Rockets Handle Business Against Spurs, Parody X Accounts and Frank Caliendo Joins The Show

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler makes his return to talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on February 27th 2025.

• Rockets handle the Spurs.
• Amen Thompson is unreal. 
• RIP and then rebirth of NBACentel. 
• Media fights in Indy. 
• CJ Stroud needs to lay low this offseason? 
• Comedian Frank Caliendo joins the show. 
• NFL ponders rule changes. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team series.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A It's a Thursday edition of the program Sports Talks
seven ninety, soon to be simulcast on Space City Home Network.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
We know that on your iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Your number one preset is already Sports Talk seven ninety
because you're a good Sports Talk seven ninety listener and
an A Team enthusiast. Wex over there ac right here
on a Thursday edition. As we mentioned, we have got
a loaded show today. We've got tickets to give away,
We've got guests. Matter of fact, a good old friend
of ours gonna be catching up with us because he's

(00:48):
going to be coming into town sooner rather than later.
Frank Caliendo at the top of the four o'clock hour.
He's fantastic. And I try to tell people this all
the time. When you go to see his show. It's
not like, oh, he's just gonna stand up there and
do impressions the whole time. It's not same with Jay Farrow.
He's an actual comedian with really good bits. You know,
he sprinkles in the impressions in between there so he

(01:10):
will join us to kind of talk about when he'll
be coming to town, and that'll be about two hours
from now. In the meantime, let's get into some of
the things that are on the docket today, like the
fact that the we knew the San Antonio Spurs weren't
going to be very good even with Victor Winmbinyama, because
we saw that this year he's putting up all these
eye popping stats and they kept losing games. But now

(01:33):
that he's no longer there, they are god awful. That's
the clinical term for it. Wex and you were in
the building last night. I watched from the comfort of
my theater. They suck, man, they are like and I
know the Rockets played a very good game and they
were hitting everything out of the gate. So that can
be overwhelming, especially when you're kind of behind the eight
ball from a roster standpoint.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
But they're freaking terrible. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
I mean, I'm with you on this. Since we have
a full four hour show today, so I like the
what you're saying. Already, I would have just said good
team beat bad team easily, simple as that.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, it's as simple as that.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Very best segments here, they're a bad basketball team, And honestly,
I'm not usually the one on this side of it,
like Victor Webban Yama is putting up eye popping numbers
as a shot blocker, and that is it.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
He's a really good player.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
He does fill up the stat sheet twenty and ten
every night, is great, but he's not putting up eye
popping numbers. It well, definitly, I guess I should say
just as a shot blocker a rebounder, he's a good rebounder.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
They're not iepopps. It's the averaging. It's double digits, right.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, he averages a double double twenty four and eleven.
See that's my eyes aren't popping out of my head.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
But eleven is elite rebounding for an individual in today's NBA.
It's not Dennis Robb and it's not Charles Barkley, but
it's that's that's a really solid averaging.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
One of the league's best rebounders. Yeah, I take eye
popping to mean, oh my god, he's averaging f one
and oh my god, shot blocker.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
That is it.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
And I'm I don't usually come in here and handle
the role of crushing Victor, but that's my job. We
talked about it before the game yesterday, and it's the
good news is what has to do with the Rockets.
They haven't had very many games like this really all year.
You know, they beat the Spurs by twenty seven points
back in November and the only other game here in
Houston between those two teams, and they could have easily

(03:16):
done that again last night.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
That's the good news. They pulled back the reins.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
They let their starters sit for or three of the
five starters sit throughout the entire fourth quarter. It was great.
They haven't had very very few of those games, and
I think that was on the second night of a
back to back.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
They've had very few of those.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Games either where they've come out and ended a game
in ten minutes, and they did that last night. Really
doesn't matter who they've played, they've let other teams stay
in games. They've played down to the level of competition.
They just lost a game to a team who's significantly
worse than San Antonio on the second night of a
back to back when they lost to Utah on Saturday.
But they didn't let that happen last night, and it
came out, like you said, shooting well had a ten
point lead in three minutes and really were never threatened

(03:54):
the rest of the way. That is how you try
to get back on track from a health and rest point,
because they didn't really have to gut anything out last night.
Last night was Wednesday. Today is Thursday, no game. Tomorrow's Friday,
no game. The next day is Saturday, and you're playing
at home again, So no game, no game, no travel
for three days, something this team hasn't seen obviously.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Since the All Stars really need.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
But all of that goes hand in hand with trying
to make these last twenty plus games mean something to them.
A win yesterday with the Lakers IDOL pushed the Rockets
ahead of them by half a game. The Lakers also
have three more games to play than Houston the remainder
of the season, so they'll have even fewer days off,
and some of their key players are oldest dirt and

(04:38):
that usually matters, So we'll see if the Rockets can
at least stay there. They're only a game and a
half back of Denver, a game and a half back
of Memphis. The type of basketball each of those four
teams play when they're at their best, the Rockets are
among those top four they're not better than Oklahoma City,
but they've beaten each of those other teams. They've beaten
Memphis multiple times, They've beaten Denver. They'll have another game

(05:00):
against the Nuggets coming up back in Houston. Those games
might turn out to be exceptionally important from a standing
standpoint and matchups that come with it. If the Rockets,
if this maybe last night and the night before, at
the beginning of them starting to write the ship a
little bit, it's their last game in February. They went
eleven and four in January and emy Udoka won Coach
of the Month. They went five and seven in February.

(05:22):
He will not win Coach of the Month. And they
obviously need to put a march together that puts them
back on that track.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Last night was a good thing to do.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
That for take care of a team that really doesn't
belong on the court with you, and that's what it
looked like.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
They did not belong on the court with the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
And you know specifically, and I want to get into
this a little bit in the next segment, but listen,
I know that I am I am driving the I'm
the grand Marshal of the parade for this but a
men Thompson is like there's a you know how we
always talked about nobody objected to the fact that the
Rockets took a Keen number one in a draft that

(05:58):
had Michael Jordan taken third, And that's like one of
the highest compliments you can pay a guy. I think
we're gonna look back and it's going to depend on
how his career winds up, because you know, everybody seems
to think he's going to be just this transcendent whatever.
But Victor wibin Yama better be because Amn Thompson is ridiculous,

(06:18):
and Amn Thompson is a winning basketball player. Like from
the standpoint of he the stats he puts up, they
might not be mind popping or eye popping either, but
he's putting up a whole lot more of them, and
he's doing a lot more in tangible things that help
you win basketball games on the floor end of the floor.
That's the most important when it comes to winning championships.

(06:38):
And that's not the offense. I just every time I
see this kid do something that it's something I haven't
seen it done before. In fact, I was calling him
a men Elijuan last night in text messages because of
some of his footwork on some of those plays in
the post.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
He's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Did it look as like cyborg like in front of
your very eyeballs last night?

Speaker 4 (06:58):
Like it does for me to repeat myself three times
because three different Spurs defenders watched it happen. He was
about twelve feet for the basket. They were between him
and the basket. It was during a half court set,
so there's plenty of traffic around. He just faced them
up and lost them completely. Two of them for dunks,
one of them for a nice spinning right handed layup.
He did it to Sohand, He did it to Champagnee,
he did it to Castle. It was It was great

(07:19):
to watch, and he needed to, I think mentally maybe
get back on track a little bit. Not like he
was off track with five minutes to go against the
Bucks of the night before, but maybe with four to
twenty seven to go he was a little bit off
track and that he was walking back to the locker
room because he'd just been ejected from the game for
he wanted a w W bell yep Tilman and Fertita
last night, the owner of the Houston Rockets was brought

(07:41):
out pregame as they wanted to acknowledge the Defensive Player
of the Month award for I mean Thompson.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
They did.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
They made the announcement, handed in his trophy. Tilman had
a risen from his not quite center court seat last
night because the National Network took that over. But he
walked up to the court, got a micro and made
a reference to a men in the WWE and congratulating
him and noting very clearly how happy they are that
he is here. A lot of different ways to measure players.

(08:11):
We usually leave the deep dive analytics stuff to you know,
fangrafts and baseball and whatnot. But win shares number one
from the twenty twenty three NBA draft is ament Thompson
by a pretty good margin. He's been on a team
that's won half their games. Last year won forty one
and forty one. Now he's on a team that is

(08:32):
trying to lock up a home court advantage spot. They're
fifteen games over five hundred at thirty seven and twenty
two since he arrived on the team. And just keep
in mind how hurt he was to start his career
last year, how long it took for them to integrate him,
into what they were doing. And this second takeoff this year,
well it coincides with him being inserted into the starting

(08:53):
lineup the month of January. They had was largely because
he was so great last night, the twenty five points,
this second highest scoring game of his career. Had thirty
three against Boston back in January. He's also scored twenty
five or more points three times in the last month's
worth of games. Hard to be much more impressed with
what he's done. It was a no brainer to take

(09:14):
Wemby at one. The next best player in the draft
I think right now is unquestionably Amn Thompson, and we'll
keep an eye on each other their respective careers. But
James here today. You can go ahead and love all
you want on amend. But I don't really think anybody
is thinking that he should have been gone, he should
have been picked first, or he'll have a better career.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Give it time on that last one.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
So I said, well, we'll keep an eye on.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
I have no problem with the draft. I get it.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
You know, there were people that you know, like what
what was the.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
And this whole winning stuff, like Victor plays with garbage
very much talent except for wait, no, what's he supposed
to do.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
We'll get into that next time. How's he supposed to
win games?

Speaker 2 (09:58):
That's the other element of next segment that I wanted
to get in to because I can't wait to have that.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
I don't even know if we'll disagree. I'm very interesting.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Sounds like we will because you think the Spurs have
talent there, they have leadership in Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes.
Neither of them are strong, winning NBA players anymore, winning attitudes,
winning teaching. You know, I'm not sure how many people
are watching the awful basketball that Dearreon Fox is playing
since the trade, their best player comes off the bench
because they signed Harrison Barnes Keldon Johnson. That's a huge mistake. Yeah,

(10:28):
And we went through this a little bit during the
broadcast last night. They didn't trade away any of their
first round picks over the last eight years. They just
drafted players that didn't turn into very good players.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
All Right, save it for next segment, because you're getting
to some of the things I wanted to talk about.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
We will.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
I do want to get into that because I think
that as the as their respective careers continue, however long
they do, and However, you know, however they turn out
from a performance standpoint, we will keep revisiting that. There
are some other things we want to get to today,
including possible NFL rule change is plural. It's that time

(11:02):
of year where we just got to find a way
to force the NFL in because I mean, we can't
watch games and that sucks. So we'll talk about that,
and yeah, we'll get into a media argument, and not
just the one that's top of mind, but as it
pertains to you know everywhere in this profession that we
call our job each and every day. So it's a

(11:23):
very busy Thursday edition of the eight team Sports Talks
seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Back to Adam Clinton had Adam Wexler the eighteen on.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
Sports Talk seven ninety eight.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
It is the eighteen Thursday edition of the program. As
wex mentioned after the what was that it was the
third or the fourth set of back to back games
for the Rockets.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
I know it's three for sure, fourth golly with an
All Star break in between.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Listen, I'm allowed to complain though it doesn't matter that
start breadays off in between the last one one. So
I'll let you know, when I care about any of
that stuff, you'll.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
Never let me know because you don't care. You only
focus in on the one thing. You're right, no other
factors matter.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
I'm laser focused with horse blinders on. I don't like
the fact that now we have to wait a while.
But you know that's two days.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
It's too much.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Wex you could have had a game every other day
for the last two weeks instead. Boom boom, wait wait
boom boom wait wait wait wait, wait, wait wait boom boom.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
So I bring all this up because I've you know,
I remember vividly.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Being in that we'll just call it.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
The Dark Ages of Rockets basketball, where you and I
were doing games, everybody involved in the broadcast.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
It's just it's a it's a part of life.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Teams go through it, and honestly, the Rockets hadn't gone
through it in two plus decades when it finally happened.
You know, the malaise of a rebuild. And honestly, that's
probably the biggest compliment you could give rafel Stone right
now is how quickly, in hindsight, he was able to
turn around.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
He just.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Decimated situation. I mean, Christian Wood was.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
A key cog in a non machine.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Did I do that right?

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Is that the most effective way to say that Christian
Wood was not a very good player and he was
a big part of what the Rockets were trying to do,
which was lose a lot of games. But A Men
Thompson and just watching him play, Like if you go
to a Rockets game and this is not an advertisement
for buying tickets, even though I work for the team.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
It's not.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
I mean, it just is what like if you are
one of those people you're like, oh, you know the NBA,
I'm down on it, and you know Lebron's about to
walk out the door. STEP's not far behind him. Kd's
getting on up in age and who's going to take over.
I'm not telling you that A Men Thompson's going to
be the face of the league. I am telling you
he's worth the price of admission. And the fact that
he plays for a team with Houston on its gear

(13:57):
is something that you should be very happy about and
take advantage of, especially in the young stages of his career,
because he's only going to get better. Like I think
everything he does on the floor there's this ceiling super high.
I don't think he's hit any sort of like wall Is.
If anything, his shooting has so much room to get
even better, and he's still managing to put up twenty

(14:18):
five points last night. I'll be it against a bad team,
but he has this against good teams. He had a
game winner against the defending champs this year.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
His three point shooting not in the corners, to me,
is already all that's left. That's it. He shoots extremely
well inside the three point line, pretty much from everywhere,
and that includes sixteen eighteen feet out, though he does
not take very many of those. Because the Rockets are smart,
they take more than they used to, but it's still
not an ideal shot unless you're talking about elite level shooters,

(14:44):
and they probably don't have any or many of those.
Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, and a men a handful of
those shots come from their hands, but everything else inside
the paint. I mean, just look at last night's game.
For example, he took twelve twos, he made eleven of them,
and they weren't all dunks. A lot of them were,
but they weren't all dunks, and they never are. He
has a really good game inside the painted area. When

(15:05):
he gets to the painted area and he gets to
within twelve feet, he can make a shot from pretty
much anywhere, and he can't get off that shot against
just about everybody. So yes, he's absolutely been incredible to watch.
Developed very quickly from a year ago when he was
in the draft. Jalen Green obviously and Dylan Brooks shot
the ball very well early in the game and put

(15:25):
the Rockets essentially on easy Street. You know, most of
Jalen's work was done in the first half. He went
seven of eleven. Dylan Brooks hit five of eight from deep,
and you coast it because you kept the intensity up
the whole game and all you did was extend the lead.
And then the third quarter start and you extended it
so far out guys didn't have to play the rest
of the night. Just had way more of those games

(15:46):
throughout the first thirty or so tip offs this year
and just haven't had enough of them. On the other
side of it, we'll see what takes place with a
team trying to make the playoff picture. Probably destined to
be one of the seven through ten seeds, the Sacramento Kings,
even after the trail a way of dearon Fox. They
did get a talented player back in return, and the
Rockets will see him as a King for the first time.

(16:06):
Talking about Zach Levine, it's not an under talented team.
It's still remarkable that one team has Bradley Beal, Devin Booker,
and Kevin Durant on it and none of the other
teams do, and ten of them are ahead of the
Phoenix Suns. The Kings are the team closest to them
in tenth, but they also are creating a cushion between
themselves and the Phoenix Sons, who are almost a locke

(16:27):
to miss the top ten and be a part of
the lottery. Even before the two teams that lose and
the playing tournament joined them from the Western Conference.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
So you know, you just got done talking about his offense,
but what he did last night, and it's a kind
of it's a perfect bridge to what I wanted to
get to as far as these two teams, because anytime
they play each other, it's you just they've been rebuilding.
Like concurrently, I guess the Rockets and the Spurs, and

(16:58):
the Rockets watched the Spurs go out and get one
of the guys that, for better or for worse, had
his name attached to the Rockets simply because he's a
star caliber player that was available.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Not because of fit, not because he's gonna be the
missing piece to a championship puzzle or anything like that.
It's just de' Aaron Fox was out there, just like
Kevin Durant's gonna be out there, just like somebody else
is gonna shake loose at some point. That's how the
NBA works, It's how the ecosystem of the NBA churns
every single year. De' Aaron Fox was awful last night.

(17:31):
There's two reasons for that. The number one reason was
Amn Thompson was defending him and just harassing him into oblivion.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
It was awesome.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Seven points, three rebounds, three assists in twenty eight minutes.
He was three for twelve from the field, one for
five from the three point line. He was a minus
twenty if you're into that sort of thing. Just not good.
And the other part of that is what you were
talking about in the first segment. He's not a superstar.
He never will be a superstar. And I think the

(17:59):
longer we go oh after this deal, which you admittedly
you said, and it's true, Spurs didn't give up the
Kings ransom for this guy or anything.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
No, that's actually a better way of putting it. They
give up nothing so basically in my opinion, But when
he is due for a contract, that's when the rubber
meets the road, because he's gonna want Max give it
to him.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
Yeah, it's a good news for everybody else in this conference.
He went to a worst team. He's in a worse
position in my opinion. He just plays with the superstar.
Best player on the Kings of the Spurs is Victor
and talking about their future and their potential to be great.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
But he's on a worst team. He just is.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
The Kings are just better than them, and the Kings
will be better than them again next year unless something
dramatic happens in the offseason. Because they're gonna try to
win with the Aaron Fox and Victor Webbinyama and probably
Stefan Castle next year, whatever pieces are around him, I
don't know that they're gonna add something great.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Spurs will be back in the lottery. Spurs are also the.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
Ninth worst team in the NBA, so they're odds of
landing in the top four or landing one or two, well,
they simply aren't very good. It's certainly possible, and that
might change what I'm saying. But if they end up
where they belong and don't win a spot in the
top four, then they're just gonna get another.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Player They're not gonna get well.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
They're just gonna get another player that they've been drafting
for the last eight years that aren't amounting to much
of anything. Devin Vessel is one of the best players
they've drafted. He wasn't even drafted particularly high. But each
time they've had an opportunity to find something. And you know,
this rebuild that's on a concurrent timeline, it really isn't.
They've been rebuilding for six years. The Spurs haven't been
good for a long long time. You remember who LaMarcus

(19:34):
Aldridge is. I do, Yeah, when he was their best
player they were in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
That was sick not with them, that was six postal markets.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Aldridge was on that twenty seventeen team, wasn't he with
the Spurs that beat the Rockets? When lou what's his
face came off the bench and James Harden had a
disappearing act in game six and Monogenobili had the block shot.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
Oh I mean maybe he was uh the end of
his career. Yeah, I mean he was a determining factor there.
He was pretty good. I shouldn't have dismissed him quite so.
Points and seven rebounds for LaMarcus Aldridge, Yeah, it's pretty good.
But Kawhi Leonards twenty five probably is what really did
is he did them in. Not to mention Tony Parker
and Paul Gasol, but yes, LaMarcus Aldridge was also there

(20:16):
with Manu and the rest of the crew on that
squad that beat the.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Rockets, James Harden disappearing act being the number one factor,
and then they won.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Thirty two, thirty three, thirty four, twenty two, twenty two.
This year they're going to win more than that, probably, right,
shy of thirty. This is not new to them, And
I obviously have very you know, I have a heart,
it beats, and I feel for the situation that Greg
Popovich is it. But I think the downward spiral of

(20:45):
the Spurs, which was only saved by a miracle lottery win, yes,
was due to how he coached the NBA at this
stage of his coaching career, and I don't mean this year,
and I do mean right after that year. They haven't
won a playoff series in eight years. The playoffs you're
talking about. That's the last time they even won a series.
They've been to the playoffs twice since then. They're not.

