FULL SHOW - Monday, June 29th

Summary

Payne & Pendergast — FULL SHOW MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2026

Houston SportsRadio 610 | Hosts: Seth Payne & Sean Pendergast

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Episode Overview

This episode of Payne & Pendergast sees Sean & Seth navigating serious technical difficulties while jumping into a lively, jam-packed Monday of Houston sports talk. The two break down the Astros’ recent surge, weigh in on the implications of Fred VanVleet’s injury update for the Rockets, examine the Texans’ latest contract questions around C.J. Stroud, and reflect on Houston’s electric role as a World Cup host city. Regular in-depth analysis mixes with personal stories, audience banter, and memorable moments from around the sports world.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Astros' Upward Trajectory & Crowded Pitching Picture

• [02:43 - 08:13, 33:20 - 36:29, 143:17 - 148:54]
  • Astros win three of four vs. Tigers, climb back into AL West race.
  • Bullpen has notably improved but is “taxed right now”; Christian Javier looking set for a return (6 IP, 0 ER, 85 pitches in Sugar Land rehab).
  • Seth and Sean want to see the team “sweep a series or two” before crowning them inevitable but acknowledge their resilience.
  • Sean: “It’s unbelievable how bad [the AL] is…Yankees, Rays, and then it’s a bunch of other teams. … It’s crazy right now.” (05:18)
  • Pitching decisions loom with Blanco/McCullers eventuality, and whether Eric Getty or Burrows are demoted or moved to the bullpen.
  • Memorable Moment: Seth rails against Detroit fans’ treatment of Altuve: “Bro, you’ve got AJ Hinch in your dugout. What are you even talking about?! … I despise them now.” (144:17)
  • The “reset” pace: Astros 25–16 since their season reboot.
  • Sean: “Since the reset…99-win pace. That’s good baseball. That’s inevitable baseball.” (36:26)
  • Outfield flashes elite defense but continues to struggle at the plate (Bryce Matthews’ late-game catch highlighted).

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2. Texans: C.J. Stroud Contract Drama, Market Context, and Confidence

• [45:02 - 58:06, 116:33 - 127:38, 180:20 - 182:02]
  • Jeremy Fowler (ESPN) update: C.J. Stroud contract talks “essentially on pause.” No momentum, little urgency on either side.
  • Bucky Brooks (NFL Network): Urges Texans to “open up the wallet” and suggests Stroud “deserves to be paid,” top-10 at his best, top-5 when “on.”
  • Seth’s critical analysis: Market for QBs ($53–55M) has stagnated for three years; agents are likely waiting for new market bump with next class of elite QBs.
  • Seth: “…if all of a sudden C.J. is going to walk, one week before the season begins, he doesn’t have a whole lot of leverage right now.” (51:06)
  • Mutual “cordial impasse” — both organization and Stroud’s team may prefer to play the year out and revisit extension amid a rising cap/salary context.
  • Stroud’s performance & playoff wins debated: Texts and hosts note “the defense won those games and Stroud happened to be on the team” (Texter, 182:02), but Sean pushes back, noting C.J. played well in key games.
  • National perspective (Benjamin Solak): Stroud has been “a little streaky” but poised for a strong 2026, especially with improved skill positions and a run game focus: “He’ll just continue to play well … I’m as confident [in] anything else for 2026.”

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3. World Cup Host City: Houston’s Moment in the Spotlight

• [11:19 - 18:18, 156:01 - 168:52]
  • Houston emerges as one of the best host cities: “over 700,000 people so far” attending events, safe/fun, Fan Fest manages through weather, vibe lauded by fans and international travelers.
  • Sean: “Celebrating with all the fans from [Cabo Verde] was one of the most fun things ever…Just delighted, a top 10 live sporting experience.” (13:22)
  • Dutch fans’ “Oranja March” — an atmosphere like “nothing [Kennedi’s] ever experienced before.”
  • Guest interview: Chris Canetti, host committee president, shares: “We are on day 19 out of 39 days, so we are about halfway through…Everything’s going tremendous.”
  • Houston as ‘walkable city’ challenged in a fun aside: “All I see is walking…Let’s admit it—we’re just too fat and lazy to walk in this heat!” (185:00)
  • Upcoming: Brazil vs Japan, July 4 knockout round Canada vs. Netherlands/Morocco; US faces Bosnia/Herzegovina.

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4. Rockets Injury News and Offseason Outlook

• [19:22 - 25:47, 128:41 - 133:35]
  • Fred VanVleet’s podcast bombshell: Reveals he tore “ACL and both meniscus” — “my whole knee exploded.”
    • VanVleet (20:53): “So I end up…whole knee exploded…But you gon’ come back better, though.”
  • Sean & Seth: “Definitely opting into his $25M player option…That’s not the thing you say if you’re looking to sell yourself to all 30 teams.”
  • Uncertainty on true health — age, hard-to-know meniscus effect, real question if he can be “the guy” next year.
  • Marcus Smart rumors, drafting of Bruce Thornton reflect an urgency at PG; skepticism that “run it back” is enough to close gap on Thunder, Spurs, (possibly) Lakers.

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5. Skill Positions & Barnwell’s Texans Offensive Ranking

• [60:21 - 66:06]
  • Bill Barnwell ranks Texans’ skill group 24th out of 32.
  • Sean: “I was expecting middle of the pack … surprised.”
  • Nico Collins’ availability and concussion history a concern; depth behind him (“question marks at wide receiver”) a factor.
  • Seth sees upside with improvement in the run game: “Just an average red zone attack, all those skill guys get better…Power of the play action.”
  • Dalton Schultz: Decent production, but limited in red zone.

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6. Miscellaneous: Brandon Aiyuk’s Erratic Public Meltdown; Social Banter & Acknowledgments

• [94:37 - 111:16]
  • Brandon Aiyuk’s extended public rants re: 49ers, his agent, and John Lynch visiting his house: “Don’t pull up to my house uninvited, boy, ain't safe … I had to call my wife and say, ‘there’s a big-ass white man at the house!’” (101:20)
  • Sean/Seth diagnose possible mental health issues, draw Antonio Brown parallels.
  • Debate whether teams (including the Texans) should even consider him, strict conditions if so.
• “Acknowledge Me” Segment [66:07 - 81:08]:
  • Josh Hader (post-IL): “Huge. They don’t really have a solution outside of him…” (68:51)
  • Seth referenced on FS1’s "First Things First" by Nick Wright for his "Brady’s mind is Randy Moss’s 40 time" take.
  • Linda Cohn retires: “34 years, over 5,500 SportsCenters…” “Make believe somebody’s watching me for the first time—I have to prove I belong…” (73:59)
  • DJ Khaled soundbite on managing his own money: “I don’t believe in no accountant … I pay the grass, the car wash man…”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On AL mediocrity:
  • Sean: “It’s crazy right now how bad the American League is. We’ve gotten a big taste of it—the Astros over the last two weeks, playing teams just hanging on for dear life.” (05:18)
• On Texas’ contract standoff:
  • Seth: “No matter what the argument is, unless all of a sudden C.J.’s going to walk, one week before the season starts, he doesn’t have much leverage” (51:06)
  • Bucky Brooks: “You have a quarterback that’s a proven winner… worthy of being regarded as a top 10 quarterback…” (53:45)
• World Cup Magic:
  • Sean: “Celebrating with all Cabo Verde fans was one of the most fun things ever. Just really cool—I didn’t even know they existed.”
• On VanVleet’s injury:
  • Fred VanVleet: “I did ACL and both meniscus, so my whole knee exploded.” (21:03 and replayed at 129:01)
  • Seth: “A blown-out knee to me means multiple ligaments; this is not that. He’s probably being more colorful than the reality…” (129:33)
• Brandon Aiyuk’s wild Instagram:
  • Aiyuk: “Creepy predators. General manager going to pull up to my house. Oh, weirdo, like, bro, don’t pull up to my house uninvited.” (101:37)
• Astros bullpen:
  • Sean: “Huge. [Hader’s] not going to be the reason … That could be the death knell if he gets hurt.” (68:51)
• Acknowledging the obvious in the Texans’ 2026 offense:
  • Benjamin Solak: “It is as big and obvious and glaring as any offseason agenda: the Texans need to be able to run the football between the tackles—if they can’t figure this out, they’re trying to be a defense-first team that cannot sit on the ball in the second half…” (180:34)

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:43 - 08:13] — Astros’ resurgence and weekly recap (AL West standings, bullpen talk)
• [19:22 - 25:47 / 128:41 - 133:35] — Rockets: Fred VanVleet injury news, opt-in audio, analysis
• [45:02 - 58:06] — Texans contract impasse: Jeremy Fowler update, Bucky Brooks, Seth/Sean analysis
• [60:21 - 66:06] — Texans’ skill player ranking, WR/RB/TE depth
• [94:37 - 111:16] — Brandon Aiyuk’s social media spiral and team ramifications
• [156:01 - 168:52] — Chris Canetti interview: World Cup in Houston, city’s global impression, fan culture
• [180:20 - 182:02] — Benjamin Solak’s run game analysis for Texans, offseason changes

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Show Tone & Chemistry

Sean and Seth’s signature style shines through: sharp, unfiltered sports IQ blended with self-deprecating humor and authentic, relatable banter. Even with recurring technical hiccups (which get woven into the conversation), the show remains fast-paced, insightful, and highly engaging—covering all things Houston sports and whatever’s happening from World Cup fan marches to wild athlete social media rants.

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For New Listeners: What You Missed

• Complete, up-to-date breakdown of the Astros’ hard-won momentum and looming roster decisions.
• Deep analysis of the Texans’ contract realities and quarterback market—essential context as C.J. Stroud’s future looms.
• Honest, worried reaction to Fred VanVleet’s injury bombshell and implications for Rocket fans.
• Fun, inside stories about Houston’s World Cup moment—including firsthand game experiences in the midst of the global party.
• Unique takes on social moments (Brandon Aiyuk drama, analytics banter), not just recaps.
• Entertaining crosstalk, Acknowledgements, and plenty of moments to make Houston fans laugh, groan, and nod along.

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Skip the first 2 minutes (ads/housekeeping); jump in at [02:08] for Astros, [19:22/128:41] for Rockets, [45:02/116:33/180:20] for Texans/C.J. Stroud, or [156:01] for World Cup and Houston’s host city vibe.

Transcript

[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Benjamin Solak]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

Oh, hi, Mark.

[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Susie Welch]

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[Sean Pendergast]

presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.

[Seth Payne]

We coming to eighth time. Let's get to work in man.

[Chris Canetti]

Let's go.

[Sean Pendergast]

Great day. Great day. Oh, give me some juice, baby. Oh, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Let's do it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hey, what's happening, everybody? I can barely hear the.

[Benjamin Solak]

The

[Sean Pendergast]

Seth. Seth talk. What?

[Seth Payne]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, boy. I can't hear Seth in my headphones. This is a problem.

[Seth Payne]

Are you plugged into the wrong.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no, no, no. I'm plugged into the right one. I just gotta find some. Some headphones. Anyways, I can hear you through the zoom, so let's just do that for the first 18 minutes of the show. We're fine.

[Seth Payne]

Splendid.

[Sean Pendergast]

We're all good.

[Seth Payne]

Is this how we honor the Astros? I guess get a half game out of the wild card?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I may need to. You know what? Hang on, Seth. You talk. I may need to switch spots here real quick. All right. Talk about the Astros for a second.

[Seth Payne]

I hold. I'll gladly talk about the Astros because as. As Sean comes back and gives us the exact standings. This is a team, my friends, that some of us people, some lowly sports radio types had counted out, talking about firing Joe Espada, talking about this, that, and the other, and then here we are. Here we sit where the Astros have won.

[Benjamin Solak]

Are you there?

[Seth Payne]

The hell's going on? So, I. I'm sorry. I thought I could hear you for a second. So here's where we stand. Sean's plugging in. I can. I could hear him intermittently. Or at least I thought I could. And we sit here on a.

[Susie Welch]

What?

[Seth Payne]

What are you doing? What did you say?

[Sean Pendergast]

What the hell?

[Seth Payne]

All right. Sean's putting his headphones back on, and now he's putting the jack in. Can you hear me now? All right. Now you can't hear me? Just go ahead and. I can't hear you.

[Sean Pendergast]

We're just gonna have to do it through the zoom. That's okay. Can you hear me?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I can hear you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Chris Canetti]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Something's busted.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hey, how you doing, man?

[Seth Payne]

Good.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Great.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I felt great 37 seconds ago.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not my fault.

[Seth Payne]

I know it's not your fault. We've had these technical issues the last.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how we feeling about the Houston Astros, Seth Payne?

[Seth Payne]

I. I honestly. I feel good. I'm trying to. I. I feel like a jerk, though, for pointing out that, hey, they've won five series in a row. Three of those series, though, have been against the. The Royals and the Tigers. So it's. We. We kind of talked about this as we talked about the Astros potentially making a run here, climbing their way back out. You and I both said okay, at some point, we want to. We want to see him sweep a series or two, just go on a nice long streak, and they. They've played better baseball. The bullpen has been so much better. They should be getting Christian Javier back. Perhaps they'll. They won't have to be in a six man rotation here for a little bit. Somebody will go to the bullpen. It's just that I still, I just, I'm waiting for that one last shoe to fall to make me feel like, okay, this team is way better than we thought they were.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right now.

[Seth Payne]

I feel like they've clawed their way back into like, okay, we weren't sure they were going to be all that great. And that's probably what they are in reality.

[Sean Pendergast]

Dude. The crazy thing to me, just looking at the, looking at the standings this morning, the American League is so bad. It's unbelievable how bad it is. I was listening in on Cleveland this morning and they're super stoked that they're tied with the White Sox at the top of the AL Central right now. Like, it's, it's not just the AL west. Like the AL Central is really bad too. It's the Yankees, the Rays, and then it's a bunch of other teams. I mean, it's crazy right now how bad the American League is. And we get. We've gotten a big taste of it with the Astros over the last, like two weeks. They've been playing all these teams. Yeah. Playing all these teams that are barely, you know, that are, that are just hanging on for dear life right now.

[Seth Payne]

I mean, the Astro, look, you're. You're one game out of the AL west, but there's four teams right now that are within two games of, of leading the AL West. The, the wild card. It was. How did it vacillate throughout the week? The Astro started off on Friday in the wild.

[Sean Pendergast]

They were in because we played celebration.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

They were in.

[Seth Payne]

They were in on Friday. When did they fall out?

[Sean Pendergast]

They fell out that day.

[Seth Payne]

I didn't have my.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was the day that Spencer Arrogetti got shelled.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Sorry.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Chris Canetti]

I don't know.

[Sean Pendergast]

Spencer Ericetti, that's. That's still not good.

[Seth Payne]

Well, Javier, Javier, I mean, the, the bullpen on this. The bullpen worked a bunch of innings this road trip. They were about equal with the starters. And at some point Javier is going to come back up. Maybe they move Ericetti back to the bullpen and that'll end up being an adequate solution. And while also Eric Eddy can maybe work his way out of some.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I don't know. Everybody's auditioning right now in my mind. Including Erichetti.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Eric Getty's got like a, he's got like a night He. This is Spencer Ericetti in his last five starts. Owen, three with a 90 RA and a 1.6 whip. Like, he's just. He's just not good right now. And the. The. The. He was giving up a bunch of bombs on Friday too. That was a big thing. He'd at least kept the ball in the ballpark. He gave up a bunch of home runs on Friday. So everybody's auditioning right now. Dung or tongue, depending on how he pitches, is back in Sugar Land. So it's. Yeah, well, in.

[Seth Payne]

Tong is. I mean, tongues. The. This is another one with. Look, Dana Brown, okay? Six of the acquisitions that they brought in have gotten sent down to them. Or. Excuse me, three of the six they've gotten sent down to the minors at some point. They still got a collective five point something era. And Tong is a guy that hasn't pitched a boatload of innings in his career. And they're asking a lot of them this year and moving from the bullpen to the starting rotation. And now that he'll get a little bit of a respite in the minors. But that's where I'm really encouraged by how much this staff has improved and especially the bullpen. But they're. They're taxed right now. He's still got nearly 50% of the season to go. Yep, yep, yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

So. But all in all, a good weekend. Three out of four. Three out of four. Oh, I hear a buzz in my ear.

[Susie Welch]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was. We were so close. So close. So all this. Hey, Ben. All of this is going out over the air right now for sure. Like my voice is going out over there and Seth's voice is going out over the air. We're sure about that?

[Chris Canetti]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

I think all we have is a little situation with your head.

[Sean Pendergast]

I can't even hear Ben when he tried to talk to me. Okay, someone on the text. You guys need to get to work earlier? No, we just assume that when we plug the headphones in, it's gonna work.

[Seth Payne]

Can you plug the. Can you try another microphone or another headphone jack? Just go ahead and plug.

[Sean Pendergast]

I can't because this is the only one I. The, like the.

[Seth Payne]

The one that you can't plug into another.

[Sean Pendergast]

I tried that. Like another seat?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I'll try all of them.

[Sean Pendergast]

How about I try. I tried the one over here that you sit in normally.

[Seth Payne]

That's. I didn't know what you were doing. I couldn't see. I just knew that there was a.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I tried the one. I tried the one when you're in studio. I tried the chair you sit in.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And that didn't work either.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So these are relatively new headphones. I don't think it's a headphone.

[Seth Payne]

It's not a headphone. I know. I'm saying. I'm just. I was just curious. I mean. Yeah, I don't. It's.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's what I was doing when I was off.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that's what I was doing for some reason. We've just got.

[Sean Pendergast]

Did you have a. Did you have a good. Other than. Other than this fiasco, did you have a good weekend?

[Seth Payne]

I did, yeah. I had a good time just watching. Watching baseball and relaxing and largely, like. I. I don't know. Tell me this. Am I. Am I a bad professional that I just honestly have not made any effort to really get into the World cup at all? Is that.

[Sean Pendergast]

No. Are you a bad professional? No.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. As far as just. I don't know. There are a lot of people that are pretty excited about it. I don't know what percentage of our audience. I'm super excited, and I totally. I totally get and understand the excitement. I'm happy that people are happy about it, but it's just kind of like. I don't know, it's like when your wife wants you to get excited about something that you know she's totally into, and you're like, okay, I'm just. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I totally appreciate what you. You appreciate that they're excited, but it's just. It's hard to feel it, you know, you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Which. Which makes it all the more frustrating that all four of your teams have made the cut in the pool that we have here. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I think that's why. Maybe it's a little too easy for me. Like, I'm leading the pool right now.

[Sean Pendergast]

If you. If. Honestly, if you can't get excited about it with all four of your teams advancing in the pool here, I don't know what to say. Like, that's. That you. Like, that's.

[Seth Payne]

I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it this week. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. After the show today, I'm gonna sit down. Well, first I have to do my Believe podcast, and then I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna do nothing but just wrap myself in soccer.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, you won't.

[Seth Payne]

Yes, I will. I will. Sean, what does that entail? A hundred percent. And I'm gonna get. I'm gonna watch all the hype videos and everything.

[Sean Pendergast]

What does that entail. You had the hype videos?

[Seth Payne]

Okay, I'm just gonna let the algorithm feed me. You know what I'll do? I'll just. I'll. I'll search in YouTube. I'll say videos that'll get this US citizen excited about the World Cup.

[Sean Pendergast]

There you go.

[Seth Payne]

And I. And that's what they'll give me. Chat for 10 reasons, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm glad you brought this up, because I was there on Friday with your honorary team, Cabo Verde.

[Chris Canetti]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

And much like any other politician, I. I stand with them. I say fight the fight, Cabo Verde.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm being. I am being dead serious when I say this. I tweeted at the time. I feel this way. It was. And if you had told me this before the tournament, that I'd be going to Saudi Arabia and Cabo Verde, that I would be saying this afterwards. It was a top 10 live sporting experience for me. And it's not just because the. You know, the hoopla of the World cup. And I went to a game on Tuesday, too, that had Ronaldo in it, and that was a whole lot of fun. It was great. The. It was wild because Cabo Verde had another draw. So three draws for your squad, a scoreless draw, which is, like. If you're not immersed in soccer, that's the ultimate punchline. Like. Oh, yeah, you mean this. This sport where nobody scores. The. You know, the people who don't follow it, that's. That's how they view it. And that's fine. That's their point of view, is a really exciting game. But it was the third game of the group stage, the final game of the group stage. So they're playing at the same time as the other two teams in their group, and they. They get a draw with Saudi Arabia. They dominated the game. The whole game was played in Saudi's end of the field. Cabo Verde probably should have won the game. They were the better team, and they had to wait to see if Spain won to find out if they advanced to the knockout round. And so the players are all. And by the way, Amy and I are sitting in a section full of Cabo Verde fans, so that was fun.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

They were all apparently gathered around an iPhone on the field.

[Seth Payne]

They're all watching.

[Sean Pendergast]

Watching the Spain game. And as soon as the Spain game ended, the players start running around going nuts on the field, and we're all kind of, like, looking down on the field, like, what's going on? And then we look up at the scoreboard and that the Spain game had gone final. So they had advanced. And when I tell you it was a top 10 sporting experience, I'm telling you, just celebrating with all the fans from this tiny little country that, quite honestly, I had never heard of before the World Cup. I didn't know it existed.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Was the coolest thing, man. It was just really cool. I don't know what this. What. The most significant thing prior to their soccer team advancing in the World cup was for Cabo Verde. I don't know what it was because I don't. I didn't know they existed.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Celebrating with their fans was one of the most fun things ever. It was great.

[Seth Payne]

You know what's funny is you knew Cape Verde existed and then they started, like, now they refer to it as Cabo Verde. Yeah. Which does make more sense, doesn't it? It was like. It was an. Cape Verde is like, what, an English word.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's a little more international.

[Seth Payne]

I know, but it's weird. It's like. Yeah. Anyway, the. So, anyway, so this is where that part. Yeah. That's cool. And you know, like, you. You learn more about Cabo Verde and their story with their goalie and everything. That for me, getting excited tonight is just simply all about Wednesday night. Like, okay, the. Yeah. They're not just playing Bosnia. They're not just playing Herzegovina. They're playing Bosnia. Playing both of you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Which seems unfair. It's really.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's.

[Seth Payne]

Why does the. Why is the US the only nation that's take on two nations?

[Sean Pendergast]

It's what they call in wrestling a handicap match.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

One guy taking on two.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Like your tag team partner just got shot in the head or something.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So, okay, so Wednesday, by 7pm I'm going to be stark raving mad for this.

[Chris Canetti]

This.

[Sean Pendergast]

You are.

[Seth Payne]

I'm going to be. I'm going to be wrapped in a US Flag, no matter what the flag code says about that. And I'm going.

[Sean Pendergast]

You have to. You have to be. You have to be somewhat authentic about it, though, because it'll be.

[Seth Payne]

This is. No, Sean. Yeah. This is how somebody taught me this once. He said, how do you get interested about something? You learn about it. A lot of times people think, like, I'm not interested in that. If you learn about. Force yourself to learn about something, and then you'll. You'll. You'll naturally just start taking more of an interest in excitement. That's why I'm telling you I'm going to. I am going to swaddle myself in nothing but soccer news for the next 48 hours.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. We have Chris Kennedy coming on at 9:25 today.

