The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Coaching Search, Gut Feelings & Astros Playoff Race

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-1 in H-Town. What's happening in lunch timers? Good afternoon to you, and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Tauvis show on Sports 20. He's Ross Villarreal.

He is Brendan Riley, and I'm Matt Thomas, and we are very happy to have you guys with us today. we have a very interesting show. Well, first of all, I think most of our shows, generally speaking, are pretty interesting. We will have Aaron Rees-Jornist, as he does every Tuesday at 1.30 for the Texas. Wonderful. We will start our brand new segment today. We kind of organically started last week. Yes, the gut feelings.

It's called gut-feeling segment. What was your gut feeling? I want to say gut feeling was Texans were going to lose big to Kansas City, right? I feel like I don't mean to go Texan-centric on that, but it just feels. feels right. My gut feeling was the Rockets. We're not going to win another game in the series against the Lakers. And I forgot. Brendan, were you even with this on gut feelings? If it was Tuesday, I wasn't here. Yeah, okay. It might have been Joe. Yeah, so we decided every Tuesday from here and by the way, I sent you an official theme introduction for it. Our production staff,

wow, second and none here. That's true. At the old 790. Mike Beaubion does a great. We work him way too hard quite frankly. So we will have that. So what it's, and we want to get you guys involved as well. It's hashtag gut feeling. So if you have a gut feeling about something that's going to happen in sports over the next, say, four to five days, now you don't want to say gut feeling, we're going to get a vaccine. I mean, we're talking about in the next handful of days. Okay. So like gut feeling, the Texans are going to get steamrolled by the Ravens. That could be mine.

Okay. Gut feeling. Denver beats the clippers tonight. Ooh. That's just, now when I keeping track of it, you're just saying, oh, no, you said last week we're keeping track of them. Did I? Now I hit one. Brandon, you weren't here.

You don't know. Yes. You were like, oh, we're going to keep in. keep track of these and now I hit one and now we're like oh we're not keeping track so okay I see how you you want to keep track of our gut feelings very Matt thomas of you I think we should keep track of but the problem is then what of ours are little ones too because gut feelings kind of I agree with maybe the thought that you shouldn't have to be held to him because you're not enough making official prediction because of gut feelings are they don't always happen and yes I could have a little

gut feeling about something and you could have a big gut you know but don't we want to know who's instincts to trust that's true oh god I hate when you have logic to the show. That's a good point. So we'll write them down. So far I'm 1 in 0. So all, yeah, I'm 1 in 0 as well. I don't know about. We'll check the tape. We'll start. We'll write them down and we'll keep a list. We'll see how it going. And then we mentioned 1.30, Aaron Reese. And then we've got, by way, Dusty Becker's moving

to tomorrow. Tomorrow's show could be as loaded as ever gets. Pack to the gills. Yes. But we'll talk more about tomorrow. Tomorrow. Can I bring something up here? Yes. It is your show. Well, but I mean, we're a family here. So, and I always do this, I don't do it too often, but I feel like sometimes when it comes to this topic, when I was a kid, Monday night football. I'm not talking about denouncers. This is not an announcer talk.

I was going to say with, I would go so. How would go so? No. It's not announcer talk. But it was Eric Corr, it was Dan Fouts and the San Diego Chargers going against Damarino in the Miami Dolphins. It was a kick-ass game. It was the Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Bears. It was the Giants and the Eagles playing.

They were just one sexy matchup after the other. Orders would get on occasionally on Monday night football. They'd play the Cowboys or they would play the dolphins. I mean, it was just a must-see television. Do you all realize last night's double-header, which, by the way, I'm not against double-headers. Three of the four teams didn't make the playoffs last year. That's a little hokey, right? From Monday night football?

Well, one of them didn't make the playoffs, but they got Ben Rathosberger back. New York Giants are big market. But, yeah, Titans and Mosea. Broncos. Broncos are a brand. I mean, I do have Travis Henry's my running back, but I had a little bit of interesting. I drafted Jake Plummer late, so we're looking good there. Okay.

Do you understand what I'm saying, though? I mean, this grandiose week one of the NFL season, you got the world champion, the Super Bowl champion Kansas City was playing their first game. got a new sexy matchup, Dallas and the Rams is the brand new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which looks very, very cool. But these monstrosity stadiums are all starting to look the same, right? Like my guess is next week when they go to Vegas, we'll be looking at the same type of facility. Sofi Stadium looked gigantic. It's gigantic.

Five billion dollars? And like 40 screens up there on the top. So my point is this. You would think the, I mean, it must just show you that the NFL doesn't respect the SPN or the NFL says, we could put on anybody and you guys would watch. Monday Night Football quality has been lacking

in the last couple of years. Last year, I think it rallied in the second half of the season, but outside of that, but it wasn't because they picked it. It was because they got lucky. It's been some bad,

bad matchups the last couple years. It's been Sunday night football is the big... It is, and they don't even hide it. I mean, but you would think all the money that ESPN spends on the NFL that you would get some more interesting matchups.

Now, I got another one for you. This Thursday is the debut for Thursday night football. Now, last Thursday was the kickoff, so we didn't really even count that. Oh, no, yeah, I know that matchup is. Brown's Bingles. It's the battle for Cincinnati or a battle for Ohio. Ohio. I mean, I think Cleveland's like, hey, don't forget about us.

Battle of Ohio, whatever. Isn't it just a little crazy that, now, granted, you're going to get your Jaguars Titans on there. You're going to get your Falcons Panthers. I mean, there's going to be plenty of that. But you would think the first time the NFL network puts out their game, It's a Fox broadcast, but it's there at Foxtown, but it's the NFL's exclusive. Sit down, watch us for three and a half hours,

and you're giving us Brown's bingles. It just shows you Rossi to me that they know that because we're betting on it, we're playing fantasy football on it, that we don't care who the matchup is. And that's what I was going to say. The ratings are going to be good. It's going to be the highest watch program of the evening. So I'll put it this way.

We have a conference final game that night. I would presume it would be game, let's see, what is tonight? We've got game seven. Maybe it's, it would be game one. Game, maybe it's a game one. Look and see what the NBA schedule is like. There's got to be an NBA playoff game on. It's either way, Easter West, it doesn't really matter.

That's going to be on TNT or ESPN. The Browns Bengals game is an NFL network exclusive. Who's going to have the larger ratings? The NFL. A conference final game. Or Browns Bengals? D&FL. Not even close.

Not even with a doubt of your mind. No, there's a zero doubt of my mind. It's Heat Celtics. Game two of that series. Yes. Because game one's tomorrow. Yeah, well, game one, Nuggets, Clippers,

I mean, will Clipper, whoever in Lakers be on, are they playing on the same day or they stay on Wednesday? They're doing every other day. They're not playing two in the same day. I think they're playing both today. Well, they wouldn't, that's what I'm saying. They're both playing today. Oh, they are?

They're going to be both playing Thursday. That's why they are. That's why today is Tuesday. That's a great, I don't know. Would they stagger them? What does the NBA schedule say for Thursday? They're going to stagger them. They're going to stagger them.

That's what they do every year. But it's the bubble, so I didn't know. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, I forgot about. That's a good NBA night. We got a good sports night. We got two NBA games, which I think collectively the city,

Houston has already checked out on the NBA, unfortunately. And we have the Astros trying to hold on for dear life in the American League West against the Rangers, which I'll have the on next show for you'll be getting at 6 o'clock tonight, here on 790. Would you say the Astros are living on a prayer? Uh, no. Okay.

I don't know if they're godlike or not. What would be the song that would be the, uh, holding on, hanging on? What would it be? Living on a prayer. Yeah, but the baseball gods, according to every other team in baseball, believe the Astros are not the team that God loves. The Los Angeles Dodger fan base believes that God hates the Astros. Well, then why did God let Kenley Jansson give up five runs?

Well, he just wanted to, you know, show him that maybe Kenley's got to step up his game. Okay. And that Kenley couldn't be perfect every single time out. Does God wear a baseball cap when he's affecting these games or? Well, if he does, what cap is he wearing? Does he have MLB.com.TV? What does he do? Does he have like an old Expos cap on to represent the past?

No, he didn't care for the Expos. That's true. He hadn't care for the Marlins, no matter what uniform they've worn. All right. So that, what does that say that a Cleveland Brown's Cincinnati Bengals game is going to outdraw a conference playoff game in the NBA. It means NFL's king. NFL Sunday night has been beating World Series games

year after year. It's crazy. But it's been that way for a long time. It is it amazes me with the national sports public would watch. And it just shows you again, if you're the NBA, I don't know if the NBA is concerned indifferent or they're always going to

know that. And the end of the day, we're really good, but we go against NFL, we're going to lose. Yeah, I mean, the conference finals are never, it's supposed to be going up against NFL. games. Thanks, coronavirus. Yeah.

No, you know what? The NBA usually doesn't schedule games around NFL. If you ever notice, there's no Monday night World Series games. You don't typically see Monday night NBA finals games because what they don't want is those two sports don't want to be embarrassed by losing out to, say, the Buccaneers and the Falcons.

Well, they're going to. Gosh, almighty. The power of the NFL. That's why the NFL is so arrogant. You guys know that, right? They can do whatever they want. Although the ratings were down, I think, this week. A little bit, yeah.

Ratings are down for all, everything. I think we are gone with sports for so long that people have found Plan B. Like to watch something else or to do something else, but not absolutely be in front of a television. I thought you meant like at the pharmacy or something. What? Nothing. Go ahead. Okay. 1211 is our time.

713-212-570 if you'd like to join us today. 713, 212, 570. So how much honestly did you watch last night's games? Pittsburgh and the Giants listened on radio. Tennessee and Denver, I fell asleep too, except for when Derek Henry was getting six yards a game. And that didn't last very long because he averaged just over four. I watched 90% of the first game at halftime.

I was driving NAS. I did hear Kevin Harlan on the second game a little bit. He is fantastic. Isn't he just the best? He's so good at football. Radio football. I don't know what it is. He's really good at it.

He's told me this before. I don't know if they're on air off. You know, he's a radio guy first and foremost. You know, a lot of guys jump in the television and don't even pay their dues on the radio side. He's a radio guy. And I think he gets as much enjoyment of doing the Monday night games on radio than he does do in the television. Now, the television obviously pays more. But I think he enjoys the experience of the radios.

Yeah. Because he does such a good job out of it. Very vivid. What set are they in? With three wide receivers to the right, one to the left, step back, blah. It's so descriptive. Where the ball is hash, where it's caught. Yeah.

Oh, man, he's so good at the radio. Radio on football is not even thought of as. I mean, it's more basketball and baseball, but he does a really good job. Yeah, he's really good. 12-12 is our time. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. You know why he's so good because he's got tremendous energy. We'll talk more about that.

We'll go all the way to 3 o'clock today here on Sports Talk 7-9. Houston's official sports cliche translator. I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a good teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day and do my job. Matt, talk. Taking it one day at a time. We thank you very much for listening to our radio show.

It is the Matt Thomas Show, Sports Talk 790, where we will visit with Aaron Reese and the athletic. I didn't mean to sigh about him. I'm just sying about the Texans game. Boy, if you spent any time watching any of the Monday morning recap TV shows, Rossi, everyone is just, I mean, falling over for Lamar Jackson. And there is nobody on the Texas defense with exception of really JJ Watt that should scare Lamar under any circumstance? And all that takes as a double team to neutralize him. Because most players that are in the league seven, eight, nine years like JJ has been can be

double team and won't be nearly as effective. How in the hell they're going to put a pass rush on Lamar Jackson and also put people back in the secondary to make sure that there's no one-on-one coverage because the Texan secondary won't be able to go against all the different threats that Baltimore provides. How does, seriously, the only way to me, they lose that the Texans overcome this is if Lamar has an incredibly inaccurate football game. I mean, throwing behind guys, balls tipped at the line of scrimmage, they're getting, you know, the offensive line suffers. You know how we had no, you know, like, remember we took all the 790 hosts took a survey of the score and whatnot and how Indy was the only

one that took the Texans. I feel like that could be happening again this week. Yeah, I don't think anybody's going to pick the Texans except for Indy. Indy will find a way to to think of a way that the Texans can win. Well, I mean, he could say, well, bounce back. You can't be nearly as bad as you were in week one. Lamar can't be nearly as good as he was in week one. You had a lot to build on in the second half, according to Bill O'Brien. Yeah, if you go to the buildup factor, Texans Karen thinks this is going to be a field goal game.

Just saying, if you're taking what the team built on in the third, fourth quarter when it was 31-7. Yeah. I think they won the fourth quarter 13 to 10, Matt. They did. So you build on that. That's a win right there. All right. 713-212-5-79 if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5790 on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsRV at Brendan Riley underscore. We have gut feelings coming up today in the 1 o'clock hour where Ross, Brendan, myself,

you guys can just give us a gut feeling about something that's going to happen in sports. Should we put a time frame on it? Like this week, you know, by the end of Sunday. Something will happen by, yeah, or if it's my... Monday night football or something. Yeah, but generally speaking, we don't want... The next, well, we're on Tuesday, the next seven days. By the, yeah, by the time we come back next Tuesday.

