Holy Royal Flush, NBA!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My earl.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Multipot, the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports
chill Lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
It's day three of the NBA season and they released
a statement about them reviewing an indictment. I don't know
how we could begin anywhere else here on the Thursday
edition of the A Team, Adam Wexler here with you
Clinton the day also call along for the ride as
per usual, and this morning that's the news that broke.

(00:58):
Later this morning, a press conference led by the FBI
Director was held, and boy did they deliver some extremely
cleverly worded lines about the gambling investigation, essentially a poker
operation and a sports betting angle of an investigation that
landed three pretty notable names and even here maybe more

(01:22):
notable than others, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rogier, and Damon Jones
among the more than two dozen arrests made over eleven states.
And clearly it seems yeah, we're gonna go ahead and
make this proclamation. Have our press conference roll out these arrests.

(01:42):
Rogier and Billips arrested in their respective NBA teams place
Orlando for Rogier, Portland for Billups after their seasons each
began last night, Rogier not on the court, a Billips
coaching his Blazer's team to a loss after they led
for much of the game. But that's probably not at

(02:03):
the forefront of anybody on Portland's in Portland's organization right now.
Like I said, they are one game into their season
after last night, and they had to name an interim
head coach because Billips and Rosier were put on leave
by the league after this news broke. And again, I
highly doubt the NBA was blindsided by this, far from it.

(02:25):
A lot of times over the last now about year
and a half, we have heard about NBA's investigations with Rogier,
with Johntay Porter, with Malik Beasley. Interesting how those now
have been viewed, and in Rosier's case, and that he
is heavily involved in this case, the league had already
cleared him as part of their investigation, and now there's

(02:47):
an indictment that he was arrested under the charges for today,
So how that ties together? Yes, I'm sure you've heard
by now Lebron's name is attached to this, or alleged
to be attached to this, somewhat possibly in the same
way sho hey Otani was tied to the gambling on

(03:08):
maybe his behalf, but he's not been punished for it,
certainly on his interpreter's behalf, but easily again don't They
haven't given us the entirety of the story, but in
the details that they released, Damon Jones, a player who
was a former player and former coach who was not
employed by any team but was working with Lebron James

(03:30):
at the time while he was with the Lakers, had
information about his availability or in this case, lack of
availability for an upcoming game. That information was only known
to those closest to the situation, people inside the team,
because it had not been made public yet, just the
timing of it and the injury report related to it
either had not yet been updated or had just simply

(03:52):
not been released based on the scheduling, So that information
was allegedly delivered to those who then wagered on, well,
the Lakers are worse out Lebron James, so let's go
ahead and bet on the other side. Doesn't always work.
In one of those cases, it did not. But nonetheless
that tis essentially as most people know it in the
rest of the world, nonsports related. That's basically inside information,

(04:12):
insider trading, et cetera. So the NBA, yeah, I would
say they were rocked by this situation and the availability
of players and teams post practice throughout the league.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Today we'll be hearing from more of them.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
The Rockets involved themselves having a practice this afternoon in
advance of tomorrow's home opener against the and one Detroit Pistons.
Pistons were down twenty three points in their game last
night to the Chicago Bulls, came all the way back
and we're tied in the fourth quarter and then lost.
So they come to town at oh to one, their
second road game, first home game for Houston. But like

(04:49):
I said, a handful of players around the league have
already been asked about how they feel about this, What
do they think about this? There's been surveys done in
the past about how involved with the obvious six explosion
of daily sports betting and individual player prop betting more
or less over under all that stuff which is so
readily available through numerous sources, and clearly the NBA, like

(05:13):
the NFL, like Major League Baseball not too long ago,
several years ago.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
All right, it is where we're headed.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
They have the money to spend, so we want them
to be our partners, and they are. All the sports
leagues have them. The NBA is no different. They are
partners with these entities that make it very easy to
make daily wagers on sporting events and most specifically the
player's individual performances. The Terry Rogier angle in this case.
If you don't have all the details, I'm sure you do,

(05:42):
but we'll remind you of them, and they have the
game in particular.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
We'll let you hear.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
The NBA are the participants in the press conference earlier
today deliver some of the particulars. But a game, a
very specific game, and the details of that game. Four Rosier.
He basically made his prop bets play on the under
by leaving the game early and not returning under the
premise of an injury, which he told people that we're

(06:10):
going to wager on this. I'm going to do this tonight,
and that's why my numbers will be low. My wagering
numbers will be much higher than that. But I won't
reach any of them because I won't be playing after
the nine to thirty four mark of the first quarter
of a game in March of twenty twenty three, referenced
again today by those at the podium, and that's exactly
how it went down. Obviously, the Unders, however, many of

(06:32):
them you like to play and at whatever amount you
decided to play that got you caught, Well, they're all
winners that day.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
So yeah, this is a bombshell. Certainly going to rock
the league.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
It's going to have Adam Silver, who normally speaks the
week of the NBA season beginning and makes a little
media tour. He was at Rockets Thunder on Tuesday night
for the ring and banner ceremonies. Probably going to have
to do more Q and A about where things are.
And you know, I know a lot of heat will
come on commitissioners when things like this happened.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
I really don't.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
I really don't think there's some other path that they
could have taken.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Do you want it?

Speaker 3 (07:09):
I mean, what are these leagues here to do. They're
here to make money. It's a business. So they got
in bed with people who have amazing amounts of money
to become partners and sponsors and advertisers, so they brought
all that money in. This is the same thing with
the TV deals. Why or can't they just keep the
games on this channel? And why can't we just have
the inside the NBA on TNT. Hopefully now you realize

(07:30):
inside the NBA, at least for the time being, it's
pretty much exactly the same as it was before. Kenny
Charles jack Ernie they were on last night looked exactly
the same as it did when they were on TNT.
They acted exactly the same, they were goofballs, They talked
to NBA. They asked Charles questions that most NBA people
that are covering the league with no answers to and
he didn't know them. It's hilarious, it's great, It's okay

(07:52):
to bring in more money. That's what the commissioner and
the league's owners governors want him to do, and they did,
and the game ambling angle of it. Safeguards are certainly
in place. Rules are very clearly stated for the players,
for the coaches, for the officials, and the rules are
not the same for players and members of a team

(08:13):
organization as they are for the officials. The players and
people within the organization cannot bet on the NBA, but
they can bet on other sports. The officials a little
bit different. And yes, this league has had an issue
with gambling before because of the officials, at least in

(08:33):
Tim Donneghey's case and probably others as well as we
all know.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Is that as an.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Ongoing conversation, certainly on this show, it's an ongoing conversation,
but we welcome this to the new ongoing conversations of
what could they have done, what should they have done?
Where does this go from here? And how many more
times is this going to come up? I don't know
how many more times it's going to come up. With
the FBI director talking about three massive crime families in

(08:58):
New York in the same Prescot conference, and on the
same day they're arresting Chauncey Billups, Terry Rosier, and Damon Jones,
two of which Rosier and Billups are merely are. In
Rosier's case, he's attached to sports fixing. In Billups case,
he's attached to the mafia angle of this. As I
mentioned those three crime family names, the poker games that

(09:19):
were fixed that involved in some way, and we'll get
into some of those details with Chauncey in Damon Jones case.
He's again apparently attached to both sides of these gambling
related investigations the NBA, and obviously they're in They were
in New York for this press conference and there were
a lot of words about crime, families and protecting the

(09:41):
entertainment industry. So it is fair for everybody. And that's
where we begin the on field and on court activities.
They're not quite on the field yet, but Media Day
for the World Series they get started tomorrow. They've announced
the game one starters for the Blue Jays and the
Dodgers tomorrow in Toronto. Rockets, like I just mentioned, they

(10:01):
are on the practice court earlier today and are preparing
for their home opener. Have two games on this homestand
they'll play again on Monday night against the Brooklyn Nets,
the first two of four straight games against the Eastern Conference.
There haven't been any crossover games. There will be tonight,
but no crossover games in the NBA yet, all East
versus East and West versus West for the first twenty

(10:23):
six teams to open up their NBA seasons. We'll have
an NBA Finals rematch tonight and Denver will also be
on the court for the first time tonight, and then
obviously the Texans. They are preparing to well. I know
they're gonna hit the field against another good team. They
have played four teams that have won more than they've
lost Jacksonville and three others five and two for several

(10:45):
of those teams. They will see a five and two
team on Sunday when the forty nine ers are on
the field against them. Situation on an injury front regarding
the wide receivers, I think there's full clarity on it,
even though it's not definitive, and a few other items
from them. We will get the third confirmation, hopefully in
the next few minutes from Frank Ross. It was confirmed

(11:06):
on Monday night from Demiico Ryans that they screwed up
at the end of the game, self inflicted poor execution
when they decided not to kick the ball out of bounds.
It was confirmed yesterday by the kicker himself, Kymie Fairbairn,
that yeah, I'm in a mistake. I did it wrong,
even though it seems so easy, and yet he described

(11:27):
why he did it wrong. And like I said, the
coordinators speak today, so Matt Burke, Nick Cayley, and Frank
Ross will all comment today, probably only Frank Ross will
be asked about that, and hopefully you will say the
same thing, just so we don't have to wonder who's
lying and we can all be agreed, agreed that they
all screwed up. Nick Cayley also looking into what questions

(11:48):
there might be for him, how he responds to the
idea that is it so bad that they could consider
moving on, which they're not going to. You know, they're
not firing their offensive coordinator unless there's something non football
related regarding that. He's been the offensive coordinator, the play
calling offensive coordinator for the Texans for six games.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
Now.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm not gonna say there are problems, and I'm not
gonna say there aren't problems that I think he is
at the root of. But I don't think they're moving
on from him in the season unless it gets dramatically worse,
like they need to lose a game by more than
one score.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
How about that?

Speaker 3 (12:22):
How about the Texans can't come to the podium and
talk about how close they are, how they had just
one possession away from sending a game to overtime. And
remember in this last game in order to send the
game to overtime, they needed eight points. So over the
entire course the first fifty eight minutes of that football game,
or fifty seven minutes and fifty seven seconds, fifty six seconds,
the Texans offense had found the end zone once. Fifty

(12:45):
seven plus minutes of football. They found the end zone
one time. But in the final two minutes they're gonna
get eight points by driving down the field and scoring
a touchdown, visiting the end zone once, and then converting
on a two point conversion visiting the end zone a
second time. Absolutely totally believable. Definitely think that's what's going
to happen. Lose a game by a couple of scores,
and then see if maybe they think otherwise what the

(13:07):
offense is doing in San Francisco or Denver in either
of the next two games. They are the caliber team
that could do that to the text and so all
those things on the table. Welcome your input on everything.
Are you shocked not shocked at all about what took
place today regarding the FBI and the NBA, Let me
hear about it. You can find me on the old
twitters at Adam J. Wexler or mister Cole Thompson or

(13:29):
right here on the phone lines here on the A
Team seven one three two one two five, seven ninety
A boatload of things for you to hear, including some
of the wild but accurate thoughts from those who are
speaking at the press conference announcing the indictments and arrests
surrounding gambling, sports fixing and the NBA that.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Is next the A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
So I want to let you hear from those that
spoke today on this z NBA gambling investigation and indictments
and arrests that were handed down. Wex you're with you
on the A team, So let's just get right to it.
The FBI director was the first to speak and welcome
to everybody to New York and got everybody on board

(14:21):
with what they had to say to everybody. We already
were aware of reports of arrests having been made, and
the details of it came a couple hours later around
ten am this morning, FBI Director Cash Betel.

Speaker 6 (14:34):
Today, we're here in New York to announce the historic
arrests across a wide, sweeping criminal enterprise that envelops both
the NBA and Lacasaostra, individuals such as Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones,
and Terry Razire. We're taking into custody today former current
NBA players and coaches. What you don't know is that

(14:55):
this is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation
that spanned the course of years. The FBI let a
coordinated takedown across eleven states to arrest over thirty individuals
today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing.
Not only did we crack into the fraud that these
perpetrators committed.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
On the grand stage of the NBA.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
So not only if you heard that last party said,
not only, And this is when maybe either people in
the room or people listening or people that were following
the story were like, Okay, there's more. He mentioned Chauncey Billups,
he mentioned Terry Rosier, he mentioned Damon Jones, he mentioned
the grand stage of the NBA.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
It's pretty important.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
You got a former player and former coach, you have
a current coach, and that current coach, Chauncey Billups, is
also an NBA Hall of Famer recently inducted, and a
current NBA player. A current NBA player who was investigated
by the league for gambling, and already this is pretty

(16:02):
pretty Bombshelley, pretty kind of hard to believe. Not nearly
as hard to believe as what he would have to
say next when it felt like he was talking about
an NBA on court sports fixing issue.

