Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, what's up. Everybody? Welcome into a tgi F
Speaker 1: edition of Texans All Access. I used to say a
Speaker 1: thank god his Friday, but thank god his football, thank
Speaker 1: god his football Friday. I don't know how you want
Speaker 1: to look at if you want to an ex draft.
Speaker 1: Either way, appreciate you being here. I am your host,
Speaker 1: John Harris, football analyst and side one reporter and a
Speaker 1: draft guy for the Texans. Really appreciate you being here
Speaker 1: with me on a wonderfully hot Friday afternoon. I love
Speaker 1: the weather in the city of Houston, just sometimes not
Speaker 1: so hot. You know, it's like eating how panios in
Speaker 1: some sense, like you know how painios can be really good,
Speaker 1: really flavorful, but every now and again you get the
Speaker 1: one that just has a little bit a few too
Speaker 1: many seeds and you're like, hah, that's kind of where
Speaker 1: the summer is here. But either way, glad you are
Speaker 1: with me. My man David Fletcher gml SC is going
Speaker 1: to join me in the second segment to talk about
Speaker 1: all the week got going on this summer. And I
Speaker 1: guess the summer goes all the way to what early September,
Speaker 1: so I guess it's summer. But then on into fall
Speaker 1: and then on into winter, actually on into twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: It is a jam packed season of events for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one for our friends at the Lone Star Sports
Speaker 1: and Entertainment. It starts with CONCAF Gold Cup soccer. Then
Speaker 1: you've got the Battle to Bands, the Cracker Barrel Battle
Speaker 1: of the Bands resented by Coke zero excuse me, Pepsis
Speaker 1: zero Sugar, the Texas Kickoff which is Houston and Texas
Speaker 1: Tech September fourth, you got Piney Woods in October. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have the Bowl game January fourth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Ellis's he's got it going on. I mean, I'd tell
Speaker 1: you it was a rough rough fall without those events.
Speaker 1: I love all those events. You know what I I feel
Speaker 1: about the college football coming through here. Piney Woods takes
Speaker 1: on a whole new meeting now that you've got the
Speaker 1: national champs coming in. So my man David Fletcher's coming
Speaker 1: in to tell about the first three events, the Battle
Speaker 1: of the Band's, CONCAFT Gold Cup, and the kickoff game
Speaker 1: with Houston and Texas Tech. So we'll have that in
Speaker 1: our next segment. We'll go around the league. There's still
Speaker 1: things happening throughout the league. It's always that way, you
Speaker 1: know how it goes three sixty five, eight days a week,
Speaker 1: twenty eight hours a day. It is. It's always going on.
Speaker 1: There's there's always something happening. Somebody's talking, somebody's trading, somebody's moving,
Speaker 1: somebody got hurt. We do have one. I hope it's
Speaker 1: minor one, minor aspect that we're gonna hit right off
Speaker 1: the bat here, and then we're going to hear from
Speaker 1: We're gonna hear from Mark Vandamer and Tony Banks and
Speaker 1: where are they now? Segment. But before we get to them,
Speaker 1: a quick note that I saw come down from Ian Rappaport,
Speaker 1: and I just I swallowed my gum and then I
Speaker 1: read it and went, um, okay, all right, let's let's
Speaker 1: let's see where we go with this. But the Texans
Speaker 1: traded for Marcus Cannon back in March Alia's March Ian
Speaker 1: Rappaport reported that the new Texans offensive tackle recently underwent
Speaker 1: minor knee surgery following the offseason. The off season ended
Speaker 1: last week. Cannon is said to be feeling good already
Speaker 1: in the operation isn't likely to affect Cannon's participation in
Speaker 1: training camp. So that is one of those where you
Speaker 1: get kicked square in a groin and you're like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: it's not that bad, but it could be. But as
Speaker 1: of right now, it looks pretty good. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of the way I looked at this whole thing, like
Speaker 1: I saw surgery. I saw a knee, and then I
Speaker 1: saw surgery, and I just went all bleep. But then
Speaker 1: I kept reading. And sometimes I think we all need
Speaker 1: to quote unquote keep reading the league. Sometimes we dunk
Speaker 1: the conclusions before we should. And I'm guilty of it,
Speaker 1: just like everybody else. But minor knee surgery said to me,
Speaker 1: feeling good already. Operation isn't likely to affect Cannon's participation
Speaker 1: in training camp. Now. We have talked about a number
Speaker 1: of different things with that offensive line, how Marcus Cannon
Speaker 1: fits in. Is her guards he tackled, No, he's a tackle.
Speaker 1: What is it? What does it all mean? The one
Speaker 1: thing that we I know I have consistently brought up
Speaker 1: is the fact that potentially forty percent of your starters,
Speaker 1: two out of five and Justin britt and Marcus Cannon
Speaker 1: did not play in twenty twenty and for different reasons,
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. By my way through twenty nineteen, Justin
Speaker 1: Britt got hurt, wasn't ready to go for twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Set out of twenty twenty was released ended up in Houston.
Speaker 1: Thank god, we needed a guy like that. Marcus Cannon
Speaker 1: opted out due to COVID concerns. He is a cancer survivor,
Speaker 1: and so he opted out of twenty twenty. Texas traded
Speaker 1: for him in March to bring him here. Those two
Speaker 1: I don't want to see, you would assume, but you'd
Speaker 1: like to believe they're gonna start on the offensive lit
Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form. The one thing that
Speaker 1: I know we've talked about. I know I've talked about
Speaker 1: is well having places twenty nineteen. So I always kind
Speaker 1: of thought, well, maybe there's some rust, Maybe they got
Speaker 1: to shake some of that off, the one thing you
Speaker 1: didn't really want to dive into. But you know, in
Speaker 1: the back of your mind you've got to think about
Speaker 1: how healthy are they? And oh my gosh, I saw
Speaker 1: that today and that just kind of shocked me back
Speaker 1: in reality, like, oh my god, please be healthy. It
Speaker 1: looks like things are going to But as reported by
Speaker 1: Ian Rappaport, today, Marcus Cannon minor knee surgery should be
Speaker 1: good to go for training camp. Today is June eighteenth.
