Payne and Pendergast Full Show July 27,2026

Summary

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Payne & Pendergast – July 27, 2026: Full Show Summary

Overview & Main Theme

This episode of Payne & Pendergast (Seth Payne out, Brandon Scott filling in with Sean Pendergast) delves into a weekend packed with Houston sports news. The hosts cover Astros' highs and lows, LeBron’s surprise move to Philadelphia, Texans training camp hype, the evolving media landscape in Houston sports, and odd moments (including mugshots and puppies at press conferences). As always, there’s a mix of sharp analysis, unfiltered fandom, and plenty of tongue-in-cheek banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Astros’ Rollercoaster Weekend (00:47–14:46; 31:58–36:29; 159:24–164:55)

• Metaphor for Astros’ Collapse ([02:08]): The guys riff on a local news story about the "epidemic" of people driving cars into buildings, drawing the parallel to the Astros "driving their car right into the building" with a faceplant 12–3 loss to the White Sox on Sunday.

• Pitching Struggles & False Hope ([04:08]): Sean and Brandon are skeptical about relying on injured pitchers coming back as the team’s "real deadline acquisitions." Notably:

  • Sean: “None of these Tommy John guys... have worked out over the last two or three years. None of them have worked out.” [04:22]
  • Brandon: “I am done with that now... the idea that you can actually rely on it... is absurd.” [04:43]
  • Renell Blanco’s bad outing makes matters worse; bullpen also falters [06:26].

• Weekend Silver Linings ([07:16]): Despite the Sunday meltdown, the Astros took 2 out of 3 from the White Sox, including a big comeback and a return to form for Hunter Brown.

  • Brandon: “By the time Renell Blanco took the mound, I felt like the Astros were working with house money.” [08:02]

• Jeremy Peña’s Tear & Trade Value ([09:52]): Peña hit two home runs on Sunday and has been boosting his (theoretical) trade value.

• Astros’ Place in Playoff Race: They're two games out of a playoff spot despite being under .500. The AL remains wide open [32:50–33:29; 162:16]:

  • Sean: “…I’m just a sports fan who happens to like it when my teams make the postseason.”
  • But skepticism abounds about whether the team should buy, sell, or simply focus on the future.

2. LeBron to the Sixers: Fallout & Houston’s Indirect Impact (14:46–30:45; 43:12–54:38; 124:39–128:34)

• Friday Surprise & Reaction:

  • Sean: “I was a little surprised when all the Miami stuff started bubbling... and then he announced on Friday he’s going to the 76ers.” [14:57]
  • Brandon: “That series, in my opinion, convinced him to keep playing.”

• Houston’s Role ([46:12]): The Rockets’ inability to knock out LeBron in the playoffs & Kevin Durant’s injury directly influenced LeBron’s decision to keep playing and join the Sixers.

  • Rich Paul (LeBron’s agent, audio) [45:35]: “That series... convinced him to keep playing... LeBron won a playoff series without a single average starter in the lineup.”

• Roster Fit & Outlook:

  • LeBron joins a stacked Sixers team where he’s “third or fourth best player” but fits as an elite facilitator [16:20–18:17].
  • Skepticism about the whole "ball-sharing" worry.
  • Brandon: “This is not new to LeBron. James has done it in the Olympics... probably best suited out of all stars to actually do this sort of thing.” [17:25]

• Jaylen Brown Factor and Drama:

  • Speculation on the Sixers trading for Jaylen Brown—a big tipping point for LeBron.
  • Drama over Jaylen Brown’s past shade at Bronny James but LeBron shrugs it off ([57:21]): “Our relationship has been, you know, pretty respectful... besides what he said about Bronny at Summer League.”

• Rockets’ Disappointment: Frustration that Houston’s “young core” wasn’t ready to make a playoff push or attract LeBron, and how the team’s trajectory compares to other rising Western squads.

3. Texans Talk: Camp, Secondary, & Media Moves (19:39–30:30; 55:57–60:22; 77:43–87:32)

• Texans Camp Hype ([19:39]): The show counts down “10 Questions” ahead of training camp; today’s is “Aside from injury, is there any way the secondary is not the best in the NFL?” Both hosts agree: barring health, Houston probably has the league’s most talented DB group.

  • Sean: “It was the best in the league last year... and one of the five, four and a half... spots was street guys, sixth-round picks, journeymen and morons.” [24:36]

  • Brandon heaps praise on Nick Caserio for identifying Jalen Bullock as a “gem.”

• Best Position Group in Texans’ History?

  • Contenders: This secondary vs. the 2011–12 O-line
  • Brandon: “I think I’m going with the secondary... the potential at least to be the best position group that the Texans have ever seen.” [30:44]

• Media & Signal Nostalgia ([20:03; 146:32]):

  • Big move coming Aug 13: 610 am simulcasts on FM 95.7 The Fan. Some lament the loss of true “sports radio nostalgia” sound.

4. NFL Automotive Madness: Mugshots & Deflections (36:29–43:12; 104:22–114:44)

• Tony Romo OWI Arrest ([36:44]):

  • Romo’s mugshot is an instant meme—"failing sobriety test captured by his mugshot alone."
  • Intense anticipation for TMZ and the inevitable body-cam footage: “This is the police body-cam I am most looking forward to TMZ getting out there.” [37:04]

• Kyle Shanahan Car Crash: News of his serious accident was suppressed for ~11 days—suggesting a "deal" with the media, raising transparency concerns.

• Mike Vrabel Puppy Press Conference ([95:56; 98:15]):

  • Vrabel brings a “Potriots” rescue puppy to his Patriots presser, inspiring jokes about “infidelity washing” and whether this is more cringey than athletes using their kids as a shield in tough pressers.

5. Around the League: Training Camp & Coaching Rumors (77:43–90:17)

• Christian Gonzalez’ (Patriots) Potential Mega Extension Contextualizes Texans’ Salary Cap Future ([79:04]):

  • Houston’s secondary is so loaded that hard contract decisions loom. Will they keep both young stars? Could Stingley or Lassiter eventually be the odd man out?

• DeAndre Hopkins as Coach? ([87:32]):

  • Spotted at Patriots camp “looking at coaching.” The guys are shocked—DHop “didn’t even like to practice.”
  • Brandon: “It’d be funny if the moment his playing days are over, [he’s] now committed to practices and film work.” [88:59]

6. NBA/NFL "Whiner" Mount Rushmore (69:28–73:20; 70:45–73:41)

• Dillon Brooks’ List of NBA Whiners ([69:31]): Luka, Curry, LeBron, Jaren Jackson, Giannis.
• Rockets’ Whiners ([70:46]):
  • Shingoon, Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker, Chris Paul—all get “acknowledged” as perpetual complainers.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [04:43] Brandon Scott: “I am up to here... with the idea... year in and year out... that the Astros reinforcements are going to be their real deadline acquisitions... I am done with that now.”

• [17:25] Brandon Scott on LeBron’s fit with the Sixers:

  • “This is not new to LeBron. James has done it in the Olympics... probably best suited out of all Stars to actually do this.”

• [24:36] Sean Pendergast on last year’s secondary:

  • “One of the five positions was street guys, sixth-round picks, journeymen and morons.”

• [45:35] Rich Paul (via The Ringer Podcast) on LeBron’s playoff decision:

  • “That series, in my opinion, convinced him to keep playing... LeBron won a playoff series without a single average starter in the lineup.”

• [70:45] Sean & Brandon riffing on Rockets’ biggest whiners:

  • Sean: “There was never a call made on Eric Gordon that he agreed with. Ever.”
  • Brandon: “He’s even got a meme of his face—he’s number one because he’s never committed a foul.”

• [98:02] Sean Pendergast (on Vrabel’s puppy):

  • “I do feel like this is part of the infidelity-washing that’s going on with Mike Vrabel right now.”

• [104:22] Brandon Scott: “Vrabel bringing a puppy dog to a press conference is worse than Joel Embiid bringing his kid. Much worse...because it’s more deliberate.”

• [152:10] Sean Pendergast: “He’s the second most meaningful player of that stretch behind Jose Altuve... Justin Verlander’s number two.”

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:47: Astros recap begins; linking local news story to team’s meltdown
• 04:43: Astros pitching, “Tommy John returner” skepticism
• 14:46: LeBron to 76ers; Miami rumors; why Philly?
• 19:39 & 55:57: Texans training camp countdown—secondary is NFL's best?
• 31:58: Astros take two of three overview & Hunter Brown praise
• 36:29, 104:22: Tony Romo mugshot; Vrabel’s puppy press conference debate
• 43:12/45:35: Rich Paul credits Rockets series in LeBron’s decision
• 69:28: Dillon Brooks names NBA’s biggest “whiners”; Rockets’ equivalents
• 77:43: Texans’ salary cap/contract dominoes for secondary
• 87:32: DeAndre Hopkins “coaching rumor” at Patriots camp
• 159:24: Astros’ playoff chances, trade deadline lens
• 146:32/147:42: Astros Hall of Fame nostalgia—Bagwell, Altuve, JJ Watt
• 152:10: Verlander called second most instrumental Astro of the era

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Flow, Language, & Tone

• Authentic, high-energy, and heavy on inside jokes/Houston references.
• Self-aware—hosts joke about “nostalgia junkies,” Houston sports heartbreak, and the peculiarities of local and league-wide narratives.
• Collaborative, alternating between hard analysis and playful banter (e.g., “infidelity-washing” with puppies; debating what truly constitutes a ‘whiner’; mock outrage about the NFL Top 100).

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Useful for Non-Listeners

• Listeners get a comprehensive sense of how the Astros’ stop-start season feels up close, how LeBron’s move ripples through the NBA (and Houston’s psyche), and the ever-present tension in Houston fandom between nostalgia, hope, and pragmatic skepticism.
• Notable quotes and timestamped key moments make it easy to jump into the episode’s richest, funniest, or most informative segments.

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Transcript

[Sean Pendergast]

Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast. We coming to eighth time.

[Brandon Scott]

Let's get to work in, man.

[Sean Pendergast]

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

[Brandon Scott]

Let's do it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hey, what's happening, everybody? Happy Monday to you. Hope you had a great weekend. Hope you're doing well. We appreciate you getting up with us. We are with you until 10am this morning. I am Sean Pendergast. He is Brandon Scott in for a vacationing. Seth C. Pain. Good morning, B. Scott, how you doing, man?

[Brandon Scott]

Good morning, man. Seth's got to get in on this action. I'm glad to be in with you the last couple of days and the next couple of days, but it's been. It's been pretty busy over, I guess, since the time that we got off the air on Friday.

[Sean Pendergast]

Lot of meat on the bone, man.

[Brandon Scott]

A lot has happened. I'm excited to be here.

[Sean Pendergast]

I like. I like weekends like that, where something like LeBron announcing his decision happens on a Friday, and then the Astros go out and they get a couple nice wins against a good team on on Friday and Saturday. And I'm like, man, like, I don't need anything to happen on Sunday. Like, the show's practically written itself for Monday.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, Sunday got to be like a literal day of rest.

[Sean Pendergast]

Kind of. Yeah, kind of.

[Brandon Scott]

It was kind of how it was intended, it feels like. Indeed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Indeed. But it was funny. You and I are watching. We got the news on in here. I like to have the news on before the show. We have KHOU on in here, shout out Cheetah craft telling us what the weather's going to be like right now.

[Brandon Scott]

Indeed.

[Sean Pendergast]

But I like to have the news on in here. Just have a little perspective on the outside world before you and I jump into our fantasy land of sports for the next four hours. Just remember that there's things going on out there. I thought the story that they had up there right before you and I went on the air was actually a pretty good metaphor for the Astros yesterday. You and I are looking at each other, watching the news in here, and they have a story, and I don't know who it was, but they were talking to some young man in there who has made making sure that people don't drive into buildings kind of a movement. Yeah, there's a movement afoot to try to prevent people from driving their vehicles through the front of buildings like a strip mall. Apparently, this is an epidemic going on

[Brandon Scott]

right now because who knew that you needed to be deterred from driving straight into a stationary building like that. I did not know that this was a thing. That this is apparently either what the kids are doing or just the. The new fad. Yeah. But it needs to be addressed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Apparently so. Because this. I know I've been on this earth for the better part of five decades and change. There have been buildings my entire life, strip mall type buildings. There have been vehicles my entire life.

[Brandon Scott]

So how did you resist?

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, how do. How is it now in 2026 that all of a sudden that there's this epidemic of people driving their vehicles into these buildings and that some of the videos. Pretty harrowing, actually. I don't want to make light of it. I just didn't realize it was one of those things where we needed a committee or volunteers to make aware.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

That people are driving their vehicles into buildings. And undoubtedly Yesterday in their 12 to 3 loss to the White Sox, the Astros drove their vehicle to. Straight into the building, right through the front door. Blammo.

[Brandon Scott]

So you're saying that the. That the. At least the Astros should have been paying attention to this segment at the very least, if they.

[Sean Pendergast]

If they're up and they're in LA right now. So I doubt. Well, maybe. Maybe a few of them are up and they're just getting in. You know, they don't play till tonight. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

[Brandon Scott]

But no, they could. They could probably stand for some lessons in this and not. Do not crash into the. It's very simple instructions, but perhaps a little bit underrated.

[Sean Pendergast]

My.

[Brandon Scott]

My question really was, how did you resist all of these.

[Sean Pendergast]

All of these decades around?

[Brandon Scott]

Apparently it's that enticing.

[Sean Pendergast]

I don't know how this practice, evidently. Yeah, evidently. So I would have signed up yesterday. Notwithstanding, we joke about the Astros driving their car into the building. I mean, they undoubtedly did yesterday. They lost 12 to three. They gave up five home runs. And I hate to say this, but the warning that I gave everybody with these Tommy John guys coming back is none of them have worked out over the last two or three years.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

The people going, well, the reinforcements are coming. Dana Brown does this all the time. We got some guys coming. You know, Renell Blanco is going to be back. Apparently Hayden Wisneski is very close to coming back. And there were people touting that this weekend because Eric Eddie is on the IL with a foot injury now.

[Brandon Scott]

Right, right, right.

[Sean Pendergast]

So it's all right, though. Eric Eddie hasn't been good. He's got a foot injury. But it's cool. Cause Hayden Wisneski threw 65 pitches in triple A and now he's coming back. None of these Tommy John guys, none of them other than Justin Verlander who came back and won A Cy Young 4 years ago, none of them have worked out. None of them have worked out.

[Brandon Scott]

I, I am up to here and if you can't see me on YouTube, any twitching, if you're just listening on the audio only platforms, like I am up to, all the way up to the top of my head with the idea and year in and year out that the Astros reinforcements are going to be like their real deadline acquisitions. Like, ah, don't worry about what they do with the trade deadline, don't worry about who they actually acquire because there's somebody that's been injured all year who's right around the corner that's about to pop up. I am done with that now. I would love the idea, like I like the idea of Renell Blanco coming in and being able to contribute or Hayden Wisneski having those reinforcements, but the idea that you can actually rely on it and, and depend on it as a strategy to me is absurd. And we're seeing that kind of play itself out now with Renell Blanco.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, Renault block and he gave up a couple of home runs again. So they, he, you know, he gave up a home run early in the game, a two run homer. Same exact thing he did in his first start back. His first start back I thought overall was pretty decent, even though the numbers, you know, just the end result statistically wasn't very good. He gave up four runs, I think in four and two thirds. His first, his first start.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

But if you dig deeper into it, which Chandler Rome did, is the follow up article. Chandler laid all the numbers out really well. I thought of that start, not the one yesterday, the one a week ago. And he gave up four runs. But it was like, all right, the only two hits he gave up or home runs, you know, it was one of those. If he can just keep the ball in the ballpark, then. Right, right. There's only two hits. He had pretty good command. He got ahead of most of the hitters. I think he faced 19 hitters and he got ahead of 16 of them in the count. So that, those are all things that if you, those are things that if you just keep doing them, good things are going to tend to happen if you don't give them meatballs to hit at some point.

[Brandon Scott]

Positive signs.

[Sean Pendergast]

Positive signs.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

This, this was not that, you know, this was, you know, three Walks. This was another two home runs. Yeah, there were runs given up that didn't involve home runs. There was a lot of hard contact. There were 85 pitches and 55 strikes, you know, so. And he's got an ERA of eight. That's the big thing is he's just giving up a lot of runs.

[Brandon Scott]

So.

[Sean Pendergast]

So that wasn't good yesterday.

[Brandon Scott]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

With. With Renault Blanco, and then the bullpen didn't.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Seeing Brian King out there again was.

[Brandon Scott]

It was the entire operation. It seemed like everybody was either giving up a home run or giving up hits. I feel like pretty much everybody gave up at least a couple of earned runs, you know, so it was just overall bad. And I felt like Renell Blanco and his poor start obviously set the tone for everybody else to be bad after him.

[Sean Pendergast]

Now, that said. That said, that. That's the problem when you come in on a Monday and you come in on a Monday and the Sunday game was the bad one. Because the fact of the matter is, what happened over the weekend, I probably would have signed up for. Yeah, it was on Friday of you and I were doing the last segment of the show.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And I said, would you sign up for winning two out of three? One of them is a comeback from being down five nothing on Friday. One of them is the return of the old Hunter Brown. Those are the two wins. Yes. I'm just. Those are the only things I'm telling you. I'm not telling you Eric Getty got hurt. I'm not telling you who got the hits or anything like that. One was a comeback that set the tone. The second one was Hunter Brown looking like the old Hunter Brown. And then the last loss was going to be just a throwaway game. I would have signed up for that

[Brandon Scott]

at the beginning if you had just given me one of those. Never mind the two, and I'll get greedy, but why not? That's what they did. But if you had just told me either one of the two, hey, they're going to come back from down five runs or. And I think I would prefer this the most, the one that's. That's stuck right there in the middle. The Hunter Brown resurgence. I think that part is the most important for the overall, like, bigger picture of the Astros. I would have signed up for just one of those outcomes, much less two. So by the time we got to Sunday, it is true that by the time Ronnell Blanco took the mound, I felt like the Astros were working with house money because again, they got the old Hunter Brown back. And then the Day before, they showed us that. That sort of classic Astros characteristic of, like Patrick Creighton says on the Nice show, never getting off the mat. You can never really count them out. And they showed you a little bit of that, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

They did. And the. The thing that was frustrating about yesterday, aside from everything just unraveling on that, like, once it gets to be eight to three, like, Amy and I were sitting around yesterday, we got back, we do a little staycation at the Post Oak Hotel this weekend.

[Brandon Scott]

Nice.

[Sean Pendergast]

We got home at, like, noon. And we always settle in, son. That's what we do. We settle in, watch the Astros game, and then we start. We remembered it was a birthday of a friend of ours who's a bartender over at Lizards, where we go like, oh, we got to go see Kobe for his birthday.

[Brandon Scott]

There you go.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's like three in the afternoon, but, like, okay, well, let's see how the Astros game plays out. We'll go after the game, and at that point, it's like, five to three. Well, then the whole thing unravels. Like, all right, well, we can go. We don't have to pay attention to this anymore. Like, these games do reach a point where they unravel. I'm like, all right, I'm just not watching any. I don't need to watch Michael Yola come in and give batting practice to the White Sox. So there is a certain point where it's just beyond frustration, and it's. It's kind of comedic. The thing that was frustrating about yesterday's game was that they got off to a nice start. Like, you felt you could feel the sweep early in the game.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pena hits the home run. Pena's on a tear right now. Yeah. The first of his two home runs.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. One of my other big takeaways from the weekend is, like, this guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, if, you know. And if they were. Again, if they were like, eight or nine games under.500, then the narrative would be Pena is, you know, they're shining up Pena real nice to put out there on ebay right now.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

I mean, Pena could not be doing more to enhance his trade value right now. Yeah, he's not getting traded, but he couldn't be doing more to enhance his trade value. But he hits home. Pena hits a home run to lead off the game, and then the White Sox burn both of their challenges in the first 10 pitches of the game. Yeah, the first challenge was on the first pitch. I said not of the game, but of their.

[Brandon Scott]

Of their. Their.

[Sean Pendergast]

Their side of the inning. Yeah. The very first pitch challenge. Lost both of them, lost 10 pitches in. I'm like, you can start to smell the sweep a little bit.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And home run.

[Brandon Scott]

And it's like, what?

[Sean Pendergast]

Same at Batman.

[Brandon Scott]

What even tone are they trying to set by squandering their challenges that early on? That early on. Like, I could see once you get, you know, a couple of rounds, like, you know, a couple of at bats into it, so maybe you're in the third. Yep. You know, but two in one inning, that's anything short of, like, I don't know, the sixth inning or later seems a little bit aggressive to me.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know what it felt like if. Because that umpire was all over the map, especially early on. I don't know which. I don't know what his name was, but he. He was. Even after the two challenges, I'm like, God, I would have challenged that. But you can't. I would have challenged that pit. Even the Astros, too. I don't ever want to challenge like first or second pitches of an at bat just because it doesn't make sense.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Just in terms of leverage. But there were pitches. I'm like, man, I might challenge that. Even though it's an OH one. It was that bad. Well, this might have been a case for the White Sox of paralysis by analysis. I know the Astros have talked about their process of how they handle the abs and they scout the umps as much as they scout the. The pitchers and the catchers. You know, things like that.

[Brandon Scott]

And offensively, they're one of the better in the league at doing it, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

The Astro, at least from the plate, yes, they're one of the better in the league.

[Sean Pendergast]

So maybe the White Sox. I'm guessing most teams have a process like that, so the White Sox may very well have. Have, you know, had a book on that ump. Where they were challenging and they were just over challenging to begin. I don't care. You know, in the end, they won the game.

[Brandon Scott]

Way too much dip on their chip if they're challenging that early. But like the only the one challenge, like the quirky challenge process that I would go with where I would challenge early in at bat if it was like, you're done. And I'm trying to get like, if I'm the other team and I'm trying to get as many strikes as possible, probably shouldn't pitch to the guy anyway. But like, outside of that, like, what are we doing?

