December 24, 2025 • 47 mins
The AFC South crown is still up for grabs as the Texans stare down matchups with the Chargers and Colts. Marc Vandermeer and John Harris have all the inside info on how the final two weeks of the season could play out. Plus, Texans Legend Cecil Shorts III stops by the show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello Texans, It's Texans Radio. Mark Vandermre and John Harris
with you. So great to have you listening during this
holiday week, Mary, Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays, and
let's have some fun here tonight. And by the way,
we will be on the air Christmas Eve with a
full show with we'll let you know what we have. Okay,
we'll let you know what we have at the TV maybe,
(00:20):
but it will be something. It'll be something, it'll be
on and it'll be good because the team is practicing tomorrow,
will be here at work tomorrow, Christmas at work. And
there are some people in the building Johnny, who their
jobs are more focused on the event part of things,
and meaning, hey, we have ten huge events a year
with all these home games, right plus the Kinders Texas Bowls.
(00:40):
So they're working that this week right Saturday night. That's
gonna be big. And I know you canna have David Fletcher,
the general manager, leader Secretek, director of the ball. Yeah, yep,
that's gonna be good also. But they have a lot
of they're ready for this one and they might have
some time off tomorrow, but we don't, and we're not
bitter about it because we love what we do. So
there's that. We'll be on a plane Friday with the
(01:02):
team going to the Chargers on Saturday, a game that's
a win and in game for your Houston Texans playoff wise,
you want to know about all the clinching scenarios here
it is win and in now lose. You can still
get in with the Colts loss, that's right, But nobody
wants to leave it up to the Jags to do
your dirty work for you this weekend. Do your own work.
(01:25):
Do you know what in and then see what unfolds
after that? How about that?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Now there is a strength of victory component. Oh gosh,
that's the third point of how you could get in.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh yeah, that's right. You need all these different things
to play out because it weekends or strengthens different that's
different parts of your schedule or other teams.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So teams the Colts have beaten Dolphins Falcons, you need
them to lose. Teams the Texans have beaten Buffalo Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Niners.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You need those teams to win so you have strength.
So there's a third way you can make it. Number one,
the basic you win, you're in to indye loses to Jacksonville,
which we don't really want that to happen.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
No, we know, unless we lose on Saturday. Unless we
lose on Saturday, then we yeah right need that.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I think Sean pointed this out and did a really
good job on Sports Radio six to ten. He said,
what happens in our game determines who we're rooting for
in Jack's Colts.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, well, it's hard not to root for Rivers. And
we'll n start here just for a moment. I know
people have been discussing him all day, but it's such
a compelling story. When your guy, when your guy comes back,
your guy comes back from five years off, he's forty
four years old, and he plays as well as he
did for so much of that game. I know he
threw the pick six to Deep Winters at the end.
(02:49):
I thought the game was kind of over at that point. Man,
the Colts defense, What the heck happened there? I have
multiple theories on everything. Well, it's not even a theory.
The Niners are playing some good football right now. And
you brought the up earlier this week, meaning yesterday. Boy,
it feels like later in the week that it really is. Yes,
we just had Texans Monday yesterday. I know the thing
is it's game week Wednesday, so we feel like it's later.
(03:11):
And I'm not going to go into the whole game
week thing, but the team practiced with a Wednesday type
practice at least in many ways. Look, they're not in pads,
they're not doing a normal Wednesday routine because they just
played forty eight hours ago as they were practicing. Anyway,
I think that the River's story is so compelling for
anybody young and old, just to see him with that
(03:34):
kind of command. And you were bringing this up before
we got on the air here about when you see
the posts him talking to his linemen, his receivers at
the line. Indian we point this out every time we
go there. That crowd is so quiet. I'm watching the
game last night and I didn't hear everything Joe Bucken
Troy Yikman had to say, but I hope they were
(03:54):
commenting on the fact that the Indianapolis crowd is the
most well behaved crowd when their team is on offense
in the league because they were so well trained under
Peyton Manning. This for those years, Yep, Manning probably had
you know how the Aggies have yelled practice he probably
had crowd quiet practice. I want sixty thousand people in
this building and we're gonna practice being quiet, so you
(04:16):
know how I want you to be when I'm operating
this offense, saying O maha a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, when Peyton would get up there, he would gesture
madly like nah. He would do like the calm down,
stop quiet, which he had to do that the other
day with the crowd against the Raiders, he had to
do that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I don't know that they ever really quieted down.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Maybe it worked out, I don't know, because that was
the first and goal from the one and he threw
a dart to Dalton for the touchdown. But he had
to do that kind of hey, calm down, you know.
Peyton would do that, and he would say a bunch
of curse words like shut up, shut the bleep public,
you know. And so they eventually got it. They understood
what eighteen wanted. I mean, that's what they called him,
the sheriff. But it was fascinating and I remember having
(05:00):
the first half second half.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
But there's a play where Rivers.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It came out in a in a three by one,
so basically that that Tyler to the left side of
the Tyler Warren lined up with Downs and Pittman Jonathan
Taylor was uh the back and he was.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Put to that side.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And then there's a wide receiver route the right, so
Rivers you can hear him, sends down Downs and motions
like Josh go go so he goes in motion, and
he goes in motion right after up to Stout the
nickel like looked like he was gonna blitz. So when
Downs goes over, Stout goes with him, and Rivers is
(05:41):
sitting back there and he sees the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
And as soon as Stout gets.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
The other side, he waits to see and he sees
nothing from the Niners, so he knows they still got
a blitz on, and he changes the play to like
a three level flood concept, so there's gonna be a
short medium long on the far sideline. But because they
he saw that, they didn't change the blitz or make
any kind of change. He knew somebody was coming down
(06:05):
because a safety buzz down. He's like, that guy's blitzing.
They only got two to cover our three changes. The
play gets to the right play, both Taylor and Warren
are open, and he drops it to Warren for like
fifteen yards in a first down, and you just, holy crap,
that's that's incredible. And this whole discussion about reading coverages
(06:26):
versus peer progression and.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
All that, that's kind of popped up.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And you know, Kirk Cousins talked about that for about
two minutes. I listened to what he had sayd It
was really really good what he had to say. But
there's Rivers, the old gunsling. You're understanding exactly what you
are doing defensively and then changing the play, making sure
everybody knew the play. They executed a bunch of guys
he has not played with but two weeks, yep, and
they executed it.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Parteder, get it right too, because Grandpa's gonna be upset.
He's gonna you say, good at the right tackle last night,
Gonzalez a false start and then Rivers ripping him, got
all over, spiked the ball and he was right, And
what's he gonna say? Right? Right? And Salvis is like, uh, sorry, sir, yeah, exactly.
(07:09):
You mean to disappoint you. Yeah, because a lot of guys,
younger quarterbacks could not get away with no ripping their
line like that. Now in public, on national television, it's
Philip Rivers. What I mean, they might, they might try it,
they might do it. They also might get planted in
the turf by their own offensive line. Yeah, yeah, you know,
yeah you might see a Oh I just let the
guy go by accidentally. Matador def not ador knocking, if
(07:32):
you will, But that was cool to see. It was
also cool to see Rivers play well. Yet the Colts lose,
which is kind of what I wanted last night. Yeah,
Rivers do some things, make it entertaining for us, right,
but please lose. And the Texans beat the forty nine ers,
which is nice to know. And they're starting to heat
up at the time of year. Oh my goodness, they
are heating up. There's also another moment. This one actually
(07:53):
happened in the Steelers and the Lions game.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Remember that highlight of Kenneth Gainwell went down a field
and made that catch. AZELONEI like yanks him down, but
Gainwell makes the catch falling down, doesn't get touched right,
and gets it.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
He goes in the end zone an explosion of people
and he doesn't get touched in the process of going down, right.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
So Rodgers is miked up in the game.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh I didn't see that part.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So Gainwell is standing next to him and Rodgers yells
to him, motion, he goes, go in motion and run
to the flat. And before he about he says it
in emotion, he changes his mind. He goes, he goes, hey,
motion out there running go, motion out there, runna go.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Just says that.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He says it to him. He says, motion out there
running go. He's drawing up in the dirt.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Absolutely he knew, and you know what he knew.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He knew Angeloni would go with him, right, And because
he knew Angeloni would go with him, he's like, I
trust my guy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
He's he's I mean, Gainwell's got good receiving skills.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So now you've got Angeloni, who is a pretty good
coverage linebacker by the way, but he knew he had
him one on one, throws it to Gainwell.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
That's the key, gets the catch touchdown.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
They review it.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
He got in. He never got touched.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
But it's just fascinating that there's Rogers forty one years old,
knowing exactly what the lines were gonna do. He faced
them with the Packers, he's faced them before. He knew
exactly what defense they would be in. And he first
is like running the flat and he's like, no, no, no, no, no,
go in motion, run.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
A goat and it was just fat. I saw it.
I was like, that is really cool. So it is
really cool. And he's got that old guy respect that
Rivers has. It's okay, mister Rogers, I will do that
for you. Yes, I am a Rod.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yes, don't matter what coach said, you do what I'm
telling you right now, You're gonna go get and he
gets a touchdown. So you know, if you're if you
play alongside these guys, yeah, the coach. You know, coach
coach tells you one thing, and you know most of
those quarterbacks know, hey, I'm not gonna get too I'm
not gonna get so crazy that Hey, I don't care
what your coach said to you. But if there's gonna
(09:53):
be a tweak and you're gonna do something now, you
better make it pay off. Because Kennedy Gainwill has to
go back to the sideline and talk to his running
backs coach explain why'd you run a go route there?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And he's going, well, hey, Rod told me.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You know, I mean, you got to fly to a
coach that ain't at all does unless it works.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
How does Arthur Smith feel about it. How does Mike
Tomlin feel about it? Because it's the bum Phillips quote, right,
two kinds of players not worth it? Dan Right, you
got one that never does what he's told and one
that only does what he's told. And sometimes you got
to let the guys cook. And I think the good
coaches understand this, especially when you have a guy who
can call as opposed to somebody's gonna call some stuff
(10:30):
that doesn't work. Why not empower these guys. I think
that kind of thing should happen more. And as I
say that, preferably, you know, if you know what you're
doing right, you got to know what you're doing. I
to call those situations accurately. I mean, it obviously comes
with trust. And who doesn't trust Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I always go back to this is my experience A
long long time ago. I did not like a short
side or a week'side toss.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I hated that play.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I didn't like it. I just felt like that made
that the tackle have a really hard block. A lot
of times it turned the holding. I didn't like it.
So we're in a game and I always told my quarterback,
I said, I'll let you change things. If you change something,
but it better work right. And so we were in
a game and I was kind of behind the offense
and my assistant coach comes running down and he says.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
He checked the toss.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
He checked the toss, and all I could say was
will better bleep and be right yep? And it's third
and four catch it. Running back goes down for like
forty yards, gets down to the one yard line and
I was like, I won't say anything. Yeah, I won't
say anything. The only thing I did say to him
was what you see and he goes they were loading
up on the strong side. I felt like John could
get outside of the weeks. I was like, okay, cool,
(11:35):
that's fine. So there's a lot of trust built in.
