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Rockets Opening Night
35 Plays1 year ago
The episode kicks off with Tim Costello and Scott Barzilla discussing the Houston Rockets, as the show was recorded on Opening Night. They talk about the Rockets' decision to extend Jalen Green and Alperen Şengün earlier in the week, analyzing the importance of these moves for the team's future.
The conversation then shifts to football, where the hosts break down the Texans' loss to the Packers. They criticize the Texans' offensive line, calling its performance embarrassing, but praise the defense for playing inspired football.
Next, the duo reflects on the passing of baseball legend Fernando Valenzuela and the lasting cultural impact of "Fernandomania."
As usual, the episode wraps up with the popular "Horses Ass of the Week," "Tips of the Cap," and "Scumbag of the Week" awards. This time, they also introduce a new "Special Comment" section, adding another layer of commentary to the show.
This episode delivers the signature mix of Houston sports insights and lively banter that fans have come to expect.
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Be sure to follow the Born on the Bayou Sports Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089663917792
Find the guys on Twitter:
@Tim_Costello10
Scott Barzilla also contributes for:
https://www.battleredblog.com/
https://halloffameindex.com/
https://scottbarzilla.substack.com/
Tim Contributes for:
https://scottbarzilla.substack.com/s/tims-spot?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=menu
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Born on the Bayou Sports'
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to Born on the Bayou Sports, a Houston sports show made for Houstonians by Houstonians. Join Tim Costello and Scott Barzilla every week as they break down the latest in Houston Astros, Rockets and Texans news. Tim's a former minor league broadcaster and Scott has written two books on the Baseball Hall of Fame.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, if probably Eric could get it figured out, it would make things a lot easier because he was that guy everybody was counting on this year to be a Cy Young candidate, take that big step forward and and help anchor this rotation with Pomer. Since he's come to Houston, you can look at the development of guys like Carlos Correa defensively, Jeremy Peña defensively, you know, Alex Bregman, you know, certainly I think I'm better than average third baseman.
00:00:56
Speaker
And now you're putting teams in 3rd and 8th, 3rd and 7th, 3rd and 9th. Now here comes Will Anderson. Pin back your ears, let's go. So if you're by you, born and bred, or just like spending time in the age, sit down, relax, and stay Houston strong.
00:01:23
Speaker
Welcome back in born on the bayou
New Feature from Substack Writing
00:01:27
Speaker
sports. Tim Costello, Scott Barzilla coming to you on a rockets opening night. Scott, how are we doing? We're doing great. And tonight's going to be kind of a different kind of show. We're going to throw in a little extra feature that I don't think you'll see very often, but I think kind of inspired by Tim and my writing, you know, for our sub stack page, but.
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of did do a little bit of advertising, Tim. One of my favorite things to do when I do the Hall of Fame index is when you can compare two very similar players. So I'm just going to throw this out there.
Whose Career is Preferable: Goldschmidt or Freeman?
00:02:03
Speaker
Who's career would you rather have? Paul Goldschmidt or Freddie Freeman? You know, I think pretty similar guys, right? At the end of the day, but Freddie's got the ring.
00:02:17
Speaker
and And to me, I'm um'm always gonna want the guy that's got the ring, Scott. Yeah, unfortunately, Goldschmidt, you know, playing most of his career with the Diamondbacks, you know, they they haven't really been in the postseason that often. I don't know that you could really put that on him necessarily. And then, you know, of course, trades to the Cardinals, and the Cardinals have been decent. You know, and Freeman might have a chance to add that second ring here this year. Yeah, I think Freeman,
00:02:46
Speaker
Playoff-wise has had more opportunities that goes down to team success, but um I Mean career-wise I think they're both probably Pretty close to the Hall of Fame. I I would bet Freeman gets in first. I think he has kind of been more visible in the media visible in the face of his team whether it was at the Braves or now he's in LA and And as as much as I hate it, you know, guys who are affable with the media tend to get the votes first. Yeah. And the other part is that he sees, I say only 35. I mean, um, I guess, you know, you and I feel differently about the age 35, uh, since I don't think you're quite there yet. Um, and I passed that quite a bit of ago, but, uh, he did drive in over a hundred runs this year.
00:03:41
Speaker
And so while I think they're equal in the index, I think if you were to buy futures, you definitely put your money on Freeman since Goldschmidt looked like he was, uh, me kind of screw, uh, kind of slowing down, we'll just say. I mean, different situations too, though, right? Where Freeman kind of is allowed to just exist because there's so much talent in that Dodgers lineup. He can just go out and do his thing on a day to day basis where realistically,
00:04:09
Speaker
Gold's been there or not, or kind of being asked to carry all the heavy lifted over there in St. Louis. And, um, you know, we, we saw during the bear years here in Houston, even if you have good quality MLB talent on your roster, when you don't have it surrounded with other quality MLB talent, those guys can get exposed. Yeah. Wilson Contreras though, just fell off his couch.
00:04:34
Speaker
That's you.
Rockets' Strategic Moves and Contracts
00:04:35
Speaker
you know You gave me a good one the other day to Scott you sent me play ray player B and and they ended up both being Carlos Lee right where it was Carlos Lee before his Astros contract and Carlos Lee after his Astros contract and and and the difference was minimal realistically, so I enjoy the brain teasers. I enjoy the comparisons of players and We'll have to keep this up for the for the podcast fans.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I think with Lee, I think the point is, and that kind of leads into our number one story, which for the first time in at least several months, is your Houston Rockets. ah You mentioned it in the opening. They're opening the season tonight. As we sit here, they're sitting there at the half having a double digit lead over the Charlotte Hornets who may be undermanned, but Um, obviously the big news is two big contracts for Jalen Green and Alparison Goone. And so, you know, I guess, you know, just to lead us off, what what are your feelings on those two contracts? I like them. You know, I, I really do. I think both guys got the payday that they were looking for going into the season. Um, but I think that they don't.
00:06:00
Speaker
hinder the Rockets in terms of We're locked in for the next six seven years that these are guys right Jalen greens is three years and I think he's getting 33 34 years when it comes out to send goon four years, and I think he's getting 35 36 a year and when you look at where these max contracts are heading um Saved a little bit of money per year You save some length on the contract. And now you get to kind of sit back and see how does Yvonne Schumpert look? How does Reed Shepard look? How does Barry Smith look? Where do we go next? Do we move Fred Van Fleet at the deadline for a position of need because we've got Reed Shepard, Yvonne Schumpert, and i just the rookie. ah Sorry, second year player.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, um, he was just twins. Ah, just so yeah amen ah a and th right. Thompson looks fantastic. The first half tonight. So all of a sudden let's say, Hey, that's what we want. Plan starting point guard. We're not locked in salary cap wise. We can absorb a big hit. I just, I think it was a great move. I think it was a smart move on both parties. I think Jalen green, um, obviously could have played this year out, ended up a restricted free agents, you know, trying to get the big bag.
00:07:24
Speaker
But why not take that stress off your shoulders, right? If you can get the AAV that you're looking for and do it on a short term deal, that can go get an even bigger max contract next time around. Yeah. And I, and I brought out Carlos Lee for this reason. Um, whenever the Astros signed Carlos Lee, I think there was some thought in the fan base. It was the very first hundred million dollar deal that, you know, the Astros had ever given. And so.
00:07:55
Speaker
When they brought him in, they were thinking, this guy's an MVP candidate, which I don't think that's ever who Carlos Lee was. And I was giving you those numbers because particularly, I think when you look at the first five years of the deal, because he really fell off in that sixth year. And of course he got traded mid-season, but when you look at the first five years of the deal, he was practically the same player. And so when you give Sengoon and you give Green the big money,
00:08:24
Speaker
Sengoon I think has the ability to be a Jokic kind of player, but he's not going to be Jokic suddenly because you gave him nearly $200 million. dollars i think I think the point that you made though that I think is big as the big key is that both of them can just play their belt play their game and they don't have to worry about, oh shit, I got to put up 20 points a game because I need to get paid. They're already gotten paid.
00:08:53
Speaker
Right, and and with the team looking to make that push into the playoffs for the first time ever, do I want a guy stat stuffing? Do I want a guy looking for his shot? Or do I want somebody who's like, hey, I'm here to lead the team. do what don't Tell me what I need to do. i think I think Carlos Lee versus these guys is maybe a little bit of a different comparison, Scott, because Carlos Lee was a little bit more of an established player at that point. You know, he played six, seven years in the league where, you know, takes in good as an example, every year he's gotten better. Now, at some point is there going to be a, are we going to hit peaks in good? And like, now we've just got to maintain at a couple of moves, things like that. Yeah, absolutely. But I have no reason to believe that this guy can't be, you know, a fringe perennial all-star for the next.
