Thunder Strike in Game 7, Durant to Houston, LSU Wins CWS & Arch Manning on a Mission

Today, the guys discussed the Oklahoma City Thunder defeating the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets. LSU Tigers has won the College World Series. The TABC Basketball Tournament took place in Dallas this weekend. The Texas Longhorn football team got more commitment. Arch Manning understands who he is and wants to prove his worth. ESPN All-Quarter Century Defense Team announced. Jon Bones Jones Retires from UFC. “A Hardge Knocks Life” and “The World’s Strongest Take!”  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 Carbo Hartz, and the world's
Strongest Man in WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry. Guys,
we really would like it if you would advertise with us,
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(00:22):
to nine am Monday through Friday right here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good Morning Austin, k Town, Flugerville, Htown, Paarland, l Passo, Leander,
and seals Me Texas or wherever you may be listening.
This is a long horns Monday edition of The Morning
Kickoff on AM thirteen hundred The Zone. An NBA champion
is crowned, a former champion is traded. Men's College World

(00:52):
Series champion is.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
A blue Blob.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Texas gets commitments, and we have so much.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I am your host, Mike Carballharts.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
My co host is a WWE Hall of Famer and
recognize as the world's strongest man.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
He is d Mark Henry. Good Morning Austin, and our.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Guy Marcus is behind the boards and if you want
to be a part of the show, and I know
you do, today, text the word Texas followed by your
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Speaker 3 (01:26):
Standard data and message rates may apply.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
And if you want to voice your opinion or get
a chance to win a pair of tickets today and
I'll tell you who they will be. All you got
to do is leave us a message by using that
talkback feature on the new and improved iHeartRadio app. We'll
get your message instally and if it's good enough, you
might hear it on air. Well, last night it happened. Mark,

(01:50):
we finally get a champion. Game seven.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Two favorite words in sports, I said sports, Mark, two
favorite words in sports is game seven. And that's exactly
what we got. We got Game seven. And the best
team in the NBA all season along was the Okced Thunder.
They were at home and they outlasted the Indiana Pacers

(02:15):
one oh three to ninety one.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
I thought to myself, I said, this has to be
a street fight.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
This has to be one of those games that there
is no tomorrow. The night before on Friday, we saw
Tyrese Halliburton go out and he played unbelievable. We didn't
know if he was going to play. He comes out,
he plays and he plays at a high.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
High level.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
He played so well that they force a game seven.
But halfway through the game yesterday, there was something that happened.
And it is a familiar, familiar sight.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
A right kick it out.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
To touch the door down.

Speaker 5 (03:00):
There comes Sga the other way inside and winning spos
of down. Halliburton's hurt right away when he fell. What's
extreme calf? He's abtained so emotional. It's the right calf.

(03:23):
Right away, he.

Speaker 6 (03:26):
Knew he was in trouble. Oh, you getting a situation
like this, you just sick to your stomach for the
young man. We'll take a time.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
What an unfortunate situation. Sad to be honest with you, Mark,
because Tyrese Haliburton was actually playing well at the beginning
of that game, and he was putting pressure on Okac
to play at a high level. I mean, he only
ended up playing seven minutes, but he was three or
four from three point Land had nine points, one turnover,

(04:05):
but he was moving the basketball and getting it to
the right players. And you knew it was going to
be tough for him because of the way that the
game was being played, the pace of the game.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
They didn't know.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
They were trying to work him in, work him back
and forth, but he ends up getting hurt and it
was unfortunate situation for Indiana. Now, Indiana did play great
in the second quarter. They outscored him twenty two, I
mean twenty six to twenty two, but you knew as
well as I did it was gonna be tough for

(04:40):
them to continue to move at that pace without their leader.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, and he went down the same identical way as
he did the last time that he he same spot,
same spot. Ye took a power dribble off of that
right foot and as soon as he extended push off,
pop yep it went. And you can see it go yep.

(05:04):
They showed it like way too many times. I'm just like, okay, guys,
enough is enough.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I saw it with KD as well, because KD calf
strained a couple of years ago when he was still playing.
I think it was with Brooklyn tried to come back
and then he comes back and pops his achilles, and
you know, they end up losing that thing.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
That was with Golden State, was it? Yeah? It was
in the playoffs Golden State, Yeah and oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, say he didn't play in the finals, that's right,
And so you looked at that and then you start
to see all these different ways that he was a
part of it, right, So you start to look through it.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
But they kept fighting. They kept fighting through a Pascal
Siakam was doing what he could them Hart was out there.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
This has been the Achilles tear playoffs. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
You start with Damon Lillard yep, and then you have
our guy in Boston, Jason t Jason Tatum, and now
you have Tyreese Halliburton go down. All three will miss
the entire season next year. All three where the number
zero stop? Oh man, talk about too much? I want

(06:17):
to talk about that.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Nobody's wearing zero for the rest of the eternity. Now.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, it is a tough, tough look right now. And
so you start to understand what it's like. But let's
not take away from what did happen, and that's the
fact that Jalen Williams, Shay Gilchris Alexander and their crew
balled out.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
STA what's the defense fix it out?

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Three put ups.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
Twenty one point. Please tigne up.

Speaker 7 (06:48):
Indiana and Kay creating for his teammates k Doubs, do
get down.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Agree for a seventy point of the Think about this
Shay Gil, Chris Alexander and what they were able to
do well.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
First, let's hear them win the championship were thunder.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
We've taken the NBA by storm for the first time,
the NBA champion resides in Oklahoma City. The story book
season is complete.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Not only did we witness a champion for OKC, I
got a question for all of you and I'll post
it on our social media here in just a minute
before we go to break but shake Gil Chris Alexander
had the best season in NBA history. He was the MVP,

(08:22):
He was the Finals MVP, he was the Western Conference
Finals MVP. He was an NBA All Star, he was
All NBA First Team. He was the NBA Scoring Champion.
And oh yeah, he debuted a new signature shoe last night.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
He was walking around like, you know, you get ready
to throw it over the wire, healing wearing them around
his ye.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
That was nice gold too. Yeah, it was nice. It
was nice. But think about I could never wear it.
Think about that though.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I couldn't get away with that now if it was
if it was gray or black, you know, just normal color,
that extreme gold.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Oh, you can rock that. I will. I will definitely
rock it. I was just looking.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I was thinking about it as we were speaking about
trying to figure out how much they are. Hey, listen
there you go figure out free Yeah, yeah, for me exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
But if they're what I think there'll be about one
hundred and twenty one hundred and fifty bucks.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Well, if they're that, then I can rock with them.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
If they over, if they're over one hundred and fifteen,
that's a little too much for me.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
I don't wear I don't wear tennis shoes that often.
That's true.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
You know, I go to work after work. You know
what I'm saying. So I got addressed properly.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
But my question to you and the people out there,
you start to look at what Okac has become, and
we talked about this before, the youth that they have
on that team, the energy that they have on that team.
Can they will they be a part of something even
more special as they continue to grow on. Can he

