The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Extensive Winter Olympic Analysis, Rockets vs Clippers Tonight! Josh Hader Still Injured?

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Extensive Winter Olympic Analysis, Rockets vs Clippers Tonight! Josh Hader Still Injured?

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show. I would say I'm fully prepared, but I spent entirely too much time in the car this morning. What do you mean? I'm done with you Apple Maps. Done, done, done. I'm going to Waze, I'm going to Google.

I'm ways for life. I'm going to go Ways for Life because I'm just sick and tired of it. There's a phrase in my family, in ways we trust. It'll steer us wrong like... Once in a while. One out of ten? It'll take you some weird-ass directions. Oh, yeah.

Down side streets you don't feel safe in. That means it's like Ways... I'll get you there in eight minutes. Go to this guy's living room. Like, it's true. One time we used Ways in Los Angeles. And I was like, I don't think we're supposed to be in this part of town. Turn left, turn right, turn right.

It was awful. And it was all just trying to avoid freeway traffic. And the problem is in Los Angeles. You're on Crenshaw Boulevard. Yeah, every freeway is traffic 24-7 in a day. And I feel like that's probably becoming here. Houston. Just check the routes because sometimes they take you a bunch of small streets and it saves you like two minutes. Right. Other than that, in ways we trust. Yeah. Well, I'm done with you Apple Maps and it was a good ride.

But today was 31 minutes longer than I was supposed to be. It took me right to I-10 where there was a complete snarl at 10 and 59. Well, maybe it was bad luck. Like it just happened. So the map didn't have time. Is that what you're going to, okay. That happens. I mean, I guess it's like a fresh wreck. I mean, do you see fuselage where people throwing hands? I don't think so. Okay. No, I don't. think there were cops or ambulances in the area. I think I just got screwed. Okay. All right.

We have a interesting baseball story that I didn't think we'd lead off with because really it was out of sight, out of mind. But did you see Buster Olney's little tweet yesterday? Oh, what was he being crumudgeonly about? Well, he is a curmudgeon, and he used to be really a good dude, but now he's just cranky all the time. He's like John Hymie. What was he talking about Christy Matthewsson or something? What was he saying? Well, that's more Tim Kirksson.

Doesn't Kirchian more historian? Yeah, you're right, I guess. I like Tim Kirkshan. Yeah, he does. He's great. I think people doing Tim Kirkson impersonations. He gets so excited. Back when I was in a junior in high school, I used to watch Johnny Bench.

The Brooklyn Bridegrooms. Okay, cool. The what? Brooklyn Bridegrooms. What was at the East? women's league. It's like the Brooklyn Excelsior's. Okay. The Boston Bean Eaters. I did not know these. It's a big matchup. I didn't know these themes.

The polo grounds. That's great. All right. So you tell me what, because obviously you don't know what I'm speaking of. I have no idea. Buster only. Well, okay, if he wasn't talking about the Astros cheating, I don't. There was an Astros nugget in this. Oh, oh! 18 hours ago. He has not tweeted. Now he does have 25 replies. 92 retweets and 349 likes. Obviously, 349 people that hate the Astros.

Oh, I did see this actually. I didn't realize Buster Only was the source. He says 18 hours ago, as spring training begins for the Astros, All-Star Closer Josh Hader has been throwing lightly and on flat ground. He and the Astros hope to learn more about where he stands in his prep for the season in the middle of the week. Not that Buster is in the Let's Scare People mode I take him Now granted he's been super cranky towards the Astros

So I don't like him particularly like him for that Because there's hypocrisy everywhere With the way he's reported some teams and not others But I take him for face value on this I take this as completely terrible news Not terrible like he's not going to play this year but I take that as he will not be ready for the start of the regular season

that's what it sounds like and that to me and maybe that's malpractice on us but everything that I'd kind of heard through the grapevine was everything was cool and kosher with Josh Hayter ready to go even asked directly like after the season he'll be good for spring training

he'll be good for spring training he'll be good for spring training we've heard that Well, we're hearing other things. They're going to reevaluate them this week. Now, Chris Gordy is... The spring training's starting. Chris, pictures and catches report tomorrow. And Gordy's going to be down there and we'll give us some updates tomorrow on the show

and Thursday and Friday as well. And we'll be down to the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But I got to be honest, that's a terrible tweet. Now, it doesn't mean that he can't be ready maybe March 1st, or excuse me, April 1st, and it's two weeks away, and it's fine. and he can have another productive season. But it's, what is today? February 10th, he's still throwing on flat ground?

The season starts earlier than it ever has before. I'm not encouraged under any. I took that as a definite blow to the early Astero start of the season. Yeah, it doesn't sound great. And I don't know. Do we say the blow is lessened because it's the start of the season anyways? I mean, I guess Brian a brave who's going to be your closer, which is fine. But what it hurt last year when Josh Hader went down was Brian and Braves can be fine in the closer's role.

He can't, but you've got a great insurance policy. But then it's next man up, but it's the depth that you lose. And then you're learning about a bunch of people that you're putting them in some pretty important positions. So the first thing I thought of is what the hell happened to him last year that would cause him to be out for as long as the fact that he's not throwing off of a rubber at this? point. It's been months. And they said he wasn't going to need surgery. Yeah, this is not great either.

You want to work on that for me? My earphones are all collectively in a big nod. No, I'm not going to be your... This is, how does this happen? I remember, I just... You know why I'm not going to help you with this? Because you offered me to buy one of those things that wraps it up. I'm not offered to buy you one.

I bought you one. Ooh, how many years ago? And you didn't use it. And you know what? This is on me. You dismissed? No. Matt's your brother.

are all wrapped up. They're always in a freaking knot. Correct. Like a yarn ball. Yes. And so to try to help him, I bought him something that will wrap them and roll them right up immediately. Yes. And he never used it. Yeah, that's right. And this is like now... And then he told a listener of ours, it was a thoughtless gift, which also hurt. Which I shouldn't have said that. That was improper of me. Okay. But I was being honest. It wasn't a thoughtless gift. Now you're going to make me mad. All right, let's move on. It's $4. It doesn't matter. What does it matter what cost? I'm paying the

the price now. Look at that. I am paying the price. You can't put a price on peace of mind. Well, I'm going to treat this other. You want a $50 thing that rolls up your earbuds? I'd like someone to roll it up for me. I'd like, so I'm going to treat this as a Rubik's Cube for the next hour or so. This is hilarious. You know what? I want to take a picture of this

actually. No, please don't. How does this get this tangled? What did you do? I don't know. This is actually a relatively new pair. All right, picture taken. now you're making me. Now you're using me as a pet. It's going up on my Instagram story at SportsRV. Oh, we got some good views yesterday.

I know. Good for you. Good for me. Yeah. It's your idea. Yeah, you're right. All right, there we go. I'm putting this on my Instagram story.

If you want to see at SportsRV, it is Matt. Are you tagging me? Yeah, I'll untangle you. I mean, I'll tag you. What? What? Excuse me, what? All right.

So that's what I didn't want to see. Now, again, the Astros have an incredible insurance policy, but I don't know, was that the Astros trying to soft play this? Was this the injury more severe that never should have been discussed, ever should have been discussed to begin with? Did the recuperation process?

Just because somebody says he should be good to go for the start of next season doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be. I mean, injuries don't aren't always resolved and healed on everybody's exact clock. Right. Maybe he had a setback. We don't know about. I'm just not a fan of a guy that's got a major

arm issue. All the by the way, we're going to need you to close games and throw 99 miles per hour. He's throwing on flat ground. He doesn't have to build up to starters inning, so that's good. He literally is to throw one inning at a time. Okay. So now you're talking me off the ledge. Okay, good.

And for that, I appreciate it. So, yeah, throwing lightly and on flat ground. Okay, throwing lightly doesn't sound great. Throwing lightly sounds like he's throwing, like you and I are throwing a sole pitch softball to each other. Yeah, I think we're pretty good at this rehab routine here with all these armaged we've heard about, right? It goes flat ground, and then it's catch, and then it's... Bullpen session, and then it's off a mound, and live batting

practice. And then it's rehab. If there's anything about cover of the Astros the last handful of years, we know exactly what all this means. We know arm rehab. Yeah. You know, we're also basically like doctors on the radio. Yes, we are. All right. On the show today, I will admit, I caught

myself watching a little they went Olympics last night. Good. Well, you have to admit, Matt, it's okay. Because it's, generally speaking, it's still hard to walk. You work in sports, you can like sports. Yeah, but I don't like everything. No, you don't. You don't.

My son was blowing up my phone last night. He says, Dad, Kansas beat Arizona last night. There's no more undefeated than college basketball. Is that good? I think it's good for... Or did they get the loss out of the way early? You come to my side of these things. No, I'm just being ridiculous.

Come on. You don't think Arizona's hungry today than they were yesterday? I guess. Sure, why not? Okay. We also have got the Rockets Against the Clippers tonight Looking forward to that

We had, now you can't really get into a deep dive on this But there was a major brawl between Charlotte and Detroit last night Yeah, Isaiah Stewart likes to throw hands Isaiah Stewart throws hands And so does Oh, I just called it as a game that are named for Charlotte The Big Man Durran Oh no, it's a big...

I'm staring at my goodness Yeah, I call so many games I don't remember who it was. It was the center for the center for the the Charlotte Hornets. Musa Diabate? Musa Diabate, yeah. Boussa can throw hands too.

Jalen Duren. And then you had the coach, J.B. Baker, staff, saying, we don't inside trouble. Yeah, you do. You got one of the big thugs on the NBA in your side. They always like to fight. Yeah, and they always bitch about complaining.

I'm telling you, it's not fun to, I mean, we hated Detroit back in the 80s, in the late 80s with the bad boys. We might hate this group too. It's fun to play them, but they're all little winyy bees. I mean, I mean, and most respect, way I could say it. Yeah. So we'll get to that. We've got feelings at 1130 today.

And the athletic has their power rankings out for next year's NFL teams. Where do the Texan stack? Would you like to say Top 5? Bottom 5. Middle of the pack. We'll give you details on that on the show today. Can't wait. All right.

A lot to get to today. If you'd like to join us, you may do so at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9. If you want to join us via Twitter, you may do that as well. If you want to see my completely bungled earphones on Instagram at SportsRV. Did you tag me so at least I get some credit for that? All right. 713, 212.

5, 7.9. All right. I've given up on the blue ear fuds. I know how the red ones in. They're fine. These are nice, too. I just, this is going to take an act of Congress to get these unwrapped.

You get to pay somebody by the hour to fix those. Seriously, could I get somebody in the office and I'll pay them? But you give an hour to do it. Like a Rubik's cube? This is a Rubik's. This is not a ruby. How much you're paying? Okay, here's what I got right here.

What's what I got for bills? I don't think you can do it. I could do it. In under an hour? Yeah. Oh, yeah. See what I got. I got a disappointment right after the show, though.

So might have to be tomorrow. You can do it during the show or you don't want to focus. I got to focus. Well, it's fine. How much? Well, I see 100 in there. Now I'm focused. Okay, stop.

I'm not giving you that much. Now I'm locked in. How about if I give you $10? No. John, you want to try to untangle this for $10? You bet you get one hour? I just saw they look. No, sir.

That's funny. That's funny. All right. So 713-212579 if you'd like to be a part of a radio show today. So somebody had Twitter, it was actually not a terrible point of view on this and worthy of at least a discussion point on Josh. We're not going to spend the whole four on it. But where did I see this? This is from Tampa Stroves.

Hayter had a shoulder capsule strain. there was talk end of last year he was trying to get back for postseason. My only hope is that the team shut him down longer this offseason on purpose. Otherwise, this is just another crane Dana, Medstaff, botch job. Oh, hey, they cleared out a lot of those guys. Well, they got fresh blood. That's exactly right. So, I guess you could say, well, he had been told not to throw a single pitch for many months.

We know he's been on his dearlies. A lot of his buddies were... Yeah. During the off season, so there's that going for you. Yeah, I don't, I will just say, I want to get better results. And LaGuardia will be down there tomorrow to give us the deeds on that. But I didn't come across as overly encouraged by that note. No, it doesn't sound great.

And why is Buster only breaking this news? I don't know. I mean, everybody's got to have this. I guess he kind of breaks stuff every now and then. He's, I would say, what is it? Passing? It's a... Passing. A Chandler Rome. Ken Rosenthal. Ken Rosenthal. Bob Nightingale, sort of.

Yeah, Bob Nightingale's, I guess, he's kind of mostly back in the circle of trust. Not all the way, though. Not all the way. Still does things you just want to... He's still on probation. Here's the thing about Bob. He's looking good on probation, though. He's been checking in. He's a nice person.

John Heyman's a doucheback, so I don't mind ripping him. Bob Nightgill's a nice person. So it's hard for me to... Well, I'm sorry, man. It's not hard for me. He's got a lot of stuff wrong. Okay. He's on probation.

He's been wearing his ankle bracelet. He's been coming to meetings. So he's doing good on probation. He's on 10 steps to get him regaining credibility in the baseball world. That seems fair. That's fair. Okay. So we got that going on.

Again, pitchers and catches report tomorrow. That won't be a, you know, that's more of a hit gordy, what's going on, anything strange. But I guarantee you, Josh Hedra, will be one of the first questions that's being talked about, for sure. All right. Okay. I was going to tell you what I did last night with my mom's birthday, or we celebrated her. Like somebody's going while she's turned 78. Shout out to mom.

Congratulations. She's having our chemo today. So hopefully it all goes well with her. Happy birthday. Yeah. And I got home last night. And I knew there was an NBA game on, but it was on Peacock. And I don't have streaming in my room that I want to watch it in.

It was late. It was like, I'll skip it. I did watch some speed skating. I like it. It's good. The other stuff, figure skating, ice dancing, all that kind of stuff, that's to me... Well, you got to know the moves. I don't know what a triple let's is.

Well, and then they were trying to decide how many point deduction because it wasn't hard enough. Yeah. Or, you know, do you get the full credit? It gets so technical for me when I was trying to watch it. If you got to get technical... And by the way, I'm also a believer of if anything is judged, I can't give it full credit. It's difficult. I get that

But speedy skating to me was interesting Curling remains interesting to me for the fact that I've known nothing about it whatsoever But apparently we're going to get some sort of metal out of it today All right, in the mixed pairs Oh, let me try to put it on And my friend Jim Cosamore

Is working the Olympics for NBC Doing curling and play by play He's doing curling play by play. Yeah, really Now he's actually not in Italy Was that me? That's you. Wow. Dollar in the jar.

That is a rarity. That is a rarity. Because nobody ever texts me. Well, I do text you. I just don't get them returned, but that's a different issue for a different time. But I find it fascinating, but the skiing doesn't do much for me.

None of the figure skating does. And again, that's, I think it's not meant for me. I think most, I think figure skating does great numbers for females. Yeah. Tara Lipinski's cute. Okay. She does a nice job on analysis.

Johnny Weir's got an interesting look to him. That's the guy he's always wearing sequins and whatnot, right? He also has like a surfboard, no, a slide. You know when you go down a slide at a water park? His hair is curved that way now. Like a water park slide. Oh, like a flock of seagull style. Yeah, it starts up and then it goes down and then curves up at the very last second.

Yeah. But yeah. You know what I do find fascinating this Olympic coverage? They have these drones that can go like 100 miles. an hour. Really? Yeah. Yeah. They're doing a bunch of drone coverage, like following these... And they don't get

in the way? Skiers, no. Yeah. It's crazy how fast they are. So, I will say, and I should, I will be open and honest. Again, I'm not a huge participant in watching it. I will not watch any of it today or tomorrow, because I got busy with rocket stuff, but on an off night, put the speed skating on. It was good.

Okay, good. Yeah. See? You said you weren't going to watch more than 15 minutes of it. And I think I'm still true to that. I think I watched by 50 minutes of it. Okay. Well, then it's on right now. So if I turn around, it's full coverage.

What's on right this second? What is this? Not bobsledding, but skeleton? Yeah, Dorothea Schwartz of Austria just had a good run. Is that the one where the guys, no, that's the ski jumping, right? Like, they use their, shoot their penis. Say again? You know, we were talking about this last week.

