Texas Softball Dominates, NBA Playoffs Shake Up, & Brock Purdy's Big Payday “Morning Kickoff Show"

Welcome to "The Morning Kickoff Show" with Mike "Hardball" Hardge & "The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry. Today, the guys talk about Texas softball dominating the College World Series regional round.  The Texas baseball team is getting ready for the SEC tournament. Scottie Scheffler does Scottie Scheffler-type things. NBA Playoffs as the Knicks send the Celtics packing and the Thunder roll the Nuggets. Brock Purdy gets paid, and who's the odds favorite is to win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year? The NHL went down to the final four teams as the Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in game seven to face the Carolina Hurricane, and the Dallas Stars got ready for the Edmonton Oilers. Also, "The World's Strongest Take!" Plus, the guys talk to Austin Gamblers CEO JJ Gottsch. You can hear it all here on "The Morning Kickoff Show!"

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for tuning in to the podcast of The
Morning Kickoff with myself, Mike Carboll Harts and the world's
Strongest man in WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Guys, we really would like it if you would advertise
with us, because we only go as far as you
let us.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right, Folks, tune in and make sure you tell
five friends to tell five friends. The Morning Kickoff seven
to nine am Monday through Friday, right here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Good Morning, Austin, k Town, Flugerville, Htown,
Paarlan Leander and Seals be Texas or wherever you may

(00:37):
be listening. This is a Longhorns Monday edition of The
Morning Kickoff right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. Texas Softball advances to the Super Regionals as
the Aggies fall at home. Also, they will get the
Clemson Tigers at home. Texas baseball finished this the regular

(01:00):
season on a high note. JJ Gotch of the Austin
Gamblers will join us at seven point thirty four to
talk about a movie premiere and about the PBR Draft. Also,
Game sevens go to the Young Guns and the Old Heads.
I am your host, Mike Harball Hart, my co host,

(01:21):
is a WWE Hall of Famer and recognized as the
world's strongest man. He is d Mark Henry, Good Morning Austin,
and our guy Marcus is behind the boards. And if
you want to be a part of the show, all
you gotta do is text the word Texas follow by
your message to eight one five three zero. Standard data
and message rates may apply. That's the word Texas followed

(01:42):
by your message to eight one five three zero. Standard
data and message rates may apply. Also, we're gonna give
you a chance to win a pair of tickets to
go see Guess Who Judas Priest and Alice Cooper. And
all you got to do is use that talkback feature
on the new and improved iHeartRadio app. Will give you

(02:02):
a keyword, you leave it and you might be the
one who wins those tickets. Well, let's get into it.
You know, last week we were talking about softball and
baseball and what has been going on on the forty
acres and we said, well, it's a good day to
be a longhorn. Well, those are the types of things

(02:23):
that continue to happen as the Texas softball team wins
the Super Regionals and now I mean, I mean wins
the regionals and now advances to the Super Regionals. And
they have done an unbelievable job when you sit back
and you think about what Mike White and his crew
has been able to do. We've had the conversation with

(02:45):
Mike White on Thursday and he talked about his team
and everything that has gone on with his team. All
they did was go out there and handle their business.
They clinched their sixth straight and tenth overall advancement to
the Super Regionals with a nine to nothing victory over UCF.

(03:09):
People were looking at this game and trying to figure
out if Texas was gonna play UCF as they continue
to roll through their competition, and they did it. They
beat Eastern Illinois on Friday ten to two, they beat
Michigan sixteen to four, and then they came back and
beat UCF nine to zero. And they continue to roll

(03:33):
on and Mike White talked about how his team performed.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Oh yeah, it's big. I mean, we always talk about
wanting to score first and kind of put them away
early to just get some momentum on our side.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
This game is about momentum and we have some momentum
right now. We just got to keep it and just
keep attacking. I mean, you know it's gonna go home,
so you know you don't want to be their team.
It's going to play your oss game here on this field.
We're gonna play a loss games, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oka. See that's where that's our goal. And that's the
beautiful part about this is you start to look at
how this is set up. As you said, you get
your your first goal is to get a regional. Your
second goal is to get the super Regional. Third goal
is to get to OKAC and win the whole dog
gone thing in Texas. You know, the last time people

(04:22):
saw Texas softball going into this weekend, they got run
ruled by the number one team in the land, number
one overall, Texas A and M fourteen to two in
the SEC tournament. And everybody thought the sky was falling.
And we we If you play the game, you understand, no,
it's not falling. Because we get another opportunity to go

(04:45):
back out there and play. It wasn't the end of
the season. As he said, this winner go home. Now,
I got a question for you. Sure, where's Texas A
and M? They are on the way to kan't kon
they going together. They're going to Yeah, they get to
go a little bit closer. Yeah, because they ended up

(05:05):
losing to Liberty last night in epic fashion, they became
Texas A and M became the first number one overall
seed in the tournament since two thousand and five when
it was created. When the seedings were created, they become
the first team to be eliminated. But I'm not going
to beat up on you, Aggie's It's not about you.

(05:27):
I am. I want to highlight what Texas has been
able to do. And they've done it on the mound
and they got a chance to do it at the
play and some of their big hitters continue to show
up and they talked about it.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Oh yeah, it's big. I mean we always talk about
when in the Lake's score first and kind of put
them away early to just get some momentum on our side.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
This game is about momentum, and we have some momentum
right now.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
We just could.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Oh yeah, it's big. I mean we always talk about
when in the Lake's score. Yeah, I think we've been
tied for home runs, so there are like weeks now.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
At the beginning of season.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
It kind of was like back and forth a little bit,
and then she got ahead of me, and then I
kind of had a few there. So every time I
hit one, she's like, now I gotta hit one.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
We got to stay tied. Now.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
It's just like it seriously does happen If she hits one,
then I hit one.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
And that's the beautiful thing when they go up to
the plate, those girls understand that I got a chance
to hit a home run. You got a chance to
get a home run. It's like Oprah, everybody get a
home run. Everybody gets a home run. Ooh, that's how

(06:40):
you gotta make it happen.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
They hit We had a little ghosts in the matrix
right there, mister ghost fingers.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Against against Michigan. Against Michigan when they won sixteen to four,
Hryese Atwood hit a home run, Katie Stewart hit a
home run, Jolie Mitchell hit a home run, Leanne Good
hit a home run, and Katie Bennett. And that was
what it's all about. When you start to look at

(07:07):
these games and your team continues to find ways to
get victories and you do it in no, Henry didn't here,
but good, good, good, thought though, I like the way
you think about it, but you you start to look
at these teams and you say, Okay, what's next for
each squad? Well, Texas now advances they will be hosting

(07:29):
starting Thursday. All games will be at eight pm Thursday night.
Starting Thursday night against Clemson. Clemson advances to the Super
Regional after a five to one victory over Kentucky. We'll
have more of those conversations later in the week. We'll
try to get Mike White back on with us. Obviously

(07:51):
we're gonna talk baseball in the next segment. But Texas
athletics continues continues to do some major and I know
a lot of people, don't you know, they get tired
of listening about the University of Texas.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Sports Radio if you don't want to hear about sports,
because that's what we gonna talk about.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
And our guy, John Bianco, the sports information director over
at the University of Texas, he posted this for Texas Sports.
Texas Baseball wins the SEC Championship. This was all over
the weekend. Texas Baseball wins the the SEC Championship. Texas
men's tennis advanced to the NCAA Final Four. Texas softball

(08:36):
runs through the Austin Regional and now we're onto the
Super regionals. Texas track and field cross country three sec
individual titles, and then Texas women's golf is looking to
advance to match play at the NCAA tournament. So they

