Rockets Win Ugly, More Texans Fallout, Hall Receives Franchise Tag

Tuesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to the Rockets' win over the Wizards, continue discussing the Texans' surprising trades, examine the latest franchise tags across the NFL, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven ninety. He's
wex I may see. Josh Jordan is our producers. We
take you until four fifty today. Astros Baseball then takes
over as the convoluted schedule this time of year continues
on your home for both Astros Baseball and Rockets basketball,

(00:21):
which you heard last night. How would I describe most
of that game? I don't want to call it a snowsfest.
It just wasn't aesthetically pleasing in Washington, DC last night.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's what happens, hopefully when you play a team like Washington.
Not only are they uninterested in winning for good reason
the way things are set up, but they also have
very few players. They could have fielded a much more
competitive team with the group of players they have in
street clothes, even if there were only six or seven
of them, but there were more. The best players are
on the sidelines. Their reserves obviously aren't particularly good. They

(00:57):
definitely don't play defense, and I don't think they're getting
a whole lot out of this from a coaching standpoint.
You know, the Rockets said they stink you can shoot
wide open threes and we'll defend the paint and rebound
and see what happens. And Washington had an out of
body experience and made all their threes, so it did
not become a blowout until late in the second quarter
and early in the third. And the Rockets played some

(01:17):
pretty bad basketball for the last twenty minutes and it
didn't matter. They played incredibly bad basketball in the last
two minutes and it still didn't matter. They were going
to get the win that they needed to finish up
that Eastern Conference swing. Only one more Eastern Conference road
game the rest of the season. Eight of their next
ten are at home. They do have those back to
backs this week. They have another back to back early

(01:40):
next week, and unfortunately, over the course of forty eight
minutes last night, very Jabari Smith like injury for Aman Thompson.
He left the game in the fourth quarter after an
ankle twist, much like Jabari Smith Junior did earlier in
the week. Looks like Jabari probably plays Thursday if all
goes well tomorrow, and according to Ima y Doulka before

(02:01):
the game, I will have to wait and see on
Amen Thompson, but as I spent a little time on
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, I think they have
to really start considering the calendar and the injuries. Now
Jay Shaan tates several weeks away from returning, it would
seem they obviously are going to be without two other players. Still,
they're going to play both of those back to backs.

(02:21):
Like I just said, down a man in one of
those two games each time, because Dorren Finney Smith will
not play in back to backs. There's always concern about
Ethan even though he is playing in back to backs.
There's twenty two games left. You will get a week
off before your first playoff game, provided you don't land
in the play in spot, which I don't believe there's
much of a chance for the Rockets to do so,

(02:42):
because I think the other teams that are with them
are likely not to put together some kind of crazy
winning streak, and I don't expect some kind of crazy
losing streak from Houston. They maintained the three spot last night,
almost got a gift from the Utah Jazz who nearly
beat the Denver Nuggets last night. But the Rockets really
should as always just be concerned with themselves. These two
games coming up at home. You'd like to take care

(03:04):
of both of those, even in a back to back,
so you can go to San Antonio for the Saturday
game or the Sunday game and try to match up
with the team that's ahead of you. There aren't many
of them. Last night's win was noteworthy and that you
had four guys going out there and really playing exceptional basketball,
you know. Men Thompson was ten to fifteen from the floor.
He missed all four of his shots in the first quarter,

(03:26):
and then he went ten for eleven and scored twenty
two points and grab eight rebounds, all while leaving the
game with eight minutes to go. He was great. Obviously,
most people have been talking about Reed Shepherd's performance, which
was outstanding. I said during the TV portion of our
evening last night, I was doing TV, you were doing
radio for Rockets Basketball. I thought it was maybe the
best basketball that Reed Shepherd had played for this team,

(03:48):
especially considering he was out there for longer than he'd
ever been out there in his NBA life and deserved
every moment of it. Clearly, the two thirty points scorers
had strong games. Washington's defensi velosophy on Shngoon was he's
way better than anybody we have, so let's never double
team him. And most of the night the Rockets figured
that out. The other parts of the night, he couldn't

(04:09):
figure it out since he turned it over a career
high tying eight times and the Wizards weren't forcing them.
He just was super lazy and loose with the basketball.
And then Kevin Durant very much like Alpurin, super effective
and efficient offensively, just coasting his way to a thirty
point game. And I don't know how he did get
asked about it a couple of times, both on the

(04:30):
court and in the locker room, about his final minutes
worth of activity in the fourth quarter. I know the
Rockets had checked out already because they thought they had won,
but I still hadn't seen stuff like that before a
turnover at the rim when he tried to throw a
cross court for no reason. Then he let himself get
into a terrible situation on the offensive end, threw it
away again and didn't get back, giving up back to

(04:52):
back buckets on those two shots, and then he shoved
the guy out underneath the basket to draw a technical foul.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, and then you know what he he also did
after that, He got away with play shoving the official.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
As he explained, to him. I barely touched him. He
can't touch him. You can in that regard. It's a
pleasant conversation. I saw what you're talking about, and you
know he he didn't and they were laughing at the Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
But like you know, you can touch an official like
for like bumping an official different. I don't know, man,
I think that you know the line. I mean, Trey
Young got ejected last night. He was like two feet
onto the floor, which by the way, and screaming and yelling,
and it's that his good. But he wasn't in mid
court and it doesn't matter on or off he was.

(05:36):
By the letter of the law, he shouldn't be able
to make his debut on Thursday. He left the court,
or he left the bench area and got onto the court,
he should be suspended.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's the rule. They have a game before Thursday, Okay,
well they played tonight. If he's not active, though, how
does that work. We'll have to check in with the
league to see if Trey Young can actually make his
appearance coming up on Thursday, But the Rockets did take
care of business. Will see what happens back at home
for the two games Thursday and Friday, starting with Golden

(06:04):
State probably already know that Golden State will again be
without Steph Curry. They played some bad basketball themselves last
night in the second half, got absolutely worked by an
LA Clipper team that clearly is not what they could
have been had they not made trades much worse. But
they both teams held seventeen point leads in that game.
That ought to tell you a little bit about what
the NBA is like these days. The early seventeen point

(06:26):
lead was the Warriors, the later seventeen point lead was
the Clippers, so they were able to hand the Warriors
yet another loss as they will wait even longer for
the return of Steph Curry. Obviously, we need to get
into the NFL, not just because you've had a chance
to sleep on it with the moves that were made
by the Texans general manager yesterday, but the franchise transition

(06:48):
tag deadline in the NFL will come and go today.
They've had a little over a week to consider. These
teams that have players that are in that position, the
Texans are not among them. I don't think Nick Cassario
and James Lipfort and Demiko Ryan and Cal and Hannah
were wondering if they should use the tag or not,
but they were very keen on watching what the rest
of the league was going to do, especially at certain

(07:08):
positions where the Texans will be looking to spend in
free agency or make alternate decisions like trading for a
running back. So we'll run through what did and will
go down to. The deadline is at three o'clock Central,
So what will be in place with the players that
have been tagged. We knew about two of them already,
with Kyle Pitts and George Pickens. Those moves made by

(07:29):
the Falcons and the Cowboys, respectively, had essentially already been announced.
They'll become official when the deadline passes and the paperwork's
been filed. But there are more coming, and there are
more decisions about tags not coming that we'll get into
to open up the next segment of the show. But
had a chance over the last twenty hours or so
to hear a little bit more from people both online

(07:50):
and who I talked to about their feelings about the
direction of this football team. As essentially, yesterday's move marked
the beginning of the offseason moves of significance towards the
twenty twenty six roster. The twenty twenty six cap situation
they'll be in. Clearly, they got to be cap compliant
in a little over a week. When the new league
year starts a week from tomorrow, every team has to

(08:11):
be cap compliant, and Texans aren't quite there yet. Again,
these moves that have been made, and when they become
official and the sequencing of all that that comes along
with all this, they will be And then some I
try to tell people. For the two months following the
season and before the new league year begins, you almost
have to pay zero attention to Hey, bleacher reports got

(08:33):
a word on who's where everybody everybody's team is is
REGs to the salary cap. I fancide it's got one
and now on and on, And I'm not calling out
the people that are doing it because it is accurate,
but it's not relevant. If you're one hundred million dollars
under the cap, that's relevant. You don't have any more
moves to make, though you've made them already. There are

(08:54):
teams that we already knew we're gonna be in the
place to spend tons of money if they so choose.
Texans are in a terrible cap situation. On February seventh,
who cares. Look at their roster, look at their contracts.
What can they do to alleviate that issue? About fifty
million dollars worth of things in restructures or extensions which

(09:14):
will all happen in the next seven or eight days.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, it's a long what's like I said yesterday, it's
March second. It's a long way to go for a
lot of things. You were in textbook wex Form last
night on a text thread where you were listing off
the starting offensive line as of right now.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, so silly. I tried to not do that on
the show, but in text I'll do it because it's silly.
I don't really care who's on the roster today and
trying to tell you, well, how's David Montgomery gonna get
any yards running behind City sou and Blake Fisher because
we all know he isn't. Well so does Nick. Nick
knows that too. Nick casseerro and Nick Cayley know that also.
That's why that's not the line that he will be
running behind. They just don't simp Currently as they are

(09:58):
sitting here, their roster has very few players that will
be honestly, they have one player on the team, and
my hopes are there as one player on this roster
that will start in front of C. J. Stroud and
David Montgomery when they when they begin the season, and
that's arianta Urser. I'd be completely in favor of having
a new guard, a new center, another new guard or

(10:19):
Ed Ingram returning, and a new tackle because the players
that are currently on the roster don't make up a
very good offensive line. They don't even make up nearly
as good a line as they had last year when
they were terrible, or obviously this most recent last year
when they did make improvements. They're just not on the
roster today. They're available in free agency, they're available in trade,
and they're available in the draft, and they have four

(10:41):
holes to fill. Could be two players from last year's
team might fill them. Jake Andrews could still be the center,
and Ed Ingram could return in free agency. I don't
think Blake Fisher should be considered a candidate to fill
a tackle spot. He can be the swing tackle for
all I care, that's fine. And I don't think Chart
Patterson will be considered to be one of their starting

(11:02):
interior offensive linemen. Those are fallback options. Those are undesirable
options that if they aren't able to accomplish all these
new players coming to town, they play the offensive line,
they'll have to resort to, which they've done every year
while Nick Cassaria has been here, and that is not
how you build an offensive line or have a successful one.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
The latest on the tag franchise tag deadline coming up
the top of the hour and how it impacts the Texans.
That's all straight ahead Buck seven ninety simulcast at the
top of the hour, as we will also be seen
on Space City Home Network, WAX and AC with you

(11:44):
on a Tuesday edition of the show. So Breese Hall
gets the franchise tag, which we all kind of assumed
was going to be happy. Either he was going to
get the franchise tag or they were going to sign him.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, their general manager with Lis was transparent about it,
and now it turns out that he even might have
been telling the truth when he met with the media
at the combine. He's only in a second year there
as GM, same as Aaron Glenn as their head coach,
but seemed pretty convicted when he said, you know, we're
working on things. You know, we want Bresce Hall here
in one way or another. You know, we're obviously going
to work towards figuring what's best for both sides. And

(12:15):
you know, at the end of the day, as he
was peppered with a couple of different angles of the question,
we want Brice Hall here, and that's presumably where things
are headed. Obviously, like you said, he is now one
of three players that's been hit with the tag. The
franchise tag for the Jets and now Falcons and Cowboys
has been used at running back for the Jets, Bressee Hall,

(12:38):
wide receiver for the Cowboys with George Pickens, and tight
end with the Falcons and Kyle Pitts. It appears that
the Cincinnati Bengals will not use the tag on Trey Hendrickson,
and that's now been reported within the last hour that
that is not their intention, which almost assuredly means not
only is he not going to be tagged, but he's

(12:58):
not going to be a Bengal. Remember last off season
there was a huge disagreement on where things stood and
how much money they should be willing to commit to
a player who had done so much for them, ultimately
ended up playing the last year for them, and last
year will be his last year there, so the edge
market receives him on it, and that obviously will change things.