Speaker 6 (16:15):
There was a little more committed on the grand stage
of the NBA. But we also entered and executed a
system of justice against La Casinosha to include the Bonano, Gambino,
Genevesi and the chasing crime families.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
So Billips, Jones, Rosier and three extremely well known crime
family names. Those are the last names we got today,
all together in one big announcement.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yes, that's what we got today.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
A huge poker related illegal gambling angle to this, and
an NBA fixing angle to this. And in the case
of Jones, like I told you earlier, and the thought
is from their investigation, he's actually involved in both sides
of it. Probably not the case for Rogier and not

(17:08):
likely not the case for it. The head coach of
the Blazers who with his own authority you know, if
you've watched an NBA game, the person who makes the
final call in the game on who's going to be
out on the court.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
It's the head coach. I mean, if Chauncey Billips wants
to take.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
This random Blazers player and ensure that his under hits
he can definitely handle that. He's got an under of
seven and a half points, well, I will put him
on the court, make it look good. I won't even
say anything to him. I'll go out there and make
a basket. He'll make another basket, and I'll probably won't

(17:50):
want to take it too close because I'm gonna need
a dead ball to get him out of the game.
So I'm just gonna get him out of the game
and I'm not gonna put him in again. See what happens, Well,
I know what happens, but they're not. He's alleged to
have done that, but you realize how much authority he
would have at the player himself, Terry Rozier, And like
I said, I'll let you hear their words on exactly
how that went. That one went down, but involved in

(18:11):
a poker scheme, And if you heard some of the
details on how these games were allegedly rigged with the
use of X rays and contacts and illegally crafted tables,
obviously marked cards and the things that go along with it.
You know, you put your chips in and they're not
gonna be years any longer. And roping players into this
game under the guys of you know, you get to

(18:33):
hang out and play alongside celebrities and NBA players former
NBA players. That's where it's believed Chauncey Billups involvement and
arrest under these indictments comes into play. That he was
a part of the games, the poker games, how involved
and how much information did he have from a will
he ever coach against standpoint, I don't really think it matters.

(18:55):
I think the fact that he was involved in any way,
even in an attendance in any way, will prevent any team.
I'm not saying the league will necessarily give him a
lifetime ban from being associated with the league. Again, I'm
not saying they won't, but I think the individual teams
would say, Hey, I bet you he's a good coach.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
We're watching that happen in Portland.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
But I bet you I can find another person who
also can be a good coach and isn't attached to that,
even if he's innocent, Even if he isn't, you know,
he was obviously arrested. But this doesn't mean anybody's guilty,
and that was also mentioned today, but only mentioned today
in the most hilarious way possible. So you heard from

(19:36):
the FBI director. I'll give you one more SoundBite here,
and there's plenty more. Don't worry, we got four hours
of this and the games themselves hate that. I believe
this is a pretty important story, so that's obviously what
we're talking about. But it's this third morning, or the
second morning after the season began, the second day after
games were played the night before, and as exciting as

(19:59):
the Rockets get was, there's only one other game that night,
far less exciting, even though there was a forty point
score in that game. We had twenty four teams on
the court last night. People are freaking out about what
they saw from Victor Webbin Yam and countless other players
Anthony Edwards doing what he does in the fourth quarter
of the game.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
They needed to come back and win.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
I mentioned the Pistons came back down from twenty three,
only to then get outscored by fourth the rest of
the way and also lose a host of other phenomenal
games and storylines from last night. I still believe that
it has to start here. And in light of the
fact that this is very if you didn't see it live,
you probably have seen it floating around social media, and

(20:39):
thus once it's posted there.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
The comments are hilarious.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
So we will save that comment from Joseph nissela US
attorney for the Eastern District of New York, speaking earlier
this morning on the gambling investigation in sports fixing probe
that resulted in thirty arrests. Yep, it's going to be
a part of Best of X next.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 6 (21:08):
We're putting out between five and sim posts, four hundred
people were arrested for things that they said on social media.

Speaker 7 (21:16):
History repeats itself type bang, you will succeed.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Never doubt that you're the one who plus we go one,
Bill the lead.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
You're the best of X.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Nothing's gonna ever top.

Speaker 7 (21:30):
You know, yore the best of X posting ever single day.
You know you're the best of breaking the entire enginet.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
Best of X.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Unfortunately, still focusing on this particular off court event. Obviously,
there was an on court event that spurred all this game,
mentioned very specifically by the Police Commission earlier today during
the press conference held to give everyone some insight onto
this gambling investigation arresting of Chauncey Billips, Terry Rogier, and

(22:06):
Damon Jones among the better than two dozen arrests linked
to both of those two gambling investigations. But something in
particular that was said during the press conference today in
this case from US Attorney for the Eastern District of
New York. That's Jonah Sella Joseph. To those that don't know,
I'm probably like myself. Joseph was commenting on what they'd

(22:27):
found and who he was speaking to, and also reminding
everybody how the legal system works. They're all in one big, long, hilarious,
unintentionally funny dad joke, funny I'm not sure which you
helped me decide comment that he made earlier today among
many if you saw my social earlier, had a very
very important question to pose to everybody based on one

(22:49):
thing he erroneously said this morning. But first what he
had to say to those that were participating allegedly elle
legally in these gambling related events.

Speaker 8 (23:03):
The indictments in these cases contain only allegations, and the
defendants are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty in a.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
Court of law.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Okay, very simple, that's normal stuff. Just reminding everybody this
is where we're at. This is totally hey man, they're
just they're just indictments essentially, they're just allegations and charges.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
We'll see where things go.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
And you're presumed innocent, all right, putting that out there
for everybody.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Then the however part of it.

Speaker 8 (23:34):
But my message to the defendants who've been rounded up
today is this, your winning streak has ended.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Your luck has run out.

Speaker 8 (23:44):
Violating the law is a losing proposition.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
And you can bet on that. Come on, your.

Speaker 8 (23:50):
Winning streak has ended, and you can bet on that.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
Come on.

Speaker 8 (23:57):
Violating the law is a losing proposition.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
This guy's just I don't know.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
I don't want to use the word the great greatest,
but I kind of.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Want to use the word. But he's not even finished.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Like the whole group of people that spoke today, there's
so much more. Dude thinks he's Jerry Orbach in a
Law and Order episode. That must be a Matt Thomas
Burner Jerry Orbach Law and Order. The show's still on
the air. He's been off of the show for decades.
He's been dead for me, seriously, I mean, is he
really dead or was it just alleged to have been

(24:29):
killed in the movie FX. Remember he was the main
mob character in that movie who they put a hit on.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
With a special effects artist. Bloody Risk is walking around here.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Son Cisco Kids said those would be perfect sponsors because
this was posted by an NBA reporter said, your winning
streak is ended, your luck has run out.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
You could bet on that.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
US attorney Jonas Sella Junior said, and then parentheses news
conference brought to you by Draft Kings and FanDuel.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Now, DraftKings and FanDuel.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Are partners with the ENDB and I know a lot
of people are gonna have that angle on it.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
What did you expect?

Speaker 3 (25:06):
I guarantee you they did expect this, and they felt
like the cost benefit analysis if you want to go
in the simplest of terms, are we going to have
NBA players ultimately now participating or are we going to
have NBA players participating because they exist whether or not

(25:28):
we're in bed with them. Let's say DraftKings and FanDuel
and Prize Picks and anybody else is completely uninvolved and
doesn't give any of their money to be on billboards
or in advertisements, or on broadcasting portions of the game
at all, in any way. They're not a part of
the national contract. They're not a part of local contract.

(25:49):
Let's pretend that that's not happening, because obviously it is,
but let's pretend it isn't happen. So because they're not
partners with the league, Terry Roziers not going to participate
because it's not a partner.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
Of course, one has nothing to do with the other.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
It's the The league is obviously not wanting their players
to participate in schemes that are outside the integrity of
the league, clearly, But it's in my opinion, still okay
to accept money from these entities because what they're doing
is legal, and what you're putting in front of your.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Fans is also for them to do legally.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
And I just told you earlier these players are actually
allowed to use these services or any others that they'd
like that are within the rules, just as long as
they're not on the NBA. And again, by being partners
with the league, that's not telling the players it's okay
to use these services. And thus, you know, potentially mess

(26:49):
with the integrity of the league and vice versa. If
they are partners or aren't partner, it's they're, in my opinion, unrelated.
If a player wants to go outside, and allegedly in
this case with the Rosier, heck, it's not not even
allegedly in the NBA's eyes, they cleared him. I don't
think this is a totally separate incident either, because I
remember looking up this very very specific game before, because

(27:11):
that was brought up in this Terry Rozier investigation.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
Now I know there's a lot of other videos.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Again Best of X, I think we did that before
Rosier's name was brought up an investigation, and so the
NBA game watching social media watchdogs. Oh, look at these
sequence of plays from Terry Rosier. Look at what happened
here from Terry Rosier. Oh yes, absolutely throwing it directly
out of bounds, not playing any defense here, one percent

(27:37):
video evidence. Guilty, Absolutely guilty. Now, because it's Best of X,
give me a little liberty here, I couldn't help myself.
Every single time a sports related gambling story arrives, and
in this case, specifically because it's a basketball related NBA story,
I can't help, but think about one of the In

(27:59):
my opinion, one of the most entertaining sports movies of
all time comes to mind, and again in this case,
it's remarkably relevant. It features NBA players like Shaquille O'Neal,
like Anferny Hardaway, and countless others playing for fictitious universities

(28:21):
and real universities, all under the storyline of the head
coach Nick Nolty Pete Bell Blue Chips. At the time,
he was trying to make his team better. He had
a booster that wanted to be involved and wanted to
help make the team better. You know how college athletics works.
What's the best way to get it better? Pre nil, Well,

(28:42):
you gotta do some money hand shifting of the money.
You get it, you play, we win, and other things.
So I bring you this heavily edited for time scene
from basketball movie at the top of my list and
pertinent to today's conversation.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
This from Blue Chips. What they've done is untraceable. What
I've done is unprovable.

Speaker 9 (29:03):
There will be no smoking gun, because I am the
smoking gun.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
That'll relax, it's all working. Happy years, scumbay.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know that the alleged point shade against it to
think again, that thing happened.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Get out of here January sixteen, three years ago. I
bought one of your boys, coach.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
No, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
I sweat to gun no.

Speaker 9 (29:36):
One right, we just didn't come to spread.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
I mean, who cares about this bread?

Speaker 4 (29:47):
That just would jablizate it? And there you have it.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Val the spread in this case, if the allegations are true,
were simply an individual player's prop it's more or less
his over on. In this case Tony, who's one of
Pete's favorite guys. They got to him, shave a few points,
committed some obvious come on, Tony, why'd you make that play?

Speaker 4 (30:10):
What are you doing here?

Speaker 3 (30:11):
What's with all the turnovers? But they still won the game.
It's just for the gamblers. Favorite movie, probably not, but
pretty close to the top of the list.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Best of X Again.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
We got lots of other things from social media to
sprinkle into the show. Would love to talk about the
games too, both the upcoming World Series, the upcoming Texans
game with the Niners and how their season can be saved,
and obviously the Rockets and the rest of the NBA
also want to get to something on both sides of
this as we continue here later in the three o'clock hour,

(30:43):
I'm gonna bring you the worst thing I heard from CJ.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
Stroud yesterday.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
I'm also gonna bring you the best thing I heard
from Debiko Ryans yesterday. But next yesterday we were talking
about Sean Payton and Russell Wilson. We got a follow
up Sean Payton following up on the War of Words.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Yeah, that's next.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety go on.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Welexicole here with you on a Thursday afternoon edition of
the program into the weekend.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
The weekends always start on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
The NFL returns to center stage this evening for the
beginning of Week eight in the NFL Game seven for
the Houston Texans, and that will come Sunday. Tonight's game
features the Vikings and the Chargers. The Chargers will fall
back to five hundred if they can't beat the Carson
Wentz led Vikings. Vikings will fall under five hundred if

(31:47):
they can't come out with a victory in LA. This
evening mentioned the Texans getting together with the Niners noon
on Sunday. The rest of the division that they need
to catch if they want to win the division or
two of the teams ahead of them in the division
they'd love to catch if they want to, you know,
make the postseason in general. Indianapolis Colts as the league's

(32:08):
only six and one outfit, they catch one of the
worst teams in the NFL late afternoon Sunday, the six
and one Colts against the one and six Tennessee Titans.
The four and three Jaguars are not gonna get any
worse this weekend or better. They're one of the teams
that does not play. They sit at four and three.
That's your AFC South picture. Chiefs have the Monday night

(32:28):
game and they get no Jaden Daniels because he's out.
Marcus Mariota is in the Broncos at five and two
are at home for the Dallas Cowboys. We'll get into
some where. Do you think Dak Prescott is on the list?

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Two lists?

Speaker 3 (32:44):
A all time list for the Dallas Cowboys. Statistically speaking,
there's really only four names to comment on, and he's
obviously one of them. Is he second? The third is
the fourth? He's obviously not first. I think everybody knows why.
Obviously you hear that guy every week as he still
does broadcasting work in the NFL. Another five and two

(33:07):
team that the Texans would love to catch. Well, the
New England Patriots are five and two. They're playing the
two and five Browns. They're playing the Dylan Gabriel led Browns.
Their head coach had to comment earlier this week on
why their backup quarterback should Or Sanders isn't getting snaps
like previously, their backup quarterback Dylan Gabriel was behind Joe Flacco,

(33:29):
and I thought he explained it pretty well and makes
sense to me. Well, yeah, he's next in line, but
the guy who's at the front of the line needs
all the reps. He's a kid too, He's barely been
on the field and he certainly wasn't getting first team
reps at that level when he was second string Joe
Flacco giving some reps to or being asked to give
some reps to one of the two rookie quarterbacks that

(33:50):
happens to be second on the depth chart. That makes
perfect sense too. A Joe Flacco stinks, all the reps
that you're gonna give him in a Cleveland Browns practice
don't matter and he doesn't need them. You're not trying
to make him better he is what he is seeding
a few snaps from your nine billion year veteran quarterback
to a rookie.