(08:56):
have done an unbelievable job at the un University of
getting this thing rolling. And my question to you, Mark,
and it's it's not as you say, like you like
to say grand standing. Has this become the best year
for University of Texas athletics? Wow? The best year? I mean, well,

(09:21):
I take that back. I'll take it back. It couldn't
be because it's got to be national championships all the
way around, right like in two thousand and five, Texas basketball,
I mean, Texas football wins the national championship. Texas baseball
wins the national championship as well. So those are some special,
special years. But as a whole, when you look at

(09:42):
the swimming and diving, you look at tennis, you look
Crystal Conti has put together one of the greatest, one
of the greatest assembly of coaches around, and he continues
to do They continue to do the things that they
need to do to win and now, obviously the players

(10:02):
have to be the right type of players. But you
look at it, it's amazing when you sit back and
you think about what's going on on the forty acres
And I'm not trying to blow this whole thing up,
but the reality of the conversation is this, This is
a great, great year in a time to be a
long haord Mark.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
I'm sitting here thinking to myself, if Texas wins baseball,
Texas wins softball, definitely, hands down is the best ever
because that's the most imminent things right now. But one

(10:44):
or the other, I think Texas still can be considered
the greatest. This is the greatest year with the consistency
and the overall we just got to get basketball back
in the top running.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
If they if baseball and softball, or even just one
of them winning champions one of them, would you consider
them the school dominating.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
I definitely would consider it dominating, especially either one would
make it a dominating season. Yeah, this is.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
This dude right here, he got me.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
He set that up. He set that up so perfect.
I'm like, where's he going with this? Oh? That was good,
that's really really good. But yeah, you start to look
at this and you understand that the program the programs
are are headed in the right directions. When you start
looking at the recruiting, you start looking at the performance

(11:50):
on the field and how things are being viewed. Texas
has done an unbelievable job so far, but the job's
not done. There's still a journey out there. And speaking
the journey that is out there, we continue on the
Long Horns Monday edition of The Morning Kickoff. Coming up next,
we talked baseball as they finished the season on a

(12:11):
high note, and we'll talk about it right here on
the Morning Kickoff on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Welcome back to a Long Horns Monday edition of the
Morning Kickoff right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. Mike Harballhars and the world's Strongest Man in
WWE Hall of Famer d Mark Henry. And of course

(12:31):
we've got our guy Marcus Marcus behind the boards. And
coming up in the next segment, we'll be talking to
the CEO of the Austin Gamblers, Jj Gotch as he
comes on to talk about the Gamblers. There's a new
movie that is coming out. Remember they did a prime
video show a couple of years ago. That was pretty

(12:53):
dog gone cool, and I want to make sure that
he gets a chance to tell you everything that's happening
with the Austin Gamblers. But right now, let's talk about
the number one ranked in the SEC, Texas baseball team
as they get ready for the SEC Tournament. But how
do you get ready for the tournament? You finish the

(13:14):
season off in epic fashion by having their best record
in the fifteen years, best record in the last fifteen
years for the Texas Longhorns, as they finished the regular
season forty two and eleven. They are the number one
seed in the SEC Tournament coming up. They won't play

(13:38):
until Thursday, but I definitely wanted to give a shout
out for them because it was the Longhorns first Red
River Rivalries win of the series. That's right, I said,
will why will we? And Seced play? They finished it
off on Saturday after a long, long delay. But Luke

(13:58):
Harrison was awesome on the mound, top six strong innings
as they won nine to one in the matchup, and
coach Slasnagel, in his first season, did an unbelievable job
and he talked about this at the end of that game, it's.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
Time for a postgame conversation down on the field. The
head coach, Jim Slasnagle, let's go downstairs to keep skipper.
One of the things that I watched as you see
of a really guy that's got good stuff that your
team just kept battling and Luke was just awesome throughout
the game.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, Luke did a nice job.

Speaker 7 (14:30):
And I mean Witherspoon another Witherspoon was incredible and we
had to pitch with him and and then you know,
we got some good swings at the end of the game.
But Oklahoma's got a heck of a pitching staff man.
They smother you.

Speaker 6 (14:43):
The other part of that is I loved what you
did there at the end. Thomas Spurns really gave you
something today. I mean, he's been really good, but he
gave you three full and that's hard to do.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
He did.

Speaker 7 (14:55):
If he, you know, could do some other things for
us in the in the you know, postseason, or maybe
even take a look at it in the conference tournament.
I certainly got a chance to be a you know,
maybe maybe can be a starting pitcher. I don't know
about this year, but at some point in his career
would be awesome.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's what he was last year.

Speaker 7 (15:10):
Now stuff's ticked up, we'll see, but he's he's super
valuable in that role.

Speaker 6 (15:14):
How do you analyze you look back, you you already
were the champions, You've you've look at it. Now you
won twenty two games in conference play and you go
into a tournament. It's it's a different environment going into
this single elimination because you've never I've never.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Been involved in any single inimination tournament.

Speaker 7 (15:27):
Yes, first for everybody, I tell you, it's a great experience.
You know, we're not going to go down We don't
play to win Thursday, right, so we're not going to
go down to a Wednesday. But I'm kind of kicking
myself for I'd like for our team just to be
around it because it really is a it's a mini Omaha.
Get treated so well. The fans are amazing. I'm just
hoping that the fans come, you know. That's that's that
was the scary thing when we came up with that bracket,

(15:50):
is how is it going to affect the fans, especially
people far away, with the potential that you only play
one game. But it's an awesome experienced, great ballpark. You know,
all the all the media and everything that.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Goes with it.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
It's really good preparation for postseason.

Speaker 6 (16:02):
Oh thank you from us for doing everything and all
these interviews after the.

Speaker 7 (16:05):
Game, coaching you got any buddy, it sure it's fun
to do them after we win.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
That's right, Yeah, that is true. I mean you start
to look at the baseball season and as a whole.
You start looking at every game and the aspect of
every game, and you try to understand that baseball is
a journey and for what Texas was able to do
and the ability to find a way to get Dubs

(16:30):
when the Dubs aren't going to be easy to get.
You start to think about some of the guys that
have stepped up and the ability to lead their team.
And the one thing that I continue to look at
is the way that coach was able to piece a
lot of these things together.

Speaker 8 (16:47):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
You start looking at the injuries that they had at
the very beginning of the season. You got a brand
new pitching staff, I mean a brand new staff that
comes in. You get some holdovers from the previous staff
as far as players, Then you get transfer portal guys.
You lose one of your top your Friday Night guy
and you fill it in and you find a way

(17:09):
to win these series and you start to look I mean,
going into the season, we talked about the SEC as
a whole and how difficult it was going to be.
You start the season off, you sweep at Mississippi State.
You win two out of three against LSU, who was
the number two team at the time. Then you go

(17:30):
to Missouri and you sweep the Missouri Tigers. You find
out they weren't very good, but you still sweep the
Georgia Bulldogs. As they come to UFCU, you go on
the road. You win the series, but you lose a
game that Saturday against Kentucky, but you win another series.
You sweep that then team the number eight Auburn Tigers.

(17:52):
You sweep Texas A and M. You lose three in
a row. You lose a three game loser streak to Arkansas,
but then you come back. You lose that series against Florida,
and then you finish the series against Oklahoma by winning
it to get yourself back into it. You still win
the SEC. You're the number one seed in the SEC.