(10:03):
come back and perform at that kind of level again?
Is does he have that ability to do that next year?
Already twenty twenty five, twenty sixth season, they are plus
two thirty to win at DraftKings dot Com to win
it again.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
I wouldn't bet against him.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Followed by and we'll get into that conversation. The Houston
Rockets at plus seven fifty, Cavaliers plus eight fifty, along
with the Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves plus thirteen hundred, and the
Lakers plus fourteen hundred, would just like you said, you

(10:43):
wouldn't bet against.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
I wouldn't bet against. Okay, See, they're gonna get better.
They have three guys on their bench that should develop
next season, and they have the ability to add another big.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
That's what I was telling you up.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
If they add another big that could just bunch, shouts
and rebound and go out there and give Hartenstein a break,
it's gonna be hard to beat them. They may have
a better record next year.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
And it's ironic that the big three of KD, Kevin,
I mean, Russell, Westbrook and Harden didn't win it, but
this group did.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's impressive. It's been very impressive. Speaking of Kgate coming.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Up next, there was a move for the man to.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Come back to the long start stay, but he's not
in the essay. What We'll talk about it right here
on a long Horse Monday edition of The Morning Kickoff,
right here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Welcome back to a long Horse Monday edition of the
Morning Kickoff right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred,

(11:55):
The Zong, Mike Harball, Hards World's Strongest Man, d Mark Henry,
and of course we our guy Marcus behind the boards.
Make sure you get over to the iHeartRadio app. It's
free and you can download it. Have us ays number
one on your preset. You can also if you miss
any parts of the show or shows throughout the day,

(12:16):
you can just pull up the show on the iHeart
podcast page. Over the weekend, there was some news that
was broken and I wanted to know what everybody's thoughts were.
We just talked about OKC being crowned NBA Champion one
three ninety one over the Indiana Pacers. Throughout that process,

(12:41):
we talked about Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook,
their legacies as OKC thunder. They end up never win
in the championship and that's when everybody decided to go.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Their own ways.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Has shake Gilchris Alexander passed Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook
as an all time thunder great whoa, he has a championship.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
He has a championship, He finished the deal.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
He closed the book on Oka see not having a
championship like them.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
He has a MVP.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well, it's hard to argue. Yeah, yeah, I mean he's
the most accomplished. I mean, and one you just said,
the greatest season yep of all time.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Kevin didn't do it, Russ didn't do it, and Chicken
Wing James Harden didn't do.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
It, no doubt Chicken Wang James Harden.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
So make sure you get over on our social media
at am thirteen hundred to zone and cashed your vote.
You can follow Mark at de Mark Henry, you can
follow me at Hardball hards. Get over there and cast
your vote on who has become that guy. But right now,
since we were talking about Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant was

(14:04):
traded over the weekend and here's how it went down.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Chums.

Speaker 8 (14:08):
It feels like we have been hearing about a possible
Kevin Durant move for weeks.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Now, how did Phoenix and the Houston Rockets come to
this deal?

Speaker 9 (14:15):
Slika, Kevin Durant's voice was heard around the league, not
only with the Suns, but really everyone. His preferences were
prioritized to an extent, and that's what we saw play
out over the last.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Twenty four hours.

Speaker 9 (14:27):
It's two preferred destinations, the Houston Rockets and the Miami
Heat essentially competing against each other bidding on making Kevin
Durant deals, and the Rockets at the end of the
day made the best offer with Jalen Green, a prolific scorer,
Dylan Brooks three and d tough player, but most importantly
the number ten overall pick.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
And why is that important?

Speaker 9 (14:48):
The NBA Draft is on Wednesday in New York and
so it was very important for them to get this
deal done before that point. But remember back at the
NBA trade deadline, Kevin Durrant was the blindsided when he
was included in any conversation.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah around the league.

Speaker 9 (15:02):
Now, he had some level of driver's seat position because
he was in the last year of his deal, an
expiring contract.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Think about that last year of his deal, which is
why some people are having a hard time with this
trade when you put out there Jalen Green, who has
so much upside, Dylan Brooks a give and take, but
you're giving up the number ten pick in this year's draft,

(15:29):
in five second round picks, five second round picks for
how many seasons do you honestly believe that Kevin Durant
is going to be able to play?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Is he a Lebron.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
James to the point of what he's done where he
could play into his forties, or is he going to
be a guy that they're going all in for, make
a run for it with the team that they have
and decide, hey, this is it.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
I think that Kevin has got at least two more
years of high level play, and the same thing I
told you about Lebron the other day.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
They can play.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Five more years, but those next three, the last three years,
they're gonna be sitting on the bench telling.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Young fella, do this, young fella, watch this. Like they're
gonna be.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Coaches that can still get on the floor for seventeen minutes.
And there's nothing wrong with that, just that at what
price do you pay him for that job?

Speaker 3 (16:36):
You know? And I brought up the point yesterday The
Lakers are one of.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Those teams too with Lebron in the sense that go
ahead and sign him to a three or four year deal,
but make that for like thirty million, not the max
of forty five to seventy like that or three years
or yeah, you do that now you can or not

(17:06):
you can? You can add pieces to that team that
can make that team a Bible commodity. If you don't
your top heavy and you don't have a bench and
your top heavy weight, you're gonna get killed in the way.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
And you're top heavy with a guy that you're gonna
try to manage his minute as well.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
Exactly So.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
But here's the difference that I think with KD And
you know, I was asking you a little while ago,
do you think that he's gonna be able to continue
to play at that level?

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Right? Is he gonna be able to play three years?

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, what we've realized is he's not a guy that
goes into the paint, so he gonna sit outside and shoot.
So he can be able to do that with his
length of being six eleven seven foot and got the
wingspan that he does, he can close out easily and
make sure that you can't get your shot off.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
He shot forty an NBA.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Best last year forty nine point seven percent on jumpers
and fifty three point one percent on his mid range shot.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
So that is who he's going to be.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
And he had the best print set shooting percentage off
of the dribble on his jumpers at fifty point nine percent.
So his shooting has never, ever, ever been a problem.
KD is going to come to Houston and he's going
to put up buckets.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
But my question is did the Rockets give up too
much for KD?

Speaker 3 (18:33):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
I mean, you know, I'm a big fan of email Adokair.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Their bench is good.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
They were the second best team in the NBA in
the West harje and they had a guard that was
not productive, that was getting a lot of money and
took the line's.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Share of that. They were better sometimes with Green sitting
on the beach. But his upside is unbelievable potential.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yes, it is awesome, hard, but you need somebody that
can give you results right now. I guarantee you this
past season, the the Houston Rockets would have traded everything.
They would have traded everything for Green to be able
to score twenty five points to give them five assists.

