The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
12/05 Hour 1 - Are We Overblowing How Big of a Loss Azeez Al-Shaair Will Be for the Texans?
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If you want to make money, you're going to want to hang out with us today, because not only do we have Lee Sterling at 345, Adam Ronas for $15, both of them crush it, both of them win lots of money, and they want to help you too. They love you. They want to help you win lots of money. A bad take boulevard, can the Texans make a push after the buying? It's kind of been the rallying cry. It's kind of been lost in the shuffle with the whole "Z" thing. Like the message from the team coming out earlier this week, "We got to make a push." Like after the game, CJ, "We got to make a push." So can they actually make a push? What about this golden era of Houston Astro baseball? Is it coming to an end? There's a new contract offer that has been reported by Brian McTaggart that has been given to Alex Bregman. Is it legit? Is it something that he would do, the Astros would do, that they should do? And what about the whole idea of maybe trading away some of the core of this team? We'll get to all of that, but we're still kind of coming to grips with this Aziz al-Shire thing. Aziz al-Shire, of course, suspended three games by the NFL, by Karen Runyon. He had it, of course, had the appeal heard by the guy that works in Tennessee Radio, which he did not reduce the suspension, still a three-game suspension for Aziz al-Shire. And it's what's really weird to me, and I think it's worthy of a conversation. The first one is, why is this guy the arbiter? Why is the guy that works for the Tennessee Titans that is literally employed by the Tennessee Titans? Why is he the guy weighing in on the rolling of one Aziz al-Shire? He's literally employed by the Tennessee Titans. I did a little bit of a deep dive yesterday. He does morning radio for the flagship every single day, Monday through Friday. He does morning radio for their flagship station in Nashville. This is basically the NFL's way of just letting everybody know without flat-out saying it. We can do whatever the hell we want, and we're going to show you that whatever you think matters doesn't, that this is ridiculous that you didn't think about this before you did anything, both with Runyon and in this case with Ramon Foster, and just said, "You know what? It's a really bad look for the league if we do this. We have other options. We should probably go that route just to avoid any backlash." They're basically throwing the middle finger up and going, "Don't care, doing it our way, and by the way, we're going to lay down the same discipline that we did, deal with it." He's employed by the Titans. That's ridiculous. Even if we eliminate, like we don't know if there is bias here, we have no idea. Maybe Ramon Foster, like we do think that the precedent shouldn't have led to a three game suspension. But let's just eliminate the idea that Ramon Foster had any sort of bias here. Let's assume that Ramon Foster did this as fair as possible, that he weighed in every single nugget of information, and let's say he was completely right down the middle. I understand that's a reach, but let's just assume that for a moment. Shouldn't the NFL and the NFL PA just eliminate a guy that could be a division rival for the sake of the conversation that we, quite honestly, are having right now. So you can eliminate all of the Houston Texans fans. You can eliminate the Houston media. You can eliminate the Houston blowhards that talk behind a microphone, which includes us. You can eliminate that conversation simply by using somebody else. That to me is where it doesn't make any sense. Like the NFL opens themselves up to like this conspiracy of, okay, well, you have a Tennessee Titan that's weighing in on the appeal of a Houston Texan, Ramon Foster, yesterday they have a show Twitter page where it talks about their show and things that are coming up on the show. Adam Schefter tweeted Ramon Foster is the hearing official on today's appeal for Aziz al-Shire, the show Twitter put the eye emoji, quote, tweeting it. It's like they're having fun with this, like they're mocking this. They're having fun at the expense of Aziz al-Shire, like they're making, they're making light of the situation, which annoys me quite frankly. You think about this from any business perspective. The first thing you want to do is try to be forward thinking and walk through a process before you actually make decisions so that you can weigh the pros and the cons and make sure you don't have egg on your face. This is ridiculous that they either didn't do that, didn't have the foresight to do such or they just figured again, we'll throw the middle finger up on both hands and say, don't care, won't care. Going to do it our way. You're going to deal with it no matter what we say. It is, it is a joke that you had other options as well. You're not financially constrained to say, I've only got one guy doing this job. It's unfortunate. You know, we allow him to have a second job where he works for a team that's in your division. No, you had multiple options both times and this is what you chose to do. This is the league saying we're bigger than you and we're going to do whatever the hell we want. He's not the only one that does this, like he could have been Jordy Nelson. It could have been Derek Brooks and that's the other thing. Cody Stutes, Cody's tooth, I should say, he tweeted out this morning as he was listening to the radio show and Foster said that he wasn't going to talk about this and like he also equated to how Derek Brooks works with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Okay. I don't know how that makes any sense. It would make more sense if Derek Brooks was the guy that was the arbiter because why? Because he's not a division rival. So Ramon Foster like saying that Derek Brooks as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers makes no sense to me quite frankly. This also Jeremy goes back to what I said previously when we were talking about this about from the eyes of a defender, I would if you're going to have Runyon, who's one of the dirtiest players in the NFL, be a guy that's judging dirty plays. Well, then why don't you have a linebacker be the guy that's the arbiter when dealing with a linebacker, when we're trying to evaluate how much time does he need to be able to pull up, pull away, you know, the severity of the hit, all those other things, that would make more sense if you're going to go with the first choice of Runyon. But either way, you could have avoided all this and said here, Jordy Nelson, take this one. The Jordy Nelson, Derek Brooks make more sense and Foster be a well Brooks place for Tampa Bay. He's got a he's got a like a bias. No, he doesn't. That's it's a different one. It's a different division two. It's a different conference. You're a division