Could we see Tom Brady in the ring soon ?

Summary

Payne & Pendergast — "Could we see Tom Brady in the ring soon?"

Date: July 21, 2026
Podcast: Payne & Pendergast (Sports Radio 610 / Audacy)
Hosts: Seth Payne & Sean Pendergast
Episode Focus: Texans preseason outlook, NFL rookie hazing history, the fan poll on early-season losses, Ryan Clark’s ESPN firing, plus Tom Brady’s flirtation with WWE

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Main Theme

This episode packs a distinctly Houston sports flavor, centering on the Texans’ pivotal opening schedule and the potential implications for C.J. Stroud and team ambitions. The show also swings wide: delivering an insider’s look at NFL rookie hazing culture, dissecting media shakeups like Ryan Clark’s firing, and winding up with lively, divisive takes on Tom Brady’s highly public foray towards WWE. The tone is brisk, opinionated, and full of banter—and loaded with sharp, unfiltered sports talk.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NFL Rookie Hazing: Nostalgia and Critique

(00:24–05:33)

• Classic locker-room stories (Payne, Perkins, and a guest/caller) delve into the harshness of NFL rookie hazing.
• Notable Practices: Taping rookies to goalposts overnight in humid New Orleans, rookies hit with "socks full of quarters," and all-night outdoor hazing detailed by Joel Smeenge’s experience with the Saints.
• Context on why hazing declined: severe injuries and league crackdowns, especially after notorious Saints incidents and tragic team travel mishaps due to in-flight drinking culture.
• Memorable Quote:
  • “You’d get taped to a goalpost all night and then have to practice the next day with no sleep.” — Byron Perkins (02:44)

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2. Analyzing the Texans' Season-Opening Gauntlet

(05:44–13:28, 16:05–17:18, 18:11–19:45)

• Texan rookies report: the anticipation and expectations as Houston’s NFL season looms; pressure is high.
• C.J. Stroud Focus: Can Stroud "shut up the doubters" in the first four games? Media and fan skepticism persists, but there’s also significant optimism.
• Texans’ Early Schedule:
  • Home vs. Bills
  • Home vs. Bengals
  • Away at Colts
  • Home vs. Cowboys
• Both hosts hammer that Houston must go at least 5–2 before the bye due to a brutal back-half schedule (more road, playoff-caliber opponents, cold weather games).
• Schedule’s hidden tacticals:
  • Heavy emotional weight to Dallas and Indy games.
  • Burrow/Bengals a major test for Houston’s rebuilt offensive line.
• Insightful Quote:
  • “It’s manageable. It’s very much a prove-it—like, hey, are you who we think you can be in the second half of the season?” — Byron Perkins (08:27)
  • “Would you sign up for 3-1 in these first four games without knowing what’s behind door number two?” — Seth Payne (08:54)

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3. Fan Poll: Which Early Game Loss Would Hurt Least?

(11:08–17:18, 17:41–23:57)

• Pendergast ran a Twitter poll: If you know the Texans will start 3–1, which of the first four opponents’ game would you be most willing to accept as a loss?
• Arguments for Each Option:
  • Buffalo: Best team, understandable loss, ok to be underdog (12:16)
  • Cincinnati: Least emotional attachment, not as painful (12:24)
  • Indianapolis: Division road loss is “normal” in NFL, less emotion (12:56)
  • Dallas: NFC team = less tiebreaker impact, but heavy emotional rivalry (13:28)
• Poll Result:
  • 43% picked the Bengals as the “best” loss to accept.
  • Surprising twist: Colts were least chosen (14.7%), followed by Bills (25%), Cowboys (17%) (18:12)
• Hosts joke about Texan fans’ universal hatred for the Cowboys and discuss the psychological weight of losing to each.

Notable Quotes:

• “People can unite in their hatred of the Dallas Cowboys, not just in Houston, but nationwide.” — Byron Perkins (14:11)
• “No, life’s too short to be losing to the Cowboys.” — Seth Payne (16:31)

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4. Texans’ Defense & Offense to Be Tested

(19:10–21:26)

• Emphasis on the “proving ground” for the Texans defense during the first four games—particularly facing QBs like Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, and improved enemy rosters.
• “Cowboys, Bengals—two of the worst defenses last year, so a chance for Houston’s new offense to make them regret their offseasons.” (17:24)

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5. Ryan Clark’s ESPN Exit: Lessons for Broadcasters

(25:14–38:10)

• Talking Ryan Clark’s abrupt firing amid ongoing ESPN layoffs (Disney sells ESPN minority stake to the NFL).
• Clark’s history of public contract negotiations and on-air friction (belittling Peter Schrager, being “joyless” and overly serious), and what it means in the media business.
• Seth’s Three Lessons for Broadcasters:
  1. "Don’t be joyless" (33:24)
  2. "Don’t belittle your colleagues on air" (34:16)
  3. "Don’t negotiate with your employer in public" (36:58)

Notable Moment:

• Peter Schrager pushes back during a panel after Clark plays the “non-player” card:
  • “Don’t belittle me like that.” — Peter Schrager (34:18)
  • “Let me talk for once.” — Ryan Clark (35:29)
• “He did not have to point out as a preamble, ‘Oh, no, that’s because you’re not a player and you don’t understand.’” — Byron Perkins (36:35)
• Comparison to why Pat McAfee avoids these issues: “He has leverage and ROI—he’s not just an employee.” (37:45)

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6. Tom Brady: WrestleMania Bound?

(38:56–45:45)

• Tom Brady is teasing involvement with WWE, potentially feuding with Logan Paul. The lead-up has included staged arguments, wrestling-style beef, and WWE-style appearances (e.g., Brady emerging from a coffin à la Undertaker at Fanatics Fest).
• Hosts break down the business side: Michael Rubin (Fanatics) is orchestrating lots of crossover events; WWE, podcast, and live promotional synergy abounds.
• Heavy skepticism (from Mike Florio, media), but hosts see the fun and potential logic for Brady’s move.