Speaker 1: Training camp is gonna start late in July. And that's
Speaker 1: one of those things where if you know he's gonna
Speaker 1: make it back, you don't have to rush him back.
Speaker 1: You can work him in. You want him to get
Speaker 1: work because obviously hasn't played in twenty nineteen, and you
Speaker 1: want him to start getting the body callous to some
Speaker 1: physicality things like that. But you don't have to push
Speaker 1: the envelope. You've got to make sure that he's healthy
Speaker 1: for as many games as he can play in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one in the regular season, and well, we would
Speaker 1: all love to believe playoffs, but we'll just take the
Speaker 1: seventeen games as they come. Right now, Marcus Cannon is
Speaker 1: going to be a huge part of that. So fingers crossed,
Speaker 1: everything's gonna stay okay. But you see the words knee
Speaker 1: and surgery, and you know Marcus Cannon is thirty three,
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh man, please be okay. Now, there
Speaker 1: are a lot a lot a lot of surgeries and
Speaker 1: a lot of procedures that don't get reported, aren't out
Speaker 1: for public consumption. Sometimes they get out there. Sometimes they don't.
Speaker 1: This one did, so be it. It looks like you'll
Speaker 1: be back for a training camp. But there are a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that fall into this. So it's one
Speaker 1: of those where you don't want to panic. You just
Speaker 1: want to keep fingers crossed and looks good. Let's hope
Speaker 1: that it stays that way, and hopefully by the time
Speaker 1: we get to July, everybody's healthy enough to put pads
Speaker 1: on and ready to rock and roll. Speaking of rock
Speaker 1: and roll, the Voice of the Texans, Mark Vandermere, in
Speaker 1: one of our department meetings, probably about I don't know,
Speaker 1: about a month to six weeks ago, had come up
Speaker 1: with an idea called where are they now? Players from
Speaker 1: the recent past? I guess it's all pretty recent with
Speaker 1: the Texans, all the way back to the beginning. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Texans are going into year what twenty is all right,
Speaker 1: You're twenty, so, I mean the Texans at that point
Speaker 1: can't even They're not even illegal to drink age wise
Speaker 1: either way, most everybody relatively recent, if you will. But
Speaker 1: it is kind of cool to go back and talk
Speaker 1: with some of those guys that were in some of
Speaker 1: those early years. Some of those guys that were, you know,
Speaker 1: at the back end of dom On into the Gary
Speaker 1: years and you know, five or six or seven or
Speaker 1: eight those years on itto Gary Kubiak years, maybe at
Speaker 1: the beginning of O'Brian years. Where Are They Now? Segments
Speaker 1: pretty interesting, and Mark vandermir decided to start right at
Speaker 1: the top with a guy that golf signals for the Texas. No,
Speaker 1: not David Carr, but the guy who came in after
Speaker 1: David Carr, that being Tony Banks, is Mark Vandermuir. Where
Speaker 1: are They Now? With quarterback Tony Banks joining us right
Speaker 1: now on Texans Radio for our where are They Now
Speaker 1: segment with Texans Legends. It's Tony Banks, quarterback for your Texans,
Speaker 1: starting out from the very beginning in two thousand and two. Tony,
Speaker 1: how's it going, my friend? I'm doing well. Mark, are you?
Speaker 1: I'm doing great? And let's just start there right What
Speaker 1: is your prevailing memory? Give me one or two, maybe
Speaker 1: three of your time with the Houston Texans. I know
Speaker 1: you started and won some games for this team. Allas
Speaker 1: game the one that sticks out? Is it something else?
Speaker 1: How do you see it? I really enjoyed my time there,
Speaker 1: you know. I always still wanted to start my last
Speaker 1: forty years. I want to be a starter somewhere, but
Speaker 1: that didn't work out. But so I was kind of
Speaker 1: the older statesman on the team, so I kind of
Speaker 1: enjoyed that. You know, most of my career I was
Speaker 1: the young guy playing early and trying to figure things out,
Speaker 1: and then by time I got to the Texans, I
Speaker 1: was trying to be a good influence on my teammates.
Speaker 1: So that's what I remember the most. And I don't
Speaker 1: know about but winning percentage wise, I might be the
Speaker 1: winningest quarterback in Texas history two and one or three
Speaker 1: and one, something like that. Well, I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: stands out to me is battle Red Day, the very
Speaker 1: first one in two thousand and three, taking out the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers, and you got to start that day and
Speaker 1: beat the eventual NFC champions. Do you remember that game much?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah. We had a rough first half
Speaker 1: and then kind of lit him up in the second half.
Speaker 1: Mason big throws and just somebody just sent me. One
Speaker 1: of my son's friends sent him one of the throws
Speaker 1: in that Caroline of game or video, So my son
Speaker 1: sent it to me, so it was kind of cool.
Speaker 1: You always seem to be the kind of quarterback that's fearless.
Speaker 1: You're not afraid to take that chance to make a
Speaker 1: throw that can make a difference. And what is that
Speaker 1: about you, Tony? And why do some guys have it
Speaker 1: and some guys don't. I think it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: I have so much confidence in my arm, you know,
Speaker 1: and most of my career, the plays I've made have
Speaker 1: been pushing the ball down the field. I had to
Speaker 1: kind of learn to, uh, you know, take what the
Speaker 1: defense gives me as my career went on. But I
Speaker 1: always thought that I could throw in the small windows
Speaker 1: and I could make throws that other guys couldn't, so, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I like to think, you know, not like
Speaker 1: I played well every time I played. But you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a big time throw if you watch me for
Speaker 1: the whole game. Tony Banks joining us former Texans quarterback
Speaker 1: and Tony, you were drafted by the Rams. But let's
Speaker 1: go back earlier than that. You played a little pro
Speaker 1: baseball and discuss that with us, that transition. Obviously you
Speaker 1: played football before that as well, But what made you
Speaker 1: want to play baseball and then switch back to football? Honestly,
Speaker 1: just looking back on my athletic career, I think I
Speaker 1: chose base because it was easy. You know, football practice
Speaker 1: is hard, basketball practice so much running baseball. I never
Speaker 1: had a hard baseball practice, you know, running the basis
Speaker 1: every now, and it was the only conditioning we did.
