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Norm Hitzges ranks as a sports talk show legend having spent 48 continuous years on the air in Dallas. Now begins his next chapter with his new podcast "Just Wondering..."
From major interviews to waxing philosophical, join Norm every day as he talks sports, travel life or...anything he's just wondering about.
Speaker 1: On today's Just Wondering, in the NFL Draft, are the Cowboys potentially ignoring a real position of need? And then this year's name game from the NFL draft. And finally, remembering an old friend.Speaker 2: And now a word from our title sponsor.Speaker 3: Eying retirement? We aim to turn your nest egg into a paycheck with half the amount you've been led to believe. Fluent Financial combines in house portfolio design risk management with income generating investments designed to aid your financial independence. Our goal is to develop an effective portfolio strategy to help you retire sooner and have a better lifestyle. Fluent Financial can also implement a program that allows business owners to install a cash balance plan, which may potentially reduce income tax payments. You've worked hard to become successful. Let us help develop an effective portfolio strategy that works for you. Learn more today about Fluent Financial. Retire sooner, better lifestyle. For more information or to schedule a meeting, visit fluentfinancial.com or call (972) 852-4800.Speaker 1: Here's segment one, Ashley. By the way, that open works for podcast and for TV. As this year's NFL draft approached, the speculation began on how the Cowboys would use their two first round draft choices, number 12 and number 20. That speculation centered almost exclusively on shoring up a pitiful defense. And why not? This unit allowed 30 points per game last year. Yuck. Awful. Such take defense thinking also trickled down to the third and fourth rounds. The Cowboys approaching draft did not have a second. But literally no one I've read, no one focused on an offensive position that the Cowboys may need help at now and perhaps very, very soon left tackle. Right now, that starting spot belongs to Tyler Guyton, the club's first round pick in the 2024 draft. As soon as they took him, the club handed him the starting left tackle job despite him having started only 14 total games in college between TCU and Oklahoma. And by the way, 13 of those games at right tackle. What is guidance performance been like? The folks at pro football focus who literally grade every play of every season are not impressed. In his rookie year, he finished seventy third out of 81 tackles who played enough to qualify for the rankings. Very poor. Last year, he moved up to between below average and poor. In addition, he started just 21 of the 34 games in the last two years, and he's missed nine to injury. Honestly, through through two years, Tyler Geithen profiles as a backup tackle. And but now he's tasked with the job of protecting Dak Prescott's blindside. But the tack the Cowboys never mentioned any concern about the left tackle job, seeming to simply be content to hand the job to Guyton despite his questionable level of play. When he was hurt last year, the club tried Nate Thomas, a rookie at that spot. He was honestly worse than Guyton. So they shifted all universe left guard Tyler Smith out to left tackle. That seems to be the strategy again this year. Smith being the backup that gotten can't play, but one gets the distinct feeling from Smith. They'd like to be told where he's lining up this year and not have to prepare for two possible positions. Plus, this is Guyton's third year in the league. As a former first rounder, this should be the season after season when Dallas decides to pick up the fifth year of his contract, guaranteeing that he'll be with the club through 2028. At this point, honestly, I can't believe they do that with Guyton. So, that would mean he'd have only this year and next year before hitting free agency. So you might be thinking, maybe we can take a tackle in next year's draft. Maybe. But because of trades, Dallas does not have a second or fourth rounder in next year's draft, and they don't expect to get any complimentary picks for players who left them through free agency. So right now, in the 2027 draft, Dallas has a first, a third, a fifth, sixth, and seventh, so they'd be getting about two of the first 160 picks in that draft. I'm not suggesting Dallas should focus on a tackle 12. They are desperate for defensive help. And on but unless Guyton improves measurably this year, Dallas may start to feel the same kind of desperation at the left tackle spot. Next, this year's NFL name game. What do you want from your favorite restaurant? Fantastic personal service, a cheery, welcoming, spotless atmosphere, and of course, food. The primest of beef, Wagyu, and lamb, incredibly fresh seafood, lobster, salmon, shrimp, hall of fame food from a hall of fame restaurant, two locations of Bob's Steak and Chop House, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue, and the gorgeous new Bob's at Craig Ranch McKinney. My wife, Mary, is the co creator of Full Moon Healing Balm, and I guess I'm the reason this terrific cream was developed. A few years ago, I began getting these huge, ugly blood blotches just beneath the skin of my arms and hands. The condition's called senile purpura. And no, you don't have to be senile to experience this embarrassment. It happens as you age. And then to cover it up, we begin wearing long sleeves even when it's hot. It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of full moon healing. Gently massage a very small amount into the skin, and within a day, the blotches begin to fade. See now purpura usually takes weeks to disappear. But this bomb cuts the timeline to about a week, and ordering so easy. Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. There are literally hundreds Every year, more than 250 players have their names called in the NFL draft. This year, there'll be exactly 257 picks spread out over three days. And you'll hear the entire draft on the ticket, and I'll be part of it again, my forty first year broadcasting the NFL draft. But while 257 will be taken, there are literally hundreds, thousands of players at various levels of ability whose college eligibility is up, and they're eligible to be taken. Every year for decades now, I've sorted through all these names just for fun. And so without further ado, here is the NFL draft two thousand twenty six name game. All these players are eligible to be drafted. Corleone. This year, your team could select a dairy, a dingle, or a d Corleone. I'll pick it up this Actually This year, your team could select a dairy, a dindle, or a dunker, a cheese burrow, a chestnut, or a crumpling. Select a player named West and pair him with one named Eastern. Want somebody to really run your defense? How about a guy named Corleone? And yes, he's actually Don Corleone. Dante, actually, a defensive tackle from Cincinnati. Exactly. Grab a grizzle, a gums, and a good wine, a defensive tackle from South Carolina. But once you have good wine, Colorado linebacker Montavious French, and Vandy tackle Isaiah Glass, and you'd have a glass of French Goodwine. There are nine players named Brown as possible choices this year. And the Cleveland Browns have exactly nine draft choices. How perfect. The Browns could draft all Browns. Gamble. Ruben fatherly the second. Select You could draft him. But this It would mean that Ruben fatherly the second's fatherly was mister fatherly the first. Do you like to wager on games? Have I got the perfect player for you? Your team could take a chance on Georgia Southern cornerback At some point Chance, gamble. Want to talk smack. Chance, gamble. Georgia's Trey smack. Select the Holmes and a Watson, but this Watson isn't a doctor. Choose a Jados, a Jada, and a Jolly, a Ponz, a Prunty, or a Prisach whose parents, by the way, were almost certainly avid bible readers because they named their son, candle. Ephesians Prisot. Zion Young. At some point in the draft, someone will want to talk smack. But one Florida's Trey smack, best place kicker in this draft. Take a tia, a trost, a trotter, and a tui halla maca. Draft a silver and a gold day. Make your edge rushers edge rushers next year an olds and a young. Kentucky's Cam Olds and Missouri's Zion Young. There are two whites in this draft, but one's first name caught my eye. Are That's a quarterback from Florida State named Boston. Squirrel White. Canada. That's right. Canada. Mister and missus White looked down the crib and decided to bomb Let's name him Squirrel. A buckler, You can draft a player named World, but there's not a player named Peace. So just like in real life, no World Peace. If you like to travel, draft players whose names are destinations. Ames, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Canada. Canada doesn't much like us much anymore. Select a Bomba, a Basso, and a Bruckler, a ball of laying the bird. Imagine your favorite team having San Jose State defensive tackle, Gafafaga. That's g a f a f a g three hundred Who actually pronounces its name, Nuffa Funga. Safety Tucker Large. I don't know. There's only a 100 The NFL's so into measurables. So the jail Pick a height, a pounds, and a large, and a husky. Texas Tech Edge rusher, Romello Romello Height, is tall, six three. Ole Miss defensive tackle, tackle named Pounds tips the scale at three hundred twenty five. But Washington State safety Tucker Large is only a hundred and eighty three pounds. And Maryland safety Jalen Husky is an Husky. He weighs one ninety six. There's a law and a cop, a lemon and an orange, two McCoys. But if you look at the player ratings, only one of them is a real McCoy. Choose a defensive player named Wall. BYU's Tanner Wall, who's a safety, meaning he's a back wall. There are seven Johnsons. So a team with a pick in every round could wind up with nothing but Johnsons. There's a Mohammed, a Moses, a priestly, and a pope. There's a Manjac, a Maccabee, and a MacAfeezi. Tongue tie my friend Brad Sham, the Cowboys longtime voice by making him regularly pronounce these new cowboy players. Michigan edge rusher Davin guy? Zidziano, Tunde, Fatoukazi, Fa'alisi, Fa'amoe, and Ole Vavega, Yovanie, of your But from his scouting report, he's not a key player. King Kong And Michigan edge rusher TG guy? Just another guy. With the pronunciation In this draft, there are eight kings available. Plus, one Conga. So if you took San Jose State defensive tackle Niles King and paired him with Louisville defensive tackle Renee Conga. The middle of your defense next year could be King Conga. And finally, I need some help with the pronunciation saw of a name. An edge rusher from Illinois. Good player, by the way. May well be a second rounder. You know First name is Gabe, and he spells his last name, j a c a s. How would you pronounce j a c a s? I know what my first guess was, but he actually pronounces his last name Akis, with a silent j. But you know, whenever I see this guy playing in the