(18:15):
The SEC tournament starts tomorrow, but you don't play until Thursday.
Because you are the number one team in the conference.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
You know what, and you're not gonna rest in just
that amount of days. You know, it's okay to have
a couple of days off. You need the rest, Yeah,
you need the rest. You need to let the well
fill up, as doctor Todd used to say, let the
well fill up. And I think that that's an essential
thing for what you know, Texas success and coach Slopsenegle

(18:46):
manipulated his schedule with his pitching to fit what's going
to be best for the team going forward for the tournament.
So I have no doubt whatsoever and what they're doing
over there, cous slasigas got.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
This under control.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Just stand out the way and let the man do
his thing.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
So the funny thing about the SEC tournament is all
sixteen teams get in. All sixteen teams get in, So
if you're finishing one through four, you get a double
by as I said, The tournament starts tomorrow nine thirty
in the morning. Missouri number sixteen team will take on
the number nine team Alabama, the number thirteen followed by

(19:27):
the number thirteen team Kentucky taking on the number twelve
team Oklahoma. Game three is South Carolina and Florida, and
Game four is Texas A and m versus Mississippi State.
Then if you're the top eight seeds, you have won
by so you have Tennessee is the number eight seed.

(19:48):
They will take on the winner of Missouri and Alabama.
But here's the deal. The winner of that game will
take on Tennessee, and the winner of that game, we'll
take on Texas.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
There's no such thing as a gimme, but there is
the cream of the crop. And if you take those
four top four teams and you let the start at the.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Teams beneath them and let them mash each other up,
and then you come in two games later, it kind
of bounces out. Now you're playing the middle of the
field to up where the top is well. And then
also too, if those guys that are at the end,
they have to win, they have to those others. Texas

(20:34):
doesn't have to win this, they're already in. They're already
in the tournament at the end of the year. So
some of these other teams they have to go out
and play well so they can get themselves in a
good seed when they get ready to get into the Turnam.
Because if you look at the top eight of these
they will all be in. It's those other guys that

(20:56):
are trying to upset the Apple car like a Texas
A and M who's the season as the number one
team in the land. Now they're the number fourteen team
in the SEC, so they need to go on a
run for themselves to even have a chance to get
into the NCAA tournament. So that is why when you
try to look at the balance and where it all

(21:18):
takes place, this is the time for all of that
to start to happen. So it'll be fun to see
how it all plays out. Baseball, this is the fun
time of it because you get your regionals, you get
your Super Regionals, and then the next one is Omaha.
So after this weekend we'll start to see how the
regionals and super regionals will start to line out. I'm

(21:41):
excited about it, to say the least. Coming up next,
we're gonna have our guy JJ Gotch talking all things
Austin Gamblers right here on the Morning Kickoff on sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred. Design Welcome back to the morning
Kickoff right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred. The
zone this time is it's special because there's so much

(22:05):
that is going on in Austin, Texas, and I have
become a huge, huge fan of the PVR thanks to
this young gentleman, JJ Gotch, the CEO of the Austin Gamblers,
and of course my guy g man Mike Gaffney have
got me immersed into the PVR and JJ, I want

(22:27):
to get right into it. You guys have done an
unbelievable job throughout the years and your inauguration into PVR,
you have changed the landscape of it all. So kudos
to you guys. But you guys find a way to
get it done on those bulls. And just recently you've
had a guy Jose Vitor le May, who has been

(22:48):
a world champion before, but you sent me something today
about the amount of money that he has won in
the last couple of weeks. He's truly made.

Speaker 9 (23:00):
And I've said this before, but after watching the last
ten days, you think of people like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods,
Tom Brady, and you got to put Jose's name in there.
Jose Vi tor Leme is I used to say, arguably
the greatest bull rider of all time, but it's not
even an argument anymore after what you just saw he was.

(23:22):
It was hurt most of the season, was out for
over a month. He was ranked always lowest thirty. First
came back, got healthy, and then these last two weeks
he had to be perfect in the most in the
biggest stage with the brightest lights, two weeks of the
PBR World Finals, finishing at Cowboys Stadium, at and T

(23:43):
packed House, and he goes eight for eight wins, one
point eight million dollars in ten days and becomes the
richest Western sports athlete in history. Has now run over
eight million dollars. It's it was just truly amazing to see.
You know, we've all been in sports our entire life,
and he's gotten a se performances and you see these
guys when the lights are the brightest, when the pressure

(24:04):
is the greatest, and that's when they really shine, and
that's Jose and it's just it's amazing. You know, he's
our team captain during the team season, but to see
him on the individual level and to see his greatness.
If you're into sports, and it doesn't matter if it's
Roger Federer and tennis when he was out on his height,
or if it's Lewis Hamilton as an f one racer
to know that you're watching one of the greatest of

(24:26):
all time.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
It's just it's awesome.

Speaker 8 (24:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
And you know, as I've said before, and I try
to tell people every chance that I get, if you've
never gone to a PBR event, make the time to
do it. Wherever you live, wherever you're listening at. Obviously
we want you to go to the Austin Gamblers because
they're right here at the Moody Center. But it is

(24:49):
one of the most intense things that I have ever
been around in my life. Because what people truly don't understand.
They see the bucking bull, but you guys call those
bulls athletes. But the way that these gentlemen have to
be able to be in that kind of shape to
be able to ride those bulls is something that I've

(25:10):
never seen before in my life.

Speaker 9 (25:13):
No, it's it's a controlled it's a controlled car wreck
every eight seconds, and these guys and and the entertainment
experience from a fan level, it's and I know I
know your boy Mark is there as well, but it's
like a WWE event meets a rock concert meets a
rodeo and uh, but it's it's just it's an amazing
adrenaline field experience and to watch these guys exactly right right.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Hey, Mark, real quick.

Speaker 9 (25:40):
Glad to be part of the family.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Now.

Speaker 9 (25:42):
I think everybody knows, but if for those that don't,
PBR has become a part of tk O Holdings, which
is UFC and WWE, and so PBR is now the
third leg of that stool. And we're excited to be
a part of that. But uh, but no, it's it's
it's an amazing event. And for those that haven't seen it,
it's you know, these are the greatest bull riders in
the world.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's what PBR is.

Speaker 9 (26:03):
You know, Rodeo has been around for you know, a
couple of hundred years, and PBR broke off thirty two
thirty four years ago, and they took the best bull
riders in the world and the best bulls, and that's
what it is. And you know, when you're going to
a PBR gut, you are literally watching the best in
the world at their craft.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
So you can't just jump on the toughest, meanest bull
in the world. So when the guys start a season,
do they start the season with you know, the thirtieth
ranked bull and then work their way to number one
or do they have to be seated in order to
reach the bull that's the most you know dangerous.

Speaker 9 (26:41):
Well, it's it's a little bit like you know, either
minor league baseball or like basketball's got the G League.
You know, there's a couple different levels of PBR, and
you know, when a guy gets started, he comes out
of high school or fresh out of college, or it
comes over from zeil and they're trying to get used
to the speed and pace and the power of these bulls.

(27:02):
There's like a second level called the Velocity Tour where
these guys go to kind of you know, figure out
one can they do it? Do they have the chops
to do it? But then once you get to the
PBR and you get to the premier level, uh, in
the individual season or you're on one of our teams,
you know you're facing these bulls mark every week. Uh,
you're facing the toughest bulls every week.

Speaker 10 (27:23):
And so you know, once you get up there, it's
like you know, you're facing you know, like baseball, like.

Speaker 9 (27:30):
Your you're facing one run once every five days.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Now you may be facing you know, the fifth starter,
but you're still.

Speaker 9 (27:35):
Putting in good But yeah, so once you get up there,
there's the training days over. Uh, you got to bring it.
And that's the other thing is it's you know, in
other sports, the worst thing that can happen is you
can lose, right, that's the worst thing that happened in
bull riding, you can lose, you can win and still die.
And these guys they can hold on phrase seconds, which

(27:57):
is a qualified ride.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
But still you got to get off.

