What the hell?

Speaker 14 (01:41:40):
I'm also gonna take the Ravens minus two and a
half at the Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:41:43):
That man, you've seen that Bengals defense. It's so bad.
You saw what Josh Allen did to them.

Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
They played already this year, right.

Speaker 4 (01:41:48):
Yes, they did?

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
How that one go?

Speaker 14 (01:41:50):
Hey, Bengals won, And that's one of the ones I
predicted that I got right. Bengals plus seven time, So.

Speaker 2 (01:41:54):
What's the trend on that? Basically is that what you're playing?
It was a thirty two to fourteen game. That was
the thing, right, Yeah, Joe Burrow coming back. I just
had a good feel and I wanted the points. And
at the time Lamar was hurt, he was playing awful.

Speaker 4 (01:42:06):
So that's why I made that.

Speaker 2 (01:42:07):
So we'll flip it over to the Ravens in this case,
in your case, okay.

Speaker 14 (01:42:10):
Yeah, and then I'm also I'm gonna take the Patriots
at home plus one and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
I know the Bills are strong, but just give me
the points. I think it could be a tight game.

Speaker 2 (01:42:17):
All right, So in that game in particular, and I'll
go next because we rarely this doesn't happen very often.
I haven't looked through the entire list this season, but
a game where we have two people on the opposite side.
I have Bills minus one and a half, Josh has
Patriots plus one and a half. I'm hopeful it's more
than a why not do you feel like the Patriots?

(01:42:40):
I mean, at plus one and a half, technically they
don't have to win, but they're gonna win an eleventh
straight game. And sweep the season series against Josh Allen,
I think, is what you're saying. Yes, it's more about
the points. For me, I think it'll be close, all right.
I don't think the Bills are going to fall to
nine and five. I don't love the way they've playing.
I do think they are one of the you know,

(01:43:02):
they obviously they've played before and obviously the Patriots won.
I can't. I basically am like most people with the
Chiefs the last few years, and even though I'm watching
it every week, I'm having a hard time quitting them.
I can't believe they're gonna be They're gonna be nine
to five. They're gonna have a worst record than the Jaguars.
They're gonna have the same record as the Texans. They

(01:43:23):
have Josh Allen, they have James Cook. I know their
defense is awful, but I'll see if they can manage
to go into Mike Rabel's home and steal a victory.
So I'll take the Bills at minus one and a half.
I'm also playing Packers Broncos the under on that one though.
For me, got Chargers and Chiefs put some points on
the board. Heck, the Chargers offense was pretty awful last week.

(01:43:44):
Couldn't protect Justin Herbert at all and they still got
twenty two points. Game was sitting at forty one in overtime.
But this is the Chiefs offense that isn't playing the
Texans at home. So I'll take that game to go
over forty one and a half. I'll have a tiny, tiny,
tiny bit of belief in anybody playing against the Cowboys
can do a little something offensively. Full recognition, Jerry Jones

(01:44:06):
put together a better defense this far into the season
than the one they started with. But J Davin Clown
he's questionable, so that could be a factor. I'll take
that game to go over. Ceedee Lamb is good to go,
so hopefully it's not. Well we can't count on George Pickens.
Maybe they can now that Ceed's back out there and
we need your four now La see all right? Chargers

(01:44:27):
at Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (01:44:29):
I just feel like with the quarterbacks involved here, they
can combine to score more than forty one and a half.
So I'll take the over on that game. Same with
the Ravens at Bengals. I'm not getting bitten twice by
taking an under on a Bengals involved game since their
defense sucks, so I'll go over. Even though it's a
fifty one and a half on the number, I'm taking

(01:44:50):
the over on that. Conversely, much like a Texans game
these days, if the Broncos are involved, I'm gonna to
take the under because they can't score points very well
and the Packers against a good defense. I mean, Jordan
Love has been uneven at best this year, So when

(01:45:10):
the numbers forty two and a half, I'm actually gonna
take the under on that. That might be a little
bit of a risky pick, but it's not nearly as
risky as if I were to take under at Raiders Eagles,
seeing as how that numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:45:22):
Thirty eight and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:45:24):
So I feel like, even though Vegas always knows better
than anybody else, and even though it is the Raiders
and they suck and the Eagles have their own issues
right now, I just can't help but think they are
going to be able to combine to score from more
than thirty eight and a half points.

Speaker 2 (01:45:37):
Well, I think everybody that follows the NFL, even makes
picks on the NFL, knows one thing, and one thing only.
If it's Kenny Pickett's first start of the season. You
gotta play the over.

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
Hey, I listen, thirty eight and a half is thirty
eight and a half, no matter who's quarterbacking whom.

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
All right, as will likely happen a few more times
second week in a row. Josh and I agree on
the the Texans. We're both taking the Texans to cover
the big number minus nine and a half at home
against the Cardinals. Ac playing You're not playing the number
on this one. You're actually gonna play the over under
on this particular game, this particular time, for the one
hundred percent of the time, as you always do.

Speaker 1 (01:46:16):
You're in play the under.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
Texas d gonna keep Jacoby Brissett out of the end zone,
so the Texans will win forty two to nothing and
you'll win the under.

Speaker 1 (01:46:24):
I have taken the over an enordan amount of times
on Texans games this year.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
I have yet to have it payoff. I'm looking back.
I take that. I take that back.

Speaker 1 (01:46:36):
There was one week where I took the over and
it hit, and that was the Seahawks game when the
Texans defense scored Go. Everything else where I've taken Texans
over has come up snake eyes. So I'm taking the
under Cardinals at Texans forty two and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:46:54):
That's my final answer.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
And there you have it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
Another week, Week sixteen of the Stone Cold Locks. Week seventeen,
college football will return. I agree to you to pick
one of the playoff games.

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
Sean Merriman weighed in on the Ryan Clark SoundBite about
Philip Rivers starting for the Colts this weekend. Man, I'm
trying to mind my business, but this damn platform ain't
letting me. Somebody wrote something underneath that in the comments
that does make me think that put it this way,

(01:47:30):
I absolutely agree with this. Some guy named Oliver said,
I promise you talking about Ryan Clark, he would have
turned into a cheerleader if it had been Kaepernick instead
of Rivers.

Speaker 2 (01:47:42):
You agree with that?

Speaker 5 (01:47:44):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:47:45):
Are they similar in age?

Speaker 3 (01:47:46):
To me?