Key Quotes:

• “These shenanigans… Tom Brady’s been with beefing with Logan Paul and doing all kinds of stuff where it looks like there’s going to be some kind of a fight.” — Byron Perkins (39:49)
• “It’s kind of embarrassing for me as a football guy—other than the quarterbacking, Tom Brady is one of the least athletic guys in the NFL, which makes the wrestling thing a little interesting.” — Byron Perkins (40:41)
• “Brady’s better than this. It’s beneath him to be dinging around with some goofy WWE storyline… You lose some credibility.” — Mike Florio (reading aloud, 43:21, via Seth Payne)
• “Honestly, I think this is going to be split right down the middle… people that get wrestling and people who don’t get pro wrestling.” — Byron Perkins (44:36)

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7. Final Banter & Preview

(45:45–end)

• The episode closes by previewing the “Pettycast” hour, promising more Tom Brady/WWE discussion and Dave Portnoy’s reaction.
• Some lighthearted inside jokes about bantering with callers, fan engagement, and the emotional stakes of early Texans games.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Hazing & NFL Nostalgia: 00:24–05:33
• Texans Early Schedule/C.J. Stroud: 05:44–13:28
• Fan Poll & Game Loss Exercise: 11:08–17:18, 18:11–19:45
• Defense & Schedule Outlook: 19:10–21:26
• Ryan Clark/Media Industry Segment: 25:14–38:10
• Tom Brady & WWE: 38:56–45:45

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Notable Quotes

• “People can unite in their hatred of the Dallas Cowboys, not just in Houston, but nationwide.” — Byron Perkins (14:11)
• “No, life’s too short to be losing to the Cowboys.” — Seth Payne (16:31)
• “Would you sign up for 3-1 in these first four games without knowing what’s behind door number two?” — Seth Payne (08:54)
• “Brady’s better than this. It’s beneath him to be dinging around with some goofy WWE storyline.” — Mike Florio (reading aloud, 43:21)
• “He makes even fun things serious. I can’t remember one time Ryan Clark has laughed or made me laugh.” — Seth Payne (33:24)

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Recap

This episode is a signature blend of Houston-focused sports debate and national sports media critique. Payne and Pendergast dissect the stakes of the Texans’ first seven games, dig into NFL rookie rites-of-passage, and offer a crash course in what (not) to do if you want to stick in sports media.

The lighthearted but passionate closing segment on Tom Brady’s potential WWE leap highlights the jarring generational divide over pro wrestling, with the crew landing somewhere between amused, curious, and slightly bemused at the moral panic among mainstream media.

For Texans fans, this episode is a roadmap for early-season anxieties and fandom priorities—emphasizing performance, pride, and, above all, the joys (and agonies) of hating the Cowboys. For national sports talk listeners, it’s also a glimpse behind the scenes of the NFL and sports media’s shifting sands.

Transcript

[Seth Payne]

I'm Dana Carvey. I'm David Spade. Fly on the Walls. Back for another season now on audio and video every Monday and Thursday. So many incredible guests will be joining us. Follow and listen to Fly on the Wall everywhere. You get your podcasts too Good Be true. Sports Radio 610 presents Payne and Pendergast. Payne and Pendergast. Sorry, we're just trying to solve the Astros problems.

[Byron Perkins]

We're trying to fix Jim Crow.

[Seth Payne]

Yes, we're trying. We're trying to fix a man who's been highly successful.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And won two championships as an.

[Byron Perkins]

Trying to get a 19 point plan.

[Seth Payne]

Fix this poor guy. Yeah. Oh, man. We'll. We'll get back to the Astros a little bit later. Payne and Pendergast with you here on a Tuesday. We are nine days. No, eight days. Eight days away from training camp. Rookies report today, I think.

[Byron Perkins]

Really?

[Seth Payne]

I think so.

[Byron Perkins]

Good.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

In there. Basic training.

[Seth Payne]

When you were a player.

[Byron Perkins]

Learn how to make your bunk when

[Seth Payne]

you were a player. Did rookies report like a week ahead of everybody else?

[Byron Perkins]

I think we reported at the same time.

[Seth Payne]

Really?

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Okay.

[Byron Perkins]

And then we got hazed. There was our rookie mini camp.

[Seth Payne]

What was the worst hazing?

[Byron Perkins]

We were pretty. We weren't bad. I just thought. Yeah, no, we weren't bad at all.

[Seth Payne]

I feel like the worst. The hazing. The worst. The culture is in the building with.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, there might be. Well, the Saints were forever. When I was a player, the Saints were known as, by far the place you didn't want to go to.

[Seth Payne]

Hitting Cam Cleveland with like socks full of pennies.

[Byron Perkins]

So that's what ended up. That's what hazing really fell off in the NFL when the Saints got busted for doing all kinds of nasty stuff.

[Seth Payne]

So did bounties responsible for that?

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, they. They clean up the league by virtue of setting a bad example.

[Seth Payne]

The Saints are like, thank God they didn't catch us deflating.

[Byron Perkins]

You know what? Through no fault of their own, the Saints kind of also enhanced replay because they got hosed so bad in the championship game.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that's a great point.

[Byron Perkins]

So, yeah, thank you, New Orleans Saints, for everything. No, the Saints used to do like it was going back to, you know, Jim Morris senior was an old school coach and I remember some. Joel Smingy was a defensive end who was a rookie in New Orleans and he said it was just awful.

[Seth Payne]

He's a teammate of yours, Jacksonville.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah. But he had been a rookie with the Saints.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

And it was two things. One was the veterans on the team Were like. This is back when training camp was seven weeks long or whatever it was. And. And he was. He took every rep of every period because they had a bunch of veteran defensive ends that weren't going to practice much. So he was out there every rep of every period. In New Orleans, during training camp. Yeah, in New Orleans.

[Seth Payne]

And they don't practice inside the Superdome.

[Byron Perkins]

And they would do stuff to the rookies, like. I mean, they would. They tape them. You know, one of the old things to do. And this wasn't something that happened. This would happen for disciplinary reasons when I was a younger player. But in New Orleans, it was just the standard. They tape guys up to the goalpost.

[Commercial Voice]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

And leave them there all night. All night.

[Seth Payne]

All night.

[Byron Perkins]

All night. You'd get taped to a goal post all night and then have to practice the next day where you're taking all

[Seth Payne]

the rest with no sleep.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah. Or whatever sleep you could get standing up through a goalpost.

[Seth Payne]

And it's. And I'm guessing it's. You're probably. It's probably not just one person taped to the goalposts. It's probably like you're scrunched up against two other guys all night.

[Guest or Caller]

I was at.

[Byron Perkins]

When I did. When we were at the super bowl in New Orleans. Oh, I know. I know. When we were at the super bowl at New Orleans, there were. You know.

[Guest or Caller]

I do that.

[Byron Perkins]

The NFL PA gives you these full health scans and everything.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

And they were offering one at the super bowl, so I went and did it. And there were a bunch of former Saints players there. So I was talking to a couple of.

[Seth Payne]

From that era.

[Guest or Caller]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

And they were telling. They were. I was. I was kind of comparing notes with the story Swingy had told me. Yep. It all checked. It was awful, man.

[Guest or Caller]

I don't.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Guest or Caller]

Can you imagine?

[Byron Perkins]

You're trying to make an NFL team. Biggest thing you've ever done in your entire life, and you're doing it on no sleep. You're getting going. You have to run through gauntlets where they're hitting you with socks full of quarters. It was just. It was a rough scene, man. Wow.

[Seth Payne]

And being taped outside to a goalpost. This is not the Greenbrier, where at night it's 62 degrees and pleasant and there's not gigantic creatures flying around.

[Byron Perkins]

Right, Right.

[Seth Payne]

You've got mosquitoes. This is in Metairie, Louisiana. Well, I don't know where it was back then, but the Saints now. Their outdoor facilities in Metairie. Imagine. Just imagine if you went to the French Quarter. In the summertime, you know how hot it gets in the French Quarter. But you had to sleep standing up taped to a lamppost.

