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Hard Knocks: Houston Texans 2015

Aaron Wilson

@AaronWilson_NFL


Bill O'Brien: 'On the 53 (roster), we're going to have 37 guys with four years or less experience.'

That's pretty damn young
 
I'm starting to see why Kourtnei Brown has been cut 5 times. He goes out there and worries more about making plays than doing his job. On the plays where he's supposed to set the edge he is still more worried about rushing the passer and making a splash play. Then he gets pulled for blowing the edge (yet again) and he mopes around the sideline. Sorry but I can do without that kind of attitude.
 
I'm starting to see why Kourtnei Brown has been cut 5 times. He goes out there and worries more about making plays than doing his job. On the plays where he's supposed to set the edge he is still more worried about rushing the passer and making a splash play. Then he gets pulled for blowing the edge (yet again) and he mopes around the sideline. Sorry but I can do without that kind of attitude.

It looked to me that he was actually crying on the sideline after blowing that play. Then Vrabel having to call him over in the dressing room? He has the physical tools, but his head is not in the right place.
 
Felt bad for Lab. Had to suck to get fired and your dreams crushed on national television.

I felt bad for Lab, too...until I saw his wife. Hey diddle!

On a side note, I could have done without the Cushing and Blue's "The Blue Lagoon" scene. What's Cush trying to do: get pregnant again? :wadepalm:
 
Hard Knocks tonight. Gave some pretty good clarification on how the entire Missing mallet thing went down.

Mallett didn't come off to good. Makes you understand why they chose Hoyer

I don't have a problem with what happened with Mallett. It was a mistake and that stuff happens. That's no excuse but I'm not going to crucify the guy for oversleeping one time. However, I thought the language he was using during his meeting with Rick Smith was ridiculous. Got no problem with that language on the field or in the locker room. But dropping f-bombs and the like while having a meeting with your boss' boss about you missing work just seems moronic to me.

Either that or maybe I'm just getting old.
 
I don't have a problem with what happened with Mallett. It was a mistake and that stuff happens. That's no excuse but I'm not going to crucify the guy for oversleeping one time. However, I thought the language he was using during his meeting with Rick Smith was ridiculous. Got no problem with that language on the field or in the locker room. But dropping f-bombs and the like while having a meeting with your boss' boss about you missing work just seems moronic to me.

Either that or maybe I'm just getting old.

Being a starting QB on an NFL team and a regular guy being late for work are two separate things. Those things just cant happen

Agreed on his reaction to Smith did not come off very professional either
 
Hard Knocks tonight. Gave some pretty good clarification on how the entire Missing mallet thing went down.

Mallett didn't come off to good. Makes you understand why they chose Hoyer

I guess I'm gonna have to watch it again to make sure, but it sounded as if he said he turned his phone off, and then he didn't have batteries in his alarm clock?? WTF?

He reminded me of me when I was in the 9th grade and saying that to the assistant principle. God help him if does that again.
 
I guess I'm gonna have to watch it again to make sure, but it sounded as if he said he turned his phone off, and then he didn't have batteries in his alarm clock?? WTF?

He reminded me of me when I was in the 9th grade and saying that to the assistant principle. God help him if does that again.

His phone battery died and he didn't own a plug in clock.
 
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Felt bad for Lab. Had to suck to get fired and your dreams crushed on national television.
I don't have a problem with what happened with Mallett. It was a mistake and that stuff happens. That's no excuse but I'm not going to crucify the guy for oversleeping one time. However, I thought the language he was using during his meeting with Rick Smith was ridiculous. Got no problem with that language on the field or in the locker room. But dropping f-bombs and the like while having a meeting with your boss' boss about you missing work just seems moronic to me.

Either that or maybe I'm just getting old.
Im in exactly the same boat on this one. I have no problem with swearing, I have no problem with swearing at/in front of/with my boss, that's something you do in the workplace all day every day.

It took me by surprise to see him, during an interview in which he's explaining why he missed work due to not setting his alarm (and hey, that happens too) struck me as a little odd and a bit boneheaded.

I also thought his eyes looked totally glazed too as if he'd been on a 2 day bender and didn't quite have a sense of normality back yet, lol.
 
