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- [00:00]
Host/Announcer
With Squarespace, you can do more than just build a website. You can build a business. Squarespace helps restaurants and hotels showcase signature offerings and experiences. And with Squarespace, consultants and photographers can create invoices to collect well earned payments. You can even send email newsletters to keep in touch with your loyal customers.
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Sean Pendergast
Done.
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Host/Announcer
So grow your business@squarespace.com. get started with offer code. Make it real for 10% off your website or domain.
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Sean Pendergast
On the Powers that Be podcast, we examine the players and currents behind today's most consequential decisions. Join us.
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Byron Pain
Listen to the Powers that Be wherever you get your podcasts.
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Sean Pendergast
Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.
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Byron Pain
We coming to H time. Let's get the work in, man. Let's go.
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Sean Pendergast
Great day. Great day. Oh, give me some juice, baby. Oh, yeah.
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Byron Pain
Let's do it. In the air, shallow right center. Pena calls off Nick out.
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Sean Pendergast
And the Astros win the opening game
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Byron Pain
of this three game series, snapping a four game streak, eight to five. The final tonight against the Marlins.
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Sean Pendergast
Todd Callis on the call Space City Home Network. Hey, a win, that's what it feels like. We hadn't felt a win in well over a week because of the All Star break.
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Byron Pain
It was. I was afraid that they'd forgotten that that was an option in a baseball game. You know, they come back and you got all these guys. Yiner. Yiner might think it's spring training again.
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Sean Pendergast
These games are real.
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Byron Pain
I'm sick of it. I'm sick of Yiner getting an attaboy when one out of two times he gets a, he gets a challenge called correct. Where I'm like, yeah, that's, that's still worse than catchers do.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
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Byron Pain
Okay. Yeah, he's not going to be, he's not going to be batting zero. Yeah. On it.
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Sean Pendergast
No.
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Byron Pain
But no, last night. Positivity. That was, that was fun.
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Sean Pendergast
That was fun.
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Byron Pain
That was. That was fun. A little bit more harrowing than it needed to be.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
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Byron Pain
Kind of the perfect, but kind of the perfect encapsulation of what you have with this baseball team. Yeah, you've got some really good players. You got some guys at the bottom of the lineup that can load up the bases too. You got Pena that can hit a grand slam and Jordan hit a home
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Sean Pendergast
run immediately after steal RBIs from Jordan in the Triple Crown race.
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Byron Pain
Got good things. You're not destitute.
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Sean Pendergast
You got some nice stuff.
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Byron Pain
And yet it was also a little bit more uncomfortable than it needed to be. And it was after a performance by Blanco which is very, very promising coming off his Tommy John surgery. The. Yes, yes, he allowed some home runs, but, yes, he struck a bunch of people out, too.
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Sean Pendergast
He struck a bunch of people out. He had a lot of whiffs. The. The biggest thing to me, I think I. Chandler Rome had all the numbers in this because, yeah, it's. It was. It was about as good as you can feel with Renell Blanco about a performance where his ERA was nearly eight, right. He gave up four runs and he didn't make it through five innings. But that's through 86 pitches, which he threw 68 pitches in his last rehab start. So I think the feeling had been like, all right, if he gets to 80, then it's, you know, the clock's going to be ticking. And the pit. The pitch count got unnecessarily high, you know, to. To no fault of Renell Blanco in the second inning, but he gave up a couple of two run homers. That kept this game to your point, Seth. A little closer than it needed to be. To me, the biggest thing that I liked with Renault Blanco is he got ahead of almost every hitter he faced, like he wasn't pitching from behind. There's so many of these guys this year when they're walking all these guys. Hunter Brown loses his command. Tatsuya Imai has been a circus all year long. There's a reason why Mike Burroughs got sent to the minors, then had it negated, and now is on the il. You know, like, these guys have just had trouble with their command. I didn't think Renell Blanco had trouble with his command. I just thought in. In a couple of bad spots, he. He gave up two hits. They were both homers.
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Byron Pain
It was. It was. Honestly, it was one of those things where if he hadn't been injured and if he'd been having a good season, you look at that performance and say, okay, well, yeah, these things happened, but it was a good performance. Performance overall and whatever. It's just the word. Like, first game back from Tommy John. I'm very, very encouraged. Very encouraged by that. It's. I allow myself to think, okay, yeah, this might be. This might be one of those mythical. Hey, don't worry about the trade deadline. Our trades are actually the guys coming back from the il.
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Sean Pendergast
We just picked up Renell Blanco. Oh, where'd you pick him up from? Karma.
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Byron Pain
That's right.
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Sean Pendergast
That's what we picked him up from. We need something good to happen.
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Byron Pain
We're due. That's. Look, this is just simple mathematics. You know, I'm A lot of people might call me a genius, mathematically. Many others would not. But I would say, what are the smart people say? Regression in the mean or something. At some point you gotta. Somebody's gotta successfully come back from Tommy John surgery. It's a. It's largely become one of these things that in baseball is no big deal.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
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Byron Pain
Unless you're in Houston.
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Sean Pendergast
I wonder and we're. You know, you mentioned the Pena grand slam. Yordan hit a couple of bombs last night, too. Jordan is out in front in every Triple Crown, stat. Right now. He's. I have to go check.
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Byron Pain
I didn't leave Jordan out.
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Sean Pendergast
He's. He's tied for the major league lead now in home runs.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
So he was leading the American League. He's tied. That would be something else. If Jordan won a Triple Crown. That was for. For all three categories for the. The Triple Crown. If you win it just for your league, that you're in the American League, it counts. It's a Triple Crown. If he wanted. For all of baseball, that would be badass. And he's way out in front right now, at least in the American League. Last I checked for batting average, which is, you know, for a power hitter, that's always the most impressive one. Like, wow. Yeah. The guy we senior Don hit bombs. He's hitting like.330.
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Byron Pain
Now, Chandler Rome wrote a piece last night, and I don't want to mischaracterize it, but the basic thrust of it was that, you know, Jordan shows why the Astros might really want to pick somebody up or be a buyer at the trade deadline. And it was, you know, it was a classic. When I read a Chandler rome piece at 3am so sometimes I get some of the details wrong, but, like, you could go multiple ways with that. If we depart from his article and say, well, there's a. Just the actual competitive baseball side of things that you do have the ability to do things like this, B, I guess is just almost out of, like, out of a moral obligation to Yordan to not have this be a wasted Mike Trout type of season with the Angels.
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Sean Pendergast
It's funny you say that. I didn't see the article. You mentioned the article to me before the show and you're mentioning it now. I. My gut reaction when you just give the kind of. The general, like 30,000 foot of what the article was about. If I had a guess, I would say, oh, okay, he must be talking about how you have this player who is beloved here, who's having a transcendent generational season. We Owe it to this guy.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
To put the best team around him that we can to a take advantage of that generational season but also help him win an MVP award. Now is that a good reason to go trading prospects so that one individual can win a piece of hardware?
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Byron Pain
And again and I'm just guessing, I'm open to yes without just after I had scanned through it and didn't read it critically enough. Like knowing Chandler, I'm guessing it's more on the actual baseball side of things that if you're sitting in a room with Chandler and you said hey, you know, isn't it just the right thing to do? Wouldn't it be nice to give it to Chandler? Like, I don't think so. I think Chandler's more along the lines of look, they, they still are capable of these great things and I think it's in line with just and again last night Blanco, I thought it was a very, very good performance and yet at the end of the night you just, you allowed more runs from the pitching staff and you got into some dice your situations even with Josh Hater than you'd like to have that it for me it reaffirms that man. Yes, it'd be nice to have a left handed outfielder, etc. Etc. But there's just too many games where the, it doesn't matter what your downer Pena does. The, the pitching just lets you down and aside from guys getting better, you know, Hunter Brown stabilizing Spencer Getty hopefully looking more like he has recently Renell Blanco emi that those guys certainly could keep the arrow pointing up but there's still room to add somebody.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah, there is. And yet I'm looking at this, I'm seeing, I'm starting to see all this conjecture about Jeremy Pena and in fact do we have a rod here? Byron, this was, this was Alex Rodriguez talking about how the Yankees should trade for Jeremy Pena. I will go get Mason and Pena. You know why? Because a shortstop, I mean look what
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Byron Pain
Derek Jeter did here.
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Sean Pendergast
You watched him here for 20 years. He was the leader.
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Byron Pain
He was your Jalen Brunson.
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Sean Pendergast
Everything starts with that leader up the middle. But you need that guy to be rock solid. Okay, so I'm, I'm seeing a rod. Talk about the Yankees seeing a lot of chatter about, boy, the Red Sox. Now that the Red Sox have won 14 games. They've won. The Red Sox have won 14 games in a row and they're now in the third wild card spot. Astro fans, you know, if you're just focused on The Astros right now. And if I were to bring up the Red Sox, you're like, oh, you mean that trash team the Astros swept the first week of the season? You and I were there for one of those games, Seth, I think. Or no, you. Yeah. You weren't with me. It was. I'm sitting in seats with somebody else.
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Byron Pain
Got so many relationships.
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Sean Pendergast
No, no, no. You. We were in the. I was sitting in the seats when you and I were there when Kyle.
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Byron Pain
The receipts in your pockets, Sean.
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Sean Pendergast
Kyle Tucker bang that ball off his shin. Yeah, no, but anyways, the Red Sox are in there. They would be in the playoffs right now if the season ended today. And Jeremy Pena is from that part of the, part of the world. He's from New England. So there's people like, well, they could use a shortstop, too. There is part of me, and I'm wondering how Astro fans feel about this. Like, I literally wonder how Astro fans felt last night. Putting your don aside, because I think every Astro fan would love for Yordon to win the Triple Crown and the MVP and everything else, but I do wonder if Astro fans, if there's a faction of Astro fans, because I know there is, because there's people out there that root for their football and basketball teams to tank. Yeah, there are Astro fans right now that don't necessarily want the team to win these one off games that sort of keep Jim Crane in this mindset that I'm going to keep the window open. There is an opportunity here. The, the. There's an opportunity in the mediocrity of the American League and the talk for May and June, was it. Well, the opportunity is that it keeps the Astros alive in the playoff hunt, which is true. But I think there's also an opportunity that if you look at the team rationally and you go, we don't really have much to trade to go compete for the better. The better players that are going to put us over the top.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
There is an opportunity to start playing these teams off of each other and, and turn it into a, A, an ebay situation with your team with certain assets.
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Byron Pain
Right. I don't know because I think there's a lot.
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Sean Pendergast
This mediocrity is keeping a lot of teams in the race that are going to look at things the way, unfortunately, in the mind of many Astro fans, the Astros are looking at things right now. It's like, hey, 2% is a big chance here to win this whole thing.
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Byron Pain
I think a 13.4% chance to make the playoffs when they awoke yesterday morning. So here's here's the cree. Here's the key paragraph. I think where Chandler kind of Chandler is saying it's Chandler in this article writes a kind of a lot of open ended. Like hey, it makes you wonder, makes you think having Alvarez is a sort of advantage that should be a separator within the pedestrian American League. That the Astros have not seized better advantage of. It is an indictment on the roster they've built around him and perhaps an impetus to augment it. So yeah, yeah. Like it should Jordan should be a separator right now on this team. It's he alone cannot be the separator.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah. I got bad news for the Astro fans that want them to start selling. There's a better chance the Astros are thinking like that.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
The what you just read than thinking like I just put out there, which is. Well, there's probably four teams that would love to have Jeremy Pena on their watch.
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Byron Pain
It is there. I mean because you could look at it either way because of the mediocrity. It's too tempting for teams to think that they're better than they are. And, and yet also remember, because of all that mediocrity, it's not as hard to be better than everybody else. American. There's some teams out there that are going to make the business decision or the long term decision and they will be Sellers, even though they're in the exact same situation as the Astros, the Tigers. You know, people are talking about the Tigers being Sellers at the trade deadline. Going into last night, they had the exact same winning percentage as the Astros.
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Sean Pendergast
They. And here's the thing with the Tigers because I'm going to go through these teams in a second here. Here's the thing about a team like the Tigers is that they are seven and three in their last ten. So they're ascending. They got their ace back.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
So they fell into that. They fell into that, that rut in part because Tarik school ball was out for two months. Their run differential is plus 33. The Astros are minus 50. So if you're looking at the quality of a team, yeah, they got the same, virtually the same winning percentage. They've got virtually the same record. They haven't. There's an 83 run difference between how they've outscored or been outscored this year. The Astros and the Tigers. Tigers just a better baseball team than the Ashes.
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Byron Pain
Their runs margin, their runs positive plus. Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
83 plus 33 and the Astros are minus 50. That's an 83 run difference between the two so you look at the American League, you got three teams that are leading their division. They theoretically are buyers. Right. You've got the Yankees who are contending in their division. You got the Guardians who are contending in their division. The Red Sox, all of a sudden are above.500. That's six buyers right there. Oh, by the way, the Rangers are sitting right there with the Mariners at the top of their division. Not that you want to make a bunch of deals with the Rangers if you're the Astros, but just in terms of the sheer quantity of teams that are looking at themselves in the mirror, like Homer Simpson looking at himself in the mirror, flexing his mythical pecs that he has. That's seven teams. The Orioles just swept you. They're on a bit of a roll lately. They're seven and three in their last 10. That's eight teams. Minnesota never expected to be here. They're ahead of you right now. Minnesota may be a buyer. Who the hell knows? Detroit, I think, would definitely be a buyer right now. I. You know, there's all the talk with Detroit was who are they going to trade school ball to? I think there's a better chance they're hanging on to school ball and thinking they can make a run at the postseason here with him in his last year. So that's nine teams right there that are all buyers.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
That. You got a chance to create a flea market out of this thing. Any leap. Flea market out of that.
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Byron Pain
So, yeah, the Tigers getting scubal back and. And like, again and playing better is not a reason for them to trade school.
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Sean Pendergast
Right, right, right. No, there's a better chance to keep him now. I.
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Byron Pain
Sorry, I got confused. You misspoke, and you said that The Tigers were plus 58 and the Astros were minus 50.
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Sean Pendergast
No, no, no. I said the Tigers are plus 30.
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Byron Pain
They are plus 33.
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Sean Pendergast
Right. And the Astros are minus 50. It's 83 run difference.
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Byron Pain
Right, right. No, I'm just saying you misspoke when you said it, so I got a little bit confused. No worries.
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Sean Pendergast
No worries. So. So.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
So there's. Anyways, so there's nine. There's nine teams at least right now that I think look at themselves going, we need to add.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
And the question is, should the astros be the 10th team that's doing that? And I'm not so sure they should be right now.
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Byron Pain
It's.
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Sean Pendergast
They've got. And the thing about it is, like you said at the very beginning of the show, is that they've got good things. There's some Good things on this roster.
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Byron Pain
You know, they're like every baseball team.
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Sean Pendergast
There are good things about. There are good things about this team.
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Byron Pain
Not every team is the 2013 Astros.
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Host/Announcer
No.
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Sean Pendergast
So do you flip some of these good things and take advantage of the sheer quantity of teams that would seemingly be in the market to buy those?
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Byron Pain
Right. I guess the question is, okay, if it ends up being a lot more player for player trades this year because of this situation where teams all feel like they're in a position or what have you, where do you feel so good and so deep that you're cool trading away guys of equal value or what adds up to equal value? You know, like we say, hey, trade Christian Walker.
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Host/Announcer
Cool.
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Byron Pain
You're not gonna get a whole lot back for Christian Walker now. You're gonna have to add more people to the mix.
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Sean Pendergast
No, but you get out, you're trading a guy like Christian Walker. I've said this before. You're waving the white flag.
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Byron Pain
Right?
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Sean Pendergast
You're not gonna get much for him. You do get out from underneath his $20 million salary next year.
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Byron Pain
Right. Which is more of a long term play. Not as much about right now.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah.
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Byron Pain
Or. Well. Or to clear space to bring somebody else big in. But then you've got a. You've still gotta trade more away. I'm just so. I am very miserly right now about anything in the farm system. I just. There's something about. Hey, hey, you got a bunch of draft picks high in the draft for the first time in whenever. That. That's a good feeling. I don't want to go out and blow my paycheck, you know, on Friday evening, just this moment, they just picked
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Sean Pendergast
four guys in the top 93.
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Byron Pain
I'd like to. I'd like to learn some of the lessons from my poor financial management in the past and be financially responsible.
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Sean Pendergast
Did you see that Lance made his debut?
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Byron Pain
Sorry. There's some construction going on next door. Freaked me out. How'd he do?
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Sean Pendergast
He. It was weird because they. Somebody showed the one of these accounts that picks like just select pitches to throw, put it on Twitter, and they're like, look at this. 92 mile an hour cutter from Lance McCullers.
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Byron Pain
Yeah, we know.
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Sean Pendergast
Struck some guy out and I'm like, oh, he probably had a really good debut for the Milwaukee Brewers. Three innings pitched, two hits, two earned runs, a walk, and four strikeouts. Okay, so he struck four out in three innings. I didn't watch.
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Byron Pain
The only thing about what Blanco's line was last night, we're gushing about it.
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Sean Pendergast
And maybe they're gushing about it there. Maybe the two hits were little, like three innings.
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Byron Pain
It was. Yeah, yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
Like, maybe the two hits were seeing ice singles. He only walked one guy in three innings. You know, he. He struck out four in three innings. That's 12 strikeouts per nine innings.
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Byron Pain
Did they win?
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Sean Pendergast
Milwaukee destroyed whoever they played. Lance came in and, like, he pitched three innings, but it wasn't a start. He came in in, like, the fifth inning or. Oh, the Miz started the game.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
He only pitched four innings. I have to go check and see.
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Byron Pain
Maybe it was a planned piggyback.
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Sean Pendergast
I don't know.
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Byron Pain
I don't know if Lance went in and was like, hell, yeah, I'm the
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Sean Pendergast
piggyback guy from now piggybacking with the most electric pitcher reliever.
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Byron Pain
I've been begging for years to be a reliever in Houston. They never would let me do it.
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Sean Pendergast
I gotta go check.
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Byron Pain
That's the only. That's the one thing that could turn me against Lance. What if he all of a sudden just openly embraced being a reliever and it was like, yep, this is what I'm all about.
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Host/Announcer
That would.
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Byron Pain
That would annoy me.
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Sean Pendergast
He was definitely. I watched his media availability in Milwaukee, his first one that he did, kind of sitting in the dugout, meeting the media for the first time, and he was all about, like, whatever they need, Whatever they need, whatever. They remember how adamant he was that he was a starting pitcher.
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Byron Pain
I remember it. It's burned into all of our souls. It's been a constant. People started. They didn't even bother asking anymore, would you be. And he always had a good rational explanation for, hey, it's actually not any easier physically to be a reliever and everything. I get what you're saying.
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Sean Pendergast
That's how you would feel. I would recommend not finding that media availability.
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Byron Pain
Can we try something different at least? Yep. I know, Sean. If he becomes their middle relief or just doing anything and everything and he's openly embracing it, not just saying it's a temporary thing. Yeah, that's going to. That's going to sting a little.
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Sean Pendergast
Yep. Well, that's what he's doing. I just want you to know he's
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Byron Pain
done it before for the Astros last year.
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Sean Pendergast
Right, right.
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Byron Pain
I'm saying, like, in a small amount. I'm not thinking too much about it, but if this is who he ends up being in the entire second half of the season, and, like, you couldn't at any point in your tenure here, you couldn't just openly embrace it like this.
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Sean Pendergast
I think this is who he is. If he wants a job in baseball after this year, I think he needs to embrace. I think he needs to embrace being.
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Byron Pain
I know, but that's. You could have said that anytime in the last four years.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah, I have been saying that.
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Byron Pain
It would not annoy you.
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Sean Pendergast
That wouldn't bother you if he were embracing being. No, because I think that's what he needs to do to stay in baseball at this point.
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Byron Pain
Right, but that's what we've been saying. I know, but it doesn't bother you that he would just all of a sudden, like, after wanting to do.
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Sean Pendergast
Like, if he wants to keep a job. I. I understand.
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Byron Pain
I understand his personal motivation. But why couldn't he do it? Why couldn't he do that when he was with the Astros?
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah, I'm over it. I'm just so.
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Byron Pain
He.
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Sean Pendergast
I'm. Yeah.
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Byron Pain
I'm astounded that this wouldn't bother you more than usually. You're the one that would be by this stuff.
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Sean Pendergast
I just can't get worked up about a guy with a 7 ERA and what he's talking about. You know, like, you're mad at me that I'm not worked up about this. You're worked up that I'm not worked.
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Byron Pain
I'm more astounded.
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah. That.
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Byron Pain
That wouldn't. After a decade of him just adamantly, just angrily, you're going to make me say it.
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Sean Pendergast
Because I like Lance. I don't care about Lance McCullers anymore. I don't care about him anymore as a baseball player.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
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Sean Pendergast
I care about him as a coffee entrepreneur and a human being.
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Byron Pain
I don't.
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Sean Pendergast
I said it.
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Byron Pain
Yeah. No. This would really, really bother me. It would change the way I feel about Lance.
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Sean Pendergast
I just can't. He.
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Byron Pain
I've been very. I've been very charitable in the way that o. And feel about.
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Sean Pendergast
Can I caveat here? Because we're way over. If he became good again.
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Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [20:32]
Sean Pendergast
If he became a good reliever and he was embracing it.
- [20:35]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [20:35]
Sean Pendergast
But if he sits here with a. Like he had. He gave up two runs of three. He has a six er now with. I just. I can't get worked up about a guy's not good at bas.
- [20:42]
Byron Pain
So if he does become a good reliever and this is the experiment that they could have done in Houston and that he openly embraced, but until I
- [20:49]
Sean Pendergast
see him having an ERA below 12.
- [20:50]
Byron Pain
All right.
- [20:51]
Sean Pendergast
I'm not going to get worked up about it. He's not a good baseball player.
- [20:53]
Host/Announcer
All right.
- [20:53]
Byron Pain
I'm going to hold you to this. Okay, I, I'm just go home. I'm going to be watching brewers games late at night.
- [20:58]
Sean Pendergast
Thank you. Baseball Talk on Sports Radio 610 presented by Xfinity. Score the most reliable Wi Fi 1 price 5 years guaranteed Xfinity. Imagine that. Coming up next, question number seven in our series of questions leading up to Texans training camp. We've done the first three. We've got number seven coming up. It's about linebackers.
- [21:17]
Byron Pain
We'll do six ten presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point
- [21:22]
Sean Pendergast
Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast all. Couple questions on the text page and we get to the question of the day for the Texans. What prospects would we get for Pena, let's say, if they traded him with the Red Sox? I'm not going to bury the audience at 6:30 in the morning underneath a bunch of names they don't know. Mostly because I don't know the names either. Like, I, I'm not, I don't follow minor league baseball outside of the Astros in a manner where I would be doing anything but faking how awesome all these players are.
- [21:52]
Byron Pain
Well, no, no, no. Even the people who are dialed in all this stuff, it's just there's so many.
- [21:57]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, there's so many. I the, the, the thing I've seen from people whose opinion I respect, like proposed trades for Pena, whether it's the Yankees, the Ash or the Red Sox or whoever is significant, like at least one or two guys are significantly high up the food chain of those respective teams. You know, if you're getting a couple guys that you feel like can it can contribute to the Astros in a couple of years for Pena. That's good. The one big benefit a team gets with Pena, especially a team like the Red Sox or the Yankees that are willing to pay high salaries for guys. Red Sox not as much as the Yankees, but Hey there.
- [22:29]
Host/Announcer
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 compelling, passionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to the Lazy Genius Podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode sponsored by She's Byrdie. You lock the hotel room door. Then check it again and maybe one more time. Because even the nicest room can feel unfamiliar at night. That's why She's Birdie created Birdie Box with She's Birdie, you can bring peace of mind with you. BirdieBox is a portable travel door alarm for hotels, dorms, Airbnbs, and anywhere you stay away from home. Just attach it to the door frame, switch it on, and if someone opens the door, Birdie Box blasts a loud siren and flashing alarm to alert you and everyone nearby. Because the best part of travel isn't worrying, it's sleeping soundly. Birdie Box from She's Birdie locking in peace of mind wherever you stay. For safer, more confident travel, visit she's birdie.com that's s h e s b I r d I e dot com.
- [23:51]
Sean Pendergast
You know, they're. They're. They're not poors. They're haves. They're not have nots. They'll get Jeremy Pena for one more year of arbitration next year. Also. So they, they'll. If you trade for Jeremy Pena at the trade deadline, you're getting him for a year and a half. Yeah, it's like when the red side. Or when the Astros made the Verlander trade back, the first Verlander trade back in 2017. You're getting it for two more years after that. That was a big selling point to that deal. There's. There's also a text. They're blaming us.
- [24:18]
Byron Pain
Oh, no.
- [24:18]
Sean Pendergast
For resetting the season. That, that. This is, this is our. This is a pain and Pendergast issue,
- [24:25]
Byron Pain
the way the Astros are playing us.
