May 13, 2025 • 47 mins
International games? Prime time matchups? The Texans Radio Crew pondered some 2025 schedule possibilities just days ahead of the NFL Schedule Release.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's happened? Everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Happy Monday to you wherever you are. Welcome you into
Texans All Access Sean Harris alongside the Voice of the
Texans Mark vandermiir Boy, we got plenty to talk about tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We're gonna have our good friend Toro on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, it's not quite Toro, because we know Toro does
he's not really good to have on the air. But
we have the man who is Toro, Andrew Johnson, going
to join us and talk a little bit more about
Toro's opportunity for the Hall of Fame. The voting has
opened up Mascot Hall of Fame dot com. He'll tell
us that in a little bit. Also, Drew stops by
for a little in the lab a little later on.
(00:39):
As we talk about don't forget about me, guys. He
stole your thing, Mark, he stole it.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
But you look about me, guys, I don't mind having
that as a station or station Texans Radio brand if
you will, right, don't forget about me, guys. Brought to
you bye. You know we could do that. You could
have it sponsored. It'll be awesome, get it viral. But
that's something that we revisit time and time again. Absolutely
training camp, OTAs all throughout the off season.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Don't forget about me, guys.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
That is one of my favorite segments to do in
training camp because once you get about halfway through training camp,
you know, everybody wants to talk about all the position
battles and all that, and you get to a point
where you've talked about him so often you're mentioning the
same guys and it's like, hey, don't forget about me.
Over here speaking out. I was watching the Stallions in
(01:29):
the Roughnecks yesterday and Khalil Davis twin brother Carlos Davis
good sack for Birmingham. I was like, man, yeah, that
a boy car to get back into the league. Maybe, yeah,
maybe getting back in the league.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I got another category though, similar to don't forget about
me guy is from fatal Attraction, I will not be
ignored guy, which I think is more of an established
veteran who we don't talk about enough, right. Don't forget
about me guy to me is a guy who's kind
of on the perimeter a little bit. Yeah it could
be a in, but hey, you forgot about this guys, right,
(02:03):
but a veteran.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Who I will not be ignored.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
You know, that could be somebody like, uh, every time
you say it, that's Glinn close.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I will not be ignored, Dan.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's almost like one of those O'Brien things like losing
is bad Tanya or AFC South Champs, Brian, I will
not be ignored, Dan. You could have that for say, uh,
if we're in camp or we're talking about tight ends,
we forget to mention Bret Jordan or something that's I
will not be ignored.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Don't forget about me, my, don't forget about me. Guy
is an.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ivy leaguer, is an IVY leaguered the Texans for the
Houston Texas, So that would be I'm not gonna say
that's that's a tease in the business. Oh okay for
the in the loud of teas.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Uh, speaking of teas, we've been teasing.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
In fact, the other day when we did our mock schedule,
which was very, very fun to do.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That's Thursday show. Go check it out on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It was fantastic. Other than week one when I said
we would play all Chargers in Brazil, Oh, you were wrong.
I was wrong kind on purpose, but I was wrong.
The Texans will not actually not only will they not
play in Brazil, they will not play outside the United
(03:19):
States in the year twenty twenty five. True, they will
not play outside. The Chargers will play the Chiefs in
South Paulo, Brazil. Those that's not announced, that'll be announced tomorrow.
But we have got numerous reports and you kind of
get a feeling that there's some things that happen that
(03:41):
you know inside the building, you know it's not gonna
be you. Yeah, you just some things have to take
place that hadn't taken place, and so I figured we're
probably not going.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Okay, but that happened. When did you get that information?
Because I got some information as far as maybe seven
to ten days ago.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, I got my information on Friday. Okay, so is
very basically confirmed what I already know.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I got some information that indicated it was pretty darn
likely we'd go. Really, but I've learned not to trust
this stuff because last year we were going to London
to play the Ministerol.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Going to London, and we knew it for a long
time was gonna happen, told by we were told to
combine by the Vikings people like hey, we'll see you
guys in London.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, exactly, and it didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And then this year going to Mexico for Shizzle, you're
gonna go to Mexico. You got nine home games, you're
gonna play one in Mexico City. Now that would have
happened had a statuous deca been ready or they deemed
it would possibly be ready, because maybe it will be
ready by November, for for instance, because that's when we
played in Mexico City.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Our goal is to get.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It ready ready by the World Cup, right by twenty
twenty six World Cups, So this six months in advance
of that, right.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
However, I don't think the NFL wanted to mess with it.
Even if it is possibly gonna be ready. They can't
do possibly will be ready. They need to know now
because it affects season ticket sales for or the Houston Texans.
They had to know whether they had a game or not,
and they had to make the decision early. So no
international play for the Houston Texans.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Now, I know.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
People heard that, well, wait, that's just Brazil. Well there
are two other opportunities against AFC.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
South teams and leaked reports the.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Colts in Berlin and the Jags in Wembley. But neither
one of those will come to fruition. Benjamin Albright, who
covers I think he's in Denver. He covers the NFL.
He can be kind of a what's the right way
of saying it? He can be an ornerary young man.
He tweeted this on This is actually backaways, he said,
(05:39):
not free agency related.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But per multiple sources, the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Are expected to be the visiting team for the international
game in Germany versus the Colts this year. And a
report you saw this weekend said the Jags are playing
the Rams in Wembley.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And that makes sense because the Jags have the Rams
at home with their schedule.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Right, we're opposite, We're what we are the Colts.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Now, I'm curious to see because the Colts and the
Texans we match schedules, right, So if we go to
if we go to Seattle, they go to Seattle. If
we go to LA and they go to LA not
obviously the same time, but at some point, so we
always match with the Colts. So the Colts are going
to have the two trips to LA as well. So
I wonder how I wonder how they'll handle that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
The Colts will have the two trips to LA. It's
the same too, so they have that Germany game, So
maybe they do them a solid and leave them out
there for a week and that's good or bad for
them how they would interpret that. You gotta have a
good facility to practice at. I don't know how you
handle any of that stuff. So we don't have to
deal with now, we do have to deal with back
to back trips, well not back to back, but two trips.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So that's a fact.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Jack, You're going to LA twice now, and we don't
know how they're gonna do it, but it would be
great to go back to back if again, you had
a good facility to spend the week at well.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I was talking to one of our sources and he
or she said that apparently at u c l A.
They've built a brand new hotel right near the practice facility,
like not like I want to even say walking distance,
like literally open up the door and you're right there.
So that would be kind that would be kind of nice.
(07:17):
Obviously you butt up against you know, is is U c.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
L A in town? You know? Could you share the
fields field?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Because don't the college teams practice later in the day
because they allegedly.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Have class, yeah, allegedly, or they practice really early in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So you go either way.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And the thing is if you're staying, say you're doing
that Sunday to Thursday thing, and we've talked about.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You're just walking through stuff. You just walking Sunday to Thursday.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yes, right, Sunday to Sunday Sunday different actual practices.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
But check this out.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Friday, wherever they play, they're not on the field at all.
They're doing a walk through at whatever stadium they're at,
right because they play Saturday, right, and so you're really
dealing with Wednesday Thursday issues.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's not a big deal.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I mean, you could pull it off, yeah, because what
is the total time that you need the field for
three hours? You know, get your advanced people out there,
you know. Right now, I don't know how to handle
the cameras, but they probably have all the gear that
an NFL team had, I would imagine, and you could
pipe everything through their cameras.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And everything like that. Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I don't know if they'd want to, but they probably could.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
One year, maybe in the COVID year I can't remember,
maybe was the year after COVID.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I don't really offered.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
The Patriots worked out at UCLA because they had a
couple of games on the on the West Coast. Now
obviously New England have back to back games on the
West coast. That makes sense for them to stay there.
For us, you could argue, you all right, fly back,
you know, fly back over there.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
I don't know you could, but I'd rather stay out.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So that was before you know who in twenty twenty
and she was nineteen years old then wow, yeah, ye
she was nineteen twenty twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I don't even know what to make of this story.
But here's the one thing that keeps coming to mind.
And we're talking about Bill Belichick. If you couldn't figure
that out, and and Jordan Huts yea, Jordan Hudson, Yeah
what I When Bill Belichick took the job in North Carolina,
I remember one of the first things you and I
(09:14):
discussed is, hey, is he gonna take bearsh Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Bears is basically was his chief of staff with the
New England Patriots. Basically Bears just did everything right hand
man everything. I mean, he did everything right. I would
joke about dead bodies, but with the Patriots, there were
some dead bodies. With Aaron Hernandez, so I won't joke
about it. But Bears knew everything, did everything. Now he
works for Bill O'Brian at Boston College. Very smart higher
(09:41):
by Bill o.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Very smart heart. It's the probably the one individual that
Bill needed to have here the entire time. I think
he was looking for that. Yes, never found it, never
found it.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I think Belichick was basically taking a North Carolina job,
and like with Jordan, he thought, well, you know, she
can just be my Bears. I I can hear the conversation, like, listen,
you're gonna have to kind of be a jerk with
the media, and you're just gonna have to make sure
that this is the way things are done.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Is the way we got That's I I came up with.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I had that theory in my head and I heard
somebody read somebody and put that out there, and I'm like,
this is exactly what's going on. He wants and needs
a Bears and he doesn't have it. And she's trying
to step in and play the Travis Hunter role of
girlfriend and Bears and she can't do it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So she's struggling.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
So anyways, yeah, twenty four year old, I don't care girl,
guy whatever. Person twenty four years old. You don't have
the chops to do it. No, you don't have no
institutional knowledge.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
You have no gravitas.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
When you hear the Patriots talk about Bears like former
Patriots like, oh man, you had to go to the
hallway and see Bears like he was an intimidating figure.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Scheduled everything for Belichick, every all the media stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Everything he handled.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
The department did whatever they did, but they had to
run it through Bears.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Everything for Belichick went through Bearsh And I think that's
that's what he's missing. This thing at North Carolina was
not ready made. He couldn't just go out there and
coach and do media interviews. There's so much debts had
to go with it. He needed a bearsh And I
guarantee you that's the way he's looking and was looking
at that situation and realized very quickly.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So like the theory, We'll we'll see where where that
goes with Bill Belichick. But the Texans will not play
in Germany, they will not play in London, they will
not play in Brazil.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
And they will not play on opening night Thursday. They
will not play.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Thursday, because that is the Eagles, and I thought it
was gonna be Commanders. I was convinced it was the
Commanders NFC Championship replay. Here we go on the top
young quarterbacks in the league, Eagles, Commanders, right off the
bat Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Sway you do it?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Nope, Cowboys, it would be a better match up with
the Commanders.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
We all know it. But Johnny, you're a network executive.
I know. Put your Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
You got your pick of any Philadelphia Eagles opponent.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Who are you gonna do? Yeah, Cowboys makes it.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I'm gonna set a record on Thursday Night Opening Night?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Have you Cowboys? Coach dak is back, dack back.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
George Pickens is a Cowboy at the defending champs. Oh
my god, it's Dallas and Philly. Like it made all
once I saw it, It made all a sense in the world.