00:09:46
Speaker
six, seven years, right? A guy that you can run the offense through, who's got a litany of post moves, who can hit jump shots, who allows you to open up driving lanes for your slashers, right? Like it if this team is built around Sengoon, you've got slashers on the outside in Whitmore, in Thompson, in Jalen Green, and then you've got a center who can pick and pop. So realistically,
00:10:12
Speaker
The way this team is set up, like if you think Sengoon is going to continue to grow, why not commit to him now and let these younger guards, younger players learn how to play in this system for longer? Yeah. And I think if you look at the the first half, obviously we're we're broadcasting here as the game is still being played. And so we don't know how that game is going to turn out. But I think if you look at the first half, I think both Green and Sengoon showed you what's really been missing from their game up to this point in their careers. I think with Sam goon, he showed up with, you know, ah so a toughness, particularly on the defensive end that he hasn't shown up to this point in his career. He's been more of a finesse guy, but you know, I think he's shown enough tenacity tonight. If he can keep that up, I think he takes the next step. And green has been a guy that just seems like at times to be unengaged, disengaged.
00:11:08
Speaker
But tonight, he ah he's taking shots. When he has open shots, he's taking them. Now, he doesn't always make them. And I think probably the next step in his game is to get that three point percentage between 35 and 40% consistently. But as long as he's engaged, he has the athletic skills to be a menace on offense and defense. But the key with him has just been that consistent engagement.
00:11:34
Speaker
To me, Green's game just is so similar to like Pete Dwayne Wade, right? Where he has such a quick first step. He can beat you to the rack. He can finish with authority. He's a good shooter. He's a streaky shooter, right? Like when Green gets hot, he gets hot, but he's also not going to shoot 42, 43% from three point range, right? Like that's just not who this guy is. So I think if we could be anywhere near that,
00:12:04
Speaker
Dwyane Wade type of player, right? I'm not saying he's going to be Dwyane Wade. Dwyane Wade is a a Hall of Fame player. But you can be a guy that can beat somebody on the first step when you have that opportunity, when you have the ankle. You can be a guy who can drive and dish. You can be a guy who could finish around the rim of authority. And you can be a guy who knocks down open jump shots. And you know what? That guy sticks around in the league for a long time. And that guy helps you win a championship. Yeah, and I think both these guys have Hall of Fame physical tricks.
00:12:34
Speaker
and abilities is just a question of whether they'll put it together consistently. And we'll get to watch, you know, as we, I think the point that you made about them taking less than the max. I'm not a capologist by any stretch of the imagination, but, you know, if you combine the two, they left about $20 million dollars on the table if you put it together. So, you know, what do you turn that $20 million dollars into? Can you get that third piece that you currently don't have?
00:13:03
Speaker
And I'm intrigued Scott, like, where would you go for that next piece? Right? Because you've got so much young talent on this team, right? If you want to say the young core is seven, eight players deep. Realistically, when you look at guys like Tara Eason and you look at, you know, Reed Shepard coming off the bench, you've got Cam Whitmore along with, you know, Jibari and Iman and Jalen and Um, out prints and goo, like there's a lot of young talent on this team. So even as the season goes, it's it's going to be a tough, like, where would you add type situation? Because this is just such a interesting team because everybody's so young and we still don't really know who every one of these guys is as an NBA player. Yeah. I think that's, that's on the money too. I mean, the thing is if you're going to have a tough time.
00:14:01
Speaker
getting minutes for all these guys, at least consistent minutes. I mean, I could see like, you know, there's going to be nice or Shepherd maybe doesn't play or it doesn't play a whole lot. There's going to be nights where Whitmore maybe doesn't play a whole lot. And so I think one of the things you're going to see is probably you're going to see a trade where they piece together two or three of these guys and maybe some draft capital and they go after one stud player. Now, if the question is what position would you want?
00:14:31
Speaker
Now to me, you look at the starting lineup to me that Dylan Brooks, the three spot, I think is probably the only one where I could scream. We could use an upgrade there. Cause I mean, I liked Jabari Smith. I liked to see his game develop and then you got ones and twos coming out of your ear hole that you don't have enough minutes for. So, I mean, I think that three spot is probably that natural position where you'd probably like a guy.
Rockets' Playing Style and NBA Contenders
00:14:59
Speaker
And what you think with the three, I think there's a chance this year where maybe Cam Whitmore overtakes Dylan Brooks, right? Where he has that kind of talent and ability that at least offensively, the upside is is much greater than what Dylan Brooks can offer you. So I don't know. I mean, this team, but but also in today's NBA, Scott, you have to have the ability to play positionless basketball, right? So essentially run.
00:15:27
Speaker
one point guard, three wings in a center out there and switch everything, right? Like that is a winning formula if you look at what the gold state warriors do. So having a bunch of wings isn't it necessarily the worst thing in the world come playoff time. No. And I, and I have to wonder, like, you know, you can play around, especially if we see how a shepherd develops, if he's able to knock down a shot consistently, you might see Amen Thompson at the three.
00:15:54
Speaker
You know, more often where you can, you know, have three guards on the floor, so to speak. Oh, absolutely. The three guard lineup, I think, you know, there's a, there's a chance the rockets come up with their own lineup of death, right? Where they, they can close you out with a combination of either Fred van Fleet and, i um, and Thompson and, uh, green Dylan Brooks and, um, sin gun.
00:16:22
Speaker
Or you want to go big, and you move Cengun to the four, and you bring Steven Adams in to play the five, and you played Jabbar Smith at the three, and you play Iman Thompson at the one, and you've got Jalen Green at the two, and that's your big lineup if you want to go that way, right? Or, hey, maybe it's Fred Van Fleet's off tonight and Reid's feeling it, so you go Reid and Iman and Jalen Green. And it's just, again, the the opportunities with this team Theoretically, it could be endless. Now, we' we'll have to see what the toughness and the competitiveness and the culture looks like in year two um from Imez Adoka. But hey, I think the sky's the limit with this Rockets team. And Hope Springs eternal every every October here for basketball. So if we're climbing the NBA West Mountain, who do you have at the peak right now?
00:17:19
Speaker
um I mean, I guess right now you have to say the Mavs, right? If they're the defending Western Conference champions. I mean, do you think, I mean, long-term, do you think they're the team or do you think Denver gets back into it? Or do you think that the Timberwolves, you know, I think Timberwolves realistically, cause they're, so the thing with the Mavs, they, I just don't see them as a well-rounded enough team. Like they kind of remind me almost of of golden, I'm sorry, of Oklahoma city when, when they were at their peak where, you know,
00:17:51
Speaker
Kevin Durant and, and Western Westbrook kind of just like took turns like, Hey, I'm going to shoot it. I'm just going to ball hog it and shoot at this time. Then like, Hey, you're going to ball hog it and shoot at this time where it worked. It got them into the ah finals, but you know, Luca's not going to go on generational runs like that every single year in the playoffs. So I don't think you can rely on that consistently and and in the playoffs. So I look at, you know, um, Denver's Jamal Murray and, and, um,
00:18:22
Speaker
Jokic. And Jokic is a great pairing. You look what Minnesota has with Edwards, and then the trades that they made for half those Villanova boys coming in, getting Karl-Anthony Towns off the roster. I don't know. I mean, I think the West is is really wide open right now, Scott. Yeah, and Oklahoma City, you know, with regular season teams. I don't know what they're missing in terms of, you know, making it past the postseason.
00:18:49
Speaker
Of course, you know, Doran is still a really good player and, you know, and Curry's, you know, still a really good player. I don't think the Lakers, as much as we would all want, you know, Bronny to, you know, to bring, bring them the ring. I just don't see that happening. No, I don't think Bronny is the answer, right? I think, Hey, fun story, cool story. Um, I don't want to get it too much into it. Just cause I think there's a lot of vitriol out there for,
00:19:16
Speaker
You know a 19 year old kid who all he did was you know live his dream. Maybe he deserved it Maybe he didn't either way he got the opportunity to play um You know what it's not the Rockets, so I'm not I'm not really too worried about Scott. Yeah, that's true All right, let's take a Brief look at last week's Texans game because I gotta be honest with you that one um was Was pretty frustrating Scott I know Um, there aren't many scenarios where I could tell you we're going to spot you three turnovers and and you think you're going to lose that football game. Yeah. The thing is though, when I watched that game, if you take away the scoreboard, I would have sworn we would have lost by 10 or more points. I mean, Green Bay, basically, you know, they were kicking our ass at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Uh, and then, you know, they obviously severely outgained, you know, the Texans.
