Cowboys’ Defense Can’t Stop a Soul, Houston Must-Win & Beer-Chugging Hypocrisy | Three Wide at Scout

Hello, everybody, and welcome to three wide at Scout. My name is Norm Hitskas. This is a production of Stolen Water Media. Every Tuesday, we're here at Scout, which is the sports bar inside the iconic Statler Hotel in Downtown Dallas, 1914 Commerce Street. Unbelievable place. Beautiful place. It's both a hotel and an apartment complex in this one structure, and we are in Scout every Tuesday to talk football with you for power and forty five two hours. Well, before I say more about scout, let me introduce my buds for the evening. This is groups. Hi. That is Rob Irvin. Hello, Internet. No. No relation to Michael. No. Because spelled completely differently. Yeah. But I do get mistaken a lot. I understand that. Yeah. You are a playmaker. I understand. That's what they tell me. I don't know. What we do here at Scout is we talk football primarily cowboy football though later in the show we will move to NFL football and we're gonna end with I think another incredible display of NFL hypocrisy this past week. Let me tell you about scout first. This is different honestly from any sports bar I think I've ever been in can't confirm everything groups and Rob are here for the first time ever. Sports bars have a big nice bar. They have that they have lots of seats. Have that they have a floor that's very clean. That's not true. You're not wrong. It's unusual. Bars. Okay. I've got my shirt. TVs everywhere. Yep. Including one that just showed the braves rally against the Phillies. Let's go. And the opening night of hockey? Yes. It's going right now. Florida Carolina are still nil nil in about halfway through the second. It's already a little chippy. I'm seeing a fight. We got people again. Looks like. It's a kerfuffle. I know this isn't football, but I've got a question. Yes, sir. Who opens their season on a Tuesday night? Or on a Tuesday at 01:00 in the afternoon. We gotta talk to them, but that's another subject. Okay. Scout is 4,000 square feet. It's got all the stuff that you expect at a sports bar. And they've got air hockey. Yep. Foosball. Check. Shuffleboard. Check. There's this place right at the end. I spotted on the way to the restroom. I think it's a place you sit and drive a car until you crash it. Okay. That video game, okay? They've got the big the the the hunting ones. Yeah, they got big buck hunter. They've got pool. Yep. They've got bowling alley. That is incredible. They've got a bowling alley in here. It's just incredible. It's 4,000 square feet and it is it's a terrific place. Well, and the beauty of it too is you got all this stuff but you don't feel like you're shoulder to shoulder with everybody. There's room to breathe in here. You're not, it's not a test of your claustrophobia like a lot of sports bars tend to be. There is room to maneuver in here, and they've got a stage where they're starting to have live music that started this past weekend. They've got coming up this weekend. We've got extended play. The Brett, the Brady Hulsey Band on the tenth and Jack Mason on the seventeenth. They're every week, they're gonna have live music now. Last Sunday in Rio, the Cowboys would have really been thrilled by extended play. We gotta we gotta correct something from last week's show because there was a question, and I had to research this. This was the first game in Rio last year. Yes. Panthers Eagles was in San Sao Paulo because if we remember, they they've outlawed. They outlawed the color green in that stadium, so they had to get special special permission for one team to wear green because that's the color of their rival. That's right. Well, let's see. The cow pasture they played on did look pretty good, though. That's another question. Okay. We're gonna talk cowboy football to start. Come see us every Tuesday. Mhmm. Somebody, some trio from Stolen Water Media will be here every Tuesday. Rhines, Grego Ziggy Victor Vialba the Cowboys Spanish language announcer. Did the first show with him by the way the great show too. Mack Angle Mac Angle from the Star Telegram. Uh-huh. Every Tuesday, there'll be three of us here, okay? To talk primarily Cowboy football and we're gonna start with the last thirty seconds on Sunday. You wanna talk about just looking at this game on paper. We should not have gotten to this point on either side of this. We talked about this game coming up on our show last week at the on the clubhouse on Thursday nights. I was like, give me, it was, I mean, Cowboys were getting three and a half, and I was like, give me Baltimore minus three and a half all day long. You're gonna have that in the first quarter, and it may not let up. So the fact that we get to the last inside the two minute warning, and it's a nail biter on both sides of this. Rob, I think every year, we have to totally rejudge the NFL. Okay. There are 30 teams in the middle of this league, and then there's Tennessee and Miami, who are awful. But Relocation should be a thing. Yeah. Look at the lines of these games, though. Windless Houston is favored over the cowboys this summer. They're they're favored. And you get other games that you say, you can't be serious. That's that's the line on the game. The line maker's trying to tell you something. Well, we had, what, three games this past week where you're over under was just right at right around 40, which right now to me, there's only two teams in this league that I believe in it on any level. It's San Francisco and it's Buffalo. That's the list. Because even we're gonna talk about this later, I'm sure. But even the champs strolled into a game that they should have won by double digits and got walked on. Well, we'll we'll pick up the NFL later. Let's go back to the last thirty seconds. Oh, jeez. God is inviting the cowboys to win the football game. He said, I've done everything possible for you to win the football game. Now I'm gonna sit back and have one more slice of pizza and another sip of a Coke. Christ the Redeemer has his arms raised waiting for the Cowboys. He's thank you for coming to Brazil. It and they're at the two yard line. They've still got a timeout left. It's it's over. If they score and kick the point, it's a four point game. Baltimore with one time out left has gotta go the length of the field, basically, to to win the game. No field goal for them. Anyway, to the last thirty seconds, cowboys get to the two yard line. My first question is, why don't you run the football? Because that's what this team does. How many times have we watched the cowboys on the goal line? We're all you, I mean, at at a minimum tush push and then you're gonna you're gonna throw to the right. We watched this in the Emmett Smith days. Remember the old joke of what's the difference between guts and nuts? About 18 inches because that's what Emmett coulda had and didn't. It it's stop trying to get on sports center because you wind up on sports center for the wrong reasons. Run that ball up the middle down their throat and get the touchdown. Well, even if you don't score on the play, you're right there. You don't have to use your time out. Yeah. You don't. You reassemble, and it's second down. And by the way, you've got time to run it again. And if that doesn't work, you can call the time out. But, anyway, they throw it. They throw it with my least favorite NFL play, and that's the fade to the sideline in the end zone. I hate that play. I hate it with a passion. Why? Because the defensive back standing there, the wide receiver runs straight at him, and the defensive back knows the back of the end zone is a defender. Yep. So at a certain point, three or four yards deep in the end zone, the defender plants his feet and says, okay, take me. And he's right there to defend the pass. Okay. That doesn't work. It's still second down. The cowboys after the game said they intended to roll back and run the ball at that point. Okay. That's a play call. We don't know if it will work till noon. Who knew? But Schoonmaker false starts. Uh-oh. All of a sudden, the situation's different. Second and seven Mhmm. Is a different situation. But still feasible Oh my. With the amount of time left on the clock. The So saying there's a chance. Yeah. And the time out. Okay. Second and seven. The cowboys offensive line as it did all day. Now Dak was only sacked once, But Baltimore compressed the pocket. And Dak felt he had to run and he got two yards. We'll stop right there. I'm gonna I've got a group's nose. I love stats. Oh, I believe me. I I listen to your show. I know, brother. All day long, Lamar Jackson dropped the pass and was hit once. Otito Obonia, probably one of the least guys you'd ever suspect was the guy who hit the quarterback. It was him. And the only one the entire game that did so. Right. One cowboy hit the quarterback as he was throwing the ball. How many times was deck hit as he was throwing the ball? Seven. Oh. Seven times. You know what? The Cowboys are actually pretty lucky. Dak walked out of the stadium. Because when you get hit seven times in a game in the backfield, well, Dak got hit again. This isn't one of them because he had a runnable. Mhmm. The clock's ticking. Right here. The clock says