It makes all sense in the world. I just felt
like that it would be I just felt like they
would not want to go with division games. But Florio
brought up a great point. It's like, hey, you got
(12:45):
Chargers Chiefs, which, by the way, apparently the Chargers had
every right to veto the Chiefs in Brazil. Yeah, they
could veto a division opponent in their international game, well
couldn't they? And the Chargers detected the Chiefs home game.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah yeah, yeah at home in so Far and say no,
we got to play the Chiefs and so Far, I
think there are two things that work here. Let's get
the Chiefs off American soil where maybe on a neutral
site far from home.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
You know, we got a good shot, better shot.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And I don't want them in our building because it's
all red, it's all it's a sea of Reddit's so
far exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I'm already the Chargers.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Everybody brings their people here to watch their team play
in my building, especially the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I don't want to deal with that. Now.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
They could protect two non division games, and they did
protect two non division games, and the Texans are among
the opponents. So maybe they protected the Texans, I don't know,
maybe thinking that, oh, maybe we'll get more Chargers fans
in here. But they know from that soccer stadium visit
in twenty nineteen, we filled that building with a lot
of Texans fans in that Philip Rivers led this would.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Be our first regular season game at so Far, that's right,
So I imagine there might be some some fans out
there that are wearing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
The knowlutely a chance to go to La you'll see
a lot of battle Red out there.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, for both trips, because it'll be two trips. But
one of the things that I'd read, and this was
kind of the final nail in a coffin, I'd read this.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think it was Front Office Sports.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
They were talking about the game in Brazil and they
said that I believe it's I believe it's gonna be
a Google game.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I think if I remember correctly, yeah, it is a
YouTube game. They will not charge for it, right, And so.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I as soon as I saw that, I was like,
not gonna pick us. If they can get the Chiefs,
They're gonna get the Chiefs. And literally at the bottom
of the paragraph, it just they they snuck it in
there like it was known.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
It was like, yeah, the Chiefs will be going to
Brazil to play the Chargers or whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I thought, Oh, okay, that kind of confirms what I
had been thinking. But then when I heard, okay, it's
YouTube game, they're gonna want to make a splash.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
This has gotta be the Chiefs and I and I
get it.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I mean you know, it's it's opportunity for the for
YouTube to put the chiefs back on it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And why wouldn't you. It's ma Homes, It's Kelsey.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
It's read I mean, it's you have an exclusive national window.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It's only the second game of the year.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Everybody's gonna want to watch it, and it's free on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And this, you know what this does.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
This gets all the more seasoned viewers old to get
YouTube up on their flat screen. Smart It's brilliant. They
don't need the money, they don't need the money to
charge for the game, So forget about that part of it.
We'll charge for the commercials obviously, and we'll get all
of America, well all of the football viewing America to
(15:40):
put YouTube up on their flat screen. I guarantee there
are a lot of more seasoned viewers who have never
put YouTube up on their flat screen.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And they're going to do it now.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And so that exercise will produce, in YouTube's eyes, maybe
more YouTube viewing on your flat screen.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
This was from Sports Illustrated. They put this out. Who
wrote this? Uh Tim Carpuso. Carpusho close up. The NFL's
eyeing the streaming record books for the Chargers Chiefs matchup.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
The league is quote unquote closing.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
In on agreement with YouTube, which distributes the popular NFL
sund A ticket package, to carry the contest between Kansas
City and Los Angeles. That was straight from Front Office Sports.
I get their emails every day.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So he said.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
The intriguing part is the NFL wishes for the game
to be streamed on YouTube for free, meaning the audience
and viewership numbers for the game could no.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Bounds.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
On Christmas Day, it set a streaming record with an
average of twenty four point three million viewers for the
Chiefs the Steelers. Well, they're gonna blow it away. Go
back to the Well gonna blow it away because it's
on YouTube. This is the second largest search engine in
the world. Yeah, Herbert Holmes in Brazil, you're getting Friday
Night nothing, nothing conflicts with it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I mean it's well.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Imagine a push notifications. NFL app obviously, but YouTube. Anybody
who has YouTube, you run your phone and gets the
pushes from YouTube on their favorite content. You're gonna get
this push to your phone and so even if you're
not at home, you're gonna click on and watch a
little bit of it and that's gonna count as a
number for them. Now as far as the Eagles go,
the night before, here were the other possible opponents other
(17:17):
than the Cowboys. You mentioned Washington obviously, the Giants, the division,
the whole division was possible, but the Bears, the Broncos,
the Lions, and the Raiders and the Rams, those were
all possibilities. They did the right thing they did. Detroit
would have been great too. I mean, there's a better
(17:38):
game out there, possibly from the outside looking in, from
you know, maybe this turns out.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
To be the greatest game in NFL history. Who knows,
but just the way it would project to be.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
On the field on paper, Yeah, Lions commanders sure fined.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Maybe the Rams.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
They held a hell of a close game against the
Eagles in the postseason in the snow. But I like
this matchup for them, and this is gonna shatter record
as well.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I mean, it's just I mean, I hate to say it,
but it. I mean, it's Eagles Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I mean, it's one of the better rivalries that's there
there is in sports, and definitely in the NFL. And
like you said, if you're looking for a big number,
you're setting the weekend off with that, then you turn
around with Chargers Chiefs on YouTube the next night and
it's like, can you imagine Monday League sets record with
streaming league, has you know, opening weekend highest game in
(18:28):
ten years or whatever. I could see the headlines already,
and it's been interesting. I was listening Sean at Sett
the other day and they I think it was them,
maybe been Reggie and John I can't remember, but they
were talking about how the ratings for sporting events, recent
sporting events have been just going through the roof. That
more and more people are coming to sports to kind
(18:49):
of just get the get away from it all, to
get a release from everything going on, and so they're
coming back over to sports is kind of their their outlets,
and then numbers are.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Just going through the roof. It's the campfire, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, it's it's one of the few places where people
can still huddle and be together that collectively.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
That that is a great point.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Speaking of huddles, Toro has never been in a huddle,
and if he were, he wouldn't say anything. But the
man who is Toro, Andrew Johnson, stepped in studio. We
had a blast talking about everything and anything having to
do with Toro and prospects for the mascot Hall of Fame.
Can't he make it? We'll discuss that next right here
(19:32):
in Texans All Access. Welcome back to this Mondy edition
of Texans All Access from I'm not at Texans Radio Studio.
I am John Harrison. I looked down at my shirt.
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I thought maybe I'd spilled something. I looked down and
I saw a Pro Football Hall.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Of Fame and I thought about Andre Johnson, the first
Texans Hall of Famer, and how fun that was in
Canton last year there for the whole weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I mean, it was just a bang up time.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
And I thought about a potential All Famer that we
could have in our midst but for the mascot All Fame,
that being our buddy Toro.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, the man who is Toro, Andrew Johnson.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Stepped in the studio and he didn't really have to,
but he made a case for Toro going to All Fame.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
We had a blast talking Andrew right here.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It's another visited studio, and we knew there had to
be a part two, but it's really timely as well.
Toro ak Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson portrays Toro? Do you
portray him, do you play him? How do you how
do you worry that channel Toro?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah, man, that's a good question. I mean you just
embrace it. Become the become the bull.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
You become the character, the character of Toro. And has
the character of Toro. We'll get to the Hall of
Fame stuff in a moment here. By the way, has
the character of Toro changed? Because we talked last time
about Jonathan Frost, the first guy portrayed played Toro, Channel Toro,
and then you how does the character of Toro evolve?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Because Toro is a character right right?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
And I think that was a unique thing about taking
on this job. You know, Jonathan had done it for
fourteen years and had established who Toro was and what
Toro's known for. Jonathan was doing some really crazy aerial
stunts inside the stadium, and I remember when I was
here interviewing for the job and they were talking to
me about who Toro is, and I had obviously seen
a lot of the crazy stunts he had done.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I'm like, I don't know if I can do that.
So you're having to live up to the.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Character that Jonathan had already created and I think hopefully
we've been able to do that justice and carry on
his legacy, but also add some new things into the mix.
I mean, social media really wasn't as big of a
thing when Jonathan was here, and I think that's something
that we've added to Torro's persona. He's known as a prankster,
but he's also still known as that daredevil that Jonathan
kind of created for the Texans.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, you've done your share of repelling.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, you made us on the broadcast crew at times,
we have discussions during breaks and we see you up
there and we're like, nope, nope, they're not one of us.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You could pay to go up there.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
And you and I talked about I can't remember which
game it was, all that went in to your pregame
event and I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I think you were repelling from the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You were talking about how it was it was close,
like there were so many people involved and you weren't
confident about how it had gone kind of in testing.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I don't remember what event that was, Andrew, but do
you mind kind of going through that.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Do you remember that, Like it was like one or
two in the morning and you were deciding whether you
were actually gonna do it for the game or not.
How often does something like that happen? And can you
take us kind of through that process of well, man,
this might be a little bit much.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean, the stunts are a lot of work,
and obviously people see the thirty second to sixty second
result on any given Sunday, but they don't understand that
the process starts so far in advance. So like right now,
we're actually having the conversations and brainstorming what we want
to do for the twenty five season. So we're all
sitting around the table and here's the stunts, what we've
done in the past, and we're talking to the stunt
crew about what could be possible.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
So we want to take things to the next level.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
We've obviously done some really cool things, but next season
is a completely blank slate, and so we're ide eating
now and then once we get the schedule release next week,
then we'll actually put dates to when we want to
do it. We usually like to do them around primetimes,
primetime games, and we have the eyes of the nation,
so we'll select the dates, we'll select, the stunts will
select kind of brainstorm what the storyline is how do
we get to the actual stunt. Is it a video,
(23:13):
is it some kind of pr stunt that leads into
this big stunt in stadium? But will ideate that we'll
go to contract with our stunt crew. They actually come
in from Arizona. They're not local, so there's two guys
that fly in from Arizona to bring them up. They've
been here since the very beginning, and then we're having
to communicate operationally around the building when they're coming in,
where they're parking, how they're getting into the building, make
(23:34):
sure that everybody knows when they're going to be doing it.
When we're doing stunt practices and the game that you're referencing,
I think was our Christmas Day game. We were going
to do a big repel stunt in State. Well, we
originally wanted to do a big swing, and then we
realized that Beyonce was going to be hanging things from
the ceiling. She had different lighting structures, and she had
a stunt that she was doing herself, and so we're
having to work all of our rigging around what she had.
(23:54):
Not to mention that was also a two skycam game,
so people don't think about how the aerial space inside
the stadium is used, so we're having to share that airspace,
and so if we're gonna do a big swing or things,
we got to make sure that those ropes aren't going
to cross. So there's a lot of coordination that we
do with the building with Skycim. We've become really good
friends with them here over the years. And then we
actually have to rig up the stunt, and once that
stunt is rigged, we do a thorough testing and so
(24:16):
we actually drop weight on all of our stunts before
we ever put a human life on the line, and
so we'll drop two hundred pounds worth of weight, whether
it be a repel or a swing or a reverse repel.