Texans' Performance Challenges
00:20:11
Speaker
You know, you look at it to me, you take away Joe Mixon and that might've been the worst performance I've ever seen offensively from the Texans, you know, taking him away. Yeah, that was absolutely putrid.
00:20:26
Speaker
I mean, and and the crazy part is, Scott, if Tankdale holds on to that pass in the first quarter, the Texans win that game. Like they had to settle for a field goal because Tankdale dropped the touchdown. Now there's other things throughout that game, obviously, but like that's, so that's to me, what's crazy is as bad as we played, we're literally a drops touchdown pass away from walking out of Green Bay with a win. Yeah, there's a couple of things. I mean, Eric Murray drops an interception on that final drive, yeah you know, that he could have reeled in. You know, there's always those kinds of plays, but One of the things I feel like is that this team, when they lose, they lose because they lost it. Where I think this week, this past week, they they got beat. They, they flat out, I mean, you know, they deserve to lose that game just based on the fact that Green Bay was the better team on the field for that day, which we'll get more into later when we get into our favorite part of the show. Well,
00:21:23
Speaker
I think maybe we deserve to lose is unfair because the defense played its ass off. Like, let's just talk about the game that D'Amico Ryan schemed up missing, missing your starting safety, missing your two starting linebackers, missing your starting defensive tackle, missing your starting cornerback, and you produce two picks and a fumble? Like, oh my goodness. what ah what ah I mean, the fumbles on special teams, but still, I mean, still Scott, like,
00:21:53
Speaker
Like, D'Amico, my God. I mean, but at what point now is this Matt Burke? Is this D'Amico Ryan? It's like, I don't know, but it's working. I don't care. and And the thing was, I joked earlier in the week when I found out both our starting linebackers would be out, that we would be running a 7-4 set, a 7-0-4. Just kind of, you know, we'll see what happens. But, you know, I think when you looked at that game, I think you're absolutely right. I think the defense,
00:22:21
Speaker
did as much as they possibly could in that game. And the fact that the Green Bay moved the ball, yeah, when you have no linebackers to speak of, Josh Jacobs is going to gain yards. That's just the way it's going to go. But yeah, they made a key play. I can't hear enough good things about Kalen Bullock, third interception, and we're not even at the halfway point of the NFL season.
00:22:47
Speaker
Daniel Hunter and and Will Anderson show up in the fourth quarter making key plays to keep us in that game. I mean, ah that's more of the kind of action that, you know, I think we're going to expect to see. And and the thing is, is that it shows that whoever is in charge, whether it's Ryan's or Matt Burke, they've shown an ability to adjust to number one, what the other team is doing. But number two, the personnel you have on your team available.
00:23:16
Speaker
Absolutely. And I think maybe that's what's so frustrating on the offensive side of the ball, Scott, is because if I'm assuming it's D'Amico defensively that's putting the scheme and this game plan together, why does the offensive scheme look so fucking bad? If you're that in tune and that fine tooth comb going through everything on defense, why does the offense look just fucking thrown together?
00:23:45
Speaker
Well, and I think if you look at this team, this team really does well. I mean, most of the time their first drive out. I mean, think about it. How many times this season has this team, you know, just, you run out, scored a touchdown, the first drive of the game. You're like, man, where's this ah offense been all my life? Then on some, the defensive coordinator on the other side, because they're professional and they're paid, they make adjustments.
00:24:12
Speaker
and And we're running the same stuff and it's not working as well. Do you remember in Rocky too? Okay. What does Rocky do to throw Apollo Creed off, right? He saw him the first time. What does, what does Rocky do to trick Apollo? He fights right-handed. for fourteen he foughts He fights right-hand. He give a little fucking trickeration. Where is that?
00:24:40
Speaker
where is the right-handed that I got you I'm still a southpaw where the fuck is that we got nothing we got oh mean maybe I mean when you can't get two seconds to block it's kind of hard to run any sort of play action or anything like that but like Holy shit! Maybe fucking throw a pass on first or second down. Because the Packers didn't blitz once on first down, they didn't blitz once on second down, and then it was about 50-50 if they were gonna bring pressure on third down. And it worked every frickin' time. Every stunt, every twist, every slant, every thing that the defensive coordinator called, they got pressure on CJ.
00:25:17
Speaker
And I want to highlight something you mentioned because we had, we text Tim and I text back and forth all week. And so you, you send a text today that I want to highlight, you know, I don't know if you pay much attention to PFS scores, but basically they run the same kind of a scouting scores that you would in baseball where you have like basically a 20 through 90 grade. So players that are between 60 and 70 are average.
00:25:46
Speaker
<unk>re You're an average starter. Four out of your five offensive linemen, including one of the highest paid left tackles in the business, are all in the average range. You know who isn't, Tim? Kenyon Green, who is so far below average, he'd be repeating third grade right now if this was his grades. There is one. Count him one qualified guard below Kenyon Green. One.
00:26:14
Speaker
So we're talking, you know, 64 starting guards and then however many guards, you know, have maybe played enough snaps to qualify. And so you made the point of, Hey, the Texans brought in some guys to work out. We even signed one. We signed Devin White, a linebacker. How many guards did they bring into workout, Tim? None. Not a single fucking one, Scott. And so, you know, if you have another green on the roster, you have kinder green.
00:26:41
Speaker
Could Kendra green be any worse than Kenyan green? I mean, last year he was pretty shit. Well, before he got hurt, but, you know, or, you know, I hate to, you know, maybe Jared Patterson at guard, you know, can we try something? I mean, because it literally cannot get worse.
00:27:01
Speaker
And I'm ah happy that that Kenyon Green worked out. I'm happy that he dedicated his, you know, his off season to getting back in shape and, you know, having to happy that he's working at it, but it's time to face the very very definite possibility that he was a bust. Yeah. And it's time to face the very definite possibility that when you continue to run him out there and he can't pick up, uh, you know, when there's a a slant or a twist from a defense and guys are running free at your quarterback, he's going to get CJ hurt, right? This guy specifically is going to get CJ Stroud hurt if this is not addressed. And I, I look back to the Kubiak years, Scott, and before essentially Wade Phillips was forced on Gary Kubiak, it was either higher weight or you're fired. What were the defensive coaches like? It was all fucking buddy, buddy.
00:27:59
Speaker
Hey, I know this guy, he worked with us here, he's a good guy, Vance Joseph, I love him, yada, yada, yada. And I just, I'm a little worried that the offensive line coaches of the Houston Texans maybe are in a similar situation where, hey, coaching tree knows coaching tree, we know this guy, he's a good guy, that's what I want, coaching offensive line. Because you know who's sitting out there available right now, Scott? One of the greatest offensive line coaches and former Houston Oilers, Mike Munchek.
00:28:28
Speaker
Why is Mike Munchuk not getting a fucking phone call at any point this offseason to come coach offensive line for the Houston, Texas? Man, how about Bruce Matthews? Already, list I know exactly where Bruce Liss. I could I could drive the offer to his house. My brother and Jake were friends growing up and went to his birthday party. Because I mean, he's been yeah I think he's been an offensive line coach in the league.
00:28:52
Speaker
So, I mean, I think the thing is, and and you mentioned, you know, moving from, uh, to Wade Phillips, but the one I remember was 35 to three against Buffalo. We lose 41 to 38 biggest lead ever given up. Jim Eddie was the defensive coordinator. You know what happened to him, Tim? He was shit canned and they brought in buddy Ryan and that for one year, they had one of the best defenses in the business. And so, you know, Jim Eddy was kind of a Jack party buddy, you know, nice guy. And so, you know, I don't know how much of this is on slow. I don't know how much of this is on, you know, the offensive line coaches. I don't know how much of this is just on the five guys that you have out there, but you're paying them a shit ton of money. Three of them are among the highest paid players at their position.