fourteen seconds. It's third down. The cowboys don't need fourteen seconds to run a play. It's going to be a pass. Everybody knows that now. Once you use the last time out, everybody knows the cowboys are gonna throw the ball, including the cowboys. Okay. But they stopped the clock with fourteen seconds to go. My question to you guys is, why? There was no there was no reason to. Let it run down to nine. Right. You you have the ball. You control what? Run the ball, control the clock. Did we learn nothing from the program? But and, yeah, you're seven yards out, but, again, you are controlling the destiny of the game. And you're gonna throw the ball. It's from here to there, you're gonna throw it. That's not gonna take ten seconds to do. But, anyway, the Cowboys stopped the clock at fourteen instead of stopping the clock at about nine. Which we talked about in the in the in before we went on air and that's fifteen seconds longer than Lamar Jackson meets. Then, on third down, we get to another situation where you ask yourself, how could this happen? It's a time out. You've got time for the coach and the quarterback to talk. What are we gonna do? What player are we gonna call? And even that late in not that dreadful fame side by But, again, at even that late in the game, even if it's a thirty second time out, that's more than enough time to come up with something that the the defense is just like, anybody wanna bet against us on this one? Because we know where it's coming. Well, here's the thing. Schottenheimer basically tells Dak, go for it. This is what's gonna happen. Go for it. Dak says, the party here from Schottenheimer is, hey, if it's not there, throw it away. Well, Dak makes this instantaneous decision, and there was no chance that ball was gonna be caught groups. Mm-mm. None at all. Nope. None at all. So, they again rain the let's run it three, four yards deep in the end zone, throw the ball over there, play, and then kick the field goal. Now here's your problem. The pass play took three seconds. The field goal took three seconds. Remember when they should've let four, five more seconds go off the clock? What it's now, Dallas has tied the game at thirty one we're headed overtime. Aren't we? Well, of course. Not so fast, friend. Aren't we? But again, submitted earlier. Have to tell you Worst case scenario, you're gonna make Baltimore's offense go 93 yards. Worst case scenario, if you had not lost it, you'd have made them go almost 99 yards in that amount of time. Well, you've gotta tie the game though. You've gotta get it tied at least. Once your offense has failed miserably, starting first and goal at the two with a timeout left. Once they failed miserably there, you you've gotta kick the field goal to tie it. That's fair. You just got to. Okay. But we're going to overtime overtime. Norm knows we're going overtime. Norm gets up and goes to the bathroom. Oh, no. Until he hears the crowd and he runs right back out. You didn't run. Well, no, I don't run. I I don't run. I don't either. Well, The next question. The special teams coach Nick Sorensen. Is getting a lot of grief for calling for Aubrey on the kickoff to kick the ball into the end zone. Don't let him run it back. Lads, that's a head coach's call. Should be. The head coach has got to sign off on that. Yep. If Sorensen says, I think kick it long, Schottenheimer has to sign off on that. Still gotta approve. He's gotta say, that's what we're gonna do. Mhmm. Okay. This is this is gonna take a couple of minutes. If you kick off and the ball comes down between the goal line and the 20, the team has to run the ball back. Right. Four times in the game, Brandon Aubrey had landed a ball between the goal line and 20. The furthest out Baltimore got on any of those returns was their own 23 yard line. Once, they didn't even make it to the 20. We are given the explanation that they worried that Aubrey might inadvertently kick the ball out of bounds. And he's and he as he's done twice Paycheck? In the Well That's what you're paying him all that money for to put it there. And not only that, but you've now, you've now you could have shaved at least three more seconds off that clock, if not all of it because they did have a time out, but would they have used it, number one? No. Well Number two The clock stops. When they run the ball back, the clock stops. Right. Right. So there would have been a few seconds. Right. But now you got nothing because it goes into the end zone. Into the end zone, and the end zone brings the ball all the way out to the 35. Yep. Mhmm. Okay. Let's take the run back scenario for a moment. You kick the ball to the five yard line. The returner, Wester, I believe was his name was, because he had a really nice 24 yard punt return in the game. Anyway, let's say he runs the ball back all the way to his own 45 yard line. By far the best return of the day. Let's say that takes five seconds. At his own 45, the field goal is 72 yards. No one in the NFL has ever kicked the 70 yard field goal. And earlier that day, a 70 had been attempted right before the half. Cam Little. Yep. And he missed it. Loop has a strong leg. But I think the only two guys in the league who have a chance of making a 70 yarder are Little and Brandon Aubrey. Loop's a good, strong kicker. But hey, go kick a 72 yarder. I'm sorry. I can't I can't shouldn't couldn't get a ball to go 70 yards if you gave it to me in a cannon. You know, but but again, okay. All those decisions have been made. The fade, the false start, the gets flushed out of the pocket, the time out gets called too soon, The end zone thing doesn't work again. The field goal ties. The ball's been kicked out of the end zone. All that's happened. And Baltimore's got first down at their own 35 yard line. How many yards do they need for Tyler Loop? I'd say about 20. That was good. That was actually what I was gonna say. Probably about 20 yards to at least get to his outer limit. Right. Because that gets you to the cowboy 45, which makes it a 62 yard field goal. He's capable of kicking that field goal with 62 yards. And we live in a time now where if you can't kick one from 50, you don't need to be in the league. Right. That's that's because in the league. So 63 is realistic. Especially with him. He has a good strong light. Now, he missed a couple of crucial kicks last year that just gored the Ravens. But, anyway, what defense does Christian Parker, the new defensive coordinator, call at that point? He calls for a defense that leaves the entire middle of the field open. It's as if the Cowboys don't realize Baltimore has a timeout. At the end, they've got one guy, I don't know, around 20 yards and another guy around 35 yards. Okay? But the cowboy defense played zone on the sidelines as though they thought Baltimore was gonna try to throw a quick pass to the sidelines. What good would that have done Baltimore? And they've got a guy that sits back there with the quarterback that's pretty good at running the ball too. Well, that would have taken time, though. He's got to throw it, I think, Ron. He does, but you still have to you still have to defend to that as well. Because when you got Derrick Henry back there, if he gets out of bounds, that stops the clock. Well, but he's gotta get out of bounds 20 yards downfield. Which he can do. Well, he can do, but that starts from the middle of the field, and it predicates either Henry or Lamar Jackson is gonna break the line of scrimmage, get 20 yards downfield, and and get out of bounds. That's gonna use less than seven seconds. But instead, Baltimore's best receiver without any question is Zay Flowers. Not gonna debate that. He's their best best receiver. Bateman on one side, Moore on the other. They're each two a at the best. Flowers run straight down the middle of the field wide open for 20 yards. And Lamar Jackson throws him the ball. It's like it's like back when you were playing peewee football, and they'd allow you to go five yards downfield and say, oh, it's a pitch and catch game. I don't Lads, I don't know how many questions you all have about the last thirty seconds. It it literally made no sense. Where even when you're wide because I'm a big red zone guy. Well, Sunday, red zone's my thing. They cut away from that game because it was all over but the crying but how often especially, let's call it the last five or six years alone, have we watched this team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? And it's it's it's what drives me to the brink. And I'm not even a cowboy fan. But I live in the town where I see how it affects the people of this town and it's it's madness. Yeah. It's absolute madness. The Cowboys, the first two games of the season groups couldn't run the ball against you and me. They couldn't. But they could, Sunday. Apparently. Javonte Williams got 98 yards rushing. The Cowboys had a good game on the ground. That that kid Goodson they brought in had a couple of nice carries. They ran the ball pretty well. Which again brings up the question at first goal of the two with a time out left. Why don't you run the football? Why don't you run the football? And but we've talked all that. Now I wanna go to the crooks of all this. This is coaching. This is