The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Win 5 Straight! Texans injury Report is Lengthy, Astros Have A New Hitting Coach

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Rockets Win 5 Straight! Texans injury Report is Lengthy, Astros Have A New Hitting Coach

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. In the 01 in H-town. Good morning. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross from San Antonio. This is Sports Talk 790.

We're running. Down to five seconds left to go. And for the fifth straight time, your rockets hit the floor and gather another Rockets win. Bottle score. Your Houston.

Houston Rockets, 124, and the Memphis Grizzlies, 109. All right, sports RV. Did you have Josh Okie being the three-point bandit on your bingo card? Career, 30.2% three-point shooter? Over 50%. Right now for the Houston Rockets? I did not, Matthew. Going into last night's game, two of the top five three-point shots.

shooters in the NBA were Tari Eason and Jock Landel. Hey, Jock Landel was splashing some last night. Both will keep their spots in the top five after their performances last night. One

guy was feeling good as his teammates were knocking them down all over the place. The other probably is going can you get me out of Memphis, mate? 1003, Sports Talk 790. Ross, how the hell are you? I'm doing great, Matthew. this wonderful Thursday morning.

I was going to say afternoon, but it's the morning. We used to be in the afternoon. We covered two day parts out. We get you from brunch in the morning, and then we blow into the microphone, and we go to 2 o'clock, and we're like the bridge of 790. Yeah, we are. We are the bridge.

We have been the Golden Gate Bridge for this franchise, for this radio station since 2010. Yes. Minus the suicide rate. Yeah, and the fact, Jay Moore was in charge of the boat for a while and the ship and the bridge and the bridge. All right. Hey, you may doke is going to be with us today coming up in less than an hour from.

Oh, really? Pretty good mood. Wonderful. Five in a row. Can't be too mad about that. No, no. And look, Memphis tried a couple of times to get cozy in the game. Rockets were twung with him.

There was no way, no chance of Grizzlies were going to beat the rockets last night. Even if Cam Spencer, the typical white guy with the long white t-shirt beyond his, jersey top was knocking down threesome all over the arena last night. Yes, he was. Camp Spencer is the one going to try to beat you. You're going to beat the Memphis Grizzlies. And they did.

And they did. So I woke up, I'll be brutally honest with you. We got here to the hotel about 2.15. So I tried to sleep as long as it could. And I woke up and went to the 4U tab on my Twitter account by the way as at SportsMT. Hello.

We're glad to have you back. If you lost me, I thought you were changing it to hacked empty. Well, we're going to get that two-thing authentication can go when I get back to town. Please. And that's gracious. So the number one for you tab, there's a lot of basketball people that will shoot videos at games and whatnot. It made me openly chuckle this morning when apparently John Morant's dad is sitting

courtside at the game last night. Apparently he does it quite a bit. Kevin Durant is just given him the, excuse me. on this one. The business basically saying you know your son doesn't want to be here. I mean, he is just calling him out. I do want to believe there have been a lot of great blank

talkers in the history of sports. I want to say Ross, maybe low-key, Kevin Durant's in the top 10 of all time. Yeah, Kevin Durant's on the list. Absolutely. He loves talking trash. And I haven't started up that starting five documentary, but there's the, like when he's talking trash to Gary Payton, who you know, man, it's probably on the top five

trash talkers a little time. Right. Yeah, I have a download of myself. Apparently, you're going to see sides of James Hardin and Kevin Durant. You never would have thought you would have seen. So I applaud these guys because, look, those two guys are two of the richest people in America. They don't need this Netflix show. I don't know if they're trying to build their brand for post-basketball life or whatever the case may be.

But the little clips that I have seen, I mean, we're seeing things about James that I never knew even in the years. He was worth traveling and calling games. I mean, him being a dad and whatnot, and Katie with all the people around him and talking about relationships he had. Apparently, he and Dramont Green are going into World Awards right now about how good Katie was for the Warriors and vice versa. So if you are in a doc form and you do love the NBA, this is definitely one that I'm ready to take at the next couple of weeks. All right, so we've got that coming up at 11 o'clock today. You may ad doca. We've got the news at noon.

We've got, I just don't get at 1130. Rossi, we don't call for Dr. sports RV very much. We're going to need him at 1030 today because if you've seen the Texans injury port list, I mean, my goodness. It's lengthy, I think. We'll go with that. Lengthy would be the understatement of the decade.

It is deep, and it's got really good players on him. There are some guys that only Wex knows who they are, but these are people that we do know. Mm-hmm. You want to go with prodigious? That's a Craig Ackerman favorite. that is a big one uh can we just go something for this show long it's a lengthy yeah lengthy works long okay uh and i think i put out gut feelings i think davis mills can still beat the texan the jaguars on sunday i don't know if i'm so sure if this list isn't going

any better not if everybody not davis mills if he's playing by himself yeah i mean if you're getting if you're going if you're calling up cf l lineman to come protect you on sunday it probably isn't going to be a good situation so uh Yeah, it's getting from bad to worse over there on Kirby. Bad because the offense is underperforming. B, you got, let's be frank. D'Amico's been salty so far this year. Sulting than ever has been before.

You're missing your MVP in Kaimi Fairbairn. Yeah, you're missing the Ring of Honor guy. Both of your kickers' legs are swollen because of a use. But it could be a lot of D&Ps on Wednesdays, and hopefully things will pick up on Thursday. Yeah, I mean, the last injury report will be on Friday afternoon, probably what, 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and that'll be the greatest indication of as to who is going to do.

If you don't see them practicing or you don't get the reports from the actually the legit media that cover the team, if they don't practice on Friday, that's usually 99 times out of 100 they do not play on Sunday. Correct. Isn't a must-win game? No. Okay. What?

Okay. Let me ask you this. When you win this bet for Kyle Tucker's contract. Yes. We're sitting there and we're watching the habachi and I'm thinking about how I'm going to have to pay for this meal of yours. Jonathan and I are going to spend about 20 minutes of our dinner with you discussing how we need to get the literal term out of your head of must-win.

No, it's just ridiculous. And we'll go to figuratively. No, because people are calling week three against the Texans a must-win game. It's stupid. Yeah, I'll say it's stupid. Okay? So people use this too willy-nilly. Everything's a must-win.

They come out and say everything's a must-win. So people are like, oh, so you, the player said it's a must-winner. You're wrong, Ross. Well, the players say every game is a must-win game. So I don't want to hear it. Too much gray area. Somebody's got to draw a line in the sand. And I am that somebody.

Jonathan, I tried. You tried. Good effort. But, you know, sometimes people just want to, are strong in their convictions. and Ross, I will give you credit for that. Some of your takes have been flawed over the years, but at least you stay true to them. So, you know what?

Again, I'm going to try for 20 minutes and no more than that. The years always reveal the truth in my takes, Matt. Is that right? All right. If you'd like to join the radio show today, because you said to yourself, hey, I want to talk to Matt and Ross because they're really nice people,

and they like to talk sports 99% to 90% of the time, so I want to talk sports with those guys. Let's go. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show today. If you want to join us, that's 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you want to join us on Twitter, you may do that as well. It's at SportsMT, which is back. Apparently, there are thousands of people that are getting hacked.

And I have not heard from John McLean this morning, Ross. I don't know if his account is up and going again, but he has been hacked. And apparently part of the hacking process is you are receiving DMs from people wanting you to vote for them in a contest. If you get that from somebody on a DM, do not click it. That is the precursor for your account getting hacked. So you'd clicked on something? Well, John McLean sent me something. He says, hey, Matt, I'm up for a finalist for something.

Can you click this? And I thought, okay, John's a decent enough guy. He doesn't, you know, we know much of a conversation. but we're friendly enough to each other. And obviously he called me yesterday. Oh, man. And so I did because I'm a good person. You got fished by John McLean?

No, I got fished by John McLean's bot. It's not a bot. Well, whoever took over his account. So, you know, I'm just going to do Ross. I'm just not going to respond to DMs anymore. It's just not worth it. Yeah, that's a good idea, I guess. Okay.

All right. Well, we have got other things to get to. We got Dr. Ross Sports RV report coming up at 1030 with all the listing of the injuries. Okay. We also have a new hitting coach for the Astros. What? This will fix everything, apparently. Yes.

Let's go. And we're going to have to read this guy's resume to see if we'd like him or not. Well, if he's available, he can't be that good. Well, I mean, the Astros let their two hitting him. coaches go and they both have jobs elsewhere. So where's uh, where's Cintra? Rangers.

Oh really? Yep. Huh. And now he's telling them all the company secrets about how Jose Altuve likes to hit and how, um, let's see, Jeremy Pena is, used to be horrific against sliders and now he's just average. Hmm. Everybody's getting jobs, sports, RV.

Yeah, Troy Snicker had a job. I was jobless for like three weeks. and went to the Mets. That's funny. It's interesting how these guys... He is the worst. They did not lose their reputations because the Astros were using AAA guys for 75 games this year.

The incompetent bumbling idiots are back in work with Major League teams. Well, all we know is that the new guys in town will tell more about when we come back is obviously significantly better than what we had. Hopefully. 713-212-5-790.

713-212-5-790. It's the Matt Thomas Show, Ross. I'm here in San Antonio. If you'd like to be a part of the program, 7-13-212-5-7-90. Matt and Ross with you at 1019. E.M.A. Doca is going to join us at 11 o'clock. Rockets have an off day here in San Antonio tonight, and we'll take on the San Antonio Spurs tomorrow.

The Spurs losing last night in Los Angeles. Victor Webben-Yama getting into foul trouble last night as the Lakers came back and won that. game. I'm just going to say this, and this is a very small editorial. The Rockets are really good. They don't have a horrible loss. I mean, they only got two.

They won five straight. Neither one of the losses to Oklahoma City or to Detroit were embarrassing. I mean, you wanted to play better. This team's really good. And if Reed Shepard progresses to being a guy that can give you decent minutes off the bench, and the reality, the reality is, you the reality. is there were some times last night that you had Josh Akogi

Ross running the Rockets offense. I mean, there was really a point guardless roster out there during a stretch a couple times when a game against Memphis last night. Yeah, I made the, I'm with you, the predicates, like this team is, I've seen enough.

No, well, okay, it's early, but I've seen enough to know that they're, my gut feeling on Tuesday that they are going to finish top three in the West, I'm feeling even more confident. They are really good. They are going to get even better. Joshua Kogi isn't going to always shoot like this. Neither is Tari Isson.

But they have too many options on offense. And the coaching staff is too smart. Right now, teams are doubling Kevin Durant, doubling Alpern Shingoon. They're finding other guys, Amin Thompson. How many, in the last two games, Matt, how many easy basket cuts has Amin Thompson scored on? Like, I don't even know, eight to ten, somewhere around there?

They're free two points. bunches. Yeah, he gets him in bunches too. He goes to that dunker spot, and he takes the pass either from Shangoon or Durant, and he finishes the basket. There's nobody that gets in his way. He can muscle up. He can hit that little mid-range 7-8 footer. Now, the outside shot still is a work in progress, and maybe always will be. But when he gets to the basket, his success rate is phenomenal, especially if he's just kind of sitting there waiting for the ball to come to him. He gets up, he goes up strong, and everybody that I've gone to. Now, granted, the Rockets have played Boston. We've been. and Memphis, we've been in Toronto, all the different media, all the different broadcasters that I talked to, they're like, y'all are really good. And I just hope, and look, it's going to, again, it takes a deep playoff from there. There's nothing that's ever gotten a city excited,

much less Houston excited about a basketball team in early November. But they're not, like Kevin Duran has shot 33% from the floor in his last two games. And it hasn't mattered. He gets to the basket when he needs to and scores. He distributes. other guys around him. It's not, and that's the one thing, if there's ever a storyline about this year's team

is, yeah, Kevin Durant is here. He's one of the greatest players of all time. He wakes up with 20 points on his box score, but he doesn't have to do it by himself. Now, to your point again, you're not going to expect Tarasin and Josh Okie to be the perimeter threats, but somebody might. It might be a night where it's Jabari Smith, who's outside shot, has gotten better. That mid-range for him is as good as it's been in a long time for him. Alperin Shangoon is a

I mean he flirts Rossi with a triple double every single night every single night With turnovers or without I don't count those but thank you for bringing that up but he almost had one last night too I mean he he wakes up with a double double

and so I know there is the comparisons calling him baby Yokic and I don't want that because Nicola Yokic may be the greatest passing center in the history of the NBA I mean I don't even really know who would be the second best this point. But he's his own person. But he is 22,

14, and 8 about every single night. And you get that from Alperin, Schengun, you're going to win a boatload of games. You just are. Yeah, he's averaging seven assists so far this game, this year. Turnovers have been up, and I've been saying

this as well on the pre and post game shows. I don't know how much the turnovers are going to. They're going to go away and get better a little bit, but you still, I mean, Alpern-Shingon, when he puts the ball on the floor, I mean, he's going to get ripped from double teams. He's going to lose the handle. This is just how it is. He is not going to handle as good as a guard.

He can get close and he can make good plays. Same thing for Kevin Durant and other guys. So the turnovers are still going to be a problem. But his vision, there was that play Matt last night where he's bringing the ball up the floor. And then he whips a perfect passage of Barrett Smith Jr. On the left corner for a for a splash three. Like his vision, his passing ability, he's so good. and that's one of the, he's absolutely one of the reasons why I say,

this team is going to be, this team's going to be one of the best in basketball. I think they're going to be one of the best five teams in basketball. It makes me think two things. How dangerous could this be if Freddie was here and playing? So that makes you think about that. Absolutely popped in my mind as well. And then number two, Dorian Finney Smith, many of you maybe not know who, because it's been a role player for a lot of NBA teams.

But Dorian Finney Smith is an accomplished NBA player. He's probably a better offensive score than Josh Akogi. Would that be fair to say? I mean, do you think about it or a career? So you're going to get a slightly better in proving offensive score on a Kogi. You're going to still be able to use Josh Akogi in minutes here and there. This team is ridiculously deep.

And so I would just say, as my latest public service announcement, watch, listen, get to learn, get that stigma of all these guys do is shoot threes and go to the free throw on and dunk. Get all that nasty little generic stereotypical. type crap out of your mind because if you like basketball and not even if you love basketball you're going to have an elite basketball team in this city this year do they win a championship let me tell you something friends the west is an absolute beast and there is no city in this

NBA in the western conference I'm talking about L.A. I'm talking about Denver, Minneapolis, even Oklahoma City who lost last night to Portland. There is nobody in the NBA that is going, we got this. it is going to be a knockdown, dragout war in multiple series come playoff time. And so I'd like to guarantee the Rockets make the Western Finals. I'd like to be able to say that they're going to be their favorites, and they certainly were before Fred got hurt. But the way they're playing right now, and the way they're getting contributions from people

that you didn't expect to get contributions from. And the fact that Amanda Thompson, despite not having a true perimeter outside shot, is averaging but 25 points his last two games, shows you how deep they are and how they create their different ways to score and they're doing it and they're scoring and they're shooting threes

and they're leading the league in scoring. It's just been a lot of fun so far. When is the next time you're in a casino city? I am in Miliwakei on Saturday. I don't know if they have a sports book or not. Okay. A friend wants to ask what the Rockets futures odds are. Do I know this friend?