Speaker 4 (34:09):
Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
But that's where they are, and that's one of the
teams trying to help the Texans rise from tenth in
the AFC. So one other NFL related story that I
think we'll see the end of. Interestingly, we won't see
the end of it if the Broncos, or excuse me,
if the Giants, when they're next on the field, which

(34:31):
obviously is this weekend, they have the Eagles. If the
Giants have to go to Russell Wilson, then Russell Wilson's
probably talking after the game, and he will probably talk
all about what has happened his part, and then Sean's part,
and then the social media part for those that don't remember.
After the Giants beat the or lost to the Broncos.

(34:52):
So the Broncos with a miraculous come from behind victory
over a Giants team that plays Jackson Dart because he's
better than his backup, so Wilson, who they benched in
favor of Jackson Darter earlier this week, right after the game, Essentially,
Sean Payton said this about that change while he was
talking about is great respect for the Giants and the
Giants family.

Speaker 9 (35:11):
You know, they found a little spark with that quarterback.
I was talking to John Mayer not too long ago,
and I said, we were hoping that that change would
have happened long long after our game.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Well it didn't. And Russell Wilson heard what he had
to say. I thought it was a shot at him
and said class list but not surprised. Didn't realize you're
still bounty hunting fifteen plus years later through the media.

Speaker 8 (35:34):
Let's ride.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
So he posted that on social media. Naturally, when Sean
Payton had his early in the week availability with the
media earlier this week, he was asked about it, and
here's what he had to say about the direction of
where he intended that quote to go. You know which,
obviously we all misunderstood the.

Speaker 9 (35:54):
Way that game unfolded it. That was strictly about Dart,
I mean, and I that was in no way, shape
or form anything that was directed at Russ So and
I might be able to see how he might perceive that,

(36:15):
but uh, coming off that win and watching how he played, Yeah,
that that wasn't any intention at all. And I might
be able to see how he might perceive that.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
But he might be able to see how he perceived that.
I get it, Yeah he might. I really want to
believe Sean Payton, totally want to believe him. Here he's
he's had comment you know, you realize he's in between
the time that he was a head coach brief period
he I think really did a lot of media, not
necessarily the typical you know, sitting in the studio and

(36:52):
comment over and over over you, but he did some
of that. Obviously, He's done a ton of interviews over
his multiple decades as a head coach and has participated
in press conferences like countless times. It's not pretty much
ever unintentional. You remember, he was going to be on
the short list for the Houston Texans head coaching vacancy,

(37:12):
and then he was interviewed on Fox about what he
gleaned from this organization, whether from meeting with them or
just this general perception of them, and it wasn't very
flattering about the Texans and their organization and their ownership
and the fact that I don't want this job.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
He knows what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
It was I mean, again, I don't think he's there
to take that moment and say, oh my god, this
is awesome. I can totally rip Russ here. But you
can't say what you said not think that that's how
it would be heard, because that's exactly what was said.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
Like, you couldn't be more clear.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
It will go away as soon as probably right now,
probably go away for our show forever. I don't know
that Russell Wilson's gonna be on the field again. It's
going to take an injury in New York. It will
probably take an injury somewhere else. If he decides not
to retire after this season, and I don't think that's
what he has in mind. Another quarterbacks retirement actually is

(38:03):
getting much more play because he's now completing his playing
against his former teams. Already did it earlier this year,
and now we'll do so this weekend when the Pittsburgh Steelers,
led by Aaron Rodgers, will welcome in the Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
And many are wondering, even.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Though he's playing well, and he is playing well, and
they're winning, they're four and two, they're sitting atop their division,
but is this the last season for Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Personally?

Speaker 3 (38:29):
I don't think it is because he can still throw
the ball. And if you can still throw the ball
and play on a winning team and win games, why
would he walk away? He likes football, as weird as
you think of the rest of his life's likes might be.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
He's good at football. He likes football.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
It certainly seems like the fit in Pittsburgh is at
least as good as it ever was in Green Bay.
I think the fit in New York was never good,
and I think we're seeing why the fit for anybody
in New York is almost never good. We being down
here in Houston, probably don't need to spend very much
time running through what air Glenn and Justin Fields and
Woody Johnson have been up to. But man, I know

(39:05):
they're losing every single week, and I doubt this week
will be any difference, even though they're playing Joe Flacco
and the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati, and they're gonna likely
fall to own eight, and they have two bad options
at quarterback, unnecessary distractions, unnecessary involvement from their owner. The
owners meetings exist, and so the owners put themselves in

(39:27):
front of the media, which I'm sure the media myself
included very much appreciate. I doubt the team that he
owns and operates appreciates the comments that that particular owner
made about his starting quarterback clearly the better of the
two options, no matter how badly he's playing. Maybe there's
a little kick in the backside needed. Let we will
bench you. But you don't have a better chance to

(39:47):
win with the guy behind him on the field, unless again,
Justin Fields just doesn't really care about the NFL, and
he does. I don't want to bring up something with
Justin Fields and CJ. Stroud, but I will, and you
won't like it. But I mentioned I would bring up
something from both CJ and Demico that comes at three
point thirty and four o'clock. At three o'clock, more on
the very specific and outrageous frustrations the Tamiko Ryans has

(40:13):
with his football team as they get ready for game
number seven on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Team.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team eighty A.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
We are back here at three o'clock hour, begins wex
and Cole here with you. Day off for ac be
back with us tomorrow two o'clock so we get ready
for game number two of the Houston Rocket season. They
have the Detroit Pistons in town for the home opener
over to the Center tomorrow night, So looking forward to
bringing you that.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
I'll be on the call with for that one.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
AC had the opener, and hopefully I'll take an early
lead on AC as the Rockets get their first victory
of the season. Think we might see quite a few
victories over the next handful of games for Houston, and
certainly it would be nice to get off to a
good start. Even though the opening game was not a win,
they certainly can still get off to a good start
as long as they start winning basketball games, and everything

(41:22):
we saw despite the final score, looked like they absolutely can.
A lot of good things from their man in the middle,
plenty of good things from Kevin Durant for the first
of I don't know how many games he'll play this year,
and everything else that goes with it, and none of
them were as cool to see, even the debut of
Kevin Durant were as cool to see as what took
place at Rockets practice just a little while ago. Fred

(41:45):
Van Vliet was on the floor for the Rockets. He's
not coming back, he's not about ready to play, but
he was walking around kind of a walk through portion
of practice and helping guys out and coaching him through
some certain scenarios and different things that he thought he
could help them with.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Did not have a knee brace on.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Danielle Lerner among those out there or joined us just
before the season started. She obviously is there every day
covering the Rockets with the team throughout the season for
the Houston Chronicle had comment on that and posted that
on social about Fred being there and even wrote a
story about it. You want a little bit more intel,
go ahead and check that out. Very good as always,
but I wouldn't have expected to see that at this
point in the season. Hopefully it's a sign of more

(42:25):
things to come. I think they're only better with more
voices to listen to. And if anyone thinks that they
are having issues without a true floor general point guard
caliber player on the court or maybe on the team,
he would know it because he knows what I think
helps make this team tick. Even though he hasn't played
with Kevin Durant, and obviously it's a brand new season.

(42:48):
A brand new team and some things will be different.
It's probably the best season you'll see from Alpi, probably
the best season you'll see from a man and a
host of other young players that are all going to
move in that direction. But nonetheless very good to see
him out there. And we'll try to sprinkle a little
bit of what the Rockets had to say over at
practice today and again the rest of the NBA, including Houston,

(43:09):
what they had to say following their respective practices after
the bombshell news from inside the National Basketball Association and
the poker world underground poker world, especially in the East
on the East Coast with the nearly thirty arrests or
better than thirty arrests handed down today sweeping investigation FBI

(43:31):
investigation which is ongoing, which encircled three people currently very
closely tied to the NBA over the last twenty plus years.
Chauncey Phillips, long NBA championship career and current head coach
of the Portland Trailblazers, well, he's on leave, as dictated
by the NBA because he was arrested this morning, the

(43:52):
morning after he coached his team in their first game
of the season, which they lost, probably should have won,
but that's not really important. I don't think he's also
a member the NBA Hall of Fame and widely respected
as a very strong person that's attached to this league
for what he did as a Piston and elsewhere in
the league, and obviously what he's doing as a head
coach now, and the fact that he's a representative from

(44:13):
the NBA inside the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Arrested this morning.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Terry Rozier arrested this morning in Orlando, stemming from a
game in March of twenty twenty three, alleged to have
given some information to people that they could then use
to wager on him coming up just short of some
props individual props related to his play that night. He
played nine minutes and thirty four seconds of basketball that night,

(44:39):
only in the first quarter, checked out, never checked back
in again, alleging a foot injury, which I say alleging
because that's part of what he told them. Oh that
would be the case. That's why I'm not going to
play anymore. So that's what I'm going to make sure
the team knows of and we will get into that.
Let you hear more from those that spoke today, whether
it's the deputy commissioner, a police commissioner, I should say

(45:00):
tish she spoke today, Joseph Nissela, the US attorney the
Eastern District of New York. And of course that a
call got started with the FBI director Cash Pattel heard
a little bit from some of them, plenty more slight
comedy from them with what their puns and cleverly worded
comments about this NBA investigation.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
We already heard one of them. We'll have more for you.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
But I also wanted to get a little further into
the Texans, getting closer to well, trying to make sure
this season is not lost at two and five? Are
you with me saying it is at two and five,
knowing that three losses the rest of the way over
your final ten puts you at eight. It's not a
given that a nine to eight team doesn't make the
AFC playoffs, but it seems unlikely. Seems very very very unlikely.

(45:48):
And that's winning seven of ten. And I've already run
through the remaining schedule. And if you've just lost to
San Francisco to drop you to two and five, well,
how are you gonna win all those other games, you
played a good team, you lost. Then you played a
good team and you lost. Then you played an over
five hundred team and you lost. Then you played a
good team on Monday night and you'll lost. And as

(46:10):
I'm hypothesizing, then you're gonna play a good team on
Sunday and you're gonna lose. So five team, five games
against teams over five hundred, your own five. How are
you gonna win games the rest of the season. Arizona's
on the schedule. I'll give you that one. The Raiders
are on the schedule. I'll give you that one too.
They got another game with the Titans. You can have
that one too, all right. That's three. The other games

(46:32):
are against good, good, great, awesome teams and you're not
one of them. It's frustrating for the people inside the
building quite obviously, if you've listened to anything that they've
had to say, basically since the end of their last game.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
There was some frustration after week one.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
There was frustration after week two, There was frustration after
Week three, clearly, but after they felt like things they
did the things necessary to win football games.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
They won two games in a row.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
They had an entire week to prepare for the remaining
twelve games of the season, and went out there against
Seattle and looked like it was day one of offseason
mini camp. Punting the first four possessions, falling behind fourteen
to nothing, making countless pre snap errors on both sides
of the football, and just generally not playing the way
that a winning team plays. And those are the exact
words used by Demiko earlier this week. We're not making

(47:18):
The plays we make are not the ones that lead
you to winning football. We're not playing winning football, and
specific to execution, it was clear that he's he is
becoming frustrated. The questions are all on a fairly negative vibe.
How could they not be, They're they're producing negative football,
and so the questions about how to fix it and
why is this going wrong?

Speaker 4 (47:35):
And why are you unable to do this?

Speaker 3 (47:36):
They do stem a lot from the inability to, in
his mind, well do what you're being coached to do.
And as a coach that appears to be essentially Demiko
Ryan's biggest frustration. What are we spending all week looking
at film so we can come back to the players
and say this is what we want you to do.
What are we spending all offseason and in season teaching
the techniques we want to see from you, and here's

(47:57):
how we want you to play this, and this is
gonna make you a better blocker. This is going to
make you a better pass rusher, this is going to
make you a better defensive back, all those things. If
they don't come to play with those things on Sunday
or Monday or Thursday or Saturday or whatever night they play,
then I think that is where a coach reaches his
biggest frustration. Not usually because oh my god, I'm going
out there every week and this is what I have

(48:18):
to work with. We just aren't talented enough. It is
actually usually not that which frustrates the coach. I'll work
with what you give me will make them better, and
hopefully if it's not good enough, we'll get better players
and we'll do this. But if they execute what we're doing,
what we want, then then then I'll be less frustrated.
Listen to the frustration from Damiico Rans In addition to
some of the other things that he's talked about, this
is specifically kind of stood out to where he is

(48:42):
with his sixty nine players.

