FULL SHOW - Wednesday, July 15th

Summary

Payne & Pendergast – FULL SHOW Summary

Episode Air Date: July 15, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne (former NFL player), Luke Morrow (in for Sean Pendergast)
Podcast: Payne & Pendergast (Audacy)
Theme: Houston Sports, Breaking News, and Unfiltered Takes

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Episode Overview

In this jam-packed Wednesday episode, Seth Payne and guest host Luke Morrow navigate through a dynamic four-hour show focused on Houston’s sports scene. The episode is marked by heartfelt tributes, sharp sports analysis, engaging banter, and breaking Houston Astros news. Topics include the passing of Janice McNair (Texans’ matriarch), the MLB All-Star Game, Astros’ roster moves, deep Texans talk—especially concerning CJ Stroud’s standing—and plenty of moments that blend humor, nostalgia, and insight. A major last-minute bombshell: the Astros are finalizing a trade to send Lance McCullers Jr. to the Brewers.

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Key Segments & Insights

1. Remembering Janice McNair (Houston Texans Matriarch)

[04:12–07:40 | 35:03–37:39]

• Both Seth and Luke reflect on the impact of Janice McNair, who passed away at age 89.
  • Seth shares that Janice was genuinely “tender-hearted,” cared deeply about the players and Houston community, and embodied a sense of civic obligation.
    • “Everything that everybody has said about her is 100% true…from my own personal experience.” – Seth Payne [04:12]
  • Both recall many tributes and note that not a bad word has been said about her, a rare thing for a sports owner.
  • Former Texan Justin Reed’s heartfelt comment played: “You kind of look at Ms. McNair fondly, as if she was your own, like, grandmother.” [35:53]
  • The McNair family’s humility and accessibility (Starbucks, Maggiano’s) are cited as rare among billionaire owners.
  • This is highlighted as a sad moment for the organization, and condolences are offered repeatedly.

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2. MLB All-Star Game & Astros Talk

[07:40–13:12]

• Recap of the All-Star Game: AL wins 4-0; Astros only sent Yordan Alvarez (who got a hit in his first at-bat, 1-for-2).
  • Astros have their fewest All-Stars in over a decade.
  • Seth laments that it’s a muted year for Houston baseball, only still in the playoff conversation due to a historically weak AL:
    • “It feels muted because it’s only because the AL is so weak…It’s a miserable state of affairs in the AL.” – Seth Payne [09:38]
• Booing of Yordan and Verlander: Minimal Phillies fan booing at intros—hosts joke it sounds more like a compliment than disrespect. Recap the famous Yordan World Series home run against Philly:
  • “That was one of the all-time great moments and calls in a World Series.” – Seth Payne [12:05]
• Classic banter about All-Star Game incentives/no incentives, booing, and fan rituals.

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3. Astros Future: Yordan Alvarez Extension Dilemma

[21:10–34:47]

• Will Yordan’s next contract force Houston to break their rules?
  • Yordan could become a free agent in two years at age 32. The Astros have rarely extended stars deep into their 30s, Altuve being the only real exception.
  • Both hosts debate: Would Houston give Yordan a mega-contract? Both agree the club is unlikely to do more than six years but might front-load and find middle ground, especially as Yordan seems genuinely content in Houston.
    • “I don’t think there’s a chance in hell he gets anything longer than a six-year contract.” – Seth Payne [25:48]
  • Discussion of why international stars (like Yordan) often take “team friendly” deals early—coming from poverty means the first big payday is life-changing.
  • Yordan characterized as “simple” and “even-keeled” per recent Chandler Rome profile. May take a hometown discount.
  • Astros' strategy is compared to “rookie contract QB” advantage in NFL.

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4. Deep Dive: Texans & C.J. Stroud’s NFL Standing

[45:08–55:12, 66:17–72:13, 139:19–147:56]

• CJ Stroud’s National Perception is FADING:
  • ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and the NFL Top 100 list show mounting league indifference toward Stroud. In position rankings, Stroud was 18th at best, with only one Top 10 vote:
    • “I would have rather heard people say, like, nope, he’s done…The fact that they’re just indifferent…that’s even more deflating.” – Seth Payne [53:21]
  • “Indifference” said to be worse than being labeled “bad” or “overrated.”
• Is It Fair? Impact of Playoff Performance:
  • National media, and even NFL insiders, seem to judge Stroud heavily on a poor playoff stretch, ignoring earlier strong play.
    • “He still did some really good things, even though the overall sum total of the performance wasn’t what you wanted.” – Seth Payne [158:58]
  • Hosts argue some criticisms stem from people NOT watching Texans regular season games.
• Stroud’s Next Contract — What Will it Take?
  • For an extension, Seth says Stroud must be “part of a consensus Top 10 offense,” and team success (deep playoff or Super Bowl run) is almost obligatory.
• Run Game is Key to Super Bowl Aspirations:
  • National voices (Jeremy Fowler, Nate Tice) agree that if the Texans can run the ball and have a top defense, even with an average offense, they could make the Super Bowl.
    • “If they can run the ball, they probably…win the Super Bowl. I think they have that kind of team.” – Jeremy Fowler [66:17]
  • Offensive line improvement is flagged as THE biggest “if.”

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5. Texans Offense “Death By Penalties” and Coaching Complexity

[73:33–80:45]

• Discussion about pre-snap and mental penalties stalling the Texans’ offense.
  • High penalty totals under DeMeco Ryans.
  • Complex, motion-heavy offenses are only as good as you can execute—Texans, last year, simply “couldn’t handle a whole bunch” in terms of playbook complexity.
• Teaching vs. discipline – success of motion/multiplicity is about being able to rep and teach it, not just design it.

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6. Rockets off-season: Stubborn Inaction?

[113:48–124:00]

• Frustrations aired about the Rockets’ lack of free agent moves AND the absence of an “offensive coordinator”-type on Ime Udoka’s staff.
  • Other teams (Warriors, Spurs) hire experienced offensive minds even when their head coaches are elite, but Houston has yet to make a similar move.
    • “It's like…even more frustrating to me than…lack of free agent signings.” – Luke Morrow [122:07]
  • Both agree “running it back” with mostly the same plan is risky, even with Marcus Smart now in the fold.
  • Highlight: Comparison to trying to “redo” a failed date or trip—never as good as you hope.

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7. Lighter Moments & Pop Culture

Throughout

• Consistent humor about fears (being buried alive, awkward “extra” acting), Halloween candy myths, and movie references (“The Drama,” “The Vanishing”).
• Segments on the “Netflixification” of sports events—hosts are skeptical of celebrity-driven, over-produced broadcasts that overshadow the sporting event itself.
• Silly lists: Most/least attractive hobbies for men, how women view sports obsessions, etc.
• Kevin Durant calls out Nick Wright and Colin Cowherd, KD’s online beefs are skewered.

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8. Major Breaking News! Astros Trading Lance McCullers Jr.

[175:35–end]

• As the show wraps, Chandler Rome and Brian McTaggart break the news that the Astros are finalizing a deal to send Lance McCullers Jr. to the Milwaukee Brewers.
  • Initial reactions are a mix of surprise and acceptance: 
    • “If he goes on…all of a sudden Lance goes out and stays healthy the entire second [half], I will not criticize the Astros…there’s no reason the Astros should expect that.” – Seth Payne [180:20]
  • Sidebars on McCullers’ persistent injuries, possible bullpen role in Milwaukee, and bittersweet end to his Astros tenure.
• Immediate crosstalk with “In The Loop” team to analyze the trade’s implications.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |--------------|----------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:12 | Seth Payne | “Everything that everybody has said about [Janice McNair] is 100% true…just a very tender-hearted lady…felt like she was a team mom.” | | 09:38 | Seth Payne | “It feels muted because it’s only because the AL is so weak…It’s a miserable state of affairs in the AL.” | | 25:48 | Seth Payne | “I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that [Yordan] gets anything longer than a six-year contract.” | | 53:21 | Seth Payne | “I would have rather heard people say, like, nope, he’s done...The fact that they’re just indifferent…is even more deflating.” | | 66:17 | Jeremy Fowler | “If they can run the ball, they probably, I mean, I think they’ll win the Super Bowl. I think they have that kind of team.” | | 158:58 | Seth Payne | “He still did some really good things, even though the overall sum total of the performance wasn’t what you wanted.” | | 180:20 | Seth Payne | “If he goes on and—Lance—stays healthy the entire second [half], I will not criticize the Astros…there’s no reason the Astros should expect that.” | | 35:53 | Justin Reed | “You kind of look at Ms. McNair fondly, as if she was your own, like, grandmother.” |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 04:12 – Remembering Janice McNair
• 07:40 – MLB All-Star Game Recap / Astros
• 21:10 – The Yordan Extension Dilemma
• 45:08 – Texans: Stroud’s National Standing, Contract Talk
• 73:33 – Texans O-line/Offensive Complexity & Penalties
• 113:48 – Rockets Offseason Frustrations
• 139:19 – NFL Top 100 & Stroud
• 175:35 – Breaking News: Lance McCullers Jr. Trade

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Tone and Chemistry

• Signature “sharp analysis, strong opinions, unfiltered takes”
• Genuine camaraderie, with Luke Morrow filling in smoothly for Sean (expecting him back Thursday)
• Fluid movement between heartfelt moments (McNair, Janice) and snarky, relatable humor
• Authentic local focus but always with a broader sports context—especially for Texans/Astros talk

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For Listeners Who Missed It

This episode is essential for:

• Getting honest, well-informed reactions to Houston sports’ biggest current events (Texans, All-Star Game, McNair’s legacy, the McCullers trade)
• Understanding why national NFL perceptions of CJ Stroud are shifting (and why Houston fans might feel “deflated”)
• Debating Texans’ and Astros’ future contract decisions for key stars (Yordan, Stroud)
• Enjoying signature banter, offbeat pop culture riffs, and Houston sports radio at its best

Advertisements, generic intros/outros, and secondary plugs have been omitted for focus on real content.

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Final Word

This July 15, 2026, episode of Payne & Pendergast delivers everything Houston fans expect—emotion, real talk, and fast-breaking Astros news, all with an unbeatable mix of humor and insight.

Transcript

[Luke Morrow]

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[Unknown Announcer]

No fees, no catch.

[Luke Morrow]

You focus on delivering the play by play and hot takes, and our experienced sales team goes to work bringing in ad dollars.

[Unknown Announcer]

Let's turn those downloads into revenue.

[Luke Morrow]

Apply now at creators.odyssey.com and start making money from your podcast.

[Seth Payne]

As a fan chosen for the halftime challenge, I love sports for a chance to win the big prize. But when my half court heaves only goes half the distance, how embarrassing for him, I wonder, is sport clips better than sports? Because sport clips haircuts is sports on TV plus an expert haircut, hot steam towel and massaging shampoo tear up his comically large check. Which is better than sports plus public embarrassment. Sport clips. It's a game changer. Check it [e-mail] every week on the

[Podcast Narrator]

Moth podcast, you'll hear true stories that

[Luke Morrow]

will intrigue you, inspire you, and make you laugh.

[Seth Payne]

He said, is there anything in your diet that might be spiking your blood sugar? I said, sometimes I eat pizza until I'm unconscious. He said, I think that might be it for real.

[Luke Morrow]

Stories live on stage from comedians, astronauts, accountants, farmers and people just like you follow and listen to the moth wherever you get your podcasts. Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.

[Seth Payne]

We coming to H time. Let's get the work in, man.

[In the Loop Host]

Let go. Great day.

[Seth Payne]

Great day. Oh, give me some juice, baby. Oh, yeah. Let's do it.

[Luke Morrow]

Yes, sir. Good morning, Houston. Happy Wednesday, Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. You could join us over the course of the next four hours. 713-572-4610 on the text line or YouTube and Twitch chats as well where you can watch along. Happy to be back in the saddle for Sean as he recovers Expected to be back tomorrow, but he just had

[Seth Payne]

a little bit of a hitch in his voice and we want to in an abundance of caution before the real work begins. We wanted to be sure that he got a little bit of a break. So I'm very happy to have you back, Luke. Between you and Chris Partee, you guys have been doing an admirable job filling in. So I appreciate it.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, appreciate the kind words. Always good to be here. You know, after the radio thon, Reggie and Ron were both off that following Monday and I made the comment, sort of tongue in cheek that it was a vocal maintenance day.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And somebody, I think they were joking around, but somebody gave flack on the text lineup. Did he just say vocal maintenance day? Well, I'll tell you what, sometimes it's needed. Sean needed a couple vocal maintenance days and then he'll be good to go.

[Seth Payne]

Sometimes you got to go down to the two day IL because you have vocal cord discomfort. Exactly. Which by the way, that was the. While you were gone. One thing that did happen was that when Mike Burroughs was sent down to the il, they gave the most specificity I can ever remember in an injury report in recent years because they said it was the elbow had something to do with the ulnar nerve or whatever. But they, they gave the actual term for it, which I said, you know, good for you Astros. This is way more transparency than we usually get.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, much appreciated. And a vocal cord injury, by the way, sounds like the type of injury if any team were to have somebody on. The Astros would somehow have a vocal cord injury.

[Seth Payne]

Oh yeah, they have vocal cord discomfort and he'd be on the, he'd be on the 10 Day I. But then all of a sudden you wouldn't see him again for the next three years.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, exactly. Sounds like the Astros.

[Seth Payne]

We'll hit this a couple times today, but I just want to be sure we touched on at the beginning of the show. Most of you listening know that Janice McNair passed away yesterday and we'll play some audio from former players and whatnot. But just from my own personal experience, everything that everybody has said about her is 100% true. At least in my experience is just, just, just, just a very tender hearted lady that from the very get go it felt like, it felt like she was a team mom, you know, like she, she cared about the players and she very much cared about the answer being given back to the city of Houston and Bob and Janice McNair both from the time I came onto the team in 2002 there was a very strong message to the players about how important it was for that team to give back to the community. And that that was really the driving force behind why the McNairs made a push to get a team in Houston. Bob and Janice felt like with the departure of the Oilers, they could feel that, that void in the Houston landscape. And you know, obviously it's a great business venture, but they also felt like it was something important to do and they, There was a, there was a sense of civic obligation there and it was just. It's nice that there's still people out there like that that genuinely care about their community. And I think the McNairs have continued that tradition for a long time. And a lot of it, you know, most of it started with Janice McNair.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, certainly just thankful. Even the next, you know, the new generation of fans, thankful that they made it happen and brought the Texans here. But, you know, I know obviously when someone passes away, usually, obviously everyone is always very kind and positive. I get that. But still, if someone's a jerk, people will be honest sometimes. Or at least on social media, right? People can be jerks and say terrible things. And I'll say, like, I have not seen a single bad thing mentioned about Janice McNair from on Reddit, on, you know, social media, from people talking. Just everyone seemed to, certainly she seemed to be beloved by people that knew her personally or fans on the outside. And so unfortunate news to get yesterday of her passing, especially with the anniversary season coming up.

[Seth Payne]

Well, you know, the first time I ever ran into the McNairs in nature, like outside of a football event or something, my, my wife and I and Chris Brown, the kicker and his wife. And I want to say it was Mark Bruno. Mark Bruner wasn't there yet, but we were at Maggiano's in The Galleria and Mr. And Mrs. McNair were there, just, you know, you know, as billionaires tend to do, just have a nice dinner at Maggiano's. Like it's not. Yeah. Like it's a nice place and everything, but it's not, you know, five star White day. It's. And I just went over to say hello to them and that was like my first. That was the first time I realized how down to earth they were and that, you know, if you look into how Bob McNair made his fortune, they. He's a self made man and they never had the heirs of anybody, you know, people who weren't anything other than just he was like any business person, you know, except that he happened to do fantastically well. But they were just really, really down to earth people. And I don't think that she ever lost lost touch with that part of just being a normal human being and operated just with a sense of obligation. So really just a, just a genuinely sweet and good and tender person. And yeah, I've never heard a single bad thing ever about Janice McNair.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, and it's something I said last week too, even about Cal, now that I told the story of a couple weeks back being at a Starbucks. He just pulled up in like a regular truck, came in, normal dress guy, grabbed his coffee like they just, the whole family has seemed to be just regular down to earth people despite, you know, the fortunes that they have in the NFL franchise and whatnot. So that's always cool to see. And certainly our condolences go out to the entire McNell McNair family and Texans organization after the sad news of Janice's passing yesterday. Well, as Seth mentioned, we'll, we'll continue to circle back to that throughout the morning. We have audio to get to, but let's make the awkward transition to the All Star Game last night for Major League Baseball where the American League got the win. 4 nothing, first shutout in 13 years. Jordan 1 for the lone Astros representative. You're an Astros fan, you watch Jordan get a hit in his first at bat. He goes 1 for 2, checks out of the game. And if you only cared about the Astros, you could have tuned out by like the fourth inning because that was it. Fewest All Stars for the Astros in over a decade. But Yordon got the, the base hit in the first inning. Al 1:4 to nothing. And so I find it funny for as bad as the American League is this year, historically bad, they still shut out the NL last night for nothing and have now won 11 out of 13 all star games. So I don't know, at least maybe at the top of the al, maybe it's not as bad as it seems.

[Seth Payne]

It's. I don't know. Yeah, the Players association would have you believe that. Look, ever, there's way more parity than people think there is. And like in any given year that there's a lot of teams that are lower payroll that are doing just fine, at least in the regular season. And yeah, maybe, maybe the, the parity from league to league, at least when it comes to just having individual players and everything that, that can swing at any point. I don't, I get stuck, man. I, I guess I'm I'm happy that we still can talk about the Astros as a playoff contender right this moment. Yet at the same time, I just.

[Unknown Commentator]

I.

[Seth Payne]

It. It feels muted because it's only because the AL is so weak and like, yes. Star players aside, and the performance of guys like Jordan and whatnot. It's just. It's a. It's a miserable state of affairs in the al. But good job on the All Star Game.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

What do we win. What do we win now because of the. What's the spoil now for winning the All Star Game?

[Luke Morrow]

Bragging rights for a year.

[Seth Payne]

Okay.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. That's it. No home field advantage. There's zero.

[Seth Payne]

There's zero.

[In the Loop Host]

Any.

[Seth Payne]

I knew the home field advantage wasn't there, but the zero. Anything.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

You don't, like, get a weighted coin toss or something if it comes down to a penalty kick?

[Luke Morrow]

I don't think so. I think that's what they should do.

[Seth Payne]

They should decide it in penalty kicks. That's what we should do.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, I think they did the swing off. Was that last year? Because the game was, like, tied instead of extra innings. Right.

[In the Loop Host]

I don't.

[Luke Morrow]

I don't really care for that.

[Seth Payne]

No. I want playoff games, actual playoff games, to be decided by penalty.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, wow. That would be something.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Bring a. Bring a goal out there and have at it.

[Luke Morrow]

I think because of the win last night, American League executives get to go first in the buffet line at the winter meetings. I think that's what the. That's what they won last night. So you're not. Look, the Yankees, of course, we've been. We've been having fun piling on the Yankees lately because of how bad they've been playing. But then those damn Yankees. Last night, two of their. The Yankees drove in the three runs in the first inning. I was like, oh, man, I have to be thankful for the Yankees because I still root for the American League. I still root, you know, for our league in the All Star Game. But Yordon did start the rally with his single. However, go back to the introductions. Yordon, when he was introduced, the Philly fans, they booed. The Dodger players, they booed, of course, players from the NL east, they booed Yankees, so good job. They booed Justin Verlander, and they also booed Yordon. Here's how it sounded when Jordan took the field last night. Batting second from the Houston Astros, the

[Seth Payne]

designated hitter, Jordan Alvarez. You know, when I went. I hadn't seen the intro originally, and I saw the tweets about it and everything, that was kind of A disappointing boo.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, it wasn't that bad.

[Seth Payne]

I felt like it was disrespectful and how muted it was and that the cheers drowned out the boos very, very quickly. We'll all recall exactly why Phillies fans might feel a certain type of way of Yordon. And it all came courtesy of this little thing that he did in Game 6 of the World Series.

[Luke Morrow]

A 2:1 Alvarez. It's a high drive, center field.

[Seth Payne]

Veer leans back. This game is turned upside down. Yeah, this game has been turned upside down. That was, that's a. That was one of the all time great moments in calls in a World Series. That was a really, really good moment. Now, that was at Minute Maid park, over the batter's eye, so Phillies fans didn't have to experience it necessarily firsthand. Well, there were a lot of. That was. I can't remember if game six, one of those games was played while the Texans were playing the Eagles on Thursday Night Football, if I recall properly. But yeah, I mean, there were a lot of Phillies fans there, but it wasn't. That was. That was. That was one of the all time great moments of the golden era.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. And I do. I'm not a big Joe Davis guy, but I do. That is a really good call. That game, by the way, was on a Saturday, that World Series game, as I look it up here.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, so that wasn't it. Yeah, that wasn't that one.

[Podcast Narrator]

Okay.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. So it must have been earlier in the series.

[Seth Payne]

But, but no, that game, Luke, it was weird. It was because the.

[Unknown Commentator]

There were.

[Seth Payne]

There were just. You'd go during the football game, the seats were like half empty. Everybody was up in the club levels or on the concourses watching the TVs, watching the, watching the World Series game.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I could imagine. It's like, oh, what happened? Oh, that was. Oh, I know it was. Yes. San Diego fans were given a hard time going back a couple years when San Diego State made a run to the Final Four, like surprisingly three years ago. And San Diego fans were given a hard time because they were. They all went to like a Padres, you know, like early baseball, Padres game. And we're watching the Final Four game like on the video board at the Padres game.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And people already give San Diego sports fans a hard time of not being real sports fans. So that was a story I remember a couple years ago. But that's pretty cool. If you could go to like an NFL game and watch the World Series while at the stadium. That's a, That's a pretty sweet. You Know, quasi double header there.

[Seth Payne]

It was. You know what, it was interesting. I remember doing the pregame show for that. And it was, you know, because the Eagles that year, or excuse me, the Phillies that year, it had just kind of been all of a sudden a surprise out of nowhere to Phillies fans. And it seemed like people were way more invested in the. The Eagles than they were. Like, obviously those are people who had traveled to Houston to go to a. To go to a football game, but they weren't nearly as it wasn't, I expect. You know what? Honestly, because it was Phillies fans or Philadelphians, I thought that there would be more vitriol, but there wasn't. Usually I get way more. The worst treatment I get from fans in the pregame show is from Colts fans. And that's why one of the reasons I despise Colts fans so much, they're just rude, just unsophisticated, low rent individuals in general. Yeah, not to generalize.

[Luke Morrow]

Right, of course.

