The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets vs Clippers Tonight! Texans Start Prep For Chargers

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Rockets vs Clippers Tonight! Texans Start Prep For Chargers

This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 10-1 in H-town. Good morning, and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. The gang is back together, at least for a couple of days, before we celebrate Christmas. And for any of you, happy early holidays. We will not play Christmas music here on the show because that's a true. Bright and True Formula of the Matt Thomas show, Ross. We only play it on December 24th.

Not true. Played it yesterday. So when Matt's away, the Christmas music will play. Yeah, yeah. How the hell are you? I'm doing great, Matt. And I'm sorry to say this to you this early on in the show, but can we just do a quick refresh on the connection with Matt?

I will talk until you get back. How does that sound? All right, fine. All right. Okay. So Matt Thomas is out in Los Angeles with the Houston Rockets. They will be playing the Los Angeles Clippers tonight. Then, of course, they have a big tilt with the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day.

Matt Thomas will be working. I will be doing the pre-and-post game show. Of course, make sure you catch it right here at Sports Talk 790. I just keep talking, I guess. It's fine. How are you doing, Matt? How about Maine? Is it better?

It's better a little bit. Well, hold on. I'm going to use it. It's aerob. Okay, we got a real talk at 1002. It's kind of arable, but, uh, I don't know. We should try to figure a solution when we hit break.

Well, I mean, I've got on the wired connection at the hotel. I can get off of that and go to the non-wired. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe we can do that. I mean, you're at a really nice hotel. Okay, so Matt Thompson is going to be back in two minutes now. So, all right. So we're having some technical difficulties out there in Los Angeles.

What do you think, Jonathan? It wasn't that. I think we need to do something. We might as well get out the way now. He had to rip the band-aid off sometimes three minutes into the show when the co-host is and extremely prepared for the Matt Thomas part of the Matt Thomas show to be

out of a connection, but that's okay. This is how it goes when we're on the road and when we have some technical difficulties. Anywho, phone lines are open. 713-213-2-2-790 if you'd like to get in 7-1-2-5-7-90. We've got gut feelings coming up at 1130. We can rehash the ones from last week.

I hadn't checked. I actually brought up the archives earlier. I didn't I brought up the page, but I didn't read what I had a couple of weeks ago. So I was out last week on vacation, so we'll catch up on some gut feelings, come out at 1130. Of course, we have the news at noon as well. We are going to get the Chargers side of the Texans versus the Chargers game coming up. Now, I thought yesterday I heard Chris Gordy say that if the Colts lost, which they did, that the Texans would have clinched an AFC playoff spot.

And then, of course, I bring up the standings. I must have missed something or maybe something else happened or I heard wrong. So the Texans at the moment have not fully clinched a playoff spot. They're in the seventh spot and they basically just need to win one of their last two games or if they have the Colts lose one of their last two games. And, oh, by the way, the Texans are playing the Colts the last week of the season. So if the Colts lose to the Jaguars next week, which they probably will, then the Texans are going to be in

because this super difficult AFC that we talked about all season how it was going to be oh it's going to be a tight race what's going to happen well Ravens out chiefs out Dolphins didn't do good enough Bingles of course had to trot out

Joe Flacco and Jake Browning for too long and when Joe Burrow came back and oh by the way they had a horrible defense so they were never good enough so four of those teams that we thought were going to possibly be AFC playoff contenders they just fell by the wayside. So Texans are in right now as the seven seed.

I don't know what their playoff percentages are, but it's got to be like 99%. It's probably going to be very likely. I think I hear some activity from Matthew. How are you? I'm doing great, Matt. This sounds better. Okay, good.

Yes. You got from out of the submarine. Yeah, high-end hotel internet sucks. Huh. What Mattie pays for on the side works. Well, we're great. Well, it sounds a lot better, and we're ready to, go, Matt. So, yeah, as I was just saying, the Colts losing yesterday, I thought it was going

to clinch them a spot. We got to talk about a number of things about that. We'll get to Phillip Rivers in a second, but Texans basically going to clinch a playoff spot as soon as the Colts lose to the Jaguars next week, or they beat the Colts themselves. Yeah, as a matter of fact, we have asked for Steve Kornacki, noted NFL numbers cruncher to help us, and we'll play that for in the next segment of the show. Okay, great. Do you even know who Steve Kornack he is. I don't. Is that the guy that does the

that does the election coverage? Yeah, he works for NBC. He rolls up his sleeves. He runs around on a big screen and points to a bunch of stuff that's kind of frankly obvious. They're like, we gotta use this guy. We've got to trot this guy out

more than once every four years. Correct. We're paying him a salary. Let's go. Put him to work. So basically he did a, Texans can be the number one seed bit. yesterday. And so we're going to play that for you coming back.

Here's the thing. He can either, the Texans can either make the playoffs, not make the playoffs, or be the number one seed. That's how crazy things are going to be in the next two weeks. Yeah. Well, they're going to make the playoffs. Okay, let's get to Big Philly Rivers, by the way. Oh, man.

I mean, I give him mad props. And for those of you that didn't see the game, which I'm going to assume is 99% of you. We'll give you a recap. The Niners, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle and Brock Purdy were outstanding. I mean, there was nothing that the Colts offense could do to stay mono-a-mono.

They tried two of the Niners, but it was unsuccessful. Five touchdowns for Brock Perry. Five touchdowns. Which, Phil, is you waiting for, if you had Brock putting in your fantasy playoffs, you were waiting for that? Oh, my God. Well, I had him all season when he was hurt,

and so then I didn't make the playoffs, so thanks, Brock. By the way, are you rooting for the Toros to win the championship? I am rooting for the Toros to win the championship. They've already won in my mind. congratulations to the 2025 Houston Toros I heart Houston league champions I am a slight dog in the game

slight oh no you're you got the better squad you're gonna win in my mind oh thank you okay so back to the game last night so the Niners are scoring with regularity and Philly is trying his best I mean I don't know what if you how much of the game you saw yesterday Rossi

but the ball does not come out with the crispness of say I don't know if somebody half his age somebody said it looks like he's tossing pizzas and I thought that was a really good description is tossing up pizza dough he's having meatballs up there yeah he threw a bomb

I want to say it was early third quarter might have had a hang time to it yeah and you know what I actually want to have a bigger philosophical discussion about this okay but by the way the game ended on a pick six yeah 75 yard pick six by a middle linebacker.

Does this devalue the quarterback position in your mind, or does this just mean Philip Rivers is just an all-time great and needs to waltz into the Hall of Fame? Actually, what... Go ahead. What it does is it pushes the agenda you've been trying to push on this show for about the last month when it concerns a number seven for the Houston Texans. He doesn't have to be that good.

If you got something good, you better damn pay him. because the discrepancy between being a good, above-average elite Hall of Fame to being a guy that would be throwing pizzas at your local pizzeria down the corner is significant. There's almost no level of mid. It's either you are leading a team of the playoffs or you should be sacking groceries and delivering for DoorDash. I don't know.

Philip Rivers came off the street at age 44. I think to me it almost devalues the quarterback position. It makes me strengthen my opinion that Jerry Rice is the greatest football player of all time and not Tom Brady. I didn't think of it that way. I could certainly understand how you would. All I would say is that Philip Rivers is proving why he is a Hall of Fame quarterback. True. That he was so good back when he could throw the football that he's coming back at like 40%.

And he's still throwing touchdowns. Yeah. It's crazy. And it's, it was fun to watch, and it's been must-watch TV. And he's been pretty solid. There's been worse. Trust me. Oh, we've seen worse.

For sure. We've seen Dan Orlovsky throws an active NFL player. We saw Brock Oswater. Hey, come on. T.J. Yates. Brock is doing good on TV now. He's fine. Yeah.

But we've seen it. Trust me, we've seen some nastiness out there. Some nastiness. You nastiness. Like who is the worst quarterback you've ever seen played in a meaningful game? That guy for the Kansas City Chiso the weekend. Ola Ducerne or whatever. No, no.

Whoever came in after he ripped his ACL, well, apparently it's not a ripped ACL, but hurt his knee. No, that's a good question. That's kind of an open end of one. There's probably five million answers to it. I'm going to say Doshan Watson, when he was having his downfall, was up there. Oh, how about the guy? Oh, Malik Willis?

Yes. I knew what you were going to say. But he was actually decent for the Packers when Jordan Love went down. Okay. The crescendo of his life was decent. Chris Olado Coon. Malik Wallace as a Tennessee Titan, I mean, he'd have been better sir throwing with his other arm that doesn't even

does any of his not. Oh, I've got the answer for you. even though, I don't know, are we keeping this NFL? Case McCoy. Woof. Woof. Oh, how about like Zach Mentonberg? If his name was Case Douglas, he would have been playing in the sunbelt, if that.

Yeah. I mean, any LSU quarterback really not named Joe Burrow. Come on. Is Gordy even there today? Maddie Mock was pretty good. By the way, is there anybody in the office today? Yes, Gordy's up here because he was, Gordy is filling in.

He filled in yesterday. I think he's going to be on the 18. team either today or tomorrow. My goodness. Yeah. It's Gordy Talk 790. Oh, well then maybe it's today. Yeah.

A team's not working tomorrow? Uh-uh. No, he's going to be working tomorrow. Oh, do we have a show? Yes, we do. We have a full four hours? Correct. And how many minutes are the A team on?

Zero. Okay, why? Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Except us. Screw you guys? That's fine. You know what? We're going to be here for you folks.

on Christmas Eve. We got Roto on Wednesday. We're going to be good. Oh my Christmas Eve, Roto? Christmas Eve, Roto. She going to be wearing a Santa hat? I don't know. That's kind of up to him.

We've never done a video call with Roto before. You know, it's funny. I have never met Roto in my life, first face-to-face. I've seen videos on his Twitter. He does, I watch some of his DFS content. Yeah, I've actually met his son before. His son goes to rice. What?

Yeah. He's got a genius son? Correct. I mean, he is Dr. Roto. That makes sense. Yeah. All right, on the radio program today, we're going to get into, I don't know how much more we're going to get into Big Philly Rivers, but, you know, we could if you want to. It is the Battle of LA Week Sports Harvey.

Did you even realize this until I wrote that on my Twitter account today? You have a Twitter account? It's at SportsMT. Everybody needs to follow. If you don't want Cole in your stocking, if you do not want Cole in your stocking, you have to follow me on Twitter at SportsMT and on Instagram at SportsMT. Yes, follow him on Instagram at SportsMT, please. Yes. I'm telling you, giving the gift of a SportsMT follow is something that your family will cherish.

Sure. All right, you don't believe me. Why not? All right. So today on the radio show, we have coming up at 11 o'clock, Chris Hayre joins us from CBS, L.A. He is a big-time Chargers beat reporter for that TV station. We'll talk to him about the Chargers Texans game, which is on Saturday. By the way, is that going to be a great way to open up this Saturday?

3.30 Texans versus Chargers in L.A. NFL Network, and I think Channel 11 is going to broadcast a game locally in town. And then what time do the Rockets play? They play at 7 o'clock against the Cleveland Cavaliers. And then at 815 that same night, we got the Texans or get the Houston Cougars taken on LSU. Oh, that's true. So we got a busy Saturday. And we will talk to Willie Fritz at 1.30 this afternoon, looking forward to busy with him.

And the seasoning bowl. Yeah, I'm calling it just a Texas bowl. I think seasoning bowl sounds fun. I'm going to keep it that. By the way, so when's a Pop-Tart Bowl? Have you seen it yet? No, I haven't seen it.

Whoever those people are that marketed that, they're geniuses. Yeah, they are, but they're running in a problem where they have to keep topping themselves year after year. Like somebody at some point is going to put themselves in a toaster and fry. Yeah, exactly. All right, gut feelings at 1130 today. We have NFL Rewind with Ross at 120. Willie Fritz at 130, and believe it or not, today, at 150. Now, look, you guys are controlling music back in Houston,

so if you want to play some Christmas music, I can live with that. Okay. Well, you said Christmas Eve only, so, I mean. And we also have a small conundrum here in Los Angeles. I'll explain what's going on here in L.A. That's really flipping people out. Nothing to do with the Clippers, bad performances, or the Lakers inconsistency, or the Rams of the Chargers.

It has to do with Mother Nature. 10.15. I'm at Tomah, Michelle Ross. I'm here in L.A. Ross, back in Houston on Sports Talk 790. Hi. Are you already? Are you?

All right, Matt and Ross, with you here on a Tuesday. Christmas Eve, Eve. Time is 1023. Sports Talk, 79. 7.13. 212.790, if you want to chime in. You're right. The internet at this hotel, and we're at a, I mean, ridiculously nice hotel.

Oh, Lord, I cannot get to him by a VPN, which is not fun, but that's a different issue for a different time. All right, so here's the issue we got here. How much are the pancakes? I don't want to get into that. Okay. You're in Beverly Hills, correct? Correct. That's nice.

Beverly Hills, Matt. I like that. You know what you can call me, Mr. 90210 is what you can call me. By the way, those of you'd like to always ask how the gas prices are. We got in at about 2 o'clock and a month. morning Pacific time a day and a half ago I think it's what it was yeah it was 567 for unleaded say it

five dollars and 67 oh okay now that's not great my guess is if I was to get on the 405 or the 101 no the major interfares here that be in the high fours I paid 229 on the on the way back to Dallas from Dallas

that's actually not bad I was insane I was very happy can I tell you you'll tell you a little secret because I love y'all like fam okay you know what the cheapest gas is in houston green's point king's point uh kingwood texas oh kingwood texas is that true kingwood texas i'll take your word for it you sir i'm oh hell yeah i pay about uh two dollars and 15 cents a gallon i know where the most expensive is i know where it is too they should be shot sand flipper sand philippe in six ten are you thinking of the same what i am you're right so

here's the thing you go to the target over there and you're in a really good mood after you leave oh okay you get the blood flowing yeah the blood is flowing oh my god and you're like oh man that was so good to see all those hot river oaks women at the target oh darn i'm out of gas i better go get me some gas i fill up here i got a little extra time after enjoying my experience at target and then i've got to pay like what is it now i think i saw the other day at 399 something like that i don't know what it is now i don't even read it i don't even go there and you're right they make me physically angry they jack up the price so much i want to go in there and just yell at them saying you guys are

greedy bastards i mean i understand like memorial drive when i leave the office to go to the totus i take memorial down downtown and it's expensive on that but it's like 289 29 and i look when in rome you have to go you know get what the expensive folks can pay but that that exon right there should be ashamed and they should be ashamed themselves for what i don't know 15 years or so straight yeah and every time i drive by it i want to roll my window down and scream with people suckers suckers And my guess is, the people that go to that particular Exxon, it's either they're on a company a card and they don't really care how much it cost, or they can afford it and just don't care.