rival where your owner that's paying you checks, by the way, hates the Houston Texas ownership. So that I can't believe we didn't make a bigger deal about that yesterday. This would be like me being the person that is the arbiter for a Texas tech player being suspended. And frankly, this is it's exactly what it is. Like let's say that Brett your mark, big 12 commissioner suspended a random Texas tech player for three or four games he appealed. And I was the arbiter because I do sidelines for Houston. I have a radio show in Houston. How stupid would that be? How stupid would be a brand was the arbiter of a Texas tech player being suspended? That is the equivalent to what happened yesterday. Seth Payne would be the equivalent. I joked around about Mark Vanderbeer, Seth Payne's probably the better example because Seth Payne played in the NFL. He does get employed by the Texans to appear on their pregame radio show ahead of their Texans games. He does morning radio at the flagship. This would be like if Seth Payne heard the suspension of Calvin Riddley. Yeah, the only thing missing would be if you guys had been in the big 12 long enough to develop a rivalry to where you could say, hey, not only are you going to be the arbiter in this case, but it happens to be with your biggest rival within your conference. Because that would actually kind of equate to what we're talking about here. When we know that Amy Adams skunk hates the Texans, she got the game ball because they beat Texans. We know the whole uniform and all the other crap that goes on and how Hannah and it seems to have the the the the Texas back going back at her. This is a joke. Only its reality. And that's what makes no sense is the fact that it basically just shows you that they put their big boy pants on and said, still care. Yeah, it's it's quite ridiculous. And the timelines also like putting that conversation aside. The other part of the timeline is interesting yesterday because we know that Aziz al Shire was getting the appeal heard by Ramon Foster, who is employed by the Tennessee Titans. We later know that of course the suspension got upheld. We found out right around the time where the appeal was ending that Adam Schefter was placed that Adam Schefter tweeted that the Jaguars placed Terrence Lawrence on IR and his season looks to be done. So whenever you read that tweet and knowing that Trevor Lawrence was concussed and got you know, carted off the field, whenever you read the tweet, Jaguars placed Trevor Lawrence on injury reserve, we all think concussion. We all think head, right? Like our minds immediately go there. We talked about this on the show yesterday, like, do we think that Trevor Lawrence being placed on injured reserve is going to have a factor on Aziz al Shire's suspension? I think that it probably does. I think the injury from the moment it happened and then getting placed to injury reserve yesterday is part of the equation because I do think it's a bad look be like, okay, we're going to drop Aziz al Shire's suspension down to one game or two game. The day that Trevor Lawrence was placed on the IR for an injury that we thought at the time was because of Aziz al Shire's hit. So we think during the really all day that Trevor Lawrence placed on injury reserve and we think it's for the concussion, the suspension gets upheld 539 Adam Schefter. I saw this from stresses at up 539 Adam Schefter tweets the three game suspension of Houston linebacker Aziz al Shire was upheld. At 557, which this is what quick math 18 minutes later, Ian Rappaport tweets, Trevor Lawrence expected to have surgery to repair a significant AC joint injury in his left shoulder in the coming weeks. His season is over. So he wasn't placed on the IR for the concussion. He was placed on IR for the shoulder injury that's going to require surgery yet that piece of information was held out for three hours and didn't come out until 18 minutes after the decision on the Aziz al Shire, the appeal being upheld. The timeline is fascinating. It's ridiculous in the fact as well that we knew during the telecast, during the game and leading up to the game that Trevor Lawrence was still iffy because they were what they were debating whether he was going to have surgery to end his season. Then they said on the telecast, hey, you know what, Trevor Lawrence said, as a leader of this football team, I want to show for my teammates that I'm there. I'm going to try and play, but we knew that he was borderline, excuse me, but being shut down for the rest of the season because they're not going anywhere. They had an option if they were going to shut him down to say what of the two injuries. This again, it's all calculated. It's all being used against the Texans. It's all because the league lets all of this happen. It's a joke because we knew before the game even started that he was being probably there was a possibility he was going to be shut down for his shoulder. Yeah, it's a the timeline's interesting to me. The fact that you have a division rival guy who gets paid by a division rival is interesting to me too. And it just it lacks sense from the NFL, even if Ramon Foster was completely unbiased and fair, which he could have been. Like I'm not going to sit here and call Ramon Foster's character into question like Karen Runyon did do is ease our shire. I'm not going to go down that load of Karen Runyon's level. But the look of having a division rival employee, making the call on the suspension and the appeal rather of a Z's outshire just it wreaks, it wreaks of conspiracy, not saying it happened, but how do you not eliminate the conversation before? And it's I don't understand how you is the league not making enough money that you guys can't pay these guys well enough, but also in their con to say in their contracts, you know, this is your job because of the fact that, you know, you can prevent Tom Brady from being an, you know, if you're an owner, you're not supposed to be a broadcaster and then they put it all those different things. But does he, do we need the second and third jobs and we're going to allow that because it would seem like from week to week with all these fines and all these suspensions and all these things that they have to review, there's plenty enough to do for the four guys that you should say, you know what, we can't have you having side jobs with the other with a team. Yeah, it's it's it's crazy. Like I imagine he gets paid more with like doing radio and doing Titans radio that he does being an arbiter every now and then for the NFL. You think so? Oh, I think so. I think because I don't think the referee's like before the referee said side jobs because they get paid probably like five grand a game now it's I think it's up from that. Yeah, pretty high. Yeah, they get six figures I think to be an NFL referee and arbiters probably on contract like he's probably not on payroll, right? Like he's probably well, okay, those