coaching. I I don't know I don't know how many mistakes you think were made. Now play call, it doesn't work. That's not a mistake. That happens. But clock management Yep. Decision on the kickoff, decision on on the defense to play on on the one play Baltimore had left. I mean, if it were one decision, but it's not. It was several decisions in a game that was right there in their hands, Michael. They still blew it. And they blew it. That many decisions in that short amount of time. Yeah. That's the most fascinating. Like. Yeah. It that is a literal comedy of errors. That Yep. You had looking at what led up to this game. You already knew Baltimore was coming in hot because of the drumming they took last week By New Orleans. In the Superdome Yeah. From a team that I have no faith in because I am a Bucks fan as well. And I'm I'm willing to tell you that the NFC South is the AL West of National Football League. But Are they that bad? Yeah. Okay. That division's terrible. Okay. I mean, you're like No. No. I mean, saying about the AL West. Well, you Is the NFC South that bad? When you win your division with a losing record Yeah. And it comes down to literally the last day of the season. No one wanted to win it. Yeah. It's like, oh, we were talking about that South Park meme of we're gonna lose. No. We're gonna lose. Well But knowing that they were coming in that hot, knowing that you're out of the country but you're still the home team. It felt like they they just both teams were buying into the noise. In my opinion and I said this last week, Baltimore should have gone in there and run rough shot. With the team they have now, Raven's gonna raven at some point. But on paper, this should not have gone the way it did to that margin to a three and a half point spread that they didn't cover. Well, I don't think Baltimore envisioned the Cowboys actually having some running defense spine in the game. Fair. I don't think they envisioned that. Now the fact that Cowboys allowed Justice and Jackson and Zay Flowers to run for a 100 yards between the three of them. A lot of that, by the way, is attention to Henry. You you're drawn to Henry. Whoop. Somebody else runs it anyway. But I put this on the table to Rhines and Victor in the first show. And and the question I had for them was, what record saves Brian Schottenheimer's job? I wanna tell you this. I'm not a coach killer. Never have been. Hate the thought of this with Brian Schottenheimer because he seems like the nicest person in the world. The kind of guy that I wish would move in next to me because he'd mow my lawn while I was on vacation. I'm serious. He seems like that type of guy. But two years ago, Mike McCarthy got fired after seven ten season. A season that he lost Dak Prescott for half the year. Brian Schottenheimer came in with what seemed to be improvements and had a healthy deck the entire year and added George Pickens and Javonte Williams to the to the offense. And he went seven, nine, and one. If he goes seven and ten this year, isn't he gone? Absolutely. I I my prediction for the Cowboys when we did our preview, looking at the schedule, I have them at eight wins. I don't think that's enough unless they win the division. If they win the division with eight wins, there's gonna be a little bit of grace there. But you if you don't win the division this year, you better be in double digit wins. Period. End of statement in this. Bruce, what do you think? It doesn't does eight eight and nine leave him in big trouble? I mean probably, but I do wonder obviously it's only still a second year how much leash does Jerry want to give any coach at this point because obviously he's kind of potentially running out of time too and what sort of I guess what sort of future does he see with Shoddy? Shoddy still fairly young. He's still maybe growing into being a head coach but does Jerry have that? You also live in a what have you done for me lately lead? Brian. Especially in this town. True. But Jerry does tend to be a bit over loyal to his guys. Gave. Johnny one of his guys. He gave Dave Campo three years going to 05/11, 05/11, 05/11. He gave Jason Garrett eight years of being a 500 coach. Jerry does seem he didn't show Chan Gailey that well, anyway, that kind of patience. Anyway, but we need Don't need exceptions to every rule. Yes. I don't I don't wish for Shadi to lose his job. But there is a Jerry age aspect here we're talking about. Mhmm. There is. And I think there's a Jerry belief that with all the changes he made to this team. The money he laid out. He went and signed Thompson at safety. Lock at safety. Durant at at corner. Obonia in the defensive line. He went out and got Von Miller. He traded for Rashawn Gary. He traded for Dee Winners. I he paid Quinn and Williams a a salary larger than some third world nation's annual budget. And not that's that makes him like the third highest paid cowboy but anyway, no offense to Quintin Williams. I mean, he he's had a marvelous career in this league but somewhere here, Jerry's gotta expect payback for his money. But he's got that everywhere else. That's that's, I think, where the problem lies is when that bottom line isn't red because of all of the other things He's still winning off the field. Still got all the hype, like, every year. Still gets the you know, he still gets, what, 20% of airtime on ESPN? He still has the endorsements. He still gets the headlines. He still has the owners on his side. Until those things change, he laughs all the way and goes and goes to bed on his big bed of money. Well, I'm gonna give you a thought. If god dropped by Jerry's office at the Star today and said, Jerry, if you'll give $3,000,000,000 to the best charities around, I will give you a Super Bowl win. How long does it take a charity to rate that check? Well, the first thing is to say, well, you know, I got three. So that would be his first reaction. Now if Then the next question would be Just one? I I don't I don't even know. Like, you're supposed to say it's Super Bowl or bust. You have to if you it's like Dusty Rhodes used to say, you're not competing for a belt, why are you here? Mhmm. But I'm starting to wonder where that priority for him actually lies. I understand. But just because you don't know how to win doesn't mean you don't desperately wanna win. You always wanna win but with all of the money and all of the revenue that this team brings in, it's gotta hurt in the pocket before it can hurt anywhere else because he's already got the accolades. He knows he's going in the hall of fame. He's got rings. He's got all the things. He's got what at the time was the stadium which in less than fifteen years is now what? Fourteenth in the league or something. It's got to affect him on a personal level so it will affect him on a professional level. Here's what I think drives Jerry crazy. Those rings aren't his alone. Right. Yes, sir. Two of them are Jimmy's team and the third one was what Jimmy left behind. Yeah. They're all three Jimmy's teams technically. And I could have coached that team. He wants a Super Bowl. I believe it would take him less than ten seconds to write that check. I do believe that. I but I also almost wonder a little bit of I think he also doesn't necessarily mind building up the hype every year, getting all those personal seat licenses sold and sell out and build the hype every year and then stay just competitive enough to disappoint right up until the playoffs. I I could be very wrong, guys. And you know him better than we do, obviously. You know it well. I could be very wrong here. I think your take on Jerry twenty years ago was incredibly true. Okay. Fifteen years ago, incredibly true. Ten years ago, very true. Five years ago, oh, that's the truth. Three years ago, two years ago, I'm turning 83. I can feel the difference to my body. I look in the mirror and I see the difference. How much time do I have to win my own Super Bowl? And But we all know what it's really gonna take for him to do that, and he's not willing. He's not gonna do it. He has gonna loosen. He has to pick one job or the other. He can't do both because it's a conflict of interest. And until he can do that, which he won't But he kinda sort of is. Like, Steven is starting to. Yeah. Put on a little bit more of a story. Right. But everything we're hearing too is that at one time, we said, when Steven gets this team, it's going to change but now, over time, slowly but surely, we're seeing it swing the other way where this just might be Jerry Part D. Do you think? Or duh, depending on y'all. Do you think it's going to change greatly if Steven takes over? I think it'll definitely change. I think there'll be some more collaboration and it does from what I've seen of these not quite pup pieces but stories about Steven the last couple years kind of starting to paint him as the successor, you know, like actually being more serious about that and how he collaborates with Jerry and all that. I just, I don't know if he's going to be able to fully let go either. And that's what about what some of the things I'm reading is that he's showing some of those tendencies. And it's the rising tide raises all boats things. As much as I hate to admit it, it's true. When the