Mavs Go Euro, Cowboys Camp Opens & Rangers TV Is a Mess | Clarence Hill | Just Wondering with Norm

The Mavs front office keeps reshaping this team quietly. Then we visit with veteran cowboy beat reporter Clarence Hill as camp opens for the club. And finally, it's yet another TV mess with the Rangers. So where can you watch a game if you want to? And now a word from our title sponsor. Eying retirement? We aim to turn your nest egg into a paycheck with half the amount you've been led to believe. Fluent Financial combines in house portfolio design risk management with income generating investments designed to aid your financial independence. Our goal is to develop an effective portfolio strategy to help you retire sooner and have a better lifestyle. Fluent Financial can also implement a program that allows business owners to install a cash balance plan, which may potentially reduce income tax payments. You've worked hard to become successful. Let us help develop an effective portfolio strategy that works for you. Learn more today about Fluent Financial. Retire sooner, better lifestyle. For more information or to schedule a meeting, visit fluentfinancial.com or call (972) 852-4800. New team president Masai Ujiri and Mavs new general manager Pete Smits have struck again and again. They are reshaping this team around extreme youth and euros. They gave up on this past weekend. Guard Ryan Nemhard, who was a backup backup player here and a good second round choice to get Zachary Reesachie, the forward from Atlanta who was the number one pick in the NBA draft two years ago. He he, last year in his second year, averaged nine and a half points and four rebounds a game, shot 45% from the field, and about league average from three point. Atlanta made the trade because they wanted to get guard Lou Dort from Oklahoma City, very good player. The Mavs managed to move themselves to the middle of the trade and pick up a fascinating, fascinating young player. Rizaje is a child. He just turned 21 years old. The Mavs immediately after the trade said they had targeted acquiring him somehow this summer. They gave up, quite honestly, very little for enormous potential as a three and D wing. He's about six eight and a half and about two hundred and ten pounds. And again, he's just a child, just turned 21. Look at the way they've reshaped this team this summer, Ujiri and the GM Schmitz. Schmitz is a Euro expert. That's where he's concentrated his career before getting his first general manager job, and look what they've done. After drafting, Mores Johnson, the 20 year old forward from Michigan with their high first pick, they then got a Spanish guard named De La Ria with a late first round pick. He's 20. They then got a Russian forward named Sevvalad Ichchenko late in the second round. They then dealt for a Spanish center, Sante Aldama, and a Turkish sharpshooting forward, Tariq Baberovich, and now Zachary Risehaje. Reza these are kids, all of them, and by the way, add one more kid. This weekend, on the same day that the trade was announced, the Mavs also announced they were matching the Knicks offer to restricted free agent Musa Sisay, the center who looked so good last year as a rebounder and a shot blocker, and he won't turn 24 till September. All of these kids, they're literally kids, and by the way, all these moves, it allows the Mavericks now to go forward dealing veterans to try to get draft choices for the future, to try to work with cap space they have to improve the club. Who's on the block? I think Gafford could be on the block, PJ Washington, Najee Marshall. Hey. Those are all good, good players, but will they be here when the Mavs are really good in 2030? That's what the Mavs are asking for. They're asking for your patience. Patience in simply sitting back and not worrying about the results at this moment, but watching the kids grow. What do you want from your favorite restaurant? Fantastic personal service, a cheery, welcoming, spotless atmosphere, and of course, great food. The primest of beef, Wagyu and lamb, incredibly fresh seafood, lobster, salmon, shrimp, hall of fame food from a hall of fame restaurant, two locations of Bob's Steak and Chop House, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue, and the gorgeous new Bob's at Craig Ranch McKinney. Clarence Hill Junior has covered the Dallas Cowboys since 1997. From '97 to '24 for the Star Telegram, And now he writes for All City Dallas. All City is a streaming video podcast and of course, digital service. And Clarence is the dean of the staff of the All City writers. First of all, thank you for your time. It's really good to talk to you. I am, I'm happy to be here. You know, you're a legend in this market and, and, you know, our reverence to you and