00:29:49
Speaker
I mean, what what are we doing? if Even if you say they're average, you shouldn't be average when you're the highest paid player at your position. And I think what makes it even more frustrating is the success that Mixon has on the ground, right? Like you guys have shown you have that nasty in you and you're willing to go out there and run block. You're willing to go do that and create holes. So you are capable of being a cohesive offensive unit for your running back.
00:30:19
Speaker
why can we not get past protection figured out? And then the other part of it too, and I think, you know, probably see Dave Stroud does have a little bit of, you know, a responsibility here that he needs to get the ball out quicker. I think he's kind of used to the idea that, you know, he can wait that extra second or two because he has the arm talent to fit it in tight windows and wait for routes to develop. Well, maybe it's time to stop waiting for routes to develop. Maybe we need to, you know,
00:30:48
Speaker
look for that first good read and make that throw. You know, and especially with the wide receiver talent that we have, why are we not maybe running something like what the Patriots did with Edelman or with Welker where just get the ball out of your hands quick. You've got read the defense of the line of scrimmage. If it's, if they're showing you this look, you go to Randy boss. If they're showing this look, you go to Welker. If they're showing you this look, you go to tight end. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, quick throws, get it out of your hand.
00:31:17
Speaker
get the defense gassed so they're not just able to sit there and rev up and chase your ass all day. Yeah. I mean, I think so. And I think that's where, to me, the biggest problem, and I'll get into this later, but is the inability to make adjustments mid game. I think that's the biggest problem. And I think that's where the defense is really showing people up because, you know, the Packers moved the ball really well in the first half. They didn't do much in the second half.
00:31:47
Speaker
Because D'Amico Ryans, I think is an elite play caller on the defensive level. I mean, he just is. When he was, last year he was in San Francisco, they had the number one defense and you can say, yeah, look at all that talent. But I would say, look at what that talent has done since he's left. They haven't been number one defense since he's left. So maybe there's something there. No, there's absolutely something there. And, you know, I, I do think the Texans are,
00:32:15
Speaker
still in a, you know, an elite team in the league. And I think that Packers defense is fantastic, right? I think that was an underrated defense coming into that game. I think everybody talks about Jordan Love and that wide receiving core, but that defense is for real. And, you know, at the end of the day, again, it's about winning football games.
00:32:38
Speaker
They had a chance to win. They didn't get it done, but you're still five and two. You're still first place in your division and you have a chance to win another division game here this week. And so, you know, it's, it's all things onto the Colts now. Yeah. And what's funny about the c Colts and I was kind of, we were talking about this a little bit before we got on air. I'm doing an article where I look at their PFS scores. Their PFS scores are through the roof.
00:33:06
Speaker
I mean, they have three of their offensive linemen are the best at their position, practically. They've got two wide receivers that are really have good scores. They have two tight ends. They've got Jonathan Taylor, if he's healthy, but you know, they have other talented backs as well. So what's the one thing that I didn't mention to him? What's the one thing missing? Oh my goodness. That'd be their first round quarterback. Anthony Richardson. He is the Kenyan green.
00:33:35
Speaker
of the Colts. There is one quarterback, qualified quarterback, that is below him. What? Can I guess? You can throw it out there and see what you think. Deshawn. Uh, you know what? I don't think it was him. Okay. I'm trying to think of who it was, but I don't think, and maybe with Daniel Jones, maybe, uh, uh, but you know, it's funny. Kind of, you know, we, we were talking last week about the moves and of course the, you know, the jets.
00:34:05
Speaker
Last year at this time was Zach Wilson were four and three. So, you know, the the quarterback is important, but, you know, sometimes the name can be glitzy, but it's how he's performing. And to me, Joe Flacco is a better quarterback right now. There's no question than anything. The thing with Richardson Scott to me is he is a fantastic athlete. He has elite arm talent.
00:34:34
Speaker
He is a great scrambler His terrible ball placement absolutely terrible ball placement And he doesn't complete a high enough percentage of his passes to get the rhythm of the game going Will he burn you a couple times deep throughout the game? Yeah, probably we pick up a couple third downs because he's able to extend the play with his legs Yeah, probably will he run consistent offense throughout the game? No And I think that's what hurts the c Colts. The defense gets gassed. There's too many three an ounce and he just doesn't give them a consistent chance to go win football games because he doesn't complete enough of his passes. And he reminds me of somebody, I don't know if, did you ever watch rainbow Cunningham play football? A little bit. You know, he, he was kind of at the very, very beginning of my.
00:35:25
Speaker
Uh, football time period, like, you know, maybe a little bit of the Vikings time period before Dante Culpepper got on in there. But yeah, he was basically, uh, as an Eagle, probably the fastest quarterback in the league. If you were in a foot race and he could throw the ball 80 yards, but yeah you know, you know, you remember how they had like to Marcus Russell could, you know, throw it 70 yards from his knees. It's like, yeah, but is it going to be anybody there to catch it?
00:35:53
Speaker
And that's where Randall Cunningham was that kind of, he would, he would have the highlight reel play where you're like, Oh my God, how did he do that? But the Eagles never won. and They never won anything. They made it, you know, to the playoffs a couple of times and he never won in the playoffs because you have to make that 10 yard throw consistently. And Richardson just can't do it. At least not yet. No, it doesn't, I haven't seen it. You know, I think,
00:36:24
Speaker
He missed so much time his rookie year that probably hinders the growth a little bit, right? Like you were worried about getting back instead of getting better. So the off season isn't, you know, spent growing as a player. It's spent regrowing a bone or, you know, whatever it is essentially. Right. But I don't know. Like there are certainly guys who have taken that step in year three or, you know, have figured it out later on, but.
00:36:50
Speaker
When you are a quarterback who has relied on your athleticism for as long as he has, and now you've got to use your arm a little bit more, you've got to be more accurate. You've got to play from the pocket. It's really hard to relearn the way you play quarterback. I mean, there's very few guys that have done it. You know, everyone likes to point to Josh Allen as you look at his college accuracy and all of a sudden he got way better and and in the NFL. That's one guy. That's one out of all the other,
00:37:20
Speaker
strong-armed Mobile athletic guys who everybody thought would figure it out in the NFL the Christian ponders that Jake lockers of the world They're not here one guy did it Well, and Alan is not even all that accurate When you when you look at it, I think what's happened is is that you know, particularly when they changed offensive coordinators this time around They put him in in an offense that he can operate They're not asking them to make tight window throws. That's not his game. His game is kind of running around and, you know, buying time for guys to get wide open and, you know, making huge athletic play. So even if you're using Josh Allen as an example, he's never been an elite ball placement guy. You know, and when you look at say the success that Washington is having running.
00:38:15
Speaker
you know, a little bit more of a, a college type offense with some zone, read stuff with the ability to let the quarterbacks athleticism play in their favor. It's interesting to me why Indianapolis is is kind of starting to force or trying to force a square peg it around hole and in having Richardson play this way when that's not his style. Yeah, that's true too. I mean, you got a Shane Steichen came over with, you know,
00:38:42
Speaker
Working with Jalen hurts and you're thinking everybody's thinking gosh Look at what he's gonna do with Anthony Richardson and it just hasn't materialized yet Yeah, it just I don't see an offense that is built around this guy, right? If you've got if you've got a skill set the talent that lends itself to X But you're asking me to do why all the time. I'm not gonna look good. Yeah And to me, I would look at you. I wouldn't even look at the Eagles. I would look at what the Ravens do with Lamar Jackson i I mean, you've got, you know, Derek Henry in that office and, you know, look at what, you know, Lamar Jackson is having an even better season because he has that running threat and you've got Jonathan Taylor there. You could run a very similar office, but you're just not seeing it. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. We'll see what happens this week. Texans one in indian Indianapolis to start the season. So this one in NRG. Um, so we'll go from that to maybe a little bit more of a,
00:39:41
Speaker
ah somber note here Scott as Fernando Valenzuela passed away late last night or this morning um you know obviously when when you were growing up the Astros and Dodgers both in the NL West I believe it was 1981 that he had um you know the crazy run that he had as Cy Young rookie of the year MVP um what are you know What are your memories of Fernando? I think he was breathing through the wrong eyelid. I'm just doing a little bit of a riff there on Bull Durham. But no, what's funny about Fernando is i mean he's kind of a throwback. I don't know if you've heard this comment before, but he talked about the fact that you know he could rate the ability that he was going to pitch by how many beers that he had that day before you know going out there and pitching. And just thinking to somebody like, say, like a Justin Verlander.