Cowboys are doing well, the league does well. But I think the league's passed that, Rob. Do you? Because I think they've got a basement in Park Avenue where they do nothing but print $100 bills. Wait a minute. No. I'm serious. Well, that's wrong. They're now printing $250 bills. Yes. I was gonna say they're just they're just programming crypto at this point. Think. I this league is drowning in money. It's drowning in money. But it can drown in money, but when the when the quality suffers, that's where I'm coming from. But but see, they've got the they've got the greatest thing everybody wants. They've got what the NHL has. Oh. They've got parody. Mhmm. They've got 20 fan bases every year thinking this could be the year. And 25 fan bases thinking, oh, I'm I'm just I'm that far from it. If things break right. Exactly. No chance. Well, in week two, you got 16 teams that are going, okay, we've got a shot at one and o. But and I am all for parody. I've said it for years. But there's something about this league this year. This is in in the first three weeks. I know we'll get to this probably after the break. But this league, three weeks in, is some of the sloppiest football I have watched in my existence on this planet. It's Can I give you a possible reason why? You always can, my friend. Okay. In the off season, if you get caught touching each other in practice, that's a fine. I agree with you a thigh. I know where you're going. I agree with you a thousand percent. Okay. They then take June off or July off. And they go to camp. And God bless you if you hit anybody. And then they have these controlled practices. Ugh. Where the coaches beforehand talk to each other about now. Will there be a couple of fights during that? Yeah. I don't like your aftershave. Let's go to anyway. I don't like your aftershave. But and then they do three exhibition games where even key backup players don't play a play. When you're when you're taking your practices and you're not in full full path doing full impact, by the time you get to a game, your margin for error is so huge and that's why I believe in the last few years, we've seen so many more injuries than we have because their bodies are not conditioned to take. Amen. The impact that they're taking in a full game. Do you know we have this week? The top injury monitor? Okay. We've got the ninth most injured team in the league, Dallas, playing the second most injured team in the league, Houston. And I agree. I think the injuries come from what's happening in the league and the the lack of face to face, mano a mano, let's get sharp action. And we've got hundreds of people on IR in this league already. Yeah. We're three weeks into the season. Okay. That that's a place we're gonna stop for a second. We're gonna come back. We're gonna talk defense. We're gonna talk to Houston game this weekend. Mhmm. Rob's got a couple of NFL points he wants to make. I think. We also wanna remind everybody to come down here and get half off valet. Oh, yeah. And you get just You can code football. The code football. Football. I love that movie so much. Remember Wildcats? No. Goldie Hawn. It's the first time Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes were together. Football. I love that movie. Right here, we're at Scout at the at the Statler. I gotta remember. I gotta call myself Waldorf, so I remember Statler and Waldorf. There you go. But three y's here every Tuesday until the Tuesday after the Superb Owl. Yep. Which is actually on Valentine's Day. It's here. If you're coming to see us, 05:30 to about 07:15. We're just sitting here talking sports. Come on. Get terrific food. Mhmm. Play the games. Have a good time. You'll love this place. It's a great place. Scout at the Statler. When we come back, has this defense proved even one lick? That's what we're gonna start talking about. Welcome back to three wide at Scout. Scout is this fantastic sports bar. I know you have this conception of what a sports bar is. Throw that conception away when you come here. It's incredible. Pool foosball. Bowling hockey bowling I cannot get over that a shuffle board and it's five lanes over there. It's five. Yeah. It's I thought it was two. That's incredible. There's five lanes over there. This place is insane. It's a and it's gorgeous. Well, yeah. It's gorgeous. It has a brand new feel to it. And if you've never been to Statler Hotel, I grew up in Dunkirk, New York, just down the lake from Buffalo. The hotel in Buffalo, New York was the Statler. I mean, the hotel. Which is why Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets are named after those hotels. There you go. We have Rob Ervin. Hi, Michael Gruber. Hi. I'm Norman Hitskas. I'm wearing pants next time. This place is way too fancy. I apologize everyone. I should have. We should asked about a dress code. I should have considered that. We should. But I generally don't consider a dress code for anything that I do. So. But and there's just so much cool stuff. The food's fantastic. You get here, use the password football. Football. Get you, you know, you might. Get you one of the first five, not a bad. And get you half price valet. Well, free drink or free valet. No. Anybody that comes here Half price. Gets half price valet. Oh. And a very, that like I was very nice when I gave him my keys. There you go. Next Tuesday. Come on down. Yeah. There's always three of us from Stolen Water Media here. Grinds and Grego and Victor and Mac Engel. Ziggy. Ziggy will be coming back here so much. Yeah. Ziggy show comes up here live after we're done. That's so cool. Mhmm. Pretty much. 06:00. Yeah. I think he just gets a room here. But they have rooms and they have apartments here. You could live here should you choose to do so. This place is incredible. That's beautiful. The next comp we're getting here. Okay. Get on it, Becca. Let's let's go to defense. Christian Parker was hired here as the Cowboys defense coordinator. Terrific resume, brilliant young coaching mind. This defense sucks. Yeah. I mean, there's no other way to say it. No other way to say it. It sucks. Last year, they allowed a little over 30 points a game. This year, it's 27 plus. That's what we're three games in. But if you saw the Washington game, Washington missed wide open receivers for touch down passes. Terrible throws. They had a touchdown taken away on a bogus call by the officials. This defense is no better than it was last year. But what if we, I mean, I've lived in this town now almost thirty three years. What if we almost thirty two? What has always been the thing about this town? Oh, thanks. Rangers pitching, Cowboys defense. Or Cowboys secondary more specifically. As long as I've been here, that has always been the headline. When are we gonna spend some money and get that in here? Well, I'm gonna go to big topics. I'm gonna ask you all to consider this. You are a cowboy opponent. What pass rusher do you feel you have to game plan for? Who? Who do you game plan for? Going into this week or just in general? Every week. Every week. Quintin Williams, Kenny Clark, Obonia, Ezaraku, Rashan Gary, Malachi Lawrence, Von Miller. What pass rusher do you have to plan for? There isn't one. Yeah. I I Nobody. You're racket, man. I got nothing. Nobody. But think about the fact that we're now fifty three minutes into the show, and you said Von Miller's name for the first time. That's crazy. A man who is a legend in this game. Going to the hall of fame, no doubt in my mind. We didn't mention him until almost an hour into this thing. How many? The Cowboys played 64 defensive snaps on on Sunday. Von Miller was on the field for only 16 of them. The number one draft choice, Malachi Lawrence, was on the field for only 17. And quite honestly, I don't wanna get off on that young man. He's a rookie. He's learning his profession. But the Packers were about to release Rashaan Gary when the Cowboys gave a number four for Esaraku was a wonderful pass rusher in college. I think he's got a chance to be a pretty good one of the pros. But he's now three years, three games deep in his second year of his career, and he has two sacks. How many sacks do the Cowboys have this season? Was it four, I think? Two. Two. Two. And they were both last week. And how many yards? Oh, They were both in week one. Both in week one. How many yards have the opponents lost to cowboy sacks? That would be this many. One. Because the NFL awards a sack when you flush the quarterback out of the backfield and tackle him at the line of scrimmage. I have no idea what brilliant mind thinks that's a sack, but that person needs to change his life and change his job. Once he's outside of the tackle box, all bets are off. Hey. When you get him behind the line of scrimmage, that's a sack. If you get don't get him behind the line of scrimmage, that's not a sack. The only other sack they have, they caught the quarterback one yard behind the line of scrimmage. That's the Cowboys total sack outcome this year in three games. They have gained one yard in sacks for the season. Let me go to the next thing. The Giants, game one, rushed for a 165 yards. The word was, oh god, that's gotta change. Washington rushed rushed for one eighty two the next week. Football