The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Amen Thompson Tosses Tyler Herro, Should Texans Rest Starters? Best/Worst H-Town Sports Moments Of 2024

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" react to Houston Rockets forward Amen Thompson throwing Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro to the floor igniting a scuffle that ended with six ejections in the Rockets' 104-100 loss. Matt and Ross also:listen to Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans' latest comments regarding Sunday's matchup against the Tennessee Titansdiscuss Miami quarterback Cam Ward's decision to sit out the second half of the Pop-Tarts Bowlshare their best and worst moments in Houston sports this year and more.

Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10.3 at H-Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790, where we are here to entertain, inform, infuriate. Me and Ross both had our separate issues this weekend on the social platforms. Yeah, I guess I've got into, not in Twitter fights.

Twitter squabbles. Yeah, that's fine. Not I muted everyone. Mute button is your friend, folks. I'm going to mute more in 2025. When I doubt, mute. I've got over 2,100 accounts muted. I've blocked over 10,000 people.

Wow. Yeah. I'm proud of you. So real quick on this, not that I wanted to start the show of this, but I have a lot of bot accounts that follow me, and I don't like them, so I've blocked them immediately. And I figure out, how does this happen? The people that are bots that follow me,

and I don't want to throw somebody on the bus, so I'm not going to do it. but another member of the Houston Sports Media follows these people. And that's how they must follow me. He follows them back? Correct. Because you know I always says if somebody follows you,

it'll say followed by something. A suggestion, yeah. No, this is. Okay, and you go to their page. But they're following you as they follow suggestion because that person follows you back. Yeah. Okay.

And I'm like, I want to reach out of this media person. You should. I want to say, why are you following these bots? Hmm. Okay. Because if I unfollow him, then I got to. shot at getting rid of some of these people.

I don't think so. Just leave them B-Matt. The bots aren't going to do anything to you. But I like it. I like an organic number. You like to keep it natural. Correct. Okay. That's right. Wow.

Last night. What? It's not often you see two coaches and let's see. One, two, three, five players get tossed. I lost track after a while. I think it was five. Well, it was three on the side of the rocket. Van Vleet

and Jalen Green and then of course Amin Thompson who's probably going to be facing more than an ejection my guess of the NBA will be suspending him

for the takedown of one Tyler Hero I mean he flipped him down like a ragdoll that was impressive strength shown by by one of Men Thompson let me tell you about

Amin Thompson he's becoming one of my favorite players on the team I might have to put him number one right now if we're doing like week to week power rankings

first of all he's a good kid number two he works incredibly hard He does the little intangibles. The shooting still is a little bit of an issue, but it's better. So hopefully progression is where you want to go. Will they ever be a knockdown, dragout 40% perimeter shooter from three? I don't think so.

But if he gets to say in the 34, 35 range, it'll be respectable. So more than Jalen Green right now. You let me finish. Oh, sorry. But he can defend four positions. three extraordinarily well against bigger power force he's going to have some issues but one through three there is nobody in the NBA he's afraid of guarding now Tyler hero last night was unguarable like he's typically been against the rockets

hitting one three after the other he's climbing up the rocket's called heywood high smith is was hitting baskets that's some kid in a high school at on a in a basketball movie i wish it was heywood high smith the basketball star he wore number 20s 24 last night for the Miami Heat. He had some big baskets. And then Nicola Yovich, not to be confused with Nicola Yochich. Yes. It's a plumb I playman's a nightmare, to be honest with you. He was hitting shots all over the place.

Kevin Love, who didn't play in the previous four games, started each of the first in the third quarters. It was an odd night. Graduated high school with Jimmy Carter, still in the league. RIP, Jimmy Carter. Believe it or not today, 150 today. So the heat are an average basketball. basketball team that have some big wins and they're playoff tested. And Eric Spolster is one of the probably 15 greatest coaches as so says the NBA in the history of the NBA.

And they won the basketball game yesterday. And it got very testy. And I'm just going to say this because I need to be somewhat careful on this. So I'm going to be as polite, but as succinct as I can. And so you know how I feel. I believe the NBA referee is the hardest officiated thing to do in sports today. First of all, it's 48 minutes. Up and down the floor.

Up and down the floor. The NBA is a fluid game where the college basketball game is choppy and stoppage and all over it. I mean, it's not that college basketball is easy. I'm just saying if you're going to take everything, every sort of officiating. Football is one play at a time. Baseball is one pitch at a time. You get a chance to rest in between. I mean, you don't get to go on the best.

You don't get to sit down for 12 minutes. You get foul trouble. You're not sitting for a bar. You have to officiate. And I think, frankly, a lot of officiating bashing is the low-hanging fruit. I listen to a lot of my counterparts in the NBA, and they spend an externally long amount of time bashing officials, where I think it hurts your credibility of a broadcast. That's my own personal thing. With that being said, there's only real, I don't have a tremendous amount of respect for Mark Davis.

when Mark Davis calls a game, something's going to go sideways. Now, in perhaps his defense, he had two extraordinarily young officials working with him yesterday. I believe the third guy was a rookie. The other guy was probably second or third year guy. So there is maybe some of the, I'm the official that's been there.

I've done NBA finals. I've been calling games for 20 years. I've got two guys of less than three years' experience. Maybe I've got to take over a game. But if you had asked both sides, both Miami and Houston after the game, they felt like the game was clunky from an officiating standpoint. There are a lot of inconsistencies. Add on top of the fact that in the NBA and the sport of basketball roster, as you know this,

you can blank talk a lot because there's no helmet on. You're on the floor for long periods of time. You run by the bench. Like if you want to blank talk when you're in baseball, when you hit a home run, you can only shout at the dugout if you're running first base or rounding third. you're next to the opposing benches and talking to the guys literally every other trip down the floor, right? So there is going to be more blank talking in basketball than there is any other sport, not even close. Football is probably second, but basketball is number one.

Yes. So at some point, when you blank talk for a while, it can just be good fodder, interesting, comical, loose, and then sometimes it probably gets more personal that should have been. And clearly last night, Tile Hero was saying some things that probably drew the ire of the Houston Rockets and, of course, the second year player in a man, Thompson. And that's when a men went with a hip toss on a hard concrete car, on a, what is it, a parquet or hardcore or what it was. Hard floor? Hard floor. And as you said, he's got grown man strength.

That was, he made that look easy. That was a hip toss that I think wrestlers in the WWE would be jealous of. It looked like they were practicing in judo class. And it's funny because I was watching Eme Adoka and Ben Sullivan, his assistant coach, get tossed. E may had to get held back. So I'm watching them cross half court and Emae was really mad. And then I hear a whistle. And then the next thing I see, because I'm shielded by the bench of Miami is I see Thompson go down.

And I'm like, oh, this is bad. Well, he went down because he was busy flipping over Tyler Herald. And then Jalen Green got involved. Terry Rozier got involved, ejections galore, and what it could have been a very interesting last minute of the game became basically free throws

left and right, and the Rockets on inability to shoot free pointers and make perenter of shots in the fourth quarter. Alperin Shangoon, who was just about automatic in the first half, was largely not a part of the offense in the second half, I think probably because of Miami did that. Bamato Bio could do those things to you, and the Rockets lose their second consecutive

home game to a playoff team. Miami's not great, but they're a playoff team. Yes, start in this homestand. We've been mentioning it, marking it on the calendar. Five straight games against playoff eligible teams. At home, how are they going to do? I was hoping for three and two are better. Well, they got to win the next three.

You do it. Starts January 1st. It's no looking, donchitz against the Mavericks. Still have Kyrie Irving. Yeah, he's still good. Will you have, you will not have Naji Marshall to fight with either, so he won't be unavailable. I believe PJ Washington will be back for the Mavericks.

And then you have... Because now you marchion got in a fight. Yeah. There's people can throw hands in the NBA. Everybody's saying this on Twitter. Oh, the NBA sold the ratings are low, so they start a bunch of fights, get the ratings back up. I mean, it's helping on social media, at least. I don't know if it works in the 80s and 90s. Yeah, why not. That's right. That's right.

And then you got the Boston Celtics coming into town. Who, by the way, lost last night to Indiana. So there's something on that. And then you close things out with 40-year-old LeBron James. If he's not injury. managing. Like Jimmy Butler was last night. Yeah. No Duncan Robinson,

no Jimmy Butler, and Tala Hero goes off. Like he has on Forks against the Rockets a lot. Rockets have lost now, I think, nine straight games to Miami. Well, at least they've snapped the Warriors curse, so the heat curse is next. Well, we got one more. It's going down there in February.

Okay. All right. On the radio program today, Damico Ryan's are going to speak at 1215 today. I cannot believe there is anybody that's suggesting the Texans rest their starters this week. Yeah, I just said it. And I'll explain more coming up. Ooh, look at this guy.

Still got it. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 on Twitter at SportsMT, at Sports RV, and at Connor Nie McGovern. Today is also a theme day for us. Today is the best moment in 2024-Hustin Sports. in the worst moment. We'll compile a list.

We don't do list radio, but it's December 30th. What are you going to do? Yeah. Because I think you guys briefly brought this up on Friday's show. Yes, organically it came up. And briefly, meaning I listened for like three minutes. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. You're welcome. And then, so I really want to know, I don't even know if there's a

is there a definitive best? I don't think a definitive, but there's a number one in my mind until it gets unseeded by something else. Okay, so if you would like to tell us what the best moment of the year in sports in Houston. Again, something involving, I don't know, Ohio State beating Michigan again. Or no, Michigan being in Ohio. That's not the best one.

I'm talking about Houston. It's got involved in Houston. College or pro Houston sports team. Right. Like Shea Wickham getting four errors in a game. That's Houston sports. The Houston Dash beating somebody. That would be, you know.

I think they did well this year. Okay, but my point is it's got to be, it's got to have Houston somewhere in the, in the conversation. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Believe it or not, today is at 150 RIP. We got a lot of RIPs.

Greg Gumble passed away from CBS, longtime NFL, well, sports broadcaster. First African-American to call Superboy to call two of them. Jimmy Carter passed away yesterday at the age of 100. And Linda Lavin, who was Alice, on the very popular show in the late 70s and 80s, Alice. passed away this morning.

She was the one, she was the housekeeper for the Brady Bunch? No, that was just Alice of the Brady Bunch. Alice was, she divorced her husband, moved to Phoenix. She wanted to be a singer and she wound up working at Mel's Diner. She wanted to be a singer and moved to Phoenix? Yeah, it didn't work out well for her. I could see that. And she had a good friend and her name was Flo and she didn't tell people to kiss her grits.

Believe that or not. I'm going to believe it. You should believe it. 7-1-3-212-5-790. The best moment and the one. worst moment of Houston sports. We'll discuss that all throughout the day today. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790.

All right. We mentioned Rockets. I want to get a little baseball chatter going today. Jeff Passing just continues to be a Hall of Fame D of the year, year in and year out. He's not going to win it tomorrow, but his little, what do you call it when you're just patronizing is what it is to the Dodgers and how much you just love it on him? Oh, it's just pathetic. I just don't like him. Cowtowing? Cowtowing. How do you

gargling? You know what I mean? You know, for being blunt. Hmm. Okay, we'll get to that. I'm going to the synonyms here. Servile? Big word. All right. So the Texans, last time we checked, got destroyed by the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas Day. Subservient. Let's use that.

Whatever. And then there are people like, you can't play CJ, you can't play Joe Mixing, Timmery Tensel. Why would you want those guys to have the last haste in their mouth of a complete beatdown, 31 to 2? Forget about the, even if they had won the game, I think you play it. Again, I am not going to ever think that the Texans should play these guys four quarters. But that's an awfully long layoff.

Like, I think the Chiefs are. going into a little of a dangerous territory. It'll be 25 days in between their games. Because they're going to rest their starters already. They're already off for, they get the buy, because there's really a real true buy. And I know this practice, but that seems to me a long period of time.

I just think the long period of time is one factor. And number two, Ross, you had just such a poor outing. I think you have to kind of work through some of the kinks. You have to kind of go through a few plays, see what it's like, because the last taste of Houston Texans' offense could not score. And that's why I think you do play the starters, probably at least. I would say at minimum a quarter, maybe the most a half, but I think you do play them. I will first say that I agree with you.

Okay. If you and I were co-head coach of the Texans, starters would be out there. Probably at least two drives, depending on how those go. if they're disasters, we would play a little bit more. If they get a field goal and a touchdown, maybe it's time to shut it down. I don't necessarily think it's a question of how many points you score. It's just, can you move down the field? I would like maybe two drives.

If it's two, three and outs, and they're committing penalties and losing yards, then yeah, I would send them out more. If it's that bad, is what I'm saying. There's a couple sustained drives. You're getting some, you know, if somebody's moving and stuff like that, then maybe it's time to shut it down. But I guess if D'Amico Ryans and the Texans are going to be sitting their starters this much

I mean maybe in their mind it's you know the Ravens game happened but they've moved on to where they've been having practices they've been having meetings they're talking about the Titans they're talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers or God forbid the Ravens again so you know maybe it sticks more in our mind as that is their last game than for them

is the only thing I can think of is a reason why they are in their they know their team better than we do and that's okay I would hope so but I I am of the belief that you can

as much as you want to try to simulate real game atmosphere you cannot in a practice session I would say get them out there get them out there for a little bit and I believe some I can't remember who told me this or I was listening on the radio so I don't know who it was

and whoever it is if I should give you credit for but I didn't hear it, is that the Texans approach, and it's like most other teams, is don't play your starters during the preseason, and sometimes that gets you off to sluggish starts. Kansas City plays their starters during the preseason, thus they get off to faster starts.

And I think that's not, it's not apples to apples on this, but I don't want the Texans to get off to a slow start in the playoff game. And if they're looking at two and a half weeks in between games, I can't imagine they're going to jump on the field a week from Saturday I'm presuming they're playing Saturday at 4.30 or at 3.30, whatever. And be all guns of blazing.

I don't think practice gives you that feel. I think just going against somebody else's defense, forgetting me about the hits. You know, obviously you want to get no one hurt. But just going against somebody that doesn't know what you're going to do is a challenge. Yeah, a couple of things. To me, it's also a discussion of C.J. Stroud and than everyone else.

In C.J. Stroud, you were, I don't know if we played it when you were here, Matt, but he mentioned being banged up. And one of the, one of the, you said, there was a question posed to him about what's different from this year and last year, and he talked about being banged up. And then he immediately tried to correct himself and say, yeah, but that's not an excuse if I'm out there, blah, blah, blah.

So if it's C.J. Stroud, and we don't know how hard, we don't know how close to 100% is it. That's true. 50% is he 85%? Is he 99%? We don't know. So if it is with, in the case of C.J. Stroud, if he's more banged up than we, we, has been led, on, then I'm really okay with him

not being up there. And maybe he does. And we won't know this. And we're going to have CJ, we're going to have Domingo speak at 1215. Maybe he'll give us a further answer, but maybe two and a half weeks off might help. Yeah, the question will be posed. And so it'll be interesting. And Domingo knows this. The media knows this. The question's going to be

one of the first couple of questions out of the gate. So we should get an answer. Let's guess. Do you think he'll be forthcoming or do you think he'll be like, you know, we're going to see how the week goes along, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because Dimeco gets a name lessons coach speak. That's true. I'm going to guess, okay, gut feeling A, he's going to answer the question directly, or fairly directly. Gut feeling B, I don't know exactly what his answer is going to be.

If I was a bet, if there was a betting line for this. Yes. And we were at the window. Uh-huh. And it said either you take him being forthcoming or speak, what would be, uh, not, would trite be the term I want to use? Coach speak, no. Um, trite means more like, glib would be more forthcoming. So it's, whatever, whatever's anti-glibe. Um, surreptitious? I'm sorry. If there's a word, surreptitious is at the pay window? I'm going with that.

I think he's going to go, we're going to see how the week moves along. I think we're going to get no firm clarity on the situation. Let's just go secretive. Yeah. And in all cases, in this particular week, you don't have to be secretive. It's the Tennessee Titans. They have literally nothing to play for. In fact, it'd be in their best interest to lose.

Yeah, I could see it going any number of ways. I could see him being like, yeah, we want to play our guys, we want to stay in rhythm, you know, we want to keep things going, build momentum into the playoffs, something like that. What was the Texans win total on the Vegas line this year before the seat? Was it nine and a half? It was nine and a half. Don't act like you don't know. Oh, wow.