Mm-hmm. Do I work with this friend? maybe do I talk to this friend I mean if it's more than like 10 to 1 I mean I'll put a couple shekels on that right well you may do that

I may not of course yes oh can you go to the window can you do it on my behalf no oh this says 18 to 1 18 to 1 at MGM

deadly there's got to be somebody in our audience that lives and it's going to Lake Charles today, they can put a bet down for you? Yeah, I've got to get down there before they keep getting a long winning streak. So how much longer will they allow these

championship odds? Will they let it go for like at least halfs a season? No, championship odds are until basically like the final start. That's true, because you could read, you could read, do the odds after the ones teams run out. Yes, absolutely. They always recalibrate.

But yeah, this team is really good. They're going to get even better. As you mentioned, Dorian Finney Smith is going to join. they're going to get better chemistry. If Jabar Smith Jr. keeps this up and then you get some three-point production. I mean, Thompson, I mean, this offense is unstoppable. The offense is unstoppable.

Kevin Durand is too good. Outbrinch and gun commands double teams. And then you have some shooters and cutters around them. They play well together. They have really smart. They have a really smart coaching staff. I'm excited. I'm excited.

So I would just say, please be excited with us. Don't hate it. Don't go to the, well, I haven't watched basketball since Larry Bird and Michael Jordan play. You're bearing your head in the sand. I'm just going to say it, okay? Donovan Mitchell scored 46 last night. You had Luca Donchage was dropping like 35 and 15 assists or something like that. Didn't Yokic have like a 30, 30, 15, 15 game?

The NBA is incredible right now. It just is. And look, I am not trying to tell you what to do how you live your sports life, but frankly, let's face it. the asteros have got a lot of moods to make before we get back to this championship talk the texans are about to lose 10 games this year you college basketball doesn't hit the needle until march what else you mean you're not going to watch live golf i mean come on let's go primary leagues hot and heavy matt big a big match with man city and liverpool on sunday a lot of people care okay but not in the 713 713 212 5 790 719 713 212 5 790

ladies and gentlemen we do not have ask of you to pay a co-pay no other station in the marketplace is going to give you the analysis of how a player is affected on the field but also in the doctor's office

it's Dr. Sports RV with tonight's probably tomorrow too and here is Ross's doctor excuse me Dr. Sports RV's medical report on the Houston Texas. Wednesday's

practice report. De Nico Audrey was a D&P. That is a did not practice with a knee injury. He's been blocking kicks. He also was on our hour to start the season.

Going to be a big miss for the Houston, Texas if he's on an Eliminable to play on Sunday. Will Anderson Jr. I don't expect to miss much time. He was D&P with a quad. Hopefully he'll be back at practice today. Nick Chubb, D&M,

with a foot injury. We'll see what happens there. You're not done, are you? No. Kimey Fairbairn, Dnp, Wright Quad. He's already been replaced by, what's that guy's name, Matthew Wright? Yeah, that's not Matt Wright. It's called Matthew.

Yeah, Matthew. He's an adult. He's going to buy his full name. Let's go. Let's go. That was for you, Matt. Christian Harris, D&P with a shin injury. Titus Howard.

DNP with a concussion. Ed Ingram, DNP with a knee injury. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We're adding now new more offensive line of the list here. Yes. Good God. Jalen Petrie, D&P with a

concussion. C.J. Stroud, D&P with a concussion. I don't even mention Harrison Bryant, D&P. That's your DMP list, folks. Limited practice. which is limited on a Wednesday.

Okay, we'll see. Thursday hopefully upgraded to full practice. Braxton Barrios has a chest injury. Dalton Schultz has knee and shoulder injuries. Full practice, Matt, I know you're happy. Dylan Horton was out there with his knee injury. And Jacob Jonson or Jacob Johnson, if you like, full practice with a hamstring injury. The Walking Wounded Houston Texans with... 10 players D&P on Wednesday.

Thursday will be big. Friday, of course, as Matthew laid out, will be the really big final one. Hopefully you can get some of these guys, these D&Ps upgraded to limited practices, and then either limited or full on Friday. But this, I mean, obviously the headliner, C.J. Strouding.

We joke saying it's a headliner, but it's true. Kimee Fairbairn, it's like been one of the most important Texans this year, last couple years. What do you mean? He is one of the most, important. I know. He's so important that his entire name should be on the ring of honor. I mean, it should go, it should come up between

40 to the 10 yard line. See, you're taking it too far, but it's actually, it's a huge miss for a coach who likes to kick. And for an offense, it's not very good in the red zone. You need a reliable kicker. Nick Chubb, I'm not super worried about whatever. Will Anderson's going to be a big one, but I think he's expected to play.

And if Titus Howard and Ed Ingrammer are out on your right side, and those are Those have been your two best linemen all year long. Mm-hmm. And by the way, they're not going to be pro bowlers. But they're decent. I didn't, I looked it up, but I forgot to bring it up to you, Matthew. Don't tell me they got, they got bumped up.

The offensive line rankings for the Houston Texans. Uh-huh. And? Let me pull it up. Hold on. Because sometimes when you search. You wanted to get the 25. That was your, that was the ultimate number of,

sign of respect. Yes. Hold on. Let me pull it up. I'm trying here. Okay. Matt, all year long, we have been waiting for the Houston Texans to hit the top 25.

And they are located right now at 24. There is. Nick Casaria. The Houston Texans, you did it. Whatever the name is of that offensive line coach they promoted, you did it. The number 24 offensive line. Line in football, according to pro football focus. Wait a minute.

You're Houston Texans. Wait a minute. Wait, just a minute. You know what? I'm going to have to look something up. This is, I'm going to disagree with these guys that don't get late. Seriously. Oh, you've been breaking down offensive line film of the Texans?

You're going to disagree? Shut up my ass up. Maybe. You don't know. Okay. Wait a minute. How many times it did, did, wait a minute. Did Money Mills?

get sacked on Sunday. They surrendered 16 pressures, including three sacks on 47 passing attempts. Are you sure? What do you mean, am I sure? Don't hate. Those guys are making up stats. I told you they could crack the top 25.

It took 10 weeks. But they did it, baby. All right, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give a declarative statement, and we're going to see how the city, Houston, feels about it. Your Houston Texans have the 20, fourth best offensive line in the NFL. Are you happy?

They said it couldn't be done, baby. 713, 212, 570. What I tell you, shut up, when I tell you, the Texans have the 24th best offensive line, starting at number what, 31 or 32, correct? 32 on the off season. I'm calling BS on this. I'm calm. I believe, here's what they did.

I believe the Texans sent hook. Go ahead. Sent hookers to the PFF offices. There's a pro Texans agenda at PFF. They got a funny way of showing it with all these grades the last several years. Busty strippers that showed up. Oh, my God. They're taking care of those guys.

Because they don't leave their spare Benjamin to their parents' house. It's not true. By the way, did you catch Willie's conversation with me yesterday? He dropped a pro football. Yes, he did. I did notice that. Isn't that awesome? Yes.

How do you feel, Matt? About Willie, love him. Your coach is using PFF. You know what? I'm not anti-P-FF. Yes, you are? You're a hater. No, I mean, again. All you talk about is their personal lives. Ad hominem attacks, Matthew.

It ain't right. We've already declared their Poonhounds. We've already discussed this from multiple occasions. They just got a little something because they got a bunch of girls in from Rens Club stopping by from Houston. They bump their grade up. Well, they just said, you know, we'll skip the film against the Broncos. It was fine.

Well, they're in like Cincinnati or something. Nobody's sending mail express strippers to Cincinnati. What do you think looks better? Is Cincinnati stripper or a Houston stripper? Oh, come on now. H-Town. That's what I'm thinking. Hold it down.

They're quite nice, I've heard. So PFF, yes. Got some strippers to fly in from Cincinnati. Not true. Not true. You're a hater. Texas hater, Thomas. Up to 24, baby.

I said they can do it. I believed. And your two best offensive linemen have been, Ed Ingram and Titus Howard, and they are both hurt. right now. So good luck. Good luck, everybody. And Josh Hines-Allen kind of

mulled Ariante Ursary in week three. When did they play? So hopefully he can bounce back. All right, I'm going to put it on Twitter and see what the Twitterverse has to say. Okay. Because right now our phone lines are not robust. That's okay.

I mean, they're ranking every offensive line, man. They're breaking it down, baby. Got him up to 24. Let's go. Let's see how Houston reacts to this. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. When we return, we'll take anybody's calls about the Texans 24th ranked offensive line.

All right. I need a little bit of help. I mean, that's an opening question, obviously. That's going to say a little bit. Rossi, I have, my phone has been on 20. 24 hours. So, you know, obviously it says yesterday when a call is missed or a call comes in today. I've had 15 spam calls this today alone since, and it's only 10. Oh, wow.

I don't know what you're clicking on or doing, Matt. It's not good. If you feel bad, Matt, I've gotten one today on the show. I got one. No, I'm not talking about your, I'm not talking about 713212. I'm talking about my damn personal cell phone. Yeah, me too. Yeah, relax.

No, you guys are just rubbing it in. No, we're not rubbing it in. No, we're not working it. We're trying to help you. We're trying to empathize. No, I'm at 16. You're not leaving voicemails like they used to. Hello, are you there?

Hello, we have some great secure. We have some great benefits for you. This is nuts. I mean, since yesterday, I can probably say I have at least 100 since yesterday. 100? Yeah. Yeah, you're on some kind of call list. I don't know what kind of link you've been clicking over there.

But I don't want to click it because I don't want them to have the number. So, and again, if I don't know who you are, I don't get your, the phone doesn't, it goes right to voice me. So that's how I've been able to stop it. I get more text and calls like, hey, hey, it's me and stuff like that from random numbers. Mine on Facebook is, hey, we have a lot of mutual friends. We know each other. I know, I don't, you whore. And she didn't respond back.

Yeah. All right. 1051 on Sports Talk 790. Coming up in 10 minutes, we'll visit with E. May it don't get to know our Astros pitching new hitting coach. Also, RIP Ross to a gambling website. And this RU-RUB and ESPN Disney stuff is getting super ugly. Everybody is drawn a line in sand, and all I can tell you is that the folks of the Worldwide Leader are losing $5 million.

Or somebody's losing $5 million a day. Is it Disney, I thought? I think it's Disney losing $5 million a day. Yeah, it must be a bigger service than I thought, because a lot. of people are talking about it. And apparently the numbers for the game day and the game broadcasts are significantly down. Well, shocking.

When you take something away from people, they can't watch it. The numbers go down. Yeah. So, and then apparently JJ Watt was like, I didn't get to watch Monday Night Football because of all the people that I think I'm worrying about cost cutting, I would not think that J.J. Watt be worried about Roo Root-T-V-TV.

I mean, the man could afford regular old satellite or cable. I mean, my goodness. I mean, there are some cost cutting measures out there. I don't think the term cost cutting should ever be in J.J. Watts' vocabulary. I mean, I get it. That's 2025. Just use the web-based stuff.

I've been using Rubo, and quite frankly, I'm not satisfied with it. Yeah, we use web stuff here at the office, and it's working out fine for us. By the way, one quick note, Matt, we can go through later on in the show. ESPN has ranked its top 50 Major League Baseball Free Agents with contract projections. All right, good. Just save that for a slow part of the show. I mean, we know who number one is, but also I think it's been interesting

to kind of see where people have been on Framber Valdez and Alex Bregman and others. Yeah, we need to do that for sure. Let's go to our buddy Stephen calling us from L.A. at 10.53. Our first call today calling from someone at 8.54 Pacific Time. Love it. Good morning.

Hey, good morning, guys. How are you today? Good. I was watching the Rockets game. last night, specifically the Memphis broadcast, and they were pretty much flabbergasted on how you guard this team. And it kind of reminded me of this saying that C.J. Stroud has been kind of saying all year when things are going bad with the offense, which is death by a thousand cuts. And it kind of reminded me of how this offense is so effective this season so far,

which is, I mean, this offense is death by a thousand cuts. I mean, because you can't double everybody. You know, I think Alphran and KD are doing great jobs when they're getting double-teamed, finding the open man, and Amman is, I mean, he is so good at that dunker spot. It's just like, it's incredible. Like, it's so much fun to watch. I mean, obviously there's going to be some regression throughout the year. but if this team can maintain somewhat of this three-point shooting,

and obviously the free-throat shooting has been great so far too. I mean, obviously all of this is a small sample size, but it's not nothing. But there's so much to like about this team, and they're so deep. I mean, that's what's so crazy about this team so far is that they're very deep, they're very good and um you know the competition's been kind of you know so far so there's going to be some challenges coming up um but um there's just so much to like it's it's been a lot of fun watching watching this team so far and uh buckle up because i think this is going to be a hell of a year uh to anybody who's not watching so far but uh thanks guys i'm going to listen

to you while i sit in traffic uh on the 405 freeway oh that's the anti-crush freeway right there Stephen. Thank you for the phone call. Just sit there and relax. As I've gotten older, traffic's going to happen. Just sit there and relax to listen to something. Ross, you'll be on the 405 on Friday night. Well, I'm going to be in Long Beach. I don't know. Well, I'm flying into Long Beach.

So, yeah, I'll be in L.A. I'll be westward for a week. Clearing my mind, getting away from it all. Vacation time to burn, and I will use it. Yes, you should. I have zero issues with you that. I've always encouraged that. By the way, the next test for the Rockets, we'll be coming up these next two games.

I mean, San Antonio, Tomoa and I here in the Alamo City, and then Milwaukee on Sunday. And you got Washington and Portland back-to-back, which should be wins. And then you've got a matchable week from Sunday against Orlando. Orlando is kind of disappointing so far this year, but they're not terrible. Cleveland's excellent. You've got Denver. I mean, the schedule is going to start to get a little more difficult. Yeah.

Although the Spurs have lost two straight. And Wimby has been limited than the last two games. He's getting doubled. doubled in triple team now. Well, guess what? The league is woken up. Exactly. No, yeah, we'll see how he adjusts. But he's been poor the last two games.

I mean, frankly, you're going to you'd rather have Devin Vesel beat you or try to have Devin Vesel beat you than Victor Weniam. I mean, it is what it is. Yes. All right. We will get to some rocket chatter coming up. In matter of fact, and in just a few moments here on the Matt Thomas Show, Ross, I maya doka is

resting comfortably, I'm assuming. After his squad last night, beat the Memphis Grizzlies. 1057. Sports Talk, 790, 7193, 212. 579 if you want to chime in 7132212 5790 this is the Matt Thomas show with Ross last night Memphis

Rockets pick up another victory five in a row knocking off the Grizzlies talk about it for 10 minutes here on the radio program is the head coach of your Houston Rockets EMA DOCA here on the program EMA it's Matt Ross a good morning to you you need to punch him up there it is coach I didn't have a Josh Akogi

three straight threes on my bingo car from last night. Did you have that on your card? With the attention that Alprin and Kevin attract, somebody's going to get open looks, and he was the recipient, obviously he was confident knocking down. It's really good to have it. We were talking about it in the first hour. Doubling Houston Rocket players right now,

it's a pretty risky situation for opponents. Would you agree? Yeah, we're getting to our spacing. Our outlets are there, and there are guys are going to be unselfish for the most part and make the right read and it's up to those guys that shoot the ball with confidence and our numbers are showing that guys that put in his work and like I said when you got guys that attract all that attention I'm in as well getting downhill somebody's going to be left open and they're

taking that gamble and we're making a pay right now you are well north of 40% from three number one in the association at least last night in the numbers look that's just hard work is that also good looks not having a hand in the face extra pass. What do you attribute, and hopefully it lasts for a long time, but the rapid increase in the amount of success from three-point range so far this year? Yeah, all the above. Like I said, when you have guys that, you know, they're going to score if you don't put two, three bodies on them. They're going to leave guys open and try to make, we do the same thing. We double guys and we'll live with certain shots, but our guys are

a ton of work this off-season, understanding who they're playing with. And so for us, it's just keep it simple, make the easy pass, and we'll get those wide open looks. And once you continue to knock those down, they have to guard one-on-one, and our stars can get loose. And what about the offense, obviously, has been one of the best in the league, but I think it can get even better, especially with respects to the turnovers that were better last night.