Speaker 2 (01:47:47):
Well, you're making it. There's too much of other things
that I can't help it. I have to look at it.
The way I look at it is what did it?
One of the things he sounded like he was concerned about,
as you're telling this forty four year old grandpa to
go play NFL football five years after retiring against the
Seattle Seahawks when he's a stationary target. Unless Kaepernick is

(01:48:12):
really out of shape. That's the exact opposite of what
he was as an NFL quarterback. Now, I don't expect
him to be super mobile, super fast, able to outrun anybody.
He's whatever he is, forty whatever Kaepernick is now. So
there's not a whole, but he's a totally different quarterback.
He plays totally differently, And I don't think it's fair
to even say, like he's been out of the league

(01:48:32):
longer than Rivers has mm hm. So if we allowed
him to be coming back five years after he was
no longer in the league, that might be a little
bit more fair of a comp But I don't know
for sure, but I think it's a reasonable guess to
offer that opinion on his attitude on it. Had it
been Kaepernick, Yeah, I think that's fair best based on

(01:48:52):
how his track record, well, there's a lot of people's
track record. He happens to be one.

Speaker 1 (01:48:56):
Yes, Yeah, I'm actually shocked he's still in that role.
Just some of the other things that are not I mean,
this is not even.

Speaker 2 (01:49:04):
That the former NFL player who has bad ideas sometimes
is asked to talk about the NFL by the network
that asks Adam Schefter to talk about the NFL seriously,
that last part right there, and I did see some
other people. I cannot remember who it was, but it
was somebody. It was somebody with awful announcing one of
the contributors there. He had written a piece about the

(01:49:26):
stuff we were talking about yesterday with Schefter and included that,
according to his sources, there are people inside the building,
other people who are probably analysts, that are a little
put off by what why are we doing this? We did?
We did such a long We went such a long
period of time where when they have serious issues to discuss,
investigations that have gone on, the legal matters that are

(01:49:49):
involving sports players, teams, what have you, well, they would
go to their investigative reporters a lot more often. They
would go to people with insight on this, even if
they weren't even full time. Maybe they were there so
and so expert or this that. And they've gone away
from that a little bit and leaned on more people
like Schefter that I mean, they could lean on their
analysts more than they should be leaning on him. So
it's definitely not We weren't the only ones that thought

(01:50:13):
it made very little sense to go that route. But
you know, it just matter. Do you like the people
that are analyzing thinks? Ryan Clark sits up on a
set most days where we are big fans of other
people on set. We think Daniel Olovsky does a very
good job. Different programs make Adam Schefter's on NFL Countdown.
I think Randy Moss does an awesome job. I think

(01:50:34):
Teddy Rex and Alex all do awesome jobs. He's, as
some would say, the weakest link. What do you think
about Laura Rutledge when she's not trying to interview? I
think she's She's much like she's in a position very
unlike almost every other talk show that they have, at
least the way I see them, Like the new host

(01:50:54):
of First Take, very much like Molly Caram. She's involved,
she does give opinions, and she tries to direct people
back on Shake Cornett and then Greeney gives opinions on
Get Up all the time, even though they have nine
thousand people on set with him, so asked to do that.
I think Malika does that quite a bit with the

(01:51:15):
panel of guests and analysts that they have, and I
don't mind it. I don't mind it in any of
these cases. Well, that's because she was wondering about, you know,
the type of not barbecue sauce he might have been
interested in.

Speaker 1 (01:51:29):
I don't. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
Maybe I'm not watching it enough and maybe this is
an ill informed but it's it's what I think happens.
It doesn't feel like she is opinionated on NFL Live.
She's the host of the show, far more of a
host only than most of their other hosts on their shows.

Speaker 1 (01:51:44):
She's probably what the intent of that role is, or
should be for those kinds of shows. Host it, moderate it,
stay out of the way. She's the only one that
does it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:56):
And you know, I looked at you know, I said
this about Molly on First Take all the time, and
I don't blame anybody for taking the job. It's high profile,
it's probably a huge raise, and if it doesn't work out,
you can absolutely go on to something else. And it
also usually means your company ESPN in this case, likes you.
They want you doing this, and Molly stayed there a
long time, and I'm sure Sha can do the same thing.
But I just think it's it's not a it doesn't

(01:52:20):
seem like a fun job. It's not fulfilling if you're
because you're basically asked to get out of the way,
you're a puppet in some sense. And it's such a
yelly show, especially with russo on as much as he is.
It's just there are other jobs that I think, you know,
people do a really good job. I think Laura's awesome.
I think her work with the SEC Network another on

(01:52:40):
location show. It doesn't get as many eyeballs as Game Day,
but they do a lot of side I think she's
every opportunity that she's earned with that network, sideline reporting
as well. I think she's done a phenomenal job with
every single one of them. You mentioned mad Dog. Did
you see his half court attempt the other night. It's
not lost on people that use the Yeah, but you

(01:53:01):
didn't play when they talked to the media or about
the media, or why would I listen to you? Reason
we see this on the basketball court from Chris Ruth.
I mean, if for no other reason then something could
go horribly bad. Is why I'll never say yes to
that kind of thing. You want to throw out the
first pitch for the Astros, Nope, don't ask me. The
results of what might happen are something I can live

(01:53:24):
with when I know what I'm doing. I know how
to shoot a basketball. I know how to dribble. I
played basketball. Everything about what I'm doing the forum that,
oh that's great. I'm fine if I miss. I miss
baseball softball, same thing. I know how to swing a bat.
I played baseball. I do everything correct.

Speaker 1 (01:53:38):
I might miss.

Speaker 2 (01:53:39):
You might strike me out and throwing a first pitch,
which I've done. I can throw the baseball. I don't
have quite dike in park you did. I believe I'm
getting my mind is gone. I'm trying to remember the guy.
I think I was asked to help moderate kind of
direct the activities there. But then it also included like

(01:54:00):
this is when four an Astros game. Yeah, when multiple
people throw a first pitch? Uh huh, Like I certainly, I,
oh that's easier, yeah, macause I don't know. You're lost
in a shuffle, right to speak, Brett and not from
the mound. But yeah, I know how to do these things,
like I don't know what there's Luckily there's no ceremonial
football related item. Now I could go out there and

(01:54:21):
push toss footballs into a doctor pepper container. Well, of
course you could that these skills competition at halftime. Well
that this Championship weekend this past weekend. I'm saying that
they did it all this weekend. Each of the three
games that were on the Disney Networks, they all had
the Doctor Pepper competitions where they have the two students
trying to win tuition money, and instead of throwing a

(01:54:41):
football like Philip Rivers would throw a football, they're just
trying to make it in. I don't blame them at all.
They grab the football and two hand push it towards
the opening. Just there's so many things that can go
wrong that are on camera forever. It's also fifty to
fifty either you're going to win or the other contestant
is going to win. And I think this year they
also gave the second place finisher out of a big

(01:55:05):
hefty check, unlike years pass.

Speaker 1 (01:55:07):
Heresa wants to redo the first shot because when she
was asked to do it, it was during COVID.