That sounds good. Yeah, we'll be catching next Tuesday and we'll do the segment again. That's what makes you... Okay. I was just a little worried about something else. But yeah, we don't need any gut feelings about it's going to rain in two weeks. That's not a gut feeling. Now, if Jim Cantorri wants to come on the show and give us those gut feelings, then I'm okay with that.

The tropical disturbance is going to completely miss Houston. Okay, there's a good. Which one? Well, there's like 15 right now, so. Christian and College Station at 1220 on 7-90. Christian, good afternoon. Hey, man, how's it going? Good. So I just wanted to talk a little rockets real quick. Sure. I know everybody, everybody's all gung-ho football, and I don't blame them. I'm excited about football. I just, it's hard to get excited about the Texas, specifically in regards to football.

But, so I got a gut feeling for you guys. I think Jason Kidd might be a dark horse takeover as the Rockets new head coach. I think it'd be perfect because, you know, we got player coaches and coaches that are for the players now. You know, ex-player players becoming coaches and then you've got the coaches that are player coaches. So he kind of fits both of those new trends. And, you know, maybe he, if anybody could get. Russell Westbrook to go from 150 miles an hour, just down to like 110 miles an hour and not turn the ball over so much. He'd be a great, great choice for the rocket.

That's my gut feeling for you. Okay. We'll accept that a little early gut feeling. We're fine with that. We'll do that and again, more official in the one o'clock hour. Story today, I want to see. I saw it off a Twitter, so it was aggregated to somebody. Oh, let me hear it is.

It's part of, oh, it's Ben DeBose off of his Rockets Wire, which you have had on the show a few times. Yes. He says that the Rockets would like a culture reset. I don't even know what that is. So I'll let you define it. What is a culture reset? When I think Culture Reset, I think of overhauling the players. You're not going, when you say Culture Reset, that means putting different people in the culture as compared to what's currently here.

I don't know if you can change James, Russ, Eric for good or bad of who they are and what they've done by just a coach coming in. It would be, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't, when I hear culture, he said, that means I want people around me that think the way that I think. Yes, and that to me means executives. Vice presidents, presidents, general manager, all of that, to me is where the culture of an organization starts. It starts at the top. Remember how Rob Manfred said the culture of the Astros was toxic and it started with Jeff Luno? Yeah.

Kind of like that kind of thing. So that's me, that's interesting. That's what Sam Amick said that apparently, according to this Rockets Wire you're putting in there. Yeah. Kelly Eco. Eco, yeah. I don't know if that is a general manager change, though. To me, the NBA GM job, I think this is in most sports.

Isn't your work done putting together the team? It's not about what the team does once the season's going. The hardest work for a general manager is done before the ball is even rolled out for the very first time. I think the culture of any company is set by management. Okay. But isn't that Tillman's responsibility to set the culture at that point? Yes. And he's the one that, if this is true, he's the one that wants the culture change.

If he wants the culture change, then that's, to me that sounds like executives. Okay. It could be players too, because players have the. own culture. I mean, James Harden has cultivated his own culture in the Rockets, and I'm sure he has a personality and some of that emanates throughout the team. So if you can't trade the players, and I'm not endorsing it or one way or the other, how would you go to the first day of training camp?

You're going to take less three-point shots, if that's what it is. You're going to once again introduce yourself to the mid-range, which would not be something that Daryl would necessarily endorse because he's built this team around three's, layups and dunks. You can't get Robert Covington to grow three inches at his adult age. You know what I mean? I would like to know. And again, this is why, you know, people complain about how much these players make

and how much coaches make and general managers make. I think they're worth every dime. I think athletic directors and college are worth every time. I think college football coaches are worth every dime because they have incredibly difficult jobs with tremendous amount of pressure. They just do. We all have pressures in life. But, man, to have every one of your.

moves discussed and talk radio on the internet with its fan base you know we make moves in a radio station that generally speaking no one would know about and if they if they be you know the only time you ever know about them publicly is if they're done involving our day-to-day schedule we didn't make a press release when we signed Brendan Riley we didn't actually we didn't tell us seven out we didn't tell anybody in the whole world yeah and then he he gives me telling people and then he uh then he gives like a couple of Quotes. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. I love the culture. I've been having my eye on this place a long time and can't wait to get to work.

We should do that. Do we need a culture change around here? How are you feeling? I don't know if I'm willing to say that. That means yes. That's a yes. I just, I think it's a good idea. Well, I, yeah, we'll do culture change around here. Uh-oh.

But it involves players. Ross. Oh. We're going to be, you always wanted your PM Drive show. You're going to get it. Yeah, I have one. 6 p.m. You're getting it in Gainesville, Florida.

That's not a culture change. That's like shipping out. Well, we have to change of culture around here. Jamesville? Yeah. A lot of floater grader football. You have hotis? Well, they're a little young for you.

What's a rule? Go to graduate students. How old are you? Half plus seven. How old are you? 35. 35 would mean half plus, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. You have to go grad students. 24 is fine. more like 25 24 25 24 and a half 24 and a half

how many 24 and a half year olds are in Gainesville What are you talking about Not enough Professors assistants Oh you're talking about TAs people going for their masters and for their doctorate

Yeah But okay You know what I respect that You've already You've already The scout of the territory properly I like it

Professors might be a little too smart for me Sports RV show live from Gainesville And you're home for Gator football Let's go baby Go Gators Coming up next, should the Gators add another relief pitcher to this weekend series against Costa Carolina next on the Ross V show? Let's go. I think the culture's change already.

We've moved him off to Gainesville. He's doing great. Things happen quicker out here. They do. All right, 1227 on Sports Talk 7.90. So we've seen all the AFC teams, Rossi play. How do we feel about the AFC South as in one week? We'll discuss that.

Next, 713, 21, 5, 790. Now, if we're going to move you to Gainesville, we've got to have plenty of energy, right? Yeah, that would energize me. I'll tell you what's going to energize you. That would be synergenics, testosterone clinics. Have you been feeling around these times? Look, if you're like me, sometimes you're sleepy and you can't get to, and then you're the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end up.

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Play Sports Talk 790 on IHeartRadio. Coverage that no national sports blogger living in his mom's basement can provide. Although sometimes we do our job in our underwear too, yeah. This is Houston Sports Talk 790. Home for your home teams. 1232 on Sports Talk 790. 713212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-79 if you'd like to join us on the radio program today at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. All right, I don't think any of us had Jacksonville be, the Indianapolis Colts in week one. We all had Philip Rivers throwing at least one interception. He did so in the fourth quarter because that's what Philly Rivers does. Tennessee won a game yesterday. They frankly should have won more comfortably, if not for the fact that Stephen Galskowski

couldn't kick any field goals. Yes. Miss an extra point. Had one miss. Was it two misses in a block, I think? Yeah, is what it was. He had an awful day. Maybe it's just when you wear a tightened uniform, you just,

cannot do anything decently as a kicker. But he came back and totally redeemed himself, Matt. Well, it was, what, 25-yard? It was basically a chip shot. Well, Ray Bullock disagrees. And it split the uprights. So he's feeling better. And the flight home to Nashville was a lot easier than it could have been.

He might not have been on it if he missed that one. Speaking of that, did you see the Texas State kicker over the weekend? No. Missed. Huh. And again, I didn't see the game because it's Texas State. No disrespect to the Bobcats go. But I think from what I was told, Texas State punt returns a touchdown.

80 yards or 90 yards is one of those long kickoff return type things. And the kicker goes out and misses the extra point, which would have given them the lead. They go to overtime. And I think he misses another kick, same spot. And they lose the game, whoever Texas State played. Dang, that's unfortunate. He's not getting late in San Marcos this week. What do you think it's like being a kicker on a college campus?

when you win, all the pretty girls come after you, right? Or at least they talk to you. You probably got to have a little more personality. Kicker's got to have a little game if he's going to be, if you play it cool, like I'm the kicker, how it's funny? But what if you miss, then no one wants to be anywhere near you. Maybe the console, the consolation card, Matt. No, I think when you miss two kicks in the last five minutes of a game,

there's nobody feeling bad for you whatsoever. You go crying on the stair steps and then somebody comes up to, hey, what's wrong? Oh, here's what you do. Say, man, oh, God, did you see our team? So we lost a tough game. And the girl says, yeah, that for the dumbass kicker. And then she realizes she's talking to the kicker. It's up to the kicker.

Kickers got to have more game than, say, a running back or a quarterback. It's like, we got to go on a kicker by kicker basis on this. Yeah. Now, Justin Tucker never had these issues at Texas, right? Yeah, he'll be fine. Yeah, Justin Tucker is one of the greatest kickers of all. Now, you are, now, I, I went to school sporadically for many years before I got my degree. I never, I, the only time I ever had a class with, with students that were athletes was my astronomy class when they were trying to cheat off me.

And I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm trying to cheat off you. Why, they have the tutors. I had a class with Vince Young. Who else I have classes with? I can't remember. Brad Buckman, is that name? But would, would, would student, when you were in class, would people like, want to talk to Vince before the, you know, before class? You were great.

Both people would just stare and there would be this kind of hushed silence and whispering and that's very young. Oh, that's cool. Now, if he was going... He was a 45 minute class. He would show about 35 minutes in with sweatpants on and then just leave

even when there were tests. And how did the professor handle that? The professor was like, would call him out and the thing and be like, hey, good luck this weekend against OU! Really? He's not even in class, dude. Like, hey, where is?

It was an Indian guy. He was like, Gordoner back, good luck this weekend. against OU and we're like okay well he's not here dude can we get our test now or what's going on so did people have to tell him that Vince wasn't in class nobody said anything we're like can we just get our grades dude or get our test

or whatever like start the lecture bro it was weird for me because I was 23 years old still going to college because I was going nine hours at a time and guy says hey you look familiar and I said yeah I call your games on the radio and they're like can you help us with this test I'm like oh hell

no I don't need astronomy is any part of my life. That's the biggest problem about college. I know they tried to develop in well-rounded person, but as a broadcast major, I don't need any astronomy in my life. I've never had to worry about the little dipper

in my entire broadcast. Astronomy is fascinating. Oh, it's too hard. Too way too difficult. I love it. You didn't want to learn about the planets, mad, and the gaseous planets and the corks, the astrophysics?

I live in a gaseous planet. It's called my home. And the general theory of relativity and whatnot? Zero interest. Okay. I think it's fascinating. Yeah, but don't you think, wouldn't it be better served if we had one or two more classes in the industry we were headed towards?

I mean, I took two years of college French. Chances of me using French, not good, but I understand if you're going to be speaking in a, you know, business like communications, that a language would be a good subsector, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, the requirements, I mean, they want you to have a well-rounded education. That's what I said, but I don't know if astronomy is it. I would don't then don't register for astronomy class well I

maybe you have to take a science and you probably could have taken biology or chemistry those don't say I was thinking astronomy might have been the easiest of the group I was this is you yeah I mean I think everybody

what was your minor uh speech communications my major was radio television my minor was speech that's a little redundant yes I was trying to get out as fast as possible and so 10 so eight years later I finally did

well I mean it just was I was fine you know I certainly wouldn't have chosen math. Yeah. I took zero math in college. Okay. So let's get back to the AFC South for a second. So my philosophy is, I don't think Indianapolis as bad as they were, and we'll be that way the rest of the year.

I don't think Jackson. I mean, Jacksonville wasn't going to go 0 and 16, right? They're probably headed for three wins. And if you were to guess of the three wins, it would probably be within somebody in the division who is vulnerable. I feel very confident telling you the team that wins the AFC South is not going to win 10 games. That's a fair assessment, right? You think somebody wins 10? 10 probably.

Okay, maybe exactly 10. Okay, but I don't envision any of the four teams going 11 and 5, which means they're going to have a slip-up. And if Jacksonville is going to have a slip-up, it's probably going to be against somebody they know and have gone over and played. I mean, to beat somebody in the same season twice is somewhat difficult. Tennessee to me winning yesterday was exactly how they win games, right? They're not going to win 27 and three over opponents. You know, Derek Henry might go for 150 yards and two touchdowns, but the game's still going to be 21 to 10.

I feel like Tennessee will not be a part of a blowout. No, will be a one putting on a blowout to an opponent. I think they're going to be a grinded out type of team. That's what you usually have with defensive coaches like Mike Vrable. You want to play on the backs of your defense. You want to run the ball. and then you want to win 20 to 17. That's generally where defensive-minded coaches end up.

And that's why I think what you saw yesterday, if you stood up for the entire game of the Broncos, is what you're going to see the rest of the season. That's how they're going to win games. Now, would you rather be a team that's explosive like that and try to beat people to a pulp early on like Kansas City? Or do you kind of say to yourself, if we stay close to this, that means we're going to have a chance

to win every single game week after week after week. It depends on your personnel. You don't want to throw the ball 50 times with Ryan Tan-Hale. No, for sure. For sure. The problem is, I don't think you want to give, how many times did Henry carried over 30 times yesterday? 31 times for 116 yards. That sounds like an old school like Ricky Williams getting run into the ground by Mike Ditka's score. Wait a minute. 31 for 160. That's less than four yards of carry. 3.7.