How do you go about improving that with a roster that doesn't have a ton of great ball handling, has some good ball handling, but some guys who can be a little bit prone to turning the ball over. Yeah, it's like we said, keep it simple. Don't over penetrate. Excuse me. Don't over penetrate.

Just make the simple pass. You know, we saw the effect it had on us opening night, way too many turnovers against okay. We've tried to prove on since then. You know, last game against Dallas wasn't our best, 17 for 17 points. But 10 in the first half yesterday, only three in the second half.

So we made a point emphasis. and guys really took care of the ball, made simple play, and let the other guys be recipients, like I said. Let's get into Kogi a little bit. I love him so far in terms of just doing a little bit of everything. Where did he get on your radar, and what did you think about him coming into where he was last year and what he's been able to produce for you right now?

Well, we knew he fit into what we do really well. You know, another tough, hard-nose, versatile defender that's going to offensive rebound slash crash and do the things that we do. Obviously, the three-point shot had been a little up and down in this career so far, but like I said, when you're getting these open looks and our guys are putting in the work and we're letting them know, take these shots. They're the right shot.

Don't pass them up. And then we obviously are really good at offensive rebounding. So for us, it was great. It was a late pickup in our last signing and free agency. And with the injuries to Dorian and Jay Sean coming into season, we knew we needed another defender, another body until guys were healthy. and obviously he's been a pleasant surprise, but the work he's put in,

and, you know, to be a late signing, and be an addition that was kind of there for depth. We love his versatility. He brings another defender, so our man can take a little bit of a break at times, and he's, like I said, he's making guys pay when they double off of Alprin or Kevin. Rocket Tech coach, Emaidoka was here on Sports Talk 790.

Kevin Duran and Alper N Shungoon. I'm in Thompson getting a lot of the headlines, but I feel like Jabari Smith Jr., has been and can continue to be a real X factor for you guys with what he does defensively shooting 39% from three as well just your thoughts overall on how much he can impact and raise the level of you guys game on both ends of the floor yeah I mean we've talked about it since I've been here we need our young guys

to take these take these jumps and him I'm in Alperin they've all they've all done that tarry as well we need reading all our guys to continue to grow and so you know, we said it with Fred and Dylan and the vets that we brought in from day one, and now Kevin, you know, they're going to do what they do and add to the team, but we want our biggest growth will be from our young guys taking these jumps. And so Jabari has obviously done that with his body, confidence, aggressiveness. You saw that, you know, I saw a month after the season last year.

He had bothed up already. He got strong, put in the work. And, you know, once again, if you have these really good players, you're going to have Lester defenders on your time. and you've got to win those matchups. And then his versatility on defense allows us to do so much. You know, he's guarding anybody from two or five on given nights and switching on the ones.

And so the length and size that we have, and he's a huge part of what we do. Speaking of wanting to see some improvement from some young guys, Reed Shepard, how do you assess his season so far early on, both good and bad? Yeah, it continues to be confident and aggressive, and that's the main thing with them. We've said that from day one.

know what you're out there for. You're going to play out these guys and you're one of the best shooters in the league. So don't pass up shots. Take those shots and be aggressive. On the defensive end, let's continue to put him in situations where he's going to have to grow and improve.

And so we're not scheming up anything to hide him or anything. He's guarding guys. We're switching on to John Morant one night. We're switching on to his Cooper flag one night. And he needs this end-game experience to improve on that area. And so our thing is, you know, he has really good hands. And sometimes he lets guys go to get those reaches.

and gambols. We want him to move his feet a little bit and take on those challenges. And so a few games into the season so far, he's improved and we're going to need the shooting. His ball handling, you know, he's a secondary point guard for us out there. And with the amount of, you know, he played 47 games last year. So he's

still getting it, getting the experience under his belt and every game is what an experience for him. Forlitz your run, Eam, we've got San Antonio tomorrow night. Have you as a coach philosophically changed your ideology about guarding

Wimby today than maybe you did when he was a rookie a couple years back? No, no really. We've done what we were going to do what we've done before. And then at times, you know, we had a really good defender for those type of guys. Dylan Brooks was, you know, we put him on him and cat and, you know, all the

stretch fours and five that take advantage of bigger guys. And so we have a lot of smaller, tough defenders that we can throw at them. And then have some length and size behind it. And so, you know, he's shot the three not as consistent as he is now, but he's doing some of the same things at a higher level now. So we still want to be aggressive and be physical with them,

put guys on the neck and climb into him, take away his airspace, and force him to help. And so we've had success doing that so far. Is it overly simplistic to say try to get him outside of that comfort zone, get him beyond 15, 17 feet, or is that just, are there other ideologies behind that? that. No, I mean, he brings the ball of, he's shooting deep three, so you can't just

guard him in those areas, although we do want to be physical in those spots. You know, he's all over the court doing so many different things, handling, setting screens, rolling into the basket popping, so he's obviously a very complete player, so you have to have somebody that can match up to him in all different areas on the court,

and like I said, send him to certain help, and then I've just got to keep him off the glass with his size. All right, Ross, final one for you? How about the other guys on San Antonio Spurs? A lot of talk of Wimby, but they've been a more complete team. What else are you seeing from the San Antonio Spurs not named Victor Wimbaniama? Yeah, a complimentary crew that's playing really well off him. Young guys that are improving as well.

You've got Castle. You have a cell out there. Harper is injured now, but he was playing well. But their additions have been good. They're veteran additions with Cornette and Harrison Barnes. And so really good players. and they don't even have DeAnne Fox back yet, but

they've played extremely well off of Webbyama and their credits just like us with Kevin and Alperin those guys. You know teams are going to double. No teams are going to crowd those guys and those guys have been really good at making teams say for it.

Emey, thanks for the time. Congratulations on the great start. Enjoy the day off today and we'll visit with you tomorrow night before the game against Spurs. We appreciate it as always. That's it. Thank you guys. All right. See you. Eme Adoka. Rockets head coach.

with us here from San Antonio. 11.11 is the time. Real quick before I get to a break, some sad news for Eric Spolstra came home from a road trip and his house among about 20 different homes in Miami in flames. It looks like the entire home is destroyed.

Not the way you want to come home for a road trip, man, to have that happen. If you look at the NBA Central website, it is showing pretty graphic stuff. No injuries reported, thankfully. The fire did not spread to other residences, but he comes home and he is seated outside his home as fire crews are battling flames. Yikes.

Tough situation there. So, sorry to hear about that for Eric's bolster. All right. We got, I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. Rosses. Anything in your life you don't get these days? A ton. Anything that comes fresh to mine, something fresh for the show?

Yeah, we'll see. All right. We got the rotten five today, 1250. You ready for that? Yeah. Because you didn't do it last week. No, I didn't. No.

No, no, no, no, people outed you. Oh, I got more people backing me up than people that outed me, so. Yeah, when you put the Buffalo Bills and the candidacy chiefs... That's not true. That person was confused. That person was on mushrooms. I'm going to handle, believe it or not today, so... Oh, you are?

Yeah, I figure, you know, when you do Rotten 5, you put the time and effort behind that, I can at least handle one segment. That's good. Because I'm already in vacation mode. That doesn't make me feel good. You know what that, what makes me think? I'm just kidding. Makes me want to be petty. Uh-oh.

What does that mean? What are you going to do? I won't say it on there because I don't want to be rude. I do love you, but it's just if I could say something about your travel journey tomorrow. That's all I'm saying. Okay. You hope I get caught. I miss my flight.

No, not miss it, but you know what I mean? Apparently, though. I've been checking the security websites every day. Here it's only nine minutes at Hobby right now. Hopefully it's four hours tomorrow. I mean, hopefully have a nice shape. I did it. That's me being petty.

That's terrible. That's fine. No, it's not. It's not nice at all. I'm used to it. That tiger ain't changing those stripes. Fair enough. 713-212-5-790.

We get to meet the Astros hitting coach next. It's 1113 on Sports Talk 7-90. So thanks again, EMA for joining us on the program. Thanks for all of you for joining us. Thanks to Stephen and Los Angeles. We do well on the 213, Ross. I think our show's number one. in LA.

We don't talk. Yeah, we're crushing. We do, we do very, we do very well. We don't get into deep Dodger talk. Although we play the Dodger podcast promo at nauseam on the show. Finally, they stopped running those when the World Series was over. How tone deaf can we be, Iheart? Which I love you.

Please keep me employed. We love you, I heart. Yes. You have been a huge part of you have helped me raise my children. Feed me, close me, keep me warm. You've given me so many great opportunities. I just don't understand. why you would think that we would think that people in Houston

and want to hear a Dodger podcast. That's it. And that's not even that. They're not there. It's in Milwaukee or Miami or wherever. No, just, just, just, what do they call it? Geo something at, geo fence. Yeah, geofenc into people in Southern California because the people in L.A. has got a huge

radio market. They would love to hear that podcast. You know what I got to do? I got to bring back Plinko's and Powerbombs and see if I'm not promoted for me. You want to go national. Well, tell me, is there another podcast in America that will go pro wrestling and game shows in the same conversation? I don't think so. Yeah, that should probably give you pause. Well, I'm trying to be something different here.

You are. You are different, Matt. You're very unique. If you live in Houston, we'd like to talk to us. We will gladly take your phone call. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. All right. So let's introduce ourselves to Victor Rodriguez.

is. He is the new hitting coach for the Astros, according to to AI. You know, AI never let you down. He joins the team after spending the last two seasons as the hitting coach with the San Diego Padres. He has previous experience as an assistant hitting

coach with the Red Sox and the Cleveland Guardians. What happened with Padres? I mean, I guess his contract was up. I don't know. I mean, maybe he was tired of those uniforms they wear. Maybe he said the cost of living is too expensive.

He's 64 years old, by the way. Hmm. Okay. I mean, I don't want to stereotype, but if he's 64, it's going to be a lot of bunting going down, or what's to do? The Red Sox won the World Series in 2013 when he was the assistant hitting coach. They finished second and average in first in OPS.

The 2018 Indians now Guardians finished second and average. fourth in OPS and six in home runs and in 2004 the Padres led Major League Baseball on average and it hits. I don't hear the word bun anywhere in that conversation. Okay, that sounds great. So there'll be no bunting in 2026 of the Astros

and I'm all for that. I know people are going to get upset. I mean, look, I welcome Victor Rodriguez with open arms. You should. I will. You were such a Centron hater. I mean, it's really... Oh, stop.

Let's see. Astros 15th in team OPS last year. Where'd you say the Padres were? They were second and hits. They were 16th in team OPS. Oh, no. Oh, they were worse and weighted runs created. Oh, actually, no, they're better.

102 to 101 plus. What did you just say again? WRC plus, Matt. Come on now. Oh, weighted runs. Okay, I knew a WRC. Yeah, that's fine. You'd be great.

And I'm very encouraged about what he's going to do to make, you know, Taylor Tremel even a better hit than he was a year ago. Provided that Taylor Chamele's in the 26-man roster. You know what? I'm just going to try to take some deep breaths and not stir up any more trouble than I normally do. I welcome Victor Rodriguez with open arms. We do 20 hours a radio a week. If you're holding back anything, you're not doing yourself or this show any good. So go ahead and say what you've got to say.

All right. Let's get it out of your system. And then I'll either back you up or call you cruel, mean, and insensitive. Well, okay. Everybody who wanted Troy Snicker and Alex Sintrone gone, who Snicker got hired within three weeks to the Mets to be their hitting coach. And now Sintron is with the Rangers, apparently. And these guys clearly aren't thought of as bumbling idiots along Major League Baseball.

Let's just show a little grace to our friend Victor Rodriguez. He's not here to reinvent the wheel. Yeah. Leave Victor alone. Remember we were praying for Victor? Are we already doing that? They haven't even played a game yet. They hit us on this team have three better.

Yeah, I'm going to give all of you that are Astro fans a couple of months to memorize his name. So when you call the hitting shows next year, you can't say, the hitting coach needs to be fired. And then we say to you, what's his name? And then you don't know. It's Victor Rodriguez. Now, whether he brings an assistant with him or he is a co-hitting coach, like a lot of teams have done, including the Astros. that remains to be seen. But you need to know the name Victor Rodriguez.

He is your hitting coach. You don't mix them up with other people. You don't call them Alexintron. You don't ask for the Astros will fire their hitting coach 15 games of the season. You don't go Nick Cayley is a terrible hitting coach for the Astros. You get your positional coach is correct. Victor Rodriguez, welcome to H-Town. 13 seasons in AAA.

Well, I mean, Joe Espada had a AAA career. I don't think it was that lengthy, but he, you know, dang, 13 and AAA, that's, that's meaty. Hit 290. Stories he can tell. Yeah, oh, and that's what I'm saying. I bet you. My guess is if you're 13 years in the minor, in the minor leagues,

that would put you probably in the 30 to 32 year old range when you were doing it, which means you were buying booze for a lot of your underage people. Oh, maybe he's got a criminal pass. We don't know these things. I hope not. You just told everybody to take it easy on them. You're right. The 13 years in AAA stories have to be better than 13 years in Major League stories, right?

No, never. I used to think that. Really? No, no, no, no, no. Major League story, oh, we went out, we got drunk, and we all got laid, because we're major league players. Minor leagues, you're getting mixed up and stuff. Minor leagues, we went to the Golden Corral and stole steak fingers off the buffet. Exactly.

You're getting bar-fights people. Yeah, that sounds way more intriguing. I used to think the way that you thought, but money and Uber XL and women waiting for you and Black. That's what I'm saying. You've got to go earn it out in AAA. Everybody's waiting for you in the majors. Yeah, but AAA girl in Omaha is a little different than AAA girl in New York City. It's a better story.

Okay. I mean, we can agree to disagree. That's true. By the way, Charlie Sheen is on a podcast, and Vernon Maxwell is in the room. And apparently, those two guys partied together back in the 90s. That makes sense. So that furthers my point. Charlie Sheen isn't partying with a CBA player or a G-leger.