(21:07):
The only progress they've made is drafting Victor and maybe
they for all I know, they drafted the best player
in this last draft. Stefan Castle clearly has played better
this year than any of the players drafted in front
of him.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
He also can't shoot.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
That could come and it probably will come players with
that kind of talent, and that if he cares, and
I believe he does, then maybe they do have two
players to go along with dearon Fox at least somewhat
of an established NBA player. I mean, he's a borderline
all NBA guy when he's at his best, But I
don't know that he's ever going to produce like that. Again,
he's not a great shooter. He's pretty good at everything,
has been fairly good in the clutch, and you know,

(21:45):
of all the players that we've discussed and their availabilities,
he's a little bit on the younger side than some
of the others that moved, but he's the least impactful
of the players.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Great players that moved.

Speaker 4 (21:55):
Jimmy Butler's gonna make Golden State a lot harder to
beat for this year and for next year. Cy Davis
is going to give them Mavericks a chance to win big. Obviously,
Luka Dancis is gonna give a chance the Lakers to
win big. And then Dearon Fox was the other player
that most people figured would also get moved, and he did,
and he went from a play in tournament caliber team
to a team that's definitely not going to the postseason.

(22:17):
And I don't know if the Spurs thought that was
going to change. Over the final thirty plus games. They
won twice in the six games he was on the roster.
With Victor. They've won once in the five games they've
played since the All Star Break, obviously coinciding with when
Victor Webinana is no longer playing for them. One in
five over a six game stretch, that's pretty much going

(22:39):
to be the case for the final twenty plus games
for them. They're gonna win five or six games the
rest of the year, that's it, and they're gonna land
probably in the nine or ten spot in the draft order.
If they don't draft a player that's going to make
much of a difference, then the group they have right
now is the group they're going to be playing with
again next year, and they stand an exceptionally high chance
of landing on the outside again next year. Phoenix could

(23:01):
blow things up. That might be a team that's ahead
of them, but also not in the playoffs that they
could pass. Who else are they going to pass? We
had this discussion about the Rockets this past year. If
you're eleven through fifteen, and Houston was eleven, they got
to pass somebody at least to get in the playing tournament.
They got to pass four teams to get inside the
top six. Well, they passed well technically if they passed

(23:25):
seven teams, because Memphis actually passed them. Memphis was further
behind them because they had so many injury issues and
suspensions to deal with. But there's only three teams out
playing the Rockets this year. Last year there were ten. Yeah,
do you forecast anything remotely close to that happening with
this Spurs group, even with Fox and presumably a healthy
Victor Wemban Yama.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Plus when Fred comes back, the rockets are going to
be so much better in so many different ways. As
crazy as that may sound to some of you, I
firmly believe it.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Maybe I'll be wrong, but I doubt it.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
All right, We will take a quick time out, believe
it or not, when we come back a little bit
more NBA discussion, but not even remotely of the same variety.
This is something that is actually super impressive that a
lot of big names in the sporting world we're talking
about last night.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
It's the world we live in. I'll explain in the
Best of.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
X next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety. If
you can buy Astro's gear on it so you can
hear us on it, be give usen live for free
on any smart device.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Did you all see this should be putting.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
Out Between five and fifteen posts a day.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
History repeats itself type bang, you'll succeed.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
Never doubt that you're.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
The one who pus for no one build You're the best.
Nothing's gonna ever top you.

Speaker 7 (24:57):
Now, you're the.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Best of it, posting every single day.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
You're the best of it.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
You know, all this does is remind me that there's
new parody material on the way.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Well to that end, before we get to the best
of x NBA style. Yeah, the Combine on field workouts
have begun. We'll have a show throughout this afternoon with
the defensive linemen and the linebackers running not as fast
as most of the other players at the combine, and Friday,
Saturday Sunday concludes the next three sets of players that

(25:38):
will do their on field workouts. Some more players today
meeting with the media and indicating they will won't be
participating in them. Guys at the top of the draft
like Travis Hunter, who again continues to impress every possible way.
But after the Combine has taken place, and as we
roll through five six weeks of pro days to get
closer to the draft, that whole period, essentially to me

(25:59):
starting Monday, is when mock drafts really carry a little
bit more weight. I appreciate all the work that gets
put on them, and I do the same to try
to come up with my own ideas for the twenty
fifth best available player for the Houston Text or maybe
the nineteenth best player. When six teams in front of them.
Take stupid players or not good football players. They might

(26:20):
be intelligent, make stupid moves, stupid just because you suck.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
It's not the player's fault, it's the team's. Folash. I've
said that very poorly.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
But when we begin diving much more head first into
mock drafts, that will necessitate the need for the latest
greatest parody song. I hit the airwaves here on the
A team starting next week.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
All right, so you're aware of this.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
A lot of people are aware of this, and more
people than I guess I thought were aware of And again,
I'm gonna screw this up.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
NBA sentel is that the handle? Are you going to
screw it up?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Well, it's not like I can go to the account.
It doesn't exist anymore. I can only go to the
hashtag that the Houston Rockets account and the Orlando Magic
account and others from around the association, even NBA related
sites that have a large following of their own, like.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
Yeah, this is a central yeah sports parody account. Yeah,
it's clearly NBA centric. We brought it up, I think
within the last few days because the MAVs and Lakers
were getting together, and then with the Mavericks according to
at NBA sentel, which is specifically that handle because it's
a parody account to try to make people think it isn't.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
I guess who aren't paying attention.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
A lot of people picked up one of the stories
they noted wrote or captions they wrote. They don't really
write stories, they just post info on their handle on
their social media on the X platform indicating that the
Mavericks were going to let people into the arena who
are where seventy seven jerseys of Flukadancich when they get
back home? And there were plenty of outlets, national radio outlets,

(28:09):
et cetera, that thought it was real and had discussions
about this on the air when it was completely made up.
And then last night the NBA franchises you're talking about
made note of it on their own handles that this
parody account currently has been banned.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well now, since everything is a conspiracy these days, and
I know you know the answer to this, Like I
just mentioned the Rockets account mentioned this, the Orlando Magic
stephen A.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Smith, Like the list goes on and on.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Did the Dallas Mavericks X account make any reference to
this situation or use the hashtag free Centel or rip
Sentel or whatever.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
I I do not believe the Mavericks were one that
did that.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
It could be right, since the latest rumor going around
is they're the ones that made this happen.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
That's at least.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well, that particular comment post that I mentioned clearly was
at their expense and everything else in the world, right,
but people believed it. That's not the Mavericks fault, and
it's it is it's it's the people's fault.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
I mean the people.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
The people will fall for a parody account, especially when
this popular.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, well, and that's the thing. It was how it's.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
Also become like Facts Sports, a baseball parody account. They
become very popular and guess who knows about them? The
team and the players on the teams, like the players
who are being misquoted. And then a very very very
very fine print at the bottom. Lance mccullors did not
in fact say this, you know, like it's awesome, So
I say all that, go ahead. I appreciate the MLB

(29:51):
version when they attribute it to a reporter who works
for them, but it looks so real. I believe it's
at Holly Baylor MLB on the Facts Sports account. It
makes people who aren't paying quite close enough attention well
for it.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
So one guy was not very happy about it.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
His name's Jack, last name Applebee, but it's spelled with
a y, not an ee on not like the restaurant
where the Dundee Awards were given out. NBA sentel and
he quote tweeted the Magic's tweet. By the way, I
should clarify, he quote tweeted the Orlando Magic's official x account,

(30:29):
which simply put hashtag free Sintel with the following NBA Sinel,
a parody NBA news account that frequently posted misinformation to
intentionally trick people finally got banned on Twitter, which doesn't
exist anymore.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
It's just funny because he's.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Where's the formerly known as since he's a journalist and
wants to let us all know this. So an NBA
team tweets that it's missed NBA team marketing forever Thursday
for Internet points over what's best for the sport. Don't worry,
He's not done. He followed it up by saying the
number of loser Twitter anons replying to this, saying quote

(31:06):
journalists are lazy is hysterical. Journalists are routinely overworked and
underpaid to provide a service to the people.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
You're a real.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Ass if you think intentionally trying to trick them is humorous.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Oh my gosh, this guy must be amazing at parties.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
I think Addarn Schefter probably appreciates what they do. I
mean to hat tip the NBA teams that had near
and dear to their hearts. The Rockets were among the
teams that paid a little bit of a salute Forever
in our hearts hashtag rip Sentel and they Let's see
who else. The Pistons. They won a big game last

(31:45):
night over the Celtics. They won by twenty. They won
their eighth straight game. Their post about that did it
for Centel tonight prayer emoji. So they also put the
Centel logo over a business head as he made a
three and had a Celtic who was trying to close
out on the shooter, Walsh, Jordan Walsh. They had NBA

(32:08):
media tagged over his body as he made that play.
Clippers got to win last night. James Harden had twenty
seven points in the second half. On the Clippers wrote
this is for you, n NBA Sentel and had James
you know doing that?

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Well, Hey, man, it's you dog.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
But they had a w in there because most of
the winning teams took part in this winning. He got
a big win last night over the Hawks, so they
put a graphic up there he'd win. They put their
rag doll shooter on the picture and it said, we'd
like to dedicate this win to NBA Sentel. It's so
great Suns simply put. Obviously they didn't win last night.
They never win. Hashtag rip Centel magic, hashtag free Centel

(32:48):
Jazz who did not win last night.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
But played they only wone the way they played. The
Rockets rip.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Sentel broke and heart emoji and the Atlanta Hawks probably
had the best one. They had a gift of the
inside the NBA crew, well two of them, the two
biggest members of the crew, Shaq and Charles jumping down,
Kenny hugging one no literally, not figuratively, the biggest people,
Charles and Shaq hugging each other. And they captioned it
all caps no more getting senteled.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Our buddy Space City Sports going back to mister appleby
here lmfao. What kind of moron falls for Sinel news
You're embarrassing.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
And the other one of the other very popular multi
sports parody accounts that we have enjoyed. Is so obviously
a parody from their name. I still can't believe people
read this and like, wow, I didn't know this?

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Why who told you this? At Ballsack Sports? Are you sure?

Speaker 4 (33:47):
I mean, come on, are you?

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Where's your head?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
This guy is the biggest I'm serious, Like, and I
know we're we're like going over here, we're just.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Having some fun. Well he's not.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
Is this there's a there's hey man, how do you
have arguments, discussions, debates or any fun if everyone's on
the same side.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yeah, but you're on you're the only one on the
other side. Doesn't have to be. He is fighting a
good fight.

Speaker 8 (34:09):
Win the fight.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Everybody like this guy, says Cintel is teaching people to
check their sources.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
It's a good thing for society.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Jack says, no one ever had a problem with bad
sources until Sintel. They didn't show a problem, they created
a problem. You're a loser. This guy, this guy Alex says,
I don't know. It was funny and if you used
your brain for two seconds, it was very obvious.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
What was a joke?

Speaker 2 (34:29):
It honestly did a lot for media literacy in our
country by making NBA fans think twice when seeing news
on Twitter. Jack of course had a response it had
no effect on media literacy in this country. Well, thank god,
we know you're here to tell us what has an
effect and what doesn't, hey Jack, seven one three seven ninety,
because I will light you up if you call into
this show right now and show you what a boring

(34:53):
ball sack sports you are.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
Eleven twenty four am today, ten point four million views
on at the NBA Sentel's most recent post, which all
appearances indicate it is an active account being followed by
four hundred and seventy thousand people. Currently they're back in
business apparently, and again we'll read you their bio and
we will move on. Featured on five different outlets parody

(35:18):
account not affiliated with at the Dunk Central, which has
that's another good one almost five four times the followers,
and that is an aggregator of news. That that's why
NBA Sentel exists. Their logos very similar, they're at is
very similar. This is how parody accounts work.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
So it's back.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
It appears to be I made a phone call, I
got on the horn with Elon and in the middle
of a doge meeting, he restored the account.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
You're welcome, NBA fans. That's what happened right there, and
you suck jack Applebee.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam I'm Wexler the eighteen
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
You know, I didn't do a Super Bowl party this
year for a variety of reasons, and when I throw
one next year, I can tell you one person who's
not coming, Jack Appleby.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
I hate that guy. I want him to call into
the show. I really do.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
I want to be like dude, seriously, because he's got
I looked up his account. He's got like a pretty
strong contingent of a following, and I just it's a
perfect segue into what I want to talk about here.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
Well, we're having fun with this particular account, and there's
many other times where we have the opposite point of view,
Like what's the point these parody accounts, these driven from
their basement accounts. All you're doing is making people angry,
and you're making people make mistakes because they aren't careful
enough to pay attention.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
How is this enjoyable for you.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Now, a parody account that gains a following enough to
where maybe it turns into something useful for the person
is one thing, but most of them aren't. This one
is different with the amount of traction that it's gotten
because people recognize it and they're now actually using it
for enjoyment. It's fun. The things they post are funny.
You shouldn't be falling for them, and I don't even
know that that's the point anymore of what they're doing.

(37:15):
But some still do a lot of the other parody accounts,
which because we're talking about the NFL draft, the NBA draft,
other things like that's when they're usually at their peak.
Because people are so hungry for breaking news, they'll believe
it without looking. They'll you know, free agency is another
incredible opportunity for people to have an at Wadjnarowski account

(37:38):
or at Sharn's Charania account and people will just I didn't,
I didn't realize it. Well, maybe put your notifications on
and if it didn't come via notifications, it didn't come
from the source itself. I'm sure there's an at Jordawn
Schultz account, but the funny thing is he doesn't need
a parody account because he makes so many freaking mistakes already.

(38:02):
Using his information is like a sports talk radio host
death wish because it's wrong so often, like yesterday's.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah, yeah, I mean again, going more semantically wrong maybe
in yesterday's case.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Right, Well, we're always about the semantics on this program
and in that vein, and I know this is probably
something that might take more than one segment, but I
am fascinated by this whole Jordan schultz Ian rapaport confrontation
in a Starbucks, by the way, which is super ironic.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
I did not have I heard somebody mention, oh, yeah,
this happened in his dad's restaurant. I'm like, Jordan Schultz
dad owns a local restaurant in Indianapolis.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Starbucks anymore.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
I literally thought, that's what I'm saying. I thought he
owned some mom and pop get a coffee here place.
I knew his last name was Schultz. I'm aware of
Howard Schultz. I had no idea that was his dad,
the former CEO of Starbucks. And the quote unquote restaurant
this occurred in was a Starbucks, and then the Marriotta
Hotel in Indianapolis, where a tremendous amount of NFL related

(39:11):
activity and personnel go in and out of over this
seven to ten day period. It was it is comical
that it's gained this much traction. And I say that
knowing that you know, Pro Football Talk at Length had
a piece written about it. It was noted on the
X platform and then kind of took off from there,
and a follow up story to it that Florio put

(39:33):
up there has indicated how much traffic it's actually getting
on their site, the most popular story there. Because we're
going to sit here and question like do people really
care about this? Yes, apparently they do. When two reporters,
one of whom is extremely well known and works for
the NFL media and the other one has been at
a lot of reputable outlets but keeps going to different

(39:53):
ones for multiple different reasons, he basically broke an NFL story,
and I imagine that the new Bakers in the NFL
weren't very happy about being beaten to the point where
they get information from the agent of Tom Brady to
make it sound like, well, he broke a story that
wasn't even true. And I brought semantics into it because
Schultz's point was okay, so the agent says there was

(40:16):
no meeting, there was no recruiting pitch from Tom Brady
to Matt Stafford, and Schultz's response was so randomly an
NFL quarterback looking for a new home and a former
NFL quarterback who is an ownership stake and an NFL
team randomly bumped into each other in Montana.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Okay, we'll carry this over because it did happen at
the combine or around the combine, as you put it,
at a nearby Starbucks. So we'll get into that when
we come back to start the three o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
I want to talk about Big City Wings before we
do any of that. Listen, if you are looking to
get to a play that has all the screens you
need and all the menu items you want, because you do.
You want what they've got on the menu at Big
City Wings, thirteen locations to serve you, and so no
matter where you are at, you're going to have everything
you need to have a viewing and tasting experience. It's

(41:18):
Houston's wing Joint, and man, the food's good. Wex I
can't say enough about what they have on the menu.
I always talk about the pickle spears because the fried
pickle spears are fantastic and my wife swears by them
as well. But you know the larger menu items, you know,
the actual entrees. They got you covered there too.

Speaker 6 (41:35):
Well.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
They got two for Thursday today. That is your daily special.
Two for Thursday on boneless wings three dollars bud Light Aluminums.
That is what they mean when they say daily specials
on food and drink every single day. Best place to
go find them is sit them up online at Big
Citywings dot com. Also, as they get rolling, a big
Bad Crawfish boilout Day is taking place today at Big

(41:57):
Citywings Big Citywings dot com.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
Find the location to you Houston's wing joint.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety it's Space City Home Network.
On a Thursday edition of the program, wex and Ac
with You, our number two of the show, got into
a lot of various NBA conversation over the course of
the first hour.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
We also told you about all the runs the astro
scored today.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
How many are we at now? Well, it's over now,
but how many are we How many did we accumulate?

Speaker 4 (42:46):
I've said, we talked about all the runs they scored today.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Oh, I see what you did there? Can you tell
I had no clue how they fared today? They didn't
score today.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
I know, I understand what you're saying. Now, Well, how
they fail it is merely a matter of how did
they perform. I could I will manage to make it
through the entire spring training slate, I'm sure, without mentioning
it even once, whether or not the score at the
end of the game favored them or not, because it's
completely irrelevant.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
I mean, if Altuve is not playing in left field
and we're not getting a good look at him, did
the game even exist?

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Well, Tubaz the last one al Tuoba has not seen
action yet.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
That will change very very soon.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
Jordan Alvarez played today at the plate and Jeremy Pania
led off and played shortstop. Neither of them got any
hits today, five at bats between them, three for Jordan.
You had a few other likely regulars in the lineup today.
Pitching was actually exceptional. They used six pitchers, five of
them through shutout baseball Miguel Lowe gave up all five runs,

(43:46):
including a home run to one of the prospects that
the Astros traded to the Mets in the Justin Verlander deal,
Ryan Clifford, who's possibly gonna make his major league debut
this season, but minor league seasoning is still more more
likely in his future, probably the bulk, if not the
entire portion of his year to be spent a triple A.
But even saying that he was not very far away,

(44:08):
and he might even be a bigger contributor down the
road than Gilbert, the other prospect, Drew Gilbert that they
traded to the Mets a couple of seasons ago to
get Justin Verlander back. But offensively, obviously, the Astros didn't
do much of anything today. Handful of knocks, some opportunities
to get in work, but pitching side of it. Colton Gordon,
who's one of their top ten prospects, has now already

(44:29):
made two appearances. He was very sharp today in his
two innings of work. And I'll just move into tomorrow's game,
which again sooner is so sooner they get the innings
necessary to confirm what I think we already know. The
starting left fielder on opening day is Jose Altuve, and
likely we're going to see Joe spot It put him
in the lineup one hundred times or more in left

(44:52):
field based on what I believe is happening. Yeah, I'm
saying that that's their left fielder.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Yeah, that's all well and good.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
How many times will he put camp Smith in the lineup,
That's all I want to know now.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
It might be zero. Cam Smith played third base today. Also,
Christian Walker had another couple of hits today.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
I wish I knew the answer. I need the crystal ball.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
Well, they're gonna win a lot of games before Cam
Smith's is the reason why they win a lot of games.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
That's not fair.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
Okay, they're gonna be un non competitive because Cam Smith's
winning games for the Space Cowboys this year. As soon
as they believe he can hit major league pitching, he'll
be here. And he's so far not they even played
a game.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
That's gonna have to be satisfaction for now. For now,
I'll let it slide.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Mention. We talked a little bit NBA.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
We talked about the Rockets destroying the Spurs last night,
like they should. You mentioned very astuteley that the Aaron
Fox's new team is still remains worse than his old team,
but it would have been anyways even if Victor wymbin
Yama hadn't gotten hurt.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
You know what's funny.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
I know he put up big numbers against the Rockets
when they kept beating them in Sacramento or when they
played Sacramento wherever it was. But dematsa bonus is the
one that's been a real problem for Alpera and Shingoon
on both ends of the floor, by the way, And
so that's what I would be keeping an eye on
as interestingly enough, dearon Fox's new team that he's on

(46:17):
and his old team that he left are you know,
two opponents in a row for the Rockets this week
in Toyota Center beat them last night. The Spurs, looking
to do the same to the Sacramento Kings after having
a couple of days off as they won't play until Saturday.
Night mentioned that the Great Well, one of the greatest
NBA parody accounts, was dead and has now risen from

(46:40):
the dead. We've discovered all of that in the course
of the day, and then we kind of started talking
about this whole media altercation. And the only reason it's
even like remotely a story to me is because it's
a story.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Like yeah, first of all, since we didn't describe it.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
At a Starbucks, Jeordia Schultz approached Ian Rappaport, who was
in a conversation with somebody else, an agent, and said
we need to talk. It escalated from there. They were
in each other's face. Apparently explosives were delivered by Jordan
to Ian and nothing further came of it. Authorities are
aware of it. The NFL, for some reason, security is
involved in investigating it because of the potential threat as

(47:18):
part of their event.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Beyond that, I'm.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Sure after we get it out of our systems today,
we won't need to revisit it.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
No, no, no, nothing physical took place. No, they were
in each other's face. But like, it's funny all the
things you just mentioned, all the elements expletives, Well, depending
on who you talked to, there weren't really Actually, if
you talked to Jordan Schultz after he thought about it
for a little bit.