[Seth Payne]

All of them. Every single one of them. That's.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah. Take that, Peyton Manning. That's actually a segue. You know, the idea. NFL's king.

[Unknown Commentator]

Right.

[Luke Morrow]

So I wouldn't be surprised that there's more people interested in the Eagles than even the Phillies in the World Series, which takes me to that. We can use that as the segue because I don't know how locked in to the All Star game you were last night, Seth. I kind of just had it on in the background. Yeah, it's not the same as it you. I used to love the baseball All Star game going back like 20 years ago. It doesn't feel the same now, but I still enjoy at least having it on. Checking in. And they did this weird nostalgic baseball ad, like in the sixth inning in between innings, where it was the final commercial of the commercial break. And we've seen like the NFL or Major League Baseball, they do this where it starts as a commercial and then it turns into like live people at the stadium finishing out the commercial. And so it started like a sandlot commercial. Kids were riding their bikes and they were going door to door to get their friends to go play a baseball game. And they were all in old baseball uniforms. And then eventually those kids made their way onto the field and it was like this nostalgic, like, hey, baseball's America's pastime. It started off kind of cool, but like in the group text with my buddies, I wasn't alone in this. That we were all saying, like, this is kind of weird. It really lingered way too long. The players, the kids came on the field to stand with different players. Your Don, they showed him, like, trying to talk to one of the kids. Mike Trout is trying to give another kid batting tips. The players are holding sparklers on, like, the baseline.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Fireworks are shooting off for what felt like 10 minutes.

[Seth Payne]

I didn't see this.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, my gosh, Ray Charles.

[Seth Payne]

So did it look like it did. It looks staged to look so. It looked like Trout was, like, trying to give batting tips, but it was. Somebody had told him to do that. He's going to stand here, and then you're going to give him batting tips and we'll zoom to you.

[Luke Morrow]

Or he's just trying to make the most out of the situation because they're just standing there. Like, you just have this kid standing next to Trout, and the fireworks are going off for, like, 10 minutes. This thing was going on way too long.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

So they. All the players, obviously, they're trying to be nice guys. There's these kids here, so they're trying to talk to them and, like, pass the time, but it just seemed like the players weren't really interested. Also. I'm sure you've been in these scenarios many times, Seth, where it feels like someone's just lingering and you have to, like. You feel like you have to draw out the conversation, but it's like there's nothing really to be said here. And they're just standing there still instead of walking away.

[Seth Payne]

What's one of my biggest fears in life is that I'm going to somehow end up as an extra on a Hollywood movie set, and they're just going to tell me, now you two just engage in conversation in the background, and you're like, crap, what the hell do I talk about with this person to make it look like I'm having a conversation. That's one of my top three fears in life. The other one is being having to stand on the stage of Saturday Night Live at the very end, when you're just standing there after the host says goodbye, and everybody just kind of mingles or dances or whatever. And then the third one is being Buried Alive. Those are my three biggest fears.

[Luke Morrow]

Buried Alive. Those are good fears. Buried Alive was big in the 90s, by the way. They did all those films. I think they were made for tv, but my brothers and I always used to watch them. Movies called Bury Alive, Buried Alive one, Buried Alive two, Buried Alive three. And there was a good actor, I think it might have been. Gary Cole was like the main character, and he kept getting buried alive and yes. That was, like, my biggest fear as a kid growing up. That and Sixth Sense. Where in Sixth Sense. Sorry, my parents probably listening to this at some point on the podcast or whatnot. But, Seth, have you ever saw Sixth Sense? The mother poisons her son and it's caught on camera.

[Seth Payne]

I don't remember that part.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[In the Loop Host]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

There's a camera set up in his bedroom. I forget why. I think he was playing around. And then he jumps into bed and the camera's still running. And it shows the mom coming over, coming in and, like, bringing him soup. And then she puts it over on the dresser with her back to the sun, but she's right in front of the camera. She doesn't realize it. And she pours, like, something into the soup. And so I had a wonderful mother. I really had no reason to have any fear. But after watching that movie when I was, like, nine years old, I thought, oh, man, I'm gonna get poisoned. And every time I would drink from, like, a water bottle at soccer practice, that felt like the soap residue was still in there.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

This is it for me. I'm a God.

[Seth Payne]

Happens. Yeah. All the fake stories about what happens on Halloween. The big. The actual. The movie in the 90s about getting buried alive that had an A. Lister in it was the Vanishing. That was with Jeff Bridges.

[Unknown Commentator]

Wow.

[Seth Payne]

If I remember correctly, Jeff Bridges plays the creep. And I might be off on that. He's either the hero or the villain in that. No, he's the. He's the villain. And Kiefer Sutherland was the husband whose wife is abducted by Jeff Bridges.

[Luke Morrow]

Huh.

[Seth Payne]

I think Sandra Bullock's in it.

[Unknown Commentator]

Wow.

[Seth Payne]

And that was the one that. Yeah, that creeped me out. And they never really go into the detail about the whole thing. Everything that would happen when you're buried alive, which is mostly the defecation. You know that part. That part that might be. Freak me out more than the actual claustrophobia really is. Just having to sit there in your own filth while you're doing all that.

[Luke Morrow]

That's. That's what you're more afraid of. Instead of, like, suffocating or running out of air, you're like, oh, man, I gotta pee my pants now.

[Seth Payne]

That's why I carry a cyanide ampoule around my neck. Yeah. Bite into. If things ever get real, I can just go ahead and take care of it.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

You know, we've been working together now a couple years, but I never felt comfortable to ask you why you. You walked around with this.

[Seth Payne]

I know why hey, Seth, why do you have a cyanide ampule?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I tried to ask.

[Seth Payne]

Shockingly high rate of people getting buried alive.

[Luke Morrow]

Exactly. By the way, speaking of, you know, like, soiling yourself, somebody on the text line and you could text us all morning, 713-572-4-6 1 zeros are off and running. Somebody said, seth, I took your idea from last week and I started wearing a diaper a week.

[Seth Payne]

I forgot about that.

[Luke Morrow]

They said a week later I took it off and it was filled with Philadelphia sports fans.

[Seth Payne]

So a week later you took it off. That's not how it's. That's not its recommended use. You got to follow the instructions, damn it. Yeah.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Philly fans are trash. The now, the one fun part about Justin Verlander getting booed was that both he and his wife had just been giving the bird to anybody and Everybody during that 2022 World Series. And that was all in fun. So Verlander getting booed was a little bit more of a, like probably lighthearted and fun in nature.

[Luke Morrow]

And tough week for Philly fans. You had Kyle Schwaber come up short in the Home Run Derby. You had last night where their starter, their pitcher Sanchez was on the mound, gave up the three runs in the first inning in front of the home crowd and having to deal with guys like Yordon and Verlander. So tough, tough couple of nights there in Philadelphia for the baseball sports fans. Not that. Not that we mind. Baseball Talk on Sports Radio 610 is presented by Xfinity. Score, the most reliable Wi Fi 1 price, 5 years guaranteed. Xfinity. Imagine that. The baseball talk continues because when we come back, I was thinking about this as I was watching him be the lone Astros representative last night. Will Yordon make the Astros break their rules? We'll talk about that next pain of Pendergast. Will Jordan make the Astros break their rules? We'll talk about that here on Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. Had the All Star Game last night. Baseball gets back underway fully on Friday, including the Astros. So we're in a bit of a lull here the next couple of days without the Astros and really without much to watch on tv. That's the biggest thing. I might watch, that Buried Alive movie you reference, Seth, coming up tonight.

[Seth Payne]

Vanishing.

[Luke Morrow]

Vanishing. Yeah, it sounds good.

[Seth Payne]

Vanished. No, the vanishing also. Well, and then you know what? There's two things that have sustained me from the NFL side of things. The NFL top 100, which I despise. And the ESPN top 10 position rankings, which actually, I feel like they have a lot more validity, but there's a flaw to that too. But then also, Netflix's series quarterback.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, yes.

[Seth Payne]

Dropped yesterday. And I don't, I don't. I don't like when things get dropped all at once. The entire series is out there because all of a sudden it feels like a choreography. But I watched a few little snippets of it, and it looks like it's pretty good this year.

[Luke Morrow]

We'll get into some of that audio in a little bit. By the way, to your point, Netflix has found that their viewership from season one to season two drops off like 45%.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And a lot of people are saying yeah, because it takes you now. People watch these shows in one weekend, and then you have to wait like another two years for the next season to be produced. As opposed to old school tv, you had one episode a week at carriage for eight months. Then they came back after the summer.

[Seth Payne]

So anyway, so unless. Unless it's something that people really love, they just kind of forget about it and put it on a shelf. And then when the next season comes out, it's. It's just too far gone.

[Luke Morrow]

Right? Exactly. You lost the moment. People were into that show two years ago. You know.

[Seth Payne]

You know what real quick happened to me yesterday for the first time was on Netflix. I was watching some Seinfelds.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

And.

[Seth Payne]

And as you know, I despise the stand up portion of Seinfelds, but I still love the show and like it. When it went to the next episode, a little prompt came up that said, are you still watching this? And I felt like, don't try to take data on me, Netflix. As if they're not already taking a bunch of data. Like they're trying to figure out which shows people are actually watching or whether it's rather like it's. They're gonna act like it's for my welfare. You know, when they're just trying to figure out. Exactly. Wait a second. Like, which of these shows are people actually watching versus they just let it go and they forgot about it and ran off. If that's what I need to go to sleep.

[In the Loop Host]

You.

[Seth Payne]

Damn it.

[Unknown Commentator]

You.

[Seth Payne]

You just leave it on there.

[Luke Morrow]

I hate that reminder. That's true. I know. Then it wake you up in the middle of night when the TV stops playing. I hate that reminder. And I hate the Apple Watch telling you to stand up once an hour. I hate.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, you get, oh, I don't have an Apple Watch.

[Luke Morrow]

If I Don't stand if I'm being lazy, I guess.

[Seth Payne]

Guilt trips. Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. I'm watching a football game on the couch and tells you you got to stand up, walk around a little bit.

[Seth Payne]

That's the claim. You're in the flow state deep. I'm doing deep work here.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And you're interrupting me. You're interrupting my flow state.

[Luke Morrow]

Exactly. Buzz off. Will your Don make the Astros break their rules? So I was thinking about this as he was the lone representative last night for the Astros in the All Star Game, and as I said earlier, first time the Astros had just one All Star Since, I believe, 2015 over a decade ago. And Yordon was in the starting lineup, went 1 for 2, and hurrah. But he's going to be a free agent. You know, we talk so much about Hunter Brown. We talk a lot about Jeremy Pena. Hunt, your Non, is going to be a free agent in two years. He has two years left on the deal. It's coming up soon. Yeah, because you don't want him to go into a lame duck season, I would imagine. So like a year from now, you're talking a contract, a new contract. But he'll be 32 years old, which is still young for. For baseball purposes. But he's a dh, doesn't play the field. He's a slugger, which sometimes, you know, power can diminish as you get a little bit older. There have been some injury concerns in recent years, and we know the Astros don't love to extend guys long into their 30s. Except for Jose Altuve is the one exception.

[Unknown Commentator]

And so.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, good.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, I was going to say it seems like Jordan would. Would easily be in that Altuve camp, but just the way we've seen the Astros operate and what I just laid out, dh doesn't play the field. You know, slugger injury concerns might not age as well as even an Altuve or some other players. I'm just curious if even Jordan would fall into that box of the ashers of like, ah, we can't give this guy 250 mil or whatever it's going to be and pay him 40.

[Seth Payne]

I think. I don't think there's a chance in hell that he gets anything longer than a six year contract. And if he does, I think that it ends up being like what they did with Altuve, where it's front loaded and it's, you know, Altuve's contract is the, the value goes down, the salary goes down as he gets older, which was good. I mean, and that's. It Takes two to tango on that. You know, it takes Alvarez, it takes your Altuve and the Astros to be willing to do that. I think there's a, I think there's a more of a chance that Jordan is that guy who's kind of wired like Altuve, that likes it here, wants to maybe, you know, remain with the team without just doing as much as he can to get as much money possible. And I don't say that just, you know, because I hope that's the case. He signed an extension early in his career with the Astros. Already that was a little bit of like, okay, I understand this is a boatload of money. I might be good. I'm giving up, you know, a potentially ridiculously big payday, but I like where I'm at and yeah, we'll take this money. Now that I think he might be more willing than a lot of major league all stars to meet in the middle somewhere. So I'd be just really astounded if the Astros ever, as long as Jim Crane's the owner, if they ever break that policy of not giving out these mega long contracts, but they might be able to come to some kind of an agreement.

[Luke Morrow]

He's on a current six year, $115 million deal, which, by the way, ridiculously good contract. Right. That's probably the biggest bargain. I mean, it is the biggest bar because he's, he might be the best hitter in baseball right now. That, that I don't think I realized how good of.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, it's absurdly good. It's really as long, as long as he's healthy. It's. If you look at what he's making compared to what Aaron Judge is making, it's just, it's helped a lot. It's allowed the Astros to muddle through despite making some egregiously bad deals elsewhere. Even short term deals, like having a guy like that that can provide as much as he does while having. Not to pay, not to pay. Not having to pay him nearly as much as other guys of his stature. It's, it's a good deal.

[Luke Morrow]

That's a good point in the fact that it's like a rookie contract for the quarterback where you're not paying your quarterback all this money you can spend. It is interesting the Astros payroll is so large and you, most people would probably assume like, well, yeah, because they're paying your don, you know, 50 million a year and they're not. And yet they still are throwing around a lot of money. And yet you look at the roster and it's like, yeah, this doesn't really match the $200 million payroll or whatever it is this year.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, no, I know, 100%. And I, you know, Chandler Rome did a nice article on Yordon a week or two ago, and it kind of just paints a picture of a guy who's just, he's just like a simple guy in a good way. Now, like, not like saying he's a simpleton. He doesn't. He likes, he likes fishing, he likes hunting. He just likes playing baseball and being around his family. And there's. I don't think there's any part of him that yearns to be a huge star or, you know, and you can see that just by the way he operates. Everything is just even keeled as could be that that might be one of those rare baseball players that's not seeking to just maximize his contract. And I never begrudge those guys, and I don't begrudge Alex Bregman for, for being a hell of a businessman and just, you know, eking out every little bit of leverage that he has and getting the best contract he can. I just think that Jordan might be wired a little bit differently.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, and, and I think it was in that same story that you referenced from Chandler Rome that when, when there were rumors about Yordon potentially being moved, he did go to the front office to check in and almost seemed like from a perspective of, hey, I don't want to be traded or I do want to stay here, so maybe you do get some sort of hometown discount. And I guess that would be what it would take. But I'm just throwing it out there, putting it in the mind of Astro fans, because I was thinking about it, free agency for him coming up in two and a half years here, not all that far away. He'll be 32, which again, sounds young. You think, oh, you're down at 32. Of course I'll sign up for that. But Kyle Tucker was 28. Alex Bregman was 31, George Springer 31. Fromber, different position, obviously, but 32. They let all these guys walk instead of paying them. And there's even obviously talks about Jeremy Pena right now. Are they going to be willing to pay him? And he's going to be 31 years old when he becomes a free agent. So Jordan is right in that territory of. Well, in the past, the Astros haven't wanted to reward these guys with long term contracts. Maybe you're down is that one.

[Seth Payne]

Except, I mean, the tenure deals are just stupid. And I mean, like Altuve's extension. I mean, that's, that's as close as they've gotten to basically conceding that we're probably, we're probably not going to get the most out of you, but we love you and you want to be an astro for life. So we're going to give you this extension that takes you into your late 30s. But even then, they, they, they accounted for, as did Altuve, the fact that, yeah, there's most likely going to be a drop off as you get older and we'll pay you less at the end of the deal than we will now. The other part about Jordan, like, because I don't. I'm not trying to paint him out as a saint of All Saints or anything. They gave him that extension in June of 2022, which was his first big, huge breakout All Star season. A lot of agents, and I'm guessing his agent at the time might have been saying, like, listen, man, all right, if you just push this to free agency, it's going to be an absurd amount of money. But Yordon, by that point in his career had already seen, you know, like just the frailty perhaps of the human body. He is playing on two partially torn patellar tendons before he got that fixed. And that was part of his turnaround that I think he just kind of weighed the pluses and minuses of. Look, it's always nice to have a huge wad of guaranteed money right now, even if you're forgoing a little bit more later on. I don't know if he's going to be any more of, you know, cool and calculating now that he's already got his huge wad of guaranteed money and that he could, he could be as, I don't want to say greedy, but he could be, you know, he could really go for just a ridiculously large contract. I've always tried to put myself in this position. You know, when you put yourself in that position, you always pretend that you're like the most rational and egoless person alive. And I've always thought, like, well, man, you know what? For one, it's not necessarily all that much fun, no matter how much money you're making, to be viewed by an entire city and fan base as a, as a drain on your team. You know, like to be Pujols and just to be making an absurdly large amount of money for no good reason for year after year after year. I don't, I like, I like to think that. I just don't. I don't want to. I don't need to. I don't want to make that, that exchange. You know, like almost like trading your dignity for a big wad of cash. But then I remember that I also do like big wads of cash and that given that situation, that I probably would think differently than my hypothetical self.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah. It's a tough one. You know, you bring up a good point though, about like these, even these international players, there's been a trend now and I know we have to hit the break, but there, there's been a break. Yeah. What's. That's what, that's what I've been saying. Ben's probably been sweating back there with me here in the last week, plus, because I'm a terrible clock manager. But there's been a trend in baseball where major league baseball teams have found a way. They found not a loophole. But like international players love signing these team friendly deals early because they just want the money. Because, you know, they come from these third world countries where I worked in baseball and I saw a lot of guys were set with their signing bonus. They did not care if they made it to the majors because they just got whatever. For some of the big prospects, they got $3 million handed to them, which, you know, when they come from Cuba or Dominican Republic or wherever, Venezuela, like that goes a lot further there obviously. And they feel like, hey, I'm set for life.

[Seth Payne]

Like I don't even have to make

[Unknown Commentator]

it to the big leagues.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, well, you're coming from a country where the average annual household income is just, you know, in the four digit category. It's a, it's a big, big deal just to get six figures in a, in a signing bonus.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. You know, eight of the top 10 highest paid players in major league baseball right now are Americans. It's us greedy Americans where these international players, like Acuna, like Jordan, they take these team friendly deals because like, yeah, 120 million.

[In the Loop Host]

Sure.

[Luke Morrow]

Where do I sign when really they could get a lot more, but average.

[Seth Payne]

And now Cuba is a whole different scenario also because guys, it's not easy for them to go back and forth and everything. But like Venezuela, for instance, average household income in Venezuela, $300 per month. My God.

[Luke Morrow]

Sounds like what my grandfather used to talk about, you know, raking in back in the day. Coming up, we'll get to headlines, including more on the sad passing of Janice McNair yesterday. And we'll do that next. Payne and Pendergast.

[Seth Payne]

Pain and Pendergast. With today's headlines powered by men's Tea Clinic.

[Unknown Commentator]

That's right.

[Luke Morrow]

Let's get you caught up on the biggest things in sports here on this Wednesday. Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. And we start with the sad news, which is the same way we opened the show earlier, but yesterday we got the news of Janice McNair's passing at the age of 89. She was put into the ring of honor this past year, so that was nice at least, but unfortunately passing away before this anniversary season coming up, a lot of great statements. We mentioned this earlier. And Seth, obviously you were part of the organization. You're around the McNairs, as you said, you never heard a bad word about Janis. We haven't seen a bad word yet either. All the tributes are pouring in. Everyone has such nice things to say. But Janis McNair passing away yesterday at the age of 89.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And this one just bounced. Just one of the things that bounced down my timeline yesterday. Justin Reed, former Texan, who just had this to say about Janice McCarthy McNair. You kind of look at Ms. McNair fondly, as if she was your own, like, grandmother. You know, she was that motherly figure that was around and, you know, quiet for the most part, but she always had a warmth about her, just open and extending arms and always look out for a guy. So, yeah, Houston, Houston's a bit of a sadder day, a sadder place today, having known that she's passed. And from the, from the very beginning, the, I think the thing about the McNairs that was just felt different to me from what I knew of just NFL owners and what you'd heard and read was just how genuinely focused they were on the community. And I think that that's, that's something that's, you know, people give lip service to it, you know, in every major league sports city. But that was like a driving force with Bob and Janice McNair. And every time I ever saw or interacted, whether it was usually with one of the Texans foundation initiatives or, you know, going to one of the, one of the local youth centers that they had started that like that from the very beginning, before we had ever played a game, it was clear that that was going to be a focus. And it's, you know, it's, the McNair is owning the Texans. And really you have this with the three major sports in Houston is you do have local owners, people that live in the community. And the McNairs are very much about being Houstonians and have a different kind of mindset than where you see with a lot of other, a lot of other teams. It's, you know, it's going the venture capital route.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And it's going a much more just extremely streamlined and focused business centric model. And the McNairs are really good business people. They do the business side of it really well. But I think they managed to have their foot in both worlds more so than a lot of other places.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

So thoughts and prayers out to the entire McNair family and just Texans community. As Janice McNair passed away yesterday at the age of 89, JJ Watt on Twitter said rest in peace. All of us who were graced with your presence and kindness are better for it. You can find online. They have, you know, obviously d' Amico Ryan's put out a statement a lot of former players as well. So a lot of tributes and kind words put out for Janice McNair who passed away yesterday the age of 89. Elsewhere in the sports world as again we make that awkward transition but Spain beat the World cup favorite, I believe France yesterday to nothing to advance to the finals. So we have Spain in the finals and we have today at 2pm England versus Argentina. The winner will face Spain in the finals. Seth, I looked this up. If I'm wrong, soccer fans, if I'm wrong, sorry, blame AI. But Argentina I guess is the defending champs. Spain hasn't won the World cup since 2010.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And then England hasn't won since 1966 between Spain, England and Argentina. Is there a country you would prefer to win this thing at this point?

[Seth Payne]

I always go for the, the, I always go for not the underdog in a soccer sense but for the country that doesn't have as much like clout internationally or necessarily the history regardless of soccer history or anything. So I'm an Argentina fan in this, oh, I'd say the old, the old colonial, you know, overlords, Spain and England, they can, they can all go wither away with their faltering economies and their, their misplaced self esteem that they have from back when they used to rule the world.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

No go Argentina.

[Luke Morrow]

That's right. Yeah, take that. So Argentina takes on England today to true. The winner gets to face Spain in the championship 2pm Central time today. That match also started at 2pm Central time yesterday. I don't know, we were just talking about this actually during the commercial break like time zones in other countries. So Seth, you would probably know better than me. I don't know if this is to help out Other countries. But that seems like a weird time, at least for the United States, where they're hosting the Games to Central. 2pm Central on a weekday for both semifinal matches. I know it's the summer, kids are out of school, but that just seems, at least for the hosting country, it's a weird time.