(19:26):
They would they would have been, They would have been
in the championship.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Jalen Green is twenty three years old. Maybe twenty three
years old.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
He's twenty three, that dude, he's still averaged twenty one
points a game.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, but did he do it when it mattered.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
There's a lot of people that don't do it when
it matters. He's got to develop into that. It takes
time sometimes some people's great level of consistency is not
the same as what you want to see.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
But as he gets older, I think he's gonna be
a lot better.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Look, you think that Emmy Adoka doesn't know better.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I don't think.

Speaker 10 (20:07):
That's I don't think this is an Emmy Adoka thing, though.
I think this is a Raphel Stone the GM thing.
I think this is also a Tima Fatiita thing because
Timan is a guy who wants things now.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
So what my issue with it is because you are
a resident of Houston Rockets. Yeah, go ahead, Houston Rockets.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Man.

Speaker 10 (20:28):
I always fear the agent player because Durant is thirty seven.
You might get three good years out of him. That
is the best case scenario. You get three good years
and a championship. But the worst case scenario is Durant
hits that cliff next season and all of a sudden,

(20:48):
Phoenix makes moves because you still got Phoenix draft picks,
and that's the thing that you're loving about this. But
Phoenix makes moves this offseason and moves either Booker or
a Bill and get more talent around him, and all
of a sudden, those draft picks means nothing, because all
of a sudden, you just traded your your number one score,

(21:11):
and all of a sudden, he improves because he's feeling
the press, he's feeling the anger for his bad playoff series.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, he's been working out ever since the season was over.
So now he's he's gonna be something that is gonna
be somebody that is going to push the envelope. Also
wanted to say this because they just signed Im Doka
to a new contract, making him the highest paid, one
of the highest paid coaches in the NBA. And so

(21:40):
you bring in Ema Donka, who's gonna be there for
a while. You bring in a Kevin Durant, who obviously
is going to sell jerseys and put butts in seats,
and then you got to see how you can balance
other people coming in right there. So with the nail
on the head, yeah, they're gonna they them tickets. Not
only that, you start looking around KD, James Harden, and

(22:05):
Russell Westbrook left OKC and somehow, some way, all of
those players have once played for the Houston Rockets. It
is crazy how this basketball world works. Coming up next,
we got the hards Knocks Life segment. I'm going to
talk to you about guess what high school basketball. I

(22:26):
saw some great players this weekend and recruiting is at
an all time hot right here on the morning kickoff
on Sports Radio and thirteen hundred the Zone.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Coming up in the next.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Segment, we will have a conversation about the College World
Series and some things that happened that were kind of
wild when you sit back and think about it. But
right now, my hars Knock's Life is going to be
about the TABC basketball tournament that happened this weekend in Dallas,

(22:58):
Texas and our team Hendrickson Hawks did great. They went
three and zero, came from behind in one of the
victories fourteen point deficit, came back and won the game convincingly.
But it was the amount of prospects that were participating
in that.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
What you don't understand.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
In the state of Texas and a lot of people
that obviously cover the sport understand that there is a
lot of talent that is across this great state of Texas,
and none bigger than Austin Gooseby. If that name sounds
familiar to you, his brother Trevor is one of the

(23:39):
starting linemen for the University of Texas.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Very athletic.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Family got a chance to watch Austin Gooseby play, and
his stock continues to rise. He's shown so much upside
that all of the coaches, and when I say all
of the coaches, I mean it was, as my son said,
celebrity row with coaches that are sitting on the baseline

(24:05):
and around the court watching good advertise. I think he's
got so much upside as kind of ridiculous. And what
I mean by that is there's some things that he's
fine tuning. There's some things that he's trying to get
done that he's been working on all summer.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
He's very fluid with the way that he moves.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
His shot comes out natural rotation is beautiful, but the
athleticism is something that you cannot deny. I posted on
my social media him getting the ball.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Dribbling up the court and doing a reverse layup.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
But the way he was able to do it, his
team struggled a little bit, but he got a chance
to really show in front of everybody that, yeah, he
is the number one prospect in the state of Texas
at the number in the class of twenty six. He's
a six foot five combo guard that can do pretty

(25:03):
much anything that he wants. He defended well, he was smooth.
But you know as well as I do, when you're
playing high school basketball as opposed to your select team basketball,
things move a little bit different. You're not playing with
always like players. So if they can find somebody to
step up with him, it's going to be very impressive.

(25:25):
Another player that all the Texas coaches were there to
watch was Bryson Howard.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
His dad played in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
There's another one of those guys that when you see
him play, you could tell he's built a little bit different.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, that's a player's kid.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Another one Reese Austin Rayford offense. Austin's son skip to
motel and he was out there balling himself.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
But the thing about it all that I continue to
look at. Is the model of constancy. You got Marcus
Spears son, Marcus Spears junior class of twenty seven, Ryan
Hampton class of twenty seven, my son class of twenty seven,
other kids, Ryan, There's so many people that you start
to look at. And I've said this before and I'm

(26:15):
going to continue to say it. I believe that the
class of twenty seven, whether it's here in Austin or
across the country, has some of the best athletes that
are out there with the most upside.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Wow, I've seen it. What about Ogden? Ogden is smooth too.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
He just transferred from Saint Michael's to now he's playing
for Westlake. So there's a lot of change in this
college basketball dynamic.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
And the reason why I bring up this weekend.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Because number One, I got a chance to see some
of the best basketball and the best players across the
I mean across the state of Texas with every coach.
This was the first live period that coaches were able
to go. And when I say the who's who, the
who's who was sitting courtside to watch bluesby play. And
the thing about it is when you start to understand

(27:12):
how this is a business. Now that's the part for me.
Everybody's been mad at me. If I was there, I
would have had it. If I was coach Miller, I have.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
A bag, just a big backpack over my shoulder, like
this could.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Be your Come on, man, what is wrong?

Speaker 1 (27:30):
I'm gay, I'm spending all the university money getting the
best players.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
What is wrong with you? Yeah? Yeah, I'm doing it.
I want, man, I want to win. Well.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
I mean, there's definitely definitely something to be said about
the talent that was there, the ability of all of
these people. There's another player that Texas is recruiting, Billy White,
the third out of Corpus Christy Veterans Memorial talented, talented
player as well, so much upside, nationally ranked you got

(28:02):
at That's what I'm saying, Like, there's there was some
really really good basketball that was being played, and let's
just say that Texas is in the mix for all
of these guys.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
And how am I got DJ dude though, I'm I
love these people, but that's my guy.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Man.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, he did well, he did well. He did well,
but you know as well as I do.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I mean, when you're.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Six foot five, six foot six, six foot seven, six eight.
Moving the way that some of these guys move, They're
going to check that everything else will fall back into place.
But I will say this when you when you, when
you go and get a chance like because it is
about to be real soon that the live period continues

(28:48):
to grow. It is going to be a high, high
level competitions moving forward. Be back with their Summer League
teams starting next week. When those live period start middle
of July. It's gonna be real, real thick, finish it
off in Vegas. You will hear some commitments from the
University of Texas from some of these guys and what

(29:11):
the expectations are.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Coach Miller is doing it. They are out there, and
that was my question next. They are out there. How
does it look though, Are the guys really interested?