Speaker 4 (47:39):
There might have been time he provided correct information. He
was asked to comment on it, which he did to
Florio and Pro Football Talk, and then He commented on
it a second time later, and not everything was the
same as the first time.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Some guy with Pro Football Talks said that it was
a serious, big time media confrontation.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
To describe it, I thought that was funny.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Yeah, it is funny because if he's mocking the whole
it was a serious media confrontation. Now, there's a handful
of these that got better play. I don't know if
you remember this. It was I mean, I don't know
that anybody was really aware of it at the time.
Charlie Steiner was in an actual physical fight with somebody
during a press conference in a press conference room. Just
they just weren't very happy with the manner in which

(48:21):
one wash shoving the other or pushing his way into
the other, which kind of happens all the time in
a scrum, and they came to physical ARTI culturecation. There's
been a few of these over the years, very few
here that I can recall locally that were anything other.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
Than Dale robertson, Well, that's not media on media.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Well, involved a member of the media in an altercation, Yeah,
I would term it very different. Well, and then another
example of that kind of situation, even though one party
was not media, like you said, was who was the
reporter that Dion poured the drink on in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
He's very famous and he's been on TV for years,
and he thought he had a Basically, I think he
felt like this was a permanent axe to grind that
he had against Dion and felt like that was the
position he always took. He responded after the It was
you know, if you're at in Costco or Target and
you're looking for some storage some bins. Yeah, he had

(49:17):
a storage bin with some water and he threw it
on Tim McCarver. And mccarver's response, which you can clearly
hear on the video, you're a real class act, Dion.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
That was one.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
Usually when you're doing your YouTube wormhole, you'll come across
that one. You'll come across the one with Bobby Benia.
Jim Hill was one of the reporters involved with him.
I'm sure Jim didn't do anything.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
With Bobby Benia is still on the Mets payroll.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
Bob, Well, if you, I'm sure, aren't you already not
excited for the next show?

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Helney Hi Shore hell Tony Day.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
He's getting his money from the I'm sorry I've been
sick of the Bunnia day for about ten years of
myself already.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
But media on play is much more dramatic.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Heck, player on player stuff is even more dramatic Lou Panella,
Rob Dibble, but medion media is more comical, especially since
this is usually what it is.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Non do you l yell, yell, yell, walk away. Jordan
Schultz works for Fox.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
He's been with a couple of Yahoo I think is
now his home.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Okay, Like I saw some people trying to paint this
as Ian Rappaport's real media and Jordan Schultz is fake media.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Well that's he does work for Fox. He's their insider.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
That's what I kind of brought up earlier and have
been bitten by it before. I'm amazed how many I
think he has really good relationships talking about Jordan, He's
broken news, but he also breaks news. This's wrong so
often that basically won't pay attention to anything he writes anymore,
anything he posts anymore. We did yesterday, but it's just

(50:51):
so often wrong or other people.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
I mean, if you do that enough, you've become a
punchline in and of yourself.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
Now in this situation, it definitely gives the up apparents
of it wasn't wrong, but the reporters that didn't break
it are trying to spin it that it was. So
I'm not necessarily saying he didn't get this one right.
But the agent gave a comment to NFL network Ian
and Pallisero about this, which isn't He said that, you know,
sometimes in their haste, reporters will get a story wrong.

(51:18):
The story's not at Carson Judge. He said the story
is not accurate. He's not saying they didn't meet. He
wrote it in a way that suggests the way that
Jordan wrote it in his post that's not one hundred
percent accurate. But he's not denying that anything of something
similar to that did in fact take place. But these
reporters who if you don't think reporters that are in

(51:42):
you know, Schefter Woje at the time, shams Ian, Pallisero, greful,
they are full of themselves and rightfully so I don't
mean it as a negative. I do think they have
a heavy, heavy defense mechanism and oh my god, you're
coming at me and you think you can break a story, Well,
I'm gonna show you that's they take a lot of
offense to other people trying to do their jobs, their

(52:04):
own jobs, not trying to do Ian's job with their
own jobs. So I'm sure there's a lot of this
going on in this situation. You got someone who's not
quite as popular or as followed breaking a story and
not very happy that Ian in his own report later
in the day, and this is why the confrontation happened.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
He was very dismissed.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Yeah, and that's when he accosted him virtually, my goodness,
Like this is I don't know if this was Mike
Florio's way of describing it or if that's.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
Just couldn't stop with the puns. Well, neither could anybody else.
Rilla and vanilla latte. Yeah, I mean, it's never ending.
What hang on, I'm trying to get to the very end.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
He said that said something is seriously brewing wait.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
For it in parentheses beforehand, but I listen, and it
has provided an unexpected shot of espresso to an otherwise
sleepy week in Mdiapolis.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Just stop because the players haven't been on the field yet.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Now they are like Adam Wesler handle the dad jokes
because he's actually likable and your Mike Florio.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
They are fun. Uh, they are very fun if said
in moderation.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
But what this ends up coming down to is, like
you said, two people full of themselves who think they
matter more than they do getting into a really non
altercation at a coffee shop in which one guy's dad
used to be the CEO of the company and the
other guy's mouthpiece for Bill O'Brien.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
That's like claim to face.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
The second part of that, the dad part, the actual
place where dad doesn't even work here, so unimportant to it.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
It's so happenstance, but.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
You have to say its course, it's just so ridiculous.
By the way, I've already finished my Starbucks for the day,
and that should end you hate coffee of all varieties.
We will continue here with more important things on a
Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
The A on Sports Talk seven Back to Adam Clinton
had Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (54:06):
On Sports Talk seven. Y.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
You know, we were talking about something that didn't matter
that it happened at the combine, but I do want
to say or kind of highlight something that we did.
And I don't even know if we have the clip
in the system. We probably do. It's not what was said,
it's how it was interpreted. So before see you can
you guys are watching right now.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
I know I came right there.

Speaker 8 (54:37):
I got it.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Oh man, if if Wex was ever taken into like
an interrogation room and they were trying to extract information
out of him, he cannot play it close to the vest.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
Don't don't make people think I don't know how to
play poker. You know what I just currently poker. Listen,
Wex would be the worst general manager ever. So, uh, Wex,
what do you think the Rockets are gonna do this summer?

Speaker 2 (55:01):
You're you're in charge of the Rockets. Nice give me
making any transactions this summer? I mean, I know they
got to the playoffs. They were out in the uh
in the second round, maybe a spirited first round victory
in and they just you just couldn't get past the
top team in the West. So what do you gotta
do moving forward? And before the reporter could get the

(55:22):
question out of his mouth, Wex would die of an
eye rolling incident.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
You guys, really, I think I'm gonna sit up here
and tell you what I'm gonna do, and you wouldn't
even hide you disdain.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
I can't play the media game. I don't know how
to go up there.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
And because you're unlike that kind of cyborg, you're a
different kind of unemotional cyborg.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Like I said, So, what were you wondering about that
we could maybe find in our system?

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Well, at least more than a few people pointed that
to something that Nick Cassario had to say with regards
to c J. Stroud and said, I don't think basically
he was the biggest fan of c J. Stroud's social
media tour.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
Last offseason, he was on the Pro Football Talk set
with Mike and Chris Mike flordessims.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
His media session. He's what I was getting.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
He had, He did the he made the rounds like
most gms do, because that's why Pro Football Talk go's there,
That's why Pat McAfee goes there.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Nick was on with both of them.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
In addition to meeting with the national media at the
podium and having a little bit of time with the
local media that went to Indianapolis to cover this, and
even the in house media that like most teams now,
they've got their own little quote unquote radio row where
they set up a table and deco and Nick will
sit down with him, but that happened to take place
during that particular interview session, And yeah, I don't think

(56:46):
you had to read between the lines too much. I
don't think he was overly concerned. But he did say
sometimes you're you're a young player, and you know you
do things and you learn from him, and I think
he was essentially indicating you want to put as much
time and effort into becoming better, and maybe that what
took place last offseason wasn't necessarily the best use of
his time and energy. Not that he came down hard

(57:08):
on him, not that he said anything publicly or even
necessarily privately about it, But I think he's leaving it
to the player to look at how last offseason went
and then how this season that followed went, and maybe
believe that some of those two things are tied together.
If he got the exact same offensive line play as
he did in his rookie season and did draft shows

(57:31):
with Micah Parsons and went overseas with Micah Parsons, I
think they probably would have had a better season and
he would have played better, So nobody would care. I
didn't care that CJ did it. Did I definitely didn't
participated in so much of it. I think a lot
of people were actually more put off by it because
of what he actually said. Who is this one year

(57:53):
quarterback talking so confidently and in such a cocky way.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
He bled over into the regular season. I think some
people thought, it's what he's saying.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
It's not that he's just putting himself out there and
you know, being so active and so visible during his
very first off season, but just the manner in which
he did things, because he was with Micah Parsons for
so much of this, I think that's what drove it. Now.
He also did a sit down podcast where he and
Tank Dell were you know, the subjects, and they were
saying similar things about being so confident or as others

(58:25):
felt cocky about what this team did and was already
going to do, which they just didn't do.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
They had the exact same season.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
Keep in mind, though, one of the other questions from
Mike to Nick during their interview was do you think
you had you were even better in twenty twenty four
than you were in twenty twenty three. I was a
little bit surprised to hear anybody ask that, but I
do think that there's a case to be made, and
I think Nick's point was we made improvements. He leaned
on some of the things they did defensively because they
were improved. They were better defensively, they were worse offensively.

(58:54):
Could you argue they were better? Maybe they just didn't
do anything too They did accomplish They won the same
not so spectacular division. They won their home playoff game
convincingly with a strong defensive performance, a turnover creating, dominant
defensive performance, and then they went to a higher seeded
team's home competed. They were tied with Baltimore at the half,

(59:17):
They had a thirteen to twelve lead with Kansas City,
or thirteen twelve down against Kansas City, and they just
didn't come up on the right end of it, got
out played late in both of those games. They literally
accomplished almost the exact same thing in both seasons.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
But us the way CJ's two seasons unfurled, not unraveled
because it's I think that.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
But from a team standpoint, clearly his performance was statistically weaker.
Their offense was not quite as good, even though the
point totals really weren't that different. But if their defense
was significantly better, and they were as a team. Question
were they better in twenty twenty five or not? It's

(01:00:01):
a reasonable question to ask, what if is a push
of an appropriate answer? It is because I was just
pointing all that out.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Well, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
You can't carbon copy it. Nobody's gonna have this season
and next season. I don't think there's another team in
the league that's gonna have a twenty three and twenty
four like the Texans did in twenty four and twenty
five that's gonna be so unbelievably similar.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Well look at because that's the closest thing you can
get to, because I think there's up to every team
in the NFL. But because Jaden Daniels had such a
paralleled rookie year, and in a lot of senses it
was probably more impressive just because he went further and
did more.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
That was I guess flashy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
If nothing else, If he was a rookie first, nobody
would be talking about what CJ did.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
That's true.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
His season was just it was better.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Now, it just was if Jaden Daniels goes and makes
the circuit this offseason and does some of those things,
and then well it won't be the same.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Because his offensive line doesn't suck exactly. But that's again,
it's a football reason.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
It's not what he did in the off season reason,
But that's he's still not with his teammates. He still
held off seasons, he still lifted weights, he still looked
at film, he still tried to get better.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
I mean, every waking moment away from the.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
Game, when you're not on your immediate holiday after you lose,
needs to be spent on this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
I think enough.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
Time probably what CJ will probably say. Otherwise he'll say, yeah,
I focused in a little bit more this year, But
I really don't think he lacked focus last offseason heading
in this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Year, and with you know, Bobby Slow going away and
new Oc coming aboard, that can go one of two
ways in year three.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
You can be.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
You can make that an excuse for why you again
were lackluster compared to your expectations, or it can be
the reason that you're so much better this year and
you bounced back as an offense, even though it's so
not that simple, just like it wasn't as simple as
well Bobby Slow.

Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
It's just you think there's any chance we're thinking Nick
Kyley is a backwards move. Did they regress with their
offensive system or offensive play calling? No way, Hey, very quick,
clear answer. Do you think they will have an offensive
line that performs less successfully than they did in twenty
twenty four?

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
I hope not.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
I mean, but I try to answer it is the
same amount of conviction. I really think there's a chance
their offensive line is going to be confused that often,
as weak physically as they showed to be throughout the season, undisciplined,
and as that's an area that is very individual, not
so much team related. That's the player that is the person.
A little bit of that as coaching ability. But you

(01:02:32):
can stay in this discipline. But it's not like the
He had seventeen penalties and the offensive line had five
next to him.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
All was not.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Like that at all.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
But yeah, I can't. I'm trying to.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
I'm trying to play along with the idea that it's
not an easy fix, it's not an automatic fix. But
that's how poorly they performed as a whole for seventeen
games in the regular season. I can't envision a scenario
where we think they're worse week to week, game to game,
game plan for other DC's week to week, they're worse

(01:03:05):
in twenty twenty five. Up front, they're doing less to
help their quarterback. They're less successful running the football. I
can't even imagine a scenario, even with injuries, for that
to happen.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Yeah, no it's not. It's not likely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
But again it's also not as easy as oh, it's
just this or this, like there's so many things that
have to go. It really felt like a perfect storm
in both seasons as to why if you want to
just talk about CJ the individual had a more impressive
year in year one and a lackluster or so to speak,

(01:03:42):
year in year two, even though like you just got
done saying, they basically accomplished the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
And maybe he'll hill.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
He and the offense will get a benefit that they
had in year one with Slowok, because this is year
one with a new offense. The people are still going
to look at the Texans twenty three and twenty four
film to see what the Texans like to do offensively.
The year goes on and as they play their preseason games,
maybe have you know in a joint workout week one,
Week two, Week three, all of a sudden, they're gonna
look at the twenty four film a lot less because

(01:04:09):
now they'll have a couple of games of what Nick
Cayley's offense looks like, what they like to do up front,
what the personnel changes mean to how they attack, what
the Texans do. And there is a little element of
you have to learn a new offense, but so do
the other dcs. All the teams that have played you before.
You got six games against the three teams year division.
They've all seen you before, you got those three games

(01:04:31):
against the AFC first place teams. They've all seen you before.
But now you're doing something differently.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
All right, At least one potential Texans offensive lineman is
not going to be hitting the market and he plays
for the same team as a guy who's definitely going
to play for that team again next season.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
We'll explain when we come back.

Speaker 5 (01:04:54):
The Aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
Hey, it's Craig Attor.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Listen to the Home of the Rockets on yours smart speaker.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Just pass Hey Google play Sports Talk seven ninety on iHeartRadio.
All right, do you want to talk about the player
who's staying with the Chiefs or the other player who's
staying with the Chiefs. Yes, the second one, Well, the
second one is Travis Kelcey. Okay, the first one, then

(01:05:25):
the first one is Tray Smith. He's gonna get franchised.
You're not we we we heard you wanted some more
money somewhere else and you're not gonna get it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Well, he's gonna get it from them.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
I think I do think this is just a pathway
towards reaching a long term agreement with Tray Smith. It's
an awful lot of money for one season. He's gonna
end up getting more money on a long term deal.
But this guard, Yeah, this will prevent other teams from
getting into the mix and potentially putting a deal in
front of that they would like to sign the Lights.
He's gone. So I'm not super surprised by this. The number,

(01:05:58):
I think scares awful lot of people. I think that's
why a lot of the reporting indicated that they'd really
have to consider if this was the right move or not.
Because they don't come to a long term agreement, then
you have an unhappy twenty four million dollars a year
making player. But when you're only making twenty four million
for that season, NFL players don't like one thing, and

(01:06:21):
it's playing the final year of their contract multiple years
in a row. When you're out there in the free
agent market and it doesn't work out and you got
to sign a one year deal. They don't like it
when you're playing great football for the only organization that
you ever played for, and you just played your contract year,
the last year of your multi year rookie deal, and
now you don't get a long term deal and you

(01:06:43):
go into a second consecutive contract year, potentially a third
when they franchise you a second time, and a lot
of times the agent and the player and the team
will work out a well, you could franchise if you
have to franchise me. Now, well let's put in a
new agreement. You cannot franchise me again. But they don't
want to be there. I just did this. I just
proved it in year one and year two and year

(01:07:04):
three and year four, and now the team I proved
it four, you're asking me to prove it again. I
don't want to do this, but I don't have much choice.
That's what the franchise tag is in place for.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
It's Clowney's life.

Speaker 4 (01:07:18):
Well, it could have been well sec Well, first of all,
it shouldn't have been what's happening to me, what's gonna
happen with Tray Smith is what I advocated for with
the Texans with Clowney, the threat of a franchise tag
or the actual franchise tag, just as a means to
come to an agreement on a long term deal. And
it might not have all been on the Texans. They

(01:07:39):
might have felt like what he and his agent were
asking for was something that was too far out there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
I didn't think it was. From my understanding. I thought
it was reasonable.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
I thought for what they I thought he would be
and let me preface this or in the middle of it,
so it's not quite prefacing it. I was probably higher
on Jadavian Clowney than anybody I really, I mean probably
even still to this day. I think he was an
impactful player enough that I didn't need him to be
the best edge rusher the third I knew he wasn't that,

(01:08:09):
but I also felt like, your team is just so
much better than whatever you're going to have in his place.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
And they decided about that.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
Bill O'Brien still clearly messed that whole thing up for
how he ended up moving out, and they didn't get
what they should have. They got nothing. They got a
couple of two players and a draft pick worth nothing
in return for a player that was near the top
of his position.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
I mean, Bill Brian screwed up a trade, no way
it was.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
He played his cards wrong because they didn't even get
him to sign it, so they also lost their leverage
in the deal, So that was a bad deal. Tray
Smith would have been somebody that I think a lot
of teams would have been interested in. The Texans would
have made a phone call as soon as they talked
to his agent realized we just aren't in position to
spend that kind of money on you, then that would
have been all for them. But yeah, he's a good player.