team. Football team who put 33 on the chance. And then this last weekend, Baltimore runs for a 192. The cowboys are thirty first in the league in yards allowed rushing per game and thirtieth in yards allowed per game. Well, and you said earlier, 100 of that 100 and and was it 92, you said, was three different people combined on that team? Yes. Not Derrick Henry. Yeah. And I don't I don't wanna go back to the Jerry discussion. But look what the cowboys did for their defense. Signed two safeties, a cornerback, traded for a linebacker, signed a rusher in Von Miller, traded for Rashaan Gary, gave a free agent contract to Otito Bonilla. Okay. They they felt they dramatically upgraded the defense, and it sucks. There's no other way to say this. I love when you say, well, you know what they can't passion is unmatched. They can't stop posing quarterbacks from running a football. Because we ask where does the pass rush come from? The cowboys rush and the outside gets a field. The outside rushers, they get a field. But what does that open? That opens these two giant lanes for the quarterback. Because once the outside pass rushers get upfield, you've got three defensive linemen and everybody else is in pass coverage. If Dart or Daniels or Jackson can find that lane, off they go. Mhmm. CJ Stroud may be the tonic the Cowboys need. The Houston quarterback. He doesn't run the football. Oh, thank god. Well, he hasn't run the football. The opportunity may present itself. Things might change. If if you're Stroud and you're looking at the films of the first three games, isn't there a seed planted in your mind that said, hey, there are going to be lanes to run. He might be doing a few extra wind sprints. Yes. Leading up to this game. And by the way, when he does run, it's pretty effective. For the season. He he scoots. Now, he doesn't scoot often. But maybe the tonic for the Cowboys is a Houston offense that's really struggling. Houston is struggling on both sides of the ball. I mean, going into this season, my cohost Alex was was really touting the defense of Houston Texans. Well, they're sore. But they're yeah. We talked about the injuries before the break. This is why all bets are off. I mean, we're looking at right now, as it stands right now, according to the Yahoo, Houston is giving two and a half at home, which is as close to a pick them as you're going to get. Yeah. I don't this to me, this matchup is the cure for insomnia. That's it. In the NFL Or the cause of it, one of the two. In the NFL, the biggest way to lose money is to believe the the NFL, the linemaker, is giving you something. When the line stinks, leave it alone. There there is there's a point where you go. I'm avoiding this game like the plague. I know. You're right. Because you say to yourself, Jacksonville favored only two and a half over New England. And they beat him by, jeez. Soundly. And Arizona's a bum. San Francisco's rolling. San Francisco can't cover eight and a half. There are instances of it every week where the game looks easy and it's not. I don't know how to interpret the Houston line with the Cowboys this weekend. I don't know how to interpret Dallas should win this football game. They should. Houston so hurt. In fact, Rob, do you have any ability to call up the Houston injuries? Well, I can take a look for you. Okay. Houston so hurt on the defensive side of the ball where they're one of the best in the league. Honestly, I I thought when the season began, this was one of the two or three best defenses in the whole league and Demecco Ryan's their head coach is a defensive coach. Well, they're all hurt over there and their number one receiver and number one weapon, wide receiver Nico Collins, is also hurt on the offense. So, Houston looks terrible at all one three. If we just go by the guys that were reported injured today, one, two, 345678910, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, 17 reported today alone. Houston. And then the other four reported on the twenty fifth for Houston. Jeez. Well, this is what decides NFL games these days. This is what decides seasons. I mean, you're looking at 23. That's half your roster. I agree. I agree. Look at the cowboys. They've got the worst thing you could have in the world. They've got cluster injuries. You take one part of your team and just hurt everybody. You hurt the safety Jalen Thompson and the other starter Malik Hooker. You then hurt the first backup, PJ Lock. You then hurt the starting cornerback, Kobe Durant. And the Cowboys are are left this past Sunday running out Kalen Carson I don't know if he belongs in the league, honestly. He he really hasn't shown anything in two plus years now. And Roddy Stewart, there's a good, hard trying young guy. But you're running out. I hate to say the bottom of the barrel because they're all NFL players. But who of your starters was on the field for that final awful play on Sunday. Well, Cowboys have 18 on their injury report. Duron Bland and Caleb Downs. That's it. Are we now at a point where if you're a young guy that's being drafted by a team, you almost want to go to the practice squad because being on the practice squad, you might have a chance down the stretch to be called up? Well, I'd I'd love to be on the practice squad given what they earn. I've I've said, pay pay me the league minimum. I'll hold the clipboard. You ain't gonna hurt my feelings. But the to come back to the Cowboy defense in Houston. Maybe Houston's Sonic. Houston doesn't, I don't know if Nico Collins is gonna be out this week. I don't know if your injury report Let shows me take a look. Because he he's not on the IR. He injured a hamstring, and they said he was gonna be out maybe a couple of weeks. Houston is desperate, kids. If you think Dallas at one and two is desperate, take a good look at Houston home and o and three to find a desperation team. They were one of the chic choices to go deep into the playoffs this year and as you're looking for that injury report, Rob. I don't see it. Okay. I'm seeing questionable. Damico Ryan said Monday. He's hopeful to have Collins available for week four against the Cowboys. Hopeful. Yeah, have he's playing right. He's he's playing If you're hopeful on Monday, you're fully dressed out and flying around on Sunday. But I wanna give you a number. I promised I'd give groups. Mhmm. And you rub. Mhmm. About teams like Houston. Since by the way, there's five teams like Houston. But Miami and Tennessee, we knew they were terrible. They're oh and three. But the other three oh and three teams are the chargers, the buccaneers, and Houston. And I think most people had all three of those teams in the playoffs. I had them winning the division at least. Well. But you look at a team, you can look at Tampa Bay who it seems like somebody just drew a bunch of names out of a hat and called it a 53 man roster because it's now you've got Baker out for at least three weeks. You then you look at you look at San Diego which every year I say this, Chargers going charger but I usually don't say that until November. They're already chargering but you look at the other side of the coin on that. When you're looking at the Chargers, Justin Herbert, he's not having a terrible year but. Well, in comparison to the rest of the league, I mean, he's got he's here, I'm a melt your brain. You ready, Norm? At this point in the season, Justin Herbert has the same amount of passing yards as Malik Willis does. And has more interceptions. But when you trail all game, your quarterbacks throw like hell. Yeah. They throw and throw and throw. Because they're trying to make up the ground. Hey. Dax numbers last year, they were partly due to that. He was throwing behind a lot last year and they put up a lot of fourth quarter points that really didn't mean a lot. I I don't wanna take away from that season, okay? But let me go to those five teams. It's not even October yet. Since 1990, there have been 171 teams start their season o and three. Five made the playoffs. One out of every 34 teams that start the year oh and three rebound to make the playoffs. So it's literally one team a season. Oh, not even that. Yeah. Just but it was at one of the 34. Yeah. It's one team every seven seasons. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. We'll make the playoffs after starting oh and three. And now, 17 games helps a lot. Help helps a little. You got a little more than you used to. You got a little more runway there. I want to I want to picture for you guys. What is this team like? What is this city's talk like? If Dallas returns from Houston one and three. Seanie's head is definitely going to start getting called for on sports talk radio. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean. Yeah. If if for and I've said this for years, people that want to understand what the fan base is like in this town. I go back to a radio show for many years ago that you guys were affiliated with. It was opening day for the Rangers and the promo said, if the Rangers win today, let's talk World Series. If they lose, we'll start rebuilding for next year. That is this town and but also any town where you're one and three where the expectations are high especially in a division that has the Giants, that has football club, and right now has a limping Philadelphia who has gotten away by the skin of their teeth and then lost, the expectations for this team have to be high because if nothing else, you might end up the prettiest girl at an ugly party. I I I think you're right, Rob. I think you can make that look at this. But as the year goes on, just a warning. Those good teams start to figure it out. Philadelphia will start to figure it out. Philadelphia seems to always start to figure it out. And even when it looks darkest, and it looked dark Monday night against the bears for heaven's sakes. But the Cowboys' next three opponents that we thought when the season began was gonna be a really rugged stretch. Houston, Tampa, Green Bay. Those three teams are now one and eight. But everyone of those teams is desperate. But now the other thing that works against the Cowboys too is you think about the fact we don't have to buy until week fourteen. So even you gotta you gotta limp along with what you have until you can get these guys healthy. Plus, you've got third, you you have that weird think, they always play prime time, right? Thanksgiving and then right after, Having the buy that week, I think works against this team too because now you're gonna pile up those injuries that much more. Well, you know, four decades, I've tried to study the effect of the buy. I can't figure it out. I can't is your team hurt? I'd like to buy this week. Mhmm. Is your team not hurt? I don't want the buy this week. It was your team extended the game last week? God, I could use a pie this week. Then we get beaten badly last week. I could use a pie this week. Are we rolling? I don't need to buy this week. And I I've try to figure all those scenarios. I don't know what it is. Well, let's look. Let me let's just look at the next six games on this schedule. And you talk about if they lose to Houston. You've got Houston, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Philly, Arizona, Indianapolis before you deal with San Francisco at home. This is in in preseason, you look at that and you go, woah, that's gonna be a tough road. In present state, you have to win at least four of those games. You have to. Given the state of these other teams. Green Bay, I love you, Ziggy. I've been riding with your boys, but it hasn't been fun. Well, that Tampa Bay's Tampa Bay. The Eagles, like I said, ear earlier are limping. Air, the Cardinals are the Cardinals. The Colts right now are the Colts. And then you've got Niners, Titans. I mean, it's you have to win at least three of the next six. Robbie. You have to. It's hard for me to look down the road. Because you don't know what team you're gonna be playing. For instance, Green Bay absolutely cannot run the football. But will they still not be able to run the football three weeks from now? I don't know. When the frozen tundra becomes the frozen tundra. Yeah. And a warning about Indianapolis. Last year, the colts were ten and two when Daniel Jones got hurt. Daniel Jones is a good player. By then, they'll have their number one receiver, Alex Pierce, back in healthy. I I don't know how to judge those teams. Hey. By the time we reach Green Bay, Sam Howell may be the starting quarterback for the Cowboys. We just don't know things like that. The the first row here is Houston. It's a toss-up game. The Cowboys cannot lose this football game. Well, sure they can. They that's like Dick Motta's must win. The only must win you have is when the season ends if you don't win. It's not a must win. You can be one and three. Teams have dug themselves out of one and three holes. But Rob went over the schedule. There are good teams waiting down this road. Good teams. 40 niners. Philly twice. At Seattle. At Seattle. At the Rams. At the Rams. All those think of this. If you go one and three, does nine and eight get you in the playoffs? Maybe not. So if you lost to Philly twice, Frisco, Seattle, and the Rams. All 11 or more win teams last year. If you just lost those five games and won everything else. Which is not outside of the realm of possibility. No. You'd be nine and eight. And I'm sorry, but that may not get you a seat at the table. It just. Well, especially if you lose to Philly twice. Well, nine and eight wildcards still possible. I think we we have to be careful about assuming things about the Giants. I know they're using a backup quarterback. I think we have to be careful with Washington once they get Daniels healthy. There's so many things down the road, but Houston has to be beaten. You know, yeah, they had this is to say to have a must win in week four is kinda strange to say, but given where this team currently is, you have to. Right. Especially a team that a Houston team that is limping currently. Badly. They are leaking oil terribly in Houston. But that had the makings of a very good football team. And if they should get somebody like Nico Collins, somebody else in that defense back, they pull things together. It's like, I'm gonna just off road for a second here. Seamus Winston's looked terrible for two weeks as the backup quarterback. Yeah. Had terrible. They got four field goals on Sunday and won the game because the defense was just marvelous. That was Tennessee. But you know, sometimes it takes a week or two to knock rust off when you haven't played in a while. And But is Jameis Winston that guy? Not bad. He's not a bad NFL quarterback. But he's he's not a it's not like you're playing an awful quarterback. And and for instance, this week, who was hurt this weekend? Baker Mayfield. Yep. Do you know that Tampa Bay is starting an undrafted rookie quarterback? Because we have to. I mean, Tampa. No. Because they had to. Yes. My my Buccaneers. He's a Bucks fan. I'm a Bucks fan too. Yeah. We are. We have to. But that and that's something that they talked about last week is, you know, Ziggy was talking on his show with Grego about Justin Herbert. He's the best. He's he's what you have. Like, who can you go out there and get right now that would make that much of a difference? Well, at least for the next three weeks. Well, let me tell you. If you if you put Justin Herbert on the trade market, which they won't because that's what they've got. Right. But the phone will bring off the wall with people wanting him. And we'll move on from from here. Just say, I don't know what next week's three wide at the scout. This program will be like. But if Dallas is one and three at the time, this city can be very bitchy when the Cowboys they feel are underperforming. Oh, yeah. The The there are people gonna cheer all the time, but there are some who will say, same old cowboys, same old cowboys, all hype, nope, nope wins, Always get we got all these players for the new defense. We hired this new defensive coordinator. My god. George Pickens signed without a grumble. We got Javonte Williams back. We got But you know what but you know what that does? It feeds the beast we talked about right before the break. No question. You're still you they you may not be happy, but you're talking about them. But the but the but the beast turns on you. In this city, the beast will turn on you. Oh, absolutely. In a heartbeat. Okay. By the way, next week, me, Ryan's, Victor. Oh, that's going be a good lineup. That'll be fun. That'll be a good lineup. And then I'll be back the week after that. Yes, sir. And I've got about four weeks till I'm back, but then I've got a few appearances over a very short time. I've got something I want to finish with okay, but but I don't want to finish right now. We got some time. Okay. That's a tease. Okay. You said you wanted me to look at something this week. So one of my favorite things that the NFL does now is on Thursday night football. If you watch Thursday night football on prime video, you have three choices. You can watch the game normally. That's what I do. Mhmm. Then you got the Spanish feed. That's what Victor does. I don't understand. That's what Victor does. And then you have a thing called prime vision that I want you to check out. Oh. What they do, it's like watching it's almost like watching Madden with real people because what they've got is they've got chips in the helmets. Sorry. You mean Madden the video game? Correct. Just making sure Not the movie because the movie's coming. I know. But you there's okay. As as the play unfolds, you actually see the the the pathways of the players as everything unfolds. And I I think you might dig it. A little bit could be a little busy. Okay. Now, I love it. You gotta help me, Rob. I think one of the greatest technological advances in mankind was the swinging door. I can't figure out how it always comes back to the same place. Okay. Magic. That's that's my technological expertise. Believe me, this young man can tell you about my lack of technological expertise. I am still shocked at your ability to print things out from the internet because I still remember, I believe it was a training camp in San Antonio in 2003 or so. I was down there with you and Frito and I had my laptop because I wanted to look like I was busy and important and whatever as an intro. I gave up on that a long time ago. I've very much have given up on that since. But I remember bringing my