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Coach Miller and his crew are
out there.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
They are pushing the envelope every single day whenever they
get that opportunity to talk to some of these kids.
Some of the official visits, the non official visits. Kids
are coming in getting a chance to watch workouts, watch
some practices, see the facilities, talk to Coach Miller. Yeah,
this is this elite level stuff and it was rather

(29:48):
evident this year because I've gone through it before with
my older son Michael, so I've been around this this
game that is going on right now with the live
periods and everything else. Saw some coaches that I've known
since I was a kid that are grew up with
me that are are now head coaches at different places.

(30:08):
So the energy is definitely there. But I'm telling you this,
keep an eye out on Goolesby. He is somebody that
is on the list priority list, and his brother plays
here at the University of Texas.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Don't tease me. I'm telling you You'll definitely have a
good time there.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
It is my recap of the Texas TABC hoops this
past weekend. Coming up next, there's a champion in baseball.
But how did we get there? We'll talk about it
right here on the morning kickoff on sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone. The college baseball season came.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
To and in yesterday as the.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
LSU Tigers go.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Tigers end up winning the College World Series and they
do it in grand fashion, and as only the LSU
Tigers can do, they continue to find ways to get
it done with great pitching. They always always find a
way to come up with the clutch hit and what

(31:14):
they were able to do yesterday was no different. LSU
got great, great pitching yesterday from Anthony Aronson and he
went six and a third three runs on three hit
I mean, excuse me, three earned runs on seven hits,
nine strikeouts. And then they closed it out with Chase Shores.

(31:35):
Chase Shores throws over one hundred miles per hour.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
The storing.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
The scoring got early as Coastal Carolina took a one
to nothing lead, but it did not go without controversy.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Say a break the ball count.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
He throws that curveball the slider roughly fifty percent of
the time. Oh my goodness, he chose Ravin Schnall out
of the game.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
In the bottom of the first hitting the home played
umpire throws Kevin Schnall out of this game, and down
goes an umpire who had come in to get in
the middle of the face. I believe, guys, this had
to do what happened at the end of the top

(32:31):
of the first with the third base coach. For LSU.
This seems to stem from the first base coach and
then Schnall remarkably gets thrown out of the game, a
College World Series Game two, in the bottom of the first.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Well, and I didn't even see that building.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
Guys, Like, it's one pitch and next thing you know,
Schnall's out out of the dugout and Angel Campbell's had
clearly hurt enough that thing has escalated quickly.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
And the thing about it is.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
You have to understand that emotions are running high in
a pressure packed World Series game. The home played umpire
has to have thicker skin. That is for sure. We
understand the rules. I get it. I know there's umpires
and referees that are driving in their cars listening to

(33:26):
this show. I know a bunch of you guys, But
you have to have thicker skin when it comes.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
To this level of play.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Now, it could have, like he said, Chris Burke said
it perfectly. It could have been something that happened earlier,
and you have conversations about it. But the fact of
the matter is that LSU wins the College World Series
after Kevin Schnell gets thrown out of the game. They
battled all the way through. It was a tough matchup

(33:56):
and LSU continues to win five to three.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Big time win.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
That is LSU's what did I say it was They're
six I mean, excuse me. Their eighth national championship for LSU.
That puts them in a class by themselves. Jay Johnson,
who previously had lost to Coastal Carolina when the Coastal
Carolina won the championship and he was at Arizona, he

(34:22):
comes to LSU wins his second title in a few years.
He was also part of Peak Events, which I was
a part of. I got a chance to see those
guys up in Frisco and they find a way to
get there and win the championship.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
This is the sixth.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Championship, six straight championship for the SEC.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
As the SEC, I know everybody's in there TC.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Everybody was asking me if I was like, no, I
mean LSU is LSU.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
They're in a class by themselves.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Their eighth College World Series championship. And Jay Johnson reflected
on what he felt for Skip Berkman, who was there
at the game and what he did to build LSU.

Speaker 10 (35:06):
Through that brain.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I'm just so proud. This is a team and.

Speaker 6 (35:11):
Our whole model for the year was tough and together.

Speaker 9 (35:13):
And that's what they did from August twenty six till now.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
And just incredibly proud.

Speaker 9 (35:18):
It's only twelve returning players, it's ten players from the
transfer portal.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Its two JC players and ten freshmen.

Speaker 9 (35:26):
And that collection of talent not just became a team,
but it became a family.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
And that's what it's all about.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
You start to look at who LSU is, what they've
been able to do, who they've been able to get.
As he said in the transfer portal, you look around
and you saw a couple of years ago went out
and got Paul Skeins from Air Force, and now Paul
Skeins is doing his thing in the big leagues. You
look at Tommy White, they went and got from North

(35:56):
Carolina State. They continue to find the right piece pieces
for their squad to be able to develop and to
be able to win the big one. Bear Jones at
first base, what he was able to do started the
series zero for five with five strikeouts. When he got
to the College World Series, all he did was go

(36:17):
out there and bang the baseball.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
So you start to understand.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Who they are and what it is as LSU, and
that is what Texas is trying to do as well.
Texas is trying to build their program being able to
go out in the transfer portal and get different players
to be able to help build. And speaking of the
transfer portal, it was news and it was brought to

(36:44):
light yesterday that will Gasparino, outfielder for the Texas Longhorns,
has now entered the transfer portal. It was something that
kind of caught me off guard because I didn't know
that that was happening, but the news came out yesterday
that he was entering the transfer portal. He's played one

(37:05):
hundred and seventeen games at the University of Texas in
the last two season. He was an integral part of
the success that Texas has had over the last two seasons.
He hits home runs, plays a good center field, but
he struggled in the second half of the season, only
back in one forty five during the second half. So

(37:26):
there are some changes that are happening. All signs lead
to him going to USC and so that seems to
be the thought process there. Another player that got into
the transfer portal, Tommy Farmer, has now found a home
at UC Irvine.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
The ant Eaters is where he'll be playing.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
My guy, Ace Whitehead from lam Passes, who was out
all of.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Last season, is now going to USC. Jacky Steele is
now going from Texas to Texas State. He will now
be a Bobcat.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Matthew Scott is now going to be a Jacksonville I
guesst the other Rabbits, I guess they are.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
He's made his move as well. So Texas has made
some changes themselves. But now it is time to get
ready for next season. In the baseball world, congratulations to
the LSU Tiger Go Tigers, continue to show how good
they are in baseball. Our number two is just around

(38:35):
the corner. You know what I'm talking about. We'll make
that thing happen as well. Right here on the Morning
Kickoff on Sports Radio and thirteen hundred The Zone. Welcome
back to our number two of the Morning Kickoff right
here on Sports Radio and thirteen hundred The Zone Longhorns
Monday edition of the Morning Kickoff.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
In our number one, we talked about the ok.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Thunder being named well winning the twenty twenty five NBA Championship,
and of course we talked about how they got there.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Kevin Durant stains in the Long Star State.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
I recapped the TABC Basketball Tournament and told you about
a huge, huge get if they can do it for
the Texas Longhorns basketball team, and of course we talked
to LSU, But right now I want to get into
the Texas Longhorn football team because it is a Longhorns
Monday edition of it.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
And I got two things here.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
I want to go into the commitments, but I want
you to hear from Arch Manning right now. And this
is a guy that truly understands who he is what
he is. But the limelight, well he doesn't think it's
all deserved as of yet.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
What comes with your last name that we can't understand
because we don't have I think a lot.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Of deserved attention. But hopefully it gets more deserting the.