His legs are going to fall off. Yeah, they just signed him to a big deal, right? Which you should never do for running backs, right? I mean, you pay them heavy, heavy in the one year, but don't think about four years. They're probably out of this deal in a couple years. So run him into the ground the next couple years and then move on. Well, I mean, do you think effectively the Titans can survive 16 weeks of him running 31 times a game? I would say normally no, but Derek Henry is an absolute freak of nature.

Yeah, he is fast and super big and strong and physical and can bounce off tacklers. Yeah. There are stories in high school with him carrying it like 50 times a game and stuff like that? So his wear and tear probably is even more intense than other ringbacks. But he's also taught. He's just bigger than everybody. Have you ever seen Derek Henry high school highlights? He looks like he's playing with a bunch of children.

It's incredible. Where do you go to high school? What part of it was he from? I don't remember. I was it in Alabama? I don't remember. He was one of the highest, more highly-touted recruit running backs like in history.

Now why did it take him like two or three years to finally become a megastar in the NFL? I don't know. Is it because the previous administration just didn't think you got a chance? He was in Alabama. Was he fat? coming on college? I don't think so. He didn't get the touches.

I'm curious, why, I mean, did when Vrable got 30, so like, why aren't you carrying it 30 times? Didn't they make it? They tried to, Dionne Lewis was like, they're trying to make him the primary running back. Well, it was, uh, who was the Dallas, uh, running, um, Murray, um, DeMarco.

DeMarco. Wasn't, wasn't he spent in time of DeMarco Murray too? Yeah. And now he's a beast and is going to rain a lot of pain on all teams in the AFC South. He had a, uh, Florida high school, record with 510 yards in one game. Yes. Oh. And those are 10 minute quarters, right? Yeah. Cheamely Christmas. He must have pushed away tacklers like they were bugs. In high school, he had 12,000 rushing yards and 153 touchdowns. He must have played a 28 game schedule. 9.2 yards for carry. That's nuts. That's nuts. All right. So right now, um,

who's the best team in the FACC South? Did Tennessee do enough yesterday to go, wow, they are number one in the power rankings? I picked the Colts preseason and I'm going to go with that.

But after one week, I'm going to say the Titans. Yeah, because Jacksonville, you just don't think it's going to win more than about four or five times. I would think so. And you think Indianapolis is going to be better.

And the Texans might be better too. They're just going to have to get through this first month of the season, which Pittsburgh, I mean, you know, that defense is going to to shred the Texans

offensive line. I feel like Kami Fairbairn's going to have to kick five field goals in that game to win. Like a 15-14 slugfest. I mean, the offensive line looked a little bit sluggish, so that's your only hope there. But they're still really good. And James Connor got hurt, but Benny Snell Jr. looked pretty good. And they're going to be fine. Juju Smith-Schuster had a couple of touchdowns.

They're going to be fine. And that defense is going to pose some major, major problems for the Texans. All right, 713, 212-790. 713-2-1-2-5-7-9. If you'd like to get on the program, 1 o'clock hour, we'll have some of our gut feelings to get out. Plus, we'll have Aaron Reese on the Texans beat from the athletic. And you guys all throughout the show at 7-1-3-21-5-7-9 with a message here for Woodhouse Day Spas.

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Please tell him that Matt Thomas from 790 sent you to the place I go to relax, and that's Houston, what house spas.com. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. All right, we are about 10 minutes away from a new segment on the show. Gut feelings. We have an introduction for it. So if the production department makes an introduction, we've got to actually do it.

So we'll have it for you. And this is a segment where you guys can call in. You can tweet. Add SportsMT. Yeah. Hashtag is gut feelings. And it's something that has to happen in the next seven days. By the time we do it again, we're going to do this every Tuesday at 1 o'clock, give or take.

And we may move it around a little bit depending on guests. But generally speaking, what's your gut feeling about anything in sports. Now, I guess we could let be gut feelings in podcast. politics if you wanted to. We don't know a lot of politics. But like, for instance, in November, we could have a gut feeling about, we have a gut feeling Tuesday on November 3rd. That would work, right? Yeah. I still don't know what to go with that one. I don't know. I wouldn't either. I'm waiting for the debates. I think the debates are going to separate the parties. I think they could be very bad for one of the senile. Oh, real quick before we get back to the stuff.

And we got Astros baseball tonight. We'll have it for a beginning at 6 o'clock with the On Deck Show. I'm not a dancing with the stars person but the Carol Baskin thing it's terrifying did you watch it? Yeah I watched her I watched the first half hour and then I just didn't care

about the rest of the people so I fast forward it and it's funny that ABC went with Carol Baskin at the very end because they know that that's what everybody was waiting for thankfully I devr it and went fast forward all the way down at the end she was awful

as expected Yeah. She's better at murdering than dancing, I imagine. Allegedly. Allegedly. We got to make sure we're careful on this. That's true. She did receive the lowest score of any of the couples that were there. And by the way, the couples list was, I don't know who you are, I don't know who you are, you're still alive, I don't know who you are.

And what do you do for a living? What, uh, do you get voted, can you get voted off the first episode or you want to guarantee a couple? They're on next week for sure. Okay. And then I don't even know. Is it half fans and half fans? judges. I don't, I don't watch the show. Wait, we can get my mom on. She loves

that show. I don't know. So she wore a, basically a tiger outfit. And then she does the little paw growl. Yes, I saw that. And you tweeted a photo of that. And now that it's in my brain for the rest of my life, and it scares the hell out of me. It's terrifying.

Yeah. And as I put up on Twitter, which I thought it was a good line. She got the lowest score. Be careful. judges because I have a sneaking suspicion she's going to put

sardine oil on all their shoes Allegedly allegedly. Allegedly put sardine oil. But the craziest thing of it all was that and I didn't see this on the national but KFC barstool

Do you know what that is? It's a Twitter account? It's a guy. It's a person. Okay. Yeah. Apparently, you know I have commercial breaks

that are networked that everybody in the whole country sees and then you have commercials that only your local market sees. So it's like gallery or a car dealer's shirt. Yeah, we get mattress mac on with a mattress mac mask on. Right. Well, apparently, in one of the local commercial breaks,

the attorney for the dude, for her ex-husband's family, bought a commercial and basically said, please help us get Carol Baskin arrested for the murder of my dad or our coworker or our friend. And it was like several of his daughters, his executive assistant, and the attorney that was representing all of them. It was a cheesy production of it.

I don't know if you guys have seen it or not. Maybe I put it on Twitter in a little bit, but it was terrifying that this was going to be on national until I realized it was not a national commercial because I kept looking for it on the local Channel 13, and it was not there. So balls out to the local ABC station that allowed this to get on there.

Made a national sensation. And do you think ABC is in the wrong by having her on there? Because they can easily say she didn't do this. She's never been convicted. Never been convicted. Why are you guys doing this?

This was over 20 years ago. The guy could be in Bora Bora on an island drinking mitis. She's not out on a lamb. She's a free person. Free woman. But there is... She's not in jail. There's overriding suspense.

And she's all about Big Cat Rescue, Matt. She's all about scaring America. Well, they were scared. But by the way, Carrie on a novel, who's like the female judge, she loves her. She says, I love you. I love that show.

I mean, it was like, ooh, this is stuff that you, I don't know if you want to necessarily put out there publicly. Did she say, hey, all you cool cats and kittens when she came out of there? At the very beginning, she did.

That's hilarious. Well, you know, they're introducing to people. I'm reading Charles Oakley's on the show. Yeah. Really? Yes. How did he do?

I fast, no interest. Uh-uh. Now that's a guy the judges are in danger. He's going to body slam them. The one woman I watched before I decided to fast forward at the very end was Anne Hache. And she did okay.

But I don't know any of those people. I forgot Anne Hachers a thing. It was the last major film she's been in. Wouldn't she in the Harrison Ford movie? What team is she back? Is she back on our team? Yeah, she's from the right side of the place. Okay.

Not that left-handers don't do well either. Yeah. I mean, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams. Ken Griffey? Yeah. But she's the right-handed now. Okay. and that's our one and only ever edition of Dancing with the Stars Recap.

We're going to get a weekly Dancing with the Stars recap from Matt Thomas on the Matt Thomas show. Do you watch it ever? I've watched some of it because my, like I said, my mom's like obsessed with the show. Now, Brendan, if you get a girl here in town, you absolutely have to watch it because she's going to want to be a part of it. And you got to play like a good boyfriend and make that happen. I don't think like your average 20-year-old woman is watching Dancing with the Stars. But if she wants to, I would watch. Absolutely.

No, you just go into the room and watch whatever you want. When you're dating? Oh, hell no. You watch what they want. There's DVR for that too. Well, it's hard to go kick rocks. I'm watching the Astros. I watched some of the early seasons.

They admittedly were bigger stars back then. But I didn't think it was that bad. I have never been forced to watch a show in my life. I'm telling you, I don't know what they are, but when I was dating Kim, there was shows I absolutely had to watch. You know what? I did have to watch Brokeback Mountain, but I was playing online poker on my laptop.

I never saw the movie. I was playing, yeah, I had to put headphones on at some point. I was like, oh, I'm getting my headphones out. Just not our style. We're all about rom-coms. Yeah, I think I had a losing session then, too, so I was double frustrated. So you had to watch a movie about that, and then you had a losing session in poker. I was losing money in poker online.

That's all for a girl, Ross? I was on my bed playing poker, and then she was watching it, so. Well, she's no longer part. of the picture or is she? Well, you know, you know. Drifting in and out. All right. All right.

I didn't expect that answer, but that's good. We have the top of the hour coming up where we're going to have you guys, I have some gut feelings. I will give you a gut feeling. Mine's the most obvious of the gut feelings. It's not that's why I'm going first. You got a gut feeling about anything in a world of sports, life, culture, politics. It has been within the next six days. If you've got a gut feeling about something, let us know. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. On Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and

at Brendan Rowley underscore. Astros back at it tonight. We'll tell you about how super tight it is in the American League West as we start this next hour, the Matt Thomas Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. the Matt Thomas show. 101 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show before we get to gut feelings. The Major League Baseball playoffs are set, not the teams, but how they're going to do it.

So here's how it works. And Ross, stay with me on this if I goof any of this up. The top two seeds automatically go to the National League Division series. The other six teams play in a best of three series. correct? Yes. You don't sound so sure. Sure.

I thought everybody was in a one is in a best of three. I'm looking at the bracket right here. Division one. I guess you're right. You know what? All eight teams are, I want to correct myself.

There's no buys. Division one takes on Wildcard 2. Second place team takes on number one versus number two. It's a 1-8-27-36 kind of thing. They play a best of three. If you do that, and again, the Astros would be a number 60,

because they would be the lowest ranked second place team. Seven and eight go to the two extra wild cards. So if you're a division champion, you can finish no fourth and third. If you are a second place team, you can finish either four, five, or six. The next two best records of that would be the seven and eight. Got that? Yes. Okay, that's easy part.

Then you bracket it out. you play the best of three in that one city. So if the Astros are a number six seed, they're going to be taking on the number three seed, all the number three's ballpark, whatever that may be, White Sox, A's, whatever the case may be. If you win, you go to Dodger Stadium or to San Diego, likely that Dodger Stadium, how the seating works out,

and you play a best of five division series. If you win that, you go to a best of seven nationally champion, American League Championship series, in San Diego, the World Series of best of seven would be in Arlington. So they're taking American League teams, putting them in National League ballparks for the Division Series

and the championship series, the World Series, regardless of opponents, will be in Arlington. On the National League side, same thing, best of three in the home ballparks in each of the first four matchups. If you go to the division series, you either go to Arlington or Houston.

We'll have a division series. at Minutemade Park featuring two National League teams. Okay. The nationally championship series then goes to Arlington, and that's where the World Series is. So Arlington, new ballpark in the bubble, closed stadium, no issues about rain, gets to play, gets to host a boatload of postseason games.

Are they going to reseed the second round? No, it's a straight bracket. Okay. I think. Again, this is all coming down within the last few minutes, So I don't, I mean, I'm pretty sure that's how it works. Also, Jake Cap on our buddy from the athletic points this out. Major League Baseball scheduled no day it's off during the first round best of three,

the Division Series best of five, and the championship series best of seven. Good luck to keeping people's arms on their bodies. 15 straight games? Possibly. Could be, unless you finish a series fast. Maybe you take somebody out in two, you're good. You got to get done quick and get yourself a day off. Sign the rockets in the first round against Thunder.

But most teams don't do that, especially when you get to the Vision Series and league championship series. Yeah, those are tougher series. You're going to see strange starters going on the bullpen, and you're going to be seeing bullpen guys getting a lot of work, and you're going to see bullpen guys, probably that you are accustomed to seeing, strike everybody out and get quick save. laboring through games. Well, so luckily, the Astros are really strong with starting pitching and bullpins.

So, I mean, they're going to be fine throughout these playoffs. Yeah, yeah. They're going to have to be. I can't believe the Astros. Well, first of all, I don't want to do this, but we got to do it before we get to get to our gut feelings here. The National League, the American League standings in the West, I mean, look, the A's, unless they completely implode in the next week and change.

And there's no way. There's just no way. They're going to win the American League West. Their match number is dwindling by the second. They split a double header yesterday with Oakland. The Astros lead for the second-place spot in the American League West is a game and a half. That's what two and eight in your last 10 games will do for you. Yeah, the A's were up 5-1 or 5-0-0 late in that first game and then coughed that one up.