They were injecting. Injecting. No, that was in ski jumping, Matt. That wasn't in in skeleton. It's like having a live toggle switch. Yeah. Well, something like that. So they lay down flat on this.

Yeah, this seems very dangerous. It seems uber scary. Like, I don't want to ever compete anything athletic. They ought to be scared to compete in it. Well, they're probably adrenaline junkies, Matt. They exist. And they're normally at the Olympics somehow. There was some funny tweet.

I wish you could find it. It was like summer Olympics. Hey, who can jump high us? Who can run fastest? Winter Olympics. We're going to go out of this, hurtling down this mountain at 100 miles an hour, try not to die.

It's like I'm so scared. The Winter Olympics is so much more dangerous. Yeah, I mean, I'm so scared of watching this that I won't even go down like water slides because I bumped my head one time about 10 years ago and I've never been on a water slide since. Like everyone's lives are in danger in the Winter Olympics. Yeah.

I mean, can't you find something that athletically you want to compete in that you're not risking your life? Like, you know, a ski accident. Yeah. Hell, Lindsay Vaughn's got broken bones all over her body. Exactly. I mean, I guess curling's mostly harmless. I would think so.

Not boxing, you'd also concussion yourself for life, so. All right. Winter Olympics Cup. You want a metal count? How are we doing? I don't think we're usually Norway dominates, right? No, we're not in the top three. I can tell you that for sure, yeah.

We're not number right. Come on, man. I thought this was America. What's the deal here? No, I don't think it's... We're supposed to be flexing our muscles in an Olympic grade. Norway. Norway always kicks ass in the Winter Olympics.

Well, don't you think it's their population? Like 15 million? But aren't they primarily winter sports? Yeah, I mean, are they bored on skis? I mean, how's Norway basketball? They're a boy. Is Norway baseball good? Yeah, suck it, Norway.

Your basketball. 5.6 million people. And they always dominate the Winter Olympics. But they're crappy in beach volleyball. Yeah, but we got 400 million people. We can't get 6 million people involved in winter sports. There's, well, about 6 million people in Utah. there? Well, if you wanted to have a national competition for digging out of snow,

snow-suffling, we as Americans can do great on that. It looks like a lot of usual suspects. Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and then the United States. But apparently from what they said this morning on today show, that a lot of our gold medal events are coming up. Jamaica, third in the metal count. That's not true. Okay, it's not true. Not true at all. All right, that'll conclude our Winter Olympics coverage for the day on the show. I hope it does it. What is the difference between Milan and? in Milano Cortina.

I don't want to be stupid. I believe it's like Katie in downtown. Oh, really? I don't know. I just made that out. Cortina is the Katie of Milan. Yeah. I like that.

Do you understand in my entire life of doing this wonderful industry called sports media? The only time in the history of me being on the air, we ever took phone calls about the Winter Olympics. Can you guess? That's when, yeah, when Nancy Kerrigan got her. Legs destroyed. Correct. Nancy Kerrigan? No, it's, what's her name?

Oh, the blonde. It's 30 years ago. I don't know why I can't remember. People are screaming. Oh, Tanya Harding. Tanya Harding. Thank you. Tanya Harding.

Just take a second. Yeah, yeah. Nancy Kerrigan's the one that got destroyed. Did they hit her with a crowbar? What was it? A lot of things. Lead pipe. A lot of things.

In the library. Well, here's the thing. What Colonel Mustard was there? Yes. They were playing clue. Jeff Galululi I see that's funny I know these people's names still Good job

Well there's a movie call How's Jeff doing? I Tanya came out Margo Robbie played her I know fantastic And the mom was amazing too That played her mom It was a police baton

Well it's funny because when we were doing this As a guy I was very young in the sports industry It was Where is everybody going to watch it I remember where I was When I watched her get back on the ice for the first time and I watched when both them were on the ice. Oh, really?

I was at a Ruddruckers. Ruddruckers? Ruddruckers. For the Nancy Carrier and watch party? Well, no, wasn't necessarily a watch party. It was watching. Are you kidding me? This is really going to happen.

Well, I mean, I heard it's the greatest burger in the world. Well, there's about three locations left. Everybody's exciting. It can be that great. About JCI level at this point. Speaking of it, never mind. Someone told Rod Ruckers in Kingwood one time, and there was so much trash all throughout.

I said, we're never coming back. and they were like, sorry to hear that, and they were out of business. They're now at the taco shop now. Okay. That's all I got for that. That's where all the old JCIs are trying. Well, one of them is our buddy Bunbee's got them in one of the spot.

A very trill burger spot. All right. So if you can clearly tell, not a lot of piping hot sports issues today. So we're going to try to keep it as... We got stuff to talk about. We do. And Ross will bring up a great topic next.

Oh, great. You said, No, I'm ready. All right. I'm scared. Up next, a completely organic topic that Ross is found on the streets that are the World Wide Web. If you'd like to join us about anything, I will do bring up, and we'll do at 11 o'clock this morning, the new athletic NFL power rankings to get you ready for the 2027, 26 season, 713-212-5-79.

If you want to join us at 7-1-3-212-5-790, if you're with us via the Instagram or Twitter, You can certainly follow us there at SportsMT and at SportsRV. 713-212-5-790, 1032 here on 7-9. Matt and Ross with you on a Tuesday. We've got gut feelings coming up. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you don't have something, I will go with something. But if you have a topic, I'm ready to listen.

Well, Matt, love is dead. Ooh, this is interesting to me. I'm already peaked. Cardi B and Steph. on Diggs broke up in the middle of the Super Bowl. Literally in the middle of the Super Bowl? Apparently. She reportedly left early after spending $1.2 million on a Super Bowl after party that neither of them attended.

Apparently Diggs' other baby mother had front row tickets with her son. And that was the last straw for Cardi B. So Cardi's like, I will not be disrespectful any further. Don't you put her in front of me? You know, the key once an NBA player told me is you got to put them in different quadrants of arenas. She was out in San Francisco this week Taking selfies with Stefan Diggs's mom And?

I mean, I guess she's close with the mother But true love is dead Are you sure? Yes, after the halftime show She left the game early And now they have unfollowed each other on Instagram Oh, you know that's serious then Diggs's ex-girlfriend was spotted near the team hotel this week

And caused major speculation is there no God Love is dead Matt If there's not hope for Cardi B and Stefan Diggs Is there hope for any of us? No I think Stefan will be able to recoup Rather quickly because doesn't he have like

Several people pregnant at the same time? Yes Over than a short period of time I'm out of me And isn't he facing felony charges? Yeah but let's interrupt that He played for the Super Bowl Felony strangulation of his personal chef

over a payment dispute Arraignment is for that charges on Friday. Okay. Live coverage here on 790. And also he was hit with a new lawsuit for defamation and assault that stems from a 2024 incident in which he allegedly spread a false narrative that a former employee stole his Ferrari. He also allegedly sent some goons to rough the guy up at a nightclub in Miami. Stefan Diggs. This is a movie.

I want to watch the Stefan Diggs miniseries. You know what? It's going to be Stefan Diggs in 2026. somebody else in 2020. How about the guy from the Atlanta Falcons that had the girlfriend that he wound up ramming his Lamborghini into her car? What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In this guy, help me out here, folks. If you, I mean, I'm sure, I don't know if it's a top story here in Houston, but James Pierce Jr. James Pierce Jr. crashed his vehicle into one being been driven by her, Rakea Jackson, WNBA player. Okay. Multiple times and struck a police officer,

while evading arrest. And you know what happened? No, sir. You know what happened the night before? No, I don't. His mom spoke about raising him at the NFL awards. Oh. And then he did that.

Well, you know, you can raise your kids as best you can, Matt, and you can't control what they do as adults. No, you cannot. I'm the leader of that, by the way. Okay. None of your kids have been in prison that I know of. That that I know of.

They wouldn't tell me anyway. You're doing great. That's true. Okay. So you want us to get into a deep dive on the Cardi B. Cepon Diggs relationship. You said something to talk about and I got you. Okay. Will they get back together, Matt? How heartbroken are you? One to ten. Let's throw the audience out there. Should Cardi B accept Stefan Diggs' apology? 713-212-5 Civaddi? Yes. She should.

Mistakes remain. He's only got, you know, four or five of the women he's got impregnant in the last handful of years. And four years, it's been four in this one year. Yeah, I was trying to, I was trying to round up. Four a year, that's pretty good. I mean, that guy, how does that guy even, ooh, did you think, hmm? You think he's like mistakenly thought he was with somebody else, maybe? Oh, really? I don't know.

He was wearing an eye patch and he forgot who he was with. No, I don't think that happened, man. If you're with four or five women at one time, have you ever accidentally said somebody else's name? That could easily happen. Jonathan, I'll go to you on that one. Jonathan, you have any thoughts on this? I played the fifth. Okay.

Yeah. No, you call them all... Baby. Honey. Sunshine. Beautiful. Beautiful. Always works.

Sugar. I don't think you call them sugar. Hello, sugar. Dating advice of sports army continues. Yeah, I don't know. That's going to necessarily... I don't think there's a large segment of the population. It feels bad for Stefan Diggs.

Okay. All right. Well, sorry, we can go to your store now. No, I don't have one. Actually, I feel bad for you, Texas fans. Oh, no, this is the luge, not the skeleton. Which was the skeleton? You gave up a second round pick and shortened up Stefan Dix contract.

Oh, the luge is skeletons when you go head first, right? And luge is when you go feet first? Uh-oh, there's long ski jumping. Inspect the suit. Why is that guy happy to see everybody? That's a woman. Oh, oops. Can we get some...

Italy and Germany are going after it? Can we get some breaking news of any sort during the show? I'll even take bad news. Italy's a woman. up 1-0 on Germany. If there's ever a day that- Do you use nil in international hockey or no? I don't know.

I don't know. We need a women's hockey expert. Where's I got Nicholas? He's got three followers on his YouTube page. Hey, he's trying to grow the numbers. He's trying to be like, you, play-by-play, that's the thing. Yeah. He didn't tell me that.

I got to help them out. I could have put him in the right people. He's the play-by-play for the U of H Cougars hockey team. He is? Yes. I didn't know that. club team. I don't think he's he's the playoff guy. Have you ever? I didn't

know that other way. Yeah. Yeah, Matt. You got to start somewhere. You know, I start with the Houston hot shots. There you go. Tom Ball High School Football. Got to start somewhere. Exactly. Good for him. Club hockey play by play. Is our team any good? I don't even know if we're any good or not. Probably not. Why would you say that?

Just because it's in Texas? I don't know. Dall Stars are holding their own. Okay. I think, no. How many of their players are from Texas? Well, you didn't have. that until just now. I don't think Yvanchuk is from Texas. All right. Here's what we're going to get back on the mainstream of things because so far, we're completely off course.

I mean, it's like our flight navigation system is not even working. Yeah, sorry. We're in some clouds in the mountains right now. Don't even. Bring us home. All right. Stevie Ray Vaughn's not on board, is he? Too soon?

Look at the face you gave me. He was in a helicopter, not a plane. That's true. I'm sorry. Okay, well, let me go with John Denver. Otis Redding. You know what, Fantasy 5, top 10 guys that die in a crash. Oh, it's got to be Buddy Holly, one.

Ooh, that's a good one. All right, let's move on. Yeah, I was going to say, what are we doing? All right, let me tell you something. We absolutely. Are you out there? What is that? Boy, are you okay?

We haven't given you much. We're trying. What do you mean? We just gave them 10 different topics. We gave them, the last thing was 10 most famous people to die in an airplane crash. You want to do a fantasy five of

airplane crashes. Did you ever read about those people from that movie alive? No. Okay. Don't. Just don't. If you're in Haggar,

that was a fictional show, right? No. When they died in the, I mean, they crashed in the mountain, the Patagonian Mountains. Go ahead. And they had to resort to cannibalism. Go ahead.

No, that's it. Don't read about it. Don't read anymore. It's an incredible story of survival. The guys, they made a sleeping bag that they sewed together with, like, the seat covers of the plane. And that's how they survived in this big snowstorm. How long ago was this? 1970s or something.

So they're all alive still? He's a rugby team. No, many of them are all dead. And many of them died in the crash. Yeah, let's take a break. Blackers wanting us to talk about other national tragedies involving death. We'll be getting into the Hindenburg Deep Dive. I can't wait.

We'll be doing the... Sean says, The Society of the Snow is a must watch about the plane crash involving the rugby team. Yeah, that's not going to happen on my watch. 1972. Nope. That plane crash took 50 years ago? Wow.

Yeah. Okay. It's a very harrowing tale of survival. I trust. you on this. Cannibalism. All right, I'm going to attempt for the next two segments of the show to get to sports. Now, if it doesn't work,

I was talking women's luge singles. That's fair. And we will give you frequent updates on the Italy-Germaning women's hockey game if the situation doesn't arise. Okay, it's 1-0 Italy right now. All right. So, our morning guy, Dan,

has been saying that he would like to see a man Thompson come off the bench. And I was like, What? You high, Dan. But then I went to Rockets Wire. It's Ben Dubos says a little harder article. And he's like, would the rockets be better served with a man Thompson coming off the bench?

Because of the fact that staying with me on this, that he is not a shooter that it makes for other guys on the floor easier to defend because you're not putting a body directly in front of a man, Thompson, say, outside of five feet. Knowing that he can't shoot the jump shot, that his range is really nice. not much more than 10 feet, does that make life more difficult for Kevin Durant and Amin, Schengun, and or Tobariceman than frankly anybody else on the floor, that it would be better served to go with somebody

that at least defenders for starts of games, and presumably it starts of third quarters, and maybe the key moments of the fourth, would respect more offensively, i.e. Reed Shepard, than Emin Thompson. You know what I'm not discusses? And I mean, we've kind of just,

kind of flippantly discuss it with Dan saying he's high on the moon. But I still wouldn't do it. A man Thompson brings way too much to the table. Athleticism steals, blocks. He gets the dunker spot. He does an admirable job of running the point. His assist numbers are way better than Reed Shepherds. Reed has not done enough in scoring for me on a day-to-day consistent basis to make that change.

But I just wanted to at least throw it out there because, I mean, you can take Dan, for what Dan is and Rockets Wire for what it is. I don't see it, but I want to make sure that I'm not missing something here. I'm in time since one of the 30 best players, 35 best players. I'm trying to remember there was an off-season ranking. He was like in the 30s. He's one of the best players in basketball. And you're going to keep him out there.

Putting him out of the starting lineup is a no chance, no way, no how. That's what I thought. I want to make sure I wasn't sick in the head. No, look, I understand, I can say I get the logic is that his lack of jump shooting is really muddying up the waters in the paint, especially now with guys and opposing teams using their fives to defend him, and it's causing issues. And Amin Thompson wasn't in the game Saturday. And there are many saying, hey, Chet Holmgren would have just been hanging out in the paint, hanging off of Amin Thompson.

So the fact that he wasn't out there helped the offense. I get all that. But it's not only that. That's something that the Rockets have to figure out and they have to get better at if they're going to be successful. And I will say this. I said this on a postgame show recently.

It's a good thing that this is happening now. Because now you can prepare for it or the playoffs and come up with more ideas, how you're going to set rotations and how you're going to change things. I would be utterly shocked if a defensive coach, defensive-minded,

now not that you dokekeke doesn't have good offensive ideas, but a defensive-minded coach who wants to win with defense, puts a first-team all defender out of the starting lineup. Okay, I just want to make sure I wasn't nuts. He's also a playmaker. They can figure ways around it. He can get better with basket cuts.

Another thing is that people, when the five that is sagging off of Amin Thompson commits, a men Thompson is free. And they have to figure out that and be better. They have to be better with their quick-fire decision-making. And you know how you do that, you get more practice. I'm going to tell you this. Amend Thompson's basketball IQ is off the charts. Yes.

shooting is not. And I don't know if it's ever going to get any better than what it is. He does shoot. He's in year four. Put it this way. He does shoot 50% from the floor. Yes. Okay.