Speaker 6 (40:04):
Next months it's undeserted and the number will recruit in
the country.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Arch Yeah, I just I don't think I've done enough yet.

Speaker 6 (40:13):
He taking a lot of pictures at restaurants and sign autographs,
but maybe that will come eventually.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Well, you know, you start to think about who he
is and what he's been able to do. But the
one thing that I've always appreciated from him is he
likes to play in the background.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
He likes to be just part of the guys. He
doesn't care.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
But that's unfortunate because the light is the brightest on him.
There is no point on Earth where the light is
dimmer for arch Man nowhere. And the thing that I
like about at Harde is he's he's saying the right things.
So if that's truly his mindset, that you know, I

(40:54):
don't I don't deserve, I haven't done enough, but just wait,
means that he's mystic and he knows something that we don't.
He's got a decade car, he's got a hand of cards,
and everybody else is bluffing.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
But he's like, wait that play this, that's that's that's
the way he sounds. Well.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
I think it's more of the fact that he is
understanding that the role of the quarterback will be that
but he wasn't the quarterback, and he understands that, Hey, listen, man,
just let me get out there, let me perform, because
the pressure is already there.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Because his last name is Many, he understands that. I
don't think it's a pressure thing. I think it's the
fact that he just said, in his own opinion, and
this is not me saying it because I can have
my own view. He said, I don't feel like deserving
of all of that, but he implied that he will

(41:56):
be able to live up to it.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
You just told me a minute ago that he there's
no light that ain't gonna be shined on him because
of who he is.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
That's what I'm saying. You misunderstood. I'm saying that he
can't hide. The light is so bright for him that
it's going to be that there's there's no pressure situation.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
That is pressure.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
If the light is shining on you that brightly and
they know who you are, Yes, there is pressure.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
You sit here and you hear all the reports.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Texas is predicted to be the champion, the national champion.
This dude hasn't even played yet, So yes, the pressure
is on him, whether he wants it or not. To
your point about the light being as bright as this
going to be, because he can't hide, he is a many.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Pressure is one thing. I think he wants to earn it, right,
That's that's That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
That's why he's saying, Hey, look I haven't done anything.
I haven't done anything, so dollar putting this all on me,
and all I want to do is.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Go out there. And I'm saying he's not He's not
trying to run from it.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
But he's also saying that I have to go and
prove it, and that that was the response to your
you know, your your rebuttal about the fact that you
know he's he had this this manning legacy in front
of him.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
So you know, that's just my take on it.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, I mean, I just I just look at it,
and I what I started off saying was I love
the fact with his humility. I love the fact that
he's sitting there saying, look, I haven't done anything. Yes,
people are gonna recognize me, but I don't need to
be in the restaurant taking pictures with people all the
time because I haven't put myself at the forefront of

(43:48):
it all, because I haven't been the starting quarterback. To
be the quarterback at the University of Texas. Now, I
understand it's gonna be me. I'm gonna have these opportunities.
But as we've talked about before, uh bad pass, bad game,
bad something. What's going to happen to this fan base?
I mean we've seen it happen throughout time. That first interception,

(44:10):
Oh my goodness, we're.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Here, the booze.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's gonna be some moments that's streaking.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Down the sideline that he don't see it. Yeah, like
stuff happens.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
That's playing the quarterback in the high paced, high high
level of the SEC. The the ability to go out
there and be the focal point of a team. That again,
a lot of expectations are on the University of Texas.
And that's why I keep saying, let's pump our brakes

(44:43):
a little bit, not saying he's not gonna be able
to achieve these things, but there are gonna be moments.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Don't come to the complete stop. Yeah, just give us
a California stop. Just roll on through behind actly.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
So I'm excited to see what's going to happen. But
I thought that was a good piece of audio for
him and your guy Marty Smith, talking about the expectations,
so to speak, of what is in front of us,
speaking of what's in front of us, I've said this
numerous time, and I'm not changing my thought process in this,

(45:23):
but you start to look at the recruitments and the
commitments of all the other players across the metroplex in
cost college football. But one thing that this Richard Wesley
commitment is for the University of Texas. He puts out there,

(45:45):
I am going to be on campus in January for
the University of Texas. Now with that being said, this
is also the same kid, if I'm not mistaken, that
committed to Oregon, jumped in the pool with the coach,
Dan Lanning, and now all of a sudden he coming off.

(46:07):
He's committed to Texas.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Great job.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Exactly, exactly, say that all the time. And that's why
I will they sign the dotted line and get on
the forty acres that you will believe it when you
see it.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yep, it sounds sounds good. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
As they said here in Hornce twenty four seven, Oregon
backed the initial commitment on May the twelfth, I mean
May the tenth, when Webb Wesley published the viral video
of him leaping in the pool alongside Dan Lanning. Lanning,
just seventeen days later, he backed off of his play.
Still haven't dried off exactly, And that is why folks

(46:48):
don't get too high, don't get too low. Wait until
December when National Signing Day happens, and then we can
count it off.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
That's why coach always says, check with us in December.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Don't worry about.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
What we're doing in June and July, figure out what
we're doing in December when the commitments are binding once
they sign on the dotted line. But it is still
a great, great pick up for Texas. He is the
number six rated edge rusher and the number four rated
player coming out of California per twenty four to seven's rankings.