Speaker 9 (28:00):
The balls safely and get out of the arena. And
so that's the other part that the about this guys
is not just the athletic ability to be able to
do it, but to have the mind and the focus
to go to the block out everything else to be
able to ride and they get off.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Successfully and get out of the arena.

Speaker 10 (28:15):
So that's it's not quite okay, well it's it's it's
it's it's half athletic skill, but just have to focus
that these guys have to have and maintain that courage
and block out all those things that could go wrong
to be able to do their job.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
It's it's truly amazing. We're talking to JJ Gott, CEO
of the Austin Gamblers, and JJ, you got a couple
of events that are coming up uh here in the
next couple of days, starting with a movie premiere that's
going on tonight.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Yeah, so not the ride.

Speaker 10 (28:47):
Uh it's Neil mcdonna's film.

Speaker 9 (28:50):
It's coming out actually this weekend Memorial Day when it's launching,
So that's what we're kind of celebrating.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Now he's come on as an investor.

Speaker 9 (28:57):
A rented the big datis Mark I like, is that
everybody in the Western sports world. It's probably on I
thirty five, a little hungover from last night driving down
from Calboy Stadium. But they're gonna be rolled.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
They're all gonna be rolling into.

Speaker 9 (29:11):
Austin today and then tomorrow night we're hosting the twenty
twenty five PBR Draft and it's gonna be at acl
Live Moody Theater. And the reason we're hosting it there
is because, as you know, we're in Austin, we're the
live music capital of the world. So not only we're
gonna have a quick draft where we're gonna meet the
next jose A v. Tore lem in the next future
stars the PBR, but we're gonna have a concert full

(29:32):
concert from Shane Smith and the Saints. So right after
the Draft. It's gonna be a short three round draft
full concert from Shane Smith and the Saints. It's going
on ACL Live Moody Theater Downtown tomorrow night. Doors are
at six thirty, show starts at seven.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
So make sure that y'all get over and check that out.
We'll put some more information up tonight and tomorrow to
let you know where to get the tickets and try
to come over there and hang out. I will definitely
be in the house tomorrow night. JJ, and I always
as always talking to you man. We appreciate you, brother Investor,
luve to you.

Speaker 9 (30:09):
Man.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Mike Mark appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Boys.

Speaker 9 (30:11):
Have a great week, all.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Right, phone thirty five. Make sure you be careful out there.
All right there he is JJ Gotch of the Austin
Gamblers right now. I want you to leave. The keyword bent.
Bent is the keyword. On AM thirteen hundred The Zone
for a chance to win Alice Cooper and Judas priest
tickets for October to twenty fifth at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater.

(30:35):
We'll be back to close out hour number one right
here on the morning kickoff on Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Great stuff from JJ Gotch, the CEO
of the Austin Gamblers. We are just around the corner
from the Austin Gamblers getting their season started, but first
they have to have that draft and I can't wait
to be a part of that. I wanted to bring

(30:57):
this up because I don't think we truly understand well
golfers do, but I mean, the average public doesn't really
understand how good former Texas Longhorn Scotty Scheffler truly is.
There was a story that was floating around just recently
about the fact that Scotty Scheffler, who is one of

(31:18):
the best to play golf right now, had to get
rid of his clubs. PGA made him get rid of
his driver. They saw that his driver was illegal, started
pulling the ball quite a bit, new driver and all
this great stuff. But when you're great at what you do,
you find a way to get it done. And that's
exactly what Scotty Scheffler was able to do. With the

(31:41):
PGA Championship. He went on an epic run and he's
the sports top star that has claimed last six majors,
last six majors, with many victories coming in dramatic fashion,
and all he ever does is go out there and
play to his best. Jonathan Vegas, former Texas Longhorn, was

(32:04):
leading into the weekend. He ends up finishing fifth and
got a good little payday there. But Scotty Scheffler is
somebody that he runs away from the pack. He becomes
Tiger Woods. Yes, he becomes Tiger Woods esque. And you know,
everybody in sports we were talking about who's the face

(32:27):
of the NBA, Who's the face of the NFL, Who's
going to be the face of Major League Baseball? I
think former Texas Longhorn, Scotty Scheffler has now become that face.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Well, all you gotta do is turn the TV on,
right when they talk golf, that's one of the first,
if not the first name you hear. Yes, they talk
about drama would live, They talk about this and that.
His name is always at the top.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
And don't forget he did some hard time. He did
some hard time, hard hard Birmingham kind. He got my
man up out of there and he came back and
all he does is continue to win. It's impressive. He
finishes the PGA Championship at minus eleven, wins three point
four to two million dollars in the process. He wins

(33:19):
the match by five strokes, which is one of the
largest separators out there.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
As an enemy.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, as I said, Jonathan Vegas, former Texas Longhorn finishes
fifth at minus five. And he led for a few days,
had some luck on his side, but he came out
and played consistently. And again, you look at what Scottie
Scheffler has been able to do throughout his career. You

(33:47):
look at where he is as a professional golfer, and
he continues to put up ridiculous numbers.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Ridiculous if you're if you're a golfer and you're looking
for a college, Texas should be at the top of
your list. You got people, I mean, you go through
the list. Yeah, there's so many men and women, no doubt.
I mean, if i'm that would be my Texas would
be at the top of my list if I was

(34:16):
a championship high school golfer.

Speaker 8 (34:18):
One.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
The other part of it is you you you to
your point. You have to be pretty good to come here. Yeah,
I mean you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
I bet there, I bet there is a bunch of
really good I gotta find out I need to who
do we talk to?

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah? I mean, we'll go end up recording. Yeah, we'll
find out about the recruiting. I got a good friend
of mine who played at Texas Golf and you know
you start we can get coach Fields on here as
well and talk to him about what his golfers have
achieved at the next level. His money is ridiculous. He

(34:51):
continues to win a lot, but for a while people
were looking for that person. I still wish that Jordan's
speed would find his groove again because he was supposed
to be the next guy until Scotty came along. And
when you look at r. Rory McElroy has been able
to do in his career, he's finally getting over that

(35:14):
hump and he too is the face of golf. But
right now, when you start to look at the way
that Scotty has been able to show up every single
time and make putt after putt after putt and finding
ways to position himself in the right spot, I mean,

(35:36):
this dude has changed the way people view golf.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
I don't understand. Like I watched a little bit this
weekend and on Sunday, the got up in the morning
and started seeing the final round. He dropped balls onto
the green and it didn't move. R How do you
how do you do that?

Speaker 8 (35:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
I've never done it. I never hit a ball and
it landed and I was like, oh, I wanted to
land right there and don't move.

Speaker 8 (36:06):
Yeah. Yeah, I know how to spend that thing.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Man.

Speaker 8 (36:08):
They know how to make it work.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
And you know, again that's why they do what they do,
and that's why you do what you do.

Speaker 8 (36:17):
I mean, they are built for that.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
And I don't think I want to see them under
a five clean jersey.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
No, No, that's not that's not where they're good at.
They don't need that for that. They don't need that
for them. What they need is to be able to
go out there and play at that elite level. It's
been very impressive to watch what Scottie Scheffler's been able
to do. And every time he steps on to a
golf course he has a chance to set a record,

(36:45):
be you know, be the number one guy and.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Which is a big responsibility to the league.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Well you start to look in three years he's got
fifteen wins. Three years he's got fifteen wins and they
said it's the shortest span between the first and the
fifteenth on the Tour win. Scott tiger Woods was three
years thirty two days, Jack Nicholas was three years forty
five days, and Scotty Scheffler is three years ninety four days.