00:40:40
Speaker
I mean, if you had that comment for Justin Verlander, he would just be like, that's just the most asinine thing I've ever heard. You know, you got to be in peak physical condition. What are you doing drinking beers before you going out there? But, you know, he wasn't an athlete in that instance. He just had, you know, that amazing pitch. and And I don't, you know, he didn't last very long. When you think about it, his main pitch was a screwball. And I don't know how you survived that long throwing a screwball. I mean, turning, twisting that arm.
00:41:09
Speaker
It's just, you know, that's got to be a wreak habit. But yeah, you mentioned for Nanomania in 1981, obviously the Astros, you know, were able to to get past them in 1980. But there they were, the Dodgers, you know, going ah going into the World Series right there in
World Series and Baseball Nostalgia
00:41:27
Speaker
1981. So that's the last time we had a l LA New York World Series. It's 1981, which the Dodgers won.
00:41:37
Speaker
So who knows if that history is going to repeat itself? Yeah, we will see on that. I don't know. This is one where I really don't care who wins the World Series this year. I'm rooting for the asteroid, too. For who? The asteroid. Yeah, that's always an option. The stadium, you know, right there in the middle. Yeah. Be nice. It'd be nice. But no, I don't have any.
00:42:07
Speaker
personal life memories of of Fernando right I was born much after a few years after Fernando mania so um you know for me it's it's the documentaries it's the um the stories that the ESPN classic games that used to come on when I was a kid that was a great channel man ESPN classic oh was um remember the like classic fight knives you could put on like a Mike Tyson fight them one o'clock in the morning just white watch Mike Tyson beat the crap out of somebody well you're gonna say Mike and Mike Tyson type would be about what three minutes yeah if they had to have a few of them on in a row but no um yeah so being able to watch some of those games and and see Fernando that way just
00:42:49
Speaker
Even watching some of the highlights after he passed away, it's so crazy to me. He wasn't throwing that hard, Scott. like No, no, he wasn't. And then pretty much in baseball, like this is ah a day where a day and age with David Wells also, you know, a guy who did exactly take physical conditioning very seriously, had success. Yeah. and I remember watching David Wells' perfect game live, you know, back when I had satellite. not that That was a fun time. and And Fernando, really, if you're thinking, if you're looking at an astrocentric You know, look at this thing, just the battles that he would have with Nolan Ryan or, you know, Joe Negro, or later on Mike Scott. Uh, I mean, you're talking about different styles of pitching. I mean, Nolan Ryan's throwing pure gas and here there's Fernando, if he hit 90 on the gun, I mean, he was having a good day. You just can't pitch like that anymore, Scott. Like.
00:43:44
Speaker
There would not be a run like that in today's day and age of a guy throw a screwball thrown 88 89, right? Like it's just we've had I think we've had Similar runs of players having popularity for that short period of time, right? Like Randy a Rosarina made his run there for a little bit I think was not as big or as long but I mean there was a time in the playoffs for Randy who just was the only name you could talk about Carla Beltran made a run in the playoffs, right? Like we've had guys who have had runs, but no one did it the way Fernando did. No. and And the biggest one I could compare on the pitching side of things is he was, you know, especially when you look at how centric he was as a Mark Fidrich, uh, the bird. I don't know if you, you know, no, obviously the bird had arm trouble, didn't survive, but you know, just the delivery where he's not even looking where he's pitching.
00:44:40
Speaker
I mean, and and I know you you've watched Bull Durham and you know how, you know, they they basically use, you know, his style, you know, to to get nuclear Lush, uh, to throw strikes. So, I mean, it's, it's just, you know, one, and ah one of a kind, we lost Louis Tiant, who would be another one of a kind guy, uh, recently. And I don't, obviously I wasn't old enough to watch Louis Tiant, uh, pitch live, but very similar in the fact that they just had very unique throwing styles.
00:45:10
Speaker
But we're, you know, dominant for, you know, good stretches of baseball history. Who was the, uh, who was the pitcher? Jim Bhutan. Where would you, where would you compare him and in the world of crazy pitchers compared to like the bird or the run that like, you know, Fernando being a little bit silly. Jim, obviously more of a kindred spirit than a, uh, weird delivery, but he was certainly out there too.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know about deliveries. I mean, I think he was more conventional through his arm out. And I don't know if you ever read ball four. I haven't read that, but I have seen the battered bastards of baseball, which he is, you know, obviously a big part of that Portland Mavs team. And that's how he found his way back into the game. Yeah, but yeah, ball four was, a yeah, they had the addendum where he came back and pitched for the Braves. But yeah, ball four was basically chronicling the 1969 season.
00:46:09
Speaker
where he started with the Seattle Pilots and got traded to the Houston Astros and ended up being his last season before he made that comeback. And he he came in as a knuckleballer because he had just completely thrown his arm out. And if you can imagine this, Tim, he was a knuckleballer in the bullpen. And could you imagine, you know, being a regular catcher and having a guy come in for an inning as a knuckleballer? and that You know, thinking about it, is that why there aren't bullpen knuckleballers, do you think? I mean, because I don't have to think that would be effective. If you could go to Wakefield as your setup guy in the eighth inning or Wakefield in the ninth inning, do you think it's solely because of the catcher? I think that's part of it. I don't know if you ever heard of Bob Euchar's advice on catching a knuckleball. Just close your eyes and hope for the best? It's pretty close. He said, you know, you megan he makes the pitch.
00:47:06
Speaker
You go back to the backstop, you wait for it to stop, you pick it up and throw it back to the pitcher.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, but I think that's probably it. You know, and you don't see a knuckleball really anymore. I don't know if Wakefield was the last one. Dickey maybe. He's the last, I think, significant knuckleball pitcher. Yeah, it has to be R.A. Dickey. I mean, there was a guy So when I worked in baseball, we had a guy who he signed who was trying to be a knuckleballer. And um he had met one of the, I think it was, he met like Charlie Huff or something like that and and like learned the knuckleball. But he learned it like 26. And he never played high school or college baseball. And at 26 years old, he decided, I want to be a knuckleballer.
00:47:59
Speaker
well This guy had like a 13 year rate, playing in like the can am league and playing in the American association. And he pitched one inning that inning took 47 minutes. I'll never forget. I nearly fell asleep on air because he walked so many people. And then the president of our team got a letter, uh, from the league because fans complained how bad this guy was. And so apparently it's pretty hard to learn how to be a knuckleball pitcher. a Long story short.
00:48:25
Speaker
yeah You mentioned R.A. Dickey. Have you ever watched any of the stuff on YouTube from a Urinating Tree? No, I haven't. Oh, no. they you You need to watch this as as an Astros fan because ah he has one, basically, Rangers history of failure. No. And so this is before they won the World Series, obviously. But they drafted R.A. Dickey originally, and he was basically the Brady Aiken of his time.
00:48:54
Speaker
Right. He was missing a major ligament and they drafted him in the first round and it was like, oh shit, you know, what do we do now? Um, but yeah, you, you catch that video. It's about, you know, 15, 20 minutes, but you'll, you'll flat out enjoy it. It's just, you know, delicious. All right, Scott, it's about that time. Uh, time to give out some awards after we obviously, um,
00:49:23
Speaker
paid our respects there to Fernando. um Scott, it is time for the horse's ass of the week. Could you have force here this week? I mentioned them earlier and I'm going with Bobby Sloak because ah you you and I both outlined this you know perfectly that D'Amico Ryans has shown a tremendous ability to not only adjust during a game, but also adjust to lack of personnel that you might have.
00:49:52
Speaker
They had zero healthy starting linebackers in this game. They went out and signed Devin White because their linebacker core has been decimated. Yet they still found a way in the second half to shut down a pretty good Packers offense. I mean, you looked at that game and, you know, they, yeah, they they gave up that field goal drive at the end, but really in the fourth quarter, the Packers offense did nothing.
00:50:17
Speaker
And you know that's a testament to Namiko Ryans. It's a testament to Matt Burke. It's a testament to those players. We've seen the same crap from this offensive line for now seven games. I mean, there I think the 2002 season where David Carr got sacked 72 times is the only season that's going to eclipse the pace that CJ Stroud is on right now to be sacked. And we all know what happened to David Carr's career.
00:50:47
Speaker
Uh, so I would like for that not to happen with CJ Stroud, but, and so the question is, is, you know, yeah, maybe can you coach up the offensive line better? Sure. You could do that. Could you maybe tell Canyon green, get your ass over here on the sideline. We're going to stick in anybody else. I mean, there were times in that game where I thought that, you know, did they just go into the crowd and find five guys with a beer gut?