I've used it maybe once or twice. Literally, like, down to 0.0, like, about to run out of gas, so I put, like, a gallon or two in there. Yeah, so I've done that. The next gas station. That's exactly right. All right. So here's the conundrum that Southern Californians are going,

what do they call in Los Angeles? What are you from L.A.? What do you call you? Los Angelinos. Los Angeles. We're coming here one time this year, and don't ask me, I'm not a big fan of the NBA scheduling. So we're playing the Clippers tonight, and then the Lakers on Christmas Day, and then leaving. And then we're done with L.A. until maybe the playoffs.

Probably not for the Clippers, but could be for the Lakers, for sure. This is one of my favorite trips to the year, because I love L.A. They're expecting significant amount of rain between now and the end of Thursday. I heard you were getting seven inches, Matt. It has been amended. We're getting 7.1 inches. Oh, wow. A little extra.

Just in case you need that extra 10th of an inch. So people are flipping the F out here. Let me ask you this. And maybe, because we have gotten a lot of rain. In seven inches over three days, is that going to, would that crush us? I guess the answer would be yes, right? Not three days, no. Oh, in one day, yes

But they're not, no, this is between They're saying Tuesday noon, which would be at the end of our show today. No, they got to relax. That happened to me when I told you I went to L.A. for vacation a couple months ago. Yeah. And they were acting like it was, they had the people literally out in raincoats in the street on the local news, and it was just misting.

The atmospheric river has parked over Los Angeles, folks. We've gotten 1.5 inches of rain today. And there's like puddle. They're like zooming in on the puddles. No, they're overreacting. Okay. So then our friend of the show, my buddy Aaron just texted me. And he said he got this from somebody that lives in the L.A. area.

LAFD, which is Los Angeles Fire Department. Evacuation warning for possible debris flow from 11 a.m. today to 11 p.m. Thursday. Prepare for possible evacuations in Pacific Palisades due to a severe storm. high-risk houses will be visited by LAPD with specific evacuation orders. All right, you know what, that is true. So the problem is they do have mud slides off the mountains when there's rain. So that is actually a legitimate problem. I'll back off my previous statements.

And I think there's a lot of loose debris up there because of the recent fires. So, of course, when the fires, there's a bunch of ash and mud and loose trees and all kinds of debris that could be sliding down when the rain comes after a fire. Okay, so my question is this, then, if gas is expensive here, real estate's expensive, they have earthquakes, they have terrible fires, they have mudslides, they have an ounce of a rain, and it stops a city, why would anyone want to live here? It's 72 degrees and sunny every day, for the most part, like 350 days a year? Okay. Acid answered. I mean, I love it, too, there. I do love it here.

It's cosmopolitan. There's Hollywood. There's, I mean. I'm not living the real life here. I mean, I'm not spending, I'm not in Irvine. You know what I mean? I'm not at a, I'm not at a Hampton Inn in Anaheim. I mean, I'm in the most hoityest, tortiest part of the country here. But it's just crazy that every newscast is like, because then people are talking about, you know, people like to sometimes they like to travel on Christmas Eve,

Christmas, you know, like, driving somewhere because they think it's easier to get out that's compared to, like, trying to go to the airport today or tomorrow or... Yeah. They're like, if you don't leave today by noon, you're stuck here. Expect to spend Christmas here in Los Angeles. Yeah, but I guess this is some kind of all-time storm, I guess. But another is... It's the same storm that was in Seattle and Portland last week.

Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Yeah. But I'll tell you why I love visiting my friends in L.A., because we went... Like, literally, when I came to L.A., we went to the beach, we went to the mountains. You can go to Joshua Tree in the desert. You can go to Indio Cal like every... Vegas is only three hours away.

It's close to everything. And that's one of the reasons Hollywood plop down there too is because if you need to shoot a movie in the ocean or a movie in the desert or a movie in the mountains or a movie in wherever, you got everything around there. And the weather is great. Generally. Yeah.

Generally. And the people are pretentious. Yes. Everything's expensive. But yeah, we want it. If you want to really feel it. feel fat? Like when you're in New York in Houston, you've got a few extra pounds. You're like, eh, I'm doing all right. You're going to

really feel fat, go to L.A. Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah. Like the Starbucks baristas have six packs. Yeah, I mean, yoga pants is in form here. If you're team yoga pants, you love Los Angeles. Second best place for yoga

pants in America? Uptown Dallas. Give me a little secret there. Okay. That'll conclude our Southern California weather report for the day. Thank you. I didn't go to Uptown Dallas. I was in the Galleria and then the Bishop Arts District, which was nice.

Uptown Dallas is Rossi, I'm telling you, I should have told you this before you left. Okay. Sneaky, amazing. Okay, I mean, I didn't need to go there. Okay, good for you. I went to the JFK Museum. Did you and Clanton go together? Is that how you want or what's going on? No, I did send him a picture of JFK, of course.

Obligatory. obligatory he's infatuated with a handful of things and one of them is that yes he's infatuated with the uh serial killers and other things of the macabre yeah he's a rather simple man but we love him nonetheless not going to get into a deep conversation about philosophy with adam you're just not you're just not you're just going to talk about jeffery dommer sawing people in half yeah he likes that a lot too I don't know where we'll go from here, but that's fine. Up.

We're going to check it in Los Angeles with a TV reporter that covers the charges on a daily basis. We'll talk with him at 11 o'clock. And we're going to talk with you guys. 713212-5-790. Did you see D.K. Metcalf, by the way. I know you were team D.K. yesterday. Yeah, I got more questions. I said pending what happened.

Pending an investigation. Pending? They penned it all right. Oh, Lord. He's in big trouble. We'll tell you more about that in a minute. 1033. It's Matt and Ross.

I'm here in L.A. Ross back in Houston. If you'd like to join us, hold on a second. Ross, are we on? Yes. We love you. We just do. Tens of you.

713. 212-5-7-90. One of you were sending me tweets about where to find the cheap gas. Shout out to Pandoz says you can get $2.5. $0.45 off a highway 249 in Bamel in North Houston. Missouri City, Kennedy says you can get it for 203. Good for us. Get it here in Beverly Hills at $5.67 a gallon.

Oh, Lord. Oh, yeah, I think there's a lot of taxes. I think they're trying to push people to EVs. Yeah. But would you see the power went out in San Francisco a couple days ago? I did not. And all those turtna, what are they called turtna toros? Are they called Turoes?

The manless vehicles? Oh, Waymos. Waymos, yeah. Turos something different. The Waymos stopped. Like in the middle of the street? Oh, yeah. With people in them?

that i don't know but it was there was a there was some videos of some waymo's just sitting there hmm i i would never take those yeah i mean what if what if waymo's in a bad mood it's twofold i mean yeah the the feels like i mean you can get in an accident with a regular uber driver i mean it happens all the time they their evidence says otherwise but i don't know if necessarily i believe that but also you're you're forcing them out of the workforce as well so I'm here to help the people, mad. I'm a man of the people.

I will be taking real Uber driver. There you go. And giving them tips and everything. Of course. Yeah. I'm still at 4.90 on Uber and 5 on lifts. I don't know why I'm still stuck at 4.9 on Uber, but it is. I'm trying.

Gosh, that's pretty weak. It's not weak at all. It's wonderful, actually. I mean, if I was a 4.9 and is an Olympic champion, I'd be an Olympic champion. I'm a 497 You weren't perfect though You weren't out of you coming each I know when I got a one star

It was my friend's fault because he was screaming at the guy Huh Can I tell you very fast for you before we talk to Gil? Go ahead So a few years back This is a funny story One of our People in our Rockets traveling party

Said hey Well I'm going to order you guys an Uber And there was four of us in the car and one of the four people told this story about an excapade he had in his life when he was single it was one of the foulest stories I've ever heard in my entire life okay and I can't even discuss what happened in the in the story because it's so grotesque yet so funny so the next day this person comes up to us and says um what happened in y'all's in my uber and we're like,

what are you talking about nothing? We got in the car and we were just talking and we did tell a funny story. The person's Uber account, she lost a half a star. Now, to lose a half a star in

automobile off a one ride, that means you got like a one star. Yeah. So. I'm just saying, if someone gives you an Uber, do not tell raunchy, vile stories that could potentially

called that person a rating you especially want to behave yourself when it's not your uber that's exactly right are we already at 1044 man yeah you know why because these we have to play those uh paypal spots 85 times hey let's go paypal dot com i've been using it for years seriously if y'all please support paypal i mean god knows they're spending that money with us this week they're paying your paycheck pal that's right i'm so i call myself paypal thomas we love we love all of our tenses especially PayPal this week hell's yeah they're like you know what we'll buy the entire iHeart network for like $12 a spot this week nobody's advertising anything appreciate them okay so here's what

we're gonna do we're gonna come back we're gonna hear from Steve Kornackie this dork is carved on a nice old career for himself that's rude why are you gonna call him a dork because he rolls up his sleeve guess what you get to do Steve you can wear a short sleeve on the set and not rolled up because it's like he's not he's like he thinks he's like grinding through these numbers there's no chance he has then he has like a pencil in his ear normally too yes i mean it's like it's not it's not he's burning the midnight at all in front of a computer he might be the NFL in every website gives you the stats of what's going on

hell do you see adam wexer's tweet today he gave you the stats i didn't you don't even see wax that they're rolling up his sleeves and putting a pencil behind his ear i'm going to drop a like and a 12 hours on this where's wex oh my gosh yeah he played out all the scenario Look at that thing. That thing is deep and medium. It's got a lot to it. 10.45. Steve Kornacki will run down how the Texans can be the number one seed in the AFC next here on Sports Talk 790.

We're going to check in in Los Angeles. Actually, not me with somebody else in here in Los Angeles. Chris Hayre from CBS Los Angeles going to join us about the Chargers. I thought you guys were going to do it together from Rodeo Drive. I mean, I guess we could. Now, would I have to buy him to coffee because the coffee is so expensive on Rodeo? He can go Dutch. That's true.

All right. So we have our Adam Wexer giving you a complete rundown of what the Texans can do, either making the playoffs or not, being the number one seed or just being a walled card. We're going to go beyond that. We love Wex, like a second cousin. But we want to go to Steve Kornacki of NBC, who's going to give us how he thinks the Texans could be the number one seed in the AFC. this and start fresh to get to the most complicated the Texans the Texans with five losses the best they could do is 12 and 5 but the Texans would have a bunch of tiebreakers if it ever came to that so you see the Texans how do they get every other team to five losses they play the chargers so they have a chance themselves to hand the chargers a fifth loss they'd need the bills to drop one of these two maybe it's the Eagles bills would have their fifth loss they'd need the jags to drop one that to you know maybe it's the Colts, maybe it's the Titans, they would need the Patriots to drop two of their remaining

three games, and they would need the Broncos to lose not just to the Chargers, but also to the Kansas City Chiefs to finish at 12 and 5. And then, and only then, with the number one seed in the AFCB with about a 0.2% chance, something like that, like a snowball in Key West. Those are their chances. They're used in Texas. Oh, my, I could see for a night. Okay, let's call it up right now. Go ahead. First of all, it ain't happening. Secondly, he didn't research that. No chance, no way, no how.

What do you mean? Somebody did it for him? Correct. Like a website, like Google or NFL.com did it for him. I have a question, Matt. Yes, sir. Why do you care? Because he just, like, who cares?

Let me tell you something. My job is a major market sportscaster. Okay. Is to call out the frauds. How is he a fraud? That's good on-air content. It's talking about playoff scenarios, and they, I mean, they have to win the time. I mean, we played it here, too.

But you just wanted to play it here. Does he need to roll up his sleeve, put a pencil behind his ear, sweat from his brow? Why do you how he wears his sleeves? Because we're doing a four-hour show. Okay. The immediate time of year. Work with me a little bit here, okay, Ross? I got the Rockets losing the Norlands and Sackam in the last week.

Work with me a little bit. Okay. Turn to entertain here. Uh-huh. It just makes me doubt whether or not I should believe this guy comes politics time. So if his sleeves were down, you'd feel better. I just, I don't know. It just feels like it's more theatrics under his information.

Okay. Let's see. He's in the entertainment business. They got to trot him out there for something. He's got to earn his keep at NBC somehow. Yeah, that's actually true. The only election is so often. You can only have so many run off elections and, I don't know.

Ohio or whatever. Well, yeah, he's got the midterms coming up, so he's got something to work on. Apparently, he was doing stuff at the Westminster Dog Show, too. Oh, okay, so, I mean, my, then my point is well taken then. Now, see, the Labrador has about a 12.7% chance. You look at the history. There is nobody on the earth that can talk dogs, football, and in politics. You've got to stay in your lane one way or the other.

Oh, this is going to make you even better. feel even better. Looking at this graphic, it looks like they get their probabilities from PFF. I'm okay with that. Oh, okay. I told you,

I've turned the corner on Pff. That's good. Once they realize they're Poonhounds, I'm okay with that. Okay. Well, as long as you're okay with it, Matt. I just want them to have balance in their life. Mm-hmm.

Oh, my gosh. That's funny. Because, you know, I'll tell you what, the Thomas, we don't do politics in the house very much, but we do like Steve Kornacki when he's, like, doing the politics. if you get this many electoral votes in this state couple this this now that is some serious work right there like adding stuff uh last election i went to the movies

i went to i turned my phone off and went to the movies i was like yeah silence isn't there's no good result here i think i delivered you quiet i delivered you quietly did that not uh no my phone i believe i turned my phone completely off and my watch okay oh that's funny Kornacki, carving a nice little career based off of stealing bits from ESPN.com. Good for him. Well, all right. What else we got going on?