[Seth Payne]

It's Eurocentric. It's. It's easy. These, it's these colonizers over there. They want to. They want it ap. They want it prime time in. They want it prime time in Europe. So it's like 8 or 9pm over there. And yeah, that's, that's the problem. They don't give a damn about the rest of the world.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, I mean, soccer is bigger in other countries than here, I suppose.

[Seth Payne]

Pretty big in Argentina. That's what I'd say.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. So go Argentina. Bring it home. It's been so long since the last World cup championship four years ago, the last time they held the World Cup.

[Seth Payne]

Well, plus Argentina, like the entire continent of South America is way further east than we ever realized. Like, you always think of it as due south. And then you look at a map of the world and you got to remind yourself, oh, yeah, that whole damn continent's been basically east of the, the eastern seaboard of the United States. So it benefits. It makes a little bit more sense for everybody. Except America, by the way.

[Luke Morrow]

I honestly just found out. Yeah, well, that's true. But, you know, I have at least

[Seth Payne]

everybody in the, you know, in that part in this hemisphere.

[Luke Morrow]

Going back to what I just said last segment though, you know, Greedy Americans. I want that game in a prime viewing time for me. I wouldn't watch it anyways, to be honest with you. I just found out yesterday that they have a third place game in the World Cup. I didn't know this was a thing. I think that's pretty lame, to be honest with you. You just lost the semifinals. Who cares about third place in the World Cup?

[Seth Payne]

I don't like a consolation bracket unless there's a genuine. I don't like a consolation winner unless there's an actual, like a consolation bracket where you go back into a bigger pool. So it always feels, it feels a little bogus. I always feel like there should be a team that, like maybe the second, you know, a team that's, you know, actually the second best team in a tournament but lost to the ultimate winner that should have a chance to go back and at least finish third. But like, sometimes it just doesn't. Sometimes those guys lose in the quarterfinals or the round of 32 or whatever. I don't like it when it's just taken from a pool of four.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah, it's lame. To me, it's about winning the championship. I don't care that you won in. You won third place. Big whoop. The Rockets improved to 2 and 1 in summer league play. They beat the Sixers yesterday, 90 to 64, and Bruce Thornton had 18 points, made three threes. Real quick, Seth, are you starting to get excited about the rookie Bruce Thornton?

[Seth Payne]

I am. I'm allowing myself to. Just because we talked about this yesterday. It's like, more times than not. Like with Reed Shepherd. He had an incredible start to the summer league, and then it kind of fizzled out. His team started to attack him and realize what his strengths and weaknesses are. But sometimes. Sometimes the fizzle never comes, and a guy just. Yeah, so you just keep getting a little bit more excited each time it shows up. And as people start to focus more on them and get, you know, get more of a feel and play against them. If he continues this, it's a. It's a really, really good sign.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, it sure is. So Rockets rolled yesterday over the six years, and Bruce Thornton's averaging, like, over 20 points a game right now, three games into the summer league. Oh, and by the way, I hate. We got load management now in the summer league. That's the lamest thing, too. So that's even worse than the third.

[Seth Payne]

Run these kids until their legs fall off. Damn it.

[Unknown Commentator]

Right?

[Luke Morrow]

We used to play five AAU games in one weekend. Come on, Bruce, don't run around.

[Seth Payne]

No difference there.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, Same skill level, I would say. Come on, please. I was equivalent to an NBA summer league player.

[Seth Payne]

There is load management is. I'll be a grumpy old man all day long about load management just because it's. I know that it makes sense. I know all the reason it makes sense. I just don't like it. All right? And there's no amount of logic or reasoning that you're going to show me that makes sense. Me, in my soul, just hate load management.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, me. I'm with you. I hate it. So enjoy Bruce Thornton while you have it. That was my point. Because at some point, they're probably going to sit him down for the rest of this thing, because God forbid athletes play games. Coming up, are the Texans just this one thing away from actually winning the super bowl this year? We'll talk about it next. Payne and Pendergast.

[Seth Payne]

Hey, it's Sydney Sweeney. Sid for short. For summer. I'm in the mood for comfortable. What am I wearing? Where am I going? What's the vibe? The short answer, American Eagle shorts. They're cute and go with everything. They just work. It's Sid for short. An American Eagle for summer.

[Podcast Narrator]

Shop my pics [e-mail] history that doesn't

[Luke Morrow]

suck is a legit, hard hitting American history podcast told through entertaining stories. History that Doesn't Suck. An Odyssey podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.

[Seth Payne]

1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4. Gimme a break, give me a break Break me off a pie of that Kit Kat bar Gimme a break, give me a break Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar the chocolate crispy taste gonna make your day and wherever you go you hear the people say Give me a break, give me a break Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar have a break, have a Kit Kat.

[Luke Morrow]

Are the Texans just this one tweak away from winning a Super Bowl? We'll get to that coming up here. Payne and Pendergast, little dirty laundry from Don Henley bringing us back.

[Seth Payne]

That's appropriate. Yeah, do that that quickly. I was telling you during the break about how one of my former college classmates is going to going to minimum security prison for some white collar crime. And we're having such a good time. On a group text yesterday talking about it like 13 of my 13 of my college teammates, none of us were all that fond of this guy. I don't want to say that we were taking delight in him going to prison. I'm just saying that it wasn't a surprise to any of us.

[Luke Morrow]

Finally got his maybe one. Yeah, just saying maybe one of those guys was the one that tipped off the irs. I don't know.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know. One of those guys might have gotten screwed, but he's not allowed to talk about it or something. Yeah, this guy, I say this kid, this guy. The one thing about him though is that he's a, he's a sleepwalker. Like he walks in his sleep, like pretty badly. And I just, I'm thinking about, man, that could be a dicey proposition. Not as much a minimum security prison as in a real prison, but still, all of a sudden your bunkmate wakes up in the middle of the night, you're sitting on his bed.

[Luke Morrow]

Right. That's true. I would hate that. I had a roommate like that in college who, when he would drink, obviously I think that wasn't quite sleepwalking, but he would sleepwalk in the middle of the night after a heavy night of drinking. Yeah, that was the worst. I would wake up. It was creepy. I'd wake up. We shared a room, the two of us, in college. And I'd wake up and he'd be like, just roam, you know, walking into my closet and whatnot.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And he was the one. One of those guys that would urinate, as in his sleep.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

So I had.

[Seth Payne]

Doesn't play well in prison.

[Unknown Announcer]

No.

[Luke Morrow]

He was gonna.

[Seth Payne]

You pee on your. Pee on your roommate. Yeah, yeah. Or cellmate, I guess.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. Anyways, I'm officiating his wedding next week, so I'll have plenty of stories.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah, Good.

[Luke Morrow]

So I painted Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. 713-572-4610. On the text line. That's why Ben is the best morning producer in the business. Queuing up the song at the perfect time. Hey, we got a lot of C.J. stroud stuff, and we got a lot of audio, too. We'll try to get to as much of this audio as we can over the course of the next three hours here. But obviously, now that we head towards training camp, you know, football, of course, is on the mind of many. It's taking over. I saw somebody say that the best thing about, you know, waking up after the All Star Game, Major League Baseball, All Star Game is like, okay, now we can turn our attention to football. And, boy, are we. And Stroud, obviously, is one of the hot topics in the NFL. So there's a lot of people out there right now talking about C.J. stroud, especially with that top 10 quarterback ranking on ESPN and this top 100 list that is continuing by the NFL. And we're waiting to see if and when C.J. stroud pops up on that list. But I did find some of this audio. Seth, you found this audio, and then I found it interesting after you passed it along. But Jeremy Fowler with some interesting audio and a word that I like that you pointed out earlier, because we say the same thing in broadcasting, that it's the word you never want to hear. And I guess it might be the same for quarterbacks.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, indifferent.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, indifferent.

[Seth Payne]

And just to set this up, this is Jeremy Fowler, who compiles these topics. 10 position rankings on ESPN, talks to 70 scouts, executives, coaches, etcetera, to try to come up with these rankings. And CJ CJ finished at best, 18th in the voting. And really, he only had one top 10 vote. Only one vote, because guys vote for their top 10. And he said when Dan Patrick asked him about CJ Stroud and what. What some of these poll respondents were saying is what Jeremy Fowler said.

[Unknown Commentator]

You know, I didn't get enough responses on CJ Stroud to get a ton of feedback because he really just wasn't a factor in the voting. But I think with Stroud, it's.

[Seth Payne]

And maybe that's the point of it, that you didn't get responses. That says a lot, kind of.

[Unknown Commentator]

I mean, honestly, I think he got one vote. I want to say it just wasn't. He wasn't a factor. But the abilities there, you know, what happened last year, especially in the playoffs, it's certainly a concern. You know, some people wonder, like, okay, is that a byproduct of something that was going on behind the scenes all year or just wasn't comfortable in the offense? I know it was raining that day and New England played well, but some of the decisions were odd. It's funny, though. He has a chance to be a fast riser because the tools and the skill set are there. And you talk about quarterbacks being able to throw over the middle of the field with accuracy. He can do some of those things where some of the quarterbacks ahead of him aren't as good as. So I don't. I don't necessarily think, like, people are really down on him or he's not

[Seth Payne]

a starter or he's.

[Unknown Commentator]

His job's on the line. I don't feel like it's.

That.

It's just maybe more of a little indifference. I just didn't get a lot of responses on him.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that's. That was depressing to me. That was. I think of the two main lists that are coming out right now, there's the NFL top 100, which is really, like, if you think about the way the balloting works, the. For the NFL top 100 players, choose who the top 20 players are. That's just. They have a ballot and they fill out who they think the top 20 players are. So to, like, use that as a ranking for the actual. Okay, who's 50th through a hundredth, it's mathematically really dicey for a lot of different reasons, I think. Likewise, though, with the ESPN Tap 10 in a position group, it's. It makes a little bit more sense because it's a smaller pool. You're. You're, you know, you're confining it to one position, but, like, one vote in the top 10 skews things a lot more. And then if you did have two in the top 10, like the ranking, the rankings for 11 through 25 can be swayed a lot by just one opinion. It's. It's really notable that CJ has fallen in each successive year since 2024, to the point now where I think people are looking at him as, like, he's definitively not a top 10 quarterback other than just one person who put him in that vote. And so, yeah, when you're having a conversation about who the top 10 are right now, CJ's somewhere outside of that in most people's minds, and it puts him into that group of players who didn't make the top 10 on ESPN. But it's like, some of the more notable things I like. Okay, C.J. stroud being 18th, 19th, or 20th or wherever he ended up finishing in the voting, that's notable. But, like, Jalen hurts having the. Jalen hurts being so far outside. I think he finished 17th or something. Like, that's. That's a guy that's been. That's a guy who's won a Super bowl, been to a couple of Super Bowls, but isn't looked at in a weird way, isn't looked at as the driving force on his team and. And is not regarded as a top 10 quarterback like Eagles fans have a lot more. And I tend to agree with him not being top 10 or being debatable whether he's a top 10. But I also understand why Eagles fans would be irate about him not being in the top 10 despite everything he's accomplished.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, for sure. And there was one part in that clip from Jeremy Fowler where I did chuckle because he sounded so dejected when Dan Patrick said something like, I don't know, that's not very much, or whatever about C.J. stroud. And he said, yeah, I know. Like, he almost, like, Fowler was sad to admit that there wasn't a lot of thought about CJ Stroud in this whole thing.

[Unknown Commentator]

This.

[Seth Payne]

This one is like, usually the. The top 100 is. Whatever. I just. I've never liked that. I just. I think it's just such a bogus poll. This one, the ESPN rankings. I think even if people disagree with it, this is the one where I felt from the fan base over the last few days, just almost a deflation amongst themselves where we've been propping ourselves up, propping ourselves up, talking ourselves back into C.J. stroud. And like, look, you just need this, you just need that. And I. And I still believe in. But it almost felt like confirmation. I would have rather heard people say, like, nope, he's done. Like, I would have liked to hear executives or coaches say, no, he's done. He's never. He's never going to be anything. He's going to be trash. Because then I could be defiant against that. The fact that they're just indifferent and just aren't even really thinking about them, that's somehow even more. That's more deflating and scary because it's the re. I think it's the genuine reality of the deal. Like Fowler. Fowler is trustworthy in my mind, in terms of, like, this is a guy that's got a good relationship with a lot of NFL people, and they're giving him honest opinions and everything, and they're just flat out not talking about C.J. stroud.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah. Indifferent is. That is a big buzzword. And I said, like, even in our industry here, that's a huge thing. You want to be, I guess, divisive, for lack of a better phrase. It's the classic from the Howard Stern movie where, you know, they figured out that the people that hated Howard Stern listened twice as much. So you either want them to hate you or love you, but you want them to have an opinion about you. If someone's indifferent, they're not even thinking about you. You're even worse off, I would say, than. Than someone saying, oh, no, he's not very good, or, he's not bad. He's not good enough. If they're indifferent, they're not even thinking about you. It's like the famous line in the book, what the Fountainhead, where there's an architect, Howard work, and the newspaper columnist is very critical of this architect over and over and over again. And they finally meet, and the columnist says, like, so what do you think of me? And the. The architect says, I don't, and walked away. And it's kind of similar. Of like, you know, you want to be thought of. And to hear that word, indifferent. It's tough for a guy who, you know, just two years ago, as a rookie, was towards the tops of the league.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that's. I didn't know that. I wonder if that's where they. They lifted that. And there's a. There's a famous scene in Mad Men where Don Draper says, I don't think about you at all, which was a lie because he totally thought about that character all. Did he lift that from Ayn Rand? Was that a Fountainhead reference?

[Luke Morrow]

I guess so. It's. Yeah, it's the famous line from that.

[Seth Payne]

I knew Don Draper was a libertarian.

[Luke Morrow]

I always. I always love that idea, too. Like, that. I think that is the best thing you could say to somebody, someone that's been critical or think that, you know, they're on your mind.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

I don't think about you at all.

[Seth Payne]

I think the. The. That part of it. Yeah. You'd much rather your quarterback be hate because he's won so much. You'd love to. I'd love to be in a position where people are screaming about whether or not C.J. stroud is overrated. The way that people get in arguments about whether Tom Brady is overrated because it comes from a position of people hating him because he won so much. And they're just not in that situation right now. Particularly, like, even after last year, it's really, really easy for people to just put all the blame for that playoff loss on C.J. stroud and C.J. stroud alone. You know, we've talked for months now about all the different nuances and everything, but the sum total is that. Yeah, like, for whatever reason or explanation there is, the sum total of it all leads to. Your quarterback hasn't performed at the same level as everybody else, whether he does. Now, Jeremy Fowler, elsewhere in this interview, did point out that, look, these guys move up and down every year. Jalen Hurts has been in the top 10. Now. He's out of the top 10 other guys that, you know. Jaden Daniels is still in the top 10. It so didn't get punished for whatever last year was, or at least he's just outside the top 10. He's somewhere right around there in the periphery. But, like, if Jaden Daniels were to stay completely healthy this year and then not be as impressive as he was his rookie year again, then there's a really good chance he slides out of it going into next year.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm going to circle back to Jeremy Fowler. But first, I do want to get to this next piece of audio and get your thoughts on this, Seth, because Greg Cassell, who, you know, considered one of the more elevated minds in the football space, he watches a lot of film. He breaks it down. He was on a podcast. Here we go again. I don't know what podcast. Don't ask me. But he was on some podcast.

[Seth Payne]

He was on Ross Tucker's podcast.

[Luke Morrow]

Was that where it was? I know he does a lot of appearances. Anyways, here's Greg Cosell, where he made the case that he thinks watching the film, the game, is too fast for Stroud. Here's what Cassell said.

[Unknown Commentator]

I mean, C.J. i can only go by watching tape. I don't know what's in his head, but CJ Stroud has become a quarterback that plays incredibly fast. His mental and physical processes become speeded up way too soon. He perceives pressure that's often not there when he can't play in rhythm. You can almost see his body language in the pocket. Everything becomes faster. I thought Troy Aikman spoke about it really well during the telecast. The last two years have been difficult. They've got to figure out what it is. You know, if he's the guy. You know, he's going into his fourth year. But the last two years, for the most part, with few exceptions, he's not been a comfortable player. Everything's happening too fast for him.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I think that for one, I saw that same tweet where that clip was. And that was from. This was from a while ago on the Ross Tucker podcast. And because we had actually played this a couple months ago or so and it might have been like directly after the playoffs, but the guy that posted it, he did that dirty thing where he posts a clip of a video but then put some quotes in it. He put some quotes in his post that aren't actually in the video. So this Scott Barrett guy, he write, he put, quote, the game is moving too fast for him. They need to take protections off his plate. And that's. That's not what he said. That's not what Craig Sell said at all. It was, it was really weird. It's just that dirty little social media engagement bait thing that people are doing. Yeah, this was, this was. Greg Cassell also talked about this a few weeks ago on the Ross Tucker podcast and talking about the difficulties of handling a scheme change. Going from Bobby Sloakes scheme to the New England style system.

[Unknown Commentator]

They could not run the ball. Now. It's always easy to say, well, Stroud's not been great because the run game's bad. And obviously there is a correlation. I'm not going to sit here and say there's no correlation. But they brought in David Montgomery and they revamped their entire offensive line. They're going to have three or four new starters. Okay. They brought in Braden Smith to play right tackle. Wyatt Teller, who for a couple of years there in Cleveland was as good a left guard as there was in the league, particularly in the gap scheme run game as a puller. Keelan Rutledge, who played guard, the rookie out of Georgia Tech, he'll probably play center. So they're going to have a brand new offensive line and ideally at least a serviceable run game. And David Montgomery is one of those backs He's a. You know, it's so funny. People always talk about backs being special and all that. But you know what? You don't have to have a special back to have a consistent, sustaining run game.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, I mislabeled that. That's not the quote. There's another one where he talked about the difficulty of transitioning to a New England style system where you do have to. You are responsible for the coverages and everything. Sorry about that, Ben. That's my fault.

[Luke Morrow]

Cassell's just throwing us out of whack.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but like that part of it. So the fake quote that the guy who posted that, I think was trying to paint that like somehow CJ's like, you know, he can't handle this. He needs to take it. That's not what Cassell said at all. And I watched every Cassell interview I can find. I don't recall him ever saying anything like that. That's more the opinion of the person who posted it. The point that I would make and that Cassel has made is that it's not so simple. You know, there was like Tom Brady and the level at which he operated. People love to throw clips of him from 2011 and later on where he is just this complete conductor of an orchestra at the line of scrimmage and act like that's what he was like back when they won their first couple of Super Bowls. And it wasn't like that was a transition and a process and it took a lot of time to get him to that point. And any quarterback's going to have some difficulties doing that. One thing that Josh McDaniels did last year in teaching Drake May that New England style system was that he knew how to do it in palatable or, you know, bite sized chunks, that you can bring it along and you got it. You can do certain things, but you can't add too much to the quarterback's plate. And he's had a lot of experience doing that with young quarterbacks. Nick Haley hasn't had as much experience doing that with young quarterbacks. He's been, you know, in the building in New England as they've worked with quarterbacks, but as an offensive coordinator, he hasn't been that guy. And then he went to the Rams and he's, you know, working with Matt Stafford, who. What are you going to teach him? So I think that's a part of it is it's not just CJ Stroud, it's Nick Caylee working with CJ Stroud. And those two, as a duo, learning a lot of hard lessons about how to teach and integrate that system onto an offense with a young quarterback. So that part of it, it should be better this year just because he's got time in the system. But it's not a, it's not a guarantee that it's definitely going to be where it needs to be.

[Luke Morrow]

By the way, we need timestamps on all these videos because there's another one that went viral yesterday of CJ Stroud talking about, like, the difference between women in Houston and California. But you could tell that one's because he still has the long hair in that video.

[Seth Payne]

But that was from after his rookie year, or it might have been before his rookie year. It was definitely like either right before or right after his rookie year is on the Boardroom podcast.

[Luke Morrow]

But it's been making the rounds again, like, as if people think it's a new clip.

[Seth Payne]

But again, though, his hair is long. Right, Right.

[Luke Morrow]

So that's the giveaway. So when Greg Cassell goes on the Ross Tucker podcast every week, you don't know if this is a new clip or an old clip. And when people share it around, like, he just said this on his latest appearance, we need to put date on every video on Twitter. So, you know, oh, this is from January when he said, okay, I want

[Seth Payne]

to say, you know what, I want to say that that clip, the first clip we played from Cassell, I went back and knowing that I've mislabeled some things this morning, take this with a grain of salt, but I want to say that that clip, the first clip we played was actually from October. Oh my gosh, past season. So, like, I mean, he said similar things after the season. So it's not necessarily. That doesn't, that doesn't date the reference. But yeah, that one with C.J. stroud, man, you know what that was a reminder of. CJ's come a long way in just knowing when to shut up. He talked. I remember his rookie year even before he had ended up, you know, ranking himself in the top 5 of quarterbacks or anything. Like, even before his rookie season. I remember talking with Sean about how, like, he's going to, he's going to get himself in trouble at some point because it's awesome that he's willing to talk. But sometimes as a quarterback, you just need to cut it off and not say too much. And then lo and behold, after that first season, he's, he's, he's talking smack. He's putting himself in the top Five QB rankings and everything. There's certain things that as a quarterback, you just don't have to answer or talk about. And I would include in that, doing two minutes on why LA women are better than Houston women. And you know what, the other part about that clip, though, I'll get retroactively upset about this. In that clip, CJ was talking about why LA women are better than Houston women. And he brings up like the. Just the difference in options or whatever. And he brings up Inland Empire and he brings up San Diego, where I'm like, okay, it's cool, it's all Southern California, I get it. But then he brings up Oakland, like, all right, well, wait a second. You can't go all the way up to Oakland and include that in LA women. And talking about the diversity of different types of women in California, in la, if you're then comparing it to the city of Houston, I'll get. I don't care how old the clip is. What the hell are you talking about?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, that's right. I know he went on that whole, like, even after the rookie season, he went on like a whole media tour and everything. And it's almost like the studious girl in high school that finally, you know, she, like, she comes back from one summer vacation and now suddenly she's considered attractive. And it's just like, you just love all that attention and the spotlight. But it reminds me of Doug Peterson, after he won a Super bowl at the Eagles, wrote a book along the lines of like, how I won a Super Bowl. And he went on a book tour that whole off season, was talking about how he beat Bill Belichick and how he's just great. And then, long story short, he went 10 games under.500 the rest of his career. It's like, you know, congrats on winning the super bowl, but let's get back to work. Instead of talking about how great you

[Seth Payne]

are all off season, it's like when you see a 29 year old write their memoirs, you know, like, all right, just give us a little time, buddy. Yeah, you haven't even been addicted to heroin yet. Yeah, like, give me something. Give me something meaty that I can read about.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, come on. You don't know what it is going back to Jeremy Fowler, because I did find this interesting. We're starting. We are starting. Despite all the CJ Stroud consternation in, in, in the media, we are starting to get some national media members that are coming around pretty highly on the Texans because I've been making the case all Offseason that I feel like the Texans are still underrated despite the quarterback concerns. I heard Aaron Shots this morning say that his. The Texans are his pick to win the afc, which we played previously, but. But he has them ranked as the best DVOA team in the afc. Anyways, here was Jeremy Fowler. That's saying if the Texans can just figure this one thing out, they can win the super bowl this year. Here was Fowler.

