Rockets Get A Matt Thomas Win: Fine

Wex and AC react to the Rockets' sloppy win over the Mavericks, plus break down their thoughts on the news of players moved at the trade deadline. Is this going to help or hurt the Houston Texans entering the 2026 NFL offseason? Is there a chance the Texans can still make a run to the playoff?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham raised my Earl
Nolan multed by a magnificent roller coaster ride that is
Houston Sports. Chill Lage down for the only home grown

(00:25):
afternoon team is Talking Your Teams? Adam Clinton and Adam
Wexler are the A Teams.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
A Welcome into a Tuesday edition of The A Team.
It's Sports Talk seven to ninety's soon to be on
Space City Home Network. Wex ac Cole Thompson with you
as we get into a full four hour day. You
know I mentioned or you mentioned this yesterday wex how

(00:56):
excited you were because of all the layers on that
onion that is the Houston Texans, all the things that
we need to get into both what happened Sunday and
then moving forward in this increasingly desperate type of season,
and how many full shows we have this week. And
I realized last week was kind of like Hurky Jerky

(01:17):
by comparison. But man, speaking of Hurky Jerky last night
at Toyota Center, I mean, I'll take the win. I'll
take the ugly win. But man, Dallas didn't know that
they had like eight guys on IR or whatever, and
they just didn't care.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
They were taking it to the Rockets. PJ. Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, Cooper Flag had good games. No, Cooper Flag had
a good first half. He didn't do crap after I.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Played their worst game of the season and they won
their fourth trade game.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
That's how I would describe it. Here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
It's also trade deadline day, which normally doesn't mean anything
in the NFL. Tod I said it already earlier on
the social media. It's been a lot splasher than people
it was going to be. And I don't think. I
do not think we are done, even though we are
under an hour to go. Asked the question throughout the
last several weeks as the Texans season has begun poorly,

(02:11):
Obviously it changed and that they got themselves in position
to try to compete, got to three and four one
three out of four, but then played the way they
did this past Sunday. Very competitive, close game, but like
all their close games, they come up short.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
And so they have five losses.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Teams that have five six, seven losses, it's a little
less than a third of the league or a little
more than a third of the league, and the Texas
are in that group. You know what those teams are
doing today. They're trading players away. They're trading players to
teams that think they still have a chance to compete,
or they're trading to the Cowboys, who took their fifth
loss last night, a three five and one football team.

(02:51):
They have added players. The Jets are telling some of
their best players that if you want out, we'll get
you out of here. Quinn Williams been moved, Sauce Gardner
has been moved, a lot of emojis from their now
former teammates on social media, and a lot of people
think there will still be one more move from the
Jets in their backfield with Bryce Hall. Could the Texans

(03:15):
be interested? Would they be willing to part with something
a little bit more than many should think. We obviously
have a chance to talk about what has happened, what
could happen? And certainly at three o'clock, when the deadline
it passes, I'll have a chance to well, did they
should they or shouldn't they? Will they or won't they?
And where do they stand with nine games to go?
But not to take away from last night, first of

(03:36):
several matchups between Houston and the two other teams in
Texas that aren't as good as they are. That was
number one last night. Number two comes in short order.
They will see the San Antonio Spurs later this week. Yes,
I am aware of what the standings say. I know
the Spurs have five wins and only one loss, and
I know the Rockets don't have either of those two numbers.
But I don't think the Spurs are better than them,

(03:58):
and they'll have an opportunity over the course of the
eighty two game Season two show that. Well, you also
know that it's November fourth. Yeah, I mean, I'm cognizant
of what they have done. I'm just telling you what
I think they will do.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
Well.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
They don't even think they're a bad team.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
But I don't have any issue saying I think the
Rockets are a better NBA team than the Spurs, and
last night was their first chance to prove it against
one of them. I don't think there needed to be
much proving, and clearly the Mavericks aren't who they could
be at different points this year. It's possible Anthony Davis
returns for their next game, though I doubt it. It's
possible Anthony Davis, Cooper Flag, and Kyrie Irving played basketball

(04:32):
games together this season. Hasn't happened yet and isn't likely
to happen for several months, but it certainly could happen,
and then there'll be a much much different team. But
the Mavericks team that they have on the floor had
on the floor last night at Toyta Center is very
ill equipped to win NBA basketball games.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
And even though PJ.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Washington was fantastic start to finish, Cooper Flag had a
nice first half and also got a shot blocked at
the end of the game, which helped to seal the
deal the Rockets. That was a little bit of a
play with their food type of game. I don't stay
that very often, but watching how they handle the basketball,
the Rockets starting line up, the Mavericks, well, I'm just

(05:09):
talking about I don't think the Mavericks made the Rockets
do anything they did last night. The Rockets just didn't
really care to take care of the basketball.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
I don't think.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, they still are, they're doing things that are feeling
themselves out a little bit. They still have to figure
out exactly who they are and what they're doing, and
how the offense works, and who's best served to do
this and that and when it came down to winning
the game that they They finally put it all together,
a game that was a one possession game for many
minutes of the fourth quarter, gave the ball to Alpi
up one, drove the lane, got himself a wide open

(05:39):
shot in the lane, putting Daniel Gafford almost on his back,
and then they just extended it from there and walked
out of there with an eight point victory. Was it
was not even as dramatic as the score would indicate.
They kind of messed around. We'll get into some of
the things that were messing around probably at some point
we have to recognize the change in Tarry East and
from his first couple of outings to all of the

(06:00):
outings that his fault have followed. He got his first
spot in the starting lineup last night with no Jabari
Smith Junior, and he played very well.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Again.

Speaker 4 (06:09):
He is on a nice little run here, bet on himself,
presumably not knowing exactly what the offer was. Hard to
say that he turned down something that was a really
player friendly deal versus a contract that maybe he should
have said no to from a personal standpoint. Either way,
when there's no contract signed, you're making a deal that

(06:29):
you're going to go out there and be able to
make yourself into a better situation, whether it's purely financial
where it's fit and financial, or whether it's an opportunity
that this team says, well, you were so good and
we won so many games, and you were such a
big part of it. We'll have to make sure that
we figure out how to keep you here on a different,
better deal for you, and obviously one that they will

(06:50):
have to work through. But it's great to be on
that front. Quite honestly, Major League Baseball's trying not to
be left out of the conversation either. You had most
of the opt out decisions, which don't have to be
made officially for another couple of days, but most of
the ones that we here in Houston and elsewhere around
Major League Baseball care about have been made. And Alex
Bregman and Cody Bellinger and Brandon Woodruff and Randall Gritchik

(07:13):
and a host of other free agents are now added
to the list of players that Dana Brown, one of
his new assistant GMS, and the rest of the assistant
gms will get to work on. Because free agency opens
on November sixth, Today is November fourth, so the stove
is heating up. General Managers meetings begin one week from today. Yes,

(07:35):
it is heating up.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
And listen, I don't know if if they will bring
in a ton.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
I hope, so let's just put it that way.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
But I do think they will be shedding some of
the members of the twenty twenty five roster. I'm talking
about major league members.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
They have to. There's no way they can't.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
The astros wouldn't seem likely they'd be able to bring
all of that back with health. If you have health,
very hard to outfit your team with the roster that
you have and the best way possible. So yeah, I
do think there will be some players going out. I
do think there will be some trades that are good
for this team and probably good for the players involved,
but we'll see where they go with that. I am

(08:14):
excited for what this au sseason brings, and every time
you look back at last season and you contemplate what
could have been for as long as they were in
the race for the postseason, which was almost the entire
one hundred and sixty two games late, with so many
of their most important parts of the team outside of
Hunter Brown and from Ber Valdez. Essentially everybody else was
not available for you for either large chunks of the

(08:36):
season or even larger chunks of the season. Your closer,
your best hitter, you're all star, and on and on
and on in your other all star. So to do
what they did and have themselves in it for as
long as they did, Yeah, absolutely, I'm on board. As
anybody says the Astros are in it in twenty twenty six,
I firmly believe that they will be. The Mariners got

(08:57):
good news about a couple of their players, as expected
from a finalist standpoint with the awards. Hunter Brown is
a finalist for the Cy Young Award, which is good
news for the Astros draft moving forward. So mention that
a little bit late yesterday, we'll get into some more
of that look ahead to what now lies in front
of us on the college football weekend, because tonight they

(09:18):
will unveil the first rankings of this twenty twenty five season.
Not like we don't already know how these teams are,
but it does matter where they think the committee thinks
they stand. With a handful of regular season matchups left
in conference title games still in front, will make the
big announcement on what our college football game of the
week is for our Stone Cold Locks, and maybe I

(09:38):
won't have a third consecutive week where there's a zero
in the win or lost column as I did this
week and last week.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
So plenty to get to.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I'm not happy about my college pick so far
on the Stone Cold Locks.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Why would you be?

Speaker 4 (09:51):
They've been wrong for ten straight weeks.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Awful?

Speaker 4 (09:53):
I mean, and for you it's honestly. I don't mean
it to be mean. I mean it to be factual.
For your college football pick to be wrong, it's literally
a coin flip every week. Yes, you don't play the line,
you only play the total. You play the over under.
Every week. There's only two options for what with all
my things? Every single week, it's fifty to fifty. Either

(10:14):
you're taking the over or you're taking the other.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Zero one hundred. In this case, it's zero.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yes, you're you're taking the wrong You've done it ten
consecutive times.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Even a clock you suck. How about that? Huh? You
in there?

Speaker 4 (10:27):
I think you should. You could really probably stanze at
this point. Whatever you think, just do the opposite.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't want to do that, though I did that
on a couple of these picks and that's what got
me to oh to ten.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
Well, we'll get those out to you again Friday. We
do our stone call locks today. Well, say what looking
forward to that, especially in light of what's been happening
on the NFL trade front. So that comes your way
at two thirty or four to thirty for say what
two thirty of course, best of X and we do
have tickets again to give away. We do that in
the final segment of the show, So stick a round
for that. Ac DC and STING are coming to the

(11:03):
h in twenty twenty six and we want to get
you there planning to discuss. Texans are first, they are next?
Will they or won't they? Is there a player they
should be searching for? My answer is yes, that's next.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Was this remind you of WEX the Grateful Dead.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Greetings America, It's Basketball Hall of Famer and NBA analyst
Bill Walton here with your Houston Rockets report. Last night
inside Toyota Center with Cooper Flag, the highly touted but
severely overrated Rookie of the Year candidate. The Rockets absolutely
had their way in the fourth quarter despite the fact

(11:54):
that PJ. Washington looked like an All NBA first teamer
and the Rockets defense made him look like that until
the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. Winn Amen Thompson,
the demon straight from Hell, took over and fueled the
Rockets to victory thanks to two big fourth quarter three
from Kevin Durant. These guys are playing for the ultimate prize,

(12:15):
an NBA championship. Get the hell out of their way,
San Antonio Dallas and any other pretenders, and make way
for the greatest challengers to the throne held by Okase.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Among the fifteen highest scoring rookies in the NBA so
far through five six seven games, depending on which team
they play for, Cooper Flag is among the highest scoring
players that fifteen player group, is averaging thirteen point six
points per game, and among that fifteen player group, his
thirty eight point eight percent field goal percentage is by

(12:48):
far the worst among them. He's sixth among rookies in
scoring so far this season, way behind VJ. Edgecombe of
the Sixers, who's been awesome. Dylan Harper of the Spurs,
who come off the bench throughout his time with these
Spurs and has been outstanding even Pels guard Jeremiah Fears
scoring more points per game then Cooper Flagg. But I'm

(13:12):
not ready to write him off after seven NBA games
in his career. Rockets beat the Spurs last night. They
are back out on the road for MAVs last night
on Friday. They have three games on this road trip.
The MAVs are the team they will play on Friday.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Go ahead is the Spurs. On Friday, they will.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Play the Bucks, then the Spurs, then somebody else, excuse me,
the Memphis Grizzlies, then the Spurs, then the Bucks, and
then they're back home for the Washington Wizards.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yes, that's the Cam Whitmore Wizards. Yeah, Whitmore's coming off
the bench for the Wizards. He's doing the same things
he did here. Unfortunately, on that one, I thought he
would be doing more. But he's coming off the bench
taking a lot of shots, not doing very much else.
And Washington is a terrible being unfortunately. But the NFL
trade deadline is important for the teams that make something happen,

(14:03):
and then it becomes important for the teams that don't.
And there are a lot of teams that are treating
today like an opportunity to get better or an opportunity
to reset things.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
That's what the Jets are doing. The latter they are
resetting things, moving away two very very highly paid players,
one of whom just extended his deal in July of
twenty twenty five, just a couple of months ago. They
decided to stay in bed with sauce Gardner for an
extended period of time. But instead of sleeping with him
till twenty thirty, they decided to let another team pick

(14:33):
that up, and that team is in the Texans Division.
Sauce Gardner traded to the Indianapolis Colts. Ad Mitchell headed
to New York along with the Colts first round pick
in twenty twenty six and the Colts first round pick
in twenty twenty seven face value twenty twenty five. Obviously,

(14:53):
the Colts believe they can win a lot and big
in twenty twenty five. They have the AFC's top seed,
share the AFC's top record. They're coming off of a
very surprising performance and that they turned the ball over
like they hated it against the Pittsburgh Steelers for the
first time all year.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
They looked bad.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
They had a loss, but they looked bad in this
particular game, and Jonathan Taylor did not ever get going
in the ground game. So they're in a battle clearly
for maybe this division, and if that is to be true,
the Jaguars believe it's true. They also made a deal today.
Jacoby Myers from the Raiders now becomes part of the