But Rogers made that work. Rivers made that work. If
you're a younger quarterback and you're just like, hey, let's
change display, why cause I think it's a good play
and it doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, that's not gonna fly.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But you know Philip and what he knows about the game,
and you know what Aaron Rodgers knows about the game.
And that's another team that's getting a little bit pesky,
and it could come into play for the Texan. Depending
on what happens with Eagles, Bills, Texans, Chargers, there could
be some things where the Texans beat the Chargers, Eagles
(12:10):
beat the Bills, and now you might have to move up.
You move up, but to the five seat at that point,
and at that point you would go to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Well that was in the playoffings. Now you gotta face
the old guy. I wouldn't mind that. We're starting to
feel like it's gonna be wild Card City. But you
don't know, you don't know, Jags can stumble. This is
still the Jaguars. It's two division games left for them. Yeah,
you never know. They're notice this is a tough game
for them at the Colts. You know, the Colts are
gonna bring it, especially if there's anything left on the
(12:39):
line for them. And as I say that, you know
you want to see the Texans win on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, but the Colts will still play. They'll play, They'll
play a division game. They'll treat it like a bowl game.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
It's a home game, and maybe just maybe they can
get some things done. Yeah, and they'll play better defense
than they did against the San Francisco forty nine ers. Okay,
A couple of things here, Johnny. If the Texans have
to go without both or at least one of the
tackles that they've been starting during this streak, If you've
got to go without Ursery and or Trent Brown, in
all likelihood, we're looking at Titus Howard at right, Blake
(13:13):
Fisher at left. That's what I think. Yeah, that's what
I think. And I think, Look, this is not ideal,
but the team you're playing, the very team you're playing,
is the poster team for trouble on the offensive line,
especially as tackle. So you cannot sing the Blues about anything.
And look the way this season's been, everybody's played everything.
And we talked about it with Nick Cassario, we talked
(13:34):
about it with Demiko Ryans. All that stuff is up
on YouTube. We'll have the Nick conversation for you tomorrow.
This is why they do what they do in training camp.
This is why everybody's pulling their hair out. What are
they doing with Blake Fisher at left tackle? Well, you
never know when Blake Fisher might have to play left
tackle and it could be Saturday.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, what are they doing with Well, they like to.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Mix it up because they have these situations crop up
from time to time, preferably not, but they do crop
up where you have to reconfigure your offensive line. Some
of the more memorable wins in that two year dark
period twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, you had
what the game against the Chargers where I don't even
remember who you were playing on the offensive line, and
that one in my next Berkad runs the daylights out
(14:16):
of the ball. You know it was COVID, it was whatever.
You're missing guys for whatever reason, and you were able
to put together a ground attack and that one, look,
that was a long time ago, very different Charger team.
I'm not even using that as an example for this
weekend other than just be ready for anything an NFL
team has to do that. The Chargers have done a
great job of adjusting. Slater went out early. They've had
(14:37):
numerous other misses like alt and here they are eleven
wins on the season with two weeks to go.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Okay, you want to know what that offensive line was
against the Chargers that day? Okay, so it's the day
after Christmas twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
We have not won a lot of games, no, but
coming off will win against Jackson.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But we were coming off of winn against Jacksonville.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So day after Christmas, here's your starting offensive line from
left to right. Left tackle, darn Christian, Oh my gosh,
left guard, Cole Toner. I would have been here all
day trying to guess Cole Toner, Center, Jimmy Morrissey.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I like Jimmy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I saw Jimmy up in India.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
He's on Indies pract squad. Yeah, he's doing great.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Max Sharping at right guard, Charlie Heck at right tackle.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Charlie. Where's Charlie right now? Is he? Carol Tampa we.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Too.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Now on the other side with the with the Chargers,
they also had guys up, but they did have Rashawn
Slater who started left tackle, Matt Father former Texan a
long time ago, Scotty Quaisenberry at center a long time ago, uh,
Michael Scholfield, and Storm Norton. So that their offensive line
wasn't great that day either. But it always stood out
to me because that was a you know, game was
(15:47):
during COVID, so you had a lot of guys that were.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
In and out of the lineup.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But I think that what you mentioned earlier is probably
the lineup that you would go with at this point,
probably j pat Jared Patterson moves into left guard, Titus
out the right tackle.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
You got, Blake. Look, it's not the five you've had.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Even getting just one of them back, be it Trent
Orte getting one of them back? Oh huge, It would
would be huge that you would have fewer moving parts.
But that said, you got to go with what you got.
And the Chargers, nobody's crying in nobody's crying in their
beer for you. They lost for Shaun Slater pro bowler
(16:28):
earlier in the year, Joe Alt they lost about halfway
through the season. Those are their two stud left two tackles.
Jamari Sawyer who started against US a couple of years
ago in a big game the Chargers won. He had
a hamstring injury in a game against the Cowboys. So
who replaced him? Austin Deculus?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I remember him well.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, And when it comes to offensive line games that
I remember, I remember beating the Steelers here thirty to
six in twenty twenty three, Week four. We came back
after that Jacksonville game and darn Christian starts.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Austin Deculas starts at left tackle. He rotates with Jaron Christian.
We gave up zero sacks to the Steelers, play Zer
wrote to the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, so you got to keep that in mind. Let's
go over Christmas Day here, because there is a triple
header in the NFL on Christmas Day. By the way,
on this program, Cecil Shortz the Third is going to
join us new head coach at Houston Christian High School
and also played for the Texans back in twenty fifteen.
He's your in stadium host on game day. You see
(17:30):
him a lot, So we'll talk to him about a
number of things he's coming up. But let's get to this.
The Christmas slate, Johnny.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay, So when they set the Christmas slate, it looked good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Cowboys commanders. Oh, Commander's coming off an NFC Championship appearance.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Dak Prescott against Jaydon Daniels in Washington. This very easily
could be Dakota Wayne Prescott against Josh Johnson.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Oh my gosh, they're down to Josh Johnson because Jane
Dams is out for the year.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Mariota injured his hand and his squad in the game
against Eagles. Josh Johnson had to go in and Marcus
Mariota famously does not like to play when he's nine
hundred percent. So that is Game one on Christmas. Game
two on Christmas. The Lions, now eight and seven, struggling
to stay afloat in the playoff race, they will take
on a surging Vikings.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Team surging surging.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
However, Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy has a hairline fracture in
his right hand.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Right hand.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Max Brosmer will start apparently against the Lions.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
All right, so here's the situation. The Vikings have won
three games in a row, not against juggernaut teams Washington, Dallas,
the Giants. But it is what it is. And I
talked about this when McCarthy went out. I don't know
the second or third time this year. How many times
has he been out? It's been three, It's been a lot.
This is the third time you didn't have your act
together at backup quarterback. You had to go get Carson Wentz,
(18:59):
so you did not have when we faced them in
the preseason. So it wasn't like Wentz was all the
way part of our backup to begin with. No Brosemer, Rippin,
that was the plan. Rippin's an indie, right. He got
released before the games okay, because of Rivers. And so
that's the situation, and that's a failure on the organization's part.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
It is, but Christmas Day is now Dak Prescott against
potentially Josh Johnson, Jared Goff against Max Brosmer, who looked
incapable playing the position against Seattle.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean it's almost like they should go get not
Philip Rivers, but anybody right who's willing to play right, right,
because it's not a bad football team. Dante Calpepper, can
you still play? They're seven and age Randall Cunningham the
night game, yeh of the.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Trio the deinver Broncos. Now coming off a loss, they're
going on the road to Kansas City, which Erahead just
lost its football team with the news yesterday that Kansas
City's moved Kansas Chiefs are moving to Kansas.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, is this locked in? Now? This is no way
it's not gonna happen. It's in because I've heard a
lot of Chiefs proposals and things that are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
In the stadium in Kansas. Twenty thirty one thoughts. You
know who loved that? Andre Ware Hell no liked it.
Your sideline reporter likes it being a dome stadium in
Kansas City. Those are some of the worst weather games
we've had in Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You know Buffalo's outdoors right the New Mark Yeah, thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Been there a couple times. The first time it was
it was nice. It was December, but it was it
was It was good as it could be.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Look, it's Kansas City, it's not Minneapolis. I think you
keep it outside. That's just me. However, you build a building,
you pay for the roof. Now you can get a
Final Four, you can get a Super Bowl, you can
get a lot of other events you could not.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
That's exact state and that's what that's what that's what
teams are trying to do. Hey, dome stadium, I mean,
think of the events we've had here.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh, Championship in Kansas City, the middle of the country.
They'll get everything. It's a smart idea, and the people
of Kansas are stepping up. The people of Missouri did not.
It's a weird city in two different states. I get it.
It is what it is. Say, Kansas up a big
time for it going to be weird to see the
Chiefs in an indoor building, just as it will be
(21:23):
when the Bears eventually get their indoor stadium.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Just as weird as seeing Chris Oladukean play quarterback for
the Chiefs. So on Christmas Day at Arrowham on Christmas Day,
you've got Josh Johnson potentially starting for the Commanders, you
have Max Brosmer starting for the Vikings, and Chris Oladukan
starting for the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
In a game, we'd like to see the Chiefs beating
the Broncos.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, we'd love to see that. We'd love to see it.
And you never know about you tell me, this is
the night game, so today fifteenth Central, seven fifteen Central.
So how is the crowd affected by this? That's a
great question, you know what.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I think it's Kansas City's last home game if I
remember correctly. Yeah, because they're at the Raiders. So it's
the last home game. Maybe they show up.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Could be Kelsey's last game, could be Kelsey's last year exactly.
So I think they'll show up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think there are enough reasons that they'll show up
for that game.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
It's going to be freezing. Well I don't know what
the weather is, but I assume it's not going to
be you know, seventy whiskey can't help, I guess, And
you know Christmas Day stuff. There's a reason why movies
for years have premiered on Christmas Day. Why we talked
about this last year when the Texans played the Ravens
on Christmas Day, especially that late afternoon window. We thought, look,
(22:39):
not ideal for the family to have to open up
presents and rush to the game. But it's not really
a rush, but it's that late afternoon window because you've
done this anyway. See mattinees of movie premieres. I think
one of the Lord of the Rings premiered on Christmas
Day whatever, So it's an entertainment event and you're looking
for a reason to get out of the house. You
(22:59):
might be sick of the relatives by then. We need
to look at something else, not each other. Let's go
to an event and see that.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, exact perfect football game movie. You know a lot
of people try and to do that. I mean they're
done with everything by eleven o'clock in the morning. Most
kids are up at six point thirty ready to go.