Speaker 1: And when you're athletic on the baseball field, it was
Speaker 1: a big, tall shortstop, you know. I stuck out like
Speaker 1: a sword thumb. And growing up I had kids, you know,
Speaker 1: guys like Kevin Mitchell and his brother Keith Mitchell, and
Speaker 1: you know countless others who had got drafted out of
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. When you know, there was a lot more
Speaker 1: you know, black guys playing baseball back then. Now my
Speaker 1: little league, I don't even think they can feel the team.
Speaker 1: One team, let alone twelve of fifteen. We had every
Speaker 1: every level I played on back then. So the game
Speaker 1: has changed a little bit. But yeah, I was just
Speaker 1: an athletic shortstop. The game kind of came easy to me,
Speaker 1: and uh me seeing guys in my neighborhood who were
Speaker 1: older than me get drafted, not have to go to college.
Speaker 1: Like my brother's a doctor, my other brothers a architect.
Speaker 1: They they're the brainy acts. I never really was interested
Speaker 1: in college. And then when I did get drafted and
Speaker 1: when played, I didn't enjoy it. Though. I didn't enjoy
Speaker 1: pro baseball at all. Its baseball all day, every day,
Speaker 1: and I did not enjoy that as an eighteen year
Speaker 1: old kid, so especially I tore my rotator cup. I
Speaker 1: actually got drafted with a torn rotator cup and didn't
Speaker 1: know it. I finally got it fixed after my first
Speaker 1: year in the minors and every went back. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: And you end up eventually at Michigan State and then
Speaker 1: getting drafted by the Saint Louis Rams, So clearly the
Speaker 1: rotator cuff problem did not stick with you. No, I
Speaker 1: got it fixed that um, you know after I left
Speaker 1: that spring training of the next year, and you know,
Speaker 1: I took a while to rehab. It was my first
Speaker 1: real injury, and I went to DUCO after that, actually
Speaker 1: before I went to Michigan State, so I had to
Speaker 1: rehab a lot of DUCO and it was pretty emotional
Speaker 1: little deal, but things ended up working out. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I've never had any issues with RM since. All Right,
Speaker 1: Tony bags with us. Tony, You're in Dallas right now
Speaker 1: and you're coaching a high school football team. What is
Speaker 1: that like for you having played in the NFL. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. When I played, I had no interest
Speaker 1: in coaching at all. You know, a lot of those
Speaker 1: coaches don't really know their kids. They spend so many
Speaker 1: countless hours in the building, and I just was never
Speaker 1: interested in that, even though I did. My kid wasn't
Speaker 1: My son wasn't conceived until my last year in the NFL.
Speaker 1: He never got a chance to see me play or anything.
Speaker 1: But I always envisioned myself as a very engaging father
Speaker 1: because me and my father really really close, So that
Speaker 1: was always important to me. And then when I started
Speaker 1: coaching my son and his little youth leagues, I just
Speaker 1: fell in love with coaching. I fell in love with
Speaker 1: the kids and being able to be a positive role
Speaker 1: model and impact their lives. So yeah, so now this
Speaker 1: is just my second year at Green Hill School out
Speaker 1: here in Dallas and just the beginning of my coaching career.
Speaker 1: That sounds fantastic. And you've also done broadcasting for Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Southwest at the time in Dallas, you did Texans
Speaker 1: postgame and pregame shows for a long time. How did
Speaker 1: you enjoy the broadcasting part of things? I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: that too, especially some of the stuff Fox let me do.
Speaker 1: You know, I got to break down a lot of
Speaker 1: my own segments. I was basically like a co host
Speaker 1: and I got to, you know, use my creativity as
Speaker 1: far as breaking down the game and quarterbacks and players.
Speaker 1: So I really enjoyed it and had a great a
Speaker 1: great staff for people to work with out here in Dallas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Dave Raymond was on that show for a while. Now
Speaker 1: he's with the Texas Rangers, So that's pretty cool stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: O day, I almost forgot about Dave. I liked him
Speaker 1: a lot, and then h Aaron Hartigan too. So yeah,
Speaker 1: So what attracted you to staying in Dallas just to
Speaker 1: be and around? I know you're with the Cowboys for
Speaker 1: a bit, but is that it? It just kind of
Speaker 1: you know, during my career when I got here to Dallas,
Speaker 1: I you know, bounced around a little bit. I was
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis three years, Baltimore two years, and I
Speaker 1: was supposed to come here to the Cowboys, and then
Speaker 1: I went to the Red Skin. So just bouncing around.
Speaker 1: I needed a home base. And I just got married
Speaker 1: my second year in Baltimore in two thousand, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I just kind of worked out and then after you know,
Speaker 1: you have children and they get entrenched in school. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just this is home now, Tony backs with us. Tony,
Speaker 1: what about today's NFL game? It's not like you played
Speaker 1: that long ago. But the game does evolve and seems
Speaker 1: to go through big changes every few years. What do
Speaker 1: you think of the way the game is played right now?
Speaker 1: I think quarterback still is the toughest position in all
Speaker 1: the sports, but it has the NFL has made it
Speaker 1: easier with implementing a lot of the college schemes. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't think any of the college concepts were really
Speaker 1: gonna float in the NFL with all the bubble screens
Speaker 1: and all the horizontal passing game instead of the vertical
Speaker 1: passing game. But you know, now these guys are you know,
Speaker 1: throwing ten balls behind the line of scrimmage and completion
Speaker 1: percentage through the roof is When I came into the league,
Speaker 1: if you couldn't make the big throws, you were not
Speaker 1: drafted early. Now you got some guys that can't make
Speaker 1: all the throws, but those throws aren't in a lot
Speaker 1: of offenses anymore. It's a great point. You make about
Speaker 1: completion percentage because and then you go back an era
Speaker 1: or two before you when fifty percent was good completion percentage,
Speaker 1: that sixty seventy. It seems those high percentage throws that
Speaker 1: you discussed Tony, you were part of that Ravens team
Speaker 1: that won the Super Bowl, the first Ravens Super Bowl team.
Speaker 1: That defense. Can you talk about them a little bit,
Speaker 1: because that was obviously incredibly impressive. I've always, for some
Speaker 1: reason in my careery team I'm on, I always seem
Speaker 1: to gravitate the defensive players. So I hung out with
Speaker 1: those guys a lot. We had some studs on that defense.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we had the year we went
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl, might have put seven or eight
Speaker 1: guys on that defense in the Pro Bowl. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was just an incredible the amount of talent we
Speaker 1: had on that defense. Then, of course, the big guy
Speaker 1: in the middle, Ray kind of ran the show. You know.
Speaker 1: When people ask me about him, you know, especially kids,
Speaker 1: they about that's about the only name they can remember
Speaker 1: from my Baltimore days. Did you believe with Ray Lewis?
Speaker 1: You know? So they always asked me a lot of
Speaker 1: questions about him, and one of the things I say
Speaker 1: is you know, he was the first defensive player that
Speaker 1: watched film like a quarterback. You know, most of the
Speaker 1: defensive guys they can't wait to get out to and
Speaker 1: when practice was over. So Ray was really demanding with
Speaker 1: those even though he wasn't the oldest guy on the defense.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had Mike mccrearry, Robert net, we had
Speaker 1: guys have been around, wow, Tony Saragosa. Those guys almost
Speaker 1: acted like they couldn't line up with Ray not out there.
Speaker 1: I remember sometimes during training camp, Ray would miss a
Speaker 1: practice or something, you know, just taking the day off
Speaker 1: or maybe with a little thing, and the defense was
Speaker 1: not the same. So, yeah, that defense was very impressive
Speaker 1: and deserve all they deserve all the accolades that they
Speaker 1: have gotten and your time with the Texans. In the
Speaker 1: early days, the Texans had a pretty good defense. You
Speaker 1: had that game where you beat Pittsburgh with the three
Speaker 1: defensive scores, and they had a lot of outings where
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball was really doing the job. Oh, definitely,
Speaker 1: definitely when we needed that defense. Usually on any team,
Speaker 1: especially when you're a new franchise, the defense is going
Speaker 1: to be ahead of the offense, and we had a
Speaker 1: young offense and we needed defensive step up for us
Speaker 1: a lot and didn't score very many points very many times. Well, Tony,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate time. It's great to catch up with you.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear about what happens with coaching. You're
Speaker 1: a high school there, Green Hill High in Dallas, and
Speaker 1: we wish you the best of luck. I appreciate it. Mark.
Speaker 1: I don't know why it's been the last few months
Speaker 1: or so, but being on the twitters as I am,
Speaker 1: I seem to, I don't know why, stumble almost every
Speaker 1: single day on a former player, whether it's NFL player,
Speaker 1: college players, somebody I remember from one of those two
Speaker 1: realms getting into coaching and then becoming the head coach
Speaker 1: at a particular school, alma mater or whatever. It is,
Speaker 1: just feels like there are a lot of them, Philip
Speaker 1: Rivers going back to be go to become the head
Speaker 1: coach back into Alabama. I'm trying to remember the school
Speaker 1: he ended up at. I think it was a Catholic
Speaker 1: school in Alabama. It's not the one he went to.
Speaker 1: He went to Athens High School, but I think it's
Speaker 1: in that general but city either way, see a lot
Speaker 1: of guys going back and giving back essentially to the
Speaker 1: high school level, and I love seeing that in Tony
Speaker 1: Banks is obviously doing that as well right there in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1: But that was great where they now Coming up next,
Speaker 1: a man David Fletcher GM of LSSC manages the Texas
Speaker 1: Bullet Texas kickoff all the different events that happen with
Speaker 1: Lostar Sports Entertainment. Fletch is their god. He's the leader,
Speaker 1: he's the best. He's one of the best you're going
Speaker 1: to find anywhere. I love him and he's next on
Speaker 1: Texans Alaxis, Lexans Alaxis, Lexans Alaxis, Welcome to Texans All Access.
Speaker 1: We are brought to him part by Apatche Corporation. Nearly
Speaker 1: three billion people worldwide live in energy poverty, meaning they
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Speaker 1: more at apatche Corp dot com. That's a patche Korp
Speaker 1: dot com. Now here's the show. Welcome back to Texans
Speaker 1: Radio on this Friday evening. I'm your host, John Harris,
Speaker 1: and I am pleased to be joined by my good friend.
Speaker 1: With so much going on this summer this fall, there's
Speaker 1: no better person to have on with me than GM
Speaker 1: of Ellis to see the grand puba of events in
Speaker 1: our building. A man, David Fletcher Fletch, my friend, how
Speaker 1: are you doing? I love my I love your hype up. Man.
Speaker 1: I need you as my agent, Johnny. That's what I'd
Speaker 1: be a lot better off if you are my agent.
Speaker 1: That's great to visit with you, man, Yeah, I kind
Speaker 1: of I'd like to have you as my agent too. Um.
Speaker 1: We could kind of, you know, do it for each
Speaker 1: other from that standpoint, Fletch, We obviously are into the
Speaker 1: month of June and we're coming up on July, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff, especially in our Texas universe.
Speaker 1: But there's so much from analysis c standpoint that's coming up,
Speaker 1: and I know you guys are doing so much behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. Cockercalf Gold Cup is coming up on July
Speaker 1: twenty nine, The Battle of Bands a Cracker Barrel National
Speaker 1: Battle of Bands presented by Pepsi's Zero Sugar that's coming
Speaker 1: up in August. You got to kick off kind of
Speaker 1: give us an idea kind of behind the scenes, what
Speaker 1: you guys are working on to try and get everything
Speaker 1: back going after missing it last year, which I know
Speaker 1: there were so many events that I was just so
Speaker 1: sad that we missed last year. But what's kind of
Speaker 1: happening in your universe to start getting these three events
Speaker 1: ready to go in July, August and September. Yeah, Johnny,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a ton going on. First and foremost
Speaker 1: they're all on sale, and that's a great thing to
Speaker 1: be able to say. You know, we have all been
Speaker 1: enduring a challenging last year plus and now we're squarely
Speaker 1: focused on ensurance say fun events here at NRG Stadium,
Speaker 1: and we've got some great ones right out of the gate.
Speaker 1: You mentioned our first three on the lone Star Sports
Speaker 1: and Entertainment side, UH, and it gets started for us
Speaker 1: on July twenty ninth. Is UH the the Continent's bigger,
Speaker 1: biggest soccer soccer Let me say that again, The Continent's
Speaker 1: biggest soccer event returns back to NRG Stadium with CONCACAF
Speaker 1: Gold Cup, we have a semifinal matchup. UM. We are
Speaker 1: on the Mexico side of the brackets, so Mexico will
Speaker 1: be here for the twentieth time if they win through
Speaker 1: their their their chalk UH. And for us in Houston,
Speaker 1: anytime we get to host CONCACALF Gold Cup, it's a
Speaker 1: special occasion. Certainly looking forward to having a semifinal matchup.
Speaker 1: And you don't have to go back any further than
Speaker 1: the last time the event was played in twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: when we had the biggest and best event of the tournament,
Speaker 1: a quarterfinal showdown doubleheader here and it was great to see, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the energy, the excitement that was there. And
Speaker 1: so we've got to do our part on the lone
Speaker 1: star side and with our community partners to ensure that
Speaker 1: we're able to bring that type of apt your energy
Speaker 1: back safely and and we're looking forward to the challenge.
Speaker 1: There is from an operational perspective, a lot of things
Speaker 1: you have to look at doing in the building UH
Speaker 1: to make sure that it's ready for what we expect
Speaker 1: to be a full house UH. And that's that's definitely
Speaker 1: a team effort. We've got many stakeholders and partners that
Speaker 1: make these events a reality. You certainly think about Lone
Speaker 1: Star and the Texans being front and center, but the
Speaker 1: promoter partners, uh, the the organizing bodies. You've got Harris County,
Speaker 1: Houston Sports Authority, a great partner in all of our
Speaker 1: efforts here in Houston, the Mayor's Office, to Judge's Office, HPD,
Speaker 1: you you name it. There's so many people that are
Speaker 1: are at the table and we look to put these
Speaker 1: type of events on and and it's it's with one
Speaker 1: single goal in mind to have a safe and incredible atmosphere,
Speaker 1: your energy stadium for for people to come back together. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that's that's really exciting to be thinking about. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of work being done on all lease Johnny, Um,
Speaker 1: We've got some really exciting developments on each front, uh,
Speaker 1: each of those events front. Over the next few weeks. UM.
Speaker 1: As we talked about last time I was on, got
Speaker 1: some great news with the Kickoff game as that game
Speaker 1: moved into the ESPN National Primetime window on Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 1: UM as you of h and Texas Tech will play
Speaker 1: uh uh in the Texas Kickoff this year with a
Speaker 1: primetime showdown on ESPN. So uh and and we have
Speaker 1: an exciting development next week with the Cracker baron National
Speaker 1: Battle of the Bands as on Thursday, we'll announce our
Speaker 1: participants in this year's event. UH. That event, Johnny, is
Speaker 1: a really really unique and fun celebration of of of
Speaker 1: that community that uh uh that that followed the Drumline world.
Speaker 1: We all know the importance of of of the uh
Speaker 1: the spectacle that the bands put on, particularly with many
Speaker 1: of the HBC communities, and this is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest events in the country in that space. So for
Speaker 1: us to have it here in Houston, to be able
Speaker 1: to bring it back for a second time, and to
Speaker 1: have some incredible participants, uh, you know, it's it's something
Speaker 1: that just energizes our entire group and energizes our community
Speaker 1: as we get back to what we do best, and
Speaker 1: that's bringing people together around events HBCU Battle of the Bands.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this this quick story, Fletch and our
Speaker 1: listeners out there. In two thousand, two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: I went to go to two thousand and five. I
Speaker 1: want to go see my former quarterback young man who
Speaker 1: played for me in Jacksonville. He went to Florida A
Speaker 1: and M. They were playing at NCA and T and
Speaker 1: so I was living North Carolina. I went to the game.
Speaker 1: It gets near halftime, they got Bojangles Chicken. I gotta
Speaker 1: go get some chicken. And as it hits halftime, I'm
Speaker 1: expecting I'm standing at the top row and I'm expecting
Speaker 1: all that have to, you know, beat feet down the
Speaker 1: stairs and get everybody out of the way. Halftime was
Speaker 1: coming up, and not anyone. No one moved on either side.
Speaker 1: No one moved. I got three steps and I was like,
Speaker 1: where is every Like, everybody's still sitting. They sat for
Speaker 1: the entire halftime for A and T's band, which was
Speaker 1: absolutely phenomenal. And as soon as the band was done,
Speaker 1: then they all went from the concession stand and I
Speaker 1: knew it was that importance. I followed Cogs football for
Speaker 1: a long time. I didn't like get to see it
Speaker 1: until then. So of all the events people say, oh,
Speaker 1: you want to sneak kick off, I want to see
Speaker 1: the National Battle of the Bands presented by Pepsi's Zero
Speaker 1: Sugar maybe before anything, because the passion for those bands
Speaker 1: is unbelievable, unbelievable in every community that at least you know,
Speaker 1: just if you love music, if you love an event,
Speaker 1: if you love just performance, you gotta see a battle
Speaker 1: of bands at some point. These HBCU bands are just unbelievable,
Speaker 1: It really are. Johnny, and you mentioned too that participated
Speaker 1: in the twenty nineteen event Florida, Florida and m and
Speaker 1: North cai Ant. We'll see if they're back. But you've
Speaker 1: never experienced anything like this. The vibration of the drums,
Speaker 1: the horns, the flash of the brass. I mean, it
Speaker 1: really is. It's it's such a visually, visually crazy experience.
Speaker 1: And right now there's an opportunity if if, if you're
Speaker 1: looking to get involved in an event like that, very
Speaker 1: family friendly, very affordable way to come out to NRG Stadium.
Speaker 1: Go to LSSC dot net. You can get into the
Speaker 1: presale right now through the end of the month. Just
Speaker 1: use the code battle at checkout, and I promise you
Speaker 1: it is definitely worth your money. Just fifteen dollars to
Speaker 1: get in right now. Um, pretty pretty uh affordable way
Speaker 1: to come out to NRG Stadium and see something as
Speaker 1: as audibly and visually stimulating as that. It really is
Speaker 1: a cool event, and we're really excited to bring it
Speaker 1: back and and like I said, next Thursday, market calendars,
Speaker 1: we will announce this year's participants in the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one National Battle of Bands and uh, I imagine it'll
Speaker 1: be a great show. Yeah, there's there's no question, and
Speaker 1: I know there is. There are a ton of schools
Speaker 1: that could be involved in that and they would make
Speaker 1: the event great. There can be a ton of teams
Speaker 1: and nations that can be involved in Conycalf Gold Cup.
Speaker 1: But Fletch, how valuable is it to have l Tree
Speaker 1: play in a game at an RG stadium? Well, yeah, obviously, Johnny.
Speaker 1: We've been very fortunate over the years to serve hosts
Speaker 1: to many, many great international matchups. I look no further
Speaker 1: again than back to twenty nineteen. We had we had
Speaker 1: both the international flare of Conkycalf Gold Cup. We also
Speaker 1: we were blessed to host a fantastic matchup between Bayern
Speaker 1: Munich and Real Madrid UM later that summer. You know,
Speaker 1: from a soccer perspective, no community in America has hosted
Speaker 1: more international soccer events than Houston over the last twenty years.
Speaker 1: Think about that for a minute. No community America has
Speaker 1: hosted more international soccer events than Houston. On top of that,
Speaker 1: no community in America has hosted more major sporting events
Speaker 1: than Houston since two thousand and four. When you look
Speaker 1: at the infrastructure here, when you look at the diversity
Speaker 1: in this community, when you look at the size of
Speaker 1: the population and the the access that Houston has being
Speaker 1: centrally located in this country and in a gateway to
Speaker 1: South and Central America for the for the United States,
Speaker 1: there's a big reason why soccer has played such an
Speaker 1: important role in telling that story of Houston being a
Speaker 1: major events destination. But but there is no there is
Speaker 1: no team that resonates better UM, maybe even more so
Speaker 1: than the team USA and then the Mexican national team
Speaker 1: in Eltree. You know, a fantastic showcase event up in Denver, UH,
Speaker 1: just a beautiful game altogether to watch the US and
Speaker 1: Mexico play in the CONCAFFE Nation League Final a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and and the US want to in
Speaker 1: spectacular fashion. So that rivalry UH definitely has has got
Speaker 1: some fuel on its fire, a possibility that that matchup
Speaker 1: could be here in Houston. UM come July twenty ninth.
Speaker 1: We'll see how the draw plays out. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: for for a community that is um so diverse, for
Speaker 1: a community that's so closely connected with Mexico from a
Speaker 1: from a trade perspective, from a from a UM from
Speaker 1: from a proximity perspective, you know, we certainly welcome any
Speaker 1: any of the matchups that we get here. And Houston
Speaker 1: has such a diverse community that you know, if if
Speaker 1: the Honduran team UH is back here, um, we look
Speaker 1: forward to getting them back in in um UH in
Speaker 1: NRG Stadium, the Jacon team UM, you know, Costa Rica,
Speaker 1: you name it. We've we've we've excelled at at delivering
Speaker 1: an incredible atmosphere regardless of our matchups. But certainly there
Speaker 1: is something special when when you see um ltree get
Speaker 1: on the field and they've done it more than any
Speaker 1: place else here at NRG. So we'll look forward to
Speaker 1: seeing how it plays out and maybe they'll be back
Speaker 1: here again. Comes to by twenty nine for another for
Speaker 1: another great event. I know no one out there is
Speaker 1: scoffing at soccer at Energy Stadium, and I will tell
Speaker 1: you this for anybody that is like, oh soccer, if
Speaker 1: you were like me many many years ago, they just
Speaker 1: scoffed at soccer I have gone to. I don't know
Speaker 1: how many of the tremendous events that y'all put on, Fletch.
Speaker 1: You know, I love my football, American football. I have enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed Bayern Munich and Real Madrid about as much
Speaker 1: as I did any football game that particularly I played
Speaker 1: that year that wasn't a Texans game it was. I
Speaker 1: loved it, absolutely loved it. And I think international soccer,
Speaker 1: that's my that's my next step in national soccer. Other
Speaker 1: than Team USA. I've got to find myself a team
Speaker 1: to root for. And Eltree is really on my list
Speaker 1: because there's such a passion for them here that maybe
Speaker 1: that's the one I get on board with. I don't know,
Speaker 1: we'll find out. But the soccer events that you guys
Speaker 1: have put on, whether it was Man City, Man United
Speaker 1: from I think four years ago, four or five years ago,
Speaker 1: which was just incredible. I mean, all the different things
Speaker 1: you have done, they have been just tremendous. And I
Speaker 1: love the soccer events that have been there. But you
Speaker 1: know me, you know, I love college football, moll there
Speaker 1: any else, anything else. And tickets are now on sale
Speaker 1: at Texas Kickoff dot Com for Texas Tech and Houston
Speaker 1: Saturday September for flet Center. We talked about that game
Speaker 1: a little bit, just getting that time slot, but tickets
Speaker 1: are now on sale. How big is that for people
Speaker 1: to get into building and see the Coogs and the
Speaker 1: Red Raiders for that day. I mean, look, Johnny, it's
Speaker 1: the opening weekend at college football. Everybody's undefeated. There's there's
Speaker 1: no better feeling than going out to the tailgate for
Speaker 1: the first time, especially after many of us had to
Speaker 1: take off last year. And and you'll get a chance
Speaker 1: to go out and see friends, reconnect with with uh,
Speaker 1: you know, your fellow alums, um. And we've got we've
Speaker 1: got a very Texas size showdown that we're really excited
Speaker 1: about as it relates to the Texas Kickoff this year.
Speaker 1: If Texas Tech coming off a challenging season, Matt Wells
Speaker 1: in his third year there knows he's got a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunities to build upon the success that they've historically
Speaker 1: had out on the planes. It's got a new quarterback
Speaker 1: in the system with Tyler Schuff and you know a
Speaker 1: transfer coming in nonetheless from Oregon, so you know they've
Speaker 1: they've got to try and retool that offense, get it
Speaker 1: back to where people have historically expected Texas Tech to be.
Speaker 1: And and then you look on the other side of
Speaker 1: the ball with Dana Hilgerson, and I mean he's got
Speaker 1: a young pup there and Clayton Tune who's gonna get
Speaker 1: a chance to go out and do some things. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, from from from a football perspective, you of
Speaker 1: h also coming off a challenging season, but they've got
Speaker 1: a lot of energy behind what they're doing, you know.
Speaker 1: And Dana's got an opportunity to make a run this
Speaker 1: year in the American and I know he's looking to
Speaker 1: take advantage of it. I can promise you that first
Speaker 1: game will have three things that every college football fan
Speaker 1: loves to see. It will have a ton of points scored.
Speaker 1: There is no doubt about that. I look no further
Speaker 1: than the twenty eighteen kickoff where a Texas Tech played
Speaker 1: Old Miss. They were fifty six points scored in the
Speaker 1: first quarter of that game. Okay, that we had we
Speaker 1: were at concerns that the scoreboard was gonna break it
Speaker 1: was rolling up so many points. Right. That is that
Speaker 1: I guarantee you. I guarantee you that the tailgating will
Speaker 1: be off the chain. I mean, especially as a night game,
Speaker 1: you know people are gonna be getting out of here,
Speaker 1: getting their barbecues ready. I am looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: what has come up in these kitchens over the last
Speaker 1: two years and people really got a chance to come
Speaker 1: out and tailgate. I know there's gonna be some great things.
Speaker 1: So I can promise you that number three, I will
Speaker 1: be out there in those in those parking lots early
Speaker 1: sampling and saying a lot of people as best I can,
Speaker 1: because we're welcoming people back to a full house here
Speaker 1: for for college football, and that's something I'm credibly excited about.
Speaker 1: And I guess I should say the fourth thing it
Speaker 1: was like two A with me going out to the
Speaker 1: tailgates as a guarantee. Three is that we will be
Speaker 1: ready to host and we will put on a show
Speaker 1: like we historically have. And we have done so many
Speaker 1: things as as a team in this offseason to improve
Speaker 1: the experience, to create something that people walk away win
Speaker 1: or loss, with a great memory around the event. And
Speaker 1: so um, those are the things that we're really excited
Speaker 1: about again. Texas Kickoff dot com, LSS dot net. You
Speaker 1: can get your tickets now, they won't last long. We've
Speaker 1: got a great start already to all these events sales efforts,
Speaker 1: and for us, that more than anything, is what excites me,
Speaker 1: is that people are ready to get back to these events.
Speaker 1: They're ready to get back to creating memories. We are
Speaker 1: providing a forum to do that, and we're doing it
Speaker 1: through some some fantastic matchups, and so I just encourage people,
Speaker 1: you know, to be ready for a big, big, big
Speaker 1: fall ahead, which will start with a great summer here.
Speaker 1: And we didn't even once talk about the excitement around
Speaker 1: Texans game day coming back, and that's for another time, Johnny,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely shaping up to be a great fall,
Speaker 1: no doubt. And you know how I rolled twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: You had DK metcalf A, J Brown, and current Texas
Speaker 1: Scottie Phillips all going off in that game. You mentioned
Speaker 1: Tyler Shuck. There's some people that think he could be
Speaker 1: a top five drafted quarterback and he just got to
Speaker 1: Texas Tech. So a lot of excitement and that one
Speaker 1: a lot of excitement about everything going on allone star
Speaker 1: sports entertainment, whether it's soccer, whether it's music, whether it's football,
Speaker 1: whether it's football, it doesn't matter. They've got you covered.
Speaker 1: They put on events like no other. My man Fletch
Speaker 1: leads that group, and he is one of my great friends.
Speaker 1: And well you know why because he puts on sporting
Speaker 1: events and we can talk college football in the day
Speaker 1: of the week, so of course he's a great friend.
Speaker 1: Fletcher the best. Thank you so much, my friend Johnny,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Bud. We'll see you out here. Damn right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see me out there. You're gonna see me
Speaker 1: for the kickoff game Houston Texas Tech, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: see me for Oh man, you're gonna see me for
Speaker 1: Gold Cup soccer too. Hey, yeah, I'm gonna be out there.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Battle of the Bands, I kind
Speaker 1: of told that story a little bit there while we
Speaker 1: were talking. It was one of the greatest things I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. And by the way, what I didn't say
Speaker 1: about the band performance was a top notch, ncat top notch.
Speaker 1: And it's so interesting because Fami's band didn't travel to
Speaker 1: that game. But as I listened to the family fans,
Speaker 1: they were so provincial about the Marching Rattler band. I mean,
Speaker 1: the the marching one hundred. I think they're called and
Speaker 1: I mean they're phenomenal. And it's just like the football team.
Speaker 1: Our football team is better than yours. Well for them,
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's our football team is better
Speaker 1: than yours, and our band is way better than yours.