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, my theory on your. Have I told you? I think I told Seth my theory on Yordon. I didn't tell you. Yordon, to my knowledge, has only challenged one pitch all year.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, that's a good.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was early. It was early in the season. I think he still only challenged one. My theory on Yordan is he gets so few pitches to hit that he's cool with just letting them get two strikes. Yeah. On him.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, he's.

[Sean Pendergast]

A pitch, then he'll actually get. No, he's the best hitter in baseball with two strikes.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. No.

[Sean Pendergast]

He may as well have an empty count when he's got two strikes up there. So that's. My theory on Yordon is that he just. He. He lets guys get two strikes just to bait them into getting. Giving him something to hit.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, It.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's never going to get anything to hit without two strikes. It.

[Brandon Scott]

It's really. It really just highlights how great. Not that I. That I need to say it, because we watch Yordon night in and night out, but there's really no way around him other than just giving him the free base. Yeah. But as far as pitching to him. Left, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

Fastball off speed, breaking ball. Two strikes up in the count, down in the count. It's like, this guy is inevitable, and there's no way to escape him unless, again, you put him on base.

[Sean Pendergast]

On base. They're two games back of the division. Two games back of the wild card right now, too, so that's easy. Also, they're just two games out of everything right now. The Astros are. So after you and I went off the air on Friday, LeBron James made his decision, which I was a little surprised when all the Miami stuff started bubbling up last week. I'm like, I think he's going to Miami. I asked my social media people like you, like, does this link that got put up by the Miami Heat, you were a little less.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, you remember what I said? I was like, whatever you thought before, think it the same. Yeah, right. Like, if you thought he was going to the Heat before, you can still think that. But don't use this as a reason to confirm or reaffirm or make you think now sway you into thinking he's going to Miami.

[Sean Pendergast]

Predecessor Garrett, the web guy.

[Brandon Scott]

All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Thought that the Miami thing that. Oh, yeah, he's going to Miami. Yeah. So he had the opposite opinion of you. So I had thought. I thought that that happened, like, on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. The leak or incorrect post was Tuesday.

[Sean Pendergast]

I believe it was Tuesday it going into Wednesday. So we. Seth and I talked about it on Wednesday, and then you were in Thursday and Friday Yep. So I predicted he's going to announce on Thursday because why would you do it on Friday? That's news dump day. Well, he did it on Friday.

[Brandon Scott]

Exactly what he did.

[Sean Pendergast]

And he announced he's going to the Philadelphia 76ers. And it turns that your Houston Rockets were a big reason why LeBron is now back in general, let alone a Philadelphia 76er.

[Brandon Scott]

That series, in my opinion, that series convinced him to keep playing. Yeah. Yeah, I can see why. I can see why. And it really is a perfect puzzle piece for the Sixers, because if Embiid's in and out of the lineup, it's the playoffs.

[Sean Pendergast]

You just need to win this series and worry about the next one.

[Brandon Scott]

If he can come back, LeBron get that done. Yeah, I think if they somehow get swept or lose 4:1 in that series, he's like, what am I doing? Yeah, it could be different. I think that gave us. And I'm so glad because I think it gave us another. Luke Canard and Marcus another. Are your two best players. LeBron won a playoff series without a single average starter in the lineup.

[Sean Pendergast]

That hurts to hear again, by the way, reliving that. We, we. Because LeBron is choosing to come back, we have to relive that series. And when you lay it out that

[Brandon Scott]

way, you're welcome, Philly.

[Sean Pendergast]

When you. When you lay it out that way, well, LeBron's going to a team where he's probably, what, their fourth best player when everybody's healthy right now.

[Brandon Scott]

Third at best. And potentially the fourth best player as

[Sean Pendergast]

good as Jalen Brown. He ain't as good as a healthy Joel Embiid.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, but that's the, That's.

[Sean Pendergast]

That would be the kicker because he

[Brandon Scott]

would be more reliable even if you years old, but talent wise. Yeah, you know, you're right. Yeah, like, he's. He is somewhere likely fourth and third at best, depending on if, like, you got an off night from one of those other guys, he could be the third best with.

[Sean Pendergast]

To me, zero concern. The people that were trying to kind of throw tomatoes at this decision that LeBron made are like, oh, how are you going to divide up the basketball? Everybody's going to want the ball. And I think, first of all, you got to take into account what you just said, Joyle Embiid's going to play 50 games. You know, you can count on that. You can set your watch to it. If, if the tipping point for you was LeBron coming there and worrying about dividing up the basketball, I think it's a bad take yeah. Your take should have been maybe before that. If your take has been that all along. Okay. But I think LeBron, at this stage, I mean, look at the contract he signed is two years, 8 million bucks. Yeah. LeBron knows who he is. LeBron can facilitate. I think it's. I think it's a good choice by him.

[Brandon Scott]

Sean, of all people. We're talking about LeBron sharing the basketball as if he hasn't done this exact thing countless of times already. Was obviously just playing with Luca with the Lakers just a little while ago. Before that, or if we want to go all the way back to the first time he did this decision thing, joins Dwyane Wade, who played a very similar style as him. They figured out a way between him and. And Chris Bosh to figure out how to share the ball. Goes to Cleveland. Does it. Goes back to Cleveland. I should say. Does it with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. They figure out how to share the ball. Like, this is not new to LeBron. James has done it in the Olympics. I understand that's a different kind of game. But has shared the floor, shared the stage, and shared the basketball with a number of other stars before. He's probably best suited out of all Stars to actually do this sort of thing.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I think with LeBron, I mean, I. LeBron, I guess maybe you'd be more worried about sharing the spotlight than sharing the basketball.

[Brandon Scott]

I know that's what they're worried about in Philly. It's like he's going to come in and LeBron takes up all the oxygen in the room, and who really wants that, especially at his big age? But I think they're going to deal with it.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think so, too. I think it's. They're excited up there, man. They are excited. Baseball talk, which we did a few minutes ago On Sports Radio 610 presented by Xfinity. Score. The most reliable Wi Fi 1 price, five years guaranteed. Xfinity. Imagine that. All right, training camp starts Wednesday this week. So we got three more questions to go 10 days leading up to camp. We've been doing questions for the last several days in this segment. So if you want to go back and listen to us talk, Seth and I talk about the offensive line or the wide receiver room, or listen to Brandon and I last week talk about the running back room or who the most important newcomer is, you can go back and listen on the Free Odyssey app. Of course, you'll be listening on nice crystal clear FM radio in just a few weeks. August 13th. The big day coming up. Where we switch over to 95. 7 the fan. So make a note of that. But the question for today, question number three. As we count down. Aside from injury, is there any way the secondary is not the best in the NFL? Sports Radio 610 presents live from the

[Brandon Scott]

West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln

[Sean Pendergast]

of Sugar Land Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right, someone. Someone texted in. Apparently, at least for this person, there's some like bleed through of another station going on on Sports Radio 6 10. I bring this up to tell you. August 13th, baby. August 13th. Yeah, that's when the big changeover happens. 95. 7 the fan.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, those bleeding days can be over

[Sean Pendergast]

static, dropping out, all those things again.

[Brandon Scott]

Unless you're into bleeding. Unless you're into that stuff.

[Sean Pendergast]

We had more people than I expected when we made that announ. And we may have people just coming back from vacation this morning not knowing what we're talking about. If you missed it last week. We announced on Wednesday that we are making the move to fm. This is huge. It's the biggest news in the history of the station and there's been big news in the history of this station. Houston sports Leader Sports Radio 610 is becoming 95. Seven the fan and 610 the fan. So we'll simulcast. And I. The fact that it was greater than one person, like, hey, are you still going to be on 6 10? Like, part of me is like, who cares? Yeah, we got an FM signal now, but there are people. What I learned b Scott and Brandon's in for. For Seth today and tomorrow is that there is a nostalgia to AM radio for some people.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. A small minority who likes the. The nostalgia feeling. The.

[Sean Pendergast]

The.

[Brandon Scott]

The idea that it's, you know, from a. From a previous era or maybe it makes them think about like their dad.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's a Pavlovian thing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

It reminds you of your dad or your granddad or listening to baseball games on the radio way back when. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess there is a charm to it, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

I can't relate, but it's not for me to relate. It's for us to have the options to you AM, FM, the app, YouTube, however it is you want to find us, you'll be able to find us as of August 13th.

[Sean Pendergast]

Real quick one too. On yesterday's game, we were talking about the ump being a little wonky early in the game and the White Sox deciding to challenge him. They actually lost their challenges. Offensively aggressive first 10 pitches. And I talked about teams scouting umpires and in inappropriately. The texter points out. And I heard Todd Callis say this yesterday, that that particular ump doing yesterday's game is actually. Is one of the better umps according to accuracy. He's the second most accurate ump. Fair. He was bad early yesterday. I thought the two lost challenges by the White Sox notwithstanding. I thought he was. The ump was a little all over the place. And sometimes, like hitters, umps have heat zones, you know.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's really accurate overall, but the misses that he has tend to be. He tends to get the calls that are up in the zone. Wrong.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

More than others. That kind of thing.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. And then also, we didn't bring up this point, but I. I brought up the point of, like, if it's. If you're pitching to Yordan Alvarez, like, I could see if you want to be aggressive, like, from a. From a defensive standpoint and challenging. But if you're. If you're at the.

[Sean Pendergast]

Get to do that.

[Brandon Scott]

But if you're at the plate and it's Rene Blanco. No disrespect to Renell Blanco, but of all, like, it wasn't like it was Hunter Brown on the mound who was up there the day before.

[Sean Pendergast]

Eventually, probably.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Like, what exactly. Exactly are they doing?

[Sean Pendergast]

It was wild.

[Brandon Scott]

Kind of strange.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was wild. All right. Countdown to Texans training camp. We've been counting down in this segment for the better part of the last week or so. 10 questions we've been counting down with. We're. We're down to question number three. So two will be tomorrow. One will be Wednesday morning when Seth is back, and Seth and I'll be out at training camp doing the show out there. Aside from injury, is there any way this secondary is not the best in the NFL this year?

[Brandon Scott]

The only way, aside from injury, that this Texan secondary is not the best in the NFL.

[Sean Pendergast]

If this is.

[Brandon Scott]

If there just happens to be another secondary that we don't know about that's just gonna burst onto the scene. Yeah, they got some guys that you hadn't heard about or just didn't know that they were as good as they turned out to be. But as far as, like, going into it, trying to project it, looking at the name brands as a part of the secondary, from corner to corner with Derek Stingley Jr. And Kamari Lasseter, obviously, we know that Kalen Bullock, I think, I think really over the. Over his first two seasons, has really shown himself to be like a gem of a. Of a draft pick for Nick Casario and the Texans and then they add Reed Blankenship.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's the big thing.

[Brandon Scott]

The, the, the fact that Reed Blankenship is now in that spot where there was objectively a weakness in the secondary and now you cannot call that a weakness anymore. At the very least has a seasoned, experienced veteran there. I just don't see any weaknesses in the secondary at all really. And that's not even to mention Jalen Petrie, who's kind of a hybrid defensive back, slash linebacker, slash nickel defender, whatever he is. Like, I just, I don't see how they're not the best in the league if not either for injury or just somebody completely surprising us. And coming out of nowhere.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was the best in the league last year. And their second safety spot was a five headed, rotating, injury plagued, idiocy plagued if you count CJ Gardner Johnson as part of it, which you have to. He was there for the first three games.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Their other safety spot was a mixture of C.J. gardner, Johnson, M.J. stewart, Jalen Reed. Yep. Miles Bryant at times. Who's not even a safety really. Kavon Wallace at the end of the year. Kavon Wallace is starting important games in the middle of a long winning streak for you. They were the best secondary I think clearly in football last year and one of the five, four and a half, I guess we'll call it spots because I'm with you. Jalen Petrie doesn't always count as a member of the secondary for me. He's at times he's as much a linebacker as he is a safety most of the time. But let's count Petrie as part of them just to run up the score a little bit because he's an outstanding player.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

One of the five positions was street guys, six round picks, journeymans and morons. Yeah, yeah. Moron, singular.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

C.J. gardner, Johnson.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. But, but at the, or at least

[Sean Pendergast]

somebody who acted like a moron when he was here.

[Brandon Scott]

But at the very least a ragtag of cast of characters. Right. Like, like you got Moron to start it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

You replace it with MJ Stewart who's notably not a moron.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not at all.

[Brandon Scott]

Not at all like MJ Stewart, but at the same time mostly a backup slash special teams guy who then again was also injured after that, like almost immediately or not too long after that. And then you start going with the rookie and then, then you get into the cast of characters like you mentioned the Kavon Wallace's of the world. Like it was, it was a turnstile, you know. What safety that safety spot looked like for the Texans on defense? It reminded me of like the turnstile at left guard.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Or center on the other side of the ball. It was like all of a sudden, now this safety position looks like the way left guard and center have looked the last few years.

[Sean Pendergast]

And I think it illustrates the drastic difference between position groups. Go the O line and the secondary. Secondary had that going on and they were still the best in football. The O line had that going on and it felt like that was symptomatic of what this. That offensive line was.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, fair enough.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I think, I think the simple answer is no. The question again was, aside from injury, is there any way the secondary isn't the best in the NFL?

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I don't see it.

[Sean Pendergast]

The answer can be no.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I don't see it.

[Sean Pendergast]

I did the. It actually. And to illustrate this, it actually, this secondary spawns even more superlative questions about it. Like these questions is, are they the best position group in the NFL? You know, forget about being the best one on the team. Best one in the. In of the. Of the Texans groups or in the AFC South.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like the, like the Eagles offensive line of defensive rooms.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, because. And that's interesting because if you were to just do. Because we're doing the whole secondary. So like the, the. The comparable part to that would be like the entire defensive line. Like I think if you were to do the high end of the Texans defensive line and just put their edges against the Texans corners, then that would be advantage defensive line. But then once you go. But not by much. Yeah, but. But then once you go the entire group, then I think that's when it's advantage. The, the defensive backs, the sec, the secondary. And then if you compare them around the league, they're probably going to win that one too.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think we were to ask maybe questions that had a, you know, a bigger debate than is there any way this secondary isn't the best in the NFL, barring injury? Because I think the answer to me is clearly no. They're the best in the NFL and they will be if they're healthy. Best position group in the NFL. Is this the best position group in the history of the Texans?

[Brandon Scott]

Ooh, it could be.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think the only one that, the one that pops to mind to me to have a debate. And this would be fun. Like if Wade Smith were in here, this would be a fun debate to have because I'm guessing because he was part of it. Yeah, he would have a fun argument against this secondary. Would Be the offensive line the first two seasons they made the playoffs. The Texans.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

In 2011 and 2012. They have three Pro Bowlers on that offensive line. The same way the secondary had three guys make the Pro Bowl.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Chris Myers, Wade Smith and Dwayne Brown. Brown who? You know, it's between him and Tunsil for best left tackle in the history of the team.

[Brandon Scott]

You know what?

[Sean Pendergast]

Even the other pieces were, you know, Mike Bryzel and Eric Winston were very solid.

[Brandon Scott]

Very solid. You know what, though? I remember those teams just fine, just as well as you do. I think I'm going to go with this secondary.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, I am too.

[Brandon Scott]

You know, like, now that I think

[Sean Pendergast]

it through, I think the debate is those two and then a big drop off. Because even though. So. So you might say, what about the wide receiver room?

[Brandon Scott]

Because you've had DeAndre and Andre at one point.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, you've. You've had DeAndre, you've had Andre Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins and Nico Collins as part of this team. For the most part, the lineage is almost all the way connected.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Except for 2020. Right. It's the only year where you don't have.

[Sean Pendergast]

In that year, you have Brandon Cooks who got you a thousand yards. But.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, but. Yet. But.

[Sean Pendergast]

But. Right. But those three guys, those are clearly the three best receivers in team history. Yes. And the only year you didn't have one of them was 2020. Some would argue you didn't really have Nico in 21 and 22 because he hadn't developed into what he is. But I think that's what keeps the receiver room is that Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins were never that guy at the same time. It was almost a passing of the torch. You know, DeAndre was good as rookie year.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

He wasn't great. He wasn't a Pro Bowler. DeAndre was great his second year. And that was the year that Andre's numbers started to dip a little bit.

[Brandon Scott]

And the awkward part about that discussion is also how good could they have been if they had had requisite or the proper quarterback play?

[Sean Pendergast]

Correct.

[Brandon Scott]

Right. This isn't necessarily crap on. That was shot. But they didn't. They didn't really have that.

[Sean Pendergast]

2013 was Hopkins rookie year. That was bad shop.

[Brandon Scott]

That was the worst shop.

[Sean Pendergast]

2014, it was Fitzpatrick. Well, Fitzpatrick who got benched for Ryan Mallet.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

So they were. They were never actually able to realize their full potential together. I don't think this secondary. I think I'm gonna go with the secondary. The. The 2026 Texan secondary. The potential at least to be the best position group that the Texans have ever seen.

[Sean Pendergast]

I have to pender pole that one. I don't even know who else is in the conversation other than that offensive line.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Yeah. Again, Unless you wanted to. Yeah, unless you wanted to be kind to the. Again, to that wide receiver combination. But I would go with the secondary text in 7.

[Sean Pendergast]

1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 10. All right, headlines. Coming up next, the Astros take two out of three from the White Sox. We'll dig into that. LeBron made his decision. Lots of automotive news from the NFL over the weekend. Lots of bad driving going on out there or drunk driving. We'll get to that as well in headlines with today's headlines. All right, let's get to headlines. Let's start with the Astros. They take two out of three from the White Sox over the weekend. Comeback win on Friday. Down five, nothing. They came back and won that game. Big hit in that one was Cam Smith with a bomb to put the Astros ahead. They go on to win that game 9 to 5. They win 4 to 1 on Saturday. Hunter Brown, outstanding. Seven innings of two hits, shut out ball, no walks.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Seven strikeouts. Look like the old Hunter Brown. That was great to see.

[Brandon Scott]

The efficiency. How about that? Like he was getting pitches. I'm telling you, man, he's getting through each inn in like 10 to 12 pitches. Maybe. Maybe 15 here or there. But it was. It was a very, very good workload.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was great to see. And then yesterday, not so great. 12 to 3, the final score. That one got away from them a little bit. The bullpen came in. Renell Blanco wasn't good. The bullpen came in. They were not good. Nobody was good pitching.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And really hitting. The only one that was good was Jeremy Pena. Yeah. Who hit two home runs yesterday.

[Brandon Scott]

Taylor Tramill had one, but that wasn't going to be enough.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no, no. But it was three. Three, you know, and then it was 12. Three, you know, just. It got away from them like that.

[Brandon Scott]

Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

So. So I would say the good and the bad. I think overall, the good is you're sitting two games. You made some headway in the wild card race. Yes. So you're sitting two games out of the wild card right now. You're right in the hunt, and you're two games out in the division. And Seattle has really started to, you know, kind of take on some water here. Like it's. Nobody's running away and hiding in the division race or in the wild card race right now.

[Brandon Scott]

So I got A little good for, like, specific players and then a good overall for the team. The good for the players are Cam Smith and Hunter Brown. Right. Cam Smith being the guy for you on Friday. Hunter Brown, seeing him return to his normal, usual self. And we. When we talked about the efficiency and how he was getting through innings, those were like the, you know, sort of the sidebars for me overall. Big picture for me, big takeaway for the. For the Astros over the weekend. It's like, man, now this is the second time within the last couple of weeks where they've played one of the top teams in the American League, and they came out with two out of three.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Now, I know we've seen them get swept by a team or two. Like, they'll sweep. They'll get swept. They're kind of a.500 feeling baseball team, but if they can get through the thick of it, I feel pretty good about how they match up against whatever is supposed to be the best of the American League.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's interesting you say that, because they brought that up on the broadcast yesterday. As the game was kind of getting out of hand, they started to look ahead to what the Astros have on their plate, and they're in there in California now to take on the Angels the next few games, who are bad. I think it's like 21 out of the next 24 games, something like that, are against teams that are.500 or worse. And so on the surface, you go, well, that's good. They're playing bad teams. The thing is, they've actually played better. The Astros have against the better teams this year. Yeah, they've done better against the good teams than they have against the bad teams. It's very strange.

[Brandon Scott]

Check this out. The Astros right now, despite being third in their division, and we talked about it, all right? A couple of games out of the. Out of the division, a couple of games out of the wild card, they are 27 and 22 against teams above.500.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

27 and 22. Which is one of the better records against teams above.500 in all of the American League. In fact, nobody else in their division is anywhere near as good as that.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Brandon Scott]

The Rangers also have a winning record against teams above.500, but the Astros, by a mile, have the most wins against teams above.500. They, according to that metric, at the very least, they're kind of a pretty good baseball.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. And if that's. If this is what you're going to start to get out of Hunter Brown, that's really encouraging. You know, They've kind of made this. Calling it a resurgence might be a little bit of a reach because they're still 52 and 55 or whatever they are right now.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, yeah, the Astros.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. So they're calling it a resurgence is maybe doing a disservice to the word resurgence. But. But they've largely been kind of getting back in the race with a sort of ratchet version of Hunter Brown.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Until. Until Saturday.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Ratchet or flat out absent, you know, because he was injured for a stretch of there or for a stretch of that improvement. But wherever you want to trace it back to. To you and Seth resetting the season. My birthday was May 21st.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

And I remember doing a show in here with. With Luke Morrow that day. And it feels like ever since then they've been. Been A and above.500 baseball.

[Sean Pendergast]

Statistically, they have. That's just a fact.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. So, I mean like, you can, you can trace it back to that. And, and, but, but Hunter Brown. None of it is going to matter if Hunter Brown is going to be pedestrian or really, honestly, anything short of. Of excellent.

[Sean Pendergast]

LeBron chooses the Philadelphia 76ers. We will just treat that as a headline right now. We'll dig deeper into that and the role the Rockets played in that at 7 o' clock to today. So be listening for that. We'll do. Acknowledge me at 7:20 today. We got a lot of acknowledgments from over the weekend. Automotive news in the NFL this weekend, two big ones. If you missed it on Friday, I don't know how.