We test the stunt with weight, then the stunt crew
does it, and then I get on the line and
so we do some thorough testing to make.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Have you ever had to eighty six a stunt like Nope,
it's we just can't do it.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
It's just not safe enough. Have you ever had to
do that?
Speaker 4 (24:40):
We have not, you know, And we've actually got close
when we had the Playoff stunt where it was a
big swing stunt and the stunt crew had some challenges.
But because of the testing, we will know whether it
holds up or not. They go back in, they'll tweak
some things, make it work, we'll test it again. And
we got pretty close with the playoff swing that we
did just last year where it got pretty late on
on that game was a what was that game this
(25:02):
Saturday or Saturday?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
It was a Saturday.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
So yeah, we were here really really late Friday night
into Saturday morning testing and making sure that it was going.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
To hold up.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
But they were ultimately able to pull it off. And
so I'm very thankful for the stunt crew. I put
a lot of faith in them, but they've been here
since the beginning and they've earned that trust and they
do a really good job.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
So Toro has been nominated for the Mascot Hall of Fame. Right,
there is such a thing as the Mascot Hall of Fame,
and it was established in two thousand and five and
some of the inductees, just to give you a picture here,
the Philly Fanatic. Hard to imagine the Philly Fanatic not
being in there, right, the famous chicken formerly known as
(25:38):
the San Diego Chicken.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Of course, in the Mascot.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Hall of Fame, there is a local inductee, and that
would be Clutch Clutch the Bears already is.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
It's actually two inductees. Now, Okay, what a Houston? What
do you got?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Orbit got inducted last year? That right, Orbit got in
last year last year.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I forgot about that. Oh boy, Oh the Nitney Lion
is in from Penn State. I'm just looking around here. Oh,
the Nitney Lion is in the Why wouldn't the Nitney
line be in?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Is it the Bill O'Brien version in you?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I don't think it's the Bill O'Brien version. Is there
a Bill O'Brien version? I didn't brutus to Buckeye. Okay, see,
mister met is in. Smoky from the University of Tennessee. Yeah,
these are all sports. Andrew would would like Smoky the
Bear be considered a mascot or no, No, Smoky the
Bear is a talking thing that's a publicity psa thing
(26:25):
for forest fires, so that wouldn't count true. So Andrew,
tell us, what's the process here. How could people help
Toro get into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
We need all the help we can get. So it
is going to go to a public vote. The voting
period is May eleventh through May twenty fourth, and fans
can vote once every twenty four hour period, so it's
a rolling twenty four hours. If you vote at eight am,
let's say on Saturday, you won't be able to vote
again until eight am on Sunday. So it's not just
once a day, it's a twenty four rolling, twenty four
hour rolling clock.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Basically, only real elections worked like this. Oh wait a minute,
go on, right, But yeah, we want you guys to vote.
You need Texans fans helped to get Toro into the
Mascot Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So every year, like with Andre, they're always like, you know, started.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
With fifty, then we get down to fifteen, then we
get down to ten, and eventually get down a five.
How is it for the Mascot Hall of Fame? Are
there other NFL mascots in there with you?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Is? Obviously it must be all mascots.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
How many of the mascots are in there with Toro
kind of fighting? And how many get selected each year?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, that's a good question. So there's twenty eight mascots
on the ballot. It's a pretty big ballot. This year,
it's the largest ballot they've ever had. I'm not exactly
sure how many mascots or are going to get selected.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I don't think it's too many, because I'm looking at
the list of inductees here since two thousand and five,
and it's not a ton, but it looks like they
took a long break from like two thousand and eight
to twenty nineteen to induct mascots.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
So so Mascot Hall of Fame actually had a physical
location for about five or six years. It was about
thirty minutes outside of Chicago in a little city called Whiting, Indiana,
and it has since shut down. So there is not
a physical location for the Mascot Hall of Fame anymore.
It's just a virtual hall of fame.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That's okay. It is okay. It's still there, it still exists.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
What NFL mascots are in the group in the finalist
group with Toro.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
So there's only two NFL mascots on the ballot this year.
It's Toro and Blitz from the Seattle Seahawks. Got a chance,
No Blitz get out, no chance. Blitz doesn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I see a Hall of Fame or in the Mascot
Hall of Fame and it's good.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's upsetting me. I'm like, I am upset. Who is this?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Jackson de Ville is in the freaking mascot that was
a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
This is unacceptable. How did Jackson Deville get in over
freaking Toro? Ridiculous, It's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
There's two AFC South guys in the mascot Hall of Fame.
You've got the Indianapolis Colts, Blue Blue, Jackson Diville.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Oh I see Blue.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Oh now, I'm okay, all right, we gotta get to
go with.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Blue before Jackson.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
To me too, like Blues like Blue is pretty talented man,
that's stunn He does where he throws the ball from
the like third or fourth floor, puts it into like
a water bucket, like it's incredible round though, was Blue
of Baltimore cult mascot?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
He got that?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I could go with more if Blue was around. Since
you know who's on the ballot this year, though, Sebastian
the Ibis.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I heard this.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
The Ibis is on. Yeah, and that's the University of
and the Ibis. I'm surprised he's not in already. I
just got to tell you. The Ibis is a terrific
should have been in before. The Nitty Lion I think
so too. The ibis is a legendary mascot and the Ibis,
I mean I did a game with the Ibis got
called for two No One fifteen yard penalty for celebrating
(29:40):
in the mascot.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, at the Sugar Bowl. Can you imagine doing that here?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
The guy would be employed and then somebody else got
a fifteen yard or on the same play. It was
after a touchdown, so Todd Severs had to kick a
fifty yard extra.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Point and he made it, and he made it.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
It was awesome. It was like, yes, in your face anyway.
Some of the other ones, the Oriel Bird, Yeah, but
they were in Jazz Bear, the Utah Jazz basketball team,
a Jazz bar is the Phoenix Suns Gorilla in there.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yes, okay, he was one of the first class.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, the gorilla does like he does good things, all right,
So the inaugural Class Bear do Philly fanatic, the Gorilla
and the famous Chicken.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I mean that's good. I mean you have to do.
That's like the Babe Ruth and whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yea, What the hell has mister Mett done other than
I have a big old baseball He lives in New
York City.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
He's like, exactly right, but unique.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, if does stunts, visits to the community, does all
kinds of work in the community.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Are the sausages in Milwaukee eligible because they have the sausage?
Are they they're in?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I think are they in the because Reggie and John
were talking about this on Tuesday Wednesday came remember which
day was, and they I thought they said that the
the running Sausages were in.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I think they're making that up. That sounds like a
Lopez fabrication, you know what that does kind of sound
like Lopez Andrew? What is your Do you have a favorite?
Do you have an iconic mascot that you say that
that's the one for me? Because it's all subjective obviously, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Mean all the ones you named. I mean whenever I
was entering this business. You know, this is a dream
come true for me. I had watched a lot of
these guys growing up, and so the fanatics one of
the best, the Famous Chicken. But for me, I grew
up in Kansas City, and so I grew up watching
the chief mascot, Casey Wolf. And the guy who I
grew up watching is still the chief mascot to this day.
He's been doing it for thirty five years and he
(31:30):
still has a ton of energy. He's still doing it
at the highest level possible and really makes a great
impact in the Kansas City community. So I think, to me,
he is He's my goat when it comes to the
mascot world.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I mean it makes sense. I mean it makes sense.
I mean, if he's been around that long, he's a
good mask.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I could go with that.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
You know, it's strong for Houston though that tore is
definitely gonna get it at some point.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, And the fact that Orbit and Clutch are already
in says a lot about Houston. This is not a
big list of mascots that are in the Mascot Hall
of Fame. It points out how awesome we are at this. Yeah,
with mascots. For sure, it's the Dynamo. What do they have, Diesel?
The Fox Diesel the Fox. Okay, it's a cool mascot,
but it's not it's not Toro. But so in the
(32:12):
AFB shots, if Toro gets in, we got three AFC
South mascots. That says a lot about the AFC South. Now,
t is a t rack for the Titans. I still
no shot. No shot ever. I have yet to.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Figure out how they came up with a damn raccoon
for their mascot.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, I still like I'm Gamy Adams would want it
to be like a mini oil Derek or something. Yeah,
parking back, it's the Titans. They could run out some
rocked up dude. Yeah, like Titans loincloth and like, you know,
the New thor you know, they could have come up
with something really cool. They came up with the raccoon.
What was the reasons of fame? What would you call
(32:47):
the mountaineer for West Virginia because that's a human? Oh yeah,
the mountaineer guy.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
I feel like that would be one of the hardest
jobs when your face is out there, Like for me,
I can hide behind the costume and do whatever I
want to most people other than you two who's inside
the costume. But when you're out there, it's just it's you.
So I think that'd be a really hard character to portray.
Is the Notre Dame Leprechaun up for it?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I don't know, but the Leprechaun is a pretty good one, right.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
That's a good one if it's If it's not in
I mean again another one where you see his face
and I find that, you know, fascinating. I mean I always,
always I'm enthralled by seeing two mascots getting after it
on the sidelines with one another.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
And I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I think it was Arizona and New Mexico were playing,
I believe, and they got a big fight and one
of the mascots lost his head and it was like
fight was over. He grabbed it and took off like
did not want to be seen as you know, as
the mascot. The other one that I always think about
Andrew is Cocky from South Carolina. I don't know about this.
(33:53):
That's the mascot for the The mascot for South Carolina
is named Cocky.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And at graduation is it like a chicken, you.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Find out who Cocky was because he or she wears
the feet of the mascot and you find out, oh
so you like, that's the time when you find out
who the mascot has been for that year, for a
couple of years, because they actually wear the clod feet,
uh to the graduation ceremony.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
That's that's one of the neat ones I think.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
So one that jumps out to me when I was
in the Atlantic ten Saint Joe's had the hawk. I
don't know if you know the Yes, Andrews flappers wings.
The hawk will never die. And the hawk flaps as
the hawk is over there in the corner of a
small gym at the time, just flapping the wings like
like non slantingly flapping. And it's because it's shoulder muscles.
(34:42):
The mascot has to keep moving. I get it. But
the but the wings got to keep flating. Yes, the
shoulder muscles.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah, no doubt, Andrew. Last time we had Junior, we
talked about you've written the book. How's the book been received?
How how's it been since we talked to you about
the book.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I mean, it's been awesome, and it's just it's so cool,
and it's still surilled to me because I get pictures
on social media of parents reading that book to their children,
or a principle reading the book to their school, and
so to see something that I had just written, you know,
you open up an empty word document and put these
words on paper. To see it being utilized is really
really special. But we've also been able to work with
Mattress Firm. We've taken the book on tour, and so
we've been able to go to a mattress from store,
(35:17):
We've been to some schools, been able to do some
public readings. We're taking it into elementary schools. Every school
we go to for any of our programs, we're passing
out a book and putting it into the library and
kids are really excited. It's a really fun book to
read in public too, So we'll bring Toro out there
for these public readings and Toro acts out the book
and so it's been a lot of fun. But it's
still in the Texans team shop. It's online at shop
dot Houston, Texans dot com, available for.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Sale and voting for the Hall of Fame for Toro.