Are you excited for rocket slippers tonight? Oh, I'm over the moon. 9.30, the game got moving up a half an hour. Okay, Matt. So last time we talked, I was telling you how there was a Oklahoma City Thunder Cloud over my head. Yeah, they're a little more human now, aren't they? They are, but so are the

Rockets? They lost to the Kings and the Pelicans. In the same trip. Well, you know, I've been on the road since, like, early November. That's, okay. How's your beard? You've been shaving? I did actually shave yesterday, which I normally don't do. Okay. What about, I know you like to, well, I don't know you like to get both done at the same time.

Did you get, uh, you get a head shave too? No, no, I actually did it myself because I was going to go to the barber shop here in the hotel. Oh, no. And I normally pay $42 for in King when it was $135. without tip. That's without the hot towel. So I said, you know what? I'm going to go get some, I'm going to go

the, oh, by the way, now here's another thing. So I go to the front desk asking for shaving cream. You know, usually if you ask for like a toothpaste or toothbrush at his hand to you and say, have a great day. Oh, no, sir. We'll have it delivered to your room. I got a funny, well, I guess it's not that funny of a story, but I was at the rolled and rugged and I forgot my toothbrush.

Happens. Yeah. I call them and they said, are you in a suite? I said, no, I'm in a regular room. They're like, oh, we only provide toothbrush if you're in a sweet. Come on, Tillman. That's kind of funny. Dude, this lady, I said, oh, you're going to room shame me?

I was messing with her. She was laughing. Can I tell Patrick then? She was like, yes, you should. I will absolutely tell me. She was like, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I don't know. They tell me that I can only give you a toothbrush.

So I guess I should have lied and said I was in a suite. Well. And then she's like, go ahead. You would have said, yes, I'm in sweet. Yeah, right. And they would have figured it out. And then it got to your room like, we're going to have to turn around and not. And they're going to turn around my toothbrush.

Yeah. And she's like, yeah, you can go down to this store and get the dental kit. And I was like, no, I was messing with her. I was like, I'll just gargle my toothpaste. I'll be fine. And she laughed. Which is, that's what I did. I, you ain't get more of my cash, Tillman, with your $5.

Coca-Cola's. and $5 bag of Doritos? I got to tell Patrick that he's going to laugh. Dude, I was like, are you seriously? I'm getting room-shamed asking for a toothbrush? But I was like, come on. I know why you want me to go back to my room. You want to tip.

And I gave him a tip, but damn, I did all the heavy lifted, Ross. I went downstairs. I didn't even do something as boogees you by calling for it. I went down there to go get it my son. Well, I felt it was 50-50 they would even give one. I just wanted to see if they would offer. And then it turned out I had a spare one from the dentist in my car, so I couldn't use that. That's great.

Let's check on the Chargers next. It is coming up on 11 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues here. Ross back in Houston. I'm here in Los Angeles. Rockets against the Clippers tonight. We'll have it for you beginning at 8.30 with Rockets Launchpad Network pregame at 9.

And I'll have a call here at 930 from Intuit Dome. Right now, let's talk about one of the other L.A. sports teams, the Chargers. And joining us right now from CBS Los Angeles. He also does a weekly podcast about the Los Angeles Chargers. We say hello to Chris Hayre here on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Chris, it's Matt and Ross. And Ross, good morning to you first and foremost. and we will go to the games itself.

Tell me what it's like, and I had a counterpart from the Rams earlier this year when the Texans played them. How does the Chargers gain attention in the L.A. sports landscape? And does this run help them, or is it still, when you go to games at SoFi with the Chargers, there's a large amount of other teams' fans

in the building? Well, you know what, Matt, great to be with you, man. I think that the hardball effect It's certainly real. I've been with this organization since they moved up to Los Angeles in 2017, and I can tell you it's grown exponentially. I'll also tell you that in Los Angeles, it is a Lakers and a Dodgers town, and there is a slice of the pie for everybody else,

and if you win, the slice gets bigger. And I've seen Jim Harbaugh in just two short seasons go back to back, 11 wins with this quarterback and you're starting to kind of feel the buzz a little bit and it's pretty cool to see both the Rams and the Chargers really being looked at

as contenders in both the AFC and NFC right now. Yeah, it is certainly a good time for football here in Southern California. Chris, the Houston audience had a chance to see the Chargers Cowboys game before the Texans last week and it felt like to me and I'm so glad you're able to join us today

Justin's got a plethora of targets to go into that offense. I mean, I don't know if it was a perfect game because I was here on traveling. I didn't see the whole thing. But it felt like to me that Herbert could throw it to about five different people on the field to any one point during the game. You know, we're doing our podcast today, and that's one of the first things we're going to talk about. It's just the emergence of some of these guys that you didn't know we're going to have as big of an impact as they've had.

Trey Harris, the second round rookie comes to mind. It used to be third in Keenan, right? It was like, all right, Kenan's getting the ball on third down. Now it's third in Keenan, third in Lad. Trey Harris has raised his hand, the rookie O'Ronday Gadsden, Quentin Johnston, who was actually hurt the week before against the Chiefs, four catches for 104 yards, and just an unbelievable one-handed touchdown catch. So you're right.

They have a lot of weapons. the emergence of Maureen Hampton, too, the rookie running back who has missed a large chunk of the season with an ankle injury. He returned a couple of weeks ago, and he was just like a runaway freight train, like 81 yards, the touchdown to put him up 3417. So I go back to last year and how Justin didn't really have any weapons in that Houston wildcard game. It seemed like, you know, they shut down Quentin Johnston. Ladd was the only weapon. who could produce anything through the air, 197 yards. I think 90 of it came on that one play at the end of the game.

So, yeah, it's night and day from last year in terms of the weapons and just kind of how everybody is kind of working in harmony here. Chris, Harry, joining us from CBS, Los Angeles here at the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Okay, so I'm assuming that Mr. Herbert's hand is okay. I know he was kind of grumpy about it a few weeks to go, but there was anything that you saw against the Cowboys that alarmed you at all. Well, no, this was the first game this season where he was not sacked. Zero sacks allowed by this offensive line who's been a big topic of conversation.

Make no mistake, it's a broken hand, right? It's a broken, non-throwing hand, but he has found a way to play with it, and, you know, it seemingly is getting better each week. But to throw for 300 yards, which is the most passing yards that he's thrown for since middle of October against the Colts. You're starting to see that dimension of the offense. Since the by week, since getting blown out by the Jags, Matt, this team has really relied on their defense to win them football games.

And Sunday was the first time where the defense kind of got hit in the mouth early in the game against Dak, who's fantastic. But to kind of get hit in the mouth by that Dak Prescott-led offense, Justin Herbert had to go toe-for-toe with them, and then the defense settles down, doesn't allow any points in the second half, yet Justin continues to go. So he's unbelievable. He's one of the toughest quarterbacks you'll ever come across. He makes a hero-type play almost every game, and the defense carried the day.

But Sunday was the first time where I was like, wow, if this passing attack can get in rhythm in the playoffs and the churches may have something. All right, so with all that being said, and look, I've been a Herbert guy from a distance, but last year's wildcard game, he was atrocious. He's not had a whole lot of postseason success. Tell me, in your mind, how bad does he need a couple of postseason wins to build on his resume? I mean, first, every quarterback needs one. That goes without saying, but how much pressure will there be when the charges get to the playoffs

for him to have all the success in the last handful of weeks the Chargers had if they come up short and in particular of Herbert struggles. Yeah, we'll have these conversations on radio. We'll continue to happen. Right.

You know, I think that that's been, the biggest thing is Justin has done everything during the regular season. He's set records. He's been unbelievable. But until you do it in the postseason, there's going to be a lot of talk about it.

There's going to be a lot of talk about, hey, can he win a playoff game? Can he get you deep into the postseason? I have no doubt that he can. can right it's just every season is different uh every opponent you come across is different um the the uh that texas game it was just he you know he threw three interceptions all season uh to throw four in that game and i get it he was he was pressing because the the texas got momentum in that second half and and never uh let up but yeah that's going to be that's going to be the the topic of

conversation until he does it uh but what's fascinating about the playoffs this year, Matt, and it goes for the Texans, too. Anybody can be any seed. That's right. The Texas could somehow went out, and the Jags drop a game, and they're winning the South again. The Chargers went out, and they win the West, right? They control their destiny now because they beat the Broncos early in the year.

They could be as high as the one-seat or the two-seat, as low as the seventh seed. This is a wide-open AFC with no Patrick. Mahomes, probably no Lamar Jackson, no Joe Burrow, and anybody can win this thing. It's just about matchups and who's going to be the grittier team who doesn't make any mistakes in January. It's so crazy, Chris. Seven different NFL towns all in the AFC think they've got a shot to be playing on Super Sunday, and it kind of makes it wonderful.

It's bad. I just couldn't believe when, was it, DeRich Eisen said that we're all going to miss the Chiefs in the playoffs. I'm like, you know what, Kansas City might miss it, but nobody else gives two craps about whether or not the chiefs are in the playoffs. And I thought it was one of the dumbest things I've heard in a long time, but that's not there nor they are. Chris Hary from CBS and Los Angeles joining us. All right, so not that I let Vegas determine everything,

but the over-under on this, Chris, is 39 and a half. That would tend to mean, even though the Chargers are a small favor in this game, but they're expecting this to be a 21-18 type of football game. How do you envision? again, Texans defense will be the best of the Chargers probably have seen in quite some time but the Chargers and again the Cowboys defense was atrocious. You saw that

last week but let me tell me can a Chargers won a low-scoring close game? Can their defense do enough to keep this thing close the Texans offense has been better as well. It didn't play really well last week but what is it going to be like for Justin to face maybe his best defense he's seen

probably in two months? You're right. I mean so the Bronco are a Super Bowl caliber defense. The Houston Texans are a Super Bowl caliber defense. But, you know, go back to just the two weeks before

the game against the Cowboys. You know, I know Jalen Carter didn't play in that game, but Philly Secondary is unbelievable. They won a low-scoring overtime game. I think it was 21-18, something like that, 22-19.

The next week, 16, 13, over the Chiefs in 15-degree weather. So this defense, this defense is ready for it. And I think that the Chargers defense is just a small rung below those other defenses that I mentioned. They've been awesome since getting hit in the mouth against Jackson's lap to the buy. They have seemingly a pro bowler and all pro on every level of their defense. Derwin James named to his fifth pro bowl today. Tully-Tulotu has been unbelievable.

13 sacks for him, same as Daniel Hunter. And to have a guy like Deon Henley, who's coming on as of late, a very sticky secondary with veterans like Tony Jefferson, I do think that the Chargers defense is going to be the unit that carries the day for them if they're going to make a run in the postseason. You know, I don't put too much stock in how close that game was against the Raiders for the Texans. something tells me that they were probably looking a couple of weeks ahead and every team in the NFL is going to have these close games against another NFL team. So C.J. Stroud has looked really good this year in spots and I do. I see a 24-21 game, maybe a 2017 game.

Watch us get there Saturday, Matt, and it's a 42-35 game. Who knows? But I do think both of these defenses are going to show up on Saturday. All right. Most important question for you, Chris. How does the Los Angeles are going to prepare for seven inches of rain here in California the next three days? You know what? I'm anchoring tonight.

I have a sneaky suspicion some of our sports hits may get killed if it's Stormwatch 20-25. Because when rain hits Los Angeles, people get upset about it. And it gets a lot of coverage. I feel bad for you that you're here this week, and we're getting rain when we've had beautiful weather the last couple of weeks. But that's just, I guess, the way it goes. Who knows, though, Matt, you may be back here in a couple of weeks for a playoff game. We don't know what's going to happen over here over the next few weeks in the NFL. That's true.

Just lead your 11 o'clock newscast with Rockets Beat Lakers, or Clippers, I should say, and I'll feel a lot better. I need a victory in the worst way. Chris, thank you so much for the time. John Ireland, the Lakers' voice recommended you, and you have not disappointed friend. I really appreciate you coming on my show today. Matt and Ross with you here until 2 o'clock, 1123, 9.23 in the Pacific Time Zone where there's already evacuations throughout most of the area for a 10th of the rain coming here

to Los Angeles the next few hours. Rossie, it's time to play. I need Ross to give me a comp. Do you need such a thing for me? I can try. Because I have been thinking about this, and I cannot come up with a comp. So I need you to come up with a comp of the following statement, okay? Okay.

So earlier today in the NFL, they announced the Pro Bowl selections. What? Yeah. Now, some shows will cuss and discuss everything about the Pro Bowl, because, man, it's a big deal, big deal, brother. Let's go, let's go. Okay. We're not going to be that show. We've gone an hour in 24 before bringing in up once.

Mm-hmm. So congratulations to Texans linebacker, Al-Zis Oshire. Will Anderson. Nico Collins and Derek Singly, they are all been named the 2026 Pro Bowl. No, Danil Hunter? No. No Jalen Petrie? Nope.

Hmm. No Ariante Ursery? Okay, I don't want to make sense. No Jaime Fairbairn? None of that. Oh, come on now. I mean, hell, Kami Fairbairns, 80% of the Texans' offense this year. Jawar Jordan didn't make it in.

He didn't sneak in. Okay, stop. Now you're just losing your mind. So here's where the comp comes in. So what happens when you make the 2026 Pro Bowl? You get to go to San Francisco the Tuesday before the game. You know, usually they have it in somewhere else, Orlando or Vegas, something like that. Well, they're going to do everything in San Francisco this year where the Super Bowl will be.

Well, you'll be doing Radio Row once the Texans make it this year. Can't wait. I don't know how we're going to budget that, but that's a different issue for a different time. And we'll figure it out. We'll make some cuts. So, okay. So what do you do as a reward for making the Pro Bowl? There is no Pro Bowl game, and there hasn't been for several years,

because they judged it to be an embarrassing because nobody competed. When JJ Watt is taking seven-step drops, throwing passes, that means you should end your game. So they're going to be playing a couple of skills competitions, and the main focus is playing a seven-on-seven flag football game. So I need a comp from you, Ross-Filler-Rale. I make the Pro Bowl. My reward is playing in a seven-on-seven flag football game.