[Byron Perkins]

You got taped to a lamppost in the French Quarter and you're not even paying for it. Yeah. You're not even into it.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah. You know, you're by yourself. There's no services you're getting.

[Byron Perkins]

You know what I'd really like?

[Seth Payne]

I'd like to be taped to a lamppost.

[Byron Perkins]

But yeah, I think it was in 97 or 98, somebody finally got injured really badly and running one of those gauntlets with the socks full of quarters. And that's when everything. They kind of cracked down on it around the league. The other thing that used to be common in pro sports, and this is much more tragic, was the. Just like. Like lots of drinking on the planes, on the wide ride home. But then remember a couple. That the Carolina hockey player killed somebody in a DUI on the way home from a team flight. It was something, some kind of tragedy.

[Seth Payne]

I vaguely remember.

[Byron Perkins]

And I remember that was when all of a sudden they cracked down. Cause it was on our flights. This is how it used to work. There was a liquor cabinet in the back. Flight attendants weren't supposed to touch it, but the flight attendants were cool as hell. And so they'd kind of smuggle you. They'd smuggle you the little bottles of liquor as long as you were, you know, friendly and got the. Poured in your coke or whatever. But they cracked down on that and put locks on the liquor cabinet and everything.

[Seth Payne]

So the flight att, like can't even get in there.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, man. Yeah, those were the days.

[Byron Perkins]

No, but they used to have kegs on the plane and all kinds of crazy stuff. Oh, no, that probably violates FAA restrictions, so.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, you're probably right.

[Byron Perkins]

Hey, what should we put in this airplane? A 150 pound metal cylinder.

[Seth Payne]

It's just in. They're pretty meticulous about how much things weigh on these flights.

[Byron Perkins]

Don't worry, we'll put a seat belt on it during takeoff.

[Seth Payne]

Why are we a little off here right now? All right. So yesterday you and I were talking about the first four games of the season. The question we had posed yesterday, if you want to go listen to it, it was right about this time, was, does C.J. stroud have a chance to shut up all the doubters in the first four games of the season? He's never going to shut up all of anything. But that's what you do.

[Byron Perkins]

No matter how great you are. You'll Always have your doubters and people will, they will not shut up.

[Seth Payne]

There's definitely a faction of Texan fans that are waiting till the playoffs next year to evaluate C.J.

[Byron Perkins]

stroud. It's an interesting question because I think by and large I think the national media is other than the white hot Heat after the playoffs. I think people have kind of settled in and into a wait and see.

[Seth Payne]

I agree.

[Byron Perkins]

And there's, you know, there'll be a few here and there. Kendrick Perkins will say he wouldn't throw water on CJ Stroud if he was burning all of that. But like by and large people, I think like the analysts are very much in wait and see mode with CJ

[Seth Payne]

I think so too. I think so too. I think as a team they've been more bullish on the Texans this off season than I've expected. Yeah, I've seen more people than I thought picking the Texans to go to the Super Bowl.

[Byron Perkins]

It's a whole lot of look at how good they are if they could just figure out the minor detail of their quarterback.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

It is like the Texans as a team have getting a lot of praise is. Well, almost while simultaneously given a backhand slap to C.J.

[Seth Payne]

yes, yes, I think so. I. That that's a good way to put it. So the first four games of the season are the Bills at home, the Bengals at home, at the Colts home for Dallas and this just hammers home. I'll get to the poll question I put up in a second here. Seth. This just hammers home. Looking at these four games and you got a division game in there, but you got three home games in the first four weeks of the season. And I think this applies to the entire pre buy week for the Texans because they play following these four games. They play the Titans in Tennessee, Jacksonville in London and then they close out the pre bye week portion with a home game against the Giants. They have to go five and two at least in these seven games because I don't think there's a nine game or 10 game winning streak sitting on the other side of the bye week this year. Yeah, the schedule you're you're going to be, you're going to be drained of half your home schedule before the bi week. You play four of your eight home games in the first seven weeks of the season. So not only you overloaded on road games in the back end of the season. You got a couple Thursday night games. You got an entire December of cold weather road games against mostly playoff team.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, the, the back end of the season is, I would say, brutal. Except that I. If the Texans were a bad team, I would say it's brutal. It is a test, though.

[Seth Payne]

It's manageable.

[Byron Perkins]

It's very much of a Prove it. Like, hey, are you who we think you can be in the second half of the season, especially in potentially inclement weather?

[Seth Payne]

Yes.

[Byron Perkins]

And my concerns with CJ Aren't about cold weather. It's about precipitation.

[Seth Payne]

Yep.

[Byron Perkins]

I just. Like, we've seen this in nice weather in Houston when there's a drizzle in the day that the passing game kind of goes to crap during. During practices that I just. I need to see Jay perform well, you know, by. By NFL quarterback standards when it's wet out.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Would you sign up for three and one in these first four games without knowing what's behind door number two?

[Byron Perkins]

I would. As a rule, I'd like to sign up for three and one at any portion of the season.

[Seth Payne]

Yep.

[Byron Perkins]

This is. This is an interesting one because the Bills. Look, I. I always have to caution myself against getting too cocky about the Bills because Josh Allen's been so bad in Houston, but I can't help myself. I'm cocky. I'm cocky. Bills right now.

[Seth Payne]

You want to beat him?

[Guest or Caller]

The.

[Byron Perkins]

The three in one part, I think the. The. The game that would make me most nervous, or should me make me the most nervous is the Bengals only because everything that they did in the off season was a. To get their defense right. Like Joe Burrow. Remember how mopey Joe Burrow was last year during the regular season?

[Seth Payne]

Yes.

[Byron Perkins]

Like, he was kind of hinting that he might not want to be there long term all season long. He's done a couple things this offseason have Bengals fans very happy. Because. Because typically what the Bengals would have done in a situation like this off season is cut bait, maybe, and try to trade Joe Burrow, whatever. But they end up. They trade a first round draft pick to bring in a defensive lineman.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

To fix one of the worst defenses in the league.

[Seth Payne]

And they've spen big money on Joe side of the ball.

[Byron Perkins]

And they brought. They brought in three. They brought in three new stud defensive linemen. They bolstered their secondary. They did all of these things. They retained some players that they wouldn't typically retain. So Burrow has said a couple of things that have people feeling really good in Cincinnati because Burrow seems happy with the commitment, but it's been on the defensive side of the ball. The. Everything the Bengals did to improve their defense is also like the counterpart is everything the Texans have done to improve their offense. They bolstered their interior offensive line. Oh, what did the Bengals do? They bolstered their interior defensive line. The. The physicality and everything that you want to see out of this offense is going to be tested by Dexter. Dexter Lawrence and Boy Mafe and Jonathan Allen. So that's a huge test. And I, like, I'm. I'm excited to see it because if they can. If they can make Bengals fans depressed about the state of their defense, if they can say, oh, My gosh, the CJ Stroud just did that. CJ Stroud did that to our newfangled defense.