Speaker 2 (01:55:11):
Yeah, it was up on the concourse, nobody's around. It
was not It's just not what it could have been.
Jadan Higgins last night was the Rockets first shot. I
was in the middle of pregame when he got there
to start warming up. Took three shots. First one he
banked it in the second one he made just kind
of straight up, and then the third one was not

(01:55:32):
a very good shot and a miss. And then he
went out there right after rockets introductions and a well done,
lengthy anthem from a young singer, and he stepped up
to the line and got I think all of the
paint off of the rim, but it dropped. It's all
it counts, all right. We will come back football at five.

Speaker 1 (01:55:50):
The latest on the sharone more mess, including a reaction
from his former head coach, straight up five o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:56:02):
That can only be one thing.

Speaker 1 (01:56:04):
It's time for Football of five. That's why the music
is playing right now. That's the Football five official music.
Unless we book guests at this time of day, which
sometimes happens, but we usually try to talk a little
pick skin as much as possible this time of year,
including the final hour of the show every single day.

Speaker 2 (01:56:21):
And I haven't touched on this.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
Dont's spend the whole segment on it, obviously, But the
Charon More mess just keeps getting worse and worse and
worse as more details come out. He had his arraignment
today and that kind of was. It revealed details of
his actions that led to him being arrested and jailed
hours after he was fired. If you were to just

(01:56:47):
go back to the bare basics of the situation, he's
having an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, he gets fired, boom,
end of store. He's in a Patrino esque places as
a head football coach, meaning he might get another gig.

(01:57:09):
It's probably not going to well, it's definitely not going
to be nearly as prominent. But these are your careers,
not over based on where your age is. Especially him,
he's a lot younger than Patrino was when that whole
mess happened. It's not out of the question that he
rebuilds his reputation and gets back into a prominent coaching gig,

(01:57:30):
provided he makes the right moves. But then you have
a felony third degree home invasion, two misdemeanors, stalking in
a domestic relationship, breaking and entering, and released from jail
after meeting the twenty five thousand dollars bond. See it's
when you do that kind of stuff after the fact
that maybe the aforementioned scenario doesn't quite happen.

Speaker 2 (01:57:48):
Yeah, you're also only dealing with the professional side of it,
like any mental health episode issues, wanting to harm yourself,
or others situations it may have arised, not necessarily professionally based.

Speaker 1 (01:58:06):
The whole.

Speaker 2 (01:58:07):
I don't know that he's like I mean, he did
say alleged to have said, according to prosecutors, about ruining
his life to the other person involved in this inappropriate relationship,
But was that You've ruined my professional life, You've ruined
my life with my wife and three daughters.

Speaker 1 (01:58:26):
I think that's all the above. You know why, I
think that because of what he said before that sentence.
So I like, I'm he forced his way into her
home and, according to prosecutors said quote, I'm going to
kill myself.

Speaker 2 (01:58:39):
I'm going to make you watch. My blood is on
your hands. You ruin my life, I mean, also mentioned
in this proceeding today and many people now, and as
seems to always happen like this, we didn't know. I
didn't know anything about it three days ago. I don't
think anybody outside of Michigan or the apartment there knew

(01:59:01):
about it. But that's not what we're alled to believe.

Speaker 10 (01:59:03):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:59:05):
This is the worst kept secret inside the athletics office,
it was. Well, they investigated it and they said it
didn't happen. Well, if they knew it happened, because it
was the worst kept secret, it's not a secret, then
if everybody knows about it, they didn't do anything. They
took their word for it. I guess again, I don't
only the extent of the investigation to help determine if
there was an inappropriate relationship. But they were alleged to

(01:59:27):
have spoken to both parties, neither of whom said it
had happened. They said it is not happening, there is
no relationship. Everything is fine, and you can see investigation
because there's nothing going on. And then learning today again
throughout these proceedings that was alleged to have been going
on for multiple years, and they do have the records
that indicate, at least financially speaking, she held the same

(01:59:48):
position several years ago at X salary and during this
time period where they're alleged to have had this relationship,
and the job title is assistant to the head coach.
Her salary was X plus thirty five thousand dollars without
a change in job title. Basically, I don't again, I
don't know what it's hard to I don't want to
spread rumors that I think are unfounded, but the reporting

(02:00:11):
seems to indicate this was going on for a longer
period of time than I think many people thought when
this first news came out. When first this news came out,
whatever the cause was, it seems like their breakup just
happened this week or that morning. Not really sure why
it happened. We don't know the specifics on some of
the things that may or may not have happened during

(02:00:33):
this relationship, as it relates to a sexual nature and
a child potentially being there at one time and then
no longer. But all indications from what the prosecutors are
alleged to have his behavior been with those three charges
you mentioned is that it was obviously still going on,
and the stalking part of it. There's some reason something

(02:00:56):
had happened, something was continuing to happen that At no
point is the person who's married apparently attempting to say
this is I gotta stop doing this, and that's the
personal side. At no point didn't this person who was
the boss say I gotta stop doing this with a

(02:01:17):
subordinate Well, yes, that's what I mean. The relationship that
that's he's the boss of her. He is her supervisor,
if you will, is his assistence that he that's what
I just talked about, just every bit of this. Reward
her for her job, to reward her for being with you,
to tell her to keep her mouth shut about something.

(02:01:39):
It could be anything, it could be none. It's hard
to say. It doesn't seem too hard to say, but again,
connecting the dots where the information is not all there,
it's it's something I try not to do. But yeah,
it looks it looks like he's made meant it's it's
not a mistake when it doesn't seem to be an occurrence.
He's he is.

Speaker 1 (02:02:00):
He's definitely ruined his life for the time being at least,
and he's done a pretty good job ruining some other
lives connected to him to his because of this. And
the thing about going back to the original statement is
that there's not I don't think there's coming back from
this from a professional standpoint. It's not like Patrino, where

(02:02:22):
you did a rotten thing and it was involving someone
else on the staff and that kind of thing, or
at least somebody involved at the school. But you know,
you didn't force your way into her house after the
fact and threatened to kill her and yourself and all
these other things. You weren't in jail after you were
just embarrassed. That happens all the time in sports. Happens
to coaches, happens to players, happens to staff members. America

(02:02:48):
is a very forgiving country when it comes to this
kind of thing. But there's certain things that I just
don't know if you're coming back from and there's a
very real possibility where he loses his family and he
he loses any chance at his profession that he's been
in for quite some time.