[Brandon Scott]

I don't know how you would have. But just in case, if you missed

[Sean Pendergast]

it, you missed one of the greatest mug shots in the history of mug shots.

[Brandon Scott]

Yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

Tony Romo, arrested over the weekend for. In Wisconsin, they call it owi.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Operating while intoxicated. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

When I first saw the. Oh, I was like, is this a. Is this like bwi? Because we have that here. Like, if you go up to Lake Conroe, BWI is a real big boating while intoxicated. I was like, is this something like that? But that's just what they call it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Apparently they call it OW I up there. So Tony Romo pulled over, failed a battery of sobriety tests.

[Brandon Scott]

Yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think it's safe to say that this is the police body cam. I am most looking forward to TMZ getting out there. How has it not happened yet? How quick? What's the turnaround time? Do you know ever? I've fortunately never been pulled over.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, it depends on the Agency. It depends on the agency. And they can kind of mess around with you for a little while. But I would be public record. Yes, it is public record. I would be shocked if we were to go longer than the longest. I would say it may be a couple of weeks, depending on the agency, but we could get this, especially tmz.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Get this thing in about a week.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I think so. I mean, you're the expert in this. You're the, you're the journalist in the room. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

No. 100%. You can. It is public record now. Now this is in Wisconsin. I haven't done any public records in Wisconsin. Could they kind of jack around with the. A little bit? Sure. But they, they know, just like we know this is a public record. It's going to get out.

[Sean Pendergast]

You got to find the mug shot. The mug shot is out there. You got to find the mug shot. If you haven't seen it yet.

[Brandon Scott]

Dude, you talk about him failing a sobriety drunk. Like, I'm not an advocate for this because I'm, you know, innocent until proven guilty and all of that. The American justice system and all of that.

[Sean Pendergast]

I know what you're gonna say, but

[Brandon Scott]

like, I, I feel like his mug shot is almost a failure of the sobriety test.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

It's like at some point, hair is messed up. I don't want you to get arrested before they actually do the sobriety test. But I feel like your mug shot. How do you look in a mug? Says a lot about whether you're passing this thing.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's almost doing like that like, cocky duck face thing that people were doing for a long time. Like the whole. Yeah. If you're watching on YouTube, you see what I'm doing.

[Brandon Scott]

It's a little smirk.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, little. It's a smirk.

[Brandon Scott]

It's a smirk.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. It's like, what are you doing?

[Brandon Scott]

Like either mean mug or smile wide. But it was a kind of a creepy smirk there.

[Sean Pendergast]

What is the journalist and you make of the other big automotive story in the NFL from the weekend, which is apparently two weeks ago at the time. Eleven days ago when the news came out.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Kyle Shanahan had been involved in a car accident going all the way back to July 14th. Yeah. This news came out over the weekend. So we're talking an 11 day lag between something that is public record. There's 911 calls. There's, you know, there's. There were first responders sent to the scene.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And apparently it was a pretty bad accident. He suffered a number of injuries in this Thing, including a concussion, some broken ribs, a broken nose, like it was a bad crash.

[Brandon Scott]

He's busted up behind this.

[Sean Pendergast]

The reports are that there was not any drugs or alcohol involved in the crash. It is very interesting. Then why. Why did it sit out there for 11 days? And clearly, Florio pointed this out. It does seem like the Niners cut a deal with all the newsbreakers out there to sit tight on this, because one. I mean, Schefter's got zero decorum. Like, Schefter, like, one minute after the Niners put out their statement about Shanahan being in an accident.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

One minute later, Schefter has all the details of what the injuries were like, down to the. Down to the rib of what the injuries were like. Okay. Yeah. Clearly you've been sitting on this.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

For however long.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Well. And that's another 12.

[Sean Pendergast]

One Schefter's tweeting about.

[Brandon Scott]

It's like, come on. What? Why? How could you end like that?

[Sean Pendergast]

Look, it makes it look like he's guilty of something.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, and I can also understand from the media a standpoint of being kind of muzzled a little bit, but this is one where we would have had to have some kind of, like, understanding, a meeting of the minds, if you will. Like, look, I know you guys don't necessarily want this out there, but he's the head freaking coach of the football team. He's Kyle Shanahan. We're gonna have to report this. This is gonna get out. You know, and so now two things. It looks like almost like Shanahan or the 49ers had something to hide, even if he's, like, not guilty of anything. And then it makes the media look weak for keeping secrets for two weeks about something that, honestly, you know, especially if it's. If there's nothing nefarious behind it, it's just a. A news topic that is of nobody's fault or doesn't make anybody look bad, aside from the fact that he's injured.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, there's. I'm guessing there was another human being in the other car, too. He hit another car, Right. Unless it was a stray Waymo that didn't have a passenger in it.

[Brandon Scott]

Nah, there was another person. Sean McVeigh has been out here talking about how both people are. Look like they're going to be okay and all of that. Like, I don't get how it would have. And first off, you know, glad that Kyle looks like Kyle Shanahan, for the most part, is going to be okay, even if he's going to miss some time. But how it is that this could go 11 days or more double digit days without being reported. There's a public record, there's body cam footage, there's. There was I'm sure a commotion for, for an accident like this. It's kind of strange to me.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76 or what role did the Rockets play in LeBron becoming a Philadelphia 76 or we got some interesting follow up questions too, I think to this. What does this mean? Are the Sixers the leader in the clubhouse now in the Eastern Conference? Jalen Brown is LeBron's teammate. Now you remember what Jaylen Brown said about Bronnie at Summer League one year. So we'll hear from LeBron on that as well. We'll do acknowledge me at 7:20 acknowledging big performances from over the weekend. We'll do all of that coming up next. But I would Hear Sports Radio 610 presents Payne and Pendergast I Payne and Pendergast. Brandon Scott in for Seth Payne today and tomorrow. LeBron James made his decision over the weekend. On Friday he will be a Philadelphia 76er. So that was the news that kind of rocked the NBA. We played this audio from Rich Paul last week. But I like looking back at it now because at one point the Sixers were the favorite. There were like six or seven different points along the way where different odds came out on LeBron and where he was going to go. And it was always shifting. Now some, you know, Cleveland was the favorite at three different points. Cleveland was never out of the top two on the odds boards. And I think that's why if you were to listen in on any cities today outside of here that were involved with the LeBron James sweepstakes and as it turns out, the Rockets were somewhat involved. We'll get to that in just a second.

[Brandon Scott]

Not the way we wanted them to be, but involved nonetheless.

[Sean Pendergast]

The Sixers were the favorite at one point like a month ago, but since then like the highest they were was third. Maybe Miami was the most recent favorite even before that link on YouTube leaked of a hypothetical LeBron James introductory press conference. Right.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So Philly ends up winning the winning the services of LeBron James. It turns out Rich Paul was accurate when he was saying last week, nobody knows anything.

[Brandon Scott]

I'll say it again. None of these people know anything. Nobody knows nothing. And I say that respectfully because we haven't made it to where anybody knows anything. But let me take your temperature on something. Sure. But no Let me finish, Let me finish. So I think it's important for people to understand we're not making this about attention and a spectacle. It's not about a decision or anything like that. He has a choice to make. He has a business choice to make. We're not going to sit here and decide or allow someone else to decide when he makes that decision. Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

So that was. That was Rich Paul. And as it turns out, I. I think we even knew during the whole process of him making that decision that nobody knew anything. You could sense the frustration of guys like Brian Windhorst.

[Brandon Scott]

Shams.

[Sean Pendergast]

Shams.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You could sense the frustration anytime they were brought on a show to talk about LeBron James.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

LeBron did a pretty good job of keeping this whole thing under wraps.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Sean. Just like there's nothing else.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

The decision needs to be made.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

This is like toward the end of

[Sean Pendergast]

last week, Windy too, man. Windhorst was like.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And especially for Windhorst, who goes back to high school with LeBron.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Covering him in high school.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I mean, he's.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was spent not playing with him in high school. That would be a sight to be.

[Brandon Scott]

But did go to the same high school. He's just a few years older than LeBron. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. And covered him. Covered. You know, he's covered every game practically that LeBron's played.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

In the. In the state of Ohio. So this was Rich Paul over the weekend, once the decision got made. Sitting down with Max Kellerman is the second voice you're hearing on this. The two of them sitting down on their podcast for the ringer and said the. You know what made a big difference in LeBron's decision to. To even come back at all was the way he played in that six game series win over the Houston Rockets.

[Brandon Scott]

That series, in my opinion, that series convinced him to keep playing. Yeah. Yeah, I can see why. I can see why. And it really is a perfect puzzle piece for the Sixers because if Embiid's in and out of the lineup, it's the playoffs.

[Sean Pendergast]

You just need to win this series and worry about the next one.

[Brandon Scott]

If he can come back, LeBron can get that done. Yeah. I think if they somehow get swept or lose 4:1 in that series, he's like, what am I doing? Yeah, it could be different. I think that gave us. And I'm so glad because I think

[Sean Pendergast]

it gave us another.

[Brandon Scott]

Luke Kennard and Marcus another are your two best players. LeBron won a playoff series without a single average starter in the lineup. So what you're telling me is, is if the Rockets quote, unquote young core is just a little bit better, they could have sent LeBron James packing or at the very least not sent him to Philly.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, how about the fact that Kevin Durant only played one game in that season? Yeah, any combination of that Kevin Durant, I think you can, can connect the dots to say Kevin Durant's ankle injury may have spawned the Philadelphia 76ers era of the LeBron James saga. Yeah, chapter I should say.

[Brandon Scott]

I think it's a combination of the Kevin Durant injury slash. Because here's the thing that was frustrating about that, right. If you're a Rockets fan, even with Kevin Durant's injury, the Rockets, ideally with this young core, these talented guys, Albert Shingoon, a two time all Star, you got guys that are coming up and supposed to be developing here. They should have been good enough. As Max Kellerman is laying out for you there. There was not even an average starter playing alongside LeBron James. And despite that, Marcus Smart and Luke Canard and Rui Hachimura and the DeAndre Aiden Jackson Hayes center combination cooked the Rockets young core. Had they been better or if Kevin Durant has simply been healthy. Oh, but by the way, you would have still needed them to be better. Then things could have turned out a lot differently.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not a Rocket tangent, but a tangent that involves one of the more polarizing former Rockets in this whole thing. Cause Brian Windhorst of ESPN had a long article once the decision was made. He had a long article about. Okay, now here's all the things I'm hearing as to how he arrived at Philly. You know, what the decision process was, evidently, at least according to Windhorst, is that if Darius Garland. We're still with the Cavs. Darius Garland, a Rich Paul client? Yeah, Rich Paul's LeBron's agent for the. There may, there may actually be people wondering who's this Rich Paul guy that you're playing this audio from? He's LeBron's agent.

[Brandon Scott]

Very important agent and friend.

[Sean Pendergast]

Longtime friend, yes. The three of them. Rich Paul, LeBron James, Maverick Carter, perhaps

[Brandon Scott]

his agent because he's his friend here

[Sean Pendergast]

nor there, but he's built a big empire, very successful Clutch sports has a lot of NBA guys, including Darius Garland. So that's one of the things Windhorst had said was if the Cavs just didn't make the Garland for Harden trade, there's a decent chance he might have gone to Cleveland. Yeah, but there's no other Clutch Sports guys on that roster right now.

[Brandon Scott]

But see that's, that's chest, not checkers. Right. Because they, they only made that move in the immediacy because they were trying to make a run right then and there. Like, I don't know if they were necessarily already looking ahead with, or even factoring in how that move could impact what's going to be ahead as opposed to, hey, right now we're the most expensive team that there is. We've got like this, this, this chance, this run. And Darius Garland doesn't play. James Harden does.

[Sean Pendergast]

James Harden does. And it got them out from under the second apron. All that other stuff, like they, like in a vacuum. They won that trade, the James Harden trade. And I know they got swept by the Knicks, et cetera, et cetera. I don't think they make it to the Eastern Conference finals without James Harden on their team. So there's that. But so, so James Harden in a weird way has a role in this whole thing. It's just the NBA offseason. We haven't had it like this in a while. Free agency almost doesn't exist in the NBA anymore because team salary caps are so clogged up. You know, pretty much any team that matters operates way over the cap because you can pay your own guys to go over the cap. So there's. Whereas, you know, a decade, decade and a half ago, it was easier to clear out cap space and go make a run for Kevin Durant or LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony or whatever it may be.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

It just doesn't happen anymore. So for there to be a free agent and keep in mind LeBron signing for two years, 8 million bucks. And do you, do you feel any kind of way about this as a Rocket fan? Like, hey, if you were to do like did the Rockets, it's almost like a double edged sword because if the Rockets, according to that Rich Paul audio, if the Rockets had had molly whop LeBron, then LeBron doesn't even, maybe even come back. Yeah, but I feel like the Rockets have a talented enough roster where if A, they had shown that they are capable of at least winning a playoff series and B, didn't have all this extra going on all the time.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

That this would have been a good spot for him to sign for two years, 8 million bucks.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, it is the, it is the big part of the frustration and disappointment of the season is that it turns out, and this was before we even got to this LeBron piece of the narrative. But just getting bumped out by the Lakers or knocked out of the playoffs by the Lakers, exposed or revealed to you that this quote unquote young core, this talented young core might not be quite as talented as you once thought and certainly not quite as ready to win a playoff series on its own with no Kevin Durant out there like you thought that they would have been. And I don't think we've mentioned this enough, they were going up against a Lakers squad that did not have Luca. LeBron's out there, but Luca's not out there. Austin Reeves is not even himself by the time he gets back and they still could not do anything. So to your question, as a Rockets fan, it was already disappointing that they could not beat a ragtag Lakers squad to begin with. But then on top of that, the implication is that, you know what? That's not, that's not the young core that maybe Kevin Durant thought was right, that he, that he thought he was joining the year before. I'm not going to make that same mistake if I'm LeBron.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, I don't think. And when, when Durant made his decision, and I know it was a trade, but Durant had say in where he was going to go, it was as much a decision by Durant as it was the Rockets trading Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks, et cetera. Um, but if, like, I don't think anybody thought that the spurs were going to get in the HOV lane like they did this year either.

[Brandon Scott]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

Then all of a sudden there's going to be two 60 win teams with young cores, with young MVP candidates that you've got to deal with in the West. So that's what would have made it interesting. If the Rockets had been able to win that Lakers series and then in the second round they'd have gone up against okc. I think the way the brackets would have laid out.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

If they'd gotten into like just even like a seven game brawl with OKC and lost, then I think this would have been a really interesting place for LeBron to. To go for two years, 8 million bucks.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, it's not even just that he didn't come here. It said he didn't even. I don't even think he gave it a look.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Brandon Scott]

Or a thought or a consideration when Rich Paul puts out that list of teams. And maybe if you're a Rockets fan, you don't want LeBron. I know there are a lot of Sixers fans who talk about LeBron taking up all the oxygen in the room and they don't want him Coming over there and taken over their entire franchise. I get it. Maybe you're a Rockets fan who is similar, like, like minded in that way, but you can't deny that it would say a lot about your franchise if the best player of his generation and arguably a top three to five player of all time wanted to come here in his twilight years. That would have been a major. A major pool for the Rockets had they been able to do that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. Text messages on these. Didn't Kevin o' Connor and a few others have a pretty detailed explanation of what LeBron was waiting on? And he went with Philly because he couldn't get the warriors or Cavs to do what he wanted. They. Rich Paul denied that. Brian windhorse said that LeBron's camp denied that they were asking teams to go get guys. I'm not saying that they're telling the

[Brandon Scott]

truth necessarily or that they're not being lied to.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Potentially.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right. But yes. I mean, there, there's all sorts of discussion. Now this. We know he ended up going to the team that traded for Jaylen Brown. This is a great question on the, on the text pages. What if the Rockets had traded for Jaylen Brown? Does LeBron still go to Philadelphia? Maybe not. I don't think it means he would come to Houston or that the Rockets were in the market for LeBron.

[Brandon Scott]

But it's a good point.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's a great point. It's a great point. No, Jaylen Brown going there according to Wind Horse was a definite tipping point.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. It was the domino effect. And then you were mentioning this earlier, like the different era of basketball and salaries. Like, we gotta go back to the original point of the Jaylen Brown trade. There was a lot to be discussed about how unhappy or happy was or discord with him in the franchise. But. But it did come down to an accounting thing. They've been getting rid of their. Like at one point they had six guys making over $20 million a year a couple of years ago. Now all of those guys are gone except for Jason Tatum.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's it.

[Brandon Scott]

So there was.

[Sean Pendergast]

They've got Paul George on there.

[Brandon Scott]

They weren't in another 50. They did add Paul George to the team were part of that trade. But the point is, like, there was an account counting issue there. Yeah. That is collectively barred. That is part of the collecting a bargain agreement that forced them to make some business decisions about their team. And they decide to send Jalen Brown to one of their arch rivals in the Philadelphia 76ers and which subsequently brings in LeBron. James?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. No, it's. It's almost like LeBron James was part of the Jalen Brown trade.

[Brandon Scott]

It is very much like if you

[Sean Pendergast]

hate it, if you're a Celtics fan who hated the Jaylen Brown trade, and most of them did, what the hell is this? He's sixth in the mvp, and we're bringing back Paul George, who hasn't played good basketball in however many years and is not a good postseason player. Jaylen Brown is a Finals mvp. Paul George is someone who named himself playoff p. And everybody laughs at him.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Quite ironically.

[Sean Pendergast]

Ironically. So. So they already hated that trade. But if Jaylen Brown is a big reason LeBron went to Philly, it's almost like LeBron was part of the trade. He may as well have been. I mean, there's hardly any salary cap implications for it. He signed a two year, $8 million deal. Yeah, it's a cheapo deal that he signed. Now, as far as the Jaylen Brown angle goes, it was just about a year, or was last year. Last summer was Bronnie's first summer in the summer league. Right.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, last summer would have been going into a second year, so it would have been two summers.

[Sean Pendergast]

Two summers ago.

[Brandon Scott]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. So.

[Brandon Scott]

Which is wild to think that Bronnie is about to go into his third NBA season.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But that's where we are now.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, he's, you know, he's played, like, 200 minutes, so it doesn't feel like that much, but. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Hey, look, I don't feel like it. I'm in a position. Man, he kind of cooked the Rockets a little bit, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

He did.

[Brandon Scott]

I felt. I was like, man, the Rockets are getting beat by Sanford and Son.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, brother, you big dummy.

[Brandon Scott]

You big dummy.

[Sean Pendergast]

You big dummy.

[Brandon Scott]

This is the big one. Coming to join you, Elizabeth.

[Sean Pendergast]

Coming to join you.

[Brandon Scott]

What's happening here?

[Sean Pendergast]

Watch me some Sanford and Son today.

[Brandon Scott]

That's what it felt like, man, getting beat by Sanford and Son. You got to be kidding me.

[Sean Pendergast]

TV Land. It's got to have Sanford and Son on there. But. So anyways, Jaylen Brown, like a lot of guys do, they use the summer league, even if not playing in it, as a reason to go to Vegas and sit courtside. So Jaylen Brown sitting courtside with a nice young lady. And you could read his lips. And he was saying some. Some. Some pretty, like. Like, derogative things about Bronnie's game.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, just. You could read his lips. The Internet read his lips. Clearly, LeBron did. So, LeBron. This was actually from this past or the season after that happened. Like, this is from, you know, like, over a year ago. But this is LeBron being asked about his relationship with Jaylen Brown. You know, our relationship has been, you know, pretty respectful.

[Brandon Scott]

You know, besides, he said about Bronnie at summer league.

[Sean Pendergast]

I was wondering if you guys were able to get.

[Brandon Scott]

But other than that. Other than that, you know, we've been. We've been all right.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, you guys able to get past that?

[Brandon Scott]

You know, we'll be all right. We'd be all right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, we'd be all right.

[Brandon Scott]

I think he went on. He went on social media and said something about it was all good, but

[Sean Pendergast]

Ronnie got a long way to go. But that's another story. Okay, so that was LeBron. That was. That was. That's a while back. That's not audio from over the weekend or anything like that. I'm guessing as meticulous as LeBron and his camp are about picking where he goes.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Executing plans, things like that. I'm guessing that they've. He and Jalen Brown have squashed everything and that he's looking forward to having Jalen as a teammate. I'm assuming.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Cause that is. I mean, that's not like, just a couple of days ago, but that is fairly recently. Cause that's this past season. Yeah. Cause part of the. So part of that media scrum is them asking LeBron about Jalen Brown's MVP year or MVP caliber year, and what he's doing in the absence of Jason Tatum. So that clearly that. That timeline gives you this past year when Jason Tatum was hurt. And most of that is LeBron given Jaylen Brown his flowers. I don't know what led them into actually getting into, like, the relationship between the two. A little bit of.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think. I think the two. I think they're about to play each other. I think maybe. I think it was right before a Celtics, Lakers upcoming game, that kind of thing.

[Brandon Scott]

Even then, like, are you. Were you guys able to get past the. Brian. I was like, okay. I mean, it's very much relevant now.

[Sean Pendergast]

If anything, you would want him not to have gotten past it because you're talking about an opponent that's coming up.

[Brandon Scott]

Right, right, right. Which is why all those, you know, oldies but goodies are always kind of cool to go back and look at. But. Yeah, man, you got to figure that. That they can obviously, like, coexist.

[Sean Pendergast]

Think, right. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

I mean, and. And let's just be real about it. It's not like Jalen Brown was saying anything about Bronnie that other folks. I mean, LeBron James had to go check Stephen A. Smith courtside at a game for some stuff that he was talking about about Bronnie and the family. So it's not like this is the first time he's had to deal with that and. Or from LeBron side. And let's just be real about it. This was. This. At least this was my perspective last week before he even made this decision. This was the best group for him to join. I thought that once the Jaylen Brown trade happened and part of the reason why it made sense for them to be favorites, that was the. The clear and most logical place for him to go. The place with the highest upside. If you just plop him onto the team.