00:51:14
Speaker
just to sit there and say you want to play offensive line for the Texans. And if if you're going to do that, can you please check in advance to make sure they're not Packer fans? But if they can't block, you have to make adjustments. You have to adjust to what you have. If you can't get these guys to block consistently, you've got to have play calls, which are going to call for quick passes. And certainly, you know, I think Joe Mixon had a lot of good runs, but you know, when his runs were best, Tim, his runs were best when it was a quick hitting run, when they would sit there, Hey, Joe, get about eight yards back in the backfield and we're going to pitch it to you on a sweep. Almost every time that happened, he'd get tackled for a two or three yard loss because this offensive line just isn't capable of sustaining a block. But you know what? If you do a quick hit, here's the ball, go, go. Joe Mixon's pretty damn good.
00:52:12
Speaker
And he was pretty good on a Sunday. And you know which one I absolutely fucking hate because the 49ers run this play too is to toss directly back. Not even the fucking sweep where you get them seven yards deep and you just toss it directly backwards to him. I don't understand that play at all. Yeah. I mean, you have your guy, no bursts of speed built up whatsoever. You're eight yards back. Good luck. Yeah.
00:52:40
Speaker
So I, I am complete agreement with Sloag. I think I had him as my horse's ass two weeks ago. So I will co-sign that. And I'm also gonna, I'm gonna nominate Kenyon Green himself because that performance was embarrassing. You couldn't have blocked me. I feel like I could have swim moved my way past Kenyon Green on Sunday last week. And that's just not acceptable. You're a fucking first round pick.
00:53:10
Speaker
Like I felt like the effort wasn't there. I felt like the preparation on his part is terrible. You have to know that this team will run stunts. They will run slants. They will, run they will run twists at the line of scrimmage. And the fact that you weren't prepared for that as a first round pick and an NFL player is quite frankly, embarrassing. Yeah. I mean, to me, it's almost like, um, Last year, 2023, Martin Maldonado.
00:53:39
Speaker
where you know I really you know really like Maldonado. And and in as good as you can prepare, his physical skills were just not there. And yeah he signs this year with the White Sox and gets cut before the end of the year, because the skills are just not there. I don't know what's wrong with Kenyan Green. I don't know if it's an effort issue. I don't know if it's a what we call call a loft problem. You know what loft stands for, it right, Tim? Lack of fucking talent.
00:54:08
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if it's a lost problem. I don't know if it's an effort problem, but it's a problem. That's where I go back to slow it back to D'Amico Ryan's in this instance. He's not your left guard. He's just not. And I know we dropped him the first round. I know you want to give him every opportunity. You've given him opportunities and he sucks. So we got to go with somebody else. Yeah. I, I, you know,
00:54:35
Speaker
It's very rare in the American workplace that your employer will so as much loyalty to you that the Texans have shown Kenyan green. But for some reason, they continue to give this guy opportunities. And every single time he burns them.
00:54:50
Speaker
like Any guard in the league should be able to run block, okay? Like, that's what guards are supposed to do. They're supposed to be your big, powerful run blockers. So congratulations if the Texans can run the football. That's what you're supposed to do. But you're also supposed to keep your quarterback fucking clean, and we haven't done it once this year. I don't think we've thrown one clean sheet out there this year, Scott. No, no, no we haven't. ah You're right on that. All right, let's let's go to some positive news here. Some tips of the cap. Scott, it's been a...
00:55:22
Speaker
A fun week, an interesting week, and there's been some good things that happened as well. Who are you tipping your calf to? I'm going to tip ah my calf to a guy that we have torched on this show, maybe not this show, but we've torched him on the old iteration, the snap hook. And I'm a big believer in that if you're going to criticize a guy, when he does something good, you need to come back and you need to man up and you need to give him his props. So Raffael Stone.
00:55:52
Speaker
I am tipping my cat to you because not only did you lock up Cingoon and green, but you managed to do it without giving them the max. And I think that was something that some of us probably in rocket's land just really resigned ourselves to. I thought Cingoon was getting the max and I thought that they were going to roll the dice on green and kind of wait. That's where I thought it was going to go.
00:56:18
Speaker
But signing them both, and I think Sengoon has got five years on his deal, which I think is a good deal you know for him because I feel very confident that he's going to produce over those five years. And you got green for three, which I think yeah he's a more riskier bet. And I think you did you know that's about as good as you're going to do. you you know You're giving him three years. And so if he's a bust, you're not completely tied down to this long contract. I feel like green's movable if worse comes to worse. And if you had given them a max deal, nobody's giving you anything for green. Even if you're given Sanguin the max and you want to deal, you no I don't think anybody's giving you you know much for Sanguin. But I think for the deals that you did give them, you can build around those two. But if worse comes to worse, I think they're movable contracts. And so I think you have some flexibility. So it's a tip of a cap.
00:57:18
Speaker
fell stone for making some good deals in this instance? Yeah, I think you're right. I think he made um some savvy moves there. I think he's got the team in, you know, position to compete and and he's flexible as far as he can make a move this year at the deadline should someone become available. And, you know, that's the ultimate ask.
00:57:40
Speaker
for an NBA executive, right, is is when you have the opportunity to go get someone, do you have the pieces and the flexibility to do it? And so you have to tip your cap to stone um for continuing to put the Rockets, at least in place, to to go make a move when one becomes available. Absolutely. So who do you got, Tim? Scott, I i got a couple different guys that I think deserve, um I guess, recognition.
00:58:10
Speaker
Um, first and foremost is Bullock. Uh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Bullock from, from the defense for the Texans. Right. Opportunity to step up. You're a late mid late round pick, as you mentioned already have your third, um, interception of the season and we're seven games in this guy has, has shown that ball hawking safety ability that the team has been missing for.
00:58:41
Speaker
I don't know, ever Scott. I feel like that's why we signed Daniel Manning. Yeah, maybe Daniel Manning, but we signed Ed Reed to be that guy back in the day. And it, you know, he wasn't that guy. Obviously I have a Ed Reed Jersey to show it. Um, but yeah, like that one was fantastic. And it was, um, it was just, it was a great showing for a young player, um, who had an opportunity realistically to so make a play.
00:59:11
Speaker
Um, and he did make the play when, when, when his time came. Uh, and then the other one, Hewitt, this is a guy who is mostly a special teams player, had an opportunity to step up and play big minutes on defense. And I don't think you could have answered the call any better than he did Scott interception off a tip pass.
00:59:34
Speaker
effort out the ass was making plays left and right on Sunday. That man earned himself some more defensive playing time outside of the special teams with the way he played on Sunday. I have a smile on my face, Tim, because did you ever play the arcade game NFL Blitz? Oh, I loved it. Absolutely. I loved that game because you'd sit there and you'd say, oh, you just smashed it. So, you know, I was upset.
01:00:04
Speaker
Briefly in the moment of that 15 yard penalty they that he had, but given the guy who basically a piledriver, I don't know. What does that move that he did? It's like a wre wrestling, I don't know what you call it, but picking the guy up and slaying him down. Uh, I think that was power driver. That's, that's an elite wrestling move there from Neville Hewitt.
01:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, that was a big hit. that was a That was a big hit. But no, I thought he played, for the most part, a pretty good game on Sunday. Yeah, no, he's considered being asked to step into that spot, having never really done that in the NFL against a pretty damn good team. Absolutely. Absolutely. Good call on those two. All right, Scott, this is something new we wanted to um add into the show this week, where we just wanted to take a moment to make a comment. Right. There's for those of you who don't follow the sub-stack Scott and I both write ah he with more frequency than I but we oftentimes tend to I don't know play off of each other is the right word but you know Scott will write something that influences something I write I will write something that influences something Scott writes or oftentimes they could be read hand in hand as as you know
01:01:15
Speaker
partner pieces realistically, right? And so we both put some work out this week that I know you and I wanted to take a moment to comment on. Right. And I want to give a tip of the cap to Tim over there because he produced a wonderful piece this week. Won't You Be My Neighbor is not the the title of it. Yes, it is. Once You Be My Neighbor. So check that out because yeah Tim made a great point. He was watching a documentary. So he got a little bit of inspiration there that he can tell you about. But
01:01:47
Speaker
In order for fascism to take hold, you need some ingredients that are happening in the country. yeah and that That's just, if you look at Nazi Germany, if you look at Italy, if you look at Spain, you know, around the
Dehumanization in Society
01:02:03
Speaker
time of World War II, if you look at other totalitarian regimes, you need some basic ingredients, even before you have a leader. And I think the ingredient is the one that Tim hit on. And that is that we don't know people outside of our coworkers, outside of our family, maybe a few friends that we might be connected with. But you know both Tim and I both admitted when we were texting back and forth, we don't know our neighbors. I've lived here for 11 years. We've talked every once in a while, but we really don't know them all that well. And most of the time we talk, it's basically them complaining about something.