So he's taking the right spots. That's shooting numbers. But is that? What is he? He's probably like six. We can find the numbers. Well, he's probably like 65 in the pain or something and then 20% everywhere else. That's where he knows he can make his shots.

Then I'm okay with it. But the only thing that makes it a little. little nerve-wracking and it's and it's frustrating I'm sure for him is that shot clock sometimes get down to less than five seconds and everybody else is clogged up and there's a dare

and sometimes he'll take those shots. Doesn't do it very much and it's had a little success I just if he could ever get to a level where it's a how do I explain this? If he could get to like Jabari Smith level

I would take that in terms of three-point check. Jabari Smith this year is shooting about 35% from three. That's been what he's basically been his entire NBA career. If he get to 35 to at least have defenses of respect his outside game outside of 15 feet, then the Rockets would be, he'd be the most, he'd be one of the most difficult to guard players in the NBA. But they sag. Yeah.

And a men, because he's so smart for being just 23 years old, he'll figure this out. Rockets will figure it out. He shoots 62% in and around the paint, but basically around the restricted area. About 10 feet in. A lot of it is because of dunker spot position he's in. A lot of it is on fast break layups. A lot of that is on steals and dunks.

Everything else, he's not good. Yeah, I would say 14 feet in is okay. Really, you can get that free throw line and then some, it's a little bit of mystery. Even then, how about this? From zero to three feet, he's 74%. even when you go to 3 to 10, he goes to 44%. That's not an efficient shot.

Outside of three feet. That's nuts. But that's a lot of centers. That's like Rudy Gobert. He's not a center. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. He's a wing player. You want him to be out there.

I get it. I understand. I was just trying to make a cop. I understood. That's terrible cop. I'm sorry. Yeah. So some are discussing it.

I don't see it viable because at that point you probably would have too negative defenders on the floor at the same time if you're talking about shingoon and shepard on the floor playing together and i don't know if i love that yeah i wouldn't expect it i mean you're going to see it for spurts reed shepherd can play and he has been even when he doesn't start he's getting close to like 25 30 minutes a night depending on you know depending on if they're pulling guys early and all that stuff i have some great news for you guys you 10 o'clockers we want to thank you for listening to us this hour and i'm going to reward you

sometime between noon and two today. Okay. I have a pair of tickets for the Rockets game tonight. Really? Yes. And the context of the trivia question

we'll be giving away will be something we discussed in the 10 o'clock hour. You're not eligible to win because you're actually in the studio and you're working. What the hell? I don't you tell me, man.

I know. So, I'm going to be there anyways. I don't know of that. You can go if you want. Now, I got a disappointment. I can't make you there any time. So you're going to be in the dentist chair

for hours on end. You won't be able to make it? I have to drive. It's not close. And then I have to drive back. And then I have to get, and I'm not going to get there. Okay, that's fine.

But yeah, so somebody between noon and two today, I'm just going to say. And then I'm going to say, hey, I've got a pair of rocket tickets. I need the answer to this question. And it was something we discussed in 10 o'clock hours. So be ready for that. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. The athletic has the power rankings already out for 2006. NFL? NFL. I haven't seen them. Would you like to guess

what the Texans are? See how close you're in. When we come back? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 2 on Sports Talk 790.

This is our number two of Matt and Ross with you here with Jonathan our producer. Very nice to have all of you with us. Thank you. you 10 o'clockers. You will get a reward. One of you is going to sit in my seats tonight for the Rockets against the Clippers. Wow. Yeah. Love it. And I'll give you parking too. How about that? Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. But, however, however, you have had to listen to 10 o'clock hour of the show.

You 11 o'clockers just joining us now. You have no chance, no way, no how you're going to win this prize. So we'll give it sometime between noon and 2 o'clock today. All right, we've got some Astros cover to get to in a few minutes, but I do want to pay off on a tease that we talked about a little bit ago. It'll be athletic. My guess is ESPN's doing this. My guess is that Yahoo's doing this. Anybody that, you know, pro football focus, are doing the

quote-unquote power rankings, Ross. You know how we feel about power rankings? The only one I give a damn about is the rotten five. We love power rankings. We don't love power rankings. It's low-hanging fruit. And when you get sent to me and I pay for it, I might as well use it, right? Okay, good. Okay. So you have not seen the group of listed 1 to 32. Would you take a Gander on who was the maybe in your bottom three of the worst teams in the NFL for next year?

Oh, well, you want to go bottom three? Try that first. Raiders? 31. Jets, got to be 32. 32. Let's go Browns. No, AFC foe, Tennessee.

Oh, the Titans. Really? 30. Okay. Where they had the Browns? Cardinals are 29th, Giants 28th, Commander's 27th. Browns at 26th. This is the final year for this is the upcoming year.

Upcoming year. Really? Yes. Okay. Okay. Who would you like to, let's say here, this is, let's see, I've been shuffling. All right. How about the top five for next year?

Seahawks. One. Bills got to be in there somewhere. The Bills are just everywhere. Everybody loves the Bills. Everybody loves the Bills. The Bills coming in at number six. Oh, so now the top five.

Rams. Rams are number two. Let's go with the Broncos. Broncos are four. I guess the Patriots are three. Okay. So where do you have? the power rankings for the NFL, your beloved Houston Texans coming in at number eight.

Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Okay. I was going to guess like 10. Last ranked, we're fifth. Now they're eighth. The takeaway. You want to guess?

You get one guess and one guess only. They need offensive line or C.J. Stroud needs to play better. There's a C.J. Stroud issue. Yeah. Okay. Reading word for word here. The Texans probably thought after Stroud's rookie season that this would be the offseason they would start working on a mega extension for their young quarterback. But the last two seasons have raised a lot of questions.

In that time, Stroud is 25th in the league in EPA per dropback. Ooh! I know you're a big EPA guy, Matt. You'd have to explain what that means. Expected points added. For example, if you get five yards on a third and four, it's better than getting five yards on a second. and 15, right? Mm-hmm.

So it's more expected points added. It contextualizes things. So rather than like yards per attempt or yards per carry, it's how many expected points were added. Did you go from, right? Like getting more first down. Getting more first downs and more productive plays will raise your EPA and getting more points, of course. Okay. 25th in that goofy-ass category.

I'm asymmetric. He is. Good for them. It's very popular. I never heard of it until today. That's not true. Maybe that. All right. Through the four interceptions, the divisional round lost to the Patriots. The defense is really good. That's the last sentence. The defense is really good, though.

That's true. It's true. Eighth. Feels about right. I mean, you make the divisional round. You're in the elite eight. You're in the final eight. Mm-hmm. Man, T. Strasol could just be better. Oh, it could have been. Isn't it crazy? We've already got the storyline. And look, we've got several months. We have the combine, the draft, the schedule release, all the non-legit media people are going to go out there and do their special YouTube shows from out of the middle of the stadium. We got months of this.

And there's only one storyline. Well, there's actually several. There's a big headliner. But the big headline on the marquee is which CJ Stroud is going to show up. Like if you were in Buffalo, the storyline is you just fired Sean McDermott. Is the coaching change going to make a difference? In Baltimore, the marquee is you just let go John Harbaugh after a really long term.

Is that the storyline? In Chicago, the bears make this ginormous run back into relevancy. Are they going to be pretenders or contenders to win the NFC next year? And can Caleb Williams limit the bad plays? Because he makes spectacular plays and then he makes bad turnovers. In Washington, is it Jalen Daniels? Or what's quarterback? Daniels.

Jane Daniels. Which Jane Daniels is showing up. The one that's often hurt or the one that was in an incredible rookie season. Well, is his elbow in one piece back together. In Jacksonville, the storyline is, was last year's epic run real or a one-off like Jacksonville typically likes to do for the last 10 years? I mean, you can really go to about every team and come up with a singular storyline. There's others among it. Look, the Texans need a true RB1.

they probably need additional help on the offensive line. They probably could use another cornerback in case Lasseter and or Petrie and or Stingley are not 100%. Because that team, as we've talked about in so many times, was able to be relatively healthy. Even with guys missing time during practice during the course of week, they were still able to go on Sundays. But there ain't nothing on that marquee at the Texans for 2026 that is larger than the word C.J. Stroud. Well, one will help the other. Getting a better running game is going to help CJ Stroud. Improving the offensive line is going to help C.J. Stroud.

Nick Cayley getting another year under his belt as a play caller is going to help C.J. Stroud. So it can all click into place. It needs to. They're going to exercise as the fifth year option, I would imagine, if I had to guess. I mean, it doesn't seem any way that they're not. I don't think the Texans should be blamed for doing that. No. Because you need to be able to find out for the next two years whether he's worth it.

Now, granted, his fifth-year contract starts to make really good money, but it's still, relatively speaking, based on what quarterbacks of his tenure and experience would get, that's double or close to being double. So, yeah, getting the 25 may sound astronomically crazy to pay for him. Yes. But in the big picture of things, remember, the salary cap's going to go up because the NFL revenues keep going up.

Yeah. So the 25 is not going to hurt like it may be hurt five years ago. No, for people who don't know football, I know this is going to happen, Matt. You can't wait. The news people are going to put out. Texans give $25 million to C.J. Stroud. And then all these people who don't know anything about football. Why would they do that?

I can't believe this. You have to. You have to. It's going to happen. And $25 million is a bargain even for a mid-quarterback. It's a bargain. It's after that, then it starts to get dicey. Well, it's, you don't want to end up in a limbo spot where, I mean, this is the lowest

his stock has ever been. I do believe it's going to go back up. Well, I can't, I mean, if it goes any further, he's not a starting quarterback in the NFL. That's the good news. If he's worse, then yeah, you cut bait and you figure something out. Right. You could draft somebody in the next year's draft,

and you're going to have him at $25 million, and you mean, see what you have, I guess, and then you probably are drafting somebody. Yeah. What are the marquies? What's Dallas? What's on the marquee in Dallas? Will they ever get a defense?

Yeah. George probably Well they're not They franchise They franchise tagging yeah Yeah I didn't know that What else what do we care about

What's the marquee in Indianapolis You better win Daniel Jones is a free agent right Yeah Anthony Richie got to move him I would think if you're not thinking He's the guy that can be your guy Move him where to tight in

He's big enough to do that I mean I think there's a lot I mean, I don't know if Lamar Jackson was responsible for John Harbaugh being fired? I don't think so. There has been no overtone to it. Man, if that field goal goes in, Tyler Loop. It's so funny. Is John Harbaal still the coach?

I say yes. I would say the Texans lose to them. Ooh, you're ready to say that now. I mean, they probably would have been minor favorites. It would have been a coin flip game. Well, I'll put it this way. to back up your point, Baltimore's better than Pittsburgh.

In every facet. It's just they got a bad kick out of it. And frankly, if you're Baltimore, that's why if I'm a John Harbaugh fan, I'm pissed. I had Lamar Jackson out for several games. I had my defense out for a handful of games. And if I get one kick to go in,

I'm the AFC North Champions. That's why he got scooped up so fast. Well, the Giants took him. It's like, you know what? I know John Harbaugh maybe isn't everybody's cup of tea. But the guys won a lot of games. Now, he didn't get them to the ultimate point with Lamar, but he's won games. Get a new voice, get a young voice, get a defensive-minded coach, which, as we've kind of talked about,

I think you should get an offensive-minded coach, but if you have Lamar Jackson, get a good enough offensive coordinator with Lamar Jackson. We just saw a defensive coach and play caller win a Super Bowl just two days ago. Yes. So there is no trite and true formula. No. I would just say, in general, I like the office. offensive innovation because it's an offensive league.

All right. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to chime in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We've got gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the R. And my gut feeling, and one of them today will be on the conversation we talk about the Astros next. 1113 here on Sports Talk 790.

Matt and Ross with you here on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to chime in on our conversation, we certainly invite you to do so. 7-13-2-1-1-2-1-2-1. 2-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 and if you want to visit with us through Twitter you may do so at SportsMT at SportsRV on both Instagram and on Twitter. All right, Buster only yesterday at 412 in the afternoon. Put out a story, Rossi, that says Josh Hater and the Astros hope to learn more later this week

about where he stands in his preparation for the start of the regular season. He was diagnosed in August with a left capsule shoulder strain and is continuing to work his way back. Hayter has been playing catch on flat ground, throwing lightly, but has not been throwing full bullpans in the manner that many pitchers are at this point in early February. Veteran pitchers, according to Olney, often shape their training programs in a way to preserve themselves the regular season, and Hayter are still in the process of assessing when he can ramp up his work. According to Dana Brown, Hader has told the team he'll know more in the middle of the week ahead about his progress in his throwing program. Astero's pitchers and catchers report Wednesday. Meaning, you get on a mound.

Yes. If you're healthy. Okay. And if you're healthy. And you throw. And you lightly throw. And you throw harder and you throw harder and you throw harder. Get your reps in.

You start playing in some games here and there. And then by the end of May or March, you're ready to start the 2026 season. So how concerned should we be? If we are now February 10th, it's into March, this season is going to start, throwing off a flat ground, which is not good.

As we know, we know how things need to ramp up. We've done a lot of research because we've talked about sports for a long time, thus making us experts. Well, a lot of pitching injuries here in Houston recently as well.

So flat ground, and then eventually he's throwing catch where you throw harder, and then he's on a mound, and then we're getting some, some bullpen sessions and then some live BP and then he's ready to go. As we previously discussed, he's not worried about throwing

90 to 105 pitches. No. No. But just get us 15. But we need 15. And we had Joe... And we needed about three times a week, hopefully. Yeah, we talked to Joe Spotted at Fan Fest. He said even early season, he wasn't going to be working. He's not going to have him

doing four out saves or even six out saves. Six out saves may never come back. We don't know. And you know what? I'd be okay if it never did. Let me tell you something You've got a brain who's your eighth inning guy You can piecemeal the rest Yeah you normally

But it was like last year It seemed like every time it was a bad situation Because the offense wouldn't score And you're like all right we're going to use them in the ninth Let's go ahead and walk it off at the bottom of the ninth Like nope one two three And then you got to go put them back out there for the 10th It just felt like they were snake bit

Even with his usage And of course They didn't make the playoffs So come playoff time Six out saves would be on the table But not any time in the anytime soon The hardest thing for me me is we are trying to scrub every bit of the nastiness that was the injured list of a year ago.

And this is our last headline before pitchers and catchers arrive. I'm, I'm unsettled by this, honestly. I'm not super worried because Brian and Bray, you can be your closer. Of course, it hurts the depth after that. Correct. But as long as Josh Hader's good to go within a month or two of the season, unless this is something that's going to linger. I'm not going to be very panicked about it. But I would say certainly worrying to say, oh, we need to see where he's at now.

Why doesn't he know where he's at? I'm already. Because over the off season. The easy deduction on that is because he wasn't throwing when he should have been throwing in January because the arm obviously didn't let him do it. Well, the injury was from August, yes? Yeah. Remember there was a conversation to try to get maybe for a limited run in the postseason if the Astros got there. Yeah, that's what kind of quelled my work. that he he's going to be ready for possible postseason and then they were saying maybe World Series and then of course they didn't even make the playoffs.

So he should be good. We'll get some answers tomorrow. I just was not looking forward to hearing the question being asked. And it's going to have to be asked. Where is he? Because again, if you're the Astros and it's the first day of pitchers and catchers, you're going to be naturally optimistic. He is throwing as compared to he has not.

been shut down. So there's that. His arm is moving. And even if it's not ready for the beginning of the season, if he's at least throwing now, logically you'd think, okay, maybe he's two to three weeks behind his throwing program that maybe

makes the start of the season not a probability, but maybe a handful of weeks in. I don't want to go glass half full or empty. I know how the Astros react. Based of what we went through last year, we're just going to have to literally watch him get on the mound and then we'll start the clock as to whether or not he's ready to go for the start

of any part of the early part of the 2020s season touch and go situation um and there's some some big storylines too but the closers role like i said if i didn't have the safety blanket of brian abray you i'd be a lot more panicked yeah Brian and brayou will be fantastic he was in a good spot last year now there were a little bit of moments that were uh made you a little nervous but the reality is and nobody wants to discuss this there is a significant difference in pitching in the eighth and ninth inning. There just is. He was fine.