[Sean Pendergast]

The most talented starting five in the NBA.

[Brandon Scott]

And if I could recognize that, certainly LeBron James could. That was the way I looked at it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, like it's the most talented starting five when healthy in the NBA. More talented than the defending champion Knicks. More talented than the two juggernauts in the West. Like just, just one through five, pure talent. I'm not saying they're going to be the best team. And if you're wondering what the effect has been on the odds board with, with LeBron going to Philly, they and the Knicks are right there neck and neck with each other to win the Eastern Conference. It almost depends on which outlet you go to as to who's the favorite to win the Eastern Conference.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. And also more talented than the other three possibilities or popular destinations out there. Going back home to Cleveland, going back to Miami where he once won before, or going to go join his friends in Golden State or San Francisco and play for the Warriors. Like this makes more sense than all three of those options.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, let's do acknowledge me. We. We do it each and every. We do it each and every Monday right about this time. We acknowledge tweets, performances, news items, anything worth giving. That extra lanyap of acknowledgment, that extra layer of acknowledgment, elevate them. I will say a name. Byron, who's producing with us today. Play the Roman Reigns cut right there. Byron. You know we've got several different ones in there, right?

[Brandon Scott]

Yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They all say acknowledge me, but they say it's sometimes a little different inflection. We like to mix it up, keep the people on their toes. I actually want to acknowledge a few of the tweets about this LeBron James signing in Philly. Let's doubt say the name first, Byron, we've done this. This is second Monday.

[Brandon Scott]

Hey, man, he's trigger happy, man.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's just excited.

[Brandon Scott]

He's ready.

[Sean Pendergast]

Are you a. Are you a fan of the tribal chief also, Byron? Yeah, but I'm a bigger Seth guy. You're a bigger Seth guy.

[Brandon Scott]

Okay. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

SummerSlam coming up, right?

[Brandon Scott]

Yes, sir.

[Sean Pendergast]

This weekend. All right. All right. Ready? Byron Devor Vikovich.

[Brandon Scott]

Acknowledge me.

[Sean Pendergast]

Who is that? I don't know, but he tweeted this. So Jalen Brown wanted or back up. So Jaylen Brown didn't want to be Robin in Boston. Now he'll be Alfred in Philly.

[Brandon Scott]

It's a funny tweet.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's hilarious, and I love the name.

[Brandon Scott]

What is his name? Vikavic.

[Sean Pendergast]

Davor Vikovic.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Good for him. That's an interesting name.

[Sean Pendergast]

And that's. That's not only his. His name on the Twitter account, but he's at Davor Vikovic, too, so. Yeah, so that's got to be his real name.

[Brandon Scott]

Dude, I respect this. Whatever his real name is, this is a funny tweet now. So don't let the truth of the matter get in the way of a. Of a funny joke. Right. Because I think Jaylen Brown actually, on any given night, could be the Batman on this team. I think he could be the best player on the team on any given night or perhaps even throughout NBA player. Yeah, he finished top six in MVP voting. All NBA player, Finals mvp. He's at least as good as anybody else on this team, especially at this stage. But I still like the joke. I still still find it to be a funny joke because he's now with a cast of. If he didn't like playing in. In Jason Tatum shadow, now he's in a cast of shadows with the other guys around him. Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

Jot that down as a topic for later. B. Scott, we're looking up at the screen in. In the studio here, and they're talking about C.J. stroud. Yeah, jot that down. Yeah, take a picture of that. We'll use that as a topic later. Okay. Another tweet about the LeBron signing with Philly. This is from McNeil, who's a big. I. I don't know who exactly he is, but he's a really funny follow. His name is just McNeil on Twitter, and he's a Cleveland guy, so he's obviously got Cleveland views on this. But McNeil, acknowledge me, he's got a picture of Kenny Atkinson, the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who's probably most famously or infamously said that while they were down three to one or whatever it was to the Knicks in the conference. Or three. Oh, yeah. In the conference finals. Cause they got swept.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's like, we've really won two of these three games. If you look at it through analytics,

[Brandon Scott]

one of those games was like an epic collapse.

[Sean Pendergast]

They blew a 29 point lead.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But analytically, they got a.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's got a picture, right. It's got a picture of Kenny Atkinson with a goofy look on his face. And it says, quote, analytically, we actually landed like LeBron.

[Brandon Scott]

This is hilarious. This is. I like this one even better. I think that it's a shame for Kenny Atkinson. He should have never said this, obviously. But for a dude that's such a decent coach, he's been an accomplished head coach in the NBA. I think he's going to be known for this comment for the rest of his career.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

A solid coach. Really going to be known for this. This gaff.

[Sean Pendergast]

When you Google his name, it's going to be a bunch of articles about being up 2 to 1 analytically. Yeah. In the Eastern Conference finals. All right, last one that we last tweet that we'll acknowledge. And we got some other Elon Altman acknowledgement. It was also Elon Altman on Twitter. Now I wonder if he's in a relation to Kobe Altman, the GM of the Cavaliers. But he points out LeBron is the first person to move from Bel Air to West Philadelphia.

[Brandon Scott]

It is a fresh print kind of spoof.

[Sean Pendergast]

Bizarro.

[Brandon Scott]

Bizarro. Fresh spin. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is. It's normal. Normally not how the story goes, but it's not. Leave it to LeBron to buck the trend.

[Sean Pendergast]

Absolutely. All right, so we acknowledge those tweets. Hey, let's acknowledge Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent, two guys with Astro ties. Yeah. Who went into the hall of Fame this weekend. I don't know. I was trying to kind of dip my toe in the water. This. I didn't get a lot of attention on my timeline. It's. It was a three person class. It was Kent Beltran and Andrew Jones.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Who obviously all great players.

[Brandon Scott]

Yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

And Beltron Beltran, the more polarizing figure than Jeff Kent. I think among Astro fans. I think most Astro fans are. Think positively about Jeff Kent because he was so good for the few years that he was here. Yes. Beltran, much more polar. Beltran was great. His first stint as an Astro. I mean, postseason goat. Great.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

That level eight home runs in the postseason that year. Out of 20 hits.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, between the two of them. Yeah. Did they spend more like. Between the two of them, did they spend more than three seasons with the Astros?

[Sean Pendergast]

Beltron.

[Brandon Scott]

Forget the 2016 season for a second.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he was 2017.

[Brandon Scott]

That's what I mean, 2017 for Beltron. Yeah, for Beltron.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But like, they're the. The real prime of their careers. Beltron just had half a season. Had the half a season. And Kent was here for like two seasons.

[Sean Pendergast]

Two years. Yeah, I think so.

[Brandon Scott]

I don't think they had three. I think that's part of the reason why there wasn't a lot of buzz, at least for Astros fans. For two guys that were great players and former Astros, they just didn't spend enough time. Even though Beltron's half a season was one of the. Some of the best Astros performance that we've ever seen, they just. Neither one was here for long enough to even fully be thought of as an Astro.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, but Beltran, the Beltran there. I mean, there's. There's a lot there with Beltran.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, for sure.

[Sean Pendergast]

The way he left, he was booed incessantly for the next decade in whatever uniform he was in because he played for the Mets for a bunch of years, played for the Yankees. He was a Ranger there. And for a little bit, he got boo. Anytime he'd come here to minute made, he got booed because of what happened after the four season. The way that Astro fans felt led on.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

By him. And then his role in the sign stealing scandal complicated things again, because it almost felt like 2017 when he resigned back here.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

The fact that he was a veteran leader of that team and we didn't know anything about the sign stealing at that point.

[Brandon Scott]

Kind of felt redemptive at the time.

[Sean Pendergast]

Cleansed it. It did. It did. It did. Like, we forgive you. We won a World Series. It's all good. And then it, you know, come to find out he's the brains of the operation. At least that's what he was portrayed as by Major League Baseball.

[Brandon Scott]

So it's almost like you're dead to us again.

[Sean Pendergast]

Again. Yeah. Yeah. So now he's going into the hall of Fame. To me, my biggest Astro takeaway in this whole thing is that Beltran going into the hall of Fame. It tells me that I don't think we have much to worry about with Altuve.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Nor should we. I mean, he's. He's the one guy that didn't use it at all, but he still portrayed as. As A user of the sign. Stealing.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Still portrayed. But I think even around that, and I don't think it helps Altuve that his MVP season was that year as well. But we're still talking about a dude with three batting titles and they won a World Series at. So I think that's a couple of things that help the sign. Still an era Astros, especially if they were still around on that 2022 team, which Altuve obviously was. It still is here. If you were a part of the team that. That won later, you know, and you've got more to your resume beyond that, I think that there's going to be some. I think there's going to be some forgiveness there.

[Sean Pendergast]

Was that astray that we just caught right there? No, my bad. What happened, dude? I. I just blanked down my fingers. Really?

[Brandon Scott]

My finger's always on the mouse whenever.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, you got twitchy.

[Brandon Scott]

He's got to get a safety on that thing. My bad, y'.

[Sean Pendergast]

All. You got twitchy. That's okay. All right.

[Brandon Scott]

Got to get a safety on that radio Glock.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Dylan Brooks.

[Brandon Scott]

Acknowledge me.

[Sean Pendergast]

I want to acknowledge Dylan Brooks for answering the question. Acknowledging in his mind this is from a podcast of some sort. He's doing this like standing up at a court somewhere. Probably at summer league.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not that Dylan Brooks is playing in it, but as we pointed out earlier, a lot of the guys go to Vegas just to chill during summer league. Watch guys play. So Dylan Brooks was doing an interview where they asked him to power rank his the five biggest complainers. The five biggest whiners. Five guys. So it's almost like you're all whiner team in the NBA.

[Brandon Scott]

This is really good. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Here's who he has.

[Brandon Scott]

First one that come to mind for me, obviously Luka. Luka's obviously a big ass complainer

[Sean Pendergast]

when

[Brandon Scott]

we go down the line. Curry 1. I actually gave him a shot. You seen that play? I gave him a shot. Right in his chest contest. Damn. Yeah. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You just, you know, you just.

[Brandon Scott]

You fed up. I just, I just. I lost.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's two.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Two people. Who else complains the most? LeBron for sure. That's three. He knew LeBron was going to be on that list. Hey, Jaren Jackson, old teammate and damn, he don't spare nobody. You seen last. But he named his old teammate. You ain't seen nobody from my team, so I ain't.

[Sean Pendergast]

So we. We're good. So we acknowledge all five of them collectively. Lucas, Steph lebron, Jaren Jackson, Giannis, a five headed Mount Rushmore of whiners, according to Dylan Brooks. Here's my question for you, B. Scott. If you had to put that list together for the Rockets, the biggest whiners in Rockets history.

[Brandon Scott]

Ooh, Rockets history.

[Sean Pendergast]

In Rockets history. And with mine, a lot of recency bias for me.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I mean, the. The recency bias. I can't get past Albert Shingoon.

[Sean Pendergast]

Shingoon's on it.

[Brandon Scott]

Like, Shingoon is.

[Sean Pendergast]

Acknowledge him for being a whiner. Yeah, acknowledge.

[Brandon Scott]

I mean, Shingoon is at the top of the list.

[Sean Pendergast]

Whiner.

[Brandon Scott]

Now, it doesn't help that Shingoon plays in the era of reviews. And, like, this is an ongoing joke at Toyota Center. Like, you should see us on press row every time something happens.

[Sean Pendergast]

We kind of.

[Brandon Scott]

We kind of do like this to see. Is he going to do it because he does it so much.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

I mean, he's clearly leading the. Leading the clash right now. By. By, like, by a lot.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, Can I throw some other names?

[Brandon Scott]

You please do.

[Sean Pendergast]

There was never a call made on Eric Gordon that he agreed with.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

Ever, ever. The face Eric Gordon and P.J. tucker of that era of Rockets basketball. Keep in mind, they're on a team with Chris Paul, who I think is also on this list.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, they, like.

[Sean Pendergast]

I actually had to think about Chris Paul a little bit because PJ Tucker and Eric Gordon are such whiners.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Every call. Eric Gordon never thought he committed a foul, ever. Yeah, it's annoying.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I mean, he's a. He's even got a. At least among Rockets fans, like a meme or. Or a gif of his face. Like. Yeah, just his perplexed face. He's number one because he's never committed a foul.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's number one on my list. But I would say Alpi is a good one. I would say Alpi, Chris Paul, Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker. Boy, so that 2018 team had a lot of whining.

[Brandon Scott]

It's basically Alpi on the 2018.

[Sean Pendergast]

Alpi in the 2018 team. Although, ironically, Dylan Brooks probably belongs on there, too. Yeah, we're putting Rockets on there. Ironically, the man who spawned this very topic, Dylan Brooks, who had been acknowledged, and I'll acknowledge again, should also be acknowledged for being a whiner as well. Hopefully he's not listening.

[Brandon Scott]

Can established tough guys be whiners, though? Like, is a. Or is this. Is it complaining and whining? Like, is whining, complaining and vice versa?

[Sean Pendergast]

It's just if I. If. If you just. It. Whining and complaining are Almost in the same neighborhood.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. You know, but because, you know, who also used to kind of get on the rest a little bit. And it's. It's basket Houston royalty. Hakeem.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hakeem did. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Hakeem would give the rest the business here. Now. It's hard to see him as a whiner.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Because he's such a proud man.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

But at the same time, he'd give it to him. Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Because Hakeem's the opposite of a livewire off of the court.

[Brandon Scott]

Right. And not a whiner like.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Brandon Scott]

But a complainer, though.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Okay, we'll get. We'll get Hakeem. You're. You're in the mix here. We'll acknowledge him for that.

[Brandon Scott]

Acknowledge me.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, so where I acknowledge food. The crab cake Benedict at Bloomin Bee.

[Brandon Scott]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

At the Post Oak Hotel.

[Brandon Scott]

You have my attention.

[Sean Pendergast]

Do you like crab cakes? Yes, I love crab cakes.

[Brandon Scott]

Yes, I do.

[Sean Pendergast]

So we had breakfast, Amy and I, as I mentioned earlier, we did a bit. Little. Nice little staycation. Let me acknowledge the Post Oak Hotel, too. Especially. Especially Kenneth, the front office director there, who left us a nice note on the. We got it to our room and there was a note there waiting for us with some charcuterie bottle and the note, handwritten note. And he was congratulating us on the move to 957. The fan, dude. So they're. They're excited for it there as well. Yeah. The Post Oak, the.

[Brandon Scott]

The FM life is going to be amazing. But what's a better combination when you get to your room than a bottle of wine, charcuterie board, and a personalized

[Sean Pendergast]

handwritten note and some of those nice ball caps that they have. Yeah, that's Post Oak. They gave us a couple nice, like, you know, the little ball caps you wear at the pool. So shout out to them. We had a great stay there. It was awesome. Dude, this crab cake Benedict. So the. The Blooming Bee, which is where we ate our breakfast there on Saturday, they've got a sort of customize your own Benedict thing. I love eggs Benedict. It's one of my favorite breakfast. Hollandaise sauce and everything else. But you had your choice between, you know, the Canadian bacon, which is sort of the staple, or a crab cake.

[Brandon Scott]

Come on.

[Sean Pendergast]

And I'm like, I gotta go crab cake here or salmon. Salmon was the other one. There were three choices.

[Brandon Scott]

I'm a salmon guy, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

I am, too. I like this. The salmon Benedict at first watch is really good. Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

So I gotta check that out. I go to first watch all the time.

[Sean Pendergast]

Salmon Benedict. Really good, this crab cake Benedict. I. I'm. I'm eating this thing, and I'm saying to Amy, I'm like, I might come here and just valet and come here and eat breakfast sometime and not have to stay here to eat the breakfast. Like, not a bad idea for this dish. And it's not, you know, and it's not cheap or anything like that, but it was so good.

[Brandon Scott]

The crab cake benefit.

[Sean Pendergast]

Crab cake, Ben. It was just simple, man. It was English muffin crab cake. The poached egg right there, and the hollandaise sauce drizzled all over it there.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, I'm in.

[Sean Pendergast]

Acknowledge it again. Byron.

[Brandon Scott]

Byron. I just want to go get one now.

[Sean Pendergast]

I know, dude, I'm hungry.

[Brandon Scott]

Two hours left in the show.

[Sean Pendergast]

You're a young guy, Byron. I feel like eggs Benedict is one of those things you eat as you get older, as your palate gets more sophisticated. Are you a fan of the eggs Benedict? I've never had it. Never had it. Okay. See, that kind of proves my theory,

[Brandon Scott]

and I think that's makes sense.

[Sean Pendergast]

I didn't eat sushi for the first time until I was, like, 25 years old.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, same here. And my. My kids are only in the sushi now because somebody older has put them on to it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

And so, like, they're a little bit more sushi savvy than even.

[Sean Pendergast]

I never ate it in our house growing up.

[Brandon Scott]

Not at all.

[Sean Pendergast]

I don't even know if the town I grew up in had a sushi restaurant.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, it was not a thing for me, but it is now. Same thing, though, too. If I would have been in last night, in my midterm 20s, like. Like Byron, I don't think I would have been eating no. Ick. No. Crab cake Benedict. Crab cake Benedict. I'm. I'm here for it now.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, for sure.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Yeah, it's. Boy, it is. Thumbs up on that, man. It was really good.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, man. Good time. Shout out to you, man. Yeah, that sounds like a heck of a weekend for you and the lady. For you and Amy.

[Sean Pendergast]

We had a blast.

[Brandon Scott]

Well deserved for both of you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Sat by the pool on Saturday. It was good. Thank you. Yeah, it was. It was good. Bought one night in an auction at the Texans season premiere. There was an auction for one night at the Post Oak, and so we tacked on a second night so we wouldn't have to, like, check in and check out in the same 24 hours. You know what? I'm gonna rush this this is the nicest hotel in town. If I'm gonna do this, I want a full day to just look around, man. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

When you're supposed to be doing. Nobody wants to be rushed, period. But especially in the midst of luxury or some type of luxurious experience.

[Sean Pendergast]

And it's the weekend before training camp, too. You know this as well as anybody. The work amps up in two days. 100% in two days. To that end, we enjoyed. Acknowledge me as always. That was a good one. I want to talk a little Texans here. We are going to have to start pocket watching at a certain position on the field, and we got a gauge for exactly what the market looks like over the weekend. We'll let you know what that is. Ford's Radio 610 presents live from the

[Brandon Scott]

West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln

[Sean Pendergast]

of Sugar Land Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. I never thought I'd be playing Robert Kraft audio to lead into a take on the Houston Texans. But we'll. We will do that in, In. In just a second here. Before we do that real quick, there is at least one texter that's incredulous that Draymond Green didn't make Dylan Brooks's all whiner list of five.

[Brandon Scott]

It had to be the non Draymond Green.

[Sean Pendergast]

There had to be some sort of prelude. We didn't hear.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Before that cut.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. It's like, you know, if you're one of the people that. But just believes LeBron that. That Michael Jordan's the best player to ever play.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

It's like, okay, who's your Mount Rushmore of basketball players not named Michael Jordan or not named Bill Russell or Kareem from so and so, whoever is your already favorite guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

Clearly, Draymond Green deserves to be at the very top of that list.

[Sean Pendergast]

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, so I mentioned Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots. Patriots training camp is underway. We'll hear from Mike Vrabel here in just a minute as well. But Robert Kraft was asked about Christian Gonzalez, who is their star cornerback who's eligible for a contract extension. He's just finished up his third year. He's a great player and they really like him there. Here's Robert Kraft talking about that situation.

[Brandon Scott]

We love Christian Gonzalez.

[Sean Pendergast]

We love him as a player, as a person. You know, that's why we've made an

[Brandon Scott]

offer to him that makes him the

[Sean Pendergast]

highest paid player ever to play that

[Brandon Scott]

position in the NFL.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, so they have. I know the audio was a little rough. The clicking of the cameras Was louder than his voice. And that was 1995. Right, right. No, but. But I think you could hear what he said, which is, we made it on. We made Christian Gonzalez an offer that would make him the highest paid cornerback in football. We know at one point Derek Stingley Jr. Was the highest paid. If you're just counting the new money. You know, Stingley signed an extension a couple years ago, or might have been last year.

[Brandon Scott]

Three, I think it was last year.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Three years, 30 million a year, almost fully guaranteed.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, it was like 90 million with 89 million guaranteed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Exactly. Right.

[Brandon Scott]

Like that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Exactly what it was. So we know that's what the market was. And we know since then Sauce Gardner signed his deal, which is for like 100,000 more per year. It was like 30.1 that he signed and then got traded.

[Brandon Scott]

Got traded?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, got traded to the Colts and

[Brandon Scott]

then he got hurt.

[Sean Pendergast]

I don't know what. Trent McDuffie's deal that he signed.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, yeah, that's right. Was after he got traded to the.

[Sean Pendergast]

To the Rams. Yeah, Got traded to the Rams. The Rams gave him a big deal. I'm assuming it's in that neighborhood. Reportedly, it sounds like Christian Gonzalez and Devin Witherspoon are kind of waiting for the other guy. There's kind of a staring contest going on right now. Like whoever signs next.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Will be the highest paid for like five minutes.

[Brandon Scott]

And then the other one will sign the next guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

Sign for, you know, like 32 million plus a bag of balls or something like that.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So. But why is this relevant to the Texans? Because if Kamari Lassiter has another season in 2026 like he did in 2025, and I'm factoring improvement into this as well. I'm not saying that Kamari Lasseter is the best cornerback in football, but I think undeniably he improved year over year year. And he was good in year one. He was really good as a rookie.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

But he definitely improved year one to year two. If he has that similar level of improvement. He is a top five cornerback in football. I think there's. If you really wanted to get sexy with it, I think you could make an argument that he's up there right now already, given his all around game. There's no more willing cornerback in football to play the run than Kamari Lasseter.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I like the point that you make about the all around game. Cause I think there are other guys who are bigger and perhaps flashier. Maybe they make more plays on the ball. And I think that, like when you look at the. The top end of this position, the Christian Gonzalez is of the world. The Pat Surtan, even Derek Stingley Jr. Himself. These are like, sort of bigger body, more prototypical. Hey, that's how I would draw my corner up.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But then like, like. So ideally, they're. They're better corners, but like, in practice, like, what about practically, what do you want your corner to be about? You want them to cover. You don't want them to be afraid to hit. In fact, you'd like for him to lay the wood when it. When it comes down to it or when it comes time for it. And Kamari Lasseter is all of those things. I don't know if he's. I don't know how close he can get to that top five, but I definitely think that he's gonna be, you know, firmly planted in the top 10, perhaps top eight. There. There's a lot of good corners. Once you get kind of to the top end of it, there's a handful of good ones that I think he's probably gonna be behind, but to the point of it all, it's still gonna be a very serious, like, business decision. Cause I don't think that there is a reasonable Kamari Lasseter discount, if that makes sense. Like Kamari Lasseter and is going to be. I think we'll have earned enough, especially being a day one starter and contributor to a day good defense.

[Sean Pendergast]

Day one in OTA starter, like he.

[Brandon Scott]

They.

[Sean Pendergast]

They had him pegged from about the day they drafted him.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. For that matter, that's like day zero, day zero. We're talking about OTAs.

[Sean Pendergast]

Good way to put it. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

He's a day zero starter and has been productive since the very beginning. I don't think that he's necessarily top five, but I'm not sure he's going to have to be to command a really respectable salary and making an interesting business decision for Nick Azaria.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's gonna live in that neighborhood, man. He's just going to. And. And I don't think I. They're not letting him walk out of that building. I've said this before. I think that this is just me saying this. Just me kind of just. Just reading the room about how they feel about Kamari Lasseter. And this is not to denigrate what they think of other guys in that building, but if it came down to a choice of them having to pay Kamari Lasseter a market deal. But you got to move on From Derek Stingley Jr. And Trey, I think that would be. If you had to. In a perfect world, you keep them both. Stingley is one of the. Is currently one of the top five corner. He's one of the top two cornerbacks in football. But when you're a good team that drafts as well as the Texans have, especially on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the secondary. I mean, think about it, you know, you know, Jalen Petrie, you know, he. He's. Thankfully, he's under contract for a couple more years, as are all these guys. But. But Bullock and Lassiter are going to be in line for big raises.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And that's. That's why just watching the market at safety, watching the market at corner and then trying to. And then there's still CJ Stroud sitting off to the side.

[Brandon Scott]

This is where I was gonna go.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Like, it's. It's gonna be a puzzle, man. And they're gonna have to make hard decisions like that. And I know it sounds blasphemous for me to say if you had to move on from Derek Stingley because he is at the peak of his game at a premium position. I just don't think. I just think. I think Kamari Lasseter, Derek Stingley might be a cornerback that was made in a lab. Kamari Lassiter is a cornerback made in a lab owned by d' Amico Ryan's. Yeah, if there's. If that makes sense. No, the whole ethos of Lassiter on and off the field.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I think he perfectly fits the brand. And again, like you mentioned, the ethos of what the Texans are and certainly what they want to be, what they aspire to be, like. He is. He is the Texans dream realized. Kamari. I think Kamari Lasseter and Will Anderson Jr. Between the two of them right now, where am I at still, like, on which cornerback would I rather keep once that business decision comes? As I sit right here today, still. Give me Derek Stingley Jr. If we're making that business decision. But it's a really good problem to have. And you mentioned the. The CJ Stroud point. I keep bringing this up every time we talk about the quarterback. I'm really curious if the Texans view themselves as. Hey, instead of making business decisions, on which corner do we want to keep? Do we feel like, hey, we can just go super expensive on the defensive side of the ball and let's just find another rookie quarterback or a quarterback on a rookie deal or a 25 to 30 million dollars quarterback as opposed to the 50, 60 million plus.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's what Seattle did.

[Brandon Scott]

I get It.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. All right. Payne and Pendergast. Brandon Scott in for Seth Payne today and tomorrow. All right. Would you have ever envisioned this former Houston Texan as a coach? Because apparently he's looking at it. We will. We'll have that for you coming up next. But first, we, you know, Sports Radio 610 presents Payne and Pendergast. Sean Pendergast. Brandon Scott in for Seth Payne. Actually, a bit of breaking news we can touch on a little later. Michael Lombardi, the general manager of the University of North Carolina football program, which is coached by Bill Belichick.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Placed on administrative leave. No other details.

[Brandon Scott]

Administrative leave.

[Sean Pendergast]

Administrative leave. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Normally when you're placed on administrative le. Believe it is not a good thing. No, not automatically a bad thing, but normally not a good thing.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. So I don't know how popular Michael Lombardi is around football circles. I'm guessing there's a lot of people, A, speculating as to what it could be. B, happily speculating about what it could be.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, and to the point of not being all that popular, I would say one of the few places where he is in good favor would be with Bill Belichick.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

So if, if he's where. If he's already where he has some of his few advocates on planet Earth or in the football world at least, and he's there being put on administrative leave, I can only imagine what's going on.

[Sean Pendergast]

How surprised were you when you heard Mike Vrabel say this? Over the weekend, DeAndre Hopkins was spotted at Patriots training camp. DeAndre Hopkins, who played in the NFL last year.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And obviously not the same level of player he was at his peak, but. But still presumably good enough to get on a roster somewhere. So he was at Patriots camp. And here was Mike Vrabel answering. Well, why was DeAndre Hopkins here?

[Brandon Scott]

You know, DeAndre Hopkins is. Is here with us kind of in a, you know, just to. Just to kind of check things out

[Sean Pendergast]

as far as what he wants to

[Brandon Scott]

do as far as coaching.

[Sean Pendergast]

And you'll see him on the field

[Brandon Scott]

and whether that's personnel.

[Sean Pendergast]

And so I use him as an example because he wasn't the fastest receiver, but he had a unbelievable play style

[Brandon Scott]

and a play strength and a route

[Sean Pendergast]

craft that allowed him to succeed. Okay. So Vrabel, so the money out of all that is, wow, DeAndre Hopkins, looking at it sounds like looking at various career options here, it's, I think, to me, the biggest takeaway from that. B. Scott, that, you know, 25 seconds of audio that explained why DeAndre Hopkins was there. Was that one. Okay. DeAndre Hopkins seems to be operating like somebody who might be done playing, period.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

2.

[Brandon Scott]

Wow.

[Sean Pendergast]

Coaching for DeAndre Hopkins, a guy who, depending on who you believe, got traded up and out of here in part because he didn't like to practice. Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, and it's. It's hilarious because it's like he didn't like to practice himself. Doesn't mean he didn't necessarily like attending practice or practice putting in the extra work. He just didn't want to practice. So it'd be funny if the moment his playing days are over, all of a sudden, DeAndre Hopkins is now committed to practices and film work and the. The nitty gritty part of the game.

[Sean Pendergast]

But it's a lot of hours, man.

[Brandon Scott]

I. I thought it. I thought it like this, and I talked about this yesterday on the. On the weekend show with Zach Gilb. I wondered if DeAndre Hopkins is looking at this now. Mind you, he's got a background with variable, obviously from both here and in Tennessee.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

So. So there's a relationship there. Is DeAndre Hopkins looking at it now as, hey, the only way I'm really gonna get on a team is if somebody's injured or if I come parachuting in midway through the year or something to that effect. And so is he just kind of getting a head start in sort of a quasi de facto player coach role?

[Sean Pendergast]

Is he, like, selling himself a little bit?

[Brandon Scott]

Right? A little bit. Selling himself. Hedging his bet?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

There's a couple of different ways that you could. Or angles you could take on it. But you understand what I'm saying?

[Sean Pendergast]

Sure.

[Brandon Scott]

Could this be like his soft landing spot if he does take one last ditch.

[Sean Pendergast]

Interesting.

[Brandon Scott]

And by the way, it is the team that was in the Super Bowl.

[Sean Pendergast]

Dude, I hadn't even. I just took it at face value of Rabel was saying, and it could be all of DeAndre.

[Brandon Scott]

No, it could be a piece of

[Sean Pendergast]

all of that angle is interesting to me because if he were doing that, it's almost like networking is what he's doing. If that's the case. And I always think networking is smart.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Always. Always, always, always networking is smart. So if that's the case, if he's doing it just to maybe get some FaceTime up there, kind of scope out the situation. I think they have needs at wide receiver, the Patriots do. I know they. I know they traded for A.J. brown, but I, you know, they. DeAndre Hopkins might be able to latch on with them.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I mean, even and it's a contender also.

[Brandon Scott]

That's what I'm saying. They were in the super bowl last year. And even if there's nobody on that depth chart that at this stage of his career that DeAndre Hopkins could beat out, I think he can make the case for that. Even if that's true, we understand the war of attrition and injuries. It could be him just kind of waiting there on his moment or on his opportunity. Somebody either gets injured or is just not available to play for whatever reason, not productive, whatever it might be. There's DeAndre Hopkins to kind of just take advantage of the opportunity.

[Sean Pendergast]

Do you think he ends up in coaching?

[Brandon Scott]

This is the part that did surprise me because of what we were saying earlier.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, I just say, no, I don't.

[Brandon Scott]

He did not strike me as. As like, coaching vibes.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no. And I'm not.

[Brandon Scott]

I did not see it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. So you're. You're with me.

[Brandon Scott]

Not this early, at least. Maybe later on in his retirement life, but, like straight off the field to the sideline. No. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And to his credit, I think it's really smart for him to do due diligence on things like this. I think he's operating in a. In a very intelligent manner, if. In a diligent and purposeful. If that's what he's doing, if he's examining it, I just don't know if he's going to examine the hours and go, you know what? That's for me. I mean, DeAndre Hopkins made a ton of money. Yeah, he's made a ton of money. Um, now I don't know, like, what the options are for DeAndre. I always thought he was a really thoughtful interview. I don't know how great he would be at broadcasting or that's something he's got thoughts about, or if the new wave of what players can do on their own platforms, if he would be good.

[Brandon Scott]

That's what I was going to suggest.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's had interesting things to say on social media before, like video, like IG Live and things like that. Like, you know, he's, he's. He's an interesting guy. So I think he, to me, if, if I'm picking which side of the. The scale he skews in terms of potential media. Yeah, I think he skews towards a yes for me, or at least, like, do it and see how it goes. Yeah, he's not a slam dunk or anything like that. But he's also not somebody, like, don't bother. He should try it. If he Wants to.

[Brandon Scott]

I think that obviously he's DeAndre Hopkins. He's a kind of an alpha in his own regard.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But I think he fits best as an interesting cast member on a show like. Like think. Think of what Pat McAfee has done, what Ryan Clark's doing with the Pivot. Some of you basketball fans out there who follow Jeff Teague's podcast, and it has a bunch of basketball voices on it, I view him as one of those sort of supplemental voices with maybe a more refined host hosting the show. But DeAndre still being one of the stars of the show. But whatever. The next generation's version of the Pivot. Yeah. Or you know what, Pat McAfee hit their version of it. I could see him being one of those.

[Sean Pendergast]

DeAndre would be good. You know, DeAndre and I have a history on social media with each other.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, yeah. There was a back and forth.

[Sean Pendergast]

There was a back and forth. Well, it was. And it goes back to his practice habits.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Reported practice habits here. They didn't like practicing.

[Brandon Scott]

I do remember this.

[Sean Pendergast]

This is when he was on the Titans. And this is.

[Brandon Scott]

Wow.

[Sean Pendergast]

We're coming up with the anniversary of. This was yesterday.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yesterday was the three year anniversary of DeAndre Hopkins coming at me on Twitter.

[Brandon Scott]

That's right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Because I comment tweeted out footage from a titans practice where DeAndre was practicing. And I retweeted it and said, rare footage of DeAndre Hopkins practicing. I didn't tag him. I'm not, I'm not one of those people like, you should have tagged him on this. As if there's some level of accountability. I'm like, I think most athletes would rather not be. Be tagged.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Because then they're not subject to all the replies and everything else.

[Brandon Scott]

I think it's actually tacky to tag the. I know people who do it and actually do it by policy. I think it's. It's actually pretty tacky.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

Unless you're talking directly to the athlete.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, right. So, so, so I'm looking at the headline of an article that says from back in on July 27, 2023. Yeah, that would be. That would be three years ago today. Uh, DeAndre Hopkins eviscerates Houston radio host, then deletes it because it was probably a bit much. So I tweeted that DeAndre. DeAndre tweet retweets my rare footage tweet and says, just buy my jersey for your wife. At this point, I'm sure she's tired of hearing my name in your sleep. Pretty good.

[Brandon Scott]

It's a pretty good deed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Then someone else retweeted and said DeAndre Hopkins just out smacked the five time smack off champion.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, man.

[Sean Pendergast]

But then DeAndre deleted it and then he DM'd me and was like, hey, I'm just joking around. It's all good. And I was like, yeah, man, that's. I. I wasn't mad about it.

[Brandon Scott]

All in good.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hilarious.

[Brandon Scott]

All in good.

[Sean Pendergast]

The notoriety is good, man. I actually thank you for punching down.

[Brandon Scott]

I like the fact that he was able to find this without you tagging him, which lets me know that either he or somebody close to him has a search window or a specific window for his name.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. Mike Vrabel, who we just heard was. We heard that cut quite a bit over the weekend about Hopkins. The other thing Mike Vrabel did that got a lot of run over the weekend was he showed up at the first post practice press conference for Patriots training camp with a puppy dog tucked underneath his arm. Something that we did last year, obviously,

[Brandon Scott]

the first day of training camp was the Partridge program that Dana Kraft implemented last year and was really successful.

[Sean Pendergast]

Did a lot of really good work not only for these dogs, but for

[Brandon Scott]

the families that adopted them.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I think We've almost got 60 dogs this year.

[Brandon Scott]

And so if anybody's looking to add to their roster at home, we would love for. For you to be able to adopt these dogs tomorrow, I think.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. So this is apparently part of something called Potriots Sure Paw treats, which as vrabel outlined this second year they've done it. There were 60 dogs there. Some of them have been adopted already. The dog he had under his arm could not have been cuter. It was some sort of German shepherd mix and he had it tucked under his arm.

[Brandon Scott]

A good boy, I'm sure. It's a good boy, I imagine.

[Sean Pendergast]

And the optics of Rabel with a puppy dog underneath his arm certainly is very wholesome. Just something you feel like a family guy, solid dude, loves his family, loves his wife. Would do. Would have a puppy dog underneath his arm.

[Brandon Scott]

Someone who would never embarrass their kids.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no, no. And you know who noticed that? The Internet. The Internet noticed that. So I understand that there is an actual charitable initiative behind this and that Rabel may have done this last year at this time with a puppy dog under his arm. And I had one Patriot fan because I tweeted about this as well. Something the effect of, hey, five star deflection tactic. Dogs are loyal beasts. Also, Vrabel might be able to Learn a thing or two from the dog, right?

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I had some guy come at me. He's like, they did this last year, too. It's called pottery. It's. Might want to delete that tweet, buddy. I'm like, it was a joke. A, B, I'm not gonna delete the tweet.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. And also, there's a noticeable difference between last year and this year. Might I point that out?

[Sean Pendergast]

Read the room.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, there we go. There's the sentence. Yeah. Read the room.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

So come on, guys.

[Sean Pendergast]

So, B. Scott, I want to run this past you.

[Brandon Scott]

All right?

[Sean Pendergast]

So I just feel like I know there's a lot of Patriot fans, like, hey, man, we're just trying to find homes for all these dogs out here, which I'm an advocate of. I think dogs are awesome. I love dogs. Dogs should live way longer than we live as human beings. They certainly should live way longer than they currently do. Dogs are great. But I do feel like this is part of the infidelity washing that's going on with Mike Rabel. Going on right now.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. So a few weeks back. A few weeks back, there was some pushback on. I'm trying to remember which athlete it was, but there was an athlete that brought his son or brought there to maybe. Maybe it was Embiid, Joel Embiid or some. It was somebody who.

[Sean Pendergast]

Joel Embiid brought his son to a press conference after they got knocked out

[Brandon Scott]

of the playoffs, and it was like a controversy. I know you were on the side of, hey, this is weak. Don't do that. Because it makes people a little bit less likely to be harsh on you when you're sitting up there with your kid. I know Nick Wright was one of the national pundits who was on that. I've got far less of an issue with bringing your actual child, your flesh and blood child, to the podium as I do a dog. Like, I think you can make excuses for, hey, my kid. My kid really wanted to be with me at this moment. And also, don't let my kid keep you from holding my feet to the fire. To me, none of that should have anything to do with the other. Just because my kid is sitting up there.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, so you think we're. Rabel did. A dog is worse than what? But a dog, that's what. Don't make me argue like a Patriot fan arguing with me yesterday. I mean, it was. There was a component that was tied. He didn't just randomly bring a dog up there.

[Brandon Scott]

What I'm saying is that's worse. That's even more of a deflection.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

Because, I mean, because what is the dog up there for? You can get up there and talk about this charity or this. This. This charitable cause, this thing that you're doing for the community, but you come up there with a. With just some random mutt or some random dog, and you've been going through everything you've been going through throughout the off season. Come on. That's a clear deflection.

[Sean Pendergast]

Let's rapid fire these real quick. Okay. I've got six things that Rabel has done to cheat. Wash his reputation. Okay. Okay, you rate these on a scale of 1 to 5. Ineffectiveness, skipping the third day of the draft to go to, quote, rehab.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. That's gonna be two.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's a two for you.

[Brandon Scott]

That's a two.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's five. Meaning this. It's a sincere boy. It makes me feel different about Vrabel. 1. You're rolling your eyes.

[Brandon Scott]

Rolling my eyes because what day of the draft? The third day. All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

So it's a solid two.

[Sean Pendergast]

Number two, when he got to Utah to do that rehab, which I guess seemingly took place, that they have a place in Utah, I think, and it involved his family. There was that video of him buying his wife, like some sort of hoodie or something at the. At the gift shop at the airport there. One to five.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Now that's going to be closer to a four.

[Sean Pendergast]

Four. So that's.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, because he embarrassed that woman in public. She needs a hoodie. She needs a costume, a kind of disguise.

[Sean Pendergast]

And that didn't feel staged either. Nah, it was like somebody seeing Vrabel in the airport, and we don't even know. He might have been buying the hoodie for himself, but people. The color of it looked very girly.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. The photo afterwards of him entering the Patriots headquarters the day he got back from rehab. You know, pep in his step, but a little bit of gravitas kind of walking in. One to five.

[Brandon Scott]

We're back down to the two.

[Sean Pendergast]

Back down to the two. Okay. Little phony.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Fugazi. All right. The family photos at his son's engagement party. Whole family together, new daughter in law, soon to be daughter in law, everybody. All kumbaya.

[Brandon Scott]

I'm gonna get closer to the four

[Sean Pendergast]

on them, and it's a leak them out on social media.

[Brandon Scott]

Let me go 3.5 on this. Okay, 3.5 on this. Because I think that is a legitimate effort to kind of rectify things or reconcile with his family to whatever degree he Needs to do that. Yeah. I think that that's legitimate.

[Sean Pendergast]

The video of him getting into the limo with his wife before the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey wedding.

[Brandon Scott]

Man, he was leaving that woman in his dust. Like, I don't know how to judge that video.

[Sean Pendergast]

I. That video, to me, what's going on there, that's almost more damaging. He. He quickly got into the limo before she did.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Didn't even help her in or anything.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. And somebody made the excuse. Well, you know, if you've been in a limo, you want to scoot to the other side so she doesn't have to climb over you. I could see that. But at least you want to hold her hand or dress or you would think there's some kind of. Feels like there's some chivalry that should be happening there. That was not okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

The last one. I think I know you're great on this one. Puppy dog at press conference.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, that's at A one.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's a one.

[Brandon Scott]

That's at a one for me. Dog.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's an interesting take. You're.

[Brandon Scott]

You're.

[Sean Pendergast]

You. That's where you are better with people bringing their little children to a losing press conference after the playoffs.

[Brandon Scott]

I might not even notice the child, maybe because I'm a dad, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

So.

[Brandon Scott]

So I'm just gonna be like, whatever with the kid.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm gonna look journalists, too. You know, sometimes you get the air quote journals that are there, that are more there, kind of like. Like the ones that would bury the Kyle Shanahan crashing their car.

[Brandon Scott]

Right, right.

[Sean Pendergast]

The ones that are there to kind of play the game a little bit.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I would have rather have not known about the Kyle Shanahan thing at all than to have been asked to bury.

[Sean Pendergast]

Exactly.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Exactly.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. All right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pain and pender gas. Brandon Scott in for Seth Payne. All right. Speaking of which, vehicular issues in the NFL over the weekend, if you have not found this mug shot yet, you need to find it for purposes of this segment. You need this in front of you. I don't often do this. This segment requires visual aid. Pull up Google Tony Romo mugshot for this next segment. Sports Radio 610 presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. Scott and I during the break just came to the conclusion that there's no choice. We have to pender pole this. This Tate tet that you and I got into in the previous segment. B. Scott thinks that Vrabel bringing a puppy dog to a press conference is worse than Joel Embiid bringing his kid to a press conference. Much worse. Much worse.

[Brandon Scott]

Much worse to me, because to me, it's more deliberate. I think that the child thing, it could be on purpose. It could also just be how Joel Embiid gets there. Some people get down. I've seen children at press conferences before. Now, I want to be clear. I think it's inappropriate either way. It ain't really for me to decide it's not my kid, but I just. I don't think it's appropriate either way. Whether it's a positive, a win, a loss, you're going to get scrutinized or not. I just don't think it's great. But it's up to that parent to do whatever they want. I don't think it's that big of a deal. What is the dog thing to me is a clear and obvious deliberate attempt to pr.

[Sean Pendergast]

Mike Frable has been through a lot. What if it's a support dog? What if it's an emotional support dog and he has to carry that out over the course of the rest of his life?

[Brandon Scott]

I'd like to be the journalist that goes, hey, Mike, what's the. What ptsd? What are you suffering from?