(13:19):
How all this kind of impacts the Texans. Well, those
two things that actually have taken place in the last
hour or so. Unofficially, the Seahawks will not be tagging
Kenneth Walker the third and we'll obviously have that finalized
within the next hour's worth of time. So that would
be a player at least that can listen to all
comers and can still opt to return to Seattle, but

(13:39):
would likely be taking the most money, and that's normally
what NFL players do. Certainly could set this year's running
back market because of what he just did last year
and clearly what he did last postseason all the way
through the Super Bowl where he won Super Bowl MVP.
But I want to read you something from Clay Harbor,
who works a little meat out of the Chicago area,

(14:01):
is a former NFL player and tight end. Has a
good handle on things, especially as it comes to blocking
and things like that. So looking at the Bears, he
wrote this about Drew Dallman a little less than a
month ago. And remember the Bears are one of the
teams we've pointed to multiple times in the last several seasons,
since last year for them, since the Chiefs several years ago.

(14:21):
It is possible to just put your team in a
position and say we have a quarterback and he is
not being well protected and we can't run the ball,
so it's time to revamp the offensive line as fast
as we can and as successful as we can. They
did that in one off season, and one of the
players that they did that with was Drew Dallman, a
center from the Falcons that they signed a free agency

(14:42):
and inserted him as their starting center. He wrote, Drew
Dallman was the eighth best graded center in the NFL
per Pro Football Focuses from the twenty twenty five season.
That's pretty goods thirty two centers. He's in the top
quarter at the very end of it, number eight. You're
happy with that. That's how you reshape things at one position.
That's a may improvement. Played every offensive snap but did

(15:02):
all out third most pressures and pressure rates. So essentially,
as we walk through this, very good in the run,
not so not quite as good in the past, and
he finishes with goodyear for Dolmen, but still needs to
be better in pass pro, which he can be at
only twenty seven years old. Now I'm going to read
you the news from Adam Schefter about thirty two minutes ago.

(15:23):
Bears Pro Bowl center Drew Dallman has informed the team
that he's retiring from the NFL at age twenty seven.
Four seasons in Atlanta, won in Chicago. So this is
one way they were wanting to reshape the future of
their offensive line and obviously, in my opinion, successful in
that acquisition. Several others as Joe Thuni acquisition was outstanding.

(15:44):
They did suffer a postseason injury with po so that
obviously will hurt. But now that's another team that has
to figure things out at center that the Texans and
every other team looking at that center position potentially wasn't
factoring in. The Bears are a playoff team, the Bears
are a division winner. The Bears are a playoff winning team,

(16:05):
and now they have to figure out what's going on
at the center position, whether it's internal or elsewhere. This
is a rare unknown, this type of unknown. I don't
know that any other general manager would have known this.
I don't know if Chicago's general manager had a line
on this at all. And so That's just some of
the things I'd mentioned it yesterday with the trade for
David Montgomery, because that allows Nick Cassario to not go

(16:29):
to the offseason, go to free agency to figure out
who they're running back is going to be and how
much it costs, or going to the free agent market
saying I know who's our running who are running back
is going to be, hypothetically Saquon Barkley two years ago,
because we're going to offer him a contract that he's
not gonna say no to until somebody else gives him
one he's gonna say yes to, and it isn't ours.

(16:51):
And now the uncertainty that you thought you weren't going
to face is staring you right in the face. That's
why he trades for Joe Mixon a little bit out
of desperation late in the season. But again, it prevents
them from being forced to do something else. That's why
they trade for David Montgomery. They're not forced to draft
a running back, they're not forced to sign a running
back because they did this instead.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Well, yeah, you're giving yourself any benefit that you can
for an offense or a side of the ball where
you need basically to have a perfect offseason. I said
this after you left yesterday. Yeah, well then I was
probably listening. Well, you have to, I mean, don't you
kind of have to hit a home run at every
single personnel decision this offseason?

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Since let me ask you, let me tell you this,
Let me tell you what can I Baseball analogy tell
us why?

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Well, because you've never really I mean, I'm sure there's
been past prior seasons where the organization knew exactly what
they needed to address and it wasn't a particularly wide
field of positions. I mean, I know there's other things
that you need to address, but for the most part,
this is about improving the offense and specifically improving the
offensive line. You can use a ton of draft capital

(17:59):
to do that this year, but in so doing, you
need to have those picks hit, which is far easier
said than done, and pretty much what we've talked about.
Anytime they have tried to address this, it just hasn't
gone that well overall for them.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
That can't happen this year. It just can't. I'm not
allowing it. Yeah, So, Baseball Analogy to the twenty twenty
five offseason. If you're saying they have to hit a
home run this year and last off season. You know,
they went out and got Laken Tomlinson, They traded for
ed Ingram, They drafted tay Erstrie, they signed Cam Robinson,
they signed Trent Brown. All those players were added last offseason.

(18:36):
What do you categorize those as singles? Sacrifice, bunts, strikeouts,
sacrifice many if you want to go one by one
through those five, Like, what's the most Like Cam Robinson
was a strikeout with the bases loaded. Yeah, it's just
an embarrassingly bad decision. Terrible player, the ninth to lose
the World Series. I yeah, I mean I think it's

(18:57):
actually the first inning. Like, y'all are guys up there,
this is gonna be one a great season. Cowt to
have earlier in the game. Hello, how did I not
know this? It's not a good player. I'm still to
this day and we're almost a year removed from when
it happened that I was saying this then and people
were saying, man, you're wrong. This is a good player.
He started for Jacksonville, he started for Minnesota. He's bad

(19:18):
at playing tackle at the NFL level. He might be
an awesome tackle up until that very last rung of
the ladder. Good in college, good to have on your team,
good as a reserve, but well, now he's your starter.
That is bad. It was bad for four consecutive teams
in two seasons. Bad in Jacksonville, bad in Minnesota in
twenty twenty four, bad in Houston, bad in Cleveland in

(19:40):
twenty twenty five, and you're the only team that went
out of their way to sign him to that figure.
Now you're able to trade him to the Browns before
it was too bad. But that's a strikeout with the
bases loaded, Lake and Tomlinson is striking out with nobody
else just not a good player, a starter elsewhere, but
not a starting level player anymore. And they took we

(20:00):
and weeks and weeks to figure that out as he
continued to start, and then they're like, man, this guy
really can't start. Then why don't we just split his
reps with Juice Scruggs. That'll work. No neither of them
can start, So now you have two players out there
staying fresh, which makes it even worse because even fresh
for half the reps they couldn't get the job done.
So we're zero for two with two strikeouts. Now, the

(20:22):
trade for Ed Ingram the day it was made, not
a fan end of the season. That's no worse than
a double. He was really good as a run blocker,
can improve I think as a pass blocker, and clearly
the Kole Popovich as the leader of the offensive line,
along with Nick Koseira and staff, they figured a little
bit out this was a player worth taking a chance

(20:45):
on with what they actually wanted to have from a
body type and skill set in their offensive line. Tay
Ursery's probably no worse than a double. Maybe he's not
even a triple because you account for what he did
already as a green rookie starting at the most difficult
position and played as many snaps and did as many
good things as he did. I mean, that kind of
hit rate is good. And Trent Brown's probably the Marwin

(21:05):
Gonzalez or Mauricio Dubon of the group to begin with,
because you didn't expect him to come in and start.
When he finally was healthy enough to help you on
the field, he did in a very big way. He help.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Did he hit the most important home run in franchise
history for your team?

Speaker 2 (21:20):
No, That's why I added Mauricio Dubon into the mix,
because he's maybe a little bit more of that, and
unfortunately for the Texans. And again this is kind of
you know how we continuing in the baseball we talked
about the Astros last year, well, how are they gonna win?
With Perettis and Peyna and Alvarez and all the just
everybody was hurt, and and Josh Hater, Josh Hater was
also hurt. Don't forget playoff game. Well, what's what CJ

(21:43):
is supposed to do. He doesn't have an Eco Collins,
he doesn't have Dalton Schultz. He didn't he didn't have
Trent Brown either. They didn't have their starting right tackle,
so they had to shuffle the line again as he
was unavailable. These things do matter. So he was probably
more like tie game, bottom of the seventh runner on third,
less than two outs, He had a sackfly, He did

(22:04):
his job, He came in when you needed him to.
He made it work. And he might very well take
that same spot on this year's roster. He could be
brought back in as a guy who holds it together.
Expect him to be reserved. He can certainly start if
you aren't able to get something better, but those are
all less than home runs. Can they manage this season
if they hit one home run of the three to

(22:25):
four spots they have opened, do they need to hit
two home runs? They can hit three, because like I said,
there are that many spots open. And that's what the
Titus Howard deal meant to me. You you just made
the challenges harder. He's not your you don't want it
to be your best lineman, but he certainly can start
for you, and you can play very good offensive football
with him out there if the other players do their jobs.

(22:47):
And now you have to find somebody to do at
least a good job as tight as Howard did a
year ago or else you quite obviously got worse.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah, no, for sure, and you can't do that. You
have to go the other direction this offseason. You have
to have made this deal and then somehow the line
has to be back. Why do you think Nick answers
that question? If we talked to him before free agency.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
We will talk to him before the draft, but they
will presumably have signed some players. Nick, do you feel
like you and this team needs to hit several home
runs in free agency? Do you think he'll joke along
with us? I think I think he would okay, or
would you ask him more of a wrestling related questions
because you know one would play along like that.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
All right, is this a blue chipper like the Rock?
The gimmick wasn't quite there yet, but the charisma and
the talents certainly were.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
So who did they fill out the offensive line with
last year? In wrestling terms like leap and LANDI Pofo
Coco Beware see Coco's underrated. That's that's a tough question.
I can't think of that off the top, like if
they're that low level, they're not performing well, they're mid
carters if you want to exactly if you want okay,
So they're not they're not at the highest level. They're

(23:56):
not opening the curtain, but they're also not headline or
they are headlining the main event. But seven years ago,
they didn't have a name, they didn't have a shtick,
they didn't have a persona, and they were just somebody
that was out there to to see if this was
fun or not and they found something. They were stunning.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Steve Austin and the oh gosh, what was his he
had the he had this gimmick where he first came
into WWF and the million dollar man was his manager
and I can't, for the life.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Of me think of what his name was. Million dollar man.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, ted d he was his like manager when he
first came in and uh and I can't remember what
they were calling him. It's a one word. I can't believe.
I'm not thinking of this right now.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
We've got the Best of X coming up next here
on the A Team.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Signature segment on a Tuesday, one of them Best of X.
Every day at this time we go trapesing through social
media streets, sometimes good, sometimes bad, never really indifferent.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
It's always something that's gonna get your attention. We're not
here to handle the the unnecessary. What is sports media
these days? Man? You guys just hate everything, critical of everything.
Everything's a downer. You wet blanket the world when it
comes to the world of sports. I don't even think
you guys like sports. Well, that's not true, not true
at all. Now, when Aaron Judge gives a speech to

(25:27):
his teammates for our country, I am not here to
mock it in any way. I'm not here to speak
down to him in any way. I'm not there to
point it out in negative light in any way. That's
what I'm here for you, guys, are in the comments
of the post on Barstool Sports. Thankfully, for some reason,
there's a camera in the US locker room as they

(25:49):
got prepared for a humongous matchup today against the Giants.
Paul Skeens will be on the hill in one of
many WBC VERSUS Major League based ball team exhibition games
to be played today. Canada is trying to beat their
incredibly unfriendly friends from Toronto. They're playing right now in

(26:10):
Toronto at Rogers Center, and obviously the Houston Astros baseball
outfit will be taking on Venezuela in a little over
two hours. Right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety,
USA does have a game against the Giants today. Paul
Skeins will do his best in this unimportant exhibition game
before the exhibition games in the WBC take place. To
make it all happen, Team USA and Aaron Judge wanted

(26:32):
to give a good word to his crew. We just
got done with the Winter Olympics, where both the men's
and women's hockey teams team sports that require some PEP
talks motivation speeches. Obviously, the men's team winning for the
first time in forty six years brought back a lot
of memories of the nineteen eighty US Olympic gold medal

(26:55):
winning hockey team and the speeches that went along with it,
which you can find in some of them comments following
this post on the barstool account because I thought the
best comments would be there. This is what Aaron Judge
said to his teammates. I said, locker room. This was
more of a conference room setting where he was just
speaking to his teammates. And again, I'll we'll get to
whatever you want to get to about this speech after

(27:18):
I tell you what everybody else thought of it. But
if you didn't hear it, here's Aaron Judge addressing team us.
A sacrifice for your family, pole, your sacrifice for country,
and your sacrifice for the brothers in the trees with
mere single day. That's what they want us to do.
Nowhere down we'll beat up a little bit, then you

