The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets vs Blazers Tonight! Great UH Basketball Win, Tim Benz Joins the Show

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Rockets vs Blazers Tonight! Great UH Basketball Win, Tim Benz Joins the Show

So much, my time. 10.1 in Edge Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Half of us is in cold, rainy Portland. Half of us is in Houston, Texas. I'll let you decide who's who. Ross, Villarreal, good morning to you, friend.

It's like 80 degrees over here, so. I think a cold friend's coming in the next couple days, but right now it's not great. See, you know, it's funny. No one I don't think is ever happy with their weather Unless you live in that city Okay Like I come here And if I was to go find a Portlander

If that's what they call themselves Or Oregonian if you will And said how do you live With half the year rainy and 48 degrees They'd be like shut your bum ass up We live this We grew up with this We know this, we've got great summers

How do you hell do you live in Texas Where it's 195 degrees with 85% humidity? No one wants to hear hear you moan about where you live and what your weather is. That's true. Or I guess we as Houstonians will complain about the weather, but if somebody else does, we get defensive.

It's our own. It's like family. Weather is like our family. If somebody else is talking mess about it, we're going to defend it, and we're like, you suck. You know what? Shut up. But then when we complain about it, it's okay. Yes. That's exactly. Last point about this. When I first, one of my rare mistakes

in radio, and I don't make very many of them, as you know, I have got my job in Minneapolis. Like, this has got to be 2007. And I go on the air and I'm like, how do you all live in this? Because it was like 11 below. And they're like, go away. If you don't want to be here, move. We don't need to hear this from you.

So a little advice for you young sports people that move if you ever move out as at your market to go somewhere else, which I did two different places. Just don't complain about where you are. Embrace the weather and the lifestyle that you're in now as compared to Bimona. what you formerly had. All right, Rossi, how the hell are you today, by the way? I woke up sick. I don't know if it's allergies or a cold or whatever,

but I got a little more bassed my voice today, Matt. You sound good. Oh, yeah. On the quiet storm. On the quiet storm. But other than that, I'm doing okay. I'm going to make it. I just took some medicine, so we'll be out.

We're going to soldier through, Matthew. All right, well, we're not going to soldier through a deep dive into the Texans because they're still taking another day off. This Monday night game gives them an extra race. day so they're not on the practice field at all today that's good no injury report and any kind of stuff but uh we are going to check in in pittsburgh tim bens is going to join us uh from pittsburgh coming up in about half an hour from now as a matter of fact so um and we've had him on a couple of times over the years so we look forward to talking with him

about all things about the pittsburgh stealers uh we can also get into a little mbay chatter tonight because the rockets are playing the portland trailblazers we can get into i and again my affinity towards the University of Houston is not shared by everybody and that's fine so I'm not going to make this a conversation that's going to last deep into the show but a really fun basketball game last night between the University of Houston and Texas Tech

Cougars won the game Chris andac double double and the rest of the crew there was just outstanding you were going to say something I'm sorry we don't have to break down the Texas Tennessee basketball game you know what And Sean Miller calling out his players after the game. Yeah, it's fine.

I will just say this for Cougar fans. We've got two players, Kingston Fleming's and Chris Anak. They're going to go to the NBA draft, so I hope you enjoy them. We're now the Duke and Kentucky now of the southeast. All we're going to do now is welcome players. And win one and done, and they're going to go to the NBA. It's the way the game is played. Do you want the best players?

You've got to get one and done. There were, you know, Coach Chishefsky, when he was coaching a Duke many years ago, I was like, I need program guys. I know, he was, yeah, he was calling out Caliperi. He was calling out everybody, and then all of a sudden, by the end of it, he changes to it pretty quick, did you know? I think Kyrie Irving was there for one year. I think Zion Williamson was there for one year.

Yeah, we can go down a list. Yeah, Kentucky is probably the greatest school that does that, but, and look, it didn't, I mean, they got it, I think they won one during that time. I mean, a sneaky one is Texas. They don't win any bad, they don't win any tournament games, but they got a lot of one and done guys who were in the NBA. including your best friend Kevin Durant was a one-and-done guy. I think that's going to change.

I think NIL is going to change that. Until extent. A little bit. Well, I mean, put it this way. Would you rather make $500,000 in your sophomore year or be a second-round pick? You know what I mean? Well, yeah, if you're going to be a first-round pick, though. And that's generally one-and-done guys are first-round picks.

Right, right. But there's, again, there's maybe a little glimpse of keeping a one or two guys. But the thought of three and four-year guys that are really elite players staying around is just not going to happen. But it was even happening before NIL. We can also talk about, did you see the deal with the Washington quarterback? Yeah. I want to get him. We get Sam Kahn back on today.

Wasn't it a great conversation? It was a great conversation. And we need some more with them. We need like 30 more minutes. So I got to the airport just as you were starting to play that. And I'm like, I don't want to, I don't want to miss this. Because it was such a good conversation. because I was learning things.

And then, like, the rockets are people like, get out of your car. Come on, let's go. We've got to go. Oh, wow. Aaron Holiday was hearing at you, yelling at you? It might have been Jeff Green, but he's an O.G., so I have to kind of listen to him. Yes, you do. It was four hours and ten minutes up here yesterday.

Oh. I mean, like, oh, and your private jet, and you can lean back. Don't forget turbulence. And you have the woe to yourself. I do another order myself. You put baby on the plane for four hours. Oh, poor man. I mean, I didn't change planes.

You're right about that. Yeah, get out of here. You weren't on the tarmac for four hours. You were in the air. I know, but it's... You got to get to poor the baby. You've got to fight that storm in the jet stream. Yeah.

Takes a while. By the way, we flew right over mountains, like Colorado's mountains and Utah mountains. I was being thrown around like a rag doll on the plane yesterday. I'm good. Poor baby. Were you nervous? No, I just had the fly tents to bring me a hot towel. okay well yeah

I think you're okay I think I'm okay yeah you're nine and a half flight attendants bringing you a hot towel in your private jet you poor baby who's the half that's what I'm curious that's a weird one

what did you come from the half that guy creepy all of a sudden real quick all right imagine they're attractive I don't know oh they are that's what I'm saying

nine and a half oh you're talking of them grades of who they are yeah they're not yeah oh yeah they're in a six and bunch i may be honest with you there is no sixes seven plus oh okay back to focus it yes the cougars won yesterday yes uh and they had huge win raftery was in town uh and brian mctaggaret's fighting with people on twitter it's fine oh my son is he the biggest cougar fan on twitter um yeah i'm

the biggest fan on on the radio he's probably yeah that's true actually yeah most delusional i would say so i went to the thomas family chat yesterday okay camera went to the game do you have a funny name for it uh it's called thomas family oh that's wow that's real clever by the way i want to do this we're very careful how we do this i want to take a morning and probably we'll do it once the nfl season is done with the texans and maybe even the whole thing i would like for people something don't do it today because i don't want to ruin it but i do want to talk about you guys and ladies out there that are in group chats and what you name your group chats because i have a variety of mine and mine are getting more and more interesting by the because i'm in like in ten now at this point

for some reason some of them i cannot possibly discuss on air okay i will be able i will discuss a couple of them but not very many of them so to answer your question the name of the thomas family group chat is called thomas family so i text i texted last on at about 10 30 when the game ended. Because the game didn't even start until 815 because they pushed it back because the first game was running late. How about those coogs? Cameron says, boo. Then he texts eight

versus five out there. Oh, I like that. And then Peyton says, who are we talking about, Cam? You know, we're talking about the cougars. And I respond back to Cameron. Disagree, very balanced game. So apparently

officials... And then he has left the chat. He did not respond. I think he went to sleep and disgust, as my son will do typically. I do believe, and apparently this happened yesterday between A&M and Auburn. A&M won at Auburn yesterday in basketball. I don't know any of the details of it, because frankly, nobody in our audience cares. But apparently Auburn fan went to Twitter yesterday and were losing their mind over the bad officiating. And they were apparently, as the referees were leaving the court at the Auburn game,

they were Auburn fans throwing things of them, Lina Paper Cups, that kind of thing, nothing like severe, but it was still throwing. I want to know what the DNA of a person is that says, you know what, I want to be a college official or a professional official. Now, let's talk about the positives to it, okay? You are, you're not working a 9 to 5 job typically. And if you are, you are flexible enough that you can go to this. You are traveling all across the country or a certain region.

They do pay you a lot of money to do this, especially if you're a full-time referee in the NBA or you're a full-time major league umpire. college basketball officials are part-time football officials are part-time but it's a great part-time job right you are on the field with the greatest athletes in the world it connects you to a sport and it also gives you a little bit i think this is the greatest thing it gives you a little power trip does it not i think that's uh one of the things that it attracts certain people especially the ones that rise to the top i mean you've never see you've seen a lot of umpire it feels

like baseball umpires especially well i mean scott foster has a pretty good confidence that's true about his life yeah i put basketball number two i guess football third yeah i would say football guys can you name a referee in football that goes god that guy's trying to be the bigger than the game i really i'm just kidding i don't know

well that's because of his dad and his gun i named the only referee i can probably name yeah isn't there shafers in there carl somebody schafer's or shaffler shaffer yeah i don't know but the number one thing is all i just gave you all the positive the negatives are people hate you and that can't be fun running around life being hated refs you suck

people throwing things at you coaches are screaming at you at epic proportions more so than ever we saw Steve Kirk get kicked out the other day in the team he was ready to throw down we have EMA adoka calling two referees incompetent they shouldn't be in the league and one is starstruck oh my god that was great was that a $50,000

fine by the way that was 35 oh that's light yeah I will say the reason why it's 35 I think I can say this is because they got ahead of it a little bit if you know what I'm saying no well basically they just all right we'll call them and tell them we're sorry as compared to them waiting for the phone call

oh okay so they got ahead of it you came up and fessed up like when you well it's like this when you get when you were a kid and you did something wrong was your punishment more lenient when you told mom and dad had a time or you had a way for them to tell you Yeah, you forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer. You got to fess up when a dad gets home.

That's right. And then, remember when one time E-May said they needed glasses out there? I mean, that, I mean, you're just going right to the core. You're going to look for the jugular, if you will. He's not messing around at all. Yeah. I don't want to live my life that way. I mean, people hate us, me in particular.

They love you. No, people hate me. I don't think so. Oh, you've aged people hate you. You've aged people. Yeah. That's not what it's. And some of you make people hate me too, which is fine.

I don't care. Which is also bizarre. People are miserable idiots. Yeah. But point being is this. I guess you have to be in a profession and you're going to choose some that are just going to know that you're not going to be beloved. And people aren't going to call you by their name. They're just going to say, reps, you suck.

And they're going to yell at you. And then there are coaches who do know your name are going to yell at you. And you're going to toss them out because you have the ability to do so. You're going to cause greater things. And most times, not all, but most. Most times, you're going to win the battle with the coach because even if you toss somebody out after it was a needless ejection or you blew the call, you want to still calling games.

I mean, what does it take, Ross? Basically, for that one NBA referee, Eric Lewis, he had to basically create burner accounts to lose his job. You had Tim Donagher in games, except he was throwing games. He kept his job. I mean, it takes, once you get to this level of any level of college or pro, unless you can't walk or talk or you're violent or you just swallow the whistle or you're throwing games

you get to keep this job for a long period of time there's a lot of really bad ones a lot well the problem is if you really want good ones why wouldn't anybody good want to do it because nobody's going to think you're great all the time right no so so yeah my son is not happy

he thought it was eight on five which through my cougar cotta gl I saw nothing wrong with you officiating. I did not watch the game. Sorry, so I couldn't. That's okay. I don't have an opinion. But the really worst thing about it is,

we're going to get to a break on this. So I've said this before many times. I think betting on basketball is as dangerous as it gets. It's fun, though. It's certainly fun, but it's dangerous. So last night, the Cougars are up 6962. Christian Anderson plays for Texas. Texas Tech hits a half-cord buzzer-beater.

Okay? Yes. Houston still wins, but the final score is now going from 69-62 to 69 to 65. The spread was Houston minus six and a half. That's a cover, folks. So if you are on that side of it, that's the ultimate bad beat. Now, if you're spending a lot of money betting on Texas Tech versus Houston basketball, you probably have an issue to begin with.

but I just thought that was one of the reasons of many reasons why I would never bet on college basketball because let's say you're doing a Duke versus, I don't know, Florida A&M, and it's a one versus 16 matchup. And Duke is crushing up by 30 points. And the line was 26. Well, Duke's going to put their scrubs in and get a little bit of time. They're probably going to give up some of the points. That's why, to me, basketball is very hard to bet on. Because the game could go one direction for 38 to 39 minutes, and then the last minute all changes.

that's the beauty and the curse i mean yeah we can call it a bad beat but in theory probably action was about even and well so why don't we call it whatever the opposite of a bad beat is a good miracle cover why do you have to be so negative about it what about the good people what about people who won congratulations to them you feel bad if you maybe you feel bad for those people that bet ain't the the cougars minus six and a half that's a miracle covers in my life and i've had some bad beats bad beats hurt way worse than the shout out rams eagles earlier this year. Sorry if you're lost on that.

You and I were together that. You were like Charles and then happened. And there was a third party who had much more on it than I did. That was a bad beat for him. That was a terrible beat for him. That was one of the worst beats I've ever seen in my life. We've seen some beatings before with him involved. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. We check in in Pittsburgh in about 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. 1020 here. on the Matt Thomas show at Ross, I'm here in Portland where the sun is not risen yet and it also gets dark here at 4.30. I feel like, are we, am I north? I'm really north, right? So does that mean

the further north you go the darker gets earlier? I'm making that up? Maybe. Yes. I don't know. Sure, why not? Because that was a great analysis from you. Thank you. Appreciate that. I think it depends on the time of the year, because I remember being in Montana and the sun didn't set until like 10.30 p.m.

Yeah. Wow, that's really good. Like Alaska, sometimes is what, 20 hours a day at sunlight? Yeah, it depends on the year. And it's 20 years, 20 hours a day of darkness or complete darkness for months. Yeah. Makes you want to go for a hike, isn't it? I love, yeah, absolutely.

You bet on by the hiking is the new, would you say it's the new thing going on in life today? People are hiking more than I ever before. I've been hiking for 20 years. So I don't know. Like two of the flood attendants I was talking to yesterday. They're going for a hike today. That's great. Yeah.

You go out and see it's hiking is amazing, Matt. You go out, you get exercise, you can see nature, you can see animals, you can experience beautiful sites that you will, you will never experience in your life. I mean, these hikes, especially like at these national parks, they put them at these wonderful viewpoints and scenic views that you literally will never see in your life if you do not go on the hike. It's unique. It's lovely. It's wonderful. I highly recommend it. I'm going to do some walking.

myself here in Portland. I'm going to go from the blackjack table to the craps table to the snack station to perhaps the buffet to maybe the backerack if I want to learn that sport. You can go to a thousand casinos and see a thousand blackjack tables but there is only one view from a top angels landing

in Zion Canyon, Matt. See that's what, if you're going to do a podcast, if you're able to do one, that's going to be your thing. Hiking? hiking podcast there's not one out there is there i'm not that serious about it i mean there's people who hike literally hundreds of miles you and craig could do a hiking podcast that'd be good well like a short it'd be the short hike yeah all right we've got um um um um um tim bans from pittsburgh us on the bottom of the hour uh jim harbaugh out after 18 no no excuse me john harbaw

yes 18 years in pittsper or in baltimore i get the straight here 18 years in baltimore out By the way, didn't I call it this earlier this year? Well, I don't know. Did you write it down on gut feelings? No, there's some technical, I said that they lost that game. He's going to be fired. But I feel like that still goes under the other brother. I know.

I don't know if I saw it. I wasn't here for that. I was on vacation. I'm not making this up. I was on, I'm not saying he's making it up. I was on vacation a lot the last month. So I cannot speak to this. Oh, this is like in October.

Oh. Go. Okay. Sure. Why not? Let's give him credit. Let's give you credit. Jonathan now, ladies'all.