laptop and Norm was fascinated by it and wanted to try to, you know, do a little research before a show and so I was like, okay, cool. Well, you know, the musers are here doing their show. I'll kinda go watch in on them and you know, let Norm do his thing. I come back and see just whatever scratch paper Norm was supposed to be riding on, folded into my laptop and Norm just on yeah. Add another completely different table. It's like, well, I guess that experiment didn't go well. For a guy that and nor Norm can find stats that Oh, yeah. I could that's another thing about prime vision that I think you'll dig is the depth that that Amazon's data people go that you don't get on the regular broadcast. Okay. Help me now. Uh-huh. You gotta help me. Yeah. Here's Norm. Yep. There's Norm. He's sitting watching his TV set. Yep. He's got his kerplunker. Yep. Got you got you got the remote. Okay. How do I find prime vision? When you pull up the game, you're gonna hit down the down arrow on your remote, and you're gonna see three little windows at the bottom. You're gonna see the main feed. One is subtitles. No. One is the main feed. One is the Spanish feed. Okay. And then the third one is prime vision. So I go down there and go over there and plug that. Hit that, and it's gonna bring up the exact same feed, but with a different overlay, if you will. So you're gonna see every route as it happens. You're gonna see all all the stats you could want and more. And it's I love it. Rob, you've gotta understand what you're asking me to I I'm gonna I'm gonna type out some instructions. I'm gonna get you screenshots. We're gonna do this. Well, I think the funnier solution would be to FaceTime Norm and record it. Walk him through all the instructions and see how that goes. You know what? Maybe that's it. Maybe that could be next week's free live. Have, yeah, we have Rob and Norm watch Prime Vision together. Bonus content. I am here for this. About, it's maybe six or seven years ago now. Mary took me to the phone store, and I got a seven. Okay? I mean, like, twenty is out there now. No. We're at the eight. We're at eighteen. We're at eighteen. No. No. I saw an effort. Twenty's coming. Yeah. But but no. It's iOS 27, which is the the software. Hardware, we're at 18. You're still you're still okay. You lost me. Let's go back to football. Okay? I traded in my flip phone to get this. And when I when I brought out my phone, the young man helping us looked almost wounded. It it was like Like, did this come from a museum? I don't think I've ever seen one of those was the look on his face. And I said, let me ask. This is older than you, is it? He said, oh. Oh, yeah. It was. My flip phone was older than the young man who got me this handy dandy iPhone seven. Now, I have I have advanced to this. I can bring up CNN. Alright. ESPN. Okay. Weather. Okay. Wow. And because I do a podcast on stolen water media, my own stopwatch. So I can time for you. Then you're halfway there. That's it. I've got those four apps. I I don't know what the rest of this stuff is, but I will try, honestly, try prime vision. And I and I and I wanna hear your thoughts on it because I think for a stats guy like you, especially, I think you would absolutely just eat this alive. Alright? I will try that. Okay. Oh, wait. The cowboys have a thirsty night game coming up in two weeks. There you go. There's my time to cry right there. There's our stolen water media bonus content right there. There you go. Get that behind the paywall. Let's do it. Anything you wanna get off your chest, sir. I don't think so. I've I've been having a great time with y'all. Alright. I just wanna know how what bizarro world we live in where the Raiders are a three and o. That's the NFL though. See, you you get you get tested and not tested. Buffalo's three and o, but let me tell you something. They haven't exactly played the finest teams in the NFL to get three and o. And this week, they're playing New England, and I thought New England was one of the finest teams in the league. And I'm not sure of that anymore at all. Betting on that. No way. Not at all. Because all of a sudden, what's the difference in New England last year to this year? Schedule. New England last year played the scum of the earth their entire season. This year, they play every growling dog the NFL has. What? Week after week after Six of them come from their division. And and then Jacksonville Jacksonville eats them alive. Buffalo, I've got a feeling Buffalo is gonna beat the hell out of them. But then my question is, is Buffalo's defense the tonic for Drake Bay? Because Buffalo could be scored on. I don't know. That's why the NFL's so fascinating. Anyway. Did you see what they did for theirs what the what Vegas did for their season ticket holders this year? Oh, you mean the Raiders? I was gonna say, Vegas, they're giving something away in Vegas? Yeah. No. Okay. Go ahead. So for the Raiders season ticket holders, they got the tickets in a in a a briefcase that's a a poker set. When you open it up, there's branded actual poker chips that are clay and weighted, two decks of cards that are branded, and then the tickets themselves were under you know, if you if you have enough money in Vegas, they give you a marker. There were two of those in there with the Yeah. But there were two the tick the presentation was cool. Okay. Man. Can you cash in the chips? That's what I'm trying to figure out because So it's just little pieces of junk here. I mean, probably I mean, those season tickets are probably about as much as my car payment, but but this team beats three. That's if you got a very cheap car payment. You have no idea. But this that team being three and o, which now we know because it's official now, we can now say that the autumn wind is a raider. But this team being three and o makes no sense to me. Well, so many things make no sense to me. Well, that's the NFL. Right? That takes me to my closing discussion. Perfect. See, I can do segues and not even know what's coming. If if there's a group in the world that worships money more than the NFL, somebody's gotta tell me who it is. The NFL does so many things. They play in Australia. They ask a team to travel, like, 491,000 miles to Australia and play and come back home. And well, back and forth to Brazil, that's not a terrible flight. That's only ten hours. Don't worry. But then go out on the road again next week. I I'm I'm older than you guys despite the fact that you got little gray here, bro. Oh, I wouldn't say a little, sir. I can remember the NFL. When it viciously opposed gambling. Yep. I mean, viciously. And when Jimmy the Greek Snyder came on the air, people went, they're talking about betting lines? That's a whole 30 for 30 just on him alone. The the NFL didn't like it when lines were published in the newspaper under that little thing that says lines. The NFL didn't like that. That was gambling. They hated gambling. The NFL hates gambling. They're well, wait a minute. How big is that check from FanDuel? Yep. How big is the check from DraftKings? How much from ESPN Bet? Well, let us think that over. Now, okay, we're gonna take billions, and I mean that. You combine everything. Sponsorship, ads, signage in the stadium, you combine everything. The owners are now cutting up billions because of gambling. Do they still oppose gambling? Oh, what? Yes. Well, we don't want you players to bet on the league. Okay? You can't do that. We still oppose you gambling. But, yes, please put the FanDuel check on automatic deposit. Okay. So now, the NFL doesn't hate gambling anymore. In public, in private. They don't need it anywhere. Remember a time where eight a team in Vegas was. Oh. Beyond the pale. And now you've got two announced today. Sean Sherani is saying today the day the NBA is pretty close to announcing. Really? Yep. Yes. That came down about four hours ago. Now, they've got three of the four. Have it all. Yeah. Yeah. Now, they'll have it all. Yeah. Because the homeless vagabonds will be there before too much longer. If you go to AT And T Stadium, you're gonna see a giant sign for DraftKings. Yep. Right in your stadium. I have no idea how much DraftKings paid for that. It's gambling. Mhmm. Don't try to disguise this in any way. That sign encourages gambling. Yep. Now they can put all that little fine print at the bottom of the end of the ad. They legally bound to number. Yep. They're legally bound to that. And if you're an addict, after you've placed your bets for the week, call this number. Then we'll make you a VIP. Exactly right. Yes. And by the way, if you addicts are really into it, we've got these apps where you can bet every play. You can bet every play. Literally. Oh, I don't know how to do that. Thank god. But there are people who sit during games. Mhmm. And they're betting play by Yeah. Was it fractional betting? Exactly right. Crazy. Well, thirty for thirty just did an entire series on the Shohei Ohtani thing from a couple years ago and how that guy got in so deep so fast. And if you haven't heard it, it is a fascinating it's like a four part series on that. Well, let's move on to the next and deepest level of hypocrisy. I don't know for how many years now. The league has been