Okay. Give me the comp. Would that be like a baseball team playing whiffle ball? Would that be like NBA basketball? then they play three on three. Or horse? Or horse? Which they've done, but kind of as a side competition.

All right. Give me a real life comp. Real life? I have sold more radio advertising for IHeard Houston, and I'm going to be rewarded by it. What am I getting in return? A bottles of liquor? I guess.

My point is this, you're taking guys that have busted their tails all year long. Yes. To be named a pro bowler. Now it's different than all pro. There's differences. But it still is a semi-exclusive group. To be named a pro bowler is prestigious. To make the pro bowl after 5,000 injury dropouts is not.

Correct. So the reward is we want you to play one more game. we're not going to let you, we're not going to make you play a real game and put pads on. We're going to dumb it down to a flying football game that doesn't even involve 11 of 11. It's seven on seven. Is it, there's their cash prize? What's the incentive? I'm sure there is.

I have not done enough research on it, but I'm going to assume that, I mean, you're getting an all expense paid trip to San Francisco for it. I mean, the NBA All-Star game is basically the flag football equivalent. Nobody plays any defense. That's true. That's right. It just comes across. to me is utterly ridiculous. I mean, you don't want anybody getting injured.

It's the most violent of the major sports. Can a hockey expert explain to me? Is the hockey all-star game intense? It always feels like to me the games are super high-scoring. Like, if you looked at the NHL All-Star games, aren't they like 11-10? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't have the only pure game that's left.

Yeah, the only pure game that's left is, the baseball all-star game. Yeah, they still don't... Yeah, they don't really try. Yeah, baseball is the least physical, and they don't... I mean, the pitchers are trying. I guess the hitters are, too.

But they're not, like, buzzing guys with... You know, off the plate and stuff like that. No, no, no. They're also not throwing seven sliders in a row to potentially hurt their elbow, either. You don't even four-round. Go out there and groove some fastballs. I just...

It's just, it's gonna... Is it gimmicky? That's all the way I can describe it. It's gimmicky. Google says the NHL one is three on three now. That's gimmicky. Yeah. But, I mean, yeah, it used to be these All-Star games were showcases for the talent that the league possesses.

No, you don't need to showcase anything. I mean, these leagues are all fine financially. Well, I'll give you an example. And again, I don't want to go to when I was a kid card. But when I was a kid, I used to love watching the Pro Bowl. in Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, which no longer exist, because I would have, just as an example, I could see Dan Fouts throwing a ball to Steve Largent.

You know what I mean? AFC versus NFC. I could have Joe Montana throwing a pass to, Drew Pearson. You know what I mean? I mean, just stuff like that that was kind of cool and interesting. But for some reason,

and I know the reason, it's because they want to make sure nobody gets hurt, it just became an utter joke. And the thing I can't figure out, Ross, is that those guys back in 1984, 85, 86 could get hurt just as much as they can in 2015,

2016, when the game was still being played. Yeah. But now you're making more millions and millions of dollars. You want the player safety is more important. And again, you don't have to showcase the league. You don't have to, you don't, the NFL doesn't mean, I mean, they need more eyeballs and they should keep marketing and all that type of stuff. But the Pro Bowl isn't a marketing showcase the way that it was. So for all these years, you and I've been together, I've been saying one key phrase, say no to the Pro Bowl.

And every time I say it, it doesn't work. The ratings go up. Although the ratings have been horrible since they got to this kind of format, I think. I don't know. It just, because, I mean, look, the Texans PR staff sent on an email and said, hey, congratulations to these dudes that are going to the pro bono. I'm like, this is kind of cool. I mean, get some recognition.

And what's your reward? You go to San Francisco, the Tuesday when everybody's off, because that's the Tuesday normal off day before the Sunday game, and you play flag football for a couple of hours. It just seems like a cheap way to reward guys that bust their tail playing great football when it was real football when the seasons counted. Yeah, but I don't think going up there and beating your head in full pads is a reward either. no I mean I know the MBA's everybody is trying in sports to sexy up or maintain some sort of interest in their all-star games the NBA is going to do another all-star thing that should it's going to fail we should just get rid of all-star games I guess they have to be somewhat profitable as far as ratings and sponsorships and stuff like that right that's right that's right all right just wanted to bring that up that I just thought it was weird that all I mean does Alize's

Alshire's selling a guy who wants to not, you know, wants to get involved in an all-star flag football where you can't knock somebody down I don't know, I'd have to ask him. Maybe it's a great honor. Has he been in all, has he been a pro bowler before? I don't think so. He's been around, I mean, close.

I mean, he hasn't been fined in four weeks. That's a good sign, right? Yeah. By the way, really quick, and I know he's his first pro bowl. Yeah, we're running late for this. So, uh, real quick, uh, And Jimmy Butler of the Golden State Warriors, basically the Warriors have been sending out social media posts saying, hey, Warrior fans, vote for Jimmy Butler to go the All-Star game. Jimmy Butler and IG says the following sports survey, don't vote for me, guys. Instead, somebody create a go-fund me to send me to Barbados.

Heart, hard, heart, heart, thanks in advance, go Warriors in all caps. that's great you know what i want to do now i want to get him to the all-star games if you want to vote him in yeah let's let's vote in jimmy butter so he can't go to barbadoes okay let's punish him i'm getting some ideas for the all-star game we'll tell you about those coming back in a minute 1132 here on sports talk 790 listen up girls and boys that's been so appealing you're just russ and matt thomas They got a gut feeling. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we ask you for the next half hour to come in with your sports predictions at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-2-2-7-90. It's every Tuesday at 1130 here on Sports Talk 7-90. Quick recap of a couple things where we get to how we did last week. And I think, Jonathan, you had to write this down because I just can't handle it. Our friend Pedro Ross says that he was at the Molden Mugget last summer, and it was $28 for a small bottle of sunscreen, so...

I believe that. The struggle is real on that. It was a 20-ounce bottle of soda was five bucks. Yeah, but you tip five bucks when you're buying beers at the table, aren't you? I'd usually do a dollar of beer, maybe two if she's fast. Maybe three if she's looking good. That's fair. Am I wrong?

I mean, no, you're not wrong. You hear me. You need me criticizing you, right? Let me tell you something. Lake Charles 7, about 3 o'clock in the morning, it looks all right. Okay. Cass says, I'm a segueing. You see this?

Thank you. You're welcome. Cass says a home run derby with metal bats. That's actually a pretty good cop of how you're going from making something awesome to being utterly ridiculous. He's going to decapitate one of the children in the outfield. Don't get the metal bats out there. Jonathan, here's one for you. How about as a comp, a track team makes their All-Star game,

and then they have to run a three-legged race. That's actually pretty good. He's speaking to an engineer right now. He can't. Oh. When he's back, let me know because I want to get his comp on that. Here we go. Bob says make it a seven-on-seven tackle with a scout team

to the two Super Bowl contenders. Guys laying it on the line for a potential job. next year, I'd totally watch that. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. Jonathan back or no, he's still talking. He's there still, he's very good. So I've got a funny line I want to use with that.

Okay, well, you have to keep it in your back pocket. I will keep it. And he also has the archives from last week. Okay, so we're having a real, we're really struggling at this point here. I can bring up mine from two weeks ago. I think we had, you sent up to us, I think. Okay. I don't think I didn't do these.

I had a Reed Shepherd 20 plus point game. I think he scored 10. C.J. Stroud, three TDs. That didn't happen. Three first team all pros on Texans defense. How many pro bowlers do they have? More than that. Okay. So maybe I got a shot. Can I give you one before we really get going here while Jonathan's talking to the engineer? Yes. I'm going to will this one. Rockets beat both the clippers and Lakers this week.

Okay. That feels good. No if it's a Zubots tonight. the rocket certified rockets killer rocket killer i think he was what 11 to 13 or something like that from the floor the previous time yes something like that okay no prediction about saturday's game i can't okay

isn't it isn't it better when i don't make a prediction okay uh cougars beat lSU by at least a touchdown in the texas bowl Ooh, okay. You heard me. I ain't scared. I think we got 47 opt-outs on the team. I think the trainers have opted out, opted out.

The SID opted out. I'm going to give you one that needs you to put in the back of your back pocket. Okay. James Hardin gets traded. Who wants him? He's making a lot of money. Yeah. I'll put it this one. let me adjust

okay James Harden does not end the season as a Los Angeles clipper because he could be bought out so that would be technically that kind of the same thing so I'll amend it a little bit

okay James Harden does not finish his season as a clipper I have a Los Angeles Clippers believe it or not nugget for you since you brought him up to reward an early listener oh I love that he is their all-time leader

in triple doubles with 18 you know he's going to go down I would have figured Chris Paul would be number one in that, but... Yeah. Well, Chris is... Chris is going to be on the score sheet today. It's going to say NWT, not with team.

Yeah, I like that designation. The first time I remember that was with Corello Anthony. There's been quite a few John Wall on at NWTs back on the Rockets a handful of years ago. All right, I'm back. Hey! So, Jonathan, one of the people that wanted to comp said that you were named an All-Star on an Attractive?

team, and then you would then compete in a three-legged race. What? That sounds fun. We're looking for the comparison to them playing flag football, the Pro Bowlers. The Pro Bowlers? For like track? A comparison? Yeah.

Being an All-Star Trachian. Is that what you call yourself a trackian? Track man? What is the word? Tracker? I guess you just say track star. I mean... Oh, track star.

Not everybody's a star, Jonathan. I mean, I'm just saying, we're talking about, yeah. What would be the equivalent? I guess, I don't know. You're a track fleet. Track athlete? Track athlete. Track athlete.

Track athlete. And as your reward, you get to compete in a three-legged race. Nah, it's a, I know in high school, if you're like an elite, you're all-star around the, you hit a certain time threshold. You compete with your, like, you compete in your state. So say there's like four dogs out of Texas, they compete nationwide at one big meet for Texas, Louisiana. They all compete at one, like, all-star things. Yeah, but see, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for ridiculous comps because we're talking about these all pro bowlers going to compete in a flag football game, something they don't normally do.

I mean, no, you wouldn't do a three-legged, I guess you would like. Okay, this is going over his head here, Ross. No, I'm getting me saying. It's being silly, yes. I'm not being serious. And in your case, Jonathan, you don't need a partner for a three-legged race. 7-13. I knew you were going to do that.

I knew there was going to be a hog nuts reference That's right He can't complain He's like if it is It's true, it's true Oh my God Oh Lord

It's the Tuesday Before Christmas I mean First of it's not being Listening I mean honestly This is the conversation I come back to I'm trying to figure out

The camera Okay I got one for you Next year Go ahead Marks is not RB1 for the Texans next year That's good

I can I Yeah I'm not going to jump board that but that feels pretty safe okay all right you want something more uh texans make the playoffs as a seed higher than seven okay i think that's good okay uh all right i'm gonna give you the number one seat of the amc okay i think denver holds on i okay i haven't looked at everybody's schedule but that that seems i'm need i haven't reasonable i just think even though they've been falling apart

a little bit. Now let me ask you this. I brought up something, and we're late for a break, but it's too bad. Ross, I brought this up to you last week, and you thought I was nuts. I wasn't here. What is it like? Is it okay to lose a game late in the season to kind of get your focus back on towards going in?

What if that was it? Almost losing to the Raiders. Well, I the engineer for the Broncos broadcast and I are good friends, and he also does my Rockets Nuggets games when I'm in Denver. Yes. And I said, hey, how good is Jacksonville and he's like you know that

Lawrence had a great game blah blah blah blah blah he says honestly I'm kind of glad we lost to get ourselves refocused for the postseason and I'm like damn I knew I wasn't the only one I was thinking this yeah that guy was on gummies that's also fair too at Denver

I get it maybe the thin air clouded in his judgment in altitude sickness you guys can be on the same page I mean just win your games Hey, well, look, how about a close loss against the Raiders? Is that enough for a wake-up call? Yeah, I think it is.

Don't you think they're bouncing around Texanville going, oh, that was great. We beat the Raiders. I don't think they're going to get into the playoffs and be playing for trying to get to a Super Bowl. We're like, ah, we're good. We won nine in a row. Yeah, that's fair. All right, calls next. Emmanuel and Brian will get to you next.

1147 here on Sports Talk 790. All right, if you got any gut feelings, let's hear from you right now. It's 713, 212-790. 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Denver, Colorado, where the Rockets beat the Nuggets on Saturday. Manuel on 7-90. Good morning, Ann, Manuel.

Hey, Matt. Yeah, I got my first ever gut feeling. I said it last week that the Rockets were going to beat the Nuggets, but actually I live in California. I'm actually like two hours away from you, but the East and Riverside. Nice. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I wish I could go see you. We met each other once. I was wearing the mustard and ketchup, Jersey. Oh, that's right. Was I polite to you? Please tell Ross how nice I was to you. Oh, you were amazing.

We sat there. We talked about Ross to buy his back. I mean, it was good stuff. Good, good. What you got for your gut fillings this way? This week, I'm calling it. You already took a little bit of my thunder, but I'm going to call it Houston Suite. I'm saying they're going to beat the Ruggins going to beat the Clippers and the Lakers.

in Texas, they're going to smash the charges as I can't stand the charges in a block of a thing. I understand that. What I do down is a Houston shoot, and I get a fake applause clap, an electronic one for my first ever guest building in. You know what? We will give you applause. We will give you a claim. We will give you the honor of being a great Houston sports talk listener, even though

you don't live in Houston. Thank you, man. I'm going to die hard. I just want to see you guys like every other day. Well, thank you very much. Much appreciate. Happy holiday. Same to you, my friend.

Thank you, Manuel. All right, so, Ross, I'm going to hold your feet at the fire because you are Battle Red Ross. Uh-oh. How is Saturday going to go between the Texans and Chargers? Hello? Texans. Shush.