What is the process?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Starts May eleventh. Make sure you tune into Toro.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Social media will be putting out links, will be putting
out daily reminders, but the voting's all on mascot Hall
of Fame.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Dot com, Rock and Roll, Toro, Andrew Johnson, thank you
very much.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Man, anything for that, dude, no doubt about it. Andrew
Johnson is the absolute best. Okay, we get back. Trude
already joins me as we discuss on in the Labor
do not Forget about Me guys that we need to
be watching very closely to that next the Texans All
Access All Right, Welcome back to Monday edition of Texans
All Access from Monday Texas Radio Studio. John Harris, football analyst,
(36:12):
sideline reporter for your Houston Texans, and one half of
the In the Lab podcast crew, Mamiya Drew Doherty drives
it and does a tremendous job. We had a little
brain blast thinking about what we were gonna talk about
in the Lab.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
We thought, Hey, what about do not forget about me? Players?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
And obviously Ladarius Henderson has been a talking point for
probably about a week now since Nick mentioned him on
I think last Tuesday or Wednesday show as Sean it
seth and that's kind of where we started with this
and took us in a number of different places.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
Let's take a listen, let's get into don't you forget
about me? Because I think vandermir Or you came up
with that sort of phrase. As far as players who
are on the roster, typically younger yeah, who have shown
promise but for whatever reason haven't really broken through to
whatever the next level is, whether it's from good to great,
(37:06):
from contributor to starter, from really not contributing to contributing.
So there's lots of parameters here, but basically someone who
has not made a jump. There's a lot of guys
who are candidates for that that are on the roster
right now and driving in this morning on Wednesday, Nice, rainy,
saggy Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's good for the grand Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
I heard the guys talking, and we heard Nick Cassario,
executive vice president, general manager of the Texans, talking with him,
and they brought up a name who was really intriguing
to me last year when the Texans drafted him very
very late, left tackle, Ladarius Henderson.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
I don't know that he's gonna play left tackle for the.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Texans, but he was a guy who played elsewhere for
most of his college career and then transferred and started
a lot of games for the then national champion Michigan Wolverines.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
Texans drafted him.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Never really got a chance to practice because he was
injured and had some stuff going on, but i'd see
him around the building every once in a while, and
I read a fantastic story about him. I can't remember
who wrote it, but it's at least four or five
years old, and it was in the Athletic and it
was talking about his time in Waxahatchie, Texas up north here,
which is just south of Dallas. And he's a fascinating kid, fascinating,
(38:21):
fascinating young man. I shouldn't call him a kid, but
he's somebody that Casario said this morning on the radio,
he's transformed his body. So this could be someone that
could be in the mix for competing at offensive line,
which we all know they've got to play better than
they did in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
It will be the first to tell you that.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
So Ladarius Henderson someone that I've I've seen, someone that
I've just chit chatted with in the hallway from time
to time, and I'm fascinated to see what he can
do in twenty twenty five. Because you don't have any
professional tape on him. Everything you have is from twenty
twenty three. But he's an intriguing player who was a
very important part of that that Wolverine's team that won
(39:01):
it all. And I don't care, man, no matter who
you were, if you were on a national title team,
let's see what you got, you know, Let's see what
you got at the next level. Now, the NFL is
littered with names who won national titles and then didn't
do anything as pros. It's a different skill set. But
knowing who he is and knowing who he could be,
I'm intrigued, John, What do you think?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
So he started his career is on a state and
then transferred to Michigan and was.
Speaker 6 (39:30):
But he played a lot.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, he played a lot too.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
He played a lot of a lot of football, and
so when he so, when I saw him at Senior Bowl,
I remember thinking, I don't know, and I don't want to.
I don't want to be that guy that looks at
a guy that no, that guy can't play.
Speaker 5 (39:50):
And to be fair, to be fair, he was a
seventh round pick, So well say that about a round pick.
You know, you're not being too overly judgmental about a
seventh round pick, say stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
But I thought he was really strong Uglyn. When I
found out he had been hurt, it it made all
the sense in the world. Yeah, because I'm like, man,
the guy that I watched during the season looked look
more comfortable than that, like moved better. So when I
found out, oh yeah, he's hurt and he's gonna essentially
red shirt in twenty twenty four, I thought, this is
(40:20):
the best thing.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I almost feel like if you could do that, if
you could do that.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
For your six and seventh round players in particular, to
give them a year to red shirt, to learn the
NFL way, to work out in the workout hard, rehab
whatever injury you've got. And even you know, in a
case where you know, he just kind of red shirt
a guy, if he could just red shirt him.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
And bring them along, you know, in a little bit slower,
but you know.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Maybe they don't practice, or maybe they do practice, but
you can keep them running. And in some cases NFL
teams will do that with later round picks.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
They'll put them on a practice squad and that's kind
of the way they do it.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
But in Ladarius's case, being injured, it's like, okay, essentially
it's going to be a red shirt year, Like okay,
get your body right, get rehabbed, so get your body fixed,
then get your body right. And that was one of
the things that stood out. And if you do that,
I wonder too, And we've talked about this that I
(41:17):
think when when I wrote him up, I remember thinking
tackle guard. And so I remember, I want to say,
when we talked to Nick, they were thinking about him
as a guard, like that was going to be his
position here. So you get kind of a double whammy
in the sense that you get to rehab your body,
you get to stick around the NFL building, and now
(41:40):
you get to transform your body into maybe a little
bit more of a guard body, or maybe you need
a little bit more upper body strength where you need
just overall, you know, core strength and all that to
be able to play that position.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
But I think.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Just hearing Nick talk about him and knowing the work
and look the it's very clear that this.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Building values the values.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Guys that put in the time, put in the effort
and get in this building and they do it with
the best intentions possible.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
And I think Ladarius has done that.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
So the tricky thing is, Okay, he hasn't taken a snap,
he hasn't put on a helmet since that Senior Bowl.
So that's gonna be. So that Senior Bowl was January
of twenty four, right, so we're gonna go all the
way to August of twenty five. So you're talking a year,
(42:35):
seven months, a lot of time. Year, A little year
and a half, but you haven't, you know, so he's
gonna have to callous his body to that physicality again.
And but it's also gonna be intriguing. And here's the
thing too. You said it. If Ladarius doesn't work out,
it's a seventh round pick, right, But if you see something,
even if he turns into a backup offensive lineman, that
(42:57):
you know you can rely on that, okay. And Charge
was the same way, and Charlie was a fourth rounder.
You know, Okay, Charlie's got to go in the game
because Laramie's hurt or Titus has banged up Charlie. Charlie's
gotta go play. And Charlie would hold his own and
do a really good job. And it really wasn't until
Charlie hurt his foot where it really kind of slowed
down any kind of progress that he was he was
(43:19):
making as this team's swing tackle, a very important position.
I think for Ladarius, Man, what if what if all
of a sudden Ladarius steps in and you're like, man,
he takes over right guard and I mean, that's found
fifty bucks in your pocket, you know what I mean?
That's that is to me what makes it kind of exciting.
And I do think of the five offensive line positions
(43:43):
and it and it's funny because I've been thinking this
way for a while. When Nick said that about Ladarius Henderson,
I'm like, oh, maybe that's the guy I've felt like
all along, there's gonna be an upset somewhere on that
offensive line that we don't see coming. The Mike Brizell
of the group that you don't you don't see coming,
and then you're like, WHOA, Mike's really good, gets this
job done, gets the job done. And so when he
(44:05):
mentioned Ladarius, that kind of popped up the other name
that I think about a lot, come.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
Out, come out, and it's don't you forget hibout me.
It's not yeah, well we don't have a burning flag
while throwing in the ground saying this is going.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
To right, right right, It's like, don't forget about this guy.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
He might do something. Well, here's another one for you,
and then I have a three pack.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
After you've writ your name, I got one for you.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And you should love hearing this because he is a
pony or former pony player.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
That's Jalen Thomas.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
And again Jalen played tackle at SMU and I felt
like guard was his.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Best position, maybe even center at that point.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
But you know, he was a guy that I'm trying
to remember when he got here, like eight and twenty
three on it twenty four. I feel like there were
a couple of days in training camp where I'm watching
him thinking, man, there's something there. He's thick and stout
and tough. I think there's something there. And then hurt
and it's like, because there was kind of this rash
of injuries in twenty three, I can't remember if he's
(45:03):
part of that. I know he was part of it
in twenty four, and I feel like he's a guy that, man,
if you worked with him every day, you know, could
he be a guy that gave you something on the
inside as well. So I feel like that's another guy
Jalen Thomas from smu've been with the organization for a
couple of years now. Don't forget about that guy, because
I think he's got a little something as well. So
you throw those two guys in the mix, who knows.
(45:26):
You start performing with the threes, you do some good things.
You get in a preseason game, you have a long
stretch in the second half, Now a sudden Hey, maybe
we should get them some reps with the twos, get
a few more preseason games, and before you know it, man,
you're right there on the cusp of one injury away,
and then all of a sudden injury happens and you
got to step in and that who knows if that
(45:49):
could happen. I just always think of Mike Brycell in
these situations. He's one of my favorite Texans of all time,
Biscuit Brizel. He was just such a such a character,
but just a really really good guard that nobody thought
anything about. Everybody, as you said, Drew forgot about him,
and then this guy ends up being a really a
(46:09):
piece of one of the best line, one of the
best offensive lines, if not the best offensive line the
Texans ad.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
And he was instrumental in that.
Speaker 5 (46:16):
You just brought up Jalen Thomas, and he's one of
the Jalen's on this team, Jayleen, the one of us
that were that were drafted a quartet, there's also Jaden.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
And when you said that, I thought, oh, no, John.
Speaker 5 (46:29):
Hasn't been paying attention because we just cut Jalen Thomas
a week ago. And I was wrong. As I was
looking at my phone. Yeah, it was a Jayden peevee
that defensive tab we saw, so pardon me, but I'm uh,
I was.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Listen, things happened so fast and furious.
Speaker 5 (46:42):
I was coaching a I was coaching a fifth grade
baseball game the other night, and the umpire, yeah, he
was about He comes over to me like middle of
the game, during the break in between innings, and I
thought he was gonna tell me something.
Speaker 6 (46:54):
About like, hey, watch the box here or watch He's like, hey, so,
what are you guys gonna do about all these Jalens.
I might figure it out?
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, and listen, it's Jalen with an I N, Jalen
with an I N Jalen with the een.
Speaker 6 (47:06):
Jalen with an old N and that you were just talking.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yeah, and then you got Jalen who is know why
but eli En and Jalen Petrie.
Speaker 6 (47:15):
Old man and I forget some things. And that's what
just happened.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Oh right, It's gonna happen plenty of times. Jalen, Jayden, Jalen, Jalen,
Jalen jy Long.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I mean, it's gonna be all over the place, but
hopefully we'll figure it out by the time the season
starts all right, it's gonna do it for the show.
Appreciate Drew from stopping by Mark of course, you guys.