Now that's true. Vernon Maxwell. So you don't tell me, you mean to tell me you don't think a Charlie Sheen, Vernon Maxwell story can beat a AAA story? I believe it can. I think you're going to get mixed in more, more felonious activities in AAA. could get interesting at a cheaper rate in a lower brand hotel just put it that way

what's wrong with that um you know all right fancy mat whatever I mean you shut up you get the team provides you with your hotel room

they do but I mean I've been provided but I mean yeah you're right you know I got a new nickname for you pampered MT I like that one whatever you call me whatever you want because we call you high horse mat fancy mat

five diamond mat pampered in to pampered mat i do like it i mean it's it's it's it's the best part of the job put that way 713 2 i mean i'm going to fully admit it 713 212 5790 if you want to join the show today 713

212 5790 ross and the answer can't be me what don't you get all right if there's something in your life you do not get 713 212 5790 713-212-5-790 Ross, myself, Jonathan, we have three different perspectives on life. We can help you with any of your issues if you just don't get something.

Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends. It's time to say I just don't get it. This is what we do. One half hour a week, we kind of come together as grown men. and sometimes women call the show.

And we think to ourselves, hey, we've got predicaments of our life, and what can we do to get good advice from three radio people? That's Matt, Ross, Jonathan? It's I Just Don't Get It Here on Sports Talk 790. Now, Jonathan, we're going to let you go first this week because you're a young man, and you're always trying to navigate these murky waters of life as a young man. So I always feel like you've got something in your life you just don't get.

And me and Ross, being a little bit older than you, can certainly give you the sage advice you've been so desperately needing. Okay, maybe you can help me out with, you know, when you're talking to somebody and maybe they're telling a story or whatever, or say you guys know a certain person. And they start the sentence off and says, oh, guess who said this? And, you know, I'll go like, oh, Ross. No, no, no, no, guess again, no, guess, no, guess. I just guessed. Why?

And then they get upset. I just, I'm not going again. What's the point? What do you get out of that? Like, I already guessed. I answered your question. I got it wrong. do you want me to keep getting wrong

for your own satisfaction? I don't understand that. I really don't get that. Hmm. So let me put this in perspective. You are the, you'll never believe who said this, and then when you give a guess and they don't give you the right answer, you don't want to continue to guess for 15 minutes, is what you're trying. No, yeah, I want a story.

I already guessed. I mean, what else do you want? At least I gave me that. You know what? I'm going to go with you. I just don't get it either because I do like making things about trivia, but there are people in my life that, like, how much this cost?

I'll give you three guesses, and then the person will say to me, $80, no, just tell me. There are people that don't want to play the guessing world. People don't want to make everything a trivia game, and I am one of those people. So I will say this, Rossi, and Jonathan, I just don't get why people do that either.

You give the one guess, you don't get it wrong, you then announce what it is. I guess it's to build drama. It's just the I know something you don't. But you already built the drama. I know something you don't know. I don't know. I'm in a moment with you guys.

I'm just trying to think out loud. Don't attack me. No, no, because, again, I am that person, Jonathan, and I apologize. I am the one that will want to give you, give me five potential answers before you give me the right, before I finally spill it to you. And sometimes you don't have time for that. You want to get to the conversation. You'll never believe who is at this party.

Well, who? Take guess. John, no. I mean, you're not going through 80 people in your life. So, Jonathan, I understand. the troubles you're going through. You want to get right to the meat of the conversation, so I understand why you don't get it.

And it's very fair. Thank you for that. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. You'll never believe what I had on the plane last night, Ross. Shrimp cocktail. Nope. Rib eye. See? No, it's too much. You got to go. See?

No, Matt, he did this yesterday. You'll never guess who texted me. But I guessed it on the first guess. You did guess on the first guess. I had lamb chops on a plane Okay Just passed that along And who would have guessed lamb chops Nobody

That's why you'd been here forever It helped us kill some time Going through every mini Linguini no Shrimp no Salmon no Salmoni And linguine

So yeah it was a lampch You never You don't realize what your stomach's going through in life until you knock back some lamb chops at 1140 central time. Hmm. Yeah, that actually sounds pretty good. I mean, it's pretty light. Lamb?

It wasn't terrible. I'll tell you that. Ross, what don't you get? Um, a couple things. Now, I will start with this. Now, I'm not saying this because there is a, I think it was a D-Tackle who, like, decommitted from Texas,

recommitted, and then decommitted again. I think within 48 hours. Don't quote me on this, because I didn't investigate. But in general. And I don't even know who this guy was until like this week. So I'm not saying this because it's Texas or whatever. Why are athletes even committing? Like years before they even go to a school.

In this day and age, it feels like you hear more about decommits than commits. And I understand. I'm not mad at him necessarily. Like you want to get the biggest offer. You have interest from schools. I mean, I just don't get why we are announcing our commitment, especially like a year out and then these recruits are changing their commitments

like five different times before they go to school. Because they're starving for attention, right? I guess. Is that we're going to go with? Yeah, we need Jonathan to explain. And a lot of these instances as well, these kids will automatically, oh, I'm getting committed here. But they will be behind the scenes, they'll just got a phone call or be like, oh, we want you,

not official commit, no papers being signed. And they will go on social media so they can be up like, oh, I'm Power 5, I'm this and this and this. I'm going to this program when they probably don't even get the money for it. They probably are, oh, okay, we'll let you walk on and maybe give you some academics. But they don't get that until later after they get to the visits and all that stuff. Like how Matt says, you're just, you're being in attention. You know, you just want that attention. You want that spotlight on you.

And because there's no point for you to tell anybody that you're decommitting from school. There's no point in that. And then they do it after like, oh, I got a better offer. Like, oh, like, and they try to make the school look bad. but the coach is probably saying like oh you know the other coach probably came let's say I'm getting recruited at UT right and it's an unofficial visit

okay cool I'm gonna put out commit I'm gonna commit yeah like they want me da da da and then Lamar is like oh we'll pay you full ride to come here oh I'm gonna decommit and they're not gonna say who what the school are going to they're gonna go that's a drum up interest yeah and then they'll just have like the five oh these are my five options and it'll be like all power five and Lamar

and then you go to Lamar like you know what I mean no shit to Lamar but that's what No, there's no shame ever. The reality is this. Today's children, and I have one myself, they're starving for attention, and the easiest way to get that attention is through TikTok, their

Instagram, and their Twitter accounts. No if-answer, buts. This is a 100% attention grab for this to commit thing. Right, but I mean, I'm saying institutionally as well, like, we should just throw this out. I don't know, the NCAA doesn't necessarily get involved

with a high school player saying where they're going to play. school, but it's like, we should just completely do away with commitment. This detackle, I had it wrong. He committed in June. So it's like five months ago. He committed and he's like, yeah, Texas all the way. That's fine. He can go wherever he wants.

He's from Louisiana. I'm guessing I'm going to go to LSU or something like that, but it's just or Sark probably told him, but not to start until the commitment. No, they need to decackle up. The commitment cycle. It's just, I find it bizarre.

Well, I hope you guys are proud of my daughter when she committed to Royal Island. She's not wavered from that. That's good parenting right there. Well, unless a bigger offer swoops in last minute. Well, the reality is this. I told her, I said, she's very set for playing the four years. And I said, you know, that would mean a lot to me if you could stay at one school. Because I think there is a little bit of adjustment going from school to school to school.

A huge assessment. It's just, I don't, I think maybe one move is okay. but these kids today are moving from year to year to year. Like the guy at Oregon State who was the backup of Texas. Was it Oregon State before that he was at Duke and then he was a Texas? I mean, what kind of life is that true? I know you're trying to grab the BNFL pie, but it just, but I said, look, I want you to play four years of Rhode Island, but it would, I mean, I won't be disappointed.

I won't be sad if you say, hey, dad, the coaching change or the role has changed or, you know, I mean, again, you got to be open-minded to it. I just think year after year after year is kind of a, again, football and volleyball, two different animals. But yeah, I want, I'd love for her to stay for all four years because that's what we grew up with, Ross. We didn't have guys bouncing around like we do now in 2025. I mean, people are staying one year, but it's in order it is, it's just free agency.

So in that respect, I get it. Okay, 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If there's something in life, you just do not get. 23212-1-2-5-790. Let's talk to James with us on 7-90. James, what don't you get to ask? I don't get why every once in a while you hear on the radio

that they're going to want to start a women's professional baseball league. Where are they going to get the money to do this? And who's going to back this league? I mean, how do you go from softball to baseball and be competitive? Hmm. I had not thought of that, honestly. I don't even, I have never, I didn't even heard a word about this. Have you Ross about a women's

professional baseball? I have Baseball not softball? I know softball is the thing right? No, I think they're trying to do baseball like league of their own style. I think he's talking about a baseball, yeah. Yeah, four teams in L.A., San Francisco, New York, and Boston. It's a lot of travel. It's like it's the new a league of their own. Who's your favorite league of their own character?

Gina Davis. Absolutely Gina Davis for the win. for sure. Leith's favorite, Rosie O'Donnell. She was comic relief. Second favorite character, Madonna. Just saying it. Yeah, she was hot.

She played hard and she partied hard. That other one was kind of hot, too. What was her name? Oh, oh, the one that got traded? Yeah, yeah. I know you're talking about. Gina's sister. Yeah.

And the poor girl that played that her husband died at war, that was sad. But that was a great movie. I don't mean to give them the supporters away. Yeah, come on, man. All right. Okay, here's what we got going here. We've got, we had James and Klein who are concerned about the women's professional baseball league.

Yes. Brad is with us. Okay, please. Can somebody call in? So here's the rule. Brad's going next unless somebody else can beat him. And literally anybody with any other topic can beat Brad's, I just don't get it. I just feel that very confident saying that.

713-21-2-5-7-90. 713212.5.790. Ross is rotten 5 at 1250, believe it or not, today at 150, and your phone calls all the way through it. 713212-5-790. If you don't get Brad, call us and tell us that because we'll put you to the top of the list. Because, again, if nobody else calls, Brad is next.

1143 on Sports Talk 790. All right, today's edition of, believe or not, will be a repeat of a topic with a little bit of a Matt Thomas' flair to it. It'll be highly Googled, and it'll be about the travel industry, Ross, coming up at 1.50 this afternoon. So, can't wait. All right. You have to get three in a row correctly to win today. Three in a row.

Three. Three. Not one, not two, but you have to get three in a row right. All right. On the phones, we go. Let's talk to Charles on 790. Charles. What don't you get, my friend?

I don't get why the answer. Astros haven't locked down Hunter Brown and Jeremy Fain again. Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. I will say this. They could. I don't think they're sitting there going, we'll talk to you in a year from now.

My guess is Ross, they will spend the next couple of months talking it out. And I think it will be not a front burner topic at spring training, but I think it'll be one of our story, as we discussed this year coming up in 2026. I think I got feeling that it was going to happen this offseason with Hunter Brown and not with Jeremy Pena. I'll stick with that. Hmm. Okay.

So you have one of the two. Yes. We'll go one out of the two, hopefully. They both have Scott Boris, correct? Uh, yes. Yeah. Yep.

Maybe, maybe neither of the two is probably the favorite. I would, I'm going to, unfortunately. lean to say that I think it's going to be both don't get it. That's the favorite.

I would believe that. I hope I'm wrong. Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be such a different change of pace that both guys were signed for the long term buying out arbitration years? That'd be crazy. Dana Brown, when he was the general manager

Atlanta, well, not the general manager Atlanta, but the assistant. They paid a lot of guys early. And well, Well, how about this? What if I told you... It hasn't been great for Atlanta recently. What have I told you the most intriguing off-season maneuver by the Astros

is the re-signing of Justin Verlander? What would you say? I would say the pitching stats in trouble? 713-212-5-790. Let's talk to Jay on 7-0. Jay, what don't you get? Hey, Jay, man.

I... Man, man. Houston fans are, you know, up for all the time, man. Like, just like, just my... Jay, you know what? Thank you for calling, my friend. I think it is your phone line. You've called before and you sound equally splotching.

I think that's us. I think that's us. Oh, it could be us, too. Just the way that it's... Remember. The way that it clips... I don't know about that one being this. Okay.

I think he's called before and we've had issues before with him. But, you know what? When in doubt, blame us. It's easier to blame us. Mm-hmm. And now you just blipped a little bit, so yeah, I don't know what's going on. You know what? It's our internet at the office.

It's fine. It's fine. Routy on 790 Rowdy. What don't you get? What I don't get, Brad, continually to call in for y'all keep bumping callers in front of him. Take a hint, Brad. Maybe you can explain yourself. All right. See,

it's us. It's definitely us. My line, it's the phones. Why don't you all listen to me? Not that it matters. This is great. How you doing?

Were you in San Antonio, Matt? At a hotel? How's it going? It's nice. We're going to eat sushi tonight. You're going to San Antonio, Texas, and have sushi. Yes, it's a team event. So I was invited.

Oh, okay. I'm going to go. That's cool. You can't turn down free sushi, right? Oh, I know you're not going to. Nor would I. If it was sloppy Joe's, I wouldn't have. If it's free, give me three.

It's me and Katie hanging out. I'm going to, we're going to knock it out tonight. We're going to drink. We're going to have a couple of pieces of sushi and enjoy life. How are your chopsticks skills? One to ten. Zero. Zero?

Let me ask. That's just a great thing. I'm glad you brought this up. Okay. So is it because of the food that you eat and that's the way you should eat it with chopsticks or is it because people try to think they're cool than they are by using chopsticks because there's really no discernible advantage to using chopsticks over fork, right? I guess not.

Give me the advantage of the chopstick over the fork unless your sushi falls apart because if you stick your fork in it. I just pick up with my hand. Yeah, maybe you don't want to. You eat sushi with your hand? Yeah, of course. Pick it up. There's just small pieces.

Why wouldn't I use my hand? Well, I just don't get it. I think it's advantages. It's quicker. I mean, you don't have to stab it. You can just a little pick up. You can get very fast with your fingers. You know, some, some, some, some, pick up with your tall six.

I mean, why don't you eat everything with your hands? It's just etiquette. I can eat burgers with my hands. That's true. A pasta would be gross. So you can't eat soup with your hands, although you can pick up the soup bowl and just slurp it if you want to do that. I don't do that.

Hmm. Yeah, I'm going to go with, I think that people that use chopsticks and that shame you because you don't. is a little boogie. Boogie? It's... Wait, you're the boogiest. I mean, it's just, I'm eating

Asian food. That's how they eat it. So that's how I eat it. It's respectful. Proper etiquette. I don't think it's... I don't think it's disrespectful if you use a fork. I mean... I don't think there are people at a sushi... Okay, if you use your hands, that's... I'm sorry. Look at that douchebag using a fork.

It's childlike to use hands to eat sushi. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be... Oh, here we go. Getting shamed again on a major market radio show. I was... You can't change your stripes. You just can't.

I love you for it. Come on. You're eating your sushi with your hands. Are you six? Yeah, it's a roll. I mean, what are you going to do? Come on, man. I'm not going to use tongs.

Jonathan, I'm not going to use tongs. I'm not going to use a spatula. I love you, but, uh... I'm trying to home my life. Thank you, man. We just, you just, what if it's like a fried roll? Like, what if we got the sauce on this? You know what?