(15:32):
receiving corps for Trevor Lawrence. He has some walking wounded there.
Travis Hunter's time on the injured reserve is not even
halfway through, and it could be longer than the minimum
of four weeks that he must stay there. Brian Thomas
played through injury in their last game and then suffered
a new injury with his ankle, though he could still
be available next week. Their leading receiver was Parker Washington

(15:54):
Well now he will be joined by Jacoby Myers, so
two teams in this division believe competitive foot in their
immediate future. The Jets also sent Quinn Williams to the
Dallas Cowboys, one of two trades Jerry Jones made to
help his defense after their offense turned in one of
their worst performances of the season last night. Although for

(16:15):
me Dak's final interception it happens all the time, it
hadn't happened to me yet this year. But I actually
won a fantasy game by less than a point because
Dak's last pass was an interception and I was playing
against him, so I wasn't all against that my worst
team though, so it hardly matters. But that's what Jerry
Jones decided to do, take on Quinn Williams money and

(16:38):
a couple of years of Williams moving a first round
pick in Smith, a recent first round pick of their
own in order to do so. I do, like I said,
I think there will be additional deals over the course
of the day of consequence, and it's impossible not to
notice if you're following along at all. The Jets players
that remain are wondering, Oh my gosh. I mean, I

(17:01):
know we're bad, and I don't know what everyone expected
this year. But the cornerstone players of this football team,
two of them already and maybe more. How many years
is this setting us back? They're gonna have? They have
five draft pick, five first round picks in the next
two drafts, But how good of a mean? How many

(17:22):
more of their own first round picks are gonna be awesome?
Because they're not a very talented football team. And I
guess Aaron Glenn's second year and the third year. I mean,
they're bad enough as it is, and I don't even
blame them for what they're doing. It's just hard to
have guys in the locker room not realize, well, we're
awful and we're going to stay that way.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, we're playing out a string.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
And that's the thing you brought in, Aaron Glenn because
you needed to make a change because things weren't going well.
Things have gotten worse somehow.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Well, things have gotten to the point where they can't
possibly be looking at him as the reason things are bad,
and they can't possibly in the future do that either,
because now you're stripping away what was some of the talent. Obviously,
Gardner's been off the field a little bit this year
due to injury. Garrett Wilson's currently off the field due
to injury. We will hear from Aaron Glenn at four

(18:13):
point thirty on a totally different topic because he's become hilarious.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
But these are just a couple of the things.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Whereshid Shaheed another player that was moved from a team
who did not expect to compete. The New Orleans Saints
were going to be bad this year, they have been bad.
He's been far more productive than I would have ever
expected anybody to be with the quarterbacks that they've put
out on the field. But another team that's clearly going
for it after seeing what Sam Donald and the Seahawks

(18:41):
offense has been doing. And if you're watching them this
past weekend, that was the game that Jayden Daniels was
in late down thirty one points. Well, why were they
down thirty one points because Sam Donald went sixteen for
sixteen to open the game and threw four touchdown passes
and they got him some help there. The team that
added Shaheed to Jackson Smith and Jigba and Horton and

(19:02):
some of the other young talent they have put around
what will turn out to be one of the best
moves made this offseason their decision to flip away from
the Raiders quarterback now and into the Sam Donald business.
The Sam Donald business, for a second consecutive year, at
least in the regular season, has been a very good business.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
In the business of putting up numbers and solidifying the
receiving corps, which I mean having played against Jackson Smith
and Jigba during one of his really really good performances
of many they're absolutely for real apparently that division? Right,

(19:43):
are their divisions very good?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
But the Seahawks, Yes, are they ahead of the Rams
or the Rams ahead of them? Well, but regard they're
the same, right, they have the same record. Okay, So
I'm trying to look at every fly. No, but I'm
just saying, like, if you have to take one of
those teams that win that division right now.

Speaker 4 (20:03):
I mean, it's not just them. They're three teams with
six wins. Yeah, I play Arizona the rest of the way.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I don't look at San Francisco the same as them.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
Well, they're doing it with their backup quarterback, I.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Know, but they have Christian McCaffery, and that's spelling it. Yeah.
I just think he's not going anywhere hopefully. Yeah, but
I know. But overall, I just think the Seahawks and
the Rams are both better teams.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Seahawks are a much more potent offense than the Rams,
at least to date, but the Rams are a much
more stifling defense. And that's essentially the difference between those
two teams. I agree. I think it comes down to
the two of them. If you made me pick one,
I would make it, but I think they're extremely close together. Yeah,
and consider the Seahawks are doing it in a very
non traditional NFL way and the Texans unfortunately didn't take

(20:46):
advantage of this. They're only a five hundred team in
their building and they're crushing fools when they're not there.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, that's weird.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
I don't know why that's the case, because that's traditionally
been since it opened. One of the tough venues to
get a win in.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
The Steelers by two touchdowns in their building. They just
came off a win by more than two touchdowns, more
than three touchdowns against the Commanders, and their wins their
games at home a one score loss, Saints Sun count
they beat them pretty soundly, a one score loss, and
the Texans game.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, I think.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
The Seahawks are for real. And those two teams are
two of the best teams in the NFC. Regardless of
who wins the division, they're both gonna finish with a
strong record, and quite honestly, Sam Donald could be in
the exact same spot he was in a year ago
end of the season, looking to sew up a good
playoff spot. Now they won't be head to head with
the Rams in the final week that comes in Week sixteen,
but they're going to potentially be playing for the number

(21:44):
one seed, I think in their last game of the season,
just like they were a year ago when they lost
to the Lions, fell out of the top four, went
on the road in their opening playoff game, Sam Donald
got no protection and played very poorly. But maybe this year,
if they're on the road, because of that scenario playing
out again, maybe the Seahawks team is a little bit different.
Their closing schedule is pretty significant. They play the Colts, Rams, Panthers,

(22:09):
and Niners the final four weeks of the season. Pretty
good football teams outside of Bryce Young's team, who shockingly
is a winning football team.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
If you haven't been paying attention, I.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Haven't not to them because it's Bryce Young, and I
just don't think he's that good.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
I don't either, But they've played nine times and they've
won five.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
I'm still no matter what's already happened or will happen
throughout the rest of this season, and beyond absolutely happy
that the Texans did not win or did win that
game I guess against the Colts in overtime back in
the tail end of the twenty twenty two season into
the twenty twenty three draft that got them the number
two pick and CJ.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Strout.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, both of those two quarterbacks we often tie together
have started eight games for their respective teams this year.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
One of them is three and five, one of them
is five and three.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're playing a very very
weak schedule. Oh that's got schock after that, definitely. Well,
we did just go over yesterday. How difficult the Texans
schedule has been.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Moral victories. Gotta love how it will.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Work against them as it pertains to a draft.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
Pick comparing the two quarterbacks by saying what I said
is obviously said in jest. That's the worst hard tongue. Well, man,
I'm just looking at the results. Yeah, when Bryce Young's
playing NFL football, his team's winning.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
I mean, what do you want me to say? It's ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Oh dear, all right, I gotta give you one more
piece of information. Okay, So the Carolina Panthers came off
the field winners last week, right, so they got that
fifth win. When Bryce Young starts a football game, they
beat the Packers, a very good football team sixteen thirteen. Yeah,
because Jordan Love played like Bryce Young. I mean if
I don't, I don't know who you think Bryce Young is.

(23:48):
But he is putting the team on his back. Eleven
of twenty one hundred and two yards, no touchdowns, and
he threw the ball to the other team once. That
is winning football. That is how you win football games.
I wish CJ could just figure that out. Jordan Love
threw it to the other team and they didn't catch it.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
They were wide open.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
By the way, Bryce Young's won five of his eight starts.
He's thrown for over one hundred and ninety nine yards once.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I hate it here so good, absolutely hate all right.
Best of X is coming up next.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 6 (24:29):
Should putting out between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 4 (24:32):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media. History repeats itself type, Ben, You'll succeed.
Never doubt that you're the one who before no one
building lead.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
You're the best.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
X.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Nothing's gonna ever.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Top you know you're the best of X posting.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Ever single day.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
You're the best of X breaking the entire to me,
it is time to hit social media for the best
of what it has to offer. A post and subsequent
story earlier today had comments like this following it. No,

(25:19):
you can't be serious, this is wild another gift or meme,
I should say, start the rapture. Another comment that says,
someone do a blood test on Drake May with the
photo of Wendy with his fingers in the air. Yes,

(25:40):
so let's see Patriots. Better not have his DNA lying around.
Come on, MANE would have elicited such comments? What kind
of story? What kind of information was divulged? And I
don't think a lot of people knew.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Trying to read the headline.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
Yeah, please do well the headline or the caption from
the photo that they posted.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Them from the photo, that's the best part. Brady, Yeah,
I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Tom Brady cloned his former dog that died two years ago.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
The headline on.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
The story that follows the post reads as follows. Tom
Brady says his dog Juny is clone a former dog
Lua that died in twenty twenty three. This story comes
from our our friends over the People magazine, Caprice.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Can I just read one more line that I cannot
get over? The dogs were cloned by Colossal Biosciences, A
biotech company.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
A biotech company.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
That's all the information given in the article, right, No
colossal biosciences. It's a biotech conflict of areas. Go on
to the next part of the story, or is there
more about this biotech Oh.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, well I'm glad you asked, because that particular biotech
company in you know, separate from other biotech companies.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
That would be the one that Brady is an investor in.

Speaker 7 (26:59):
Using blood collected prior to Leua's death. That means he
took blood from his then living dog with the intention
fully of later cloning.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
Lua bro It's non invasive, right, non invasive cloning technology.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Well, the last time I checked, simple blood draw, I
can't get blood from the surface.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
He worked with them simple blood draw of our family's
elderly dog before she passed.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Listen, I'm as big a Tom Brady fan as there is.
But the avocado ice cream and the kissing his dad
on the mouth still as an adult, and the cloning
of his dog, it's getting to be a little much.
Then you factor in all of the plastic surgery. Now
starting to go Michael Jackson on us.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
Now that you know what this story is that some
of these comments, you drew some blood some of the others.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
We're gonna clone you after you die.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
Two years later, Michelle says, so he cloned his dog
because it gave up his wife. Yes, I mean to
be fair, Tom Brady really said quote new season, same lineup,
and cloned his dog. Man treats emotional attachments like roster management.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yes, Cole, I would do the same thing for Bob dogs.
I wouldn't get rid of mind.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
Doc asks a more inquisitive comment question, did he come
pre trained? Well, if it's clone, well, did the training
get cloned? Well, that's the DNA's what they made you with.
The DNA holds some of those properties. Know.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
I'm just gonna say that. My favorite comment in response.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Was the guy who simply just pasted the pet cemetery
movie poster.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
What about the one right above that from your friend
Bob Barker And it says what would Bob say? And
it's a gift of his famous line from his television
program don't.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
You control the pet population? Have your pets?

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Spader newtered goodbye everybody, and he puts down the long
microphone rod.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
Also, a game show fan says, I'll take things only weird.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Rich people do for eight hundred. The Patriots cloned Tom
two years ago. Uh huh do you know who that
gift is of a.

Speaker 4 (29:15):
Lot of people are trying to make it happen their
performance this season, his numbers where he sits atop the
AFC and passer rating only because Lamar Jackson does not
have enough fastness to qualify because he missed four weeks.
If you think Drake May's having a ridiculous season, wait
till Lamar does qualify. It's like the most unbelievable statistical

(29:36):
season any quarterbacks ever had to date. But Drake May's
second season, nobody in the AFC has.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
A better record.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
So yeah, absolutely, look what we did. We drafted Tom
Brady all over again. He was beloved last night, a
lot of fans showing their love when he was sitting
courtside for the Celtics loss to the Jazz. Although when
we get to it, if we do, refs kind of
messed up.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Celtics were up seventeen too. Don't blow that lead.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
Well, when you get tripped in front of six referee
eyes and they decide it's.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Like calling a time out you don't have. Sometimes they
don't see.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
It Jalen Brown said it was unacceptable, and he used
some colorful words. When I'm saying as much. By the way, yes,
what are.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
The chances of future leadership within the Patriots organization? Attempts
to do the same with Tom when he dies? My
question is better than that.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
Okay, what why does he have to pass before you
clone him? You have if you like, they didn't have
to wait for the dog to pass they got the
d N it they probably didn't. Maybe they weren't done
with the process. Once you grab the DNA in this
non invasive process, right, start the cloning.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Honestly, the better, the better comment than that Somewhere Bill
Belichick is cloning a cat named Discipline.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Okay, I think I actually have one of the best
parts of this Tom when his dog is dying, anything
should happen to you. I don't know what I would do.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
I'd probably move on and get another Reptica, but there'd
be a ten.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Minute period there when I would just be inconsortable.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Such an underrated set of movies. That movie, well except
for the last one figures fine. Well, I just that
was a lot of Beyonce to have to stomach.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
She would take away take away the Tom Brady angle
of this entire story. What do you think about just
the whole idea.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
It's this, It's stupid, it's playing god for an animal.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
That's listen. My wife is here today.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
She has said, on repeated occasions, I'm cloning Lucy.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
No you're not. Why are we doing it for Max?

Speaker 4 (31:48):
I want I'll get you the contact in for info
for Colo Science Bioscience.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, no, I'm good. By the way, how much do
you think that costs? If in uh, let me tell
you in vitro costs?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Like, how about if I give.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
You one of my seven Super Bowl rings? Is that
enough to get it done?