Speaker 2 (02:03:06):
And again comparing the two situations, I mean, there was
no legal issue after the fact and the mental health
issue after the fact. You're right in the first of
those two cases. That doesn't really I don't know the
scoundrel nature of what I think Bobby Patrino is. It

(02:03:27):
does amaze me, like how many coaches pick a university,
how many people do they have on staff there, whatever
level you're talking about. And you got a smaller school,
you got a lower level school, they have ten, eleven,
twelve coaches. You get a little bit bigger school, you
had eighteen twenty coaches. I mean bigger school. Maybe there's
twenty five thirty people on staff, and there's a department
of fifty people, and there's hundreds of universities, hundreds and

(02:03:51):
hundreds of universities. It's also a bunch of high school
teams all over the country. Is it really Bobby Patrino
that's your best I'm going to hire Bobby Petrino. Why
you really can't find somebody who's as in your mind
is good a coach of offensive football and Bobby Petrino
that's just as qualified, if not more so. Like I'm
not saying, don't give people a second chance, but it

(02:04:14):
sure sounds like I am as I talk it out,
and I don't know that it's even a second chance.
Many times, like I said, scoundrel, he's a scoundrel for
a lot more than just what he did at Arkansas.
He was a scoundrel for his way out of the NFL.
And you want this is who you is? What is
a coach not just the head coach? A coach, he's
a leader. The assistant offensive line coach is one of

(02:04:38):
the leaders of the offensive line. The head coach is
the leader of everybody.

Speaker 4 (02:04:43):
This is who you want.

Speaker 2 (02:04:44):
You're gonna put him in charge of everybody. You feel
really good about this guy and his ability to lead
after this nonsense that he has put himself into, decided
to do over his years as a leader.

Speaker 1 (02:04:57):
Just I feel like saying do better.

Speaker 2 (02:04:59):
There's so many the coaches out there that absolutely deserve opportunities.
Now I we'll just recycle this scoundrel in light of
what happened at Michigan.

Speaker 1 (02:05:08):
As John Harbaugh was skating out the door to his
NFL gig, Jim Oh, did I say John? Yeah, I
don't do John like aig difference one wears khakis more.

Speaker 2 (02:05:19):
All right, let's head on over to the Harbaugh house
and open up each of their closets. One of them's
pretty empty. It's not empty, he's got several pair. Well,
I don't mean khakis, I mean skeletons. Oh, so we know,
So we think I know.

Speaker 1 (02:05:36):
I don't. I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:05:38):
It could be a devious type, doubtful.

Speaker 9 (02:05:41):
I doubt it.

Speaker 1 (02:05:41):
We'd probably find out by now. He was asked about this,
and all he gave was a still processing that. Like
a lot of people, I'm sure he hired More to
be the tight ends coach in twenty eighteen, and eventually
he was the offensive coordinator on the twenty three National
Championship team that won it's champion chip right here in Houston.
And she was taking pictures on the field at NRG

(02:06:04):
Stadium that we saw a lot of in the last
few days.

Speaker 2 (02:06:06):
Yeah, I don't know what kind of time I'll have,
but I took I was there on the field as well,
so she and I were sharing the field, so was
Sharon and Desmond Howard and many others. I have a
ton of videos and a ton of pictures. Did you
go back and look? They're not on my phone anymore,
They're on a different memory source. Huh. So if time
permits this weekend, I'll take a one through. If time permits,

(02:06:29):
when it permits a lot of other things to do.
What are you doing tomorrow morning? Probably getting in the
car you're driving. Semester's over. Man, Oh you can move back.
I'm gonna yeah, we're gonna bring her back. Yes, I
thought's just her stuff would stay there for the winter break.
She didn't leave her stuff, but she's not gonna stay there. Oh,
I didn't know you were going to pick her up. Yeah,

(02:06:51):
I don't know what I mean. Not everybody has a
car up there. I could just drive themselves to and
from at a whim. I assumed I did. I did,
and that's on me. All right, we will get back.

Speaker 3 (02:07:01):
We will.

Speaker 2 (02:07:01):
You know what, you wanted to bring up something about
the set in this segment, did you not? No, that
stands for seconds, never mind secs. It says seconds like
it's a time measurement.

Speaker 1 (02:07:16):
That's what happens when I glanced at the screen as
we're going to break, So this will probably.

Speaker 2 (02:07:19):
Want to talk about something for approximately thirty one seconds.
Next segment, that's your teas. There's your teas, and a
potential Astros trade as well when we come back to
get to here, including an idea on what the Astros
off season with some real movement might look like. The
other day had a prominent national voice suggests that, well,

(02:07:39):
this doesn't work and that doesn't work. I expect the
Mets to trade for Christian Walker. Now we'll hear another
idea about what the Astros might do coming up in
just second. We wanted to get something from last night's
game or just after last night's game, Remember when Tampa
was awesome. Yeah, there's six and two. They were also
five and one. They won five of their first six games.
They've since lost six times in the next eight trips

(02:08:01):
to the field, including each of the last two weeks,
against two teams going nowhere, the Atlanta Falcons, who had
already been eliminated from the playoffs and are starting Kirk Cousins,
and the New Orleans Saints the week before, also going nowhere,
and they don't have a quarterback. By the way, did
you like Kirk cousins performance last night? I was finishing

(02:08:22):
things up after a great night at Toyota Center. I
just completed walking out with Wex and I fired it up. Obviously,
I was paying attention to it during the game, only
during timeouts. That's not true. So I had a chance
to watch it unfold, and I'm like, third and eighteen,
don't take the penalty. Just Kirk Cousin's not going to

(02:08:44):
complete this. Well, they took the penalty, all right, now,
it's third and twenty eight. I completed one pass. Okay,
he's had a good enough day. He's said he and
Kyle Pitts are killing it. Get great, just get him.
Oh he fumbled, huh, and then they recovered it. Like
that was the kirk Cousins I was dying to see.
Drop back, last drive of the game, no timeouts, gotta
have it, carry the ball loosely, stand in the pocket,

(02:09:09):
act like you're never gonna be touched, and fumble away
the only chance your team has left.

Speaker 1 (02:09:14):
It was right there.

Speaker 2 (02:09:16):
Then they recovered it and got a time out from
the referees for whatever reason. God, they're so lucky. Then
he completed two really nice passes. Then they just sat
on it on the second to last play and said,
our kicker is good enough to make this. We'll just
run it into the ground and then we'll spike it.
We'll kick. They made it and they won the game.
Then we got Al Michael's terrible call.

Speaker 3 (02:09:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:09:38):
I did not like kirk Cousin's performance, but it was
a very good one. I do acknowledge that you didn't
like it because it was a very good one pretty much. Yeah,
and he's had so many bad ones this year. Again, Well,
guess what that game meant to the Falcons.

Speaker 1 (02:09:53):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (02:09:54):
Look what happens. So there was no pressure. That's why
he performed. Is that what you're saying. I mean he did.
He's hurting the team by taking so much of their money,
and now he's hurting the team by limiting their draft
allocated picks. But why is it okay? It's another team?

Speaker 1 (02:10:07):
Why is it when I was saying that during the
Texans Kulli era, you get all mad.