So you knock that out and you're like, all right,
what do we do the rest of the day? You
just sit there and look at yourselves and watch Christmas movies,
watch ball games.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I mean, that's what we end up doing. Nothing Friday.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Nothing Friday. I don't think it's anything Friday. Well, let
me ask you something that's traveling to la. Let me
ask you this, mister college football. Okay, that's your new
nickname for the little boy five minute segment.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think I know where you're going. Why not run
a triple or quadruple header on Friday. It's December twenty sixth, Yeah,
knock them out and then do the Bulls next. I
don't know. You could play the championship game earlier. I
guess we are where we are whatever. I don't know.
(24:00):
I'm just surprised that they couldn't find a way to
avoid head to head with the NFL last weekend. I
would have played these games on a Friday night. I
know you had a Did you have a Friday night
game last week? Yes? Yeah you did.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You had Oklahoma albound.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh right, so you had a Friday night. You could
have done a doubleheader. Maybe. Okay, that might be a
little tougher because it's not exactly embedded into holiday week
just yet. But what's on tonight? Nothing? Nothing? I mean
Christmas Eve.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Is there's a trio of bowl games.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Exactly, if a trio of bowl games, so you couldn't
have done two of those tonight. I don't know. I'm
just throwing it out there. There's gotta be better window
opportunities than what you did to create ratings for what
you had, which was lopsided matchups.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Well, the thing about it from a college football playoff
standpoint that I don't understand is, Look, I understand playing
the Rose Bowl January first.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I understand playing the Cotton.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Bowl New York like.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I get that because those are traditional bowl if you're
gonna keep the bulls in this whole thing, Okay, I
can't understand that.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
But to go up against the NFL, and.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You saw what college football told you a what it
thought of its college Football Playoff participants and be the NFL,
because it took JMU and Oregon and Ole Miss and
Tulane and put them directly up against the NFL. But
it made Miami in a and m play at noon
(25:32):
to avoid it. So the two games that they had
of the four, the two Marquee games, one played on
Friday when nobody else, nobody else was playing and the
other one was Saturday at eleven.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Now agis were just like, hey, why don't we play
at night?
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Man?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
We should have night prime time. I'm like, nobody would
have been watching, guys.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Nobody would have been watching because Bear's Packers was unbelievable,
and that's what people were watching. Nobody was watching Oregon,
Jam you even me, and you know much I love
college football. I turned on Bears Packers and it was
just mesmerized, and I would flop back over during a commercial. Okay,
Organs and then Oregon it's a thirty four to three lead.
Who's watching it.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
At that point? Imagine Hurricanes Aggie's tonight if you will,
Now you'd only have a week to get ready for
your next game. Rather they go in Orange Bowl or
I forget where they're going going. I just would have
gone to the Cotton Bowl. That's a week from tomorrow
night or tonight. Tomorrow night. Yeah, play tonight. You've been
eight days away. You have all of Tuesday night to yourself,
(26:31):
and there are so many people off work this week.
Not everybody, of course, thank you everybody who's working, because
the stuff we you like to do, go to restaurants
or whatever you're doing tonight. You know you have people working.
Thank you, everybody's working going to stores last minute holiday shopping.
Don't get me started. I think it's time that I
start my holiday shopping. It's usually around now December twenty fourth.
(26:53):
That's done. But here's what you should have done right around.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Here's what you could have done.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I like the eleventh hour pressure.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Yeah, I do, to true degree, but I've gotten it
kind of close.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
You should have played the week after the championship games.
That was a week Army Navy played. That was you know,
KIRKIRB Street saying it was weird.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I was at home.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
There's nothing, you know, good going on. Anyways, you had
Army Navy that weekend. But if you played your playoff
games that weekend, then to your point, you would have
played these games, the second round games.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Here, then you could have had the Bowl games with
eight days apart, and you would have had TV windows
avoiding the NFL and had it all to yourselves. It
would have been nice and you could finish the season
when you finished it in the past kind of the
eighth and ninth, the tenth of January.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, because they look for that Monday night when the
NFL is not playing it for that's what they look for,
those opportunities.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Right, and you your sol you run right up against
them last weekend, you're running up against them on New
Years actually New Year's Day, New Year's Day, you're gonna
be kinda you'll be you'll avoid them because it's Thursday games,
so you'll kind of That's nice.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
But that's the way it should be.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
You should have New Year's Day to yourself and the
the college FOOTBA. I'm sorry, the NFL has always said, look,
new Year's Day's yours. We don't mess with it unless Sunday. Sunday,
then we'll jump in and we have to at that point. Okay,
But if other than in college football games have done
what they moved to the second yeah, or they moved
to the thirty first, they get their window to avoid
(28:30):
the NFL window.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I think I did. The first Rose Bowl that was
not on January first in forever, because when the Canes
played Nebraska, that was the first non Big ten Pac
ten matchup. That's what they were at the time, those
conferences Pack ten and you got the feeling from the
Rose Bowl people they were disgusted by the whole they
were they were their red jackets. Yeah, telling you though,
(28:52):
they put on quite the show. If you ever have
a chance to go, absolutely go to the parade. Trust
me on this. Okay, Coming up, Cecil Short, the third
new high school head football coach, Texans in game stadium
host and a Texans receiver who's got stories, he's got information.
Let's get to him next here on Texans Radio. Back
(29:13):
to it here on Texans All Access. So great to
have you listening. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to you all,
and thank you so much for being a part of
the program and all the programs throughout the year. Texans
and Chargers Saturday at three point thirty, Let's get to
Cecil Shorts, the third in stadium game day host, played
receiver for this team in twenty fifteen, and new head
(29:34):
coach at Houston Christian High School. So let's get into that.
What attracted Cecil to the job, what he expects Let's
dig in man.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Well, first off, I guess for me, I watched my
dad was a high school coach for twenty plus years,
so just seeing the impact he made on the people
around him, the athletes around him, the coaches around him,
and then how they impacted him has been exceptional. So
this is to be a part of that and to
see that on a daily basis growing up in it,
(30:05):
It's always been attractive to me. And then when this
opportunity come up to a really good school, I'm a
school that's moving up a division in the private school
world to already a great community, already some really good
players and coaches there. For me to come there and
try to take that program to the next level and
try to make it even more special, that was intriguing
(30:25):
to me, so looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
See so when I heard about this, I was so
happy for you.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I had done this many years ago, being the head
coach at a private school, religiously affiliated school, and I
just took a lot of pride in being the head coach,
being the leader of that program. And I remember we
got to the playoffs for the first time at school
history when I was coaching many many years ago down
in Jacksonville, and that was such I was so proud
(30:52):
of that. And I know Houston Christians had probably a
better history than that. But I know there are things
that you want to be able to do with this
program that maybe others have not been able to do.
What's the biggest thing that you want to be able
to establish as the leader of the program, not just
that coach, but to face the program, the one out
in front of everybody that everybody sees every day.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah, that's a great point. I think the main thing
is established as culture early and often, and the coach
is going to be always compete, Like we're always going
to be competing with us in the classroom, where it's
at home, trying to take the trash out, whether it's
being the first one this practice field, whether that's one
on one during practice, or whatever it may be, is
always going to be about competing, because that's how you
(31:35):
get better, right, And that's not only how you get
better as a football player, but as a man as well. Right,
Sometimes you don't want to wake up and deal with
the kids or whatever the case may be, but you're
choosing to do the right thing, and at the end
of the day, you're competing against yourself more likely than
anything else. And people will start realizing as we go
on with our culture. But I think that's the biggest thing.
Its establishing that culture, really building roots in that community.
(31:59):
I can't I can't talk enough how highly the community
is already, how much has already been talked about how
special it is, but to make the moments, to make
the traditions, to really dive into the history of the school.
School's going to be around twenty seven years, but still
to vive into that history of the school and really
make that community special on a Friday night, you know,
(32:20):
how can we make this a fun event for the families,
for the kids, but also doing that it helps bring
more eyes to the school, more attention to the school.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
One thing that caught my eyes the head of school,
the principal, and the ad are all in one alignment.
Oh my gosh, it's a beautiful thing when you have
everybody on the same page. They want to win, They
want to be one of the best private schools in America,
and they already are there. When it comes to academics,
they already are there. When it comes to the basketball programs.
Now it's about building that football program and trying to
(32:49):
get it to a national level down the line eventually.
So I'm excited for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Cecil Shorts the third joining us new head coach at
Houston Christian High School. Cecil, It's it's not like this
as your first coaching job, your coaching responsibility. Tell us
about your background a little bit. Share with us what
you've done in the Houston area prior.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
So. I've been at Second Baptist School majority of my
coaching career. I started there and Terry Purtle, who's the
AD at Houston Christian, he was the one that gave
me my first shot of coaching at Second Baptist. He
was the head coach there. Brought me on staff on
a ton from him. So I was there for about
five or six years varsity assistant. I was an offensive
coordinator at times, receiver coach, and dB coach, so I
(33:30):
kind of see both sides of the ball a little bit,
which helps a lot when it comes to preparing for
either side. Also, I handled middle school duties, so I
was a middle school headed coach for three or four
years there, trying to build that program up and really
get the kids excited about playing high school ball. And
that helped me kind of understand, Okay, if I have
a feeder school, how do I get them to really
(33:51):
get ready for the high school round, Like what excites them,
what gets them ready for football? And then just really
teaching the fundamentals you can never get tired of teaching
those things right. And then last year I was blessed
to be able to be in sixth A public school
football and learn a lot from coach Michael Lindsay and
everybody on his stad. We made it to the second
round of playoffs and we got to play I mean,
top tier teams like Straight Jesuit and a Task of
(34:12):
Seda and Summer Creek, so some of the big dogs
in the state and really learn and to watch not
only Lamar and great things they were doing, but the
other big time schools like the Task of Season, Summer Creeks,
what they do on a daily basis to really pick
their guys, have to pick their brains a little bit
and see what they do and hopefully I can add
some of that culture to what we have going on.
But yeah, for the last I guess seven eight years,
(34:34):
I've been in the coaching rams, just trying to work
my way up, just trying to just be patiently, patiently
away for my time to be a head coach, whether
that was middle school or high school, and now is
the time.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
See.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
So I remember the very first day that I coached
the middle school. I remember kids came in and I
was handing out pads and I'm going somewhere over this,
and one kid who ended up being my one of
my favorite players ever, I'm handing out now at the
time you hand it out pads. I handed out to
thigh pads, two hip pads, two knee pads, and I
(35:06):
gave him one butt pad and he waited for the
second one. And I said, William, what are you waiting for?
And he goes, well, you gave me two of everything else.