Come on, A's! Yeah, we said let's go A's where your unofficial home for A's baseball. The one-time Matt Thomas roots for you and this is how you treat them. They have great... They acted like a Houston team. Yeah, they have great. green uniforms. Other than that, they suck.

Ooh, I do like their uniforms. Those are classics. The light greens. I like them all. Oh, yeah, they're all. They're okay. Like the Ricky Henderson, Jose Canseco, Mark McGuire, we're juicing out of our ass days.

Those are, I still like those uniforms, too. Let's go. Not to an A's game. No. Nobody wants to do that. Let's get some gut feelings out. Okay. Listen up.

Girls and more. Matt Thomas. Yo, they got a good feeling. I love that. I don't understand any half of what he said. but I love it Listen up girls and boys Something or other

This segment's so appealing Yes the Matt and Ross Got a gut feeling What did you find this song This is a terrific pull This is on the end of it I believe Yeah I didn't make us Bobian did that

Okay So how long is this I mean it's four minutes But we can let it go Well we can just edit and do it again I just This reminds me the song from Boston Legal Okay

With William Shattern I never watched that Great show Great show All right, here we go. Gut feelings, the new segment on Tuesdays, where you just have to tell us a gut feeling of something that's going to happen

the next seven days in sports. By the time we do this again next Tuesday, I will go first. And by the way, if you've got a gut feeling, let us know right this second at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9. If you want to visit with us on Twitter

and send us your gut feelings, it's at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore with the hashtag gut feelings. But I want to get some call interaction on this too. So 7.13. 2125. 790.

My gut feeling is the Texans, this is the easy one, layup drill, will not get within 10 points of a final score this Sunday. They will lose by at least 10 points Sunday at Energy Stadium.

I think Baltimore is just really, really good. Their defense is terrific. They've got plenty of targets offensive. Lamar Jackson was phenomenal. It wasn't even about his legs. It was about him just throwing the ball deep down the field

and against a Texan secondary that scares the bejesus out of me. So I will say Houston loses by at least 10 this Sunday. What if my gut feeling was the Texas were going to get rolled? You can go with that as well. It would seem like your copycat in me, but that's fine. Well, that's just because you went first. We did that on purpose. The afternoon show Bits deals from us constantly.

So you want something else? I bet Brennan's got something. Brandon, what do you got is your gut feeling this week? Well, right before we got into this, you were talking about the Astros only being up a game and a half for that two spot. Right. By the time of that series against the Mariners, which starts next Monday. Right. They will be up at least three games with a chance to clinch the series or clinch the playoff spot in that series.

So your gut feeling is Astros gain a game and a half in the next six days. Yeah, they got a, what, a six game homestand here? Texas and Arizona. Yeah. The Mariners play San Diego. And some A's. Yeah, they're going to gain at least a game and a half. It could be more.

So you're saying that by next Monday we ain't sweating this. It's exactly what I'm saying. That's your gut feeling. Yes. Okay, I like that. I can respect that. 7-13-212-5-7-90. So his gut feeling is don't sweat the standings,

minus Texans lose by at least 10. Ross, what you got? How about this? My gut feeling is that the, I don't know if there's going to be a full-out brawl, but at some point the benches will clear in the next. next two days between the Dodgers and Padres. Really? Because Tatis and the boys

are pretty damn arrogant, aren't they? Yeah, who's a, was it a name Grisham or whatever yesterday? Stopping with two feet on the plate, something's going to happen. I'm bothered by San Diego. They have an amazing stadium, an amazing city. Their uniforms suck, but they do

smash the ball all over the field. Yeah, Trent Grisham. He was pimping it. He was hearing something from the bench, and then he two-foot stomped on the plate, something's going to happen. Are we going to learn to hate the Padres? I like it. I don't mind bat flipping. I do like the bat flip.

Bad flip. Bat-flip. Okay, so you've got a fight in the Dodgers' Padres games. Maybe not punches thrown, but there's something's going to happen. Benches are going to clear and they're going to, maybe they're just going to shout at each other and social distance. There will be an incident. How about that? All right.

Let's do it. What do you got, gang? What is your gut feeling? 713-21-2-5-7-8 line 1 says he doesn't have a gut feeling about it, so it's just a regular call? We'll have to save you for the next break then. All right. So if you got a gut feeling, let us know.

7-1-3-21-5-7-9. And again, if you want to shoot us a tweet, what other gut feelings would you have in life? Trying to think what else. What was Brennan's again? That the Astros are not going to have to worry about sweating out the games next week. Here's what I was wondering about. Yeah?

Will we know by this time next week the Rockets next coach? No. If you weren't here, but the Rockets took their sweet time the last time around. Now, granted, that was less than Alexander was the coach or the man owner of the team. Part of me says if you're coaches you want to, well, how would you do it? You'd want to get the job as soon as possible because if there are other guys, you're out there. But don't you want to also interview as many people as possible? And I would think if that's the case, you would not do it in five days.

could see it be pretty quick. You think so? Maybe maybe not by next week, but maybe the couple of weeks. Because the turnaround time is so quick right now. Because you can do it on Zoom. The draft is coming up. The, I mean, the season is going to be, I mean, we don't know when the season is starting, but it's in a couple of months. We don't know how long the off season is going to be. A lot of turmoil. You might as well try to get somebody locked in. I think it's going to be harder because I think as much as these Zooms are becoming a big

part of it, you still want to see face-to-face with a guy, right? I'm going to have somebody over to the Post-Oak Hotel. Yeah, whine them, dine them, see what he orders. See if he, you know, tries to pay for the bill? I thought you're going to say something else after one and then I'm and die him. No, no. Okay. Like, if you are up for a job and they said, let's go to lunch, do you order a chicken

salad because you want to be light and hearty and not spend a lot of money, or do you go for the filet mignon that's $66? That's an indication whether you know what you're going to surf and turf, baby. Let's go. Well, it's a culture change. So you need to ask yourself what would Dan Tony do and then do the opposite, right? Ooh, Dan Tony is surfing turf with a, bottle of wine. He loves Italian food too.

So he's like, let's go do Tex-Mex. And Tillman's like, yeah, I got the Cadillac Bar down the street. We'll go there. Tellman's got everything. You can't, I don't think you knew a job interview at the Cadillac Bar. It seems like I'm going to be a little. Why not? It's a little out. They have a wonderful brunch. I'm sure it's great, but it's just not an easy place to do some conversations.

I've been day drunk at that brunch. Have you? Yeah. Is it even around? Pre-pandemic. Yeah, I was going to say, no more brunches anymore. All right. So those are our gut feelings. We'll write them down and if we hit, we'll brag about them the next Tuesday. And if we don't hit them, we'll just basically forget we even tried them. All right, 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for Berkeley Eye Center. Lasix Savings continue at Berkeley Eye Center. They had the summer promotion that went so well, they're like, hey, why don't we try this for a few

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You text LASIC to 48484848. More details at BerkeleyI.com. The most awkward nooner you'll ever be a part of. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Time is 119. It is the Matt Thomas show. We say hi to our friend Aaron Reese from the athletic coming up at the bottom of the hour. 713-212-25-790 if you want to get on the conversation.

713-212-5-790. On the show tomorrow, we will have Dusty Baker at 1230. We will have Joe Clad at 1 o'clock. We will have an astro player, I believe, at 2.30. And we got, oh, the debut of Rotten 5 tomorrow. Is that right? Yeah.

Are the Houston Texans, one of the bottom five teams in the NFL? I say if they put that up, that performance against anybody but Kansas City, the answer would be yes. I don't think you can do that against Kansas City. Find out tomorrow. I don't think it's fair. I will call you out if you put them in the bottom five. Well, you can call me out all you want.

The list is the list, Matt. The list speaks for itself. Yeah, tomorrow, Dusty Baker, Joel Clatt, Ross is Rotten 5. And we will be efforting, I think, a Baltimore reporter, too. So we need to. Because I want to know how good the Ravens are. And again, beating Cleveland, is that do much for anybody? I don't know.

To me, in the limited time, I watched that game and I was mostly red-zoning it, you could put the Steelers Steel Curtin defense, and I think Lamar Jackson would be able to figure it out a way to beat them. That offense is so prolific right now. It just is. All right, let's go to the phone. [phone]. I got a bone to pick here with Chris and Copperfield.

Chris, you're a segment-lane on a gut feeling. Where were you six minutes ago? Oh, man. I was away from the phone for a minute, but I'm back. All right, nice to have you back. What is your gut feeling? Hey, man, great show as usual. Thank you.

I got a gut feeling. After the Texans lose to Baltimore, Bill O'Brien's going to say it's on me. But is that a gut feeling when it happens every time? I don't know. It seems like he's always got to have to say. Yeah. It's a gut feeling.

Yeah, and he's, yeah, okay, you're right. It is a gut feeling. I guess gut feelings don't have to be, it can be things that have happened multiple times, correct? That's true. It's also a gut feeling they're going to lose. It's history of repeating itself. But I wanted to be a little more further out there.

I didn't, I didn't gut feeling that's going to be a close game. I think when we group text on Sunday afternoon, it'll be, damn, Matt, this isn't, your gut, you were right on your gut feeling. I had a gut feeling last week. The Texans were going to lose 34 to 21, and that was a point off. So I'm going to ride that train. I'm going to ride that train as long as I can.

Okay. How'd the beat the Schmo's we do? I think I did horribly. Yeah, you were awful. Was I 0 and 4? I'll check in a minute. I was at least, yeah, I missed at least three or four. I think, Brendan, you finished the best of the four of us.

Three and one. Did you go three in one? Yeah. It's always about the points, too. Don't worry. Like me, I'm always the three and one, but I always put the 5,000. play on the one that I lose. Yeah, I think I lost all of them. It's okay. It's a rough week. We're not even in October yet, so. Yeah, once we get to locktober, things will change.

Stephen and the Heights at 122 on Sports Talk 790. Hi, Stephen. Hey, how are you? Wonderful. Hey, I love your show. You always put a smile on my face with y'all's banter back and forth, so I always love it. We have a good time. Thank you for saying that. Hey, I've got a conspiracy theory. I want you all to bounce around and get y'all's thoughts on it. Okay. So here's my conspiracy theory is the Houston Astros, because there are so many injured players, all of our superstars seem to be hurt.

All of our regular starters, or at least a lot of them, seem to be hurt. I think Major League Baseball came to the Houston Astros, and the commissioner himself came to Houston Astros and said, we know you cheated. We know this. We could ban you from the sport for life. But what we're going to do is we're going to say, you have to be hurt. for X number of days next year. And you have to go on the DL

and we'll make up some reason while you're hurt. Why would baseball force them to do that? What would be in their interest in doing? The other alternative would be to say, we know you cheated. So therefore, we're going to ban you like Pete Rose and Shulis Joe Jackson. So we're going to ban you.

You cheated in the sport. So we're going to make an alternative. We'll forgive you. Come clean. And Major League Baseball also probably, knew the Red Sox and Yankees cheated. Well, but the thing is, is if Major League Baseball knew that the Astrosheet, which they did, they couldn't ban these players for life.

That's not an offense that would cover lifetime management. What they could have done is pulled their World Series trophy away and said, you aren't the word. We could expunge them from the record books. That's the most punishment you would possibly could give a team and saying, we don't consider you champion. So they don't, in major league. Pete Rose got banned for gambling.

But that, but that again, that was, but his, his offense causes is subject to a lifetime management from the sport. What the, what the Astros did was not a lifetime management from the sport. Using electronic technology, hold on, using electronic technology to gain an advantage does not deem in the major league baseball rule books or the bylaws as, you must all be banished in the sport. That was not in play. What was in play was year suspensions, fines, player suspensions, and a revoking of championships.

That was in play. And Major League Baseball basically said, if you come tell us everything, we'll keep the title in your city. But that was not, that's about as worse as it possibly could have gotten. And I think the player suspensions are based on fake injuries. That's conspiracy theory. Just a conspiracy. I got you. Thank you.

Yeah, it's not. Yeah, I would thank you for the call and I appreciate the nice words. I would completely disagree with that. I think facing the nasty public for a year is a pretty severe penalty. Now, the Astros didn't have to do any much of that this year because they were not playing in front of fans. They'll eventually get their comeuppance. When stadiums are full again, people will destroy the Astros. They just will.

But you don't, if you're managing baseball, you don't need to add a layer of conspiracy to what's already there. If you want to punish the Astros, you do it the way you want because you're the big boys. You're the bosses. And they deemed because of what they did. And, oh, by the way, what the Astros gave up in terms of information, the penalty was loss of draft picks, a year fine, a year suspension for its center manager and his manager, and a $5 million fine.

That's what they deemed thought was appropriate. Yes. Thank you very much for the kind words caller. That's completely ridiculous. No, nobody's doing conspiracies. Not, not at least in this way. It's just not practical. No.

The union would step in or Lance McCullors, the players would be like, no, this is not happening. Because you're going to affect people's livelihoods that way. And that's one thing that baseball players are not going to do. Why would George Springer be hurt for a week and a half when he knows he's in a contract year? Wouldn't do it. Yeah, I mean, we saw Jose Al-Tuvae. his knee wasn't right when he slid onto his tank on the third and third base a couple like a week ago.