then your career and what you're still doing because you never, we can't stop, we can't quit this business, can we? No, we can't Clarence. It gets in your blood, doesn't it? Yeah, it does, it does. And sad part is, is that if we weren't doing it, we'd it anyway. We don't, we always talk sports, right? Exactly. You can't turn that off. Could you ever imagine that when you started as a baby reporter for the Cowboys in 1997, that thirty years later, you'd have never reported on a Cowboy NFC championship game or Super Bowl? Yeah. It's because, you know, a lot of my friends and, you know, even the Cowboys kid me that I'm the jinx. So, you know, I, you know, I grew up in Texas, you know, I grew up idolizing Tony Doorsett and Roger Star back and those guys. And, you know, my dream was to cover it, to to be a cowboy. How about that? You know, but I wasn't good enough, wasn't fast enough, wasn't big enough to be a cowboy. And so my job, you know, turned out to be I covered the Cowboys, you know, and I'm I'm working every day at AT And T Stadium. I started out at Texas State and covering the Cowboys and, you know, I was here in the nineties and I watched them win all those titles. I actually started covering the Cowboys late ninety six. I was doing high school, and I was doing all the and I started doing late ninety six, doing all their home games and the playoff games and stuff like that, but I started telling them before I became a full time beat writer in '97. And so that's when they, you know, lost to Carolina, you know, the '95 season, you know, they won the Super Bowl in '96, you know, they won the division again and they lost to Carolina in the playoffs when Irvin had to muster suit on and then full time in '97. But Roger's still there, Michael's still there, Dion's still there, Emmett's still there. Who knew that would be the end? And so I've been covering the Cowboys, you know, all their playoff games since Rayleigh in 1996. I've seen five playoff wins. And seven Yeah. All those types. Five playoff wins. And seven coaches? Yeah. Seven coaches, five playoff wins, you know, and and you know, who would have thought that it's not just getting super, but no playoff wins, no trip to the NFC Champions game, nothing but unfulfilled expectations. So that's my career with the Cowboys. I covered, I always say when you put on my tombstones, I covered the eight and eight Cowboys. Let's play high low. First, let's talk high. If everything breaks right, how high could this team go this year? Well, I mean, I think, you know, you want to be as our Bill Parks, you want to be in the tournament to have a chance. Right? Mhmm. If everything breaks right, I think they have a chance to get to the NFC championship game, you know, for sure. And then, you know, you know, once you get there, whoever wins, you know, just happy to get that opportunity, but everything has to break right, you know, you have to hit on Christian Parker, you have to hit on the pass rushers who've never done it before, right? You know, Overshorn has to play 17 games he's never done before. You have to count on Bland being healthy, which you haven't been healthy in three years. You have to count on Rebel, you know, being what we thought it was gonna be. You have to count on the draft picks to be what we Caleb Downs to be what everybody saw he was at college, but they've never done NFL before. So everything and it can't just be one of them. You know, you just can't get one. You gotta hit you gotta hit a multiple for it to for it to go right defensively for you to really have that chance. Okay. Let's flip the coin over. If things don't break right, how low could this team go? Well, mean, I think offensive we saw last year, they were kind of contending. They were he's in games. You know, the offense can keep you in games. You know, Certainly, I don't think they can go at at the bottom. I still think they're the still the second best team in the NFC East, but we don't get any joy out of in Dallas of not, you know, succeeding in the playoffs or not getting to the playoffs. And, you know, so, I mean, I don't know how low, I don't think they could go, you know, top five pick low or your top 10 pick low. I don't I don't see that, but, you know, none of that is comforting. I mean, it's, you know, you know, I we we we talked to Dak this weekend and, you know, he was at a event on Friday night at for his his foundation, and he said it's Super Bowl or bus. That's all he has left for him. You know, it's Super Bowl or bust. Nothing else matters. You know? So I I don't know what low means, but it's all the bad taste in your mouth for Cowboy fans for the last thirty years. Bad taste in your mouth for Dak Prescott if you don't get to the big dance. Clarence, Dak Prescott has a legacy right now. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna somewhat describe. He's a very good regular season quarterback. The if it weren't for a couple of injured years, Dak might even be considered fifth best in the league, fourth best in the league. But his postseason performances haven't been very good at all. Doesn't Dak need the NFC championship game or the Super Bowl as badly as anybody on this team? No doubt. Mean, it it you know, it's about his legacy. Now it's about his legacy. Dak is gonna this year, own all the passing records, all the quarterback records in Cowboys history. You know? And he's damn near has them all right now. You know, there's a couple he's away from. But it's it's all about the Super Bowl. It's all about going having a deep playoff run. And I will push back a little bit to say he's been bad throughout the playoffs because he hasn't. He's had the last couple of games have been bad. That went against Tom Brady. He was amazing, but we forget that because it was Tom Brady in in in Tampa Bay, but they wouldn't lost the next week in in San Francisco. His first playoff game, first ever playoff game as a rookie, and I know it's easy to dismiss. 2016, he takes the league by storm. He basically outguns Aaron Rodgers. Okay? They're down by double digits. He brings the Cowboys back. They lose because they gave him a third and 30. An unbelievable catch by the Tyburne Yes, unbelievable throw, unbelievable catch. But you don't give up a third and 30, you know, just don't give it up. But that played well that game. He all of his playoff performances have not been bad. If you look at his playoff numbers, it's actually pretty good. But he had a couple of bad games. He didn't play his best, but no one's played his best. But, yes, there's no question. It's about his legacy now. He's the he's you know, he was the the highest paid quarterback. Now, guess he's gonna be the second highest paid by Aaron Rodgers and not Aaron Rodgers, but, Patrick Mahomes. But the money's there, the accolades are there. You know, he's going on all the Cowboy Pass records, but in Dallas, the greatest quarterbacks are measured by what? Titles. Roger That's and the goal stand. Listen, and I continue to say that Danny White does not get his just due for taking the team to three straight NFC championship games. Three. And people act like he's a bum. Right? I agree. Three straight NFC championship games. He lose on the Hail Mary. People act like he's a bum, and these guys can't even get out of the first round. You know, Danny White's big problem, Clarence? He was sandwiched between Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. That's his big problem. Yeah. All all the titles, championships, man. It's all about champions. So Winners Town, Troy said a long time was about winners. They're not about getting close. And I always say, they don't hang division title banners at AT And T Stadium. They don't hang AFC, NFC Championship, they don't hang Super Bowl banners. And actually they hang no banners at AT And T Stadium because they won nothing there. Everything was done at Texas Stadium. How about that? Right. The season is now, well, I don't know, month and I'm half away, but there's still room to make moves. Is there a deal out there that you'd still love to see the Cowboys make? I still think they're they have questions at pass rusher. Mhmm. You know, and and and maybe linebacker opposite Oversham. Bobby Wagner is still out there, you know, would you like Bobby Wagner? Just to, you know, to be that green dot, that veteran in the middle to let Overshaw run sideline to sideline, there's an opportunity that's there. And, you know, the pass rush, you know, you I I don't know. They don't really have any difference making pass rushers, you know, and after letting Micah go, they still don't have any different difference making pass rushers, and you're betting everything on the company, betting everybody's gonna have do something they've never done before. Even Bershaw Gary, who's who's, you know, a veteran they've traded for, you know, he had nine sacks last year. He never really had double digit sacks, and I think he had none in the last five weeks of the season and none when Micah Parsons got hurt. You look at his career, he's never really been a different he's a good run stopper, but he's not a special pass rusher, I think that's what's what's missing. If there's a single area, one area only that worries you the most, what is it? Well, mean, I I think it's it's it's I I think there's three areas that worry me. Left tackle. Yes. Pass rush. Yes. And cornerback. You know, that's the one, Clarence, let me stop you right there for a second. That's the one people don't talk about much. No. Because they