And I said, son, you got two of everything else,
you have one butt and he goes, oh, okay, that
makes sense. And my point in all that is when
you play at the highest level that you did, when
(35:26):
you coach at a high high school level, there are
things you assume that kids know. When you coach middle school,
it teaches you not to assume, because there's so many
things that you don't realize that they don't know. And
I think it ends up making you a better coach
in the long run. Did you have kind of experiences
maybe not like that, but just the fact that, oh man,
(35:48):
these middle school kids don't exactly know what I'm talking about.
I got to make sure I find a different way
to teach to them to make sure they understand it.
Did you find the middle school years helped you a
little bit better as you went up into the high
school ranks.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
The middle school years were I think my most development
as a coach, because, like you mentioned, I had to
figure out, Okay, I want to run you know, outside zone,
and how do I teach outside zones to seventh or
eighth graders that they even heard the term outside zone?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:16):
How do I teach how do I teach him about
their first step as an offensive lineman? An offensive lineman
as you know in middle school maybe five eight, you know,
one hundred and sixty pounds, but he may be offensive lineman, right,
So how do I teach him his first step? How
do I teach the quarterback the fundamentals of handing the
ball off or the running back. So I had to
really break it down and that helped me develop as
a coach because it never and I listened to Nick
(36:38):
Saban talk about this and whoever else is big in
the ranks, the fundamentals go nowhere, Like the fundamentals have
to be taught from the ground up. So if you
can teach that from the ground up, when you get
to high school and you can get to the other levels,
then you can kind of evolve from there. But even
when you get to the high school level, it's still
guys that need to learn go back to the fundamentals.
It might not be as long as you're there, right,
(36:58):
but go back to the fundamentals. You start there and
then you evolve and kind of go forward. So that
definitely was a lot of fun in middle school. It
was challenging, but that's probably the purest form I've been
a part of football, because they're just they're just to
play with their boys, truly, this enjoy it, truly just
to have a good time, and they want to win
some games along the way, right. So that was a
(37:19):
lot of fun being a part of middle school. But
you're right, it's really about laying that foundation and learning
how to communicate at their level, which will be communicate
at a higher level when you go up.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
See so being the inn stadium host for game day,
you get a lot of notoriety, a lot of attention.
Are there some people, I'm guessing this happens sometimes. Are
there some people that are surprised to learn that you
actually played for the Houston Texans and played in the
NFL extensively.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Yes, people now it is like I'm more I don't
look at myself as a celebrity at all, but people
will see me more as a in stadium host and
know more be about that like, oh you played ball?
Oh wait for Texas?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Oh really? Oh cool? I'm like, yeah, that's correat.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
It's fun man. You get to be around the fans,
you get to be on the on the sideline close
to the game, and it's fun because the guys are
playing really well in the field. So to be help
helping that excitement, to help that building really get fired
up is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Okay, So I know that maybe some opposing coaches are listening,
so you don't want you to give up too much.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
But what are you running?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Man?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Offensively? I mean, you played in the NFL, you played
different systems. What do you what are you running both
sides of the ball? Come on, give us a little
preview of what you want offensively and defensively.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
As you know, John, it depends on your personnel, right. So,
so I don't want to do something my guys can't
handle or what they're not good at. Right, But as
I'm watching the huddle and watching the film. You know,
we got a quarterback that can sling it. We got
we got a couple running backs in the stable that
that aren't bad at all. We got to singing running back.
I think it'd be pretty good. So I think, when
(38:55):
I'm looking at it right now, I would love to
run a pro style. I love outside zone, I love
mide zone. I love the bootleg off of that. And
to be honest with you, like our playbooks. I always
think the playbooks should be simple to the players for
the little complex to the defense. So we may run
counter power and zone, but we're gonna run out of
(39:16):
ten different formations and we're gonna add motions and shifts
and explode to different things. And now the defense thinks
is Monday night football, and they're like, hey, what the heck,
we didn't watch this on film. But it's the same
stuff that we do. Like nothing changes for us, if
that makes sense. It just looks different to the defense.
And on defense, you know, I'm thinking four two five.
I really got to look at what I have though.
(39:36):
But in today's game, where there's more passing, there's more
there's more people that are getting rid of the ball quickly.
I want to have that extra dB on the field possibly,
So that's that's what I'm thinking offensive and defensively right now.
Don't want to give too much up because you know,
I know a Piscopal and K probably listening, but it'd
be fun.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, And that's the thing with the private school too.
The four two five is perfect because you don't always
get linebacker type bot. You know, sometimes you get that
one hundred and ninety pounder and you're like Leslie safety linebacker.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
What you know, we played four to five, So just
put him at ninety pounder. Houston Christian might be playing
defensive tackle right playing pretext at some point. All yeah, see.
So what are your thoughts on the current Texan seven
game winning streak in progress, where it might go from here?
What are you seeing in general?
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I tell you what, it's fun to watch. The defense
obviously is playing outstanding. I'm happy to have CJ back,
that's been It's been a plus. Love Davis coming in
and stepping up and playing well. But it's something about
having seven on the field to give you some confidence
about him being there. It's like, all right, cool, you
know things are gonna be okay. But to have this
win streak and I'll be honest with you, the FC
(40:44):
South is tough man. I'm watching the coach last night
and Philip is trying to try to keep the coach alive.
Yeah night, But it's tough, man. And for them to
continue to find ways to win no matter what's going on.
And people are like, oh, well the Raiders they should
have Well, it's an NFL team, and the Raiders going
to give you your best shot every single week. Whoever
you play, gonna give your best shot against that defensive
(41:04):
offense where the case may be. So for them to
keep finding ways to win. And as you guys know,
I mean good things winning December and January November, that's
just what it is. So to be hot at the
right time, to start finding your identity at the right time.
It's a lot of fun to see. And the AFC
is wide open. There is no passion. No AFC goes
to Mahomes. No, the AFC goes to Lamart, No, it doesn't.
(41:26):
It's wide open in my opinion. But the Texans to me,
have a real shot of making some noise and kind
of getting over that hump and getting topefully to the
AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
And beyond outstanding see soul one more for you, And
we don't mean to bring it up to rub it in,
but there are a lot of people who attended John
Carroll in this building and they're very happy with a
recent result that yeah, defeating Mount Unions. Well look they
brought up his name. This is his chance for equal
time because I know that had to be a tough one,
(41:55):
but you do have history on your side in general
with Mount Union over everybody in Division three. Being an alum,
your thoughts on what went down here in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
My heart hurts right now because I have a lot
of trash. I can talk because I beat Frank Ross
four times in an hour. Five times we played. We
were beating five times in college. You know, wait, with
Catherio going there, I got some bragging right seeing. I
mean you're kind of walking around a little confidently. Then
they leave the conference and like, oh, y'all scared of
us in the conference and they come in seut us
up in our own place. Kudos to them, man, that's
(42:28):
a really good program. Obviously put a lot of people
out there. But it definitely hurts. But you know, Frank
and they have some They definitely have some bragging Rice
right now.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Well, Cecil, Hey, congratulations on getting the Houston Christian High
School football coaching gig, and we look forward to seeing
you again in the regular season finale and beyond at
NRG Stadium hosting game day stuff. Thanks so much for
joining us.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Hey, thanks, I'll be talking about.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
There's Cecil Shorts the third. Always a pleasure visiting with
him and love that twenty fifteen season when the Texans
rebatted from two to five to win the division. That
was very cool stuff and he was a big part
of that. All right, coming up, Texans matchup is coming
up soon enough. Before that, are quickie Houston Methodist Minutes.
We usually do it on Thursday, but it's a strange
(43:14):
week because you have the holiday on Thursday. So let's
do this. Sleep troubles who doesn't have them? We'll dig
in a little bit next here on Texans Radio. Final
segment here tonight on Texans Radio. And we usually do
Houston Methodist Minutes on Thursday, but Thursday's Christmas and there's
an NFL triple header on Sports Radio six to ten
that you want to listen to. Driving out and about
(43:36):
visiting the relatives, getting away from the relatives, whatever it
is you might be doing in the car. On Thursday,
I realized that radio is still very much a car medium.
But you also have the Odyssey app, so you can
follow us anywhere anyway. Houston Methodist minutes. I try to
occasionally get into stuff that everyone can relate to. How
about sleep issues, I've got some, maybe you do too.
(43:59):
And doctor Gunjin Nirwani joins us right now, and I
start this interview with my own issues, which are I
have no trouble falling asleep at night. I am out
like a light, but three hours later, sometimes I'm up
and my brain just starts operating at full volume. So
(44:20):
what about my condition? How would that be classified?
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Without knowing a whole lot more of what's going on,
I would say, when you find it hard to fall
back asleep, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yeah, I'm thinking the brain will not shut off, doctor,
it just constantly goes. I don't read my phone or
do those kinds of things. I don't turn on the TV.
I'm trying to get back, but there's a little man
inside my head with a little pick axe just going
at it. I don't know what to say.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
So this is actually really common, and one of the
first things that we teach our patients when they can't
fall back to sleep in the middle of the night
is actually to get out of the bed. Get out
of the bed, go into a quiet room, engage in
an activity that is not too stimular but maybe empty
the dish rusher or foldsome laundry. Do a quiet activity
(45:05):
for the next fifteen to twenty minutes until you feel
like you're ready to get back to sleep, because, in fact,
laying in bed and trying to force yourself to sleep,
especially in the middle of the night, is actually it
makes it worse. It kind of trains your body and
your brain that it's okay to be awake in bed.
So we actually it sounds hard, but we actually train
patients to get out of bed, do something else, and
(45:28):
when they feel ready to get back to sleep, try
it again. And it may happen multiple times over the
course of the night. But that is the way that
we break it. It's like a habit. Like anything else.
We have to teach the body and the brain again
that bed is for sleep and only for sleep. And
I think that you're already doing a lot of the
right things by not using electronics, because I see a
lot of that, and it's really tempting to grab a
(45:48):
phone or turn on the TV. So if that is
not something that you are doing again, that's great, But
spending long periods in bed awake is actually not good.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
There's doctor good Norwani of Houston Methodist, the official healthcare
provider of the Houston Texans, Houston Methodist leading medicine. All right,
that's gonna do it. For this particular program coming up,
it's Texans Matchup and you don't want to miss it.
Johnny Harris on everything that happened against the Raiders and
a bunch of other great stuff as well. Tomorrow we
will do a full show. Nick Cassio will lead us off,
(46:20):
so you don't want to miss that. You know, forget
about the family and presence or whatever else you might
do on Christmas Eve. Yea, some people do open presents
on Christmas Eve. I grew up that way. But listen
to the interview instead of participating in family activities. I'm kidding.
Do both have the Odyssey app you can rewind. You
can listen to the podcast later, or if you're out
and about driving to wherever it is you're going listen
(46:41):
to Nick at six nick at night. Wait a minute,
that sounds original. Also Thursday, I mentioned the triple header
on Sports Radio six ten Friday Full Show Before You
Hear the Texans and the Chargers on Saturday afternoon live
from LA. We'll have text countdown presented by Medelo Especily
(47:01):
album at twelve thirty, kickoff at three point thirty. Let's
do it. Have a great night everyone, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.