[Seth Payne]

Yes. Kinetic going. Yeah. See, I've watched soccer games with him before and it's nice because he explains everything.

[Sean Pendergast]

Kennedi, you know, and there's a chance, Seth, there's two games left in Houston. So one is today at noon, the game between Brazil and Japan. So Brazil and Japan are the two new nations. They're going to be taking over the streets of Houston today. The final game here in Houston is actually on the 4th of July. Canada won yesterday, so that secured a spot in that knockout game. Their opponent is going to be either the Netherlands or Morocco, which means if it's the Netherlands, who I think is favored in that game. The Netherlands are like the best team to never win the World cup. So I'm guessing they're favorite over Morocco. But that means we get a second or Oranya march through the streets of Houston.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I love the Oranya march.

[Sean Pendergast]

Kinetic. When I saw. And for those who don't know what that is, you probably saw pictures of it. It's all the Netherlands fans. And here it was Astro fans and Dynamo fans too, because they had orange shirts.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Marching through the street, like literally going on a two and a half mile march from Rice Stadium to NRG Stadium.

[Seth Payne]

It's like. It's like the entire nation of Portugal. It's incredible. The Netherlands. Yeah. Yeah, the oranges messed me up. So the, the. I, I think the Brett Coleman. It was. Brett Coleman had a tweet this weekend. He showed a picture of that from their, Their walk this weekend. And he said is how many people are actually left in the Netherlands right now? It's a tiny nation.

[Sean Pendergast]

It is.

[Seth Payne]

It seems like everybody is out there on the street. It's incredible.

[Sean Pendergast]

When I saw Chris, I saw Kennedi at the game on, on Friday at the Cabo Verde Saudi game. And he's been to a ton of sporting events through his career. You know, he's. He was the president of the Dynamo, so obviously he's been to anything having to do with soccer, but he's been to, you know, Super Bowls and World Series and everything. He's. He's seen a lot. He said, he said that walk with the fans of the Netherlands is like nothing he's ever experienced before.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Just the level of spirit, things like that. I said, dude, you. And he's. I said, how did, how did they do in the heat? You know? And he said that he knew of. There were only a couple of people who had to be. Who required Medical attention, pretty much everybody. It.

[Seth Payne]

It losses there. Yeah, that's. It's just. That's a. That's a price you pay sometimes.

[Sean Pendergast]

You got to man for your squad after those.

[Seth Payne]

Remember when they used to have the roof open the Texans games?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

We're sitting here how they do the heat. They lost a couple as they were marching through the streets of Houston. They lost. Meanwhile. Meanwhile, us Houstonians, the last time they had the roof open, they had to take, like, 20 people over to the medical center.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

Because they couldn't sit in the heat for a while.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Oh, well, you know, those Dutch are double tough, man.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, double tough. All right, we.

[Sean Pendergast]

We are off and running easy a

[Seth Payne]

time with the heat over there in Europe itself right this moment.

[Sean Pendergast]

We are often running on a Monday. It sounds like we're. We're going. The textures weighing in. Hear you loud and clear, guys. You sound fine on YouTube. Somebody's saying. For those who don't know, we're dealing with a major technical issue in the studio right now. We're kind of mucking our way through it. I think we're doing okay. I think we adapted pretty well. But I appreciate everybody checking. And we can hear you perfectly. You guys are good. Someone said, did you try restarting your PC?

[Seth Payne]

See, we'd have to. Let's restart the whole system. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Control, alt, delete. Yeah. All right. So, so often running on a Monday. Coming up next. Let's get over to the Rockets. Okay. It would have been nice if Fred Van Vliet had disclosed this during the regular season and not build up our hopes. How does it make us feel about the upcoming season? If you haven't heard Fred Van Vliet's description of what happened to his knee, and you're a Rocket fan, you may want to grab a drink. We will do that. Coming up. Next up. Nope, that didn't work. Okay, back to listening on the Zoom again. Yeah, whatever.

[Seth Payne]

Such a promising two minutes we had during the break.

[Sean Pendergast]

As soon as I turned my mic on, everything that I was hearing in my headphones turned off. So, yeah. Welcome back, everybody.

[Seth Payne]

We should just. You know what we should do is just do the show from a 1, 900 number, everybody. Hey, you guys, just call 1-900-555- Yes- 6, 10, 0. And you can listen on our. We'll also give you your horoscope for the day.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, my God. All right, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to play audio that I'm not going to be. I can barely Hear myself through the headphones now. Oh, I know why. Because the headphones are plugged in. Is Aaron Raybould in there, Ben?

[Seth Payne]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, great. My headphone. Never mind. The audience doesn't care. They can hear both of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's do this. Let's play. Ben, you're going to have to count me down when this audio is over. I've listened to it already, so I'm good. But, Seth, this is Fred Van Vliet of the Houston Rockets basketball organization. Their point guard. Their injured point guard. Yeah, of course. Everybody knows Fred Van Vliet, injured in the preseason last year when they were in the Bahamas working out. And there had been talk during the season that Fred Van Vliet, hey, it's an acl. Maybe he can come back by the end of the year. They were. They were entertaining that well into the season. As it turned out, there was no chance of this happening. Why? Because Fred Van Vliet's knee was way more messed up than anybody knew. This is Fred Van Vliet on his podcast that he does with. With Big Sarge, talking about how messed up his Knee actually was.

[Seth Payne]

Dr. Lowe did it. So I end up. And then what was up with what probably never was disclosed was I did ACL and both meniscus, so my whole knee exploded.

[Chris Canetti]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

But you go come back. Better to watch, for sure.

[Chris Canetti]

I've been.

[Seth Payne]

I've been working. I've been grinding.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, so ACL.

[Seth Payne]

Dr. Lowe's cold.

[Sean Pendergast]

ACL.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And you like that doctor. Dr. Lowe's.

[Seth Payne]

Dr. Lowe's been all up in my lower body, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

He cut me. He cut me 20 ways till Sunday.

[Sean Pendergast]

So you've been in Fred Van Vliet's position before. How cold is Dr. Lowe? Dr. Lowe.

[Seth Payne]

Super cold.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's cold.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. There's only so much you can do about a couple of minutes, guy. Yeah, I. Listen, I. My first thought when I heard this was, all right, if there was that. If there was a lot of meniscus damage. Yeah. It's harder to come back as quickly. I think that. I think Fred Van Vliet saying that it was that he. That he blew it up completely. I think that's a little bit more colorful than. Than probably the reality of the situation.

[Sean Pendergast]

Better be right. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I think, like, that's a. Because the blowing out your knee is kind of like people envision a Tank Dell type of injury. Yeah. Where. Okay. Meniscus damage makes it a longer, slower recovery and dicier, but it's not like, it's impossible to come back from or anything. Depending on how much the meniscus damage was.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, both. I didn't even know there were two menisci in the knee. So when he's saying that, he's like, I tore the ACL and both meniscus. Does the age factor in on this thing with him too?

[Seth Payne]

Well, I mean, it always does, but it's just impossible to know because, like, sometimes. Sometimes you can genuinely obliterate your meniscus, and then that's really bad. But sometimes just, okay, they're both torn, but you're able to sew them up and you recover just fine.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, it's just like.

[Seth Payne]

It's. It's like anything else. It's just. It's into everyone. Every knee injury tells a story, Sean.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And each one is unique.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. I guess my. The big two things here for me, one, he's definitely opting into the final year of his deal. I would say he's got a player option for this coming season. 25 million. I can't imagine that. If you're a player, you're putting out there, like, hey, that injury that kept me out all of last season was actually way worse than people were letting on. And then opt out of your deal, you know, like, there. There'd be no reason. So my guess is he opts into the 25 million for this year. I. My other question, like, okay, like, this was thought to be some sort of elixir. Like, Fred Van Vliet coming back was thought to be the thing that was gonna help get this team back to where they thought they could be going into last season when Fred Van Vliet was healthy. Are we cool with this? Like, we got with. With this extensive of knee damage being the guy. Okay, we bring Fred back. Okay.

[Seth Payne]

I'm. I'm less cool than I used to be then, but I. But again, I just have no. I have no idea, because it's just a meniscus tear could mean a million different things. And there's some times where there's certain types that are really, really bad, and there's others that it's just. It makes a slower recovery, but it ends up not being that big a deal. And you just don't know. I guess if we're going by what the organization does versus what they say, I think that if it. If they were genuinely really worried about it, they probably would have been more aggressive in. In the short, they would have been more aggressive last year and maybe trying to figure something out and maybe they were. And they just also still weren't able to find anything that made sense. But I guess their actions will speak larger than words this offseason. If, if all of a sudden at some point they maneuver their way into getting in a point guard instead of a shooting guard, for instance, then yeah, that's, that tells us something.

[Sean Pendergast]

They traded up to draft a point guard. I don't think that's just something that goes by. And with the 31st pick, you know, with the, you know, with a pick that is essentially, that's the, that's the pick. That's a first round pick for teams that are, that, that don't have a ton of room to maneuver with the second apron. You know what I mean? Like, that's, they. I don't, I don't think it's insignificant that they, they moved up to draft an experienced point guard too. A guy who's 23 years old, a

[Seth Payne]

lot of basketball, he's an experienced. But yeah, that's a really good point. His age. I hadn't thought of that because my thought, my thought was, all right, well, there's still. Fred Van Vliet also is still a little bit long in the tooth and that they're going to be figuring out a way to get a more cost controlled point guard at some point here and a younger one. That maybe this was just kind of one of those long term decisions. But yeah, maybe, maybe that, that, that might very well be the case. I would still be, I would be really nervous about going into a season in which you tried to cobble together a point guard last year. And this year is your, Is your all in solution to say, hey, yeah, we got a late pick.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, we got Fred back. And I like that. My other thing is. Okay, what, what, what, what was with all the speculation that he could come back last season? Like, if we knew, if you knew

[Seth Payne]

it was that bad. Driven by the media way more than anybody else. I don't, I think. Right. They never, I never felt like I was being fed by anything by the Rockets.

[Chris Canetti]

Oh, okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

I thought, well, I, Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to go back and check. I feel like, no, not the Rockets team, but like, you know, Fred did a podcast every week, you know.

[Seth Payne]

Right. Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I, I don't know, maybe I'm, maybe I'm off base on this. I felt like there was still chatter of the possibility into, you know, into last spring.

[Seth Payne]

I always thought that I, the way I remember it was that they would kind of say, hey, something along the lines of anything is possible, but it's very unlikely.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And. And then we kind of maybe aspirationally thought like, oh, maybe they're just playing it close to the vest.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Van Vliet was on the all the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes. And you know, the big thing Fred brings his leadership. He wasn't able to be out on the floor last year. Neither was Stephen Adams at the end of the year. So a lot of that fell on Kevin Durant, which might not be, you know, Kevin Durant's deal. This was Fred Van Vliet on the all the Smoke podcast saying KD was maybe asked. Sounds like he's saying maybe. Maybe asked to get out of his element a little bit with all that they were heaping on him from a leadership standpoint.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Benjamin Solak]

Cnk.

[Seth Payne]

And how he moved, like, I think more than anything, it just wasn't. We were missing me and Steve O. To balance it out. So it was like, oh, K all the time. It's like, no, we don't need K to be talking and being a vocal leader and teaching guys and all that. Like, he do enough for us. You know what I mean? That's where the rest of the team got to step up to the plate and balance things out for him. And I think he learned too. Like, it takes time for teams to gel together. You got to learn each other, how we communicate, what guys like, what they don't like, how we can compliment each other on the floor. And I think it was a learning gelling experience that just didn't look great, you know what I mean?

[Benjamin Solak]

All the time.

[Seth Payne]

So I think big picture wise, it will all be beneficial, but it was definitely tough to go through to watch. Yeah. And I think that jives with kind of what you would have said before the season is that you're not expecting Kevin Durant to be the vocal alpha, etc. Etc. Etc. But that's all right. Like, you just need, like, all the reports early in the year or it really, for most of the season was that other than little, when we tried to read too much into body language or whatever, you know, we might say like, oh, is the burner account stuff? Is the burner account stuff starting to tear down the team all. I mean, that was a big thing in the national media, but I thought that he conducted himself pretty much the way I expected him to conduct himself. And if this stage. Are you going to all of a sudden ask a guy to change his stripes at this stage in his career and be like, no, he's going to be the guy that really holds everything together and he's the vocal leader from the top. That's just. That's never been who he is. No, no.

[Sean Pendergast]

I. To me, I remember Reggie expressing some frustration about this down the stretch in the season. Like, to me, the biggest thing when it came to the younger guys and how the team functioned and things like that is that I felt like the younger guys, a lot of times in crunch time would stand around and let Kevin Durant just do his thing. Yeah, which is why you got him. I mean, that's why you got him because he's a certified, you know, bucket getter. But. But that was like. Think of. Think of the young core of this team other than Reed shepherd, who was working off a baseline of did not play at all last year. None of the young and in my mind, none of the, you know, Jabari had his moments, but none of. I don't think any of the young guys really improved or developed that much this year.

[Seth Payne]

And that's where the. I mean, when you would. Again, these are the things we saw coming from a million miles away when Fred Van Vliet got injured. You're trying to put a bunch of young guys into roles that aren't quite in their wheelhouse. And who's the guy, you know, absent a point guard like Fred Van Vliet? I mean, that's the very cause of the problem. Is Udoka going to be the guy that's going to all of a sudden create this elegant offense out of scraps and spare parts and guys using. You know, you need a ratchet, but you only got a crescent wrench type of situation. You got to be a pretty damn good mechanic to figure that out and to make it work. And that's just not. That's not Udoka's forte. It doesn't mean he's a bad coach or anything, but it was just the perfect storm for why it might not work last year. I think in there, at the end of the season, they did start doing a better job of, you know, Durant was doing a better job of keeping his eyes open and being. And not forcing passes to predetermined guys. They were starting to flow more. And then. And then you don't have Durant in the playoffs. You know, I mean, it just like that's the other part about the playoffs, that it's. It's the weirdest thing that almost kind of gets lost in the shuffle. Oh, yeah, Durant was injured. That's a really, really big deal. Was Durant Enough of a leader. I don't. He wasn't even on the court. No, like how you already lost Fred Van Vliet. That's been a season long thing. You lost Stephen Adams and that. Oh, yeah, by the way, maybe we should mention Durant wasn't out there either.

[Sean Pendergast]

And he wasn't even on the bench for one of the games either. Remember that? That was a big deal. Yeah, that was a big deal.

[Seth Payne]

All right. I mean, it's like with the Texans a little bit. We do. We kind of do that. We're like, okay, I guess. I guess losing Nico Collins is probably actually a big deal.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, he might have helped out that game.

[Seth Payne]

And Dalton, I'm not saying C.J. would have, you know, thrown for 400 yards or anything.

[Benjamin Solak]

Right, right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. It would have been nice to have him.

[Seth Payne]

As far as the Rockets and whether they were hinting they had said that the earliest he could possibly return was until late March or April. Early April.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. There was definitely noise about it. Early.

[Seth Payne]

Any kind of the maybe part came from Van Vliet himself when he had said there was no timeline and said that we'd see where they are at the end of the year. Udoka. Udoka, by March had thrown cold water.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, Right. No, no. I knew there was a point where they shut it down, but I remember it going into the new year still with like, oh, maybe and a lot.

[Seth Payne]

I don't think that's. And I don't think that's deceptive or anything. Like, it's just when you have them and when you tear both menisci and your knee, it's. It's more of a. It's more unlikely, but you just never know how individuals are going to recover as they go through it. And sometimes. Sometimes people sail through it and it's no big deal. Other times there's complication after complication.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, let's get to headlines coming up next, brought to you by the Men's C Clinic headlines. The Astros win another series over the weekend, so that's good news. We've got knockout round beginning in World Cup. We've got some NFL news we'll get to as well. We got a ton to get to in headlines. We'll do that. Coming up next, Payne and Pendergast with

[Seth Payne]

today's headlines powered by Men's Tea Clinic.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, Men's C Clinic brings you. Brings you headlines. Seth, can you hear me?

[Seth Payne]

I hear you, Sean.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

I hear you loud and clear.

[Sean Pendergast]

You do?

[Seth Payne]

Everybody on YouTube can see us and hear us and on the radio, apparently.

[Sean Pendergast]

As well as we can tell, this is Radio Bliss.

[Seth Payne]

We don't have to hear each other as long as everybody can hear us. We're gonna be like, we'll be like, just like an old married couple. It's in a bad marriage, but too, too stubborn to get divorced. We're just going to talk without listening.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's right.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. That's going to keep having the same argument we've been having over and over again.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes. All right, let's get to headlines brought to you by the Men's Tea Clinic. Another series win for the Astros. Boy, I'm in a better mood talking about this series win now than I was at 6 o' clock this morning when everything was going to hell in a hand basket in this studio. Seth, let's get happy about the Houston Astros.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Three out of four over the weekend against the Tigers. And the. To me, the biggest thing I liked about this one, Christian Walker getting his stroke back was big. He had four hits on Saturday.

[Seth Payne]

He had been 2 for 27 entering Saturday of getting four hits, two doubles versus our old friend from. That's right to start it off. And yes, he was. He was one of many heroes in this series. Yeah, this is a fun one. Various, various people stepping up at various times. And that comes after a series in which Low Profito was the hero for a couple of games against the Blue Jays.

[Sean Pendergast]

Against the Blue Jays. Yeah. So Christian Walker and he gets a big three run homer. The big, that was the big hit yesterday. The big three run homer to, to put some distance between the Astros and the Tigers in extra innings that gave them a four run lead. Blum at the time goes after that three run homer, made it seven to three. Goes. And that's sending them to the exits here at Comerica park or whatever, whatever the name of that stadium is these days.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And I'm like, settle down. Like, I know the Astros bullpen has been really good, but it's also been really taxed. And we just watch Josh Hayter is not walking through that door in the 10th inning. They just came in the 9th.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. This was not going to be the day where hater all of a sudden goes back to back. You know, that's probably not going to happen. And he was. And Hayter was. Hayter was just getting by the, by the skin of his teeth.

[Sean Pendergast]

He walked.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, it was, it looked like he was. He was having a really hard time throwing strikes.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was. He was. He walked three guys was able to get out of it. Didn't give up any runs in the ninth inning. Got them to the 10th inning, but then annual tele Santos comes in and with two guys on base, gives up a fly ball to the wall in right field with having already given up two runs in that inning. Anyways. Now this. This was another nice weekend for the Astros, who currently sit one game back in the division, one game back of the Rangers in the division. Seattle is now come back to the pack, and they're a half game out of the wild card race. So they're right in the middle of this thing. They're in the thick of it right now.

[Seth Payne]

You know, the old question used to be, is Joe Fl an elite quarterback? Yeah, I feel like the. The new. Oh, and then, of course, we always have the Texas. We're back. You know, that's a long standing thing for the Astros. For the longest time, it was a point of dominance that the Astros were inevitable. Do you feel. Do you feel like the Astros are, as of right now, inevitable?

[Sean Pendergast]

It's funny, I don't feel like this is as good a team as some of the ones that were inevitable, but I feel like the American League stinks right now. So, yeah, if we're. If we're defining inevitable as able to get to the postseason, then maybe.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, it does. It feels a little bit like we're rising up out of the, you know, out of the bathtub water. Like everybody thought we were dead, but then there we go. Would you like the latest thing that can happen in a horror movie?

[Sean Pendergast]

Real quick as we. Real quick. Since the reset. The PNP reset for the Astros 99 win pace. 99.

[Seth Payne]

Baseball right there.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's good baseball.

[Seth Payne]

Inevitable baseball.

[Sean Pendergast]

25 and 16, man.

[Seth Payne]

They. I look, Bryce Matthews had a great play to sustain to keep the tie yesterday, and it was kind of a. It was the perfect. It was the perfect play for an outfielder to make yesterday because it was just. It showed you exactly what the Astros are as an outfield. They can't do a damn thing at the plate, and yet they're one of the best. They're one of the best fielding outfields in all of baseball.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And. And like Bryce. And with doing it with a couple of guys and Bryce Matthews and Cam Smith that just are still new to playing outfield.

[Sean Pendergast]

Bryce was in there because the spot I had him pinch hit for Tramell.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And I know he's doing a lefty, righty thing, whatever. Matthew's ops is.570. Like, he shouldn't be pinch hitting for anybody. Right.

[Seth Payne]

Anyways, he made that catch.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no.

[Seth Payne]

Missed one early on. You know, that was that boy, it looks. That's a big outfield. And then the sun was just. Yesterday was dicey.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Knockout round has begun in the World Cup. Canada beats South Africa yesterday. Canada will play in the round of 16 here on the 4th of July. They will play the winner of the Netherlands and Morocco. Of course, the United States plays on Wednesday this week in Santa Clara against Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil and Japan today at. At the stadium here in Houston. So that's a noon. Noon start today over at. Over at NRG stadium.

[Seth Payne]

A really fun environment. Brazil and Japan.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep, yep. Should be good.

[Seth Payne]

The so and, and the US is a Wednesday night at seven, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Wednesday night, seven o'. Clock.

[Seth Payne]

Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

Wednesday night at seven. Big bond hearing today for Terry and Arnold of the Detroit Lions. He. If he doesn't get released on bond. Terry and Arnold, who is staring at four counts of kidnapping and four counts of robbery. He's the, at least according to the police, the kind of the mastermind behind an attempt to get some of items that were stolen from him back from as it turns out, the wrong people. He. They kidnapped and robbed from people who did not steal from him.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Boy, that's a tough punt right there.

[Seth Payne]

So it would have been lost. It would have been a crime regardless.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And yet at least if he had stolen from the right people, they might not have reported it to the police.

[Sean Pendergast]

Police, right.

[Seth Payne]

You know, like what do you do? You go to the cops and like, hey, they stole my stolen goods back.

[Chris Canetti]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. This was, this was just ham handed. This is, this is. And this is typically what happens when NFL players try to be criminal masterminds. You know, Nate Newton gets pulled over with like 300 pounds of weed in his truck. Remember who was the guy. Oh. Who was the player that tried to be a kingpin up?

[Sean Pendergast]

Sam Herd.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Sam Herd. Yeah. Heard it's like stay, stay, stay with your strengths. Okay. Training for and playing football, Sam Hurd

[Sean Pendergast]

had it going pretty good for a while. I was super impressed that he was able to compartmentalize an entire heavy.

[Seth Payne]

He had an actual organization.

[Sean Pendergast]

He had a network under him. It was like Amway, you know, like he, it was a like pyramid marketing almost. Yeah, it was.

[Seth Payne]

He the most successful of the would be drug lords. Like I mean Aaron Hernandez was just an atrocity.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was an atrocity. Well, who knows, Seth, There may be some operating right now that we don't know about. Those are the most successful.

[Seth Payne]

You're right. You're exactly right. One of them is listening to this show right now. Yeah, listen to these clowns. Even the people I work with don't know I exist.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's right.

[Seth Payne]

That's the key, is if you want to be some kind of an overlord, you got to be. Even the people who are working for you shouldn't know you exist. You got a Kaiser, so say it.

