The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Texans CB Derek Stingley Earns NFL Honor, Mahomes Full Participant In Practice, State Of The NBA

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" and Dan Mathews of "The A-Team" react to Houston Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. being named AFC Defensive Player of the Week. This comes after Stingley compiled five tackles, including two for loss, two interceptions and two passes defended against the Miami Dolphins. Ross and Dan also:discuss offensive guard Kenyon Green getting officially activated from injured reserve after being designated for return a week agopredict whether Patrick Mahomes will play for the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Texans on Saturdaycomment on Kyle Tucker saying he is open to a long-term deal with the Chicago Cubsbreak down the current state of the NBAtell people to "Shut Yo Bum Ass Up, Ain't Nobody Got Time" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-01 in H-Town. What's happening? Brunch Timers. Hello and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas as he remains out. And he will be back tomorrow.

It will be the passing of the baton as he is missing the first three days of the week. I'm missing the next two days and Monday. I will be Nolabound for the weekend, taking a little vacation, looking forward to that. And then we'll be back for Christmas Eve, I think, for one day. And then we're off Christmas Day and then we're back Christmas. I don't know. Just always tune in to Sports Talk 790 around this time. Really throughout the day, of course, Sean Salsbury Show 6 to 10.

Myself and Matt Thomas, 10 to 2, and then the A team coming up next 2 to 6 here on a sports. Sports Talk 790. A lot of stuff to get to, but first things first, you can, well, effectively be my co-host. If you'd like to get in for a little bit, we'll see what happens as there's been some, there were some things scheduled and some things have changed behind the scenes here at Sports Talk 790. So I don't know. Who's going to be co-hosting with me in the meantime?

It can be you if you would like to get in at 713-212-5-790, as we have a lot of stuff to get to at 713-1-2-125-790. You can also send tweets to me at SportsRV if you would like to interact that way. So thanks to Brian Bogus-Sevick for hanging out yesterday. We did a lot of talking, a lot of different angles on the Astros as far as what direction is the franchise going in? What are they doing? If they trade away Kyle Tucker and don't sign Alex Bregman, why would they bother trading for Nolan Aronado? sending out prospect equity and getting him in the fold and pay Anthony Santander a five-year deal until he's 35 and you don't want to pay Alex Breggman until he's 36.

That doesn't all jive. It doesn't all make complete sense to me. That's a little bit above my head. If someone can explain that to me, that'd be great. So a lot of Astros stuff that we were talking about as well. And of course, you do have the Houston Texans this weekend. A Saturday clash with the Kansas City Chiefs. And as we heard a couple of breaking news items, I guess, yesterday.

Pat Mahomes, a full participant in practice for the Kansas City Chiefs that happened when I was on air with Adam Wexler yesterday. The line moved completely. It went from the Texans to a one-point favorite all the way to the Chiefs as a two and a half point favorite. Now the line is settling at Chiefs minus three. The total, I guess on its face seems a little bit low. but considering the Texans have a bad offense and they're going up against a really good defense, considering Pat Mahomes could be hobbled. Chiefs haven't been scoring a ton of points anyways and the Texans have a great defense. I mean, it's crazy to say C.J. Stroud and Pat Mahomes, a total only at 41.5. That is pretty low.

Going into the weekend, I think before the line went up from 39 and a half, that was tied for the lowest total on the board with the Jaguars and the Raiders. with Aid O'Connell and or Desmond Ritter and Matt Jones at the helm. So that kind of puts your mind into the category of what we're talking about as far as few points that are expected to be scored in this upcoming matchup. So, I mean, we're going to see what happens if Pat Mahomes is able to play. We played some of the audio from him post-practice yesterday. And to me, and like I said, maybe I was just being biased because I was somebody who picked, him as not going to be able to make it at Saturday? I was like,

ah, doesn't sound like he's really going to be able to play. And then, of course, later the news come out that he was a full participant in practice, although Adam Schaefter tempering that by saying, hey, it was a really light practice. If he's calling him a full participant, who knows, it could be gamesmanship. It could be putting him as a full participant in a light practice. We'll see what happens as the week goes along. And then if he is going to be available Saturday. Pat Mahomes, the comment that he made yesterday that made me think he might not play, was talking about having, not having to play due to current playoff seating. Obviously, we've put ourselves in good position to where, I guess I wouldn't say it was dire

that I play. I mean, it's something where it's not like in the ASC championship game where we're playing to get to the Super Bowl. I mean, we have a little bit of room to kind of spare, but at the end of the day, we're trying to win the football game, and I'm a competitor. I want to go out there and play. So I'll push myself to get to the best place possible over these next few days and we'll be able to make a decision then. Yeah, like that, it sounds to me, like he's a little bit down. And I mean, I guess Pat Mahomes isn't normally somebody, at least at this stage in his career, he knows he's a veteran. He plays the game that he's not going to try to give too much away, not going to get too high, not going to get too low. Not really, I mean, sounding down to

me about playing, but full participant in practice, as of this moment, we're going to guess that he's going to play. And of course, the fact that the Vegas markets moved four points into the chief's direction in under 24 hours. We shall see what happens this weekend. Obviously, huge implications there as far as what is going to happen. And this weekend and this big matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, which I also wonder, how big of a matchup is it for the Houston, Texas? For the chiefs, they want to keep the number one seat. There is only one. One team now with this new playoff format that gets the buy week. They are in position to be that team, but also the Buffalo Bills, if you haven't heard,

it's the kickiest of the cake schedules and the history of cake schedules. They have the Patriots, the Jets, and then the Patriots again. They will not be losing a game unless something absolutely wacky happens or Josh Allen decides to quit football and walk the earth. It ain't happening. So they're going to win out. and the Chiefs are two games ahead of the Buffalo Bills, but they also have lost the tiebreaker.

They're only lost being to the Buffalo Bills. They have the Texans. Now, say what you want. You folks about how the mid of the Texans are, and they're horrible, and they can't compete with anybody. They're only three-point dogs at Arrowhead. It wouldn't be the first time a three-point dog won a game. If they won that, then they play the Steelers on the road,

the Broncos on the road. All three of those games are winnable for the Chiefs. All three of those games are losing. loseable for the Chiefs. So they need to try and win these games, even though our good friend Pat Mahomes is saying, yeah, we put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs and we don't necessarily have to fight for playoff seating. But we'll see because adding into this is that they're on a short week with a Saturday game.

Then they play Wednesday as well against the Pittsburgh Steelers on that Christmas Day game. So we'll see what happens there. but as of right now, of course, it would have to lean towards Pat Mahomes playing. And here's what D'Amico Ryans had to say yesterday about Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, Mahomes, one of the best quarterbacks in the league, done it for a long time, done it at a really high level. And where he gains most of his success is just the keeping plays alive, like off schedule, keeping plays alive, their receivers, tight ends, they know how to uncover.

They know how to find the open space and zone coverage, sit routes down. So just it's a true challenge. It's going to take everyone, especially our D-line, the way they work. They have to work together. You know, you try to keep him contained, but it's easier said than done. He still finds a way to escape, finds a way to make plays. It's going to take, you know, a really tremendous effort from everybody. Just being, we're supposed to be playing disciplined football for four quarters.

Yeah, so the offense hasn't been what it once was with. the Kansas City Chiefs. Also, you add into the factor that, hey, maybe Pat Mahomes not as mobile as he can be. That's one of the ways that he really becomes, I mean, he's good in the pocket. He's good reading defenses and throwing on time,

on rhythm within the offense in structure, as the kids say. But also, to me, when he's most dangerous, where you can really get the explosive plays is where he's breaking contain, he's beating pressure, he's getting down the field,

he's moving out of the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield, finding holes in the defense with guys that he has good chemistry with, and then that's when the explosive plays can really, really happen and be dangerous. Now, will the Texans be able to limit that? We'll see. They play each other on Saturday. And Pat Mahomes, as of this moment, as I said, full participant in practice,

I did raise an eyebrow when Adam Schifter was like, just to temper the enthusiasm on this, just to clarify, It's like, is he trying to say? What is he trying to say? What are you trying to say, Chefty? Do you try to say it without saying it? Say it with your chest like you did when it came to Doug Gottlieb.

And you were talking about him and how they're doing in the Horizon League. So is he trying to say, temper your expectations for Pat Mahomes playing? I don't know. Here's Schefter's tweet. For what it's worth, the Chiefs conducted a light practice today and Wednesday will be similar. With three games in 11 days, Andy Reid is doing what he can to help all his players get their bodies right for this challenging stretch. And that's quote tweeting himself,

talking about Pat Mahomes being a full participant. So I don't know if he's saying this is gamesmanship. I don't know why he would make that addendum to his first tweet. Who knows? We'll find out as time goes along. We know that our good friend, DiMico Ryans, is well-versed in the dark arts of gamesmanship

when it comes to remember the Nico Collins situation with the Lions? Oh, he's out we've opened the practice window. Oh, we activated. but oh, he's been added to the roster, and he's inactive for the game against the Lions. So will it be something like that? I don't know. Time will tell.

Even with Carson Wentz, honestly, the way that this Texan's offense is, it's not like we're expecting to blow anybody out, and the Chiefs have a really good defense. Texans have a really good defense as well, but crazier things have happened and going on the road at Arrowhead and losing the car. Carson Wentz is, look, he's a veteran quarterback.

He's won a lot of game. he lost a lot of games. He's thrown a lot of picks. But at one point, the guy was talked about being an NFL MVP before getting hurt. And then Nick Foles winning the Super Bowl that year. But Carson Wentz can play a little bit. And he's not completely incompetent and not going to be completely lost back there if it ends up being him as the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. All right, 713-212-5-790 is your phone number. Is Pat Mahomes playing in your mind?

and what does that mean for the Houston Texans this weekend in your mind? 713-212-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Who will join me along the way? We shall see. We will be with you until 2 o'clock. We got shut your bum-ass up coming up. We also have the news at noon.

We got a lot of fun stuff playing with you until 2 o'clock. Here on Sports Talk 790 at 7-1-3-21-5-790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. You know, his ability to win. You know, he's just a winner. At the end of the day, like, finds a way to get it done and makes one of those critical situations happen.

You know, he's somebody who really, really, really knows how to get it done. And, you know, it's really cool just to see how creative he gets. And, you know, I think Andy Reid does a great job using him the right way and putting him positions to be creative. And, you know, and the defense, you know, holds up a lot as well to give them opportunities to take shots down the field. and have all these crazy plays and motions. You know, so, I mean, they play really good comparatively football.

And I think that's what sets them apart as his ability to win when it counts. And that's what we say about all the grades, right? That's C.J. Stroud on one Patrick Mahomes and his ability to win. And we're talking about, I guess I got to chase down there. I keep referencing these on air. And I'm not somebody who likes referencing things and they don't get them correct. accuracy is important to me, maybe not to some others in the media these days.

But anyways, I have to find it. But Pat Mahalm is basically one of the all-time greats and one-score games. And when you end up looking at that list, it's like all the all-time great quarterbacks. It's about not making mistakes in those critical moments, getting that laser-like focus,

not having the moment to be too big for you. And Pat Mahomes has a perfect job of that. And I think that has been on full display this year where the defense has been great. Their offense and the weapons and the offensive line has not been up to par as to where they have been in the last several years,

where you've got like Tyreek Hill, you've got Prime Travis Kelsey, who very clearly at the very tail end of his prime or even maybe out of his prime, if you want to argue that. They still find a way to win. It's been like Carson Steele and Kareem, old man

Kareem Hunt, who's not really that old. I guess he's old for a running back, but Kareem Hunt off the scrap heap, Isaiah Pacheco, has been hurt here and there. They just cut Clyde Edwards Elair. They've had no running game to speak of as far as dominant running backs because Pacheco started off the season getting hurt for several weeks. And then as I mentioned, things haven't necessarily developed for Xavier Worthy

as far as a complete wide receiver. They use them on into rounds. They can use them on deep plays. Unfortunately, a lot of those, he hasn't been connecting. Well, unfortunately for the Chiefs, hopefully fortunate for the Houston Texans. and that's also something that's kind of creeping in the back of my mind. Texan's biggest issue defensively this year has been giving up explosive plays. And on the other side, especially if Pat Mahomes plays Xavier Worthy,

while it feels like he's going to have a three catches for 18-yard day with a bunch of screens and maybe a couple of end-arounds, but also those explosive plays feel like something to watch with him this weekend. and he completely matches up at a bad way, a good way for the Chiefs. Oh, they give up explosive players? Oh, we got Xavier Worthy. That guy can run down the field pretty fast.

I'm not sure if you heard. Got the 40 record. He's pretty good. So that is certainly something that's on my mind with the Texans this weekend in the matchup. What are some of the things that you are keeping on? Your mind keys for the Texans in the game against the Chiefs this weekend. 713-212-5-790 as we got word.

that Pat Mahomes was a full participant in practice yesterday. Four point move on the line. 713, 2125-790, your thoughts there. So on the flip side for the Texans, it's still, even with Stefan Diggs not playing, I'm trying to figure out why is this offense so bad? And I think, of course, we point back to the offensive line. Early on in the season, too often the Texans had no shot. CJ Stroud had no shot.

Kenyon Green was in, who by the way, has been, I believe, activated as his practice window had opened. I believe he's back on the roster is Kenyon Green. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, just as a depth move for the Texans, not going to be inserted back into the starting lineup because he was one of the worst guards in football, one of the worst offensive linemen in football, period, while he was healthy. Then he got hurt and replaced. then, well, unfortunately, he was replaced by Jared Patterson, who got a concussion. Then Kenyon Green went back into the game, and he was still bad.

And then he got hurt for the season. And I don't ever want to wish for anybody to get hurt when it comes to professional sports. But Kenyon Green off the field makes the Texans better. That is just the bottom line. If you look at all the metrics and the offensive line metrics and stuff like that, anything you look at has the Texans as one of the worst in football and has Kenyon Green as one of the worst in football. Their words, not mine.

by using how about the old, the old-fashioned I test and the metrics, Kenyon Green is not a good offensive linemen. And maybe, I don't know if there's just some sort of bias, especially with Nick Casario, who spent a first round pick on him. Right now he's a bus as a first round pick. There's no other way to

put it. And I don't know if they're trying to continue to try and see if that pick can bear fruit. If he is going to be inserted back into the starting lineup, but there is something called the sunk cost fallacy and we've all been guilty of it.

Something you've put your time into or money or invested and you're like, you know what, I need to cut ties on this. But you wait and you wait and wait. It happens to us in our fantasy football league. I've spent a fourth round pick on Kyle Pitts. He's going to wake up. He's got to be good at some point. No, Kyle Pitts

sucks. You need to cut him. He's not going to produce. It is what it is. So I don't know if there is the sunk cost fallacy is what's happening with Kenyon Green and Nick Casario and the Houston Texans, but he doesn't need to be anywhere near the starting lineup for the Houston Texans and this offensive line. That has been their biggest problem.

If they get an offensive line that can protect C.J. Stroud, he does a good job of making plays on the move. He does a good job of alluding pressure and continuing to be good, but he hasn't been anywhere close to where he was last year. This team has just been so much worse on the offensive line. And if you're shuffling around, shuffling around, shuffling around, I mean, you've got to get some cohesion. And you've got to get some chemistry going before the play. playoffs in the next three weeks, if nothing else. You've clinched the AFC South. I don't think it's that huge of a deal.

If you're the third seed rather than the fourth, every team in the playoffs, I think, that comes here. Now, you probably would least like to face Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. I get that. But at the end of the day, if you're playing the Ravens, you're playing the Broncos, you're playing the Chargers. You're going to be playing a good football team. AFC's pretty stout.

And it's going to be a close. game either way. You got to focus on being at home. You got to focus on your game and I think you've got to focus on getting some chemistry going with this offensive line. D'emico Ryan's talking with the media. Titus Howard shuffled into the guard position this past weekend. I don't know if he's going to stay there. Here's what

he had to say about Titus. And for Titus moving inside, first off, is, you know, thankful to him for making that move and transition. As you mentioned, he's been in there before. So it's not totally new to him. Just things happened a lot quicker on the inside than the outside, right?

You know, Titus has that power and size to handle the big rushers on the inside. So I think he's a really good fit for being in there. It's just understanding how quickly those games and things happen where you have a little more space on the outside. You got more space, a little bit more time, and the inside just have to have quicker reaction time. Yeah, so, yeah, on the inside, I mean, it's largely been a disaster for the Texans. I mean, I'm mostly Kenyon Green and I'm talking and focusing on him, but Titus Howard himself, even when at right tackle, he was having some issues. Jack Mason has been, I would say solid, but it's not like he's been all pro or anything like that.

Drew Scruggs, Jared Patterson. It's been, I mean, they just don't have a bunch of guys who are very good. And Larry Me Tunsell's probably your best, it is, not probably, he is your best pass blocker. And the guys committing like three penalties a week. So it's, it's been kind of the same old song. And we keep waiting and waiting and waiting. waiting for this to turn and at some point you have to say to yourself, well, maybe this ain't turning.

So we'll see. Still some time left, a lot of football left. If you could just like wave a magic wand and all of a sudden the Texans have a really good offensive line, I would just feel so much more confident. And not even like the, you know, we don't need lines quality offensive line. Give them a top 10 offensive line. I haven't checked. I was out of the country and I kind of haven't been keeping up with it.

I'm not sure. Our good friends of pro football focus put the offensive line range. rankings out every single week. Oh, wow, two hours ago. They just put it out. Let's scroll with me, folks. Oh, they get the Philadelphia Eagles back up to number one. That's good.

So, yeah, I guess, oh, they have to, the lions, I guess, have had some injuries. But they still have the lions in the top five, and we're scrolling, and we're scrolling. And now I'm just going to have to control F this bad boy. Where are the Houston? 27th. 27th offensive line. And that's out of 32, folks. For those you're not aware, you're 27 out of 32.

You are not good. So we can argue about pro football focus and their grades and all that type of stuff. Let's just put it this way. If they're listed at 27, chances are they're not a top 10 unit. Even though I don't know, maybe if you asked Domingo Ryan's directly, he would say that. Or he probably just shirk the question, which is fine. He's very good at that. But 27th, the teams behind them, Titans, garbage, giants, awful.

Bengals, they've had offensive line issues forever. Seahawks, Patriots. Man, that is rough right now for the Houston Texans and their offensive line. To me, the biggest roadblock, not barring injury, of course. Nico Collins, any of Collins Stroud or Mixing go down, this team is wash. This team is done. There's just no doubt in my mind. It's in terms of, you know, Super Bowl hopes, which go from low to impossible.

But offensive line, let's just be positive. Couple of weeks, build some chemistry. On the road at Arrowhead against Steve Spagnolo, that defense with all the moving parts, with all the guys at the line of scrimmage and the team not communicating. I mean, last time that happened. Last time it was a defense like this with a lot of good players and kind of a mad scientist, defensive coordinator. It was Brian Flores and the Minnesota Vikings.

And what happened there? So, oh, did I just convince myself this is going to go really badly for the Texans this weekend? I might have. Okay, get my spirits up. Maybe we'll come back with some more Christmas music and I'll be feeling better. Ross v. Ria with you. Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

without Matt Thomas. He is out. I think I'm going to be joined by somebody at some point. We'll see. In the meantime, you can co-host for a few minutes with me. If you want to get in, talk some Texas ball. That's what we're talking about. We've also been talking about Kyle Tucker and the Houston Astros, the direction of the team. Anything you want to get to. We also have the college football playoff coming up this weekend. I will be out Thursday and Friday. In the meantime, I'm with you until 2 o'clock. You want to get in. You can. 713-212-5.790 is the phone number. 7.9. Hey, it's Alpy.

Turns left. Spins right. Stay clutch with the I-Heart Radio. The sweet move. Sports Talk, 7-9. Home of Rock as Basketball. Thanks, Bebs. Appreciate you.

Welcome back. We're playing the Christmas hits. You know you're going to be banned from them. You've got to get them in while you can now, Connor. You're going to be banned from playing Christmas music the next two days. Every break. We'll do it today. You're going to miss it.

And then Scrooge is coming back tomorrow. Scrooge is back tomorrow. Okay, why is this? Sorry, I'm changing the channel. Scrooge being Matthew Thomas. No, he doesn't like Christmas music for whatever reason. And he only likes it on a Christmas Eve. I say, after Thanksgiving, you're in the clear.

And I'll really ramp it up in the next couple of weeks. And that's what we've been doing here on the program until we get our cease and desist from sunny 99.1. Ross, via rea with you on the program. Dan Matthews will be joining us coming up at noon. We've got a lot of our signature segments coming up. We'll have the news at noon when he gets here. We will also have shut Joe, bump ass up slash ain't nobody got time for that.

I'm sure you guys got a lot to get off your chest. It's the holidays for whatever reason. Stress levels a lot of times, even though it should be when we're relaxing, enjoying time with family and keeping it chill, it seems like the blood pressure goes up a little bit. When it comes to the holidays and, well, if you want to get something off of your chest, that will be coming up,

let's say one o'clock here on the program. Shut your bum ass up slash ain't nobody got time for that. In the meantime, I'll tell you what we do have time for. We have time for you to get on the phones if you'd like. It's 713-2-790. The phone number 7-13-212-5-790. Now, I don't think it's an oversimplification when I say in the last segment that you lose, first of all, C.J. Stroud. Okay, if Patma Holmes isn't on the Chiefs, they win in the Super Bowl.

Josh Allen and the bills, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There's a reason, a very smart reason why these leagues have put every rule possible in place to protect these quarterbacks. You're protecting the franchise. You're protecting the owners or the ticket sales. And most importantly, the eyeballs on the television. the TV deals and these networks, they don't like paying to watch Mac Jones and Aiden O'Connell go after it.

They want to see Pat Mahomes versus Josh Allen. That's why they pay the big bucks. You've got to keep the quarterbacks upright. You've got to keep them healthy. I understand there's been some bad, bad penalties in terms of roughing the passer. There's a bad one this weekend in the Texans game.

So it is what it is. You got to keep these guys upright. But to me, as CJ Stroud goes without saying, it almost basically goes without saying with Nico Collins and then Joe Mix, especially with Stefan Diggs out. That's maybe one of the things we do have to keep in mind when we talk about this Texans,

this Texans team like, A, if the offensive line were better, B, if you had Stefan Diggs, this offense would be a lot better, especially in those short area pressure situations on third down where the other team is bringing the heat. You got a smart, wide receiver like Stefan Diggs, good in getting in space,

good in finding holes, good with the ball after the run. and getting first downs, missing him. Nico Collins more of your downfield threat. Same thing for Tank Dell, who unfortunately just, he hasn't had a bust out game that we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for. To the point where it seems like the Texans putting him at punt returner

to try to get some kind of spark from Tank Dell, who has been largely healthy this year, but just hasn't been able to give you much of anything. But also, of course, Joe Mixing a huge part of it. Yes, I know he went 12 carries for 23 yards, but they won the game with Joe Mixon. And games that he runs over 100 yards, they are 5 and 2 in those games. Games or he does not, they are 1 and 2.

So you got a lot of wins coming your way with Joe Mixon runs for 100 yards. And to me, of course, that stat doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. A lot of times that people say, you've got to establish the run. When the teams run this many times they win the game, well, a lot of times it's because they run the ball out. So they rack up a bunch of carries. So it can go both ways. But at the end of the day, if Joe Mixon is off this team and you're going to Dario Gumbulli, Damien Pierce, things aren't going to go so hot for the Houston Texans anywhere.

And Joe Mixon, of course, with the ankle injury over the weekend, had missed some time in the game, came back, wasn't very effective, as I mentioned. Just the 12 carries for just 23 yards. It's an average of under two against the Miami Dolphins, who are stout in the middle. middle, but still would like to see Joe Mixen average over two yards of carry. Here's what he had to say about chances he is going to play on Saturday in Kansas City. Start a playoff football right now. I mean, I got beater.

I'm a beater. You know what I'm saying? I'm being here for my teammates. And obviously for myself, man, so I just got to do whatever I can. Like I said, we're tech or to attack recovery today, tomorrow, Friday. And, you know, obviously we got the game on Saturday. that football mindset. I'm going to attack my recovery.

Has anybody said that? You ever recovering from surgery? You're like, I'm going to attack this. I'm going straight at this stretching. You watch me. Watch me going to this cryotherapy chamber. I'm attacking this chamber chamber. But that's just how it is in the NFL.

That's your mindset. So Joe Mixin, I mean, he's got magical powers of healing. The fact that he even came back in the game, there was a time earlier in his career where he got a high ankle sprain. Didn't miss any time. Miss a couple of weeks with the high ankle sprain earlier this year. still has proven himself to be very effective, very good, and one of the best running backs in football, funny enough,

as I mean Aaron Jones, well, I think, did he get hurt over the weekend in the Vikings games? I can't remember, but Aaron Jones, new team, great. Derek Henry, Sequin Barclay, Joe Mixen as well, running, weren't worrying about all these quarterbacks and how good they were going to be with their new teams. Normally, you don't have a veteran running back, go to a new team and flourish, but it's happening.

I didn't even mention Josh Jacobs as well. Perhaps somebody else I'm missing, but these veteran running backs have been, I mean, hugely important for the Ravens and for the Philadelphia Eagles and for the Houston Texans. Along with CJ Stroud, as I said, it goes without saying the quarterback as far as a heart and soul of an offense. To me, the next most important Texan on the field, regardless of side of the ball, is Joe Mixing. You need him on that field if you're going to be successful. certainly on the road at Arrowhead where the Texans in loud environments with defenses run like Steve Spagnolos where you got eight guys at the line of scrimmage and you don't know which three, four, or five or six are coming

and you've had communication issues and you're going to be an Arrowhead, you are going to have to do the old adage. Establish the run. So you need Joe Mixon on Saturday if you want to have any chance of winning if you're the Houston Texans. All right, 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. If you'd like to get in, it is the Matt Thomas with Ross without Matt Thomas. Phone lines open at 7-13-212-5-790.

You can also send tweets to at SportsRV if he'd like to get in that way. Dan Matthews joining at noon. We'll also have the news at noon there. And anything you want to get to, shut your bum-ass up coming up later. And you at 7-13-212-5-790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 7-1. You think the Ives family?

I mean, they've got to really look forward to Christmas more than anybody. Okay, not maybe more than anybody. It's time for them royalties to roll in, baby. Nobody's jamming Burl-Lives in July. What's your favorite Burl-Live song that is not a Christmas song? I have no freaking clue. But Burl-Lives got them Christmas hits. I think we brought this up last week with Mike Blue Blay,

as far as people that, Marie Carey's got other hits. Like she's literally got an album full of number one hits in a compilation. She's got number ones, baby. Obviously, she is known as the Queen of Christmas, and she's got the hits that come through when it comes to Christmas time. So she certainly does get a bump in royalties. But as far as like percentage of royalties that go up, like percentage growth of royalties,

Burlives got to be on the short list. Bouble has some other hits. I know you're a big Boubley guy, Connor McGovern. You're a Booblay fan. a Bubele boy. Is that what they call him? Is that what your group is called? I forget. I don't like the way that sounds. Why not? I'm just a Michael Bubele fan. Yeah, you're one of the Bubla boys. No. Yeah. You guys got a Facebook group and everything, right? No, no, no, no. Okay. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. He's very nice. He's got a great velvety voice. He does.

I've seen him twice live and it was two of the best shows I've ever seen. See? There we go. He's got a full orchestra and everything. Did he wear a white tucks? That sounds like a good show. Not a white tucks, but he, I mean, he wears, he wears nice suits. Yeah. Okay. As he should. As he should. He's got the old school crooner thing going. So his royalties go way up. I'm going to say, I'm going to take Burl Lives, number one pick, as far as royalty percentage growth. I might have to go Mariah Carey because she reaches the top of the billboard charts again every year.

I'm saying, but yeah, but she goes from like, let's just make up a number. 10 million in royalties in the first 10 months to like maybe 10 million, so she gets double. Burl Lives goes from like $5 in royalties to like maybe a few hundred Gs or whatever. The percentage growth, I'm going Burlives. number one. You got a different answer. Tweet me at SportsRV. All right, phones also open here. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas.

He is out on vacation. He will be back tomorrow as I pass the baton. I will be gone tomorrow, Friday, and Monday. I will be in the Crescent City. In Louisiana, 24-hour booze. Sounds dangerous. Should be dangerous. Can't wait

this weekend. Really, actually, I'm going to head that way right after the show is over at 2. In the meantime, you can get in. I'm trying my best not to be in vacation mode. So you want to get in, you want to talk some sports. We can do it at 713-212-5-790. We got Dan Matthews coming up at noon. We have the news at noon.

We also have ain't nobody got time for that slash shut-jo-bum-ass up coming up as well. And you at 7-13-212-5-7-90. So I was scanning the wires, as they say, looking at the sports news across, well, the entire country. We know what we got going here in Houston. and Texans and chiefs coming up this weekend. What is going to happen? Are we in a holding pattern with Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros? What direction is the squad really going into?

Is Dana Brown rebuilding? Or is he retooling? Are they going to contend next year? I don't know. We'll see when everything shakes out with this offseason. But I also saw a story about the NBA. Did you catch the NBA Cup final last night? It was the Milwaukee Bucks taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

No? Me either. Well, the Bucks won 97 to 81. Man, I was watching like in the third quarter. I knew that was a low-scoring game, but those teams both play really good defense. 97 to 81, the Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Cup. And Adam Silver, the story on ESPN,

talking about him looking into critiques of the increased three-point volume that continues to happen. It's a Daryl Morey revolution. We've been experiencing in the NBA, and the NBA has to figure some things out. Adam Silver and his team and his team and the teams and their owners and the people who run these teams because ratings are way down. Feels like interest is way down.

My interest is always up. I'm an NBA fan. I love the NBA. It was my first love. The Houston Rockets won championships when I was nine and 10 years old. It's ingrained into me. I find beauty in the simplicity of NBA basketball or basketball in general to where any man, woman, or child can just take a basketball.

You get a $10 one from any sort of sporting goods store and you go out to a hoop and you get some shots up. They're very simple. If I was trying to explain basketball to an alien, I would just say, you put the ball in the hoop. Boom. To me, the easiest to explain along with soccer. You put the ball on the goal.

Of course, there are other rules. There's double dribble. There's travels. There's three second, whatever. But to me, I mean, NFL, you're explaining it. I don't think it says easy to trivialize. Well, you get four downs, and then they kick it off, and then you get four downs to get 10 yards,

but you can go for it on the fourth down, but on the fourth down, you can punt it, and then you get across the goal line. You can run it, but you can't cross the line of scrimmage until somebody says hut, and then you can pass it, but you can't cross the line of scrimmage. It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. I love basketball.

Put the ball in the hoop. Put the ball in the hoop, man. that's what you do. Like I said, the artistry and the beauty of basketball, but I understand it's not as watchable of a product as a lot of people, for a lot of people, really the last 20 years and really the last five years when you've seen dive bombing with the ratings in the NBA.

And the NBA's record for three-pointers attempted by a team is supposed to be shattered by the Boston Celtics. And Adam Silver asked Tuesday night at the league is studying the trend. There's also criticisms of offenses becoming cookie cutter. Teams are copying each other and something he thinks the league should take seriously. Of course, starting with

the Mori ball, three point revolution, everyone copying it, figuring out three is more than two. Adam Silver, quote, the answer is yes. We're having many discussions about the style of basketball. I would not reduce it to a so-called three-pointing issue. I think we have to

look more holistically at the skill level on the floor. The diversity of the offense and their fan reception to the game all of the above. I think they're, I mean, it's a mini-pronged problem. We always try to boil it down to one thing. I don't think it's just three-pointers. I think it's also the fact that the NBA hasn't done a good job of marketing this new crops of stars. Whereas I think in years past, the NBA did a fantastic job of marketing players, especially in small markets.

I think there's been too much of a short-sighted emphasis on, on keeping it simple and not investing in stars. They invested in LeBron James and the kid from Akron and Cleveland, and then he went to Miami and then he came to L.A. There's been an investment in Steph Curry, but I think they kind of kept it too simple. They got a little bit too greedy. They said, hey, every time we put LeBron James on, we get big ratings.

So we're going to put LeBron James on as much as possible. Well, what about some of the other stars? What about Janice Santacompo? What about Shea Gildes-Alexander in Oklahoma City? What about, okay, Jason Tatum and Boston and the Celtics get a lot of play, obviously. But Nicola Yokic in Denver, I think Nicolokic has become a big star. But I think there hasn't been the investment. I think that the NBA looked too much at the short term in terms of money grabbing,

putting all this stuff onto streaming services and shying away from the NBA on TNT, and they're going to go away from them. It's the most popular basketball show ever. and they're trying to get rid of it because they want to take more money from different companies. And now NBC is going to be putting games on Peacock. You're going to have game streaming on Max. You're going to have all this other stuff.

I just don't think I think it is maybe the state of the game. All the three-pointers perhaps do turn people off. I have no problem with it. Like I said, I'm a big NBA fan. I was a Darrymory fan. I hate mid-range. You should hate mid-range as much as you hate three-pointers. But it's kind of the state of the league.

It's almost like we complain about the NFL and offense being down because they're going with two high safeties. Everybody's packing the paint. And so the three-pointers are flying. That's kind of how it goes in the NBA right now. But the rockets take a lot of threes, but they play good, hard, no defense. They're fun to watch. They don't have a lot of star power.

But I like the rockets. But I think the league has kind of spread themselves too thin. They looked at the short term. They haven't invested in this new crop of stars. And I think it's no accident that they're struggling right now. so Nate's not Nate silver Adam Silver talking about some issues with the three-pointer I mean I don't even know what the solution would be

would you say teams can only take 33-pointers a game and then once you hit your 30th they only count for two that seems pretty extreme but I'm not exactly sure what the solution is going to be but very clearly looking at the ratings for the finals the last couple of years and the NBA Cup everything down from this year a lot of teams and a lot of people who do want

league pass. They can't get access. They're blacked out. You got a lot of people legal streaming. Certainly interesting to see where the NBA goes. The revenues keep growing and growing and growing as far as licensing and being on and getting the NBA Cup going and TV deals. Revenues are up. Ratings are down. You're going to want one to wash the hand of the other. Adam Silver knows that. We're interested to see what kind of measures he takes to try and prove the quality

of NBA basketball. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in 713-212-5-790 our number one of the Matt Thomas show with Ross is in the books hour number two is coming up I am here Connor McGovern is here as well Dan Matthews is coming up at noon we'll also have the news at noon shut your bum ass up ain't nobody got time for that it is a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross with you until 2 o'clock at 713 212 5 790 Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790.

I don't think you'll be able to hear it, but we don't have to go on in the hallways for this fire drill. Do we, Connor? I don't think so. We should be good. I think as long as we don't see firefighters, I think we're okay. One time, I did. I was a producer back at our old building. And we had an afternoon host. his name was Charlie Polillo.

And in the middle of it, I literally smelled smoke in the middle of the show. And he was on location. He was out at, I can't even actually. I do remember the name of the place, but they don't spend money with us anymore. So I'm not going to mention it. It was a pizza place and we'll just leave it at that. And he was out there on location. And during a break, I'm in his ear like, hey, man, I smell smoke and fire alarms are going off.

I don't know what to do. But as of right now, I'm going to stay on the board. board and then we'll see what happens. Literally a firefighter came into my control room, like full gear with an axe in his hand. And he's like, hey man, you got to get out of here. I was like, okay. So I just told Charlie he was on air. I was like, Charlie, you're going to have to talk until I come back. I don't know how long that's going to be. I don't know what's going to happen. But I got to see you later. There's literally a firefighter telling me to get out and I had to take. We were on the fifth floor at that time. We had to take the stairs.

down to the first floor and then we all waited in the lobby and probably like 15, 20 minutes later they let us back up. Apparently a breaker had, a fuse had blown or something like that. So there was smoke but there really wasn't any fire danger. That's pretty crazy.

Yes, it was crazy. I feel bad for the host. Yeah, they could keep going. It wasn't that bad. I think he only had to go like five minutes over break. And if you know Charlie, Charlie could monologue with the best of him. Charlie is the, he used to do a so show for four hours,

Connor McGovern. Every day? Yes. We founded the, this station was founded on the back of Charlie Polillo. When it was founded as ESPN 790, I think we're having a, by the way, folks, keep your calendar clear next year. I think we're having a 20-year party next year. Whoa.

2005, the station was founded as ESPN 790. It was all syndication. I don't know if it was Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, whatever was on ESPN at the time. I think it was Mike and Mike in the morning. The only live show we had was Charlie, by himself

3 to 7. Then they added in, God knows what else it has been long gone. It became 790 the sports animal. Connor, how about that?

Do you know any of this? Am I dropping all the 790 history knowledge on you? Yeah, honestly. I didn't know. They only became 790 the sports animal and well,

the lineup didn't last there either, but Charlie stayed. And then we flipped to Sports Talk 790. Gosh, that had to be around 2009. niche and we've been Sports Talk 790 ever since then with varying lineups and the latest lineup the greatest of course Sean Salsbury 6 to 10 Matt Thomas and me 10 to 2 and then the A team with Adam Adam 2 to 6 and there is your very brief history I can give you more dirty details but there's your very brief history of sports talk 790 the station I appreciate that when I was a kid it was 790 star 790 K BME the best music ever

That's what the BME stands for in case you were ever wondering. We were our music station? Yeah, it was like Big Ben, Best Music Ever. It was like old, big band, like Burl Lives probably feature very heavily on the station. Frank Sinatra. Beni Good. Has Benny Goodman with Sing, Sing, Sing, here on Star 790, KBME, the best music ever. It was basically like that.

What would your DJ name be? My DJ? RV. I don't know. Yeah, that's good. Riding the bus with RV? Let's go with that. Wait a second.

I'm trying to find... Where is... Somebody was tweeting me about this with Matt Thomas. Have you ever heard the old bit of Matt Thomas? He was on location in Beverly Hills and fire alarms were going off? No, I thought it was the band. I don't think I heard the fire alarm. Okay, you've heard the one with the band.

This is also when I was producing, and you can hear... I think I do turn my mic on laughing at one point. Here's Matt Thomas back in the day. As we... I hear alarms. I don't think you guys can hear it on air. But there literally is a... fire drill in the building right now. Thanks to Tiffany 722 for reminding me about this gym. I'm just telling you they were the best team they ever had lost in the divisional

playoffs to probably, to Baltimore one year and New England to the next. They just never could overcome that. Thank you for the phone call. There's an alarm that should be going off on your home, and that's if you have dirty carpets. This is really, excuse my French, annoying AF, seriously. Fire alarm testing is like five times, not 50. I'm trying to do a major market radio show here in downtown Beverly Hills, California, and this damn... Oh, really?

Oh, you got my attention. Yeah? Five to ten more minutes, Ross. Five to ten more minutes. Jesus! We're doing fine. There's no fire. I'm trying to discuss the Texans game against Tennessee.

Oh, now you're putting a sweet little ginger voice on there. Hi, honey, how are you? Back to the alarms. Good Lord. How am I supposed to create radio greatness under these conditions? So there you go. Matt Thomas, it was a Beverly Hills Hotel. I think he was in Los Angeles when that happened when they went down.

Were you producing at the time? Yes, I was. Oh, okay. I was back in your seat. Well, not your seat. I think we were still at the older building. So there's hope for you yet, Connor. Maybe one day.

Maybe one day. All right, anyways, what were we talking about? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Sounds like the fire drill's over. So nothing major happened. I think we're okay. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. All right.

Gerard has been waiting patiently. Let's go ahead and get him in. What's up, Gerard? What's going on, Ross? Not a whole lot. fire drills over. It looks like everything's okay. That's good.

That's good. Everybody's safe. That's good. Let me talk about the NBA and the whole entire touch on a rocket a little bit. As far as the NBA goes, I think the NBA needs to cut down on a regular season. I know the owner's probably never agree to that

because they're going to lose money, but 82 games are just too long. They need to cut it down and maybe about 60 games. They probably need to start after Christmas or really after football season, really, so people can be paying attention to it, right? You know, you're starting in October, you know, NFL going on in the playoffs

starting the NFL and they kind of you know they kind of get drowned out really and a lot of people don't even really be paying this to the NBA until really playoff time and I think they need to cut down on their playoff format I know the only problem I'm not going to agree to that but you know it's a college basketball their most successful

time of the year is March Madden you know because it's over with it in four or five weeks you know one game tournament you move on to the next round I'm not saying that you have one game tournament but you know they kind of have that in the playing already that's why the plan has been successful, but maybe the first round, you go to maybe three or five games in the first round, second round, maybe five.

And then when you get to the conference finals, then you go seven games. NBA finals then seven games. Because the playoffs are two months. I think that's a little bit too long, man, for people to really pay attention. A lot of people don't even watch the playoffs to the NBA finals. So I think they need to probably really cut down on the regular season and cut down on the playoffs to make their product a little bit more successful. Kind of adopt a little bit more of the March Manish, which, you know, their tournament is over with in four or five weeks.

and they have a lot of huge ratings. They have a lot of success during March Maddenance. A quick thing on the Rockets. When you look at the Rockets, the Rockets to me, they're probably the third or fourth-bets team in the West. I got Oklahoma City at the number one team in the West. I think when they get checked back, they'll definitely be the top team.

I got Dallas probably number two. Then I probably got Houston and Memphis three and four. But the difference between the Rockets and the other three teams, I just name is the Rockers don't have a guy that can take over the game. Memphis has John Morant Top 10, top 15 player Oklahoma City has Jay Gildred's top 10, top 15

Dallas has top 15 and LaLuca and Kyrie Urban. The Rockers don't have that type of player on their team. And that's why when you look at the, they have hard time scoring and the office gets stagnant their time. They don't have a guy that can kind of, all right, everybody gets out the way, let me create something and we're going

to get a good shot for myself while open shot for one of my teammates. They don't have a guy that can consistently do that. on their team. They got a bunch of real, real good number two and number three options, but they don't have a number one option. I think that's what's really holding the Rockets back. I think a guy on that

roster that could develop into that is maybe a Cam Whitmore, but the problem with his, what that is, his position is a wing, and a rocket can kind of stack that wing with Jabari, Dylan Brooks. They have Amin, Thompson, they got Tarreek Easton. You know, I wish he probably

could play a little bit of a two. Obviously, he's a little more of a three, then a two, a with Morgan, I think he has the type of offensive Arsenal that can maybe develop into that type of player that we need. A guy that can take over the game, that guy that is very, very multi-dimensional as far as on the offensive end, a guy that's hard for the defenses

to kind of cover once he's developing his offense. So I think he's the kind of guy that maybe can develop any of that, but he's just caught up in a long jam as far as getting minutes with the Rockers where they're stacked at the wing position. So that's just my thoughts on him now. I'm going to hang up and listen to your comments on that.

Thanks a lot, Gerard. I appreciate you getting in. And well, a lot to cover there. I'm with you. I think there's a number of issues with the NBA and a number of reasons. As I said, I don't think if you point to any one thing, that's the sole reason why ratings are down. I think one reason is, to me, the NBA, I would say more than the other leagues has always been something. a league that is propped up and carried by stars and star power.

If you remember, after, you know, the dominant Celtic runs of the 60s and Wilts Chamberlain, there was this lull in the mid to late 70s where teams were losing money, where the games were on like they were on late night replay, tape delay, midnight broadcasts of NBA games. And the league was floundering. And teams were talking about folding up and teams were hemorrhaging money. And these two guys named Larry Bird and Irvin Magic Johnson came along and they saved the league. Their rivalry and their level of play and their star power saved the NBA.

And then from there, when they got to the end of their careers, they passed the baton to this guy named Michael Jeffrey Jordan. and he had his rise, luckily for the NBA, right as the careers of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, were waning. And he carried the league, of course, along with some other stars of that era, the Charles Barkley, Hakeem Elijah one, Patrick Ewing, etc. But it was Michael Jordan, and it wasn't even close. The dude has his own brand of shoe that is still the number one sports brand of shoe, and he hadn't been in a league since 1998.

That's the star power of Michael Jordan. and if you remember right when Michael Jordan was retiring, first of all, finals ratings have never recovered to the level of where they were when Michael Jordan and that 1998 finals. I mean, I could be wrong, but I can go back and look it up. I think that 1998 finals is still like the highest rated finals since in the last 30 years. Now, of course, the internet came along, streaming, cable television, more things to watch. You don't have just five channels, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But right after Michael Jordan retired, there was a little bit of, you know, Kobe Bryant didn't really become the fate of the league until, honestly, after he probably split with Shaq.

But it was Shaq. It was kind of Tracy McGrady. Nobody was necessarily to that level of a star. And then you had LeBron James and Steph Curry come along. And now those guys are towards the end of their career. And I ask you, who is the biggest star not named Lepard? LeBron James or Steph Curry in the NBA. You don't have somebody. Now you have some star players.

Nicolaeokic is famous. Yoniston Dekumpo is famous. James, I mean, Jason Tatum is kind of famous. But you don't have somebody with the global impact of interest to where you are garnering interest from casual fans. That's what this is all about. That's what this is in the game. and that's what I think some of us who are diehard fans like me, I freaking talk sports and watch sports for a living.

This is what I do. I'm a diehard fan. You're listening to a sports station right now at 1115 a.m. You're a diehard sports fan. We have to remember that it's not always about us. It's about getting those outside eyeballs. When people ask, why are the Cowboys always on? Cowboys are never good.

Cowboys have a name. Cowboys have cachet. Cowboys get eyeballs. Michael Jordan got eyeballs. Magic and Larry got eyeballs. LeBron James, Steph Curry, got eyeballs. Outside of those guys right now, as far as the top,

who can you walk down the street and say this? And people, 100 out of 100 people will name LeBron James. How many people out of 100 are naming Nicolaeokic? I mean, Luca Donchich, I think probably has certainly some star power as well. But then you're going to, I don't know, Shea Gilgis Alexander as a time. top five guy. I mentioned Jason Tatum as a top five guy. I mean,

Joelle Embed hardly even plays. I think it is a number of thing. Kevin Durant, I think, is somebody I mentioned, as should have been mentioning last, as probably the last decade, as a big star. But I don't think to the level of LeBron James, certainly not to the level of, you know, Magic and Michael and those guys, Anthony Edwards is a big name, but does the person who's not an NBA fan really say, oh, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards are on, I have to flip my TV on? No. So I think they have a star power issue. I think the state of the game with all the three-pointers, I think that has turned some people off of the league as well.

To where it's just drive-and-kick, drive-and-kick, drive-and-kick, drive-and-kick. We want lay-ups, we want threes. We want lay-ups. We want threes. Then if you take that out, then what? You're getting mid-range. Was it really fun watching Tim Duncan work on the low post for 17 seconds of the 24-second clock? That wasn't super entertaining, but also those ratings were very low in those years. So I think it is a state of play. I think it is the accessibility of the games where maybe numbers are down because people are illegal streaming.

And I think you're lacking in star power. And I think Gerard, you're absolutely right. There's been a dilution of the discourse around the NBA has eroded to simply boiling it down to rings. How many rings you got? Rings, rings, rings, rings. Kobe had five rings. LeBron has four rings.

Rings. Michael Jordan had six rings. That's rings. Everybody talks about these super teams and how they can't believe everybody wants to go play together. The NBA fans, you did this. You talked about rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings. Nothing ever matters. And then so that's what the discourse became. That's what the players came to chase. And that's what's completely devalued the regular season.

A regular season matchup in 1986 between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson was a huge thing. Now it's like, well, it's not the finals. Who cares? So you're lacking in Star Power. You've devalued your own regular season to where you've put yourself in baseball regular season territory. And you have all these other issues. And that is the problem with one of the many, many, many problems that Adam Silver is faced with to try to fix and try to get this league back to where it was. First thing's first to me.

Invest in Star Power. Everything else will kind of fall into place. don't just put LeBron James and Steph Curry on every single big game because those are the guys that are going to get you the big ratings. Invest in other stars or get them going up against instead of each other, other teams. I just don't feel like they've done a good job of marketing these other stars, but also you have to get lucky and these guys have to have that same star,

a type of star power. Does Shea Gilgis Alexander have the same charisma level of Michael Jordan? Of course not. So it's a mix of things. certainly with the state of the NBA. I went way over. I know, I know. It's holiday ratings. It's fine.

All right. We're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I got off on a rant there, so we're going to try to get back on time. Back in a second. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. Okay, we're way off clock. Not that you care.

Because I went way too long in that NBA rant. but I mean, I think I love the NBA. That's why I care about it. And it's got issues. It's not a super big surprise to me that ratings have been down lately. A tweet from Pedro 328 for Girard. Yeah, he went on quite the rent. I didn't even address some of the rocket stuff he got to, which I will.

But only a couple of minutes before we're supposed to break. Again, Ron has been waiting patiently. So we'll get to some of those rockets issues brought up by Gerard in just a second. But Ron and the southwest side wanted to get in. What's up, Ron? Hey, Ross. Happy holidays to you, man. Thanks for letting me get in. Yeah, I just kind of pick up back in on what you're saying.

You know, I think the NBA seems like they want to gear the finals and the playoffs and everything towards them towards their star players. And, you know, you bring up the rockets. There's no way they're going to let the rockets get to the finals this year that we don't have the star power. And I think that hurts just what you're saying. By the time to get to the finals, other markets don't really care to watch because they might not be into that star power. So anyway, just your thoughts. And I think you hit on the nail when

you said spread the stars around, give them more promoting, make more people want to see more stars versus going for that one-two knockout punch. Kind of recall at game six, Western Conference finals back in the day with Harden against Curry and them. And they changed the whole momentum of the game and we lost. But seems to me they just wanted to see Curry and LeBron go at it again. So that's kind of when I stop watching or laid back a little bit. Still a diehard fan. Love my Rockets. Hopefully they can upset the world.

But anyway, those are just my thoughts. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Ron. I appreciate it. I don't think there, it's a multi-layered conversation, but I don't think there's a lot of conscious biases. I don't think there's marching orders. And I know we can get into the whole Tim Donahey stuff.

and Tim Donahey, by all accounts, is a snake and a liar. So he's a very, a very, what do they call it in literature, an unreliable narrator or something like that. I can't remember what the exact phrase is. But you can't trust what Tim Donahey necessarily says. But if you do, that's fine. If you think the games are rigged, that's fine. The Boston Celtics did win last year, but they beat the Dallas Mavericks.

Before that, it was the Denver Nuggets. versus the Miami Heat. Is Denver and Miami? If they could rig it, it would be New York versus L.A. every single year. Before that was the Warriors and the Bucks. Okay, Lakers. Toronto Raptors before that. Cleveland.

Now, LeBron, of course, the big star of there. But I just don't necessarily buy that the league is rigging their finals. Otherwise, why did the San Antonio Spurs, the most boring team in history, win five championships between 1999 and 2014. I just, I don't buy it personally. Now, do referees probably unconsciously give star players the more benefit of the doubt? Absolutely. Steph Curry falls down. You're probably going to get a call. I don't know, uh, Corey Brewer or somebody. Don't disrespect to Corey Brewer. Sorry, you're the first name that popped in my head of a non-star player. Falls down.

Then he might not get that call. He might get that benefit of the doubt. LeBron James, my God, how many millions of calls has he gotten in his career? But the same thing was for Michael Jordan back in the day. And for the star players in those days, it's kind of just star treatment from referees is real. It happens in football with quarterbacks, say, Tom Brady getting knocked around. It's a little bit different than when, say, Jacoby Brissette gets knocked around. You're like, where's the flag?

That guy just got mauled and destroyed. no flag you lay a feather touch on tom brady flags come a flying so yeah it's star calls are a thing but i don't necessarily buy that there are marching orders from the from the league and the commission because something would have come out by now you would have had a whistleblower right now if they've been rigging the league for however long you think they've been rigging it i don't think so i just think it comes down to star power and the golden state had more star power in those days and well the Rockets don't get a lot of calls and maybe as much as they

should because they don't have a lost our power right now. So it does seem like they get screwed or sometimes they get fouls get called and then Steve Kerr, the last person on planet Earth besides maybe LeBron James and Michael Jordan themselves that should be complaining about referee

calls and then the call was upheld. But yeah the refereeing isn't great. Kind of dilutes the product sometimes when that becomes the story over other things. But it happens. in the NFL? It's the National Flag League. I mean, watch literally one game any week. There's flags

all over the freaking place. It feels like there's a flag every other play, if not more. We watch. Because, well, it's more of a compelling game. The regular season matters more. There's only 17 of them. There's not 82 of them. And we've all got things going on

in our lives and we carve out more time on a regular schedule on a Sunday, or a Saturday or a Wednesday now. But, yeah, NBA's got issues. Officiating certainly is a problem, but I don't think necessarily it's a rigged league. Okay. Still want to get to Gerard's comments on the rocket. Still want to get to you, those of you on hold, but I have gotten off the clock. We're going to try to get close to back on here. At 713-212-5-790. That is the phone number if you'd like to get in. We've got Dan Matthews

joining us sometime afternoon. I am flying solo until then. You want a co-host for a couple of minutes. You can get in and talk to me at 7-13-215.790. Dylan Brooks here. Lam got it. Stay clutch with the I-Heart radio out. Hear every Rockets game on Sports Doc 790. There it is, Dylan Brooks. Home of your Rockets. Rockets!

All right, don't show up around Robert De Niro and a mink coat when this song plays. That's your good fellow's reference. That movie's 34 years old. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I want to make you all feel old.

1990, wasn't it? Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas is not here. He will be back tomorrow. But guess what? I won't be. I will be on vacation for a couple of days. It is simply that time of year, folks. A lot of shuffling around. Adam Clanton has been missing time. Matt's missing time. I'm missing time. Adam Wexor, you know what? We give him a gold star because he has just been hanging out, putting in the extra hours as well. In the meantime, you can get in if you would like. It's 713. 2125, 790. We'll have Dan Matthews coming up in a little bit. We've got the news at noon. We got shut. Joe bum ass up slash ain't nobody got time for that. That's coming up at 1 o'clock. Here on Sports Talk 790. So yeah, quickly on Gerrads, Rockets, comments. Yeah, they simply don't have a star player.

They don't have somebody that's a final two minutes. The final two minutes of the game, who are they going to go to? We'd like it to be Alpern-Shingoom, but also depending on the defensive matchup, he can get shut down. He also turns the ball over. Same thing for Jalen Green. their final two minutes go-to guy, but the three-point shot just simply has not developed. If we lived in a world where Jalen Green can get his three-point percentage up to like 35, 38 percent,

I think we'd be in a great spot. But unfortunately, the Rockets, while they play good, hard-nosed team defense, it can only take you so far when you get into the playoffs, when you get deep into games, when you get into crunch time, you're going to need somebody that's going to step up, rise above, and be better than everyone else. Nicola Yokich does it for the Warriors, I mean, it's for the Warriors, for the Nuggets, of course. Steph Curry has done it for the Warriors for years and years and years. James Harden, as much as I know we hated, not we, but I never really hated James Hardin. I know a lot of you did, but he would come through in the clutch in the last two minutes of games all the time and bail the rockets out.

I mean, John Morant, Chey Gillis-Alexintern, I mean, those are like closers. Who's the closer for the Rockets? I don't know. and no doubt about it. This guy's getting the ball and they're going to go score and he's going to elevate and be great because you can play good team defense all you want. You can run good offensive sets all you want,

but at the end of the day, especially when you run into the best of the best and good defenses, you just have to have somebody who is that much more elite and talented and can rise above it and get you that last couple of possessions, those last couple of buckets and win games. And the Rockets simply do not have that. at this moment.

I mean, think about the, you know, yeah, they lost to the thunder by 15 points, but a lot of times these games are between 5, 6, 7 points. You beat the Warriors by one point. You get, you know, randomly about 90 to 100 possessions a game. Six points is two possessions. Three at the most. Four or five points, like those things,

those minuscule thin margins matter, and the rockets don't have somebody who accept. enough in those moments. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. Chase in Clear Lake, want to talk some Chiefs. What's up, Chase? What's up, brother? How you doing?

I'm doing great. Go ahead. I have, I think that the spread still, I think it's still three for Kansas City, but I think that the Texans have been struggling with a little bit of identity crisis with this year. The last year, obviously, it was our super hot offense with CJ being red hot every single week. This year it's not really been the case, as you've known, we've lost a lot of close

games, but our defense within the last few weeks has really kind of stepped in and been that for us. So with us going into this week, with our defense being on such a role, I think that the Texans are going to win this game by seven points this weekend. I am going to hang up and hear your thoughts. Thanks for being here today, and shout out to Matt.

Yeah, shout out to Matt. He'll be back tomorrow. Thank you, Chase. I was kind of talking about this matchup in the first hour. And I've talked about this all year, and I kind of forgotten about it. But what has been the Texan's number one issue all year long? I would say the play of the offensive line.

What has really, really given this Texan's offensive line issues? That has been pressures. What gave them a hell of a time early on in the season on the road in Minnesota? It was the Brian Flores lead defense where they bring six, seven, eight guys up to the line of scrimmage. And the other offensive line, the opposing offensive line, has to figure out who's coming, who's not, who's just doing this for show, who are you going to pick up, who am I going to pick up, who are we going to pick up, who's the running back going to pick up? And you have to do that on the road in a very loud environment. in that game, the Texans lost 34 to 7 and they turned the ball over a couple of times and did not gain a turnover. This weekend, the Texans are going to go on the road in a hostile environment against a mad hatter, mad scientist,

defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnolo, who's going to put seven, eight guys at the offensive line, or excuse me, on the defensive line. He's going to bring some. He's not going to bring others. And I mean, Chris Jones and George Carl Loftus and some of those other guys in that front seven for the Kansas City Chiefs, I'm afeard,

are going to wreak havoc on this offensive line that if they, A, stick with what they have last week, it's only their second week to build chemistry and cohesiveness. And if B, they switch up the offensiveness, line. It'll be like the fourth or fifth iteration of an offensive line they've gone with this year with only three weeks left in the season. So you add all that up. I'm scared about the Chiefs this weekend. Let me just put it that way. So I'm struggling to see a path to the Texans

putting up enough points, especially if Pat Mahomes plays. I think it'll be close. I think their defense can slow down the Chiefs, but I think the Chiefs defense is going to slow down their offense even that much more. CJ Stroud is going to have to be great. He's going to have to rise above a lot of pressures. They're going to have to not commit any negative plays in terms of penalties or lost yardage and sacks. They're going to have to play an extremely clean game.

And then even then, I think it's going to be close. It's a very low total, which, I mean, the more I think about it, the more it feels about right. I guess these Vegas guys kind of know what they're doing. 41 and a half. That's lower than say. Giants Falcons, which might be Michael Pinnix versus Tommy DeVito. That's 42.5.

Well, that lets you know withiest quarterbacks who are among the top 10 and elite. I still put CJ shroud in the top 10. We know Pat Mahomes is top one. Yeah. That's because these defenses are going to be really good. I think it will be a low-scoring game. I don't think it's going to be a 38 to 35 shootout.

I just don't think the first of all, if anybody scoring 38 points, Texas aren't going to be able to get close, they just haven't shown the ability to do that, save against the Patriots who are terrible. So if you want to say the Texans win by seven, I'm going to be over the moon about it. Because, of course, as you know, I am Battle Red Ross. And that would also get the Texans to 10 wins. That would also make a certain co-hosts of mine lose a bet, not to me, but a bet for the season.

And I like watching Matt Thomas lose. So I want the Texans to win. I just think it's going to be a knockdown, drag out. They're going to lose like 19 to 13 or something. That's my gut feeling. I guess I got to put my name on it by the end of this, by end of today, because I'm going to be out the rest of the week. But it feels like a low-scoring, knockdown, drag-out, not pretty game. Did the Texans lose a close one?

Stop me if you've heard that before. All right, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Those who want hold, we will get to you. We've also got the news at noon coming up. We've also got Dan Matthews coming up. We've also got at 1 o'clock. Ain't nobody got time for that slash shut Joe bump ass up. So we got a lot of fun stuff planned.

And we'll be back with you after this very short break. You can get in at 713-213-21-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Oh, but before we get to that break, I must ask you, how you feeling? How are things going? Have you been thinking about getting testosterone replacement therapy? Are you worried about it? Do you not know where to choose?

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You want to hit the ground running in the new year. Get your New Year's resolution started now. GenicsHealth.com, S-Y-N-E-R-GenX-Health.com. CenterGenX Health.com. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. Nat King Cole, one of the all-time greats. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

I was going to say sports RV show. I've been in this, well, there's a lot of monologuing going on in the show, but you guys have been calling in getting in the last hour. I do really appreciate that. So I'm feeling like it's in sports RV show mode, but that show is gone. I used to be on Saturdays. Now I'm on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That is me.

And we'll be joined by Dan Matthews. So I'll go into co-host mode coming up. We got news at noon. And then we'll have ain't nobody got time for that slash shut joke, bump ass up coming up at 1 o'clock. In the meantime, you can get in at 713, 212-790. 7-13-213-2-5-7-90. And speaking of the phone lines, Let's go to one of the old friends.

I mean old and an ice way, Biscuit. Good friends of the show, Biscuit, what's going on? Hey, man, I'm so old. I remember Ross when he was in the producer role. Me too. And I remember calling in on Saturday to talk to Ross, and he didn't have nobody to talk to. That's what I'm talking about, Biscuit.

You've always been there for me. I appreciate it. You know what I'm a big brother always got him for another brother out. That's what I like. Hey, man. Let me say this about the NBA, man. And this is from my brother that's watched the NBA in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. And I'm like you, I'm a basketball guy.

So I'm going to watch basketball. I'm from Indiana, so I'm going to watch basketball. There's a lot of people, particularly here in Houston, the Rocklands ain't doing good. They could care less about basketball. But to me, Ross, one of the issues, we didn't get, you don't get somewhere overnight. It's like over time something happens. And so to me, if the first thing that I would do if I was commissioner, and I would take out the zone defense.

I would make everybody have to play man to man again. Because what it did was it took away the inside guys. Remember because back in the day when we came up, the inside guys were dominating, Kareem and Akeem and, you know, Ewing and, you know, Robinson, the inside guys dominated. But when they put the zone in, particularly probably before Shaq, that allowed teams to kind of almost take the big guy out of there because you could just immediately double-teaming

or like halfway double-team and still get back to the other guy. Whereas before, if you had to be a hard double team and then the other guy would be open, if he kicked it to him, then it was a wide-open shot. So the three is becoming a harder shot because it's more contested than it used to be because you don't have to worry about the pain area. You see, am I making sense?

And so you didn't seem like last. night. I'd say like last night, okay, see. They had no inside presence, so they were forced to jack up threes, and it was contested, and so next thing, you know, they won for 15, one for 18

from 3. You can't win that way, man. You've got to be balanced. And so the NBA needs to some kind of way open the paint back up and get the paint area going, and then I think the outside shots will come back again. Yeah, that's interesting.

I like that idea, and I know I guess you want zone defense outlaw, but teams don't really play zone defense a whole lot. Biscuit, I feel like it's something that teams go to for a couple of possessions here and there, and then that's it. But what I'm saying to you, though, is even if they're not playing a straight up zone, they're allowed to hang around. Kind of hedge, yeah.

Yeah, there's a hedge in the pen. You're right, you're right, that's good point. It was called more, and so it was obvious. Now you can't, you can't, you can say, well, he's just, they plan, maybe they plan. Maybe they plan a zone, so I can't really, the ref can't really call it. You know what I mean? Maybe they're playing a zone.

You know, before, if you wouldn't buy your man, if he's over here and you're right there, it's an obvious call. You know what I'm saying? So you got to get the pain back over. My point is you have to get the pain back. Because now it's to a point where you're not rewarded in the pain, so no guys even have a back to the basket game anymore. You know what I mean? So everybody's a pull-up type of guy. And so, I mean, if you watch the women's game,

say in college or something like that, they still do those things. They still do the points in the paint and the pull-up jumpers or stuff like that, where the NBA is either, like you said, drive and tear drop or kick it to somebody shooting jacking up a three. Yeah. And it takes away some of the athleticism of the game.

That's what I'm saying. You help the skill players, but you hurt the athletic players. And that's where the entertainment came in and everything's about entertainment. And, you know, the WMBA finals were more entertaining than the NBA finals. You know, I mean, all the games will blowouts. WMBA, they're going double over time and last second shots. You know, so, but that's my opinion.

Right. I got you, Biscuit. I got to put you on hold because we got one quick caller and then a break here. I appreciate you. But, yeah, I understand. Well, I mean, the in vogue defense on picking rolls is drop coverage where the big man just completely drops down. into the paint and I guess in an illegal defense that's pretty that's pretty smart solution I think I wonder if they would consider that to where the big man just drops into the paint and so yeah it becomes

you're forcing mid-range shots on those pick and rolls and you wouldn't be able to do that with the old illegal defense roles and yeah you can kind of just hedge off and you know play you can have guys play free safety like people will play free safety off somebody who's like a non-shooter like a man Thompson or, well, Alperin Shungoon, they'll play way back. And then the old illegal defense rules, you wouldn't be able to do that. That is interesting. Maybe that's something that would help scoring up. The reason they enacted the zone defense rules and allowing those is because Shaq was too

dominant. They had to allow people to muddy up the paint. And well, Shaq's out of the league now. So that would be interesting to see if they would do that. Let's get to Roger real quick on the state of the NBA. I got about 60 seconds for you. Roger, go ahead. Okay.

Well, he said his piece in zero seconds. That is lightning fast. Roger, we appreciate you. I said, be quick. I didn't know you're going to be that quick. Yeah, so we'll see what happens. Clearly there is an issue here. I don't know.

I mean, a solution that popped in my mind, but is probably too extreme to an act, would be putting a cap on three-pointers. Like, each team gets 40. And after that, if you take 40, the threes only count as twos. What do you think about that? Hmm, I don't know.

All right, let's take a quick break here on the math. Thomas show with Ross. My name is Ross Viori. Alconema governor is here. Dan Matthews will be getting into the fold. We get shut, yo, bump, ass up slash ain't nobody got time for that coming up at 1 o'clock, but coming up next, what's going on in sports today?

It is the news at noon. Lunch timers, this is the Matt Thomas show. 1202 in H-town. What's happening, lunch timers? Hello and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas remains out. He will be back tomorrow from vacation. Or I think it might

even be staycation. Goodness knows what he's doing. I don't know if he's, as he would say, bumping around town. But he will be back tomorrow. I will be off Thursday, Friday, and Monday as I pass the baton to one Matt Thomas. A lot of stuff going on in sports. We've been talking a little baseball, a little Texans and chiefs this weekend. Also, some NBA and Rockets. Y'all getting in on that, I appreciate it. Phone lines are open at 713, 212-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. What the heck is going on in the world of sports in H-Town and around? Well, for that, we go to the news at noon with Cona McGovern. Conard of New McGuven. I'm sorry, you prefer. I'm sorry, you prefer. I'm going toish Connor McGovern.

What do we have on the news today, lad? Yes, this is the news. at noon Houston, Texas corner, Derek Stingley, Jr. has been named AFC defensive player of the week at the NFL announced today. Stingley garners his second career player of the week, honor following his two interception performance that helped the Texans capture their second consecutive AFC South Division Championship. Head coach D'emucco Rines had this to say about his standout corner.

Man, it's very impressive. Like I said, it's a play. I haven't, it's very rare you see a player make a play that way to end the game. Like, that was a, that's all pro. type plays like that's, that's what it looks like. You know, when you're one of the top guys of your position in the league, going up, matching it up against, you know, one of the best White House in the league as well.

And to make the plays that he made, you know, can't say enough about how impactful Stingley has been, you know, throughout not only those plays on yesterday, but he's Stingley has been impactful throughout the entire year. I think for the past three wins, he's been our defensive player of the game. So when he's making impact play, is putting us in position to win football games.

Derek Stingley making all pro plays. All pro will see. To me, probably the best corner in football is Pat Sertan the second. Then we're getting into where does Derek Stingley? There's been some slippage in sauce Gardner's game. Marlon Humphler is good. Jair Alexander has been playing that much. Chris Gonzalez is pretty good.

Jalen Ramsey's still pretty solid. Hmm. Oh, Quignon Mitchell, the rookie from the Philadelphia Eagles. He's been doing very well. But Derek Stingley's in that second group. He certainly is. Does that get into all pro? They're really certainly pushing it.

They're talking about it. I don't know if it's going to happen, but you keep racking up defensive player of the weeks. That's going to help your case. Derek Stingley has been absolutely a plus plus player for the Texans this year. And part of the defense that's playing extremely well. I thought they were going to take a step back, really. with Jalen Petrie gone for the year

with Azeez Aaljeer is still out going up against the Dolphins offense that had been hot they'd put up 30 plus points and three out of the last four games they did a great job I mean they just completely shut that Dolphins offense down and well for the most part just stayed disciplined on like 50 screens but I digress

what else is in the news at noon to Connemah governor Texans offensive guard Kenyon Green has officially activated from injured reserve that for being designated for return a week ago according to friend from the station Aaron Wilson. Green participated fully in practice yesterday and has made a full recovery from shoulder injury suffered against the New York Jets. With juice grugs out for a couple more

weeks with a foot injury, Kenyon Green gives the Texans depth at guard where Titus Howard slid over to on Sunday. Demico Rines had this to say yesterday about Titus Howard's performance at guard. And for Titus moving inside, first off, is, you know, thankful to him for making that move and transition. As you mentioned, he's been in there before, so it's not totally new to him. Just things happen a lot quicker on the inside than the outside, right? You know, Titus has that power and size to handle the big rushers on the inside. So I think he's a really good fit for being in there. It's just understanding how quickly those games and things happen where you have a little more space on the outside.

You've got more space, a little bit more time. And the inside, just have to have quicker reaction time. Will Kenyon Green make his return to the lineup moving Titus Howard back over to tackle? Fisher out? I hope not. You'd rather have Blake Fisher in still? Gosh. Blake Fisher, okay, Blake Fisher has been like mediocre.

Kenyon Green has been a disaster. So I guess if it's going to be a one-for-one, Titus Howard kicked into guard with Blake Fisher out there at right tackle, that's probably better. And of note to what you're bringing up, Connor McGovern, talked about it earlier. Pro football focus. Again, I always temper, not the end-all, be-all. It is one data point, but they put out their offensive rankings, offensive line rankings earlier today.

They have the Houston Texans 27th out of 32 in the NFL. Not great, but hopefully those numbers, I mean, at one point earlier in the season, they were about middle of the pack, but then all hell broke loose with Kenyon Green being terrible and injuries and a lack of cohesiveness going on the road at Arrowhead against Steven Spagnolo and that Chiefs defense. I am worried. I don't know what they're going to do it off.

offensive line. We'll move along to baseball. The Chicago Cubs had a surplus of outfielders after acquiring Kyle Tucker, so they traded Cody Balinger to the New York Yankees yesterday. The Cubs also agreed to send the Yankees $5 million as part of the deal for right-handed pitcher Cody Petit. With only one year away from free agency, Cal Tucker said he's open to talks with Chicago on a long-term deal, saying, quote, definitely Chicago was a great city to play in, great city just in general, so I'm open for anything. Tucker was also on MLB network saying, quote, I don't think I could have gone to a much better organization than the Cubs. Like I said, at the beginning, I appreciate everything that, you know,

the huge Snashers Foundation and the team and, you know, the city itself is done for me and my family since I got drafted in 15 until now. And I don't think I could have gone to, you know, a much better organization than the Cubs. So I'm excited to start, you know, playing in front of the fans and in the city and everything now. So, you know, a lot of things in life and sports and everything kind of is what it is, stuff happens, whatnot, you know, some stuff's out of your control. but you just got to make the most with it.

I'm still real close with everyone, you know, on the Astros. It's not like we're all enemies now or anything or I hate everyone over there. No, that's not it. Obviously, whenever we'd play against them, I would prefer to, you know, win. But, you know, at the end of the day, I'm so close with a lot of those guys and there are, you know, some close friends of mine. So the Cubs trading coding Bellinger to the Yankees and Kyle Tucker interested in a long-term deal in Chicago. And that's also, by the way, the world record, the most Kyle Tucker has ever spoken unbroken. We appreciate him.

No, he does a good job. When he first came up, it was a, he was a very, very short and sweet. Clearly, the media training, doing a good job of Kyle Tucker with the answer there. But yeah, it doesn't hate anybody here in Houston, of course, don't expect him to. This is 2024. And we as fans would have liked to have had him long term. in a Houston Astros uniform, but we understand. I mean, it's just something you have to get used to.

Jim Crane's not going to spend like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets. He's his ain't. And it is, and nor really should he. It's his team. He can do as he sees fit. He hasn't been cheap. He's been up to the tax threshold when over it last year. Right move for the organization with Kyle Tucker.

But now Cody Bellinger in a New York Yankees uniform. What does that mean, if anything for Alex Bregman and him possibly landing with the New York Yankees? Does this give the Red Sox a leg up? We had Brian Bogussevich of Space City Home Network, of course, former Astro Outfielder himself. Talking yesterday, he predicted the Detroit Tigers would be interesting. Clearly Alex Breggman and other organizations see value in him. Clearly, A.J. Hinch, Alex Cora, seeing value in Alex Breggman.

We'll see where all the chips fall as we go along here on the offseason for your Houston Astros. What else you got, Connor? Go back to the NFL. The Atlanta fall. have benched Kirk Cousins and are turning to rookie Michael Pennix Jr. to take the starting quarterback spot as the Falcons fight for their first playoff birth since 2017. The Falcons, who are at 7 and 7, ended a four-game losing streak with Monday nights a 15 to 9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Cousins threw for 112 yards in a touchdown, his first touchdown pass in five games, but also recorded an interception. Cousins leads the NFL with 16 interceptions. Atlanta benching Kirk Cousins after signing him to a four-year, $100 million contract. in the off season with $100 million guaranteed. Yeah, that's, and there are some people,

I wonder how much of this is results oriented thinking. There are people defending Kirk Cousins and Pinnix. They're like, see, this is why you draft Michael Pinnock's, because Kirk Cousins could have faltered like this. Well, if you thought Kirk Cousins was going to crater like this, you wouldn't assign him to a four-year, $180 million deal. I understand the thought that, hey, it's so hard to find our guy, so we're going to get.

as many of our guys as we can get and hopefully somebody will work out, whether it be Michael Pinnock's, whether it be Kirk Cousins, whether it be whatever. But I would say still in a vacuum, signing a quarterback to a four-year $180 million deal only to bench him in the first year and then have to eat all that money of the contract if they release him after this season.