01:02:46
Speaker
So I mean, that's not really conducive you know to having any kind of a meaningful relationship. And so what happens is is that, and um this is going to be my piece tomorrow, it's basically dehumanization. That's the way that fascism happens, is that we dehumanize our fellow people. And so whenever we start talking about immigrants, that's when we start talking about vermin. We start talking about our political enemies, we call them the the enemy within.
01:03:16
Speaker
Uh, we start treating people as, you know, we start, oh, they're eating the cats or eating the dogs because animals do that. People don't do that. or You know, so if I think of them as an animal, then I'm not going to be as upset when something happens to them. And so I think the, the point where we tie this in and I ah wrote a piece, I had a friend we've mentioned on the show before, um,
01:03:43
Speaker
He dropped me as a friend on Facebook. I reached back out to him because you know he's somebody I grew up with. We played on the golf team together at Clear Lake High School. I drove him to school for two years. And he just said, I can't do it anymore. you know he He thought I was too extreme when I said that Donald Trump invited partially invited the violence on him whenever he had the assassination attempts. and And I think there are people, and I certainly thought this at the time, and there are people who still have this nagging feeling that those were fake. I'm not going to go that far, but there are some nagging questions there. But the point is, is that he just decided, even though we've known each other for over 30 years, that he can't do it anymore because, to use his words, I'm a libtard. And so he's made me as less of a person.
01:04:39
Speaker
And I suppose part of it might be I've made him less of a person as well, you know, because of where he stands politically, because we're not talking at each other through social media and not meeting face to face like Tim's article was suggesting, which is why I think it was so timely in such a companion piece for the stuff that I've been talking about. Because whenever you meet people face to face, you have to see them as human.
01:05:08
Speaker
And if something bad happens to them, your natural empathy, of course, most of us have natural empathy, some people don't, but our natural empathy kicks in because nobody wants to see anything bad happen to anybody. It's horrifying. But if I don't ever interact with them, I don't see them as people, I never see the horrifying things, then I just don't care as much. And that's what the fascists are counting on.
01:05:38
Speaker
You're absolutely right Scott and and even just to take it a step further. It's not just the fascist dehumanization has been a part of The world since European expansion especially right when Christopher Columbus came over and it You know did what he did it's because those people that he encountered were not people they were savages they were subhumans and When we committed, you know, kidnapping and selling of other human beings from Africa, again, they were savages, they were subhumans. When we genocided the Native Americans because we wanted that land for manifest destiny, they were labeled as savages and subhumans. It is how America and really, you know, the white European settlers of the world
01:06:29
Speaker
have lived and and have done things. This is not anything new. And and you know that's why my my piece was, I guess, written is I felt you know this huge desire to um note more people. I learned through meeting different people who have different experiences. I went to college pretty conservative. I grew up in a conservative area of Houston. And then you know I met people.
01:06:56
Speaker
and people who grew up differently than I did, people who, you know, would consider me wealthy. And I never once in myself thought my family, you know, was wealthy or came from money. And all these things opened my eyes, and being a part of that St. Mary's University community changed me. And I think you would agree, Scott, we have those communities in college. You've got fraternities, you've got intramural sports, you've got clubs, you've got all those things, and then you kind of tend to get out in the real world and it goes away.
01:07:25
Speaker
But I could guarantee you when you lived in the dorms, you knew who your next door neighbor was. You probably shared a couple of beers with them at different times. You know, when you had your college apartment, you knew, you probably had a general idea where the hot girls in your complex live, who your neighbors were. Now, not so much. Yeah. And I think the only word that I can use to describe it is a balkanization of our culture. Um, and I think that's the seed that I think that Trump is seizing on.
01:07:54
Speaker
And this is the reason why I mentioned fascism, because I think that, you know, when you look at Adolf Hitler in Germany, you look at Mussolini, there needed to be seeds underneath that to make the rhetoric resonate. The Germans were in horrible economic times, horrible. I mean, the Great Depression hit them a lot harder than it hit us in the United States.
01:08:19
Speaker
And in the United States, there were seeds of fascism. There were seeds of communism. There were, so you know, there were voices here that were starting to get somewhat of a hold because of the bad times that were happening here. And so that balkanization, which I think, you know, part of that is the media, but part of that is just with social media.
01:08:43
Speaker
people feeling better being behind a screen than just getting out there outside and saying, hey, let's have a block party like you mentioned in your article. We used to do that on our cul-de-sac. Every Halloween, because we were in a cul-de-sac, we would put a big table out in front of the cul-de-sac where we would have all of our candy so that you know people would come by our table and get the candy without having to walk each each house door to door. We don't do that anymore.
01:09:08
Speaker
no No, we don't. And so it's it's sad. and And I think it's it's caused all of this rhetoric to gain a hold. Couldn't agree with you more, Scott. And I'm i'm glad we took just a ah quick moment to shout that out. But let's keep this train a moving on. It is time for scumbags of the week. Scott, who do you got for us here? OK, I'm going to go with, I'm going to do a bit of a shout out.
01:09:38
Speaker
I called my Allstate agent and he apologized profusely for the story I'm about to tell you and actually gave me some good advice so this is not aimed at him. But Allstate, I pay and and it I asked him on my bill $7 a month for roadside assistance. You know how many times I've used roadside assistance as an Allstate customer? Once or twice maybe.
01:10:08
Speaker
three times, three times. And I've been an all-state customer for as long as we've been in the house. So, you know, at least 10 years, if not more. So I think I've paid more than enough for to give good roadside service. So yesterday, on on Monday morning, my car will not start.
01:10:30
Speaker
This is a new car, by the way, which I'm i'm also kind of salty about, you know, thanks, thanks for, you know, giving me that. And so apparently these new cars have two batteries, Tim. I don't know if you knew that, uh, but I have, you know, a battery that is the regular battery and a battery that controls the electronics. Well, both those suckers were dead. We could not jump it. So at about four o'clock.
01:10:56
Speaker
Just a little bit before four o'clock, actually, 3.58 p.m., because I looked it up. I called all sides and said, hey, can I get a tow? I said, sure. We're going to have a guy in there between 5.30 and 6.15. Now, the very first question I asked is, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What part of town are they coming from? Because they have a habit of sending people from spring to come pick us up in Clear a Lake.
01:11:24
Speaker
And of course, the person who's on the other line has no idea you know what Houston's like, so they had no idea where to send a driver from. So I'm guessing the driver that they sent initially was coming from there into town unbeknownst to me until I called them back several times. That person had canceled the call. and But every time that I called back, you know I'd get this automated message, well, they'll be there in about 20 minutes. Oh, they'll be there in about 20 minutes.
01:11:53
Speaker
20 minutes turned into 8 30, Tim. I missed dinner. I didn't get dinner until nine o'clock because I'm like, no, no, don't give me dinner because you know, they're coming in 20 minutes. And so I'm sitting there waiting around the guys that towed were nice guys, good guys. It's not their fault. The first driver, you know, just unbeknownst to anybody decided that fuck it. I'm not going to pick you up, but it's ridiculous when I'm paying $7 a month for a service.
01:12:22
Speaker
and you can't get me somebody to me even within four hours. I mean, imagine if I was stranded on the side of the road waiting four hours for a tow. Thank God I was at home.
Customer Service and Campaign Criticism
01:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, I've i've had that exact scenario happen with Progressive. It's no longer with Progressive. I have Allstate myself now. um So yeah, I feel for you, Scott. That's never never fun. Now, if you buy the roadside assistance, this is the tip that my insurance guy gave.
01:12:52
Speaker
He said, go ahead and call who you want, save the receipt, and I'll reimburse you. So it's like, okay, all right, I'll do that then. Hey, if you can do that, I highly suggest it, Scott. i yeah I typically tend to be a little bit more pigeonholed. And honestly, most of my issues have come at home. So like, if I got to wait it out, I got to wait it out. I struggled with this one, Scott.