Uh, uh... Uh... All right, fine. My gut feeling is the Texans lose a close one. I will say Texans you know what?

Now that I'm more I think about it, I'm going to say like 24, 2418 Chargers. I was stunned, Rossi, when I was having the guest on from L.A. earlier today that the over and under is only 39 and a half. Yes. Stunningly low for me. Mm-hmm.

well uh yeah how good is that charger is a charger defense been really good or well it's hard to get because look prescott all he does is throw my by the way i need prescott to throw three interceptions this week three decode dakota hmm he's dakota press got yeah my my charter member of thomas sports enterprises too i need him to fail for one week and one week only well their backup running back kamani vandal got hurt but hassan haskins not that bad and Amerian Hampton's been coming on and been pretty good. They got, I mean, gashed a couple times by Ashton Genty

did the Texan's defense. By the way, my guy asked him. Is he going to be back? What's the deal with that? Wasn't he good this past Sunday? Yes, he was. You know, you always talked about how great of a talent he was. Yes.

I was like, don't underestimate the power of a Boise State running back. You know, he's not dead yet for a thousand yards. Yeah, I mean, you know what? I'll gladly take the L in it, because what I did is I just, I forgot about the 17th game. You stereotyped. You stereotyped Boise State running back. You're probably right there, too. What I should have said is 1,200, and then I don't have felt very...

I mean, he's only at 3.7 yards an attempt. I mean, it's not great. No, but I'll tell you what, in all fairness, because that's where we are fair and balance here on the show, he's a really good receiver out of the backfield. If they can get anybody to get a decent quarterback there and a good offensive mind in Las Vegas, They can use him way more than trying to carry the ball 25 times a game. Let's see. He needs 172 yards in two games to get to a thousand.

Let's go. It's not going to happen. So you have the Texans losing, but yet getting out of the seventh spot. Okay. I see how you're going on that. I don't know what I'm doing. Well, we're used to that. All right, listen to me.

Since we are a holiday week, Ross, I want you to hand the news and news. in 60 seconds can you do a 60 second news update what do you mean just only do so we like to extend things okay uh give thoughtful analysis run through four or five really quick headlines i mean like one minute i won't interrupt them okay because we got brian and robbie and ray and we do like a real news report yeah you're like you're a real scoreboard desk guy okay you're at the 2020 desk uh-huh sounds good we used to have those here do we ever have scoreboard Redurts here. When's the best of believe it or not, by the way, because I'm off the last two days of the

I guess I can throw us off. Best of Believe it or not is on Monday? The 31st. I'm off the 30 and 31st, but I can write it before that. It's best of believe it as on Monday 29th. Okay. We're doing shows 30 and 31, right? I'm just not going to be here. Yeah, 31 I'm not going to do it. I think I'm leaving earlier to go to New York. Oh, dang.

Wow. Wax is going to do two hours for me. I'm 11 to 1 on 31st. I know that for sure. Wow. Isn't it nice of him? That is very nice. I'm off. Yeah, that's fine. You know, you deserve the time.

Have you got the vacation time? You should take this as a vacation time. Oh, yes, sir. Hashtag, no rollover for extra money. Hashtag refresh for 26. Can I be brutally honest in one second we got here? So I was punched drunk tired because we left Sacramento super late yesterday either day. Mm-hmm.

And we had to wait for our bags for like an hour from L.A.X once we got here from Sacramento. I don't think my head at the pillow till about 3.40 Pacific time. So I did nothing productive yesterday. That's great. And I feel like a million bucks. That's good. You need to relax. I've been telling you to relax for ages.

I know. I know, but, and I don't like missing time with you because it's fun when you and I do the shows. But I needed, the West Coast kicks my ass. And so today I feel 500 times better. That's great. Yeah. All right. So very fast headlines with Ross, Brian, Robbie, Ray, Dave. We'll get to all your gut feelings will continue the gut-filling movement

as the Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Trouble 4. It is our number three of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I'm here at Los Angeles. Ross back in our Houston studios. I forgot to ask you before we get to the news at noon. Did you guys read Aggie tweets from the police on Monday?

Oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, it was a great segment. Jonathan? Huh? Don't listen to Ross. Did you all read Aggie tweets? You're talking about the police tweets of? Yes.

Yeah, yeah. I don't believe you the one of you. You're going to call us liars right before Christmas? Wow. That's what you're going to do, really? You know, it's disappointing, but not surprising. Okay, both of you shut up for a second. If any of you listened to the show on Monday,

when I was not on, Did any, did you guys hear the Aggie police tweets? Tell the truth. I'm going to, you know what, I'm having Bible sent to the offices of IHeart Radio, 1233 West Loop South. Jonathan, you're going to put your hand on the Bible, and you're going to say, yes, Matt, Ross read Aggie tweets, police tweets. There were allegations that somebody, friends. in Miami put up a barrier at the end zone. Nice.

We didn't get these gut feelings down, huh? We got like three people in here. Yeah, I know. Okay. Quick headline check. Hit the news at noon. Oh, great. All right, Matt.

So, well, we have the Rockets in action against the Clippers tonight as they take on the hated James Hardin, a former legend of the team. seven and a half point favorites in that game. Elsewhere, of course, we have this weekend coming up, your Houston Texans taking on the Los Angeles Chargers. A lot of playoff, uh, questions hanging in the balance. No update yet from Domingo Ryan's yesterday on the health of either Arionte Ursery or Trent Brown. Both tackles did not finish the game on Sunday against the Los Angeles, excuse me, what? Los Angeles Raiders. Las Vegas Raiders. as we await word on an update from them.

And also, D.K. Metcalf suspended two games for his incident with the fan this weekend. He plans to appeal the suspension. Also sounds like there are rumblings, according to pro football talk, that the fan could be suing D.K. Metcalf for assault and or defamation. As D.K. Metcalf asserted that there were some racial slurs hurled his way, causing his reaction and that's your news and new by the way apparently

the fan says he just brought up DK's full name and he and DK does not like being called by his full name mm-hmm and there is video and there is a clause in

DK's contract that could cost him 40 plus million dollars because of this allegedly I read on the internet I'm not sure how true this is that there was an alternate video from a fan that was maybe the guy's brother.

Okay. Okay. First of all, fans shut up. Sit down in your seat. Cheer and boo. Cheer and boo. And know your role. Secondly, D.K. Mackap,

if anybody's giving you any crap, turn around, find one of the nine million police officers working these games and get the guy thrown out or move. you going into the stands is just as stupid. Hey, that guy was hanging over. Two stupid people doing stupid things, period. Yeah, I just don't know what was said.

It doesn't even matter. Stay away from him. And fan, whatever you were wearing, you look like a complete goof to begin with. And secondly, you're not a star by going after players. Don't be stupid. I like him getting punched in the face for if he's going to be yelling crazy stuff. If he said something, depending on what was said. And he got up and went to the railing.

Like, there is the video. Like, he got up and went to the railing to confront D.K. Okay, that guy's got an IQ of 37. But D.K., you are going to lose on this. You're never going to win the war of, unless the guy jumped over the railing with a knife headed for your throat, you're no way going to win this. Stupid, stupid on both accounts. Really stupid by the fan and not very bright by Metcalf.

Who's going to be suspended two games? I'm interested to see this lawsuit play out because, I mean, after the fan got hit, if he's going to like talk about emotional distress or he's like, he puts his hands up in celebration. Like he's happy. Yeah. No, he's he's a turd. That's ridiculous.

All right, let's go to the phones. We got, hit the gut feeling music again. We get those gut feelings. A lot of folks that want to get the gut feelings in here. It's a, it's a jam, right? Sports RV? Yeah, it is. It's like a Kendrick Lamar of a bump music in sports.

Ah, well, it's not that good. Brian and Pearline, what's in your gut this week? Brian, thank you for holding. Yeah, no worries. I was calling to gloat a little bit. I called in last week, and you gave me a little bit of grief for it. I said after running through Big Red in Lincoln, the A&M women volleyball would bring back some hardware to college station

and hang a banner from the rafters. You said there's no way they're making it through Pitt or the fighting Mrs. Gordy's in Kentucky, and they swept both of them and beat that a dollar sign, dollar sign. Bring her at home. So my girls, Matt, they went to, they went to Kansas City on a business trip and took care of business, raising that banner. I also did call it and then beating Miami in the first round, but nobody cares about that.

Nobody cares about that. That's right. That's right. I said it all along. Brian you are you are perfect because we do want you when people hit their gut feelings you're supposed to call and brag and you are bragging beautifully they went to they went to Kansas City played six sets in one all six say it Ross Texas A&M is a volleyball school it is good for them it's a great national championship you asked me Texas is a rowing school A&M volleyball school the meaningful sports your football is your football is your basketballs right down there on Cullen Boulevard. You're welcome, Brian. Thank you very much. Appreciate you.

Let's go. Oh, did I say Cougars by a touchdown over at least a touchdown over LSU? You did. Get that, all right? Get down there. All right, let's go. David Humble. Dave, what's in your gut this week? Well, my gut is

U of H 30 and LSU 23. love it perfect yeah and as far as the texans goes i guys i will just relax and rossi about that score that's that's cheesy but it's okay i love you rossi okay thank you david love you love you too what's cheesy about your pick my score is going to be that my score is going to be the houston 24 la charges 17 all right there you go thank you very much well i I didn't think your score-wick pick was cheesy, did you?

I don't know. I mean, I want the Texans to win. I just don't know that they're going to. So when I say it's not the worst thing in the world to lose in week 17, you're okay with that? I'm not okay. I mean, okay. I mean, it's not, I guess it's not the worst thing, but it's... I don't think they need to...

Yeah. My gummy-popping buddy in Denver is okay. The Broncos lost. We're basically saying that my... They still need to clinch a playoff spot, but the Jaguar should take care of that. We're basically saying my engineer is a recreational drug user. we're saying basically i mean they're legal in many states i'm i wonder how many people in denver do use some sort of maril uh gummies and or pot would be 20% be too low or just about

i don't know i guess i can google it hmm what do you fill that out on a survey when you're filling out your taxes yeah like i don't know they're some kind of survey all right see you can find an answer to that 22% of adults that was that's in the margin of error i like that. You know what they call me? Missed your accuracy. Let's go to Robbie on 790.

Robbie, what's in your gut? I was just wondering, Matt, are you, your girl's a big-time volleyball player at you or I, and I found out a bunch of those. Aggie girls that won. Came from Houston.

There's a club or something. Did your girls play with them? She's familiar with some of them. She didn't play directly against them, but there is a club called Skyline in Houston that is kind of an indirect pipeline to Texas A&M because a lot of the coaches from A&M used to work at Skyline. So that's, it's a, that team's littered with Houston players.

Okay, well, I was just curious. When you came back, I thought where I forgot all about it. Thanks, man. Thank you. We are your volleyball talk leader, Ross, here in the Houston area. I mean, it's not even close. Name the second show in the marketplace. It talks as much volleyball as this one does.

The 18 Hmm I was going to go with the What do we call our morning show now? I think it's just the morning drive Just some We really got our We really got original with that

Didn't we pulled out all the stops Surprised we didn't go with Zoom zoom zoom in the morning With the morning crew The morning wake up crew The morning zoo It's the morning zoo with Dad and Cole What's going out guys

And the morning 790. Bada-B-B-B-Bad-Bad. Yeah, you go ahead and record that. I think that should be their intro. I would think they would love that. That's a production value of their show. Are you kidding me?

I'm not. Let's go. Ray in Miami. Ray, what's in your gut this week? I still have the same good about night calling game one, Western Conference finals, and O.C. And my second one, I have a good feeling that Gary from Spring is not going to show up in the morning at 9 a.m. Central with cold to have the face off. So if you're listening, Gary, it's 9 a.m. Central with cold for the face off.

What is, is there a beep between Gary and? Oh, yeah. Gary and Ray got big beef. He has big beef. Yeah. It's knocked down, drag out. This is like Tupac and Biggie stuff. It's going through two shows, too, in the morning and our show. It's serious.

Sorry, I missed that. Is it tomorrow, apparently, or what? I don't, I guess it's the throw. They're going to throw down on Christmas Eve. Wait a minute. You cannot have a verbal debate. It's a time for good tidings and love. Yeah.

It should be for Bing Crosby and David Bowie to sing a little drummer boy. Matt, you missed it. He said that Dan is going to let both phones go up and let Ray and Gary discuss on him. I know. The manual's going to have to regulate that because they're going to talk over each other a bunch. You might have to Lincoln Douglas is bad boy You're going to have to basically

Find another station to listen to it I wouldn't listen to that Matt What It should be thrilling radio Tune in Is it tomorrow at 9 a.m? I don't know

I haven't been home in two and a half months I don't know what you're talking about All right I feel like I'm doing a radio show In anywhere but Houston Is everything all right at the house? Yeah You ready for this Rossi

I got a video yesterday of my all of our gifts they were wrapped uh-huh done by a professional rapper okay i don't even want to know what we cost what it costs to wrap gifts don't ask don't i don't want to ask in a million years i don't want to ask professional rapper yeah i mean part of the charm is doing it yourself and having it look crappy i don't know i think they look immaculate you're just going to rip the presents to shreds anyways all right well i don't I'm not going to get any more trouble with... I'm not opening my presence to the 26, so, you know...

Yeah, you're still going to rip them to shreds. Are you going to, like, unfold it? And, all right, I'm going to stay out of this, I guess. You probably should. I'm going to get in more trouble with your wife than I already am normally. Yeah, she hates you, really. That's fine. I get it.

That's an I get it. All right, back with... Are we got more people calling gut feeling? Are we going to do it? Let's do it. Let's keep it rolling, maybe. You know what it is, Rossi? It's a gut-filling. Marathon.

713-212. We're going to keep gut feeling until there ain't no more gut feelings anymore. Is that fair? All right. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-6-0. The longest gut feelings in the history of the Matt Thomas Show of Ross continues here on 7-90. 1225 on the longest edition of the gut feelings in the history of the show.