[Seth Payne]

CJ's got ties to Ohio. Oh, hometown home state college player there. Yeah. And then Indy and Dallas are the other two games. All right, so my question that I put up in this poll. Well, the question I asked yesterday. So the gods have told you, Seth, that you're going three and one to start the season three and one in four games. But their gods are going to let you pick which of those four games the Texans lose.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So you're going to pick which game the Texans lose. Whichever one is least painful by whatever your standard of pain is before. Before you make your guess here on these four games real quickly. I will. Rapid firewood. I think the case is for picking each one. As a Texan fan, I think the case for picking Buffalo is the one loss is they're easily the best team of these four. They're a Super bowl contender. These other three teams are not in that same. So you don't feel. While it would suck going 0 and 1 and losing to a team that you've dominated in your stadium, it's. It's under. I think the Texans might be like a. They might be an underdog in that game by one or two points to start the season against Barlow.

[Byron Perkins]

No, they're one and a half points, or at least they were for the longest time. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And they probably will be unless there's a big injury. So. So there's no. There's no shame in losing a game that you're an underdog.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That's the case for Buffalo. The case for Cincinnati is, I think, from an emotional standpoint, that would be the least painful. Like Buffalo, the emotion is you're starting. Oh, and one that stinks. Indy and Dallas. The emotion is obvious in those. You got two hated rivals. So that's the case for Cincinnati. Again, you're going to be guessing what Texan fans picked here in a second. The case for choosing Indianapolis is one that you made yesterday, which is you lose road division games in football all the time. You can recover from that.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

It would suck losing to the Colts,

[Byron Perkins]

and I don't respect the Colts all that much.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Byron Perkins]

I think the Colts will get. This is the thing. I think the Colts will get off to a fast start again this year, and then as people catch up to Daniel Jones limitations, especially with him coming up in Achilles, it'll be same old.

[Seth Payne]

Yep. The case for Dallas for. And again, we're picking. You get. If the Texans start three and one, you get to pick which game they lose. The case for Dallas is purely empirical. It's. They're an NFC opponent. They'll factor the least into tiebreakers at the end of the year. So it doesn't matter who it is. If it's an NFC opponent, they're always going to be less important than the afc.

[Byron Perkins]

But they're the most emotional, which makes it complicated. I mean, because that's the other thing. I mean, the Colts are the divisional ones, so, like, there's emotion tied into that. And it's the Colts, but you get to see them again later down the road.

[Seth Payne]

Yes.

[Byron Perkins]

You only play the Cowboys every other year or so at best. So that's the. You know, depending on how the division matchups shake up. So. And then you have co workers who are Cowboys fans, and they're the worst. They're the worst of your coworkers.

[Seth Payne]

Okay. So the question is, Texans start three and one. You get to pin. I put this to the. To the fans.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And it's. The poll is still open, by the way, on my. On my Twitter feed at Shawn Tpengas. If you want to go vote, if you want to get out and vote, which team would you pick to have the loss to? Who do you think? Texan fans?

[Byron Perkins]

I think I don't even have to think too hard about this when it comes to Texans fans. Those other three teams, you. You laid out all the arguments for why you might want to lose to them. Yeah. But they're broad and varied where people. People can unite in their hatred of the Dallas Cowboys, not just in Houston, but nationwide.

[Seth Payne]

Okay.

[Byron Perkins]

And so I think the winner of the poll. So I personally would be cool with losing to the Colts if. If, If. If it guarantees going three and one.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

I think the winner of this poll of the fans is that they would prefer that they don't. Well. Oh, so they want to lose to crap. Why did this.

[Seth Payne]

You were going down a Cowboy.

[Byron Perkins]

I know. This is the eighth time you've I think Cincinnati is what they say.

[Seth Payne]

Cincinnati won. Yes. What do you think the percentage was?

[Byron Perkins]

It was probably 40%.

[Seth Payne]

All right, Byron, give Seth a ding for the guests of the Bengals. Can you find the ding?

[Byron Perkins]

I've got my.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Commercial Voice]

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[Seth Payne]

We got the bell in here.

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[Byron Perkins]

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[Byron Perkins]

Hanks on Apple, Spotify or World War II.

[Seth Payne]

Wherever you get your podcasts, give Seth a ding for the guess on the percentage as well. We give you a ding if you're within 5%.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

43.3% chose. We'll lose to the Bengals.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

We cannot be losing to the Bills. The Colts or the Cowboys will go with the one that has the least emotion tied to it.

[Byron Perkins]

The least emotion tied to it. I mean, like, you're right, like empirically, it should be Dallas.

[Seth Payne]

Should be Dallas.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, screw that. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

No, life's too short to be losing to the Cowboys.

[Byron Perkins]

The other thing about the way it lines up with these teams, and let's say, let's say for the sake of argument, Indianapolis gets off to the start that they did last year offensively where they're a potent offense suck. Look, there's a chance that the Texans defense has a bit of a letdown here somewhere in the first four games. You know, you can't pitch, can't pitch shutouts against the best quarterback. Like you've got. You've got some. You got some quarterback heavyweights in here in the first.

[Seth Payne]

If you're. I didn't. Texas fans are counting on the. The Colts being the breather in this.

[Byron Perkins]

So I think that's the nice thing about this opening stretch is, hey, can the Texans be a more balanced football team this year? Can they be a team where if the defense isn't at its best, that it doesn't matter, because you can match. You can have some potency on the offensive side of it.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

I mean, the two teams, the Bengals and the Cowboys, those were two of the worst defenses in the league last year.

[Commercial Voice]

Yes.

[Byron Perkins]

And they took. They. They went to great lengths to try to improve them in the offseason. The Texans, if the offense can figure some stuff out, it would be a really satisfying feeling to make those teams feel awful about their off season.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

I don't want to be the team that's feeling awful about my offseason.

[Seth Payne]

No, no, no. I don't either. Who do you think finished second in the poll of Texan fans? I'm guessing largely Texan fans. That's my following.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Who do you think the number two team was that they. If they could pick to lose to?

[Byron Perkins]

So the winner was Indiana.

[Seth Payne]

Winner was Indianapolis. In a runaway, they got nearly half the votes of four teams.

[Byron Perkins]

I think the second would be because nobody wants to lose the home opener. So I think the second one would be Cincinnati.

[Seth Payne]

Do you think? Well, Cincinnati was first.

[Byron Perkins]

I'm sorry. Indianapolis.

[Seth Payne]

Indianapolis. Indianapolis actually finished last.

[Byron Perkins]

Oh, really?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, 14.7%. Number two was the Bills.

[Byron Perkins]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

At 25%. And then number three was the Cowboys at 17%. I struggle with this because I guess ultimately I picked the Bengals because it's the least of a bunch of bad choices, you know, But. But I. Boy, starting out two and, oh. Against those two teams and those two quarterbacks, that would be a hell of a thing for C.J. stroud.