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Probably? It's his company.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
In part ten, Bucks says Tom has made arrangements to
clone himself.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Oh definitely, there you go.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
There was somebody asking about whether or not he's going
to clone Gazelle.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Why would he want to do that.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
He already got rid of the first one for football.
He just shows football his first love, and then the dog,
and then the dog.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
A few more items on the trade deadline will hit
on those next.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (32:46):
So.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
Not long before this day's version of the eighteen began,
I traveled over to social media. The X platform posted
the following If the Jets asking price for running back
Breese Hall is a third round pick, should the Texans
make it happen? I included some additional information for those
that wanted to answer that question. Fy, the Texans' twenty

(33:08):
twenty six third round pick is from the Giants. Remember
they made that deal last year in the first round.
Helped the Giants get Jackson Dart got back a twenty
twenty six third round pick, So it's the Giants pick.
They stink aren't winning very many games, so I said,
it's likely in the sixty five to seventy two range.
It's a pretty nice, nice place to be. Their twenty

(33:29):
seven third round pick is their own. If that would
be acceptable to the Jets, and if even that is
what the price is, but that's my question, would you
make the deal? Several many responded, and we got both
sides of it. Simple from Chris No, Brandon not for
a rental Reese Halls in the final year of his
rookie contract as a former second round pick, so more

(33:50):
money would need to be paid to him to get
you him to play for your team. Many others had
the same thought about this deal, as Bran and Kevin
and a few others said, and Brand said, you don't
really think a running back is going to fix the Texans.
Kevin says, to run behind what It's a good point.
The Texans offense is still somewhat tied to the performance

(34:14):
of their offensive line, and at least for the time being,
we don't really know anything today that we learned today
about c J. Stroud in his progress and the possibility
of him missing no starts one start, two starts are beyond.
And yesterday we had a lot of discussion about the
Texans ground game, and specifically the first, second, third, fourth
end goal from the one play calls in yesterday's game.

(34:35):
So I did take way too much time rewatching it,
almost player for player on each of the three snaps
before the QB sneak and false start, and who did
what and why did the play not work? What's the
offensive line doing? One of the plays, you had an
offensive lineman actually in the end zone after the play,
and it was only because he didn't block anybody. He
ran through a hole, and unfortunately they played didn't call

(34:56):
for the running back to follow him through the hole
because it was right tackle Titus Howard pretty much every
other play they got stood up by somebody or there
was a gap being filled by an open hole.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
They didn't get shoved into the backfield.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Awesome, great job, but they didn't shove anybody into the
end zone. And every though the other team knows what
you're doing, goes back to what Demiko said and wanting
to be of a physical mindset. If you're you know,
it's not gonna get done if you don't think you
can get it done and go out there and play physical.
So is Breis Hall gonna change their running game fortunes
over the final nine weeks of the season that you're

(35:29):
not getting from what he mark since you're not getting
from Nick Chubb because they're going to be running behind
roughly the same group if everybody even is healthy. Because
Titus Howard is also in concussion protocol and a third
round pick, even Nick Casario often hits on third round picks.
Is that worth it for a player that's good? You're
you're Are you looking for a running back next year?

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Anyway?

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Should you not be looking at him as a rental?
That's such a Are you good going into next season
with Woody as RB one and almost maybe nothing else.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
Okay, we have to figure out the rest.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
The answer to that question is if you're not where
is that running back coming from? And if it's not
coming from free agency, well, then how high are you
taking that running back in the draft? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (36:18):
If the Texans drafted running back in next year's draft
early to the point that that's their starting running back,
that would be rather disappointing.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, because it means they use that pick to take
something else. Once again, that wasn't an offensive lineman like
last year.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
Well, and they also traded out of the first round
pick to do first round to do so, you don't
have to draft offensive lineman in the first round. I'm
not married to that, I'm not blinded by that, but
you just have to pick the right guys. The Texans
should have basically an entire line of draft picks of
knicks already. They've drafted four linemen in the first two
rounds in the last four drafts. That's that's exactly how

(36:57):
you're supposed to build your line. No effectively, that's the
smart way to do it. It's doesn't cost you a
lot of money. It's somewhere down the road. If they've
proven to play. Well, you're more than happy to pay
them to keep them here.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I love it. Only one of them was even a
first round pick. That's great too, But you can't know
what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
If you can't evaluate the talent of these players, then
it's your And I don't think you're not even wasting
your time. You're killing your team because they can't play
at a very important position. And instead of getting players
that can play at another position, you chose players that
can't play at the most important was what was the
number you said for who this team is overall?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
How many?

Speaker 3 (37:33):
What again? What was again? Again? Four drafts? Four players?
Those are rookie numbers in this racket.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Well, you've got a line as bad as the Texans,
And I get it. You can't just take nothing but
offensive lineman for the sake of taking offensive linemans that
you don't mess up.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Because you're so bad at it.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
But I just I have a fundamental problem with trading
out of the first round to not take an offensive lineman.
If your offensive line is in shambles.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Well, you didn't draft an offensive lineman, say at twenty
five where you were you did draft an offensive lineman
at forty eight. Is there that much difference between that
player and that player at that position? Yeah, I mean
are we sure?

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yes? Like are.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
This group because this group of all those four players
Kenyan Green, Juice Scruggs, Blake Fisher, Tay Nursery, I think
it's already pretty clear who the best one is and
it's the one.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
They just drafted forty drafted.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, well, I missing the highest those names you just
draft obviously, Well, Kenyon Greens was number fifteen, but other
than that.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
Fifty nine and sixty two where they.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Was forty eight. Right, Yes, well that answers your own question.
I'm not saying just because he happens to be the highest,
but I kind of am. I mean, the higher you
pick a guy in the draft, the more likely he
is at this position to be a success, simply because
other teams have.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Taken those guys earlier than you did.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
In this particular draft, which I think we showed you
during the offseason with what we did every day leading
up to the draft, was a very good draft for
offensive lineman, very specifically at the tackle position. I don't
know that he's outplayed the guys that have been on
the field as much as him. That were drafted ahead
of him. I think he's played to their equal, but
there were several players like Tate Ratleis is a good example.

(39:16):
He's an interior line He won at fifty seven. He's
been awesome. He's been great for Detroit. Step right in
began as a starter. He remains a starter, and he's
one of you know, he's a good player. You can
get offensive lineman. You can yet can get good players,
not at the very You definitely don't want to draft
him at the very top of the draft unless they're
life altering, unless they're wembies of the offensive line.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Stop it. That means they're gonna be hurt in six
years and out of the league.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
Let's get you into the three o'clock hour because the
trade deadline will have passed, and we'll let you know
once and for all how happy the Texans are with
their football outfit.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety team lifelong
Houston sports guys. It's named Adam Talking your Team. Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
A straight up three o'clock here on the A Team.
Sports Talk seven to ninety simulcast now on Space City
Home Network Hello to the viewers out there who just
tuned in to watch the show. Wex ac Cole Thompson
with you on a Tuesday and now host deadline edition

(40:32):
of the program at one hour.

Speaker 3 (40:33):
In the books, I'm gonna start coughing.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Does not appear the Texans have made a deal. Does
not appear the Texans felt like moving somebody elsewhere for
the future or bringing somebody else in for the present.
Doesn't mean they're happy with where they are. Just means
there was not a deal to be made. You referenced
something before we got on the air that made you
wonder what the Texans might do today. And we've talked

(40:56):
to Nick Cassara and out for five seasons, five off seasons,
five five trade deadlines, and watched them put together a
team that has been to the playoffs twice, and obviously,
prior to their two playoff visits, they weren't really attempted
to compete. So not blaming him for their shortcomings from
a win loss standpoint, who they hired as their head
coach and who they employed as football players was a

(41:17):
very clear indicator that our intent this particular season in
twenty twenty one and the following season in twenty twenty two,
we do not intend to win football games. They were successful,
they did not win football games. They were a bad
football outfit that very little talent, and they were able
to turn that around along with the help of a
very good trade that he made involving Deshan Watson to

(41:38):
put a lot of talented players on the field. They
have left themselves still bereft of much talent in one
very particular area. And you could probably say that going
into this weekend, if Titus Howard is unable to return
to the field from the concussion that took him off
of the field in their last game and has him
in concussion protocol, their second, their best, I don't know
where you rate him lineman this season will not be

(42:00):
available to them and will not be available to protect
Davis Mills. And are the Texans in need of an
additional quarterback because the CJ. Stroud is not playing, he
also will not be active. You have Graham Mertz on
the active roster and have for the entire season, and
he played last week, or he was on the sidelines
last week for the first time as a player one

(42:23):
snap away from getting into the game. He's been two
snaps away all season until CJ leaves the field. Are
you going to enter an NFL game without an emergency
quarterback without a practice squad player that can be in
that position because they don't currently employ a practice squad quarterback.
And they were so worried about losing Graham Mertz if
they ever released him and waived him, that somebody would

(42:44):
claim him that he's been on the active roster all season.
If you don't, If you've looked around at the practice
squad quarterbacks out there, it's not like they're missing out
on anything.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Maybe Shane Bouchell rates near the top of the list
of practice squad quarterbacks that you could add.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
That's what you'd be looking at.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
And that's why many teams are always looking for quarterbacks,
as there just aren't many of them. But what else
could this team have done? As for us to discuss,
they did not do anything. The Jaguars, the Titans, and
the Colts, for varying reasons, all made deals of varying
degrees of consequence today. Jaguars adding a wide receiver Jacoby Myers,
Colts adding a corner in Sauce Gardener, pretty costly price

(43:26):
A pair of first round picks and ad Mitchell and
the Titans clearly were sellers at the deadline, moving on
from Draymont Jones to get back some capital in return,
while the Texans did not make a trade.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Well, let's talk about the sauce Gardener trade, because I
know things have gone south even from when Aaron Glenn
took over. Like we talked about nour number one. I
just I having said that, I just can't believe you
took sauce Gardener where you took him, and.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
It's already you've already made that decision.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
Well you know, you know you're not going to win
early in his extension again, he's under He was already
under contract this year, saying with Derek Stingley Junior, they've
both signed extensions, but his was for an additional four seasons,
having him under contract now through twenty thirty. That's how
long you had committed to him with the deal you
signed with him. So let's see if my math is correct.

(44:26):
August September, October, we're now in November, so four months ago,
in July mid July, they signed him to this extension
and played nine football games and decided, nah, this is
we're not going to be good while he's here. We're
not going to be good enough to compete. Well, he's
a high salary player that's very good at his job.

(44:49):
We're just not going to be good enough while he's here,
and we need to get something on the front side
of his deal. That I mean, they could trade him
a year, two or three from now after losing and
losing and losing, but his value is I would think
his value is very now and based on the return
they got for him. So with the team that traded
for him two first round picks sounds awesome. You don't
want what twenty seven's pick is going to be. You

(45:09):
have a pretty good idea of what the twenty twenty
six pick is going to be. And it's most more
than likely that the Colts just traded you two picks
in the back third of the next two first rounds
for sauce Gardner. But you also don't have to pay
him and could do something else with that money.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Conversely, since we're talking about the Jets, the most we've
ever talked about the Jets on this show, and probably
the most we ever will barring a trade with the Texans,
whether it was to the Texans or another contender. Are
you surprised that Breeze Hall is staying put.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
Yeah, I'm a little bit because I think they probably
it's weird that they were able to get you bought
it out, by the way. Yeah, they've gotten all these
other picks for these other really talented players. They were
asking clearly for less because the leverage with a player
who's going into the final nine games of his contract
or eight games of your season, depending on who you're
trading him to, there's only so much you can ask for.

(46:01):
But apparently they asked for more than any team, and
there were multiple teams inquiring was willing to give up for.
I'm very surprised by that because I imagine they were
very compelled to move him, and they have a new
GM this year. I don't think he's very tied to
these players, like from an emotional and emotional standpoint, and
I think that showed with the other deals that they made.