[Unknown Commentator]

I think the offense he's had changes. You go from OC Bobby Slowik to Nick Cayley. Like they need to be able to run the ball and simplify some things for him. And once they do, his arm talent and his ability can take over. But. But let's be honest, Dan. I mean, Houston and I'm doing this top 10 series, they have the best defense in the league. They have talent on offensive, rebuilt their offensive line. If they can run the ball, they probably, I mean, I think they'll win the Super Bowl. Like, I think they have that kind of team. And if they do that, then that changes things for C.J.

[Seth Payne]

stroud in a big way. Yeah, I don't, you know, they say that. And yet again there is Jalen Hurts ranked 17th or 18th.

[Luke Morrow]

That's true.

[Seth Payne]

Top 20 quarterbacks.

[Luke Morrow]

It's a good point.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know. Like, I would like. All right, how much does it change? I think the most encouraging thing is at one point Fowler lays out just how the. There's so many super bowl worthy quarterbacks right now. If you think about the fact that like whether, whether you think they're good enough in the old school sense of the word or whatever it is, like the. Or whether it's just, you know, teams need to be more complete and well balanced in the Super Bowl. The quarterback position doesn't matter as much as it used to be that you look through any of the guys who received votes in this ranking of quarterbacks and you can see, okay, yeah, like you go outside of the top 10 and you know, okay, let's see. Sam Darnold finished 11th in that ranking. Yeah, I think you could win a Super bowl with him. If memory serves correctly. You know, Jaden Daniels, Jordan Love, Brock Purdy, Baker Mayfield. Like I go through those guys and say, yeah, I can certainly see those guys in the, in a certain situation winning a Super bowl, you know, if the packers defense improves, you know, like you do a few of these different. And those guys are plenty good enough to win a Super Bowl. Jalen Hurts was 17th in this list and he's won a Super bowl himself, Bo Nix, Daniel Jones, CJ Stroud received the fewest number of points in this poll. And like Bo Nixon, yeah, very arguably, if Bonix was healthy for that playoff game, that he could have been in the Super Bowl.

[Luke Morrow]

Here's the weird thing that I feel conflicted on, because as I've been saying, I think the Texans should be one of the favorites of the afc. Even if Stroud plays like they just did in the regular season last year, even if it's just an average offense, they should be able to win the afc. But then with these lists coming out, which Jeremy Fowler is, you know, heavily involved in these lists, and he's the one that just had that audio that he even referenced. Like, if you look at these top 10 lists. But here's my problem, here's where I'm going. All this is when you look at these top 10 lists, yes, they have a linebacker number six, and yes, they have two cornerbacks in the top 11, and they have two defensive ends in the top six. That's all great, but like, Dalton Schultz wasn't on there. David Montgomery wasn't on there. No offensive lineman was on there. Despite 44 offensive linemen getting votes, C.J. stroud is ranked 20th. Like, we're not even talking about trying to be, or I should say having average players on offense. These are guys that aren't even ranked. Montgomery's was ranked outside of the top 20. Stroud was ranked, you know, whatever, 20th. Like, these are theoretically bottom third of the league at their position. And yet I guess it's a credit to the defense that I still feel like, yeah, but, you know, this team's still good enough to win the afc.

[Seth Payne]

It's that good of a defense. I think that the part about it, that's the part about it that I, you know, rankle against a little bit when it comes to, like, hey, you don't have to have a great offense or anything. People will say, well, look at Sam Darnold, like, all right, I mean, right? But Sam Darnold played a lot differently than C.J. stroud last year. But going into last season, Jackson Smith and Jigba and Cooper cup were not thought of as all that electrifying of a number one and number two wide receiver on that football team. People didn't know what Jackson, Smith and Jigaba was going to look like when he went, when he had to play more outside. And it looked pretty damn good. That's where, you know, credit Clint Kubiak for getting the absolute most out of those guys. You know, Kenneth Walker was. He's too injury prone. He's not consistent enough. He's not enough of a receiving threat. Like, there were a lot of things about that offense that you could look at in the preseason and say, like, I don't know about this. I don't know what they expect to do offensively. And the sum total of the entire unit was that they played pretty damn well. So that part of it, I try to, you know, I try to remind myself of that. But also remember that, yeah, the majority of teams where you say, like, I wouldn't get that excited about these guys on offense. Yeah, they don't give you any reason to get excited about during the season. Don't look at the fantasy football rankings if you don't have to. When it comes to the offensive skill position players for the Texans, just don't look at the fantasy football rankings.

[Luke Morrow]

I can't help it.

[Seth Payne]

Just show up and let the computer make your selections.

[Unknown Commentator]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

On draft day.

[Luke Morrow]

I just read an article yesterday of fantasy football putting the running backs in tears, and they had Montgomery in Tier 7. I didn't know they would go that far.

[Seth Payne]

That's a really understandable one, though, partly just because of the two running back dynamic.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah, fair.

[Seth Payne]

That's what I'm telling myself on that one.

[Luke Morrow]

Pro Football Focus just ranked Montgomery as the 26th best running back in the league. So, you know, that's bottom seven. So the rankings have not been kind for the offense.

[Seth Payne]

I think, honestly, Montgomery. Montgomery doesn't have to be a top 10 running back in the league. He just needs to be really good in short yardage situations and he needs to be, you know, consistently getting positive yardage. And a lot of that just falls back to the offensive line. I mean, so many. There's so many. I've usually got a rule of like, okay, if. Once you get to the third if you're really reaching because it's, you know, it's that parlay thinking. It's how Bill o' Brien was a general manager, you know, like, well, if this deal works out and if this guy exceeds expectations and if. And if we give this guy more money than we should and then you get seven ifs down the line and you're like, okay, this is magical thinking here. It's like, you can't rely on this many ifs. There are a lot of ifs on the Texans offense right now.

[Unknown Commentator]

Absolutely.

[Seth Payne]

But if I get it down to one, if it's the offensive line and it's as simple as that, it's that if the offensive line is definitively improved, improved, then everything else improves by extension. And without saying that no, they become the best offense in football or anything. It's just, that's just simple logic that the offensive line made it a lot harder to operate for every other position on the field last year. If they are better, if they're genuinely better, then there, there aren't a whole lot of ifs after that it'll be an improved offense.

[Luke Morrow]

And speaking of which, I found this interesting from Nate Tice. And this is on the Athletic Football Show. I think they call it something like that. It's Nate Tice's podcast and they do a great job. And Nate Tyson.

[Seth Payne]

Oh no, that's not Nate Tice anymore. That's. That's Robert Mays. Nate Tice left.

[Unknown Commentator]

So.

[Luke Morrow]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

Something else. He's not. I think Nate Tice's podcast is the 301.

[Luke Morrow]

Maybe that's what it is. I'm just going to continue this shtick

[Seth Payne]

of just, just now he might have been on Robert Mays podcast. I think they used to be co hosts. And then touch left. So he might have been on Robert Mays the Athletic Football.

[Luke Morrow]

Okay, here's Nate Tice on the Steve Wilko Show. He's talking about what makes an effective run game. And I think this is a good piece of. This is an interesting piece of audio when we try to compare it to the Texans. Here's what Nate Tice said.

[Unknown Commentator]

Some of these top offense, packers were in seventh, Lions eighth, Dolphins 10th. But you can't take penalties. And I saw that a lot of offenses, they are. Sorry. A lot of referees clamp down on offenses at the line of scrimmage, especially recently, especially this last year. And I think this is where this is. Cheap yards or losing cheap yards, I guess is the best way to put it. Or giving cheap yards to the defense. And so I think it sounds stupid, but there's a lot of to to be said that some of the best running teams are the least penalized teams because they're the smartest teams and they know what they're getting. So penalties happen when, you know, players footwork. When I think of penalties, I just think of holdings and like false starts. Maybe it's my dad, you know, just like I don't think of opi, you

[Seth Payne]

know, anything like that.

[Unknown Commentator]

But it's like these ones that are controllable or at least manageable. And I really do see that the best teams are the ones not shooting themselves in the foot over and over and over. This is where I think the Bears you could see the first four or five, six weeks and the Jaguars, I'd use them, use them as another example, work through their kinks and we're able to get into this heavily. You know, super, you know, like hyper specific game plans with a lot of motion, a lot of shifting, a lot of formation change. Or like the Jaguars and the Rams super packaged plays with long wordy play calls. They were able to get better in the second half of the year and then not put themselves in such bad situations. So even teams that got better, I think that you can look at their just their pre snap penalties and just see that get better or just maybe their offensive penalties I should say. But I really do think this is important and I know this is old school, but it's something that's really stood out to me. It's like it's frustrating to see a lot of teams just not know what they're getting with defenses and hold or get illegal or illegal shift penalties and just stuff because the wide receivers don't know the second play call which was the Jaguars in the first two months of the season. So it's very cool to see some of the teams get better and then it become tangible and I think pre snap and manageable penalties is one of those instances.

[Seth Payne]

The that was on the Athletic Football show, you're correct. We had about 30 minutes of conversation or 30 seconds of conversation that we didn't need to have. So I think the biggest thing about that is that I remember Dom Capers. That was one of the big things he always used to say is more games are lost than won in the NFL. And people would be dismayed sometimes to go into a meeting room and see how many mental errors actually are. Like how many times mental errors are the reason your team lost the game. Look, we saw last year with C.J. gardner Johnson and some of his coverage gaffes. Ultimately you find out through some very quick, very rapidly timed leaks in the media after CJ Gardner Johnson was released that some CJ Gardner Johnson mental errors or technique errors, response to coverage errors were the reason the Texans, or at least a huge reason the Texans lost those first three games on offense. I think that that goes back to a lot of what they're trying to do offensively. It's whenever you add complexity, what ends up happening is guys make mental errors. You do have penalties. Everything that Nate Tice said right there about the Jaguars and those other teams I think I agree with. It's that it's easier said than done. And it looks great on the whiteboard, but there are a lot of moving parts to be able to operate that way. And how quickly you can get it all working together makes a big, big difference. And like last year, things were just gunky. The, the best example of it was the Titans game when Jeffrey Simmons had that sack of C.J.

[Luke Morrow]

stroud.

[Seth Payne]

Remember, it was the fastest sack all year in the NFL because nobody blocked him. It looked like they were running. It looked like there were three different plays being run by different players on the offense. You had four offensive linemen blocking the other defensive tackle that wasn't Jeffrey Simmons. And, and that's the kind of stuff you get when you're just not operating pre snap that well. And they got better at it as the season went along. But, you know, obviously there was a lot about the offense. It still wasn't ready. The hope is that, yeah, now that they've got all those kinks out, they can, they can look more like a team that's not shooting themselves in the foot all the time.

[Luke Morrow]

So that's an interesting perspective and honestly not what I had thought of because obviously you know better than me. You played in the NFL, you were in these locker rooms. Maybe it's unfair of me, but I always hold, if a team is often penalized, I always hold that against the head coach. And it's been one of my biggest complaints under d' Amico where I just looked this up. The Texans were second in penalties his first year. They've been getting better, fifth in year number two, 11th this past year in penalties. So still something that needs to be improved for this team. But I'll be honest, I never did consider the fact of, at least when it comes to those pre snap penalties on offense, that maybe it's just more so about the new offense.

[Seth Payne]

It's tough because whenever you slice into. I used to do this as a player because Tom Coughlin was huge on the penalties and everything that Nate Tice just said. Like, Tom Coughlin's probably aggressive, would be aggressively nodding his head in agreement. And yet at the same time, he would always put up these, he would put up these charts where he'd show the least penalized teams and you'd be like, like without fail, there were at least a few of them that were bad teams and then there were a few of the most penalized teams that were really good teams. Like, the correlation isn't as tight or as simple, but I think when you start breaking it down to like what Nate Tice was saying with the pre Snap penalties and everything. You can probably start to find them out. Some more consistent trends. I thought the thing that he's mentioned in there about the pre snap motion and the audible izing and all of that, I think the, the big takeaway from that, and I'm glad he said it, was that we all want a boatload of pre snap motion. We all want these modernized NFL offenses and everything. I think sometimes people forget that it's not as simple as just saying, hey, this is what we're going to draw up and we're going to have three different motions before the play and then we're going to check to a different. We're going to check to the third play call we had in the huddle. Like every time you add another wrinkle of complexity to it, there's also a much greater chance for a mental error or a penalty. And that's where it does come down to the coaching, Luke. But it's not as, not as simple as just like, oh, you need to be more disciplined about this or you need to yell about it more. It's really about how well are you teaching it and how well are you practicing it. So when you get into a game, guys are relying on their technique and they're not overly thinking or wondering what they're supposed to be doing. That all starts with the coordinators and how they're actually operating in practice. The one that, the thing that still bothers me to this day was that, that Tommy Togi illegal motion down on the goal line at the end of the year. Do you remember when Tommy Togi was the fullback?

[Luke Morrow]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

And after the game, C.J. stroud said, you know, we hadn't practiced at full speed and you know, it was like, we thought we. Something along those lines. I'm like, well, all right. Like, are we really doing this? Really? Just, Just throwing a, just throwing a defensive lineman back there at fullback and hoping for the best. I don't, I don't understand that. And I just, that's, that's, that kind of freaked me out because it makes me wonder like, all right, what the hell is Nick Haley doing as coordinator that you guys are, you guys are trying to add these wrinkles and barely practicing a play that ends up getting penalized during the game.

[Luke Morrow]

Right. I'm with you. I have a vague memory of a team, I don't know who it was. Cowboys, Bears, Lions, somebody. I think was a national game because I remember texting about it with friends recently where they put like the fullback in to hand him the football at the goal line and he fumbled. And I think afterwards after the game he said like, yeah, we never practiced that. Like, we just not the fullback, I should say a different position put in as the fullback to try to have him run it in. And yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Anyway, the problem is there are a bunch of stories also from guys like Tom Brady where they'll say, you know what? We ran that in practice three times and three times and it never worked. But then we got in the game and it worked perfectly. And what people forget about those types of stories is that it's Tom freaking Brady. Okay? Like, that's like, okay, there's a certain, there's a certain level of expectations you have with some quarterbacks, especially when they're veterans, than when you're a team that's just trying to figure things out. So going back to just like the coach being responsible for penalties, that's always the hardest. Balance is how do you figure out how much complexity to add? Like, how much can my team handle right now? Because if you go out there and all you want is perfect execution and you say we're only going to run two plays because we need to have perfect execution. Execution, okay, cool. You'll execute them well, but you're going to get your ass kicked because you're so predictable. But then you so you like, all right, we got to add a little bit more complexity, but we got to be sure we can operate well. So it's always. And like, I don't envy coaches for having to try to find that balance because there's never a perfect, there's never a perfect balance. But it's always like, all right, we got to execute well, but we also have to be diverse. Just how much can we handle right now? And I don't like, honestly, last year the Texans couldn't handle a whole of bunch. Bunch.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, that was a good old football conversation. Get into the to the the depths of it about CJ Stroud and this offense coming up. I might be a day late on this, but after watching the Home Run Derby, I worry about the Netflix ification of sports. We'll talk about that next.

[Seth Payne]

Payne and Pender Guest hey, it's Sydney Sweeney. Sid for short.

[In the Loop Host]

For summer.

[Seth Payne]

I'm in the mood for comfortable. What am I wearing? Where am I going? What's the vibe? The short answer American Eagle shorts. They're cute and go with everything. They just work. It's Sid for short. An American Eagle for summer.

[Podcast Narrator]

Shop my pics [e-mail] Life can feel overwhelming, but on my podcast from The Heart with Rachel Braethan we're in it together. Every Friday brings you a new story. Listen to from the Heart with Rachel Braethan. Wherever you get your podcasts, finding ways to be financially savvy is a smart move. And knowing you can be saving money for the things you really want like that dream home or new ride is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home in auto bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Head to statefarm.com to get a quote. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

[Unknown Commentator]

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[Seth Payne]

The Second World War is the largest event in human history. A 20 part series with Tom Hanks. No part of the globe was untouched, no life unchanged. Experience the ultimate account of World War II.

[Luke Morrow]

Every single person had a story.

[Seth Payne]

These are the stories that make us who we are. Listen to World War II with Tom Hanks on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm worried about the Netflix ification of sports these days after watching that Home Run Derby. Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. Obviously the Home Run Derby was two nights ago, but I was not in yesterday so I wanted to get to this.

[Seth Payne]

No, I'm all for this. You know, we didn't end up talking about the Home Run Derby as much as I thought we were going to yesterday. And I like, I'd love your take on the Netflix Ification of because they, they, they had like a WWE theme for the intros, right? Yeah. Was Will Ferrell involved somehow?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, he was. That was, that was. He was one of the. They started it off with him, Luke Wilson and that Jimmy. What's his name? Jimmy Tatro or something. The actor with the deep voice they started with. Those three guys is like the, the broadcasters and it was hard to hear them first off and I didn't think they added a whole lot and it wasn't really funny. And this is my biggest issue is Look, I know Fox used to do that too. Like, with the World Series, there'd be a random person from, like, the OC in the crowd and they'd highlight them or 9 021, whatever Fox shows, and they would promote their own stuff. I get it. And that's part of the deal. Like, we're paying all this money. We want to promote it. But I think back to opening night of Major League Baseball where we had Bert Kreischer shirtless on the field, like, pumping up the crowd.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, you know what it is? Honestly, Because I had. Look, I really enjoy Will Ferrell, but there's something that's gone on, like, over the course of his career. The problem is when these guys have these really successful, long careers, you start to see, like, okay, they're kind of just kind of doing the same thing they've always been doing. Like, it's like, it's a shtick, and it's a good shtick. But, like, Mike Myers was like that when he was still doing a bunch of stuff. It was like, okay, he's got four or five signature body language things, and, like, that's about it. And you just get. Yeah, it feels awkward and feels forced and. And then it also puts me in the position of being like, ah. I just. These guys aren't that funny in this. In this element, in this moment. It's. It's just. It's not doing it for me.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, Will Ferrell, love his movies. He seems like a great dude. You know, seems like he'd be cool, hang out with. But yes, to your point, honestly, when he does, like, appearances or interviews, and I believe this appearance was as his character, which is. That's. That's what he's been doing. He's been doing the media tour, like, in character. And I, I have to be honest, I. I haven't found him funny in those settings and maybe a decade. And to your point, it's probably because it's just like the same stuff over and over again or the same style. It just doesn't do it for me. But it's just this idea of. And look, it was the Home Run Derby, so I get it. Like, it is kind of a more fun event. It's not as serious of a broadcast, I understand, but this is Major League Baseball's first year. I should say this is Netflix's first year at Major League Baseball. I thought what they did with opening night, as I mentioned the Giants Yankees was like an embarrassment. And it almost turns it into. It becomes like, kind of like the Original XFL with Vince McMahon cutting promos on the field. And the rock is there. And it becomes almost like a caricature of itself. And as we get more sports on these streaming services where they're just, they just want to promote their own stuff.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

It feels like we're going to move in a direction where it gets away from the actual game or sport. And it's more about like, hey, here's this actor from the Netflix show doing this goofy thing and here's this guy in the crowd and it's like, okay,

[Seth Payne]

you know, you know, the most awkward one was, I think it was during the playoffs this year in the NFL playoffs, was a comedian that I love, but it was just a bad fit, which is Nate Bargazzi. Because it was.

[Unknown Commentator]

He's.

[Seth Payne]

He was the worst fit for his whole thing is like being super low key.

[Luke Morrow]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

And just kind of dry and like. And he's hilarious at it. But it's like the exact opposite of that, like getting hyped up, etc. Etc. I like. This is what I like. I like it when they have actors do a highly produced, like 30 to 60 second intro where you have it really dramatic and they're saying something about, you know, like the history of the team or whatever. They got Bradley Cooper doing the east, the Eagles or something like, I like those. But because it feels like a polished part of the intro in like a big production and everything, when they've just got comedians on clowning around, it's a little too much. It feels too much improv. Like, it just feels like it's just. It almost. Yeah. Detracts from whatever, try whatever kind of illusion you're trying to create about how grand this event is.

[Luke Morrow]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

You bring in somebody that's just kinda just kind of goofing around and everything and it's just not so. And it doesn't end up being funny. And it also doesn't really lend any gravitas to the event itself.

[Luke Morrow]

No.

[Seth Payne]

Let me guess. Will Ferrell either acted really dumb or reacted really angry about something. Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Did he act like ridiculously angry about something like that was the character he's playing or did he act like he didn't know where he was?

[Luke Morrow]

Right. Those are his two notes. That's all he's got. But yeah, even like they did the NFL games for Christmas. Netflix did and they had again, Bert Kreischer can't get enough of that guy. And Tom Segura and Seth Rollins because the WWE is on Netflix now. And it's like we don't need these guys. We try to just watch the NFL games. I don't need Tom Segura talking about who knows what when I'm trying to watch the, the Cowboys on Christmas Day.

[Seth Payne]

I feel like. Isn't Seth Rollins, though. Seth Rollins is super eloquent. Right. He's good. And he's a full sports. Yeah. I haven't minded him when he's in those roles because I feel like he's. Again, I feel like he's kind of taking it seriously even though, you know, he's gonna, he's gonna do whatever WWE stuff they end up having him do. I kind of. I get. I actually, I'm not a wrestling fan at all, as Sean will tell you.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And Sean's a huge wrestling fan. I'm always, I find myself always impressed when the wrestlers do stuff like that just because that's their job. Like they're, that's what they do, you know, cutting promos and everything. They tend to, they tend to know, they, they understand the assignment. And I tend to enjoy those guys, even if I don't know who they are.