[Sean Pendergast]

So if Terry and Arnold doesn't make bond today, if he's not released on bond, he can miss the season, which means missing out on millions of dollars, and they can void his guarantees and they can do all sorts of things to him.

[Seth Payne]

You know what? I blame the World cup, okay? You don't hear that much about kidnapping in America. But Terry and Arnold gets it into his head that, oh, we'll kidnap him.

[Sean Pendergast]

You think the World cup poisoned his mind a little bit?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I think too much news filtering in from. From outside the country. We need to stick to. Just stick to American crime.

[Sean Pendergast]

The incident happened, like in February, though.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, it was a pretty.

[Sean Pendergast]

He already had World cup fever. Yeah, yeah, Here they have World cup fever. All right, last one here in headline. Speaking of criminals napping of adults.

[Seth Payne]

I know we hear every, you know, we hear about every kidnapping of an actual kid. Kid, but kidnapping of adults, less common here.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. Speaking of trying to get your own stolen goods back, the Bills in their new stadium will not be bringing O.J. simpson's memory with them. There's a. I've never been to the old High Mark stadium, Seth. I know you have.

[Seth Payne]

I have, but I never, like, waltzed around it or anything.

[Sean Pendergast]

I guess there was a wall of fame in there that had a bunch of the Bills legends on it. Yeah, they're gonna have something similar in the new stadium, obviously, but they ain't bringing OJ with them. OJ will not be part of that presentation.

[Seth Payne]

They should do it on Halloween. They should have, like a haunted house or something. And there's like an OJ wing in there where you got to go, you

[Sean Pendergast]

know, and avoid getting. What, getting decapitated?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, you know, I don't know. Yeah, it's scary. I know. Is anybody upset about this?

[Chris Canetti]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, I don't think so. But it's news.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, it's one of those things. No, no, I was just curious about this. I didn't see it like an up. I was waiting for someone. Somehow, somewhere there being uproar about how OJ wasn't included in all this.

[Sean Pendergast]

The only people I would think it would come from would be OJ's families and. And like just wildly delusional Bills fans that have great memories of O.J. simpson, the football player saying this should just memorialize what he was on the field. It's not saying anything about what he was because they never took him down from the old one. Right.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Right. It's. I don't know, because at the time

[Sean Pendergast]

it was still pretty with it.

[Seth Payne]

There are a lot of people that were excited that O.J. simpson was. Was found, not gu. Yeah. Yeah. That's, you know, I mean, like, when being like people, it is that I've always felt weird about it. It's like, how do you happen. Because people would just, you'd say, well, he was found liable of murder. Like, all right, I did. That's not the same as being found guilty of murder.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Seth Payne]

So. But is he. Is he definitely. Can we 100% call him a murderer when he's been found liable of murder or not? I don't know. I thought there might be some civil like some attorney usually who sticks up for guys like OJ Are the attorney like Brendan Sorsby, nothing but attorneys talking about how this poor kid is being wronged.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. Yep.

[Seth Payne]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pain and pender gas with you. Those are your headlines from over the weekend. Coming up next, let's circle over to CJ Stroud. Update. Kind of an update, I guess, from a national pundit on where things are at with his contract. But also Bucky Brooks talked about C.J. stroud. Bucky Brooks, former NFL player, covers the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Network as well. Bucky Brooks, he's got a strong opinion on what the Texans need to do with C.J. stroud. And we'll hear that coming up next.

[Susie Welch]

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[Seth Payne]

You think it's good enough?

[Chris Canetti]

Is it?

[Susie Welch]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Susie Welch]

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[Seth Payne]

Ugh.

[Susie Welch]

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[Sean Pendergast]

right, into the 7 o' clock hour. We go here on a Monday. Pain and Pendergast. Good to be with you. Appreciate you getting up with us. And we are with you till 10am this is Jeremy Fowler on ESPN over the weekend giving what I guess this is what the latest that he's hearing on the C.J. stroud contract situation. Houston's going to have to change that because right now there's not a lot of momentum on a deal. Talks are essentially on pause as of now. Now, Houston has been aggressive paying players. They've been paying defensive players like Daniel Hunter, Will Anderson, Aziz, Al Shayer. But if they want to take care of Stroud, they're going to have to make some progress this summer. Otherwise, there are some people around leagues who very much believe he will play out the fourth year of his deal, try to get his value up. This is similar to the Trevor Lawrence situation a couple years ago.

[Seth Payne]

You have a top pick who showed some good, some bad.

[Sean Pendergast]

You got to decide, do you pay him early or do you wait?

[Seth Payne]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm glad he brought up Lawrence there, Seth, because we're about to listen to Bucky Brooks who covers Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. And has watched Trevor Lawrence. That was Jeremy Fowler of espn. He brings up Trevor Lawrence very similar to that situation. Yeah, he got his deal, he got paid.

[Seth Payne]

He got his deal, he got paid. It's been interesting. Like the quarterback market for three years now has been just stagnant at 53 to 55 million dollars. Like that's what quarterbacks are getting paid other than Pat Mahomes and Dak Prescott and those are kind of two special circumstances because Dak Prescott was about to play on the franchise tag, so he had a lot more leverage. And then Pat Mahomes is Pat Mahomes, and, you know, the Chiefs are just treating him differently. I think that, that everybody's been kind of stuck at 55 million for three years now. And Trevor Lawrence, when he signed his deal to a Tunga Violoa as well, these teams were looking at it, thinking, oh, my gosh, the quarterback, I don't know, the market just keeps going up and up and up. We gotta sign him right now. Because otherwise, who knows how much we're gonna have to pay. And then it's stuck there. It's been stuck there for two years. Nobody signed other than, again, you know, Pat Mahomes, which doesn't really. That's not relevant to the conversation with CJ or anything. Everybody, including, including Josh Allen last year, they've. In Matt Stafford, you know, they're signing for $55 million.

[Sean Pendergast]

They got 55. The, the. The last two MVPs of the league. Yeah, right. Or Allen might have been a few. Two former MVPs.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Both got 55 million.

[Seth Payne]

Now, the difference with Josh Allen is he got 230 million guaranteed at signing, whereas, you know, a guy like Trevor Lawrence got 130 or something like that. But I think that, that's where I do think it's a cordial impasse right now between The Texans and C.J. stroud and David Mulligetta, in that if I'm C.J. stroud, I'm a thinking, yeah, I haven't put together the performance that I would like to. But also be. If everybody is kind of talking about $55 million, like this is the going rate. I mean, it is, Sean. It's universal. All of the people that weigh in on this act like, oh, of course, if there's a contract, It'll be for $55 million a year. I think that a lot of agents and players are thinking, well, that's probably going to get tested next year. That's. You've got Caleb Williams, you've got Jaden Daniels, you got Bo Nix, you've got Bryce young, you've got C.J.

[Sean Pendergast]

stroud, Drake May.

[Seth Payne]

Drake May. Yeah, Drake May.

[Sean Pendergast]

He actually beat it to a Super Bowl.

[Seth Payne]

Between those six or seven guys, somebody is going to end up breaking through that glass ceiling. And I think that's where it kind of works out in. For both parties, in that I think the Texans want to see one more year. I think the Texans want to be sure that he wasn't somehow permanently damaged by that concussion, either psychologically or physically or physiologically. And I think that's where if C.J. comes out and has a great year, I don't, I don't cry into my Cheerios about the fact that they have to pay him more.

[Sean Pendergast]

God, no.

[Seth Payne]

You know, it's like, okay, oh, they may, they won a Super Bowl. Oh dear, oh no, what are we going to do?

[Sean Pendergast]

Nobody drafts a quarterback with the second overall pick hoping that you can move on to another quarterback four years later. You know that. The hope is you pay. The hope is he's worthy of a top of market contract extension.

[Seth Payne]

And you made the great point, Sean too, is that what the Texans have done in the past is they're very aggressive, they're very willing to make Derek Stingley the highest paid cornerback knowing that within a year he's going to be the fifth or sixth highest paid cornerback. And I think because the Texans have the ability to negotiate with CJ before any of those other young quarterbacks behind him, you know, they could start talking to him in February about a new deal and sign one whenever they want. Where everybody else has to wait until the league year begins. If CJ has a really impressive year next year, they might just go ahead and say, well, look, we know, we know that the numbers are going to increase. We're going to go ahead and make CJ the highest paid right now. But by the end of this offseason, he might be the sixth highest quarterback.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. And just for those who don't know the reason why those other teams all have to wait, the Caleb Williams, Drake, May, Bo Nix, Jaden Daniels teams, you, they're in those, those guys are only heading into their third year. CJ's heading into his fourth. You can't even offer a guy a contract until the league year begins after your third season. So the Texans do have a little bit of a window there between the super bowl and the start of the league year where they can, they can sign a deal with CJ if they want to. All right, Bucky Brooks. What did Bucky Brooks have to say about all this, Seth, about cj? Oh, yeah,

[Seth Payne]

he said that he's got an argument to exceed Lawrence Love into a. We have seen these quarterback deals.

[Sean Pendergast]

They only go up, they never go down. But more Importantly, when you're C.J.

[Seth Payne]

stroud, there's no reason for you to

[Sean Pendergast]

take a below market deal. When you look to your division rival, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and you look at Trevor Lawrence and Trevor Lawrence has a 5 year, 55 year, 275 million dollar

[Seth Payne]

contract and you could argue that you

[Sean Pendergast]

are more accomplished player than he has been. You also can look at Brock Purdy, you can look at Jordan Love and you have reasonable arguments that your pay should exceed what they make or should

[Seth Payne]

at least be in range with what those guys make. Yeah, I guess this is the part where yes, you have an argument for that, but I think the other thing is that, but you also like the Texans have an argument which is cool. We don't think we wouldn't have done those deals. You know, we wouldn't have done the Tuatanga Violoa deal. We wouldn't have done the Trevor Lawrence deal and we don't have to do this deal. They wouldn't put it that bluntly or not. But the whole, the whole trend of just paying quarterbacks after their third year just because that was done when quarterback salaries were escalating incredibly fast. And I don't think that, Yeah, I agree with, I agree with Bucky that C.J. could make those arguments. And yet that doesn't mean that the Texans have to do anything with it. It's just like there's, that's the cold, hard reality is that no matter what the argument is, unless all of a sudden C.J. is going to walk, you know, one week before the season begins, he doesn't have a whole lot of leverage right now.

[Sean Pendergast]

I, it's funny when you lay it out, you know, especially to and Trevor Lawrence. They were when they signed their extensions. Trevor Lawrence is the better example, the better analogy because Tua signed after his fourth year. Trevor Lawrence signed after his third year. That's where we are with CJ right now. That was not a good Jacksonville team that's resigned Trevor Lawrence.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

I wonder if in a weird way that the Texans defense being as good as it is, kind of gives the Texans the, gives the Texans sort of the license to handle this the way that they are. I wonder if they weren't as good of a football team if CJ Were the exact same quarterback. Yeah, especially if CJ Were the exact same quarterback and it weren't on a playoff team, then he wouldn't have had that game against New England where he threw four interceptions.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

I wonder if, you know, I wonder if the Texans would feel a little bit more desperate if they weren't as good a football team. It's a weird way to think about it, but Jacksonville was a bad football team and they signed Trevor.

[Seth Payne]

All their hopes. Yeah, they'd Be pinning all their hopes and dreams that hopefully CJ Becomes the guy like Jacksonville. Yeah. And meanwhile, even just in the last couple of years, I think, you know, the Sam Darnold super bowl victory is kind of thrown a little bit more cold water on the notion that you absolutely have to have the, you know, one of the premier guys in the league. Now, I. You and I both agree on this. There's just. You got to be careful in thinking like that. The Seahawks experience last year has become the new standard way to win a Super Bowl. Still, by and large, your best chances are if you. If you have a good team but also have a really good quarterback. You know, like, people aren't. People aren't gushing about the Rams right now because they traded Matt Stafford for Sam Darnold or something. Yep. Sam. Matt Stafford's one of the things that makes that whole thing go.

[Sean Pendergast]

Bucky Brooks says C.J. stroud is a top 10 quarterback. What I would tell everybody is calm down. I would also tell the Houston Texans to calm down. You have a quarterback that is a proven winner, a quarterback that has certainly transformed the franchise, a quarterback that is worthy of being regarded as a top 10 quarterback when he's good, top five when he's really on his game. And so when you have a young quarterback like that, your best to pay him before the market continues to escalate.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. So a top 10 quarterback when he's good, which I guess that's. That's dicey too, because. All right, like, I'm a, you know, I'm a. I'm a top. I'm a top 10 lover once, you know, one out of every 100 experiences or so. It doesn't mean that you're actually good all the time at it. The.

[Susie Welch]

But.

[Seth Payne]

But really the part about the quarterback market just keeps escalating. Just keeps escalating.

[Chris Canetti]

It's.

[Seth Payne]

We're not operating in that world anymore. I think there's been a. There's been a sobriety injection into that whole market somewhat. And this, this feeling of desperation teams had for. You got to pay your quarterback. You got to pay your quarterback. It's just. It stabilized somewhat, and I think it's going to increase this year. But you still. Since Trevor Lawrence signed his deal, the salary cap has gone up 18%, you know, and 55 million was already kind of the cap out for where the prices were before that. So since 2023, it's gone up probably 27% or so. Yeah, like in. In quarterback salaries really haven't risen other than the Prescott and Pat Mahomes, which are kind of outliers. So I don't, I think that I wouldn't be overly worried that all of a sudden the next top paid quarterback is going to be making $90 million a year or something.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Seth Payne]

So I just, I'm cool saying, all right, you know what if we get one more year out of CJ and we actually feel better about them and feel really good and secure, then sure, we'll pay a little bit extra. We're not, we're not worried about that. That's natural inflation.

[Sean Pendergast]

Here's what Bucky Brooks thinks the Texans should do. To me, this is one where the

[Seth Payne]

Houston Texans would be wise to come up off of it, open up the wallet, break them off a deal that's

[Sean Pendergast]

probably about 55 million annually.

[Seth Payne]

Because when we continue to look at

[Sean Pendergast]

the franchise tag and the way that it's going, the franchise tag is going to be at 50 million.

[Seth Payne]

And even though you have them on

[Sean Pendergast]

option next year, that'll put them at

[Seth Payne]

$25.9 million, you are best to go

[Sean Pendergast]

ahead and pay CJ Stroud what you

[Seth Payne]

think the market is worth rather than wait, he becomes a 60 million dollar

[Sean Pendergast]

quarterback so quick, clutching your pearls. Houston Texans write the check. CJ Stroud deserves to be paid. Not on his last postseason performance, but on the work that he's done the previous time before those outings. He certainly deserves to get paid. Yeah, I think you nailed it earlier, Seth, when you said you called it a cordial impasse between the two. Where it's there, there's, if I had to guess, there's a disconnect between what CJ Thinks he's worth and what the Texans think he's worth right now. And, But I think both sides want to be in a long term relationship with each other.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And I don't, like, I don't even know if C.J. i, I wouldn't say that C.J. necessarily doesn't see where the Texans are coming from.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

You know, and that's why, when it's a cordial impasse, I think, look, you can look at it from the quarterback's perspective, not just CJ but any, the quarterback and might say, all right, look, the quarterback, the market's been stagnant for a while. If the going rate is 55 million, even if I had just, you know, had a really good season and maybe we, maybe we made it to the AFC Championship, whatever have you, and if they came to me and said, hey, we're going to give you 57 million, I might think, you know what? No, I think the market's actually headed higher than that. So cj, where he sits right now, if he has a better. He might be thinking, look, maybe I could get 55 million right now, but if I have a good year this year, and there's seven quarterbacks that are potentially going to get new deals next off season, I'm not going to sign for with a going rate right now when next year it might be 65 million for sure. So. And that's where, like, no matter how either side feels about it, the Texans. The Texans being perfectly willing to pay a little bit extra premium if he has a great year, because that's a nice carrot on a stick.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

You know, like, let's not forget the motivational part of all of this, and CJ saying, yeah, I'd like to. I'd like to go for that. Then, Then there you have it.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think, I think CJ's handled this whole thing really, really well. I've been impressed with how he's handled it because he's, he's not made a stink about anything. He's. He's. It seems like he's tweaked some things with his offseason routine. You know, I think he's, he's acknowledged that it didn't end really well last year. You know, I think now what will get interesting is. And what's happening with this story is exactly what I thought would, which is, you know, heading in the off season, I said C.J. stroud is the most intriguing player in the NFL heading into training camp because of his contract situation and because of what the history has been with quarterbacks and contracts. This is unfolding differently than guys over the last few years. Now, this is before, you know, Brandon Iuk became a complete psycho on Instagram. And this is before Brendan Sorsby became the face of degenerate gambling and should he be in the NFL? Those are both very intriguing stories, too. I've been really impressed with how CJ's handled this. I think it's going to get very interesting in training camp because the only time he's been asked about it is one time at the very end of his minicamp or OTA availability, and that was it. The Texans are going to be one of those teams that have a lot of the national people coming here to training camp. Yeah. And they're going to be asking to sit down with CJ Stroud.

[Seth Payne]

They're going to ask him every time.

[Sean Pendergast]

Every time. They're going to ask him. Yeah. And I. So I think that's where, you know, that's. I, I, you know, I don't know that it's necessarily difficult. You just keep giving that answer you gave in that press conference, young man.

[Seth Payne]

You know, just keep, keep leave out the part about holding up your end of the bar because that was just confusing and that, like, it allowed people to run with something that I don't think C.J. intended.

[Benjamin Solak]

No, no.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Or at least be better. Yeah. At least be more clear about what you mean by that.

[Benjamin Solak]

C.J.

[Seth Payne]

has gotten better at that, by the way. Remember, remember when C.J. was a rookie? We're like, man, it's awesome that he talks so much, but he might be better served if he just cuts himself off a little early sometimes. He's got, he has. As he's grown and matured, he's got better at like, o. Okay, just. I don't need to, I don't need to get. If I continue talking at this point, I'm only giving more fire for people to read into how you get the

[Sean Pendergast]

Good Guy award from the media after your rookie year.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, that's true. Yeah. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And talk.

[Seth Payne]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

Be boring some more.

[Seth Payne]

No, that's a be. Embrace the cliches and be boring.

[Sean Pendergast]

Is CJ we'll do Acknowledge me here in a few minutes. We'll acknowledge the big performances from over the weekend. Is CJ Stroud set up for success this year with this group of skill guys that he has. Bill Barnwell of ESPN did his rankings 1 through 32 of all 32 team. Seth. When it comes to running backs.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Wide receivers and tight ends. And the Houston Texans finished 24th out of 32. 24th out of 34.

[Seth Payne]

I was honestly a little bit surprised when I saw that. I thought they'd be maybe middle of the road.

[Sean Pendergast]

I was expecting middle of the pack

[Seth Payne]

just because of the. Between Nico Collins and then just, you know, David Montgomery as a guy that in terms of his impact, I mean, much better than what the Texans have had. Well, not, not better than Joe Mixon, but better than a lot of the guys they've had to deal with over the last three years that I. The. I was surprised that in ranking the Texans 24th, Barnwell had Nico's injury history as. As big a factor as it seemingly was because it's. How many games? Ten games in three seasons, which does look, you're three and a third games per season. It's a big deal. And yet, by and large, if you're looking at. Okay, what's the impact going to be over the season? He's still a top 10 guy in terms of, like, his overall impact.

[Sean Pendergast]

No question.

[Seth Payne]

He's missed a couple of games.

[Sean Pendergast]

No. When he's on the field, he's. He's amazing. I. We bring up CJ's concussions quite a bit. I don't know. Are we worried that Nico had two last season? That, that.

[Seth Payne]

That's a good point.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, like.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And you brought that up before. And then I kind of casually, you know, I myself, having had a bunch of concussions, I'm able to forget things pretty easy.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm just asking the question. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

No, I don't. Yeah. I think that

[Sean Pendergast]

it doesn't get brought up at all that I don't. The last two were concussions with him.

[Seth Payne]

Right, Right. And lots of people have had two concussions. I think the. The fact that the last one was a pretty obvious, like, okay, he whacked his head against the turf.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I don't. And I know we're not supposed to read into all that stuff too much, but I can't help it. I feel like sometimes when. When a guy gets a concussion with something that looks like okay, most people would probably get a concussion from that. I'm like, okay, that's probably not a big deal. I start worrying about guys that start getting concussions off of just minimal contact.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So with both Nico and cj, it made sense.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

I would prefer that both of them wear a guardian cap, and I know neither of them will, but still.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Just a felican dream. Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Absolutely.

[Seth Payne]

I thought that Jalen Petrie was going to popularize the guardian cap, but everybody's just too scared.

[Sean Pendergast]

He still got a shot. It could still happen. The other points Barnwell brought up, because I'm with you. I was surprised when he fourth felt low. And just for some context, the other teams in the division, none of them were great. The best one was Indianapolis, I'm guessing carried quite a bit by Jonathan Taylor there. But Indianapolis 14th, Jacksonville 18th, Tennessee, Tennessee 25th. You're one spot ahead of the Tennessee Titans. The other factors Barnwell brought up. Seth, you tell me if these are. These are valid factors to have the Texans in the bottom quartile of teams in or close to it of teams, skill positions. Dalton Schultz had a lot of yards last year, but was a non factor with explosive plays and a non factor. He had five catches in the red zone all year.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not touchdowns, just catches in the red zone.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I think. I think that's Fair in terms of just. He's not somebody like say the opposite. Different position. But devonte Adams in the red zone for the Rams was like, okay, man, he's just making that stuff.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, he's a machine.

[Seth Payne]

Red zone factor. I think Schultz is a guy that to be a factor in the red zone has to have other people that are the big time threats in the red zone.

[Sean Pendergast]

He brings up question marks at wide receiver.

[Seth Payne]

The other thing though, real quick, Dalton Schultz. That might change if the Texans actually have any kind of ability to run the ball. Because that's when you get like when, when teams don't have to respect your run game down in the red zone. You miss out on all of those wide open tight end receptions.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes. Schultz might get three or four of those where nobody's standing within ten feet of him.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that's where when teams, when you're on the three yard line and teams know that, oh crap, if these guys run it, we really got to be, we got to be aggressive as hell. That's when you, that's when the tight ends are sprung scot free. So I would say because I do believe the run game will be better this year and I think just by virtue of having David Montgomery back there in short yardage situations, aside from any offensive line improvements, I think Dalton Schultz would be more of a factor in the red zone simply because of that. I like that. The power of the play.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's a really good point. Question marks at wide receiver behind Nico Barnwell brings that up. The inexperience of Higgins and Noel, I guess to go along with the fact that in terms of production last year they weren't great. Brent does bring up Higgins had six touchdowns. We'll see. From what we've seen of both of them so far, I'm, I'm very enthusiastic. Just based on some of the things that we've seen out at OTAs and minicamp that we're going to get that year to jump from both of these guys.

[Seth Payne]

It really is. And it's so much fun to be able to talk about this again without now that the stat nerds understand that the run game is actually way more important than, than they ever wanted to concede before. Every single one of those guys we talked about and just including the way we talked about Dalton Schultz. If the Texans just have an average rushing attack, an average red zone attack, all of those things, all of those skill players become that much more powerful or potent, you know, it really, it's just been. The big, huge missing ingredient is a Complete absence of a steady rushing attack that's made in them so incapable of operating and really utilizing their skill position players. So I think if, if that part of it works out, then yeah, you're going to see a really improved version of Jaden Higgins in his second year. You're going to see a better version of Dalton Schultz. The, the passing game in general. All of these skill position players will be better.