[Sean Pendergast]

Have you looked at the. Was it the tabloids the last five months?

[Brandon Scott]

What's the trauma?

[Sean Pendergast]

Look at the. Have you looked at the tabloids? Dude, Rabel having to carry a support dog around under his arm at training camp would be hilarious because there's no more hands on. There's no more hands on head coach than Mike Vrabel.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

He puts on that linebacker vest. Yeah. And he gets in there and does the drills with guys.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. He'll go out there and bleed with you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Can you imagine?

[Brandon Scott]

It comes down to it, having to

[Sean Pendergast]

do that with, you know, with. With the dog underneath his arm or

[Brandon Scott]

Rabel going over to DeAndre Hopkins, like, hey, DeAndre, can you hold my dog?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Can you hold my dog while battle with the offensive lineman?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, that's. That'll be the job DeAndre has. You know, I don't really want to coach, but if you need someone to hold your dog when you do linebacker drills, I'm your guy.

[Brandon Scott]

Just the visual, the video of Rabel handing over the little pup to DeAndre.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hop chat GPT project.

[Brandon Scott]

These two guys with these massive hands just palming, palming the little pup. Palming a little pup.

[Sean Pendergast]

Dismissing the possibility that it's an emotional support dog for a guy who's been through a lot.

[Brandon Scott]

No, it.

[Sean Pendergast]

It all self Inflicted.

[Brandon Scott]

That's the part.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

It's like, why, though? Why is it that you are a former linebacker? Slash, like just badass defensive player who used to do car crashes. Human car crashes. And the. The most trauma you've had in this game is the summer where you get revealed as a philanderer.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, right, right. Okay, so I've got the Tony Romo mug shot in front of me right now. Headline, Tony Romo busted for OWI in Milwaukee. Operating while intoxicated. Yes. Not operating on a person. I think Tony Romo will be the last person I'd like to see as the. Is the ether kicks in. Here we go, Jim. Yeah. You're getting ready for an important surgery.

[Brandon Scott]

It's a triple bypass.

[Sean Pendergast]

The last face you see is this one right here.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So, no, he was operating a motor vehicle. He failed a bunch of sobriety tests, apparently Tony Romo did with that face.

[Brandon Scott]

No way.

[Sean Pendergast]

We. I asked you this question earlier. I cannot remember. I. I'll be honest with you. When I see these celebrities get DWIs and things like that, I'm not somebody whose mind goes to, oh, like rubbing my hands. I can't wait to see the body kit now when the body cam comes out. I do enjoy watching it from time to time. You know, some are more entertaining than others. This is the first one I can think of in my life where I am going to be hitting refresh. Yeah. On TMZ to see when this thing drops. Tony Romo is. He's. He's so off kilter on these broadcasts, I can only imagine what failed sobriety tests look like for him.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. So just assuming that Tony Romo is on the air when he's doing these CBS broadcasts, that he's sober when we're listening to him on the regular, what does. To your question, what does he sound like when he's unable to properly operate a vehicle? Yeah. When it's bad enough for him to be failing sobriety tests, taking mug shots where he's looking like that, getting charged and arrested and all of that. Like what? What does that version of Tony Romo look and sound like? And then what does that version of Tony Romo look and sound like when confronted with the possibility of going to jail that night?

[Sean Pendergast]

Do you think that as he was doing the test, that he was looking around for Gene Steritor trying to find out what the rules are?

[Brandon Scott]

Gene? I don't know. Gene. What do you think, Gene?

[Sean Pendergast]

Are they allowed to ask me to stand on one leg and recite the Alphabet backwards?

[Brandon Scott]

Gene there's only one. All right, Jim. There's only one way to find out. How many times did Tony Romos voice crack.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

In this encounter with the police in Wisconsin.

[Sean Pendergast]

Tony Romo seems like a super nice guy. He's. His performance as a broadcaster has not been to the level it was. That earned him 18 million a year. And he earned that. He was really good his first couple years.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And it feels like his performance has dropped off. I thought this. You know, I don't. They've got several years still left of Tony Romo on that contract. Multiple years still left. And he is making big money. He's the best thing to ever happen to guys like Troy Aikman and Chris Collinsworth and other A list guys who are on A teams for their various NFL media contracts.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Tony Romo reset the market, so that was really cool for them. But I wonder if there's any sort of clause in his contract. Like CBS has got to be looking for an opening here with Romo to like not have to pay him $18 million. I feel. I just feel like his performance has gone backwards. And. And I would also say J.J. watt would never.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I. I was.

[Sean Pendergast]

J.J. watt would never.

[Brandon Scott]

Just gonna say that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Dot.

[Brandon Scott]

Dot. Not only would J.J. watt never. Which I think is the most important

[Sean Pendergast]

part here, especially in Wisconsin.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Of all places.

[Sean Pendergast]

J.J. find a way to get out of that.

[Brandon Scott]

Wisconsin's native son, like, one of their best to their. One of their best products. Like, you figure if there are guys that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Tony Romo's from Wisconsin, we should point that out.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

But.

[Brandon Scott]

But you figured he'd be on this list too, like J.J. watt, Tony Romo, a current athlete. Tyrese Halliburton. Like, there are certain guys that are.

[Sean Pendergast]

How many did Brett Favre get away with back in the day? Probably.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Like Wisconsin heroes should be able. Like, how bad must it have been? Did you hit a stop sign?

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

Were there pedestrians that barely escaped your wrath?

[Sean Pendergast]

Can you imagine? Can you imagine if they. They're like, okay, we have body cam, so we've got to do something to test you. So this is what we're going to do. We know, Tony, that you're the lead analyst on cbs. We're just going to give you some really easy NFL questions and all you got to do is answer them and. And we'll let you go. And they ask him things like, who's the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills?

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, come on. And he's asking for Gene.

[Sean Pendergast]

Can I call Gene?

[Brandon Scott]

Tony, Can I call Jim? Jim.

[Sean Pendergast]

Joe Ferguson,

[Brandon Scott]

the Nathan Peterman.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Nathan Peterman.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Is Ryan Fitzpatrick still there?

[Sean Pendergast]

Dude? Yeah. Tony Romo, man.

[Brandon Scott]

Nah, that's. That's not great. I would point out too though, since you mentioned jj, not only would he not do this, but Tony Romo started getting all that money and became their top guy before JJ retired. Right. Before JJ became what he is now as a broadcaster. And I think very quickly, very promptly, J.J. watt became very good at this. And I would say, like, objectively, not just because I'm a Texans fan or. Cause we know JJ a little bit and all that and covered him and all of that. I think JJ's just better at it than Tony Romo.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

So could this be a reason with that on top of this?

[Sean Pendergast]

That's my point.

[Brandon Scott]

Be a justification for. You know what, Tony, we've appreciated you. I guess you're still going to get your money or whatever it is, however the contract lays out. But we're going to make JJ our top guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

This is the tricky thing about this though. If you're talking about moving a guy from the B team to the A team and B team is not an insult by any means when it comes to this. We're talking about CBS and they've got like seven announce crews. You're number two. And J.J. watts been doing this for like, you know, two years.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Really a year plus a game. You know, because he was in studio first. He was in studio for first year.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

And even on that was on a part time basis.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

JJ's gotten really good at this really fast. And so the thing I would hate, though would be for them to break up JJ Watt and Ian Eagle, you know, like if. Because if you. If you did a move to the A team and we're totally speculating here, like, we're probably way out over our skis.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

But I think we both like JJ better as an announcer than Tony Romo. So it's fun to kind of kick around a little bit and stop driving drunk. That's what I would say. And then we won't talk about it. Yeah, but. But Jim Nance probably isn't going anywhere as the 18 guy. And I just. I don't know. I like Iron Eagle and JJ Watt have such good chemistry together. And I think Ian Eagle is in the. I think he's the best that CBS has. Him and Kevin Harlan, I think are the best that CBS has. And so I would love to see them as a team collectively bumped up. Yeah, I think Jim Nance is still really good. I do too I enjoy Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan a little bit more.

[Brandon Scott]

You are, you are preaching to the choir.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

I think that a. An Iron Eagle, J.J. watt, Wally Pipping of the gym, Nance, Tony Romo combination, can you imagine? I would be absolutely fine with. Nobody's asking me and I'm not the TV executive expert or anything, but that's just my personal preference. I would prefer both of them over the A team that they have now.

[Sean Pendergast]

Nance already feels like he's a little annoyed by Tony Romo during broadcast.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Can you imagine if Romo became the reason that they, as a parent got bumped down to the B team and they bumped up Iron Eagle and J.J.

[Brandon Scott]

watt and he stuck with like Texans Jags games. Yeah. You know, AFC south games as opposed to whatever the, you know, the 3

[Sean Pendergast]

o' clock JJ is. Is JJ undefeated on Texan games as a commentator?

[Brandon Scott]

I believe he is.

[Sean Pendergast]

The one time I saw JJ at a game this past year was that the. We were coming out of the two different elevators in the lobby after that comeback against the Jags.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And it was funny because JJ was saying to me like, because they do. He does interviews like on CBS hq. I think he does like different post game interviews on different CBS platforms to talk about the games.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, they were motor, man, he was

[Sean Pendergast]

like, man, he's like, I had all my, I had all my material ready to go and then the Texans pull this fourth quarter comeback.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm like, yeah, that's called tearing up the rundown in our business.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Turn up, there's a tear up the rundown.

[Brandon Scott]

Tearing up the rundown for writers having to hit, control, alt, delete.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

On your whole story that you've had pre written ready to publish when the clock hits zero. That's the business.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's really good. He's really good at what he does. All right, Payne and Pendergast B. Scott in for Seth Payne coming up next. Let's circle back to the Rockets. All right, so the, the NBA off season now is finally settling in a little bit here. We'll probably get a schedule pretty soon. What exactly are the Rockets right now on the board and of the. Of the future LeBron James matchups, which are the ones we as just NBA fans in general are most excited to see. That's coming up next. I'll tell you who I'm excited to see every time I get to go see him. Sports Radio 610 presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Payne And Pendergast. All right, so Byron, Byron Matthews, our producer today, did the thing that good producers do. He heard one of the hosts saying, I'm not sure what JJ's record is as an analyst in games involving the Texans. He went and looked it up. Byron, would you care to share that information with us?

[Brandon Scott]

Yes. JJ is four. No.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. For the Tech, when he calls Texans

[Brandon Scott]

games, the games that he called was the win against the Ravens, 44 to 10.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, okay. Okay. Lucky. He's lucky. He caught that one with no Lamar Jackson. Probably the comeback against Jacksonville. Yeah, that's a game I saw him at. Okay. Yep. And then I think both Colts games. Oh, yeah, definitely one of the Colts games and probably both. Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

Really good.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, gotcha. And there's a lot of. There's a big potential to get JJ on games early in the season because they play a lot of noon Sunday games.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Early in the season.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Now the schedule goes haywire in the back end of the season with all those cold weather games. You got a couple Thursday games in there. You got a Monday game with the GR with Green Bay. But if I'm not mistaken, other than the London game, the other five, the other six games before the bi week are all noon Sunday games. So it's cool.

[Brandon Scott]

Cause JJ, obviously the. The Texans have good fortune when JJ's out there. So like Byron mentions that Ravens game, of course they were fortunate that Lamar Jackson wasn't playing. It wasn't just Lamar Jackson. They had a bunch of guys missing in that game. That's also before the Texans had really hit their stride for real. For real. Last season. So that's pretty cool. But I'll shout out JJ one more time on this broadcasting point. It's not that. It's not just that he's really good. It's not just that the Texans have been successful when he's been out there. But I've noticed this online, how the fan bases of the opposing teams, specifically the Colts fans, who expect there to be some back and forth or a little bit of animosity for Texans. Great calling the game and the, you know, against the Colts of all teams. And they to a man seem like to really respect how JJ goes out there, calls it like it is, tells it like it is, and is objectively really good at it.

[Sean Pendergast]

If anything, Texan fans are mad that he's not more biased.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

There's more Texan fans upset with JJ playing it down the middle.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Then there are Colts fans or the opposing teams fans upset that he isn't playing it down the middle. So that probably says a lot about how he's doing as a broadcaster, which is very, very good. All right, so the dust is settling a little bit now in the NBA offseason. Now that LeBron, who's certainly not the LeBron that he was the last time he was making decisions like this one, where is he going to play? But. But he is still a domino that needs to fall before the schedule gets put together. He still obviously is the Rockets learned the hard way an effective basketball player. Yes, they learned that in the postseason. But as far as the Rockets go, okay, now we're Campbell be here before we know it. We're less than two months away from the Rockets being at their training camp. We're less than two days away. Then from the Texans are two days and 14 minutes away. I guess Excited, excited. Excitement level though, B. Scott for the Rockets and of all the things that they've got going for them because this article in the Ringer by Michael Pena that dropped last week, basically asking the question why are people not talking about the Rockets as a title contender when a year ago at this time they were being discussed that way? And the one thing that seemed to really damage their season, losing Fred Van Vliet and losing Steven Adams as well. I'd add to that, they lost him in season. Those things are both rectified. Both guys are healthy and now they're old, but they're healthy and coming back. What is within the context of competing for an NBA championship, what is the best thing the Rockets have going for them in your mind?

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, the best thing that they have going for him is definitely Kevin Durant. And the idea that Kevin Durant could still play in an all NBA level. Now is it a lot to ask of somebody to do it at age 37 and then do it again at age 38? Which is what you would be asking Kevin Durant to do this upcoming season. Yeah, that's a, that is a tough ask and I think a risky proposition. But to be clear, it's the best thing that they got going for him. Unless you believe a little bit more in Alpern Shingoon as the All Star that's going to become the superstar or if you believe that a men Thompson is going to develop a 15 to 20 foot jump shot or God forbid, a three point shot or just any kind of offensive profile to speak of, aside from being physically superior than the next guy who's guarding them. Yeah, I don't, I don't know how you can Hang your hat on that. On anything beyond or more than the greatness of Kevin Durant.

[Sean Pendergast]

The. The article that I'm referencing really goes over the top on Fred Van Vliet as some sort of force multiplier. In what? In. In so much as, hey, you're getting Fred Van Vliet back. We don't know what the knee looks like. We don't know what he looks like. He's older. We do know what he means to the team in terms of leadership. And I think one of the things we learned last year because Van Vliet was around the team all the time.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, he was.

[Sean Pendergast]

Is that it's different providing leadership sitting in street clothes than it is being the floor general out there. Yeah, it's just two different things. And one really cannot impact as much as you had hoped it would. You know, dude, if.

[Brandon Scott]

If Fred Van Vliet is playing and healthy, the game four collapse doesn't happen.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

Where Jabari Smith Jr. Just gives the ball to Marcus Smart and. And LeBron just taps the ball back. Taps the ball out of Reed Shepherd's face.

[Sean Pendergast]

Marcus Smart.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Our new friend.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, man.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, man. Ah, that doesn't happen with Fred Van

[Sean Pendergast]

V. No, it doesn't. Well, and the point that Pina is kind of making in here is like, look, you're getting Fred Van Vliet back and we'll see what that is. But you've got at least two or three guys are that are being asked to play normal roles again. It's a little. It's a little bit like what the Texans, I think are getting in David Montgomery. 100% is they're getting David Montgomery, but they're getting a better version of Woody Marks. Woody Marks is going to play in character with this team. With the Rockets, I think you can cite at least two, maybe more guys, but at the very least, Amen Thompson and Alper and Shen Goon should be asked to do things that they're much more comfortable with. There was a number for Shen that I had seen. Yeah, here it is. Two years ago, 70% of Sengun's mid range game was. 70% of his made field goals were assisted. You know, in other words, came within the flow of the offense. This year it was half that. It was 36%. Which when you start to visualize a Rocket, games look like. If someone's asking me to translate that for them, what that means is Alperin Shengun is taking the ball, facing up and going into business for himself. Backing guys down, ball faking seven Times in the lane and, and against bigger guys, sometimes getting a shot sent back at him. And if you're a Rocket fan, hearing me say they're like, oh, that's right. Yeah, he did do that a lot this past year. Yeah, that go that, that I would assume we're back to something much closer to 70% next year.

[Brandon Scott]

So one of the biggest issues of last year, Right. And we talked about it going in once we knew that Fred Van Vliet was gonna miss the season, the shin hub. This has been a buzz topic amongst like the Rockets community. Well, I guess it's just gonna be more shinhub. And by proxy, Shingoon is gonna sort of play some of the point guard duties. Yeah, but that ain't great. Like that, that is not ideal. Like one of the more infuriating parts of the season. And I would talk about this whenever I would get the opportunity on any platform I could. If I see another Shingoon isolation from five feet past the three point line, where he's just dribbling and dribbling and backing it down and backing it down and it's like, why is this happening? Why are two things happening? Why is Kevin Durant bringing the ball up the floor? Oh, I get it. They don't have a point guard. Why is Shingoon isolating from the three point line? Oh, I get it. Because they don't have a point guard. To your point, having Fred Van Vliet out there should mitigate some of these things. I think what the playoffs did expose though, was just that they were overly reliant on that. Like even these guys that you're going to slide into more like role player type of vibes. Role players type of stuff. Like Reed shepherd, for example. Well, he can't shoot 29, 30% from three or whatever the hell it was in the playoffs. Right. Like that. That part of it still has to be better. Jabari Smith Jr. Has to still be consistent hitting the wide open shots that he gets. Same thing with Tari Eason. These guys have to still star in those roles with or without Fred Van Vliet, who is supposed to fix a lot of things for them. But I think the issue for a lot of people and not viewing the Rockets in that way is that not having Fred exposed the Rockets to not be as good in some areas as maybe we thought they were.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, shifting gears real quick. LeBron James. I'm excited to see LeBron, you know, come here in a Sixer uniform. It'll be something different as a Rocket fan.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think there's matchups, and this is why Adam Silver was waiting to put the schedule together. There are some pretty sexy fresh matchups for LeBron. LeBron hasn't been in the Eastern Conference since 2018.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So there's some fresh. And I know everybody plays everybody throughout the year, but in terms of playing them frequently and playing them in games that mean something in marquee matchups. Marquee matchups. We get some good ones. You tell me of these five.

[Brandon Scott]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Of these five. And they're not all east versus, you know, they're not all Eastern Conference foes. But of these five, which one you as a basketball fan are most excited to see involving LeBron.

[Brandon Scott]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Sixers, Knicks, Sixers, Celtics, Sixers, Lakers, Sixers, Cavs, Sixers, Heat. Yeah, I got mine.

[Brandon Scott]

So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go Lakers and Celtics. Cause those are the former teams.

[Sean Pendergast]

You gotta pick one of the guys.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, well, I thought I was ranking, so I'll just.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'll just go pick the one that likes you. Lakers.

[Brandon Scott]

Lakers.

[Sean Pendergast]

Lakers. Why?

[Brandon Scott]

For. For some admittedly cultural reasons.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

Somebody. One of my favorite. We were doing this earlier favorite tweets. Somebody called it, like, Sixers versus Lakers. Somebody called it Brown versus Board of Education. Yeah. And I'm like, I can't unsee it.

[Sean Pendergast]

I can't.

[Brandon Scott]

I'm sorry.

[Sean Pendergast]

I know it is an interesting coincidence.

[Brandon Scott]

And top of that, it's going to be good basketball. So I want to see it. I'm sorry.

[Sean Pendergast]

Mine is. Mine is the Cavs. Because I think there's a distinct possibility that we see some booing of a guy who's not only from there, but won a championship for them a decade ago.

[Brandon Scott]

You think that.

[Sean Pendergast]

You think the Cleveland fans are going to buy the. Some. There's some that are upset about this thing. There's some that feel like they got dragged around by the nose in this process.

[Brandon Scott]

Hot take. If. If more than 50 people boo LeBron James from the. From Cleveland, the Cav should be relegated. I mean, after that. Three. One thing from 10 years ago, like, they can't say anything to LeBron James ever again. Not. Not. Not him.

[Sean Pendergast]

There's. There's a lot of people put out by the way he handled his business on this one up there. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just telling you that that seems to be how it is.

[Brandon Scott]

You want to talk about being ungrateful?

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

The best thing that happened to Cleveland sports. Unless you got something else for. I know Miles Garrett's amazing. But he didn't win him no championship.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, no.

[Brandon Scott]

The best thing to happen to Cleveland sports by a mile for most of our lifetime. Yeah. What are we doing? Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, that's. That's just. That's me kind of reading things a little bit. And again, I'm saying it would be a very small portion of the audience, but I. But they would be very vocal, too. Yeah. I could see they burn a jersey outside of the stadium.

[Brandon Scott]

These are all really good options. But I like where you're going here. Like the idea that Cleveland would be so beside itself that he didn't come back for a third time.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

The possibility of it. The possibility of it. And that James Harden is somehow in the storyline as well.

[Brandon Scott]

Shouldn't they be more mad at him? Yeah. Or the team for bringing him in. That was the thing that kept him from getting.

[Sean Pendergast]

Probably so.

[Brandon Scott]

From getting LeBron or not trading for Jaylen Brown.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, speaking of being. Being mad, which of the names that have been revealed so far in The NFL top 100 at quarterback has C.J. stroud seen and gone? Oh, come on. Come on, man. Cause I don't think CJ's getting in there. We're down to 50. We'll go through the names. I've also got the names I think still are going to make it if this many quarterbacks are thought of as better than C.J. stroud.

[Brandon Scott]

Wow.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right. Sports Radio 610 presents Payne and Pendergast. Someone brings up a good point on the text page. We were talking earlier about Mike vrabel talking about DeAndre Hopkins looking at possibly coaching, maybe coaching for the Patriots. Someone brought up a good point because DeAndre still lives here in Houston. And I think would, you know, pretty much everybody who's. I think everybody who is involved in moving DeAndre out of here is out of the building. You know, maybe he, you know, some sort of reunion with the Texans. I don't know how the Texans feel about that, but someone says didn't Dion Hopkins wouldn't the quickest way back to Houston to be get it on the Patriots coaching staff? That's pretty good. That is a lot of Patriot ties on the coaching staff. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Indeed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Indeed.