Go Texans.
Hello Texans, It's Texans Radio. Mark Vandermre and John Harris
with you. So great to have you listening during this
holiday week, Mary, Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays, and
let's have some fun here tonight. And by the way,
we will be on the air Christmas Eve with a
full show with we'll let you know what we have. Okay,
we'll let you know what we have at the TV maybe,
(00:20):
but it will be something. It'll be something, it'll be
on and it'll be good because the team is practicing tomorrow,
will be here at work tomorrow, Christmas at work. And
there are some people in the building Johnny, who their
jobs are more focused on the event part of things,
and meaning, hey, we have ten huge events a year
with all these home games, right plus the Kinders Texas Bowls.
(00:40):
So they're working that this week right Saturday night. That's
gonna be big. And I know you canna have David Fletcher,
the general manager, leader Secretek, director of the ball. Yeah, yep,
that's gonna be good also. But they have a lot
of they're ready for this one and they might have
some time off tomorrow, but we don't, and we're not
bitter about it because we love what we do. So
there's that. We'll be on a plane Friday with the
(01:02):
team going to the Chargers on Saturday, a game that's
a win and in game for your Houston Texans playoff wise,
you want to know about all the clinching scenarios here
it is win and in now lose. You can still
get in with the Colts loss, that's right, But nobody
wants to leave it up to the Jags to do
your dirty work for you this weekend. Do your own work.
(01:25):
Do you know what in and then see what unfolds
after that? How about that?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Now there is a strength of victory component. Oh gosh,
that's the third point of how you could get in.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh yeah, that's right. You need all these different things
to play out because it weekends or strengthens different that's
different parts of your schedule or other teams.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So teams the Colts have beaten Dolphins Falcons, you need
them to lose. Teams the Texans have beaten Buffalo Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Niners.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You need those teams to win so you have strength.
So there's a third way you can make it. Number one,
the basic you win, you're in to indye loses to Jacksonville,
which we don't really want that to happen.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
No, we know, unless we lose on Saturday. Unless we
lose on Saturday, then we yeah right need that.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I think Sean pointed this out and did a really
good job on Sports Radio six to ten. He said,
what happens in our game determines who we're rooting for
in Jack's Colts.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, well, it's hard not to root for Rivers. And
we'll n start here just for a moment. I know
people have been discussing him all day, but it's such
a compelling story. When your guy, when your guy comes back,
your guy comes back from five years off, he's forty
four years old, and he plays as well as he
did for so much of that game. I know he
threw the pick six to Deep Winters at the end.
(02:49):
I thought the game was kind of over at that point. Man,
the Colts defense, What the heck happened there? I have
multiple theories on everything. Well, it's not even a theory.
The Niners are playing some good football right now. And
you brought the up earlier this week, meaning yesterday. Boy,
it feels like later in the week that it really is. Yes,
we just had Texans Monday yesterday. I know the thing
is it's game week Wednesday, so we feel like it's later.
(03:11):
And I'm not going to go into the whole game
week thing, but the team practiced with a Wednesday type
practice at least in many ways. Look, they're not in pads,
they're not doing a normal Wednesday routine because they just
played forty eight hours ago as they were practicing. Anyway,
I think that the River's story is so compelling for
anybody young and old, just to see him with that
(03:34):
kind of command. And you were bringing this up before
we got on the air here about when you see
the posts him talking to his linemen, his receivers at
the line. Indian we point this out every time we
go there. That crowd is so quiet. I'm watching the
game last night and I didn't hear everything Joe Bucken
Troy Yikman had to say, but I hope they were
(03:54):
commenting on the fact that the Indianapolis crowd is the
most well behaved crowd when their team is on offense
in the league because they were so well trained under
Peyton Manning. This for those years, Yep, Manning probably had
you know how the Aggies have yelled practice he probably
had crowd quiet practice. I want sixty thousand people in
this building and we're gonna practice being quiet, so you
(04:16):
know how I want you to be when I'm operating
this offense, saying O maha a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, when Peyton would get up there, he would gesture
madly like nah. He would do like the calm down,
stop quiet, which he had to do that the other
day with the crowd against the Raiders, he had to
do that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I don't know that they ever really quieted down.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Maybe it worked out, I don't know, because that was
the first and goal from the one and he threw
a dart to Dalton for the touchdown. But he had
to do that kind of hey, calm down, you know.
Peyton would do that, and he would say a bunch
of curse words like shut up, shut the bleep public,
you know. And so they eventually got it. They understood
what eighteen wanted. I mean, that's what they called him,
the sheriff. But it was fascinating and I remember having
(05:00):
the first half second half.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
But there's a play where Rivers.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It came out in a in a three by one,
so basically that that Tyler to the left side of
the Tyler Warren lined up with Downs and Pittman Jonathan
Taylor was uh the back and he was.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Put to that side.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And then there's a wide receiver route the right, so
Rivers you can hear him, sends down Downs and motions
like Josh go go so he goes in motion, and
he goes in motion right after up to Stout the
nickel like looked like he was gonna blitz. So when
Downs goes over, Stout goes with him, and Rivers is
(05:41):
sitting back there and he sees the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
And as soon as Stout gets.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
The other side, he waits to see and he sees
nothing from the Niners, so he knows they still got
a blitz on, and he changes the play to like
a three level flood concept, so there's gonna be a
short medium long on the far sideline. But because they
he saw that, they didn't change the blitz or make
any kind of change. He knew somebody was coming down
(06:05):
because a safety buzz down. He's like, that guy's blitzing.
They only got two to cover our three changes. The
play gets to the right play, both Taylor and Warren
are open, and he drops it to Warren for like
fifteen yards in a first down, and you just, holy crap,
that's that's incredible. And this whole discussion about reading coverages
(06:26):
versus peer progression and.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
All that, that's kind of popped up.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And you know, Kirk Cousins talked about that for about
two minutes. I listened to what he had sayd It
was really really good what he had to say. But
there's Rivers, the old gunsling. You're understanding exactly what you
are doing defensively and then changing the play, making sure
everybody knew the play. They executed a bunch of guys
he has not played with but two weeks, yep, and
they executed it.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Parteder, get it right too, because Grandpa's gonna be upset.
He's gonna you say, good at the right tackle last night,
Gonzalez a false start and then Rivers ripping him, got
all over, spiked the ball and he was right, And
what's he gonna say? Right? Right? And Salvis is like, uh, sorry, sir, yeah, exactly.
(07:09):
You mean to disappoint you. Yeah, because a lot of guys,
younger quarterbacks could not get away with no ripping their
line like that. Now in public, on national television, it's
Philip Rivers. What I mean, they might, they might try it,
they might do it. They also might get planted in
the turf by their own offensive line. Yeah, yeah, you know,
yeah you might see a Oh I just let the
guy go by accidentally. Matador def not ador knocking, if
(07:32):
you will, But that was cool to see. It was
also cool to see Rivers play well. Yet the Colts lose,
which is kind of what I wanted last night. Yeah,
Rivers do some things, make it entertaining for us, right,
but please lose. And the Texans beat the forty nine ers,
which is nice to know. And they're starting to heat
up at the time of year. Oh my goodness, they
are heating up. There's also another moment. This one actually
(07:53):
happened in the Steelers and the Lions game.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Remember that highlight of Kenneth Gainwell went down a field
and made that catch. AZELONEI like yanks him down, but
Gainwell makes the catch falling down, doesn't get touched right,
and gets it.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
He goes in the end zone an explosion of people
and he doesn't get touched in the process of going down, right.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
So Rodgers is miked up in the game.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh I didn't see that part.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So Gainwell is standing next to him and Rodgers yells
to him, motion, he goes, go in motion and run
to the flat. And before he about he says it
in emotion, he changes his mind. He goes, he goes, hey,
motion out there running go, motion out there, runna go.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Just says that.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He says it to him. He says, motion out there
running go. He's drawing up in the dirt.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Absolutely he knew, and you know what he knew.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He knew Angeloni would go with him, right, And because
he knew Angeloni would go with him, he's like, I
trust my guy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
He's he's I mean, Gainwell's got good receiving skills.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So now you've got Angeloni, who is a pretty good
coverage linebacker by the way, but he knew he had
him one on one, throws it to Gainwell.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
That's the key, gets the catch touchdown.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
They review it.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
He got in. He never got touched.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
But it's just fascinating that there's Rogers forty one years old,
knowing exactly what the lines were gonna do. He faced
them with the Packers, he's faced them before. He knew
exactly what defense they would be in. And he first
is like running the flat and he's like, no, no, no, no, no,
go in motion, run.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
A goat and it was just fat. I saw it.
I was like, that is really cool. So it is
really cool. And he's got that old guy respect that
Rivers has. It's okay, mister Rogers, I will do that
for you. Yes, I am a Rod.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yes, don't matter what coach said, you do what I'm
telling you right now, You're gonna go get and he
gets a touchdown. So you know, if you're if you
play alongside these guys, yeah, the coach. You know, coach
coach tells you one thing, and you know most of
those quarterbacks know, hey, I'm not gonna get too I'm
not gonna get so crazy that Hey, I don't care
what your coach said to you. But if there's gonna
(09:53):
be a tweak and you're gonna do something now, you
better make it pay off. Because Kennedy Gainwill has to
go back to the sideline and talk to his running
backs coach explain why'd you run a go route there?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And he's going, well, hey, Rod told me.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You know, I mean, you got to fly to a
coach that ain't at all does unless it works.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
How does Arthur Smith feel about it. How does Mike
Tomlin feel about it? Because it's the bum Phillips quote, right,
two kinds of players not worth it? Dan Right, you
got one that never does what he's told and one
that only does what he's told. And sometimes you got
to let the guys cook. And I think the good
coaches understand this, especially when you have a guy who
can call as opposed to somebody's gonna call some stuff
(10:30):
that doesn't work. Why not empower these guys. I think
that kind of thing should happen more. And as I
say that, preferably, you know, if you know what you're
doing right, you got to know what you're doing. I
to call those situations accurately. I mean, it obviously comes
with trust. And who doesn't trust Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I always go back to this is my experience A
long long time ago. I did not like a short
side or a week'side toss.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I hated that play.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I didn't like it. I just felt like that made
that the tackle have a really hard block. A lot
of times it turned the holding. I didn't like it.
So we're in a game and I always told my quarterback,
I said, I'll let you change things. If you change something,
but it better work right. And so we were in
a game and I was kind of behind the offense
and my assistant coach comes running down and he says.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
He checked the toss.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
He checked the toss, and all I could say was
will better bleep and be right yep? And it's third
and four catch it. Running back goes down for like
forty yards, gets down to the one yard line and
I was like, I won't say anything. Yeah, I won't
say anything. The only thing I did say to him
was what you see and he goes they were loading
up on the strong side. I felt like John could
get outside of the weeks. I was like, okay, cool,
(11:35):
that's fine. So there's a lot of trust built in.