[Susie Welch]

Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, let's get to acknowledge me. Let's acknowledge some big performances from over the weekend. Noteworthy things. We will say names and when I say the name, Ben Gary will hit the Sounder. We will acknowledge the performances. Seth, Josh Hader. Now I had put this one in the rundown on Saturday. As I'm watching him unravel a little bit yesterday, I'm like, oh, am I going to have to adjust the rundown? No, I'll keep it in there. Because he kept it clean in the 9th inning. Not totally clean. Walk. 3 guys loaded the bases, but no runs. That was sort of an out. It was very much an outlier for Josh Hater. Even with that performance yesterday, his numbers have been outstanding since he's come back. He's pitched in 12 games. 12 games, 12 innings. He's only pitching one inning every time out. But he is starting to pitch on back to back days again. Two and O record, seven saves, an ERA under one, a WHIP of 0.583.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Which is crazy good. 19 strikeouts, five walks. He won't make the All Star Game. He's just missed too much of the season to make the All Star team. But I there, I have a hard time imagining a closer that's been more consistent over the last three weeks than Josh Hater since he came back.

[Seth Payne]

It's no and that even, boy, that that inning yesterday was just so. It was so tense and yet like he was so aggressive to finish it off. Yep. And ended up getting a strikeout. And just the that part of it. Even though my confidence had wavered. Not because my confidence in him is wavered. It was just a really dicey situation.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. I've gotten. I'm the cockiest person on earth. When he walks out to the mountain.

[Sean Pendergast]

I am too. I didn't like seeing like the pitch count get up to 25 to 30 there. That's where I, you know, the feeling I got watching his pitch count get up like that is the feeling that, you know, when Jordan slides or Debian Clowney would go down back in the day and be like, get up, get up. I 25 pitches. I'm like, oh, please don't let his arm.

[Seth Payne]

Well, I don't like, think. I don't like seeing it. Just because you start to wonder, like, okay, how this. How's this going to affect his availability in the coming days.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Because they've started to use them more. Like the first time. Last weekend was the first time he went. He ended up starting on Sunday. He ended up going three games in four days. So, like, that was a big step forward.

[Sean Pendergast]

Huge.

[Seth Payne]

And, you know, I don't think. I don't need to see him go two innings.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Seth Payne]

Ever this year. No, I don't need to see him go one and a third innings. I just need him to do. I need him to get three outs and that's it. And let's call it a day. Because that's not going to be. Look, he's likely not going to be the reason that because one game or two, you decide to keep him in for an extra inning, that. That's going to be the difference between life or death for this baseball team, where him getting injured again somehow. We could be. That could be the death knell.

[Sean Pendergast]

Huge. Yeah. Yeah. Because they got. They. They don't really have a solution outside of him right now to pitch those ninth innings.

[Seth Payne]

Santos has had a rough.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's off. He. Dude is era.

[Seth Payne]

He gave up like half the runs.

[Sean Pendergast]

Era. I looked it up. His last eight appearances, his era is over 12. Yeah, he's been horrible.

[Seth Payne]

That's what it was. Five. Five of the eight earned runs allowed by the bullpen during this road trip were.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, he's been awful. Cabo Verde clinched a spot in the knockout round of the World Cup, a scoreless draw versus Saudi Arabia on Friday. I said this earlier in the show, Seth. I'll say it again, and I know Cabo Verde is your adopted honorary team.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

The people are delightful.

[Seth Payne]

I know.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

You had a good time over, I think, this tiny island. Well, archipelago nation.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Off the west coast of Africa. That's just beautiful if you Google it. But no, they canceled my visa. I'm not allowed back.

[Sean Pendergast]

You're not allowed back in.

[Seth Payne]

They were like. They could tell the fact. I just could. I couldn't go to the game on Friday, and they accused me of fake hustle. However you say that in Spanish or Portuguese, and that was that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, it was fun, man. It was. It was definitely, for me, a top 10 sporting experience. Not. The game was fun. I mean, these were. I've been to two of them, the World cup games. They've been Great. They're. The energy in the building is amazing, but celebrating with the people in my section, as they were waiting to see if they had clinched a spot in the knockout round, the players were literally huddled around an iPhone down on the field.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And when the game. The Spain, Whoever. Spain. I forget who Spain was playing on on Friday, but whoever. Whoever it was they were playing, they win the game, and the. The Cabo Verdeans go crazy down on the field, and then they go crazy in the stands, and they were celebrating and singing. It was really, really cool. So acknowledge them, Cabo Verde. I'm gonna acknowledge Freddie as well, the German superfan.

[Chris Canetti]

Mm.

[Sean Pendergast]

Turns out that Freddie, who I had thrown a little bit of shade at here along his journey here of getting

[Seth Payne]

free stuff everywhere he went, you're just in for the. The worst reasons. You were just. You were envious.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I was jealous. I was jealous. I'm jealous of this. But. But I. I've had a chance to do some of this. He. He. Turns out he's a huge wrestling fan, which means he's one of my people. He got to go to Slammiversary, tna, which is a company that competes with wwe. He got to go backstage at Slammiversary, their big pay per view, and he met the Hardys. He met Jeff and Matt Hardy, who he's big fans of, and he took pictures with them and did the thing where he puts the, you know, emoji on top. Nobody knows what the guy looks like because he's still putting emojis on top of his face. Yeah, Freddie is, but I've done a 180 on Freddy. Seth. I really like the guy.

[Seth Payne]

Now you're saying, like, the way you now. Because this is a wwe, maybe this is the way I envision it, envisioned it. Does he actually have, like, a. An emoji, like, stuffy thing that he puts over his head? You made it look like he was praying, like a big. Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I was just framing it like

[Seth Payne]

a styrofoam emoji or something. You should do that. That's a lot less time in the. You know, having to edit it on your phone.

[Sean Pendergast]

It'd be a good gimmick, for sure.

[Seth Payne]

The Hardys are. The Hardys are the ones who are actual wrestlers first, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Hardy. Yeah, They're.

[Seth Payne]

They're NCAA champions. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, no, no, no, they're not.

[Seth Payne]

They're not. Oh, okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah. No, they're not. I don't know who it is you're thinking of, but. No, it's not the Hardee's are. They grew up like they've been wrestling since they were like 16 years old. Yeah. Jeff Hardy's known for the bumps that he takes. He's not afraid to jump off the top of like a 40 foot cage or anything like that. Kind of a Daredevil. Aziz Al Shire, 92nd in the NFL's top 100. That news came down on Friday. Only the second linebacker in Texans history to make the NFL's top 100, Brian Cushing, made it one year back in 2012. Other than that, the Texans have now, they've only been doing this since 2011, so.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, the only Texans lineman. Wait, wait. The only linebacker in NFL history?

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no. Did I, did I say NFL?

[Seth Payne]

No, no, no, no. I heard it wrong for sure.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah. Second linebacker in Texans history to make the list. Brian Cushing being the other one. D' Amico probably would have made it back in the day, but it didn't exist back then. D' Amico's old, you know, so. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So when did they start it? They must have 2011. Okay, 2011.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

So that was. D' Amico was there in 2011, but he wasn't.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was coming off an Achilles like he was. Yeah, he was. He was not a. He is not what he was earlier on. So congrats to Aziz for that. Linda Cone. She retired from ESPN over the weekend after 34 years and over 5,500 sports center episodes. Seth. She is the all time record holder in SportsCenter episodes anchored for ESPN. That's noteworthy. Big pioneer in women's broadcasting. Linda Cohn. How many, how many broadcasts over 5,500 episodes of SportsCenter.

[Chris Canetti]

Oh, wow.

[Sean Pendergast]

She's done through the years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here was Linda Cohn on the key to longevity.

[Seth Payne]

Probably the key, and this is what I tell a lot of people, is

[Sean Pendergast]

the fact that even though I was on SportsCenter for 34 years, I make

[Seth Payne]

believe somebody is watching me for the very first time and I have to

[Chris Canetti]

prove to them that I belong and

[Seth Payne]

that I earned a seat in this chair.

[Sean Pendergast]

She's a really nice lady. We met her at the Super Bowl, I think. The one in New York.

[Seth Payne]

It was the one in New York.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Yeah, she was. It was interesting because I met her with Rich Lord and Rich is from that part of the country. And Rich noted how her accent was so different just talking in person off air.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, really?

[Sean Pendergast]

Than on air.

[Seth Payne]

I didn't notice that.

[Sean Pendergast]

She's got a heavy, heavy New York accent.

[Seth Payne]

And she does she turns it on and off.

[Sean Pendergast]

She turns it on and off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that happens in broadcasting. You know. You don't want to be typecast as

[Seth Payne]

definitely not with a thick New York.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, you don't want to. Yeah, you don't.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You don't want it. You want to be kind of geographically agnostic is what they.

[Seth Payne]

I don't. Well, I don't know. A little bit like people like a. People appreciate a little bit of a Southern either like a Texas twang or a Southern draw a little bit depending on what format you're in though. Not like not in the news news. But in sports I think they like it maybe.

[Sean Pendergast]

So acknowledge her.

[Seth Payne]

She's not. If you're sitting in a desk, you're right. You got to have that bland kind of neutral whatever American accent it is.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. This was DJ Khaled. This, he was on with Shannon Sharp. I've been getting, as I've mentioned Seth, I've been getting a lot of these financial videos pushed to me of players and entertainers talking about their finances and most of them are, are, most of them are basketball players telling me how little $100 million is. I like this from, from DJ Khaled.

[Seth Payne]

You pay the electric bill, the gas,

[Sean Pendergast]

you, you personally, you don't have, you don't pass that off to nobody.

[Seth Payne]

Kelly, I don't believe in no accountant. I don't believe in what's the thing called money manager.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, all that. That's your business. Khaled have all his. I, I paid the grass, the car wash man, the guy that's cut my

[Seth Payne]

hair, the electric bill, the car note, the mortgage.

[Sean Pendergast]

I, I have a rule where my bank got to tell me even if

[Seth Payne]

I tell them I approve it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Don't listen to me. No, I'm not making. I want you to.

[Seth Payne]

I'll give you my banker's number and ask him. I said do not listen to me.

[Sean Pendergast]

And because I get on the email and text I approve.

[Chris Canetti]

I do that.

[Sean Pendergast]

But they have to get a verbal. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to call, you talk me. Yeah. Because it's AIs out there.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

You got to see me.

[Seth Payne]

I don't make nothing up.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. I like that. AI is the reason why he needs like triple proof that.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah. No, he knows he's paranoid. No, especially for, I mean athletes are one thing but for entertainers especially, I mean those guys just get they, they're in an industry where they. But you got a bunch of right brained individuals who necessarily like, you know Artsy types that, man, they are easy prey for people that want to manage their money and make everything easier for them. So, like, Khaled understands that, knows that people look at him as easy prey. So he's just like, no, I'm going to know about every dollar that's leaving my bank account.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

If you don't do that, if you're like, okay, even if you have somebody that demanded. That pays the bills for you and everything, if you're not keeping track of it every day, somebody will steal from you at some point. It's just, it's a. It's a. It's a slam dunk guarantee that the less pay the. The less attention you pay to it. Somebody's going to steal from you, or at the very least, somebody's gonna screw up and you're gonna lose some money.

[Sean Pendergast]

I just can't imagine letting somebody else pay my bills for me. I'd be worried they wouldn't pay them.

[Seth Payne]

Like, actually pay the bill at some point, depending on how big you're like, everything you got going on is, I guess, you know, like. Well, because he is at college probably he's a producer too, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like, there's, like, there's something on the business side, I'm sure, where he's got.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Accountants working for him.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. I guess I should be clear, like my household bills, like. Yeah, like the mortgage and, you know, the lawn guy and all the things he's talking about Seth Payne. Seth, did you hear that you got acknowledged on First Things first by Nick Wright over the weekend?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I saw that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here is. Here's Nick Wright bringing up Seth Payne on a nationally televised FS1 show. Take number one is courtesy of one

[Chris Canetti]

of my old radio colleagues in Houston and longtime NFL defensive tackle Seth Payne.

[Sean Pendergast]

You probably coached against Seth Payne a little bit.

[Chris Canetti]

What year was it?

[Sean Pendergast]

I think the 2000 aughts is when he was playing. But regardless, it was. He said Tom Brady's mind is Randy Moss's 40 time in vertical league. But because we can't see it, people are constantly assuming other guys can do it. Yeah, that's a good take right there by you, Seth.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, he's. He's referenced that a couple of times, and I appreciate that he does that. Yeah, he actually told. He actually. He went on to explain it a little bit more in a better way than I did when I first said that to him. But it is. It's like it's clean.

[Sean Pendergast]

He cleaned it up.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, well, because, like, what Nick would say, and I think I did. I think what I had said originally was, great take. It's easy to see Randy Moss and come up with the reasons why other people can't be Randy Moss. You know, you're like, all right, if we start with just the physical parameters

[Sean Pendergast]

alone, there's literally a stopwatch that does.

[Seth Payne]

With Tom Brady, it's a lot harder for coaches to realize, oh, I can't actually teach quarterbacks to be as smart as Tom Brady. Can't see it.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's a good take. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Mangini can go die.

[Sean Pendergast]

Mangini did not seem very impressed by the mention of you.

[Seth Payne]

No, it is a problem. No, I give Mangin a break. So Mangini, you didn't recognize he was a defensive coach, like coaching defensive backs back when I, when I was playing. Like, he probably had zero clue who I was. No offense.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not a football junkie. Not a football junkie.

[Seth Payne]

I wouldn't take offense to it if it was an offensive coach or anything. Yeah, but. But especially because of Mangini.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, just to balance things out, I'm going to acknowledge myself. I hit my 10,000 song mark on touch tunes last week. Set.

[Seth Payne]

That's a big day.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Ben just fell out of his chair. 10,000 songs.

[Seth Payne]

You're like the Linda Cohn.

[Sean Pendergast]

I am. I am. And I'm not the dj. DJ Khaled would never do this. Ever.

[Seth Payne]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Respond.

[Seth Payne]

You would have been writing checks. And they probably don't accept checks.

[Sean Pendergast]

They don't. No, they don't. So, yeah, the 10,000 song mark on touchstones. Now, before people get horrified that I've wasted air quotes that much money ensuring that the vibes meet my standards in the bars that I go to, that's over like a six year period.

[Seth Payne]

So if you work out to like a thousand dollars a year.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, probably a little. Maybe a little less than that. When you get you factoring all the free credits that you get for, it's

[Seth Payne]

a lot less than a country club membership. So there you go. And you spend about the same amount of time in the bar each day as a lot of people spend on the golf course.

[Sean Pendergast]

Probably more.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. But I just wanted to acknowledge myself. That's how much I care about the vibes.

[Seth Payne]

What was the. What was your most played song?

[Sean Pendergast]

I thought it's a good question.

[Seth Payne]

It give you a breakdown of how many times you played each song.

[Sean Pendergast]

It does. It gives your favorites. I will open it during the break because we're over. If I had to guess, it would be great day To Be Alive by Travis Tritt. Love that song.

[Susie Welch]

Who.

[Sean Pendergast]

What else? Don't Stop Believing by Journey. I always got to put that in. You know, it's.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

River of Dreams by Billy Joel. On the one that's hit lately is Goodbyes by Post Malone. I really like that song.

[Seth Payne]

So I got a pretty chubba wumba in there.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's probably been 10,000 songs. I'm sure it's made an appearance at one time or another. All right, Pain and Pendergast with you here on a Monday. Hope you're having a great day. Hope you had a great weekend. All right. The sleuthing that I am here for. We played that audio of Diana Rossini telling the story of her using a FaceTime with an NFL head coach to get out of a ticket. Florio is sleuthing on this one as to who this could be. We'll go through the names. Rapid Fire. Who do we think it Is? And we'll replay the audio so we can reset for those who missed it. We'll do that. Coming up next.

[Susie Welch]

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[Seth Payne]

The scariest stories you've ever heard in

[Sean Pendergast]

your life, all told by real people and us.

[Seth Payne]

We could go.

[Sean Pendergast]

This wasn't a human being that I saw.

[Seth Payne]

There's something here in this house, Something

[Sean Pendergast]

not of this world. There was a woman moving through the hall. I stepped back and I was completely alone. Radio Rental is available now. Listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Susie Welch]

How did you get your website to look like that? Mine's so basic. Thanks. I just used WIX Harmony. Sounds fancy. What's that? It's wix's AI website builder. You can just tell it what you want and it builds you a whole site so it's like vibe coding a website. Exactly. But even better because you can still click and edit anything by hand. You don't have to use prompts for everything. Oh, that's neat. Yeah. Try it for [e-mail] Harmony hey guys,

[Chris Canetti]

fly on the Walls back for another season. That's right.

[Sean Pendergast]

On audio and video every Monday and Thursday. Follow and listen to Friday. Fly on the Wall everywhere you're getting your podcasts. I have pain and pender gas with you. My favorite text on the text page right now. Listening live today. Pretty cool. I'm guessing that's. I'm guessing that's somebody who's maybe on vacation or something. I don't know.

[Seth Payne]

We appreciate somebody who listens a lot on replay, on the app, on the Odyssey app or on YouTube or whatever we love.

[Sean Pendergast]

However you're listening, we love you for it. So, yeah, the sleuth thing that I am here for. Okay, so this was Diana Rossini, of course, the former, now former NFL disgraced former writer for the Athletic covering the NFL. We've not really heard much from Rossini publicly other than that long form article in the New York Times where she told the reporter that the text conversation they had should not be part of the story. And it became part of the story. That's all we've heard. But a lot of old Rossini audio and video is coming out. This is, this is audio from an anecdote that was told in that New York Times story. This is from the super bowl back earlier this year where she tells a story about just a couple weeks before this, she got out of a ticket, a traffic ticket for texting and driving by connecting the cop with his favorite NFL head coach via FaceTime.

[Susie Welch]

I was texting and driving because this

[Sean Pendergast]

coaching cycle is ridiculous and relentless and

[Susie Welch]

exhausting and you can't drive two feet

[Sean Pendergast]

to get a cup of coffee without something happening. I'm not going to say the team or the coach, okay?

[Susie Welch]

But the police officer pulls up and I said, Listen, Sean McDermott just got fired.

[Sean Pendergast]

I am breaking. I am in the middle of this right now. I know you don't care as a police officer, but I feel like I

[Susie Welch]

need to let you know this. And he said, well, I'm not a Bills fan.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm like, oh, you're Jack.

[Susie Welch]

So this is good news for you, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, he said, no. And so he names the team. I go, oh, I love that team. I go, do you want to talk to the coach? You should talk to the coach.

[Susie Welch]

I facetime the head coach. Head coach is in his office. He's like, what's up?

[Sean Pendergast]

I go, I just got pulled over, and I just wanted to meet my friend Officer Joe. And the head coach played all in,

[Susie Welch]

and he's like, how you doing?

[Sean Pendergast]

He's like, you should let her go. She's a good citizen. You know, Officers, just like, what is happening right now? Who does that?

[Susie Welch]

I was desperate. I was.

[Sean Pendergast]

I don't want to get a ticket. My husband's gonna kill me.

[Chris Canetti]

Right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Texting and dry.

[Susie Welch]

I shouldn't be doing that.

[Benjamin Solak]

I know that.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, my God. I am so proud of you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, that was on the Stugotz show right there.

[Seth Payne]

Can I. Can I just point out. Because I hadn't seen anybody else point this part of it out, like, at the very end there, my husband's gonna kill me. Like, this is. Like, how many times. How many times can you either just kind of playfully or jokingly say something about your husband, but then when in light of certain other things that you discover afterwards, that just. That sounds way more messed up to me right now. They didn't even. She would even say that when clearly she was the one that was screwing over. Well, allegedly screwing over her husband in this whole. This whole marriage. Trying to paint your husband out. Like, he's like, oh, Diana, what are you doing texting in your drive task?

[Sean Pendergast]

Matt.

[Seth Payne]

Hey, did you. Did you get yourself out of any speeding tickets and. Or commit adultery while you were driving today?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, exactly.

[Seth Payne]

So how. She got out of other driving tickets, so Florida.

[Sean Pendergast]

So Florio. Mike Florio. Pro Football Talk has done the Lord's work here, really, of narrowing it down to 21 head coaches that could have been on the other end of that FaceTime call.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Which is really important that we know, because, like. Like, let's be clear. I just. Before we go down this road, is there. Is there anything that would. I like. We shouldn't feel like the coach that did that was in the wrong at all. Right. Am I, like, Am I way out of bounds here?

[Sean Pendergast]

No, I just think of how I would have handled it. I. Like.

[Seth Payne]

Like, if John. I've seen John Mcclain call coaches before, and. And, you know, they'll pick up the phone and he'll ask him a question or whatever, have him talk to somebody.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, what would you expect? Like, the co. Like, I wouldn't expect any coach. I. If I were the coach. If I were the coach that got that phone call and I had a relationship with Diana Rossini, and I don't mean a relationship like she has with Frable.

[Seth Payne]

Like, A professional relationship.

[Sean Pendergast]

Professional working relationship.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I would think it's pretty funny.

[Chris Canetti]

Right?

[Seth Payne]

And I would do it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I would do it. I'm not worried about whether this is journalistically ethical or not. Like, if I've got another motorcycle. Completely professional relationship with anybody. Male, female, flirty, non flirty. You know, playing flirts with me all the time. I don't let that sway me.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And I would do it.

[Sean Pendergast]

I would.

[Seth Payne]

I would say. Yeah. Hey, what's up?

[Sean Pendergast]

The problem with Florio.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Is that by his standard, you would be a party to a bribe. You would be. I'm quoting Mike Florio. There's another angle to this story which wasn't mentioned by the New York Times, in which I'm. Which I'm reluctant to bring up for fear of being dubbed a narc.

[Seth Payne]

You dry snitching on that cop.

[Sean Pendergast]

New Jersey. New Jersey has a very broad bribery law, which Florio puts a hyperlink to over. Very broad bribery law. It also has a very strict law regarding texting and driving. And he lists what the fines are and the suspension and so forth. Yeah. Assuming this was a first offense, $200 was riding on whether she could persuade the officer to not ticket her for something she apparently admitted to doing. She admitted to doing it. So the New Jersey bribery law doesn't limit its application to situations where money changes handset. It uses the term benefit as consideration.

[Seth Payne]

So did he. Wait, let me guess here. Did he bring up, like, how much, like, a cameo would cost somebody of that?

[Sean Pendergast]

It's funny you should say that.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

A Time spokesperson said the FaceTime for the no ticket situation is unacceptable conduct. While the chances of Rossini or the offering officer facing bribery charges are slim, those who are following the story will now be even more curious as to which coach took the call and talked the officer out of exercising his discretion to give her a ticket. Yeah. Somewhere in here, he does mention, like. Oh, yeah, Yeah. A police officer getting a chance to talk to the head coach of his favorite NFL team would qualify as a benefit of consideration in exchange for exercise of discretion. Somewhere in here, he does mention, like, boy, how much would you have to pay to do that?