Speaker 2 (02:10:14):
So after the game last night, after their six loss
in eight games, six loss in nine weeks, their coach
at the podium last night. Their coach is Todd Bowles.
Todd Love in Tampa, fourth years their head coach. I'm
not going to pit any of his work in New
York on him. He went won ten games his first

(02:10:35):
year in New York, and then they didn't win much
the next three years, and out the door he went.
A couple of years later, he gets another opportunity and
he's got a very Mike Tomlin esque record with Tampa.
Did have Tom Brady in year one, but you can't
win with Tom Brady. They went eight to nine last year,
then they told him to get lost, and then they
started winning nine and eight. Last year, they were ten

(02:10:56):
and seven this year. They've been in first place pretty
much the entire year until now, and they're seven and
seven and they've been to the playoffs each of his
three seasons there. So the idea that his seat got
hot after last night's game is an idea I will
not get behind. I think is absolutely ridiculous. I think
it's a joke. If you want to fire him, the
go ahead, but don't tell me it's because of what

(02:11:17):
happened in the last night's game. If you think there's
more for them to do, if you think they should
be winning more with Baker Mayfield and the talent that
the GM, who I think is very good, has put
around him, that's fine too. But he's not getting fired
because they were up twenty eight to fourteen and then
fifteen straight points were scored by the other team. As
his quarterback, Baker Mayfield, who just yesterday on the A team,

(02:11:38):
we told you he's the number one rated postseason passer
in the NFL. It's got the best postseason passer rating
of any quarterback in this league right now. Well, he
threw an interception late in the game that kind of
buried them, and he himself said, this one's going to
keep me up. And he said, in his words, this
is going to haunt me. Don't put it on the defense,
don't put it on anybody else. This is on my

(02:11:59):
shoulders loss is going to haunt me. Sign Baker Mayfield uh.
Todd Bowles after the game was asked about the messaging.
What does he say to these guys in the locker
room after a game like that, where again they had
a twenty eight to fourteen lead, they try to stay
in first place, they give up fifteen in a row
to a bad Falcons team and lose on the final
play of the game. What does he say about how
he would address his team?

Speaker 1 (02:12:21):
Who do you tell him in locker.

Speaker 13 (02:12:23):
It's inexcusable. If you don't make excuses. You gotta care
enough where that hurts. You gotta care enough where it hurts.
It got to mean something to you. It's more than
a job. It's your livelihood. How well do you know
your job? How well can you do your job?

Speaker 1 (02:12:40):
Well?

Speaker 13 (02:12:40):
You can't sugarcoat that. It was inexcusable and he has
no answer for it, as for no excuse for it,
And that's what you tell him in the locker look
in the mirror.

Speaker 2 (02:12:51):
I think that's pretty well said, I really really do.

Speaker 1 (02:12:53):
I don't really know where he's going with that.

Speaker 2 (02:12:55):
Well, a lot of people just kidding talked about how
this is very unlike him. He doesn't usually well, clearly,
I don't think any coach is usually dropping bombs like
that during a press conference at the podium after the game.
Maybe off to the side with a reporter every now
and then, because people do talk like that, just usually
not on the air or in eight setting like that.
That's how tick off he is at how the players

(02:13:18):
that should be running through a wall for him, should
be running through a wall for their teammates. How he
felt like they performed, and if you were watching the game,
you could see his words in the physical attitude of
Mike Evans on the sidelines. Mike Evans returned to the
game to their roster this week after missing all that
time with a collarbone injury. Figured he would be looked

(02:13:39):
at a lot by Banker. Never expected to be looked
at as much as he was. He basically threw every
other pass to him, and he came up with some
huge catches six catches one hundred and thirty two yards,
and as their defense was on the field at the
end of the game, he was livid, marching up and
down the sidelines screaming expletives.

Speaker 3 (02:13:56):
Just this.

Speaker 2 (02:13:57):
I'm not sure exactly what he said how can we
do this? He gotta do whatever he was saying, he
was furious and very visibly furious, and Todd Bowles just
delivered that in a super calm way with extremely bad language,
which he I mean, I've heard him curse before, like
a couple times at a weekly availability, but nothing like this.
And I think this is going to be dropped into

(02:14:20):
the Jimora, Dennis Green Herman Edwards been for the next
however many years, and I think it was nothing like it.

Speaker 1 (02:14:27):
He wasn't even ranting well.

Speaker 2 (02:14:29):
He was just talking to words volume.

Speaker 1 (02:14:32):
It was just very calm, cool and collected about how
upset he was that his team had a two touchdown
lead in the fourth quarter, the opponent they were playing
had twenty penalties and as you mentioned to say again twenty.

Speaker 2 (02:14:47):
Penalties that has not been mentioned during our conversation about
last night's football game. Twenty Texans think that's oh, that's true.
Nineteen penalties for one hundred and twenty five yards penalty
las to the team that was flagged for and penalized
for nineteen penalties.

Speaker 1 (02:15:05):
As you mentioned, also had them penned in their own territory,
facing third and twenty eight on the final drive and
they still lost.

Speaker 2 (02:15:13):
That's hence the f bombs. Now, other people who are
conspiracy theorists were busy screen capping some plays that indicate
the league is it's not on the up and up.
The fumble was recovered by another team and they just
gave it to him anyway. Two late catches by the
Falcons should have been overturned, one of them being the

(02:15:34):
touchdown pass. The third touchdown passed to Oh my god,
I guess Kyle Pitts is good. No, nothing changed except
they put a quarterback in there who can't throw the
ball down the field successfully, so he throws to his
tight end all the time. Drafting Kyle Pitts, no matter
how much he does with Kirk Cousins, still a mistake.
If you're not going to throw in the football. This
quarterback is throwing them the football. All of a sudden,

(02:15:56):
he's producing. He didn't get better. They just started throwing
him the ball. He didn't just start getting open. They
just started throwing him the ball. Side issue to it,
but I would just use that time here. It is,
does Michael Pennix know that he has a tight end?

Speaker 3 (02:16:11):
Well, I know.

Speaker 2 (02:16:12):
I'm amazed. It's not even him. The last year they didn't.
The year before that, they didn't. It's true. It's just
weird how you would you're part of the group that
decided to make that selection. Like, I don't think the
Raiders would ever do this, and obviously the Cardinals would
never do this. Can you imagine if they just didn't
throw the ball to Brock Bowers and Trey McBride for
no reason. I mean, they are elite talents. They are

(02:16:32):
impossible matchups. It is why they're open all the time.
But you still gotta use him. I don't worry about
I think he's gonna go crazy. I just don't know
that it's going to lead to a ton of Cardinals points.

Speaker 1 (02:16:42):
Well, I mean, look at how the Texans defended Travis
Kelcey last year.

Speaker 2 (02:16:46):
Anno, it's last year. I would rather look at how
they defended Travis Kelsey a couple of days ago.

Speaker 1 (02:16:52):
Well, let's go with that. They didn't necessarily have to
because he was just awful. I mean, he only caught
one pass. How many targets do you have? I forgot
to love man. That's not gonna be the same this Sunday.