Speaker 10 (48:45):
I'm figuring it out why things are happening. Is always
baffling as a coach when you go through and you
practice a certain thing and you work in a certain
way and guys get in the game and do something
completely different. Well, that's being disjointed. Like we got to
be on the same page and not on the same pad,
Like we don't know what we're doing.

Speaker 4 (49:03):
We just got to do what we what we called.

Speaker 10 (49:05):
We gotta run what we call right, the techniques we work,
the things we established through our training camp. We got
to do that right. And when we do that, you
see we operate efficiently. We're able to be in the
right spot defensively, special teams wise, we're able to get
our blocks done the right way when we just execute
what we practice all week right, you can't get in
a game, So I told our guys they can't get

(49:27):
in a game and over complicate football. And the football
can be a complex game within a game. But to me,
football is simple and you make it simple. You keep
it simple and allow guys to go play fast, right,
And that's what we've done. But we don't need to
make things up. We don't need to try to do
something or press and make a play.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Just be like we just I mean, I hope there's
plenty more, but you're hearing this right. I don't think
it's it's really unintended. I don't think it's out of place.
I don't think think it's the well, you got to
keep this in house. He's being really, really honest, truthful

(50:06):
and telling you the way that he wants this team
to play, and in doing so, he's calling out just
about everybody out there, not by name, not by specific
play that was not executed properly, not the specific block
that wasn't using the right technique. He's saying, we're on

(50:27):
the field on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, and here's
what we're telling you to do, and here's what we're
coaching you to do. And then on Saturday night we're
giving you our final pointers on this is what we
need done, this is how we want to run this play,
walking through this scheme, this is what we want. And
he's telling you on Sunday players are just doing other things.

(50:49):
They're doing what they want. He's saying that it's we
don't want him out there doing. He thinks this team
can't follow directions and this is kindergarten stuff. This is
elementary school stuff. Yeah, kids are young. They can't follow directions.
He's not dealing with elementary school kids, in kindergarten kids
and pre kindergarten kids that are just learning. Heck, everything

(51:11):
he's dealing with. This is what they've done for the
last eight years, twelve years, fifteen years of their lives.
And he doesn't think they can follow directions. He doesn't
think they can follow the game plan. Now, the game
plan might not work, but that's not the current issue
with this team in Demko's mind. And maybe there are
other things to play. Maybe you totally disagree with how

(51:31):
he's going about this or his vision of what he
sees versus what you see. But you and I were
not at practice, not for when they actually do things.
I do attend practice, but I can't say any of
the stuff that he's talking about and complaining about and
is frustrated about. And that is what this coach is
most unnerved by. He used the word it's baffling to me. Baffling.

(51:53):
He's in his third year, they're into their seventh game.
He's baffled by what he's seeing from his team. And
they go out there and play football. That sounds pretty
bad to me.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
The AE on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
Ninety playing for us to get into today and welcome
you to do so here with us, whether it to
be a social media or right here on the program
itselfiea of the phone lines love to batting around with you.
Obviously with the major NBA news, gambling poker not a

(52:28):
good thing to mix in with NBA basketball per the
FBI seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Definitely gonna get back into that topic here as we
continue focused in a little bit this hour on the
Texans and you know what that needs to happen. You
heard from Debico Ryan's last segment. He was pretty darn
clear about what needs to happen, and in his mind,
Step one is they gotta do what we tell him

(52:50):
to and they're not. They gotta do what they're coach
to do and they're not. And we'll hear from Nick
Kayley as well on that similar path. But I think
a little bit more of his answers today. He spoke
a little while ago or more about what he needs
to do better, and I'm sure it will make you
very very happy to hear him talk about that when
we can all see what the problems are and we

(53:11):
don't see any end in sight. We'll see if they
are able to make those changes. But specific back to
what I just gave you from Demiko Ryans when he's
going on and on about here's what needs to get
fixed first, And yesterday we were talking to you about
him saying, I don't even care about the three games
we have in succession at home coming up. I'm not
looking at the other two opponents. I'm looking at only

(53:32):
the San Francisco forty nine ers, And later in his
own comment he essentially corrected himself, saying, I'm not even
looking at the game. I'm looking at a play. I
want us to go out there and execute a play.
He's so frustrated by the execution. And yes, I believe
almost exclusively on the offense is what he's talking about.
But he likes to talk about the team, so he
wasn't getting too specific there. But he just doesn't believe

(53:53):
that they can execute simple plays and have eleven guys
whichever eleven guys they've chosen to put on the field
for the play. He doesn't believe that they can go
out there and execute those plays the way that they're
being coached.

Speaker 9 (54:04):
To.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
He clearly believes it isn't currently their game plan, it
isn't currently their coaching technique, and I think he's well
in his right to say it in this way, because
you can't even determine if those things are wrong if
you can't execute them. I don't know if the game
plans not right, because they're they're not doing it. They're

(54:24):
not running the plays we ask them to do. They're
not going to the spots we need them to. You're
not blocking the players you're supposed to. You're letting this
happen to our quarterback. Our quarterbacks not making the right read.
The quarterback's not making a good throw. I mean that
part of execution, that last part, well, the last part
probably be catching the ball. The second to last part
throwing the football where it needs to be, making an

(54:46):
accurate throw. Again, you dial it back to the part
before it. Well, CJ in position to make that throw,
to CJ have enough room to make that throw.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
A CJ throwing it.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
As he's getting hit inside the pocket on the move,
throwing across his body, all forced by what all those
things that are there. You've seen CJ make throws in traffic.
I mean traffic that he's around. You've seen him make
throws when he knows he's about to get crushed, and
you certainly saw Sam Darnold in this most recent game
under that very same scenario. But the plays where that
isn't the case, the plays where you take the snap

(55:17):
under center, you take your drop, you've been able to
survey the defense, you got your pre snap reads in,
and you've had time to throw, even though you might
still think you're going to get hit because you play
behind the Texans offensive line and their protection scheme. If
you have the time to throw, you're good enough. You're
a good enough quarterback. You're mentally strong enough, which is
part of being a good quarterback that you aren't thinking

(55:40):
those things to the point that it affects the throw
that you make. You have to If you can't do that, well, then,
even though it's not fair to say, you have to
overcome that, but that usually is the mark of a
good quarterback. I'm fully aware of what happened in the
Super Bowl when the Kansas City Chiefs played the Bucks
just a couple of years ago. With the current greatest
quarterback in the NFL, who does nothing but go to

(56:00):
the AFC Title game every year, he had no chance
their offensive line could keep the Bucks out of the
backfield all game long, and in an awful game that day.
He's been under pressure a lot in his career, and
this year is probably as much as any other year.
Pat Mahomes is dealing with it tremendously well, and he's
not even posting eye popping statistical numbers as he has

(56:23):
in the past. He's not on pace for a fifty
touchdown season, He's nowhere near the top of the league
and passer rating, completion percentage, any of those things. But
they're playing winning offensive football almost exclusively because of his
decision making and his ability to make plays, whether they're
scripted or they become unscripted and scrambles. He's just you

(56:43):
make plays when you're the quarterback. That's the sign of
a good one. And that's more of what they definitely
need from CJ. Even in spite of all this, Cole,
I ask you this as we were talking about Demco,
the specific comments he's making, and I didn't use the
term throwing under the bus because I don't really think
that's what he's doing, even though that's exactly what he's doing.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
He's on people under the bus stope. But is there
any issue, is there any reason?

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Is he wrong? Is he seeing it wrong? Is he
wrong for saying it, wrong for thinking it? I mean,
he knows better than we do, the simplicity of he's
a practice, he's in the coaches meeting, he's in the players.
He knows what they're being coached to do. So we
can't speak to whether he's lying about it or not.
He's clearly not lying about that, so he's not wrong
about that. But is anything about the path that he's

(57:26):
taking or the vision that he sees is it wrong?
You're a two and five football team right now, two
and four easy. If you lose this weekend, you're a
two and five football team. You're a two and four
team that currently is on the outside looking into the
postseason pitcher, and you have got to win your next
three games just to even sniff the conversation of being
a wild card team. I mean, you're not gonna catch

(57:46):
Indianapolis because Indianapolis is going to have an easy breeze
until they come face off against you, potentially getting.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
Up to nine to one, ten and one. You have
got to be able to make some changes.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
Like at this point, I'm sorry, everybody is allowed to
be criticized, even if he doesn't put them out by name.
It's there's not a single thing wrong with it, other
than maybe the fact of he constantly is saying the
same thing over and over and over again.

Speaker 4 (58:11):
And that's where the frustrations I think comes in from RS.
He can consistently hear it. I think he is.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
To me, what I'm hearing from him is a little
bit different because it's very specific to this particular game
and why they played the way they did. And again,
I do think it's almost exclusively offensively related. He's he's
watching these players go out there and he's baffled by it.
And this doesn't even mention the special teams, which he
was visibly baffled by it. He used the term I'm
baffled by what I'm seeing out there. He's not baffled

(58:38):
by Derek Stingley Junior not getting a fingertip on a
beautifully thrown ball from Sam Darnold to Jackson Smith and jigg.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
But he's not.

Speaker 3 (58:47):
Oh, that's I mean. I could have said Kamari Lasser,
I could have said Jalen Petri. It was just It's
not about, oh, he did everything that he needed to do,
but the other team just made a play, or he's
at least following the directions we and the coach staff
are giving them. This is more about we snap the
ball and the entire Seattle defensive line is in the
backfield because people aren't doing their job.

Speaker 4 (59:08):
That's not a physical thing.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
That means you're not going where you're supposed to go
because some of the guys in the backfield weren't touched,
weren't blocked, weren't impeded in any way. Are the guys
in the backfield or the tight ends are they chipping
when they are supposed to?

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Are they running.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
Their route the way it needs to be run so
you're clearing out space even when the plays not intended
for you and you're two and three progressions away if
you don't run your route a certain way. I don't
think coaches are infallible when it comes to play design. Clearly,
if you're talking about their offense, I think some of
their play design and their route concepts from at least

(59:43):
what a moron like me can see, I think they're
pretty flawed. When multi flawed, you just just watch it.
I think everybody can understand that. So I'm not trying
to pretend like Tomko and his coaching staff. I don't
think he is either. That Tomiko and his coaching staff
are geniuses and have drawn up the best play and
all you have to do is execute. This is what
happens when you have a first year OC exactly what's

(01:00:05):
happening right now. Almost every single time, it's there's a
theory and then there's reality. The theory when you're drawing
up plays, and then when you're watching them on film
and you're looking back at other teams that have run
plays like this, Well, in theory, this should work and
this should happen, and this should do that. And I
believe if the players go out and execute exactly what
we're coaching them to do, and everybody runs where they're

(01:00:26):
supposed to go, we're good.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
Going to this play is going to win.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
It works sometimes it works a lot more often when
you've been doing it for five, six, seven years and
you realize that the nuance is with it and you
understand how to adapt this part of it needs to
be changed here, or that particular player that we have
on the roster would be better suited to be in
that position with this personnel group when we're trying to
run that specific play and it won't give away to
the other team exactly what we're trying to do, because
we have the personnel on the field who made it

(01:00:51):
all the way to Thursday. By the way, since I
just brought into my own mind the term at personnel,
holy cow, I can't even remember if I took to
the X platform with this thought.

Speaker 4 (01:00:59):
I think I did.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
But some of the personnel groups they were using, especially
in the red zone, oh god, we're just insane. I
don't know what I understand the idea of well, the
other team won't know what's coming to a certain extent
because of who's out there, but they're putting players on
the field they can't possibly help CJ make a play,
whether it's through the air or whether they're running the
football that you still.

Speaker 4 (01:01:21):
Have to execute. Yeah, I just I don't know what.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Honestly, I didn't know what they were doing, quite honestly,
and I could get specific with it, and maybe I
will in the later portion of the show. But it's
clear that they're not coming up short four times in
the only four games they've played against competent teams by
accident or as a fluke, or it just didn't work
out today, or we just came up short right here

(01:01:46):
at the very end of the game. It's happened too often.
They literally did come up short right at the very
end of the game. Twice the first two games of
the season, they had the ball after they took it
away from the Rams in the final few minutes. They
had the ball inside the red zone at the very
close to the end of the Dario Gunbo wally play
to go and win the game, to make the final

(01:02:08):
plays to win the game. But he's got the ball
punched out. And then obviously against Tampa, if you believe
they let Nick Chubbs score so they could go down
the entire length of the field and convert a fourth
and ten in doing so to beat you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
Yes, they were very, very very close.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Then, but you've also played four of these games, you've
lost all four of them, and the fifth one is
staring you right in the face. There's a bigger problem. Then.

Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Well, I just hope we can play in close games
because it'll even out. We'll win.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
So those it will not even out unless you play
a heck of a lot better football. You can play
great football and still be in a one possession game.
It happens all the time. It's happened to Demiico and
CJ in this group countless times in the first two seasons.
Hadn't happened at all this year because in these games
they've lost by one score, they have not played good football.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
Well, flip it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
I gave you the best thing as Cole and I
just said I liked what I heard from Nico Ryans.
Now I'm gonna give you the worst thing I heard
from CJ. Stroud yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
That's next.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
The eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 8 (01:03:08):
Ninety stairs down there, two bucks and Corel.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
You're with you en off days for ac He will
return tomorrow an hour out from our signature segment Thursdays
brings you what's up with that? Clearly we found out
what that subject should be this morning with the investigation
and indictment and thirty arrests made surrounding both the organized

(01:03:36):
crime world and the NBA somehow intertwined. And we'll get
back into that story quite obviously in the four o'clock hour,
and quite possibly when we get to the what's up
with that at the four to thirty portion of the
show Football at five, as per usual at five o'clock,
Do you have tickets to give away? We'll do that
in the five o'clock hour as per usual. Actually, in
the final segment of the show football tickets to go

(01:03:57):
see the Cougars and Supercross coming up in January. We'll
have an opportunity for to win those in the final
hour of the program. Final segment of the show. I
gave you a couple of things from Dimiko earlier and
now I said, I wanted to give you the worst
thing I heard from CJ yesterday. I gave you the
frustrations from Dimiko. I told you I really liked what

(01:04:17):
I heard. There's actually something else from Dimiko half an
hour from now. I'm gonna let you hear that I
thought was the best thing I heard from Demiko. But first,
the other side of things. It's pretty clear when the
Texans finish up a football game and the offense or
the team comes up short, and I think at all
four of their losses is very generic the way I

(01:04:38):
described in last segment, I think it's fair to say
the offense played subpar football in each of their four losses. Yes,
they scored nine points with no touchdowns against the Rams.
They scored nineteen points with one of the touchdowns allegedly
being gifted to them in their loss to the Bucks.
They scored ten points in their loss to the Jaguars,
and not until the final two minutes did they push

(01:05:00):
past the twelve points that they had on the board.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
They finished with nineteen.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
Only one of those two touchdowns was earned while the
Texans offense was on the field their first touchdown of
the game, the only touchdown they had in the game
before there were two minutes of four seconds left.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
Well, it came from the defense.

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
The offense had not found the end zone at all
in the football game. I think that sounds like poor
offensive play that pretty much goes without saying. Then you're
gonna get the quarterback after the game and the ensuing
Wednesday or Thursday or whatever day of the week he
ends up talking. He talks on the first day they're available,
but their schedule obviously makes that change occasionally depending on
their upcoming game schedule. But he's not very happy, he's

(01:05:37):
very downtrodden.

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
As CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Stroud, He's pretty clear with his feelings by how he speaks,
by how he walks by how he acts, he's not
very happy, and you could almost say he's sad, and
it's why we were bringing it up earlier this week.
Do I think he's reached the point that he's thoroughly
disgusted with what's happening in Houston, whether or not some
of it's on his shoulders, and I definitely believe some

(01:06:00):
of it is. I think CJ definitely believes that some
of it is. But I do think he's kind of
fighting an uphill battle before every game starts, and I
think he knows it. I think he knows some people
in the organization know it. I wouldn't even surprise me
if there's been apologies about it, and not that they're
going to make anybody feel any better, but that's where
they are, with the inability to go out there and

(01:06:21):
say we lost because CJ missed open receivers even though
he had time. They lost because there were holes to
run through and you made it through the hole and
then you fumble. They're not losing games because they're turning
it over four times and on a four hundred yard
offensive day. They're losing games because they can't operate an
offense effectively and efficiently. And it's not because the Rams

(01:06:42):
and the Bucks and the Jaguars and the Seahawks have
phenomenal defenses some variation of better than average defenses for
each of those teams, yes, but it's not because of
those defenses spectacular talent football a little bit, as they're
very easy to put together game plan because we're seeing
it every week again now what we saw every week

(01:07:03):
last year. We don't even stunt very much. We don't
run blitzes very much. But when we play the Texans,
we're gonna do it because it works every time. We're
gonna call it on every step, but they're gonna call
it when they need it, and the guy's gonna get
through unblocked far far, far, far, far far far too often.
So you reach a point of yeah, I'm not sure
what they expect me to do. I'm sure the OC
feels the same way, and we will hear from Nick

(01:07:25):
Kayley also, But hearing this from CJ. Stroud yesterday, I
think the problem goes a little bit deeper than Yeah,
our offensive line isn't playing very well.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
I've thought that for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
I think a lot of people also have thought that
for a long time, including last year when it A
wasn't true their offensive line but was bad, but B
wasn't the only problem with the offense. That's what mirrors
up to this year. Whole new group of players, essentially
a new offensive line coach and a new OC same
problems persist, and we're now seeing that really manifest themselves.

(01:07:57):
And we'll see if the Niners do what the Seahawks
did and say, well, this is how you beat that offense.
Quite obviously, I actually think there's significantly more to that
after I hear what CJ had to say this week
about the offense that they're running game plan.

Speaker 11 (01:08:10):
I think for every team you ask them to do
well on first saying down, and then that's where I
think some of the playmaking abilities you know, has to
come out. And that's the thing in this offense is
like every plage is doing your job even if it
means gain to two. You know, it's I.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
That's I'll play more of it after I say even
it means you're it's a gain of two. And earlier
in the comedy goes with the offense that we run.
So does it sound like he's saying they can't do
anything with this offense, no matter what and how well
they execute, I'll let it continue. But it certainly does
to me.

Speaker 11 (01:08:47):
Every plage is doing your job, even if it means
gain to two. You know, it's like that's what we're
being asked to do. That's what we're asked of. So
that's something I'm still getting used to. But yeah, I think,
you know, like when that time comes, we got to
financiers and that's where or you know, when the ball
he's getting out for two yards, that's when I trust
hunt or one of the doles and outside and make
somebody misson get eight.

Speaker 5 (01:09:07):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:09:07):
So that's the type of offense we're living in. I think,
I think it's a good thing. But yeah, those type
of situations, you know, kind of test those rules. But
the more you can stay on track is the better.
You know, what we have when we play on Sundays.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
One more small replay of what he said, just to
make sure you heard.

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
It, you know.

Speaker 11 (01:09:26):
So that's the type of offense we're living in.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
That's the type of offense we're living in. Multiple times,
he's used to describe his own offense death by a
thousand cuts. Does this offense seem well suited to what
he'd like to do, what he's capable of doing, what
his skill set indicated over the first year and change,
if not both years he's capable of doing. Or is
he actually in an offense with an OC and with

(01:09:50):
the group around him that is not well. It's certainly
not fun. It's never fun when you're not playing well.
I don't really think that's what he's saying, you, Hofull.
We got to do what's called for, even if it's
a two yard game. There are plays. Every offense has them,
every NFL team, they're not alone are There are plays
designed that you don't expect them to get eighteen yards,
eight yards, six yards.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
There's an opportunity to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
And he also mentioned that, so when your numbers called,
and even if it's play for two yards, I hope
I'm expecting and the guys know that you got to
make a play. You gotta make a guy miss and
turn it into an eight yard game, or you could
scheme guys wide open. Every other team does it. The
team you just played did it, Jacksonville did it. The
teams that have beaten you have done it. Teams that
beat you last year did it. Heck, Cleveland did it

(01:10:32):
to you all afternoon long a season ago with Joe
freaking Flacco. Was Amari Cooper just so much better than
anybody in the Texans secondary? Yes, actually that day he
was with who the Texans didn't have out there, But
my gosh, they schemed him open. He ran into wide
open spaces over and over and over again. That's just
one game and one example, and the Texans have done

(01:10:53):
some of that. But does it look like guys are
running open and CJ's just missing them, or guys are
running open and he doesn't have time to get the
ball to them. No, this is what the offense is.
I mentioned the word disgusted two days ago. Do I
think he's disgusted. I'm listening to that and I think

(01:11:14):
the answer is yes, I think he. I mean, it's
a too strong to say. I think he hates the
offense they're running and it's not even creating super different
from I guess last year or the year before. The
results certainly are. This is one of the worst offenses
in the NFL. And the seventy points they scored as
a team against the two teams that are non competitive

(01:11:35):
is throwing that all off that's one third of your season.
Two thirds of your season you can't operate on offense,
and that's essentially almost all of what you have in
front of you competitive football teams. Is your offense gonna
keep looking like that? I'd hate it too.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
The AED on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
Get to the top of the hour momentarily and we'll
dig back in on something specific from Demiico. Ryan's best
thing I heard from Dimiko, And obviously we're going to
revisit and maybe give some more details as more have
discussed them and NBA players have talked a little bit
more about the investigation that resulted in three arrests of
current NBA head coach Chauncey Phillips, current NBA player Terry Rosier,

(01:12:23):
and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones as part
of a massive gambling and point sports fixing investigation that
is still ongoing, but came to a head at least
to a certain degree with those arrests and the comments
from a press briefing earlier today from the FBI director

(01:12:43):
and a couple of other people, and we haven't heard
from all of them yet, and I told you earlier
today some of the stuff they had to say was
just Some people probably thought it was cringey. I thought
it was hilarious in making their dad jokes about what
took place.

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
It's pretty serious matter.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
They're talking about better than seven million dollars and losses
for the quote unquote victims in the poker related gambling
side of it, illegally fixed poker games involving in some
degree NBA players or NBA coaches in this case Chauncey Billups.
I'm giving you all the details on that, so certainly

(01:13:18):
will do so when we get there. But I wanted
to stick with the Texans offense and CJ. Stroud and
the possibility that what we're seeing isn't going to change
as they head into an off season of what should
they do contractually with CJ. Stroud, Will Anderson some of
the other decisions they have to make. But those are
obviously two huge ones. I added Will Anderson to that,
only in that the timing suggests you could, and you

(01:13:39):
have the opportunity to extend him. You absolutely should be
doing that, no questions asked. It is totally not related
to CJ. Stroud. It's not about when you do it.
It's not about how much money you have left over.
It's not about I need to get CJ done first.
You don't your opportunity, first opportunity to re up with
Will Anderson Junior and not need to wait for him

(01:14:00):
to play the final year of his contract or the
obvious fifth year final year with the option year picked
up on his contract. Just take care of it now,
make him happy, Pay him what he's earned, put him
near the top of the payscale, if not at the
highest portion of the payscale. I said it after week one.
We're now into week eight, and I will say the
same thing. You can count on one hand and you

(01:14:21):
might not even need all your fingers to rank the
best edge rushers, most disruptive edge rushers in the NFL
in twenty twenty five, Will Anderson would be in that group.
That's how well he's played, That's how much disrupting he's doing.
And that's what you would want to do. As long
as you're not Jerry Jones. Young player performing at a

(01:14:43):
high level, likelihood that will continue for the duration of
the length of the extension you're negotiating with that player.
Those help players the defense in Will Anderson is doing
just about everything they can do to win games. You
stop Tampa Bay Texans are three and three, and things
will be a lot different. And they did, and he

(01:15:03):
was out there for that. But as much as he
can do individually, as much as the unit can do
as a group. Obviously, they're the number one scoring defense
of the NFL. They're the hardest defense to score on
in the entire league. They're playing well, they're playing winning football.
They're playing championship level football. And Anderson specifically, at least
according to the ESPN version of grading out edge rushers

(01:15:27):
as it relates to pass rushing, he's number two in
the NFL in pass rush win rate. Daneil Hunter was
borderline top ten a couple weeks ago. He's now fourth.
You have two of the top four edge rushers on
the field for about sixty five percent of your snaps.

(01:15:47):
They'll rotate them in and out. They'll get two or
three series and then their reserves will get one. And
that's how it normally works. With how Demiko and Matt
Burker running this defense, it's certainly working to keep them
effect It's not awesome when they're not on the field,
and you can notice, but edge rushers pretty infrequently play
one hundred percent of the snaps and they're not, and

(01:16:09):
they're probably playing outstanding football because of it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:13):
It's pretty taxing.

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
The offensive linemen and the quarterback are usually in a
pretty small group. Texans secondary is probably in that group
as well. They'll play one hundred percent of the snaps
if the game and score warranted. Defensive edge, defensive tackle
that they won't. Wide receivers, running backs, tight ends they don't.
You're getting great play out Will Anderson Jr. Suffice to say,

(01:16:35):
it doesn't need a lot of explanation. Every single part
of his game is at an elite level and it
continues to get better.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
Is CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:16:43):
Stroud's doing the same. Obviously the answer is no, but
it's nuanced. There clearly are other things at play. Their
pass protection, their game plan, their game play calling, everything
that goes into that. I think people have noticed this
same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
I've noticed. I've brought it up a whole lot.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
I don't think they spend enough time getting a chance,
giving a chance to their own quarterback to see what's
in front of them. I don't think the plays get
in quickly enough. I don't think those things are happening.
I don't think communication. These are pre snap things that
you should have all figured out as soon as you can,
certainly by week three or five or eight, which is
where we're at now. Not an overwhelming problem, but I

(01:17:21):
would like to see the quarterback break the huddle with
his group a lot sooner than where they normally do
with twelve eleven, ten, nine, eight seven seconds left, and
the way they operated in this last game, especially.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
When they ran the ball late.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
Come on, now, you got two scores to tie, and
you're running the ball and letting thirty seven seconds bleed
off the forty second play clock.