are kind of the same thing. He's probably freelance. Like I can't imagine. I don't think so. I don't know man. I can't imagine they're paying a dude who's working four days a year insurance. I would say it's probably seasonal during the season that they are on a salary for eight months based and then I don't know if you're going to base it on workload or not. But I would think and it's the NFL. I mean, they're printing money. You don't you can't you can't pay your employees for something that obviously is important during the course of the season as it relates to players availability. I mean, get out in the weeds in this this route. Not really not that important. I wonder like I don't know if they're paying an independent arbiter who's like he's he's making a pointer is doing his task. I mean, how many how many times a year do you think he's ruling on stuff and appeal? I can't imagine it's more than half a dozen. They're like four of them. Well, it's not even just the appeal. They also make the judgment on the fines from week to week for the for the for the I don't think that Ramon Foster has anything to do with that. I think that's why he's an independent arbiter because if he was doing that he's no longer independent. Well, no, because I thought that they've said that like Derek Brooks and some of the other guys have been the the the whatever representative of the league. I don't know how that's an independent arbiter that doesn't have skin in the game. I don't either. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure. 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, ESPN, HR and P listener line did the way that Demico and Casario come out against the NFL whenever they had his Z's back. Did that come into play here? And are we over blowing how big of a loss disease will be for the Texans for the next three games? 1-3, 7, 8, 0, ESPN, HR and P listener line were on Twitch, twitch.tv/ESP and 97-5 on YouTube at ESPN, Houston, also on Twitter at ESPN 975 blankers at Pac Man Joel. I'm at Jeremy Branham, Brian Zinsack by BMAC. It's the B's ESPN 97-5 ESPN 92-5 guys, the word from a good friend, Doc Lindville. He's right here in the Med Center and with the holidays coming up, maybe you want that extra gift or maybe you want a gift for yourself or your significant other that really could make a big difference in their lives. Doc Lindville is there for you. He does all kinds of things. He does plastic surgery. He does Botox. He does all kinds of different things that can help you spot treatments. 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Do you think what Dameko and Casario had to say about the Aziz hit before the suspension came down? Have anything to do with the suspension A and then B the uphill, get to that in a couple of minutes. 713-780-ESB-N-H-R-P, listener line, texture, we have a Jaguar fan listening, which I credit to you. I appreciate the hustle. I really do. Called us Sissy Boys. Let's grade the jokes here. Let's grade the insults because we can appreciate good insults. I love a good insult. If you get me with a good insult, I tip my cap to you. Blankers say bad words to you, but I'll tip my cap to you if you get me with a good insult. Sissy Boys, where's that rank on the insult list here from this Jaguar fan listening? That one's not great. That's pretty weak. I get that one about a 1-4. Yeah, it's going to go 1-5. It's not even original, you know? Yeah, if it was 1957, it might be like an 8 or a 9. It's a 1 for effort and that's it. Yeah. And it's not original at all. The next one, go to McDonald's, get a wah burger? That's worse. Wouldn't you? The joke should be Burger King. Like a wah burger? I mean, yeah. That would be better. That would be better. Yeah. Actually, it was better played, right? McDonald's played. That's Burger King. I'm calling it like you give him the insult before he calls in so that he sounds better. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Delisha texts. We do it. This guy needs a Brian to be his burner coach. I put that like a 0-8 on the insult meter here. That's not very good. And then the last one, the wheelhouse, never cried this much. That was probably the best of the three because it at least has some like, pertancy to it right because, you know-- I mean, you used to be here like a year and a half ago. Did you ever see Jake with his training wheels on when the bike got out of control? I mean, anytime the Jets lose, though. There was a lot of crying. I saw Jake crying the other day about the Roger situation, so I don't know how accurate this one is. That's three, I will give you credit, Jaguar fan. That is the best of the three. But even that one, I'm putting it like a 2-1. Yeah. That's not a joke we haven't heard before. I mean, they've been sending those jokes since the show ended. Yeah. So we're going to have to-- if you're going to insult the bees, you're going to have to do it at much, much better rate for us to pick up at you. All right. 7-1-3-7-8-0-ESP. Do you think that D'Amico and Cocerios rant worked against Aziz Al-Shire at all? It shouldn't. But it's a genuine possibility simply because of the fact, unlike in a jury trial where they try to seclude you and make sure, you know, before you're selected that you're not supposed to have heard any of the details about the case and all these things. So Quested is the word. Okay. Great. Then that too. The biggest thing is you can't do this when you're dealing with this situation, and this is all over the sports world, and it's been all over the sports world for days. And so the minute that the comments came out from D'Amico the day after his initial comments after the game, and then Cocerios rebuttal as well, I don't know how you can't help but have heard them, and in the back of your mind, know what was said. And as Houston fans, and being here in the city of Houston, we loved them. We know the reasoning behind them, and we love that our guys have their players back. From a national perspective, it's pretty much Houston against everybody. So I'm sure that most people heard those comments. Yeah. I, but do you think it impacted his suspension or the lack of reduction from the appeal? I think at that point, I think overall it's just about the fact that there's two things. I don't think that that was involved in the decision. I think the decision was the hit itself, but the bigger message that they're trying to send and the fact that they were going to, I think they were pretty staunch on the fact that they were going to stick to that. And then because of the publicity league was getting negatively because of this, I think that they had all their kind of ducks in a row before regardless. Yeah, I don't think it impacted the suspension. And I really don't think it impacted the appeal. I think that the biggest factor other than the actual hit itself that played the biggest influence here was the, the perception of it, the optics of it, the fact that