[Luke Morrow]

I just worry that eventually probably all sports are going to be on streaming services in the near future and this is what they're all going to be.

[Seth Payne]

Apple tv, because of the cross promotional part of it especially. Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Apple TV tried to have. Was it Katie Nolan in the baseball booth? Because she was supposed to be like that cool connection to average fans or whatever. You're supposed to tune in for her insights. I don't know. It was a disaster. They pulled her out of there after less than a year.

[Seth Payne]

Like when they had Katie Nolan. Yeah, Katie Nolan on Apple was called the Fun Ambassador.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, something stupid like that. That's what I mean. Like, what are we doing?

[Seth Payne]

Kind of insulting to Katie Nolan too, because she actually does know her sports. True that. They almost brought her in. Like, Yeah, I don't like it when they bring women in, like, because like, as almost like conspicuously calling attention to the fact that they're women and like, hey, don't worry, guys. She's the fun Ambassador. Like, okay, yeah, all the guys that, all the, all the guys that just, just tend to just knee jerk. Not like women in sports are gonna love calling her the Fun Ambassador. Imagine like if they brought Doris Burke in and they're like, hey, time for gal chat with Doris. We're like, no, she's a really good announcer. Like, you don't have to, you don't have to label it anything other than what she is, which she's a really good announcer. But Katie Nolan doesn't have to be the fun ambassador. And then you ask her to do fun ambassador type stuff and it just like reconfirms anybody that doesn't that doesn't like women in broadcasting. Sports broadcasting, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

It's the classic. But they have a great personality. You know, they.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

So anyways, I just worry about where we're heading with these. Coming up, let's circle back towards this top 100 list that the NFL is continuing to put out. It's starting to remind me of a movie I watched over the weekend. Plus I got a bunch of other thoughts on it as well. We'll get to that next Payne and

[Unknown Commentator]

Pendergast what if upgrading your windows and doors didn't mean tightening your budget? Scratch that. What if it meant spending nothing today for a limited time, renewal by Andersen is offering no money down, no monthly payments and no interest for 18 months on a minimum of six. That means beautiful, energy efficient windows and doors. While the payments wait. Visit renewalbyandersonhome.com today and see how easy it is to buy now and pay later.

[Luke Morrow]

Hey, this is Richard Deitch, 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.

[Seth Payne]

I've been turning down interviews all week. Coda Koppy reached out. Oprah, George Stephanopoulos so I said no. I was booked on the Deitch podcast

[Luke Morrow]

before the Taylor Swift phenomenon.

[Seth Payne]

I must live up to my responsibility.

[Luke Morrow]

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Narrator]

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[Luke Morrow]

Let's talk about this top 100 list. Starting to remind me a little bit of a movie I just watched. Plus, can we take it seriously at this point? Have you ever taken it seriously? To be honest with you, Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. You could always text the show 7135-724610-71357, 24-610.

[Seth Payne]

So this is my basic objection with the top 100 list. It's that the way that it works is players are given ballots where they list their top 20 players in the league. And whenever you do something like that, but then use it to create a list of the top 100, especially like in the back half of the rankings. Those rankings are just so completely and totally meaningless. Like, like Bryce Young is in the top 100 according to the NFL player vote this year. I'm guessing that means that like one Alabama grad or one close friend of Bryce Young put him into the top 20. Where no rational human being or unbiased human being would put. Would put Bryce Young in the top 20 of NFL players right now. That. But any of the guys that, like, if the, if there was a way to say who the 21st best player was in the league or something, you know, somehow like he. And nobody would vote for him in the top 20 and he's not on the list at all. But like Bryce Young because he gets, I'm guessing one, maybe two votes or something inside the top 20. He's. He makes a list of top 100 players in the NFL. It's such a stupid list. And yet because it's a list and because people sucker. Are suckers for rankings, we. We buy into it and we look at it as a, as either a damnation or a confirmation of how we feel about a certain player.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, with that said, let me ask you then, with Lamar Jackson, that was the big news, the big takeaway with him coming in ranked, what, number 69, which was a drop from number two last year to 69. What a huge drop off that is. My goodness.

[Seth Payne]

In a year where he was banged up and injured the entire year. Yeah, I like it. Doesn't make any sense. Like it's. Yes. Yes. Should you stop taking it seriously? If you haven't already, then by. By all means, yes, you should stop taking it seriously. Lamar Jackson is considered the 69th best player in football after being number two last year on this list.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, that was gonna be my question of does it make people. Should it make you feel better about CJ Stroud if he's in front of Lamar Jackson now on this list? Or does it make this whole thing feel like we can't even count it? Because how could you have Lamar at 69?

[Seth Payne]

I hope CJ Stroud is. Shows up this list just to further confirm how idiotic this list is. It's so. And it's an insult. It's like, think about, I guess like hypothetically, this isn't like the, a real case scenario obviously, but if there's a, if there's a player that's like especially interior offensive lineman or something that if there was a way to actually determine, okay, this guy's the 40th best player in football and everybody agrees on it. All right, well, nobody's going to vote for him in the top 20. But meanwhile, some of the more polarizing players or the high profile players or what have you, or guys that played for big time schools where they got a lot of friends who are also in the league that might do a guy a solid and say I'm going to put Bryce Young in my top 20 that like those guys end up getting ranked. Well, the, the guys that are more consensus solid players have like less of a chance of even making the list because they're not, they're definitively not top 20 players. But they're also, you know, they're better than Bryce Young and that, I mean, the other part of it is that you're taking, you know, you know, guys are ranking out of a pool of 1800 players, like these are the top 20 in any different position. So they're going to heavily weight quarterbacks more so than other positions. I just, yeah, lamar Jackson being 69th on this is or 67th, 69th after being number two last year is. That's all the confirmation I need that it's a bogus, stupid list. And it's not bogus in the sense that it's that they're messing with the votes or anything. It's bogus mathematically. It's just a stupid process.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, with that said, humor me here for a moment. Okay, Talk about this a little bit further. Say Stroud is on this list somewhere and the next name will be announced in just under an hour, top of the hour and then, you know, an hour after that as we, as we'll sign off for the morning and we'll see if Shroud makes an appearance today. But let's say he does wind up on this list and he's ahead of Lamar Jackson. Now this is done by obviously as he laid out players in the league and what they think of their peers and you know, the fellow quarterbacks in the league. And as you also just said, it could be doing favors, it could be this or that, you know, politics come into it, whatever. It might not be the most accurate study or way to do this. But with all that said, safe Stroud is considered by other players in The NFL as now better than Lamar Jackson, at least the time of this polling late in the season. I have a couple questions. First one being how big of a difference can we then say the playoffs truly made in. If around Christmas time, they're saying, oh, he's a better quarterback than Lamar Jackson. But then after what we saw in the playoffs, now you have like, even the NFL executive saying, oh, he's not even a top 20 quarterback.

[Seth Payne]

Right, right. So that. Because they vote before the playoffs begin, I think that I, like, regardless of what the results are on this. This particular poll or anything, because, like, okay, so lamar Jackson is 69th because maybe he got a couple. Let's say he got five votes in the top top 20. Let's say you got three votes in the top 20. But then C.J. stroud gets four votes in the top 20.

[Unknown Commentator]

That.

[Seth Payne]

That somehow, like, that's a reflection of how the league at large feels about him. That's a little bit dicey. I do think that if there is a chance that C.J. stroud is in this because he's been in it the last couple of years. If he is in it, it was obviously before the playoffs. I don't. I think if they had done the voting after the playoffs. Yeah, there's not. I don't think there's a chance in hell that he. He's going to be as high as he might possibly be if he is in it. I just. Yeah. I want maximum mayhem here, though. I hope he ends up. I hope that because he was being so maligned even. Even as the season was going on this year, you know, and maybe people really felt like, no, I'm a ball knower. There's certain players like, I'm a ball knower. I know that CJ's still the guy that they put him up there just as a way to prop him up almost, that he ends up in the top 50 or even higher than he was last year. That's. That's what I really dream of. Not because it has any actual relevance, but because it's gonna piss people off. And then if CJ ends up ranked in this, in the top 100 or even higher than he should be, I will go on social media and act like it's the only correct outcome.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I will. I will become the. I will become the best troll ever and tell. Tell everybody. You see, you see, this is exactly. This is exactly what people who are ball knowers say, that he's one of the best 50 in the league. Damn it.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. What would Be the better story. If C.J. stroud is ranked, say, in the top 30 on this list, or if he's left out of the top 100 overall, what would be the bigger story or better?

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Top 30, right? Yeah, top 30. 100%. That's what. That's what America needs right now.

[Luke Morrow]

This list does remind me, as I said, of a movie I watched this weekend, which is called the Drama. Really good movie. I recommend it to anybody out there. And no spoilers. This is set up very early on in the movie. It's the whole premise of the movie. But they're heading towards a wedding. It's these two. Ya. It's this young couple played by Robert Pattison and Zendaya, and they really love each other. And they're writing their vows, you know, separately, and it shows how much they like each other. Anyways, then they. They get thrown a curveball with one basic. With one answer of a question, and it throws the whole wedding into question. And that's what the whole movie's about. And as I keep seeing these names come out, like we all thought it was a guarantee. Oh, yeah. C.J. stroud's in the top 100, just like everyone thought. It's a guarantee. These two love each other. They're getting married next week. And then with one little thing there, you start to question it. And as more quarterbacks come out, I mean, I still believe Stroud's going to be on this list somewhere, but when you see lamar Jackson at 69th, it's like, oh, man, I don't know anymore. Now I'm throwing into question whether he is going to wind up anywhere in this top 100. This whole thing seems out of whack now.

[Seth Payne]

This, this movie, the drama.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, great.

[Seth Payne]

I don't think I'm giving away anything here. This is in the. The description on Wikipedia. I won't say too much, but basically there's a point where they. They start confessing horrible things that they've done.

[Luke Morrow]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

In their past. And is that. Is that what ends up being the, like, the big disconnect between them thinking, like, what the hell? What the hell am I getting into here?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. So that's it. They're their best friends. They're out drinking. So they're all drunk. Drunk. And their best friends are a married couple. And they said, hey, before we got married, we had to tell each other the worst thing we've ever done in our lives.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, screw that.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, right. So then they go around the room.

[Seth Payne]

Wait, are they saying that a Therapist made them do that or.

[Luke Morrow]

No, no. They want before they could marry each other. Like, I have to know the worst thing you've ever done.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Oh, my God.

[Luke Morrow]

So the four of them go around the room and share the worst thing they've ever done. And one of their answers really throws the rest of the group for a loop.

[Seth Payne]

It's really, really bad. Oh, I think they.

[Luke Morrow]

I think part of the movie is to show, like, the lack of empathy. Like, I thought they all overreacted and so. Okay, I don't think this is a spoiler to say it shows how she. How they treat people, but how they don't get treated back. Like, the same way kind of shows just. It's like a character thing of, you know, how people are treated.

[Seth Payne]

So, yeah, don't say anymore. I'm intrigued enough right now. I'm gonna go watch it.

[Luke Morrow]

I thought it was really good. I saw the trailers before it came out. I've been waiting for this movie. Finally watched it this weekend. And I'm a tough critic for movies, as I'm sure people can tell by now. But I really did like this one. I thought it was one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

[Seth Payne]

Would you rank it in the top 100 of NFL players? If you. Is it a better movie than CJ Stroud as a quarterback?

[Luke Morrow]

I would say so. I enjoyed watching this movie a lot more than I enjoyed the Texas. Watching the Texans offense this past.

[Seth Payne]

Okay. Oh, that's good. It made the NFL players top 100 players list. That's good.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

We're watching the Diplomat now, and we're in the third season, which I think is the most recent season. And all of a sudden, with no spoilers or anything, but I'm curious about people who watch this. I'm at a point in this season where I'm like, holy crap. Like, a couple of these characters are doing a horrible, horrible thing that I didn't think was. I didn't think what? I thought that these people actually loved America and were like those public servants who genuinely just wanted to do right by America. But all of a sudden, they start doing a really sketchy. A really, really sketchy thing. And I'm just waiting. Now I'm like, I'm hoping that it's something happens within the live of the final few episodes where this isn't. Like, this isn't the case, but it's. I don't know if I can watch the next season if they just, they kind of threw it in as a plot twist where I'm like, this is an awful, awful thing they're doing. And like the heroes, the heroes of this show who I kind of felt like they, they were set apart and at least like they were trying to do right by America are just being completely self serving. They're not in my top 100 right now. Like they fell in the rankings. They were in my top. They're in my top 20 of citizenry. And like now they're not even anywhere close.

[Luke Morrow]

They're like stroud. They started off in that, you know, towards that top 20 list. And then the more you watch, it's like I got to keep dropping them, got to keep dropping them in the rankings.

[Seth Payne]

These. So these two young engaged people where they start disclosing the awful things they've done in their life, which I think is a horrible, horrible thing to do.

[Podcast Narrator]

Do.

[Seth Payne]

Did you go? I do feel like, I feel like I remember there's like when you're young, you feel like you need to know the entire past and history of your girlfriend and, and it's just, and you just don't like, you just, you really, you really don't, you know. You know, people don't need to know exactly who, who you were or your other was, you know, every little bit before you, before you got together.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, for sure. Yeah. As you get older, I think you realize that, you know what, what? Similar to the whole what mama, don't know, won't hurt her type of thing.

[Seth Payne]

No, I'm at where basically I, you know, I've gotten to know my wife's high school boyfriend a little bit and like, the more I get to know him, and I've known him for like 20 years now, but I grow more and more disgusted with her that she ever dumped him. Awesome dude. Awesome dude. Yeah. Like, how the hell, like this guy, this guy is so cool. Like, what the hell's. Right to the point where I'm kind of like, when are you gonna dump me? Because if you could dump him, what the hell?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, it's true. That's high praise.

[Seth Payne]

And they're like, are you jealous? No, no. I'm pissed at her for breaking this guy's heart.

[Luke Morrow]

That's high praise for you though. That, that's the bar that was set and you exceeded that bar.

[Seth Payne]

You know, it is one of those classic things of just, you know, there's a time everybody's always young people again. They're sometimes concerned with like finding the one or your soulmate. Or whatever. One of the big things about your soulmate is the time and the place and the set in which you meet. And a lot of this stuff that comes, you know, like, there's. There's only that one time in moment in life where you might have met that person at the right. Under the right circumstances. And then everything that happens after that is also incredibly unique. So it's like. It's not like there's always, like, one genetic blueprint person out there that's gonna be perfect for you. It's always got to be the right time and place. I think if my wife had met her high school boyfriend when they were both 30 years old, it would probably be a completely different story.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. That's the thing with a lot of those young relationships. And. Yeah, timing is everything. Of course, in all things in life.

[Seth Payne]

Nobody. I was not marriage material for the first quarter century in my life. You'd be an idiot.

[Luke Morrow]

I think most men are not. Yeah, I think the men have. You should wait on the men.

[Seth Payne]

I ran across a list of the worst hobbies, the least attractive to hobbies that men have for women, and it sounds pretty accurate. Least, at least attractive hobby to women. If you're a man, you have. It is if you're deep into the manosphere on social media. Like the whole, like, alpha male stuff and everything.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, that makes sense.

[Seth Payne]

Or especially, like, where they get a hardcore into basically trying to say that women are evil and everything. I feel like that's a pretty big red flag. Second, second least popular is gambling, followed by porn as the third least popular. I was a little bit surprised that gambling was even lower rated than porn on this.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I'm with you. Porn should be higher, I guess. You can't put it above that. Number one on the list. That's fair. But pornography is almost like, you know, it's kind of like it could be the alternative for people.

[Seth Payne]

If it's something that you call your hobby, like, that's a different. Like that's a different level of. Like, if you have. If a girl comes to your place and it's. You know, it's like women understand that young men are gonna be young men or whatever. But, like, if all. If you got, like, you know, posters of various actresses and everything up on your wall, and maybe you're spending, like, a huge portion of your income on OnlyFans. Yeah, that's a. That's a gigantic red flag right there.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But then marijuana is a hobby also. Very unpopular from amongst women.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Well, food bill. Food bills gonna be too high. Yeah. You know, they don't want. I would think video games would be high up there, but video games are.

[Seth Payne]

No, no, no. Video games are. Yeah, video games are not. You know what? They messed this up because video games were one of this list is a little weird, actually. I think it's wrapped into one of

[Luke Morrow]

the other categories because video games can be very seclusive. Like, you just play by yourself. You want to be in your room, you know, like, you kind of. You just shut yourself off to the world and secluded. And I question.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, so these are the best hobbies. This is information that our young man. Young men can use.

[Luke Morrow]

That's right.

[Seth Payne]

The 15 most attractive hobbies to women. So if you're a man and you have these hobbies. Number one, reading.

[Luke Morrow]

Huh?

[Seth Payne]

Number two, foreign languages. Number three, playing an instrument.

[Luke Morrow]

All right.

[Seth Payne]

Number four, cooking.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, that's a big one.

[Seth Payne]

This is number five, I feel is, like, where everything would meet. Where, like, I think most men would say, like, oh, that's a manly thing to do, but most women like it way more than I would have thought. Woodworking.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So you could see, like, that's cool. Like, you know, if you hear the guys into woodworking and he's got a shop or something, as a guy, you're like, oh, crap.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I'm jealous.

[Seth Payne]

Way more manly than me. Yeah. But women are also thinking the same thing. Those got this one guy who's into anime, but then I got this other guy who's into woodworking. They're gonna prefer the woodworking dude.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, for sure. Sure. That's a good top five. I can't argue with any of those five. On the most attractive hobbies. I'm curious where mansplaining the Astros injury history would rank on the list, because I have that going for me.

[Seth Payne]

How so?

[Luke Morrow]

Just, like, talking her ear off of, like, you. You don't get it, though. Kyle Tucker. Two years ago, they told us it was a shin bruise. You know, just talking her ear off about random sports, things that she couldn't

[Seth Payne]

care less and she really just doesn't care about.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I get.

[Seth Payne]

You know where I get upset is when. When my wife asks me what, like, what a player's specific injury. So they're like, so why is he on the il? And I'm like, do you expect me to keep track of all this discomfort? I don't know. And then I get embarrassed because, I don't know, off the top of my head, you know, I'm embarrassed that I'm supposed this is kind of the thing that she probably thinks like, oh, yeah, I mean, you're not into woodworking, but you're kind of a manly man. You, you probably. And it is your job after all. You probably know exactly what Pena's injury is or whatever at any given time.

[Unknown Commentator]

That's your.

[Luke Morrow]

That's just going to be. That has to be the out in those scenarios. Just I'm going to go do some woodwork and then flips the switch.

[Seth Payne]

I was like, oh, excuse me, I'm sorry. I was whittling a stick. I didn't hear what you said.

[Luke Morrow]

Exactly.

[Seth Payne]

Turn this watch going to turn this into a an arbor is what I'm going to do.

[Luke Morrow]

That's right.

[Unknown Commentator]

Right.

[Luke Morrow]

That'll get them going. Coming up, the thing that bothers me Mo. Oh, I did have one other thought that we'll circle back to later on about this top 100 list as more names come out later this morning. But coming up, the thing that has annoyed me the most about the Rockets this off season and Kevin Durant calling out somewhat one of our own. We'll get to that next pain and Pendergast.

[Podcast Narrator]

The podcast Campus Files is back with

[Luke Morrow]

more stories of scandal, crime and intrigue on college campuses.

[Seth Payne]

It is not hard to destroy a college. It's almost like a university on a seat.

[Podcast Narrator]

Listen to and follow Campus Files available

[Luke Morrow]

now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Narrator]

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[In the Loop Host]

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[Seth Payne]

for every rebound Modelo or that just clocked out Modelo.

[In the Loop Host]

That Modelo you earned is just better.

[Seth Payne]

That Modelo is the mark of a fighter. Drink responsibly. Being reported by Crown and Port Chicago, Illinois.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm Dana Carvey. I'm David Spade. Fly on the Walls Back for another season now on audio and video every Monday and Thursday. So many incredible guests will be joining us.

[Seth Payne]

Follow and listen to Fly on the

[Luke Morrow]

Wall Everywhere you get your podcasts too

[Unknown Commentator]

good to be True.

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[Luke Morrow]

Maybe the most frustrating part of the Rockets offseason. It's Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. 713-572-4610 on the text line. Appreciate all y' all reaching out.

[Seth Payne]

I don't appreciate the guy that thinks that because I don't want to tell my wife the worst thing I've ever done that it must be really, really bad. No, no, no. It's more a matter of trying to power rank the bad things I've done. I gladly tell her the worst thing, but first I need to, you know, submit a ballot to NFL players and have them power rank them for me.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's fair. Yeah, I'm just looking through all the text coming and appreciate you guys listening and reaching out. Shifting, though, over to the Rockets here because I saw this was pointed out, actually by Adam Spillane and it was a, it was a good point made. And I think it's the most frustrating part is we know it's been a quiet off season for the Rockets and I can get it from a player perspective because their hands are sort of tied right now. But the other thing we were all clamoring for as we were watching the playoffs or even the regular season was the lack of like an offensive coach

[Seth Payne]

for this team, like an offensive coordinator. The same way Jeff Bizdelic was a defensive coordinator for the Rockets when Mike d' Antoni was here. That, you know, he brought in Jeff Bizdelic and the defense like, like Mike d', Antoni's, you know, system has always had his defensive deficiencies and it's difficult in some ways because you got to account for the way they play on offense. But like Jeff Bizdelic did things that got the most out of a bunch of guys defensively on those teams. And you don't, you don't get the sense that the Rockets even, you don't get the sense the Rockets even give a damn that their head coach isn't is all about defense. And isn't that, you know, an offensive minded guy?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah. And that's the frustrating part is because like I said, I get it if your hands are tied, your strap cat, your cash strapped, whatever, you can't add the players you want. But there's no salary cap for the coaching staff. Like, you can bring in whoever you want. And it just seems like a stubbornness or unwillingness to try to bring somebody in on the staff to help. Udoka, who clearly seems like he needs some offensive help. And then you look around the, the other parts of the league, the spurs, who were just in the NBA Finals and granted have a young head coach so he can benefit from having a unexperienced coach by his side, but they brought in Billy Donovan to be their quote, unquote, offensive coordinator. The warriors, who have Steve Kerr, who's like regarded as one of the best coaches in the league, they brought in Frank Vogel to be their offensive coordinator this offseason and that was after having Mike Brown previously as their quote, unquote offensive coordinator before Mike Brown just left for the Knicks this past year. And so you see the spurs just in the Finals adding to their offensive staff. The warriors, as good as Kerr has been in that franchise has been recently, even they add. And yet the Rockets, it's like, man, they're not adding much on the roster and they're not adding anything to the coaching staff. This truly is just simply running it back from last year from a healthier perspective. I get that. But running back the same plan from last year and just hoping it's different this time.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, right. And I mean the other, the only thing that's different about the plan is that, all right, if you've got, you've got a veteran point guard in there, presumably he's not going to tear his ACL again right before the season begins. That, I mean, that does, that does smooth a lot of the issues that they had over last year. But also still, you know, it doesn't, doesn't make you feel awesome about their, their ability to fix some of the other issues that might arise during the season. It does. The, the running it back part I'm cool with. And I've come to terms with the fact that, that having a point guard on the team, a veteran point guard on the team should make a big, big difference. But that also he's going to be one year older. I would imagine he's going to, just because of age and injury, that his defense might not, you know, be as much of a. An advantage for him coming off of that injury, that it just. It still seems like a little bit of a half measure. Like, if you're. Even if you're a really good team, like every team in every sport after they win a championship, the coach will invariably, at some point say, well, it's never as simple as just coming back, and all of a sudden you're the same team. But it feels like the Rockets aren't even doing that. They're saying, like, well, no, we'll just, you know, we'll add a little thing, a few things around the edges, but by and large, we just want to run it back to July of 2025, you know, and we'll run back that version of what we wanted. And it's just. It's frustrating. It's like. It's sometimes. Sometimes inaction is actually the best course of action. But there's got to be a limit to it, and there's. There's got to be a little bit more than just assuming that. Man, we had a good plan last year in July, before. Before. Before the injury, before the Van Vliet injury. So now we still think it's a really good plan.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, And I get that. It's just tough to try to run it back. It's almost like when you try to plan the perfect, like, date for your girlfriend or someone you're taking out on a date, and you have all these things lined up and, like, okay, we're gonna do this. Then we'll do this, and we're gonna do this, and just. Let's just say something went wrong. And so, like, you missed the fireworks. That was supposed to be. We're all. We were supposed to be in the park at this time to see the fireworks, but dinner ran too long. And so the following week, it's like, hey, what are we doing Friday night? And you say, well, we're going to try to do the same thing we did last week, except this time we're going to make sure we see the fireworks. It's kind of lame. Like, it's not very exciting to just try to do it again. It's like the people that try to duplicate. We had such a great date this one time. We had such a great trip to the Bahamas. Like, let's go back to that resort. And it's never quite the same when you try to do it again. It's never as good as you think it's going to be.