(47:28):
He was really a twenty seven and then he reclassified
to be in the twenty sixth class.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
So this is another another.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Deal for all of these guys that are able to
make the adjustments with grades and being able to reclassify.
I've seen some people reclassify twice. I just don't understand
that if you're.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
Good, you're good.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Yeah, you know, like whether it's he's seventeen or eighteen, Uh,
really doesn't matter to me.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
Is more the maturity of the kid.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
And you come to a like the University of Texas,
you're gonna grow up real fast because there's good leadership.
So I'm looking forward to seeing what coach Sark is
going to do with all of these guys, especially the
young guys, because it's easy to bring in somebody that's

(48:20):
a junior or a senior. All of the development stuff
is out of the way already.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
You just need them to come in and play.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
But this kid coming in seventeen eighteen, you have to
coach them up.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
And that's that's I guess what Sark, you know, excels
at the most from getting these kids to buy in
from what we've experienced so far.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
I wonder if he's got commitment issues. That's what you know,
we go see, We're going to see. With this commitment
for the University of Texas, Texas now moves up into
the top ten. They're sitting at number nine with fifteen commitments,
two five stars and eight.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
Four stars. USC has thirty.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Commitments, Texas A and M has nineteen, Notre Dame nineteen,
Georgia nineteen, Ohio State has six, has sixteen, Clemson nineteen,
Penn State twenty, Miami fifteen, Texas fifteen, and UCLA in
the top ten with twenty one commitments for the twenty

(49:30):
twenty six recruiting not always how much, yeah, exact.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Quality what you got.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Well, there's a lot of five and four stars in
those recruitments, in those commitments by all of these top
ten schools.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
We'll continue to.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
See how it plays out as football is getting heated
because now we've moved on to the football season, because
there's so much to get into. When we come back,
we're gonna get into ESPN and they have released They're
All Defensive Century Team. Okay, the Defense of the Century.

(50:04):
I'm gonna get Mark's thoughts on that right here on
the morning kickoff on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Welcome back to the morning kickoff right here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. When we went to break,
I mentioned that we were going to have the All
Century Team brought to you by ESPN, but I meant
to say the All quarter century team on the defense

(50:29):
for ESPN. And there's some names that are definitely worth
it when you start to think about it. And I
wanted to get Mark's thought process on this and if
he thinks which guy should be the starter and which
guy should be coming off the bench at the defensive
edge rusher position. We have Dallas Cowboy, DeMarcus ware DeMarcus Wareing.

(50:51):
His numbers are obviously through the roof, but there's an
up and coming guy that has been able to do
some dog gowned things up in here, and that is
my was Garrett, Miles Garrett and the Marcus were on
the edge thoughts.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Oh, you don't even got to pick a starter no more.
Just here anybody.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Well, if you're gonna say who you like, Michael straighthan
and I'm not saying that because of our relationship and
and being related, but Michael Straighthand you have to put
him in there because he's an all the time later
and you know the Marcus where being a Cowboy fan,

(51:37):
I got to see him be the best in the
NFL for a long time during his tenure with the Cowboys.
And I'm gonna go with those two as my bookends
last twenty five years and there's been some good ones. Yeah,

(51:58):
but you know, both of those guys gonna be in
the Hall of Fame. So I guess I'm I'm safe.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Two.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Yeah, Okay, I got de Marcus where Miles Garrett is
still playing, so we're not gonna put him in just yet,
but uh, he's definitely put up some big time numbers
and continues to be part of the conversation.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
On the other edge.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
You had Jared Allen and Julius Pepper's two guys that
have paved the way for some of these younger UH
edge rushers Jared Allen, tough, tough dude, and Julius Pepper
one of the most athletic big men that was out there.
You see him dunkle basketball and then you go out
there and dunk a quarterback.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
That's pretty impressive.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Defensive tackle, you have Aaron Donald, Kalaias Campbell, Chris Jones.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
It's got to be Aaron Donald.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
I mean, on that list, he's on there too.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
I got more. Vince Woolfolk is on there. JJ Watt.
Defensive linebacker. You have Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacker, Louke Keithley.
The other linebackers Bobby Wagner and Levonte David. Lavonte David
is one of those guys that is pretty underrated, but
not by ESPN because obviously they got the numbers. He

(53:15):
is a tough, tough linebacker that's done great work over
in Tampa Bay. So I like Levonte, but of course
Bobby Wagner is Bobby Wagner. He's been solid since day one.
On the corners, one side, they have Daryl Reeves, Rondez Barber,
and Patrick Peterson. Other side they have Champ Bailey and

(53:38):
Richard Sherman.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
I mean you can't.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
You can't deny Reeves Island and you can't deal with
Champ Bailey like that. So those are the two that
should be started in my eyes, because.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
It's Dione out of the last twenty five oh for sure.
For sure, Dion Benone bron Well at.

Speaker 11 (53:59):
Least it's years out of the top, because I mean
the last twenty five years. Yeah, because he played with
that Ravens team in two thousand.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Uh that's when he came out of retirement. So okay,
that's right, Yeah, that's right. And you don't want to.

Speaker 10 (54:16):
Use those raven years as his Washington years.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, I think champ Bailey for sure. Charles Woodson, he's
not on there. He's not on the list. Good lord,
Darrel Reves Revers Island is respectable.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Man, I can't. I guess you can't argue with those two.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
I mean you can argue, but but you be arguing
with yourself and Champ Bailee.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Those are these guys won defensive players.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Only people that I would put above those two guys
really is in their primes. To bed Dion and Darryl Green,
I guess I threw y'all off with the all century.
We're all quarter century. Yeah, let's go quarter center. That's harder.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
That safety you had Ed Reid, Brian Dawkins. The other
safety you had Troy Polamalu and Earl Thomas. Troy Polamalu
and Ed Reed. I mean, Brian Dawkins and Earl Thomas
were obviously talented, talented guys, but when you look at
who were the true true playmakers, Ed Reed and Troy

(55:33):
Polamalu are the ones that kind of stand out the most, and.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
They complement each other.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, because you got one that's the ultimate free safety, cover,
deep threat eliminator, and then you have the intimidator, the
instinct of the blitzer, the guy that can cover. But
more than his ability to cover, which is probably the
least of his abilities, is his instinct for football. There's

(56:02):
very few people that have had that extra thing that
everybody don't have.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
He had the ability to see, diagnose.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
And be at the point of attack or be where
the ball was every single time.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Yeah, like, how do you not put that guy first?

Speaker 2 (56:21):
And so you start to look at those and you're like, Okay,
those are some serious playmakers back there. I don't think
you could go wrong with any of those that are
in the starting That's why they're on the All quarter
Century team. Justin Tucker is the kicker, There's no doubt
about that. One of the best kickers in the history
of the NFL, all time leading score. I mean, he's
just done everything and range on top of range, on

(56:43):
top of range. So Justin Tucker is the kicker. Punter
is Shane Leckler from Texas A and M. I think
he's in a Hall of Fame too. I think he
could be a Hall of Famer. Deep snapper Morgan Cox,
return specialists Devin Hester, and special teamer Matthew Slater. Matthew Slater,

(57:03):
son of Jackie Slater, has done an unbelievable job of
being that special team stalwarts he's on. He made every
Pro Bowl, He's been All Pro every single year. Because
you have to believe in the position in which you
are playing, and a lot of people don't take special teams.