(01:08:53):
He had a good season. Did not have a good
super Bowl, nor did the four players that were also
Chiefs offensive lineman.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
A lot of offensive linemen didn't have a good season
against that defense. To be fair, for sure, number one
defense in the NFL did not blitz once, but they
destroyed Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 4 (01:09:09):
And it really it really is with a little bit
different personnel. Clearly, that is what Demiko wants. The Texans
don't blitz a lot, and he doesn't want to blitz
a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
Nobody should want it. Don't have to, because if you don't.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
Have to, you you haven't opened up a weakness. Go ahead,
in an effort to get to the quarterback, go ahead
and throw against our secondary. We will intercept it. Well,
you're also your your two guys in the middle, whether
we're Settle or Photocassi or Autrey or anybody in there.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Mario.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
They did a great job on the interior, which allowed
Hunter and Anderson Junior both to have awesome seasons, really
awesome seasons. Danielle Hunter without a contract extension, is in
a contract year.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
But that's why you're tying by the guy in charge,
I think, and it's it's.

Speaker 4 (01:09:56):
Done this with a real spy move for both players.
Was risky for Hunter to take a short term deal,
though he got twenty four or twenty yeah, twenty four
and a half million per to do it, and it
was risky for the Texans for exactly what happened, and
the risk they were taken was like a given. Do
you see he's going to be great, right, Dyle Hunter's
going to be awesome, right, And of course he was awesome.
So now he's priced himself out of the final year

(01:10:19):
of his two year deal.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
Does this become an Astro situation where after year two
in a Texans uniform, the organization is so sure that
he's not going to perform better than the two years
he was here, and they're willing to let him walk
and replace him with someone else whether he did. You
say a situation the Astros where they feel like the

(01:10:40):
best seasons are already behind that player as they let
him walk out the door for another team to pay
him exorbitant money they don't want to pay.

Speaker 4 (01:10:46):
That's why I bring him the Astros the free agent
off season or the off season of changing the roster
for the Texans this year, number one on the list
and number two on the list are going to be
bringing two players back on long term extensions. Both are
under contract, and I think this offseason they will both
reach long term extension. Eric Stingley and Daniel Hunter.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
Really yep.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
Now, Stingly will get market value, certain quality money. He'll
be the highest paid, and Hunter might sign a deal
similar to the one he just signed. He's obviously older,
He's got many more years behind him rather than in
front of him. But instead of going into the final
year of his deal, maybe they've added to three more
years of his time.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Hearing he's so, then the obvious question, if that's indeed
what happens, how does that affect your efforts to improve
the line in front of CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Stroud. However, you're going to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:42):
The end of April, when they draft players in the
first through seventh round will be the vast majority of it,
and they will spend They'll try to restructure a couple
of deals, they'll make a couple of June first related
cuts that will save them some money on their cap,
and they will hope that there is an interior player
that has seen the field a lot, but has made
it to free agency and was unable to land the

(01:12:05):
contract that he wanted, and he'll end up in Houston
on a shorter term, lower money deal. I don't anticipate
a great player being in that position, because if you're
great on the offensive line and you hit free agency,
you make money, and it's a tough It's a bad
place for the Texans to be again, because they're spending
so much money already on their offensive line, which just
didn't play very well. They're gonna have to get it

(01:12:26):
done in the draft, which is what they've attempted to
do for three consecutive Nick Kassario led drafts, and in
three consecutive seasons they've been unsuccessful in finding an offensive
lineman that they know can play, despite drafting four of them,
three in the top two rounds.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
But in zero consecutive drafts, has Nick Kayley or Popovich
been involved.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
I'm just putting that out there.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
Cole Popovich has been here for a couple of seasons.
He's been involved, but he wasn't the O line coach.
He was the assistant O line coach.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Yeah, it's a difference.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
I guess he was the assistant to the regional manager
and now he's calling the shots sore.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
So you're here's I'm envisioning this from your point of view.
If you are peaking in on the Texans war room.
They'd spend months and months and months of evaluations. Nick
Kaylee's listening to what the scouts have to say, the
people who've watched this player. He's getting all his information
via zoom from the combine, which he's not attending. They're
having meetings, They're having more meetings. It is now April.

(01:13:20):
It's now night of the first round of the draft.
They're getting into the eighteen nineteen twentieth pick and Nick
Cassario has on the board three players there, two of
them are offensive linemen. And they get to the twenty
third pick and both of the offensive linemen are there.
He's looking over at Nick Cayley and they're pump fist
pumping quietly. They get to the twenty fifth pick, they're
on the board, both offensive linemen are there for them
to take, and he looks over at Nick Kyley and

(01:13:41):
he says a name, and Nick just shakes his head no,
and they take the other guy. That's what you think
is gonna happen. Nick Kyley is gonna make the pick
for Nick case. So about the Texans war Room and
when you come back next here on the A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:13:57):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 9 (01:13:59):
Ninety, I'll always remember my friend Adam and my other
friend Adam and maybe another Atom if they get another
guy on the show.

Speaker 10 (01:14:10):
That's why they call this splitting the Atom.

Speaker 7 (01:14:12):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler, and I don't give us about either.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Very timely Batman Morgan Freeman will be joining us at
the top of the hour. Yeah, specifically, you know, I
haven't seen that movie in so long that I couldn't
even tell you a thing about it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:33):
Joshrank Redemption Frank Kellyander will join us at the top
of the hour talk a little bit about what he's
got going on a little bit of sports as well.
He has a handful, like a ton sports related impressions
he's been involved with the game, and some.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Of them are not sports even know. I go to
every big sporting event on the calendar right now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
If you think that we're going to have.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
A TRUMP, he's going to the Columbine. Would you be
surprised if Donnie t is there right now? Yes, I
love defensive lineman. We're gonna draft him to every team.
He's gonna play for every team. He'll just rotate like
he'd say he change the rules or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:15:11):
Yes, I do anticipate what you suggested happening. So if
you'd like to hear that you're not going to do that,
That's what I was gonna say. I'm not having a
TRUMP if I kind of you can try to force it. Hey, Frank,
listen to this and then you know what's funny? This
can I just pull the string and you'll go, So
you know what's funny that's what I do.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
I he was aular guy. He has always been so like,
Frank is the coolest guy ever. He's not a He
is a celebrity, but he doesn't act like one at all.
From the moment he met me, he was like, I'm
not ever doing the Jim Rome impression again. I've actually
heard him go on on other shows and be like, yeah, yeah,
I do Jim Rome and it's but there's this guy

(01:15:48):
in Houston that does it way better than me.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Like that's how I feel about who's every other voice?

Speaker 4 (01:15:52):
All right, well we can get into this when he
joined not doing four o'clock. So we left you with
some hypatheticals about the Texans. You want to believe that
Nick Aley is making the picks for Nick Cassario, So
the card will still be signed by Nick Ce and
everything will be fine, and nobody will be the wiser.
He will probably have a very strong voice. They've discussed
it a little bit this week about what type of
players in the fit and his system and who they

(01:16:14):
have and how they want to of course everyone would
be but it is a team that has a defensive
head coach who calls the plays and runs the defense.
So the role of the offensive coordinator in finding talent
and cultivating talent, developing talent, and knowing the right people
to have there. It's heightened a little bit because just
because of the makeup of this team, we're talking about

(01:16:34):
Trey Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs and it looks
like he will continue to be Trey Smith of the
Kansas City Chiefs because of what Brent Veach said earlier
this week, the GM of the Kansas City Chiefs made
it seem likely that Travis Kelsey was not done with
his NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs, and Travis himself,
through being reached out to by Pat McAfee via text,

(01:16:57):
he pretty much confirmed that. With his response to Pat,
he made it sound like either he has had the
time to come up to this decision, and the way
he talked with his brother on his podcast, he sounded
like he needed time to reach this decision. But the
message he sent back to McAfee sounded anything, but it

(01:17:19):
sounded definitive and obvious and clear and with vengeance to it.
Because he doesn't like how the season ended. He wants
to get back, as he said to the mountaintop, He's
going to get in the best shape of his life.
His words and the initial part of the text, I'm
coming back for sure. Yeah, that's as clear as it
can be. And the source from Pat is impeccable. Now

(01:17:41):
it's not from somebody who's close to the situation, it's
not someone who's familiar with Travis's thinking.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
It is Travis Kelcey himself. This is so a couple
of things. This is interesting in light of what the
GM had to say. Yeah, we expect him to come
back and be fired up. Yeah, But do you expect
him to be coming back and fired up because he's
getting all of the money that he was supposed to
be paid or is there some sort of financial wiggle
room that you can both kind of maneuver to where

(01:18:10):
you're not paying him elite tight end money to play
at less than elite standards.

Speaker 4 (01:18:15):
You missed the other comment from a beach where he
said it's a cat and mouse game. You got a
Bob and weave. Yes, they will probably do that with
Travis Kelson.

Speaker 2 (01:18:22):
Going back to the original scenario that you mentioned before
the break where they put the name on the card
and Nick Cassario says, I want this guy and Nick
Keyley would pump his fist. Is the opposite. Here's what happens,
because it's an offensive lineman. The name gets put on
the card and then Nick Cayley sees it and he goes, Nay,

(01:18:42):
he's drafting the other guy, right, because whatever Nick Cassario
wants as far as offensive lineman, we do the opposite here.

Speaker 4 (01:18:47):
Now, Nick Cassario, that's that's your name, right, Yeah, I'm
Nick Kayley. It looks like that card says Luther Burden
on it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
That's that Ky's got a right wa. No, No, the
other card, that one says a mechagg book on it.

Speaker 4 (01:18:59):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:19:00):
Oh, that can't be right. Which one of them is protecting?

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
CJ. Yeah, they'll be open and they're gonna have a
thousand yards in their rookie season. They're gonna be awesome.
But they just can't be for us this year unless
you're adding another first round pick that I don't know about.

Speaker 3 (01:19:12):
Well, I mean, they really truly are open for business, don't.
I don't want to.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
I don't want to twist it into they have to
take something as in this position has to be drafted
at this spot.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
It's not the case.

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
I think it's very likely a wide receiver or offensive
lineman is their pick. I don't think it's impossible that
a defensive lineman, especially an interior alignment, is drafted with
their first pick. I also think Nick Cassio could move
out of twenty five. He moved out of the first
round last year, and what did that get him? Kamarri Lassiter,

(01:19:46):
He's totally fine with that. And I think this group
of defensive players and just the draft pool in general
is similar to last year. To Nick in that can
I get a player at twenty three or twenty five
that I can't get it thirty five, that I can't
get it forty two. I think it's a common belief
for a lot of them, and that player you drafted

(01:20:07):
forty two doesn't have a first round pick contract, which
sometimes you do want. Sometimes you don't, especially that late
in the.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
Draft, permission to give super lazy analysis, as it pertains
to Nick specifically, Yeah, bring it on. If Nikky c
is trading out of a pick to get a defensive player,
I'm all in. If he's trading out to get an
offensive player, and I'm not just talking about lineman John Metchi,
I don't want.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
Any part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Out he traded up. He Actually, that's even worse. But
he also moved up in the draft to Nico Collins.
All right, fine, I'll give you that, but that doesn't
count because that was during the Dark Ages.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
Well, I think the Dark Ages, Nico and Derek Stingley Junior, right,
are freaking awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Right, And he did take some heat that first year.
Shout out to Matt Thomas sauce Gardner. Well, I mean
it was true though, the first year, and he was hurt. No,
I want to hear the shout out. What's the shout
out for? Well, he just Fred Thomas said the sauce
was where it's at?

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
Yeah, what about now? Where does he think the sauce is?

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
He thinks the sauce is overrated. I agree any sauce
that he's talking about Joss Gardner's good.

Speaker 4 (01:21:11):
Don't don't get us wrong, but I think the Texans
and the Stingleys and the players and the fans should
be perfectly happy that they chose Stingley.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
What's more impressive Stingley's play this last season and the
money he's going to get for it, or the fact
that I was able to get him to look at
my phone and say good morning, Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
I watched that the other day. It was really good.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
I'm gonna go with that. I'm gonna go ability.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
I had to edit that so it didn't look awkward
because he was so shy.

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
Well, he's he's He's definitely getting better, such a nice guy.
One thing, he went on the Pivot the podcast with
Fred Taylor, Channon Crowder and Ryan Clark, and if you
want to see him very unlike how he is post
even during the week a little bit when you catch
up with him, he's super relaxed, a lot more talkative.
They were also talking about how shy he is and

(01:21:58):
how he has a girl and his girl. His girlfriend
was with him, not on camera but off camera, and
they show like they were having a lot of fun
with who he is and so is he. If you
haven't seen, it's definitely worth a watch. If you're into
liking Texans players for being great, awesome people and the
fact that they're on your team, you will definitely like that.
But yeah, I think both things are good things. There's

(01:22:20):
an area of concern and it's remained the same area
of concern on draft Day for the Texans each of
the three days for all of the years that Casario
has been here. It's not at linebacker, defensive line. It's
not at safe to your corner. It's not a wide receiver,
it's not a running back er, quarterback, not even really
at tight end. It is at offensive line. And until
a pick comes in and plays at a very high level,

(01:22:43):
then that just simply cannot change. That's just simply the
way it is. And that's how you will approach this.
Not yet the day for the offensive line. We hit
the field of the combine. You get the defensive linemen
on the field here currently linebackers will join them later
in the day.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
Three more days of on field workouts.

Speaker 4 (01:22:57):
We hit the top of the hour and as promised,
our guest Rank Caliendo joins us next.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your
Team series Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler or the A Team.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
A all right four o'clock hour underway here on Sports
Talks seven ninety and Space City Home Network. Wex and
Ac with you on a Thursday edition of the program.
And as promised, our good buddy Frank Caliendo calling in
and this is awesome, because not too often do we
book a guest and they're like, hey, I've got a

(01:23:44):
com rex so it'll sound good so it's not just
a phone. But Frank does that because he's fancy that way.
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:23:49):
Man?

Speaker 11 (01:23:49):
What I like to do is lie to people until
him I'm there right now. But you gave away the secret. Sorry, no, no,
I actually I am glad you did. It's a prove
how cool I am.

Speaker 8 (01:24:01):
I'm real.

Speaker 10 (01:24:02):
I don't even know what that means.

Speaker 11 (01:24:04):
I'm just I'm just sitting in my office that I'm
redoing right now, and people can I'm sorry, I'm slightly
distracted while I'm talking to you, but people keep sending
me texts that John gruden Athilia wood Man then reinstated
into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hall of Fame.

Speaker 10 (01:24:19):
Man, it's pretty good stuff right there.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
Man, Did you like when that whole thing happened with him?
With the emails and all that kind of stuff? Like,
for example, one of the first questions I wanted to
ask you, you had to have been happy about how
the election turned out, because that's good for you. Are
you happy when you hear things like that about Grooden
because it's one of your voices you can do.

Speaker 11 (01:24:39):
Uh yeah, I mean I know John really well. So,
I mean I I was Textingle and a lot of
that stuff was going on, and just seeing all the
different stuff that was happening, and then to see him
making his comeback, which is great because he's everywhere and
he's you know, he's just a guy that.

Speaker 8 (01:24:57):
I don't even know.

Speaker 11 (01:24:57):
I don't I don't even know how to say it,
but uh, he's a good guy, an old school guy
in a lot of ways and doesn't always uh. I
mean a lot of us say things wrong, but when
you're a coach, it's different than when you're a comedian.
When you're a comedian, like it's a joke, it's a
joke when you're When you're a coach, it's like everything.
Everybody takes everything you say seriously and some things are

(01:25:19):
in context and saying maybe you just make a mistake
and you're just an idiot at times, and that happens
to all of us too in different respects. Maybe not
the same, but but it does happen. So in terms
of like the election and with I stayed away from
the Gruden stuff for a while just because I knew him,
and it was weird and too close to you know,
to to do something with that. Uh And but people

(01:25:41):
were texting me and asking me to be on the radio,
like in Vegas and stuff.

Speaker 10 (01:25:45):
They come and read the emails.

Speaker 11 (01:25:46):
I'm not gonna do no, no, no, no, no, it's
it's that's all weird stuff right there. But I tell
you what, while something was going on, it was interesting
because I was in Italy two years ago. My family
and I had never been over there, and I'm at
and so he had to visit the homeland. So where
we go to Italy and I take a picture of
me in front of the coliseum and I put it

(01:26:07):
up on Instagram. And I tend not to do enough
social media, so I start I was trying to do
it in Italy to you know, show people this. I
guess I'm a world traveler or something.

Speaker 10 (01:26:17):
So I put it on.

Speaker 11 (01:26:19):
I think I did Rome in Rome, in Rome, in Rome,
in Rome, and my phone is in Rome. That's Rome cubed.
Great job, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:26:27):
Uh So I did that.

Speaker 11 (01:26:28):
I put up the picture of me in front of
the Colosseum, and I got a text from the guy
who Jeff Leonardo, who is Gruden's the right hand man,
and he's like, did you know John is in.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
Rome right now? I'm like, no, I don't have grudar.
How would I know that he's in Rome.

Speaker 8 (01:26:44):
So he's like, he's there. Text him?

Speaker 11 (01:26:45):
So I text John and uh, He's.

Speaker 3 (01:26:48):
Like, you only go for dinner. Let's get some dinner, man.

Speaker 8 (01:26:50):
So we go.

Speaker 11 (01:26:51):
I meet him for dinner, my family, his family. He
goes to the wrong restaurant first, even though he set
it up. And I'm like, I'm like, if.

Speaker 3 (01:26:59):
You're not five minutes early, you're late. Man, what are
you doing here?

Speaker 8 (01:27:01):
You know?

Speaker 11 (01:27:02):
But there's nothing funnier than John Gruden sitting at a
restaurant in Rome going, hey, you eat the rest of
that spaghetti man, that's looks pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
There's that MARINERA don't worry, I'll pay for this man.

Speaker 10 (01:27:14):
Listen to a little lady in the tramp.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
That sounds like something he would say too. He's so goofy.
I mean, he's just he's he's a he is he is.

Speaker 8 (01:27:25):
At all.

Speaker 11 (01:27:25):
Some people might not find him puny, so some people
find him to be, you know, over the top, but
he is. He does say a lot of things almost
out of the side of his mouth. You're like, gee,
is that a joke or are you just insane?

Speaker 10 (01:27:37):
It's there's a.

Speaker 11 (01:27:37):
Lot of that, so so yeah, so it's good to
see he's back.

Speaker 10 (01:27:41):
And I know that bothered.

Speaker 11 (01:27:42):
Him and why wouldn't it that he was out of
the the Tampa Bay Hall of Fame.

Speaker 10 (01:27:46):
But now he's back. So a ring of honor whatever
it's called.

Speaker 4 (01:27:49):
Yeah, for those who had not heard the bottom of
the Bucks statement sent out an hour ago, upon further reflection,
we've decided to reinstate him John Gruden into the Buccaneers
Ring of Honor and Frank the stories you're telling. Obviously
you're friendly with him, you know him, you're friends with him.
He's among many people who you have an impression for
that you've done the impression for them and with them.

(01:28:11):
The late great Bill Walton also in that group, and
there are others. Do you have that just touch of
nervousness before an impression sitting next to the person you're
impersonating begins, and then it does seem like he usually
goes well.

Speaker 11 (01:28:23):
Well, yeah, I mean like when I was with Walton,
he didn't even know he was just he was in
his own world.

Speaker 8 (01:28:30):
Remembering, reflecting, enjoying it.