Speaker 2 (02:17:04):
He will have five targets on their first three possessions. Yeah,
I was about to say he'll be in the first quarter.
He will, But think about conversations we've had the first
two years of Demiko and Matt Burke's defense. I think
we often would say, man, it's gonna be a tough
matchup for Christian Harris or Jalen Petrie or Henry Totoa
and coverage. I just think they're gonna have a hard
time at slowing this tight end down, who is a

(02:17:26):
big part of that team's offense. Now, think about what
we've said this year. None of those things pretty much
at all. Tyler Warren used a lot, and I know
Daniel Jones had the fibual injury, but he was a
non factor except when they handed him or he took
a snap and fumbled. He's been one of the most
productive tight ends period in football, not just rookie tight ends,

(02:17:47):
and he was a total nothing in this game.

Speaker 1 (02:17:48):
Texans have a way of taking away the best thing
you have going for you offensively, been very good at dat.

Speaker 2 (02:17:53):
We will give you that to Astro's potential hot stove
offseason move when we come back with in case you
missed it, I want to tell you about my friends
over at Specs love doing this each and every Friday
here on the A team. My game day pick and
my game Day Cocktail of the week always a part
of what I want to talk to you about game
day pick. We heard about it earlier, We heard about

(02:18:14):
the Texans, we heard about them being heavy favorites. Well,
when you see the video I produce for you and
the cocktail I make for you, you will see the
Texans right there on the board above my left shoulder
at minus nine and a half. That will be my
Specs Game Day Pick of the week. The drink I'll
be making and I'm not necessarily encouraging you to have
this be the result, but I'll be making a tipsy Texan.

(02:18:36):
You find out more about that as I make that
Specs Game Day Cocktail of the Week. It's holiday season
over at SPEX and it certainly can be for you
wherever you want to celebrate the holidays, whether it's all
the way up to New Year's Eve, there are Specs
Bubbly bargains overflowing with savings on champagne, sparkling wines and
everything you can find over at SPECS Food. If you're

(02:18:57):
watching Specs social media today, at Spex nineteen sixty two,
plenty of options. You need a charcoterie board, you need
some chocolate, you need some nuts, You need some items
to help keep people happy while they're enjoying the cocktails
you probably found right there on Specs Online with all
their recipes. Well you can do that too at any
of your local Specs Wines, Spirits and Finer Foods. Of course,

(02:19:19):
as you know, Texas family owned great selection and savings. Since,
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It's Specs, Wine, Spirits and Finer Foods. So many things,

(02:19:40):
so little time with In case you missed it. In
case you missed it, one night this week, I was
watching some television after the show. First I came across Goodfellas.
I had to let AC know about that. Then you
and the missus watched that last weekend. Yeah, you'd brought
it up on the show this movie, of course, and
the fact that it was on the tube, I decided

(02:20:00):
to catch a little viewing of that in case you
missed an impression of de Niro when he gets the
phone call the payphone.

Speaker 1 (02:20:06):
I don't know what I want?

Speaker 2 (02:20:07):
What do you want me to break something? Can you
have to make the noises? Can I do the impression?
After he steps out of the phone booth and Henry
comes out that you talk to him. Yeah, I love
the guy on the other end, right, he had some
problems and he's gone. Nothing we could do. There's nothing
we could do. He's gone. What do you mean he's gone?

Speaker 1 (02:20:28):
Man?

Speaker 2 (02:20:29):
So I went from Goodfellas to First Blood Tear in
part two, Yes, my favorite, which I told you and
I know there's a bunch of different movies that Sylvester
and Arnold have been in over the years that have
delivered unforgettable lines.

Speaker 1 (02:20:43):
By the way, did you appreciate my synopsis of the series?
I told you that the second one is my favorite,
even though the first one is the superior film.

Speaker 2 (02:20:52):
Well, in two there are two instances of unforgettable oscar
Worthy lines delivered by John Rambo. One of them, he
mentions Murdoch, He's coming to get you. Yeah, it's it's
all time. All times. You get a grip the microphone. First,
it's so good with your veiny arm, and then when
Troutman's trying to encourage him to, you know, come back on,

(02:21:15):
come back inside. Well, we can continue this. And then
he asks him very politely, what is it that you want?
You know, because he questioned his love for his country. Yeah,
and he tells him that he wants what every man wants.

Speaker 1 (02:21:29):
I want what they want. Yeah, what every man wants,
every guy Spiller guts wants. It's very dramatic. I love
slightly the way he wants. Yeah, it's again he's shirtless.
He was probably cold after shooting all that equipment shredded. Yeah,
and he did not use any sort of performance and
answers for that look.

Speaker 2 (02:21:49):
And on what was a spectacular night of watching movies
I've seen a thousand times before. I went from Rambo
to directly to step Brothers. So I got them all in,
by the way, all in one night.

Speaker 1 (02:22:00):
Out The third best line from the movie in Rambo,
Remember when he gets hung up on the plane and
he's having to cut himself loose and all his gear
flies away and he utters the phrase who.

Speaker 2 (02:22:13):
For that part? That's my favorite line all right. In
case we missed that, the Astros are feverishly trying to
put together a team that they hope can compete for
a division title and more have won a playoff game
and a couple of postseasons. Didn't have any last year,
and didn't have any wins of the year before, so
a possibility of finding some talent elsewhere. Brian McTaggart of

(02:22:34):
MLB dot com and astros dot Com and a frequent
visitor to this show and all the shows here at
Sports Talk seven to ninety paid a visit to the
crew over at mlb N, major League Baseball's television network,
and they talked through some possibilities of maybe this as
a trade topic.

Speaker 3 (02:22:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (02:22:52):
I mean they've got rid of d Bond and brought
in Nick Allen.

Speaker 3 (02:22:54):
They still had too many.

Speaker 15 (02:22:57):
Infielders to write ron, so I think we could see
another trade. I think it's possible that they move eastide
Corettis if the right deal is in place. I know
there's been some ties to Boston to play third base there,
but if he's if he if Cretis is back, Yeah,
they look at the graphic there. They had five guys
you consider starters on the infield, so Pretis might move

(02:23:18):
around a little bit. Another one to watch is Christian Walker.
Could they move Christian Walker, but he's he's going to
be twenty million dollars over the next two years, so
that's going to be tough. But I think more likely
they moved Jake Myers that their outfielder, because they do
have some young outputs on them.

Speaker 2 (02:23:34):
That's three guys who went healthy, all were starters for
the Astros last year. I'll say this, I feel cased
in this prediction. Okay, the Astros will be paying Christian
Walker next year. Okay, I would normally be paying some
of his salary for him to play somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (02:23:53):
But if it's the Mets, which makes sense since they
just watched their first baseman sign elsewhere, you're not paying
it nearly as much as you would be any other place.

