The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Drop Game 2 vs Clippers, Christian Walker Speaks,Toro District Announced!

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Rockets Drop Game 2 vs Clippers, Christian Walker Speaks,Toro District Announced!

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1002 in H-town. Good morning and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. They win it tonight, 105-102. In the entire catalog of the 94.5 music library, that's the only song I might know.

That's not true. That's probably true. Probably know at least some chili peppers. Californication under the bridge. Yeah, yeah. I got some hits. You know, I got floor seats to the chili peppers from up here once. Did you really?

You know who I went with? Oh, gosh. I'm going to go with Adam Clanton. Chris Gordy? Chris Gordy? Yeah, we had a good time. Did you? Yeah.

Who bought the beverages? I think we went Dutch. Okay. Which thank you for introducing me to that term. I'd never heard of that. Really? Yeah. I think I've given you two phrases.

Going Dutch and kissing your sister, right? A tie? Or is it? I think I tell them to my wife. No, I've heard that for a long time. I don't like it. It's not great. I mean, ties aren't great. Whoever goes, man, I can't wait for a tie tonight.

I kiss my sister on the cheek. Well, I would certainly hope so. I mean, anything more than that? Happy birthday to her? Happy birthday. Yeah. Yesterday. My favorite Villa Real, I think, ultimately.

Oh, she's in my top ten. Well, she's a bloom now. married. Okay. Raising your nephews? Yes. Doing a great job. Yeah. Better than I ever could. Thankfully, you're separating from them just enough, so your bad influence is not a bad part of their life.

Oh, man. I think I'm a great uncle. I don't know what you're talking about. But I would say, yeah, I spoil at him. I spoil them. I don't really scold or yell at them or nothing. That's good. They want a snack, I say, to get it. You want an eighth cup cake? Go ahead. You know what? Why don't you have a cup of ice cream

and a Coke? Yeah, enjoy yourself. go home to your mom. That's what I did. That's what the uncles do. Oh, uncles are supposed to. Uncle's and grandparents. Yes. It is a Thursday edition of the Bad Thomas Show at Ross. Nice to see you.

Hey, Matt. And, yeah, last night was a turnover machine. 21 turnovers. Woo! Is that bad? I mean, it's not great. Well, it's going to get fixed, right? No, it's not. I've mentioned this numerous times on the broadcast.

This is going to be a, and it's gotten better the last. probably the last three or four weeks, but it's creeped its ugly head out there, reared its ugly head again for back-to-back games. I've got an EMA doca catchphrase for you. Playing in a crowd. He's saying it every post game now because he gets asked about turnovers

about every post game. Yeah. He says they're playing in a crowd too much. Yeah. I always think sometimes it's playing to the crowd, but it's really playing in the crowd. Eight turnovers for one, Kevin Durant. Kevin, fantastic. 36 minutes again.

after, you know, doing that at the previous night, hey, Tar Easton played it back to back for the first time in a couple of years. There were some positives. Reed Shepard was hot from three. Not so much in the second half, where he was on the bench. No, yeah, that's true.

Rockets Twitter was very upset. He was not on the floor on the last sequence. Yeah, they were. Did he ever give an explanation to that? I could not find anything. I don't know. I didn't catch the post game because I wasn't working the post game,

but I imagine he was asked about it because Reed was you know 5 of 10 from 3 love it and in that last sequence it was they were down 1 right they were down 2 because it would have

the free throw tied the game and then Coile Leonard hits the mid-range he's foul very late by J. Chonte from Miami and the matter of fact I didn't even see it until after the basket went in that there was a foul call so they wind up being down 3 and that's why they went for the three-point shot. The ball went to Shangoon, kicked it off his knee-slash-leg,

and ended in the hands of Tari, and then he just put up with a shot that had no chance. And his foot was on the line, so it wouldn't have been a three anyways. Oh, I hate when you bring up the semantics. I'm sorry. It wasn't close, so. Yeah, rockets are 33 and 20 at the break, 18 and 7 and home, and now it'll be Reed Shepard representing the Rising Stars Challenge,

and then Alper and Shangoon. Kevin Durant representing the Rockets in the real All-Star game. And Kevin Durant spent some time talking about how the Euros have got to stop bragging about how awesome they are and actually compete in the All-Star games. So we'll be playing some of that audio later on the show. Oh, that would be interesting. Yeah. Okay. Here's the conundrum.

This is the official All-Star break. Again, it's very late. The Rockets have played 53 games. There's 29 left. So it's not a mid-season classic. And I have been the leader. of, and I remain a leader of, I hate All-Star Games. And I know there's a lot of financial dollars put to this. There's a big corporate sponsorship to it. Everything is sponsored by it.

I'm sure there'll be logos, all of those lower sponsors on it. It's a drag. And the NBA continues to try to figure out some way for us to be interested. You know, the number one way of keeping it interested, Ross, is having the players interested. They're trying. No, they're not. players are not trying. No, no, no, no. I'm saying the league is trying. The league is trying. I mean, they went with the, remember they did the draft?

And like, oh, whoever gets drafted last is going to be all upset. Right. And they, I mean, they, yeah, then they, yeah, with Kevin Durand as the captain and LeBron James is the captain, now they're doing USA versus World. I mean, yeah, they keep trying to reinvent the wheel. It's not working. It's like a, it's like a restaurant that was doing something that work for years and years and years and then now they're all of a sudden like,

let's add wings to the menu, or let's add this or that to the, they're trying to reinvent the menu and nobody just wants to come. Because the quality of the food's still not good. You can add whatever you want to the menu, but the food's not good, nobody's coming. This is a bad comp. Uh-oh, go ahead. Rocking the rocks. Always trying to add new stuff.

They're going with the protein bowls now. Well, they've got, they went with the chicken fajita pita many years ago. Then they... It wasn't bad. They went with the egg rolls. Yes. And then they went with starting with breakfast. Yeah.

I think they're thriving, though. Rackin'oroxes? I think so. I mean, the only time I ever hear about I mean, fast food restaurants thriving is basically Rick Raleigh

and Rick Rinalds. Yeah, they're not the Yankees or the Dodgers, but they're like the Cubs. Brack and Roxas? Yeah. Hmm. Okay.

You know what? I don't even know how you would stack it up. You know what, I can find this. I can find Tom. I'm going to see if I can figure this out. fast food revenues. Yeah, I'm going to go top fast food revenues. I'm going to go with

Rick Donald's. Rick Donald's. Got to you want. McDonald's. Starbucks is going to be up there. Yeah. I'm going to go Rendez over back in the box. Well, it looks like you're right, according to AI. Rendez is five.

We've named one, two, and three. McDonald's, Starbucks. I'm just going to say him. Chick-fil-A. Go ahead. That's fine. Wendy's is five. We haven't mentioned number four. Is it Carl's Jr. slash Hardee's? No, it's more national. That's more kind of counts. It's not Waterburger.

Nope. More national. Burger King? No. Burger King 7th. Who am I forgetting about? Burger King McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, Jack-in-A-box, Wendy's, a true national? Mm-hmm. Fast food chain.

Is it Popeye's? Nope. Give me the first letter. T? Taco Bell. Yes. Hmm. Taco Bell's always trying to reinvent the wood, but they seem to be doing okay.

Yeah, they're adding chicken. They, they, they, you can only package, uh, cheese, beef, beans and tortilla so many different ways. And by the way, that Mexican pizza still slaps. It just does. No, it doesn't. Oh, it's amazing. No.

Disagreate. Love it. No, it doesn't taste as good as it used to. I'm saying it's different. Whatever. I still like it, though. The shell's different. I was telling Jonathan this earlier, like fast food used to be a lot more quality.

Now they shrink everything and the, in the ingredients. are way worse. Yeah. That J.C.I. wasn't the best. And it cost more. Oh, you didn't like JCI? Oh, we were the only people in there under 75.

Yeah, that was a tough. It was a tough eat. It wasn't horrible. It wasn't horrible. I mean, it tasted fine. But it's just too expensive for hot dogs. It just is. Yeah.

I think I spent $46 on the three of us or something like that. And Jonathan only got one dog. Yeah. Seriously. That's crazy. I got three dogs and why I'm giving one of mine to you. I took one. You took a dog, huh?

Yeah, that was a regretful the next day. mistakes were made oh there's another radio show that's giving you fast food and rockets in the same conversation there just isn't

how did this you can guess and discuss the Texans of free agent needs or you can actually be entertained for a few hours how did this even start you were talking about

oh I said jack in a box is the cubs the cubs of the fast food world the Chicago Cubs of the fast food world you're right nobody else is giving nobody's going to this and this is the content

it you need. Well, you just, because it's, look, it's lighthearted, or middle of the day. Yeah, you want to talk about the rockets, turn the ball over 21 times? I don't want to do that. I'm not a big fan of that. We're going to talk about Kauai Leonard, cooking the rockets in the fourth quarter, and not getting doubled in the last possession? Well, that's what I said.

When I made the call, I was like, did he just, they just give him the ball and he just wiggled his way around, or was there something that the rockets defensively could not do? I mean, I'm in Thompson, and was draped all over him. And Jay Sean Tate was behind him, and that's what the late whistle came in.

23 points in the second half for Kauai Leonard. 19 of them in the fourth quarter. I know. I called them all. Men Thompson was on, I mean, Mint Thompson was playing good defense. You play good defense, but Kauai Leonard, I mean, he's a freaking Hall of Famer.

Kauai Leonard is a Hall of Famer. Now, he's a Hall of not playing a whole lot, but he's a hall of playing his best basketball in three seasons, safe to say. So, yeah, we got that to get to today on the radio show. We have, like I mentioned, Kevin Durant speaking out on the international flavor of the NBA. Basically, what Katie hears, and Katie's very socially aware of everything because he's on Twitter all the time, is that the NBA game sucks.

It's what he hears, generally speaking. Not from everybody. The All-Star game, yeah. Well, I mean, he's talking about the entire sport, too. Everything about the NBA sucks. He's like, well, you know what? Guess what? If the NBA international flavor is taking over the league,

in which I believe seven the last eight NBA MVPs are from internet from not the United States then they those guys got to start bearing the responsibility of it too he doesn't want to wear the NBA sucks and he happens to be the greatest American player going on well obviously him and LeBron James that's what his point was so we'll get to some of that

on the show today also what's I going to tell you oh we're going to get a spring training update with Gordy coming up at the bottom of the hour let's go yeah and we have I just don't get at 1130 today so we got a lot of things going on here 713-212 57790 if you want to join the radio show

713-212-5-7-90. If you want to visit with us via the Twitterverse, it's at SportsMT and at SportsRB. Those are both our addresses on Instagram and on Twitter. And there is an athletic poll. You know how they always get those behind-the-scenes polls of anonymous questions they ask to NFL players? I find those fascinating. We'll talk about what the athletic found out about NFL players. That's coming up.

Between now and 2 o'clock. It is the Matt Thomas-O. Ross. We appreciate you. listening, especially you 10 o'clockers. Sports Talk 790. All right, it's Matt and Ross. We're going to check in with Gordy at the bottom of the hour. And then in about 20 minutes from now, 25 minutes from now, we're going to hear from Kevin Durant.

He made a quote, Michael Shapiro of the Chronicle, asked a question to him about the quote-unquote old heads competing at the All-Star game, and he had a funny response to that. He said, you know what? Stop talking those OGs. We're about the internationals, the Yolkitches, the Donchiches. They were showing video of previous all. All-Star games where guys were throwing the ball 60 feet in the air to hit the glass so

could find the teammates so they could dunk it in after that. It is a, of all the jokes, I mean, I look, I take my shot to the NFL and they play a flag football, which is utterly ridiculous. And thank God people didn't watch. But they actually put these people on a real court. They're supposed to be playing. So I'm telling you, Ross, if they don't play hard for this, Then Adam Silver is going to have to have a really deep conversation about scrapping the whole thing.

That's not happening. It's not going to happen. No chance. I don't understand why. Why do they have to play hard? Why do they have to try to go out there and risk injury? You shouldn't do it at all. If you're having a mid-season classic, whatever you want to call it, a spectacle to highlight the stars, you shouldn't be highlighting horrible pickup games.

That's what this is. These are horrible pickup games. Yeah, that's what it is. Matt, I go to the Lifetime Fitness, and with this full court, man, you get tired. But you're not an All-Star. You're right. I'm an All-Star lifetime. I wouldn't pay to see you.

I'm an All-Star in my own mind. Well, that's true. I mean, you're also in summer circles. Hey, I mean, there's people who don't go to the other end, don't even go to the other end of the floor on full court. Yeah. Do you take your shirt off? Are you a Skins guy? Why would I take my shirt off?

Well, shirts and skins? I haven't played with my shirt off since, like, 10th grade. Okay. So you're just protecting the goods. I got you. Yeah, what do you mean? You got to keep everything intact. I think it embarrasses the league.

Yeah. If they should go out there and play like their Kobe Bryant or something like that in game seven of the finals, it's just not, if you're expecting that, it's not going to be realistic. Yeah, but even so, it's an exhibition game. Even going back to the early 1990s, they gave a damn. Kobe and Michael and Akeem gave a damn. David Robinson gave a damn. Maybe if we watch those games, how hard were they playing?

I don't know. Harder than now, of course. Yeah. And again, I'm not asking for this to be a playoff game. and I'm not asking for guys sitting nasty. I mean, I'm looking for the pistons to play. I mean, put it that way. But no, I think there is a,

you can go to the guys in the locker room, shut the door, and say, give a damn. And every time they've been saying for the last 15 years, it goes in one ear and out the other, and it becomes more and more of embarrassing. And I love the sport of basketball. I fight constantly with our audience. Embrace the world of basketball.

It's a wonderful sport. best players in the world. And this crap they put out the last five years doesn't help our cause. It just doesn't. And I want it to be better. It doesn't, but I understand why they don't try. Why they don't want to go out there and, like I said, get hurt. If you don't try, you should, then you should just stop doing it.

There's no value. And hopefully people tune it out. And they're starting to do it little by little. And here's the thing. You can talk about the numbers and the reach and the influencers if X, Y, and let's face it. the biggest automobile sponsor in the NBA is Kia. If Kia doesn't get return value on this, they're going to stop pulling,

they're going to pull the money out. Yeah, and that's when they'll figure something out. Or get rid of it. Yeah. The money's pouring in, and they keep trying to reinvent the wheel. So it's basically,

so it's on to the sponsors. If the sponsors don't get value off of it, then they should put their foot down, because that's what, that moves the needle. It just doesn't everything. You're not going to be able to do anything outside of money, and it's going to take a lot of money.

like money that the sponsors aren't going to want to pony up. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. More than a million dollars a person. I would make it a three-day weekend and everybody goes to a beach for a couple days. Okay. And then just kick off the second half of the year. Maybe, you know.

What if Kevin Durant goes into the All-Star game and he's playing hard? And he tears his ACL. That would suck. That could also happen on a practice field too. It could. Yeah. But you're also, you're exposing yourself. So you don't want baseball players to play in the WBC, but you want NBA players to play hard.

No, no, I've been consistent. I don't want any All-Stuff. I'm done with it. Okay, so you want the game to go away. I want it completely gone away. Yeah. But if you're going to do it, and I know there's a financial impact to it, at least show some semblance of what the game, how beautiful the game is.

I mean, it would be nice to have a happier medium to what you're talking about, maybe in the 90s or whatever, but you needed to, it was more of a showcase then. Or even if you go back to the old days, like in the 70s, like the purpose of the All-Star game was say, hey, look at these great, like you had these floundering fledgling league. Right. And like, hey, look at all these great players. as we have, come watch them. It's not like that anymore.

Because in theory, having Luca Durant and LeBron and LeBron James on the same team sounds awesome. Does it not? It does. But nobody ever talks about that. When I was a kid watching Magic Johnson throw a pass into Akima Laijuwon was awesome to me. And I wish today's kids could appreciate it, but they

don't. They're going to put their heads down and get on their phones. Well, that's good. Well, that's, yeah, we didn't have smartphones. Well, and that's the point. you said yesterday you didn't like with the influencers, but that's the whole point to get to those kids to make it interesting, so it's not just pass by and they'll put the heads down. You know what I mean? Yeah, get Mr. Beast out there. Get the kids watching. Let's go.

But the problem is, Jonathan, you're taking those influencers. They're putting, the influencers are putting videos out to go what? Watch on your phone. That's how everybody's been watching. I mean, it's, yes, it's 2026. I mean, everybody's streaming. But nobody's, but even Adam Silver said we're not a league of

of, we're a league of highlights. No, the league is not built on highlights. No, under number tension is terrible. We're showing 11-second clips. It's out of great games. Nobody's got that attention span. I mean, it's a problem for everyone. It's a problem for all the leagues.