Speaker 11 (01:28:33):
That's the thing about Walton is that his partner Dave Pass,
who lives in Arizona and I'm very good friends with
I live in Tempe.

Speaker 10 (01:28:41):
He lives in Chandler with bordering communities.

Speaker 11 (01:28:45):
So he had the best line of the night talking
about how Bill actually focused more on the game than
I did, and he'd never seen Bill focus more on
the game than anybody else, So it was fun to
do that with Bill. I've known Bill for years. He
would break people to shows. The first time I ever
did a show a show in front of him, was
in San Diego, California, for a charity and they're like,

(01:29:08):
Bill's in the crowd. We don't know if you want
to do the Bill impression Bill Walton, and I was like,
you know, it's not mean. I do this stuff. It's
just silly. And they're like, okay, but his back is hurting,
and it's like, let's just see and I started. I
remember being at Berkeley, blotches a beer not connecting on
my face, sluggage, middle colors, I could field sounds and
people are like tense in the crowd, but you see
in the back Walton stands.

Speaker 4 (01:29:29):
Up hilarious Encore.

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
I wasn't even done yet. He's like, what did they.

Speaker 10 (01:29:35):
Say on Core?

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
Did just get going?

Speaker 10 (01:29:38):
Make it happen?

Speaker 3 (01:29:39):
This is what it's all about here.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
Yeah, they were always playing for the ultimate prize, an
NBA championship, the Conference of champions.

Speaker 8 (01:29:49):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:29:49):
Throw it down, big man exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
Frank Caliendo joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
He is going to be at the Houston Improv coming
up next watch I say next month. It's basically next month,
but it's April. We're at the very tail end of
February here. Saturday, April fifth, he's got two shows, and
then Sunday, April sixth, he'll have one show at the
Houston Improv. You can go to improvtx dot com slash

(01:30:12):
Houston to get tickets to that. All of those shows,
whicheveryone works best for you. Wex and I are planning
to come see you, okay, and I have I absolutely
have to ask you because you know, you have met
a lot of these people and you have done impressions.
And then I asked you about the election. Everybody I
feel like has a Donald Trump impression, but this guy

(01:30:33):
is like, it's so far. This sounds stupid even say,
but I really do believe it. It's so far beyond
a presidency at this point, is it not. It's like
a pop culture phenomenon, whether you hate the guy or
love the guy, or you're somewhere in between, which I
don't think there is any in between.

Speaker 11 (01:30:48):
Yeah, I'm probably the one part. I try to stay
on all politicians any side. I just try and look
at it as far as comedy and try not to
put my own I always I always balanced on either side,
and I will make fun of the people and hit
him a little bit with just certain things, but then
I hit the other side too. That's the way I've
always done it. But Trump has changed. I mean Trump

(01:31:10):
used to be that he would he did a lot
of yelling. I did a sketch with him back at
the on the NFL on Fox, believe it or not,
and it was I've decided to run for president, and
he's standing right next to me.

Speaker 12 (01:31:19):
I decided to run for president, and I've just shided
to not run for president. I've decided to run for president.

Speaker 10 (01:31:24):
I don't even know if they're running anymore.

Speaker 11 (01:31:25):
So we did that back and forth, and then he's
like after we did the sketch, he's like, do you
have a second I'm like yeah. He goes, come with me,
and it was like Willy Wonka, come.

Speaker 10 (01:31:33):
With me, you will see.

Speaker 11 (01:31:35):
So he takes me down to this kiosk in Trump
Tower that's where we're doing the sketch and uh.

Speaker 10 (01:31:41):
He's like uh. He's like, you want to tie?

Speaker 8 (01:31:44):
Here's the tie.

Speaker 11 (01:31:45):
He gives me, decides he's like, do you wear cup links?
I'm like not yet because I'm hoping he's gonna give
me some. And then he grabs this watch and he
takes the price tag off and he's like are you married?

Speaker 10 (01:31:56):
And like yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:31:56):
He goes more important question do you like your wife?

Speaker 4 (01:31:58):
And I was like what.

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
Kind of question is that?

Speaker 11 (01:32:02):
But he sends me out into New York City with
a watch that I think is where thousands of dollars.
Turns out it was costume jewelry, but it was It
was a great story that to have and do that.
But the that's you know, my Trump is just as
much as he exaggerates, Mike Trump is exaggerating beyond that, like.

Speaker 12 (01:32:22):
We're going to make America great again. Then we're gonna
make the galaxy great again, and not just the Milky Way.
We're gonna make snick Eers great again. We're gonna make
all the Candy Bears great again. And then we're gonna
make the universe great again. And not just the universe,
We're gonna make the Marvel Universe, the DC Universe.

Speaker 10 (01:32:37):
They're gonna be better. They're gonna be better.

Speaker 4 (01:32:40):
We feel like the broadcasters because there's so much sports
on your plate because of this, you know, the inside
the NBA crew.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
You could do Barkley, you could do Shack, you can
do both.

Speaker 4 (01:32:50):
We we talk about Tony Romo quite a bit here
on the show because he's saying Jim over.

Speaker 3 (01:32:56):
And over and over again throughout.

Speaker 8 (01:32:59):
It's like he's en up a car.

Speaker 7 (01:33:00):
Oh, Jim, Jem Jem Jem Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim.

Speaker 11 (01:33:06):
Here we go, Jim Tonay. Yeah, the uh And that's
my only thing. Nance once asked me why I only
said Tony. I'm like, well, I don't do a great
Jim nantz. So I just when he gets excited, he
goes to the sideline. So I just do that with Toney.
And they do that on the broadcast. Now if you
they did it in the in the was it the divisional?

(01:33:28):
I can't, but they, uh they started going here we go,
Jim Toney like after because there's Mike Calliando, who's not
related to me, uh is on the Chiefs, And when
they would bring him up, Nance actually said Mike Kellando
blocking like he's Frank Kellyando.

Speaker 10 (01:33:44):
So those are always good. Oh Jim, here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
Yeah, yeah wex wex is. How do I say this delicately?
He's not a big as Tony fan because.

Speaker 11 (01:33:55):
Well, it's funny because Roma was he was no stra
damis and then suddenly he was knows nothing about yes,
Like he went from predicting every play to not.

Speaker 10 (01:34:04):
Oh Jim, what's gonna happen here?

Speaker 3 (01:34:06):
That's your job Tony?

Speaker 11 (01:34:07):
You know it's there was always that, and now he's
kind of settled into the middle again. I like Romo,
and I'll tell you why. I was finding what I
like about people. But the thing he has that kid like,
you know, kid in a candy store. Oh Joe, look
at that, Yes, sweethearts are gonna last all day. And
then look at that's fruit stripes.

Speaker 10 (01:34:24):
Gum. It's not gonna last more than three seconds.

Speaker 11 (01:34:26):
But here we go jump Everlasting gop Stop or Willie
Wonka come with me.

Speaker 5 (01:34:30):
We're back.

Speaker 12 (01:34:31):
We're back with We took the walk Ovda, We took
the trump of Ada and it swirled in it in
a circle, just like my hair.

Speaker 3 (01:34:37):
It's Frank Calliando.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
He's at the Houston Improv coming up Saturday, April fifth,
two shows that night and one on Sunday April sixth.
Tickets available at Improv tx dot com slash Houston. We're
up against it. But before I let you go, we
got to hear a little bit of Frank Calliando. You've
Frank Callendo. Morgan Freeman, I should say, you did the
liner for us from way back, and it's like, I

(01:34:59):
don't like Morgan Freeman doesn't exactly. It's not like there's
this huge long list of movies that are projects that
he's got on the horizon, and yet it's probably my
favorite one that you do well.

Speaker 7 (01:35:13):
In fact of the matter, is I climbed through five
hundred yards of the fifth Slop?

Speaker 10 (01:35:17):
I can't even imagine. Oh maybe I just don't want to.

Speaker 3 (01:35:20):
It's always fun to just list things with it.

Speaker 10 (01:35:22):
I think we did what.

Speaker 3 (01:35:24):
Do we do? Cereal? One time?

Speaker 7 (01:35:27):
Frosted flakes. They're great, snap, crackle and pop. That's crispy Cheerios.
There's a honey of it. Oh, there's honey nut cheerios,
Apple Jacks, count chocolate frankinberry booberry for about seven people
on Earth. Yeah, smurfberry crunch is fun to eat. In

(01:35:53):
my goodness, I remember those commercials sugar smacks. No longer
with the sugar in there. They're just called smacks. Got
the same frog.

Speaker 2 (01:36:02):
You can listen to Morgan Freeman read the phone book frankly,
but that is Frank Caliendo. He's coming in the beginning
of April. Saturday, April fifth, Sunday April sixth three shows
two on Saturday, one on Sunday. You can get tickets
at the Houston Improvs website improv tx dot com. Frank,
we really appreciate the time. Cannot wait to catch up
with you in person. We'll have you in studio. We'll

(01:36:23):
have a lot of fun and until then, be safe
and we'll see you in Houston soon. Awesome sounds good man,
all right, Frank Caliendo here on Sports Talk seven ninety
good stuff. Always fun catching up with him, and we've
got plenty more to come here on a Thursday edition
of the show.

Speaker 5 (01:36:39):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety tell you what.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
Maybe you have a lot of impressions in your bag
and you're gonna make some good money off of that,
and the you're gonna use it to pay off your debt. Well,
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(01:37:07):
and the interests that come with it, they're going to
keep piling on unless you do something about it.

Speaker 3 (01:37:12):
And making that minimum payments not going to get the
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Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (01:37:34):
The A Team now continues.

Speaker 3 (01:37:45):
Thanks again to Frank Calliando.

Speaker 2 (01:37:48):
When he comes into town for those shows on April
fifth and sixth. He's definitely gonna come in studio that Friday,
I believe, and it's going to be fantastic because him
on cam. We have not done a hit with him
since we started doing the simulcast on Space City Home Network,
and the faces he does really make some of those impressions,

(01:38:09):
especially like George w.

Speaker 4 (01:38:12):
If. Frank was commenting on some social media posts that
he'd made, and I was stalking our guests like I
always do on their instagram, really just looking for pictures
so I can build a graphic.

Speaker 3 (01:38:23):
But anyway, he has some pretty cool stuff on there.

Speaker 4 (01:38:26):
And because he was getting into that Morgan Freeman at
the end, I thought he was going to reference one
of his more recent posts where he basically gives a
brief tutorial on how to build an impression. Yes, and
he uses Morgan Freeman as the example. I've never tried
a phrase and you repeat it over and over over.

(01:38:46):
In Morgan's case, you go to the deep voice and
then you cultivate that voice and then you add another phrase.

Speaker 3 (01:38:51):
And it was pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:38:53):
And he also, like he said, he's been he is
because of what he's done, and I hope people do
recall Frank TV.

Speaker 3 (01:38:59):
How much he's Mad TV.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
Yeah, his his time on Fox with you know, we're
obviously we talk a little bit of sports here. His
involvement with sports is pretty extensive for a comedian. He
was there for basically ten years as a part of
the pregame show in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
I don't know why they they stopped other than they
just that's just what they do.

Speaker 4 (01:39:18):
And he does Barkley, he does, he does.

Speaker 2 (01:39:21):
He's done it on the set with them before. It
is the best part. And he dressed up. But like,
here's the deal. He he told me once. I don't
think it's this is fine. He's like, I actually make
more money doing these gigs at the improvs and clubs
than I ever made it Fox, which is crazy because

(01:39:42):
you think about I mean, TV money is not bad.

Speaker 4 (01:39:44):
They were paying all the other guys so much money.

Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
Yeah, well they still are. And again I don't know
big set people. Yeah, but like of all of those
type of shows, the only show you would ever look
at the panel and say, oh yeah, those guys are
worth every dollar is inside the NBA. The other ones
like if Tomorrow, they're like, all right, here we go,
it's gonna be uh, James Brown getting us into games

(01:40:10):
and getting us out of games, and that's the only
guy on the set.

Speaker 3 (01:40:14):
Nobody's gonna care.

Speaker 4 (01:40:15):
I mean that you took it a little bit too
far for me to say, Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (01:40:19):
If you can live without or who can you not
live without, I should say.

Speaker 4 (01:40:23):
Can you at least hire somebody? You basically put James
Brown on by himself, So what is he doing for
an hour?

Speaker 3 (01:40:29):
And Johnson started by himself And there's a difference. Now, Yeah,
but you.

Speaker 4 (01:40:32):
Got an hour you're talking about. I mean, I kind
of get what you're saying. You're gonna be very st
what you're saying is you could hire anybody and you
would watch anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:40:40):
You know what I would do.

Speaker 2 (01:40:42):
I would have James Brown and then I would pay
Frank Caliendo to do everyone else.

Speaker 4 (01:40:46):
So they've had a pretty established group for a pretty
significant period of time with Howie and Jimmy and Terry.
Michael Strahan now also been part of it for a
few years, but they were together for a much longer
period of time. I don't think there's any questions. Has
been trying to figure out a formula to combat that,
and I'm wondering if they think they did with JJ, Nate,

(01:41:09):
Bill Kawer, JJ Watt, Nate Burleson, Bill Kawer, and Matt Ryan.

Speaker 3 (01:41:16):
It's clearly the best.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
I think it's group they have which is good, and
they got in JJ's case, they got someone right out
of the league and insanely popular. Whether or not he's
good on TV would You'd have to find out, because.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
Yeah, he was Likeamond where he was already making hits
before he was retired because he was available for whatever reason.

Speaker 4 (01:41:35):
But there was a very short period of time before
retirement and immediately getting this job. Obviously, Nate Burleson brought
with him a much longer resume from the TV side,
and he's extremely popular within the network and good. He
was awesome on Good Morning Football. He was He's fantastic
on this show. He's very good on the morning show every.

Speaker 2 (01:41:54):
Day, Likable, he's knowledgeable still, but he doesn't he doesn't
do that when I played things. He doesn't come across
as condescending.

Speaker 4 (01:42:02):
He really Also, he went after his h table crushing
when they did their pregame show with the Bill's Mafia.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
Oh oh yeah, I know where you're going for a
second there.

Speaker 4 (01:42:12):
But I think this is their first best or maybe
their best attempt at trying to take people away from Fox.
Fox has something good going, which is why they haven't
changed the bulk of their panel for a very very
there's a long running group. Yeah, yeah, as its successful. Yeah,
I just again, I go back to the original thing.

Speaker 2 (01:42:35):
It's if if like you heard that the scenario was
going down with either of the Big I mean cause
I think of Fox and CBS. I know there are
studio shows for like Sunday Night Football, and but those
have been like the long running mainstay Big. I mean,
there's like a huge set for all these people that
sit at these tables.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
If they were going away, I don't think.

Speaker 2 (01:42:56):
You would get the uproar, the furor that you got
when it sounded like inside the NBA was going away.
It's just not the same. Well they all in my opinion,
they have no competition.

Speaker 3 (01:43:06):
They're so unique.

Speaker 4 (01:43:07):
Literally, CBS and Fox are in competition with each other
at the time they're on the air.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
So funny to me that they're spending gajillions of dollars
on Tom Brady and UH and Tony Romo, and I
am like that is either of these guys bring anything
to the table with.

Speaker 3 (01:43:25):
You on that.

Speaker 4 (01:43:25):
We've talked about that quite a few times. If ESPN's
paying people a whole lot of money, then maybe they're
getting a whole lot out of them. Hey, we want
you to do this game, but we also want you
to come on this show, on this show, and this
show and this show, if you're on Fox, if you're
on CBS and you're calling games. And in Troy Aikman's case,
he is with ESPN, but he only does the game.
It's an incredible deal, like the best in my opinion,

(01:43:48):
for their money, for what your workload is. Tony Romo,
Tom Brady, Troy Aikman, they got the best things going.
They're very little additional work that comes with the game.
You do the game. Maybe you have a hit after,
maybe you have a hit before, and each of them
does it a certain way, but that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:44:05):
And in some cases insane.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
In some cases it's pretty apparent they're not doing any
of that work.

Speaker 4 (01:44:13):
Well, I mean literal we need you to be on TV,
not research and background and film study. And I don't
mean that I think they're perfectly well prepared.

Speaker 2 (01:44:22):
But you know, going back to the original point here.
I don't know why. I don't know why they got
rid of him because he was so good. But some
of those impressions, like his John Gruden is great all that,
but like John Madden, that was the one.

Speaker 4 (01:44:37):
I tried to keep it current, but that's certainly the
one we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:44:42):
Madden. Morgan Freeman's long in the tooth. That's the crappy
part of this is that he's so ideal because of
what he does. He's not just an actor. Well, Plus,
Morgan Freeman played God in a movie so long after
he's gone.

Speaker 3 (01:44:55):
I think frankin was.

Speaker 4 (01:44:57):
He kind of narrating his way through that movie at times,
like a little bit. I mean, it's something that seems
so common with his roles, but that it becomes such
a great part of will your act I guess if
you want to talk about Frank but it's just such
an easy play if you're very, very good at me. Obviously,
it's very entertaining for us, absolutely looking forward to that.
You guys probably should too if you haven't seen him before.

(01:45:18):
He is making the rounds and coming through Houston April
fifth and six for three.

Speaker 2 (01:45:22):
I decided to not make it uncomfortable and have him
reenact the conversation that Morgan Freeman had on CBS sixty
minutes with I think it was Mike Wallace when you
were discussing racism.

Speaker 4 (01:45:36):
Doesn't sound very recent.

Speaker 2 (01:45:37):
Well, no it wasn't, but it was just it was
such a Morgan Freeman answer. Well, how do you get
rid of racime? Stop talking about it? That's what he said,
and it's just just to hear him say that and
do that impression would have been amazing. But yeah, we will.
There is something I wanted to get to with regards
to the NBA that I mean, it's not a surprise necessarily,

(01:45:59):
but it least it's an update and it's top of
mind since the Rockets just got done playing the Spurs
last night, so we'll get to that. We do have
our signature segment ahead. We have Football at five coming up,
and we still have some.

Speaker 3 (01:46:14):
Tickets to give away.

Speaker 2 (01:46:15):
It's a very very busy Thursday edition of the program here.

Speaker 4 (01:46:20):
Those tickets are for the Rockets coming up in March,
so we'll have a chance to get you in on that.
We'll do that as we usually do at the end
of the program. Final segment of the five o'clock hour.
We'll ask you to listen in throughout the hour and
there'll be something that we say that will clue you
in on what you need to know. For that haven't
talked a little much about what is taking place in
the Combine today and what is of importance to the
Texans that's taking place at the Combine today. We did

(01:46:42):
have an Astros game wrap up a little while ago.
We'll have the tape delayed broadcast for you coming up
at seven o'clock tonight, and a couple of notes from
what they did in today's game and what they have
looking forward to this second weekend of spring training action
for your Houston Astros here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:47:00):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety, Hey, it's Robert
Ford from the Astros broadcast team.

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
Catch every Astros game on Sports Talk seven ninety and
the iHeartRadio app home of your Astros.

Speaker 2 (01:47:16):
Were now a new signature seven called.

Speaker 5 (01:47:23):
What's Up with That?

Speaker 3 (01:47:25):
What's up with that?

Speaker 5 (01:47:27):
What's Up?

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
If I say what's up?

Speaker 4 (01:47:34):
Do that signature segment time here on Sports Talk seven
ninety the eighteen four thirty. Each and every weekday afternoon,
we hit you with something each day of the week,
and on Thursdays we ask.

Speaker 3 (01:47:45):
The very popular question, what's up with that?

Speaker 10 (01:47:50):
Now?