But Rogers made that work. Rivers made that work. If
you're a younger quarterback and you're just like, hey, let's
change display, why cause I think it's a good play
and it doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, that's not gonna fly.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But you know Philip and what he knows about the game,
and you know what Aaron Rodgers knows about the game.
And that's another team that's getting a little bit pesky,
and it could come into play for the Texan. Depending
on what happens with Eagles, Bills, Texans, Chargers, there could
be some things where the Texans beat the Chargers, Eagles
(12:10):
beat the Bills, and now you might have to move up.
You move up, but to the five seat at that point,
and at that point you would go to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Well that was in the playoffings. Now you gotta face
the old guy. I wouldn't mind that. We're starting to
feel like it's gonna be wild Card City. But you
don't know, you don't know, Jags can stumble. This is
still the Jaguars. It's two division games left for them. Yeah,
you never know. They're notice this is a tough game
for them at the Colts. You know, the Colts are
gonna bring it, especially if there's anything left on the
(12:39):
line for them. And as I say that, you know
you want to see the Texans win on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, but the Colts will still play. They'll play, They'll
play a division game. They'll treat it like a bowl game.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
It's a home game, and maybe just maybe they can
get some things done. Yeah, and they'll play better defense
than they did against the San Francisco forty nine ers. Okay,
A couple of things here, Johnny. If the Texans have
to go without both or at least one of the
tackles that they've been starting during this streak, If you've
got to go without Ursery and or Trent Brown, in
all likelihood, we're looking at Titus Howard at right, Blake
(13:13):
Fisher at left. That's what I think. Yeah, that's what
I think. And I think, Look, this is not ideal,
but the team you're playing, the very team you're playing,
is the poster team for trouble on the offensive line,
especially as tackle. So you cannot sing the Blues about anything.
And look the way this season's been, everybody's played everything.
And we talked about it with Nick Cassario, we talked
(13:34):
about it with Demiko Ryans. All that stuff is up
on YouTube. We'll have the Nick conversation for you tomorrow.
This is why they do what they do in training camp.
This is why everybody's pulling their hair out. What are
they doing with Blake Fisher at left tackle? Well, you
never know when Blake Fisher might have to play left
tackle and it could be Saturday.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, what are they doing with Well, they like to.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Mix it up because they have these situations crop up
from time to time, preferably not, but they do crop
up where you have to reconfigure your offensive line. Some
of the more memorable wins in that two year dark
period twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, you had
what the game against the Chargers where I don't even
remember who you were playing on the offensive line, and
that one in my next Berkad runs the daylights out
(14:16):
of the ball. You know it was COVID, it was whatever.
You're missing guys for whatever reason, and you were able
to put together a ground attack and that one, look,
that was a long time ago, very different Charger team.
I'm not even using that as an example for this
weekend other than just be ready for anything an NFL
team has to do that. The Chargers have done a
great job of adjusting. Slater went out early. They've had
(14:37):
numerous other misses like alt and here they are eleven
wins on the season with two weeks to go.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Okay, you want to know what that offensive line was
against the Chargers that day? Okay, so it's the day
after Christmas twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
We have not won a lot of games, no, but
coming off will win against Jackson.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But we were coming off of winn against Jacksonville.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So day after Christmas, here's your starting offensive line from
left to right. Left tackle, darn Christian, Oh my gosh,
left guard, Cole Toner. I would have been here all
day trying to guess Cole Toner, Center, Jimmy Morrissey.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I like Jimmy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I saw Jimmy up in India.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
He's on Indies pract squad. Yeah, he's doing great.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Max Sharping at right guard, Charlie Heck at right tackle.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Charlie. Where's Charlie right now? Is he? Carol Tampa we.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Too.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Now on the other side with the with the Chargers,
they also had guys up, but they did have Rashawn
Slater who started left tackle, Matt Father former Texan a
long time ago, Scotty Quaisenberry at center a long time ago, uh,
Michael Scholfield, and Storm Norton. So that their offensive line
wasn't great that day either. But it always stood out
to me because that was a you know, game was
(15:47):
during COVID, so you had a lot of guys that were.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
In and out of the lineup.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But I think that what you mentioned earlier is probably
the lineup that you would go with at this point,
probably j pat Jared Patterson moves into left guard, Titus
out the right tackle.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
You got, Blake. Look, it's not the five you've had.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Even getting just one of them back, be it Trent
Orte getting one of them back? Oh huge, It would
would be huge that you would have fewer moving parts.
But that said, you got to go with what you got.
And the Chargers, nobody's crying in nobody's crying in their
beer for you. They lost for Shaun Slater pro bowler
(16:28):
earlier in the year, Joe Alt they lost about halfway
through the season. Those are their two stud left two tackles.
Jamari Sawyer who started against US a couple of years
ago in a big game the Chargers won. He had
a hamstring injury in a game against the Cowboys. So
who replaced him? Austin Deculus?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I remember him well.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, And when it comes to offensive line games that
I remember, I remember beating the Steelers here thirty to
six in twenty twenty three, Week four. We came back
after that Jacksonville game and darn Christian starts.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Austin Deculas starts at left tackle. He rotates with Jaron Christian.
We gave up zero sacks to the Steelers, play Zer
wrote to the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, so you got to keep that in mind. Let's
go over Christmas Day here, because there is a triple
header in the NFL on Christmas Day. By the way,
on this program, Cecil Shortz the Third is going to
join us new head coach at Houston Christian High School
and also played for the Texans back in twenty fifteen.
He's your in stadium host on game day. You see
(17:30):
him a lot, So we'll talk to him about a
number of things he's coming up. But let's get to this.
The Christmas slate, Johnny.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay, So when they set the Christmas slate, it looked good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Cowboys commanders. Oh, Commander's coming off an NFC Championship appearance.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Dak Prescott against Jaydon Daniels in Washington. This very easily
could be Dakota Wayne Prescott against Josh Johnson.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Oh my gosh, they're down to Josh Johnson because Jane
Dams is out for the year.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Mariota injured his hand and his squad in the game
against Eagles. Josh Johnson had to go in and Marcus
Mariota famously does not like to play when he's nine
hundred percent. So that is Game one on Christmas. Game
two on Christmas. The Lions, now eight and seven, struggling
to stay afloat in the playoff race, they will take
on a surging Vikings.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Team surging surging.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
However, Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy has a hairline fracture in
his right hand.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Right hand.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Max Brosmer will start apparently against the Lions.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
All right, so here's the situation. The Vikings have won
three games in a row, not against juggernaut teams Washington, Dallas,
the Giants. But it is what it is. And I
talked about this when McCarthy went out. I don't know
the second or third time this year. How many times
has he been out? It's been three, It's been a lot.
This is the third time you didn't have your act
together at backup quarterback. You had to go get Carson Wentz,
(18:59):
so you did not have when we faced them in
the preseason. So it wasn't like Wentz was all the
way part of our backup to begin with. No Brosemer, Rippin,
that was the plan. Rippin's an indie, right. He got
released before the games okay, because of Rivers. And so
that's the situation, and that's a failure on the organization's part.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
It is, but Christmas Day is now Dak Prescott against
potentially Josh Johnson, Jared Goff against Max Brosmer, who looked
incapable playing the position against Seattle.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean it's almost like they should go get not
Philip Rivers, but anybody right who's willing to play right, right,
because it's not a bad football team. Dante Calpepper, can
you still play? They're seven and age Randall Cunningham the
night game, yeh of the.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Trio the deinver Broncos. Now coming off a loss, they're
going on the road to Kansas City, which Erahead just
lost its football team with the news yesterday that Kansas
City's moved Kansas Chiefs are moving to Kansas.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, is this locked in? Now? This is no way
it's not gonna happen. It's in because I've heard a
lot of Chiefs proposals and things that are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
In the stadium in Kansas. Twenty thirty one thoughts. You
know who loved that? Andre Ware Hell no liked it.
Your sideline reporter likes it being a dome stadium in
Kansas City. Those are some of the worst weather games
we've had in Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You know Buffalo's outdoors right the New Mark Yeah, thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Been there a couple times. The first time it was
it was nice. It was December, but it was it
was It was good as it could be.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Look, it's Kansas City, it's not Minneapolis. I think you
keep it outside. That's just me. However, you build a building,
you pay for the roof. Now you can get a
Final Four, you can get a Super Bowl, you can
get a lot of other events you could not.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
That's exact state and that's what that's what that's what
teams are trying to do. Hey, dome stadium, I mean,
think of the events we've had here.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh, Championship in Kansas City, the middle of the country.
They'll get everything. It's a smart idea, and the people
of Kansas are stepping up. The people of Missouri did not.
It's a weird city in two different states. I get it.
It is what it is. Say, Kansas up a big
time for it going to be weird to see the
Chiefs in an indoor building, just as it will be
(21:23):
when the Bears eventually get their indoor stadium.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Just as weird as seeing Chris Oladukean play quarterback for
the Chiefs. So on Christmas Day at Arrowham on Christmas Day,
you've got Josh Johnson potentially starting for the Commanders, you
have Max Brosmer starting for the Vikings, and Chris Oladukan
starting for the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
In a game, we'd like to see the Chiefs beating
the Broncos.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, we'd love to see that. We'd love to see it.
And you never know about you tell me, this is
the night game, so today fifteenth Central, seven fifteen Central.
So how is the crowd affected by this? That's a
great question, you know what.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I think it's Kansas City's last home game if I
remember correctly. Yeah, because they're at the Raiders. So it's
the last home game. Maybe they show up.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Could be Kelsey's last game, could be Kelsey's last year exactly.
So I think they'll show up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think there are enough reasons that they'll show up
for that game.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
It's going to be freezing. Well I don't know what
the weather is, but I assume it's not going to
be you know, seventy whiskey can't help, I guess, And
you know Christmas Day stuff. There's a reason why movies
for years have premiered on Christmas Day. Why we talked
about this last year when the Texans played the Ravens
on Christmas Day, especially that late afternoon window. We thought, look,
(22:39):
not ideal for the family to have to open up
presents and rush to the game. But it's not really
a rush, but it's that late afternoon window because you've
done this anyway. See mattinees of movie premieres. I think
one of the Lord of the Rings premiered on Christmas
Day whatever, So it's an entertainment event and you're looking
for a reason to get out of the house. You
(22:59):
might be sick of the relatives by then. We need
to look at something else, not each other. Let's go
to an event and see that.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, exact perfect football game movie. You know a lot
of people try and to do that. I mean they're
done with everything by eleven o'clock in the morning. Most
kids are up at six point thirty ready to go.
