Legendary Houston sportswriter John McClain returns to discuss the Astros last-place dirge and puts focus on his NFL specialty of assessing the draft with Nestor as the Texans continue the never-ending NFL hope left over from Dante Pastorini and the Luv Ya Blue Oilers. The General always delivers some straight Texas wisdom with us.
Nestor Aparicio and John McClain discussed the Houston Astros’ struggles, noting their 17 players on the injured list and the owner Jim Crane’s reluctance to offer long-term contracts. McClain criticized Crane’s management, citing the Astros’ poor performance and high number of injuries. They also touched on the Baltimore Orioles’ underperformance, with Aparicio expressing disappointment in Mike Elias’s tenure. The conversation shifted to the NFL, with McClain praising the Houston Texans’ draft, particularly their selection of Kenyon Green and Keelan Rutledge. They also discussed the Texans’ playoff prospects and the potential for a baseball lockout.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Coordinate and host the Maryland Lottery / GBMC crab cake tour events at the specified locations and dates: Pizza John’s in Essex, the Timonium fitness event on the 7th, the Lexington market at Fayley’s on the 13th, and the Fishmonger’s Daughter location in Catonsville on the 21st.
- [ ] Arrange for Dan Pastorini to appear as a guest on the show if Nestor requests it, coordinating with Pastorini to schedule and confirm his appearance.
- [ ] Travel to California with Dan Pastorini to conduct interviews for the planned documentary about his life and career.
Outline
Maryland Craft Cake Tour and Community Events
- Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland Craft Cake Tour, mentioning various locations including Pizza John’s in Essex, Fayley’s in Lexington Market, and the Fishmonger’s Daughter in Catonsville.
- Nestor talks about the Maryland Lottery’s sponsorship of the tour and mentions a Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event for sexual abuse awareness.
- He also highlights the involvement of GBMC and Farland and Dermer in community initiatives.
- Nestor shares a personal anecdote about shaving before the tour and his excitement about eating good food at the events.
Introduction of John McClain and Astros Discussion
- Nestor introduces John McClain, a long-time Astros fan and sports journalist, and mentions his extensive coverage of the Houston Oilers and Houston Texans.
- John McClain joins the conversation, and Nestor asks if he wants to discuss football or baseball.
- John expresses his frustration with the Astros’ current performance, noting their injuries and poor performance compared to the Yankees.
- Nestor reminisces about the Astros’ past success and the fan base’s adoption of the team, comparing it to the Rockets and Texans.
Challenges Faced by the Astros and Ownership Issues
- John McClain discusses the Astros’ current struggles, including the high number of injuries and the owner Jim Crane’s reluctance to give long-term contracts.
- He mentions the Astros’ best pitcher, Hunter Brown, and their best closer, Josh Ader, who are both injured.
- John highlights the Astros’ poor performance despite having some talented players like Yordan Alvarez.
- Nestor and John discuss the impact of ownership decisions on the team’s performance and the fan base’s reaction to the Astros’ decline.
Comparison of Baseball and Football Operations
- Nestor draws parallels between baseball and football operations, noting the differences in revenue sharing and player contracts.
- He mentions the Baltimore Orioles’ rebuilding process and the challenges faced by the team under new management.
- John McClain discusses the NFL’s salary cap and the potential for a lockout in baseball, predicting a lack of a season if the owners push for a salary cap.
- They discuss the impact of player contracts and the challenges of rebuilding teams in baseball compared to football.
Texans’ Draft and Max Crosby Incident
- Nestor shifts the conversation to football, discussing the Texans’ draft and the Max Crosby incident involving Eric DeCosta.
- John McClain explains the Texans’ decision to fail Crosby’s physical and the subsequent negative publicity it received.
- He praises the Texans’ selection of Kenyon Green and the importance of improving their offensive line.
- John discusses the Texans’ playoff performance and the need for CJ Stroud to improve in the playoffs.
Texans’ Offensive Line Improvements and Future Prospects
- John McClain details the Texans’ efforts to improve their offensive line, including the acquisition of Braden Smith and Nick Starkel.
- He highlights the importance of running the football and the contributions of David Montgomery and Jamir Callahan.
- John discusses the Texans’ playoff history and the need for better offensive coaching to help CJ Stroud succeed.