(27:39):
know each other and we're gonna lay all on the
line and we do that, bring bring a goal home.
So again, not the greatest audio because he wasn't miked
up and set up for this. Uh, well, this is
gonna be awesome. This is gonna be the greatest piece
of at Team USA social post history and we can't
wait to crank it out there. He was just talking
to his teammates almost the comments is where we will

(28:02):
head next. AC doesn't need to bag on Aaron Judge
here for this. I don't need to bag on Aaron
Judge here for this either. I'll leave it to you
guys out there. First of all, if you couldn't make
it out luckily, someone said, hey, at Grock, what is
he trying to say? And Groc transcribes it literally and
precedes it with Aaron Judge is giving a hype pep

(28:23):
talk to the USA WBC team. All right, now to
the other comments. Why would they let anyone film this disaster?
This should have been a closed room. Hey, Grock, what
is the actual sacrifice? It really seems like an honor
and a privilege, realist says bro Really out here giving
a ted talk before batting practice. Engineer on autopilot says,

(28:47):
it's not war. Just swing your bat and hit the ball. Bro,
How about the other side of things? Well, can I
get one more? Yeah, Rastlin Robb says, jesus, I'd expect
this from Team Canada.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Well, those are that is the Those are the people
that are basically not down with the analogy he was
making to the sacrifice aspect of the war, if you will,
is comparison.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
The war comparison, it's the sacrifice you're making for your family,
and I mean, it's not the ultimate sacrifice. Well, the
sacrifice I come on, man like, not just because of
where we might be in the world today with what's
going on, but anytime I'm I don't want to be insensitive,

(29:35):
and I'm really not trying to mock, Like if he's
repeating a speech for a comedy bit, that's one thing.
But like, did he did I mishear him? Did he say?
This is for the sacrifices that other people have made
sacrifice for your family at home, you're sacrificing for your country,
and you're sacrificing for the brothers in the trenches with

(29:57):
you every single day. Bro, You're not in I wrong.
I was only talking about the players there and the
baseball aspect of it, and the baseball player's families that
they're making sacrifices for.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Essentially like now, but again they are there's another aspect
of this that's bad enough. But my favorite are the
people that were tackling the effectiveness of said speech or
lack thereof.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Like, I'm sure it's here somewhere, but since I already
heard Ross mention it, I'm sure it's gonna be my favorite,
no matter what else I read. Someone had posted, Dude,
after hearing that, I am ready to run through a
paper bag.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, justin I think is the one that you're referring to.
Got me ready to run through a wet paper towel.
I mean some semblance of that.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Baseball, not exactly a run out of the tunnel type
of game man. They casually jug that kind of speech
that makes you want to sit back down.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Not everyone is a good hype man, and that's okay.
The speech just felt like a bok.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean again, this is kind of I heard this
and walked up the stairs and instead of the escalator
one flight.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
That's true that this is kind of his mo O
at this point his career. That's why I wanted to come.
Let's just let's cut it short here. We got to
recognize this for what it is, a baseball. Like the
best speeches in baseball, and there are a lot of
them for us here in Houston, they don't come before
the Astros and Mariners get set for a best of three.

(31:24):
They don't come before the Astros and Phillies get ready
for a four to seven game World Series. There After
you win the series and move on or win the title,
they're not hyping you up.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
They're saying, let's party. This was awesome. I'll tell you.
Joe Spotta gave a speech to the team when spring
training began. I don't think the Astros are ready to
run through a wall after that speech. And it's not
a reflection of Joe Aspota. He gives a speech every
a j Hinch gave one in Toronto and Detroit this
year or in Lakeland. Let's just that's not what it's
that's not really what we're doing here in baseball before

(31:57):
the World Baseball Classic, or if he had, I mean
March twenty sixth, do you think Carlos Correa is gathering
everybody up after BP and saying, look, my guy Diesel
over here, you know he's gonna get it done. My
guy Twove over here, Josey, you know he's gonna get
it done. And the other twenty three guys in here,

(32:18):
including me, this is our year, this is our time,
and he's gonna throw his hat down and say I
didn't come back to Houston to not go to the playoffs. Brother,
he's gonna throw a whole cogaan in there. I don't
think he's gonna do that.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I tell you what he's not gonna have to do
at any point, whether it's regular season or playoffs, go
up to Hunter Brown on the mountain, tell him to
get out of his own head.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
That guy got shipped off to Detroit. I do hope
just for the enjoyment of it, you know, Frommer and
his team will will visit and they'll they'll get the
fun of the tribute video, and it's gonna be full
of incredible, awesome best era of Astros base.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Highlight by Game six against the Phillies. I want to
see him. I want to see him pitch. I want
to see him cross up Salazar in the tribute video.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Well, if he does pitch against the Astros, obviously he'd
be scheduled to throw. They'd know it. You have to
start Sally in that game, so he comes to the
plate rightly.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
And the thing is that should be the last thing
in the montage of the tribute video.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Thank you. Does Sally present like whatever gift they've given him.
Does he come out of the dugout or does he
present the lineup guard that.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Day like Orbit comes out of the side gate and
he's got like extra protective gear on.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Do they let if they have a third catcher or
a ninth outfielder? Is that who catches the ceremonial first pitch?
Anybody but Caesar? All right, we will see what takes place.
There is your Captain America leading the baseballers into battle,
the WBC.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
For your family, sacrifice for your brothers, and the trenches.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
The moves made yesterday, mind, Nick Cassio, just the tip
of the Iceberg roster reshaping. What did you miss last
year from this player? You're gonna miss even more of
it next year when he's not here next.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Maybe one of the more disappointing tenures in Houston Texans history.
I mean, Phillip Buchanan's the top of that list, right, I.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Mean, if you're going historical, it's probably.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
The safety James. Oh, he was so bad. White dude
played safety twenty six? Maybe he was twenty six James.
His first name was not or last name not James.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Thought his last name was James. It's last name, if
I'm not mistakens, was Stevens. James Stevens, Chad Stevens, Chad Steve. No,
that's that was the punter. I thought that was Chad's
Chad Stanley. All right, I mean, this is your going
crazy old school. But he was crazy awful. He wasn't
very good like Ed Reid. Still wasn't as bad as
Phillip Buchanan. Right as far as secondary players they brought in,

(34:53):
it might not even be the right name, but whatever, Okay,
I mean, we could be here for all every show
of the until the end of time. I think with man,
that player wasn't very good. Man, that player wasn't very good.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Where do you put Jimmy Ward in the pantheon of
nowhere near that?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's not even I don't know, not even serviceable. No, no, no,
much much better than that. Okay. I think the contract
that he was given last year in season, the extension,
I thought it was extremely That said, I'm trying to
do the right thing so other players and other agents
will continue to think we do the right thing. There

(35:29):
was no reason for him to get an extension from
a football standpoint. During the twenty twenty four season, it
made no football sense at all. He's always hurt. He
plays so crazy recklessly that he's gonna always be hurt,
and they just had better options. Okay, so let him
play out the last year of his contract in twenty
twenty four. Really well respected guy. He was a team
captain for some of his time here. Obviously. He then

(35:51):
also had some off the field issues that came to
light this past year. But just strictly from a football standpoint,
and I said at the day that they extended him,
it happened a lot where players that are moderate contributors
or players you'd like to replace, but the manner in
which you signed him the first time or acquired him
the first time, maybe it's a little understood. The agents
and the team have an understanding. This is gonna get

(36:12):
worked out. We're gonna get you on the other side.
And so he got an extension to play more football
for the Texans in twenty twenty five. In fact, he
played no football for the Texans in twenty twenty five,
had an offseason injury that they knew was going to
take some time for him to come back from. Started
the year training camp on the pup list, never came
off and even with how the commissioner might have had

(36:34):
to deal with where Jimmy Ward's situation was. The player
we're talking about, he was never really a strong consideration
to even get put back on the roster, even if
they had to wait until the league said it was okay.
They just didn't need him anymore and he wasn't better
than who they had, And they went through CJ. Gardner
Johnson and MJ. Stewart and Miles Bryant and Jalen Reed.

(36:55):
They went through plenty of bodies, but I just don't
think he was a player they felt capable of really
helping them anymore anyway, So he went out the final
year of his contract without ever seeing the field, and
Aaron Wilson and then others reported that the Texans are
expected to release Jimmy Ward. It's not even a It's
just it was definitely going to happen. And the timing

(37:17):
of it to make the league year work and make
all those particular's work is obviously going to be a
part of it. But Jimmy Ward and the Texans will
part ways. Yeah, I am no, very unsurprisingly. He came here,
remember as somebody much in the same vein as a
ziz al Shier. He knew the defense, he knew what
they wanted to do. He was a veteran player who

(37:39):
they thought football. Yes, he can help this team, but
there are other ways that he can help our young
team and players get kind of under and understanding what
we want to do with this defense.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
It's actually insane how you can. I don't want to
say discard a guy like this, even though that's what
they're doing. And I'm not even remotely worried about their
defense next year.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Well, yeah, he wasn't in the starter next year, is
on the rosters. Jalen reed their starting secondary should be Reid, Stingley, Block,
Petrie and Lassier, and they're all already under contrary, don't
have to figure anything out. You got Jalen Smith hopefully
back and healthy. He was already set to be their
first cornerback off the as a reserve, whether it's for
sting or Laster or even Petrie. And then unfortunately he

(38:25):
got hurt way too early in the season, and then
when he tried to come back, he got hurt again.
But he was already impressing. Both Jalen Smith and Jalen
Reid were both very thought of very highly as rookies
here and looked like two more really smart picks by
Nick Cassero, and they will be counted on, I think
a great deal this upcoming year, along with the other
four players that are already under contract tour under contract

(38:48):
long term. Lasser and Block still have two more years
left on their rookie deals. Smith and Reed have three
years left on their rookie deals. They're gonna have to
pay some players, and some of those are among them,
but they're in a really, really good position in the secondary.
So yes, the Jimmy Ward exit is was a given
end of little consequence to the football product. He may

(39:10):
in fact not play anymore NFL football. He's a thirty
four year old player, will be thirty five before next
year begins. Before next segment begins, we'll get the simulcast
cranked up and get to see us for a little
bit a little less than two hours still to go
here on the A Team, and we will get into
what took place last night right here on our air
with the Rockets taking care of business and what lies

(39:31):
ahead for them injury wise.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Next o'clock hour, which means it's simulcasts time here on
the a team Sports Talk seven ninety and Space City
Home Network.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
I told WEX just.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
In the seconds leading up to this segment, I said, yeah,
we both got bad sleep last night at my house
because we were up late watching and he goes the news.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
I said, we're not eighty, not that there's anything wrong
with that, And if you were, I would have said,
the six o'clock news.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Oh my gosh, you mean after we had a luam
platter that we split.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
After you watched the national news at five thirty, you
managed to stay up for the local news at six.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Okay, since you brought it up when your parents you
were growing up here in Houston with our six channels, Yes, exactly,
pre cable which nightly national news jingle was played in
your home?

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Because du that's NBC, then that probably be it. Tommy
b I think, mister Brokaw, I'm Tom Brokaw. That's O. J.
Simpson and his wife Bronco. Let's go down to al Michaels.
He was on, he was on that night. I can't
believe what I'm seeing. Do you believe it? Okay, I
can't do it.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
I think my parents were CBS Dan rather CBOs Evening
News and then he started lying all the time.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
And who was on ABC?

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Jennings, Peter Jennings, mister I smoked ten packs a day,
Peter Jennings, uh Ted Copple. Ted Copple was after he
was Nightline and he had a wicked rug. Donaldson, Sam
Donaldson another wicked rug. Everybody had rugs in the seventies
and eighties?

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Do you have to look good? Who is the guy
in Goodfellas Maury's wing? Maury? They should have called him?
And it even stays out in the water. God, this
guy won't shut up. I want my money, You're gonna
have an ice pick.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
He should not have messed with Robert de Niro. So anyways,
we were not up late because we were watching the news.
Can I just go ahead since we've were already off
the rails in the very first segment that's televised today,
tell you what we were watching. And I have thoughts
on it, because I'm gonna have thoughts on this kind
of thing. She suckered me into watching that new mini

(41:43):
series on JFK. Junior and Carolyn Beset. It's been heavily
promoted heavily. Now I will say this, you and I
are nineties people. Yeah, I mean you grew up more
in the nineties than I did. Maybe, or you were
just a little bit further along, like you were in
college in the nineties.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
I was in junior high and high school in nineties.
Was also out of college in the nineties. Well that's true,
I was. I started college in ninety nine. So it
was in this business in the nineties at five am. Yeah, Star,
I did ring for Star six ten sports. It doesn't
even exist anymore. Nope, So I gotta bring that koozie

(42:23):
in someday. Well, yeah, you do. Was your was your?
Did your boss call you a partner?