Speaker 4 (01:17:42):
Get it together a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
Whether that's on CJ and it's not, or everybody else
involved in the operation it is. Those are the things
that absolutely can't be happening anymore. But I told you
I had some unfortunate statistical numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
Same thing to give to you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:57):
We're talking about the Jets and their owner, our head coach,
all having to talk about something the owner just said
at the owner's meetings about how they need to complete
a pass when we have a quarterback not doing what
we need done. These are things that Woody Johnson essentially
said soon Aaron Glenn had to answer to that, he
went back and forth and reported today saying what did
he exactly? What exactly did he say? Well, he didn't

(01:18:19):
say anything that we haven't said here inside the building.
Yesterday he spent his time telling the media we will
have a quarterback on Sunday, and they had to keep
asking him questions till they got to so you have
decided who's your quarterback, but you're just not telling us
And he said, yeah, that's where we're at. So it
will either be Tyrod Taylor, who's dealing with a knee

(01:18:39):
injury and is also not very good at playing quarterback
in the NFL, So why is his career backup? Or
Justin Fields who's been a career starter but doesn't play
very well either.

Speaker 4 (01:18:48):
Well, how does that apply to c J. Stroud, you
might ask? I have your answer.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
C J.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
Stroud was at one oh two point one passer rating
coming out of two straight victories, coming out of eighty
one percent completion over those two games. Flying high one
oh two point one put him just around the top
ten in the NFL. Then they played their game on
Monday night against Seattle and his passer rating went from
one oh two point one to ninety one point one.
Now he's right there in the middle of the league.

(01:19:13):
It's a thirty two team league. He's sixteenth. Ninety one
point one passer rating in this day and age in
the NFL is not good. And it's even worse when
I tell you it's shared by the recently benched justin Field.
Come on, they have the exact same passer rating. Granted,
justin Field doesn't throw the ball as much, and they
certainly don't go anywhere with it. A pathetic eight hundred

(01:19:34):
and forty five yards of passing from him, CJ A
lot more respectable thirteen oh five, But thirteen oh five
is twenty second.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
In the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
It's still poor, and most of their other numbers are
similarly equal and not good. I'm not telling you he's
as bad as justin Fields because I have eyes. It's
not all numbers all the time, but they certainly can
paint a picture whether it's ugly or not.

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
Then this one is ugly. Caleb William c J.

Speaker 3 (01:20:03):
Stroud, Justin Field's Mac Jones of the Niners, Carson wentz
Kyler Murray. These are the quarterbacks around that ninety one
point one rating.

Speaker 4 (01:20:12):
Did you like that list. Is he part of an
elite group? He is not. Four o'clock. It has arrived.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
The best thing some positivity for me, not a wet blanket.
The best thing I heard from Demico yesterday. We delivered
next the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
On Sports Talk seven ninety June. Lifelong Houston sports guys
named at him talking your Team. Adam Clinton and Adam
Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:20:54):
It is four o'clock. That means we're halfway home.

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
On a Thursday afternoon edition of the A Team Rockets
Basketball returns tomorrow night the on to one Rockets, the
on to one Detroit Pistons, the home opener for Houston
seven o'clock tip, six point thirty four Rockets Countdown. I
will have that for you coming from Toyta Center. Then
MT and I will have the call of the game.
We've got Rockets launch Pad coming your way immediately after

(01:21:19):
tomorrow's show at six o'clock, and we'll see what the
Rockets can do.

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:21:24):
I think what the Rockets can do is maybe put
together a handful of wins in succession to make everybody
not be too concerned about the fact I hope they're
not that they lost a double overtime game to the
defending NBA champions to open up their season. The Rockets
schedule moving forward out of this opener a very difficult

(01:21:45):
but very entertaining first game of the season. Work for
the Rockets, work for the NBA. They just didn't come
out on the right end of it. They've got Detroit
and Brooklyn on this brief two game homestand they see Toronto, Boston,
and Dallas followed by Memphis. Those are their next games.
Everybody else, just about in the NBA was on the
court last night, other than the four teams that played

(01:22:07):
their opening games with the Rockets on opening night. Two
more teams to kick off tip off their NBA schedule tonight,
but everybody else was on the court. Detroit down by
twenty three, they ended up winning or losing their game
by four after coming all the way back against Chicago.
The Brooklyn Nets, who they will play next on Monday night,
they were also on the court last night. If you

(01:22:29):
missed the Brooklyn Nets contributions to NBA basketball for their
opening night, you missed them giving up one hundred and
thirty six points to Charlotte in an absolute blowout. Maybe
maybe it was the most non competitive game in the
Eastern Conference in my opinion, for where it was so
early and how it stayed. Was the game in the

(01:22:50):
Western Conference, somewhat surprisingly, that was almost as non competitive.
So you got Brooklyn on Monday, then you'll be in
Toronto and in Boston after that. Toronto on the court
last night embarrassed the Atlanta Hawks. They beat them by
twenty clinton. Wish you were here the Hawks. Why is
everybody saying the Hawks are going to be so good?

(01:23:11):
The Hawks opened their season at home with a twenty
point loss to the Raptors. Now that's actually a good
thing for those of you on social media and the
five of you that are listening that follow the Toronto
Raptors on social They have a cobra now, they have
a brand new We won the game chain as well,
and they celebrated in the locker room with their cobra.

(01:23:34):
I'll have to have you watch it so you'll understand.
But we won the game cobra that they celebrate with
and a typical chain with a spinning Raptors logo on
and all the great stuff you do as professional NBA
players after you win basketball games. So the Rocks will
get the Raptors a couple of games after that, who
knows what they will have shown after that. Then they
have the Celtics and the Mavericks. I think everybody knows

(01:23:56):
what the Mavericks did last night. They were the team
that say Antonio was playing as Wemby went off fifteen
to twenty one forty points. Dominated defensively, MAVs only scored
ninety two points. Most of today's conversation league wide nationwide
would have been about Victor webbin Yama's performance last night. Luckily,

(01:24:17):
for AC we don't have to do that today. Andy's
not here because we're talking. If we're talking NBA today,
we're talking about the scandal. But they're not playing the Spurs.
They're playing the Mavericks. The Mavericks without Kyrie Irving and
without the ability event essentially to stop anybody from scoring,
won't be Cooper Flagg's debut game because he did that
last night. When the Rockets see them in a little

(01:24:38):
over a week, ten points, ten boards. He missed nine
of his thirteen shots. They played porous defensively. The Spurs
shot fifty eight percent in the game, and the other
opponent the Rockets will have during that stretch Boston and Memphis.
Boston and Philadelphia two teams that would love it if
they were healthy. Boston knows they're not going to be

(01:24:59):
hell and Philadelphia can only hope that somehow they stay healthy.
Joel Embiid he started Tyrese Maxey. He had forty and
beat only played twenty minutes, had four points, and they
won the game without him.

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
On the floor because VJ.

Speaker 3 (01:25:15):
Edgecombe, the freshman, the rookie after his freshman year at Baylor,
was awesome, extremely impressive NBA debut forty two minutes and
thirty four points. They beat the Celtics by one. That's
a very beaten up Celtics team because if you look

(01:25:38):
at who they actually have now, doesn't look like a
very good team, even though Derek White and Jalen Brown
are out there and six man Peyton Pritchard is out there.
Maybe tough for him to win six Man of the
Year this year considering he's probably gonna start all year
as he did in their opener. But these are the
teams that you're playing to bust out of the season.
Memphis fell behind early to the Pelicans, by the way,

(01:25:59):
and came back to win, and John Morant looked very good.

Speaker 4 (01:26:01):
In doing so.

Speaker 3 (01:26:02):
So we'll get to more on them, obviously as we
continue this hour and next hour, and also we revisit
everything that we now know about Damon Jones and Chauncey
Billips and Terry Rozier and what people at the podium
had to say about them. But I gave you a
little chease. Wanted to let you hear something from Demiico
Ryans that I liked. Not the best thing he's ever said,
not necessarily what everybody else even agrees with. I agreed

(01:26:25):
with it, so to me, it's the best thing he said.
We asked this question about definitely football teams all the time,
sometimes about NBA teams. This does seem very football related.
When we look at your team and the off season
is now complete, you go out there and you've made
enough changes that the question is not immediately obvious what
the answer is. You have other teams like Philadelphia, like

(01:26:48):
Baltimore the past handful of years, Chiefs, etc. We don't
have to ask them this question, what's your identity? Well,
we know what the identity of those teams is. They
run the football in Philadelphia, they dominate up front, they
win the game in the trenches. Obviously, the same thing
is true with Baltimore. Of Baltimore without winning the Super Bowl,
without even reaching the Super Bowl, well, they run the

(01:27:08):
ball at least as well as Philadelphia for the last
half decade, if not better. They just haven't won quite
as much because there's no question about their identity. If
you can't stop the run against Baltimore Philadelphia, you don't
beat them. It's been pretty true and pretty proven. However,
I gave you a couple of teams because I don't
really believe in that identity stuff. You can decide to
build your team a certain way and great. I guess

(01:27:30):
you have an identity because of it, but I don't
really think it's a mandatory or be Most teams have it.
Who's the best team in the AFC right now? The
only team that's six and one. What's the identity of
the Colts?

Speaker 5 (01:27:43):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
I know, I know Jonathan Taylor runs all the time.
He has ten touchdowns rushing. It must be rushing the football.
I definitely would not say that, even though he's awesome
and having a great year. Who's the next best team
and the next best team? And I think the same
thing would hold true for all of them. It's not
identity based, it's success based. And that question was asked
to some of the players and to Jamiico Ryans yesterday,

(01:28:05):
that specific question, what do you think the identity of
the team is? So if you're curious, like I was,
what he would have to say to that, let her rip.
What's the identity of the team? Debiko?

Speaker 10 (01:28:14):
The identity of our offense is at the end of
the day, to me, will identity of offensive football is
moved the ball. It doesn't matter if people want, oh,
we're a run first pass for it doesn't matter like
if you get four yards, you get four yards. Is
that's throwing the ball, passing the ball and offense just
has to be efficient and that's what it has to be.
Right when we played versus the Titans and versus the Ravens,

(01:28:37):
what was our identity and that we moved the football
because we were effiiching. We stayed on track. We stayed
It didn't matter if we ran the ball or we
we threw the ball short passes, it didn't matter. Like
that's what offensive football is about, right, And that's what
you know. The team we're playing this week and watching
these guys on tape, what's their identity? Right? They moved

(01:28:57):
the football like they find ways to get the ball out,
run the ball well, you throw the ball quick, getting
out of the quarterback's hands very well, and Verry's fishing on.

Speaker 4 (01:29:06):
What they're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:29:07):
Good.

Speaker 8 (01:29:07):
Love it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:08):
And you heard him in the answer say Will Will
Kunkle was the one asking those questions, and similarly of
some of the players, So you got a lot of
those answers from them. If you've guys have heard some
of that or seen some of that. And that's what
Dimiko had to say. And again, I'm not asking everybody
to agree with me on this, and I certainly don't
think everyone will, but I love what he said, and
I totally believe in that. It's nice if you haven't identity.

(01:29:30):
I guess it's certainly not necessary the identity of your offense,
and that should be much more specifically what we're discussing
was that's the specific question that he was answering. The
identity of a good offense is you move the ball
and you put points on the board. And I'd hate
to think you only do one of those, but there
are teams that have struggled to do both, and the
Texans have actually been one of them. They were terrible
in the red zone. They've been terrible in the red

(01:29:52):
zone this year. They've hardly been there. Very successful against
the Ravens and the Titans, very unsuccessful in the other
four games they've played against competent teams defenses. I don't
really care what their identity is or if they have one,
or your if they even aspire to get one move
the football. CJ throws a five yard pass on first down. Okay, well,
now you have second and five and maybe third and less, Well,

(01:30:13):
you're probably gonna convert. What was your identity? Moving the football?
Scoring points? That's what good offensives do. It doesn't have
to be pinpointed in a certain way. They certainly don't
have a collection of players that dictates that. Look at
what the Texans have for any of the three years
that Demiko has been running this team, but the two
years with Sloan, the one year partial year with Nick Cayley,

(01:30:33):
three years with CJ. Stroud, one year with Joe Mixon.
What's the identity of the team offensively? There's no identity.
When they're playing good offensive football, their identity is that
they can play good offensive football. They can put points
on the board. Some of their most successful games came
when CJ. Stroud offensively at least just let a rip,
started throwing the ball over the yard and you probably

(01:30:54):
saw that in week two of his rookie season, and
it continued long through the season, all the way through
the come back against Tampa. You know, a four hundred
yard day, a five touchdown pass day. So their identity
that day was throwing the football. Their identity because of
the scoreboard, was throwing the football successfully. And most of
that year they threw the football successfully. What was the
identity of the team last year when you didn't change quarterbacks,

(01:31:17):
you didn't change offensive lineman, you didn't change offensive coordinators.

Speaker 4 (01:31:21):
Yeah, but you did.