And guess what? It ain't going to get better. Put your head down or worse. Put your heads down during timeouts when you're watching a Red Panda doer thing. But during the game, lift up. Look up. It's a good game. Let's talk to Ryan and Montgomery at 1028.

Hi, Ryan. Morning, guys. I was going to talk about the Rockets, but y'all seem to have gone on this day. And now I want to talk about this. But first, I couldn't sit idly by it while you besmirch the good name of Jack. Jack in the box is amazing. They can reinvent whatever they want. I'm going to eat it.

That being said. After midnight, yes, before midnight, no. Let me tell you what they have. They got good onion rings. I'm going to give them credit for that. Tacos? Come on, man. Yeah, taco are early fries.

Yeah, there's a lot of things. A lot of things there. Lunchy meals? Awesome. Okay. Anyways, All-Star games. Matt, I agree. They have become tragically bad.

And now, again, you're competing with, you know, a league of highlights. I mean, it's kind of been in that way for a long time. That's why SportsCenter even exists, right? But also, no one's ever going to live up to what the NHL All-Star game did. What was it last year? That was insane. Nothing will ever compete with that. The MLB All-Star game now is just dumb because they're not playing for where the World Series is going to be anymore,

so it doesn't matter. They're not, you know, the NFL Pro Bowl, that's been a joke for a while. There is no reason to have an All-Star game. And I'm sure hockey won't even do one now. But I agree that it should just go away, just be gone and then do a celebrity game or in like a showcase, like a skills challenge. But the game itself should just be gone. And I'll hang up and listen.

Thank you. Thank you, Ryan, for the phone call. I mean, again, you want to give me five, give me six days. off in or between the course of the season, how much would six extra days off mixed in the calendar would help would help retention in keeping guys playing? I mean, I don't have tangible evidence. I said you still watch it if you don't like it. I don't understand what you have to call for the abolishment of it.

Because it is a huge interruption to the season and those six days away that they could potentially get hurt, as you were saying before, could be used towards actually playing games, keeping guys fresh, playing games, having the guys not have rest. I mean, it doesn't get zero eyeballs. Clearly they like the sponsorship dollars. Yeah, they're not going to play hard, but I mean, that's part of the reason why there's less injury risk.

So, I don't know. I would say if you don't like it, just don't watch it. I'm a die-hard basketball fan. They don't get my eyes. So they don't want my eyes. Yeah, that's okay. But they don't want my disposable income because I got news for you. I can pay for things that the 21-year-olds can't pay for.

It's just a reality. What are you going to pay for what from watching the game? Product. You just watch it. Products. How many 22-year-olds can pay? for a $41,000 Kia. Not many.

Well, that's what they're, okay, that's up for Kia to decide. But I'm saying is that people that should be trying, if you're trying to get 22-year-olds who don't have the disposable income of people that are in the 30s and their 40s, you're missing out.

And I think 30- and 40-year-olds are going to check out on this thing because all you're doing is basically just making highlight films to make sure 22-year-olds are satisfied. Now, if you take the 22-year-olds... So getting rid of it completely is the solution. I would get rid of all, I would get rid of all-star games.

Maybe the baseball, a star game is actually give a damn. Why does baseball all-star game give a damn? And the other ones don't. I don't think, do they? They don't throw lollipops. They throw fastball.

Yeah, but I mean, they die for place. Last time somebody got hit, I don't know. I don't watch that all-star game either. Yeah. I mean, you could be completely, I mean, I look,

I'm never a huge all-star game. I think it's mostly, they're just grooving fastballs. And, I mean, I don't know, pitchers are getting bullpins in, basically. They're still swinging. I mean, it's more of a competitive Me versus You sport.

Yeah. When it's right. It's right. You know, and if you're, if you want, I just think you want as many eyeballs on it as possible. And I think people as they get older want competitiveness. That's all they're asking for. We're not asking for, you know, eight second highlight clips looking for a good basketball game. And that's all I'm asking, but I don't think we're going to get it.

Now, this year may be different, but the problem is, I won't know. You're going to watch it for me on Sunday? Because I'll be traveling, so I don't know. I don't know. I'll be traveling too on Sunday. Yeah, but you get the. Fort Lauderdale a lot earlier than I do, so I don't know. I haven't checked my itinerary.

I just sent it to you this morning. Okay. I'm very busy. Okay. All right, Gordy's in Florida. We'll talk with him next. 1032 on 790. 1036 on 790, Matt and Ross with you.

We are going to go to West Palm Beach, Florida right now. Ross and I will be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. Right there now is Chris Gordy with our spring training update. Gordy, what did you see in day number two of pitchers and catchers that caught your fancy? Well, they did some PSP today, and I will tell you, Tatsuya Amaya has a very quick release to first base. It's almost like a shortstop throw, so that was something that kind of stood out.

But other than that, you know, it's good to see Lance McCullors Jr. out there and Christian Javier and, you know, Spitzer Ereddie. We spoke with him this morning who said he's feeling, you know, feeling 100. percent healthy and ready to get going, especially after his injury plate season last year. So it's all kind of coming together and noticeable, too. I mean, Renal Blanco and Hayden Wisniewski are throwing back and forth to one another. Obviously not with a lot of velocity, but, you know, just almost a little bit of reminder on those guys that, you know, probably somewhere around All-Star break, they'll be back too.

And, you know, we talk about the competition right now for pitching that they kind of have a surplus. you'll have an even more of a surplus when those guys get back mid-season. It does feel like to me, and this is even before you got down there, that there is clearly strengthened numbers and that the fact that the Sugar Land Squad may be awesome this year, but the reality is you're going to need those numbers because last year we were, the Astros were searching for guys left and right

just to fill up a rotation spot and having to go all over the place, signing street free agents and guys that were claimed off waivers. Hopefully that will not be an issue in 2006. Well, it's not just, it's not just starters. It's also, you know, relievers. We talked with, you know, Logan Van Wye this morning, and that's another guy that's, you know, competing for a roster spot. You know, got a taste of the big leagues last year out of the bullpen. But, you know, Stephen O'Kert is here and Brian King. And, I mean, so many different pieces that, you know, you get into a numbers game and you go, I don't know if this guy has a role. I mean, I interviewed Jason Alexander this morning. I mean, I interviewed Jason Alexander this morning. going, where does he fit in now? If everything else is equal. So, and he was an important piece for you for them last year. You know, was a pretty steady starter.

So, yeah, I mean, look, it's easy to say that right now. Injuries are going to happen. We did find out Nate Pearson had a little bit of a setback, had some kind of elbow cleanup recently. And so he's a little bit behind Joe Spott. It wouldn't really give specifics. But he did say our goal is to get him into some spring training. games. So that kind of tells you a little bit on where Nate Pearson is. But other than that,

yeah, I mean, it's, it is just a ton of arms. And as body even said, like, a lot of big dudes. And it, you know, it does stand out, like a lot of physically tall, big guys, and they all throw hard. I don't know if he, if Joe, I mentioned this, but is there any timetable when he wants to get that six-man rotation figured out? Or is it, do you think it'll be? right down to the last day. And that could be just conjecture on your part right now. Yeah, I mean, I think it's easy to kind of talk it, talk it out, right? I mean, okay, so Hunter Brown is the one. Either Javier or Amai is the two or the three. So that's your top three. Ergetti is your four. And so take the rest of the pool of candidates for your five and six.

And that's everything from Mike Burroughs that they traded for and fully expect him to be a starter. So if he's one of those, then you only got one spot. And that's for the remainder of Lance McCullors Jr. And, you know, throwing all the other guys. Colton Gordon, A.J. Blue Ball. You know, the list goes on and on. Ryan Weiss, I mean, there's not a lot of spots, guys. Jason Alexander.

I mean, it is the surplus of pitching. Talking with Chris Gordy out at West Palm Beach, Willie's Grill and Ice House bringing us this coverage. What about the bullpen? Of course, we know Josh Hader going to miss some time with the biceps thing, and you say, okay, next man, Brian Abray, you. But what about after that? How are we feeling the guys that you're kind of looking at or hearing about as far as possible roles and where they're going to get some help in these leverage innings? Yeah, I mean, I think the easy one to go to is Brian Abraeu. And then obviously, you know, Bennett Sousa is a guy we were watching throw today. You forget that he's a guy that had a handful of safety.

for them a year ago. I want to say you had four. You know, so I think if this thing does slide, if haters not ready to go for the start of the season, you know, you probably slide everybody back. Abreu kind of sold it as a nice inning guy, which reminder, he was a little shaky

last year in, you know, when he was called on to play that role. But Brian King, Benet Sousa, I think they feel pretty good about them. The other one that's interesting is this Tang guy that they got the Taiwanese

pitcher and was just watching him throw a little bit. And Dana Brown has mentioned his name a couple of times as a back end of the rotation guy. So, keep it out on him. But yeah, I mean, all the other cast of characters are the same. Like I mentioned, Ocard and

you know, Van Wye and all these other guys that pitched last year. And I just got a feeling, guys, a lot of those middle to late relievers, there's going to be a tram going back and forth from Sugarland to Houston this year. visiting Agordi down in West Palm Beach.

I know you mentioned earlier on the morning show that some of the position players are showing up. How intense are those workouts? I know you said Carlos Gray. Anybody else that's appeared early on? Yeah. Well, Correa was today. Have not seen Al-Tube, have not seen Jake Myers yet. But again, Monday is the actual report day.

Altuvae is typically the weekend, either Saturday or Sunday, before players report. is usually when he gets out here. But, yeah, I mean, Correa, as soon as he walked in, went around the entire clubhouse, dapping up or shaking hands with every guy in the clubhouse. And as Joe Spada noted, I mean, that's what leaders do. That's leadership. So, and again, it's something you didn't have from Korea at this point a year ago. So it's good to have him back in there.

But one guy that intrigues me a lot, guys, and we'll post him the interview on our Sports Talk 790 Twitter, but that Cole is, first off, the kid's a specimen. I mean, he has muscles in every part of his body popping out. But, I mean, it's a kid that got up here in September and played well. And they like him a lot. Dana Brown's mentioned his name, and I think they are fully expecting Zach Cole to have a good spring. And if he does, I think he's in your everyday lineup. I think he's grabbing one of those outfield spots and, you know, see if they trade Jake Myers or if he's here to stay.

But it certainly pencils Zach Cole into left field. He told us this morning he's planning to play all three outfield spots throughout spring training, and I would not pencil in Cam Smith to right field just yet. I mean, as good as he wants to start last year, those late season struggles, he has a lot to prove this spring. All right. I don't mean to put you on the spot here, but if I've penciled in the three outfielders already, if let's say Zach Cole sucks in March or Cam Smith is off to a slow start,

who are the backups? because this team does not have tremendous outfield depth right now. They don't. You know, that's where I say, you know, keep an eye on that Esock Paratus situation. If they do trade him, you know, we know that Bryce Matthews, they've talked about getting him into some spring games

to play a little center field. So, you know, maybe that could be an answer as well. But you're right. I mean, I was surprised when they traded Jacob away. And, you know, they were so high on him as an outfielder in the system. And so you're a little tight there. The easy answer is,

Jesus Sanchez has majorly experienced. I mean, wasn't great since the deadline. That wasn't going to move the needle. Yordon could play some more left field, but that's not what Joe Espada wants. The exact as Senzo could play a role. But, man, that's why the,

and I don't know what your thought on this, is that's why the Parades talk will not go away. They need a bona fide every day. looking for a 40-120 guy, but somebody that has had significant major league experience, because I would be safe to say this would be the most inexperienced outfield combination in major league baseball, if indeed it is Cole Myers and Smith to open up the season. And if they're good, that's great. I don't care about age and experience, but there's just not a lot of lieutenants behind the three leaders. So you're saying like a Kyle Tucker they could use or something like

that? He's making $60 million somewhere else. Yeah. And it's all deferred until he's 88 years old. Well, and I mean, let's create a doomsday scenario here, guys. I mean, let's say Jake Myers has a bad spring. Gam Smith is batting 200 and Zach Cole is over throughout string. What does this outfield group look like on the opening day? Yeah, there's a world where it's three subpar outfielders. I think it's a storyline, Gordy, that's not going to go away for a while.

Now, again, if they all come up and hit beautifully, then we're not going to worry about it. But if you're saying, create the storyline for 2026, number one is the crowded infield, number two is the outfield. Everything else will play itself. We talked about the depth and pitching. I think the asteros will be okay with even if a hater doesn't open up the year. I'm not overly concerned about backup catcher because everybody's going to be worried about their backup catcher. I think the rotation is got plenty of options. But those two, the two things we're talking about, one doesn't hurt a division race.

because if you have extra infielders, you're in a good spot, but a bad outfield with no power can hurt you, especially if you're all penciling them as the 6-7-8 or 7-8-9 guys in your lineup. Well, and then your utility guy, you added, Nick Allen, not exactly tearing the cover off the ball. I will tell you guys, the word I've heard multiple times yesterday and today is defense. They want to pride themselves on being a great defensive club, but that's great.

You can't have the timely hitting issues that you had for a good portion. of last season, because you're not going to sell a ton of tickets, people coming out to see a bunch of two-to-one and three-to-two ball games. Well, I think and I think the audience is smart and to realize you don't care if it's two-to-one. You're going to win baseball games. The Astros want to win baseball games. Well, I'm at losing two-to-one ball. Oh, I see. Nobody wants to see that.

Nobody wants to do that. All right, Gordy, we're going to eat some crawfish this weekend. What are we going to do it? Yeah, Willie's Grill and Ice House, multiple locations all over Houston. Yeah, they sent me some photos yesterday. And it is definitely crawfish season. It is time to ramp up. So can't wait to get back to Houston.

And apparently Cole, going to watch some American hockey today and enjoy some crawfish at Willie's Ice House. Okay. And are you back? Are you there tomorrow, too? I'm here tomorrow as well. So I'll be talking to me guys one more time. Awesome.

Thank you, Gordy. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for the visit. As always, they've laid out your red carpet already here. Meaning what? Oh, I mean, Gene already came to me, said, hey, what's, what's Matt's list of demands? I said, about red M&Ms, a bottle of wine, I mean. Yeah.

If there's red only M&Ms, yes. Hand-picked. Hand-picked. I don't want somebody picking them on my M&Ms. Well, how else they're going to get them? Thank you, Gordy. We'll see you later. Yeah, I don't, you know, no, just give me the bag.

It's fine. Peanut, by the way, right? I'm a plain guy, but I think I'm in the minority. I like them both. I like them both as well. I would prefer peanut. I like them both, but I'm a plain guy. Almond Joy or Mounds? That's a neither. Really? I love them both.

I also, I'm more of a fruit candy than a chocolate tank. Yeah, see, I'm the opposite side. Did you know that Almond Joy's? Sour Patch Kids, you give me a bag of nerd. If you put a bag of nerd clusters right here, like a three pound, it will be gone by the end of the show. I cannot. Are you challenging me? I cannot help myself. You know what? I'm going to buy you some. We're going to go to Wawa on. No, no, stop. No, please. No, I'm trying to quit. Why? Because I'm going to get like seven million grams of sugar. You're not playing shirts and skins and basketball? I don't care. It's not good for it. I'm trying to stay alive.

All right. We're late. My fault. 1049. Matt Ross. Shocking. This is Sports Talk 790. All right, short segment here because we were, Gordy was talking about getting the red carpet treatment. I've never even been a snob about M&M colors. All candy tastes same to me. But there are some celebrities. No, they're the same. Yeah, there are some celebrities like, they must not have brown M&Ms or something in their bag. Well, a lot of people say that they do that just to make sure they're paying attention to other demands. They'll just slip something in there to see if the people are paying attention.

You know, like you're telling a story to your wife and you can tell she's not paying attention. So you slip in something there about how you hit a guy with brass knuckles and punch them in the throat just to see if she's paying attention. It's funny. I did that to my wife just yesterday. She's like, man, you look hot. I said, thank you. I said, I haven't been told them in a week. And she's like, what?

I thought she was just flippantly saying it. Oh, okay. Then made her to a double take. No, like you're warm? Yes, Ross, because I was warm. I had a fever. I don't know. You're always sweating.

I'm on your head when you eat. That's true. I'm wondering. Hot sauce does it that to me, that's for sure. All right. I don't know where you guys were at a Thai place or something. You never know that. We've got an athletic poll want to get to in the next hour of the show.

I want to let you hear what Kevin Durant said about basically throwing the international players under the bus for the All-Star game. He did a good playful. manner, but he was being serious. Okay. So we'll get to that. And we have, I just don't get it coming up at 1130. So we've got a lot going on between now and two o'clock today. It's a busy show. We need people to call in and say hello.

Yeah, if they want to. I mean, we don't mind you and I just chit-chat. But we like to call on our interaction. Yes, of course. I mean, some listeners, some sports host in this town hate you, and we don't. We don't. We love you. We do love you. Now, we will not always agree with you. No. And if you could have I say, Jaylon William's 6, Jail and William's 8,

I'm probably going to mute you. You're going to get very upset. Yeah, I'm going to. I understand. But generally speaking, it's okay. You do a great job, man. By way, shout out to my friend Kelvin Samson, a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Really?