Speaker 4 (01:47:50):
Granted, we can very easily spend this portion of today's
show on what's been taking place off the field at
Ole Miss, but we probably we will save that for
maybe an off air conversation. See if you guys are
even aware of what's going on with Mary Kate. But
that's definitely what's up with that for many people involved.

Speaker 3 (01:48:10):
What about Ashley?

Speaker 4 (01:48:12):
Uh, She's not involved in that situation as far as
I'm not, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:48:16):
I need to apologize. That was like the most dad
joke ever. It was pretty bad. Oh my gosh, But
I'll excuse myself.

Speaker 4 (01:48:22):
We do have a lot of conversations about rule changes
and we want to change this. But normally in baseball, football, basketball,
they believe they know what the result will be when
they make these rule changes or they alter the game
a certain way. We want to put a runner on
second to eliminate fourteen inning games. Definitely has worked. We

(01:48:42):
want to put a pitch clock in because we think
it will speed up games. We're pretty much guaranteeing it
will speed up games. That did work. Now they're wondering
if something else happened from an injury standpoint, while they
sped up pitchers and hitters and the decisions that go
along with it. So sometimes you feel like you've got
all the data and so you implement the rule that's

(01:49:03):
clearly gonna result in what you put the new rule
in for. Let's go to the NFL and wonder what's
up with that. They've had some changes to the overtime
rules on a couple of different occasions, and we might
actually be seeing another one next year. But I'll get
to that in a minute. A couple of years ago,
we had Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen playing postseason football

(01:49:25):
overtime postseason football resulted in a rule change because hey,
that's not fair. You didn't even get a chance in overtime.
We had Brent Farv involved in a situation like that
not too long ago. So pre twenty eleven, overtime was
very very simple. Score you win, true, non complicated sudden death. Yeah,

(01:49:51):
I was decided who got the ball first on a
coin toss, but who scored first wins nothing else. You
don't get a possess, there's no if you get a touchdown,
or you only get a field, there's nothing score first,
win the game, sudden death, no problem.

Speaker 3 (01:50:07):
So in twenty seventeen when we had the change.

Speaker 4 (01:50:09):
To twenty twenty four, with how we played last year,
that's the different period in time from two thousand and
one to twenty eleven, the receiving team, basically the team
that won the coin toss won fifty five point four
percent of the time the current overtime they've been playing
with the twenty seventeen to twenty twenty four rules, which

(01:50:29):
were put in place to keep the team from winning
the toss, thus winning the game right. They put their
rule in because they didn't like how often that team
that won the toss that received the football first won
the game. Well, receiving teams winning the coin toss, the
percentage of games they won an overtime went up from

(01:50:50):
fifty five point four percent to fifty six point eight.
Doesn't sound like much, but it's over an eight year period,
and that's the last thing they wanted. I think people
are less upset about it because they don't realize it
because both teams are a lot more often getting the ball.
But the possibility that we're actually going to see an
additional change again this year. Definitely at the forefront yesterday

(01:51:14):
because the executive in charge of kind of pushing forward
with all this, Troy Vinson said, it's time to rethink
the overtime rule. How would you before I tell you
what they're thinking, how would you rethink the overtime rule?

Speaker 3 (01:51:29):
Sudden death?

Speaker 4 (01:51:30):
Make it simple, turn the clock back, no contingencies, win
the toss, get the ball, score game over. Simple.

Speaker 3 (01:51:39):
You're okay with that?

Speaker 2 (01:51:40):
Well, if everybody else needs to tell me about how
I need to be okay with games ending sooner in
all the other sports.

Speaker 3 (01:51:46):
Well, let's not look at all that other nonsense.

Speaker 4 (01:51:49):
This is football, and there's actually an a tiring, physical,
injury related part of this.

Speaker 3 (01:51:56):
And the other thing I'll add to.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
The rules in the nf in overtime are different in
the regular season and the postseason game.

Speaker 3 (01:52:05):
I'll never understand because you have to have a winner
in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:52:09):
So just that's the end of the sentence. You have
to have a winner. That's what you should always make
your rules. I don't want ties. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (01:52:17):
But you're saying this in football, at the expense of
playing fifteen extra minutes, twenty extra minutes, twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:52:23):
Extra minute and put the game away sooner, or do.

Speaker 4 (01:52:26):
You believe there's any chance ever we would see a
twenty five minute overtime game where it's sudden death. You're
kidding me. Neither of these teams can put points on
the board for three four five possessions defense.

Speaker 3 (01:52:40):
I find that very hard to believe. Well, you get
at a game, but you're in sudden.

Speaker 4 (01:52:43):
Death, you're thought of how to run through the game
is different than when there's thirteen minutes left in the
second quarter.

Speaker 3 (01:52:49):
Yeah, I wouldn't think.

Speaker 2 (01:52:50):
It would be awful, And I do get when people
say both teams need to have a chance to touch
the football.

Speaker 4 (01:52:56):
So the suggestion probably will be making the rules the
same in the regular season and overtime and adopting the
overtime rule or potentially extending it to fifteen minutes, but
making the overtime rules the same as the ones in
the regular season. The one is an overtime, allow both
teams to touch the ball, regardless the ones in the

(01:53:16):
regular season. If you get the ball, you score a touchdown,
you can walk off the field to winner.

Speaker 2 (01:53:19):
You know about this, and this is going to kind
of deviate from the football aspect but you know the
gift runner and how it's not what's the main reason
we always hear not just that you want to not
play with roster.

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
Related to COVID when you weren't sure how many players
you'd even have available on a Monday or a Tuesday
or a Wednesday. After these new players didn't pass COVID protocols.

Speaker 2 (01:53:42):
And blowing through pitchers was a concern. Is that not
a concern in the season.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
How their season was put together?

Speaker 4 (01:53:50):
Yeah, because they had all that time off after they
got ramped up and they didn't play, and now they're
coming back.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
That's COVID. They had adopted the rule going forward, and
COVID's not. I mean, COVID exists, but it's not a thing.

Speaker 4 (01:54:00):
And how about this, The schedule is different in the postseason. Yeah,
you're playing six or seven games in a week almost
every week of the regular season. You don't do that
even one time in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:54:09):
How much did we hear about how many pitchers the
Astros took advantage of in Game five of the seventeen
World Series, teeing off on them because they were overworked.

Speaker 4 (01:54:19):
Well, how about the Astros doing the opposite when they
won the World Series against the Phillies.

Speaker 3 (01:54:23):
Yeah, because he only had six pictures they used all year.

Speaker 4 (01:54:25):
They just used the same guy, you know, because they
kept dominating their series, they kept having fresh pistures, they
had a rain out, they had off days. Has Pressley
thrown in every game this postseason? Yeah, so he's also
had a bunch of off days. Montero threw almost every game.
A break you throw almost every game Pressley. It was
Taylor good fair. Their bullpend was insanely good, and it

(01:54:50):
was because of how the schedule allowed, for which it
would never happen in the regular season. I do think
I'll go all the way back to the pre change rules.
I never thought sudden death was all that bad. I mean,
I feel like the idea of you did have a
chance to win the game during the eleven possessions you've

(01:55:11):
already had, you.

Speaker 2 (01:55:12):
Don't know what you got till it's gone. And honestly,
this has made me pine for the days of sudden death.

Speaker 8 (01:55:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:55:19):
I don't think that's where they're headed. I do not
think that's their thoughts. Hours I would be fine if
they went back to just straight up sudden death, you know,
win the coin and again the overtime rules will still
have to be relatable to the current kickoff rules, which
also might be changed. There's two other fairly significant changes
that might be in place for next season. One is
how you play the game on kickoffs, and the other

(01:55:42):
is how the game will be officiated in the very
near future, very possibly for the twenty twenty five regular
season and beyond. We have not discussed that yet, but
it's being discussed, so we will discuss it next.

Speaker 1 (01:55:57):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety back to Adam
Clinton had Adam Wexler two A's he the eighteen on
Sports Talk seven ninety. You're a home for your home
teams and these two apps.

Speaker 4 (01:56:20):
Definitely building off of what we are discussing last segment.
Wexay C and Dan here with you on the A team.
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety, we'll have Astros Baseball
for you today. Today's game on a tape delayed basis
coming your way at seven o'clock this evening. Astro's getting
closer to Jose Altuve Day. It's tomorrow, right, so we'll

(01:56:42):
talk a little bit more about that. I wanted to
continue the NFL side. I'm going to tell you something
and You're going to perk up and say, well, that
sounds good. This is what I've been hoping for. I'm
glad they're finally using their brains and using their common
sense and moving forward with this. And then I will
drape a wet blanket over you. Are you ready?

Speaker 3 (01:57:03):
Sounds like a Thursday?

Speaker 8 (01:57:04):
All right?

Speaker 4 (01:57:05):
So I told you the NFL has got some things
in the works, some changes that might be made, some
rules changes to overtime. It could tell you that the
replay Assist will likely be in heavier use next season
to help determine, you know, flags thrown for roughing the passer,
unnecessary roughness, potential grounding, things like that. And they will
continue with that, maybe add a few more elements to

(01:57:27):
what replay assist can be used, can be used for
tripping and blocking and horse collar tackles, et cetera. But
I think this is what I was really focused in on,
to get your riled up and then to have you
want to leave the room. The NFL plans to use
its virtual measuring system to determine first downs in twenty

(01:57:49):
twenty five. In essence technology will be used in NFL
games in twenty twenty five to whether or not a
first down has been gained. What a concept. Doesn't that
sound awesome? Yeah, in theory, you're I'm sensing you don't.
Really you're not on board. You feel like I'm waiting

(01:58:11):
for the gut punch. The gut punch is this it
was noted that well, this was kind of already being
used in the background. I go on to tell you, Hey,
the chain crew, the chain gang, they're still going to
be used, but they're just a backup. So it still
sounds good, right, Yeah, still sounds good. But the technology
they're talking.

Speaker 3 (01:58:29):
About, when does the index card come out?

Speaker 2 (01:58:31):
That? Yeah, this is kind of where you're right on
point with that. The technology is there to determine if
a first down.

Speaker 4 (01:58:38):
Was gained or not. It's not being used to correct
the mistakes that we're still going to be talking about,
which is the spot of the football?

Speaker 3 (01:58:50):
I mean, what are we doing here? Change this veh
We'll call it the VMS.

Speaker 2 (01:58:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:58:55):
The virtual measuring system would not eliminate the officials who
manually spot the ball and use chains to mark the
line to gain. I do like the the chains being
there is good. It's good for the players. The player
who's standing nine yards away can see exactly where nine
yards in I'm not I mean, I'm sure he's good

(01:59:17):
at math, but I don't want to ask him to
do math. What's the line of scrimmage? Okay, it's third
nine and where we have to go? Oh my god,
we're crossing the fifty. So I got a plus five
and oh my god, Oh I snapped it and I
forgot I'm still standing here.

Speaker 3 (01:59:28):
Yeah, let's just see that.

Speaker 4 (01:59:29):
Little flap of orange laying right there out of bounds,
and see the man holding the chain a couple of
yards back, hopefully not run over.

Speaker 3 (01:59:35):
I get that, I want them to be out there.

Speaker 4 (01:59:37):
Technology or not, that is a good thing to have,
But the VMS will not eliminate the on field officials
who manually spot the ball just as before. One of
the biggest elements to come from the twenty twenty five
postseason that just completed was what we believe were back

(02:00:00):
to back poorly spotted balls that favored the same team.
I think the Dalton Kincaid spot is much more debatable.
When was his knee down, where exactly was holding the
ball and was it so close that it probably should
have been a first down? You could say, yes, you
could say no, it seemed a little bit more clear
that they did a very poor job on the very

(02:00:20):
quickly run fourth and one play that followed, where Josh
Allen ran into a massive humanity but appeared to have
the ball positioned past the line to gain. And again
you see official from one side and the other side
spotting the ball in different places significant not a half
an inch difference, but parts of a yard different.

Speaker 2 (02:00:40):
To me, that's interesting to me that you say the
Kincaid one was more I guess debatable.

Speaker 3 (02:00:47):
I thought that was more clear.

Speaker 4 (02:00:49):
That's why it's debatable. Yeah, we're looking at a point
where fewer people were in the way, and I don't
even think it was clear as day that they botched
it to me, And I think the Texans game was
much worse, and I think many games are much worse,
and we don't even care because it happens on first
down or second down. Right when a guy gains ten

(02:01:12):
or eleven yards on first down and they spot it
and make it second in one, I want to lose
it because they've missed the spot by over a yard,
and it happens way too often. The plays were focused
in on that get all this run, that generate conversation
that all the talk shows are talking about that it
gets brought up to the commission. Those plays are bang bang,

(02:01:34):
are hard to see are possibly also being missed, But
the ones where they they miss a spot by over
a yard, I'm like, what, how can none of the
officials or replay assist be in charge of fixing this
in real time when it's so clearly been missed not debatable,
way off.

Speaker 2 (02:01:51):
You know what's interesting about this particular postseason is that
we hear this kind of stuff every year, like the
infamous you know NFC playoff game between the Saints and
the Rams where it was I mean, come on, and
the next season.

Speaker 3 (02:02:06):
You have I don't think v MS can fix that.

Speaker 2 (02:02:08):
No, you have reviewable pass interferience all that kind of stuff.
But like, I think what really sent us to where
we are at discussing this and something actually being done,
even though it's not going to really solve the problem,
doesn't sound like, is when you had one guy come
from one side of the field yep, and another guy
come from another side of the field and they couldn't
even get on the same page to spot it.

Speaker 4 (02:02:29):
So to the point you made previously about the Saints
and the Rams. Think about what the NBA implemented for
the first time this year. Ball goes out of bounds
off Brook Lopez or Alpera and Shangoon. They say it
went out of off alpay and it goes the other way.
Bucks decided to challenge who it went out on, and
they realize, oh, well, there was actually a foul committed
which we did not call, but now we can see it,

(02:02:50):
so we are going to call it.

Speaker 3 (02:02:51):
That's new to the NBA.

Speaker 4 (02:02:53):
They are allowed to, upon review, make a foul call
if they see a foul call. Doesn't that fix the
Saints if you can challenge it. I think that one,
that one in particular, was so clear. Yeah, we didn't
call it on the field, and if we can now
throw the flag because it's been challenged or replay assist,
and that's where we come into. I don't think the

(02:03:13):
league wants that much replay assist or wants that much
to challenge, even though in this particular instance, it is
that one play that's so obvious it's fixable.

Speaker 3 (02:03:24):
See that's a uh.

Speaker 2 (02:03:25):
I guess double edged sword would be the right term here,
simply because you're you're hurting. You could be potentially hurting yourself,
Like what if the team challenge that was, you know,
screwed over by that, and then they end up screwing
themselves over because they have now alerted the officials to
something they didn't see.

Speaker 4 (02:03:44):
I would imagine it's happened during a game you and
MT have done. I know it's done three or four
times for US this year. Where I'm I'm watching the
assistant coach on whoever's bench look towards em and they're
looking back.

Speaker 3 (02:03:56):
They're watching the iPad. They're wondering what to do. We've
seen a replan on.

Speaker 4 (02:04:00):
I hope they don't challenge this because not only are
they going to lose the challenge, they're going to give
one of their own players an additional.

Speaker 3 (02:04:07):
Vowel real quick before we have to break at the top.

Speaker 2 (02:04:10):
Long suffering Cowboys fan, Oh no, doogie, Oh no, he's
a longtime listener. Let's not forget the des catch, get
rid of all human element and go AI ref Now
was it a catch?

Speaker 3 (02:04:25):
I have to ask you that.

Speaker 4 (02:04:26):
That's the thing. I don't think it's obvious, but I
do think it was the wrong call. So you think
it was a catch.

Speaker 3 (02:04:31):
I thought it was a catch and you're a noted
Cowboys hater. I mean it was I like greatness.

Speaker 4 (02:04:37):
This is the best game winning catch in the right moment,
by the best player.

Speaker 3 (02:04:44):
And Tony Romo was there too. You know, that kind
of thing in Lambeau could have changed the arc of
Tony Romo's narrative.

Speaker 2 (02:04:52):
I do wonder as we go to break, would that
have been a different call had they been in that
well Arlington, Just just something to think about.

Speaker 1 (02:05:01):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam talking your Team. Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (02:05:19):
A final hour of the program, well that means football
at five, like it does every single day here on
the program, we've gone over a few, well more than

(02:05:39):
a few NFL items, and we've been talking about, you know,
rule changes. By the way, I have to give an
update on the aforementioned des catch from again a long
suffering Cowboys fan, but also now a not so long
suffering Spurs fan. Stugie's going through it right now. He's
that prototypical. You know, there's Texas, there's a Texas triangle

(02:06:03):
of allegiance, and people have different allegiances with the teams
in the state. Like for a while there, if you
were a Cowboys fan, you were also probably a Rangers fan,
and you were also probably a Spurs fan, Whereas if
you were a Rockets fan, you're more of an Oilers
guy than an Astros guy. But there's people that like intermingle. Right,
stoogie for the record, Cowboys, Astros and Spurs. Okay, So

(02:06:32):
going back to the deads thing, Excuse me while I
go cry again. He had three steps and by that
point he's a runner with the ball. The ground cannot
cause a fumble.

Speaker 3 (02:06:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:06:44):
I mean, you mentioned Renfro against the Oilers or for
the Oilers back in seventy eight nine, You're like.

Speaker 4 (02:06:50):
Sure, seventy eight to seventy nine they've met in the
AFC title game.

Speaker 3 (02:06:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:06:57):
Other than that one, is there a play that comes
up more often that really actually in the grand scheme
of things. I mean, it was meaningful because it was
a playoff game, but there's no guarantee the Cowboys break
free of their stretch and win another Super Bowl if
Dez makes that catch and it's rule to catch.

Speaker 3 (02:07:12):
Yeah, I've been pretending to listen.

Speaker 4 (02:07:13):
Ever, since you were saying long suffering yes, Cowboys and
Spurs fan, let me let me know what number you
want me to stop on one, two, three, four, five?

Speaker 8 (02:07:23):
There is?

Speaker 3 (02:07:24):
The number is ten. Oh I thought you're talking about
Super Bowls?

Speaker 5 (02:07:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:07:27):
Oh and championships. How do the Spurs have?

Speaker 12 (02:07:29):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:07:30):
Yeah, five, I got about those. How many the Cowboys have? Another?

Speaker 2 (02:07:32):
Five? Yep, I'm I should I mean, I liked him
as much as the next guy.

Speaker 4 (02:07:38):
We really appreciate him being a part of the show
as always. Two shout outs this week as a matter
of fact for him. But come on, man, this is
like asking and I don't even know if there's any
situation between your two teams, the city, the.

Speaker 2 (02:07:50):
City of Boston, if you're like a sixty, if you're
just getting your license in Boston.

Speaker 3 (02:07:55):
Right, the greatest sports city ever.

Speaker 4 (02:07:57):
All we do is win everything.

Speaker 3 (02:08:00):
The Bruins like, that's all they've known pre Brady Patriots.

Speaker 4 (02:08:07):
No Super Bowl wins but one a period, a kind
of Celtics championships. Yeah, the Celtics have managed to win
early even though the league was smaller and less talented.
Then they had the Yankees run with Bird, and then
they had another one, and they're currently in one.

Speaker 2 (02:08:24):
Hey, you're going to the finals every year and it's
just a matter of whether or not you or the
Lakers will win the championship.

Speaker 3 (02:08:28):
This is great for America.

Speaker 4 (02:08:30):
I didn't want to sell it too short when I
mentioned they had another one, and now they're in another one.
I mean, give some credit to the Boston three party.
I mean the trio of celts that the Danny Ainge
era brought together. I mean long run of excellence and
the era. I mean they want some.