I'll take half. I'll take half credit. We talked about it, I think, last week or yesterday, about him, about no news on whether or not he was coming on. So we kind of, the idea was in our heads that he could have been fine. I think we talked about it being possible. Yeah. So I wouldn't call it extremely shocking, but surprising. ESPN is like, that's all they've talked about on their morning show today is about why he's gone. Now, so the argument is this.

you're firing a guy who has won 60% of his games, won a Super Bowl, takes a team of the playoffs over and over and over. And the fact that he's going to find a job right away with all the different openings that are. Yeah, apparently he's already the favorite for the New York Giants job. Okay. But there's also a segment of the population that says Lamar Jackson didn't want him.

And if you have a two-time MVP that you can't get along with, why don't want this guy to leave my team? unless you are in the anti-Lamar Jackson Club saying this guy can't win games in the postseason. So that's why I'm saying there's quite a few different factions running around the sports world today about why John Harbaugh got local in Baltimore. Yeah, apparently Lamar Jackson wasn't getting along with him. He also, the other story is that they were, the Ravens wanted to fire his defensive coordinator, and he didn't want to do that.

So he was standing his ground on that. So, I mean, I think he added all up a number of factors of, getting a new voice in the room. And also, I mean, he's a good leader, but it's not like he's some wizard play caller on either side of the ball. So it. Well, put it this way. I will say I get it.

I don't think it's the right move, but I get it. It's a risky decision, I think, at the bare minimum, because he does win games. He does take you the playoffs. Now, has there been a lack of success going to the Super Bowl with a two-time MVP? yes, how much of that responsibility goes on the players, how much of the responsibility goes on the coaching staff? We'll

never know the true answers to that. The only thing I would say in his defense, and I have no good or bad torch on our is we're seeing young coaches either massively succeed or further extend

the depths of losing. Like for instance, Aaron Glenn may never help the Jets win games. Hey! I'm sorry. He's an image guy. But does anybody think the Giants or the Jets are on the precipice of getting great? They need a complete overhaul. I'm sorry he didn't win games with Brady Cook and trading away

Sauce Gardner and Quinn and Williams and all their good defensive players. I know, I know. Give the man a chance. Jonathan Ganna was in Arizona or two years. I mean, there's a lot of these guys. The shelf life you are getting is so minimal these days. Well, yeah, you've got a win or you're out. That's the NFL.

yeah um but coach killers i again i i don't know it felt like to me the last two or three years there was always a little bit of hint of um this harmony between the quarterback and the head coach well they went at the bottom line is they didn't win enough and it's funny enough that i mean what if tyler loop makes that kick they'd be favorites against the texans this week and wildcard weekend that they would yeah you're right and then they win the game i mean this is so funny how the dominoes can fall in an NFL season or anywhere. Do that one loss cost him his job? Or do you think that the Baltimore ownership had this already in mind even if they would have beaten the...

I'll say it's in their mind, but if they make the playoffs and then beat the Texans as favorites and get into the divisional round, he's going to be back next year. Yeah. So that's a situation. Do you fire somebody over one game? and is that is should that be in consideration as to why you do it if you if you're firing a guy after one game does that mean that you are you are sure show so short-sighted on something yeah i mean it i'm sure it adds up it wasn't the result of the one game but it's when you're teetering then the one game put them over the over the edge yeah all right we're talking to tim bends

in pittsburgh next our time is 1028 it is the matt thomas show at wrong 713-212-5-790 if you want to join our conversation 7-1-3-212-5-790 Matt and Ross with you here on 790 I'm here in Portland Rockets and Blazers tonight we'll have the broadcast for you beginning at 8 o'clock with a launchpad network pregame at 830 on the call at 9 o'clock we are joined now by man who's been with us a few times over the years we don't do a lot of Houston-Pittsburgh talk because frankly the Astros and Pirates don't play in the World Series, I don't believe, ever. And the Texan Steelers don't have not played a whole lot over the years,

but Tim Ben's with us. Breakfast with Ben's columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune Sports is also found on Fox Sports. He's got a bigger resume than I do. Is that right, Tim Benz? How are you this morning? By the way, nice to hear from you again. Yeah, the other issue why we don't talk too much is because no NBA team here, which a lot of people would still love to see happen.

I'm not holding my breath, but, yeah, maybe someday. But I think Pittsburgh has to figure out how to make its other two teams competitive again, besides the Steelers and the Penguins and the Pirates, although the Penguins are overachieving so far this year. We'll see what the Steelers can do against the Texans to make this a thumbs up or thumbs down season on Monday night. I swear to God, Tim, when the Houston hockey team plays the Penguins, you're going to have you on for like a whole half hour, I promise.

Hey. There's a lot to talk about there. There's a lot of history to go over in a half an hour, but I'll do my best. Hey, let me ask you this. If that kick is made, what's Mike Tomlin doing today? Maybe holding his season-ending press conference, or maybe he would have done that yesterday, and we'd be at lock or clean out, and I don't think much else would change with Tomlin. I think it would take consecutive sub-500 seasons before Art Rooney the second ever,

actually listened to the outside noise and the calls for his job. I wrote a column about it not too terribly long ago when the bills came in here and whooped the Steelers and, you know, people were chanting fire Tomlin throughout the course of the second half. And I said words to the effect that there were 67,050 people at Accresher Stadium and 67,049 of them heard the chance and the only one who didn't was Art Rory the second. So I just think that's where his headspace is versus everybody else in Pittsburgh. We can talk about it, but it's not going to happen. A lot of people have made that analogy.

If Tyler Loop doesn't push that field goal, well, why right? Does that mean Tomlin is out of a job and Harbaugh is getting ready for a playoff game? Well, the second part would be true, but I don't think Tomlin would have gone anywhere anyway. I think it would take consecutive sub-500 seasons before that happens. Okay, Tim, so not to be rude, but we don't follow the Pittsburgh Steelers all that much. No, look, Aaron's been on TV a lot, and the Steelers have a national fan base, but the Texan Steelers have not played in a while. Before we get into what has been a mediocre season for that entire division, tell me what's right. I mean, T.J. Watt, coming back from his ailment and stepping back on the football field, what are the things do Pittsburgh Steelers fans?

And they travel well, so we've got Steelers listen to us all over the country. What do the Steelers do right? What got them to where they are right now? Well, with what out, they kept it afloat with good outside linebacker depth. I think they're legit four-deep at that position this year. They haven't been in the past. They have gotten around secondary injury issues better than expected. Joey Porter started to live up to reputation.

They found a home for Jalen Ramsey by force of necessity. at safety. The run defense has actually been good in games where they haven't had to worry about a mobile quarterback. If there's a mobile quarterback out there and they've got to make decisions to stop the mobile quarterback or stop the big time running back, big time running backs have gotten loose. Henry's had a couple good games, better statistically than actual imprint, but good statistically against them. James Cook went off in a situation like that. Breece Hall, Game 1, where he had Justin Fields flanking them. Those things they've done well on defense.

On offense, they've had good second halves in the passing game out of Rogers. The Rogers to Metcalfe connection is sometimes good. The offensive line play has been better than anticipated, especially after Broderick Jones got hurt. This Dylan Cook at left tackle has been a stunning revelation out of nowhere. We've seen that along the offensive line before with guys here. Pittsburgh. So those are some of the things that they do well. The checkdown game to the running backs is good. They have a good dual threat thing going on with Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell, but they do not throw the ball well down the field or over the middle of the field

consistently whatsoever. You mentioned T.J. W. coming back in some of the depth on defense, how did he look in your eyes in his return? Pretty active. It's a tough read with the way they play against the Ravens. Those outside edges crashed down so much, and they've always had a script of whether Lamar has the ball or not, hit him. Just go after him and hit him. So it looks like Watt or Highsmith in certain games may be making more of an imprint than they really are because you just see him in the backfield so often because they're crashing

so hard. I did think he looked okay. He had the interception off of a batted ball that Highsmith and Hayward really made the play on. I didn't mention Hayward before. He's been great in the second half of the season. I should have brought him up, too. But he's part of that running defense I was speaking of. So I thought T.J. was first game back-ish, yeah.

But I also thought that that was a pretty high platform, even if it didn't show up a ton statistically. I thought he did enough good things. And the outside linebackers behind him, particularly Herbig and Jack Sawyer, you don't see the dip when T.J. goes out as much as you used to. Tim Binns with us here on Sports Talk 790. And you talked a lot about the offense, the offensive line looking pretty good. Just overall, how do you see this matchup?

Because, I mean, maybe I've got my Texans colored glasses on tip. But it just feels like it's going to be difficult for them to score points, obviously against a very good Texans defense. But I just don't feel like there's much of a dynamic. element with the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense? There isn't. You know, when we're looking at the prospects, the potential teams going into the weekend, with, of course, the Steelers playing last, who would be coming here to Accresure if they beat the Ravens?

I was kind of playing the game with myself. If this team came, how much would it be favored by it? If this team came, I said three points for the Texans. It's been at three and a half most of the week. They are very worthy favorites by that much at home for the Steelers. you know the Monday night thing everybody always says it means nothing it's just a historical fluke it must mean

something it's been going on since 1991 they haven't lost a home Monday night game that span three coaches you know the Texans without a road playoff win you know there's something to think about there but I do think that if you went unit by unit

if you took like the four units of the teams and you did Steelers defense Steelers offense Houston defense Houston offense by far and away the best unit of the fours, the Houston defense. I do worry that for as good as this offensive

line has been over the last five or six weeks, that Houston's defensive front is going to cause them problems. And for as slow as the Steelers have been to start in some games of late, it's going to be harder

for them to come back in a hurry like they did against the Ravens. Like, most success throwing the ball down the field all season long, basically, has come in two games against Baltimore. And that's because their secondary has been pretty banged up at times, and they don't have much of a pass rush threat. I do get concerned when I think about the Steelers' offensive line, as much as it's gotten better and it's been arrow up throughout the second half the season, trying to stop two good pass rushers at once, especially if

they're not in advantageous down-and-distance situations to begin with. So that's why I give the Texans the edge. I've been saying 2320, Houston, in overtime all week, and I'm not moving off of that. Tim, D.K. Metcalf has been reinstated. What is his mind going to be like going into this game? I mean, tell me, forgetting about the situation involved in Detroit, but, I mean, is he got his blank together, or is he going to be a highly emotional guy that you don't know what you're getting from one week to the next?

next. Like, I didn't even realize the depths of how many times he had been fined prior to what happened to Detroit, but he had like 16 fines, you know, for celebrations or in-game face mask incidents or fights with various players. Like, he's always been a hothead. I knew that was the case with him coming here, but he's literally, yes, sir, no sir, to any question that he's ever asked by the media. He gets a little prickly at some questions, but he's always politically correct in how he answers them, at least on the record, and then he grumbles a little bit after it.

But, like, to see him lose it like that in Detroit, not stunning based on his history, but it did feel to be a departure based on what we had seen for the previous 14 weeks here. He's been contrite. You know, he was forthright in speaking with us earlier this week. He said all the right things. He even thanked the NFL for letting him practice, which was bizarre because I thought they were a little heavy-handed in their discipline, and you didn't get with one of that from him. I think he was tight-lipped and how he talked about the situation because there might be something legal pending there. But he was even tipping his hat to the league that suspended him for two games.

So you would think that his head is in the right place, but I never saw that coming against Detroit. so maybe I should check myself on that. He has gotten some post-wistle penalties and he's still barking at guys all the time and you see him wolf out there a lot during games and sometimes he does take it too far. So I don't know how to answer that question. It feels like that answer should be yes, but past history tells me probably not. And if somebody gets under his skin, he could lose it at any point. Yeah, sure.

All right, Tim, I got two last questions for you. Aaron's pass rush, the Texas would be the best pass rush. he probably sees all season long. And again, I don't know all 17. If you were to give him a 30-second's advice about going against Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson, is it getting rid of the ball quickly? Is it going through progressions?

Tell me what Aaron's thinking about this week going against a team that has really destroyed a lot of quarterbacks, namely, you know, Josh Allen being one particular quarterback. Yeah, I think one piece of advice I would give is, and this is maybe more to Arthur Smith, it is Aaron Rogers, is don't obsess with keeping Warren and Gainwell back to Chip. Get him out in the flat quickly and let Rogers be his own pass protector. That worked out better against the Browns when they did it that way.

The first time they played them versus what they did against Garrett and the Browns, the second time they played him, where they just obsessed over making sure Garrett didn't get at Rogers. And they kept Gainwell, who's their team MVP in, to eat blocks, the whole time. And it didn't seem to make sense to me. And I happen, as good as Gainwell is, that, I still happen. I think Warren's better at it anyway, because he's a little bowling ball and, you know, it's a good blocker. So I would just, they love using those guys in the flat. They love checking it down to them. But if they're so obsessed with holding off those two pass rushers and keeping them in the, you know, offensive backfield to do so, they're not

going to get out in time. And by the time that they do, the rest of the Texans defense is going to flow over there and they're going to get very little even less than they do in the past game. So that's what I would say. I think the advice has to go to Arthur Smith before it goes to Rogers and just get those guys out in the flat and get it out to them quick. All right. And last question. My good

friend, Chris Brown used to kick for the Steelers. Chris Boswell, Rice Kid, has been doing it for a long time for Pittsburgh. Chris told me many years ago, Tim, that's the worst place for kickers to kick field goals is at your stadium. And it's clearly Baltimore's special teams would probably agree with you on that. Is it

still as bad as it was when Chris was playing? Is there a decided advantage? And the reason why I bring this up is because, frankly, Kami Fairbairn has been as big of a part of the Texans' offense as any receiver or C.J. Stroud has been for Houston so far this year. Oh, that's been talked about this week. People are aware of that here, too. And I like Chris, a great deal.

I covered him when I first got on the beat with the team back in 2001, I think it was. And, yeah, the feel was terrible. I mean, the feel was awful for the first five years or so. maybe even six or seven beyond that. But I would say going back the last handful of years, maybe five, six, they've figured things out with the turf a lot better. I would say, yeah, going back to about 20 or so, right around COVID, they started to figure out the field better.

And it's no coincidence that Boswell's been great over the past few years. And there have been more long kicks from opposing kickers here, too. And they've closed in the outs. As Chris would remember, the open end of the stadium has been closed in a little bit. Bigger scoreboard. They've changed the seating. So it's not as windy coming in off the open end as when Chris was kicking here. They did have some issues with the field earlier in the season.

I'm not sure they've gotten all those right yet. It was an extraordinarily dry fall here and a little warm late. And then we had one rainy cold weekend, and that seemed to screw everything. up and there's a lot of action from Pitt here earlier in the season and it's been very snowy here in December 2 so it's not great this year but Boswell for the most part has navigated that okay I think his extra point miss was partially blocked that was the way it was in the scorebook I think that's right and I don't know loop just pushed it so Chris has a great point he's 100% right but I would say in the long time since he's been here they've gotten that field much better

and Boswell's career numbers. If you look at, he's got 12 to the 13 longest field goals in Accrescher Stadium history, and that's in large part because the turf has gotten better and it's easier to plan for those kickers now. If you want to follow the Pittsburgh perspective of this game leading in next Monday, please go to at Tim Benz, B-E-N-Z-P-G-H. He will give you all what you need from the Steeler Advantage.

Tim, thank you for the time, and I'll talk with you on Friday. We appreciate the visit here this morning. Awesome. Thanks for having me. Good stuff there from Tim Benz. You thought that was good, Rossi. Guess we're going to have tomorrow. What, Matthew? One of the all-time goats.

Our friend Kevin Harlan's going to be on the radio program tomorrow. What? Yeah, I know. I know. Wow. Love it. He is doing... I'm glad he texted you back.

He did text me back. You know, I got a good text group. Kevin and Ian Eagle have texted you. me back. Somebody else that works on the network level at Fox did not. I don't want to mention his name. Okay.

It rhymes with Bark Loireth. After really being very polite to him twice, not even a return text. Not like go to hell. No, can't do it. Sorry, leave me alone.

That's fine. It is what it is. Sorry, Matt. But Kevin Harlan is going to join. At least you didn't get big time by Steve Tasker. I mean, how low is that? He's not even working for CBS.

Maybe CBS heard what you Yeah, that's a shame. It's like, you know, you don't respond back to Ross. You're out. So Kevin Harland's going to join us at 1 o'clock tomorrow. Very excited about that. Oh, that's amazing. Now, this is interesting.

He says, hey, we need to do it on Zoom audio. We've never done a Zoom audio. Oh, yeah, that's a Jonathan question. Well, I told Gordy he's going to help. Okay, good. Zoom audio? I just don't know how to send him the return audio. We can get his audio.