[Byron Perkins]

We should do this exercise every day leading up to the home opener against the Bills because maybe by then I'll. I'll understand the concept and I'll guess about. Based on the. Right.

[Seth Payne]

It is a bit of a convoluted question.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But. Yeah. So that's. So Texan fans. 40. Nearly 44% say, okay, if I got to lose a game in the first four, it's the Bills, or at the time, I'm sorry, it's the Bengals. I was. It was fun. I was listening to. To Clint and Ron yesterday at the beginning of their show in the first hour while I was on my walk and they were going through the first four weeks of the season.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And Clint was getting me excited about it, man. Talking about just, like, not even on the offensive side for the Texans, but, like, what a proving ground those four games are going to be for the defense.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like you and I are talking about, like, C.J. stroud and K. Can he get redemption through these four games? And you've touched on the defense in this segment. I know. Would you bring up the potential for the Colts starting off this season like they did last season? If Daniel Jones is healthy and everybody's healthy for them, that is a, that is a four game offensive gauntlet for a good defense.

[Byron Perkins]

Well, the fun thing about the Bills or the interesting thing about the Bills is that the complaint with the Bills for the last couple of years, ever since Stefan Diggs left really is that he just doesn't have any speed on the outside. And this year they bring in D DJ Moore and like they're saying all kinds of positive things about Keon Coleman, but he's been a big disappointment. He's been, I mean, he's been tardy a bunch of times. He's been a healthy scratch in four games last year. But I think the presence of D.J. moore is interesting. If you think about what the Texans did to Josh Allen last year, they completely eliminated his, his ability to hurt. Hurt them with his legs. They, they used a spy really effectively. They did a lot of things to take Josh Allen out of the best version of himself. And that's something that's been an issue for the Texans defense at times. Is the running quarterback, especially just in key moments in the fourth quarter and what have you. They did a great job with that, but they were doing it against Josh Allen, who didn't have a lot of speed in his receiving core and a lot of ways to test you. It's a lot harder to go in and spy. Spy Josh Allen all the time and do some of those things if you've got more legitimate speed in the receiving core. So it's. I think it'll be. As long as everybody's healthy, it'll be a little bit more of a test this year.

[Seth Payne]

Yep.

[Byron Perkins]

But I think part of it is just, it's a. That is a. NRG Stadium is a brutal place to play for quarterbacks. I mean, that game, being at home is just such, such an advantage over any of the good quarterbacks. And then I still feel really confident about it. That's the one there. I. So I get personally offended that the Texans are underdogs in that game.

[Seth Payne]

Yes. The bill. Yeah, I was, I was a little

[Byron Perkins]

surprised if it was in Buffalo, I get it. But at home I just don't get it.

[Seth Payne]

Yep. Yep. People weighing in on the text page. We. There's a little. There's some people picking team. There's some people going through the exercise that I asked them to go through. And then there's Others that if I were a teacher, I'd be like, you need to listen better. They're like, we're not losing in the first four games.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah. They choose not to participate.

[Seth Payne]

That's fine. I hope they. Hey, I hope they go four and. Oh, also, it's an exercise. That's what we're doing here.

[Byron Perkins]

You know what? You're like one of those people where you get a debate about something and you want to redefine the meaning of all words.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Byron Perkins]

You know, thank you. Well, yeah, like.

[Seth Payne]

Well, let's.

[Byron Perkins]

Let's actually really redefine. What does the word is mean anyway? Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

No losing to the Cowgirls. I will accept a loss to the Bengals. Okay, this is interesting. All depends on how we lose. If we lose to Buffalo, but we lose by a field goal in the end, I'm happy. If we lose 35 to 2, then I'm depressed. Well, I can't get that nuanced with a poll, but I understand.

[Byron Perkins]

Which team would you be okay with getting blown out by?

[Seth Payne]

That's an interesting question.

[Byron Perkins]

The four zero people are not going to be happy with this.

[Seth Payne]

They won't. The new Fender poll is. You're 31 to start the season. The one loss is a blowout.

[Byron Perkins]

How about this one? You get blown out, you go home and you find out that your dog died while you're at the game. Which one? Which team? Are you okay with that?

[Commercial Voice]

Right.

[Byron Perkins]

Your house burned to the ground.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, my God.

[Byron Perkins]

Okay, getting blown out. If the defense had a big letdown. I don't want to get blown out

[Seth Payne]

by the CJ3 and CJ threw three picks.

[Byron Perkins]

The blown out. Getting blown out by far. It cannot be because you don't play

[Seth Payne]

them probably for another four years.

[Byron Perkins]

And they're so annoying.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Okay, so not. So let's do process of elimination. We don't want to get blown out by the Cowboys. I don't want to get blown out in the open.

[Byron Perkins]

If you have to get blown out. Okay, four and oh, people, if you have to get blown out, I think

[Seth Payne]

the answer is the same.

[Byron Perkins]

I think it's still the.

[Seth Payne]

I think it's still the Bengals.

[Byron Perkins]

Okay?

[Seth Payne]

And here's why. Because you're going to beat the Bills in the opener. In this scenario, right, you're going to go 3 and 1. I could see there being a little bit of a letdown after that. Even though it's Joe Burrow coming to town, I could see there being a little bit of a letdown now. This would be a lot of a Letdown if you lost by three touchdowns or something like that. But I would look at and go, okay, well, this is a great offense with the Bengal. You know, let's say they lose, you know, 35 to 30 to 17 or something like that. I'd be like, all right, it's a really good offense. C.J. had a bad day. You beat the bills. You're one and one. You live to fight another day. I, like, I can live with that. I can. That's an explainable one where. I mean, we're. Obviously, we don't like getting blown out by anybody, but I think the answer is still the same. I think it's still the Bengals. I do not want to get blown out by the Colts in Indianapolis.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And I don't want to lose. I don't want to lose that opener might. That Buffalo game might be the least of the ones I want to lose at all. I want to get off to a one and. Oh, start beating a Super bowl favorite.

[Byron Perkins]

Can I tell you one of my favorite things I heard on a podcast? I've been trying to listen to a lot of podcasts from some of the Texans opponents. Get a feel for the things that, you know, nobody's talking about. Well. Well, you know, the Bengals, they're still concerned about their linebackers. That's an interesting one. But the Colts. My favorite thing I heard in a Colts podcast was that this is exactly what we've been hearing about Anthony Richardson. Boy, you know what? He looks really good in their final seven on seven that they did. I mean, he was three for eight, but it was really impressive.

[Seth Payne]

Were they trying.

[Byron Perkins]

It was the final team period, I think during minicamper. It was one of those deals. I can't remember which drill it was, but they were like, he looked really impressive. He made a couple of really nice throws. He was 3 for 8, but the throws that he made were really impressive. I was like, how are you guys. How are you guys still doing this?

[Seth Payne]

Dude?

[Byron Perkins]

How are you still talking about this guy? This is what he's been.

[Seth Payne]

This is what he was before you even drafted it.