Speaker 1 (42:28):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (42:28):
See he rose in fat Yes he did. So good people.
He's very good people. So was the sun. Yep, moose.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
So uh, I bring this up because even if you don't,
if you're not into that.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
The soundtrack is spectacular.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
It starts in the early nineties, so it's basically all
nineties because I don't know if you know this spoiler alert.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
He dies at the end of the decade in the
plane crash. So you allegedly you would like this mini
series for similar reasons why you liked Air The movie Jordan,
which had a lot of eighties tons tons of music,
tons of references. That was a movie. It was really
good anyway, but the references and the memory jogs were awesome.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Big difference here, decidedly more upbeat. Yeah, it was just
about sneakers, I mean before they get Okay, just for
those of you who haven't seen it, I'm not giving
away too much here. They start the show at the
tarmac as they're about to get into the Piper Saratoga
that would go down just off the coast of Martha's vineyard.

(43:32):
They start with that scene and then they go back
in time and we've only I think we finished the
third episode last night.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
It is so heavy.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
They're not even married yet at the end of the
third episode, and it's so heavy.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Jackie just kicked it. Jackie, Oh she lasted longer than
her husband.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Well, yeah, because she was sitting in the left side
of the open limo.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Yes, in Dallas. Yes, the subject matter leans to kind
of unavoidable that its parts of it might be a downer.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Let me give you an example of how dark this
thing is. She's obviously stricken with cancer at the end
of her life. She's on her deathbed. She determines, and
this is all historical, so I'm not spoiling the show.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
You can go look it up.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
She is determined that she wants their Catholic obviously. She
has determined she wants the priest to come in and
read her the last rites. She says she forgives him,
and the priest thinks she's talking about JFK and she goes, no,
I forgive God, and I'm like, hey man, you want

(44:39):
to like clear out. So when the lightning strikes. It's
just a very dark, very very dark series so far,
and nobody's even died yet except her. All right, looking
for the latest watch it if you watch some more tonight.
There's some Duran Duran, there's some in vogue. It's early
nineties centric, like the soundtrack mean but sure the fir

(45:01):
is gonna get played at some point when the playing
goes down, because that's about the time that was released. Oh,
I'll look into it. Yeah, I'm sure you will. Did
you ever see Cruel Intentions the movie Cruel Intentions? Yeah,
with the SMG and Ryan Ryan and his would be
wife Reese.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yeah, yeah, I saw it. And then there was the
other girl. Was her name Selma? Yeah, she was kind
of weird. The whole thing was kind of weird.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yes, the whole thing was very weird. There's the end
of our late nineties revisit. Let's get back to actual
sports talk here on Sports Talk seven ninety rockets gets
sixty two combined last night from Alpera and Shingoon and
Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant's been playing awesome of late. He's
been fantastic if you just ignore the turnovers part. You
mentioned this in the first hour. He goes out of

(45:48):
his way after these games, even when they win them,
to say, yeah, turnovers, I gotta do better. Yeah, i
gotta do better on the turnovers. I'm giving the ball
away too much. Yeah, the turnovers are they're not just turnovers.
There's so bad. They're dumb turnovers. They're bad, not smart
basketball plays, which is astounding to me because he is
a super efficient, super highly intelligent offensive basketball player with

(46:13):
this one fatal flaw and he does it all over
the floor. I used to think watching him night in
and night out, because you don't really pick up on
these things unless you do that that. Ah, it's just
when he's at the top of the key area, just
north of the free throw line, you know, just around
the top of the three point line.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
No, no turns out.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
He'll just find a way to throw it into traffic
no matter where he's out on the floor at any
given time. And I just don't get it because it
is the quintessential definition of an unforced error.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
And he does it multiple times a game. He's been remarkably,
in my opinion, consistent with his turnovers, never less than
two point four per thirty six minutes, never more than
three point seven. It's career numbers, or this is over
thirty six minutes per game in his career. This year
he's at three point one. His career is three point one.

(47:03):
It's right where he always is, whether he was here
or in Oklahoma City or a Golden State, or in Phoenix,
or in Seattle or in Brooklyn. It stayed very, very similar.
He does things that he's kind of been okay with.
All Right, I'm gonna turn it over one out of
every ten touches or one out of every ten ISOs

(47:24):
I have, Okay, great, they'll get me on that one,
and then I'll shoot seven for nine on the other
nine options. On the other nine times, I don't turn
it over. They seem like they're avoidable those three turnovers.
Last night's was six, which means three of the turnovers
are probably unforgivable. And they were, they were lazy, they
were very easy to avoid. Like, consider this, and I'm

(47:45):
so ticked off about it, and it's the dumbest stuff,
and I can't help but be mad about it. Every
single person that didn't watch the game that will talk
about the Rockets and their turnover problems will say the
Rockets had twenty one turnovers for thirty nine. Wizards point,
Oh my god, not that it's any better if it's
twenty or thirty six, which it should have been, because

(48:07):
Rockets had a big lead. They weren't even competitive late.
So what did they do when the shot clock was
still on and they had the basketball dribble, dribble, drible dribble, dribble,
durbable turnover on purpose? And what did the Wizards do
when the shot clock was off and they had the
ball down eight with eleven seconds left, dribble, dribble, dribble,
drible dribble, shoot a three, make it buzzer. They actually

(48:28):
looked at it, as you know, to make sure the
bucket was good, and it was so that was one
more turnover and three more point It was a disaster
either way. But gosh, I wish teams would stop doing
it because it absolutely makes no sense. Like I'm really
thinking this after the game, are the Rockets now going
to start a fight because they turned it over on

(48:48):
purpose as the team that's winning, But the other team
didn't take that gesture of gratitude because they then shot
a three at the end of the game, And speaking,
why don't you just play basketball? The buzzer hasn't gone off.
Just play It's all reserves. You don't think Isaiah Crawford
wants to take a shot every once in a while,
you know, the Aaron Holliday or Jeff Green, whoever's on
the floor. And I know the starters were still out

(49:09):
there last night. Just the shot clocks on two things.
Just play basketball until the buzzer goes off and you
can go home.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
As that was happening last night. I kid you not.
I look at Josh she and I said, wex is
so mad?

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Right now?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
It was wex is so I said, you can actually
see the steam coming out of his ears on television.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
It's just so silly because people, really, the players. Damian
Lillard and other NBA players really try to start beefs
about this after the game. I can't believe, what are
you doing? Why'd you shoot that? Why'd you have a
windmal dunk at the end of the game because there's
time on the clock. Like, can't the other player some
rookie who doesn't know the unwritten rules, Zion Williamson, who's
done it? Can't they just say I hadn't heard the

(49:48):
buzzer yet. Get out of my face. Yea, they are
the team that lost.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Or defend them. I mean there's a concept exactly. Anyway,
I forgot what the second thing was.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Well, Kevin Durant in the turnover in the way that
I mean reached Shepherd. We should be sitting here saying, yeah,
nineteen points and seven doors and ten assists, and he
only had one turnover, but he had two ridiculously embarrassing,
totally avoidable late turnovers, so his number went up to
what are you doing, tarry Eathan? I wish they were doing?
How much did you want to rewind it? More like

(50:20):
I got super excited when Tony Brothers had the result
and he said, because of the rules, were allowed to
go back and look at the action. I'm like, perfect,
he's going to mention whatever it is that Jamir Watkins did,
and they only went back to the first push, which
all three officials somehow did not see or felt it
wasn't enough contact. He shoved Jamir Watkins while the Rockets

(50:43):
had the ball on offense, and Watkins flew twelve feet
into the paint and he was the only Wizard in
the paint because Aaron Holiday just drove right in, dropped
the basket in, and the other Wizards were like, how
is there no foul called? And so I guess Tari
wanted to make his point. So when the Wizards had.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
The ball, he just shoved him again, him again, And
I said to Matt Thomas on the broncast while we
were waiting, I said, I got a bad feeling he's
not sticking around for this because you can't not throw
him out right.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
He wasn't doing anything to in the second shove, especially,
he was just coming up the floor.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
It wasn't even looking at Tari Easton, and Tari's like, hey,
did you feel that first one, because if you didn't,
here's this one.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yeah he felt it because he finally got back up,
he got in Tari's face, but because the action was
still going, they went back to playing basketball briefly, and
then he shoved at me. It was the right calls.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
He's like chirping at him, like, Tari, dude, seriously, Jabari's
not out there tonight.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
We need you out there. It's the Wizards. They didn't
need him barely. They did not need him. So some
of the things we did not get into we will
on the Rockets and an ex Texas defender. Could he
help this team his former team on Super Bowl weekend
by playing for them in that game? We'll find out
next eighteen.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety, do you
remember when the Texans defense was.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
Starting to be really good? I feel like when Demiko
Ryans became the head coach. Yeah, at that time right there,
so when they replaced one defensive minded head coach with another.
Mm hmm okay, yeah, I remember very clearly.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
From Lovey to Demico. We all remember the transition, the
long tenure of Lovey Smith, one whole year of it
as head coach and now Demiko and counting. I remember
Jonathan Grenard big part of the resurgence of Texans defense.
If you will and then he went and got paid.

(52:43):
And I believe it was the same offseason that the
Texans went and signed a guy that would have been
his teammate if he'd stayed where Jonathan Garnard went.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Right, Yes, basically, the Texans took Hunter and the Vikings
took Grenard. They were both free agents. The Texans took
a Hunter on an exceptionally awesome AAV short term though
a two years. I believe it was forty nine million
for Daniel Hunter, and then subsequently they extended him. So
he's still under contract now for this upcoming season, but
only for this upcoming season, and he's played exceptionally well

(53:16):
for the Texans both years. Jonathan Garnard got four year,
seventy six million, which again AAV was significantly less, but
the guaranteed money was very good and obviously it was
a longer term deal. Or again, was it you're gonna
tell me that the Texan signed Danil Hunter to a
two year deal, while the Vikings signed Jonathan Garnard to
a four year deal and Hunter is about to play

(53:38):
his third season in Houston, and Grenard is likely to
be a cap casualty needed move off of the Vikings.
Roster two years into his four year deal, playing very
good football. I thought it was interesting. I don't know
what word I use. I'm trying to remember. I was
thinking about this as this has kind of come to

(53:58):
light in the last couple of weeks, what might happen
in Minnesota. I'm pretty sure I advocated for why spend
all this extra money just signed Jonathan Barnard. You already
know he's great in Demico's system. There were some injury
concerns because he had difficulty staying healthy earlier in his career.
And I don't want to say miraculously, but as it

(54:18):
worked out as the time to get paid arrived for
Jonathan Garnard, he had his best season and among his
healthiest seasons. But he also had a new DC and
a new system, and he thrived in it. He was
awesome with the Texans in twenty twenty three all the
way around. Good against the run, good against the pass,
one of the best pass rush win rates in the NFL,

(54:40):
and his best season. He had twelve and a half sacks,
so he had more saxon year one with Demiko than
he had in the three years with the Texans combined.
And then he ended up with fifteen sacks in two
years with Minnesota these last two years and last year
unfortunately did not finish the season. He was not healthy
and he missed the final five games. Was also again,

(55:01):
like I said, he was great in year one and
now they might need to move on with him with
from him as they also usher in a different general manager.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Yeah, they have already told Aaron Jones and Javon Hargrave
they're gonna be released because of the same reasoning.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
They're wanting to keep him.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
But they're forty three million over the cap, so it's
kind of hard to That's a that's a pretty big
number to overcome.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
It can be done well, you have to. The only
way to really do that in their situation is to
commit to him for even longer by stretching out his
deal obviously talking about an extension, and I don't know
that theyre doesn't seem like they're into that.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
You know what's funny is that we always talk about
the Chiefs doing that with Patrick Mahomes, and that position
is really unless it's an offense.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Why structuring and an extension there's a slight difference.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Correct, But you're still kicking can down the road from
standpoint of taking the money that would have been applied
to these years and stretching it thinner, if you will.
That works basically for two different position groups, quarterbacks and
offensive lineman. I would say the two positions who figure