We'll just bring you an easy Mac. You can eat that on the side. So here's the bit. You know, Craig got invited too. Craig is not a sushi eater. What's he going to do? I want you guys had a McDonald's beforehand. Get a couple of grids.

I think we... Eat him with your hands. He could bring a 20 piece nuggets with him, and he can use them with it. He can use it with chopsticks. Because if you're in a Japanese sushi place, you must use chopsticks. Well, you should.

It's very proper. Yeah, it is. It's respectful. to not dip your nuggets in the sweet and sour sauce. Yeah, why don't you use your hands at a, why don't you go to Morton's and use your hands then? No, because you use a steak. Why use a fork?

You can just bite the steak? I mean, I guess you could. I mean, that wouldn't be the worst. Aaron and San Antonio, Aaron, what don't you get? Well, I don't get why a multi-million dollar company like IHeart can lay people off and save all this money and they still can't get the tech stuff right. No comment. That took you on.

That wasn't me, man. Yeah, I didn't touch anything. No, I didn't touch me either. I didn't know. That's he probably. I think he hung up, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's...

Everything is perfect at IHeartMedia. I love I heart media. It is the best. These web phones are amazing. Yeah, I think I got a bad connection. I don't think I heard a word. I don't think they've heard of word the previous caller said. I mean, can we do...

Oh, okay, never mind. Why, you go to Jim? Jamming the Heights. I'll let you finish your comment. Jim, what don't you get? Okay, so I got one obvious one and one petty one. The obvious one is I can't figure out why this town is buzzing over the rockets. They held out.

They scored 70 points and a half several times. This is the best team we've seen in years. So that's that. What else are we following? College football? That's it. That's the landscape. The second thing is, and this one's petty.

But I got to say it, you guys are going to smack me down. But, hey, you know what? I'm a regular caller. Big Black Adela. The WMBA always is self-destructing, and the thing I don't get I guess it kind of cracks me up is why professional basketball

players wear wigs during a game. I just don't get that. Bad connection for me again. I didn't hear any of that. Not a word. We got a defender. Donald just called and told Ross that he needs to look it up. eating sushi with your fingers is acceptable.

Oh, really? Thank you, Donald. Appreciate you. Love you. The first part of that phone call I did hear before the bad connection kicked in. The first part was why people aren't buying into the rockets. Well,

well, here you go, Matt. Yeah, apparently, yeah, Google says eating sushi with your fingers is acceptable and often encouraged. You know what? Especially with Nagiri and Mocky rolls. Are you having Noggi and Mocki rolls?

I will. absolutely have Nagyrian hockey rolls. Tomorrow, 1130, that'll be the first one you'll be apologizing for us. You're shaming me on my sushi style. You know what? I was wrong. God, this has been a... This is Marconi right here. This is going to get us a Marconi ward. I was wrong. Words never uttered by Ross

that's not true. This show. No, we have drops of me saying that before. It's happened. I know, I know. All right, last but not least, Brad, what don't you get, my friend? Number one, how a young, 24-year-old starting defensive lineman or pseudo-starting either kills himself or dies, the guy the Cowboys, I still don't get it. I know there's not much time to reveal any information, but it makes no sense to me. And then the second thing, why they get rid of Sean and turn the morning show to total crap, and why don't they get rid of you, Matt, because you were probably making the same money,

but I think it ties in with the rockets is why they didn't get rid of you. Why would they get cheap? Because it tells itself, man, you get cheap, you get not as good as entertainment. And Sean was one of the best. So you'd rather had me fire than Sean? No, I'd rather have neither of y'all fired. Oh, okay. I think you got to stay because of your rockets, tie.

I think just because Sean was making all that money, they thought getting rid of them was better than not. I just, I don't get it. That's why I'm asking you. Well, okay, several things. One, I want to make correct. First of all, Sean was not fired. Sean was laid off, unfortunately, and I think people in the world today know what two different things are. It was a workforce reduction, and we are missing him terribly.

Secondly, my relationship with IHeart Radio has nothing to do with my relationship with the Rockets. I am employed by two different people. And third, shut you bum ass up. Can I, can I work? Is that okay with you, Brad? I mean, my goodness. I've been saying to stop taking his calls for multiple years now, so you just go ahead. He's basically saying what, Matt, we know the reason why you can.

And trust me on this. And talking about the Cowboys player who apparently died in a suicide. Yeah, we don't know anything about that. Why would we want to comment on that? Worst color of all time. Worst color of all time. Do you see why we push bright at the very end? This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Houston Rockets 124 and the Memphis Grizzlies 109 Ross I think he'll be proud of me Although you can still shame me if you want to There is a player A rookie for the Memphis

Grizzlies named Coward Cedric Howard Yes I called him Colin one time during the game I knew it wasn't going to do it but that I just did it. Oh, an accident?

Yeah. And I will say that Senator Coward is a significantly better NBA player than Colin Coward ever would be. I would imagine so. Coward, not Cowherd. Yes. But, yeah, so, yeah, I just made one slight mistake yesterday, and I apologize. I don't want to be face up to it and say, I'm sorry for the audience that was thinking that Colin Coward was playing yesterday for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Did you put your pinky up when you said, Olivier Maxon's Prosper? He played like a minute and a half or something. It was over. Okay. John Morant looked very disinterested. Time now for the news at noon at 10 minutes past the hour of 12. Yes, Matthew.

One quick news item. Upon further research, it's really not common for Japanese people to eat sushi with their hands, but I digress. All right, let's go to what's happening. The latest with your Houston Texans, Matt. According to DJ BMME. Who covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. Well, yeah, he covers the Texans for ESPN. Okay, so he's legit then.

He's a legit reporter as compared to the water carriers out there usually. Will, all right. Will Anderson and Nick Chubb are back at practice for the Houston Texans. Ed Ingram, Titus Howard, Jalen Petrie is so far not spotted. Last two are in the concussion protocol. So Will Anderson back? that's good. Nick Chubback?

Yeah, C.J. Stroud definitely ruled out for the game on Sunday. Yes. And it's Kami Fairbrandt also, I believe, was also ruled out Friday. It's the Davis Mills show, baby. And Wexler just putting out there, he did not see Damien Pierce at practice today. Hmm. During the media availability. So it's, you know, there's a little bit of a little bit of wiggle room there.

Just because just because the media doesn't mean those guys haven't been working out. So there you have it. And one other quick news item, Matt. Texans owners, Cal and Hannah McNair, along with Lone Star Sports and Entertainment, investing in a professional volleyball team in Houston, announced today that has acquired the League One Volleyball Houston team. Yeah, we talked about League One Volleyball quite a bit last year. And it's the women's, there's two professional women's leagues, and the League one is one of them. It's great. I'm glad that, you know, they're diversifying their portfolio a little bit.

I don't know if it's going to make any money. I don't know what the ultimate gain is for this, but I do believe that sometimes sports owners like to own multiple teams and try different stuff. And clearly, Hannah realizes how cool volleyball is. So I applaud the Texans for going into and investing in something fledgling like League One volleyball. Good for them. And, yeah, we do have to bring up what Brad said, because it's just, it's a major sports story. unfortunately. Cowboys defensive end, Marshawn Neeland. According to law authorities died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

There was a chase and he fled the vehicle and then apparently died after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Team statement, it is an extreme sadness of the Dallas Cowboys share that Marcia Neeland tragically passed away this morning. Marciaan was a beloved teammate and member of our organization. Our thoughts and prayers regarding Marcia are with his girlfriend. Catalina and his family. If you want to see Adam Schaefter put the police report out. Friscoe, if you want to see it on Twitter that way, you can see it. But not much more we can say about that.

Except very, very sorry that life had to end because of whatever happened. He was running from the police. There was a crash and then self-inflicted gunshot one. Terrible. Terrible story. All right. Anything else newswise? Yes.

Your Houston Astros have a hitting coach, Matt. At least one. We may be more than one. I'm probably going to be more than one. Brian McTaggart speaking with people on the Twitterverse talking about, I mean, somebody gave one of my first thoughts. Yeah, the 64-year-old probably not going to be too analytically driven, but he thinks that Victor Rodriguez is going to be more of the relationship coach

and that they would also add someone else to the staff, perhaps with a more analytical approach or more analytical forward. So you're probably going to get multiple guys on the hitting coaching staff. So you got the Papa and you have the, dirty uncle, basically, coming up. Two different guys. No, I don't think they're going to hire a dirty uncle.

The cool second cousin from the lives in Louisville? I don't know. Something like that? I don't know. Good cop, bad cop? Oh, that's perhaps a better analogy. You know me, they don't call me Mr. analogy for a reason. No, they don't. But there you go. That's what's happening

in the world of sports right now, man. Thank you very much for that, Ross. Good job. always on the news at noon. All right. Would you like to join us? We'd love to have you at 713-212-5-790. If you want to take any more shots at my career, you're more welcome to do that at 7-1-3-212.

You're doing great, man. It's fine. I mean, I consider the source, really. You know what? Are you suspending him? What's going off? Two weeks suspension. Oh.

Two-decade. Let's go. Two-decade suspension. You're saying that Brick called to 2045? I mean, everyone hates his calls. and he doesn't add anything to the show. Any, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, any, uh, basically was calling for me to lose my job over other people.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. I, I, I guess. Not low key, high key. Yeah. That was high key. That was, that was, that was, there was, no, there was no, there was no shade

on that. That was straight, I told you should get fired. Yeah. Why did Sean have to leave and you got to stay? What, what do you want me to potentially say? I mean, Lord. That's 10 minutes of my life. I'll never get back. All right.

713-212-5-790. 12-16 is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. We're with you today until 2 o'clock. We've got the rotten 5-and-50 minutes and a highly Googledable edition of, believe it or not. It is travel-related. It is airport-related. And we'll have it for you coming up at 150. It's Sports Talk 790.

We're with you at 1221. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Sports Talk 790. 7-19. 7-1-3-1-2-5-79. Ross, I want to tell you that Craig, Ackerman is the most talented television probably a plane announcer I know today.

Is Craig in the room with you? Yeah, he brought me breakfast. Man, you got him running you food in every city? That's the third time, that? It's crazy. Yeah, he doesn't. But I buy him coffees and drinks on the road, so it evens out. It evens out, right.

Courier fees. Well, I'm glad it's just not, and not just me that you order around and make do stuff for you. I'm glad Craig does that too. Let me ask you this. Do you think I would do it for him? Nope. 100% I would.

100%. maybe him, not me. That's all right. I would definitely buy you stuff. Oh, yeah, buy me stuff. All right, 713, 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790. You know we have not talked about

the Steve Balmer-Clipper situation, really? No, we haven't. We got to get to that, but I want to get back to our phone call to the call back. All right, Jay, we believe it's your phone line. Is it your phone line? Is it ours? Go ahead. I don't know if it's y'all's or mine,

but I just had a question about quarterback, y'all's. talking about that the other day. Sure. What happened to Josh Rosen, man? Like, I want to ask that. And then I had my rocket prediction. We're going to go to the Western Conference playoffs, the Western Conference finals, and then I just want to know,

what do you think about being the host of $790, man? Like, that's all I got, man. I'm going to just let you go from there. What do you think about being a host? I love it. It's the greatest part of my life, work-wise. And, Matt, Matt, everybody thinks that you don't deserve to even be that. I like you, you're good, but, like, it's some stuff that some people are not feeling, you know, with you.

It's all good. I like you, man. Well, tell me what you're not feeling. I'm curious about this, Jay. What are they feeling about me? What have I done wrong to people? Man, I don't know, man. Like, that's something for you to say.

I don't know. To me, for me, it's just like, it's kind of like you tick bits from other people's shows, but I'm not concerned about that. I just want to know about it. People steal from my show, Jay. Jay, people steal from me. I don't steal from other people. What are you kidding?

People steal from me. Have you listened to 80% of sports radio? All I need to know was whatever happened to Josh Rosen, man. Because they say he was going to be better than Josh Allen. I don't think of the quarterback? back? Yeah, it was UCLA, wasn't he not? Josh Rosen.

The other day, I was trying to ask about him. Well, all right, we're here to tell you that Josh Rosen. I was trying to ask about Josh Rosen the other day. Where is he at today? Where is that guy? I believe he's a barista at a Starbucks in Poughkeepsie, New York. That was my one day, and my sports prediction was the Rochester is going to go to the West End conference finals, and that's all I had.

All right, thank you. I'm going to call you. back again, but I'm going to call you back again, but that's all I have for right now. All right. Well, good. Thank you, Jay. Jay calling with a rando quarterback reference of a guy who I actually thought was good coming out of UCLA and was a first round pick of the Arizona Cardinals, who was a 100% complete bust. He, uh, go ahead. Arizona, Miami, Tampa, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Cleveland. He was in the league in

2018 and was out of the league before the season started in 2022. So he would be a 100% no if ands or buts bust. Ah, all right. Well, he's also, he's getting his NBA at the Wharton School, which is a very prestigious business school at Penn. So there's no chance he's a barista at a Starbucks in particular. I mean, maybe he's making ends meet that way. He got pretty big signing bonus thing.

Yeah, I mean, think about it. If you were the number 10 pick in the, what was a 2015 draft, so... Yeah. I don't know if he bought a gold-plated Bentley or anything, but you should have some money. Thank you, Jay, for the rousing endorsement of the show as well on top of that. $18.7 million. Down the tubers. Well, that's what he made.

I mean, I hope he's getting an NBA, so he's probably investing some of it. clearly not stupid that's nice all right um this is a weird day man I've got a lot of harsh criticism what the hell's going on today

what did I seriously we're crushing the morning show people are crushing Matt I asked him I said what am I doing wrong and he goes well I don't know you're not doing anything wrong but maybe you're stealing other people's stuff I mean what

let me be frank I hate listen a lot of sports radio. It's not very entertaining. I mean, we try to entertain. We're not going to give you a deep-seated breakdown of Tampa 2 defense. It's not going to happen. This show's never been about that, and it never will be. We're going to talk big picture stuff.

We're going to get in some conversations about all the different teams. We're not going to bludgeon you to death with the same conversation, but the same team over and over again. I'm not going to give you 20 hours of whether or not the Texans should retain Nick daily or not. I'm not going to give you 20 hours of why the Astros made a hitting coach change. I'm not going to give you 20 hours of why the rockets are awesome and you all should watch. We're just going to mix things up. And maybe that just isn't everybody's cup of tea. But I'm here. I've been here a long time. I don't plan on going anywhere. People seem to like me for the most part except for my last two callers.

You know, it is what it is. Not everybody shows for everybody. But if you listen to the show and you think I'm stealing stuff. I apologize, but I can tell you honestly, in the entire history of this show in my career, I've only stolen one thing. Factor fiction was a game they played in Salt Lake City when I lived in Salt Lake. We call it, believe it or not. That's the only thing I've legitimately stolen from somebody. Everything else is just what organic we do. I'm going to say that way. Ross, you want anything? I think you do a great job, Matt. No, I don't need you. Play-by-play hosting this show, running this show. I don't come up with it.