(46:21):
They traded away good players like Quinn Williams is going
to be a good player for the Dallas Cowboys and
Sauce Gardner when he's on the field and healthy, he's
going to be a good player for the Indianapolis Colts,
he might even pick off of pass. This year, they
traded away talent. It wasn't helping them win games. And
when we say they're looking to trade Breese Hall and
they did trade Quinn Williams, and they did trade Sauce Gardner, Like,

(46:45):
how many more good players can they actually really have?
Is it really all tied to their quarterback play, which
for most of the year has been pretty poor. And
there's been a few games where obviously Justin Fields has
kind of put it together a little bit and generated
a lot of offense. But they're not beating anybody. And
these are your key players. I mean, how good are they?
I mean, I know there's twenty two guys on the
field or eleven at a time. It's a lot of

(47:08):
talent to be sitting there, to be ready to be
moved when you can't win any football games.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yeah, I mean if you want it out of the
Jets organization though, And they're like, nah, that's got to
be that's got to absolutely be awful.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Yeah, Well he's gonna be out in three months.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, and hopefully for him because this is not a
given because of the position he plays, he can latch
onto a team that can both win more than the Jets,
which the.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Bar is low.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
It's just everybody right, but also get the the I
don't know if he'll get the type of conversation he wants.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Well, he unfortunately now has to go out there with
an even worse situation. They didn't trade any offensive talent away,
So maybe he can still compete the way he has.
They're gonna lose football games, but he can do what
he does just as he has before, as long as
he doesn't get hurt. This doesn't impact his market, and
you have to look at what else is out there

(48:03):
from an age standpoint. If Priest Hall is if he's
on the free agent market, just free and clear, and
the Jets don't do something I don't think they'll do
and franchise tag him. I'm not sure there's gonna be
many available running backs at that age with that much
ability and that much many more years in front of them.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
That's on the free agent market. That's your answer to
your question about the Texans earlier. Well, yeah, you're just
gonna have to pay more than you would have for
the last nine games, but you were gonna have to
pay to keep him.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
Yeah, you could just pay him in the offseason if
you're so inclined, or you could pay an asset to
get him and then pay him as he just played
for your team. The cost for them probably wouldn't change
very much financially, but the cost for them asset wise
was zero if you signed him in free agency.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
If you trade for him, but.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
You also don't get him, he's not on your team
in twenty twenty five for the remainder of the season.
And I know ran through a couple of comments all
on the don't do it side. There were plenty of
other people that responded to my question about making a
move for him with a third round pick and said yes,
and said let's do it, and yes, go ahead and
do that. But I think the Jets, for where they

(49:10):
were and when the season began from a talent standpoint,
and where they're going to be when next year begins
from a talent standpoint, Bristol is not going to be back.
They drafted three guys in the first round, all at
the same time a couple of years ago, Sauce Gardner,
uh Jermaine Johnson, and Garrett Wilson. Well, they extended Wilson
and Gardner and now they've already traded Gardner, they did
not have not extended Johnson, although they've picked up the

(49:32):
fifth year option on him. It's possible this is another
player that ultimately they won't have just a few years
after spending a first round draft pick on them, because
they're just not winning football games. And I'm not putting
it at the feet of these players, because I do.
I just told you I think they're talented players, and
just from a football standpoint, it's quite obvious. The Colts
are seven and two, and their twenty twenty five team

(49:54):
just got better. Probably their twenty twenty six and seven
team did too. It's ok to me, it's totally fine
to give up these first round picks. Sauce Gardner is
a first round pick, and you're getting him in the
early portion of his career, the prime of his career.
What makes you think either just one for one, are
the Jets getting any players in this deal as good

(50:16):
as sauce Gardner. I don't think they are. No, you're
giving them two additional players. You're giving them the other
first round pick, and you're giving him ad Mitchell, who
looks like an NFL talent, but he could not get
on the field in front of Alec Pierce, Josh Downs,
and Michael Pittman in Indianapolis in year two, just one
year after they had drafted him, expecting you to be

(50:37):
a big part of their future, which he obviously isn't.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
If we're being honest, if you're the Colts, you better
hope that Daniel Jones doesn't turn back into a pumpkin
like he did in New York though, because if you're
giving away first rounders for secondary players because you think
you're a super Bowl team and what by the way,
I'm not just talking about next year. Who's to say
when the Colts start playing real teams this year they
start actually losing some of these games. I'm not saying
that Texans are going to climb back any things. Because

(51:01):
frankly and disappointingly, the biggest threat to the Colts not
winning the division is in Florida.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
It's not in Houston right now.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
So I just that's something to keep an eye on,
because Daniel Jones doesn't exactly have a proven track record.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Well, we'll see what Vanilla Vic hasn't store for the
rest of the season this year in Indianapolis.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Oh, Vanilla Vic that you don't like that, I actually do.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
I mean, he got a new one this year because
of his location Indiana Jones, I like that better. But
everybody knows him as Danny Dimes. Neither of which will
be said next segment.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Well, I'm sure it will be a matter of time
before we hear from Nick Cassario on this year's NFL
trade deadline as it pertains to the Houston Texans.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
Well, I mean the in house media will hear from him.
Otherwise we'll get a chance to talk to him right
as the season comes to a conclusion.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
I'm sure do you remember what he said last year
around this time about the trade deadline? I remember, but
I bet our listeners don't remember. Let's refresh their memory
with what Nick Cassario said. Remember this is an anticipation
of the twenty twenty four trade deadline and before the draft,
in which he traded out of the first round to

(52:21):
take a wide receiver.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
As much ado about nothing.

Speaker 9 (52:25):
So essentially, a lot of players, You're a lot of
players that get moved. A are on a kind of
expiring type contract, B hasn't worked out with their team.
Most of it is kind of late round picks some flips.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Essentially, you saw.

Speaker 9 (52:40):
If you trades there with a compensation, maybe it was
a little bit bigger than what it was. But you're
kind of looking at your team. There's an opportunity to
add a player that you have a specific, defined role for.
Great if not, it's just you know, you're not going
to do something just to do something, just to create
a bunch of busy work, to create a bunch of
busy work.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
There you go. That last part is just what rubs
me the wrong way. I shouldn't, it really shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
But I'm sorry. When you have a position group, no
matter again, I always like to point to the positives
and the hits that he has had. Okay, I'm not
just going after the misses, but when the misses are
the most important position group not named quarterback, which I
think you've nailed, I just can't. It's not gonna sit

(53:24):
well with me even when you phrase it that way,
let alone how it sounds.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
This particular we talked about it very clearly, and today
played out just like it.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Did.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
You want Trevor Penning? Who's Trevor Penning? I hear you, guys.
That was the offensive lineman that was moved today. He's
not good, not a good player. It was a miss
as a first round pick by the Saints guests who
traded for him. The most desperate team in the NFL,
the San Diego Chargers.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
There it is who.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Missed out on having two Pro Bowl I think Pro
Bowl caliber tackles due to injuries. Later got hurt before
the year, and Joe Alt just suffered his second injury.
This one will be season ending, so neither of the
two players they planned on protecting at tackle for Justin
Herbert are available to them for the remainder of the season.
They'd already traded for one of the Texans deep reserve

(54:20):
tackles in Austin Deculus, and now they've traded for a
not very good tackle from the Saints. Offensive Linemen that
can play don't get traded.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
What was he going to do? He's like a franchise
quarterback or a franchise anything.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
You might be able to find somebody that's a little
bit better fit that maybe can take off with you,
because there's plenty of linemen that go to one place
and nothing ever materializes, and they go somewhere else and
everything looks a whole lot better. I don't think anybody
was paying attention to was the starting center last night
for the Arizona Cardinals. But he was here in Houston

(54:58):
and could never find footing at any of the interior
line spots for the Texans and had a leg up
on just about everybody that was there because the reason
he was in Houston because he's a former Patriots draft
pick by Nick Cassario, and then he was brought here
to Houston to see if there is a fit for
him here, and there's never really was. Now he's playing
plus level football as the Arizona Cardinals center fro Holt.

(55:22):
Maybe it was us, you could say, maybe it was
the coaches they had. Maybe the player just simply didn't
know what he was doing then, or just got a
whole lot better or has a better training program or whatever.
But he's he is a legitimate starting caliber player and
not a low level starting caliber player, and he was here,
but you didn't notice, or didn't give him the opportunity,

(55:44):
or he never took it. It could be any number
of things, and it certainly could be a player thing.
They just have been a really, really bad personnel group.
Evaluators and Obviously, the coaching was terrible. I've said that
countless times. I don't know if the coaching's any better
this year. I think the results have been better, but
they've only been marginally better. The team is not a
good running football team. They're not a good offense. They're

(56:05):
incredibly bad in the red zone, and they can't run
the ball in the red zone. They prove that to themselves.
I hope finally with what they were unable to do
this last week, they're oh for the season. I believe
in their ten opportunities first in or blank end goal
from the two yard line or closer, they haven't gotten
it in the end zone any of them. Not all

(56:26):
running plays necessarily, and we've seen them do different things
in three years with CJ. Stroud in those positions. But
they did not trade for an offensive lineman. I did
not expect them to. I don't think they did much
with their offensive line to make it better in the
off season significantly. But like I said, I do think
it's overall played a little bit better than the u
that they had last year. And definitely you're in a

(56:47):
better financial situation. If that matters to you, it probably
matters to Nick Callan Hannah, but you're not spending nearly
the money you were a year ago to have. Obviously,
Laramie Tunsel, Jack Mason, you were paying an ungodly sum
of money to be among the worst guards in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
He did.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
He's not played another snap in the NFL, by the way,
since he left the Texans last year where he played
all the time, and as soon as he came back
from being hurt, come playoff tech, let's get him back
out there. Just an incredib like not only evaluating the players,
but the decisions they make on who to have on
the field, the amount of times they put Kenyon green
Back on the field.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
He just got to eat it.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
Sometimes guy can't play, this guy can't play, or that
guy can't play. And instead, in Shack's case, you extended him.
You give him more money after you traded for him.
So they're just in every possible way that they just
aren't quite getting it on the offensive line. Tay Ursery
might be the first step that some other GM can
help finish. I don't think Jake Andrews is a long

(57:47):
term solution. I do think ed Ingram has played significantly
better than anybody could have expected, so maybe he has
a little staying power. They obviously got an opening where Laken,
Tomlinson and Jew Scruggs having splitting time, and Unford going
back and watching even more of the game for a
third time overnight has made me see even more plays
that were not blocked very well by number seventy five.

(58:08):
And your other tackle position is Titus Howard, who's in
a concussion protocol, and I'm not sure what they think
his long term future is here. He's obviously a starting
caliber player. But what you haven't done you still have
in front of you. They're going to remake the offensive
line again this offseason. Now we just don't know who
they is. Is it really still Nick Cassario, I.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Tend to think it won't be, but I don't know
the like, Well, put it this way, I would like
it to not be, because I think that the very
things we feared going into this season have come to fruition,
give or take. I mean, it's never exactly how you
predict it to happen, but right now your offensive line
is not very good and.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
Your quarterback is concussed.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
And I'm not saying it's a direct result, but again,
this would be easier to say if CJ. Stroud he
got blown up because they ran right through your offensive
line and it was kind of more of a cut
and dry example.

Speaker 4 (59:06):
Yeah, the player that just got draft traded to the
Cowboys from the Jets. That's what happened a couple of
years ago. He busted through the line. Forgot about that though. Yeah,
Unfortunately CJ got rid of the ball and plenty of
time to not have absorbed that hit. But Williams just
kind of went right through at the play and wasn't
brushed him and buried him into the turf. He bounced

(59:27):
his head on that not very good turf and obviously
missed some time because of that. This one, I think
is totally unrelated to the offensive line. It just quarterbacks scramble.
Quarterbacks try to make plays.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
He did. That's all that happened.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Yeah, but maybe he doesn't have to try and make
that play if he has more to I don't know's
it's such a bang band.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
He did have time on that particular play until he
didn't well, because he hadn't gotten rid of the ball yet.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
He didn't throw it to anybody. I know.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
I'm just there's part of me that thinks maybe if
the line overall was better, then he wouldn't have been
in that situation. But I just on that particular play,
I don't think last year. Yeah, it's not like last
year what it would have been a lot easier. But
the fact remains, even if he hadn't been concussed at all,
this line hasn't just it just hadn't gotten the job done.
And that's gonna ultimately fall at the feet of Nick Cassario.

(01:00:17):
And so you just have to ask yourself, if you're
the Texans, does enough good outweigh the very very one
bad thing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
Do you feel like another GM can continue some of
the things that you did do well. The philosophy that
he has on players and keeping the good ones here,
I would have to say they've done a very good
job with that if you believe in what I mean,
I do.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
That's why I don't think he's going on.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
I like the idea of how they've gotten in front
all the stuff we talked negatively about Jerry Jones and
his extension handling Nick's basically done at the exact opposite way.
Is there really any question about Michael Parsons being great
for your football team? No? The Texans asked the exact
same question about Derek Stingley Junior, and they had the
exact same answer, but they operated completely differently. He got

(01:00:58):
signed the offseason, he was available to be signed, he
got extended, and he's set the market. He's the highest
paid for a brief period of time, as that will
go with anybody.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
They don't even mess with it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
Danil Hunter came here on a two year deal, had
a great year, So what did they do. They kept
him here for an additional year by reworking his deal,
And sometimes that's helpful in the short term and you
just kind of push your problems off into the distance.
They early extended Nico Collins. They've done a lot of
the seemingly correct decisions with their cap. I don't know

(01:01:30):
about with their cash spending, but you can separate the
two a lot of times, especially if you have an
owner who does not seem at all concerned about their
cash spending and never has been, as Nick Cassarira has
been throwing it around all over the place. But again,
I think the only concern for fans should be their
cap situation. Signing Nick Neeman and giving him all this
guaranteed money if it hits the cap, and it does

(01:01:52):
in this dead cap space, it's bad. The amount of
cash you actually spent on him, it's not of great concern.
But bottom line, as you sit here today, your last
opportunity to land strong talent on field talent from another
NFL team for a three and five Texans team, remember
where they are.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
It has come and gone.

Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
Now you wait and see if there are players that
simply just get let go and ultimately could end up
changing addresses over the course of the remainder of the
twenty twenty five season.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety we.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Are a little less than a half hour away from
a reminder that things could be worse for Texans fans.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
It's gonna put that out there.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
Things could be worse for the three and five Texans
who likely will start Davis Mills this week against the
five and three Jaguars. Okay, I mean I'm processed that
a little bit, right. This is a deep tease, Okay,
I won't think about that. Trade deadline is coming gone.
The same Texans that took the l this past Sunday
will be the same Texans that hit the field coming
up on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
The Jaguars will be in town.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Mentioned earlier, the Jaguars went out to get Jacobe Myers
today from the Oakland Las Vegas Raiders.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
He obviously wanted out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
If you were unaware of San Diego and Oakland, if
you're keeping track at home.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
I mean, if Arizona wasn't so obvious, I mean, I
could have Saint Louis cardinaled them. But everyone calls them Arizona.
Nobody calls them the Cardinals anymore. So I don't get
that one messed up hardly at all. And we've barely
talked about the fact that the Arizona Cardinals handily soundly
beat the Dallas Cowboys last night, and I'm saying it
that sincerely. That was not a close game. That was

(01:03:33):
one of the worst offensive games the Cowboys have played
all year, and the Cardinals are nothing special defensively. The
Cardinals had little trouble most of the game. I don't
even think they were trying to do too much offensively,
and you got the best game of his career, arguably
for Marvin Harrison Junior. Just a handful of hours after
Marvin Harrison Senior skewered the Arizona Cardinals for how they

(01:03:58):
utilize their weapons on offense.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
That's his son.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
That's what starting Jacoby Brissett can do for you at quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Well, Jacoby Brissette and Kyler Murray being in some sort
of quarterback controversy, I don't think his reality. The Cardinals
have actually lost in some ridiculous ways this year. They
probably think they're good and their record says they aren't,
and that could create a situation on the short term,
like if we really have a better chance to win

(01:04:26):
with Jacoby Brissett and this was the first game they had,
even though they competed very well in the others, then
they maybe could give it some thought. But they're totally
married to Kyler Murray for the long term. That's what
the extension did. That's what they went into the season believing.
I don't think his play is the reason that they've
gone off of that. He has not been good this year.
I think that's also fair. But you're not going anywhere

(01:04:48):
with Jacoby Brissette.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
He gets married to him.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
Yeah, he's he's a good backup quarterback. I mean, I
don't know if you would change your mind from saying
that Davis Mills is better than that which you said yesterday,
and I didn't push back on it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
I would today.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
I mean, Jakobe Brissette has done it so many more
times and played as what exactly what you want as
a backup quarterback so many times.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
He's better than Davis SMI.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Yeah, I think I think now that I said what
only because I saw last night.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
Okay, we were talking obviously Textans. Let's see what Kelly
has to chime in on that. You always can via
social media. We get a lot of our interaction from
social media, and we appreciate you finding it's there at Adam,
Jay Wexler, at Adam planning that, mister Cole Thompson. But
the phones are also always available to you. I'm not
gonna say the phone lines are open because they're never closed,
so they're permanently available to you. Seven one three two

(01:05:35):
one two five seven ninety. Kelly has utilized that option. Kelly,
What's what's on your Texans driven mind today?

Speaker 9 (01:05:42):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (01:05:43):
Man, what a game last night? I was just thinking
about all these quarterback injuries. You know, it always seems
like when the quarterback goes into a slide, they just
opened themselves up to, you know, getting smashed. And if
he would have just dove instead of slid. I don't
think anything would have happen. You know, It's just it
happens a lot, having them mahomes last year. You know,

(01:06:05):
it's just seems like a repeated thing. And and I
can understand that they're just running down the field and
have to get down on but I mean this, going
into the slide, you're just you know, just defenseless in
that position.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
Yeah, we're gonna have to let you go. Unfortunately on
that with the sounds of phones.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
But you're right.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
The slides that don't put their quarterback in harm's way
are ones where they weren't gonna get hit anyway. Or
you know, Justin Herbert had a slide this past week
and he slid into the end zone. We've seen Josh
Allen slide countless times where it's just time for him
to end the play. He's not even trying to avoid
the big hit. He's got in the yards necessary and
lives another day and just slides down and picks himself

(01:06:48):
back up and moves on. Nobody hits him, there's nobody
close enough to hit him, but he is. I think
that's the version of coaches saying quarterbacks need to start
their slide earlier, or fans on Twitter or on the
radio saying that that's what they should mean, because if C.
Stroud slides on this particular play, if he starts that
slide earlier, I mean he basically starts at the second

(01:07:11):
he crosses the line of scrimmage, some seven to eight
yards before he actually does it. I mean you are
preventing the hit, but you're also preventing the purpose of
your scramble.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
I mean C. J.

Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
Stroud was trying to gain yards. That's what normally is
the case when quarterbacks are on the move. Justin Trevor
Lawrence a year ago, same thing, against the text, he's
trying to gain yards. Joe Flacco's had his helmet ripped
off with a vicious hit on a slide and could
cuss because of it. Because you're trying to get every
bit of offense out of that play, every bit of
yardage out of that play. But there is a balance,
and I agree wholeheartedly with the initial part of your comment.

(01:07:45):
I said the same thing each time this has happened,
and yesterday was no different. You're defenseless, You're making it
almost a certainty, you're taking a hit, whether it's vicious,
whether it sends you smashing back into the turf. Because
any other hit you take, if you don't slide feet first,
exposing your back to the turf, exposing your head to

(01:08:07):
the turf, it's almost assured that you're not going to
bounce your head off the turf. You might take a
helmet to helmet hit. You might take a helmet to
shoulder hit. You might take on above the neck hit.
All those hits are still in play. But I would guess,
and I'm not doing the research on it. I'm gonna
say it and believe it. These concussion hits for the quarterbacks,
they happen on slides because of where their head is

(01:08:30):
and where the turf is. When they slide, it's parallel
to the turf. What happens when somebody hits you, when
your head goes and snaps back, and what does it hit?

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
It hits the turf.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
Occasionally you do see helmet to helmet hits because there's
less of a target. If you're running into a player
or standing up and running towards a player, your whole
body is the target, and he eat the legs or
waist up high wherever they want. When the slide begins,
your target goes away, you're flat, you're flattening out the target.
Where else are they gonna hit you. They're going to

(01:09:00):
hit you in the chest, the neck, the shoulders, or
the head. It's what happened with Aziz al Shaire last year.
He led with his forearms, and yes, his very well
braced forearm, and he hit him at the top of
his chest. And if you'd like to say he hit
him in the head, then definitely use the angle from
behind Trevor Lawrence, which everybody who thinks that's what happened

(01:09:22):
is using because you can't see where the force of
the blow comes from because the camera is behind the
player doing the hitting, but it is also behind the
player getting hit.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
But it makes it look good.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
Also definitely takes still shots, screen caps of it. It
definitely illustrates what's happening on those plays. But Kelly made
it pretty simple. I've talked on and on it is simple.
Slides put you in danger for being out.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
I don't know. I mean, we've said this and we've
talked about it at nauseum. I don't know how you
officiate it. I don't know how you play it, and
I'm talking about for both sides, because I think you're
asking both quarterbacks and defensive players to do something that
is probably virtually impossible with the speed we're talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Man, pull up, slow down. I mean you're going five
hundred miles an hour. Could you just pull up a
little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Let me test the brakes on this vehicle for you.
Pull up terrain anyway? Uh? I just is there a
specific movie you pull that from?

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
No, it was the uh Shane Gillis bit that I
sent you the other day.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
That was a good one. No way, I'm gonna try
and clean that up for on air.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
Yeah, pull up terrain, That's that's pretty solid. I just
everything about you know, where we put the hard deck.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
At every five thousand feet, Everything about this scenario that
we're talking about is it's impossible. Yeah, it's everything goes
perfectly in every single participant's angle.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
And the injury we're talking about is what should be
the most concerning. It would be bad if these quarterbacks
were going down with shoulder injuries, neck injuries, collarbone injuries.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
That would be bad, and some of them are, but
not as bad as this, nothing close to the ones
they are going down with because heel.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
We don't know what concussions do. I guess they heal.
I think you're more susceptible to it. The second and third,
and know you say that we know a lot more
than we did a few years ago. We do, and
it's not none of it's good. Yea, we know it's bad.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Yeah, I just I don't know. I think it's a
really really tough place to be in. What I have
admittedly said over and over and over again, we need
to have waivers because that's the only way that I
hate to even say it. There's no other way to say.
Everybody is held accountable one way or the other that way.
Otherwise you're trying to regulate a violent sport that's impossible

(01:11:44):
to regulate, very.

Speaker 4 (01:11:45):
Difficult to do. Appreciate Kelly joining us here for those comments.
We'll get into a few other items on the NFL
for certain, but do want to hit on a couple
of things that were a little bit different, something we
hadn't really seen this year. Last night from your Houston
Rockets over it Tota Center, and it's a welcome site
that we had not really seen so far this season.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
The a t on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
So last night inside Toyota Center. Then I apologize wex
because you didn't get to see this firsthand. You saw
it on TV, though I bet I did see it
on TV.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
But it was better in person.

Speaker 4 (01:12:31):
Wow did it sound on the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
It always sounds good on the radio. Matt Thomas missed the.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Second free throwing, he knew it, and he got an
offensive rebound on the baseline. Here's shank God in the
middle of the paint. Oh and he.

Speaker 7 (01:12:40):
Got a toe man Tompson, a man gets credit for
following up the miss shit good with a beautiful pass
and TOMPs him with a throwdown.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
It's not often did I step on Matt Thomas? But
it was warranted there. Oh well, it wasn't. It wasn't intentional.
It just kind of came out because we were all like,
did he just do you remember when it's very famous,
it's all over the highlight videos and it's in the
last dance and Jordan he comes in and it wasn't

(01:13:12):
his free throw.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
That's the only difference here.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
This was a teammate's free throw and he just swoops
in and it was a poster jam off. I think
he was outside a three point line and just timed
it like a safety blitz had to be out there legally. Yeah,
well a man. He did that to his own miss
last night. Now it wasn't instantaneous. He went and saved
the ball from going out of bounce.

Speaker 4 (01:13:34):
Basically he was the first guy to go get it
with his leap to get it took him in that area,
so he ah, I better get it to Alpi. He
got it to Alpi and got himself back in position,
and Alpi threw him a pass which Amen said wasn't
very good, so he had to make him look good
on it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
That's why he had the reverse dunk.

Speaker 4 (01:13:50):
Missed the second free throw, got his own miss, got
it to a teammate, got back in the play reverse dunk.

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
Now pretty unique.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
It happened in a game against Dalla, which means it
happened in a game against Cooper Flag and early on
in the game, ie the first half, first twenty four minutes.
You know, coming into that game last night, he had
only scored sixteen points as a season high and in
this case, career high, because his season's only been a
handful of games long being, it looked like he was

(01:14:19):
well on his way to obliterating that he was shooting
the ball pretty well. He was one of two players
that was actually effective against the Rockets in the first half.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
PJ. Washington was awesome all night.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
The Rockets routinely turned him into an All Star every
time he plays them, no one else, and I know
he helped fuel them to the finals a couple of
years ago and was actually effective when he was a
member of the Charlotte Hornets.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
But I digress.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Cooper Flag was held to I think three points in
the second half and didn't do much of anything else
and ended up not finishing more with more than sixteen
points like I thought he would. I don't know how
much that was a men Thompson because he was everywhere.
The reason I say that is I couldn't keep track
of him. He was on everybody, he was defending everything.

(01:15:03):
He was constantly in the middle of both ends of
the floor. Score twenty seven points. That's actually unheard of
for him.

Speaker 4 (01:15:11):
The unique thing I was talking about sending you a break.
He was doing what he has done many times in
the past, but did it to an even larger degree,
and for the first time did it while they're playing
without Fred van Vliet and figuring out the offense while
they're playing with Kevin Durant figuring out the offense. What
I was curious about how they would make sure to
keep as part of the offense was he's got to

(01:15:31):
be in the dunker spot. He just has to be, Yeah,
and you gotta find a way to get him around
the basket a little bit more often on offense because
nobody can do what he can do. Other players play
that spot, other Rockets have played that spot, and certainly
other teams utilize that spot with different athletic talents, but
nobody's like him, nobody's capable like him, nobody leaps like him, nobody.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
I'm watching these.

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
Rebound opportunities through their first seven games of the season,
first six games of the season, and these other players
think they're battling with Alpi and Steven Adams for these
boards and they go up and they're like, at the
right spot. I think I'm a men's also here and
he just out jumped everybody. I barely got my hand
on the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
So they're playing Cooper flag And I got a little
cocky on social media after the game, just because it
was fun to take a shot while the team's down.
I mean even the Rockets did it. Do you see
their Instagram account after the game when the aforementioned dunk
or the block by a man on one end and
the aforementioned dunk to Tary Easton kind of sealed it
made two yeah, or I.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
Believe at that point time they finished things off. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
It ended up being one ten, one o two to
the final. And I said, well, Dallas made the worst
trade in league history and got gifted some dude from
Duke Houston, drafted an actual demon straight from Hell and
puts them in a Rockets uniform to terrorize opposing teams
every night. That's what I'm in Thompson did. And if
we're gonna give the good, we might as well go
ahead and.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
Give the bad. Reach.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
Shepherd looks bad out there intensively, No, he looks bad
out there.

Speaker 4 (01:17:07):
Well, he can't make anything inside the three point line
if you hadn't noticed, so.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
He's a three point shooter.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
So you bring in Aaron Holiday because that was the
only time last night where it really looked like a
functioning offense where your traditional point guard.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
Was running the show.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Now, obviously a men kd heck Albie was bringing the
ball up some possessions.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
That's the most important possession. That's true.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
And by the way, his last basket, the spin move,
Holy cow, that was nice, just gorgeous. But Aaron Holiday
traditional point guard, greater than Read Shepherd traditional point guard,
at least last night. And honestly, for right.

Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
Now, Aaron Holliday's better than Read Shepherd. He's been better
from the moment they drafted. Now their expectations is that
is going to change. And I'll give Reid credit for
the thing that honestly, I know you draft in three
and you're looking at a bigger picture player and they
definitely need more from that type of player. First of all,
the draft is unbelievably bad, like unbelievably bad. Uh So,

(01:18:08):
maybe saying he's a third pick in the draft is
part of what is clouding people's assessment of him, maybe
myself included.