there was an injury. And I really do think the Trevor Lawrence being placed on the IR came to play with the appeal yesterday. That's my. Yeah, sure. I think that you can't, again, I don't know, you know, I'm sure he's not, he's not in a room all by himself, you know, on a, on a zoom chat. So I would think that, you know, between his phone and the way he gets, you know, Twitter and messages and everything like that, we're just going to travel pretty fast. Yeah. I do think it's possible that it played a small role in the appeal because the going back to Joel's kind of courtroom analogy, you often hear from, from judges when someone's been convicted and they have like the, the chance for the guy to say something. They want to hear that you're contrite. They want to hear that you're apologetic, that you feel remorse for what you did, that you feel bad for what you did. If you come out and beat your chest, I'm not guilty. All of you guys are wrong. I'm not guilty. They don't take any leniency and they make the penalty as stiff as they possibly can. And with Casario, you know, deciding to curse for the first time in the clip that we've played a bunch of times, obviously, to Mico with a way, he, well, with what he said on Monday. And obviously now the clown, clown, a tweet that, uh, that is easy to announce. I don't, although that might have been afterwards, I don't, I don't, I don't think the league would want or would do a Z's any favors. If you're out there banging your chest and saying, I'm not guilty instead of showing their Morse. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, but I, that wasn't a Z's though. Like that was Demico and Nick, but it's for his, it's on a Z's, but they're supposed to do that. See, I think to the level or you just remain silent. You could, but I don't, I think with the media, yeah, I think that happens more actually. I think that's usually the stance that coaches take what is going to wait to figure it out. Absolutely. How often do you see a coach try to get out ahead of it and really change his tenor and you go listen to the Mico after the game Sunday and then listen to the Mico on Monday, or some 180. Yeah. But I'm saying in the like league, the league it differs because there are coaches when decisions like, you know, there's a window of, of where decisions are going to be made. There are coaches that are trying to, I never said it never happens. I said it's more often they're very political or going to wait for the league out on it. I'm just saying. I'm sorry. No, I'm calling you out on it because I, I, I'm like, yes, it happens. There's no doubt that it happens. I agree with you that it happens, but what happens more? And I said more often you have a coach that it's more political on it. That's the first time we, I think I can ever recall any general manager coming out and, and like fighting back that hard with that much of research behind them and, and examples to give to, to come out that fiery to fight against a league decision. Most times every, like I said, yesterday, everybody's running for the hills going, I'm going to avoid having to write a check to the league. I'm not saying a word and he came out guns blazing. Yeah. Um, seven, one, three, seven, eight zero ESPN. Do you think now as these after the appeal, he sent out the, the Joker that you mentioned with blasted all over social, like if you need a villain, I'll play your villain. There's been some people calling them out for that saying that it's not going to help himself. Trey Wingo, I think was the biggest name that did this. How are you feeling about that? Like do you think that Aziz al-Shire is hurting himself? Just diving into the villain role immediately after I don't because there's nothing else that he could possibly do to salvage and save himself from what's already been done. The decision was made. The appeal was heard. It was upheld. Everything was set in stone and at a certain point, again, I go back to the analogy I made with the Astros at a certain point, you just have to own the villain and realize no matter what I do and say and how much I feel like I'm innocent and I want to fight, fight, fight for everything to, to try and clear my name at a certain point, you realize you're up against it. You're never going to win it. And if you own it, it might be an easier road to take. And I think that's exactly what he did. He's probably still so ticked off that he basically just said, you know what? Okay, if that's what you want me to be in your mind and how you've portrayed me to be, then so be it that I'm going to go and go that route. I think from that angle, you nailed it. I think you're 100% on that angle. I think that if you take it a little bit further, I think there are some areas where it could hurt him going forward. If he's in a situation where it's kind of like bang bang, like a lot of people are calling this play bang bang. Oh, you're talking. Yeah. Kind of the dream on green effect. Yeah. Like dream on green on borderline calls usually has the benefit of the doubt go against him. I think it's ease out. I think it's ease out. Shire, probably with pet suite. If there's a 5050 call, he ain't getting that call. If there's another situation where there is a, you know, a melee on the field, well, he's going to be the first one that's suspended. So I think that it does magnify his name as a villain. And whenever you do have the, you know, synonym villain around league circles, whether it's on the field with referees, whether it's something that happens off the field and you're looking at some sort of fine suspension again. I do think that that hurts his cause. I think it's a good point. I think the dream on analogy is spot on because of the fact that whether it's going to be flags and personal fouls and what they're looking at to, if it's a borderline one way or the other and they know who's doing it, they're definitely going to go right at him and say, I'm going to border on being a more disciplinary towards a guy like this. I don't think he was thinking about it at the time. I think so much time so many times when we're in a confrontation or a situation and our emotions are running high, we know when the adrenaline gets going and our emotions get going. There's a certain point where I'm not thinking about like we're talking about the forward thinking big picture of how the league handled it. I don't think he was thinking about how this might affect me down the road at a certain point. He's so ticked off that he didn't get it reduced and that no one's understanding that, you know, what he truly felt and what, you know, was behind what happened that he just basically said screw it. Yeah. You seven one three seven eight zero ESPN. So it will be interesting to see if it ever comes to play now eight eight zero seven can as he sue the league. I don't think that he can on these type of deals. I feel like with the CBA, you lose those rights. My only hang up here is that like you have had players sue for CTE and concussion, but that's usually when they're out of the league and probably out of the NFL PA. It's also like a joint venture with bunches of players getting together. Yeah. One individual class. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that that would be I don't think so. I don't know that for sure. I don't know that for sure. But I lean that he cannot another texture where the simple Cal stand on this appeal situation. I think he's still trying to count to the three game suspension that he's going to miss. He's going to never never quit three. So does that mean he's back for Tennessee? I think that that's Cal McNair stand. He's never going to stop appealing. Never. Never quit. He's going to keep running this back to get his wife as he's calling ownership on what he should do. Mr McNair, I've had my suspension upheld. It's still three games. What should I do? Mr. Cal McNair. Never. Never. That's what counseling every night now for the rest of the week after Hannah puts the kids to bed. She has to go in and start going. Now, Cal, let's pick up where we left off. He's not going to play against the dolphins and then just keep going game by game trying to explain why. Yeah. Key from L.A. The story is the talk of everywhere. My wife is talking about it. It's a bad. I didn't know. Key from L.A. It's better for Mrs. Key from L.A. My wife is talking about it. It's a bad thing, but good PR for the Texans. I don't really know how it's good PR for the Texans. The only thing that I would say from a good PR stance is like I do think that the Texans fandom is more unified than it's ever been. Yeah. Look, I only think the way that it's positive about the Texans is the fact that they haven't been playing very good football. And this has been a massive distraction from the fact that they went into the bi-week kind of not playing their very best and having a whole bunch of people pointing fingers otherwise at everything from the offense to Bobby Sloech, the CJ, to all the different shortcomings. And this has been the only Texans topic that has really had a wait for the last several days. Yeah. Other text on this coming in from the HRP listener line from the hive, it would be like a UT alumni making a review on a call, the UT game against U of H. Remember, they had the replay of it. Yeah. Who was a Texas grad. Yeah, right. You're insane. Another texture. Could you imagine the ramifications of a Houston radio host would have overheard the appeal? Exactly. Right. Like how ridiculous does that sound? Like Mark Vandermeer. Was that an option? Could we have overseen the appeal? I think he's talking about the irony of it. Oh, I know. I'm playing into it. We can. Yeah. Let's overhear the appeal. Six games. I'm just kidding. That's not my stance at all. I think the existing injury and the hit both played a part in the IR stint. He was art. He means having shoulders or three. He was going to be shut down. I think now I do think that there's an element of tanking here, like now he's having shoulder surgery. He's probably already going to have shoulder surgery like he's already on the fence going into the game. Like I think there's a few wins. Let's just pack it up. I think it was a Kenyan green shoulder surgery inevitable like trying to play through it, but we all know that he can play through it, but he's going to have the surgery and eventually and then now it's like, okay, well, this is a concussion. He's probably going to miss a game or two, probably two games here. We want to lose games because we would really love to have Travis Hunter in Jacksonville. Let's just shut down Trevor Lawrence, another texture NFL don't care about accountability or fairness. Look how hardcore they protect bad officiating. They only care about the image of the brand Aaron in mid county. Yeah, I'm not sure that the image of the brand really helps though whenever you have a division rival hearing the appeal of, I think it's more they don't care maybe even like the image of the brand though is what the previous texture mentioned about how his wife's even talking about it, right? The image of the brand is what's being talked about in national media like the good morning Americans that they're picking up the stories of, oh my God, this quarterback was killed on the field. That's what they care about. The fact that Ramone Foster, someone employed by the Texans hearing as these guys show years appeal the big national media outside of the sports world's not talking about the aspect. So they don't really need to care about that image. They need to care about seeing the video we played on the morning shows on ABC of Trevor Lawrence fencing on the field because he's been laid out. Yeah, I think that the other point to be made in all of this is for the again, it's Houston against everybody. Everybody else is almost like liking the fact that Ramone Foster was on this because if anything, they want to see the most severe punishment in the book thrown at Aziz. And so therefore, I think for the rest of the country outside of Houston, for them for the most part, everybody's going good. Yeah, but I think it's a better look for the league whenever you have a division rival that makes that call, it's absolutely depending, but it's arrogance. It's the fact that, you know, and Roger Goodell has shown this in multiple different subjects and issues in the past that they don't care what everybody else thinks is fair and just process. They're going to do what they're going to do because they're the NFL. If Ryan's a considerate had won their gamble by speaking out, every team would do that from now on whether a player was faced with a possible suspension. That's a good point. And yeah, that's the NFL probably doesn't want that. They probably don't want the head coach and the general manager calling them out. So that's that's a good point. It is a good texture. The NFL is going soft. There's no doubt about that. The NFL is much softer now than they were five years ago. They have to be. I think based on the lawsuit and just the medicals on how many different players have gone through so much and ended their lives and done things because of the ramifications directly associated with hits they took in football. I think both things are true definitely, but you look at other combat sports. They don't, they don't stop. Like you look at USC, that's still as vicious as it's ever been. But yeah, I mean, I think that the difference is is in UFC, you are your main goal is to attack the opponent to try and whether harm them, take them out, whereas yes, there's physicality in the game of football, but I don't think your objective is to take out the opponent. I mean, you're not trying to hurt the opponent and name the opponent. I mean, you're trying, I mean, you're not trying to injure them. Yes. Absolutely. But you're trying to hurt them. If you have a running back that's running at