Speaker 3 (01:31:22):
You had Joe Mixon, You did a little bit more running,
and you were a little less successful throwing the football
and some of the personnel that wasn't on the field.
Dell was heard at times, Diggs was heard at times. Collins, Sure,
that plays into it, But I would have never called
the Texans identity in twenty twenty three. Oh man, They're
a passing team. That's how that's who they are. That's
what we have to stop if we're going to beat them. Similarly,

(01:31:42):
I wouldn't have called them a running team last year.
That's that's who they are, that's what they do. If
you can't stop that, forget it. You're not gonna win.
Their identity as a better offensive team in those two
seasons than the one we're seeing this year. Is exactly
what Tamiko o'rions said. I'm glad he doesn't care. Glad
he's not striving for an identity. He's striving for success.
He clearly is. But they're clearly not quite there yet.

(01:32:06):
You want to hear from the comedy show part of
it that was over at the FBI meet and Greek
debriefing today regarding the NBA's gambling investigation and the poker
sanctions indictment.

Speaker 4 (01:32:19):
Yeah, we're gonna hear that next.

Speaker 1 (01:32:22):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:32:31):
Afinite edition of the eight Team.

Speaker 3 (01:32:34):
Lets you pull here with you this afternoon seven one
two one two five seven ninety You got any thoughts
on what's next for the NBA considering what came down
earlier this morning about the investigation into sports fixing. In
this case, NBA fixing not necessarily the result of an
NBA game but individual player props has explained by the

(01:33:00):
well at the podium today if you miss that, the
FBI briefing with the FBI Director, the US Attorney for
the Eastern District of New York, and the New York
Police Commissioner all took to the podium today. During their
briefing about the thirty arrests, they made the link between
organized crime and some poker games that were also fixed,

(01:33:20):
the link between those games and the NBA, with the
conduit being Damon Jones, who was also arrested. Chauncey Billips,
who's not getting ready to coach Game two for the
Portland Trailblazers. Rather, he is on leave as dictated by
the NBA. He and Terry Rosier arrested separately this morning

(01:33:43):
and put on leave by the NBA. I'll give you
the NBA's official statement on this, as everybody knew by then,
since the arrests had already been made, but they decided
that it was in their best interest to hand down
the initial punishment earlier today. We're in the process of
reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey

(01:34:05):
Billips are being placed unimmediately from their teams. Rogier's on
the heat billips of course, the Blazers head coach, and
we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We
take these allegations with the most seriousness, and the integrity
of our game remains our top priority. Integrity of the
game absolutely compromised if a player is telling somebody's that

(01:34:26):
he's going to want them to go ahead and play
the under on his player props or the less on
his player props, because he's going to be checking out
of the game relatively early with a sore foot. And
in this case was a game in March of twenty
twenty three for Terry Rozier, and that's exactly what happened.
After nine and a half minutes, put up some numbers,
none of which would have placed him on the over

(01:34:47):
on any of his game long props. Solus, they all
came home winners. And I don't want to give you
too much because that specific example was given today by
the the police Commissioner Jessica Tish, very very specific about that. First,
I want to remind you of some of the comedy

(01:35:08):
show that we're about to hear. This was some of
the lines used by Joseph Nisseli, UIs attorney for the
Eastern District of New York. You're reminded everybody that you're
innocent until proven guilty.

Speaker 8 (01:35:19):
But but my message to the defendants who've been rounded
up today is this. Your winning streak has ended. Your
luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition,
and you can bet on that, and you can bet
on that.

Speaker 4 (01:35:38):
You're in cloud nine with these badgects, aren't you.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
I can't get over their delivery of these of the
messaging today.

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
That was just one example.

Speaker 3 (01:35:45):
And I've given you his quote and quotes now multiple
times in the first two hours and twenty minutes of
the show, and I've not I have not given you
his best moment of this morning yet, and I'm not
going to give it to you here either. The best
thing that you could ever hear with a we are
flexing with our power and strength in this investigation, and

(01:36:09):
look at what we've done.

Speaker 4 (01:36:11):
We're awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:36:12):
And when he said what he said, which I'll give
you a little bit later, I couldn't. I can't laugh
any harder. I'm laughing pretty hard at this stuff, but
I couldn't laugh any harder at that particular item, but
to miss tish the New York Police commissioner running through
the specifics the example of what they believe to have
taken place and part of the indictment of the allegations

(01:36:32):
around what Terry Rosier did that well he should not
have done.

Speaker 12 (01:36:36):
One example occurred on March twenty third, twenty twenty three,
in Charlotte. Terry Rogier, an NBA player now with the
Miami Heat but at the time playing for the Hornets,
allegedly let others close to him know that he planned
to leave the game early with a supposed injury. Using
that information, members of the group placed more than two

(01:36:57):
hundred thousand dollars in wagers on his under statistics. Rosier
exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets
paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit.
The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the
group counted their cash. As the NBA season tips off,

(01:37:18):
his career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity.
His career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity.
One more time, his career is already benched, not for injury,
but for integrity.

Speaker 4 (01:37:34):
Now, I was watching this you know me press conference.
Of course I watched.

Speaker 3 (01:37:38):
There were no pats on the back or high fives
when either of these lines that we've been mocking were delivered.
They were delivered with the utmost seriousness and integrity from
the leadership group. Again, that's the New York Police Commissioner
on Terry Rozier. The money was then delivered to his
home or they counted their winnings. But he's been benched.

(01:37:58):
Terry Rosier has been bent, he's been arrested. Well done, tremendous,
tremendous stuff. Like I said, there's there's one more item
for you. I'm gonna save that for I don't know,
must today's signature segment.

Speaker 4 (01:38:11):
What's up with that?

Speaker 3 (01:38:13):
Kind of fits wondering if I drop it on you
in just a few minutes. Probably not. We have some
items to clear up from the Houston Texans. We were
asking that very question Monday night. So in a few minutes,
I'll give you what I'm talking about with the Texans
when we get there to what's up with that? But

(01:38:33):
the investigation itself, it's, you know, clearly the focus initially
is on the names involved, and I don't think we'll
see any of these people associated any way with the
NBA at all. And mind you, in Damon Jones situation,
he technically wasn't involved with the NBA at the time
that he was to have been participating in these items.

(01:38:54):
In these instances because Chauncey Phillips, he's arrested for the
poker backed schemes, Terry Rosiers arrested for the sports fixing schemes,
and Damon Jones is at issue and arrested for his
involvement in both. Basically, the face, one of the faces

(01:39:18):
of the poker schemes which got people into the game,
had the lure of playing alongside NBA players and former
NBA players, and he helped to facilitate that. This is
where it's believed over seven million dollars was lost by,
like I said earlier, the victims who were gambling there.

Speaker 4 (01:39:37):
Chauncey Billups.

Speaker 3 (01:39:38):
The headline in one of the articles written today, this
one from Front Office Sports, sounds as damning as possible,
and that's usually why headlines are written that way. Chauncey
Billups played key role in elaborate poker fraud, participating in
an illegal poker operation protected by Italian organized crime families.

(01:40:00):
And if you heard from Cash Mattel earlier played that
for you when he runs through the NBA's issue. We've
gone through the grand stage of the NBA and we've
arrested these three players, a coach, a former player, a
current player, and then he dropped the three Italian organized
crime family names that are involved in this ongoing investigation.

(01:40:22):
So it's actually much more far reaching, probably than where
we sit today, and we're focused on these individuals. Damon
Jones was basically a personal coach to Lebron James at
the time. He wasn't paid by the team that Lebron
was playing for, the Lakers. He wasn't involved as a
member of their coaching staff, but was close enough to

(01:40:42):
the team and to Lebron and that practices and had
access to the facility like someone who was a coach
on the team. He also had access to information and
information about as it's described in the indictment, as it's
described in many of the articles you could read. He
had information about a player availability, a prominent player's availability,

(01:41:04):
and the longer the story goes, the more obvious it
is that they're talking about Lebron Lebron, who he's extremely
extremely close to, has known him almost Lebron's entire NBA career,
obviously working with him in a non coaching role. In
this scenario that we're talking about, he's been around him
with a couple of teams and has information about an
availability of a player, a very prominent player. The information

(01:41:27):
is that this player is not going to play tonight.
The information is not yet public. The information is not
yet on the updated injury report, so that's insider information
not everybody else has. The public is not privy to
that information. But the people that he told that information
too specifically so they could wager with that knowledge. Is
obviously a no no and one of the many reasons

(01:41:49):
why Damon Jones is in this indictment. And it's it's
like I said earlier, it doesn't it's not quite the same.
It's laughably similar, but not quite the same. As the show.
Heo Tani didn't know anything about what was going on,
Oh Sho Heo Tani and Epeipe acted completely on his own.

(01:42:10):
He's completely in the clear show. He should not be involved.
Other than the fact that this guy happened to be
his interpreter. It's much more again, this is me. It's
much more believable that Lebron James went about his business
and enjoyed having Damon Jones help him with his career
as a non coach. He didn't know that he was
taking information about the fact that he's not going to

(01:42:32):
play tonight and giving it to gamblers and giving it
to people who could use that information to make all
of them money, and being paid for that information, which
is what Damon Jones was paid for. He I'm not
playing tonight. I don't know what anybody who has that
information is going to do with it. I would hope
nobody does anything with it, because being inside the NBA,

(01:42:53):
I am too. I know you're not supposed to do
anything of that information. My job would be it at
risk if I did. His salary certainly could be at
risk if he did, and I don't think he's gonna
be treated by the NBN anyway like that. It will
be interesting to note as the Lakers continue playing games,
and that they were one of the four teams listed,
well three NBA teams, you'll understand in a moment they're

(01:43:14):
gonna have to answer a lot of questions. He might
not because he's injured for at least I don't know
how long he might decide to talk. He might decide
to say something without being technically available to the media,
So we shall see. But in a signature segment time
coming up next, we will dig in on why the
Texans couldn't correctly kick the ball out of bounds at
the end of their last game.

Speaker 4 (01:43:34):
That's next.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety now a new
signature seven called What's up with that? What's up with that?
What's up? I say it was.

Speaker 9 (01:43:58):
Do that.

Speaker 3 (01:44:02):
We asked this very question Sunday night, Monday Night. Excuse me,
Texans and Seahawks, welcome back to the eighteen. This is
our signature segment on a Thursday. We asked that question,
what's up with that? But definitely asked it just as
Lewis Rittick and Dan.

Speaker 4 (01:44:19):
Orlovsky were asking it.

Speaker 3 (01:44:22):
They were on the call on ESPN second game of
Monday Night Football, last game for Week seven in the
NFL Texans Seahawks. Texans down eight two o four on
the clock. Texans have one timeout remaining. They've just scored
a touchdown to draw within eight, they need to get
the ball back. They need to make sure they have
as much time as possible. They can procure the two

(01:44:44):
minute warning as a timeout to be used during the
series of downs upcoming for the Seahawks should they execute properly.
Everybody knew that. The Texans even knew that. I imagine the
Seahawks knew it as well, but they can't really do
it anything about it. If the Texans execute properly, boot
the ball out of the end zone, boot the ball

(01:45:06):
out of bounds. You got a couple of different options. Yes,
it factors into where Seattle will get the football for
their series of downs. But unless Seattle's getting the ball
at the forty yard line on your side of the field,
forty yards from the end zone, fifty yards from the uprights,
it doesn't really matter because if you can't stop them,

(01:45:28):
you lose. If you give up three points, you lose.
But unless they're in position to score, it doesn't really matter.
They're not even gonna kick the field well anyway, probably,
but yeah, you're not gonna just give You don't want to.
You don't want them anywhere there, So you have very
clear options. They don't get the ball on your side
of the field. If you kick it out of bounds,
they don't get you the ball on your side of

(01:45:50):
the field if you put it in the end zone
where they can't return it, which essentially means you kick
it out of the back of the end zone. They
did not do that. Question Demiko ryans after the game,
why did you not do that? Why did you kick
the ball? Have them catch it, have them return it,
Have that play take six seconds, and have that gift
of a time out by where you were on the
clock be taken away because you chose not to use it.

(01:46:13):
He confirmed, they didn't choose not to use it. He
confirmed that they made a mistake. They made a basically
a physical error. He didn't describe what the error was,
but he said that was not our intention. Our intention
was to kick the ball out of bounds, and we
could not execute that play. Can you a sense why
we've been hearing so much frustration out of him throughout
the course of the week, when he talked on Tuesday,
when he talked again yesterday, heck when he talked after

(01:46:33):
the game, it's not frustrated by the team losing or
getting out physical here or making some sort of mental mistake. Necessarily,
they couldn't even execute a simple play like that. Jami
Fairbairn talked yesterday in the Texans locker room Aaron Wilson.
We played that audio for you from Aaron yesterday. He said, Yeah,

(01:46:54):
I messed up. I mishit the kick. I know how
to execute that, you know, with a conservative or aggressive
or approach.

Speaker 4 (01:47:00):
I just I didn't make it.

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
Didn't make the kick happen, and I mis hit the
ball on top of it.

Speaker 4 (01:47:05):
It's on me. It got to be better next time.
Won't happen again. I can guarantee you that.