I'm just very uncomfortable. You can see some of these injuries that you saw, you saw Yordon Alvarez pull up lame. Yeah. And it wasn't like Yorda was a bastion of health when the season started. We saw George Springer crashing into the wall and getting hit on the elbow. I'm generally speaking him and not conspiracy person. Now, am I, do things get covered up guy? Yeah.

Like Daniel House trying to cover up his deal in Orlando. Didn't work out. It did not work out. But there's been things that you go, okay, so a guy is going on the disabled list because he's got an injured pinky when his ERA's been 11 on the last two weeks. That makes sense.

But having them make up injuries to cover up for our lack of suspension at Major League Baseball had the authority to do so? Nah, not by it. Don't think so. All right, we'll talk to Aaron Reese from The Athletic Next 127. It is the Matt Thomas show, and this is Sports Talk 790. Sports Talk 790, available every one. with the IHard Radio app.

Now number one for podcasting. National Sports Talk. Hell no. To the no-no. Houston Sports Talk. This is Houston Sports Talk 790. Home for your home teams. 133 on Sports Talk 790.

Our Tuesday visit with Aaron Reese is now. We always appreciate his coverage of the Texans at Aaron J. Reese. Worthy of getting a. subscription to the athletic too. They don't pay me to say this. I'm just telling you. It's just good behind the scene stuff. I don't need to know what practice squad player got signed or whatever. I want to know behind the scene stuff. And Aaron does a fantastic job with that. Aaron, first of all, we're glad you actually made it to the game in Kansas City. How long did you spend at the airport last Thursday? It wasn't too bad. I think my flight took off at 1230 and

it was supposed to take off at 930, but it was a little scary because the whole kind of reason I was going, obviously, was to get like a whole sense of the, the mood of the game and stuff, including the tailgating and whatnot. And there was the chance the flight was going to get canceled. And maybe I'd have to take a 2.30 flight at which point I basically would be landing and then just getting to the game in time for pickoff. So I was happy it all worked out. But it was more stressful and I'd never been before.

I'd never traveled on the day of a game before. Well, we've got to get the athletic budget up a little bit. I'll talk to Jenny Dowell about that. So what was the tailgating like? You know, like obviously if you could look out from above, you'd see, you know, the parking lot was not full, not even close. But when you're actually just like standing in the rows of people who were tailgating, it felt like almost like oddly normal. You know, I mean, there were cones, I guess, in every other parking spot that was supposed to, you know, separate each tailgating spot or whatever. But, you know, people are kind of intermingling and talking to strangers, high-fiving strangers.

no one has a mask on. So when you're just like walking through the roads and tailgating, it doesn't, it feels like a normal time, which I guess, you know, depending on what your opinion is of the moment we're living, and that's the good thing or a bad thing. But when you're actually at the game, it didn't feel like that.

People didn't have to keep their mask on. They were stationed far apart, and obviously there's far less people in the seat. And, you know, as we're watching the game on television, I know they were not even close to a set out, and Arrowheads won a lot of teams in the NFL, but for whatever it was, 16, 17,000 people, I think they made their voices heard,

and I'm sure the Chiefs fans appreciated that, and probably a good sign. I've not heard anything about any problems coming out of the game, but if it worked out well there, that hopefully, you know, maybe not, obviously for this week, but the Texans can get some fans in their building for the next time they play,

which will be home against Minnesota. Right, obviously, you know, I don't know what the calculation is there in terms of opening the roof and then it being an outdoor venue, and if that makes people feel, makes them feel a little more inclined to allow more people in or whatnot.

But, you know, my big takeaway was, that like, you know, the game itself, attending the game, I could see that, you know, you could do that in a safe enough manner, depending on how people you let in, where you spaced them out, how disciplined you are about kind of making sure people keep their mask on and stuff. But I think it's just harder to really police people when it comes to tailgating and people who want to tailgate and be around other people. I think, you know, they're only going to take all of it so seriously.

Let me ask you this. What was the most troubling thing you thought you saw? Now, again, Kansas City, prolific office. I thought their run game was able to keep them on the field by getting five, six yards to carry. It wasn't one of those seven-step dropped kind of days from a home. They would just throw the ball deep down the field. So in your mind, what disappointed you most out of the Texans performance last Thursday?

I would say probably the offensive line. You know, I didn't expect, like, you know, I picked them on your show. I didn't pick the Texas to win. But I did think it was maybe going to be a little bit more of a shootout. I thought that was at least kind of the best case scenario for the Texas is they could score enough to keep the game entertaining. And they really didn't. You know, I mean, at the end, obviously, the final stats, I think they out gained the chiefs and yards for play and yards for carry yards for 10th, all that stuff. But it was kind of padded with 20 stats at the end.

They just, as an offense as a whole, they just kind of looked out of sync. And, you know, Brennan Cooks, Randall Cobb, I didn't, I kind of anticipated maybe a little bit of a slow start, especially cooks, with the injury he had just because of being new and lack of continuity. and the lack of practice time and stuff. But the line, you know, that's one of the areas where this team really has kind of beat its chest about having continuity and finally returning all five starters first time in the O'Brien era. And you wouldn't have known it if you watched the game. You know, I mean, I think Zach Colton, he had a lot of trouble.

Titus Howard a little surprising to me at them issues. You know, I think you kind of hope for that team that if the line isn't good, that's really a problem because, you know, now more than ever you're asking to Sean Watson to do a lot for this team. There is no DeAndre Hopkins to kind of elevate. elevate bad situations to bail him out when everything goes poorly. And so you need Watson to be able to stay upright. You need him to have time to be able to let these guys separate downfield.

So if they can't do that, then that kind of is a huge problem. Is there an alternative if Fulton and Howard struggle again this week, moving guys around a little bit? What would be plan B if that side of the line especially has troubles like they did last week against the Chiefs? You know, I mean, in terms of Howard, I don't really know if there's much of an alternative. of like the backups are Brett Klavela and Rod Johnson. Rod Johnson, obviously, he was a swing tackle last year. They didn't have enough

confidence in to let him be in there. They also bring in Chris Clark, which I know not how I'm like, Texans were fans of that. And Klavela, you know, he's like another backup swing title guy. So I think it's a little too early on Howard to be worrying. I still think he's pretty good player. You know, he's coming off surgery from last year and, you know,

obviously he didn't have the offseason. I think it might just be a matter of getting back in game shape and I know all those sorts of things. Although I saw some people have commenting on his false stepping, whatever. But I think he's going to be in that spot. Folden is more interesting to me because I do think they have an alternative. They could go to Senio Kelametti there, right, Garter if they wanted to.

They brought him back this season restructuring his contract. He obviously been a starter in 2018 for an even worse Texas line. So he's not like some stellar replacement, but he has at least an option. I don't think the gap between him and Fulton is so wide that that's not under consideration. Busing with Aaron Reese from the athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at Aaron J. R-E-I-S-S. I think hands down the most encouraging part of the Texans offense, especially after that first drive was David Johnson.

Will we see a more concerted effort to give him a few more carries, or is that right about the sweet comfort zone for him on a week-to-week basis? No, I think you probably will. I mean, for one thing, although they probably were running more in the third quarter than I would argue they should have, or I think a lot of people would argue they should have given the nature of the game. I mean, with how much they were down, you probably didn't get as many carries as he would in an ideal situation still

just over the course of the whole game. And obviously with Duke Johnson's injury and his status being in question for this week, I do think you can see David getting even more carries because it's not really like to have an alternative there. Someone else to give those Duke Johnson carries to. Buddy Howell is a third running back on this roster. He's basically a special team player.

Colin Glasby as a fullback, obviously, he's not someone you're relying on for a lot of Russian production. And then he got some guys in the practice squad. So I think David Johnson probably will get a few more carries. And he himself said, you know, kind of a, he probably didn't get as many as he was stating as he would like in a normal game. Tim Kelly,

again, this is very much a Bill O'Brien offense, no matter whose call and plays, it had everything that earmarked previous years with Bill O'Brien running things. I felt like, and I'm not the only one that thought this, that the tempo just was, it was uneven and didn't show any sort of

urging, you know, getting out there and trying to push the tempo a little bit. Do you think that's going to be a concerted effort this week against the Ravens? Yeah, I think you would think so. I mean, I definitely agree with you. You know, like they, I mentioned in the third quarter, they ran the ball on one drive.

They were down 17 points. They ran the ball in five or eight plays. And I think in the whole third quarter, they ran the ball seven of ten points. That would not seem to be what you want. And then in addition to not just running the ball, they were, like you said, they were slow to get the line,

slow to get the playoff. I just, I don't think that's what you're going to be looking for. Because I imagine that this game, just like the last one, you could easily see them fall behind. buy a lot early and then need be playing catch up, need to be passing a lot. And so, you know, if they learn anything from that last game,

it's that if they fall into a similar situation, they can't keep pounding the ball on the ground as much. We barely heard Whitney Merciless's name. Zach Cunningham and coverage was not spectacular. The tight ends had a lot of fun last week. We obviously when you're going against Kelsey. It feels like Baltimore is going to do that same sort of thing this week if they're watching Texans tape.

Why didn't we hear Whitney's name a lot? Why didn't we hear much from that linebacking corps? Yeah, well, I mean, you know, Zach Cunningham, he always is kind of a struggling in coverage. He's never, he's not a super strong player in coverage. The Texans were last in efficiency on past events over the middle of the field last year, largely because McKinney and Cunningham could be exposed. In terms of the Whitney, you know, I think in general, the quiet day for the past rush, just because Mahomes was getting off the ball incredibly fast. It's fastest time to throw of his career, 2.3, 5 seconds, I think it was.

And also the shortest air yards per completion of his career. So, I mean, he was not challenging the ball. challenging them downfield much because they were, you know, they were going to focus on taking that away. And as long as they were playing with two high safeties, you know, they could either throw it short or end up to Clyde or just a lair who would carve them up. I do think just in general to run defense,

you know, I don't think it will be great this year. I don't think the defense in general will be great. But I do think it probably will get better with time. You know, you talked to a lot of Texans players. And players around the league, they say, like, tackling is really hard right now

because they didn't do it at all during the preseason. Obviously, Texans, for one, at least, did not tackle the ground at all during camp, because O'Brien was concerned about managing injuries. and there's obviously a benefit to that, but now they're paying for the downside of it. All right, so what does your gut feel about this week? The deep ball, I mean, anything beyond 10 yards, Lamar was amazing against Cleveland. And I don't know how you size up the Cleveland defense compared to the Texans defense.

But I think this team is still 9 and 7 worthy in terms of a record at the end of the year. But I don't think anybody would be surprised this team got off to an 0-and-2 start, especially with the competition. what has to change in order for the Texans to surprise some folks this week? Yeah, I mean, in terms of them to surprise them, the surprising folks, I think the offense, more, you know, I'm not at the opinion that you've got to worry about the defense. I mean, I think the defense is what it is. It's not going to be good. It's not going to be good against Baltimore teams.

I think the biggest thing is, can the offense get up on better footing? Can Brandon Cook assert himself a little more? Can Randall Osir himself a little more? He didn't get a target until they were like five minutes less in the game, and they were down by three scores. This is the guy you gave 18 million guaranteed to in a receiver market. that otherwise you free agents were getting that much sort of money. So I think it's more about the offense.

Can they find their footing than anything else? Because I think they're going to have to score a lot of points. But, you know, my prediction is probably that this game is even worse than the last one. I think that it will be pretty ugly. But I don't think that's necessarily a reason to panic. Like you said, you know, this team realistically was never going to probably win its first two games. You may be hoped for a little better showing that they had against the Chiefs. But O&2 is probably always the way the season is going to unfold.

But really is key is can they win one of those games against Pittsburgh and Minnesota? two games after that. In Minnesota, I think, was a surprise disappointment. So you say, okay, that's now more win a game. Well, Green Bay went to their building and beat them pretty well. So that's maybe perhaps a more difficult game. That's why I don't know about you, Aaron. I don't put a whole lot into week ones. I think it's a, it's much better to do a two or three or four-week assessment on teams before you start figuring out how the rest of the schedule is going to go. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, especially when you're playing the defending several chance who basically are bringing everything back in a year when continuity is more important.

than ever because of the lack of off-season practices and whatnot. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think we're really going to start learning a lot about this team probably until, you know, after week four, after they've played the Steelers and played the Vikings, and you get a little bit of fuller picture of how they play against teams who are a little bit closer to them in terms of competitiveness. We'll leave it at that, my friend. Have a great week. Thanks for the time, and we'll look forward to reading your stuff on Twitter at Aaron J.

And, of course, at the athletic website. Thanks, man. You got to talk to you next week. That's Aaron Reese from The Athletic. All right. You, me, Ross, and Brennan, the rest the way. It's 713-212-5-790. It can get worse before it gets better, right?

Wasn't too long ago. The Texans went 0-3 to start the season and wind up one in the AFC South by a comfortable margin. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Darrell Mori here. Let's go, Rockett! This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 151 on the Matt Thomas show.