(37:17):
So when your name is mentioned with those types of
players for you to get to your fifteenth victory on
the golf course, it makes you understand how talented he truly,
truly is. So shout out to former Texas Longhorn Scottie Scheffler.
He had his baby there with him and his wife,

(37:40):
and you know, you start looking at these types of trophies.
Those are big money payouts, man, big money payouts. So
when the prize is out there for you, he keeps
his eyes on the prize and he finds a way
to get it jumped. Nothing like endorsement, no man, Nike
dropped the commercial right after he won. He said best

(38:03):
golfer in the world. Guilty memory got in trouble. Yeah. So,
I mean they're already on their marketing. They understand what
it's all about. And that's why Scotty Scheffler is undeniably
on the rise. Roy McElroy got his Grand Slam. I
don't think it's gonna be longer that much longer for

(38:25):
my man Scotty Scheffler to get his Grand Slam coming
up soon. We're just getting started in our number one.
Our number two is right around the corner, and we've
got so much to get into. We hadn't talked NBA
at all. We're about to do that. Well at some
guy in the NFL got paid and everyone is trying

(38:46):
to figure out who's gonna be Rookie of the Year.
We'll do that and so much more coming up in
hour number two of a Longhorns Monday edition of the
Morning Kickoff right here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. Welcome back to our number two of the
Morning Kickoff right here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone, and our number one. We talked about Texas

(39:07):
softball advancing to the Super Regional and oh yeah.

Speaker 8 (39:11):
Texas A and M is not advancing.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
We talked Texas baseball getting number one overall seed in
the SEC Tournament which starts Tuesday. We also had a
chance to talk to JJ Gotch of the Austin Gamblers,
and last we talked about Scotti Scheffler. But right now
we want to get into the conversation about the NBA
when we left on Friday, we was talking about Game

(39:36):
sevens and who can get the victory. We also said,
Mark Henry pointed this out New York, if they can
get it done, the city will be on fire. And
that's exactly what the city was. As the New York
Knits defeated the Boston Celtics one nineteen to eighty one.

(39:58):
I told my son, I said, the problem with this
entire series, and that's the Boston in New York. When
Jason Tatum got hurt, you knew they were gonna win
at Boston, but you knew if it got back to
New York it was gonna be you can kiss the baby,
just because of the simple fact that the way that

(40:20):
those New Yorkers was gonna be fired up and ready
to go. And I watched the stephen A Show with
Spike Lee was on it on Friday. Spike Lee turned
up ready to go. They knew what the energy was
gonna be like in the building. And Mark, you've been there,
You've seen a game in New York, and I know

(40:41):
that your world's strongest take is going to be circled
around a lot of that. But my question to you
is that energy in that building in New York is
like no other.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
No. You have to mentally prepare yourself to block out
a crowd that is relentless, even in a loss. You
go to the garden, they're they're chatting it up that
they're still doing the New York Knicks chance. And when

(41:15):
you go outside, the we outside people are there and
you come out of the garden, there's only about four
parking spaces for talent. Everybody else has to go across
to the garage. Players included, coaches, everybody, and they have

(41:36):
a wall set up so everybody could walk through. I've
had stuff thrown at me. I had a car total
from people beating on it when I was in the
Nation of Domination. The garden is something different. Michael Jordan
and people that are externally motivated, when they go to

(41:58):
the garden, they turn up because they go to their greatness.
I'm gonna rely on my greatness. You can't be greater
than me today, and then those people succeed. The Lebrons
always have great games. Kobe, Kevin, Kevin Garnett. They have
great games because they're like, come on, bring it, let's go.

(42:20):
But everybody else you watch. You go to the Garden
of the Bress situation, most people fold.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
So that's why the Spike Leeves and all of the
basketball players, the John Starks, they were disappointed in the
results in the past of the Knick players. But now
they have Jalen Bronson and he's one of those guys
that's gonna wiel his team to win. He said he
been an underdog his whole life.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yep, I can agree with that. I can agree with that. Yeah, man,
good luck to him. Well, you start looking at how
that game went and kind of turned on its head.

Speaker 8 (42:57):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Jalen Brown, he was playing with a torments.

Speaker 8 (43:00):
He came out the other day and said that he
was playing with that.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Derek White, who kind of carried them in the previous game,
was three of eleven from the field. He didn't get hot.
Peyton Piritcher was fighting, but he didn't have enough for him.
So when you have that and your best player throughout
that time is Jason Tatum and he's not there, it's

(43:25):
gonna make it very difficult.

Speaker 8 (43:26):
Like I said, you're gonna win at home in Boston.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
New York didn't even care about that, to be quite
honest with you, because they understood what you were about
but getting back to the garden for that opportunity to
win in front of the home crowd. And then we
left the other day and we were talking about og
unknobly is he gonna be able to show up? He

(43:49):
showed up defensively too, he showed up. You look at
what Josh Hart continues to bring to this team. Michel Bridges.
You know, it's kind of funny when you start to
look at at their squad and see the numbers that
are being put up. We were talking about it on
our drive back from Dallas the other day and we
were talking about the fact that when you start to

(44:11):
look at the numbers by the team, team.

Speaker 8 (44:14):
Wise, that's why they win.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Because Michel Bridges, Jalen Brunson, and Josh Hart all played
at Villanova together. They understand each other's roles, They understand
how to play. And people didn't think not one of
those guys were NBA players.

Speaker 8 (44:35):
And now look at them.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Did you see them as the team to bring back
the Knicks. No, you were looking for a big name
guy to come back. You were looking for somebody else
to put them in that situation.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
By you, you mean them because I told you at
the beginning of the season that this was gonna be
a good year for the Knicks. I ain't think it
was gonna be this good.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 8 (44:59):
Like the the Garden is losing its mind right now.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Steven A.

Speaker 8 (45:03):
Smith cannot control himself right now.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Because they've seen these people come in that you think
are going to lead them. You remember Tom Thibodeau was
rubbing people the wrong way because he demanded that you
play defense. That's why you go and get a guy
like you got to do. Yeah, you get those guys
from Villanova because that's what they were built on. You

(45:28):
don't have to argue with them about playing defense. Those
guys show up to play defense. But then you you
you sit there and you look at it. Now we
got the Eastern Conference, old school game, Indiana Pacers, New
York Nicks. You know, Reggie Miller gonna be hyped. This
whole thing is going to be great. I'm excited for this.

(45:50):
I know a lot of people are looking at this
and saying, I'm not that excited about it.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Get his job done.

Speaker 8 (45:56):
He's not. Those people are gonna be behind him.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Reggie Miller needs to just say, guys, I need to
sit in the crowd with the people. Yeah, I don't
know if you If you want to come every now
and then and put a mic in my face, cool,
but I want to enjoy this.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
I think he better only do a commentary in Indianapolis.
Don't do it.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Oh yeah, you might not want to go to New York.
Walking across that street is not gonna be good.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
It's not gonna be good for him. He's gonna have
to have security. So now we have, uh, Indiana taking
on excuse me, Indiana taking on New York. That series
starts on Wednesday. Right now, let's talk a little bit
about Denver and Okay, see Denver.

Speaker 8 (46:41):
They've gone fishing.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Uh, Joker could go back and go look at his horses,
but you start looking at Okay, see, the young guns
was able to get it done, and that energy in
that building was something to be home. But I want
you to hear about Joker because I think we're all
in agreeance when we realized that the Joker needs some help.

(47:06):
And here's Joker talking about the depth that they do
not have.

Speaker 11 (47:11):
The thunder there. They tried to make a point to
wear you guys down with their depth throughout this series.
You guys were obviously playing a shorter rotation for most
of it. Maybe this is above your pay grade too,
But as far as depth, what do you sort of
think this team needs most going forward?