[Seth Payne]

The thing that surprises me is that, you know, Fertitta was the owner when they rehired Vizdelik. Visdelic had been with the Rockets, they were top five defense. He ended up kind of abruptly retiring because some kind of family situation and they fell off a cliff. Then they hired him back and I think the results weren't the same, but it was also after he'd had all this turmoil in his personal life. Somebody will correct me on the text, on the, on the timeline, on all of that, but Fertitta has seen exactly the difference that it made when Mike d', Antoni, an offensive minded coach, had a counterpart in Jeff Bezdelic on his staff. And there doesn't seem to be any kind of wanted to go back to that. Well, of like, all right, let's, let's address things on multiple fronts. Let's. It's not just about the players on the court. It's about the entire system and the coaching staff and everything else like that. That's the part, the running it back from that perspective is actually in my mind worse than the running it back on the player side. So on the coaching side, what did we see last year? On the player side, we saw, okay, boy, without Van Vliet in there, things really got gunked up offensively. And that is not the way it needs to look. But at the very least you can say, all right, well, but if Van Vliet comes back, then we won't have that same number of issues. But in going through that season, you saw very much the deficiencies of this coaching staff being able to engineer any kind of a dependable and reliable and structured offense in the absence of Jeff Van Vliet. Like, why, let's, let's try to do something about that and maybe, maybe it will come at some point in the next month or two. But that's, it's kind of late to be adding the, like, all the, all the guys that want to coach and are good coaches are under contract.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, it just, I, I think it's, it's like stubbornness and it reminds me of when Nirvana was, was putting together their iconic album and Kurt Cobain didn't want to layer his vocals. You know, just have two different tracks of his vocals doing both parts. And the producer said, hey, John Lennon did it. And then Kurt Cobain realized like, okay, if it was cool enough for John Lennon, then I guess I can layer my vocals. And that's a bit of a deep cut of a reference. But my point being, if the spurs can do it, who are just in the NBA finals and if Steve Kerr can do it, who's regarded as one of the best coaches in the league. And even he's like, yeah, I need an offensive coordinator, then IME Adoka and the Rockets should do it as well. And that stubbornness there of like, nah, we're good, we got this under control, when clearly you haven't. That's even more frustrating to me than, than the lack of free agent signings, which. Which I can understand that a little bit better. There's more excuses you can make for that, but not for the coach.

[Seth Payne]

I wonder though. Okay, so you tell me me, you know a lot more about music than I do, but tell me if I'm wrong here. The, The Beatles didn't start doing a lot of that stuff with layering vocals and everything until they started using the multi track recording. And that, that was, that was after they had already established that they would layer John Lennon's voice. Like when they were just a young raw band, they were like the, the, like the studio version of their songs was the same as their in concert version of the songs. Right?

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah, right. And so actually for the Beatles, what happened, and it's why I think it really elevated them was they. They were touring so much, they finally stop in like whatever it was 1966 and the last like four years, they. Yeah, they were just recording music and able to spend more time in the studio, which is why they were able to like experiment and do these different things and produce I think, even greater music.

[Seth Payne]

But that turns into. Yeah, and they didn't even want to perform live. But then you can't. You also can't replicate those songs in a live setting. I like, I like the guy. I like Kurt Cobain really screwed up on that. He's got a. He probably feels awful about it. He should have kept it as raw as possible. Possible to the point where the, like you're. You're a young band. Like, you know, the, the. When you go to a Nirvana concert, you're going to get exactly what you hear about on the. What you, what you hear on the album. Damn it. Yeah, they're never going to make it, these kids.

[Luke Morrow]

It's fair. Tom Petty was my favorite musician of all time and I always hated when he played Free Falling live. At least in later years. He used his voice from like the album copy as the backing track when he sang. Just so he was still singing in person, but then you'd hear it in the background. Is like almost like the harmony, the recorded version.

[Seth Payne]

Like poor to hire a singer he had sing.

[Luke Morrow]

I don't know why he did it. Well, his. His best background singer did pass away, but. But they had another guy, Scott Thurston, who was good. I don't know. I don't know why he did it, but that always annoyed me because, yeah, to your point, it's like, I want to see you guys perform this live. I don't want to hear, like, a recording used in your concert. That's. That's weird to me, but so be it.

[Seth Payne]

Rocket, I think we're talking about this. I had never realized that Dave Grohl's the Foo Fighters first album. He played every instrument on that. That, like, that was him just, like, going into a studio and recording every instrument and him doing all the vocals and everything. And, like, so when he. When it came time to tour, he had actually, like, find. Find an actual band for the Foo Fighters that wasn't just Dave Grohl. It would. He would add a hard time pulling off playing every instrument and doing the vocals.

[Luke Morrow]

That would be fascinating.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Which reminds me of that whole thing when, like, Kanye into Beck, the musician Beck Hanson. One, like, album of the year, I think it was. And Kanye disrespected him because I think it was supposed to be Beyonce. I think he did it twice. I think he did it once, like Taylor Swift, but he also did it to Beck. Or people were upset that Beck won the album over Beyonce. But same thing. Beck. What people didn't realize was he did every album. He played every instrument on the album. He produced it himself. Like, that was true musical talent, as opposed to just singing and having 20 people write your songs and lay down social media videos.

[Seth Payne]

I really like where one dude does, like, three different characters on a social media.

[Unknown Commentator]

Exactly.

[Luke Morrow]

That is talent.

[Seth Payne]

I do like those.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Somebody's having an argument with himself, like, just in a different costume.

[Luke Morrow]

They throw a wig on or something.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Coming up, I will pay off the tease. We didn't get to it there, but Kevin Durant had some things to say. Also, we have yet to address, or I guess even on this show, Pain and Pender gas. You guys have yet to address the Matt Miller story, and we got the video yesterday. Let's talk about it next. Payne and Pendergast. We got this. We have more. We have the video. Now to this wild Matt Miller story. We'll get to that. Plus Kevin Durant taking shots at people. Pain and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. You can always join the conversation. 713-572-4610. On the text line, or in the YouTube and Twitch chats as well. Appreciate you hanging with us. Let's do the Durant stuff first. I guess this is just, it's just a quick little like, kind of like a drive by thing, but Kevin Durant, I guess I just saw this in the Athletic. I didn't see the actual post on Instagram, but he took to Instagram to take a shot at some prominent sports analysts, including a guy who used to sit in these seats over here, Nick Wright, where Durant said basketball would actually move forward if Nick Wright wasn't involved.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah, strong words. I think Nick. Nick has. Nick in the NBA world is a guy that has, I think, like a certain influence or notoriety that's like, like way higher than, than you might expect just based on either like Fox, Fox Sports ratings or anything like that. Like, he's. Whether people love him or hate him, they. They tend to know what Nick Wright has been saying and talking about. And he seems to get under. He seems to get under NBA players, skins pretty effectively.

[Luke Morrow]

That's true for sure. Apparently Durant's here. He also said about his cohort there at Fox Sports, Colin Coward, he said, pack that lame. I think he called him something other than his name. But in the Athletic, they just put his name in parentheses, which usually means he called them something other than his name that they don't want to print. But pack that lame blank up about Colin Cowherd. So there you go. You two are aligned, you and Durant, with the, the lack.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah. I'm not a huge fan of Colin Coward. Yeah, yeah, you love him. He's your favorite person on earth. He said you'd leave your wife in a second if Colin Coward said to do it.

[Unknown Commentator]

That's right.

[Seth Payne]

Basically, he's a religion for you.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, whatever you say, Uncle Colin. Yeah, that's right.

[Seth Payne]

Wait, now, what did he say about Nick?

[Luke Morrow]

About Nick Wright?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Oh, that's. Oh, yeah, the basketball. Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Would move forward if Nick wasn't involved.

[Seth Payne]

That's. Yeah. If anything, that's the one thing that, like, that's what's changed a lot is that I think for the most part, athletes used to kind of like, they might take a shot at Skip Bayless or something. But I don't. You know, I feel like the level of animosity between athletes and people in sports media has really, really been amplified because of social media, which, like, sounds like an obvious statement, but, like to say that the sport would move forward if Nick Wright would shut up. Like, exactly how, like what's you might disagree with Nick Wright's opinions, but what is he doing exactly to detract from the sport? Just because you hate his opinions, could you make the argument that. Okay, because the fans don't. Fans are being fed, like, bad narratives and everything. So they don't. They don't relate to the game or the players the way they used to.

[Luke Morrow]

I think that would be their case, is that, yeah, like, people are turned off by the NBA because of what Nick Wright is saying on TV in the afternoon.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

I don't know how much of an impact that has. That probably for some people. They probably listen in, like, look, there's Colts for a reason. People listen to anything somebody says and take it as gospel. So. But I think it's the old, you know, all publicity is good publicity type of thing that, like, it's better they're talking about the NBA than not talking about it at all. Even if it's not how Durant would prefer.

[Seth Payne]

Right. There are a lot of things that Stephen A. Smith and Nick Wright say about the NBA that a boatload of NBA fans vehemently disagree with or just, you know, call those guys bums or whatever because. Because they're. They're sticking up for the NBA players. Yeah, I disagree with Kevin Durant on this.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I also don't like. I don't like seeing Kevin. Honestly. I just. I'd be the happiest man on earth if I found out that, you know, Kevin Durant's going to try something new this year. He's going to put his phone down. He's just like, it's not just the burner accounts, it's social media in general. He's going to be as clear and focused as possible because nobody who is. Nobody who is terminally online will ever admit to it being an issue at all. They can all handle it. No, it's cool. Like, I don't get sensitive whatsoever. Like, ah, you know, your emotions are getting tweaked if you're that much online. So I, Yeah, I would love it. And I'm coming off a season in which the best player on my basketball team allegedly was talking smack about his teammates on a burner account. And then I'm being told by others to not think too much of that, and it shouldn't. It's not actually that big a deal. Don't die. Well, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. When in your life have you found out that a co worker was talking smack about you, like, in a really derisive fashion, where you thought like, hey, no big deal. Everything's awesome at work. We'll be cool. Like, bygones are bygones are bygones. No, I just. I just want that. I want that one variable removed. I'd be in heaven if I had that.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm with you. And apparently he's moved from Twitter to Instagram because this was on Instagram. Not a burner account, but he's taken his trash talking.

[Seth Payne]

Somebody was telling me last week. Was it you who was telling me that I got to get on Instagram because it's actually a kinder, gentler place to be?

[Luke Morrow]

No, it wasn't me. I'm not on Instagram. Yeah, I'm not on any. I hardly use social media.

[Seth Payne]

Somebody was painting out Instagram like it's this Shangri La of positivity. And now I see that Kevin Durant's telling people to get fired on Instagram. It doesn't sound all that positive. Positive to me.

[Luke Morrow]

It's that faux positivity. It's a bunch of people pretending their lives are something they're not. That's on Instagram. Make you feel worse about your life. Because you see, like, how are. How's this person doing all these crazy things? And it's really just like, you know,

[Seth Payne]

what's your favorite type of positivity? The people that are just way too positive about their. Their spouse, their finances, or maybe their faith. Those probably the three big ones. Right. Kind of starts raising a red flag when you're like, oh, God, this woman. This woman is posted on Facebook every single day about how she's got the best husband on Earth. What's going on there?

[Unknown Commentator]

Right.

[Luke Morrow]

Overcompensating. Yeah, there's really something going on behind the scenes, and they're just trying to project a certain image. Yeah, all three of those are annoying. Um, by the way, we don't have really enough time to get into it, but Matt Miller, for those that have been following the story, we just got the video yesterday of the actual crash.

[Seth Payne]

We should probably lay it out. Yeah.

[Podcast Narrator]

All right.

[Luke Morrow]

Try to do it the best. Yeah, try to do it in 30 seconds. Like the Terry and Arnold thing.

[Seth Payne]

ESPN draft analyst who got in an accident, lost his arm a few weeks ago, and put up a GoFundMe. And when he put up this GoFundMe, a lot of people started coming out with all these stories about basically how they'd been. They had never received payments in fantasy football leagues that he was running. People questioning whether he actually donated charity. Donated money to charity and various other Fundraisers he's done, while at the same time he definitely 100% did have this awful car accident where he lost his arm. And I've kept this, I almost said it in arm's length. That would be poor taste. I've kept away from this just because I don't know how to dive into this other than that. Like, man, it's a, it's a murky situation because he definitely lost his arm, which is a horrible thing.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And yet at the same time people are questioning like, okay, yeah, but he's asking for a GoFundMe. But he's also like been accused of, of duping a whole bunch of people out of fundraisers in the past.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. So there have been conspiracy theories because the, what's that expression? The chickens are coming home to roost? Before, before this all happened, people finally had enough and were starting to reach out to executives or co workers at ESPN and be like, hey, your employee Matt Miller has been scamming people and hasn't been paying us, you know, the money we owed for years. And so people have had conspiracy theories that either either this was somewhat intentional, this car accident because the walls were closing in around him or, and I wouldn't go this far, but the idea of he went through all this trouble to be able to get money through the GoFundMe to then pay people. Cuz there were people saying, hey, suddenly I just finally got my money three years later, you know, while he's been in the hospital. So there's been all sorts of conspiracy theories floating around, fair or not, about this scenario and Matt Miller. And we got the video yesterday of the actual accident where he crosses the center line and hits into the, the front end of an 18 wheeler.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And it's a scary looking video. Like I would say, like if any, I'm like, yeah, whichever people speculating about, you know, whether it was intentional or not, I just, it was, I texted you after I saw that. The one thing that I know for sure is that I will, you will never catch me texting and driving again. Because it's not clear that that's what he was doing, but it was like, it looked like the classic thing that happened happens when people are texting and driving. He crosses the center line and. And gets hit head on. And it was brutal, man. And then they show the wreckage of the car.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh my gosh, crushed. So they said he was wearing his seatbelt, but the seatbelt got like severed and that's why he parted from the vehicle. Part of the reason why it was so bad. So. But that was what some people were saying. Like, he wasn't even wearing a seatbelt. He was texting and driving, but apparently he was wearing his seatbelt.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

In case you needed a psa. Put the phone down while you're driving. It's not that urgent. It's not worth it to put your life in jeopardy and just get where you're going safely, and then you can return the texts.

[Seth Payne]

I got. You know what cured me of texting and driving was when I was teaching my kid to drive, and he ended up being way smarter about it than I was and more responsible. And I was like, okay, now I do. I do like the. I know how to. I know I've got my issues. So I, like. I try to put my phone in the back of the car and everything while I'm driving.

[Luke Morrow]

Wow. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

For me, it's my insurance company, which is a whole nother topic. That is probably not good. You give them access to all your data and whatnot. But I get the discount because they track my driving.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And they track. If you're using your phone while you're driving. So now I don't want to pay more in car insurance every month. So I put the phone down and drive.

[Seth Payne]

I had that little monitor for a while. Like, Progressive gave it to me.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I liked having that. It kind of. Because it wasn't like I was a reckless driver or anything, but some of the hard brakes or sudden acceleration. At first, I would get pissed because it gives you a little ding if you. If you. If you break really hard or if you. If you accelerate really quickly. If it sounds like aggressive driving.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

And at first I'd get. At first I would get offended. And then I started to realize, like, oh, yeah. There really was no reason for me to pull out and try to get into traffic.

[Unknown Commentator]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

When I did, I did. I get a lot of. I got a little nervous because there were a couple times where I had to break hard because somebody in front of me breaks hard, and I'm kind of like. Like, I'm. I'm trying to see if I can do it without getting the ding. That's probably. I think it was working against me in this instance, Progressive. I really think the hard break would have been more appropriate here.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm the same way. I'm yelling at my phone. Like, I wish they knew the context. You know, there's nothing I could do. This person stopped short. But, yeah, I understand.

[Seth Payne]

LaMar Jackson is 69, 69th on the NFL top 100.

[Luke Morrow]

Exactly. Exactly. Last thing before we hit the break is I'll just say I hate that Text messages have become these instant you don't need to respond right away. You can drive, get to your destination, text somebody back. They used to be more convenient than leaving a voicemail when you just got to the text whenever you had the time. Now there's this urgency that you feel like you have to respond right away. Don't worry about it. Respond hours later if you want. Coming up what does CJ Stroud actually need to do this year to get that next contract? We'll talk about it next. Payne and Pendergast Gone south has been a podcast about crime in the American

[Seth Payne]

south, but for our new season, we're widening the leg lens.

[Luke Morrow]

Follow and listen to gone South Season 5, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify

[Seth Payne]

or wherever you get your shows.

[Podcast Narrator]

Finding ways to be financially savvy is a smart move, and knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream home or new ride is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home in auto bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Head to statefarm.com to get a quote. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state.

[Luke Morrow]

Pacifico the crisp Mexican lager that wasn't brewed to blend in. We were made for the moments when you live like you mean it. When you don't just hear the music, you feel it. When you let the bonfire burn into the night and find places you'd never spot on a map. So when the moment calls, choose to reach for the bright yellow. Can choose yellow? Choose Pacifico 21 +Discover responsibly Pacifico Clara beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, Illinois,

[Seth Payne]

as the US Men's National Team takes center stage at a home World Cup.

[Luke Morrow]

Make sure you're listening to Call it what you Want, part of the CPU

[Seth Payne]

Sports Podcast Network, where you can join me. I'm Jimmy Conrad alongside Charlie Davies, Tony

[Luke Morrow]

Miola, Marcelo Balboa and Benny Fieldhaver throughout

[Seth Payne]

this tournament for previews, instant reactions and

[Luke Morrow]

analysis of every US Match. Then all summer, we're back every Tuesday

[Seth Payne]

and Thursday covering all things U.S. men's National Team. Download and follow Call it what yout Want on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Luke Morrow]

What does CJ Stroud need to do to get a contract this year. Talk about that here on Pain and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payne, 713-572-4610 on the text line and also join the conversation in the YouTube and Twitch chats as well. Appreciate you hanging with us here on this Wednesday. Oh, by the way, NFL just put out the latest person of the top 100 list. Number 66 on the list, Drum roll. It's Drake London, wide receiver of the Falcons. Still waiting on CJ Stroud's name to be announced.

[Seth Payne]

You know, earlier I was ranting a little bit about how stupid the voting process is for the for the NFL top 100. They give players a ballot and have them list their top 20 players. So then there's all these guys that are ranked 50 through 100 that the difference might be that, you know, one person ranked this one person in the NFL ranked this guy 19th overall or something like Bryce Young, for instance, and he makes the top 50. Where there are a lot of other guys that might be more. You might, you might put throw some of the names out, especially of guards and centers and other players at non marquee positions where people would be like, oh yeah, he's in the top 100, but they would never think to put him in the top 20. Those are the guys that get hosed last year. I think there were only, I think there were eight offensive linemen on it. So you think about five, damn near a quarter of the guys on a field, our offensive linemen at any given time. But we're drastically underrepresented in the NFL top 100. Like name recognition and everything goes a long ways in these things.

[Luke Morrow]

I did have one other question before we get to the contract stuff, although it all ties in, of course. I did have one other thought or question from earlier when we were talking about the top 100 and specifically Lamar Jackson and how it compares to CJ Stroud. Lamar fell from number two to number 69, like we said. I mean, I don't think we've seen a drop like that in these lists before. What a huge drop off. But there was this idea of like Lamar Jackson just did not have as good of a season this past year, obviously, and there were injuries involved and the Ravens had a down year at least to begin the season and whatnot. But the other interesting thing is Lamar was running on average about half as often as he was throughout his career. He cut his rushing attempts in half. He wanted to we see this sometimes from Lamar in the playoffs too where it's almost like he wants to try to prove the doubters that he can be a pocket passer, but he just wasn't as effective statistically, nor was the team, and, you know, led to these coaching changes. And Lamar's ranked 69th. So to try to bring that back to CJ Stroud. It's been a talking point since. For the last year, I would say, with the concussions, and it's been a concern of mine. Do you think Stroud should be running more or using his legs more?

[Unknown Commentator]

Where.

[Luke Morrow]

Just using the Lamar example. It seems like that really hurt his game when he stopped running as much, and Stroud seemed to stop running as much last year.