NFL, I'm gonna remember remember how I would have pronounced his last name. Next, remembering an old friend. Stolen Water Media is making a move. After two plus years, it's time to change and keep up with our growth. You can continue to view all eight of our podcasts on our Patreon pages. But now you can get all episodes at www.stolenwatermedia.com. This is a developing story, but you can begin by watching and listening right now at www.stolenwatermedia.com. Continue to find all audio wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and some you may not have heard of, but I think will enjoy. Are you just wondering where your next spectacular vacation will be? Relax. Feel the sun on your body. Let your cares melt away at the all inclusive Cerenian Bay Resort in Southern Belize. It's literally built right on the sand. The ocean, your ocean is just a few barefoot steps away. Laid back luxury, terrific food, a swim up bar, a spa, air conditioned gym, unimaginable service, fishing, snorkeling in gorgeous turquoise waters. Do you want relaxation or do you need adventure? You choose at Ceridian Bay. Mary and I have been there three times and this summer will be number four. Pick a cozy bungalow for two, or bring the whole family to villas that can accommodate up to 14. Sirenianbay.com, S I R E N I A N. The sand and the sea are just waiting for you to get here. Pardon me for sounding just a bit old. I was made to feel that way when preparing this segment. I covered my first Dallas Cowboys training camp in Thousand Oaks, California in 1972, fifty four years ago. At that point, Tom Landry was just 47 years old. Roger Staubach, he had only started 14 total games over four years in his NFL career, a career where he'd wind up in the Hall of Fame. Dallas had just won their first Super Bowl ever. I'd just been hired by CBS in Dallas as a weekend sports anchor and a weekday sports features reporter. My salary $150 a week. And I loved it. Things were so very different then than they are now. You could stand right with the players on the sidelines during practice. It was easy to strike up conversations, easy to make friends with them, easy to head out for a burger and a beer, or sit in their dorm rooms. Yeah, the players stayed in Cal Lutheran College dorm rooms. You could just sit in those dorm rooms and talk, just talk. And there was greatness everywhere on this club. Besides Staubach, there was Bob Lilly, Mike Ditka, Bullet Bob Hayes, linebacker Chuck Howley, who's the only player ever to be deemed MVP of a Super Bowl on a losing team. There was tackle Ray feel right. Both cornerbacks Mel Renfro and Herb Adderley and safety Cliff Harris. All those players were eventually inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, as were Landry, and general manager Tex Schramm, and Personnel Director Gilbradt, and so many others. Funny man, Walt Garrison, guard John Nile and why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? Jethro Pugh, Calvin Hill, Larry Cole, Leroy Jordan, why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? And then there was a backup center named John Fitzgerald. He hadn't been a center to begin his career. Dallas had drafted him in the fourth round out of Boston College as a defensive tackle and offensive guard. Yeah, players covered some different assignments back then. And the Cowboys, well, they promptly cut John Fitzgerald, but then brought him back on what was then called the Taxi Squad. John Fitzgerald eventually won two Super Bowl rings with those seventies cowboys. He would spend twelve years in the NFL. On none of those teams did John Fitzgerald ever experience a losing season. He'd play in five Super Bowls, nine NFC championship games, 19 post season games. And you know what? Fitzy grinned through all twelve years in this league. It was Fitzgerald who labeled the 1979 Cowboys offensive line. Remember, that's the year they beat Denver in the Super Bowl. He nicknamed that offensive line for Irishman and a Scott. There was John Fitzgerald, Pat Donovan, Tom Rafferty, Jim Cooper, and the Scott was an African American guard named Herb Scott. We lost Fitzy last week at age 77. He was smart and funny and laughed a lot, and loved to fire quick comebacks in conversation. He was a friend and a good one. Over the years, lives can go in different directions, But we would cross paths, and those intervening years would just simply melt away in laughter. He always had a smile as large as his big thick mustache. I hadn't seen Fitsy for a while. I had no idea he was nearing an end. I wish life had given us one more crossing of paths, but it didn't. But that's life. We all rise each morning to find that a few more of us have disappeared like rain on sand.Speaker 2: And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial, Retire Earlier, Live Better, and by Bob's Steak and Chophouse on Lemon in Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's, a Dallas tradition for more than thirty years.Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed Just Wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your mailbox early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Should you know a sports fan who might like our work? Please share our contact information with that person. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just Wondering. I'm Norm Hitschkes, and know that every day I'll be just wondering about something.Speaker 2: And I'm Mary Hitschkes, and I'll just be wondering too.Speaker 1: This is a Stolen Water Media production.