He was good, but there was, you got more, he didn't go in there and blow people away like Josh Hatterday when he was in the prime of his motions. Yeah, but he's had been high leverage his entire, Astro's career, whether it's the eighth or ninth or whatever. I mean, high leverage is high leverage to me. All right. Now we're going to segue to something, which I'm very intrigued.

Oh, my gosh. I want you to read what is online number two. Joe Mixen injury says he knows the condition. Do we believe this person or not? I don't know. Let's talk to, now, does Joe Mixen have any connections to Orange, Texas? Not that I know of.

That's where Kenneth is calling from this one. That's where the foot clinic is. The world's biggest foot clinic. But what do you speak of, Rossi? I'm just kidding. Remember, Nick you see that there was nothing severe to this? Nothing irresponsible. Nothing irresponsible.

Kenneth on 790, how do you know things? Before you tell us what you know, how do you know things? Well, I listen to this late night show. See, I'm in a truck. You know, and I listened to a lot of radio, you know. And I was just, it was way late, late, early, early,

before day of the morning on this show. And they went, they took a very deep dive into it. This is it was a nationwide, national-wise show. Okay. And they took a very deep dive, and even gave it a name of what the condition is, because it related to a bone in his foot that wasn't getting oxygen and blood to it. And so that kind of, yes, and they named it. And it was a kind of, it wasn't officially presented to them,

but it was mentioned by, they say, a reliable source when they got this information. and I remember when this happened to Dion Sanders, it was a nerve, and it just started off with something like turf toe with Dion. And right now, he's really messed up, man. The dude lost, he lost the toe. And barely getting around. You're talking about Dion Sanders lost the toe or Joe Mixon lost the toe? No, Joe Mixing.

I'm talking about that. The thing with Dion, I'm just saying it just reminds you. That's something so simple. But with, with, with, with, with, uh, mixing is, is a condition that's named is, is the bone is not getting blood flow to it, the cat, adequate blood flow. And so they went into detail of it and, uh, and they say a reliable source. And, uh, you know, and it's coming from somebody connected with overnight ESPN, you know, they're not standing, you know, they're not seeing that's their story sticking it to it.

But it sounds kind of true. And somebody going nationwide with something like this, you know, it's kind of up to us, you know, believe it or not, but it sounds logical, you know. And while I was saying by Dior, and I was just saying that he started off with a simple thing with the foot with like turf toe. And now, you know, he lost a nerve connection in his foot. So it's possible, you know. Okay. So you're going off of a radio show that you listen. to with all that stuff

you said. What show was this? Probably ESPN all night or something like that. Okay. But point being, is it coast to coast? But let me ask you this, Kenneth. Yeah. If there is some sort of blood flow circulation issue, that's terrible, right? I mean, nobody's going to argue that.

That's something that you wouldn't hide from the media. That's something that Joe Mixon wouldn't want to hide from people that are concerned about him. Correct? Am I right about that? I don't know. Because, see, it might be a huge get a miss kind of thing because sometimes, man, you got to go get a third opinion and then something you can recover all the way from.

But you're not, but you're not, but you're not answer my question, but you're not answer my question. Why would there be such secrecy behind exactly what ails him? Why would you think there would be any secrecy towards this? Unless what we thought about yesterday, there was some malpractice by a physician. That's the only thing we can think of it. That probably too. That may be connected.

We all may be right on this. but they brought the thing about the gunshot thing and that totally been debunked oh damn I lose a copy of Danish over that yes now that that's really that's really by in for the insiders that's been debunked

and they they and what I'm getting out of they feel that it's so ludicrous they're not even going to address that and they're sticking with the medical thing you know all right and you know that's that's what that you know it's believable. Okay. And we have seen something like that before.

So you think I should put the whole gunshot to his foot to rest, huh? Yeah, I really would. I really would. Because I think, you know, if I didn't hear this from a reliable source, somebody speaking nationwide, and y'all wouldn't be hearing this right now. But if you, I think you may, if you Google it and throw it out there, and you turn, you go down the right way.

what I just say may be legitimate. All right. Well, thank you very much, Kenneth. You know what? National Radio, late night national radio, they don't mess up. I mean, Ben Mauter, who we have on weekday mornings

1 to 5 a.m. I mean, he's our, he's the, he's an Edward R. Murrell of Fox Radio. He's a beacon of journalism, yes. Sure, why not? I love you, Kenneth. I don't think I can shy away from it. I like you put his,

his truck horn on for us. That was great. You know what y'all need to do when you call the show from here on out? Add more sound effects. That would be great. Like turn a radio on, maybe listen to us.

We haven't gotten anybody in a driveway in a while. I mean, drive through, yeah. We've made people order subway, Taco Bell before. Yes. You always try to add two tacos for yourself. You know what you'd be really funny

is you take out your girlfriend or your wife at lunch and then right in the middle of your conversation, hey, babe, I love you, but I need to call Matt and Ross about something. And then have a conversation about sports. Let's say your wife doesn't want to talk to you about the big game from last night or the

Rockets game tonight. You call right in the middle of your lunch session. That'd be really a mark of a great listener of this show. Okay. To interrupt the lunch with your lady at a fancy, like a Tony's or something? How is she going to feel about that? I don't know. Take care of her later?

You're trying to get guys in the doghouse. Take care of her later? Yeah. No, like maybe a bottle of wine when you get home or, Maybe a back rub. Back rub's do the trick. And they're right, Jonathan. All right.

Time now for gut feelings. What are you clenching your teeth? I know. What? Oh, by the way, it's a 1-1, by the way. Germany has squared it up with Italy in the women's hockey match. Okay.

A lot of folks are interested in that. And Sweden's taken on USA and the mixed doubles curling. I believe this is a gold medal game. This is a gold medal match. Yeah. and we'll give you updates on that mixed doubles curling. Do you think, what is that motion called? Is it thrusting the stone?

You brush the stone. Or sweeping? I mean, they all would physically fit. I mean, I think you'd have to have pretty good upper level muscles, right? Yeah. I don't see any fact. You're probably strong in the trapezius and the rhomboids. Sure.

I don't think we ever said rhombids before in the history of this show. I'd be here to help. I know you've done quite a bit. All right. Matt, Matt, your rhomboy's looking a little weak, man. Oh, Mike, I got, I got shamed yesterday. We're trying to move some furnish in the house yesterday. Who shamed you?

My son, my oldest one. Oh. It's a dad, can you carry your part of it? I'm like, no, I cannot. Oh, I'm sorry, Matt. It's fine. I have no upper body strength. It's my fault.

You're always doing, like, umpire mechanics. That doesn't build strength for you? That does not build. That does not build strength. Okay. All right. 713-212-5-790. Listen up girls and boys.

This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. All right. I have a feeling. We're not going to enjoy this week's gut feeling. I feel like I gave you a bunch of stuff. I think you hit on a rocket one. I know I didn't. I think I had a very good week.

I think you had an excellent week. So here we go. Here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-7-90. You make your predictions. If you hit your predictions, you come back and brag with us. And if you get them wrong, we don't largely forget them unless they're preposterous. 7-1-3-2-7-90.

7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. Time for us to ask you to give us your gut feelings. But before we do that, let's get to how we did last week. Matt Thomas, you had Sam Darnold as Super Bowl MVP. L. Fine. You had a double-digit win for the Seahawks. 29 to 13.

That counts. Thank you. You called 28 to 18, which wasn't over. Not bad. That's okay. You said no trades for the Rockets. That's a win. Yep.

You said veteran pickup and buyout market, TBD. Correct. It would be a big man. And you said the best commercial of the evening will be a beer commercial. I don't think anything was really particularly good The Budweiser Eagle and Clydesdale was a decent one People lend themselves towards the Clydesdales People loved that Dunkin' Donuts one

Yeah, I thought that was the best Because at least had celebrities in it Yeah I don't know, I'm Googling Best Super Bowl commercial Google Gemini No, I don't know None of the commercials were any good Okay, back to the good feelings

I said Kenneth Walker, Super Bowl MVP. Did you really? That's a big hit, by the way. He was like plus 850. If you got that right, which I don't think you would lie about that. You deserve your flowers. You don't remember that? No.

That made it up. Johnson remembers. Yeah, I remember. Okay, I remember too. It's great. Congratulations. Thank you, Matt. You're welcome.

Jeez. Well, it's so weird that you get predictions right. Oh, is that what it is? That's exactly what it is. No, never mind. All right. See, I said, Rockets 1 and 2 in their next three games. I was correct.

It didn't go the way I wanted it to. But I was correct. You were correct. I said no trades at all for the Houston Rockets, but later in the week I did change that. I said Michael Jackson trailer during the Super Bowl. That was wrong. And you told me that was an easy chalk pick. Yeah, I did.

I let you down. I didn't see it. I don't think it played. No. Look, I nodded off twice during the Super Bowl. So trust me, I would not have everything anymore. I said best commercial chips. There was a heartfelt lays one

Lays one had a lot But I don't know if it was the best It was maybe the heartfelt But yeah That's a clause Why not? Jonathan Allen was hedging his bets He had the Seahawks winning 17 to 10

That was going to happen So they started stat padded And then he had Stefan Diggs as the Super Bowl MVP He's probably a Super Bowl LVP According to Cardi B Yeah No more about that What

But that We just brought up Why Because it's gonna help out somebody later on the show. Okay. Okay. Stefan Digg, Super Bowl MVP.

Oh, he also had the Rockets beating O KC. That's a dub. Hey, Jonathan for the win. I like that. All right, and that's all of our gut feelings. All right. I'm going to go first. The Rockets are, again, this is Pure Homer.

So fine, just put an asterisk next to this. Rockets be the Clippers next two nights. Rockets sweep the clippers. Yes, they do. In the two games set. Which makes it three and two over a pretty good run of teams. Dang, I was going to say that too. You can jump on that if you want to.

I'm doing it. I'm going to say Rockets sweep the clippers. Okay. I'm sticking with it. Rockets finish as a top three seat. I've had that for a while. I've had it all season. I'm just reinforcing it.

I like it. I ain't scared. I am backing down. I got you. Yes. Okay. Hmm. Are you stumped?

No. I'm going to make some people mad. Okay, let's first I'm talking about who you're making mad. Reed Shepherd, Truthers. Fire away. Reed Shepherd will not be

a barring injury. Reed Shepherd will not be a full-time starter at any point this season. He's made six starts this year. They are five and one in those. They are. But I think it's because of injuries and or lineup adjustments, yes.

I'm not willing to say that. What I'm willing to say is, I don't think we're going to see Amman Thompson ever be, and that may be a one-off here and there. I don't ever anticipate Amin Thompson being a role player, a bench player for this team. When Jabari Smith got hurt a year ago, and remember when he broke his hand?

I think he came back with a gut feeling and told you that he was, that Amin was going in the lineup for good. And I'm going to stick with that. Amin, yes, you did. Amin Thompson is first team all defense and averages 18 points a game. on 50% shooting. Does he have warts? Yes.

Do I love him? I appreciate his attitude. Yes. Yes. I just, I think, first of all, you're also not going to take a guy who is second in the league in minutes play and all of a sudden reduces minutes by 14.

There's a reason why he's been second to league in minutes because they've needed him on the floor as much as they have. By the way, yeah, the ringer, which is the Bill Simmons website, They keep a rolling 100, top 100 players in the NBA at all times. Every night? Like every week.

Okay. Every week they update it. They have Amin Thompson as 41st. Who is two in front and two behind? Well, I pulled it up by teams. Okay. So they have Kevin Durant, 13th, Alpern-Shingun, 18th, Amin Thompson, 41st. So let me put by, I'd have to go back and put it by one hundred because I clicked on by team.

but you have the top 40-50 player in the NBA he's going to start every day. All right, just want to make sure I wasn't nuts. Watch it. You are nuts, but not because of us. Watch you may make it change tonight just. It could happen. It could happen.

I don't think it can. I miss gut feelings all the time. 40th, Aaron Gordon, 41st, I'm in Thompson, 42nd, O.G. Nen & O. Then Jaron Jackson, Jr., Norm Powell. Good players. La Melle ball.

It feels like the right of group of people. He's in right there. Okay. Continue on Yeah I'm just to stick with that Reed Shepard not a full-time starter any point Barring injury of course Barring injury yep I get you that

All right I'm going to go with Minton Oh here's my gut feeling Do you want a Josh Hater got feeling? I do Josh Hater opens the season on the injured list I think you're right

I don't want to say that but I just I was literally I don't want to speak it into existence but I think the body's doing it more than whatever I was typing that for myself as you said it by the way because I'm with you on that maybe maybe it'll be fine I don't know I think when Buster only puts that little nugget out there that's a that's a precursor for what's about to happen we got to ask Jonathan what he has all right Jonathan what you got I'm trying to get another dub next week so we're going to go Cougars men's basketball goes seven oh coming to the next week.

So then win these next three games before we come back to the next Tuesday. Oh, by the way, how are my Cougars going to do against Arizona, Iowa State, and Kansas? You getting any of thoughts on that? Two and one. I don't know Arizona. Arizona lost their first game of the season last into Kansas. Cougars go on a seven-game winning streak. Is that what am I writing out for you, Jonathan?

Yeah, seven game because they're on four right now. Yeah. So we've got wins in the next three? Yep. Yeah. Okay. I respect that. I respect.

12's tough. I love when he represents our Cougars. Mm-hmm. It's basically anybody that goes to SFA eventually wants to end up at the Harvard of Southeast Texas. Houston up to five in the Ken Palm. Iowa State, six, Arizona, two. You said Kansas, 11th, up to 11th. Let me tell you that Big 12.

Woo. Tough. By the way, is you seen Nebraska a few years ago was trying to get back in the Big 12? I didn't see that. That's funny. Why? By the way. Oh, I was going to throw you this.

I want to give you, I have not told you this. Brett, Your Mark is the commissioner of the Big 12. Yes. He's supposed to announce something today. And I don't know if he's done it yet, so I'm listening, you and I don't check. He was going to announce something today that was going to revolutionize the Big 12 men's basketball tournament. What do you think it would be?

I can only think of one thing. Nothing comes to mind for me. Revolutionize the tournament? Revolutionize the tournament. Money incentives for winners? Money incentives for winners. If you advance to the semifinals, you get a certain amount. Finals, again, I'm...

Didn't they have some guys like not playing the final last year or in the last couple years or like, they weren't resting guys, but they weren't pushing guys or something like that. Yeah. And I think the Cougars are in the past because, again, if you don't win, it doesn't... If you're already in. It doesn't give you any bonus to win the conference. Yeah, so they're going to do money prizes. NIL money prizes.

I need to go check there because everybody in their mother on the big 12, you know, chat rooms and stuff, we're going, oh my God, what is he doing? You're in the Big 12 chat room? No, but somebody was just sending me something. Like, who do you think it is? And I'm like, it's got to be, when something is electrifying for the student athlete, it usually means money. Yeah.

All right. Anything else from you, Jonathan? No, that's my one and done. One and done. He's going with strength in small numbers. Okay. All right, 1146, Daryl and James will get to you coming back in a break. 713, 212, 5, 790.

719. 7.13, 2, 1, 5, 790. More gut feelings. next here on 790. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790 at Thomas Show. That's all right. It's Manon Ross with you here at 1153.

Let's get to some gut feelings at 713-212-5-790. Simple opportunity for you to come in, make some predictions, and if you hit brag on them down the road. Look, this show doesn't brag about very much, so if you get something right, you should brag about it. Let's talk to Daryl on 790. Darrell, good morning to you. Hello, Darrell.

I think we might be having phone issues. It's that time of day. Or maybe not. I don't know. Yeah, not great. That's fine. All right. Okay.

It's funny James ever has phone issues. Yeah, well, let's see. Let's find out. James, what's in your gut? Yeah, first of all, I got the Indiana Hoosiers winning the National Championship, right? and I got the Seattle Seahawks winning the NFL Super Bowl, right? I know that wasn't a stretch. I'm sure you're all going to say that, but I still got them right.

Yeah, they were favored. Good job. Yeah, they were a favorite. Okay, my gut feeling is that you're going to have this All-Star weekend where you're not going to be doing anything, but you're not going to go to that roller decks and see if you can get Kevin Semmelin on the air. You're just not going to do anything about it. No. That's my gut feeling.

You don't want to do it, so it's not going to happen. That's correct, because I know that no one cares. Well, there are people who actually care. This could be game changing for you. You could be the first guy that says, hey, I support this team and we're going to have a coach on. Okay. You know what? You know what I'll do?

I'll ask the people of Houston, Texas. Yeah, I ask them, if they want to hear anything about the – You have Gambler Game Day. Oh, you're going to do it. It's Gambler Gay Day. Game Day. Game Day. Game Day.

Yeah. I mean, it could be a gay day if you wanted to. I'm not going to judge. No, it's Game Day. Okay. Not game. Okay. All right. You know what? I'm going to ask. Let's turn it. Okay. You know what?

What? Let's do an instipole on this then. Right now? Right this second. Get the instapole music. Get the instapal music. Would you like gambler game day coverage on the Matt Thomas show Ross? We can't do it. We can't do an insipole without the ensemble music. The Houston gamblers are back? Yeah. The roughnecks went away. And now they're the rebranded as the gamblers. Okay. It's time.

for an insta poll. Would you like intense gambler coverage on the Matt Thomas show Ross? 713-212-5-7-99. Either yes or no. Yes, I want more coverage. No, I want no coverage.

7-13. Remember, now if we do gambler coverage, we do take away Texans off-season news. Yes. We do take away Astro stuff. We do take away rocket stuff. We take away Cougar stuff.

We take away big picture stuff. because we're giving you gambler game day coverage. Do you want gambler game day coverage? We don't screen these calls. No. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Either yes or no, do you want gambler game-day coverage.

Let's talk to line number two. Line two on the Instapole. Do you want gambler game-day coverage? Yes or no? I'm a smoker. I'm a cooker. I'm a good-er. I'm midnight stroker.

Yeah, we want to gamble it, baby. All right, this one gambler vote for yes. We might be getting trolled on these. Yes. You're supposed to sing the gambler song. You got to know when to hold him. Yeah, did he do the wrong song? Yeah, he did the wrong song.

You got a no way to fold. A matter of fact, you better have that song. We're going to go, Jonathan. If they win, we're playing the game. It's called Kenny Rogers. It's called Kenny Rogers. It's got like a five-minute ramp up, though. You've got to find the chorus.

John, do you want Gives? Gambler Game Day coverage, yes or no? Hell no, man. That league is a snooze fest. Give me NFL in college all day. That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, John, for that. Let's go to line number two.

Line two, do you want gambler game day coverage? Hey, man. Hey, so I might be a little high right now, but I think games is really funny. But no. No. All right, thank you very much. That's two nose. And he gets like a point in a half because he's high.

Let's go to line 6. Line 6, do you want Gambler Game Day coverage? Believe it. Oh, 2-2! You better get that song. That's funny. You better get that song already. Line 1, do you want gambler game day coverage?

Yes or no? Hello, line 1. Yes. You do, okay? It's three yeses. We get one more way. We're going to give you gambler game day coverage here. Let's go to line 3.

Line 3, do you want gambler game day coverage? Yes or no? give me two deep coverage on every position as well as the NHL leave you get oh I don't think we understand what he's saying oh our phone oh it's a hell no okay he's kidding all right so it's 3 3 the next oh now you can hear him matt the next the next person okay here it is line two this is it line two you are the seventh in deciding vote do you want gambler game day

game day coverage I think you said not right Nah, there it is. There it is. Thank you very much. Goodness gracious. You know what we're going to do instead? Our phones are doing great. Our phones suck. We have had crappy phones since the day we walked in here. And how many times are we asked for them to get fixed? They're not going to get...

Once a week. It's because there's outages on the internet. It's not... Do other radio stations have this issue? Probably. Really? We're alive and local, Maddie. We're not the only city. I just want to let you know that. All right. Can you give me some Kenny...

Give me some Kenny Rogers. right now. Of course. This is your gamblers' coverage right here. On the warm summers eve. I'm a train bound for nowhere. This is so bad. Turn us up.

If Kenny Rogers was alive, I'd want him singing at 2.0 6th. No, he's dead. He's dead? He's been dead for five years. May he rest. That guy got incredible, you know what, over his life. Well, no what? Ladies.

What does that have to do with anything? That voice? singer, I imagine he's doing okay. Yeah, but he's a, why does that come up right now? Because I give him credit. What? I don't have this voice. I didn't get it like you got it. All right, turn it up, here we go.

So weird. No, this is a great song. Fine. This is for Kevin Sommel's buddies. Told you, it's a big ramp up. How much longer we got to go here? I don't know. Can we get to the news at noon? No.

This is the Matt Thomas show. with Ross. On Sports Talk 790. We are halfway done on this program. We call the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We have got a pair of tickets for the Rockets game against the Clippers tonight. If you want to win them, well, two things. It's tonight's game, not tomorrow's.

Tonight's game, Rockets v. Clippers. You want to go. Sometime between now and 2 o'clock, I'll be announcing a trivia question. You're like, well, where can I find the information on this? I did listen to the 10 o'clock hour of the Matt Thomas show. We got to take care of our 10 o'clockers, Rossi. Of course we do. We're going to do that.

We appreciate them. So without any further ado, let's get to the news and new. And with that, we go to the, who would be the anchor right now? Who's doing the Scott Hanson of Houston News Sports headlines? It's Rossville. Well, there's not a whole lot of huge news happenings right. right now in the world of sports, but there are a couple of things still trickling out after the Super Bowl. New England Patriots quarterback Drake May said he took a pain-killing injection for his

right throwing shoulder before Super Bowl 60, but he will not require off-season surgery. He said Tuesday after the team's final meeting at Gillette Stadium, time is the best healer. I definitely just need time off, nothing that needs anything to be done. arm was feeling great all year. I don't think throwing was the issue. It's a case of having one hit in the AFC championship game that was unfortunate timing. Also said he couldn't blame things on injuries, but Drake May was not 100% for the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks. But Melissa Stark just talked to him before kickoffs.

Said he was feeling good, right? Yeah. Yeah, well, he's ruling out surgery, so he's going to be fine. What do you think Boston Radio handled yesterday? How was that for them? Boston Radio? I don't know. They're probably losing their mind.

And then they started talking about the Bruins. The Celtics. Of course. When Jason Tatum, you back in play? Peyton Pritchett. Bayla Shiaman. Was there ever... Bayla Shiaman.

Was there ever a name that fits better for Boston Celtics than Bayla Shiaman? But is he a basketball player? I think it's a great basketball player in the 1950s. You know another same name Baylor? Yeah, Elgin. No, first name of Baylor.

Oh, yeah, Bear. Move on. I got you on that one. You did. All right, moving along. There could be, potentially, Matthew, you've been talking about this a lot. Expansion in the NBA.

The NBA Board of Governors expected to vote on a two-team expansion this summer. Silver in December, pointing to both Seattle and Las Vegas as possible landing spots for NBA expansion. You know what? Maybe we should gut feeling this, Matt. Seattle, Las Vegas, seem like the chalk picks.

Dund deal, you think? I think it's a done deal. The only other team that city that could maybe get in the way would maybe be Kansas City, but I think it's going to be those two. Should we be scared off, though, by the flailing economy in Las Vegas? everything's getting worse there.

Gen Z doesn't care about going Vegas like previous generations did. That's true. No, because Vegas has seen about a 12% dip. It feels like in the last couple of years, and I'm sure you can get some other metrics. How are they going to bounce back, though?

If nobody wants to go there, and you can gamble all over the country now. You're going to bounce back because the greedy casino operators are going to have to amend how they do their business. And they're doing it worse and worth. They're squeezing. everyone more and more and more. It's like $25 for a cocktail. It's down 12%. It's not down 20.

That's significant, though. If it keeps getting worse. I think, I think, well, I mean, the A's are going to be there. You have the Raiders. They'll do very well. And now you get a basketball team. Vegas nights do very well. I'm not feeling good by a long term, you know what, I'm a sell. I'm a long term seller on Vegas economy. So you're telling me, you're going to go in front, if you're an owner of an NBA's team and you're going to talk about expansion, you're going to say go to Kansas city over Vegas. I don't know

when you go to over Vegas. Vegas sounds sexier than it is. I think if you look at the economics of it and the fact that people are going there less and less and less and you have a generation of people that we're talking about long term, right? You want the team to be there for decades. But you're looking to fill up 17,000

20 years? Yeah. I don't think I'm going to be able to do that. I don't know. No, I have a feeling that it's going to be Vegas and I believe that LeBron James will have some form of a responsibility of ownership. Okay. I think the Raiders haven't been as successful as people might have thought. We'll see with the A's.

Maybe if it's a few bills, they will come situation. But I would be wary if I were an NFL owner, I mean, not NBA owner, about expanding to Las Vegas. All right. Elsewhere in the sports news world, Matthew. The Winter Olympics continue. The men, I'm sorry, mixed doubles curling, Sweden versus the United States right now.

They are locked up three apiece in the gold medal match. But of course we're rooting for the good old US of A. Your medal count brought to you by absolutely no one. Has Norway leading the way with 11 total medals tied with Italy

but Italy has seven bronzes. So in terms of gold, Norway with six gold medals. Switzerland next with three. Austria, Italy, Japan, Germany, Sweden, United States. all tied with two gold medals.

All right, I'm going to ask a question. This is for grown-ass men on the show listening. Ladies, we normally invite you into this segment, but this would be just for the men only. Okay. I would like for someone, now last night, there was a huge college basketball game

between Arizona and Kansas, but college basketball does just not resonate here in Houston. It just doesn't. And most places, it doesn't resonate unless it's involving the team that you care about. How many of you bros sat down last night and watched at least 30 minutes, of Winter and Olympic coverage. If you did,

call me and tell me that you did, and would you watch? I was in the 15-minute category, and I watched speed skating, and I kind of thought it was cool. I didn't watch either. Would you watch anything? Waiting for Guffman.

Good? Yeah. It's a Christopher guest film, mockumentary, in the style of Spinal Tap, best in show. It wasn't as good as best in show, but I thought it was funny.

So you just said, I'm taking a sports night off. I didn't even know that bad, basketball game was on. Yeah, so I'm saying. It's out of, college just... I try to watch films, Matt. I'm more of a film guy rather than a TV show guy.

Hmm. Okay. I got home, turned it on, because the wife wanted to watch figure skating, speed skating was on. Yeah. And that intrigued me. I like the Olympics. Yeah, I'll flip it on every now and then.

I keep forgetting because if you were a bro last night, a man's man, a beat your chest. Why do you have to ask the bros? What about the hose? Because the hose always watched the winter Olympics. And you set me up for that. Wow. I don't call you women hoes.

That's a clip. That's you. You just said it. You just said what about the hose? You just said the hose always watch Winter Olympics. The beautiful women that listen to our show. You know what I'm going to tweet this. No.

No, you're not. No, you're not. We're taking a break. Okay. Shows. You have, you have massively underperformed today. I've done nothing. What?

Yes. You brought up that 10 o'clock segment with a bunch of other. Podge, crap. No, you see only one pair of footsteps. That's because

I'm carrying you. You get down a T-shirt, too. 1215 in the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. This is Sports Talk, Civodetti. Joan has my back.

She told me about Kenny Rogers back in the 80s. She said, early 80s at Houston livestock shown rodeo. Let's say

garments were flying around by the dome as he was driven around the stadium. Good for him. You need to marry one of the he-ha-haw honeies, too,

for a while too. That will conclude our Kenny Rogers conversation for the day. Are you sure? You can never be sure on this program. That's true. We can do it, believe it or not, Kenny Rogers. Oh, I'm good.

He's dead, believe it. Yeah. Well, what is the topic? What is... Anything winning Olympics related? Yeah, all things Norway? Norway makes a lot of sense. Or Italy, that's where it is.

Hmm. Okay. So we got that to work on. I think Sweden has taken the lead in the gold medal match of mixed doubles curling. We're getting screwed and then probably the fishing has been terrible. Okay. Are there a lot of officiating errors to be made in curling?

Seems pretty straightforward. That's the hardest thing about me and the Olympics. I'm just not familiar with anything you do. You're sweeping too hard? It's like shovel bore right on ice. Yeah. Give or take? Pretty much.

And you can control it much more. Come on. USA's got to come back here, folks. Got to get their head out of their ass in Milan. How about all things about Milan? Sure, why not? All right. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-19. There is a gold zone.

That's interesting how they have. Like you put up multiple things at once. Yeah, it's like the red zone, but for Winter Olympics. It's pretty sweet. It kind of makes sense. Is it not high-flying action? You got ski jumping mixed team. They're going for the gold right now, too.

Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. All right. Let's see. We mentioned the Hennu's headlines. You mentioned Drake May not having his surgery. Yes. Is he still being called the schedule? Was that just a one-off? That's a pretty good nickname.

It's very rude. But he'll be okay. Well, you know, now all of the haters of the Patriots are like, do you see who they're playing next year? They're playing at first place schedules compared to playing the fourth place. Yes, they are. So we'll see. Have we looked at the Texan schedule yet? But they don't have to play a first place now.

Texans are playing a second play schedule. But it still gets you the bills. They've been playing the bills every year. Is it in Houston or in Buffalo this time? Houston Texan, let me look at the opponents here for Houston Texans' 2026 schedule. Hold on. Second place schedule is the worst this time. Why do you say that?

You get the bills and the Ravens still. That's like playing a first place schedule. You still get Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and a second play schedule? That ain't right, man. Okay, here are the home games. Well, I have the road games showing up. Why is the home games not showing up? I don't know.

Oh, here it is. No, those are the road games. Let me find you a better one. This FBS schedule sucks. Okay. Let me delay this here, except cookies. Don't hurt yourself. I'm sick of tired of cookies holding on to here.

Cookies are everywhere. Yeah. All right, here we go. The home games. Colts, Jaguars, Titans, duh, do, do. Ravens at home. Okay. Bingles at home.

Okay. Bills at home. Okay. Cowboys at home. Uh-oh. The Giants at home. Bring your brass knuckles. Yeah.

If you're going to the Cowboys game, you'll be required to throw hands. Yeah. To enter the stadium, you must throw a punch at someone. That's good. All right. Road games called Jaguars Titans. Browns. That could be in cold weather.

You never know. Dub. Lake Erie. at the Steelers When At the Chargers again Win at the Eagles At the commanders

And at the Packers They're playing nine road games next year Texans and Lambo That'd be good for the traveling people That what they call themselves The traveling people I think they call them something else Traveling Texans

I think they go to a local Kmart And put the Texans logo all over the Kmart Where would you go in Green Bay Just to Lambeau I guess There's nothing else there. You've not been. It is, it is, I've been twice. It's definitely worth the trip.

Okay. I don't know. Do football teams carry the same cachet as baseball? It feels like they don't. No, they're not, they're not the same. Like basketball arenas, eh, truth is,

unless it's MSG. Toyota Center looks about the same as about 80% of arenas. What's the second most famous? The crypto? Second most famous would be, oh, man. Nostologic would be, there's really not,

everything's new and bright. Yeah. I'm going to stick with that. I'm going to go to crypto. Well, I mean, you could go United Center. I mean, it's got 30 years there. The second, you know the second oldest arena. Second oldest arena. I wouldn't guess this. Hold's staying with me on the second oldest arena. There's no way. Well, you could maybe guess. Let's just say it's not Heritage NBA franchise.

Second oldest. MSG opened in 68. This opened in 1990. 19 oh no Miami no target center oh yeah that's not nostalgic at all delta center next yeah mortgage matchup center that's what they're calling Phoenix now that arena has five different names that arena has been 10 different names in the last five years I think they change it like every month yeah I think it looks like it's more of a stain on your franchise to have an old arena in the NBA it's funny the biggest dump I think is Miami's arena and you would think everything in Miami is beautiful Yes. Do you know what's called? KCA Center? Yes. 1999, that was built.