As always, Andrew Johnson as Torro is fantastic. We'll see
you tomorrowy buddy, and as always, go to Texans
What's happened? Everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Happy Monday to you wherever you are. Welcome you into
Texans All Access Sean Harris alongside the Voice of the
Texans Mark vandermiir Boy, we got plenty to talk about tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We're gonna have our good friend Toro on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, it's not quite Toro, because we know Toro does
he's not really good to have on the air. But
we have the man who is Toro, Andrew Johnson, going
to join us and talk a little bit more about
Toro's opportunity for the Hall of Fame. The voting has
opened up Mascot Hall of Fame dot com. He'll tell
us that in a little bit. Also, Drew stops by
for a little in the lab a little later on.
(00:39):
As we talk about don't forget about me, guys. He
stole your thing, Mark, he stole it.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
But you look about me, guys, I don't mind having
that as a station or station Texans Radio brand if
you will, right, don't forget about me, guys. Brought to
you bye. You know we could do that. You could
have it sponsored. It'll be awesome, get it viral. But
that's something that we revisit time and time again. Absolutely
training camp, OTAs all throughout the off season.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Don't forget about me, guys.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
That is one of my favorite segments to do in
training camp because once you get about halfway through training camp,
you know, everybody wants to talk about all the position
battles and all that, and you get to a point
where you've talked about him so often you're mentioning the
same guys and it's like, hey, don't forget about me.
Over here speaking out. I was watching the Stallions in
(01:29):
the Roughnecks yesterday and Khalil Davis twin brother Carlos Davis
good sack for Birmingham. I was like, man, yeah, that
a boy car to get back into the league. Maybe, yeah,
maybe getting back in the league.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I got another category though, similar to don't forget about
me guy is from fatal Attraction, I will not be
ignored guy, which I think is more of an established
veteran who we don't talk about enough, right. Don't forget
about me guy to me is a guy who's kind
of on the perimeter a little bit. Yeah it could
be a in, but hey, you forgot about this guys, right,
(02:03):
but a veteran.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Who I will not be ignored.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
You know, that could be somebody like, uh, every time
you say it, that's Glinn close.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I will not be ignored, Dan.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's almost like one of those O'Brien things like losing
is bad Tanya or AFC South Champs, Brian, I will
not be ignored, Dan. You could have that for say, uh,
if we're in camp or we're talking about tight ends,
we forget to mention Bret Jordan or something that's I
will not be ignored.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Don't forget about me, my, don't forget about me. Guy
is an.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ivy leaguer, is an IVY leaguered the Texans for the
Houston Texas, So that would be I'm not gonna say
that's that's a tease in the business. Oh okay for
the in the loud of teas.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Uh, speaking of teas, we've been teasing.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
In fact, the other day when we did our mock schedule,
which was very, very fun to do.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That's Thursday show. Go check it out on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It was fantastic. Other than week one when I said
we would play all Chargers in Brazil, Oh, you were wrong.
I was wrong kind on purpose, but I was wrong.
The Texans will not actually not only will they not
play in Brazil, they will not play outside the United
(03:19):
States in the year twenty twenty five. True, they will
not play outside. The Chargers will play the Chiefs in
South Paulo, Brazil. Those that's not announced, that'll be announced tomorrow.
But we have got numerous reports and you kind of
get a feeling that there's some things that happen that
(03:41):
you know inside the building, you know it's not gonna
be you. Yeah, you just some things have to take
place that hadn't taken place, and so I figured we're
probably not going.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Okay, but that happened. When did you get that information?
Because I got some information as far as maybe seven
to ten days ago.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, I got my information on Friday. Okay, so is
very basically confirmed what I already know.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I got some information that indicated it was pretty darn
likely we'd go. Really, but I've learned not to trust
this stuff because last year we were going to London
to play the Ministerol.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Going to London, and we knew it for a long
time was gonna happen, told by we were told to
combine by the Vikings people like hey, we'll see you
guys in London.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, exactly, and it didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And then this year going to Mexico for Shizzle, you're
gonna go to Mexico. You got nine home games, you're
gonna play one in Mexico City. Now that would have
happened had a statuous deca been ready or they deemed
it would possibly be ready, because maybe it will be
ready by November, for for instance, because that's when we
played in Mexico City.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Our goal is to get.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It ready ready by the World Cup, right by twenty
twenty six World Cups, So this six months in advance
of that, right.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
However, I don't think the NFL wanted to mess with it.
Even if it is possibly gonna be ready. They can't
do possibly will be ready. They need to know now
because it affects season ticket sales for or the Houston Texans.
They had to know whether they had a game or not,
and they had to make the decision early. So no
international play for the Houston Texans.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Now, I know.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
People heard that, well, wait, that's just Brazil. Well there
are two other opportunities against AFC.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
South teams and leaked reports the.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Colts in Berlin and the Jags in Wembley. But neither
one of those will come to fruition. Benjamin Albright, who
covers I think he's in Denver. He covers the NFL.
He can be kind of a what's the right way
of saying it? He can be an ornerary young man.
He tweeted this on This is actually backaways, he said,
(05:39):
not free agency related.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But per multiple sources, the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Are expected to be the visiting team for the international
game in Germany versus the Colts this year. And a
report you saw this weekend said the Jags are playing
the Rams in Wembley.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And that makes sense because the Jags have the Rams
at home with their schedule.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Right, we're opposite, We're what we are the Colts.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Now, I'm curious to see because the Colts and the
Texans we match schedules, right, So if we go to
if we go to Seattle, they go to Seattle. If
we go to LA and they go to LA not
obviously the same time, but at some point, so we
always match with the Colts. So the Colts are going
to have the two trips to LA as well. So
I wonder how I wonder how they'll handle that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
The Colts will have the two trips to LA. It's
the same too, so they have that Germany game, So
maybe they do them a solid and leave them out
there for a week and that's good or bad for
them how they would interpret that. You gotta have a
good facility to practice at. I don't know how you
handle any of that stuff. So we don't have to
deal with now, we do have to deal with back
to back trips, well not back to back, but two trips.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So that's a fact.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Jack, You're going to LA twice now, and we don't
know how they're gonna do it, but it would be
great to go back to back if again, you had
a good facility to spend the week at well.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I was talking to one of our sources and he
or she said that apparently at u c l A.
They've built a brand new hotel right near the practice facility,
like not like I want to even say walking distance,
like literally open up the door and you're right there.
So that would be kind that would be kind of nice.
(07:17):
Obviously you butt up against you know, is is U c.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
L A in town? You know? Could you share the
fields field?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Because don't the college teams practice later in the day
because they allegedly.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Have class, yeah, allegedly, or they practice really early in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So you go either way.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And the thing is if you're staying, say you're doing
that Sunday to Thursday thing, and we've talked about.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You're just walking through stuff. You just walking Sunday to Thursday.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yes, right, Sunday to Sunday Sunday different actual practices.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
But check this out.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Friday, wherever they play, they're not on the field at all.
They're doing a walk through at whatever stadium they're at,
right because they play Saturday, right, and so you're really
dealing with Wednesday Thursday issues.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's not a big deal.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I mean, you could pull it off, yeah, because what
is the total time that you need the field for
three hours? You know, get your advanced people out there,
you know. Right now, I don't know how to handle
the cameras, but they probably have all the gear that
an NFL team had, I would imagine, and you could
pipe everything through their cameras.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And everything like that. Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I don't know if they'd want to, but they probably could.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
One year, maybe in the COVID year I can't remember,
maybe was the year after COVID.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I don't really offered.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
The Patriots worked out at UCLA because they had a
couple of games on the on the West Coast. Now
obviously New England have back to back games on the
West coast. That makes sense for them to stay there.
For us, you could argue, you all right, fly back,
you know, fly back over there.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
I don't know you could, but I'd rather stay out.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So that was before you know who in twenty twenty
and she was nineteen years old then wow, yeah, ye
she was nineteen twenty twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I don't even know what to make of this story.
But here's the one thing that keeps coming to mind.
And we're talking about Bill Belichick. If you couldn't figure
that out, and and Jordan Huts yea, Jordan Hudson, Yeah
what I When Bill Belichick took the job in North Carolina,
I remember one of the first things you and I
(09:14):
discussed is, hey, is he gonna take bearsh Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Bears is basically was his chief of staff with the
New England Patriots. Basically Bears just did everything right hand
man everything. I mean, he did everything right. I would
joke about dead bodies, but with the Patriots, there were
some dead bodies. With Aaron Hernandez, so I won't joke
about it. But Bears knew everything, did everything. Now he
works for Bill O'Brian at Boston College. Very smart higher
(09:41):
by Bill o.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Very smart heart. It's the probably the one individual that
Bill needed to have here the entire time. I think
he was looking for that. Yes, never found it, never
found it.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I think Belichick was basically taking a North Carolina job,
and like with Jordan, he thought, well, you know, she
can just be my Bears. I I can hear the conversation, like, listen,
you're gonna have to kind of be a jerk with
the media, and you're just gonna have to make sure
that this is the way things are done.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Is the way we got That's I I came up with.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I had that theory in my head and I heard
somebody read somebody and put that out there, and I'm like,
this is exactly what's going on. He wants and needs
a Bears and he doesn't have it. And she's trying
to step in and play the Travis Hunter role of
girlfriend and Bears and she can't do it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So she's struggling.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
So anyways, yeah, twenty four year old, I don't care girl,
guy whatever. Person twenty four years old. You don't have
the chops to do it. No, you don't have no
institutional knowledge.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
You have no gravitas.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
When you hear the Patriots talk about Bears like former
Patriots like, oh man, you had to go to the
hallway and see Bears like he was an intimidating figure.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Scheduled everything for Belichick, every all the media stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Everything he handled.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
The department did whatever they did, but they had to
run it through Bears.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Everything for Belichick went through Bearsh And I think that's
that's what he's missing. This thing at North Carolina was
not ready made. He couldn't just go out there and
coach and do media interviews. There's so much debts had
to go with it. He needed a bearsh And I
guarantee you that's the way he's looking and was looking
at that situation and realized very quickly.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So like the theory, We'll we'll see where where that
goes with Bill Belichick. But the Texans will not play
in Germany, they will not play in London, they will
not play in Brazil.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
And they will not play on opening night Thursday. They
will not play.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Thursday, because that is the Eagles, and I thought it
was gonna be Commanders. I was convinced it was the
Commanders NFC Championship replay. Here we go on the top
young quarterbacks in the league, Eagles, Commanders, right off the
bat Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Sway you do it?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Nope, Cowboys, it would be a better match up with
the Commanders.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
We all know it. But Johnny, you're a network executive.
I know. Put your Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
You got your pick of any Philadelphia Eagles opponent.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Who are you gonna do? Yeah, Cowboys makes it.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I'm gonna set a record on Thursday Night Opening Night?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Have you Cowboys? Coach dak is back, dack back.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
George Pickens is a Cowboy at the defending champs. Oh
my god, it's Dallas and Philly. Like it made all
once I saw it, It made all a sense in the world.