95% of the bits and segments. You're doing great, Matt. I'm proud of you. And can I say, be on this show, this is crazy to hear about, like, in this industry, this is ruthless. Yeah, it is a ruthless business. Not even true, but. To peel the curtain back, when someone gets let go, and we do miss Sean terribly. Sean was a great friend and a great broadcaster, and I hope that whatever he does in his life, he's a smart guy, he got his MBA, he works his ass off, and, you know, he had a dark moment in his career, and he was able to

to overcome it and thrive and he's doing just fine. He's got his web show and I'm doing some other things and he's got his quarterback evaluations. I'm not worried about Sean. Sean's a talented person and a good person. But it's funny when somebody leaves, not because they want to leave, it's because our bosses or other bosses beyond us tell us it becomes an assassination attempt on those that get to keep their job. And I've never, I've never quite understood that, but that's human nature and Ross it's been happening in our industry for a long period of time. If one of our stations are competitors around town loses a host it's oh my god

I'm so sorry it happened and why the other guy on that station's still on the ear he's trash not our first rodeo this is the this is how it goes it's how it goes and the biggest conundrum I'm facing right now is the jelly that

Craig brought me I cannot open up the jar that's in the jelly in it so oh oh man y'all are at a fancy place you got little jars of jelly rather than packets it's a jar It's a jar and I can't open it. Oh, is it, is it a compote? It's a jam?

It's a jam. It's a jam. It's actually a jam. Dickinson's Concord Crape Jam. And I'm sure it's delicious if I can somehow open it up. Fighten that. Maybe I'll think a thing about Brad here for two minutes and I'll get the thing open. 713, 212, 5.7. Can you call room service to open up your little jars of jam? That would be the fanciest thing you could possibly do.

What if I called Craig back? To open up. your jar. I'm called concierge. Hi, hi, this is the front desk. Yes, can you send somebody up here to open up my jar of jam?

He brought me cream cheese spread. You don't put cream cheese on toast, do you? Well, you got a marmalade? Is it a marmalade or a jam? It's a jam. It's a jam. By the way, do I like cream cheese yes or no? I should know this.

I'm going to say yes. No. Generally speaking, I don't. Oh, my God. But there is like a dip that you can, there's like a cream cheese dip you can have. It's pretty good. And then I also like when you put jellies on top of a cream cheese.

You've seen that before. What about cheesecake? I like cheesecake. I'm not consistent. I don't know. You were an enigma. You were a riddle wrapped up in enigma. I can't remember the rest of that.

A mystery. It's a mystery wrapped in anigma wrapped in a riddle or whatever. 10 minutes from now. If you're a Mr. Conversation with E. Mae Adoka earlier, we'll replay that for you at 1.30 today. A couple of my friends are texting me saying that they think, think that the caller that was calling about Josh Rosen was confusing me with Josh Ennis, that

apparently Josh uses still a bunch of bits from people. Maybe that's the case. I don't know. He was clearly confused about many things. Do you think there's any other radio show in the country today? How many sports radio stations are there? How many are left? I don't know.

Yeah, really. How many took a Josh Rosen call? There is nobody in the country that took a Josh Rosen call except us today. Literally nobody else. That's ESPN. That's Fox. that's the local station in Denver, that's Cincinnati, Miami, Detroit, Seattle. Nobody in the country took a Josh Rosen call except our show.

That's why we've been able to survive all these years. By the way, he... Josh Rosen calls when other people don't. He was an economics major at UCLA, by the way, and getting an NBA from... Yeah, he's doing fine financially, I'm sure. He's not a barista, Matt. If I didn't have 90% of Believe it or not already done, I would have done all things Josh Rosen, believe it or not.

Oh, man. One of the biggest draft busts in NFL history. Says his Wiki page. Do you try to edit that out of your own wiki page? Do you think he wrote it himself? I don't think he wrote that he's one of the biggest busts in NFL history. I, you know, honestly, I remember talking about this with you. I liked him.

I liked him a lot. First of all, I'm always a... That's true. I think it was Thomas Sports Enterprise's first pick. Josh Rosen. That's not true. You know who in the first pick was. Ryan Leaf?

Nope. Yeah, it was Ryan Leaf. Not Thomas Sports Enterprise. I liked Ryan Lee, but he wasn't a Thomas Sports Enterprise. I don't know about that. It was Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys. That's true. First ever client.

And then it was John Ross. Now, he's a priest and Poughkeepsie, for sure. Okay, come on. Actually, he runs drive-thru because he's running really fast between the cars. That's true. Ross, I need a ruling from you on this. Okay. Good idea.

good idea not going to work, bad idea, why'd you even try it? Those are your three options. Okay. Pete Thammel, who is the senior football writer for ESPN, has a source it says, Rice is set to announce a $120 million wholesale stadium renovation. That's part of a project to further connect campus with the nearby Rice Village Entertainment District. The Rice Stadium overhaul will include adding suites, a premium club area, and a new press level,

and it looks like they're going to reduce the deck Rice Stadium in half. As a matter of fact, I will retweet the photo of it from Thamble's story. Yeah, I saw something about this, was it yesterday or maybe the last couple days? I didn't, I thought it was,

I saw it was a project to connect the Rice Village and basically the campus area. I didn't know they were going to do all this to the stadium. Yeah, I just retweeted it. Okay. I got to be really honest with you, Rossi. I have been involved with Rice Athletics when I was not doing U of H stuff before I left town. And the administration that I worked for is not there.

None of those people are there. All the coaches are gone. Obviously, the players are gone. All the coaches and the administration is gone. And I like them. And they really tried hard. I mean, fixing up Rice Stadium in itself is a good idea because it's just an eyesore and it's not useful and it's old and you can't.

I mean, they'll get better value Rossi putting concerts at Rice Stadium than they will putting in football facilities. You know what I mean? I mean, there's going to be a value to having an outdoor venue at Rice Stadium for, you know, a mid-level show that wants to put 20,000 people on stands. But this is not going to help Rice's athletic department. It's just not. That chip has passed.

when Central Campus doesn't really care about athletics, you never are going to win. Never, ever, ever are you going to win? Now, can Rice go 7 and 5 and be happy about that? Can Rice go to a bowl game once in a while? Sure, it would be good. Can Rice be relevant in the Olympic sports, like a tennis, track and field?

Maybe baseball can get back to where it was a handful of years ago when Wayne Graham was coaching things. But Ross, the basketball team has not gone to the, NCAA tournament, I want to say since 1971 or 72. Rice House basketball? The tournament? Rice House basketball. I thought they had never been, but okay.

Yeah. I mean, there is a banner that I would look at when I was calling games for them in the late 1990s that I'm like, oh my God, it's been 26 years since they've been in the tournament. Yeah, 1970, first round loss. 19. To New Mexico State.

1970. You've gone 55 years without one turn. NCW, I mean, granted, it was 36 teams and 48 and 64, and now it's 68, and maybe you'll get to 86 or 120, whatever the hell they're going to do. But you tell me, you can't go to one NCAA tournament in 55 years? How about this? They haven't even been to the NIT since 2005. And if Rice can barely operate a football department, how the hell they're going to get anybody to spend money in NIL?

If you're a Rice alum, you're going to pay to make sure the James Baker School is looking at its very best. Let's go Indy Klu. You know what I mean? Yeah, the Pete Thammell went on to talk about the investment and the pavilion and reducing the capacity from 47,000 to 30,000 and increasing premium ticketing opportunities. and this is the key, I guess, is what they're envisioning. Follows a nationwide trend to focus on premium, which has been done at places like Vanderbilt and Northwestern, of course, two very highly touted academic institutions in their own right.

So they're trying to be like Vandy and Northwestern. Vandy's on the upticking football? Absolutely. Northwestern hasn't been relevant in 15 years. No, they made a Big Ten championship game a few years ago. with with with with they had a what's his name pat fitzgerald something fitzgerald and then there he got disgraced with the the hole there was a what was it the hazing there was a hazing scandal over there i'm trying to pull up a northwestern wildcats football

you know what you just close your computer i can't have this i just can't yeah pat fitzgerald what's he doing now well he i think he i think think he just won a lawsuit against Northwestern for like uh wrongful termination i didn't realize that uh you was a high commodity for a while and then he realized hell i can only do so much at northwest yeah they well i mean he's a northwestern alum they gave him a massive contract they didn't really deserve you go seven seven at five in north in northwestern you're a god yeah i again i i is there an outdoor venue that can be filled in the middle of the city of Houston and Rice Village? Absolutely. That's going to work.

But drawn football, NIL, transfer portal, rice, no chance, no way, no how. Yeah, pandemic year, Northwestern finished 10th in the final AP and coaches poll. So, but still. But yeah, I guess that what Rice is going for, I guess. Yeah. Paul and Roger, we'll get to you coming back out of the break. We've got the rotten five, too. Don't go away.

Ooh, the rotten five is up next plus Paul and Roger. Are you ready for rotting five? Are you going to scramble? Tell the truth. I am in, but it's a hybrid. I'm in between ready and scrambling. All right. We'll take these calls.

We'll take the calls. We'll see how it goes. 1244 on Sports Talk 790. They've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's rotten five. This don't smell quite right. All right, since Ross took last week off, two weeks have gone.

Since we've determined who are the five worst teams in the NFL. The question will be, do the Houston Texans make the list of the Rotten Five? We find out right now for SportsRV. All right, well, the Houston, Texas aren't very good, but there is a lot of bad football being played right now. We start off with the Cleveland Browns. They have lost four of their last five games. The only win coming against the Miami Dolphins,

who will be later on this list. They are coming off the by week, but they lost 32 to 13 against the New England Patriots the last time they were in action. This week, they've got the toilet bowl. I mean, this has got to be one of the worst NFL games of the season. The Cleveland Browns taking on the jets, who will also be later on on this list.

Cleveland Browns, they are terrible, but at least they're favored on the road against New York Jets. So they're only the fifth worst team in the NFL. You are a factory of sadness. Moving along to the Miami Dolphins last in action last Thursday against the Ravens where they lost 28 to 6. They have been terrible. PFF has them with the 31st first offensive line in football. They've been trading away their defensive players.

They just fired their general manager, Chris. gear and Greer, excuse me, and it's got to be a punishment for Mike McDaniel. Apparently, the owner saying that it is going to be him for the remainder of the season, even with Mike McDaniel calling it exhausting with all the rumors surrounding around his firing. But he is going to finish the year as the Miami Dolphins head coach. They are nine and a half point dogs to the Buffalo Bills at home. The dolphins are terrible. They are the fourth worst team in the NFL.

All right, moving along, we are getting to the nitty gritty. Some horrible football teams with the New Orleans Saints. I mean, Tyler Shuck, not going to be the answer for the New Orleans Saints. They are also already going to, went on a fire cell themselves during the trade deadline. They traded away Rashid Shaheed. They are one in eight on the season. They are a horrible football team. Very bad to watch.

They've lost four games in a row. They're on the road against the Panthers this week. so they're going to lose again the New Orleans Saints, the third worst team in the NFL. Believe it, yeah, God's set the head up the crawfish there. All right, thank you, Mr. Gordy. All right, moving along, number two, the New York Jets. Speaking of fire cell, I mean, they traded away sauce Gardner,

but they did get great value for that. Also traded away Quinn and Williams to the Dallas Cowboys. Got some value for that as well. So they are stockpiling the first round picks. Breece Hall's still there, though? That doesn't make any sense. Well, whatever. They are coming off a win in their last game

against the Bengals in a wild one. But the New York Jets still won win on the year. And they face the Browns in what has to be, as I said earlier, one of the worst football games of the season, maybe the last five years. They're terrible. The number two, worst team in the NFL, the New York football jets.

They can't stop a nose bleed. All right, moving it along. I mean, what can be said about the Tennessee Titans that has not been said about Afghanistan? What a horrible team. They continue to be last in yards per play. They are one in eight on the season. They have a minus 127 point differential.

That is easily the worst in all of football. Their only win was that fluke accident against the Cardinals five games ago. They've since lost four straight. They have not even been within one score except for the last one against the Chargers. The Titans are on a buy. thankfully there are only three point dogs to the bye week they are terrible they're the worst team in the NFL I mean we're keeping a book right now we ask excellent thank you camward thank you cam word thank you ross because again nobody gives you the five best teams I mean everybody

give you the five best I'm looking for the five worst who does anybody else do a rotten five do we still that bet with anybody no get him matt get a organic organic bit we've created everything except one thing in the history of this show one thing apparently a listener said that we lead the sports radio and a number of people calling from their nursing homes, which is weird. That's accurate, but it's... It's probably accurate.

It's not horrible. I mean, it's the truth. I'm going to love everybody. We just do. Paul in Myerland at 1254 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Paul, good afternoon to you. Howdy, howdy, man? Go coos.

Hey, what do y'all do? I'm sorry. Is that tomorrow at 1130? 30? That's 1130 tomorrow, yes. okay well i got to call and apologize to uh ross like it

um but whoever it was made the executive decision to get rid of charlie pollolo for that buffoon josh ennis is an idiot he should have kept his bum and his mouth shut

because nobody nobody in this city had time for that you all take care i'll talk to you tomorrow all thank you very much drive by Continue your sports RV. It's just trying to stay in my lane.

Man. What's in the water on this Thursday? Honestly, can I peel the curtain back for a second? Josh reached out to me about nine months ago and said, hey, I was a complete douche for the way I've sent things about you. And I wanted to apologize. And I said, that's fine. Thank you very much.

Water under the bridge. So we're cool. I mean, we're never going to break bread. We're not going to be best friends. You know, I think, and it's part of the fun of our 1130 segment on Fridays is that sometimes people, we do stupid stuff and we just should say, I'm sorry. And, uh, he, now, granted he was looking for work and maybe he was trying to, low-key, trying to get me to get him a job back in Houston, which I couldn't do. But, um, he apologized, so I accepted it. I mean, I could have said, F you and go away, but I didn't. I said water under the bridge. We're good. That's great. Good for you guys.

So I feel about when you insult me on a daily basis on this show, I say, you know, it's water under the bridge. That's good. I don't hold grudges. Well, there's actually a couple of holes. You know what? Forget what I said. That's a lie. I do hold grudges.

But Josh's not with one of them. Okay. And Josh, by the way, for those of you that are, and there are some Josh and his fans out there, Josh is doing a radio show in Detroit. It's not sports, but it's on a rock. I was doing rock. Rock in Detroit? That's got to be something. you know one of the top stations in houston remains classic rock i'm not going to say who it is because

it's a competitor of our company so you know we hope they lose but bottom line is classic rock will always be a very popular genre in general for those about to rock we salute you yeah and now when those people start to die off it's going to be an issue hey come on well i mean my guess is you know benny goodman was popular back in the day and that that held his for a while. Remember this? The best music ever. Best music ever, KBME, way back in the day.

That's OG if you're really on old 790. And if you're super old G, Rossi, it was a simulcast of 93Q when 93Q was a pop station. Hmm. I don't know that. Top 40. Yeah. Now, I remember there used to be 94-5 oldies with 56, the best of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Yep.

Everything changes eventually. But I think AM for the radio now is spoken with it. I can't. There may be one Tehono music station, I think, on the AM dial, but that's, I can't think. One. Even the, yeah, I would say 90% of the AM stations in Houston are spoken work. That's coming back.

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors. AM radio's coming back. Absolutely. AM for life. If you ain't AM, you ain't my best friend. Oh, I'm sorry, it never left. Yeah. But we do encourage you to go to 94.