you, you want to, I mean, you want to lay down the boom, like you want to deliver the most vicious hit within the rules that you possibly can. But I mean, UFC has rules. There are certain things you can't do in UFC, boxing has rules, there are certain things you can't do in boxing. But the same, I think the intent is still pretty much the same to deliver as vicious a blow as you possibly can within the rules of the sport. I think the intent is the same. I think the difference is how people view the NFL versus view boxing in UFC, like the violence, I guess, is much more implied in those two sports in that it's more expected. Like for a long time, the NFL tried to downplay the concussions or even a thing. It tried to present it as a super safe sport when in reality, obviously, it's almost as dangerous as those other two sports, but UFC and boxing was kind of more upfront with. Yeah, it's dangerous. And you like that. So come watch it. I mean, I feel like the NFL has been pretty upfront with that too. Now, now, recently since the whole basis of the lawsuit, we talked about this yesterday since the lawsuit, I think is the line of demarcation here. But let's not pretend like before the lawsuit that the NFL wasn't using big, massive hits to promote their game as a reason to watch our game and market their game. But they would also then talk at the other side of the mouth and tell you that it was a safe sport to play. Well, I think once they got sued, they had to watch their words very, very carefully and act much, much differently. There's no doubt about that, but they definitely marketed big blows prior to that. Yeah, that's what we talked about yet. The fact that they went to all their partners and everything else and said, we've got to completely revisit and revise how we're going to market this sport because it's an awful look. And as a sport, we can't be promoting this on one side and then having players that are dying early and facing all these physical challenges and the rest of their life because of it. And they're suing us and we can't have that look out there in the public eye. 713-780-ESP. Are we overblowing how big of a loss this will be for the Texas? Let's get to that part of it and then we'll talk to Lee Sterling at 345. It's the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. ESPN 97-5. Please, and am I. You found the killer bees live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Brannen. 713-780-ESP at HRNP, listed her line, "Can we start at a disease charity knockout cancer every concussion we donate $100?" It's like bounty gate. I'm here for it. Why not? Trying to win games? I will be against them. Trying to win games? Let's cure cancer by increasing concussions. Did the Texans beat Jacksonville? We're not going to do this again. No, no. Did they beat Jacksonville? I think they would just find these clever lords the way he was throwing the ball. Mac Jones actually had a massive second. He had like 25 in the second half or something like that. Yeah, he wouldn't know it's in the second. Now, Texans were in pre-vent stuff like that, but yeah, Mac Jones had a big statistical second half. Are we over-blowing how big of a loss a disease will be for the Texans over the next three games? Well, I don't think you're over-blowing it. I think that we've been very cognizant of the fact that it is a massive challenge for this football team. It starts right away with a team that's going to do a ton of stuff right there in the middle of the field with receivers and crossing routes and slants and the different things that you're going to need, you know, an experienced and athletic middle linebacker to be able to do. And it goes further than that because you're going to play teams at the quality and the level of the Chiefs and the Ravens. And we know that depth has been an issue at linebacker all year. That's why they kicked the tires on Devin White and brought him in to see if he had anything left. We didn't think Henry Toto was going to be as good as he's been, but Christian Harris has been out the whole season. I think that it's a big issue and it should be addressed as such, and we shouldn't be just sweeping it under the rug like, eh, they'll be fine. I'm glad you brought up the thing about passing in the middle of the field that which came up on the show yesterday. It's just kind of what made me think of this. Like the idea in Aziz is a great player. There's no doubt. And obviously they do take a step back losing them. But the idea that you're okay if Tyreek gets matched up on Aziz. If Waddle gets matched up on Aziz, John O'Smith, or whoever these great options playing over the middle of the field is, if Aziz gets matched up on them, we're not happy. So to me, like the concern about, well, they're going to be even that more, even that more vulnerable to passes over the middle. You don't want Aziz al-Shayir lined up on Tyreek or Waddle if the Dolphins were able to motion somebody into that matchup. So I think from that aspect that's overblown, and then we also, you look at Vegas, like the best quarter, but there's three quarterbacks in the league that Vegas that will tell you it's worth more than a touchdown to the point spread. Even good quarterbacks like Bowniks are only worth a field goal. So if Bowniks, who's playing really well, could win rookie the year, it's worth a field goal. What is a middle linebacker who's not a premier defensive position like corner or edge rusher at half a point at most? So Vegas will tell you it's like half a point, maybe even a full point for the best linebackers in the league. And you don't want Aziz matched up on these guys anyway, ideally. You wouldn't want him, you'd want your nickel corner matched up onto Tyreek, not Aziz. So I think we are a little bit overblowing the effect of Aziz missing these games. Oh, I don't think we're overblowing it. I think the drop off is significant. You're going from Aziz versus now, either Novell, Heward, or Devin White, who's been cut by. You don't want either one of them guarding Tyreek or Waddle. So what does it matter? Because they have to be on the field. Sure. But the idea that, well, oh, well, we're now going to see this big drop off because instead of Aziz guarding Tyreek Hill over the middle, it's Novell Heward. It's a bad situation either way. Sure. But I think you're definitely picking your poison. There's no doubt about that. Oh, yeah. Aziz White. Aziz White. And Tyreek. It doesn't matter about the receivers, Brian, it's about the ability of the player playing the position both from a run and a test perspective. But the specific point that was brought up yesterday was, you know, they motion people into the slot. They put Waddle there, they put Tyreek, and now you're going to be dealing with a downgrade at linebacker covering these guys regardless of who is that Texans could put a linebacker to cover these guys in the slot, you're already going to be at a massive disadvantage