Yeah, not great. Beautiful part of town. First of all, Miami is just, oh, God, we're staying on South Beach this year or two. Yeah. Sounds good. You could do a show remote. Okay.

From the, from the Co-up of Cabana. I like that. I like Miami. Miami was fun. Miami is a great. people watching town. We were in a good part of town in Miami. I missed that.

Was I on the Rockins or something? You were there for one day, I thought. Uh-uh. You didn't come by at all? No. Okay. I heard you guys had a good time. Oh, we had a great time.

Do you think illegal? No. Salacious? No. Well, how could have a kind of time could you have had? I just had a great time, Matt. Huh. Gosh.

Now we've got to think about it. You don't have to think about it. Why can't I say I had a great time in Miami? Why is there something to be about it? What was so great about it? Cubano sandwiches? So you had a great. time just based on the food you eat.

I feel like you're not telling the whole story. Why are you talking about? Because you're smirking. I'm not smirking. You're starting to sweat a little bit. I'm not, I'm sweating because of the wings. Thanks, Big City wings for dropping off lunch. Yes.

The worst thing that we could possibly eat on air. It's fine. Okay. I got sauce all over my hands. Okay, so how do you feel about the nine road games? Sounds great. I'm ready. I ain't scared.

Hit the over on the total. But they are playing a second. Now they played a first play schedule the previous year. Yeah, it's a thing in theory. It would be a little bit easier, would you know? You would. But you get the Bill's Ravens and the Chargers. That's not an easy second place schedule.

So you still get Josh Allen Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert. But what are the Chargers anymore to us? They got Mike McDaniel and probably going to improve their offensive line. Uh-oh, somebody parked up. He's too busy. He said the Chargers are light work. The Chargers are like the. SFA of college

Oh, hold on now. I think there's more of a compliment to SFA in anything. That may be fair. They were 11 and 6 this year and you got to go on the road. Now, nobody cares about the charges in LA. You won there last year. Yeah. You can do it again.

But I'm just saying, if you're saying of the play schedules, I'll ask you this. Would you rather have first or second place? First play schedule would be Patriots, Steelers, Broncos. Or would you have Ravens, Bill's, chargers. I'd rather be first place schedule. Taxes got screwed. Yeah. Hannah's already petitioning for a league

schedule adjustment. No, she's not. You don't know that? Yes, she's getting her nails done. She's fine. You have presumed that she's getting her nails done. You could have presumed that she's doing charitable work. Well, ahead of the charitable work. Aherty of the charity ball. That's what I meant. Oh, is that what is? Okay, I got you.

She didn't let me finish. It's right. Getting her nails done. What if she's volunteering? wearing out her children's school. She could be doing that. As long as the TV cameras are there. You better get on her good side. I know.

I'm going to get crushed. She's going to find you. I'm just joking. We have fun on this show. We joke. We're never going to get him on the show. Yeah, exactly. I'm not worried about it.

Let me taste it. Oh, no. This little dude just fell down on figure skating. If they were smart, they would come out on the show, especially around stadium time. Because they're going to be asking for some public support. Do you ever feel worse for anybody in sports

than the guy who falls down figure skating or the girl. You've been preparing your whole life for this and you're just, you got ice in your forehead. That's tough. So if you, you, again, I don't know the rules about this,

but figure skating, if you have one bet, you can't rebound after a bad performance. Yeah, that's it. I didn't know that. And that holds the whole run anyways. Hmm. Um, well, I mean, you could say that about kickers.

You can say that about a lot of different positions. Yeah, but kickers miss kicks all the time. you've been waiting four years you've been waiting four years you've practiced his routine five million times and you get one shot it's tough i'm wishing uh that young man the best yeah he he looks like he's rebounded okay maybe he's gonna maybe he's in a pairs event or something i think this curling match is heating up i think u.s is still losing though all right we're gonna start calling to show the grinding halt no should i call into the the olympi that guy who called then he wanted more Olympics coverage.

Well, we're giving it to him. Yeah, we're taking care of one person's needs. The rest of people are bored to death. We didn't instapole it. No. No, we're not doing it. We've already, we almost lost the game. We almost had to do Gamblers' Game Day.

That was pretty funny. Yeah, the Gambers have not reached out. Hey, why don't you put Kevin? I guess, you know what, I'll do this to James and Klein is listening. If the gamblers reach out directly and say, hey, do you want to give Kevin Simon on the show? I would have him on, right? That's happened before, and we've told her to turn them down.

See? You know, don't be careful. Well, you know what? James isn't going to know. We'll just delete the email and I don't tell them. How about this? I must say, hey, why? You know what I would say?

Why did you quit on our team? What do you mean? He was sitting there talking to Bucky Richardson to taking the A&M job the night before the Cougars were playing Southern in the championship game. We could have gone to the Peach Bowl that year. He was game planning. No, he was not.

It was part of him. It's not like he didn't have any plays ready for the game. He looked like the entire team looked like they were out of sorts because their head coach wasn't there. They're out of sorts because they got their ass kicked. They weren't good enough. No, they're out of their shorts because they kept hearing about their coach wanting to leave.

Party with Bucky. Get used to it. Your stepping stone school. We were there. Kevin should have been working with our guys instead of it was the Dixie Chicken. Is that why what's his name lost to Yukon? Tom Herman? Tom Herman? I'm sure

he was involved with him. I was going to say Mike Herman, but I knew I was wrong. No, Thomas, what his name was. My brain's in a fog. He eventually went to your school. Yeah. Where he flamed out. Or he burnt hot dogs.

And then he flamed out at Florida, wherever it was. Well, he left the legacy of the hydration chart, which is in an all-timer. Yeah. Make sure I always want to check your pee. 7-13-212-790. 7-1-3-2-1-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas show at Ross. And I don't want today's show.

It's just the Ross show. I don't think I want my name to attach any part of this program. I'm okay with that. All right. Yeah, just call it the Ross Show. Let's go. Let's go rebrand. 7.13, when it's good, we'll be...

You know, that's not right. We try to give you great shows every day. Numbers have been good. Numbers have been good. Thank you for everybody for listening. But we need to get down to Florida quick. And we need Gordy to get me with us tomorrow. He'll tell us exactly what's going on down there.

All right now, I want to tell you about a quick timeout. We come back and take some more of your phone calls. If you would like to call and join in, 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. We got some breaking news on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. I think it's worth a second one. Justin James Verlander. One year contract with New York Mets.

Detroit Tigers. Detroit Tigers, that's what I meant. That makes perfect sense. Let me read you what Jeff Passon said. Okay. And I've agreed with him, which makes me feel like a scurly D. when I agree with a scurly B. Berlander 43 next week

returns the team with which he spent his first 13th seasons and here's the kicker and whose hat he'll wear in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. There have been a lot of Astro fans that would have liked to have seen him wear Astro's gear. Okay. I mean, I love what Justin Verlander has done.

He's one of the greatest pitchers in Astro's history. He's a tiger. But he's a tiger. Especially now, I think they could have gotten the second championship with him. There'd be more cause to talk about it. What was it? Seven years as an Astro, something like that? He's, yeah, this makes a lot of sense.

13 as a tiger, seven as an Astro. I think Verlander always liked playing for A.J. Hinch. He won't be wearing a Mets cap. No, or Giants for that matter. The Tigers like that. to do kind of things on the cheap. Yeah? They don't spend big money on big money contracts.

I mean, Alex Brevin would have gone and played for the Tigers if they'd have had more money for him. So it's not a huge surprise that Justin goes back. And kind of, it's an apropos finish. Yeah. He's coming home. Tell the world he's coming home. Well, you know, it's funny because we've seen that in the NBA.

I still think LeBron James will end his career as a Cleveland Cavalier. Just my gut on that one. I don't know. Let me ask you this to kind of segue into Houston. Is there somebody out there that's not wearing rocket gear or Texans gear or Astros gear that you'd like to ultimately see come back and finish his career in Houston? Anything come to mind right away? I'll give you a few.

Okay. I wouldn't mind seeing George Springer and his career is an astro. I'm just throwing it out there. Carlos Correa came back. Carlos Correa came back. Jose L.T.O.A. is not going anywhere. No. Anybody else on the

Texan side? No, there's somebody that you're like It was such a Keystone Can't miss Known for his best days as a Texan. I mean, there have been guys that have left. Blake Cashman,

you know, like Jonathan Grenard. I want Jonathan Grenard back. Larry Me Tunsell? No, you can have him. He's one of the best tackles in football last year. He was me before I or before team every single time. That's what the Texans inside or told you years ago and I was right about that.

Well, and the offensive line was one of the worst in football. Yeah. And yet, Casario's like, I still don't want the cancer around me. He got them out of there. That's how bad things were. The Texans offensive line sucked and they got rid of the best of the suck. They just did. You're such a wordsmith, Matt.

You're welcome. Am I right? Yeah, we understand. it was a bad situation and they wanted so those, but I said the same, I said it last year, I was like, okay, all that swarm culture and all that stuff, it doesn't matter when you got Miles Garrett

breathing down C.J. Stroud's neck. You can talk about culture all you want, but that doesn't matter when the ball is snapped and you need somebody protecting your quarterback. How was, have you, have you looked at all? I don't know if you have. Did you ever see how he graded it out? Tonsel, he's one of the best, yeah, he's one of the best tackles in football. Yeah.

I can go look it up. I want to say he was a, at the very least, was he pro-bowl? How many offensive false starts that he had over the course of the year? I don't know. I can go look at that. No, he was just, I think he was,

I mean, I do believe that missing the OTAs and the mini-camps and taking time off does not necessarily groomed to be a leader. All right, one data point. Pro football focus is just one data point. I respect them. You don't think I do, but they're Poonhounds. They do. They do. Okay. Go ahead.

Second best pass blocker in all of football. Overall, the seventh best tackle in football. So the question would be is you give up all that salary because you didn't think he was necessarily worth it. Did that haunt? Would the Texans, I guess the question, would the Texans offensive line been significantly better if he's there? Well, you wouldn't have had the shuffling.

That's for sure, right? 65th best tackle in football, Arionte Ursari. Out of 84. Rookie. Small sample size. Okay. I'm just above one for one of what you got last year.

It was number 7 and number 65. That's what happened at left tackle. I mean, that's just the way it went. I'll go look up the penalties. I'll ask you, any regrets? I'm sure there's some regrets, but if they had Lerman Tunsel, would have they won the championship?

I don't think so. But they had a better shot. Well, put it this way. You saved a lot of money by sending him there. What money did that... Where did that money go? Was it worrying about getting guys extended and getting new contracts for some of the guys? Yeah, they were up against a cap.

Let's see. Oh, I don't have... I don't have his 25 penalties for some reason. He didn't community. He was perfect. But he didn't all of a sudden make Daniel's life any easier in Washington. I mean, he was nowhere near close to a playoffs. They were down and out fairly quickly.

Only three false starts. One holding, one illegal use of hands. So basically, if you're Washington, you didn't regret grabbing him. Now, if he started asking for big time money down the stretch, I think they did pay him, didn't they? I don't know if they did send or not. All right, so there you have it. Just one point, but pro football focus to their credit, if they had him the seventh best tackle, he probably wasn't completely inept. No, no, no, no, no.

Well, the Texans, would you have liked to have the seventh best tackle? Oh, man. Come on, man. Sweden won the curling championships over the USA. This is terrible. The girl that won's wearing bifocals looks like, too. Yeah. It looks like a librarian.

Sweden loves their curling. You know, when I go to Canada for Rockets games, they have curling on TV all the time up there. Really? Yeah. It's like their national sport? I don't know. I wouldn't know, National Sports hockey. So Sweden beat United States 6'5 in the mixed doubles.

Damn it. Was it a barn burner? Oh, you know what we're going to do? No. We're going to talk some rockets in next second. Okay, good. But I'm going to give away some rocket tickets right now. Oh, that's right.

So you're saying, well, how can I win these tickets? You 10 o'clockers, Ross today in the 10 o'clock hour, it was probably one of our worst hours ever. Disagree. Okay, it was one of our best. I'll let you folks decide. Ross was broken up over a celebrity couple breaking up. Name one of the members of that celebrity couple that broke up. If you can do that, first person to call Jonathan at 713212-579.

You'll be sitting in my seats tonight for the Rockets Against the Clippers. Do you know what celebrity couple broke up and why Ross, not why, but who was the group that the couple that Ross is upset about they broke up? If you know the answer, you 10 o'clockers do. 713212-5-790. Congratulations to Scott, our listener, 10 o'clocker, listened and understood that the angst and sadness that Ross had when Ward came out that Cardi B and Stefan Dick broke up. It's heartbreaking stuff.

I'm still not recovered. All right, so next time we do something prize-related, we're going to take care of the 11 o'clockers. We took care of the 10 o'clockers today. 11 o'clockers next time we do this. Lovely. Oh, fun fact, by the winner, he told me it was him and his girlfriend's anniversary, too. So he got like this.

What? All right, Scott. I'll be looking to meet you guys. See how things are going. Name your first child, Matt. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

By the way, I wonder if when Justin's brother, Ben gets in the baseball Hall of Fame, he's going to wear a Detroit Tiger's cap, too. Probably, probably. He probably is. Ben Verlander's not making the Hall of. As a contributor? Yes. With the flipping bats podcast? It's going to be, it's going to be,

it's going to be having a Detroit, uh, uh, Tiger's cap in one hand. Go ahead. And a gravy boat in the other. I knew you were going to say. I knew that was exactly what you were going to say.

I'm sorry. I couldn't, I couldn't keep it a straight face. Let Ben Verlander live his life. I have. He's doing way. No, no, you haven't. He's making more money than I am.

You're slandering him? Probably not. Probably making 40 Gs doing that. And then your brother's cutting him a check to help out? Think so? No. I don't know. I'm sure the flipping bats pod is doing great. I'm sure it's doing really, really well.

It's good at the John Wall podcast? He's good as dudes on dudes. Oh, look, he's happy. He says my favorite team added my favorite player. Gravy. Why can't even support his brother? He should support his brother. But he's always... He created his own...

His own... Place on Earth. Yeah, he's got his own podcast. His last name was Johnson. He would have nothing. He'd be working at a waffle house. You don't know that. I know. Maybe the podcast is extremely entertaining.

Oh, is that right? Okay. I mean, I haven't catching. I don't listen to baseball podcasts. I listen when they used to go on the 18th. He was mid. It was fine. Justin Verlander to the Detroit Tigers.

My favorite team added my favorite player. I think it's sweet. My favorite players. Brothers got a hug. My favorite player is going to put $140,000 on my VINMO account. Thank you, bro. Love you. It's wrong with you.

Nothing. I would do the same thing. If I was rich, I had siblings I needed money, I'd take care of them too. I want to take care of my kids the best I can. Okay. Kind of a responsibility, isn't it? So Justin Verlander is back with the Tigers. It kind of feels right. Honestly, it does. They got Verlander and Frumber. And that schoolboy guy's kind of good. Well, he'll only be there for a short period of time.

He'd be there this year. Yeah, but I'm going to be happy. Remember how cranky? mean he won his arbitration but you had to 30 mili but you had to go to arbitration it was car scooby you write the blank check for him you say all right bra you have given us more relevance in the last two years than anybody has in the last 20 help us you know what what do you want we'll make it happen for you that's pretty crazy they tried to shortchange the literal back to back si young winner remember how pissed off Kyle Tucker was when he lost his

arbitration probably not going to keep him long term anyways yeah I mean it's got If you're the Tigers, you're not keeping Terrick Scoobel. He's going to the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Mets or somebody. So for those that don't know the arbitration case, when you do is if you have to go to arbitration, you have to point out your side and why you think you're worth a certain amount. Yeah. And then the baseball team basically goes in and tries to crush your argument. Yeah.

How do you ruin, how do you crush Tyrus Kruple's argument? Back-to-back Cy Young Award winner? I don't think it goes well for you. I mean, I would think obviously say it's over a value. You just said that, look, we love him, we want to pay him, and we're looking forward to offering him a deal beyond his wildest dreams, which that would have been lip service. But they probably said there's just a certain threshold. We can't pay somebody that's still not full free agency, the kind of crazy money you were looking for. And he got it.