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
But they have.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
To have one thing from him if he's playing, and
that's three point shooting. He shot thirty four percent last year,
so last night he's made forty three. He's open. So
what Well, Okay, a miss is a miss. If you
make forty two percent of them, you're gonna keep playing.
He's gonna keep getting playing time, and I know there's
a balance how many he might need to make fifty

(01:18:38):
five percent to balance the who did he get switched
on to?

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
Who's taking advantage of him? Because you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
How bad the offense looked, we know what it still
looks like on the other end of the floor. I'm
glad that he gets his hands on a lot of
passes and tries to create deflections and steals and he's
giving one hundred and fifteen percent effort like it's possible
on the defensive end. But he's fighting a battle he
can't win physically. In the NBA at this point, there

(01:19:04):
are just certain trades. There's certain scenarios where if I
was about to say, if the.

Speaker 3 (01:19:12):
Team asks for him, but I don't know who would
ask for him right now.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
I mean upside, he's the same as Cam Whitmore was
a couple of years ago. Well, he can't play as
much as you want him to to develop him because
you're a winning team. You're playing to win every night.
So why Reid barely played it all last year, And
it's why Cam Whitmore was unhappy, even though deserved. I
think if a team that stinks, they don't care if

(01:19:36):
it gives up line.

Speaker 2 (01:19:37):
Yeah, if Fred van Vliet doesn't get injured, how much
is he playing at all?

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
I agree, probably very little, because you're whose minutes is
You don't want him taking away anybody's minutes that's ahead
of him. Fred included a man and everybody else because
they're the team better when they're on the floor.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Didn't you need to?

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
I understand this the position they're in because Fred did
get hurt, but that's not gonna last forever. And I
just seem to like it, and Aye, a year's worth
of find now it's it's awful because they would be
so much better than they already are, and they're good
right now.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
He's he can be very very good at one thing,
and guys like that still usually find a place in
the league, but maybe not the place that the Rockets
have in mind for Reid. And it's still pretty early
in his playing time career because the minutes he got
last year and didn't earn many more, they just they're
not very many of them.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
He has his play at his size unless he's John Stockton,
and I hate to say it, but that's the only
guy I can think of who is his size that
was as effective at doing the things you would think
he would do, stealing and shooting threes.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
Well, they need to get somebody in here to tell
him to play dirtier and maybe it'll last a little
bit longer in the NBA.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
Like Johnny s.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two, lifelong
Houston sports guys named at him talking your team's.

Speaker 6 (01:21:01):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
Four o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety
two hours in the books, two more still to come
as we take you up until six o'clock on a
Tuesday edition of the program, a NFL trade deadline edition
of the program, and with no trades made by your
Houston Texans with a three of five record, with in

(01:21:34):
all likelihood Davis Mills starting at quarterback this week, things
look bleak.

Speaker 3 (01:21:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:38):
I would imagine tomorrow we will not talk to a
quarterback as we normally would at the first practice of
the week Wednesday, Thursday Friday, the textabile practice. Normally it's
an availability for the head coach and C. J. Stroud,
and then the locker room obviously is also open. I
would think unless they already know and are going to

(01:22:01):
tell us he's out that we would not talk to
Davis Mills tomorrow, and then they would wait another day
or two and we will talk to a quarterback during
the week Mills will be available. I think regardless, those
probably set it up at the podium, maybe for a
maybe for a later day in the week, depending on
where it's twenty four more hours later with CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
Stroud.

Speaker 4 (01:22:24):
I don't think this is an injury that any team
wants to push, and I think the Texans are definitely
sticking to that. They've said it publicly, but I also
don't think it's necessary to do that. I think that's
the way they feel, and most teams feel about these
situations very very individually assessed when it comes to concussions.
But yeah, it does seem likely. You had a concussion

(01:22:44):
on a Sunday, your next game is on a Sunday.
You're in the concussion protocol, I mean, just the simple
protocol steps. You gotta pass this step, and you gotta
be unsensitive to this, and you gotta pass that step,
and then you have to participate in practices in order
to be cleared. So it obviously does not seem likely,
but it is not out of the question.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
So having said all that, I mean, see, things seemed
not great if you will. Right now, Colts not only
have the best record in the division, they're cruising towards
a division championship postseason spot, and they just traded.

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
For sast Gardener Sauce.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
Gardner's Cults lead the ANFC at seven into day.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
Sauce and Stanley now in the same division after being
compared so much over the first few years of there.

Speaker 3 (01:23:26):
This is why Trevor Lawrence is going to be bad.
It's one of the reasons. You mean he's gonna stay bad. Oh, yes,
not be bad. He's already there built in excuses.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
I'm just gonna play a little audio for you to
remind you that no matter how bad it is, things
could absolutely be worse, because we could be asking questions
about all of these things we just mentioned and more,
and instead of dealing with Demico Ryans, we could be
dealing with this guy.

Speaker 3 (01:23:57):
Still.

Speaker 8 (01:23:57):
You know, I'm glad you're down. Nobody's down. We're fighting,
we're competing. You know, it's the second year of this program, Mike.
You always come in here with these down questions like
you show up like once a month or something like that.
You come in here with these down questions. I'm not down.
I don't know what year you graduated from BC. But
this is a program that we're building. Nobody hears down.
We're positive. We're gonna show up and play our asses

(01:24:20):
off against SMU.

Speaker 9 (01:24:21):
You can.

Speaker 8 (01:24:21):
You can go out there in your dark clouded world
or whatever it is and do what you want to do.
We're not down. The sun is up and we're fighting.
That's my message to the fans. What's up?

Speaker 2 (01:24:30):
Trevor sounds like they're not down, and he's not down,
and he's about what would the message to the fans
t be about the down season you're having.

Speaker 3 (01:24:40):
I think I can guess. I don't know it. Word
for word's phrasy.

Speaker 4 (01:24:44):
The Boston College program is down, and you can certainly
point to last year they were down, but they were
seven and six at the end of the year, and
this year they're down and the next time they win
a game, they'll put a two in the win column.
And we're almost done with the regular season. Just played
the Belichicks, didn't go well, played the Bellots. They are

(01:25:06):
very very even more than that, not just his friend
but I think the hiring of Bill O'Brien at BC
what brought these type of expectations with him. His team
last year was seven and six. He had just taken
over a team that was seven and six. They were

(01:25:28):
almost a five hundred team during the four years of
the previous head coach. They had one down year and
it left him a gamer a couple of games under
five hundred for the four year stretch. And now I
was coaching in the NFL, and Bill O'Brien took over
and kept them on.

Speaker 3 (01:25:41):
We're in a bowl game. We're a seven and six team.

Speaker 4 (01:25:43):
They were seven and five going into the bowl game,
and they haven't won a league game this year. They're
one in eight overall and there's three games remaining. They're
obviously not going to a bowl game this year. I
don't think I can read between the lines with his
relationship with this person, with what he said, But if

(01:26:03):
you were wondering if things were different or if he
was different, he takes it pretty hard. He's pretty he's invested.
I can give you that without any hesitation.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
He's not down.

Speaker 4 (01:26:14):
I think everybody could see that when he was here,
and he's mad, he was mad a lot here in Houston.
But his team got down though, and it is as
it was at his worst here in Houston. It's because
of the job he had here in Houston, which is
the job every college football coach has. When it was

(01:26:34):
his worst in Houston, the job he had was general manager.
That was the worst of his time here in Houston
because he wasn't very good at it. And he has
acknowledged that sense. Guess who the I mean. I know
they technically have a general manager now in college football,
but the person in charge of all of the players.
Everyone underneath them helps with you know, scouting players in

(01:26:55):
the portal, the nil collective, where the money's coming from,
who we want here, the recruit all that, but he's
in charge of all of that. These are his players
that are one and eight. Well, the thing about that Soundboy,
did you ever say that was Bill O'Brien. No, No,
But the thing about that sound, all of the things
he's saying, the fact that he's not down, and that

(01:27:17):
person who asked the question is and he's got that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
What did he call it, dark cloud reality or whatever.
It's just so good that to hear it once is
just not enough. I want to hear it twice.

Speaker 8 (01:27:33):
You know, I'm glad you're down.

Speaker 3 (01:27:34):
I'm not down.

Speaker 8 (01:27:35):
Nobody's down. We're fighting, we're competing. You know, it's the
second year of this program. Mike. You always come in
here with these down questions. Freaking Mike, Like once a
month or something like that, you come in here with
these down questions.

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
I'm not down.

Speaker 8 (01:27:47):
I don't know what year you graduated from BC. But
this is a program that we're building. Nobody hears down.
We're positive. We're going to show up and play our
asses off against SMU. You can. You can go out
there in your dark, clouded world or whatever it is,
do what you want to do. We're not down, the
son is up and we're fighting. That's my message to
the fans. What's up, Trevor.

Speaker 3 (01:28:06):
I'll tell you who's not down. What's up, Trevor.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
This son is Trevor. How about Mike. Mike only coming
up once a month, as Bill O'Brien put it, And
in the middle of that, you can hear Mike like, Okay,
I'm sorry, I did not mean to set you off.
Who did that in your cheerios this morning? He just
wants to get out of the room. What's up, Trevor.
Oh man, I'm good. You answered my question already.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
I'm good. I don't have any other questions.

Speaker 2 (01:28:32):
I don't miss dealing with that at all, and I
barely dealt with it by the time he was Uh,
I'll tell you right now. And I've said this, I
haven't shied away from it. I've been very transparent about it.
Bill O'Brien's transition from head coach poorly of this football

(01:28:52):
team to GM to power struggle with Rick Smith morphed
into power struggle with Jack easter B. Jack, I'm a
youth minister, easter B. I'm running the team now. Is
what finally finally drove me away for good. For a
long long time, drove you away?

Speaker 3 (01:29:12):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
I'm like, listen, I will watch this crap product or
pretty out bettered.

Speaker 4 (01:29:16):
Hello to Rick Smith at the game on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:29:18):
What was he doing there?

Speaker 4 (01:29:19):
I mean, he was just there with his family, I believe,
but he was down beneath leaving the game.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
Did you, like, did you pass him?

Speaker 4 (01:29:26):
I was waiting to get in the locker room and
he was walking by.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
Did you kind of nudge him and say, like kind
of quietly off to the side, Hey, I bet you
wouldn't have traded out of first round because you never
did that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:35):
You nailed your to so many people around.

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
I would have I don't care who's around, That's what
I would have said. I would have been like, you
know what, I kind of missed you, but not really
because we know how he did in later rounds. But
but it drove me away because it was like, all right,
until until they're going to like be a serious organization.
Because I'm sorry, even if you didn't think he was

(01:29:57):
a bad head coach, the minute they gave him GMing
orders or privileges and he shipped off, don't forget this
is the guy that sent DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals
for a ham sandwich.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30:10):
I think maybe some people also want well, I mean
they for whatever reasons they in season, short term, in
season firing of Brian Gain, I mean, what are their alternatives?
What can gms get fired in season?

Speaker 3 (01:30:22):
All the time? The time?

Speaker 4 (01:30:23):
We just saw it happen. So you bring in somebody
from the outside, or you promote somebody in the personnel
department from the inside.

Speaker 3 (01:30:31):
Miami just did it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
It's it happens all the time. Five year old guy.
So that guy, but he had been there twenty five
years they fired.

Speaker 4 (01:30:40):
Yeah, that's the GM that was out in champ Kelly,
who's been an interim GM before, is now helping them
and help them through this trade. It was trade made
with Jalen Phillips. We did not mention fairly significant player.
But yeah, Bill O'Brien in that role was ill equipped
for it, and the people he had helping him were
ill equipped for it, obviously Jack being among them. Jack
himself became an interim GM for a very short period

(01:31:00):
of time, which is also outrageous nonsense, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:31:04):
When you weren't going to games then, did it feel
like there was a malaise in the press box?

Speaker 4 (01:31:08):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
Dear got I mean seriously, I'm not even like this
isn't for effect When I say it drove me away,
I'm like, I will watch them on TV because I
have to, and that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
I'm not going over there. I'm not wasting my only time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:21):
It was different to me in the press box. And
all the years since two thousand and two were the
two years of Lovey and Coach Cully where it is
just you.

Speaker 3 (01:31:31):
Knew years are were they on purpose?

Speaker 4 (01:31:34):
Gary had a bad year and got fired to eight
to any of those interim games gamesm got fired with
a bad season. Those things happen, that's football. You had
multiple seasons where you're just kind of going through the motions, well,
well maybe we'll be seven to nine, maybe we'll be
eight and eight. There just wasn't much there. But those
two years it was there was a plan. Nobody wants
to say it out loud, like they didn't want to

(01:31:55):
say it out loud, even though it was clear as
day with the fifty win Astros. They're not putting up
product together that they intend on winning with because they're
hopeful that years of losing will produce talent that they
would not otherwise have had a chance to get.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
And they got that talent, and then they didn't protect
the one talent, and here we are.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
It doesn't matter. Brian champions two years in a row.

Speaker 4 (01:32:17):
Brian. BC's a pretty big place and they do care
about their athletics. But I'm guessing Brian will still be
more famous than Trevor.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
You know, my favorite Boston College graduate is Billy Curley.
Molly McGrath, great, maybe you're doing the industry.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:32:52):
Very important question.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Seeing as how it's the NFL trade deadline day, is
how the Rockets have been fantastic to start the year.
Seeing is that there's a lot going on in the
sports world. I feel like this Clipper story is being buried,
not just here. I mean, it's not like the Clippers
are exactly top of mine in Houston, but I think

(01:33:18):
it's being buried in the sports world just because of
the same type of things I'm talking about. There's just
other things that people are just paying more attention to.
How is this happening.