regardless. Yeah. But the massive disadvantage goes up whenever it's one of the other guys. It's like, OK, I want a three yard game. I'm going to get a three yard gain on this play. Whenever I get the three yard gain, I'm going to tip toe out of bounds, take no physical contact or you can get a three yard game like Trevor Lawrence got when Aziz Alshire popped them. Which of the two would you rather have? Both are not great. You're picking your poison either way. Yeah, that's not really interesting covering guys in space. Absolutely. We're talking about the element of picking the poison and how big of a drop off that it is. You're talking about a quarterback getting down versus running out of bounds. That's not covering guys in space. OK, we're now. I'm talking about the drop off of two things that can still be the same and picking your poison in the drop off that it now pertains to is and plus like those guys really are, if you want to get super specific, how often are these linebackers going to be man on man versus Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle almost never. I mean, we saw it in the game deciding play with Ammon Ross St. Brown. We saw it when Neville Hewitt got matched up on Brian Thomas the Jaguar score to touchdown. We see teams. Yeah, who would you rather have it coverage? You just answered it. If you just answered it. You would or or Aziz Alshire? Well, of course I would rather have Aziz one. There you go. No. There you go. If you want to gloss past this, fine. What I'm saying is the drop off is being overblown like regardless of which linebacker because the dolphins coming from the 49er systems motion a ton. Try to get the matchup, the matchup disadvantage a ton by using motion getting guys into the slot. What I'm saying is they're going to be in a massive disadvantage regardless of what linebackers on them. So I just think the idea of, well, Aziz is out, so now we can't cover these guys. You couldn't cover them before. You had a guy last year that was significantly worse than Aziz, all season long. We've all given, not Cashman, I mean, they were playing a lot of Nicholas Cashman and Christian Harris. No. I thought there's the other guy. You're probably talking about Perryman. Perryman. Yeah. It was more of a run, run down line. Also suspended last year. But, but overall you're talking about the fact that we know Hewitt can't cover anybody. No matter who it is, they're covering and coverage. I'd rather have Aziz. I'll show you. But more specifically on every play, I'd want the athleticism and the thumper and the ability to get out and get to the flats and get to the edge and get in the back and do the things the way athletically Aziz does to get all the tackles that he does when he's all over the football field and hitting running backs and other players, not just how he's going to cover wide receivers, which most guys aren't going to have a great chance to guard against. That's kind of my point. But if you're talking about who you have options wise, Brian, he's so much better overall. Well, I agree. He's better. I'm green there, but like specifically with, we can't cover the middle of the field now. Let's quantify it in points. Well, Vegas would tell you what probably half a point at most. So I really don't think it's like one point. I'll even go on the upside and give you a full point. I don't think it's that big of a deal. I think based on the teams you're playing, I think it's more than a half a point. How much do you think it's worth? I think him missing the next three games in each game's scenario, I would say I would start at the fact that because I don't trust you in coverage, because I don't trust white to play, you know, be able to play long enough and be in coverage and toe toe is limited in coverage. I would say that overall, I lean more like a point point and a half. That's pretty close then point points are differences half point, maybe more than point and a half. Yeah, it's really like line movement in the NFL is really hard unless you're a high, high, high talent skill guy or a quarterback. You don't see a ton of line movement when it comes to any position, especially linebacker. And I get Brian's point, like you're in a bad situation. You're darned if you do darned if you don't either way, but I do think that the drop off is significant. I do too. Yeah. But you're only covered tight ends and running back to really see a linebacker try to cover wide receiver. I'm not sure what that guy's talking about. The Texans have been crossed up from time to time. On Ross St. Brown, the winning play, Brian Thomas, we've seen quite a bit where because the Texans. I mean, we talked about this right after the Lions game and I think it was on a linebacker though. Yeah, he was on. I thought he was on. I think he was on disease. That's okay. Yeah, I have to go back and look at that. Because part of our argument with that was because I my point in that day was they should have called timeout when I got motion now and your point was they don't do that. So because they don't do that, I don't think he was a linebacker then it was who else would have been safe. I would have already been like Eric Murray or me. No, I wouldn't have argued about it. Petries out for the years that makes the Z's a bigger blow no Petrie to Hertz put in fat Devin White. All right. Let's get to the least sterling airmount sports. Lee's going to hand out some winners when we come back. 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Least Thirlings, ParamountSports.com. Winning week last week. He's been crushing it in 2024 and he's going to continue that as we roll into December. Let's start off with the college game, Lee. The big 12, which has been criminally, criminally disrespected by the insubilates election. They're getting killed unjustly. Arizona State, two point favor against Iowa State. How do you feel like the big 12 championship game is going to play out? This is crazy. I mean, in each championship game this weekend, we could have a team that played in a different conference last year and up winning it. So it's just been one of those years and here's a problem for Arizona State. They're going to be missing Jordan Tyson. How important is he their top receiver? Well, he only had 75 catches for 1100 yards in 10 touchdowns. And what's interesting is I track every game and I have different color coded things and I'll put like if a quarterback's out, but where if a team is, you know, an emotional high or they had something happen to them, they're low, Arizona State played a lot of teams this year when they weren't at a good place mentally. And also two of their losses, there are only two came on the road. Iowa State played the last six games versus opponents who were actually in a pretty good state mentally and played each of their last six games in cold weather, four in Iowa, one in Kansas City and one at Utah. I think that they've regained their early