Speaker 3 (02:08:44):
More like the Bill Walton era.

Speaker 4 (02:08:46):
Yeah, this the Boston stuff was really really hard to
stomach for us, but I do understand it from their
point of view. I mean I brought up the Patriots.
I could have brought up the Red Sox. I mean,
there is a curse, there is a we never want
We've been around for how long? And then they won
multiple championships within a decade. Things shifted quite clearly. If
you're he you're an Astros fan and a Rockets fan

(02:09:10):
and an Oilers slash Texans fan. Well, the football sides
provided zero zero. Baseball side and Heartbreak, by the way
has provided two, and the basketball side, for a while
now has been sitting on two. That's four now with
little less history. I mean those two you know, the

(02:09:30):
Cowboys at least, but the Spurs not by much difference.
I mean, I'll take I mean from my age, I
would love if they were happening now and during my
sports fandom, which clearly all of the four did, and
maybe they didn't for everybody in Dallas and San Antonio somehow.

Speaker 2 (02:09:45):
But ten ten titles for your two teams. That's a lot. Yeah,
and uh, the Spurs ones were super boring.

Speaker 3 (02:09:54):
What I did.

Speaker 4 (02:09:55):
Send you a text last night if you want to
give you a quick comment on that, and then we'll
get back into football. At five. Two of the people
sitting far too close to me and with too many
friends last night, Spurs fans. I took a picture. I
believe my caption was which one would you which one
is worse, or which one would you like? Can't remember
you exactly what I asked, but it was someone in
a Tim Duncan jersey, flanked by someone in a Victor

(02:10:17):
Wemben Yama jersey.

Speaker 3 (02:10:18):
Tell them how I responded. I want you to, because
I'm not looking well.

Speaker 2 (02:10:21):
I took the like you said, the Duncan person the
person in the dunkin Jersey was sitting in front of
the person in the Womban Yama Jersey, and Tony Parker
was in the building. Oh, I know, it looks exactly
the same as he did when he played. So I
left Duncan alone. Nice, I he's accomplished something. Wiped away

(02:10:44):
the exceedingly long wimban Yama name off the back of
the It was a T shirt.

Speaker 3 (02:10:50):
Jersey doctored the photo.

Speaker 2 (02:10:52):
And then I re positioned another word instead of wimbin Yama,
the last name where his name had been.

Speaker 4 (02:11:01):
It looked like an intentionally poorly done photoshop. I like, Lucy,
I like this because you could see right through. You're
not fooled by an at NBA Sentel account. I know
this has been photoshopping, was intentionally poorly done.

Speaker 2 (02:11:13):
And even if I did get fooled by an account
like that, I wouldn't then go online and cry about
it like Jack Appleby all right, still hasn't called the show.

Speaker 3 (02:11:22):
So I gave him the number.

Speaker 4 (02:11:24):
No, I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (02:11:24):
I mean I tagged him in a tweet with the
number I was with us earlier this hour. No, I
mean I reached out on social media said call us,
you moron, take it easy.

Speaker 4 (02:11:33):
Sorry, uh NFL news today of significance. The report earlier
this week was the NFL salary cap was probably going
to be somewhere between two hundred and seventy five seven
million and two hundred and eighty one million. They settled
in on two hundred and seventy nine point two million.
Probably doesn't mean anything to you unless I put it
in context.

Speaker 3 (02:11:53):
How did they get to the point too. That's two
hundred thousand dollars, dude, that's serious money. It's nothing for
these guys.

Speaker 4 (02:11:59):
That's up nearly twenty four million from last season. It's
up twenty three point eight million per team. Obviously, the
two seventy nine figures what the cap is, what all
the teams need to be compliant with as they move
forward into the or need to work with in the
upcoming season. So when blank quarterback for a blank team

(02:12:21):
is already under contract, is already set to have a
forty seven million dollars cap hit for twenty twenty five,
the percentage of your cap hit obviously changes. You know,
their amount of money they make doesn't change until they
sign a new contract or until you redo their current contract.
But now you have that much more room. This amount
of room now it's league wide. For the teams that

(02:12:43):
were struggling and will be struggling, obviously, that creates a
little more ability to do things. And for the teams
that already had room, they just have even more. It
should be a good thing for the players, It should
be a good thing for how the teams operate. This
was a little bit higher than they expected it to be,
but again, as of about a week ago, there were
all given a memo to expect this. It was just
prior to that they were unsure of exactly where it

(02:13:04):
might be. A couple of items from the Combine. Travis
Hunter had his media session today and indicated that he
plans on doing what he.

Speaker 3 (02:13:13):
Did last year.

Speaker 4 (02:13:14):
To what degree obviously will be up to the team,
but he plans on playing both spots. The reigning Heisman
Trophy winner wide receiver cornerback at a very high level
at both spots during his entire time in college at
both spots. He wants to work out at both positions. Also,
he will not be doing that at the Combine. He

(02:13:34):
will be doing that at Pro Day for Colorado. His
quarterback should Urgh Sanders will also not be throwing at
the combine, but rather for his individual workouts. The questions
for Hunter that are common for every player that meets
with the media, Which teams did you meet with? Have
you met with this team? I mean there's reporters from
every city's teams covering him. Hey, Travis, I'm with the

(02:13:56):
Nashville Post. Have you met with the Titans yet? Hey
I'm from the Vegas Star Journal review? Have you met
with the Raiders yet? He answered all those questions with
a no comment, which is probably brilliant.

Speaker 2 (02:14:09):
That's some serious Marshawn Lynch energy. I mean, he would
have said he wasn't there. He was just there not
to get fine.

Speaker 4 (02:14:17):
If you're if you're any one of the top teams
or any team that imagines a trade up, I'm curious
what some of his numbers will be only in that
for a wide out and for a corner. I do
think speed is pretty important, and when I finally see
what it is, I'm sure it will be good.

Speaker 3 (02:14:34):
I don't know that it's gonna blow me.

Speaker 4 (02:14:35):
Away or scouts away for that matter, because you brought
it up earlier, and uh, the people who don't dive
that deeply into the combine and the numbers you draw
from Pro Day and the comment it takes like that, me,
that's fine because they play football. Guess what we have
to look at now, and they don't all play as
much football as Travis has, but you should be. You
should be looking at that he played in the Big

(02:14:56):
Twelve this year, the competition he's playing, it's perfectly fine
to rate him out on and is he creating separation?

Speaker 3 (02:15:02):
How about his route running? Well, we have him running
hundreds of routes.

Speaker 4 (02:15:05):
How well do his hips swivel when he's in his
backpedal as he's a corner?

Speaker 3 (02:15:09):
How is he making a play on the football?

Speaker 4 (02:15:11):
I think one thing he has over every other corner
is you're probably not doubting his hands. Every NFL coach
will make the same joke about their cornerback who had
five interceptions but could have had ten. Yeah, that's why
he's on defense because he can't catch. Well. Travis Hunter's
probably a little bit different than that because of his
ball skills on offense and can be maybe an even
bigger playmaker because you literally have one of your wide

(02:15:34):
outs playing defense every play, not just Gronk on a
hail Mary. Not just your tallest receiver on a hail Mary,
but literally playing both sides of the football. And I
do think the team he plays for will employ it.
Probably fewer offensive than defensive snaps, probably less work on
offensive practice than on defense. But I don't see any
reason to look at what he's done at Colorado and

(02:15:56):
not believe he can maintain his conditioning to play it
at a high level. I think Abduall Carter, that's the
other item that should definitely be mentioned, not gonna have
surgery or has been told he should not have surgery
after they found the issue with his foot, which should
allow him to compete at his pro day, should allow
him to be viewed off of his tape. It can't

(02:16:18):
be a no concern for teams that are thinking about it.
But as I sit here today, cam Ward, Travis Hunter,
Abduall Carter, one of those three players is going to
go number one. And I do believe those three players
will go one, two, three. If I had to bet today,
the only thing I bet on is that Hunter won't

(02:16:39):
be the number one pick of those three. I think
he'll go top three. I'm not even sure that Tennessee
keeps that pick. But if cam Ward's the number one pick,
I bet Tennessee did keep it and selected quarterback Miami
Cameron Ward.

Speaker 2 (02:16:53):
There is one more aspect of that exact particular element
heading into the draft, plus something going back to the
salary cap that you mentioned that's absolutely mind blowing.

Speaker 3 (02:17:05):
We'll get to.

Speaker 2 (02:17:06):
Those and a whole lot more when we continue here
on a Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 5 (02:17:12):
The Ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:17:16):
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Speaker 1 (02:18:17):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexlwerth on Sports.

Speaker 5 (02:18:22):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:18:29):
All right, so first things first, going back to last segment,
the NFL salary cap, right, Well, I don't know if
you're aware when the salary cap became a thing. It's
not that old, relatively speaking, at least not in relation
to how old the league itself is. The NFL as

(02:18:51):
we know it, it's very much not old. It started
in nineteen ninety four. Matter of fact, a lot of
people who are Dallas Cowboys fans will tell you it's
what broke up the Triplets era of you know, dominance
and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (02:19:07):
Had a slight shift in what you meant by the
Triplets and almost made a comment it would not have
been applicable. But I did think Dallas when you said triplets.
But when you were talking about them breaking up, my
first thought was Jamal Mashburn, Jimmy Jackson Jackson and Jason
Kidd and why they broke up?

Speaker 2 (02:19:27):
And the guy who now wears is it like a beret?
What is he wearing or is it a backwards hat?

Speaker 3 (02:19:32):
Why? Yes, we don't want to talk about I thought
you were going to talk about why they broke Yeah,
but why does he look like that?

Speaker 10 (02:19:37):
Now?

Speaker 4 (02:19:38):
He didn't look like he's He's around basketball, so it's
a casual atmosphere. He wears a backwards hat and glasses obnoxious.

Speaker 2 (02:19:46):
No, not those glasses. Those are not normal light frames. Yes,
but they're just I don't know, man, I have no
issue with Jason Kidd's fit. You have issues with his coaching.

Speaker 4 (02:19:59):
He's I think he's impressed me more with Dallas than
he ever did anywhere else.

Speaker 2 (02:20:04):
There was all of one other stop as a head coach, right, uh, Milwaukee, Yes,
that's it.

Speaker 4 (02:20:10):
Oh, I feel like he was a coach on the floor,
you know, point guy, all right, Dad.

Speaker 2 (02:20:16):
Brian McCarthy tweeted out the following night with the league. Well,
so you know it's good.

Speaker 4 (02:20:20):
What's his handle at NFL PR guy, ESPR guy for
the NFL. Does he have to give that handle up
when he loses that gig? He's at it for a
long time. You'll have to ask him.

Speaker 2 (02:20:30):
I would put Brian NFL PR guy if I were him,
but I'm not all right. Nineteen ninety four, the salary
cap was thirty four point six eight million. That is insane.
Thirty four million, Like what was Try making your whole
team five million bucks?

Speaker 3 (02:20:50):
Right?

Speaker 4 (02:20:51):
Who's just some slack quarterback from UCLA and Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 (02:20:55):
By way of Oklahoma exactly. We'll see if he can
play the one.

Speaker 2 (02:20:58):
The other thing that I noticed about this list, it
increases every year, except for when it didn't. I like,
you never expect to see that, But it went from
one twenty three back down to one twenty for a
couple of years in a row. There was that non
app applicable year known as the lockout twenty ten. We

(02:21:19):
all remember that. If you were working in the business then,
or if you were just watching the NFL. Oh, it's excruciating.
You know how many times I went to Eric Winston's
House to interview him as a member of the or
the Players Association president more.

Speaker 3 (02:21:33):
Than once a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:21:34):
Yes, uh, and he didn't he wasn't happy to be
doing them either, because they all wanted to play. And
then it went back up to one twenty three before
increasing the rest of the way. But thirty four million
bucks basically thirty years ago, that.

Speaker 4 (02:21:49):
Is, and now Matt Stafford about forty million, and he's saying,
uh uh more.

Speaker 2 (02:21:56):
And it's even what you know, what you know it
gets me is that the NFL is a multi billion
dollar conglomerate, which all the sports leagues are. But what's
the What are the best players in the NFL make
right now? Right around what you just said basically, I
mean there's some that make maybe more.

Speaker 4 (02:22:12):
You've gotten, You've gotten to the point where some of
these quarterbacks are up above fifty.

Speaker 2 (02:22:15):
Dearon Fox is gonna is He's gonna ask for a
max deal. You know what it's gonna be for. It's
gonna have a live in front of it. That's mean
his total value or the yearly value, the yearly value.

Speaker 4 (02:22:26):
We were just talking about two of the worst contracts
in the NBA that happened to be on the same team.

Speaker 3 (02:22:32):
Well, number three is coming.

Speaker 4 (02:22:33):
The Paul George deal and the Joel Mbia deal. It's
worse because they're well. MBI and Fox are comparable. But
in Georgie's case, because of how many years he's played,
He's now.

Speaker 3 (02:22:43):
At the d Darryl Moury.

Speaker 4 (02:22:47):
The further you are in the league, the more money
you're making. Damian Lillard's in that spot. Jimmy Butler got
an extensions. He's making more than six million.

Speaker 2 (02:22:55):
None of these guys and none of these teams you're mentioning,
are gonna win squat with all this money. There's this
is why I'm still hesitant with the Rockets. If you're
gonna make a trade and you're gonna give up all
that stuff, why would you? I don't know, man, I
feel like I feel like you're not quite finished to

(02:23:16):
finish your comment, Like, why would like?

Speaker 8 (02:23:18):
What do you got?

Speaker 2 (02:23:19):
I just I can't believe that the the NBA, which
by all accounts is I don't want to say they're
losing money, but they're not. The public perception right now,
just from the average fan on the street, is not
pro MBA. It's just not for a variety of reasons.
It's just not whereas NFL. Yes, I will watch whatever game.

(02:23:43):
I'll even watch Jags versus Jets.

Speaker 4 (02:23:44):
But if you sign the TV deals that you do,
which Adam Silver and the networks have done, then you.

Speaker 2 (02:23:48):
Can get out of your baseball contract because you made
a bad decision.

Speaker 4 (02:23:51):
Your salary cap goes up, the amount of money you're paying.
The older players that are still at a high enough
level to earn it, their amount of money's going on.

Speaker 2 (02:23:58):
Well, do you think that they thought when they signed
this deal, these.

Speaker 4 (02:24:02):
These these people, these networks.

Speaker 2 (02:24:04):
Yes, do you think they realized at the end of this,
like Lebron's going to be long gone, that Steph Curry
could be long gone.

Speaker 3 (02:24:12):
I mean, that's that's your ratings you.

Speaker 2 (02:24:14):
Still we All we talk about is how they haven't
established stars like SGA. Hello over here, all right, you
play an OKAC and it's not sexy.

Speaker 4 (02:24:21):
So lock back in on your guy KD. Who saw
his freshman individual games scoring record go down last night.
Trey Johnson got that in an overtime loss. By the way,
we've got the Rodney Terry Show coming up after the game.
After our show today six o'clock. The Unnecessary Longhorn basketball
topics ablaze, and then we will bring you Astros baseball

(02:24:43):
after that. I on tape the Lake. I do think
the loss should, barring a tournament victory in the SEC,
eliminate the Longhorns from even being in the last four
in category of the bracketologists out there. But nonetheless, Trey
Johnson is awesome and he's going to be an unbelievable
prone He's going to be a very high lottery pick.

(02:25:04):
Kevin Durant has another year on his contract, will make
fifty four million in change for the twenty five to
twenty six season. Declined the opportunity to extend his deal
by a year at sixty million prior to this season,
beginning with the expectation of one hundred and twenty million
two years of sixty million dollars each on average on

(02:25:27):
an extension. If that's what the Rockets put in as
part of the here's why we're acquiring him, It'll be
taking on Kevin Durant three years, one hundred and seventy
four million thereabouts, giving up whatever it takes, probably multiple,
if not all, of the Brooklyn picks that you own,

(02:25:47):
and some small, probably small portion of your current talent.

Speaker 2 (02:25:51):
You have to get a third team involved unless you
want to ship out like Dylan Brooks for sure.

Speaker 4 (02:25:55):
But I'm just thinking of guys that make money. You're right,
but the extend it's more. Let's just take the Rockets
what they're taking on you. Okay, with spending one hundred
and seventy plus million on KD for his remaining three
seasons of his NBA life, maybe.

Speaker 3 (02:26:14):
I go back and forth on this a week, Go
ahead and talk to myself.

Speaker 4 (02:26:16):
Only be thirty seven, thirty eight and thirty nine.

Speaker 2 (02:26:19):
Yeah, But the problem with that is he's not He's
not Alex Bregman. He's not clearly declining in his efficiency
numbers or just his numbers numbers. He's like fifth in
the league in scoring right now at thirty what is
he He's thirty seven? Yeah, one year for every year
thirty six until September. So next year he'll be thirty seven. Yeah,
one year for every number of points he dropped on

(02:26:39):
the Rockets and that loss in that loss because the
rest of his team was terrible that night and didn't
include Devin Booker who was out injured.

Speaker 3 (02:26:48):
So you add Kevin.

Speaker 2 (02:26:49):
Durant' scoring to this defense and oh, by the way,
he can still play defense.

Speaker 3 (02:26:54):
That's what the Rockets are thinking about.

Speaker 4 (02:26:55):
Just quick thought, how many teams in the NBA have
more than one player on it that's in the top
ten in scoring.

Speaker 2 (02:27:05):
Uh, I've just thrown a number out there.

Speaker 3 (02:27:08):
I'd say three. It's one.

Speaker 4 (02:27:13):
Oh well, I thought it'd be two, so I shot high.
Lebron James is not in the top ten, so it's
just Luca. Nobody with Shay's in the top ten. Besides him,
Boston only has one player in the top ten. It's
Tatum who listeners only have one LaMelo's in the top ten.
There clearly is not a second Hornet. It's the Suns
who can't beat anybody. There's one team in the league

(02:27:36):
that's been worse this month than them. They have wards, yes,
two wins in February. I know Kevin is playing good basketball.
How come they fishing at all? Same reason?

Speaker 3 (02:27:52):
Ever, on almost every night they lose.

Speaker 2 (02:27:55):
Isn't to an extent that the same as when and
Victor Wimbinyama was healthy. I know he's not offensively as gifted.

Speaker 4 (02:28:04):
Their record overall this season is very comparable, So that's
not a not a horrible comparison. I just you know
Booker is a top ten scorer at twenty six points
per game, and so you need to ask yourself. I
know everybody on their in their car right now listening
to us on the iHeartRadio app is screaming because they
don't play any defense. Are you dense? I'm not dense,
but there's got there. They can't be Kevin Durant and

(02:28:28):
add him to this mix. Don't take away a ton
of actual talent from a players standpoint. So ship out
the picks, get a third team involved, and give them
their crap. You telling me that Kevin Durant's not gonna
win here in Houston means he's absolutely gonna win here
in Houston. He might win Big hem Udoka as his coach.

(02:28:49):
They like each other a lot. Yeah, they hugged it out.
It's a good recruiting tool. They like the coach.

Speaker 2 (02:28:55):
Telling me Jalen's gonna feel less pressure not having to score,
which he's doing very well and also very efficiently. All
of a sudden, Rockets are winning the twenty twenty six
NBA Championship.

Speaker 3 (02:29:05):
Oh that was block it up, man.

Speaker 1 (02:29:06):
Listen back on board, baby, The A team on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:29:14):
I'm gonna have joint pain from partying on Richmond Avenue
after they win the title. And so I'm gonna go
to QC Kinetics because I tell you what I'm not
gonna do when I start getting any sort of joint pain.
And listen, I just turned forty four. I'm getting up there.
Yeah yeah, I mean some people are older. But for
me my situation, you know, when I have some aches
and pains come in my way, for sure, I tell
you what I'm not gonna do.