- He mentions the Texans’ rivalry with the Tennessee Titans and the impact of Amy Adams Strunk’s decisions on the team.
Dan Pastorini Documentary and Personal Stories
- John McClain shares details about his upcoming documentary on Dan Pastorini, highlighting Pastorini’s interesting life and career.
- He recounts Pastorini’s experiences, including his relationship with Farrah Fawcett, his role in the development of the flak jacket, and his involvement in various sports and charity work.
- John expresses his excitement about the documentary and the unique stories it will tell.
- Nestor and John discuss the challenges of making a documentary about a lesser-known figure and the potential interest in Pastorini’s story.
Final Thoughts on Astros, Orioles, and Texans
- Nestor and John wrap up their discussion, reflecting on the Astros’ and Orioles’ current performances and the challenges they face.
- John reiterates his frustration with the Astros’ ownership and the impact of their decisions on the team’s success.
- Nestor shares his thoughts on the Orioles’ rebuilding process and the importance of fan support.
- They discuss the Texans’ draft and the potential for improvement in the upcoming season, with a focus on CJ Stroud’s performance and the team’s offensive line.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Astros, NFL Draft, Ravens, John McClain, Orioles, Jim Crane, injuries, baseball labor, CJ Stroud, Texans, Max Crosby, Dan Pastorini, Houston, Baltimore.
8
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, John McClain
Nestor Aparicio 00:03
Welcome home. We are W N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively, getting the Maryland craft cake tour out on the road here this weekend. I’m gonna get my razor out too before it’s all over, but I’m gonna shave up real nice Friday. We are gonna be at Pizza John’s in Essex. None that I’ve ever shaved before. I’ve gone to Essex, but I’m gonna look go and I’m eating good when I’m eating my french fries and gravy and my Cheesesteak. We have the Maryland treasure scratch offs in the Maryland lobby, four different varieties all have been lucky thus far. Next week, we’re playing a fitness and Timonium on the seventh Lexington market at fayley’s in the 13th, and the new location for the fadeleys crab cake will be the fishmonger’s daughter that opens in Catonsville later on this month. We will be there on the 21st all of it brought to you by the Maryland lottery. In conjunction with GBMC, we did a Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and their shoes last week for their sexual abuse center and awareness for all of that, as well as our friends at Farland and Dermer who have put my fires out. I had a flood going on here in Pike burst. They do h back, but also plumbing at front and Dermot, 410-367-7777, been wanting to have this guy on since the max Crosby incident with Eric Decosta and the Ravens. I was running around South America. This guy was getting the Astros ready for apparently, last place. He is a long time Astros fan. I was gonna say struggling, but I mean, they cheated, they won World Series. They’ve done things. They’re the bigger, better franchise at this point, but I’ve known him for going on 40 years, since his days of covering the Houston Oilers then Houston Texans as the longtime voice of the Houston Chronicle and the National Football League. Welcome the general back the Hall of Famer John McClane back here. You want to talk football? Or do you want to talk Astros? I I feel like you probably don’t want to talk Astros right now, but then I forget like you love baseball that much you can just ignore the draft and go right to Astros and Orioles. If I want you to,
John McClain 01:57
I can do anything you want. I’m still waiting to see after all these years, if you can get my Twitter handle right,
Nestor Aparicio 02:05
8NFL on McLean, no. McLean on NFL. McLean, no but John McClain, no,
John McClain 02:13
underscore, underscore. On underscore,
Nestor Aparicio 02:17
NFL, there’s only one of you. They’re not going to find the wrong one for you. So the Orioles had promised John, I bought what Mike Elias was selling, and I don’t mean Astro ball. I said they would win 92 games. I was a guy that was believing that efflin was right, that Bassett was a great signing at 19 million, that even Shane Boz was going to be fun. And I believed all along the Rogers and Bradish, I was hooked in they’re Cy Young candidates, and Pete Alonso is going to hit 40 home runs. And this is the year Richmond’s coming back, and holiday is going to be that one, one I bought it all, and the Astros are in town, and you’re in last place, and we just got beat two out of three by the Red Sox.