Another hour and change left to go. believe it or not today is all things about Stephen Goscowski. Mr. Miss, a bunch of kicks, but left the hero. Angel Hernandez had him at 4-4-4-sa-4. Say that again? Angel Hernandez had him at 4-4-4-4. Oh, you cross-reference sports. Top of the hour, Tillman Fertita speaks to CNBC.

He's got a show that he does there once a week. Okay. And it worked out perfectly that he was on today. We'll let you, I'll read some of the quotes that are coming from. The show's called the CNBC Power Lunch. Ooh. I think we should change the name of this show to Power Lunch? We could have a Power Lunch segment.

How would you describe it? Go ahead. We should talk about food and get really hungry like I always do. So basically every day on the program. Exactly. The Matt Thomas Power Lunch anyways. We used to do the Power Hour, right? The 2 o'clock recharge?

Yeah. We're going to continue the 2 o'clock recharge. We're going to bring it back. With lightning bolts and stuff. Well, kind of just we have a new audience that listens to us every hour, we hope. So, yeah. You said we used to play a song at 2 o'clock that would get you going. That was early on the show.

The problem is what gets me going in 2 o'clock doesn't get you going in 2 o'clock and definitely doesn't get burning going. It was Mandy by Barry Manilow and you're not like you're really one getting excited. It was Catina in the Waves. Katrina and the Waves, yes. And Katrina. All of them. It can everybody. The Waves can't.

Yeah. It can't. Can she keep playing? She probably still has a career going. It was too soon. For what? She's still alive. Katrina of the Waves?

Well, she's got to skip New Orleans on the tour. That is too soon. That's what I'm saying. 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to David and Cyprus at 153. Hi, David. Hey, guys. How's it going?

Wonderful. I just want to talk about the Astros right quick. Okay. And I want to get your opinion because I keep hearing everybody say that these guys are, I guess they seem out of it and everything. And I'm trying to understand, like, what's going on with this team? Are they really out of this? and they're just milling it in and want to put all this scandal behind them,

or are they actually trying to win? What would possess you to think they don't want to win? That's what I'm curious about, because here's the thing. If this team had Verlander, Grinky, a healthy McCullors, Osuna closed in the back and into the bullpen, it had, who else am I forgetting? Yordon Alvarez playing, and this team was a game under 500, I'd be absolutely buying into what you're, I think you're leaning towards.

but this is not the real Houston Astros. It's just not. And so I'm sorry, as often as Andre Scrub has been, and Christian Javier has done his thing, no one's fretting the Houston Astros with two of those guys being guys throwing major innings for this baseball team. Yeah, it's just what the national media have been saying. They said that they think that the scandal got into them

and they're just ready to move on. And if that's the case, it would be nice that they let the fans know so we can lower our expectations, you know. But when do you listen to the national media go, oh, that's a fair point. Well, I mean, it depends. It depends because, I mean, I get what you're saying, but it's just also the play, too. I mean, it seems like they can't really score runs.

It seems like they can't do a lot of things. So that's just my opinion. They were completely checked out when they were down five to one against Kenley Jansen on Saturday and then strung together five straight hits and won that game. Yeah, but then the game afterwards, they only score one run. Yeah, but they could have quit in that game, right? If they didn't care, wouldn't they have not even strung together? some hits when they just went up there and struck out and quit?

Hey, I could, I could be wrong. I'm saying that's just the narrative. I'm just asking you. But you're a smart guy. I mean, I don't think you're going to let that national narrative go. That makes a lot of sense, especially when they score all those runs to come back in the game when they are still in second place. And you also, you follow the team probably closer than the national guys.

What part of this year's baseball team? I mean, does seeing Alidemez-Diaz and Jack Mayfield and Miles Straw getting significant playing time make you think it's anything close to the 2017 Astros? No, no chance. I just expect a little bit more success than, you know, getting sweet. I think they could take a couple of games from Oakland. They could take a couple of games from these teams. I don't think that with their, with all the people missing that they're, you know, as bad as getting swept by the Angels, getting swept by the Oakland. I'll think. Well, they also swept the A's when they were here, too. So, I mean, look, you,

I understand. You're trying to find what's wrong. And the reality is this. Injuries have played a lot of it. I do think the constant conversation about cheating has played a role in it. I think the 60-game gimmicky season has played a lot into it. And you've also got guys either on new contracts or looking for them that's hitting, you know, part of the nerve too. You know, George Springer is worried about where he wants to play in his future.

Does he want out of Houston to get a clean slate or does he want to stay here and get rich? Does he think about whether or not he's getting the money or Carlos Gray is getting the money? I think it's a combination of things. But I'm not going to let anybody tell me that because of the scandal is the reason why the 20-20 Astros have been a major disappointment. I think it has a small factor in it, but not a big one. Well, okay. And I have one more question. Sure.

Yeah. Well, you just said George Springer wants a clean slate by leaving, but how is leaving going to give them a clean? slate. Basically, I don't understand how what he did, like how leaving is going to forgive him for cheating and... It's not. That's right. That's right. I'm not saying

he's going to get a clean slate. I'm saying he may want a clean slate. He may want out of this to go, you know, because remember, this is a guy that never, and thank you for the phone call. It's a good conversation. This is a guy that was held back in arbitration and didn't get to play what his first major league game was almost 26 years old.

He may have resentment. towards that. Now, granted, the current ownership, no, Jim Cran was the owner at the time, but it was the current general manager is not here that was doing that. The manager, you know, I mean, he just may want to, he may want out because that's what free agents get to do when they get to test the waters for the first time. They either sign long-term deals and like Mike Trott wants me an angel for life, or they go, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you know, maybe because the Astros couldn't light me up before the start of the season, I want to go test the free agent waters. and this likely will be Ross

his last super big contract because at 31, if he signs a five or six year deal, very rarely do 37 year olds get those mega dollar contracts. Yes, I agree with that. He'll be fine. He's going to live. Well, I mean, I'm... But if George Springer winds up playing for

the Diamondbacks, he's going to get pepper with questions. Anybody that attached to the 2017 team. Now, he'll get less. He will. But you'll be... They'll always have to answer for it. They just will, no matter what team they play for. They're uniform. And so that comes with a territory of being a part associated with that to a 2017 team.

Final hour, Matt Thomas Show starts in a manner of moments. 713-212-5-790. Tellman for Tita quotes. Next, it's the Matt Thomas Show at 158. Is the Matt Thomas Show. 203 on Sports Talk 790. 713. 212-790, 713, 212-1-2-5-790, all things, Stephen Galskowski.

I wonder if one of the questions will be about how you spell Galskowski. Hmm. Hmm. No. It seems pretty straightforward. Okay. I'm not going to do it. Go ahead. No, I don't embarrass myself. Why not? You embarrass yourself 12 to 3 Monday through Friday on the show. That's true, but not today.

All right. We will hear momentarily. We got it now. This is the power lunch with Tillman Furtado. If we ever do another show... Talk with a side of pickles and some classic lays. Speaking of pickles, there's a big jar of pickles in our kitchen. Yes. Okay, it's very weird. So we always get food left out in the kitchen.

If I have like 50 cupcakes at home and I want them to go away, I just bring them up here and they're going within five seconds. I do that with Halloween candy. Because we've got a much of rats and vultures around here. But anyways, including myself. You know, just saying. But now, of all the things that I've seen... You've seen Halloween candy, like you've said. I've seen cupcakes, rib sandwiches,

a giant plastic jar of pickles. Yep. Like, do they're tongs? You just jam your hand in there and come out with a pickle? I've always wanted an omel station. We're getting pickles instead. Can the coronavirus survive in pickle brine? Well, you know, Moyes just a little like the pickle brine.

Oh, that was a different kind of pickle brine. All right, here we go. This is Tillman Fertita on his power. lunch just moments ago about the future Daryl Morey and the coaching search of the Rockets will begin very shortly. And I'm sure he's going to pick the right head coach. Daryl Morey's job is safe and I'm sure he's going to pick the right head coach. Well, it begins and ends with the general manager. And you can talk to me about business all day long, but I personally wouldn't know what coach to hire.

That's why you have a basketball operations team that's made up. about half a dozen people that use all kind of analytic and experience. Unfortunately, my voice got in the back of that for some reason. So we will edit again and try to replay shortly.

That's fine. Daryl Mory says I mean, Tome Fertita says Daryl's job is safe. I didn't think it was anything of a question. Well, once I heard

culture change, I was a little bit. Culture reset. What did he say? Yeah, culture. He didn't say it. That's fine. It's the perception

that's out there. So now that we know it doesn't involve the general manager. We already know there's a coach coming. So let's rephrase that. What do you think a culture reset is? I'm going to state with what I thought it was going to be, and that is changing up the pieces of the puzzle.

But I don't know how you do that when you've, again, Darrell's done some crazy things. Untradable contracts certainly became tradable. No more casual Fridays. Daryl's going to have to start wearing a suit every day. Culture change. No, that's not what I was thinking. I mean, trades.

Or doing, or hiring a coach that is the exact 180 than what Mike D'Antony was. Which, okay, let's put it this way. Younger. Okay. Really, anybody's going to be younger at this point. I mean, Mike's, I mean, Mike would say that to you. I mean, Mike's 69 years old. Maybe has been on an NBA floor within the last decade as a player.

Okay. 20 years. I'm throwing something's out. You tell me if this sounds like that. this. Maybe an assistant coach currently on the team. Maybe a coach that is looking for his first opportunity as compared to getting, because think about the other coaches that have been here in the last, what, 20 years,

Rick Adelman, Kevin McHale to a very lesser extent, because he was really an interim coach in Minnesota. But Rick Adelman, Jeff Van Gundy, were head coaches other places. Do you go find the new breed, the new run of the hot assistant coach who wants his first shot. Would that be a culture change for an organization? It would be a culture change. I would, well, look, it's going to be a lot of it.

It's going to be up to what James Harden wants, right? He's probably going to want somebody who's a formal player. I don't know if he's going to want some young assistant, then he doesn't know anything about. Here's what I don't think would happen. I don't think new player comes in and then says, a new coach, excuse me, and says, James, look, you are one of the most unbelievable offensive threats

in the history of the NBA, certainly in the last 20 years. but I'm going to have you do it a little bit differently. If he does, it's going to have to be somebody with skins on the wall. That's someone that James has Uber respect for. Somebody that can get to James and say, this is not how we're supposed to do it. And this is not exclusively on James either. This is on, I think Rossi, anybody that makes serious money for this basketball team should be adhering to the same sort of philosophy.

I think Eric Gordon has to hear this conversation. I think Russ has to hear this conversation. Robert Covington's, what, over $10 million a year or somewhere in that range? He's been 12. Yeah, he's got to hear the conversation. I think anybody that's in the rotation that makes serious cash, I think PJ Tucker's looking for another contract after next year. He's got to hear that conversation.

Clearly, if you are saying that a culture change needs to happen, and again, this is all just see or say, you are getting nothing close to what this team was last year. Problem is, the core is still going to be here. again, you can change, you can rearrange the furniture, but it's still going to feel the same way, right? Yeah, unless there's going to be a major trade or something like that. And see, every year the last couple of years, we have said there's no way they're going to trade Chris Paul. Oh, no, excuse me.

There's no way they're going to go get a Chris Paul. And they did so. They had to trade a boatload of players and draft picks. then you put together the 65 win basketball team and then two years later apparently James and Chris aren't besties anymore and you're like well how are you going to fix this oh you're going to find a trade partner

that wants to move their large contract for your larger contract so the question is if you are really going to make a significant move and it doesn't sound like it's going to be James the only super rich player that's left with multiple years will be Russ you've got to go find a team that thinks Russ is the missing piece of their puzzle and is willing to take on a salary. And I don't know if that can be found right now.

I agree with that. I don't know if there's going to be a lot of suitors who want a guy who's on the wrong side of 30, has no jump shot and makes $40 million a year. Now, you can do that for James. I think you could trade James. You can get a lot for James harder. But you've got to make sure the money's coming back, too. Money's got to come back and I would have a bunch of draft picks.

You're talking about reset at that point. is Tillman going to say because we know Les Alexander would never do it Correct With Tillman's That's a culture change

I don't think in Tillman's DNA That's there We'll blow this up We're going to lose For a couple of years And we're going to get a bunch of high-packs Because here's the thing

We don't All we know On Tillman's clock Is that Mike's been his coach And did not And did not want to They failed to come together On a new extension

He is solidly behind Daryl Doesn't want to pay Luxury tax Which no one or No, but he does. I mean, most 29 and 30 teams in the NBA don't want to pay like for the case. I think Daryl would do a great job in a rebuild.

You let him start up from the ground floor for the first time as a general manager? But if Daryl and James go to Tillman and say, we want Russell Westbrook, he green lights it. I agree with that. Daryl's only 48. He's been on the job a long time. Yeah. He's never, he's never been through a rebuild. Because he's never had an owner that would green light that.

And here's the thing about rebuilds. While it sounds kind of cool today. Yes. Apathy and loss of revenue and empty seats and lousy television ratings and no app and no conversation on sports radio? That's not fun. Sign the Astros. Yeah.

So and take a look how long that took. Rossi, that was what? 2010. That was five years of that. Now, I don't think it takes five years in the NBA to do that. But it's but it's, but it will, it was done it overnight. Nobody goes from title contender to tank job back to title contender in a three-year span. Doesn't work that way.