- [24:27]
Sean Pendergast
No, no, no. It says this. It says the, the, the last two years after terrible starts. The Astros straightened things out by the All Star break. Yeah, this year started the same way. But you two decided to reset the season on May 15th and look what happened. Yeah, that's karma. Don't mess with the baseball gods. Hello. They're 31 and 26 since we reset. They're better since we reset the season. They're better for being playing baseball in the town that we do our show.
- [24:54]
Byron Pain
I think he's saying you guys yourselves should recognize and realize that they've turned it around a little bit. This is the problem, though. Okay, great. They got off the horrible starts the last two seasons. They didn't make the playoffs last year. So, like. And then they had a miserable showing two years ago. Like, what exactly is the great triumph there? Like, oh, they came back and they turned into a mediocre baseball team or Slightly above mediocre. That's not. You can't credit. You can't credit the same manager and GM and baseball team who got off to the extremely slow start for getting themselves back up to mediocre.
- [25:28]
Sean Pendergast
You are what you are. That's the end of the year.
- [25:29]
Byron Pain
Any kind of a triumph I want to be a part of. Yeah.
- [25:32]
Sean Pendergast
Yep. All right. So 10 days.
- [25:33]
Byron Pain
Well, there's like honey, I cheated on you three times, but here I am. Here I am. And I've been faithful for six months.
- [25:39]
Sean Pendergast
I'm back.
- [25:40]
Byron Pain
Why don't you trust me?
- [25:41]
Sean Pendergast
I'm back, baby. Ten days until Texans training camp. It was actually a few days ago. It was 10 days. But this is just the theme. We've been counting it down. We're at question number seven. If you want to go back and listen to the previous three questions, you can do it on the Pain and Pendergast podcast on the Odyssey app. We're doing it this segment each day leading up to next Wednesday. A week from tomorrow is the first day we will be out there in the heat for Texans training camp. I can't wait. Question today, Seth. How big an issue is linebacker depth with this team? Especially considering that E.J. speed is out for the season.
- [26:15]
Byron Pain
Yeah. And E.J. speed played 45% or so snaps the last year of the defensive snaps. He was a big deal. Especially when Jalen Petrie went down. They started leaning into playing three linebackers more. It's a big deal. I feel, I feel pretty confident for a couple reasons. In Marte Mapu and Wade Wood as. So Wade Wood as a fifth round pick. Marte Mapu was a guy who in New England, remember, was there through two different head coaches. And I don't think was a great scheme fit perhaps for, for, for Mike Vrabel and they trade him for late round picks. It wasn't much like one of those pick swap. Yeah.
- [26:51]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [26:52]
Byron Pain
But I think he might be a better fit for the Texans. He can play safety like you talk about. Okay. When Jalen Petra goes down last year and they just want to put their best football players on the field, they put in EJ Speed a lot more. He's not great in pass coverage. Marte Mapu, if, if he fits the scheme well, I think might be better in pass coverage. He's played safety before.
- [27:12]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [27:13]
Byron Pain
So I like how they might use him kind of in the same way that they use DJ Speed last year. Wow. Guys got a lot of physical upside. Hasn't really, hasn't really become maybe the best version of himself, you know, in Indianapolis. He came here and they were really happy with him. They gave him an extension. Marte Map, who might be that guy. But it's, it's going to be very, very competitive. And I think, like, remember Henry Tower Toa is going into his free agency year. As of right now, they haven't extended him. I think, I think he's in a perhaps more competitive situation than people might think.
- [27:49]
Sean Pendergast
What's there a better chance of Henry Toa. Toa getting an extension before the season or Henry Toa Toa's job getting taken by any of the guys in camp right now? Oh, when I say job, like he's going to be on the team as a starter.
- [28:01]
Byron Pain
No, that's a really good question. I don't think that would be something that would happen during camp. It might be an in season thing. So there's more of a chance that he gets an extension. I think a moderate extension. Yeah, moderate extension. I mean, he's the classic kind of. He's a good football player and they're a very good defense with him on the field. But they've got so much money committed to the defense that Toa Toa and his agent might be looking at it and saying, you know, whatever the Texans have offered or whatever discussions they've had, we feel like, we feel like there's, there's more for you out there. And the Texans, I think, really like Toa Toa, but they, they got to be smart at this point about how much they pay guys who aren't the, the premier players on the defense.
- [28:39]
Sean Pendergast
There's some interesting names. You know, Wood as is the one you mentioned him. What. As is the one I'm most intrigued by because he, he flat as much as you can flash in minicamp and OTAs and things like that. Like you, he was one of those guys, you watch out there, like, oh, okay, that's somebody right there. You know, there's 90 guys out there. So he, so he flashed a little bit.
- [28:57]
Byron Pain
Like, he's impressive physically. He's tall, he's long, he's a former safety. It's the same thing. There was a, there are a few snaps when, when you see Marte Mapu and Wade Wood as out there together, like, oh, that's a, that's an impressive looking. That's an impressive looking linebacker core right there.
- [29:13]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [29:15]
Byron Pain
So. But he's very raw. He's a convert to the position himself. And like there's. It might take a little bit of time. I think he's going to be a special teams contributor immediately. But this is what d' Amico Ryan's and Billy Davis have done a great job of is developing these linebackers. So I think getting the most out of those two guys, I expect at least one of those guys to kind of rise to the challenge. Aiden Fisher is an interesting one because he's a seventh round pick. All the measurables don't look like he'd be a great NFL linebacker, you know, who's a lot measurables really didn't look like he could be a good NFL linebacker coming out of college. One Aziz Elshire. Like he was Aziz. You look at his, his spider chart and everything like, okay, I don't know, I'm. He's a thumper. Maybe he'll have a chance or something. He works with d'. Ameco. Ryan's becomes one of the best, you know, one of the best linebackers in the NFL right now.
- [30:09]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. And two things on that. One specific to Aiden Fisher, there was a press conference D' Amico did at some point in OTAs or minicamp where he gushed about Aiden Fisher. Yeah, I don't know if the question was directly about Aiden Fisher or if it was about the linebacker position, but I'm like, wow, you do not hear head coaches talk about seventh round picks.
- [30:27]
Byron Pain
No, no. He's exactly the kind of guy that comes from a national championship defense. It was the leader of that defense at linebacker. Especially with d'. Ameco. I really trust his ability to see the guys who have really good recognition when to pull the trigger. All of those, all of those intangible linebacker traits. I think d' Ameco's got a really good eye for that.
- [30:47]
Sean Pendergast
That's the second thing I was going to say. If d' Ameco, Ryan's is. And I know Nick Casario is the GM and everything, but d' Ameco obviously has heavy input in all this. If the Texans are drafting linebackers and defensive linemen, I'm going to buy on those guys. Yeah, those are just two positions that historically we've seen excel in a demico. Ryan's coached defense and so I'm really. I mean granted he's a second round pick, not a seventh round pick, but Kaden McDonald I'm very bullish on as a defensive lineman they drafted and similarly the two linebackers, they drafted Wood as an Aiden Fisher. Whatever the bar is, whatever the expectations are for a fourth round pick and a seventh round pick coming into training camp, I think they're both going to Exceed those.
- [31:27]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah. And then it's just a matter of, all right, how quickly does it happen? And so I feel. I don't feel awesome about just the proven ability of those guys, but I think between just those three guys that are new to the team, Wade Wood as Aiden Fisher and then Marte Mapu, I'd have a hard time believing that at least one of those guys doesn't rise to the occasion.
- [31:46]
Sean Pendergast
I agree. I agree.
- [31:47]
Byron Pain
All right.
- [31:48]
Sean Pendergast
You can text the show. 713-57-2, 4, 6, 10 headlines. Coming up next, we'll circle back to the Astros. LeBron Watch continues. We'll get into that as well. And a firing in collegiate sports yesterday that I want to touch on as well. We'll do that all in headlines.
- [32:01]
Byron Pain
Coming up, Pain and Penderg switch. Today's headlines. This ball hit in the air to right. Plenty deep enough to score one. Couldn't score four. That ball's good. A slam for Pena. The Astros take a 5 to 2 lead on a ball that just got over the wall in right field.
- [32:29]
Sean Pendergast
That'll make me want a jalapena.
- [32:34]
Byron Pain
That was some late life. Going to the opposite field.
- [32:39]
Sean Pendergast
Jeremy Pena, grand slam. And that game is Todd Callis. Todd Callis. Jeff Blum, of course, on the call there. Space City Home Network took a 52 lead with that Grand Slam. A 62 lead. The very next at bat, because Jordan Alvarez bats after Jeremy Pena and he hits dingers. He had another one later in the game. And the Astros would go on to win last night, Seth, 8 to 5. That winning feeling back again after like 11 days, whatever it is, because the damn All Star break, they hadn't won a game since the last series before the All Star.
- [33:15]
Byron Pain
Well, it was such a, it was such a ridiculously miserable experience with that, that, that sweep coming back where they just, they were doing so many dumb things. They just looked. They looked decrepit and dead. It was very, very depressing.
- [33:27]
Sean Pendergast
He looked like they didn't care.
- [33:28]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [33:29]
Sean Pendergast
You know, like in that Orioles series.
- [33:30]
Byron Pain
Well, no. And then it was the frustrating. It was those, the two plays. Einer kind of just strolling down the first baseline instead of covering home. Yeah. Disenzo, Disenzo. Just completely oblivious to the fact that on the, on the last rolling strikeout that he could have tried to make a play for first. Yeah. Yep. Just a lot of it was. It was a bad feeling. Yes.
- [33:50]
Sean Pendergast
So last night.
- [33:50]
Byron Pain
Yesterday felt good. Yeah.
- [33:52]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. Last night was nice.
- [33:53]
Byron Pain
Blanco, the stat line doesn't look awesome if you didn't watch this game. But Blanco looked good, let up some home runs, but by and large had a bunch of strikeouts, was getting a whole bunch of whiffs. For a guy coming in his first appearance off of Tommy John, this is. It's very encouraging.
- [34:07]
Sean Pendergast
He gave up two hits. They were both home runs. Yeah, you know, so that's. I. That I look at that type of performance, I'm like, all right, well, that's something you can work with right there. Obviously, just you keep the ball in the ballpark and you're in good shape. So they win last night eight to five. They're back at it tonight, seven o'. Clock. The Astros right now as we sit, Seth, are three and a half, Three and a half games back in the division, four and a half games back in the wild card. And because the Red Sox all of a sudden are a juggernaut, they've won 14 in a row and have sailed past. That's how. When there's a bunch of teams in between you and the playoff hunt.
- [34:43]
Byron Pain
Yeah, that's.
- [34:44]
Sean Pendergast
That's how you sail past them. You win 14 in a row. He's getting the HOV lane.
- [34:49]
Byron Pain
What's. What we've been begging for all year
- [34:50]
Sean Pendergast
long for the astros to win 14 in a row.
- [34:52]
Byron Pain
If they were just, you need this.
- [34:53]
Sean Pendergast
That's the problem.
- [34:54]
Byron Pain
They had the last couple years when they had those miserable starts and ascended again, and they've done a good job of kind of scrapping and fighting and clawing their way back. A 14 game win, win streak would be in general. Ashan, you know, I'm a baseball. I'm a baseball guy. Yeah, yeah, that. That's a positive.
- [35:11]
Sean Pendergast
I think it would be a positive if they won 14 in a row. The Astros back at it tonight. 7:10, first pitch. $dog night out at the yard.
- [35:18]
Byron Pain
Oh, hell yeah. Going, no, no. I had to, like.
- [35:22]
Sean Pendergast
Remember the last Dollar Dog night we went to?
- [35:24]
Byron Pain
Hate two pizzas last night. I've got so much sodium.
- [35:27]
Sean Pendergast
So. Hold on a second. We had a meeting up here last
- [35:30]
Byron Pain
night, and there were five pizzas. Two of them were for me. Yes. I didn't eat all day. I was on my one meal a day.
- [35:38]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [35:38]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [35:38]
Sean Pendergast
And your one meal.
- [35:39]
Byron Pain
TikTok tells me it's the healthiest thing I could do.
- [35:41]
Sean Pendergast
These were not personal pizzas either.
- [35:44]
Byron Pain
I don't eat all day, and then I eat two pizzas.
- [35:46]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah. We had like a 30 person meeting, five pizzas for 30 people. Seth ate two of them.
- [35:50]
Byron Pain
I ate the veggie pizza second. I have no Guilt about eating the veggie pizza because I was the only one eating the veggie pizza. That's true. Yeah.
- [35:57]
Sean Pendergast
That would have gone well.
- [35:58]
Byron Pain
It was a veggie and meat pizza.
- [35:59]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [36:00]
Byron Pain
It had everything you can get except for the pineapples. Yeah.
- [36:03]
Sean Pendergast
Basically, it's a grocery store pizza. LeBron watch continues. Not so much for us here in Houston, but around the NBA. He has yet to announce where he's going to go. And this is getting pretty funny now because I was listening, I saw some, some. Some videos on Twitter and I was listening to some audio on some other shows and things like that. And now Rich Paul, his agent, is kind of making the rounds. He was on Max Kellerman's YouTube show, and he's basically like, lebron's not going to be rushed, okay? Like, everybody chill out. He's not going to be rushed. Meanwhile, you've got the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, openly saying at summer league this past week, like, we kind of need LeBron to make a decision so we can set our schedule for this coming here so we know what team he's going to be on.
- [36:47]
Byron Pain
The little. The. The Little Prince is going to make his decision when the Little Prince wants
- [36:52]
Sean Pendergast
to make his decision. Chill out. Adam Silver. Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's really funny at, at 41 or whatever he is. He's over 40 at 41 years old, no longer, you know, even a third team, all NBA guy. He was the third option on his team last year at times in the Lakers. He still, he still holds the keys to the league when it comes to the marquee right now.
- [37:13]
Byron Pain
Oh, yeah.
- [37:14]
Sean Pendergast
Now, how interested are you. How interested are you in his decision as to where he's going to go? And I asked that with the context of remembering back to 2010, where even though the Rockets and a lot of NBA teams knew LeBron wasn't going to their team, people were gripped by that.
- [37:30]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [37:31]
Sean Pendergast
Now, that was LeBron in his prime. How, how interested are you and where
- [37:36]
Byron Pain
he is at this time? More. I love the NBA dynamic where more than in any other sport, people just. They allow themselves to dream based on name recognition alone. So I'm excited to. I'm excited to see whichever team gets him and then, you know, convinces themselves.
- [37:52]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [37:53]
Byron Pain
That.
- [37:53]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, that this is the. Is a finishing move right here. Yeah, I like, I compare. I'm just kind of thinking in general, like, the interest in this whole thing, like LeBron, LeBron in 2010 was. Would be like a musician who was playing, like, huge stadiums everywhere. Like, that was the decision in 2010. Like, everybody watched it that night. This is more like. I'm not saying there's no intrigue with it right now. There is. Obviously, we're talking about it. This is more like playing like Toyota center, like, like smaller arenas, like, interest level. LeBron can't fill a big stadium anymore for a concert, but he can feel smart. Financials.
- [38:30]
Byron Pain
I think it's notable that, that. Look, the reason that things are on hold until LeBron makes his decision is because. It's because the basketball people really want LeBron too. So it's like as much as I'm kind of, you know, downplaying what kind of an impact it could make. Yeah. In the right situation is with him, with him being the veteran leader on your team. Yeah. I think the possibilities are very, very enticing.
- [38:54]
Sean Pendergast
He's a winning basketball.
- [38:55]
Byron Pain
Yeah. And not to mention, I mean, but those teams also, like, they, they understand the financial impact of that too. Of just having the marketing.
- [39:02]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because LeBron. Yeah.
- [39:04]
Byron Pain
But it isn't just the fans that are interested in this. Things that are on hold because teams themselves are waiting to see exactly what happens.
- [39:12]
Sean Pendergast
Yes. There are four or five teams that are figuring out what their next move is going to be. Ward Manual out as Michigan AD at the end of the year after an investigation into the athletic department and the athletic programs in general at Michigan revealed that there were some pretty serious culture problems.
- [39:28]
Byron Pain
No, go figure. In Michigan.
- [39:30]
Sean Pendergast
At Michigan was Sharon Moore as their head coach. And a little cheating scandal going on.
- [39:34]
Byron Pain
Jim Harbaugh currently serving a, what, a 10 year ban from college football.
- [39:39]
Sean Pendergast
Dude, do you know, you know how bad the culture problems have to be now? He's, he's stepping aside at the end of the calendar year. So he's one of their own. Ward Manual, he played for Lloyd Carr. He might have played for Bo Schembechler. Played football Michigan back in the day.
- [39:53]
Byron Pain
He.
- [39:54]
Sean Pendergast
You know how bad your culture issues have to be for you to be pushed aside as the AD for an athletic program that won a national championship in basket, men's basketball and football in the last three years. You won championships in the two biggest sports in the last three years. And they're like, see ya. Yeah, that's got to be bad.
- [40:12]
Byron Pain
Jeff Luno sitting at home nodding his head. Yeah, I know.
- [40:16]
Sean Pendergast
Banging on trash cans up in Michigan, apparently. Click.
- [40:19]
Byron Pain
Still wondering what the hell happened. That's true.
- [40:22]
Sean Pendergast
Culture issues while I was here, we're
- [40:23]
Byron Pain
in here in Houston. Was like, yeah, this is what you do after you win championships.
- [40:26]
Sean Pendergast
So I gotta let go.
- [40:26]
Byron Pain
Get rid of the people that were in charge.
- [40:28]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. So I got let go because we weren't meatheaded enough. James Click.
- [40:32]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah.
- [40:33]
Sean Pendergast
Like, okay, I didn't operate bad look
- [40:34]
Byron Pain
for the state of Michigan. I mean, you know, there was like Michigan State. State. You go from one of the most deplorable situations in football involved sports was Michigan State. And then you transition right into your other big state university.
- [40:48]
Sean Pendergast
Hell's going on up there, man. All right, coming up next, 7 o' clock hour is. Is here. I did the Pender poll. I promised yesterday. Texans, if they go three and one to start the season next year, they open the season home, Buffalo, home, Cincinnati at Indy, home Dallas. They're gonna. If they start three and one next year, you have to pick which team they lose to. There's not a great option here. Seth, have you looked at this Pender poll?
- [41:15]
Byron Pain
I have not. I've not guessed this.
- [41:17]
Sean Pendergast
We're gonna play the. Guess the Pender pole game that Seth loves to play. We're gonna. Sports Radio 610 presents Payne and Pendergast. Payne and Pendergast.
- [41:27]
Byron Pain
Sorry.
- [41:28]
Sean Pendergast
We're just trying to solve the Astros problems.
- [41:29]
Byron Pain
We're trying to fix Jim Crane.
- [41:31]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [41:31]
Byron Pain
We're trying.
- [41:32]
Sean Pendergast
We're trying to fix a man who's been highly successful.
- [41:35]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [41:35]
Sean Pendergast
And won two championships as an owner.
- [41:37]
Byron Pain
We're trying to get a 19 point
- [41:38]
Sean Pendergast
plan, fix this poor guy. Yeah. Oh, man. We'll. We'll get back to the Astros a little bit later. Payne and Pendergast with you here on a Tuesday. We are nine days. No, eight days. Eight days away from training camp. Rookies report today. I think.
- [41:54]
Byron Pain
Really?
- [41:55]
Sean Pendergast
I think so.
- [41:55]
Byron Pain
Good.
- [41:56]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [41:56]
Byron Pain
In there. Basic training.
- [41:57]
Sean Pendergast
When you were a player, to learn
- [41:59]
Byron Pain
how to make your bunk.
- [42:00]
Sean Pendergast
When you were a player, did rookies report like a week ahead of everybody else?
- [42:03]
Byron Pain
We reported it to same time.
- [42:05]
Sean Pendergast
Really?
- [42:05]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [42:05]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [42:06]
Byron Pain
And then we got hazed. There was our rookie mini camp.
- [42:09]
Sean Pendergast
What was the worst hazing?
- [42:10]
Byron Pain
We were pretty. We weren't bad. I just thought. Yeah, no, we weren't bad at all.
- [42:13]
Sean Pendergast
I feel like the worse the hazing, the worse the culture is in the building with.
- [42:17]
Byron Pain
Yeah, you know what? Yeah, there might be. Well, the Saints were forever. When I was a player, the Saints were known as by far the place you didn't want to go to.
- [42:23]
Sean Pendergast
Hitting Cam Cleveland with like socks full of pennies.
- [42:26]
Byron Pain
So that's what ended up. That's what hazing really fell off in the NFL when the Saints got busted for doing all kinds of nasty stuff.
- [42:34]
Sean Pendergast
So did bounties responsible for that.
- [42:38]
Byron Pain
Yeah, they do everything. They clean up the league.
- [42:40]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [42:41]
Byron Pain
By virtue of setting a bad example,
- [42:42]
Sean Pendergast
the Saints are like, thank God they didn't catch us deflating.
- [42:45]
Byron Pain
You know what? Through no fault of their own, the Saints kind of also enhanced replay because they got hosed so bad in the championship game.
- [42:52]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, that's a great point.
- [42:53]
Byron Pain
So, yeah, thank you, New Orleans Saints, for everything. No, the Saints used to do like it was going back to, you know, Jim Morris senior was an old school coach and I remember some. Joel Smingy was a defensive end who was a rookie in New Orleans. And he said it was just awful.
- [43:07]
Sean Pendergast
He's a teammate of yours.
- [43:08]
Byron Pain
Jacksonville. Yeah. But he had been a rookie with the Saints.
- [43:11]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [43:11]
Byron Pain
And it was two things. One was the veterans on the team were like, this is back when training camp was seven weeks long or whatever it was. And. And he was. He took every rep of every period because they had a bunch of veteran defensive ends that weren't going to practice much. So he was out there every rep of every period. New Orleans training camp. Yeah. In New Orleans.
- [43:32]
Sean Pendergast
And they don't practice inside the Superdome.
- [43:34]
Byron Pain
And they would do stuff to the rookies, like, I mean, they would. They tape them. You know, one of the old things to do. And this wasn't something that happened. This would happen for disciplinary reasons when I was a younger player. But in New Orleans, it was just the standard. They tape guys up to the goal post.
- [43:47]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [43:48]
Byron Pain
And leave them there all night. All night.
- [43:50]
Sean Pendergast
All night.
- [43:50]
Byron Pain
All night. You'd get taped to a goal post all night and then have to practice the next day where you're taking all
- [43:57]
Sean Pendergast
the rest with no sleep.
- [43:59]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Or whatever sleep you could get standing up to a goalpost.
- [44:02]
Sean Pendergast
And it's. And I'm guessing it's. You're probably. It's probably not just one person taped to the goalpost. It's probably like you're scrunched up against two other guys all night.
- [44:10]
Byron Pain
I was at. When I did. When we were at the super bowl in New Orleans. Oh, I know. I know. When we were at the super bowl at New Orleans, there were. You know, I do that. The NFL PA gives you these full health scans and everything.
- [44:21]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [44:22]
Byron Pain
And they were offering one at the super bowl, so I went and did it. And there were a bunch of former Saints players there. So I was talking to a couple of.
- [44:27]
Sean Pendergast
From that era.
- [44:28]
Byron Pain
Yeah. And they were telling. They were. I was. I was kind of comparing notes with the story Swingy had told me. Yep, it all checked out. It was awful, man. I don't. Yeah. Can you imagine, though? You're trying to make an NFL team, Biggest thing you've ever done in your entire life, and you're doing it on no sleep. You're getting going. You have to run through gauntlets where they're hitting you with socks full of quarters. It was just. It was a rough scene, man.
- [44:50]
Sean Pendergast
Wow. And being taped outside to a goalpost. This is not the Greenbrier, where at night it's 62 degrees and pleasant and there's not gigantic creatures flying around.
- [45:00]
Byron Pain
Right, right.
- [45:01]
Sean Pendergast
You've got mosquitoes. This is in Metairie, Louisiana. Well, I don't know where it was back then, but the Saints now. Their outdoor facilities in Metairie. Imagine. It's just.
- [45:10]
Byron Pain
Imagine if you.
- [45:11]
Sean Pendergast
If you went to the French Quarter in the summertime. You know how hot it gets in the French Quarter. Imagine getting to sleep standing up, taped to a lamp.
- [45:18]
Byron Pain
You got taped to a lamp post in the French Quarter, and you're not even paying for it. Yeah, right. You're not even into it.
- [45:26]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah. You know, you're by yourself. There's no services you're getting.
- [45:31]
Byron Pain
You know what I'd really like?
- [45:32]
Sean Pendergast
I'd like to be taped to a lamp post.
- [45:34]
Byron Pain
But, yeah, I think it was a 97 or 98. Somebody finally got injured really badly and running one of those gauntlets with the socks full of quarters. And that's when everything. They kind of cracked down on it around the league. The other thing that used to be common in pro sports, and this is much more tragic, was the. Just like. Like lots of drinking on the planes, on the wide. But then, remember a couple. That the Carolina hockey player killed somebody in a DUI from a team flight.
- [46:01]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [46:01]
Byron Pain
It was something. Some kind of tragedy.
- [46:02]
Sean Pendergast
I vaguely remember.