[Byron Perkins]

It was the exact emblem of what his issue has been. Yes, he can make some incredible throws, but he was. He was sub.50% small sample size and all. Yes, but, like, that's the exact. That's the exact deal. How can you gush about that?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Byron Perkins]

I'm not saying that going 3 for 8 in a team drill is, like, the worst thing in the history, but it's just. Don't gush about it while you're painting a picture of exactly what Anthony Richardson has been.

[Seth Payne]

Dude, don't touch the stove again. Stop touching the stove. Colts fans, it's hot.

[Byron Perkins]

And they were, they were talking about it in that way. They're kind of like, ah, you know what? Like, hey, listen, man, I don't look, I know, but Lee looks really good.

[Seth Payne]

The Ryan Clark story from yesterday, shifting gears a little bit.

[Byron Perkins]

Ryan Clark, first we found out he is fired from espn or laid off, if you want to say it, put it that way. There's going to be a bunch of layoffs today. Yeah. NFL bought 10% of ESPN or did ESPN buy 10% of the NFL Network?

[Seth Payne]

NFL owns 10% of ESPN.

[Byron Perkins]

Of ESPN.

[Seth Payne]

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Because how do you own that work

[Byron Perkins]

when Disney owns ESPN? They don't own 10% of Disney, do they?

[Seth Payne]

No, no, just 10% of ESPN.

[Byron Perkins]

And so there's going to be, there's going to be some more layoffs today. But Ryan Clark, we found out yesterday that he was losing his job. And then it later emerged that Ryan Clark was actually doing a segment on air when he learned from somebody that he was about to get.

[Seth Payne]

He was on NFL Live. I think he was one of like the panelists on there.

[Byron Perkins]

Well, and then. Oh, yeah, ESPN actually told him because they got espn realized that some other outlets had gotten some information, they were

[Seth Payne]

going to report it, and he was going to find out on the Internet that he was getting fired.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah. So they decided to do the better thing, which is the kid tell him in the middle of a segment.

[Seth Payne]

They did the less unclassy thing. Yeah, but just fire him in the middle of a show.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And then he didn't come back on. He was done, like show up, back on the show. He was.

[Byron Perkins]

How weird would that be? I would say whoever told him. Well, I guess it was ESPN themselves because at first I didn't realize it was ESPN that told him. I thought I was putting myself in that situation. And it would have to be somebody that I really, really trust. Because if that were to happen, if, like during the break, somebody came in, like, let's say Lopez came in. I trust Lopez, but he's not like management or whatever. Right. If Lopez came in and said, hey, Seth, they're about to fire you, I would still, I would stay on air. I would be like, hold on a second. Wait. Like, okay, I need to, I need to, I need to figure out what the hell's going on.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I wonder. Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

Cuz I was like. But. But then come to find Out. It was actual management that told him.

[Seth Payne]

Well, yeah, told him. And then. So the question is like, okay, do you stay on and finish out your shift, or do you come off or do you get off the air? Or did ESPN tell them and say, pull him off the air because you're afraid of what Ryan Clark might say, if he might say something on the air? Because this just in. Ryan Clark, maybe this is why he's. He's out of his ESPN job right now. He said a lot of things in the last several months that he's had to apologize for or done things he's had to apologize for.

[Byron Perkins]

None of them have been, like, all that bad, have they? No, but.

[Seth Payne]

But you. But I mean, firing somebody. Firing somebody who openly campaigned on social media for his new contract.

[Byron Perkins]

Oh, yeah. It was a bit of a live

[Seth Payne]

wire when it comes to the employment side.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was okay. So the other part in the.

[Seth Payne]

I would guess that ESPN was like, so you can, you know, we need your jersey.

[Byron Perkins]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Because, you know, you fire a guy, you don't know what.

[Byron Perkins]

Ryan, you got torched earth in the middle of that moment.

[Seth Payne]

Right, Right.

[Byron Perkins]

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to withhold really bad news from somebody for, like, where. Well, like, you knew that they were gonna. That. My nightmare is always like, okay, let's say. Let's say my. Let's say a loved one is about to play in the super bowl, and then there's a. An unspeakable tragedy that happens like an hour before the Super Bowl.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

Like a family member dies or something. Oh. Do you withhold the information until after.

[Seth Payne]

I 100% would.

[Byron Perkins]

But then I also worry that, like, what if somebody, somehow he finds out? In this day of texting, text messaging and whatnot? He finds out sometime, you know, it has to.

[Seth Payne]

But I think something like what you're describing, that's ex. That you can explain to somebody why you didn't tell them the news.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Guest or Caller]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I just didn't want to affect your performance in that situation. Ryan Clark finding out on social media, if that's how he had found out that he was getting fired, like, that's inexcusable. That's in, you know, back in the day.

[Byron Perkins]

Back in the day, they didn't tell people who were dying that they were dying.

[Seth Payne]

I know.

[Byron Perkins]

They had to figure it out on their own. Like, they would just be honest. Thought that was the ethical thing to do.

[Seth Payne]

No, that sounds kind of like a better time and place for me.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Guest or Caller]

I Don't know.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know.

[Byron Perkins]

I don't know. I'd like to get my ducks in a row, you know, especially. I'd like to know that. Okay. If I really only got three months left, I should probably, you know, be sure I paid the gas bill.

[Seth Payne]

What's the old saying about preparing? You don't have to get prepared if you're already. You stay prepared. All right?

[Byron Perkins]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

So always have your ducks in a row.

[Byron Perkins]

What does that. They say about old set. His life is in constant turmoil. Yeah. What do they say about saying about. Seth's got a lot of loose ends he's got to tie up before he dies.

[Seth Payne]

So. Yeah. So Ryan Clark, fired at esp, fired by espn now he's still got his podcast. My guess is he lands on his feet somewhere.

[Byron Perkins]

If I were him, I would just keep. Keep on doing the pivot.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I'm sure he makes a good living doing that. That's a very popular podcast.

[Byron Perkins]

There was a. I talked about to Fred about Fred Taylor about that out at training camp a couple years ago. He's one of his co hosts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. And Fred, honestly, like, because Fred isn't like the biggest personality on that show, he's like the third biggest person.

[Seth Payne]

I think it's a perfect fit. He's one of three guys.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, no, like, Channing Crowder's got a huge personality. Ryan Clark does his serious face thing.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

I think Fred does a good job of kind of being relatable to a lot of the athletes. But Fred. Fred, logistically is. Drives a lot of, like, he has to set up camera crews every place he goes. I was kind of surprised. I was talking to Fred and I was like, so who do you have, like, you know, to coordinate all this stuff? And he's like, I do. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

I got like, you got to set up a sound person, a lighting person, all this stuff. It was really impressive.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, it's. They do a good job on there. I'm not wild about Ryan Clark on espn. I do like what I see. I don't.

[Byron Perkins]

I'm not a religious content out of the. That podcast.

[Seth Payne]

They ask good questions. They get good guests. I think it's really good.