(57:24):
You know, seriously, when you get that chance, you know
who's really good on special teams. Chris Boyd. Chris Boyd
used to play at the University of Texas, bounced around
quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
He has taken.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
That special team's position and taken pride in it.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
Is he a gunner or is he in the middle
of the field.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
He's both. He's both. Wow, that's that's unusual. Yeah, usually
put a bigger down the inside and the gunners are
the guys that can fly and have that.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
Chris Boyd is a gunner, but Slater can do both.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
That's incredible. Yeah, has done both. Chris Boyden now is
with the who is now with the Jets, But last
year when he well two years ago, he was with
the Houston Texans. And this is a guy that I've
always been fond of. He's not on this All Century team,
so I apologize for going there.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
But what I'm saying is.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
He's a guy that when you take special team seriously,
you find your niche in the NFL and you can
stay in the NFL for a long time. It's like
being a backup quarterback. You don't rock the boat. You
go in there and do your job, and you can
stick around for a long time. Look at Chase Daniels,
look at Cole McCoy, look at some of these guys

(58:40):
that have got an opportunity to stick around for quite
some time. And the reason being is because they understand
their role and what is asked of them. So out
of all these, the only one that you would want
to add is Michael Strahan to this number.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Well, who would be a middle linebacker? Oh, it would
be Ray Lewis and Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Bobby Wagner has been very consistent with his time in
the NFL and continuing to be there. But ray Lewis,
Erlacker and Louke Kekickley. Luke Kickley is a guy whose
career had to be cut short because of all the concussions,
and now he's working in the front office and doing
a great job doing that.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
You know who would have been but he retired from
the league, And that's Willis that played for San Francisco.
He was on track of being the next ray Lewis.
He had the same abilities, It's probably faster than ray Lewis.
And he just said, I don't want to have brain
injury when I'm old, and he bowed out, and I

(59:45):
respect the decision. He made a lot of money in
his first four years. Yeah, I think it's Patrick Willis
after Willis.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Yeah, he's done a really good job and now he's
put himself in a position to work and be part
of something huge because he was able to roll that
seven years in which he played into something that is amazing,
and as you said, now he can spread the word

(01:00:13):
throughout his time. It's a guy that went to Ole
Miss and did a great, great job at Ole Miss
and then went to San fran and was locked in
all day every day with the defense and that San
fran Uh part of it. He's a Pro Football Hall
of Famer and he's a College Football Hall of Famer.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
So hard to be.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Yeah, I mean, when you do it like that, that
means you did some things. So happy for them and
continued success. But right now we got you know what,
time it is the World's Strongest Man brings you his
world's strongest take right here on the morning kickoff on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the Zone.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
You heard that beat drop, It could only mean one thing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
WWE Hall of Famer and the world's strongest man, he
Mark Henny brings you the world's strongest take.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Take it away, big fellow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
All right, you know what timing, it's time for the
world's strongest take by the world's strongest man. Marcus. Back
then they didn't know me. Now I'm hot. They're all
on them, guys. We don't talk about NIX Martial Arts

(01:01:24):
very much.

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
Probably at all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
And I'm sure that there's a lot of fight fans
out there that they're gonna be happy with my take today.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
And I'm not an over zealous fight.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Fan MMA fan, but I have dibbled and dabbled and
respect the game very much. It requires a lot of
endured a lot of toughness and mastery of more than
just one get the art. John Jones came out and

(01:02:07):
said that he was retiring. John Jones is the current
champion the League of UFC, which is owned by TKO.
They wanted John Jones to fight Tom Astronaut, who is
the guy waiting, but John Jones has put off fighting

(01:02:34):
him like three times, and a lot of fans are like, listen, man,
we want to see the.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Fight, Like fight him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
John Jones is like, no, not yet, not yet, not yet,
and now he retires. Now Daniel Cormier, who has been
world champion, unbelievable. We're a wrestling fan too, by the way,

(01:03:04):
as ful John Jones and lost and consider John Jones
the greatest MMA fighter of all time. But he has
some critical words because people are saying, is John Jones'
resume ruined by not fighting Tom entrepreneur, and that's my

(01:03:28):
take today. My take is is John Jones legacy tainted.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
Daniel Cormier.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
I respect him in the sense that he was there,
he knows, he knows better about that sport than I do.
But there have been many fighters throughout history who realize,
you know, what.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Even Iron were is out.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
Father Time is under defeated, and I'm at the end
of the road me fighting this person is only going
to tarnish my legacy. I believe that you should have
respect for your legacy and if you don't have it,
give it up.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
And that's what happened. Now.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Tom Astronaul is the UFC champion with John Jones retirement.

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
My take is, no, his his legacy is not tainted
by not fighting the guy. What say you? I agree
with you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
I don't think his legacy should be tainted by not
fighting the guy. I think if anything about his legacy,
it's all the off, the off, the matt or whatever
you want to talk about, behind the scenes stuff that
has kind of tainted his legacy. On the criminal stuff,
the abused, all that other stuge. Yeah, that would be

(01:04:56):
something that I would consider tainting the the the legacy
of it, but as far as what he's actually done
on the mat, there's undenying what he's been able to do.
He was one of the most physical, most gifted athletes
on the mat.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
Everybody knows that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
And if you've ever watched him fight in UFC, you
know he's a dangerous, dangerous man. He took on all
comers in his prime. There were people that were avoiding
him for a long time. So you look at what
was happening with him, maybe those people's legacies should be right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Exactly because people changed weight class. Yes, yes, there were
people that even our guy, Daniel Cormier went from went
from heavyweight to life heavyweight. So like you can't say
with your chest the way Daniel Carmier said that, Yeah,

(01:05:51):
I think his legacy is tainted. He's not fighting the guy.
Look at Leila le prime example, she wouldn't fight Wolf.
I wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
I wouldn't now, But you know, like everybody was man
Christy Martin, she's the best boxer of all time in
the women's division, and Wolf knocked her out so fast
that it didn't even it didn't even register on the
Richter scale. For women's boxes. That's the same place where

(01:06:24):
Daniel Cormier and John Jones are right, like, you cannot
criticize that man and tell the masses that his legacy
is affected because he got old.

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
No, you can't do that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
And I firmly believe, as I said, the only reason
or the only way you can have anything bad to
say about John Jones and the way he went about
everything was everything that he did away from the map.