[Brandon Scott]

Fair enough.

[Sean Pendergast]

Someone also brings up this point about DeAndre Hopkins. This goes back to Rabel holding that dog under his arm at the press conference. And I joke that maybe it's a support dog. And if Rabel has to do drills and hand his support dog to somebody, then maybe that would be Hopkins job is he's hold my dog guy.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Rabel puts that linebacker vest on and, you know, starts doing the hands drills and things like that. Someone points out DeAndre used to carry a little dog in his little Gucci.

[Brandon Scott]

I remember that.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was on Hard Knocks, Right?

[Brandon Scott]

I remember.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. He talked about wanting to have that, I think.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I remember. I can remember him being like big guy, small dog, tandem sort of thing. So this. This would be on Brand. I'll be at a fall from grace, going from catching passes to holding little small dogs on the sideline. But get it how you live, as they say.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's right. So we are halfway through the top 100. The NFL top 100. We're halfway through it. In fact, they probably just revealed player 50 moments ago. I got to look.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Player 50. There it is. Derwin James. Okay, so now. Okay, this. So this is starting to get interesting. Derwin James was just named the 50th best player.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. So this is. This is getting interesting because I think. I mean, it's all. It's almost getting less interesting because.

[Sean Pendergast]

Do you like. Sorry? Do you like the NFL top 100?

[Brandon Scott]

No, I think it's cool. Yeah, I think it's cool.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, Seth's not a big fan of it. I think I've made him come around on it a little bit.

[Brandon Scott]

I'm not a big fan of the rollout.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Like, I don't need. I'm not that desperate for it where I need the anticipation, but.

[Sean Pendergast]

Two per day.

[Brandon Scott]

Two per day. But I do like. And you and I think you and I are similar in this way. Team content.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Like, since I am a content creator and radio, whatever. Like, I appreciate it from that standpoint, if I wasn't that, I would roll my eyes at it a little bit more. But, I mean, if Derwin James is on this list and CJ Stroud has not made it, I don't think we can objectively call CJ Stroud better than Derwin James. And I'll even go further than that. Once I saw Nico Collins make this list. Nico Collins is the best offensive player

[Sean Pendergast]

that the Texans have, 58th on the list.

[Brandon Scott]

So after that, I kind of wipe my hands at that point. I don't think he's going to make the list. Man.

[Sean Pendergast]

I've thought for about a couple of weeks now that when Lamar Jackson showed up at 69, that was it, too. I'm like, cj's cooked. He's not making it. And then. And then Trevor Lawrence pops up at 62. Bo Nicks up pops up at 59. Jalen Hurts at 56 is 1. I just. Jalen Hurts is a tough one to wrap your head around, because by certain criteria, Jalen Hurts is getting screwed at 56. And by other criteria, Jalen Hurts should be happy to be 56.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. You know, I think that's a great

[Sean Pendergast]

way to put it. He's a weird one.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, it's a great way to put it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Caleb Williams at 51, the very guy that CJ was perceived to have big broed after that Sunday Night Football game,

[Brandon Scott]

told him to stop taking all them hits. Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Don't worry about the turnovers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So let me ask you this. These are the nine quarterback names that have been announced with no C.J. stroud. Which one? If C.J. is paying close attention to the top 100, which I would say, C.J. do it. Pay close attention to it so that the petty side of you can be channeled properly and you can stick it in the craw of all these peers of yours that decided not to vote for you for the top 100. And let's have that old C.J. walk through the door. Of these nine names, which one do you think, if you were C.J. stroud? B. Scott. I think it's probably pretty obvious. So we may go one or two names here.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

But if these names. And I'll Count up from 98, where Bryce Young is. Bryce Young at 98. Brock Purdy at 85. Baker Mayfield is 77. These again, these are all their rankings in the NFL. Top 100. Jordan Love, 72. Lamar Jackson, 69, which I just don't get. Trevor Lawrence, 62. Bo Nicks, 59. Jalen Hurts, 56. Caleb Williams, 50. One of those players, which one do you think C.J. was most likely to take his drink and throw it at his computer when

[Brandon Scott]

he saw it, it's gotta be Bryce Young. And then it's gotta be Bo Nicks. Like some. Some combination of those two guys. Yeah, I like. I don't see the. The Lamar Jackson thing is explained simply because of, I think, his injuries last year. He's way better than that. But like Bryce Young making this list and CJ Stroud being omitted. Bo Nicks, look, he showed a lot last year, proved me wrong in a lot of ways. That is not a more talented quarterback than CJ Stroud. I refuse to believe it under any context or circumstance at all. That ain't it. So if, like, if I'm C.J. stroud, I'm throwing my drink at Bryce Young. For the obvious reasons. They're boys. They were drafted right. Right next to each other.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But the boat Knicks one would, I think, offend me.

[Sean Pendergast]

Here's. Here's why. I think it's Bo Nicks again. I'm talking about him throwing his drink at his computer when he sees the reveal.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

If I had to guess, C.J. stroud seeing Bryce Young is 98. If he. If he cared. If he cared enough about this. And again, I'm saying somewhat tongue in cheek, that I hope he cares deeply about this. That's the matter is a lot of the players care about this. My guess is his reaction when he saw Bryce Young at 98 was relief. Like, oh, I definitely made it. I def. You know, like, if Bryce made it at 98, then I'm definitely in the top 100.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I don't think his. I don't think his reaction in the moment at all would have been like, damn it, I didn't make it. Bryce Young did. Whereas Bo Nixon. That's the one that I. I even said that I had that in the rundown. Bo Nicks got revealed a day that Seth was in here. And I remember saying to Seth, I'm like, man, you. He had just. Seth had just heard me the day before kind of saying how much I love this, but I don't get emotionally worked up about it. I just enjoy anything. That's a power ranking for me. I like numbers. Bo Nicks got me upset. I'm like, I cannot believe, like, him being in it at all with CJ not in it, but him being 59th.

[Brandon Scott]

You're right.

[Sean Pendergast]

You're right. Mars 69. And Bo Nix is 59. What the hell? And CJ's not in here at all. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Hell's going on, plain and simple. You're correct. Like, this is an outrage.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, just an outrage.

[Brandon Scott]

Just flat out, full stop. Yeah, this is an outrage.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, man.

[Brandon Scott]

Bo nicks over C.J. stroud.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's the one for me.

[Brandon Scott]

Bo Nicks over Lamar Jackson, everything. You just laid out that that's got to be it.

[Sean Pendergast]

So we're at 50 now. Derwin James just got revealed at 50, which. Which I'm going to close the book on two other Texans who I thought might make it. I thought Kaylin Bullock had a shot,

[Brandon Scott]

but he's not making it ahead of Derwin.

[Sean Pendergast]

I thought. I thought the book was kind of closed on Bullock and Jay. Jaylen Petrie. I'll throw in there as well. Petrie is actually almost more of a doppelganger for Derwin James. Because they play similar roles on the team.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I don't. I think we can cross off Bullock and Petrie for good because they play the same position. I had crossed them off a couple weeks ago, but, like, now it's like, okay, like, Kevin Bayard was 61. I'm like, all right. I could see maybe one of them being viewed as better than Kevin Bayard. Now I think the book is closed.

[Brandon Scott]

How much do you think. Before you move on, how much do you think that the Texans are, like, it's oversaturated. Like, they're a prisoner of their own success. There's too many guys. The conversation we were having earlier about the best secondary in the league, like, I wonder if. And then Derek Stingley, of course, is the best of them all.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I wonder how much they're hurting their own value here. Their own individual value.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. Cause the way.

[Brandon Scott]

Because they're so good collectively.

[Sean Pendergast]

Because the way the voting is done is at least reportedly, you know, we'll see. You know, they. It's not like you've got, you know, some accounting firm overseeing them counting the ballots. I'm guessing. I'm guessing it's. I'm guessing the ballots give them some sort of guidance, and then they use some subjectivity. That said, the way that the players vote is just to list the 20 who they think the 20 best players in football are. And I could totally see that, where they're like, look, I've already got Will Anderson and Sting. What am I going to have? Do the Texans really have five of the best players in football on their defense? I could definitely see that.

[Brandon Scott]

And they might. But, like, you know, voter fatigue of some form of it. Yeah, I could see that.

[Sean Pendergast]

So these are the quarterback. So I think the book is closed on Petrie and Bullock. I think the book is closed on Lassiter. I think he would have been announced by now. That said, I think Stingley and Hunter and Anderson are all going to make it. And I think we're probably, like, a couple weeks away from hearing any of their names. They were all in the top 25. Well, Will was, like, 46. But Will might be top 10 this year. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

I mean, he's the second. He's no worse than the third or fourth best defensive player in football. Probably the second.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

So, yeah, I mean, he's right there with the Miles Garrett, Micah Parsons conversation. Like, he's not. He's not on his way there.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Brandon Scott]

He is there now. Yes. So. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So. So back to the quarterbacks. These are the guys I still think have not been announced yet who are going to make it. Tell me if I get to a name where you don't think they're in the top 50 players.

[Brandon Scott]

Okay.

[Sean Pendergast]

Josh Allen, Drake May, Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Dak Prescott. Jaden Daniels, he was like top 20 last year.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. And he had that injury riddled season,

[Sean Pendergast]

so he only played seven games.

[Brandon Scott]

I mean, he and Burrow also, I mean, they missed time, but everybody knows gonna make it. Oh, he's got. He's and he's. As he should. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Burrow's gonna make it.

[Brandon Scott]

I think Jaden Daniels is gonna make it too.

[Sean Pendergast]

I do too.

[Brandon Scott]

Oddly enough. And I know he had that, you know, injury riddled season, but when he plays, he's kind of undeniable.

[Sean Pendergast]

And he's gonna be in the top 50. He's gonna be. Cause they just announced they're. He's gonna be in the top 49.

[Brandon Scott]

Dude.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

How do you feel if you're C.J. stroud? I mean, I'm looking at these names. You haven't even got through all of them.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'll do the rest of the names. Yeah, go ahead. Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford, who might be number one. And then Sam Darnold, who gets real interesting. I like, there's no way Sam Darnold is behind some of these guys. And yet they're getting to a part of the top 100 here where I'm like, got Sam Darnold, you know, 40th, really, like he's good, but like the 40th best player. But he is the quarterback for the defending super bowl champs.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I don't know if you're allowed to have a list. I don't like. Context be damned. I don't feel like you're allowed to have a quarterback list where Sam Darnold appears ahead of Lamar Jackson. I don't care how many games he missed. I don't care if he missed all games.

[Sean Pendergast]

Buckle up, buttercup here.

[Brandon Scott]

That is absurd. Yeah. What are we doing? I mean, it might. You're right. It could happen. It looks like it might happen.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Brandon Scott]

But that's crazy.

[Sean Pendergast]

So you had thoughts on JD Daniels before we did the rest of the list?

[Brandon Scott]

No, I just think that not just Jaden Daniels, but I keep going back to this. All of these young quarterbacks. All of these quarterbacks. And C.J. stroud himself is a young quarterback.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But all of these guys that have come behind him that we feel like are going to surpass him on this list talking about Caleb Williams, Drake May. Right. Jaden Daniels. I mean like that's a.

[Sean Pendergast]

If you agree that all 10 of those names I just read are still yet to be released revealed. There's nine that have been revealed already. That's 19 quarterbacks. If you had told me before this thing started getting revealed that a player vote, a player vote for the top 100 players would have 19 quarterbacks on it and C.J. stroud was not going to be one of them.

[Brandon Scott]

If I had told you that, win.

[Sean Pendergast]

If you had told me that before they revealed the very first player. Okay, okay. If you told me that before they revealed player number 100, whoever that was, I think it was Quentin Nelson. If you had told me before they revealed that that there's going to be 19 quarterbacks in here, I would have said, all right, well, CJ's probably like 13th among them, which would have put him like in the 70s somewhere. Yeah, it would have put him like, it would have put him like around where Trevor Lawrence is at 62. The ones is a Texan fan. That might be Bo Nix. Bo Nix offends me as a football watcher.

[Brandon Scott]

Bo Nix was the one I didn't mention. Who comes after C.J. stroud.

[Sean Pendergast]

There you go. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Trevor Lawrence might be the one as a Texan fan that irritates me the most that he's in there and CJ Stroud isn't. And I know Trevor Lawrence had a better season last year. He was an MVP finalist. I get that. I, I just need to wait and see on Trevor Lawrence before he's had two really good halves of seasons in his five year career. Yeah, that's what he's had. That's why they've been picking so high in most seasons when Trevor Lawrence has been the quarterback of their football team.

[Brandon Scott]

After the first two seasons of C.J. stroud's time in the league, I felt pretty comfortable saying that Houston, the Texans had the best quarterback in the AFC South. I still feel pretty comfortable with that. Even if I have to acknowledge that year three for C.J. stroud is advantage Trevor Lawrence. But it does put you put into perspective of where you are right now. I mean again after the rookie year, I've got C.J. stroud top seven, top eight in his position.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

You know, just, just based off of that gear alone.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, here's one.

[Brandon Scott]

And we're way past that now.

[Sean Pendergast]

What if, if Jaden Daniels is omitted, what's the more, what's the more startling omission? C.J. stroud or Jaden Daniels. If he's omitted from the top 100,

[Brandon Scott]

the more startling omission would be Jaden Daniels. I think. I think so. Yeah. I mean he was, he was really good. Obviously he was amazing his rookie year and just up and down in and out of the lineup last year, but still amazing when he played.

[Sean Pendergast]

This list is not just performance last season. Otherwise Jaden Daniels wouldn't be on the list.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's. We know this firsthand here. J.J. watt still made the NFL top 100 after the seasons where he hurt his back and after the season where

[Brandon Scott]

he

[Sean Pendergast]

tore his or broke his tibial plateau.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was in the top one. He was like 35 the year after he played three games and he was like in the 80s the year after the leg. So for great players, they account for injury.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, it's the, it's the reason why Lamar Jackson is in the 60s and not in the 20s. Yeah. Right. It's just because he was injured. But nobody is like fooled themselves into thinking that Lamar Jackson can't play anymore.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, that's not happening.

[Sean Pendergast]

A few people texting in. Yeah. There's breaking news. We don't have all the details yet, but yeah, Eric B. Enemy, the once again offensive coordinator, Right. For the Kansas City Chiefs.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, he's going to be returning in his first year back as their offensive coordinator this year. I think he was with the Bears the last couple of years. If I'm not mistaken.

[Sean Pendergast]

He spent a little time at ucla. He's. Yeah. So he's, he's been, he's been out of the offensive coordinator role in the NFL for a while, but he's back to the place where he was an offensive coordinator for some super bowl teams. His wife was shot at their home in Virginia on Sunday. Now it sounds like the Enemy is in Missouri at Chiefs training camp. So, you know, is. Because that's the first question I think people ask. Was it a domestic dispute of some sort of. So we don't have all the details on it. We'll find the articles during the break. But yeah, that's some scary news.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. Nate Taylor from the ESPN saying that Eric B. Enemy was with the Chiefs earlier Sunday, earlier Sunday in St. Joseph, Missouri at the campus of their training camp. So that leads you to believe that that's where he was when all of this happened. But what a very scary thing to happen. And all thoughts and prayers and all of those things with the B. Enemy family.

[Sean Pendergast]

No doubt. No doubt. All right, Brandon Scott in four. Seth Payne as We roll on here in the nine o' clock hour. All right. We had a couple players going to the Baseball hall of Fame with Astro ties this weekend. I am curious if anybody watched. Did we see Astro fans up there supporting Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent? My question though, B. Scott, is this of the future hall of Famers in this town? Which ones are non negotiable must go pilgrimages to Canton or Cooperstown or Springfield?

[Brandon Scott]

Springfield.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, we'll do that. I've got two at least. We'll do those. Sports Radio 610 presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right, good to be with you on a Monday. Hope you had a great weekend. Sean Pendergast, Brandon Scott in for Seth Payne. Seth will be back on Wednesday, which just so happens to also be the first day of Texans training camp. I think the fellas are all back in the building tomorrow. And then practice first practices on is on Wednesday.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, man. It'll be all hands on deck Wednesday, man. The team, the, the Texans actual team, our radio team is going to be lit. Yep.

[Sean Pendergast]

Gonna be great. And just keep it tuned here to Sports Radio 610. And then like halfway through training camp, all of a sudden, poof, we'll be 95. 7 the fan. So we got some exciting times coming up here. Yeah. If you missed it, if you're on vacation last week, we should probably talk about it almost every segment. But you probably hear the promos running. We are moving to an FM stick, as they say. 95. 7 the fan station will still run on 610. It'll be 6. 10 the fan over here. But we still get texts from people like is 610 still going to be around? Because people, they like nostalgia. Some of them, some of them enjoy nostalgia and may have a fetish for light static.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Might turn them on. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But you know, their own. To each their own. I will say though, this is not quite like, like, you know, Sean, some people who still like to listen to their music on a record player.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But that's a little comeback. But that's a little bit different. Like there is a charm in the different sound on the record player.

[Sean Pendergast]

Someone say the record's better. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

That's much different from the AM vs FM dial. But it reminds me of the same type of feel. I remember back when it used to sound like this.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

Versus how it sounds now.

[Sean Pendergast]

We can all agree the worst was cassette tapes.

[Brandon Scott]

Yes.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was the worst sounding of all of them were just more portable.

[Brandon Scott]

That's not just the worst sounding, but could also make the most of a mess, like the biggest mess. If you were to. If the tape was to.

[Sean Pendergast]

Tape got stuck.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, my God. So glad we're past that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Bad times.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, so Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran went into the Baseball hall of Fame this weekend. Definite ties to the Astros. I don't know which cap each of them is wearing or, you know, which cap is going to be on their plaque for. I didn't bother to look up, I would think. I think Jeff Kent, to me, is most associated Giant. He's a giant.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Him and Barry Bonds. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

That's a giant.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's a giant. Carlos Beltran is an interesting one because he rose to prominence as a Kansas City royal.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And. But he was probably the best version of himself as a New York Met.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, he's a man.

[Sean Pendergast]

Or he might have been. You know, those early years, he was like a 40, 40 guy. Yeah. In. In Kansas City.

[Brandon Scott]

That Astro run, too, though, was pretty damn good.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, it was as short as it was Very short. It was short. It was crazy productive.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

The 2004 one, 2017, was just a different flavor. Yeah, it was just different flavor. Here is a leader and things like that. But I, you know, I. I get the sense that Astro fans are happy for both guys. You know, I. I don't know what the sign stealing scandal did for Carlos Beltran's Q rating here in Houston. What I got to thinking, though, was I. I have never been to a Hall of Fame induction ceremony before. We thought. Amy and I thought about going to Andres Andre Johnson's ceremony up in Canton a couple years ago.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

It just didn't work out because the Texans were playing in the hall of Fame game. I had to stay back here to do some duties here. It just didn't make sense to travel. The one I'm really sad that I've missed was Jeff Bagwell's. Yeah. Because I. I mean, I told you this last week. You know, Jeff Bagwell played sports in the same conference that my school was in back in high school. So I've known about Bagwell since he was a 36 goal scorer in soccer back.

[Brandon Scott]

Played soccer against your brother?

[Sean Pendergast]

Against my brother. Yeah. So. So I was. I was really mad at myself for not going to that one. And I told myself, man, if someone is at that level going into the hall of Fame, you know, career guy, icon, I said, I'm gonna go. Whoever it is, I'm gonna Go. So I've got two non negotiable must gos that I will be at one way or the other, I will find a way to be there. And if I need to be back on Monday for work, I'll be back on Monday for work.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Jose Altuve, J.J. watt.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I think those are pretty safe.

[Sean Pendergast]

Those are the two non negotiable must go they that for you also.

[Brandon Scott]

They are non negotiable. Now I'm not in the same position. I'm not even sure if I'll be allowed to negotiate. Like in a perfect world, let's just, let's just make this fun and say in the perfect world, if I'm, if I rule the world, if I can make it non negotiable.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

These would be the two on the top of my list. I will say though that a number, another name that's about to be come up that's not a non negotiable should be a non negotiable. But it's his own. It's not our fault. It's his own fault. I think that he's not a non negotiable. He should be far more revered by the Houston sports fan base than he is. But he's lower on this list and I think it's his own doing. Okay, okay, we'll get there.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, we'll get there. So I've got these in, in different buckets.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. So the first bucket is non negotiable must go. Jose Altuve and J.J. watt. And admittedly it's easy for me to say that my kids are all grown up. I don't have to. You know what I mean? Like there's, I get it for people like life happens. I know that.

[Brandon Scott]

Exactly.

[Sean Pendergast]

Serious consideration is the next category. These are for me, serious consideration. Curious what you think. B. Scott, Justin Verlander. Daniel Hunter.

[Brandon Scott]

I like the Neil Hunter. Daniel Hunter is kind of a late ad for me because like I think he's always had, and it has only extended and made better a low key kind of quiet hall of fame career, so to speak, or hall of fame resume I should say. But I wouldn't have necessarily put him on this list before last year. And he's really sort of just like solidifying himself as one of the all time great Texans in a really short amount of time. So I, I'm good with both of these guys.

[Sean Pendergast]

And he's from here too.

[Brandon Scott]

From here. From the Katy area. Morton Ranch.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, I'm with that.

[Sean Pendergast]

You. So you're with yeah, Verlander is one. You know, I, I, it's, that's, he's.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, Sean, there used to be a Verlander day, like when he, yeah, like we called it that. I understand Hunter Brown's the ace now, and we've had other really good pitchers, great pitchers here, but Verlander, specifically Verlander day. And in 2022, when he won the Cy Young, I made a habit to just go park my fanny right there in the Crawford boxes and just watch him do his thing.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's the second most meaningful player of that stretch behind Jose Altuve. To me, you can, you can argue Alex Bregman, you can probably argue George Springer, Carlos Correa, Jordan a little bit later on. No one's more meaningful than Jose Altuveta. That run, nobody. And Justin Verlander's number two.