(56:18):
to play the longest if they are elite at their position.
I mean here, there is such a thing as like
a left tackle or even a right tackle, or any
offensive lineman that's worked there and they just have that
longevity to play I don't know, fifteen sixteen, sometimes longer years.
Look at Trent Green in San Francisco, Williams, Trent Williams,

(56:42):
I'm sorry, not Trent Green. He was a quarterback. His
career was a little bit shorter. Yeah, because Travis got
a hold of him and then said, God don't like Leshi.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
Yeah, Travis got a hold of him by running, and
Trent Green got a hold of Travis by throwing his
head at Travis's knee while wearing a helmet on the
football field. It seems like Travis on this one. Well.
Travis's reaction after the fact was, why are you trying
to hurt me? You hit me with your helmet? He

(57:12):
was my knee. He was right now you're laying on
the field can cuss, So everyone's now mad at me
for screaming on top of your not moving body.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
That's why God don't like Ugly was such a great
SoundBite because that's what Trent was trying to do. Something ugly.
By the way, I enjoy him on the broadcast. Yeah,
does a good job.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
He does. Yeah. The situation that the Vikings are in
there's you know, they're in a bad spot because they're
also not awesome. Remember they did have a winning record
last year without all those other issues, so their roster
isn't bad, right, they can win. They need to get better,
and they probably need to get younger. And all the
players we've mentioned now Jonathan Garnard twenty nine, Hardgrave thirty three,
Aaron Jones thirty two, not done by any means, but

(57:55):
I do think these are players, and it's all because
of their cap situation. There's cap realf with Aaron Jones
cap relief of about two point two million dollars if
that's just a straight up release, which again you can
create a little more relief by when you designated for
a hard Graves and even larger cap savings. And Grenard's

(58:16):
about probably twice as much as both of those in
cap savings. There's cap hits, but it's just like Titus Howard.
The Texans are taking a cap hit, but it's less
than the cap hit they would be taking if he
stayed on the roster and played for them, So the
savings hopefully can be spent elsewhere. Obviously, the savings initially
get them to help be cap compliant if they already

(58:38):
knew this wasn't a player that's going to be on
the roster, that's why you make this move. And as
the league year begins and you're all set as far
as this relates to the Texans, he's an elite level
player coming off of injury or not. If he is
not a Viking, he's going to get a deal that
he can be a starter and he can get paid,
and it's not going to be here. The Texans are
all set. The Texans will have to rethink it like

(59:01):
they do every year. Who are the reserves? Is Dylan
Horton back? Is Derek Barnette back? Are these the players
we feel comfortable with there? Remember they signed the short
time Patriot Darryl Carter last year and they thought he
was gonna really come in and do great things. He
barely played for them, ended up much of the year
on IR and then ultimately they released him Darryl Taylor
before the postseason. Then he signed with the Patriots right

(59:22):
before the Texans played them. This is a position that
you could always look at in the draft because tying
Grenard and Hunter together at least a little bit. Again,
Daniel Hunter's not gonna play here forever. Do you think
Daneil Hunter's playing his last NFL game as a Texan?
Only if he takes a pay cut like to do so,

(59:43):
he's playing it and a ridiculously high level. Still, how
old is he now? He's I believe he's going to
play next year at age thirty three. I was gonna
say thirty four.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
And he's got one more year under contract after this
one or.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
This is it. This coming year as we sit here
today is the final year of his contract. He turns
thirty two during the season next year, so he's even
younger than we thought. He also missed a season with injury,
so he's played a little bit less football. Next year's
year eleven as in the NFL. He also hasn't missed
the game in four years. He's also been one of

(01:00:17):
the best edge rushers in the NFL four straight years.
These two years in Houston have been among his most productive,
but he was already at that level, too close to
it with the Vikings. I think he's probably going to
get another extension this offseason elsewhere. No here, Oh, he's

(01:00:37):
going to sign an extension with the Texans. So he
is not going into a contract year and so they can.
So they're going to figure out his figures. They're gonna
throw eighty million a year at these two guys, not
next year or the year after or the I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Well when they stend will it's not going to apply
until the year after that, correct, And even then the
figures you this is when you start manipula.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Get Let's say he's actually being paid forty three million
a year. I mean, his cap hit in the early
years of that contract will not be forty three million.
It will be less than that, just because you have
these other years to spread it out. And then when
you get into those heavy years, then you put more
years on it to spread them out, and the cap
has gone up and you're trying to keep him eating
up a roughly same percentage of the cap, so as

(01:01:21):
his number goes up, it's at the same figure percentage
wise because the cap number has gone on and things
like that. When you combine that with Will Anderson Jr.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
That's why when people are and I understand why they're
saying it, but when people are like I think they're
going to commit to both these guys this offseason talking
about whale Anderson Jr. And CJ. They're not giving CJ
money this offseason for like fifty different reasons.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Yeah. The one question just defensively that that sometimes it's
tough to answer, and I think it is even for Houston.
Why is this defense so successful and you only have
two options?

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Is it because of your edge rushers or is it
because of your corners? And the answer is yes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
So two of them are on big money deasons and
two of them are on their rookie deals. Yep. In
two years, all of them will be on extensions.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Is why this last season hurts. You can't waste this stuff, man,
it just doesn't last. Ask the Seahawks. They did it
the right way. They had guys on cheap contracts, including
their quarterback, and they won won and they lost one
and that was it. Until this year, but that was
twelve years later.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
It is the eight team.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
Sports Talks seven ninety, Space City Home Network. Astros Baseball
coming up at four fifty here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Mentioned that their game obviously is against Venezuela, one of
many exhibition games today where the World Baseball Classic participating
teams will get some tune ups. Cuba's taken on the
Royals and not faring very well. Mexico is taking on
Arizona doubling them up. Italy is taking on the Chicago Cubs,

(01:03:04):
and Italy has not scored yet. Cubs have great Britain's
getting the best of Milwaukee, on and on and on.
San Francisco's pitcher in the middle innings has an awesome name.
He's probably going to pitch in the majors this year.
He made his major league debut last year for the
Mets and now pitches for the Giants, so he is

(01:03:27):
pitching against Team USA today. His name is Blade Blade Tidwell,
and when Blade Tidwell came in today's game against Team USA,
he served one up to Alex Bregman, the real Captain America.
He helped the United States out to a seven to
one lead behind brilliant pitching from Paul Skens and Matthew

(01:03:48):
Boyd among those that will pitch in the games that
count during the exhibition. Later during the actual World Baseball Classic. Yesterday,
Teamia got a monster home run from Astros prospect Shay Whitcombe.
He's participating there. I mentioned the Team Italy game. That

(01:04:09):
means Zach Decenzo is getting some abs batting in front
of passuatch Vinnie Pascuentino of the Royals. Decenzo's over at thirty.
He's been retired in both of his bats today. And
if you were unaware of what Joe Espada is sending
to the batter's box against Omar Lopez's team tonight, he

(01:04:30):
is the manager for Team Venezuela. Christian Javier is making
his spring training debut pitching tonight for the Astros. He
will be throwing the pill to Jiner Diaz. Christian Walker
is in the batting lineup, but he will not need
his glove. He's designated hitters, so Esach Perettis can get
a little game work in over at first base. Perettis Correa,

(01:04:52):
Zach Cole, Christian Walker, Yaner Diaz, Taylor Tremmel, Cam Smith,
Nick Allen, and Jack's Biggers. I'll try to hold down
Team Venezuela, who will be participating in Pool D in
the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
I kind of look at this like I looked at
the Olympics. I'll get excited when somebody tells me too
about the right thing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Yeah, these are the game. These are are They're as
entertaining as other spring training games might be. But the
games themselves, the actual tournament games, which we are just
days away from. The games here in Houston begin on
the sixth, and Team USA those four games all night games.
They have a one o'clock or two o'clock start times
for the games that precede it, so eight games during
that spa. I'm extremely excited for them because that is

(01:05:37):
it's essentially especially the teams that are here, it's all
recognizable names. It's nothing. I mean, there's two teams with
twenty some odd players each, and a lot of the
games you're gonna watch, thirty of those players are major leaguers.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Are Uh, forgive me for not knowing the schedule right
out the top of my head, because I know you will.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
There's a lot of information it's tough to know it all.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
When these guys leave their various spring training camps to
go play in the World Baseball Classic, are they coming back?

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Are they staying well after the tournament. It depends how
long they play.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Well, yeah, no, if they're eliminated, I would assume they
would go. Like if if, for example, if Jeremy painey
It gets eliminated, which I don't think he will by
the way, yeah, a pretty good team, he would go
back to West Palm. Correct, Like, when do the Astros
head back? I know the opener is the twenty sixth,
but well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
They have those two exhibition games Constellation Fields the weekend
prior the Sunday. I think their last Sunday is the
Sunday before the season opener. They play a game day
game in Florida. Then they come back for the two
exhibition games Monday and Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
And by the way, we will be out there for
opening Day, I mean, Matt can't be bothered to work.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Yes, ten am, we will sit alongside Rossville Royal and
we'll have a four and a half hours of a
live and broadcast time before first pitch. We're hoping we
actually get go outside this time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Because last year, if you don't remember it was it
was actually a sign of things to come. It was
a metaphor for the injury bug that would hit the
Astros all season long. It poured, it rained pitchforks and
small children, so we had to go inside, and I
don't want to do that this year. I think we
should be outside for opening Day like we have so
many other years, and in the new spot by the

(01:07:23):
way net, right next to Bigio statue, that's where we
will be.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Yeah, just a quick reminder on that sixth through the eleventh,
you have pool play, so a bunch of teams will
be done after the eleventh quarterfinals on the thirteenth and fourteenth,
semifinals the next two next day, and then the finals
after that. So if you're not in the finals, you're
done it by the fifteenth or earlier, and if you're
not in the semifinals, you're done on the thirteenth or earlier.

(01:07:48):
If you haven't advanced out of pool play, you're done
at the eleventh. So those players have ample opportunity to
return to their spring training homes and do their final
preps for the season. Can't wait, It'll be here before
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
And again, enjoy it this year, people, because we don't
know what's going on next year.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
When we have an idea. It is mock draft season.
We are still quite a bit out from the draft itself,
but now that the combine has been completed, all that's
left for a handful of players is what they might
do on their respective pro days. Those will begin pretty
much in the next couple of weeks and run all
the way through, probably within the three weeks of the draft,
and on every single pro day in front of me,

(01:08:26):
very few quarterbacks did work that matters. Obviously, one quarterback did,
because everyone's freaking out about the second quarterback available. And
none of this matters to Houston except it's unfortunate this
is a down year for quarterbacks because it just means
there aren't that many other players that you have zero
interest in getting drafted before you, before you at twenty eight,

(01:08:48):
before you at fifteen, before you, when you take all
those second and third round picks. There might be one.
There might be two quarterbacks off the board, ty Simpson
and Mendoza, and that might be it. Before the Texans
make three or four selections. In another season, there could
been five, six, seven quarterbacks taken by that point in time,
so it has an impact only in that regard, But otherwise,
the idea that the Texans will be moving around is

(01:09:10):
a good one. It's the right one because it's undoubtedly
going to happen without getting to the players' names. Right
at this very moment, I have not seen a mock
draft post Combine that doesn't have the Texans selecting a
player in the trenches, a tackle, guard or defensive tackle,

(01:09:31):
no matter all that they take them. Those that didn't
also orchestrate a trade out of twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Well, this guy did one mock draft and it's a
two rounder. Has the Texans once again moving out of
the back end of the first round, making once again,
like they did in twenty twenty three, a trade with
the Arizona Cardinals, albeit very different parameters. They give them

(01:10:00):
their twenty eighth pick in the first round. They get
back the number thirty four pick in the second round,
as well as Arizona's fourth rounder.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
But what do the Texans do with that first pick
they will make Well.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Hold on, I want to tell you what Arizona does
with the Texans pick, because I know you're dying to
find out.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
You can only tell our listeners what Arizona does with
that pick. If you can tell our listeners who Arizona
selected when they traded the Texans Will Anderson. Oh I
should know that, Not really, because we don't care what
they do. They gave you Will Anderson junior, that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
And Ty Simpsons in Alabama quarterbacks, so he's gonna do nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
They drafted an offensive tackle. Yeah, well, the Texans will
be doing the same in this reverse trade. In this instance,
we'll tell you about who that is and why Arizona
was interested in trading up with the Texans at number
twenty eight when we continue here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
All right, you wanted to know, and we're going to
deliver the news for you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Nit Cassaria's received a call from Monty Austin Ford, Monty
and has decided to work with him once again. According
to one mocker, Jordan Reid, who we will follow quite
a bit during a mock draft season, he does some
of the NFL draft work for ESPN and does an
outstanding job. Plus he doesn't yell Todd repeatedly. We will

(01:11:20):
also hear that during draft season. It's one of our
favorites from Frank, not from this. Yeah, I mean Todd's
still work in the draft, just not for them anymore.
So the Texans hold number twenty eight, the last selection
among the teams whose season ended in the divisional round.
They were the best of those teams according to the
seedings basically in the record, so they have the last

(01:11:42):
pick of that group the four teams that were still
playing football. They obviously draft twenty nine through thirty two.
So Arizona is probably hours away, days away from saying
goodbye to Kyler Murray. That seems imminent that they will
not be able to trade him, but rather we'll have
to figure out the cap ramifications on the type of

(01:12:03):
cut designation he will be under, and he'll be free
to play elsewhere, and they will need a quarterback. They
did play a lot of football this year with Jacoby Brissett,
but he obviously is not anybody's quarterback of the future.
So they make the trade with the Texans so nobody
else can get this quarterback. And when you get to
the back half of the first round and the back
ten of the first round, you have a bunch of

(01:12:24):
good football teams that might not necessarily need a quarterback immediately,
but might consider a quarterback there. It has happened many
times in years past. I don't know that it will
happen here. But then it becomes I have to jump
ahead of those teams at the top of the round.
If I'm at the second pick and the Jets are
at the first, well, the Jets missed down on their
opportunity to draft a quarterback at number one because they

(01:12:46):
don't have the number one pick. They're number two, and
Mendoza is now off the board for them. So can
we get the next best quarterback, Ty Simpson at thirty three? Well,
sure if nobody else drafts him. And that's what Arizona's
thinking at thirty four, so they trade up with the
Texans to draft Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, who's impressed I

(01:13:07):
guess in his post actual game tape portion of his
draft resume because he looked good at the combine. He's
a natural throw of football, all the good stuff that
I can't believe they pay so much attention to. You've
got all this game tape to look at that should
be where you're basing it on. But nonetheless, this benefits
the Texans. They get extra draft assets for Nick to

(01:13:27):
move on the next three days and in the number
thirty four spot. The Texans still go exactly where I said.
Every mock draft that I've seen sends them the trenches
offensive line or defensive tackle. What is it for the Texans?
It's offensive line.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
And the little blurb they wrote here is interesting because
it says with Titus Howard off the Cleveland Juice Scrugs
headed to Detroit, Texans could address the offensive line here.
Losing Howard leaves Blake fish sure, as they're projected starter
at right tackle, enter the other Blake in this scenario,

(01:14:06):
Blake Miller, offensive tackle out of Clemson, started fifty four
career games there, so he has battle tested and could
potentially start right away with his run blocking power you
know for their new running back, and strong hands in
pass protection, you know for their young quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
No offensive lineman in Jordan's mock go between twenty eight
and thirty four, so Miller might have been the best
available lineman at twenty eight, and in this setup this mock,
he turns out to be the best available lineman at
thirty four, at least in the Texans eyes seventh linemen
off the board, they get him at thirty four. A

(01:14:44):
couple of interior linemen go ahead of this. The majority though,
are tackles. But yes, this does make sense. I don't
know that the Texans like him. I don't think Jordan
Reid knows that the Texans liked him either. And it's
a little bit difficult in that you're only in year
two of Kole Popovich and Nick Kayley and what they
like to do offensively. But even year two, you watch

(01:15:06):
the whole year of how the Texans deploy their offensive line,
the sets they use, how often they use six linemen,
and why they had to even though I think they
still will. You use six linemen may when you use
them as often as the Texans do, it's because your
five aren't good enough. It's because you need to run
different plays, you need to put different personnel out there
to accommodate for your shortcomings. They have shortcomings on the

(01:15:27):
offensive line. It doesn't bother me because it made them better.
It was smart, it's what they had to do. It
will bother me in the future if they have to
keep running thirty percent of their snaps thirty five percent
of their snaps with a sixth linemen on the field.
Because when the Texans do it all six of them
are blocking. That's one fewer player if you're passing the football,

(01:15:48):
and they do pass the football, out of the six linemen,
looks it's one for your target for no reason. I mean,
he's not chipping and then going. He's not holding his
ground and kind of confusing the defail. Oh they kept
him into block. No, he's running them for a round.
Nobody's defending him. He's wide open. Well he's they're not
doing that with the sixth lineman the tackle eligible. If

(01:16:09):
it was a tight end, they certainly could or would.
But the player they draft, if this is who they
draft at thirty four, at forty eight, where they got
Ursery last year, pretty much anybody in the top seventy five,
if they're an offensive lineman, they will be expected. I
will be expecting them to start. They need They should

(01:16:30):
be prepared to start. They should be that far along
in their development. I know it's not a you're not
drafting a guy who will have his best year in
twenty six, but rather he'll have a great career and
maybe great years in twenty seven and beyond. But they're
not really in a position to develop a player if
he's drafted in the sixth round. Fine, you're not expecting
him to start. If he turns out to be your

(01:16:50):
best player at the position, go ahead. I don't mind
starting a guy drafted later. If he outplays the other
guys he out plays him, that's great. But a player drafted,
I think in any of these positions where they draft Fisher,
where they drafted Scrugs, obviously, where they drafted Kenyan Green,
you're drafting because you believe in their ability to make
your line better right now, and unfortunately in all three

(01:17:12):
of their cases that was wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
Well, hopefully they're all right because four picks later they've
got them taken another offensive lineman. By the way, this draft,
this mock draft, I love it. Yeah, the Texans currently
hold thirty eight. It's the pick they got from Washington
and the Tunsil deal.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
They have them. Good pick for Tunsel, by the way,
I agree there these are good second round picks, are
awesome players. They're they're starters, they're Pro Bowl players. They're
they're Kamari Lassiter, they're Jalen Petrie, they're good players. Yep.
So absolutely, they're also Blake Fisher and Juice Scrugs.

Speaker 1 (01:17:42):
It's not again, they're also the perfect round to draft
a guard.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
Yeah, interior alignment from Oregon Big Kids six four three fourteen,
Manuel pray Young, I think there's again. I'm not gonna
lie to you and pretend I've got a line on
all these offensive linean yet.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Hang on, you do have a line on the guy
that they have the Browns taking one pick later because
he's an Aggie.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
I mean, the Aggie's had good especially in the trenches.
The Aggies really did. It's one of the biggest reasons
why the Texas A and M had the kind of
season they had. If they were very good up front,
and they were very good up front defensively too.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
These are both guards. If the Texans took Chase Bisontis, I.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
Don't know if I pronounced that right.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
There's no way I pronounce that right instead of Emmanuel pregnon,
I don't. Yeah, I have to say it like that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
I'm sorry. It's French.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
If you If you were to flip flop those mocks here,
which is thirty eight to Texans and thirty nine the Browns,
I don't think. I'm sure one of them will end
up having a better career than the other, because that's
how it works.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
But well you're again as I'm not gonna I would
both guards. There's there's no reason those two players with
the I would hope who they pick have played enough
football that they should be no less than super competitive
with any veteran you have here, yep, and hopefully make
your line better.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
My dream is just to just rack up on these
offensive linemen and just you by by process of elimination.
You have a just amazing group of guys in front
of CJ. And it all comes together and we're parading
like the Bolts.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
One can dream. Four o'clock hour comes on the other side.
If we'll answer this question for you at four o'clock,
it's a very simple question. Is two suspensions and as
many seasons a lot for just one Major League Baseball player?
Ad that's next see determining vacation plans. So this upcoming
four o'clock hour a team wex ac Josh, Yeah, Okay,
Now baseball season arrives this year. We don't know how

(01:19:39):
many games we're gonna play in twenty twenty seven, but
in twenty twenty six everything seems as usual. How many
games do we have in this upcoming Major League Baseball season?
I believe one hundred and sixty two as per usual,
and how many of those games will Braves, Outfielder, Jerks
and Profar be available for? I believe none of the
one hundred and sixty two games as usual. Did he
get hurt? No, did not get hurt, but he's not available,

(01:20:00):
not not available. Let's work let's work through this, let's
workshop this. How would a player who's healthy not be
available for every single of the one hundred and sixty
two games for the upcoming season. I mean, he could
have gotten suspended, maybe for peds, but even that would
only carry an eighty game suspension unless he already served
that last year when he got suspended the first time

(01:20:22):
for using a performance enhancing drug. So that's what's happened here, DH, outfielder,
Jerks and Profar on the Braves payroll. I don't want
to say plays for the Braves because that's literally what
he's not going to be doing. A test that came
back positive again for a performance enhancing drugs second time
in the past year. So it's a one hundred and

(01:20:43):
sixty two game ban. He's due fifteen million dollars. He
will forfeit all of it and be ineligible for the postseason,
which the Braves could be a part of. Also the
WBC out ineligible for the WBC where he was going
to represent the Netherlands.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
Well, now he's going to represent the suspended list. I
have two props in my hand right now. They're invisible.
This is a frying pan and this is an egg.
You know where I'm going with this.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
I don't know this one very well. Explain it to
me and the listener who doesn't go back to nineteen
eighty five, maybe, Okay, this is your brain, this is
your brain on drugs, Like, stop doing drugs.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
Man. Not only are you not playing this season after
you didn't play half of last year, and then even
if they had qualified for the playoffs, you wouldn't have
been able to get in.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
Now, there's a couple things to mention here. First, if
you recall it, feel free. If you want to guess,
please do. When he was suspended last year, the Braves
signed him as a free agent last year, Yeah, and
then he got suspended for eighty games. Do you remember
what he said in his statement last year when he

(01:21:53):
was suspended, And if you don't, you've read enough of them,
have remembered enough of them with all the drugs, one
of those I didn't know I was taking this. Well,
that's because of his deep love and respect for the game.
He would never knowingly do anything to cheat it, so
he didn't knowingly do it again, That's basically what we're
saying now. The second addition to this story is his

(01:22:16):
Players Association, the MLBPA per Ken Rosenthal, intends to appeal
the intentions of this suspension. Well, they have to because
otherwise he's just not going to play, so it'll Obviously,
I would imagine this is not something that's going to change.
I don't imagine this will be an appeal victory for Profar,
but I suppose we can wait and see it. Obviously

(01:22:37):
would would impact the Braves. I would say. I don't
want to use the word dramatically because I'm was glad
last year when it didn't happen before the suspension, and
I'm equally glad now because I just I honestly don't
know how much he's going to help you. He was,
He's still a good player, and last year's season for
eighty games wasn't bad. An OPS of seven eighty seven

(01:23:00):
is fine, even though he only hit two fifty. You know,
he's doing the things that in current baseball measure out
fairly well, can I just say something real quick. All
he's doing is getting older and still doing things he
shouldn't be doing. Thirty three and here's the deal.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Presumably they so they lost first of all this list
of guys who are lost to either injuries or suspensions.
I mean, come on, dude, Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrip and
Jurickson Profar. How many lockers did all three of these
guys collectively get stuffed into as they were coming out?

(01:23:36):
Good lord, they're all out to start the year for
a team that went seventy six and eighty six last year,
as you mentioned, trying to get back to the postseason.
They have way too much talent on that roster to
have had a seventy six win season.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
Just ask the Astros. They have an MVP candidate annually
who has missed so many games it's been crippling. Boo hoo.
Astros say, totally understand it here, but it is still
it's a huge reason why the Braves didn't win at
least a year ago. Because you're right by the way.

Speaker 1 (01:24:10):
That suspension you were mentioning the quote was it is
because of my deep love and respect for this game
that I would never knowingly do anything to cheat it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
This statement's going to be a doozy. Yeah, I'm curious
what it might say. Yeah, they've got quite a few
already injuries that you mentioned. You know, their catcher Sean
Murphy's gonna miss some time to start the year. I
was obviously talking about a Kunyr Junior played less than
one hundred games last year, less than fifty games the
year before that. He's had three other seasons of less
than one twenty another of less than eighty five. And

(01:24:43):
it's just he's unbelievable talent. He's just been unable to
stay healthy for enough of it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
Let me just go ahead and say I don't care
because it's the Atlanta Braves. They tortured the Astros in
the nineties, they continue torturing them into the two thousands.
They finally got over on them to go to the
World Series, but then they went and signed you know,
Matt Olsen, who's I'm sorry, he's a sworn enemy from
his days with the A's.