Speaker 3 (01:33:28):
Though, this is anybody found out?

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
Well, okay, so we to give you kind of the
cliffs notes version. Apparently Steve Baumer had fake companies that
were allegedly used to pay Kawhi Leonard under the table,
and that's a big reason why they are able to
get Kawhi Leonard is that you know, pound forl Pallet's
basically what we're talking about here.

Speaker 3 (01:33:49):
Yep, there's more details coming out.

Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
It's by the way, it's a tree planting company, Aspiration,
and Steve Bomber worth a lot of money, apparently one
hundred and fifty billion plus. But six months ago this
this stuff kind of started to come out. Pablo Tory,

(01:34:15):
who apparently breaks all the CD stuff now into the
sports world.

Speaker 4 (01:34:19):
Well, he's got two things in his sights. One of
them is Steve Ballmer's potential skirting of the NBA salary cap,
and the other, for some reason, is Jordan Hudson.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
Yeah. Why, okay, it's very eclectic.

Speaker 2 (01:34:36):
That's a most polite way to put it.

Speaker 4 (01:34:37):
It has generated a tremendous amount of interest in his podcast,
and it's probably ultimately gonna make him a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
Were you familiar with Collins Salo Salio, No, ciliam No?

Speaker 3 (01:34:48):
What about him? Who is he?

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
He's front office sports reporter. Oh okay, according to him,
eleven investors in the alleged shell company, Well, they have
decided they're going to sue Steve Bomber over the all
of this stuff that happened. It's one hundred and thirty
three page suit, first filed in June before Pablo Torre's

(01:35:11):
initial report. It did not initially name Steve Bomber, but
now he's been added to the filing. The lawsuit alleges
it served Bamber's interest in getting extra money to Kawhi
Leonard so he can circumvent the salary cap beat out
the competition and re sign his team's superstar player. Balmber

(01:35:33):
was complicit in and aided and abetted I love that
Sandberg's fraud for his own self serving purpose. Bomber publicly
endorsed Katona and infused over fifty million dollars into the company.
Absent Bamber's support, Katona could not have sustained the frauds
set forth herein.

Speaker 4 (01:35:55):
Katona is the company that they're now calling it in general,
like this is the company the fraudulent.

Speaker 3 (01:36:01):
It was, and now it's called Katona Climate. I listen.

Speaker 4 (01:36:08):
Basically, he was doing this in order to funnel money
to Kawhi Leonard, and they did not know this, and
the lawsuit really wasn't based on that, but now it
in part is because obviously the attent will one reason
of the attention that it draws. But they they were
suing the company in general, not necessarily for why he

(01:36:30):
did what he did and why he wanted to do
this and why this is all taking place, but it
is not part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:35):
Have you like me, I'll just ask you if you
agree with this.

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
Have you been floored by not only the lack of
knowledge from Adam Silver but a step further the appearance
that he's not exactly particularly interested in doing anything about it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
Well, I don't know about that.

Speaker 4 (01:36:52):
I just know he doesn't want to publicly talk about
it because this is this is what to me, this
is becomes. We don't know the end of it all,
but it strikes me a little bit like Daniel Snyder
with the Redskins. Then commanders, Oh, so you're just gonna
ignore all the smoke, Well, who are you talking about?
You're talking about one of thirty two or one of

(01:37:13):
thirty and what are those other thirty one or twenty
nine people concerned about themselves? If we're going out of
our way to tell you this guy is cheating, this
guy's doing things that are illegal. These are things that
he's got all these skeletons in his closet. As Snyder did,
we gotta get this guy out of here, he has

(01:37:33):
to go. What if he turns around and says, but
what about what you did? Or what about what you did?
I'm not saying all of them, Maybe it's none of them,
but I do think there always is an element of that,
because he's one of you.

Speaker 3 (01:37:46):
Like Jerry taking up for it.

Speaker 4 (01:37:48):
It's if there are skeletons in your closet, then you
might be inclined to look past and those skeletons in there.

Speaker 2 (01:37:56):
I get all of that, But where this is where
it gets me. And this is a quote from Adam.
This is a commissioner of the NBA. I was only
quasi joking with someone earlier. When people talk about a
smoking gun, that's obviously circumstantial.

Speaker 3 (01:38:08):
It means the gun is still smoking. It must have
been recently fired.

Speaker 2 (01:38:12):
I'd say, in the case of the league, we have
our investigators look at the totality of the evidence. I
would be reluctant to act if there was a mere
appearance of impropriety.

Speaker 3 (01:38:23):
Keep in mind, this.

Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
Is the same league that just investigated Chauncey Billups and
this whole gambling ring. You should probably be paying attention
if there's even the appearance, as you say here, that
one of your biggest and most well paid stars is
in concert with an owner of a franchise that your

(01:38:46):
first big move was getting rid of their previous owner
because he was such a racist piece of crap. You
should probably pay attention if one of your biggest and
most well paid stars, Even if you load manages only
plays about sixty games a year now is getting money
under the table with a fake company that the owner
is funneling money to him so that other teams can't

(01:39:06):
be as competitive. And by the way, what if the
Clippers were the reigning NBA champs right now? Would he
care more?

Speaker 8 (01:39:12):
Then?

Speaker 9 (01:39:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:39:13):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:39:13):
Again, I don't know if it's care or not care.
I do think publicly he is attempting to maybe now
it's a little bit like Rob Manfred. I don't want
everybody talking about a signed ceiling scandal that's ramping around
the league. I don't want people talking about that is
a great play. I think there's an element of what
is being said publicly. And then I'm glad you brought
up the investigation angle on the poker side, in the

(01:39:35):
sports rigging side.

Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
What it showed us if we.

Speaker 4 (01:39:38):
Weren't already aware, we should be aware because we've seen
internal investigations with professional sports organizations plenty. It's they have
only so much power, Like how easy would it be
for them to do what they did with the Roseier
investigation he's cleared. I mean, we can only get so
much information. I think this is a little bit different
because the people that they would that are involved, that

(01:40:00):
they would want to talk to, want this to be
exposed to a certain extents, So maybe this investigation would
go a little bit differently.

Speaker 2 (01:40:07):
But at the end of the day, what does it
really come down to. They don't want to find anything. Well,
Rob Manfred didn't want to say, because here's the deal.
If Rob Manfred really investigated, and he did, by the way,
he knew that it was going on all across Major
League Baseball. But it's a lot easier to scape goat
the Astros and act like they were the only ones,
just like it's a lot easier to say, we looked
into this gambling thing, not a lot there, we looked

(01:40:30):
at this ball thing.

Speaker 4 (01:40:31):
So look into the Balmer thing and find out what
you need to find out and find him multiple million
dollars and find him multiple years worth of first round
picks and say this can't happen.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
We can't have a league like this. You can't operate
like this.

Speaker 4 (01:40:47):
If you want to do what they did with Snyder
when you pull control from him without forcing him to
sell the team initially, you do that too.

Speaker 3 (01:40:53):
That's what you did with Donald Sterling.

Speaker 4 (01:40:55):
You can come down hard on them and come down
hard on the clippers if you really believe in are
able to determine down.

Speaker 2 (01:41:02):
I think they will when they find out. So after all,
A said, you just you're waiting on the dust to settle.
Then you think it's not done.

Speaker 3 (01:41:08):
Well. I also, I am not convicting him yet.

Speaker 2 (01:41:11):
Yeah, but I mean think about this, why else would
you form these shell this shell company over here really
tree planting, that's what we're doing here. I mean, this
is waste management. For Tony Soprano. It's the same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:41:25):
When he told Meadow that they were in the waste
management business. When she asked him what he did, she
didn't believe them.

Speaker 2 (01:41:30):
She didn't believe them, but she also knew that you
keep your mouth shut because that's what puts food on
the table, so to speak.

Speaker 4 (01:41:36):
I they're smoking gun is an interesting way to present it.

Speaker 3 (01:41:41):
For sure.

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
Lawsuits are what's going to help get the information out there.
And it's why it's amazing that a business person who
whether he fell into it, tripped into it, whether he's
Cramer and just I don't know how he made all
this money. It usually usually good business comes along with it,
smart shrewd business, making sure whatever you're doing either is
on the up and up or isn't going to be

(01:42:03):
found out to not be. The things that have happened
here that are gonna be uncovered because of these lawsuits
and because of bankruptcy, like being able to hide it
is going away. This is like when you did it
and they say he did This is like when you.

Speaker 2 (01:42:17):
Know the director of the FBI and all those Department
of Justice people were being grilled by Congress and about
the same entities investigating themselves.

Speaker 3 (01:42:27):
We didn't find anything. I got news for you. Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:42:30):
I found a lot, and you should better to get
to the bottom of it. I mean, I think that's
a it's a great comparison. I made comparisons during this segment.
I compared the sports organizations and Manfred and Snyder, and
you had your comparison as well, and they all, we're.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
Gonna send them all to jail. It's gonna happen, believe me.

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
I just yeah, we didn't find anything. Oh okay. I mean,
come on, man, if you weaponize the DOJ.

Speaker 4 (01:42:55):
It definitely smells and thinks to high heavens really stink.

Speaker 3 (01:42:59):
Here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (01:43:00):
If you don't come down hard on Kawhi Leonard because
he's a big superstar here, Like, what's to say that
other company?

Speaker 3 (01:43:06):
Other supers? Who is gonna be in the room with
Silver show Company? Hey, Man, don't come. We need Kawhi.
He's one of the faces of the league.

Speaker 4 (01:43:14):
He's one of the most dynamic personalities we have here.
We can't shelve him. Tellman's like, it wasn't a shell company.
It was just one of my casinos. We will get
into our signature segment, say what it's NFL and it's
more podium stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:43:28):
It's next.

Speaker 1 (01:43:30):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 11 (01:43:36):
This is Adam and Adams Weekly, choked through mind buckling
moments that make you go, hey, what what.

Speaker 5 (01:43:48):
Ky?

Speaker 6 (01:43:49):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:43:50):
Man?

Speaker 3 (01:43:51):
On a Tuesday way? What odin?

Speaker 12 (01:43:54):
I dare?

Speaker 2 (01:43:55):
Now say what?

Speaker 4 (01:43:59):
We are back with you for our signature segment on
Tuesday's pretty simple question we asked it could have been
Bill O'Brien today, but it's a different head coach.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
Ray of Sunshine, Bill O'Brien, what yes, Hey, Cole.

Speaker 4 (01:44:11):
By the way, I sent you a clip of Willio
Did you happen to gather that? And could you if
you wouldn't mind play the beginning of it, so we
can actually hear Mike's question, because I do think it
gives us a little insight to the text why things
went where they did, if that is available to us
via the audio tree that you are plucking from.

Speaker 1 (01:44:31):
Yes, I wondering to give a message for the fans,
obviously losing to Notre Dame, Catholic school rival one an
out in the season BC, I appear I've heard from
a lot of fans.

Speaker 4 (01:44:40):
I just really, I'm really cut him off, and that's
why it went the way it did. I did point
out that they had lost to a Catholic school rival,
Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (01:44:49):
Who beats them a lot, and other teams.

Speaker 4 (01:44:52):
He did get into the well, I've talked to a
lot of fans, and he cut him off because he
wanted to get his message to the fans, and he
was obviously getting more irritated as it went down a
path of dark cloud.

Speaker 2 (01:45:02):
Do you think if Mike showed up more than once
a month he would have responded that way?

Speaker 4 (01:45:08):
No, So I did a tiny, very unnecessary but nonetheless
done amount of research on Bill. We know it's a
we know it's a Mike that asked the question it's
Mike Waltieri. He's a play by play guy. Get him
on the show there in New England. He is a
as Bill noted, he's a b C grad. He's got

(01:45:29):
a podcast and at least the three thousand or so
followers that he has responded pretty confidently. Great question, Mike,
totally fair and warranted. Keep going, respect Mike, And so
does you know the burner verse beat me Farren Square.
Great to hear from you, Mike, you know, congratulations, Like
we don't think there was anything wrong with it. I
don't disagree with how the question was asked at all.

(01:45:51):
I personally would have asked it without the i've heard part.
But there you have it. So just a little insight
to the earlier version of what could have been our
say what today, But we take it back to where
Bill used to work the National Football League. There's one
team that's probably outside of Houston. What's the team we've
talked about the most today. Shockingly, it's not Dallas, even

(01:46:11):
though they've made a couple of moves.

Speaker 3 (01:46:13):
You noted it earlier.

Speaker 4 (01:46:14):
It's a team we don't talk about a lot and
probably won't talk about a lot in the future.

Speaker 3 (01:46:17):
It's the New York Jets.

Speaker 4 (01:46:18):
The New York Jets have not played very not played
very good football this season. The record is indicative of that,
their performances often are very indicative of that, and their
head coaches in year one a legendary Jet himself a
former and legendary Houston Texans player, Aaron Glent. We've played
sound from him at the podium previously. He has had

(01:46:39):
poor quarterback play from both quarterbacks that have been out there.
Torodd Taylor has not been at one hundred percent when
maybe he could have been out there otherwise.

Speaker 3 (01:46:47):
If there is a quarterback controversy.