[Brandon Scott]

I think that's accurate.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right. If I'm in the area, this is the third bucket. These are ones I would go to if I happen to be in upstate New York.

[Brandon Scott]

Why does if I'm in the area feel passive?

[Sean Pendergast]

Does it feel, does it feel a little dismissive?

[Brandon Scott]

Feels a little dismissive. A little bit.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, I'm not going out of my way to buy a thousand dollar airline ticket or anything. You know what I mean?

[Brandon Scott]

Like, I get the, yeah, the gist

[Sean Pendergast]

of it's better than no. Which is the next category if I'm in the area. DeAndre Hopkins. Have we gotten to the one yet that you teased?

[Brandon Scott]

Not yet. We're getting here.

[Sean Pendergast]

We're getting there. Zach Granky. I like this one because I think the speech would be incredible. James Harden.

[Brandon Scott]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay, there's the one.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. I mean, let me finish up this bucket and then we'll back to Harden. Chris Paul. Honey badger.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I know it's just one year, but I like the Honey Badger.

[Brandon Scott]

I love the Honey Badger. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I would go if I would. If I happen to be in the, in the Greater Cleveland and Canton area in the last first week of August, first weekend in August, I'd make an effort to go watch him go in.

[Brandon Scott]

I also feel like his speech would be memorable. I would want to be thousand. I would want to be there for it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, he's a, he's a redemption story, too. So there's probably a lot of very interesting nuggets of his upbringing that he would cite in that speech.

[Brandon Scott]

100%.

[Sean Pendergast]

Kevin Durant's the last one. I would go to Kevin Durant's. I know people feel A certain kind of way about Durant these days. I would go to his hall of Fame speech if I happened to be in Springfield, Massachusetts. Okay, circling back, your tease on James Harden, which has now been revealed, was

[Brandon Scott]

what, dude, James Harden should be one

[Sean Pendergast]

of those guys should be on the Altuve Watt level.

[Brandon Scott]

I think so.

[Sean Pendergast]

But accomplishment wise, he 100% should be.

[Brandon Scott]

But it's his own fault. I think it's a couple of things. It's the style of play, which I think Rockets fans, a lot of them, had to negotiate themselves into rooting for, especially the ones that weren't children when he was playing. Like, there are a lot of people that are adults now that were kids when James Harden got here and view him as, like, some kind of godly figure. So they're not in this bucket, but all of us who were adults when James Harden got here and had to kind of, like, adjust and decide that we. We were okay with this style of play. Those people feel a certain way. The playoff shortcomings. It's hard to kind of, like, divorce yourself from that, as if it's not a part of the James Harden story and narrative overall. But certainly since he's been in Houston. And then, of course, how he left.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

The fact that he left in sort of a hissy fit with sort of a disregard to the fact that the. The Rockets were in that position that they were in in large part because they were trying to. To placate him, you know, so it's like this. A lot of this was your doing. The Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul trade happens because of you to begin with, and now we're just not good enough. Well, no bleep, Sherlock. It's because of you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Texter agrees with you. Says Harden's done so much for the community and single moms.

[Brandon Scott]

That's great.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, it is great. These are sports fans we're talking about. I am a sports fan. I do not like the way he left either.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm saying I would go. He's not in the next bucket, which is no effing way. Which would be Garrett Cole, Russell Westbrook, and if he keeps putting a few good years together from revival, Des,

[Brandon Scott]

you already know for me, is in the definitive Hell no. He is. He is in. He's definitely in the. Can't say it on the radio. Fcc. No. Yes version for me, for sure. I ain't going.

[Sean Pendergast]

I won't be there too early to tell if there's a conversation to be had about them like this, because I don't. None of These. Well, the only ones that are surefire hall of Famers are Altuve, Watt, Verlander, Granky, Harden and Paul like Tyrant Matthews. Borderline. Oh, Kevin Durant. Also like DeAndre Hopkins. If I had to bet, I would say DeAndre Hopkins might not get in in my lifetime. I have no idea. You know, I.

[Brandon Scott]

You're So the lifetime part is the key because he's going to get in at some point.

[Sean Pendergast]

Some point. Yeah. Better in his committee and it's a

[Brandon Scott]

log jam at that position. Wide receiver is one of the more tricky ones to try to predict. But hey, look, I think if you really look at it, Daniel Hunter.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

Like he's got to be. He's got a low key like easy hall of Fame resume.

[Sean Pendergast]

If he did what he has done in his career in New York, he'd be in. He'd be a surefire thing.

[Brandon Scott]

Or if he just talked a little.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, it's a combination of a soft spoken personality with playing in Minnesota, which, you know, for a lot of the people that vote on these things that follow the NFL might or that drive the narrative on these things because ultimately it's 50 people in a room that decide that probably no Minnesota better. But the narratives for segments like this, Minnesota might as well be Manitoba.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. By the time he gets his shot at it. I don't know if McClain will still be around doing this sort of thing. But whoever is that version of, you know, the, the next generation's version of John McClain, hell, it could be me. I don't know. But whoever's doing that needs to make sure that they go out of their way to make this case to Neil Hunter because he's not going to make the case for himself.

[Sean Pendergast]

Too early to tell if there's a combo to be had. But I can tell you right now, I would be front and center at Will Anderson Junior's induction.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

If he keeps doing this for another eight years or whatever it is.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. I don't have a lot in my savings, but I would bet every dollar of it on Will Anderson Jr. Making

[Sean Pendergast]

it the two that it's too early to tell if they are going to be hall of Famers, but if they continue to do things the way they are, stay healthy, etc. That I would put into the non negotiable must go Will Anderson Jr. Jordan Alvarez.

[Brandon Scott]

Agreed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

Agreed.

[Sean Pendergast]

Those, those are non negotiables.

[Brandon Scott]

100%.

[Sean Pendergast]

Two of my favorite players.

[Brandon Scott]

I think by the time it's all said and done, Jordan Alvarez has a chance to be the best I know right now, it's Jose Altuve. Yeah. I think he's got a shot to be the best Astro of all time. We'll just, we'll see how it goes. Gotta stay healthy, but he's got a shot.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's the best hitter I've ever seen. The conversation you're talking about. I know. Factors more into what is the total body of worker look like.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah. And team success.

[Sean Pendergast]

I've never seen a better hitter than him. Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

But. But like, if they can reinvent themselves as a squad and like, let's say, make a couple of more runs at it. And. And Jordan's already a part of the previous era. Yeah. He's. He's in that conversation.

[Sean Pendergast]

We'll find out what the guy's got going on. On in the loop. What's the question of the day here on a Monday on Sports Radio 6 10. As long as we're talking about nostalgia and Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran going into the hall of Fame, there was some interesting nostalgia with the Astros going on this weekend. Kind of the other type of nostalgia that we'll get to. We'll set up this series that they've got going on with with the Angels over the next few days. We'll do all of that. Coming West Point, Lincoln of Sugarland Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right, Sean Pendergast. Brandon Scott in for Seth Payne in tomorrow as well. And then Seth will be back for the first day of training camp for the Texans on Wednesday this week, August 13th. Circle it. That is when Sports Radio 610 transforms into 95. 7 the Fan and 610 the Fan we will simulcast on both stations. So we're very excited about that. The Astros are 52 and 55, so we'll lay out the upcoming slew of baseball for the Strohs here in a little bit under.500. And yet still only two games back in the west and two games back of the wild card right now.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

With a series against the Angels coming up here. Imai pitching tonight. I believe I'm not mistaken.

[Brandon Scott]

You. You just cannot count them. You cannot rule them out. Despite the fact that it's been largely underwhelming at the very least. Like up and down or. Or down, then up.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

And then from there kind of like almost like a plateau because they felt like a.500 baseball team for a little while now, but you just can't count them out. And this was my thing from watching them over the weekend. It's like, okay, now, I've watched him do this a couple of times in a couple of weeks. You know, they do it a couple of weeks ago against the Rays. They do it this past weekend against the White Sox. These are two of the better teams in the American League. The Astros have not confused you into thinking that they're one of the better teams in the American League, but there they are competing with the best teams in the American League and with a puncher's chance of actually either winning their division or backing their way into this thing as a wild card. So it's interesting.

[Sean Pendergast]

They have Emi going tonight. They got Lambert going on Tuesday, and then Wednesday, there's no listed starter. So we'll see. We'll see what happens with, with, with that. And then they're off on Thursday this week. Look, this is a big week for. What does this team think it is?

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, you got three games against the Angels, which are games you should win. It's not a good baseball team, the Angels. And then you got a day off. And then you come back here for three against the Texas Rangers. That's it. Before the trade deadline. Whatever you think you are is going to be shaped by the next seven days, the next six games in seven days, because then the trade deadlines the next day. The trade deadline is Monday, about two hours before the first pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays here at Dyke and Park.

[Brandon Scott]

And it does feel like. Like, you correct me if you think you're. If you think I'm wrong on this, but it does feel like we know who the Astros are. Like, it. It feels like this is who they are. Like they're an up and down, somewhat average, sometimes slightly above, sometimes slightly below, but mostly average baseball team. But top heavy in the lineup.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Brandon Scott]

With a bonafide ace pitcher, which is what we learned over the weekend, or were reintroduced to in Hunter Brown returning the form on Saturday against the White Sox.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was big.

[Brandon Scott]

It's like, okay, they got a couple of key ingredients to a team that could make a run. They've got an ace. They got a couple of guys that we're still trying to figure out how much we trust. But it does feel like they've got at least perhaps two more trustworthy starting pitchers. And then we know that. That that lineup is front loaded.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

With. With your nine clearly being the star of it, the MVP of it all. So they've got some ingredients, man.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. Absolutely. Of course, this texter completely disagrees with you. Would you please stop talking about the Astros like they have A chance in the playoffs. Yes, they're only two games out of playoff contention, but they're not going anywhere. Can't you be realistic? No, they suck.

[Brandon Scott]

No, this is the thing, though. He's right. They do suck. But what we're trying to illustrate to you, what we're trying to articulate to you is that they all suck. And they don't suck the most out of all the sucky teams. Like, it's a weird. It's one of those really weird and strange years where I'm not trying to, like, oversell the Astros to you, but I'm trying to properly sell the pitiful American League to you and let you know that the Astros, pitiful as they might be, could actually be in the mix.

[Sean Pendergast]

Cleveland. Cleveland is 54 and 53. They are the final wild card team. 54 and 53. Twins are one game back. Seattle, a game and a half back. Astros two games back. Boy, it's like you're counting by half a game. Baltimore, God, if you had just taken one of those games. Yeah, you're, you know, you got a little bit of daylight, but they're two and a half back.

[Brandon Scott]

Getting swept by Baltimore is a feather in the Texas cap. Like an argument.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, sure.

[Brandon Scott]

Like, what are we doing?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. No, I'm not here to tell you that this is the. That this is the 2022 Astros or any. Or 2019 Astros or any of those teams that. That went to ALCS is. Not at all. Not one bit. I am just a sports fan who happens to like it when my teams make the postseason. You know, but I understand it. I get it. And I think there's some people. And I said this last week, B. Scott. And I'll say it again. I. I think there are Astro fans out there that Wish they were 10 games under.500 instead of three games under.500, because then they would be more likely to take what is probably the pragmatic approach, which is to flip some of the assets that you have into more long term assets.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, this is where I was at least a month ago, maybe six weeks ago, where I'm like, man, the writing is on the wall. It is best. And it is time to rip the band aid off with this Astros thing. Like, rip the band aid off from the previous era and start thinking about the long term health and viability of the franchise. Now, the big question with that was, are the people in charge, the people that Jim Crane has employed for him now, are those the people that you want making the decisions? Yep. Are those the People that you want the future of the franchise, like say you trade Jeremy Pena or God forbid, where to trade Hunter Brown or somebody better than that. Would you want the return for a player like that to be, to be entrusted in the hands of somebody that's not going to be here in four to five months or however long it's going to be?

[Sean Pendergast]

It's a great point. It's a great point. And here my, my issue is, is that Jim Crane, if he's smart, which he is, if he's, if he were to let Dana Brown and I don't think they're trading guys away. I, I don't. But I think even, even if they're buying at the deadline, I think Jim Crane needs to have some oversight here because Dana Brown's trying to save his job.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

So if you're doing it with no oversight, then Dana Brown's got to look at it like, I don't care what Xavier Nyons is like three years from now, I might not be here three months from now.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I think Jim Crane has to have oversight whether they're buying or selling. He needs to be look, looking and scrutinizing. And in my opinion, this is where it gets a little scary. Taking the deals that Dana Brown puts together and getting a second opinion on it. My issue there is who's he getting the second opinion from? Yeah, is he getting the second opinion from the same people who are giving him second opinions when he was the GM, Jim Crane for like two months back in 2023?

[Brandon Scott]

So just based on that was not

[Sean Pendergast]

good advice he was getting back then.

[Brandon Scott]

Based on the history which you're describing and just having around these guys a little bit, it does seem like, like obviously Jim Crane has the interest, like the long term health of the franchise in his best interest as the owner of the team. But the way he's wired and thinks, I think would be more in line. Not because they're motivated by the same things, but just because they would be wired in the same way. Dana Brown want to go all in, go for broke and trying to save his job. Yeah. But also Jim Crane would just like that competitive nature. Oh, we're always in it, you know, we're always going to the windows always going to be open. Even if he does have the long term health of the franchise in his best interest. Still thinking sort of consistently with Dana Brown, even if their interests are he.

[Sean Pendergast]

He walked away from a GM who I think people thought was maybe a little too conservative in James Click. I think in retrospect James Click that, that that's when the franchise turned. We could do a whole segment on that. But then walking away from James Klik is when it's, you know, it was a wild, wild west for a little while.

[Brandon Scott]

I do want to say, like, I'm not trying to take any kind of victory lapse because I care about the long term health of the franchise as well. But at the time I said this was a, this was not a good idea. This was not great. Did not love the way that they just kind of unceremoniously parted ways with James Clicker, decided not to bring him back. And because they were coming off the World Series victory and I understand it, we were kind of like, click schmick, like, forget him, Jim Crane, let's go. If this is what he thinks. But at the time, I'm like, I don't know about that. And now looking back at it, I'm not taking a victory. Like, I'm just thinking, hey, I really wish that we would have given that a little bit more thought.

[Sean Pendergast]

He had no idea that Jeff Bagwell's contributions were going to be as damaging as they're perceived to be. Maybe I'm off base on that. You know, maybe it's, maybe, you know, Bagwell wasn't as strong a voice in the room or what. I have no idea.

[Brandon Scott]

Well, whether he was or not, I think the big point is that we sort of just overestimated Jim Crane like we can be. You can be thankful for him buying the team and turning the franchise around and winning these World Series and having this run, the AOCS Invitational here in Houston and all of that. Give him credit for that. But also acknowledge that he probably went a little bit too far by not bringing this guy back.

[Sean Pendergast]

Hey, we got to get to the nostalgia part of this before we talk to the guys on in the Loop. The nostalgia part of the Astros yesterday, the good part was Jeff Kent, Carlos Beltran going into the hall of Fame.

[Brandon Scott]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

The sad part over the weekend, Lance McCullers, DFA by the brewers after two appearances and 11 days and four and two thirds innings.

[Brandon Scott]

So imagine to be a semi old school Astros fan. And when I say semi old school, I'm talking about late 2010s, early 2010.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, the early part of the golden era.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah, when this era, when this Lance McCullough, this era starts to kind of really start to hum, you get Lance McCullers, DFA'd by the brewers, but also, like out of nowhere, Dallas Kaikos signing a minor league deal.

[Sean Pendergast]

They had two pitchers make the All Star team in 2017. The Astros did. They were Dallas Keiko and Lance McCullers. And this weekend, Lance McCullers was DFA'd by the Brewers 11 days after being traded there. I. We can say it now. Like I like now, especially like I was kind of trying to talk my way into Lance kind of recapturing something in a different, you like, change of scenery kind of thing.

[Brandon Scott]

It's easy to.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm rooting for him. I like Lance. So I was trying to talk myself into it. Like, not in retrospect. The Bruise brewers lit $2 million on fire. Yeah, they just dumped gasoline all over 2 million bucks and took a match and said, oh, let's burn this good for them. And someone said to me, when I said that yesterday, they're like, well, they got Colton Gordon in the the deal too. Have you looked at his number since he got to their Triple A team? He's got like a 7 era for their AAA team.

[Brandon Scott]

Hey, worth the shot, right?

[Sean Pendergast]

Kyle signs a minor league deal with the A's. Dallas K's career is a fascinating one. He pitched seven seasons in Houston and he had a 366 ERA. He had a WHIP of a little over 1.2. Like decent number. Those are decent numbers, not great numbers. Yeah, but then you get to 2014 where he, you know, he won 12 games that year. The next year he wins 20. And wins the Cy Young from 2014 to 2018. His last year here, 3.28 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, won a Cy Young Award, made the All Star team a couple of times.

[Brandon Scott]

He's the first pitching star. So I know put Jose Altuve to the side for a second. He's the first pitching star to emerge from this Astros run.

[Sean Pendergast]

No. No question. And. And it doesn't show up on the. On Baseball Reference, but reportedly a big part of the sales pitch to Justin Verlander to waive his no trade clause.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Back in 2017. So Dallas Keiko is a significant figure in this era of Astros baseball since he left Houston. And this is just the stuff that's showing up on his major league Paige because he's been in the minors. And I don't know if Dallas Keiko and maybe John Lopez or Reggie Attitude knows. I can't recall. Has Dallas Keiko pitched in any of the International leagues either. Has he pitched in Mexico? I don't think so. I'm off the top of my head though, so. But I know he's been in the minors. Yeah. And we know he's going to the minors with the A's. His ERA since leaving Houston, just at the major league level, 5.03. And that includes a Covid season where he was top five for the Cy Young. It looked like he had kind of recaptured his magic. And he was like 6 and 2 with like a 19 era in the COVID season. And then, you know, Dallas Keiko, depending on if you think they changed the strike zone around. And he was a victim of that because he lived in that lower part of the strike zone. Yeah. So now everything. All his stuff is basically all the stuff that was a 12 count before, was a 30 count now, that kind of thing. So, you know, I didn't watch him enough to know that what they. But if that had the most to do with it.

[Brandon Scott]

Hey, look, he was apparently last in Japan. Oh, really? Yeah. But two years ago. Yeah. And that's when he last pitched. Yeah. What is he doing? That's a guy that loves baseball.

[Sean Pendergast]

How much? Okay. Yes.

[Brandon Scott]

That's a guy that loves baseball.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know how you know this? How much do you think? I know the number already. How much money do you think Dallas Keiko has made in his career? He's been pitching since 2012. Got that one decent sized deal from the White Sox. I'm gonna say three year deal back in the day. 90 million, Reggie.

[Brandon Scott]

Oh, it's got to be more than that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Brandon Scott]

I was imagining. But also the way that this has

[Sean Pendergast]

been set up makes me wonder if it's a lot lower than it should than that. I was gonna go like 100. It's a little over a hundred million. Okay. It's like a hundred point three million dollars. Yeah. That was higher than I thought.

[Brandon Scott]

He loves baseball to be.

[Sean Pendergast]

He must.

[Brandon Scott]

And.

[Sean Pendergast]

And like, just not. Loves being a major league baseball player.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Loves being in the clubhouse. Loves the process of it. Probably Big one likes being, quote around the guys.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Like, I like being just, you know, what's the always asking.

[Brandon Scott]

I always say, what do you think

[Sean Pendergast]

you're gonna miss the most? I miss being around the guys.

[Brandon Scott]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, I don't know, man.

[Brandon Scott]

Once he. He married Kelly Nash in 2022, and I thought he was just gonna ride off into the. The sunset. Beautiful wife, accomplished career, made all of this money. Yeah. Still got that strong beard, kind of like Reggie's. Like, it's all working for my man.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was just trimmed, mind you.

[Brandon Scott]

What are we doing? Go live your life, my man. Yeah. That's one of your life.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's one of Those things where on. From the outside looking in, it's like, oh, man, you got everything. And you're on the inside, you're like, this don't feel.

[Brandon Scott]

This ain't.

[Sean Pendergast]

This isn't hitting me the way I want to.

[Brandon Scott]

Apparently empty inside, especially these dudes that

[Sean Pendergast]

are professional athletes, man. And it's. It's something that's seems obvious, but I feel like we can never feel it unless we were inside that competition does something different to him, man. There's not really. There's not a. There's not a comparison for it.

[Brandon Scott]

I think I was.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was the piece that. Was it Seth Wickersham that embedded himself with Sean during this last off season. Apparently, Bill Parcells gave him a call at some point. Like, Sean Payton. They keeping touch. And some of this is just because Bill Parcells want to stay around it. Bill Parcell's old ass is just like, I love it. I still need it. Yeah. Like they're junkies. Yeah. This stuff. This stuff is. It gives it somewhere in there. I don't know, like, psychology or really, honestly, probably down to their DNA, man.

[Brandon Scott]

Like this.

[Sean Pendergast]

Their biology is different, and they need this.

[Brandon Scott]

But when was the last time that Dallas Kaiko's biology was competitive?

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, he's chasing the high.

[Brandon Scott]

When was the last time this man was truly competitive? I mean, he was. Was in Japan two years ago and hasn't pitched since and has not been good in like half a decade or more.

[Sean Pendergast]

Bring him back here, please. Don't. At least let him pitch in Sugar Land.

[Brandon Scott]

Hey, we just.

[Sean Pendergast]

They just here.

[Brandon Scott]

They just traded Lance McCullers. Yeah. And Sean wants to go back and bring back. Maybe that's.

[Sean Pendergast]

Sean's another type of junkie. Sean's like nostalgia junkie. I'm a huge. Just give me more tits. I'm a huge, huge nostalgia junkie. Yes, I get it. I'm the guy that wants the Undertaker in WrestleMania every year. He can't walk anymore. All right? And you're gonna accelerate that time by continuing to bring him back to whatever it takes, man. It's all about.