Speaker 12 (47:28):
Uh, like you said, it's about but yes, we definitely
need Probably I think we played so long for such
so long, such a way, and you know, it's hard
for the guys to step up, and especially player, especially
against really two really good teams Clippers and and and
and and Okay, see, you know, and we cannot ask
for somebody who didn't play maybe twenty thirty games to

(47:52):
jump in and like be good and like expect him
to be good, you know, But like Julian step up.
He was a good you know, paid and he was
in a rotation, but you know he's he has some
good minutes too. So uh, definitely seems like the teams
that has a longer rotation, longer bench. Its did you

(48:13):
wonder who are winning? Indiana was the name?

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Ok so Minnesota. Well, the funny thing is he already
figured out what he's going to be doing this offseason,
and I can't blame him.

Speaker 12 (48:33):
And uh, we will see, you know, but from now,
like the next couple of days, there's gonna be a
lot of beer probably.

Speaker 8 (48:43):
That's amazing, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
I think the Joker has earned his beer because of
what he's been able to do and how he's gone
about his business. There's nobody that is more deserving of
the award that he possibly could win.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
We talked about his new commercial to come out, because
you can't have him make a statement like that and
not be a beer endorser.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Oh, you know, he's gonna get one, but it's gotta
be one from overseas because he probably won't do one
for local, you know what I'm saying. But if he does,
make sure it's a bud like make s.

Speaker 8 (49:16):
There you go, yeah, there you go for you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
But you know, I want you to hear from Alex
Caruso because Caruso was the X factor in this series.
A lot of people forget that Alex is one hell
of a defensive player. He drew the Joker assignment, and
he was talking about the nerves going into it, and
I kind of like what he said about this.

Speaker 13 (49:40):
When Shae and Dub were in here, they said that
both of them said. Dub said he didn't really sleep
that much. He was excited to play Shaye said he
was nervous before this game, Like, what did both you
feel before going into this game?

Speaker 9 (49:51):
Seven?

Speaker 13 (49:51):
And how'd you get through that initial nerves in the
first quarter?

Speaker 4 (49:58):
Yeah, I mean I think you know, if you don't
feel anything leading up to it, you probably like a
serial killer.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
You know, you need to be you need to be checked.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Out sometimes you gotta be. You gotta have your emotions
because if you don't have them, something is not right
with you.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
That's why you have to keep yourself out of trouble exactly.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
And that's why Alex Caruso, big time player, has has
shown to be the X factor that every team is
looking for. And that's why people were mad when the
Bulls got rid of them. They were mad when the
Lakers got rid of us. They are because he was
that guy. But coming up next, we're gonna transition to

(50:38):
the nf of L. That's right, folks, NFL action. We're
about to talk about it. Somebody got paid and was
it enough. We'll talk about it right here on the
Morning Kickoff on Sports Radio A nineteen one hundred The Zone.
Welcome back to the Morning Kickoff, Longhorn. Monday edition of
the Morning Kickoff, Right here on sports Radio AM thirteen

(50:59):
hundred the Zone. We're gonna get into the NFL because
there's been some movement finally in San Francisco. I want
you to think about this and think about the journey
of one Rock Party. Brock Party has now become the

(51:20):
I guess you would say he's in the top ten
of highest paid quarterbacks per year, but think about how
he got there. In case you missed it, they decided
the San Francisco forty nine ers decided to finally pay
brock Party. And we knew that the conversation was going
to continue to happen, but you started looking at it.

(51:41):
He signed a five year, two hundred and sixty five
million dollar extension that had one hundred and eighty one
million dollars in guarantees. Now, this is a quarterback that
when he got into the NFL, he was mister irrelevant.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Yeah, making eight hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
He was the last player drafted into the NFL.

Speaker 8 (52:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
If you know who the last mister irrelevant was. No,
I don't think nobody does. That's why he's called mister irrelevant.
But he brought Party Iowa State quarterback will now be
making fifty three million dollars per year as the starting
quarterback for the San Francisco deserves.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
It for work that he's already done, right, not for future,
not for a future. But this is three years. This
first three years of this contract is where all that
money is, right. And then later on if they say,
you know what, man, this is not gonna work, they
can get they can cut him.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
They still go definitely have to pay him some money though.
Oh they'll still have to pay They'll have to pay
a little bit.

Speaker 8 (52:56):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
So I like the fact that they top in the contract.

Speaker 8 (53:00):
And that's what if I'm a player, that's what I want.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
I want give it to me. That's why when you
play the lottery and they asked you you want the
cash option or you want all of it? I want
lump some give me all of that because I don't
I don't know how much, how much longer I'm gonna
be here, I don't know. But if you give me
all that money, I could get Roan t. It's gonna
be a little shorter because I'm gonna have a little bit,

(53:24):
way too much.

Speaker 8 (53:25):
Fuck.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
But you start to look at these guys and you know, obviously,
the conversation is Dak Prescott. Prescott is the highest paid quarterback,
followed by Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan love Too,
Attack of a looa Brock Party, and Jared Goff. Jared
Goff is the top ten and he is right there

(53:49):
the last one with Brock Jackson.

Speaker 8 (53:51):
I did not say Lamar Jackson. He is not in
that conversation on.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
The highest bid qbs per year that's gonna be. Remember,
he negotiated his own contract. He was the one that
was in there fighting for his money and now he
is not that guy.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
But I guess well, he also said that he didn't
want to be on a team where he was the
best player, but he didn't have nobody to play with.
And a lot of guys don't subscribe to that theory.
They like, run me my money.

Speaker 8 (54:19):
Well, let's think let's think about it. Let's think about this.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
I want to be Lamar Jackson. I don't want to
be Brock Perdy.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
You know why you want to be Lamar Jackson because
you were already a first round pick, right and I
want to win. Brock Purty was not the first Yes,
he was the last player drafted.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
So you know what, that's that point.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Dak Prescott was a middle of the draft guy. He
was a fourth round and fifth rounder.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
You look at it.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Joe Burrow, he was the top of the food chain.
Josh Allen, top of the food chain. Jordan Love, Trevor
Lawrence Tua, all those guys, they were out.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
They got them thirty million dollars signing bond exactly. Rock
Purty living in an apartment stick exact.

Speaker 8 (55:00):
Actually trying to figure out if he was gonna eat
Ramen or no.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Watch out, now he ain't. He wasn't that poor. Come on,
it wasn't over there like he was at Iowa State.
A lot of people don't really. I don't know if
anybody else saw it like I did, But I would
have drafted Rock Purty in the third, four or fifth round.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
I would.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
I would have because I remember him coming to Austin
and giving Texas the business, and the year before he
gave everybody the business. And the thing that I found
that was the most alarm in about whenever we played
against Iowa State was his consistency. And on third down

(55:43):
he steps up because he can run the ball and
not just averagely run the ball. Rock Purty is fast.
Oh he's fast. I remember the combine he did. He
did all right.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
I don't know if he's but he's elusive. Let's say
that he's smart because he gets down. He's not gonna
take a big hit. He's not gonna try to run
anybody over, and he's not gonna try to run away
from nobody.