forget that Drom Bland's last good year was three years ago. And Ravel was not good when he arrived in midseason last year. And who knows if Kalen Carson can play, or the kid drafted in the fourth or fifth round can play. And if you don't, you talked about the pass rush. If that pass rush isn't solid, those cornerbacks have to cover. Right. Right. And so, you there's a question, you know, again, we talked about it early on, everything has to hit right. You know, it's about everything has to be positive. There cannot be any setbacks, not just one thing, you know, you know, and we can talk Bland, Bland got paid because Michael Parsons rushed the passer. You know, that makes a difference in him being anticipated jump routes because quarterbacks were on their butt or rushed. You know, if you don't rush the passer, you know, let's be honest, Michael Parsons got digs in blam pay. Okay. They had that big year because of the pass rush. And that makes all the difference in the world. And we don't really have that. And you hope that Christian Parker can scheme things up, you know, but again, we can talk everything we want about the X's and O's, you know, you still need those Jimmy's and Joe's. When the Cowboys won, you go back to the nineties, they had difference makers on every level. It wasn't just one guy. It wasn't just Charles Haley. Look at that defensive line. You had Jim Jepcoe coming off the bench. You you had Leon Ledgett. I mean, they had monsters of the midway, so to speak, in Dallas, you know. They had a lot of guys. You had Darren Woods, you had Dionne Saddler. You had difference makers at every level of that defense, Ken Norton at linebacker. Mhmm. And the goal is to win it all. The goal is not to just be better than last year. The goal is not just to get to the playoffs. It's about going deep. It's about legacies. You know, one thing that you look at the guys that left here, whether it's Tony Rummel or Jason Witten or Zach Martin, and that that those guys don't get the grief that the quarterbacks get, but none of them won. And then that that hurts all of their legacies. This is Clarence Hill Junior. He's the beat reporter for the Dallas Cowboys for All City Dallas. After being the beat reporter for the Cowboys for twenty seven years, twenty eight years with the Star Telegram, more with Clarence Hill, and we start with Christian Parker next on Just Wondering. My wife Mary is the co creator of Full Moon Healing Balm, and I guess I'm the reason this terrific cream was developed. A few years ago, I began getting these huge, ugly blood blotches just beneath the skin of my arms and hands. The condition's called senile purpura. And no, you don't have to be senile to experience this embarrassment. It happens as you age. And then to cover it up, we begin wearing long sleeves even when it's hot. It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of full moon healing. Gently massage a very small amount into the skin, and within a day, the blotches begin to fade. See now, purpura usually takes weeks to disappear. But this balm cuts the timeline to about a week. And ordering's so easy. Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. Clarence, you mentioned Christian Parker. He's he's one of the ascending stars in assistant coaching in this league. If the Cowboys defense jumps up to even let's say, the middle of this league, how soon does Christian Parker start to get head coaching offers? And next year, next year, know, next year. I mean, has been a guy, he's like, whatever you think of Caleb Downs and a prospect come out of the draft, that's Christian Parker in the coaching ring. He's one of those, those hot prospects, know, he's one of those top picks, you know, you remember the Bears coach when he was in Detroit and everybody, that's the guy, that's the next guy, you know, and everybody knew he was gonna be a good coach. He's proven to be a good coach with the Bears his first year, first couple of years. I think that people look at Christian Parker in that same vein. He is the up and coming guy, the shining star, everybody like, okay, that's the next guy. If he gets his opportunity, the Cowboys do anything. Yeah, if they do anything on defense, yeah, he's gonna be at the top of everybody's list because he's young, charismatic, he has everything you want. The scary part, here's the scary part, if Christian Parker hits, and when I mean hit, hits, and the Cowboys hit, and they win the division, and just say the Eagles don't, and the Eagles fire their offensive coordinator, I mean fire their head coach, who do you think they're gonna call? Christian Parker. Christian Parker. Yep, yep. Because he was just there. They know him and they love him there. Right, and they love him and their head coaches, for