- [46:03]
Byron Pain
And I remember that was when all of a sudden they cracked down, because it was on our flights. This is how it used to work. The. There's a liquor cabinet in the back. Flight attendants weren't supposed to touch it, but the flight attendants were cool as hell. And so they'd kind of smuggle you. They'd smuggle you the little bottles of liquor as long as you were, you know, friendly and got poured in your. But they cracked down on that and put locks on the liquor cabinet and everything.
- [46:26]
Sean Pendergast
So the flight attendants, like, can't even get in there.
- [46:28]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah, those were the days. No, but they used to have kegs on the plane and all kinds of crazy Stuff that probably violates FAA restrictions. Hey, what should we put in this? A 150 pound metal cylinder.
- [46:43]
Sean Pendergast
It's just in there. Pretty meticulous about how much things weigh on these flights.
- [46:47]
Byron Pain
Don't worry, we'll put a seatbelt on it during takeoff.
- [46:50]
Sean Pendergast
Why are we a little off here right now? All right. So yesterday you and I were talking about the first four games of the season. The question we had posed yesterday, if you want to go back and listen to it, it was right about this time, was does CJ Stroud have a chance to shut up all the doubters in the first four games of the season? He's never going to shut up all of anything. But that's what you do.
- [47:09]
Byron Pain
No matter how great you are, you'll always have your doubters. And people will, they will not shut up.
- [47:13]
Sean Pendergast
There's definitely a faction of Texan fans that are waiting till the playoffs next year to evaluate C.J.
- [47:17]
Byron Pain
stroud. It's an interesting question because I think by and large, I think the national media is. Other than the white hot heat after the playoffs. I think people have kind of settled in and into a wait and see.
- [47:28]
Sean Pendergast
I agree.
- [47:29]
Byron Pain
And there's, you know, there'll be a few here and there. Kendrick Perkins will say he wouldn't throw water on CJ Stroud if he was burning all of that. But like, by and large, people, I think like the analysts are very much in wait and see mode with CJ
- [47:43]
Sean Pendergast
I think so too. I think so too. I think as a team, they've been more bullish on the Texans this off season than I've expected. Yeah, I've seen more people than I thought picking the Texas to go to the Super Bowl.
- [47:53]
Byron Pain
It's a whole lot of look at how good they are. If they could just figure out the minor detail of their quarterback.
- [47:59]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah.
- [48:00]
Byron Pain
It is like the Texans as a team have getting a lot of praise is, well, almost. Well simultaneously given a backhand slap to C.J.
- [48:09]
Sean Pendergast
yes, yes, I think so. I. That. That's a good way to put it. So the first four games of the season are the Bills at home, the Bengals at home, at the Colts home for Dallas. And this just hammers home. I'll get to the poll question I put up in a second here, Seth. This just hammers home. Looking at these four games and you got a division game in there, but you got three home games in the first four weeks of the season. And I think this applies to the entire pre buy week for the Texans because they play following these four Games. They play the Titans in Tennessee, Jacksonville in London, and then they close out the pre bi week portion with a home game against the Giants. They have to go five and two at least in these seven games because I don't think there's a nine game or 10 game winning streak sitting on the other side of the bye week this year. Yeah, the schedule, you're. You're going to be, you're going to be drained of half your home schedule before the bi week. You play four of your eight home games in the first seven weeks of the season. So not only you overloaded on road games in the back end of the season. You got a couple Thursday night games. You got an entire December of cold weather road games against mostly playoff teams.
- [49:23]
Byron Pain
Yeah, the, the back end of the season is, I would say, brutal. Except that I, if the Texans were a bad team, I would say it's brutal. It is a test, though.
- [49:31]
Sean Pendergast
It's manageable.
- [49:32]
Byron Pain
It's very much of a prove it. Like, hey, are you who we think you can be in the second half of the season, especially in potentially inclement weather? Yes. My concerns with CJ Aren't about cold weather. It's about precipitation. Yeah, I just like we've seen this in nice weather in Houston when there's a drizzle in the day that the passing game kind of goes to crap during. During practices that I just, I need to C.J. perform well, you know, by, by NFL quarterback standards when it's wet out.
- [50:00]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. Would you sign up for three and one in these first four games without knowing what's behind door number two?
- [50:06]
Byron Pain
I would. As a rule. I'd like to sign up for three and one at any portion of the season.
- [50:10]
Sean Pendergast
Yep.
- [50:11]
Byron Pain
This is, this is an interesting one because the Bills. Look, I, I always have to caution myself against getting too cocky about the Bills because Josh Allen's been so bad in Houston. But I can't help myself. I'm cocky. I'm cocky. Bills right now. Yeah.
- [50:26]
Sean Pendergast
You want to beat him? The.
- [50:28]
Byron Pain
The three in one part. I think the, the game that would make me most nervous, or should me make me the most nervous, is the Bengals only because everything that they did in the offseason was a. To get their defense right. Like Joe Burrow. Remember how mopey Joe Burrow was last year during the regular season?
- [50:48]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [50:49]
Byron Pain
Like he was kind of hinting that he might not want to be there long term.
- [50:51]
Sean Pendergast
All season long.
- [50:52]
Byron Pain
He's done a couple things this offseason have Bengals fans very happy because. Because typically what The Bengals would have done in a situation like this off season is cut bait, maybe try to trade Joe Burrow, whatever. But they end up. They trade a first round draft pick to bring in a defensive lineman.
- [51:07]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [51:07]
Byron Pain
To fix one of the worst defenses in the league.
- [51:09]
Sean Pendergast
They spent big money on Joe's side of the ball.
- [51:11]
Byron Pain
They brought, they brought in. They brought in three new stud defensive linemen. They bolstered their secondary. They did all of these things. They retained some players that they wouldn't typically retain. So Burrow has said a couple of things that have people feeling really good in Cincinnati because Burrow seems happy with the commitment, but it's been on the defensive side of the ball. The. Everything the Bengals did to improve their defense is also like the counterpart is everything the Texans have done to improve their offense. They bolstered their interior offensive line. Oh, what did the Bengals do? They bolstered their interior defensive line. The. The physicality and everything that you want to see out of this offense is going to be tested by Dexter. Dexter Lawrence and Boy Maffe and Jonathan Allen. So that's a huge test. And I, like, I'm, I'm excited to see it because if they can, if they can make Bengals fans depressed about the state of their defense, if they can say, oh My gosh, the CJ Stroud just did that. CJ Stroud did that to our newfangled.
- [52:13]
Sean Pendergast
That's because CJ's got ties to Ohio. Oh, hometown. Your home state. College player there. Yeah. And then Indy and Dallas are the other two games. All right. So my question that I put up in this poll was the question I asked yesterday. So the gods have told you, Seth, that you're going three and one to start the season three and one in four games. But their gods are going to let you pick which of those four games the Texans lose. So you're going to pick which game the Texans lose. Whichever one is least painful by whatever your standard of pain is before, before you make your guess here on these four games real quickly, I will rapid fire what I think the case is for picking each one. As a Texan fan, I think the case for picking Buffalo is the one loss is they're easily the best team of these four. They're a Super bowl contender. These other three teams are not in that same. So you don't feel, while it would suck going 0 and 1 and losing to a team that you've dominated in your stadium, it's. It's under. I think the Texans might be like a. They might be an underdog in that game by one or two points to start the season against Buffalo, they're one
- [53:22]
Byron Pain
and a half points, or at least they were for the longest time. Yeah.
- [53:24]
Sean Pendergast
And they probably will be unless there's a big injury. So. So there's no, there's no shame in losing a game that you're an underdog. That's the case for Buffalo. The case for Cincinnati is, I think, from an emotional standpoint, that would be the least painful. Like Buffalo, the emotion is you're starting. Oh, and one that stinks. Indy and Dallas. The emotion is obvious in those. You got two hated rivals. So that's the case for Cincinnati. Again, you're going to be guessing what Texan fans picked here in a second. The case for choosing Indianapolis is one that you made yesterday, which is you lose road division games in football all the time. You can recover from that.
- [53:58]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [53:58]
Sean Pendergast
It would suck losing to the Colts.
- [54:00]
Byron Pain
I don't respect the Colts all that much.
- [54:01]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [54:01]
Byron Pain
I think the Colts will get. This is the thing. I think the Colts will get off to a fast start again this year, and then as people catch up to Daniel Jones limitations, especially with him coming up in Achilles, it'll be same old.
- [54:11]
Sean Pendergast
Yep. The case for Dallas for. And again, we're picking. You get. If the Texans start three and one, you get to pick which game they lose. The case for Dallas is purely empirical. It's. They're an NFC opponent. They'll factor the least into tiebreakers at the end of the year. So it doesn't matter who it is. If it's an NFC opponent, they're always going to be less important than the afc.
- [54:34]
Byron Pain
But they're the most emotional, which makes it complicated. I mean, because that's the other thing. I mean, the Colts are the divisional ones, so, like, there's emotion tied into that. And it's the Colts, but you get to see them again later down the road.
- [54:45]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [54:45]
Byron Pain
You only play the Cowboys every other year, so at best. So that's the, you know, depending on how the division matchups shake up. So. And then. Then you. You have co workers who are Cowboys fans, and they're the worst. They're the worst of your coworkers.
- [54:59]
Sean Pendergast
Okay. So the question is, Texans start three and one. You get to pin. I put this to the. To the fans.
- [55:05]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [55:06]
Sean Pendergast
And it's. The poll is still open, by the way, on my. On my Twitter feed at Sean T. Pendergast. If you want to go vote, if you want to get out and vote, which team would you pick to have the loss to who do you think? The Texan fans?
- [55:17]
Byron Pain
I think I don't even have to think too hard about this when it comes to Texans fans. Those other three teams, you, you laid out all the arguments for why you might want to lose to them. Yeah. But they're broad and varied where people, people can unite in their hatred of the Dallas Cowboys. Not just in Houston, but nationwide.
- [55:32]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [55:32]
Byron Pain
And so I think the winner of the poll. So I personally would be cool with losing to the Colts if, if, if, if it guarantees going three and one.
- [55:41]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [55:41]
Byron Pain
I think the winner of this poll of the fans is that they would prefer the. They don't. Well, so they want to lose to crap. Why do this?
- [55:50]
Sean Pendergast
You were going down a cowboy.
- [55:51]
Byron Pain
I know. This is the eighth time you've. I think Cincinnati is what they say.
- [55:54]
Sean Pendergast
Cincinnati won. Yes. What do you think the percentage was?
- [55:57]
Byron Pain
It was probably 40%.
- [56:01]
Sean Pendergast
All right, Byron, give Seth a ding. For the guests of the Bengals,
- [56:07]
Byron Pain
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Sean Pendergast
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Byron Pain
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Sean Pendergast
Every single person had a story. 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 podcasts.
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Host/Announcer
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- [58:01]
Byron Pain
Here's what I've learned in midlife.
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Sean Pendergast
Joy isn't the reward you earn after all the work has done. Joy is the work. That's what this new series on for
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Byron Pain
the Love is all about.
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Sean Pendergast
The sacred yes. It's choosing delight, rest, and pleasure on purpose. Because saying yes to yourself, that's the thing that finally lets you fill your table with everybody else. Come find your sacred yes with me.
- [58:26]
Host/Announcer
Follow and listen to for the Love.
- [58:27]
Sean Pendergast
Wherever you get your podcasts, can you find the ding?
- [58:31]
Byron Pain
I've got my.
- [58:32]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, never mind. We got the bell in here. Give Seth a ding for the guess on the percentage as well. We give you a ding if you're within 5%. Yeah, 43.3% chose. We'll lose to the Bengals. Yeah, we cannot be losing to the Bills, the Colts, or the Cowboys. We'll go with the one that has the least emotion tied to the least
- [58:54]
Byron Pain
emotion tied to it. I mean, like, you're right. Like, empirically, it should be Dallas.
- [58:59]
Sean Pendergast
Should be Dallas.
- [59:00]
Byron Pain
Screw that. Yeah.
- [59:02]
Sean Pendergast
No, life's too short to be losing to the Cowboys.
- [59:04]
Byron Pain
The other thing about the way it lines up with these teams, and let's say, let's say for the sake of argument, Indianapolis gets off to the start that they did last year offensively, where they're a potent offense suck. Look, there's a chance that the Texans defense has a bit of a letdown here somewhere in the first four games. You know, you can't pitch, can't pitch shutouts against the best quarterback, but you've got, you've got some. Dude, you've got some quarterback heavyweights in here in the first.
- [59:27]
Sean Pendergast
If you're. I think Texas fans are counting on the Colts being the breather in this.
- [59:32]
Byron Pain
So I think that's the nice thing about this opening stretch is, hey, can the Texans be a more balanced football team this year? Can they be a team where if the defense isn't at its best, that it doesn't matter because you can match. You can have some potency on the offensive side of it? I mean, the two teams, the Bengals and the Cowboys, those were two of the worst defenses in the league last year. Yes. And they took, they, they went to great lengths to try to improve them in the offseason. The Texans, if the offense can figure some stuff out, it would be a really satisfying feeling to make those teams feel awful about their offseason. Yeah, I don't want to be the team that's feeling awful about my offseason.
- [60:09]
Sean Pendergast
No, no, no. I don't either. Who do you think finished second in the poll of Texan fans? I'm guessing largely Texan fans. That's my following.
- [60:18]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [60:19]
Sean Pendergast
Who do you think the number two team was that they. If they could pick to lose to?
- [60:23]
Byron Pain
So the winner was Indianapolis.
- [60:24]
Sean Pendergast
Winner was Indianapolis. In a runaway, they got nearly half the votes of four teams.
- [60:28]
Byron Pain
I think the second one would be because nobody wants to lose the home opener. So I think the second one would be Cincinnati.
- [60:34]
Sean Pendergast
You think? Well, Cincinnati was first.
- [60:36]
Byron Pain
I'm sorry, Indianapolis.
- [60:37]
Sean Pendergast
Indianapolis. Indianapolis actually finished last.
- [60:40]
Byron Pain
Oh, really?
- [60:40]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, 14.7%. Number two was the Bills at 25%. And then number three was the Cowboys at 17%. I struggle with this because I guess ultimately I picked the Bengals because it's the least of a bunch of bad choices.
- [60:57]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [60:58]
Sean Pendergast
But. But I. Boy, starting out two and oh. Against those two teams and those two quarterbacks, that would be a hell of a thing for C.J. stroud.
- [61:05]
Byron Pain
We should do this exercise every day leading up to the home opener against the Bills because maybe by then I'll. I'll understand the concept and I'll guess about. Based on the. Right.
- [61:17]
Sean Pendergast
It is a bit of a convoluted question.
- [61:19]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [61:20]
Sean Pendergast
But. Yeah. So that's. So Texan fans. 40. Nearly 44% say, okay, if I got to lose a game in the first four, it's the Bills or at the time or, sorry, it's the Bengals. I was. It was fun. I was listening to. To Clint and Ron yesterday at the beginning of their show in the first hour while I was on my walk and they were going through the first four weeks of the season.
- [61:39]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [61:40]
Sean Pendergast
And Clint was getting me excited about it, man. Talking about just like not even on the offensive side for the Texans, but like what a proving ground those four games are going to be for the defense.
- [61:50]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [61:50]
Sean Pendergast
Like you and I are talking about, like C.J. stroud and can he get redemption through these four games? And you've touched on the defense in this segment. I know. Would you bring up the potential for the Colts starting off this season like they did last season? If Daniel Jones is healthy and everybody's healthy for them, that is a. That is a four game offensive gauntlet for a good defense.
- [62:13]
Byron Pain
Well, the fun thing about the Bills or the interesting thing about the Bills is that the complaint with the Bills for the last couple of years, ever since Stefan Diggs left, really, is that he just doesn't have any speed on the outside. And this year, they bring in D. DJ Moore and, like, they're saying all kinds of positive things about Keon Coleman, but he's been a big disappointment. He's been. He. I mean, he's been tardy a bunch of times. He's been a healthy scratch in four games last year. But I think the presence of D.J. moore is interesting. If you think about what the Texans did to Josh Allen last year, they completely eliminated his. His ability to hurt. Hurt them with his legs. They. They used a spy really effectively. They did a lot of things to take Josh Allen out of the best version of himself. And that's something that's been an issue for the Texans defense at times. Is the running quarterback, especially just in key moments in the fourth quarter and what have you. They did a great job with that, but they were doing it against Josh Allen, who didn't have a lot of speed in his receiving core and a lot of ways to test you. It's a lot harder to go in and spy. Spy Josh Allen all the time and do some of those things if you've got more legitimate speed in the receiving core. So it's. I think it'll be. As long as everybody's healthy, it'll be a little bit more of a test this year.
- [63:28]
Sean Pendergast
Yep.
- [63:29]
Byron Pain
But I think part of it is just. It's a. That is a. Energy Stadium is a brutal place to play for quarterbacks. I mean, that game, being at home is just such. Such an advantage over any of the good quarterbacks that I still feel really confident about it. That's the one there. I. So I get personally offended that the Texans are underdogs in that game.
- [63:48]
Sean Pendergast
Yes. The Bills.
- [63:49]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [63:49]
Sean Pendergast
I was. I was a little surprised if it
- [63:51]
Byron Pain
was in Buffalo, I get it. But at home, I just don't get it.
- [63:54]
Sean Pendergast
Yep. Yep. People weighing in on the text page, we. There's a little. There's some people picking team. There's some people going through the exercise that I asked them to go through. And then there's others that, if I were a teacher, I'd be like, you need to listen better. They're like, we're not losing in the first four games.
- [64:08]
Byron Pain
Yeah. They choose not to participate.
- [64:10]
Sean Pendergast
That's fine. I hope they. Hey. I hope they go four and. Oh, also, it's an exercise. That's what we're doing here.
- [64:17]
Byron Pain
You know what you are? You're like one of those people where you get a debate about something and you want to redefine the meaning of all words.
- [64:22]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [64:23]
Byron Pain
You know?
- [64:23]
Sean Pendergast
Thank you.
- [64:24]
Byron Pain
Well, yeah, like. Well, let's. Let's actually really redefine. What does the word is mean anyway? Yeah.
- [64:30]
Sean Pendergast
No losing to the Cowgirls. I will accept a loss to the Bengals. All the. Okay, this is interesting. All depends on how we lose. If we lose to Buffalo, but we lose by a field goal in the end, I'm happy. If we lose 35 to 2, then I'm depressed. Well, I can't get that nuanced with a poll, but I understand.
- [64:46]
Byron Pain
Which team would you be okay with getting blown out by?
- [64:50]
Sean Pendergast
That's an interesting question.
- [64:51]
Byron Pain
The four zero people are not going to be happy with this one.
- [64:53]
Sean Pendergast
They won't. The new Fender poll is you're 31 to start the season. The one loss is a blowout.
- [64:59]
Byron Pain
How about this one? You get blown out, you go home and you find out that your dog died while you're at the game. Which one? Which team?
- [65:06]
Sean Pendergast
Are you okay with that?
- [65:08]
Host/Announcer
Right.
- [65:09]
Byron Pain
Your house burned to the ground.
- [65:11]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, my God.
- [65:12]
Byron Pain
Okay. Getting blown out. If the defense had a big letdown, I don't want to get blown out
- [65:17]
Sean Pendergast
by the CJ3 and CJ threw three picks.
- [65:20]
Byron Pain
The blown out. Getting blown out by far. It cannot be because you don't play
- [65:23]
Sean Pendergast
them probably for another four years and they're so annoying. Yeah. Okay, so nothing. So let's do process of elimination. We don't want to get blown out by the Cowboys. I don't want to get blown out in the open if you have to
- [65:34]
Byron Pain
get blown blown out. Okay, four, no people if you have to get blown out.
- [65:39]
Sean Pendergast
I think the answer is the same.
- [65:41]
Byron Pain
I think the Silver.
- [65:42]
Sean Pendergast
I think it's still the Bengals.
- [65:43]
Byron Pain
Okay.
- [65:43]
Sean Pendergast
And here's why. Because you're going to beat the Bills in the opener in this scenario, right? You're going to go 3 and 1. I could see there being a little bit of a letdown after that. Even though it's Joe Burrow coming to town, I could see there being a little bit of a letdown. Now, this would be a lot of a letdown if you lost by three touchdowns or something like that. But I would look at and go, okay, well, this is a great offense with the Bengal. You know, let's say they lose, you know, 35 to. To 17 or something like that. I mean, it's a really good offense. C.J. had a bad day. You beat the bills. You're one and one. You live to fight another day. I, like, I can live with that. I can. That's an explainable one where. I mean, we're obviously, we don't like getting blown out by anybody. But I think the answer is still the same. I think it's still the Bengals. I do not want to get blown out by the Colts in Indianapolis.
- [66:26]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [66:26]
Sean Pendergast
And I don't want to lose. I don't want to lose that opener might. That. That Buffalo game might be the least of the ones I want to lose at all. I want to get off to a one and. Oh, start beating a Super bowl favor.
- [66:36]
Byron Pain
Can I tell you one of my favorite things I heard on a podcast? I've been trying to listen to a lot of podcasts from some of the Texans opponents. Get a feel for the things that, you know, nobody's talking about. Well. Well, you know, the Bengals, they're still concerned about their linebackers. That's an interesting one. But the Colts. My favorite thing I heard in a Colts podcast was that this is exactly what we've been hearing about Anthony Richardson. Boy, you know what? He looks really good in their final seven. On seven that they did. I mean, he was three for eight, but it was really impressive.
- [67:08]
Sean Pendergast
Were they trying.
- [67:08]
Byron Pain
No, it was the final team period. I think during mini camper. It was one of those deals. I can't remember which drill it was, but they were like, he looked really impressive. He made a couple of really nice throws. He was 3 for 8, but the throws that he made were really impressive. I was like, how are you guys. How are you guys still doing this? Dude, how are you still talking about this guy? This is what he's been doing.
- [67:26]
Sean Pendergast
This is what he was before you even drafted it.
- [67:28]
Byron Pain
It was the exact emblem of what his issue has been. Yes, he can make some incredible throws, but he was. He was sub.50% small sample size and all. Yes, but, like, that's the exact. That's the exact. How can you gush about that?
- [67:42]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. Oh, my God.
- [67:43]
Byron Pain
I'm not saying that going 3 for 8 and a team drill is like the worst thing in the history, but it's just. Don't gush about it while you're painting a picture of exactly what. Anthony Richards.
- [67:51]
Sean Pendergast
Dude, don't touch the stove again. Stop touching the stove. Colts fans, it's hot.
- [67:56]
Byron Pain
And they were. They were talking about it in that way. They're about talking kind of like, I. You know what? Like, hey, listen, man, I don't look. I know, but he looks really good.
- [68:05]
Sean Pendergast
The Ryan Clark story from yesterday, shifting gears a little bit.
- [68:08]
Byron Pain
Ryan Clark. First we found out he was fired from ESPN or laid off, if you want to say it. Put it that way. There's going to be a bunch of layoffs today. Yeah. NFL bought 10% of ESPN, or did ESPN buy 10% of the NFL Network?
- [68:21]
Sean Pendergast
NFL owns 10% of the ESPN.
- [68:24]
Byron Pain
ESPN.
- [68:25]
Sean Pendergast
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Because how do you own that work
- [68:27]
Byron Pain
when Disney owns ESPN? You don't own 10% of Disney, do they?
- [68:32]
Sean Pendergast
No, no, just 10% of ESPN.
- [68:34]
Byron Pain
And so there's going to be. There's going to be some more layoffs today. But Ryan Clark, we found out yesterday that he was losing his job. And then it later emerged that Ryan Clark was actually doing a segment on air when he learned from somebody that he was about to get.
- [68:50]
Sean Pendergast
He was on NFL Live. I think he was one of, like, the panelists on there.
- [68:54]
Byron Pain
Well, and then. Oh, yeah, ESPN told him, because they got. ESPN realized that some other outlets had gotten some information.
- [69:01]
Sean Pendergast
They were going to report it, and he was going to find out on the Internet that he was getting fired.
- [69:04]
Byron Pain
Yeah. So they decided to do the. The better thing, which is the kid. Tell him in the middle of a second.
- [69:09]
Sean Pendergast
They did the less unclassy thing. Yeah, Just fire him in the middle of a show.
- [69:13]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [69:14]
Sean Pendergast
And then he didn't come back on that. He was done. Like, he didn't show up back on the show. He was. How weird.
- [69:19]
Byron Pain
I would say whoever told him. Well, I guess it was ESPN themselves, because at first I didn't realize it was ESPN that told them. I thought I was putting myself in that situation. And it would have to be somebody that I really, really trust. Because if that were to happen, if, like, during the break, somebody came in, like, let's say Lopez came in. I trust Lopez, but he's not like, management or whatever. Right. If Lopez came in and said, hey, Seth, they're about to fire you, I would still. I would stay on air. I would be like, hold on a second. Wait. Like, okay, I need to. I need to. I need to figure out what the hell's going on.
- [69:47]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, I wonder. Yeah.
- [69:49]
Byron Pain
Because I like it.
- [69:50]
Sean Pendergast
But.
- [69:50]
Byron Pain
But then come to find out it was actual management that told him.
- [69:53]
Sean Pendergast
Well, yeah, told him. And then. So the question is like, okay, do you stay on and finish out your shift?