John McClain 02:59
Both teams suck, and I did. I’m a big Pete Alonso fan. I still can’t believe the Mets let him get away, but Mets are the worst team in baseball right now. The Astros are terrible. I think Jim crane will end up firing General Manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Spada there in the last year their contracts, he has not extended them, and I feel bad for a spotter, because they have 17 players on the injured list. The Yankees who just left town one two out of three have zero. And the Astros have their best pitcher, Hunter Brown, their best closer, Josh Ader had pitched till July, but he hadn’t needed surgery, and they’re terrible. They’re bringing guys up from other teams. I guess they’re not bringing their best minor leaguers up for May ball or maybe double because they don’t want the stench to get on it, because they have been a humongous disappointment, because they were doing poorly before they started having all these injuries. We thought last year, Nestor, they had an exorbitant number of injuries. They fired all those people associated with it. Now they’re worse than ever, and they’ve had so many pitchers undergo Tommy John the last three years. That’s amazing. Only thing they got that I would encourage people to watch your Don Alvarez is off to one of the greatest starts in baseball history.
8Nestor Aparicio 04:29
John McClane is here. He usually covers the NFL, but he’s gonna talk some baseball with us. I would ask you, as a long suffering Astros fan, back to Enos Cabell and you know Jose Cruz back in the day, and Terry pool and all of that that it wasn’t very good. And I came in about 12 years ago, and you set me up with Dante pastorini, who are going to be discussing a little later as well. And when Jen got sick in 14 into 15, we did that tour. And right around that time, the Yankees were in on that. Trip. It was in June of 2015 and they beat the sauce out of the Yankees and caught fire, and then they went backwards, and then they went nothing but forward. And my cousin lives there in Katy, Texas, and she’s sort of a long, struggling Orioles fan that has adopted the Astros in her 30 years of living in Houston. And I saw all of you that I know in that area really gravitate toward that baseball team in a way that maybe the Olajuwon rockets had at one point, or, you know, back in the day, but for what the Astros have become there to see this thing sort of fade away a little bit after this glory period. I don’t know how the fan base will take to it. I’ve seen it there packed the last 1015, years that you’re taking this hard, that they’re in last place after being so good for so long. You do get used to being good once you get good. I mean, the Patriots fans have that going
John McClain 05:55
on, right? You get spoiled. And the reason they’re as bad as they are is because the owner, Jim crane, will not give long contracts for a lot of money. Josh Ader, 95 million is the most he’s given to the
John McClain 06:24
on Carlos Correa, who’s back now, George Springer recently from her Valdez Garrett Cole they’ve had Justin Verlander. They’ve had so many players come through here that they just won’t pay. And we’re thinking, okay, Jeremy Pena is going to be next. Then in a couple of years, Hunter Brown will be gone, and he crane just won’t do it. And when you’re winning and replacing those guys, which they did, it’s easier to stomach. But then we see these guys doing well with other teams, and you’re losing and you’re in last place, and you look up in the A’s or in first place, with all this great young talent signing them to extensions, the Astros won’t sign either young guys to long term extensions, like other teams are gambling on their young guys.
Nestor Aparicio 07:16
8So even with bicyo and bars, I mean, they put some money into these guys, along with Alonzo
John McClain 07:23
lieutenants, is down a little bit. They had 35 for the Yankees on Sunday. But a lot of those are always Yankee fans, and they just been a huge disappointment. They walk more. They have more walks than 18 in baseball. Their era is the highest in baseball. Dana Brown made all these moves to bring in pitchers tats. Might you might from Japan. Boy, he’s complained about the mound being too hard. He’s complained about the grass being different. He’s talking about in Japan, we got to eat back at the hotel, not the clubhouse. And I’m thinking, well, dumbass, go back to the hotel and order room service. Now he’s on the injured list. I read the other day. He’s been through like three interpreters, so they made a trade for Pittsburgh’s Mike Burrows, gave up two young guys. He has been terrible. And right now, it’s, it’s, it’s pitiful to watch Lance McCullers and Jose tuber, the last people that are on this to in Korea, because he came back last year at the trade deadline, who were on their two World Series winners and their two World Series losers and but you see these guys around the league. And for fans, it’s very frustrating. The rockets are stinking it up, choked one of the biggest playoff games in history. Two games ago, they’re about to be eliminated by the Lakers. And at least the Texans are born a playoff game the last three years, and things are looking up for them, but overall, it’s pretty depressing. John McClane
Nestor Aparicio 09:01
is here. He is in the great city of Houston, Texas, the Orioles, taking on the Astros here this week, and certainly in the aftermath of the draft, I wanted to bring you in. Maybe this is where I sort of meld your baseball fandom with your National Football League expertise and your writer background and taking phone calls and being a sports expert the way you are, you know the baseball labor situation is what it is. At the end of the year, you’ve covered all of this through football. You’ve dealt with all this as a baseball fan, through all of this part of the Astros falling apart and crane not giving guys money. And I think back to Kansas City 1012, years ago, when we were out there during the Buck show Walter era, losing to the Royals, and what the Royals have to do, and what the pirates have never been able to do, what the Orioles have really never been able to do in the modern era since Camden Yards, is even get one winner once. I mean, the Giants were doing it once in a while, the Royals, the Astros, have done it. Yeah. Angels, angels Tampa. You know these other places that aren’t the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Cubs, or places that are well funded. You talk about the Mets being mismanaged, but we’re trying to figure out in Baltimore with this woman they brought in from Seattle to run the team, and the revenue guy from the Atlanta Mercedes Benz arena, and the marketing guy from Dana White’s group of bandits out in Las Vegas, and the money from Rubenstein and Eric Getty, who was a Mets fan, like what it’s supposed to be in baseball and how it gets fixed. Because the whole model here with Elias and sigma idel was, well, we have to suck for five years the way the Astros did, and nobody’s going to want to watch. We’re going to want to watch. We’re going to finish in last place. We’re going to draft these players, and we’re going to get good again. Well, we’re in the middle of that now, when Angelos died, the new owner takes over. But really, to astute people like you, this is really about this the poison pill that the NFL owners swallowed, which is, we’re all going to split revenues. 50 years ago, Rozelle sold this to these NFL owners. The basketball and the hockey owners have had strikes and this and that, lockouts and all of that, and the players run basketball. This really speaks to me to be a baseball issue, to how do you rebuild it in Houston or Kansas City or Pittsburgh or Baltimore, even if you win, how do you put it back together? Where Eric Decosta doesn’t have to think about that. Damico Ryan’s doesn’t have to think about that. Jesse Minto doesn’t think much about that. Here how baseball operates and how football operates for fan expectations really speaks to me to be how baseball is going to always struggle until they figure this out and have a war. And I’m not saying you and I should be taking the owner’s side of the players debate with the Players Association or Marvin Miller, but I do see the fissures in baseball that when you start to lose fans, go away a little bit, and it’s hard to get back up and walk again in baseball, whereas in football drafts here again, even the Browns feel good about themselves this week, you know,
John McClain 12:04
and they should, because they had a great draft. And I’ll tell you this this time next year, I don’t think we’ll have a season as long as the owners try to get a salary cap like the other pro leagues have. Baseball will not do it. I believe that I read the baseball players have 570, 5 million war chests. They’ve been telling the players prepare for a lockout for the last two or three years. If players don’t have money, it’s their own fault. And I’m for players getting every penny they can get, because they get cut all the time with legitimate contracts, and owners wouldn’t pay them if they didn’t have it. And the owners run football, the players run baseball and basketball, and I’m not sure about hockey, but the NFL owners, who have franchises worth multiple billions, and if they had to wipe out a season, they would, last time they did that was in 87 when they played three games with replacement players, and haven’t had a big issue since the lockout in 2011 didn’t go into the regular season, but it’s going to be ugly, ugly, ugly in baseball this time of year. So fans, whether you’re supporting the Astros or the Orioles or anybody else, you better get that fix of baseball, because I do not think we’re going to have a season. And the last time they went through this, they needed to shoot up steroids to hit home runs. So baseball would be back. I don’t know what they do now, because they don’t have guys hitting 60 and 70 home runs.
8Nestor Aparicio 13:39
Well, John, part of this does speak to you, being an angry Astro fan saying Jim Crane’s been too cheap to sign players. I mean, look, I’ve lived through 32 years of Peter Angelos here, before this new ownership came in and, quite frankly, treats me worse than Angelos and runs this thing like a corporate tent. You know, they’ve gotten rid of the Jim Henneman press box. They move that they’ve got this truest club that sits empty. They’re promoting the hell out of it. They think that Baltimore, I mean, Houston’s a big place. You got millions of people down in Houston. We’re little Baltimore here. They think they’re going to squeeze blood out of a turn up here. I don’t know what their game plan is. I don’t know that anybody here or in baseball has a real concept of what their business model is going to be, even after this work stoppage. And I think it, it’s sad for all of us who do love baseball, not for you who your team cheated and went to four World Series and all that, we haven’t had a World Series in 43 years. Man. So, like, it’s a total different thing in Baltimore, where we’re waiting, waiting, wanting, but you see how empty the stadium is. Your tickets are 11, 1215, bucks this week, there’ll be eight or 9000 people at most of these games, these Astros Orioles games like they’re not building their brand here by ripping the stadium up with civic money, and we all think they’re going out of business in nine months. It’s I it’s just it’s sad for all of us who love baseball that we’re talking about these teams right now teetering on being irrelevant the rest of the year, when it would be easy for the journalist and John McClane and the journalist and Nestor to just sit here and talk draft, ignore the baseball thing this time, it might not even be here. What are they doing? John, like if you and I covered baseball and have real questions, and Rob man for that, sit in front of journalists and good fans like you and I and answer questions. They’re not good at answering questions in baseball and the NFL, at least, they give a little shine to their BS baseball, they leave even the smartest people like us scratching our heads saying, who’s running this thing and is the game on my Apple TV this Friday night.
John McClain 15:42
The first of all, Camden Yards is still our favorite ballpark, retro Park. I love that, what’s called Daikin park here now downtown and but Camden was the first and my wife, Carol is from Silver Spring. We went to a lot of games that first year, and I remember is like 40,000 every game. And now I always look at the box scores of every team, and I look at attendance for every team, and it’s just, it just, I’m not sure the word for seeing the Orioles draw so poorly. And I remember playing like I was Jackie Brandt, who played for the Orioles. I liked him for whatever reason, had his baseball card and I’d be playing out in the yard like I was Jackie Brandt,
Nestor Aparicio 16:32
and he was more of a triendo sky or Jim genteel, Jim
John McClain 16:36
8Gentile gentlemen, all right, I tried to mimic their batting stances. And I remember the late great Joel Buxbaum, the greatest NFL talent evaluator, who wasn’t with the team ever. He was from New York, born and bred. His dad used to take him to Yankees giants and Dodgers games when he was a kid, but he was an Orioles fan. His dog, Brooks, was named after Brooks Robinson, who, of course, I still think, is the greatest third baseman in history. And with all the tradition there, I can’t imagine how frustrating it is for the fans. And you know, in baseball you gotta, you gotta develop. It’s always amazed to me, they have all these coaches on the major league team. You’d think they’d have more coaches at the minor league teams when players learning what it takes to play baseball, but at some point you got to have personnel people that know what they do, and they got to make the right decisions, and they got to have the resources. The text the Texans, the Astros, have a top 10 payroll. They do pay a lot of money, they just won’t give long term contracts and long term contracts of more than five years. And when you don’t do that, you’re not going to be paying a lot of money. And so far, crane hadn’t gotten a lot of criticism. They missed the playoffs on the last day of the season last year, even though Alvarez only played, only played 40 games, and they missed Josh Hader for the last six weeks of the season. So people kind of forgave them for that. But right now they’re so inept, and all the moves that have been made have backfired. It’s just it’s embarrassing. At some point, attendance will decline, because we are a city of front runners. If you don’t win, they don’t show up. And every owner in town knows
Nestor Aparicio 18:27
that John McClane is here. He bid due to the Houston Oilers. So let’s move to football. John. By the way, John is a football hall of famer, and 50 Years of covering the National Football League for the Houston Chronicle, and I still get his Twitter address wrong, and that’s okay, and he still loves me. It isn’t really a perfect time to have you on. When I saw the Astros were playing the Orioles right after the draft, I’m like, I’m going to wait on McLean. I’m going to get him on. Let’s talk about this, the max Crosby Decosta situation, and now it’s turned into ya oni, the guard that they drafted with the 14th pick. Can you play that out for my audience that I called you, and I was in Montevideo, running around South America when all this went down during the during that period of time, how did you see what happened? As a veteran journalist, that if that’s the Houston Texans bringing Max Crosby in for the 14th pick, and basically from the minute he arrives, you fly him into Austin and tell him to get his own way into Houston, and all day long, avoid him, and then later say you failed the physical and go back to Vegas. Like I don’t know, dude, you’ve been covering the league longer than me, and I’ve been at it 30 years. It didn’t smell good here, for sure. It felt like it didn’t smell good anywhere.
John McClain 19:41
First of all, let me say about ioni, that guy’s the surest thing in the draft. He’s the best offensive lineman in the draft. Texans needed a guard. There was no way they were ever going to get him, but boy, people had pipe dreams of it. So I think that was a great pick, and it was a no brainer. So many teams. Him go in there and mock draft as far as Crosby. First of all, di Costa has to do what he thinks is best for the team. And he has to answer one guy, doesn’t matter what the fans think, doesn’t matter what the media thinks. It looked from afar. And I read everything I could, because I do a weekly show in Las Vegas. And and as I told them, there’s worse things than getting stuck with Max Crosby, and I knew they were going to like Clint pub, who I’ve known that family since they were kids, and that includes Gary, when he was a kid in high school and was a ball boy for the Oilers. And it looked to me, and I’m sure it looked this way to you too, they were while they were making that deal, they were talking to the agent for Hendrickson, and when they saw they could get him for a price that was without giving up those draft choices, everybody was shocked when the Baltimore Ravens were going to give up two number one picks. And so it looked like they got to deal with Hendrickson. How do we get out of this? We’ll fail him on the physical. Any team can fail anybody on the physical anytime they want. They just tell the doctors find something. And everybody knew Crosby was not going to pass the physical at that point, and it looked bad. Got him a lot of negative publicity. Some people were saying, well, nobody is going to deal with the cost again. Well, of course they are. Because if they’re talking to him, it’s because they want something. But it was a bad look, and it won’t surprise me if the Raiders, not this season, but next season, will be real happy. They stuck with Max Crosby, who is a premier pass rusher.
Nestor Aparicio 21:44
John McClane is here, how’d the Texans do? And their trouble for the ravens, they’ve advanced further than the Ravens have in recent times.
8John McClain 21:51
Texans wanted two teams one playoff game in each of the last three years, but they cannot get beyond the divisional round the playoffs. They never have been. The last time Houston had a team get beyond the divisional round of the playoffs was 1979 when Dan pastor, rainier old Campbell and bum fellows were the love you blue Oilers, and they had one of the most controversial plays in history at Three Rivers Stadium. Pastoring touchdown pass to Mike Renfro was not allowed, and they were eliminated Three Rivers for the second consecutive year. And people are frustrated, but everybody loves to Miko Ryan’s their defense is great. It just got greater. In the second round, gave McDonald best defensive tackle the draft was selected in the second round. Everybody thought he was going in the first and I had advocated Nestor through the whole off season. If they don’t do what they need to do to build the interior offensive line, nestorio should be fired, probably dmiko Ryan’s too, because they couldn’t run the football. They were terrible at running pass protection. Improved every year they redo their offensive line because he can’t get it right. Last year, they did well at left tackle with the rookie second round pick, ariante ern did well at trade with Minnesota sixth round pick for right guard, Ed Ingram, who played really well, but they blew it on some free agents again. So this year, they signed Braden Smith, right tackle from Indy. He’s 30 they signed white teller left guard from Cleveland. He’ll be 32 but as I as I said in all my talk shows here TV, if they think that solved their problem, they’re nuts. So first thing they do Keelan Rutledge from Georgia Tech, who, I love that guy because he is a butt kicker. He wants people when he hits them, to blow snot bubbles highlights of him blocking people 20 yards down the field. I did a radio show last week in which I was Nick casario. I had to make every pick, every trade. They would tell me who’s available. I traded out of the first round. My first pick in the second round was Georgia Tech guard Keelan Rutledge, who fits in here perfectly. The other one after McDonald, they drafted kid we we Woo. I can’t pronounce his name, a guard from Oklahoma like Rutledge. He can play center. I think Rutledge will be their starting center when the season starts. So they improve their weakest area, the running game. Last year, they had eight rushing touch, nine rushing touchdowns. David Montgomery acquired from Detroit at eight last three years, Montgomery’s rush for 33 touchdowns. The Texans 34 and he’s 230 and he’s a touchdown machine, playing behind Jamir Gibbs. So he’s he’s going to be 30. He’s. They don’t need a lot out of them. They just need it this year. So they have worked hard to improve their weakest part. But the key for everybody. CJ Stroud, played the worst playoff game I have ever covered. This is 50 years I’ve been covering the NFL here. It was terrible. The game plan was awful. If you go to Pittsburgh and you score two touchdowns on defense and you wallop the Steelers and you embarrass Aaron Rodgers, you don’t come out New England in the snow throwing the football. You should do anything to avoid turnovers. I think in that Pittsburgh division, bought the New England divisional game stride could have handed the ball off on every play, and they’d had a better chance to win. And it was close as it was, because Drake May was terrible too, just not as terrible. They’d had a better chance to win. So the offensive coaching by Nick Gailey was bad. Stroud was terrible, and the playoffs before, stroud’s been good, not against the ravens, because the Ravens have dominated the Texans no matter when and where. When Lamar Jackson’s healthy, who’s he’s never lost to the Texans. And so Stroud was awful, so he could play great this year, but until he gets back in the playoffs. People want to see if he can rebound in the Kansas City playoff at arrowhead. After the 24 season, he played real well. They lost by eight, but he was horrendous. That’s why they did not extend him. That’ll be after next season if he plays better. But they’ve given him everything he could want around him. There’s nothing else they can do but keep him healthy to see if he can take the next step and rebound. I’ve been a long
Nestor Aparicio 26:50
time since I’ve had you on where I feel like you’ve got the better football team. You know, it’s been pretty good team around here, eight, nine coaches out mentors in the controversy of the offseason, but down to Houston, there’s been no controversy quite like your friend Amy Adams putting the Oilers jerseys on the Titans that that has not sat well with me as an oiler guy. I don’t know how Dante and the whole oiler nation would feel, but I know you have your tentacles into this, and you’re doing something with Dante pastorini as well, I think right now.
John McClain 27:22
Well, first of all, I do two weekly shows in Nashville, one on a local station, another on out kick and and so people hear fans Texans, other than Hannah McNair. Cal McNair, the owner’s wife, she and Amy Adams trunk kind of have a rivalry, because Hannah, who’s very involved in this team, has taken some shots at them, especially over the uniforms and the colors. People here like, why couldn’t detections get those colors? They don’t want them. Bob McNair never wanted to be the Oilers. Bob McNair didn’t want to he wanted to be the Texans. He wanted to create his own legacy. And it wouldn’t have mattered, because bud Adams has, in writing, filed with the NFL office because Paul taglit, who agreed to it, nobody could ever use the Oilers again. But I personally like to see those colors, and if the only place I can see those colors is in their new stadium or on their new uniforms, that’s fine for me. They’ve worn those colors in 23 and 24 in Nashville, and the Texans beat them both times. So they did not wear those oiler colors last year. Texans beat them again. And the players don’t care here, nobody does, other than Hannah McNair, but the fans do talk shows just go crazy, and it gets me Nestor, because Texans started playing in 2002 who should have been their main rival, the Tennessee Titans. They’re not because they’ve never been good. At the same time where they played for anything like, say, the Astros and Rangers playing for the World Series, they hate each other. They have a great rivalry. Texans have more of a rivalry with Indianapolis than they do the Titans, because Indy has been good more than the Titans have but the forest former oiler players, they like it. They spend a lot of time Amy Adams Strunk treats those oiler players, like Dan pastorini, Earl, Campbell, Warren, Moon, Robert Brazil, all of them, treats them great, brings them up there once a year, treats them like royalty. Pastorini loves her. So what we’re doing right now with Dan pastorini, we were me and three other guys are starting to work pre production on our fourth documentary. The last one is timeless. It’s called the pub story, separate but equal. It’s about all black. Black Puri Interscholastic League for 50 years, went against the all white university Interscholastic League. There was no competition, and it was just the all white and all black. Joe Green Kenny used the night train lane. There were seven all the famers, players like Bill Bradley, super Bill Bradley, Jerry Levi’s, Johnny Rowland, they played their whole high school careers and all black organization, they had second hand of everything. Great book, Thursday night lights, written by Michael Hurd about the Prairie View Interscholastic League. So we’re still doing a lot of stuff on that, but the next one we’re doing we dan pastoring. He lives here. Dan pastoring knows you’re a big fan, and Dan, if you ever want to talk to him, let me know. If you ever want him on let me know. And so Dan has led one of the most interesting lives I have ever met and anybody. And here’s just a few things. Third overall pick, 71 by Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning. How many players come to their first camp on a Harley with a Playmate of the Year on the back, he stole Farron Fawcett, the most famous actress in the country in the 70s, from the $6 million Man. They had a torrid relationship. He acted in some really bad movies, like killer fish the flak jacket was invented because of him. He was in, excuse me, a hospital in Houston with cracked ribs after a game.