[Seth Payne]

Like a cameo or something.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

If you're just a regular person or

[Seth Payne]

an appearance or something like that.

[Sean Pendergast]

So there is a quantifiable.

[Seth Payne]

And I knew I was going to. As I was laughing uncontrollably at learning this was his angle on this, I also was realizing, yeah, he's probably got it. Yeah. Like, he's got a case. I suppose. I Don't know. Is that any different than. Is that it? Is that any different than her being like, oops, that said, oh, did a couple hundred dollars fall out of my pocket? I'm not saying anything one way or the other is a little different.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm just like, hey, not in the eyes of Florio. She may as well have done that. So, yeah, he narrowed it down to 21 coaches.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, you know what? This is what. This is what I would say Florio's.

[Sean Pendergast]

This is. This is.

[Seth Payne]

This is where he's going too far on this.

[Susie Welch]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, cool. He's thinking over the context of. Okay. As a head coach party to a bribe or something. Screw the head coach. Screw Diana Rossini. Flora. You really want this cop to get fired for. For potentially, you know, accepting a quote unquote bribe in the form of a phone call? What the hell's wrong with you, man?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Hoa. Oh, I forgot it's late June, early

[Sean Pendergast]

July time of year. Man, he needs his co. Celebra.

[Seth Payne]

This is when he. Remember, he usually starts a feud with somebody. Started a few. With J.J. watt a few years back. Time of year in July. He'll also. He and Pablo Torre will sometimes have a huge expose and then demand that you care about it. And like, like they did last year when they said, well, you guys are going to want to hear this. Turns out the NFL colluded. And you say, oh, really? What was the evidence, A ruling that the NFL did not collude. Now.

[Sean Pendergast]

Now care.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, but what. Why should I care? Because. Yeah, they were accused of collusion.

[Sean Pendergast]

Annoying. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But what happened? Again, they were found not to collude. But you're missing the point.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, right, right. Yeah, that felt like a lot of emphasis. Empty calories. All right, so there you go. I got to look at these names and pick one out. I'll do it during the break.

[Seth Payne]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Painting. Painter gas with the.

[Seth Payne]

Okay. The biggest thing about both him and Tony Farmer, where they screwed up. I couldn't believe they did this and actually wrote this down. This is why he's not allowed to pursue his bribery allegations. It's like, well, three of these coaches were on the west coast who are unlikely to have been the office at 6:20am what the hell are you talking.

[Sean Pendergast]

What?

[Seth Payne]

Dude, what on earth are you talking about? Two of them.

[Sean Pendergast]

Two of them were playing in the NFC title game the next week.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, you know, like.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And we said, well, but the Rams had just gotten back from a game the night before. Like, yeah, that's exactly when Coaches sleep in the office and get two hours

[Sean Pendergast]

when they get dropped off at the stadium.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, you lazy. No wonder he couldn't make it as a lawyer. He can't work the hours.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. All right, Pain and Pendergast with you into the 8 o' clock hour we go. Okay, we've not hit on Brandon Iuk yet. Is Brandon Iuk going to get a job in the NFL? And if I'm a Washington Commanders fan or or player or coach. How are you feeling about this latest salvo? We will get to that coming up next.

[Susie Welch]

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[Sean Pendergast]

I'm no designer, but I know my brand inside and out. And I know a generic looking website when I see one. Wix Harmony has blown me away. It's a website builder that lets me switch back and forth between using AI and hands on editing tools so I can create a website exactly the way I pictured it. I even get a personal AI agent that's an expert in web design and helps me out. Try it out for [e-mail] Harmony. That's Wix.com Harmony I'm Dr. Haruni Bhat,

[Susie Welch]

host of Hidden History. Every Monday I go where history gets uncomfortable. Better civilizations, doomsday prophecies and events that science still can't fully explain. Listen to and follow Hidden History Available now wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, don't laugh.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm gonna laugh.

[Susie Welch]

I bought a domain at 2am last night.

[Seth Payne]

I love that for you.

[Susie Welch]

It was just there calling to me. Where on Wix I even built a whole website last night with its AI website builder Wix Harmony. But I was still in bed by 2:30 so you should be proud of me.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was very responsible of you.

[Susie Welch]

You should try it too. Maybe I will just go to wix.com domains I good to be with you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Payne and Pender Gas so Brandon Iuk went loco on Instagram live again this weekend for a more extended period of time. Talked about how the 49ers kind of handled him last year and I don't know man, is, is he garnering any sympathy out on these here streets?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, Commander's fans. There's a certain portion of Commander's fans who seem to just be sticking up for him no matter what. And they're, you know, because he, for those who don't know, Brandon Iuk and Jaden Daniels, quarterback for the Commanders are very good friends. And Iuk's been carrying on basically as if all he needs as soon as the 49ers cut him, he's going to sign with the Commanders. Meanwhile, the Commanders have said nothing about any of this.

[Sean Pendergast]

Should they. He's under contract, right?

[Benjamin Solak]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, they can. It would be extreme tampering. I'm guessing there I'm get 100%. Somebody from the Commanders has called up the league and said hey, just so you know, we haven't talked to anybody. I'm guessing that they've called up the 49ers and said the same because for one I you has to go. He has to report to the 49ers before they're even allowed to cut him and make any of this happen. But Iuk, as he has been for a long time, refuses to communicate with the 49ers and yet is like trying to play victim and everything. And it's really, it's getting annoying. Well, really annoying that there are people who are still sticking up for Iuk even with his latest revelations that you're about to play here where like it sounds like the 49ers and his agent trying to reach out or trying to figure out what's going on and he's acting like they're the worst people on earth for doing okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

So the weekend started. Just let's play this one real quick. The weekend started with him asking Instagram his audience on there can someone check and see if I have a warrant out for my arrest in the state of California?

[Chris Canetti]

All right.

[Seth Payne]

But like

[Sean Pendergast]

on a real serious note

[Seth Payne]

though, can anybody tell me if I really have a worn out for my arrest in California? Because my bro said he trying to throw in Cali. But if I got a warrant, bro, I'm about to stay out here.

[Chris Canetti]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

The answer is yes, he does. He does. It's an active arrest warrant in Santa Clara County, California.

[Seth Payne]

Because the driving thing. Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Misdemeanor warrant, for example, exhibition of speed stemming from a viral social media video that he posted back in December of last year. Yes.

[Seth Payne]

He's kind of. It's weird. It feels like he's on, as far as we know, like, a sober Charlie Sheen type of run.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

Where Charlie Sheen was just getting increasingly out of control and putting it all on video and everything. But he was, as we would find out later, being fueled by about a kilo of coke per day.

[Sean Pendergast]

Correct.

[Seth Payne]

I think Ayuk. This is just Ayuk being Ayuk and everything that comes from 40, 49ers players about, like, Ayuk is that he's just a little bit of a different of a guy and didn't even really talk to people when he first got there. And it's just. He's. He is the classic diva wide receiver from the 1980s or 1990s era.

[Sean Pendergast]

The only. The only thing with IUK over all this content that's been put out there that would lead him to. Lead me to believe he's on something is his decision making. It's not like how he's. Like, he's very. He seems very lucid in how he talks and expresses himself, and he's got very strong thoughts on things that he. I think he lays out pretty well. In fact, let's do this here. He talks about in this Instagram live about firing his agent who called his wife.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, you thought I was done, man,

[Sean Pendergast]

get your ass up.

[Seth Payne]

Come here.

[Benjamin Solak]

All right, y'.

[Chris Canetti]

All.

[Seth Payne]

So I understand that a lot of y' all is new here, and so I'm gonna just fill y' all in and give y' all the details so that everybody can understand. The reason why the agent being fired is such an important detail in this whole story is because that agent is also the agent of the general manager for that one team. And that agent really started this whole. Because I fired his ass, but he want to text my wife. Like, he's smart. Don't ever text my wife your ass. Fired your ass.

[Chris Canetti]

Grass.

[Sean Pendergast]

Get up out of here.

[Chris Canetti]

Get going.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. Yeah, I said called her, texted her. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Reached out to her, you know, so this is one of the things that people have stood up for Brandon IUK with. And this is the problem. Like, you're taking Ayuk at his his at face value, what he's saying, how events transpired. One thing we know about IUK is that he at times seems incredibly difficult to actually get a hold of and that he will not communicate. The 49ers haven't been able to talk to him. Like, they. They don't know where he is at any given time. Like, is there. As they tried to work through his injury, as they've tried to work through all of this stuff, they just can't get a hold of him. I give his agent 29 million benefits of the doubt. And what exactly was going on? IU claims that he fired him. Like, how did he think he fired him? Did he actually communicate to him? Or did he in his mind just say, you know what? I'm not working with that agent no more, and then didn't tell him, like, so I don't. I give his agent a pass on anybody he tried to communicate to try to figure out what the hell was going on.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, so you give the agent a pass. All right, so. So now we're gonna talk about John Lee lynch, the gm.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And as you. I'm glad you pointed out how difficult Brandon Aiyuk is to reach sometimes.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Because lynch did the thing that ultimately you do when you've got to reach somebody is, I gotta go physically find this person. Yeah, he went to iuk's house. And IUK calls him a creepy predator.

[Seth Payne]

So he is also the agent for the general manager of that team.

[Susie Welch]

And

[Seth Payne]

these is all weird weirdos, creepy predators. General manager gonna pull up to my house. Oh, weirdo like, bro, don't pull up to my house uninvited. Boy ain't safe. But I knew his ass was gonna do it. So I'm looking at my camera, my front door camera, I see a big old white boy, white man, former NFL safety. And I'm like, oh, hell no. And I know my wife is about to be back home soon, so I had to call my wife and say, it's a big ass white man at the house. I don't know what he doing over there. He was not invited. Creepy. So if you on your way home, just probably just spin the block a few times because I don't know what bro on weird. I love. I'll tell you what, honestly talk about there's the big generation gap between millennials or Gen Z. And then Gen X is like, yeah, you know, it used to be somewhat common for people to just come by your house and see if they could talk to you. Like, this is the weirdest thing that anybody's done in the history of human beings showing up at somebody's house unannounced.

[Sean Pendergast]

This is where. This is where Gen Z has it, right? Yeah. I don't like the pop.

[Seth Payne]

Should be.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. I don't like the pipe. Never like the pop.

[Seth Payne]

That's the only thing, though, too. It's like, is he's accusing all these people of being creepy and everything. It's like that's. That's the general description you get from people about. They say it politely, but it's that he's a different type of dude about iuk.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I use a different type of dude. And again, the 49ers, I get. I give. I give John Lynch a pass there. I assume he was talking about John.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was talking about John Lynch. Yeah. NFL safety. Gave.

[Seth Payne]

He's a big white boy.

[Sean Pendergast]

Former safety.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hall of Fame safety, by the way.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I love. Hey, honey, there's a big white dude on our porch.

[Seth Payne]

He's trying to make it sound like he was, like, in physical. Like he was afraid of being physically. Or something, you know, like, how's this person. He's a big guy, showed up at my house, and he was known for laying big hits over the middle back in the day.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Who knows what he's. Who knows what he's going to pull on this wide receiver if I let him in the door?

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, here's what he did. He said that John lynch tried to apologize on behalf of Kyle. Apparently, Kyle Shanahan's act wore thin on Brandon iuk. So lynch was there to apologize for Shanahan's act.

[Seth Payne]

The same general manager that tried to run me down and come apologize for his head coach, because the head coach got a temperament of a toddler and was speaking out the side of his mouth to me, knowing that, you got it, bro.

[Benjamin Solak]

You got it, bro.

[Seth Payne]

What I'm gonna do in here?

[Sean Pendergast]

Beat you up.

[Seth Payne]

Come on, bro. Like, you know, come on, bro. You just talking crazy because, you know, you could talk crazy, but you feel me gonna respect me or. I'm gonna get on, bruh. I'm gonna get on, bro.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, so he's. He. I mean, he's all over the place.

[Seth Payne]

If I can read a little bit from Debo Samuels. Goodbye. Or a letter that he wrote to the Players Tribune.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

When he left the 49ers. Yeah. These are some of the things he said about John lynch and Kyle Shanahan. Talking about Kyle Shanahan. He said, I've always felt like he coaches me harder than anybody else. Because at the end of the day, he knows I ain't no sensitive ass player. If you tell me I messed up, I take it on the chin and go fix it instantly. He would also say in that letter for John and Kyle to send me to a team in the NFC that was almost a Super bowl contender. It just shows you the type of love and relationship that we have. I know at the end of the day they didn't have to do that. So it's not a lick of bad blood when it comes to me and that organization, it's always love.

[Sean Pendergast]

Sounds very.

[Seth Payne]

He also in that letter said, I got with IUK when he first came in as a rookie back when he wasn't talking to nobody. Lol.

[Sean Pendergast]

So you mentioned IUK in the letter too?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah. Well, no, but also pointing him out is a little bit of a different dude.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

He's just that. No, I don't like, like in general. Yeah. It's hard for me to side with IUK or believe a single thing of any of this. That he said he's. He's been acting increasingly erratically.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That any part of this story, when people try to parse it out, it's like, wait, no, you're making a big mistake here in assuming that any of it is true.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's just fascinating watching somebody commit career suicide like this.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. He. Every other team, like, he is destroying his chances. Not just with the. He's very. He might very well be harming his chances with the commanders who might only still be interested in him if Jaden Daniels still really wants him and can tell the commanders, like, hey, listen, look, he's a little bit different, but he'll be cool when we're in here.

[Sean Pendergast]

They were teammates at Arizona State when Jane Daniels was. Jane Daniels was at ASU before he transferred to lsu. So they were teammates at Arizona State. Last one from iuk. And this is where he. This again, this goes back to my original question. How are you feeling if you're a commander's fan or a commander's player or man, a commander's front office person watching this play out, IUK says, niners, I'm never coming back into that building. I'll see you on the 19th.

[Seth Payne]

I'm trying to get better. I'm trying to grow. I'm trying to heal. So I ain't gonna hold it against. But we is not cool. We won't be cool. And I will never be stepping in that building except for on October 19th when I come through with that motherfucker belt with that belt.

[Sean Pendergast]

That ass. Oh, my God.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So. So Brandon Iuk, I mean, again, essentially talking like he's on the commanders right now.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Literally talking like he is a member of the Washington Commanders, and he's not. He's under. I've never seen anything like this.

[Seth Payne]

No. And it's. Honestly, it's at the point, though, too. It's where you kind of start. You feel a little weird about even playing it, because I feel like there's a mental health situation maybe.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Remember when Antonio Brown got mad at Brady's personal trainer because Alex Guerrero.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Alex Guerrero. Yeah. Antonio Brown had prepaid for some. Had prepaid for workouts, and then he ended up being released by the Bucks, so he wasn't going to be able to use it. So he. He sent an email to Guerrero saying, hey, I'd like a refund on the. I'd like a refund, you know, for my prorated, whatever, because I'm not going to be using them. Guerrero replies, okay, cool. Just let me know where to send it. And Antonio Brown took a screenshot of that text exchange and said, see, this is what I'm dealing with. And you're like, at that moment, you realize, oh, okay. He's just. He's detached from reality.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like, he somehow found a way to take offense at that. Like he was being screwed over. When the guy's working with him. It's just. I feel like that's where he is right now.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Iuk, he has to report for work if he wants to force the 49ers hand is.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's got to be reinstated. You mentioned that last Friday. I saw that over the weekend. Like, he's. He's got to be reinstated. And to do that, he's got to go to the building, and to do that, he's got to go to a state that has a warrant out for his arrest.

[Seth Payne]

Basically process of it. Right? Yeah. He's got to apply for reinstatement. Then once reinstated, he has to show up and report as ready to work.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

The other thing now, too, is that it's getting to the point where the 49ers are. Like, if it keeps going on this way, they report, 49ers will probably have. Might have the right to try to claw back some of the money they've already paid them.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And then. Which I'm sure Iuk will handle incredibly well.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, the guy that dumped a bunch of money on the ground in his closet to send a statement. Yeah, that guy. Oh, man. Yeah. People weighing in. Mental illness is real. Somebody says on the text page.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I just. And that's where I'm like, I'm trying. I don't want to bag on him for. He's obviously got some issues or whatever, but the people that are sticking up for him and acting like it was the worst thing in the world for John lynch to show up at his house. I feel like you're telling on yourself there. You got some issues, too, man. You got to work through this in therapy or something. Like. Like. No, there's Nothing. There's nothing IUK has said about the way the 49ers have conducted themselves. That makes me feel one bit like the 49ers are in the wrong on this, other than I agree with iuk. They were stupid to give him that contract in the first place.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Except they did.

[Seth Payne]

They tried to trade him away, the Steelers, but IUK shut that down.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just can't. I. In retrospect, I cannot believe they gave him the contract that they gave him. I mean, nobody had better knowledge of what he was about than they did. He's been in the building for five years.

[Seth Payne]

The process is the process, and he has to. At the very least, maybe there's a workaround for him actually showing up in California, you know, make a house call. But he has to file for reinstatement first, and he hasn't done that either. So, like, he hasn't even taken the minimal first step forward in this process as he's blaming the 49ers for not cutting him. Like, they're not capable of cutting him right now until he files for reinstatement.

[Sean Pendergast]

How would you feel if the Texans signed Brandon iuk?

[Seth Payne]

Oh, I'd be cool. I'd like, as long as it was for a minimal deal, and as long as they're willing to just cut ties as soon as it doesn't work out. You know, they did it with C.J. gardner, Johnson. Look, it was a mistake in hindsight.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But, like, that's something that. That k. That Kasario has taken from the 40, from the Patriots, that I appreciate and I like is that, look, get the guy in the building. If it's minimal risk, then just see how it works out, because everybody's different in different situations.

[Sean Pendergast]

Could use him. I mean, we just did an article an hour ago, but where Bill Barnwell is saying they have the 24th best skill position guys.

[Seth Payne]

I mean, but it would have to be with first. You'd have to have a nice, long meeting beforehand. And then it would have to be for nothing. A completely incentive laden deal. And I think I use. I don't. There are a lot of people that wonder whether I. You even really wants to play football. Yeah, you know, like, it's just. This is a whole lot of. Whatever it is, whether it's a planned strategy or just him lashing out, that a lot of people think he just doesn't want to play football.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Susie Welch]

Well.

[Sean Pendergast]

And unlike some of the other guys they brought in, d' Ameco actually has intel on Brandon Aiyuk. I mean, he was in San Francisco in the building with him, you know, so he's probably. I don't know if Aiyuk was ever this unhinged when d' Amico was there, you know, three, four years ago, whatever. But. But he does have some intel on him. All right, let's stick with the.

[Seth Payne]

The one thing that. Oh, what's his name? The big old. Remember the defensive end from the Bears, Alonzo Spellman. So when Alonzo Spellman, he had a run where, remember, he was like, nobody could find him. They cited him on the roof of a motel in New Jersey, like sunbathing and all this stuff. And when I was with the Jaguars, they. I can't remember if they brought Alonzo Spellman in a visit or if they just talked to him, but one of the conditions was going to be that they had to watch him take his meds in the morning, and he refused that. So, like, that was where they cut ties. Some kind of. In a. Some kind of like, hey, you got to go do a month of. You got to go do a month of therapy before we even, you know, get you in the building or something. I'd be. I'd be open to something like that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pain and pender gas with you. Let's stick with the Texans. Benjamin Solak was actually on with our friend Garrett. Houston Stressens did a long interview with him about the Texans. CJ Stroud came up quite a bit in that interview. What is Solak's confidence in C.J. stroud in the upcoming year? And what was his assessment of Nick Kaylee in year one? Does this give you encouragement for how he could look in year two? We'll discuss that coming up next.

[Seth Payne]

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[Susie Welch]

Welcome to Case by Case, your weekly

[Seth Payne]

update on the biggest true crime stories unfolding right now.

[Sean Pendergast]

Nick Reiner remains in custody without bail.

[Seth Payne]

Luigi Mangione accused of stalking and gunning

[Sean Pendergast]

down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. From high profile trials, files and stunning

[Susie Welch]

evidence to major breaks in cold cases,

[Sean Pendergast]

we'll follow it all case by case.

[Susie Welch]

Follow and listen to 48 hours case

[Sean Pendergast]

by case, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Susie Welch]

How did you get your website to look like that? Mine's so basic. Thanks. I just used WIX Harmony. What's that? It's wix's AI website builder. You just tell it what you want and it builds you a whole site. But you can also switch back and forth between chatting with AI and editing things yourself. Ah, so you're not stuck with whatever the AI gives you. Nope. I mean, the results are pretty nice, but you can jump in and mess with whatever. Oh, that's neat. Try it for [e-mail] Harmony.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hey, this is Richard Deitchch, the host of the sports media Podcast. If you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports, the sports media podcast has you covered. I've been turning down interviews all week. Koda Copy reached out. Oprah, George Stephanopoulos. So I said no. I was booked on the Deitch podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Pain and Painter gas with you. A little Texans talk. We'll hit the Rockets in Fred Van Vliet's knee in the next segment. We're not going to literally hit his knee. His knees taken enough damage already. We won't hit him, but we will broach the topic.

[Seth Payne]

We're not going to go all Tanya Gang or Ganguly on him. Whatever.

[Sean Pendergast]

Jeff Gillooly Jeff Gillooly Tanya Gang.

[Seth Payne]

Tanya Harding did she didn't she eventually marry Jeff Kaluly?

[Sean Pendergast]

She who Tanya Harding. I don't know. Poor Tanya Ganguly used to cover the

[Seth Payne]

Texans for the after I got messed

[Sean Pendergast]

up on that one.

[Seth Payne]

She was a pistol herself.

[Sean Pendergast]

She wasn't afraid to kick a knee. I'll tells you so we'll hit that in the next segment. Benjamin Solak sat down via Zoom with with Garrett from Houston. Stressings had an interesting conversation. Solak we had some stuff from Solac last week. Seth on the show he covers the NFL for espn. We think he is pro Texans. He's he he likes no no no.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, he definitely is. Yeah. So yeah. Cause he was in he sat down with Garrett on his YouTube channel.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And at Texans commenter on X and it was pretty evident like he was pretty open about where he thinks CJ Needs to improve and but where he also has a lot of faith in CJ and that the Texans offense will be improved this year. But I think it's in line with us where he's skeptical that there's going to be an extension this off season. But this is what this is the first thing he said that I liked, which I do think people sometimes I think people sometimes remember as CJ as a way more accurate quarterback his rookie year than he actually was mostly just because he called himself a ball placement specialist.

[Sean Pendergast]

He had some killer highlights that year.

[Seth Payne]

No, he still had he has some killer highlights this year. Some incredible ball placement. It's one of those things where he just he'll have he does weirdly oddly has some of these throws where he's way off. But by and large his accuracy numbers this year weren't that much different than his rookie year. This is the difference between his rookie year in this past year. According to Solak.

[Benjamin Solak]

Last year regular season you had a 46 success rate. Any paper dropping a 0.12 it was in terms of down down basis about as good as it was to the rookie. Now nobody remembers that in Stroud's rookie season because you hear people talk a lot about other these accuracy sprays last year but go watch 2023.