So you knock that out and you're like, all right,
what do we do the rest of the day? You
just sit there and look at yourselves and watch Christmas movies,
watch ball games.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I mean, that's what we end up doing. Nothing Friday.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Nothing Friday. I don't think it's anything Friday. Well, let
me ask you something that's traveling to la. Let me
ask you this, mister college football. Okay, that's your new
nickname for the little boy five minute segment.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think I know where you're going. Why not run
a triple or quadruple header on Friday. It's December twenty sixth, Yeah,
knock them out and then do the Bulls next. I
don't know. You could play the championship game earlier. I
guess we are where we are whatever. I don't know.
(24:00):
I'm just surprised that they couldn't find a way to
avoid head to head with the NFL last weekend. I
would have played these games on a Friday night. I
know you had a Did you have a Friday night
game last week? Yes? Yeah you did.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You had Oklahoma albound.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh right, so you had a Friday night. You could
have done a doubleheader. Maybe. Okay, that might be a
little tougher because it's not exactly embedded into holiday week
just yet. But what's on tonight? Nothing? Nothing? I mean
Christmas Eve.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Is there's a trio of bowl games.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Exactly, if a trio of bowl games, so you couldn't
have done two of those tonight. I don't know. I'm
just throwing it out there. There's gotta be better window
opportunities than what you did to create ratings for what
you had, which was lopsided matchups.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Well, the thing about it from a college football playoff
standpoint that I don't understand is, Look, I understand playing
the Rose Bowl January first.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I understand playing the Cotton.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Bowl New York like.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I get that because those are traditional bowl if you're
gonna keep the bulls in this whole thing, Okay, I
can't understand that.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
But to go up against the NFL, and.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You saw what college football told you a what it
thought of its college Football Playoff participants and be the NFL,
because it took JMU and Oregon and Ole Miss and
Tulane and put them directly up against the NFL. But
it made Miami in a and m play at noon
(25:32):
to avoid it. So the two games that they had
of the four, the two Marquee games, one played on
Friday when nobody else, nobody else was playing and the
other one was Saturday at eleven.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Now agis were just like, hey, why don't we play
at night?
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Man?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
We should have night prime time. I'm like, nobody would
have been watching, guys.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Nobody would have been watching because Bear's Packers was unbelievable,
and that's what people were watching. Nobody was watching Oregon,
Jam you even me, and you know much I love
college football. I turned on Bears Packers and it was
just mesmerized, and I would flop back over during a commercial. Okay,
Organs and then Oregon it's a thirty four to three lead.
Who's watching it.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
At that point? Imagine Hurricanes Aggie's tonight if you will,
Now you'd only have a week to get ready for
your next game. Rather they go in Orange Bowl or
I forget where they're going going. I just would have
gone to the Cotton Bowl. That's a week from tomorrow
night or tonight. Tomorrow night. Yeah, play tonight. You've been
eight days away. You have all of Tuesday night to yourself,
(26:31):
and there are so many people off work this week.
Not everybody, of course, thank you everybody who's working, because
the stuff we you like to do, go to restaurants
or whatever you're doing tonight. You know you have people working.
Thank you, everybody's working going to stores last minute holiday shopping.
Don't get me started. I think it's time that I
start my holiday shopping. It's usually around now December twenty fourth.
(26:53):
That's done. But here's what you should have done right around.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Here's what you could have done.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I like the eleventh hour pressure.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Yeah, I do, to true degree, but I've gotten it
kind of close.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
You should have played the week after the championship games.
That was a week Army Navy played. That was you know,
KIRKIRB Street saying it was weird.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I was at home.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
There's nothing, you know, good going on. Anyways, you had
Army Navy that weekend. But if you played your playoff
games that weekend, then to your point, you would have
played these games, the second round games.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Here, then you could have had the Bowl games with
eight days apart, and you would have had TV windows
avoiding the NFL and had it all to yourselves. It
would have been nice and you could finish the season
when you finished it in the past kind of the
eighth and ninth, the tenth of January.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, because they look for that Monday night when the
NFL is not playing it for that's what they look for,
those opportunities.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Right, and you your sol you run right up against
them last weekend, you're running up against them on New
Years actually New Year's Day, New Year's Day, you're gonna
be kinda you'll be you'll avoid them because it's Thursday games,
so you'll kind of That's nice.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
But that's the way it should be.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
You should have New Year's Day to yourself and the
the college FOOTBA. I'm sorry, the NFL has always said, look,
new Year's Day's yours. We don't mess with it unless Sunday. Sunday,
then we'll jump in and we have to at that point. Okay,
But if other than in college football games have done
what they moved to the second yeah, or they moved
to the thirty first, they get their window to avoid
(28:30):
the NFL window.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I think I did. The first Rose Bowl that was
not on January first in forever, because when the Canes
played Nebraska, that was the first non Big ten Pac
ten matchup. That's what they were at the time, those
conferences Pack ten and you got the feeling from the
Rose Bowl people they were disgusted by the whole they
were they were their red jackets. Yeah, telling you though,
(28:52):
they put on quite the show. If you ever have
a chance to go, absolutely go to the parade. Trust
me on this. Okay, Coming up, Cecil Short, the third
new high school head football coach, Texans in game stadium
host and a Texans receiver who's got stories, he's got information.
Let's get to him next here on Texans Radio. Back
(29:13):
to it here on Texans All Access. So great to
have you listening. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to you all,
and thank you so much for being a part of
the program and all the programs throughout the year. Texans
and Chargers Saturday at three point thirty, Let's get to
Cecil Shorts, the third in stadium game day host, played
receiver for this team in twenty fifteen, and new head
(29:34):
coach at Houston Christian High School. So let's get into that.
What attracted Cecil to the job, what he expects Let's
dig in man.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Well, first off, I guess for me, I watched my
dad was a high school coach for twenty plus years,
so just seeing the impact he made on the people
around him, the athletes around him, the coaches around him,
and then how they impacted him has been exceptional. So
this is to be a part of that and to
see that on a daily basis growing up in it,
(30:05):
It's always been attractive to me. And then when this
opportunity come up to a really good school, I'm a
school that's moving up a division in the private school
world to already a great community, already some really good
players and coaches there. For me to come there and
try to take that program to the next level and
try to make it even more special, that was intriguing
(30:25):
to me, so looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
See so when I heard about this, I was so
happy for you.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I had done this many years ago, being the head
coach at a private school, religiously affiliated school, and I
just took a lot of pride in being the head coach,
being the leader of that program. And I remember we
got to the playoffs for the first time at school
history when I was coaching many many years ago down
in Jacksonville, and that was such I was so proud
(30:52):
of that. And I know Houston Christians had probably a
better history than that. But I know there are things
that you want to be able to do with this
program that maybe others have not been able to do.
What's the biggest thing that you want to be able
to establish as the leader of the program, not just
that coach, but to face the program, the one out
in front of everybody that everybody sees every day.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah, that's a great point. I think the main thing
is established as culture early and often, and the coach
is going to be always compete, Like we're always going
to be competing with us in the classroom, where it's
at home, trying to take the trash out, whether it's
being the first one this practice field, whether that's one
on one during practice, or whatever it may be, is
always going to be about competing, because that's how you
(31:35):
get better, right, And that's not only how you get
better as a football player, but as a man as well. Right,
Sometimes you don't want to wake up and deal with
the kids or whatever the case may be, but you're
choosing to do the right thing, and at the end
of the day, you're competing against yourself more likely than
anything else. And people will start realizing as we go
on with our culture. But I think that's the biggest thing.
Its establishing that culture, really building roots in that community.
(31:59):
I can't I can't talk enough how highly the community
is already, how much has already been talked about how
special it is, but to make the moments, to make
the traditions, to really dive into the history of the school.
School's going to be around twenty seven years, but still
to vive into that history of the school and really
make that community special on a Friday night, you know,
(32:20):
how can we make this a fun event for the families,
for the kids, but also doing that it helps bring
more eyes to the school, more attention to the school.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
One thing that caught my eyes the head of school,
the principal, and the ad are all in one alignment.
Oh my gosh, it's a beautiful thing when you have
everybody on the same page. They want to win, They
want to be one of the best private schools in America,
and they already are there. When it comes to academics,
they already are there. When it comes to the basketball programs.
Now it's about building that football program and trying to
(32:49):
get it to a national level down the line eventually.
So I'm excited for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Cecil Shorts the third joining us new head coach at
Houston Christian High School. Cecil, It's it's not like this
as your first coaching job, your coaching responsibility. Tell us
about your background a little bit. Share with us what
you've done in the Houston area prior.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
So. I've been at Second Baptist School majority of my
coaching career. I started there and Terry Purtle, who's the
AD at Houston Christian, he was the one that gave
me my first shot of coaching at Second Baptist. He
was the head coach there. Brought me on staff on
a ton from him. So I was there for about
five or six years varsity assistant. I was an offensive
coordinator at times, receiver coach, and dB coach, so I
(33:30):
kind of see both sides of the ball a little bit,
which helps a lot when it comes to preparing for
either side. Also, I handled middle school duties, so I
was a middle school headed coach for three or four
years there, trying to build that program up and really
get the kids excited about playing high school ball. And
that helped me kind of understand, Okay, if I have
a feeder school, how do I get them to really
(33:51):
get ready for the high school round, Like what excites them,
what gets them ready for football? And then just really
teaching the fundamentals you can never get tired of teaching
those things right. And then last year I was blessed
to be able to be in sixth A public school
football and learn a lot from coach Michael Lindsay and
everybody on his stad. We made it to the second
round of playoffs and we got to play I mean,
top tier teams like Straight Jesuit and a Task of
(34:12):
Seda and Summer Creek, so some of the big dogs
in the state and really learn and to watch not
only Lamar and great things they were doing, but the
other big time schools like the Task of Season, Summer Creeks,
what they do on a daily basis to really pick
their guys, have to pick their brains a little bit
and see what they do and hopefully I can add
some of that culture to what we have going on.
But yeah, for the last I guess seven eight years,
(34:34):
I've been in the coaching rams, just trying to work
my way up, just trying to just be patiently, patiently
away for my time to be a head coach, whether
that was middle school or high school, and now is
the time.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
See.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
So I remember the very first day that I coached
the middle school. I remember kids came in and I
was handing out pads and I'm going somewhere over this,
and one kid who ended up being my one of
my favorite players ever, I'm handing out now at the
time you hand it out pads. I handed out to
thigh pads, two hip pads, two knee pads, and I
(35:06):
gave him one butt pad and he waited for the
second one. And I said, William, what are you waiting for?
And he goes, well, you gave me two of everything else.
And I said, son, you got two of everything else,
you have one butt and he goes, oh, okay, that
makes sense. And my point in all that is when
you play at the highest level that you did, when
(35:26):
you coach at a high high school level, there are
things you assume that kids know. When you coach middle school,
it teaches you not to assume, because there's so many
things that you don't realize that they don't know. And
I think it ends up making you a better coach
in the long run. Did you have kind of experiences
maybe not like that, but just the fact that, oh man,
(35:48):
these middle school kids don't exactly know what I'm talking about.