And deserved it. Yes, he did. He blew away the pitcher arbitration market. Let me ask you this, and as he should have. We've talked about this a little bit with when we're talking about the Astros. When you are starting to use six-man rotations, which I think we're going to see more and more of in baseball, does that downplay the importance of paying your starting pitcher crazy money? I think so. It would only make sense for that to be the case.

I think you, yeah, because of the injuries as well, you'd be less likely to put guys on big deals like that, big long-term pitchers especially. Because when I was younger, you normally got. with healthy guys, 26 starts a year. Give or take, plus or mind. 30'd be nice. 30 would be nice, but that's even 1970s stuff. I'm talking about... Nah, you'd get like 40 back in the 70s.

Well, I've been thinking about it. There's 162 games. You pitch every fifth day. You can theory pitch about 30 to 31. But if you got a skip a start here and there, 26 would be great. That used to be a really good number for starts. Now, if you're going in six-man rotation, and you're taking a little time off, maybe skipping a turn.

Are you lucky to get 22 maybe? No, I would say more than that. Who started, how many games at Hunter Brown start last year? He didn't miss any turn into the rotation, right? Not that I can think of, I don't think so. Hunter Brown, 31 starts. 30 the year before, 29 the year before. You're hoping for about 30, but that's when you're talking about full health.

So that's just about every five days. That's pretty awesome. And they're wanting to. to go full more six time, a six man this year. Yeah, and not everybody's doing it either. Maybe your schedule dictates. I think it's going to become the norm rather than the, it's going to become the rule rather than the exception. I just would say this is this kind of a long-term gut feeling that if we're going to see more six-mans, which I think we're going to, we're going to see the average start per player,

per start, probably go down a little bit. But wouldn't that be the counter? like, hey, if I'm paying you $35 million a year, you need to be out there. Well, you did that for the Astros and Josh Hader. You paid him $18 million a year to say, hey, if we need you for four outs, we'll do that. And that lasted a year to do that before he got hurt. I don't know if you can go to a team. But again, you're also protecting. You have this much money behind a player.

You need him to be there in April and you need him to be there in September. and the easiest way to do that is to not tax him May through August. That's how I would interpret it more. If I'm going to pay you all this money, I need you to be ready to go in September and not have a tired arm. Well, you need to get there first, though. Yeah, but I need you for the pennant chase. Well, you need to get there first.

And I mean, like, for example, the Astros are one game off. Hmm. I think it's an interesting dilemma that baseball has. You continue to pay the crazy money for starting pitching within realization that the days of 31, 32 starts are probably a thing of the past. And this also goes back to my belief that, I mean, a lot of Astros fans get mad.

The Jim Crean doesn't want to pay these big long-term deals, but it makes sense. There are more pathways to failure than success for these big long-term deals, especially when it comes to pitchers. Like, who has been, this is kind of a wide, encompassing comment.

How many ridiculous paid long-term guys have been worth it. Right now, is it Otani? Otani has been good. Bryce, I mean, the Phillies probably don't mind the Bryce Harper deal. Mike Trout's been hurt for his whole big deal. I would think there's regret there. Aaron Judge got paid big money and there's not regret at the moment. Correct. But you're going to owe him a bunch of money later.

Rendon killed the angels. Rendon was terrible. Poo holes killed it. Flaggero just got paid. won Soto just got paid but he was like it was also been on three different teams because everybody was passing the baton to not want to pay him yeah i'll say this and i and i'm not stumping for jim crane because i have to because i'm going to do it because i want to i kind of like this philosophy mookie bet's deal's probably been good for the dodgers but that's still got a long way left on that i'm just pulling up biggest contracts ever lindore deal's been good Corey Seaggart with the Rangers He was hurt last year

That's not been great The Yankees probably don't want to be paying Junk Carlos Stanton what they are right now Garrett Cole was a good deal And then he had Tommy John That's that's gonna hurt you a year and a half But man that was They got on his radar so fast

When they said hey the Yankees are calling And he was like I'll be there whatever it takes I forgot about the Juan Soto 15 years 765 million Wow That's not going to pay off at the end of the day No

Because he's a butcher in the outfield, right? Isn't he? A below average, yeah. Not a butcher. Too harsh? Oh, the DeGrom deal that the Rangers sign him to? That was a pretty big one. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, none of these deals are really, you know, they're on track as far as, you know, like I said, The only time I ever see Astro fans, we're going to get to a break here, the only time I ever see the Astro fans really lose their mind is when it's one of our guys. Like, I guarantee there will be 100 pound, Hunter Brown and Jeremy Payne a conversation all throughout this year.

And by the way, we're approaching spring training. We haven't heard one word about it. No. One of those guys are going to extend for a long term. I got feeling it was one would get paid. It looks like it doesn't mean none. 102. One-O-2. Final hour, Matt Thomas Show, Ross next year on 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So the Tigers are doing an Astros reunion, A.J. Hitch, Fraber Valdez, and if you just not heard within the last half hour, Justin Verlander signing a one-year contract to return to Detroit. And it's funny on the Thomas Family Group text. We don't talk about, you know, hey, who's watching the dogs, or what's going on for dinner tonight? We talk about baseball.

And the answer is, let's see here. Yeah. Verlander's a tiger again. that's for my wife. Cameron says definitely going in the Hall of Fame of the Tiger's hat. Kim says yes. I say yes as well.

It's not a... Look, Jessica Orlando is a first ballot hall of famer. He's going to recognize the Astros. It basically resurrected his career. Would you not say? Remember how Mid he was as a Tiger the last couple of years? He started off the season bad and then he was rounding in a form and then he was really good. He was amazing with the Astros.

But what a brilliant storyline he had. 2017, we had just gotten over the hurricane. It was the, they remember at that time, they still have the second round of wave, non-wavered trade claims you can make. It was literally minutes before the deadline, and Justin's like, okay, I'll come here.

He gets here in the middle of a double header between the Mets and the Astros. It was our chance to get back to playing baseball again, and he comes in, and I think the pitches the next day of the day after like that, whatever that was, and was magnificent. He wins a Cy Young here. another no hitter here.

And granted, he wasn't the friendliest chap in the world and never made an appearance on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Maybe the only Astro all during this entire run that never did. I interviewed him twice. Yeah, it wasn't because he liked you. It was kind of required at the Astros event. Oh, yeah. Players don't come on here because they like you.

They love me. So I interview him twice. It's nice. He was good. Why are you making eyes at me? Does he know your name? No. Did he say something?

Thanks, Ross. That's okay. Kevin Durant doesn't know your name. Oh, he does all right. Oh, there's no chance he was my name. By the way, did you see the video between Kevin Durant and Akeem-Ele-Sho? I started to watch it. I did not finish it.

I will. How many minutes were you into it? I like 10 minutes. Was this just two great sitting around? I had to go to the bathroom and I forgot to put it back on. I'm not asking about your love that's right. Yeah, they're sitting down talking ball. Start talking about Hakeem and Nigeria.

Was Akeem asking the questions? No, it was Kevin Durant was driving the interview. They start out with Hakeem's resume, you know, two-time champ, two-time finals MVP, two-time defense player of the year, all-time great, 26,000 points, 13,000 rebounds. What is it, 38, 30 blocks or whatever it is, all-time shot blocker. All-time shot block leader. Yeah. We're pretty lucky.

Yeah, and I think, I know every city wants to brag about their stars. Yes. but no one Ryan, akimelize you on Kevin Durant to a smaller extent Earl Campbell still a hallfamber, but just not

I don't think people in New Orleans are a bad choice. People in Seattle like, man, I wish Earl Campbell was a Seahawk. You know what I mean? We've had some incredible people run through this city. Yes. Just on a rocket side. Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard, say what you will. I mean, they're all basketball

Hall of Famers. still waiting for that legendary football. I mean, JJ and Audrey, obviously. Hey, come on. That's it. Kami Fairbair? Fairbren. He's up there.

By the way, did you see, we mentioned us on Twitter. Somebody wants DeAndre Hopkins to come back and finish his career. I can see that, I guess. But I'm good. And you got Collins. Ian Higgins and Noel. Christian Kirk's a free agent, right? Yep.

Do you go draft a receiver in the draft early on? You might. I would say if the right opportunity presents itself, I wouldn't take it off the board. If he's the number two, you're good. But maybe Noel's his special teams guy. Yeah, he can be or he can take over as your slot guy. Maybe.

You would hope so. It took a couple of you. Nico Collins, we're talking about second and third round picks. Nico Collins was a third round pick. He wasn't light in the world on fire his first season. Under the category of, of course you worry about everybody's injuries, because that's football, it's tough sport. how much more concerned

to you about the fact that Nico has had some bumps in along the way? I'm not super worried. Hamstring. I mean, he's a big, strong receiver. He's going to have the occasional hamstring injury. Yep. Did he have a concussion too this year?

I can't remember. To me, if you are worried, which I would say by the amount of little blips in the radar and the fact that you don't don't know where Tank Dell's coming back, because I think Tank was missed.

But I'm just not in that category of thinking he's ever going to come back to being anything close to what he was. I'm just not. And it hurts because he's a cougar, so I really want to root for him. He says he's going to be back. I know he says... It'll be huge. Yeah, well, he'll never be huge.

He's still going to be $5.9 and 160. I'm talking about the impact on the field, man. Yeah, concussion. That's right. Colin had a concussion at the end of the year, of course. Yep. I thought he missed a game in the middle of the season, too. Didn't he?

He was not held out in the last game, was he? Yeah, he was. He was. Okay. But that was... Did he play 16 games otherwise? No way, right? Let me look. Yeah, he played 15 games last year.

15, 12, 15, 10, 14. 15 games, too, the last three years? No, no, no, no. That's okay. But I do think that we are maybe... sleeping on the thought that Texans might want again go to the receiver route. I like Jaden Higgins. He started to get open more as the season went along.

I think he's going to be good. Hodgson is just a guy. Yeah. Dell, I wouldn't expect much anything the rest of the way. Yeah, it depends on what they see and what they think about all that stuff, as far as, especially when Tank Dell. I mean, we're not at his workouts. We're not seeing, you know, they do all that timing stuff and how fast people are moving.

But it's certainly funny that Texans are more apt to tell us about Tank Dell updates and they are about, um, you know who. Joe Mixing. Take Dale got shot too. He did. Why are so many athletes getting shot? I don't know. It's not good.

Oh, geez. Scared me again. Somebody else got shot yesterday. Yeah, it was a 49ers player. Yeah. Got shot at a party. He was in beefing with some rapper or something. It was a little something.

Oh, come on. Go ahead. James Hardin's buddy. A little baby? How's it? Little baby? I'm trying to think. It was somebody that we've talked about before.

Really? NFL player shot. This ought to take about one second to get this figured out. The internet's slow. Here we go. Yeah, a little baby. What? Reportly accused of getting into dispute with Niners player Keon White,

who was shot a short time later. Dang. I knew it was somebody I'd recognized. The incident occurred at Delilah's, a bar and nightclub on Mission Street in San Francisco. had a private party in the downstairs area of the facility. Little Baby and his entourage tried to enter White's private event. At that point, White and Little Baby got in an argument.

A witness told police that he went upstairs to get assistance from management in an effort to diffuse the situation. At that point, the witness heard two gunshots. When he returned to the downstairs event, White had been shot in the left leg. Police found a 9mm shell casting in a 45-counter shell casing near the scene of the shooting. Come on, man. What are you beefing with a little baby? Is he a pleasant person? I don't know.

Doesn't sound like it right now. James Hardin thinks he's pleasant. So Little Baby tried to get into an event and Mr. White said no, go away? I guess so. Maybe it was a cap on the number of appetizers and drinks that were willing to be served. You think so? By the way, how big is the Little Baby entourage? I would imagine it's massive.

What does he need it for? Protection, clearly. Keel and White. Apparently, it didn't work. Well, Kionne White's the one that got shot. I hope everyone's okay. Yeah. Too many, yeah.

A lot of gun, a lot of gun. Non-threatening injuries. Got shot in the foot or the ankle, it says? Huh. Sounds familiar. Doesn't say Joe Mixon was anywhere near here. Are you sure Joe Mixon wasn't there? I'm not totally sure.

Hopling in. That's terrible. He didn't call him for advice, no. 713, 212-5-7-d-d-d-d-d-dy. Hey, do you recommend anybody to use when your foot gets shot off? 713, 212, 790. All right, 80s.0 121. And if you've not heard, we've told you a couple times.

We are very happy to be going down to spring training next week. Ross and I will be there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. It's my all-star break, hanging out with Ross in one room for three days. You're welcome. People pay good money for that. They do? Yeah, okay. I said people would pay.

Oh, people would. I was just saying people are paying. That's different. That's after cuddling. All right. Okay, so does the Hater storyline all of a sudden become at the top of the list? At least while pitchers and catches are there?

Well, let's run through the list. Infield log jam. Alfield situation. Esoc Paratus trades. Josh Hater. Who's the back end of the rotation? Is there Salazar Road, the backup catcher?

this year. He's out of options. By the way, the Astros, and we'll go back to the second, just send out a congratulations, and we wish you the very best to Brendan Rogers who got himself a new deal today. Oh, wow. Well, if you play, like,

if you get won it back from the Astros, they give you their own little tweet. Mick, that's nice. I guess you don't want to burn any bridges, but thanks for everything, Brendan. Man, what an amazing Astros career. Thanks for everything. Could not hit a lick.

Why do they do that, by the, way. I don't get that. Brendan Rogers played 43 games for the Astros, 120 plate appearances. Thanks for everything, Brendan Rogers. Yep. How does that good enough? How is that good enough to pass the threshold of worthy of a tweet from the social media team? Are they bored?

They do have them probably, I don't know if they have quotas, but they probably have like impression repression retweet and like quote it's not it's not sponsored so I'm going to go with that like hey we got to get some likes anyways let's just go and slap this up here all right they have just I'm just curious

do you even know this do you know many followers of the asteros have I'm going to say two million not bad 1.9 million Rockets is more I think it's three or four three million for the rockets Texans are 110,000 no they're more than that

okay Uh, 1.9. So they're at, on the same level as the Astros. Really? But the rockets had the Turkey international persuasion they can go to. Yeah, and I'm from China back in the day. And I think they still have a big Asian following. Yep.

They're going to play preseason games in China next year. See? Yeah, you're going, right? No. Why not? I don't want to go. I think you should go. It's a once-in-lifetime trip.

I'm good. Go to China. I'm good. Passports in order? Yeah, passports clearly in order. I got a brand-new renewal for today. felonies expunge? Yeah, I got...

That's good. Attorney was on it, yeah. Okay, back to the storylines. Pitchers and catchers, it's Hainter 1. Is Saddles are really going to be the backup catcher? Infield's got to be, to me, the headline. I'm talking about just while pitching and tetrisers. But again, even though it says technically pitchers and catchers, they're going to be position players down there working too.

And then when the full squad is in play, it's crowded infield, outfield power, right? Right? On base, period. Forget about power, just getting on base. Who's going to be there? Yeah, who's, and can they perform? And who's the six member of that Astros rotation? Have we decided five of the six already? Pretty much. I think, well, I was reading our good friend Traynler Room Store, and he says four are locked in.

Because I was a little surprised to read, he doesn't think Arrogatti is locked in. But is he 100% healthy? Is he going to be ready to go? Right. Arrogatee's in a lock? So who are the four locks? It would be Brown, Javier, I'mai, and who was the fourth, I can't recall. It wasn't McCullors, wasn't? No.

Oh, Javier. I said Javier. Oh, did you? Okay. Here we go. Burroughs? Is it Burroughs? Yeah, that makes sense.

Your Brom is the starter. Yeah. He has success. I, Burroughs, Javier, Brown. In no particular order. And then the others named by Mr. Rome on the athletic. com. Spencer Araggetty, Lance McCullors Jr., Ryan Weiss,

Jason Alexander, Nate Pearson, Colton Gordon, A.J. Blue Ball. Entering camp with legitimate chance. So it feels like to me in that group that you just brought up, two make the rotation, one makes it as a long reliever, and the rest of that batch goes, opens up the year at Sugarland. Yeah, Jason Alexander have options? I think he does. Oh, I'm stupid. I go go to Jason Alexander.