Speaker 4 (01:46:48):
Woody Johnson made his comments about justin fields and they
certainly did not seem very well placed, and then they
had the opportunity to, you know, kind of regroup and
get things settled for their upcoming game. They want to
hit the field again and try to do a little
bit better than they have in the past. From a
locker room standpoint, I bet you their first year GM
and their owner probably wouldn't be too disappointed if things

(01:47:12):
just kept going the way they did and the first
round picks of their own and now newly earned first
round picks. But they can't quite control. Well, if they
keep working out. They have the Cleveland Browns this weekend.
Cleveland is on their way to whatever city. Their stadium
was built in met Life, and they're gonna play at
football game. It's a bad team against a bad team.
It's a team looking to make it two wins in
a row. That is Aaron Glenn's New York Jets. However,

(01:47:35):
we don't know where things stand from a quarterback standpoint,
because they're kind of in that gray area.

Speaker 3 (01:47:41):
Is Taylor healthy?

Speaker 8 (01:47:42):
Now?

Speaker 4 (01:47:42):
Do you consider making a switch permanently where things at?
This has been a constant line of question for this
football team, who has had starts from both quarterbacks. So
they went down this road again, and Aaron Glennett dis
point is having fun with it. And it's one reporter
who's trying to just kind of get to the bottom

(01:48:03):
of things. And it's a conversation we have all the
time in the NFL about injuries and keeping that information
away from other teams like this.

Speaker 3 (01:48:12):
Funny to go back to the quarterback thing again.

Speaker 5 (01:48:14):
So obviously you want to keep it secret as for
as long as possible for whatever you know, competitive reasons.
But I'm wondering, wouldn't doesn't it help the quarterback's confidence
when the coach comes out and says, you're my guy.

Speaker 9 (01:48:28):
It helps the quarterback confidence when the player and the
coach talk and they know who the guy is.

Speaker 3 (01:48:32):
Not that I'm telling it to you, guys, that has
nothing to do with the player's confidence.

Speaker 12 (01:48:36):
So basically, are you kind of saying that you know
whomever is going to start, knows his status as he
practices throughout the week this.

Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
Week, and that'll be between me and the player. Funny, Okay,
I don't understand why you guys keep doing it.

Speaker 12 (01:48:54):
Well, I'm just kind of curious to get ars too
ask the.

Speaker 3 (01:48:58):
Same question and I could get me the same answer.

Speaker 12 (01:49:01):
I am just curious, though, ag, what is the what
is the competitive advantage or disadvantage for a team not
knowing which of these two guys is playing?

Speaker 4 (01:49:10):
So I cut his answer off, which he does give
after that, so we'd have a little time to hash
it out and then get back to that. So he
did ask the right questions, and Aaron Glenn I think
answered it the right way too. So isn't it more
confident if you come out and say this is my guy?
He said, what difference does it make? If I tell
you or not. As long as I told him, that's

(01:49:31):
all that matters. He knows who's starting whoever he is,
and I think he's right. Now, do you really think this?
We've talked about it so many times. The Texans were
in this situation. The last time CJ. Stroud had a
concussion was not going to be available, and that was
a whole week of Davis Mills is getting the reps. Obviously,

(01:49:51):
Davis Mills is going to be the starter. They'll go
into this game with Davis Mills in Case Kaneman and
see how things work out. Davis is getting the reps,
Davis is going to start, and then all of a sudden, well,
Case Kanum is surprisingly the choice for the Texans. He's
going to be starting this game because there's some sort
of competitive advantage against this team that's not seeing CJ.

(01:50:15):
They're seeing the backup or the backup to the backup.

Speaker 3 (01:50:17):
All of that is funny and well and good.

Speaker 2 (01:50:19):
My favorite part of this was that he's essentially Aaron
glenn Is saying, yeah, they starter knows, and I know,
and you don't know. And so now all I see
is the reporter going back into the locker room and
trying to go to one of the two guys and
be like, hey, are you are you the guy?

Speaker 4 (01:50:36):
So the final question he asked was what we do
ask all the time when injuries, like even what happened
with the Ravens and Lamar Jackson, Like, oh, he practiced
in full I guess he's playing well, and then he wasn't.
You're preparing for him anyway, and then they.

Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
Got fined out all starts.

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
He's worse. Yeah, it doesn't.

Speaker 4 (01:50:52):
I mean, maybe that's a little bit extreme difference between
this guy and that guy, but you know who's the
starting quarterback? And keeping it close to the vest and
not telling you this. They don't have to, they have
to fill out an injury report. So a repeat of
the question in Aaron Glenn's answer to it about the
competitive or no competitive advantage at all?

Speaker 12 (01:51:10):
What is the competitive advantage or disadvantage for a team
not knowing which of these two guys is playing my
own reasons.

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
You know what's crazy about this is I'm hearing Aaron
Glenn and not seeing him, and there's video to go
along with it. I am old enough to remember interviewing him.

Speaker 4 (01:51:30):
As a player right there in the corner and it's
like it's the same guy.

Speaker 2 (01:51:35):
He just looks like if he was dressed up like
a grandpa like those Lebron James Commrshall's rate goatee.

Speaker 8 (01:51:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:51:41):
Well, but it's just crazy to me that we're all
that old now that he looks like he does.

Speaker 3 (01:51:46):
He is running.

Speaker 4 (01:51:47):
It may not work for him, it may work for him,
and I don't think he's being combative. This is what
he believes in and more often than not, when you
get to this level, it's because you've been who you've
always been, and that is what he is continuing to do.

Speaker 3 (01:52:00):
We'll see if it's to.

Speaker 4 (01:52:01):
His detriment or if it really matters at all, if
the Browns prepare for Taylor or Fields, if it'll be
a competitive advantage. He has his reasons the age on
Sports Talk seven ninety five o'clock out here on the
eight team, we'll jump back into football conversation at the

(01:52:23):
top of the hour. Our Football at five segment will
be there. Also have tickets to give away one hour
from now to two different concerts, both in twenty twenty six.
Sting is coming to town, ACDC is coming to town.
We'll have a pair of tickets to each of those
shows to give away for you in the final hour
of the program before we jump back into some football conversation.
Trade deadline Texan CJ. Stroud, et cetera. Baseball is about

(01:52:47):
to open up free agency. It opens up in a
couple of days, five days after the World Series. Opt
out decisions have been made by a handful of players
and are continuing to be made. A one such decision
was made earlier today as an ounce by the Tigers.
Jack Flaherty is staying with the Tigers under that deal
he opted in to his player option twenty million bucks.

(01:53:08):
Sounded like a good deal to continue playing with the Tigers,
so that is what he is doing. Most everybody else
is doing the opposite. Alex Bregman, Cody Bellinger, Brandon Woodroff
added their names to the free agent list, one hundred
and fifty three players deep now with who will be
available in free agency in a few short days. The
General managers meetings are also going to be underway in

(01:53:28):
one week, and the Astros have a lot of roster
forty man roster cleanup work to do. Players on the
sixty day IL are not a part of the forty
man roster over the course of the season. That's why
this past year you saw it over and over and
over again. They were taking guys off the fifteen day
il and throwing them on the sixty and they had
so many players to deal with. Well, they still have

(01:53:49):
a handful of players sitting there, many of whom are
not likely to participate in Major League Baseball activities next season.
To that end, Luis Garcia and John Rooney per Chandler
Rome replaced on outright waivers pedro Leone and Kennedy Corona,
both of whom saw a very very brief stint with
the Astros. Lone not even this year, but the year

(01:54:11):
before and Corona for the worst tiniest drop of coffee
this past year. Also Chas McCormick placed on outright waivers
by the Astros. This was expected with who they had
in the system. Still with how his last two seasons
had gone, and he will definitely have an opportunity to

(01:54:31):
play for a team. I think he's in a better
spot than even hoping for a minor league deal with
an invite to somebody's spring training. I think he's going
to get a deal, a major league contract. He'll maybe
have to play his way onto the team. But that's
probably what he's looking at. Fresh start for Chas McCormick,
not an astro any long.

Speaker 2 (01:54:51):
Well now, not that it was ever going to change
his greatest moment is completely edged in stone. It was
gonna be hard top anyway, but that catch in the
World Series, he's never gonna top that now after this
has happened. I just didn't see it ending this way
for him back when that was happening.

Speaker 4 (01:55:09):
No, But in the time that's followed, that's the path
that's taken. It's just unfortunate what happened to his swing
a year ago. It did not improve this past year, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (01:55:19):
But to me, that's that's far more unfortunate.

Speaker 3 (01:55:22):
Is Luis Garcia.

Speaker 4 (01:55:24):
Yeah, this was more of a Hosti Orkidi type move.
His career's not over and his astros career doesn't have
to be over. But this made the most sense from
their standpoint. It's a tough spot for him to be
in and it's the same thing when Club Control was
going to be one more year. Well it's a year
where he can't pitch, so they've gone this route with him,

(01:55:45):
and yeah, it's his path is clearly different. In that
it's had nothing to do with performance, not even this
past year's performance. Brief as it was when he was
throwing the ball as a healthy pitcher for two appearances
before his final pitch, it looked like, yeah, this is
someone who will once again, like he did before, help
this baseball team. But now his future is very much

(01:56:07):
in doubt anywhere because of the significance of two extremely
lengthy recovery processes for him in just a short period
of time. And again I'm sure there'll be an opportunity
for him. There was for Erkeidi. The Tigers were a
team that took a chance on him, and somebody probably
will do the same with Luis and for sure on Chaz.
You know he had you know, postseason moments. He obviously

(01:56:30):
is part of the excellence of World Series winning. The
player mentioning is one of them, homering off of Garrett
Cole and just doing a lot of things, because it's
not even just the fall off like an eight forty
two OPS player who hits a thousand or has a
thousand OPS off of left handed pitching. Those are players
that's last and stick and are part of what you're doing.

(01:56:52):
He just he never recaptured that twenty twenty three season.
Twenty twenty three season, not the season where that's etched
in met the following season, he was there's the best
he'd ever played. He was many, you know this is
during the time.

Speaker 3 (01:57:06):
Why don't you play them or why don't you do this?

Speaker 4 (01:57:07):
Well, unfortunately, after that, when you have an ops under
six hundred, your ops plus is under sixty five for
two seasons, this is what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:57:17):
Yeah, it's it's disappointing. I know it's disappointing for him.
He didn't want to in this way. Who would have
thought it was so weird? So basically since the time
George Springer left, give or take, I know, there's been
other guys out there. The Jose Series of the World
by the way, who started for the Astros in the

(01:57:39):
World Series.

Speaker 3 (01:57:40):
He's part of some pretty magical moments.

Speaker 4 (01:57:42):
I'm sure people have video like are etched in their
brain sliding into home Ony twenty one the Atlanta Series.
He's a major league player because of his other talents.
He hits a ton of homers, he hits for terrible average,
and has great speed on the bases and obviously defense.

Speaker 3 (01:57:57):
He's miles straw with an occasional bat.

Speaker 10 (01:58:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:58:00):
Yeah, he can hit the ball over the fence. Miles can't, right,
Miles can't hit anything, but he's very fast. But yeah,
after that, it's essentially been a platoon of these two guys,
and Jake Myers is the guy that ultimately won out.
But I remember where there was a time where it
was like, oh, no, Chaz is gonna be the guy

(01:58:20):
because Jake just cannot get it back to where it
was prior to the injury in the playoff game against
the White Sox.

Speaker 3 (01:58:27):
Yep, and here we.

Speaker 4 (01:58:28):
Are, and then he got hurt this year, right, and
then what was he after that? And if I was
going to talk about Miles that way, seriously, three homers
this year for Jake. The guy hit two ninety two.
Couldn't he couldn't. He can't hit for extra bases all
of a sudden at all, They're all singles.

Speaker 2 (01:58:50):
This is why it's hard for me to be like, oh,
the Astros will bounce back. There's a lot of stuff
that has to be done this offseason.

Speaker 4 (01:58:56):
They're not counting on him to bounce back. I don't think,
which would be a good thing. It'd be nice if
he did second half of the season. He only ended
up playing in fifteen games. He had two O four,
his OPS was four seventy five. It was It was unfortunate,
very unfortunate. But the Astros I do think will be active,
and Dan is gonna be talking to everybody about everybody,

(01:59:18):
because I don't think their makeup of their pitching staff,
and I include the bullpen, I don't think it's gonna
look at all like it did a season ago. You know,
you're getting to the point where you know, Brian Braves
nearing the end of club control. You're hoping, like all
these injuries we keep talking about, and we almost never
talk about one of the most important ones, Josh Hater.

(01:59:38):
Josh Hater's got three more years of baseball under contract
with the Astros, and he's coming off of a little
bit of a mysterious injury that did not require surgery.
But the anticipation is will be back and back to
normal when the season begins. Sometimes that can be very,
very risky. So those two players at the back end
of your bullpen maybe are like they were this year.
They both were awesome when healthy this year very very

(02:00:00):
good again. But your starting staff to day is one
of the finalists for cy Young Hunter Brown. He'll start
on opening day question marks in every other spot. If
you don't like it, then we can debate it. Christian
Xavier is a question mark, Spencer Araghetti is a question mark,
and anybody else you'd slot into the rotation among current

(02:00:20):
rostered astros would be a question mark.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
I want to I want to act like Christian Javier
is not a question mark.

Speaker 3 (02:00:27):
You can act like it. And like I said, it's
I want to be right.

Speaker 4 (02:00:29):
My opinion is not near, not necessarily correct, it's just
my opinion.

Speaker 2 (02:00:34):
Like after he came back, I know it wasn't smooth sailing,
but that was basically the entire season because he was
just so many injuries.

Speaker 3 (02:00:42):
Didn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:43):
Didn't he show you a little bit that it could
get back to me maybe worst the ara of his
career for sixty two, you don't have showed. Geez football
at five Mercifully, Mercifully Coming up next

Speaker 1 (02:00:56):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety