The most salacious CFB story ever, Texans-Cards, Harden returns to H-Town

Thursday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton share their thoughts on the latest scandal at Michigan, look ahead to the Texans' matchup with the Cardinals, and preview James Harden's return to Houston as the Rockets play the Clippers Thursday night.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a Thursday edition of the A Team Sports Talk

(00:03):
seven to ninety one step closer to the latest not
necessarily must win game for the Texans. I mean, my
co host here yesterday said, then go two and two
down the stretch.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's fine.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
No, you would like for them to win this game
against the Cardinals and obviously the next one against the Raiders,
because those are the so called gimmes on the rest
of the calendar. I think the Colts will be too,
depending on what version of them we see at the
very end of the season.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
But sly funny now that it actually is a truthful
saying yeah, people might have wondered where did it come from?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Where did they get this name from?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
But come week eighteen, everybody will be ready to say
old man Rivers is playing for the Colts.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I mean, did you okay?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
I think we were exchanging memes and tweets at a
rapid rate last night. I don't think I ended up
sending it to you, but it was. You know when
you know when a player gets hurt on Fox and
they go to Break and it's the more emotional theme
song that goes to Break to bump them out rather
than the regular one or whatever they normally use, you know,

(01:06):
the piano version, did do did do?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Do?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Do? Do?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
This guy is hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
We have to act like this is you know, it's
a very So it was a three second video. It
was an ambulance driving off the field with that music,
and it said Philip Rivers after the first quarter facing
this Texans defense in week eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, there's a lot of those out there, and we'll
see if the Seahawks are the first ones to put
that to the test. But I think, as everybody knows
here listening to both our stations and all of the
stations here in the iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia cluster up and down
the hallways here in the building, there's definitely something we
can feel and hopefully you guys feel it through the
airwaves here as we are doing whatever we can to

(01:43):
help the people that we love working with each and
every year. Right around this time our friends over at
Saint Jude our iHeartMedia Houston Radio. Thon is ongoing got
started earlier this morning right here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and Sonny and all throughout our entire cluster, and
we're super excited to be a part of even more
excited that you guys are really truly as per usual.

(02:04):
The biggest part of it making sure that people here
and everywhere because Saint Jude's very far reaching, could make
your contributions. Your donations go towards the families at Saint
Jude's so there is never a bill for them. You
can become a partner in Hope by pledging just nineteen
dollars a month. It helps the kids at Saint Jude

(02:25):
facing cancer. Want you to call right now again, this
is going on all throughout the day. All of our
stations will be here to tell you more about it
and tell you more about some of the people we've
had a chance to meet both over the years, in
my case having had a chance last year in August
to visit the Saint Jude's Hospital, the massive Saint Jude's
Hospital grounds and everything that goes into everything they can

(02:46):
do to help these families through it. Obviously is a
very difficult time. If you want to become a partner
in Hope and along with it get our music gives
to Saint Jude's. T shirt and hoodie comes along with it.
Please do so at one eight hundred five eight eight
fourteen thirty three, one eight hundred five eight eight fourteen
thirty three. Again it's one eight hundred five eight eight

(03:08):
fourteen thirty three. Super excited that our Saint Jude Radiothon
is presented in conjunction with our friends over at Gallery Furniture.
Great to be partners with them once again here and
as we open the hour, an opportunity to give you
the latest tote board that's presented by Oak Harvest Financial Group.
And we are trending very very close to two hundred

(03:29):
thousand in donations just over the course of the day
so far, beginning at six am at one hundred and
eighty four thousand, five hundred and thirty nine dollars. Looking
for more partners here during this hour, and for those
of you that have the opportunity to jump in, there'll
be incentives for you, an opportunity for you to really
see just how far that nineteen dollars can go. We'll

(03:49):
tell you more about some of the people that are involved,
some of the kids that have these unbelievable stories and
their families that are so appreciative of what we and
you can do for them. So we'll mention this all
throughout the day here right here on obviously Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, the entire iHeart Cluster taking part. It's a fantastic
cause every single year, and we always look forward to
being a part of it here, just helping to do
our little part, which is what we're all doing here
when it comes to this very good cause. Okay, so
Texans Cardinals is definitely on tap. Rockets will resume their
schedule tonight. The Clippers are in town another reunion with

(04:27):
James Harden. Matter of fact, yesterday at practice, Kevin Durant
was asked about his old teammate in Oklahoma City, what
is the real chain of events where Kevin Durant has
been sought after for a long long time finally winds
up here and now he's giving soundbites on James Harden,
who was traded here from Kevin Durant's first team along

(04:48):
with Russell Westbrook that had fresh off of Finals appearance,
and now after all these years and by the way,
after James Harden kind of sort of in a way
auditioned to return to the Rockets and was quickly dismissed
by emy Udoka because when he was asked, what's your
idea of the offense. James Harden said, I am the

(05:10):
offense and Emay was like beat it go sign with
the Clippers or something like that. That we're having soundbites
from Kevin Durant a day before these two were going
to play against each other, with Kevin Durant a Rockets
uniform and James Harden and a Clippers uniform. Just a
very surreal matchup tonight on the floor, kind of a
matchup within the matchup. The Clippers have been awful for

(05:32):
most of the year. I have no doubt that the
Rockets are going to handle business. Maybe they might make
it a little bit more interesting than it should be.
I don't know, but I would like to think that
with all this rest they've had, they'll be fresh ready
to go. So we'll definitely get into that, as well
as the SGA fatigue that is rearing its ugly head
once again.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Last night.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
It was all the rage on social unless you were
looking at the Michigan situation, which is what we can't avoid.
I have never I mean, look, sports provides us with
the fascinating and I would say fantastic ability to never
have a dull moment with what we do. Not first
of all, we don't have a real job. Everybody knows

(06:14):
that we're sitting here talking about sports. But secondly, we
come in here every single day and it's never going
to be like the day before for a variety of reasons.
But most of the time, that's a subplot with the
teams that we follow and cover. It's a subplot with
the teams they're playing, and this that and the other
playoff matchups, that kind of thing. And then every once
in a while there's a straight up scandal. There's no
other way to say this. You brought it up yesterday,

(06:37):
maybe not innocently enough, but you were only scratching the
surface of what we were going to find out after
the show ended.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Well, I don't think it was innocent, because it's rare
that a coach gets fired for cause. He got fired
for cause, although something was up. There's probably going to
be some legal battles about it because of the timing
of it, And that was part of what I thought
we already knew just based on that information when it
was fired, when they knew what happened, And turns out
today it seems like it really was a fast moving

(07:04):
timeline from first thing in the morning thereabouts where stories changed,
or at least a story changed the story of the
other person involved in the inappropriate relationship. Apparently, just said,
we found out that there was an investigation going back
all the way to the summer if there was an
inappropriate relationship between two people in the Michigan athletic department,

(07:26):
one of them being the head coach of the football team.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Show more.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
And it turns out apparently the specialists, the assistant to
the head coach both were in part of the football
staff before the Harbaugh firing. Release, I quit, I'm going
to the NFL. I'll let you choose your word. He
wasn't fired, he wasn't released, he left. But they were
there before and then they moved into these two respective
positions upon its departure. But when the investigation unfolded, nothing

(07:52):
according to those that investigated it, basically because they both
lied about it. And then yesterday apparently she no longer
was going who lie about it and presented them with
a lot of background information, texts and whatnot that indicated
what they thought might have happened, in fact, did happen.
Details of it have been reported so badly that I
wouldn't want to get into those just yet, but everything

(08:13):
that took place the rest of the day is pretty wild,
and that it all unfolded essentially over a period of
not even twenty four hours, more like ten hours, more
like six hours. This information was shared with the athletic department.
They then had a meeting. They then had a meeting
with the players and other coaches. The head coach caught
wind of this, and then he was informed that he

(08:34):
was being fired, and then some sort of visit whether
he broke in or went to her residence and was
threatening harm to her or himself. He was then arrested
placed in protective custody. It's believed that he is there
in custody. We might find more out tomorrow when they
actually get in front of a judge or get to

(08:56):
the charges filing, because they keep saying apparent charges, but
protective custody, visiting with mental health professionals. He has a
wife and three daughters. There's all sorts of things that
have gone there at some point, and some entities ourselves included.
Later today, we'll get into the what's Michigan's football team
going to do now? They have a bowl game to play,

(09:17):
and they obviously have a future to consider with who's
going to run the team, and it's very unlikely that
anybody that's currently there will end up taking that job.
But just a very odd series of events which all
seem to be pushed off from a terrible mistake or
set of mistakes made by the head coach, and how
again the other side of it, his comments on it. Sure,

(09:40):
they're part of the story, but there's a lot of
things that have happened in the last twenty four hours
since we were with you twenty hours that have taken
place that are also worthy of conversation, just watching how
people that should do it one way are doing it
a different way and how they cover the story.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, well you mentioned that last night when we were texting,
because there was one account in particular that was just
a timeline of.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Well, I don't care about people that make stuff up.
They're not real reporters. I'm not trying. I'm talking about
actual reporters. Are just I don't know how I've I
haven't said it enough, and so it seems like today
when I do, it'll be some overwhelming blow up at him.
But hopefully I've brought it up enough over the last
couple of years to maybe ease my way into why

(10:27):
he is an incredibly bad choice for the job that
he is now being asked to do. Talking about the
one guy a national reporter, you want to wait till
the next segment to drop his name. Yeah, I'm sure
you can't figure it out knowing what the name of
this show is. It's real tough to figure it out.
If you've ever listened to Adam Wexler before, you should

(10:49):
listen to you before. What's your name?

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, what's my name? Yeah? And what's this reporter's name? Yeah?
There you go. It's pretty pretty consistent. Yeah he oh,
and he has ties to Michigan. He's steps in it repeatedly.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
But it's just really bad at it and I can't
believe they can't see that. So, like I said, it's
not necessarily opening segment material, and it's very extra grind
type of stuff. But I bet you a lot of
people see the same thing that I do.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
For sure. So we're gonna get into a little bit
more of that next segment. Matter of fact, we'll hear
from said reporter next segment. We're also gonna get to
the best of X this hour, as we always do here.
In the two o'clock hour lots from the Houston Texans
as they get closer and closer to that date with
the Cardinals back here in Houston.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yea, the more people showed up at practice today. The
tough Thursday practice as expected. So we'll give you an
update on that.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Do you always call it the tough Thursday practice on
any given week or just this one?

Speaker 3 (11:39):
They want to have a tough Thursday practice. In two
weeks when they have to play on Saturday, they probably
won't have a tough practice at all.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
It's a short week. I know, you deliver, Yeah, you know,
they is. It's real.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
It's not made up. I'm not bringing it to the
people as some sort of fake news. It's a little
bit more difficult. I mean, nex Friday's a walk through yesterday,
Like eight guys not there. How hard to go just
be they're not ready to you know, get ready for
the Cardinals five days out, four days out. Yeah, Thursday,
Absolutely we'll get into all those things. Like I said,
there's so much to talk about today, but with.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Seven ninety Thursday edition of the program here we will
definitely get into all things. Sharon More, I just did
not think we would be talking this much about a
Michigan head coach, especially.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
How long has it been since Harball left? Yeah, we
just did this just a different sube matter. Was it
two years ago now?

Speaker 3 (12:34):
I mean we talked about coach Harbaugh. This was right
before they won the national title in January of twenty
twenty four, with him already gone, right he Sharon was
the interim coach at the time.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
And this is all during the.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Period where there was the Hamburger scandal, there was the
Connor Stallions scandal, and now these scandals.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
And that's only football.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
That was the j There was also the JJ McCarthy
scandal where they drafted him and then another guy played
better at quarterback and then he let him walk out
the door and let JJ ruin the team.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Oh wait, that was this season. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Not a Michigan problem. Michigan's trying to win college football game.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
But it's Michigan. It caused the problem. It's not on them.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Like another Michigan product, Adam Schefter, I just he's kind
of been a weasel for a While's just keep it simple.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
He's a reporter, so.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Then why the bleep are you having him talk about
stuff he doesn't know anything about, which actually is sports
football in general. So that was the first beef, and
this has been going on all year. Great, have him
on a NFL countdown, have him do your NFL shows, but
quit having him do NFL shows where you have to
talk about the game itself because he doesn't know anything
about it. And I can see it in the other
players or analysts' faces on the show. Every time he

(13:44):
opens his mouth, they have to contradict what he said
because it doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Are you talking about that?

Speaker 3 (13:48):
They just yes, and then they got were talking about
college football. He doesn't know, he doesn't know anything about it.
It's a huge mistake to have him doing what he's
doing because it makes him look stupid. He's spread there. Great,
it's just dumb. Isn't what he is? And he sounds
stupid and he should know better and he doesn't. Okay,
so then he sits there with two phones and all.
It's just a waste of everybody's time.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
If that were the only issue, and it's a big one,
and it's not even one, it's several you just mentioned
and they're all accurate, that would be bad enough. But
then this guy who is he's a Michigan product, got
ties to the you know, the school, the program, all
that kind of stuff. He's again, this is just the
latest example of him kind of stepping in it. It's

(14:29):
one thing to not be knowledgeable and all that kind
of stuff that happens all the time on broadcasting unfortunately,
but he has a way of just making the most
asinine statements about sensitive topics, whether it's I mean, go
down the list it. You know, it doesn't always come
up in sports, but when it does, he seems to

(14:50):
find a way to get his mug on camera and
say something stupid.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
And he did it again with Sharon Moore.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
This was Adam Schefter making comments about this situation over
the last twenty four hours for.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
What we have in her Yet is Cheron wore side
of this and he gets his say into this particular
situation as well. And I do know that he felt
like people had it in for him for an awful
long time there while he was at Michigan. He felt
like there were people who are out to get him.
So all these things can all be true. It's possible that, yes,
Michigan does have evidence that he had an inappropriate relationship

(15:23):
with the staffer, And it could be that Charme Moore
is right that people had it in for him. But
the whole situation itself is just sad and tragic because
now we have a individual who had his professional life,
his personal life completely upended. We have a school with
a bunch of players who don't have a coach to
turn through right now, we have a school in search

(15:44):
of a program a new coach to lead forth that program.
There are a whole host of things that have transpired
here that have led this to be a completely surreal,
wild situation that if you heard about it, you wouldn't
believe it because it almost seemed made up.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
So I'm gonna preface this by saying the fact that,
and I really don't care where you fall on this subject,
because it does apply here. Being the social justice warrior
that Adam Schefter always likes to be, he's always putting
his mug out there on subjects like that. He's always
giving his opinion, never asked for most of the time

(16:22):
on that, most of the time on social media, which
is what everybody does, granted, But the guy is always
putting people into places he thinks they belong on those
kinds of topics. I'm sorry, but when you are like
that about other topics and then you say something as stupid,
actually some things as stupid as what you just heard
him say, you deserve all the backlash you're getting.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
But like, even if people did have it out for him,
as he's you know, characterizing this with Sharon Moore, even
if all these people were out for Sharon Moore, he
still did this thing over here.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
That's not for debate. It's not it's there's nothing.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Alleged about the relationship, because that's I mean, there's there's
proof of it out there. So spare everybody if they
don't want to hear about people who had it out
for this guy who's doing these bad things over here
that are oh, by the way, also making an absolute
nightmare for things if football related in the program. But

(17:21):
that's so far down the list of priorities here, let
alone the fact that we need to be worried about
his side of things or whether or not people had
it out for him.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
I mean, be less tone deaf for once, schefter once
it's pretty are you believe? Sometimes?

Speaker 3 (17:40):
And not even everything there was that all hard to
believe that he's spewed out, he's you know, he's had
his life and is uprooted and all that.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
You know nobody. I don't.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I don't know for a fact that this happened, and
I don't know that we have we don't have the evidence,
and it hasn't been made public the evidence.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
But they obviously did fire him.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
They obviously felt like they had cause to fire him,
but they did have an investigation that did not determine that.
This was only after the investigation when apparently reportedly they
had new information from her which was not mentioned at all.
I mean, we're only supposed to be concerned about the
person involved that made it an inappropriate relationship for the school.

(18:24):
You can say it's an inappropriate relationship for the other
person involved when the other person involved is aware that
he's married, that's fine, But that is not why it's
an inappropriate relationship, and that's not why you're fired for
cause from the university based on the contract and their
stipulations on what it takes to remain an employee. That's
all on the other side, one hundred percent on the

(18:46):
other side, on the side of you're the head coach
of the football program and the other person isn't the
other person works for you. The other person is your assistant.
That's what makes it an internal inappropriate relationship, which all
that information was delivered bypasses that completely, and that's that
to me, would make it egregious. I don't mind hearing

(19:08):
his side of the story whenever he's capable of giving it.
I'm not sure what he would say because I don't
know all the facts. He could refute one hundred percent
of it. We could find out that that side of
the story is the truth. I don't think anybody sees
it going that way. I don't think anybody believes that
that is why we're here, because if that were the truth,
it's very likely we would not be here because they

(19:28):
we just wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Sure two people are dead, But we really need to
have OJ's side of the story.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
He lost his Honey bake Ham endorsement. We need to
know what he feels about this situation. That's the exact equivalent.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Again, I feel I do feel from a human side,
bad for all the people involved. The two people that
now their future employment is obviously going to be difficult
to come by, and their own personal lives i'm sure
are ruined. But again, there are more people only in
the fact that there's a wife and three kids that
we're talking about on more side, who are now going
through all that. I don't know if they were blindsided

(20:03):
by this no idea. I don't think it really matters.
If it happened, it happened, and it's going to be
an obviously very bad situation to try to navigate their
way through personally as a family. And again, if there
are harmful things in his personal future, if that is
what was alleged to have happened yesterday, and that he
is needing psychiatric help, obviously that's not good either. But

(20:26):
if it all stems from what we think it's stemmed from,
that's why we're here today.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
It's just it's a lot. He's a lot to take
at this point. I don't know what's going on with them,
but he's been I remember when Adam Schefter first came
onto the scene versus what he is now, which is
basically a caricature of himself.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I never know what causes that happen with people
like that.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Well, one other thing on the out to get him
part of it. He's basically that's I would say, it's
almost common inside a football organization college football university. Is
everybody on your side when you're the head coach of
the football program. Probably not the person who hired you,
Probably is. Some of the people that were involved in

(21:09):
this decision might not be. It's probably not unanimous anything
that might have happened prior to your ascension to head coach,
and that he was part of the program before that
and was part of the Stallion stuff and part of
all these things that are very big negatives. And the
fact that he personally also served suspensions because of what
he did when he deleted text messages related to the
Stallion's investigation. I can't believe it, Adam, there were people

(21:33):
inside the program that weren't on his side, as you
put it out to get him. Maybe they just want
somebody else who won't be involved in these things that
are bad for the program and don't want him to
coach anymore. Yeah, you can call it out to get
him if you want to make it sound like that,
But like I said, I don't think that's uncommon inside
a football program that everybody's not Hey man, this is

(21:54):
the guy, he said. We love this guy. He's awesome.
I'm sure there's other things at play, and he always
puts them front and se center. That's just it's not
the greatest way to put information out there, and it's
just a terrible way to UH again for them to
they're they're asking this person who they think gives them credibility,
and it's doing the exact opposite. His relationship with the

(22:15):
program is giving him less credibility because of the manner
in which he delivers the information.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
It's brutal. It's absolutely brutal, and we need to lift
the mood. We absolutely will when we come back with
the best of XA.

Speaker 6 (22:31):
Did you all see this I should be putting out
Between five and fifteen posts, four hundred people were arrested
for things that they said on social media.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
History repeats itself type an, you'll succeed.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Never doubt that you're the one who puts for no
one building. You're the best. Nothing's gonna have a top.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
You know you're the best of the post an every
single day.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
You know you're the best of it. Breaking the entire tone.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
All right, I know you've seen it by now, at
least I hope you have. So the other night when
the UH the Texans beat the Chiefs in Kansas City.
We didn't know it at that point, but we were
given today's best of X moment right then and there
CJ Stroud high fiving some fans who had made the
trip up to Kansas City, or maybe they were Texans

(23:29):
fans that live in case, I don't know. He was
high fiving him on his little trip off the field
before going back into the locker room and getting on
a victorious plane ride back to Houston. And there was
somebody waiting on a high five in the tunnel there
wearing a trench coat and a beanie held his hand
up for the high five.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
He never got it, just left him hanging.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Oh that guy happened to be the owner of the team,
Kal McNair, And so it went pretty viral.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
I would say.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
People had pointed it out and the Texans social media
team got wind of it. And whoever made the decision
is an absolute genius. They decided to make a little
They make a little fun of themselves, I guess, little
self deprecating humor. Cal walked back into the facility with
his hand up, still waiting on that high five. He

(24:19):
was greeted by you know, workers in the lobby, He
was greeted by workers in the dining room, He was
greeted even by other members of the team, none of
which were allowed to high five him because that was
reserved for CJ. And then CJ finally gets it, and
that's the best part because after he pumps his fist
and says yes, he puts it back in the air

(24:41):
on his way out. Freeze frame Finn. Good stuff on
social media by the Texans.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, it did appear that it was a surprise to
both Braxton Barrios and c J Stroud, who happened to
be the two players coming out of the locker room
together when Cal was awaiting his high five three days
later and got it, and CJ had a big smile
on his face. Luckily, Christian Kirk had emerged from the
locker room a little bit earlier to prevent Xavier Hutchinson

(25:07):
from delivering that high five, which was reserved for CJ.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
It was as usual. It's why it's such.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
A big part of a lot of the more famous
comedy shows, sitcoms, comedians acts. If you will, you get
a huge laugh when you make fun of yourself.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, well, I was texting with somebody in the organization
today and I just point blank said he needs to
do this more, not necessarily make fun of himself.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
But there's a difference between.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
He took advantage of the situation in the simplest comedic
possible way, which is appreciated by everybody.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
There's a difference between being too involved two hands on
I e. Jerry Jones, and then just seeming like to
at least the fan base, you're more accessible than the
typical NFL owner, And I feel like maybe this is
over selling it. I feel like video is an example
of cal if not being literally accessible to the fan base.

(26:05):
It just makes him come across as more of a
more human not that he wasn't and.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
To the fans he should already be that.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Yeah, he's extremely down to earth for one thing, and
very I think he's as accessible to fans as I
don't know all the owners personally and I don't see
them operate on an everyday basis, but my impression of
how other places are versus how this place is he
and Hannah are much more accessible and truly with the fans,

(26:35):
I mean literally with the fans whenever the opportunity presents,
and they are at events, and they have their own
events specifically designed to bring them closer to the fans,
and it's why something like this probably plays so well.
They are not like every other owner, and I don't
think any of the owners are. This is how they
do it, and we're gonna do it exactly like they

(26:56):
do it well. I think every owner, if I were
doing some thing of running a team owned the team,
especially in football, the way that they do it is
probably how I would do it. I want to believe
in the people that I hire because I can play
all the Madden that I want, I can study all
the film that I want, I can go to all

(27:17):
the scouting combines that I want. I could dive in
as much as I possibly can, while I also have
a lot of other things to do because I own
the team, and I'm not likely to know more than
they do. That's why I hired them. That's why I
hired Nick, That's why I hired James Lipfort. That's why
I hired all the scouts, or I allowed them to
hire all the scouts. That's why I got assistants in

(27:38):
hiring the head coach. That's why I listened to people
that said this might be a good idea. I think
you're best served as an owner of a most sports team,
and I think definitely football. I just think there's so
much more to it. I don't want to demean the
other sports and the intelligence needed there. I mean, you

(27:59):
go out to the ballard, Jim and Whitney sit behind
home plate in the diamond club seats, and if you know,
you put nine guys out there that can play pretty
well and maybe tenth guy that can pitch well in
the eighth or ninth inning, you're good to go. And
then they next year you go to Wednesday's day game
business fans specially, you're out there at one o'clock and
Jim and Whitney are sitting behind the home plate again,
and Joe has put a new pitcher out there, but

(28:23):
essentially it's the same guys again.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
They go out there and they take care of business.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
And we're just talking about nine or ten guys, maybe eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
fifteen sixteen. When you get all the way through the
bullpen and the rest of your starters basketball, there's five guys.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
They play basketball.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
They bounce the ball, they play defense, they slide their feet,
they block shots, they shoot shots, they pass the ball.
In football, there's how many players do participate in a game.
Every single player that's active except for Davis Mills, fifty
two guys go out there and player forty six guys.
Forty five guys go out there and play each Sunday,

(28:56):
and all of them need to know what they're doing.
And you have an offense team that's larger than your
baseball or basketball team, and you have your defensive team
that's larger than your baseball or basketball team, and you
have special teams that's larger than your I mean all,
there's so much more to it. It's virtually impossible to
have a Jerry Jones level of knowledge about the entire
team Times twenty nine Times, All the Street Free Agents,

(29:22):
Times the X and UFL, Times College Football. It's it's preposterous,
but he can go out and do it anyway he wants.
I think the way that the mcnairs do it, and
Bob Janis before them did it is the way I
would do it.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah. Yeah, it's uh.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
And by the way, the feedback for this video is
pretty much universally positive.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Well, give me one positive comment, which is.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
This is hilarious.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
I got a number of times I posted on all
three of my platforms because that's how much I liked it.
I was just proud of them. I'm like, way to go, man,
this is what Texans fans want to see from.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
You and the leaving him hanging aspect in sports, it's hilarious.
It happens all the time after free throw, so you
lean in for a high five and your teammate ignores you,
players coach, and they high five everybody until they get
to you and they turn around and go the other way.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
It happens a lot.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Or how about a guy who hits his first home
run and then comes back to the dugout and gets
the silent treatment.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
That's the ultimate example of that.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
So yeah, good on Cal and everybody else involved with
the Texans that put that together and randomly, like nine
o'clock last night put it on social media. It was
a pleasant surprise. As I was scrolling, I was legit
opened Instagram and it was the first thing I saw
at that exact moment when I opened the app and
they had just posted it. It said a minute prior

(30:39):
at the bottom of the screen. So I happen to
catch it right when they put it down and big
fan of that, So we will wind down the two
o'clock hour. Coming up next here on the A Team,
get you ready for the simulcast coming up at the
top of the hour. There is one more leftover thing
I wanted to get to it with regards to that
Rockets front office ranking that we went over on yesterday's show.

(31:01):
Rockets are getting some love, but it's how they've gone
about this latest installment of a dominant team that I
really want to get to next.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
To the eighteen sports Dook.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Seven ninety winding down the two o'clock hour, One more
chance to let you know you can become a partner
in Hope by pledging just nineteen dollars a month to
help kids at Saint Jude facing cancer. Put your gift
on a card and you're gonna get the New Music
Gives shirt and Saint Jude hoodie. And all you have
to do other than that to get the ball rolling

(31:37):
is give them a call at one eight hundred five
a eight fourteen thirty three. One eight hundred five eight
eight fourteen thirty three. Once again that number one eight
hundred five eight eight fourteen thirty three.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Yeah, one thing I'm not sure everybody also realizes about
Saint Jude is what they do there. It's a research hospital,
doctors offered are they're sending their toughest cases there because
Saint Jude has the world's best survival rates, some of
the most aggressive forms of childhood cancer treated there, and
a bunch of the other things we've mentioned over the
course of the day, both here on this station Sunday
and all of our stations here on iHeartRadio. We encourage you,

(32:11):
if you can, to become a partner and hope we'll
give you an update on the Oak Harvest Financial Group
tote board coming up right at the top of the hour.
And of course we really truly appreciate everybody involved here
and that includes our Saint Jude Radiothon partners. This year,
it's all presented by Gallery Furniture. You had mentioned that
some love for the Rockets. I hope it's inevitable. I mean,

(32:33):
there should be love for all of the teams at
the top of the standings. They're obviously doing something right.
I did get a text from somebody last night as
the Western Conference played through the extremely competitive set of
games last night in the NBA Cup. Extremely last game
wasn't really competitive in the first game. One of the

(32:54):
two teams in the quarterfinals, one of the eight remaining
teams with a chance to well, one of the six
remaining teams. Technically, because the East played last night, one
of the six remaining teams with a chance to win
the NBA Cup this year, they absorbed the worst loss
in franchise history. I mean, the Phoenix Suns played the
twenty four now twenty four and one Oklahoma City Thunder.

(33:17):
I did a little quick glance at their path to
twenty four and one, and I think it was correct.
I'm not sure if the standings changed so much that
it's slightly different. But the Rockets, the Hawks, the Lakers,
that's three. The Minnesota Timberwolves that's four. Those are the

(33:41):
only four opponents of the Thunder so far this season
through twenty five games that are currently in the top
six in their respective conferences. So the eleven other teams
in the top six in the East and the West.
Because Oklahoma City is one of those twelve, they've only
played four games against those eleven teams, so twenty one

(34:02):
of their games have been played against teams that are
in the playing spots seven through ten in the respective conferences,
or are the ten teams five in each conference that
would not even qualify for the playoffs. I'm not saying
that to tell you I don't think the Oklahoma City
Thunder aren't awesome.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
They are.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
I do think they're going to break the all time
record for regular season victories, so that in and of
itself should tell you that I think they are. But
I think it's very It's hard to beat them, for
one thing, and they played back to back double overtime
games to open the season and won them both, and
one of those was in one of those four games
they've played against upper level teams they have, it's almost

(34:42):
impossible not to say, well, they've had. They've played a
ton of games, so their travel schedule has been difficult,
but they just.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Haven't played good teams. They really haven't.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
The loss they suffered was to a team clearly outside
of that top twelve. It's Portland. Portland's under five hundred.
Portland is going to be fighting to land in the
play in tournament. Everything will leave it out by the
end of the year. It's really a kind of a
non story. And they do have the San Antonio Spurs
next because the Spurs beat the Lakers last night, and
it's possible that the number one overall pick from a

(35:14):
couple of drafts ago will be available for them, and
obviously they'll get to more games. They actually play San
Antonio three times between now and the Rockets game on
Christmas Day against the Lakers at seven o'clock, because that's
an early game that day. Three times in their next
six games they will face the San Antonio Spurs.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, I just in light of the article that we
had talked about yesterday where they were ranking the front office,
you know, from the Rockets in the top five.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Am I think I'm a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Welcoming of opinions just from the random run of the
mill fan than some people. And Red ninety four is
a guy that I actually follow. He's just a die
hard Rockets fan. I'm curious of what these people think
sometimes about this. And he said a lot of ink
has been spilled about the good, the great moves they've made,
Harden trade first and foremost. But what he said, and

(36:07):
I agree with this, and a lot of people don't
talk about this enough. They deserve a ton of credit
for how they navigated what was probably their biggest mistake
under Rafel, which was drafting Jalen Green number two to
kick off the rebuild. Not that it was a mistake
at the time necessarily, but in light of the fact
that he wasn't what they wanted him to be, they
flipped him as soon as possible for something that fit there.

(36:28):
What they're trying to do better now, you know, helps
that they had the draft picks that belong to Phoenix
and helps that that's.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Where Kevin Durant was.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
But I do think in light of just being stubborn
and sticking to it, that was definitely the play there.
We will take a quick time out, we will regroup,
We'll get back into some Texans conversation.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
C J.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Stroud on his chemistry with his Wideouts coming out next
Box seven ninety and now on Space City Home Network
simulcast underway as you can watch us if you would
like to do things that way.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
You can also hear us on the free Heart Radio app.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Just download it and we sound crystal clear on whatever
medium you are using.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
To listen to us. Wex over there ac right here.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Josh Jordan on a Thursday edition of the program, talked
a lot about the mess that is now former Michigan
head coach Sharon Moore. Just endless content right there many
how many memes do you think you and I exchanged
last night in the course of maybe an hour.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Ten I tried to try to steer clear of those,
because it's not as comical as people think it is, unfortunately,
because again it's not even the mental health portion of it,
which appears to be a part of it obviously at
this point, and that he's in protective watch. But obviously
there's These are real people and they're involved in this.

(37:47):
They may have made choices they now regret, and it
appears that is exactly what's happened. So I'm not trying
to be too insensitive or too comical about it.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
But the football side of it will We'll get to
when we get to.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
But this isn't a terrible place to be football wise,
because the coaching carousel is complete and then you just
thrust yourself into it.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
I don't think it was a mistake to do it.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
I don't think they had much of a choice, and
I don't know if they kind of would do it
a different way timeline wise, but I don't know that
the timeline was impacted by anything other than new information
delivered to them essentially yesterday. If we're led to believe
that report, they're essentially a story changed. Otherwise maybe they
would have made a move much much sooner. But football wise,
they got an interim head coach from their staff. They're

(38:32):
going to prepare to lose to the Texas Longhorns on
the last day of twenty twenty five, and I don't think,
I don't know that they'll have a head coach hired
between now and then got about two or three weeks
before that date. There obviously is no timeline for it.
It also just they just completed filling out essentially their
entire recruiting class just before. They now are telling all

(38:55):
these commits and players who committed to them for nil
money that you're going to be playing for somebody else
because Sharon Morrener is more is no longer the head
coach here. This is by no means the first thing
when people refer to this school Michigan, especially on the
football side, but not only on the football side, the

(39:16):
one we talk.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
About the most. They cheat.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Huh yeah, they do, and they're doing things that their coach,
back to back head coaches did things that would have
had them either fired in Moore's case, or unable to
coach anywhere with a show cause violation that undoubtedly Jim
Harbaugh would have been facing had he not said thank
you Chargers. And now I don't have to deal with

(39:40):
it anymore. He's never going back to college football. He
was never going to go back to college football. This
is almost assuredly his last stop, and he basically got
an unbelievable get out of college football jail free cards.
L It is just four or five six I don't
know how many different incidents outside the NCAA rules or

(40:01):
their own rules that they violated over just over the
past eight years, six years, five years.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
It's there's at least one entity that has a very
interesting top of the list as to who would replace
more at Michigan.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Would you like to know who that is? I would
love to hear it so I can shoot it down. Jedfish.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
No, that's not one I can shoot down. He actually
has ties to the program. His name came up former
Houston Texans assistant coach about twenty years ago, current coach
of the Huskies there in Washington, and there are a
lot of people that think that is actually who they
will end up settling on, and I do think it's
something that he would have to strongly consider.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
You forgot part of his resume.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Well, I'm trying to talk to the football side. I'll
leave the he loves OJ side, noted OJ trial enthusiast.
But yes, he was the quarterbacks coach and passing game
coordinator under Jim Harbaugh in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen.
They had a twenty and six record during that span.
He's had a coaching career that probably would allow us
to say there is an opening at insert team in

(41:05):
the NFL or insert college on the gridiron at the
NCAA level. Well, he used to work for this guy. Yeah,
Because Jedfish began as a grad assistant at Florida where
he went to school. He got into coaching very, very
very quickly, as he went directly from college to continuing
or beginning his coach career where he went to college

(41:26):
there in nineteen ninety nine. He's not even fifty yet
and he began his coaching career there. His first job
after that, he was quality control here in Houston for
the first two seasons of their franchise, and from there
He's only coached for the Ravens, Broncos, Minnesota at the
college level, the Seahawks Miami at the college level, the Jaguars, Michigan, Ucla,
the Rams, the Patriots, and the Arizona Carden or the

(41:48):
Arizona Wildcats before landing at Washington. And he's been a
head coached out both at Arizona and at Washington. He
was briefly the interim head coach at UCLA eight years ago.
He has a lot of people that probably think he's
very good at what he does, or he would not
be consistently getting hired over.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
And over and over again.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
By the way, when he was, you know, doing the
very very early workings of his his resume you just
mentioned there, he still found time to make it down
to the courthouse in Los Angeles. Do you want to
remind people of that story? So he probably should unless
he gets hired. We're probably not going to mention his
name again here for at least I don't know, maybe
ever I would.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
I don't sell him short.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, he just he was a huge fan of not
I don't know fan is the right word, but he
was just a huge enthusiast of that trial and was
trying to get in every single day. He told the
story recently, and wound up on an elevator with Johnny
Cochran and the rest of the Dream Team and made
his way into the courtroom.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
I mean, I mentally bristle. I don't know if I
had a physical reaction there. You guys can rewind your
DVRs and let me know if I did. I can't.
I don't think about the attorneys for O. J. Simpson
as the dream Team. Well the rest of the country did.
I think the Dream Team bounces the basketball and puts
it in the basket.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Well, I'll just say this, they might not have been
as collectively as highly compensated as those Dream teamers you're
talking about, But boy, they took a pretty penny to
defend him.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
He was compensating them. I thought he was out of money.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, that's why he's out of money, because he was
compensating all of those lawyers.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
So they let him keep the money that he had
to pay. F And that was his first name, and
I could just call him first initial F Lee Bailey
and Bob Shapiro and the other Bob Kardashian and Jay,
Johnny Johnny and don't forget Carl Douglas. I always find
I shouldn't forget Barry Shack, but I would.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
How about that, mister Fung, that's how he said, That's
how he've delivered the line in the courtroom when he
was talking about forensic blood evidence. How about that, mister Fong,
did you collect that that blood the wrong way? And
the judge judge itto, really the last bashion of controlling
a courtroom. Yeah, he goes calm down. Barry Shek was excitable.

(44:13):
Jedfish is headed to the Los Angeles Bowl. They'll be
playing in the final Los Angeles Bowl.

Speaker 7 (44:19):
He loves in LA.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
We just established that maybe maybe he'll move on to
the Michigan Wolverines.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Well is, by the way, we never determine this. Is
he still going to be in town. There's their chance.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
They have not put out their finalists list yet. The
Bear Bryan Awards, which always gives out the award here
in Houston in January, I actually had a conversation about
seeing if we could make that happen again this year.
Usually nine coaches or so are up for the award,
and all that can attend are then truly up for
the award and they don't give it to someone who
does not attend the awards dinner, and it's a big deal.

(44:50):
Bear Bryant Coaching Awards basically the best award a coach
can win, and we like to head out there and
interview each of those coaches. We've had some great conversations
with I drink Witz when Nick Saban quit and he
was our guest on the at the time. Had a
great conversation with Syracuse coach Fran Brown about one of
the players he had recently coached at Georgia Caamari Lassiter,

(45:12):
and boy was fired up about that. I talked to
Spenser Danielson last year from Boise State. Looked like he
could have been my extremely younger brother by like thirty years.
He looks like an eighteen year old.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
We once had a conversation with then Tulane head coach
and current koug's head coach Willie Fritz at this event we.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Did, and then we had the most pleasant, uplifting, wildly
uproariously funny, comedic conversation of all time. We were falling
out of our seats and laughter, as was our guest
Kurt Signetti.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
You're under selling Bob Stoops when he stopped by. Those
guys were different. I was mocking the Signetti appearance obviously.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, well Mike was rude. I mean Bob was rude.
It was fine. He was not fine.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
He was in the midst of figuring things out with
I think the maybe the Dallas Renegades at the time.
I think he was the COACHFL. Yeah, not Vince's version. No,
not Vince.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Far cry from that. Vince's version.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
With the one of the most famous soundbites from the XFL,
we'll definitely get in massive replay when their sideline reporter
Chris Raggy was interviewing a quarterback and he was asking
him if he was good to go, if he was healthy,
and he's basically said, if I'm alive, then I'm gonna

(46:32):
play football, or something like that.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
This is the XFL.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Was Jeff Brom He's the second name we should mention
as a possibility for Michigan.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, he's on this list, and he is on this
particular list. He's actually number three. But yeah, Louisville's head
coach is definitely in the running, so to speak. By
the way, if we get Jedfish.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
On, just since this is a topic right now, I'm
gonna need more than one segment. Well, you can take
the whole segment yourself. I'll I don't feel duved out.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
I don't need to.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Don't want to ask him football. You don't want to
ask him questions about the dream Team.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
I do want to ask him questions about the dream team.
But the dream team for me when talking to Jedfish
is Dom Chris Palmer, Jedfish, Robert Sala and the other
coaches they had early in Texans history.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
When he was controlling their quality level. Yes, at least defensively.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
No, we will definitely ask him about the Texans before
we launch into you know, was what was at the
trial that day and what exhibits he saw on whether
or not he ran into the Goldman or the Brown families,
or if he had lunch with Cato Klin, you know,
whatever important things we need to be Maybe.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
He went up the staircase with the detective Furman, not
a popular guy during that trial.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
But depending on which side you were, huh, I don't
know if you can be on a good side of
that word that he used repeatedly on tape, on tape, Okay,
did you ever know?

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Well, that's perjury so I gotta to plead the fifth. Now,
all right, we get back to sports when we come back.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I know. I told you we were gonna hear from CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
We'll actually hear from CJ. Stroud and a very sad
Travis Kelce coming up next.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Eighteam rolling along here on a first edition of the
program Sports Talk seven ninety. Oh my my my. There's
a lot going on out there. This Charon Moore story
just wow. We'll get to we'll get back to it.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
We will.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
But we need to get to the Texans right now
because they still have work in front of them. It's
not just about making the postseason anymore. It's about winning
the division, and darn it, they can do it. You
need to root for the Denver Broncos and you need
to win out, especially if you want to win the
division if you're the Houston Texans.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
And in that vein CJ.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Stroud yesterday brought up something that you might not you
hear this On the surface, you might not think it's
like a sticking point with the offense. I mean it's
it's not exactly like the offense has been running very
smoothly all season, even up until last week. The third
quarter was a nightmare to watch, just absolute paint drying

(49:11):
boredom from an offensive productive standpoint where they have minus
two yards in the entire third quarter, And a big
part of that credit to the Kansas City Chiefs for
making life miserable. But I feel like there were chunks
of this season early on, especially when CJ was involved
before he got hurt, where maybe it wasn't that anemic,

(49:31):
but it was pretty darn close. You're like, this is
not gonna work. The Texans defense is keeping them in
these games. The offense has to do something to kind
of offset all the work that defense is doing. So
having said all of that chemistry with wide outs as
you're going into the final four games of the season
may not be something you would think would be on

(49:53):
you know, a top of mind for the Texans quarterback.
That's exactly what CJ. Stroud spoke about. One of the
things he spoke about yesterday when he was visiting with
the media.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
I think we've you know, built rapports, you know throughout
the room. You know some of the guys are you know,
I'm still trying to figure them out. And then I think,
you know, when I got the concussion. You know, I
thought I was were I was getting a connection with
some guys I've been thrown to in a minute and
then you know kind of how to restart that when
I came back. So I think it's gonna take more time,
you know, with everybody. But I think, you know, we're

(50:24):
taking strides every week and we're just having more conversation
and communications. You know, I want them to see how
I see it. I want to see how they see
you know, so in that connection, that chemistry is getting
built every game.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
This is where you make your joke about the fact
that one of the two rookie wide receivers they drafted
isn't getting the looks that he should in this offense.
I think this is the time where I'll say I
appreciate his honesty because if if you're watching the games
and you're not seeing that, you're not paying attention. What
he's saying is absolutely true, and it's not good. It's
not a good thing for them to be facing with

(50:54):
four games to go. He missed three weeks, he didn't
miss training camp. I know he wasn't throwing during the
off season, remember that, But I do remember that he
has a good on field connection and sees things the
same as Nico Collins and probably Dalton Schultz.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
And that's it.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
And as far as I can see what my eyes
are telling me, well I see on a weekly basis,
I think that's it. I think it's a shame that
we're they're only at that point. I do not think
he has a great on field chemistry with Christian Kirk.
I think the next guy on line after Nico and
Dalton is probably Xavier Hutchinson. And obviously they've been together
all of each of their respective careers, Hutchinson for multiple

(51:39):
years here, just like CJ in the Texans locker room.
Obviously they're all learning the Nick Kylee offense together. But
I don't think he has a really good on field
chemistry with Jayden Higgins or Jalenole or Christian Kirk or
Cad Stover or anybody else. Maybe he has it with Woody,
but I don't think that's really what we're talking about here.

(52:00):
I think what he said is true, and I'm not
surprised that he said it.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I'm glad that he said it. He's cognizant of it.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
It needs to get better, whatever it is they can
do and it's still probably just more about the rhythm
of the offense. It's hard to create that when they
have played such disjointed offensive football. They average twenty one
point eight points per game. Of the twelve teams in
the league that average fewer points per game, how many
of them do you think are inside the playoff picture?

Speaker 2 (52:25):
In the respective conferences?

Speaker 3 (52:27):
There's twelve teams averaging fewer points per game than Houston's
twenty one point eight, which is obviously twentieth four less
one less than one.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Really.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Raiders, Titan Saints, Brown's, Panthers, Falcons, Vikings, Jets, Commanders, Giants, Dolphins,
Cardinals are not playoff teams. Okay, and those are the
only teams in the league that score less often than Houston. Geez, well,
but when you have the number one defense, you can
be eight and five. But when you get to the playoffs,
guess who the worst offense in the playoffs is you?

(53:01):
The Broncos are trying to make a bid. I know
they put those average two more points per game than Houston. Again,
offense can be relative when points can be scored by
different parts of your team, and some teams have scored
more non offensive touchdowns than others. Just for the sake
of mentioning the Broncos, they have a return TD added

(53:24):
to their total. The Texans point total is buoyed by
guess what. They're number one in the NFL in field goals,
number one in the NFL and field goals thirty three
of them this year, and that is really the difference
between them and say, the Broncos. The Broncos are twentieth
in field goals. The Texas have thirty nine more points

(53:47):
via field goals than Denver, but Denver has just a
few more touchdowns than Houston.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
They have thirty five. Houston has twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
If you're only counting touchdowns, and two of the Texans
touchdowns are return touchdowns. They're even further towards the bottom.
There's six teams in the NFL that have scored fewer
touchdowns than Houston, only six. Well, you want to feel
better about that situation, I'd love to. The Chiefs offense

(54:16):
isn't all that great either these days, especially their tight
end position. They're tenth in the NFL in touchdowns. What's
Travis Kelsey doing these days? Well, after they lose games
that he drops passes in that are crucial. He doesn't
speak with the media, but later in the week he
does via his podcast.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Did it seem like he was happy or sad? Right now?

Speaker 3 (54:37):
If you haven't heard it, I think you can tell
what the answer to that question is. We'll deliver it
for you here. His brother Jason decided to say, man,
this is you dog. I'll let you have the floor here.
Give us a little of what you were feeling after
the Texans Chiefs game this past Sunday night in your
building and when the Texans scored twenty and y'all scored ten.

Speaker 7 (54:57):
It's been a tough go around the past two days. Yeah,
it's just you put in all this work and hopes
that it pays off, and right now it's just for
whatever reason, man, it's little things.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
It's I don't know, discipline.

Speaker 7 (55:11):
I feel like I've always had the answers in years past,
and this year it's just I just can't find them.
And I keep thinking, if I show up to work
and I put in the work and I fix the
issues through my practice habits and through through perfecting the
game plan and my fundamentals and what I'm being taught,
and go out there and try and play my off
for my guys next to me. It's it's all gonna

(55:34):
come together like it has in years past, and this
year is just not Man's feeling, especially dropping the ball
late in the game like that when we were on
our last chance to make something shake. It's just feeling man.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
A little bit of an overcusser. The podcast, Yeah, I know,
but just.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Have to every other sentence, whether it's not, the emphasis
is there.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
And we saw it. You're one for eight cars night,
you catch hard knocks this week. I did not.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
They had a little segment with coach Kafka, uh huh.
Could have been the Texans coach, but they chose wisely
and didn't hire him. He's the Giants' interim head coach,
and they had a little portion of the program with
him addressing the team and he just he wasn't even
fired up, but he just kept dropping dropping over and
over and over, like we have a bleeping opportunity here.

(56:27):
I mean, it's up to the bleeping guys in this room.
I mean look around to the room. These are the
guys that are going to bleep and get it done.
Like he wasn't trying to give some fiery speech, but
he just kept overkilling it with that word.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Provided he stays healthy.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
We are watching the last four games of Travis Kelsey's
NFL career. Yeah, because of exactly how he sounded like.
That's when you know it's hard to know he's being
told when is it time to retire? I'm working just
as hard. I'm killing it practice. I'm trying to do
everything I can for my team. I'm putting everything I
know that I need to to beat great because I've

(57:01):
done it for more than a decade of being great
and the work that goes along with it, and then
I get it out there on whatever day we're playing
and it doesn't work out well, and not the losing
his performance.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Correct, but part of them not finding the answers, as
he put it, is that he's not one of those
answers and he always has been. And I think, just
me personally, and I'm not speaking for all of Houston
Texans fandom, but I think a big reason why so
many Texans fans were so happy and they're still it's Thursday.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
We're still on a high about that win.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Maybe a little bit because it was a nationally televised
game where everybody's watching you and no one else is
playing at that moment.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
That's a little bit to do with it, But.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
I think a bigger part to do with it is
they did always have the answers, and you were one
of the teams that was routinely a victim of said
answers when the Texans were going through the doldrums of
said third quarter for whatever reason, whether it was because
the Chiefs defense, led by Chris Jones and others was
making life hell for them, or whether it was they

(58:01):
just weren't getting it done. You were thinking it. I
was thinking it. Everyone was thinking it. Here we go again.
They played a pretty solid first half, and now they're
gonna find a way, the Chiefs meaning they're gonna find
a way to beat the Texans again, and we're all
gonna talk about kudas Shuda woulda like we did in January,
and it didn't happen. For example, they took that victory,

(58:21):
did the Texans. And one of the reasons they took.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
It is because this guy right here that we're talking
about didn't step up and he did seal the game
with his hot potato interception play involving Aziz al Shire.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Yeah, way more than that.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
But when your players you've been counting on can't play
at that level anymore. The end is near in his case,
as you said, I do think it is four games. Well,
I think he'll he'll face that harsh reality and he
will do what many think that others late in their
career should do, and he'll hang it up, beat it
all right.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
When we come back. It's a reunion on the Toyota
Center floor tonight. A current Rocket Superstar a former Rocket Superstar,
and they're reflecting of their time together back in Oklahoma,
city of all places. That is Next eighteen, Rolling along here,
pro Gram. This week has flown by. In my opinion,
I don't know if it's shared by my co host here.

(59:15):
I mean, working with me is difficult at times. The
week has flown by. Look at that he's just diplomatic
as always.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
I'll tell you what hasn't flown by waiting on the
next Rockets game to come around.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
They're finally playing tonight. Are you excited? See they can
take care of these six win clippers. Yeah, but see
you say that, and yet we're Yeah. I know.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
They did win three of their first five, and they
won three of their nineteen cents, so I should be
a little bit more concerned.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
James Harden and Kawhi Leonard do exist.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
James Harden is averaging more points than he's ever averaged
since leaving the Houston Rockets because he gets all the
shots now. Oh, because offense is up a little bit
in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
And that is Kawhi playing tonight. I really am.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
Asking not listed on the injury report. That doesn't mean anything.
Uncle Dennis makes one phone call and he's out. I
should have I should have just said, yes, all right,
they're not a true six win team.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Why not? I'm being totally sick.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Because James Harden scored fifty last last week and he's
capable of that any time. And oh, by the way,
he's not as good as he used to be, but
he's still a very effective three point shooter. And guess
what the Rockets like to leave open three point shooters
all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Maybe maybe I'm in on an island here. I think
the Clippers are awful at basketball. Well, they only have
six wins, so that does back. Why do they lose
all the time because they're awful of basketball?

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Apparently?

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
I mean they're not They're not talent they have two
old talented players who play half of the game. I mean,
Kawhi Leonards days of landing on all defensive teams are over,
that's true, and James Harden's never had those you know,
when it comes to team wide, Malay, we're talking about
Kawhi and James and totally dismissing the fact Zubats is
also on the team.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
He's very good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Yeah, well then how can they keep losing because they
don't give a crap?

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Yeah, that's that is That is absolutely the case. I
don't I don't look at it as a trap gaming
that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
This man, They've had a lot of time to think
about this trap game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Well, listen, the Rockets shouldn't have lost to the Dallas
Mavericks without Alt brnshing gun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
You know why.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
I mean, just the simplest way to continue to conversation.
Why did the Dallas Mavericks win Because they do care
like they play hard. They've lost a ton of games
this year. They're barely ahead of the Clippers in the standings,
but they do they play hard.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Clay really cares if you trip his rookie teammate. There's
a he's an enforcer. Different Klay Thompson related item that
share later. I can't wait for that. But sticking to
his fault, no, I know it's not, but it's funny.
So did you ever think we'd be sitting in a
place where James Harden's no longer a rocket and current

(01:01:48):
rocket Kevin Durant has thoughts on James Harden from their
days back in ok See, that's just kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Blows your mind if you think all it would take
is Kevin Durant being a rocket and here we are.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Well, by the way, part of the reason the Rockets
were able to get Kevin Durant is because of the
trade that sent James Harden out of Houston.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
If you think about it, six degrees of separation. Of course,
can you walk me through that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Well, if they make the deal that a lot of
people wanted them to make, Okay, that's fair enough.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
I'm very stretching this out.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Trading for a player led deal, Ben Simmons in this
case versus a draft asset led deal, right, certainly I
can see.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
That ironically with you know, James Harden's next two teams
because Ben Simmons, I believe at the time was a
sixer still, so Anyway, all of that is to say
Katie was asked about, you know, James Harden and him
being back in Houston's.

Speaker 8 (01:02:40):
Night doesn't let anybody get a rattled. Everywhere he goes
he plays his game or people kind of fiting around him,
you know. So he's pretty much the source for a
lot of the team's offense. You know, every spot he's
been to, a lot of players have benefited off of
him just being on the floor. So you know, he's

(01:03:01):
a tough cover, and you know, we scout heavily for
players like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
You know, it's funny about you know, we criticize James,
and certainly everybody outside of Houston did when he was here,
about his shortcomings, particularly in the postseason. But what Durant
said right there is something that I don't think rarely
ever got brought up during his heyday as a Rocket,
and really I think gets left under the radar a
lot of the time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
He really doesn't get rattled.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
That word is not something Now you can say he
shrinks in the moment and all that kind of stuff,
but I've never felt like, oh, this defender's trying to
do this, or this guy's took a cheap shot here
or this, that and the other. They really got under
his skin. They rattled him. I don't remember a time
ever seeing James Harden like that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
No, he's reacted to a few fouls or some minor
altercations or gotten people's faces and vice versa, but there's
no impact of Well, now you've taken about his game,
totally agree, he does manage to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I think it's just kind of who he is. Same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
On the other side, he doesn't even there's We've seen
him pump his fists and scream and yell and beat
his chest and have to try to correct his nose
bleeds and all that. But he's not really like so
many other players in terms of being demonstrative in a
positive way after something huge as positively happened for he
or his team. But that's just who he is. He

(01:04:21):
has been that way for a long day. Was that
way like getting him rattled?

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
How?

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
I think people have forgotten that this even happened because
it was such a long time ago. He took one
of the most vicious elbows in league history from Ron
our Test in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
Yep to the side of his head YEP, and proceeded
to keep going.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
Yeah, it should be. He's been back so many times.
It's just another game. Quite honestly, there's a relationship between
KD and him, and that's obviously why you he gets
asked about it. He's totally right. I mean, you do
need to game play for him. He's still playing at
a very high level. He's not nearly the player he
was when he was in Houston, but he was so
far up there he could drop down the whatever nachos
you want to call it. And he's still one of

(01:05:04):
the league's better players than he is a very difficult guard.
He just happens to play on a team that doesn't
stop anybody. This is one of the league's worst defenses.
All the numbers are there to back it up. They're
not nearly as effective offensively you think they would be.
Because most you know Kawhi's playing. I think this will
be his fifteenth game tonight, their twenty fifth game overall.
So in those games he's basically been on the floor

(01:05:24):
with Harden and with Zubats and they just don't run
an effective offense the way that they should when sixty
percent of our players are those three higher level guys. Granted,
they're missing a few pieces a couple of rotation players.
Beal would be in the rotation, Derek Jones would be
in the rotation, So they do have to do a
few things differently, and I think it's noteworthy that Derek
Jones is a very plus defender, so that hurts them too.

(01:05:47):
But the Rockets are They're just better. They're getting back
both Steven Adams and alprin Shangoon from their most recent
game where they clearly weren't themselves. It's probably the first
game this year where they had to play differently. They've
had some now some dud games, either one of the
games you want to mention that they lost during the
five of seven, but they actually had to do things

(01:06:07):
differently because of who wasn't there, And honestly, they had
five reputation players out Finney Smith, Easton van Vliet and
the two Bigs.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
I know it's like Van Vliet being out is baked
into the cake, but how many other teams wouldn't have
their starting point guard, that is, they would fancy themselves
a championship contender and just kind of dismissed that all
the time.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
You have to bring it up.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
They happen to be playing a team that is in
the same boat, just not at the same level. They've
played a MAVs have played every game without Kyrie Irving.
They would be a dramatically different team if he were
out there. He will come back this year, and I
think the MAVs will be able to play themselves into
the postseason in some variety. I think the MAVs will
be at least a playing team if he returns any
reasonable amount of time, provided that Anthony Davis continues to

(01:06:51):
play rather than watch, and he is now at least
healthy enough to play. Just on one thing on Harden,
he Adidas posted something today He's been with the eat
us for a while, top ten all time score from
a kid with a dream to a top ten and
I quote tweeted that mentioned he's back in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
We've got the game tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
Our coverage begins at six, Ross will have rockets launch
pad at six and then count down at six thirty
with the yours truly an MPT for the game. It
got two responses. Jeff said, such a disappointment, and Carver said,
and how many championships? And that is how people, I
think erroneously feel about his time here.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Yeah, it sucks because it's the rang's culture, if you will.
But that's his story, that's his narrative, that's his.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Resume here in Houston. For better or for worse.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
We are not going to leave the NBA because, speaking
of Harden and what he was known for, primarily when
he was here in Houston, there's someone else that's actually
worse for the game.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Yes, you heard me right, and we'll explain that next.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
Before we get to the topic at hand this segment,
did you happen to catch the Jake Fisher report saying
that the Warriors are reportedly willing to trade Draymond Green
for Giannis.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
Well, I don't want to go me on it. They're
willing to trade the lesser of the two players for
the better of the two players. I know, I know
there must be more to it, so I'll back off
a little.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
This is the quote from the report.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
The only player I think in the league that Golden
State would be willing to move Draymond Green for would
be Jannis and Tentacumpo. That's the only player between him
and Jonathan Kaminga and Brandon Pozemski. All of a sudden,
Golden State probably does have an intriguing package if you're Milwaukee.

(01:08:46):
But I don't think that they are going to be
pushing Draymond's salary onto the table or Jimmy Butler's salary
for anyone short of him. I mean there, I don't
know how many parts of that whole thing that made
me laugh the most. Yeah, I bet they'd like to
trade Draymond Green and his crappy salary for one of
the best five players in the NBA. And I bet

(01:09:08):
that they would like Milwaukee to pick up the phone
and having heard them offer Draymond Green also say, oh yeah,
we would also like to throw in the disgruntled Jonathan
Kaminga whose trade value has plummeted because of that, and
Brandon Pozemski, who at one point with a straight face
said he wants to be better than Steph Curry and
that's your package for Jannis.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
Like, clearly there's more just in.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Just waking up in the morning, the Bucks could find
I don't know, five better packages from five different teams
out there, no question, maybe ten.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
For this drivel.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Well, I just don't think they have the other assets
that could ever make this a palatable deal. The assets
would have to be draft picks of value, and unless
they have some other bad teams draft picks, obviously the
team that's getting janis if they're giving you future picks,
they're not presumably they're not going to be particularly good good,
so it would be a very very bad pack.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
The Warriors need to start getting used to losing all
the time, because that's what's about to happen for a
long long time.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
You know, my thought when hearing this is maybe somebody
out there, whether it's a reporter or the team itself,
is realizing the obvious. They put together a team that
was going to get old very very fast, and it
happened from the end of last season to the start
of this season. If it wasn't already there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
Everybody but John Hollinger knew this.

Speaker 3 (01:10:26):
Well, I just don't know that they're they're clearly not
going to win a lot of games in the regular season.
For people to think that they were, I said it,
then I'll just say it again. That was foolish and
it was embarrassing because they don't care and they're not
going to push their nine hundred year old roster to
try to win forty five, six fifty games. They're going
to try to get to the playoffs as healthy as possible,

(01:10:47):
and chemistry actually be damned. They just need to get
to the playoffs healthy, which is really all they ended
up doing last year, and they proved to be to
Houston at least a tough team to be. There's only
four teams left in the West, and they were one
of them. Now they weren't able to even stay healthy
for a second series, if you give me that. Jimmy
Butler came back, and then as soon as he did,
Steph Curry could not stay healthy. That was always going

(01:11:09):
to be the biggest concern. Just getting there as a
huge concern now staying healthy for two more months of
postseason basketball and winning over teams that are at least
equally talented as you, if not more talented than you,
definitely younger than you. I don't think it was a
bad idea to trade for Jimmy Butler, but they were
also making sure they knew and everybody knew, the end

(01:11:30):
of what we have here is extremely near, and we're
just gonna see if maybe Jimmy Butler can do this
for us, because you're not. Janni Sonokompo is a totally
new endeavor. He's not winning any titles with these guys,
They're not going to be good. And unless they're winning
this year and again, what it would it take to
get him. That is not a team I suspect would
be able to have a real conversation with Milwaukee management

(01:11:55):
about a deal.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
I look forward to the Warriors going back to being
the also ran of the NBA like they have been
for most of their existence.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Looking forward to that. But every team in the NBA
would do what they did.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
Oh yeah, I'll spend whatever it takes with the group
I have because we can stay in it every year.
People obviously wanted to play there in addition to that,
as they've landed both Kevin Durant and Jimmy Butler during
this time, but not only we talk about the Butler
edition last year, and then they went out and signed
Al Horford. Guess who hasn't been playing. It's just it
was incredible some of the thoughts they had, and they

(01:12:24):
knew then and they just did it anyway. They knew
Jonathan Kaminga as a Warrior was wrong and they signed
him anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Yeah, Well, that one I didn't get at all, because
that is when you try and trade him when he
still has way more value than Oh, well, we know
you want to get rid of him. We know you
don't want him, we know he doesn't want you, so
we're gonna low ball you with every offer you get.
So good luck. Without Golden State could have happened to
a better franchise. Now, speaking of a franchise as it
drive me crazy. I want to like a SGA so bad,

(01:12:54):
I really do. Like in spite of the fact that
they are clearly the thing standing in front of the
Rockets from getting back to being a championship contender.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
They had a legendary reaction to Ted Cruz's hard foul
last night.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
Well, Ted Cruz had a hard foul and whether or
not you think it was a flagrant to variety, I
did some of the officials and so they tossed him.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
But that was after his he got knocked down. Well
Chet knocked him down.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
Here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Earlier in the game, Grayson Allen breathed on SGA he
did mistake. I'm sorry, but like this is not me
just for the millionth time complaining about NBA officiating. Trust me,
keep listening to the show. It'll come up a number
of times, because I think they're the worst in sports.
I think they're worse than Major League Baseball umpires, and

(01:13:43):
I definitely think they're worse than NFL referees, because I
think NFL referees, for the most part, are the best
in sports. But this is ridiculous, And it's not that, Oh,
it's just you know that's gonna be a foul with anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
It's not with anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
He gets a better whistle than in anyone out there,
and it's not even close. Don't tell me that he
hasn't made or taken as many free throws as Luca,
because I don't want to hear that. It's the type
of fouls they're calling. Okay, Luca is gonna whine and
complain about everything always, to his credit talking about SGA,
he is not a complainer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
I don't think he is. But why would you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
You don't have to do anything, just push off and
they're gonna call it on the defender every time, so
you really have nothing to complain about. If Luca could
get that through his head, with all of the free
throws he shoots leading the NBA, he'd.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Probably be a little bit more likable himself.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
But SGA's whistle is they'll be studying about this in books,
in history books, right, I mean, this has got to stop.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
I would take that class, of course you would. It's
better than a real.

Speaker 3 (01:14:45):
Class that's sure of NBA basket hendistry, of the NBA foulbating.
I would love that class. Would you bring in a
guest speaker.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
Valbating James Harden? That would be awesome. All these people
in free throw attempts last night? How many? Just three? Time?
I SGA?

Speaker 5 (01:15:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
Why because he didn't play the third, fourth and most
of the second quarter because they're blowing him out.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
I mean that probably impacted it a little bit. I
know he didn't play the fourth because he never does.
He took fifteen shots.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
Listen. I again, No, it does need.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
To be it's a nuanced conversation because there's something very
specific about it. He's a he's a ball dominant player.
He drives to the basket. He's leading the NBA two
point field goals if I'm not mistaken. He attacks the basket.
He does take jumpers, he does have a fade away,
he does have all those things. He's going to get fouled.
He plays basketball in a way that is going to
create things to earn the first That's one part of

(01:15:37):
the story. But the legitimacy of some of the fouls
that he is absolutely gifted is ridiculous. And there's no
player like him in the league currently. You said he
breathed on him. I think their jersey's touched maybe maybe
not sure though it's not there. And he should actually
the whistle should come and they should be going to

(01:15:58):
the other side of the court because it should be
a flopping whistle and he should be fined.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
Yes, And I hate Grayson Allen, So that should tell
you how strongly I feel about this.

Speaker 8 (01:16:06):
A team.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Sports Talk seven to ninety Space City home network. He's WEX,
I'm a se Josh Jordan is our producers. We take
you until six o'clock tonight. We will step aside. Then
the Rockets pregame coverage will get underway, and before you
know it, Rockets v. Clippers getting underway inside Toyota Center
as they have this home game.

Speaker 2 (01:16:26):
And then what do they do?

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
They play like Denver five times in the next four
days or something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
Next week they have a game on the fifteenth at Denver.
Then they will travel back to Louisiana for a game
at the Pelicans. Then they will fly right back out
to Denver for a game on the twentieth. Those are
the first three games of a six game road trip.
The last three are West Coast games, the last of
which lands them in LA. Well two games in LA.

(01:16:51):
The second one is the Christmas game against the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
They could have gotten that New Orleans game out of
the way in the last couple of days because it's close,
and because.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
Again they have there's some blackout days in the NBA. Yeah,
it's dumb. Well, the NBA Cup games are the only
games in town, right.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
So while all these other teams just sit around, they
got to play these very important cup games, very important.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
I know, why are they giving all these players all
this rest? Yeah, I know, you know, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
It's an abysmal idea because Luca thinks it's good. Well,
I played in this tournament, in this Europeerio, in the
league that I was in, and then I came over
here and it's great. I love the Cup. He said
that this week awesome. It's not awesome, glad to hear it.
It's a gimmick, of course, it's a gimmick. What why
does an MLB do this? They have twice as many games.

Speaker 3 (01:17:38):
Nobody thinks ournament aren't fans aren't turned off by one
of the ten to twelve players that's available that night
sitting out. NBA fans are turned off by one of
their players sitting out, and so, in an effort to
create more excitement for a regular season that everybody knows
other than the money they get, it's too long. They

(01:18:00):
thought maybe we could try something. We could just sit
here and do nothing and have fans and everybody else
totally disappointed with our product, or we could at least
try something. I mean, at the very least, that's the
lowest end of they're trying to do something to make
it better.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
I don't frown on that at all.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
You frown on the All Star weekend, which they've been
trying to do something about for years, and it's not working.
Nothing they try works.

Speaker 2 (01:18:22):
I'm gonna say the exact same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:18:23):
And they're going to have a new format again this
year because what they have been doing with the players
playing less defense than the Clippers, it's not working.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
How about this, And I know this is going to
be painfully obvious. If your team is good and competitive
in the NBA, your fans will care about it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
How about make a competitive team.

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
That's fine to create fair, but also it's a thirty
every sport, same thing. They're going to be non competitive
teams every year in the league, five to ten of them.
It's just the way it is. But they don't have
to be non competitive five years in a row. That
is definitely true, and that therein lies the difference between
the NFL and everybody else. You get a path to
the top of your division very very quickly in the NFL,

(01:19:04):
and sometimes a path right to back down to the
bottom very quick Just ask the Patriots. Ask the Commanders, yep,
Commanders won the NFC title game last year.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
Do you think we'll have three wins?

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
Do you think we'll hear about Jaden Daniels regressing or
will he get more of a pass because he was
injured more than CJ was his rookie year.

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
He's not gonna get more of a pass. He's gonna
get in one hundred percent pass.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
I don't really better awesome. Really, he better have an
awesome third season. Look, I'm just wanting.

Speaker 3 (01:19:28):
To be real about it. CJ was awesome as a rookie.
Jaden Daniels was more awesome as a rookie. The following year.
CJ's team has managed to continue winning. He has not
made leaps forward in either of his two seasons, and well,
Jayden Daniels is he was the team MVP last year.
If anybody thinks otherwise, they weren't paying attention. He turned

(01:19:49):
everything around all by himself because he could do that.
They needed some other things. They had a new coach,
they played better defense, they did have some players, but
they're not gonna win all the games they won or
in the playoffs without the way he played. And this
year he didn't even play particularly well. Like I just
told you'd get one hundred percent pass because I just
think he missed enough games that people will do that.
So he didn't have a chance to build on these

(01:20:10):
starts or that game. But if you actually look at
the games he played this year, he played badly this year,
arguably worse in his second year. If we need to
even have this discussion, then CJ did in his second
year all the things he was so incredible at, all
the playmaking, the incredible completion percentage. He completed almost seventy

(01:20:31):
percent of his passes, his first go round in the NFL.
He barely completed sixty percent of his passes this year
in the six games that he's played. That does include
their game last week where he came back from injury
and was not put back on the field that day,
and they said it wasn't injury related, and he's not
going to start this week, and they again say it's
not injury related. They're not benching him, but they're trying

(01:20:55):
to protect his future by not sending their quarterback of
the future out there, as they are a three win team.
So it's another Mariota game. But you can't you can't
look at what he did this year and say played
well and when he was out there, certainly not compared
to his rookie season, he played worse.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
And yet because of the injuries he's that's all gonna
get thrown by the wayside.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
I think people there will be focused on it most
everybody else will probably not care too much.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
But at some point they won.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
They're not the same draft class, they're not on the
same path, they're not on the same conference. They never
play each other. The comps there are only in that
they were awesome as rookies. That's it, there's other players
from his class, specifically to his class. He's a second
year quarterback. Well, one second year quarterback is going to
be starting in the playoffs for the second consecutive year,

(01:21:41):
Bo Nicks. Another second year quarterback might be the number
one seed in the AFC in Drake May. That's this
conversation is going to be. Can he catch back up
with them and his team to where those two teams are?

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
He was drafted ahead of well pretty much everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:21:56):
Yeah, now except for Caleb who will probably also be
in the player Do you think he's evolving.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
Here in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 3 (01:22:02):
C J?

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
Stroud?

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
That's a loaded question, by the way. Uh, can I
get some more information before I answer? Yeah, we have
sound on this. Yeah, let's go with that first. All right,
let's play CJ talking about making off schedule plays here
in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (01:22:22):
Oh yeah, I mean I try to just make plays
and you know whatever that looks like. So, you know,
Sunday it was a little bit me on the move
in the pocket. But I know stuff like that in
this league doesn't last. So you know, I got to
just get better on just sitting in the pocket and
taking one's there and just you know, or guys up front,
you know, blocking and blocking the side out and just
you know, so we all know what we need to fix.

(01:22:42):
And I think you know, as we LEAs go on,
you know, we'll continue to get better at that. But
I think I can pull it out the bag when
I need to.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
You know, no offensive line is ever going to be
referred to as perfect. I mean, there's probably some teams
that have gotten close. But I just wish sometimes that
the Texans did have an offensive line, in an elite
offensive line, so that I could really, I think, more
accurately judge where CJ's at right now. Like I'm not

(01:23:10):
saying at all that everything has been the offensive line's
fault with regards to CJ maybe being less successful as
a quarterback, but I just I want to know how
much blame I should put on CJ for where he
is versus where we'd all liked him to be at
detail end of year three. And I just don't think

(01:23:30):
I can do that until the line in front of
him is anything other than substandard.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
Well, I don't know any choice.

Speaker 3 (01:23:37):
He's playing football and they have games, and he's out
there no matter what the offense you're just gonna go ahead.
I don't think there's enough evolvement. I do think there's
certain areas where get he has been better and will
continue to get better this year. It's a little disappointing
that I think he's right when he says it, but
it's a little disappointing that it's the case every single
thing that's not perfect seems to be setting this offense

(01:23:59):
back and setting CJ back.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
You know, the three games he missed with concussion.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
He said it earlier on our show today, from what
he said wednesday about you know, trying to be on
the same page, and you know, I thought we were
creating something and we thought we were getting some there
and then you know, I missed three weeks and so
we got to kind of start over again. They shouldn't
be starting over. Well, the team actually told them to
start over because they fired the OC. He's only in
year three. He's working with his second offensive coordinator, clearly

(01:24:24):
the second offense. One of his main receivers is a
rookie this year, and that has has happened with him
before because one of his main receivers in his rookie
season was also a rookie and he was fantastic and
they're playing without him, Tank Dell. But the things that
I think can be better in spite of whatever the
offensive line is or isn't, those are the things that

(01:24:46):
haven't been better. And you're hearing him say that he agrees.
Just take take second and four by completing the six
yard past Dalton Schultz, Take the second and seven by
completing the three yard pass to Woody Marks and seeing
if you can get more than that. When he doesn't,
it's second and seven. It's not second and ten. It's
not second and seventeen because you run around in the

(01:25:07):
pocket and eventually Ursery has committed a holding penalty. Just
move the ball forward, create more opportunities to put points
on the board, or you're going to still be at
the back of the league. More from each of their
drives is something that they could do a better job of.
Even with their offensive line issues. The offensive line wasn't
much of a problem in the first half of the

(01:25:27):
Kansas City game. It didn't seem like and they didn't
explode offensively or anything. It was definitely more of a
problem in the second half, Titus Howard indicating they were
they just kind of had a new play in Kansas
City went at them a little bit differently in the
second half, and it took them a minute to adjust
to that. I think CJ. Stroud is a very similar
player to what he was beginning last year as where however,

(01:25:50):
many games.

Speaker 1 (01:25:50):
Later, by the way injury report coming out, Titus Howard
did not practice, but it was personal, not injury related.

Speaker 2 (01:25:58):
Just throwing that out there, Well, hopefully that means what
it usually means.

Speaker 3 (01:26:02):
As long as everything is situated properly between now and Sunday,
would suspect that he would be out there. Mentioned earlier
that several players that did not practice yesterday we're dealing
with minor things and have been dealing with minor things,
and that Wednesday skipped or nonpractice day is often followed
by a Thursday practice day, and that was the case

(01:26:22):
for many of the guys out there. The only players
that have not participated in practice at all this week
are Nick Chubb and Kamari Lasser. Chubb with the rib injury,
Kamari Lasser with the foot injury. I would think Chubb's
availability for Sunday is absolutely in question. I think the
Cody Schrader addition to the active roster of Via Waivers
is one of those indications that there is some more

(01:26:45):
concern than just the day to day stuff last year.
I think is in the very same boat that he
was in last week. I don't think there was any
significant he hurt himself worse, and we're not sure how
I think he'll be out there on Sunday. Autrey Marks, EJ.
Speed and a host of others that were limited or
did not practice yesterday, we're out there today. Sheldon Rankins

(01:27:05):
misspractice on Wednesday. He was a full participant today.

Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
All right, there is still plenty of layers to get
to on the Texans side of things, especially since they're
gonna be going a good would you say they're familiar
with the quarterback there they're gonna be facing this weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:27:19):
Not as familiar as some people out there would have
you believed, though.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
All right, we'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:23):
Seriously, people do a little work in your research. It's
not that hard.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
We'll also revisit the Sharon More story and oh, by
the way, what's up with that? Is coming up at
the bottom of the hour. There is a very very
sad sat Day.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
Droopy Vace quotedback in the NFL we'll get to who
that is and you'll hear from him before the hour
is up.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Here on today's program, it is the.

Speaker 1 (01:27:45):
A Team Sports Talk seventy ninety Space City Home Network. Again,
going back to this Sharon More story, I still, I mean,
I want to say I can't believe it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
Unfortunately, I kind of can. I mean believe whether it's
true or not. This has happened before.

Speaker 3 (01:28:05):
And again going back to this, the way some people
are report eyes some of these deal you can't even
believe it's happened.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
Why not? It's happy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
The ingredients are there for this to happen a lot. Actually,
maybe not exactly how it went down, but a person
in charge of something very important at this entity gets
caught up in a situation they shouldn't and before.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
Football coach gets involved with somebody who works in the
football department. Well, it has happened before that specific and
been public information. I bet you it's happened before and
not been public information. Oh yeah, I mean that's the
other thing about this. It's always the cover ups, always,
you know, worse than the crime. Whatever you say that,
the cover up's always worse than the lie. Whatever you

(01:28:50):
want to apply to this. How many sharone more.

Speaker 1 (01:28:55):
Type situations have been avoided as far as seeing the
light of day because one or ten things didn't go
the way this necessarily did. Somebody didn't talk, somebody hit
it better than they did, that kind of thing. I
think that's happened a whole lot, and which sure has. Yeah,
it's just it's kind of nasty.

Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
You think about, Well, it's it's now public information. And
who likes that. None of the people involved, None of
the people involved, and a lot of the people that
just like this kind of thing as far as drama goes. Whoever,
those people might be the TMC generation, not among that group. No,
but do you like, Hey, you don't want Cheron Moore

(01:29:37):
to coach the football team and when they lose games
you fire him, or when they don't win enough games
you fire him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
It doesn't have to be this the reason, but people
are out according to some people.

Speaker 3 (01:29:48):
Yeah, according to Adam Schefter, you're still mad about that. Well,
he just doesn't, I mean, he's It just makes no
sense that they allow this, honestly, ESPN. Yes, why are
you a asking this person who's so bad at it
to do this now?

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
When you say so bad at it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
Are you talking about his lack of knowledge about college football?

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
He is prepentive.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
These are stepping in it when he talks about anything
these days, or all of the above.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
I mean that party.

Speaker 3 (01:30:14):
He's done that more on the on Twitter than he
has on television. Sure, Like, I don't know what his
posts look like regarding the more story. I think they're more. Hey,
I was on TV talking about this check out this report,
and ESPN's going on and on. Oh, we're going to
give you the floor, so you can not tell us
anything except give your opinions on it, which really are bad.
Whether and again, he did at least acknowledge this could

(01:30:36):
be true or that could be true, and they both
could be true.

Speaker 2 (01:30:39):
We don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:30:39):
His side of the story doesn't mean it happened, doesn't
mean it didn't happen. People could be out to get him. Well,
he also could have been fired for cause with nobody
out to get him if this happened, which we all
believe it did at this point.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Certainly the university believes that it did.

Speaker 3 (01:30:53):
So Yeah, I mean, I can recognize some you know,
both sides of it, and some pause on where we're
going with all this. But he is I don't know.
I mean, I guess they think he's around the game
so much. I guess that he's qualified. Just yeah, the
football side of it. I could go on and on
and on, and they have eight billion people who know
more than him about football. Why are they asking for
his opinion on a three hour show. They got plenty

(01:31:15):
of people to fill the airtime with what's going on.
And it was even worse during college football season with
the release of the college football standings every week and
him being on shows when they would just end up talking.

Speaker 2 (01:31:25):
But just a waste of time. He doesn't know anything.

Speaker 1 (01:31:28):
Yeah, he's He does come off sometimes as more of
a we use this phrasing all the time talking head,
but talking head is a very generic term. I'm talking
about from the standpoint of, Okay, this is one of
our more prominent faces. Here's this subject that contains information

(01:31:50):
surrounding a sport that you cover, even if it's not
on the pro level.

Speaker 2 (01:31:55):
Here go talk about it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:57):
They've had three guys that have been an incredibly prominent
push them forward roles at ESPN, And maybe some people
would say others also, but I would say these three.
Adam Schefter, Adrian wilj Narowski and then obviously Adrian's replacement, Champs,
And if you follow their respective careers and what they know,

(01:32:17):
what they don't know, what they talk about, how they've
handled their business. I think Schams has been around the
game so much in trying to become the reporter that
he's now being put out there to be, which he's
absolutely deserving of. I think he has enough relationships with
the players, not just the people that give him information,
the agents and other members of the organizations. I think

(01:32:37):
he's around the game so much. I think he actually
does know basketball, but they still don't try to get
him to do that too often. It's more about do
you think this team would benefit from looking to move
this player and how might it fit? And that's about
as far as it goes, and it's still more about
the logistics of how to say, put a deal together.
I broke this news, Let's have him on and he'll
give the insight on what this is, an injury, a

(01:32:58):
health situation, whatever it is. And Adrian was very similar
to that, and he the more he was there, the
more they put him on TV. But he still didn't
talk more about what do you think about how the
Clippers are playing. Do you think it's a good fit
with Kawhi and Bradley and James. They didn't ask him
to do that because that's not what he knows at
breaking news. He knows breaking he breaks the news. He's

(01:33:21):
the news getter and schefter is at ESPN because that's
exactly what they hired him to do. He was a
local reporter who did a phenomenal job covering the Denver
Broncos and continue to expand his base around the league.
He earned the job. He's a perfect fit for what
they want. Did then and he's just evolved into something
that's He's an under ball too. He's an undesirable watch,

(01:33:45):
and both Adrian and Scham's have never become that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
You know, who else is an undesirable watch? Jacoby Brissett
at quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:33:55):
With a lot of teams that have said otherwise. He's
had a lot of homes.

Speaker 1 (01:33:59):
No, that's a lot of teams that have made them
their band aid that year they didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:34:04):
They are necessary parts of your football team if you
don't have a legitimate capable backup quarterback in this era
of NFL football, your host ask the Texans, ask the
Colts that well, that's a many.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
They just hired me and I'm forty four.

Speaker 3 (01:34:19):
They do have a k I think they have a
capable backup quarterback. He's just wearing protective eyewear because he
had an orbital injury. They're on their fourth string, Philip
Rivers' fourth string. Now he's going to elevate the third
string if he plays, but he's not second or first.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
They're on their thirdiest week. Yes, I do.

Speaker 3 (01:34:37):
I haven't seen reports from Indianapolis today, but I assume
he was still taking the reps in front of both
Riley and Brett, and if that were the case, then yeah,
I think they're lining him up to be the starter.
I think he's gonna be fine on certain plays. I
think he's gonna get hit so hard that he can't
believe he came back. And I think if they want
to throw the ball down the field, they're screwed. I
just don't think he's going to be able to do that.
And I think it's going to allow defenses the Seahawks

(01:34:59):
and the Texans, especially if he's out there against him,
to tailor their defense accordingly if need be that. I mean,
we can put a safety way back there and we
can chase guys, but he's the ball's never gonna get there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
He's never gonna make that.

Speaker 1 (01:35:12):
It's all fun and uncomfortable media laughter until he gets
hit again.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
Yeah, I don't wish that on him.

Speaker 3 (01:35:17):
But you were talking about Jacoby Brissett, and he's had stops.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
Again all over the league.

Speaker 3 (01:35:21):
He's been in Arizona, he's been in Cleveland, he's been
in Indianapolis. He's been a dolphin, and he has been
a Patriot. He's obviously currently with the Arizona Cardinals, and
he's going to end up starting more games this year
than Kyler Murray did, and he's going to produce much more.
Not going to produce any wins, but he's gonna produce
as a passer way more than they were experiencing on
Kyler Murray this year. And I think it's giving the

(01:35:43):
team a lot to think about. Not that Prissett should
be the answer, but should somebody else who can throw
the football in this way or lead our offense in
this way. Both who had to experience no running game.
They're on their fourth string or fifth string running back
because of all their injuries in the backfield. But Jacoby,
that is familiar to Houston fans and to the Texans organization.

(01:36:05):
He's exceptionally unfamiliar to the actual team that will be
on the field on Sunday at NRG Stadium. But for
those of you that want to create a narrative, I'll
go along with it here. Briefly, what did the Texans
played Pat Mahomes last week? Right? What was their record
against Pat Mahomes when he starts games one in four,

(01:36:26):
one and five, one and five flued the playoffs. Okay,
that's right now. There might be people telling you that
the Jacoby Brissett is eight and one against the Texans, like,
oh my god, he's eight and one against the Texans.
There might be people telling you that because if you
head on over to your favorite reference page for pro
football that would be Pro Football Reference, You're you're going

(01:36:46):
to see exactly that Jacoby Brisset let me check on
his career splits. Let me scroll down to there's already
a highlighted team Houston Texans. I must have looked at
this earlier. Nine games, eight wins, one law, nine games.
Holy cow dominates you. Kobe Prissett is eight and one
against the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:37:08):
No, he's not eight and one against the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:37:10):
This is less than one in enough with records of quarterbacks,
especially for a site that doesn't recognize whether you are
part of the win or if your cleats hit the
grass in between the white lines at some point during
the football game eight and one. Except I'm gonna take
one game out where he took one snap late in
the game, yep. Then I'm gonna take a second game

(01:37:32):
out where he took three snaps.

Speaker 2 (01:37:33):
At the end of the game.

Speaker 3 (01:37:34):
Then I'm gonna take a third game out where he
also took three snaps at the end of the game,
and then I'm gonna take all of them out because
Jakoby Brissett hasn't played the Texans in years, and he
certainly hasn't played him as a cardinal, and he certainly
hasn't played when daneil Hunter and Will Anderson Junior on
the other side. He's never been on his sideline looking
over at the Texans sideline when Demiko Rans was the
head coach of the Texans. So why would anybody care

(01:37:57):
what his history is against a team he's not even
remotely close to facing on Sunday. It's the historical stuff
that makes no sense. It has zero bearing. Jacoby Brissett
owns the Texans. No, he doesn't in any way, as
it pertains to Sunday, not in this amount, not in
this amount, no amount. It's a total non story. And

(01:38:20):
we've now covered it for four minutes this week, and
that's all we need.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
Man, what's up with that? And that wasn't even the
subject of what's up with that? But it does involve
another NFL quarterback and we will reveal that and you'll
hear from him next. You drafted Joe Burrow in our
fantasy league this year, did you not?

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
I sure did. How's that gone for you? I'm not
in the playoffs. I'm not either.

Speaker 1 (01:38:48):
But that's not the only reason why Joe Burrow is
injury prone.

Speaker 2 (01:38:55):
True or false? Uh, it's that fair. Given the injury
he's given the circumstances. Hasn't heard a lot. He is
a really.

Speaker 1 (01:39:05):
Interesting case because clearly the talent is there. This is
not and it's not I don't even look at it
as off. If he could just stay healthy and stay
on the field, because that the injuries have been catastrophic
non contact.

Speaker 2 (01:39:21):
I believe they just it's not your He's just.

Speaker 1 (01:39:25):
Had bad luck more than anything else, I think, and
when he's on the field, for the most part, they win,
provided you know, some other things go their way health wise.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
But I it's the sixth season as the starter, and
they now missed the playoffs for the fourth time in
six years.

Speaker 1 (01:39:43):
But they've also been to the super Bowl. That is correct,
crazy swing they played. They won multiple games in both
of his team's postseason visits, so conference title appearances both times.

Speaker 3 (01:39:57):
Yeah, one of them they won that. Yeah, that was
the minimum those two runs.

Speaker 1 (01:40:02):
He doesn't seem very happy in Cincinnati, and if you
don't believe me, listen to him.

Speaker 9 (01:40:08):
I want to keep doing this. I have to have
fun doing it. You know, I've been through a lot,
and if it's not fun, then what am I doing
it for? Mindset I'm trying to bring to the table.

Speaker 2 (01:40:21):
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but seemed frustrated.

Speaker 9 (01:40:25):
There's just a lot of things going on right now.
A lot of things going on.

Speaker 2 (01:40:28):
Right now, all related personally.

Speaker 3 (01:40:30):
I'll do both.

Speaker 9 (01:40:31):
Like you said, there's nothing. All we can do is
focus week to week, can try to try to win games.
I don't think anybody's really thinking about the playoffs right now.
That's that's within reach, but on our fingertips. So he's

(01:40:54):
gotta keep doing what we're doing and try to get better.

Speaker 3 (01:40:56):
Okay, if you're a Cincinnati Bengals fan right now, why
are you not jumping off roof? Well, there's no question
about the topic. We've talked about the most here over
the last three years. Please please come on, give him
a chance. Let's put some emphasis on positive offensive line talent.
Put an offensive line around CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:41:15):
Give this offense with Bobby Slowan previously with Nick Kayley
currently a better chance to show what they can do
with the proper protection and the Texans offensive line. Laughs
at how bad the Bengals offensive line has been.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
All of his time there.

Speaker 3 (01:41:31):
I don't know the exact numbers of their you know
who you want to listen to and whose numbers you
want to look at. But over the six years that
he's been a starter, I believe they would have graded
out as one of the five worst offensive lines all
six times, including this year.

Speaker 1 (01:41:45):
If he hadn't made that Super Bowl run. Is he
in the same boat as CJ?

Speaker 2 (01:41:51):
In that? Why aren't you playing better? Why aren't you
because he made that Super Bowl run?

Speaker 3 (01:41:56):
Because they had multiple postseason wins and went to back
to back conference time games in their back to back
postseason visits. That's why I can't always give these Well,
he's elite, then why can't he. I don't want Joe
burrowed who have to overcome it. But that's reality, and
in two of his three seasons to open up his career,
that's exactly what he did. He did overcome it. He

(01:42:18):
got them all the way to the Super Bowl. He
got him all the way to the AFC Title Game.
He also, unlike CJ has he definitely has one of
the three, four or five best receivers. And there's some
comps to be made between Nico and Jamar. I think
most people will take Jamar ahead of Nico, but they're
both in the elite category. Well, then he also has
t Higgins, who he lobbied for them to keep, and
he lobbied for them to pay both Higgins and Chase

(01:42:42):
when they were at an impass with their incredibly bad management.
Their owner lobbied for them to keep Trey Hendrickson, who's
now on IR for the rest of the year. None
of those players protect him. That mean the wide receivers
allow him to move the football. They have Chase Brown,
they have talent, they have players that they can work
with around a terrible offensive line, and he sounds, he

(01:43:04):
sounds really like this is beyond this. And I think
justin Jefferson in Minnesota said something similar about this. And
we actually laugh when we hear this from NBA players,
and we've heard it a couple of times. I've lost
my joy. Yeah, word for word, that's what Jimmy Butler
said a couple of years ago, and probably more than once,
but he said it before he got traded.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
At Golden State, John Moran said the same thing this year. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:43:28):
I My thing is the what's up with that stems
from It's not typical even if a quarterback or any
player really but highly prominent what have you. It's not
typical for them to actually voice it in this way,
you know, like it makes you wonder, what's the personal
that's going on. We know what the football is, we

(01:43:50):
can see that, but it's he's saying all the aboves.
So it's it's several factors on and off the field
going into him. That is bad body language for your leader.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
Yeah, their leader has led them to thirty one points
against Jacksonville in a win, then he got hurt, thirty
two points against Baltimore when he came back from being hurt,
and thirty four win points against Buffalo in defeat. They've
won all but one of his starts, and they're a
bad football team without him, very bad with both Jake
and Joe running the show Joe Flacco, but he doesn't.

(01:44:24):
He sounds like he's this is hopefully this is. I mean,
we want to see good players succeed with the good
players make the league fun. If there are personal things
holding him hostage, so to speak, then hopefully those get
worked out as well. But I think what he's saying
is just keep it simple, going out there and playing
the type of football that I just played or that
we just played, and all the work we put into it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:46):
It wasn't fun.

Speaker 1 (01:44:47):
Is he the next big name quarterback to be on
the move?

Speaker 3 (01:44:53):
I mean it's hard to move guys like that because
you know what you don't have when they leave. I mean,
if he went I you have to try trade me.
It makes it you know, you're kind of your hands
a little bit forced. But even still, like every team
in the league that doesn't have one of these elite
guys would be on the phone trying to figure out
what we can give you to go get him. It
would be I mean, we've seen a few quarterbacks that

(01:45:13):
are really, really talented get traded, not a lot, but
a few. This would be right there at the top
of the list.

Speaker 1 (01:45:19):
And the franchise tag factors in to try and make
him stay or you know, if it was a end
of contract situation.

Speaker 2 (01:45:27):
But I don't think.

Speaker 3 (01:45:28):
That's not a contractual thing. And then team doesn't really
have to worry. I don't think about what else they
need to do to make him happy.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
They have enough left on his he signed a five
year deal. What do we always talk about in these
situations too?

Speaker 1 (01:45:41):
He's got to go to a place where he's going
to be happier well in order to get him. If
you're trading for him, how much are you depleting what
awaits you in that new city.

Speaker 3 (01:45:53):
Yep, it's hard to do in the NFL specifically, for Okay,
look at the Cowboys for instance. They you know Micah
Parsons and the draft picks that go with it. Oh,
we got a first round pick for him, Awesome, you
got Green Bay's first round pick?

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
Whooped?

Speaker 3 (01:46:07):
He doo, you got a latest rounder, right, it's terrible.
And Joe Burrow's team, oh great, we have their first
round pick. He's going to the playoffs if he's not
playing in Cincinnati, right.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:46:17):
It's I just seeing this, and he went on to
say some other things. But that's just if I'm a
Bengals fan. I'm not liking that at all right now.
And it's it's got me gripping. I'm not gonna Lie's.
That's where I would be if I were since especially
in light of what we just got done talking about
he did. He took you to the super Bowl for
the first time since nineteen eighty nine. The Bengals were

(01:46:38):
in the Super Bowl and he was awesome. But things
aren't awesome in Cincinnati right now. Winding down the four
o'clock hour, coming back, we're gonna have a few more
of Kadi's thoughts on tonight's matchup with the Clippers.

Speaker 3 (01:46:51):
Just a quick by the way, I know we have
other things to discuss here. The five victories for Jacoby
Brissette against the Houston Texans, just a you were curious
beat coach Cully's team, Kobe Brissett did. That's very very
pertinent to the twenty twenty five Texans who are eight
and five and have won five straight and the three
and ten Cardinals who have not lost a couple of

(01:47:14):
times to Romeo. During the season, Bill O'Brien got fired,
very very pertinent to the twenty twenty five Cardinals led
by Jakoby Brissette split with Billy Oh. The year prior
to that, Billyo had the team at ten and six,
very impressive and if you recall one of the worst
seasons in Texans history, he was on the roster when

(01:47:35):
they went through deflate Gate and he was third string,
but James Garoppolo, who was second string, was only healthy
enough to play three of those four We can't let
Jaselle's husband play in these games, and he and the
Patriots beat the Texans twenty seven to nothing that evening.
Very important information for the upcoming game between the Texans

(01:47:57):
led by Dimico Ryans, Will Anderson Junior, CJ. Stroudt, et
cetera and the Bird Gang guys team led by Jacoby Brissett.
Keep that in mind when you get yourself ready, get
your ice cold, Coca Cola or bud Light, get your
popcorn buttered up heat it up, maybe a chocolate bar.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
I'm definitely having popcorn this or whatever it is you
like to do.

Speaker 3 (01:48:17):
When twelve o'clock hits and you're in your chair, your
preferred viewing spot or at the game, it's yourself. Texans
Cardinals noon on Sunday? Are you you're totally prepared for
what is ahead? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:48:28):
Are you going to eat a Homer Voodoo donut for me?

Speaker 3 (01:48:32):
I have never eaten a donut at a Texans game
since they have been offered. Why don't you do it
this Sunday and take a picture and send it to
all of us?

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
Consider it done? Yes, I cannot wait.

Speaker 1 (01:48:43):
By the way, speaking of past Texans seasons, you're mentioning
Jacoby Brissette with all of his wins against the Texans
just now on this day fourteen years ago, December eleventh,
twenty eleven, TJ. Yates, Kevin Walter, Marv Albert on the
call as the Texans clinched their first ever playoff berth

(01:49:03):
with a twenty to nineteen win over Joe Burrow's Cincinnati
Bengals twenty eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:49:08):
Yeah, well, how could certainly they went to the playoffs
before twenty eleven. They got started in two thousand and two. Right, No,
and obviously it was not it was Joe Burrow's franchise.
It wasn't yet. He was not exactly. He wasn't even
at Ohio State or LSU yet.

Speaker 1 (01:49:24):
Although he likes to play for Tiger's only related franchises
or teams.

Speaker 2 (01:49:29):
Yep, he was.

Speaker 3 (01:49:30):
He committed to the Ohio State Tigers, then he transferred
to the LSU Tigers, and now he's on the Cincinnati Tigers.

Speaker 2 (01:49:36):
Winning at the biggest level.

Speaker 3 (01:49:37):
I guess I should say, yeah, although he hasn't really
won at the biggest level, he's just gone to the
big he's one of the second biggest level. He won
the AFC. Yeah, well, on the pro side, he won
it all in college. So I mean, honestly, in our lifetime,
I don't think we've seen a better football outfit than
that LSU team in college football.

Speaker 2 (01:49:53):
Certainly none of the teams this year are see ed
Orgeron's quote about they got it easy today. They bring
the money in through the front door, slow it down
and twaying. It's just a touch and you have it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:07):
He was talking about how they used to have to
bring the money through the back door. Now they bring
it through the front door.

Speaker 2 (01:50:13):
I think times have changed. Why Nick Saban said I'm out?

Speaker 3 (01:50:17):
According to I didn't realize this was his actual full name.
It almost reminds you of a very important Miami vice actor,
Don Johnson. Not Don Johnson Collins. No, I'm doing what
you do. What's the person we're talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
What's his name?

Speaker 3 (01:50:33):
God, I can't remember the coach we're talking about. Oh,
ed Okay, So you've got two of the things all
set for you. If I told you his middle name
was James, his full name is Edward James or Geron?

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
Who are you thinking of Edward James? Almost okay, I
couldn't think of his name.

Speaker 3 (01:50:52):
Well, there you have it. Was he Crockett or Tubs.
He was not either one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:50:58):
You like that? Love that all right?

Speaker 1 (01:51:02):
Oh, we were gonna talk about Kevin Durant here, that's right.
So you're about to be on your way down to
Toyota Center. You are already on the record today is
saying the Clippers absolutely suck.

Speaker 2 (01:51:13):
Those were your words paraphrasing.

Speaker 1 (01:51:17):
And Kevin Durant was asked about this Clippers team that
he's going to face off against tonight. Oh, by the way,
Steven Adams and alpern Chinggoon are not going to be
shelved for this game. So close to full strength, or
at least as close to full strength as the Rockets
can be here in this season in which Fred van
Vliet has yet to play a minute of action with
the new look Rockets. But here's Kevin Durant on tonight's opponent.

Speaker 8 (01:51:41):
And Zu back. I mean, I feel like Bac play
like one of the best centers in the Lady too.
Their record doesn't indicate how good of a team they are.
I think that throughout a game, a game could slip
away from you a quarter or a couple possessions that
cost you a game. That isn't necessarily mean that's type
team you are. So we got our work cutout for us.

(01:52:03):
This team is looking to get back on the winning size,
so they're going to be desperate every possession, and a
desperate team usually comes out and plays extremely hard and
tough for physical So looking forward to the challenge.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
The player he was talking about, according to the Pronunciation Guide,
his last name is Zo dash b A h t s.

Speaker 2 (01:52:24):
It's Zubots, he said, Zubac.

Speaker 1 (01:52:27):
I love it and awesome, he also totally told you
you were number one based on what you said earlier
in the show, because their record.

Speaker 2 (01:52:35):
Doesn't indicate how I want to day the team.

Speaker 3 (01:52:37):
And I was playing them tonight and a microphone was
in my face, and men would say the same thing.
Right when the microphone goes away, and when I'm in
the locker room with Reed Shepherd, Jabari Smith Junior and
Tari Eason, I would say what WEX said.

Speaker 2 (01:52:52):
These guys app solute lace suck. That's what you said
about the Clippers. You paraphrased it for a second time.
That's how the Rock would say it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:00):
As I mentioned earlier, the Clippers bolted out of the
NBA gates this year, a three and two mark. John
Hollinger was so happy after wins over New Orleans, a
week Portland and Phoenix, a three and two outfit. Well,
then they lost six in a row and subsequently have
had a three game losing streak, a five game losing streak,
and after their loss tonight, another three game losing streak,

(01:53:22):
all while only winning three times. Started three and two
have since gone three and six years.

Speaker 1 (01:53:28):
You remember when the Suns were in town last week
or a month ago, whenever It was the Rockets last
played a home game, and I was like, they're gonna
kick them by about thirty tonight. And then Shingoon was
out with his mystery illness the first of two games
he missed, and I was like, all right, I'll take
it down to twenty. And then they were stupid and
lost by eighteen, so I couldn't come in and pass.

Speaker 3 (01:53:49):
They did have a three point lead and they ultimately
didn't win by that much. Phoenix is a very different
team than they're like what I said about uh, I said,
somebody plays, Oh, the Mavericks. Phoenix plays their butts off.
Phoenix try like they was the big last night, their
big man that played so hard they missed him Mark Williams. Yes,
and he makes a big difference. But they're they're gonna

(01:54:11):
need they need bodies in order to keep this up.
But fourteen and eleven for Phoenix in their first twenty
five games compared to either six and nineteen or seven
and eighteen for the Clippers after tonight in their first
twenty five, When you look at who's been healthy and
playing for those two teams, it's it's pretty awful.

Speaker 1 (01:54:26):
The Rockets are gonna win by about forty tonight. You
ready for it? I you and Matt Tons making the
O in the fourth quarter. I wouldn't say that's not
gonna happen, But I.

Speaker 2 (01:54:38):
Don't think not on account of the scoreboard. I don't.
I don't think we're there. It's quite that bad.

Speaker 3 (01:54:42):
Harden'll be over on the bench, He'll be starting to
put on his fat suit.

Speaker 2 (01:54:45):
Kawhi will probably leave.

Speaker 3 (01:54:47):
Uncle Dennis will come drive onto the floor and take
him out of the game, and the Rockets win by forty. Well,
Rockets would like to, you know, get something, going two
and two in their last four. Just came out of
five games in seven days. Couldn't have been happy with
how they played in Utah the second day. Definitely not
happy about the way they played against the Mavericks. They
still have practice time ahead of them. They practiced this week,

(01:55:08):
saw Albi at practice earlier this week looks very good.

Speaker 2 (01:55:11):
Tat's Alby.

Speaker 3 (01:55:12):
He did not say that, although we hear him say
that a lot. Saw Dorian Finney Smith at practice, and
everything still points to him hopefully ready to return in
January at the latest. But he certainly looked pretty good
to me. Him and Tari with the January target return dates.
You've got a target date with Toyota Center. We've gotten
another hour to go here. It is a Thursday edition
of the program.

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
Football at five is next Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network. It's Football at five on a Thursday
edition of the program. And it's interesting as we get
into the final stretch of the twenty twenty five NFL season,
right there's a lot of subplots.

Speaker 2 (01:55:53):
There's a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:55:55):
You know, teams jockeying for position, the Texans right in
the middle of that obvius teams falling out. Potentially we're
all I think we meaning the NFL fans outside of
the Kansas City market and people who don't root for
Kansas City around the rest of the country. Everybody is
basically waiting until it's official. Like, I don't think it

(01:56:16):
was funny after the way the Texans beat the Chief
Sunday night. The fallout is always glorious when your team
wins a game like that, especially against an opponent like that. Right,
But one of my favorite things was that was floating
around on social was when did you stop liking Pat Mahomes?

(01:56:37):
Did anybody else see this? Because people and for the
most part. People had two leaders in the clubhouse as
their answer to that question. One was the most prominent.
One was when he was whining about the offensive lining
up in the neutral zone. I think it was the
call between the Chiefs in Buffalo, and he thought it

(01:57:00):
cost them the game. Never mind all the other things
that happened in that game in which Josh Allen finally
got a win against you, and then he goes to
the middle of the field to shake hands with Josh
Allen and the cameras pick him up saying, Oh, it's
completely bus call and he's whining about it, and people
are just like, yeah, that right there is when he
just came off like a total cry baby to me

(01:57:20):
if his team doesn't get all the breaks from the officials.
And that was the moment right there where I was
no longer a Patrick Mahomes fan. Then there was like
the lesser, lesser prominent leader in the clubhouse, which is
where somebody took the clip of him on the sidelines
where he's saying I'm here, like I'm here, I'm not
going anywhere. He's saying it, but they have overdubbed the

(01:57:42):
audio with Kermit the Frog, so he's like I'm here,
I'm here.

Speaker 2 (01:57:46):
Yeah, that was a leader in the clubhouse as well.

Speaker 1 (01:57:49):
So that was a fun part of the fallout from
Sunday Night's big win at Kansas City.

Speaker 2 (01:57:56):
But again, even if you're.

Speaker 1 (01:57:58):
Not anti Mahome, there's a lot of things that were
circulating around Mahomes's persona, so to speak, before you could
actually talk about football as to reasons why you might
not care for him. Hello, his brother and his wife
weren't exact. They weren't exactly non obnoxious members of his

(01:58:20):
inner circle that we were subjected to time and time again,
long before Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift became nauseating for
anybody who's not a Chiefs diehard, we had Britney and
Jackson I think was his name, Jackson doing the TikTok
dances on the sideline. Who is it the player that

(01:58:41):
they were in Washington. They were trying to do like
a like a remembrance of Sean Taylor maybe, and he
was doing his his TikTok dance on top of the
logo that was painted on the field that had been
fenced off, just a total like delta Bravo move. And
then Brittany you know, pouring outlcohol all over fans and
the cold from inside her suite, you know, just things

(01:59:04):
like that. And then you get to the actual football
side of things, and the Chiefs start getting a bunch
of officiating calls go their way, and you know, winners
typically do become the evil Empire. Astros fans dealt with this,
especially after the scandal. That sort of thing can happen
over time, but it's gone to the point now where
they look like they're at least, if not the dynasty

(01:59:26):
not being over, they're at least at the end of
this run. You know, Travis Kelcey is not going to
be a marquee player again in the NFL, and he's
certainly not going to help the Chiefs do anything of
consequence moving forward in all likelihood. Like I said earlier
in the show, this guy's playing his final four games
of his career, and you know, he's not exactly the

(01:59:47):
most likable character either. So there's a lot of people
who aren't big Chiefs fans that are probably fine with that,
and so it's been fun to watch that come out
over the last handful of days following the Texans. It's
not just that I mean, Rashi Rice couldn't pick a
better guy to lay out with a perfectly legal I
might add, hit by Jalen Petrie than a guy who

(02:00:09):
did what he did this past offseason, served a suspension
for it, and while he was suspended for oh, by
the way, driving over one hundred miles an hour, causing
an accident on a Dallas freeway and then legit literally
running away from the accident.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
You talk about a hit and run.

Speaker 1 (02:00:25):
Then his teammates are wearing free Rashi Rice t shirts
at training camp.

Speaker 2 (02:00:30):
Just disgusting.

Speaker 1 (02:00:31):
So when he got laid out on Sunday night, all
of America cheered, I think. Anyway, all of that is
to say, it is fascinating to see what we were
talking about last segment with Joe Burrow happening to one
of the marquee quarterbacks in the league. You're looking at
a situation where Josh Allen will probably well, he'll be

(02:00:55):
part of the playoff picture. But Lamar Jackson, now, Patrick Mahomes, No,
Joe Burrow, No, these are all the teams, These are
all the names that we would constantly put ahead of C. J.
Stroud in the preseason, at least on your list of quarterbacks. Now,
Justin Herbert I have fun with that. He's always, you know,

(02:01:15):
ahead of c J. Stroud on whatever list, and I've
I've been wanting to monitor the situation moving forward all
season long, and it's looking like that game between those
two quarterbacks could go a long way towards determining, you know,
maybe where you put these guys.

Speaker 2 (02:01:30):
I think CJ's gotten a bad rap this year.

Speaker 1 (02:01:32):
I think Justin Herbert's probably gotten a little bit too
much love, and that's just how it's been his whole career.
For a guy who has never won a playoff game,
CJ's got two under his belt.

Speaker 2 (02:01:41):
But I digress.

Speaker 1 (02:01:44):
Joe Burrow's comments that we played for you last segment
and how he seems unhappy. The reaction to that from
his other most prominent teammate might get your attention.

Speaker 2 (02:01:58):
Listen to how Jamar Chase reacts to.

Speaker 1 (02:02:02):
First of all being told about it and just being
I guess, basically being made aware of the fact that
there are some in the media that don't think that
Joe Burrow is necessarily happy in Cincinnati, and you're hearing
this in real time at a press conferences as Jamar

(02:02:24):
Chase gives his thoughts on Joe Burrow's comments yesterday, I
thought this.

Speaker 10 (02:02:33):
Is an AI I'm not does this really happen though?

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
That's real today? Yeah, well, it depends on what you see.

Speaker 10 (02:02:40):
I don't really know nothing about it at the end
of the day, you know what I'm saying. That's something
something that we're not I mean, but I've seen a
little bit from the TV walking outside from practice and
then like I turned my eyes, But I don't know
nothing about it. At the end of the day. I
see him the same every day. To me, he loves football,
you know what I'm saying. But that's a him question.

(02:03:00):
I can't answer that for him, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (02:03:03):
Your perspective, I'm not trying.

Speaker 10 (02:03:04):
To I don't know from what I see. I see
the same person every day. You know, he comes to work.
He loves work, you know what I'm saying. So, I mean,
he don't look like he's bumped to be here, you know,
But that's the same every day.

Speaker 6 (02:03:15):
I think when after the Baltimore game, you know, you
asked us like, did you think he was emotional?

Speaker 2 (02:03:19):
Because we asked.

Speaker 6 (02:03:19):
You, and you know, it seems like this has kind
of really hit him a little bit differently than all
the other time. Now after seeing him for the last
few weeks, what do you think?

Speaker 10 (02:03:28):
Hmmm, y'all know, y'all be really putting y'all be putting
some clues together, or I swear honestly, nothing's wrong with
the little emotion at the end of the day, especially
coming back from injury. The man, the man loves the game.
I think he loves the game from what I what
I've learned from him. Also at the end of the day,

(02:03:48):
you know what I'm saying. So I can't really say
what he feels at the end of the day. But
from what I see, man, he seems the same every day,
comes to work, ready to play, comes to practice the same.
Guys all, he helps me every day.

Speaker 2 (02:04:02):
You know.

Speaker 10 (02:04:02):
It's it's no negativity in the building from him.

Speaker 6 (02:04:05):
So when you when is Joe's ever at his happiest
You've played with him for so many years, When is
he in his like his best mood?

Speaker 10 (02:04:13):
Oh, I can't tell. I can't tell, if I be honest.
He smiles every day. Like like the narrative that y'all
trying to paint on him right now, I don't see it,
you know, what I'm saying. At the end of the day,
he's the same person every day he comes to work.
He loves work, he loves the guys in the locker room,
so he's pretty positive.

Speaker 3 (02:04:32):
To me.

Speaker 2 (02:04:32):
There's no ritors.

Speaker 6 (02:04:33):
We'll just ask some questions just for the.

Speaker 2 (02:04:35):
A little bit of nerratus.

Speaker 1 (02:04:36):
Okay, that is utterly fascinating to me for a couple
of reasons. First of all, you're hearing in real time. Okay,
this is not a clip sound by this, That's why
I played it in long form. You're hearing in real
time either the number one or one a receiver in

(02:04:56):
the NFL that you know, no offense to Jackson Smith
than Jigba, but for the most part, for the last
several years, it's been Jamar Chase justin Jefferson. You can
determine who you think is the best on any given Sunday. Basically,
you're hearing one of those guys in real time being
asked about the mood of his quarterback. And it's not

(02:05:18):
just his quarterback, it's this particular quarterback, which I think
is key for a couple of reasons.

Speaker 2 (02:05:23):
It's the other thing that's fascinating about.

Speaker 1 (02:05:24):
This, Joe Burrow and his demeanor are part of the
Joe Burrow aura, the Joe Burrow mystique, the Joe Burrow.
You know what you think of when you even think
of Joe Burrow. It's not just the football. It's the
guy that was, you know, chilling in the locker room

(02:05:44):
after LSU, you know, won the national championship, and just
the way he carries himself. My wife is obsessed with
Joe Burrow, and let me tell you about what percentage
has to do with his football acumen zero. She's in
love with him and feels free to tell me about
it anytime his name comes up.

Speaker 2 (02:06:05):
Joe Burrow is like the closest.

Speaker 1 (02:06:07):
Thing to Joe Montana we've had in quite some time
from an aura standpoint, simply from how he carries himself.
You can talk about the you know, the statistics and
the success and the lack thereof, and the injuries and
all that.

Speaker 2 (02:06:19):
I get all that.

Speaker 1 (02:06:21):
You're hearing Jamar Chase Legit squirm on live camera as
media members are pressing him. What's this guy's mood like?
Does he seem like he doesn't love football anymore? Does
he seem like he's not happy in Cincinnati and he's
having to carefully wrestle with all this because guess what,

(02:06:42):
whatever he says, these same people are gonna run to
Joe Burrow, put it out there in the media, on
social media, in print, wherever they can. And if he
says the wrong thing, he's screwed about something that it
sounds like he's not even all too sure about, because
that's why he brings up the narra it is at
the end. This is to me, this is the most

(02:07:03):
fascinating part about any anything in sports these days. I
don't even think the media was trying to get a
gotcha moment, but that's what it kind of became. And
you were hearing Jamar Chase struggle with that in real time.
Speaking of struggling, there's a former MVP quarterback that's really
struggling with Philip Rivers signing with the Colts, and you're

(02:07:25):
gonna hear from him next.

Speaker 2 (02:07:26):
Indy Space City Home Network wex.

Speaker 1 (02:07:28):
In routes to Toyota Center Rockets and Clippers tonight before
they head back out on the road, because of course,
basically they're never going to play at home until the
calendar flips to twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (02:07:39):
Then you're gonna get sick of them.

Speaker 1 (02:07:41):
No, it's it's just kind of a quirk in the
schedule this year. And once again, it's not just the
fact that they're always on the road. They're about to
play like all upside the West Coast on Christmas Week.
It's gonna be just NonStop up to and including that
game in Los Angeles against the Lakers on Christmas Night.

Speaker 2 (02:08:00):
We will have that for you here on our iHeart Empire.

Speaker 1 (02:08:04):
I'm actually not sure right now that's gonna be on
Sports Talk seven ninety or News Radio seven forty KRH.
I tend to think it'll be on seven ninety, but
we shall see. But yeah, Rockets basketball back in action
finally tonight with the Clippers in town, and we'll here.
We'll have more on that before the end of the hour.
I was talking about the Philip Rivers signing. There's a

(02:08:26):
lot of people that they're gonna have problems with that
simply because it's Philip Rivers. So before you get into
any sort of subplots about who or what, you know,
the the Colts decided to do at the quarterback position.
Number one, they're completely and utterly desperate. I mean, you're

(02:08:48):
talking about essentially, the fourth string quarterback who just got
signed away from coaching high school football is your starting quarterback.
He's making jokes about how heavy he is and the
fact that he's forty four and he's slow and he
was never fast even when he was in shape when
he retired four years ago. Like, all this stuff is happening,

(02:09:09):
and then you're factoring into the fact that Daniel Jones
was one of the I guess, if you want to
put it that way, feel good stories of the NFL season.
And he gets hurt on one leg, then gets hurt
permanently for the season on the other leg, and he's
out and that led to all this, and then his
backup gets hurt in the very same game.

Speaker 2 (02:09:29):
That's what's led to all this.

Speaker 1 (02:09:30):
Oh and by the way, Anthony Richardson, who you took
in the top ten of the draft the same year
as CJ. Stroud, is also hurt on the ir because
of a banned incident in which he fractured his orbital bone.
You can't make this stuff up. So the fact that
they're even having to get to Philip Rivers is a
story in and of itself.

Speaker 2 (02:09:51):
But then.

Speaker 1 (02:09:53):
You know the fact that that was their option, and
that's not going over well with some other guys out
there who are are going out of their way to
not only talk about this, but also talk about the
fact that they're not retired.

Speaker 2 (02:10:10):
Of course, I'm talking about Cam Newton. Now.

Speaker 1 (02:10:12):
Cam Newton has a very very large media presence these days,
in his non playing days, but apparently according to him,
he has never actually officially retired. And if you follow
him on Snapchat, you will see how much work he
is still putting in, which makes you fast forward to
this situation and makes him specifically fast forward to this

(02:10:35):
situation like why aren't you signing me?

Speaker 2 (02:10:38):
Why aren't you giving me a call?

Speaker 1 (02:10:40):
I'm specifically staying in shape for this kind of scenario.
Here it is, and you're nowhere to be found with
the phone call to me. Now, I do think that,
as it pertains to Philip Rivers specifically, the reason he
was called has as much to do with the fact that,
as WEX mentioned yesterday, familiarity with the last team he
played for, right, familiarity with the coaching staff, familiator, familiarity

(02:11:02):
with that playbook, everything that comes with Philip Rivers regardless
of his age. You're not gonna get with Cam because
he was never there. But there's worse points that Cam
Newton has made. I'm just saying, and there's probably worse
options out there than Cam Newton if you're in a
desperate situation like the uh like the Colts are right

(02:11:26):
now'd be fascinating to see what if Philip Rivers plays
this weekend and he gets hurt? I mean, God forbid,
but that's not even the most outlandish thing to say,
given the fact that he is fresh off a high
school football field and not in shape. You mean to
tell me that that couldn't happen to him as he
faces off against current and much younger NFL defenders trying

(02:11:48):
to get to him. So and by the way, Texans
are the final game on that schedule, so who knows.
Maybe Cam Newton will wind up a cult like he
wants to. Apparently, by the time all of this said
and done, he was going off on his podcast Fourth
and One. He was going off about this, among other things.
Of course, he's never had any shortage of opinions. Here's

(02:12:11):
the other thing that's crazy about the NFL. Right now,
did anybody notice that TJ. Watt is just randomly in
the hospital right now with what they are referring to
as quote lung discomfort. Well, apparently it's the Steelers' medical
staff that may have done this, and what they may
have accidentally done is punctured his lung. So they're playing

(02:12:38):
the Dolphins on Monday night, and they're probably gonna be
without TJ.

Speaker 2 (02:12:42):
Watt.

Speaker 1 (02:12:44):
They're seven and six, They've got a one game lead
over the Ravens, who have their own problems and namely
the fact that the Steelers just beat them a week ago.

Speaker 2 (02:12:54):
But suddenly they're gonna.

Speaker 1 (02:12:56):
Have to face off against the Dolphins team that is
out of nowhere, won four straight games of their own,
and not have their best pass rusher. I just and
this is why. So a team spokesperson revealed that TJ.
Watt was in a local hospital on Thursday for further
evaluation after experiencing discomfort in his lung at the team's

(02:13:20):
practice facility Wednesday. Now, I'm not a medical expert, but
I'm pretty sure you just don't randomly start experiencing discomfort
in your lungs for no good reason, especially at the
practice facility. Is the u This is what Mike Tomlin,
the Steelers head coach, had to say, quote, he was
experiencing some discomfort when he was at the facility yesterday,

(02:13:43):
and so we took him to the docks and they're
going through some procedures. He stayed overnight in the hospital.
He has a lung situation that's being addressed. I think
he has some testing and so forth ahead of him
this afternoon. That's all we know at this juncture.

Speaker 2 (02:13:57):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:13:57):
That's what Mike Tomlin said following to day's practice. Then
man of the Hour Adam Schefter, when he wasn't whining
about nobody listening to Sharon Moore's side of the story
with that scandal, said in his report that TJ.

Speaker 2 (02:14:13):
Watt suffered a lung injury during.

Speaker 1 (02:14:16):
Treatment at the team facility and has been hospitalized since then.
The Schefter and the Steelers frankly didn't reveal the specifics
of the injury. But what is going on here? Apparently
this happened kind of similarly back in twenty twenty, when
Tyrod Taylor suffered a punctured lung while receiving a painkilling

(02:14:39):
injection to his ribs from a Chargers team doctor, after
which he later sued the Chargers for five million in damages.
Although the outcome of that case was never made public,
and their doctor still serves as a team's physician. So
obviously the Chargers weren't scared away too much. But this,

(02:14:59):
you know, this makes me think think of this makes
me think of Now, this wasn't necessarily a team sanctioned situation.
I don't actually remember the specifics. Remember when Carlos Korea
had a broken rib getting a massage and we were
all like, wait, what he was getting a massage? That's
how he broke his rib? What kind of messuse is

(02:15:21):
he using? This is what that reminds me of. And
I mean, this is a big deal. Like, they've led
the division for most of the year, albeit a terrible division.
We just got done talking about the Bengals problems. Obviously,
the Ravens have not been good all season long and
have been injured on.

Speaker 2 (02:15:40):
Top of that.

Speaker 1 (02:15:41):
It's just been a topsy turvy year in the AFC North.
And now the Steelers are dealing with the fact that
basically their best defensive player, one of their best defensive players,
possibly has a punctured lung at the hands of a
team physician. There's ways to get that, and I don't
know if this was an injection situation the way it was.

Speaker 2 (02:16:03):
With Tyrod Taylor.

Speaker 1 (02:16:04):
But that's probably not like everybody's dealing with injuries this
time of year. Probably not the way you want to
have that go down, especially for a guy like TJ Watt,
and especially in a season like this. I'll give the
Steelers credit. I don't know how they're doing it. It's
been very ugly at times, but who's to say they're
not going to win that division. I just it's uncanny

(02:16:28):
to me that Mike Tomlin finds a way to find
a way so much. They have no business being where
they are, especially with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Now, he's
had his moments this year, but he's also had moments
where you're like, oh, probably start investing in that position
a little bit more heavily than you have been. Like
maybe Mason Rudolph and Aaron Rodgers aren't the best idea now,

(02:16:50):
but in fact that they're potentially going to be without
JJ Watt because he's got a punctured lung and it's
because of their medical staff, yikes, it's just shades of
you know what this is why a lot of people
were like, I don't know what's happening, but something has
to change with the Astro's medical staff. You can't have

(02:17:11):
a season like the Astros just had and nobody comes
out of it unscathed from a medical standpoint, whether it's
the injuries themselves, or whether it's being put back into
action long before you should, or a little bit of both.