- [69:57]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [69:57]
Sean Pendergast
Or do you come off or do you get off the air? Or did ESPN tell them and say, pull him off the air because you're afraid of what Ryan Clark might say, if he might say something on the air? Because this just in. Ryan Clark, maybe this is why he's. He's out of his ESPN job right now. He said a lot of things in the last several months. That he's had to apologize for or done things he's had to apologize for.
- [70:17]
Byron Pain
None of them have been, like, all that bad, have they? No, but.
- [70:20]
Sean Pendergast
But you. But I mean, firing somebody. Firing somebody who openly campaigned on social media for his new contract.
- [70:27]
Byron Pain
Oh, yeah, it was.
- [70:28]
Sean Pendergast
He's a bit of a live wire when it comes to the employment side.
- [70:30]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was okay. So the other part in the.
- [70:34]
Sean Pendergast
I would guess that ESPN was like, so you can, you know, we. We need your jersey.
- [70:39]
Byron Pain
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [70:40]
Sean Pendergast
Because, you know, you fire a guy you don't know what.
- [70:43]
Byron Pain
Ryan, you got torched earth in the middle of that moment.
- [70:45]
Sean Pendergast
Right, right.
- [70:45]
Byron Pain
Have you ever. Ever been in a situation where you had to withhold really bad news from somebody for, like. Or like, you knew that they were gonna. That My nightmare is always like, okay, let's say. Let's say my. Let's say a loved one is about to play in the super bowl, and then there's a. An unspeakable tragedy that happens like an hour before the Super Bowl.
- [71:05]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [71:05]
Byron Pain
Like a family member dies or something. Oh. Do you withhold the information until.
- [71:11]
Sean Pendergast
I definitely would. I 100% would.
- [71:14]
Byron Pain
But then I also worry that, like, what if somebody, somehow he finds out in this day of text messaging and whatnot. Yeah, he finds out sometime. You know, it has to.
- [71:22]
Sean Pendergast
But I think something like what you're describing, that's ex. That you can explain to somebody why you didn't tell them the news.
- [71:27]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
- [71:29]
Sean Pendergast
I just didn't want to affect your performance in that situation. Ryan Clark finding out on social media, if that's how he had found out that he was getting fired, like, that's inexcusable. That's in, you know, for management day.
- [71:39]
Byron Pain
Back in the day, they didn't tell people who were dying that they were dying.
- [71:44]
Sean Pendergast
I know.
- [71:45]
Byron Pain
They had to figure it out on their own. Like, they would just be honest. They thought that was the ethical thing to do.
- [71:49]
Sean Pendergast
I don't know. That sounds kind of like a better time and place for me.
- [71:53]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [71:54]
Sean Pendergast
I don't know. I don't know.
- [71:55]
Byron Pain
I don't know. I'd like to get my ducks in a row, you know, especially. I'd like to know that. Okay. If I really only got three months left, I should probably, you know, be sure I paid the gas bill.
- [72:06]
Sean Pendergast
What's the old saying about preparing? You don't have to get prepared if you're already prepared, you stay prepared.
- [72:12]
Byron Pain
Right. Okay.
- [72:13]
Sean Pendergast
Ducks in a row.
- [72:14]
Byron Pain
What is that they say about old seters? His life is in constant turmoil. Yeah. What do they say about. Old saying about. Seth's got a lot of loose ends he's got to tie up before he dies.
- [72:29]
Sean Pendergast
So. Yeah. So Ryan Clark, fired at esp, fired by espn now he's still got his podcast. My guess is he lands on his feet somewhere.
- [72:37]
Byron Pain
I would, if I were him. I would just keep, Keep, keep on doing the pivot.
- [72:40]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. I'm sure he makes a good living doing that. That's a very popular podcast.
- [72:44]
Byron Pain
There was. I talked to Fred about Fred Taylor about that out at training camp a couple years ago.
- [72:48]
Sean Pendergast
He's one of his co hosts.
- [72:49]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. And Fred honestly, like. Cause Fred isn't like, the biggest personality on that show. He's like the third biggest personality.
- [72:56]
Sean Pendergast
I think it's a perfect fit. He's one of those three guys.
- [72:58]
Byron Pain
Yeah. No, like, Channing Crowder's got a huge personality. Ryan Clark does his serious face thing.
- [73:03]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [73:04]
Byron Pain
I think Fred does a good job of kind of being relatable to a lot of the athletes. But Fred. Fred, logistically, is. Drives a lot of, like, he has to set up camera crews every place he goes. I was kind of surprised. I was talking to Fred and I was like, so who do you have, like, you know, to coordinate all this stuff? And he's like, I do. Yeah.
- [73:20]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [73:20]
Byron Pain
I got, like, you got to set up a sound person, a lighting person, all this stuff. It was really impressive.
- [73:25]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, It's. They. They do a good job on there. I'm not wild about Ryan Clark on espn. I do like what I see. I know, don't. I don't. I'm not a religious watcher.
- [73:33]
Byron Pain
Content out of the. That podcast.
- [73:34]
Sean Pendergast
Good questions they get. Good guess. I think it's really good.
- [73:37]
Byron Pain
Well, no, look at the Kelsey's. Are the. They're going to sell or did sell their podcast. $100 million. Yeah.
- [73:43]
Sean Pendergast
Bucks.
- [73:44]
Byron Pain
And I think Ryan should focus on the podcast.
- [73:46]
Sean Pendergast
Maybe so. Maybe so this would be. This based on Ryan Clark getting fired. Yesterday I posted this on Twitter. Got a lot of traction on Twitter yesterday based on Ryan Clark getting fired because he was making 2 million a year. But, you know, which is I, you know, compared to Stephen A. Making 20 and McAfee about to make 60 is nothing.
- [74:04]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [74:04]
Sean Pendergast
So I'm guessing Ryan Clark, it came down to something here or something there. When they decided it was going to be him, they like, oh, he's on a lot of stuff for them. Yeah, he's on Monday Night Countdown. He was on NFL Live three things for young broadcasters out there based on Ryan Clark getting fired 3 lessons 1. Don't be joyless Ryan Clark is one of the more joyless people.
- [74:26]
Host/Announcer
I'm Susie Welch, the host of Becoming
- [74:28]
Sean Pendergast
youg, a podcast where I help you stop living by default and start living by design.
- [74:35]
Host/Announcer
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Sean Pendergast
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Sean Pendergast
Save big on top load and front load washers and dryers. We're here whenever you need us. Shop the largest supply of in stock. Get it today inventory in the region
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Host/Announcer
only at Fred's Appliance.
- [76:03]
Sean Pendergast
History that Doesn't Suck is a legit, hard hitting American history podcast told through entertaining stories.
- [76:08]
Byron Pain
History that Doesn't Suck An Odyssey Podcast
- [76:11]
Sean Pendergast
available wherever you get your podcasts in media he's like you. Like you said, he's always so serious. He tries to turn everything, even things that are fun into serious things. I can't remember one time Ryan Clark has laughed or made me laugh. And I do remember the one time he tried to joke and someone didn't get the joke. They didn't get that he was joking.
- [76:31]
Byron Pain
Oh is when he talked about the Uber driver. That's what it was. He said the Uber driver always had rap on when he was debuting.
- [76:39]
Sean Pendergast
I totally believed him because he's serious about everything.
- [76:42]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [76:42]
Sean Pendergast
Yes
- [76:44]
Byron Pain
you Know, the one thing I've wondered about that is. I'm guessing, I think there's a place where you can, when you're going through your profile that you can actually.
- [76:51]
Sean Pendergast
There is.
- [76:52]
Byron Pain
Like. And I felt like he might even throw in Uber drivers under the bus for profiling him when he himself had actually selected that without remembering. That's my preferred music. Yeah. Yeah.
- [77:02]
Sean Pendergast
Number two, don't belittle your colleagues on
- [77:05]
Byron Pain
air, especially when one ends up going to espn. That your new part? No, that's right. He belittled him once he came to espn. Yeah.
- [77:15]
Sean Pendergast
We'll play the audio right here. Here's Peter Schrager on the get on the first take panel talking in the. This is after Week 1 of the NFL season last year. They're talking Eagles, Cowboys, and Peter Schrager had a take that was a little contrarian to the players on the set there. And Ryan Clark did the this is the non player in you talking. It was the one target. He runs the out.
- [77:36]
Byron Pain
Wake up this morning had a better day than CD Lamb. You know what you wake up saying though?
- [77:42]
Sean Pendergast
AJ Brown's team is one and o course I get it.
- [77:45]
Byron Pain
But the thing is this, though, and we shouldn't do this on tv. And so I apologize if people think this is rude. That's the non player.
- [77:55]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, stop, that's.
- [77:56]
Host/Announcer
No,
- [77:58]
Byron Pain
let me tell you why I'm
- [78:00]
Sean Pendergast
not saying I'm not looking at fantasy football, Ryan.
- [78:02]
Byron Pain
I'm not. Don't, don't, don't belittle me like that. I could come in and say as 3x players are saying one thing and
- [78:08]
Sean Pendergast
give an alternative perspective that maybe CD Lamb did play. Well, Peter, what I need for you to do.
- [78:12]
Byron Pain
What I need for you to do
- [78:13]
Sean Pendergast
is not get mad and let me finish for one.
- [78:15]
Host/Announcer
Okay, Go on.
- [78:15]
Byron Pain
It wasn't about you.
- [78:16]
Sean Pendergast
It was going to be about me. Okay.
- [78:20]
Byron Pain
For once, it's not about you. That's right.
- [78:24]
Sean Pendergast
It's about me.
- [78:25]
Byron Pain
That's a dude. That's. That's a. That is classy. Good gaslighting right there. Whenever the person is like, oh, I need you to calm down like one of the guys. One of the guys is the most kind of heated and emotive free belong there and everything. What I need you to do is calm down. I know I just said that. I know I specifically used the pronoun you just a second ago, but this isn't about you. It's not always about you. Even though I just said it specifically about you.
- [78:53]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. So don't belittle your colleagues.
- [78:57]
Byron Pain
You know what the thing is, the way that that was presented by a lot of people when they, they played the clip, was it was they presented as worse than what Ryan Clark actually said. He did, though, like, he was going to make a point about, like, what it's like in the locker room and all of that. But he didn't, he didn't have to, he didn't have to point out as a, like, as a preamble to it. Oh, no, that's because you're not a player and you don't understand.
- [79:20]
Sean Pendergast
Let me talk. Let me talk for once.
- [79:22]
Byron Pain
Yeah, for once.
- [79:23]
Sean Pendergast
For once is a big game changer in there. That's an implication that Peter Schrager's doing this all the time to him.
- [79:28]
Byron Pain
Strager's not my favorite person on television, but he's never struck me as a guy that dominates the conversation.
- [79:33]
Sean Pendergast
No, not at all.
- [79:34]
Byron Pain
Old bellicose Schrager. If anything, he's the opposite of bellicose.
- [79:38]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [79:39]
Byron Pain
Hey, you know, everybody's really awesome. Yeah.
- [79:44]
Sean Pendergast
This fun young team. Third one here, real quick, because we're up against it. It. Don't negotiate with your employer in public. Don't use Twitter. And for those. I don't have time to read the paragraphs that Ryan Clark was typing on Twitter about the journey and how the last contract he got, he thought he got kind of slow played on that contract.
- [80:02]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [80:02]
Sean Pendergast
This time around, I'm going to get what I'm worth. And he got $2 million a year, but he did it in public. None of those things like the Schrager thing, negotiating in public, being joyless. None of them are fireable offenses on the spot, but they are things. This is why. This is advice. They are things that when the time comes for your employer to make decisions, does this guy go or that guy go? It shows up on your balance sheet.
- [80:22]
Byron Pain
You know what somebody is saying, well, what about Pat McAfee? Because he just flat out called up, called out one of the higher ups at ESPN.
- [80:30]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. McAfee's worth it.
- [80:31]
Byron Pain
Right. And, well, the difference. Well, that's the difference. He's not an employee. That's the whole thing about McAfee. He's not an employee. He's got a contractual situation with his company and espn. So, like, he has leverage and like. And he actually has an ROI. Like, ESPN knows with Pat McAfee that, like, no, he's bringing this amount of viewers to us on YouTube and this, that the other thing and everything. The on air personalities don't necessarily have that, that clear cut of a proof of their value.
- [80:56]
Sean Pendergast
Not that we can discern from the outside for sure. Yeah, the ROI thing, but yeah, McAfee's got a very clear one because of that relationship that they have with him. All right, coming up next, the odds are out this is happening. It sounds like this thing that seems to be annoying a lot of people, including Mike Florio, looks like it's going to be happening. At least that's what the rumors are.
- [81:16]
Byron Pain
On TMZ Sports Radio 610 presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugar Land Studios.
- [81:24]
Sean Pendergast
Here's pain and pender gas. All right, we got a Petty cast coming up at the top of the hour. This is almost like the pre game for the Petty cast because people are feeling awfully petty about Tom Brady. It looks like he's going to do something with wwe.
- [81:42]
Byron Pain
I mean, he's already doing something with wwe.
- [81:44]
Sean Pendergast
He's getting in a little kerfuffles with Logan Paul.
- [81:47]
Byron Pain
He's right. And his business, this whole, this whole Michael Rubin who owns Fanatics, he's behind all of this. And it's annoying because that's a. You know why I'm annoyed. So Michael Rubin who owns Fanatics is also like, he's the reason that at this Fanatics fest you get all these different sound bites and everything from various athletes. And C.J. stroud was wrapped up in that world with Michael Rubin. And that's when we saw a lot of the podcasts where maybe CJ said a little too much. That was all Michael Rubin driven.
- [82:15]
Sean Pendergast
We came in and pulled him out of that cult.
- [82:17]
Byron Pain
So Brady's. Brady's company is doing something with Ruben's company and it's all tied in with WWE and everything. So all these, these shenanigans, for those of you don't know, we talk what we're talking about. Tom Brady's been with beefing with Logan Paul and doing all kinds of stuff where it looks like there's going to be some kind of a fight.
- [82:35]
Sean Pendergast
So it started a few months ago. I think it started at the Super Bowl.
- [82:38]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [82:39]
Sean Pendergast
Was a guest on Impulsive, which is Logan Paul's podcast, and he said this about professional wrestling. I'm told that I'm being flown out to Saudi Arabia to compete in a. A fanatics flag football game with you.
- [82:52]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [82:52]
Byron Pain
You know what, I'm kind of.
- [82:53]
Sean Pendergast
I'm actually a little worried for you, cuz.
- [82:55]
Byron Pain
I know.
- [82:55]
Sean Pendergast
For me. Well, you're a good athlete, but you're like, no, no, no.
- [82:58]
Byron Pain
I don't You're.
- [82:59]
Sean Pendergast
These guys are another level.
- [83:01]
Byron Pain
I am the highest level.
- [83:02]
Sean Pendergast
I am the level. No, you're not the level.
- [83:04]
Byron Pain
I am the.
- [83:04]
Sean Pendergast
You're a good athlete. But honestly, when I'm thinking of Saquon Barkley and I'm thinking of like, bro, can Saquon Bar and Justin Jefferson flip off the top rope? Have you not 180 moonsault jump over someone's headline?
- [83:16]
Host/Announcer
Cute.
- [83:16]
Byron Pain
It's a great.
- [83:17]
Sean Pendergast
You know, I love wwe. It's very cute. But honestly, right there, that was the. That was the money cut right there. Yeah. What you do, Logan, is cute. Yeah. A little wrestling and it's also.
- [83:27]
Byron Pain
It's kind of like coming from it. It's kind of embarrassing for me as a football guy. Is that like Tom Brady, like, other than the actual quarterbacking hand eye coordination type stuff and everything, like, by all the other athletic metrics, one of the least athletic guys in the NFL.
- [83:41]
Sean Pendergast
Which makes the wrestling thing a little interesting to me.
- [83:44]
Byron Pain
Logan Paul is clearly a better overall athlete.
- [83:47]
Sean Pendergast
He's amazing.
- [83:47]
Byron Pain
Than. Than Tom Brady.
- [83:49]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [83:49]
Byron Pain
If you had to pick. Okay, we're gonna. We're gonna choose 10 different random. Yeah, yeah. That I would say. Yeah.
- [83:57]
Sean Pendergast
Logan Paul for sure. So at Fanatics Fest, fast forward. And at Fanatics Fest, Brady is. Brady's doing all sorts of WWE ish stuff. He gets on a stage with Logan Paul and they get beefing with each other nose to nose. This is right after he went on Cody Rhodes podcast at Fanatics Fest. Cody Rhodes, WWE Superstar and said this Tom Brady, some storyline for me to get in the mix. I feel like I'm retired from football,
- [84:25]
Byron Pain
have opportunity to go out there, still showcase.
- [84:28]
Sean Pendergast
I'm a little bit of an athlete and you know, my boy Gronk's done it. I've seen obviously Logan Paul do it. I think I could get in there for at least one match. Right? Okay. Come on, make it happen. So you got Brady and Fanatics Fest saying, I think I can get in there for one match. He's slapping Logan Paul in the face. Brady. I don't know if you saw this, Seth. They do these Fanatics Fest. They have a thing where you can do WWE entrances to the stage. Brady chose to come out like the undertaker in a coffin and pops up out of the coffin. They're at the World Cup Cup Final. Logan Paul and Tom Brady in Sweets that just happen to be next to each other.
- [85:02]
Byron Pain
Right, right, right.
- [85:02]
Sean Pendergast
And there's Michael Rubin and they're flipping each other off.
- [85:05]
Byron Pain
Yeah. So they're Michael Rubin was one that was holding off Logan Paul in that scenario.
- [85:09]
Sean Pendergast
Okay, okay. I didn't notice that. So. So they're, I mean, they're doing a decent job of planting the seeds for this and that's what they're going to do is do a match ultimately at Wrestlemania or something like that. I have no idea. But this is a good lead into the Petty cast. Cause you got Albert Brer, Will Compton. Mike Florio is just insufferable about this whole thing. Headline Tom Brady keeps moving towards a WWE stint. Brady. Florio is talking about Brady going to wwe. Like Brady is choosing to get into like low level porn or something like that.
- [85:43]
Byron Pain
He signed a three picture deal with. Yeah, yeah.
- [85:48]
Sean Pendergast
While we. Let me read just one paragraph. While we fully support slapping Logan Paul. So Florio is kind of making the point for why Brady does this. Like Florio obviously has emotional feelings about Logan Paul for some reason. While we fully support slapping Logan Paul. Brady's better than this.
- [86:06]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [86:07]
Sean Pendergast
It's beneath him to be ding around with some goofy WWE storyline. So you can have a one day live action fantasy camp at Wrestle Palooza or whatever they call one of the various events that are now hyped relentlessly by ESPN throughout the year. You lose some credibility. I don't even. Florio cares about the credibility and him getting uppity about all this. You know, it's called WrestleMania. All right. Like Wrestle Palooza was probably some little indie federation Palooza. But anyways, here's the other thing too. Florio, he's probably getting paid for it also.
- [86:42]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah.
- [86:42]
Sean Pendergast
He's not doing it as a fantasy again.
- [86:44]
Byron Pain
Going back to, you know, his, his skin deal. Tom Brady in space. Tom Brady roving around the galaxy.
- [86:57]
Sean Pendergast
I'm not doing sample porn meetings with you.
- [87:01]
Byron Pain
Remember Emmanuel in space. That was the big one on Cinemax. There's lots of things he could do for money. But going back to your analogy of either doing low grade adult films or something, he feels like it's beneath him. Like no matter what the money is. Yeah, I know this is. I honestly, I think this is going to be split right down the middle.
- [87:21]
Sean Pendergast
I do too.
- [87:22]
Byron Pain
People that get wrestling and people who
- [87:24]
Sean Pendergast
don't get pro wrestling and on many things like that. Seth. And again, I. For those, I mean, for the two of you that don't know that listen to the show. I'm a huge wrestling fan. I have been for, you know, 45 years since I was, you know, a kid.
- [87:35]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [87:36]
Sean Pendergast
So I. So I'm a wrestling fan. Normally when there's two Sides of something like this, I can see the other side of it. This is just, to me, like. Like they just can't comprehend Brady doing it. He's doing it because it's fun.
- [87:48]
Byron Pain
Okay, so this is the other part where it's buying.
- [87:50]
Sean Pendergast
It's.
- [87:51]
Byron Pain
It's. It's playing right into what Brady might be doing, where Florio is up in arms over him doing this. And it's just. He thinks he'd be a good heel. So this is what Tom Brady. Tom Brady said. It's such an easy choice. I'm a bad guy. I've always been a bad guy. I feel like when our teams did really well, I would always go into these stadiums and I would feel that obviously at home, it was great. But when you go on the road and you've had some success in the NFL, they don't like you. It's an incredible feeling when you work that entire day to basically try to send the crowd home early. This is when I got to wondering, holy crap, is this. Is this actually been him? Him distancing himself from the Patriots? Is this dog in the fight?
- [88:31]
Sean Pendergast
This is a good. Okay, this is a good lead in because we have a Petty cat coming up. I already said this was the pregame to the Petty cat. The very first cut we have in the pedicast coming up next. Yeah, is Dave Portnoy on this whole thing, and I. I gotta tell you, there's a couple things about this cut in the pity, and, boy, we got some good stuff in the pedicast this week. So let's. Let's take one here. Coming up next, the Dave Portnoy reaction to this and more in the Tuesday 8am here, Sports Radio 610 presents. Pain and pender gas. All right, Pain and pender gas. We've got the Tuesday Petty cast here. Byron, you ready to go with all this audit? It's a lot of audio here. All right, we're ready to go. Oh, by the way, should have mentioned this earlier. We have a big announcement coming up tomorrow during the toss at 10am 10am Big, big station announcement.
- [89:23]
Byron Pain
Who are we gonna let make the announcement? Should it be Lopez or should it be you?
- [89:29]
Sean Pendergast
I don't know. I'm cool with whatever.
- [89:31]
Byron Pain
Okay.
- [89:31]
Sean Pendergast
I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna.
- [89:33]
Byron Pain
I think you and Lopez should wrestle for it.
- [89:35]
Sean Pendergast
Or we should do a. Like a barbershop quartet and have all four of us do it together and sing the big announcement.
- [89:40]
Byron Pain
We'll botch that.
- [89:41]
Sean Pendergast
I know. It'd be hilarious. All right, so Big. Yeah. So circle it. Big, big announcement. Tomorrow during the toss at 10am Pedicast 8am Tuesday. Petty cast. All right, so we just got done. Seth, in the previous segment talking about Tom Brady. All signs point to him doing something with Logan Paul in wwe.
- [90:00]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [90:00]
Sean Pendergast
In the coming months.
- [90:01]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah. He's either going to be a promoter or a wrestler or something.
- [90:04]
Sean Pendergast
There's actually odds out on if they have a match.
- [90:06]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [90:07]
Sean Pendergast
Not surprisingly, Brady is minus a thousand to win the match. Scripted.
- [90:12]
Byron Pain
Nah. I would, I would go with him to win it, but like through dirty tactics.
- [90:15]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [90:16]
Byron Pain
We just showed. We, we read the quote of him saying that he thinks he could be a heel.
- [90:19]
Sean Pendergast
I think he could too.
- [90:21]
Byron Pain
You know, he could be a bad guy. Yeah. And I think he's playing into that. Yeah.
- [90:24]
Sean Pendergast
Minus a thousand. Logan Paul.
- [90:26]
Byron Pain
Plus Logan Paul considered a baby face or a heel.
- [90:28]
Sean Pendergast
He's not. He's heelish. You know, the lines are more blurred these days.
- [90:32]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [90:33]
Sean Pendergast
But he definitely. Yes.
- [90:35]
Byron Pain
Because he's got his life.
- [90:36]
Sean Pendergast
He's got a manager. Who's. Paul Heyman's his manager. That's a heel. He's more of a heel. But this is how you get a heel to turn to being a good guy.
- [90:43]
Byron Pain
When people hate Brady.
- [90:44]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, so that'll be, you know, know Logan Paul may have some sympathy. Who knows? So anyways, there's a lot of people kind of worked up about this. Why is Brady doing this? This is beneath him. Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool noted Patriots honk.
- [90:59]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [91:00]
Sean Pendergast
He is none too happy with Brady. He calls this whole thing cringy.
- [91:05]
Byron Pain
Tom Brady chopping it up with Logan Paul. Yeah. And they're doing, they're at the fanatics thing. He hits them with a chair. Not good. They're at the World cup game. He gives him the bird. Logan Paul. This to me is one of the great downfalls of, of an icon with Tom Brady and the way he is acting post retirement, it's a legacy that is being lamefied. I use that word people like. What does that mean? It means he's becoming very lame. And it's a guy who very few athletes. Michael Jordan, Messi, Beckham, Gretzky, like these are like superstars that seem so above the fray that you don't want to see him mixed up in. In all sorts of low brow, tick tock, flag football leagues in Saudi Arabia or whatever it is. The rest. Everything about him is cringy right now to me and it's highlighted with the, this wrestling stuff. And I Don't want to say it, but I'll say it. It all started when he started hating on the Patriots.