And Mike Dan Tony, both of them are up for the finalist list. Okay. So we're going to talk to Kelvin next week, late in the week after we get back from Florida. Wonderful. Because a week from Saturday, the one loss Arizona Wildcats come to town. It's a big matchup, folks. So the Cougars have K-State coming up first. Have you heard the audio from K-State coach?

They got their ass kick yesterday. He said the guys aren't going to be on this team or something like that. I saw that. We should play some of that. We should. And then we have another Big 12 coach, Colorado, who is embarrassed by his performing. These Big 12 coaches are shaming themselves. So we'll play some of that for you.

But yeah, Arizona, Iowa State, and somebody else that's really a juggernaut. Iowa State Oh, Kansas. Three really tough Houston games down the stretch. Then you have to lay up with Colorado before the tournament. It sounds like it's all wins.

It better be. Got to keep that number two seed. Keep that South region alive. What's going on? Get that one seed, baby. Let's go. I'll talk to Calvin about that next week. 10.57.

We get to some grumpy coaches and a grumpy player about international all-star competition. Next, here on 790. This is the maximum. Thomas show with Ross. 1101 on Sports Talk 7.9. We have one hour in the books. We have three more to go. We hopefully will have all of you with us for the entire next three hours.

If you need to go get some lunch, you do it at Big City Wings. If you want to get some drive-through, just listen to us in the cars. You enjoy your hour off or whatever the case can be. We'd love to have you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-7-90. Rockets last night commit too many turnovers. and I think we're repeating ourselves, unfortunately. That was... I mean, it's just going to be what is what it is this year. No, 21 turnovers, that's like Christian Wood Rocket stuff. And Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen, rookie Jalen Green.

And our goat had eight of them. I know. Get him some rest. Well, he's been told. Don't try in the All-Star game. He's done. Zero effort. He's going to try on the All-Star game.

Listen to this. Here's Kevin Durant talking about, man, stop going to us, quote-unquote, old heads. when it comes to competing in the All-Star game. I thought I sent it to you. Oh. No, that's the Colorado coach. Don't play the wrong audio. I thought I sent you Kevin Durant.

All right. Okay, well, I thought I sent it to you. Okay, we'll try it again. So basically the saying is that, hey, I'm going to give a damn. Why don't you tell Luca and you tell Wembe and the rest of the Euros to give a damn? Yokic. Oh, here it is. And the world team, they won't compete.

Because if we look at Luca Dodgers and Nicole Yolkish now, let's go back and look at what they do at the All-Star game. Is that competition? So we have a question what they've been doing, but we're going to question O-Hedds and Americans. But these two dudes out there, Luca and Yolchis, they don't care about the game. You know, you'd be laying on the floor,

they shoot from the half court, but you got to worry about the O-Head is playing hard. I can read between the lines, though. I'm just thinking a lot of times I'm just saying that I can read between the lines and it's not just about you, it's just an overall topic

that everybody's talking about. You just have to ask me that question. Hmm. Now, was that awkward media laugh or was that general chuckling? I mean, he's funny. I thought it was funny. Because he's not being serious, but he is, but he's not.

There's truth to every joke. Well, most jokes. Oh, I believe that to be accurate, yeah. So he wants Asked a question to Nicola Yokic He's putting up half court shots So Yokic So Yokic will be asked tomorrow

The Media Day Do you care about the All-Star game And he goes I don't even care about the NBA He doesn't even care about the NBA finals He wants to get home to his horses I live I triple double every single night

And I don't care He wants to just go and brush his horses He didn't care about the finals He has 20 triple doubles this year That's it That's it I also missed a month Yeah. There was, wasn't there some video he was talking about going for Russell Westbrook's, I guess Russell Westbrook has a triple double record, right? I think so.

Oscar Robertson's got to be up there as well. Of course. But my guess is Russell because of his longer tenure has probably got more. Yeah, Russ is one, Yokic is two, all time. Oscar Robertson three, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, four and five. Yeah, how do you celebrate Yokish when you become the all-time triple doubles leader? I'm going to go take a break. 184 triple doubles. He's not 31 yet. I told you what I said. He's top 15 now.

I got to put him in there somehow. He's getting a top 10 when he's done. Done, done. Which always makes us have an uncomfortable conversation who are bumping out. Three-time MVP. Did Larry Bird win probably maybe won three? Greatest passing center ever in the history of the NBA. Most MVP's, I believe, is Kareem at 6 and I think Jordan at 5.

And there's a couple guys who have four. one being one of them. Are we kicking Larry Bird out? Are you going to do that? I didn't say that. I'm just asking, though, as a friend. I mean, I didn't really watch him play a ton. So I have a bad perspective on it.

For mostly, I watch him and he had a broken back for the dream team. Insane competitor, incredible dead eye shooter. If you talk about, you know how Michael was known for the dagger big jumpers? Larry Bird did it the same way. He just did it. He did it with more perimeter than Michael would slash to the lane and drive labs or get dunks.

Bering Bird would just hit three-pointers and baseline three and long two-point shots would just kill your soul. Okay, I'm just going to give you the list three or more MVP's. I already said Kareem and Jordan, Bill Russell had five, which I forgot. Wilt, LeBron, with four. Three would be Bird,

Magic, Moses Malone, and Yokic. He's already on that list. Oh, Moe isn't on the top 10 list, so that went to talk about that. No, the top 10 list, you're saying goodbye to the Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. Mo and the MVP twice with the Rockets? That is legendary. And once with the Sixers.

Young Matt loved Mo Malone. Young Matt loved old Mo Malone. When he would come in, when I was doing U of H games and Elvin was there and Moe would come over and say hi to us, so it makes sure to Elvin, not to me, but that's fine. I was still mesmerized by, like, that's Moses Malone. Kareem got three with the Lakers and three with the Lakers and three with bucks. Okay, Ross is kicking out Magic Johnson and or Larry Berg.

I didn't say any of that. Well, we're going to have to have that visit down the road. We are. I mean, he's getting in these conversations with everyone that I just mentioned. Okay. So, yeah, so, Durant just wants a professional approach at the All-Star break. I hope it gets it.

I hope that when I watch the highlights, because that's what I'll be doing is I'll be traveling on Sunday, that they'll be like, man, this was the best All-Star game in the last 25, 30 years. we can reinvigorate it. Because if the NBA is set on having it, then you might also make it competitive and at least give us some assemblance of the best in the world,

give a damn for a couple of hours. I think it was one of the years where I think it was maybe the first year they had the draft, it was better. I'm trying to remember. It was a few years ago where it was actually there was some, there was a little bit of competition.

When one team got the 200, that's when people were like, you know what, you can have your game. Uh, 2024 was 211 to 186. I didn't even remember this. I forgot about this now until now. Last year it was Chuck and Kenny and Shaq and Candace picking teams.

So it was TV driven. Wasn't there one year where you had to score a certain number of points first of that number won the game? The Elam ending? I like that. That was good to be. I want them to do that in the overtime. Oh, like in NBA games?

A regular season only. Huh. First to 15. Who needs triple overtime in the regular season? It doesn't happen very often. It doesn't, but at least, you know, at least, double overtime happens, it feels like that's fair.

And especially when you're on back-to-backs and all this stuff, first to 15, what's up? You know what? If you're going to do that, do it for the playoffs too. Well, it wouldn't be gimmicky. You're still having to compete hard. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not a super big fan of changing rules for regular season into postseason. I know it has to happen because you can't play football games that are sick as hours, but baseball, it makes sense too. Yeah, I mean, baseball is there. Let's go home.

Yeah. The thing about baseball, the difference is that you don't want, you run out of arms and you're sitting in the 19th inning of a July mundane baseball game and you wind up ruining your season because you went to your seventh pitcher for the sixth consecutive days. All of a sudden, you got capsule sprains and biceps tendonitis and it's not good for anybody. Those are all bad juju words for Astrofans. That is for sure. 713-212-5-7-9.

I was talking about coaches that are grumpy. So, and I know you're a big connoisseur of Texas Tech. basketball, Ross. No, I'm not. Okay, play with me as we go along with this here. The legendary Darvinham? Yeah. There was Lance Hughes was a white guy

used to dunk for Texas Tech way back in the day. Okay. Yeah. Who's that the guy that was there for like 10 years? Andre Emmett or something like that? Yeah, that's right. That's a good call on your part. So yesterday, Texas Tech hosted Colorado and Colorado won by 34 points. No, excuse me. Texas Tech won by 34.

34? 74. 7844 was the final score Okay Something called Tad Boyle He's the coach at Colorado Now if you have a name called Tad Boyle That doesn't sound like you should be a yacht captain It's like you're a basketball coach

Tad is that just short for Thadius Yes Okay Because I used to work for a Tad Who was Thadius Oh who's that? Tad Brown Oh okay

Whose son-in-law is Jared Sidham I know And Tad was a longtime president of the Rockets now he's in charge of three teams, the commanders, the devils, and the 76ers. Wow. Mm-hmm. Quite a conglomerate there.

So Tad Brown met with the media yesterday. Not Ted Brown. Oh, yeah. This is my fault. Yeah. I'll take the blame. And the blame, too. Tad Boyle, now you tell me, is he asking to be fired when you say these 34 golden seconds of

commentary? I don't know. Eric Cubs. Is it running? I don't hear it. I don't hear it either. It's just a good old-fashioned. Ass whipping.

There's just no other way to say it, you know. A lot of you guys are from West Texas. You probably know what that is. And we took one tonight. So credit Texas Tech, you know, they have a motto with their program that the toughest team wins and there wasn't even questioned who the tougher team was tonight. And that was Texas Tech and we weren't.

And so. I'm embarrassed by our performance. I'm embarrassed for a university. I'm embarrassed for the city of Boulder. I'm embarrassed for the state of Colorado. I'm embarrassed for every former player that's worn this uniform. And we've got to own this. But, you know, when you give up 17 offensive rebounds...

That's good enough. Yeah, that's Tad. He was not overly pleased. He basically said, I suck, my players suck, my school feels should be embarrassed by us. Everybody who's ever worn the jersey. Who's the greatest Colorado basketball player of all time? There has been Colorado players in the NBA.

Within the last two or three years, I just can't remember one. Somebody Roby back in the day, it was pretty good. I don't think he made any. There's somebody that's been in the last five years played for college. Oh, really? Yeah. But, I mean, don't you kind of, I mean, self-deprecation is appreciated at times, but

I don't know how thin of an iced head ball is on there in Colorado, doesn't normally help when you basically help write your obituary. Alec Berks, their all-time points later. He might have been the Colorado guy I was talking about. I believe in Utah Jazz for a while, I want to say. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know if that's where you want to go. There's a fine line between we didn't play hard enough,

and I'm mad at my guys, then basically saying we need to apologize to any student that ever went to Colorado. If your grandmother's grandmother was a student at University of Colorado, we apologize. Derek White, Colorado. Yeah. Boston Celtic great. Legend.

I knew it was somebody I recognized recently. There you go. All right. So, what do you think? If you're a CEO along, you're like, man, thanks for saying that. It makes me feel better. I mean, what do you want him to go say? You said it's 78 to 44?

Yeah. They almost doubled you up in Division I major college basketball. In a Power 4 league. With NIL. That IL must be going. all the old D on. Yeah. Basketball squad's not looking so hot. They're four and eight in the big 12. No. We got another coach we're going to play a little bit later that

basically... Is it the Kansas State one? Yeah. I want to hear that. Yeah. We'll play that coming back. I do want to get you to this athletic survey about, you know, sometimes when you don't ask the person's name or say, hey, we'll keep all of this in between us and won't tell you, we won't announce who you're saying. They're a little more forthcoming. That's how general people are in life, right? Yes. I'm not going to put your name behind it, but what do you think about this person? Like when you talk about Clinton. Oh, all the time. All the time. But we have to attach your name

to it, so he kind of saw play a little bit. Imagine what you'd say about Adam if you didn't have to mention your name. Oh, my God. It'd be incredible. All right, so, yeah, the Athletic has an NFL survey about a variety of things including Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny made the survey list. Oh, really? Yeah.

I'm curious. You know, stay tuned to find out exactly what players thought about a variety of things, including concussions and bad bunny. But right now, a word for Big City Wings. The athletic does these surveys. And this survey apparently was done before the Super Bowl. So the bad bunny question is going to be a little dated.

But that's not really the key part of the whole thing. It is Matt and Ross here on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5 is 790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Now, there were not like, I was doing some more reading about this. This is not about yes or no. This was basically trying to get quotes from NFL players. So we don't know if they were.

were stars, if they were special teamers, we have no idea who these people are. Okay. But it's synonymous, so it's just going to be a rando push here of people. A variety of questions that were asked. One of them was, number one, how do you feel about the tush push? Is it time for the tush push to be outlawed? Responses. It's a dumb rule.

Dumbus rule we've had in a while, in my opinion. It's bull blank rugby. Okay. I believe we were sold on the change being related to player safety. It just doesn't make sense to me. Honestly, have you have seen a play involving the tush push and the Texans use it themselves where it hasn't worked? I mean, how many times have you watch a tush push not at the end of the day?

But I feel like I have seen it not work. I don't know. I feel like the Texans botched one or two before. Are you presuming that or are you just, are you saw it yourself? I mean, who was the backup tenant? Was it Brevin Jordan that was doing the snaps? Cade Stover was doing it was. Cade Stover, that's what it was.

He was doing good because you've got to jump to the side because then everybody, now everybody piles in the middle, and so you've got to find some room to the left or the right. I don't like it because, again, it feels like it's indefensible. But the reality is there should be more off-sides calls on the offensive side than they're not calling. That's the thing that bothers me. You have to really be strict with its calls.

And I think there's a lot of teams getting an unfair advantage because they're not calling the whistle because the guys are crossed the line of scrimmage before they're supposed to be. That would be my thought. Do NFL players ever hide concussion syndrome symptoms?

Here's what the variety of people say on the athletic. Sometimes you go lights out for a second. You just have to play it off. NFL doesn't want to hear that, do they, Ross? No, but I mean, that's, you could see that happening. Absolutely.

Somebody will see their lights get knocked out and their teammate will pick them up and try to get them off the ground and stuff like that. Another person says, we don't mess with brains. That's smart. Yeah, the results were 80% say, no, they never tried to hide concussions. Symptoms 19.5% said yes.

Next, football is about availability more than ability. You're going to hide whatever you can do to be out there. I know it's shameful to say. That's shared by probably quite a few people. Yeah. It's not something you want to do, but it's what you do. How widespread sports betting affects NFL players.

One person says people have said they'd kill me. Another person says people use slurs. People have said they'd kill me. In college after the national championship game, I got a lot of VINMO request. It's funny. I really don't even like watching football other than just playing it.

I can see that too. So the Athletic made a full article out of every one of these questions. Okay. So I guess they did that for some. some good clicks. Have you ever, 70% of them say they have been confronted by a fan or contacted about sports, betting losses or fantasy football.

It feels 70%. It feels low. That's low because I think we've done. I guess you had a lot of long snappers that get called out or the left guard. I can remember interviewing great players in the yesterday you were saying thank you for your service and your fantasy football helping me win. Yeah. That's kind of an inadvertent way of saying you helped me that doing that.

Are NFL players okay with Tom Brady's dual role as an owner and a broadcaster. One says it's just a conflict of interest, even if Tom is being careful, the optics are not good, and it could create an ugly situation down the road. Tom's in those broadcast meetings. Tom's going to do Chiefs games.

Tom's going to do Charger games. Now, he's not going to do Raider games, but he's going to do other teams probably in the AFC West. 84% are okay with it. 6.6% say no and 9% don't care. Next quote, if he's getting information and sharing it with the Raiders, so what? They sucked anyway. Didn't seem to be helping much. No.

One more quote. Teams just had to be mindful of what you tell him, just like with any broadcaster or reporter. All right. Next question. How do NFL players feel about bad bunny playing the Super Bowl halftime show? One person says, I don't speak Spanish, so I'm not a big fan, but I do think it's cool to have him because America is based on diversity.

America was built on immigration, so I feel like having him just furthers the American dream. Another player says, I'd prefer anyone who's synonymous with football and football culture. I feel like there are tons of artists out there who are fans of the game. One other quotes says, heck yeah, it's going to be a good time. The girls like Bad Bunny.

So, of course, we're going to like it. It's being truthful. This is a fun one. One said an NFC offensive player. I don't even know who Bad Money is. I always think it should be an American. I think they're trying too hard with this international stuff. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, just for those who aren't aware.

Okay. Should it be our 51st state? I don't know. I don't know. What's the benefit? That's good. Well, I mean, we're trying to buy green land. We're trying to, we almost making Canada our 51st state.