It makes all sense in the world. I just felt
like that it would be I just felt like they
would not want to go with division games. But Florio
brought up a great point. It's like, hey, you got
(12:45):
Chargers Chiefs, which, by the way, apparently the Chargers had
every right to veto the Chiefs in Brazil. Yeah, they
could veto a division opponent in their international game, well
couldn't they? And the Chargers detected the Chiefs home game.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah yeah, yeah at home in so Far and say no,
we got to play the Chiefs and so Far, I
think there are two things that work here. Let's get
the Chiefs off American soil where maybe on a neutral
site far from home.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
You know, we got a good shot, better shot.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And I don't want them in our building because it's
all red, it's all it's a sea of Reddit's so
far exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I'm already the Chargers.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Everybody brings their people here to watch their team play
in my building, especially the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I don't want to deal with that. Now.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
They could protect two non division games, and they did
protect two non division games, and the Texans are among
the opponents. So maybe they protected the Texans, I don't know,
maybe thinking that, oh, maybe we'll get more Chargers fans
in here. But they know from that soccer stadium visit
in twenty nineteen, we filled that building with a lot
of Texans fans in that Philip Rivers led this would.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Be our first regular season game at so Far, that's right,
So I imagine there might be some some fans out
there that are wearing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
The knowlutely a chance to go to La you'll see
a lot of battle Red out there.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, for both trips, because it'll be two trips. But
one of the things that I'd read, and this was
kind of the final nail in a coffin, I'd read this.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think it was Front Office Sports.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
They were talking about the game in Brazil and they
said that I believe it's I believe it's gonna be
a Google game.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I think if I remember correctly, yeah, it is a
YouTube game. They will not charge for it, right, And so.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I as soon as I saw that, I was like,
not gonna pick us. If they can get the Chiefs,
They're gonna get the Chiefs. And literally at the bottom
of the paragraph, it just they they snuck it in
there like it was known.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
It was like, yeah, the Chiefs will be going to
Brazil to play the Chargers or whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I thought, Oh, okay, that kind of confirms what I
had been thinking. But then when I heard, okay, it's
YouTube game, they're gonna want to make a splash.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
This has gotta be the Chiefs and I and I
get it.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I mean you know, it's it's opportunity for the for
YouTube to put the chiefs back on it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And why wouldn't you. It's ma Homes, It's Kelsey.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
It's read I mean, it's you have an exclusive national window.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It's only the second game of the year.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Everybody's gonna want to watch it, and it's free on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And this, you know what this does.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
This gets all the more seasoned viewers old to get
YouTube up on their flat screen. Smart It's brilliant. They
don't need the money, they don't need the money to
charge for the game, So forget about that part of it.
We'll charge for the commercials obviously, and we'll get all
of America, well all of the football viewing America to
(15:40):
put YouTube up on their flat screen. I guarantee there
are a lot of more seasoned viewers who have never
put YouTube up on their flat screen.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And they're going to do it now.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And so that exercise will produce, in YouTube's eyes, maybe
more YouTube viewing on your flat screen.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
This was from Sports Illustrated. They put this out. Who
wrote this? Uh Tim Carpuso. Carpusho close up. The NFL's
eyeing the streaming record books for the Chargers Chiefs matchup.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
The league is quote unquote closing.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
In on agreement with YouTube, which distributes the popular NFL
sund A ticket package, to carry the contest between Kansas
City and Los Angeles. That was straight from Front Office Sports.
I get their emails every day.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So he said.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
The intriguing part is the NFL wishes for the game
to be streamed on YouTube for free, meaning the audience
and viewership numbers for the game could no.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Bounds.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
On Christmas Day, it set a streaming record with an
average of twenty four point three million viewers for the
Chiefs the Steelers. Well, they're gonna blow it away. Go
back to the Well gonna blow it away because it's
on YouTube. This is the second largest search engine in
the world. Yeah, Herbert Holmes in Brazil, you're getting Friday
Night nothing, nothing conflicts with it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I mean it's well.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Imagine a push notifications. NFL app obviously, but YouTube. Anybody
who has YouTube, you run your phone and gets the
pushes from YouTube on their favorite content. You're gonna get
this push to your phone and so even if you're
not at home, you're gonna click on and watch a
little bit of it and that's gonna count as a
number for them. Now as far as the Eagles go,
the night before, here were the other possible opponents other
(17:17):
than the Cowboys. You mentioned Washington obviously, the Giants, the division,
the whole division was possible, but the Bears, the Broncos,
the Lions, and the Raiders and the Rams, those were
all possibilities. They did the right thing they did. Detroit
would have been great too. I mean, there's a better
(17:38):
game out there, possibly from the outside looking in, from
you know, maybe this turns out.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
To be the greatest game in NFL history. Who knows,
but just the way it would project to be.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
On the field on paper, Yeah, Lions commanders sure fined.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Maybe the Rams.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
They held a hell of a close game against the
Eagles in the postseason in the snow. But I like
this matchup for them, and this is gonna shatter record
as well.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I mean, it's just I mean, I hate to say it,
but it. I mean, it's Eagles Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I mean, it's one of the better rivalries that's there
there is in sports, and definitely in the NFL. And
like you said, if you're looking for a big number,
you're setting the weekend off with that, then you turn
around with Chargers Chiefs on YouTube the next night and
it's like, can you imagine Monday League sets record with
streaming league, has you know, opening weekend highest game in
(18:28):
ten years or whatever. I could see the headlines already,
and it's been interesting. I was listening Sean at Sett
the other day and they I think it was them,
maybe been Reggie and John I can't remember, but they
were talking about how the ratings for sporting events, recent
sporting events have been just going through the roof. That
more and more people are coming to sports to kind
(18:49):
of just get the get away from it all, to
get a release from everything going on, and so they're
coming back over to sports is kind of their their outlets,
and then numbers are.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Just going through the roof. It's the campfire, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, it's it's one of the few places where people
can still huddle and be together that collectively.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
That that is a great point.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Speaking of huddles, Toro has never been in a huddle,
and if he were, he wouldn't say anything. But the
man who is Toro, Andrew Johnson, stepped in studio. We
had a blast talking about everything and anything having to
do with Toro and prospects for the mascot Hall of Fame.
Can't he make it? We'll discuss that next right here
(19:32):
in Texans All Access. Welcome back to this Mondy edition
of Texans All Access from I'm not at Texans Radio Studio.
I am John Harrison. I looked down at my shirt.
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I thought maybe I'd spilled something. I looked down and
I saw a Pro Football Hall.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Of Fame and I thought about Andre Johnson, the first
Texans Hall of Famer, and how fun that was in
Canton last year there for the whole weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I mean, it was just a bang up time.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
And I thought about a potential All Famer that we
could have in our midst but for the mascot All Fame,
that being our buddy Toro.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, the man who is Toro, Andrew Johnson.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Stepped in the studio and he didn't really have to,
but he made a case for Toro going to All Fame.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
We had a blast talking Andrew right here.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It's another visited studio, and we knew there had to
be a part two, but it's really timely as well.
Toro ak Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson portrays Toro? Do you
portray him, do you play him? How do you how
do you worry that channel Toro?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah, man, that's a good question. I mean you just
embrace it. Become the become the bull.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
You become the character, the character of Toro. And has
the character of Toro. We'll get to the Hall of
Fame stuff in a moment here. By the way, has
the character of Toro changed? Because we talked last time
about Jonathan Frost, the first guy portrayed played Toro, Channel Toro,
and then you how does the character of Toro evolve?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Because Toro is a character right right?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
And I think that was a unique thing about taking
on this job. You know, Jonathan had done it for
fourteen years and had established who Toro was and what
Toro's known for. Jonathan was doing some really crazy aerial
stunts inside the stadium, and I remember when I was
here interviewing for the job and they were talking to
me about who Toro is, and I had obviously seen
a lot of the crazy stunts he had done.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I'm like, I don't know if I can do that.
So you're having to live up to the.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Character that Jonathan had already created and I think hopefully
we've been able to do that justice and carry on
his legacy, but also add some new things into the mix.
I mean, social media really wasn't as big of a
thing when Jonathan was here, and I think that's something
that we've added to Torro's persona. He's known as a prankster,
but he's also still known as that daredevil that Jonathan
kind of created for the Texans.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, you've done your share of repelling.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, you made us on the broadcast crew at times,
we have discussions during breaks and we see you up
there and we're like, nope, nope, they're not one of us.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You could pay to go up there.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
And you and I talked about I can't remember which
game it was, all that went in to your pregame
event and I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I think you were repelling from the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You were talking about how it was it was close,
like there were so many people involved and you weren't
confident about how it had gone kind of in testing.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I don't remember what event that was, Andrew, but do
you mind kind of going through that.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Do you remember that, Like it was like one or
two in the morning and you were deciding whether you
were actually gonna do it for the game or not.
How often does something like that happen? And can you
take us kind of through that process of well, man,
this might be a little bit much.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean, the stunts are a lot of work,
and obviously people see the thirty second to sixty second
result on any given Sunday, but they don't understand that
the process starts so far in advance. So like right now,
we're actually having the conversations and brainstorming what we want
to do for the twenty five season. So we're all
sitting around the table and here's the stunts, what we've
done in the past, and we're talking to the stunt
crew about what could be possible.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
So we want to take things to the next level.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
We've obviously done some really cool things, but next season
is a completely blank slate, and so we're ide eating
now and then once we get the schedule release next week,
then we'll actually put dates to when we want to
do it. We usually like to do them around primetimes,
primetime games, and we have the eyes of the nation,
so we'll select the dates, we'll select, the stunts will
select kind of brainstorm what the storyline is how do
we get to the actual stunt. Is it a video,
(23:13):
is it some kind of pr stunt that leads into
this big stunt in stadium? But will ideate that we'll
go to contract with our stunt crew. They actually come
in from Arizona. They're not local, so there's two guys
that fly in from Arizona to bring them up. They've
been here since the very beginning, and then we're having
to communicate operationally around the building when they're coming in,
where they're parking, how they're getting into the building, make
(23:34):
sure that everybody knows when they're going to be doing it.
When we're doing stunt practices and the game that you're referencing,
I think was our Christmas Day game. We were going
to do a big repel stunt in State. Well, we
originally wanted to do a big swing, and then we
realized that Beyonce was going to be hanging things from
the ceiling. She had different lighting structures, and she had
a stunt that she was doing herself, and so we're
having to work all of our rigging around what she had.
(23:54):
Not to mention that was also a two skycam game,
so people don't think about how the aerial space inside
the stadium is used, so we're having to share that airspace,
and so if we're gonna do a big swing or things,
we got to make sure that those ropes aren't going
to cross. So there's a lot of coordination that we
do with the building with Skycim. We've become really good
friends with them here over the years. And then we
actually have to rig up the stunt, and once that
stunt is rigged, we do a thorough testing and so
(24:16):
we actually drop weight on all of our stunts before
we ever put a human life on the line, and
so we'll drop two hundred pounds worth of weight, whether
it be a repel or a swing or a reverse repel.
We test the stunt with weight, then the stunt crew
does it, and then I get on the line and
so we do some thorough testing to make.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Have you ever had to eighty six a stunt like Nope,
it's we just can't do it.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
It's just not safe enough. Have you ever had to
do that?