I'm sure he's got plenty of options. His career's doing great, both theater and in television. I'll go look it up. All right. But that will matter. Yeah, he's got options. Does Jason Alexander? Well, Blue ball obviously would be further back down.

Yeah, but he pitched well in September. He did, but he's the prototypical spot starter until he absolutely goes up at the major league level and is pitching so well. They can't take him down. I like his, I like his makeup. Like just the, like his attitude. And I mean, it matters for sure to an extent, but also just go out on their amount and perform, or you're going to be okay.

But I just seem like just hearing him talk in the media and interviewing him like we have a couple times, I'm rooting for A.J. Blue Ball. He just seems like I have a good whole head on his shoulders. He's also got to have a good arm. Yeah, it's hard for us to root against guys that are eloquent and speak and answer our questions. I mean, we don't want to be best friends of them.

No. But we certainly have a vested interest in guys that we get to know. And we got to know Spencer Arrogatti a little bit. I love talking to Arrogatti. He was going to be in your fantasy football league for a while. But then I found out he knew ball. So we were like to keep him out here. We got to keep Matt Thomas in.

He threw two no-hitters against my high school team. Yeah. Who were he interviewing and we mentioned that? He's like, oh, I know what kind of high school you went to. It's fair. May Creek's not what it used to be. It's not the baseball powerhouse at once was. No.

We still need. Nor was Nimitz. But we do have a May Creek football player that was a commit to the University of Texas. So you're welcome on that, yeah. Don't ask me his name. I don't know it, but I don't remember either. But I think I texted you about it. You're like, yeah, you got a May Creek?

I said, of course we do. We're a football country. We don't win games, but we certainly produce players. Let's get a quick time out. We'll talk to KJ and Cyprus wants to talk about the rockets. I'm okay with that. Rockets and Clippers tonight. It is weird.

No James Hardin, now wearing Cleveland gear. No Evita Zubats, now wearing Peoples, Pacer's gear. Why, Leonard? Say what you're all about attendance because that is part of the grade, Rossi. 41 points Sunday against the wolves in a victory in Minnesota.

Back to back. Does he play both ends of the back to back? No. Does Tari-Eason figure out a way to play both ends of the back-to-back? I don't think. Is that just not going to happen all season? Good question. 128 on Sports Talk Seminary.

Ross, what do we enjoy for lunch today? We enjoyed Big City Wings. 133 on 790. It is Matt and Ross. We are with you till 2 o'clock today. Believe it or not, it's all things about Italy. And the home of the Winter Olympics. I'm not seeing anything about the ratings. You know, it's funny. Speaking of ratings, the numbers on the Super Bowl have been delayed. And it's because I think there's a new way of measuring, which is using some streaming, but there's also just a new way of measuring television sets, too. I don't know the exact reason on that. But I think everybody's trying to figure out how many people stuck around. to watch the whole thing.

How many people stuck around to watch Bad Bunny at halftime, yada, yada, yada. And so I'm not hurting anything. I still think at the end of the day every year it's going to grow because you have more streaming services. Next year,

the Super Bowl is going to be on ABC and ESPN and Hulu and Disney Plus. Oh, okay. And Disney Plus? Oh, they're not messing around. Yeah, that's going to be the number one. They're going to put it all over the place.

Yeah. So that's an easy draw on that. Rockets. Bad Bunny show. Bad Bunny halftime shows already got 50. 57 million views on YouTube. Well, I didn't view it on YouTube because I saw it once on television was fine.

All right. 713-212-5-790, 7-13. I mean, think about it. If you're a bad bunny guy, you can't get enough of that. That was bad bunny's most amazing moment. And if you're a bad bunny fan, you can't get enough for that. Huge bad bunny fan. So I'm telling you, Michael McDonald next year, rocking Super Bowl 61 in L.A.,

57 million views for that too. I can keep pushing that agenda. It's not going to happen. You're right. KJ. Cyprus on 790. KJ., good afternoon. What up, fellas?

Why don't we go out of the way of yacht rock and have Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross performing together at the Super Bowl, man? How about that one? Say that one more time? Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross. Then we're going to have Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross performing next year. Don't forget Toto. Don't forget Kenny Loggins.

Come on, nah. Let's get it all. Come on in. That's right. I have a petition. KJ, I got a petition started. Let's go. Hey, my name on the list.

Thank you. But real quick, as far as the Rockets, I'm not going to be labeled a point of our position. We all can agree that that's a position that needs to be addressed. I thought would have been addressed via trade, but obviously not. But that said, we have to acknowledge, in large part, that part of this team's identity defensively and intensity-wise

walked out of the building with Dylan Brooks and by extension with injury with Van Bleet and Stephen Adams. We still have Tarry Easton and obviously I meant Smith, but I mean Thompson, but a lot of our defensive and defensive and intensity identity is no longer with the team. I was wondering, I mentioned on a podcast a few days ago,

this I wanted to get you guys a stake on it. Someone that I think of, a little bit of both. At this point in his career, if you're expecting 10 minutes, over 10 minutes for a game from him, that's pushing it. But I think he can have an influence on our young guards from a perspective standpoint, and he's always been identified with tough, gritty,

and a legitimate floor general. Just want to hear what you guys think. If the buyout is inevitable, what you guys think about being bringing in part 2.0, CP3 has a backup part for about 10 minutes a game. So I want to hear what you It's what you guys got to say about it as usual. Thank you, KJ. No.

You want to peel the curtain back? Man and I looked at each other at the exact same moment when Chris Paul came out of KJ's mouth and we both shook our heads. It's, look, he's done. I like Chris Paul.

If you could get 32-year-old Chris Paul that was here in 2018, that would be the perfect. It's honestly the perfect fit. guy who can play good defense, floor general, doesn't have to score, doesn't have to have the ball in his hands, assisted turnover ratio, perfect.

Yeah, if you can get a time machine and get me 10 years ago, Chris Paul, that is the absolute 100% perfect fit for this team. Great three-point shooter, great mid-range. Excellent assist, low turnovers, but he's washed. No. He played 16 games for the Clippers. the spurs didn't think he was he's been under 10 points for game the last three years

assist number has been decent seven last year seven the year before but no let me be respectful here because if I was a fan and I'm looking at this rocket team and I can say this as a broadcaster I'd like a little umf whatever that is. And I'm not trying to, I can't define what oomph me is. Whether that's an extra rebounder, whether that's an extra ball handler. I wouldn't mind seeing a change. Some new blood.

Yeah. I just don't want to go get somebody because somebody has just happened to be available. I wanted to make a perfect fit from a chemistry perspective. And the most important thing, Ross, is he's got to still be able to play the game. Andre Drummond was interesting to me. Because he can tap balls out and be rebounding. you're not looking for him to score, not looking for him to shoot. You want to go out to rebound.

Chris, to me, the shot's gone. And the defensive intensity is gone. And the jury's out. Chris likes to argue with coaches. He just does. And that's why Chris may be a great coach down the road because he won't argue anybody but himself. Or his fellow assistant coaches. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know. I think you'd be fine with probably Udoca, I would imagine, but I guess you could see a scenario where they would possibly butt heads. But I'm just going to tell you, Eme Adoka is the head basketball coaches team, and he does not want anybody. He wants input, but he does not want decision making. Does that make sense? I think most coaches are that way.

Young coaches may say, yeah, maybe a better influence. He was like, I don't need that. As I said, and I meant this on a gut feeling many weeks ago, to me, if you're going to go get somebody, you're going to ride that Reed Shepherd train in a man, Thompson. Because a man plays a lot of minutes and has shown, I think he's tired,

but he doesn't, he's not, the wear and tear is not affecting his overall game. He wasn't a great shooter before he was playing 39 minutes a game, and he's not a great shooter after playing 39 minutes. So I'm not worried about the number of minutes he's gone into, although you'd like to see him play less. You would like to have,

I think, some help behind Alpey. I don't, Clint doesn't have the full trust. think that maybe Stephen Adams does. Clint's more of a little more of an offensive score, but the minutes that Stephen was playing, which was a Ross, about 18, 19, 20 minutes a game. Clint's not getting that right now. There's for a reason for them.

Yeah, well, he's in a different stage of his career. Yeah. Oh, you do miss Fred Van Vleet. You do miss Stephen Adams, though. And I know a lot of people say, I don't want to hear that excuse. I don't want to hear that excuse. Like, we were talking about a starter

and a major rotation piece. I mean, it does matter. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I just I don't see somebody that had strong coming here. Now, if you want to go get somebody that had been in the league 8, 9, 10, 11 years that was never known as a guy that was a de facto

coach on the floor, then maybe that would be a sub of an interest. But I just don't, I just think there's not necessarily baggage, but there's just an aura that goes with Chris that just doesn't jive with teams that have a clear definitive leader. Mitch Johnson last year was a first year head football, a head basketball coach. It kind of fit. Chris Paul was there because Chris is,

you can kind of cure it, can kind of cover the warts of a young coach doesn't know what he's doing, running offences and whatnot. He's doing good now. Doing really well now. All right. 142 on Sports Talk 790.

Yeah, I'm still going to go by it. If the Rockets do anything, it's big over guard. Just my thought. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-790. How well do you know Italy? We're going to be playing for some nice prizes

They're Milan. Oh, it's all about Milan. It's Milan slash Cortina. Can I guess, is there a question about the U.S. city that is their Americans, like their neighbor city or something? Sister city? You know what? I'll put that in there.

Why did you put that in there? Milan's sister cities. How about this? We're going to do a little test. What is the sister city? Let's give the answer right this second. And if the person gets it wrong, we're going to annihilate them. They actually have some good ones.

Chicago is in the United States. But also, Leon France, South Paulo, Brazil. But the answer we're looking for, the U.S. Sister City. Tel Aviv? Toronto? Chicago. Wow.

Okay. Milan's sister city is Chicago. I'll put a list of them. Okay. 713-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe it or not, it's up next here on 790. 148 on Sports Talk 790 on the radio program tomorrow. We hope to catch up with E.May Adoka for a few minutes.

We'll also look forward to having shut your ball ass up on the radio show tomorrow as well. And a complete rundown of Canada versus USA. In women's hockey, is this women's? Looks like the women. Yeah, 2-0. They're playing Canada right now. No, those are men. I can't tell.

No, it's women. It's men. It's men. Two-nothing. It's the women. Oh, there's a long hair. I really couldn't tell. Sorry. We are here.

Oh, my God. That's had me once before and it got me in trouble. But it was purely by accident again. It was on the softball field many years ago. See, if you had believe or not ready, we could talk about something else. No, because it's not even time for believe it or not. I know. So don't even try to throw me under the bus.

Don't even try. Believe it or not, is ready? Go ahead, go ahead. Let me try to find something else. Let me try to find something else. Yes, I was behind because I'm working on other stuff. By the way, trying to build the show. Sam, the sports fan says he thinks Megan the stallion, do Aleepa, and Sabrina Carpenter could all be on stage next year for the Super Bowl.

Oh, Megan. Oh, and do it? Oh, man. That's nice. It'll be real nice. By the way, the headline, the odds for 2007 Super Bowl are out for who's going to perform at halftime. Miley Cyrus leads the board at plus three 10.

Okay. Cardi B plus 440, Taylor Swift plus 490. Lil Wayne plus 512, 520. ASAP Rocky plus 610. ASAP Rocky, there's no chance. Don't blow your money on that. Justin Bieber. plus 790. That's a good station number.

Jay Cole plus 880. Drake plus 880. Arianna Grande plus 920. Harry Styles plus 1040. Morgan Wallen would be at a plus 1120 and then I also added Duby Brothers plus 26,000. It's interesting that Drake continues to be frozen out.

He's of that list like the biggest star left that hasn't done it recently besides Taylor Swift. Do you think it's just hated or he's just people are jealous of him? Or is it a combination of both? I don't know. Well, I mean, Jay-Z and Apple Music control who's doing it. And I think he does have beef with Jay-Z.

So Roger Goodell said, hey, I'm going to give Jay-Z a contract to run this halftime show. I think so. I don't know exactly what happened. I would assume that Roger's got his mitts on everything, right? And then Apple Music had him do. I don't know. Yeah. Because we were talking about it today.

Who really gets, why did Jay-Z all of a sudden get this opportunity to host, you know, to decide? Shouldn't it be the people on the voice? They're the ones judging music all the time anyway. I guess. Simon Cowell should be involved in it somehow. And he's going to sit there at the show and tell them they're all crap. Why don't Kelly Clark? She could do it at a half time.

She's not busy anymore. She cance on her show. Really? Yeah. Okay. She's kind of, she's a big enough star, I guess. Sure, why not? I don't know.

Doesn't get much bigger globally than Bad Bunny, though. Taylor Swift is about it. Yeah. Taylor's going to do it. She's going to make sure to travel. is done playing. They want to build the gold global brand, Matt.

Who's big in Brazil? Get that guy. We're probably a bad money. All right. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio

game show. We simply call it Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not is all things about Milan. I'll read your statement

about Milan. David's completely notarily accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. Samant's erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you'll say this. Two believe it a lot in a row win you a nice prize today. That prize will include either a 790 t-shirt, a four-pack of tickets with party pit passes to the Monster Jam, February the 15th, that's his Sunday, NRG stadium. Tickets on sale for all remaining.

The Monster Jams are available at Ticketmaster.com, or you can go see Stained on their break-the-cycle 25th anniversary tour. featuring Sither with special guest Hube Stank and Hinder on October the 17th at the Woolens Pavilion. Tickets's on sale for that event as well. Can't be found at Ticketmaster.com. 713-212-5-790.

We'll start with Kenneth on 7-90. Kenneth, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir, believe it. Kenneth, the city population in Milan is over 5.4 million with the metro area sporting over 10 million residents. Believe it or not. not nope just 1.36 and it's 6.1 on the metro scale statement number two for the wind the extensive tram system in milan is over 300 kilometers in total which is the fifth most in the world believe it or not unless they believe it no you shouldn't thank you for playing that you guys have a great day robert on 790 robert your favorite part in today's 10 to 2 radio show all the astros talk the mountain range is associated with Cortina de Ampezo is the Penin or the southeastern Alps. Believe it or not.

Believe it. No, it's a dolomites. Duh. Joseph on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Cortina de Ampezo is about 250 miles from Milan. Believe it or not. I'm going to say not. It is. Why are we so big on Cortina de Ampezo? Is that a big deal? That's where the Winter Olympics are. I thought it was in Milan. It's in three separate locations.

Oh, it is. Okay. Thank you, Jonathan, for that. Stephen on Seven on, are you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, The Last Supper, resides in Milan. Believe it or not? Believe it.

Yes. Statement number two for the win. The climate of Milan is categorized as humid subtropical, which is the same as Houston. Believe it or not. Believe it. There you go. Congratulations, Stephen. Dave on 790, Dave, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. The whole show.

Sister cities of Milan include Chicago, San Paulo, and Osaka. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Prada, Armani, Versace, and other major fashion labels were all founded in Milan. Believe it or not? Not.

Oh, they were. I'm sorry. Thank you for playing, though. And have a wonderful day. We got one winner today. That wasn't bad. Rossi, I had so much fun today. We're going to do four more hours of this tomorrow. Love it.

What an excellent show. We'll have EMA. What time? I don't know. Hopefully early. Okay. And then we have shut your bum ass up. And you never know what else is going to happen.

Well, we, oh, you know, we're going to have Gordy tomorrow from spring training. And he'll have a Josh Hater update for us on the show. Will it be good news or bad? We'll find out coming up tomorrow. Thanks to everybody that joined the radio program today. If you called, if you emailed, if you tweeted at us, super thanks to you. Congratulations to our winner for winning my rocket tickets for tonight.

It pays to be at 10 o'clock, and we're going to take care of you, 11 o'clockers, the next time we give away some tickets. Up next is Clinton. It's Wexler. It's the A team. And they're going to entertain a heck out of you next here on Sports Talk 790.