94.5 HD2, if you so choose. Absolutely. Or the IHeart Radio app. We love that, too. Sound crystal clear on the IHeart Radio app. and you can, you know, look, I'm in San Antonio. I'm going to listen to the ATMO on I Heart Radio app. You are?

For a while. For a nap? Well, I mean, I got a nap here because I got a, you know, I've been up. I know, I just want to say, you know what? I'm going to say this on air. I appreciate you, Matt. You're traveling all throughout the hours. It's very busy.

We do a four-hour show now, and it's two hours earlier. I appreciate you being on this program. No, I, you know, look, I, I love this show. I love the Rockets. It's two great loves. It just, I like the old time slot better, but that's a different issue for a different time. We're happy to be employed, 10 to 2.

Yes, sir! Woo! We are very happy to be employed. All right, 1 o'clock hour up next. Rockets didn't win. We'll get to a little bit of that. We have, we talked about Rice a little bit today. We've got Texan's injury report.

You want to run through the list again of the injuries? Well, we ought to do it is. We ought to more importantly tell you who practiced today. All right, I got to hydrate. Got to rest up. Renal those vocal cords going. 713-212-5-790. We've got EMAIDOCA replay at 130.

Believe it or not, it's highly Googledable. It is about airports. 7-13-212-5-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 103 on Sports Talk, 790. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show here from San Antonio. We had E-Ma-Doka with us earlier today. And we'll look forward to, if you missed it earlier,

We'll have that conversation coming up at a half an hour from now, believe it or not, today as well, at 150. It's about airports. It's highly Googled, and that's all I can tell you. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-790. Texans back on the practice field today. Ross, do you have the list of who is actually out there? So says Adam Lexler, our Texans reporter.

I don't have the list. Yeah, people have been saying who they've spotted out there. Nick Chubb has been spotted. Hold on. Let me pull it. Let me just go ahead and pull it up From Yeah, Will Anderson, Nick Chubb spotted

Okay No Damien Pierce No Damian Pierce No Ed Ingram No Titus Howard or Jalen Petrie So Not great Bob Of course C.J. Stroud

I mean he's already been ruled out Right And Kimi's out and that guy Matthew's going to kick this week Um What? I don't know You're just this funny

I guess Do people don't normally go by Christopher? Well, Christopher Reeve. Christopher Columbus? Christopher Cross. Ooh. The R.M.V. Rhaps star, Christopher Cross. Oh, Christopher. Christopher.

Was it Chris Walking or Christopher walking? Christopher. Wasn't Winnie the Pooh's best friend, Christopher? Sure, why not? I thought it was Eeyer. No. The dude, the adult, the kid was winning the boo's bestie. Christopher Robin?

Chris for Robert, yeah, exactly. All right, Rockets win last. Look, I'm punched drunk because I'm on sleep deprivation. I count on you to hold this show together. I know. When I'm on the road, I didn't you to step up. You're supposed to be the responsible one, not me. Now, tomorrow I'll be wide away because I'm going on NBA TV tomorrow morning at 830.

Oh, wow. Look at you. Yeah. That's great. Oh, I know I was going to mention you real quick, for you to go to the phones. So I and Eagle is going to be on the show with us tomorrow. We're very excited. one of the great broadcasters of all time.

He does, not only does the final four, what you did, obviously, the Cougars losing there. He's done NFL for decades. He's done NBA for decades, college basketball number one announcer now. He's also the... Never known a Super Bowl. He may have done an international feed, but never the game itself.

Okay. He's on the Amazon Prime broadcasts of the Rockets versus Spurs. And he is also going to do the Texans game with JJ Watt on on Sunday between the Jags and the Texans. So I think it was a good time to get him on for both occasions. So I've been thinking about this Amazon thing,

and we were talking earlier, very early on the show today, about how you and I, first of all, we love the Rockets. We love basketball, but we love when the Rockets are really good. By the way, their defensive rating is up to six down in the association. Number one, an offensive rating. No. I mean, that's excellent. Did you see that four teams are in the top ten in both?

And they're all in the West? Bud's kill. Rockets, Nuggets, Thunder Spurs. So tomorrow night, the game is on Amazon. It's an Amazon exclusive. Yes. So Craig doesn't work. Vanessa's not working the game.

Ryan's going to do radio with me tomorrow night. They said they were doing pre and post, so I don't know how involved those guys are all in that. I think Craig is free and clear. But Ryan's going to do the game with me on radio tomorrow. Awesome. Yeah, he's bored, so he's like, I don't kind of sit with you and I'm like, of course you can.

So it'll be fun. I really, we're going to hear it from people saying, I want to watch my rockets. I want to watch them play a good team. Oh, great. It's on Amazon. I got to spend this. I'm not going to do it, so I'm not going to watch.

Which means obviously you can listen to radio broadcast, which we are obviously encouraged. But you know, in the Amazon and the NFL, if your team is on an Amazon game, you get it put on the air for free, over the over-the-air station. All the local stations, could bid for it.

Remember when Monday Night Football was on ESPN the internet, Channel 11 had the broadcast in Houston and the Texan Seattle game. Each market can bid out the game. I wish the NBA would do that because I really think you're missing a golden opportunity for

the Rocket Spurs. I mean, hopefully it will be a long-standing rivalry. Two teams off to a very good start, Rossi, plenty of stars on both sides. And unless you have the Amazon Prime package, you're not going to watch the game. And look, I'm not foolish to believe that people are saying,

I'd rather choose radio over television. I get that. I understand that. But if you put the game even on the Space City Network, the Amazon feed, I just think you're missing an opportunity to get the two cities that really would care about your teams more than anybody else,

a missed opportunity because you're, making them go to a pay service to go watch this game. But that's what Amazon Prime wants. They want people to, I don't know how many subscribers are going to gain because games are in the NBA or how many in San Antonio or Houston aren't going to sign up.

But that's the whole point. So, I mean, it's a trade-off. I understand. I mean, I really logically understand why they're doing it. But it's funny, wouldn't you want to have Amazon pick the crappy games? Like, have Amazon put the Rockets Memphis on? You know what I mean?

I mean, to be brutally honest, you're getting a chance here for people to really tune into a really good situation. Rockets and Spurs, maybe Western Conference rivals for the next half decade or so, and unless you're on the service, you're not getting it. And that's going to happen with Peacock Letter this year. No, ESP, most everybody has, NBC most everybody has. But I don't know. It's just, I'm really torn because I miss, I think we're missing out on a segment of the population tomorrow that on a Friday night may say, you know what, I will check out the Rockets game.

I'll put on my Space City channel and see what I got. Oh, I got to pay for it. I'm good. And the NBA doesn't care because I took the check. But I just think they're missing now. Yeah, but I mean, that's something we've talked about now for the last several years. How much are you stunting the continued growth of your fan bases and the interest in your league? By hiding, not only say hiding, but not having the games is widely available.

Like the Roku, we've talked about Roku, the baseball. We've talked about putting playoff games exclusively on Peacock with the NFL and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. It's just me just pitching, that's all. I just, it would be nice if you could say, okay, now there are a certain number of games that will be on Peacock and on Space City. There'll be a certain game that will be on Prime and on Space City. You can only do certain, you can only give, you can only take away 15 games of your local team. I have.

I have a prime and I have Peacock, so I'm all good. Yeah, but how many people have both? I would say a lot. Well, Prime more than Peacock, right? Now, see, Amazon Prime, I get, do I get it for free because we are Amazon Prime? You call it free, sure, yes. You know what I'm saying, that we pay a membership? Mm-hmm.

I don't know. All right. This is something that I just randomly thinking about, because I think tomorrow night's games are being fun. And, again, if you don't have Amazon Prime, please listen to me on the radio. I'll try it the best I can. Ryan Hounds will be on the broadcast with me. should be a good game. Rockets in San Antonio Spurs. Greg is with us at 111.

Greg, good afternoon to you. Hey, guys. How are you all today? Amazing. Thank you for asking. Amazing. Well, I talked to you about a month ago when I was the U.S. Open Chimmy champion. And over the weekend, I went out to Kalinga and won the international championship.

Woo! I would, yeah, 199 entries. Somehow I came out of number one. but I still want to bring you guys some and let you try what real Texas chili is about. All right, Ross will give you his address off air, and you guys can knock it out that way. 1233? I'll go back. Westlip South.

You don't like it? You don't like it spicy? I love spicy food. My digestive system does not. Well, it's not too bad. I can dumb it down a little for you, so. but in the championships they like it hot now are you going to give us some with beans and some without beans

are you going to go 100% beans or zero percent beans tell the truth well you know the honest truth is people like beans and this is i know this texas i know it's sacrilegious to say that but people like beans in their children now in competition we're not allowed to use beans because it's considered a marker and you being a judge may know oh great puts beans in his choice. I'm going to score him better. So we all have to be on an even keel, and everything is turned in as a Texas red chili, no beans, no pasta, no rice. But I can bring you some with beans. My wife is very proficient at beans and won many competitions with that.

So even though she and I compete together, she actually has a second place, but now my pepper's bigger than hers. Excuse me? You beat your wife in chili cooking? I did. I did. I did. And my daughter cooks, too. She's a junior champion three times in a row. We've got a pretty good recipe, and it seems to win pretty well. Are you all, like, stealing each other's recipes, and it's like changing one ingredient? I mean, that's a pretty intense competition you got to go in there. No, I don't. We all cook exactly the same thing.

Most people don't realize that chili is a technique, and the ingredients are the same. it's how you make it. All right, I'm going to tell you one more thing before we go to break here, Greg. Now, Greg, if you bring us some chili, we will definitely try it. But remember, Ross does not have any cuth. So if he thinks it's terrible, he's going to tell you. I think if he won the international chili competition, it's going to be pretty good. No, no, no, you don't know that for sure.

You could still say it's... Now, if he entered the flavorless cheese stick competition, then that would be something else. I know. I love to hear the honest, brutal truth. It's good or it's bad. It doesn't matter. Ross, I'll give it to you. Don't worry.

I'd be way more polite than it. I'm looking forward to it. But if I get back to one of the interns, I can get it set up to bring you guys some. Would that be great? Thank you very much for the phone call. Greg, it's good to hear your voice. Congratulations and all of your family's successful chili. I've had a sports RV chili before.

It's delicious. 1233, West Loop South. You get that, Greg? 1233. 1233. Sweet 700 care of Matt Thomas. Three bowls, three things of spoons, and some Atlanta. 1233 West Loop South.

Yeah. And lots of Tums. Yeah. Lots of Tums. All right. Alex, Mac, Roger, we'll hang with you guys next. EMAIDOCA, bottom of the hour, here on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790.

You mentioned very early in the show today that Kevin Durant and John Morant's dad were having a war words. Last night in Memphis. I didn't realize that dad got one in two, Ross. Did you see this? No. Is this true and verified, Matt? Did you listen to these? It's somebody filming it from court side.

And you can't hear it clearly, but you can certainly read the words. And then basically, I want to see what the... Basically, Kevin Durant said, your son don't want to be here. We know it's your last weekend. enjoy your time. That's what Kevin Durant said to John Morant's dad. And then apparently

John Morant's dad said something back and I lost the first I lost the tweet. God, I hate my life. I should favorite more things so I can lose I can find this stuff.

He had a great line back. Dad to Kevin Durant. I'm Googling this. This is not great radio and I apologize, but it was a funny line. I don't want to butcher it. Let's see here. I'll find it.

God, I'm just awful. But basically, they were blank talking each other, and it was pretty damn funny. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9-0. Let's go to Alex and Conroe on 790. Hello, Alex. You know, Matt, I don't understand why they got rid of Sean, and they kept you, because Sean was making all that money.

Dude, you know what I don't get? I don't get how you can continually be a butthole and then not realize it and just continue to play like a victim role. It's crazy, man. And I've got too much empathy because I felt bad for Brad at times. I'm like, oh, the guys are being kind of mean to him. But then he just brings it on himself every single time, dude. Jesus, have some awareness. Anyway, Matt, I loved back in the day whenever it was you and Llam.

Lance, I thought that was so much fun, right? That was a really fun show. I wouldn't trade a single morning of you and Lance for a single day of you and Ross. I love it so much more. We had a good time. It was just the schedule was awful for me. I just couldn't do it. It was more me than anything else.

I couldn't. I was getting in, and thank you, Alex, for the nice words. And, Ross, you produced for a short time, Ross. I was getting in from the airport at 2.15, 2.30 in the morning, blowing up an air mattress and trying to be full of energy for a 6 o'clock morning show. it just wasn't good. That just wasn't, it just wasn't me. And I've never been, I've done morning radio before my life, even when I wasn't doing the

Rockets. It's just not what I'm comfortable with. It's not, you know, you have to understand what your strengths are and your weaknesses in your life, and that's, if you're going to go to the morning show life, and you can be successful in a morning show, but you have to live that life. You have to go to bed at 9.30. And really, when you say go to bed at 9.30, it means 11, because you're watching sports. you've got to be regimented, you have to be disciplined, you have to go to bed at a certain time,

you have to get up at a certain time, you just can't get up at 5.30, race to the office, and be able to be compelling at 6 o'clock in the morning. You just can't. You have to live that life. And that's why I have so much respect for the Rod Ryans, the Dana Tyson's in our building, the people that have done morning radio for decades, because their body clocks are accustomed to this. They know what it takes to be successful. That's why morning shows typically make more money because it's more of a grind. And I've never had word one or issue with any of those guys doing that, or ladies for that matter,

because you have to. And Lance has done it in mornings for decades. I'm just not that way. I'm not a night owl by any means, but I call games. And so the midday slot to me has always been my favorite because it's not that super over technical midday. It's kind of the, you burn through the headlines of the morning. you waiting for stuff that happened that night it's a little more easy breezy in terms

of relaxing kind of conversation and that's kind of my forte so yeah I yeah the morning stuff and Ross if you ever you've done some fill in work in the mornings right I mean it's yeah I've done some fill-ins and I mean I was producing the morning show

for I don't know good six eight months and then what happened was it Lance Lance retired from radio briefly did Michael Connor produce us first then you came on or was it vice versa on that I thought I moved with you because they just liked to keep me in your back pocket my whole life.

Well, you're basically... Yeah, it's great. You carry the show. Oh, that's very nice. I figured you'd like that. No, morning radio, especially for a sport. If you're doing a morning show

on like a rock station or easy listening, you don't have to stay up at the 10 o'clock because what's going to happen that's going to necessarily affect your show? Nothing. If you're watching a Rockets game, If you go to bed, eight o'clock, I don't even rest. First of all, it's no fun to cover sports when you're having to devoured

or rush through it as you're working your way to the office. I'll give you one example. When I was doing morning sports on KTRH, we used to do four hours of morning news. And the All-Star game was in Milwaukee, I want to say. This has got to be Rossi, what, 2000, what about 2003, maybe, 2002 somewhere in that range? I don't know exactly what it was. And so I was doing the sports updates, which were twice an hour, two-minute reports. And I thought, okay, it's the All-Star Game.