I don't know how he can hear us. Yeah, I was just about to ask that. We'll figure that out. Okay, why don't we get on that right away, I don't want to blow this. The reason why he said this is because I don't want to put words under Kevin's but Kevin lives, has two houses. He lives in Kansas City during most of the year, and then he has a cabin in Wisconsin.

He grew up in the Green Bay Area. His dad didn't work for the Packers for a long time. He's got bad phone service? Well, he said that exactly. He texted me yesterday. He says, my phone service is very sketchy where we, I think he's got some sort of cabin or something in the middle of Wisconsin, so maybe that's where they are. Interesting.

All right, so Jonathan, I'm going to let you go ahead and give you the full 24-hour notice on that to make sure you get with Gordy on that. Yeah, I'm going to love you. I'm happy that now. By the way, and there's really no easy segue to this. This isn't a conversation piece, but the least we can do is, and look, when you hear the term thoughts and prayers with things, you just go, okay, everybody says that that's what people in sports say. But legitimately, thoughts and prayers to Jordan Shipley, terrible, terrible accident yesterday. he got involved in a ranch fire severely injured they're saying burns over 30% of his body his wife just went to instagram and just gave an update says he's a lot of pain he's heavily

medicated sedated they're hoping that it is not the burns do not affect the lungs and infection or whatnot but uh just a terrible terrible story and so i will say this if you do pray if you don't pray sorry how about just good thoughts to jordan shippley he is in a hospital after recovering from a ranch fire so I don't have much to add just hope he's okay no you don't you know airlifted to a hospital in Austin underwent surgery and face looks good hands are salvageable

lungs are clear doctors doctors are optimistic about removing his breathing tube soon well that's good yeah he's 40 years old god we're getting older Ross I remember when he was playing just the other I mean literally just the other day I was watching his game. I was at that game in 2008 when he ran back the touchdown against Oklahoma in 2008, the 45-35 game.

Yeah. I mean, say this, I don't, look, I've never rooted, much to your chagrin, I've never rooted against Texas. Yes, you have. The fans are obnoxious. Yes, you do. The team itself is good. Who's obnoxious? You?

I'm obnoxious. Yes. What did I do that's obnoxious? I don't know, just working with me for all these years. You're the obnoxious fan. they call me Mr. Levelhead is what they call me. All right. Anyways.

The point being is there's been so many great Texas. I mean, so, what a great history of, and I'm not having no charge about Jordan Shepley in a rarefied class, but I mean, I grew up watching Major and Ricky and even the very first time ever watched a Texas football game. There was a young man by the name of Earl Campbell that was running up and down the field.

So many great quarterbacks. Vince Young, college basketball, football game of all time. The all time of all time games. So, it just made me think about all the great Texas games I've seen over the years. I think Shippley got a lot of concussions in this for his NFL. I think his NFL career was pretty short.

Yeah, a lot of injuries and concussions, I think. Yeah. And I still, and again, I'm in the minority in this, Rossi. I still want A&M, Texas on Thanksgiving night. It's never going to happen again because NFL dominates football on Thanksgiving night. The day after is good. It's the problem. it's good it's just not great okay i just want i love tradition i college football is running from

the nflb i know they're like these semi games are on like a thursday and friday they're and then you'll play another 10 games 10 days after you there's zero buzz for these these semifinal games yeah well the the ratings have been pretty good they have considering considering they're getting squashed by rando's saturday non-playoff NFL teams playing it's Miami Ole Miss and Oregon, Indiana. Not the not the thoroughbreds of college football. I love the NIL era, by the way.

I'm sure you do. It's got a lot of diversity now in the final fours. Yeah, I don't know if Indiana's going to yeah, I don't know if it's going to carry the Big Ten part of the country. Well, probably not, but did you see they just got a big check

from Mark Cuban? Yes, how much was it, we know? I don't think it's sad, but I think it's in the million. Actually, I think it's one million. So, a quarter of the quarterback salary. Can I be petty about that? Why? I mean, yeah, what do you want?

Oh, okay. Okay. Petty M.T. Petty M.T. That's shocking. He's what, stop. It is 11 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

1104 on Sports Talk 790. Ross is in Houston. Matt, that's me. I'm in Portland. I was just thinking about this. You know the last time that I was in studio and you were on the road

I think was during Astros playoffs, correct? Probably when I was in Arlington. Yeah, when you and Gordy were going on your vacation tour. Yeah.

Not a vacation tour. I'm just kidding. Jesus. I knew that was going to get that in response from you. You're so ridiculous. Gordy did have to take a lot of vacation.

Everywhere you went and it was like... There was one trip he went on with Bichel Bonner. They had like an extra day off in Philly or something like that and they took a picture of the Liberty Bell, and you've been bringing it up for like, I don't know,

six, five, what is it now, five years now? It feels about right to continue to do that. All right, so here comes PettyMT. Let's go. All right. So, and look, every school that is, wants to play big boy, sports has to have big boy money, right? I mean, there's no reality.

Like when we needed to build, rebuild our basketball program, Tim and Fricketa cut a check for $20 million. And that's named after him now. Yeah. I mean, I would do that, too. if I had $20 million, I'd name it to Thomas Stadium, whatever, arena, whatever.

They named the urinal after you, I believe. They did, and the water fountain at TDC Stam's got my name on it. Yeah, it's the rusty one. Okay. If you're, Mark Cuban sold the Mavericks for $3.5 billion. Yes. You're giving a million, that's it, to Indiana?

The school that got you supposedly were on your feet? It's a million dollars. you're scoffing at a million dollar donation you need not put it up a little bit could he afford more and I think I don't think this is his first donation by the way you're probably right and that's what I'm saying and that's why I wanted to preface it because I don't believe

it's the first time he's ever donated money down he might be I wonder if he's the one behind all this I don't even know I would need somebody I mean Indiana obviously has come out of nowhere how much of this is NIL driven we talk about a lot with Cody Campbell in Texas Tech but it's got to be somewhat the case with Indiana because frankly think about this

Ross. Cody Campbell is out there. He wants you to know he's contributing. That's the philosophy they have. I would be like that too. I wouldn't be someone else. If I'm cutting $10 million checks to get my football program into the national championship, I want some credit too. Right.

Because, I mean, honestly, University of Houston, Ross, is doing very well in the portal. Are they? Yes. Oh, you had anonymous donor Matthew Bomis. Well, my point is this. I don't know if Tillman's dropping any more money, but I'm going to presume

he's helping a little bit. I mean, we don't have we don't have a 500 people that are in his wealth category. Yeah, most U of H graduates are like Chick-fil-A managers. Just good money, good benefits. I thought this was a New Year's resolution. Oh, you know what? You know what?

Because you said, you reminded me how much Cougars fans hate me, so now I'm being more vicious. And you know what? That's wrong. And I'm going to apologize and I'm going to lay back. I was a joke, folks. University of Houston, a wonderful institution. And by the way, Chick-Fully management, good money. That's what I said. Good bennies, too.

Oh, my God, you don't work Sundays ever. Yeah. Literally ever. Literally, they're like, we don't get, we'll charge, hey, I'll buy, I will go to your restaurant and buy 50,000 chicken sandwiches. Nope, we don't care. We're closing on Sundays. They're like a top three chain

in America and they don't, they're only open six days a week. That's credible. Yeah. Point being. um yeah i would i would probably if i was making the money and and was able to spend i would make sure you knew where it was coming from yeah cody campbell when cody when the raiders came to play the cougars at tdc stadium rossi he walked around like he was a rock star and all he's done is give money even like he's not an actor he doesn't uh doesn't host a show doesn't uh have a podcast he just got in the oil and gas business made a blank time

ton of money and then spend it on the school that he loves but he's a rock star as you should be i just sometimes i see these gigantic billionaires giving like chump change and i'm like come on now step it up for just a little bit yeah somebody tweeted the u of h shade on the bingo card yeah you know what i'm catering to this bingo card too much i need to mute it yeah back up yeah you're too funny uh 11 o eight on sports talk seven and we have shut you bow-ass-up coming up at the bottom of the hour. Uh-oh. This feels like to me,

now, we even, the three of us have not been together on a shut show for quite a while. This is kind of like pent-up, shut show. We've got to have to have some Christmas issues. Oh, really? New Year's? Don't you think? Fireworks? You may tell me that somebody and your family did not make you mad during the Christmas holiday at any point?

No. Well, that's nice. The Villa Rao family getting along then. That's really good. Yeah. I'll come up with something, I guess. I'm still mad at that old lady at the blackjack table. Who was getting mad at me for playing correctly and then stayed on a 13 against a 10.

Mm-hmm. So when I give you my stories, you just nod your head. You may be saying, Matt, we've heard this before. We're tired of hearing it. But just acknowledge it and just pretend like you care about me. Okay. Because I generally care about you and the people that you play blackjack with. I don't think you do.

I do. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 we'll have such a bum-ass up and ain't nobody got time for that coming up at the bottom of the hour I'm still and again look that we're not we're not the Raven Station but I am still stunned that John Harbaugh got fired I just I I he's a winner he just is and maybe this was player driven maybe this was we need a change a changing of the guard how often do we see this and I would have to take us to look back of teams that fire coaches after being there forever and it always works out or in the long run it gets better now when guys retire it's one thing if guys want to quit because they've said it's their time that's that's certainly an issue but john harbaugh doesn't want to stop coaching john harball would have loved to say to be the baltimore reads and which you said earlier made a lot of sense if loops kick it goes through that's a

Baltimore Rabin team getting ready to host the Texans next Monday night. Not the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's funny how it works. How thin the margins are in the NFL. Or in life, really. Meanwhile, you have a team in the Colt. Oh, by way, did you, I gave you a homework assignment yesterday. Did you listen to the video?

I was listening. Oh, I forgot. No, you didn't send me the long version. Oh, man. All right. I'll do it during the break. I looked for it. I couldn't find anything more than 30 seconds. Yeah, there's a two and a half clip out there that just looks like well, here's the thing that people are also saying is that when you keep a coach, why do you have a press conference to keep people?

Is that because you're trying to justify your decisions? Yeah, I think, except for a message to the fans, because the fans are upset. I actually like getting in front. Like, if the fans are upset and you want to address them, that's cool. No, I was going to actually say before you stepped in, I think it's actually pretty, I mean, I like my owners to speak. now some of them don't know what they're talking about but some do i mean when jim crane had that way the press coverage we carried on monday uh with emai signing that was the first

time we've seen jim crane in a long time and he gave us some thoughtful uh reflection on you know look let's be frank uh he said look the japanese market's been owned by the mariners and the angels and the dodgers and the giants and there's an unt we we should get some of that as well we have a relationship with dyken park that's a japanese company that's a you know that there's a that's a that's a part of the world that can help us with it kind of gave us some perspective of why things are done the way they are and i like that i like when now cow and hannah have not come over to our station and they never will and that's fine um but i think people like to hear from their owners. And Tillman's now

obviously busy doing his ambassadorship thing, but we had Patrick on during media and it was kind of cool to get his perspective on things. Again, I don't think you have to have town meetings or have weekly radio shows like Jerry Jones does because all that does is just make you look, sound stupid. That's great.

But it is kind of cool to hear from the owners once in a while because they show a human aspect. And even though they're gazillionaires and people are kind of crushing the way that her presentation was, I do give her flowers for at least saying I'm coming out and here are the reasons why I'm keeping my general manager and my head coach.

Yeah, I'll try to watch it. I'll find it, I guess. May I help you? This says, it's 23 minutes? Maybe the opening statement was like, opening thing was two and a half minute. All right, I found the whole thing of the cults. I'll watch it.

Yeah, we've got a break coming up. All right. Well, we want you. you to think about who you're going to tell them to shut your bum ass up at the bottom of the hour. So be ready for that. I'd be her. I bet you Colt fans are because the replies, Ross, are not spectacular. And I would think Indianapolis people are generally a nice group of people. The comments are not nice.

Like Indiana people. I mean, do you, when you, if I'm not trying to stereotype things here, but if I'm going to stereotype, I wouldn't have think among rooted states in the country, I don't think Indiana's on my top five list. You know what I mean? Yeah, they seem pleasant. Who's the nicest? Hawaiians? although they hate people who come like the tourists right no no no no no don't don't yeah erase that Hawaii is is low-key really rude hmm Alaskans I'm trying to think of who's nice Alaskans would be they say in their house because it's always I'm saying so they can't be mean

who is the nicest state in the I would say I'd put Texas in the top five yeah we're pretty nice don't count Twitter I'm just saying just generally speaking right I think Louisiana people are nice Well, yeah, they're drunk They're happy drunks Yeah But they're always one of the You know, offer you food

And heavy carbs with your meal Who else will be nice? Georgia seems nice Wyoming Oh Wyoming seems very nice They're just happy you showed up Yes You really want to come hanging out with us

Yeah, come on in This TV show we used to have on here Yeah, it's helping our tourist industry. Come on in. Pretendly you're a cattle rancher for six days. We'll charge you $400 a night. Welcome. Oh, but Hawaii?

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Worst place my wife has ever been to for a basketball and football game where it's in the state of Hawaii. I could see that. Just yelling at the players. I mean, one racial and ethnic slur after the other. Oh, my God.

Bad, bad, bad, bad. All right, 1115. We got shut your bum ass up at the bottom of the hour. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 1119. It's Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Let's talk to some people.

7-1-3-2-5-7-90. This is funny, Ross. Do you see what line 2 says? Yeah, what about Idaho? Yeah, what about Idaho? Steve, how nice are the people in Idaho? They are extremely nice. I was up there a couple of years ago because my daughter's in the Air Force

and she was stationed in Mountain Home in Boise. And we were there for the Air Force Boise football game. And they found out we're from Houston, written for the Air Force, and they just talked to us the entire game. They were very pleasant. And I think it's just because of the weather. And everybody's just extremely nice up there. All right. Steve, thank you for that.

I have been to Boise, probably, I don't know, three or four times in my life. Really? It's very pleasant up there. It's kind of a hotbed for people moving there. People who are trying to leave California and Denver and places that are getting super expensive. Yep. Boise's become one of the hotbeds for transplants. Idaho, Arizona, and Texas, I think about three hotspots for Californians leaving.

Yes, yes. I think, yes, Phoenix, Austin, Boise, stuff like that. And I cannot add any more to this, but producer of the Michael Barrett show, Ramon Robles, had a great experience in Boise many years ago. Okay. Back on the phones we go. Hashtag sock on the door, I believe. That is accurate. Okay.

That's, that's, that is accurate. I've been on this show a long time, Maddie. I didn't bring up the sock, but that's, that's you. And by the way, just to let y'all know, the sock thing still is in play. Because when you don't know someone with... I've never seen any, but not recently, I guess. No, but one of our traveling members of our crew didn't believe the sock and open the door anyway. What?

Why would you not believe it? Who's doing that on accident? No, no, no, no, no, no. It was somebody else. Not you. I just mean you, the royal you. Oh, I see. In general, you. Why would you not believe that?

I just know when the sock was on the door, I turned around. Oh my gosh. Okay, sorry. I don't know why I reacted out loud, but I just saw funny tweet. There's the red, the, the Auburn wide receiver is visiting Lubbock and somebody on a Red Raider message board put, please no cow manure smell today in Lubbock. Well, you know what, this is in all honesty. I think Texas Tech will be the first admit this.

they have to overpay. Yeah, I think it was about 30% I think is the extra price tag. And Cody's like, it's okay. I mean, I'm fine, whatever. We got in the CFP this year. We have never been there before. Mm-hmm. By way, a husband and wife just, a guy and a girl just proposed on Let's Make a Deal and she said yes.

Oh, that's beautiful. Would you propose to your girl on a game show? No. unless you are really into it and like you'll always watch it together like if you and your lady are always watching the game show let's make a deal it was kind of special

you know some people like to have those really not bizarre how did you do it I think I've told you this before I was really sick yeah I was going to say that I was going to joke that you weren't you on your deathbed is in the recesses of my brain I had a high fever and a cold

I was at my in-law's house and I was upstairs in a spare bedroom You were hallucinating. Your word's not mine. December 31st, 1996 at about 1155, somewhere in that range. And I got the ring. And I talked to her dad obviously beforehand. And I proposed to her.