Speaker 2 (02:24:04):
Yeah, they could definitely absorb it. I don't think the
cost of it, but the value of it. I think
they would be very into having you give them more money.
But again, when you give a team more money take
on more of the salary commitments in the future to
have him play elsewhere, that usually means you get better
prospects in it. So they may say no to that
for that reason. But we shall see all three of

(02:24:24):
those players. I think it's I'd say this too. All
three of those players won't be Astros next year. Whether
it's Myers and Perettis or one of the three or
Walker and not the others, we'll see. But I do
think there's as Brian and Chandler, who has also been
all with us, suggested the very same, I think this
is their best avenue to try to make this team
better than last year's team.

Speaker 14 (02:24:43):
All right, Josh, what else do we have? All right,
let's stay on the Astros here for a second. We
have this from MLB trade rumors. They're getting this from
Ken Rosenthal. I love the headline here because this is
how you do it. Yankees, Comma, Astros among various clubs
interested in Freddie Peralta. Notice they lead with Yankees and
Astros because people are curious about that. But I do

(02:25:03):
find this funny because of course they're interested in him,
but the Astros don't really have the goods to go
get somebody like Parlton, and Dana Brown has said they
want controllable pitching. He's only under contract for next season,
so I just feel like this is one of those
kind of clickbaity headlines.

Speaker 3 (02:25:20):
But I get it.

Speaker 14 (02:25:21):
Dude's been awesome, and the Astros need pitching, but I
just don't see it very likely that they have enough
resources to pull something like this off.

Speaker 2 (02:25:29):
MLB trade rumors. Is this the same site that wrote
the following earlier this week with star shortstop Jeremy Paine.
You just two seasons from free agency. In the market
for quality shortstops, this winner extremely thin. There's been some
speculation about his own availability in trades. While a trade
of Rome could allow Correa to slide back to shortstop,
while Perettis claims his native third base, Rome reports that

(02:25:52):
GM Dana Brown firmly shut that notion down. Thankfully, Chandler
underscore Rome quote posted that for everybody to read earlier
this week. Just a minor error. But Chandler is actually
not on the trade block, nor is he an asset
of the Astros. In case you're wondering Roma spelled Rone.
I was wondering Freddy Barralta just the talent be awesome

(02:26:14):
if he was an Astro. But I think Josh is
right putting a trade together that makes sense for what
the Brewers would be after he's their ace. I mean,
maybe the young spindly Jacob Fella will become their ace
moving forward Miserawski, but he was their ace this past year,
and that's not usually the way to improve your team.
The Brewers are looking to improve also moving on from him.

(02:26:36):
They're going to need something pretty saucy in return to
make that happen. What else do we have?

Speaker 4 (02:26:41):
All Right, finally, let's finish off on the Texans here.

Speaker 2 (02:26:44):
What do we think?

Speaker 14 (02:26:45):
What does the Texans DC think of the Cardinals offense?
We're not expecting a lot, but Burke has some thoughts
and they're actually better than we think. So let's hear
what he has to say.

Speaker 7 (02:26:54):
They got good players. I mean the quarterbacks operating at
a really high level. I mean just good NFL offense,
the structure of it. He's really good against the pressure.
He's really good getting the ball out, find his receivers,
getting to open players.

Speaker 2 (02:27:06):
And they got really good playmakers.

Speaker 7 (02:27:07):
I mean both those outside receivers can go up and
make big plays fourteen and eighteen.

Speaker 2 (02:27:12):
I mean, I was there when we drafted Trey. He's
a special talent. I mean, I told our guys, I
mean you look at his numbers.

Speaker 7 (02:27:18):
I mean he's up there with the top receivers in
the league in terms of targets, you know, catches. I
think he's first the NFL and catches right now yards
after catch touchdowns. I mean, he's top three receivers, you know.
So it's not he he's good for a tight end.
He's a really good player.

Speaker 2 (02:27:33):
Ninety three catches is the top mark in the NFL,
tied for the top mark. And as he noted, he
was with Arizona in twenty twenty two, first year for
Trey McBride, worked obviously on their defensive side, so probably
got a good look at him there. Also remind yourselves
of this. Nick Kyley has gone up against the bird
Gang guys team many times, as he was with the

(02:27:55):
Rams the past several seasons, so he also has familiarity
with what the Arizona Cardinals are all about. We'll see
what bird Gang Guy brings to town where the Cardinals
are winless in franchise history, playing Houston. In Houston, it's
never happened before that they walked off the field with
a dub do a elf on a shelf. We did

(02:28:18):
not do that this year or any of the previous years. Well,
it seems pretty fun, though, how fun do you seem
up to you? If you guys are into it. I
bet you the kids would be too. Maybe you are
into it for the first few days and years. We
gotta get creative, do some real deep thinking. We're tired

(02:28:38):
man year old. I guess I can't dispute that I
have white It's not for you, I know, for them,
that's the whole holiday basically at this point, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (02:28:50):
It's not for you.

Speaker 2 (02:28:52):
I mean, you might get a nice flannel and some socks,
maybe a ball cap. Is good Fellas or Casino?

Speaker 1 (02:28:57):
The one where Joe Peshi and the other guy it's
in all the Italian movies, not de Niro, but the
guy with the white hair, where yeah, and they're like
doing this so they can hide their mouths for the
Feds watching, you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:29:10):
Which one was that? I don't know it was Josh
so it was that's the scene where there was a Oh,
that's because everybody hates him. The people in the family
hated him, and Casino because he was doing all that
stuff they had. Man, you're everybody's ticked off of you.
And DeNiro was trying to hey, man, cool it.

Speaker 1 (02:29:32):
Parents discussing, Uh, well, I probably shouldn't say this, But yeah,
when you're when you're trying to figure out where to
place things, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (02:29:40):
Yeah, that's that's that's me and her having that conversation.
Why how about you discuss it when he's not around
or not away. He's always around.

Speaker 1 (02:29:51):
I know he lives there. He wakes up talking, and
he goes to sleep talking. The only time he's not
talking is when he's sleeping. Is he the first person
to fall asleep every single night? Yes, then there you go.

Speaker 2 (02:30:02):
As soon as he's asleep, you're good. There you go exactly.
Texans Cardinals. Cardinals are gonna win the coin flip. They're
going to elect to put their defense on the field,
and that's gonna put Nick Cayley, CJ. Stroud and the
rest of the offense on alert to come through for
the rest of the team. Make life just a little

(02:30:24):
bit easier on the defense. Don't make the fans or
the players, or Nick Cassario or high five col sweat
it out all the way till the end of the game.
Just score points on the opening possession. Just find Woody
Marks in the flat to get you most of the
way down the field. Then hit Jayden Higgins to get

(02:30:46):
you in the red zone, and then you got Nico
Collins on a slant twelve yard touchdown. You're up seven
to nothing. Then you put your defense to work. Now
the Cardinals first series of the game, they're already playing
from behind. Even with fifty four minutes, well fifty one
minutes left, it's gonna be a long opening drive for
the Texans. It's gonna be eight nine minutes worth. It's
to happen before. So all that is at your disposal.