Speaker 8 (56:10):
But he will try to make positive.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Exactly. And that's all I ever ask of the quarterback.
But you start to look at the NFL and how
it's shaping up. We went through the schedule, we'll go
through it again. We'll start picking our our score, not scores,
but who's gonna win each division. But if you look
at the West, just look at the NFC West, you

(56:34):
got Matthew Stafford and in LA you got Brock party
At San fran you have Kyler Murray in Arizona. And
the only team that you're not sure of is the
the Seattle Seahawks, who has their quarterback. But you start

(56:57):
to understand that is this going to be the move?
They got Sam Darnold. So where would you put Brock
Purty Just in the NFC.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
West, in the West, because of previous production, I would
say second or third.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
More than likely you would say third because talent wise,
nobody's more talented than Kyler Murray, No, Matthew Stafford, Golden
arm Still to this day, he's a pass away from
getting the Rams into the super Bowl in No Philadelphia,
he's a pass away from making that happen. You don't
know what Sam Darnold's going to be because now he's

(57:39):
in a new place.

Speaker 8 (57:40):
You know, he might have been.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Fool's goal because he had such a great offensive coordinator,
head coach and Kevin O'Connell. So now you start looking
and saying, Okay, Kyle Shanahan is one of the best
play callers in the game, one of the best in
the game. So you start looking at say, per he
landed in the right spot. If he would have been

(58:02):
anywhere else, he landed in the right spot. But he did.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
What is he gonna do now that all of these
people that were making him great, that were deflecting the
Deebo Samuel's and Ayuk's and McCaffrey. Still got McCaffrey. But like,
you need other weapons and he's he's he doesn't have them.
He's not going to have him this year.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Well he still has Ayuk right now, he's still he's injured,
but he's injured.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
He's injured.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
And then you bring in person. We saw Juwan Jennings
grow up. I mean he was he was there number
one last year when all those other guys were hurt,
and I thought he did great. Fantasy football told you that.
You start looking at some of these other guys that
they were gonna bring in. They got Isaiah and Ney
or remember him, he's in there as a college free agent.

(58:54):
But you still have Christian McCaffrey. We got a chance
to see Isaac Grena, the running back. He played unbelievable
when he got his opportunities. They got a good offensive line.
Trent Williams is still there, so you start looking at
their depth. They're gonna be okay. They're gonna be okay.
And again their defense is still intact. Their defense is

(59:18):
still intact. You still have a Nick Bosa, you still
have they got the first round pick, Michael Williams. He
is going to be a monster. Fred Warner is still there.
They still have players that are gonna be there to
help them out. So I you don't see a significant
drop off, but you have to admit you're gonna see

(59:40):
a drop off. Well, I think I think as time
goes on and people start to understand who you are
as an offense, yeah, it's gonna be He's gonna have
to make some place.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Do you use kittle more as your third down receiver
now that you know people like Ayuk and of course
Deebo being gone.

Speaker 8 (01:00:01):
I would definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
I think he should have been used a lot more anyway,
because he's that talented of a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Play I mind him up been wide out sometimes.

Speaker 8 (01:00:07):
He's athletic enough.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
I do want to ask you this, if you had
to pick a rookie of the Year from these names,
who would you go with? Ashton Gent, Cameron Ward, Travis Hunter,
Shador Sanders, Matthew Golden or Jackson Dart I would I
mean Genty and cam Ward are the layups. Those are

(01:00:29):
the ones that you would normally look at. I would
look at Matthew Golden because of.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Usage. They're gonna throw the ball to him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Jordan Love can definitely spin it when it comes to
that type of play, and I think that he will
be one of those guys. He's at plus twenty five hundred.
Ashton Gent is plus two fifty. Cam Ward plus three fifty.
Travis Hunter is plus one thousand. Tyler Shuck is at
one thousand too, So he's gonna be in the mix

(01:01:00):
because he's gonna end up being the starting quarterback, possibly
for the New Orleans Say.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
I'm gonna tell you right off the bat Horde, barring injury,
Ashton Genty is gonna rush for about fifteen hundred yards.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Well we shall see it. Sounds like Mark's gonna go
with Ashton gent. All those odds can be found at
DraftKings a gambling problem, just kidding. We'll check it out,
but come it up next.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
You know what time it is?

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
The World's Strongest Man brings you his world's strongest take
right here on the morning kickoff on Sports Radio and
thirteen hundred This is all you heard that beat dropping.
That can only mean one thing. WWE Hall of Famer
and the World's Strongest Man, d Mark Henry brings you
the world's strongest take. Take it away, big fella.

Speaker 8 (01:01:49):
Rge, what's up man?

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
You know what time it is?

Speaker 8 (01:01:51):
What time is it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
It's time for the world's strongest take by the world's
strongest man. My guess back then they didn't know me
and now I'm hot. They all on me. Guys, what
the playoffs we've had? And I'm not saying it like
it's the finals. I know we still have two other

(01:02:13):
series before we get to the main course. But this playoffs,
it's been weird, weird, weird. I mean, we've had teams
that you didn't expect to step up and be great,

(01:02:35):
and we've had great teams, historical teams go down in flames.
But what I want to bring up as my take
is about the two incredible losses. But not just losses,

(01:02:58):
but what did you call it? Hards, skumps, beat downs,
beat downs, lockdown, whatever you want to call it. Let's
start in New York. New York Knicks. They beat up
the Boston Celtics by thirty eight points. The Denver Nuggets

(01:03:24):
got trounced. They got the Skunk yesterday by thirty two points.
A lot of this is because teams don't have the
depth that they need. Now Boston they didn't have the

(01:03:46):
depth because of injury. Yep. But this is what we
keep talking about. We keep coming Like the last three weeks,
every team that we talked about was the number one
thing we talked about was the depth of the bench,
and second, the grit of the star. The Knicks have

(01:04:09):
depth and they have a really, really gritty They have
the grittiest of all the stars in Jalen Brunson. He's
the grittiest.

Speaker 8 (01:04:20):
He's the guy that gives young players smaller guards, smaller hope, hope,
and then sga.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Harge no expression. The dude is like trying to read
this wall. You don't know if he's happy. You don't
know if he's sad, you don't know if he's frustrated.
All he does is just keep playing and just playing
and playing, which led to them having a significant lead.

(01:04:53):
My take is that this is the way it's gonna
go next season. Teams are gonna opt out of the three,
the Big three mold You're never gonna go out of
the Big two moldes. You need an inside outside situation,
But the Big three. I think it's gonna go away

(01:05:13):
in the NBA because people realize that you need depth.
You need at least eight players to play at the
speed that they play. Now. My take is, bro, you
better have eight because you looked at what happened to
the Denver Nuggets. They had a rotation of six seven

(01:05:37):
every now and then you can't win in the league
like that. In Boston, as great as they were, they
lose one player, they lose two players, and they're done
with all the talent the team that won the NBA
Championship last year. No Depth bounced on vacation in Galva.

(01:06:03):
But I feel like there's a new thing that's happening,
and you know, you sacrifice the greatness of players on
your team for more depth.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
What say you, well, I mean you start looking at
your team as a whole and you try to figure out, Okay,
how do we.

Speaker 8 (01:06:20):
Build around it? How do we build around it?

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
The Joker talked about it in his post game talking.

Speaker 8 (01:06:27):
About we need depth now.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
I guess my question to you, with the fact that
those games ended up being blowouts, was it the lack
of depth? Was it the scheduling? Was it the injuries
that ended up happening because of the scheduling they were
playing all these different back to backs and and and
throughout the year?

Speaker 8 (01:06:48):
Is that it?

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
But that's why you have to develop depth so you
can avoid those types of situations. If you're playing a
short bench, your rotation is small, of course, players are
gonna get fatigued of course, players are gonna end up
being tired because it's an up and down game. You're

(01:07:10):
running back and forth. What'd you say the other day
about how many miles Steph Curry runs during these games?

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Eight?

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
You can the elite guys run between four and eight miles?