01:13:22
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, the idea that a former president would be working the fry pit at your local McDonald's is almost laughable, right? And for that reason, I am not saying that Donald Trump is the scumbag here. It's McDonald's. What the fuck is McDonald's doing? Like, why would you let him do that?
01:13:49
Speaker
In what world is that good for you? In what world is that good for your brand? What does that say about anything that like we for some reason think that a former president is showing us something by, by frying up some fries at McDonald's? Like what, what does anybody think that that says? Like Kamala's McDonald's job was like very, very early in her life. Like one of her first jobs, Donald Trump is fucking 70 something years old.
01:14:19
Speaker
Any any served a fake customer like Anybody who was a part of setting this up your secret service team your campaign team McDonald's for letting it happen. I McDonald's in my guilty pleasure food. I don't have to boycott McDonald's Scott. That's where I'm at No fucking McDoubles for me because dipshit Trump had to go work the fry pit that No, Tim. It's not the fry pit. It's the fry counter That, that, that was, you know, Trump's. People were saying he was the best fries. People who came, people who came through, a drive through says the best fries they ever had. Some, some people said, some people said he never had a fries. Good as my fry. That's all I'm saying is some, some people were saying people would say is the best fries they ever had. I've never had fries with bronzer on them before. ah but I mean, that was awesome. The best joke I saw, Scott, was that like when that store opens back up the next day, they're going to have an E-coli outbreak was Trump was sitting there shitting himself while he cooks.
01:15:16
Speaker
Well, you know know, the, the thing is, is that what it reminded me of, as it was a reminded me of JD Vance ordering donuts, you know, where he busted out the, yeah whatever normal people get. And it's like, you know, here's an alien with a human suit, whatever the humans get, you know, ah but yeah. and And there's a lot of people who are up in arms and and, and I kind of agree that, you know, maybe the vitriol is a bit overboard.
01:15:44
Speaker
Because yeah if Kamala Harris was going to work at a McDonald's, do you think they would have it open for business? No, I don't think so. Kamala wouldn't go work at a fucking McDonald's. She knows that people say things like, oh, what do you want me to do? Just go flip burgers? Like that's a bad thing. And now Donald, i um'm I'm not saying it is, but that is the connotation. And now a guy running for president of the United States thinks that throwing on the fucking smock and a hat with a golden arch is on it makes us think he's more qualified.
01:16:13
Speaker
Well, the thing that kills me about it's the whole thing of, well, Kamala really didn't work at McDonald's. What's your proof? There are no records. It's 1980 fucking three. What records do you think that they have? Is the McDonald's where she works even open anymore? To be honest, Trump didn't really work out of McDonald's either. Trump was played at a McDonald's employee. And here's my but here's my favorite part, Tim.
01:16:42
Speaker
The other proof that she didn't work at McDonald's wasn't on a resume. So let me let me ask you, Tim, what was your first ever job? I mean, busboy at my dad's restaurant. So did you put that on your resume for your current job? It is no longer on my resume. Exactly. I worked for the Pasadena Independent School District. I worked for the maintenance department. Did I put that on my resume?
01:17:12
Speaker
No, because it has no relevance to me being a teacher or a counselor. you know what you You know what would really blow their mind? I have three different resumes, Scott. I have a resume for marketing-based jobs, I have a resume for restaurant management jobs, and I have a resume for sports jobs. All three have different jobs listed on them because I've worked in different industries. Yeah, a crazy thought there, Tim.
01:17:37
Speaker
You kind of, you know, specializing your resume there for the job that you want. That's crazy. I would blow their mind up. I would love to see Donald Trump's resume on it. Like, what fucking, what do you have on there? Slumlord, 1972 to 1978, failed casino manager, 1981 to 1986. Failed a football team owner, 1986 to 1988.
01:18:05
Speaker
um Somewhat successful reality of failed failed New York mayor candidate that one was in there oh and reality TV show Not even the host like he was like just a character on the show But the other part of it too is Who cares? Is she really getting that much run out of I used to work at McDonald's is there any are there any voters out there going like, you know, I wasn't sure about Kamala before I
01:18:37
Speaker
When I heard she worked at McDonald's, she gets my vote. I mean, come on. but ah But my point is on the token side of things. Is there any single person who wasn't sure about Trump then saw him working McDonald's ago? He gets it. He gets what the blue collar worker is going for. I saw it in that 15 minute shift. That guy, he fucking gets it. No. That added absolutely nothing to your campaign. Like I can't imagine.
01:19:06
Speaker
That had to be his idea. Like there's no way his campaign manager thought it was like, came in and said, you know, what we should do, you should go do McDonald's for a day. So I guarantee you, like he walked in and he said, I want ah you, you need to find a McDonald's that will let me work there for a day. Cause that's how I own Kamala. And they probably were like, Hey man, that's a terrible idea. Like there's, there's way better ways to spend your time. We're, you know, we're in the last month of this thing here. Really. I think there's no.
01:19:34
Speaker
No, I'm working at McDonald's. Find me a McDonald's to work at. Get it done. Get it done now. He's a, you know, did you ever see the movie Brewster's Millions? Absolutely. We were talking about that on golf on Sunday. Yes. I think he's, he's running his own like Brewster's voters. It's like my goal is to have zero voters. What can I say to have zero voters? I mean, cause you know, if you go, you know what I should do? I should say that I want Adolf Hitler's generals. That's what I should do.
01:20:04
Speaker
That's going to win me over some people. No, no, no, actually I want to talk about Arnold Palmer's schlong for 12 minutes. Impressive. Impressive dick that Arnold Palmer has. Yeah, let me talk about that. You know, the women will love me. Will love me. Just like that most Arnold Palmer's cock. I mean, how about we insult a Hispanic murdered soldier and refuse to pay for her funeral after offering to do so? Yes. So, you know, cause that,
01:20:34
Speaker
Because, you know, Janet's favorite drink is an Arnold Palmer. Not anymore. It's ruined. It's ruined for her. Yeah. There's actually a cartoon, though, that has, you know, a woman sitting at the bar and the bartender says, so Melania, what would you like? An Arnold Palmer.
01:20:52
Speaker
I think you got to start ordering an Arnold Palmer extra long. Let me get that in a tall. Extra hard. Start asking for it extra hard and see what happens.
01:21:04
Speaker
I'd like an extra hard auto farmer, please. And obviously let's put some vodka in it. Like, what are you talking about? I just wanted vodka. Would you prefer me to call it a John Daly? I'm sorry. Is that vodka or whiskey? Do you think it is better? John Daly is vodka. Yeah. I'm saying like, if you were to, if you were to, uh, spike a normal farmer, what would be your, uh, your spirit of choice? Either vodka or gin. Yeah. I mean, I could see gin.
01:21:32
Speaker
To me it's kind of like because I was I'm not a big drinker, but like I had a hell of a stressful day on Friday last week to where like I wanted a cocktail at the end of my day and I made a Tom Collins, which is you know kind of like essentially like a little like an alcoholic lemonade Yeah, so I think it would it would go well But I always I always think of like meet the fuckers where he's like a little birdie Toby someone's a Tom Collins, man.
Upcoming Content and Sponsorship Appeal
01:22:00
Speaker
I we we have a partition at the house. I don't know if you've heard of that. I know what that is. Yeah. Yeah. there So, you know, we, we, we haven't used it in a while, but you know, artesian, if you'd like to sponsor the show, you can get in touch with us at the Facebook page, you know, kind of let us know. ah We'd be happy to have you also Mizuno. If you want to sponsor the show, I love your golf clubs.
01:22:22
Speaker
But I think that's all that we have this week Scott um If you haven't had a chance to go read the sub stack pieces Please head over to thoughts of a native Texan on sub stack and tech those out It's been an absolute blast this week though Scott you mentioned you've got some stuff coming up on battle red blog and then you've got some ah Hall of Fame index work coming out here, too, this week. Yeah. Crawfish boxes, actually, I'm looking, I'm starting a series around looking at potential moves the Astros could make. And we can, and it'll come out on Friday, so we can digest that next week if Tim wants to bring that up on the show. He's, I tell you, folks, he shot me some of these moves. I am, this might be the first time Scott and I aren't locked, lock and step on on what moves the Astros should make. So maybe a little bit more lively debate on the pod next week, Scott.
01:23:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, we appreciate everyone who joined us here this week on born on the body sports. We will see everybody next time.