John McClain 31:33
8In the middle of night, a guy comes in, he’s got a baseball bat, and Dan’s thinking, Oh my God, whose husband is this, and a guy comes in behind him, and he puts his arms in the air like they’ve told him to freeze. And the guy where the bat starts beating him in the ribs with a baseball bat. And Dan’s like, Am I dreaming? What in the hell is this? And and the guy goes, Miss pastor, any I’m sorry. I’ve done everything I can to try to reach you, and I cannot do it, and I knew you were here. I have invented this thing. I’m calling it a flak jacket, and it will help you, and that’s why you can beat on it. You can do anything you want. So that’s how the first black jacket created by Byron dodges in a Houston suburb came to be Now, everybody wears whatever level of football. Pastor, any audition for cheers, and I can’t remember if it was Ted Danson or Woody Harrelson. He finished second, and he was also a hot rod, National Hot Rod Association driver who sets speed records and in a boat race because he liked to drive fast. Still does. He lost control of his boat, killed two people and and so he has led this. He was also
Nestor Aparicio 32:55
a baseball draft pick too.
John McClain 32:56
Forgot that part, and he said 33 major operations and listening to Dan recite them like you and I are talking about, well, we brushed our teeth at 10 o’clock this morning, and he’s still able to play golf. Does all kinds of charity work. Here. We have a group gridiron legends in Texas. I’m one of three media people in there. We do a lot of charity appearances. Dan is always there, I told him, and I’ve written and said this, Earl Campbell was the heart of those oiler teams. Dan was the soul. And when the Houston sports association put the love you blue Oilers in the Houston Sports Hall of Fame, we could pick one person to represent them. It wasn’t Earl Campbell, one. Robert Brazil Elvis say curly cup, anybody that’s in the Hall of Fame. It was Dan pastorini, because of what he meant. So the working title is Dante, which is his name. We’re headed to California with him. We’re going back to where he grew up, interview his friends. We we’ve got all kind of former players, Joe Green, who hit him so many times he cracked bones. Now they’re good friends, so we’re really fired up about doing pastorini. And people tell me when I tell my friends Nestor, nobody’s going to watch a movie about Dan pastoring. Nobody remembers him. I said, books and movies are done constantly about people nobody’s heard of or they’ve forgotten. And if you tell a good story and people find out about it, they’re going to want to check it out. And that’s what we’re going to be doing with pastorini.
Nestor Aparicio 34:32
No Better safe word than Dan pastorini, according to some short films I’ve seen out there, John McClane is the general the Hall of Famer. He covers the National Football League better than anybody in Houston. But also is a bleeding heart Astros fan, um, the Elias trail of the cheating thing in my Dell and all of that and the tentacles out. Do you feel like Elias is? Is Astro material to you, or is it sort of long gone?
8John McClain 34:58
Well, it used to be. He was right in man, he and my dog were really, really valuable to this organization when it came to getting players for Jeff Luna and the way they rebuilt it, I thought he would do a great job with Orioles. I thought it was a great hire. Everybody here would have said that, and obviously it hasn’t been. And I don’t know how much longer they will. They’ll keep him. But people here are really surprised, because he did a great job helping his team find players, develop players, and he got a lot of credit from the people inside the organization.
Nestor Aparicio 35:34
Well, I thought 92 wins, but as we sit here with your lousy last place team and our below 500 underperforming team right now. We’ll have a little baseball this week, and you and I have some football. Hey, ravens are going to Rio this year. We get the schedule coming out in a couple of weeks. So the league is making money, and time passes on just like it passed on for the Oilers in my old Baltimore Colts as well. John. I love you. I appreciate you. At some point, you and I. Camden Yards fail these crab cakes right there with Lexington market. We got to make this happen, my friend, I can’t wait. Thanks. Nestor John McClane, he is McLean, underscore on underscore. NFL. Find him out on Twitter. I think I got it right. We are Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