whatever reason, after going to two Super Bowls and winning one, he's one of the guys on the hot seat. You know, we all expect improvement in the Cowboys defense. Well, the it has to improve. It can't be as bad as the historically bad defense last year. But this is an odd defense Christian Parker is installing. It's it's a three-four-four or it's a five-two-four or it's a five one five or how long is it going to because none of these players have ever played this particular scheme. Will there be adjustment problems for the Cowboys early to mid season? Well, they didn't adjust at all last year. Okay. There was no communication. Let's start there. Okay. They didn't adjust at all at all. And there was confusion everywhere, okay? And so the one thing about Christian that has impressed everybody is that he's made things plain, he's a great communicator, even Jerry talked about it. He helped me understand defense better than I've ever understood it. You know, Jerry and Steve are oh, I get that. And I don't know if they got that under last year, you know, with the defense court and the situation last year. No one got it. That was too much confusion. Let's be honest, most of these defenses, I mean, he's not doing anything that they don't do in Philadelphia, you know, it's a nickel defense, you know, it's about the nickel, it's about the cornerback, you know, they play base, you know, it's a so called three four, but yeah, it's it's a nickel five 2 or whatever, $4.02 5 or whatever you wanna call it. It's about the edge rushers, it's about the linebackers, it's about, you know, Caleb Down will be on the field and slot corner a lot because you don't you want him on the field. Right? So there will probably be five cornerback safeties on the field. Most of the time, two linebackers, you know, however you wanna break it down, just get to the quarterback, just get something done, you know, no one cares, you know, don't don't tell me about the problems, you know, they talk about communication and disguise and that's the case everywhere in the league, right? Disguising a defense is not a new phenomenon. Or the Cowboys are going to be disguising, they're going to hide some things. Don't everybody try to do that? Yeah, Cleveland doesn't disguise Myles Garrett. Right, no, just go get to the guy, you know, but Myles Garrett is a different, you know, a different species altogether, but yeah, so you just need guys to make plays and hopefully you have those type of guys, but at the end of the day, you're asking a lot of Christian Parker. The Cowboys are setting him up to be a superstar. You listen to everything that he's a rising star. He's this, they're setting him up. They're putting him on a pedestal. So if they lose him, it's their own fault too, because they've said this guy here is gonna make the difference. If he makes a difference, somebody's gonna come get him. Right. You know, one thing that I I don't see being discussed at all about the Cowboys almost historically good offense last year. Boy, I tell you what, you talk about a team that did not suffer any kind of significant injury on that side of the ball. It was almost astounding. I mean, you lose lamb for three games. You lose Booker for a few games, but they skated past the injury devil last year. Yeah. You gotta stay healthy. I mean, that's what it's all about. And and, you know, that's, you know, that that's that's part of, you know, being you know, that's why Emerson Smith is all time leading Russian because he basically stayed away from any catastrophic injuries. He had no major injuries throughout his career. He played hurt, some things, but he never had any major injuries, but staying healthy is a marathon and certainly, number one, they need Dak to stay healthy, right? Dak stays healthy, they got a chance. If Dak stays healthy, they have a chance to be again, and we haven't talked about it, but Dak is in the prime of his career. He's playing some of the best foot football of any quarterback in the NFL. You can I don't know how they stack them up, but what he does at the line of scrimmage, what he does pre snap, what he does post snap, you know, he's he's a he does quarterbacking things? All the great quarterbacks, the Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady's, Peyton Manning's, they like how Deck plays the position, yet there are fans, are people that are critics of Deck and his playoff success, or lack of success, but how he plays the position, people like and he gives them a chance and now you have those two monsters on the outside of that receiver. This offense is as explosive as any league and they will put a point, but yes, they have to stay up. The wide receiver you mentioned, one of the monsters is George Pickens. He's agreed to pay play for a $27,300,000 franchise tag. That surprised a lot of people, including me, that there wasn't more drama. But is this George Pickens last year in Dallas? Yeah, that's a good question. And it's really hard to read the Cowboys on what they wanna do. Do they wanna pay two receivers that type of money? Will they put the franchise tag on Pickens? And he will be highly he's playing ball. He's playing nice. He's doing all the right things. 