She said yes. She kissed me and I went back to sleep. It was the most climactic engagement ever. And you thought it was Marissa Tomei from my cousin Vinnie. I thought it was Pamela Anderson from Baywatch Nights. That was a show back then. Yeah, Baywatch nights didn't do so hot, I don't believe. No, it did not.

Daytime, great. Baywatch nights, not so hot. Koso's with us on 7-08. Koso, how were things? Hey, Matt, what's going on? You're in Portland? Yes, sir. Man, Oregon is one of my favorite states in the country.

It is the absolute, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Actually, one of my buddies from Houston moved up to Oregon. For college, like 15 years ago, and met a girl. They got married and had a kid, and he never came back to Texas. And they're in this little town called the Dalles, which is about like an hour outside of Portland. And then between the Dals and Portland is Multanumo Falls. You ever heard of that? I've heard of it, but I've never been.

It's just basically the old highway in Oregon that takes you by, I think, 12 waterfalls. and it is one of the most beautiful routes I've ever been on with my wife. It's honestly awesome. So I was wondering if Ross has ever been on the Multanuma Falls Drive. No, I have not. I've been to Oregon. I've been on the Oregon coast like Florence and Newport. Oh, man, the Oregon coast is just as good at the California.

Yeah, I did the mid-coast, not the upper or lower, but I want to go back and do like the lower coast and the upper coast. I think it's called Mount Hood. I think it's the only all, not only, but one of the only all-year-round ski resource that they have. It's right there off the Columbia River Gorge. I don't know. It's absolutely beautiful. And it's true what you say about Idaho. A lot of people from California, and now I know a lot of people in Idaho are pissed at the Californians because they send a lot of their drug rehabs in San Francisco.

They send them on a bus to Idaho. So they all get pretty mad. They're sending their finest. they're sending the fine of San Francisco to Idaho and they're just beefing hard right now. So that's something I've learned. But I wanted to call

for Mr. Texas and Mr. America. Thank you. What are your what are you looking for tonight matchup for Rockets in Portland? Who are you looking at? What positions are we analyzing? And who do you think can be maybe, you know, without he being out

a surprise use to the team for tonight because Portland's not a great team they're not a bad team no this is NBA you can catch a loss on any day as we've seen the last couple of week what are you what are you looking for tonight Matt and I'll hang up

and listen thanks guys thank you Koso good to hear from you I'm looking for Kevin Durant to continue to score her 30 points a game and make 40% of his three-point shots and go to the free throw on a bunch times look the injury list for the Rockets no Alpi tonight no surprise there It's going to be another, probably at least a week and a half and be two weeks.

The Blazers are beset by terrible. I was checking earlier because I'm doing pregame. And I was like, they got like eight people on the list. I mean, Jeremy Grant, Scoot-Hederson, Drew Holiday, Damien Lillard, Matisse, Tybal, Chris Murray now is listed as doubtful with low backs soreness. And he didn't score a lot, but he's a starter for them, at least at this point. They don't shoot well. I don't even know why they've won in the games.

They don't do anything particularly well. they've got a big guy down in Klingin who blocks a lot of shots so I would expect maybe the permanent game to be a key and the Rockets got here's the thing for me real quick Ross is they got to get their three point mojo back they have not shot well from three

of the last two games yeah that would be nice and yeah Portland's won five of the last six they have been at least early on in the season I haven't checked the numbers lately and this would be a question for EMA Doka they have been

one of the things that have been in vogue this year in the NBA has been the full court pressure so I think we could see more full court pressure but like I said I haven't checked lately I don't know if that was under Billups and now Tiago Splitter I don't know if he's continued that but they've been doing a lot of full court pressure

which can tie our teams out and cause a lot of turnovers which can be a concern with the Rockets who as you know Matt are turnover prone they are turnover prone I'm looking right now at the numbers for the stats for how things go and again when you have a team it's set by injuries maybe the numbers are a little skewed

they, they, they, they, they're 21st in field goal percentage, they're 29th in free throw percentage, they're 24th in, uh, or 14th they get with three point percentage. They just don't do anything well. I mean, they're lousy. Middle of the pack and everything, but yet they've been able to win some basketball games. Clingland's been pretty good. Uh, Shaden Sharp's played well. Uh, and the reality is this, Ross, and this is the thing that probably bugs me

or anything else about this young season, the Rockets, and I don't think it bothers he may. I'm sure he's not pleased, but it's not like he can't. sleep but nine over this? I think the Rockets have six losses against the five worst teams in the Western Conference of shit. Hmm. Remember early on in the season?

We're like, they don't have a bad loss. That was the fun times. You know what this is? It's a revenge tour. Oh, is that what's happening? Sacramento on Sunday. All right.

Denny Avdita has been playing very well. Abdiya, yeah. Avdia? Avdia. Avdiya. What did I say? I don't know. It was close.

Look. Fair one. I just call him, Dini. I just call him D-Man. Denny. Now, it's D-E-N-I, by the way. Yeah. All right, real quick, before we get to believe it or not,

to shut your bum ass up, believe it or not, you've got two options today. What? Yep. Now, if you can think of something better, you're more than welcome to choose yourself on this one. Okay. Kami Fairbearer, was named Special Teams Player of the Week in the AFC.

As he should have been. When his foot is throbbing for overuse, it should be the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week. Okay. Six field goals. He can be our believe it or not today winner. I don't think we've ever done in Kiami, have we? Maybe a couple questions when he was drafted.

I mean, or this is the one you got to go with. I'm going to make you, you know what? I'm going to put his full name in there and make you say it. Adam Clayton. Who? Just texting me today. Happy birthday. Happy 78th birthday to Kenny Loggins, one of the all-time great yacht rock.

you know what he he texted me some some yacht rock tweet yesterday it was glorious i'm sure it was about george benson yeah a yacht rock legend terrible made up genre not real george benson didn't say you know what you know what i'm one of the great yacht rock artists i'm going to make a good yacht rock album i'm up for the grammy for yacht rock of the album of the year no no no no no No, no. He did it. All right, you know what? I'm ready for next segment.

Shut your bum ass up is up next. Sounds like Ross is locked and loaded. Schmatton, shmattom, shmanton, you're, yeah. Get ready. Schmatton, shmant, you're in trouble. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Shut your bum-ass up.

Ain't nobody got time for that. It's next here on 790. Ain't nobody getting time for it. Ain't nobody getting time for it. Ain't nobody getting time for day. Are you all out there? It's our favorite half hour of the week. It lets you say what you need to say without any repercussion, right, Ross?

I wouldn't say without any repercussions. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, blow off some steam. yeah cathartic yeah 713 it's the most cathartic 30 minutes of major market radio 713 212 5 790 7 1 3212 5 790 if somebody at the office hmm it's just going on and on and on about that great new year's eve they had where they watched movies and they popped popcorn and they stayed up to do fireworks and then they got up the next morning they had black eyed and they talked about watching another game and it was just long drawn out conversation about new year's where everybody does the same thing tell me nobody got time for

your new year's eve conversations or in a particular case where someone cut you off on the way to the airport yesterday or if someone is ragging on your school or someone is ragging on your expertise in food or the way that you travel across the great lone star state you tell them to shut their bum asses up may shit your bum ass up man seems wildly specific. It seems targeted. 212.790. 713.

212.790. Ross, what is the matter with you? Yeah, you know what? I will go as Shmadam Shamanton. Sending me a text yesterday. It was from some account called, oh, I'm trying to find it. It was like Yacht Rock Daily. And it was about George Benson recording the Breezen album. George Benson was not recording a Yacht Rock album.

don't send me Yacht Rock stuff just to make me angry even though it worked Adam Clinton. I don't want to hear from you Matt or Adam Clinton about this made up, ridiculous genre. Shut your bum asses up. Shit your bum ass up, man. It's not real.

Shit your bum ass up, man. Yot rock. George Benson is relaxing in his home in Palm Springs or San Diego. Is he alive? Phoenix. I don't know. But I'm thinking he's probably going, you know what? Whatever pays the bills? Oh, yeah. He's taking the royalty checks. And if Breazons

making the Yacht Rock Channel, he's got zero issues with that. Okay. All right. There you go. So that is yours. Jonathan? I got more. But we can go. We can rotate. We can go on us. Carousel. Jonathan?

Let's carousel. Then to me. You know, this might be a Zoom or a young take. But every time I go to the gas station, wherever I'm at, and I go to the pump, there needs to be Apple Pay or a Google Pay there, okay? Ain't nobody has time to go to the cashier or for your chip reader not to be working. And it says on the side or the top of the screen, please see a cashier after I already paid. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Apple pays a new thing. Ain't nobody got time for that. You know, Wally Ward needs to get on that too, but I'm not trying to go. Unless I have cash, right? But it's a new day and age. It's 2026. Everybody, every pump needs something I can just boom, tap, and I go. And it's better business that way anyway.

Anybody got time for that. I'm going to go the opposite. If you're not willing to take my cash, leave me alone. I'm going to got time for that. People use cash at 2026. I'm sorry to tell you that. All these places that are cashless. Do they really?

People like cash. Cash is never going to go away. But don't exclude us cash lovers. Like when I travel with Iraq. What are you a drug kingpin? Why are you walking around with cash? I use cash. You're the only person I know walking around with cash and coins.

They call me Captain Cash on the road. They call you Mr. 17 cents. I'm going to lunch today and I'm paying cash. Deal with it. Good luck. All right. Back to you, Ross. So I put out of Twitter, we were talking yesterday and I said the Texans are making the

AFC championship game. Yes, because you are a battled at Ross. So I put that out on my Twitter account at SportsRV. And you know, I tweet for people who follow me. I tweet for people who are Houston-centric. And somehow this ended up in the 4U tab of Pittsburgh Steeler fan. Uh-oh. Sorry for your loss.

So I'm getting a lot of who is this idiot? You're the worst. I'm bookmarking this. Where's the falsities in this? And you know what? Steeler fan, I'm not tweeting for you. I'm tweeting for my Houston people. Shut your bum asses up.

Shut your bum ass up, man. There's no reason for you to be coming into my mention. I'm muting all of you, first of all. I'm trying to talk to my Houston people about the Houston Texans come in to Pittsburgh and beating your ass. I don't need gifts of Aaron Rogers fist pumping, all right? Yeah, yeah. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Just remember, I don't stereotype. But if I was going to, the average Pittsburgh fan is probably 30 to 40 pounds overweight. They have high cholesterol levels. They probably have a second chin. They probably work overnight shifts 80% of the time. Nothing's wrong with that, but just saying they're just late-night shift workers. And the women are got like hairy mustaches. Some of them.

Not all of them, but some of them. Central bum-ass-up, man. I'm staying out of that one. That's if I was the stereotype, but we don't stereotype here on the show. Actually, Pittsburgh's an underrated town. I still want to go to a baseball game there because it looks like it's...

Now, Grand, we could buy a entire section if we wanted to at PNC Park. It's pirates have sucked for, like, 30 years. Ever since Sid Breeman's rounding third. He was safer out, I forget. He was safe. Barry Bonds did this, like, lollipop. pop out from left field.

Sid Bream was maybe the slowest. Was it Sid Bream? I think it was Sid Bream, surrounding third one at Bream, I want to say. Yeah, for the Atlanta Braves. He was a former pirate, too. The 92 NLCS. I'm just grueling.

Yeah, who rounded third? Was it Sid Bream? Okay. I had his card. Sid Bream runs a 14-440. And Barry Bonds couldn't throw him out. All-time mustache, by the way. Oh, yeah.

Big time. All right. Let's see. I think I'm good. I am Captain Cash. I appreciate cash. I like cash. I want to use it.

I want to have the option. If I want to use a credit card, credit card. I use it when I'm in Vegas or at a casino in Lake Charles, and that's it. I don't use it ever. All right. Anybody want to come in with any complaints? It's good for tip jars for bands. When you're going to live music, I like to have cash on me, too.

You'll be proud of me now. I don't ever take change anymore. like I went and got a croissant this morning and I really there was 80 cents change I just gave it to the tip jar all 80 cents that's meaty I think it's over 50 you gotta keep it

that's adding up no it's the least I can I mean the very least I could do okay shit your bum ass up man for tipping somebody that's not nice you should actually praise oh for tipping I was thinking you were

I don't know I was thinking about the the take a penny leave a penny oh no no By the way, they're not making pennies anymore. For that, anybody got time for that. I like pennies. Oh, my God. I'm getting more tweets from Pennsylvania.

How did this end up? Get them. How did this end up in the Steelers for you tab? This is so annoying. Hey, everybody, do me a favor. Oh, my God. This is tweet. At Sports RV.

It's got some reviews. It's a Steelers fan form. 20,000. Yeah, it's got 45 bookmarks, so it's 45 Steelers fans are going to be coming after me. They're coming right after you. They're ready. Hey, why don't you reply back? what, though, if you're a bookmarked guy, I want to hear from you if I'm right.

All right? What don't you say? Don't be chicken bleep. Shut your bum asses up because you're trying to bookmark me and trying to got you if I'm wrong. But what if I'm right? I want to hear from you too. I'm going to quote you to right now. Oh, my cute ass.

Oh, I am going to do it right now. It's totally feels fair that I do that. I'm going to mute the conversation. And you can't mute me. We're creeping towards it down. Yep. You, I can't? can you can you mute by one tweet i guess you could right seven nine employees have been muted before

can you name one of them seven one three two five seven ninety all right we come back uh we got ray wants to tell somebody to shut the bum mess up plus we have a story about a ex-nfel player suing his soon to be ex-wife for a description of their love life Huh. Is that a professional radio tease right there? Yes, very proud.

The story is a little blue. So if your kids are being homeschooled today, you may want to maybe take a segment off. 1145 on Sports Talk 790. 7.1.3-212-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Shut your ball-mass up. Anybody got time for that 11-50 here on 7-90.

We talked to Ray in Miami on the Matt. Thomas Show with Ross. Ray, good morning to you. What's the matter with you? Nothing wrong. I just want to tell Odell Beckham, set your bum ass up that you can live off $100 million. It's not our fault you're buying Ferraris and mansions for everybody and 30 million entourages. You really need to shut your bum ass up.

Ain't nobody got time for you coming on podcast saying you can't live off $100 million in your lifetime. You're a bum. shit your bum ass up man I don't think I know the whole story to it but it sounds like he was complaining about the amount of money that it's taxed by rich players

and how it's not as much it would be. Yeah, I'm Googling it right now and apparently he was like $20 million isn't that much after tax and is he broke I guess? I don't know maybe he's just not as

financially wall off as we thought he was going to be he suggested living off $20 million a year is a challenge that's a five can you make that last forever I would say yes you can yeah you know it's so crazy

it's like $12 million he says that you have to spend use save invest and flunt oh flaunting is a huge part of it I get that I think I could make it work. I think I could too. You know, I did a game. You know what? I'd love that. I'm up

for the challenge. We'll take $12 million a year. I did a game for O'Dell Beckham Senior. Did you know that? You did? Yeah, he was a former Houston Thunderbury slash Texas Terrier. And this was the leather helmets they were wearing, correct? Okay, that's not nice. You know what? I wasn't going to tweet your

thing about the... Hey, nobody got to... That's fine. I muted the conversation. That wasn't a tiny bit funny, man? Thank you, Jonathan. Jonathan shut your bum ass up I'll set it not on

I'll sit your bum ass up man all right we're going to get this in real quick because it's a little bit of a blue story and so

I'm not going to like a blue Christmas no like blue was in PG 13 okay even close to our

but again it's a it's a non-family friendly story okay Matt Khalil is divorcing his

wife. She is a former sports illustrated bottle. Oh. Oh, no. This is an older story, I thought. I'm seeing this one as of today, January 7, 2020.

Okay, well, the cop. This is not a fake. It's not a fake story. No, no. This is, go ahead. All right, let me stay with me. Just for a minute here, ladies and gentlemen, again, this is, I'm going to keep this as news newsy as possible, not like the news in noon, but just generally musing. So Matt Khalil is seeking a jury trial and damages of more than $75,000 per TMC in the wake of his ex-wife, Haley Khalil's comments that she made on a live broadcast and the comment was about the size of his manhood. on a Twitch video last year

the former SI model described his you know what as quote two Coke cans maybe even a third detailing that intimacy issues was one of the reasons for the breakdown of their marriage

what Khalil has said by what Khalil was a former Viking and a former Panther what Khalil has said is that because those comments were made he has been subjected to quote unwarranted attention in invasive commentary from the public

while his family has quote been forced to endure the ongoing public circulation of these degrading and deeply personal statements Haley has been slapped with a lawsuit and she says quote she's genuinely shocked and incredibly hurt by the allegations

incredibly hurt you know I see how that could cause a big divide in their relationship explain we can't have dead air I think it's self-explanatory shit your bum ass up man I really again I just give you

gave you this as a news item. I didn't want to necessarily get into a deep dive on to who's right and who's wrong about this. Suing for invasion of privacy. But the description, my God. I mean, we all know what that description looks like. And we're moving on. How about those Astros in the off-season move? 7-1-3-2.