[Byron Perkins]

Well, no, look at the Kelsey's. Are the. They're going to sell or did sell their pockets a hundred million dollars. Yeah. And I think Ryan's just should focus on the podcast.

[Seth Payne]

Maybe so. Maybe so this would be. This based on Ryan Clark getting fired? Yesterday I posted this on Twitter. Got a lot of traction on Twitter yesterday based on Ryan Clark getting fired because he was making 2 million a year. But you know, that, which is I, you know, compared to Stephen, a making 20 and McAfee about to make 60 is nothing.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So I'm guessing Ryan Clark, it came down to something here or something there. When they decided it was going to be him, they like, oh, he's on a lot of stuff for them. Yeah, he's on Monday Night Countdown. He was on NFL Live. Three things for young broadcasters out there based on Ryan Clark getting fired. Three lessons. One.

[Commercial Voice]

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[Byron Perkins]

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[Seth Payne]

Don't be joyless. Ryan Clark is one of the more joyless people in media. He's like you said, he's always so serious. He tries to turn everything, even things that are fun, into serious things. I can't remember one time Ryan Clark has laughed or made me laugh. And I do remember the one time he tried to joke and someone didn't get the joke. They didn't get that he was joking.

[Byron Perkins]

Oh, it was when he talked about the Uber driver. That's what it was. He said the Uber driver always had rap on.

[Seth Payne]

I totally believed him because he's serious about everything.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah. Yes. You know, the one thing I wonder what about that is. I'm guessing, I think there's a place where you can, when you're going through your profile that you can actually.

[Seth Payne]

There is.

[Byron Perkins]

Like. And I felt like he might have been throwing Uber drivers under the bus for profiling him when he himself had actually selected that without remembering. That's my preferred music. Yeah. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Number two, don't belittle your colleagues on

[Byron Perkins]

air, especially when one ends up going to espn. That your new part? No, that's right. He belittled him once again, he came to espn.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Schrager. We'll play the audio right here. Here's Peter Schrager on the get on the first take panel talking in the. This is after Week 1 of the NFL season last year. They're talking Eagles, Cowboys, and Peter Schrager had a take that was a little contrarian to the players on the set there. And Ryan Clark did the this is the non player in you talking. It was the one target.

[Guest or Caller]

He runs the out. You wake up this morning, had a better day than CD Lamb. You know what you wake up saying, no, AJ Brown's team is one and oh, of course, I get it. But the thing is this, though, and we shouldn't do this on tv. And so I apologize if people think this is rude. That's the non player. Oh, stop. That's. No.

[Byron Perkins]

CD Lamb is.

[Guest or Caller]

Let me tell you why I'm not saying. I'm not looking at fantasy football, Ryan.

[Commercial Voice]

I'm not.

[Guest or Caller]

Don't belittle me like that.

[Byron Perkins]

I could come in and say as

[Guest or Caller]

3x players are saying one thing and give an alternative perspective that maybe CD Lamb did play. Well, Peter, what I need for you to do. What I need for you to do is not get mad and let's me finish for one.

[Commercial Voice]

Okay, Go on.

[Guest or Caller]

It wasn't about you. It was going to be about me.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, for one, for once, it's not about you.

[Byron Perkins]

That's right.

[Seth Payne]

It's about me.

[Byron Perkins]

That's a dude. That's. That's a. That is classy, good gaslighting right there. Whenever the person is like, oh, I need you to calm down like one of the guys. One of the guys is the most kind of heated and emotive people on there and everything. What I need you to do is calm Down. I know I just said that. I know I specifically use the pronoun you just a second ago, but this isn't about you. It's not always about you, even though I just said it specifically about you.

[Commercial Voice]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So don't belittle your colleagues.

[Byron Perkins]

You know what the thing is, the way that that was presented by a lot of people when they. They played the clip was. It was worth. They presented as worse than what Ryan Clark actually said. He did, though. Like, he was going to make a point about, like, what it's like in the locker room and all of that. But he didn't. He didn't have to. He didn't have to point out as a, like, as a preamble to it. Oh, no, that's because you're not a player and you don't understand.

[Seth Payne]

Let me talk. Let me talk for once.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, for once.

[Seth Payne]

For once is a big game changer in there. That's an implication that Peter Schrager's doing this all the time to him.

[Byron Perkins]

Schrager's not my favorite person on television, but he's never struck me as the guy that dominates the conversation.

[Seth Payne]

No, not at all.

[Byron Perkins]

Old bellicose Schrager. If anything, he's the opposite of bellicose.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

Hey, you know, everybody's really awesome. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

This fun, young team. Third one here. Real quick, because we're up against it. Don't negotiate with your employer in public. Don't use Twitter. And for those. I don't have time to read the paragraphs that Ryan Clark was typing on Twitter about the journey and how the last contract he got, he thought he got kind of slow played on that contract. This time around, I'm going to get what I'm worth. And he got $2 million a year, but he did it in public. None of those things like the Schrager thing, negotiating in public, being joyless. None of them are fireable offenses on the spot. But they are things. This is why. This is advice. They are things that when the time comes for your employer to make decisions, does this guy go or that guy go? It shows up on your balance sheet.

[Byron Perkins]

You know what somebody is saying, well, what about Pat McAfee? Because he just flat out called up, called out one of the higher ups at ESPN.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. McAfee's worth it, right?

[Byron Perkins]

Well, that's the difference. He's not an employee. That's the whole thing about McAfee. He's not an employee. He's got a contractual situation with his company and espn. So, like, he has leverage and in like. And he actually has an ROI. Like ESPN knows with Pat McAfee that, like, no, he's bringing this amount of viewers to us on YouTube and yeah, that. The other thing and everything. The on air personalities don't necessarily have that. That clear cut of a proof of their value.

[Seth Payne]

Not that we can discern from the outside for sure. Yeah, the ROI thing. But yeah, McAfee's got a very clear one because of that relationship that they have with him. All right, coming up next, the odds are out this is happening. It sounds like this thing that seems to be annoying a lot of people, including Mike Florio, looks like it's going to be happening. At least that's what the Rumors are on TMZ Sports Radio 610 presents live

[Byron Perkins]

from the West Point Lincoln and West

[Seth Payne]

Point Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right, we got a Petty cast coming up at the top of the hour. This is almost like, like the pregame for the Petty cast. Cause people are feeling awfully petty about Tom Brady. It looks like he's going to do something with wwe.

[Byron Perkins]

I mean, he's already doing something with wwe.

[Seth Payne]

He's getting into little kerfuffles with Logan Paul.

[Byron Perkins]

He's right. And his business, this whole. This whole Michael Rubin who owns Fanatics, he's behind all of this. And it's annoying because that's a. You know why I'm annoyed. So Michael Rubin, who owns Fanatics, is also like, he's the reason that at this Fanatics fest, you get all these different sound bites and everything from various athletes. And C.J. stroud was wrapped up in that world with Michael Rubin. And that's when we saw a lot of the podcasts where maybe CJ said a little too much. That was all Michael Rubin driven stuff.