I don't know what's going on with that. I'm sorry. I'm the last person to ask. I don't even either. I thought the whole Canada thing being 51st state was pretty funny. I mean, apparently they're having infrastructure issues still from Hurricane Maria from years ago. If I can get some more time...

So that can get them help, the people some help, sure. Let's make them the 54th First Day. If we can get more Tim Hortons here, I'm all for Canada. I'll be here 51st 8. Okay. All right. One more. Who would NFL players pick for the U.S.

Olympic flag football team? Responses. Fast as due in the league, turn him loose. Especially in flag football, you have to go with a dual threat. I hope he is the unanimous choice. He can catch, throw, run, jump. He can do it all. He should automatically do it.

Who's that? I don't know. I didn't say he. Lamar Jackson? Oh yeah, I went to the poll. He got the most votes. If you had one pick for the Olympic flag football team, 12 of the respondents picked Lamar Jackson.

He would never guess number two. Tyree Khill was second with seven votes. Then Justin Jefferson, that's a good pick. Jamar Chase is a great pick. It's why I was. I like Jemir Gibbs. Miles Garrett, Jemir Gibbs, and Pat Mahomes. But Lamar Jackson, the runaway pick.

Any C.J. Stroud votes in that group? group. I did not see one. All right. Was Zay Flowers got a vote? Zay Flowers fumbles the ball too much. I can speak from experience. Bejohn Robinson, that's a good one. Yeah. All right. I just want to pass along a few things on that. The thing that comes across... I love the anonymous player polls. I'm with you.

Oh, I just... Again, it's... We're not in a heavy sports season, so I just thought it would be an anecdotal things to bring out there to the audience a little bit. And obviously, the one thing that I think has infiltrated sports. in the last 10 years that I'm surprised it hasn't even done more so is the gambling. Did you watch, again, I didn't watch any of the Super Bowl pregame. No. But I got it. I got it like before the anthems.

And then the game. Yeah, I saw a green day, but I was... You had ads every five seconds. The amount of money that these prop, what they call prop, not prop services, but... Prediction. Prediction markets. Like Kalshi. I mean, all

I've been dabbling. Have you? It's legal here in Texas. Well, so are the other stuff, too. But the juice is not good. It's, they juice both sides. So I would say long term, it's going to be difficult.

Just strictly, I'm talking about sports betting. You can bet on anything. Who's going to be the Republican nominee in 2028? Stock market going up or down. Stock market, you can predict a bunch of crazy stuff. There's, like, weather forecast you can predict, too. But, yeah, that's, the amount of pressure that the athletes

at least publicly are getting is small and I thought it would be. I'm surprised we don't have more. Now we do have the Chauncey Billup situation and Damon Jones and all that stuff that was an NBA that hit. But those are happening once every handful of years. We get college kids that are involved

of that too, but those are with some low-end schools that nobody cares about. Games are being manipulated. And I wonder, because I was naive, I thought it would be so obvious and easy for people to get caught, that that would be much of a deterrent. But when you get money and you get desperate,

people in desperate, anything can happen. But I think with the amount of people getting caught, is this going to get lessened and lessened? I don't know. I would say, yeah. Logically, I would say yes, but I've been surprised.

I'll say this. I think we're due for another big scandal. I had to say that. A couple months ago. But I mean, I think we're, that was just. Terry Roseir just got cleared. Yeah. showy a tiny was kind of it was a different thing well it was gambling related it was more of a story for us to presume that he was involved in gaming but he never really was you know i mean there are some people in sports radio that like to take stories and and act and embellish them to help their own cause for the program like there's no real evidence that you know who shot himself in the foot but for the sake of the show people love it bunch of sensationalists and i i apologize for being such a bunch of jabroney's for being sensationalists

because it does sound good. And there's no proof that tells me I'm wrong. Yeah, you can never prove a negative. Proved to me that there aren't mutant teenage turtles in the sewer right now. You can't. I think they're there. Or UFOs. Yeah, you can't prove, yeah.

But we have to have logical thinking here. And logically thinking, my argument to my Joe Mixen shooting himself on the foot is, when players are hurt for a long period of time, somebody eventually says something. This has been very, very tight-lipped. I feel like if he got shot in the foot, he would have a gun of the hospital. And generally, when somebody gets shot, aren't the police contacted? Maybe he was in a private Honduras clinic.

Okay, so somebody helped me out with this. Maybe perhaps somebody in the police or a hospital or something. If somebody shows him the hospital and they got shot in the foot, isn't the police, don't the police automatically get involved? You would think so. So thus, the logically thinking result of this is, free coffee. Malpractice.

And you're getting a coffee and a treat. You already got your coffee. Oh, you want good coffee. I get it. That's fine. Subpar. Mid. It's fine.

That's in my line. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. You know what I ask you sometimes, Ross? About things I don't get. And I need you to help me with some things. Okay. We do a segment every Thursday in the show called it, so I just don't get it.

If there's something in your life that you think Jonathan or I could help you with. Ross probably will give you bad advice. I think Jonathan and I can give you sage advice. If there's something in your life you just don't get, whether it's sports-related or not, let us know right now at 7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

If there's something you don't get, let us know. We'll discuss it next here on Sports Talk 790. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We'll discuss the topics to see if we comprehend. The things that may confuse our friends, it's time to say I just don't get it.

All right, what don't you get, Rossi? This is an opportunity for you to just basically end the confusion of your life. I can give you sage advice. Jonathan will give you the younger person's thoughts and dreams and aspirations of it. Okay. What do you got this week? Me? Yeah.

You're going straight to me? I am going right to you. I guess I just need this explained because this keeps happening. And now recently an Alabama player was ruled ineligible. It's going to the courts. What is happening with these players who have played in the G League as professionals? Yes. And then they're going to be, want to play college basketball.

Well, the Alabama kid got shot down. He's not doing anymore. But apparently there are still. others who have played in the G League who are in college basketball and eligible in playing. I don't get it. I want to wrap my head around it because, Darrell, I'm anti-NC-A. I know you are. I want to go against the NCAA in any way possible, but I can't wrap my head around this one.

I have not gotten into it at all. It's highly confusing to me because some players have been given clearance, some have not. I don't get it. I would lean towards there's probably some good evidence to support each case. I just can't give it to you So I apologize to you for not Be able to give you the answer to that You don't get it either

Okay Yeah that's it So I just don't get it Can explain it Jonathan what he's our You know what he's the amateur athletic He's the clearing house leader for us Yes

To the point for NCAA For different sports You have to look at gymnastics We have athletes that compete in the Olympics And still come back to college Which shouldn't even be at all We have award like medal winnings That are in there

It's to the point And basketball is tricky because it gives such an advantage to the team and they're complaining because they want it to be kids but because of the NCAA is at right now you can't there's no guidelines and it's really you're still anti- The Wild West.

Yeah and that's just the whole point of it like you have no guidelines you have no structure to where you can't say kids can leave college and then come back because they still have eligibility and that's why it's a problem with the Juco athletes saying they need more years but you already did college because Juco doesn't count it's too much great area to even Yeah. Do you think Juico

should count. I don't understand. Yeah, I can't, I don't have a strong opinion on that, which is bad in this business, man. I got to have a strong opinion. Strong takes. I have to yell it loud and act like I'm smarter than everyone. But I just don't, I kind of see both sides when it comes to the should juco years count against your eligibility. My initial blush reaction that is juco years should count. You're still going to a college. You're still developing. I mean, yeah, it's a year of development so you gain an advantage. I don't know. But also part of me wants to say, like, if you're in school and you're actively pursuing a degree, not taking ballroom dancing like Matt Liner, not in classes at all at Carson Beck. If you're literally like a Ph.D. candidate, I technically go to the school. You should be able to play for the school's athletic teams, I guess. But then who's to decide what courses are going to start serious enough? Right. Like, there are kids.

General studies, getting your master's in general studies at LSU. Like, for instance, you've got kids bouncing around playing four schools in five years. There's no serious interest at all in getting a degree. You are simply enrolling in a class to say that you're a student. You're not going to that class. You're going to play your season, then you're going to leave and go somewhere else. Problem is, here's what I don't get. You ready for this?

How do those kids able to transfer while their credits? Probably some of them don't. They don't get their credits most of the time. So you're just spinning in your wheels, right? You're just going around and round and around. You're chasing the dream of the NBA or the NFL or you're saving that NIL cash? When did our college athletic system become so convoluted and such a hot mess? You know what it did?

And I'm going to blame the NCAA on this when they started taking the mega, mega, mega, mega, mega million dollar deals. When you brag about your billion dollar contract with CBS for the March Madness, everybody said like, I want that part of my piece myself. If it ain't for me, you ain't get any of it, so give it to me. and then instead of having regulation and some sort of normalcy to this business, it is just nuts. It's wild. I wonder, I mean, it feels like it's changed even from like a year ago to two years ago to three years ago. Where's it going to go in five years?

Schools were not able to directly pay $20 million. Now they can directly do it. How many active law? I wonder how many lawsuits the NCAA is actively in. And these lawyers keep taking L's too. They've got to change law firms. Yeah, you can't keep going to do we, cheat, him, and how every single

time out. A lot of billable hours for the NCAA. All right, so if you got something in life you just don't get, then that'd be sports related. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I just asked AI, not everything, Matt. Could be wrong. Uh-oh. What'd you say? I just asked Google. How many lawsuits is the NCAA on? It says

at least 55 active lawsuits without eligibility cases. Who's the offer them on that. And can I buy, are they publicly traded? Can I buy their stock? You cannot. They're privately held. Okay.

Jonathan, in your life, I know you've been busy the last couple of weeks, anything in your life you don't get? Yeah. Are you guys familiar with the fusion of innovation theory? The fusion of innovation theory. So basically, it's a theory that goes back to the 70s, a media theory about how people adapt to different cultures and different media outlets or just in-

Diffusion of innovations? The fusion of innovation. Okay, I'm reading on it right now. Go ahead. So it's for the audience, left to right, it's a scale of being the both ends being at the smaller percentages, goes from left to right innovators, early adapters, early majority, late majority, and at the end, laggards.

So talking about media, and I challenge Matt to this as well. Oh, because I don't understand, is when you go and talk about the All-Star and how they're marketing to different audiences, is when you speak about it, you're speaking of European as a laggard because you don't like what's happening. You don't like change. The same way as it went with paying the athletes.

You didn't like it until everybody was like, oh, no, this is better until there was proof. There's people like that in general as a population that are always going to sit back on these innovations. What I don't understand is when you're saying like Kia, there's no point because I'm the person that's going to buy Kia. Well, you have to think about it in the media's perspective. The older people are going to be more loyal and more

conservative to their Chevrolet, their Ford, their key, you know, whatever they have. But what they're going to keep doing is target the innovators, early adapters, which are going to be the younger audiences and the younger demographic, because they need to blow that brain into their head. And so what happens is you have people that don't like it, that's okay. That's a completely different scenario.

But saying is it's not smart, same thing with the Super Bowl and saying, okay, that's not smart. It's bad production. But we found out. it has the biggest streaming numbers of the whole thing. And you said, oh, because there's more streaming. Can you talk about Bad Bunny? Yeah, but I'm saying in general, when it comes down to it,

you have to think about back in your day. What did Nike do to the early Interveris? They put it on Michael Jordan. That's never been heard of. There was probably a lot of people like, oh, this is not fair. This, this, and this and this. It blew him up, and it blew up Nike as a whole into the whole category. It took people, oh, I like these sneakers.

I don't really like it. And so now it's Main Street pop culture. Nike and Jordan's shoe. So I challenge you when you're saying, and I don't understand, is when you're like, well, it doesn't make sense, it's not smart, that's a different thing than you saying you don't like it because it's a change for you.

And I don't understand it because you're not the only person that does this, because Ross is on the other side saying, well, don't watch it then. But you guys have to understand these people don't want to be stuck like the MLB that can't bring in the younger audience because they're not doing anything. Like Ross is always speaking, automate, automate, make it better for the game.

And this is the things I don't understand why people just kind of put negative opinions on it instead of saying, I just don't like it and saying it's bad for the business. Does that make sense? Or like they're trying to get the younger audience is what you're saying. They're trying to get them early. And to the point with the influencers, that's the whole point. You have to get it. It's got to start somewhere. The innovators are going to pick up no matter what.

And this is the point of the theory. The laggers are always going to stay behind until it's proven right. You gave me a lot there. Let me get a break in and go to it because you mixed a lot of different categories in one but I think I can kind of all wrap it up and give you one generic answer. I think I can't.

Okay. And then we'll do when we come back. So again, what Jonathan I think you're trying to say is that there is a certain segment of the population that says, I don't like something they should get rid of it as compared to just saying, I don't like something and you do what you're doing? I guess also I guess the statement about Kia should be catering to me rather than the young audience who doesn't have disposal of income.

I didn't say cater. I said they should not try to forget about us because we're the ones right now that are more apt to buy their product than 22. I think it's an interesting point what Jonathan brings up about because, you know, people our age, Matt, it's more Kia is like, you know, the poor person car or the cheap car or whatever. And maybe they are. I own a Kia. They ain't cheap. Yeah. What you used to be.

I'm saying the stigma. Yes, yes, yes. And so trying to, the old school, I'm not saying that's the way it is. I'm saying that's what the old thing. If you talked to people from 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it was like, oh, you got a Kia? Like, are you okay? Can you eat? No, the Kia, we have a tell you ride.

Cias are a lot nicer now. And I think they are trying to infuse that with a younger audience. Okay. So I will try to address what he says because I think there's some, there is some value in what you were talking about. 1145 on Sports Talk 790. 5.790. Chris Schu Walker spoke today at Astroo Spring Training and at 1220 will play that for you. He said, I'll just want to play 80 games and DHB some and maybe I'll play some first base. Is that what he said? You'll find out in one half hour from now.

You know what I'm sad about? We haven't played the Olympic theme at any point. We haven't merely been getting many Olympic updates, but Canada's beating Chechia for nothing. Well, we have the news at noon. You're right. You know, how about we just? Yeah, you know what? I'm playing the news at noon theme. I love the Olympic theme. The Olympic theme is, that's top 10, right? Did we draft that in our top themes?

I should have. I went with Wimbledon instead and got my ass. Breakfast at Wimbledon was terrible. Oof, that was terrible. Surprise you didn't go with the Roland Garros. French Open? Oh, God. All right, so Jonathan, I'm going to try to take all your thoughts

and try to wrap them up into one tight topic here. I hope you find it too. Okay. I am in a business in my industry, like most people that listen, that have to adapt to change. So I am not adverse to adapting to change. This is just me, myself, and I. Okay?

I was for the longest time dead set against athlete payments because I thought it would be a hot mess of an industry. And I've always loved the belief that getting a full four-year ride with tuition and books and food and all the good stuff that came with being just a scholarship athlete was going to be worth it because it still has a tremendous value to, especially if you go to an out-state school. But I've seen now in the change of the last 20 to 25 years, the amount of money that is going in to the NCAA coffers and these conference of coffers.

And there should have been. And there was. And there now is distribution to the athletes. And I'm happy about that. I still believe to this day there is too much renegade, too much craziness, no self-policing. And it's continuing to spiral out of control. I don't have an answer for it, but that's just how I see it. but I'm adapting to it.

I've adapted to rule changes in sports. I've adapted to ABS. I've adapted to designated hitter in all baseball. Adapted to the Astros America. I mean, if you don't adapt, if you don't adapt in our industry about how we do our shows, you can be in the outside looking in. What I find, how do I want to say this?

What I find to be disappointing is that we have taken, groups of people and said, well, we're not going to like one group people can't like everything. So we're just going to take a small group and make sure they're satisfied. And I use the NBA game as an example. The NBA All-Star game was universally loved 30 years ago, 40 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago. It has been worked over and done and over again. And they keep trying to find new ways to reinvent the wheel. and instead of just going to the athletes and saying, hey, play harder and let's have a competitive game,

it's like, you know what, let's just do it and just make sure the 21-year-old kids can enjoy it and get their video clips on there. I don't think that's a good business. And I'm not trying to narrow it down just to basketball. So while I have accepted changes in sports, I do not accept the way the NBA is handling its All-Star game. Because I love the All-Star game as an adult and as a child, and I want to continue and enjoy the All-Star game. I don't enjoy the All-Star game anymore. I don't enjoy the pro football all-star game, the Pro Bowl. They've tried to change that and it hasn't worked out.

So while I can adapt to some things, there are some things that I don't adapt to. And what I don't adapt to is seeing this ridiculous exhibition that shows the greatest athletes of the world playing the best sport that I love and watch, treat it like it's a pickup basketball game in your backyard. And I don't like it. And so I'm not going to adapt to that. I'm not going to change that and say, well, if the 23-year-olds like it, that's the most important thing. I'm a consumer of sports. Well, so I guess the question I'm asking you, the NBA with the Americans versus international. No problem with that.