Speaker 3 (02:29:35):
Go get surgery.

Speaker 4 (02:29:36):
That's a dumb idea.

Speaker 3 (02:29:38):
You know what WEX is going to give you a
better idea.

Speaker 4 (02:29:40):
Call QC Kinetics. Can you hear it? Call QC Kinetics
seven one three nine one three fifty two eighty five.
You'll get set up with a free consultation. One of
the four Houston area locations will be happy to see you,
and you'll be happy that they are taking care of
business with your chronic joint paint. Go back to doing
the things you once loved to do but no longer
can without pain, simple stuff walking, climbing stairs, playing golf.

(02:30:05):
Joint pain should not be there. You shouldn't feel it
every time you move, help say no and goodbye to
chronic joint pain with QC Kinetics at seven one three
nine to one three fifty two eighty five said Hey,
a story Eastman.

Speaker 3 (02:30:19):
It is good for listen to Rockets Radio or your
smart device. Just ask old Lay.

Speaker 4 (02:30:24):
Sports Stock seven ninety on iHeart Radio five thirty halfway
home on our number four means a chance to catch
up on a few things we need to revisit, or
on items we've not yet brought to the table at all.

Speaker 3 (02:30:40):
In case you missed it, what do we have today?

Speaker 2 (02:30:41):
Dan?

Speaker 6 (02:30:42):
All right, so we all look up this morning to
the sad news of legendary actor Gene Hackman passing away
at the age of ninety five. Details are out there.
I don't want to bump people out, especially here on
Friday Junior.

Speaker 1 (02:30:55):
So.

Speaker 6 (02:30:56):
He was known for such great films as Coach Norman
Dale and Hoosiers, and he believed in Olie when nobody
would believe in him. Never see gave tough love to
Jimmy Chipwood, you're missing out or has his role as
coach Jimmy McGinty of the Washington Sentinels when he believed
in Shane Falco nobody else did which one was better?

Speaker 4 (02:31:17):
Well, now I have to chime in and say.

Speaker 6 (02:31:20):
Say, especially with the revelation from that guy sitting next
to you, how dare you?

Speaker 8 (02:31:24):
How could you not?

Speaker 3 (02:31:26):
Have you ever seen Enemy of the State? Yes, of course,
great movie. I liked him better in that one. You're
either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid.

Speaker 4 (02:31:33):
He's been in a lot of extremely popular.

Speaker 3 (02:31:38):
He's been in every movie ever. He's been in a
lot of movies.

Speaker 8 (02:31:41):
Get Shorty does not get enough? Good run.

Speaker 3 (02:31:43):
He WASX luthor.

Speaker 4 (02:31:44):
Yes, he was shared some screen time with Denzel Washington
and Tony Soprano.

Speaker 8 (02:31:50):
Commander of the ship.

Speaker 3 (02:31:52):
Let's see, they're fueling their missiles. We don't have time
to play brown.

Speaker 4 (02:31:57):
He was in a love triangle with Kevin Costner and
Jean Young.

Speaker 3 (02:32:00):
Yeah, because there was no way out. There was no
way out except to well.

Speaker 2 (02:32:06):
Hashtag limousine love making. What's your Name? Costner was a
Russian spy dude. Costner slayed in the eighties and nineties.
Still does it would have called him slay FK could
have his most recent appearance. I don't think he's slayed.

Speaker 4 (02:32:25):
He was seen more unsure of what to do as
a pair of SNL cast members in the crowd were
arguing and singing with each other.

Speaker 3 (02:32:33):
He was there at SNL fifty.

Speaker 2 (02:32:35):
Well, is this separate or the same incident when he
just stared down the two most grotesque members of Hollywood
at the moment right now, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.

Speaker 3 (02:32:47):
What else do we have?

Speaker 5 (02:32:48):
All right?

Speaker 6 (02:32:48):
So remember yesterday brought up the Matt Stoffle people, Tom Brady, Yes,
they are team justin Baldoni all the way.

Speaker 8 (02:32:56):
All right.

Speaker 6 (02:32:56):
So the NFL says that the reports that can out
and now we know obviously conflicting reports. We covered that
story a little bit earlier. But people started to wonder,
all right, hey, you know, if it is Jordan Schultz's version,
isn't that tampering. The NFL responded and said, no, the
RAMS gave him permission to seek a trade, and what
can we do, it's not tampering.

Speaker 4 (02:33:17):
I agree, Hey, man, we are okay. If you want
to go to another team, you and your agent can
get to work on that. That's literally what he allegedly
was doing. I still don't understand the reasoning behind it.
Just the team swap. We talked about that yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:33:34):
Not to go full Jeff Passing on this, but that
whole thing is a giant nothing burger.

Speaker 4 (02:33:40):
Yeah. I can appreciate him looking for better opportunities monetarily
or looking for better opportunities on the football field. I
just don't really think there is one. And by the way,
currently plays for the Rams.

Speaker 2 (02:33:50):
The way, the reason that Ian Rappaport or the reason
there was security involved is because Ian Rappaport called for it.

Speaker 3 (02:33:59):
That was my part of the whole thing. Security, we
need to come over here.

Speaker 8 (02:34:04):
And then he's like trying to like downplay it today.

Speaker 2 (02:34:06):
At some point I would too if I looked like
Jordan Schultz intimidated me in a Starbucks at.

Speaker 3 (02:34:12):
Some point, if you're trying, I mean, you're clearly.

Speaker 4 (02:34:14):
Walking away as a very popular option, I would think
he's not. I don't think Ian Rappaport is looking for
a fistfight. I don't really think Jordan Schultz was either,
But I don't wasn't there And we haven't really heard
enough about how elevated this guy. Did he need security
because he couldn't walk away from it? Did he need
security because it did appear that it was going to

(02:34:35):
rise to that threat? And he's there to work, and
once this happens, he's not going to be there anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:34:40):
You know, I noticed about this, Like you and I
have been to radio row at the Super Bowl many times, right,
Oh yeah, if you're not an athlete there, have you
ever noticed there's something very consistent with most of the
other people that are rummaging around that place. They're just
like Hollywood actors. You're like, oh, wow, they must be
a pretty big guy. And then you see them in
person and it's Doug Gottlieb at five foot four or

(02:35:02):
it's Mike Florio at four foot eleven, and if you.

Speaker 3 (02:35:05):
Don't step on them, you'll miss them.

Speaker 4 (02:35:07):
I mean, I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:35:08):
Ian Rappaport's a shrimp. I guarantee it. I guarantee it.

Speaker 8 (02:35:11):
He's a very short individually.

Speaker 3 (02:35:12):
I would not.

Speaker 2 (02:35:13):
Jordan Schultz probably a shrimp like these sore. But it's
all about this, Oh there's this what was it?

Speaker 3 (02:35:20):
What was it called? The accosted each other. Making this
into something I just don't.

Speaker 2 (02:35:24):
You're not the media is making it about the media
because it's fun, because.

Speaker 3 (02:35:30):
I don't consider myself media.

Speaker 8 (02:35:31):
By the way.

Speaker 4 (02:35:31):
It's just they didn't punch each other. It's as you said, already,
guys win.

Speaker 2 (02:35:36):
Nose to nose in the middle of a uh Indianapolis
area Starbucks, and they're trying to make it sound like
a way in.

Speaker 3 (02:35:43):
For UFC three p.

Speaker 4 (02:35:44):
Fifty because it's fun for everybody else to mock what happens.
You know what I want to know or making this happen.
Are other media members who think it's hilarious.

Speaker 3 (02:35:51):
You know who?

Speaker 2 (02:35:51):
I would love to hear his thoughts on this, Dana White,
after dropping like fifty f bombs will be the funniest
thing ever.

Speaker 4 (02:35:58):
Well, you said, Dana White, you could You could have
suggested some other people who may or may not stage
encounters in anticipation of then holding a fight between them,
or or they actually did exactly that, as was unfortunate
to their cause. Shown in court documentation. The Mahomes Rocker

(02:36:19):
situation was not a oh look who ran into each
other randomly on the streets of New Orleans or auction set.

Speaker 2 (02:36:27):
You could be a total blowhard on a radio station
and man, you not you and manufacture a confrontation onstead
radio row and get the rest of your coworkers kicked
out out of that facility.

Speaker 3 (02:36:38):
What else do we have that's just hypothetical, right.

Speaker 8 (02:36:41):
Very much.

Speaker 6 (02:36:42):
All right, So, a NFL source to ESPN says Miles
Garrett not open to a Browns contract extis still insistent
he wants a trade, even though Andrew Berry's team she
a couple of days ago, said ah, or we're not
really thinking about doing.

Speaker 2 (02:36:58):
Where does he land and what do they get to
try and recoup the fleecing that Nick Cassario put on.

Speaker 4 (02:37:04):
That I still feel like the statement put out by
Garrett and his agency at the onset of this, the
comments made publicly then and now again by Barry their GM,
and then the report that Dan mentioned that he is
reportedly not interested in extension, as in, here's what usually happens.
You need to trade me, We're not going to. I'm
not happy here. What can we do? How about more money? Okay?

(02:37:28):
That's It's just taken every single step out of the
typical disgruntled player playbook, except it doesn't feel like in
this case the money is what's going to satisfy him,
because playing in Cleveland is so dissatisfying. I don't think
they're close. I'm amazed at how far from where they

(02:37:50):
just were. It looks like they've become. I think they're
on the verge of firing Kevin Stefanski five games in
the next season. I feel like they're going to have
a horrificquarterback situation again this upcoming year.

Speaker 3 (02:38:02):
They just got Nick Chubb back.

Speaker 4 (02:38:04):
Is this next year going to be the really good
season or is it maybe no longer Nick Chubb can
play at that level. Not so sure that Jerry Judy's
a great receiver. They had nobody else to throw to.
They eventually threw him the ball. And guess when he
started to perform very well when they had a guy
who would sling it all over the field with no
care at all about what happened. Jameis Winston was Jameis

(02:38:27):
Winston this year terrible, but he threw for a bunch
of yards and touchdowns. That's not good football. It's a
really nice way to have Jerry Judy put up great numbers.
They don't have enough talent, and they're in a division
where they are like the Matt Stafford not going to
the Raiders. They're the worst team in a four team division.
The other three teams are going to the playoffs every

(02:38:49):
year or close, and you're worse than them. Cleveland's going nowhere.
I don't know the answer to the question where's he
going to land. I'll say not Dallas for now, but
he's going to be elsewhere. It does look like and
I think i've actually Michah Parsons is terrifying.

Speaker 3 (02:39:07):
Too bad.

Speaker 2 (02:39:07):
Micah Parsons will get shipped out when they can't come
to an agreement with him.

Speaker 5 (02:39:12):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:39:18):
Come back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler, The A
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:39:30):
Final segment of this afternoon's program. We take you straight
into a Longhorn Weekly, which is the Rodney Terry Coaches Show.

Speaker 3 (02:39:37):
Coming up at six o'clock.

Speaker 4 (02:39:38):
Seven o'clock, you take delayed version of the Astros ballgame
from this afternoon. You'll definitely want to tune in for
all of the runs that they scored. Today was the
spring training debut for both Jeremy Pania and Jordan Alvarez.
Colton Gordon got the start. I won't spoil how he did.
Only one Astros pitcher gave up runs today though, and

(02:39:59):
it wasn't him. You had a couple more hits from
Christian Walker. If you want to hear how that sounded well.
Stick around that will be coming your way at seven
o'clock tomorrow. Jose Al Tuve is going to play left
field for the Spring training Astros.

Speaker 3 (02:40:11):
His spring training.

Speaker 4 (02:40:12):
Debut and his opportunity to hopefully hit just like he
always has. But definitely something to keep an eye and
ear on for tomorrow and ask promised here in the
final segment of the show your opportunity you loyal listeners
to win tickets too. In this case, go see the
Houston Rockets December twenty third, the Denver Nuggets will be

(02:40:34):
in town to face the Rockets. Have a four pack
of tickets for you here. If you've been listening closely
to the program, you can also get tickets be a
ticket Toyota Center dot Com to that game and any
of the upcoming games.

Speaker 3 (02:40:46):
Also be at home coming up this Saturday.

Speaker 4 (02:40:48):
But we've got a four pack of tickets to go
see Nuggets Rockets March twenty third, if you can tell
me the answer to the simple question, and you will
definitely be able to do it because you are listening
to our most recent segment in case you missed it,
which began with the unfortunate news of the passing of
ninety five year old Gene Hackman, very popular actor, a
long running acting career come to a close. Each of

(02:41:12):
the two hosts in this room mentioned one very very
popular Gene Hackman movie that they had not seen. Both
are sports movies. You only need to name one of them.
Ac has not seen a very popular Gene Hackman movie,
what is it? Or I have not seen a very
popular Gene Hackman movie. What's that?

Speaker 3 (02:41:35):
Both are sports movies and you only have to have one.

Speaker 4 (02:41:38):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety one other
baseball related item because we've been talking about it quite
a bit because of what the Astros did this off season,
and I'm a speculating on next off season.

Speaker 3 (02:41:55):
Kyle Tucker and Vladimir Gerrero.

Speaker 4 (02:41:57):
Junior quite obviously are going to be different this year
than each of the past couple of years. There was
a singular, massive prize in free agency this offseason was
Juan Soto. It was the same story the previous offseason
with the hitter pitcher that went from LA to LA
and this upcoming season, and actually you could probably go

(02:42:21):
back to the year before that. Even though I never
expected to leave, though he almost did when Arson Judge
had the opportunity and free agency to test the waters.
This year, there's two players that are absolutely going to
be pitted against one another, will be compared to one another.

Speaker 3 (02:42:36):
You got Guerrero who's two years younger.

Speaker 4 (02:42:38):
But I don't think we've ever said this number because
it's just a projection, an on pace guy thing. But
he had twenty three home runs in seventy six games.
He had twenty three home runs for the number of
bats that he had at the time. He was on
pace for a fifty homer season. Talking about Kyle Tucker
never done anything close to that before. Are you getting
that Kyle Tucker? And is he going to be healthy?

(02:43:00):
And we'll find out if that's who Kyle Tucker is
in Chicago, then we'll see what teams think about the
two of them. I expect both of them have great
What should be Walker's the idea that opt outs are
now super popular, throws a huge curveball. I was gonna ranch,
but I'll say curveball into the marketplace because until we

(02:43:22):
get there, we don't really know who's in it. And
are you know GM's thoughts on where they should focus
is it's different. Two of the five biggest free agents
this year hold the option to be free agents next year.
Pete Alonzo with his deal with the Mets, Alex Bregman
his deal with the Red Sox. No surprise, I don't
think to most people if Alonso opts out because of

(02:43:45):
his contract, and a huge surprise to most people if
Alex Bregman does opt out. Cody Bellinger's also in an
opt out situation. He's gonna play his first season. Any
Yankee pen stripes that definitely changes the market, I think
quite a bit. One of the players the Yankees traded for,
Devin Williams, one of the best closers in the National League. Well,
if he's one of the best closers in the American

(02:44:05):
League this year, he'll be on the market. The Cardinals
are probably going to trade Ryan Helsley, their closer. Ryan
Presley is in the final year of his contract, likely
to be the closer in Chicago. The Astros aren't going
to be involved in a single one of these player
pursuits on purpose in some cases, but it will impact
what the teams around him are focused on versus where

(02:44:28):
they can put their focus on. Finding out where their
holes really are, and where do they actually have With
no money being spent on Jose Abreu, no money being
spent on Rafael Montero, obviously you've already kind of changed
the landscape with not being on the hook for any
Kyle Tucker money. And the other player of note that
is directly related to the Astros is arguably the best

(02:44:52):
starting pitcher on the market from Vervaldez.

Speaker 2 (02:44:55):
And they won't pay him either because somebody else is
going to give him more money than they want to.

Speaker 4 (02:45:00):
The Dylan Ceese rumors have existed for about seemingly a year.
He's in San Diego, He's going to be a free
agent at the end of the season. Michael King another
Padres pitcher a free agent, and you I'm not. The
other teams know Fromber the least, the personality, the motivation,
the day to day Frombert. They know his numbers, they

(02:45:24):
know his results, they know there aren't five American League
pitchers better than him over the last three seasons. If
he does it again this year, that's what they're gonna
know when he hits free agency.

Speaker 3 (02:45:35):
H and he's not going to stay here. If that's
the case, it's an exceptional resume.

Speaker 2 (02:45:40):
Yeah, and like, I know that he's got some drawbacks
or concerns or whatever.

Speaker 3 (02:45:48):
You but they're not.

Speaker 4 (02:45:50):
They well, you know what, they don't know the twenty
nine other cities, the twenty nine other talk show hos,
the twenty nine other fan bases, and the twenty nine
other gms.

Speaker 3 (02:45:58):
You know what, they don't know that the Moniker even exists.
Good Fromber. They don't even know there's another version.

Speaker 4 (02:46:06):
I've tried to tell you and everybody, there is no
other version Fromber is good Fromber.

Speaker 3 (02:46:10):
That's who he is MM.

Speaker 4 (02:46:12):
But others would disagree.

Speaker 2 (02:46:13):
Well, there have been examples of which to make that point,
very poignant ones, by the way, over the last several years. Look,
he's like any player of value. There are there's some
good to go along, there's some bad to go along
with the good. It's overwhelmingly good. He will again, there

(02:46:36):
will be probably multiple teams lining up to back up
the Brinks truck. And if that's the case, because he
had the season that you're thinking he would have here
in twenty twenty five, it's all the more reason to
be like, all right, Hunter Brown, you're the new Ace.
And because the Astros are not going to pay him.
There's why would I think they would last? Seventeen starts

(02:46:57):
for Fromber? He allowed four earned runs in a game
in July. Every other game he allowed three under runs.

Speaker 3 (02:47:04):
Or fewer every single one of them. That's good Fromber.

Speaker 2 (02:47:07):
Yeah, sixteen out of seventeen times you got good Fromber.
Give me his twenty three numbers, just for out of curiosity,
since we have like twenty three random numbers.

Speaker 3 (02:47:16):
No.

Speaker 2 (02:47:17):
Twenty twenty three Fromber? Who was buying? Buying a large
bad Fromber? Except for that one night against Cleveland, finished
ninth in the Cy Young voting. He was an American
League All Star? Which other numbers would you like?

Speaker 4 (02:47:29):
His real numbers, not the ones that you sugarcoated with
his resume with his whip was one one two, six
below his career numbers. What else?

Speaker 3 (02:47:37):
What was his era? It was three forty five. That's no,
that's that's decent, worse.

Speaker 4 (02:47:42):
Than the last four years. I mean, I knew I
couldn't do.

Speaker 3 (02:47:46):
Strikeout, continued old. It's only two.

Speaker 4 (02:47:49):
Hundred strikeout season came in twenty twenty three. That's interesting.
One hundred and ninety eight innings, second highest of his career.
Two shutouts, career, best one of them without any hits.

Speaker 3 (02:48:00):
You have nothing in front of you that could back
up my content.

Speaker 4 (02:48:03):
I mean, the team was less successful when he pitched,
and so was he he was only twelve and eleven.

Speaker 3 (02:48:09):
Yeah, but that's not really I'm not trying to work
for you here.

Speaker 4 (02:48:12):
We're going to send you into Longhorns basketball with Rodney Terry,
and then Astros baseball after that, and tomorrow at too
we talk again

Speaker 1 (02:48:20):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety