0:05

Hello Texans, Welcome to the podcast.

0:07

Okay, today a little bit of a departure as

0:10

the AFC South radio voices

0:12

got together.

0:13

This happened back at the combine.

0:15

But this is timeless stuff

0:17

basically, well it's timeless stuff for this season

0:19

anyway, this offseason that we were talking

0:22

about. Mike Keith of the Tennessee

0:24

Titans. He organized this. I want to give him full

0:26

credit for that, and it appeared on his

0:28

programming originally, but it's good on everybody's.

0:31

Frank Frangie voice of the Jacksonville

0:33

Jaguars, and Matt Taylor, voice

0:35

of the Indianapolis Colts and me.

0:38

So the four of us got together, asked

0:40

each other questions, talked about

0:42

things related to broadcasting and the franchises

0:45

that we work with, and four at its

0:47

fun stuff.

0:48

And here it is today for the first time,

0:50

we have not one, not two, not three, but all four

0:53

of the AFC South play by play announcers

0:56

together. Let me introduce you

0:58

to them. Mark Van me is

1:00

the only voice of the Houston

1:03

Texans. You've been the guy since two thousand

1:05

and two.

1:05

Welcome, Thank you very much, Mike, and you've

1:07

been the only voice of the Titans.

1:09

Yes, it's true. Yes, right, that's

1:12

true.

1:12

Not the Oilers, but the Titans, which never

1:14

the voice of the Oilers. Well, since the Titans are

1:16

sort of well not sort of keeping the Oiler

1:19

history, you don't get to have that the station. It's

1:21

all me, boys, I'm the only

1:23

guy in the league to have it all

1:26

right, we bow down.

1:27

Frank Franjie is a Jacksonville

1:29

legend, as he's been involved

1:31

in sports talk radio there for thirty five years.

1:33

Frank is entering his tenth season as

1:36

the voice of the Jaguars. And you started

1:38

in print.

1:38

Yeah, I did it, and the first well, legend is a synonym

1:41

for old. Okay, so I'm the old guy.

1:43

But you went to Inglewood and everyting. I'm

1:45

a Jacksonville guy. I was a sports writer.

1:48

I wasn't all that good at that, so I got into the

1:50

broadcast side, and yeah, kind of like you. I

1:53

did a lot of college stuff beforehand, and

1:55

uh wound up. This will be my tenth year

1:57

doing the Jags game.

1:58

So yeah, you and I have known

2:01

each other since before Matt Taylor was

2:03

born. That's exactly right. Matt Taylor

2:06

is the youthful one in the group. The voice of the Indianapolis

2:08

Colts. He is an indian native. He played football

2:11

at Franklin College. Voice of the Colts

2:13

since twenty eighteen. Welcome

2:15

to the old Guy crew. And here's my question for

2:17

you. Welcome to when they put the

2:19

three of us in a home and you're still going

2:22

strong, will you come visit?

2:24

I will come visit you. I'll make sure the jello

2:26

is the flavor.

2:28

That's you?

2:28

What?

2:28

No, come on now?

2:29

That's okay, three of

2:31

us, Yeah, actually broadcast in our

2:33

hometowns.

2:35

Wow. One is an

2:37

interloper. Okay. But there's a distinction

2:39

here as well. All Right.

2:41

I wasn't born in Texas, but got there as fast

2:43

as I could, which is a Texas expression.

2:45

Right.

2:45

I have two sons born on Texas soil,

2:48

which is like marrying into the family. So my

2:50

DNA has been spliced properly out of Texan.

2:52

There we go.

2:53

Yeah, and you don't say y'all. And

2:55

I've never seen in a cowboy hat.

2:57

And funny because a lot of people who

2:59

aren't for Texas end up saying y'all.

3:01

And I really don't do that.

3:03

I really don't think it's hard for me to go there,

3:05

because I think it would be an affectation for me

3:08

to a degree, but I definitely have picked

3:10

up a little bit of an accent, you know. And when I hang

3:12

out back on the East Coast. I grew up in the New York area,

3:14

went to school in Boston. If I'm there for a week,

3:17

I come back and I sound like Jerry Seinfeld.

3:20

Well, mettle like this. So my wife,

3:22

who is from Indiana, is from the northern

3:24

part of Indiana, right outside of Chicago.

3:27

She got up in church to give a

3:29

committee report, and she says, good

3:31

morning, y'all, and I'm like, yeah, that's

3:33

not like yeah, well, but I mean it's part

3:35

of her effect.

3:36

Now.

3:36

Now she's been in Tennessee for thirty

3:39

nine years, so I guess she.

3:41

Can do that.

3:42

Mike and I are Southerners by and

3:45

saying y'all is actually required legally,

3:47

legally, So even if you don't have something to

3:49

say, you just run down the street and say y'all.

3:51

That's not all, y'all all, y'all.

3:53

Yeah, right, yeah, that's right, that's real. So okay.

3:55

The format of this thing is simple. Each

3:57

one of us gets three questions, one for

3:59

the other announcers. Since

4:01

his team won the AFC South this

4:04

past year. Frank Franchie of

4:06

the Jacksonville Jaguars, you go first, sir,

4:08

What do you want to know how?

4:10

And again I should go first. Not only do we win

4:12

the division, but we dominate it so often, so

4:14

I think there's that. So that's what we've

4:16

been I got a lot of questions about about

4:18

where these franchises are. Let's let's

4:20

talk about the franchises. And I want to start

4:23

with Mark because Mark further, when

4:25

I started doing this, the Texans won

4:27

the thing every year. You know, the Texans were a dominant

4:29

team, and then I watched how it changed

4:32

the Deshaun Watson things. So my question for

4:34

you is where are you?

4:36

Is the rebuild starting? Is

4:38

the rebuild is it? Is it

4:41

underway? Because of all these draft picks, how

4:44

do you feel about to make where where's the franchise?

4:46

It's fluid, Frank, it's fluid. You

4:48

guys know how it is.

4:49

It's Bill O'Brien used to say, every year

4:51

is different, right, and every year is different because

4:53

you never know what's going to happen. Look at what happened to the Jaguars

4:56

this year. We all thought the Colts would

4:58

do a lot better. Obviously, with Matt Ryan and then

5:00

look what happened and Tennessee. I never

5:03

could have predicted this, you know. A year ago,

5:05

I was saying, you know, Tennessee looks like the premier team

5:07

in the division and organization

5:09

in the division. And then the dismissal of John

5:11

Robinson, I'm thinking, oh wow, that's a real change,

5:13

you know. And obviously everybody goes through changes, and the

5:16

Texans have gone through more than anybody in

5:18

recent years. So yeah, I think the rebuild

5:20

if you want to call it that. No one's going to call it that publicly,

5:23

but it is. I mean, when you win four

5:25

four and three games, you're rebuilding,

5:28

you're retooling, rebuilding below whatever

5:30

it is, you're redoing it. But I think

5:32

it is underway, and it has been underway because of the

5:34

last two draft classes by Nick Cassario

5:37

leading into the twenty twenty three draft class,

5:39

that you have some seedlings, some good foundational

5:42

pieces there to build on, and finally

5:44

they get the coach that can be here for

5:46

a long time. You know, David Colleague, great

5:48

guy, wasn't the right coach. Lovey Smith

5:51

didn't work out. We don't have to get into all that. But

5:53

now they have to meet go Ryans who played for the

5:55

team. Obviously best player leader

5:57

I've ever been around in the Texans Organiza say

6:00

that includes the quarterbacks, and he's the right

6:02

guy for the job. Premiere higher right

6:04

there, and I'm excited to see what happens.

6:06

And i am too. I think I'm very intrigued

6:08

with it. My question for you, Mike, we could all talk

6:10

about where's the state of the franchise, but more

6:12

than that, we had this guy that grew.

6:14

Up in Yulie.

6:15

Julie is very close to Jacksonville, it's probably

6:17

about thirty miles. Everybody said, well,

6:20

you know, he's a good high school running back,

6:22

but he's gonna have to play defensive end in college. He can't

6:24

run, he's too upright, and lo and

6:26

behold he went. He went to college and he played

6:28

running back, and he did okay, okay,

6:31

won that big trophy. And then they said,

6:33

well, we gets the NFL. He's now he's you can't the NFL's

6:35

five nine two o five running backs. I

6:38

think Derrick Henry's one of the greatest athletes to ever

6:40

come out of my area. My question is

6:43

how long has he got left or how much does he have left.

6:45

He's twenty nine. He defies the eyes.

6:48

The rules tell us running backs are done now at twenty

6:50

nine or thirty, But I don't believe

6:52

it.

6:52

With him.

6:53

How much longer are we going to have Derrick Henry watching

6:55

Derrick Henry look like Dereck Henry Number one?

6:57

I think it's how long does he want to do it?

7:00

His conditioning is so crazy.

7:03

I think that's why he's at this point.

7:05

Matt and I were discussing it earlier in the week.

7:08

He's beaten the odds already. Running

7:11

Backs don't fall

7:13

off the cliff, as Charles Davis likes

7:15

to say, they don't even make it to the

7:17

cliff. And I mean, there's just gonna

7:19

come a point where he can't do it anymore. Now,

7:21

when is that? I mean, you saw it

7:23

with Arian Foster in Houston,

7:26

and certainly you saw it with Fred Taylor

7:28

in Jacksonville, and we saw it with Eddie

7:30

George, and I mean it happens.

7:35

I certainly think the plan

7:38

if he's on this roster this year, the plan is to

7:40

make sure he touches the ball twenty to twenty

7:42

five times a game like normal. Yeah, Well,

7:44

I mean that's what you're gonna do. He's

7:47

a first and second down back, you

7:49

know, and we know that about Derek. Derek

7:52

does play some third down, but very

7:54

little, and so he doesn't

7:57

get every snap,

7:59

which probably helps the beating

8:01

he takes ways on the other side.

8:03

But I think he's still Derrick

8:05

Henry until just the moment he's

8:08

not. And at that moment

8:10

it will probably be something

8:13

you'll see very quickly, because quickness

8:16

is not his thing.

8:17

You know.

8:18

It's about getting to the fourth or fifth

8:20

step, and then he's when he's rolling,

8:22

he's you seen bolt fast.

8:24

It's not a stopwatch thing. It's

8:26

a plaything.

8:27

But at the moment that it's over, I

8:30

think it'll be obvious to everybody. But from what he

8:32

did last year, it's clearly not over.

8:33

And I can tell you defensive

8:36

coaches at Jacksonville different staffs. We

8:38

tend to change the staffs a lot of all

8:41

the week. Do you play the Titans, they

8:43

spend days working on stiff

8:45

arm. Right, they have stiff arm practice.

8:47

I don't know if the Textans and the Colts have done

8:49

that, but they all they'll have a segment of practice,

8:52

I mean working on stiff working on not

8:54

getting stiff armed, right, which is which is amazing.

8:57

That's an extra portion of your practice

8:59

week that they only do again

9:01

when they're playing the Titans.

9:02

If he has one more great year, suddenly

9:04

you're talking about hall of Fame question,

9:07

because if you look at the backs

9:09

who are in the Hall of Fame, it's generally

9:11

five year stretches.

9:12

Right.

9:13

You know, certain players are judged

9:15

for their careers, right, but

9:18

backs are really judged on periods

9:20

of time.

9:21

And the Gail Sayers twelve days

9:24

absolutely well.

9:24

And we think Fred Taylor should

9:27

be in the Hall. His numbers are incredible,

9:29

and the running back is kind of

9:31

a dying breed. The Hall of Fame running backs a dying

9:33

breed. It's not gonna be a lot of them

9:35

make it now, so we think Fred maybe next, but it'll be

9:37

interesting to watch.

9:38

Well, one thing though, before we get off the Derek Henry

9:40

subject, and we'll probably return to it.

9:42

Don't you guys feel like the other? All right?

9:44

So you're you're playing Mike's team, We

9:47

don't, but our teams are. When they

9:49

pull Derreck Henry off the field on third down,

9:51

I'm like, ye, same same even

9:54

there now maybe to wear and tear, but sometimes

9:56

and look, this is probably a broader football

9:58

discussion for coaches, But third

10:01

and eight, third and seven. If I'm a defense

10:03

and as a play by play guy, I'm terrified

10:06

when I see Derek Henry. He's one of the

10:08

most terrifying players. As a play by

10:10

play announcer, it's third down, and I want my team off

10:12

the field. When when I see Derek

10:14

Hmill first and second in his case, when I see

10:16

Derek Henry on the field, it's it's terror.

10:18

It's like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do to stop

10:20

him? It used to be Peyton Manning with the Colts,

10:23

Steve McNair a little bit right with with

10:25

the Titans. Of course with Jacksonville

10:28

Nobody. I'm just kidding.

10:29

I first shot, Yeah,

10:31

I first shot Fred Taylor.

10:33

But I was trying to think of somebody when he was saying

10:35

that. No,

10:38

no, I've been as a play but player.

10:39

I agree.

10:39

Back to the stiff arms, I'm wondering

10:42

which one of our guys is going to get stiff armed into the

10:44

front row. And I'm like, Mark, I love

10:46

it when he's out of the game, you know, So, I mean, but

10:48

you got to third and nine.

10:49

You can't keep running well.

10:51

And let's face it to part of the most

10:53

fun, one of the most fun parts

10:55

of our job is watching guys on

10:57

our teams who are freaks.

10:59

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

11:00

It's so much fun to

11:02

see somebody who is just

11:04

and he's one of those. I mean, he is crazy

11:07

strong, no question, he's that guy.

11:10

He's that guy.

11:10

That's right.

11:11

My question for you, Matt, And Matt told me stat

11:13

and I knew it, but I didn't know it when Matt

11:15

sat in with me the other day. It's been fifteen

11:18

and sixteen since the Colts have had a quarterback

11:20

play starting the same starting quarterback pat back

11:22

years. That just astounded me, not

11:25

that I didn't know it, but because I've done the games all these years,

11:27

it just just forget me.

11:28

Yeah.

11:28

So, so, and I'm gonna ask

11:31

you a question about your boss. So, how do you talk about your boss

11:33

on on air? I guess but thanks,

11:35

Hey, you're no problem. But

11:39

how does the ownership Jim

11:41

Ursay, who I think is a good owner, but he's

11:43

kind of out there connect with your public,

11:45

with your fan base. He was very

11:47

good in the Peyton years and very good in the luckiears. How

11:50

does he connect I'm very curious about that. I mean,

11:52

I think he's one of the best owners in the game. I mean,

11:54

certainly, he's a fascinating guy. He's got a ton

11:56

of outside of interests, outside of football. I

11:58

mean, he's got the which I'm sure

12:00

you guys have seen.

12:01

He's he collects uh billion

12:04

a half Okay, yeah, I mean, and right now

12:06

he's taken across the country. I don't I don't know if you guys

12:08

are privy to this, but he's got he's

12:10

got tour stops all over the country.

12:12

He's been doing it since November.

12:14

I think actually next weekend is going to be

12:16

in Las Vegas where the collection's

12:18

on display. Then he's got the band that he's

12:20

in and it's it's a I mean, you love music,

12:22

we all love music. He's got Kenny

12:24

Wayne Shepherd in the band. He's got the

12:27

drummer that used to play all over the country

12:29

with John Mellencamp.

12:31

He's playing with.

12:32

Joe Walsh, She's played you know, the

12:34

guys that were in Fleetwood Max. So he's

12:36

a fascinating guy. I think he connects well

12:38

with you know, the city, you

12:41

know, with with the fan base. He more so

12:43

than anybody is desperate for

12:46

this franchise to get back to where it was. You

12:48

know, the last time the Colts won the AFC South

12:50

was twenty fourteen, right, every

12:53

point. Every team has won it twice

12:55

since then in the division. Wow, that's

12:57

hard to believe.

12:58

Yeah, well, if we could do a whole freak e stats

13:00

kind of segment here. But so

13:02

the Colts wanted in twenty fourteen, right,

13:05

The Texans since twenty eleven

13:07

have won it six times and

13:10

since that time, and that's more than anybody.

13:13

Since that time, all three other teams

13:15

have been to the AFC Championship Game except

13:17

the Texans, and they won the division more than anybody

13:20

else, which is a weird status.

13:21

Weird.

13:22

My final thing before I passed it off, I'll

13:24

tell you a story, a Nursey story. So

13:26

I'm I graduated from Florida

13:28

in nineteen eighty and in nineteen

13:30

seventy nine, I'm kind of home for the summer,

13:34

working summer jobs, no money,

13:36

and we were going out, hanging out, and so all

13:38

of a sudden, the word gets around that

13:41

you gotta go down to the stadium, the Gator Bowl at the time,

13:43

Okay, because something BIG's happening

13:46

like late song. Okay, so we're gonna go down there.

13:48

So we didn't know what was but you know, our

13:50

parents and our friends knew. So I'm a

13:52

broke, broke ass college student. Why I'm

13:55

getting a free hot dog and a coke. I'm gonna go there.

13:58

We go to the Gator Bowl. Sixty

14:01

thousand people, sixty

14:04

thousand show up at the Gator Bowl

14:06

for a hot dog and a coke to

14:08

watch Robert or Say fly

14:12

in on a helicopter because

14:14

he's thinking about moving the Baltimore Colts

14:17

to Jacksonville and we wanted it so bad.

14:20

The helicopter lands. Okay, I

14:22

got my hot dog and a coke. Okay, which is big news

14:24

for me. There's sixty thousand

14:26

people just to say hello. He gets

14:29

out of the helicopter, walks at waives

14:31

everybody, and gets

14:33

back in it and leaves.

14:35

It's probably about.

14:35

Twenty minutes, and I'm convinced.

14:39

I'm convinced that's

14:41

the first step in Jacksonville having an NFL team.

14:43

I'm convinced that Robert Say

14:45

getting out of that helicopter waving to all

14:47

of us with our hot dogs on our cokes is not

14:51

why but it's the first step of why jackson.

14:52

That's a great story.

14:53

The Oilers flirted with Jacksonville all back

14:55

in the day. We're all a division

14:58

now and both other French as.

15:00

Jacksonville gets a team, eventually Houston gets a team

15:02

back. That's interesting and the Oilers was

15:04

in eighty seven. By then I was

15:06

a sports writer and I covered

15:09

the story. I actually went to Houston.

15:12

Well, and there's also a strike. Yeah, so

15:14

the Oilers were talking about coming to

15:16

Jacksonville. There was a strike

15:18

going on, so Warren

15:21

Moon and some of the players were practicing on

15:23

their own at Love

15:25

Park or some park in Houston. I

15:28

went out there and did a story talking to them, Hey, how

15:30

you feel about jackson Hey, we love to come to Jacksonville.

15:32

We'll come more.

15:33

And then I covered a

15:36

replacement game, right and then came

15:38

back.

15:38

So I remember that storry very well.

15:39

I want to ask Mark vandermir of the Houston Texans

15:41

to this question. The Titans

15:44

are unveiling oiler uniforms

15:46

this year. If

15:49

the Titans where the oiler uniforms

15:52

against the Texans, will

15:54

there be any sort of reaction from the Texans

15:56

fan be reaction?

15:57

All right? You think, yeah?

15:59

Because all right, So the Columbia

16:01

blue, do you still call it Columbia blue? In

16:04

say Titan blue, you say Titan blue, So you change

16:06

the name of the blue, but it's, you know, basically the

16:08

blue that we're all blue. We know it kind of blue

16:11

blue. Yeah, it's that light blue.

16:13

Well, it's funny because the Texans have made

16:15

it public that they're experimenting

16:17

with uniform changes possibly coming

16:19

into play next year and we'll see how it goes. It's

16:21

a process, and they've had a

16:23

lot of focus groups and they've actually

16:26

put out a lot of stuff that the fans have sent them,

16:28

and some of the stuff involves this.

16:30

We call it h Town blue, all right,

16:33

And I've learned about colors today.

16:35

Oh, our senior director of marketing put up

16:37

all the blues on a board that you know, Detroit,

16:40

you know, the Honolulu Blue, Carolina

16:42

Titans, and they're all kind of blue,

16:45

but they're all different. In fact, if you put

16:47

the Titan logo on the Detroit blue, it looks

16:49

like the Titans. It's hard for the eye to tell, but they're

16:51

all a little tiny bit different than PMS color

16:53

or whatever they call it. Anyway, Texans

16:55

have started to sell that h

16:58

Town Blue and gear in you

17:00

know, T shirts, long sleeve T shirts, jackets,

17:03

along with the battle red and the Deep

17:05

Steel blue and the Liberty White.

17:06

We have to how many colors do you get to have? We

17:09

have three Liberty White, Deep Steel Blue, battle

17:11

Red. This would have blown up my sixty.

17:15

And now we've had they and then there's

17:17

fall because the h Town blue is really

17:19

it goes back even before the Oilers. There are things

17:22

in Houston that have that blue on it, like

17:24

architectural structures and things like that, and

17:26

it's a Houston color. So the

17:29

Rockets have used it as well. The Houston

17:31

fans go nuts for this when they see oiler of unis

17:33

on the Titans, and I know they did a few years

17:35

back, maybe ten years ago with the nineteen

17:38

year Rich the Yeah yeah, the AFL

17:41

right, and those were like the original oiler uniforms

17:44

that look kind of like the oiler uniforms that we grew.

17:46

To know, but not quite. This will

17:49

be a real kick. Is going to be the red.

17:51

You think you think they will react negatively.

17:54

They'll they'll be it'll be jealous,

17:56

It'll be you know, they

17:58

left us, what are they doing?

18:00

You know? The fan you know fans all right they react.

18:03

Look, fans, you don't make it on third down, they go crazy.

18:05

So and but it's good you want them to be passionate.

18:07

All we have is teal in black. I need fancy names.

18:10

I do not have fancy names from I

18:12

don't like Jaguars. That's my goal.

18:15

My goal is something funky, Jay Town

18:17

Jaguar. I mean a change volteel.

18:20

Yes, I've got it. I'm marketing for right

18:23

now.

18:24

I passed the stick to

18:26

Matt Taylor. All right, questions from Matt?

18:28

Can I go a different direction? Do whatever you want

18:30

strictly football? No, this is a

18:32

good roundtap discussion. Okay, let's go inside

18:35

the biz. Let's go behind the Michael to do it. You

18:37

guys have been doing this a long time. You guys have been

18:40

to basically every NFL stadium.

18:42

Give me the best booth

18:44

in the NFL to call a game, give

18:46

me the worst booth to call a game, and

18:49

your favorite visiting stadium to call a game

18:51

within the division.

18:52

All right, I'll go uh wait, can can

18:54

we just say two things first to the listeners?

18:57

Booth? Uh and stadium

19:00

are off in different things. Right.

19:01

You could have a great stadium, but the booth could be terrible.

19:04

Also, even play by play announcers

19:06

versus engineers. Right, there are

19:08

some booths that I've really liked, Like Oakland

19:11

was terrific as far as the view once I'm sitting

19:13

down, Oakland was great. The engineers

19:15

hated it's small. They got out the hall.

19:18

Yeah, the equipment's out in the hall like.

19:22

The day one.

19:24

So there's there are different categories here,

19:26

But go on, Frank, Yeah, well no, I mean.

19:28

For the look of the game. I

19:30

love love the Metal and met Life Stadium.

19:32

You're right there. It's a perfect look. It's

19:35

clean, it's easy. That's probably.

19:37

I like the Patriots. I like even though you're

19:39

not near the other you

19:41

get that. Why I

19:45

like wit spread and and

19:47

and those are my two favorite worst booths in

19:49

the history of organized sport.

19:52

Is Washington.

19:53

It's they They actually should shut down

19:55

the franchise because of the broadcast.

19:57

Wait wait, wait, it's Miami. Miamiami,

20:00

thankers. Miami. Miami

20:02

is worse of Washington. The new Miami. It's

20:05

not.

20:06

It's not worse. You're wrong, but I appreciate that.

20:08

You're not wrong because Washington's low. It's

20:10

low and bad.

20:12

Is Miami? Okay?

20:13

I mean, would all agree with

20:15

that, but Miami Glasstan

20:17

Yes, opposite side field, Yeah,

20:21

in the corner of the zone.

20:23

Too small. It's crazy

20:25

bad.

20:25

My friends at the University of Tennessee got

20:28

to play in the Orange Bowl this year

20:30

and they called me. They go, hey, can we get four

20:32

across on the front. I'm like, you may not even be

20:34

able.

20:35

To get two as somebody's got to stand.

20:37

Well, here's what they did.

20:38

They got the booth next to them

20:41

because there was no national

20:43

radio or something for that game, and so they put the

20:45

color commentator in another booth.

20:47

They're tiny, you can't.

20:51

When they should be. They should

20:53

be out of the league in my opinion, based

20:55

on the booth. And you have to walk through that night

20:57

club slow,

21:00

yeah, to get to the booth. Franchise,

21:05

Can I tell a New England booth story real

21:07

quick? So we're up there in two

21:09

thousand and three and

21:12

we're playing and the head of

21:14

the company it is a massive booth. You can get

21:16

twenty people in there, I mean at least

21:18

best, both in terms of size.

21:20

It is.

21:21

So the head of the company says

21:23

that his nephews are

21:26

fans of Tom Brady. Can

21:28

they come and stand in our booth, but

21:30

there are rights holders company and it's the

21:32

president of the company, so we got to do it.

21:36

So they've got press passes and they're

21:38

standing in the back of the booth and they're very polite.

21:40

They were very, very nice young men, and it

21:42

all worked brilliantly until

21:45

postgame they had

21:47

press credentials on and so they went

21:49

to the Patriots locker room no. And

21:52

asked Tom Brady for autographs as

21:54

he was coming out of the shower

21:57

of.

21:59

Here's the thing.

22:00

We're on a plane going back to Nashville,

22:02

just lost a tough game, and

22:05

we get this call. Larry Stone, who was running

22:07

our network at this time, gets a call about

22:10

who on your crew? So the Patriots

22:12

complained to the NFL, and our

22:15

media relations guy, Robbie Born says,

22:17

what is this because he knows all of us, he's

22:19

at that time, he's worked with all of us for six years,

22:22

and he's like, who on your crew went

22:25

down and got Tom Brady's autograph? In postgame?

22:27

We're like, we have no idea what you're talking

22:29

about. And so finally

22:32

somebody with the Patriots came through it. And this

22:34

is before camera phone, so nobody really took

22:36

a picture of him. So they gave a description.

22:38

It's like, oh no, and so

22:41

we explain the story and

22:43

it does not satisfy the Patriots,

22:45

it doesn't satisfy the NFL. It

22:47

doesn't it doesn't satisfy

22:50

our people. And this went on

22:52

for like weeks where we're

22:54

having to answer for this, and finally we said

22:56

call so and so we're

22:59

not taking a call all about it anymore. They were gonna

23:01

find us for it.

23:02

Wow, well, thank

23:04

goodness I'm here because Frank New England

23:07

and guys, I don't know how you guys feel about the Patriots

23:09

booth, but it is good in

23:11

that all right. It's close, but

23:13

it's too low. It's too

23:16

low because when the play, when when you first

23:18

get there, you're like, this is gonna be awesome. When the players

23:20

are standing on the sideline, you

23:22

your view is actually obstructed up

23:25

until the numbers on that end.

23:28

So when somebody catches a pass on the near sideline,

23:30

you're like, ah, it's

23:33

kind of like calling a three in basketball when they're

23:35

in the corner and you can't see if their feet are

23:37

behind the line.

23:38

You just gotta wait for the official to put his hands up, right.

23:40

I gotta wait for the official to rule it a catch in

23:42

order to call it correctly in New England. Plus,

23:44

you're right there with the fans, so it's like Tommy Brady's

23:47

the best quarterback half. I saw it

23:49

and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, that's making it

23:51

on the air.

23:52

Back in the day, Bill Pollian used

23:54

to I mean, the relationship between Patriots,

23:56

Patriots fans and Bill Pollion, You guys know

23:58

what, that really really

24:00

good.

24:01

It's really good.

24:02

So Bill, because of how big the booth

24:04

was, Bill would actually sit in the booth and

24:06

watch the game. Uh and

24:08

because and then I don't know when they

24:10

did it, but they actually elevated the booth

24:12

up a little bit because the fans used to be literally

24:15

right right right there under you. Now they're maybe

24:17

like five or six feet under you. But they

24:19

would they would throw stuff in the booth and yell

24:22

things. Obviously at Bill and all those epic playoff

24:24

games. I do have to share this picture though, if

24:29

we can zoom in on this, that's

24:31

Miami.

24:32

No, this is I'm sorry, Frank.

24:33

This is twenty nineteen, week

24:36

seventeen at Jacksonville. There's a torrential

24:38

rainstorm and it

24:41

is raining.

24:41

In the booth.

24:43

I did in ninety nine, the third game

24:46

I ever did. Yeah, there was water

24:48

blowing into the booth. We I mean,

24:50

it's one of those funny things that happens in Florida

24:53

where you get a storm right over you so

24:55

and and the what and it blows all my

24:57

notes. I mean, I've did

24:59

the whole second half with Pat Ryan and we

25:01

had nothing because they had no game programs

25:04

left.

25:05

Fortunately it was a division team, so you knew

25:07

them. Yeah.

25:08

Well, yeah, we try and drench

25:10

the visiting this part of

25:12

the goal.

25:12

Yeah, this is it's all psychological. So about

25:14

that.

25:15

Hour before the bus ride to the stadium in

25:17

twenty nineteen, I get a call from the PR

25:19

guy that says, yeah, it's raining.

25:21

In your booth. I said, it's training in our booth.

25:23

What does that mean?

25:23

So we we bring towels from

25:26

we steal towels from the hotel, but

25:28

steal good.

25:29

Yeah.

25:30

So there's the rain bucket catching the

25:32

water and so we're called So this

25:34

this area here was not even used during

25:37

the game, So we call the game from like where the engineers

25:39

site up above. So that's

25:41

that's my horror story on it.

25:42

Well, you know, the best I'll

25:44

do a game is Nissan Stadium

25:46

because it's low and because

25:49

you're not obstructed by the fans, and

25:51

because you're on that twenty five to

25:54

thirty five area, you can see the whole field.

25:56

It's good, it's good, but it looks better,

25:58

all right, Jacksonville's better, ye jackson

26:03

But in the middle it's a better view

26:05

because all right, Tennessee, I'm not saying it's

26:07

bad.

26:07

I'm not saying it's bad.

26:08

But you come into our booth and steal snacks

26:10

every time you come out from how

26:13

are you talking to us? Then say something

26:15

nice about us, whether you want to or not. I

26:18

do, I know it hurts you.

26:19

I do, uh. I do think the booth is pretty

26:21

good.

26:22

But the problem is when they're off to the right

26:24

end of the field, when they get inside

26:26

the twenty, it gets a little like now

26:29

the yard line the pot when they pile on

26:31

I'm like seventeen or that.

26:33

Yeah, it's a little with

26:36

him heat. I'll

26:39

tell you.

26:39

Well, you guys said the best booth or with

26:41

the biggest booth was the Patriots. But I like

26:43

Dallas. Dallas is a wonderful I

26:46

don't like the view, but the booth that.

26:50

Bathroom.

26:50

Yeah, but

26:53

you know it's like in Los Angeles, though, where you

26:55

have to call part of the game off the

26:57

jumbo trone because there are parts

26:59

of the field you can't see.

27:01

I don't have a problem in Dallas because

27:03

the height of it, like Pittsburgh, is

27:05

long.

27:06

I don't mind being in the corner if I'm high up.

27:08

If I'm low like Miami or Washington, that's

27:10

a real disaster Pittsburgh.

27:12

I tell you a quick story, but I was doing college

27:14

games. Do you remember, and you probably remember

27:16

it, when when LSU won the national title under

27:18

less Miles, they beat Auburn

27:21

in a game, Mike, you may remember this. At

27:23

the end of the game, there's like nine seconds

27:25

left. They should have kicked the forty yard field goal to win, but

27:27

instead he ran to play and they hit a touchdown

27:29

on the left corner. Do you remember this play? He

27:31

hit a touchdown the left corner of the end zone. It was a

27:34

dumb call, but with one second left to they

27:36

win the game. Well, I'm doing the game with Toretta,

27:38

and I'm in the right corner. I'm in the high

27:41

I'm in the right corner at baton rouge,

27:44

I can't see it. We're so

27:46

far right, I can't see it. And

27:48

the big it's the biggest game of the year in college football.

27:50

And I'm doing radio and they

27:53

dropped to throw fired at left corner of the end zone. I

27:55

mean, I can't see anything. So I'm

27:57

thinking, now I got a decision to make. Okay,

28:00

this is the biggest play of the year in college football,

28:03

and and and so and

28:05

and the only time I've ever done this in my life,

28:07

and all the youth player I guess

28:09

what. I saw the fans jump up and

28:12

I and I said touchdown ls

28:14

U, having no idea

28:18

whether it was a touchdown LSU. But

28:20

I saw the fans jumping number

28:22

one, yeah,

28:24

yeah, yeah, And I said, and you and yeah,

28:26

you always wait for it, but I just I did, and

28:28

it was a touchdown. I thought to myself, I said, what

28:31

would that have done to my career if

28:33

it wasn't?

28:34

You know what I mean? And to play that bad was

28:38

thank you Jesus.

28:39

Yeah yeah, I mean, how much do

28:41

you guys use binoculars to call the game?

28:43

I don't. I did not you do.

28:44

Like every play, every play, every play, every play

28:46

in Texans history has been done with binoculars. I

28:48

mean every single one. I will not do it

28:51

play without it.

28:51

For me, it's identifying the running back first. Fore

28:54

I got to get in there. I got it.

28:55

Like I'm used to calling basketball, which I

28:58

always thought was my best sport. I think I'm finally

29:00

and I'm not joking here. I'm finally getting to

29:02

a level of football where I feel like it equals

29:05

what I did in basketball, because I did hundreds of basketball

29:07

games in the nineties and and felt

29:10

really good about my basketball call after a while,

29:12

put a lot into it. And when I got to the NFL,

29:14

and I was doing football obviously at a high level

29:16

in college at Miami and everything, but the

29:18

reps you don't get as many, you know, because it's once

29:20

a week and everything, and you know it's not the

29:23

same when you're calling it off TV or even a practice

29:25

sort of under your breath. And I feel like I

29:27

finally get there. But I got to get in there.

29:29

I want to see it tight. And yeah,

29:32

you can recognize body types and everything, but especially

29:34

for defense, you know, tackles are sometimes

29:36

a rumor. You know, we always have debates

29:38

on how to properly call a tackle because sometimes

29:40

like big pile, Like you know, Johnny

29:43

will give me something in Q and that'll

29:45

be one of the guys, you know, and who knows who

29:47

they're gonna give it, and you see it differently, Yeah, I might

29:49

see it differently, but you know I'll be like among

29:51

the tacklers. You know, I'm kind of like, right, name

29:53

a couple of guys, because you know, if somebody

29:55

made the effort to get over there and somebody got a low and

29:57

somebody got them high, you want to mention both guys.

29:59

And you never quite no, because you don't know who

30:01

got their friend, like separating combined

30:04

sacks, right exactly, because the

30:06

only way you can tell in many of those

30:08

cases who got their first is to watch

30:10

a replay.

30:11

And don't we don't have.

30:12

Time to story quick story about that, because

30:15

I'll take the baton that you take.

30:16

No, take it your time.

30:18

Quick story about that first game in

30:20

Texans history playing the Cowboys said that

30:22

I have football.

30:22

I mean it's monumental right.

30:24

Back in Houston, five years no football,

30:26

Texans Cowboys couldn't be bigger. They've

30:28

got the lead, Quincy Carter in the end zone

30:31

sack and Gary Walker

30:33

gets up he and Seth Payne get there at the same

30:35

time, it's bang bang. Gary Walker gets

30:38

up and flexes, and I'm like, Gary Walker with the

30:40

sack.

30:40

They gave it to Seth Pain and Seth's.

30:42

Still on the air every morning at Houston, and

30:45

I'm like, sorry, I apologize

30:47

every time I see him. I've actually played the highlight

30:49

and I edit out the name sack.

30:52

Good.

30:53

We're good with that. My motto in

30:55

journalism is, when in doubt, be vague.

30:58

You can't be wrong when you're vague. So

31:01

what I want to know from each of you is

31:03

is favorite game. Now.

31:06

It doesn't have to be like the year we went

31:08

to be won the AC Championship game, Mike, not

31:10

that because I've got a favorite I'll tell you what it is in a

31:12

few moments. But favorite game you've

31:14

done where it was just so satisfying, But it's kind

31:17

of under the radar, like a lot of fans might

31:19

not really acknowledge it as such, but

31:21

to you it meant so much being part of the organization

31:23

and everything we do.

31:24

Okay, I'll give it to you quick. Twenty

31:27

nineteen playoffs going to

31:29

New England and ending

31:31

the Tom Brady Bill Belichick airing

31:34

by beating them there, especially

31:37

because we had never won there and almost

31:39

ten years well it was ten years earlier.

31:41

They had beaten us there fifty nine to nothing.

31:44

Oh yeah, in a situation where it

31:46

dropped us to zero to six going into

31:48

the by and it was it

31:50

left us. Not only was it a horrible day,

31:53

but it snowed that day in October and we didn't

31:55

have coach or anything because it was supposed

31:57

to be sixty. It was bizarre and

32:00

win that game. And you were talking earlier about

32:02

Temmy Brady, you know, to see

32:04

those folks leaving and

32:06

to know that they knew it was

32:09

over, Yeah, I whipped.

32:11

That's I would have too, Mike.

32:14

That is my dream to win in Foxborough

32:16

against Brady, and it won't happen because he's done,

32:18

I think, And that

32:20

that had to be satisfying because we've all been

32:22

in New England and they play that Josie's

32:25

on a vacation far songfield

32:27

and I just want to like, we're three

32:29

of twenty seventeen, we have the lead final

32:32

minute and I'm like, even if they drive down

32:34

the field and score here, they're not gonna play that song because

32:37

you know they're not gonna you avoided the song.

32:39

No, they score Brady to Brandon

32:41

Cooks like thirty five seconds left and they

32:43

got the song in and soul Lax out there

32:45

and I just want to strangle him.

32:48

Well, they didn't get to play it that night. Ye, Frank,

32:50

mine's not under the radar. I'd love to give you one.

32:53

It's not. It was this year because Charge.

32:55

Trailed the Chargers twenty seven nothing,

32:58

twenty seven franchise that

33:00

hasn't done anything. We had one winning

33:03

season in the last fourteen years. We

33:05

finally win the division. Uh in

33:07

large park of the division struggle, but we went win

33:09

all these games and finally at

33:12

night, it's on national TV, everybody's

33:14

paying attention, and you get down

33:16

twenty seven nothing, and I'm thinking, well,

33:18

that's kind of a shame.

33:19

Your last goal was fantastic and we

33:21

lost.

33:22

Thank you for that, and I appreciate that, Mike, But it's

33:24

twenty seven nothing, and all of a sudden

33:26

you're watching it and Biselli Baselli goes,

33:29

you know, if you can score here at the end

33:31

of the half, make it twenty seven seven, you got a

33:33

chance, Okay, log him and are Lie

33:36

Logan, that's just something you said

33:39

and logohman, I book like look just

33:41

looking at him, just looking at him, like really,

33:44

wells go at the end of the half and when they came

33:46

when he lines up for the field goal, I remember

33:48

thinking, Mike, I'm thinking, God,

33:50

it'd be a shame if he misses this.

33:52

After all this this, that's.

33:54

God a lot to make him make this, Okay, I mean

33:56

just all, you know, because all this stuff and I'm watching

33:59

it and I don't win. That kick

34:01

went through and they had won the game, and we lost

34:03

our mind in the call. I think it's the

34:05

most exhilarated I've ever felt in my

34:07

career.

34:08

As far as just exhilarating. Yeah, that's all. It

34:10

was the most exhilarated felt. That's awesome.

34:12

That was a and I get chills telling

34:14

you guys the story about it beating the Chargers

34:18

thirty one thirty on the last play the gain.

34:19

Yeah, favorite moments

34:21

so far. What had to have been?

34:23

Mean, there's a Patriots theme here, but the

34:25

Colts prior to last year twenty

34:28

twenty one, had not beaten

34:30

the Patriots since two thousand and nine, and

34:32

there have been a lot of AFC

34:35

playoff games in that mix. You know, the

34:38

deflate game was in there, Tom Brady,

34:40

you know the history of Bill Belichick, so on and so

34:42

forth. But it's a flex game late

34:44

in the year, like Week sixteen, Week seventeen,

34:47

right before Christmas got flex to

34:49

Saturday night. So it's a standalone game, primetime

34:51

game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

34:53

Colts get off to the good start. They're up by

34:56

ten.

34:56

Then it gets down to three points late in the game

34:58

and you're thinking, okay, you know, Carson

35:01

Wentz has thrown for like fifty yards in the game.

35:03

It's like, we know they're gonna give the ball

35:05

to Jonathan Taylor. Can they get enough first

35:07

downs? Can they eke out the clock and win this

35:09

game and hold on? They get the ball, like at

35:12

the forty yard line, Colts in their own territory,

35:15

hand it off to Jonathan Taylor. Boom

35:17

gone sixty five yards for

35:20

a touchdown. The place is going berserk. It

35:22

was huge for the Colts playoff

35:24

chances for the moment. Obviously it came,

35:26

you know, it crashed and burned Week seventeen and eighteen,

35:29

but to that point, everybody thought, okay, getting

35:31

off to a slow start record wise really

35:34

kind of you know, find some momentum string

35:36

together some wins, beat the Patriots.

35:38

The place was going nuts. You know.

35:40

My call was just like electric.

35:42

I'm standing up and making

35:44

sure I don't mess it up. You know, Jonathan

35:47

Taylor is like looking back at the guy in real time?

35:49

You know, do I score? Do I go out of bounds? You know,

35:51

do I just go down? He's that fast

35:53

and that good and processing all that information

35:55

in real time and so trying

35:58

to incorporate that and the call was challenging.

36:00

But you know, the place was nuts,

36:02

and that was probably my favorite game

36:04

or favorite call so far. My favorite game

36:06

though, was the

36:09

playoff game in twenty eighteen,

36:12

and it has nothing to do with the Texans.

36:14

You know, that was the year I was the interim guy. Eight

36:17

and eighteen I was the interim guy, so I'm basically

36:19

doing two jobs at once and just going through

36:21

a lot of personal anxiety.

36:24

But that game was a Saturday,

36:26

I think it was a Saturday night game. Friday

36:28

before we take off, I get pulled

36:31

into an office and they say, you know, we're ripping

36:33

the tag off if you're the guy.

36:34

Wo nice. Nice.

36:35

So getting a call my first playoff game

36:38

with like the pressure off the anxiety off

36:40

kind of having like that free mentality to

36:42

sort of be myself, not worrying

36:44

if I'm doing the job good enough for someone

36:46

else. Right, So that one was just

36:49

like mentally freeing and just

36:51

exciting to be a part of well.

36:52

And that's a good lead into my favorite game

36:55

because it tells the story or

36:57

part of the story about the Colts domination

36:59

over the Tech right. And there's no

37:01

other team that has been able to do this to the Texans.

37:04

Even though the Texans are an expansion team. You would

37:06

expect some struggles and everything. Tennessee's

37:08

got a winning record against the Texans, but but

37:10

look, even the last two years, we've beaten

37:13

the Titans twice in Nashville each

37:15

of the last two years.

37:15

That's pretty cool.

37:17

Jacksonville obviously had some success against Jacksonville,

37:20

but the Cults are the all

37:22

time nemesis. And it goes back

37:24

to the RCA Dome, which no longer exists.

37:27

Which don't at me, we're in the right

37:30

way, Oh, this is where it was. This was the

37:32

loudest building in the NFL. I look, I've

37:34

been to them all, like you guys have, and I

37:36

don't know how you feel. Mike but that place was unbelievably

37:39

loud, small, Dwight Freendy and Robert Mathis

37:41

coming off the edge, Manning just inflicting

37:44

terror on everybody.

37:45

It was.

37:46

And look, the Texans were never able to win

37:48

here until twenty

37:50

fifteen. And in that season Houston

37:52

was two and five, had two massive blowout

37:55

losses going nowhere, everybody's gonna get

37:57

fired. It's awful, and beat the Titans

37:59

to go to three at five, and then Monday Night football

38:01

at Cincinnati, they're undefeated

38:04

and somehow Houston wins and

38:06

it's ten to six.

38:07

That's the score of the game. TJ. Yeats

38:10

comes off the bench.

38:11

He had beaten the Bengals in twenty eleven

38:13

on the road and in the playoffs. I mean it was like the stuff

38:15

of legend, and I had a nice call.

38:17

He threw the ball to Hopkins. Anyway, later on that

38:19

season, because it's quarterback carousel,

38:22

we're down to our fifth guy. It's

38:24

really Yates is the fourth guy. He gets hurt at

38:26

Indy and then Brandon Whedon has to

38:28

come in a few weeks earlier's playing for the Cowboys.

38:30

He comes in throws a touchdown pass to Jalen straw

38:32

and they win sixteen to ten. That was

38:35

my favorite win other than like you know, winning

38:37

playoff games and things, but that is the

38:40

most satisfying. Owen thirteen in Indy.

38:42

Owen thirteen. I walked out of the

38:44

booth. I was like, this is amazing,

38:47

amazing to beat the Colts and the Texans

38:49

won the division that year after starting two win five, So

38:51

that's mine.

38:52

This is good. We got to do this every year. Yeah, we

38:54

do because we could go four or five hours.

38:56

He really could.

38:58

There's our podcast, Voices of

39:00

the AFC South. Check out all

39:02

the other podcasts wherever you got

39:04

this one. Have a great day and go text

39:06

in