taking I don't know how many billion dollars a year from beer companies. Budweiser, Miller, Modelo, I remember when Schlitz used to sponsor games. Anyway. The low end brow for you. Everywhere. Friends tonight is kinda special. Yes. They're everywhere though. The ads are everywhere. Yep. How does the team make money from beer? Well, there's in stadium. And then, of course, there's the concession in the stadium. Mhmm. And then, of course, there's the official beer of the team, which is billions and millions more. Which in this town is Miller Lite, if I remember correctly, sir. Now what's the official beer of the NFL? Bud Light. So I don't drink it. I know that. Like, that shows you the power of it. No. That's perfect for Jerry though. I I don't I don't want this to focus on Jerry. He's gonna get a big cut of that Bud Light but he says to Miller, come on baby. You sign on with me and you'll be the official beer here. And you'll get a nice big sign in the end zone. And you'll get everything. You'll get outside of the star. You could be on our big billboard out there. And as you said, Rob, signs outside the side of the stadium. And they're part of other deals with the team where they will sponsor this or that or something else. Okay. I tried to research how much money the NFL makes on beer. I honestly, between national contacts contracts and local contracts and sponsorship and all that stuff, I got lost in I don't know how many billions. I just got lost. But then, not this past Sunday but the Sunday before. Three NFL players score touchdowns. And as part of their touchdown celebration, they mimic chugging a beer. God help you, you sinner. And the league lands on them with both feet. Yeah, they did. $13,000 fine for mimicking chugging a beer. Meanwhile, after that touchdown by Ferguson, how many people in the Cowboys suite chugged a beer? All of them. I I don't know where the hypocrisy of this league ends. I don't know what's next. Prostitution? Will that be part of the scene if people are allowed to advertise prostitution in this league? But players chugging a beer. One of the guys find was Kyle Yuschuk. Yeah. And then they call him the juice. He's juice. Yeah. Yeah. That's his nickname. That's his real nickname. He could have been chugging like Under league years. Yeah. Says I was chugging the juice. Apple juice. Yeah. I I don't know what the league's gonna do with that. But if they forgive you, Chuck They have to forgive the yeah. They have to forgive the other two. But what if we learned anything from the classic film, all the president's men, the answer to all of your questions is money. Money. And as long as there's a check involved and they're not breaking the law, you know, because you you gotta think that we're not that far away from dispensaries having their names on stadiums. I agree. I agree. They might start mimicking smoking the dew. Ads for gummies can't be far away. I have a question for you guys. Yes, sir. Here comes these three guys and the fines get announced. For chugging a beer. $13,000 each. And the guy who heads Budweiser calls Roger Goodell and says, what the hell are you doing? We're paying you billions of dollars a year. And you're punishing guys because they might wanna chug a beer? That's what we want the world to do. That's what we advertise on your TV, on your games I can tell you exactly what stadiums. We want them chugging a beer. I can tell you what Goodell's answer is. Nobody can prove it was one of yours. It could have been Amstel Lite for all you know. It could have been Old Milwaukee for all you Budweiser will say, that's true. But but from the market analysis, there's a 38% chance that was a Budweiser. But but like we talked about earlier, if it doesn't hit him in the pocketbook, it doesn't matter. Because if nothing else, I guarantee you they could look at sales and go, you know what? That guy acted like he was chugging a beer, and for the next thirty minutes, our our our sales went up 13%. You know, I don't It's it's some of these weird studies that they do of like when the losing team after the superb owl, certain websites spike and certain websites don't. It's the beer companies won't call foul because honestly, it's free advertising for them. Because then because then what happens? What's the first beer you think of? Oh, the sponsor's a Bud Light. Now I'm gonna go get a Bud And what you did in funnier is if one of those commercials followed that play. Well, let me tell you this. It's gonna stop me from faking chugging a beer if I get in the end zone in the NFL. I'm gonna stop that. What about if you think that this is a really good show at the end of this and chug a beer? Well, they're not sponsoring us though. Yeah, fair enough. But what what if Bud Light comes out and goes, hey, we'll pay the fines. There you go. Oh. Oh. What a precedent that would be or they will pay Ferguson to chug a beer every time he scores. And then he and then he just lifts up his jersey and there's a Budweiser logo on his shirt. And and he does this trick with the Budweiser thing. I've got the final thing for you. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be political about this. For me, what's happening in Gaza is one of the great human shames in the world. I know Hamas is a terrorist organization. I have no doubt about that. I also have no doubt that the 168 children killed in that bombing of the school. I don't think they were Hamas. I'm just guessing. I think maybe when you're nine, it's too soon to abandon us. There's a linebacker from Houston. Al Shazier. I think I got that correct. He has sympathy, empathy for what's happening in Gaza. And earlier this season, on his eye black, he put the name of one of the people killed in Gaza. And the league said, you're going to be fined for that and they fined it. And another week, he put another message on there and they fined it. And last week, he did it again. Gonna find him again. This time, the league has threatened to suspend him for a game. If he shows up with a message like that again. This is one of the standout humans in this league. He is he is a Walter Payton man of the year type. He has nothing but empathy for what's going on. He just wants to remind the world that people are dying. But see that's political. And you can't do that in the NFL. Now, when you're off the field Oh god. Yes. You you can do stuff like that. But the NFL's got this Mike Cleats, Mike, Mike, Mike. Mike Cleats, Mike. Yep. Mike Cleats, Mike. Which is coming up here in a couple of weeks. Right. Where you could put your cause on your shoes. He's wearing it in his face. He's asking for compassion. He's asking for killing to stop. That's not political. That's human for god's sakes. It's human. I don't don't care who's dying. It's a tragedy. It's a tragedy when Hamas made that massive attack, and it's a tragedy that response killed children. But I guess the league doesn't want this stuff to run away. Get away from it. I guess they don't want vote for Trump or vote for Newsom or whatever it is on the ride block. But at some point, doesn't reason have to take don't you don't you go to the guy and say, hey. This has gotta stop. We'll resend your fine. We'll we'll refund your fines. Give the fines to charity. When you're off the field, this could be your passion. But work with us here. The chugging of beers, the finding of this poor fellow, These these little black patches, that's not his cheekbones. That's where his heart is. Yes. That's where that player's heart is. My god. Have some compassion. Figure out how to handle this. Just strapping fines on them. What good does that do, Rob? It brings attention to it is what it does, and it's it's such a delicate line to walk on every side of that. I agree. And It I don't I I I'm I'm at a loss for words honestly. Bruce I know we're talking about fine line here. I know the league doesn't wanna get wrapped up in politics, but several of the owners are very much publicly 7 figure donors to political campaigns. That's politics. But like you said, it's off the field. Why isn't that owner, though told I'm sorry no political contributions please no that's a political statement you're making. Okay. This is a political statement. This young man may be making and honestly in a less visible place than it would be on the cleats because the cleats you see on every play I agree. Well, I enjoy this forum. Rob, it's really good. Always an honor to spend time with you, sir. Oh my goodness. I'm just honored to be here. Groups, always a pleasure. Known each other. We've known each other twenty four years. He was 17 years old. When he start, when he started as an intern. When we went to cowboy camp, he could not have a beer. No. But he could act like he was chugging one. Yep. And we were finding. I could. Yeah. Get the ticket. We'd have find. I didn't have any money to be fined though. Thank you all. Thank you all for listening. Come back next week. Come to the scout next week. Have a wonderful time here and realize that every Tuesday, right here at the iconic Statler Hotel, we do three wide at the scout. Be here next week. Another group of wonderful people. Grubbs, Rhynes Victor Vialba. 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