The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Chandler Rome Stops By: Rockets vs. Pelicans Tonight & Texans Getting National Love

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Chandler Rome Stops By: Rockets vs. Pelicans Tonight & Texans Getting National Lo

This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Tell 1 in H-town. Good morning, and welcome to a Thursday, a morning edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross, here from New Orleans, Louisiana, where tonight the sporting world will have their eyes set on the Houston Rockets against the New Orleans Pelicans. and a man that brought great insight analysis to all things, Pelicans. Basketball is back with us today. Chandler Rom, how the hell are you? Your dinner looked a lot better last night in New Orleans than the original one.

That looked, I don't know where you guys went. I guess I've got to look at the plate and really looked close, but it looked very good. I mean, I'm so fat, Chandler, so, so, so fat. But that's just part of the deal on you under New Orleans. Yeah, yeah. There is actually a scale in my hotel. and I've been on it twice already and I'm not probably my results. So I think I'm going to walk to the smoothie King Center today.

It's just to get some exercise going. Get a smoothie. Yeah. Hey, I'm stunned that you've not like, Matt, I've got to go. Big Story brewing, something's going down. Are you even a little surprised at how quiet things are on the Astros front? I sent a text message to someone within the organization yesterday. And all I said is, can y'all do something on board?

um that's basically where i am right now yeah like it's i mean am i surprised no because this is what happens when you don't have deadlines right like i think if you have i think if there's a valid criticism of baseball and it's off season is that there's no incentive for teams to act right like it's um deadlines drive decisions deadlines drive action deadline spur action and there is no deadline so these teams can operate as low and as methodical as they want. It's not great for the consumer, I guess, but it also does keep it. Like, I mean, we're talking about it. So it keeps it in the news a little bit. But yeah, I think if I was commissioner, I would find a way to make a deadline of some sort. Or, you know,

I had this idea floated to me, not by anyone, not by anyone in baseball that has any power to do so. But like, what about a transaction freeze, like after the winter meetings? Like, from the winter meetings to like January 15th. It's a transaction freeze. So that would at least create some fun and some, you know, drama around the winter meetings when you know you have a freeze coming up and maybe that would spur some action. I don't know, but they need to do something because as long as it's like this, teams are just going to take their time and wait out the best value and wait out, you know, what they want before doing anything. I mean, there is a term that has been brought up. It's called Hot Stove. You don't hear Hot Stove in the NBA. You don't hear

hot stove in the NFL. You hear a hot stove in baseball. And I, you know, I think the off season and the trade deadlines in football are okay. I think the basketball NBA trade deadline and the starter for agency is amazing. I think baseball's trade deadline is really amazing because we're sitting there staring and looking at our phones and watching the clock and waiting to see what you're tweeting or their tags or something. But I think the off season, again, historically, it's better in baseball than the other two sports but I don't know if it's a transaction freeze if it's a hey we'll give you

bonus points if you do something but it feels it feels like to me the last two or three years in particular we're seeing more like mid-February signings I mean when did bregman sign with the Red Sox it was very late wasn't it? I was in spring training it was like it was the day I think it was the day position players reported

to Astros camp like it was yeah it was in spring training so and I mean you could see a lot of guys like that this coming year now I think next off season will be a little more interesting because the CBA expires on December 1st. I think there's going to be a lot of players that want to know where they're going to be playing before

a potential lockout. So you could see a lot of deals get done a lot earlier next off season. All right, we've got the channel with us from 10 o'clock until noon. Obviously, we'll get a lot of baseball chatter going, but that's not an exclusive to our visit with him. So if you want to get in anything sports related, whether it be

Rockets, NBA, the Texans getting ready for the Raiders on Sunday. We will have coming up this morning. at 11.30. You lost your, shut your bum ass up virginity yesterday. Now you're going to get the I just don't get it today. This is also a fun little segment that we do once a week because we're looking to fill 20 hours. There are things in live channel we just don't get. And we have three different generations, you, myself, Jonathan, and we try to figure these things out. We have our listeners calling in. So if there's anything that perplexes you, Jonathan, and for you, Chandler,

in your life, we're here to solve it between 1130 and noon. a lot of things perplex me a lot of things confuse me I know they do John they give him a what for give him a little

tutoring session and I just don't get it today at 1230 we're going to have Emaya Doka he's a Chandler he's $25,000 lighter

in the pocket today after the NBA fined him yesterday which by the way Jonathan you had him in $110,000 I'm really surprised how low the fine was

I'm not going to love I said 50 so you know he's a repeat offender boys I presume which whatever for Tita's son is running the team can just pay the fine for him, right?

You know, I don't know that. I don't know. Again, you have to kind of walk a treadline. You know, you don't want to be doing anything that would be, in theory, against league rules. But, I mean, does EMA, you know, does he set aside like a little hush fund of money that he's going to eventually pay the NBA for fines?

I mean, look, you make several million dollars a year. He's got a new contract extension. $25,000 to him is, you know, a blip on the radar. Well, it happened a lot. And when the Astros, when, I mean, it happened a lot with Alex Centron. When Alex Centron would get ejected from a game for arguing balls and strikes. Right.

When he was a hitting coach, like, a lot of times the players would pay is fine. Because, like, it was a thank you for sticking up for him for putting his neck on the line. And, I mean, obviously, this is a whole other discussion, but Major League Baseball coaches do not get paid, which you think they get paid. Right. It's a more meager salary than I think a lot of the general public. think so and baseball players get paid a lot more so yeah that was a lot a lot of times in the astros clubhouse there be players that would pay fines if coaches got ejected things like that if it was a sticking up for sticking up for the guys i wonder you know kd's got i think kd's got an extra

25 grand laying around i think he'd be able to help i think j sean tate's got an extra 25 000 you give i mean you know even the low-end guys are doing well okay so we'll talk to e-may coming up at 1230 today. Cole Kubelik's going to join us from the SEC Network and ESPN at 1.30 today for the ags game against the Miami Hurricanes. We'll also get a thought or two from him on Alabama versus Oklahoma. I'm also going to ask him this, and I really don't know the answer to this. And I brought this up a couple of times this week and Chan.

I want to get your thoughts on this as well. You know, when you went 20 years ago, when there was no such thing as NIL and no such thing as directly schools paying players, you. You had the haves and the have-nots. You had the big facilities. You had the big money, the big donors. For instance, case in point, Texas and Texas A&M can cash whip anybody else in the state. And that goes without saying.

But we have seen in college football the last handful of years, and particularly in the state of Texas, schools that you wouldn't expect to come in and start playing around with the big money, i.e. Texas Tech, and to a lesser extent, SMU, they're now considered potential for powerhouses or be able to sustain success. I wonder how the SEC handles all that because for a lot of time it's been Alabama it's been Auburn, it's been Florida, it's been LSU

and other schools in the conference are like oh man we'll take the table scraps. Vanderbilt being good in football. I mean, how many times was Vanderbilt good in football when you were in college at LSU? Zero? That would be zero, yes. Zero. Actually, I think my college tenure coincided with James Franklin at Vanderbilt and they were actually like, they were

respectable. I would not say they were good, but he got them to a bowl game. They were not a complete laughing stock. Yeah, they actually played Houston in a bowl game and lost, but that's neither here nor there. But I wonder, and maybe Cole have a perspective on this, are we missing out on some schools that maybe we think have more money than they really do? Because it feels like to me, and I don't know this for a fact,

that LSU clearly has it because they're going to pay Lane Kiffin crazy amounts of money, and he'll obviously need a lot of money to bring players in. But I'm wondering if Alabama needs a little economic boost, the strange isn't made it say well it used to be it used to be all about geography right like if you were in the right part of the country

you could recruit whoever you want it because just in general there were certain parts of the country that develop better football players it's just it's just been like that forever like per capita like if you're in Florida if you're in Louisiana like those states per capita produce the most NFL players

really of anyone and it's become less geography based now because like when you're geography-based, you have allegiances to your local schools, right? There are people that grew up in Louisiana that want to go to LSU. There are people that grew up in Florida that want to go to Florida, Florida, Florida, State, Miami, wherever. Now it's like, they could all want to go there great, but if this school dumps a $2.5 million offer on you, like, that, like, allegiances is great. Like, you can root for LSU, like, privately in your spare time. You're going to go take the $2.5 million and go to Texas Tech or SMU or something like that. Well, Texas Tech's a greatest example

that. I mean, you know, people have said over and over again, it takes more money to get kids to Lubbock because it's West Texas. It's not close to anywhere. But I, you know, I'm not looking at their roster lately, but I would probably assume that this roster of 2025

is much more geographically spread out than, say, the 1999 or 2003 Texas Tech roster. And, you know, for the first time in, I mean, there's probably been two or three defenses in my entire life that Texas Tech can bet brag on. You know, Zach Thomas led teams of years ago.

But Texas Tech typically known was for this. Score 60 points a game, have a bunch of great quarterbacks, but not stop anybody. They'd finish the year at 7 and 5, 8, and 4, and you'd call it a day. Now you've got Texas Tech not only going to the college football playoff, but they have a buy-in to the second round. I mean, that's why I'm curious where the SEC is in that, you know, can Auburn and Alabama have enough boosters

to stay with the LSUs? will Florida be able to stay with it? And there's somebody we're forgetting about that all of a sudden a cash infusion goes into, say, South Carolina or to Arkansas or Kentucky that may be two or three years from now, those schools are talked about as legitimate SEC title contenders. Yeah, and I like that it has leveled the playing field. We're talking about Indiana as the number one team in the country,

that we're talking about Vandy as a legit snub. Now, do I love that we have to watch James Madison and Tulane play football? like meaningful football games this week. I don't love that, to be honest with you. Like, I would rather watch, you know, I'd rather watch a three-lost Texas team try to go beat one of these teams and watch, you know, James Madison, like,

give it the old college try for 15 minutes. Because that's what it's going to be. Like, I mean, Tulane, they are playing, Tulane is playing a team that already beat them 45 to 10 this season. That's right. Like, it's, and again, and again, I don't want to, I don't want to disparage.

Like, these guys are trying hard. Like, they do what they can with what they have. have, but it's just I would, maybe I'm in the minority, like I'd rather try to watch a loaded team like Texas, a team that maybe didn't get off to the greatest start in the world, but found itself late in the season, Art started playing better. I'd rather watch that team try to go play Oregon or try to go play Ole Miss than what this is going to be, which like they'll hang around for a quarter, a quarter and a half, and it'll be fun. And then by the third quarter, everyone's going to tune out because it's just

I don't know what the right solution is I'm sure they're going to expand it more going forward but it just it doesn't feel right to me that we have to watch James Madison and Tulane play these games I'll just say this I have zero problem with

non-power four schools getting in I just think this year probably discussed it more than anything else that if you're going to keep the group of five in you got to head to make it 16 teams just so it doesn't come across as they're just being put in. Either that, or we need James Madison and or Tulane to pull off the upset of the century this weekend.

Because I guarantee you, if James Madison gets blown out against Oregon or Tulane gets blown up by Ole Miss, everybody on their Monday TV talk shows in ESPN, I told you so, I told you so they shouldn't have had them in there. I think you're going to build it. You can't avoid antitrust unless you have a group of five. Or at some point, you know, guys, Chandler, maybe they're thinking maybe we just need to separate and just create this power four league of 48 62 really good teams and let those other tiers those other schools that aren't the power to power

for create their own national championship it's going to be one way the other and i think they don't want to do that so i think we're going to get the 16 teams and allow those two group of fives in i i agree i think that's how it should be i i think um you know i think expanding it like as as long as you keep expanding it there's going to be the debate like we debated about the 13th and 14th best teams this time around. If they expand the 16, we're going to debate about the 17th and the 18. The debate is never going away. Like, they debate the NCAA tournament every year,

why team number 70 or 71 didn't get into a 68 team field. Like, that's never going away. But I just, I don't know, it just feels kind of weird to me to let, to automatically let these two teams in when there are probably other teams that would create a better product, create better games and what we're going to see this week. Well, case and point. I mean, you know that SMU, not SMU, you know that BYU would, you know that

Notre Dame would. I mean, there's two right off the top. Vanderbilt would probably, Texas. I mean, there's four right there. So, like I said, I think it gets to 16. Yeah, we're going to argue about 17 and 18, but I think at that point that's going to be a much shorter conversation that we had this past week.

All right, that's Channel Rome. He is in our Houston studios. I'm here in New Orleans. If you want to chime in anything we've talked about so far, and we've got a lot to get to over the next four hours. 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7-9-0. All right, 10 o'clockers, wake up. I think you're out there.

I hope you're out there. Matt with you in New Orleans. Ross is off, and the Channel Rome's going to hang out with us for a couple hours. I didn't realize you had tonight's game between the Rams and the Seahawks. That's Battle of 11-win teams. I hope Chandler that Al Michaels cares about the game. I mean, because Lord knows he hadn't cared much about the games he's called this year. he's uh he's coasting let him uh he's he's earned the right to not care he's uh he's been around doing

it for a while it's okay i don't know we finally got bob costas off the play by play last year and look these are guys that grow up and admired and but just tell me if i lose my fastball channeler you's got to come tell me okay oh oh don't worry don't worry i'll let you know 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 and again with Chandler here we're going to focus a lot on baseball the next couple hours we've got the things to get to but I want to go back to the Stros for a second any talk about the lame duck contract status with Dana and Joe being a factor with potential for agent acquisitions and or trades you know I don't think it's a factor in terms of like our teams going or players going to decide to come here or our other teams going to decide to trade with the Astros like that I to that doesn't matter to me just in my opinion it doesn't matter if those two are lame ducks but I mean it's certainly a storyline that I think needs to be talked about a little bit more you know it was interesting at the winter meetings Philly's manager Rob Thompson got an extension on Tuesday the team announced it and everything and he he got a You got a one-year deal. He got a one-year extension into the, that covers next season.