Has Wilfork played any football this summer?

Pickup basketball? Check.
Wearing overalls? Check.
Eating barbecue? Check.
Scraping feet? Check.

Looks like a long summer vacation for Vince. Hope he's ready for some football in a couple of weeks.
 
I guess I'm gonna have to watch it again to make sure, but it sounded as if he said he turned his phone off, and then he didn't have batteries in his alarm clock?? WTF?

He reminded me of me when I was in the 9th grade and saying that to the assistant principle. God help him if does that again.

As I understand it, his phone died..........and he didn't have ANY alarm clock..........said he planned to get a battery alarm clock so it would never happen again.
 
I wonder what percentage of people don't own a bedside alarm clock these days? Not one in our house. We all use the alarms on our phones.
Yep...and keep it plugged in all night. I work at Chick-fil-A but am always on time. To be a player on a professional team and be late is ******* pathetic.
 
Has Wilfork played any football this summer?

Pickup basketball? Check.
Wearing overalls? Check.
Eating barbecue? Check.
Scraping feet? Check.

Looks like a long summer vacation for Vince. Hope he's ready for some football in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, Vince is at that age where I'm not worried about him being ready to play some football in a couple of weeks. I think he's going to get more benefit from the time off than he would from preseason play.

But then there's always the "Ed Reed Situation" floating around in the back of all of our minds. Aging veterans haven't been a great investment for the Texans in the past. Sooner or later one of them will work out. It's bound to happen.
 
Are the Texans Shopping ILBs? Sounds Like It
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Patrick Starr
Yesterday at 11:21 PM
During HBO's Hard Knocks, General Manager Rick Smith made it no secret he is not afraid to trade players to make a deal get done.

Does Hard Knocks ever give insight into what NFL teams might be thinking? It might have with a small clip during the 4th episode for the Houston Texans.

In the scene Texans General Manager Rick Smith is on the phone talking to Denver Broncos’ General Manager John Elway about a potential trade deal. We all know the player being discussed was right tackle Chris Clark which left Smith reluctant to give up a draft pick to land Clark because he was entering his final year of his contract.

The small clip that really stands out is Smith discussing the inside linebacker position group.

Rick Smith: “I looked at that deal last night. I want to do it, I just have a hard time giving up a pick for a guy that is going into the last year of his deal. You’re good at inside linebacker, you like what you got.”

John Elway: “I would do the player for player but we are in good shape. We actually have a lot of depth. I am actually trying to move one or two guys too. I am in a battle for the 52 and who is going to make the 53.”

With all of that said it appears Smith had a deal on the table for Clark that involved one of the inside linebackers. Narrowing it down Brian Cushing, Mike Mohamed and Benardrick McKinneywould be considered off limits in our estimation.

At that moment during the show Jeff Tarpinian (who had a knee issue and later released), Akeem Dent, Max Bullough and Justin Tuggle were all on the roster. The Texans kept five inside linebackers last season and they are set to possibly lose an inside linebacker with value if they can not move one before the final roster is set. The inside linebacker position has some depth and they don’t want to lose Dent, Tuggle or Bullough for nothing in return.

Call us even more intrigued with the final days left prior to the 53-man being set.
 
Being late one time does not make one pathetic. Regardless of your chosen profession.

Problem with being late from oversleeping, there's usually a history. But hey, if it never happens again, all will be forgotten. But if it does . . :cutthroat:
 
Mallet sounded under the weather to me. And as far as any of us know. This is the first time he was late. With the reaction around here, one would get the idea he does this all the time. And like him I do not own a desktop alarm clock and have not for years. I set alarms on my phone for everything. Everyone has been late a time or two for one reason on another.
 
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I wonder what percentage of people don't own a bedside alarm clock these days? Not one in our house. We all use the alarms on our phones.

Many of my friends depend on their smartphones to get up in the mornings............all of them have told me of instances of pretty awful consequences where they thought their batteries were charged (and they were not) or they forgot to plug in and recharge their batteries at night or forgot to set their alarms or lowered or muted the volume to where they couldn't hear it go off or accidentally set the alarm for the wrong time or PM instead of AM. To be honest with you, I've been genuinely blessed with a very accurate built-in body alarm which has somehow always managed to let me awaken within ~5 minutes of when I'm supposed to get up (usually 5 minutes early), no matter what that time is. I seldom use a device to get the job done. On the other hand, I know some people that have 2 or 3 devices set for that purpose and still cannot reliably get up when they're supposed to.

I'd be very surprised to hear that anyone has NEVER missed or been late to a very important engagement because of, for whatever reason, their alarm device (human error or not) failed. I'm not sure that, if this is an isolated instance with Mallet, I can condemn him on that alone.
 
Many of my friends depend on their smartphones to get up in the mornings............all of them have told me of instances of pretty awful consequences where they thought their batteries were charged (and they were not) or they forgot to plug in and recharge their batteries at night or forgot to set their alarms or lowered or muted the volume to where they couldn't hear it go off or accidentally set the alarm for the wrong time or PM instead of AM. To be honest with you, I've been genuinely blessed with a very accurate built-in body alarm which has somehow always managed to let me awaken within ~5 minutes of when I'm supposed to get up (usually 5 minutes early), no matter what that time is. I seldom use a device to get the job done. On the other hand, I know some people that have 2 or 3 devices set for that purpose and still cannot reliably get up when they're supposed to.

I'd be very surprised to hear that anyone has NEVER missed or been late to a very important engagement because of, for whatever reason, their alarm device (human error or not) failed. I'm not sure that, if this is an isolated instance with Mallet, I can condemn him on that alone.

I too have a built-in alarm clock. It's called a wife who is an early riser!
 
Q is and, as I have posted in the past, will continue to undergo chemotherapy for 2 years (and this is anticipating no recurrence of his disease)..............during which his immunity will be reduced. Not a good situation in which to sustain any significant trauma to the body.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I have a question about Q's treatment and I can't figure out how to send you a PM.

Is the chemotherapy treatment always 2 years for his type of cancer? Or is it because the cancer was found late so the Dr's are being aggressive with it? I had a pretty nasty type of cancer few years back and was given an "aggressive" chemotherapy treatment, but it wasn't two years. I guess the blood cancers require a longer treatment to wipe it out completely? Hopefully his gets wiped out completely.
 
Mallet sounded under the weather to me. And as fast as any of us know. This is the first time he was late. With the reaction around here, one would get the idea he does this all the time. And like him I do not own a desktop alarm clock and have not for years. I set alarms on my phone for everything. Everyone has been late a time or two for one reason on another.
Well, you know what causes a stuffy nose......
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JK....hopefully
 
On a more serious note. I really really hope OB can eventually land the QB he wants while he's still in H-town. He seems like the 'perfect' coach to play for. He knows when to have a little light-hearted fun and when to put his foot down. Who knows what this offense/team could be if he had his guy under center.

I literally choked (came out my nose a little) on a sip of beer when OB flipped off James when he was waving the football in front of the bus. That caught me way off guard, but friggin loved it.
 
On a more serious note. I really really hope OB can eventually land the QB he wants while he's still in H-town. He seems like the 'perfect' coach to play for. He knows when to have a little light-hearted fun and when to put his foot down. Who knows what this offense/team could be if he had his guy under center.

Packers just cut Matt Blanchard. Caught my eye this preseason, now available. If timing has to be perfect (this is obviously not) we will have to wait again for another draft.
 
Not trying to hijack the thread, but I have a question about Q's treatment and I can't figure out how to send you a PM.

Is the chemotherapy treatment always 2 years for his type of cancer? Or is it because the cancer was found late so the Dr's are being aggressive with it? I had a pretty nasty type of cancer few years back and was given an "aggressive" chemotherapy treatment, but it wasn't two years. I guess the blood cancers require a longer treatment to wipe it out completely? Hopefully his gets wiped out completely.



