EXCLUSIVE

Arian Foster — along with his brother and father — was involved in a heated standoff at a hot dog stand in Houston this weekend … and it all started with shoe smack talk.

TMZ Sports has footage of Arian, his brother Abdul and father Carl at Yoyo’s Hot Dog around 3 AM on Sunday … and at first, it seems the ex-NFL star is having fun with some local college kids. Foster says the other man’s shoes are “awful.”

But things quickly took a turn — witnesses tell us the college students felt Arian took the insults too far, so they began shouting back at him. Someone shouted at Arian, “You’re not even relevant anymore, n***a.”

Abdul was pissed — and tried to confront the insult hurler (who we’re told is black). Adbul then got physical with 2 people and that’s when Arian and Carl rushed in to break the whole thing up.

At one point, Arian says to one of the students, “F**k you, n***a.”

Witnesses told us someone threw a hot dog in the melee … but it was broken up before things escalated into a brawl and everyone left when someone threatened to call police.

We reached out to Arian’s camp — they had no comment.