Speaker 2 (02:17:28):
I think that was at play a little bit too.

Speaker 1 (02:17:30):
I think a lot of people were just at least
asking some serious questions about the Astros medical staff. Anyway,
high stakes game, professional sports. In case you didn't know it, Hey,
speaking of in case, in case you missed it, That
is straight ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:17:44):
The ad on Sports Talk seven nine Thursday edition of
In Case You missed It, And for that we go
to the one and only Josh Jordan.

Speaker 2 (02:17:53):
What's going on?

Speaker 11 (02:17:54):
I thought it'd be interesting we could take a quick
look here at the Texans injury report. One of my
big concerns is Kamari Lassiter, and I'm kind of thinking
if Marvin Harrison Junior doesn't play, I think I'd be
okay with maybe the Texans given Lassiter the week off.

Speaker 2 (02:18:11):
What do you think about that?

Speaker 1 (02:18:11):
I like the I like the way you're thinking there.
If but see you're gonna do what play play a
game of chicken. I mean, you don't if you know
for sure, if it's it's trending that way. And of
course the Friday practice always is.

Speaker 3 (02:18:27):
Kind of like the the sealed the deal usually with
things like this, like last week we were talking about
Lassiter and then all of a sudden he was out
there off to the side, and then all I did
was make like one of the biggest plays in the
game at the end to seal it.

Speaker 2 (02:18:41):
But I wouldn't hate that scenario at all.

Speaker 1 (02:18:44):
If if Marvin Harrison Junior is not a threat, you
like your defense. As is with giving Kamari Lassiter some time,
I'm okay with that also too.

Speaker 11 (02:18:55):
If that does happen, then Michael Wilson that they're big
threat who's been awesome. I think you put on him
and dare them to throw that direction. Yeah, that's that's
how i'd approach it. Of Course, I don't know the
how severe what Lassiter's dealing with. None of us really do,
so we'll see how it progresses through the week. You
guys talked about a little earlier what he marks got
in a limited practice. He's got a great matchup against

(02:19:17):
the Cardinals. If he's ready to go, he could go bananas.
The Rams guys last week their running backs ate them alive,
so that could be a huge game for him. And
Nick Chubb did not participate, so I don't know that
rib injury that might keep him out as well. Texans
all of a sudden, little thinnt running back right that game.

Speaker 3 (02:19:35):
I mean, I know, I know it was at night.
I know it was in Kansas City. With the twenty
degree temperatures and all.

Speaker 1 (02:19:40):
It looked like everything hurts so much more out there.
It's just there's just no substitute for actual, cold, grinded
out football. It's awesome to watch, and it sucks if
you're taking part in it.

Speaker 2 (02:19:56):
That's and that. I mean these injuries you're.

Speaker 1 (02:19:58):
Talking about, especially the running back, Like look at the
hit that Woody Marx took as he was getting that
first down. The reason Dario and Goombalale was in the
game is because he had to clear the cobwebs did
Woody Marx? And I don't think the cold had a
small part to do with that either. The hits like that,
they're just they just mean more like the sec the

(02:20:22):
temperatures are in the twenties one.

Speaker 11 (02:20:23):
Hundred percent, and Woody Mark's fantasy owners just freaked out.

Speaker 2 (02:20:26):
Oh yeah, come on, yeah, that's that's that's a low
blow right there. But you know what, same with Dalton
Schultz fantasy owners, if there are any.

Speaker 11 (02:20:34):
Yeah, he's actually got a lot of catches, not a
lot of touchdowns. Let's jump over MLB for a second here.
We're seeing that Bob Nightingale giving out some predictions, and
what he believes is going to happen is that we
know the Mets they lost pet Alonzo.

Speaker 2 (02:20:49):
He signed a big deal. You and WEX talked about
it yesterday.

Speaker 11 (02:20:53):
Nightingale's predicting, and of course the Mets have all the
money in the world. He thinks they trade for Christian
Walker now that all pet Alan's is no longer an option.

Speaker 2 (02:21:01):
I like the sound of that.

Speaker 1 (02:21:02):
What do you think, Well, so you're talking about a
team that does have an endless bank account. You're talking
about the player who is not garnering more of the
trade interest of the two that are part of why
your infield is crowded, and you're essentially talking about not
having to pay that money like you would in basically

(02:21:24):
every other scenario at least, that's what I'm assuming they're
thinking here, and and it makes sense since Pete Alonzo
is no longer there. He went to the Orioles, So
I I mean, if the Mets want to play ball,
so to speak, on something like this, and Jim Crank
can get out from the majority of that, what is

(02:21:46):
he eighty million that he's still no sixty?

Speaker 11 (02:21:49):
It was a sixty total, so forties left on them,
So forties left, That's right.

Speaker 1 (02:21:52):
I'm in my mind, I'm thinking about Alex Bregman's deal
and how he left what was it eighty on the table.

Speaker 2 (02:21:58):
I was reading about that earlier in that me all
crossed up here.

Speaker 1 (02:22:01):
But yeah, I'm not opposed to that if I mean,
I would rather keep Esach Pretis than Christian Walker obviously.
Now it's gonna really make me mad if he goes
to New York and just mashes like he should have
last year for the Astros. But one thing you couldn't
get upset about is he was one of the few
guys that was stayed relatively healthy for most of the
one hundred and sixty two game campaign, and you could

(02:22:24):
say that about basically nobody else last year on the
astros roster.

Speaker 11 (02:22:28):
Yeah, and it's interesting that as much of a letdown
as that signing was for the totality of the season,
in the second half of the season, Walker was actually
better than Korea and Altuva. Now that's not saying a
lot those guys struggled towards the end of the year.
But the other thing too is perettis, how significant is
this hamstring injury?

Speaker 2 (02:22:45):
Like, we really don't know.

Speaker 11 (02:22:47):
And then we come back to the Astro's medical staff, right,
do we try medical staff?

Speaker 2 (02:22:53):
Yeah? So I would actually like to see it with Walker.

Speaker 11 (02:22:57):
Getting moved and he's kind of similar to a lawn
though power hitting. Right now you've hitter, It makes a
lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (02:23:03):
Yeah, Look, I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:23:06):
As far as the hamstring, I don't worry about that
because it feels like it's it's gonna be.

Speaker 2 (02:23:13):
From what everything that's been said.

Speaker 1 (02:23:15):
He still looks like he'd be good to go for
the start of the season, right, there's no setbacks from
that standpoint, correct?

Speaker 11 (02:23:21):
Do they said they expect jord On and Peretis to
be good to go when the season starts.

Speaker 1 (02:23:25):
Like, that's what I want to be hearing here in
December as we're a couple of months away from spring training,
and that was your most consistent at the end of
the day hitter last year. You know, we're due for
a healthy yord on season, we seem to alternate. So
just having those two in the lineup every day, which

(02:23:45):
you didn't have for large chunks of this last season,
there is something to be said for the Astros just
being better by default next year because they're healthy. But
you take that and you put it with a rotation
that has some question marks.

Speaker 2 (02:24:02):
It's not a sure thing.

Speaker 1 (02:24:03):
By the way, speaking of did you see where, who
is it that reported that Scott Boris is trying to
start engaging the Mariners in discussions for Alex Bregman.

Speaker 2 (02:24:13):
Oh Man, I.

Speaker 1 (02:24:13):
Don't need that. Nobody here needs that in their life.
And if the Mariners were smart, that's exactly what they
would do. He would be a tremendous upgrade. He would
give you that locker room presence, that clubhouse presence that
you don't have right now. I really really hate the
sound of that scenario, Like Seattle's going to skyrocket to

(02:24:38):
the top of my sports hate list if they sign
Alex Bregman.

Speaker 2 (02:24:42):
Just go back to Boston where I can.

Speaker 1 (02:24:44):
Marginally hate where you play, and don't you know and
beat each other up in the Al East Like it's
looking like it's going to be even more of a
slaughterfest this year with what they're doing in fromber joining
the Frey in Baltimore. Don't I don't need him coming
back to the division. Nobody needs that.

Speaker 11 (02:24:59):
No, this might make you and other Astros fans upset too.
We heard Chandler Rome's report red Sox have interest in
Estoch Perettis. How would you feel if you lose Bregmant
and then Peretis so the Boston Red Sox and you
could see us Anario where Peretis is playing first base,
you got Bregmant at third and the Green Monster for
a pool hitter like Perettis, it makes all the sense

(02:25:19):
in the world. While the Red Sox won him, I
just as an Astros fan, I don't want to see him.

Speaker 1 (02:25:23):
Well you're getting You're having to willingly send him to
what you would consider an obstacle to getting back to
where you want to be making a deep playoff run
in the American League.

Speaker 2 (02:25:34):
Why would you do that? What are you getting in
return that's making it worth that?

Speaker 1 (02:25:38):
And I just don't know of anything that Boston is
willing to send back Houston's way that would make it
worth that. So hopefully cooler heads prevailed. All right, I guess,
I guess yeah, I guess we're I wasn't looking at
the clock there. That's on me, Josh. We'll leave it
at that. We'll get to that last item. Perhaps we
were debating whether or not we want to talk about.

(02:25:59):
Plus something very very exciting for me personally this holiday
season that I want to get to when we come back.
Final segment of a Thursday edition of the eighteen Sportstock
seven to ninety. I got, Josh Jordan, I got swindled
on social media. I got all excited because I thought

(02:26:19):
something was real and it's not, and it's made me sad.

Speaker 2 (02:26:23):
You know, when you see something that you think is
going to be.

Speaker 1 (02:26:27):
Just like the greatest thing ever, which, by the way,
if it's too late now, because these types of things
take so much planning, but if this particular fast food
restaurant actually were to ever do this, it might be
the first time since childhood that I would sign up
to go get happy.

Speaker 2 (02:26:45):
Meals if you know what I'm talking about, and collect
all of the characters.

Speaker 1 (02:26:52):
It was fake, but they should absolutely do this, and
it doesn't have to just be them. Any of the
fast food restaurants that have themed kids meals should absolutely
give away. I believe it was like for nine to
ninety five. So like for ten bucks apiece, you get
the you get the kids meal, and you get to
collect all of the different characters, plus the van and

(02:27:13):
the house from Home alone. So you would have Marv, Harry,
Kevin McAllister, the van, you know, the plumber van or
whatever that they were they were riding around in yeah,
in the house, and you'd be able to collect all
of those That is pretty cool, the slippery bandits or
something like that, the webband web and then they became
the sticky Bandits in the sequel.

Speaker 3 (02:27:34):
Oh, that's right, because he was going around taking change
out of the Salvation Army coin collectors.

Speaker 2 (02:27:40):
What a terra.

Speaker 3 (02:27:41):
Just a just a foul individual that Marv was, and
Harry for that matter.

Speaker 2 (02:27:47):
But alas it was fake, so I got duped. I was.

Speaker 1 (02:27:50):
I was all like excited about it happens to the
best of it. I don't mean like I am one
of those people. This time of year, I've got to
watch Home alone. I've got to watch Home alone. Two,
I've got to watch Diehard sometimes I gotta watch Diehard too.
And the other night, the missus and I watch Goodfellas,
which is another classic Christmas movie.

Speaker 11 (02:28:07):
Fantastic it is. We always have the debate if Diehard's
a Christmas movie. And I think I told you this
the other day. My wife makes her case every year
that the point of the movie is to save Holly. Yeah,
her name's Holly, so of course that's what she latches on.

Speaker 1 (02:28:21):
Well you know what I got? Sent this, Anthony Dojer.
I'm calling you out. He sent me this the other
night in my Facebook inbox of all things. It was
a clip of Bruce Willis at his roast on Comedy
Central a few years back, looking into the camera and
saying that Diehard's not a Christmas movie. And that's fine.

(02:28:44):
The star of the movie can be wrong. It's happened before.
I mean, movie stars are wrong all the time. I
happen to like Bruce. I hate the fact that he
is in very rapidly declining health. And let's face it, Josh,
you don't know this yet. I should probably just announce
this on the air. The day that Bruce Willis is
no longer with us, probably going to be.

Speaker 2 (02:29:03):
A grieving day for me. I'm not even kidding. I
might not come in. I get it.

Speaker 11 (02:29:08):
We don't have movie stars like that anymore. And I
heard the guy that wrote Diehard interviewed about it, and
he's the one that wrote it, so he would know
a lot of times these guys set these movies on
Christmas because there's more money to be made when they
come in reruns, and every year they start watching them again,
so there is kind of a secret behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (02:29:27):
Well, and then, like Ross and I always get into
this argument. He goes, it was released in July. It's
a summer blockbuster. I'm like, so.

Speaker 1 (02:29:34):
Miracle on thirty fourth Street was released in the middle
of the summer. Nobody argues that that's Christmas movie. I mean,
he saves the day at a Christmas party on Christmas Eve.
Just because it happened in Los Angeles and he's wearing
a tank top and pants and no shoes or socks,
doesn't mean it's not happening in a blizzard.

Speaker 2 (02:29:54):
Doesn't mean that it's not a Christmas movie. Well, you
said you just watched the second one again?

Speaker 11 (02:29:58):
Does that one? I remember the snow Does that one
also take place at Christmas time? Yes, they are in
d C, right at the airport. Yeah, so they're they're
in the airport. Sipowitz is prominently featured in that movie.
Before he was sipowits talking about Dennis Franz. He didn't
have to see his butt this time.

Speaker 2 (02:30:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:30:17):
Yeah, he wasn't interrogating anybody and trying to get a
scale to roll over on his buddy, so he didn't
have to show his butt. Now he's in that movie,
and oh gosh, who plays his brother. That's the cop
that's writing Bruce willis the the parking ticket in the
opening scene.

Speaker 2 (02:30:32):
Yeah, he's one of those that guys. You see him
as much of that guy character actor.

Speaker 3 (02:30:36):
I believe that. So that movie came out in like
nineteen ninety. I believe who played the T one thousand
and in Terminator two? Robert Patrick was that his name?

Speaker 2 (02:30:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (02:30:46):
He was also in These we Frandos right, Yes, but
I believe Robert Patrick was one of the terrorists in
the in the crew of the second.

Speaker 2 (02:30:54):
Movie, he was.

Speaker 11 (02:30:55):
I think he was one of the guys with the
guns that were in all the white when they were
when they're painting.

Speaker 2 (02:30:59):
When they're painting exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:31:01):
Yeah, he's got he was on because the uh, what's
the little thing called the automatic walking thing? I don't
know what it's called in the airport, but yeah, he
was there waiting at the end of it for Bruce Willis.
Plus you see him in the opening scene when they're
all coordinating their leaving of their hotel rooms after we
got a very unwanted scene of hot yoga from the
General in the beginning of the movie.

Speaker 2 (02:31:21):
I don't need that. It's like shirtless ta tie with
Patrick swayzen Road. There was nothing. He wasn't wearing a
stitch of clothing.

Speaker 1 (02:31:27):
I'm like, I don't need this, man, I'm here to
watch Diehard anyway, Enough about that. Yeah, So Rockets and
uh and Clippers tonight, Katie going up against James Harden.
I don't I feel like James. And again, I'm doing
this with no numbers in front of me because that's
how I roll and it's exact opposite of how my
co host rolls. But I feel like James Harden has

(02:31:50):
not at least come to Toyota Center and gone off
against the Rockets. He might have had some effective games
but I feel like both his performance and the Rockets record,
even during the lean years, at times they were able
to get wins over James Harden after he was traded away.
But I you know, even if that's not the case

(02:32:11):
and I'm completely wrong, which I'm very sure I could be,
I mean, there's a fifty to fifty chance I am.
I'm feeling pretty confident about the Rockets resuming their schedule
tonight with a dub. I just I think they're more
whole again from a health standpoint. I think it's absolute
nightmare to go up against this team rebounding the ball

(02:32:32):
when a Steven Adams and Alprin Shingoon, not to mention
Clint Capella are available. Jabari is having the best season
of his career, quietly, I might add, And Kevin Durant
is Kevin Durant. I mean, I just think that the
Rockets should take care of business tonight, and then you
start looking ahead to some difficult action with those games
against the Denver Nuggets, which weren't on the schedule, not

(02:32:55):
all of them anyways, at the beginning of this year,
and like they're all in Denver, them going from Denver
to New Orleans and back to Denver again, which by
the way, includes altitude in those two Denver games. I
think that gets maybe a little bit overplayed in the NBA,
but not really. It's so much harder to run up
and down a ninety four foot hardwood floor in an

(02:33:17):
NBA game in that altitude than it is to do
it in spurts when you're playing, say at mile high Field.
So just putting that out there, that should be an
interesting game tonight, at least from a star power standpoint.
Plus the fact that Chris Paul thing he's still on
the roster, he's just not with the team. It's essentially

(02:33:37):
like Vernon Maxwell in the playoffs in ninety five with
the Rockets. It's not like they traded him, it's not
like they could do anything with him, but he was
just sent home. And that's what's going on right now
with Chris Paul. By the way, supposedly the Timberwolves and
the Rockets potentially interested in Chris Paul. Don't mess up
a good thing. You don't need to do that. Rockets

(02:33:58):
don't need to do that. Anyway, We will leave it
at that for a Thursday edition of the program. Like
we said, Rockets launch pad and then Rockets countdown right
around the corner as we get you ready for Rockets v.
Clippers live from Toyota Center. You will have MT on
the call alongside WEX, and obviously we'll react to that
and a whole lot more tomorrow when we get back

(02:34:19):
in here for the final show of the week, getting
you ready for Texans and Cardinals and anything else that
comes about. Have a great rest of your Thursday, everyone,
Rockets basketball

Speaker 2 (02:34:29):
Next the at on Sports Talk seven ninety