So that's what I'm trying to hone into as well for you to answer is like that's their way of doing it. And like you said, and you're very prominent and what Katie was talking about, they had to make these players care. and I get and right now in the NBA as a whole it's just the Americans getting all the scrutiny when these international people aren't doing anything and I think that's why WIMBY is making that change like okay I'm gonna do it real hard I'm gonna start this new flow of things and like you said earlier I'm not this isn't a cash race you or anything like that no no no but it's like you said earlier it could be the best all-star game and like they actually changed it around and I guess do I'm trying to say it's like we have to as you know be in a minute like you said you've come through so many these changes, that when these changes do happen, like these influencers on stuff like that, it's not because they're going to forget about it. It's not a negative. It's because they trust

their base is going to stay. Yeah, they're going to have some criticism. Everybody, there's no business that's free of criticism, but you have to, the base is there. They're trusting that the base is going to stay there. We're going to fix this for you guys, but we also have to grow and get these younger kids in there. That's why I brought MLB as an example. MNB doesn't do it. that. And that's why they're stuck doing this and still doing these budget caps and having to do this and going on these, like getting out and not doing anything. And that's what, I guess the example I was making because at first what I thought from you was, oh, I hate it. I'm going to, I don't want to do it anymore. It's horrible. Any idea is bad. But, you know, speaking right now, what you're saying, it makes a lot more

sense. All I want, all I want the ambiguity to do is to try and to give us something that they gave 30 to four years ago. And I don't know if it's possible. So my philosophy is, if it's not possible, and these guys don't want to do it because they're risking injury, then scrap it. Yeah, I think Matt's perspective is seeing something that was great and competitive and fun and got a lot of eyeballs, it's in decline. There's no denying the NBA All-Star game from what it once was is in decline, and the root of that is the lack of competitiveness. So the NBA is trying to innovate.

They are trying to do something. They came up with the team staff, versus Team LeBron, where you do a draft, and then they did the Chuck and Kenny thing, and now they're doing the USA versus the world. So they are trying to do something, but is it trying to resuscitate something that is already dead, or is it making an innovation and trying to usher in a new generation? I mean, I guess that's, that's where we are. I feel like in this discussion. I'm willing to contemplate something that should be dead, I should say. Like the last year, you said about the team Kenny team, that didn't impact how the game was playing.

that even happened until I just looked it up. I mean, it was a cool way to draw up the players. It was one year ago, and I forgot. But USA versus the world, I have some intrigue. If I remember to watch it, you said it's on Sunday? Yeah. Okay. Now, you're going to be in Florida.

So the question's going to be, do you want a ticket? I'm not going to have anything to do. I was going to say, be in the hotel, you could probably watch it. Yeah, I'm watching it at Rachel's. Steakhouse. Duh. Soup, salad, steak, yes, ass.

I mean, it's really good. It's not bad. So I've heard. What's our new expense reporting system, by the way? Well, I'm going to have... What's our budget? Our market manager is going to be his assistant's going to help me with that. Okay.

You may want to put that on a separate card. Heard the budget's tight. It's really tight. And just like the talent, Rachel's. Should I ask what Rachel's is or shall leave that long? You can figure it out. Context close. He'd take about one second to figure it out. It's Brian McTaggart's favorite place I've heard.

So all I'm going to tell you is, Jonathan, is that I am, because I'm in a industry that requires change. And if you are doing sports radio today, like you did it 30 years ago, you're out of the business. They're trying to resuscitate. And that's saying, do not resuscitate. D&R. No, I don't think it's not resuscitate. I think it's shift the focus. Don't keep trying to invent new crazy-ass ways to play a game that was really good when.

people gave a damn. I like USA versus the world. And you have these athletes now who train 365 days a year and this game is an exhibition. But if USA World and throws a ball at half court out the backboard for a guy to dunk it, that's not going to do me any different good.

And then actually at that point Matt and Ross, I would agree with you. After this year, if it doesn't happen, then... I don't want anybody turning any... I don't want any grade two ankle sprains or have to be grade three ankle sprains. If Kevin Durant is out there and he's running up and down the floor and you're trying to chase. to get chased down blocks and he flies and then runs his knee into the stanchion. I don't want to see that. I don't. Yeah. And you're saying, well, Matt, is there a hypocrisy in what you're saying?

A little bit. But I've been, and look, I'm anti-WBC. I'm anti-All-Star game in general, because to the initial point of, I don't want my guys getting hurt. But as I said, if you're going to do it, then at least show up. Yeah, and the WBC is competitive. Those guys are out there trying. They are. Very competitive. But the timing of it really hurts because I think it's more about the body in March competing when you should be getting gearing yourself for the start of the season. It can't be that much more rigorous than the same. But how many All-Star game injuries were there between 19 and baseball? They play 160.

I'm talking about basketball between 80 and 95. Did a young David Robinson get hurt in an All-Star game? No. Did Michael Jordan get hurt? Yeah, but you're also in the pay, I mean, I don't know how many major injuries there have been in All-Star games. It's probably a very short list. We could try to look it up. Yeah.

All right. It's also just a different era as well because the pace of the game in the NBA game. And, you know, it's different than the 1990s where every team was running down the shot clock and games were ending 86 to 80. I don't want to see. I love today's NBA when it comes to that. Yeah. I don't want to see 86, 84 under any circumstance. The Rockets, unfortunately, Rossi gave it away. They gave it away now. We'll have that. Plus coming up in about 20 minutes, Christian Walker speaks for the first time. at Astro Spring Training. 12-1 on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. After falling behind by as much as 15 points in this contest, they win it tonight, 105-102. And split the four-game series against a team that they might see come playoff time. You never know. They're going to probably be the 10th scene in the Western Conference of Clippers.

They beat in the Rockets last night. This is our number three, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got the all-star break coming up. How do we spend the all-star break? Get to watch the daughter play a little volleyball this weekend up in Dallas. I'll be with her tomorrow. We're hanging out with you for four hours.

You're welcome to come if you want, but... I'm good. I figured. Super busy. And you now will meet each other in West Palm Beach from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. You're flying from Dallas to West Palm? I saw amps. Okay.

Flying a legit airline going there and then flying from Fort Otterdale to Charlotte on a non-legit airline. It's got to be legit. enough if you're getting on the plane. You would hope. You'll be fine. I hope so. Get out of here, fancy, Matt. I mean, I do have a lifestyle. Look, I got to be honest, these airfares are ridiculous. I'm all about the budget. I used to be like, I'm never getting on spirit again.

I'm never, and I'm like, maybe I will. Once I look at the, I can talk a big game until I check those airfares. By the way, you're flying dark breast. The people that are complaining about dark breast new boarding procedures is ample. Why? Isn't it just like a regular airline now? Well, but you have a lot of people that didn't, that had like nice perks with the airline. Oh, okay. That are being treated like cavalry.

Second-class citizens, yeah. And so the four-you tab is all over to it. Okay. I want to get your. And you get travel horn and your four-utown dude? They got you down pat. They kind of do. My new favorite one is girl like, there's a girl on the photo, hey, how does this dress look?

And the answer the first response is Grock, take that red dress off of her. Oh, my God. I've never seen a post like that ever. I'm sorry to say. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm on your side. Thank you. Oh, okay. You see it too.

He knows. He knows. I'm not being. We got, we get the Virgin Mary over here. You know, I try to keep those things out of my algorithm. Drives a driven snow. I'm not saying that. All right.

Yeah. Mine's all. Never mind. Yeah, what is yours about? It's Chandler. You want to look at my 4-U right now? Let's see. Chandler Rome.

In Manchester City. Okay, well, I don't have any soccer on mine, so. But I don't need Glock to take the towel away from the girl. I got news, Grock. We can find it if we need it. All right. I'm sorry. Get off your 4-U tab.

I got analytics on there. Zero surprise. All right, let me, I'll do this honestly. We'll get to the news at noon. I'm going to go to 4-U tab right now. Okay. Okay. And here we go. McTaggart,

Legion Hoops, some dude named Matt Young, R790, and Jeff Goodman. So it's NBA stuff. Keep scrolling. NBA, news, Get Up, awful announcing, Only Fans model.

You know what? Here we go. No, I can't read that one. All right, let's get to the news. at noon. All right. NBC Sports presents the 2020 Olympics from Milan Sports Desk.

Here's Ross Villarreal. Actually, Madam, Cortina, the Papazzo, or whatever it's called, about 250 miles away. Why is it called Milan and they're in Cortina and it's 250 miles away? Every time you say Cortina, I think you're saying can'tina.

You want to go? Get a couple of margaritas. No salt. You get the, I'm a no salt guy as well. Thank you. Frozen over rocks. You know what I discovered? You know what I discovered? The move, the wave in my later years?

Sugar. Half rocks, half frozen. Oh, really? Give it a shot. I got one I just don't get really quick. Beer in the margarita. Beeritas? Yeah.

As for alcoholics. Okay. I just want to make sure. I mean, I don't mean to call you people out who are drinking those. Like, you don't be great with this super. high fructose corn syrup infused margarita drink with tequila. How about if I put a beer in here?

Oh, and let me get a floater. Yeah, I mean, it's fine. If that's how you want to get down, that's cool. I'm not judging. I'm just saying it's just an alcoholic move. It's just for a lot of alcohol in one beverage. Yeah. You can't nurse that, by the way, can you?

It's just gluttonous. All right, to the update, please. Again, I don't mean that in negative. I guess it sounds more negative that I mean it to be. I mean, I've had some beat readers in my day. I'm not judging. Sometimes you had a stressful day at work and you need to have a liquid lunch. All right, anyways.

Yes, Matt, let's get to the medal count on Norway still dominating. Seven gold medals, but Italy has climbed up the rankings. They now have six gold medals and they lead the overall metal count at 15. United States in third with 13 overall medals, four gold, six silver, three bronze. We got to get those medals up, Maddie. because we're trailing Norway which has a population

of like 6 million people what's the population of Italy I'm going to guess it's around 50 million or something let's see 59 million people in Italy says the Google machine so United States currently

third in the overall metal count trailing Italy and Norway also in Olympic action Matt you may interrupt it go ahead yeah absolutely we got a marriage proposal yesterday

and then two days before we got a guy spilling his heart out because he wound up cheating with another girl. I like that. He wanted to get out with he could get back with her. So he apologized on worldwide television and she's like, shut your bum ass up. Don't bring this out. It's not going to work. It didn't work. He said he was committing social suicide, whatever that means. And he's accurate. I guess he is like, I'm coming with your hat at hand, baby. I'm sorry.

And also people like, I think he said, baby. Where was he from? He was from Fron's? I don't know. I honestly, I told you I was giving it 15 minutes, that's all I've given it. Don't hate me. You also have a, in the curling women's preliminaries, Sweden competing Japan, 8 to 4, as there's a lot of curling going on. And in the cross-country skiing mat, some dude named Carlson from Sweden won.

Some other guy named Anderson from Sweden got second. Okay. I figure you wanted more Olympic updates Okay, fine, yeah, you can go back to the race. Oh, you want to do other sports? Oh, you want to do other sports? Yeah. Sure, why not?

Rockets got their ass womped. Okay, they didn't get their ass want. It felt like it. They were up 15 and they turned the ball over 21 times. Kevin Durant turned the ball over eight times. I mean, we love you, Kevin Durant. You're one of the greatest basketball players of all times, second greatest shooter of all time.

But hold on to the basketball. Stop turning the ball over. Please. Eight turnovers for the Houston Rockets, 23 points off of those. Fast break points, you got beat 22 to 2

in the game, Matt, on fast break points, and you lost by three. Also, IMA O'Doka, under fire on social media. Stop me if you heard that before, but I'm going to go with,

and I get it, with terms of the firestorm. Not fire. I'm going to, like, I don't get it. I need, with like, further explanation is what I should say.

Confusion. Maybe a little bit. No Reed Shepherd. 2.0 seconds left. Rockets needing a 3 with the game on the line. Reed Shepherd was 5 of 10 from 3 in the game and was not on the floor in the final two seconds.

And I don't believe I've been looking. I cannot find anybody that didn't. Nobody after the game asked the question why that was the case. Except Rocket Twitter. Rockets Twitter, they want answers. Maybe in the pregame, well, no. No, it's going to, it's All-Star break.

Nobody's going to be asking about that. No. Uh-uh. It's done. We'll come back. All right, Matt. Elsewhere in the news of sports, Jaron Jackson Jr. is out for the season as the jazz continued a full-on tank.

Sitting guys in the fourth quarter, not playing people. And now, Jaron Jackson has a, going to have a growth removed in his left knee. And he's going to be out for the remainder of the season as the tanking is on for the Utah Jazz. And that was your news. At noon.

All right, we got to call her. Neal, our friend Nealiel is going to give us an update on his southwest boarding issues, because you're going to be flying the old dark breast this weekend. And we'll see what Christian Walker had to say, not about dark breast airlines, but about playing with a crowded infield of 2006. Yes. Can't wait. Believe or not, James Vanderbeak has ever going with that today?

Oh, I forgot about the beak. What is he on again? Do you have any pictures with them? You got to rush to Shultzum Media and post all your pictures with him. No, you know who did was Stacey Keebler. She was with him like in his last days. What happened? He died of cancer.

I didn't know the beak was sick. I didn't know it either. Now, he was in, what was the movie, the sports movie he was in? It was so good. Varsely Blues? Yeah. It was that good, but yeah. Mox.

Mox. I don't want your laugh. Mox, girlfriend that had the shaving cream on her. You know what? We're great. Allie. Allie. Allie wonderful.

Allie. Allie, perfect. What is she doing now? Acting? We could do fantasy five of girls that were hot movies that we didn't ever hear about. You know another one? Here's my all the time. Allie Larder.

What is she doing now? Hanging out. What do you mean? Well, that was, that movie was 20 years ago. Yeah, she's in your, she's in demo. She's 49. She's in Landman now. Oh, Landman.

Oh, really? Nice. Yeah. Allie Lader, Varsity of Blues was an all-timer. I should look now. It looks great. Good. I guess.

Like Mia Stara from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Yeah? Looks good too, but Time did hurt a little bit, as it does for all of us. Time did her? Did hurt a little bit. She was so great in Ferris Bueller. And then there was the girl from Caddyshack that would Chevy Chase hanging out.

Can you stop making guttural noises? No, I'm not making good. I'm just bringing up women that were like hot women. You can all hear about. A microphone's not working well. Hey Ross, why am I going to watch Landman now? I'm just curious what you just said. If Allie Larger gets nude and Landman, you will watch.

No. You're a liar. Mm-mm. I haven't watched it yet. My wife's already two seasons in. She didn't bring it up to me. Two seasons in? Yeah.

Why would she bring that up to you? So we can have great television viewing habits together. Oh. I think. Okay. You use that cast button? It's funny. I've not watched Landman.

apparently beloved and I never watched Tombstone. Yellowstone. Did you ever see Tombstone? No. I just disappoint you constantly and I'm sorry. No, it's my nose is itchy.

No, it's not. You're disappointed. Oh, my nose is itching. I'm going to try to go. No, it's fine. I'm going to try to go once a week without, you know what I'm going to do when you say, did you, have you ever had or did you ever see?

I'm going to say yes and lie. Okay. I don't feel bemoaned. No, it's fine. You don't like violence in violent movies. And there's a lot of violence. There's a lot of violence in Tombstone. Great movie, though.

All right. Let's go to Neidl. Neal is going to help you out. Oh, my screen's not working here. Let's see. You pop up blind one there. I guess so. Hi, Neidl.

How are you? Hey, how's it going, guys? Good. So I was going to give you a little insight into the, Southwest boarding because my wife works for them and I fly a standby all the time. So it's actually great. Now, the people that are complaining are actually the people that are spending the least amount of money on tickets. So before, if you paid more to be in group A or group B, you know, you would expect that you got on first and you got to pretty much have the pick of your seats.

Well, now that there's a signed seating, they no longer do the, if you're traveling with children, you get to board before everybody else. If you're active military, you get to board before everybody else. If you have a sprained ankle, you get to board before everybody else. So all of the people that were going up that were spending the least amount of money on tickets were going up and getting endorsements on their tickets to where they could board first in front of everybody else. And the people that were paying the money were not. So the people that are paying the money are actually happy with the system now

because they get to get on and get their assigned seat. they don't have half the plane already full by the time they get on there. The people that are complaining is the people that can no longer take their 12-year-old kids that are supposed to be seven and bored in front of everybody else and take seats in the front. So that's the people that are complaining the most is the people that are paying the least. Hmm. Because the complaint I've seen, Neidiel, is the A-listers, the A-plus preferred, the frequent flyers. They're the ones that felt like they're being not treated with the extra or little.

to love that frequent flyers typically get. That's what I primarily have seen. Yeah, I mean, there's not really any extra perks, and they're not losing anything, because now, I mean, they're going to get those seats that are in the first four or five rows automatically. They're not going to have to worry about getting on there and fighting for a good seat, but the people that were getting those good seats before and not paying for them are now not able to do that.