(02:31:08):
Now you're playing from in front. You are are watching
your offense.

Speaker 3 (02:31:13):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:31:13):
I've heard some people say, I really think if the
Texans could get their offense going, or I think if
they can get they're not gonna get their offense going.
They might have a good offensive day here or there.
I don't expect the twenty twenty five Texans offense to
get going score more than twenty point. Sure, it's gonna happen.
It'll probably happen on Sunday, and then it'll probably happen
the next Sunday also. But go out there and score

(02:31:33):
a touchdown on the opening possession, which they absolutely should
have done against the Kansas City Chiefs. What scenario could
you envision where I would be doing this three days later,
like cal uh, I mean, who are you trying to
get a high five from? The only people you get
high fives from now are Carson?

Speaker 3 (02:31:49):
Right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:31:49):
Who left me hanging? I guess, I mean, why would
you want one? What has happened? Well a win, clearly.
I give my I gig Ryan an occasional high five.
I'll give the misses a high five here and there.
How long do you think it took them to put
that video together? Not very long. I love that he
was wearing the same wardrobe. Well that's what makes the
video work. Yeah, it wouldn't work otherwise. Seriously, I mean,

(02:32:10):
for you social media experts out there, we need a
shot of you in the lobby, and we need you
and you to both speak to him and open the
door for him. Then we're gonna have you walking through
the administrative offices. We need one of our in house
council attorneys. I'd recognize one of them, and somebody else
who works for the team. You're gonna be the guy
that pulls Craig's hand down so he doesn't steal the

(02:32:33):
CJ high five. They went into the cafeteria, so they
needed that shot too. It was empty other than the
worker they enlisted to perform his role of saying, ah,
it's for CJ only. And then they went outside the
locker room and walked down the hallway.

Speaker 3 (02:32:46):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (02:32:46):
He walked down the hallway, he went to his office,
tried to get some work done with one hand, and
then he hit the hallway outside the locker room. Out
came X and Christian. Christian saved the five once again.
Zavier was about to hop to it, and then Braxton Barrios,
c J. Stroud, Harrison Bryant, and Luke Leche emerged from

(02:33:10):
the Texans locker room and there's Cow waiting for his
high five, which CJ, happily smiling wild widely gifts to him.
Extremely well done. Payoff was fantastic. Every part of it
was awesome. How are you celebrating this weekend? Uh? What
is there to celebrate this weekend?

Speaker 1 (02:33:30):
John Cena's final match is tomorrow night, Saturday Night's main event.

Speaker 2 (02:33:35):
You're gonna hate, You're gonna really hate this. Oh man,
what if I told you my favorite John Cena his
scene with Amy Schumer in the movie I Know in
the theater, Oh my god, not the one where they
were together and the covers were on them, the one
where they were in the theater and the other people
in the theater. The other couple was encouraging John to

(02:33:58):
keep his girlfriend quiet during the movie. It was an
awesome scene. He absolutely crushed it. Yeah, the lines were great,
but his delivery, Mark Wahlberg, they were so good. He
is like, I can appreciate these wrestlers, boxers, baseball, football,

(02:34:21):
basketball players jumping onto the silver screen and when they
kill it, I appreciate that he did. Is the such
a head in that? Well yeah, but he plays it
up perfectly, such a nice guy. Well, all the stuff
he's done, with all the it's just unbelievable. I think
it's a record, yes, but I mean he's like that

(02:34:42):
with everybody. So do you already have you already seen
the script? No, I'll do that.

Speaker 1 (02:34:48):
I'll tell you there is there's a spoiler alert. This
will be his last match. He's not gonna have one
after this.

Speaker 2 (02:34:53):
Wrestling's very much like every other sport. He's not gonna
be like Rick Flair. How can you say with conviction
this is gonna be a last match because he's a
different kind of guy. But what if they ask him
to be the same kind of guy in two years.

Speaker 1 (02:35:07):
I just don't think he's gonna be like the Hogans
and the Flares and even one more, not ten more now.

Speaker 2 (02:35:13):
I don't think five more years.

Speaker 1 (02:35:14):
I don't think you'll match him back and make appearances
for the pop the crowd will give him. But I
just don't know about the match. He's a He's not
unlike those other guys like The Rock is like this.
His schedule is going to be insane. He's doing other things.
He's also the voice of a well I said.

Speaker 2 (02:35:30):
Moves into the silver. He's a movie star. Yeah, flat out.

Speaker 1 (02:35:34):
I never would have guessed that The Rock would be
like the highest paying action star, highest paid action star
Baller's Great Show. I like the other guys. That was
my favorite role of his, him and Samuel l deciding, well,
they got to be the hero that day.

Speaker 2 (02:35:51):
So your play on the Texans for so Cold locks
as per usual as they play on the over under,
could you could you offer a thought on the games result?
So forty one and a half on this one, I
don't care how many points are scored.

Speaker 1 (02:36:05):
You don't have to.

Speaker 2 (02:36:06):
Well, the Texans are to win, that's it.

Speaker 1 (02:36:07):
That's all I got.

Speaker 2 (02:36:08):
Whether Texans are gonna win by more than a touchdown,
the offense gonna put three touchdowns on the board, They're
gonna be in the mid twenties, thirty points.

Speaker 1 (02:36:19):
Maybe maybe this is the week that does happen, but
I think that more often that that's gonna be, or
more likely that's gonna be the following week when the
Raiders play them.

Speaker 2 (02:36:28):
The Raiders suck.

Speaker 1 (02:36:29):
That's my analysis, that's my scientific I've watched a lot
of football this year.

Speaker 2 (02:36:35):
The Raiders suck. I'll leave you with this one statistical
note to look for in the game on Sunday. With
eighty four yards receiving, Nico Collins will become the third
player in franchise history to have at least three seasons
of a thousand yards receiving. Obviously, he joins Andre Johnson
and DeAndre Hopkins. They've only had sixteen total seasons from
anybody that included a thousand yards receiving. Those guys have

(02:37:00):
all of them but two, and it was done by
the same player twice. Those guys, Nico Collins, Andre Johnson,
and DeAndre Hopkins currently have fourteen of the franchise's sixteen
thousand yard receiving seasons. One other player has also done
it twice. Do you know who that is? No, he

(02:37:22):
was in the news this year for his release and
subsequent addition to another team, Brandon Cooks. So how I
never would have guessed that Nico Collins an all time
Texan DeAndre and all time Texan Dre and all time Texan,
not Brandon Brandon Cooks. Well, there you have it.

Speaker 1 (02:37:39):
A week's worth of the A team for you.

Speaker 2 (02:37:41):
Appreciate everybody that's been with us throughout the week, and
we'll be with us on social over the weekend. We
be over at the Texans Little Fiesta on Sunday afternoon,
and we'll report back to you Monday at two o'clock.

Speaker 4 (02:37:54):
The eighteen on Sports