Well, we got Tim, we got Tim on hold. I know, I know, I see. Okay. Thank God Tim's calling. Oh, Lord. Because if Tim was not calling, we'd have had three more minutes of awkwardness. Yeah.

It's sad their relationship got fractured like that. I guess she wants Coke Zero now. Hey, nobody got time for that. No, stop. Let's stop. Okay, so don't use my tall boy. reference. 4-2-liter.

Tim is with us. 1156 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Tim, what's the matter with you? I just want to say, can you hear me? Yes. Matt, I've praised you for two things over my entire life. I've been a longtime listener, follower of you

Rafa, it's just like an Uber driver in the back of my mind but I love this take on it too but two things you said in my lifetime that both matter. One is today you pay with cash and I love that.

Thank you. Cash is king. The other thing the other thing that happened about 10 years ago, I was up in Tulsa at Quiznos, and I ordered a sandwich, and they burned it like nobody's business in the airport. And then the next day, I heard you on the radio.

You're like, Quiznos overkill everything in the airport at Tulsa. So between those two things, I'm a lifelong follower and I'll have to have to do this. But thank you for these good advice. Thank you very much. You cannot burn the bread at Quiznos. You just can't. The Quiznos doesn't even exist anymore, right? How many are there?

I don't think so. Like three? You know what was also? I've also told you this about that Tulsa Fly. Did I tell you about that Tulsa Fly who was sitting next to? It was it was Dom Deloese. No, it was not Dom Deloese. I mean, that wasn't a bad pull on your part.

The guy next to me had a hustler and he was looking at it. Oh, yeah, that's right. What I did? It's like, you have to put that away. They sell them at, or at least they used to. They did. They sell them at the Hudson News. I don't think you can get porn

Get the Hudson News Getting some smart Getting some smart popcorn A Snickers and a hustler I'm like Dude I mean Playboy has articles

We all know that Yeah of course Penhouse has fewer articles Hustler doesn't hide What they are You just can't Bring porn on a plane You just can't

you can't bring porn of Matt Khalil on the plane either you have to get like a longer magazine too the center fold triple fold you had to get like an extra staple all right um you're the news that's that you're the worst no you're the worst oh you're the worst oh my god these stealer fans are not stopping okay i'm doing it right now actually i got i got to send a text but so in between so the news at noon is next let's be 8 on sports talk 7etti This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1202 on Sports Talk 790. It is our number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

I'm here in Portland for tonight's Rockets and Blazers game. E. May Dock is going to join us, I believe, on the show tomorrow. Kevin Harmonville, sure, will join us tomorrow on this radio program. But right now, before we get to what is ahead, let's get to the news at noon. Here's a man who's beloved by every Steelers fan in Pittsburgh. P.A. It's Ross Villarreal. Thank you, Matt. Yes. I am getting crushed by

the Pittsburgh Steelers fans on my Twitter account at Sports RV, but that's okay. We'll see what happens this weekend. Moving along with the news at noon does tie in somewhat to what happened with the Steelers. They are in the playoffs because Tyler Loop missed the field goal

at the end of the game against the Ravens. And well, now the next domino to fall with that would be John Harbaugh, surprisingly being relieved of his duties with the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Biscotti calling the decision incredibly difficult. John has delivered a Super Bowl championship to Baltimore and served as a steadfast pillar of humility and leadership. He and his family have deeply embedded themselves in this community, but he's Dunzo.

Okay, maybe the last part he didn't say. Has Dunzo ever been a part of our media release statement? No, I don't think so. He said he will always be grateful for the extraordinary hard work and dedication displayed by John Harbaugh and his staff throughout the many successful years. Rumors have been swirling around the story, Matthews, some people speculating that perhaps he was not getting along with Lamar Jackson. Also a story that he was not going to fire his defensive coordinator despite leadership with the Ravens wanting him to do so. So he stood down on his own business and got fired for it. My belief is this. There has been too many stories, Ross, about Lamar and Harbaugh having chemistry issues.

I think it just came to it ahead. I think there's been too much smoke to this conversation about those two guys not getting along. You're getting a new voice. He's been there a long time. Didn't want to fire his defensive coordinator. Not necessarily getting along with the quarterback. It makes sense. It's still surprising because of how good of a track record he has, but it makes sense.

So they'll be looking for a head coach. Apparently John Harbaugh are going to be hot to trot. Already reports that he has been discussed with the Miami Dolphins and he is the favorite for the New York Giants job. And by the way, Miami Dolphins. Yes, I know. They do. You know we didn't do yesterday, which we should have done.

Gut fillings. Does our offensive coordinator, stick around one more year? Nick Cayley? What do you think? I think it would be a terrible message to bump an offensive corner. Unless you're going to literally, I mean, Stephancy's going to get a head of coaching job. If Mike McDaniel becomes available, I mean, if you're going to get a guy who is an established play caller,

it's a bad look. But you know what? Sometimes you've got to overcome bad looks. You have to admit mistakes and you have to move on if it's going to improve the team. You can't get him to buy into what's called the, as you know, Matt, the sunk cost fallacy. If Nick Cayley is a sunk cost and you can improve with all these head coaches who are becoming available, then improve the team. take one for the team

rip the bandaid get him out it's going to be a firestorm but people are going to be happy to have a good established play caller so just do it if that's if that's what you feel needs to be done and yeah it was josina anderson who reported Mike McDaniel is of course still the Miami's Dolphins head coach but they have been in touch

with John Harbaugh. How do you think Mike McDaniel feels looking at that today on the social media? Is it bite me out baby let's go he probably wants to be the head coach a part of a head coach, by the long. Say again? He doesn't look like he should be a head coach. He doesn't look like he should be,

but they rallied at the end of the season. They finished, what, 7 and 10 or something like that? They actually did okay. They won a lot of like a 4-5 game winning streak, I think. Yeah, that's the end of the season. And then they started, and then Quinn Ewers started playing games, and well, he's not great.

I got you. Oh, wait a minute. You mean, former Texas great Quinn Ewers? Ah, former Texas pretty good? He got you to the playoffs. He wasn't an All-American, wasn't a Heisman finalist. Colt McCoy was a two-time Heisman finalist. Vince Young once.

Okay. Quinn, you were zero. He's good. Tier two. If he does a hook him, you'll retweet it. Say it? If he does a hook him on a social media, you'll retweet it. No, I don't, I mean, depending on the, forever a longhorn.

I mean, depending on the scenario. Yeah, he has a longhorn for life, even though he went and took that Ohio State check his freshman year. That was smart. Yeah. What else you got? What else do I? have, Matt. How about Indiana

getting a transfer portal cash infusion from Mark Cuban cementing his status as a super booster with Indiana. Of course, they have the reputation as a basketball school, but a $1 million donation

coming in from Indiana. And also, Mark Cuban did say publicly, I think in the last couple of months, that he has been putting some big donations into the Indiana program. He did not disclose how much, but the most recent donation has been $1 million from Mark Cuban to Kurt Signetti and the Indiana Hoosiers. Now, you know, that does sound great, but the problem is with that, that only will get you now. A million dollars may get you five

linemen, but don't they need to replace Mendoza in Indiana? They have a quarterback for next year? I mean, that takes up the salary with that one player right there, does it not? Yes. I mean, hell, if the kid from Texas, tech's getting $5 million, you're a national championship contending team. Don't you need more than a million dollars to replace what you eventually are going to lose? Yes.

One million is just a drop in the bucket. That's like Matt Thomas giving 80 cents for Mark Cuban. Well, I could have given the tip of my croissant. But no, you know, that makes me feel bad. Who deserved it? The croissant employee or my alma mom? hmm chrisson employee

probably so all right the point being is that if you're giving them if you're a regular donor like cody campbell it's a tech I would tell the whole world

I'd have a separate account guess what I gave today and then put the new dollar amount out there like a tote board okay because you're bracket you got that's this cash

I'm going to help my team now granted if you don't win like for instance Cody campbell's been wearing it because all the money he spent at Texas Tech and they were won and done in the playoff.

Didn't score a point, correct? Yeah, they were. They got shut out or they have a field goal. Maybe they scored at the end. I think it didn't go so hot for the most of that. That's a shame. That is just, I mean, you really feel for the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

It was 23 to 0 was the final, by the way. Oh, yeah. And here's the thing again, if your school is not in it, and your best friend, or in my case, my oldest son, at a school where money is being spent like that, you go, you know what, man, that was bad money spent. Well, it's been a glorious hate watch for the playoff

for Longhorns fans. Oklahoma out, A&M, out, Texas Tech out. SEC, what do they got left? Ole Miss, and that's it. Seriously. Love this NIL money and spreading the wealth. There's more parody now. You have Miami, Ole Miss, Oregon, and Indiana as your final four.

The NIL era, doing great things for college football. the college football playoff deciding to put games on anywhere again not against an NFL game because they're going to lose i believe yes the semifinals game are kicking off thursday at 11 p m yes they're playing it they're playing in a honolulu at one a m local time uh here's a quick story matt that i'm sure you'll love uh steve sarkisian not too long ago a couple of years ago actually uh was talking about the transfer portal and said the moment you go this is verbatim quote by the way The moment you go in the transfer portal at the University of Texas, you're no longer coming back. Not so fast, my friend. As defensive back, Derek Williams Jr. hit the portal on December 11th, but then announced yesterday that he will be returning to the Texas Longhorns.

Of course, they lost Parker Livingston. They just had a linebacker who's an impact player who's declaring for the portal. I mean, I don't know what the heck's going on over there with the Texas Longhorns. but Steve Sarkesian people are slamming him for being a hypocrite saying once you're in the portal you're out and then of course welcoming Derek Williams Jr. back with open arms so my thought is this number one Steve never should have said that number two who cares

thank you man people change your mind all the time on things especially in the portal well speaking of that yeah if you're not willing to adapt to the portal rules and how it's literally changing by the year by year then you're going to be on the outs I remember when the portal first him out, oh, how dare you want to leave us? You know what? If you are, if your depth

chart is lean at linebacker and a kid doesn't find a better spot somewhere he wants to come back, let the kid James mind. Well, DEMON Williams Jr. is on your side, Matt. The Washington quarterback signed a contract

to return to the Washington Huskies last week. I saw that, yeah. Sources indicating to ESPN's Pete Thammel that the deal was near the top of the market. And that Washington is prepared, by the way, to pursue all legal avenues to enforce his contract because now Mr. Williams Jr. said on social media last night, he is entering the transfer portal. Legitly, LSU, among other teams, among the big named suitors for Demon Williams Jr., the quarterback.

Did he sign the contract or no? He signed the contract. Well, that's a contract, and he can't back off of that. Now, the problem is, okay, you're going to hold him to it. What is he going to do that? Going to go up there and go on and be Debbie Downer, be the whole time he's there? What if he didn't want to be there? Yeah, it's interesting, holding somebody to a contract to where they don't want to be.

Last year, for the Washington Huskies, 3,000 yards, 25 touchdowns, eight picks for Demand Williams, Jr. I don't even know how to answer that because you can't have your, most, important player not want to be there but he's also going to sacrifice his opportunities to maybe become a pro I don't know if he's a pro level quarterback or not I mean I'm assuming he is based on the numbers and the money that was Washington was going to pay him to keep him there that's interesting I don't know I don't even know how to answer that question yeah he was a sophomore last year well then don't you just now if they had

already paid him some money for this upcoming year, then I could say, get that money soon with the money back. But if he hasn't done anything yet to earn the new contract, then sometimes there are bad contracts that can be torn up. That's my initial thought on that. I mean, maybe I could be wrong. I mean, it's funny. Literally yesterday, we're talking about how much of a mess this is with Sam Con Jr.

And this happens that night. I think we should get Sam Khan on for how many hours are we on the show? I think we should get them on an hour a day, Monday through Friday. because it feels like every single day it's changing. All right, that, my friends, is the news at noon. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Texans, by the way, are off again today

because they don't start their game until Monday night, which I would then assume Ross, and this is a ridiculously easy assumption, that if the Texans win, they will play their divisional game Sunday, because they're not going to put them on a Monday to Saturday, Which means a short week of practice because you're going to fly home late, late Monday. You've got to play, you're going to have the guys off Tuesday.

You're back on the practice field Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, maybe you in a little bit of Saturday, and then fly somewhere on Sunday. And, yeah, Roger Goodell saying, shut your bum ass up, we need that ESPN check. Do you think it's a severe disadvantage for the team that's pleasant? I don't know if it's severe, but I think it's something. It's not nothing. I would tend to agree with you. Yeah.

Well, it automatically puts them in the Sunday spot. But even so, if the road team wins, I mean, the only thing, the only benefit that you could possibly get out is that if the team, all the teams in front of the, can the Texans, yeah, the Texans can play a divisional home game. That would require the three, the two, three, and the four is all to lose. Well, you'd be beating the four seed. Then you would need Buffalo to beat Jacksonville, and you would need the Chargers to beat the Patriots. yes I mean sorry Jonathan

the charges aren't beating the Patriots that's not going to happen but if it could be Jacksonville can be a good game a week well good weekend of games except for Rams Panthers

yeah well according to Jonathan though it's going to be an upset so we'll see all right 713 212 5779 if you want to come in and join the conversation

we're talking a little bit about the Texans we have the Rockets tonight against Portland we have did Eeybine go anywhere to yesterday. I mean, it was the Rockets game a couple nights ago. I went to the Texans game.

Is he out and about it? Where is he? He was picking players in the SabreCats draft, actually. Is it? There's no more Sabre Cats, by the way. May they rest? They folded. 713. For once you didn't have anything to do with it. You know what?

You know what? That was rude. That's rude. You know what? I'm sorry. I shouldn't say everything that pops into my head, which I don't actually, but. Yeah, you should keep money your comments to yourself. 713. 1-2-5-797-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 12-20 on the Matt Thomas Joe at Ross. I'm here in Portland.

Ross back in Houston. 9 o'clock for the Rockets and the Blazers. The Rockets trying to get some momentum after beating the Phoenix Suns a couple of nights back. Phoenix will be not seen until later in the year. Rockets will have Portland tonight. Rockets will have the Blazers on Friday. then Sunday night in Sacramento against the King.

713-212-5-7-9. And then after that, Rossi, five home games. You'll have to give me directions how to get to TOTA Center. I've only been there a handful of time so far this show. No, you'll be fine. All right. I believe me. Let's go to David and Humble on the Matt Thomas show.

Ross, David, thank you for waiting, and good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, MT. What's going on? We're doing great. Thank you for calling. Yes, sir. How are you doing, Ross? I'm doing great, Dave.

Thank you for asking. I really appreciate it. Yeah, just taking one day at a time, one day of time, being positive, looking at positive things. I'm a positive person, and that means that I'm positive by our Houston Texans. I believe that the Houston Texans are going to the Super Bowl this year. Wow. Yeah. Why? Well, maybe, well, because Texans have a great defense.

They have a great defense. The Houston Texans have a better defense than the Seattle's T-Hawks. They have a better defense than the LA Rams. And they even have a better defense against the New England Patriots or a better defense than the Emperor Broncos. They're the number one defense in the league. I don't think that's an argument. The argument is going to be, are they going to build a score?

There are, let's think about this right now, David. New England's offense is high octane. Denver's is not. Jacksonville has an exemplary offense compared to what they've done in years past. They're really moving the ball well. Buffalo can score points. The question is going to be, what matchup do the Texans have to have at this point in the postseason where they're going to have to probably put up 30 to win?

can they do that if the defense is slightly off because of the fact the offense from another team is exemplary as well yeah well that would have to be the play of c j trout if c j stout can be able to throw 30-yard passes and 50-yard passes to nico cons or throw 20-yard passes to dalton shultz or for that matter can c jay Stroud make plays with his legs for 20 plus yards. That's the question. And we have a month to figure it out.