Okay. Now, you are a standby guy? How often you get to go on those little standby trip? A lot, infrequently, frequently? Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm going to Shreveport to the casino tomorrow, and last week I went to Vegas. So, I mean, I travel pretty often. Wait a minute.

You can't fly Southwest to Shreveport. Well, okay, so let me tell you, there's a little inside thing. So all of the airlines are partnered up with one another. So because my wife works for Southwest, she can fly any other airline United America whoever it is, and all she has to pay is the taxes. So this trip, round trip to Shreveport, is going to cost me $51. Mm. Would you like a son-in-law?

Oh, yeah, I love one. Nigel, thank you very much. Now you feel better about it, Ross? No. So what he's basically saying is... You didn't stick me in a middle seat, so I'm happy about that. No, no, I actually, I got you a higher fare that allowed me to let you choose your seat. Yeah, thank you.

And you're a window guy, which makes me happy because I like aisles. That means if you're in the window, you are not taking one of my aisle spots. Yeah, I am not going to get my elbow hit by 50 people and in the cart. So I'm good. I'm chilling in the window. Going 99. Absolutely. It depends.

Yeah, I'm doing better on something. It's a morning flight. Yeah. Okay, let's hear from Chris Shawlake. You want to? Yes. He sounds pretty chipper. Chipper Jones?

Not chipper Jones. just generally speaking chipper. We'll hear from the Astro first baseman. Everyday first baseman. For now. And forever and ever, amen. 1230, sports talk 790.

Matt Ross. And we are happy to have Chris Gordy down in Florida covering the team and he was in the clubhouse earlier today. We'll be down there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week. I'll tell you, that's a grind, my man. We get there early in the morning.

Talk. wait around yes still waiting for chas mccormer to come back to his locker I could talk to him remember I said I would wait and I wait and I waited and he brushed me off and now he's gone now he's gone he's going going gone see you later that's what he had to say

Robert Ford's never going to say that for him he may say McCormick home run deep left field and gone but he won't say see you later I know here is Christian Walker hopefully Robert Ford will be saying a lot of see you later to Christian Walker he was asked today what it's like to have a crotted infield and he has some previous experience with such a tactic.

What do you think I'm in? Yeah, yeah. You know, I don't necessarily like talking about the past or anything like that, but my time in Arizona, we've had some similarly, you know, put together teams where there's some guys that can do a bunch of different roles and wear a few different hats. You know, I think it can be a great thing for a team. I think more weapons is always a good thing. You know, we're talking about potentially, you know, what to do with a number.

other really good player and a really good bat and a high value to a team that won us a lot of games last year and is going to win his games this year. So yeah, I mean, call it, you know, it's a little bit of a puzzle, but I think it's going to make the team stronger. I think it's very much an all-in mentality and it'll be fun. When you look at last year, I know you didn't like to talk to the past, but when you assess it, do you feel like maybe you're putting too much pressure on yourself or anything like that, you know, big free agent deal and all that kind of stuff? Or just it's baseball and sometimes it's, you know. Yeah, yeah, I think it's, for me, it's more of that category.

It's, it's baseball. It was, you know, it was a tough first half for sure. I'm not going to deny that. But, and I think the second half thing started, you know, falling back into place. And yeah, it's, it's hard to sit here and say maybe why or what. I don't think it was any of, you know, the situation. I think for me it was just about my swing. I had a hard time repeating some moves.

Spent a lot of time in the cages over the course of the season and this off season. Just trying to figure some things out. But yeah, I feel like myself. And I'm excited for another season. There you go. What do you think? He sounds chipper. Again, I didn't mean to use chipper a third time in a segment.

I apologize. A beat? Sure. Positive. And he did go off of what a lot of Christian Walker. Not truthers, but people that are rooting for him saying that his second half was significantly more productive than his first half. Does he have truthers? Second half for Christian Walker.

250 average, 799 OPS, 15 home runs in 62 starts, where he had in 90 games, 90 starts, just 12 home runs in the first half. So everything improved. If you put those numbers up against what he had the last year in Arizona, it's pretty much. much on par. 250, 800 OPS, a lot of power. Yeah. So how much did that oblique at the start of the season hurt him? He just talked about having issues, repeating stuff in his swing, getting in bad habits. Hitters always talk about how any sort of little thing gets out of place and they can throw, it can just roll downhill and keep ruining the entire swing to him being able to correct that in the second half. And then he can be good. And there is a reality, Ross, that he is facing a little

bit of heat because there is somebody on that bench that could take his spot in a heartbeat if he's in for any sort of prolonged slump. And I think Russia Walker has pride, even though he's making great money, has been a successful Major League Baseball player and has never sat prolong on a bench any point in his life and doesn't want to do it here in Houston. Yeah, Esoc Paredes is a better hitter than Christian Walker as of this moment. If you go just based on second half and, you know, of course, Esoc Paredes was hurt in the second half. We can make some arguments. But just one to one, in a vacuum, Issoc Paredes is a better hitter. So, I mean, how do you figure this out?

How do you keep him out of the line? Talking about ESAC, keep him out of the lineup every single day when Christian Walker, of course, we know wants to be out there every single day. And oh, by the way, you're paying him to be out there every single day. By the way, I wonder when the pitchers and catchers are there, when the position players get there. There was going to be an ESOC parade as how's your hamstring. Because that was as bad of a hamstring injury as you're going to possibly get.

Now, he did labor and get back on the field, not to play defense, but are you able to swing a bat. So kudos to him for trying. I mean, he literally gutted it out. But where is that hamstring? Is it 100% healthy? Is it ready to go? Can he field his position?

Because here's the thing. If you're trying to trade him, you know there's going to be medicals on the other side of things. He's going to have to pass a physical wherever he goes. Okay. Look, selfishly, we're not anti-Christian Walker. In fact, Christian is one of more thoughtful players on the team. in terms of hearing from him and being able to discuss

the world of baseball, discuss his team, discuss his own swing, discuss his ups and downs. There's no reason why we can't root for him. Yeah, I think for what he was, I think in my mind I kind of write him off a little easily because of how poor the year overall as a whole was, but he was much better in the second half.

But you know what? Another reason why we're writing him off a little bit is because it was, generally speaking, a down year for him. and he's getting older. So he had those two things together, and it's like, are we starting to see the downward trend of his major league career? But that doesn't mean he can't bounce back. That doesn't mean he can't be what he once was.

And that's what the Astros have to figure out and what we're going to have to kind of see play out depending on how things happen with the possible ESAC parades trade. Guys can play 35, 36, 37 years old and still compete. They just can. Now, can Christian Walker do it? At first base, you can. Yeah.

But this organization does value, defense. This organization does value great first baseman. And Christian Walker stillfields his position very, very well for a guy that has been around as long as he has. So you're not losing anything from a defensive standpoint. It's just about the number of

missed opportunities. If there was a song or a scenario that came into play last year, there was a lot of times where we were saying, all right, runners at first and second, less than two outs. Can Walker get one of these guys home or at least advance the base runners? And when you strike

out you leave them right where they are. It was bad and it was bad for times, but I think even I can find his risk, even his risk numbers weren't bad. Eh, 737 OPS with runners in scoring position, but that's consistent about where I think he was consistently there the whole season.

He just wasn't good enough in any any kind of leverage situation. Well, you don't want, honestly, Rossi, you don't want your three, four, five guys that have less than a 750 OPS. You just don't. You can live with 737 if it's Jake Meyer. You can live with 737 if it's... You'd love it if it was a lot.

If it's Cam Smith. But you... Look, you want your heart of the lineup guys to be OPS in around 800. And in your honest case, 900. And he did in the second half. But last three years, OPS Plus, 100 being average, of course. 122, 120, 97.

You can't have a 97 OPS plus at first base. Or batting in the 3-4-5 spots. And I still think he's penciling him. Probably is what a five-hitter you would have? think for this team? Probably. Is Is Isaac Paredes in the light? No. Al-Qaena. Al-Tuvae.

Yordon, Correa, Walker. Yeah, that sounds about right. I put Yordon in the two, personally. But I don't know if they're going to do that. Joe Spada keeps trying to do it. I just a gut feeling. It's like Yoron maybe doesn't like it. And maybe some of the players don't like it.

Does Yon strike out too much to be a two-hitter? No. Okay. he's he's one of your better on base guys that's what i want isaq parades man how does this sound pania yordon parades or pania parades yordon working counts get him on base yeah i am not those are your top three hitters by the way i am not a nazi when it comes a line of managing i like i have this crazy idea where your best hitter should get more played appearances yep yeah if as long as the strikeout numbers are low like they were especially early in his

career you can put him a number two spot for sure people are saying Allie Larder still a smoke show and Landman. Let me see. Let me see. Are you? That's her. I show you stuff every day on my laptop. And this is the first time you're getting the binoculars out.

I wish they could see that. I haven't recorded, actually. Jonathan, there's no belly fat at all. Wait a minute. We could actually post this. No, you couldn't. Okay, if you don't want me to, I won't. You go ahead.

It's fine. It's up to you. Why didn't Kim tell me, about this. Why didn't your wife say, hey, this woman you're going to lust over is a smoke show in this show? I'm watching. You're saying, why didn't she ask you that? Lust is a strong term.

Appreciate. Like, she appreciates good-looking men. I appreciate good-looking women. Okay. So you ever go say, hey, come look at this hot dude in this show? I might have. You never know. Have you? You talk about athletes all the time. Okay. I don't besmirch that.

All right. Steve wants to talk about ESOC Friday's and we have some Texans real estate news to discuss. Okay. You're like, what? I am like what. That's what you got to listen for. It's a Matt Thomas show of Ross 713-212-5-790. Truth be told, Ross and I will be in the same room in West Palm Beach. And I, because I love him like a brother, I will be sleeping on the sofa bed and Ross will be sleeping on the king. Well, you recognize it would be a douche move to get there later and demand the king.

bed. No, have I ever said I'm taking the better bed over you? Never, ever, ever. I guess, you know, the reason why I logically is because I can sit on anything. I thought it was rude when you brought me Coral's bed. Coral does have a great bed. So does say to that matter, too. 713-212-5-7-9. Dog talk with your beds

coming up here. We have some Texans real estate news that's intriguing that I think is partially a gut-feeling hit for me. That could be a precursor to a really big gut feeling I had about the Texans. But first let's get to... You love stadium and land real estate talk. Well,

I like the business of sports. Okay. And it's not about... It's not about the real estate. It's about what the end game is for old Hannah. And Cal's just long for the ride. Steve, on 790, Steve, thank you for waiting and good afternoon to you. Hey, good afternoon, Matt and Ross.

Good afternoon to you. Why would trading parade is be a good thing for the Astros and how would it make the Astros a better team and I'll be hang up and listen guy I guess

sure that's fine that's okay yeah thank you Steve I don't think it's better it's I think it's by necessity I'm really concerned about the outfield average and power I think there's concern they're missing a left-handed bats on this lineup And I think if you're dealing in a strength in one category and a problem with depth and quality of the other,

if you can improve on that, you do make the move. If you have too many guards and no centers, you trade one of the guards to go basketball on you. So that's basically where they are. You have Christian Walker, if they, to me, it would be them. I think we as fans and pundits are, and like I said, I'm guilty of this myself. I'm putting Christian Walker, I'm downgrading him more in my mind than maybe the, than probably the Astros are. The Astros are saying, hey, he had this oblique issue to start the season.

He had a great second half. He can be our everyday first baseman. That's fine. And so you have this surplus because you want to have Jose Altuve. You're not getting rid of Jose Altuva. That's just a non-starter. You're in Isak Paratus has value and can help you shore up the outfield. So you're saying it's going to hurt you a little bit in terms of,

infield debt, but it's going to help you with the outfield. So at the very least, it would be an equilibrium and it would help solve an everyday lineup problem with where are you going to stick Issoc Paredes every single day? Because he's mostly going to be a defensive third baseman or first baseman. He's a corner guy. He doesn't move that great. And he's coming off a major hamstring injury. You don't want him as much at second base.

especially if he's not playing much of it over his professional career. I understand the question. That's and I get it. Like, Isaac Predis is one of your, I keep saying it, and I'm going to keep saying it. He's one of their best three hitters. And also, again, for those of you on to the, let's keep it as is, guys get hurt. Every single player in this infield has had some sort of ailment that has seen them away from the game. Carlos Correa, Jose was more of a hands.

I don't usually use that. Jeremy. Altuve? Well, he had a, what was his oblique injury? Was that two years ago, I guess? Yeah, what about Jeremy's setback? And Al-Tube was playing with a foot injury at the end of last year. We had the oblique for Brandon.

For Christian. For Christian Walker. So I was thinking Brandon Walker. Carl's crazy had, I mean, literally got failed. A team failed his physical, thinking there was a problem with his leg long term. Yeah. Like, and he wears the back brace in the dugout every day. And that caused terrible concern for Astrophic.

He's been wearing it for years, should be fine. But if I tell you a guy who's putting a heating pad on his back every day could possibly is prone to a possible back re-injury, that's not going to be crazy. In a perfect world, you would like to have this kind of incredible insurance policy. But you moved Jacob Mountain to go get Burroughs, right? Yes.

So you improved your pitching staff. You had to give up an outfielder. you were probably going to get rid of Jake Myers if it wasn't for Melton and right now you're sitting there looking at probably the weakest starting outfield in Major League Baseball. Can you live with that outfield?

It could be strong. If it exceeds expectations, of course you can. Right, can I say it? What if Zach Cole is a diamond in the rough? Jake Myers keeps the momentum going from a career year. That's another thing we have to remember. It was a career year and it wasn't even close for him at the plate. and then Cam Smith continues to blossom

and then goes into full bloom or whatever you want to call it. That could happen. Here's the first round pick. The expectations for Cam Smith is to not be what he was last year. Was to be a solid major league. Yes. He adapted to the outfield after never playing it before. The bat's got to come around.

Yeah, if we're going into the Dr. Strange multiverse, there's a multiverse where what I just said is true and all three outfielters continue and impressed. There's also one where Jake, Myers is batting average balls in play falls back down to Earth and he falls back to what he was previously. Cam Smith, his second half of an OPS over 500 continues and he's struggling at the plate with people having a book on him. Zach Cole is September lightning in a bottle that doesn't translate to the next year. There's also that universe.

Which happens more times than a guy taking his good September and turning out to be a megastar in the following April. So then what you then look at is say, wait a minute, I've got a baseball team with too many good hitters in the infield and I've no word put him and I got an outfield that I'm just dying to see it play. Which means dying, he's going to die a slow death. I think they're more worried about the outfield spots and we just had Chris Gordion, well I guess it was a couple hours now

at this point. Show's flying. We had Chris Gordyone and he talked about, hey guys from feeling he's getting out there is there's no guarantee for Cam Smith to get a starting role either. And they're trying to get him in center field and figure stuff out. Descenzo doesn't necessarily brim confidence

Mm-hmm. Jesus Sanchez? I mean, not much of an outfield edition last year. Your cup is spilling over in the infield, and you need some help there in the outfield. You're trying to balance it. And unfortunately, Christian Walker to other teams probably has less value than he does to you.

The only value you would have with Christian Walker being sent is if you pick up some of his tab. And I don't think that Jim Crane's overly anxious to do such a thing. All right, come back. We'll talk with you. about the Texans real estate news and more of you on the phone lines. Chris and Houston wants some about the Rockets and the Astros. We'll get to him.

If you want to follow him up or her on, I think it's, I'm presuming it's a guy. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-790. R-IpEames Vanderbeek. Today's edition, I believe we're not in 50 minutes, here on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross, with you for the final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-2-2-7-9y.

Harris County owns NRG Stadium and currently leases out the facility to the Texans and the livestock show and rodeo. They share the facility that lease ends in 2032. And now, step one in the let's get something done to build a better Houston Texans. Not on the field. Hey, they're building on the field. Not with Nikki C. Hey, not with DJ Strauss contract. All pro players, pro bowlers.

But are you ready for Toro Town? Toro Town. Toro Town. See this sounds familiar, sports, Harvey. Explain to me, Matthew. Restaurants. Okay. Hotels.

Okay. Bars. Activities for football fields. For both private and public use. And would be your new home for a huge. Houston Texans practice facility. All right, all right, all right, right, right. Yes.

You're thinking, okay, well, what is it going to be on Holly Hall or the other side of 610, where Asterold used to be? OST. Or maybe on a little South Main, if you will. Do, do, do, do, do, do. They're going to the burbs. And I mean, going to the burbs. Wait, no, they're in the sticks. Okay.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you people of Bridgeland. It's the sticks. Have you been out to Bridgland? No. There's money out there. Lots of it. Very nice.