Speaker 2 (01:25:08):
Now in the fact that the A's were really no
longer much of a threat to Houston, it didn't much matter,
but it's one of the reasons why they became a
non threat. They let their good players leave. So I
was happy the Braves.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
Signed and beat the Astros in the World Series, just
to any any sort of like redemption you felt like
the Astros got when they beat them in I think
they beat them in four and five to advance in
the NL playoffs at the time. For those of you
who are just like, oh, the Astros always win over
the last decade, No, far from it, and back in

(01:25:40):
the day, Astro is always exactly But back in the day, man,
it was like, oh, great, we had another ninety eight
win season. Can't wait to get wood chippered by the
Braves this year. That's exactly what happened every year.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
Two thousand and four the DS Phil Garner's Astros toppled
the Braves in five games. Yep, fairly two thousand and
five four game series. Those Phil Garner led Astros did
the same to the Braves. Yeah, because Chris Burke walked
him off. It was fun serious, Too bad somebody forgot

(01:26:12):
to remember his name in the middle of the call.
What happened, Milo got excited and he forgot who hit
the home run?

Speaker 1 (01:26:20):
Did he say it wrong or just not say it?
He didn't say it, okay, so then the other game's gone.
It's it's it's a famous call. I still think it's
a very good one. It's a very good call. But
you didn't know who who hit it until the other
guy came in.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
You knew who hit it now coming out to play. No,
Bob Ford did his job well, I mean during the
course of him being in the game and mentioning that
he was now batting.

Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
He might not have said it after. I'm not gonna
say his name. Come on, Darryl, what shout out to
Daryl Kunda? Can Darryl just do one liner for us?
It's been long enough. Can't we just have one liner
from Milo? From beyond? Oh, we'll get there when we
get there, all right, I think I think this is

(01:27:08):
the year to do it. Okay, that next year, well,
if we don't do it for this year, we gotta
wait two whole seasons because we're not having a twenty
seven season because of stupid Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
All right, and the Dodgers, come on, what that's not
the reason?

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
You know what's crazy about this at the end of
all this, we're gonna be thanking Kyle Tucker and the
Dodgers for giving him that dumb contract because it was
the last straw you say, So, don't you feel like
that's how it's gonna all end up being looked back
on when we have a cap.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
If Kyle Tucker was playing for the Tigers for five
years and two hundred and fifteen million with zero dollars deferred,
like they would ever sign him to that. They're the
Tigers zero dollars the whole point here, But it's the happening.
If that happened, we'd be in the exact same place
we are right now. That did tip the scale we

(01:27:53):
have already. We've been here for two years waiting for this,
three years probably waiting for this day, so this CBA
was running out.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
It's a perfect storm, though, because had you're right, had
players like that gone there and they weren't all in
one place in Los Angeles, then maybe just maybe we
go into this labor stoppage. But it's not going to
be so contentious because the owners aren't going to say
enough of this. We're outlasting all you millionaires because we've

(01:28:20):
got to be in front of ours.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
A vast majority of high dollar deferred major league contracts.
We're already concentrated in LA and they just added one more.
Like Will Smith gets deferred money, Mookie gets deferred money,
Freddie gets deferred money, Show Hey gets deferred money.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
Glass now gets deferred money. They're all dodgers. Can we
I mean, since we're doing this, we might as well
do it right. Can't we do the thing where oh,
these are the new rules. You guys got to start
cutting bait. You're over the cap.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
What about grandfathering in the old rules?

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
Why should we grandfather anything in for anyone in Los Angeles?

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
That's the right thing to do. Why is it the
right thing to do? Because they operated, know they didn't.
They operated under the current rules when they were the
current He's in charge of the rules for the most part,
he was. He was debating then he was. He hadn't
been in charge of nothing. He likes to make the rules.
He just needs a few people in those house areas

(01:29:22):
to to go along with it, or the people that
wear black robes to say, hey, we're down, because you'd
be in jail. It's just like they did.

Speaker 1 (01:29:30):
They absolutely did what as so many people love to
say everybody could do it. It's so disingenuous.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
You don't think every team in the majors could do it. No,
and why is that? Because they don't have built in
TV deals giving him its orbitant revenue to spend on
money totally the revenue their baseball team is bringing in
versus the richness of their owner, the wealth that that
owner has. Well, here's the deal, because the Mets could,
one without a shadow of it, doubt do this exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
They do it, and you go. And that's where I
was about to say. It's more than just having all
the money. You have to have competent people in charge
to in order to field the team that's going to
win said championship, which is still hard. Asked the Dodgers
last year, they had all that talent and couldn't even
win one hundred games. They barely one ninety. But here's
the thing, they're not even near his owner as rich

(01:30:23):
as the Mets owner. He's got more money than God basically.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
And Andy had a good year, a fiscally good year
outside of baseball. Yes, I mean he just he he farts.

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
Million dollar bills. But it doesn't matter if you know,
if you have.

Speaker 2 (01:30:39):
Those, what I'm not really interested in those bills. You
can keep those, they spend the same I guess I
absolutely use them. They're a million dollar bills.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
You can do the million dollars you can fild a
championship baseball team if you have a few of those.
I just like, if you already have that advantage, and
now you've got the advantage have a TV deal that
you can name on less than one hands worth of fingers.
The teams that have that. That's the craziest part of all.

(01:31:08):
We make fun of the Mets all we want. The
Yankees are the ones we're really making fun of. They
have just enough talent to maybe squeak in, but they're
not gonna do anything with it. I can't wait till
Aaron Judge's entire career goes with no championships.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
Baseball is just unlike the others, and it's just the
nature of the game. It's awesome. It's why it is
what it is. If you paid this kind of money,
if you had this much of an advantage over the
other teams in your sport, if it were football or
if it were basketball, you can withstand the injuries. Even
that seems to derail a five person on the court

(01:31:41):
at a time basketball team. In baseball, you can put
all your best players out there, and the Dodgers have
and you can lose. And the Yankees can bow all
their best players out there and they get lose. Not
only can they lose, they can lose again four times
in seven games and lose a series. It isn't just
a one game thing, where in baseball that would be nuts.
It would be anybody could win. But these it's just

(01:32:03):
the way it is in baseball. You might have it
one day, you might not have it on another. Paul
Schemes could have a terrible day on the mound.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
It happens, and al Tuve has just cyn the Astros
to the World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
Just love love love that. Obviously that hasn't will probably
happen again. I guess we're going to Disney after this
forty yard dash. Why is it a thing I've got
to get into that not everyone was crazy about Magic
City Night in Atlanta, a basketball promotion that a basketball
player wasn't real happy with. Yes, this actually happened. It

(01:32:33):
was talked about. Chivalry isn't dead, and now we will
talk about it next.

Speaker 1 (01:32:39):
For the people who called the NFL Combine the underwear Olympics.
I saw this article and it made me think of them.
I'm one of them, by the way, so it made
me think of me. You ever asked yourself where the
forty yard dash came from? Where did it come from?
I often ask myself.

Speaker 2 (01:32:56):
That that's a lie? Would you have that?

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
It's the must see event of the combine though, no
matter what the position, we're watching these three hundred pounds
linemen run the forty yard dash, it's pretty entertaining.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
Or people with red hair and mullets, Yes, that too
became a media darling. Yeah, where does it come from?
After all?

Speaker 1 (01:33:17):
An NFL field is one hundred yards from goal line
to goal line? Why not the fifty yard dash or
the twenty five?

Speaker 2 (01:33:23):
See?

Speaker 1 (01:33:23):
These are realistic questions. I think we've all probably thought
to ourselves maybe and didn't realize we were a lot
of more of us were thinking this. Thanks to former
NFL employee A non Nondaie, here are the origins. Does
he work at Nattech? Actually he went over to Intetrode

(01:33:44):
after he got laid off. An Nond're gonna work here anymore?
Nahena naja U do you know why we run the
forty yard dash? Not ten, not one, but forty. Before
we had a draft, teams would just sign college all Americans.
The small school kids might be able to play, but

(01:34:05):
how do we standardize how fast they are? Paul Brown
estimated that on average, a punt travels from foot to
a receiver's hand about forty yards in about four point
five seconds. It's a punt gunner drill. Gil Brandt took
it from him, and when the first ever scouts went

(01:34:26):
to find talent, that is what they were looking for.
When they opened the combine in nineteen eighty two, they
made the kids run the forty to standardize the test.
So there's the background.

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):
So could you please play Iran by flock of seagulls, Casey?
Could you please play Iran by flock of seagulls for
the forty yard dash? I mean I didn't know that,
did you? Paul Brown? I think most people know the
first coach of the Browns later founded the Bengals, so
pretty illustrious figure in pro football history. And gil Brandt, similarly,

(01:35:04):
the longtime Cowboys executive probably would have been a longer
time Cowboys executive and not for Jerry Jones and then
a long time well respected member of the scouting community
in the NFL, and the comment itself, that's where it
comes from. It makes perfect sense. I think a lot
of punters currently would think, hey, hey, hey, you think
I can only punt it forty yards? Are you kidding me?

(01:35:27):
And from foot to receiver, like nobody kicks it only
for punts, it only forty yards because everybody averages over
forty yards and that's not accounting for the seven ish
yards they're still behind the line of scrimmage when their
foot actually hits the ball. But it makes perfect sense
as to why that would come up from how did
you get to forty and now relate it to football

(01:35:48):
and why we're there. Can you imagine though, if they
put it at a different number, like longer, like seventy
five yard dish? If you watch some of the interviews,
you know, Taylor Green, for example, was watching he's a
quarterback from Arkansas. I was watching his interview with Stacey
DALs from field side, and he said what most of
the players saying, you know, when they were are you
happy with his time? Is what you expected? Things like that?

(01:36:09):
He's like, well, I've been training for this for a while.
And you know, Nick Cassario brought up the same thing
in one of his Combine interviews, like, how much stock
can you put in this? He's spent six months playing
football and then he stopped going to class, stop attending college,
and stopped playing football and spent the last ten weeks,
twelve weeks, fourteen weeks, this elite athlete training to run

(01:36:33):
forty yard dashes as fast as he can. I guess
it'll translate to the field, but he's not going to
spend all his time training for a forty yard dash
after today.

Speaker 1 (01:36:45):
Ever, again, Annon, here's your forty yard request in dedication. No,
in all seriousness, I think it's cool to know that background.
By the way, the draft has been around since the
nineteen thirties. Also didn't know it was that old. I mean,
I assume it's old, but not that I figured I
started in the sixties like everything. Nope, apparently there was
life before the nineteen sixties. The other thing I wanted

(01:37:07):
to get to here that you mentioned. Remember when we
were talking about that awesome promotional night that the Atlanta
Hawks were putting on, you know where the what did
they call it?

Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
Cultural institution.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
Yeah, that's one way to call a strip club.

Speaker 2 (01:37:24):
Something else. Just to get to the story, give me
an NBA player that is not involved in this story. Definitely,
Zion Williamson. Okay, we'll start with Zion Williams. He likes
to bring them home. No, I think that's it's a
very good suggestion.

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
To have them put him on blast using their phones
from those condo.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
Zion Williamson. What does the Google machine do when you
type in somebody's name, brings up their stats their yeah,
did return yet? Oh? Okay, it brings up the likeliest
things you're looking for. What's the next word? Yes? In
his case, he's best reference Zion Williamson. Reference stats, injuries, contract, shoes, networth, height, age, weight, trade,

(01:38:06):
injuries was the first one, right, Uh no, it was
in that order. Now let me bring you back to
the current story. What's the player's name we're attaching to
the story because he wasn't as keen on this idea.

Speaker 1 (01:38:18):
That would be the Spurs backup center, Luke Cornett.

Speaker 2 (01:38:22):
When you type Luke Cornet into the Google machine and
you look at the possibilities that you might be looking for.
I'll start with the second thing on the list and
read down from there, and then I'll tell you what
number one is. Luke Cornett Stats, wife, substack, Medium, Instagram, Reddit,
Hawk's Basketball Reference. So you see a smattering of how
he's attached to this story, even though he's a spur.

(01:38:44):
Substack is where this was where he wrote about it.
You know, Reddit is one of the great places where
people say, I can't believe what I've found on Reddit.
But the first thing listed after Luke Cornett a total
run of the mill reserve. NBA basketball player says, Luke
Cornett Magic City, the very first thing, just like he
wanted it three days ago. It definitely did not say that.