And so on that day, it seemed prudent to ask Dana whether, you know, there had been any talks with Joe or anything like that. And the weird thing was Joe was sitting in the room when we were interviewing Dana. So having to ask that with Joe sitting 15 feet away was a little awkward. But the response, if you read between the lines and the response, I don't have it in front of me, but I'll paraphrase. Dana basically tied himself into it. He said, Joe and I have said that we want to retire here, that our goal is to retire here. And Dana, also in the last year of this deal, talked about the way we retire here is that we put together a playoff team and we get deep into the playoffs and that's how we're going to retire here. My read on that, my opinion, my read between the lines on that is it's not Dana's call.

It's not Dana's call whether Joe Spott gets an extension because Dana has. himself is in the same predicament. I think it's Jim Crane's call. And, you know, Jim hasn't conducted a news conference since opening day, so we haven't had the chance to ask him outright. So, you know, this is, there is precedent here. Dusty Baker worked as a lame duck, very famously. He would make it known that he worked as a lame duck for, I think, two of the four years he was manager here. James Click worked as a lame duck in 2022, and then we saw how that ended. So, There's precedent for Jim allowing his employees to work or the head of his baseball operations to work on a lame duck situation. It'll be fascinating.

It'll be fascinating to see if they get into July, if they get toward the deadline and maybe they're not performing or maybe they've underperformed or a lot of interesting consequential decisions could be half to had at that time. you know i'll say this about jim you know he's remarkably consistent on how he handles things he doesn't give out super long contracts he does pay fair market value but no one's ever going wow how about that eight-year deal coming from the astros or how about that five-year contract extension for said manager or general manager and look i don't i don't know how crane logistics handles their business but clearly jim crane went to a business school that says said, I'm going to keep my guys on a short leash, and I feel like if I need to make a change, I'm going to do so, and I don't want to be stuck with contracts that hurt me if I have to pay out.

I mean, there are some teams in sports that have, you know, college football coaches being won. We see that more often than anything else. They get these huge guaranteed deals, and these schools have got to pay them out. Jim Crane hasn't had to do a lot of that, and maybe that's just he got some advice. Maybe he watched other baseball teams do it that way, but, It's consistent. I don't think he would buck the turn even for a guy like one of his buddies, Justin Verlander, even back in the heyday when Justin was signed the second time around.

Well, we know that. I mean, Justin told us that. He told us that in April when the Giants came for that first series of the season. And he told us that when the Giants offered him the one year $15 million, like he called Jim. He called Crane and then asked, you know, basically. basically can you guys match this like here's what i got and jim told him no we're not in a position to do that right now and yeah which to me spoke volumes because again you like you just intimated like jim and justin are very very close and if there was going to be anyone in my thought process

that maybe jim would issue some of his you know precedence for it'd be him and the fact that he didn't was was interesting so yeah i mean we've seen that like jim is Jim is consistent, like you said. I do think the one maybe the one difference and what we're talking about maybe as opposed to like player contracts is like in the grand

scheme of things, managers and GMs don't make that much money. In the grand scheme, like look, Joe Spott and Dana Brown are well compensated. Don't get me wrong. But we're not talking about tens of millions of dollars. Like there are only a select

few managers in baseball, one of whom used to manage here that are in that upper echelon of compensated managers like I'm talking like in the five to eight million dollar range in terms of yearly salaries that's like a council got good money to leave Milwaukee to go to Chicago people talking about that Alex Corr redid his contract after that and he got a good bit of money a j. Hinch got a nice raise and a nice new contract after what he's done in Detroit so you've got that upper echelon other than that it's not a as lucrative of a position as maybe you would think. And again, I'm not trying to sit here saying like Joe and Dane are making minimum wage.

That is certainly not the case. But it's maybe just like when you see what the players make, when you see what the guys on the field make, it really isn't what you think as far as what the managers and the coaches are making. So the good thing is that if you get a player who doesn't perform well and you can argue about the Jose Obrayu situation and there was no general manager there, but at worst, it was only a three-year deal. I mean, I know it sounds painful, but it was three.

Christian Walker is three. Josh Hayter's got a lengthy contract with that, but Josh, it felt like to me was on Jim's radar for a long time, so that was like, I'm going to go buck the trend on that. But it does give you some flexibility to say, hey, if we got a bad deal, we can either trade out of that deal or we can have to suck it up and think about going to the next direction. I mean, look, think about the angels.

And I go back to Albert Poolehouse's contract. many, many years ago. I think that Albert Pujol's contract with Anthony Rendon's contract shortly after that, paralyze that franchise. You get stuck behind those super long-term deals for guys who can't play or on the downside of their career, and it can hamper your entire 26-man roster.

Yeah, and that's why, like, and look, I sort of agree with Jim's stance on that, right? Like, I agree with the stance that those things rarely ever age well. Now, every so often you get an Otani, you get a Soto, get these guys that are just kind of unicorns, that you give them nine, 10, 11 years and you don't really have to worry.

Like the back into that, the back into the Otani contract will be okay. Like the back into the Soto contract will be, will he be the player he is now? Probably not, but he'll still be pretty good. But by and large, like I get where Jim is coming from. And I agree with that, that you don't want to have like the Angels are doing with, and like have the Rendon albatross on your on your payroll because it constricts everything else you can do along with you know they have the the Mike trout contract on their books which I think at the time everyone looked at the Mike Trout contract of 12 years and 400 million 460 million

was like this is a bargain like this is the best player on earth and at the time he was and injuries have just completely sabotaged him and that contract's not looking great right now so yeah it's a lot easier to wiggle out of a two or a three-year commitment than it is a seven or an eight-year commitment. All right, that's Channel Roan for the Athletic, and we can talk to baseball with you folks. We can get into the Texans if you want to, getting ready for Sunday's game with the Raiders. We have the Rockets against the Pelicans tonight. We got EMAIDOCA getting $25,000 in fines.

We have Joel Clatt apologizing for his assonine take earlier this week. We can get to that as well. Plus, I just don't get it at 11.3 this morning here on Sports Talk 790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to ask any questions, get a third. thought in or two about the Astros hot stove, which has been on simmer for most of this offseason. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 10-32 here on 7-90 with... Matt and Chandler with you here until 12 noon on Sports Talk 790. Jenner, sadly, not a lot of piping hot Houston sports stuff going on in the last handful of days. I mean, we could break down the Texans. Bree deep, if you'd like. I'm going to save that for after you get off the show,

because I know that you want to save it for your own private podcast. Yeah, we are recording a pod tonight, so I've got to save some stuff. How are you killing time on this? I mean, we've got nothing going on. That's literally, like, I texted Tyler, my co-host. I was like, I guess we have to do a podcast. I don't know what we're going to talk about, honestly. So please tune in.

Yeah, by the way, do not mean, go ahead and mention the name of the podcast. Crush City Territory. presented by the foul territory network please subscribe like it's really good i just hate don't like the name but that's a different issue for different time all right um so let's get to those 2027 season get your crystal ball out channel room are we playing baseball on any point in 2027 yeah i don't think we miss this season um you got to remember like even when even when the threat to the even when it looked as bleak as it did the last time we we did one of these things.

Like, we still played 162 games. It just cut into like the first week or so of spring training and they had to they had to basically backfill the games toward the end of the schedule. I, there will be a lockout. Don't get me wrong. I think there will be, I think it'll be a lot like last time where I don't think teams will report to spring training when they normally do. I think there will be a lot of posturing.

I think there will be a lot of doom and gloom because that's how, It's how negotiations work. That's how both sides, you know, just both sides are going to be entrenched in their points. But I think both sides also understand, or if they don't, they should understand that, and you can disagree with me on this, Matt. Like, I think baseball is probably at one of its healthiest points just all around that we've seen in a while, just given, given how prevalent Otani's been and what he's done to kind of take over, given the, Given the star power in the sport, given everything about it, given the conversation around it, baseball has probably never been in a healthier place publicly. You look at the World Series this year, it was incredible.

People were talking about the World Series every game, and that wasn't just the World Series. It was the playoffs. It was the playoffs this year, and maybe this whole season kind of showed that baseball's in a really good spot. Like, it's in a good spot health-wise. It's in a good spot in the perception game. I just, I don't know, at least for me as like a baseball fan, I hope that both sides don't undo all that goodwill. Don't undo all the good that's been done by, you know, a work stoppage or something that's going to get really ugly.

Well, I will say this about fans, and that includes people that I talk to on this radio show. It includes my barber. It includes people that I have my neighbor. You have a barber? Well, I go get my, I get shaves. It's my diva thing I do. Interesting. I know.

Which, by the way, I'm in this 13-day trip. I've got to find a barber probably going to get to Denver tomorrow, but that's a different is your different time. So my point is this. Fans tend to tell me how they don't watch things and don't go to things, yet baseball is thriving. Baseball's attendance is amazing. The World Series, which featured a Canadian team, had astronomically successful numbers because the games were super compelling.

stadiums are full. They just signed brand new television deals and you know this world baseball classic has added an extra layer of excitement to an otherwise mundane part

of a baseball calendar. Basketball, all I hear about is Matt, I don't watch the NBA. All they do is dunk the ball and shoot three-pointers. They don't play any defense to take time off. Adam Silver just signed a mega-mega-television

deal with multiple networks. Buildings are full. Ticket prices are high. People go. So it's not for, for everybody and people like to tend to paint with a broad brush on this you know I remember going back

you know the strike I'll never go to an Astros game again after the strike of 94 I'll never do this and this I'll never go to an Astros game again when the Astros moved from the National League the America League we're a finicky bunch of people sports fans are and maybe we are if we were talking about our politics too we'd be finically but but generally

speaking it would take basically and this is my thought on this it would take a seismic channeler cheating scandal of epic proportions for people to officially turn off baseball or basketball or football.

It would have to take multiple teams fixing games for a long period of time to challenge the direct integrity of a sport for people to say, you know what, you're pro wrestling, I don't want to go do it. But other than that, everything that these sports leagues do from new TV

deals to streaming, to higher ticket prices, to lockout, and strikes, these sports are immune because we love sports. That's it. We just do. Well, I fear what you're going to get is kind of what you, the rhetoric and the narratives you got last time was billionaires versus millionaires. A lot of people just, a lot of normal average Joe people mad that a bunch of millionaire baseball players are complaining. And there's a bunch of billionaire owners that are also complaining. Just, I think that is a turnoff. Just, this is my

opinion. I think that's a turn off to a lot of, you know, casual people that are just like, you get paid a lot of money to play a sport. Like, just go do it. I don't agree with that line of thinking, but, but I think that's, I think that's what you risk, right? You risk just in the court of public perceptions, people like, you know what? Like, it's not worth it. Like, it's not worth like this, if this is how they're going to act, this is how they're going to behave. When, you know, this happens every day, right? Like, there's unions around the country, around the world. Like, every like most industries have unions where like they have a they have a they have a the union has a side and management has a side and they negotiate new agreements new

new contracts new things but we just never hear about it we know it's all done privately it's all done you know within the the workspace within that insular place and we never hear about it publicly when you know you get to see how the sausage is made from that standpoint it can be off-putting real quick and it's i want to get to something else NFL later next, but do you think the owners will be unified a year from now? Because honestly, I've talked about this before with the audience. How in the world does Kansas City's ownership group align with L.A. and the Yankees and the Mets? Yeah, I don't think it'll be unanimous.

I certainly don't think all 30 will be going for the same thing. And I think, but, you know, Rob Manfred, as much hate as he gets, as polarizing as he is, his job is he worked for them. He worked for the owners. and he's got to make 30 very, very rich people, very convicted people. He's got to make them all kind of get on the same page, and that's difficult. And so, no, I don't think, you know, like you said, the Dodgers ownership group isn't in the same level as the Pirates ownership group or the Ray's ownership group. So, like, no, I don't think they'll all be unified, but I think they will find a way to come to common ground.

All right. How does this sound, ladies and gentlemen? The Northwest Indiana Bears. We'll discuss that in a minute. 1045 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to chime in. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I just don't get it come up at 1130 today here on Sports Talk 790.

10-51 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Channel Rom is hanging out with us until 12 today. We've got to just don't get it come up at 1130. We'll have EMAID OK at 1230 on the show, and at 1.30,000. Nicole Kubelik from ESPN of the SEC Network is going to join us to discuss a lot about the Aggies and the Hurricanes Saturday, 11 a.m. in college station. Boy, the college football ESPN folks, like, you know what? We're going to put James Madison into lane on those late games because there's NFL football on Saturday. We're going to get our ass kicked. Isn't that crazy? How mad are the Aggies that they have on 11 a.m. playoff game? I don't think they're overly pleased, but you get to get home in a decent time.

I mean, you know, how do LSU fans handle 11 o'clock games? They don't handle those well, do they? They never have them. Like, that was, like, actually one of the things, Lane Kiffin, one of his, like, crusades at Ole Miss, and he's not necessarily wrong, is that, like, LSU could be four and eight, and they will somehow find a way to have all night games.

Television sets. It just, and it's more of just like LSU has created this mystique about Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, and it's warranted. Don't get me wrong. As someone that's been in there many and many of nights, like it's not, it's warranted. But I see why other teams get a little miffed, if you will, because like Ole Miss the last couple years, they've won 50 games in the last five years. They're playing like every other game at 11 a.m.

Well, it's because Ole Miss doesn't carry the cachet. She's like the Cowboys. I mean, last Sunday night was the Cowboys against the Vikings, two teams that probably have about a 2% chance of making the playoffs. NBC's like, oh, we'll have it. We'll carry every one of your games. It's fine. Yeah. It's about eyeballs. Yeah, that's how I get it. I get, I get both sides.

I get why ESPN, I get why the TV networks do it like that, and I also get why coaches at other schools get miffed. All right, I teased this a minute ago, and not that we spent a lot of time talking about Bears Stadium conversation, but I do think it has an indirect effect on what's going to happen here in Houston eventually. So the Chicago Bears thought they had a deal in for Arlington Heights, which is a suburb of Chicago. You know, they've been asking for a new stadium in downtown forever. They think the refurbish soldier field is outweighed.

It's, you know, it's just, it's old again and they need to go get something nicer because everybody wants bigger, brighter, beautiful. They want what they get in Vegas. They want what they get in Los Angeles. They want what they get in Dallas with those stadiums. So they thought they had this entertainment complex knocked out in Arlington Heights, big plot of land, build the same. stadium, put hotels, restaurants, clubs, yada, yada, yada, yeah. Apparently that has fallen through or it has not been passed through. So the ownership group of the Chicago Bears yesterday, and if you saw this, Jonathan said, or and Chandler, that they're going to explore

Northwest Indiana instead, which would be Gary Indiana. That's the biggest, well, relatively speaking, biggest town outside of the metropolitan Chicago area. Now, that's not unheard of, because, let's be brutally honest, the New York Giants and the New York Jets have not played in New York. Well, the Jets haven't played in there since Shea Stadium back in the early 80s, and I don't even know when the Giants were last in New York. So it's not crazy, but it's really weird, don't you think, Chandler, Gary, Indiana for your Chicago Bears? The only thing I know about Gary, isn't that where Michael Jackson's from? Yeah, you're right.

It's the only thing I know about Gary. Today's edition of Believe or not today is all things Gary, Indiana. We will find out. Does this mean we're getting the Woodlands Texans? Well, the reason why I bring it up, it's, look, the Texans made a change in their front office, not, you know, not Nick Casario. I'm talking about their business side. And they brought a guy in from the Dallas area who helped build facilities and worked for a company that did so. And I clearly believe, and we've talked about this a little bit before the start of the season.

And obviously, when you get into the heart of the NFL season, you don't need to spend much time. talking about this stuff, but look, they want to refurbish NRG Stadium. Or if they don't get it to their liking, my guess is they will kick the tires on looking for new property for a brand new stadium with all

the bells and whistles. And Jonathan, and Chandleran, this is more to you. You've gone to Atlanta before. Look at what the district has done to the Atlanta Braves community up there. The battery. I mean, it's nuts. Yeah, the battery. Yeah. It's a battery. I mean, even and I don't know what wants to hear this, but it's kind of the

thing in arlington like the the area around globe life like they've got it's like a i don't want to spend most of my night there but like i can see why it's attracted to a lot of people to go there because like you've got jerry worlds right there you've got globe life yeah about a block away and then you've got uh every type of bar and restaurant and gathering place you can think around it And that's something that neither energy nor Diken Park has. And I know Jim Crane has talked a lot about wanting to get something like that, wanting to either mimic the battery or Ballpark Village in St. Louis. Like, it's needed.

Like, you need, like, I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Matt. Like, I don't think you need to make this, you need to make going to a sporting event, like an all-encompassing experience. experience, right? I don't disagree with that. I'm not sure. I don't think it's downtown Houston, though. Yeah, I'm not sure we're at the point now where, like, just going to watch the Astros

and the Royals on a Tuesday night at 710 is enough of a draw for people. Like, if you can go down there and, like, you can go to dinner, or you can get, you can get drinks after. And it's all in one. Like, you don't have to walk very far. You park one place. You go get dinner here. You go to get a drink here, and then you walk into the game.

Like, there's got to be more drawing you there than just the baseball game or the football game. And then that's how, that's how I think as a consumer, like, I'm, maybe because I work in sports a little bit differently, but like, just me going to a game isn't going to move my needle. But if there's things around it, if there's other things to do, if there's ways to make a whole experience and a whole day out of it, I think it's a little bit different. Well, we have been, and I've lived here, you know, 80% of my life, maybe 90. We have been conditioned to go to our sporting event, get in the building, and get out and go home. And I don't know, Chandler, at this point, if we're ever going to change. I think we are wildly spread out. I think our traffic situation wildly hurts the situation.

And you're saying, well, okay, well, other big cities haven't. Yeah, but there are also cities that have generations of fans that grew up going to Bush Stadium in downtown St. Louis and doing the things around, as you said. People have been accustomed to being in Midtown Manhattan and having dinner before going to see a Knicks game at MSG. My gut, and I brought this up several times in the last year, my gut tells me if the sports owners of this town, in particular the Texans, I think they're the ones that are more antsy to get a facility of either refurbished or, a new one, they're going to have to go outside of Harris County. I don't think Harris County is going to want to give them a dime.

And if you're Cal and you're Hannah and you have seen your fellow NFL owners get these palaces built, you know, Chicago's going to eventually get theirs. Buffalo's got theirs coming up. You've seen Las Vegas. You've seen what's going on at SoFi in Los Angeles. You've seen the Phoenix operation.

And that's in the suburbs. To me, the city life, the city, let's all go downtown and hang out all day on on Friday or Thursday night or even a Saturday or Sunday. I think the thought of that is long gone. The question's going to be, is there a part of Houston that will step up, like maybe Gary Indiana is trying to do with the Chicago Bears?

It's a really, really difficult question. Every community is built differently. But I just think the thought of adding hundreds of millions of dollars, Chandler, to go add restaurants and bars around NRG would be a, would be a tremendous mistake. That's a bad part of town that just. just never could sustain an extra life beyond the events of either the Astrodome or Energy Stadium. Again, you've been around here longer than I have. Like, I moved here in 2018, so you have more institutional knowledge of this.

You have, obviously, like, you've seen more than I have. So I will defer to you in this conversation, but I would tend to agree. I would tend to agree. Especially if, like, the Astros have been so good since 2016, 2015 like they have just become a draw and you want to go because this is the greatest era that this franchise has ever had like that helps to offset a little bit of

you know the lack of stuff to do around it the Texans are not there yet they they haven't done anything this is the Matt Thomas show with Ross 1104 sports talks 790 coming up at about 90 minutes from now. We will hear from the head basketball coach for Houston Rockets.

E. Mae Adoka. Well, the news at noon before that at 12. Before that, coming up at 1130, I just don't get it, where Chandler, Jonathan, and myself will go over things in life we just don't get. And we need you guys to come in as well at 713-1-2-5-7-98. There's something in life you just don't get. You don't understand. We're here to help you.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. So E-Maya-Doka, real quick before we go, the phones. Chandler got fined $25,000. The same official who worked the game the other night for the Rockets Nuggets, his name is Zach Zarber. He's considered one of the best. There is a clip going virally with Chris Finch, who is the coach of the Timberwolves, and I've seen it like 500 times on my 4U tab.

I'm going to clean this up because I can't play the audio. This is Chris Finch directly to Zach Zarber during the game last night, where Minnesota lost to Memphis. Shut the F up, man. you just blew two calls you did so you effing know it you effing know it dash chris finch and you said he's considered one of the better officials one of the best he's worked multiple NBA finals he's routinely a crew chief uh on an NBA of crews I wonder well because the one thing about email's rant that I I noticed like he very much like just completely eviscerated the other two

officials that are on the crew. Is it a situation where all these coaches know that this guy's pretty good and they're taking it out on him because these other two members of his crew are not good? Well, I'll say this. He said he was

starstruck. In my grab bag of things to say to insult somebody, I don't know if I'd have gone for that, but damn, that hits Chandler. I mean, you know how sometimes you hear quotes from players and you do a double take on what they've said like did you really say that when he emma said that was like oh my god you just went after a guy that has been a multiple NBA finals official

widely respected and widely liked because he's a very reasonable guy he just called him starstruck and this is a guy that's done like maybe 25 NBA finals game in his NBA career as a beneficial I feel like I mean I have no reason to doubt what or how he may feels but I also think he was talking about, he's maybe talking about the other two. Because again, I got I'm going off of what you're saying that this guy is considered one of the better the better officials in the NBA.

Like, at the end of the day it's a crew, right? Like, the crew is making the call. And like, you can have one excellent person, but if the other two people aren't good, then the whole crew suffers. So, um, but one thing I, I appreciate about email doka is he, uh, he doesn't sugarcoat things.

I, no. I really, really appreciate his, his candor. Um, I've told you this privately. Like the thing I love the most about watching the Rockets when I go to a game or something is watching him just take a time out and just dress these dudes down. Like he'll get to mid-court, just dressing these dudes down. And like you don't see that often in pro sports anymore. And I miss that.

Like I think it takes an incredible amount of self-awareness. And it takes an incredible amount of just security within oneself to do that, especially to people that are, you know, that highly paid and that mercurial mood-wise that professional athletes are, I give them a ton of credit for that because I think that should be done more often. Well, the thing of it is, is that, you know, Chandler, EMA had to fight, scratch, and claw to play in the NBA.

I mean, bounce around from team to team was always the 11th, 12, 13th guy on the roster, didn't have spectacular numbers and was able to carve out a decent NBA career. but so he looks at these guys around him that he's coaching that are megastars that make you know 700 times what he made when he was a player that have 700 times the ability and he's like all i'm asking you to do is some of the same things that i did just keep my ass alive in the NBA and if you can't do it and look he may look the rockets have alper in shangoon who is a phenomenal basketball player but there are times where he will take some defensive lapses and i think to your point you were bringing up a minute ago i have seen me no less than about seven or eight times in my broadcast career calling games with him he may he will take a time out and walk to alpi directly and let him know how he feels about life he's even did it to kd once so far this year he's done it to a man and that's the thing i

appreciate him about him so much is that he is an equal opportunity you know phil jackson chanler said many many years ago that you have to treat the way you treat michael jordan was a different way they're treating steve cur that you have to treat your superstars differently and i think that's by and large the truth. Jose Al-Tube is going to get a longer leash about things in life than Taylor Tremel for an Astrof, just using an example. But if there's anybody that narrows that gap a little bit, it's E-Meg. I think he would go after Aaron Holiday for a defensive lapse or a silly turnover with the

same veracity if a man Thompson did it in a crucial part of the game. And that's why I have such a respect for the guy, at least for as a basketball coach. Yeah. And to me, it speaks about like the culture he's instilled to that that's okay, that these dudes, and again, like, I don't know what goes on. I mean, you probably have a better idea than me about what goes on, like, in the locker room, on planes, things like that, but the fact that they, the fact that that is, that that happens, that he does dress, like, there's no, there's no discrimination, there's no, like,

everyone's treated equally and, like, he'll dress you down if you deserve it. The fact that that happens and there is still that much joy that they play with, there is that much, you know, resolve, and the fact that they keep winning, that to me just speaks to a, a culture that has been set and i think that's full credit to him well i'll say this and i'm not the biggest gregg popovitch fan out there for many reasons largely because he beat the rockets for a long period of time but you know adoka worked with with pop for a long time in san antonio and pop would dress down manu genobli and tony parker as much as he would a fringe backup center so you kind of learn from the people that you're around so to to pop's credit and i've seen it

first time when i was doing the pa many years ago he took he called a time out and and went over to Mano Genoble and tore him a new one. And Mano just stood there and took it because he knew he was being genuine about it. And I think that's the thing is that, and you've been around a lot of majorly clubhouses in your life. There are probably guys that you've been around. I mean, you tell me, I don't want to put words in your mouth. Have there been Astro players? And you know, I certainly don't want you to name them.

But how many rolling of the eyes have you had since being an Astro's beat reporter about when managers and or coaches have come to you and those guys and said, hey, you need to do this, you need to do this, and how much of that is because they don't respect him? Because that seems like to me that would be the number one reason why. You know, I don't think I've ever, and this is like as candid as I can be.

I don't think I've ever had, I don't think I've ever seen or heard from a player that just straight out said, like, I do not respect whomever the manager was, whether it was A.J., whether it was dusty, whether it's now Joe. Like, I don't think I've ever had a player just on the record or off the record say, like, yeah, I don't respect this guy.

Now, do they, are there players that, and since I've covered the team that, you know, feel that? Because I think baseball more than any other sport, just they value service time. They value like the hierarchical nature of the sport. Baseball is so a little bit antiquated in that way where like you can't do certain things if you haven't been in the league for a while. Like it's a very deferential sport of like, oh, this guy's been around. for a while, like he's going to get a little, he's going to get treated like this while the guy that just came up last week is going to get treated like this. Like, I think that happens in the NBA and in the NFL, but it's nowhere near as prevalent,

in my opinion, as it is in baseball. So you do see a little bit, like, look, like, Shohei Otani gets different treatment with the Dodgers than, I don't know, Emmett Sheehan, who was one of their starters. Like, a young kid. Like, yeah, you're right. like Jose Altuve is viewed a little like the way that people the way that they approach Jose Al Tuvei with certain things that they want him to do or certain ideas they have for him the way that they approach that and they attack that is different than you know with I'm just Cam Smith who rookie last year like no like just pulling his name out like it's a little like with Cam Smith it was I mean this is a perfect example with Cam Smith it was okay hey you're going to go start playing right field now like there was no like there was no like sit down like hey like would you want to do this like no no no we're going to start hitting you fly balls in right field with hosea l tuve it was there were meetings and it was like is this something

that you want to do like is this like we think this could be helpful but we don't want to do it unless like you're you're on board with it and hoseil tuve it was obviously on board with it so like it's just different maybe in the way you approach guys in the way that like these things are tackled um but but i i i just think that's the nature of baseball though because baseball is such much more of a hierarchical sport where the hierarchy matters, where service time matters, where experience matters. Like, I just don't, I'm not saying experience and service time don't matter in the other two leagues, but it's just more prevalent in MLB than it is in the other ones.

All right, that's Chandlerone from the Athletic. We've got phone calls to get to. One of them involving what to do with future stadiums in Houston, Texas. We'll get to those being in the line in a moment. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 Chandler's with us till 12 noon. E. Medoca at 1230, and at 1-30 today, we'll hear from Cole Kubolik from ESPN and the SEC Network.

Plus, believe it or not, is all things about maybe the future home of the Chicago Bears, Gary, Indiana. 7-13-212-5-7-9-0. Chandler-Rolk is with it. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. That's where you simply call our show and say, hey, this happened to me in my life, or I don't get this, I don't get that. And we're going to try to help you. 713, 212, 5790, 713, 2-1-2-5-790.

Let's go to Greg, with us on line number two. Greg, you're on 790. Good morning to you. Thanks for holding. Well, thanks, man. I appreciate it. Hey, matter of fact, I'm traveling from Cypress up to Magnolia right now, and I was right when I got in the car. y'all were talking about what would be the possibility of building a new stadium up in the woodlands.

And, you know, I grew up in Houston on a northwest side. I mean, I can't tell a lie. I mean, I moved up to Cyprus to kind of help get away from the congestion of the city. But also as a kid, I remember it was kind of fun to travel outside the city on the weekends to do something in areas that I normally wouldn't. And, you know, that wouldn't actually be that bad of an idea. of the Woodlands, because it's right off of 45, in the airport, it'd be a lot easier for people if they were coming from out of town to go into a facility up in the woodlands. It's a lot easier to go up to up north, and it would be coming south into Houston.

Not that I would want to see the Houston Texans move out of Houston, per se, but there's also tax advantages with that. I used to work for the Harris County Appraisal District, and a lot of the appraisers, actually moved up to Montgomery County because it's growing so fast that they needed good appraisers and they were literally stealing them from Harris County. And this is an example of where it might actually be a win-win for everybody because, you know, people can get out of the city, first of all. Secondly, they can also, for Mr. McNair and owning the club, he's closer to Dallas,

so he might be able to steal some of those people from Dallas. to come in on a weekend to come see a Texan's game. Just kind of an idea there. What's your feeling? Greg, respectfully, I disagree with almost everything you said. First of all, Dallas fans are not going to come to Houston because the stadiums in Montgomery County north of Houston. Secondly, Greg, I don't think the airport proximity has anything to do with it.

Third, I think Montgomery County would be very, very much against spending any money towards a facility and helping them out. The McNair family is going to find a deal where a county is going to give them an extraordinarily awesome rate on land and or tax benefits and or funding for the facility. I do believe suburbs are going to be an option. I don't know if it's the preferred option by the team. I just don't. I would be stunned if the woodlands even entertained an offer for it. Think about this.

And thank you for the phone call, Greg. I saw a story on, I think it was Culture Map, a channel. There's going to be a new 12,000-seat amphitheater in Webster. I mean, we're going, and this is not just Houston, it's, we're all going to the suburbs. It's just, it's just happening. Is it bad that I don't know where Webster is? You know who, Brian McTaggart would crush you for that. Yeah, he crushed me for a lot, so.

That's his neighbor city next to League City. I know, okay, I do know where League City is because Taggs lives there. I do know that. Yeah, so you need a puppy, you know, you need to say you're sorry on Friday. You want me to come back in? Webster. Yeah, you can't. Webster is 45 on its way towards Galveston.

Okay, okay. There is a restaurant with heavy chess and women that's, I've been there a few times in Webster. Booters? Wren Beaks. Ah, okay. Yeah, I don't think, hey, we're up here in the woodlands, Dallas Cowboy fans, come on down you're only three hours from here now i don't think that's going to be an option but

that was not a bad try yeah i again like i'm i'm leaving this to you because like you i don't far more institutional knowledge of this than i do and i don't want to i just told you i don't know i just told you i don't know where webster is so but see you're you and i know each other personally beyond the the show you are a let's i want to go out and have a couple of pops guy you want to be in the city kind of thing and and sadly channeled they're just not enough of you i don't think no there's there's enough you just got to look you got to look for him

you got to search but there's enough all right are there enough that want to spend uh big money on building a stadium uh and going hanging out right again i i think i'm sad that downtown hasn't done much i mean but you get you get cow in front of people then i'm sure i'm sure

people would be throwing money at him no you got on hannah's podcast that may give you a better shot oh she has a podcast oh i have competition now oh man yes and if she calls it you know crush city something else i'm got i'm definitely going to sue her for that because you got the money to pay for that oh yeah you'll be fine all right let's go to our buddy yankees keith at 1126 on seven out of yankees keith good morning to you how are you man amazing thank you for asking okay so i got two questions and one and one comment and the comment means you're going to have to issue me and several of your listeners an apology tomorrow only i'm sorry deal so let's just start out on the easy

side. I'm 73. I've been shaved my head since I was 34. When did you start shaving yours? Full shave for me. I was living in Minneapolis, so that's got to be 2007, so that's got to be, I was 35. Oh, okay.

But I went with the wing look for a while, and it was horrific. I embarrassed myself for about a decade. so yes uh i think friday you and ross cast a bunch of a bunch of a spiriting comments towards smokers you pretty much said we shouldn't even be on the planet i got i'm going to guess at least 10% of your audience are smokers so i think that you should issue an apology tomorrow on your I'm sorry show okay I'm sorry for having I'm sorry about worrying about you

putting cancer into your body okay so that's it's called an addiction man so let me tell you let me ask you one last question and I'll hang up and listen all right so I'm 73 and before the internet came out that came out about 40 years ago the internet and sales phones the question is what would you do since I know you're addicted to the cell phones and internet that's the question for you because you have an addiction yeah but using my phone is not causing me harm to my body now I may not may paying attention to my family as much as I should be but equating a cell phone and internet use to smoking cigarette is ridiculous

I agree but I'm also addicted to my phone so I can't I can't say much but also like you like we have to be on our phones for work purposes yeah like you don't have to smoke nope

and no one's ever gotten you know you never's going to your doctor and said I got some terrible news for you I've been looking at your phone time and it's going to curb your chance for a longer life thanks doc appreciate it I mean they could tell you like

you're wasting your life just staring at your phone which I don't disagree with but it's not going to shorten your life well I mean put it this way my daughter doesn't ever want to talk to me I can only speak to her through text because

you sure that's a you sure that's a I know you're going to this you sure that's a phone problem or you Jonathan go hit him please I can't do it from here He's making a good play

I don't know Wait a minute You walked into this You know what I'm going to do I'm in a video Call her right up for the show Today and see she'll talk to me Shouldn't she be in school

You know she's in finals week So she's only got a couple of finals a day So you're ready for this Oh I got to just don't get it About education coming back here for a minute Well I'm glad this is nice segue Nice job by you, Chandler That's Chandarom

I just don't get it coming up next If you got something in your life You just don't get let us know do you have something in your life that just don't get no need to worry no need to we will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends it's time to say I just don't get it minutes of your week i just don't get it seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven i'll go first jonathan you go second and channel our newbie

will go third here's what i was talking about with my daughter when i was going to school we had to take all of our exams our end of semester exams and we used to do it in six week time spans we had three six week periods then we would have a final right after the end of weeks each one of those six of those six weeks plus the final exam each kind of for 25% of our overall grade so if you had a 9090 and a 80 and then you scored a 95 on your exam it counted you know count as much as a whole six weeks so it was a pretty big deal to having a final exam now now this is just humble ISD where my daughter goes to kingwood high school in 2025 they go to nine week periods which is fine I don't care how they do it but

she gets a chance to choose two exams to exempt herself from, not even take it. So I would ask all of you educators out there to listen to this show and ask you, Jonathan, and ask you, Chandler. Why is my daughter getting away with getting off of two exams? I just don't get it. You don't get how she got exempt from? Yes, you just got to choose. When I was in school, it was if you had an A in the class, at the end of the nine weeks or the semester,

then you didn't have to take the exam, which that was a fair trade-off. Like, if you, if the nine weeks preceding, if you did enough to get an A, like, why should you have to take the exam? Yeah, because then at that point, I hurt you. See, I'm the same way, that's how it was when I was in high school as well.

Like, if you got, like, say you had an A, eight and above, and you can opt out of taking the exam. But my school, you can do it as well. You can still take if you wanted to. My daughter is an excellent student, but I believe one of the two classes that she is exempting herself from,

she does not have an A. So she chose the two exams, which are tomorrow. So she's getting an extra day off during the Christmas break. She timed this perfectly to pick the classes on the Friday before the Christmas holidays. She sounds very savvy, man. She's sinister is what she is. That's what she is. She's sinister.

I love her, but she's sinister. So I just said, I mean, look, I understand Chandler, your point. all age, you deserve to take a break, and I have to worry about the exam. But damn, just like, oh, I think I'll pass on algebra. I'll pass on English four. That's crazy. These kids, no wonder our education system's all screwed up. That's mine.

Jonathan, you're next. I guess I've been thinking about this a little bit. And I've been seeing, I saw a baby gronk video the other day and how, you know, I don't know what I'm talking about, that dad that was overhyping his child saying all these offers when he was like fourth grade or something like that. And maybe to the point. I don't understand why parents, like, almost live through their child. And that's a broad topic.

But I'm just saying, like, specifically for football, making them do the lift weights early and, like, overhammer, like, the fundamentals as if it's going to really retain when they get to, when they get puberty, they get older and they, like, they grow into their bodies and everything. I think it's pointless. And I really don't understand why parents do that in general. Like, it's different than putting your daughter in volleyball club. And I'm saying this as I've grown up around after that did this. But, and I'm just being honest with y'all, half the kids that did that and their parents made them do that, especially in baseball, they didn't go anywhere. They were burnt out. They had all these injuries because they were lifting weights early.

They didn't grow. I just think it's pointless. I think it's your, I don't know. I don't get it. Well, it's funny because Levar Ball just texted me, Jonathan, and said, tell your producer, shut his bum ass up. He gets it. Now, see, that's, you know, that's an exception because he was a professional athlete. You get what I'm saying?

Lavaar was already, he already knew the ends and out. And he had the genetics for his kids. You know what I'm saying? He wasn't making them lift that early. The one that's a little more palable to me is the St. Brown family. Do you ever watch their, like, their backstory, like Amun Ra and the other? No, I didn't actually. I don't know.

That dad is, he's something. But they're all legit. Like, they're all really good. I think that's the thing. Like, where I kind of agree with you is like, I think the parent. at some point have to like step in and like have like be real about what their child's limitations are right if you have a if you have a child that's a freak athlete like you can see that then like sure like devote all your time to that but if you have a kid that like would probably be better off just

like enjoying life like a normal kid like like I think that's where you get into the living life vicariously through your kid because like you push kids to do something they don't want to do. Or they're not talented at. Do you guys know who Tom Morinovich is? Yes. Yes. His dad clearly pushed him to the point that Marinovich literally

burned out on playing football and wound up being a nudist painter eating Big Macs on a regular. I mean, I'm fine with that life outcome. Snoop Dogg's son as well was supposed to be a really good footballer and he said he did all of that just to please his dad. Like, I don't know.

Like, I get Chandler's your point. like it actually makes a lot of sense but it's just you never know if your child's going to really be that until what 12 11 13 maybe you know uh well i'll say this and look i clearly couldn't push my daughter because um i'm not an athlete if you've ever seen me that's not a possibility but i never pushed her she pushed herself and that's the great benefit for me is that i didn't have to and i still don't this day don't have to push her she she works out all the time she's in club team she's pregnant i think if you're going to be at that level where you're either a collegian athlete or a professional athlete if you have to rely on mom and dad to motivate

you then you're probably not going to get there you're going to burn out pretty quickly all right uh channel the floor is yours what in life don't you get you're a complex man yourself don't don't kid the folks oh man um i don't get why we're still treating college athletes like they're playing for the old state school and just trying their best and they've got all this coursework, like, it's okay to criticize college athletes. Like, they're getting paid, most of them are getting paid in exorbitant amount of money. And this is as close to professional sports as we can have. The one thing I hated about covering college sports before I got into professional,

before I got into covering pro ball was you were always told you can never criticize a college athlete because they're amateurs and they've got classes and they're just here for the sky. And at the time, there was no NIL. There was no pay-for-play. There was no legal pay-for-play. They were getting paid just under the table. Now that it's legal, I don't get this media obsession with treating these kids, like patting them on the head. Like, oh, like, Garrett Nussmeyer had to go to a physics class today.

So we should, we should, like, no, he's making $4 million. And he stinks. He stinks. I don't get this. The reality is this, Chandler, when you first got in the business, and I did myself, you were told leave these kids alone. If you're going to criticize a program, you're going to

criticize the coaching, you're going to criticize maybe the administration, you're going to criticize the overall performance of a football or basketball team. Those days are long gone. If Connor Wegman sucks for the Houston Cougars in the Texas Bowl against LSU, we're going to say

Connor Wigman sucks. I don't think he's going to. But yeah, we can now individualize our criticisms of our collegiate players now because they are not collegiate players period of story. And you're seeing it like I think USC right now

is doing like a run of like they're tweeting out like pictures of like their current guys that are signing new contracts and it's like resigned extended. Like this is professional sports. And so if they perform poorly again like you're not going to personally

like you don't need to make it personal but you can sit here and say like this. this USC quarterback that just re-signed an extension if he throws four picks it's okay to say this USC quarterback's not me good like it's not not against him

as a person I'm sure he's trying his best but it's okay to criticize what are now professional athletes yeah Paul Feinbaum show disagrees about taking it personally we can talk about it professionally but those people that I mean there are sections of the country that will go to great extremes

to insult the family and whatnot because they're just ridiculously crazy college football fans. All right, more on the phones next. We come back. 713-212-5-790. If there's something in life you just don't get. We're here to help you. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

All right, we've got folks that need our advice, Channer. That's the final 10 minutes of your show with me this week is giving out great advice to the great Houstonians. They come to you for baseball information at the athletic and just a little bit about how to handle life. in general. 713-212-5-790.

Ryan, what don't you get, Ryan? I'm good at morning, guys. Chandler, hope you're doing well. So as someone who is from Montgomery, I was driving to Wendy's at an unfortunately early time, and I heard Greg talk about putting the team, the Texans out in the woodlands. I just don't get why anybody would think that's a good idea. the 1488 is already horrible the traffic is

god awful because it was never meant to have that many people in it and where would you put it you put it out in like new waverly which is even further and I don't even want Dallas people to come that I don't get that and then as a second Yankee Keith I work in construction on fueled by caffeine and nicotine and your take my friend is wild

it makes you want to play on 45 what are you talking about I don't get that remark either. And on that note, I'll leave these guys to it, and I'll talk to you all later. Thank you very much. Yeah, if I was to pick my areas of town where the Texans might ask for a new stadium, I would

put Montgomery County his less than 1%. I just I could see, I mean, how often do you go to Smart Financial? Do you ever go there, Chandler? I don't know. Maybe I should, but I don't. Well, you know, you could also you could also probably maybe find some

buy a home in Webster. You and Brian McTaguer can drive to the stadium together on game game days. I'm always looking for a carpool, buddy. I know you are. Alan on 790. Alan, what don't you get? First of all, guys, I want to wish you all happy holidays and Merry Christmas. I love y'all's

show completely. Thank you. What I don't get is like Jerry Jones, I give him credit because he's America's team because he promotes his team all around the world, a very smart move, I believe. But I'm a baseball fan at Heart First, Astros fans since birth, but if I want to watch the Yankees and the Red Sox, or even hear them on the radio, it just seems that it's

impossible. And I don't get, if I'm an owner of a team, I won't anybody in the world that wants access to my team, because I know they're going to spend money on my jerseys to have access. And I don't get why that just seems to not work. that's it are you talking about not being able to watch the team or like if I want to hear the Yankees on the radio I cannot hear them because the broadcast is cut off

it's blacked out oh okay so you you want less blackouts from major league baseball exactly on any team I want to watch yeah well I mean don't you well you can get the Yankees radio on Sirius XM. Do you have Sirius XM in your house or your car?

No, no, I do. I don't, but I could get it on my phone, but every time I've tried it, it said, you know, your area is not able to receive this broadcast. And I'm thinking, why not? It's radio. Well, I'll put it this way. If it's the Yankees and the Astros plan, I wonder if Major League Baseball does not allow you to get the Yankee version when they're playing the Astros. Because look, in the I have Sirius Xx. on my phone, and I've got a lot of buddies of mine around the league that I listen to their game broadcast, and I never have any

issues, so I can listen to, like for instance, I was listening to Memphis, Minnesota last night, because one of the Grizzlies announced a good friend of mine. I had no problem with it, so I don't know how, I know there are some territorial restrictions when you're playing a local team, but if you're a Yankee fan and you want to hear them play the

Mariners, you should have zero issues with that. You would think so, yeah, my poor daughter, she ordered the MLB app. They could she could watch all the Astros games, and I had to tell her, sweetie, it don't work like that because you have to have a TV provider as well, which is another story for another time.

Well, now, do you know about Space City Home Plus now? There's an app now that you can buy Space City on your phone. Oh, oh, you can't? Okay, I haven't heard that. Does she live in Houston? She lives in Austin. hmm now uh that's interesting i think she'd be able to do that there thanks for the phone call yeah that you're i'm i have no expertise on this

there is yeah space city home network has an app where you can now buy the games and buy the channel without having to go through a subscriber yes and that's what that's going to come in handy i don't i would think not i wouldn't think so either but again you're asking the wrong person yeah you're I'm not a TV guru. I'm a radio guru, but not a TV guru. Dave on 790, Dave, what don't you get? What I don't get about these NFL stadiums

and these 32 NFL billionaires about the Texans and the McNair's, either we're going to be able to pay for the McNair's new stadium, either 50% out of our own pockets and 50% from the McNales McNair's pockets to build either a new stadium

or renovate NRG stadium or basically the McNeils are going to pay for it 100%. I don't see the McNair is paying 100% on a new stadium. I like my Texans. I know. Don't worry about it. They're not leaving. Don't worry about that.

But they're going to find this sweetheart deal. My assumption is that Hannah's not going to want to spend as, you know, Hannah wants Chandler what the Rams got and the Chargers got and the Raiders got and what Buffalo got. I mean, you know, they're all taking notes of what everybody else is getting. And also, let's be forth it. They can afford it. Like, this isn't a situation where, like, they're crying poor. Like, they can afford to, if they want to, if they really, want to, they can afford it. It's just

they don't want to, they don't want to pay the whole thing, which I guess I don't blame them, but it's not as if they've got no money. No, no. I mean, the NFL is a what's the last time? Is it a $15 billion industry, basically? If even more? That sounds, that sounds

right, and it's probably more. Yeah. All right. Last one, let's go to James on 7 and 8. James, what don't you get? Yeah, I don't get why anybody would even entertain the idea of building them in a new stadium. There's nothing wrong with NRG. We already got one stadium.

We can't tear it down next to it. So what are we going to do with NRG? Tear it down and once you let the other one sit there? It's ridiculous. They don't need a new stadium. They need to stay where they're air. The Roneum is going to keep energy where it's at. They would make it a rodeo.

I don't know. I don't know how you can sustain a stadium for 20 days a year plus a concert here and there. It's all the things about my pay grade. But that's a good thought. Is NRG like, do you like NRG? like do you like energy like is it is it satisfactory like could they do more to like

when every time I go in there I'm just kind of like it's very mad of me like it's not bad by any stretch but there's nothing yeah there's there's much there's a lot of a lot more facilities around stadiums in the country that have more bells and whistles and that's what the McNair's want they want more bells and whistles now the question

is is it worth the not demolition but the adding all those enhancements to an area of town that cannot sustain an entertainment district. How bad do the McNairns want an entertainment district around their stadium? That's the question. Or can you just have this really nice stadium that people go to at 12 noon and leave at 3 o'clock?

Well, the other thing is like what they want to do with that sabotage, like what the rodeo does, with that sabotage, like concerts, things like that, like how much are they looking to just completely bells and whistles this thing? because they have to think because they have to think about it from that aspect too that like the rodeo the rodeos at NRG everything the rodeo is a massive deal like you can't just like yeah

you can't just gloss over that yeah I don't think the rodeo wants the Texans to go away but I think the rodeo's power basically says we can sustain our existence of a facility even if the Texans leave just think about the Texans are only there

10 times a year now it's a lot of seats and it's a lot of revenue and maybe the rodeo could add more concerts again, I'm speaking out of turn on this but point being is that it's in the best interest

to fix what's currently there and that's the reason why to James's point Chandler Harris County is not going to let they're not going to contribute again they're already on the hook for the energy they're still on the hook for the Astrodome

they're like you've come to us twice we're plenty good if you want to go build your own palace I invite you to go to Fort Bank County, maybe Magnolia, that seems too far out. Maybe there's a pocket around Jersey Village. I'm just, you know, same Houston Race Park area, something around there. But Harris County, we're not going to build anything for you downtown or in the city because it's just not, we've already done it for you twice and we're done doing it. I agree. No, I agree.

All right. Yeah. Would you go please break a story of some sort? I'm trying, man. I mean, I don't want a utility infielder. I don't need a guy that was in the Japanese League. or six years ago. I need something with a little steam.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's not for lack of effort. No one wants to hear this, but like they're trying. It's just, again, like, and it's not as if, like, other teams are making a ton of moves around them and they're just kind of sitting idly by. It's just they need a deadline. They need a, they need something to spur action. This is a baseball problem.

This is not an Astros problem. Yeah. But Jake Myers. is he with us in 30 days? Not like living, but playing on the Astros. I do not think so. I do not think Jake Meyer. No.

Thank you for ever coming in the last couple days. It's been fun. Yeah, it's been fun. Thanks. All right. Channel Rome, Athletic, with us here on Sports Talk, 7. M.A. Doca in one half hour, Colc Kubelik, to talk all things about the SEC involvement in the college football

playoff. And at 150, it's all things about Gary, Indiana on today's edition, I believe or not, because Gary is being used as a potential pawn to move the Chicago Bears out of downtown Chicago. 12 noon on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It is 1206 on Sports Talk 790. Hour number three.

Underway of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Thanks again to channel and Rome for hanging out with us for a couple of hours. Ross is off today and tomorrow. Back with us on Monday. And we look forward to talking with you at 713-212-5-799. 713, 212, 5790. We've got EMAIDOCA at 1230. We have 130 Colcoubalik from ESPN and the SEC Network.

But right now we do a quick check of what's happening on the news headlines at 1207. Rockets tonight, 16 and 7 there mark on this season. Take on the New Orleans Pelicans. We'll get an update on how Tara Easton, if he's available for tonight's game, that'll be coming up in about 20 minutes with Coach Adoka. Rock is trying to come off that difficult loss Monday to the Nuggets in Denver. Rockets will take on the Nuggets again Saturday in Denver, then Sunday a back-to-back with the Sacramento Kings.

The Rockets so far, oh, and two on the second half of Back to Backs. Elsewhere in sports, you mentioned us a little bit earlier today. The Chicago Bears are expanding their stadium search to include the state of Indiana. Gary, Indiana is a northwest Indiana town closest to Chicago, and they are thinking about using that area for entertainment district and or new stadium. of Gary, Indiana is being used as a pawn, but the initial thought of going outside the Chicago downtown area to Arlington Heights has been slowed a little bit.

Kevin Garnett is back with the Minnesota Timberwolves in an off-the-court role. He had a long-time, butt-hurt feeling with the owner, the previous owner of the Timberwolves Glenn Taylor. A lot of resentment, a lot of anger, a lot of disgust. That's all been, will be gone because Alex Rodriguez and his new partner are running the wolves, and he is back with open arms.

So Kevin Garnett is back with the T. Wolves in a non-coaching role, non-player role. Also, Tarek Scuba of the Detroit Tigers, says he will be on the WBC team and represent Team USA. And the Texans are back on the practice field, getting ready for the Raiders on Sunday. I will check right now because I know some of you are curious about how the point spread looks on that game. The Texans opened up as a 13.5 point favorite against their Raiders. And I can tell you right now as we speak here on this Thursday, the Texans are favored by 14.5. Tonight, NFL football features the Rams and the Seahawks, a battle for first place in the NFC West.

Both the Rams and Seahawks are 11 and 3. And that is your news at noon. We've got some comments that you're going to hear from Joel Klaak coming up in the next segment, former friend of the show. I mean, he's still a friend in life, but he used to do weekly appearances with us until he asked for too much money, but that's a different issue for a different time. He backtracked on some things he said earlier this week, and we'll tell you about that coming up in a little bit. But right now, let's talk to Matt at 1210 on 7. I mean, Matt, good afternoon to you.

Hey, Matt, let me show. Thank you. I'm in on the rodeo and the energy situation. Okay. There's a contentious issue about lack of upkeep that I think the county is responsible for. it hasn't been performing and there was an incident during I don't know one of the concerts

last made of a journey whatever one of the power out of the power grid one out right basically or something explosion or something I don't know electrically but they had a plumbing issue or some pipes burst and sprayed some raw sewage on some people in a bar area and it basically created

an instant hazmat scenario so that's that's just one of the things that I think they've been talking about for for a while now and the rodeo does own several hundred maybe a couple hundred acres down 288 and uh i mean they're i'm sure they're they're lobbying for that they are we already do some stuff down there but uh yeah there's there's issues with the with the county over the energy thing and that's all so yeah thank you for the phone call and like i said i am i am not uh privy to those conversations

and it sounds like the previous matt is a little bit in terms of what's going on yeah i i think we're going to have contentious would be too strong of a term but I have a feeling and it's just a small minor gut feeling they would normally use on Tuesdays but I have a small gut feeling that we're going to be hearing

a lot of different things from a lot of different people about how the rodeo feels about energy stadium how the Texans feel about an energy stadium how the county feels about energy stadium and you as constituents feel about the

stadium. I am of the belief, and I've mentioned this many months ago when we were kind of in the summer, the next new facility should be, if it needs to be built, if at all, meaning let's say the rocket said, I got to get out of Toyota Center, and they're going to be refurbishing Toyota Center. If Jim Crane and the Astros said, I want to get out of the Diken Park, which they're always upkeeping that thing. and the Texans need

and the county and the Rory will need to upgrade energy because it's just not doesn't have the bells and whistles that other NFL cities have you may be comfortable going to the games but these owners all they want is more and they get jealous because

other cities get other things that the city Houston is not getting the Texas don't get I will say this and I don't think I'm going to be wrong about this I think the next stadium that gets built in this town will not be in the downtown town area.

Matter of fact, I may even say, I may even go a little bit further and say you may not even be in the greater city limits. We're just seeing too many things being built in other cities outside of the metropolitan areas. Chicago, I think, is not going to go to Gary, Indiana. I think this is just a political ploy to get Arlington Heights going a little bit. we saw the Atlanta Braves go out of the city and they love their area

you know look AT&T Stadium where the Cowboys play it's an Irving it's not downtown Dallas not downtown Fort Worth it's its own little world and it's Arlington not Irving Arlington and I think we have proven rightly or wrongly

that we are not a city that embraces it's downtown we have by far one of the worst downtowns in the country doesn't mean it's disgusting doesn't mean it's not safe doesn't mean there's not options for restaurants and bars to go do to and nice hotels not that we're void of things to do but we're we're just built differently we we we have to sometimes look self-evaluate and say who's buying our tickets where do they live and what do they do before and after games and we we have to sometimes look self-evalued and we have been trained or just because of experience we have we know that we go in and we go out my you know my son my oldest is 25 now he will go to a bar before a game or a bar after

so maybe more of that 25 year old crowd that in 10 years will be 35 and in 20 years will be 45 and when we're looking for new facilities maybe that next generation will do that but maybe we were saying the same thing about the 45-year-olds of today 20 years ago. Downtown just never was able to take the sports facilities, meaning Dike and Park, meaning the Toyota Center, and turn it into a vibrant area. I don't think it's a bad thing. It's just who you are.

The most important thing is you go to the games. That, to me, is the most important thing is you go to the games, you get there on time and you cheer loud. But it's not coincidental. It's not ironic. that the area next to Dyken Park has not been built for other things because that land is owned by Jim Craney. He knows.

He's like, I'm not ready to do this yet. I don't have enough evidence to prove that the city of Houston wants to get down for an Astros game at 4.30 or wants to stick around 1130 on a night game. There's no evidence of it. And we're not New York, New York, we're not Boston, we're not Chicago. Those are just different cities, different heritage, different history. It doesn't make them better than we are. make it worse but it's just you have to understand and so you'd love to have

i mean dallas's the same thing people go to american airline center in downtown dallas and that's not even really in downtown it's more uptown their games are going and they get in their car and they go back are they going their train to go out san antonia's a little bit different because san antonio built the river walk and is as much more of a tourist city than either houston or dallas is but this is this is who we are and so i think you have to be very about when you go to ask for taxpayer money, what you're going to do with it? And if there's no evidence that we as a community want to build an entertainment district around NRG Stadium, then that cannot, under any circumstance, be a part of the future.

Because I can tell you, for one, I hate going over to NRG Stadium. It's not because I don't think the stadium is nice enough, but the traffic sucks. It's not an easy part of town for me to get to. And, you know, I've been going there long enough to know there's nothing. going to do before after the game. He's going to go out. And I don't know if all of a sudden you put up 15 different bars and restaurants around energy that Texans fans who have a difficult time getting

in the stadium at 12 noon are going to be wanting to get down there at 9 o'clock to go to those places or hang out at 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon after those games. Other cities can do it. We're just not one of those things. Doesn't make us bad. It just makes us you got to be realistic. 1216 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. E. May Adoka coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Up next, Joel Clatt says he's sorry. it's about time of show with ross ross is off today and tomorrow chris cordy's going to hang out with us for a couple of hours between ten and noon we got dr rhodo on the show tomorrow and i just don't and uh let's see i'm sorry to get to and now in florist stories we're busy friday i'll be in denver tomorrow uh rockets against the new orleans pelicans tonight the nuggets on saturday afternoon but tomorrow's show will come to you from denver colorado all right a couple days ago jonathan you and i were doing a

Are you kidding me, moment with Joel Klatte saying, and I'm going to just take a couple of quotes from what he said. We don't, this is talking about the NCAA basketball tournament. We don't want Cinderella's. We want the best teams playing each other at the end. The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It's the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports. Well, Joel went to social media and hit the 4U tab

and looked at the replies, don't you think, Jonathan? He had to. There's no way. Had to have. He said this this morning. I had an interesting take. It was a bad take. It was a terrible take. To be fair, what I said on their show on Monday morning early was sloppy and worded wrong. And so it was kind of like I landed the plane, but it was in a cornfield. And so like we had to hit the eject and it was like we kind of like the plane didn't crash necessarily.

here's the deal. The NCAA basketball tournament, if the objective was to crown the best basketball team of the college basketball season, then it's a bad format. And because of that, then it's not fair is what I said. And I said, is a joke. It's the dumbest. And that's obviously going to grab headlines. And again, that's stupid of me to use those terms. But the structure of the NCAA tournament, its objective is entertainment. It's meant to be a gauntlet. So, The point is the best college basketball team for the year doesn't always win the NCAA tournament. That tournament is set up to just crown its own champion. It's a made-for-TV entertainment event. And it's great. And by the way, I do love the NCAA tournament. But if you're asking me, is it structured properly to crown the best team of the season? Then the answer is no.

It's a hot take. It's a bad take. Not everyone's going to share that with me because everyone loves the entertainment value of Cinderella. in the NCAA basketball tournament. But here's the thing. If you're actually honest with yourself, you love the Cinderella's early, but late,

you want to see the best teams playing against each other. You want to see incredible regional finals. You want to see Kentucky and Duke with Leitner hitting it at the buzzer. Why? Because that's greatness. Yes, you love Cinderella's in the tournament because you have 68 teams. But in college football,

ours is much more selective. We have 12 teams of 130, whatever teams in college football. And so once we're down to 12, well, now we don't really want Cinderella's. And I will maintain that opinion. That is my opinion. You can disagree and more power to you.

You know, first of all, I give him kudos for coming up and saying I had an ass and I take. So I give him credit for that. But to wrap this up very quickly, that's why you never should have compared the NCAA tournament basketball to the CFP.

They're two completely different things. He's right. We don't love, we want the heavyweights playing for college football's national championship. We want the heavy weights playing for college basketball's national championship. But part of the charm of the tournament, the basketball tournament,

is having the Cinderella's, pull off the upsets, not having that perfect bracket. That's never going to change. Because we look for two different things in two different events, doesn't make either event bad. and that's what I think he did he made an ass of himself by saying

well because I don't like it it means the other thing that I'm not involved with is garbage made a mistake and he owned up to it good for him but the cop between basketball and football

just doesn't make any sense if you had 68 teams playing in a college football playoff you'd want the upsets it's part of the charm of the bracket. You don't? You've got 12. You're going to have 16. And my guess is, Joe, when you get 16, you might want an upset or two. Let's talk to our friend Emadocan next 1229 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross here from New Orleans here on 790. 1230. Ross is off today. I'm Matt here in New Orleans. Tonight, the Rockets will take on the New Orleans Pelicans, Houston at 16 and 7

on the season. Taking on a Pelicans team that is struggling here. And, uh, part of a long road trip. The Pell's 5 and 22. Let's spend 10 minutes right now with the head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets, EMA Doka. Coach, thank you for the time, as always. And I don't know how long, much you can get into details. We'll just get knocked out of the way quickly.

So you get the phone call or the email from the league, and he says, hey, coach, how are you? And you say, I'm fine. What do you need? And he says, you're going to find $25,000. Is that how it goes, or do you have a chance to explain yourself a little bit? No, they ask you what happened. You say evident it's in the press conference afterwards, and so why did you say it?

Do you know the rules? And yes, yes, yes. And they do what they do from there. If you got a Venmo account, I can get some rocket fans to help you out if you need us to. I mean, my goodness. No, I'm good. It's money well spent. You know what?

I'll agree with you and just go on from there. What a game, though. And look, two really difficult losses, three points to Denver on the boat, two times we've played them. Is there a little bit of, we've got to get over the hump on this, or was it situational to you, and we'll get a chance to get them again Saturday in Denver. So I thought about both of the games and what needs to happen to kind of get that first victory against a team that, frankly, you may be battling for when it comes to seating in the Western Conference

in terms of Tybergers and whatnot. Yeah, there's a lot of minor details. of course it's not just the end of the game you know the foul against some end stands out there but there's plenty that goes on within the game that we can control both things you know had a nine point lead so we battled back

after you know deficit and the second quarter got a lead ourselves and then they came back and so you look at the game of 17 lead changes 16 times it and came down to the wire and goes to overtime and plenty you can do better and in both games it came down to one possession game

at the end we had to get a stop once and then we're going to turn over at our place. So very closely nice game. Both teams are doing a lot of good things with high-level players, and that's kind of what you're expecting when you go against that team. You know, it feels like to me that Yokic wakes up with a triple-double, and honestly, Jamal Murray has really stepped up his game as well. It's almost like do you go and going, guys, they're going to get their point.

Let's not let somebody else, you know, I'll just use Spencer Jones, an example. I had a couple of big threes for them late in the contest, and then do you sometimes think about that or do you go we need to do a better job we are good enough defensively to make jamal murray and niccolo yokitch's life as miserable as possible yeah i think you know it's been the approach with that team specifically yokech forever you know teams are either decided to go after him and let him kind of pick everything apart or let him score and lock everything else up and so um we've done a decent job overall um on others. I think he's too comfortable, you know, the fact that he shot, you know, five for nine

threes against us and four for eight in game one. That's just too many looks for him. And so then then you take Jamal Murray. Decent job, nine for 17 overall, but, you know, he gets 15 free throws. And so, you know, 14 for 15 from the line, that's a huge part of his 35 points. And so we can definitely be better one-on-one. We've, you know, taken pride in guarding our master's well this year and holding teams under their average. And those two teams, especially you know, he's just kind of way from us in the two games. Yeah, as well. We obviously, I'm going to talk to him and watch the film with him and ask him what he saw in these circumstances, but he understands when he's

having a really big game, you know, people that's turnovers down. It's a big part of it. And so some of them, you know, just dribbling in the crowd being a little bit careless here and there. And so you avoid those. It's not like there are pressure situations that they're forcing to turn over. Some have been kind of self-inflicted. And so he understands that. We want to get our numbers down. And, you know, him, Kevin and Alperin, hand the ball the most you know those guys will probably have the highest numbers but if they can just cut those in half and we get shots up we're shooting great percentage and if we miss those shots we'll probably get offensive rebound so our main thing is don't turn it over to get shots up

and we'll be in good shape great stuff as always coach thank you for the time we'll see you later on tonight all right thank you guys all right thank you you me ad doka with us here on sports talk 790 it's 1242 it is the matt thomas show with ross coming up at 1 30 this afternoon we'll be visiting with Cole Kubolik. A thought or two about what's happening with the SEC teams involved in the college football playoff. We'll obviously spend a lot of time talking about A&M against Miami and a thought or two about Oklahoma and Alabama.

If you want to chime in, sorry that the connection was not great with the coach, but we were able to try to least squeeze a few questions out of him. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-7-90. It's 1242. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Ross is off. I'm here in New Orleans. Come on in. It's me and you for the next few minutes. Join us here. Anything you want to get to from Astros offseason, the Texans versus the Raiders coming up on Sunday at 325 to where shall we put a new stadium if so inclined?

Because the folks in Chicago, at least with the Bears, are thinking about Gary, Indiana. How weird is that? 1243 on 790. 1249. here from New Orleans 713-212-5-790 if you want to come in and say hello 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 This is a strange little segment we're going to do here

and it involves a football player and his brother You know there has always been The Texans have never had to really worry about a whole lot of character issues Both on and off the field Which is really good some people say well you know what you need to get a little bit of that bad boy image in the texans locker room

and more times and not it winds up hurting you i gotta tell you what's going on in los angeles is really weird so pukkahua who you guys saw terrorize the texans in the first week at the season is one of the two or three most dynamic receivers in the national football league right now so story number one about pukunakua is very odd and very alarming apparently he performed an anti-semitic touchdown celebration on a aden ross or ad-9 ross live stream on wednesday so during this

live stream ross guided the wide receiver through the anti-semitic touchdown celebration which ended with Nakua looking into the camera and rubbing his hands together a stereotypical gesture indicating the greed that Ross fans calls iconic Jewish dance. Ross on this live stream, then asked

Nakua to perform the celebration during the Rams game against the Seahawks tonight. And Nakua, during this live stream, promised that he would. Basically, after he said that and did it on this quote-unquote live stream, He has received a lot of backlash for it.

In fact, a representative from California by the name of Eric Swalwell says the following. The Los Angeles Jewish community is on edge after the Bonch Beach Massacre. That, of course, was in Australia this past weekend. And what does this A-hole? And he goes at A-Sap Pooka-Doo? He calls him it A-Hole, first of all. That's pretty tough. He promises an anti-Semitic touchdown dance for his Thursday.

night game. He should apologize or be dropped. NBC News, who wrote the original story, went to go talk to Nakua's representatives, and they, of course, declined to comment. We got too many athletes and too many athletes' friends

that want to host radio and TV podcast. And they're all trying to seek attention. Now, I've not seen this live stream i don't i don't even know am i supposed to know jonathan who ad nine ross so it's aidan ross and he's a very controversial streamer going like around the jenzy area like you okay thank you so it's he's he's known to get into drama like this that's embarrassing it's insensitive it's stupid and we i hate the term we got to be better than that but we

got to be better than that okay so this ad is it aden ross is how do you say it this is aden aden excuse me aiden by the way spell aidan proper like a d i n should be aiden should be a d-ean right or a i d-e-en i can't if you've got a hard time pronouncing your name because i don't know how your mom and dad spelled it that's that's on you but why would you man Pocono is an adult why would you want to do that to be disrespectful to a group of people because I guarantee you Pooka Naku wouldn't want that done to his people that he's with and his family his his generation so that's I guess one of the things we have to, I mean, I'm going to be busy

calling a basketball game, so I won't have time to watch the Seattle, Los Angeles game. And I hope that Pooka and Kua is going to learn from this and go, what am I doing here? This is stupid. I'm not going to do that. And it's all kind of weird, because the streamer himself is Jewish. He comes from Jewish descent. So it's kind of like, what's going on?

So he's making fun of his own stereotype. Yeah, I, you know, I don't, I didn't read too much into it, but that's, that's why I kind of just blew this off. I'm like, this is kind of... Yeah, I don't, I don't equate a dance again, I don't know if it's anti-Semitic or not. Right.

The interpretation of the story I'm reading is it's an anti-Semitic dance. But that's in the eye of the beholder, I guess. But to your point, you're right. Like, these are adult, that you guys have a brand behind your name, you know, and I get what you're saying. Like, you can't be going on to these streamers or these friends of friends that you think are cool and they could be tarnishing your name or whatnot. Yeah, and that's another thing.

is that I you know as a radio host whether I was doing it for just this radio station or if I had a national show on ESPN or CNN or Fox or MSN whatever they're calling it now or FS1 we are held to certain standards and these gibronies that are out there I'm talking about current athletes

former athletes influencers they don't have to play by those rules because they go on they go on their YouTube or they go on their live stream or their Instagram and they do these presentations. I'm personally resentful of that. That they get to do whatever they want and get away with it. I wouldn't want to do,

I wouldn't want to conduct a radio show that way by saying off-putting things or sexual harassment things or sensitive things towards a group of people or racist things. That's not who I am and what I believe in. But even if I had the opportunity to say those things, I can't because I'm regulated. but I'm regularly as a human being forgetting about what the FCC would say. I'm regulated by you, I'm regularly by myself,

my own internal soul, my friends, my family. That's just embarrassing. So that's the first weird issue. The second thing that has come up that is so weird is that Puka Nakua has a brother who was arrested over the weekend for allegedly stealing a vehicle that belonged to Lakers Adu Thiero.

I believe he's a GLEU. or a two-way player he's on a guy that makes a regular rotation samson Nakua who is the brother of Puka Nakua and this other dude named Trey rose or arrested Saturday by the los angeles sheriff's department the vehicle they stole was a new newer model BMW that the TV station in Los Angeles reported belonged to the arrow in a release the Los Angeles service department said its deputies were able to track the vehicle to the 8400 block of sunset boulevard in west hollywood the two men were arrested saturday for allegedly taking a vehicle without the owner's consent and were released that night the sheriff's department says

an investigation is ongoing and offered no further comment so if you're a part of the nuke the nukua family you've had a better 36 hours right honestly to me this a receiver is so amazingly good he's good enough to help the rams go to the super bowl that's how good he is but all i'm going to be thinking about is his bro who stole a car of a laker and going on some gibroni's live stream to do allegedly anti-semitic uh celebrations and he has no comment so he could still do it too that this is going to be a big oh he said i guess when he said it he was going to do it now I would be stunned if he did it because look at the backlash.

That would be insane. It would be professional suicide if he did it. But maybe he'll go and who doesn't care. I know that social media is wonderful for many things. But man, it's like NIL in the portal. We need some regulation or something. You just can't flippantly go I mean I look at these NBA players

And these former NFL players All they do is drop F bombs For three hours on their podcast Talking about players And talking about their girlfriends And things they've done in the past I can't get away with that I wouldn't want to do it that way

But I can't do it if I even have wanted to The one thing I have going for me And am I trying to brag I'm just trying to be real with y'all Is I've had staying power These podcasts that are popping up all over the place, they don't have staying power. The Kelsey podcast will go away eventually. The Matt Barnes podcast will go away eventually.

Because you know what? When you do a podcast, it takes work. You do a radio show, you have a microphone in front of you. It takes work. You have to have a desire to do it. You can go on your couch and talk about stories for 60 minutes at a time. Once a month. I guess it's fun.

It gets clicks. It gets mentions. I get it. But the guys that really want to be good at it have to do it a lot, meaning radio host, TV host, podcasters, and you've got to have some sort of rules. So over this Aden dude is, I mean, way to get things going for Pooka Nakua as he's trying to help the Rams win the NFC West and maybe win the whole NFC. I'm getting off my lawn. Sorry, I didn't do that. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. hour the Matt Thomas show features with Ross, a visit with Cole Kubelick of ESPN and the SEC Network that's coming up in 30 minutes. And we have, believe it or not, all things about Gary Indiana in 50 here on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 105 on Sports Talk 790. Colcubilick, ESPN, the SEC Network will be with us at 25 minutes. Believe or not, today coming up at 150. all things about Gary, Indiana.

Rockets here in New Orleans taking on the Pelicans. We'll have it for you at 7 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 7.90. We got Thursday night football tonight between the Rams and the Seahawks. First place on the line in the NFC. West. Texans back on the practice field. 14 and a half point favorites for the game against the Raiders. I'm sorry, folks. I don't mind previewing stuff when it's important.

Texans should destroy the Raiders. I know that Gino Smith was a full participant yesterday at Raiders practice in Los Vegas, doesn't really matter. They're terrible. They are. They didn't score a single point last week in Philadelphia. So they win the game and Jacksonville, if they lose to Denver, which is very much a possible of the game is in Denver this week, the Texans would inherit first place in the

AFC South because of a tiebreaker. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. easy with us at 106 on 7 on a easy what do you got today let's the time is i'm going to make a quick statement and maybe you can chime in in the middle of it but we're close to now i'm 47 you're in your 50s right um let's leave let's leave sports as sports let's leave

politics any other kind of uh controversy out of it you jumped into this business sir because you love sports and you love talking about sports and we live in a hypersensitive, hypercritical part of our society now and I think we should leave it as that

I mean if these people make these statements they're trying to get attention we all love sports because of the love of sports it brings us together and it builds camaraderie I mean we've had certain situations where you know when

Ezekiel Elliott jumped in the the whatever and then what was the other one when the bird and magic thing it wasn't as publicized as it is

now I think we should just kind of how can I say it man just hey just let's take to the sport and leave that alone what's your opinion on that sir

well first of all I EZ I do not want you to hang up under any circumstance this radio show in particular mine that I've held on for decades I don't I don't get into politics at all I have not brought up the presidential races the governor's race the mayor race anything about how to raise your children how to read religion economic policies it's just it's a very private thing to me

I don't think you care about my political beliefs and with complete respect to Uzi I don't care about yours because it's an individual thing. This is not about politics. This is about sensibility. This is about saying and doing the right things. And EZ, if there was a white athlete that went on a live stream

and started talking about using racist slurs and racist dances to celebrate things, it would be a talking point on the show because it's not about politics, it's about being a decent human being. And again, I don't know what exactly he did during this little live stream and what this dance is and whether or not he's going to do it. But clearly, a member of the political community in Los Angeles, who sounds like to me he is of Jewish descent and faith,

thought it was offensive. And so I'm only reporting it to you. Alan to say is it may or may not be. That's in the eye of the beholder. But with all the things that are going on right with Puka Nakuwa's life and how good it is, why would you tempt to tarnish your reputation to do something like that? And there's no answer for it. And I agree.

And that's on his perspective. But again, if we give, if we gaslight these kind of things, then it comes up to a certain thing where they get the recognition. and quote-unquote, you know, now they're on, you know, a national radio station. Talking about that. So if we bury this and just focus on sports,

not saying you, but if we focus on sports that these people are doing this kind of stuff, let's focus on the purity of sports because this is a sports show. And I love you taste. I know, but we're also human beings too, you see. I mean, again, I'm not going to,

put it this way. I'm not going to allow, X, Y, Z athlete to mimic anything that would be racist towards a segment of the population, black, Hispanic, Chinese, and fail to address it.

It doesn't mean it's going to encompass the four hours of this radio show. It doesn't mean it's going to encompass my life as a sports fan. Doesn't mean the next time you and easy, you and I talk about anything, it's going to bring, it'll be brought up in conversation. But it's something that's happened

and it's something that probably would be poor taste at the very minimum and racist at the second time. And you know what? We find racism in sports. And sometimes, unfortunately, as lighthearted as this show it likes to be

for 99% of a time, the 1% we kind of go, you know, what are you doing? And that's what I'm saying. I'm saying to Pooka and Akua easy, not to tarnish his life, not to say that what he's done for his family

and his life and how he's represented himself is not of good faith and good things people make mistakes but it's just you got to you know I'm not trying to bear the kid I'm not looking for him to be suspended or released or tarred and feathered and you know and embarrass the rest of his life but somebody's got I'm going to call out when something's done that's stupid and that's something that was stupid doesn't mean he can't come back from it doesn't mean he can't come out tonight after the game and say you know what I went on a live stream easy and I went on and he's in Seattle and I did a stupid thing and I feel bad about doing it and guess what I would do easy I'd say you

you know what puka i get it thank you very much for saying it we're moving on so i'm not it's not it's not the focus of the show but it's certainly worth a note yeah i understand and i'm not defending it and uh one more on the light note where the hell is wrong he's on vacation did he go back to big bed i don't know he was in late charles and then he was going to dallas to do some to go some some movie theaters but then like the 4k or whatever and then i don't know what the hell he else is doing hopefully not getting any trouble y'all pay well hey go rockets tonight man i hope we will go rockets baby thank you see for the phone call i mean y'all know you all know this show we don't we don't we don't get into that stuff we just don't

but it's a story so we're going to talk about the stories today let's uh get to a quick time out we'll talk to k j next you want to talk about woody marks and nick chub hmm your one-two combination what about joan jordan what we're going to do with him he's on the full roster now he's off the practice squad good for him 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-9-0 so Matt Thomas show with Ross Ross is gambling somewhere I don't know what the hell he's doing I went gamble a little bit yesterday after the show not good after dinner a little bit better 713

212 5790 Jonathan we got this show is very powerful you say to yourself how powerful is show who can a cootis offering an apology right now you serious seven minutes ago i like to take credit but i'm not going to do that when i appeared the other day on a social media live stream it was suggested to me to perform a specific movement as part of my next touchdown celebration at the time i had no idea this act was anti-semitic in nature and perpetually harmful stereotyped against jewish people and then he goes into bold

I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism bigotry or hate of another group of people there you go look at you're just saying that good apology accepted I was looking I was looking for one but yeah

good for him I don't you know I don't yeah and I want to the audience again this streamer is known to put his guest that goes on his streams and controversial like that's not good then you know what you get

for the future if you want to go on his stream you know that he's going to make you put you in a bad spot I wouldn't do it so Jonathan when he wants to talk to Western Kentucky track you don't let him go on you don't go on there let's go to KJ and Cyprus Reverend KJ what's going on at 120 what's going on my man

I was a good day when I could start about talking to you I just got to thank you sir I appreciate that quick question. Well, I'm not necessarily a question. It's primarily a comment. I see a lot on different podcasts, the praise that Woody Marks is given. And I'm not pessimistic.

When it comes to Woody Marks, I think he's a decent back. I think on most of the other things, Woody Marks would be a third back at best. but I look at the numbers and the numbers support my sentiment but I'll also go by the eye test and I don't see Woody Mark's breaking off big runs

I mean Woody Marks is based in his third and two he gets us three yards in the first down that's that's the extent of Woody Mark's effectiveness and I see a lot of people saying that he's better than Chubb and again I don't see Chubb Moutini get to in the backfield as much as Woody Marks. I don't cheat up typically being

as hesitant when it comes to hitting the hole. Now he may not break off big runs, but he's at least hitting the hole and falling forward. I don't consider. I don't see that as much with Woody Marks. And one more thing before I let you go. I'm talking to you on your show, but

I'm saying this to all the Woody Marks supporters out there. If the bar is this low when we're praising Woody Marks as a good running back, then we definitely need to be looking at Jeremiah Love in the draft. But looking at the numbers, Woody Marks and more carries has a lower yards per carry, average the Nick Chub, has fewer touchdowns in Nick Chub,

Lichub has less fewer carries, and has the longer run over the course of the season than Woody Marks. And also, the longest run of the season for the two, I think I just said the bottom line, again, for all you Winnie Mark support us, we need to stop. Winnie Marks is not a good running back. Winnie Marks is not an effective running. the back. The only thing that Woody Marks has

over Nick Chubb is he appears to be a better pass catcher out of the backfield. The fact that they're possibly going to have Woody, I mean, Nick Chubb and Jawar Jordan this weekend, to me, is an upgrade to compare to what we've been doing the past handful of weeks because, bottom of mind,

Woody Mark's just not it, dude. Now, did that change at some point, all season of condition and better preparation for the rhythms of NFL season next year, practically. But as December 18th, 2025, Woody Mark's not to do. Thank you, KJ. I appreciate it.

You know, Woody Marks is a mid-round rookie playing probably more than he should. I don't think Woody's doing so much more that he's getting this extra playing time. He's getting this playing time because Damien Pierce moved on and that Nick Chubb got hurt. And there's no better alternative. Look, I'm not anti- Woody Marks. And I don't even think KJ is really that anti- Woody Marks. I just think that there may be some Woody Marks truthers out there that are saying this is a better running back than it is. There is no doubt in my mind that Woody Marks will not be the primarily ball carrier for the Houston Texans any point in his NFL career.

The Texans are going to have to go get a legitimate running back, whether they're going to go in for agency, trade for one, or draft one. But he's the best they've got right now. He is a good pass catcher. he gets you those three yards when you need three but I'm going to get you nine when you need four I'm stupid he's not going to get you the big burst

that's what I'm trying to say and he's going to be a good pass blocker which has value it just does but no he is a young NFL player in his first year who hopefully will get better but I don't think it's at any point

we're going man Woody marks 23 carries 114 yards two touchdowns I don't see it. And frankly, I don't think the NFL saw it that way. I don't think the Texan saw it that way. Mid-round draft pick. But he's an NFL player. You can help this team.

I'm not saying he's guaranteed for the next eight years. I'm going to think about putting him in the ring of honor, but I think he's going to have a spot. But he would be, at best, to me, a number two running back. And the reason why Woody Marks is getting run, it's because Nick Chubb has been hurt a lot of this season. they have they on 100 percent i think any texan fan even the biggest homers would have to admit they have to address the running back position as they're one or one a to the offensive line

one or one a it's very very important ray is with us before we talked to cold cuba like hello ray hi um about the texans real quick in your last caller um i saw woody marks scoop a fumble and dive in the end zone you know he's not horrible and i'd rather have him in than nick chubb and it's not his fault if he's so bad it's a texan's fault for evaluation there's no way chub is better than march right now no way and we have a guy to just touch the ball just snapped a hundred off real quick we need to be talking about talking about Jordan. Watch what this kid do Sunday. And then everybody's going to be saying Marks and Jordan. It ain't no more chill. He's out of here. Now, the Puka, because I don't know about Aden just like Jonathan does. You have to be conscience of content creators if you're worth that a lot of money or if you're in a professional limelight because content creators,

they're not asking you for your autograph like the 80s. They're live streaming and filming you trying to get you caught up in some crap so they can get streams and ad sense and monetization and paid they're getting paid off these guys and because right now people are searching that video and he's getting monetization on it it's all a setup you should stay away from content creators and be smart i know he did the apology 10 minutes ago but it's probably too late because of such a large jewish community he just got to be careful and watchful of all content creators If you want to go live, go live yourself. That's all I got.

All right. Thank you, Ray. Yeah, I just would say, be careful what appearances you make on podcast. Do a bit of research of who this podcaster is and what he's looking for. And when they're wanting you to do stuff that you've never done before or unfamiliar with, say, I'll get back to you. Cole Kubelik joins us next, 127. And it's a Matt Thomas show with Ross 713-212-5-7-9. if you want to join our show today.

Matt Thomas Show with Ross here from New Orleans. 133 is our time and a very busy man who is going to be gracious enough to spend a few minutes with us here on ESPN radio. It will be on the Alabama-Oklahoma game tomorrow. You've seen him on television. You see him on the SEC Network. Also, there's a show in Birmingham, Cole Kubalik, with us on the program. Cole, it's Matt. I appreciate you squeezing a few minutes of your time with us.

A real big picture question. Could you follow that SEC very tightly? Give me the group of schools, if there's three or four, among the SEC that are NIO rich, that are really doing well. And then give me three or four that our audience, Houston would know about, that you're worried about the future of the NIL and they may be concerned about the dollars coming in. I mean, obviously you go Texas, Texas A&M are doing really well. I think Missouri is a team that does better than people think. Tennessee does well. I think people would be surprised where Alabama is.

I think they're a little behind most other teams in the league. old miss probably ahead of schedule i don't know if that changes without laying there um and then i think Mississippi state probably a team you're concerned about believe it or not and i know with what we've seen in the public recently it's not going to appear that way but from an nil perspective old miss is is not scrooge mcducking and you know swimming in their giant vault of coins every day so that's an interesting to watch that's one interesting to watch moving forward uh Cole you've got a lot of uh ties to all the Ole Miss connections in the LSU.

As you were doing the daily show and talking about the SEC network, a thought or two about your relationship with Lane Kiffin, the movement, and what do you expect LSU would do right away once he settles in? I mean, my relationship with Lane is pretty much a professional, and it's been great. He's been really good to me when we've needed to interview and we needed to talk. He's never really short for words, always entertaining. He's great to us in meetings, always good at giving us information.

always helpful I don't really he and I don't communicate much outside of that which is fine some coaches I talk to multiple times a week other coaches I talk to once or twice during football season so I think it just depends I think he's going to win at LSU is he going to ultimately win to the extent that everyone expects or just thinks that he is I don't know nowadays I think it's impossible to just say oh coach A is going to place B and that is equals championship. There are too many things that have to happen nowadays. You mentioned NIL just a little bit earlier. Being able to navigate the transfer portal and not so much who you get and how much they help you, but who you lose to the transfer portal. That might not be a starter. That might be somebody who could fill in three, four weeks in the middle of the season or come in and play at a higher level than anticipated for the last four weeks of the season and that doesn't allow you to be run out of the playoffs. We're seeing guys

go out and teams are changing. You go two years ago, Tate Ratlitz gets injured. That entire Georgia team was different, not just the offensive line. So it's not just quarterbacks that are leaving the lineups or getting injured banged up that are changing the makeup of teams. It's not just a wide receiver.

I mean, it can be a guard. It can be an inside linebacker. It can be one corner and all of a sudden you have to shift the way that you operate, the way that you play, and teams know what to take advantage of. So I think all of that is a part of how it's going to happen. You think about what team unity is, chemistry, leadership.

Those things are tough nowadays to be able to finger point, put your finger on, develop. We had a long conversation with Clark Lee in the middle of last season, and he talked about how he had reshifted his mindset inside his program. He said, I was developing these young men for later in life to be better husbands and professionals and go on and do great things. And they were spending their last two or three years at Alabama beating us or Kentucky beating us. So he got back to football.

And he got back to, I mean, I hate to say. say this, but a little bit more of a mercenary lifestyle. You know, more of the Assassin's Creed, I guess, of, hey, come in here, get what you need to get done, and, you know, we're going to probably not have as much of a relationship after that because we're going to focus more on football.

Cole Kubelik ESPN, SEC Network, joining us here on the Matt Thomas show here from New Orleans, a couple more minutes. Cole, which Carson Beck's going to show up, the one that can throw multiple touchdowns in a game or multiple I&Ts in a game Saturday and in college station? It depends on if they live in

third down or not. If you see 15 to 17 third down attempts for A&M, it's going to be the bad one because that's been pretty much every quarterback that's played A&M this year. They have not been able to survive on third down. That's not something that's going to go well for a lot of guys their age. They're going to get looks with guys that are going to be playing on Sundays. And it's, I mean, that A&M defense on third down is hell on wheels. And there's not many, I don't know there's many pro quarterbacks that could manage it effectively with what they give you and how they give it to you and who they have to utilize doing it. So if it's a lot of third downs, more than average third downs, you'll get the bad Carson back. But I think that

decides this game, honestly. I think the quarterback that makes the least amount of mistakes that plays the cleanest football is going to win this game. And some of that might come down to the coordinators. Might come down to Shannon Dawson. Might come down to Colin Klein. You know, who calls a game that is efficient enough or has the potential to be efficient enough for them to go out and execute that way and win that game because both these teams have good ground games both these teams have good offensive lines both these teams have enough skill to be able to help around them but there are parts of these two teams i don't think miami has seen a pass rush like this i don't think a and m has played a secondary top to bottom that can run like this one can so those will be interesting factors

to watch in that game as well did texas open up any a and m wounds in that game in austin no i think arts manning just played extremely well he that pass rush and those looks that i mentioned if you go back and dissect it i mean i counted about 110 yards that he saved that offense where it could have been a sack could have been tackle for loss and he was able to escape and either throw the wall away complete the pass or leave the pocket and pick up positive ground so a seven-yard loss would it appear to be turned into a three-yard gain or even an incompletion those are the kind of yards he saved that team consistently with what he was doing and how he was operating.

The things, the way that he did it, those things have been there. It's just not a lot of teams had the personnel to be able to take advantage of it. And you get some of the guys around, and that's one of the better games that Texas offensive line played this year. They have not been great the majority of this season. And they did a nice job sorting some things out, getting a hat on a hat, playing physical football, and picking some things up. Cole Kublich with us here on ESPN on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross.

game that you'll be calling on radio on the sidelines, Oklahoma, Alabama, it feels like to me you've got 100 different opinions about this thing. It's the tightest among the Vegas board at this point. What is the fourth quarter going to look like in that football game do you think if you were to get your crystal ball out? Well, probably, and this is just like my assumption based on how I think this game's going to go, I think probably middle of the fourth and on, you're going to get a couple, well, at least one, if not two desperate offenses. Now, there's a chance that this thing could be 14, 14, or held three to three. And, you know, we're looking at all right, we're just going to settle things down and play for overtime. And both offenses just

shut it down, try to take advantage as a better field position, feel like their defense can get a stop, you know, kind of a one-off stop in overtime, help get a win. Or I think you're going to have two offenses that are really pushing and really kind of going past their comfort zones, of try to generate yards and points because they haven't been able to do anything the entire game. Very last question. Can Tulane and or James Madison stay competitive on Saturday? Say competitive, yes. I mean, JMU has Alonza Bair to quarterback. He's a mobile kid. Can move around, good on the run, can push the ball down the field. That offensive line plays a more physical brand of football than people give them credit for. Yeah, it's just overall size is what's going to be the difference there. I mean, this is almost,

they're almost the organ of 20 years ago where you know speed athleticism offense scheme had everything and then you get in this setting and it's like okay everybody's 20 pounds heavier and a little bit faster like this doesn't make sense now tulane's a little bit different Tulane had three dbs that ended up in NFL camps thrown NFL rosters um had another one transferred to albert and started this year that weren't there early in the season that secondary wasn't really ready for an old miss passing attack at that point also you go back to jake retzlaff what he was was at that point in the season. He wasn't really a balanced quarterback. It was very run heavy. He hadn't really found his way through the air, didn't have that comfort level in the

offense at that point. He's gotten there to an extent. And I think because of that, that offense being a little bit more balanced could potentially find more yards this time around. And I think Redslaff also just his playmaking ability with a defensive line that's better than people give it credit for, but I will say can be a little undiscipline at times. They can find their way a little too far up field. They can find their way out of their gaps. And that's something that Tulane may be able to take advantage of. The secondary's got to be great, not good, great.

They got to bat some passes down. They can't give up free releases. They can't give up big after chances. That's where Old Miss kills you. This high percentage throws five, eight yards in the air that go for, you know, 85, 75 yards on the ground. Cole, squeezing 10 minutes from me, man, a lot. Thank you, friend. Safe travels to Oklahoma.

home and we'll see you, I guess, for the Texas Bowl down the road as well. Thank you for the time as always. Absolutely. Look forward to seeing you. Thank you so much for having you. You got a Colcublik with us here from ESPN and the SEC Network. I mean, he knows his SEC football. Not like Gordy, but he knows it too. 143 on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. All things about Gary, Indiana. I'm believe it or not.

It's up next if you want to play 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. John, that we've had a good week so far. We've missed Ross, but we'd give me a little bit of everything. A little football. It's on CBS. We've gone by fast. How about yourself?

What's that? It has gone by fast. Now, I'm going to be honest. Can we feel the curtain back for one minute? Of course. Your buddy's going to be really tired tomorrow morning, okay? Yeah. How long is that flight?

About two and a half. And the time change, too? Time change. Gordon's going to be in with me 10 to noon. Make sure he's on his best behavior. Hey, if he's late, I don't know. He's a busy man. He'll come up with some excuse.

I had to go to a meeting greet in the office building. They were handing out Danishes or stuff like that. I had a dentist appointment. I wanted to get one of my teeth cleaned, and I wanted to get some extra dental floss. Will Gordy be around at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning? That should be an instipole. All right, so yes, I will be tired tomorrow, but the show must go on.

We're going to be on for four hours tomorrow again, 10 o'clock until 2, hopefully discussing a rocket win over the Pelicans. We'll have the four game for you beginning at 630 on the network before that 6 o'clock. The launch panel will have a 7 o'clock tip time here from the smoothie king center. Tomorrow we've got Dr. Roto. It is playoff week number one or two depending on what kind of league you're in. so we'll talk to him we have non-flora stories

and I may get another guest or show so in the later portion of the show plus we have I'm sari's at 1130 on Friday which we should probably get Gordy to apologize for being so late yesterday because he was at that white elephant party I think the food was probably too good he didn't want to get away from that oh you missed

they had some they brought the big guns over there they were having fun oh it was it was a party like real beef fajitas and everything I'm telling you like that you missed out they were going to have fun okay our group can party I used to know those girls

and they weren't married Jonathan just saying I'm going to believe it or not to go on the show what should we do we should play America's fast growing Gordon just text

as I'm thrown off he said I'll be there love you Gordy America's fast growing sports radio game show we simply call it be leaving it out and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it is all things about the city of Gary, Indiana, which might be the future home of the Chicago Bears. You never know. I'll read your statement about Gary. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If the statement is here running as Philibon can be made up, you'll say this.

Not. Two. Correct answers in a row. Get you either a pair of tickets to see Nate Bargazi on the Big Dumb Eyes World Tour at the show June 18th at TOTA Center. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. at TOTA Center.com. Or you can win a pair of tickets to see the Monster Jam with Pit Passes, February 15th, Energy Stadium. Or a pair of tickets to see the TOTE's live, December the 29th of the House of Blues.

Those tickets, those two events are available at Ticketmaster.com. Let's play. Believe it or not. 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Gil on 790. Gil, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Gil, Gary, Indiana has an estimated population of 106,000. Believe it or not?

Not. That is correct. Just 68,000. Statement number two for the win. Gary was named after lawyer Albert Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. Believe it or not. I know the guy from Steel, but I'll say, believe it. Good. Congratulations, Bill.

Nicely done. Is that A-Y on line, too? Is that right, Jonathan? Or is it I? I or A-Y? You're on 7-Di. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. All right.

Downtown Gary to downtown Chicago is 61 miles. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Correct. Statement number two for the win. The song. Gary, Indiana, can be found in the musical, The Music Man.

Believe it or not? Not. That's a believe it. I'm sorry, E.Y. Appreciate it. Greg, on 790. Greg, what's your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Emeka Adoku, of course, a rocket talk.

All right. The Jackson family is led by Michael and Janet. We're all born in Gary, Indiana, and they lived at 2,300 Jackson Street. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's right. Statement number two for the win. You cannot find a Burger King in Gary, Indiana.

Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, there's actually one in Gary, Indiana. Congratulations. All right, let's continue. David on 790. David, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

Former Oilers and Titans quarterback, Steve McNair, may he rest. grew up in Gary, Indiana. Believe it or not. Not. That's why he grew up in Memphis. Statement number two for the win. Gary, Indiana is the murder capital of the United States with more murders per capita than any other city.

Believe it or not? Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's New Orleans. I'm sorry. Sorry for New Orleans, too. That's one of those statues. don't want to be a part of.

Gary, Indiana, maybe the home of the Chicago Bears. How crazy is that? All right, that was believing on today. Nice job by you guys. A couple winners and appreciate that. We'll have some more tomorrow during hell yeah or not. I'll be in, again, I'll be in Denver tomorrow, hopefully with celebrating a rocket's victory. Also, we got Thursday night football tonight between the Rams and the Seahawks.

If you've not heard, Hukkah, Poconakou, I did apologize for his little live stream that he was on, not realizing what he had said and or done. So that's good on him. His brother, meanwhile, is in trouble for stealing a car. I'm sure that will be among the topics of conversation. Plus, what's happening at Texans practice and a rundown of tonight's game between the Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans, all with my two good friends, Adam Wexer and Adam Clanton.

They are the A team, and they're going to entertain the hell out of you between now and six o'clock right here on Sports Talk, 7-9. Now.