Speaker 4 (24:40):
We have not, you know, And we've actually got close
when we had the Playoff stunt where it was a
big swing stunt and the stunt crew had some challenges.
But because of the testing, we will know whether it
holds up or not. They go back in, they'll tweak
some things, make it work, we'll test it again. And
we got pretty close with the playoff swing that we
did just last year where it got pretty late on
on that game was a what was that game this
(25:02):
Saturday or Saturday?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
It was a Saturday.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
So yeah, we were here really really late Friday night
into Saturday morning testing and making sure that it was going.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
To hold up.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
But they were ultimately able to pull it off. And
so I'm very thankful for the stunt crew. I put
a lot of faith in them, but they've been here
since the beginning and they've earned that trust and they
do a really good job.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
So Toro has been nominated for the Mascot Hall of Fame. Right,
there is such a thing as the Mascot Hall of Fame,
and it was established in two thousand and five and
some of the inductees, just to give you a picture here,
the Philly Fanatic. Hard to imagine the Philly Fanatic not
being in there, right, the famous chicken formerly known as
(25:38):
the San Diego Chicken.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Of course, in the Mascot.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Hall of Fame, there is a local inductee, and that
would be Clutch Clutch the Bears already is.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
It's actually two inductees. Now, Okay, what a Houston? What
do you got?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Orbit got inducted last year? That right, Orbit got in
last year last year.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I forgot about that. Oh boy, Oh the Nitney Lion
is in from Penn State. I'm just looking around here. Oh,
the Nitney Lion is in the Why wouldn't the Nitney
line be in?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Is it the Bill O'Brien version in you?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I don't think it's the Bill O'Brien version. Is there
a Bill O'Brien version? I didn't brutus to Buckeye. Okay, see,
mister met is in. Smoky from the University of Tennessee. Yeah,
these are all sports. Andrew would would like Smoky the
Bear be considered a mascot or no, No, Smoky the
Bear is a talking thing that's a publicity psa thing
(26:25):
for forest fires, so that wouldn't count true. So Andrew,
tell us, what's the process here. How could people help
Toro get into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
We need all the help we can get. So it
is going to go to a public vote. The voting
period is May eleventh through May twenty fourth, and fans
can vote once every twenty four hour period, so it's
a rolling twenty four hours. If you vote at eight am,
let's say on Saturday, you won't be able to vote
again until eight am on Sunday. So it's not just
once a day, it's a twenty four rolling, twenty four
hour rolling clock.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Basically, only real elections worked like this. Oh wait a minute,
go on, right, But yeah, we want you guys to vote.
You need Texans fans helped to get Toro into the
Mascot Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So every year, like with Andre, they're always like, you know, started.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
With fifty, then we get down to fifteen, then we
get down to ten, and eventually get down a five.
How is it for the Mascot Hall of Fame? Are
there other NFL mascots in there with you?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Is? Obviously it must be all mascots.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
How many of the mascots are in there with Toro
kind of fighting? And how many get selected each year?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, that's a good question. So there's twenty eight mascots
on the ballot. It's a pretty big ballot. This year,
it's the largest ballot they've ever had. I'm not exactly
sure how many mascots or are going to get selected.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I don't think it's too many, because I'm looking at
the list of inductees here since two thousand and five,
and it's not a ton, but it looks like they
took a long break from like two thousand and eight
to twenty nineteen to induct mascots.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
So so Mascot Hall of Fame actually had a physical
location for about five or six years. It was about
thirty minutes outside of Chicago in a little city called Whiting, Indiana,
and it has since shut down. So there is not
a physical location for the Mascot Hall of Fame anymore.
It's just a virtual hall of fame.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That's okay. It is okay. It's still there, it still exists.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
What NFL mascots are in the group in the finalist
group with Toro.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
So there's only two NFL mascots on the ballot this year.
It's Toro and Blitz from the Seattle Seahawks. Got a chance,
No Blitz get out, no chance. Blitz doesn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I see a Hall of Fame or in the Mascot
Hall of Fame and it's good.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's upsetting me. I'm like, I am upset. Who is this?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Jackson de Ville is in the freaking mascot that was
a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
This is unacceptable. How did Jackson Deville get in over
freaking Toro? Ridiculous, It's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
There's two AFC South guys in the mascot Hall of Fame.
You've got the Indianapolis Colts, Blue Blue, Jackson Diville.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Oh I see Blue.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Oh now, I'm okay, all right, we gotta get to
go with.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Blue before Jackson.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
To me too, like Blues like Blue is pretty talented man,
that's stunn He does where he throws the ball from
the like third or fourth floor, puts it into like
a water bucket, like it's incredible round though, was Blue
of Baltimore cult mascot?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
He got that?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I could go with more if Blue was around. Since
you know who's on the ballot this year, though, Sebastian
the Ibis.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I heard this.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
The Ibis is on. Yeah, and that's the University of
and the Ibis. I'm surprised he's not in already. I
just got to tell you. The Ibis is a terrific
should have been in before. The Nitty Lion I think
so too. The ibis is a legendary mascot and the Ibis,
I mean I did a game with the Ibis got
called for two No One fifteen yard penalty for celebrating
(29:40):
in the mascot.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, at the Sugar Bowl. Can you imagine doing that here?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
The guy would be employed and then somebody else got
a fifteen yard or on the same play. It was
after a touchdown, so Todd Severs had to kick a
fifty yard extra.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Point and he made it, and he made it.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
It was awesome. It was like, yes, in your face anyway.
Some of the other ones, the Oriel Bird, Yeah, but
they were in Jazz Bear, the Utah Jazz basketball team,
a Jazz bar is the Phoenix Suns Gorilla in there.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yes, okay, he was one of the first class.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, the gorilla does like he does good things, all right,
So the inaugural Class Bear do Philly fanatic, the Gorilla
and the famous Chicken.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I mean that's good. I mean you have to do.
That's like the Babe Ruth and whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yea, What the hell has mister Mett done other than
I have a big old baseball He lives in New
York City.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
He's like, exactly right, but unique.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, if does stunts, visits to the community, does all
kinds of work in the community.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Are the sausages in Milwaukee eligible because they have the sausage?
Are they they're in?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I think are they in the because Reggie and John
were talking about this on Tuesday Wednesday came remember which
day was, and they I thought they said that the
the running Sausages were in.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I think they're making that up. That sounds like a
Lopez fabrication, you know what that does kind of sound
like Lopez Andrew? What is your Do you have a favorite?
Do you have an iconic mascot that you say that
that's the one for me? Because it's all subjective obviously, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Mean all the ones you named. I mean whenever I
was entering this business. You know, this is a dream
come true for me. I had watched a lot of
these guys growing up, and so the fanatics one of
the best, the Famous Chicken. But for me, I grew
up in Kansas City, and so I grew up watching
the chief mascot, Casey Wolf. And the guy who I
grew up watching is still the chief mascot to this day.
He's been doing it for thirty five years and he
(31:30):
still has a ton of energy. He's still doing it
at the highest level possible and really makes a great
impact in the Kansas City community. So I think, to me,
he is He's my goat when it comes to the
mascot world.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I mean it makes sense. I mean it makes sense.
I mean, if he's been around that long, he's a
good mask.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I could go with that.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
You know, it's strong for Houston though that tore is
definitely gonna get it at some point.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, And the fact that Orbit and Clutch are already
in says a lot about Houston. This is not a
big list of mascots that are in the Mascot Hall
of Fame. It points out how awesome we are at this. Yeah,
with mascots. For sure, it's the Dynamo. What do they have, Diesel?
The Fox Diesel the Fox. Okay, it's a cool mascot,
but it's not it's not Toro. But so in the
(32:12):
AFB shots, if Toro gets in, we got three AFC
South mascots. That says a lot about the AFC South. Now,
t is a t rack for the Titans. I still
no shot. No shot ever. I have yet to.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Figure out how they came up with a damn raccoon
for their mascot.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, I still like I'm Gamy Adams would want it
to be like a mini oil Derek or something. Yeah,
parking back, it's the Titans. They could run out some
rocked up dude. Yeah, like Titans loincloth and like, you know,
the New thor you know, they could have come up
with something really cool. They came up with the raccoon.
What was the reasons of fame? What would you call
(32:47):
the mountaineer for West Virginia because that's a human? Oh yeah,
the mountaineer guy.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
I feel like that would be one of the hardest
jobs when your face is out there, Like for me,
I can hide behind the costume and do whatever I
want to most people other than you two who's inside
the costume. But when you're out there, it's just it's you.
So I think that'd be a really hard character to portray.
Is the Notre Dame Leprechaun up for it?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I don't know, but the Leprechaun is a pretty good one, right.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
That's a good one if it's If it's not in
I mean again another one where you see his face
and I find that, you know, fascinating. I mean I always,
always I'm enthralled by seeing two mascots getting after it
on the sidelines with one another.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
And I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I think it was Arizona and New Mexico were playing,
I believe, and they got a big fight and one
of the mascots lost his head and it was like
fight was over. He grabbed it and took off like
did not want to be seen as you know, as
the mascot. The other one that I always think about
Andrew is Cocky from South Carolina. I don't know about this.
(33:53):
That's the mascot for the The mascot for South Carolina
is named Cocky.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And at graduation is it like a chicken, you.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Find out who Cocky was because he or she wears
the feet of the mascot and you find out, oh
so you like, that's the time when you find out
who the mascot has been for that year, for a
couple of years, because they actually wear the clod feet,
uh to the graduation ceremony.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
That's that's one of the neat ones I think.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
So one that jumps out to me when I was
in the Atlantic ten Saint Joe's had the hawk. I
don't know if you know the Yes, Andrews flappers wings.
The hawk will never die. And the hawk flaps as
the hawk is over there in the corner of a
small gym at the time, just flapping the wings like
like non slantingly flapping. And it's because it's shoulder muscles.
(34:42):
The mascot has to keep moving. I get it. But
the but the wings got to keep flating. Yes, the
shoulder muscles.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah, no doubt, Andrew. Last time we had Junior, we
talked about you've written the book. How's the book been received?
How how's it been since we talked to you about
the book.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I mean, it's been awesome, and it's just it's so cool,
and it's still surilled to me because I get pictures
on social media of parents reading that book to their children,
or a principle reading the book to their school, and
so to see something that I had just written, you know,
you open up an empty word document and put these
words on paper. To see it being utilized is really
really special. But we've also been able to work with
Mattress Firm. We've taken the book on tour, and so
we've been able to go to a mattress from store,
(35:17):
We've been to some schools, been able to do some
public readings. We're taking it into elementary schools. Every school
we go to for any of our programs, we're passing
out a book and putting it into the library and
kids are really excited. It's a really fun book to
read in public too, So we'll bring Toro out there
for these public readings and Toro acts out the book
and so it's been a lot of fun. But it's
still in the Texans team shop. It's online at shop
dot Houston, Texans dot com, available for.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Sale and voting for the Hall of Fame for Toro.