You know what? Yeah, you're going to win your bet because the division is so bad. It was supposed to be you'd lose because the division is so bad, but you're actually going to win because the division is so bad. Let's talk. David, Danny Mills and the boys can still beat the Titans though. Sandy on seven. You're not out of the woods yet. Hi Sandy. Good morning. Good morning. So I'm going with a very female feel good answer on the best moment. All right. Hold on. Hold on. You went

female feel good moment. Hmm. Yeah. All right. Now let me ask you this before you tell us what it is. Why would you drop the female? Is there, is there like an asterix to whatever you're about to say or what? No, there's not, it's not an asterisk, but it's just for those heartwarming moments for me, maybe more so than anything on the field. All right, ladies and gentlemen, the female perspective of the Houston sports moment of 2024 would be what? El Tzuvae signing in February to be an astro for life.

Say that one more time? That was a great moment. Altuva signing to be an astro for life. Oh, okay. Okay. That sounds good. Sandy, thank you very much. Have a great week, and we appreciate it listening.

Astro for life. I'm going to write that down. I've got to go into paper. Well, I'd like him to play better in the field than he didn't watch. It wasn't terrible. I mean, there was slight regression. It is what it is. Okay.

You're being dismissive. I mean, look, if you look at certain websites, like Fielding Bible. Wait, okay. Time out. Yeah? The average person's not looking at Fielding Bible. No, you're above average. I'm talking about what the average person is doing.

These are the facts of the facts of the facts. If you want to bury your hand, if you want to bury your head in the sand, Fielding Bible. And ignore what's out there and pretend it doesn't exist. That's fine. But the fact of the matter is, he's been the,

by those metrics, he's been the worst second baseman in baseball the last two years. According to Fielding Bible. Yes. Okay. Now, my guess is, in all honesty, Fielding Bible is using a lot of the same metrics. He should be the best then.

I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, he's the best of all time. If you want me to lie. If you want me to sugarcoat, we can do that.

No, no, no, no. As one, a wise man once said, we deal in realities on this show. We deal in Fielding Bible. Sir, you look at the biggest, dorkiest websites. And I gave you credit for that. You know who referred me to that site? I'd never heard of it. Chandler.

Manler, Mom. He's a part of the family. Okay, Chandlero. Fielding Bible. All right. Well, if they have him as the worst, it's not like they got it so wrong. He's the best. Well, no, I wasn't saying that.

But I'm just saying when I watch him play, I don't go, this is an eyesore. Like, I'll give you a kid. You ready for today's analogy today? Are you sure? You haven't seen some of his misthroats? Stop it. Saturday night live was on, obviously Saturday. It was a repeat.

Okay. And Stevie Nix was the guest singer. Okay. I'm a huge Stevie Nix fan. Fleetwood Mac. I'm staying with you. She's lost her fastball is where you going. I can't believe how.

bad the fastball is. It's like an Eiff's pitch. Now, granted, she's 76 years old. Yeah, give her a break, Matt. She sang two songs. One I didn't know was a new one. One was one of all-time classics. And she was like barking into the microphone.

Matter of fact, she was going, Roo, Roo, Rooh. Connor, I don't know if you can look it up on YouTube. See if you can get Stevie Nick singing Saturday Night Live. Why would you want to embarrass the young lady? Young lady, she's 76. She's worth

probably about a billion dollars. She's doing just fine. But I was such a big Stevie Nix fan that I was like, my God, this is the first time I've heard her bark. And it was terrible. She was barking, okay. I mean, it was like a seal.

Was it like a Yorkie? Oh, like a seal. Like a Clyde Drexler seal. Just a regular seal. Not clubbing baby seals. Yeah. Okay. Back to my point,

which I've screwed up here. I just, Jose dropped off, but I wasn't embarrassed to see him playing second base. And maybe I'm not watching every single ground ball his way or every single throw. He's, I think he's just average. It's also about range, which there are balls that he used to get to that he comes.

Correct. So if he dives for a ball and misses it, if you're just sitting there in the stands watching, like, dang, great play out. Could have got it. Right. If every other, or not every other, but if 25 out of 30 second baseman would have gotten there. And our friend that fielding Bible probably figured that out. Correct. That's fine. All right. 713, 212-790. All right. That is the, that we have one vote in for the. Houston sports moment of the year is Altuve signing a lifetime contract. You have one? 713, 212, 570.

And what's the worst moment of the year in Houston sports? 713-212-5-790. I want to tell you right now about game day men's health. If you are struggling with libido, if you're having a difficult time getting motivated to work out, if you're grouchy, if you're agitated, if your sleeping habits are poor, I want you to stop by one of the many locations of Game Day men's health. This is a company that has come to Houston within the last couple of years and exploded on the scene because their success around the country and helping people and guys with their testosterone is now worked its way to the Houston area. If you start TRT, that's testosterone replacement therapy, you're going to get a free vitamin shot as a little extra thank you for those folks.

First and foremost, go to their website and then find out where you can get a free T-level test. Game Day, men'shealth.com slash Houston. Game Day, men's health.com slash Houston. I believe there are now eight locations all throughout the Houston area with more coming in 2025. Get that free T-level check. And then if it's too low, start therapy with them with a licensed provider and you will get feeling better the way you used to feel. Game Day nationally successful. Now they're right here in Houston.

Game Day, men'shealth.com slash Houston. That's game day, men's health.com slash Houston. Hey, it's Craig Affirm. Listen to the home of the Rockets on your smart speaker. Just ask. Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on IHartRadio. Ed's the 17, a great Stevie Nix song. She was like yelling on the microphone.

I'm like, Stevie, this is not a good look. She's 76, Matt. Give her a break. I love her. I've seen her. That sounds like angry karaoke. That's exactly what it was. It was angry karaoke.

Now she's got a deep raspy-esque. I wouldn't say gravelly. Gravely? Gritty. Gritty is a better term. And I love her for that. And I bet in 1976 she was, well, I mean, I know from her voice perspective,

she was amazing, but there are other things that probably she did in 1976. They were amazing as well. Like what? Entertainment America. What is wrong with you? It's not that far off. This is the recording.

Yeah. Oh, this is such a jam. Maybe it's a little bit there. It's a little bit. It's a lot better. So. But I give her credit. She's barking this out.

A little. No, she's not a barker. I'm trying to help. She don't need me help. You know, she resides in Sedona, Arizona, which I hear is just magnificent. Maybe it's a. desert air has gotten to her. It's dried her out. But she was in New York singing on Saturday Night Live

or whatever it was. Yeah, it was made the climate change. Yeah. To New York. You can't, she got the dry nasal passages. The best part of that SNL that night was... Scratchy voice. It was hosted by Ariana Grande. When she impersonates other people, it's fantastic. Is it? I'll take your word for it. Didn't catch it. Yeah, she's very funny. I'm sure it's wonderful.

All right. What are we going? 713. I don't know. You wanted to talk wicked. No, I didn't see it. No. 71321. You saw it? You saw it? I heard it was really long. I don't remember. It was like two and a half or so. That's long for our movie.

Well, it's a part one. That's really long. They put part one on the thing, but they'd really only do act one of the play, and they're going to do another one, which is smart by them. Like a billion dollars a piece of off. Did you go with your nieces and nephews or what? You and as an adult? Yeah.

Good for you. I went with a young lady who really wanted to go. Okay. Did you sing along with them? I don't have a problem with musicals. I don't have a problem with them either. Okay. But did you sing?

Were the people in the movie? They have sing-along ones and that wasn't a sing-along one. Yeah, yeah. Apparently, they are very much do not sing during this. I ain't going to the sing-along one. I wanted to go to IMAX. And the CGI I look cool on IMAX. Yeah.

Okay. 713-212-570. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Okay, so we wrap up the how much the starters should play. I mean, again, anywhere between a quarter and a half. But I think, again, presuming that people are healthy, you need to be out there to get some mojo back.

I would agree. Okay. I tend to agree. We'll see if they agree. Now, you mentioned the starting, not playing at all in the preseason thing. The Texans won their first two games. Yeah. Again, that was somebody, I didn't come up with that thought.

I'm just saying that teams, teams typically will get off to slow starts because the starters don't go. Would you want to have that kind of rev up for, obviously, a much more important. important time of the year when they play the plows. By the way, it's either going to be Pittsburgh, the LA Chargers, or Baltimore. It feels like to me the Pittsburgh Steelers are coming here. I'm okay with that, more than Baltimore. Stay away, Baltimore. So you are on the leader of the Russell Wilson is the God category for...

I never see. Look at you. When did I say Russell Wilson is a god? I think check the tape. I think you went on the show and said, I demand that Russell Wilson take over for Justin Fields in Pittsburgh. I said... But they've regressed, though, have they not? Recently, yes.

When the change was first made, they were great. They were terrible against Kansas City. And now they've lost three in a row. And I mean, by blowouts. 27 to 13 to the Eagles, 34 to 17 to the Ravens and 29 to 10 to the Chiefs. All three playoff teams. That's correct. All three, frankly, high-ranked playoff teams.

Are the Bengals playing for anything this weekend? They take on the Bengals. Do the... Bingles still have a chance. It's got to be because it's a... I think... No, they put that on Saturday. mine.

So yeah, there's something to play for. Yeah, yeah. So the Bengals have something to play for. See, they're going to be the Bengals. The charges have clenched. The only teams that have not clenched, I believe, would be... The Broncos? The Broncos. Yeah, Broncos and the Bengals, it looks like. Oh, and the Dolphins. The Dolphins technically have a little bit of a chance.

Colts, by the way, got eliminated yesterday with their loss of the Giants. That's a shame. You know, Shane Steichen was supposed to be this really awesome, great, head coach people were like, you know, should the Texans have gone for Stuyken over to Miko Rhyans and the bloomoff that rose is done, right? Yeah, but I mean, it's been a tough situation there in Indianapolis. It's been Anthony Richardson and Joe Flacko's what they've been rolling out. But by the way, don't give up 45 points of the Giants who are screwing up the chance

to be the number one overall pick. Yeah, there's probably some idiot out there that picked up the Colts defense and Fantasy. Oh, by the way, are you the champ? No. We'll see what happens. I think, I think Tray's going to win. I'm up 30, but he has Joanne Jennings, Debo, Samuel, and Detroit defense.

So I would say I'm a slight underdog right now. Okay. How are we celebrating? I'm not celebrating. I picked up the Colts defense. They got me minus four. Oh, you picked them up this week? Yes.

And the Vikings defense against Green Bay. I was like, Vikings defense has been great, but against Green Bay, Colts against Drew Locke. We have a listener, Wix, on Twitter. It's like, please, Matt, help me.

No. Tell him to send it to Dr. Rota. Hold on. Let me finish the story. He said, should I go with, let me see what he said. He said,

do I start Darnell Mooney or Adam Thielen? Thielen had a huge game for Carolina. How did Mooney do yesterday? I think Mooney was decent, but I don't think he was as good as Thielen. I have to go back and look.

And so he can send me, Matt, I said, I'm not giving you the answer. I'll go text Roto and I texted Roto and Roto gave him the right answer. Okay, good. But he did not, did Roto help you out?

Thank you Matt. Did he offer you the... What does that have to do with anything what I'm talking about? Did he tell you to pick up the Colts defense? I think he did suggest one of them, but I mean, it's fine. Dr. Roto knows what he's doing.

He does. Fantasy football is mostly luck. Yeah. Not mostly, but it's a lot luck. Okay, I'm getting... Darnal Mooney had two catches for 37 yards. So Thielen had a much better day. Okay, I'm getting people email me about Stevie Nix's strange habits.

All right. I'm not going to read that one, Jay. Sorry, it's not going to happen. Jesus. RIP, Jimmy Carter. Mm-hmm. RIP, Greg Gumble. Yes.

These things happen in threes. RIP, Linda Labby. Oh, my God. Yeah, Jimmy Carter, Greg Gumble, and Linda Labvin. They're all in the same field. It happens in threes. They were all stars in the 70s. Greg Gumble wasn't a star in the 70s.

He was a TV sportscaster in Chicago in the 70s. It's not a star. He was an original ESPN guy. Was he? Wasn't the first couple of years? Believe it or not. I thought you were doing Jimmy Carter. Oh, yeah.

Can we do Greg Gumble tomorrow if nobody else dies? No, tomorrow's the best to believe it or not for the year. ND of the year. So Greg Gumble just stays on ice, huh? Well, that's what, it depends on what his family wants to do. I set it up. Thank you very much. 713-212-5-790.

713-212-1-2-5-790. We're opening up our phone lines all day to day because we are looking for the Houston sports moment of the year. And if you don't want us, call us, which I don't know why. We're friendly people. Give us the best moment and the worst. Rossi, I'm going to give you 15 minutes to declare yours.

You've already put yours out there. Yeah, I need to hear suggestions from people, though. So we need suggestions. 7-1-3-212-5-790. The best thing and the worst thing in sports in Houston this year. 7-1-3-2-2-7-90. More Matt Thomas. show with Ross.

Now on Sports Talk 790. All right, 1052. Are we adding, did you add Beyonce singing at halftime? Is that really the great, is that the greatest sports moment of the year? How about Ronelle Blanco's no hitter? Does that count?

Rinele Blanco's no hitter is going to be at or near the top of my list. Okay. As of right now. I'm not going to put Beyonce, it was nothing sporty about Beyonce. It was purely entertainment. What do you mean? Rodeo is sports. She was in a cowboy outfit, cowgirl outfit.

I mean, did we all get athletic inclined after that? Sure. Want to go work on our abs? Yes. Get the cardio? She was not part of a sports moment. I'm sorry. Your heart was pumping.

That's cardio, right? A lot of things that was pumping, yeah. All right. Jesus. You just cannot help yourself. Well, it's been a while. Several hours. 713, 212.

570. 713, 212. 5-7-90. Okay, so Al-Tube is signing. Ronell Blanco's no-hitter. I'm going to put in there Rockets finally beating Golden State. To go on to the

semifinals of the NBA Cup. And that got me to Las Vegas, where they took really good care of us. How was your... Did you lose money, though? Oh, I won. A lot. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay, good. And I saw the Eagles at... Well, what's left of the Eagles? Stop.

Most of them are so alive. At the spear. At the sphere. I can't say it. Spre. Spear. This is even greater in person. Say it again.

There's no V. I'm trying to put the V. Sphere. Sphere. Say S with fear. Sphere. Put an Sphere in front of fear. Sphere.

That's how you doing. I'll high five you on that. Sphere. That's exactly a sphere. Yeah. Thank you. That helps. I'm here for you.

That's why I was getting ready. It's like helping out my seven-year-old niece. No, but I mean, I had to worry about Nicola or Yovitch yesterday when we have Nicola Yokic. So, yeah, I mean, it's happening. Yeah, Yovic Yolich. You know, we should put you in an NBA spelling bee one day. That'd be fun. I would probably do pretty well.

I would actually do okay. I think that's what I'm saying. You do well because you study every team. It's better than the rap spelling bee. That was tough. The rap spelling bee was not a fine moment of my career. Oh, okay. So those are the high water marks.

Low would be... I don't put Baltimore beating the Texans in a divisional round as a low water point, because again, I don't think anybody thought they were going to win. We mentioned that as well, beating the Browns. Oh, Texans being the Browns. Joe Flacko... Especially the way the Browns came here earlier in the year and beat them so badly. The Big Bad Browns, and then they just boat race.

That was the high watermark for the Texans this year. We're like, oh, my gosh, this team has arrived. C.J. Stroud is here. We've got a franchise quarterback. This team can do anything. And then the Ravens game happened. Okay. Would you say Texans beating the bills would be a high,

would be a Houston sports moment of the year? Say again, Texans beating the bills? What's one game? Okay, you can say no. The narrative after that game was Sean McDermott blew the game. U of H going undefeated at Fortita Center again last year. That's not one moment. How'd they do in the tournament?

It did fine. That's good. The lead eight is great. Right? Sweet 16? There you go. Okay. That's still a good run.

Still a good run. So you can say Cougar Sweet 16, by the way, they're playing Oklahoma State tonight. Okay. In Stillwater? Wonderful. Is Oklahoma State any good? I don't know. Me either.

But it's Big 12, baby. Let's go. Oh, how about the Cougars beating Utah and Kansas State in back-to-back weeks, although Utah didn't make a bold issue? All right. Stop trying to force in the Cougars. It's not working. Okay.

Well, okay. So I got four moments right here. Al Tuve signing a lifetime deal. Ronell Blanco's no-hitter. Rockets finally beating Golden State. Texans beating the Browns. Did I miss the one that you were going to go with? It was the Brunel Blanco.

Oh, was it? Okay. Sorry about that. I mean, no hitters are special. And Rinal Blanco doing it at that point? And then he went on to have that great season and we weren't sure, you know, how state... He wasn't even supposed to start at the beginning of the season, right?

It was the injuries. How about this one? That's not necessarily something that would be... considered horrible, but the worst moment of the year for the Astros would be maybe Kyle Tucker being gone for three months. Yeah, him getting a shin bruise? Yeah. The worst shin bruise in history?

Oh, how about this? Cal Tucker being traded? Would that be a bad moment? Would that be a bad moment? Well, let's see. We got one more day for Bregman to get signed away. That'd be a bad moment. By the way, I think I'm tasting my lunch already.

There's no way. It's going to be five or under. No way. Okay. That's fine. Are we up in the bet? No. No, no, no, no, no. The bet is perfect where it is.

Okay. Six years, six years is Dutch. Yes. Five or less is me. Seven or more is you. Winning, yes. Yeah, we're going to be going to go to two o'clock. Like, you and I can go to B.C. Zerica and just getting a buffet and stuff.

I still owe you Korean barbecue. You ain't on it. I know. I know. I'm ready, too. By the way, you were in South Korea, correct? Yes. Did you hear that airline that? Yes. Did you fly to that airport?

No, no, no, no. The main airport is in Chun. And I did not. flight of that airport. Okay. I don't remember what airport that was over there, but yeah, that's a scary and horrible situation. Unbelievably sad. Because here's the thing, and I don't mean to get all aeronautical on you here, but the

plane landed. It was when the plane ran into the walls where the explosion took place. Gosh. 179 dead up to? Yeah, two people survived. Just, just awful. Just awful. All right, let's get to a little more positive stuff. Second

hour of the show. By the way, we're going to do the news at noon today, and then we're going to run, we're going to go here what Domeko had to say at 1215, so we got that coming up. We're looking for the best moment of the year in sports and the worst Houston. This is just Houston stuff. It's got it related to Houston. Could it be the Astros falling two straight at the Tigers in a wild card round? That certainly can't be a bright moment.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. What was your Houston best moment of the year in sports and your worst Houston sports moment? 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Right now I want to tell you about two Creeks Crossing Resort. The weather is so delightful right now. Could you imagine getting out in the 60 degree temperatures at night, mid-50s, and taking a nice stroll through the great area that is Two Creeks Crossing Resort?

They have these amazing waterfront cabins. They have these glamping tents. They've got yurts. They've got plenty of accommodations, whether it's you and the bride, you and your family, or maybe you're getting a couple of families together. This is an opportunity for you to go out and enjoy the fresh air in a perfect time of year to get away from it all up near Lake Livingston. 75 minutes, I would say, from the north end to Houston, probably about 90 from downtown.

It's just awesome. Please do yourself a favor. Try something different for a family getaway from one or two nights. Go to Two Creeks Crossing Resort.com. Check out the website, see what the availability are, all the modern amenities, workout facilities, there's high-speed internet, there is a catch-release pond, there's a pool during the summertime. I don't know if it's heater or not, but man, it's just, there's huge barbecue grills,

fire pit, very relaxing. But again, you get privacy in your own in your own accommodations, but you get the public facilities, which really makes it a nice resort. That's two creeks, crossing resort.com. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. It is our number two of four,

the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212.5.790. Rockets lost last night. Let's counter. excuse me Connor why don't you

play the audio of me and Adam Clinton seeing what we saw so we can see what we saw right yeah you saw what you saw didn't you see what you saw here's what I saw and now we got him in

Thompson and Hero and Jalen Green and a bunch of players on both sides I caught it late but man Thompson got thrown down Tyler Hero is being restrained Thompson on the rocket side Rozier getting involved

Shengoon getting involved My man Thompson tossed Tyler here down Like a rag doll Couldn't have said it better Adam Clinton He's a very accurate description From one Adam Clinton Because I was When you're trying to call everything

You're trying to see everything Like Adoka is getting Super pissed at mid-court Ben Sullivan is top assistant It's like Why did you throw me out then yet before that you had van vleet bumping mark davis and he got tossed well those rockets are a scrappy bunch

you know uh they i don't know if they're the bad boys but they're the don't F with me boys yeah are we going to come up with a nickname for him bad boys what you're going to do when they come for you the H-town brawlers hmm i don't know i don't know i just made that up but it was funny because Tilling brooks wasn't involved any of that no I mean, if you were to pick a fight with a member of the Miami, he, Tally Hero's probably on top of the board. Yes.

By way, can we, let me know, Connor when you have the Tatar Hero sound. There is one sound by making its waves around the world. Okay. And so we'll let you hear what Tyler Hero had to say about. Is he talking all tough? I saw one, Shmattam-Schmanton tweeting about it. Yeah, Shmonging him soft. Shockingly, Adam Clanton was talking about somebody on Twitter,

starting Twitter fights. Shm-M-M-Shmintin-Tin-Nin-N-Ton. And I watched Tyler Hero jack up a bunch of shots like he's done over the rockets the last three or four years. Well, he did quite well. But yeah, Dylan was not involved in that. We did see Terry Rozier get involved. We saw Jalen Green get tossed. Freddie got knocked for the five-second call.

And as I brought up on the broadcast, I don't know if it was a five-second count or not. I'm not the one going 1001, 1002, 1003. Did you see the bump that Van Blee did the Mark Davis? I did not It didn't again The rule is whether it's intentional or not You can't touch an official So so by default

I think Fred had to get tossed All right Just by the letter of the law By the letter of the law All right here is Tyler Hero Discussing his confrontation In the throwdown He's received from one of men Thompson

You and Thompson exchanging words How did it all really kind of spark off there Just come some Two competitors going at it playing basketball. And then it got a little out of here. And it's not every single night that you have all those texts and all of those injections.

Was it building to that? Or was it just a standard physical game that just had one of those igniting moments? Just a physical game. I guess that's what happens when someone's scoring, throwing dimes, doing the whole thing. So I get mad too. Good. By the way, this Fred Van Vleet bump is in. intentional in my opinion.

Okay. I, I, I just saw it a little bit like go before the show started. He didn't have to walk towards him like that. It was like an accidentally accidental bump. Now, let me ask you this. Now, let's say look here. Fred, okay, drop the basketball. Then he goes back to him.

I'm watching for the left arm. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a little accidental on purpose. It was not unintentionally intentional? Is that what you want to say? I think so. Now, do you get suspended for that too?

Can you get... Can you get... Can you get... You get fined for that, yeah. But I think a man, Thompson may not be playing against Dallas. Would be my get on that. Unless it take a couple days of figure it out. Maybe the NBA league penalties are...

They're taking a vacation. Speaking of penalties. So Anthony Edwards makes that three-point shot on Friday to beat the Wolves. Of the Rockets. Rockets. Beat the Rockets. He's with the Wolves. He gets on their live broadcasts and he drops two S-bombs and an F-bomb. Okay. Did you see he got fined yesterday?

Did you see that? Oh, I didn't see. You want to play Guess the Fine? $25,000. $100,000. What? Was he a repeat offender? Well, here's the thing.

It is becoming more prevalent in the NBA for these players to be swearing on live television. Okay. Now, they're on cable, so there's a little bit of leeway. It's not like you scripted a series and said, hey, let's put these people on to have them scream and yell and swear. If Eric Cartman concurse, why can't Aunt Edwards? So let me tell you about Aunt Edwards. Aunt Edwards berated two of the three officials in a game about two weeks ago,

said, I hate the two guys. The girl was fine, but the two dues were bad. Yeah. He got fined $75,000 for that. He gets fined $100,000. Could you imagine it in your life? Now, granted, Anthony Edwards, if you want to look up what his salary is, I'm sure it's multi, multi, multi millions of dollars.

He's making about 50 a year. But could you imagine being fined $175,000 in less than 10 days? Hmm. That's about a Lambo, Matt. That's, I mean, that's, that, I don't say it stings, but it's a pinch. Right? Who, 175 light. Yeah, this year he's making 42 million by the end of his.

contract is making 55. And look, all of us, I shouldn't say all of us, but all of us, most of us swear. Yeah, 99%. And I have been fortunate enough to be doing this job for this will be 34 years coming up. Okay. I think I've sworn on the air intentionally zero times, accidentally two or three times. So my ratio is very small. Twice, I think I've sworn on air. But not intentionally. No, not intentionally. Anthony Edwards does these interviews all the time. He has to know you cannot be dropping S&F bombs on a live television broadcast. I'm sure he's had some semblance of media training.

Or how about repetition? Reps? Yes. You just, when you have a microphone on your hand or a headset on for a two-minute brief interview, you can swear all you want to with all your buddies after the game. Just keep it clean. But unless he's done this several times, 100 Gs seems a little. a little egregious. $100,000.

That's a lot of money. 713-212-5-790. Clay is in Hockley. My screen's not working here. Let's give me a second. You want to try it? All right. Let's try Clay now. Go ahead. Clay on 790, you've got our best and worst Houston sports moments of the year. Clay, good morning. Thanks for holding. How you're doing today? Yeah, I think the best

moment of the year, I'm not a big Texas fan, but it's when Texas dominated the bills and I'm thinking I was impressed and these guys are talented team they got a real shot to make a deep playoff for them and then wait wait wait wait you said they you do believe they have a deep playoff running them? Are you saying that's what he was thinking when they after the bills yeah yeah that makes a lot of minutes okay I got you definitely beat the bills because the bills are great

great big team then I'm going to put the Texans beating the bills on the best of moments I can go with that beating bills all right so what is your worst moment then By far, whenever the Astros released Kyle Tucker, and to me, it just means it signifies the uncertainty after seven, you know, years of the best baseball you could ask for a city. It kind of, you know, it lends to the uncertainty of what's going to happen from here. I mean, you know, it has some aging players. They're losing Breglin.

They're losing their lost Tucker. And to me, I don't know, you know, whether it's to be excited about what's going to happen or just be apprehensive about the holes they still have to fill what's going to happen from here. And he does have a happy New Year. Same to you, Clay. Thanks with a phone call. Do you think, and you and I've never talked about this. This will be an organic conversation.

Okay. Do you think there was any amount of money reasonably, like if you offered him $700 million, of course, Kyle Tucker is going to say yes. Right. If you would have offered him fair market value, does he stay here? I think he was going to hit the market no matter what, because we don't know what fair market value is. You don't know what it is until you hit it. Like every estimate of Juan Soto's contract was around $600, maximum $700 million, and he got well over $700 million.

He almost got $800. I mean, well, you got $7.52, whatever it was. Right, right, right. 62. So I think with that line of thinking, you don't know what the market for Kyle Tucker truly is until he hits that market. And the Astros, it's,

in a way, as long as Kyle Tucker stays healthy and it's productive, he can't lose. Because the Astros would have the same opportunity to sign Kyle Tucker as anybody else. That's right.

So if they're willing to pay market value, he might as well hit the market. Market value would have been, to me, eight years, $35 million per. I think Juan Soto is the, I think 10-year contracts

and I will fall my sword on this and you know I can disagree about this. I think the 10-year contract, we're getting them one a year, or sometimes less than one a year, but they're the outlier. The really- What about the 15-year contract? That's just foolish. But I think today, if you're a five-tool, mega-all-star, superstar-type player, I think eight years is a good, long number that doesn't necessarily cripple a franchise. And that's what I would say Kyle Tucker is. Because here's the thing, as good as Juan Soto is, Rossi, he's a defensive liability. Yes, he is.

So he was, I mean, honestly, Soto is much better hitter, more power. I mean, one of the great, like, draw, on-base percentage. On-base slugging OPS? I mean, my God, he does it. But Kyle possesses a lot of things that Juan Soter does not possess. Yes. Arm, range. So I think at the end of the day, the Yankees will regret that offer.

Excuse me, the Dodgers will regret they'd offer. No, the Mets, I want to make some things up here. The Mets will regret that offer. But the Mets want to do it because they've got envy of the Yanks. I think eight years, what did it say, times 35? That's $280.280. 2.80. Good job by you. That's fair market value.

Would Kyle Tucker have accepted, and the only person that we know this was Kyle Tucker, would have accepted eight years, $240 million? No. No, I think he's saying the market. Because he's still saying, I want to go above and beyond what I think fair market value is. Or he could have said, you took my ass to arbitration a couple years back. And it got surly because that's what arbitration hearings do. Correct.

And I want to go play somewhere else because I don't forget these types of things. I think that's part of it, but I also think the smart move for Kyle Tucker objectively with or without arbitration is to hit the market and see what the market is the way the teams have been spending money lately. But also you have to wonder at what point, a lot of these teams that are setting the market, the match Yankees and Dodgers, at what point do they become tapped out? Because the projected payrolls for those teams in the next year years is still going to be close to $300 million. So if those teams are already tapped out, then where does it go for Kyle Tucker is the question.

All right. 713212.5 790. Low moment moments of the year. Astros training to Kyle Tucker. Astros losing to the Tigers. 2-0 in the walled car. What else would be a low watermark for the teams in Houston sports? Well, think about it.

We'll get you guys in as well. 713-212-5-7-0. Hey, you were having people at your house last week. members of your family and your dishwasher all of a sudden, kaput. Or you were trying to serve drinks at a Christmas Eve get together with family and friends, and the ice maker wasn't working. I want you to get those things fixed, reasonably priced,

at Uptown Appliance Repair. Uptown Appliance Repair.com is the website. Check it out, and I'm going to tell you these folks are going to do a great job for you. What they're going to do is they're going to come to your house, they're going to give you an estimate, and they're going to say, hey, we can fix this for you. We can do whatever it takes to make sure you don't have to go buy a new refrigerator, new washer dryer, new refrigerator, new ice maker.

They can do everything for you at a very professional price. They're your premier appliance professionals, and you can find them today by calling 281-758-9978. 281-58-9978. They are your trusted local source for reliable or appliance repair. Whether you are looking for just unlawful, maintenance or you're looking to overhaul things because you just don't want to it in the day, have to go buy a new refrigerator when you just bought one two or three years ago.

Get it fixed today with Uptown Appliance Repair. 281-7589978. Number again, 281-758-9978 Uptown AppliancesPair.com. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. I brought up, what, eight years for 280? For Braggs? Not for Braggs.

For Kyle Tunker. Okay. Some may say, friend of the show, secret, that maybe he wants the $40 million club. He might. On the old AAV world. Hmm. I believe my AAB is $40 million here.

I'm not being compensated to that. Well, we'll see. When did you, by the way, when did you have Brickman signing his deal? Did you say after Christmas or did you say before that when you coming back? I said after Soto, as in like, I thought he would have a bit. true. Yeah, it's true, but I thought he would have been signed by now.

I don't know what my gut feeling was for the date, but which, by the way, we do also have a Kyle Tucker bet. We do? Seven and a half. I had the over and you had the under. Oh, on the contract? Yes. I'm not letting you forget. I had forgotten that one. I will say this. I actually feel significantly more confident on my Bregman hit than I would be on my Kyle Tucker. I'm feeling a little shaky. I think we're, I think we're Dutch in. We might be Dutching.

The Dutch on six is good. By the way, do you ever notice on Twitter that there are posters that are put up, like images that say Alex Brighman and the tigers are interested in each other, but the tigers won't go to 200 million with him? I didn't see that. Yeah, it's been running around a little bit here. Again, I don't know who to believe, I'm not to believe. Even, I used to always believe the checkmark people, and then I don't have to believe the checkmark people anymore. Now you have checkmarked people. Checkmark sham Sharani, a breaking of the trade to the rockets.

it's not real. And he has a checkmark. And I totally got goofed on it. I wasn't going to out you on that, but you do. No, you should. Because in fairness, I saw that Sunday morning, 8 o'clock when I woke up. Yeah. And it has a checkmark.

And Elon Musk ruined the checkmark system. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not your fault for getting duped, Matt. But I should have known better. I know. By the way, that's... I don't know we ever talk King's basketball

on this show, but man, ooh. Getting rid of Mike Brown. Other coaches around the league are annihilating the Kings, and so are King fans. Michael Ballone's comments were none too, I guess he was none too pleased. Well, he's also been fired by the Kings. You talk about a franchise that just can't ever have the same success. It would be them. They light the lamp or a fuse or whatever the hell they do there in Sacramento.

Yeah, I think that's cool. Yeah, they don't do very often these days. Not a lot. It's for wins. Yeah, that's right. They're even against the rocket, so, but that's another area. Let's talk about that. Yeah, that's fine.

All right. So, everything so far negatively is involving the Houston Astros. Oh, I got another one for you. It's a bad sports moment. Astros had to release Jose O'Berue. Yeah. That's a bad moment. Somebody could say, you could flip it and say it was a good moment.

Because if your production at first base went up from them. But it didn't go up significantly. I was sending him to the four You know what? I actually have this in our file Dana Brown Dana Brown's saying the Jose Abraio move

will be very good for him I'm going to put that in the wrong pile Well it was one of those things That was like you know He'll go down there and get his bat speed fix And it just never turned up Ever the optimist One at Dana Brown

Does Jose Abraeu ever swing And imagineling a bat ever again? I'm going to say no I mean he could go I mean, you know, Gurriel went to reinvent himself. He did. Yeah, I don't think so. He was good with what, the Royals down the stretch?

A little bit, yeah. Matter of fact, against the Astros, ironically enough. So, I don't know, we'll see. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9-0. Let's see. If Ross is serious about Beyonce, he needs to be fired, L-O-L. What did I say? Best Moment? No, somebody else said best moment.

It was a good moment. I mean, I wasn't displeased. It just wasn't a sport moment. It was really good until Cal and Hannah being on the field. Which, by the way, I read that they shortened their appearance on the Netflix. On the Netflix re-special. Is that right? Ain't that a blimp?

The recut, they shortened the air time. Hannah won Hannah. Hannah must have a national TV contact. Well, I don't know what they did or how they worked it, but good for them. Yeah, it was. It was making it about the McNair's. That's what they did. You're going to host a playoff game.

There's no other way to spend that. I mean, they did not have to be on there unless they probably requested, if not insisted. Do you think, put it this way, do you think Beyonce's like, man, I'm getting paid all this money, I'm going to be in my hometown. You know what would really make this special? Having Callahan in a car behind me. She has no clue who they are. None whatsoever. None whatsoever.

Still doesn't. No. Who are those people? Who is that man with that funny mother? It was on during my set, guys. Yeah. Why is he trailing me, throwing his ages up? That's funny.

713-212-5-790. Oh, here we go. Do Bonn's catch against the wall? Earlier this year, a high watermark? That's a good one. Why not Jake Myers' catches against the wall? How about Gold Glove finalist? How about Jake Myers-May?

Yeah, that was the highlight of the year. That was the highlight of the year. We know what the fan club has is the number one of it. September? Not so much. Cacucci being acquired? High watermark? So you would like to vote for Cacucci? You're picking Cacucci.

I would always pick Cacucci. I'm not doing it. Good. You shouldn't. I'm not going to fall into these traps. You shouldn't. 713-212-5-790. No, everybody was upset about the Cacucci trade. until it worked out correct

you know we ought to do we ought to and I don't know how we would do this because the afternoon boys do at best of X-6 segments so I don't want a bit steal from them because they've been bit stealing off of us for years we used to do a Twitter mailbag but wouldn't it be fun to start

saving some tweets about how bad something is or this is going to ruin everything and then come back and re-read them later on? I like that we could just call it receipts ex receipts on the Matt Thomas show. With everybody.

Keep the receipts on the Matt Thomas show. With Ross. With Ross. Yeah, don't forget that part. With Ross, that's me. Keep the receipts. Now, you could bookmark these things, but then you had to pay to get the bookmarks. You got to know what's paid a bookmark stuff.

Are you sure? No, you don't have to pay it, but to go get them, you have to pay them and get them. What? Yeah. You have to be subscribed to verified to go to your bookmarks? I can't figure out how to get to my bookmarks. Maybe I'm not important. job here. I don't think that's

accurate. Okay, I don't read. I don't use bookmarks, so I don't know, but I don't think that's accurate. Oh, no, you go right here at bookmarks. Oh, here, look, I accidentally have something bookmarked. Okay, good. Well, you know what I... Every bookmark I have is accidental. Yeah, it's when you're scrolling, you hit it back to the time. I happen all the time.

So, like, this is a random tweet about Kevin Harlan. So what are we going to call it? Keep in the bookmarks? Keeping the receipts. Keeping the receipts. Keeping the receipts. So anything crazy happens in sports. Yes. Or if somebody makes a crazy prediction? Yes. We need to keep the

receipts. But also if we keep the receipt, we have to, to me, I hate when people are like, oh, I'm going to remember that, and then you're right and then they don't come back to you. That's true. So, I don't know. It's a little disingenuous. A deep think tank about this. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll talk about at our next show meeting. We don't

have show meetings. Yeah, we do. We should. We should have been one in a while. I've been on vacation. You've been out of town. That's right. That's right. Gordy, I don't know. Gordy's at the Sugar Bowl, I think. He's programming San Antonio. What is he doing at the Sugar Bowl? I don't know.

He doesn't even have a team there. He's at SEC. Georgia. He's locked on SEC, man. But he hates half the teams in the SEC. That's the beauty of it. I mean, when you're working against all of them. If you're locked on something, shouldn't you be, like, objective with all of them? Well, a locked on LSU was taken, so I guess he couldn't get that one.

All right. More phone calls. Well, and spring one has the best or worst moment of the year in sports. way, D of the year is tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow. Tomorrow. And best believe you're not. Do you really?

You're looking at me? I'm just kidding. No, the D of the year is already done. Ooh. Hmm. Okay. I mean, it's been done for about six months, give or take. Is it Jeff Passon for carrying the Dodgers water?

Did you see that tweeting the other day? That's bad. I've been a Jeff Passing defender. Let me try to, I will justify, well, I'm going to explain what passes said. When do we come back? We'll get to Will's call to. 7132-212-5-790. 1134.

It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. The news and noon is coming up in about 25 minutes. I thought you're going to give up. Here's what I'm giving them. You're going to give up news anchor voice for 2020, 25. The people love it. No, they don't. Yeah, they do.

It's annoying. Let's do an instipal. We couldn't, I don't think we have got seven listeners right now. How can we join in this one? We've got at least one. Will calling it. I mean, God love you're calling in. Thank you, Will.

Joan is listening. Shut up, Joan. Got some others? Yes. Jeremy was listening. And said? Oh, he was the one that told me talking about Beyonce. Oh, okay.

And then Tiffany 722 and Larry Futsack were listening when we were talking about Wicked. We are your official Wicked Talk Station. Rod Ryan's not talking about Wicked. wicked he might be nah he's going he's going what's up what's up are you going for that co-host opening uh yes i am you can do the mornings and then you do this show and then do the rockets

i mean i've only got time on my hands what's up was up let's do plus two dad bed that's what he does you don't have to talk like him i don't talk like him i don't go Rob what's up was up what's in matt's box hey let's get out of bed with some questions two plus two four all right yeah

He leads those questions on in the printer sometimes, and I'm like, he asks people like 5 o'clock in the morning, which direction am I missing? Northeast South. Is that what that show happened? I don't. I'm honest. I'm not up.

And I like Ron a lot. He's very talented, but I just don't listen to show because it's not my music. I mean, is he in the radio, Texas Radio Hall of Fame? He should be. He needs to be in there yesterday. Yeah, I mean, he should be in there way before I should. That's not even close.

Not even close. I don't disagree with you. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. You know we've not talked about? What's that? The Miami Dolphins Miami Hurricane Performance in the Bowl game.

Well, Cam Ward specifically? Kansas specifically. We'll get to that coming up a little bit here. Let's talk to Will and spring. Will, thanks for holding. Good morning. Good morning. I'm going to go with my best sports.

moment is going to be Stroud and Anderson with their rookie of the year awards. But isn't that more off of what they did in 2023? Well, but I don't think they got the awards to 24, right. You're right. Yeah, I'm just, that's semantics, but I understand what you're saying. They did get some props.

I'll give you that. My worst moment is the Astros retaining Dana Brown as a general manager. Oh, come on. You're not going to fire him. Well, come on. They're not getting rid of him. What did he do? wrong?

Tucker, Bregman. Do you think he's making those decisions? Do you really think he's making those decisions? Do you think he went to Jim Crane and said, you know what? We just don't have the money to sign Alex Bregman. Do you think that Jim Crane went and said, hey, I'll pay him nine years 360 and Dana's like, nah, that's money not well spent? I think as the GM, Dana Brown, didn't make any effort to retain Bregman.

I think if he had made an effort. to go to Crane. That's it. All right. Matt has walked out. Will. Dana Brown is, when it comes to money, I'm staying here.

He is under the marching orders of Jim Crane. If Jim Crane says, sign him to 7-2-10, Dana Brown can do that. It's when it comes to the final now, when it's not about, when it's about drafting, maybe it's one about trade returns and stuff.

Dana Brown's involved in that. When it's flat-out money with Alex Spregman, that's Jim Crane's call. Yeah, well, I think Brown might have been a good scout at one time. I just think he's a horrible GM. Again, give me an example of that. I don't think he's gone to

bat for the team. I think he's done everything in his power to disassemble a winning franchise. And I think we're going to find that out here over the next couple years that the window that Crane keeps staying is open. I think the window's closed. And I think the GM has a lot

to do with that. Thank you, well. I really couldn't disagree more. But I'm just one voice. Dana Brown hasn't been perfect. No. I think he's been pretty good. Okay, let's do it this way.

What is Dana's biggest misstep? I mean, people are upset about the Kikuchi trade, but we'll see what happened with Lopofito and Will Wagner and Jake Bloss. Mm-hmm. If they're all stars. I mean, basically, he knew the starting pitching wasn't good enough. It was Dana's responsibility to go get the trade done. Dana. So Dana's fingerprints are all over the Kikuchi trade.

Okay. What? I didn't do anything. I, okay. He's, that's his. Yes, his fingerprints is not his. Obrayu's not his. Taylor Scott, that's on him. That's good. He was supposed to build the team through the draft.

So far, Bryce Matthews is going to look like, it's looking like hit probably a year from now and his third round pick was jake bloss which got you you say kakuchi so that was value already realized from the 2023 draft we'll see what happens in the 2024 draft i i completely 100% believe that the josh hater signing was not on dana that was on jim and that's and that's his right i mean jim's not hidden the fact that he was a big josh hater fan before the year before during the trade did and can we stop with revisionist history on the josh hater deal he was the best closer in baseball, that was a smash deal. Everyone was doing cartwheels

over it. He didn't pitch like the best closer in baseball last year. But I mean, 99. 99 of a thousand Astros fans were on board with that signing. And I guarantee you the other 28 general managers are like 29, we'll be like, damn, that was a good deal for them. Right. Because Josh Heder not only

was going to give you what he gave you previously, but he was also willing to give you more than three outs. You committed to him. him, he's going to commit to you. Now, was the season great for him? No, it was good? Sure, certainly, but not great. But it was underperforming, but based off of what

he had done, it's one of the three most dominant colors in baseball. Those guys get nearly $20 million a year. They just do. All right. But yeah, Dana's got people who's got a report to. He does not have full, no general manager

as full of time. Nobody does. I mean, baseball. No. No. And again, if the owner wants, says, I'm giving you this threshold. This is as far as you go on something. You know, you do it. You do what you're being told. 713-212-5-790. Charles. Dismandling the team. I don't, I get into eating like, man, I can't wait to have this first general manager job. My evil plan to get rid of Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker is working. I believe this is a seventh grade frog. Let's dissect it.

That's when you, that's why I dissected my first frog, seventh grade. Okay, what does that have to do with? Pull it apart. Oh, I got you. Tear it from arm by arm. Leg by leg. Rainbow connection. Charles 790.

Good morning. Good morning. I think a great moment is the Astros signing a first baseman and moving on from, you know, it begins the Breggman saga. You know, we know what's happening. happening. We know what our future is. We can make plans. We can move on. And honestly, if Perretus comes out in his 30 home runs this year, everybody's going to be saying Alex who? Yeah, it's more about Perretis, but Christian Walker can certainly provide, I mean, Christian Walker is going to provide you, look, you want power at your corner infield spots, right, Rossi? You just do. First base didn't give you anything last year. It just didn't. No. Third base gave you, could have amount. Great. Yeah.

there is a possibility that Parades slash Walker could be every bit and then some of what Bregman slash fill in the blanket first base last year. Right. In fact, frankly, it should be better. In aggregate, yes. The old money ball. And then we're losing Jason Giambu. We're losing Alex Breggman. We've got to make up for him in aggregate somehow.

And I think they did that. I think Christian Walker is going to be great. Again, all he does is scoop everything up at first base. Now the outfield? But it won't great outfirm. fit last year. DuPont Myers and McCormick. Use your right hand. I'm left-handed.

Why can't I fist pump with my left hand if I'm left-handed? I am an equal fist bumper. Boom, boom, boom. Look at it. Oh, okay. You're ambidextrous, as you say. Ambidextrous. I'm proud of you. I never said to ambidextrous. Are you kidding me? Ambidextrous. I swear.

No, you're making stuff up. I don't want to dig through hours and hours of tape, but absolutely you see. We'll go to the sphere and talk about it. We'll go to the sphere and talk about how the sphere and No. Ambidextrous we are. Sphere. Look at this guy.

You taught me something. I gave you credit for that. I teach you every day. You just don't always see. Put the right hand up next time. It's seeping in over there. You must use your left hand for everything. 713-213-5-7-90.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We're going to come back real quick to give some more phone calls and this Cam Ward bit at Miami. I mean, Matt Thomas, 10 years ago, probably would have been, like, unbelievable outrage. College athletics has changed. This has 1144 Sports Talk 790. 713212-5-79.

If you want to join the conversation at 7-13-212-5-7-9. If you want to follow us on Twitter, you may do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Connor D. McGovern. 1144, 790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. The news at news.

is coming up. And then in 1215, we're going to check in over in Texanville with D'Amico Ryan. So he'll speak to the media for the first time this week, getting ready for the finale Sunday in Nashville against the Titans. A couple of college news stories to pass along. Six former Florida State basketball players filed a suit today against former coach Leonard Hamilton. Over unpaid promises of NIL compensation, the total $1.5 million. The players acknowledged within the documents that they boycotted a practice last season over the missing. payments. Please call me Mr. Naive. Okay. The coaches can't

promise anything. The collective can, but the coaches can. We need a legal expert on this. I have no idea what type of promises they're given how legally binding any, I mean, if the coach texts them that we can get you

this, is that a legally binding promise? doesn't seem like it is. Now, did London Hamilton probably say go find Joe Johnson over there at Tallahassee Ford and he'll take care of you? I'm sure he did. Yeah. And then Joe Johnson was like, now I'm good? I don't know. Yeah.

This is why the NCAA was like, we're not getting involved. I was having a text. I was having a text executive, a text with some sports executives in town last weekend. They're like, explain this NIL thing. I said, there's nothing. explain. There's no rules. The only rule is the college cannot directly pay you.

Somebody else can. Now, the college can be affiliated with the collective. Yes. So if Leonard Hamilton says, go to the collective, the collective says, I don't have any money for you, then guilt by association, I guess. But Leonard Hamilton cannot run. Leonard Hamilton cannot Venmo

these players money. Right. And that's how it comes across as did Leonard, is there proof that Leonard Hamilton says, the money's on its way and it didn't happen. I mean, I'm not dug deep into it. It just literally came out a couple of hours ago. Yeah, the lawsuit is alleging he failed to make good on a promise to get each of them $250,000

and name image likeness compensation. So like, I got you and he never got him. Right. Wasn't a failed payment. The former players alleged Hamilton promised them money from his, quote, business partners, end quote. they ended up playing now they they had walked out of the practice as you mentioned on february 17th to boycott a game against duke they ended up playing amid a guarantee from hamilton that that would be paid but never were no wonder coaches are dropping like flies yeah you just had the coach from jim lariaga or however you say it laranaga yeah saying um he went to the final four and eight players were like Like, all right, I'll see you later. They wanted to leave the team.

Off to bigger and better things. Who knows? They're transferring or whatever. Taking advantage of the clot they've received. Right. All right. So Cam Ward is the quarterback in Miami. Yes.

And apparently had a very good first half in their bowl game. Yes. I want to say they were double digits. at least 10 going to the fourth quarter. And then he had half time said, I'm done. And apparently the coach at Miami knew about it. Okay, so it was planned for him to do just a half. It was not publicly ever discussed.

Okay. And I believe, who's the coach at Miami? Is it not Manny Diaz? Is it? Is it? Who's the Miami goal? I don't even know if you give me a million bucks. Is it Cristobal?

Oh, Mario Cristobo. Let me see. Mario Cristobal. He said we've, I don't, I don't want to paraphrase here. So basically it was, he was not, he was not completely caught off guard by this. Okay. Matt Thomas 2000, what are we in 24 now? Matt Thomas 2014 would have thought this was the biggest outrage and the biggest Bush League moment of all time.

But I have such little. We're desensitized. I have such little respect for the college athletic game right now that I'm, first of all, I guess I'm supposed to be outraged by it, but I can't be. Because frankly, Rossi, the last 10 years we've seen bowl participation among highly drafted players or drafted players falling off. I mean, there was one team that couldn't even feel the team

because of all the transfer portals and guys leaving. Yeah. Was it Marshall, I want to say? It was a Marshall opted out of their bowling this year. Yeah, because they had all the players. I think there was another team last year that opted out. College athletics is a cesspool of money and greed and NIL and all that kind of stuff in portal. It's not if I get the portal, by the way.

We got to make sure the portal gets to put into play here. That when Cam Ward left at halftime, I kind of went, eh, it's par for the course. And I don't want to be, I don't want to be that way, Ross, because that lets the bad guys win. but the bad guys are running college athletics. And probably, to a bigger point, Rossi, probably explains that maybe you should just get rid of the bowls. Unless you're playing in a playoff, skip the bowls. Because what it's turning out to be is we're turning out to have either lousy bowls that no one's going to, that no one's watching, or we're having teams split up and not play because they're trying to protect their draft status or they're entering the portal.

There's nothing entertaining or fun, except the damn. Pop-Tarts bowl, which that remains to be the one of the bright jewels of the December football season. All right, though, I mean, there's nothing enjoyable about bowls anymore. Well, the Colorado Buffaloes had Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter and a lot of their players opt in, and that was admirable. And then they got their ass kicked by BYU. And that's another thing.

If you are playing a team in your own conference, that's not a bowl game. It's their first matchup of the year. I don't care. That's ridiculous. It's a de facto way It's going to happen somewhere Where all these conferences have 16 teams in them now There's only four major conference

Yeah, it's weird But it's par for the course now Everything's weird And more importantly You don't think it's weird That Rutgers and USC are in the Big Ten Okay It doesn't make sense

None of it makes sense By the way why weren't you at the alma bowl game They always have a seat reserved for you Yes, the seat was empty They lit a candle in my honor They have a fans Hall of Fame and you're in it No sir Class class

No sir Peach Bowl this weekend or this next week or this upcoming week. I don't know. I guess I was supposed to be outraged and running my Twitter account and tell you how outrage I was, but I just wasn't because it's just the filth that is college athletics right now. Even five years ago, this would have been shocking. Now it's like, oh, okay, that's kind of surprising, but not shocking. I don't think it's commendable, but I'm not like, if Cam walked in right now,

I'd be like, bra, how are you? Good luck in your draft status. The old trope of, you know, these NFL teams, they want to see competitors, they want to see people that want to be there for their teammates and brothers. Last year's draft, Caleb Williams won, Jaden Daniels 2, Drake May 3, they all opted out of their bowl games. And reality is, you can go glass half full on this. Cam, thank you for your service for the first half.

We looked good for a while. Thank you. And then they lost. And they lost. The news at noon is coming up in a matter of moments. then we have 1215 C.J. Strauds Press, I can I say it one more time. D'Meco Ryan's press availability. That's all in the next half hour. It is the Matt Thomas Show of Ross with a word right now for Two Creeks Crossing Resort. I want you to experience the wonderful environment that is the Lake Living scenario. And you can do that by going to two creeks crossing resort.com. Get yourself a big family cabin for you and your friends, for your families. Maybe you want to get grandma and grandpa to come up there with you. with you. Maybe you want to get the broskies out and play some poker in one of their tree houses.

They've got lots of different waterfront cabins. If you own an RV and looking for a place to drive it for a couple of days while you enjoy the great amenities it is Two Creeks Crossing Resort, you should check it out there. They've got a special going on. 40% off the cabins, 20% off the RV sites at Two Creeks Crossing Resort. Up on Link Livingston, really short drive from downtown Houston, get away for a couple days. Enjoy the crisp air. Enjoy the great amenities like high-speed Wi-Fi, workout facilities, laundry facilities. They've got a great community center. They've got a ice house open on the weekends,

catch and release pond, pickleball, tennis court, everything. They got everything. Just a nice place to hang out for a couple days and enjoy the atmosphere that is the nature of Lake Livingston. Two Creeks Crossing Resort.com. That's two creeks crossing resort.com. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show.

1203 on Sports Talk 790. Damiko Ryan speaks in about 10 minutes from now, but right now we go to the news desk for the news at noon. Okay, Matt, we have a lot to get to on the news. Go ahead. Put your news anchor voice on. You're dying to do it. I am not dying to use any sort of alternate voice.

Such a rocket with a 104 to 100 loss to the Mons. Miami Heat last night. There, of course, was a big altercation between Amin Thompson and others. Well, actually, I don't think this is going to work. Give me one second here. Okay, there we go. And now we got him in Thompson, a hero, and Jalen Green and a bunch of players on both sides. I caught it late, but man, Thompson got thrown down. Tyler Hero is being restrained. Thompson on the rocket side. Rozier getting involved Shangoon getting involved Amant Thompson tossed Tyler here down

like a rag doll Amin Thompson ejected from the game Matt I will set the over under game suspended at 2.0 I thought you were saying one and a half Two feels a two you think it'll be three It was Tari Isson got three recently right Or somebody did

No who on the Rockets got a three again suspension. Didn't somebody get suspended recently? Not, never mind. Am I thinking of somebody else? You have guys that are heard, but not suspended. Hmm.

I'm going to go to the over. I think he's going to be gone for two games. Two games. I said it at 2.0. Going with a push? That's why you should have gone one and a half. Because two feels like the favorite. Okay, we're going on with the push.

Okay. Going to the push there. 2.0 games. Tyler Hero, speaking to the media after the game, here's what he had to say about the altercation. You and Thompson exchanging words. How did it all really kind of spark off there?

Just come to two competitors going at it, playing basketball. And then it got a little out of hand. It's not every single night that you have all those texts and all of those injections. Was it building to that or was it just a standard physical game that just had one of those igniting moments? Just a physical game. I guess that's what happens when someone's throwing dimes, doing the whole thing. So I get mad too.

I get mad too, says Tyler Hero, Matthew. Your reaction to that? They're going to throw hands again in Miami in February. You think so? Throw that in? This is not going to be necessarily settled right away. Okay. But Tyler Hero continues to

own the Rockets and it's sad because I don't like Tyler Hero, but I respect the hell out of him. He was making jump shots. all over the place last night. 27.9 assists. Oh, the dimes, too. I forgot about the dimes. Don't forget about the dimes. For Tyler Hero, as now the bottom line

for the Houston Rockets, Matt. We were talking about this big five-game homestand and falling flat so far. The first two games, a huge collapse against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The first time they came back from down 15 plus in a fourth quarter on the road since 2003,

was it? Kevin Garnett was a wolf at that point, right? Huge collapse there. Also, collapsing against the heat with a loss. All right. How are we feeling about the rockets right now? I'm feeling that you're looking, first of all,

Miami gets credit for closing down the paint last night. Rockets couldn't get there. I think Jalen got there maybe twice, maybe Alpi once or twice in the second half, but it felt like a lot of perimeter shots were being taken by the rockets, and that's not their strong suit. They've got to continue

attack the basket and I would have gone after Audubio because he had the five fouls. Now, is it hard to get a six in the NBA? Yes, but it also means that he is willing to go up and block shots and push people around and whatnot. I think it was a big part of the game that was lacking was they did not attack the basket like they should have. They settled for jump shots and unfortunately this is just not a very good team shooting wise. Everything else, they do very, very well, but still the search for that pure shooter at this point on this roster is still, you're still searching for it. Continuing along,

the news at noon, Adam J. Wexler, Sports Talk 790's own, with some observations from Texan's practice. Linebacker Aziz Alshire is back and practicing now that his three-game suspension

is over. Also, wide receiver Deontay Johnson, wearing number 82, catching passes. We'll find out hopefully more about who will be starting the game coming up from Domeco Rines.

We'll have that for you here on Sports Talk 790 in just a few. few minutes. But would you say the addition of Deonté Johnson and possibly wanting to build some on-field chemistry with him bolstering the argument that C.J. Stroud and the starters need to be out there at least for some time against the Titans. CJ needs to throw three passes to Deonté Johnson

this Sunday against Tennessee. I don't care what they are. Put them in pass routes. But you have to establish some sort of timing and practice isn't going to be able to do it. not to the level that you would have in a regular season game against the team that doesn't know what you're throwing at them. CJ should go a half. Laramie Townsend needs to go a half. Joe Mixon needs to go a half.

And then we'll see plenty of money meals in the second half and be fine. Okay. Now we do have to get to a little bit of a quicker break here, Matt. So I'm going to go straight to the offbeat story. Matt, who is the world number one chess player? Do you know? Pat McAfee. Magnus Carlson, the World.

number one at the Fide World Rapid and Blitz Championships. That's Rapid Games faster 15 minutes, a shorter time controls. Are you a good chess player? I'm okay. I don't play much anymore. I was getting too addicted, so I'd quit. Sure. I would say I'm okay.

I'm above average, slightly. But I'm not as good as World Number 1, Magnus Carlson. Apparently, Fidei, the world governing body of chess, has thrown him out of the World Rapid and Blitz. you ask? Because he refused

to change from his jeans. Purely from a dress code standpoint, Fide asked him if he would go and change into trousers. He refused, kept his jeans on, then was thrown out of the tournament and said, bleep you

to Fide. Have you ever been thrown out of anywhere for dress code? Now in New Orleans we were going to some nice restaurants where like some places coats are required. Some places you have to have a collared shirt. How did you do on that? I was great. I didn't get thrown out of anywhere. Have you ever had any dress code issues, Matt?

No. One time I was in New Orleans and I was in shorts and we were going to go to Bortons and we walked in and we said, did we fill in a dress? He goes, do you have cash or credit card? And we said yes, and you're more than welcome to come here. Some people are more liberal than others. Some restaurants are more liberal than others. Really quick. We were talking about the portal. The University of Houston just released. They have 15 new players on the team for next year, which is a good sign because the 15 they're replacing probably are going to be not as good as this crop will be

better than what last year was out there. Okay. They have 15 new transfers coming. New Mexico, Oklahoma State, Louisiana, Baylor, Tulsa, Texas Tech, UAB, A&M, California, LSU, Utah, Louisiana, Southern Miss, Washington State, Old Dominion. Is that

crazy? Fifteen transfers. Well, didn't they have 60 new players last year? Yeah, so they're reducing their number a little bit. They're whittling it down. That's good. Isn't that crazy, though? You would be boasting a 15 transfer.

Usually when you go to transfer, like back in the day, you were just taking guys that were like, oh, you don't want you. You're in planning it's fine. Now guys are looking to go better places and collect NIO. So maybe the NIL money, U of H is better than it has been. Yeah, I don't hear you complaining about the portal when it's the U of H racking up good players. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying declaring it. If they want to win some games and we can go to the Big 12 championship game,

like we'd rightly deserve next year. We're good. And there's your news at noon. All right. Dimeco speaks next. 1212, Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Now on Sports Talk 790. Domingo's running late. So we're going to go with some phone calls. You guys are people that want to say hello. And we'd like to say hello to you. We really appreciate you guys spending your 2024 with us and hopefully be with us in 2025. It'll be 15 year.

You're 15 of this radio show next week. Really? Yeah. You look disgusting. by this. No, I'm sorry. I just, sorry, I just pulled a pull the tricep. You pulled the spakus and you're going to make it and it goes like.

Exactly. 713-212-5-790. John Northwest Houston on 7-90. Hi, John, thanks for holding. Hey, Matt. Enjoy the show. Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to chime in. I think that

I don't agree with the people that have been critical about what the Astros have done. I think that they've done a good job. I think they need a a little change in some of the areas. The thing that bothered me about Tucker was he was such a bust in the playoffs. You know, I really blamed him like for, you know, I put a lot on him because that's why we lost to the Rangers. I thought, you know, he was, he wasn't playing well out in the field.

He certainly wasn't hitting and he's done that the last few years in the playoffs. So I was ready to move on from him. And Bregman, you know, we got the best years out of Bregman. And I don't think that where he's at right now, I don't think it warrants. getting like a, you know, a significant raise, like what he's asking for. So I'm fine with the Ashos moving on from him. I think that trade with Chicago, I think that was a good trade, you know, getting, you know, Paredes to Houston.

You know, we got a pitcher Hayden Wisniewski and Cam Smith is supposedly a really good prospect. He's become our number one, number one player in the minor league since we made that trade. And so I agree with all those moves. I really do. I think what the Astros need to do is they need to go back to what was really working for them. Where they had, you know, the modern metrics and, you know, what Luno brought in. And, you know, really building through the minor leagues because even when you look at Correa and Springer and those guys, we got the best years out of those guys, too. And that's a formula that has worked for the Astros.

It's brought us two World Series championships, and we went away from that little bit, I think because they were starting to listen to Bagwell and some people that didn't like it as much. But I think what they were doing was the right way because they were, you know, they had old-fashioned scouting with, you know, headed by Nolan Ryan at the time, the modern metrics. And that was working. And a lot of other teams are going to this. So the Astros do have a good form. And I think the Orioles have followed this now.

And they, you know, plucked away some of our people. but I think the Astros got to stick with what's worked in the past. I think we needed a fusion of young players. And so I like what they're doing. I like what Dana Brown's doing right now. I think it's good. Thanks, John Philophon. I'm not bothered by this at all.

Okay, good. Thank you very much. Look, I never in a million years thought that Kyle Tucker was going to come back. And Ross said, you and I, we're trying to brag here, but we're just stating fact that you and I were like, we knew this for a long period of time. Yes. And to go into this full hope that one more year wearing an Astor uniform is going to all of a sudden

change Kyle Tucker's mind about what his value is and where he think you get it when he knows the reputation of the Astros as an organization is to pay only to a certain level, only for a certain length of time. Dana knows that. Jim knows that. Kyle knew that. That's why there was really known conversations of a long-term deal. And

when Dana Brown said what he said about trying to keep Kyle Tucker here last year long-term. Asher for life. He was talking on his ass because he had to say that. You had to say these things. But it was the right thing to do. Move him now

before you're sitting there holding a high draft pick, whatever that level may be. But that draft pick, first of all, isn't guaranteed to be successful. Secondly, could be three to four years before that pick is successful. If you want to stay relevant, you've got to get ahead

of the game and make moves sometimes a year earlier before it's a year too late. Yeah, Cam Smith is a more prized prospect than a potential draft pick, which you don't even know where you're picking. Yeah. Yeah, I had, and I like

how a lot, I'm not going to blame him for October's failures, because frankly, 95% of baseball players fail in October. And it was two games this year, two games. Well, he's talking about the year before, I think. A year before was nine games? That wasn't, yeah, he wasn't, he, there was

a lot of dejection in the Kyle Tucker body frame during that time. Well, yeah, he was bunting in clutch situations by the end of it. That's how poorly he was playing. Yeah. So all I'm saying is I didn't, look, you can criticize, you can applaud the local teams and do things right and wrong. I have zero

issue with them shoring up two interior positions because Christian Walker isn't here if he's not willing to accept a three-year mid-level offer in terms of not necessarily compensation, but years. Signing a first basement is

30s always works out. Little 30s. Gold Glove 30s. Jose Bray, you couldn't say that. That's true. Three-time gold Glover, Christian Walker. In a row, right? Let's go to

Biscuit on 790 and 1222. Biscuit, what's the good word, my man? Cougar Matt. Yes, sir. Hey, man, listen, before I get to my tape on top moments of the year, I would say to all those astro fans, hey, man, the metrics

wasn't one championship. It was the players they had the talent. And they're just not as talented as they was. And they, you know, when they had spring in Korea and, you know, and that's baseball, I guess. You know, but we'll see next year, this trade or whatever works out. But they're not as talented, Matt. That's, you know, that's how it goes. Well, from an outfield perspective, you are losing a five-to-a player.

You cannot possibly argue that. You could say the infill next year could be every bit as good, at least offensive. Now defensively, I don't know if a party to tell me if he's a good defense at third base, but I know Alex Spragman is a gold Glover. Case in point, just one-on-one. But Christian Walker is a gold-glover at first base. Christian Glover, Christian Walker is a guy that's going to probably hit at least 25 bombs. It feels like to me that Minutemate Parks a great base for him to go. And you don't have to worry about trying to sell yourself on John Singleton three days a week.

Yeah, a valid point, Matt, and they're old folks eight. we shall see. Can I get my time out? Yeah, and real quick, and this will give Janair Diaz a chance to either Fisher Cup bait is a legitimate majorly everyday catcher or when Christian Walker leaves in three years. Janer Diaz finishes the rest of his career at first base. Now your point, sir. Go ahead. My point is the moments of the year, Matt, number one, is kind of personal for me.

But little Steve returned that punt against the Ravens last year in the playoffs. You know, he grew up, I grew up with him, coach him, whatever. He goes to my church or whatever. Got you. Got you. The second thing, Matt, was I told you last year that the Cougars was going to break that streak of Kansas winning the Big 12 championship or whatever as far as basketball goes. But the downer, Matt, and I'm surprised he hadn't said it, Matt, is when Jamal said, rolled that ankle against Duke. That was the downer to year for me.

I thought we had it last year, man. If we could have got by Duke. Well, we ran into the depth issues because of injuries, and that's what every college team goes through. I mean, college basketballs... You have to be lucky in any sport to win a championship. College basketball, essentially, is about a seven-man rotation. If you have more than seven, you're considered blessed.

Thanks, Biscuit for the phone call. Injury luck is, it factors in almost every championship. Yeah. In sports. Yeah. So yeah, and the Cougars this year, got to keep the big man healthy. They just do. And it's not been a great run in the last couple weeks when keeping guys healthy. Now, they're still winning, but you know what? You're about to get into some heavy competition come Big 12 play. What's been happening? How's the Cougars basketball doing okay?

They're doing fine. Okay. We beat up on Texas A&M. That's good. Corpus Christi. Oh. The Islanders, leave them alone. We did leave them alone. Let them shoot all they wanted to. They didn't want to make any shots. Let's talk to Chris in the Heights at 1225. Hi, Chris. Hey, how are you today? Good, how are you? I'm well.

Thank you for taking the call. Sure. You have a really good show there. Thank you. So I'm a, I love watching the Rockets. They're exciting. Their head coach is, I think it's fantastic. I think he's the right man for the job.

I don't claim to be a basketball guru, but one of the things as a casual observer that I've noticed is that the rockets are incredibly, I mean, their passes are not crisp. I think they put themselves in a situation where the opposing team is playing the passing lanes, and they're able to get a lot of steals, a lot of their passes. or lobs. I don't understand why a coach like the one that we have doesn't preach more crisp, safer

passes. And just a couple of other things that I'm going to hang up and listen. But a lot of times, Jalen Green reminds me of Hardin when he's sitting up there at the top at the key and just bouncing and bouncing and looking for

something to do. And he and Fred Van Bleed in a lot of situations. they drive and they put themselves in situations where they've got nowhere to go with the ball and then we lose the ball. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much and I do enjoy the show. Thank you, Eric. I would not criticize the passing. I don't think that is an element of, frankly, anything I see in the NBA where I go, man, that pass should have been CRISPR.

There was a couple of, it was like a Friday uncharacteristic football passes from Fred Van Fleet. It happens here and there, but turnover percentage in the NBA. the Rockets are third best. Yeah, they're just... At a 30 folks. 30 teams, they're always in the top 10 and few as turnover. So I would say they're not overly careless.

Last year, sometimes. Yeah, every turnover you could say shouldn't have been made. Correct. Right. Unless you're trying to... Yeah, if you're really trying to force things. The dribbling?

I don't think it's as much Jalen Greene dribbling out things at the top of the key as it has been in years past. I think they're more moving everything. Yeah. And again, I see every game, so just take it for what it is.

but I feel like the rockets do their best to make the extra pass. They're always trying to find the open man. I think defensive there have been some teams that have put hands in face, Ross, and face guarded and boxed out and done some things to force the rocket to take some contested shots they don't want to take. I don't think it's a question of not trying to get in there. I also believe in the fourth quarter of the game last night, they did settle for the outside shot because I don't feel like they can get, Alping could not go against email.

you may, could go against Bam out of bio and do anything. And that was a troubling part of the game as the number of paint points against Minnesota was like 66. They were in the low 40s last night. That's quite a discrepancy from one game in the next. It's, yeah, I think the offense is pretty good. It's just a three-point shooting. It's horrible. They're 29th in the NBA and three-point shooting.

Bottom five in field goal percentage. 32.7%. Three-point percentage. As a team, you can't... Jesus. If you're going to shoot it that way, and that's who they are at this point, that's what they are.

Everything else, the intangibles have to be in place. You can't let up defensive lapses. You can't allow the open three. You can't turn the ball over, it feels like ever. You've got to get on the fast break when the Rockets' fast-spring points been very good so far this year. They're doing, again,

still as a team, it's 10 games over 500. It's by no means a disastrous. Matter of fact, it's been very, very fun to watch. 29th and 3-point percentage, 25th in 2 point percentage. That's not great. 25th in free throw percentage. The fact that they're as good as they are as a miracle.

That's what I'm saying. It's dominant their defenses. Every bit of the intangibles they're doing is working. I think Easton, and look, Tari's been gone. What, six games now, something like that? Yes. Dillon's coming back off of missing three. You know, the Tera Twins made a huge impact on this team earlier.

this year. And there are two great guys come off the bench. Stephen Adams, for as much as a pick machine that he is, he doesn't provide anything offensively. So basically you're guarding four guys on the Rockets end of the floor when Adams is out there. The difference between Shengoon playing offensively and Steve Adams

is worlds apart. Yes. And I think teams know that. Back with hopefully D'emico and Eric and you at 713-212-5-790. Sports talk plus Yachterok. Houston's smooth. this sports guy. More Matt Thomas show with

Ross on Sports Talk 790. I thought we were about to hear Rosanna right there by Toto. By the way, Ross, you got to watch that yacht rock documentary. Absolutely fantastic. What is so fantastic about the documentary about the made-up genre? It's a genre that made millions of dollars, lots of stars, got good rhythm, it's got blues, it's got It's got jazz to it

It's got pop It's got rock and roll It's a good mix It's made up Those are genres that you just listed Yacht Rock is not a genre I didn't call it a genre I just calling it the music

It's a style It's a movement It's the way we live It's a revolution Exactly right Brett Siegel writes for Clutch points Says he thinks that a man's going to get

At least two games Two to three seems about right Yeah can you can you appeal can you go three go down to two and play i don't know majorly baseball is the king of appealing and you you know wait forever before you finally hear it from somebody and also they have uh i think six cracked

boards on the rocket's floor they're going to have to replace boy tyler he got right back up i mean i guess to his credit but he didn't want to be laying down for a while because he'd really be young you gotta look tough you got to get right up from that you can't you can't go like full soccer and start

rolling around and stuff you got to get up and at least act like you're going to fight and then put on your sunglasses and try to look cool after the game. Which he did. Sunglass guy in the daylight, sunglasses guy in an arena, just a douche. That goes for anybody.

I'll give you one exception. Please. Or a UFC or boxing fighter after a fight where their faces are totally bruised up. That feels extraordinary fair. Their eyes falling out of their socket. They got to do an interview. Can we stop with the post-game

fight interviews of boxers and UFC fighters? They're literally concussed. I just lose respect for your wearing the shades inside in a building. Especially at 9.30 at night. What if you got some kind of, you know, light sensitivity like me? No.

I've been walking, I've been with you in a lot of public areas you've never put shades on. And if you did, I'd call you on it. I was getting a headache when I was hanging out with on the A team with Adam Wexler and the TV lights came on. Yeah. Did you get on TV? I did. Did you shave or anything? Color your hair a little bit or something?

Why would I color my hair? You look cold. I don't care. You are in your 40s now. Yeah, I'm old. This is over. Like, we're done. We're done doing anything.

Let's talk to Eric in Bay City on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, the old guy. Hi, Eric. I heard that, saw you let out. You know what's coming. The best moments of 2024 was the four games that Joe Spotted got ejected because he gave us our best chance possible to win. Oh, God. Oh, wait a minute.

I know who this is. Oh, here it comes. Zach Granky in three, two, one. Go. Okay, hold on, hold on. No, the worst moment was trading Joey Loperfeito, whose name would look so good as an outfield possibility right now compared to those three guys we've got as outfield possibilities right now

for a two-month rental that got us to the playoffs. We didn't even use the guy, and we lose to the Detroit Tigers managed by a much better manager. And, of course, all we had to do was bring back Zach. Thank you, Eric. Appreciate it. Eric, a New Year's resolution. Never out of the words

Zach and Granky ever again. Thank you very much. 43 games as a Toronto Blue Jay. Joey Loporffito hit 197. He did have two home runs. You're selling it like it's a positive. 579 OPS. And 52 strikeouts.

All right, let's go to Domeco. Miko, having disease back out there on the field, what would be for you guys? I'm going to lift you from having him. He's going to be really good. That's really great giving the disease back. I know it missed him over these past three weeks. Just missed his presence, his leadership, missed his playmaking ability on the field. So, you know, we're excited to get him back out there, let him knock some of the rust off.

What do you think will be the biggest key to your team to putting behind what happened last week and moving on this week in a positive way? For us, to move forward, we have to go play. better. And that's what it comes down to us playing better football. Like that's all that matters. Like when we step across those white lines, are we executing and are we playing really good football? That's all that matters to me. All right? That's our coaches, players. We all got to do our jobs better. And that's what I'm looking forward to this week. What you guys locked into the four seed, how much consideration will there be to kind of manage some of the snaps from the start that you guys have going into a week eight team.

Yeah, going into this game, as I mentioned to all our guys, that everybody has to be ready to go. And that's where we are. Everybody will be out there playing, and we'll, you know, we'll see how the game goes. But for us right now, we got to go play better. And our last outing on the field was not good enough, not representative of who we were, are defensively, offensively. It's not a good representation of our team entirely. So we got to go out. We got to play better football.

Coach out of the game, CJ mentioned that he was a little bit, he's been a little bit banged up. Is that just something that goes along with playing as much football as he's played? The piece about CJ being banged up is, you know, I think that's real and that's real for everyone in the league at this time of the year. Everybody is banged up the amount of games, guys that played, the snaps that they played.

like everyone is banged up. That's what it is. That's the NFL football this time of year. You try to manage it as best you can. But it's also we all have to fight through, push through. And a lot of guys are fighting through a lot of things, not only CJ, but a lot of guys are fighting through. And that's the nature of what we do.

And it also shows how resilient these guys are, what they go through and what they battle through, that a lot of people would never know that they're fighting to go out there and see it'll go perform and ask to perform at a high level. level. CJ said that that's kept him from making some plays. Have you seen that in his game that being banged up has made kept him from his

play? I think CJ's had some plays that he would like back. But again, that's everyone, right? Everyone has had plays that we would all like back and would like to play better. I think CJ would be the first to tell you, you know, he has to play better. And our entire team, you know, rallying around them and playing better as well. They collect me as a team, we all have to play better. and we have an outing like we did versus Baltimore,

no one did good enough. Coaches, players, no one did good enough. So we all, as I asked our guys to look introspectively and see where we can all get better. We feel like that wepper, after having just a few days to kind of reflect on it, why did you feel like that was? Did you all play your best game? Yeah, we just didn't.

When the ball was snapped, we weren't good. Like, it wasn't, we didn't make plays. We didn't execute properly. Like, our eyes weren't in the right. place. We did it fit things the right way. It was not a, it was a poor outing by everyone. Fresh starts with any player. What do you see from Deontay Johnson, your conversations with him and just what do you think he has as a player? What do you hope from him on and off the field? With Deontay adding him to our team, a guy who has talent, he's done it, you know, at a high

level for other teams. It's bounced around a little bit here. As I mentioned to him, Of course, it's a clean slate starting with me. It really doesn't matter what has happened in the past or what the narrative is about you. You come here and everything is a fresh start. And so we'll see how he can help us, what he can add to our team, on the field and off the field.

Can you talk about what you expect? I know you want to see your team play better this week. How important is it to not just play better, but to have some momentum as you get ready because you are going to postseason? What kinds of things do you want to see this weekend? I want to see our guys go out and just gain that confidence just from doing ball the right way. You gain confidence by there.

You want to have that confidence. You want to be playing your best ball at this point of the year. So that's what I want our guys to feel. And Tennessee's a tough matchup. Again, they got us here earlier in the year. Really tough matchup for us. So we know we have to play our best ball versus them. Divisional opponent.

It's always tough matchup. And so we have our work. cutout for us. I want to see our guys go out and just play the right way and gain some confidence going into the postseason. What's kind of a balance from, you know, having your guys play in week 18, knowing that you guys are in the playoffs, locked in kind of balance of wanting to get rhythm, but also worried about potential injuries, things that nature, and trying to keep guys as fresh as possible going into wild car weekend. Yeah, there is a balance there. For us right now, I think it's a feel for where your team is at this point of the season. And for me, right

now, you know, our team needs to be playing better before we get into the postseason. So, you know, we'll see where we are and how the game goes. And, of course, be smart about what we're doing and be intentional about everything that we're doing, knowing what we have ahead of us. But I still want our guys to go out and play good football. All right. All right. Thank you, Coach.

Thank you, Coach. Thank you, Coach, for being smart about this, playing your players. what he wanted to say is we played like ass against Baltimore and I'm not going to let that be the last thing we do before the playoffs. That's pretty much what he said. He had so many words. He didn't say ass, but he wanted to say ass. He probably told some people he played like ass.

That is not a representation of who we are as a team. That's good. Excellent, excellent, excellent press availability with the answers. Didn't commit to four quarters. I wouldn't expect, even if the team loses 21 to 3, I wouldn't expect four quarters. But they need some reps. They need to do something to prove that they can actually move down the football field against NFL defense.

Which begs the question, Matt. Don't you shouldn't beg a question. Texans over nine and a half, how are we feeling? You know how I feel. It feels like you got a fitty, 50-fitty shot. It's a coin flip, really. I mean, Davis Mills can come in and dominate. Money Mills.

You also throw two pick sixes. He also could do that. Yes, he could. Well, the bet I had was if it's 10, it's Ralt Rass. If it was 11, it was going to be Rortons. So Rortons no longer in play. No, I thought under wasn't Rortons for you. Yeah, but I mean, I was fully expecting to pay out this year like I did last year.

No, you're alive. I have a puncher's chance. Titans minus 3 is the line right now. Is that right? Ooh, that feels creepy. Can I tell you this? If I was a betting man on football, I would stay away from all these games. In week 18, it's a stay away. Well, I mean, unless games really matter.

Like Minnesota, Detroit, it's interesting. Yeah, that's one seat is on the line. That's going to be a big game. What else would be of interest? Let me look at the schedule. Like right now, Cleveland. Steelers Bingles. Steelers Bingles is interesting.

That's on a Saturday. Right now, the Browns are an 18-point dog to Baltimore. Excuse me? 18? Yeah, Falcons are 8.5 point favorites at home against Carolina. Tampa Bay is a 14 point favorite against New Orleans. I'm trying to go. What else I can see? I hear that's just a huge discrepancy. Green Bay is a 9 point favorite at home to Chicago.

Where's that Baltimore game at? Make sure I get that right. Yeah, 18 points. That's the first game on Saturday. Why are you putting that on bad boy up there? Baltimore is an 18-point favorite at home against Cleveland. They may win the game. They need to win the game. But are they going to really beat them by three touchdowns? Go ahead.

Stay away. Pony up to the window, wait. Stay away. 1247. You have the biggest Dorian Thompson-Robinson-Robinson fan in the planet. Stay far away. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

It's Matt, and he's back. The Matt Thomas Show. on 790 Houston's home for Houston teams All right We have one hour left to go Believe it or not

in 40, 508 minutes from now Biggest Sports positive story of the year for Houston And biggest negative We're continuing kind of our theme on the show today Okay Well at 1 o'clock we will go through the list of candidates More so on the positive side

The negative stuff it's frankly dominated by Astro stuff. Had they been the most turbulent team in the market the last 12 months? Well, the negative would be, though. I mean, we can go with Texans lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs, or the Texans lost literally a few days ago to the Ravens. I mean, think about it, they're five and three at home this year. Their last two games were, two of their three losses came to Tennessee,

which never should have lost to, period, and then a drubbing by Baltimore. 31 to 2. Not a scourgami, actually. No. A first half scorer gummy, but not a scoregamy. It was the third time it had happened the first time since 1965, I think. And then we had the next night, we had a six-three game between the Seahawks and the Chicago Bears. Yes.

And then they looked through the archives. I think earlier this year there was a Mariners Cubs? Was it Mariners' Cubs? It was a six-as-way. A white socks. Oh, White Sox, okay. Poor out Michaels. He's signing up for it.

He signed up for another year. If you're out, Michaels, do you just not even look at the notes until, like, you get to that city of the day of the game? It seems like, he's knowledgeable. He's just, it's not energetic. It's not a good call to me. See, you remember when he had his A game, right? I think, yeah. I mean, probably.

Well, to me. Was it the last time he had his A game, 1986? No, no, no, no. I'm just kidding. No, he's, I would say the last five years haven't been his best, obviously. Between 75 and 80, probably not. Yeah. But Rossi from about 19, I don't know, 80 to 2015, 17, that's about 37 years of being probably the most accomplished strictly play by a play guy.

Best in the game. From doing Olympic stuff to the NFL to doing World Series to doing the NBA to doing the NBA for a while. I mean, he did Miracle on Ice. He did, he called the World Series with the earthquake. I mean, he's multiple Super Bowls, always one of the most highest paid compensated broadcasters out there. I mean, he has had, when he was on, and he was on for longer than a lot of other guys are on-on, spectacular.

So that begs the question. I would say 35 years of sustained excellence. I'm trying to give you another begs the question, Matt. Oh, I hate when you beg a question. Go ahead. Greatest of all time? If you're going to go multi-sport, he probably is. Okay. I'm deferring to you.

You are the broadcasting guru. I'm the dog. A guru is what I was going to go with. Now, there are candidates. There are other people that have done multiple sports. Vince Scully did NFL for a long time. Yes. But obviously, no more as a baseball announcer.

Mike Torrico. is probably the closest thing to Al Michaels now. Mike Tariko does multiple sports and crushes all of those. Ian Eagle, Kevin Harlan. I mean, if you're going to go single sport, Mike Breene, I think still is excellent doing the NBA. Yeah, but, yeah, it's the last five of not treated Al very well, but for four decades, if there was a big event to be called,

Al Michaels was your first round pick. and now he's past his prime. And now he's on Amazon Prime. Working year to year. Amazon passed his prime. That's right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Anything else going on? I felt like, is there anything we've mixed so forth? We've got the highlights and low lights of Houston sports. We mentioned the Cam Ward. Cam Ward situation was very intriguing. How do you think, generally speaking, America, feels about it? Are they more disappointed or is just a real sense? I think now that it's coming out that it was previously discussed.

And when it first happened, everybody, not everybody, but I would say 75% of people were upset. But now there's no way in the world, Kim's like, man, we're up at a half time going great. I'm putting my helmet down. You guys got this. They had this predetermined. There's no question about that. So I would say most everybody's okay with it now that there was previously discussed. There was some touchdown record he was going for?

A&M did not look good in the second half of their game. They lost. No. They opted out of their second half of their game. Mike Elko was not afraid to tell everybody what he needed. A lot of four, this is going to shock you, Matt. A lot of Longhorns making fun of Aggies popping up in my 4U tab.

Posting the quotes of Alco calling A&M the flagship program of the state. And Billy Lucci. I expect a high-scoring game and an Aggie win. Duh. Yes. He's also got, he's also gargling, too. A lot of gargling. That's worked very well for him.

He's done well on that. You want to give up all self-respect and just do that? That's good. Wishing him the best. I got no ill will towards Billy Looch. I don't know. I don't really know Luch. If there were five guys that walked in here, I wouldn't know what he looked like.

I know his sweets, though. Always pro-aggy. I wish Chip Brown. Chip Brown doing his bit in August Austin still? I don't know. The pipeline was for him and Mac was there. It's been nearly as prevalent the last campaign. Chip Brown and Jeff Ketcham and the boys.

Yeah. I guess he's still working You know those Those kind of They're not even journalism Oh his latest tweet is the kicker Bert Auburn wants to come back to Texas next season He does

You're disappointed about that Bert Auburn? He was great last year but not this year You miss Cameron Dicker, don't you? Oh wouldn't you? Dicker the kicker was spectacular How about that little Not drop field goal

What did you do the drop kick? No it was in the pro last week. The free kick. The free kick. Yeah. I didn't see it. Good too. I'll take your word for it. It helped them win. I was out of town. You're always out of town. 1258. The best sports moment of the year in Houston. The worst. We have an hour to decide it next on Sports Talk 790. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 103 on Sports Talk 790. It is the final hour of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. We are very happy to have you with us. 713, 212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-2-5-7-9-0. Our theme of the show today, we did not do to tell the truth,

we wanted to keep it a central theme. By the way, we will announce probably tonight. I believe I have got three finals for the day of the year. I try to go for four. Okay. But you and I will have to act. The day of the year. You and I will actually have to go through some group texting here

because I'm just in case I'm forgetting somebody. Connor, you'll be involved with it as well. Why don't we take nominees at SportsMT right now? Let's do it all fair. That's what's at SportsMT. Okay. So if you, I know who's going to win. And even a certain segment of the population who is taking advantage of this.

I don't want to give away. Tyler Hero? No. Ref Rasson? No. Oh, Ref Rasson. Let's go to Raff Rasson for a second. By the way, we're teased that like three hours ago.

I know. I know. I'm a terrible teaser. I forgot as well. By the way, we have Houston. sports moment of the year. If you got one for us, let us know. 713, 212, 790. 713, 212, 570. 719. The best moment of the year in sports, worst moment of the year in sports. It has to involve a Houston team, either pro or college. The bright spots are Altuve signing a

lifetime contract. Renel Blanco's no hitter. The Rockets finally beaten the Golden State Warriors. Texans beaten the Bills. Texans beat the Browns in a wild card. Those are the five that have been the most prevalently talked about. Am I forgetting anything else? That sounds about right. The negatives. Astros trading Kyle Tucker. Astros losing the Tigers in the wild card two straight. The Astros releasing Jose Abrayu.

The Astros having to release Rafael Montero. And the Jamal Shed ankle turning, somebody said, Biscuit said. Oh, U of H's injuries. I would put that in collectively there. Injuries in the tournament. Tough. I'm being totally selfish. I want them to go to the final four this year.

I don't know if they're going to be good enough. It's your squad. But I feel like this is the heyday of the resurgence, and I don't want to say, well, that was cool going one time, and that was during COVID when I was in Indianapolis with 4,000 people with mask on. Yeah, and you were hanging out with, what's his name? The lawyer.

Yeah, Rusty Hardin. We had some bruskees together. That's great. And then they lost. No, we drank because they lost. Okay. They were down like 30 to half. It wasn't any fun.

Oh, I thought that was the, oh, what was the Buzzard Peter Michigan one? That was a few years ago. Yeah, that was before. Yeah. Okay. All right, so douchebag Jeff Passett. And I shouldn't say, excuse me, I'm sorry.

That's not true. That's not nice. It's not? No. He puts this tweet out two days ago. Got 5.8 million views. Okay. Do we want to read it in Jeff Passon voice for you?

Yeah, please do. The Los Angeles Dodgers are a machine. Not only do they print cash, their willingness to spend it in pursuit of winning is unmatched. They put their money where their mouth. this. Others could benefit greatly from the same approach they choose not to. He is a D of the week. We don't do

D of the Weeks, but he'd be a D of the week for that. And then there was a response. Others don't put contracts on layaway, Jeff. And this is, now that was a water-carrying tweet in itself first from Jeff Passon, but this just took it to another level. Bobby Bonilla, Ken Griffey Jr., Francisco Lindor, Max Scherzer,

Steven Strassberg, Christian Yellich, and plenty of others deferred money. Arizona's ownership needed to sell in 2004 because it deferred too much, which is a point against what you're talking about what the Dodgers are doing. Before you complain, understand history a little. It's not hard.

He's just... We don't have a Wednesday show? No. Shut your bum ass up, Jeff. Thursday. We all are we going to do that. Well, we're going to save Jeff Passon. He's just a deback. I'm sorry.

That's a terrible thing to say, and I'm sorry for my kids are listening. No, I'm fine. He's just a douche. I defended Jeff Passon. This is indefensible. This is completely disingenuous. mentioning the one-offs of Bobby Bonilla, King Griffey, Jr. Lindor, blah, blah, blah, blah, that is not talking about the stockpile of deferred money put away by the Los Angeles Dodgers. And he's a smart person. That's the thing. When a smart person says something dumb, you know you were being lied to.

Jeff Passing is lying to people and covering up for the Dodgers with this. So the Dodgers make more money off their regional television network than anybody else does in baseball. And it even close. correct it is and i want to google us so i don't give you erroneous information okay the dodgers television deal per year pays the dodgers 334 million dollars so the first my god so the first tweet it was a 25 year deal worth 8 billion dollars

for time Warner or charter communications to create this network okay So what I did is I said, hey, when Major League Base, when the Dodgers want to share their money, their television money with everybody else, then this can have valid. And I said, until then, shut your ball ass up. Then I did a little bit of research to see if indeed everybody keeps to keep every bed of their television dollars. They get to keep 52% of their money. The 48 is put into a pool that is shared equally among the 30 teams. It also includes a national television deal.

the national TV deal is worth $90 million per year per team per team okay they get 334 from their local team wow now they still get to keep 52 million of $334 million my math would tell me what that's got to be about 170 give or take do you realize i'm going to run through the list for you San Diego Colorado next year Texas next year Minnesota there's got to be probably at least five or six others that Major League Baseball is going to be running their TV networks and getting no rights fees or pennies in a dollar.

The Houston Astros used to get money from AT&T. Yes. They don't get that money anymore. They said, we're giving it up. Here's our equipment. Here's your network. Here's your distribution deal with DirecTV. Space City Home Network is yours.

It's yours. Just take it. Right. So pennies in a dollar. I don't know what that is. Tillman's not giving me the numbers. Jim's not giving me the numbers. Don't expect them to.

But the Los Angeles Dodgers have a deal that's even richer than the Yankees deal with yes and their home network. Bottom line is this. The television deals are the greatest form of discrepancy in professional sports when it comes to compensation. And until that becomes equal, like everybody else is in the NFL, there will be the haves and a have-nots. So this ridiculous notion that Jeff Passon says that the Yankees, the Dodgers is doing it the right way. The reason why the Dodgers doing it the right way

is because they've got at minimum $200 million coming back to them more than anybody else does from their television deal. They put their money where their mouth is. Others could benefit greatly from the same approach they choose not to. That's just it's gaslighting

his own followers and fan base of the, of the sport he covers. It's it's like he owe somebody something over there. Now, when you're a big, powerful reporter who breaks a lot of stories, these types of things are the things you're going to have to do?

This is part of the game. But I'm still disappointed in Jeff Passing with this. This is beneath him, in my opinion. Others would say, no, it's not, and he's been like this for years. But, man, this is a water carrying to a level I had not seen before. It's ridiculous, and it

compromises his credibility. Absolutely. 100% can't argue with that and when you put out information like that in order to try to treat it as fact then it questions anytime I see anything he tweets out of what agenda is associated with it yeah and pulling out the bobby boney and king griff those are like two contracts from 30 and 40 years ago we're talking about you can line them up with what the dodgers have right now they have like six seven guys deferring money yeah it's not the same and jeffasson knows that that's what's the most disappointing. But do you know what he does? He wears medium suits. Yes, he does. He breaks news. He hadn't gotten laid off by ESPN. And thank God, and I mean this in all sincerity, ESPN,

thank you for choosing shams over him for your NBA beat. Because to have to see Jeff pass in an NBA arena would have made me vomit. That feels like a leverage play, like a leaked leverage play to me. That was never going to happen. It could have been for sure. By the way, a friend of the show, I won't mention his name to respect his privacy. Best move in Houston sports this year, Rice Firing Mike Blungren as their football coach.

Hmm. I didn't have that on my top 10 list. I can only think of one rice honk in the city. I don't think you know this person. Okay. Is it Lance Berkman? It's not Lance Perkman. No, no, no.

All right. 113 on Sports Talks. What a rando one. I loved it, but it is very rando. Enrique Cruz? No, you don't know this person. Stop guessing. And if you didn't know this person, I wouldn't tell you.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. The best sports moment in Houston sports in 2014 and the worst. Let us know. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross returned. Return on Sports Talk 790.

We're going to be bidding a farewell to a Thomas Sports Enterprise candidate, not candidate, client. Will Levis this week. He's going to play. And Mason Rudolph's going to play. Keep up alive. Don't write him off now. You know what? I've been with him for two years. Hey, people wrote off Gino Smith. Oh, how about Sam Darnel? People wrote him off.

That was the next one I was going to go to. Sam Darnold was written off. Baker Mayfield was written off. Do you think that Thomas Sports Enterprise should remain bullish on him? Stand by your man. Matt? Maybe I need to renegotiate the contract. Yeah, or, or,

maybe a higher percentage for you. Give him a little more realistic thresholds. Like not turning the ball over once for a week. He's going to cut bait and he has a resurgence. You're not allowed to claim credit. You know what? I'll stay with him. There you go.

All right. I'm going to give you some quarterbacks that have been very iffy. You know what? CJ Stroud. Here we go. Long term future next three years. Oh, God. Next three years.

By yourself? Kirk Cousins. What's he doing in the next three years? I mean. Not three years from now. in the next three years. It's going to cost them so much to cut bait on him, cap-wise. But Panix was, I

can't believe how much I enjoyed Atlanta Washington when I got home from the Rockets last night. It was a really good game. Yes, it was. Really, really good game. Overtime. Yep. Next three years, Kirk Cousins. It'll be a backup somewhere. In three years or what happens to them next year? It'll be the

backup in Atlanta next year and then they'll cut him. And then he'll be a backup somewhere else. Sam Darnold, next three years. He's going to get a big contract from somebody and then he's going to be just a guy. Wait a minute. He's not leaving Minnesota. He's not? Nope. They got J.J. McCarthy. They're going to franchise tag him.

You think so? At worst case. That's going to cost a pretty penny. They're 15 and 1. That's true. You're going to tell a 15 and 1 quarterback see you? All right. You know what? You're probably right. Okay, he stays for one year in Minnesota and he's not that great. He's not as good. He doesn't have a year like he did this year. How about that? Now, if he gets franchise tag, it's a one-year deal.

It's worth probably north of $40 million. Probably. I mean, there are better fallbacks than that. Projected franchise tender for quarterback, $41 million. $41 million for one year. All right, let's continue. We'll love us, the next three years. He's a backup.

somewhere and then you know what he can be a backup for years he's a backup in three years Anthony Richardson oh now I don't know if you recall this man but I put my name on it started the season I wasn't buying the Anthony Richardson hype and I also put my name on it CJ Stroud will always be considered a better quarterback than Anthony Richardson that seems okay people were calling for the remember people were remember the hot pick for the for the AFC South was the was the Colts because of the fact that he when he threw before he got hurt last year, he did a lot of his damage against a Texan secondary. Anthony Richardson.

Over the next three years. I'm not going to say out of the league, but close. That's the worst indictment you've given. You didn't even say backup. You said out of the league, he can't make five-yard throws. And he gets hurt all the time. And he's been benched twice this year. Hasn't he?

Well, he was hurt yesterday. No, no, he's hurt. Yeah. But he's also been benched when healthy. Mm-hmm. And took a playoff because he was. tired, remember? Yeah. I mean, I said Will Levis is almost out of the league.

Okay, how about this one? Let's dumb it down. Well, Levin, just the backup. Anthony Richardson is just a backup. Anthony Richardson or Will Levis, equal careers, or who has a better one of the two? Oh. Oh. I mean, it's, it's picking between liver and onions, right? You know what I didn't think? That was

bad that I tried in Taiwan? Kidney. Never had it. It was actually pretty good. I've had liver and onions. I love onions. I despise liver. That's a different. issue a different time. Okay. Next three years. I didn't answer your question.

Better? Who's doing better in their career the next three years? Neither? Okay. They both have accuracy issues. I'll go with Richardson. I don't know. I would think so because he's going to be given a better chance to start.

Because there's value in him. High first round pick. Yeah. They've got to give him one more shot at least. C.J. Stroud. C.J. Stroud. is a perennial pro bowler in three years. That's not All Pro Pro Pro, though.

All pro is, I mean, we're talking about top two. Pro Bowl is difficult. Pro Bowl is seventh best quarterback in the NFL. All pro is you're better than Lamar Jackson, better than Josh Allen, better than Pat Mahomes. No, I'll say Pro Bowl. Like, deserved pro bowl, not injury replacement. Selected to the Pro Bowl. We need to start changing that conversation, by the way.

There's a difference between being a pro bowler and being selected to the pro bowl. Because there's 9,000 injuries. A lot of guys go to the pro bowl or selected but don't go. And now it's just a skills challenge. Yeah, because people are talking about Eli Manning four-time Pro Bowl or I haven't looked through it. But I mean, how many times is he actually selected to that Pro Bowl? Which, by the way, we need to keep Eli Manning out of the, the Hall of Fame loses all meaning. You're losing Seema. I know I am. And I'm indifferent to it. Because we, over the years, we forget, we forget, we forget, we only remember rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, ring, rings, Super Bowl culture,

Super Bowl Cove. He never won an MVP. He won a Super Bowl MVP. He was an NFL MVP. The only thing he ever led the NFL in was interceptions, and he did that three times. 117 and 117 as a starter, three-time interception leader. There was never a time where he was considered the top five quarterback in football, maybe top 10 fringe in that conversation. But we are just forgetting collectively as a society how mid-Ely Manning was.

It's supposed to be a room. of the all-time, all-time grades. For a time, he was great. No, he wasn't even great. He was good. I think when you are great on two Super Bowl Sundays, it means something. They scored 21 points and 17 points in those Super Bowls. It's not like he was lightening. He didn't throw 300 yards in either of those Super Bowls.

But he helped them win. Yes, he did. The team. Let me finish my argument. He's helping me describe what a great performance. Two great performances are. Two great performances don't get you in the pro football hall's name. It was like two great throws, really.

Yeah. I would not put him in either. think you're, I think maybe the New York bias is helping them out. People are going to put them in there. And also because we remember things greater than they were. Eli Manning, because all they remember is the Super Bowls. And then everything else kind of falls off. I don't know, the other leaves shake off of that tree and all that's left of the Super Bowl rings that everybody else remembers.