- [92:13]
Sean Pendergast
That's what I was going to ask you, Dave, when he became defending him. If he had not seemingly turned his back on the Patriots.
- [92:20]
Byron Pain
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- [92:21]
Sean Pendergast
And it would.
- [92:21]
Byron Pain
It would be.
- [92:22]
Sean Pendergast
I'd be.
- [92:22]
Byron Pain
I'd be in such a dark place if I had to defend this nonsense, this garbage. But thankfully he. It coincided with him being like, I don't care for. About the Patriots. So. Okay, so that part of it. That's the part that got me thinking, man. And now. And this would actually make me agree with Portnoy. Portnoy didn't go here. And I don't think this is what he was intending to say. But what if. What if Tom Brady saying he didn't have a dog in the fight with the super bowl was part of this heel turn, like a long heel turn to where he ends up. He ends up just being. Now that if he were to go into WWE to that extent where he's like consciously and intentionally distancing himself from. From Patriots fans, I would feel then that, like, okay, this has gotten a little ridiculous.
- [93:07]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, really?
- [93:08]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [93:08]
Sean Pendergast
I would be like, this is really intricate storytelling you care way more about.
- [93:11]
Byron Pain
Yeah, that's taking some like. I mean, I, I say real world. It's all sports, which is kind of a fantasy world, but that's taking like the real world thing. The very thing that he's. That got him his pain and everything.
- [93:22]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [93:22]
Byron Pain
And just flat out turning on it for. For part of a shtick.
- [93:26]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [93:27]
Byron Pain
That was. And yet the timeline would make sense.
- [93:30]
Sean Pendergast
The timeline makes sense.
- [93:31]
Byron Pain
He said. He said that he would want. He wants to be a bad guy.
- [93:35]
Sean Pendergast
Him distancing himself from the Patriots necessarily make him a bad guy with the rest of society. I think it's just in society hates the Patriots.
- [93:42]
Byron Pain
Yeah. But the rest of football fans still, like, there's. They remember hating. It's been. You know, once somebody retires, it softens a little bit, the hatred.
- [93:51]
Sean Pendergast
I understand your point about the interview he did where he said that he doesn't have a dog in the fight. That whole thing.
- [93:56]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [93:56]
Sean Pendergast
My spidey sense as a wrestling fan. I don't think that was part of this whole. Yeah, I think that was his legitimate distance. I think that was his legitimate. How he's conducting himself as an analyst.
- [94:07]
Byron Pain
I found some article earlier that I can't find it or I read an article earlier that were. Basically the writer of the article was talking about Tom Brady going to wow. Potentially doing something wwe. But then he, he framed one of the things that happened as if it's like, like it was real emotion. We're like, no, listen, listen, sports dudes, you gotta, you gotta separate these two. He said something about like, he's. It said something like in a paragraph where he's been upset with Jake Paul since yada, yada yada. I'm like, wait, wait a second. You're a reporter. Like, you gotta, you gotta set, you gotta put some level of skepticism into this that we don't. I don't think he's one bit upset with Logan Paul. This is all part of an act.
- [94:46]
Sean Pendergast
It's a storyline. Yeah. It's a story.
- [94:48]
Byron Pain
Oh, they're both, they have a comment on Michael Rubin where it's like it's clearly being set up now.
- [94:52]
Sean Pendergast
I am zero petty myself, obviously zero petty about Brady doing this stuff. I just think he's having fun. I am petty about this with Brady. He was on a podcast and he was asked for his Mount Rushmore. You know Brady's considered a goat, right? A greatest of all time.
- [95:06]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [95:07]
Sean Pendergast
What is his Mount Rushmore of goats? Across the sporting landscape. Mount Rushmore four faces, right?
- [95:14]
Host/Announcer
Okay.
- [95:14]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, Mount Rushmore. Okay, here we go.
- [95:16]
Host/Announcer
Who is your Mount Rushmore of goats?
- [95:19]
Sean Pendergast
Michael Jordan. He was my childhood idol. He was unbelievable. Obviously I loved Kobe Bryant. Still love Kobe Bryant. Tiger. His competitiveness, what Roy McElroy's done, I love that sh otani, what he's done has been unbelievable. Barry Bonds, he went to my high school. The biggest fan of him growing up, Michael Phelps. Love him. Michael Johnson. Asia Wilson from my Las Vegas Aces. I love her, she's amazing. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. This little thing they got going, I love that. It's been really exciting. It's 1111, 1111.
- [95:48]
Byron Pain
This is how you spend the taxpayers money.
- [95:50]
Sean Pendergast
That is, that is Tom Brady's Mount Rushmore.
- [95:53]
Byron Pain
Showed me a picture.
- [95:54]
Sean Pendergast
I had chat GPT create an 11 face Mount Rushmore.
- [95:58]
Byron Pain
Oh, but with actual presidents.
- [95:59]
Sean Pendergast
With actual presidents. Yeah. I said, this is the Mount Rushmore Tom Brady was taught about in elementary school.
- [96:04]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [96:05]
Sean Pendergast
Eleven fade. I said, Chachi PT, give me a Mount Rushmore with seven more faces of presidents before 1940.
- [96:12]
Byron Pain
Okay.
- [96:12]
Sean Pendergast
No current, you know, keep it.
- [96:13]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [96:14]
Sean Pendergast
Trying to, trying to keep my timeline. Now the smart thing to do would be to have like put the last seven presidents on there.
- [96:20]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [96:20]
Sean Pendergast
That would have got a lot of interaction.
- [96:21]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [96:22]
Sean Pendergast
You know, but yeah, Brady. I'm petty about the fact that Brady gets asked about a Mount Rushmore, and he gets 11 names.
- [96:28]
Byron Pain
That's not how you. That's not how you. Like, you're supposed to be going into WWE before rising. Yeah.
- [96:33]
Sean Pendergast
Yes. Yeah. You. It's four and that's it. Yeah. And then put himself on it if he wants to be a real heel.
- [96:40]
Byron Pain
You think so?
- [96:40]
Sean Pendergast
My mouth. My Mount Rushmore of goats is me. Of course. That's a good heel move.
- [96:45]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [96:45]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. So that's. So I'm petty about that. All right, let's skip down to Draymond here. Byron, this is Draymond on the podcast that Gilbert Arenas and Kenyon Martin do. Apparently, they were destroying Nick Young, who's a former teammate of Draymond Green's on that 2018 warriors team that beat the Rockets in the postseason that year, the Chris Paul Hamstring Series.
- [97:10]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [97:10]
Sean Pendergast
And they were killing Nick Young on that podcast. Well, Draymond comes on as a guest on this podcast following that.
- [97:15]
Byron Pain
Iggy Azalea's former husband, Right, Nick.
- [97:18]
Sean Pendergast
Nick, yeah. Nick Young. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. Good job, Seth.
- [97:22]
Byron Pain
We interviewed her once while she was going out with Nick Young. Oh, really? We had instructions not to ask about Nick Young.
- [97:27]
Sean Pendergast
Young, okay.
- [97:28]
Byron Pain
We asked about Nick Young. Yes.
- [97:31]
Sean Pendergast
Type of country.
- [97:32]
Byron Pain
Only reason we were interviewing her, controversy
- [97:35]
Sean Pendergast
that we do here on Sports Radio 610. Right, exactly. Why else would we talk to Iggy Azalea on a sports show? So Kenyan Martin, Draymond Green comes on after they had killed Nick Young, his former teammate.
- [97:47]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [97:48]
Sean Pendergast
And he went after Kenyon Martin.
- [97:49]
Byron Pain
Ship is this. I know you guys don't understand what it means to win an NBA championship. So in an NBA championship, you have your guys who have.
- [97:56]
Host/Announcer
Has to deliver.
- [97:57]
Byron Pain
Me, Stephen, Clay, we had to deliver. And then you have all your guys who like players. What I like to call them is swing players, as opposed to role players. I like to call them swing players. Your job is to swing one series. And so when you go look at our championship run that Nick Young was a part of. Nick Young was the swing player in the Houston series, Game 6 and 7. Nick Young was one of the primary defenders on James Harden Martin. Nick Young hit big threes. He swung the series for us. Guess what job done when you talk about winning a championship, he swung the series. What the New Jersey Nets needed Kenya Martin to do. They needed you to swing the series, but you couldn't swing the series. So y' all lost.
- [98:39]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [98:39]
Byron Pain
Y' all got smacked.
- [98:40]
Sean Pendergast
Okay. So. So Draymond goes after Kenyon Martin at the very end there in two ways. One, he. He basically said you, you failed at swinging a playoff series back in the day. Kenyon Martin. And two, Draymond kind of laid out that there's tiers of players.
- [98:54]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [98:55]
Sean Pendergast
There's the core guys like me, Steph and Clay.
- [98:57]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [98:58]
Sean Pendergast
And there's guys who swing a series like Nick Young. He basically said, you're not even. It was Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson and whoever else. Now you. You were a swing guy and you couldn't even do that right.
- [99:06]
Byron Pain
Yeah. That's good.
- [99:07]
Sean Pendergast
Kenny Martin.
- [99:07]
Byron Pain
Were they. So were they having fun with each other or did it get heated?
- [99:12]
Sean Pendergast
I only saw the clip.
- [99:13]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [99:13]
Sean Pendergast
I didn't watch the whole thing on both sides. Sides of it.
- [99:15]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [99:16]
Sean Pendergast
But I thought it was a pretty good insult by Draymond Green. Yeah. Sticking up for his guy.
- [99:20]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [99:21]
Sean Pendergast
Nick Young. I enjoy these. The. The old. The retired NBA players have been a very underrated source of petty content.
- [99:32]
Byron Pain
No, the retired NBA players, they don't Draymond after it. And it is. They turn very rapidly into grumpy old men because baseball, basketball changes once every decade in terms of style of play.
- [99:43]
Host/Announcer
I'm Jenna Fisher.
- [99:44]
Sean Pendergast
And I'm Angela Kinsey. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies. Just because we finished rewatching the Office
- [99:50]
Host/Announcer
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.
- [100:06]
Byron Pain
So follow and listen to Office Ladies
- [100:08]
Sean Pendergast
on the free Odysee app and wherever
- [100:10]
Host/Announcer
you get your podcasts. This episode, sponsored by She's Birdie. You lock the hotel room door, then check it again. And maybe one more time, because even the nicest room can feel unfamiliar at night. That's why She's Birdie created birdiebox. With She's Birdie, you can bring peace of mind with you. BirdieBox is a portable travel door alarm for hotels, dorms, Airbnbs, and anywhere you stay away from home. Just attach it to the door frame, switch it on, and if someone opens the door, birdiebox blasts a loud siren and flashing alarm to alert you and everyone nearby. Because the best part of travel isn't worrying, it's sleeping soundly. Birdie Box from She's locking in peace of mind wherever you stay. For safer, more confident travel visit she's birdie.com that's S-H-E-S-B-I-R-I-E.com. the podcast campus Files is back with more stories of scandal, crime and intrigue on college campuses. Campus Files available now wherever you get your podcasts playing.
- [101:17]
Byron Pain
Everything.
- [101:17]
Sean Pendergast
Yep.
- [101:18]
Byron Pain
So by the time you guys retire, it's like things are different. Yeah, we get a lot of.
- [101:22]
Sean Pendergast
Back in my day. Yeah.
- [101:23]
Byron Pain
All right.
- [101:23]
Sean Pendergast
I want to sure. Make sure we get this one in because this was big news over the weekend. We don't talk a ton of golf on the show, but the big story from the British Open or the Open Championship as they call it now, there were two big stories from that this weekend. One was Ryan Fox winning it. Who's the guy? As we talked in the toss yesterday with Reggie and John just, just got his PGA card two years ago, guys, winning the British Open. Now that was story number one. Story number two is this Bryson DeChambeau kerfuffle back on. I think it was on Friday where Bryson DeChambeau has a ball that's buried deep in that British rough with all the tall, you know, grass and everything else.
- [101:59]
Byron Pain
Rough.
- [102:00]
Sean Pendergast
I mean, it's rough rough. Yeah. And Bryson decham. Bryson dechambeau was stepping on some of the rough behind his ball, acting like he's just trying to get an angle on.
- [102:11]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [102:11]
Sean Pendergast
You know, what direction he needs to hit it in. Which by the rules at least as interpreted in this tournament was, was he was improving his live. He was giving himself a better backswing.
- [102:21]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [102:21]
Sean Pendergast
So his backswing wouldn't go through a bunch of, you know, basically like, looks like wheat, you know. So he got penalized two strokes. He was none too happy with that to the point where he was threatening to pull out of the tournament and he was threatening to pull out of the tournament till like almost 11 o' clock at night. That night they had to wait to put the pairings together. Based on Bryson DeChambeau's decision, he ultimately stays in the tournament. But Rory McElroy gives his opinion on this and also gives his take just on Bryson DeChambeau in general. Whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don't think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two shot penalty was, was justified for sure. What, what do you think the scenes after. Obviously you guys were delayed getting your tea times as well because of it all going on late night for everyone. Yeah, I, look, I, you know, I won't pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention and yeah, you know, to. To hold the tournament hostage like that and have all of us volunteers, players, everyone waiting on him to depart. I didn't feel like it was a great look.
- [103:37]
Byron Pain
Do you think you get what he was doing?
- [103:40]
Sean Pendergast
Look, he's gonna say, like, again, I don't. I'm not in his mind. I'm not in his.
- [103:45]
Byron Pain
It.
- [103:45]
Sean Pendergast
But it didn't look good.
- [103:46]
Host/Announcer
Okay.
- [103:47]
Byron Pain
Yeah. I'm not particularly fond of.
- [103:49]
Sean Pendergast
Not fond of him.
- [103:50]
Byron Pain
This is kind of like the things that softened in recent years with DeChambeau and like, everybody else, hadn't it? It hadn't been as. Yeah, like. But I think it was one of those things.
- [104:00]
Sean Pendergast
Rory's the most popular guy either. You know, this is a little bit
- [104:03]
Byron Pain
of a low key Logan Paul, Tom
- [104:04]
Sean Pendergast
Brady thing, two heels.
- [104:06]
Byron Pain
It's interesting that, like, this was. This was big stuff over the weekend and everything. And yet it comes down to it, it is still golf. And it's like, oh, did you hear Rory McElroy? He said he skewered him. What'd he say? I'm not too fond of him. I'm not too fond of the lad.
- [104:23]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, my God.
- [104:26]
Host/Announcer
Whoa.
- [104:29]
Byron Pain
Not too fond of the lab.
- [104:32]
Sean Pendergast
Gen Z, Ireland. Oh, yeah, Yeah. I saw a lot of people kind of taking. Taking up for DeChambeau, given who the messenger was in this whole thing, like, hey, settle down, Rory.
- [104:42]
Byron Pain
Right, Right.
- [104:43]
Sean Pendergast
I'll talk about Rory's marital habits and things like that.
- [104:46]
Byron Pain
What are his marital habits? Yeah, I think he.
- [104:48]
Sean Pendergast
I think. I think he stepped outside.
- [104:50]
Byron Pain
I can't keep all these things straight with the golfers.
- [104:52]
Sean Pendergast
Stepped outside.
- [104:53]
Byron Pain
I always feel like the golfers. There's a whole lot of. It's like the adults know what's going on, but they don't talk about.
- [104:59]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah. There was a Mickelson story recently, like a long story.
- [105:03]
Byron Pain
Had some weird ones. Nicholson's Mickelson stories are so weird that I don't bother, like, trying to figure out what the hell's going on.
- [105:12]
Sean Pendergast
One where he had Pat Perez and his white. Pat's wife.
- [105:15]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [105:16]
Sean Pendergast
Stay at his flat at one of the tournaments. Like, Mickelson's rich enough where he's got big places. He's got places at.
- [105:23]
Byron Pain
Places he goes once a year.
- [105:24]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's like, well, Pat, why don't you and your wife come stay with me? Pat Perez and everybody corroborated the story, including Mickelson himself. He didn't deny it. Pat Perez goes to, like, go to the bathroom and Mickelson's, like, going to Ashley Perez Pat Perez's wife. I'm like, hey, I'll leave the door open tonight when Pat goes to sleep. Just come on down the hall.
- [105:44]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Like some, like, stories, kind of like with.
- [105:49]
Host/Announcer
With.
- [105:49]
Byron Pain
With Cal Ripken Jr. Type stuff.
- [105:51]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [105:52]
Byron Pain
Cal Ripen Jr. Being the victim.
- [105:53]
Sean Pendergast
He was on the wrong end of it.
- [105:54]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah.
- [105:55]
Sean Pendergast
Cal Ripken. Yeah.
- [105:56]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [105:56]
Sean Pendergast
I don't want to besmirch the good name of one Cal Ripken Jr. You
- [106:00]
Byron Pain
don't want to be smirch the name of the guy that once gave you a nipple twister.
- [106:04]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. He was on the other end of that story. Yeah. Yeah.
- [106:07]
Byron Pain
How would that guy ever breach the boundaries of good behavior? The guy who actually gave you a
- [106:11]
Sean Pendergast
purple nurple, Kevin Costner, is what we're talking about.
- [106:14]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [106:14]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [106:15]
Byron Pain
All right.
- [106:15]
Sean Pendergast
That was our petty cast. There's stuff we didn't even get to, but we'll mix it in as the show rolls on here. Let's circle back to the Astros. They got back on a winning track last night. We like seeing that big article in the Athletic. The one player who was made truly made the face of the cheating scandal, not Jose Altuve. The one that the report made the face of the cheating scandal speaks. He's going into the hall of Fame this weekend. That's coming up. We'll tell you what he said.
- [106:41]
Byron Pain
Presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugarland Studios.
- [106:47]
Sean Pendergast
Here's Pain and Pendergast. I painted Pendergast with you on a. On a Tuesday. Good to be with you. Astros win last night. Thank you. Astros win last night, eight to five. Jeremy Pena, grand slam. Jordan Alvarez, two home runs. Okay, Seth, you tell me. We'll get to Carlos Beltran here in just a second.
- [107:07]
Byron Pain
Him.
- [107:08]
Sean Pendergast
He spoke to the Athletic. The. He's in the Mets front office right now. He was manager of the Mets, but never managed a game because the being better than everybody else scandal was discovered and punishments were doled out and the Mets fired him. We get to that in a second. Real quick question. Does it make me a bad fan that last night when Jeremy Pena came up with the bases loaded, I was hoping that he would get out so that Jordan would then come up with the bases loaded and get a chance for a grand slam so he could pad his lead in rbi.
- [107:40]
Byron Pain
Oh, okay.
- [107:41]
Sean Pendergast
Triple Crown.
- [107:42]
Byron Pain
You're upset with Pena for hitting that home run.
- [107:43]
Sean Pendergast
I was upset with Pena for hitting the grand slam. Why are you hogging all the RBIs when your teammate who then hit a home run. Yeah, the very next at bat hit
- [107:50]
Byron Pain
a, you know, pretty selfish hit a single that scores a run and we still fly. Yeah.
- [107:55]
Sean Pendergast
Keep the ball in the park. If you hit a fly ball.
- [107:57]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [107:58]
Sean Pendergast
Does it make me a bad fan?
- [108:01]
Byron Pain
No, no. I think that Jordan can handle. Kill himself. He doesn't need to. He doesn't need to pat his eyes.
- [108:04]
Sean Pendergast
And Jordan was hugging Pena and whatnot. Probably performatively.
- [108:08]
Byron Pain
To be clear, Jordan wasn't.
- [108:09]
Sean Pendergast
Jordan was fine with it. It was me that had the big issue.
- [108:12]
Byron Pain
I know a lot of people are wondering if Jordan was upset about the grand slam. He was cool.
- [108:16]
Sean Pendergast
He seemed cool with it at least. You know, I don't know Jordan, thespian that he is.
- [108:20]
Byron Pain
Well, it was. No, but it ended up being. Boy, the drama would have been awesome though, too, because it was. Jordan's home run was on an O2 count. The first one was right.
- [108:28]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah. He's the best hitter with two strikes in all of baseball.
- [108:32]
Byron Pain
In all of baseball.
- [108:33]
Sean Pendergast
You know, my theory on this, I think sometimes Jordan gets down 02 just so he'll actually see a good. See a pitch. Yeah, that's my theory. I think Yordon, if he were to, you know, if, if he were to get up any. If Jordan gets up to 20 with the count, he's walking.
- [108:48]
Byron Pain
It's kind of like waiting to start your term paper until the night before it's due. Because you do your best, you operate pressure and everything. Yeah, yeah, I guess it's a little bit different, but yeah, he doesn't get pitched to. It's gotta get boring out there.
- [108:59]
Sean Pendergast
Unless there's two strikes he doesn't get pitched to. I can see where. Just swinging things out of the zone just to get my favorite.
- [109:06]
Byron Pain
You're not. Intentional walks are when, like, they try to kind of pitch around him for a couple pitches and they're like, ah, screw it.
- [109:12]
Sean Pendergast
Screw it.
- [109:12]
Byron Pain
That's what I'm saying.
- [109:15]
Sean Pendergast
He gets up too. Oh, it's a walk. Yeah, yeah, he gets up too. It's a walk. So this Carlos Beltran interview that he did with the Athletics. Carlos Beltran is getting ready to go into the hall of Fame this weekend, which proves that if you were somehow involved with the Astro sign stealing scandal, it is possible for you to get into the hall of Fame someday. For those that are worried that Jose Altuve is never going to get in, he's going to get in someday. Don't worry. He's working. He's. This, this part was interesting to me. He's working for the Mets in A special role in the front office right now. But apparently a lot of the chatter around the Mets because they fired Carlos Mendoza earlier this year.
- [109:51]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [109:52]
Sean Pendergast
Is why not give Carlos Beltran his shot at managing now? It's been seven years or whatever it is.
- [109:57]
Byron Pain
Yeah. AJ Hinch is managing. AJ Hinches has been for several years.
- [110:01]
Sean Pendergast
The thing that gets me thinking about with the Astros, if they make changes here, I do think the one change that. That would excite Astros fans, I think firing Espada and firing Dana Brown in a vacuum would. Would be A lot of Astros fans would feel okay. That's the right move. I think if they brought Jeff Luno back, I think that would get people legitimately excited. And I think the fact that guys from the sign stealing skin faces of the sign stealing scandal, in this case Carlos Beltran would be hired back by the team that fired him.
- [110:30]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [110:30]
Sean Pendergast
Feels like. I feel like the door's already open, but it feels like that would further open the door for. For Luno to come back here as
- [110:37]
Byron Pain
the G. The thing is, though, that Luna owns like 18 soccer teams, and he's just. Just doing. I don't think he's. He's probably not interested. Yeah. I don't know.
- [110:46]
Sean Pendergast
I'm saying I'd like to have him back.
- [110:47]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [110:48]
Host/Announcer
I was.
- [110:48]
Byron Pain
Yes. No, I think I'd love to have him back. That'd be cool. You know what? You know what Luno could do? Convince Crane to just hit the reset button. There'd be a level of. Usually what happens when teams tank is. Or hit the reset button is that it's with a new GM and nobody really believes that it's going to work. Where with Luno, people would be like, oh, okay, cool, we're doing this again. Again. All right, here we go.
- [111:08]
Sean Pendergast
This.
- [111:09]
Byron Pain
That wouldn't be as bad as they were in 2013.
- [111:11]
Sean Pendergast
No. But.
- [111:12]
Byron Pain
Well.
- [111:12]
Sean Pendergast
And. Yeah. And boy.
- [111:13]
Byron Pain
But if it would be a minor
- [111:14]
Sean Pendergast
reset, if it were the equivalent of that reset, they'd be trading Jordan Alvarez.
- [111:18]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [111:18]
Sean Pendergast
I mean, they traded Hunter Pence. They traded all the. They traded Lance Berkman, Roy Oswald. Now, they did those things before Luno took the job.
- [111:25]
Byron Pain
You're right. And Wade did all those and they cleared the deck. I don't think it would be as much of a hardcore reset. The Astros were kind of one of the last of the era of where a true Tanking made sense.
- [111:36]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [111:36]
Byron Pain
Like, it doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't work out as well anymore because, like, more teams are keen to.
- [111:41]
Sean Pendergast
That would be Fascinating if he did, though.
- [111:43]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [111:43]
Sean Pendergast
Like Luno trading away some of the very guys he drafted back in the day or traded for to rebuild. And that, boy, the content you could do of comparing the stages of the rebuild they would be undergoing with Luno compared to the first rebuild.
- [111:56]
Byron Pain
Look, Luno, Sean, I don't know if, you know, this is pretty bright. I think. Look, Luno, Ludo understood probably better than anybody. Man. There's a difference between building a team and then sustaining that success 100%. They're two completely different challenges.
- [112:09]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [112:10]
Byron Pain
And that they were going to have to figure some things out about how to sustain it. It might just work out by happenstance that he got to. He got to forego that whole part of it. Right.
- [112:18]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [112:18]
Byron Pain
James Click and Dana Brown, you know, go through that misery of trying to sustain it and then just come back in and do what you're good at.
- [112:25]
Sean Pendergast
He was in the CIA for six years.