27,000,000 is more than 3,000,000 he made last year, so it's a huge payday. It's well below the market value for a receiver of his and the market at that position. He expects to get paid or be made of rigs next year, you know, so he can really maximize his earnings, that would be a huge disappointment if they tried to tag him again and really limit his ability to move, limit his ability to earn, to maximize his earnings, You know, that's a question. And then also, what is the other receiver? I can't even think of his name. Ryan Flonoy, excuse me. Ryan Flonoy, does he what kind of step does he take, you know, and know, do you, you got to pay Quentin, you may have to pay Overshun, okay, you know, because Quentin is underpaid, Okay. And it is positioned as well. And if everything hits, you know, Overshun's gonna want to get paid, Quentin's gonna want to get paid. Pickens is gonna want to get paid. Can they pay them all? You know, and so I think all of that has everything to do with Pickens' future in addition to FlourNoise development, but I would love to see Pickens and CD in Dallas for years to come. I would love to see because Pickens is he he's a great perfect complement to CD. They're good friends. You know, his ability to catch the slant, his ability to catch the deep ball, you know, all those things, and Pickens is like this in the slot, you know, and the things he does underneath, it's a great compliment. But I can't bet your guess, You know, I said if I had to bet money, would bet that this is his last year in Dallas. Two last topics for you, Clarence. First, let's make you the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Grass Pills. There you go. By the way, you just made everybody in the locker room happy. Yes. How would you change the approach if you ran the club? You know, always said, would, my issue with the Cowboys is that it's never been, football has never been the main thing. It's always, we're trying to sell, we're trying to market and we're trying to win. You know, my grandma always said, can't serve two masters, right? You know, one thing, football has to be the main, everything has to be about what's best for the football team, what's best for winning, what leads to winning, whether that's training camp, everything we do, the focus should be about the football team and what's best for the football team and not marketing, not selling and all the other stuff to put you on TV and get, you know, whatever, selling jerseys. It should be about football, you know, and and and so when it's about football, and it's not about necessarily balancing the budget all the time. It's not necessarily trying to say, hey, we're the most solvable. You're richest franchise in sports. Okay? You're the richest franchise in all of sports, but yet you're you and and you make money, you sell $10 slice of pizza, but when it comes to a free agency and bringing guys on the team, you keep talking about pie and balancing the budget. And I want you to put all the be all in on football, be all in on trying to win. And that's what I would do. I would be it it it's thirty years. It's time to be all in on trying to win. That's the main thing. That's the only thing that matters. That means go get Max Crosby. Go get Max Crosby. That means pay Mac and Parsons. Go pay. Try to win this, no one cares, fans don't care about your pie. Right. Finally, in preparing to talk to you, I did the usual thing, starting to scour the internet for information on Clarence Hill. Have you ever Wikipedia searched your name? No. Okay. Well, I may have googled it, but Wikipedia? No. Okay. Well, put your name in and Wikipedia came up with three Clarence Hills. Number one, an old boxer. Yeah, the killer? Number two, yes, an executed murderer. And number three, another Clarence Hill who was a serial killer. And I just want to make sure none of those people are part of your family tree. No, none of them are part of my family tree. There's also Clarence Hill who's a pastor, know, Clarence is a pastor in Oklahoma City. Really? And you know Barry Trammell? Oh, sure. He's called me three times and that's his pastor. He's called me three times thinking he was calling his pastor. It's a pastor in Oklahoma City named Clarence Hill. He's called me Barry Chalmers called me like three times thinking he was calling his pastor and he was calling me. Hey. I'll tell you what, Clarence. The Cowboys don't win the Super Bowl pretty soon. Jerry Jones is gonna be calling you thinking you're his pastor. He needs to. But, hey, he needs to make another deal with the devil. It ain't me. He's bigger than me. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for the chat. Really appreciate it. Alright. Thank you. Stolen Water Media is making a move. After two plus years, it's time to change and keep up with our growth. You can continue to view all eight of our podcasts on our Patreon pages. But now you can get all episodes at www.stolenwatermedia.com. This is a developing story, but you can begin by watching and listening right now at www.stolenwatermedia.com. Continue to find all audio wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and some you may not have heard of, but I think will enjoy. Are you just wondering where your next spectacular vacation will be? Relax. Feel the sun on your body. Let your cares melt away at the all inclusive Cerenian Bay Resort in Southern Belize. It's literally built right on the sand. The ocean, your ocean, is just a few barefoot steps away. Laid back luxury, terrific food, a swim up bar, a spa, air conditioned gym, unimaginable service, fishing, snorkeling in gorgeous turquoise waters. Do you want relaxation or do you need adventure? You choose at Ceridian Bay. Barry and I have been there three times and this summer will be number four. Take a cozy bungalow for two or bring the whole family to villas that can accommodate up to 14. Sirenianbay.com, S I r E N I A n. The sand and the sea are just waiting for you to get here. Well, the Mavericks are changing television carriers again. At the all star break, they left victory plus and have now transferred the televising of the games to BZZR, which I will going forward refer to as Buzzerer. The Sports Biz Journal reported that Victory Plus may be on very shaky financial grounds. That they've already missed payments to other teams and by the way, the Anaheim Ducks at the same time as the Rangers virtually, they stopped using Victory Plus, and we don't know yet about the Dallas Stars. But the switch was simply just dropped on fans. But, of course, how do you make a change like this for the rangers? You gotta drop it on your fans. Do they wanna do that? Do they wanna disrupt coverage? No. But the Rangers felt they have to and transferred to Buzzer, which by the way is brand new. It started doing business in April, and it has as one of its directors, Neil Liebman, who also is very, very high up on the Ranger hierarchy as a part owner. Buzzer doesn't have certain key apps that Ranger fans can switch to. They don't have Samsung or smart TV. They expect to have those apps added by September. But if you're a Ranger fan, that's a long ways away. Ranger fans are upset. I I know. All this talk about this business and everything, apps and streaming services and going from here. It gives you tired head. It gives me tired head. But let's draw back for just a moment. Victory says they averaged about 100,000 viewers per Ranger game last year. So, what if in the move to buzzer, at least half that audience hasn't been able to follow them. In fact, the suggestions are immediately immediately were only 40% could follow them. Ponder that for a moment. This team leads albeit in a weak division. The DFW Metro area is now estimated at eight and one half million people. If 50% switched over to buzzer, that means their average nightly viewership should be around 50,000. That is one out of every 170 people in this area. That's pathetic, and this is a mess, but I've got an idea. Forget all these other plans and all these streaming services and all these whatever things that go by four letters or something, just put all the remaining Ranger games this season right here on Fox four plus channel twenty seven. Heck, I'll even give up my Thursday night slot. The slot for just wondering, just so we can all be just watching Ranger games. And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial, Retire Earlier, Live Better, and by Bob's Steak and Chophouse on Lemon in Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's a Dallas tradition for more than thirty years. If you've enjoyed Just Wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your mailbox early every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. Should you know a sports fan who might like our work? Please share our contact information with that person. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just Wondering. I'm Norm Hitschkes, and know that every day, I'll be just wondering about something. And I'm Mary Hitschkes, and I'll just be wondering too. This is a Stolen Water Media production.