[Seth Payne]

Stroud was like he was a rookie.

[Benjamin Solak]

He would just miss stuff out of nowhere and no but nobody cared because the big difference between 2023-2025 is Stroud's explosive play rate was much higher in 23 than 25. He was throwing the ball Less frequently and accordingly just hit. When he hit big shots, they were a larger percentage of his bucket versus in this Nick Haley offense where they were doing more like, okay, like four out wide, three step, you know, quick drop a quick game. Like you're going to be more of a point guard for us because we cannot run the football.

[Sean Pendergast]

We can't pass for tanks. So we just need you to be

[Benjamin Solak]

able to drop back more, get the ball out quickly. And we need to be a little bit more of a distribution team.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And I mean like that's the sum total of it is that really the Texans are in a position in the last couple years where they really, they couldn't attack deep because teams were taking that away from them. Unless, you know, when you're seeing a lot of these split safety looks, how do you attack deep? You need, you need some time from your O line. Yeah. You need to be able to get people, multiple people downfield and test those safeties. Except the pass protection has just not been there. And even though the sacks were cut in half this year, that was a lot more to do with the way that Stroud and Kaylee were operating than it was that the offensive line was all of a sudden really good at pass protecting. And I think that's the, that's where it does get lost in the wash a little bit. It's that the biggest difference is between his rookie year in these last couple years. It hasn't been that all of a sudden he's been less like drastically less accurate or anything. It's just that he hasn't been able to offset some of the, some of the bad things with these huge explosive plays downfield.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah. And he's in third and long all the time because they can't run the football. There's just so much that's predictable about this offense right now too. You know, there's no subterfuge going on.

[Seth Payne]

So he is however, confident that CJ will have a better year.

[Benjamin Solak]

I am very confident this upcoming year will be better for CJ simply because nobody is well calibrated to CJ shroud right now. Like, you know, CJ played 14 games last year. 11 of them were sick. 3 of them were terrible multi turnover games and all 3 of those were naturally televised island games. So those 3 games dramatically anchor and bias people's understanding of him. So I'm as confident anything else that I'm predicting for the 2026 season that Caesar Stroud will have a, you know, better year, a bounce back year. I think he'll just continue to play well, as well as he did in the Nick Kelly offense, if not better. He will have a set, you know, second year of Jaden Higgins. He'll have a healthy tight end room, you know, and the, the subsequent improvements around him and the stability and the fact that he largely wasn't that bad last year means that he'll have that bounce back performance here. Will they have the running game necessary to like really have a healthy offense? I don't ask me. August 31st.

[Seth Payne]

So when he's talking about those three games where he played horrible and they were on these, you know, in these big stages. So I'm going to, I. He was definitely talking about the Seattle game and then I think he just met the Steelers game and the Patriots game. That is, I think that is a real thing when it comes to the national perception of how he played, which is that, okay, they saw him in the Seattle game, it was a mess. And at that point people didn't really realize how good the Seahawks defense is. Not that that's an excuse or anything. And then, yeah, the, the playoffs, you can't, you can't just ignore it. You can't act like it didn't happen or anything. But the sum total of how he played last year was way different than how people who saw him on national television in big time games really saw him. And I would include in that, honestly, I think when people look at the box score of the Chiefs game or they just think about what that third quarter especially looked like.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

They don't, they don't realize that. No. That that fourth quarter by C.J. was maybe one of his most impressive performances in his career against a team that was just blitzing the hell out of them. And they didn't have any answers for how to pick it up or what to do. He had to really just put it out there and make some incredible throws in some, in some tough instances in that game. But it's, I think the national television part of it kind of paints a picture that's way more slanted. What did he say? We're not. People aren't calibrated on CJ straight.

[Sean Pendergast]

They're not calibrated on him. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like the calibration's all screwed up because of those little, those, those few big game performance.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. I'm trying to look. He's the first person I've heard categorized CJ's good games as sick.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, that part. I was a little curious.

[Sean Pendergast]

He had 11 games that were sick. I'm like, okay, like he was, I think you made this point several times. He was better than people give him credit for.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Prior to the collapse in the, in the postseason. But I'm like, okay, I mean like, sick.

[Seth Payne]

He wasn't sick. Yeah. If I cherry pick out the regular stuff, season stats, I'm just gonna move a couple of them. It's still not, yeah, by and large, it's still not a sick.

[Benjamin Solak]

Right.

[Chris Canetti]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like even some of the ones right came away impressed. I'm like, I don't, I don't know if I'd call it sick, but she

[Seth Payne]

hadn't pointed that out. It might just be that Benjamin Solak is in love with CJ Nothing that's gonna change.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, he may be. Well, let's get to the, the one talking about getting his contract here.

[Seth Payne]

So Garrett had asked him, basically he asked him a two part question, but the first part was, do you think he's gonna get a extended this off season?

[Benjamin Solak]

The only way he gets extended before the season is if the Texans feel like, okay, we're really getting like a bargain, you know, kind of a bang for our buck here. Like, let's do this right now at $45 million per year because like, you know, this is, you know, made up number because, you know, okay, we're going to be able to kind of like, you know, steal a year, a cheaper year of having a functional, you know, starting quarterback. The going raise like 50, 55, like cool. You won't be able to get in below. The only way you're taking that, if you are CJ Stroud and his agent is one of your just like bad at your job. There's just no reason you should be taking that if you're, if you're Stroud. But you'd also, you'd have to have such interminable fear that this year is going to be a bad year statistically and you're not going to be able to make this argument which would be a huge red flag if Stroud, his team is taking that. I'd be like, okay, how bad was that concussion? Like, how worried are they about him? Long term?

[Sean Pendergast]

That's a great thing. Okay. I wouldn't even think into the concussion when, when Solak said that. Yeah, like, okay, if, if we got, if we saw a Schefter tweet today that said The Texans and C.J. stroud have agreed to a three year, $125 million deal, you know, a little over 40 million a year. I, I, I don't know how I'd Feel about that?

[Seth Payne]

I feel like. Like what he said. He's like, man, like. Yeah. Wait a second. Like, does. Does cj, like, fear that he doesn't. Like, is he not willing to bet on him?

[Sean Pendergast]

That's what I'm saying. Saying, I.

[Seth Payne]

Why is his confidence so low?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, right. Bingo. Like, that's it for me. I didn't even think of the concussion, which is a totally valid point. That's actually, in some ways. So bring that up. Worries me even more than. Than the actual play. But that was my first instinct. Seth, is like, that's how little confidence CJ has, that he can go out and go get the $55 million or $60 million bag.

[Seth Payne]

I think that, honestly, that part of it, from both the Texans and. And CJ's perspective, is really perhaps the biggest wild card that we might know nothing about, which is. All right, look, CJ operated differently after that concussion, Didn't. His scramble rate dropped by 50%, and when he did scramble, he was not trying to get any more yardage. There's a part of that where you can understand, okay, I get why he might not want to, you know, subject himself to harm, especially when maybe. Maybe he's still. Maybe he's only 99% recovered, which is a big deal for an NFL car quarterback when you talk about timing and anticipation and all of those things. But from the Texans perspective, is there a part of them where they're saying, all right, yeah, you know what? I want to be absolutely sure that he wasn't permanently damaged psychologically by that. By that concussion, because there's a part of it where, you know, we think about, okay, well, yeah, the scrambling numbers and everything. Those are different. But then there's also the. All right, how long. How much extra are you trying to extend a play just because you don't want to pull down the ball and run? How much is that affecting your actual decision making? The Texans might. Might themselves think, yeah, I want to see him. I want to see him play a full season where this doesn't look like it's an issue again.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And that. That we know that cj, from the entire body of work right up until the Steelers game, let's be sure that. That that's still there and that we can build on that versus, man, maybe he did take an actual big step back.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That.

[Sean Pendergast]

That I had never gone through the thought process of how I would feel if the Texans agreed to. To a, you know, a discounted CJ deal. Yeah, I don't think I'd like that. I don't think I'd like what the. The mindset that that represents with C.J. i don't think. I think it would represent independent of the concussion stuff either, a lack of confidence in yourself, a lack of confidence in Nick Caylee and what you can do. It would feel like to me, in some ways, like, boy, I better get while the getting is good, because this year, I'm. I'm. I'm being forced to bet on myself if I don't take this. And I don't like the odds of me cashing in on that bet, that's the message it would send.

[Seth Payne]

You know, who gets, you know, kind of skates free, because when you say, okay, $45 million, who's that? Who's that? Put him in the category of. That puts him right smack dab in Daniel Jones territory.

[Susie Welch]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

And Daniel Jones, who's had a spotty career, you know, is coming off an Achilles tendon tear. It was in a pretty good position with some leverage there where the. The Colts now, because they had no other options and no draft picks, they're gonna give him a 45, 44 million dollar a year contract.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. For CJ to. For CJ to accept that contract right now, it would.

[Sean Pendergast]

That would bum me out.

[Seth Payne]

It would make me feel like, oh, God, I would. I wish they would rather wait for Baker Mayfield. Give me a guy that actually believes in himself more than he should.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, right, right, right. A little delusion goes a long way. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I've never gone through that thought process before and doing it. Listening that cut from Solak, I'm like, God, I don't think I would like this if it happened.

[Seth Payne]

You know, Daniel Jones kind of skates by. When we start talking about quarterback extensions that didn't work out. Like, Daniel Jones kind of gets a free pass because we always bring up to a tongue of Iloa and Trevor Lawrence and Kyler Murray.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And these other guys. But, like, it was a disaster for Giants.

[Sean Pendergast]

Giants gave him four years. 160. And it was terrible. All right. Fred Van Vliet. Rockets gave him a lot of money. Have given him a lot of money. He expanded upon or expounded upon just how badly his knee was damaged last season. How does this make you feel about Fred Van Vliet possibly being the answer as far as changing things up from last year? We'll have that audio for you coming up next. All right, we got some breaking news with the Rockets. The timing is perfect considering what we teased. I'll give you the Breaking news. And we'll play the audio. We tease. But Houston Rockets guard Fred Van Vliet is opting into his $25 million player option for the upcoming season 2026 and 2027.

[Seth Payne]

It's the exact thing you want to hear immediately after a player on his podcast divulges that he didn't just tear his acl, he blew his knee out.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. Yep. He.

[Seth Payne]

And.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, and here's that audio that Seth's talking about. This is on Fred Van Vliet's podcast that he does with Big Sarge saying, no, my knee was pretty messed up.

[Seth Payne]

Dr. Lowe did it. So I end up. And then what was up. What. What probably never was disclosed was I did ACL and both meniscus, so my whole knee exploded. All right, but you gonna come back better, though.

[Susie Welch]

Watch.

[Benjamin Solak]

For sure.

[Chris Canetti]

I've been.

[Seth Payne]

I've been working. I've been grinding. Dr. Low, code. Dr. Lowe's cold. Multiple of my injuries, and. Yeah, and I'm cold.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

You guys see me eating? You think I could eat nine hot dogs in two innings?

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Seth Payne]

If I hadn't had my. My legs fixed once and for all by cold.

[Sean Pendergast]

Dr. Low. Yes.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, so this is where I think. Honestly, I think Fred Vanville is guilty of speaking a little too colorfully on this, which usually we encourage because it makes for good sound bites joints. I. A blown out knee to me means multiple ligaments and. Or tendons. And this is not that. This is. It's now. It was. It's way more. Whenever you have meniscus damage, it makes an ACL recovery dicier. When you tear both of them, it makes it that much dice here. The big question is just like, what. There's certain types of tears and the severity of the tear and everything where sometimes. Sometimes it's a really big deal and sometimes it's not that big a deal. So we have no way of knowing. I just. I don't. I think that he might just been speaking a little colorfully there and saying that he had. Blew it out his knee completely.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. My first thing I typed after I listened to that audio yesterday was, well, he's definitely opting into the final year of his deal for 25 million bucks, because that's not the type of thing you say on a podcast when you're getting ready to make yourself available for all 30 NBA teams.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

The biggest lock ever. He's coming back to the Rockets on that deal. So I guess I hear that and I. And I hope you're right that it's Just a colorful description. Because I don't feel better about Fred Van Vliet today. I feel worse about Fred Van Vliet today based on that news, based on him being an older guy who's got to rely a little bit on, you know, kind of quickness and caginess of the position that he plays. This. This does not feel great. That it would appear that this team's solution to trying to close the gap between themselves. And I mean, I say the Thunder and the spurs, but, man, if LeBron goes back to the Lakers, you're still closing the gap on the Lakers, too. Like, this is not a great situation for this team. You're kind of running out of solutions other than run it back. Because it seems like, well, we know Giannis just got traded. It seems like Kawhi Leonard, by everything that I'm seeing on TV and on social media this morning, that a reunion with the Raptors isn't. I'm just thinking of veteran guys that are out there that would change the makeup of this team. I suppose. Jaylen Brown is out there, but we heard Zach Lowe say last week, doesn't seem like there's a lot of smoke around the Rockets. And Jalen Brown, that can just be smoke the other way. We don't know.

[Seth Payne]

Here's the thing with the minisci, Sean. So you got. Your knee has two minisci. Yep. And when you. When you just tear an acl, like, okay, you can recover your turn from the acl, the meniscus, it, like, it just. It does a couple of things. For one, it's shock absorption. It's like the pillow between. It's a little disc of cartilage between your thigh bone and your shin bone. Okay, so it's shock absorption. Just think of it as a cushion, but then it also provides stability. And when you tear the meniscus, why it complicates recovery is that you first have to let the meniscus heal before you really start doing a lot of the other stuff. And that's where the big wild card is that you just like different people depending on the level of meniscus tear, recover, like, at a certain pace. But you gotta be sure that the meniscus is okay before you start pounding and putting pressure on a meniscus. So the timeline can increase. But beyond that, like, you could. They couldthey could repair completely, and it ends up being no big deal at all. Or sometimes if it doesn't repair completely, that's when you start getting arthritis and everything. Cause you don't have that cushion anymore. So, like, if you look at my knees, there's just no my menisci or shot.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Just got jagged bone spurs hitting into each other.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Which is why I do. That's why I wear the big stupid old man sneakers. The. So there's no possible way to figure out exactly where he is right now. And I. My only guess is that because he kind of hinted it, there was a chance that he might come back at the end of the season on his podcast with Sarge a few months ago. That, that maybe that part of it, like the meniscus, the minisci healing is. Is all right. No big deal.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I hope so, man.

[Seth Payne]

But it was gonna. But it was gonna take longer like that. It was gonna keep him from. You know, sometimes guys will come back after six to nine months after an acl that probably was not realistic at all, given that there was meniscus damage.

[Sean Pendergast]

The, the, the behavior of the Rockets, you know, with the draft, with some of the rumors, I don't know if it makes me feel very good about Fred Van Vliet and where he's at right now. They drafted Bruce Thornton, the older point guard out of Ohio state. He's a four year guy, so he's an experienced guy. He's 23 years old. It would seem to me that that's a guy they might feel that could give you 15 minutes, 15 minutes a night, something like that. There's also rumors that the Rockets are pursuing Marcus Smart, who was with the Lakers last year, but he was with Ime Udoka up in Boston on those Celtics teams up there. So, you know, chasing. Which I would be fine with. Like, it's hard for me to say, boy, I really don't want you going after Marcus Smart when we spent the entire season last year saying, are they going to go get a real point guard or not? Just somebody who can bring the ball up the floor and get it over half court. They had trouble doing that at times last year.

[Seth Payne]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I. Yeah, this, this is not a great 24 hours for me with the Fred Van Vliet situation.

[Seth Payne]

I eagerly await defending Marcus Smart against flopping X accusations. Yes, we spent. We spent a long time here with James Harden, preparing ourselves for this. And we're ready.

[Sean Pendergast]

We're ready, Marcus. Josh Hart does a podcast with Jalen Brunson. They call it the Roommates Podcast. Of course, they both went to Villanova. I'm guessing they no longer room together since they both make millions of dollars, but they were probably roommates at Villanova I'm guessing that's the name. But Josh Hart had this to say about analytics.

[Seth Payne]

There's a lot of things that analytics

[Sean Pendergast]

don't show or don't take into account.

[Seth Payne]

You know, I just always thought analytics

[Benjamin Solak]

for like geeky, unathletic white guys.

[Sean Pendergast]

I wanted to be a part of

[Seth Payne]

the league but just couldn't make it playing basketball.

[Sean Pendergast]

So they decided to put math into the equation.

[Seth Payne]

That's always how I felt.

[Chris Canetti]

Analytics.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I wonder who people are going to think you're talking about, because I feel like that's.

[Chris Canetti]

That's.

[Sean Pendergast]

There's probably a lot of people that fit into that.

[Chris Canetti]

Huh? Probably.

[Sean Pendergast]

Shout out to our Doppo. No, he's our black analytical guy on our. On our team. So shout out to him. Shout out to Dapo.

[Seth Payne]

I did. Honestly, that was my first thought. Like my first knee jerk. Like, like my woke thought or whatever was. Honestly, I was like, wait a second, there's quite a few, like a. Oh, you're just going to leave Indians out of this?

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And there's quite a few black geeky dudes and everything. You know, like, we've reached a stage in society where the geeky dudes aren't all just, you know, white, White point Dexters wearing pocket dude.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's been a rough hour or so on this show for white guys. Between Josh Hart taking a run at the white analytics nerds and Brandon Iuk talking about John Lynch, a large white man on his front porch, I know is somehow a negative.

[Seth Payne]

I felt like he was. I almost. When Iuk was saying that, I felt like he was doing a little bit of a bit. Like if. If he were a funnier guy, I'd be like, that's pretty funny. He was like, honey, there's a big white man on the desk. He's wearing an Amazon outfit. But I don't know. I don't know. Call the police. Like if he was Karen ing, you know.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Because of the big white guy. It was a funny bit. If he weren't apparently dead serious about all.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hey, who do you think Josh Hart is talking about when. Like when Josh Hart. When he said that, when he said it's for a bunch of nerdy white

[Seth Payne]

dudes, he had that imagine, like the first and foremost, Daryl Morey is the original, like super, super successful analytical GM of a team that, that kind of, you know, probably people thought of first, especially given his ERA.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

If he's like, he was a rookie in 2017, that that would make sense, you know?

[Sean Pendergast]

Mori. Yeah, Mori was that Was his big deal with the Rockets at that point. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Hollinger would be another one. Hollinger. Hollinger was the super. Like, just got to be involved with the team just because he was a statner.

[Sean Pendergast]

He invented the player efficiency rating.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, but remember the stories about Hollinger in Memphis?

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Where like the coaches. I can't remember, like, they kicked him off the court because he was like out there. He was doing like it from a movie scene.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like, the analytics guy is coming in and trying to tell the players what to do.

[Sean Pendergast]

See, that's funny. You're. See, you're talking about the ones that are actually in the sport, like in a front office. I know Hollinger's been kind of both. I immediately think of guys like Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons. Not that Simmons is a super analytics dude or anything. Like, I don't even know if Zach Lowe is either. But I'm guessing Zach Lowe probably leans somewhat on the analytics. I just there that I think basketball is the one that has the most nerds covering it right now.

[Seth Payne]

It's the most kids that. Well, when he says they just want to be a part of basketball, it is like you get the image of like, like this nerdy little white kid sitting in his. Sitting alone in his room listening to rap and just like. And like just, just. I want to be a part of all of it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, Right, right, right.

[Seth Payne]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pain and pender gas. Into the 9 o' clock hour we go. Let's circle back to the Astros news from over the weekend. Boy, how crowded is this pitching rotation? About the. I can't believe I'm saying that, but is it going to get crowded? And 9:25 on the show, Chris Canetti, who is the president of the host committee for the World cup here in Houston. We got our first knockout round game today, so want to check in with Chris, see how things are going with Houston here so far. Get his thoughts on how this whole thing has unfolded. We'll talk to him for a few minutes here in the 9 o' clock hour. That's all coming up next.

[Susie Welch]

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[Seth Payne]

time or if I had just never

[Susie Welch]

been kissed like that before. To hear fascinating, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious stories from astronauts, teachers, farmers and people just like you. Follow and listen to the Moth wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, don't laugh.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm gonna laugh.

[Susie Welch]

I bought a domain at 2am last night.

[Seth Payne]

I love that for you.

[Susie Welch]

It was just there calling to me. Where on wix. I even built a whole website last night with its AI website builder, WIX Harmony. But I was still in bed by 2:30, so you should be proud of me.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was very responsible of you.

[Susie Welch]

You should try it too. Maybe I will just go to wix.com domains.

[Sean Pendergast]

I painted Pendergast. Texter points out, wasn't there a black nerd on Revenge of the Nerds? Yes, his name was Lamar Luttrell. He threw a mean javelin. Aerodynamic javelin. In the Greek Fest. Yes. Revenge of the Nerds movie. That's still very funny to this day. But boy, there were a lot of things happening in that movie that would not fly in 2026 and shouldn't have flown back then. Should not have flown back then. Yeah, yeah. If we're being honest, it is honestly

[Seth Payne]

like, let's get super serious about life.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

Let's do that on a Monday. Honestly, though, you go back through, like, 40 years of Hollywood history where

[Chris Canetti]

it

[Seth Payne]

was messed up, man. Oh, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like.

[Seth Payne]

Like, you see where guys would get their impression of, like, how you, quote, unquote, seduce a woman.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like, I watch some stuff now, and I'm like, my God.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Like, that's that. Wow. Wow. And then you wonder, like. And then with, like, the Hollywood producers doing what they were doing behind the scenes and everything, right. I don't have, like, I don't get. I don't worry about whether I'm too woke or anything. Like, no, dude. Like, in the 70s, like, just flat out date rape was what they like in Hollywood. That was. Oh, he seduced her.

[Sean Pendergast]

That ain't right.

[Seth Payne]

Held her down until she stopped fighting.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, bro. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Again, that's what, like, all of us watched growing up.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Back to the future. Like, Biff gets in the car with her there. Yeah. Okay. We don't need to relive all the movies, but yeah, yeah, yeah. No, society has improved in that area. All right. The Astros over the weekend, three out of four against the Tigers. So this was good to see. Taking a downtrodden team. It was nice to see them slap from her around a little bit this time, Seth, Unlike the game you and I went to a couple of weeks ago where from her kind of locked them up. They ended up winning that game, but from her kind of locked them up.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. This was nicer to see.

[Sean Pendergast]

This was.

[Seth Payne]

This was Christian. Christian Walker just flat out taking it to. From Valdez.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep, yep. Couple of doubles.

[Seth Payne]

Christian Harris to Brandy yesterday. And she was so confused. So I slapped her around a little bit like they did in the movies. I said, get a hold of yourself, woman. And then, you know. You know, I met Christian Walker.

[Sean Pendergast]

I asked myself, what would Biff do?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And yeah. But yeah. Cam. Cam Smith hitting a bomb off of Fromber. I. I think big. The. The big takeaway from this weekend. 1. Yes. Good to see Christian Walker kind of get his groove back a little bit. I like that they gave your On a day off. And they scored eight runs that game. And I like the comebacks, too. They were trailing in on Saturday and Sunday's games. They were trailing both of those games late.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And they were able to put rallies together in both of those games. One to win the game on Saturday in, you know, in nine innings. And then on Sunday, they were able to get it to extras. And then they piled things on in extra innings.

