The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T Smith joins Matt to Discuss the Bill O'Brien TMZ Video

Episode Date: January 10, 2020

Brian T. Smith joins Matt to Discuss the Bill O'Brien TMZ Video

is the Matt Thomas show. It's out there and that halftime of the Denver game coming off the field. You know, I used the inappropriate language. And I just want to apologize for that. I only got one thing to say to Brian T. Smith. BTS. You suck too. What to say, Matt? How odd was that press conference today that you were at?

when he has to come out and apologize for a TMZ video. I mean, what a strange time day and part of the year before one of the most important games in the history of the franchise, and he has to apologize for that. First of all, you should know, Paul, I know he had to, but I didn't want him to, but it was just a really peculiar timing of everything dropping, and then the reaction of the last six or seven hours. Yeah, I tell you what, there's, as always, so many thoughts with this. Number one, here's what's going to go down.

If the Texans, no matter how they lose, if they lose on Sunday to Kansas City, what, 75, 80%, 90% of fans are going to immediately want O'Brien fired, just like they would have after Buffalo, just like they did last year, just like they did in 2015 and 16 on and on and on, right? I mean, that is the ultimate recurring theme with this team. If they win, if the Texans win on Sunday, fans will never be more proud to have Bill O'Brien as their coach. And you will have fans jokingly screaming what he screamed at that, you know, fan, quote-unquote fan at half-time of the Denver game all week leading up to the ASEC championship. I mean, there's never been, and I haven't been in Houston at my entire life. know Houston sports history, you've covered this longer than I have, but I've been doing it since 12.

Has there ever been a coach manager, Astros, Rockets, Texans, who's been more you know alienating, fiery, passionate, pissed off

every term than Bill O'Brien. It's either you love him or hate him. And it's kind of like Twitter in 2020. It changes minute to minute, right? I mean, Buffalo's up 16-0. Everyone wants Bill O'Brien Fire. They win that game. Everyone's in love with Deshawn Watson. Then this video comes out the final practice day before they're going to fly to Kansas City. And that video and his reaction, in a lot of ways, Matt, that perfectly captured the pros and cons of the Bill O'Brien era.

Yeah, it's hard. Like, for instance, everybody hated Glenn. everybody loved Jack Party. They both had critics and some friends, but universally from a personality standpoint, everybody loved Bum. Sure. People loved Gary. They just didn't trust Gary long term towards the end. The only way that Bill O'Brien, I think in my mind, gets full acceptance in this community

is if this team goes to the Super Bowl. I'd be very hard-pressed to find somebody that is on Team O'Brien, although, again... Right, right, but even if he goes to the Super Bowl, which will be huge, right? you'll get two weeks of buzz, the Sean Watts in the Super Bowl. Right. But I truly believe this. I feel very strongly,

having covered every ounce of the Bill O'Brien era, that if the Texans make the Super Bowl with O'Brien and they lose that game, it's going to, they will blame O'Brien. There's no way around it. With everything he's done with general managers and quarterbacks and personnel and coaches, it's very simple. And I've been saying this for a couple years,

he has to win a Super Bowl. and if he does, he will become the coach. He will become the defining coach of the Houston Texans franchise for as long as we can think forward. And if he does not win a Super Bowl, he will be the most hated coach in franchise history. And there is no in between. There is no middle gray area because this is how he has made it.

He is the coach who will flip the double bird and mother bleep you in his stadium when his team's about to be down 38 to 3. Well, here's what it is. It's everything that a dictator wants without the results. And that's when he will have scoreboard if this team goes to Kansas City and wins the game and go to Baltimore and then go to the Super Bowl, whether or not he wins it or not. You know, he'll say, AFC South – he'll say AFC champions, Brian. AFC champions, Brian, and he'll have scoreboard. That's how you do it.

But until the dictator really reigns over things and wins something, then the criticism is going to be. I had a call her 20 minutes ago. So, Matt, I love the Texans. I love the Rockets and the Astros. I'm a Houston guy through and through. I want the Texans to lose. And I said, I know the reason why, because you want Bill O'Brien gone. Cal ain't making that move.

You don't fire coach going to the divisional playoffs. You just don't. It's not going to happen. Well, and how about the irony of, look, O'Brien's done some very good, I mean, I say this every time. I've been saying this for six years, right? This is the crux of the Bill O'Brien discussion, Matt.

He's done some very good things, four out of five division titles. We can always have fun with that, but it counts. The comeback against Buffalo was fantastic. They were also down 16-0 late in their quarter and looked horrible. But the irony is that he is, and at some point someone, maybe it'll be me, we'll write a book on this. The fact that O'Brien is so intense and fiery and passionate and proud, and he will MF you. But he's the coach of a franchise owned by the McNairns who are known,

at best for being polite and friendly and the community and church going and, you know, just almost like the neighbors down the street who you wave at, but, you know, they won't invite you in, but they're always going to wave at you. You're like, oh, they're really nice people. You could not have more of a polar opposite, and they've chosen this guy, they've given them the keys to the kingdom, and he will either completely get everyone on board on Sunday at Kansas City, and this city will be buzzing on Monday morning, and no one's going to care about that video, or they will be trying to push Bill O'Brien,

pick Bill O'Brien outside of Energy Stadium and put him on Kirby Drive Monday morning. There is no in between Matt, with this coach and this guy in this regime, and he's made it this way. All right. So I'm going to ask you this question, and if you have to save it for a column, I understand. Are you already to make a prediction about the game?

I've been making a prediction all week. The second that the Texans beat Buffalo, I already knew what I felt, knew my prediction. Nothing this week was going to change it. You know, Will Fuller is the question mark of a game. But I don't, you know, Will Fuller could have a nice game. You can stretch the field on and on. But ultimately, it will be Andy Reed and Bill O'Brien and Patrick Mahomes and Ashon Watson and the Texans are on the road at Arrowhead.

I knew my prediction as soon as the Texans won against Buffalo in overtime. and that is Chief 3024 Okay You know what you just did You just did it You just did it like you were swallowing a pill you didn't want to take No

There's no way Rationally or professionally I can Going into this game I could pick the Texans to win it But I'm also saying 3024 Which means that it's within a touchdown And I've thought all week Matt

I will not be shocked if the Texans win this game. They have the weapons to do it. You could spend your entire Friday Matt Thomas show arguing, having a professional modern football discussion debating, who is the best quarterback, Deshawn Watson or Patrick Mahomes. I really believe you can have that discussion. We went position by position. We put the linebackers and the defensive line together. He was pretty evenly matched.

Yeah, we had Kansas City as a better quarterback, wide receiver, offensive line, special teams and coaching. We had the Texans better at running back, defensive line linebacker, and that was it. So maybe it wasn't as close as I thought it was going to be. Right, right. But even the places you're going to give the edge of the Kansas City, say, the offensive line. Yeah. And the Texans gave up seven sacks. But it's not like, it's not like J.J. Watt cannot theoretically get to Patrick's home and put him on the,

the butt on his butt and knock him out of the game. What if JJ Watt has the playoff game of his life at Arrowhead? And Patrick Mahomes can be knocked down. And he's, you know, he's 6-3-220, but he's not huge. They could knock Patrick Mahomes out of the game. Look, if the Texans are on and Bill O'Brien and Romeo Cornell bring it, and they don't turn the ball over, and they, Deshawn's fantastic, and they go up early, that stadium will get quiet, quick.

It's mid-January. It's going to be freezing. it's not like Andy Reed has six Super Bowl rings. So I will not be shocked at the Texans win this game. I will not be surprised if it comes down to the end of the fourth quarter, but there's no way, Matt, knowing what's at stake. It's on the road. As simple as that is that I could confidently say, yeah, Texans are winning, you know,

37 to 30. I can't make that pick. No, and again, this is an indictment against the team. It's about somebody having to make a decision. Is A better than B? Is one team better than the other? It's not personal. I mean, it would be personal if you said, well, the Texans are going to win 45 to 10.

It's because you probably own a PSL and you're a diehard fan and you are in your Twitter account is Texan, whatever. That's over the line. And then the same thing is if you said, well, the chiefs are going to win 52 to 17 because I hate Bill O'Brien, then there's too much of a bias in that particular direction. Sometimes you just have to be grown ass about something and say, all right, I've looked at both teams, I look at the roster, I've seen the history. I know the coaching. I know what the Texans did last week. I know what the Chiefs have done and going to be the number two C in the AFC. Somebody has to win. And it's okay for everybody not to agree, and it's not because you hate the local team.

It's because you have to pick a side. You know what it would be hilarious. The Texans win this game. And Bill O'Brien, who's already doubled down on himself, is his own worst enemy, King O'Brien. We have a little fun with him. We take it very seriously, but it's a little fun, too. So, O'Brien, should coach the game of his life, turned to Sean Watson into Lamar Jackson

slash Patrick Mahomes. Texans win this game, and he should just give the double number one salute to the entire stadium, just turn full heel and embrace it. I'm telling you, I have, you know, put the hoodie up and look like the next emperor, the emperor comes back to life. He should just go full heel and embrace it. If you're going to hate me, and I win at Arrowhead Stadium,

bring it. I'm in the AFC championship game for the first time in Texas since history. I'm telling you, I'm not kidding you with this. I enjoyed more of Bill O'Brien on TMZ video than I've enjoyed

in his previous six years of coach. Because you know what? It just shows you that he's not this, he doesn't put himself in a glass case. He hears it, which means,

which, 2014, he's never been. He's never, he is, he was known as teapot for a reason. It wasn't a joke.

It was because he can't, he can't, he can't, control his emotion. I mean, he's gotten better. So we want to say he's got, like, that was the whole thing during training camp from free season. I wouldn't even mention the radio station, but all the quote-unquote, you know, Texans experts who get paid a decent amount of money to say that they know a lot about the Texans when they don't.

Oh, Bill O'Brien so much better. He's gotten calmer on and on and on. This season, he just did that. And here's the other part about it. We can have fun with it, but I will say, and we don't know what the fan said, but what if that was like, what if that was your son or your daughter or you're a fan and he does you know and you're around that and you see it and you hear it i mean there there is a very very ugly side to it but yeah but you know what though bt s let me tell you this NFL football ain't for families and you know that no it's it's the shield and it's it's grown men playing a grown man out there you go yeah i i i would have to say and i have two boys as you know i would not i would not ever tell my sons guys be prepared for hearing some vulgar language and hearing some obnoxious things because right but but okay that's that's another there's two sides to it though but it's not it's the

fans it's not usually the coach who's doing that oh okay we've never seen that we've never seen that from an NFL head coach I'm just telling you I'm not a wallflower and I thought it was exemplary and I hope he doesn't get punished and he a yeah do you apologize to you don't I know he had to apologize yeah I'm almost done with a column saying like This is old news, and it's not that it came out from week 14. This is who he has been since 2014. This is who he was in New England. This is who he always will be, and he will either sink or swim,

and he'll have a crown for life where he'll be fired next year, whatever it is. This is who he is. I'm the last person in Houston who's going to be offended or triggered or bothered by that. I don't care. All right, BTS. Thank you for the time as I was talking next week, hopefully talking about an AFC championship game, because regardless of what you pick, to have an AFC championship, we've never had it here since the olders.

And that's going back 40 plus years. That's crazy. Thanks for the time as always, friend. Thank you, Matt. You got it. BTSB.S. Brian T. Smith from The Chronicle at Cron Brian Smith with us here on the Matt Thomas show.