By the way, I have done some research. some sources. You did not read Aggie Police tweets on Monday, so I'll be reading We absolutely did. Yeah, thank you Gordy. Thank you. That's three votes. I don't believe you don't want to any

of you. You know what? Jonathan, get some audio from Monday's show backing me up on this. There was some corrupted files I heard. Yeah, we'll see what we can do though. We'll figure it out. all right so you three are liars and that's fine we're going to read them coming up because one them is really funny did you read you guys didn't read that's what i'm saying i put in the show notes

hey do do aggie tweet yeah that's right oh here here's the audio right here a m u police gorty oh this is good oh i know oh my god mip neat seven fireball shooters in pocket citation issued ejected that is classic i'm so glad matt told us to do this segment oh he's the best Okay, we're doing it. He's so talented and handsome. You know, one could argue the play on the field was the real joke. Oh, locked on Hayden Aggies. That's it.

By the way, did you do a podcast at A&M's volleyball championship, by the way? You didn't do it, did you? No, we talked about their debacle where they could not score a touchdown at home in a playoff game. Marcel Reed did suck, didn't me? That's a shame. and by the way we can say that college players suck because they're being compensated so sorry

that is what it is Billy Lucci blamed the wind by the way I went to taxags.com all 19 of their reporters had the Aggie's one of that game ironically enough it's like having Gordy unlocked an LSU

I like LSU against everybody no I've been picking you of H all week he's picking the coogs yeah why are you in are you promoting the bowl is that what you're in before you don't come to say hello I had a couple gut feelings. I was going to squeeze him.

Knock him out. We're doing the longest gut feeling in the history of the gut feeling said. We're going for the record. I was going to go with the Texas Longhorns, Ross. Oh, gosh. I think they're going to land the third leading rusher in the SEC this year. Jaden Baugh will transfer her from Florida to Austin. I like that.

They need a running back. He's reporting something. He might have some. He might have the inside info. Jabar Jaluk. Their new running back coach came over from Florida. I think he will have the inside scoop. You know what?

That's fun Verden Quist or whatever that dork you have on is. That gave you the information on that. No, I'm just, it's a gut feeling. Why is that guy a dork? Because he's got a dorky name. Hold on. You're the biggest dork in front of a microphone around here right now. That is fit.

So there is anybody that can judge a dorkness, it's me. If I'm the dork, I'm the king dork, I can, I know who my princes are. You know what I'm like? I need that clips for sure. You are king dork. and you know your princes. That's pretty funny. What else you got?

Thank you very much. What else you got, Gordy? The other one, I think the Houston Cougars beat LSU by 10. Oh! Oh! Hey, is Frank Wilson going to have an Ole Miss Cap-on while he's coaching LSU on Saturday?

What's going on with that? What's very awkward is the whole half, the whole offensive staff won at Ole Miss on Saturday night Sunday morning they were all back in the LSU facility that is so weird so bizarre

all right Texans charges what do you got Gordy and your gut feelings oh chargers by seven hmm okay that will be an NFL network game by the way have you guys mentioned that yes yes and that means turning the sound down

gets Rich Eisen cannot oh he's not he's all right Dan Matthews cannot stand Stan Rich Eisen. Did you see what Rich Eisen said last week about we as Americans, Gordy, are going to miss the chiefs in the playoffs? Oh, yeah.

That's loser aid. By the way, which show washed up 90s sitcom star will Rich Eisen have on today? Uncle Jesse from Full House. He's a regular. Dave Cooley. I think he's six. Who is that show for?

Is that just for him to rub elbows with L.A. Elite? It's, hey, I'm going to have on every NFL executive so I can kiss their ass, so I can keep my job. At least Cowherd has hot takes every day. He doesn't believe him, but at least he delivers. No, no, Colin doesn't believe him. He's terrible. Welcome our buddy Stugats, by the way.

He joins the Fox Sports Radio crew. Oh, he does? What show is he doing? He's doing a solo show. Oh, really? That should be great. He took over for Gottlie because he's given up the radio show to keep his focus coaching UW Green Bay. Huge, huge upgrade over Doug Gottlieb.

I'm sorry, I'm looking at Colleen Wolf's Instagram. You guys are talking about NFL network. Do you have a gut feeling about Colleen Wolf? Some kind of feeling. Can you take a picture with her back in the day? She's going to do a great job reporting. I interviewed her. I know. I gave you that. Yeah, I think we were, I think we were

vibing. You had meat sweats, did you not? It was some kind of sweats. Okay. We picked the time Matt was not available. Yeah, exactly. Ross, this one's you. So, Gordy, if we go to the... She was quite charming. She's very nice. How are you going to get Radio Row credentials and on that?

Have you applied for all that yet? We're not doing any of that. We're focused on Astro Spring Training right now. I've got Fan Fest coming up January 24th. I've had several friends tell me that they applied for credentials and they started to look at the prices and went, we're not going. It's absolutely atrocious the prices of what they're charging for stuff in Santa Clara, California for the Super Bowl. Yeah.

Plus, again, it doesn't help that you're too. hours early. Like this show today starts at 8. I mean, if there's any show that should go, it should be this one, but I'll be busy with Rockets. But it's like morning drive shows. Are you kidding? Oh, we're going to have Emmett Smith join us at 445 Pacific time.

Come on and join. Imagine Cole Thompson. You want to talk to Cole Thompson in Hawaiian Shorter shirt at 4 a.m. God. Oh, my. With his horrific takes and Dan Matthews going away, buddy, want to come on the show at 512 a.m. Eastern Pacific time?

I think they'd do well. I was shocked going to radio or last year in New Orleans how many. It's like it's like almost 40% podcast and like

national front office sports has a whole set up what? Cam Newton and his podcast and just like it's not even

radio stations anymore well it's not enough so you're saying that we will not have wall to wall cover to the Texans going to the Super Bowl

um Wex will I mean can he foot the can he foot the bill Our own Aaron Wilson will represent us. There we go. Okay, you better tell Wex ahead of time because he's not going to like that.

I mean, if he wants to pay his own way, he can go. There was, there is nothing. He can pay his own way. Will Ferrell here, you can pay. I checked the kitty. There's nothing in the kitty for Texan Super Bowl this year. So the budget rolls over. It'll be in January, February.

Have we had that in the budget since 2011 to their first playoff appearance? It's been a while. We've had plenty of Astros World Series budgets. Yeah, all right. Okay, so Gordy's voice is on here for not particularly to entertain the show. He's here for some other reason. What is it, Gordy? Tell the audience.

Well, I didn't plan on it, but I'll promote the Kinders Texas School. Wait, wait a minute. We're not giving them free points, right? Let's go. I've just got my tickets. I'm excited. Kinders, Texas Bowl.com for your tickets. Group opportunities, great concerts leading up to the event.

Plenty of family fun. They're going to have the big country concert. on Friday night, the Magnolia Brothers Band downtown Avenida Houston. I even saw the Coogs are going to have a pregame at Tom's Watchbar, I think at 5 on Friday. Then you can walk from Tom's Watchbar over to Avenida downtown Houston and see the concert. And then on Saturday, another pregame concert outside NRG. Kinders, Texas, bowl.com for tickets.

That's a gorty drop-by. Thank you. All right. The gut feelings continue. Yeah, there was some gut feelings in there, so we have that. and then we're going to read Aggie tweets because you losers didn't do it on Monday. We did. We played you the audio. Well, you know. What is it talking about, Ross? I don't know. It's crazy.

That's crazy. Ryan and K, so hang tights. It's 1233 on Sports Talk, 790. The longest gut feeling and gut feeling history is going on today here on December the 23rd. Matt here in Los Angeles, Ross back in a Houston studios, back on the phones we go. If you got any gut feelings,

let's go. 7-13-212. 5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Keso, what is in your gut besides cheese here on 7-90? Lots of cheese, but first of all, before I get to my gut feelings, Matt, as we know, you are Mr. Texas, or Governor Thomas, correct? Correct. I think I have a new name for your esteemed colleague that sits next to you, Ross, a new nickname. If you don't mind me airing it on the radio here, Ross. Okay.

uh since you travel so much especially outside the state of texas we should just call you mr america well how does that sound for matt no for you me matt travels more than i do yeah well i mean for work but when you do you get to do it for fun so i think mr america yeah you know what i think this makes a lot of sense matt is still not mr texas because he uh for a number of reasons we get through but you know what you're right i'm mr america okay i just wanted to make sure sure that was cool with you. Thank you, Kayso. Yes, absolutely. Now, to my gut feeling, I think either before or on the All-Star break, we will see Wanda Reed Shepard as our starting point guard. It is too, the team is too good whenever he's on the court compared to starting

Josh Kogi and the two-guard role. I think we will see Mr. Shepard inserted in that lineup, up and we will see the Rockets fully contend with the healthy roster. I just want to see what y'all's thoughts were on that. Thanks. Thanks, Koso for that. What do you think, Mr. America? I think it will be matchup dependent. I mean, Reed Shepard did start a few games.

I think it's what started a handful of games for whatever it is. Not during the regular season, I don't think. Just during the preseason, I thought. I could be wrong I'll check Reid didn't he start I thought he started like three or four games at one point

well I've only done every one of them I don't know why I wouldn't know this Yeah I'm pulling it up Four starts Wow Was I there for those four I guess I was yeah I think you had an head injury at that time

Probably I was concussed Well it was when there were a couple of injuries But then I think one of the games people came back But well And Cochidoka has talked about this on this show. It's a lot of matchup dependent. They like Joshua Kogi's defense better. That's the bottom line. And they like

Reed Shepard coming off as a bench score. I mean, normally he plays more minutes than Josh Akogi who starts. So it's not necessarily about who starts and who comes in when. It's about who finishes as well. Reed Shepard is on a lot of the finishing lineups, especially when they're playing offense for defense

late in close games and stuff like that. They like him scoring and they like Okogi better defensively. So generally, to set the defensive tone and to let Reed Shepard be kind of the second, the, the number one score of the second unit, or one of the number one scores of the second unit, they like him coming off the bench. You know, I don't even really know how to answer that. I don't know, you make starting lineup changes because all of a sudden you think it's

going to change the tenor of the team. Ross, the ten of the team, they're still top three in scoring. They're shooting at an incredible amount. Their clutch play has been below average and poor, frankly. Is that nothing to do with who starts? I mean, that's how I see from an overly simplistic viewpoint. Yeah, I think they like, for example, I just pulled up the Nuggets game, Reed Shepherd played 30 minutes, O'Kogi played 29.

And the last game against the Kings, they both played 34 minutes. Like, they're getting around the same amount of minutes on the floor. Yeah, the clutch performance is what, it's killed this team so far this year. Yeah, that'll be fine. They'll be fine to, you know, be out in the second round. third round, so. Okay. It's great. I, Western Conference Finals

at minimum. Let's go. I, okay, I'm sticking with, you know what, I'll write this down again. I hit a gut feeling a couple weeks ago, and I'll stick with it. Rockets will finish top three. Okay. I accept that. Right now they're sixth. But, as we saw

last year, things can change literally game by game. Yeah, they still have the second best point differential in basketball. They're game and a half from being the four seed. I mean, the spurs are good. The Nuggets, Lakers. It's going to be tough. Spurs are way better than I thought they would be. They're actually way better than they should be at this point.

They're looking legit. They're looking legit. It's not good. Okay, stop. Don't whisper. People are still hearing. I'm sad. I think I feel. Wimby's still coming off the bench. I've called two losses of Sacramento and the pelicans in the same week.

That's fine. When beat the clips tonight? Let's go. Ryan, what's in your gut at 1245? So I'm here, I'm thinking Kimey Fairbairn is going to do his job. Texans are going to win 24, 21. That's that. I think the Rockets are going to win 115 to 98.

Ooh, 17 point win. I'll accept that. And I'm going to go on the over 18 beers drank between Christmas Eve and I go back to work on Monday. I take the over on that. Yeah, knowing you, that's going to be

that you'll be by about 11 o'clock tonight. Thank you, Ryan, for the phone call. Yeah, Ross, I've called three I've called three overtime games in the last seven days. Yeah, do you get extra for that? Yeah, come on. You need a petition them. I get nothing except losses and Dennis Schroeder three-pointers.

A lot overtime basketball. A lot of overtime basketball. Rockets win in regulation and cover the seven and a half tonight what's up oh bless you sports rb all right when this program returns you were supposed to hear it on monday the frauds didn't do their job a and m tweets during the saturday setback 10 to did people at least call about the game on monday rossi did they even no it's funny we we took all these aggy football calls all year long and you know last several weeks it's hadn't been much no

All right. We salute you, Aggie fan, next here at 1247 on Sports Talk 790. We congratulate A&M volleyball for being the national champion. They went to Kansas City, played six sets, won all of them. Congratulations to the Aggies, volleyball school extraordinaire. My son Rossi, my Peyton, was at the airport or at A&M when they arrived back in from Kansas City. Went to A&M's campus about 1245 in the morning. Welcome to girls back home.

Isn't that nice? I did Get some numbers Aggie through and through Mr. 24-7 Aggie? You get some IGs? You could talk to him about that directly

That's fine Okay I don't want to talk about my son's personal life on the major market radio show Okay Here we go You told us where he was going And where he's doing

But I didn't bring up IGs You did that All right A&M police three days ago at TMA TAMU police MIP Coors Light in back pocket

citation issued ejected hashtag B-T-H-O Miami well that we won't be mentioning that tag if it didn't happen well they don't B-T-H-O a lot of the people they say they're going to B-T-H-O Coors Light really? Hold up what's wrong

Coors-Lot light it's fine it gets a job done you get them cold blue mountains what do you talk about it's not over it class i don't want to hear from i don't want to hear from you cranberry vodka guy hey i had blue moons in sacked town a couple days ago delicious exactly how many oranges what was the orange to blue moon ratio there were four i asked for foreign wedges oh my key had a whole ass orange you try to fight off scurvy even you have a beer next mip

saw officer and tried to hide a mango white claw citation issued I have never had a white claw before. Delicious, Ross? White calls are fine. Yeah, they, I mean, it's, it's the new version of Mike's Hard Lemonade, which was the new version of Zima or Barrels and James wine coolers. It's what you drink when you don't want to taste alcohol. It's fine. I've been clawed up in my day.