(01:39:08):
So how's he attached to the story? Well, he wrote,
he wrote a substack. Oh what did he say?

Speaker 1 (01:39:12):
He doesn't think it's a good idea to have strip
clubs being associated with promotional nights, he said, hold on,
I'm trying to find the quote. The NBA should desire
to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently
every day to make this the best basketball league in

(01:39:37):
the world. We should promote an atmosphere that is protective
and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners.

Speaker 2 (01:39:46):
That we know and love.

Speaker 1 (01:39:47):
Allowing this night to go forward without protest would reflect
poorly on us as an NBA community, specifically in being
complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in
our society. Regardless of how a woman finds her way
into the adult entertainment industry, many in this space experience abuse, harassment,

(01:40:10):
and violence to which they should never be subjected.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
End of quote.

Speaker 1 (01:40:15):
First of all, everything that he just wrote there is
one hundred percent true, whether you want to agree with it,
whether you like it or not. Everything he wrote right
there was absolutely true. My first of all is people
have different opinions. I'm all for it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:31):
Yeah, that's that. And he is well within his right.

Speaker 1 (01:40:34):
And by the way, if you think he's brown nosing
female executives in the NBA, absolutely he is, but it's
still notwithstanding he's right.

Speaker 2 (01:40:47):
And look, you can do whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (01:40:50):
You're an NBA team, you're an NFL team, you're a
Major League Baseball team. But don't act like you're not
leaning into these rip club culture that is, for better
or for worse, associated with professional athletes. When you do
something like this and don't act like you're not looking
the other way in some areas to sell tickets, because

(01:41:13):
that's what's going on here.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
Vegas doesn't have an NBA team yet, and you might
have had an answer if they did. There are twenty
nine other NBA cities, and including Houston as one of
the twenty nine, but don't answer for Houston. Do you
know a cultural institution that does exactly like Magic City
by name in any of the twenty eight other NBA cities.

(01:41:37):
I'm sure I do, But is it so like, why
do you know this one? It is a little bit
more well known.

Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
This one is because of the Lou will Yeah, okay,
well not just lou Williams. Could have gone there anytime,
and I don't know it would have registered in my
thick skull here.

Speaker 2 (01:41:53):
So in the fact that Luke Cornett signed a four
year deal with the Spurs and he's a backup center
to Wemba Yama, I don't think the Spurs are gonna
trade him, and he's not hitting free agency anytime soon,
so at least in this one very particular instance, he
can probably insulate himself from ever playing for the Magic
and potentially being subjected to a promotion of this. Well,

(01:42:17):
he plays for the Magic who the Hawks are hosting
on Magic City Night. Yeah, I think it's a little
bit of like, is Atlanta gonna do this again when
it's a massive success when the insert random NBA team
visits town, or are they gonna pick them when the
Magic visit town? I mean, it's it's not a coincident exactly.

(01:42:41):
So just don't play for the Magic and you should
be good to go whatever. I've been just playing.

Speaker 1 (01:42:44):
It's a small world, after all, during the starting lineups,
that's all that you wanna make a little joke about
the team it's in town, Why don't you play the
Dallas theme song when the Mavericks come to town.

Speaker 2 (01:42:52):
Well, put the final touches on what NFL team's actually
submitted to the NFL, because all the trains z Action
Wire information has now come across, and this is what
the NFL and all the teams now know about franchise
tags and transition tags because both were used for NFL
players were hit with this today. Officially, we gave you

(01:43:15):
two that we already knew. One happened today in addition
to that, and a transition tag fell into place today.
Falcons with Kyle Pitts, Cowboys with George Pickens. That is
a franchise player. The Jets did the same thing with
Bryce Hall. These are franchise tagged players. None of them
are an exclusive franchise All three are the non exclusive

(01:43:40):
So the non exclusive franchise player means if those players
reach an agreement with another team, because they are allowed
to negotiate with another team, they will the team who
they currently play for. They get two first round picks
if they allow that signing to happen. That's decision. You

(01:44:00):
want to negotiate with them. They want to sign you,
we want you to move along. Well, then we want
two first round picks in return. In order for us
all to happen, all parties have to agree to that,
and that's exactly what will happen. The transition player very
interesting that this team chose it. The Indianapolis Colts did
choose to use one of these tools for rostering. They

(01:44:24):
hit Daniel Jones with the transition tag, but instead of
being the average of the top five players at quarterback
at the position, it's the top ten players and there's
no compensation due to the Colts. Should he sign elsewhere,
it lowers his figure. If he returns to the Colts
under that one year deal, but it also allows for

(01:44:47):
other teams to negotiate with him and not need to
offer compensation.

Speaker 1 (01:44:55):
I want to hit you with a question about this
on the other side, plus the best response we receive
about Luke Cornett's article that is straightened.

Speaker 2 (01:45:16):
I wanted to just give a quick explainer if I
didn't do a particularly good job before. The four players
in the NFL that were hit with a tag of
some sort. In all four cases, even though they're different tags,
they include the right of first refusal in all four cases. Obviously,
they offer the players Kyle Pitts, George Pickens, Breese Hall,

(01:45:37):
and Daniel Jones the ability to negotiate with other teams
through July twenty second. Daniel Jones is a transition tagged player,
so he can negotiate with other teams all the way
through that time and again their negotiation window opens just
like everybody else's on Marsh eleven. They can sign a
deal with somebody now their current teams have right of

(01:45:57):
first refusal. In Jones's case, because it's the transition tag,
they can match and he stays with the Colts, but
when they if they decline to match, that's it. He
leaves place for the other team and doesn't the Colts
get nothing in return. In the case of the other
three players, all of those similar things apply, except they
do have the right to match, and if they don't,

(01:46:20):
they get two first round picks to the from the
signing club, whoever that might be. For Pits or Pickens
or Hall, is Cole Pitts so awesome that you're going
to both sign him to a lucrative, long term deal
and lose two first round picks over it. No, same
for Pickens, same for Hall. So even though those aspects

(01:46:44):
of this franchise tag are included, none of these players
are at a level where I can imagine any team's
GM thinks that is a smart move.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
Question about Daniel Jones I had, is he expected to
start the season on time?

Speaker 2 (01:47:01):
I don't think that's a given one way or the
other yet. I mean, it's not like, what was the
injury again? Was it a c l Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:47:10):
I tend to think he will because that's oh, it
was an achilles, all right, that's different. Josh is telling
me it was an achilles. It was an achilles. I'm sorry, Well,
a cl and achilles are two very very different things
absolutely are.

Speaker 2 (01:47:24):
That's why when we talk about you know, Fred and
Tyressee and Jalen on the NBA side, it's different. We
shouldn't yeah different, It's true.

Speaker 1 (01:47:31):
Okay, I then that that makes more sense from the
Coles standpoint, and frankly from Daniel Jones' standpoint, Well, somewhere
else would he go if if they didn't do that?
I mean, he's got they want.

Speaker 2 (01:47:45):
You would think, but I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:47:46):
What I'm saying is you would think he'd have his
pick of the litter if he weren't also in the
injury situation he was in right now.

Speaker 2 (01:47:54):
I mean, why doesn't he It's just and he's not
because do you think some team ready to, like, look
what Sam Darnald got last year after an unbelievable season.

Speaker 1 (01:48:05):
But if he doesn't get hurt, then the Colts are
expected to pony up money for him, and they probably
would have if we're being honest.

Speaker 2 (01:48:11):
Right, But he's not allowed to negotiate with any other team.

Speaker 1 (01:48:14):
Yeah, but that team also has to know. Okay, well,
you're you're literally damaged goods. I understand that, and you've
only had one good, real good season with a good team,
not a fluke season with the Giants where he had
Saquon Barkley basically running the offense for you.

Speaker 2 (01:48:28):
Well, that's kind of I mean again, Sorry, I brought
up Sam Darnald and the contract. The season was phenomenal
right with Minnesota, and guess what, he played good teams
during that stretch, whereas the Colts, once their schedule got normal,
started losing every game. He got a three year, one
hundred million dollar deal from the Seahawks, so heads in

(01:48:49):
a year two of it next year. I would imagine
Daniel Jones finishes out the year, loses his playoff game.
Let's say he would have gotten less than that significantly.
He's now guaranteed thirty seven million next year. Essentially, he's
not gonna get less than that. It's not bad money,
even for a low end. He's not to agree to
terms with somebody else for less than that. So that's

(01:49:11):
that's why he turned around to hand the ball off
to Jonathan Taylor.

Speaker 1 (01:49:13):
Still yep, by the way, for the post tweet, whatever
you want to call it, the best one coming off
that Luke Cornette article, Trey weighs in and says that's
awfully misogynistic. Of him since men can be strippers too,
also one hundred percent correct.

Speaker 2 (01:49:30):
They can be, and they are places for them to work.
And yeah it's called magic Mike. Well, now that's different.
Why because it was a fictional characters. I mean, I'm
not here to tell people what they don't already know.
That movie is just hilarious. Yeah, for all the wrong reasons.
I mean, McConaughey is so freaking good in that role

(01:49:54):
role I know, but he's real, he is, He's great.

Speaker 1 (01:49:57):
Well, And why, by the way, why am I seeing
more of the Interstellar gifts lately for different things where
he's watching his son.

Speaker 2 (01:50:06):
I don't know. Future of the Past. I never actually
sat through that movie got me on this heavy. Did
you want to try to quickly a couple more minutes
before we turn things over to the astro send people
to a couple of.

Speaker 1 (01:50:17):
Concerts if you want, I would love to. I'm here
for the listenings you want to be nice to. Not
sure what you're here for, I'm here for them.

Speaker 2 (01:50:23):
I guess we got tickets to see Cross Canadian Ragweed.
There Rodeo Houston two weeks from yesterday yesterday, Rodeo Houston
open up with Riley Green. March sixteenth will be the
CCR Cross Canadian Ragweed Show following the events of the
evening at Rodeo Houston, and you can get your tickets
at Rodeo Houston dot com. You see the full entertainment
lineup there as well. Also have a pair of tickets

(01:50:45):
to see Breaking Benjamin and Chavelle with a couple of
special guests Cammie Kehoe Star Set. They're performing at the
Woodlands Pavilion that comes on October tenth. Tickets are on
sale nowt ticketmaster dot com have a couple of pairs
of each to give away seven one three seven ninety,
but only call in because you have the answer to
this very simple question about something we discussed here on

(01:51:07):
the show. Always give away the tickets to not only
people who know how to quickly dial and try to
win radio contests, but listeners to the show who will
know the answer to the question We're gonna ask because
your listeners to the show, what's today's question?

Speaker 1 (01:51:21):
Well, we were talking about the NFL combine earlier, which
I like to affectionately refer to as the Underwear Olympics.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
FY they no longer wear the very very revealing clothes.
But anyway, yeah, they.

Speaker 1 (01:51:34):
Wear spandex and no, they wear shorts and T shirts
or more or more.

Speaker 2 (01:51:41):
So may wear pants.

Speaker 1 (01:51:42):
We explored the we explored the origins of explore the space.
We're never going to get to the question. No, I
mean it's it's the go to measurement of speed. Okay,
what is the event that we were talking about the
origins of it? Took a former NFL employee to explain
it and we talked.

Speaker 2 (01:52:03):
Yeah, we went into great detail about one very specific
combine event. Yes, on today's show, what was it? Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety You have the
answer to that question, I'll let us know which pair
of tickets you'd like and we'll send you on out there.
We will obviously send you into Astros baseball. That is
what's coming up next. Christian Javier his first time to

(01:52:27):
the hill this spring for the Astros. Probably counting on
him quite a bit this year after we returned from
injury last year. Hopefully the offseason and the time removed
from surgery puts them in a much better position for today.
Estac Pretis will lead off and play first By the way,
with all the exhibition games going on for the WBC teams,

(01:52:48):
you never know exactly how much your players might play.
Jeremy Payinnis with Team Dominican Republic not in their lineup
today they take on the Tigers as they are loaded
with major league talent, so you never, like I said,
you don't know how much those players will play. Joe
spotted playing him a bunch early, maybe to potentially compensate

(01:53:08):
for that. Be back with you tomorrow more Astros baseball,
So when it is done tomorrow, we will get going
here with the A team. Looking forward to that and
obviously more news on the NFL, Major League Baseball, and
of course your basketball team on your home for Rockets
Basketball Sports Talk seven ninety. The A team on Sports

(01:53:29):
Talk seven nine