But Eli Manning was never really thought of as one of the best quarterbacks in football. He wasn't. I'm going to give you an interesting one here. Jane Daniels. Okay. Is he closer to Pat Mahomes in the next three? years? Oh, I don't think that. Or RG3. Oh, come on. He's going to be better than RG3. I'm a buyer in Jaden Daniels. I got news for you. There is a very small club of the super elite quarterbacks in the

NFL. It's Alan. It's Lamar Jackson and it's Mahomes. In the next three years, are we going to put Jaden Daniels in that group of now make it four? Do you know, know what he's done to that team? He's been great. He has been, he's smart, he throws a beautiful ball, he's runs, he's everything that I think the Colts thought Anthony Richardson was going to be, frankly. I will say, hmm, who's faster to that? I don't know. Who's, who's, okay, you know how there's the four horsemen, right? You got three of the four horsemen. Okay. Who takes the fourth spot faster? CJ Stroud or Jane Daniels? Let's go. CJ Stroud. Red Ross.

Let's go, baby. CJ Stroud. He's going to turn it around. They're going to fix this offensive line. You are smirking like you wouldn't believe. They're going to draft a wide receiver. Nico Collins can't do it all by himself. Do you remember I had two quarterbacks this year and this year's draft being awesome?

Jane Daniels was one of them. And I thought that Caleb Williams was going to be the other. Well, the one and two picks. Drake Mays been good. I said another one you could throw up me I don't know about Drake He's got he needs so much around him He's had some concussion issues as well

And where's JJ Where's J.J.J. McCarthy are going to be in three years quarterback in the Vikings? I will say in fourth place I would say I would have said that But when it happened And now that we've got some Drake May's been okay

Or two and nine Two and nine is a starter 15 touchdown 10 picks Typical rookie Yeah it's not a bad But probably better upside Than they probably thought he was going to get Bryce Young's really been coming along

we're not ready to turn that corner yet but his numbers are significantly better after his benching I think we have we as an NFL consuming we got really quicked on he sucks so bad we give up on quarterbacks too fast Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold said are the names we were running through earlier perfect example Yeah Baker Mayfield has got zero problems of people giving up on him

because now he's got scoreboard and the Buccaneers are one victory away from winning another NFC South five touchdowns for Baker Mayfield against the Panthers Yeah, that's what it is. All right, final segment before we get to believe it or not, if you want to chime in, we'd love to hear from you. 713212-570-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show. This with Ross is Sports Talk 790. Right, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt, love your show. Look, what was he talking about? By the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast.

Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790 7132-1-2-5-790 if you'd like to be a part of our radio program 7-13-212-5-7-9-0. The Jets are looking for candidates. Rex Ryan and Ron Rivera to take the Jets job. What a toxic, horrific situation. You see Aaron Rogers pulled himself in the game yesterday? No, I didn't see that.

They were down, I think, 33-0 and he said, I'm good. I thought that they, I thought he and Devante Adams wanted to get his 500 touchdown or whatever. Didn't happen. No. Whatever. Thanks for nothing, Aaron. I'm not an Aaron Rogers guy, but I still think he's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Absolutely.

To see his diminishing returns off of this career he's head as a Jeterpolitan is just nuts. He's 41 years old. What do you expect? more than what he gave us well he's coming off in an Achilles injury as well yeah but his magical holistic healing didn't get him back in the

in the game like many thought last year so he throws the interception and then he gets called for a late hit out of bounds after that the official's like who had the laid out of there eight eight rogers eight no they ain't on defense no there's only one eight twenty four touchdowns

ten picks four and twelve record not great I mean, I think he's got something left in the tank. Nah, he's hang him up. Well, I guess he needs to get one more touchdown. Is he going to play this weekend? There's just not a great quarterback class, right? It's Chodor Sanders and that's about it?

Well, no, it's the kid at Miami. Cam Ward. Cam Ward and Shadour Sanders, I think. Then there's a draft Nix say there is a drop-off after those two. Significant, as the kids would say, you know. We got Detroit and San Francisco tonight on Monday. Quinn yours is ready to go. Let's get Quinn out there, please.

Were you displeased for this performance against Clemson? No, I like Quinn. Do you need Arch Manning to play at all for your squad to go win the national championship? Yeah, put him in the Red Zone. I'm down with Red Zone Arch.

Isn't it crazy how you would have a Manning? Like, Grandpa was a scrambler because he had to because he was running for his life. He was good scrambler, though. Eli, very rarely. Statue-esque. Peyton had to do it because he was running for his life. But other than that, they would never try to run for first downs, never try to scramble.

It's crazy that Arch has got the best escapeability. Well, you know, his father is the greatest athlete of the bunch, Cooper. It's true. People always talk about how great a while the funniest guy, too. Well, you gotta develop something, right? It's like, he's got dad body. Yeah, it's like the big girl's the funniest in the group. Do you want to repeat that?

No. Something I would have said. It did. You're infecting my brain. But go ahead and say it one more time. 15 years is too much. Say it one more time. Generally, the funny one in the girl group is.

the big one. Am I wrong? No, no, that's actually not completely true. The big one usually thinks she's smaller than everybody else. And she's a little, she's a little more arrogant. She can be. Never mind. You're getting me in trouble. Yes, I am. And if we had more time, I would further expound on this. But since we don't have more time, you'll take the phone.

We're running a little on time. You're having issues still? Yeah, my VPN just drops, so I can't even get to it. Let's go to Brent in the Galeria at 137 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Brent, good afternoon. Hello, Brent. A gentleman, thanks for taking my call. And happy New Year to everybody.

Thank you, you too. Absolutely. Thank you. Just a quick thing on the best thing I feel for Houston sports this year, John Minchie, coming back from leukemia. I mean, talk about a battle for life. and then the worst thing that I feel was also involving the Texans. Tank Dale's leg injury just feel so bad for him the year that he's had with the injury prior being shot and then this. I'm still just blown away how when he blew his leg out like that, how he still held onto the ball the way he did.

Just remarkable heart in that guy. And I just want to say thoughts and prayers to everybody out there that are struggling with addiction. and I hope you guys can find some help and please reach out to your nearest support group of color fighting the battle of addiction and I wish everybody I have to do you. Thank you, Brent. Wisely said, thank you very much.

We forgot about really, Frank, the Tankdale situation. There is a large permit that says he never coming back. Ever? Yeah. In his career? Yeah. Really? Have you talked to like orthopedists about this?

Mm-mm. Okay. No, I think it's... And it's, it's, look, we all have irrational thoughts about variety of things like, oh, we'll never come back from this or we lose a job, we'll never have another job better than this, or you lose a girlfriend, you'll say I never had a girlfriend as good as this. This is just one of those rando, I mean, body, was he 5-9-160, something like that? everything that could possibly go wrong with his knee is going to go went wrong it's second straight year end injury it could be i mean i really forgetting out where he went to school it's just a pure human being yeah i want him to get back on the football i mean he survived a shooting and then now he's got this

potentially career ending or career threatening injury uh i mean uh the the doctor NFL doctors that i kind of follow on twitter for fantasy purposes talked about this being similar to the nick chub injury and Nick Chubb came back and he played in eight games this year, but his career yards per attempt are 5.1, Nick Chub, this year, 3.3. And part of him is his ability to break off tackles for a guy's small stature plus his speed. I would assume that if you're off an NFL football field for a year and a half, you're probably not going to have the same sort of quickness. He's not a 6'4 ballhawk. He's going to have to get open.

He's going to have to get separation, which he's been great at. And yards have their catch. He does that with his speed and his quickness. And if you take away his speed and his quickness, he's not like DeAndre Hopkins, who is just one of the great 50-50 ball winners in the planet. He's going to have to, he wins with his speed and his acceleration and his route running,

which is all a combination of why he's great. And that could absolutely be threatened with this knee injury. So I'm not, I normally call you crazy, Matt? I'm not calling you crazy on this one. And I don't want to, I don't want to be right. I hope that he's got a great support staff around him. It's going to get the best doctor's care and modern sports science.

You got to have a lot of it's going to be motivation. It's going to be a lot of time in the rehabilitation center. It's going to be a lot of time on the machines. It's going to be a lot of watching and saying on the sidelines. And it takes a special person. I consider this a long ways with guys that get Tommy John surgery. I mean, in baseball, you can't have any more of a serious injury in baseball if you're a pitcher than Tommy John. it takes you about 18 months and there's no guarantee you come all the way back.

Now technology and the medicine and the science and the surgery has made it the success rate much greater than it was when Tommy John was first being put out decades ago. But no one says you can fast track a Tommy John and no one says you can fast track complete dislocation and rupturing of every CL that you can possibly find in that knee. Yeah, there's a sports, sorry, it says Harvard trained sports surgeon, went to Stanford as well. He said average return 15 months for the ACL MCL, LCL, meniscus, dislocated kneecap.

Multiple surgeries, 15 months, average return. So we're looking at two seasons. Young, highly athletic players tend to bounce back year two. Yeah. Longevity and durability taking major hits. And quickness at 5-9-160. Whatever is height. way it is.

Texan's got to go get a receiver in the second round. First round? Ola. Okay. Normally you take a tackle in the first round. It's what I'm saying. It depends.

Can you take a guard at pick 23? They took one at pick 15. His name was Kenyon Green. So Nick Casario, history wise, yes, you can take a guard there. That's the priority. I agree. You've got to get And I'm not saying that CJ's mentally afraid.

I'm saying you've got to build some confidence. And the number one thing you can do to build a confidence after a not disappointing season, a less than a rookie season is go to the draft and go say, CJ, we've got this guy out of Bowling Green, we've got this guy out of Ohio State, we got this guy out of Penn State that we think is going to be a great protector for you. That's going to reassure him more than we get this really fast receiver going to throw the ball down. Well, we can't assure him all they want.

He's got to be good when he gets the field. I know. You can't take a guard first round. and he's a bust. That's what's happening right now with Kenyon Green. So Nick Casario not only has to make the pick, he has to get it right. Nick Casario,

over under three years here. Oh, that's a good one, actually. I will be optimistic. And I will say over. Don't ask me for a confidence level in that. Or a bet. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no. I wouldn't even accept the bet if you tried. I'm not betting you at Nature's Valley Bar on this. Salting crackers from the deli that you stole. Not even going to bet those. I just had somebody with maybe a little bit of a pulse of the organization and said, just keep an eye on that. Okay.

Long term. All right. The result has to keep coming. Because the expectation the bar has been raised. All right. 144. Let's play believe it or not. We've got no prizes today. We can give you a celebrity shoutout. Connor and McGovern is the most famous Missouri alum. His team is playing right now, Iowa, in the Music City Bowl. So he's probably checked out for the rest of the show.

This is true. All right. Thank you. Good to hear you. We're going to do shoutouts today for believe it or not. The category is all things about Jimmy Carter. You're saying, Matt, what is a shoutout? That's where we give an opportunity to say hello to anybody that you want to. Whether it be your best friend, whether it be an immortal enemy, whether it be your girlfriend, that be your sidepiece. If you would like to give a shout out for winning, believe it or not, because frankly, our entire sales department and our promotion staff are taking the week off. They took the last week off, and they've been basically off since about November the 15th. 713-212-570. 7-19. Believe it or not, all things about the late president, Jimmy Carter, next, here on Sports Talk, 790.

Next time, tell Alexa. Playing 790 on I-heart radio. Wherever you are, so is Matt Thomas. 149 on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to play, believe it or not, get in right now or forever hold your peace. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Got a text from a friend of mine, friend of the show, cannot reveal his identity.

It says, The Funny Girl is the big one of the group. Holy Toledo. What are you just, that person said? Your commentary sticks. By the way, you're called a mid-journalist this weekend. I was resentful of that. You're a low-level journalist. Your mid is too high.

I appreciate that. I'm not even a journalist or a reporter. Yeah. That's fine. That guy, I heard that guy's big on the Texans' Twitter Street, so I wish him the best. He definitely bragged it. Was he the one bragging about or somebody else? He was thinking about how great he was in Texans. I don't care.

It's fine. You know, I'm wishing him the best. He's muted and I've moved on. I was called a soft bitch. right? Everybody got upset. I made a simple statement of fact. I said there's people calling. That conversation crossed my timeline somehow

in the 4U tab or something. So my tweet was people calling for Dami Co-Darine's an email you don't get to be fired this week. This place is something else. That absolutely 100% happened. People were like, no, it's not. You're rage-baiting for clicks. For clicks, I don't even pay for this stupid website. What does it benefit me

to get clicks? I don't care. And oh, by the way, that guy had like 100,000 tweets. I've got like, I don't know, 40,000. tweets. So if I'm the one that's rage baiting and attention seeking and you've got 100,000 tweets and I've got 40,000, let's be honest. I'll have an honest conversation. I just love that you were called a mid-journalist. That was the best part. I'm not a journalist, but I am very mid. I reconmit. I've been mid for a long time. It's fine. By the way, Iowa's a living doing this. 7-0, Iowa on top of Missouri. So send your condolences. Iowa, Missouri. By the way, a friend of the

Cheryl Larry Footsag. Every time the Rockets lose, she sends me a sorry for your loss. And that's fine. If you give it, you must take it. That's correct. That's actually wonderful. So I've been to take two sorry for your losses in the last few days. I like that. Yeah. That's revenge

served piping hot. It is. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works.

You call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believerna is all things about the recently deceased Jimmy Carter. A read your statement about Jimmy. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Beliebett. It's a statement to meet up.

You'll say this. Two believe it or nots in a row, win your prize. What are we playing? I think we know we're playing for. Right, Connor? Iowa season tickets next year for football, right? Those are very valuable. We don't have those.

what we can't offer is a shout-out to whoever you'd like. Shout out! Let's go! Shout-outs are great. They're valuable. 7-13-212-5-790. Drew on 790, Drew, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Jimmy Carter was just the fourth president to be elected despite having no military service.

Believe it or not. Not. Yeah, he was a lieutenant in the Navy. Statement number two for the win. Not only was Jimmy Carter, the first president born in a hospital. He was also the first president. to have lived in government subsidized housing. Believe it or not? I'm going to say not. You should have said believe it. I'm sorry, you'll get no shout out.

Shoutouts are valuable. 713-212-5-790. Blake on 790. Blake, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Jimmy Carter was an avid fan of his home state of Georgia and their bulldogs. It was even allowed to call a play by head coach Vince Dooley back in 1984. Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, Ross, that's good, but he made it out. He's not that big. I tried. Statement number two for the win, Jimmy Carter authored over 30 books and also won three Grammy Awards. Believe it or not? Not. He did. Believe it. Duh. He was also a founding member of Abba, ironically enough. I believe that's more Grammys than who's your guy. He's more than Kendrick Lamar. I can tell you that for sure. Jimmy Carter's no Kennerner. Jimmy Carter's no, Kendrick Lamar. I can tell you that.

Well, he's not. Kendra's got like 15. 7.1.3. Let me check Barry Mantle. Who's got more Grammys? Barry Mantle? Or Jimmy Carter? Now, they were for spoken word of his author.

Don't even count then. Robert on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Jimmy Carter appeared as himself on a season three episode of the 1990s sitcom Home Improvement. Believe it or not? Not. He did.

Oh, one win for Barry Manil. Bally, did you like home improvement as a TV show? I liked it when I was a kid, but I was a grown up. It doesn't hold up. It was mid. I'm with you. When I was like 12 years old, I thought it was funny. I mean, full time lasted about one season of being funny.

Dave on 790 Dave, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Jimmy Carter legalized home brewing in 1978, which sparked the craft beer movement. Believe it or not? Believe it. Sure did. Statement number two in 1977, Jimmy Carter,

pardoned to all Vietnam. war draft dodgers believe it or not believe it yeah you did you are all right dave these are very valuable yeah time now for your shoutout what are you done i'm done yeah i didn't even know what was going on i thought i was going to win a t-shirt or something no we're doing my shout-outs it's the end of the year the prize bin is empty and our promotions department is checked out so we're getting bounce back emails we'll talk to you after the first So, Dave, your prize is you can shout somebody out. Say hi to somebody.

Ask somebody out. The A team. Shout out to the A team. Coming up next on 7-9. This guy is a genius. That is excellent. Marketing 101, Dave. Wow.

We could get them on the payroll after that. All right. There you go. That was, believe it or not today. We got through it. Spectacular. All right. Tomorrow, it's that anything goes Tuesday.

Okay. D of the year. the candidates, the voting, the declaration. And tomorrow it's best of believe it or not for the year for more shoutouts because we've got no prizes. Up next, two guys that have hardly worked as well, they've worked as much as you have in the last three weeks. Hey, come on now. It's Clanton. It's Wexler. It's the team

on Sports Talk 790.