All right. Hashtag B. T.H.O. Miami. Next, M.P. Saw officer and put down strawberry Rita citation issued. Hashtag B.T.H.O. Miami. Was that a Bud Light Strawberryita? I don't know what that is.

We're upgrading our beverages here. Those bad boys are like 8% or 10% to 10% ABV, I think. Next, Red Bull and Twisted Tea in pockets. Ejected, hashtag B.T.H.O. Miami. Next, saw officer and dropped Bushlight beer, citation issued. Hashtag B.T.H.O. Miami. Bush latte is a nice combination of, uh, cheap and not that bad if it's cold next two cores light beers in front of overalls

only in college station seriously in front of overalls ejected hashtag btahmama me maybe it was that kid on the game day show was trying to kick the field goal for a million and a half dollars why didn't he hide them in his platoon next two mineral lights in pocket citation issued ejected hashtag b t htahm Miami I need to keep a tote board Of which brand of beer Is getting drank the most I think Bush Light is the favorite

Next Saw Officer as MIP Saw officer and dropped beer Then started drinking water Citation issued hashtag PCHO Miami Oh the officer's like Oh you're you're hydrating

I won't give you a ticket sorry Next MIP Seven Fireball Shooters in Pockets citation issued, ejected, hashtag B.T.H.O. Miami. Could you live through seven fireball shooters, Rossi? I think that means they had like the little, little shooter bottles in their pockets. I got you.

Next, M.I.P. alcohol, M.I.M.P. Tobacco. Two St. Arnold's lawnmowers. Oh, okay. Somebody was a class now. One Mikulab Ultra. nicotine vape and a pack of Marlboro 100s in pockets Citation issued

ejected hashtag BTHO Miami All right Get rid of the vacant Vap and the cigarettes Come on kids But I do have to tip to cap To some St. Arnold's Next

Section 334 Subject throwing eggs ejected hashtag BTHO Miami Okay Here's the rule If you're in section 334 at Kyle Field you're going to throw eggs, you're going to hit either a fan, Miami fan, a band, or one of your own fellow lackeys.

There's no positive benefit to throwing eggs in Section 334. Yeah, you got a cannon out there? Next, public intoxication section 331. Responded to a subject who was sick, determined to be intoxicated and arrested. Hashtag B.T.H.O. Miami. So he got arrested and was sick. that can't be fun being in the county jail with being sick next north level two concourse minor attempted to buy two cores lights using a fake georgia driver's voice ejected hashtag b t hiby

oh man in our last one the old standby rossi public intoxication section 122 two intoxicated subjects released to sober friend ejected Hashtag B-T-H-O Miami. The subject-throwing eggs tweet got 1.2 million impressions. Wow. The next highest on the list, the two cores light beers in front of overalls, 353,000 of views on that one.

Overalls. Overalls at an end. Maggie game. It's like peanut butter and jelly. Do you see the kid trying to get the field goal? I felt terrible for him. No, I didn't see it at all. I want to give most of it to charity.

I want to give someone to my buddies. And freaking Pat McAfee's like, I'll give you, I'll give you a million. Then he gives him a million and a half and he misses both field goals. Yeah, I didn't, I got to be honest. I know people were saying Longhorn fans are hate watching. I just wasn't watching. I'm tuned out. I'll just check.

I was checking scores every now and then, but. I got you. All right. In 20 minutes, Ross, we have NFL rewind from the weekend. Okay That sounds good We have Willie Fritz in one half hour And we have Believe it

What's that 150 today? Believe it out What's the category? Oh, there'd be Clippers Remember I gave away a free question Ooh, do you think people heard it? You want me to say it again? Nope, it was pre-noon We got to take care of our 10 o'clockers

And 11 o'clockers, we just do Okay It is 1259 Final hour, Matt Thomas Joe Ross I'm in Los Angeles, Ross back in Houston We thank you for listening to Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

It is a 103 on Sports Talk 790. Matt here with you from Los Angeles for the start of Houston v. L.A. this week. Rockets against the Clippers tonight will have it for you beginning with the launch pad at 830, network pregame at 9, and the tip time will be at this past 9.30. then the Rockets will take on the Lakers on Christmas night and then the Texans will play the Chargers on Saturday, 3.30 start time in Houston.

So if you want to get in any of those things you want to, whether it be the Clippers Rockets tonight, you know that I was doing some research, not research, but looking at my numbers here. James Hardin has played all the games for the Clippers actually they've played 28 games he's played 26 of them he's been the free throw line 214 times it seems kind of low

well what is what is 214 into 26 it's about what eight a game eight and a half someone in that range and when you get into like uh it feels like he was getting 10 plus a game for a while there back in the day back in the day by the way a quick note uh john Jonathan, Al, I don't think I wrote down a gut feeling for Jonathan. Did he say something that I missed it or did he give you anything? I don't think I gave anything. Okay, good. I think we had all that marathon.

I was letting everybody have the shine. No, you know, you need your shine too. How's Houston going to do versus L.A. this week? Feeling like one and two? Oh, shush. Hmm. You know what? Shush.

I, you know what, just to take my bias. away, I believe Houston's going to win by one possession. Oh, I forgot. We got Chargers fan here. Matt? Oh, that's right. Charger Jonathan. I know two Charger fans in Houston, Texas. My buddy, Ed,

and Jonathan. They already clinched, so I mean, I'm only too mad they lose, but I do think Houston right now is the better team. Okay. But it's going to be close. And Justin Herbert's going to have to have nightmares of all the interceptions he threw last in a wild card game, right?

Yeah, he's looking for redemption. Against a rockist home crowd or with him. You are looking better, by the way, for your 3.30 Saturday wild card start, Ross. Yes, I am. Jaguars, Texans, come on down. Texan Jaguars, 330. I believe it's going to be on streaming only

on the, what's a rando streaming app? 2B, yeah. Yikes. By the way, did you see that Jacksonville beat the crap out of Denver in Denver, Ross? Are we a little, are we soft selling them a little bit? No, I think they're really good. Okay.

I'm scared. I'm more scared than I ever have been of the Jaguars. NFL rewind in 14 minutes. We'll get a couple of things in. Also, real quick, were you going to bring up what's going on in Kansas City with the Chiefs at all during your rewind? I don't want to stay your thunder. Oh, the team moving? I didn't plan on it.

I was going to do on the field stuff, but you can. you love those types of stories well i'm just going to say they're moving to kansas yeah kansas city makes sense kansas they've been in missouri since day one yes they're going across the border kansas city kansas i think i believe it's significantly more sketch than kansas city missouri is oh is that true i don't know i'm just telling you what people have told me from there okay that's what the that's what the word is the word on the streets is okay and we and we are seeing a trend just to localize, as we do like to localize, we are seeing

teams getting out of downtowns. Hmm. So I thought they passed, I thought the first resolution didn't pass, and the second one did, or something like that. I don't think there ever was the second one. Now, the people in Missouri think they've still got a chance. So, even though

people in Kansas are celebrating, it sounds like the governor of Missouri is like, we are not done. Hmm. This will be a governor of Missouri that will have seen two teams. I think under his, while he's been in charge of the state, two teams leaving the state of Missouri. Because remember, the Rams love for Los Angeles, it's been about 10 years, right? Give her take?

It feels like 10 years, but when I say 10 years these days, it's probably been like 15. I know, I know. Does that make you older young? Hush. That's a genuine question. That's making sense. Yeah, I did you celebrate your birthday, by the way, on Friday. I did send you a happy birthday tweet.

Me? Yeah. So that was like a bit on the show. I was like, why am I getting a text from Matt? He must be talked about this on air. Well, we weren't talking about you specifically. We're talking about that you are going to get and I'm going to get a bunch of Merry Christmas text coming up in two days. Okay. And that if you really, really wanted to wish me and Merry Christmas, you send me a card. Why? Because it means you're actually, you actually thought of me. How many cards do you send out? Zero, but I don't send out text.

Hold on. no you are so weird why can't i say oh you know what i'm busy i'm a family i'm opening presents i'm drinking eggnog and you know what oh you know what i thought of man thomas for a second you know what happy merry christmas matt hope you're having a good one so you don't know this because you were you were gone on friday okay what i'm going to do is i've got a long long text locked and loaded for anybody that texts me happy but merry christmas what are you going to say you got it in your notes app or what yes it's so long it's going to be in my notes app what does it say it's just going to recap my entire year okay i'm just telling you it's going to be the gift

that if you took the time to text me merry christmas i'm not going to say thank you back at you or give you an exclamation point or a heart okay you're going to get a full text it's going to be Probably in the vicinity of 500 words. That's very weird. Yes. That's my point. I don't know it's coming. I don't get it.

What's the point? The point is you took one second to send me Merry Christmas. I'm going to give you the text of a lifetime to let you know that I thought about you. No, but you didn't. You're just copying and pasting. They don't know that. Ross, you said something a couple weeks ago. You said it was Matt Thomas Brain.

Is that what you had to say? Matt Thomas Brain. We are donating it to science. This makes no sense on any level. I don't get this at all. I'm thinking here in the back. I'm like, I'm really trying to understand. I'm trying to see this point, but I'm just not there.

I don't see the point at all. I don't know why it upsets you that people that are thinking of you on Christmas. I mean, the biggest holiday, the biggest holiday in the country. Yes. And they're taking time out of their day to say Merry Christmas to you. Whoa, whoa, whoa. taking time of the day they're taking five seconds of their day I'm worth five seconds of somebody to me

to text somebody to text a person that I know because you know I'm a bad texter Matt to me that's taking time out of the day yeah would you you know I'm going to send you an early so why don't you wish me Merry Christmas you should be happy anybody's thinking of you not you Matt but you know people in general anyone

I know okay I'm going to do this right now I want to wish all of you Christmas. And I mean that sincerely, because if not for you, we don't operate as a radio show or a station. That's correct.

So seriously. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, happy holidays from all of us. It means a lot to us that you are a part of this show, that you listen and contribute

and argue with us sometimes, make fun of us, sometimes we can take it. We're all big boys, we're grownups, we love each other, and we thank you so much. That's what I want to wish

all of you. Personally, very Merry Christmas. So ridiculous. That reminds me. I've got to respond to all these people on Facebook who sent me a happy birthday wishes. Again, here's, you want to use Matt Thomas frame? No. Take your birthday.

Take your birthday off your Facebook. So many people wish you a happy birthday. Nobody. I've done that before. I see that point, though. I see, okay. Thank you. Why is everybody supposed to remember your birthday?

No, it's not, no, it's not about that. It's more about, like, who really cares about my son. guilty. You are guilty. Probably nobody. I've done that and nobody says happy birthday and you know what? You're like, man, nobody cares about me. So I put it back on. I put your birthday in my daytimeer so I knew I was going to do it. Oh, you did? Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for taking your time out of your day to text me, Matt. It took me three seconds. It wasn't that much. You just still got to do it. Paul on 790, Paul, which in your gut? And I got a gut to do this. Next time I hear that guy say, put your mother loving ears on and disgrace the memory

Christina McVee for singing that song like that. I'm going to pull a 357 out and go full Elvis on my sports talk radio devices sitting over here listening to y'all's on. But other than that, I'd like to wish you all a happy New Year and Merry Christmas. Thank you, Paul, very much. And it's been a pleasure listening to you for the last, what, 17 years? Thank you. We'll be starting to see your 17 in January.

Thank you very much, Paul. No, you're not. Are you kidding? We should be proud of our accomplishment. We ain't changing either. I really thought I was going to go somewhere in my life. Well, I tried to help you for a few years. I just gave up.

Thank you, Matt. I would tell him, hey, Ross, there's a job in Jackson, Mississippi you should try for. They didn't email me back. Hey, Ross, I hear Duluce, a really big thriving sports market. They didn't call me back either. All right, NFL ReWine is coming up. Oh, yeah. It could be brief.

Give us a Philly Rivers report from last night. How about you can do that at least. Of course. 114 on Sports Talk 790. 121. Sports Talks at any. Willie Fritz joining us in 10 minutes right now on Express Edition of how did Philip Rivers do. It's all part of the Ross's NFL Rewind.

Yes, Matthew. Thank you. I'm proud to be here on another rousing edition of. the NFL rewind. And you know what? Let's go start off with your boy, Philly Rivers. Is my computer working? I should have tested this. How's everything going with you, man? Everything left ass. Three receivers go to the right side. Rivers has a free shot. throws him to the end zone. Touchdown. In the back of the end zone, it's Alec Pierce,

and the plate covers 20 yards to the house. Touchdown. I. Indy. And the cold score. It touchdown on their opening drive of the game. That was when it felt good. And you're like, Philip Rivers, is he going to get this done? No, he wasn't. Brock Purdy had five touchdowns. But Philly Rivers, 277 yards, a couple of touchdowns, did have the pick six. But, I mean, this is one of the all-time, all-time NFL crazy stories, correct?

Yes. The guy was a Hall of Fame finalist. Yes. And he's performing fairly well. Now, did the NFL determine whether this is going to delay his process now because of this? As soon as he signed to the active roster, I think practice squad he was okay, but I think the second he signed to the active roster,

the clock resets. I don't know if he's going to get some kind of special exception. I don't know that he should, but the clock is supposed to reset. You know what he also got? Did you see this? He gets five years of more medical coverage in the NFL because of this. Yes, people are saying that he did that on purpose.

But I saw that, but he should have full pension, right? He played for almost 15 years. I know in baseball You get full pension and then you get health care for life I don't know about football But he's got enough children to bear an NBA squad So he's got a lot of issues when it comes to medical care So this is going to help out tremendous

Well as long as a couple of them are financial successful He'll be taken care of He's a grandfather Yes You think you think You think Tom Brady's getting a little jealous? No Give me early fast

Give me the next I shouldn't say this Who would be a guy that has been retired for a while that you think could step on the field and play? Yeah, I'll go to Tom, right? It's got to be a quarterback because, I mean, look, there's a reason why 45-year-olds

the oldest players ever in the NFL are all kickers or quarterbacks. Right. So I guess non-kicking guys in particular. We can't even use those guys. Would Brady be the chalk on that? I think so. Yeah, I think he's better. Peyton Manning, no.