That's why I haven't been. I'm not invited. We're talking the Bridgland area of Cyprus. Bridgland. Oh, I thought it was Bridgland. Not Bridgland, it's Bridgland. Bridgland? You got to say it like a southeast Texas.

Bridgland? Why is Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Langhorn out there? Ah! Now I say, now I say Bridgland. Okay, I'm trying to get, I never told you. I never heard. of this place. It's mysterious to me. The city of... It is in Harris County. Okay.

But Harris County's like, man, you ain't getting prime real estate. We're going to send you out to Cyprus. And we're going to send you to Bridgeland. Yes. The facility and the accompanying area around it will be 83 acres. Okay. A private public partnership between the Texans, Harris County, and Howard Hughes, which has developed the Bridgland area. Howard Hughes? The Howard Hughes Corporation found, you know, whatever.

What? He wasn't him, but, you know. That crazy guy from the aviator? Well, he didn't do it. But the Bridgland area was created by this Howard Hughes group, and they're most notably known for helping create the woodlands, along with George Mitchell. Okay.

So the facility is going out far, far northwest Houston. On the very edge, the very, very edge of Harris County, where there is lots of land, undeveloped. I mean, anybody that's been in that area knows there is lots of real estate over there. I mean, that's a, I was thinking Jersey Village-esque area, but there wasn't as much room over there. There's plenty of room out there on the Grand Parkway. So that's step one. Now, the second step's going to be, are they going to love it so much over there? they're going to find a big old plot of land to build a 70,000 seat football stadium next to it?

Or are they going to take what they enjoy in Cyprus, call that their little Taj Mahal Monday through Saturday, and then just play Sundays at NRG Stadium and a refurbished NRG? I think you just said what I, what came to my mind. This is step one. They want a stadium right there. I told you that. You told me in Bridgeland? No, I said they're going out of the burbs.

Yeah, you did. I know. The only thing I was going to say was I thought they were going to be not going to get anything done in Harris County. Technically, the Bridgeland area in the Cyprus area is Harris County. You can't. Five minutes from Hockley? Man, they're way out there. You cannot go any further northwest in Harris County than the Bridgland area.

I've got great friends that lived there. My daughters got some teammates that play club volleyball out there. Very affluent area. Okay. And the reality is this. And you and I argued about this. if you're going to build Torotown, you ain't doing it at OST in South Maine.

You're doing it where the money is. I guess, but again, I will say, like, I'm not going to Bridgeland just to go to Torotown. They don't want you. Why don't they want me? I'm a Houstonian. Because they want everybody that's in Cyprus. When can I go?

Waller, they want the Woodlands. They want Katie. They want that pocket. They can live, Toro Town can thrive. People are going to come from Katie up to Bridgeland? How far is that? 20 minutes. Yeah, 20 minutes up to 99.

Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry to answer your question that way, but that's just a reality. They have no interest in Clearlight people going up to Toro Town, unless they just wanted to. Oh, I don't live in Clear Lake. But my point is this. I live in Houston, Texas. Okay, well. And they're the Houston Texans.

I know. Well, the Dallas Cowboys have their training facility in Frisco, and they play their games in Arlington. So this is the new norm. But if there's no stadium there, why would I ever go there? Would anybody ever go there? Because they're going to build it. They're going to make it literally like a, not like an amusement park, but a. What's the appeal?

In July, I'm going to go to Toro District? The Dallas Cowboys is the exact same thing in Frisco. There's nothing Dallas Cowboys is Grosk in Frisco? What restaurants is Jerry Jones out there? There's all restaurants all right around the star. Yeah. They're Jerry Jones's restaurants? I don't know they're Jerry Joneses, but they are associated with them.

There's probably a Texas Roadhouse. There's a big, I don't you, don't you besmirch that. It's fine. What? Yeah, the rolls are great. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I didn't say anything is bad.

It's really good. It's fine. Yeah, it's fine. The rolls, if your steak restaurant is more famous for your rolls than anything, then what? I didn't say it was famous for. I said it delicious for. And they're from Indiana, okay? Don't try to act like it's all Texas stuff, too.

I wasn't trying to say. It's a bunch of carpet baggers. Now, I am Mr. Texas, but I appreciate a steak no matter where I'm. No, you're not Mr. Texas. Yeah, I am. Yeah, Ross, they, uh, they've done the demographics. have done it. They know where the money is.

Okay. And they're going to build 15, 10 restaurants out there and say, you know what, if you live anywhere within 10 miles of that, it's 290, that's Grand Parkway, that's parts of the same Houston tollway, a little bit of I-10, come eat at our restaurants. How many people live out there? Oh, my gosh. You would take you two. You got to drive up there, man. It would take you two seconds to figure it out. I don't drive up there because, I mean, no, there's no reason to. Yeah, exactly. Well, since you're, now here's what I'm worried about. Adam Wexer loves going to practice. Uh-oh.

He lives five minutes from NRG Stadium. Wex? I'm a little concerned about this. He's that text tag going. He'll be all right. You probably die. I'm flying down 99. Do you have a tag on your car?

Of course. Okay, so I'll make sure. Some people don't. Most people do, but you're right. Some people do not. I would say, yeah, most people do, but some don't. It's a grift. Screw you, told people.

I'm going to, I don't want to put my name on it, because I don't know the injuries. Go ahead. No, put your name on it. Let's go. Can I soften, can I go, can I double down a little bit? Are they going to put a stadium out there? If they don't put a stadium out there, nobody's going to come.

I disagree with that. They'll just be restaurants. They can call it Toro town. I mean, people live in Friscoe and need to eat. Yeah. Is it a destination? No, you're not going there for an all-day thing. But how close is it to the Cyprus outlet miles over there?

Yeah, but there's too many people that live there. I need some off, I need some off-sacs, off-fif. well, here's what I'll do. We have an audience that lives out there. If you are north and west of the tollway, which would be directly that area, you go, I mean, look, if you have a boost, miss, steakhouse out there in Toro town,

you'll go eat there. You don't care if Toro's got the logo on it or not. And if there's a Houston Texan gift shop there, you're made by a jersey. And guess what? There's going to be 10 football fields. And by the way, you know, Hannah loves her some of that flag football stuff. flag football fields all over the place. They're going to create a little mini football town, just like the Dallas Cowboys did with the star in Frisco. Where there ain't anybody, nothing close to where they play their football games.

From Frisco to Arlington's got to be 40 miles. They're far from each other. They literally go to 18th and they say to even play the game and then leave. All their other business is done in Frisco, which is on the other side of Dallas. I mean, the land's cheap. The land is cheap. And what they did, Ross, and just going to say, I don't want to say I told you so,

but told you, they wanted to go find what the money was. And the disposable income is going to go out. Katie. Which I'm really not that far from. Katie is Cyprus 20 minutes, right? John, you know these things, 20 minutes? Yeah, that's one missing. Nothing.

Yeah. That's nothing. Now, what I can't tell you is do they go to the stadium? Do they go to the stadium? Or do they do what the Cowboys do and say just that the stadium? You're going to want a stadium. The infrastructure is already there in NRG. Let's just build and get with the rodeo, be kumbaya with them,

and let's build a new, a refurbished majestic facility. Because right now in the world of sports, we're seeing as many stadiums refurbish that we are seeing brand new. Because look, it's just the cost of refurbishing, in a lot of cases, is less than starting from scratch. Yeah, but it's a lot of times, lipstick on a pig. That's right.

And that's what you're saying. If you're going to spend X to do this, why do you spend X 10% more of X and get a very new facility? I'm looking at the Ford Center. They got a, what's a concrete cowboy? Looks like a restaurant. Ooh, ratings aren't so good. That's probably, concrete cowboy, that's probably owned by Jerry Jones or something, right?

I think it's called. Oh, I got a Rachel's Kitchen. Like the one in Florida? I don't know. They got a Pete's dueling piano bar. Yeah, they got all these restaurants out there in Frisco. Now, you're right. The chances of you and I intentionally getting into our car and going over there, 5%.

I would say under. Okay, 4%. Unless I got a funeral out there or something. Maybe they're adding new funeral homes. Okay. You know what? Kind of weird, but the age is on that, I think. On the practice facility?

Texans, coffins and hurses? You want to get buried out here? Toro will do your last rights. For appearance fee. Toro Town. Now, there could be a Houston text. They're calling the Toro District. Oh, what Schifter says.

Torotown is better. I like your idea better. Toro District. I like Torotown much better. It's scheduled open in 2029. Oh, Hannah is so excited. She got to stay in Harris County. Yeah?

It laid the groundwork down for potentially building a facility out there. There's still more space. You know, I mean, again, seriously, Ross, just go out there. You'll see it. There's plenty of space. Orion's tweeting in that Torotown would be a massive hit out there. That's for the popular. no other place to go. My area

of north of the area is all, what are not developed? Yeah. Katie is just about all developed. Everything off Grand Parkway. Honestly, if you're buying up land, off Grand Parkway is great. I think if you're opening restaurants, probably off Grand Parkway, that's where neighborhoods are getting built. Yeah. People are moving out there.

Cities growing and growing. It's really the only part of town that it's got space, honestly, at this point. As long as you're staying in Harris County. So I'm not shocked at the location. I'm shocked that they didn't stay in the city. The only question is going to be

if Hannah's already having this much fun getting Toro, the Toro district built. That's a whole another ball wax, though. What if she, that's right, what does she want the Toro dome? And will Harris County, now, giving 83 million, building 83 acres is one price.

Building a majestic 70,000 seat probably closed door stadium. Yeah, I have no clue. I guess is there land out there for a stadium somewhere around there? Probably, huh? Plenty of land. You got to a bridge and that. So nice over there. Suburb heaven. I mean,

what are you doing over in Bridgeland? Oh, I know why he's over there. I know. I don't say anything. Just protect your identity there. What? 7.1.3. Why do you give me a thumbs up?

Why are you doing that with your hand, Matt? I know why you like it out there. 114 on the Matt Tama show at Ross. We'll talk to Chris next about the Rockets of the Astros. If you live in that area, let us know. The Taro district's coming your way. Yeah. Do you want to go to the Pee?

Deutelying Piano Bar and a restaurant with 3.8 stars on Google. You can go to Toro's Cafe where you can get a C.J. Stroud turnover. Oh, stop. That's too soon. They're not going to do that, Matt. You can... Go ahead. Work it out. No, yeah, I get me some time to do with this. What's a Kami Fairbairn dish? I don't know.

What's a... Tomiko Ryan's... I don't know if there's any dish with feet in it. Domeico Rines all their food, zero. spice to it. It's just plain. Hamburger on a bun with no seasoning on it. Nothing better. Kami's crossbar cafe.

Oh, you're giving me his own restaurant? You hit a field goal, you get like 20% off an appetizer? I like that. I like that a lot too. Kicking competitions. 1.15. It's like top golf, but for kickers. You can

kick against the screen. And then there's a life, there's like a 10 foot long mustache. You can pretend your cow for a while. Put your face on top of it. and then you want Cal McNair's mustache ride. What's wrong with you? You said that. You're sick.

You said, I didn't say it. I didn't say mustache ride. You did. You said you can ride the mustache. You said ride Cal McNair's mustache. Did you not say that? I may be it. Don't blame me.

116 on Sports Talk 790. All right, I promise we're going on the phones because I got some folks who want to talk. But here is literally moments ago, Cal and Hannah. Well, probably mostly Hannah, I'm presuming here. Right? Let's hear it. Here's Hannah and Cal about the new news about the Toro District.

H-Town. We have some extremely exciting news to share with you about the future of our team and our community. As you know, we have been working tirelessly to explore all our options when it comes to our headquarters and training facility. Our organization is growing rapidly, and we want something state-of-the-art to make. match where we are headed. Today, we're thrilled to announce our plans to partner with Howard Hughes to build a world-class headquarters as part of our new Mixed Youth Sports and Entertainment Destination in Bridgeland on the northwest side of Houston. This will be the new home of the Houston Texans outside of Game Day, and it's a major development for us in Harris County. It will

reshape the way we engage with fans, youth, sponsors, and the greater Houston community. It's the biggest move our organization has made since our inception. This provides our football team with a competitive advantage so our players and coaches can be put in the best possible situation. Our business is also growing in a number of different ways, and that allows our entire organization to work out the same building all year. One of the best parts about all of this is it allows the Texans to stay in Harris County and continue to invest in our home. We love Houston, and this project will open up opportunities for everyone in this area, commercially and economically. We want to give a special thank you to Commissioner Tom Ramsey and Commissioner Leslie

Brionas for working with us on this project. As a SciFair grad, I'm extremely familiar with the area and excited to build on the momentum that's already happening in Northwest Harris County. When Howard Hughes, who is a national award-winning leader in community development, came to us with their proposal, it was clear this is an opportunity to build something world-class, not just for our team, but for the greater Houston area. It reinforces our goals of bringing a championship to Houston, enhancing the community, and making football more accessible. It is truly an industry tone set. You'll hear more about this world-class project in the coming weeks.

We want it to be the first to share this historic news with you. Thank you. And go Texans. It must warm the cockles of your heart. Such exciting news today. Yeah. This is exciting news for us. Hannah, I said Brinonez, and I did not stutter.

Are you proud of me? And I went to Slyfair High School. Yes, he did. Congratulations to him. For graduating high school? I mean, it's kind of needed, right? All right, make sure you slap the most generic stock music we can on this thing. You know, what the song would it should have been is money, money, money, money.

Okay. Money. A little cash rules, everything around me, Wutang Clan? Yeah. They're not building the Toro District just for blanking giggles. They're doing that they want to turn a profit. Yes.

So does Howard Hughes. I mean, doing all these things. Yeah, this is not a confused corporation or something. Right. Yeah, it's not literally Howard Hughes. Not the guy they went crazy and no. No, this is,

germaphobe. This is, these are companies that are building areas. And look, they did their due diligence and they are like, yeah, we, there's a pocket of northwest, a pocket of Houston and Harris, that is underserved and that would be the Brazilian area and happens to be in a very affluent area. Okay.

Toro District. Yeah. By the way, Chris Gordy got exclusive news on some other places that are opening up in the area. Oh, gosh. Here we go. Did I get these two? Joe Mixon's foot massage. All right.

Come on. Derek Stingley's Stingray Emporium. That's a, okay, foot massage is a, I'll give that an A. Stingray Emporium is going to get us D. C.J. Stroud's Sack Supply. C-plus. Derek, Deshawn Watson's full body massage. Oh, right. That's just, he's not on the team anymore.

That's an F. I'm going to add one. Okay, go ahead. Micacetario salad. Word salad bar? That's not bad. Again, I didn't think of anything but the last five seconds. Let's talk to Roger on 790.

Roger, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, guys. I am so happy that we are now moving to the northwest side of town. I wouldn't have to go to the Barron-Waithland. That is 6-10 and Kirby. No, seriously, man. That is good news, man. I live on the northwest side.

I mean, I'm just right there on 40th. But still, I don't have to go to that dump that is, you know, NRG area. I can't say the stadium is nice, but everything else is just whack. It's always been that way for years. It hasn't changed. And the only thing that was good about it once would maybe after what we're kids. And now it's not. So yes, thank you.

No, hold on. Hold on. Let's make sure we're clear on this. Now, you can say, Roger, you're going to go to the Toro district to eat, but you were never going to the facility anyway. I mean, there was no public allowing of anybody to go to the facility. The facility is at NRG Stadium. So there was not any sort of relationship beyond what you saw on Sundays. Now, this is nothing to do with Sundays at this point yet, because this is just a practice episode, not at the stadium.

Yeah, they open them for training camp. Yeah, but you don't even go to go gas over there by Energy Stadium. You don't want to go nowhere near around NRG Stadium after you're done with the game. I agree. But that's different. For the fear of you and your family and your loved ones, blow them up, like Clark said, like Griswold said, yes, pull them up. Yeah, no, man, it's good.

I like it. It's a start of something. Eventually, they're going to move over there, and we're going to have the games. over there, but yeah, it's a good start. Way to go. All right, thanks, Roger. I would say this, thank you for the phone call. I would put the percentage of them moving

to a new facility at 60-40 out there. Would you new stadium? Yeah. Getting that approved by Harris County? I have no idea. I mean, I'm a complete guess. That's what I'm saying. I have no clue. We're allowed to present it. We're just doing it. I'll go the other way. I'll say 40-60.

Because again, it's easier to refurbish NRG at a lower cost. It's easier to do that. It's going to cost. and they still owe a billion dollars on NRG. What's going to happen over there? What's going to happen to the Astrodio could also play our huge role in that too. The rodeo's got a lot of say, don't they? They could inherit and say, all right, you will fix.