Warriors might. Well, but a lot of, that's because of injury. Because of injury. It wasn't because they. That's what we need, major, Hardin and Westbrook injuries. Hardening any kind of knee surgery or anything? I don't know. He's fine.

Okay. So now you're endorsing fake surgeries. No? I think this show you're doing in Gainesville next year is not going to go well for you. Why not? Because I don't think you should be-go-Ga-as. Pushing fake injuries of the audience. You don't come into the swamp.

So that's why, Ross, I think when you hear Rebuild, no one goes, oh, that makes sense. I think it makes sense, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Again, we're not the ones watching the books. Yeah, and you're going to teams, sometimes rebuild doesn't guarantee you're going to work. No, because Phoenix has been trying to rebuels. rebuilt for 20 years. Phoenix hasn't been the same since Dan Tony Love, right? Essentially.

Yes. The Hawks have been rebuilding for 30 years. Well, they had that 161 season. Right, but that's not, you know... That was more of an album. The Knicks had been rebuilding since 73. It feels like to me, when you get to the dregs of the NBA, the dregs have been there for a while. The Detroit Pistons.

Great example of that. Orlando, just on the cusp of being an Eastern Conference playoffs. The Lakers did the tank thing, and they were getting a bunch of high picks and they're using them on Julius Randall and Lanzo ball. They really got better when LeBron James says, okay, I'll come over. Yeah. The word Los Angeles did more help than anything else. Yes. All right. 1-13, mega 213 here on the Matt Thomas show. If you'd like to get in, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-70. We will try to replay the Tillman cuts coming back just let you hit a better version of that. And then hear more from you as we get ready for the Texans game against the Ravens this Sunday.

the Astros play the Rangers tonight. 6 o'clock will be the on deck time, and I'll have it for you right here on Sports Talk 790. I have a message right now for Oops, steam cleaning. I am so proud to speak for these folks. I've done that since the show began back in January of 2010. For professional cleaning that's done in a fair price by trained professionals, 281, 8220561.

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It goes to hard, three to shoot, jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk, 7-90. Are you kidding? Well, it begins and ends with the general manager, and you can talk to me about business all day long, but I personally wouldn't know what coach to hire. That's why you have a basketball operations team that's made of a half a dozen people

that use all kind of analytics and experience and, you know, they'll make a recommendation to me as they do about everything. And I'm the sign-off guy, okay, that's it. And I wouldn't know how to interview a basketball coach. Now, if you want me to go interview a CEO for a company, I'll be the first one to say, I think I'm better than anybody else. But, you know, to be successful in business, and I say this in my book, you better know what you know and you better know what you don't know.

And I surely know what I don't know when it comes to basketball. What do you think? Great. He wants Darrell to do the heavy lifting, bringing the candidates. Yes. And let's go. I like owners who recognize they don't know everything about basketball, football, or baseball, and they need to hire smart people to fill those roles,

and then they let them do their thing. And most importantly, whether you like it or not, he trusts Darrell for that decision. So there'll be, you know, everyone's thinking, is Darrell's job save. You know, Darrell got a big contract at the end of the of a couple years back. So I think he was fine.

Yeah, he was executive the year like two years ago and they got a huge extension. And Tillman to, you know, I'll say this. Tillman to his credit, back to his general manager with all the firestorm concerning Hong Kong and China and all that stuff. A lot of other owners would have said, get out. Yes. So he trust him. And that's all you can do. I think it's the right move.

And as I said yesterday, we were debating this. Was it yesterday or Brian? Brian. Brian Smith has had issues with Mori for years. That's fine. Nobody's going to be favorites of everybody. I mean, you know, it is, you're just going to, you're allowed to pick and choose who you like and don't like.

I don't problem with that. Is that if Darrell was to be let go, he's got a job within 48 hours. Absolutely. No question of my mind about this. I'm in the league. I know, I know. I hear about it. I hear this.

There you go. And you also. Scoops Thomas says he would be, he would have a job in seconds. Well, I don't, I don't, because you know why? And look, there are other teams that run the offense is, better than the Rockets. There are other teams that have the better personnel of the Rockets. But guess what everybody's doing in 2020, Rossi? They're running the rocket systems. And they're finding their assistant. The Kings are looking for former Rockets

executives, right? Well, he's the current executive to be the number two guy. And I know Monty McNair very well. Monty's a great guy. That will be a huge loss for the Rockets if he leaves. Yeah, if your guys keep getting poached, which keeps happening for Darryor you're doing something right. There are assistant coaches that are littered throughout the NBA the rocket ties. There are front office people. Gerson Roses is the general manager for the Wolves, and he's a long time Mori underling. So, yeah,

you may not like it. You don't like everything that your team does, but there's just so much rocket splattered all over the NBA. Whether that's right or wrong, that's not our decision. It's what the, it's the evidence. It's out there. I think it's right. I think Darry is a smart general manager. Correct. He hasn't wanted

championship, but he's been basically given an impossible task. No top five picks and no tanking, and you need to be building a championship contender every year. Now, I'll say this. This feels even more difficult than last year. Yes. Because you had, last year you had two high-priced guys that weren't getting along, supposedly. Allegedly. So now you've got two. Well, they were talking to even though who's it Vince Goodwill said they weren't talking to each other. Right, I saw them play cards in the plane.

That's wrong, but that's okay. Nobody who thinks about that anymore. Chris Paul has passed his prime. In the playoffs, he was terrible. Not terrible, okay. He wasn't, in the playoffs, he wasn't what you needed for a number two to win a championship.

Well, neither was Russell Westbrook, but maybe it's a quad thing. I don't know. So, but they were able to find a trade partner. And it certainly changed the style of your. I mean, would Chris Paul and James, if they really weren't getting along? which again, they may not have been.

How would things have been this year with Chris and James? I feel like Chris rejuvenated his career. He needed a little kick in the pants to say, you know what? You are not done. He wanted to prove his naysayers that he could go to a young team, be the guy. And I thought Chris had a fantastic season for them. Chris got them to game seven where nobody really thought, first of all, the Oklahoma State was going to make the playoffs,

much less go to the playoffs and then take it to a seventh game. That's true. He played really well. in the first round. I won't anything bad about Chris at all. I think he's a great player. I wish him the best. But I wasn't adverse to the Russ deal,

and I'm not ready to give up on that yet. But this feels like to me for Darrell and the organization, probably a much, much bigger challenge trying to figure out what you're doing, because now you've got another contract on your hands with Eric Gordon, it's a lot of money, and you still have a lot of years left on James and Russ, knowing that

one of them's prime it will be coming to an end in a couple of years maybe one has already started who knows I want the what I want Ross is I want the Russell Westbrook back

that I saw in December, January and February yes can I and I need that guy for 82 games you can win a championship or whatever's going to play as your second best player

yeah he had it was a weird weird bubble situation he had the coronavirus and then he had this quad injury a couple of games in he talked about in the post game of game number

I think maybe there is something to him not being healthy. But on the court, he's kind of, it looked pretty spry. He was jumping all over the place. Yeah, there wasn't enough for me to go, that's an injured Russ, to go, wow, I'm not seeing the same Russell Westbrook. What I wanted to see from Russ was on nights where James was off. And James was off. And James was off. Everybody is.

Russ would go to the lane, six or seven from the layups, hit that little occasional elbow jumper, get to the free throw line seven, eight times, make six of them. good stellar defense hold down on the ball not create had those crazy turnovers that was the russ i remember even saying it with mike playing in an MVP level for about a month now at his age and his wear and tear can you do that for six months i don't know evidence would probably lean towards no and you have to credit the lakers they have really they're one of the best defensive teams in the league best defensive teams with two amazing superstars and also guys that stepped up in the occasion they're role

players outperform the Rockets role players. This isn't an indictment in the Rock. It just is what it is. Yeah, they're Super Star Tandem. Outplay the Rocket, Super Star Tandum, and the role players outplay the Rockets role players. Other than that, great series for the Rockets. Had their moments, but couldn't overcome it. And then games four and five were just a tough watch.

And the Daniel House effect, I think, had something to do with it. Not a lot, but some. So you lose a player who get you 12 points a game, six rebounds, defensively is all over the place. to me he's in the right place at the right time, but athleticism, you can't, you can't take Daniel House's athleticism and put them in another body in person's bottom. The loss wasn't nothing like some people tried to say. No, it wasn't going to overtake the Lakers, but you'd have liked to have seen what they could have done.

And it's just the thought of them, the questions being asked, the fact your rotation got cooler, and the fact that, you know, Ben McLemore can help you out offensively, but I think the Rockets, under that last regime, were deathly afraid to play him to defend. defensively. Thus, the rotation was cut. And can you get younger? Can you get younger? Can you find a low post player that you can trust for that occasional time

where you want to be able to go in the low block? You know, you don't need a low post player. I don't think. Well, I don't know if you want PJ playing 655, even though it was, you know, again, he is going to work his ass off and has done so. But he's, and this is the problem with PJ,

and it's not his fault. He's never going to find a, a matchup from a size perspective that he's going to win. He has to play above whoever he's guarding against nine times out of ten. And that's just a lot of work. I mean, Javelle McGee and Dwight Howard

are bigger than him and they couldn't play after game one because you have to go smaller. Yeah, the Lakers went smaller. The Rockets moved their power forward to center. The Lakers moved their power forward to center and just played better. Markief Morris came in the starting lineup. Hit threes. He hit three.

50% of the series. If Alex Caruso is hitting threes, oh, geez. It just wasn't meant to be. And Marquif. And for that matter, you know who wasn't shooting threes was Anthony Davis. That's true. He just, that fall away 17-footer over and over and over again. Yeah, it cooled off out of the first couple of games.

So then it was just, I mean, it's LeBron James and too much of everyone else. All right. 227 is a time. Astros playing the Rangers. It's so close in the American League West. How close you say? I'll tell you, after I tell you about a new member to our 790 family, and that's Balconi's Distilling. These are group, this group, Jared Hymstead.

You're saying, I've never heard that name. Well, I'm going to tell you about Jared a little bit. He is the master distiller of the year for 2019, according to icons of Whiskey America. This is a guy that grew up in Waco and said, hey, I love being in the distilling business, and I want to try some things that I think are really going to be a trink. for the audience, not only in Waco, but in Dallas and Houston at all points in between. And if you love a high-end bourbon, I want to tell you about the Texas pot-still bourbon that is made today from Balconi's distilling. It is absolutely amazing. It's made grain to glass

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This is Houston's Sports Talk 790. Game and a half separates the Astros and the Mariners with the second place spot in the American League West. Thankfully, Brendan has a gut feeling that it won't be an issue next Monday. I'm going to hold you to that, by the way. I feel good about it. I'm glad you do. I do too.

Because the Rangers suck. They're mailing it in. Arizona's not any good. And I believe Oakland and don't Oakland, Seattle have some more games to play? or at least hopefully they do. I'm not 100% sure about that, but I know they play the Padres.

And the important thing is the Astros have played well at home. For some strange reason. I was actually looking. A lot of teams play much better on still this season. Yeah, the A's play the Rockies. That's moot. The Giants are in Seattle. Giants are about the Astros are 23 and 24.

Giants also beat them pretty good in Seattle last week. Rossi, we don't. I don't like to take a lot of time talking about other radio host. Okay. But... What happened? There is this guy named Dan McNeil, works at ESPN, Chicago. Okay.

He has been there forever. He has gotten to trouble in the past, but has been able to survive it. His 30 years at this station at WSCR Radio 670 is over. because he took a picture or saw a screenshot of Maria Taylor, who was working the Monday night game between Pittsburgh and the Giants. I'm a big Maria Taylor fan. Yeah, I know. I don't really know much about her, but she's attractive.

I mean, I can't have that. I like her. So he tweets a picture of her and says, NFL sideline reporter or a host for the Avian annual awards presentation. I mean, how incredibly stupid to say that.

Yeah, I mean, her outfit is a little, I mean, her shoulders are showing, I guess. Yes. But. I don't even really know what's going on.

It looks like she's got a backpack on or something. She might. She's on the first row of the stains. You just, you just, oh, you. You cannot attach a woman to an adult video news awards. You just can't.

You don't have to comment. I think it's a harmless joke. How about that? No, in this particular case, and I think we are too sensitive to things. Yeah. This one was tying her to pornography. Not a good look. I'm not saying it was a good joke.

Oh, yeah. The better the joke is, the more excusable it is. It wasn't a great joke. but I mean he's losing his job over this right yeah and it's not the first time he's okay okay if he's a repeat defender yeah that makes more sense yeah if this were an isolated incident I wouldn't think anybody would need to lose their job I would just say and I'm guilty this too in 20 we got to be we got to be super super careful well some of these girls on TV look like they're going to be in hosting and porn shows I don't it is not silent reporters

No, I don't think so. I mean, it's a weird outfit. I would say she looks more like she's in like an 80s Janet Jackson. Yeah, that you could probably get away with it. But attaching her to an awards show with porn stars. What are his previous offenses? I don't know. I don't like people getting fired over making stupid jokes.