David, thank you. We have a phone call. I appreciate it. Yeah, he's, David's Mr. Positive. You never got there, Rossi. I like that. I like that. I think they're going to the AFC championship game. I mean, if he had them going to the Super Bowl, not winning it, right? If the favorites all win this weekend,

Texans go to New England, is that correct? yes buffalo would go to denver no wait uh yeah yeah yeah correct yeah but the buffalo's yeah buffalo is just a point and a half that's a pick um i'm i'm a little low-key nervous about buffalo what do you mean if you're if you're buffalo bills fan and you've had the same issues that the city of Houston has had. Baltimore has been in the way. Kansas City has been in the way. When you think this would be your year,

this is the greatest, because the pressure that Lamar Jackson and the criticism that he has received over his NFL career for not taking his team to the Super Bowl, we've mentioned this yesterday. Josh Allen should be feeling the exact same pressure for as great of a quarterback as he is, one of the best

running quarterbacks in the league, throws big-time offense. They haven't done enough. they've underwhelmed people in the postseason just as much as the Texans have. But they're a very vulnerable team. And, I mean, the defense isn't very good. It's certainly, of course, the run defense, as we know. They're 12 and 5.

They've been beatable. I just don't think of this as, I mean, it's Josh Allen, but I think, especially in the playoffs, quarterbacks get way too much credit for wins and way too much blame for losses. Team game, Matthew. But he's the best quarterback in the AFC. He's the best quarterback remaining. That's not even close. Who's the second best quarterback left in the playoffs? Just

Herbert, I guess. But Herbert's got no poses and wins. So how are we supposed to say that? If we're looking at quarterback, if we're doing, if this were a truly quarterback only league, which is what the narratives become, then the bills should win the AFC. They should be favorites.

But that's kind of ranked the last four or five years. year's best quarterback in the a fc was pat mohomes and he got to do the super bowl every year i guess i mean well lamar jackson's got two nvps he hasn't made it josh allen won the MVP last year right yeah was he last year's MVP i mean they've all been good pat mahombs didn't look anywhere close to mbapy this year even before he got hurt no and there was even some signs of it last year that you kind of like last year he wasn't very good and then they got trounce in i wouldn't say very good he was not to the level that he was in previous years

but to say they're not very good, I think it would be a strike. You're not very good relative to an elite quarterback. Right, right, right, right, right. Okay, so that's what we got going there. I will say this. As a Texans observer and an NFL observer, I have no team. And I might have a team with the Texans that go to the Super Bowl.

Yeah, come on, Matt. Come to the dark side. Liberty White, Matt, let's go. Not only will I have a team, but I'll buy some gear. I don't believe that. No, I will. I swear I got it will. Oh, my God, I'm getting Ben Rothesburgers gifts.

Let me tell you what I almost did. You can do it. It's fine. No, I almost tweeted at Steeler fan pages. That would be excessive, but that'd be funny. That's why I didn't do it. Oh. I just tried my, I just tried my tweet.

Sometimes the best tweets are the ones you don't send, and I didn't want to do it. Thank you, Matt. I didn't do it. but I'm going to hold that against you. If you do anything this week that makes me mad, I'm going to do it. It's too late now. I'm already getting crushed. Can I, can I, can I, you know what we're going to do this?

How does this end up in Steelers for U-Tabs? Here's what we're going to do it coming back. We're going to put breezing on by a stop. All right, now I'm really going to get mad. No, no, no, we do, we use breezing as our reading anyway. I know. I didn't bring up Yacht Rock. Okay, good.

All right. So, up next, Ross is going to read his initial. tweet and the responses that come with it. I can't do that. I muted like 15 of them, so you'd have to read them. Well, then I'll do it then. I didn't mute. I don't believe in muting. I didn't go through the blog. I will read Ross's

tweets when we come back. 1228 here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas Show and Ross. I'm going to you today from Portland, Oregon. 713, 212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. all right now the music is up let's go to sports rv's twitter account where you know he's been

battle red what he's been better red for a couple of years uh i believe since week three of last year when they were one and two i oh no no no two years ago is cj stroud's rookie year right you are you you you bought in for sure they got crushed by baltimore but i saw cj Jay Straub playing well and I said, you know what, it's time to let go of these old fogy oilers, especially with the Titans, wearing their gear. Right. So I went for it. Yeah, you did.

No regrets. And you've not regretted one moment of it. Yeah, they're 0 and 2. They were 0.2. They lost to Baltimore and Indianapolis. So just to let y'all know that we as public figures and sports host, we are not immune from criticism either, just like the athlete. we talk about in the coach that we talk about on the show it is it is part of our business

criticize quite often probably more so than we should be we're the toy department of life people take it way too seriously I got called an effing a hole multiple times by people last week actually what happened what happened with that

uh I'll explain that but this is your segment here okay I'll go to mine later Ross Villarreal yesterday at 1048, I don't know if that was, that was Pacific Times. 1248 central time yesterday said the Houston Texans are making the AFC championship game. Hashtown, hashtag H-Town-made. 45 comments, 61 retweets, 846 likes, 49 bookmarks. We're up to 49. 21,000 views

Let's go to the comments first And then we'll check the retweets Noah Fouts, former producer One of our 19 former producers Yes Is this a gut feeling or put your name on it And he said he put his And then you respond to put my tweet on it

Mm-hmm Nice stuff, nice stuff Zach Steeler fan 890 What he has to say says the Texans haven't played a game under 75 degrees this year laughing emoji crying emoji laughing emoji

also wrong you can read my response there or I mean you see my response I do see your response it's the Chief's game it was like 27 degrees a kickoff yeah at EAC 2704 says Battle Red Ross LFG good for you

at hockey Deeter says Ross my friend I've got some bad BAD in caps news for you bud where you respond, Dean, we are not friends that we've never met. Actually, just put Nev met. Oh, really? That's a typo.

And then he responded, you spelled never wrong. Ha, ha, ha. He did? Oh, I muted him right after I tweeted him, so I didn't see that. Charlie underscore tipsy at the bar says, no, they won't. Blanksburg has the backing of the NFL, and they will win, so better luck next year. Hmm. next thank you

at jam band degenerate gambler says pass that blank with a cigarette emoji I'm assuming that he thinks you were smoking something yes stop drop and roll says delusion is a powerful drug they are going to be freezing at Caleb 171 says they aren't even beating Pittsburgh Curtis Hirschberger says

The Houston Texans have never won a road playoff game and the Steelers have never lost a home game on Monday night since early 1990s So that's not great Damon says Not with C.J. Stroud At My Call 025 says And you're also winning the Powerball too

I just got an interesting one You have to refresh okay it's a barton lisa or i can just read it it's barton lisa and it says look lisa a bleeping bleep i can't read either those words one starts with f and one starts with r oh oh the r is terrible at d chap says delusional uh at jason with a bunch of numbers says lm f a o Ivan Brago says Show us the bet slip or be quiet Wow

You hear that? I got texts minus three and a half Just to let you know Okay Let's see We're trying to read this here Now I'm going to go That's the comments

So now let's go to the You got retweeted quite a bit Ross Way too many You should have been retweeted as much as you were Well, a lot of it's hate quotes. Let's see here. Uncle June says their season ends Monday night. Next.

Oh, here's what Dee says. In Jesus' name, that's pretty funny, actually. That's it, buddy. You got way too many repost. Did John McClain reposters? Because he reposts you usually everybody. He does retweet me for a fair amount, actually. He does send you a retweet on that.

That's good for her. KillaVee. This is not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got called a effing R. That's not nice. Somebody's going to be positive about it. I think, yeah. They're beating the Steelers.

I can't give you more than that at this point. 24 to 13. I don't know, unless Drake may just wilt some of the pressure the Texas defense. And remember, you know, the number one thing I keep seeing from people about the Patriots is, they didn't play anybody this year. Look, it's the NFL gang. You don't, they didn't have one

lollipop after the other. I think one of their, their opponent's strength of schedule is one of the, like literally one of the weakest. But you still have to put the pads on. You still have to make the catches. I mean, it's not like they were going. When I hear about schedule, when you start making fun of people's schedules,

that would be like saying a team playing in the college football playoff played nothing but Sunbelt teams. You know what I mean? You want to hear their wins? Here's their wins. You want to go through them? Yeah, go.

Dolphins? At the time, terrible. Panthers. Playoff team. 8 and 9. 8 and 9. That's not good. But they crushed them.

It's mid. They've got a pair of mids. One at the, they split with the bills. That's a good. The one? Stains? Nope. Titans?

No. Browns? No. Falcons. No. Buccaneers. Can score. Jets.

Awful. Bingles with Joe Flacco With Joe Flacko Probably was a score in the game 26 to 20 Yeah, Bingles defense blows Okay, mid Giants

Awful Ravens Good Jets Dolphins So What, maybe two Really quality opponents

Two quality wins Who were their losses Who was the playoff team in there? Was the Panthers The eight and nine Panthers in the bills. That's it, right? Yeah.

But you can only play what's in front of you. I mean, they get the choosers schedule. Who their losses against, by the way? Raiders. Ooh. Steelers? Uh-oh. Bills?

Mm-hmm. And that's it. I'm just saying, I think the schedule, look, put it this way. If they beat the Chargers, that will be, that's a quality win, right? I mean, the Chargers are a playoff team. Have been the playoffs for a lot. Yeah, they won 11 games.

that should end the conversation about the Patriots campaign you win a playoff game you'd be a good team but they it's also true they have a cupcake hey had a cupcake schedule that is accurate and that's why people thought we're sleeping on the Patriots to start the year because they were thinking this schedule is so ridiculous now if they

lose the Chargers which you know Jonathan they're not going to then people could really rip on the fact they were just a paper champion so of all the teams that have pressure this weekend. I think it's number one, the Patriots

to back up with their record really was. Bill, I mean, Josh Allen and the bills are under a lot of pressure, I'd say. I think Josh Allen's under pressure, and I think the Texas are under pressure. It's the playoffs. It's the playoffs. Of course. If you were to size, like, for instance, if Carolina loses the Rams, no one's going to go, oh, this is a sporting season. Eight and nine. Not a good team. They're going to get

blasted by the Rams, Jonathan. Why did he say that Carolina was going to win? upset king what no guys they already beat rams already they did they did what we talk about here they have a legitimate chance and bryce young looks like he's got the cahones to do oh okay oh here we go bryce young cahones say hognats weren't you you can only use you know i was going to but i you know oh philadelphia's up to four and a half over the nineers you and i picked upset man i that's yeah that's and i just don't get it i get the niners i'm telling you the Niners are winning that game.

I wouldn't have my life earning on it, but that's what I'm thinking. A couple shekels. Boy, did you hear Clinton yesterday in the show ripping on the Niners uniforms? What? Black uniforms were sick. They were awesome.

I did not hear that. Yeah. I know what was his problem? He just because the other ones that are so iconic, you shouldn't mess with them. They are iconic. Niners are, I mean, I would say, I'm on tier two iconic.

Everybody is messing with their uniforms. Even the Pittsburgh Steelers were wearing yellow helmets. The black ones are nice. Remember the ones where the yellows once a year? Who's that? The Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, like the old stripy ones? No, like the ones, they take the black

and they just turn it into yellow on their helmet ties. I don't know, maybe. I don't like that. I don't mind uniform changes. Cowboys wear the retros all the time. I know. They even wore black, they even wore dark uniforms at home and they used to never do. Texans wear each town blue.

Yeah, it's okay. It's too much. It's not, it's about my favorite. Yeah, no, no, these black uniforms. I love these with the drop shadow. I love the Niners. The red letters with the gold drop shadow? Yeah.

These are nice. Yeah, Adam Clinton, shut your bum ass up, Adam. Yeah. Catch him a two. Madam Shmanton. Shut your bum ass up, man. All right, back on the phones next. 713-212-1-2-5-7-90 if you missed our visit with

Dave Benz, Tim Benz, Dave's a different guy, Tim is, they're not related, Tim Benz in Pittsburgh, we're going to play that for you in the 1 o'clock hour, gave us some really good insights of what's going on with the Steelers. We'll have more of that. Plus, Ross, what is today's edition of believe it or not? What? I gave you two options, Kami Fairbairn, the AFC Special Teams player of the week. Oh, okay.

Or? Celebrating his 78th birthday, I believe, the one and only Mr. Kenny Longins. You can't do both. You gave me two options, but it's like, I don't know if I want either of them. You asked me if I wanted Vienna sausages or potted meat. Spam, yes or no? I like spam. Yes.

As long as you don't get a piece with a bone in it. What? That happened to me when I was young. There's bone in spam? It wasn't supposed to be in there, Matt. How young? Is this an age? It scarred me.

Yay. Yeah, they didn't have the regulations in Jonathan. Is that what you're trying to say? Now, I haven't had spam probably since I was a young child, but apparently if you put it on the grill and you charred a little bit, it's not bad. No, it's not bad. Now, I don't think I've eaten it in 15 years or more. Yeah, I've not had the Vienna sausage, I think, ever.

I think I've had one in 53 years of my life. I ate them when I was a kid, yeah. Yeah. I'm also staying away from Wolfbrain chili, too. Oh, I've had that more recently. put it on some hot dogs nice but you make a chili on your own

that's 1244 it takes 10 hours of with Ross sports talk 790 1249 it is a Matt Thomas show with Roth 713

212 5790 713 212 5790 If you want to follow us on Twitter you may do that as well at SportsMT and at SportsRV Tim Benson, Pittsburgh was a guest on the show very early in the program, and if you missed that conversation, we have great news for you. We're going to

play it for you today. Again, fantastic insight. We're going to have Kevin Harland is going to join the show tomorrow. He's calling the game on national radio, but he's called a lot of Texans games this year, and we'll look forward to visiting with him. We'll also get a little MBA from him as well. He's one of the new voices on

Amazon, and we'll talk to him mainly about the NFL and his thoughts about the Texans in the postseason. The great Kevin Harlan. I'd like to only bother him once per year, and he's going to join us tomorrow on the show. We'll get some insight as well for you Friday and Monday, and then Tuesday. Rossi is wall-to-wall, Texan celebration coverage after their touchdown win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Can't wait.

All right. Or I'll be eating crow and hearing from about 50 Steelers fans. Can I politely tweet at Steelers Nation's Twitter account? Just to say, hey. And do whatever you want, man. Banter. It's fine. We love the banter. Yeah. It's fine. It's good. Just say our girls are pretty here in Texas and yours in Pennsylvania.

I'm not here in trash talk. I just had a sports opinion and getting attacked personally for it. It's okay. That's what the X platform is all about. Let's go, baby. Stunna at 1251 on the Matt Thomas Show, Ross. Stunna, how the hell are you? Hey, what's up, young? What's up, Matt, Ross? Hey, man. Well, I get started.

about Ross a couple of days ago with that mountain line and softed that banker. Hey, you know what? Let me rephrase that. What? What? What? Where was this? Yeah. It was about when Ross was out of town. And you had

and he was out of town. I'm like, oh, man, I hope he ain't out there. Damn safari hunts again. All of them safari adventures that he does. But it was a mountain line. took out somebody in Colorado. Mountain lions are dangerous. You don't play with mountain lions.

And generally they say if you see a mountain lion, it's too late. Every time when you see him, yeah, you're right, he already on you. She already on your feet, baby. But besides that note, man, I want to say, man, are we looking for a point of door? Is there anybody we can pick up like Trey Young? apparently if you believe the media streets that the rockets are not interested in Tray Young that Minnesota and Brooklyn are the two teams that are showing the most

interesting acquiring Trey Young from Atlanta Hawks But are we You know in the market for anybody can we I mean because I mean Reeves Shepard is really not ready he's not ready We can't rely on him for a full game especially we get in the playoffs in the seven-game series. We've got to have somebody, I mean, Reed can shoot, but ball handling ain't his forte right now.

No, he's really more, yeah, the ball handling is being held primarily by a man Thompson. He's playing almost 37 minutes a game, so there's very few times that you're looking to fill the spots. You've got a little ball handling from Kevin Durant, a little bit with Alfred Schengoon. Reed's just more of a drivel. into a catch-and-shoot or a catch-and-shoot guy.

I don't know if that's wherever he's going to be, ultimately, but right now his role is certainly as a secondary ball handler. But if you go back to your initial question, not to use your term stunna, but I would be stunned if the Rockets made a significant move at the deadline. Get, good follow, Matt. Good follow, but I do appreciate you and, you and Ross. Thank you, Stunner.

Thank you, Sonner. Have a good day. Go ahead. We're on the same page. I mean, I don't think any major move is going to be made. And the turnovers are bad. They're 29th in turnover percentage in basketball. But they're seventh and points per game. They're third in offensive rating.

There are issues with getting into the offense, and especially with Alper and Shungoon out because they like to run a lot of stuff through him. But it's not like their offense is inept, or it's bad. and they're not scoring any points. Could it look a little prettier? Absolutely. But the end product is good.

They're still one of the best top three offenses by offensive rating, which I like to use because they're a bit of a slower-paced team, so the points per game aren't there. But their third, as far as offensive rating, I think they're still a pretty good offense. Could they improve? Absolutely. Turnovers are headaches.

They can look clunky and disjointed at times, but still the offense is very good. It's been top five in scoring all season long. It shoots the three ball really well. I would not use the last two games of good examples, but that is what it is. They're getting to the free throw line a lot. Kevin Durant is scoring at about 90% of what he normally scores at,

which is incredible for a guy that his age and his experience. Alpi has become a triple double guy, at least thought the threat of. Now, while he's out, it hurts. Reed has been more good than bad, which would be, you know, a positive sign for him in his second year. This is the first significant amount of regular playing time he's getting. Dorian Finney was a, Smith was a good three-point shooter,

at least with all the other teams he would have not elite, but I mean, good that you can count on him, have not been able to do that yet, but he's ramping himself back up. And Tari is shooting better from three, although I don't know if that's going to be long term. I don't think that's necessarily in his repertoire, but again, he's been number one in the association three-point shots. The offense is there

The turnover Just might be something We're just going to scratch your head at all season long I don't know if that's all of a sudden Ross going to change its ways Even if you were to make a trade To get an additional point guard Whether it be a guy that would be a starter

Or that would came in and give backup minutes to say amen to Thompson Yeah Tar He's not going to shoot 49% from three all year long But I like him too He gets a lot of wide open looks Yeah Just about every one he takes is open And a lot of them from the corner

Right So the percentage should be up and good. If he could settle in at 40 and you get Jabari at 38, those two guys helping you out of that particular category are better than they were a year ago. They just were. But, yeah, again, I'm not, not that Raphael and I are breaking bread about this a lot, but just the vibe I get is that they're pretty happy with what they've got. Well, they just don't have a whole lot of wiggle room.

David, if they wanted to make a trade for an impact player Fred Van Vleet's going to have to be involved There is no question of my mind that Fred Van Vleet would be involved in a mega trade Now, you can shave payroll if you wanted to get rid of a third center like if Clint You wanted to release Clint which would be a bad sign

And it's not going to be a whole lot of teams wanting to pay a guy With a torn ACL 40 million dollars No No, you'd be probably getting back and return Something that would be of You know, high injury kind of It's so strange Anthony Davis is being talked about as a trade chip.

I like him, and he was good last night for the Mavericks. But damn, you just, you can't rely on him. No matter what uniform he's in, he can't rely on him. Yeah, he had one year, maybe a year or two ago where he played like 75, 80 games, but that's been the exception rather than the rule. Yeah. All right, 713, 212, 7.9, and keep the rocket conversation going. I like it.

It's a little voice, and we carry the games, and they're good. it's a good time to be a sports fan in Houston, Texas. Is it not sports rave? I would say it's great. Best ever? Well, we've got to figure that in the last couple years. 84 and a half win total. I'm not expiring a bunch of confidence of the Astros, but we'll talk about that as the offseason goes along.

Yeah, Astros, my first time I've ever thought about this, really fast. Astros won the West in 86th of the NFL Championship series. which they didn't have playoffs in a wildcard division they just had championship series 86 rockets went to the NBA finals and the Oilers I want to say we're either in the playoffs for the first time in a while or close to it but we've had we've had rockets into playoffs the Astros win a world series and were the Texans making the playoffs the same time too I don't think they were 17 well they might have been Bill O'Brien going nine and seven

and whatnot nine seven is a bar Brian those are some good battles by the way I looked at Brian T. Switter today he's endorsing the Ravens moving away from Lamar Jackson All right Kid just mute him

He's a two-time You can't You can't No no no That's stupid I'm sorry Brian T. Smith Love you, that's stupid Oh no it's stupid

No it's stupid You're a two-time MVP and his prime That's stupid I'm sorry So you're not going to click on the article then No 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-5-7-19-12-19- 12-59

Final hour Matt Thomas Show with Ross Here on 790 This is the Matt Thomas show With Ross Hi Ross, I found you a Pittsburgh fan That's going to make your dreams come true I just I just quote tweeted you on it Oh my God, you did

Oh no, I thought you meant you quoted mine No, no, this dude name Howard Betta There's no way First of all, it looks young And what young guy's name is Howard Is his bio Is avid ball knower Steelers run the AFC North

Well, that's actually true Will Howard is better than your QB. DM to contact him. You want a DM? Go ahead and do that. No, this is just absurd. Let's see. When did he do this this morning? I am so, in all caps, confident that the Pittsburgh Steelers will beat the Houston Texans

at home in the wild card that I'm willing to send everyone who likes this tweet $10 on cash app if the Steelers lose. Have to be following me. There's no way the Steelers lose. he's not gonna pay he has 1,600 likes there's no chance what's a quick math on that

$10 a poppet at $600 likes it's probably worked for him I wonder how many followers he had before this he's got $8,900 now 69 retweets which included one of them was me 173 comments why would you do that

unless you just have money you want to burn he's not doing it he's not going to pay he's not doing it he's got 56,000 views and 1,600 likes that's why you did that well guess we're going to do we're going to harass him endlessly so go like it I wish there was a better option than the cesspool that Twitter is right now

everything else is horrible and dead it feels like is threads pretty polite uh I guess nobody's on there is on there though nobody's on threads and I don't I'm not asking yeah I just I don't know say it with your heart sports rb it's just it's just i wish i mean twitter became a cesspool

every every reply go to the reply of any big tweet it's a bunch of AI bot accounts that are farming with their blue check marks trying to get their their payments it's it's just so it's either a bots or somebody be somebody being an a hole

like old twitter back in the day was great like when at first thought you were like headed to the happy hour what's you guys up to like he's just like a it was a very small tight-knit community and everybody was having fun and being cool here's the reality about it and we we don't mean to bitch on Twitter because we use it

we use a quite a bit for the show we just do we can bitch a moment about all we want but we use it correct when we first got it I was hesitant but then I thought to myself what a great way to do a variety of things promote anything I want to promote which will know when most of my

promotion on my on my Twitter account is the show. Here's what we're doing. I'll do some questions, some fan poll questions. I'll put a couple of funny things in there. I'll retweet a couple of things. But there's never there's never in my mind, at least in my mind, a true super I need to push an agenda. I'm not pushing for political thoughts. I'm not pushing my religious beliefs on you. I am using it as an entertainment valve. And there are

lots of interesting news things I see about it there's a lot of various funny things I see about it and I tried it to treat it for what it is which is just a very loose form of a way to connect with your fellow man unfortunately others do not see it that way others see it as a way to if they something they don't see instead of instead of just scrolling right by it or unfollowing or muting that person they want to tell you how awful you are and I'm not going to talk about a mean per se. I'm talking about anything. The number one rule

about Twitter I would say for 2026 is you don't have to comment on everything. Yeah. And also I think certainly for example my tweet, there's like, I don't know, five or six people being really rude out of hundreds and hundreds of

interactions. So I think that's something that we all myself included. I mean, I'm calling myself out, is remember that most people are just chilling on there the vast vast majority people are just relaxing and laughing and looking at memes and not being

vicious you're right for instance when I did the year voting yes I brought this up when you were gone we had the D of the year candidates which included Sharon Moore who won

we had the couple from the Cole play concert and I'm trying to look I'm trying to find Pete of Aqua people of aqua oh i remember the last one i remember this yeah someone went crazy on that

yeah oh here it is i got it right here this i said um this guy james jm mike seven said are you effing ard Sharon Moore up against these people you're an effing ugly ass ball clown that's rude I don't even know who let's see me still follows me

let's take a look oh he still follows me thanks for the follow And I said, thanks for listening to 10 to 2, and of course, for following him. By the way, I think I'm quite handsome. Happy New Year. I was very polite back to him. He responds back to me. Just say you're a low IQ individual and keep moving.

The poll was embarrassing. Who is he backing or? Well, he's saying that Sharon Moore was the number one day of the year and nobody else should be on the list. Well, I mean, I don't disagree, but you have to do a poll. Sometimes you do a poll question. It's a bit on the show. Yeah. And then I respond to him my last one.

listen keyboard warrior the suggestions came from listeners i promise i'll continue this amazing dialogue when you start using proper capitalization that's a lot i've heard from him oh that's good yeah wow it's not showing up i went to that tweet and i don't see it so i must have muted that guy already so that's the part you're you know you're mr mute and you're gonna have all of northeastern pennsylvania uh was it northeastern yeah northeastern pennsylvania uh telling you to uh shut your bow mess up well see what happens the steeler you get ratioed at the steelers you don't want you getting ratio it's fine i've been ratio before in my first ratio rodeo i got you louis and sugarland on 790 at 111 hi louis mad i think you're handsome don't worry about it

okay thank you very much i appreciate that anyway a couple of quick questions here and if you've already covered this tell me this you know shut my bum ass up but y'all were talking about the turnovers your ear is pretty close to the team as you're and then he'd talk about possibly bringing in Chris Paul? No, yeah, talk, but that's about it as far as it went. Okay. But to be fair, to be fair, everybody was talking about it. Serious roster construction issues, I don't, I don't, no, I don't think it went very far.

E-May doesn't need, you know, he's got plenty of assistant coaches. He doesn't, Chris doesn't need to be another assistant coach. and the problem is with Chris, his skills have deteriorated where, you know, it's easier for Chris Paul, honestly to be the Chris Paul that he was in terms of being his boisterous, and it's always been that way. Lewis, when he was dishing out eight-assisted game and not turn the ball over,

Chris can't shoot anymore, he's slower, can't defend like he used to and turns the ball over. It just would have been, I think, an ill fit. Well, I was just wondering, because I know back, you know, and when him and James played together for those couple of years, you know, that, you know, we were a hamstring pull away from winning that thing.

So, um, so anyway, now I got a football question for you. Um, I was born and raised in Miami, moved here in 72, kicking and screaming, but unfortunately still a dolphin fan. What are your thoughts on, um, them possibly looking at, uh, John, uh, the guy from Baltimore, I'm drawing a blank. John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh. as their new coach.

What are your thoughts on that? I think John Harbill will be a head football coach somewhere in the NFL in 20206. He's going to have us pick a chew. He can go to the Giants. He could go to the Dolphins. He could probably

where else he could go to the, I mean, he's employed. Don't you think next year as a head coach? Oh, you're talking to me. I'm sorry. I didn't see he hung up. Yeah, I think it's going to be the Giants. Here's the question.

They've already mentioned it as a favorite. They have the best. Who's got the best quarterback situation of the vacancies? Obviously, the Ravens, and well, John Harbaugh is now going back to the Ravens. Right. Otherwise, it's the Browns, no. Raiders, no. You just think about two of a lot.

Cardinals and Falcons, no. No. He stayed healthy to Tagavaloa in Miami this year. The problem is he sucked. He's either been concussed or sucked, one or the other. Yeah, he's just a guy. I mean, Tyree Kill got hurt, and they didn't, I mean, the team was falling apart. They were winning some games, but I would say he's going to end up with the Giants.

That seems like the chalk play, and it seems like the right play. If I were him, NFC East is, I mean, it's not like a gauntlet. It's not easy, but Jackson Dart looks like a guy that you can build around and win with. They've got some defensive pieces as well. That's where I would probably go. All right, let's do this really quick. Best job? well promise the giants are just been so ugh

Browns no Falcons You got Bajon Robinson You don't have a vacancy yet You got Robinson and Drake London And they restructured Kirk Cousins What I mean Oof

Cardinals are looking for a quarterback You would imagine I don't know enough about the Giants To tell you anything except that Jackson Dart he's Mr. Concussion, too. How am I building a football team around a guy? Yeah, he's got to learn. He's got to sell, oh, you look at my high school tape.

Look at my high school tape. This is how I ran in high school. You're not in high school in the middle of Utah right now anymore. That's right. All right, we're going to go short here because we do want you to hear what Tim Benz had to say in Pittsburgh. He joined us at about 1030 this morning, and while we always appreciate you saying with us for four hours, we know that you're busy doing your thing. So if you miss the conversation, a good perspective on what's going on with Pittsburgh

in about 10 minutes from now. The overriding sentiment to me, Ross, has been, there would have been a lot more nervous Nellies in Southeast Texas if the Ravens would have won the game because of the fact that Texans have never beaten Lamar Jackson in the playoffs. I don't know if it's a sense of relief or a dodging or of an enemy or whatever the case, but confidence is, I wouldn't say an all-time high for a playoff opponent.

I think maybe that game against Oakland was probably even higher because they had the backup quarterback going there. And it is a Monday night. It is in Pittsburgh. It is colder weather. It is the grass field. Still, the Texans are the better football team. They're the better football team.

I accept than a win. I wouldn't say sense of a relief, but just more of a sense of, well, it could have been worse. And of all the team, I think we talked about yesterday, we kind of looked through all the teams. This is the biggest favorite they would have been. Among the road possibilities. Oh, they wouldn't have been favorite against the Jaguars, I don't think. And they wouldn't have been favored against Patriots either.

No, they would have been probably a small favorite against Baltimore. What do you think? I think a dog. Really? Okay. We'll never know. Yeah, I think people post speculative lines, but a lot of times those are wrong anyway. But the fact is Baltimore's defense was not nearly as heralded as it was in years past.

No. Lamar was moving at about 80%. Now, 80% of Lamar is still very, very good. And those two deep bombs he threw to Zayflowers on Sunday, those are pretty special plays. And the fourth and seven played a likely was great. I mean, it was a decent throw, but a great catch by Likeley. Yeah.

They just missed the kick. Not even close. Not even close. I mean, that thing never, you couldn't blame the wind. You couldn't blame the hold. You couldn't blame the snap. It was the kid gets talked about. Torrico's little flowery language setting it up.

He was picked for this moment. Like if I ever get to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, I'm going to have Mike Tariko underneath you. You've got, well, if he's available, might have to talk to Chaz about that. Maybe Chas will invite. Maybe Chas will, do you think if Chaz gets into maybe Mike Trico comes down for that? Oh, Chuckie Pallillo, yeah.

He's got my vote. Because I really, you're my plan B. He used to get Mike Tariko on once a year. So I would talk to him on the phone. Very pleasant. Maybe I can get I in Eagle or I can ask Kevin Harlan tomorrow when he's on the show. Why not me? I mean, you're plan B.

Yeah. Oh. That sounds like plan F, but that's okay. I mean, I'm always trying to upgrade. You would do the same thing. Who would I have introduced me? If I introduced you and I could get Sark to come to it, you would take Sark. I'm good.

good on that you would take a major how much is that going to cost major op-away i guess he's available well let me flight some mobile uh austin pretty pricey or waker or wherever it is i don't remember where he is now isn't he a head coach somewhere

i'm not making the hall of texas radio hall of fame and i'm not that's okay i think you have to subscribe do you have to be a member to do you have to be a member to nominate people i think it's only 50 bucks and i believe you get a meatloaf a dish with it with every membership too No, that's, or chicken fried steak.

That's true. Those are always the... Which would you go, by the way? I'd go with the CFS. Oh, you've got to go chicken fried steak for the win. If you're eating, if you're eating in Central Texas, because you know I'm Mr. Texas, I would know these things. You just can't turn out a good chicken fried steak. Yeah, but meatloaf underrated, I say.

Especially has got a ketchup crust to it. Delicious. Oh, nice. All right. I think we're hungry. Well, you're going to walk on, believe it or not. What? Yes, you are.