Speaker 1: It is really really interesting to watch. And I will
Speaker 1: no doubt, I will no doubt as long as we
Speaker 1: are in town, I will be there for the Battle
Speaker 1: of the Band's, no questions asked. It is one. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a heck with event. I think last time
Speaker 1: we were out of town and I couldn't go when
Speaker 1: I had it in twenty nineteen. So I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to the announcement who's gonna be there, and then I
Speaker 1: will absolutely be there. It's gonna be a fantastic event.
Speaker 1: So go get tickets man, LSC dot net, go get
Speaker 1: into building for that. It's gonna be really really cool.
Speaker 1: All Right, we get back, we'll go round the league.
Speaker 1: Stuff still happening in the NFL. I mentioned Marcus Cannon
Speaker 1: and his minor knee surgery earlier. There'll be others. And
Speaker 1: Madden has a cover boy and another cover boy. They
Speaker 1: got two of them. Imagine that that's next Texans A Axis,
Speaker 1: Texans Axis, Texans Access. Welcome back to our final segment
Speaker 1: on this Friday edition of Texans All Access. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: John Harris, football analyst, sideline reporter. Glad to be with
Speaker 1: you this evening, as I will be over the next
Speaker 1: So I don't know how many every weeks as we
Speaker 1: go through the desert, We're gonna have plenty of stuff
Speaker 1: over the desert. Basically, Mark lex to say, it's from
Speaker 1: the end of the off season to the beginning of
Speaker 1: training camp, so that's about a six week time frame,
Speaker 1: but we'll have plenty. There's plenty going on. There's always news,
Speaker 1: there's always people talking, and one of those people talking
Speaker 1: today was former Houston Texan j Devon Clowney. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of following a story a little bit, not really the
Speaker 1: one that I'm about to tell you this specific story,
Speaker 1: but just Clowney in general just being at mini camps
Speaker 1: like that's a new thing for him. I don't think
Speaker 1: he was ever part of anything that Texans did or
Speaker 1: any other team that he was with. He definitely was
Speaker 1: not in mini camp or the offseason with the Titans
Speaker 1: or the Seahawks, and he certainly was not around much
Speaker 1: or healthy enough to do mini camps here, But either way,
Speaker 1: Jevon Clowney is now healthy and happy after a week
Speaker 1: of mini camp practices in Cleveland. Clowney also has found
Speaker 1: himself a pale Miles Garrett Clowney obviously we all know
Speaker 1: as a specimen. But here's what Clowney said, and I quote,
Speaker 1: it's funny. I haven't run it too many guys like
Speaker 1: that in the NFL yet. It took me eight years
Speaker 1: to get here to find another one like that on defense. Anyways. Interesting, Now,
Speaker 1: I don't exactly know what he's trying to say about Garrett.
Speaker 1: Maybe just from a freakish athletic standpoint. Okay, yeah, Miles,
Speaker 1: Garrett's pretty feast, pretty freaky. Yeah, I won't dispute that.
Speaker 1: But number ninety played next to number ninety nine for
Speaker 1: a few years now. They didn't do it a lot. Really,
Speaker 1: The only year they played next to one another was
Speaker 1: Gollie twenty eighteen, fourteen fifteen. Clowney hurt sixteen, seventeen, Watt
Speaker 1: hurt eighteen. It was really only eighteen. So maybe maybe
Speaker 1: that's what a clown he's talking about, that he really
Speaker 1: didn't have a chance to play next to JJ, but
Speaker 1: I got it was two hundred and ninety five pushing
Speaker 1: three hundred pounds. They could run and move the way
Speaker 1: JJ Watt can move, glossing over him and saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett have found one just like me. I don't
Speaker 1: know about that, JD, but you know, to each throne.
Speaker 1: I just watched that from Afar. Everything he has said
Speaker 1: about the Browns is so funny. When he did the
Speaker 1: Building the Browns video and they interviewed him, he was
Speaker 1: in with the president of the team basically are Greg Grissom.
Speaker 1: They're talking and the president was like, oh, man, wait
Speaker 1: to see the fans. We'll have thirty five hundred to
Speaker 1: four thousand fans here, and he was whoa, that's way
Speaker 1: bigger than he was. I'm like, clowney notes not. But
Speaker 1: then again, how would you know? You never were at
Speaker 1: training camp, So I chuckle. I mentioned earlier that Madden
Speaker 1: twenty two is gonna have cover boys, two plural. It
Speaker 1: is going to be Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes sharing
Speaker 1: the Madden NFL twenty two cover I gotta admit I
Speaker 1: like both guys. I know I'm supposed to hate both guys.
Speaker 1: I like both guys. Yes, even Tom Brady, like I
Speaker 1: get it. I know he wins all the time, and
Speaker 1: everybody gets you know whatever. I like Tom, I just do.
Speaker 1: I always have always got a saucebot in my heart
Speaker 1: for a guy who was a sixth rounder and build
Speaker 1: himself into what he became. He's a self made dude.
Speaker 1: I just have always been a big fan of Tom
Speaker 1: Brady and Patrick Mahomes Well, y'all know how I felt.
Speaker 1: I felt very very strongly about him coming out of
Speaker 1: the twenty seventeen draft, even though there are plenty of
Speaker 1: those and I got receipts too. I got receipts. There
Speaker 1: are plenty of people that didn't think that my home
Speaker 1: should be drafted the top three rounds. So I've got
Speaker 1: kind of a soft spot for both those guys. I
Speaker 1: love seeing them both on a twenty two cover. If
Speaker 1: I played Madden, I think I would go out and
Speaker 1: get it just for those two guys alone. I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of cool. All Right, that's gonna do it
Speaker 1: for tonight's show. Big thanks to Mark, to Tony Banks,
Speaker 1: to my man David Fletcher, to all of you, to
Speaker 1: Joanna Studio, you are the very best we will see
Speaker 1: you on Monday, and a happy Father's Day to everybody.
Speaker 1: Hopefully everyone gets a chance to celebrate Juneteenth tomorrow. It's
Speaker 1: a lock on on this weekend in the way of
Speaker 1: paying homage and giving thanks, so hopefully you all have
Speaker 1: a chance to do that over this weekend. Love you all,
Speaker 1: We'll see you on Monday, and as always, go Texans.