What is the process?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Starts May eleventh. Make sure you tune into Toro.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Social media will be putting out links, will be putting
out daily reminders, but the voting's all on mascot Hall
of Fame.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Dot com, Rock and Roll, Toro, Andrew Johnson, thank you
very much.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Man, anything for that, dude, no doubt about it. Andrew
Johnson is the absolute best. Okay, we get back. Trude
already joins me as we discuss on in the Labor
do not Forget about Me guys that we need to
be watching very closely to that next the Texans All
Access All Right, Welcome back to Monday edition of Texans
All Access from Monday Texas Radio Studio. John Harris, football analyst,
(36:12):
sideline reporter for your Houston Texans, and one half of
the In the Lab podcast crew, Mamiya Drew Doherty drives
it and does a tremendous job. We had a little
brain blast thinking about what we were gonna talk about
in the Lab.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
We thought, Hey, what about do not forget about me? Players?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
And obviously Ladarius Henderson has been a talking point for
probably about a week now since Nick mentioned him on
I think last Tuesday or Wednesday show as Sean it
seth and that's kind of where we started with this
and took us in a number of different places.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
Let's take a listen, let's get into don't you forget
about me? Because I think vandermir Or you came up
with that sort of phrase. As far as players who
are on the roster, typically younger yeah, who have shown
promise but for whatever reason haven't really broken through to
whatever the next level is, whether it's from good to great,
(37:06):
from contributor to starter, from really not contributing to contributing.
So there's lots of parameters here, but basically someone who
has not made a jump. There's a lot of guys
who are candidates for that that are on the roster
right now and driving in this morning on Wednesday, Nice, rainy,
saggy Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's good for the grand Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
I heard the guys talking, and we heard Nick Cassario,
executive vice president, general manager of the Texans, talking with him,
and they brought up a name who was really intriguing
to me last year when the Texans drafted him very
very late, left tackle, Ladarius Henderson.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
I don't know that he's gonna play left tackle for the.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Texans, but he was a guy who played elsewhere for
most of his college career and then transferred and started
a lot of games for the then national champion Michigan Wolverines.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
Texans drafted him.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Never really got a chance to practice because he was
injured and had some stuff going on, but i'd see
him around the building every once in a while, and
I read a fantastic story about him. I can't remember
who wrote it, but it's at least four or five
years old, and it was in the Athletic and it
was talking about his time in Waxahatchie, Texas up north here,
which is just south of Dallas. And he's a fascinating kid, fascinating,
(38:21):
fascinating young man. I shouldn't call him a kid, but
he's somebody that Casario said this morning on the radio,
he's transformed his body. So this could be someone that
could be in the mix for competing at offensive line,
which we all know they've got to play better than
they did in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
It will be the first to tell you that.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
So Ladarius Henderson someone that I've I've seen, someone that
I've just chit chatted with in the hallway from time
to time, and I'm fascinated to see what he can
do in twenty twenty five. Because you don't have any
professional tape on him. Everything you have is from twenty
twenty three. But he's an intriguing player who was a
very important part of that that Wolverine's team that won
(39:01):
it all. And I don't care, man, no matter who
you were, if you were on a national title team,
let's see what you got, you know, Let's see what
you got at the next level. Now, the NFL is
littered with names who won national titles and then didn't
do anything as pros. It's a different skill set. But
knowing who he is and knowing who he could be,
I'm intrigued, John, What do you think?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
So he started his career is on a state and
then transferred to Michigan and was.
Speaker 6 (39:30):
But he played a lot.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, he played a lot too.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
He played a lot of a lot of football, and
so when he so, when I saw him at Senior Bowl,
I remember thinking, I don't know, and I don't want to.
I don't want to be that guy that looks at
a guy that no, that guy can't play.
Speaker 5 (39:50):
And to be fair, to be fair, he was a
seventh round pick, So well say that about a round pick.
You know, you're not being too overly judgmental about a
seventh round pick, say stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
But I thought he was really strong Uglyn. When I
found out he had been hurt, it it made all
the sense in the world. Yeah, because I'm like, man,
the guy that I watched during the season looked look
more comfortable than that, like moved better. So when I
found out, oh yeah, he's hurt and he's gonna essentially
red shirt in twenty twenty four, I thought, this is
(40:20):
the best thing.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I almost feel like if you could do that, if
you could do that.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
For your six and seventh round players in particular, to
give them a year to red shirt, to learn the
NFL way, to work out in the workout hard, rehab
whatever injury you've got. And even you know, in a
case where you know, he just kind of red shirt
a guy, if he could just red shirt him.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
And bring them along, you know, in a little bit slower,
but you know.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Maybe they don't practice, or maybe they do practice, but
you can keep them running. And in some cases NFL
teams will do that with later round picks.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
They'll put them on a practice squad and that's kind
of the way they do it.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
But in Ladarius's case, being injured, it's like, okay, essentially
it's going to be a red shirt year, Like okay,
get your body right, get rehabbed, so get your body fixed,
then get your body right. And that was one of
the things that stood out. And if you do that,
I wonder too, And we've talked about this that I
(41:17):
think when when I wrote him up, I remember thinking
tackle guard. And so I remember, I want to say,
when we talked to Nick, they were thinking about him
as a guard, like that was going to be his
position here. So you get kind of a double whammy
in the sense that you get to rehab your body,
you get to stick around the NFL building, and now
(41:40):
you get to transform your body into maybe a little
bit more of a guard body, or maybe you need
a little bit more upper body strength where you need
just overall, you know, core strength and all that to
be able to play that position.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
But I think.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Just hearing Nick talk about him and knowing the work
and look the it's very clear that this.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Building values the values.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Guys that put in the time, put in the effort
and get in this building and they do it with
the best intentions possible.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
And I think Ladarius has done that.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
So the tricky thing is, Okay, he hasn't taken a snap,
he hasn't put on a helmet since that Senior Bowl.
So that's gonna be. So that Senior Bowl was January
of twenty four, right, so we're gonna go all the
way to August of twenty five. So you're talking a year,
(42:35):
seven months, a lot of time. Year, A little year
and a half, but you haven't, you know, so he's
gonna have to callous his body to that physicality again.
And but it's also gonna be intriguing. And here's the
thing too. You said it. If Ladarius doesn't work out,
it's a seventh round pick, right, But if you see something,
even if he turns into a backup offensive lineman, that
(42:57):
you know you can rely on that, okay. And Charge
was the same way, and Charlie was a fourth rounder.
You know, Okay, Charlie's got to go in the game
because Laramie's hurt or Titus has banged up Charlie. Charlie's
gotta go play. And Charlie would hold his own and
do a really good job. And it really wasn't until
Charlie hurt his foot where it really kind of slowed
down any kind of progress that he was he was
(43:19):
making as this team's swing tackle, a very important position.
I think for Ladarius, Man, what if what if all
of a sudden Ladarius steps in and you're like, man,
he takes over right guard and I mean, that's found
fifty bucks in your pocket, you know what I mean?
That's that is to me what makes it kind of exciting.
And I do think of the five offensive line positions
(43:43):
and it and it's funny because I've been thinking this
way for a while. When Nick said that about Ladarius Henderson,
I'm like, oh, maybe that's the guy I've felt like
all along, there's gonna be an upset somewhere on that
offensive line that we don't see coming. The Mike Brizell
of the group that you don't you don't see coming,
and then you're like, WHOA, Mike's really good, gets this
job done, gets the job done. And so when he
(44:05):
mentioned Ladarius, that kind of popped up the other name
that I think about a lot, come.
Speaker 5 (44:09):
Out, come out, and it's don't you forget hibout me.
It's not yeah, well we don't have a burning flag
while throwing in the ground saying this is going.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
To right, right right, It's like, don't forget about this guy.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
He might do something. Well, here's another one for you,
and then I have a three pack.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
After you've writ your name, I got one for you.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And you should love hearing this because he is a
pony or former pony player.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
That's Jalen Thomas.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
And again Jalen played tackle at SMU and I felt
like guard was his.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Best position, maybe even center at that point.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
But you know, he was a guy that I'm trying
to remember when he got here, like eight and twenty
three on it twenty four. I feel like there were
a couple of days in training camp where I'm watching
him thinking, man, there's something there. He's thick and stout
and tough. I think there's something there. And then hurt
and it's like, because there was kind of this rash
of injuries in twenty three, I can't remember if he's
(45:03):
part of that. I know he was part of it
in twenty four, and I feel like he's a guy that, man,
if you worked with him every day, you know, could
he be a guy that gave you something on the
inside as well. So I feel like that's another guy
Jalen Thomas from smu've been with the organization for a
couple of years now. Don't forget about that guy, because
I think he's got a little something as well. So
you throw those two guys in the mix, who knows.
(45:26):
You start performing with the threes, you do some good things.
You get in a preseason game, you have a long
stretch in the second half, Now a sudden Hey, maybe
we should get them some reps with the twos, get
a few more preseason games, and before you know it, man,
you're right there on the cusp of one injury away,
and then all of a sudden injury happens and you
got to step in and that who knows if that
(45:49):
could happen. I just always think of Mike Brycell in
these situations. He's one of my favorite Texans of all time,
Biscuit Brizel. He was just such a such a character,
but just a really really good guard that nobody thought
anything about. Everybody, as you said, Drew forgot about him,
and then this guy ends up being a really a
(46:09):
piece of one of the best line, one of the
best offensive lines, if not the best offensive line the
Texans ad.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
And he was instrumental in that.
Speaker 5 (46:16):
You just brought up Jalen Thomas, and he's one of
the Jalen's on this team, Jayleen, the one of us
that were that were drafted a quartet, there's also Jaden.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
And when you said that, I thought, oh, no, John.
Speaker 5 (46:29):
Hasn't been paying attention because we just cut Jalen Thomas
a week ago. And I was wrong. As I was
looking at my phone. Yeah, it was a Jayden peevee
that defensive tab we saw, so pardon me, but I'm uh,
I was.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Listen, things happened so fast and furious.
Speaker 5 (46:42):
I was coaching a I was coaching a fifth grade
baseball game the other night, and the umpire, yeah, he
was about He comes over to me like middle of
the game, during the break in between innings, and I
thought he was gonna tell me something.
Speaker 6 (46:54):
About like, hey, watch the box here or watch He's like, hey, so,
what are you guys gonna do about all these Jalens.
I might figure it out?
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, and listen, it's Jalen with an I N, Jalen
with an I N Jalen with the een.
Speaker 6 (47:06):
Jalen with an old N and that you were just talking.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yeah, and then you got Jalen who is know why
but eli En and Jalen Petrie.
Speaker 6 (47:15):
Old man and I forget some things. And that's what
just happened.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Oh right, It's gonna happen plenty of times. Jalen, Jayden, Jalen, Jalen,
Jalen jy Long.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I mean, it's gonna be all over the place, but
hopefully we'll figure it out by the time the season
starts all right, it's gonna do it for the show.
Appreciate Drew from stopping by Mark of course, you guys.
As always, Andrew Johnson as Torro is fantastic. We'll see
you tomorrowy buddy, and as always, go to Texans
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