- [112:27]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [112:27]
Sean Pendergast
And now he's back. I don't know what he was. I don't know why he left or why. Why he was gone.
- [112:32]
Byron Pain
He just left a serious person.
- [112:34]
Sean Pendergast
And now he's back. Yeah. This article about Beltran is very interesting. A couple things. One, he is clearly upset about being singled out.
- [112:43]
Byron Pain
Yeah. That was like the, The. The inventor of. Et cetera. Of the.
- [112:47]
Sean Pendergast
He's the only player mentioned in the report that Major League Baseball did.
- [112:50]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [112:50]
Host/Announcer
They.
- [112:51]
Sean Pendergast
They didn't cause. All because of the immunity that was granted to current players at the time.
- [112:56]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [112:56]
Sean Pendergast
When they were doing interviews. By the time they were interviewing players about this whole thing, Beltran had retired. So he didn't have the union to kind of back him. And what it. Like he was sort of this man without a country. So he feels like as a result of all the players getting immunity and telling their story, that kept them out of the report ultimately. And he was made to be a bit of a. Maybe a scapegoat or at least maybe over representative of what the. What the.
- [113:20]
Byron Pain
I mean, the scandal was. The story goes that when he got to Houston. Houston. And he looked at whatever methods they were using for stealing signs that it was. It was way behind what some other teams were doing. That was what was said that. Yeah. That in that. So people kind of look at him as like, oh, wow, he's the guy who got the ball rolling then. You remember that. Yeah. It also involved a whole bunch of people from the analytics side and everything else to make it all happen. So it wasn't. It wasn't like it was a one man show it wasn't like Beltron was out there setting up cameras in the outfield or something. Now, this, as far as we know.
- [113:53]
Sean Pendergast
This is as far as we know.
- [113:56]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [113:57]
Sean Pendergast
This. This is a quote I knew you would like, because I believe it's you and Brandy collectively that coined the phrase the. Being better than everybody else.
- [114:04]
Byron Pain
Being better than everybody. Yeah.
- [114:05]
Sean Pendergast
A lot of.
- [114:05]
Byron Pain
A lot of teams were doing it. The Astros are just better at it. So Lance Armstrong and doping like. Oh, sorry. He was better at it than everybody else.
- [114:12]
Sean Pendergast
Okay, so you ready? This is. This is confirmation of the nickname being spot on.
- [114:17]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [114:17]
Sean Pendergast
This is Carlos Beltran in this article. I know that as a team, we got together to do what we did, but I've got to tell you that this was not like one player's idea. This was a team being together from top to bottom to do something that we felt was going to help us win. And we also felt that other organizations, they have their system, and people could say whatever, but the game of baseball has been played for 100 years. How you decipher your opposing team to take advantage. We felt that our system was better than any other system in baseball. They were better at it.
- [114:47]
Byron Pain
Dang it. I love that.
- [114:49]
Sean Pendergast
That confirmed the nickname.
- [114:51]
Byron Pain
The only. The thing about this is that, like, whenever anybody gets caught cheating, like, the. The go to is like, well, everybody else was doing it. And I kind of, tongue in cheek, say that. I mean, realistically, it seems like there were maybe a third of the teams in the league, at least, that were using some form of electronic sign stealing, and that's not everybody. So I think there's a broad spectrum of teams and players that should have acted disgruntled versus others that should have kept their mouth shut. Cody Bellinger. And so there was a gray area there, I think, that I also disagree with. Do you believe Beltran when he says from top to bottom?
- [115:26]
Sean Pendergast
No, because that would. That would include Altuve.
- [115:28]
Byron Pain
Right.
- [115:29]
Sean Pendergast
Or there were guys who didn't use.
- [115:30]
Byron Pain
Like Brian McCann didn't like it. Reportedly, there are multiple. There are a few players that just flat out did not like it. But you're kind of. You're going along to get along. I mean, A.J. hinch didn't reportedly, like, it smashed him.
- [115:41]
Sean Pendergast
Okay, so that's that. That, to me, the bringing up AJ Hinch, and I'll bring up Jeff Luno also, because I think. I still think there's people out there there that thought that Luno may have Southern belled the whole thing a little bit when it came to the service.
- [115:53]
Byron Pain
What have these boys been up to? I don't exactly this chicanery. I've just been doing my business and I come home and find my houses in turmoil. Yes.
- [116:02]
Sean Pendergast
I think there's people that think that about Luno. When Beltran, if we're kind of parsing out what he's saying here, when he says this was a team being together from top to bottom, that may be him implicating management in this thing.
- [116:16]
Byron Pain
Yeah, that.
- [116:16]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. The people above the players at least knew it was going on. Maybe they weren't down there saying, okay, we're going to put the monitor here and here's your bat to bang on the trash can. But they had awareness of it, I can tell you.
- [116:29]
Byron Pain
I know, like, back when steroids were rampant in football, there was a lot of, you know, willful ignorance on the part of people in management and whatever. Well, and in baseball, there's kind of like, all right, I don't know, guys are doing something, and I've got heard stories, but I'm not going to look into it too deep. Yeah. And we're just going to go along. The results are good. Let's just. And you just kind of. You're. It's a. It's an intentional. Oh, what's the old word from the Harrison Ford movie? The. The deniability. Plausible.
- [116:58]
Sean Pendergast
Deny. Deniability.
- [116:59]
Byron Pain
Yeah, I know there's. I'm aware of something that's going on, but I'm not going to look into it because then I'm going to know what's going on.
- [117:05]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, that's. Boy, you're thinking that you. I mean, you pointing that out, that top to bottom being in there, that if I were. If I were doing that interview and I got that quote and I don't know who wrote the article, I'd have to go look.
- [117:16]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [117:17]
Sean Pendergast
My follow up to that would have been. What do you mean by top to bottom?
- [117:20]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [117:21]
Sean Pendergast
Because it can mean the whole roster, it can mean the entire organization. And I think those things are relevant because there. There was an element to AJ Hinch and Jeff Luno that. That they. You could tell they tried to distance themselves from it.
- [117:35]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [117:35]
Sean Pendergast
You know, Hinch in the moment, trying to distance himself by not stopping him, it, and by smashing a monitor with a bat, whatever, I guess trying to send a message that he wanted it stopped. And then Luno by literally distancing himself.
- [117:47]
Byron Pain
Yeah, there were. You know, and some former Astros players have talked about the fact that Altuve and a few other guys just didn't want any part of it. The other teams were doing it. All of that. The top to bottom. I mean like, I don't think you can say that about any organization ever in sports or otherwise where there's top to bottom agreement. There's always disagreement about something thing. And, and we've got reports of some teams and. Or managers that didn't like it. The funniest part, players and managers.
- [118:13]
Sean Pendergast
The funniest part about all this is that when. When Beltran says it was better than any other system in baseball. And the fact that the Astros are getting punished the most.
- [118:22]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [118:22]
Sean Pendergast
Of. Or got punished the most by anybody. Would indicate that maybe baseball feels that way too. Is that the other teams that were doing some form of sign stealing. We're using like advanced technology to do it. Like Apple watches and things like that. The Astros best system was them like cavemen.
- [118:38]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [118:38]
Sean Pendergast
Banging on they trash can.
- [118:40]
Byron Pain
That's why, that's why I got so disgusted with me have best boomer me bang on can. Never didn't want to act like the Yankees ever did anything wrong at all with electronic sign stealing or didn't even participate. But he would, he would point that out. He's all, well, it's the technology. It's the technology. That's what it is. And then it turns into. You find out like, oh, wow, the Red Sox and Yankees and other teams were using technology. It's the trash can. That's what's different. It's not the technology, it's the trash cans. Oh, you mean that thing that the other team could clearly hear. Right. Might put two and two together and figure it out. They did well. And teams did start figuring it out. Yeah. And that's why it became less effective.
- [119:20]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [119:21]
Byron Pain
And by the time it got to the World Series, remember, there was broad paranoia around baseball. I mean, we had Lance McCullers in studio. Lance was one of the guys who was saying that there needs to be some type of system. It would eventually become pitchcom because remember in the World Series, all the crossed up catchers and everything, like it was everybody, they were changing their calls every inning long. The games, both those teams were so paranoid about what the other team was doing.
- [119:45]
Sean Pendergast
The games were like five hours long because there's eight. Jilly. That's why they had to make a limit on the trips to the mound too.
- [119:51]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [119:51]
Sean Pendergast
Because of that World Series.
- [119:53]
Byron Pain
All right.
- [119:53]
Sean Pendergast
Pain and pender gas with you. All right, coming up next. I know over the last few decades there have been things with college football where we've said this is going to kill College football. Could this be the thing that actually kills? Popularity of college football is being discussed at SEC media days yesterday. We'll tell you what it is coming up next.
- [120:13]
Byron Pain
Listen, I don't know if I can speak enough.
- [120:15]
Sean Pendergast
Sugar Lamb Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right. There was big news in college football yesterday. At least rumors and speculation and innuendo window. SEC media days are going on. I think media days around college football. Very underrated time of the year on the calendar. Cause as we know, college coaches and college basketball coaches have been the one that in the past couple years have really popped up on the Pain and Pendergast radar as. Wow, these are some very petty, egotistical people. These coaches.
- [120:45]
Byron Pain
They let it go, man.
- [120:46]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [120:46]
Byron Pain
NFL coaches are annoyingly boring.
- [120:48]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [120:48]
Byron Pain
Always very diplomatic about every little thing. They're very, very rare that they take a shot now that Rex Ryan is gone. Especially not a lot of shots taken.
- [120:56]
Host/Announcer
No.
- [120:57]
Byron Pain
But college, they just let. They go for it.
- [120:59]
Sean Pendergast
He's scared.
- [121:00]
Byron Pain
Yeah. All right.
- [121:01]
Sean Pendergast
But there's big doings yesterday. SEC media day.
- [121:04]
Byron Pain
Seth, do we want Kiffin basically acting like it's 1967.
- [121:10]
Sean Pendergast
But the conferences. You know, the College Football Playoff has really started to create the potential for a rift.
- [121:18]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [121:18]
Sean Pendergast
Between conferences here. To where certain conferences think the playoffs should look this way. Certain conferences think the playoffs should look that way.
- [121:27]
Byron Pain
They all get disgruntled about every single one of them things. One more team from their conference should have been invited.
- [121:33]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [121:33]
Byron Pain
Right. The playoffs. Yeah.
- [121:35]
Sean Pendergast
And in the end, here's the thing. Business is good. Even without how they may feel the playoff is flawed or we think we disagree with what the Big Ten thinks the playoffs should look like. Like fans are scooping it up, man. Fans are lapping it up right now.
- [121:49]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Even if they hate it. Even if they hate all the discombobulation and the joining of conferences and everything. They're still watching in droves, at least on the aggregate.
- [121:57]
Sean Pendergast
They are. Yeah. For sure. So do we want to set the mood for this story right here?
- [122:00]
Byron Pain
Yeah. This is. Let's. Let's play a little Kelly Clarkson breakaway.
- [122:05]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, yeah.
- [122:05]
Byron Pain
Because the SEC is hinting that they might be open to breaking away, starting their own deal.
- [122:12]
Sean Pendergast
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey reiterated. That's a good tune, man. Reiterated Monday. The talk of the conference breaking away is, quote, real and not a leverage play. The idea of an SEC breakaway has been simmering within the conference for a while. We've heard them talking about it. Then became a talking point at the spring meetings. Back in May. Sankey didn't directly address the possibility during his opening comments on Monday, yesterday at the start of SEC Media day days. But the first question out of the shoot when the Q and A part started was I'm Anna Garcia, host of True Crime News, the podcast. Every week we bring you in depth coverage on cases making headlines as well as those that go under the radar.
- [122:56]
Host/Announcer
Tune in for murders that defy explanation,
- [122:59]
Sean Pendergast
mystery seeking exploration, and shocking secrets that
- [123:03]
Host/Announcer
will leave you breathless.
- [123:04]
Sean Pendergast
Each week we honor the victims by
- [123:06]
Host/Announcer
going beyond the salacious in our search for justice.
- [123:09]
Sean Pendergast
Crime never stops. And neither do we Listen to True Crime News, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts about break about breaking away. And he did not downplay.
- [123:24]
Byron Pain
Yeah. That it's a possibility. And they've discussed it. It sounds like there might be a few schools or presidents or whomever that are more into it than others are. I'm just, this is the kind of thing where I don't know anymore what I have a really hard time predicting that anything in college football is going to be a disaster because every single time I think that or the consensus is that it's going to be a disaster, it actually ends up increasing the popularity of this sport.
- [123:54]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [123:54]
Byron Pain
Nil transfer portal combining of conferences, the all of the these things that just it hasn't hurt the product. You know what, you could argue that it's hurt the product in virtue of like the actual play on the field and having every coach has to basically create a new team every single year.
- [124:10]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [124:10]
Byron Pain
Yeah. But in terms of the popularity of the sport, it hasn't really dealt it any kind of a death blow. It's been the opposite.
- [124:16]
Sean Pendergast
No, no. I, I, to me, of all the things that have happened and I, I have a mind that this, this is the thing that could potentially really damage the sport.
- [124:26]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [124:26]
Sean Pendergast
I don't think anything's going to to kill it dead, but really damage it. I'll explain why in a second. The biggest thing I thought of all the things that have come up in the last, say, 15 to 20 years, the one for me that does still affect my enjoyment of college football is all the realignment that's just destroyed all the rivalries that used to exist.
- [124:44]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [124:44]
Sean Pendergast
Teams not playing rivals. They used to play either because A they're not in the same conference anymore, B, they're in different conferences. But one of them is not willing to play that whole team, Texas, Texas A and M dynamic for years till they both got back in the same conference. And see now with the playoff teams are very. With the 12 team playoff teams are nervous about over scheduling. Maybe.
- [125:06]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [125:06]
Sean Pendergast
They feel like, hey, maybe we'd be better off. I mean that was the, that was the battle cry for. I forget which team it was last year. Oh, it's Texas. Like if we just didn't play Ohio State and we played Sam.
- [125:16]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [125:17]
Sean Pendergast
In. I think they played Sam. But if they played six Stephen F. Austin in week one instead of Ohio State, we'd have been 10 and two and in the playoffs. Yeah, that's bad for the sport. It hasn't killed the sport. The reason why, I think, and again the talk of the SEC is talking about breaking away and basically conducting their own season unto themselves would be.
- [125:34]
Byron Pain
There would be no competing for the national championship. It would be the SEC championship, which. Go ahead.
- [125:39]
Sean Pendergast
So we'll just. So. So that's where I'm kind of going with this.
- [125:42]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [125:42]
Sean Pendergast
Is that if they break off altogether. What. What is the care level of the average fan for an S. Aside from those schools for an SEC championship that they're treating like it's the national championship. Especially when the SEC has come back to the pack a little bit here. These last. The Nil and the transfer portal have brought the SEC back to the pack a little bit. They haven't won a national championship as a conference in a few years now. That's the irony in the whole thing. You're creating your own national championship and the Big Tens won the last few of these.
- [126:12]
Byron Pain
Little bit soft imo.
- [126:13]
Sean Pendergast
Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, these are the team.
- [126:16]
Byron Pain
Right.
- [126:17]
Sean Pendergast
So. So I think if, if you have the SEC over here creating their own championship and almost declaring it a national championship of some sort, then you've got the rest of the schools where the average fan is going to go, well, the SEC is not part of this. That's not a real championship. I think as opposed to having one real champion, having two kind of fugazi champions. I think I'm a say it. I think that would damage the sport.
- [126:41]
Byron Pain
I think that. I don't know if it would because what, you know what happens immediately is for one, the SEC would start expanding to the point where it almost just becomes
- [126:52]
Sean Pendergast
probably the next step.
- [126:53]
Byron Pain
It starts expanding and then you're going to end up with the same debates and arguments about like, well, wait a second, how many teams need to be in the SEC championship playoffs? And at some point, hey, you know what? You know what we should do 20 years from now? Hey, you guys ever think, what if we had the champion of the SEC play The champion of the Big Ten, which now comprises 40 teams.
- [127:16]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [127:16]
Byron Pain
And you end up with a national championship that way. I don't know if it's ever going to end or stop. I don't know what. I don't know what the. I don't know if there's ever going to be a point of stability anymore where it feels like, oh, okay, college. College football is what it is and this is the way it works.
- [127:30]
Sean Pendergast
Okay. So I will stand by this, though Them, I think, as constructed, the way you and I just described it and the way it would look initially, I think that damages the sport, which then forces everybody to come back to the table or the SEC to do what you're talking about. Just, all right, if this is going to be a national champion, if our entity that we've created is going to be a championship that's viewed by college football fans as a real national champion, then we, we can't just be 16 teams in the southwest, west, southeast quadrant of the United States. We've got to be more of a national thing. And that's what gets everybody back to the table. This might be the detour on the way to the 64 Team Super Conference that everybody talks about being inevitable.
- [128:13]
Byron Pain
Right. This just boils down to flat out that the, that if the ncaa, because the NCAA has become antiquated in so many ways and it's like, it's easy to bag on the ncaa, but man, they're trying to. They're trying to, you know, wrangle a tornado here and operating as this gigantic organization that had a certain set of rules forever and now all of a sudden it's been blown out of the water. Well. And they might just not be capable of. Of containing and managing all of this. Where smaller organizations might feel that they are.
- [128:47]
Sean Pendergast
They've shown they're not capable of it.
- [128:49]
Byron Pain
Right.
- [128:49]
Sean Pendergast
You know, they've shown that they tried to create that. That clearinghouse for all the nil stuff, and that's been kind of a mess. Yeah, I, Yeah, it's.
- [128:57]
Byron Pain
I think there's. If you go back to like, let's see, baseball, when baseball was America's pastime, and I know you can never go back and do everything in the exact same way. I mean, it would like. It used to be that you had two separate leagues and they were separate
- [129:10]
Sean Pendergast
and met in the World Series.
- [129:11]
Byron Pain
Right. They met in the World Series and kids, there wasn't even a playoffs back in the day. It was the only time, the only time that you would. You'd have the best team from the AL and the best team from the NL and the. Then they would meet in the World Series and that was it. No playoffs. Anything else like that. Like, I'm not saying that that's, that was the best way to do it or anything, but baseball was very popular then. So I don't know. I don't know if there's a. If all of a sudden it went back to like, the SEC is its own conference, the Big Ten is its own conference. They only play within each other. I don't, I think it would be very short lived. I think at some point then they get, you get right back into, okay, you know what, oh, let's have the. We got two or three super conferences. Let's have those teams play each other at the end of the year.
- [129:56]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [129:56]
Byron Pain
And then you know what happens. Yeah, you know what? Four teams really isn't enough, I think. What if we go. So I, you just have this with a different governing body than the ncaa.
- [130:05]
Sean Pendergast
The whole thing's like an amoeba. It just like keeps like changing shapes.
- [130:08]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [130:09]
Sean Pendergast
Geographically, functionally and everything else.
- [130:11]
Byron Pain
And the difference would be that it would be. Whoever was the governing body would maybe be more adept at handling everything and because I would imagine at some point I would. I'm about to say the nil and everything will settle down. I don't. Boy, if teams are splitting off, it's going to be different in each conference. And at some point they're like, for it to settle down, there'd have to be some kind of a salary cap. And I just don't know how you put all of this back into the.
- [130:36]
Sean Pendergast
I was one of those traditional college football fans that for years was just in denial about things like unionization of the players, 60, 14 Super League, things like that. I've flipped. I know. I think it's going to be a while. Do I see it in my lifetime? Yeah, probably, you know, depending on, you know, if I keep walking four miles a day and whatever. I, But I feel like this, like, I feel strongly that student athletes as employees, at least football players and maybe basketball players as employees of the school is coming. And I feel like if this, if the SEC especially were to break off, that to me isn't permanent, where it's the SEC over here and everybody else. That's the first salvo of kind of trimming the fat off of the 130 teams that there are. And it would suck for those 60 or 70 schools that get trimmed off into some separate tier between D1 and D1. A double A, you know, but this is where the money is leading.
- [131:31]
Byron Pain
There's like an FCS and a mid fc. The fcs tears of the fcs.
- [131:36]
Sean Pendergast
And then people care about those championships and things like that.
- [131:39]
Byron Pain
I don't know.
- [131:40]
Sean Pendergast
I don't like all. I like it the way it was, but I. But I'm not dumb enough to.
- [131:44]
Byron Pain
What? Well, what's the likelihood that this actually happens?
- [131:47]
Sean Pendergast
The SEC breaking off.
- [131:48]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [131:48]
Sean Pendergast
Anytime soon?
- [131:49]
Byron Pain
Any of the other conferences breaking off?
- [131:51]
Sean Pendergast
Not zero, but I think it's. It's the underdog. Yeah, I think it's the underdog.
- [131:55]
Byron Pain
I think there's.
- [131:55]
Sean Pendergast
I mean, I think ultimately they all look and say, okay, we got to work together.
- [131:58]
Byron Pain
I don't know how, like, I don't know the finances of it or anything, but the fact that all of these teams in the Big Ten have to travel so far for all the other sports as well, it's like there's gotta, there's gotta be people there that are saying, like, look, we can make this work, but we could make it work a lot better if we didn't have to take. If our cross country team didn't have to fly across the country five times.
- [132:17]
Sean Pendergast
That's exactly right. All right. NFL top 100. I think we finally got the stamp that C.J. stroud is not making it. Another quarterback made it yesterday that. I'm actually a little angry about this. I don't normally get worked up about the NFL top 100. I'm a little worked up about this one. We'll tell you who. Here Sports Radio 610 presents Payne and Pendergast. All right. My. Actually, it's funny. I teased a NFL top 100 topic, which we'll get to. But while I was teasing that while we were in break, while you were sleeping, Nico Collins has been named the 58th best player in the sport of American football by the peers of his. That vote.
- [133:07]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [133:08]
Sean Pendergast
In the NFL's top 100. I'm sending the video to buyers. A two minute video that they do for each player.
- [133:14]
Byron Pain
Yeah, I look at this as an insult.
- [133:16]
Sean Pendergast
Well, he was 32 last year.
- [133:19]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [133:20]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, he's 32.
- [133:22]
Byron Pain
I can't look at it as an insult with Nico because. Because of the injuries, you know, like every year. It's just when he has these injuries, it's man. Okay, you prorate the stats and extend it out. If you could just stay healthy for the entire season. That's the, the slam dunk. Put the cap on. Yeah.
- [133:37]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [133:37]
Byron Pain
Yeah, he's right there. In the very, very. I agree with you.
- [133:39]
Sean Pendergast
The injuries are what's keeping him certainly from cracking into that top tier of the guys that we know. Puka, Nakua, Jackson, Smith and Jigba, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, Amanra, St. Brow. These are all guys who have not been named yet. They're all going to be named sometime between now and number one one. What's ironic is that Nico was 32 on that list after 2024.
- [133:59]
Byron Pain
Right. Where he only played 12 games. He missed more games, and it was one quarter. And yeah, he only played one quarter with. With one of those games with two of them.
- [134:07]
Sean Pendergast
Actually. He's only played a quarter of the game at the end of the year, also against the Titans. So he missed. He missed. He missed a total of almost six games.
- [134:15]
Byron Pain
Yeah, was last year he only missed two games. And plus whatever he might missed in the game, he got injured.
- [134:19]
Sean Pendergast
I think the reason why he dipped this year is if you look at his per game stats, they were through the roof in 2024. He had almost. He had almost the same number of yards in 2024 and 2025. I think he had like a hundred more yards last season, but he had over a thousand. He had over a thousand yards in just 12 games. And as you point out, two of those games he only played a quarter of.
- [134:45]
Byron Pain
Yeah, yeah.
- [134:46]
Sean Pendergast
So he was. On a game by game basis. He probably was more impressive in 2024 when he was out there. I mean, look, 58 is nothing to sneeze at. It's still really good. That's a pretty big drop for someone who in all the other different. Me. All the other different subjective exercises that we've been going through this year, you know, Mo specifically the one that we talked about a lot the last couple weeks, had Jeremy Fowler, ESPN poll of coaches and coordinators in front office people where he was eighth in that. Yeah, I feel like that's where Nico falls with a lot of people is fans, media evaluators, things like that is he's not quite in that tippy top crust of guys, but he ain't outside the top.
- [135:28]
Byron Pain
I think the biggest thing about him is that right now it's if the Texans offense is lagging or our laggards, he is the guy that teams are fantastic focused on taking away. Like, don't let Nico Collins kill us. All right? We're gonna just do everything we can be to kill Nico Collins or not let Nico Collins kill us, because we don't think that they have anybody else who's going to kill Us and that's going to tamp things down a little bit. He finished last year 8th in yards per game. The emergence of Jackson, Smith and Jigba obviously was a. One of the big things that happened last year.
- [135:59]
Sean Pendergast
He might be top 10 this year. Jackson in that. In the top one.
- [136:02]
Byron Pain
Right, right, right. Yeah. Um, so I think that this, like with so many as it is, with so many guys on the offense, it's. It comes down to. Okay. With a more potent offense and with a better CJ Stroud, then yeah, Nico's gonna get a whole lot more respect.
- [136:17]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [136:17]
Byron Pain
But we're finally. The fact that like you pointed out, he's coming off a year in which he played more games and statistically and everything, it doesn't look that much different than the year before. Except the. The bloom is off the rose a little bit in terms of how people think about. About the Texans. Yes. And that matters. Nico and everybody else becomes a little bit more of an afterthought offensively when everybody's so hyper focused on the Texans defense, when they're having conversations about the Texans.
- [136:41]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. Do we have the. We got the video lined up, Byron. Okay, so we'll play this. So it's. This is the, this is the vignette that they put together for Nico Collins making the top 100. This is. These are always fun to play because there's a lot of Mark Vandermeer calling touchdowns and long catches and things like that. Also among the people you're going to hear in this, you're going to hear. You'll recognize the voices. There's a lot of Derek Stingley in this. You know, he goes up against Nico in practice every day. There's a lot of C.J. stroud. One of the names, one of the voices you'll hear in this a couple of times you may not recognize is Alec Pierce, who plays the same position in the same division as Nico. So let's hit play on it here. We'll celebrate Nico Collins, number 58 in the NFL's top 112. Big plays.
- [137:23]
Byron Pain
Big plays, big plays all day. Lemonade. Fresh squeezed lemonade.
- [137:29]
Sean Pendergast
Lemonade. Oh, nuts.
- [137:31]
Byron Pain
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- [137:34]
Sean Pendergast
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Byron Pain
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Byron Pain
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- [137:56]
Host/Announcer
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- [138:49]
Byron Pain
a pro football podcast that doesn't put you to sleep with spreadsheets or insult you with mindless hot takes? Football is fun. Why shouldn't your football podcast be the same?
- [138:57]
Sean Pendergast
Follow and listen to Heed the Call NFL podcast with Dan Hanzis and Mark Sessler wherever you get your podcasts.
- [139:05]
Byron Pain
I don't think anybody can cover him one on one. Like, it's. It's just not possible. It's really not.
- [139:10]
Sean Pendergast
Not. When I first got here, I told him, man, it's my job to make you a superstar.
- [139:18]
Byron Pain
And I think he's up to that level now.
- [139:21]
Sean Pendergast
C.J.
- [139:21]
Byron Pain
surveying the field, throws caught.
- [139:23]
Sean Pendergast
Nico, just go to number 12.
- [139:25]
Byron Pain
He gets it for you. My job, you know, double him and rotate to him and, you know, give
- [139:32]
Sean Pendergast
him all that superstar treatment. Let's keep an eye on that ball. Going to 12.
- [139:37]
Byron Pain
Fast, strong catchability, yakability, and a strong
- [139:40]
Sean Pendergast
connection made to Nico Collins. Collins with yards after the catch. He's one of my favorite receivers to watch, honestly, to study.
- [139:49]
Byron Pain
Stroud well protected.
- [139:51]
Sean Pendergast
And there's Nico Collins.
- [139:53]
Byron Pain
And Nico Collins will glide into the end zone.
- [139:56]
Sean Pendergast
An opening drive. Texan touchdown. He's big, tall, athletic, does a great job at the line. Line winning against press. I love watching him play this game, man. I like Nico's game.
- [140:06]
Byron Pain
He's a big body receiver, but he can still take the top.
- [140:09]
Sean Pendergast
That's cam curl. Oh, what a catch by Collins.
- [140:12]
Byron Pain
Can't believe that.
- [140:13]
Sean Pendergast
All around great receiver.
- [140:14]
Byron Pain
Like, he got hands, he got speed, he got quickness, he got everything.
- [140:19]
Sean Pendergast
I love Nico Collins uses that big
- [140:21]
Byron Pain
body, and then look at the finish. That's what happens when you're 6, 4,
- [140:25]
Sean Pendergast
2, 22 N. Nico Collins has it taking off. We were kind of holding down a little bit.
- [140:31]
Byron Pain
And then Stroud back to throw.
- [140:33]
Sean Pendergast
Taking a deep shot again for Collins adjustment.
- [140:37]
Byron Pain
I think it was like the last play of the game. They throw it up to him. He just makes a catch and seals
- [140:40]
Sean Pendergast
the game on us.
- [140:41]
Byron Pain
Collins delivers.
- [140:43]
Sean Pendergast
Tampa Bay, Week two. The corner was pressed and took off. And I still trusted him. Just put in a spot only where he can get it for him to
- [140:50]
Byron Pain
work his body, get his body in back, you know, it was just a super cool play.
- [140:54]
Sean Pendergast
Touchdown, Texans. What a catch. I think he's top five.
- [140:59]
Byron Pain
He's top three in the league right now. Like, he doesn't get the recognition all the time.
- [141:05]
Sean Pendergast
I think he's one of the most underrated players in the NFL. There you go.
- [141:10]
Byron Pain
Who's that at the end?
- [141:11]
Sean Pendergast
Alec Pierce.
- [141:11]
Byron Pain
Oh, okay.
- [141:12]
Sean Pendergast
That was Alec Pierce. It was Derek Stingley right before I
- [141:14]
Byron Pain
figured it was either Alec Pierce or Reed Blankenson
- [141:18]
Sean Pendergast
or Cooper De Jean.
- [141:19]
Byron Pain
Sounded like a nondescript white guy. I love my wife very much. We have. She's born me. Many children doing what she's supposed to do. Is that the best?
- [141:35]
Sean Pendergast
He's dope. Let me tell you. So Nico makes the list.
- [141:43]
Byron Pain
Cam curl.
- [141:46]
Sean Pendergast
I knew it was funny because I went. Was watching. I had the sound turned down on the video. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna have to explain who that is.
- [141:54]
Byron Pain
Okay. All right. I don't. I know there's a lot of people listening who I think heard CJ say. I told him when I got here, is my job to make you a superstar. And that's where he is now. Yeah.
- [142:04]
Sean Pendergast
He did his job.
- [142:04]
Byron Pain
All right. Good job. C.J.
- [142:06]
Sean Pendergast
did his job. Where's his contract? Can you imagine?
- [142:12]
Byron Pain
That's his argument. Imagine that's his argument.
- [142:15]
Sean Pendergast
Mulaguetta is going in there. Like, his job. Job was to make Nico Collins a superstar. About the New England game. Not his job.
- [142:22]
Byron Pain
Not his job.
- [142:23]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. His job was to make.
- [142:28]
Byron Pain
Yeah. I mean, he wasn't out there. Yeah. So. Yeah.
- [142:31]
Sean Pendergast
So nico. Nico, number 58.
- [142:33]
Byron Pain
I made Nico Collins a superstar. And when he's not available for the New England game.
- [142:37]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [142:38]
Byron Pain
My own creation isn't out there.
- [142:39]
Sean Pendergast
How am I supposed to do that?
- [142:40]
Byron Pain
It's like a surgeon without my tools.
- [142:42]
Sean Pendergast
This is the top 100 thing in the. That happened. That's happened in the last 24 hours. That made me upset.
- [142:48]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [142:48]
Sean Pendergast
Top 100 type upset. Didn't lose sleep. Yeah, maybe. Bo Nix, 59th on the NFL's top 100. That's one of those things. Seth, when lamar Jackson was 69th, like a week ago.
- [143:02]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [143:02]
Sean Pendergast
And you and I think it was last Monday. And you and I are like, well, there's no way CJ made the top 100. And then now Bo Nix is 59th. And I'm like, okay, maybe, maybe he is.
- [143:10]
Byron Pain
That's where I don't think people were. I don't, you know, I don't get as worked up about the NFL top 100 as you do. I think it's a stupid voting system. And yet I like the fact that people do care about it. Makes me angry because it's a stupid voting system that ends up with Bo Nicks ranked above Lamar Jackson.
- [143:24]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [143:24]
Byron Pain
It just, it's, it's asinine. It's asinine. But I'm not going to Ryan Clark it and say that this is, this is an indication of the players don't respect Lamar Jackson enough.
- [143:34]
Sean Pendergast
You'll get fired.
- [143:38]
Byron Pain
Ryan Clark was acting like players all got together as a group and said, oh, no, Lamar Jackson isn't really that good. Like, no, it's just. It's a flawed way it works. It's a flawed system.
- [143:47]
Sean Pendergast
The way it works. Now I am starting to think, yeah, because when we Pre NFL top 100, I know I came in here and I, you know, said these are the players I think with the Texans could make it, you know, based on my intense research and love of the NFL top 100. I feel like I know the dynamics of the system.
- [144:07]
Host/Announcer
Them.
- [144:07]
Sean Pendergast
I thought at least one, maybe two of these three guys that have never finished in the top 100 who are on the Texans would make it. At least one, maybe two of Kamari Lassiter, Jalen Petrie and Kaylin Bullock. Yeah, maybe all three. I don't know that any of them are making it now. I don't know C.J. stroud is making it. And I don't know that any of those three defensive backs are making this thing. With Nico coming in at 58, I just feel like the, the football world, the players world probably has Nico Collins higher up their pecking order of Houston Texans than they do any of those guys. I'm not saying it's deserved. I would put, I would possibly put Kamari Lasseter maybe even ahead of Nico Collins on something like this.
- [144:50]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [144:51]
Sean Pendergast
But I'm just knowing how this thing works. I think Stroud, Petrie Lassiter and Bullock might all be missing out on this.
- [145:00]
Byron Pain
There's, There's a, there's. The other thing that happens with this poll is that usually certain positions are more heavily weighted than others. You got, like, proportionally, you end up with a lot more quarterbacks on it. You know, the percentage of quarterbacks in the league that make the top 100 is a lot higher than the percentage of centers and guards that make the league, which makes sense. But I think when you get outside of the marquee skill positions or cornerback and kind of the edge rusher. Yeah, the marquee positions, then those guys have a harder time cracking the leg list until they really establish a reputation. So I, so I think that Kaleb Bullock especially is in that boat where. I don't think, I think teams that have played the Texans have a really high appreciation for Kalen Bullock. I think teams that haven't played the Texans or didn't play them last year especially, are like, Kalen Bullock, still just a little bit of a notion, and it's going to take some time for him to really get that response.
- [145:53]
Sean Pendergast
I think you're, I think you're going to end up being right about that. I, I, I think, I mean, I was off on this. Like, I, I thought that the fact that Bullock had that huge game on national TV against the Bills. Yeah, I thought that Jalen Petrie had that huge game against the Chiefs, which included murdering Rasheed Rice, cold blood on the field. And Kamari Lasseter has just been consistently good in big games for the Texans. I thought at least one of them would make it, man. Maybe they will. Still, you look at last year's top
- [146:20]
Byron Pain
100 and only, and since Jalen Petrie is probably listed as a safety on the ballot or whatever, well, these guys are just listing their top players. Yeah, they don't matter, but whether you call them a safety or a cornerback or a nickelback or whatever, last year safety, there were only six safeties on the list in the top 100. So it's just tougher. Cornerbacks, there were only seven. So, so for. That's going to be really, really tough for, for Kamari to make it when he's still a younger player. That, that's kind of overshadowed in terms of name recognition by Derek Stingley.
- [146:54]
Sean Pendergast
He's already got Stingley on his own team. Yeah, you're right about that. Okay, let's pretend for a second that Lassiter, Petrie, and Bullock all missed the top 100. You got to pick one to make it next year. Gun to your head. Life savings on the line. You got to pick one to be picked by the players in the very flawed top 100.
- [147:16]
Byron Pain
I think it'll be Peach again because of flair, name recognition, national games. This guy shows up, does big things and that because they're not bound to voting by position like the trouble you're right where Jalen Petrie is one of these star, star position players that is your nickelback that just doesn't quite fit the mold. Then he. The people they don't have to think about whether he's a safety or anything else. They're like oh no. Yeah. Jalen Petrie, I really like him.
- [147:47]
Sean Pendergast
That's a good one. That's. That's a good one. I'm gonna say Lassiter just cause I think he might deserve to be there already. I. I think, I think Kamari Lasseter, you know you said seven corners made it last year. I think he might be one of the seven best corners just in terms of his all around game. Well he's got one of those games
- [148:01]
Byron Pain
the NFL executives and coaches the anonymous ones for ESPN. He was 11. He's 11.
- [148:06]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He. But I feel like he's got a style of play now. Look if he's mixing in the top 100 this year, maybe I'm totally off base on this but I feel he's got a style of play.
- [148:14]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [148:14]
Sean Pendergast
That is the kids say slaps when it comes to peers voting for him. It is but respect his physicality.
- [148:21]
Byron Pain
This is where it goes back into people like wanting their specific type of cornerback though. I think the. The elite man coverage skills are the things that people hold the highest esteem and they don't. He doesn't get as much credit for coming up and playing the run as effectively.
- [148:37]
Sean Pendergast
Well like edge rushers.
- [148:38]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [148:38]
Sean Pendergast
You know they don't get credit for setting the edge. Credit for sacking the quarterback. Yeah. All right. Pain and pender gas. We at the end of the 9 o' clock hour. Way to go Nico. 58th on the NFL's top 100. Bo Nicks 59th trash.
- [148:54]
Byron Pain
Nico Collins got the respect he deserved. Bo Nicks. The voting system's all disregard any of this anyway.
- [149:02]
Sean Pendergast
Same exact.
- [149:02]
Byron Pain
That's how we go with this.
- [149:03]
Sean Pendergast
Same exact meaningless.
- [149:04]
Byron Pain
Exactly. Except for when the Texans are included.
- [149:06]
Sean Pendergast
I just said that in the same minute of the same segment.
- [149:09]
Byron Pain
All right.
- [149:10]
Sean Pendergast
Hey, the latest in the. Brandon I. Brandon Ayuk. What are you doing? I feel like we say this every week. Why are you going after this guy now?
- [149:19]
Byron Pain
Sports Radio 610 presents live from The West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln
- [149:25]
Sean Pendergast
of Sugar Land Studios.
- [149:26]
Byron Pain
Here's Pain and Pendergast.
- [149:30]
Sean Pendergast
I painted Pendergast with you here on a. On a Tuesday.
- [149:33]
Byron Pain
All right, Brandon Ayuk, you've been nails with the names. The names of the days of the week.
- [149:39]
Sean Pendergast
Thank you. I've been killing it.
- [149:41]
Byron Pain
I can't say the. I couldn't bring up the actual term days of the week, but you've been saying the days of the week really? Well, thanks for watching. One of us is really on point today.
- [149:50]
Sean Pendergast
Well, it was your job to make me a superstar. You've achieved that.
- [149:54]
Byron Pain
That's annoying me now. That's really annoying. In case you missed it, Nico Collins made the top 100, and there's a clip in there where CJ Stroud says, I told him when I got here it was my job to make you a superstar.
- [150:05]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [150:05]
Byron Pain
And that's what he is now.
- [150:06]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [150:08]
Byron Pain
You do the syllogism.
- [150:09]
Sean Pendergast
Right. So now I'm bewildered as to why C.J. hadn't gotten his big contract yet. He did his job. What the hell? Get on it, Nick. All right, so Brandon Iuk. Let's check in on Brandon Iuk. What's the latest with him? Brandon Iuk, who has been somewhat psychotic and weird on Instagram for the last several weeks, still under contract of the San Francisco 49ers, has taken shots at numerous people in some weird attempt to get over to the Washington commanders. Specifically.
- [150:40]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [150:41]
Sean Pendergast
Including implication that he's been tampered with or himself is trying to tamper with the Washington commanders. Yeah, like he's talking about.
- [150:51]
Byron Pain
Meanwhile, the commanders seem to, I'm guessing, want nothing to do with this.
- [150:55]
Sean Pendergast
Well, one of his latest things. He was taking shots of Jaden Daniels.
- [150:58]
Byron Pain
Right.
- [150:58]
Sean Pendergast
Right.
- [150:58]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Well, yeah, because Jaden Daniels doesn't want to. He read Jaden Daniels text out loud online. Yeah. He's distanced himself from everybody, and he's looking every bit like. Like when you're extremely talented, yes, you get a little bit more latitude and how crazy you can act. But there comes a point, like with Antonio Brown, where it just gets even too far. And like Brandon Iuk, it's been. It's been a protracted version of Antonio Brown doing jumping jacks as he leaves the field in the middle of the game. It's where, like, okay, he's. He's gone way too far off the deep end to where I don't. Like, I don't think there's teams are going to take a look at him if. And when he ever actually does gain his contractual freedom. But it's. It's dicey. It would be a really dicey thing.
- [151:43]
Sean Pendergast
So on Instagram. The latest from Brandon Aiuk is again on Instagram, but it's not a video of him talking. It's a post that he put up with words. He says people have career years when 11 on the O. Now he's 11. He's number 11. And the O is the offense, I think. Okay, everybody eat. No Kizzy. No Kizzy. I checked. Means no lie, no cap. You know this.
- [152:12]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [152:13]
Byron Pain
Our Gen Z guy, Byron, does that check out Sean, right? Yeah. Okay. No Kizzy.
- [152:18]
Sean Pendergast
No Kizzy.
- [152:19]
Byron Pain
Cannot keep up chat. GP how long has Kizzy been a thing? Byron?
- [152:23]
Sean Pendergast
Maybe two years, three years.
- [152:25]
Byron Pain
Sean, you're so old and stupid. Okay, no Kizzy.
- [152:28]
Sean Pendergast
No Kizzy means no lie. For real. I'm serious. Often interchangeable with no cap.
- [152:34]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [152:35]
Sean Pendergast
Or dead serious.
- [152:36]
Byron Pain
Yeah. All right.
- [152:36]
Sean Pendergast
It's interchangeable. It's what I'm told. So continuing with Brandon Iuk. So, yeah, everybody eat. No Kizzy. I hold an NFL record for making plays with the least amount of opportunities. He doesn't cite any stats for that. I'll just have to take his word.
- [152:51]
Byron Pain
It's a record, Sean.
- [152:52]
Sean Pendergast
I'll just have to take his word for it. I'm looking for my op, Short for opportunity. Because I'm going to capitalize and win a bowl. I'm not gonna fumble it away. Oh, I'm done playing the backseat to folks who not like that. True story. Hashtag free uke.
- [153:13]
Byron Pain
Okay, so the fumble it away people are widely interpreting that is a shot at Christian McCaffrey, who had a fumble in the Super Bowl a couple years ago. When was it? In the first quarter of the Super Bowl. And that's why the.
- [153:25]
Sean Pendergast
Did they win the game?
- [153:26]
Byron Pain
No, no, no. If he didn't fumble, they did. No Kizzy.
- [153:33]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, Free Yuke.
- [153:34]
Byron Pain
They wouldn't have fumbled it. The whole thing, though, too, is like the hashtag free uke. The most annoying thing about all of this, and this is where people are really wondering, okay, is he. Like, he's obviously not okay, but he doesn't.
- [153:45]
Sean Pendergast
He.
- [153:45]
Byron Pain
At least with what he's saying publicly, it's like he doesn't even understand that first, for him to get released or traded by the 49ers, he has to file his reinstatement paperwork because he's currently on the no show list, which is a list that I didn't know existed until this whole saga because he just.
- [154:03]
Sean Pendergast
I don't know that? I did until you just brought it up.
- [154:05]
Byron Pain
There's a show list. Yes, because he didn't report when he was supposed to report. So the 49ers, who hadn't been able to get in communication with him for the entire offseason last year, they put him on a no show list. Again, I had no idea that was a thing. And that's where he remains until he files his reinstatement paperwork. Nobody can do anything with his contract, and yet he's insisting that he's being held captive by the 49ers. It's all really, really weird, and I don't. I don't know where it's going to go at this point.
- [154:33]
Sean Pendergast
So it stands to reason, though, because we're going to play this Richard Sherman right here. Right. Seth?
- [154:36]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [154:37]
Sean Pendergast
Do you have the Richard Sherman, Byron?
- [154:38]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [154:38]
Sean Pendergast
Okay. It would stand to reason that maybe him citing the Super Bowl.
- [154:42]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [154:42]
Sean Pendergast
In which McCaffrey fumbled is a glitch with Richard Sherman.
- [154:45]
Byron Pain
Has a theory about when things really started to go south with Brandon Iuk and how he feels about the team. Receivers are very incredible. Interesting. But sometimes, you know, it's a fragility there in terms of, you know, how you deal with the psychology of the receivers on your team and how to make everybody happy. And on a team like San Francisco 49ers with an all pro tight end, an offensive player of the year in the backfield, you had Debo Samuel. It's hard.
- [155:15]
Sean Pendergast
And Brandon, I.
- [155:16]
Byron Pain
You only one football. What I believe happened was Brandon Ayuk played well in the super bowl and created separation and felt like he was open a lot more than he got the ball. And I think as a player, sometimes that eats at you. You know, you're talking about a guy who, who watched our quarterback throw a Super bowl away, and you're just sitting there like, ah, you know, ah, that it eats at you. And it eats at you for a long time.
- [155:43]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [155:43]
Byron Pain
Yeah. And that's where like. And he started. And Richard Sherman would go on to explain that, like, even after they gave him that contract eventually, when he tried to force a trade, that it just, it kept eating at him and kept eating. And Richard Sherman, because a lot of people said, hey, Richard, you've acted a little goofy yourself at times. He said. He was like, yeah, you have to fight it. You have to fight it. And you have to, you know, you have to, you know, try to tamp that down. The list, by the way, the no show list is that there's a reason you never heard of the no show list. And it's because the actual name of the list is even weirder than that.
- [156:12]
Sean Pendergast
What is it?
- [156:13]
Byron Pain
Tell me if you've ever heard of the left squad list.
- [156:15]
Sean Pendergast
No.
- [156:16]
Byron Pain
Yeah, that's the list.
- [156:17]
Sean Pendergast
It's even weirder than no Show. Better because it sounds like a mob thing.
- [156:20]
Byron Pain
Left squad sounds like it's somebody's. Like there's a left squad and a right squad. He's on the left.
- [156:25]
Sean Pendergast
He's over on the left.
- [156:26]
Byron Pain
No, it's the left squad list.
- [156:28]
Sean Pendergast
The left.
- [156:28]
Byron Pain
Because he just disappeared.
- [156:30]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, my God. He vanished after signing a huge contract. My favorite Brandon Aiuk soundbite out of this whole thing was when he said the team is. Yeah, the Niners are stupid. They gave me $50 million over the last eight months.
- [156:44]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [156:46]
Sean Pendergast
Dumb team. But don't worry.
- [156:47]
Byron Pain
Somebody else really wants to sign me to a bunch of money, I'm sure.
- [156:50]
Sean Pendergast
I hear it's the commanders. Yeah. So.
- [156:53]
Byron Pain
I don't know. It's weird. I think. I'm guessing if. If I put myself in Iuk's shoes or house slippers, because he seems to be in the house a lot more than out in public. I think that there's. I bet it varies from day to day whether he even, like, really wants or wants to play football or plans on playing football. And I do think that it is. I think he's in a bad place, though. I mean, there's no. There's no strategy with any of the stuff he's doing right now. None of it makes any actual strategic sense. Like, it's not like if he's trying to force himself off the squad. He hasn't even. He hasn't even taken that first step to. To make it. To make the 49ers capable of getting him off.
- [157:32]
Sean Pendergast
He's got to go to the building at some point.
- [157:33]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [157:34]
Sean Pendergast
I don't even know if his key fob still.
- [157:36]
Byron Pain
Well, part of it was that there was a warrant for his arrest in California.
- [157:39]
Sean Pendergast
That's right. You speed it.
- [157:40]
Byron Pain
But you could at least file the paperwork for reinstatement. Like, he has to. I believe, as I understand this is all a weird situation. We're all learning about the left squad list. It's that he has to file the reinstatement paperwork before he even does a physical or anything. Oh, really? Clear the way. Okay.
- [157:57]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [157:57]
Byron Pain
So, like, the first. As I understand it, and I've checked this, but everybody writing about it is kind of learning about it on the fly.
- [158:02]
Sean Pendergast
Okay.
- [158:03]
Byron Pain
As I understand it, he has to at least. Least File reinstatement paperwork with the NFL to get the process rolling. And he hasn't done that yet.
- [158:10]
Sean Pendergast
Okay, what happens? First, he files his paperwork.
- [158:14]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [158:15]
Sean Pendergast
So you can get moved. Or he finally takes all this action on Instagram where he's been doing videos and things like that and does a sit down interview with somebody. Remember when Royce White had his glitches going on with the Rockets?
- [158:26]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [158:27]
Sean Pendergast
And he wasn't showing up for stuff. And then HBO Real Sports went to his house and did an interview with him where he's in a bathrobe the whole time.
- [158:34]
Byron Pain
Oh, yeah.
- [158:35]
Sean Pendergast
And talking about how mistreated he'd been and how they don't know how to treat this mental health issue.
- [158:40]
Byron Pain
I'll tell you what. You know what?
- [158:41]
Sean Pendergast
What?
- [158:41]
Byron Pain
This is the crazy thing about Brandon Iuk. Royce White had a more effective strategy than Brandon Ayuk does. Because Royce White, at least this is what was frustrating for those of you don't remember. I'm sorry to bring this back up. Is that the Rockets. Look, the Rockets drafted Royce White knowing that he had these issues, and they were very willing to win, work through it with them. But he did not work with them at all. They kept trying. He kept saying, we need a protocol for when I travel and everything. And the Rockets would say, okay, we'd like to help you with this protocol. And they got silence from him. But then he went out and did these interviews and did all these things where nationally people were looking at the Rockets like they were the villain. Meanwhile, the Rockets are like, listen. And they're. And they have to be very careful because they're trying to be cognizant of his. His mental health issues. So they're not all, like, taking shots at him or anything. So the Rockets got screwed over unjustly. So. Because they were not in the wrong there.
- [159:37]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [159:37]
Byron Pain
In this situation, it's few and far between the people that are acting like the 49ers of the issue here. Like most people, by and large are realizing, okay, I can see why the 49ers have. Are having some issues with IUK.
- [159:50]
Sean Pendergast
This may be a tricky question.
- [159:51]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [159:51]
Sean Pendergast
Do you think people would be more sympathetic to Brandon IUK if, like Royce White, he actually had diagnosed mental issues?
- [159:58]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [159:59]
Sean Pendergast
As opposed to all of us going, this guy definitely has some mental health issues.
- [160:02]
Byron Pain
I think they would be. I would think they might be more sympathetic to him, but it wouldn't also, it wouldn't pit him against the 49ers. Like everything that he's done so far up until this this recent stuff, it feels like the classic diva wide receiver that's got a big ego, which tends to come with the territory at times, and teams got to try to manage that. But, like, he's just so. He's gone so far outside the norm of even that abnormal behavior that I. I think the 49ers are largely exonerated other than that. Yeah, they shouldn't have.
- [160:31]
Sean Pendergast
They never should have.
- [160:32]
Byron Pain
They tried to trade him away, but Iuk Kibos, that they tried to do the right thing. They were stuck in a weird, weird spot. No doubt, because it's like, yeah, okay, but we do have Brandon Iuk, and if we can manage him properly and they maybe. I don't know.
- [160:46]
Sean Pendergast
All right, speaking of mental health issues, no kiss, no Kizzy, no Cap, no Kizzy. For real.
- [160:53]
Byron Pain
I really hold myself back from saying that's Cap because I see it enough that I know, like, I don't want to say it. I don't want to be the 51 year old guy that's saying, oh, that's Cap.
- [161:02]
Sean Pendergast
Micah.
- [161:03]
Byron Pain
No Cap.
- [161:03]
Sean Pendergast
Michael Parsons. We have Michael Parsons audio that didn't get played where he's telling Miles Garrett things are facts. And no Cap. Yeah, no Cap. No Cap.
- [161:12]
Byron Pain
I'm better than you all the time, but I can't be saying it. I'm trying too hard.
- [161:17]
Sean Pendergast
If I say it, which biopic would you be more likely to pay a ticket to? Go see Sylvester Stallone when he was pitching Rocky to Hollywood because he wanted to play himself. They didn't want him to. Or just a general Britney Spears biopic.
- [161:34]
Byron Pain
Oh, this is a harder decision than you might think.
- [161:36]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want people to think about it. Also a list of actresses who would play Britney. I want to see what you think of this list. We'll get to that in the final segment. It we'll set up the Astros for tonight. We'll find out what the guys have going on on in the loop as well. Stay there. Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right, the question I had for Seth and for you, the audience, which. Which biopic would you be more likely to go see? The trailer is out for a movie called I Play Rock. Rocky is the title and the font is the same as the old Rocky font. Yeah, Rocky. You know, the Rocky one, Rocky two, et cetera. I'm aware of the movie, the Rocky Balboa franchise. Yes, yes. This is a bio.
- [162:21]
Byron Pain
I thought it was the Rocky that didn't have the sequel.
- [162:23]
Sean Pendergast
The one. The one with Bullwinkle Yeah, Little squirrel.
- [162:27]
Byron Pain
So.
- [162:28]
Sean Pendergast
So this is a movie. It's a biopic about Sylvester Stallone, not his life, I don't think. I think it's about the chunk of his life when he was an aspiring actor, an aspiring writer.
- [162:43]
Byron Pain
Everybody's telling him, like, dude, you don't talk right, you don't look right. Like, who are you kidding, you big muscle bound idiot.
- [162:49]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, some female. I'm just going totally off the trailer says, why don't you write a movie where you are the main character. You don't have to worry about it. And, and this is the true story behind the first Rocky movie. Movie is that Sylvester Stallone wrote it in just a few hours, pitched it to some Hollywood people who love the script. And in front of him in the pitch meeting, they start fantasizing about who they can get to play Rocky.
- [163:16]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [163:17]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, maybe we get Charlie Bronson. They were calling Charles Bronson Charlie Bronson or Chuck Bronson.
- [163:21]
Byron Pain
That's how you show you're an insider.
- [163:23]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, they call him like Chuck Bronson, I think, or something. Yeah, they named Clint Eastwood, they said. And, and the guy, Anthony Ippolito is the name of the actor who plays Rocky and plays him. Well, at least in the trailer, he is spot on. Physical stature, body movement, face, voice.
- [163:45]
Byron Pain
Yeah, he does actual body. Like when they show him standing with his like, like in one of those iconic posters where he like is. He's wearing the, the wife beater facing away from the camera. It looks exactly like Rocky.
- [163:57]
Sean Pendergast
Exactly like.
- [163:57]
Byron Pain
So you could tell he did all the way work to like get his body like.
- [164:01]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, it's not CGI.
- [164:02]
Byron Pain
Yeah. And he looks like Rocky 1 body. He doesn't get all like Rocky 3 peptide Bobby.
- [164:08]
Sean Pendergast
Right? Yeah. He's still kind of smooth. Yeah, so. So, but it's, it's a biopic of that period in Sylvester Stallone's life where he's insisting that he play Rocky Balboa, which apparently, I don't think they'd make a movie out of it if it weren't this massive uphill climb to convince people.
- [164:25]
Byron Pain
Right.
- [164:26]
Sean Pendergast
He could do it.
- [164:26]
Byron Pain
Yeah, I think that's, that's intriguing. I've always been curious, like, finding out that Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky is one of those things what you think is a urban legend or something. The guy can write his thing a bit.
- [164:38]
Sean Pendergast
Guy spell.
- [164:39]
Byron Pain
Yeah, well, you know what? In that era too, I mean, the other guy. Think about the two guys who everybody was telling them, dude, you just don't have what it takes to be a Leading man in Hollywood, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
- [164:51]
Sean Pendergast
How much money have they.
- [164:52]
Byron Pain
They went on to do quite well for them. So I mean it's especially. Oh, really quick aside, I was down doing my workout in the gym yesterday. Yeah. In the building. And Commando was on.
- [165:02]
Sean Pendergast
Oh yeah.
- [165:03]
Byron Pain
What a horrible movie. The funniest thing, it's Commando. He's shooting all these people. I don't remember what a B movie it was. No blood. He's shooting people at point blank with a machine gun and they're going down with no blood. One of the guys, he gets shot in the chest. His shirt comes up, up and it's an unblemished torso.
- [165:23]
Sean Pendergast
Like, okay, what's worse? And I'm going to make you make your pick here in a second.
- [165:29]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [165:29]
Sean Pendergast
What's worse? The movies from back then where you guy get shot and there's no blood. Or movies like the Godfather where a guy gets shot and it looks like Campbell's tomato soup.
- [165:37]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [165:38]
Sean Pendergast
Coming out of their torso.
- [165:40]
Byron Pain
Once I realized, okay, there's going to be no blood, you kind of suspend disbelief and you just go with it. Yeah. I would say, yeah, just do that. But it felt like I was watching a high school play. Play. More so than about those old movies, those action, those early action movies before they started being big budget is the villains were awful. They were like, they saved the money on the villains. There was no, like, there was no good acting. They were like these. There's like flabby skinny dude, like skinny fat dudes and everything. It was just awful movie.
- [166:10]
Sean Pendergast
So you've got.
- [166:10]
Byron Pain
Loved it.
- [166:11]
Sean Pendergast
You've got.
- [166:13]
Byron Pain
I did an hour and a half on the elliptical watching Commando workout I've ever had.
- [166:18]
Sean Pendergast
So. Okay, so in, in choice number one, Sylvester Stallone pitching Rocky biopic or apparently there is a biopic coming out where they've yet to pick the lead actress.
- [166:32]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [166:33]
Sean Pendergast
But a biopic of Britney Spears is coming out. Seem to be. This is more of a like a true bio. Like you know, from childhood to current.
- [166:41]
Byron Pain
I don't listen, I'm very intrigued by the Britney Spears biopic. I don't know if it's now. I don't. So this one thing I like about the Sylvester Stallone one is that it's a small sliver of his life. Yes. I usually leave a movie about a biopic that's about somebody's entire life coming out feeling like, man, they just glossed over. But I, I feel like I just watched the CliffsNotes version of Somebody's life. Yeah. And especially now because we're spoiled by all these incredible series on cable, on HBO and everything to where you. Every time I leave a movie like that, I'm like, I really would have preferred. This is eight episodes.
- [167:16]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [167:16]
Byron Pain
You know, like where you could really dive into like if you did one on Sylvester Stallone, this one we're talking about now would be like one episode of it and it would probably be really, really good. So I would say I have no idea what the Britney Spears one is. I also know that if I'm gonna go watch it in a theater, it would feel way too creepy to be the dude that's in the Britney Spears one.
- [167:37]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, if you're watching it by yourself.
- [167:39]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Like the other people that are going to a Britney Spears one, I feel like I might stick.
- [167:44]
Sean Pendergast
How often do you go to the movies by yourself?
- [167:46]
Byron Pain
Pretty frequently. Do you just. Cuz we have the movie theater across the street. Right time in the afternoon? Yeah, yeah. It's not that uncommon.
- [167:53]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah. I'll bring Amy along just so I don't feel creepy as I go there. But I totally go watch the Britney Spears movie.
- [168:00]
Byron Pain
The concern. The thing is I bet they. I wonder how much is it a sanctioned biography or.
- [168:06]
Sean Pendergast
That's a good question. Or is she collect? She doesn't look like she's in fit to collaborate on much.
- [168:09]
Byron Pain
Right. She's got a lot of issues. Like she's. She needs the. What's the name of the person that watches over.
- [168:15]
Sean Pendergast
I feel conservative.
- [168:16]
Byron Pain
A conservatorship.
- [168:17]
Sean Pendergast
Conservatorship.
- [168:19]
Byron Pain
I feel like the standing theory on Brittany is okay. She probably needs a conservatorship. It shouldn't be her father. It should be somebody a little bit more detached. Yeah.
- [168:29]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. So the, the odds board is up on who would play Britney Spears.
- [168:32]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [168:33]
Sean Pendergast
Sabrina Carpenter is the favorite in the clubhouse. Millie Bobby Brown.
- [168:38]
Byron Pain
The one from the. The old Upside down there.
- [168:41]
Sean Pendergast
Yes. Oh yeah.
- [168:41]
Byron Pain
Stranger Things.
- [168:42]
Sean Pendergast
From. Yeah, from. From Stranger Things. Okay, now the Ariana Grande, actual musical performer.
- [168:49]
Byron Pain
Oh, awesome musical performance. She's gonna have to bulk up a little.
- [168:52]
Sean Pendergast
She will have to bulk up.
- [168:53]
Byron Pain
She's gotten concerningly thin.
- [168:55]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. And not that Britney's heavy or anything like that, but you're right. Ariana Grande is very thin. Natalie Portman playing Britney Spears.
- [169:03]
Byron Pain
Feels like you have to get CGI involved.
- [169:06]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. She's.
- [169:06]
Byron Pain
She's like our age, isn't she?
- [169:07]
Sean Pendergast
She's in her. She definitely.
- [169:09]
Byron Pain
She looks incredible, etc. Etc. But like yeah, I don't, I don't want this to be like the Irishman, where they did CGI of Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro and everything and had them play themselves as young people. And it was impossible to. It was impossible for me at least, to not be disgusted by how bad the CGI was.
- [169:26]
Sean Pendergast
See, Selena Gomez, obviously, we need to dye her hair.
- [169:31]
Byron Pain
Yeah. Yeah. I don't have a strong feeling about any single one of these. Sophie.
- [169:36]
Sean Pendergast
Sophie Turner was the one who played Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones.
- [169:39]
Byron Pain
Okay. I feel like. I feel like a few of those women are. Well, Selena Gomez is up in her 30s. Pretty well into her 30s, too.
- [169:47]
Sean Pendergast
Been around a while.
- [169:47]
Byron Pain
If they're playing I don't want to. I would guess they might do one of those things where they have one actor play the younger version of Brittany and then have another one.
- [169:55]
Sean Pendergast
Flashbacks. Or they give. They go sequentially. Then maybe. Maybe Selena Gomez doesn't show up until Britney's 25 years old or something like that.
- [170:03]
Byron Pain
I have barely a notion about any of those women. I like Selena Gomez. I do, actually. I don't like Selena Gomez and only murders in the Building. I've kind of. I'm careful. I would never ask this online because I'd get death threats, but I just don't. I don't get the appeal of Selena Gomez.
- [170:19]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [170:20]
Byron Pain
Was she. Was she in a. Like a teen show growing up or something?
- [170:24]
Sean Pendergast
Was she. I know Brittany was a Mouseketeer.
- [170:27]
Byron Pain
Gen Z by what's. What was Selena Gomez's first big deal? Was she like a Disney kid or something?
- [170:32]
Sean Pendergast
Yes, she was on the Wizards of Waverly Place.
- [170:34]
Byron Pain
Okay.
- [170:34]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, that's right.
- [170:35]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [170:36]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. But she wasn't a Mouseketeer. Was she a Mouseketeer also? I know Britney. Was that.
- [170:40]
Byron Pain
I don't know.
- [170:41]
Sean Pendergast
Okay. Justin Timberlake, also a Mouseketeer.
- [170:44]
Byron Pain
Is that. But that's where they first met.
- [170:45]
Sean Pendergast
I think so.
- [170:46]
Byron Pain
Justin Tim.
- [170:47]
Sean Pendergast
I think so. Yeah. Who plays Justin Timberlake in this whole thing? J.J. watt. Okay, so the question. I think you're. I think I'm with you on this one. If I had to pick one to watch.
- [171:00]
Byron Pain
No, I like this. The Sylvester Stallone one intrigues me a lot more. I've also seen the trailer for that one, and it looks pretty good.
- [171:06]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think just in general, like, I feel like there's, like, the biopics. I'm super interested in, like, the details of that story of him pitching that to Hollywood and what that looked like. I feel like I watch Britney Spears biopic every time I open up her instagram yeah.
- [171:20]
Byron Pain
And we've already seen. Yeah. There's been so much written about her and everything that it feels like.
- [171:24]
Sean Pendergast
Like it's too cases and everything else.
- [171:26]
Byron Pain
And Sylvester slows Federline. He's had an interesting kind of resurgence in his career very late in life.
- [171:32]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, have you watched Tulsa King?
- [171:33]
Byron Pain
Yeah, I like it.
- [171:34]
Sean Pendergast
It's very good.
- [171:35]
Byron Pain
Is there a new season?
- [171:37]
Sean Pendergast
Yes.
- [171:37]
Byron Pain
One of my biggest complaints about modern society is that there are no seasons. And you just got to kind of wait anywhere from one to three years for the next season of A.
- [171:46]
Sean Pendergast
Do you know how many seasons you've watched so far?
- [171:48]
Byron Pain
I think I watched the first two.
- [171:49]
Sean Pendergast
There's a third one.
- [171:50]
Byron Pain
Okay.
- [171:51]
Sean Pendergast
There's a third season which I have not watched yet.
- [171:53]
Host/Announcer
Yet.
- [171:53]
Byron Pain
I watched when he started getting involved in the weed business. That was season two, right?
- [171:57]
Sean Pendergast
Yep, that was season two.
- [171:58]
Byron Pain
Selling nitrous oxide and stuff.
- [172:00]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, that's good stuff. That was good stuff. All right, so there it is. I play Rocky. Sylvester Stallone.
- [172:06]
Byron Pain
It was. I remember watching Tulsa King and thinking like, yeah, I gotta get on these peptides myself. Or not. Yeah, yeah. Because he's. He's jacked again. He's got. He's got that jacked older dude where he's like twig legs but a huge upper body.
- [172:17]
Sean Pendergast
He's almost 80. 80. He's almost 80. Stallone. Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
- [172:22]
Byron Pain
Kizzy. Did I use that right?
- [172:25]
Sean Pendergast
He's almost 80. No. Kizzy.
- [172:27]
Byron Pain
Did I say. Can I say something's alive by saying it's Kizzy? I've never heard it using that term.
- [172:32]
Host/Announcer
No.
- [172:32]
Byron Pain
Breaking boundaries here is what I'm doing. I'm forging into new territory.
- [172:36]
Sean Pendergast
Just workshop and stuff. Byron.
- [172:37]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [172:37]
Sean Pendergast
You don't have to embarrass him.
- [172:38]
Byron Pain
Like, I could say you're capping.
- [172:40]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
- [172:41]
Byron Pain
But I can't say Kizzy.
- [172:43]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. Just did. Yeah.
- [172:46]
Byron Pain
Reginald doesn't even know what's going on. Reginald doesn't even know the lingo that Sean and I are slinging around in here.
- [172:51]
Sean Pendergast
Hey, by the way, this stupid old man. About this. About this time tomorrow. About this time tomorrow. Big announcement coming up for the station. So we want to make sure people circle the toss here.
- [173:04]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [173:05]
Sean Pendergast
24 hours, 10:00am 10:00am about this.
- [173:07]
Byron Pain
The kids saying hence these days.
- [173:10]
Sean Pendergast
Yes. No, Kizzy. Hence. Yeah, yeah.
- [173:15]
Byron Pain
They say hencey.
- [173:15]
Sean Pendergast
Hence with a Z. Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow, big announcement. Huge announcement. Excited for that right here. Yep. The kids have become big on Erstwhile as well.
- [173:25]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [173:25]
Sean Pendergast
Oh, really? No, of course not. They're big. They're big on aura. I know that. I know they're big on aura.
- [173:30]
Byron Pain
Sean has lost all capacity for sarcasm. Is he? Yeah.
- [173:34]
Sean Pendergast
I don't know. You know, what's old is new. That's right.
- [173:37]
Byron Pain
It's like the Odyssey brought back aura is kind of. Yeah, yeah. Acting like they invented aura.
- [173:42]
Sean Pendergast
Right, right, right. Erstwhile. You watch. Hey, circle this date when erstwhile becomes a thing. When does far out come back? Never. We're done with that one Brady Bunch territory. Right. Along with bread. When bell bottoms.
- [173:57]
Byron Pain
Hey, Bell bottoms may well come back.
- [173:59]
Sean Pendergast
They may.
- [173:59]
Byron Pain
Well, yeah, they're kind of right now. Bell bottoms, but wide leg.
- [174:05]
Sean Pendergast
That's true. That's true. They're far out. That's what Scatter was wearing when he.
- [174:09]
Byron Pain
When he did his backflip. Yeah, yeah.
- [174:12]
Sean Pendergast
How would you guys feel if Cam Scatterbo and Jackson Dark were the two faces of the football organization that you had a rooting interest? I feel like I have CT from watching. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, good. No, that. Honestly. And we were talking about this. It sucks for I imagine Giants fans because their reckless abandon is what makes them good at football. Football, Right. Scattered. But Jackson Dart also with his legs. Yes. But also in their heads. Yeah, that is. That is a. That is a good time. Not a long time proposition. That's a good way to put it. That's a good way to put it. So, you guys.
- [174:44]
Byron Pain
I would feel nervous is the answer.
- [174:46]
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, Always. Always nervous. The. I would feel helpless.
- [174:49]
Host/Announcer
Yeah.
- [174:50]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [174:51]
Sean Pendergast
Helpless. So. So what's the question of the day, fellas?
- [174:56]
Byron Pain
The question of the day we saw
- [174:57]
Sean Pendergast
Ryan Clark got fired while talking. Yeah. Pretty much during a break.
- [175:02]
Byron Pain
Right in the middle of a segment is a lot of people have pointed out, by the way. And I'm glad they did. Is like every. We're all like, oh, my gosh. It's so weird. He got fired right when he was in the middle of a segment. And real people are like. Yeah. You mean the way everybody else gets fired at their jobs? Like while they're working at their job, they get called into an office. Office. And told they're done.
- [175:24]
Sean Pendergast
Is it in the middle of your workday? Because usually it's like in my mind, it's like, hey, come in before you come in early at 7am or like, hey, meet me after your day. Yep. Which I don't meet. Don't catch me in the middle of filing reports. But they were obviously. He works in a job. I know you guys know this. Yeah. But he works in a job where the news is about to break, and he's going to find out on social media. I would say to the people who are trying to equate it to a regular job, the equivalent would. Would probably be, I'm gonna go to the only regular job I've had before this, which is in sales, would be your manager coming in as you're giving a presentation.
- [175:58]
Byron Pain
Yeah.
- [175:58]
Sean Pendergast
To a client, saying, hey, yeah, can you come out in the hallway for a second? Like, we're letting you go? And then you got people just sitting in a conference room. Didn't even get to use your spreadsheet. Yeah, I had 10 slides left. Did y' all see Mina kind of times his face when she. When they come back, like she looked a little rat?
- [176:18]
Host/Announcer
No.
- [176:18]
Byron Pain
No.
- [176:19]
Sean Pendergast
Okay. I was. I. Because I saw the news last night and I saw that he. Ryan Clark, had gotten fired during a break in the show and that he didn't. That he didn't. He was.
- [176:29]
Byron Pain
He wasn't there.
- [176:29]
Sean Pendergast
He wasn't there anymore. Okay, so was it. It sounds like you saw at least a clip of it, Reggie. So it was as awkward as I feel like it was. I mean, that's. They're professionals. And it's one of those things where when, you know, you see it, I'm. I don't know if I would have seen because obviously I didn't have the benefit of watching it before I knew. And so if I had been watching it, maybe I don't notice it. But when you are looking at it from the context of. Okay, so this is the next segment after Ryan Clark gets, like, hooked in the middle of a show and that, like, disheveled nature falls upon the entirety of the show. I could see it.
- [177:01]
Byron Pain
Yeah, right.
- [177:02]
Sean Pendergast
I could see it amongst. Amongst his co workers or I guess former co workers in that moment. So the question of the day then becomes. And it doesn't have to be like a firing or anything. I have one more thing that annoyed me about the Ryan Clark thing, but get to the question. Question of the day. What's the weirdest thing you've seen happen at work? Based on Mina Kimes, you know, and everything else.
- [177:19]
Byron Pain
This didn't seem so weird at the time because I was. I played in an era when there were a lot more fist fights in the locker room, at least on our team. Like, early on, Tom Coughlin kind of was always. There's so much pressure on everybody all the time that there were a lot of fights at practice. There were fights in the locker room. But the weirdest fight that I saw was when Todd Fordham, who was a big old offensive lineman out of Florida State from, from Georgia, big old country boy. And he and Damon Jones, the tight end, not the later Damon Jones, but also a big dude himself, like, squared off and they're both in their towels. They were starting, like, circling each other and they throw like a jab. They both knew how to fight a little box a little bit, you know, and it was, yeah, I was like, I think everybody watching was like, please, please don't let this turn into like any kind of a wrestling match or anything. And let's keep these towels on. Yeah, it was already. It felt like an obese Olympic Games from the ancient world. Yeah.
- [178:16]
Sean Pendergast
I kind of believe, though, if you're willing to fight while fully disrobed, you really mean it, right? So, like, I think that if you are.
- [178:23]
Byron Pain
For years, Gone south has been a
- [178:25]
Sean Pendergast
podcast about crime in the American South.
- [178:28]
Byron Pain
But for our new season, we're widening the lens.
- [178:31]
Sean Pendergast
Through deeply reported narrative driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the south and in a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to gone South Season 5 An Odyssey podcast, available now on
- [178:48]
Byron Pain
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.
- [178:53]
Host/Announcer
This episode sponsored by She's Birdie. You lock the hotel room door, then check it again. And maybe one more time. Because even the nicest room can feel unfamiliar at night. That's why She's Birdie created Birdie Box. With She's Birdie, you can bring peace of mind with you. Birdie Box is a portable travel door alarm for hotels, dorms, Airbnbs, and anywhere you stay away from home. Just attach it to the door frame, switch it on, and if someone opens the door, Birdie Box blasts a loud siren and flashing alarm to alert you and everyone nearby. Because the best part of travel isn't worrying, it's sleeping soundly. Birdie Box from She's locking in peace of mind wherever you stay. For safer, more confident travel, visit she'sbirdie.com that's S-H-E-S-B I R--I E dot com.
- [179:46]
Sean Pendergast
You've built a great podcast. That content's solid. The audience is growing, but the money
- [179:52]
Byron Pain
still not where it should be.
- [179:53]
Sean Pendergast
That's where the Odyssey Creator Lab comes in. We host your podcast for free. Free. So you can keep doing your thing while our experienced sales team does their thing finding advertisers and bringing in revenue. No fees, no stress, just real monetization. Apply now at creators.odyssey.com and let us show you the money.