Speaker 3 (01:47:09):
Frank Ross, the special teams coordinator Thursday when they play
on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:47:13):
That's today. We talked to the coordinators.

Speaker 3 (01:47:15):
Matt Burke spoke, Nick Kyley spoke, and special teams coordinator
Frank Ross spoke. Frank Ross explaining some of the particulars
of the play and exactly what did not go well
for the Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:47:27):
What's up with that?

Speaker 13 (01:47:28):
Frank has happened in the NFL a couple of times
this season, you know, being able to kick the ball
as a touchback all the day through the uprights, let's say,
or kick the ball out of bounds. And we've executed
that kick successfully before at Green Bay, if you remember.
So just got to make sure we hit the things
as we shud. We teed the ball on the left,
I hit it as exactly as we should. But you know, live, learn,

(01:47:50):
move on and make sure we get corrected. We've missed
field goal before the next kick you go out there
and you kick it successfully again. So nobody's more dedicated
than number fifteen and excited to see when our opportunity
comes again in a unique situation, us execute.

Speaker 4 (01:48:03):
I don't mind much of that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:05):
The comparison to a missed field goal, The mechanics of
a missed field goal, snap, the hold, the kick, the blocking,
the wind, pressure, the moment, the scoreboard, the mechanics of
kicking the ball out of the back.

Speaker 4 (01:48:24):
Of the end zone.

Speaker 3 (01:48:27):
None of those things exist. Really, Yeah, you can mishit it.
TIMI basically said he did mishit it. Nothing else is involved.
There's no snap, there's no hold, there's no rush, there's
no blocking. Not with a dynamic kick off, there isn't
You're not even anyone within thirty yards of you. He
knows it can't happen. I think they're probably still in
disbelief that it did happen. You don't care where the

(01:48:48):
other team gets the ball, just that they get the
ball without taking any time off the clock.

Speaker 4 (01:48:53):
You can literally, you can do just about it.

Speaker 3 (01:48:55):
You literally, I know he actually said, now you can't
really bunt the ball because that's where they get it.
I mean, I wouldn't want to give him the ball
at the thirty seven or eight or nine or forty five,
six seven yards away from where he kicked it, either,
But that would have been better than doing what they did,
because you could actually stop them at the thirty seven
yard line. And maybe they do try to kick it

(01:49:16):
with forty seconds left in the game, and maybe you
block it again.

Speaker 4 (01:49:20):
Maybe they miss it.

Speaker 3 (01:49:21):
There's all sorts of things that can happen, all of
which are better than mishitting the kick, not properly executing
the kick, and having six seconds run off the clock.
Just one more thing to add to why the Texans
aren't playing winning football. You're not playing winning football. I
still looking back at the play. I said this the
very first time we talked about it on Tuesday. If
you were watching Kaymie line up to kick it off,

(01:49:43):
look like every other kick, and there's no reason for
deception if you're trying to you know, like a no
look pass or we want this formation to look up
every other one and they don't know what's happening on
this play. There's no re they're not trying to deceive
them with your setup, and you're for where you want
to stand behind the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:50:01):
You set up like you did on every other kick.

Speaker 3 (01:50:04):
Why not set up like you did for the eight
billion kickoffs you had that went out of the back
of the end zone the rest of your career, because
it didn't look like that to me. He took close
to the ball. There weren't that many steps to go
watch how they kicked the ball off these days, under
this dynamic kickoff rule, three or four steps back tops,
you're kind of just you're pooching it into the landing
zone because you're that close to it and it has

(01:50:26):
to land in there because in most of the rest
of the game, you do not want to run the
risk of the penalty. You do not want to run
the risk of kicking it out of bounds, giving it
to him at the forty, giving it to him with
good field position, and so you kick in that manner
that looked like how he set up for that kick.

Speaker 4 (01:50:43):
One little tiny issue.

Speaker 3 (01:50:46):
Well, when there's a hundred of them, you're two and
four again. I don't know how many different reasons we
can have for it. And all that being said, we
barely talked about the upcoming week, and we found out
late yesterday, just like we're gonna find out late today
and we'll find out definitively tomorrow. They're not gonna be
any Nico Collins or Christian Kirk for this football team

(01:51:06):
comes Sunday A. Jared Wayne's going to be part of
their game plan. Probably he'll probably up from the practice squad.
You will have Jalen Knowle and Jayden Higgins and Braxton
Barrios as part of your weaponry for C. J. Stroud
Dalton Schultz, while not one hundred percent likely will be
up for the game. You might actually have to throw
the ball to Harrison Bryant, which they don't want to do.

(01:51:29):
It's only out there for about a fourth of the plays. Anyway,
I don't know how you could throw the ball to
the other tide end.

Speaker 4 (01:51:34):
Brendan Bates.

Speaker 3 (01:51:35):
He only takes one snap of game and that's in
the red zone for I don't know what reason that
goes back to the personnel they've decided to use in
certain scenarios.

Speaker 4 (01:51:42):
But you gotta throw the ball at somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:51:44):
You got Woody got Nick probably don't want to suggest
you see darry on the field as much as we
did last week, and it was only for nine snaps.
Nine snaps too many if you ask me again, all
these things point to the same unfortunate thing with your
Houston Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:52:00):
It's why they're two and four.

Speaker 3 (01:52:02):
They are playing that type of football, they have that
type of team. Maybe it's time to wonder is that
really truly the type of talent they have overall?

Speaker 4 (01:52:10):
Because you are what your record says you are and
they're two and four.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
The age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (01:52:20):
Ninety's something completely different here. We have not talked about today,
but it's one of the longest running topics here on
Sports Talk seven ninety and every other sports conversation I've
been involved in for the last all better than thirty years.
Came up again yesterday, so I thought we'd revisit that

(01:52:42):
and listen from one of the key components of that conversation,
key contributors to the answer to the question that keeps
getting asked over and over again. The NBA champion, back
to back NBA champion Houston Rockets claim the title ninety three,
ninety four, nineteen ninety four, ninety five behind the best

(01:53:04):
player in the NBA, cam Olaju, one greatest player to
ever put the Rockets uniform on the kim Olajuan was
in the midst right there in the middle of a dynasty.
Winning six times in eight years. That's a dynasty. Winning
three times in a row, that's a dynasty. They did
it twice, six titles in eight years. The Bulls were

(01:53:26):
a dynasty, no question about it. They won title number
one with Michael Jordan leading the team, same as title
number two, same as title number three, same as title
number four, same as title number five, same as title
number six, and in between. The Rockets won their titles
number one and two with the cam Olaje. One best
player in the league, won the title every time. Arguably
the best defensive player in the league won the title

(01:53:48):
every time. But the question is always if those teams
met in the finals, well, who would have won? Almost
every single time the question is asked about those two
years the Rockets specifically won the title the second of
those two years. The reference to those two teams making

(01:54:09):
it to the finals rarely includes the fact that Michael
Jordan was in fact an NBA player and playing for
the Chicago Bulls that year, but they were unable to
get past the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference playoffs,
and thus they could not get to the Houston Rockets
who won the title. You can't say he wasn't there,
because he was. Now they could if they wanted to.

(01:54:30):
They don't need to. They won the title. But yeah,
kim Olaja one was playing for the Rockets during all
the other six years that the Bulls won the title,
but the Rockets couldn't get there either during those two
specific years. The Rockets, I think we know by now.
We've talked to Vernon enough times and Dream enough times,
ourselves and everybody involved with the organization and the team
and the nineteen ninety three two nineteen ninety five Rockets,

(01:54:52):
Clyde and everybody else.

Speaker 4 (01:54:54):
We know what they think.

Speaker 3 (01:54:55):
But just in case, the national audience doesn't know all that,
and the national audience hasn't gone that, and they've only
read Michael Jordan books about how many titles they could
have and should have won, and how awesome. The Bulls
are and they're totally repeatable. I mean, that's kind of
later on. He actually never took it personal about to dream.
He took it personal about Isaiah and a munch of
other nonsense. But he was on a national program yesterday,

(01:55:17):
First Things First, and he was asked that very question.
He obviously recognized how often he gets it and delivered
what I thought was a very humble, rather simple, not
to bulletin boardy material, because heck, Michael Jordan has another
platform now should he want to offer anything regarding the

(01:55:38):
championship Bulls during his contributor time with the NBA on NBC.
He is back as part of that team, but on
a very very limited basis. But answering the question, as
he did yesterday, Kim Olajuan, how do you think it
would have gone down Bulls Rockets NBA Finals, he answered dustly.

Speaker 5 (01:56:00):
Question, all the time we played the Red Blood season.
You know, we didn't play the payoffs Red Blood season. Chicago.
They have trouble playing against Houston. The fact it just
might change, but I'm comfortable with my team that we would.

Speaker 4 (01:56:19):
We would do some damage.

Speaker 3 (01:56:21):
Now I should tell you I did edit that for brevity,
which basically took out all the laughter from the hosts
or the laughter when he said those are facts. They
did have trouble with the Rockets during the regular season.
I'm totally okay with questioning that and pausing on that
to this end. You can have all the regular seasons
success against the team you want. I do believe it

(01:56:43):
can and usually is different in the postseason. I think
what's at steak where you what is in front of you,
And certainly in this case, if they met in the playoffs,
we all know what's at stake. You win four times,
you're the NBA champion, You've already won all the series
you need to to get there.

Speaker 4 (01:56:58):
Now, what's at stake is the title.

Speaker 3 (01:56:59):
It's there's plenty at stake in the other rounds of
the playoff two quite obviously, but we know it's at
stake there. We could do some damage. That's very dream
to say it in that way. You asked pretty much
anybody else if they thought they could win and they
were on the Rockets, I doubt they would have said,
we can do some damage. They definitely would have brought

(01:57:21):
up the difficulties the Bulls had in the regular season
and really to be true. More true to that statement,
it is less about they had trouble with them in
the regular season, but in the playoffs it would be different.
They had trouble with the Rockets period because of who
was on their team, respectively, who the Bulls had at
their disposal to try to combat what Dream could do,

(01:57:41):
and outfitting the rest of the team around it, how
they wanted defensively to scheme them up, and obviously with
the Rockets had, and whether it was the team that
won the title first, whether it was the team that
won the title second, or any other iteration that anybody
might be answering that question for, you got to account
for all that. And it was more than just the
beat us in the regular season, or it was tough,

(01:58:03):
the matchup was tough beating the Rockets in any scenario.
The fact that the Rockets had Vernon Maxwell. Vernon Maxwell
is not a Michael Jordan stopper, There's no such thing.
Vernon Maxwell was arguably the most fun matchup for everybody
not named Michael Jordan or a Chicago Bulls fan to watch.
And if you heck, if you watched last night's NBA Action,

(01:58:23):
we got a matchup like that to a far, far,
far far lesser degree. Dylan Brooks loves getting after people,
loves playing defense, loves being an irritant, sometimes an instigator,
but loves to talk. He loves getting after people. He
loves getting after DeMar DeRozan. I think more than anybody

(01:58:45):
else in the NBA, DeMar deroz is not the best
player he'll play against. He's not the best player in
the league. He's probably the best player on the Kings.
And if you watch some of the highlights last night
where Phoenix Dylan Brooks team came back and beat them
parsonally because of Dylan Brooks offensive play, and that was
the matchup for much of the night. Damar on Dylan

(01:59:06):
when Phoenix had the ball, Dylan on Damar when Sacramento
had the ball. And I think everybody here remembers the
Bulls Rockets game from a couple of seasons ago, when
Jalen Green was at the top of the key and
it ridiculously frustrated, DeMar DeRozan decided to bulldozeer him.

Speaker 4 (01:59:23):
Just ran him over. He's not playing any defense. He
just ran him over.

Speaker 3 (01:59:26):
He shut buried his shoulder into his chest. Nobody really,
I mean I was up doing the game that night.
I was like, what is he doing? That's not basketball
and that doesn't really seem like him, And right up
in his face was Dylan Brooks.

Speaker 4 (01:59:40):
Both ended up getting ejected. Dylan wasn't having it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:43):
DeMar DeRozan, like I said, was way way too frustrated
for the action that he took. And I definitely think
that has stuck with Dylan for years. I think it
was already there before that particular incident. And if Phoenix
is going to do anything post Kevin Durant, it's going
to be because they have a new attitude dude, and
he delivers it. It's the same reason he was brought
to Houston to deliver an attitude. He does it no

(02:00:05):
matter where he is. I don't know if he needed
to get it or he already had it, but he
plays with a big, fat, awesome chip on his shoulder.
I have a pretty good feeling after Devin Booker, who
Phoenix Suns fans a next favorite player is?

Speaker 4 (02:00:21):
It's him? It's Dylan Brooks.

Speaker 3 (02:00:23):
He's played in front of them in an NBA game
in their uniform one time. They're going to love Dylan Brooks.
Jalen Green not yet healthy. Soon we'll be back on
the court with them. But uh Phoenix off to a
one and oh start their NBA season post Kevin Durant.
Football at five coming up next, Nick Cayley in the

(02:00:43):
Media Grind in front of the Houston Media Today, part
of what we'll discuss in Football at five.

Speaker 2 (02:00:51):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety