Reed Sheppard's Rockets, KD's Still Got it, Simms Has Advice for Stroud

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to the Rockets' win over the Magic, discuss Kevin Durant's historic numbers, and examine Chris Simms' advice for CJ Stroud.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Been to a Friday edition of The A Team. It's
Sports Talk seven to ninety only today, no TV. You
can't look at us, you can't sit with us, and
you can't sit with Reach Shepherd.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You know why.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
He's way too hot. He would burn you. Wow, read Shepherd.
I was reading this morning a very backhanded compliment about
the Rockets, because it was it was one of those
articles where it basically kind of gave a synopsis of
each NBA game from last night's competition, and the person

(00:35):
got to the Magic Rockets matchup and said.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
This game had a little bit of this, a little
bit of that.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Magic were awesome early while the Rockets were sluggish, and
then the Rockets were awesome and the third as they
went on that run and they closed late, and both
teams showed you why they're probably not going to go
on a deep playoff run this year. And I'm like,
that might end up being true about the Rockets, but
don't like them in with a freaking Orlando Magic, And
I know, I get it. They looked like garbage for

(01:05):
like two and a half quarters last night until they
didn't and the Magic are I don't even know how
you would determine or define them right now, they're in
the East and they're the seventh seed, so they're.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Not horrible, but they're also not whole. Yeah. No, well,
I mean there's a ton of teams like that right now.
Right Their best player, in my opinion, is missed now
more than half their season.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
You think Franz Wagner is better than Desmond bane It
seems like you were watching last night's game. Yeah, can
you make that question rhetorical?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I don't know. Maybe if you want to say Desmond
Banes's their best player, I'd take that. But there's no
way you're saying it's Palo No, no, no, So there
you go.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, it's a competition between it's a two horse race
between those two and Palos.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
The whole reason they got Desmond baaned yeah, because they
needed better players. Yeah, I get it. Desnmbbayan was awesome
last night. The good news was nobody else on their
team was. And that's how the Rockets were able to
put a run together. If Desmond wasn't scoring, nobody was scoring.
A twenty one nothing run is pretty hard to come
by unless both of your parts of your game are working.
You score and they don't, and it happened so quickly,

(02:10):
over and over and over. Good possession defensively followed by
a basket offensively, good ball movement, good shooting clearly was
a huge part of it, and a lot more energy
from a very different group of players. Tried to give
as much credit to him as I could last night
on the broadcast, but Josha Koge was a humongous part
of why the Rockets were able to come back in
that game. He played the last twenty minutes and thirty

(02:31):
four seconds. He checked in three and a half minutes
into the third quarter and had not played at all
in the first half, and he never sat back down
again except during timeouts and stop it just h He
never came back out of the game. By the way,
every single one of his teammates was too Yeah, that's true.
That's actually true. So they just needed something they weren't

(02:51):
getting in the first half. Neither team really played well
in the first half. It was about a three minute
stretch of Desmond Bane playing well. He hit three threes
in a row. Otherwise the game probably would been tied
at the half. They had a ten point lead. Basically
because of that, they extended it to a nineteen point
lead midway through the third quarter, and then the Rockets
had the lead by the time the fourth quarter rolled
around about as fast as a flip of a switch

(03:13):
in an NBA game, You're going to see. The Magic
are in not a very good position, sitting in seventh
in the East. The Rockets continued at least positionally being
about as good as spot as they could hope for.
They're not likely to catch San Antonio, and I think
they would love it if these standings were exactly as
they are today. So we'll walk you through exactly where
they are today. We've applauded Josh Kogi, We've applauded Reed Shepherd.

(03:35):
If you want, we'll tell you Kevin Durant's pretty good
at basketball. Still, we could probably add that to the
conversation here early in the afternoon on the A team
as we will take you into Astros baseball spring debut
coming on the bump for a couple of Astros hurlers
who could be likely will be in the starting rotation
when the season begins. Lance mccullors junior're going to throw

(03:57):
his first spring training exhibition game pitches to start the
game against the Nationals. Should be followed by Spencer Arraghetti
and likely both will be throwing to Jainer Diaz, who's
expected to be in the lineup and be behind the
plate for those two. A couple other notes on the
astros will sprinkle in over the course of the afternoon
from what is to come this upcoming weekend, because there's
still a few astros who've yet to debut, Jordan Alvarez

(04:20):
and Esak peretis among them. More from tatsu EMI's first
appearance with these team yesterday, all ten pitches worth and
the NFL Combine brings a different set of position groups
to the on field portion of competition at the NFL
Scouting Combine this afternoon, so we'll keep you abreast of that.

(04:41):
We didn't do the NFLPA player survey that everybody knows
about now and was not made public. We didn't do
enough of a service to walk you through the Texans
angle on it and then comically walk you through the
angle on so many other teams, including Cleveland, Cincinnati and
a few others that immediately come to mind, and so
looking forward to giving our thoughts in more detail on

(05:03):
what it all actually means and why certain teams look
a certain way in regards to that, We've got a
lot of other fun stuff to bring you away. There's
college Sports round Table coming to I don't know when
and where, but it's coming and you'll be interested in that.
Michigan continues to make the worst news ever. One scandal

(05:24):
followed by another, and another, and another and another, and
all attached to the same person who's trying to lead
Justin Herbert to the Promised Land. Still to this day,
just could not get get me my title celebrate on
the field at NRG Stadium, Met Washington, and I am

(05:44):
out of here and I'm leaving just absolute corn maize
colored scorched earth behind me, because man I hire and
promote some real insert pieces word for not allowed to
say on radio. Yeah, no it is.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
And here's the thing, how often, like, for example, what's
the fastest you've been fired from a job before?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
I don't think I've ever been fired for seventeen days,
eight months, eight months. That's that's a lot of days.
That's two hundred plus days close to three So seventeen
days seems pretty quick, and really one of them was legit. Well,
especially when you're hired to do a very specific job.
But for the most part doesn't even really start until
I don't know, you're not gonna be on the field

(06:32):
for another couple of months. He lasted seventeen days. So
we'll get to that Michigan Atlanta related story, but.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Real quick topic, not to go into it, but just
the basis of what we're talking about here. And I'm
going to bring up another former coach here in Houston
to make my point, Art Briles. By all accounts, while
he was here in Houston and then after he left
and was still here in Texas, everybody had nothing but

(07:00):
good things to say about him, easy on the everybody, well,
a lot of people did until the incidents started coming out.
But what I mean is how often are guys like that,
like Harbaugh in this case, tied to other people that
are getting in trouble for these types of things and
them not be something like that at least?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, tied to is an interesting word which we'll definitely
get into when we say that. I mean, you're the
head coach in both of their cases and both of
the programs you might be talking about Baylor and Michigan,
for sure. The other people that are on your coaching
staff were hired by you. You hired them. They're your hires,
or they're your retention hire. Buck stops with you on

(07:43):
everything else. But the thing is that they weren't retention.
He brought them there, he wanted them there, he wanted
to continue working with them for whatever reasons he felt
like that, and then Michigan said, yeah, that's go ahead
and keep them here. In one person's case in Sharon.
The other person, which like I said, we'll get to,
has made a couple of stops since Michigan and probably
just saw his coaching. I mean again, there's an angle

(08:06):
to innocent until proven guilty for sure, and there isn't
even a lawsuit involved here yet, but his employer and
NFL team decided today was going to be his last
day when news broke earlier today, a report broke earlier today.
But to the Rockets, obviously, it's a pretty big deal
when they have been what they've been since really the

(08:28):
All Star Break, how they finished their last two games,
same team, both games at Toyota Center, unable to win
both games. Come out of the All Star Break with
the awesome, awesome story that had nothing to do with basketball,
only had to do with Burners and what they have
done since if not for a very poor fourth quarter
in New York, they'd be sitting at five and zero,

(08:48):
they would be playing the best basketball of their season,
they would be in the midst of their longest winning
streak of the season, and last night at least, even
with the New York loss, kind of says to me,
this is about this is the kind of basketball you
would want them to play against the best competition. Now
can they do that against a better team? Again? Magic
or maybe the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, best team in

(09:10):
the NBA as currently constructed, with injuries and everything. Where
do the Rockets really fit? We know where the record
says they fit. There's only four teams of better records.
They're right there near the top, and they continue to
do just a little bit more than Denver, Minnesota, LA,
and Phoenix and thus could easily keep their position of three,
which might actually be as a big, if not a

(09:32):
bigger factor in this year's eight team Western Conference layoff
than it was a year ago.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, everybody's penciling in the Spurs and the Thunder in
the Western Conference finals, and some people are starting to
pencil the Spurs in as title contenders.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
One person. I mean, it's just he's more concerned with
where he's gonna eat rather than who's gonna play. If
you listen to the longer quote, he does get into that.
It's pretty funny. I mean, I like the guy. I
think it's just funny how he deliver all that. I think.
You know, I feel so good about San Antonio. I've
already made my reservations for when for June you mean

(10:07):
the finals, Yes, And I've made some dinner reservations or
some place. You know. I've did this in Oklahoma City
and I already know where I'm gonna eat there, and
I haven't figured it out yet for San Antonio. So
you might get an idea of who we might be
talking about with the context of this conversation. You know,
who has better restaurants than both of those cities combined.
Houston exactly. Houston. You pretty much, in any argument, whether

(10:28):
it's a New York.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Arguments, anybody, absolutely and considering people. I mean, this conversation overheard,
even though I was sitting right next to all three
of these people. A conversation from traveling media.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
No, it was Toyota Center a couple nights ago, talking
about going to different cities, and Houston, the out of
town media said, yeah, Houston's like the best, like the
best restaurant city, I mean people. And obviously New York
is in the NBA, and Brooklyn is in the NBA,
and La is in the NBA, and Chicago is in

(11:05):
the NBA. Yeah, but those cities are different. Well, I'm
just saying this. This is where the team that was
in town travels to play games in all those cities,
they would know they've they've got a better too many.
It's a Western Conference team, true, but.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
They've got a better sample size than most people than
probably all those cities.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
I don't think all of those Chicago, Los Angeles, Chicago,
and New York. I've been all those.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Have you even eaten food there at restaurants? I've been
to several and done the same thing, so I can
speak to it. I didn't restaurants sit there, I actually
ate Yeah. All right, so can I get some food
over here? Well? Yeah, a lot to get to and
the first thing, order item of business, first item up
for is today, Uh did to make O'Ryan's actually acknowledge
a real problem with the Texans? You're gonna hear what

(11:50):
he had to say, next, what are you doing for
Go Texan Day tonight? Uh?

Speaker 2 (11:56):
It depends what a watering hole we end up at
in Central Texas?

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I reckon, Oh, you're going to Austin. Yeah, going to
see the daughter. I will see her, yes, Oh, that's
not why you're going while I'm going.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Oh okay, okay. If you're going to see her, then
you don't say I will see her while I'm there. Yeah,
I'll see her while I'm there pretty much tonight, tomorrow
and Sunday. There you go.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
What is your favorite watering hole in the at X
right now in twenty twenty six, and how different is
it from the one that may or may not still exist?

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Give you the lamest answer, because I don't know any
of the places there anymore. Wherever I'm graduated in what
ninety five? That's correct? From college?

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, from college and everything of Texas. Yeah, the University
of Austin, as Tom Green called it. Yeah, I mean wherever.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
I am that's outside, where the surveysa is cold, is
perfectly fine by me. That's a lot of them, all right,
Good to know. So that's what you're doing for Go
Texan Day up? Of course? Yeah? We should probably take
a picture and put it on social media. We'll get there.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
All the other shows have done that except for the
Matt Thomas Show featuring Ross, so one of them where
neither of them were in character. Matt could have been,
for all you know, on the beach in Florida. If
he looked like this in Miami, he would get laughed at.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
If his hotel was on the beach, then he was
on the beach. If his hotel was not on the beach,
then he was not on the beach.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
He was traveling with the Rockets. Where do you think
the hotel is? Probably on the beach exactly, and it's
probably a five six, seven eight diamond hotel. And he's
probably stealing toiletries as we speak, and pens before he
goes to take his.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Pregame AP, his pregame nap. They don't have a game today.
Remember last night? I know, but he does it every day.
Remember last night when I.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Was afraid of the Rockets not being up to snuff
because they had to play a back to back and
then fly to Orlando. How'd that work out for the
Magic choking a late game lead against the Rockets again?

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Then it was base I mean, and not only that,
you're down nineteen points with seventeen minutes left. You haven't
given much to the game. You haven't done enough to defend.
Their defensive rebounding was probably the biggest embarrassment of the
entire season, because Orlando's not a good offensive rebounding team,
and the Rockets could not stop giving them second chance opportunities.

(14:14):
So all the signs of not being mentally into the
game for potentially physical and sleep related reasons, they were
all on the table. And that's the day, that's the
night they came back and put it all together and
you know, outscored a team twenty one zip in short
order and took a fourth court, took the lead to
the fourth quarter, only to have it go back and forth.
It's not like they took the lead and then led

(14:36):
by fifteen points. They they never had a comfortable lead.
The most comfortable lead they had was when they finally
built their largest lead with twenty two seconds left, when
Reed Shepherd hit the second of two threes and they
went up one oh nine to one oh two. That
was pretty much it. And even then they saw the
Magic hit a pair of threes down the stretch, so
Kevin Durant got to hit four more free throws needed him.

(14:59):
He went ten for ten and the Magic were awful
at the free throw line. That helped, but Katie put
up a forty spot had not done that before in
a Rockets uniform. He was great during the run. He
was even better in the fourth quarter. Read Shepherd was
obviously a huge offensive force during that run, with not
just three pointers but also attacking the basket. I from many,

(15:21):
many miles away, did what I think people who were
standing right next to Reed Shepherd did at halftime? What's
that got on him and told him this is useless. Man.
Who do you think you are just here in the
NBA to float around and watch your teammates play basketball.
Go do something. Man, You're the best shooter on this
basketball team. You're the best ball handler on this basketball team.

(15:41):
You need to be on the attack. Don't tell me
that the Magic are so good and focused defensively while
you're out there with an All Star or two or
certainly four other NBA players. They can focus their defense
enough on you and you can let it happen that
they're trying to keep you from doing that, which the
Magic clearly were in the first half. I'm not saying that,

(16:01):
but you gotta figure out a different way to do it.
And part of that is the coaching staff. Part of
that is his teammates. He can't have a thirteen minute
stretch of basketball, not as a starter, meaning he played
basically thirteen in the final eighteen minutes of the first
half and took zero three point shots. It can't happen.
It cannot happen for this team or else they're sunk
when he's on the floor because those are basically thirteen

(16:22):
minutes of nothingness from one of your five players. They
don't have to go in, but they have to be attempted.
You got to find a way to get open. You
gotta find a way to make the defense respect you.
You just have to be much more active and aggressive.
So what I said to him, like I said, I'm
sure it was heard by those that our coach can
probably his teammates as well. He probably knows this already.
I said what I just said, here is what I

(16:43):
said on the air last night during the broadcast. You
just can't have that. And in the second half, when
he checked into the game with the team down, he
played much more aggressively he wouldn't allow the magic to
prevent him from getting to his spots, and his teammates
then play a role. His two corner threes that went
in a back to back possession were his fast a
release that I can remember Read Shepherd having and as

(17:04):
good of a job of his teammates doing all that
they could to make sure we're gonna get a good
shot out of this possession, even a well defended possession,
because we know he's there in the corner and they
got him in the basketball. He was the offensive lynchpin
to why they got that win last night, again with
help from a lot of other people. Kogie Durant, shing
Gun had a good game. Uh, Tarry Easton had a

(17:24):
super helpful game, and it was great that he did
come back into the game after clearly doing something to
his right foot or ankle, but he played a big
role in it. Also. His block shot after the turnover
was a monster play in that game on the fast break,
he just completely shut it down all by himself. And
hopefully what e Ma said after the game regarding Jabari
Smith Junior's ankle is accurate in terms of a just

(17:47):
a day to day thing. He was defending, and he
said he stepped on Alpern's ankle. I don't know if
you saw it that it looked like he just twisted it.
I didn't. I need only saw it once. I know
regardless he twisted his ankle. Well, that's why I left
the game and did not return. If that provides for more,
I guess there's an open spot in the starting lineup
that will make a lot of people happy currently. But

(18:08):
the bottom line is this team needs to be as
whole as possible. You probably don't even recognize or even
paid much attention to what Chabari did in the last
night's game because so many other guys were such a
huge force. He took seven shots, and he made six
of them. That matters.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
He's been playing his best basketball all season, believe it
or not. He had a little swoon in late January
early February.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Very little swoon. Right almost sixty games in and we're
talking about nine or ten of them. Well, let's not
forget if you want to go back to last season.
He was starting to do this already, and then he
broke his hand and he was out all of January.
And he's playing better during this stretch than he did
during the good stretch.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
So if you get that from him, I mean again,
you're out, Fred van Vliet, You're without Steven Adams. I'm
not saying this team's gonna win the championship this year.
I don't think that they can. They can prove me wrong,
and that's going to be great when we're all in
the parade. But from the standpoint of that, those are
big losses. I don't necessarily think they can overcome. But
if you're getting all this now and those guys come

(19:06):
back and you tweak a little bit with the roster
this offseason, I mean they're gonna be as good as
anybody out there to try and contend what I do
want to see happen. And this is very important. Wex
coming off a last night's game, I am fully embracing it.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Now.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
I've thought about this. I went back and forth for
a while, but I've arrived at my decision. Cocaine Curry
is the nickname to go with now.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
I've been saying it from the jump that he I'm
not Cocaine Curry, but.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
The expression he makes after he sticks a dagger and
just destroys the soul of whoever's attempting to defend him
from thirty five feet out.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
No shimmy. He does not wear a mouthpiece, both either
on the inside of his mouth or out, but he
makes killer shots. I don't know what possessed the NBA
to do this on their social account today, but it
got me. They posted a note and a video attached,
and when you hover over the video, even if you
don't play it, you kind of get a sense of
how long it is. When you're on your ex platform,

(20:06):
and most of them on nineteen second it's a minute,
oh five whatever, some short video. This one was one
hour and forty five minutes long, and I'm like, whoa
for real? Is this really what they posted to? And
I'm like, well, I might as well read the caption
and maybe maybe it'll suck me in a little bit
that I'll have to have to watch it. And I did,

(20:29):
and like I said, for some reason, they posted the
game between Golden State and the Oklahoma City Thunder just
kind of a random game, but it was during the
heyday for both of those teams. It was the full game.
You had the guy who yells bang after big shots
with Jeff Van Gundy and hand down Man down that

(20:49):
was calling that was there calling the game. They had
a specific reason. It was ten years ago today Golden
State and Oklahoma City, and the caption was the matchup,
the stars involved, the stakes, the draw, the history on
the line. It was a primetime Saturday night game and
it was Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka
against Steph Curry and Draymond Green and Klay Thompson and
Andrea Guadala. I kind of fast forwarded it to the

(21:12):
very end of the game when the thunder blew it
at the end of regulation of that for them, it
was kind of Kevin that did it. Unfortunately, well he
wasn't doing it as a Rockets didn't bother me. He
fouled Andrea Guadala with zero point seven seconds left in
a game they led by two on a jumper. He
made both free throws and they went to overtime. He
had just missed a shot on the prior possession as well.

(21:34):
He had a great game. Curry had a great game.
It shows you the talent level and thinking about this
for the Rocket's sake, Steph Curry is still a really
good player. As he continues to watch the rest of
his teammates play and Kevin Durant is probably if you
paid attention to conversation we had yesterday with all these
elite players like Nikola Jokicic SGA, who returns tonight, Lebron James,

(21:59):
they are possibly going to run out of players that
they can vote on for First Team All NBA. That's
a shame. And even though that might not be the
reason Kdie gets there, it certainly could help. He might
earn it all on his own the way he has
played this year, but he was fantastic in last night's game.
The Rockets did things that we just had not seen
very often from them this year. That certainly was their

(22:22):
biggest comeback of the year, and the specifics of it
we really kind of barely scratched the surface on, especially
as it relates to how do they compete. It's not
a matter of just saying, well, we don't have those guys,
so we can't compete. They're playing to win a title.
The is year one with KD. There are ways that
they can get to it, and as Ac already started crying,
there is a game tonight between the last two MVPs

(22:43):
from the Western Conference. Shay makes his return after a
nine game absence, the Nuggets and the Thunder featured for
NBA fans tonight.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
And the thing is, if the Nuggets win, it's doubly
bad because that just lets the Spurs get closer to
the top seed. Man, you want the Nuggets to stay
behind you if you're the Rockets. So I'm gonna have
to root for idiot free throw shooter and his teammates tonight.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, he'll probab. I'm gonna say it's a I'd set
it at seven. I'm gonna set it at eight and
a half, eight and a half free throws.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
He's he's limping though he's ailing. He's gonna need to
get me.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
He's not playing basketball. If he's hurt.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
It's a quad, right, I believe it was more a
dominant astro dominal oblique type of injury. He's not going
to want to do the things he normally does. He's
going to want to bait for fouls to get his
and help them win.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
And that's he's gonna get fifteen or more free throws.
Oklahoma City, OH, hosting those Denver Nuggets this evening, as
always here on the A team when the astros aren't
taking over. They will take over later today. They took
over much earlier yesterday. We get you halfway through this
first hour and we hit you with the Best of X.
A couple of items for us. Hey, guess what. NFL
players hate this coach and he immediately got hired by

(24:01):
somebody else. And our favorite team here on the A team,
the West Coast NBA Hoopers. You know, in love, they're
getting roasted. That's next on the Best of X. Oh,
you're the best posting ever, single day. You're the best.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
I'm X breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh, it's Friday. I hope you guys are having a
nice day and setting yourselves up for a wonderful weekend,
which obviously began last night. Most of the time, the
weekend should begin on Thursday, and the one time all
year here in Houston where that particular Thursday is the
first of three spectacular nights for the World Championship Barbecue
Cookoff to take place. I hope a lot of you

(24:46):
took advantage of that. It's one of the best events
in this city period, all three days of it, and
I lament it every year where I don't get out
there for any of the three days of it, but
hopefully more often than not. You guys do a lot
of people, know a lot of people, so you can
get into this tent, in that tent, it's good time.
So enjoy yourself tonight and tomorrow night, and then the

(25:07):
concerts and the rodeos and the chuck wagon races and
the mutton busting will be here over at the place
that only will house the Texans for game day starting
in twenty twenty nine. Best of X today is briefly
NFL related. Yesterday, we only kind of scratched the surface
on the NFLPA Player survey from the twenty twenty five season,

(25:29):
which will never be released publicly, but has been leaked,
and now everybody knows exactly what was in it. Of
the word that was written up in it, and all
the grades that were handed out for all the coaches,
and nutrition plans and family treatment and home field et cetera.
It's all there for you. There were ten head coaching
openings this off season, nine firings, and the Tomlin exit.

(25:53):
Interesting who landed jobs and how quickly they did, especially
those that were already employee and then found out they
were no longer employed, only to get a job very
very quickly, maybe as quickly as anybody was the head coach,
former head coach of the Cleveland Browns, current head coach
of the Atlanta Falcons, who are also in the news

(26:15):
as I mentioned earlier for very different reasons this offseason
and the Atlanta Falcons players and now the Atlanta Falcons
coaching staff. Not good for brand new general manager Ian
Cunningham and brand new everybody listens to me voice of
the organization, Matt Ryan. But back to Kevin Stefanski, his

(26:35):
new hire. The one of the local media outlets in
the Cleveland area posted the following. Former Brown's head coach
Kevin Stefanski received the lowest grade of any head coach
in the NFL and the NFLPA player survey for the
twenty twenty five season. Again, the lowest grade is still
a C minus. Four coaches got c's, another eight got

(26:56):
b's of some variety pluses to minuses, and everybody else
got some form of an A, including the guy who
rested his eyes at the combine, and everybody saw it, including.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Not the first time it's happening. You're the Seattle Seahawks
head coach. You can do that.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's it. We got this. That's the list. It's all good. Well,
that's the list of people who can get away with that,
and you certainly can't be one of the worst teams
in the NFL. It is now a good reason to
not attend the combine because when they start going through
their on field activities and all whatever day it is,
that the tasks that go with it, whether it's cone
drills for this group of players, or pass catching drills

(27:35):
for that group, or throwing drills. For all those drills,
you are there forever. You're there for hours longer than
you're there on the field for an NFL game watching
all this. And if you think the activity in an
NFL game is limited, well the activity here is also.
That's why there's an eight or nine guys, ten guys,
twelve guys in a suite and they're going back and
forth to get another drink and grab some more peanuts
and pretzels and crackerjack and hot dogs and nachos and

(27:58):
all the great stay food, just kind of trying to
stay alert in a way.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
I think I've ever consumed cracker jack in my life.
It's usually it's definitely available in the suite at the yard.
It has to be because it's in the song. They'll
never take it a baseball song. I don't know that
it's in Klay Walker's Football Time in Houston song.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
That's a football stadium. So beyond all that. And by
the way, the sleeper got one of the highest grades.
Now help me out here and help our listeners out here.
As you looked over it yesterday and I have read
some more about it today. This is an nfl PA
player survey, and it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
players deep. You got, you know, somewhere around ninety players

(28:36):
per team. Maybe you are sixty nine players per team
during the season, or seventy if you have an international
player like the Texans. Did you maybe get fifty five
sixty responses times thirty two, it's you know, seventeen eighteen
hundred responses. Do the does Will Anderson Junior cast a
vote for Kevin Stefanski as a head coach? Does a

(28:59):
cast a vote for Aaron Glen as a head coach?
Or do you only vote in certain I mean, it's
all about your facility, it's all about your owner. They're
not voting on whether or not Woody Johnson's a good owner,
So they're not voting on whether or not Cleveland's head
coach is a good head coach, because they're asking things
about how does he treat his players? Does he have
respect for the team. They wouldn't know anything about it

(29:19):
other than people they've talked to, so we'll take that
with it. It's only the insiders. So the Cleveland players
voted the Cleveland head coach with the lowest marks, And
obviously the rest of the NFL doesn't know anything about
the survey until it's released. How would you feel if
you're Atlanta and you immediately hired this guy, Well, how

(29:41):
you should feel basically the same as you did not
knowing that, because I can't believe they did that. Well,
we're here in the best of X so we obviously
have to hit you with the comments. Somebody grabbed a
video from a postgame speech of Kevin Stefanski's and it
shows him saying, I'm telling you I told you. I
don't lie to you guys, as in, I gave you

(30:02):
a game plan, I told you what they were going
to do. I told you how we need to go
out and play, and we just did that and we
won the game. Like that's the premise of why that
line was uttered in the locker room after a win,
he says, I told you I don't lie to you.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Guys.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Don't forget the zoom too. And right behind his right
shoulder is the best player in franchise history, maybe one
of them. He's top five. He's on the team currently.
It's Miles Garrett, and he's the defensive player reigining defensive
Player of the Year again. And you can see him
in the background, luckily without his uniform top on, so
he can be rippling back there. Crosby, he just delivers I,

(30:38):
of all people to grade them, I would grade this
as an elite eye roll inside eye.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
This is the justin Timberlake when he's wearing the suit
zoom in where he's looking at the camera.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Like this will should last forever in Meme Hall of
Fame land. So it's pretty interesting.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Now.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Others commented and saying, for what it's worth, FYI and
I'll pay paraphrase, the whole organization sucks, because he wrote
the players hated on the entire organization and they ranked
thirtieth overall. It's not just the coach, did you okay?
Since we're locker room f offensive coordinator D plus, team
travel D minus, treatment of families D minus. The coach

(31:21):
who they wanted to keep but wouldn't promote to head
coach and they wanted to keep him as their DC.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
He got an A minus. They love the guy and
this is the play the coach they pushed out the door.
I think it was when he mentioned Dave Matthews band
is his favorite music. That's one of my favorites watching
the team the last few years. This isn't surprising at all.
But here's the deal. Since we're in the AFC North,
can we just kind of dovetail off of this real quickly?

Speaker 2 (31:47):
For sure?

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Were you surprised at some of the low marks for
the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, the Pittsburgh Steeler, Yes, I was including the stadium.
Now the stadium home field, I think is how a
term it.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Theyaters of the Texans just played there, so we had
all these conversations about if there if there was no
Soldier Field, then there would be nobody else to compare
their crappy field to the Heinz Field. Field is terrible,
and it was in part because they play so many
college games there.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
That is definitely one of the Rea. It's definitely a reason,
and it was also cited by some of the players
in that as my understanding, they will be replacing the
field surface well, and I said heinz Field. My apology
is an extremely important sponsor that just got their name
attached to the stadium within the last two years, and
it's definitely helped their business a great deal. Because when
you need I don't know what they do, you definitely

(32:43):
call Akrocher.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
I was about I thought you were going to finish
the sentence by saying whatever their name is.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Like if you're if you put your name on the
stadium and it's Reliant Stadium, most people here because it's
the name of the Reliant Energy. It's an energy company.
That's because Maddy tells you about it. If you go
watch your Ravens play, you probably know what business the
naming sponsor is in at m NT Bank Stadium. Hey

(33:11):
got an account there ever Bank Stadium? I got it?
I know what you guys do? I'm down, Hey, where
where did the astros play? Where do the Astros play?
It's a little more difficult with Dyke and Park because
it's an extremely unfamiliar business. That's kind of the reason
people consumed Minute Made products before that, but this is
specifically why they did it. They want and obviously it's

(33:33):
it's the exact same reason other companies. They want people
to know who they are and what they do, not
that they can like Minute Made Park. I mean, did
people hit up their local grocery store and say, hmmm,
Sonny B name brand Minute Made, I like the Astros,
I'll just buy a Minute Made. Do they do that?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
And conversely, do they go up to Arlington and say, wow,
mimic made.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
I can't call it that anymore. Naming rights very very
good thing for the teams that get them, yes, And
for the others.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
You're the have nots, As they say, all right, good
stuff there, and we're not done here in the two
o'clock hour, because when we come back as promised, Jim
Harbaugh's Michigan staff continues to crank out nothing but embarrassment
and bad behavior and shame and resent, criminal activity potentially

(34:25):
and crime their criminals is what they are up there.
Another crazy, all caps crazy story.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Crazy. When I read the t's is, I usually capitalize
a few of the words why is it?

Speaker 1 (34:37):
When I read that, I wanted to say it, like
Will Ferrell and wedding Crashers, Crazy Horny.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
That's next. I didn't write Horny.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety worry.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
About this song. I a lot of people thought this
was a good band. Wow, that's a funny story. That's subjective.
It's not a it's a great song. I think they're
just good. They just they're only good when they sing
the really really slow song. Go ahead and have a

(35:12):
sandwich all by the way while you're at it. Go ahead,
what's funny about this song? Believable?

Speaker 1 (35:18):
For whatever reason, every time I hear this song, I
think at the time, I went to a random game
in the middle of the summer at the Astrodome and
it was one of those in between innings where you
vote on the song you want to hear later on
in the game, and this one, I totally get it.
This had to have been like nineteen ninety eight, I

(35:40):
want to say. I want to say it was like
my senior year of high school, somewhere in that range.
I don't I didn't go to a ton of Astros
games in the Dome. I don't remember a lot about it.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
I went. I never went to an Oilers game. Yuck.
How could you not do that?

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Well, I moved here in eighty nine and they were
gone seven years later. I had sixty years in the
Ah before you even got here. My dad was a
native Houstonian, but he went elsewhere for school and then work,
and I didn't get back to Texas until eighty six.
I was like, I lived in Austin before here. Nice
when we just don't talk about the first five years

(36:15):
of mind.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
That is a very funny thing about hard to handle
by the Black Crows. You hate the Black Crows. We
learned that today. Unless they're talking to angels, I'm not
really that's your favorite song.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
They're all the same, They're not all the same, all
the same. What do you think about Hoody and the Blowfish?

Speaker 2 (36:30):
You like the song? The slow songs of theirs too?
Which what's that? Hold my Hand? That's a slow song?
Better cry, that's a slow sung that's better I go blind?
That's kind of meaty meadium.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Just get to the one that made them all popular.
I don't know that one perfect good answer. I do
like Hoodie Darius Rucker. This isn't personal. I'm not an
anti Robinson. He has a very extensive solo career, that
is largely based in country music.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
He's awesome. He's a huge figure still to this day. Yes,
I would go.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
I would pay to see him perform in person with
whatever band he's with. There he is welcome to the stage,
Darius Rocker and outcomes the country music. What if the
guy that's you know, that's announcing him didn't say Darius Rucker,
all right here, he is welcome to the stage, hooty.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Then he would probably get treated by Darius as if
he were Jim Ever, or as if he were Jim Rome.
The most, I don't think you appreciate would appreciate that
very much at the stage of his musical career.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
The most this movie was filmed for a nineteen ninety
six release. Line in all of Jerry Maguire is when
rod Tidwell played by Cuba Gooding Junior says to the
kid trying to get his autograph the airport, No, I
am not hooty.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Think about that.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Why was that such a hard line to say? Well,
but it's not a hard line, yes, to delivered a
certain way. No, I'm saying it's the most nineteen ninety
six line. Okay, it's very very those time. I mean
the cell phones he's using and all that stuff. Yeah,
and that's how it is when you host the show
with me, we will.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Believable that Glenn Fry was the Arizona Cardinals GM good movie.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Driving up the prices on me for years was really good.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
I actually didn't know this as good as when he
was in Miami Vice. Well, everybody was in Miami Vice,
including Phil Collins.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
That is an all timer for cameos all time, I
mean really heavy hitters.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yep, Like wasn't Denzel in an episode of Miami Vice?
Wouldn't shock me?

Speaker 1 (38:29):
Like we're talking all time. Top five to ten actors
have been on that show. I feel like at some
point or another.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah, just again, if you guys are just now waking
up and it's been a tough week for you, it's
Friday here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
It's good day. We're having some fun. What is the
Matt Thomas show called Days like Today? Whatever they like
to We were a different show. No, what does Matt
Thomas call it? He says you were allowed to talk
about whatever you want?

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Day? Really, what is it called? Whatever? Are you just
gonna say everything? But the name that he calls it?
What is it today, you tell me it's an.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
Anything goes.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Soritay here on the Not Matt Thomas Show with Ross
there you go, all right, we're obviously not gonna have
time to get into the Michigan situation, but we're going
to next segment because this, like WEX properly teased before
I completely railroaded the segment. Uh and earlier in the show,
in the first segment, it is, well, it's criminal. I mean,

(39:24):
you can say a bunch of things now it.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Is if it was proven to have happened.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Well, even if this isn't what Sharon Moore has already done, Sharon.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, these are. Now this is now a totally separate
story from the ousted head coach, except that he was
aware of what was happening. It's a different individual, a
different coach on his coaching staff, but got involved the
other person involved. The coach didn't get more involved. It's

(39:54):
the person involved in the This behavior is both unwelcome
and potentially unlawful.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
I can't wait to get to it when we come
back for the start of the three o'clock hour. Here
on as Friday.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Edition of the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Friday edition of The A Team Sports Talk seven ninety. Well,
we don't bitsteal anymore, so why can't I do that?

Speaker 2 (40:21):
You can? No one's stopping you. Just microphone is on.
Wex put his hat on during the break.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Unfortunately we're not on Space City Home network today, so
none of you guys are going to see it.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Listen to and welcome to the A Team. Is that
what you want?

Speaker 1 (40:35):
You're a longhorn. You shouldn't be allowed to say that.
How des not their word alone to use. You could
have fooled me the way they talk about it. They
just like it a lot. They like a lot of
things a lot. They don't get to take it. They
like dogs that look like Lassie, and they like grass
you can't step on, among other things. And they oh,
and they like tonguing their girlfriends when they score touchdowns.

(40:57):
What a bad idea. Maybe they're on to something. Maybe
the longhorn should do that.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Nah, they can keep that one. But well, that activity's
attached to strong football play. Maybe that is there strong
and very strong the activity itself, especially if it's wanted
by the other party, then that's fine.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Okay, talk to me about LaTroy Lewis. Why should he
matter to all of us.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
I got very many people here listening to us today
were aware of LaTroy Lewis before today. Maybe you still aren't.
He is a former NFL player. He did play briefly
for the Tennessee Titans, and not long after his professional
career ended, he became a coach coach to a couple
of different places. Most recently was it Toledo before he
was hired to coach with the Atlanta Falcons along their

(41:43):
defensive lines where he played as a player and assistant
defensive line coach with the Atlanta Falcons eight hours ago.
That was his title. That was the job he held
as of earlier this month when he was first hired,
well at I don't know the time exactly. I didn't
see the time stamp on the Falcons release that they
sent out to the media in Atlanta. He was relieved

(42:03):
of his duties earlier today. So he lasted about seventeen
days at the position during the non on the field
portion of his life as an NFL coach. So Beltron,
as Mets manager, thinks this is bad. And it happened
because of a story that came out today or was
written about on social media from his time when he
was a staffer on the Michigan football staff. The head

(42:26):
coach at the time was Sharon Moore. And this is
obviously during the era where you need three hands to
count all of the missteps, misdeeds, arrests, suspensions, etc. From
members of the program, as some people like to call it,
even if it's an NFL team, and his transgression and

(42:48):
again these it's hard where we are in society and
where we are with social media to get a full
handle on what's to be believed in what's not, even
when it comes down to text messages, messages on some
other form of social media, because they can be doctored,

(43:09):
they have been doctor and sometimes it's hard to tell
what's what and what's not. This particular reporter has been
on a lot of negative Michigan football stories, one because
there are so many of them. And two and I
don't think he hides it. Everybody knows that he is
a Michigan State University Journalism school graduate. But this is

(43:32):
kind of very college football for it all. But the
headline he writes on the article posted to his social
media account is pretty simple and to the point. Former
Michigan and current Falcon staffer. Again when it was written,
it was accurate. Accused of rape. Ex head coach more
failed to report a harassed victim. And if you go
through the story, you could see the connection between what

(43:54):
the victim is alleged to have taken place between her
and Lewis and then communication and she had with Moore,
who in this report was an acquaintance of hers, a
mutual friend of hers, someone she already knew, obviously knew,
not only knew him, but knew who he was, and
the relationship to the situation that she was in this
is a staff member of his and told him about it,

(44:16):
and then when he told her there he's not going
to be doing anything about it, even in this role
where he's obligated to report this in the job title
that he holds at that use this university, but he
chose not to. And then it goes on to say
he went from there to then harassing her. And if
you read through some of these text messes, both from
Lewis to this alleged accuser and more to the accuser,

(44:42):
they're out of control, just beyond almost beyond belief. If
you're I don't want to be too naive to the situation.
But it's just it is hard to believe, even with
what we already know about Sharon Moore, and to think
that this other person, Lewis, is going from program to
program and continues to get jobs. One of the reasons
why he moved on to his next job, from Michigan

(45:03):
to Toledo was because after this had happened, he was
getting a glowing report from Sharon Moore. I mean, maybe
it helped him get him off the payroll. Who knows
the motives behind all this, but it has since very quickly.
The Falcons came to a decision. Their initial statement today,
we're aware of the allegations and we're looking into the matter,
and not many hours later he was relieved of duties.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
So I just here's the deal. Going back to like
the Art Briles comparison, this has to Okay, maybe not this,
but this kind of stuff college pro all points in between,
this happens all the time.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Well I don't really want to I mean, I know
there's some parallels here, but this is a renegade program
with the athletes that they're bringing onto campus. The Art
Briels and the coaching staff is recruiting these players presumably
and especially since they've been to quardover some of these things.
Bad people, bringing him on campus knowing they were capable
of bad things, then learning of them doing bad things,

(46:06):
and I'm being pretty light with calling them bad things
and then protecting them while they're going, protecting them even
though they know they did these bad things. They shouldn't
be there to begin with. Student athletes comical and they
shouldn't have been protected. The people that should be protected,
quite obviously, are the victims, these students on campus, that

(46:29):
these players were way outside of what should have ever
taken place, you know, to the degree of which I mean,
there's so many different instances. I don't know what to
where to begin and where to end, But that to
me is just a big dep Mean, if Jim Harbaugh
is hiring Sharon Moore and he's just he's a bad person,
bad family man, does bad things, misuses his power, and
obviously treats people badly and gets in relationships he's not

(46:50):
supposed to have and then treats her badly, and then
all those things, and then he is in turn having
coaches on his staff, working with coaches there that are
at least capable of doing some of them similar things.
They're in positions of power to decide who's on there,
and they're in the same position of power to decide
what kids they want on campus. But this that was
a campus problem at Baylor that the coaches actively prevented

(47:16):
their players from getting in trouble for it. Get not
in trouble from Yeah, he probably needs to be suspended
for a game. I mean, you're going to jail trouble. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
I mean, look, I just when you're talking about covering
for other people, that's what I mean when I compare
the two, it's not I know, I brought up Art Brile's.
That's just because it's the biggest scandal I could think
of in recent memory where that was going on, and
he lost his job and has never really recovered off
of this. By the way, it makes me wonder about

(47:46):
John Harbaugh, like, Jim, I'm sorry, Jim Harbaugh, Yes, you
know what I mean. Like, just because it's been a
couple of years and I beyones.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
And again we used the word earlier, and that was
the word used on the Baylor campus rape and activity
there the allegations for it, So it is much more
serious than just you know, an a fair or an
improper relationship with somebody on staff. This is as harsh
as you can get, essentially, and it's it's again, was
it while he was there? Was it somebody that he
had hired? You can get into all that, but that's

(48:19):
why I brought up the I mean, when when's the
count going to be over? How many different things like
he's got a show cause penalty, which is like a
non penalty. Of course, he's never going back to college football.
He was never going back to college football. I going
to Michigan is something that he did. It's a great
place to be and it was going to be a
catapult to him getting back to the NFL, which it
obviously is exactly what it's become. And I don't know

(48:41):
where his interview schedule is. I know he's been sitting
down for interviews over the course of the week in Indianapolis, right,
But the timing of this probably saved him. I'm sure
he wouldn't have done any more interviews anyway, but the
sitting down with coaches portion of the combine pretty much
ends when the players are on the field. We'll see
what comes up, because I'm sure every single person there

(49:02):
once media member needs, wants, expects, thinks they deserve some
sort of comment from him because this is still related
to the program he put together that's been nothing but
producing insanely bad stories and bad behavior.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
And the fact that there has been that time it's
gone by since he was there, probably like you said, well,
that's gonna save him from that standpoint. And I'm be
completely honest and transparent. I don't think the Chargers would
ever do anything. They wouldn't move.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
It would have to be they would have to be
like direct.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
He had direct knowledge and in some way almost helped
facilitate it because of that knowledge before. I think the
Chargers would even you know what I mean, because they've
he's already coached there two years.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
But like, don't you think there is a And again,
Lewis did join the program while Harbaugh was there, right,
so graduate assist, what.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Do you think would be the threat hold where the
NFL and or the Chargers step in and say there's
some sort of disciplinarian action or discipline action anything of
that nature with regards to Harrball because of something that happened.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
You ran a bad program with bad people who committed
bad acts and potentially are going to be jailed over
it and will never recover from it, professionally or personally.
And they're not gonna do anything. No, they're not going
to do anything to him over that.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
But our Briles, I guess, because you were still there,
is that the only difference here.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
I think you are. That's part of the reason why
I think it's apples to oranges. The Baylor scandal and
the ongoing different Michigan incidents are not viewed similarly, but
only because Harball is no longer there. No, because of
what happened at Baylor with other This was athletes taking
advantage of other women on campus, over and over and

(50:57):
over and over again. And it wasn't even just football.
This was a huge college campus scandal. This isn't really
a college campus scandal. They worked for Michigan and they
abused their power and they protected people, and obviously the
reports should have come from the campus. You know, the
person that works there, Sharon Moore, the head coach. But
it's a very different angle of misbehavior. But he had

(51:19):
an affair with a person on the staff, Sharon right.
But then he went over to her house and was
threatening her and all that kind of stuff, and he
got fired and it's going to go to jail. And
then this guy that's probably not coach Harbaugh's, it's not on.
He's not gonna nothing's gonna happen to them. This guy happens,
and Harbaugh knew about it. Probably I know it's at

(51:40):
the very least they should investigate it. And then you
couple those two things with the cheating, like, again, why
I'm not at all protective of him in any way?
You know this that what happened inside the program with
with more. Remember when we talked about it at its height,
it was an ongoing, known part of the daily activity

(52:02):
around the football facilities. Everybody seemed to know that it
was going on, and the ad was like, somebody please
come forward and confirm it to me. He knew, this
person knew that. Everybody knew they were having a relationship
that was improper. But they had asked the two people
involved and they lied to them and said no, we aren't,
and so nobody else came forward with any proof. Then

(52:22):
ultimately a lot of things changed for her for him,
and she came forward and said, no, we lied to you.
It's happening, and here's all the proof. I mean, I
don't know where Harbaugh comes into that, And similarly with
Lewis's situation, very unhinged behavior, if the communication between the
two of them is accurate, it's.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Just crazy to me that Again, I'm not saying it's
the exact same thing, but it just feels like because
he hasn't been there for a while. I do think
there's one other main difference. Now, Art Briles was continuing
his way up the ladder from U of H obviously
to Baylor, and they were good. They had some of

(53:05):
their best years in recent memory. Baylor was basically dormant
as a program in terms of success, and he had
success there, but it was also at a level very,
very different than Harbaugh's success. Harbaugh's success was whatever university
thinks they can go get a national championship, a regular
visitor to the Final four or the playoffs, whatever the
number is at the time, four or eight or twelve,

(53:27):
and Art isn't wasn't that different level of coaching success.
Jim Harbaugh as a college football coach compared to Art
Briles is almost apples to oranges. And the size of
the program. Do you think that factors in it all?
Probably does, Okay, very very interesting.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Mamely the type of universities they are also probably factors in. Yeah, no,
I would say that'd be the case too.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Okay, we're out of time on that, But there are
a couple other things, both football and basketball related, that
we need to get to. One former NFL quarterback who
did some time in the college game as well. Obviously
he had a wild suggestion for CJ. Stroud, and we
should probably talk about where Katie rinks in the all.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Time former NFL quarterback knows how to fix broken CJ. Stroud?
Are you ready for this? Everybody? I can't wait. It's coming.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Are you ready for Archer Kia? Are you ready to
head on down to fifty nine in the Beltway and
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why would you go to any of them when Archer
Kia has been around since nineteen fifty six and Todd
Archer and company are going to take better care of

(54:51):
you than probably your own family, if we're being on
probably your own family.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
They could take better care of you, Looking for low
lease payments, looking for special financing, looking for the perfect vehicle.
You'll find it at Archer Kia. You mentioned Todd, Archer,
Ryan Stanford, everybody over there. They are ready for you
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(55:37):
located fifty nine and the Beltway. Archer Kia Driving Houston
for seventy years. What started in your garden now works
on your phone with the new iHeartRadio.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
I love the new Preset. Make seven ninety your number
one preset and get Houston Sports. You certainly don't want
to vent instantly.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Howdy, I reckon, We'll be on for another hour and change.
I've taken my selfie what I thought we were supposed
to take it together. This is a team here, the
A team. It's not the a wex. I'm trying to listen. Sorry,
crank it up there, Josh. Now it's all right. We

(56:19):
got things to do and stuff to talk about. Can't
just enjoy the Rodeo holiday season. I'll tell you right now,
it's almost pool season. You're in the pool all the time.
I am. I am year round in the pool. It
doubles as a cold plunge. All right. You guys are
familiar with NFL smarty pantthers, NFL analysts, yakty yackers, talking heads,

(56:39):
et cetera. We do it all the time ourselves. However,
some of the some of the people that talk about
the NFL have prior experience. Some of them play in
the NFL. Some coach in the NFL. A lot of
your TV voices often played a position they are critiquing
or giving him information on Yo. Some of the people
we've had on the show, and we like talking with

(57:00):
Danny O, former Texans quarterback play in the NFL valuations
on quarterback. I'm down Chase Daniel getting more and more
and more popular and more jobs as the days go by.
Brock Osweiler talks about quarterback play, not always in the
analyst sense, from a studio standpoint and breaking people down
so a little bit. Fitzi another former Texan we are

(57:22):
they are everywhere fits magic. Some of them are also
very very very interesting listens, and they do have history
with quarterback play. They're even from a football family. We're
talking about one of our favorites here, the left handed
all time possibly greatest left handed quarterback in the University
of Texas Longhorn football history. I'm not staking that to

(57:46):
be accurate, but I think it's possible that he could
actually stake a claim to that title. He spends his days, unfortunately,
I feel bad for him. Somehow he makes it through
the day, multiple hours to day day. Sharing the podcast
airwaves with Mike Floria and I wanted to play you
something from Chris Simms, but I did have to warn

(58:06):
you in advance. Florio is heard during it and he's
making it hard to understand at times, but I think
you'll get the gist of it. So this former NFL
quarterback thinks, in addition to the performance and the mistakes,
there's actually a technical throwing problem, a problem with what CJ.
Stroud does mechanically. Chris Simms has the solution for all

(58:30):
of your problems, Houston Texans quarterback CJ. Stroud, And I
do think he has to address this his throwing motion
a little.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
I do think that I'm gonna grab the football. I
didn't even think we're gonna do this, but I'm gonna
do it. I mean, nobody's ball is closer to their
helmet than c J.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Stroud. I mean, it's right here.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
It's at times I go gosh, I mean, is the
ball gonna hit his helmet as he throws the football?
Nobody's like that. I mean, it's really hard to be
accurate all the time. Just having the ball right here,
he doesn't get his body involved. And if you look
at any great arm quarterback, right, usually when the release
is the arms way away from the body, that the
levers are what create all the force and the power.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
Right. So that's where there's definitely.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
Some things I think he could look at to kind
of tweak his football game along with you know, like
we said, taking care of the ball, understanding the team
that you have around you anyways, a great defensive football
team that you don't need to force things or hold
the ball too long in the pocket.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Let's start at the back and go to the front,
because the gist of this was some sort of mechanical issue.
But in the back he acted like the game against
the Patriots is the only game he's ever watched. Everything
he did to get the Texans where they were helped
the Texans get to where they arrived this year, and
really all of his years were exactly because he did
understand exactly what you just said. He needs to start understanding.

(59:51):
The Texans never turned the ball over this year. They
were one of the least. They had one of the
lowest number of giveaways all season. He only threw eight
interceptions this year. I know he missed three games, but
his interception percentage was also very low. Did not fumble
the ball even one time the entire season and lost
it like all of the things you're suggesting.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Hey man, your defense is good. Man, Just get rid
of the football, don't turn it over, and you'll probably win.
He knows it. It was in practice for.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
His fourteen regular season games thirteen that he finished.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
He knows. It's exactly what the team has stressed to him.
That's exactly how Demiko Ryans tried to play, and it's
exactly why they would have probably reached the super Bowl
this year if he had done those things.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Nothing he didn't know. But now let's get to the
other part of it. This is CJ. Stroud, who spent
multiple years as starting quarterback in college football and played
plenty of Markeee games that everybody that evaluates quarterbacks has
eyes on, whether they're inside the game as a coach,
personnel evaluator or they're like us outside the game and
talking about it all the time. Now, he's got three
years of NFL starting experience in fifty games plus worth

(01:00:55):
of on field activity, so I wanted to give him
the benefit of the doubt. Immediately you've seen CJ throw,
There's plenty of in your memory bank. It just you
close your eyes and you imagine this pass and that pass,
and you know going downfield to Tank Dell going downfield
and Nico Collins going underneath the Dalton Schultz firing a
ball in this tight window, throwing interceptions. All the things
that have happened during his fifty plus starts. I do too,

(01:01:17):
but I also wanted to get some more visual reminders.
And I didn't even get to watching highlights to see
what I thought of how he threw because I couldn't
do it to myself. When the very first thing up
c J stroud Highlights, fired that up into the Google machine,
and the first YouTube video that pops up is thirty
two minutes plus of CJ. Stroud's twenty twenty five season highlights.

(01:01:40):
I never clicked on it, I never played it. I
never watched them back because the generated photo that goes
with the post shows him throwing the football and his
arm is way out to the side, just like Chris
Simm's arm was in this video. Obviously you only heard
the audio. Normally your arm is way outside your body.

(01:02:02):
You're using all the mechanics for the leverage. Yeah, you
mean how CJ is shown throwing the football right here
like he's gone through all these quarterback coaches, personal and
in team at Ohio State with the Texans, and he's
been through quite a few here with the Texans, and
nobody else thought this, probably because they don't think it's

(01:02:22):
a problem. I'm not saying he has perfect mechanics because
he doesn't. Footwork can be improved. There probably are some
tweaks to the mechanics in which he throws the football.
But you got to also recognize the success first. If
you're that successful, you always want to be better and
you always want to make your quarterback better if he's
on your team and you're a coach. But you do
you overhaul something? Do you really dig deep in there

(01:02:44):
and saying you're doing it wrong. Wait till you see this.
Look how good you're going to be. Now. I'm not
saying he's wrong or right, but that doesn't seem right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
On the list of things you might want to improve
for CJ individually this upcoming season, his mechanics are so
far down the list for me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
His throwing mechanics. I think his footwork can absolutely be improved,
and I'm surprised more people like I should haven't said
that I should.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
I should recalibrate there and say that that's what I'm referring.
Just throwing mechanics, Yeah, yeah, I just holding out of
the ball too long is way farther up on the list.
Just reading defenses in general, making making the appropriate play
when the play doesn't go your way. All of that

(01:03:33):
is way out in front. Cause again you just listed
all of the times in my mind of course as
I was imagining it that he has made the throat
and I never once, I mean, the thing we talked
about with him for like ever his rookie year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Man. This guy's accurate, man, this guy's poised.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
You don't like, I get developing bad habits and all
that kind of stuff, but you don't get like you
don't forget that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Yeah, a lot of what what we just played for
he did sound to me like these are recent issues.
Like last game he watched issues more so than a
career's worth of problems For CJ. Stroud. I do think
these are things that will get worked on. Maybe Jerry
Schuplinsky will be the man to get it all done,
likely will be named or officially add that to his

(01:04:17):
title with the Texans. I still think outside help could
be coming to the Texan staff. But obviously yesterday that
news made reportedly made with Jarrad Johnson stepping away from
the team and opening up that quarterback coach shout for
the first time. It's never been open before. Since c. J.
Stroud has been a Texans the only quarterback coach by
title that he has had here. So just another suggestion.

(01:04:41):
And I don't not gonna get on Chris Sims anymore
than I would for any other guy. The quality of
analyst versus their playing career always seems to be a
fun topic. You know, Chase Daniel, a career backup and
now widely regarded as a good evaluator of talent on
social media and in media. Now you know, Chris Simms
is in the game. Danie Rolovski's in the game. Ryan

(01:05:03):
Fitzpatrick is in the game. There are a lot of
former quarterbacks in the game, most of them not nearly
as successful as several others who are at least broadcasters,
but not really in the sense that these guys are
like Drew Brees calls games and still does. It was
brought back this year. Tom Brady calls games, but he's
not in the studio, and he's not doing a two
hour podcast every day, and he's not getting into all

(01:05:23):
these things where you might actually listen. We'll hear about
Tom Brady coming up a little bit later in the
four o'clock hour, before we get to Astros Baseball. A
reminder they have a five h five first pitch today.
So for fifty today, we'll get you to Astros baseball.
Lance mccullor's throwing pitches to yan Or ds is how
things will start today for the the Astros and the Nationals.

(01:05:45):
I mean, doesn't seem like we've talked nearly enough about
the National Basketball Association several ways. We could present this
to you and we'll get into the Rockets game a
little bit more this coming segment. But one player in
particular from last night's Rockets back basketball game, he heard it.
We all heard it loud and clear from somebody on

(01:06:06):
another team which Rocket caught strays and had an answer.
That's next.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
The eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
I'll tell you we were gonna kind of just address
where Katie ranks in the pantheon of the all time greats.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Because he finally had a really good game this year,
so the national talking he had to have to talk
about him.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
He finally did, huh, finally had a good game, so
near the last or the end of February, finally had
a good game. I'll tell you he's never going to
be on that list. DeAndre Eaton, Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
He has been a really good game like that quite
some time, certainly not in this uniform. Yeah, why the
Lakers' success depends on DeAndre.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
What a stupid title for an article, shouldn't If that
is your premise, then shouldn't the article be titled why
the Lakers will never win a championship in the next
fifteen years.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
It's the same thing. They can definitely win without him,
they just won't because they're not going to win with
or without him.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Well, they're not going to win ever, as long as
their best players don't play defense. And he's not even
the one I'm talking about, because he's clearly not one
of their best players.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
And he's not as good, he's not a very defensive
tires on top of that. Yeah, this whole thing, obviously
stems are not really around anything DeAndre Ayton has done,
and really not even very accurately portrayed from the article
that Malik Andrew's husband writes. But since there's Dave Andrews,
he did not. He did not change his name. I did.

(01:07:39):
I changed still her husband. He kept his name. She
kept hers as well, Dave Mcammenimon. But when you write
articles in this day and age, people like to pluck
stuff out of him that they know will grab people's attention.
And if there's a line in there from the Woe
Big on Lakers Center that says, I'm not no clu

(01:08:00):
Clint Capella, that's what an aggregator or a what you
were calling foul beaters. This is basically a view baiter.
That's how there's so many people on social media entities clickbaitter.
They want views, they want people to want it to
generate interaction, and it works every time you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Put it from rage baiting. By the way, not really,
but similar cousins.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
You put a picture of DeAndre Ayton with a pained
look on his face and you add this quote to it,
people are going to start commenting on it and thinking
about it, even though in the context of how it
was written. And I'll read that to you, this is
Ayton saying they're trying to make me Clint Cappella, talking
about Lakers management, Lakers coaches, maybe Lakers teammates. They're trying
to make me Clint Cappella. And as Dave adds to it,

(01:08:47):
referring to the Houston Rockets now backup center who had
decade ago made his impact as a lobcatching rim running
big on a team that made it to two conference finals,
followed by this quote, I'm not no Clint Capella, and
it got a little bit of run yesterday on social
media quite obviously, at least enough that somebody probably inside

(01:09:08):
the Houston Rockets locker room saw it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
It could have been Clint Cappella. It could have been
a teammate that's saw my money's on Tarisan. I don't
know anything. I'm just guessing, but.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Enough of that got into their locker room to Clint
Capella now being the pinned post on a lot of
other people's social media accounts that are NBA Aggregator social
media accounts, because he took to his own IG yesterday
just a story. It'll be gone in twenty four hours.
But it was a picture of DeAndre Ayton that was
captured by one of the sites I was mentioning with

(01:09:42):
that quote, they're trying to make me, Clint Capella. He
attached that photo and added his own little caption to
his IG story. It said, you got two of the
best floor general in the game, my dog lock in
with two laughing emojis right after at some point after
yesterday's Rockets triumph. Those two those would be Lebron James

(01:10:07):
and Luka Dancic.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Those two would be Luka donc Chan, Austin Reeves not
Austin Reeves well, Lebron doesn't. He does, in generally do
anything iven ruin the flow of things. I don't know
that I will get out to a rocket's availability, shoot around,
pregame avail or postgame avail close enough to this situation
timeline wise that I can ask Clint if he was

(01:10:28):
referring to Austin or Lebron.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
But I'll try to get that information for you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
I want you to pose the question and say you
were obviously referring to Austin and Luca right, and then
see his face.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
A lot of comments there, But I do think like
for to be real. Like DeAndre Aydon with the Phoenix
Suns when they had their most success they've had in
the last decade, was was he mattered? He was a
good player. He pretty much hasn't been even a He's
barely a usable player because he doesn't do any of
those things anymore. You don't give him the in the post.

(01:11:00):
He doesn't post guys up, he doesn't score in the post.
He doesn't have moves in the post. He has no
handle whatsoever. He's not a dominant, dominant rebounder or defender.
He's just now he really is. He's just tall, like
he doesn't he I don't even think he helps him
as much as Jackson Hayes does. And Hayes is an
even worse basketball player. He's just more athletic, faster, and
can jump higher they have. These are signs of clear problems,

(01:11:24):
and I think your point is one that should be
well taken. An article suggesting a team that has Austin Reeves,
Luka Doncic, and Lebron James on it, even at Lebron's
advanced age and abilities, that some sort of success hinges
on their sixth best player, seventh best player, seventh most

(01:11:45):
important player. I mean, at his absolute pinnacle of play.
Maybe he'd get this team with these guys on it.
Maybe he'd get this team ten and ten, which he's
nowhere near getting. He's also like this reminds me of
when Dwight Howard was teammates with Clint Cappella. Guess who
was a better rim runner. As Dave described Clint was,

(01:12:09):
It's not just what he did, it's what he was
good at.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
It was an asset. It was an attribute his teammate
Dwight was no longer interested in playing. I was about
to say no longer interested do it? Yep, that's why. Look,
James and Dwight's personalities were never gonna mesh. But if
Dwight never had this fascination with being a back to

(01:12:33):
the basket, traditional post center, thinking he's a chem Olaijuan
out there, I don't know that they couldn't have made
it work.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
I mean, no question.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
And also difficult personality James Harden made it work with
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
Yeah, you know, Ayton's career will be looked at very disappointingly,
mainly because of where he was drafted, number one, and
Clint Coppel's will be looked at very differently. Like he
played on a lot of good teams in Houston. He
put up some pretty decent numbers, even led the league
in rebounding in one season with the Hawks, and he
got a really good deal to come here and be
the third center now second center with Adam's injury. And

(01:13:10):
I'm glad he was proud of himself enough to tick
to social media and say I'm not just gonna sit
here and catch strays and do nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Ayton however, has never developed the reputation as a go
to star. Instead, his reputation has become one of a
talented but unseerious player, the kind who jokingly executes cartwheels
in the locker room and disappears on the court for
large stretches at a time.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
David mcmannimon talking about catching strays exhibiting Dwight Howard behavior
is basically what he was talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Well, he would wear Marvel Comics boxers, but he would
also have put up like twenty five and grabbed thirty rebounds.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
Yeah, I mean, Aiden will never do that. Aidan's not
having some miserable season. He's just not doing What did
they try to do with the deadline last year? They
tried to trade for Mark Williams, They tried to trade
for a center, and then they spent the rest of
the season lamenting the issue that they didn't have one.
They went out this offseason and they went about a
number of different possible avenues and landed on this one

(01:14:11):
rather underwhelming one. Lakers problems, everybody else's joy. Well, the
Lakers were on the court yesterday, Yes I believe so
how'd they fare?

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Thanks matt Ah? They did not do so got Royce o'neild.

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
Well, Royce O'Neill hit a three with less than a
second remaining to beat the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
It's one way to go. It's not like Dylan Brooks
was going to hit it. He's not available.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
Yeah, this is another game the Sun's played without both
of their best two players. No Devin Booker, no Dylan Brooks,
and they got Royce O'Neal hey on a game winner.
I really should be saying they got Grace and alland
he had twenty eight. They got Ted Cruised, They did
get Ted Cruz. They kind of got Colin Gillespie. They
probably did not get Jalen greened his fourth consecutive game

(01:15:06):
of Oh my god, are you serious with that shooting?
He went four for fifteen. It was one for seven
from the floor, or of one for seven from three.
I don't even think I haven't looked, because I'm not
that mean. I don't think he had it as stretch
of this bad with the Rockets ever. I haven't. Those
last four games have just been and one of them
included another game winner. He hit the double overtime in

(01:15:29):
the corner off the inbounds play. Beautifully designed, well executed
brilliant nothing but net three point shot to win it
during the worst four game shooting stretch of his career
other than the playoffs against Golden State. Just game to me,
single second. Well, that also is coming, you know, some
some Phoenix people are trying to spin that story as
well about getting Durant out of the building as a

(01:15:50):
positive for this team.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Four to fifteen, one for seven, he did not make
it to the free throw line, had four turnovers, and
was a minus two in just twenty four minutes of acts.

Speaker 2 (01:16:01):
He's enduring a rough well again, the I still think
the highlight of that deal was other elements of it
were they took a chance like the one that scored
forty last night for the Rockets. No, I mean they're
what would they didn't. I'm not going to say they
should have kept him, should they have a lot of
people thought they should have to do what develope. No, No,

(01:16:24):
kept Durant. Oh the Suns could have kept him. I
don't think they could have what for going nowhere?

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
He already demanded a trade out of town, So regardless
of what the team was like, it wouldn't have mattered.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
That's how it worked in the NBA. Well, he demanded
a trade because they went to him and said, we're
actively shopping you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
Yeah, but everybody has acted like, oh, Phoenix won the
trade all season long, and they.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Again, let's go easy on that. Everyone. The people that
for some reason have a disdain for Kevin Durant are saying, oh,
this is perfect. Get him out of the building, and
look at what we've done this year. There's not a lot.
Maybe they're loud right now because Phoenix is winning, but
I don't think too many people think they won the trade.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
No, bye, well not anybody that's well actually watched basketball
and or has a brain other than that. You know,
all right, We're gonna come back to wrap up the
three o'clock hour next with a little roundtable discussion, Now,
a serious roundtable discussion if you want to talk about
the greatness and the success and the future perils all

(01:17:29):
together in college sports.

Speaker 2 (01:17:32):
You know, the man in charge of everything here in
the United States of America needs to be in charge
of this way too. Hear who is invited to this
roundtable and who's not. That's next hour of the program.
College Sports, Big Trouble apparently, still says Eric and Donald
Junior's dad, and so he is going to get everybody together.
He has scheduled a roundtable for the future of college sports.

(01:17:54):
That is, President Donald Trump. No definitive word on when
the meeting roundtable will take place, a no definitive word
on who's been invited to participate. However, a list of invitees,
which is subject to change, was obtained by the great
people over at Front Office Sports. So if I tell you,
there are eight athletes and coaches that have gotten invites.

(01:18:16):
Four of the coaches, all of them, as a matter
of fact, are not currently employed as coaches. The four athletes,
none of them are playing college football or very recently
played college football. Two of them didn't play football at all.
You want to guess on who any of these athletes

(01:18:37):
and coaches might be, Nick Saban. Nick Saban is on
the list. It works for ESPN. Tommy Tubberville. That's an
awesome guess really is.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
Because of his play many reasons and his former coaching
that is incorrect.

Speaker 2 (01:18:54):
Recently, it looks like NBC is going to not bring
Tony Dungee back on the broadcast side. But he is
an a coach and athlete. Former NFL players He's made
the list. Somebody else does. A college football studio show
is also on the list on the other network, usually
around noon. It's very large and they kick off. He

(01:19:16):
sits next to Mark Ingram and Matt Liner. I can't
think of this. He used to coach Trevor Lawrence, oh
Urban Meyer. Urban Meyer has an invite, Oh Boy, and
the former University of Texas National championship winning head coach
Mac Brown. Those are the four coaches they got invites
go to a round table. We've got Charlie's dad, Elin's

(01:19:41):
former husband. He's the athlete that's on the list. We're
gonna put Tiger in to talk about college sports. Also
getting closer to becoming a member of Trump's family. So
Tiger's made the list. Bryson Day Schambeau the other athlete,
and two former college football players that one college football
Most Magnificent Prize, the Heisman, the Heisman. One of them

(01:20:06):
played for your Houston Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Oh gosh, really, Charlie Ward, why do I want to
say Chris Childs for some.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Reason, I don't know? And Timothy Tebow the other. Okay,
so those are your eight athletes and coaches.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
Nobody on that list surprises me me either A bunch
of other people athletic directors, former athletic directors, conference members,
pro sports execs list, the Islanders GM, the Patriots president
that's Robert Kraft's kid, Jonathan, Yankees president Randy Levine and

(01:20:45):
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and a handful of people from
the university leadership, chancellors and presidents.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
Three politicians. If you like to guess one of the
three can you get? You think you can get one
of the three correct? Before he hit the top of
the hour, school right, I just saw the lists. I
know that it's heavy D. Heavy D.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
My former rival, the Great Governor of Florida ron descentis.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
We call him heavy D because he's a little heavy.
But he's lost some what he's looking good these days.
All right, just give the rest of the politicians list
to our listeners and we'll hit the top of the hour.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
Condilieza Rice, the formuerst like that I could do that, Condillieza, Rice,
I love her, I love great last name, great university.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
And of course your own advisor Doris Epstein, not to
be confused with Epstein these days. So again, list of
invitees subject to change, no definitive word on when this roundtable,
expected to take place next week will take place, and
not long after all of college football's troubles will be gone.

(01:21:48):
This is going to save us all from the impending
demise of college sports apparently. Thank you, mister President for
stepping in and helping us where we needed help. The
several four o'clock segments in front of us, including most
importantly on the NFL side, and it does relate to
your Houston Texans. We have tag figures, we have extension

(01:22:10):
figures for players that are ready to sign fiftiear extensions
or otherwise. We get it all that as we kick
off the four o'clock hour next.

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
You know how I know it's almost the weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
No how, I'm getting text messages from my wife during
the break that say I need a vacation from Yes, Okay,
I pick something, Okay, I mean it's February twenty seventh,
and she is like about to just.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
If I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:22:47):
So we we in the show today in forty five
minutes from right now. You gotta get it over to
West Palm Beach, FLA for Lance mccullors. Yeah, if I'm
not home by five three. You hear this, Houston traffic
on a Friday, get going. If I'm not home by
five point thirty, she might be in Mexico by the

(01:23:08):
time I get there.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Would you be joining her?

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
No, No, I don't thin anybody's gonna be joining her.
I think that's the whole point. It's it'll be getting
crucial back at the house right now again, you got
off early today, Everything will be fine. Go texting day, man,
there's what's there to be in a bad mood about.
And by the way, if you want to see what
we look like today, both of us wearing Western gear,
cowboy hats, the whole nine. Head on over two at

(01:23:35):
Sports Talk seven ninety or one of our social sites.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
So on, Go Texan Day. The NFL sent out memos
to the league to inform the teams and everybody else
involved what kind of money they're looking at this year.
How about a salary cap pushing above three hundred million
dollars million dollars again the expected number and the number

(01:24:04):
that they were given. It'll become one hundred percent official
when the new league year starts. But this is not
unknown information. But all the other numbers that you need
to know are all based on a lot of these
like what is the franchise tag number, and what is
the non exclusive number, what's the transition tag number? And
in the Texans case is they will not be doing

(01:24:24):
anything with a franchise tag or a transition tag or
likely talking to any players agents that have been hit
with one. Again, the Cowboys are going to and have
said as much now made it public that the non
exclusive franchise tag is going on George Pickens, which means
when free agency opens, he and his agent can talk

(01:24:46):
to other teams. But if he and his agent come
to an agreement on a deal, well, then the Cowboys
can just let him sign it with that team, and
then that team will owe them to first round picks.
So it's very very very unlikely that that happens. But
it also again this is one of the additional reasons
we don't get into it very often of why the

(01:25:08):
teams like it, especially this particular tag. Go ahead, negotiate
with these other teams who have no interest in signing
you because they don't want to give up two first
round picks for you. He's worthy, He's a first round talent,
he's played that way, and he played tremendously well last
year for the Cowboys, But there are too many other
reasons with this particular player. No other team wants to

(01:25:28):
long term get in bed with him and give up
two first round picks in order to do it. So
whatever numbers that they're thinking right now, negotiating with him
against nobody else because he's in their building versus what
they'll now negotiate against kind of nobody else. Still, that's
why the Cowboys will probably go that route, and they'll
have their other issues with Brandon Aubrey, and that's long
been discussed. But the fifty year extension for players that

(01:25:52):
were in the twenty twenty three draft, those figures are
also now known, and obviously that applies very directly to
the Houston Texas players that were first round picks in
twenty twenty three. Right after Bryce Young, you had his
friend c J. Stroud drafted. They were together last night
at the Clippers loss. And right after c J. Stroud,

(01:26:12):
you had Will Anderson Junior drafted. So quarterbacks selected to
two or more Pro Bowls if a fifth year option
is picked up as forty three million dollars in twenty
twenty seven forty three point eight nine, So it's essentially
forty four million dollars. He's a one time Pro bowler.
H that's thirty seven thousand, thirty seven point eight million dollars.

(01:26:37):
That's what his twenty twenty seven figures should be. In
Will Anderson's case two times over as a Pro Bowl selection,
his number at end, if he plays under his fifth
year extension number, which is not going to happen, it
would be twenty four point four million dollars because I
think they're going to reach a deal on an extension

(01:26:58):
this year, so he'll already whatever the figure is for
the cap, that'll likely get altered with whatever the parameters
of an extension would be. You could either use that
number or use different number. Figure out how you want
to work it, and that'll be related to what next
offseason most likely looks like. But that's where these figures are.
You know, forty four million for two or more Pro
Bowls if you're a quarterback in that first round, and

(01:27:19):
fourteen million in change for a running back, and twenty
seven plus million at wide out and on down the line.
And this is why that fifth year option, especially when
you get to where the Texans will pick this year
twenty eighth, and where they moved out of last year
twenty fifth. They took a player with first round talent
at thirty four in their minds, probably a nursery's mind

(01:27:39):
and probably a nursery's agent's mind. But there's no fifth
year option on urseries contract because he was not a
first round pick, and obviously changes the timeline, but it
also moves out of that question. And no, I don't
think anybody wants to see a cap figure of that
on your fifth year player, because if you're going that route,
then maybe you're looking to move on from him, and

(01:27:59):
yet the year before you do, their cap figures out
of control. Even with the cap going up this year,
just like we'll go up next year. They only spent
five years the NFL with a cap in the two
hundred million dollar range. They spent I think fifteen years
in the one hundred dollars one hundred million dollar range.
That's how quickly neighborhood of about twenty million twenty two

(01:28:21):
some years, twenty four other years, eighteen other years, how
many million dollars? How many yeah, million dollars? The cap
has gone up over the last five years we had
adjust for inflation. COVID happened, drove up the prices printing
all the money. COVID was the one year where the
cap as we know, actually went down the following season.

(01:28:42):
Otherwise they probably would have reached the figure they're at
now even more quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
I do wonder how many years will have of A
three being in front of things.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
Yeah, like I said, two hundred and eight, that was
the cap two hundred and eight million, and that was
twenty twenty two. That was from what figure one ninety nine. Well,
two years before that, pre COVID cap it was at
one ninety eight, but it went down sixteen million the
following year, So the rise from that figure was enormous.

(01:29:13):
It went up twenty six million, and it's gone up,
like I said, the neighborhood of about twenty million or
so each year to the point where we're at now.
So you know what the figure as before. That's why
you're starting to see more and more people relate to
cap discussions, especially with quarterback contracts. What percentage of the
cap are they actually eating up just that one position?
And you can do it for any position or position

(01:29:34):
group that you want. I think a lot of internal
calculators and people who perform in the calculations, your cap
commanders inside the buildings, that's sometimes what they're looking at.
And you see these restructures or these quarterbacks and the
cap going up, the percentage of the cap that some
of these elite level, high dollar, biggest contracts in the
NFL quarterbacks are making, the percentage has actually gone down

(01:29:57):
on how much of a percent of the cap they have.
And the same thing we always complain about, Jerry here,
just sign them. You know they're gonna be here, you
know they're gonna get paid a ton of money. There's
your first window to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:08):
Do it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
And now we're saying the opposite about CJ. Stroud. Yeah,
but that's because of who we're talking about. And that's
why we're not saying the opposite about Will Anderson Junior,
Michael Parsons. All the money left town. That should never happen.
I don't know why an owner would think I want
to spend my money differently on different level talents rather

(01:30:29):
than saying, so what if this elite game changing player
makes it more difficult for my general manager and capologists
to figure out how to put the rest of the
roster together. You saw it in your own building for
four years now. Green Bay has seen it on their
field for most of one year. He's not a player
you should be letting walk out the door when he

(01:30:51):
shouldn't at that point in his career. If you never
reach a long term deal, fine, So he should have
played for the Cowboys this year. He should be played
for the Cowboys next year. He should be playing for
the Cowboys the year after that, or he'd be sitting out.
That's his only the player's only recourse at that point
is to simply not play. Who you think's better, Michael
Parsons Or Will Anderson Jr. Because of where they are,

(01:31:14):
I mean, I think unbelievable. But they're older too. He's older,
and as Jerry reminded us before this year's injury, there's
some injury history there. Yeah, that's true. Will Anderson's had
typical I'm not available for one hundred percent of the
game's injuries. Please stay this way. He's played fifteen and

(01:31:35):
fourteen and seventeen. I don't regard him as as much
of a concern, so I would rate him just ever
so slightly higher. I do wonder highest rated defensive player
at his position in the NFL, according to PFF this
year Will Anderson Junior.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
Yeah, including over mister Sidey, including over That is accurate.
But but I do wonder.

Speaker 2 (01:31:58):
And just be for those who were wondering what MICA's
numbers are to be truly fair. First three seasons of
his career, didn' miss any games. I know, last two
seasons he's missed a couple. He's played at least thirteen
games in all five of his NFL seasons. When Jerry
said it, I thought it was silly, and I still
think it's silly today.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
I want him to not take the same route that
JJ took.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
This is ride around the time, very few players have.
But he had multiple catastrophic injuries. JJ.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Yeah, I'm just saying I don't. But we never saw
them coming. There was nothing you That's what I'm saying.
You didn't see this coming with Micah Parsons either until
it was here.

Speaker 2 (01:32:39):
Well, it hasn't happened yet. Tell me another player that
you think that's happened to among that position group, Uh,
because it's really rare. No, he might not. He's like
a Bosa, which one of the Bosa brothers played less.
That's probably why i'd say next, I'll tell you what
I do think.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
I think the way he's built that we always talk
about and highlight actually lends itself to staying more healthy.
JJ was Look at JJ right now, And I know
we talk about this all the time with offensive linemen,
in particular.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
Raising two kids. What do he wanted to do?

Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
But he's so much smaller than he was when he
was a defensive lineman. And I don't know, I feel
like the fact that will Anderson Junior is getting the
job done at the build that he's at, I just
I don't know. I think he will have that longevity.
I think he will. I just I'm saying I hope
I do too.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
But I honestly think there's literally zero correlation player to player.
It's a very individualistic something about the position. It's nothing
about the size that you are, JJ's size or the
way he worked out or I mean, it just didn't
have anything to do with it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
And you don't think those extra drills for hard knocks
for the cameras lent itself to him tearing his groin apart.

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
Like I brought up the Nick and Joey, Joey's had
two almost full seasons missed. He played less than three
games in each of them. And Nick has had four
seasons where he's played less than double figure games, three
seasons where he's played less than that. Over there, less
than once played ten years, once played a couple of
years less. I don't think it's a nature of the
position thing. It's just maybe it's nature of football. Not

(01:34:08):
too concerned. It doesn't have anything to do with your negotiations.
He's gonna be the highest played edge in the NFL
this moment he puts pen to paper.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Don't you think Joey's built a little bit more like
JJ versus Will. He's much bigger six five than JJ
or Will. Joey Bosa's six five eighty. That's significantly bigger
than Will, and JJ obviously also as a player, was
even bigger than that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
It was six to six.

Speaker 1 (01:34:34):
I do know that. Yes, I don't know weight he
played that, but he was a monster. All right, we'll
leave it at that. Still haven't got to a little
bit of a discussion on KDI. I think it lends
itself to what happened last night. We should probably delve
into that. Plus, I think this is just my theory
that Chucky John Gruden absolutely about to get paid. We'll
explain that as well all before the end of the show.

(01:34:56):
Here on a Friday edition of The.

Speaker 2 (01:34:58):
A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
The eight.

Speaker 1 (01:35:03):
The forty point effort from Kevin Durant last night. You
can look at it one of two ways. This guy's
aging like a fine wine. He's awesome. Isn't it great
to see him in a Rockets uniform. That's how we
would do it. And then you can do it like
the people I mentioned in the first segment of the show,
look at what they had to have Kevin Durant do
just to beat the Magic Neither one of these teams

(01:35:24):
are gonna go far in the playoffs. Like what an
absolutely disgusting way to look at things. I hope you're
as miserable going through life in your everyday to day
activity as you sounded when you wrote that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
What we also got out of last night's game is
a little bit better. Guess every game that Kevin Durant plays,
the guests gets more and more clear. The Rockets got
the victory. They claimed victory number thirty seven. They played
game number fifty eight. Eleven games from now they'll play
game number sixty nine. Nice, and in that game they've

(01:35:56):
got Miami, Washington, Golden State, and Portland. The next four.
The four after that San Antonio, Toronto, Denver, New Orleans,
and that is the beginning of a long home stand.
So the eleventh game from now, game sixty nine is
against the Atlanta Hawks at Toyota Center. The game before
that against the Lakers, the game after that is Miami,
all at Toyota Center. And one of those three games,

(01:36:19):
presuming Kevin Durant' days right at about twenty six points
per game, that's the night one of those three probably
he passes Michael Jordan for fifth all time on the
NBA's scoring what's to date Again, it's probably during their
five game homestand just after Saint Patrick's Day, the eighteenth,

(01:36:39):
the twentieth, the twenty first, likely one of those days. Again,
that's presuming he plays in all of the games, averages
in the neighborhood of twenty six points per game, two
hundred and eighty six points back after last night's forty
point effort. I kind of am probably a jerk and
loser and lame and minutia for always pointing things like
this out, asked somebody. He passed Dirk to move into

(01:37:02):
a sixth all time and last night he scored thirty two,
his thirty two thousandth point in the NBA, something only
these five players have done. Yeah, the five players that
are in front of him. I mean, the goal isn't
to hit thirty two thousand. The goal is to pass
the players in front of you. And that's I think
not just because of who it is Kobe, beyond that,

(01:37:22):
Kareem and then Lebron above that. This one's happening this year.
The next one is happening next year, obviously while he's
still under contract with the Rockets, and that could be it.
With the people ahead of him far enough ahead of him,
that's probably not gonna happen. But passing Michael Jordan probably
is even a bigger deal than when he's asked about it.

(01:37:43):
Last night on court, after he got to his thirty
you know, thirty two thousands, and even the last two guys,
he had a thank you message from the last guy.
You think he gets one from the next guy, absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
He'll probably get a message in his inbox on his
now because last year he's got MJ's number and he's
gonna say, and I took that personally.

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
So last week we heard Ryan Hollins on our air
with Matt Thomas talking about the most skilled shooter, most
skilled score. I wish I knew exactly word for word
what he said, but we discussed the topic itself, like
are you afraid to call him that? Do you not
believe that? I did? I think what Ryan said was
absolutely on point. Last night's game, while also on SEHN
and right here on Sports Talk seven ninety was also

(01:38:26):
a national game, so it then gets presented in front
of their panel last night. Steve Nash, Blake Griffin, and
Dirk Novitzky are there and they're talking about it, and
all the talking shows in the morning are talking about it,
and they were talking about it in a similar light
to what Ryan was saying. I'm not calling him the
greatest player, not necessarily call him the greatest. This that
very specific to the skills that he possesses, the most

(01:38:49):
gifted scorer, the smoothest score, the most effortless score. I'm
not again, there are a number of different ways you
can present it. It's very easy, I think, to put
him over so many other guys on the list near him,
like of course he's a better scorer than Karl Malone,
or a better shooter or a better smoother off whatever. Like
I said, it's very specific to what it is. And

(01:39:11):
I think the same thing is true about Kareem. I
think the same thing is true about Lebron, even though
Lebron's he's never gonna he's not gonna get caught by
Durant because he's not gonna get caught by anybody. He's
gonna put that number so far out there, nobody's even
gonna sniff it. But we're talking about it's very key,
like a skill. He's very specific at NBA level doing
this better than anybody else has, and then maybe anybody

(01:39:33):
else ever will. And I think that's where Kevin Durant is,
And that's part of the discussion when you start trying
to get to the other list. Is he a top
ten player all time? Is he only top fifteen? I
don't think too many people have him outside the top
fifteen at this point in his NBA life, with MVPs,
scoring titles, finals, MVPs and championships to go along with
the counting stats numbers that just keep going higher, and

(01:39:55):
the fact that at this age he's still playing at
this incredible level where he's still one of the best
scorers in the league. One of the most efficient scorers
in the league is EFG still threw the roof his
true shooting percentage just outrageously hot. He started one for
six last night, then basically couldn't be stopped for three quarters.

Speaker 1 (01:40:15):
He's done that so many times, just as a rocket
in not even a full season. He oh, he's oh
for four, Oh he's over for five. Hey, yeah, he
got three to eight.

Speaker 2 (01:40:22):
He basically missed his threes last night, hit two for nine,
and he was twelve of his other nineteen shots. All difficult,
all well guarded, all when they knew he was gonna
take the shot, the one he hit though with the
hand right in his face, like one of the shots
he hit down the stretch against the Hornets when he
went four for four and hit two free throw scored
their final ten point, hand in his face.

Speaker 1 (01:40:42):
I'm the three pointer, yep, I mean just and even
on the national broadcast, Ron Jeremy said, what you don't
think he.

Speaker 2 (01:40:51):
Looks like him? Definitely not anymore, which one Stan looks
pretty good. Still, he lost a lot to wait. The
other guy looks. He well, he he looks even worse
than he used to. How about that, right, because he's
going to like prison soon. I think it's he's been
fifteen twenty years in on looking very very very bad,

(01:41:12):
if not forty or fifty. But anyway, he said, you
can't defend him like much better than that.

Speaker 1 (01:41:17):
You can, don't. I don't know what you would have done.
That was like Shane Battie and Kobe Bryant Haint wasting
your time. But you make it as hard as possible.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
Nobody else in the league is going to make this shot,
and it's effortless for Durant, nothing but net. Everybody knows
it's going in for everybody's running back down court before
it's even arrived at the rim. Yeah, no, it's it
is a joy to watch him play.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
I said something somebody was asking me, Oh, I know,
I remember who it was, but I'm not gonna I
won't disclose on air, just for the sake of their privacy.
They were asking about going to see him during one
of these two games. They were going to be in
Florida at the time, and they were trying to determine

(01:42:01):
it basically, And I was texting back and forth, and
I was like absolutely. I said, you've got to see
him play in person once. And this is not a
person that goes to a ton of NBA games. I said,
you need to see him play in person. You know,
it's the it's the closest thing you're gonna get to,
you Jordan, that kind of stuff without being Lebron. Also,
he's a lot more fun to watch these.

Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
Days than Lebron.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
He's not stat padding out there for places. He's still
really good at basketball. Lebron's basically getting it done because
he's still a remarkably good athlete at his age. Somehow,
some way, you don't think, so, huh, you know I'm right.

Speaker 2 (01:42:37):
I mean everybody knows I'm right. I guess. I mean
it's gonna come. Why isn't Kevin doing it? Then he's
like the same age. Why isn't Steph doing it?

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
Stuff's hurt right now because he has the wrong ones,
the wrong ones he's using badly. Those two that you
mentioned are scrawny little you know what. M Lebron is
chiseled out of granite. There's no comparison. And we know why.

Speaker 2 (01:43:05):
So yesterday, to lead us into our final segment, because
we'll take you into Astros Baseball. Next, we do have
tickets to give away. Still got a pair of tickets
to go see Godsmack. I want to make sure we
get those to you before we call it an afternoon.
But yesterday we brought up a super exciting day coming
up in Atlanta when the Magic are in town. Magic
Monday is coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:43:24):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
And then this segment, I mentioned that the Rockets had
a national TV game yesterday and so it brought a
national TV studio show in front of everybody's eyes. I
mentioned who was on the panel along with Taylor last night.
That subject we were talking about yesterday about Magic City,
the iconic institution in Atlanta, was.

Speaker 1 (01:43:42):
Discussonic cultural instituultural institutions that subject.

Speaker 2 (01:43:46):
Obviously, this is an NBA show, a studio show. They
obviously talked about it as well. Yes, you're going to
want to hear what they had to say about it.

Speaker 4 (01:43:54):
Next, the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
Howdy partner, let's go Texan day, So remind our listeners about.

Speaker 2 (01:44:09):
What we have going on. I will start.

Speaker 1 (01:44:11):
We have tickets to see Godsmack with Stone Temple Pilots
and Dorothy playing at the Woodlands Pavilion that'll take place
May thirtieth. Tickets available on sale at tickeamaster dot com.
It's the Rise of a Rock World Tour twenty twenty six.
I want to give you a pair of tickets to
go see that. You can call in it Sevy one
three two one two five seven ninety The answer to

(01:44:32):
a very very very simple question. And we actually discussed
it last segment, and then we will get into the
awesome promotion going on in the atl coming up in March.
Last seven, we were talking about kd where he fits
historically on the all time scoring list. Quite simply, he
is passing guys left and right, two of them already
this year, and a third will likely happen sometime around

(01:44:54):
Game sixty nine for your Houston Rockets, likely during a
long home stance, So you guys might have a chance
to be out there and enjoy it. We might be
able to be on the call for it. Who is
next in line for Kevin Durant to pass on the
NBA's all time scoring list?

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Just talked about it. You could have it to have
a guess if you don't have any idea. It's been
talked about for a while and again your listeners of
the show will know the answer to that question. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety If you want
to go see God Smack May thirtieth at the Woodlands
Pavilion with stp and Dorothy, It's not Dirk. It is

(01:45:32):
not Dirk previously passed earlier this season. Now great segue.
I mentioned to you that Dirk Novitsky was busy last
night and he was contracted by Amazon Prime Prime Video
with their NBA contract one of their studio hosts. Last
night he was working Rockets, had the early game Rockets
and Magic. So the idea of Magic, Magic City Monday,

(01:45:55):
that was a big topic on our show yesterday. I
think we spent an entire four to thirty segment What's
up with that? Yesterday talking about it. If you were
not aware, Atlanta is hosting the Orlando Magic They're calling
it Magic City Monday. It's coming up on March sixteenth,
and it's a promotion with the Iconic Cultural Institution. It
is a dance and nightclub. According to their X platform,

(01:46:18):
they have hoodies that say Magic City on them. They
will be special concession stands offering up two of their
most famous lemon Pepper wings lou Will Lemon Pepper Wings, etc.
And you get them on that evening. And yes, Magic
City is a well known, very well known dance and nightclub,
strip club if you very very well known in Atlanta,

(01:46:40):
in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (01:46:41):
Because in Houston, we'll send you to Big City Wings
for your Lemon Pepper minus the strippers.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Yes, in Atlanta, it's very well known. In Atlanta is
the place where they host basketball games, which means every
team every year makes at least one trip there, if
not two, and plays their basketball in Atlanta, which means
Blake Griffin's played in Atlanta, which means Dirk Noviski's played Atlanta.
It means Steve Nash has played in Atlanta. And I'm
sure Taylor, during her time covering the NBA, both as

(01:47:07):
a sideline reporter, studio host, and everything else she has done,
has also worked in Atlanta. But she also reminds at
the beginning of this studio conversation they had last night
with some of the famous Wings right there on set
with them to enjoy. At some point after their conversation concluded,
we wanted to share with you the conversation that they
had this Taylor Rooks studio host along with Blake Griffin,

(01:47:30):
who you will hear first, and Dirk and Steve Nash.

Speaker 5 (01:47:39):
When I'm from Georgia. That was my first strip club experience.

Speaker 4 (01:47:42):
Good time.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
I wasn't.

Speaker 5 (01:47:50):
Let me tell you that. You see some things in
there that make you say, wow, there's no favorite Magic
City stories that.

Speaker 4 (01:48:00):
His wings?

Speaker 3 (01:48:01):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:48:01):
Were you all more cheetah guys?

Speaker 3 (01:48:02):
You were?

Speaker 6 (01:48:07):
I was just like those four seasons guys, you know,
resting for the game?

Speaker 2 (01:48:12):
Got it? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:48:13):
No, Atlanta flu that was Miami. No one wants some
lemon pepper loos.

Speaker 6 (01:48:18):
Yeah, I'm actually starving. It's real.

Speaker 4 (01:48:24):
You have a bight or too?

Speaker 2 (01:48:26):
How much of the sweatshirts? You want some merch?

Speaker 6 (01:48:32):
This is a nice book.

Speaker 2 (01:48:33):
I like this. You liked it. We're feeding you.

Speaker 5 (01:48:36):
It's fun. It's good times. We have some wings to eat.
That's it for us for beg, Dirk and Steve. I'm
Taylor Rooks. We'll see you Saturday.

Speaker 4 (01:48:45):
Good night, delicious way some of your stories now it's
literally never been.

Speaker 2 (01:48:56):
She opened the door, Taylor Rooks Lake jumped right through.
Let me tell you something, Taylor Rooks is of the
Devil for about fifty different ways from Atlanta. That was
our first experience.

Speaker 1 (01:49:10):
I have it on good authority we're going to get
her on the show sooner rather than later.

Speaker 2 (01:49:15):
The Rockets, by the way, have several games on their
network or their streaming service still to come. A lot
of those are dual broadcast games, so shn we'll have
both know is going to work on that for us.

Speaker 1 (01:49:26):
Yeah, I'm a strong, very strong fan of hers. But
what she was doing there again of the Devil, she
knew what she was doing. You said, she opened the
door from Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
That was my first strip club experience.

Speaker 1 (01:49:42):
Come on, and then and then she went on to say, well,
some of the things I saw in there, Yeah she
was in awe. Yeah, I bet she was. It's an
awe demo. Come on, Blake, be less obvious now. He
stuck to his guns on his own involvement. He said, no, no, man, never,
here's the.

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
One that's always on set with her. Who can't start?

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (01:50:03):
Jeez? New Donnis is another member of their crew.

Speaker 1 (01:50:05):
They often there was somebody who set with her recently
who just could not I think it was John wall
another one. Yes, he could not stop staring at her
like it was so long on to social media. Yeah
it was again, john don't blame you at all. I'm
not judging or blaming nothing. She knows what she's doing,

(01:50:28):
working everything.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
Yeah, furthering her career by being outstanding as a studio host,
corraling these relative newbies to broadcasting. She doesn't corral them
the way Ernie Johnson corrals the fellas. He doesn't corral
them at all, says, do what go crazy? You guys
are what makes the show.

Speaker 1 (01:50:47):
You know. What I like is that we have gotten
to the point where we've been around long enough, and
more importantly, they've been around long enough that people are
starting to sour on that show.

Speaker 2 (01:50:57):
Because that's the thing to do. I just go back then,
I'll say it, and maybe others won't agree. It clearly
isn't exactly the same, but it's pretty darn close. They
have just as they seem to have just as much
fun as usual. They're just not on as long, right,
there's just not as much others often and sometimes you know,
these these games they would be on in between, you'd
get a little bit and then they'd be on after forever.

Speaker 1 (01:51:19):
But people they'd have thirty minutes, forty five minutes, six
minutes of post coverage. Doesn't watch games like where have
you been the last twenty five years?

Speaker 2 (01:51:27):
So maybe some eyeballs that weren't there before are seeing
them a little bit more often. But yeah, I think
the fact that it was going to be moved had
everybody up in arms, and the reality was, if you
liked it before, you're still gonna like it now. I
think they do an almost identical job. They don't have
They don't have Taylor Rooks on their show. So in
light of that conversation, the Rockets flew out of Orlando
last night and got in roughly the same time. The

(01:51:49):
next night, they got in around two thirty two Orlando.
They got in around two thirty to Miami because it's
a super short flight and today's an off day in
Miami in advance of a two third pready tip tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:52:01):
It's gonna be a bad, bad day. You're not feeling good.
One team lives there. The other team's the Rockets. But
one team's gooder than the other, and that's Houston. If
gooder teams in the past, then this one have fallen track.
If your name wasn't James Harden. You couldn't keep up,
you couldn't hang. And that was for a LAS night game.

Speaker 2 (01:52:19):
Last night's injury report, if James Harden was with the Rockets,
would have read James Harden out rest because he would
have already been in Miami. He just wouldn't have gone
to bed. Well, we'll leave it to Alance McCullers, Junior Spencerghetti,
Jiner Diaz, and Josse Altuve. It'll be starting batting first

(01:52:40):
for your astros in the game that comes up right
now here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Have a
great Go Texan Day weekend.