Took him a half an hour to take it down. I mean, what? Does this hurt anybody's feelings? Has anybody heard about this? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely hurt hers. Okay. Well, is she going to be okay?

She told him off. All right. Well, there. He made a dumb joke. She told her off. Let's move on. I don't think, but, okay, like I said, I don't know what his previous offenses are. I just don't think people should be losing their jobs over making tasteless jokes on Twitter.

I think in 2020, and you hate to hear that. Yeah. That's just the reality. I understand. Well, I don't like it. There are things that are realities that I don't like, and I don't like that. Yeah. I don't know, Dan McNeil.

Maybe he's a complete a-hole and chauvinist and misogynist, and he needs to lose his job. I don't know that. But just speaking on this, I think it's a little ridiculous for somebody losing their job over. Let's see here. A bad joke. Effectively, what is to me a bad joke. I can't. I don't know if there's anything more. But apparently it was just, here's the quote from the vice president of radio in Chicago. We have the best teams in Chicago.

We must hold ourselves to high expectations to continue to be leaders in an organization, our industry and our community. We apologize to all that were offended by Dan's words, especially Maria. For each one of us, our words have power for our brands and our on-air personalities that is amplified and brings us increased responsibilities and how we chose to use our voices. Last night's tweet and its degrading and humiliating tone to a fellow female broadcaster was unacceptable. I found an article from 2009 because he had been previously with the company. Yeah.

It says there's no specific incident, but he had been suspended multiple times. Okay. So maybe you're right. If this was a first time offense, he apologizes and moves on. Yeah. Maybe this is, you've got, you have two strikes. We've had enough of you, Dan McNeil. Yeah.

I don't know. I just, and look, I think sometimes we go over the line and I have to rein myself in. I don't know. If I got fired for tweeting that someone looks like they're in porn, I don't know. I think it's a little ridiculous. But, I don't know. I think there's a lot of pressure on people on bosses to make sure that. Here's the thing.

What was the point of it? Was it to crack a funny? Yeah. I think he was trying to be funny. Calling a woman a porn star reporter probably isn't going to make a lot of people laugh. Well, Dan thought it was funny. I didn't say the guy was a made good joke. Dan's looking for work.

Dan doesn't think it's funny anymore. Yeah, let's go to Sean and Lake Livingston at 239. Hi, Sean. Hey there. How are you today? Good. What's going on? Just was kind of a couple of questions.

I was a little bit confused and maybe because I don't listen as often as I used to. So why in Kansas City game the other night were they allowed to have, let's say, 17,000 people? Yet we also have an open air stadium if they would ever open the roof, which I think they've welded it shut completely. Why couldn't there be 17,000 people at the Texas game on Sunday? There could be. It's up to each individual state. That makes sense. And then the other thing was I'm going to make the trip to Waco as I try to try to try to.

travel as much as I can. Class of 91 and just want to say go-goos. Go Couges. I'll see you there. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. McLean's name is supposed to be a Taj Mahal for central Texas. Okay. I mean, the other place was a dump. What was the other place called? I remember when I was growing up, it was Baylor Stadium, but whoever Floyd Casey is, they put a name on it. Floyd Casey probably donate a lot of money to Baylor. My guess is. Yeah. Now it's McLean Stadium. You know what I wanted from the Cougars and they never gave it to me? I wanted a drinking fountain at TDCU.

What? Yeah. Why? Because I wanted my name somewhere in it. Well, how much have you donated to them? Not enough, clearly. Yeah. I wasn't asking for a gate.

I'm sure it's not a Joe Jamail level or Telman-Fertia level. Yeah. Fatita's spent some money. Where would that athletic department be without Tellman for Tita? What a blessing. Well, he just built the arena. You didn't only built the stadium. I mean, his support certainly has helped.

Yeah. have. I mean, when you have border regents, either they're pro-athletics or they're anti. It's true. So, yeah, it's nice that we have people that are on the border regents and a president who appreciates athletics. There are a lot of schools that don't. There are a lot of schools that believe that athletics.

You don't got to call rice out like that, Matt. Yeah. Sorry, Andy. Go owls. 242. I'm sorry, go war owls. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Benjamin on.

7-90. Hi, Benjamin. What's going on? Oh, man. Just going down the road and listen to you guys. It's a bad joke, Ben. But I saw a thing about Deshaun Watson being sued by ABC 13. I couldn't read the article. I thought maybe I get you guys to read it to me. You know, I just saw it, so let me read it during the break, and I'll come

back and tell you all about it. I just literally got it in a moment ago. All right, thank you. Deshawn Watson is suing? No, no, no, no, no. Let's make sure we're accurate on this. He was getting sued? Let me look at the headline. Oh, that. I'm sorry. Well, I don't want you to do.

pretty erroneous information. Well, it's time for break anyways. I'm asking a question. I didn't make a statement. Well, you said, did Sean Watson sued over three images posted to Instagram? ABC 13 put a story out there about that. So that's what we'll do. I'll read the story and give it to you. Matt, we'll get Matt's book report on this report coming up next. I never did great book reports. You didn't? No, I used the Cliff Notes. And then wrote off of that and they're like, this sounds like you got this from Chapter 4 of the Cliff Notes. Oops. They have Cliff Notes. anymore? Yeah, well, the kids, I don't know. The kids, I think so. Their Spark Notes was what it was for me. That was online. Cliff Notes was amazing. Sparksnotes.com was my jam. You took a 500-page

book and you got it condensed into like 25 pages. Oh, all the... But then you would flip through the book for like a couple of specific details. Yes. To kind of fill it in. It would help you with essay questions too. Explain things. Perfect. 243. Sports Talk 790 with a message here for Shaw's Drew at the corner, West Gray and Montrose. Do yourself a favor. If you're looking for fine diamond jewelry, go to that location in the River Oaks area, at West Timor, I should say, at West Gray and Montrose, and you will enjoy the experience of visiting with those folks. They've been around since 1966. Men and their employees have been there since 1980s at Shaw's Jewelry. If you want to upgrade your current piece of jewelry, they'll help you

with that. If you want to trade in what you have now for another piece of jewelry, they'll help you with that. If you are thinking about getting a pre-on Rolex, you can get it today from our friends at Shaw's Jewelry. Open Monday through Friday, 10 to 7, Saturdays to go 10 to 6. Shaw's Jewelry, Corner West Graham Montrose, great people do business with, great jewelry, outstanding customer service, and the most competitive prices. That's Shaw's. The Rockets have Red Nation. Matt has Maddie Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now. You made it.

I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. going to make some picks on Friday. Oh, Matt, freestyle. Gonna get the Texan score. Oh, the music went away. There it is. Oh.

Here we go, Matt. Go. Hold on. I got it ready. You know they freestyle like this on the tonight show with Jimmy Fallon? They sing songs based off of just a beat. I can't do it here. The beat's going to drop here in a second.

You sure? Yeah. We've got to tell you about this Instagram story. I'll try to do the beat with this Instagram story. DeShan was getting sued from a guy who took some picks. And Deshawn put on Instagram to his one plus million followers. Didn't get any permission to put the photos on the blog. It went away.

It's down to the bed. Oh, see. the rare time I'm doing this, you've got to figure out a way to get a backup in there somehow some way. I'd love to, but I... You're hamstrung. Yeah, there's not a whole lot I could do it.

I got you. I guess I could have tried to catch up on YouTube. Nah, but you know what? You know when that song comes on, there's a 50-50 chance I'm here on now. Okay. Just saying. I know, I'll make sure I have a longer version.

And I feel like you're going to do this now to guilt me into doing it. At the very least, I'm going to make sure I have a longer version of that song. Real quick, Aaron Sch-S-P-R-C-H-E-R is suing Deshawn Watson because he posted Deshawn posted three images to his Instagram account without our photographer's permission. Currently

1.4 million followers. The images date back from September 17, May of 2018, in January of 2020, basically chronicling Watson's rise in the NFL from his rookie year. The image is showing sunglasses, ear

covering headphones, a shirt, suit, and bow tie during a pregame walk to the to the locker room. All I will say is this. The guy wants his money. Some money. The guy he's suing is a multi-millionaire. We have been told

the radio station over and over and over and over again. Don't post things that don't belong to you. Yes. Don't post pictures that aren't yours. That's it. Nice and easy on that one. So I don't know. My guess is he's going to get some money out of this.

Now, did Judge Sprint, did this guy Sprecker or whatever his name is, that he told Deshaun, hey, take it down and didn't he said, screw you know? Or do you, because that's one of that, I don't think he, I think it's slimy to sue somebody without giving them fair warning on it, right? Don't you think? It wasn't like, it wasn't like Deshawn was trying to make money off of the pictures. Yeah, he just loved his pictures. Yeah, like when Price's Right comes after you, it would be nice if they gave you a cease and desist first. Let me tell you, if they come after me to eliminate Plankle and Power bombs, I'll rename it. Okay.

No, you should fight them tooth and nail, Matt. No, I've got no interest to do it. Screw them. What are they? Paragon or whoever the hell who owns? Free Mantle. Okay, them. By the way, Adam Klein will be a guest this week on Plinko and PowerBubbubes. Yeah. We're going to talk about his WrestleMania experiences.

We're going to go over his favorite game shows and top three entrances of our favorite wrestlers. Wow. That sounds thrilling. Plinko and Powerbombs will be dropping this week, as the kids say. Can't wait. You're not going to listen, are you? Oh, yeah, I'll give you a listen. There's no chance.

I'll put it on for my plants when I'm away. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game. Shall we simply call it, believe it or not? And here's how it works. You'll call 713-2-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

Today's edition of Believe it or not, brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spons. Print on your gift card for the gift of Relan, station at Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is all things about Stephen Gaskowski. I would have misspelled this, by the way. That's why I didn't do it.

You can sound it out. Gostkowski. Gostkowski. If you put the tea in the front end of it, it helps out. Gostkowski. Yeah. Statement about Stephen Gosskowski is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it.

If it's erroneous full of bunk and may not be, you will say this. Two, believe it or not, in a row on all things about Stephen Gaskowski won you a prize. you don't get to do anymore because you don't know what the prize is. Yeah, we got DVDs. Of? It's Brokeback Mountain.

That's not true. Ninja Turtles 3. What are we playing for today? And VHF. Pick your flick of the movies 1917, Midway, Neil Young, Heart of Gold, and BBC's old gray whistle test. And if you're a company out there would like to send us some prizes, we would take them, correct? When you think? I get it.

Yeah. Yeah, I think we should. So if you'd like to donate some prizes for. believe it or not because I know people love DVDs, but maybe they like food better. You never know. Let's play. Donald on 790, ready to play, believe it or not?

Ready. Is that yet? What? Ready. Oh, you're ready. Okay. Stephen Goscowski was an impressive athlete in high school. He was all-state in football, soccer, and baseball in Mississippi.

Believe it or not. Not. Yeah, he did all three. He was that good. Line number two, Robert on 790. Robert, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. While playing for the University of Memphis, Stephen Gaskowski was on a baseball scholarship and a walk-on for the football team. Believe it or not? Not.

Believe it. People don't do their... The quick Wikipedia check would have saved all that, right? You could have been up to 94 on the gun with his fastball. All right, Ross. I want to repeat again that I think prizes make the guys. game. And certainly

known disrespect of the movie 1917. 1917 is a fantastic film. Name three stars in it. I don't know

their names. I've watched the movie. It doesn't matter who's star. Just because they're not star power and

names doesn't mean it's not a good film, Matthew. Are you sure? Because I think if we had to give way better gifts, we would have better

entrance. Okay. I'll take it home. Jonathan on 790. Ready to play, Believe it or not. Believe it. Jonathan,

good luck to you. Stephen Gaskowski's nickname a youth was Beaver because he lost his two front teeth playing hockey and got huge dental implants. Believe it or not. Believe it.

Wow, another one. Jeez. Beaver Gaskowski with the game winner last night. I would never call him that. We got two chances if we need to. And on that, no, we'll end the game. I wrote all these great questions. Should I just start writing three questions?

Well, I mean, if people don't want to play America's fastest group, maybe the game's slowing down a little it. I think it's prizes. We need a prize meeting. We need a prize meeting. You need somebody to get a couple right, too, you know. Like, I feel like one, it buys time and two, it encourages people. But it's 50-50. It's not like I ask these questions without, like, a short answer. This is like the, we're like the true, false part of the test.

It's either right or it's wrong. Hold on. We'll get one more in before we get out of here. Who is this? Mr. Johnson, I want to try again, Matt. Yeah, why not, John? Why not? Stephen Goscowski did not meet the Patriot to the NFL Combine. He later met them in secret two weeks later in Foxboro. Believe it or not?

Believe it. No. Get him out of it. Again, it's a 50-50 game. Oh, not if the questions are well right. All right, I'm going to start getting autographed pictures of Adam Clinton and Adam Wexer because we'll actually get people to call in. These prizes we have right now are god-awful.

What, Matt? Well, I mean, we just need better prizes. The 70s BBC music show? One flew over the whistle or whatever that is called? Autographed photos of Wexler and Clanton begin tomorrow. Nude? Oh, new like without your hair. Do they look like they're hosting the Avians?

Too soon. Too soon for that one. Clant Wexler. I'll have the aster's at six. Right now it's the A team on 790.