season mojo. Iowa State's strength is passing offense with Rocco Beckton, Arizona State's weakness, past defense ranked 75th. So I think the two receivers for Iowa State, Jaden Higgins and Jalen Noel, who combined for 15 touchdowns, put out big games and Iowa State only been a dog one time this year. That was week two against Iowa, they won the game outright here, run team favorite. Iowa State outright 30 to 26. Well Lee, the next game on the docket is a game that has a lot of implications. It seems like left with the playoff committee, but we've got SMU taking on Clemson. How do you see that one playing out? Yeah, if Clemson wins in a close game, there is a chance that SMU could end up making it over Alabama. We'll see if that plays out, but last four games that K. Kudnik has been the quarterback for Clemson, been against the average to above average teams, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Louisville and South Carolina. He's only thrown for six yards per pass attempt. If you spread that out over the season, that's bottom 15. Right there with teams like Sam Houston, State, Rice and Yukon, this SMU defense is coming on. Only a lot of 13 points combined the last two weeks against Virginia and Cal and SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings since he was into the start of 9.3 yards per pass attempt this year and they have averaged anywhere between 28 or 28 to 66 points in all nine of those games, all nine wins here. So I just think that this SMU team is coming on. I think they have the better coaching staff at this point and as a dog or single digit favorite SMU, 4-0 against the spread. They moved to 5-0. I like SMU. The dash clumps to the dreams here, 28-24. Alabama is going to be huge, SMU fans for the reasons that you mentioned Lee. All right, SEC Championship game, the rematch, hopefully no Longhorns are throwing their beverages onto the field this time. The Longhorns are a two point favorite despite losing it home earlier this year to George on a neutral field. Is Texas going to get the revenge that they seek? So they were out physical first game versus Georgia. Georgia just took it to home, I don't see the Bulldogs blowing the Longhorns in this game, especially after watching the Texas game last week against Texas A&M. I know the final score was 17-7, but if you watched the level play, I mean, it should have been like 27 or 30 to nothing. If that would have happened, this line would be sitting at five and a half, six points. This is crazy. I went back 20 years. Georgia has been, just the first year ever, in 20 years, been out of the top 25, an offense or defense in any major statistical category for the first time ever, and they didn't close to anything, top 25. They aren't the same team that we saw with that one national championships. And I think Texas is going to expand the use of arch manning here. You know, he didn't throw the football last week, only ran three times for 14 yards in the touchdown. So we know Georgia is susceptible to running quarterback, and I think they're going to throw some more wrinkles. I could see him throwing eight, ten passes in this game and changing it up in the favorite 25 and six straight up in SEC Championship games. I think Texas gets their revenge 31-21. All right, Lee, let's switch gears. Let's get into the NFL. We've got some big ones on the docket. We got a good one between the Buffalo Bills with MVP favorite, Josh Allen taking on a Rams team that looks like it's kind of real and how do you see that one playing out? Yeah. I mean, Buffalo sport. Thirty four point six straight games and four of those games were on Buffalo. One was in Seattle. I mean, Josh Allen was clicking on all cylinders. Now you're going to put them in a 68 degree dome where every blade of grass is manicured. The overs five one and one and Buffalo five seven games here. It's Rams defense number 24 in yards allowed here. How did Josh Allen has a big game here? They keep rolling 34-24. Let's move it across Lee to the next game that we're going to talk about on the docket this week. We're looking at Kansas City and the charges. Charges have been really good. Kansas City has been playing with their food all year long. It seems. Chiefs three point favorites. How do you feel like this division rival game will play out? All right. Chargers, in my opinion, are not the same with that J. K. Dobbins and they have become a more physical team. But the Chiefs just don't get enough credit for their run heavy sets. And I think they're going to use the run to set up their passing game here. They have come up big two or the three times in big games against San Francisco and Baltimore. Only game where they faltered was against Buffalo on the road. So this game's at home. I know they've had a ton of close games, but how about the Chargers? This is a second game, second road game in a row. They played two consecutive road games twice this season, lost the back end of each road kind of trips here. They lost in week three, second to back to back road games to Pittsburgh and also week seven to Arizona. So I just think the Kirk Cousins gifted the Chargers to win last week, drawing four interceptions. Looks like he has a dead arm here. And I think Kansas City is going to take it to him. I'm going to lay it here with Kansas City 24-17. Well Lee, you've been in a season of giving. You've been giving out gifts all in November and into now December. I'm interested if you want to give any more information out on maybe a free play and maybe get people all signed up for how they can follow you and cash in. How about this free play? We're going to give out a free play on the Pittsburgh and Cleveland game. We know they played a couple of weeks ago, does Cleveland win again or keep her close or can Pittsburgh roll in this game? I think there's a clear right side first, five callers, call 800-400-97-4-1. We're going to get in the Pittsburgh and Cleveland game on me, 800-400-97-4-1. How about this? A couple of tough weeks start November, but last week from Thanksgiving Day through Monday night went 15 and 3. You want to hop on board. I know there's these Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. How about this one? Maybe none better. You can get from midnight all the way in. Tonight's game is used to Detroit and Green Bay. We have a selection there. Get tonight's game all the way through the 31st. That's four weeks of action. If you use coupon code SABE 200, just $247. Where do you get it? Just one place. ParamountSports.com. Thank you, Lee. Thanks guys. Take care. Sterling, ParamountSports. Handing you out some winners. You want to take advantage of that? All right. Which teams are currently out of the playoffs in the NFL that had the best chance to be in by the end of the season? 713-780-3776. It's the BZSPN97-5, ESPN 925. ESPN 975. Your child's first step is a big step towards their future. 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