Nationally beats American League team or American League beats the National League team. I went to bed in the third inning. I need to be at the opposite 5 o'clock in a morning. I'm not staying able to watch a useless, meaningless all-star game. That was the year they had the tie. So I get in my car and I get on ESPN radio, and all they're talking about is this time. I had no idea what the hell happened. And I thought to myself, this is not what I got in the business for,

is to go to bed early for sporting events. I like sports. I enjoy sports. I watch sports. I don't want to go to bed early. So, again, just a little bit of the peeling back of the curtain to say, yeah, if you want to get into sports talk and conversation, probably morning show radio isn't it. All right.

Let's go quickly to a couple of other folks talking to Mack and Pearland at 127. Hello, Mac. Hello to you. So if you're an Amazon Prime customer, free deliveries and all that crap, you're entitled to the Prime video. Okay. That's what I figured, because we don't pay for the Prime videos, but I know we pay for the Prime package, so that makes total sense. Right. You may have to download an app.

Yeah, I do. So I downloaded the app and, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's the same password, easy-peasy. Y'all have fun, and you're a good radio basketball announcer. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you saying that. I will say this, Ross.

Have you seen any Amazon games yet? I have not seen one yet, but everybody says the presentation is amazing. The football stuff's good. I mean, look, I've always been an Al Michaels guy, even though he's lost his fastball a little bit. I like Kirkhurp Street. The dog is probably too much of his storyline right now, but other than that, he's great.

Has he cloned that dog that died yet? No, he just got another one. Okay. Well, I think he's got like three or four. Yeah, I think he wrote. He went next man up. How does he choose which one goes on the road? Frequent flyer status.

If they're flying on an airline. Oh, really? His dogs got points. His dogs got points, yeah. Okay. Savage is with us at 129. Savage, good afternoon. Hey, guys.

Great show. Thanks. By the way, is your name really Savage? Yeah, that's my last name. It's pretty cool, so I just go by it. Does your wife call you Savage? Sometimes, yeah. Any Savage, you messed up.

So, you know, just the way it is. I understand. But hey, I want to talk about the NHL. I mean, you got all these small markets getting teams. What's up with the Houston market? It's the fourth largest, right? Yeah. Is there a problem?

I mean, is it ownership? I mean, what's the deal? It is not ownership. Well, it's, first of all, the NHL has chosen not to expand. There are no expansion teams. You had Utah move from Arizona, but that's not. an expansion team. That was a team that was relocating.

Right. There's got to be a bunch, there's got to be a bunch more money here in Houston to relocate a smaller team like that. I'm surprised somebody here didn't snag it or something. Well, there was a little bit of an effort to it, but I think Utah came together with a better package.

Frankly, and thank you for the phone call Savage. Appreciate you listening. I don't think the TOTA center is ready for NHL hockey. You would have to take some massive improvements. Now, There could be another group of people in town that would be thinking about bringing NHL to Houston, which would then mean either that group would be a tenant to Tillman at the Toyota Center or they would want to maybe try to build their own arena. And there's a number one.

The number one thing is can you sell 18,000 tickets a night for it? And can there be enough corporate support to fund a hockey team? Remember, we're not, we have a lot of Fortune 500 companies here in Houston, but we don't, we don't, there's not endless money to spend on these huge corporate. deals. And the reality is if you don't have 20 or 30 big corporate deals, multi-million dollar deals, your TV contract from the NHL is pennies in the dollar. You can fill up 18,000 seats in an arena every night. That'd be cool, but that doesn't, you know, it's, we've learned this, Ross, from the SEC, and ESPN and the NBA. It's about television deals and corporate sponsorships way more than it is filling up a building. Yes. And you could tell by, well,

especially here in Houston, building's not always full, no matter what this, the sport is. it is. Yep. All right. Let's get to E. Mae Doaker conversation. That is up next. 132 on Sports Talk 790, 7-1-3, 212-5-790.

Believe it or not, is highly Googledable. It is about airports, and we'll have it for you coming up in a half an hour from now. You may ad doker with us earlier today on the show. If you missed the conversation, here comes a few minutes right now. Ross and I discussing all things about the Rockets 5 game winning streak. And here is the coach talking about the news. different heroes and whether or not he had Josh Okie on his bingo card hitting three three-pointers during a huge part of the third quarter last night's victory.

So with the attention that Alperin and Kevin attract, somebody's going to get open looks and he was the recipient and obviously he was confident knocking down. It's really good to have it. We were talking about it in the first hour. Doubling Houston rocket players right now, it's a pretty risky situation for opponents. Would you agree? Yeah, we're getting to our spacing. our outlets are there

and our guys are going to be unselfish for the most part and make the right read and it's up to those guys that shoot the ball with confidence and our numbers are showing that guys are put in his work and like I said, when you got guys that attract all that attention, I'm in as well getting downhill, somebody's going to be left open

and they're taking that gamble and we're making a pay right now. You are well north of 40% from three, number one in the association, at least last night in the numbers. Look, that's just hard work. is that also good looks, not having a hand in the face, the extra pass. What do you attribute, and hopefully it lasts for a long time, but the rapid increase in the amount of success with three-point range so far this year?

Yeah, all the above. Like I said, when you have guys that, you know, they're going to score if you don't put two, three bodies on them. They're going to leave guys open and try to make, we do the same thing. We double guys and we'll live with certain shots, but our guys are putting a ton of work this off-season, understanding who they're playing with. And so for us, it's just keep it simple, make the easy pass, and we'll get those wide open looks.

And once you continue to knock those down, they have to guard one-on-one, and our stars can get loose. And what about the offense, obviously, has been one of the best in the league, but I think it can get even better, especially with respects to the turnovers that were better last night. How do you go about improving that with a roster that doesn't have a ton of great ball handling, has some good ball handling, but some guys who can be, a little bit prone to turning the ball over. Yeah, it's like we said, keep it simple. Don't over penetrate. Excuse me. Don't over penetrate.

Just make the simple pass. You know, we saw the effect it had on us opening night, way too many turnovers against okay. We've tried to improve on since then. You know, last game against Dallas wasn't our best, 17 for 17 points, but 10 in the first half yesterday, only three in the second half. So we made a point emphasis,

and guys really took care of the ball, made simple play, and let the other guys be recipients, like I said. Let's get into Kogi a little bit. I love him so far in terms of just doing a little bit of everything. Where did he get on your radar? And what did you think about him coming into where he was last year and what he's been able to produce for you right now?

Well, we knew he fits into what we do really well. You know, another tough, hard-nose versatile defender that's going to offensive rebound slash crash and do the things that we do. You know, obviously the three-point shot had been a little up-and-down. this career so far but like I said when you're getting these open looks and and our guys are putting in the work and we we're letting them know take these shots they're the right shot don't pass them up and then we obviously are really good at offensive rebounding so for us it was great it was a late pickup in our last signing and free agency and with the injury is the dorian and j

Sean coming into season we knew we needed another defender another body until guys were healthy and obviously he's been a pleasant surprise but the work he's put in and And, you know, to be a late signing and be in addition, I was kind of there for depth. We love his versatility. He brings another defender so our men can take a little bit of a break at times. He's, like I said, he's making guys pay when they double off of Alperin or Kevin. Rocket Tech coach, Ima Doka was here on Sports Talk 790. Kevin Duran and Alpern Shungoon.

I'm in Thompson getting a lot of the headlines. But I feel like Jabari Smith Jr., has been and can continue to be a real X factor for you guys with what he does. defensively shooting 39% from 3 as well. Just your thoughts overall on how much he can impact and raise the level of you guys' game on both ends of the floor. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about it since I've been here. We need our young guys to take these jumps. And him, our man, Alperin, they've all done that, Tari as well.

We need reading all our guys to continue to grow. And so, you know, we said it with Fred and Dylan and the vets that we brought in from day one. and now Kevin, you know, they're going to do what they do and add to the team, but we want our biggest growth will be from our young guys taking these jumps. And so Jabari has obviously done that with his body, confidence, aggressiveness. You saw that, you know, I saw a month after the season last year. He had bothed up already. He got strong, put in the work.

And, you know, once again, if you have these really good players, you're going to have lesser defenders on your time, and you've got to win those matchups. And then his versatility on defense allows us to do so much, you know, he's guarding anybody from two to fives on given nights and switching on the ones. And so the length and size that we have, and he's a huge part of what we do. Speaking of wanting to see some improvement from some young guys, Reed Shepard, how do you assess his season so far early on, both good and bad?

Yeah, it continues to be confident and aggressive, and that's the main thing with them. We've said that from day one is, you know what you're out there for. You're going to play out these guys and you're one of the best shooters in the league, So don't pass up shots. Take those shots and be aggressive. On the defensive end, just continue to put him in situations where he's going to have to grow and improve.

And so we're not scheming up anything to hide him or anything like that. He's guarding guys. We're switching on to John Morant one night. We're switching on to his Cooper flag one night, and he needs this end-game experience to improve on that area. And so our thing is, you know, he has really good hands. And sometimes he lets guys go to get those reaches and gambles.

We want him to move his feet a little bit and take on those challenges. And so, you know, a few games into the season so far, he's improved. And we're going to need the shooting. His ball handling, you know, he's a secondary point guard for us out there. And with the amount of, you know, he played 47 games last year. So he's still getting experience under his belt. And every game is learning experience for him.

Forlitz, your run, Eam, we got San Antonio tomorrow night. Have you as a coach philosophically changed your ideology about guarding Wimby today than maybe you did when he was a rookie a couple of years back? No, not really. We were going to do what we've done before. And then at times, you know, we had a really good defender for those type of guys. Dylan Brooks was, you know, we put him on him and Kat and, you know, all the stretch fours and five that take advantage of bigger guys. And so we have a lot of, a lot of smaller tough defenders that we can throw at them and then have some length and size behind it. And so, you know,

he's shot the three not as consistent as he is now, but he's doing some of the same things at a higher level now. So we still want to be aggressive and be physical with them, put guys on the neck and climb into him, take away his airspace and force him to help. And so we've had success doing that so far. Is it overly simplistic to say try to get him outside of that comfort zone, get him beyond 15, 17 feet, or is that just,

are there other ideologies behind that? No, I mean, he brings the ball of. shooting some deep three. So you can't just guard him in those areas, although we do want to be physical in those spots. You know, he's all over the court doing so many different things, handling, setting screens, rolling to the basket popping. So he's obviously a very complete player.

So I have somebody that can match up to him in all different areas on the court. And like I said, send him to certain help. And then I've just got to keep him off the glass with the size. All right. That again, EMA DOCA earlier today. Rockets and Spurs tomorrow night, 630. We'll have the broadcast for you right here on Sports Talk 790. A highly Googledable edition of Believe It or Not is up next.

Time is 145 and this is Sports Talk 790. All right, I made an executive change. You only got to get two right to win a prize because we've got some nice prizes. We've got to give them away. And what else will do to people that have been listening to Ross for the show for the entire three hours and 49 minutes, correct? Sure, why not? All right. Well, what was your favorite part of today?

Send the two radio show, Ross. never even to ask you that uh rodent the rodent five the rotten five was really good although folks he put the chargers and the niners and the seahawks in a rotten five i don't know why he did that you don't know that people to go listen to the podcast see who wasn't the rotten five uh tomorrow the radio show i and eagle with this at 11 o'clock we'll have i'm sorry he's at 1130 dr roto at one o'clock ross i usually give you one question on the rotten five on the dr roto segment you may need two your team sucks it's bad No playoffs.

You know, he waited a while, Ross, to talk to TMS. I'm glad. I did wait. I'm glad Matt was doing this. I did wait. You go to me back in. If you would have kept me out, this wouldn't have happened to you. It's really your fault.

That's fine. I mean, I'm back to back to back champ. All summer. Come on. Zero time champion, Matt Thomas. One time playoff in 2025. You zero time. Yeah, we'll see.

We'll see. Don't you worry. You get these fantasy chickens coming. Coming home to Roost on the Toros. It'd be a real shame with three-year players tour their ACL this weekend. Oh my gosh. I just saw your profile picture.

Of? Me and Kevin Durant? Sure, why not? Your fantasy team? Oh, oh, my fantasy team. That's somebody different. Oh, my God. You've got a super squad, actually.

It's really good. Even with Biweeks, I'm in a good spot. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713-213-2-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-0.

Today's edition of Believe it or not is all things about whether or not this famous person is attached to an airport's name. I'll give you the famous person and the airport in the city. If it's really that it person's airport, you'll say this. Believe it. If it's not, you'll say, say this. Not. Two believer in a row, just two.

Well, win you a prize that will feature today. Either tickets to see Sting at the Woodlands Pavilion on May 13th of next year or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra that goes to Christmas Eve at TOTA Center, December the 19th. Tickets for both shows

are available at TOTAcenter.com. Tickets for the Sting Show are available at Ticketmaster.com. First, you must believe it or not. And we're giving you like two seconds. I mean, As soon as I say it, you better have an answer. No hums, no ums. You come up with a strong answer, and let's go.

Let's talk to Roger. Roger on 7-Arney. You're going to play, believe it or not. You can submit an offer. Believe it. Yeah, tell that person to shut up for a minute. Here we go. Louis Armstrong, International Airport, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. That's right. Statement number two for the win. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton Airport, Little Rock, Arkansas. Believe it or not? Hurry.

Believe it. Yes, there you go. I mean, Ross, he's a prize for us, so he probably can't win. He's been 30 days, my guess. All right. Robert on 790, Robert, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Fred Rogers International Airport, and name after Mr. Rogers.

Pittsburgh, believe it or not? Not. That's right. Name number two. Frank Sinatra Regional Airport, Palm Springs, California. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, it's not yet.

Come on, folks. Fast. Here we go. Kyle on 790. Kyle, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Honestly, I wasn't able to listen. I just got off work. So I'm listening now.

You are listening now and for that. We appreciate you. Bob Hope Airport, Burbank, California. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Believe it. That's an easy.

Davis on 790 Davis, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Davis, John Glenn Airport, Columbus, Ohio. Believe it or not? Believe it. That's right. Believe it. Airport number two, Ray Charles Metropolitan Airport, Columbia, South Carolina.

Believe it or not? Not. Not. That's a not, correct. She's pretty easy. John on 790. John, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

Muhammad Ali International Airport, Louisville, Kentucky. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. Airport number two for the win. Aretha Franklin International Airport, Detroit. Believe it or not? Believe it.

No. I mean, she's great, but she makes it. Daniel on 790, Daniel, the favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. Oh, let's go with Dr. Roto. That's tomorrow at 1 o'clock. Thank you. Bear Bryant International Airport, Birmingham, Alabama. Believe it or not? Believe it.

No. No, you fool. You know, Ross, I get the same joy that you get when you get somebody. It's nice, isn't it? It is kind of nice. Daniel on 7-90. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

Danny Thomas International Airport, Memphis, Tennessee. Believe it or not? Believe it. Not. No, he's a lot of great things for C-2, but that's a smart. as it goes. Last one. Tim on 790. Tim, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. John Wayne Airport, Orange County, California. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. All right. Tomorrow, it's in Anything Goes Friday here on Sports Talk 790. We'll start at 10 o'clock. We'll start at 10 o'clock. We'll

start at 10 o'clock. Dr. Roto at 1 and non-Florida stories and so much more. The team is next.