You fix us. We'll make this a facility. Yeah, and then we'll create our own football stadium out there. And what about, yeah, concerts and all the other stuff that's out there. I would say refurbishment of energy is the favorite. Because here's the thing I mentioned this other day. You're not getting a World Cup again here. Now the way we're going to get a World Cup probably for decades, correct?

Yeah, no. You're out of the CFP running. You're out of the Super Bowl running. You're probably out of the Final Four running. Here it's a problem with you're out of the Final Four. You've got no hotels and stuff around there. People like to be close to everything. That's why Indianapolis does so well in other cities like that.

So you've got to build hotels in Bridgeland. And who's going to want to stay in Bridgland when there's no game there? How are those hotels staying full? You're going to then assume, again, this is just presumption, that businesses are going to want, they're going to create like they created the business district in West Houston by Katie, you know, the Energy Corridor. Nobody was, there were hotels all over the Energy Corridor.

Nobody thought about ever building hotels in Katie 15 years ago, but they did. So you're going to get businesses to move out there. I mean, somebody's telling me, let's see, this guy, ready and will says it's prime area. Waller is also, Waller is almost another part of Houston at this point, he says. That's outside of Harris County. I don't even.

What is that, is that Brazori? Is that Montgomery County? What is Walter? No, it's Water County. There's not going to be the Sage Rosenfeld's helicopter landing pad. Okay, guys, come on. That's rude. Jeez.

He says Deikon Complex is out there. Yes, I see. Tesla has a factory in Brookshire? Yep. How far is that? That's about 30 minutes. Okay. That's from West.

From Bridgland? Yeah, 30 minutes from Bridgland. Oh, damn. Because that's west of Katie. Okay. But Deikin's out in that area. Absolutely it is. Yeah, and then Chris brings up that in Friscoe, there's also where the NHL Stars train.

there's the minor league rough riders in double a baseball and fc dallas plays in frisco so they got there's more going on in frisco so they got there's more going on in frisco than there would be but it all started by the star or ford center whatever they're calling it yeah to the audience that's listening to us it's primarily about where the sundays are going to be that's the that's the end game of all this this facility is cool and everything but really the general public is not going to spend a lot of time going to texan's practices they're saying if we build it they will come they're going to build all these restaurants and these bars well you probably probably could build the restaurants regardless of whether the Texans went out there or not, but if you put a Texan theme around it and you killed two birds of one stone, you create a little... Because again, the district in Atlanta does very, very well. Now there's a stadium attached to it, so that hurt and it helps. Jolette's,

that area where the New England Patriots said, that's the community in Foxborough has lots of restaurants and bars, but there's also a 70,000 seat stadium next to it. The practice facility doesn't move the needle. A stadium could do it. Yeah, there's the Ford Center you can seat people at. 15,000 seats.

It's indoor too. They can play games. They play high school games all the time. Are they going to do that? Well, we don't know that they're not doing that, I guess. We don't know. Yeah, this is still very early. They could very easily build a star over there and put 12, 13,000 seats sitting in, put high school games in. Are you kidding me?

They would sell them. They would be, that would be the place to play a high school game indoors, not to worry about weather or not to worry about artificial, you know, put artificial turf in there, call it a day. Just thinking that. This is thinking that. That's what Hannah them are thinking about. Yeah, they want to make some money. Yeah. Let's get a quick time out.

We'll talk to Dave and to Brian. And the rest of you at 713, 212. I don't mean to call it Toro Town. I'm sorry that I called it Toro Town. No, it's better than Toro District. I like Toro Town better. It is. But I want to be respectful.

Why is it? It's not disrespectful, I don't think. I just want to make sure. They're the one that named the place after their mascot. I mean, come on. It's ridiculous. You say, Orbitville. Is that what they're going to call the place next to the Astros?

I don't think so. And remember, a young Matt Thomas. interviewed a young, younger, still with at the time, Bob McNair. Okay. I said, Bob, I swear I got. Bob, I love the name Toros. He said, me too. He said it tested so poorly with Hispanic focus groups that we couldn't name it the Houston Toros.

Okay. Thus the mascot, Toro in Toro Town. And the Houston Toros in our fantasy league. Finishing second for like the fifth time in the last 15 years. And we're proud of you. We'll get that championship one day. Someday. You are the Buffalo Bills of the league.

That's not nice. 132 on 790. All right, back on the phones to go at 135. Sports Talk 790, by the way. There's already people out there that want, they're creating a new Twitter account, NHL to Bridgland. Not to Houston.

Yeah, I mean, maybe this is the first major domino of this big, uh, wonderful suburbanian, suburban district. Because like I said, I never even heard of Bridgeline before today. So I'm pleading ignorance on all this. I don't know. I didn't know Waller was the new the new midtown. Waller would be about 10 minutes

north and west of Bridgland. Okay. In Walter County. That seems to tell them to me, ooh. And by the way, everybody's saying again, how do you have a facility so far away? Again, the Dallas Cowboys, an hour. The L.A. Chargers play in Englewood. They do not practice in Inglewood. They practice

out in the burbs themselves. It is very common for teams not to be close to their stadiums. Let's go to. I got to get a bus out there. Shuttle, for sure. Call it the Toro-Tran. It is Toro-related, by the way. Everything.

Toro-Dest, Toro that. Toro-Town, the Toro-Tolway. That actually is probably happening. Dave on 790, good afternoon. Hey, Matt, hey, Ross. I enjoy the show. I don't have a comment on the stadium or on this facility per se, but when I was listening to Cal and Anna,

make that announcement, all I could think of is, you know, these kind of deals, don't come together in a couple of weeks. This thing's been months, maybe a couple of years in the making, you know. And these guys have known that they were going to make this announcement right about this time of year. And don't you know that a month or so ago, they had visions of announcing this after winning the Super Bowl or at least getting to the Super Bowl. And instead, we end up with, you know, C.J. Stroud pooping himself again, you know, in a division round. And the Texans bowing out.

And you can just imagine Cal turning to Hannah after the fourth intercept. in the first half and going, well, gee, Hannah, I guess that takes all the excitement out of our announcement about Bridgeland. Oh, hang up and listen. Well, Brian, I'm going to say this, and I told this to Ross when it happened. I said, I think we played to tell the truth on this. They were going to have to announce this now, regardless of how the Texas were going to end up. It would have been easier to sell, and not necessarily they're looking to sell anything to the audience today, but it would have been a much more exciting announcement if you had playoff success.

go along with it. But now you've got a divisional loss. So yeah, they were going to, this was always on their calendar regardless of how the team was going to turn out, because they want to get this ready by 2029. Yeah, they were hoping for the best. They didn't get the best, but this plan was going to go forward. I mean,

as the caller said, it was going to, this has been in the works for probably quite some time. Probably at least a year. Alex and Conroe, you're on Toro Town. What's going on, Alex? What's up, guys? Matt, I sent you a DM about this a while back, whenever Hannah and Cal were first, starting to let it be known that they were interested in getting a new stadium.

I sent you a DM with a photo that I did a screenshot off of maps. And I think they messed up so bad. Bridgeland is a really nice bedroom community, and that's it. There's nothing out there, dude. Just to get to Bridgeland, you have to take 99. That's the most efficient way to get there, right? Yes, that's right. So now you're expecting everybody, every Houston, Texas fan is going to be on 99.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're misunderstood. I told us to Ross 20 minutes ago. They don't care if you don't live 15 minutes away from, they want everybody within 20 minutes of Bridgland to go out there. They don't care that Baytown and Clear Lake and what other else, Kingwood, for that matter. They don't need us. They're hoping that that area is going to explode because so far it has exploded. And it may be a bedroom community today, but there ain't nowhere else to grow up.

in the city of Houston, that's the spot to be in. They don't care. That's not true. That's not true. The map that I sent you, there's a parcel of land right on the very, very north edge of Harris County. It's on 45. It's on 99. Right there in this corner, right where they built the new Chevron or Exxon complex. I think it's Exxon. And if they only needed 83 acres, then they could have gotten it there. There's a, I mean, it's perfect. It would have been a perfect spot. You'd have been right there on the freeway. You would have had. had access to the Hardy Toll Road to get to the airport, 45 to get downtown. The Woodlands is two miles away with all the restaurants, all the hotels, all of the shopping that you could possibly want. But my point is, Alex, the people on the Woodlands already have that.

This is an area town that doesn't have that. They're looking for, it was cheap, and then also they're looking for this area to grow. They're looking for not to say this is where the people are now. They want to grow, they want to grow themselves and they want to be the reason it grows. Yeah, they want anybody that lives within five miles of there to say, you know what, we're going to go up. dinner tonight. And you could call it Astroville. They don't really, they're just putting a name on it. The bottom one is they're trying to occupy it with restaurants and bars that currently are not there. They want to infiltrate the area because they believe that's where businesses are going to start to grow.

And I guarantee you home sales are starting to grow. That's the reason why. They're, they're not doing this because they're trying to get everybody to come out to go see what the great grass fields look like of the Texans practice facility. They could care less about that. if their whole goal is to like everybody's saying that bridgeland is is perfect it's prime blah blah blah the only reason that bridgeline is prime is because there's literally nothing there so like you're not going to have to clear out any woods you're not going to have to do anything it's just open flat blingo flat land so yes it's their whole concept is a build it and they will come well then i mean maybe but that place sucks dude they could have done better i i i couldn't yeah

go ahead real quick one last thing everybody's dogging on Christian Walker, and deservedly so, but just keep in mind, if he just performs like 20, 30% better than he, if he's post-all-star break Christian Walker, we're going to be okay. But he cannot be the dog water Christian Walker that he was in his first season. It was just, I mean, if he can, if he can get it together, we're going to be okay, even without his sock, even if we trade him. Christian can hold it. He just has to.

I hope so. I really hope so. Thank you for the phone call. Yeah. I think they're trying to be, I guess, not back to, not the Christian Walker thing, but it's like, what is that, there's like a town, the Sugar Land Town Center

has a bunch of bars and stuff and hotels and stuff like that. Market Street and the Woodlands. Yes. Has a bunch of stuff. Yeah. What else? It was in Kingwood, I don't even know. No, there's anything kind of,

you're void, sadly. Okay. Town center, but not really, not real. Okay. No, there. But there is, there's places in the suburbs that are hubs. They're doing it. They're doing it.

They're doing it. for a probably a metro population in that area they hope to see i couldn't even i mean you could go to the the cypress chamber commerce they could tell many people in the area but they want they want that core they don't have any if you live in friends would they don't expect you to come have dinner for them okay because i'm not it's very far i know let's uh go to uh brian on seven on a hello brian okay uh they're absolutely they want to build a stadium out there but the big part is going to be, one, I guess their least issue there. Then two, what do you do?

You know, I don't think the rodeo can join them because they're, they're already in disagreements with the rodeo is about what to do with the Ashton. One of them wants to keep it. One of them wants to tear it down. Now you're going to have a second stadium if the rodeo goes out there that we're trying to figure out No, no, no, we should stop. I've heard no conversation about any sort of relationship between the Texans and rodeo.

This would be a true split. This would be the Texans or own facility. Yeah. Okay, so does the rodeo have the financial wherewithal to pay the, you know, and I think part of that leads into the stadium what it would cost to renovate anything like that as opposed to, and it's kind of basically come down to renovate NRG the way they want it to get enough, to be able to host another Super Bowl. It's going to be more feasibly and fiscally responsible just to build a new stadium out there, which, hey, I'm totally fine with. And yeah, you want to build out in Toro, Texas? I don't know, it's fine. And Ross, just for reference, two exits past rookies out there, and Katie is basically Brookshire. So just so you have an idea of where the Brookshire line is. And Matt, real quick, you were talking, or what do you all mention, the NHL to Houston. There was actually an article that I read in the athletic back from September. They actually interviewed 125 current NHL players, and they gave them a list of about eight cities. And Houston was number one, five, five, far of the place they want to most see them expand next. So the NHL players want to think there should be a team here. I think Quebec was number two. So just FYI, yeah, I mean, there's a whole ton of land out there for all sorts of stuff.

You can build a Texas live like you have up there in Arlington. You can build that type of concept out there. But they're most assuredly going to put a stadium out there. And then we're going to have a bunch of stadiums. we have no idea what to do with in a few years. Yep. So have a good show, guys. Thank you.

Nathan says Chevron is building a research and development facility out there, and Apple is rumored to be building an office out there. So, yeah, it sounds like they're trying to get in and make some money and you have some restaurants and all that stuff. It makes sense. I will not be visiting. I love you, but they don't, they don't particularly care. No, I'm just saying I won't be.

I know, it's fine. They want the nuclear family. You have to be rude about it. I said I love you. You have to be, no, you're very rude. Was I rude there, Jonathan? I thought I said I loved him. Don't put me in this.

That means yes. All right, let's play, believe it or not next. We'll also try to squeeze in a Torotown call as well. You know what? I don't care about you either. I said I love you. I love you too. Okay.

Well, I don't care. You don't care that you love me. Okay. You know what? I'll pick you up. We'll go drive out there one day. I'm not going to bridge land. We've got to go see what it's about.

I'm good. It is so far. What is out there? It's so far from me too. Let me know when they build it out. It's 50 miles from my house. When they get Kaimi's crossbar cafe, I'll go. Kiami's crispy chicken.

Don't mix and foot massage. That was lucky a good one for a Gordi. That was pretty good. I gave it an A. How about it would it be called the bang bang photos of ice? The sting ring. What? Why would it be called that, Matt?

Got a break. All right. Give me my coffee. Every mile tells a story. Especially if you're driving a lot out there to Toro Town. And you can add savings steers with the folks at the end. Shell Federal Credit Union. Auto rates are as low as 3.49% APR with up to $250 and cash back.

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Come on, Ross. You know this song. This is so good. Talk about, talk about moving. out of energy. Turn it up. Gotta move out to Northwest Houston. Gotta move out.

Come on, Gordy. You should be doing a parody of this. Mm-hmm, mm-mm. All right, here we go. Big chorus. Want you take me to a Toro Town? Why, don't you take me?

A Toro Town. This is the lowest part of the show ever. I would like to apologize to everyone. You know, you've been loyal listeners to this program. We are in our 17th year. And somehow, some way, we continue to bring you new lows. I know. This is a low watermark.

Offbeat table tapping. Do you have off-key singing? If you don't have the questions, it's okay. What? Van der Migg, are you done? Yeah, I sent him. Oh, let's go. Let's play.

All right. Four minutes up to go on the show, we're going to be quick. We're going to play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply called it, Believe it or not. RIP to James Vanderbik. He is today's edition, believe or not. If you get two of his in a row, you're going to win a nice prize, which will feature a 7-90 t-shirt,

a pair of tickets to see Monster Jam, February the 15th. That's this weekend at NRG, or a pair of tickets to see Stained on their break, the cycle 25th anniversary tour. Let's play, believe it or not. Bill! Would you ever like to go? Would you like to go to Toro Town? Damn right.

Is it funky there? Ironically, James Vanermake's last name translates from Dutch to From the Creek. Believe it or not. Oh, believe it. Believe it's right. Statement number two for the win.

James Vanermique has twice been named Teen People Magazine's heartthrob of the year. Believe it or not. A Toratown, here I come. Believe it. No, but I see you. God. JP on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. Let's go.

James Van der Meek started his acting career at age 15 when pleaded with his mother to move the New York City and hire him an agent. Believe it or not? Not. That's a believe it. Thank you for playing. Believe it. Jimmy on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. Believe it.

Jimmy, James Van der Meek's first major acting role was on the Nickelodeon show, Carissa explains at all. Believe it or not? Not. That's a believe it. How do you not know that? I love that show. Believe it. What's your favorite episode? I actually did know that show? The brother Ferguson? Great show.

John on 790, ready to play Believe it or not? Yes, indeed. John James Van derbyke's favorite movie was saving Private Ryan. Believe it or not? I believe it. No, it's a Shawshank Redemption. Currently being shown on T&T, I'm just assuming. on 790, ready to play, believe it or not?

Yes, sir. Good afternoon. During his 2017 espie appearance, James Van der Beak appeared in a varsity blues-themed sketch with host Peyton Manning. Believe it or not? Believe it. No. That's false. Neal on 790, ready to play, believe it or not?

Neil. At the MTV Movie Awards in 1999, James Vanderbeek was the award winner for breakthrough male performance. Believe it or not. Believe it There you You know Statement number two

For the way Believe it James Vanerbeek was engaged The Federal Dawson's Creek Co-star Jennifer Lindsay But the two never wed Believe it or not

Hurry Not Not as correct Congratulations Hit the music maestro Guess who's going to take you to Toro Town for the next four hours Come on Gordy

You've got to be in Florida right now Creating the perfect Parity for this side I won't you take me to. A Toro Town. Is it going to needless markup up there? A Toro Town. Yeah, Hannah Marcus.

All right. A team is up next. This is Sports Talk 7.9.