Speaker 10 (01:06:53):
But if anybody's to have an issue with John Jones,
Daniel Cormier is the one too have that issue because
the ped when the issue when they actually fucked one
of the times they felt.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
That is the only reason why Daniel I think that's
why he's the only reason.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
He just didn't want.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
To say it's the drug right right, So he's he's
saying another reason absolutely say his legacy should be tarnished.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Daniel step Haten. Yeah, he has the right to hate.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
Well, if anybody does have something to say, it could
be him. If absolutely, I'm not going to deny that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
But again, it's hard to knock somebody out when they
all cooked that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
I mean, yeah, that was those weren't even the real
peds that he was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Dude had some issues. He had a lot than that
he had.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
He had jet fuel in him for sure, and he
had jet fuel in the drag racing when he was driving.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Fact. I mean, the dude was in trouble a lot,
a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
But when you got to be off, to be in
that type of environment every single time to get yourself
ready to go, it is. It is unbelievable that people
continue to have that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Just remember Floyd Mayweather.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
He was somebody that a lot of people said couldn't
didn't fight, didn't want to get in there and scrap.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Dude can talk and he makeing a lot of money. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Everybody he got in there with was a champion until
they got in.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
There with him. Facts and there it is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
And I'm gonna tell you right now, like to get
to the Floyd Mayweather conversation, there's a whole nother conversation altogether, yep.
Because he's the greatest champion of all.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
Time in any fighting art.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Exactly, another great tech by the world's strongest man. We'll
close out the show, send you to damn Patrick. We're
gonna hear from the champions once again. As there was
some champions crowned over the weekend right here on the
Morning Kickoff on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Welcome back to the Morning Kickoff right here on sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred to Zone.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
If you missed any part of the show, why did you,
But we're here for you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
All you got to do is get over to the
podcast page or wherever you get your podcasts, but make
sure you spend all your time on the always free
iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
It's new and improved. As we told you before.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
All you got to do is use that preset button
you can wake up with us. Make it number one,
and if you want to make it number two, all
you got to do is make that podcast number two
as well. Another great week or a great weekend, But
we wanted to start off the week by letting you
know about all the champions that are out there. As
we talked about before, LSU is now the college baseball champion.

(01:09:40):
They continue to roll on. What a great, great run
for LSU. I got a chance to be a part
of LSU early in the season as they were part
of the first Go Classic that I was at and
got a chance to call some games and see how
this team really works. But one of the things that
happened in there as we played it earlier, the head

(01:10:01):
coach of Coastal Carolina got ejected from the ballgame. But
we didn't let you hear his explanation and how he
felt after the game because we didn't want to take
away from the championship. But I want you to hear
the coach right now talk about his ejection.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
There's twenty five thousand people.

Speaker 8 (01:10:23):
There and I vaguely hear a warning issued as the
head coach, and I was assistant for twenty four years,
and as an assistant, you're almost treated like a second grade,
second level citizen, and you can't say a word. Now
as a head coach, I think it is your right

(01:10:44):
to get an explanation of why we got warned.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
And I'm forty eight years old.

Speaker 8 (01:10:50):
I shouldn't get showed by another grown man, right So
when I come out to ask what the warning is,
a grown man showed me. So at that point I
can now hear him say it was a warning issued
for arguing balls and strikes. And at that point, I said,

(01:11:11):
because you missed three at that point ejected if that
warrants an ejection. I'm the first one to stand here
like a man and apologize two words that the fine
art program or own it. And what does that mean

(01:11:31):
is you have to own You have to own everything
that you do without blame, without defending yourself, without excuses.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
If you guys watched the video, there.

Speaker 8 (01:11:50):
Was a guy that came in extremely aggressively tripped over
the can't post his foot in barras in front of
twenty five thousand, immediately goes two game suspension and said
bumping the umpire immediately does that There was no bump.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
He was embarrassed.

Speaker 8 (01:12:14):
I shouldn't be held accountable for a grown man's athleticism.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
That to me, Yeah, that's the mic dropper right there,
because if you watch the video, the umpire goes feet overhead.

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
He flipped on.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
His own for having bad athletics some of another grown man.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
But that coach class at handled it, took it, understood it.
But the home played umpire rabbit ears and was too
quick and too sensitive to eject the coach in a
national championship game in front of twenty five thousand in
the first inning. He should be riffing or being an

(01:13:03):
umpire for middle school baseball for the rest of his life.
There's no major league, no college league that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
Should have him.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
High school should have him as an umpire because of
his abuse for the power.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
Yep, and absolute power corrupts, and he had the power,
and he made his power felt. He made it about him.
He did.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
Any league that knows this man as a quality umpire
should reconsider. If I was all of the coaches man,
i'd be at get a petition right now if I
was him.

Speaker 2 (01:13:45):
Well, I think they're gonna make some adjustments and change
some things on that, because there's no way that you
should be able to suspend somebody for something that he
did not do. The video evidence will prevail, and hopefully
he will be a person that is able to move
on and be able to coach his team next year,
because even if they would have won that game, he

(01:14:05):
would not been able to coach today. He would not
be able to coach tonight in the championship game because
of the suspension and the fact that the home plate
umpire had rabbit ears. Now, we know you can't argue
balls and strike, but if your voice isn't going out there,
there's nothing that I can do to hear you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
So for me to come out and ask the questions.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
I should have the right, especially especially everybody knows that
the stakes are high at this particular moment.

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
If you want to pull them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
In and say, listen, man can't come out here, argue
balls and strikes, get back in there, give me give
him a warning. He never heard the warning. And that's
the other part of it. You didn't walk over to
him and said, that's your first morning. You just kind
of gestured. You have to be able in that moment.
If you're the home plate umpire, you have to be
able to take control of the situation. And again, what

(01:14:59):
do we all always say about umpire's referee. It's not
about you let those guys play. Yes, there's gonna be
some questionable situations. They're gonna be fired up, they're gonna
be getting after you. But here's the deal. You have
to be You have to know the situation going into
the ball game. Tensions are high, They're going to be high,

(01:15:21):
So it's a high stake pokers match man.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
We passed that. Now now I'm at my anger.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
Yeah, and I just don't feel like that guy should
be allowed to.

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
Umpire college baseball going forward.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
Well, I'm sure he's going to be able to do that.
But I do get your point. There should not be
coaches should not be held accountable for something that a
sensitive umpire referee dealt with.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
And I do get it. I do get it. I
just think it's horse hockey.

Speaker 2 (01:15:56):
Well you start looking at this too. This weekend we
talked about the NBA. Okay, see, we just talked about
college baseball and the champion LSU Tigers. Let's talk about
Keegan Bradley going home to be able to win a
championship after being down. Tommy Fleetwood losing his mind, letting

(01:16:18):
it go, but Keegan Bradley, the local kid, gets it
done with one part.

Speaker 5 (01:16:27):
A keegn comeback not to be believed.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
Keegan Bradley comes from behind to beat Tommy Fleetwood. Tommy Fleetwood,
coming into it, had a two shot lead, missed a
couple putts, andan Bradley sinks the putt to win the
Travelers in his hometown of New England, and he's excited
as you can tell for him to be able to
win that championship. He is the captain of the Ryders

(01:17:14):
Cup and he also said that he wasn't going to
be part of the Ryders' Cup. If you didn't feel
he was playing well enough, well, mister Bradley, you are
now part of the story. I want to thank Mark Henry,
I want to thank my God Marcus for holding it down,
and I want to thank you the people as always,
and just remember this, don't believe everything you see, because

(01:17:36):
even salt looks like sugar.

Speaker 3 (01:17:38):
Peace,