From 6/10/14:
I have discovered that Quessenberry has been diagnosed specifically with T-cell lymphoblastic non-hodgkins lymphoma. T-cell as opposed to B-cell is quite uncommon (15% / 85% ratio), and T-cell generally carries a significantly poorer prognosis. The lymphoblastic variety makes up only 2%. In most cases, lymphoblastic lymphoma progresses to Stage IV prior to diagnosis. Tumors in this stage have spread to the bone marrow, spleen, and central nervous system. Chemotherapy, with or without radiation therapy, is the classic therapy, but bone marrow transplants have shown great response in appropriate cases, especially in cases of first time recurrences. As long as the disease is caught before significant bone marrow involvement is present, with intensive therapy, this particular T-cell variant the Quess has can sometimes be cured or placed in long term remission (~50%), even in stage 4.

Not knowing his disease's exact extent of involvement, I join in wishing Quess a complete recovery and a return to the Texans following his lengthy intensive treatments, and an adequate post-treatment rest and significant "rebuild" period.


From 12/23/15:

Playoffs, thanks for posting this follow up! Rep coming your way.

Treatment for non-Hogkins acute lymphoblastic lymphoma is a long and hard road, especially when not caught until advanced. In order to have any real semblance of success, many times an 8 drug regimen of treatment must be maintained through a 2 year period. Even with this, if a remission is accomplished, the recurrence rate within a year or two of treatment is quite high. Radiation to the chest (mediastinum) is usually necessary to combat the tumor typically found at diagnosis. The drug methotrexate, delivered directly into the spinal fluid, is usually included to try to prophylactically protect or treat the brain and spinal cord from involvement.

All of these drugs are heavy duty and have very real and severe potential toxicities to the kidneys, liver, lungs and bone marrow. During treatment, these patients' immunities are also severely depressed with the ever present worry of severe infections which can be extremely difficult to treat. All of the above treatment factors in themselves lend the patient to high morbidity and mortality.

My prayers continue to go out to David......for a total cure......but more realistically, for a significant remission.

Essentially, to answer your question, the highest recurrence period with this aggressive cancer is in the first 2 years. Therefore, most of these patients are maintained on some form of chemotherapy for ~2 years after time of diagnosis. Hope this answers your question
 
From 6/10/14:



From 12/23/15:



Essentially, to answer your question, the highest recurrence period with this aggressive cancer is in the first 2 years. Therefore, most of these patients are maintained on some form of chemotherapy for ~2 years after time of diagnosis. Hope this answers your question
Thanks. And apologies for not remembering these posts, the memory ain't what it used to be. Radiation to the chest. Damn, that will compromise the stamina he will need. Not to mention all the side effects from the chemo. I'm pulling for him. good luck to him.
 
On a more serious note. I really really hope OB can eventually land the QB he wants while he's still in H-town. He seems like the 'perfect' coach to play for. He knows when to have a little light-hearted fun and when to put his foot down. Who knows what this offense/team could be if he had his guy under center.

I literally choked (came out my nose a little) on a sip of beer when OB flipped off James when he was waving the football in front of the bus. That caught me way off guard, but friggin loved it.


This. I don't want to draw too many Belichick parallels but I'd hate to be in the situation where Cleveland (later Baltimore) was with Belichick not quite getting it together and then being shown the door, later to become "Genius-Hoodie-Dark Lord" once he got the QB he needed. There have to be few more frustrating things than missing a great HC like that.

Or the Jets. He was literally hired right out from under their noses.

Maybe drafting your franchise QB, having him bust, and then put it all together later for another team. That would suck (but seems more unlikely to me). If Carr had gone on to great success somewhere I'd have been so pissed off.
 
I wonder what percentage of people don't own a bedside alarm clock these days? Not one in our house. We all use the alarms on our phones.
I use my phone; haven't owned an alarm clock in years. Grabbed Zedge and some of the loudest ringtones on earth. :D
 
Mallet did not come off well on HK last night at all. I didn't buy his story to Rick Smith one bit. I wanted him to win the QB slot because I think he has a higher ceiling than Hoyer, but having watched that and seen how he reacts to adversity I'm not sure I want him running my team. Maybe it was a one off and he can get back on track, but for me, he's got a ton to prove now.

One thing I'm interested in is what HK did *not* show. There must have been fireworks between BoB and Mallet, I'm wondering if the Texans asked HK not to air any of that for fear of creating an irreparable rift.
 
I wonder what percentage of people don't own a bedside alarm clock these days? Not one in our house. We all use the alarms on our phones.
If it's important, you use both. But I never turn my phone off. Maybe I turn it to vibrate and forget to turn it back to audio, but never off. I've also used wake-up calls at times, even if not staying at the hotel at the time. Some will do it for you.

But sometimes things conspire to thwart all your plans.
 
Hard Knocks: Houston Texans’: The Sadness of Cut Day, the Joy of Vince Wilfork in Overalls and Cowboy Boots
by SHEA SERRANO

The Houston Texans are the subject of this season’s Hard Knocks, HBO’s wonderful mini-documentary series that follows a professional football team for the weeks leading up to the start of the season. Disclosure: The Houston Texans are going to win the Super Bowl this year. Another disclosure: They’re going undefeated, too. Final disclosure: I root for the Texans.

Some things that happened last night in Episode 4:

The FUCKs Competition Between Bill O’Brien and Linebackers Coach Mike Vrabel (UPDATE)

It’s no longer a competition, or if it is, then it’s a competition the way the Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl was a competition, or the way John Wick vs. Those Guys in the Nightclub was a competition. O’Brien put on a world-class FUCK exhibition in Episode 4, delivering 15.5 variations of FUCK to just one from Vrabel. O’Brien was Jordan putting up six 3-pointers in the first half of Game 1 of the ’92 Finals. He was the Predator in the first half of Predator. Coach Vrabel, he stood tall. He was brave and he was fearless and he was determined. He stood on that log and cut a line across his chest in a declaration of war just like Billy did.

And he got mowed down just like Billy did, too.

O’Brien: 52.5

Vrabel: 26​

The Best Editing of the Episode

During a segment about linebacker Kourtnei Brown, the narrator made mention of Brown’s having been cut by five different NFL teams since 2012, with the voice-over saying the phrase “his dreams seemingly just beyond his reach” as they showed a slow-motion shot of Brown diving to tackle a running back, missing him by inches. It was a way better moment than the tricky lead-in they did last week to Brian Cushing vomiting all over the field.​

VINCE WILFORK’S OVERALLS

hardknocks4-wilforkoverals3.jpg
HBO

I don’t even know.

How do you even?

What farm is he tending to? I bet it’s got the biggest fucking vegetables and livestock.

I super can’t wait for Green Mile 2: Coffey’s Revenge.​

All of the Things J.J. Watt Did, Ranked

1. J.J. Watt shouting, “They can take as many tries as they need, they’re not getting in,” after his defense stopped the offense from scoring from the 2-yard line on four straight attempts. And then after that, digging the knife in further, dismissively asking, “You sure you don’t want some more work on that?” J.J. Watt talking **** will always be captivating.

1a. J.J. Watt eating 600 pounds of barbecue. He went with Vince Wilfork (and another guy who I couldn’t immediately recognize) to Killen’s Barbecue, a place that regularly requires you to wait upward of two hours to be fed, though I suspect Watt and Wilfork (and the other guy) were served much quicker than that. Right before we’re shown Watt and Wilfork at the restaurant, we see them walking around at practice talking about eating barbecue. After they decide to do so, Watt asks Wilfork, “What kind of meat are you getting?” Wilfork, ever the hero, pauses for a bit, then responds, “All of it.” Watt and Wilfork are the best interracial buddy-cop movie that I have ever seen.

1b. J.J. Watt laughing at something Vince Wilfork said. These two are great together.

1c. J.J. Watt talking about having lost his fifth-grade spelling bee.

1d. J.J. Watt breaking down a huddle.

1e. J.J. Watt standing as part of a huddle.

1f. J.J. Watt wiping sweat off his face.

1g. J.J. Watt making a funny face while trying to catch a football.

1h. J.J. Watt drinking a protein shake, then talking about treating his body like how Olympic athletes treat theirs. (This was before he and Wilfork attempted to eat an entire elephant.)

1i. J.J. Watt holding a towel around his neck while giving advice.​

I Am So Happy for the Too-Small Cornerback Charles James II

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HBO

He’s great. He’s become a legit underdog hero in Houston. When the Texans put him at running back at the end of this past preseason game against the Saints and he broke a 70-plus-yard touchdown run the first time he was shown touching the ball, I got at least as many messages about it as I do whenever J.J. Watt does something incredible. He’s going to make the team. He has to. HE HAS TO. Every time they show him, he’s doing something good. It’d be just a totally crushing move if the Hard Knocks people dedicated all this camera time to him, all of this energy to making us all fall in love with him, only for us see him get his throat slit in the last episode. He has to make the team. HE HAS TO.​

I Am So Scared for the Charming-But-Not-That-Great-at-Catching Wide Receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu

With the exception of Charles James II, no player has presented himself as more positive, more likable, more root-for-him-worthy than Uzoma Nwachukwu. In Episode 3, he was the one who oozed charm during an off-day trip to Space Center Houston. In Episode 4, he did the exact same thing, except this time during a fishing trip with fellow wide receiver Travis Labhart. I desperately want for him to make the team. But it feels a lot like he’s going to end up a casualty of numbers — there are 12 receivers trying out for, at most, six available spots.

Best-case scenario: Charles James II makes the team and Uzoma makes the team, too.

Middle-case scenario: Charles James II makes the team and Uzoma does not make the team and I cry a lot.

Worst-case scenario: Neither Charles James II nor Uzoma make the team and I hang myself.

Whether Charles James II and Uzoma Nwachukwu make the team is the only plot point I’m concerned with for next week’s final episode, truly.​

The Most Houston Moment of the Episode

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HBO

Shortly after Brian Hoyer was named starting quarterback, Ryan Mallett, the person he beat out for the job, missed practice. Mallett blamed missing practice on his phone’s alarm, but that’s (probably) not what actually happened. I’ll tell you what (probably) actually happened.

This will be Mallett’s second season in Houston. He’s been here long enough now that he’s become infected with supreme pettiness, which saturates the Houston atmosphere and is a thing that eventually soaks its way into every Houstonian. The only people who were upset that Mallett missed that practice were people who don’t live in Houston and sports-talk radio people, who, as far as I can tell, have jobs where they pretend to be very mad at stuff like that. Nobody in Houston cared. In fact, we all decided we liked him more for doing that. I am a big, big fan of supreme pettiness.

One time — this was, like, eight months after I’d moved to Houston — my wife asked me to take her to some fancy restaurant I didn’t want to take her to. I said no. She said it didn’t matter, that I was taking her anyway, and to go get dressed. And so I did. I put on a muscle shirt, a pair of basketball shorts, a fake fur coat, and dress shoes. I understand that that sounds like a lie or an embellishment, but it is 100 percent not.

I came out of the room like, “OK, I’m ready to go.” She just looked at me, and she was like, “That’s what you’re wearing?” And I was like, “Yep.” And she said, “Let’s go then.” I’d been in Houston long enough that the pettiness had found its way into me, so that’s why I dressed up like that. But she was born there and had been there for 20 years already before I even met her. She trumped my pettiness with TRUE PETTINESS. She made me sit in that restaurant in those stupid clothes and it didn’t faze her even a tiny amount.

The longer you’re here, the more developed your pettiness becomes. Shout-out to you, Ryan Mallett. I hope that after Hoyer messes up a few times and they decide to put you in the game that you for real throw an interception on purpose. You deserve that. You’ve earned that.​

The Most Profound Moment of the Episode

hardknocks4-labhartwalk.jpg
HBO

Episode 4 was the first of two Cut Day episodes, wherein the Texans trim their roster from the original 90-plus players down to 53. The last few minutes showed Coach O’Brien in meeting after meeting, explaining to player after player why he wasn’t going to make the team. The last person brought in, wide receiver Travis Labhart, listened to O’Brien talk, mentioned that he had considered giving up playing football and possibly transitioning into a coaching role, then stood up, shook O’Brien’s hand, and walked out. The cuts themselves are bad enough; watching these guys — most of whom are still in their twenties — be told that they don’t have a job anymore is hard enough. But with Labhart, when he was walking out, when he was walking down the hallway in slow motion, the narrator verbalized the philosophical drama that appeared to be playing out in Labhart’s head...

“Imagine your lifelong dream ending,” he said as Labhart walked, staring forward at nothing except heartbreak.

“Where do you go?”

“Who do you tell?”

“How do you begin again?”

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