I mean, he could hardly throw at the end of his career. His neck wasn't working. Drew Grease would be interesting, I guess. I was, uh, Rothlessberger retired somewhat early relative to the other guys. He's doing a podcast now. He's 43. How about that podcast run? I don't know.

It's still going, I think. Everybody and their mother are doing podcasts. Just get out the way. Do your little podcast. for two months until you get bored and let the rope radio professionals do it. Weekdays tend to two. Let's see.

Football in with with a, he's got 114 episodes. He started in, he's been doing this for a year. He's been doing this. What? He's been doing this since 2022. Well, like, like Fred Van Blee's podcasting.

I mean, is he taking, is you trying to take our job? What's it called? ACL Rehab with Fred Van Fleet You know what it is It's 90% swear words I mean we can't That's good to do it

I know I do I would like to swear Especially at you Thank you Appreciate that What else you got Elsewhere in the NFL Matt did you see the wild ending Of the Steelers Lions game

I was trying to read I saw the miss pass in appearance And I saw him mouth OPI end of the game So I felt pretty confident that was what's going to happen but you never know it's more time and like i said i was there for the failed merry game i was standing from me to you from the replacement refs as they cave to the pressure of uh an angry seattle field when that was obviously uh not simultaneous

possession so i was glad that ended up like that wild game um glad we're on top it was clearly a pass interference though it was a past i'm on ross st brown then he lateral to Jerk golf. The referee says the touchdown is good, but then it's nullified by the penalty. And then that was the end of the game. We had some weird things happen. How about that two-point conversion?

What was it on Thursday night? I thought it was weird. With the backwards pass, it was deflected and then fumbled? Crazy stuff going on in the NFL, Matthew. So many different nuances, that's for sure. Yes. Let's see.

Let's go to our old friends. to the north. The Dallas Cowboys eliminated from a playoff contention as they lose to the Chargers 34 to 17. Jerry Jones, not happy. Yes, from what we expected, what we thought, absolutely. We did. We all underachieved, really. And the fact we're not in the playoffs says that for you. But I thought we've done some things out there that, frankly, we can carry forward to us with us that's always the case there you go

it's some positive things they can carry with them man yeah another non-play of appearance and that my friends is the NFL everyone Ross thank you very much for that you're welcome all right uh willie fritz next 127 here on sports talk 790 32 on the matthelves show with Ross it's our final visit

of the season here with the man joining us is going to help our cougars hopefully knock off the LHSA you Tigers this Saturday at the Texas Bowl. Willie Fritz with us. Coach, long time, no talk. Happy holidays to you and the family. What a great season it has been overall, wrapping

things up with the win in Baylor. Take us through what you've been doing besides signing some great kids in the recruiting world. How has it been in the time between the Baylor game and what you got coming up this Saturday? Really good. Yeah, you're right. It seems like we haven't talked for quite

some time. But it's you know, it's been awesome. We signed a I think a great high school class, signed the number one player in the nation at all positions. Kishon Anderson from up the road and Legacy Sports Academy High School in Spring, Texas. And I think five other kids, six other kids from the greater Houston area and a couple kids just outside the metro and a few kids from state of Louisiana. By and large, everybody's within driving distance, which is our goal when we go out and recruit. We're very fortunate that we don't have to get on a plane. First time I get on a plane to recruit will be the first time I've gotten on a plane

to recruit since I've been here. So a great freshman class. And then we've come back and started practicing. You know, we went ahead and had five practices. And then we took the kids a week off and everybody came back in Sunday. We just completed practice number two a couple hours ago and, you know, working hard on, you know, LSU and what they do and, you know, picking up where we're left off hopefully. Willie, you have done this before.

I'm sure you've gone against teams, whether it's bowl games or, you know, current situation that you've been in yourself about what the other side of things. You've got coaching situation change. Lane's going to take over to LSU. Their interim coach is going to be leaving to go to Ole Miss when the game is all said and done. How much, and I'm going to assume the answer is still plenty, but is there anything about game film that can be deceiving

because of players that are not playing and coaching changes at this point? No, you're right. You've got to really look at it closely. One thing is they made the change with the coaching staff. You know, I think it with maybe five games left in the

season. So you've got some games that you can look at. You know, it was the same play caller, you know, offensively, defensively, special teams-wise. You know, the thing that's always different in a bowl game is the time, you know, between the last game and when you play the bowl game. And, you know, just like us, we're going to have some wrinkles in there, you know,

they're not going to be prepared for offense, defense, kicking game, and there's going to be some stuff they're going to do against us. You know, we're not going to be prepared for it because they've never shown it before. But, you know, there's always a wrinkle here and there when you're playing a bowl game, especially when it's over a month since the last game that you played. I know that every team goes through a few changes. You've got kids that don't want to play in the bowl game. You've got kids that are thinking about transfer portal.

It sounds like to me, and you don't have to get into great detail, but it feels like you're going to have as full of a roster as maybe anybody in the country going to this game on Saturday. Yeah, we think we're going to have everybody, which we're really, really excited about. You know, it's a big deal for us. You know, we're playing to have 10 wins in a season. There's not very many teams in the country.

that will have 10 plus wins. So we want to be one of them. And all the kids, we've done a good job of recruiting the right kind of guys. You know, they're excited about representing the university and our team one more time. So we would feel like we're going to be, you know, have a full squad out there. And, you know, other than the kids who got injured early in the season, everybody's going to, is preparing right now and everybody's going to participate in bowl. you have an environment of riches with kishon obviously coming in next year but connor made the decision last year to leave a and m and was looking for a place he chose the university of houston and i think you'd be generally speaking very pleased with his performance this year as with many different guys but uh for wickman in particular tell me about the first time he stepped on the campus and where he has grown in as far as you're concerned about who he is as a quarterback and the confidence that he i think he's rebuilt after uh less than spectacular season and

college station the year before? Well, a lot of his issues and problems in college station he's banged up or got injured and tried to play through those injuries and we were very aware of that and made sure that we got him healthy. But he's been just awesome. He's a really, really nice young man,

good a young man, good leader, very competitive. You know, I think he's had an excellent season for us. You know, just, you want to have that quarterback, but be that type of leader. You know, sometimes you don't get that.

And I hear stories about some guys who think a little bit of a prima donna maybe at that position. But Conner's really is entrenched with the offensive line, all the guys on the team. He's just an excellent leader for us. And we're really, really happy that we got him here at the University of Houston. Willie, I'm very curious about how LSU is going to prepare for this. They had been to previous Texas Bulls. and like you've got some guys auditioning for jobs,

you've got kids that are moving on, and you've got quarterback changes left and right. Would it be fair to say that maybe the first quarter, you'll see it in their eyes and we'll see it as fans about how vested they're into this game, depending on what kind of start you get on your side of the ball? Oh, I think those kids are going to be very, very excited. Coach Wilson does a super job.

I've known him. He's a New Orleans guy, and he's there Tulane for eight years. We did a lot of recruiting, you know, camps in collaboration with L.S. You know, especially when Coach Orgeron was there. You know, so they're going to have them fired up and ready to go. I know a few of the coaches on their staff. Coach for me before Alex Atkins or offensive coordinator, you know, a really good coach. Kevin Peel is a D-Line coach for him.

He's coach for me a bunch of places. They're going to have them ready to go. I got to do a good job making sure our guys are ready to go. This is a, you know, it's a big ballgame for us. We've sold out our allotment of tickets. LSU's done the same. We're going to have a really good crowd in NRG. So it's exciting.

I know it's going to be exciting for both teams. And the love that this school has for its city, I do like the fact you guys are making a staycation out of it. We're getting the kids away from campus to get that feel of being at a bowl game, even though you're still staying in 7-13. Oh, yeah. We're staying in, you know, Hill in America's downtown. We're going to be doing a bunch of things with them.

We're doing going, doing a little goat car racing tonight with the kids. And, you know, we want to have fun. You know, we want to have the right kind of fun. And they know that. But the main thing is playing great Saturday night at 820. That's the thing, you know, I tell them all the time. And all of this is for us to play great at 820. So when it's time to prepare, prepare, when it's time to have,

Some fun. Let's have some fun. But we're just blessed and honored to represent the University of Houston in this bowl game. Well, this is some of your last visit, so let me ask you this. The game will end. Your wife is going to ask you to do some honey-dos because you've basically been away from that for quite a few months. And then after that, what's the next 60 days for you and your staff like here? Well, we've got the portal. That's going to open up on January the 2nd through the 16th.

That's going to take a lot of our time. We've got the National Convention, the American Football Coaches Association. You know, I'll go out to Charlotte, North Carolina for a day or two for that, and some of my coaches will as well. And when that finishes, you know, we get into high school recruiting. So we'll be out and about driving around town and seeing all the great high school football players and coaches here in the state of Texas. So there's always work to do.

so luckily I love my job so it's labor of love and I've said this before many times even when you've not been on my show I feel like with so many Houston kids that this would be a and people have their own opinions about the portal so we'll leave it for a different time but if you've got some homesick children the University of Houston could be a great place to finish out a college football career well I've mentioned it before one of the reasons we got Tulane turned around and did things there that nobody thought we were capable of ever being able to do

is we had a bunch of New Orleans kids that went far distances to go to school if the grass was green or somewhere else found out it was only green and came back home and sooner or later that outweighs a little bit more money in my opinion but uh I just think there's going to be that opportunity for us to grab some kids and maybe went someplace else a lot of the kids we got on our team that we got out of the portal we're all kids from this area for the most part

besides two or three guys that's one of the main reasons why Connor Weidman came to the University of Houston he's from Houston he's very close to his family and he wanted to come back home and we're fortunate enough to get him but there's a lot of guys that are in a similar

situation so you're right we're going to use that to our advantage wellie thank you for the Vincent C, every week throughout the course of the year. We wish you another but the very best. Best of luck Saturday against the LSU Tigers. I work with nothing with LSU Tiger people, so I need you to win this one especially badly because I can give them

so much grief over the next a handful of days. We do our best job of it, man. I appreciate you. Go Coogs. Hey, Rossi, let's get rid of that liner for next year. What do you think? Why? It's rude. That's a staple of the Matt Thomas show.

But we're nice here on the 7-90 between 10 and 2. Sometimes. That's fair. Tomorrow on the show, Dr. Roto, we'll be with us. What else I got to go? We got shut your bum ass. Are we going to, should we do a shut-your-bum-ass up on Christmas Eve? Maybe we should do things we're grateful or thankful for, Matt.

Okay, I want you, and this is homework for both you and Jonathan. Let's do the opposite of shut your butt. Keep talking more, maybe? we did this before i know what it was a disaster it was awful nobody one nobody called in nobody wants to be nice all right then we're keeping it as is tomorrow shut your bum ass up but how about it has to be christmas related well it's not christmas related i got into you're going to like this i have a story i of me and an older woman at the blackjack table zero surprise am i a hypocrite find out tomorrow all right so we're doing shut your bum ass up we will try to be a little

nicer than we normally would be how about that we go with that we do both yeah how about naughty or nice one naughty one nice okay well we got to think about that five minutes up to go what should we do shut you bum ass up naughty and nice edition one of each should play game show we simply call it B believe it or not and here's how it works you call 713-212-5-790 7-13-212-5-7-9 I just lost my ear phones are we still in the air Ross

yes we are because I was talking to you and you weren't listening so no I just pulled my headphones off my head what did you say I don't know I said we'll call it shut you bum us up naughty and nice edition yeah I like it that's a wordy but it'll work all right today's edition of the show is all things about the LA Clippers I'll read your statement about the

First statement is completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If a statement's erroneous full of bunk and man, if you will say this. Not. Two believer nots in our organ and win your prize. You're either playing for a 790 t-shirt or a pair of tickets to see Everclear live January the 15th of the House of Blues.

Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com. Ross, what is your favorite Everclear song? Downtime on the mound time. Hmm. mine is wait me up in the morning let's play believe it or not let's talk to ryan on seven a ryan you're ready to play believe it or not believe it the los angeles clippers were founded as the buffalo braves in nineteen seventy believe it or not that's oh come on that's elementary my dear betsy sorry um i won't even a turkey one you should really know they were the buffalo braves

Kelly and Tomball. Kelly, what was your favorite part of today? Send the two radio show. Oh, you're the restaurant. The Los Angeles Clippers' all-time winning score is Blake Grubin. Believe it or not? Not. That's right.

It's Randy Smith. Statement number two for the win. Not only has the Clippers franchise never had a 60 win season, they have also never had a 55 win season. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, they've had three of them. You should have three, right, Ross?

Duh. 2000. 2,000. That's correct. That's correct. Thank you. Ruben on 7.90. Ready to play, believe it or not.

Believe it. The Los Angeles Clippers have zero retired numbers of their former players. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Brian on 7-90. Brian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes. According to fanatics.com, the Los Angeles Clippers have had the lowest jersey sales

of any NBA franchise during the 2024 season. Believe it or not? Not. That's correct. Statement number two for the win. The official colors of the Los Angeles Clippers are navy blue, Pacific blue, ember red and silver believe it or not believe it you should congratulations have a great time of the country Brian on 790 Brian your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show

let's see I'm not sure I listened the whole way back from the dearly I couldn't tell you all right makes it a memorable show then yeah that's fine just take your loss Jake James Harden has the most triple doubles in L.A. Clippers history. He has eight of them. Believe it or not. I remember that from earlier in the show. Believe it. There you go.

Brian, I want you to win so badly here. In 1984, then Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, moved the franchise to Los Angeles without approval of the NBA, which resulted in litigation actually won by Sterling. Believe it or not?

Believe it? Yes. Oh, I'm so proud. proud of you that's rare i feel good you felt good and listen he heard your stat earlier today i'm so happy for that love you 10 o'clockers up next wexler and friends it's the a team talk to you for gordon he's back oh my is he is he going to claim like a comp day because of this he needs to good lord it's the a team and it's next on seven night