[Seth Payne]

I think it was tough with Lamar Jackson, though, too, because he was just. He was dealing with an injury, like, at any given point, the entire season. So I like. Because he's. He's really been. I mean, he is a complete and total football player in terms of a passer and a guy that can hurt you with his feet. And it's, you know, he's clearly got a different physical skill set than C.J. stroud or, well, most other human beings on earth. I think with CJ it was really the really well documented, drastic change in his play last year was when he came back from his concussion and he barely scrambled at all. It wasn't just that he didn't run. It was that he just didn't even scramble and was really reluctant to use his legs. And when he did use his legs, he ended up averaging 1 yard per carry after the concussion compared to earlier in the year in the first part of the season, where he was up around 5 yards per carry every time he rushed. So for a young quarterback in the modern NFL, like, it's just. It's the exception. It's the exception that a guy doesn't use his legs. It's just such a valuable part of the game. And defenses have to adjust to a guy that they know can pull the ball down and run or scramble. So, yeah, like, he. He 100% just needs to. He doesn't have to be to an extreme level, like, we'd crossed that barrier the year before. CJ Started using his legs more, used them really effectively, and was doing that up until the concussion last year, and then it all evaporated after the concussion. And then that, you know, it didn't hurt you in the regular season. You're still winning every game. But the. The postseason, when, man, you need every little advantage possible, then, yeah, it's. I think it makes an impact yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

And when you look at, like, the top quarterbacks in the league or the quarterbacks that are winning the divisions, oftentimes they are the guys that do use their legs. And I'm not saying he needs to be Michael Vick running 20 times per game, but, you know, like Davis Mills had that great touchdown run at the end of the game last year. Was that the Jaguars game, running to the left into the end zone? You know, and that was a play where he used his legs, and that was like the biggest win. You know, that helped really turn them around. That was a big win against Jacksonville. So obviously plays can be made there by being mobile and maybe need some more of that to help out, especially when you have a tough offensive line or struggling to figure out the offense and whatnot. But I do want to get to this. What does CJ Stroud need to do to get a contract this year, both in terms of him, himself and the team? What does he need to accomplish from a team perspective and personally? Because actually, people have been asking this. You know, we always talk so much about, will C.J. stroud get paid, will he get that next contract, but what does he actually need to accomplish this year to secure that next contract after. After this upcoming season?

[Seth Payne]

I think that. Look, I mean, if you go by precedent, the best way for a quarterback is to get a contract almost regardless of actual playing ability, is to win a Super Bowl. So that's a simple one. If you just do that, then you can. You're going to get a contract of some sort. I think that, like, ultimately and honestly, the team success does matter. I think the. This is tough because Brock Purdy. I think Brock Purdy in general is underrated by most people in the NFL. But if you look at the way the 49ers have operated, like Kyle Shanahan and John lynch, don't necessarily worry a whole lot about whether boy, yes, like Brock Purdy benefits from being in this system. And maybe somebody else could do it better than him, but they don't care because, like, without, you know, the old cliche would be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Like, if it's operating and the system is working and you've got an effective offense with that guy and he's playing at that level, like, you start chasing the ideal situation at quarterback, you're just going to always come, you know, come up wanting. Like they. They've been through, you know, trading vast resources for Jimmy Garoppolo, trading vast resources for Trey Lance, getting a guy who's a top 10 quarterback and operating at a certain level, as long as you've got a good team around him, should be enough to at least reach the Super Bowl. And I mean, they did that with Jimmy Garoppolo. So I like for me it's almost about not CJ's individual performance, but if there's simply a top top 10 offense, like a consensus top 10 offense, and it's not because of a CJ collapse in the playoffs that they lose, then, then that's for me, honestly. Okay, give them the going rate for what the new quarterbacks are getting as long as I feel at the end of the season, okay, can they win a Super bowl with this guy? Is he capable of giving that type of an effort? I'm not going to start over and start from scratch so I can live my Trey Lance or Jimmy Garoppolo experience. When you've got a guy that's capable of being part of a top 10 offense and you've got. I think they're going to consistently have a good defense as long as d' Ameco, Ryan's is the head coach, to play devil's advocate.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm not saying they wouldn't. If they win the super bowl, yeah, you pay the guy, but I guess in terms of still like his perception, and you referenced this earlier of Jalen Hurts, where we just got this top 10 list on ESPN and despite Jalen Hurts success, some people might feel like, well, it's more about the team or Jalen Hurts isn't doing so much and he was ranked what, 17 on that list of quarterbacks. And then even Sam Darnold just won the Super Bowl. And while it probably did propel him, I'd have to look at the list from last year. It probably did give him a boost up the list, but he was still ranked only 11th despite winning a Super bowl and having a good season postseason.

[Seth Payne]

And he's making. He's on a contract where he's making $33 million a year. I think that's the part where when you start thinking about, all right, well, if CJ doesn't give you a certain level of performance, what can I get out of a guy that's making $33 million a year? A guy I give a contract that's $33 million a year. Baker Mayfield making 33 million dol $3 million a year. It makes a lot more sense financially if you feel like, all right, some of these veteran guys that are kind of cast aside or castaways that have performed at a higher level than C.J. stroud that just financially it makes better sense to go with a guy like that. So. But now with CJ the difference would be that, okay, if he improves his performance over last year, he's still a young quarterback who's going to be in the same system and it's easier to kind of maybe project it. Like, okay, he took a step forward in 2026, things looked really good. They made the conference championship, whatever it might be that then, then the long term young quarterback type of contractor re extension makes. Makes a lot more sense because there's still a perceived upside there.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I, for me, I think both boxes need to be checked. Like, I think he obviously needs to do his part and the team needs to have some success because as he. You were sort of just alluding to like to again, maybe be somewhat of a devil's advocate. But you can make the case that if Stroud has a great year, but say the team doesn't do very well, then you can say, well, like, it's almost like the old line in baseball. I'm trying to think of the manager that used to say it of like, we could lose a hundred games with you or without you, so why bother paying you type of thing.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

You know, like, well, you, you put up these great numbers, sure. But like, we, we didn't win. It wasn't successful. Whereas we've had success in the past when we didn't require so much from the quarterback. So why do we need to devote all these resources to the quarterback if we can still win on our defense type of deal? So I feel like both boxes would need to be checked where you need Stroud to play well, of course, but you need the team to be successful. So, you know, yes, this is our plan moving forward. We can lock up this guy and, and be a secure in that and also be a successful team still.

[Seth Payne]

If that movie was either. It was definitely either Moneyball or Major League League. Which Major League was really the first Money Ball. They are the first, first team to prove that you could do more with less. Yeah, they don't get enough credit for that.

[Luke Morrow]

Good point. Good point. Yeah. Baker Mayfield. So, Seth, did you watch they put out all the episodes. Right. Of this quarterback show on Netflix.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I just. I went through and I kind of cherry picked and found the parts where Baker Mayfield is either playing the Texans or talking about former Texans. So there was. There were at least two and I think it's episode two where they show the most Baker Mayfield. But the first One was, I like this. So Baker Mayfield's getting into it with Quen Yon Mitchell from the Eagles. And at the very beginning, you can't quite. You probably won't be able to quite hear it, but basically, Baker Mayfield is saying, I don't know who you are, and then goes on to explain why he said that.

[Podcast Narrator]

Who the.

[Seth Payne]

Who the are you, anyway? Who the are you, anyway? You know who I am. No, I don't. It's going to be a long day.

[Unknown Commentator]

Come on.

[Seth Payne]

It's going to be a long day.

[Luke Morrow]

I stole that one. I can't take credit for that. I stole that one directly from Aran

[Seth Payne]

Foster back in the day. I don't even know your name.

[Unknown Commentator]

What's your name? Turn around.

[Luke Morrow]

Let me see, man.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know you, bro. So I stole that from him.

[Luke Morrow]

Just.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Letting a young player know that he

[Unknown Commentator]

hadn't arrived yet,

[Seth Payne]

that was a great moment in Arian Foster history. When he was saying, turn around, that's what Arian did, that Baker didn't do the. Turn around. So I can see your nameplate. That was. That was. And I can't remember. I can't remember who that player was. I don't know if he went on to prominence or not. But that was an awesome moment and a mic'd up moment for Arian Foster.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

So much so that you got Baker Mayfield using it, you know, all these years later. It is a good line. It's kind of similar to that reference I made earlier when the person's like, hey, what do you think of me? And he's like, I don't. I don't.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

You know, that's the best. As I said at the time, that's the best way to try to get back at someone is like, I don't even care about you.

[Unknown Commentator]

Oh, this is.

[Seth Payne]

I'll tell you what. Like, people know who Quan Yan Mitchell is. I kind of feel bad for this guy that Arian was talking to.

[Unknown Commentator]

Uh. Oh.

[Seth Payne]

Former Miami Dolphins backup safety Jimmy Wilson.

[Unknown Commentator]

Oof.

[Seth Payne]

He wouldn't go on to make a name for himself or anything other than that, as far as I know. Maybe I'm missing out on something or whatever, but I can't remember Jimmy Wilson ever doing anything impactful.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, he spent five years in the NFL and played. Played 73 games, but, yeah, that's. That's about it.

[Seth Payne]

So then this one. This one might hit a little close to home. We were actually. We talked yesterday a little bit about the value of bulletin board material. You guys recall in the Bucks game versus the Texans last year. About. With about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Baker Mayfield had a scramble to his left. Not the big scramble later in the game. The Bucs actually had a lead at this point, but Baker Mayfield had a scramble and got hit pretty hard and got up limping. And there was some things that led up to that, some smack talk with C.J. gardner Johnson that, like, after this exchange you're about to hear here, is when in the next series, Baker Mayfield would have that awesome scramble and everything.

[Unknown Commentator]

But this is.

[Unknown Announcer]

Is.

[Seth Payne]

This is leading up to that moment, just as Baker Mayfield is scrambling to his left, gets a first down, and CJ Gardner Johnson talks some smack to him.

[Unknown Commentator]

Huh?

[Seth Payne]

Who you talking to? Who you talking to? Huh? Who are you talking to?

[In the Loop Host]

Huh?

[Luke Morrow]

Shut up.

[Seth Payne]

Sh your ass up. Chauncey Gardner Johnson.

[Luke Morrow]

Just years and years of him talking trash about me. And when you finally play somebody like

[Seth Payne]

that, you're going to let him have it.

[Luke Morrow]

Third and N, can they make the

[Seth Payne]

one big play that they need right now?

[Luke Morrow]

Mayfield goes by Petri and gets the first down. I was banged up, spraying my MCL bone bruise, which obviously, I didn't know that at the time.

[Unknown Commentator]

Not.

[Luke Morrow]

Not feeling great.

[Unknown Announcer]

Then I.

[Seth Payne]

Pop up, adrenaline kicks in. You forget that you're hurt. I had to let him know that.

[Luke Morrow]

Doesn't matter if I'm 100% or 50. You can still get it anywhere.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Thanks, TJ Gardner Johnson. Thanks. Yeah. So in that clip, the first clip. The first clip is when they were down, backed up in their own. Near their own end zone, and there was a face mask. CJ Gardner Johnson comes up and starts talking smack. Then later in that series, he scrambles, gets hit, sprains his mcl and has what. What do you say? A bone bruise after that. And C.J. gardner Johnson saying, get your. Get your. Get your ass up. And then Baker just basically used that as a moment to, like, I'm going to fight through this. Going to be just fine. And he was. He was absolutely fine.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, sure was more reason. Like C.J.

[Seth Payne]

gardner Johnson, he had said when. When C.J. gardner Johnson was with Detroit, he told a group of reporters, quote, if you give that Tampa group a good quarterback, that's a great, great group. Evans, Godwin, Gage, that's a great group. So that's just at least one thing that he apparently has said about Baker Mayfield in his time here, in his time in the league.

[Luke Morrow]

Did you come away so far? Feel. Do you like Baker more now than you did going into the series? Like him Worse. Feel the same.

[Seth Payne]

I think he's. No. Baker Mayfield is the classic guy that if he was on my team, I would think he's just got the best attitude ever. But when he's on an opposing team, he rubs me the wrong way. Yeah. Which is. Which is a good place to be as an athlete. I'm very open about that. The guys that I. I don't like at all when they're. When they're not on my. Pat Beverly. You know, when Pat Beverley wasn't on the Rockets, after the Rockets, like, when he left the Rockets, I knew that I wasn't going to like him at some point, and it came to be that way. But when he was with the Rockets, he was the exact same guy. But I. I absolutely loved him, and I have zero shame about that. So, yeah, if Baker Mayfield were the quarterback of the Texans, I would feel like everything about his attitude is exactly what I want in the quarterback. When he's not on the Texans, he annoys the hell out of me.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. Once. Hey. Once he's on your team, he's got to be your guy, so. I get that.

[Seth Payne]

No, no, but he's got.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Look, like, in terms of just, like, kind of like, grittiness or whatever.

[Luke Morrow]

Absolutely.

[Seth Payne]

He's got a different vibe than CJ.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. No, that's what you love from your quarterback is that grittiness and that very clip right there. Playing banged up. He played banged up all year, and he made that big play at the end of the game, you know, to be able to beat the Texans. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Played banged up. I just can't.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, for sure.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know. Like, I don't.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm just saying, in general, I don't

[Seth Payne]

see Baker, you know, breaking down in tears at any point. That's all. There's a little bit of that.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, that part, I don't think. I think that was missing from the quarterback series this year. But, yeah, just in general. Even Baker. Yeah. He's got that good mindset for a quarterback, for sure. Coming up, who in this quarterback situation has more pressure on them? Stroud or the actual Texans? We'll talk about that coming up. Payne and Pendergast. Who has more pressure on them in this situation? The Texans or CJ Stroud? It's Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. You can always join the conversation. 713-572-4610. On the text line or in the YouTube and Twitch chats as well. Reggie actually had just popped in here. He'll be coming up, of course, as part of in the Loop at the top of the hour. But we were just talking to him during the commercial break and actually I credit him because it was kind of like a. He said something in passing yesterday. And it really got me thinking about this quarterback scenario. And they might have talked about it previously more in depth on in the Loop. But. But who has more pressure this year when we continue to talk about this Stroud contract and getting it right? Is it CJ Stroud? Because obviously he wants to get next big payday. But the idea is, well, if it's not the Texans, he'll probably be playing somewhere in the NFL. Or is it the Texans who have more pressure on them with the sense being like, you were given this franchise quarterback as a rookie and now look what you've done to him. Who would you say has more pressure in this whole thing?

[Seth Payne]

I think the CJ Stroud by a long by a big margin for me, because I think the first thing I thought was, all right, who loses their job if it doesn't go well this year year, and if the Texans disappoint and don't make the playoffs or something, it would have to be something above and beyond just the football performance for either Casario or d' Amico to get fired. I think. I think it would be looked as a. It would be looked at and blamed on CJ Stroud first and foremost. And I think that's a chance where like, yes, the Texans still have him under contract, but if he disappoints and doesn't take a step forward or whatever, then if that were to happen, there's a good chance he gets traded away and in the Texans start from scratch or try to do something like sign a veteran court, like have a really. Boy, this would be awesome. Is if they sign a veteran quarterback while C.J. stroud's still on the roster, they trade Davis Mills and then sign some veteran backup that maybe has a little bit of a. Like not Geno Smith quite, but somebody along those lines. I think it's all. I think it's all on CJ Stroud right now. And not that there isn't pressure on d' Amico or Nick Casterio, but it'll be looked at as a failure of the quarterback and then maybe a failure of Casario and d' Amico and not hiring, not having the right quarterback or not having the right coordinator paired with that quarterback, but I don't think so. Nick Haley maybe loses his job too. But I, like, I don't have an appetite for just if it's a disappointing year for CJ Stroud, blaming the offensive coordinator yet again and going a third go around on it. So I think it's CJ Stroud for me.

[Luke Morrow]

What would you put the chances at? And you mentioned the offensive coordinator. We'll circle back to that in just a moment. But right now, as we sit here today, what would you put the chances at that Stroud is not a starter, say, somewhere in the NFL in 2027, say the Texans do move on from him. Like, how bad do you think it have to go this year where not only do the Texans move on from him, but every other team in the league is like, well, we'll take you as a backup, but you're not going to start for him.

[Seth Payne]

I know. I still think, I think the thing with CJ Is that the upside is still clearly there. And I think people seem to forget that he had really impressive fourth quarters last year and made some really impressive plays. Like, he still did some really good things, even though the overall sum total of the performance wasn't what you wanted. That I think there's a lot of teams out there that would say, all right, you know, like the same thing the Texans say when they bring in guys of just let's get them in the building. And I think that maybe with the right, like Daniel Jones working with Shane Steichen looked pretty good while he was healthy. And we still don't know how that's all going to play out. But that, yeah, there's going to be plenty of other coordinators out there. You think, man, we might have something with this. Think about Sam Darnold's going up to Minnesota, like, and that part of that was JJ McCarthy getting injured. But there's, there's going to be, there would be at least five live teams out there that say, yes, we don't have a great shot at one of these quarterbacks in the draft. And we think that maybe we can get the best out of C.J. so we'll, we'll take a, we'll, we'll take a swing at him.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, certainly. I, I think if the Texans were to move on, I, we talked, I think I talked about this over the weekend with Zach Galb or somebody. I don't know. But yeah, that idea of, like, someone will see enough upside and their quarterback situation would be bad enough that. Absolutely. I think some would take a chance on him if the Texans moved on.

[Seth Payne]

All right, slightly off topic, but since you Mentioned that Zach Gelb tweeted out this weekend that he had reached out to Mike McDonald because Mike McDonald said that he got some help in game planning for the Patriots from a person he didn't want to disclose the identity of because there might be a conflict of interest. People then speculated that, oh, boy, I bet it was Tom Brady. Old I got no dog in this fight. Tom Brady. Zach Gelb reached out to Mike McDonald, and Mike McDonald told him, no, it wasn't Tom Brady. And then Gelb tweeted, hey, it wasn't Tom Brady. I feel like. And I know Zach a little bit. I felt like I wanted to tell Zach. Let's not be so naive here, Zach, do you think he was going to tell you if it was Tom Brady? What did you think? Did you guys talk about it? Did you talk to Zach about it?

[Luke Morrow]

No, it didn't come up. Not on air, and I didn't bring it up off air. But, yeah, I was hoping it would because I would say that same thing of like, yeah, of course he would say that.

[Seth Payne]

He made the mistake of playing the game when he said. When he said that to Dan Patrick, and Dan Patrick took a guess and asked if it was Belichick. He made. Mike McDonald should know better by this point in life. You never play that game. You don't start down the road of, like, saying, I'm not going to say who it is, but then start giving answers when people guess who it is. Because then you're like, you're establishing a pattern of. Now people are going to be reading my facial expressions. Look at how it was when he. When he was asked about Belichick versus when he was asked about. About Tom Brady. I think it was Tom Brady.

[Luke Morrow]

I still think it was.

[Seth Payne]

I do think it was.

[Luke Morrow]

I know just the fact that he said no. It's like, oh, well, Mike. Yeah, he said. He just texted me, said no. So it can't be Brady anymore.

[Seth Payne]

Tom Brady is a part owner. Like, the conflict of interest might have been as much about being of a part owner of the Raiders or the fact that he's a broadcaster or anything. I think Patriots fans are having a really hard time accepting the fact that Tom has moved on in his life and that, hey, I don't know what, they win a Super bowl or two when he was in New England. Yeah, those are all. Those are all just those things. Those are things that happened in the past. He is focused in on making the Raiders the best organization they can be. Damn it.

[Luke Morrow]

There was a movie we've been Talking a lot about movies today, Ricky Gervais had a movie called the Invention of Lying, actually with Louis CK as well. And the idea was, like, lying hadn't been invented yet, so there was no such thing as lying. Everybody had to tell the truth, and they were all incredibly honest with each other. And it's a.

[Seth Payne]

It's a funny movie every. So, like, so Ricky. I saw part of that movie. Ricky Gervais just, like, accidentally lies and realizes, like, that he can do this

[Luke Morrow]

thing, and he becomes essentially their. Their God, and he comes up with his own ten Commandments and everything.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Because they just believe everything that he says. Yes.

[Luke Morrow]

He starts making things up and, like, how does this guy know this? Because in their world, there's no such thing as lying, so it must all be true.

[Seth Payne]

It's like he's like an American settler with a. With a musket, meeting the first American Viking bison. And the bison's like, hi. Hi, creature. Are you gonna feed me some grain? No, I'm gonna kill all of you.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, but in this. So the reason why I bring it up, though, is because, like, in this scenario, it's almost like we're living in that world. We're like, well, he said no. He said it wasn't Tom Brady. It must be Tom Brady. Clearly, he's not gonna tell you who it is. He's not gonna say yes once you guess, right?

[Seth Payne]

The funniest. The funniest in that it's. It's funny because even, like, kind of these crusty old veteran reporters will sometimes, sometimes still fall for it when a gm, like, say, Andrew Barry says that, hey, Miles Garrett is a Cleveland Brown for life. And people are like, well, he was pretty emphatic about it. Sounds like they're not going to trade Myles Garrett. And then a month later, they trade Myles Garrett. Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

I think part of it, what people get wrapped up in and it might have happened in this scenario is like they feel like they have more of maybe a relationship. They don't realize, like, it's still a working relationship and the coach isn't going to give you all the intel. So they almost feel like, oh, he would never lie to me. Right.

[Unknown Commentator]

Like, we're.

[Luke Morrow]

We're buddies. We've talked before, we've had conversations, and, like, you know, he's still playing the game. He can't give you information on a injured quarterback or, like, that we're going to trade Miles Gary. They can't just come out and tell you that.

[Seth Payne]

So it's a really. It's a Tough lesson to learn. It's a. It's a tough lesson to learn and really absorb. You, like, know it intellectually, but, like, those are one of the things in life. It's like, okay, for one, people who lie a lot lie way more than you even realize. Like, so if you're dealing with a compulsive liar, you can't believe a single thing that they say. And all GMs, it's a requirement of the job. They have to lie sometimes. So there's certain situations where I like to call it football speak or GM speak, GM speak, or coach speak. It's not lying. It's lying within the context of it's kind of a requirement of the job. But, yeah, if he's in a GM speak situation or a coach speak situation, he's going to lie to you. It doesn't matter that it's you. You. Likewise. It's like with people who gossip a lot. Like, if they're gossiping with you about anybody and everybody, then they're also gossiping about you to other people. Like, it's just like, that's who they are. They've. They've shown themselves true.

[Luke Morrow]

It's like what they always say. Like, if you were the one that they were cheating with and you know they're gonna cheat on you, like, that's.

[Seth Payne]

That's who they found.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. So that idea, too. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Say that too loud around my wife. Now, we didn't have that situation. As far as I know. She might have been married when I met her.

[Unknown Commentator]

I don't know.