And we're going to let the folks here from Tim Benz from Pittsburgh coming back from the break. you're ready to know does logan still have beef with messina by the way does his mama dance does his daddy rock and roll he may have angry eyes that's a great song by the way only like 70 words in the whole song but it's fantastic well around the world by daft punk is great

it's only got three words in it 713 212570 we're going to play believe it or not and how things Kenny logan celebrating his 78th birthday today happy birthday Kenny, one of the all-time goats and one of the all-time great genres of music ever produced. And, of course, is yacht rock.

713-212-5-790. Right now, at 126 here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, before we get to that conversation we had with Tim Benz. 130 on that Thomas Show with Ross is important for rockets against the Portland Trailblazers. Just started blowing

hard rain and wind here at the Portland mecca that is the team hotel. All right. All right. So hopefully there'll be a roof over the tonight's arena. 40 degrees in rain here in Portland. Not great. All right. What is also not great could be the weather in Pittsburgh. I don't think it'll be a big factor.

Texans should win the contest. I haven't by seven. Ross hasn't by more than that. But we need to find out the perspective of what somebody in Pittsburgh is thinking about. We had a chance earlier today to visit with Tim Ben's. Newspaper writer, radio host, does a little bit of everything in the Pittsburgh area. He's been on the show a handful of of times over the years. And we had a conversation with him today earlier. It was good stuff

breaking down the Steelers thing. And first thing we asked was how things would have been different if, besides obviously the obvious of the Ravens making the playoffs and Steelers out, but what would have happened in Pittsburgh today and this week if Mike Tomlin and his Steelers would have lost that game if that kick would have been good? Maybe holding his season-ending press conference or maybe he would have done that yesterday. locker clean out and I don't think much else would change with Tomlin. I think it would take consecutive sub 500 seasons before Art Rooney the second ever actually listened to the outside noise and the calls for his job. I wrote a column about it not too terribly long ago when the bills

came in here and whoop the Steelers and, you know, people were chanting fire Tomlin throughout the course of the second half. And I said words to the effect that there were 67,050 people at Acrescher Stadium and 67,049 of them heard the chance and the only one who didn't was Art Rory the second. So I just think that's where his headspace is versus everybody else in Pittsburgh. We can talk about it, but it's not going to happen. A lot of people have made that analogy. If Tyler Luke doesn't push that field goal, well, why right?

does that mean Tomlin is out of a job and Harbaugh is getting ready for a playoff game? Well, the second part would be true, but I don't think Tomlin would have gone anywhere anyway. I think it would take consecutive sub-500 seasons before that happens. Okay, Tim, so not to be rude, but we don't follow the Pittsburgh Steelers all that much. No, look, Aaron's been on TV a lot and the Steelers have a national fan base, but the Texan Steelers have not played in a while. before we get into what has been a mediocre season for that entire division, tell me what's right. I mean, T.J. Watt, coming back from his ailment and stepping back on the football field,

what are the things do Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and they travel well, so we've got Steelers listening to us all over the country. What do the Steelers do right? What got them to where they are right now? Well, with Watt-outs, they kept it afloat with good outside linebacker depth. I think they're legit four-deep at that position this year. They haven't been in the past. They have gotten around secondary injury issues better than expected.

Joey Porter started to live up to reputation. They found a home for Jalen Ramsey by force of necessity and safety. The run defense has actually been good in games where they haven't had to worry about a mobile quarterback. If there's a mobile quarterback out there and they've got to make decisions to stop the mobile quarterback or stop the big time running back, big time running backs have gotten loose. Henry's had a couple good games, better statistically than actual imprint, but good statistically against them. James Cook went off in a situation like that. Breece Hall, game one, where he had Justin Fields flanking them. Those things they've done well on defense.

On offense, they've had good second halves in the passing game out of Rogers. The Rogers to Metcalfe connection is sometimes good. The offensive line play has been better than anticipated, especially after Broderick Jones got hurt. Dylan Cook at left tackle has been a stunning revelation out of nowhere. We've seen that along the offensive line before with guys here in Pittsburgh. So those are some of the things that they do well. The checkdown game to the running backs is good.

They have a good dual threat thing going on with Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. but they do not throw the ball well down the field or over the middle of the field consistently whatsoever. You mentioned T.J.W. coming back in some of the depth on defense, how did he look in your eyes in his return? Pretty active. You know, it's a tough read with the way they play against the Ravens. Those outside edges crash down so much,

and they've always had a script of whether Lamar has the ball or not, hit him, just go after him and hit him. So it looks like what or Highsmith in certain games may be making more of an imprint than they really are because you just see him in the backfield so often because they're crashing so hard. I did think he looked okay. He had the interception off of a batted ball

that Highsmith and Hayward really made the play on. I didn't mention Hayward before. He's been great in the second half of the season. I should have brought him up too. But he's part of that running defense I was speaking of. So I thought TJ was first game back, ish, yeah, but I also thought that that was a pretty high platform, even if it didn't show up a ton statistically. I thought he did enough good things. And the outside linebackers behind him,

particularly Herbig and Jack Sawyer, you don't see the dip when T.J. goes out as much as you used to. Tim Benz with us here on Sports Talk 790. And you talked a lot about the offense, the offensive line looking pretty good. Just overall, how do you see this matchup? Because, I mean, maybe I've got my Texans colored glasses on tip, but it just feels like it's going to be difficult for them to score points, obviously against a very good Texans defense. But I just don't feel like there's much of a dynamic element

with the Pittsburgh Steelers offense. There isn't. You know, when we're looking at the prospects, the potential teams going into the weekend, with, of course, the Steelers playing last. Who would be coming here to Accrescher if they beat the Ravens? I was kind of playing the game with myself. If this team came, how much would it be favored by it?

If this team came out, I said three points for the Texans. It's been at three and a half most of the week. They are very worthy favorites by that much at home for the Steelers. You know, the Monday night thing, everybody always says it means nothing. It's just a historical fluke. It must mean something. It's been going on since 1991. They haven't lost a home Monday night game.

That's Span three coaches. You know, the Texans without a road playoff win, you know, there's something to think about there. But I do think that if you went unit by unit, if you took like the four units of the teams and you did Steelers defense, Steelers' offense, Houston defense, Houston offense, by far and away the best unit of the fours, the Houston defense. I do worry that for as good as this offensive line has been over the last five or six weeks that Houston's defensive front is going to cause them problems and for as slow as the Steelers have been to start in some games of late it's going to be harder for them to come back in a hurry

like they did against the Ravens. Like their most success throwing the ball down the field all season long, basically, has come in two games against Baltimore. And that's because their secondary has been pretty banged up at times, and they don't have much of a pass rush threat. I do get concerned when I think about the Steelers' offensive line, as much as it's gotten better and it's been arrow up throughout the second half of the season, trying to stop two good pass rushers at once,

especially if they're not in advantageous down-and-distance situations to begin with. So that's why I give the Texans the edge. I've been saying 2320, Houston, in overtime all week, and I'm not moving off of that. Tim, D.K. Metcalf has been reinstated. What is his mind going to be like going into this game? I mean, tell me, forgetting about the situation involved in Detroit, but, I mean, is he got his blank together,

or is he going to be a highly emotional guy that you don't know what you're getting from one week to the next? Like, I didn't even realize the depth. of how many times he had been fined prior to what happened to Detroit, but he had like 16 fines, you know, for celebrations or in-game face mask incidents or fights with various players. Like, he's always been a hothead. I knew that was the case with him coming here,

but he's literally, yes, sir, no sir, to any question that he's ever asked by the media. He gets a little prickly at some questions, but he's always politically correct in how he answers them at least on the record and then he grumbles a little bit after but like to see him lose it like that in detroit not stunning based on his history but it did feel to be a departure based on what we had seen for the previous 14 weeks here he's been contrite um you know he was forthright in speaking with us earlier this week he said all the right thing he even thanked the NFL for letting him practice, which was bizarre, because I thought they were a little heavy-handed in their discipline, and you didn't get with one of that from him. I think he was tight-lipped

and how he talked about the situation because there might be something legal pending there, but he was even, you know, tipping his hat to the league that suspended him for two games. So you would think that his head is in the right place, but I never saw that coming against Detroit, so maybe I should check myself on that. He has gotten some post-wistle penalties, and he's still barking at guys all the time, and you see him wolf out there a lot during games, and sometimes he does take it too far. So I don't know how to answer that question. It feels like that answer should be yes, but past history tells me probably not,

and if somebody gets under his skin, he could lose it at any point. Yeah, sure. All right, Tim, I got two last questions for you. Aaron's pass rush The Texas would be the best pass rush He probably sees all season long And again, I don't know all 17 What can

If you were to give him a 30 seconds advice About going against Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson Is it getting rid of the ball quickly? Is it going through progressions? Tell me what Aaron's thinking about this week Going against a team that has really destroyed a lot of quarterbacks Namely, you know, Josh Allen being one particular quarterback.

Yeah, I think one piece of advice I would give is, and this is maybe more to Arthur Smith than it is Aaron Rogers, is don't obsess with keeping Warren and Gainwell back to Chip, get him out in the flat quickly, and let Rogers be his own pass protector. That worked out better against the Browns when they did it that way the first time they played them versus what they did against Garrett and the Browns the second time they played him where they just obsessed over making sure Garrett it didn't get at Rogers, and they kept Gainwell, who's their team MVP in, to eat blocks the whole time.

And it didn't seem to make sense to me. And I happen as good as Gainwell is it that. I still happen. I think Warren's better at it anyway, because he's a little bowling ball and, you know, as a good blocker. So I would just, they love using those guys in the flat. They love checking it down to them. But if they're so obsessed with holding off those two pass rushers and keeping them in the, you know,

offensive backfield to do so, they're not going to get out in time. And by the time that they do, the rest of the Texans defense is going to flow over there and they're going to get very little, even less than they do in the past game. So that's what I would say. I think the advice has to go to Arthur Smith before it goes to Rogers and just get those guys out in the flat and get it out to them quick. All right. And last question, my good friend, Chris Brown, used to kick for the Steelers.

Chris Boswell, Rice Kid, has been doing it for a long time for Pittsburgh. Chris told me many years ago, Tim, that's the worst place. for kickers to kick field goals is at your stadium and it's clearly Baltimore's special teams would probably agree with you on that. Is it still as bad as it was when Chris was playing? Is there a decided advantage? And the reason why I bring this up is because

frankly, Kami Fairbairn has been as big of a part of the Texans offense as any receiver or C.J. Stroud has been for Houston so far this year. Oh, that's been talked about this week. People are aware of that here too. And I like Chris, a great deal. I covered him when I first got

on the beat with the team back in 2001, I think it was. And yeah, the feel was terrible. I mean, the feel was awful for the first five years or so, maybe even six or seven beyond that. But I would say going back the last handful of years, maybe five, six, they've figured things out with the turf a lot better. You know, like, I would say, yeah, going back to about 20 or so, right around COVID,

they started to figure out the field better. And it's no coincidence that. Boswell's been great over the past few years. And there have been more long kicks from opposing kickers here, too. And they've closed in the outs. As Chris would remember, the open end of the stadium has been closed in a little bit. Bigger scoreboard. They've changed the seating.

So it's not as windy coming in off the open end as when Chris was kicking here. They did have some issues with the field earlier in the season. I'm not sure they've gotten all those right yet. it was an extraordinarily dry fall here and a little warm late and then we had one rainy cold weekend and that seemed to screw everything up and there's a lot of action from Pitt here earlier in the season and it's been very snowy here in December 2 so it's not great this year but boswell for the most part has navigated that okay i think his extra point miss was partially blocked that was the way it was in the scorebook i think that's right and um i don't know loop just pushed

So Chris has a great point. He's 100% right, but I would say in the long time since he's been here, they've gotten that field much better and Boswell's career numbers. If you look at he's got 12 to the 13 longest field goals in Accresor Stadium history, and that's in large part because the turf has gotten better, and it's easier to plan for those kickers now. All right, that again, Tim Benz from Pittsburgh Post-Gistat. Also on the radio there, a variety of TV and radio shows,

really a good guy to go-to for all of your stuff. stealer information, Tim Ben's PGH, if you want to follow him on Twitter. Let's play, believe it or not, next. Up the conversation about one of the greatest of all time in the yacht rock genre. Kenny Loggin, celebrating a birthday. Who's that? Is that Gordy? Goel's here.

No, it's sound like Gordy. Believe it or not. Next, 145 on Sports Talk 790. All right, final segment here from Rainy Portland. Tonight, Rockets against the Blazers at 9. Who's doing the launch pad at 8? That'll be me. Okay.

Just in January, if there's going to be a game, it's probably going to be me. That's true. Okay, that sounds fine. So 8 o'clock tonight, that helps out on the launch pad. and then tomorrow on the show we'll have I believe EMA Doker for a few minutes we'll definitely have Kevin Harlan we've tested it out knock on wood that the

Zoom audio will work tomorrow for that looking forward to that and we have I just don't get it wonderful so we get that's a busy show for tomorrow and whatever Ross brings the table besides that we'll see great we'll see don't get your hopes of five minutes left to go on the show

what should we do Believe it or not We should play America's fastest-growing sports radio game Shall we simply call it Believe it or not And here's how it works You'll call 713-212-5-790

7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 Today's edition of Believe or not Is all things about the legend That is Kenny Loggins I'll read your statement about Kenny statement completely utterly accurate You'll say this Believe it

If the statement is he's full of on command if you'll say this We've got a pair of prizes three prizes actually give away either a 790 t-shirt if you get two in a row right you can get a pair of tickets to see monster energy a m a super cross january the 31st at energy stadium or a pair of tickets to see ever cleared live january the 15th of the house of blues all those tickets are available by going to ticketmaster.com 713212 5779 if you want to play believe it or not 713 212 5 790 and we will start with uh... Lindsay on 790.

Lindsay, you ready to play, believe it or not? I sure am. Believe it. Lindsay, good luck to you. Before becoming a pop star, Kenny Loggins got his start as a funk, jazz, and R&B guitarist playing sessions for the Tower of Power, the Tubes, and many more. Believe it or not. Believe it.

No, thank you. Let's go to Rubin on 790. Rubin, what was your favorite in today's 10-2 radio show? loving all the Texans talk Kenny Loggins's birth name is Clark Kent Loggins which was picked by his older brother a big Superman fan believe it or not not

Oh come on how do you not know that That's got to be on page one or Wikipedia right off It's in the first paragraph Bill what is your favorite Kenny Loggins song This is it wow bill i'm very impressed before kenny loggins recorded danger danger zone for the top gun soundtrack to toto was supposed to do it but the track didn't contractually issues didn't allow for it to happen believe it or not man i hate y'all believe it believe it

all right statement number two for the win kennie loggins was nominated for three academy awards for best original song winning twice earning him the nickname king of the soundtrack believe it or not happy new year believe it not he was nominated once for footloose but he did not win it let's go to uh victor on seven honey victor you're ready to play believe it or not Kenny Loggins and I'm going to assume Ross you meant to say am you seen on this one? Messina?

Sure what not. This is Kenny and Loggins. I don't know what that means. Is that Kenny and Mike? Help me out here. I don't know what this means. Hold on. I think it's Loggins and Messina probably.

Yeah, and Jim made their own version of what a fool believes and even released it before the Bueby Brothers version, which became a much bigger hit. Believe it or not. to believe it, sorry. Yeah, Kenney-Loggins and Messina. You know, whatever. Joe on 790, Joe, you're ready to play Believe it or not?

Believe it. Kenny Loggins, Jim Messina. Go ahead. For Kenny Logan's first solo album, Jim Messina was supposed to be just a record producer, but he became so involved in the album, they became an accidental duo. Believe it or not. Believe it. There you go.

Believe it. Believe it. Name and number two for the win. In 2022, Kenny Loggins published his autobiography titled Still All Right, a Memoir. Believe it or not. Oh, man. Okay.

Not. Believe it. Oh. Dave on 790, Dave, your favorite part of today's radio show. Hello, hello. Kenny Loggins dated a slew of supermodels in the 80s, including Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelisa and others. Believe it or not.

That is true. Believe it. Ross will give away nothing today. Nice. Not a darn thing. Not even for Bill who had this is it on his background of his favorite Longin's and Longin song. What is your favorite, Rossi? This is it.

What's your second favorite? I'm all right. Okay. Now you're still on my material. up next two guys that are all right this is it it's the team they're going to entertain the hell out of you between now and six o'clock i'll join you for rockets basketball at nine here from portland on sports talk seven