[Seth Payne]

We came in and pulled him out of that cult.

[Byron Perkins]

So Brady's. Brady's company is doing something with Ruben's company and it's all tied in with WWE and everything. So all these little. These shenanigans. For those of you who don't know what we're talking about, Tom Brady's been with beefing with Logan Paul and doing all kinds of stuff where it looks like there's going to be some kind of a fight.

[Seth Payne]

So it started a few months ago. I think it started at the Super Bowl.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

When he was a guest on Impaulsive, which is Logan Paul's podcast. And he said this about professional wrestling.

[Guest or Caller]

I'm told that I'm being flown out to Saudi Arabia to compete in a Fanatics Flag football game with you. Yeah, you know what? I'm kind of. I'm actually a little worried for you because I know, for me, well, you're a good athlete, but you're like. I don't.

[Commercial Voice]

You're.

[Guest or Caller]

These guys are another level. I am the highest level. I am the level. No, you're not the level. I am the. You're a good athlete. But honestly, when I'm thinking of Saquon Barkley and I'm thinking of like, bro can say Justin Jefferson flip off the top rope. Have you not 180 moonsault jump over someone's head? It's cute. It's a great. You know, I love wwe. It's very cute. But honestly, we got everything we need right there.

[Seth Payne]

That was the. That was the money cut right there. Yeah. What you do, Logan, is cute. Yeah. A little wrestling.

[Byron Perkins]

It's also. It's kind of like coming from it. It's kind of embarrassing for me as a football guy. Is that like Tom Brady, like, other than the actual quarterbacking hand eye coordination type stuff and everything, like, by all the other athletic metrics, one of the least athletic guys in the NFL, which

[Seth Payne]

makes the wrestling thing a little interesting to me.

[Byron Perkins]

Logan Paul is clearly a better overall athlete.

[Seth Payne]

He's amazing.

[Byron Perkins]

Than. Than Tom Brady.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Byron Perkins]

If you had to pick. Okay, we're gonna. We're gonna choose 10 different random. Yeah, yeah. That I would say. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Logan Paul for sure. So at Fanatics Fest, fast forward. And at Fanatics Fest, Brady is. Brady's doing all sorts of WWE ish stuff. He gets on a stage with Logan Paul and they get beefing with each other nose to nose. This is right after he went on Cody Rhodes podcast at Fanatics Fest. Cody Rhodes, WWE Superstar and said this

[Guest or Caller]

Tom Brady, some storyline for me to get in the mix. I feel like I'm retired from football, have opportunity to go out there, still showcase. I'm a little bit of an athlete. And you know, my boy Gronk's done it. I've seen obviously Logan Paul do it. I think I could get in there for at least one match. Right.

[Seth Payne]

Okay. Come on, come on. Make it happen. So you got Brady at Fanatics Fest saying, I think I can get in there for one match.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

He's slapping Logan Paul in the face. Brady. I don't know if you saw this, Seth. They do these Fanatics Fest. They have a thing where you can do WWE entrances to the stage. Brady chose to come out like the undertaker in a coffin and pops up out of the coffin. They're at the World cup final. Logan Paul and Tom Brady in suites that just happen to be next to each other.

[Byron Perkins]

Right, right, right.

[Seth Payne]

And there's Michael Rubin and they're flipping each other off.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah. So they're. Michael Rubin was one that was holding off Logan Paul. Oh, wasn't he?

[Seth Payne]

Okay, okay. I didn't notice that. So. So that they're. I mean, they're doing a decent job of planting the seeds for this. If that's what they're going to do is do a match ultimately at Wrestlemania or something like that. I have no idea. But this is a good lead into the Petty cast. Cause you got Albert Breer, Will Compton. Mike Florio is just insufferable about this whole thing. Headline Tom Brady keeps moving towards a WWE stint. Brady. Florio is talking about Brady going to wwe. Like Brady is choosing to get into like low level porn or something like that.

[Byron Perkins]

He signed a three picture deal with.

[Seth Payne]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. While we. Let me read just one paragraph. While we fully support slapping Logan Paul. So Florio is kind of making the point for why Brady does this. Like, Florio obviously has emotional feelings about Logan Paul for some reason. While we fully support slapping Logan Paul. Brady's better than this.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

It's beneath him to be ding around with some goofy WWE storyline. So you can have a one day live action fantasy camp at Wrestle Palooza or whatever they call one of the various events that are now hyped relentlessly by ESPN throughout the year. You lose some credibility. I don't even. Florio cares about the credibility. And him getting uppity about all this, you know, it's called WrestleMania. All right.

[Byron Perkins]

I like Wrestle Palooza.

[Seth Payne]

It's probably some little indie federation that doesn't Wrestle Palooza. But. But anyways, here's the other thing too. Florio, he's probably getting paid for it also.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

He's not doing it as a fantasy again.

[Byron Perkins]

I'm going back to, you know, his. His skin deal. Yeah. Tom Brady in space. Brady roving around the galaxy.

[Seth Payne]

I'm not doing sample porn.

[Byron Perkins]

Remember Emmanuel in space? That was the big one on Cinemax. That there's lots of things he could do for money. But going back to your analogy of either doing low grade adult films or something, he feels like it's beneath him no matter what the money is. Yeah, I know. This is. Honestly, I think this is going to be split right down the middle.

[Guest or Caller]

I do too.

[Byron Perkins]

People that get wrestling and people who

[Seth Payne]

don't get pro wrestling and on many things like that Seth. And again, for the two of you that don't know that listen to the show. I'm a huge wrestling fan. I have been for, you know, 45 years, since I was, you know, a kid.

[Byron Perkins]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So I. So I'm a wrestling fan. Normally when there's two sides of something like this, I can see the other side of it. This is just, to me, like. Like they just can't comprehend Brady doing it. He's doing it because it's fun.

[Byron Perkins]

Okay, so this is the other part where it's fine. It's. It's playing right into what Brady might be doing, where Florio is up in arms over him doing this, and it's just. He thinks he'd be a good heel. So this is what Tom Brady said. It's such an easy choice. I'm a bad guy. I've always been a bad guy. I feel like when our teams did really well, I would always go into these stadiums and I would feel that obviously at home it was great. But when you go on the road and you've had some success in the NFL, they don't like you. It's an incredible feeling when you work that entire day to basically try to send the crowd home early. This is when I got to wondering, holy crap, is this. Has this actually been him? Him distancing himself from the Patriots? Is. Is this okay? This is a dog in the fight.

[Seth Payne]

This is a good. Okay, this is a good lead in. Because we have a pedicast coming up. I already said this is the pregame to the Petty cast. The very first cut we have in the pedicast coming up next. Yeah, is Dave Portnoy on this whole thing? And I. I gotta say there's a couple things about this cut in the pity. And, boy, we got some good stuff in the pedicast this week. So let's. Let's take one here. Coming up next, the Dave Portnoy reaction to this and more in the Tuesday

[Commercial Voice]

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