[Seth Payne]

And I tell you what, I never felt a certain kind of way about the Tigers fan base one way or the other, but I despise them now.

[Chris Canetti]

Why?

[Seth Payne]

For one, I mean, I've just that that was about as aggressive of the treatment Altuve's gotten as in a lot of other ballparks. And like, bro, you've got AJ Hinch in your dugout. Like, what the. What the hell are you even talking about? So there's that. And then yesterday on the broadcast, I don't know if you picked up on this. I know Amy did, if she was watching. Okay, this was either a teenage boy or a woman who's one of the most obnoxious sounds I've ever heard.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay? I didn't have every single. I was gonna ask her.

[Seth Payne]

I was gonna reach out to Blum and see if he could publicly shame this young man and. Or what were they doing? Just screaming at the top of their lung. Just all any manner of stuff. Just not. Not crushing Altuve or anything. Just like. Like, rah, rah, go team type stuff.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

It was just so shrill. It was awful.

[Sean Pendergast]

Can you imagine sitting near that person? Bad enough that it's leading through on

[Seth Payne]

the broadcast, those guys got a plumbing call, has gotta at some point. Like, I wish they would just be vicious and just start taking pictures of the people that were most obnoxious.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, and Doc. Yeah, yeah, let's tell them where they live. Don't do that. Actually, Christian, Javier. Do you see this, Seth? Christian, Javier's last rehab start, so he didn't come back up to the big team this weekend, as was speculated he might. Instead, he pitched another start at Sugar Land. Six innings of shutout ball, 85 pitches.

[Seth Payne]

85 pitches. He's still a mile per hour slower on his velo than he typically is, which I don't know if that's a I. Boy, the fact that he's been performing well and yet still doesn't have his full velo back. You could either look at that as a good sign that he's maybe still holding something in reserve, or I just. I worry about, okay, well, how's it going to play if he gets to the majors where, you know, it's never. It's never like he's been. It's his. His. His velocity has always been deceptive. You know, it's more just that because of his spin rate, he gets that rising action even though it's not going that fast. But that's the part where I'm just. I'm trying to. I'm trying to hold off on getting too excited about how.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I. Well now tube. The thing is he's gonna get a shot, right? He's gonna get a shot. So I. I've gotta. You know.

[Seth Payne]

Right. Well in Kyway Tongue and Mike Burroughs, like it's not like we're terribly horrified. They don't know. But what about their chances? Why. Oh, Javier is gonna come in here and just displace one of those splendid fellows.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, but it's. But they're coming up on a patch of schedule where there'll probably be a five man rotation because they've got like a day off every week for a while here and Tong is in Sugar Land. Now if you missed it. If you're listening now and you missed it. He was sent down to Sugar Land to make way for Ulola.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Their big prospect.

[Seth Payne]

And you. Lola, still has, you know, he's got minor league options. So they could. Depending when Javier comes back. There's a few different things they might do including if they're going to a five man rotation there. Maybe they pushed Araghetti to the bullpen. If you try to figure out exactly. Maybe that's the best thing for Ericetti. Right. This.

[Sean Pendergast]

Maybe that's. It's crazy. He was the. He was the American League pitcher of the month for the month of May and then the calendar flips to June and he's just a mess. He's got a nine ERA in his last five starts. He's got a WHIP of 1.6. Like it's not good.

[Seth Payne]

3. Three members of the bullpen have options right now. Bluebaw, who's pitched more than anybody else

[Sean Pendergast]

and he's pitched well. He doesn't deserve to go down.

[Seth Payne]

Brian King, there's no way in hell you're moving him down.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's been good too.

[Seth Payne]

And Ulala, who like just got up here. So I don't. It'll be interesting to see how they manage all of it and which. What, what they do with the start.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, look, if they go to a five man rotation then. Then so probably, you know, does Burrow Burrows just had a really good start. Does he get pushed out? It's. It's a really. It's probably one of those things that's not super radio friendly because there's so many moving parts. Whole thing.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

But Dana Brown and Joe Espada when Javier. And then eventually McCullers and Blanco. I'm not counting on as much because this is His. This is his return from Tommy John, and it hasn't gone really good for any of these guys that have returned from Tommy John the last few years. But it's going to get crowded. It's a. It's a puzzle they're going to have to put together.

[Seth Payne]

It's going to get crowded. I get. Like, Eric, Eddie and Burrows are the starting pitchers who have minor league options remaining. So I. Yeah, it'll. I don't know. Like, with Eric Eddie right now, I'm inclined to. I want to just see him work his way through it.

[Sean Pendergast]

I wish.

[Seth Payne]

But I also want to see. I want to see. I want to see Javier work his way into it and Blanco work his way into it. Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

So the Mets fired Carlos Mendoza last week, and so now we've got a new odds board for next manager fired. Joe Espada is still showing up on these lists Even though they're 25 and 16 since the pain and Pendergast reset to the season. He's fifth on the list right now. Now 16 to 1. It's pretty long odds. The favorite is Matt Quattrero in Kansas City. Is. He's better than even money. He's minus 130 to be the next one fired. But Joe Espada still showing up on the list of next manager fired. Set.

[Seth Payne]

I think that Espada, and we said this at the time, even when things were really dark, it's that classic situation where it's reasonable to look at him possibly getting fired just because sometimes the manager gets fired, if only not because they're blaming him, but because you got to look for some kind of spark somewhere. It would just feel. It would feel unfair in so many ways with a spotter, because I don't know who the manager is who could have navigated the Astros through all of those injuries and poor pitching performances into having a good winning baseball team. Like, it's just. And that's, you know, not even saying that Espada did an incredible job with what he had or anything. It's just there's nobody that would have had a winning baseball team given that amount of adversity early on.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's funny because if I, If I would say, if you were to ask me what are the biggest criticisms of Joe Espada, I would say the biggest one would be his teams. He's been the manager three years now, and all three years his team has gotten off to bad starts. You know, horrible start in his first season, bad start last year. But amidst A bunch of injuries. You know, the flip side of that is he was able to get the team back to where they won 88 games and then 87 games. Certainly not hitting the standard of what the Astros had set during the truly golden part of the golden era. But I would say if you. If I were to give you my biggest criticisms of Joe Espada, like, if I'm looking at this oddsboard saying, you know what? Espada should be higher up this 16 to 1. He should be. He should be further up the board. I would say the slow starts, for sure. I think. I don't know if Jim Crane cares about this, but I think sometimes he's just a little too nice and maybe a little too delusional with some of the things he, like, with the way he talks about certain guys. Like, a guy gets shelled for eight runs in two and a third innings, like, his stuff was good. You know, it's like, okay, that's just

[Seth Payne]

what happened with Hunter the other day, where Hunter was saying, like, I didn't. Not a single one of my pitches was working. And as far as. Like, that stuff just doesn't bother me because I feel like that's what you.

[Sean Pendergast]

And I'm not. I'm not saying it's a reason to fire the guy. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Well, I guess with Espada, okay, I think the most valid thing is, all right, why are they, year after year after year, getting off to such slow starts? And what is it about the way you're handling spring training and perhaps the pitching staff in general? Is this an organizational thing? Is it dumb luck? Or could Espada or a different or better manager be doing a better job of that? I think with the starting pitchers, I mean, I'm stuck in this mode where I worry about, like, he leaves Peter Lambert in there a little too long. You know, like, with a guy like Lambert, when he's going through the third. The third time in the rotation, you know, he's got his issues. I have to balance that out with. All right. But the. The bullpen is. Has gotten incredibly taxed at points this year. This last road trip, the bullpen pitched about the same number of innings as your starters, and yet the bullpen has improved dramatically over the last. Over the last month or so. So I. Yeah, the. The slow starts, when you look at it at the end of the season and look at systemically or from a managerial standpoint, what are we doing different than other teams that were either having all these injuries or all of these just slow starts by the Pitching staff in general, even by the healthy guys. I don't know.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, it might be. It might be an issue. Bigger than a spot, for sure. Um, I, I would say, too, that my other criticism of him would be, and this happened yesterday in a game. I think sometimes his strategic decisions are. And I say it in the moment when he makes them. I think sometimes his strategic decisions leave. Leave a lot to be desired. Like, for example, yesterday, pinch hitting Bryce Matthews for Taylor Trammel. I know he's doing the whole righty, lefty thing, but Taylor Trammel has been one of your better hitters late. He's. He's been decent lately. He's had some big, big hits for you, big bombs for you lately. Bryce Matthews has been one of the worst hitters in baseball, and he doesn't even put the ball in play. And, you know, he strikes out an inordinate amount of the time. I just don't. I. He does stuff like that. That is very, like 70s and 80s manager, formulaic. Yeah, it's. Oh, it's a. It's a. They put in a right. They put in a lefty. We. So we need to bat a righty here. You know, he.

[Chris Canetti]

He.

[Sean Pendergast]

He does the thing. I criticized him for this at a game that I was at, and he's done this a few times. He. He loves to do the thing where you put a faster guy into pinch run.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

In the eighth or ninth inning when there's a chance you could go to extra innings and need that guy. Like, you're pinch running for Jordan Alvarez.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And you might need that again.

[Seth Payne]

Like, you got to get out of the game in the ninth inning here, especially with, like, the new rules where you got the runner on second. Dude, it just, it just changes it to true drip. I feel like, you know, a lot of this goes back to, like, hey, the first. The first time a lot of people started clamoring for a spot up potentially was game five of the ALCS when Dusty Baker gets ejected.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Spot is man. And he makes the decision to pinch it Yiner for Pena and. And then to pinch it John Singleton, which worked out in that moment.

[Sean Pendergast]

Walk.

[Seth Payne]

But in the, like, in the grand scheme of things like that, boy, throwing in Singleton is not a stroke of genius any more than just hoping Maldonado might walk.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, right.

[Seth Payne]

Like, knowing what we know about Singleton, it worked out in that instance.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But I almost feel like either that's how he's wired or like he felt like, yep, this is where I'm going to make my mark.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, that's funny you say that because he was the bench coach at the time. So that plays into this text I'm about to read. Would you be okay losing the bench coach that won the World Baseball Classic to another team and keeping the Astros current manager? That's why I think he's on the list suggesting he could be the next one fired. Yeah, I don't know. I, I have. I don't know what the organization thinks of Omar Lopez as a potential manager for this team. He obviously did a great job in the World Baseball Classic. But this is, that's one of the things I said would happen when Omar Lopez and Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic. I said, if they get off to a slow start, the Omar Lopez people are going to be coming out of the woodwork saying, promote that guy.

[Seth Payne]

I think Omar Lopez, he owes it to us fans to start, like, conspicuous. Conspicuously wearing his World Baseball Classic ring. Oh, plain view. Like standing next to a spot in the dugout. But like stroking his chin. Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Patting a spot on the head with his ring showing there and just bring

[Seth Payne]

it up unprompted at various times. All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pain and pender gast with you on a, on a Monday. All right. Chris Kennedi is the president of the Houston 2026 World cup host Committee. Joined us a couple weeks ago before the World Cup. Now that we're heading into the knockout round, which we get the, we get the first game today here in Houston between Japan and Brazil, thought it'd be a good idea to bring Chris on, just to say, hey, it looks like we're doing great as a host city. Everything that we're seeing out there, there, how are we doing? How what, what have been the biggest surprises so far behind the scenes, things like that. And also just get Chris's thoughts on where this tournament's going. The United States plays on Wednesday. This week we'll talk to former Dynamo president, current president of the World cup host committee, Chris Canetti, coming up next. All right, Pain and Pendergast with you. Sean Pendergast, Seth Payne, we go to the Texas Mattress Makers hotline right now. World cup we got our first knockout round game for Houston today. Of course, the knockout round began yesterday with Canada beating South Africa. Canada moves on to play here in a few more days. Joining us to talk about that and just kind of where we're at with the World cup as a host city within what's been a great event, Chris Kinetti, the president of the Houston 2026 World cup host Committee, Joining us here on the show. Chris, great to talk to you. How you doing, man?

[Chris Canetti]

Good morning, Sean, how are you?

[Sean Pendergast]

We're doing great. We're doing great. So I guess give us kind of this sort of the state of the union. We talked to you a couple of weeks ago before the tournament had started. We've had a fan fest every day that's had its fair share of weather issues, and we're still pulling this thing off here. And we obviously, we've had five games so far at. At Houston Stadium. Where are we at? How are we doing so far as a host city in this thing, do you think? And what's been the biggest thing that you think we pulled off in getting this event going here in Houston?

[Chris Canetti]

Well, we're doing great. We are on day 19 out of 39 days, so we are about halfway through. Still have a long way to go, but everything's going tremendous. We've had over 700,000 people so far attend the various events around Houston, from the matches to the fan festivals, and it's been safe, it's been fun, and everything's working according to plan.

[Seth Payne]

Is this as far as the World cup in general goes, like, across all of North America? With the sheer number of teams and the size of the tournament this year, is this about, like, exactly what you guys hoped it would be? You know, just from soccer's perspective in the reception worldwide?

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah, I think it's been great, Seth. I think it's been beyond expectations, to be honest. Everybody knew the World cup was going to be big and monumental and so many ways, but it's. I think it's exceeded those expectations. You see all the different people from all over the world that have come to the United States and had such a good time and have enjoyed the tournament. And, you know, again, we're only halfway through. I think it continues to build momentum and it's only going to get stronger as we get into these really big matches coming up.

[Sean Pendergast]

Have you had a favorite moment so far, Chris, in experiencing these first 19 days? And how much do you actually get to experience with everything you've got going on with this?

[Chris Canetti]

I've had a bunch of favorite moments. One of them was, was with you the other night on Friday night when we saw Cape Verde advance, I thought it was awesome. When the match ended 00, and they had to go over to the sidelines and huddle as a team and watch the other game on their phone to see if they won or not. And then they. When the final whistle blew in that other match, they were able to celebrate. So that was one of the cool ones. You know, I think the march to the match with the, with the Netherlands back on June 20th with about 25,000 people marching through the streets of Houston may be the highlight. That's going to be tough to top, but we might repeat that, of course, if the Netherlands can beat Morocco tonight. But lots of different things. Some of the big moments like that have been awesome, but there's lots of small moments as well where you see just so many people, whether it's at the matches or the fan fest or the fan walks, having a great time and creating awesome lifelong experiences.

[Seth Payne]

What are we looking for Wednesday night when the USA takes on Bosnia and Herzegovina? Like, what are, what are my big. What are the big things I hope, I need to hope that the USA can do versus Bosnia?

[Chris Canetti]

Well, look, I think first of all, they need to win. Anything short of that would be an absolute disaster for the US They've struggled to play teams from Europe. I think they're a very long streak of not winning against teams from Europe in the World cup and in general, so they need to break that trend. I think what you're going to want is to see the US Come out early and score early and get a lead and get comfortable, because sometimes in these matches, when the favorites don't get ahead, the pressure tightens and it becomes more difficult to score. And then, of course, anything can happen in those moments, a bad goal or a handball or a red card can go against you. So, so expect the US to get out early like they did in the first couple matches, and, you know, put a gap between them and the opponent and hopefully cruise to victory. That would be the best script for

[Sean Pendergast]

the U.S. chris, you've been around soccer for a long time. Obviously, you former president of the Dynamo here in Houston and now obviously a huge part of getting the World cup here to Houston. If the U.S. this feels like its best chance in a while to make some noise in the knockout rounds here, what, what is the upside here? Do you, do you think with the US in this tournament, in the knockout round, what it can do for soccer here in the United States? Because we've been talking forever about soccer elevating here in the United States. Like, what, what is the, what is the ceiling for what you think, not just this US Team, but what it can do for the sport of soccer here from a spectator standpoint?

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah, I think it's important that the US Goes on a deep run in the World cup here to help continue to grow the sport in this country now, they have a tough bracket. They're going to have to play Belgium if they get by tomorrow. But anytime the US does well in these tournaments, whether it's on the men's or even the women's side, it brings a lot of attention to the sport that it doesn't otherwise get, and that's what it needs to really help grow. But, you know, the World cup was last year in 1994, and it really helped launch the sport in this country. The sport has now grown significantly in the last 32 years. So having the World cup back here now and having it so big is going to only push it to higher levels. So we're on the right track.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I guess. Is that something you can almost document, do you think, pretty, like the amount of high school participation in soccer or especially youth soccer? Do you just expect a huge. A huge bump next year based on. I remember that back in the 90s, it was. It felt like it was kind of. It puts soccer as a scholastic sport kind of over the top in a lot of ways. And I felt like. And you've seen the participation rates have just been crazy over the last 30 years. Was there a really big bump initially in those first couple years after the World Cup 30 years ago?

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah, there was a huge bump back then. You know, right now, though, we have the participation numbers that are through the roof in the sport. At the youth level. We even have a lot of good. Even the mls, by the way, is one of the most attended leagues around the world. So there are a lot of good figures and facts that show the game is healthy in this country. It's just a matter of it being able to break through and kind of get itself on the same level of, let's call it baseball, basketball, or football from a relevance perspective. But the numbers are there, the fandom is there. It's just all kind of taking shape here, you know, sort of decade after decade.

[Sean Pendergast]

Chris Canetti is the president of the host committee for the 2026 World cup here in Houston. He's joining us on Sports Radio 610. Has there been any surprises for you, Chris, along the way, you know, good or bad, in hosting the World cup here in Houston?

[Chris Canetti]

You know, I think the surprise is that it's. It's even a lot bigger than anybody could anticipate. Everybody knows that soccer is the world's game, and the World cup is the most significant sporting event. But now that it's here and things are happening, it's actually even bigger than expected. So that would be the surprise. But there's been nothing on the negative side. Everything's gone really, really well. And again, hopefully it can continue here with about three weeks left to go.

[Seth Payne]

You know, it's, you see so much on social media where it's been a weird space in the last few weeks on social media where all of a sudden there's a lot of positivity and I have a lot of people coming to America and saying, oh my gosh, actually these, these human beings are actually just like other human beings and we enjoy America and everything. Have you ever, if you had any like actual in person exchanges with people that are telling you like, oh, you know what? I, I frankly didn't understand. I didn't think I was going to have like this kind of an experience.

[Chris Canetti]

That has been awesome to see. You're right, Seth. And we have had plenty of those types of interactions. They mainly happen out the of the fan fest where you see these fans from all over the world coming out and that's where you get to have these one on one interactions. And to your point, yeah, they are, they're loving the United States and in fact they're even loving Houston as well. And you know, I think that was one of the goals of us hosting the World cup in Houston was to introduce the city to lots of people around the world and that we've been able to do that and see a lot of really, really good feedback from everybody.

[Sean Pendergast]

Did you get to meet Freddie when he was in Houston?

[Chris Canetti]

I did not get to meet Freddie. Of course, everybody knows knows Freddie. How about you?

[Sean Pendergast]

Did you get. No, no. I don't even know what he looks like. I just found out he's a wrestling fan though yesterday. Chris. He's one of my people.

[Seth Payne]

I'm starting, I'm starting to side with the conspiracy theorists who think he's a CIA plant just for, just for the hell.

[Sean Pendergast]

Just more fun. Yeah, yeah. Chris Can Eddy joining us here on Sports Radio 610. All right, Chris, so you mentioned there's 20 days left in this thing. You, you've been working hard the last several years to, to, to get this event going and, and make sure that everybody has the great time that they're having. What are you going to do when this, when the final whistle blows on the last match? What's the very first thing you're going to do?

[Chris Canetti]

Oh goodness. Well, keep in mind when the, on the last match of the final, probably, you know, take some time off and relax. We do, we do have some work to do. It's Going to take a, a good six, eight months probably to close out the event. There's going to be financial reporting and just overall general reporting and speaking engagements and all that good stuff. Lots of parties to say thank you to a lot of people. So we'll keep working right through the year, but definitely take a little bit of rest right after the final here from New York on July 19th.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Does it? I mean, the last match here in Houston is July 4th, but I would imagine nothing really tamps down for you and, and your peers until this thing. Well, like you said, several months out. But like just because, just because the last match is here on July 4th, there's still a lot that, that's going on with this World cup, obviously.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah. So we'll, we'll play our last match on Saturday. Two more to go today and Saturday, but then we will have two more full weeks of fan festival going on. So we'll kind of close up shop here on the, on the 19th as well when the final is played in New York City. City.

[Sean Pendergast]

Is fwc26houston.com still the place to direct everybody for everything going on with Fan Fest and the other events going on around the city?

[Chris Canetti]

That's the place. Yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. FWC26houston.com and you may get another. You told me the other night, Chris, that that walk, that Netherlands walk is in. That's in the pantheon for you as a sports fan.

[Chris Canetti]

Yeah, I've done everything. Super Bowls, Final Fours, World Series, Subway Series, Stanley Cup Finals and you know, that was right up there at the top. And again, Morocco plays the Netherlands tonight at 8 o' clock and the winner of that comes to Houston. And I probably shouldn't say this publicly, but I'm hoping that the Netherlands comes back so that we can redo that walk. It was a two mile march from Rice University down to the stadium. We estimate 25,000 people were in it. We actually think there might have been more. We're trying to use some real time, real technology to track that. But we would love to repeat that this Saturday on July 4th with the Netherlands.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, you answered my question. I'm like, are you allowed to have a rooting interest in this game tonight based on a second orange walk or it sounds like, sounds like I know where your heart is. We'll just put it that way.

[Chris Canetti]

You got it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, exactly.

[Seth Payne]

Exactly.

[Sean Pendergast]

Chris Can Eddy, president of the 2026 host committee here for the World cup in Houston. Hey, Chris, really enjoyed seeing you at the game on Friday. That was, was a phenomenal moment getting to watch Cape Verde move on to the next round. Congrats on all the success of this event so far. And I know the second half of this thing here in Houston is going to be just as amazing. We appreciate you.

[Chris Canetti]

Well, I'm glad you and Amy were able to make it out to the match and have a good time. I saw all the friends you made from Cape Verity on social media, so that's. That's awesome.

[Sean Pendergast]

I got a lot of new friends, man. It was. It was a really good time. Thank you very much. Chris Canetti joining us. Chris, we'll talk to you soon, man.

[Chris Canetti]

Thanks.

[Seth Payne]

Thanks.

[Chris Canetti]

All right, guys. Thank you. We'll see you.

[Sean Pendergast]

We'll see you.

[Seth Payne]

Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

Chris Canetti, host or president of the host committee, joining us on the Texas Mattress Makers hotline here. So there you go. Say he gave you your thumbnail sketch on that US Game on Wednesday night.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Amped. All right. Painting pender gas with you here on a. On a Monday. Final segment coming up. We'll find out what the guy's got going on on in the Loop. An ESPN analyst tried to compliment the Texans defense but offended Seth C. Pain in the process. We will let you hear that. Coming up next, Tyler redick here from 2311 Racing. And Bubba Wallace. You know what's the worst part of a race? A rain delay. Sitting around waiting for the track to dry is dull. But instead of waiting, we hang out with Chumba Casino Social.

[Seth Payne]

Casino, slots, bingo, solitaire.

[Sean Pendergast]

Plenty of fun to keep us entertained. So why let a rain delay slow you down? Play [e-mail] let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.

[Benjamin Solak]

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[Susie Welch]

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[Sean Pendergast]

We're prohibited by law 21+, terms and conditions apply.

[Susie Welch]

Okay, I have a business question for you. Where did you get your domain on wix? It was really easy. Was it actually easy or are you exaggerating? No, really. It took like 90 seconds. I even built a full website. What do you mean? I just used wix. Harmony just told it what I wanted and it built a fully functional website for me in minutes. It also comes with hosting, security, privacy protection, everything.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, cool.

[Susie Welch]

Yeah. Check it [e-mail] domains okay, I have a business question for you. Where did you get your domain on wix? It was really easy. Was it actually easy or are you exaggerating? No, really. It took like 90 seconds. I even built a full website. What do you mean? I just used wix? Harmony just told it what I wanted and it built a fully functional website for me in minutes. It also comes with hosting security, privacy protection, everything.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, cool.

[Susie Welch]

Yeah. Check it [e-mail] domains Understanding power requires more than headlines.

[Seth Payne]

I'm Peter Hamby, host of the Powers

[Sean Pendergast]

that Be, a podcast from POC examining politics, economics and media. To provide context, analysis and clarity without sensationalism, we ask how power operates, who benefits, and what's at stake. If you want to move beyond breaking news to deeper understanding, join us on

[Seth Payne]

the Powers that Be new episodes every weekday. Follow the Powers that Be wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sean Pendergast]

I painted Pendergast with you on a, on a Monday. Good to be with you. Big thanks to Chris Canetti for joining us on the show. Game at noon today between Brazil and Japan and apparently I was just talking to the guys on in the Loop. Brazil, Brazilian and Japanese fans have taken over the fan fest in the area around the stadium and everything else. So it should be, should be a good environment.

[Seth Payne]

These have all been huge. So even like the, even the Cabo Verde versus Saudi Arabia, you would think like, oh boy, that's a. What could the environment possibly be like? Oh, there you go.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was amazing. Well, yeah, nobody knew going into the tournament that that game would actually mean something. Something. And it was, it was crazy. It was, it was a whole lot of fun. So let's circle back to the the Texans. An ESPN analyst by the name of Ben Solak tried to compliment the Texans defense and he offended Seth in the process.

[Seth Payne]

So yeah, we'll go ahead and play it. Yeah, he loves, yeah, he loves like he loves the Texans defense but he, he objects to them trying to claim they're not as simple as they are.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Benjamin Solak]

I love talking to the Texans about their defense and about the Texans defense because they always bristle whenever people say it's simple. No, it's not simple. So you're very complex defense. No, it's not. And they know it's not and like it's their job to say that. And oh, we have checks like we have calls to formations. Yeah, everybody does. You absolutely play a simple defense because everybody, your team is fast as heck and it allows them to play fast attack and hit people. And there is something that is not just beautiful about that but is also like true to the nature of football about that. Right. No more of these guys who look like me solving problems on the chalkboard down decision making models. No, we're just gonna put Kamari Lassner next to Derek Stingley and just again, I was watching Jalen Petrie in the nickel just lighting dudes Up. And I was like, yeah, I know one of this defense works. Like, this guy is on the field.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, all right, this is, this is where I got annoyed. Is it like, no, I do. Like they do. They are relatively simple compared to a lot of other defenses. And like, the coaches are always going to bristle a little bit when you act like, oh, you guys are just a bunch of meatheads running around out there. This is what I don't like about it.

[Susie Welch]

It.

[Seth Payne]

And this is where, like, even as he's kind of making fun of himself as. Because he's kind of a nerdy looking guy, you know, like the whiteboard warriors and what have you, he says the defense works because everybody's so fast. All right, do you know, like, how much coaching and work goes into being able to play that simple and to be able to be so on point with your reads and with your responsibilities that it's not just like, oh, they've got a bunch of fast guys. Oh, oh, do they? Oh, do they? I. Because as. Because last I checked, the only guy in that secondary who's a slam dunk physically gifted. Oh, yeah, look at that freak of nature they got drafted really high was Derek Stingley.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

You got a bunch of second, third rounders after him. Jaylen Petrie got benched his first year in this defense. It's not a matter of just being fast. Like, this is where I get. I get offended on behalf of Dino Vasso and Matt Burke and, and, and d' Amico Ryan's because I do think that amongst the nerdy type who love the X's and O's and everything, they really do think like, well, if you're not, if you're not scheming elaborate schemes and you must not even be coaching. You just put fast guys out there and let them play football.

[Sean Pendergast]

We need a new label for that. Because you know how they. You know how the flip side of that is when you have a coach who's got an elaborate system and you have a player who maybe doesn't have great traits but succeeds in that system, they say the guy's a system quarterback.

[Seth Payne]

Right, Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

System this or system that. I think we need to label d' Ameco Ryan's and Matt Burke, they're just traits coaches. They're just traits coaches. He's got a bunch of guys with traits. That's all. Just a bunch of fast guys.

[Seth Payne]

And he does like and he does. He is very positive on the Texans and he likes them all. But I do I. There's still A disconnect there with some of the whiteboard type dudes and like understanding exactly how football is coached and how you play it on the field that no, you know what? Jalen Petrie has always been very athletic and always been very capable, capable of making plays. His first year in the system, he got benched because he wasn't playing the system the way d' Amico wanted him to. Like, so it's, there's way more to it than just, hey, we're play simple and let guys go out and make plays. There's a whole lot of coaching that goes into it. One thing that he was very positive about with the Texans offseason approach was them addressing the defensive tackle position.

[Benjamin Solak]

When Houston has their bad games defensively, it's often because opposing teams are able to just kind of really stay ahead of the six in the running game game and just kind of run the ball down the middle that they did well with that last year. And I and the McDonald pick, I was live on the draft on day two and they traded up and I was like, who the text me go for? I was like unequivocally McDonald. Right. It's exactly the sort of problem solver that needed that spot.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

So the, the big thing about that is that the, the Texans by and large, down, by down like they're, they were way better stopping the run than people felt like they were last year. But there were certain critical situations and moments where d', Amico, I mean, he said as much after the draft that sometimes you just want some bigger bodies in there. The one that nobody wants to harp on and you shouldn't harp on it. But it's true. If the Texans were going to somehow miraculously pull off a victory in the fourth quarter of that Patriots game, they would have had to stop the Patriots rushing attacks and like give the offense another crack at it somehow. So it wasn't like, I'm not blaming the defense for losing that game or anything, but I know as self critical as d' Ameco is that he's watching the Patriots just run at will on the Texans defense at the end of that game. And that's one of those moments where, all right, like, however we got to win this game, we need to, we need to be able to stop the run in a situation.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was probably angrier about that than he was. C.J. four interceptions.

[Seth Payne]

He was, yeah, he probably like when somebody was asking him, somebody was asking him about like benching CJ after the first half, he was probably thinking like, wow, should have bench. Should have benched half the defensive line after that, after that fourth quarter. What do you.

[Sean Pendergast]

All these guys. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So I think that that part of it is interesting that there, there are areas for the defense to improve, and both of those came up in the Patriots game. The. The big explosive plays where you're playing great down in and down out, but you let up a couple of explosives. And then the inability to stop the run in the fourth quarter, which. And again, I cannot emphasize enough. I'm not blaming the Texans defense for that loss.

[Sean Pendergast]

For that loss. No.

[Seth Payne]

But knowing the way that d' Ameco operates, that probably ate at him for two months.

[Sean Pendergast]

He still reportedly kind of poked fun at his team or was upset with his team that they finished by 2/10 of a point in second place in scoring in scoring defense because they wandered

[Seth Payne]

it though those very issues in the 17th game.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

In the. In the final game.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. All right, here's more soul act. Let's flip over to the offensive side of the ball. How did Nick Kaylee do in making adjustments this season?

[Benjamin Solak]

The way Kaylee talks about everything, the. The stuff that he's tried to do on the field, the way that they were, you know, actively solving problems as the year went on last season. Like, okay, we got to be a jumbo team now because we like, like no tight ends, you know. Okay. So it turns out Joe Mixon's foot, like, here anymore. Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, we're going to be a Woody

[Benjamin Solak]

Marks team now, you know, and this is what we're gonna have to look like in the running game to make that work. Like, I'm impressed by the way he speaks about the offense and the way he solved problems live again. Is he, you know, capital tg, that guy. We'll find out. Year two.

[Sean Pendergast]

It just makes me think of that kaylee cut from OTAs or whenever the coordinators met with the media, and he talked about having to go to Jumbo.

[Seth Payne]

Living in the jumbo world.

[Sean Pendergast]

Living in the jumbo world. Like, he was having to, like, you know, wear some silly outfit or something like that for the rest of the year.

[Seth Payne]

That's how down bad the Texans fan base was, though, that people were deluding themselves into thinking that the jumbo package was impressive. It wasn't. It was just less atrocious than. They still couldn't run the ball the way they wanted to run the ball. They still couldn't pass protect with six offensive linemen the way they really wanted to pass protection. But it was less worse than the alternative. And I do Think it was. I think that's the first time I've heard from a national analyst who watches a lot of film, like, actually give praise to Nick Caylee for some things that. Yes. If we'd gone back in August and said, hey, your second and third tight ends are going to be on IR to begin the season, or, you know, right after you begin the season, that Joe Mixon's never coming back this season, that you're going to have all these issues. I think Kaylee. Kaylee did do a good job of addressing all of that. It's just obviously, and I think Kaylee would be first to tell you it's. It's still nothing. That he hopes that's not the best thing on his resume as an offensive coordinator. You know, he obviously. He hopes if he. If he could be a coordinator for 10 years. He hopes. He's not saying, you know, we muddled our way into being a mediocre offense in 2025.

[Sean Pendergast]

You remember that Texans offense in 2025? That's what he's telling people, like, 20 years from now. Like, no, you were 19th or whatever it was. Yeah. Last one from Benjamin Solak. This is him with Garrett from Houston Stress at Texas. Commenter.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And tell. And Garrett Williams YouTube channel has the whole interview. It's really good. But this is basically saying that, look like there are no illusions about this. The run game is the most. Most vital and important thing the Texans need to be concerned with.

[Benjamin Solak]

It is as big and obvious and glaring as any offseason agenda for any team. The Texans got Dave Montgomery got three new potential starters on the. On the offensive line, all of whom might be able to play in the interior. They need to be able to run the football between the.

[Sean Pendergast]

Marlon Klein, like you mentioned, a blocking tight end.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah, exactly.

[Seth Payne]

And Foster Moreau.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah. And so. So it is. It is as apparent a need as anybody else. And. And they know internally and externally, like. Like, if they can't figure this out, it's gonna be the exact same thing next year where they're trying to be a defense. First team that cannot sit on the ball in the second half. They cannot sit at least in second. I can't eat the clockwise. They can't run the ball, which is just like an unacceptable way to be. They know it's the issue. They gotta solve it.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Oh, I didn't finish that one the way I wanted to. There was one good little. I cut it off too quick. There's a part where he. He basically says, like, you know, are they gonna be able to do that. And then he paused for like five seconds and he said, Talk to me August 31st. I mean it's like that's, that's the million dollar question is they spent an entire off season addressing one specific thing on offense which is other than, you know, the Louis Bond draft pick or what have you. Yeah, by and large premium capital, everything from the tight ends to inside.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That was all about being able to run the football better. Physicality and like that's if, if they can't do it then, then it was an abject failure. If they just, if they spent all of the resources in the offseason trying to run the football better and they can't, then yeah, that's going to be a mess.

[Sean Pendergast]

Text message Listening behind on the Odyssey app Bucky Brooks and people like him that support CJ say he has won three playoff games in the last three years and he's a proven quarterback. Actually the defense won those games and Stroud happened to be on the team. He is not top 10. He's an average quarterback and should not be paid top five money. I, I would the only thing I push back on is that the first two wins, the Brown certainly the Browns win in his rookie year and then the Chargers win once they got the offense going after that sort of playground play where the ball got snapped through his hands and he threw it to Xavier Hutchinson.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

C.J. was good in both of those games. He was not good in the other win over Pittsburgh. He fumbled the ball five times. So I, I get your point. Texter. I would push back a little on hey, the defense is just carrying him along.

[Seth Payne]

I would push back a little bit every now and then when people bring up his playoff wins by pointing out that Mark Sanchez had four playoff wins.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

In his first three seasons or two seasons.

[Sean Pendergast]

Two.

[Seth Payne]

Said like two seasons.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

In his first two seasons.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. They got to the AFC title game both those years.

[Seth Payne]

Let's just stop trying to use use QB wins as an argument ender.

[Susie Welch]

Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pain and pender gas with you. You're listening to KLT AM, KLT FM HD 2 Houston and Odyssey Sports Station. Crosstalk brought to you by DNM Auto Leasing. Reggie Atatula, John Lopez. Gentlemen, how we doing?

[Seth Payne]

What's up?

[Sean Pendergast]

Fantastic.

[Seth Payne]

How are you?

[Sean Pendergast]

So I am sitting. Reggie and I are sitting in a studio with World cup pool greatness right now. You and Seth Payne. How about that? Yeah. All four teams made it to the have made it through. You guys have in your groups.

[Seth Payne]

Yes. Yeah, take that. And I'M leading in the points by a pretty fair mark. Yeah, you are leading.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Is there any way I could possibly lose?

[Sean Pendergast]

I mean if your teams get knocked out pretty quickly here in the. Here in the knockout rounds, then you know, if other, other people keep scoring points when you're no longer scoring points.

[Seth Payne]

Absolutely.

[Benjamin Solak]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

We all know that that's probably not likely.

[Chris Canetti]

Sure.

[Sean Pendergast]

We actually, we actually do. Yeah. This is how you put this, how you put your team together.

[Seth Payne]

This is how I start a website this afternoon and start giving gambling advice just for, you know, 9.99aminute on my

[Sean Pendergast]

one night use a bunch of cliches like Seth's like my teams were built for this. You know, like yes, they built for this. Yeah. But congratulations to both of you. It was nothing really. Yeah, no, I know the organizer, one of the organizers of the pool is four teams all make it through it. Worth remembering though as we need to humble John Lopez that one of his teams has already left the building as they lost to Canada yesterday. Oh, okay. Okay. Gotcha. Other than that, great weekend. Yeah.

[Benjamin Solak]

Oh yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Fantastic weekend. Restorative weekend, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No it was a. It was a whole lot of fun. So what is the. What is the question of the day? You could probably argue this is going to be one of the wildest scenes Houston has ever seen. Brazil and Japan and they're.

[Susie Welch]

Did you see that?

[Seth Payne]

What they're.

[Sean Pendergast]

The walk they're doing. No, no, no, tell me about it. Everybody's got a walk. I heard you guys mentioning that. That it's crazy out there already. Well, you might be familiar with streets called Fan and Old Spanish Trail and Greenbrier. Yeah, they're all near the stadium.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

They're shut down. Oh. Because because of fans. Japanese and, and Brazilian fans are. Why it's going to be nuts. Are they fighting over those streets? I don't know how they have they each picked their own trail. Yeah. To I need to catch up on.

[Seth Payne]

On this.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, it'd be insane if they all like kind of cross paths. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Greenbrier is never an annoying and confusing. This is going to be incredible.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, how about that one intersection like it where they got the, you know the three way thing going right near. Right near Papa's Barbecue.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Chris Canetti]

There.

[Sean Pendergast]

So anyway, what's the wild. Oh look, I'm looking at some right now. Oh my goodness. Those Brazilian fans have brought Carnival to Houston. Oh good. Why am I here right now?

[Seth Payne]

You know what the one thing these worlds world citizens have done in Houston where they've kind of dashed some of our long held beliefs. Against the rocks is one, oh, wow, they need a new stadium at NRG or replenish. People won't shut up about how awesome that stadium is. And two, we're not a walkable city. Like, all right, listen, listen. I see a whole lot of walking going on out there. Let's. Let's admit it. We're just. We're too fat and lazy to be walking in this heat. That's why it's not a walk.

[Sean Pendergast]

When you walk in the middle of the street, you can walk in anywhere. I also think if all of your dealings happen to be within loop, it's a lot more walkable than when you have to, like, live in the fullness of Houston that exists.

[Seth Payne]

I rode my bike. Listen, I rode my bike to work for a period of about 18 months, and I only got hit three times.

[Chris Canetti]

There you go.

[Seth Payne]

There you go. I. I defy. And that is literally correct. But anyway, we drew blood twice.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, my God. I think it's like, also worth noting that FIFA has kind of changed the way that a lot of these stadiums work where, like the entrances, they have further out in order to, like. So I think that the ingress and egress becomes just a little bit easier because they've set the perimeters wider. Yeah, maybe, maybe. But anyway, what's the wildest scene you've ever been a part of? Okay. Because this is.

[Seth Payne]

This is like, I'm looking at some

[Sean Pendergast]

videos right now, and they're like, those are some pretty major street. Heaven forbid you, you know, you have to go to the doctor. Yeah. You have an appointment, you know, or something like that.

[Seth Payne]

Say, you know what? I know a lot of people have heard of this, and I know this is the first thing that jumped in mind. It's not like wild out of control or anything, but Savannah, Georgia's St. Patrick's Day is just one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. Like a massive thing like that. Like, people love going to St. Patrick's Day there. And there was a. The hotel that night. Like, this was before everybody had cameras on their phone. It was like. It was like Mardi Gras, but at the hotel. It was like an L shaped hotel. And people were just jumping out of their. Out of their windows into the pool. Like, you know, people were doing things for beads and everything. It like an otherwise normal, just run of the mill hotel in this small city. It was, that was. That was a crazy experience.

[Sean Pendergast]

My cliched sports ones are things like when you Were at Catholics versus Congress. Yeah, that was, that was a wild scene two hours after.

[Seth Payne]

Supposed to be a sports thing, so.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I have one that's not going to be a sports thing. But, but I, but sports one. And then later that year when the national championship game. That was crazy. I almost lost a leg rushing the field because I was rushing the field and I happened to line up directly with like, there's a chain link fence that's about chest high. And the left half of my body was going inside, like the opening there, like the gate. And the right half of my body was pressed up against the chain link fence. Yeah. And it's just, just a mob, like shoving forward. And thankfully the fence just caved in.

[Susie Welch]

Wow.

[Sean Pendergast]

I might not have any stones downstairs. It was that bad. But probably one of the wildest scenes. So in Vegas one year, I, I, there's a fantasy baseball league that I was in that had a bunch of guys from all over the country and we would meet at a different place every year to do our draft. That was a big deal. This is probably in the early 2000s. Cousins. And we went to Vegas one year and not, not everybody in the league could afford to stay at the Bellagio or, you know, whatever, the really nice places. So it's fine because we spent very little time at the hotel. So we stayed at, I want to say Imperial Palace. Is that one of them? That was one. I think that's the one where they film swingers at just like a janky ass. Like, like if by Vegas standards a fleabag motel. Yeah, the inside of it, like they had a pool in the middle of like the courtyard down there. And it was all four, like the building like surrounded the pool and all these balconies look down onto the pool. Well, an inexpensive hotel like that, as you can imagine, was basically us and a bunch of 18 year olds for spring break. This was the wildest. Everybody's partying on every single balcony. The pool was crazy. And I just sat back and watched.

[Seth Payne]

Man.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm like, God, if it were 12 years ago, right down there.

[Chris Canetti]

Exactly.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was a while. I'll never forget staying at that hotel. And just like 24 hours, people on their balconies just partying, partying, partying. Yeah, that was wild. The non sports one for me, it was like something out of fear and loathing when I went to a private party that Charlie Sheen had after, after a playoff. That's a flex game. Yeah, it was.

[Seth Payne]

Was that before or after he had gone off the Rails.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was in the midst of going off the rails. The rails that night. Those were the rails. Where was this?

[Seth Payne]

La.

[Sean Pendergast]

In la.

[Chris Canetti]

La.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was a Pistons and Lakers playoff. Oh, like the final. Yeah, yeah, the Finals. And I got invited to that party.

[Seth Payne]

Who invite?

[Sean Pendergast]

Did he directly invite you?

[Seth Payne]

Frank Broski.

[Benjamin Solak]

Who was Charlie. One of Charlie.

[Sean Pendergast]

Shane's best friends. Okay.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, but that was. But that was long before he, like, really, really just lost it. That was when he was, like a celebrity. But, like, probably he was more under control.

[Sean Pendergast]

Evidence to the contrary. Yeah, the party. I got you. I got you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That was a while.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. That was probably, like, right around Major League. It was actually platoon time. Platoon. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

[Seth Payne]

Platoon.

[Sean Pendergast]

Let me see. I think that was what he was working on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a major league, I think was 1989. So it's. Oh, that's pretty good. No, no, platoon was 86. Yeah, I thought Platoon was. He was a little younger in Platoon.

[Seth Payne]

He was. There's a funny story of him floating around where he talked about when he was training for Major League and, like, you know, he wanted to be able to throw a football somewhat or a baseball somewhat credibly. And he was only at. He was at like 70, high 70s or something. I can't remember. But he was like. So my trainer gave me steroids and I was like, yeah, it works. I can't, like 10 miles an hour in a month. It was like. Yeah, it was a whole deal.

[Chris Canetti]

You're right.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was Major League 1988. That's what I thought. I knew. Well, I knew. Yeah, I knew that was a year Major league was made. So. Yeah, that's. Oh, that's fun. It was wild, man. Yeah. How were the. How were the ladies at the party? Topless, most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Were they for. Were they. Were they hired help or were they. I think a com. Char. I think a combination. Yeah, probably some of them. Probably a little bit of everything.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that was back when. When he was younger and everything before, like, he. I'm sure that was. The thought of paying for it was probably ridiculous because he would have had, you know.

[Susie Welch]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Because then he became quite the connoisseur. I. I saw an interview he did recently. It might have been with Logan Paul. I can't remember, but I saw an interview he did recently where he said at one point his dealer cut him off because he was providing so much coke to him that he thought Charlie was distributing.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, wow.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Like, he's like, no, I was using that much coke.

[Seth Payne]

He's gonna get in trouble with his own guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just thought he was a liar, you know. So it was pretty funny. All right, boys. Well, have a great show. Thanks, buddy. You got it. You're listening to. I did that already. The fcc. You're not getting two of these out of me. DNM Leasing will crosstalk Brought to you by DNM DNM Leasing. Seth. Antibodies to you, my friend.

[Seth Payne]

Antibodies to you. And Charlie Sheen, over the course of six weeks, increased his velocity from 79 miles per hour to 85 miles. Just let them all use Windstraw.

[Sean Pendergast]

Imagine he was taking. Well, dude, that's scary because if we start giving it to the Miz, he's going to start throwing 110m. Yaroski is going to throw like a buck 15. It's going to be incredible. All right, we are done. We are out of time. Tyler redick here from 2311 Racing. And Bubba Wallace. You know what's the worst part of a race? A rain delay. Sitting around waiting for the track to dry is dull. But instead of of waiting, we hang out with Chumba Casino.

[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

is the How I Met yout Mother Rewatch podcast with me, Josh Radner and

[Sean Pendergast]

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[Susie Welch]

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