[Luke Morrow]

We got to hear more about that high school boyfriend. That was so great. Coming up, we'll wrap things up here in this Wednesday, Catch up with the fellas from in the Loop, find out the question of the day. But if Seth will humor me when we come back, the ESPYS are tonight. I honestly couldn't care less about the ESPYs. However, let's try to give out some awards of our own. If we're able to come up with the answers, we'll do it next here. Payne and Pendergast.

[Podcast Narrator]

I'm Jenna Fisher.

[Seth Payne]

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

[Podcast Narrator]

And together we have the podcast Office Ladies.

[Seth Payne]

Just because we finished rewatching the Office

[Podcast Narrator]

does not mean we're going anywhere. Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the Office and our friendship with brand new guests. Plus, you can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode.

[Seth Payne]

So follow and listen to Office Ladies,

[Luke Morrow]

on the free Odyssey app and wherever

[Podcast Narrator]

you get your podcasts.

[Luke Morrow]

Wrapping up this Wednesday morning here on Pain and Pendergast. We'll catch up with the fellas from in the Loop here shortly. Get the question of the day. I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean. He's expected back tomorrow after a couple of days off. He's been a little under the weather upon his return and so expect it back tomorrow. But fun to hang.

[Seth Payne]

I think it's the first sick day Sean's ever taken in radio.

[Luke Morrow]

Wow.

[Seth Payne]

And it wasn't even that he was necessarily sick sick, but his voice was crapping out on him because of a CPAP issue.

[Unknown Commentator]

So.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, so he's not sick if anybody's thinking all of a sudden his body's breaking down or something like. No, no, he just had a little bit of issue and he knew what the cause was and he had to get his voice right again.

[In the Loop Host]

Gotcha.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. Pretty important to be on the radio talking four hours first thing in the morning.

[Seth Payne]

So I have no idea if he wanted me to disclose any of that, but there, now, there.

[Unknown Commentator]

I did it.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Coming up next, we're going to tell him tell you about his botched vasectomy.

[Luke Morrow]

So the SBS are tonight and I don't care. I'm not going to watch a moment of it. To be honest with you. I haven't watched the SBS since Jimmy V gave his speech. I couldn't care less. Seth, are you. Have you ever been into the sbs?

[Seth Payne]

I like, no. I consume it the way I consume so many of these types of. Of things. I feel like social media will allow the algorithm to figure out what I'm going to be like the most. And then I watch the clips the next day and I see all of the most notable things I need to see via social media. So I'm into them to a certain standpoint. I'm watching the highlights of the ESPYs, basically.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I'm the highlights of the awards show for the network that got famous for showing us how highlights.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I'm the same way. But I figured, well, let's give out some of our own awards. So we're gonna do that in just a moment. And props to Seth because I kind of just sprung these awards on him and he's come up with the answers. So we'll go.

[Seth Payne]

I've got the definitive. The definitive winners for all of these. That's right for me. At least you can have your definitive winners, too.

[Luke Morrow]

By the way, Marcelo Hernandez is the host tonight from snl. I Thought this was a joke. I had to double check. But I heard John Lopez say yesterday that he went to John Carroll University. So this is like if you're the Texans, you know, Casario's got to be locked into this thing tonight.

[Seth Payne]

John Carroll University is like the Dominican Republic of whatever the Dominican Republic is to baseball. John Carroll University is to notable sports. American born sports folk.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. All right, play along. 713-572-4610 on the text line or in YouTube and Twitch as well. For our own Houston in Sports awards in honor of the SB sinait. And the first award we have is the Please stay healthy award. Who would you reward that to?

[Seth Payne]

I think for. Okay, so this is less of a reward for an award for what somebody did in the past year and more of like, okay, this is. We're identifying you is really important, but we know that an injury could be really devastating. For me, if that's what the criteria are, I'm going to go with, with a combo duo of Kamari Lasseter and Derek Stingley. I just think that those guys are so good and it's such a vital part of why that defense is so good that it's. It's hard to envision them being a top three defensive. Either one of those guys misses a bunch of time this year.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

I'm going to base it off the past and then project it towards the future. I don't disagree with you, but I'm going to say Fred Van Vliet because of what we saw this past year.

[Seth Payne]

That's the winner. Yes.

[Luke Morrow]

And how bad that was like, I don't want to live through that. A whole nother basketball season. And even more. More so just the storylines of like, well, we're waiting till he gets help. We don't need another guard. I know they have Marcus Smart now, but the whole Reed shepherd, all that stuff, it was just very annoying. Let's not do it again.

[Seth Payne]

The only thing that would provide us is clarity and that, all right, you're going to fire the GM at some point by the end of the year if, like, if Fred Van Bleed gets injured and you go through the whole. The whole damn thing again. Yes, he is the emphatic winner. I was wrong on that one. Good call, Good call.

[Luke Morrow]

Now yours is a good answer, too. The next award we have have the we owe you an apology award.

[Seth Payne]

Okay. This one. Sean and I have already apologized for it, or at least I have. And we are adamant that no sports radio person should ever apologize for a Take because it's not like you're personally injuring the person or something. But we were so wrong on this about a beloved Houston sports figure that both Sean and I thought, man, one person we don't want using the ABS this year is Jose Altu. And we based it mostly on how bad he is at base running. And we forgot like, okay. And also he doesn't always show the best judgment at the plate in terms of the pitches he swings at. And it's, you know, it hasn't been a big deal for him in his career, but he's been one of the best in the league. We couldn't have been more wrong about that. If anything, I want El Tuve and Paredes using the ABS system more. Not to mention Jordan Yordon's hardly used it at all. Paredes has barely used it. Didn't have his first unsuccessful chance challenge until last weekend. But Altuve has been, he's been nails with it and we were just, we were ridiculously stupid. So I do, I've already apologized to Altuve for that once, but I will apologize for it again.

[Luke Morrow]

Mine is a bit, maybe a bit of a hot take. But I did mention this last week. I'm going to say Cam Smith and it might sound like Steve Harvey reading off the wrong name of the winner that time, but Cam Smith. Because as I laid out last week, I, I feel like he's been a victim of expectations that set him up. And it's like in a preseason poll in college football where you call USC what a, you know, what a bunch of. They were so overrated but you overrated them as the media. You were just wrong about the projection where for Cam Smith, if he's a multi time Gold Glove winner and hitting 20 homers a year, not bad for your right fielder, but bad for the number one, you know, number one prospect.

[Seth Payne]

It's, I mean it's, I, it's still, it's still not great. Just like a bunch of home runs, but a bunch of strikeouts and no other production at the plate is kind of a big deal. But I got you.

[Luke Morrow]

All right, well, I tried to force that one. I tried to shoehorn that one. In the Heart Attack Performer of the year, our next award. Who's the Heart Attack Performer of the Year?

[Seth Payne]

For me this is a tough one because I, I'm going to say Imai, I wish he had more really impressive performances to offset the heart attack performances. But there is something about him leaving the game inside of the first three innings that just, it, it, I get that Old Matt Schaub feeling. I get that old Matt Schaub pick six feeling of like, are you kidding me? I'm gonna. One of Matt Schaub's one of the pick sixes that almost literally killed me was. When was it against 49ers when I was pulling in, I had to go from the pregame show to khou and I was listening on the radio and just as I pulled into the parking lot, Matt Job throws a pick six and I flipped out. I punched my windshield. It was like, it was bad. And I'm a little bit like that with Emi already, except my expectations are so low that it's not a huge surprise.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I think that's the best one. I was going to say Brian at Brayu, but he hasn't had enough good appearances either. But I think, I think Ima's a good one because, yeah, it has been. Either he's been decent or he can't get out of the first inning.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, Bray. Or you almost have the heart attack when he is a good performance.

[Luke Morrow]

It's true.

[Seth Payne]

Holy crap. Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

What about the national media doesn't watch our games award?

[Seth Payne]

Okay, I'm going to say the Texans for that one only because I think a lot of times when you see people talking about CJ Stroud, you can very clearly tell the ones who act like his playoff performances were the same way he played all year long. And like, there's a. It's just, there's a. It's not all of them or anything, but it's very clear that like, not only were they not even watching the Texans play, but that they haven't even bothered to do a smidgen of research or reading about it or anything. They just assumed that CJ was throwing four picks each game of the entire year. So I'll say the Houston Texans.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, I think that's the best one I'm with, you know?

[Seth Payne]

Well, you know, the other part of that too is that some of, like some of CJ's worst or least promising games were nationally televised games during the regular season. So then that makes it feel even that much more worse than it is if you, you haven't been watching any of the other games.

[Luke Morrow]

And then last one, we're going to cut this off because we have some breaking news to actually get to. But last one, the award Most likely to get Pain and Pendergast Angry Award. Who would that be?

[Seth Payne]

I think. I don't know. I can't speak for Sean on this one, but I will. I think that he was so high on Mike Burroughs that I think he feels personally betrayed by Mike Burrows because Mike Burroughs was so good during spring training and Sean was just like the leader of the family club. So him, his demise has been like personally, it's felt like it's personally injured. Sean Pendergast.

[Luke Morrow]

Those are your sbs here for Payne and Pendergast. The SBS are tonight. All great choices. Seth, before we let the in the loop guys jump in on this, too, to get your take on it. First set. The, the breaking news coming in from Chandler Rome here in the last minute. Astros are finalizing a deal to send Lance McCullers Jr. To the Milwaukee Brewers. Sources tell the Athletic.

[Seth Payne]

Wow.

[Unknown Commentator]

Wow.

[Luke Morrow]

Not done yet, but close. He says Brian McTaggart had it first.

[Seth Payne]

Does it say anything about the Astros picking up a big chunk of his contract or anything? You know what I've, you know, my first initial reaction is, okay, good for Lance as far as just all right, get it. Like, it's, it's, it's got to be hard every time coming up and like knowing that he's let the team down with his injuries, you know, not like, like he intended to get injured or anything over and over again, but maybe, maybe a fresh start in a different environment ends up being a really good thing for him.

[Luke Morrow]

Crosstalk Sponsored by DNM Auto Leasing. As we do welcome in the fellas from in the Loop, what were you, what's, what's the immediate impression or reaction? Lance McCuller seems to be on his way out of Houston into Milwaukee.

[In the Loop Host]

Well, first of all, good to see you guys, as always.

[Seth Payne]

That was my first thought, was good

[In the Loop Host]

to see you fellas, as always, good to see you. To see you.

[Luke Morrow]

Good to be seen.

[In the Loop Host]

You know what my first thought was? The, the brewers are a contender.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[In the Loop Host]

They have 59 wins.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yep.

[In the Loop Host]

So this is not like some sort of cast off salary, cast off, you know, type. The brewers have an interest in Lance McCullers and that to me is really intriguing. And then Figgy, shout out to Figgy. I'm not going to take credit for this because I think he's, I think he's tack on on this. He goes, could he be going to their bullshit bullpen? And I'm like, that's it. That, that's it. They probably have convinced him, you know, be a bullpen guy. They're, they're happy with whatever medicals are, are remaining. So I think it's pretty interesting if

[Seth Payne]

there's been one thing that anybody has been steadfast on over the past decade, it's Lance McCullers insisting that he's not a bullpen.

[Podcast Narrator]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

Even though they've used them in that sporadically. But that. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that makes it a little bit easier for him, too, because he spent the last decade telling anybody and everybody, like, listen, I'll do it every now and then, but no, I am not a bullpen guy. It's a little easier to go off to a new place, be like, oh, yeah, I've always been cool with this, especially a contender.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, that would actually hurt me more. It's like when your significant others, your boyfriend or girlfriend says, like, I don't want to have kids. And then after you break up, you see on Instagram, like, six months later that they're already pregnant. Well, not six months, but a year later, they're already pregnant. Yeah. You would have some questions if it was six months.

[Seth Payne]

By the way, it looks like. It looks like Brian McTaggart had this news a little bit bit before Chandler Rome. So Good job, Brian McTag.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, Chandler did credit him. Chandler said McTaggart. Yeah, that was a. That's a big thing in that. That world. The other thing, too, is to your point, John, that the brewers do such a great job with pitchers. I mean, they've already done this with Kyle Harrison this year. They've turned him around. Now he's on the il. So maybe that plays into this.

[Unknown Commentator]

But.

[Luke Morrow]

But the fear being, like, the brewers see something that maybe they believe they could still get out of. McCullers at the Astros. Yeah, evidently we're not getting out of him here recently, at least when he was healthy.

[Unknown Announcer]

And that's always the interesting thing to me is, like, when you get a change of scenery, do you see that change? Because that feels like that is going to say something about the previous destination or rather the previous stop going backwards, though, to the idea of, like, him consenting to be in the bullpen. Do we know if there was, like, that opportunity for communication before this trade? Like, I imagine you make the trade with some level air quote.

[In the Loop Host]

Yes.

[Seth Payne]

We don't know a damn thing about that. We don't know are they getting prospects or what.

[In the Loop Host]

Right. No, he meant the communication of being more receptive to the bullpen, I think,

[Luke Morrow]

because I do want talk or, like, legal tampering.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, that part. Yeah.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Unknown Announcer]

Because, like, there I could see a situation where they go, let's just bring him in and, like, add him to what we're doing here, and maybe we can move him to the pen as a possibility, as opposed to like that direct consent. But yes, I asked that because I would be right in the same place that you are, Luke, in that. Oh, so you wouldn't do it over here. I thought you wanted to be buried in the h. Like I thought it was all about that, you know, and so that's be a little frustrating. But at the same time, I think also there is something to be tried to sort it out within what the Astros are thinking because what do you always say, like, show me what they do, not what they say.

[In the Loop Host]

Watch what they do, not what they say.

[Unknown Announcer]

I'm glad that I actually quoted you correctly.

[Seth Payne]

And that's the part. Look, so one of the details. We don't know exactly how the salary is being handled with this, but there's going to be some kind of a salary dump to some level and that. Oh, and Lance, I'm sorry if you mentioned this. Reginald Lance did have a. A no trade clause. So in terms of communication beforehand that yeah, presumably there was at least enough to get a no trade clause waived.

[In the Loop Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Also the idea like I'm sure they're not getting, obviously this is not going to be a huge move, I presume I. Maybe I should wait to see it. But just the idea of the Astros knowing like he's not factoring in our plans, despite how much we might need starting pitching help. Let's send them off for a prospect or two and I'm sure they're not going to be great prospects. You're trading for McCullers in this situation. Situation.

[In the Loop Host]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

It's almost like, hey, here, take him.

[Seth Payne]

If he goes on if Lance, this will be one of the all time like, oh, crap.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

All of a sudden Lance goes out and stays healthy the entire second.

[In the Loop Host]

Strikes out 17 Dodgers in the playoffs.

[Luke Morrow]

If it's the Dodgers, I'll take it.

[Seth Payne]

That's fine. I will be completely honest and straightforward. I'm going to hold myself to this in terms of transparency. I will not criticize the Astros if that's what what happens. Like, there's no reason the Astros should expect that. So if it does happen, it's gonna suck for us. I'd be happy for Lance, but at the same time, like, I'm not gonna sit here and be like, how could they trade him away?

[In the Loop Host]

Throws 27 straight curveballs.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[In the Loop Host]

All that good stuff.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

A lot of surprise already coming in from the feedback from the listeners out there as the the latest news, in case you're just tuning in here at the top of the hour for in the loop is Lance McCullers apparently a trade is not quite finalized, but it looks like the Astros will be trading him to the Milwaukee Brewers. Is it a sad day for Astro fans to see him leave or kind of more so sad because it just kind of faded away here in Houston? I mean, I don't want to take too much away from your conversation. I'm sure you guys are gonna be talking about all this stuff.

[Unknown Announcer]

Oh, there's plenty of different nooks and crannies to get into. I think that there's a little level of bittersweetness to it, but it should just be bitter. Like, it should be like, man, you're losing a great Astros player that at least helped you get to a place that you wanted to get to. But the last. The last few years have been very contemptuous. Like, you've paid him a lot. He hasn't been able to play. We, we personally have given him a lot of credit for the battle and like, the want to that he has because a lot of pitchers could have just walked away a long time ago, but at the same time, like, he has held up plans here. And so this does feel like a level of release into okay, now what do you do with the freedom that is now there there from. Even if it's just like the mental strain of we have to keep Lance McCullers within the plans of what you're trying to do.

[In the Loop Host]

I'm more with Seth on this one. I'm really just happy for. For Lance. They obviously Seth, you know him, you know he used to come in regularly and talk with you and just a really good dude. But beyond that, he knows how he feels. I mean, he knows there's a reason he he waived that no trade clause. There's a reason he feels Milwaukee of all places is. Is the place to which he wants to to go because he feels like I can contribute to a contending team. So I'm happy for him.

[Luke Morrow]

Maybe. Maybe this is why that pickleball facility closed down. He's like, I'm moving out of Houston. I got to shut down the business. By the way, you're listening to K I L T A M K I L T F M H E2, Houston and Aussie sports Station. The fellows will carry the conversation with McCullers, but I did just to keep up with tradition. I feel like when I'm in the seat, I do have to ask what is the question of the day? Just as a quick sidebar.

[In the Loop Host]

Oh, yeah, I'm sure everybod, everybody has a story in their mind's Eye. What is your most distinct sandlot memory? We all saw what happened last night, by the way. Just beautifully done.

[Unknown Announcer]

You say we all did, huh? You get people locked in on the All Star Game to that point.

[In the Loop Host]

It doesn't have to be a sandlot baseball.

[Unknown Announcer]

No, I mean, like, when you said we all saw that, you think everybody locked in that way? Because I don't think that they did.

[In the Loop Host]

But anyway, anywho, they. They did do a sandlot tribute. Like, what. What is. Like, when I was that age, this one memory just immediately comes to mind because I can name every kid on my block that I used to play with. Yeah, I can name every one of them.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. I feel I always. Whenever we go to parks now, or even if I just see, like, a big area of grass, I don't know if I have one specific memory, but we used to. We spent all of our summers playing Wiffle ball, either in my front yard or my buddies had what we just called the green. It was roundabout of grass, and we played with metal bats and tennis balls, and we would play baseball all summer. And it makes me sad because I feel like we might have been the last generation where you don't see kids going out there and playing baseball, like, just getting a sandlot game going anymore. So I don't know. I'd have to think of a specific memory. We used to, of course, like, there were some broken windows. We played with football. We set up seats in the neighbor's yard across the street for the kids that weren't playing towards.

[Seth Payne]

Watch.

[Unknown Announcer]

Damn. Y' all had so many kids that y' all had Pretty cool peanut gallery.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah, we had a whole league. We're on different teams. We kept track of.

[In the Loop Host]

See, that's it.

[Seth Payne]

That's the sandlot memory.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, we were so into Wiffle ball.

[In the Loop Host]

That's the one.

[Luke Morrow]

I remember school. Yep.

[Seth Payne]

I remember we were playing 500, and I was. I was a fielder playing 500, and, you know, I was going to get a fly ball. It was headed my way, which is like. Like 100 points, right? Or whatever it is. And. And it was all of a sudden, out of nowhere, as I was waiting for the ball to get to me, my neighbor Brian Shoemaker's dog came out of nowhere and bit me in the leg. And I didn't. I didn't make the catch. You know, Tank Dell would have made the catch. No, I'm like. I'm more focused on this damn dog biting my leg out of nowhere. The dog previously used to like me, but that was awful. Yeah, that's my fond memory.

[Unknown Announcer]

It's funny because my. My memory, and I don't know how fond it is, but, like, I did immediately go to playing. Playing football in the street, where a dog comes down the street, and I make. I make the worst decision. I thankfully did not get bit. But three of the people that were playing go immediately to their house. Cause we were right in front of their house. Lucky sons of the. Sons of. You know what.

[In the Loop Host]

Yeah.

[Unknown Announcer]

The other two dudes jump into a truck, which. Smart, right?

[In the Loop Host]

It's always smart.

[Unknown Announcer]

My thought was, I'm beating the dog to my house, which is about five houses down. And so, yeah, man, it was not a smart decision. I did manage to juke the dog. But, yes, that. That is. Oddly enough, we talk about playing outside, playing sports. That is immediately the thought that I come to.

[In the Loop Host]

We all have it.

[Unknown Announcer]

The time that I had to outrun a dog that looked like it was rabid. It might have just been trying to play, but in my head, I was like, that's a rabid dog that I

[Luke Morrow]

need to get away from. Hey, yeah, something scary like that will stick with you. No doubt.

[Seth Payne]

Rabies was big when we were kids.

[In the Loop Host]

Yeah, it was quicksand.

[Seth Payne]

I feel like rabies is still a genuine threat, but, like, I feel like it was a little. People are bad, Better with their shots these days.

[Unknown Commentator]

Yeah.

[Podcast Narrator]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Well, you know what? It was because of Cujo. Cujo is because Cujo, like, really freaked us out. Cujo and quick Cujo in the movies and quicksand on TV shows.

[Unknown Commentator]

Really.

[Seth Payne]

Like, there's a lot of bad propaganda.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah, we were doing it. We were doing a lot behind quicksand as if this was going to be an actual problem.

[Luke Morrow]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pet cemetery also, I'm sure, contributed. Okay, we got to get out of here because the fellas will get you covered with the Lance McCullers trade. If you're just tuning in, in. Looks like the Astros are working on a deal to send Lance McCullers to the brewers with more details to come. That's why you have to stay locked in right here for the rest of the day to get all the latest. Seth, pleasure, as always. Good to hang with you.

[Seth Payne]

Yes. Awesome being with you. She just flew right by.

[Luke Morrow]

Always does appreciate it.

[Seth Payne]

Lance McCullers plays like a Cy Young candidate for the second half of the season. I'm going to bash my head into a wall.

[Unknown Announcer]

Thought you were going to have to be happy for him.

[Seth Payne]

I'll be happy for him, but you'll be passionately.

[In the Loop Host]

You'll be giddily bashing your head in.

[Seth Payne]

A former teammate of my just sold his business for $1.6 billion. I'm happy for him.

[Luke Morrow]

It's like, it's like in Seinfeld where he says, I don't get why you say you're happy for people. I'm glad they're happy, but it doesn't do anything for my happiness.

[Unknown Announcer]

Yeah.

[Luke Morrow]

Yeah. So anyways, okay, McCullers trade in the works. And meanwhile, in the Loop starts now.

[Podcast Narrator]

Hey there. I'm Kendra Adachi and my show the Lazy Genius Podcast helps you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And you get to decide what matters. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see. Episodes of the Lazy Genius Podcast are full of compassionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to the LazyGenius podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Unknown Commentator]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Luke Morrow]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Seth Payne]

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