I got to make sure I find a different way
to teach to them to make sure they understand it.
Did you find the middle school years helped you a
little bit better as you went up into the high
school ranks.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
The middle school years were I think my most development
as a coach, because, like you mentioned, I had to
figure out, Okay, I want to run you know, outside zone,
and how do I teach outside zones to seventh or
eighth graders that they even heard the term outside zone?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:16):
How do I teach how do I teach him about
their first step as an offensive lineman? An offensive lineman
as you know in middle school maybe five eight, you know,
one hundred and sixty pounds, but he may be offensive lineman, right,
So how do I teach him his first step? How
do I teach the quarterback the fundamentals of handing the
ball off or the running back. So I had to
really break it down and that helped me develop as
a coach because it never and I listened to Nick
(36:38):
Saban talk about this and whoever else is big in
the ranks, the fundamentals go nowhere, Like the fundamentals have
to be taught from the ground up. So if you
can teach that from the ground up, when you get
to high school and you can get to the other levels,
then you can kind of evolve from there. But even
when you get to the high school level, it's still
guys that need to learn go back to the fundamentals.
It might not be as long as you're there, right,
(36:58):
but go back to the fundamentals. You start there and
then you evolve and kind of go forward. So that
definitely was a lot of fun in middle school. It
was challenging, but that's probably the purest form I've been
a part of football, because they're just they're just to
play with their boys, truly, this enjoy it, truly just
to have a good time, and they want to win
some games along the way, right. So that was a
(37:19):
lot of fun being a part of middle school. But
you're right, it's really about laying that foundation and learning
how to communicate at their level, which will be communicate
at a higher level when you go up.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
See so being the inn stadium host for game day,
you get a lot of notoriety, a lot of attention.
Are there some people, I'm guessing this happens sometimes. Are
there some people that are surprised to learn that you
actually played for the Houston Texans and played in the
NFL extensively.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Yes, people now it is like I'm more I don't
look at myself as a celebrity at all, but people
will see me more as a in stadium host and
know more be about that like, oh you played ball?
Oh wait for Texas?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Oh really? Oh cool? I'm like, yeah, that's correat.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
It's fun man. You get to be around the fans,
you get to be on the on the sideline close
to the game, and it's fun because the guys are
playing really well in the field. So to be help
helping that excitement, to help that building really get fired
up is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Okay, So I know that maybe some opposing coaches are listening,
so you don't want you to give up too much.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
But what are you running?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Man?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Offensively? I mean, you played in the NFL, you played
different systems. What do you what are you running both
sides of the ball? Come on, give us a little
preview of what you want offensively and defensively.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
As you know, John, it depends on your personnel, right. So,
so I don't want to do something my guys can't
handle or what they're not good at. Right, But as
I'm watching the huddle and watching the film. You know,
we got a quarterback that can sling it. We got
we got a couple running backs in the stable that
that aren't bad at all. We got to singing running back.
I think it'd be pretty good. So I think, when
(38:55):
I'm looking at it right now, I would love to
run a pro style. I love outside zone, I love
mide zone. I love the bootleg off of that. And
to be honest with you, like our playbooks. I always
think the playbooks should be simple to the players for
the little complex to the defense. So we may run
counter power and zone, but we're gonna run out of
(39:16):
ten different formations and we're gonna add motions and shifts
and explode to different things. And now the defense thinks
is Monday night football, and they're like, hey, what the heck,
we didn't watch this on film. But it's the same
stuff that we do. Like nothing changes for us, if
that makes sense. It just looks different to the defense.
And on defense, you know, I'm thinking four two five.
I really got to look at what I have though.
(39:36):
But in today's game, where there's more passing, there's more
there's more people that are getting rid of the ball quickly.
I want to have that extra dB on the field possibly,
So that's that's what I'm thinking offensive and defensively right now.
Don't want to give too much up because you know,
I know a Piscopal and K probably listening, but it'd
be fun.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, And that's the thing with the private school too.
The four two five is perfect because you don't always
get linebacker type bot. You know, sometimes you get that
one hundred and ninety pounder and you're like Leslie safety linebacker.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
What you know, we played four to five, So just
put him at ninety pounder. Houston Christian might be playing
defensive tackle right playing pretext at some point. All yeah, see.
So what are your thoughts on the current Texan seven
game winning streak in progress, where it might go from here?
What are you seeing in general?
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I tell you what, it's fun to watch. The defense
obviously is playing outstanding. I'm happy to have CJ back,
that's been It's been a plus. Love Davis coming in
and stepping up and playing well. But it's something about
having seven on the field to give you some confidence
about him being there. It's like, all right, cool, you
know things are gonna be okay. But to have this
win streak and I'll be honest with you, the FC
(40:44):
South is tough man. I'm watching the coach last night
and Philip is trying to try to keep the coach alive.
Yeah night, But it's tough, man. And for them to
continue to find ways to win no matter what's going on.
And people are like, oh, well the Raiders they should
have Well, it's an NFL team, and the Raiders going
to give you your best shot every single week. Whoever
you play, gonna give your best shot against that defensive
(41:04):
offense where the case may be. So for them to
keep finding ways to win. And as you guys know,
I mean good things winning December and January November, that's
just what it is. So to be hot at the
right time, to start finding your identity at the right time.
It's a lot of fun to see. And the AFC
is wide open. There is no passion. No AFC goes
to Mahomes. No, the AFC goes to Lamart, No, it doesn't.
(41:26):
It's wide open in my opinion. But the Texans to me,
have a real shot of making some noise and kind
of getting over that hump and getting topefully to the
AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
And beyond outstanding see soul one more for you, And
we don't mean to bring it up to rub it in,
but there are a lot of people who attended John
Carroll in this building and they're very happy with a
recent result that yeah, defeating Mount Unions. Well look they
brought up his name. This is his chance for equal
time because I know that had to be a tough one,
(41:55):
but you do have history on your side in general
with Mount Union over everybody in Division three. Being an alum,
your thoughts on what went down here in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
My heart hurts right now because I have a lot
of trash. I can talk because I beat Frank Ross
four times in an hour. Five times we played. We
were beating five times in college. You know, wait, with
Catherio going there, I got some bragging right seeing. I
mean you're kind of walking around a little confidently. Then
they leave the conference and like, oh, y'all scared of
us in the conference and they come in seut us
up in our own place. Kudos to them, man, that's
(42:28):
a really good program. Obviously put a lot of people
out there. But it definitely hurts. But you know, Frank
and they have some They definitely have some bragging Rice
right now.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Well, Cecil, Hey, congratulations on getting the Houston Christian High
School football coaching gig, and we look forward to seeing
you again in the regular season finale and beyond at
NRG Stadium hosting game day stuff. Thanks so much for
joining us.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Hey, thanks, I'll be talking about.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
There's Cecil Shorts the third. Always a pleasure visiting with
him and love that twenty fifteen season when the Texans
rebatted from two to five to win the division. That
was very cool stuff and he was a big part
of that. All right, coming up, Texans matchup is coming
up soon enough. Before that, are quickie Houston Methodist Minutes.
We usually do it on Thursday, but it's a strange
(43:14):
week because you have the holiday on Thursday. So let's
do this. Sleep troubles who doesn't have them? We'll dig
in a little bit next here on Texans Radio. Final
segment here tonight on Texans Radio. And we usually do
Houston Methodist Minutes on Thursday, but Thursday's Christmas and there's
an NFL triple header on Sports Radio six to ten
that you want to listen to. Driving out and about
(43:36):
visiting the relatives, getting away from the relatives, whatever it
is you might be doing in the car. On Thursday,
I realized that radio is still very much a car medium.
But you also have the Odyssey app, so you can
follow us anywhere anyway. Houston Methodist minutes. I try to
occasionally get into stuff that everyone can relate to. How
about sleep issues, I've got some, maybe you do too.
(43:59):
And doctor Gunjin Nirwani joins us right now, and I
start this interview with my own issues, which are I
have no trouble falling asleep at night. I am out
like a light, but three hours later, sometimes I'm up
and my brain just starts operating at full volume. So
(44:20):
what about my condition? How would that be classified?
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Without knowing a whole lot more of what's going on,
I would say, when you find it hard to fall
back asleep, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yeah, I'm thinking the brain will not shut off, doctor,
it just constantly goes. I don't read my phone or
do those kinds of things. I don't turn on the TV.
I'm trying to get back, but there's a little man
inside my head with a little pick axe just going
at it. I don't know what to say.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
So this is actually really common, and one of the
first things that we teach our patients when they can't
fall back to sleep in the middle of the night
is actually to get out of the bed. Get out
of the bed, go into a quiet room, engage in
an activity that is not too stimular but maybe empty
the dish rusher or foldsome laundry. Do a quiet activity
(45:05):
for the next fifteen to twenty minutes until you feel
like you're ready to get back to sleep, because, in fact,
laying in bed and trying to force yourself to sleep,
especially in the middle of the night, is actually it
makes it worse. It kind of trains your body and
your brain that it's okay to be awake in bed.
So we actually it sounds hard, but we actually train
patients to get out of bed, do something else, and
(45:28):
when they feel ready to get back to sleep, try
it again. And it may happen multiple times over the
course of the night. But that is the way that
we break it. It's like a habit. Like anything else.
We have to teach the body and the brain again
that bed is for sleep and only for sleep. And
I think that you're already doing a lot of the
right things by not using electronics, because I see a
lot of that, and it's really tempting to grab a
(45:48):
phone or turn on the TV. So if that is
not something that you are doing again, that's great, But
spending long periods in bed awake is actually not good.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
There's doctor good Norwani of Houston Methodist, the official healthcare
provider of the Houston Texans, Houston Methodist leading medicine. All right,
that's gonna do it. For this particular program coming up,
it's Texans Matchup and you don't want to miss it.
Johnny Harris on everything that happened against the Raiders and
a bunch of other great stuff as well. Tomorrow we
will do a full show. Nick Cassio will lead us off,
(46:20):
so you don't want to miss that. You know, forget
about the family and presence or whatever else you might
do on Christmas Eve. Yea, some people do open presents
on Christmas Eve. I grew up that way. But listen
to the interview instead of participating in family activities. I'm kidding.
Do both have the Odyssey app you can rewind. You
can listen to the podcast later, or if you're out
and about driving to wherever it is you're going listen
(46:41):
to Nick at six nick at night. Wait a minute,
that sounds original. Also Thursday, I mentioned the triple header
on Sports Radio six ten Friday Full Show Before You
Hear the Texans and the Chargers on Saturday afternoon live
from LA. We'll have text countdown presented by Medelo Especily
(47:01):
album at twelve thirty, kickoff at three point thirty. Let's
do it. Have a great night everyone, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.
Go Texans.
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.