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Yeah, it doesn't. It's a lot of conditioning that needs
to go into it, and at that stage of the season,
if you're going to be a team that plays long,
It's kind of like what coach Sark talked about. We're
playing sixteen games now, so for me, I need to
slow down and make sure my players' bodies are being
taken care of as opposed to go, go, go, go go.

(01:07:47):
That's the other part. You look at the depth. The
reason why jokers talking about is because they're playing deep
into the season.

Speaker 8 (01:07:54):
Again.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Yeah, so I think that your spot on on the
way that you're thinking about these these games and where
they are.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Get more role players. You remember, the league used to
be a leaguer role player. That's why Alex Caruso is
who he is, right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
He is a guy that when you need him, when
he's called upon, he's fundamentally in place in Boston.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
You talked about Oh Margaret, you said they were gonna
fall off a cliff. What about Pritchard? What about this
guy White?

Speaker 8 (01:08:29):
That's one game man.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
They disappeared because they were expected to be great. It's
easy to be a road player when you're you know,
some role players, they're just not designed to be stars.
And when you put him in a star row, they
fold like a wind to shade.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Well, sometimes that window shade needs to be dusted every
once in a while, make sure they clean them up.
And I think during the offseason, I think a lot
of guys are starting to be a little bit more
hungry than what they were. Another great old Strongest take
by the world's strongest men. When we come back, we'll
close out the show send you to Dan Patrick. Game
seven in hockey. Well it didn't go that well, we'll

(01:09:10):
talk about it right here on the Morning Kickoff on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. What a great
way to kick off your week. On a long horns
Monday edition of The Morning Kickoff, I want to thank
you the people for always tuning in, and we also
want to give a special shout out to myplates dot com.
If you are looking to get a personalized license plate.

(01:09:33):
All you have to do is get over to myplates
dot com and also used the promo code the zone.

Speaker 8 (01:09:41):
The zone is.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
The promo code for you to get a discount on
your license plate.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Man, I'm so excited about my plates right now because
today I call in my plate. Okay, I am ready,
I'm decided. I went through a bunch of options. When
y'all see it, give me a hunk because you don't
know that that's Mark Henry and that vehicle, not to
mention that my face is on the.

Speaker 8 (01:10:06):
I was gonna say they gonna know that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
But you think everybody drives eighteen wheelers talk about some
honk hunky.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Man, I'm not everybody, but there's some guys out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
Like, wow, hold the highway to go ahead and make
your thing happens. All right, I want to talk a
little bit of hockey, that's right, we gonna do that hockey, folks.
Congratulations to the Dallas Stars off they and this they
will be taking on the Edmonton Oilers at home starting
on Wednesday.

Speaker 8 (01:10:37):
You can watch it on.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
ESPN. But Game sevens, we talk about Game seven's all
the time and were the most magical words in sports.
So you get all excited, same thing that we had
yesterday as Okac and Denver get together.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
You end up getting blown out from the blowouts. And
the Florida Panthers go into Toronto and defeat the Maple
Leaves six to one. Now and they win the series
and they will advance and take on Carolina. But here's
the thing that's starting tomorrow. So that's kind of messed
up for them to play a Game seven and then

(01:11:19):
come right back in two days to go out there
and play on the road again.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
I thought there was gonna be a football scored the
way they were scoring it exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
If they would have been counted as touchdowns, it would have.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Been a blind out.

Speaker 8 (01:11:33):
It would have been forty two to seven.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
But you start to look at it, and you look
at Florida and what they've been able to do. Toronto
is a hockey town. They are hockey people, and they
were losing their mind last night, hopeful that their team
was going to advance in the Game seven, and Quan
wank Florida continues to roll on and now they, like

(01:11:58):
I said, they will go and take on Carolina. That
will tip off or what do you do? Drop the puck.
We're gonna do that hockey. Uh, they're gonna drop the
puck seven o'clock on Tuesday. You can watch that we
on t in t.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
We're not going to war with Canada because Toronto lose
and Winnipeg lose.

Speaker 8 (01:12:20):
They gone.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
We still they still got Edmonton.

Speaker 8 (01:12:22):
They still Goton.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
If that's bro, they might nuke us with them.

Speaker 8 (01:12:30):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
It is kind of crazy when you start to think
about the finals. The final four is two three US teams. Yeah, Florida,
Carolina and Dallas and you only have Edmonton that is
sitting there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
I'm just gonna go into my bunker. You didn't know
I had a bunker.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
Well, I'm sure you do have a bunker. Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
Listen, I'm gonna be watching this game very closer.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
You're gonna be watching this series, man Color.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
Hey, y'all, everybody get in the book, cause it's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Also, you'll be happy to know, Mark. This past weekend,
the Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees took place,
and the Yankees end up winning the Subway Series. They
won last night eight to two. Cody Bellinger hits a
big Grand Slam Aaron Judge continues to stay hot, being

(01:13:29):
one of the better players in the MLB.

Speaker 8 (01:13:33):
And the standing sit as this right now, the Yankees.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
They have a five game lead in the Al East.
They're twenty seven and nineteen, followed by Boston who was
below five hundred. And then you look at the Mets record.
The Mets are twenty nine and eighteen. They got a
half game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals,

(01:13:59):
and Miami Marlins. We will definitely start picking it up
on Major League Baseball coming up real this week.

Speaker 8 (01:14:06):
We'll start talking more MLB.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Also, my boy Chipper Jones, Man, my boy Chipper Jones, Well,
he picked the Orioles to be in the World Series. Well,
the Orioles fired their head coach over their manager this weekend.
They fire Brandon Hide. Brandon Hyde is fired and relieved
of his duties. And the crazy thing about Brandon Hyde

(01:14:30):
is the fact that he was just manager of the
year just shortly. It wasn't that long ago. It was
recognized as the manager of the year. So when you
start to look at this organization and the changes, yes,
they are eleven and a half games back. They were
a team that will be looking to compete early in

(01:14:52):
the season, and then all of a sudden you got
these young players that are really, really talented, but now
they have made the move.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
We had that conversation last year when when Soto left,
I was like, Ah, what are we gonna do? Yeah,
what the Yankees did was they have these guys. Billinger.
I mean, he's stepped up, yep, but they have a
lot of young guys that are stepping up. And it

(01:15:20):
kind of goes back to what my take was, you
lose a big star trade away, he goes in free agency,
but you have money to spend on other pieces and
increase your depth. So you know, I think we're onto
something hard.

Speaker 8 (01:15:38):
Well, I don't know how much they're onto it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
But the crazy, crazy thing about it is you start
you start looking at the changes in baseball, the managerial part,
the way that they go about their business, lining up
every single day, trying to figure out what your offense
and defense, and what's your your swing paths and all

(01:16:02):
these different things that are out there. But at the
end of the day, you have to go out there
and your team has to find a way to win games.
And if you don't win games, don't matter who you are,
don't matter if you was a coach of the year,
manager of the year, or you have the best minor
league farm system. If you don't win, you aren't gonna

(01:16:24):
stick around nowadays because there's too many people in too
much money involved in this game.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
I've been so to trade all that money now to
be winning.

Speaker 8 (01:16:33):
Well, he is winning.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
So those of them still winning, they just didn't win
the Subway Series.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
They still in. Yes, it's just as important as winning
the World Series. Well maybe not that close, but it's close.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Yeah, they're six and four in their last ten games,
and you know they lost one game, but the as
I said, the Yankees win the series and they continue
to push the needle. I want to thank Mark Henry,
I want to thank my guy Marcus, and I want
to thank you the people. As always, make sure you
tell five friends, to tell five friends that the morning

(01:17:10):
kickoff is your go to to start your day. And
just remember, as folks, don't believe everything you see, because
even salt looks like sugar.

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
Peace,