It was stupid. But the Falcons are so stupid their geniuses because Cousins has been an absolute disaster. He's having his worst season probably in his career as a professional, and he is like 36 years old or whatever, but if you thought there was a chance that you were going to bench him and he wasn't going to be the guy, you wouldn't have signed him to that big deal. So at the end of the day, it looks smart because they can get Michael Pinnock's a couple of starts,

see what he's got. Maybe he can build some momentum into the next year. He's had almost a full season to learn. So good on the Falcons, I guess, we're having a backup plan, but that's an expensive backup plan to an already expensive contract. So I'm still not sure I'm buying what summer sailing, saying that this is a master stroke genius move by the Falcons having this backup plan in place.

Speaking of the Falcons, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, Michael Vick has agreed to become the head coach at Norfolk State. Norfolk State fired coach Dawson Ottoms in November after a four and eight season. Apparently, Vic also spoke to Sacramento State about their head coaching position, but Michael Vick, with no previous coaching experience, the new head coach at Norfolk. Are they trying to go with the Dion Sanders mode here, model? He's going to get a bunch of people excited.

He's going to get a bunch of recruits now. Yeah. Michael Vic just does not have the charisma and the swag, if you will. What do the kids call it? Oh, I'm sorry, Riz, short for charisma, right? Or is that only with the ladies? Is the Riz only with the ladies? Yeah, Riz is only with the ladies.

You can't Riz everyone? No. Okay, so I can't Riz you? I mean, you could. But you're not trying to pick. me up. I don't think so. Riz is for, yeah, I'm trying to press a girl. I know you're spoken for, but it's short for charisma.

Charisma you can use anywhere? It's true. All right, anyways. This is why I go to the young folks and consult. Connor has spoken. I'll go by his word. Okay. Charisma, let's go with that.

Michael Vick lacking in that department, I feel like, certainly compared to Dion Sanders, who, I mean, who was on TV, he was a star in his own right, prime. He had a rap career. I mean, he was selling Pepsi sodas. Deon Sanders, coach prime, I feel like can recruit with the best of them and sell. I don't know if Michael Vick can do that, but it also is Norfolk State.

It'll be interesting to see what happens there going forward. All right, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. That was the news at noon. You want to react to any of that. And oh, by the way, just saw as well. Titus Howard is still practicing as a guard. So sounds like that's good news to me. as long as Kenyon Green isn't involved anywhere.

Titus Howard going to be at Guard, it sounds like, this weekend. Pat Mahomes, full practice, Joe Mixen, back at practice to what level? We'll talk about that as we go along. And anything you want to get to, 713-212-5-790. The phone number, 7-13-212-5-790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. Maybe next year, Stevie.

All right, welcome in. Nothing. To the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now that I'm here, a couple of things that I heard from last hour that you brought up, number one, completely agree with you on Adam Wexler. And the other is Great Goodfellas reference. Oh, thank you. Oh, I made a movie reference and I didn't get zapped.

The meat, you got to get ready. The mink coat right there. What are you doing? What are you doing? I told you no big purchases. Take it back. Yeah, Frosty the Snowman, the Ron Nets, I think was on around that sequence. It could be argued that Goodfellas is a pseudo-Christmas movie.

Oh, stop. Stop! Stop it, you people. No, no, no. Tons of Christmas. Just because Christmas happens around a movie doesn't make it a Christmas movie. So by that same logic. I don't want to get with it. Could you say that the office was a loose Christmas show?

Oh, here we go. Because they had Christmas episodes. Numerous ones. David Huckstead, who works for Outkick, does a great job for them. And he pointed out every single season's Christmas party episode. Okay, so he's calling it a Christmas show. No, he's not. He's just pointing out that all of the great episodes around the Christmas party.

And the one that I just watched was the Moroccan Christmas that Meredith wanted to do. I don't remember that. I'll take your word for it. All right. Dan Matthews is here. We've already got two show and movie references within 30 seconds of it being here. I haven't even introduced him. So you're off to a hot start.

If your best pitches your fastball and they know it's coming, throw the fastball. It doesn't matter. I like that. They can't hit it. The Mariano Rivera of Sports Talk is here. I said, Dan Matthews. A fastball on a cutter. And if you're Ryan Clusco, you better have all of your bats in the rack for this one.

All right. So Dan Matthews into the fold with us until 2 o'clock. We just got the news at noon. We'll have Shut Yo Bumass up slash ain't nobody got time for that coming up at 1 o'clock. You guys can get in at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. So news at noon, we were talking a little bit about the Texans. So some practice notes coming out, Mr.

Matthews. First among them, Joe Mixon, seen, so that's good. He's at least out there and practicing. I don't know if they, did they list if he was limited? I think they listed him not, has it not practiced yesterday? What was that? They listed him as limited and they just had a

walk through yesterday. So they basically just went off of calculations of if this, if this were an actual practice would he go the full way? And they said no, he wouldn't have. So he was limited. They didn't do a distinction for the chiefs. So I don't know if the Chiefs went through a full solid practice or maybe a pair down.

I don't know. But Mahomes was a full yesterday. And our good buddy, Aaron Wilson, with video of Joe Mixen catching passes at practice. Okay. So is at least walking around Joe Mixen at practice. And then also a good bit of news. Sounds like Titus Howard still practicing with the guards. We had heard that Kenyon Green has been activated back on the roster.

We were hoping, or at least me personally, hoping that one of the worst guards in football was just going to be. activated for depth purposes in case somebody goes down. Sounds like Titus Howard. It seems like the plan is going to be Blake Fisher back at right tackle Titus Howard on the interior. Second straight week with the same offensive line in a tough situation, tough environment at Arrowhead, one of the loudest stadiums, if not the loudest stadium in the NFL. I guess a really good chief defense. Well, get ready to be upset with Laramie Tunselden because I think we're going to have one of those on Saturday.

Fall start. What is the Laramie Tonsel false start line? I need one and a half. Yeah, I was going to say, I think you could probably set it at that or an illegal shift or something along those lines. I mean, it's just Texans fans' antennas to Laramie Tunsel, number 78 being announced by the referee that game. Like, you're just waiting for it. Like you're just, you see the flag is down, you know it's against the Texans, and you're like, you better say number 78. and as soon as it happens, if they're at NRG Stadium, booze.

Seems like he doesn't even react anymore. He's like, yeah, I got another one. All right, well, here we go. And I think that's what annoys people is. It's kind of like, damn it, man, why don't you at least, like, you know, act like you care, and then we won't be so upset with you. Ten? Is this correct? Is this correct? Ten fall starts this year? I'm sure Wex has it. I have this. I've used this before. It's NFL Penalties.com.

I'm not disputing that they're wrong because I usually checked this and, you know, I used to check this. and I haven't been checking it every week. Ten false starts this year? Well, I mean, it even got to a point where certain broadcasters were pretty upset whenever 78 would be announced. It's every week. Yeah, I mean, he lets you know. But I've told you this before about the whole Kenyon Green scenario

and for some of the audience that don't know, Kenyon is not playing again this season. If the Texans can happen. If everybody's healthy. I was going to say, I mean, because they're looking at it now as we're at this point, you've got to find your best five. And no matter where you try to plug him in, he's not one of your best five. And I think that this is really kind of a proving ground for Blake Fisher of do we have something to work with going into year two or do we not?

And also, as well, your two best offensive linemen, you're putting them together. So you at least kind of look at it as, all right, well, at least we know we've got those guys out there. And we've got an opportunity to be able to find other good guys that can be able to mix in as well. I mean, Jared Patterson has been pretty good. I mean, he did have a couple of mess ups in that game last week, including everybody except for the quarterback ready to go on the play that led to a fumble. And Shaq Mason, I mean, I almost wonder if this is the end of the line for Shaq Mason. Yeah, I would have to guess that he might not be back next year. He hasn't been a complete disaster, but he just hasn't been consistently good enough for the Texans moving forward.

He's been a part of this offensive line that's been struggling. He hasn't been what you've needed. Like you've needed somebody to be able to raise. their game just a little bit. And I mean, he's far from being what he was when they won a Super Bowl there in Tampa. Yeah. All right. So Joe Mixen is practicing.

Sounds like the Texans are going to keep continuity on the offensive line. That's good news, but also tough environment this weekend. It also still sounds like Pat Mahomes is going to play. We'll get some more news as we go along on him and his status as far as practicing. You want to get in? We're talking some Texans. We've been talking some Astros. We've even been talking the NBA and Rockets.

Anything you guys want to get to bring to the table? Well, for me, it's a Friday because I'm going on vacation tomorrow. So it's anything goes Wednesday on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with Connemar-Govern. 7-13-7-90 is your phone number. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Hey, it's Coach Ludlow. Hear every Rockets game on Sports Talk 790.

And on the I-Heart Radio app, home of your Rockets. Get to the point, Mariah. What do you want? It's what? Spit it out. Me? Me? That meme of that guy holding his beer?

Me? I love that meme. Like I saw one for Belichick where it was members of the UNC lacrosse team being scouted to be the next receiver for You and C football and it's the guy. Yeah, me? Wow, okay. Me, Mara? Okay, you know what?

Fine. If I have to, I'll step up to the plate for this one. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross, Ross Vierreau with you. Dan Matthews as well. Matt Thomas will be back tomorrow. I don't know. Are you hanging out with Matt in any of those times?

I have not been asked for any day other than Monday. I think he's getting Chandler Rome on Friday for four hours. So that should be, that should be, fun. I was going to say, I think Chandler is then also with Adam, so it's going to be... Is he doing eight hours? Chandler Rome Radio on Friday. Rome Talk 790. Rome Talk 790. So, you know, I know he just started his new podcast with... He's trying to get some reps. I see Fair Territory TV, so good for

Chandler on that. Oh, it's a TV podcast? Well, it's that group that's with like AJ Persensky and Eric Kratz, former Astro. Oh, Astros' legend, Eric Kratz. Wasn't he the one that called out the the Rockies for cheating? I'm not, I don't remember that one. And they're, they're signing, he called out, Eric Crats called out the Rockies or the Yankees or somebody for sign stealing. I'm going to, you talk, I'm going to bring that.

Yeah, I was going to say, so you got Eric Crats, I think Ken Rosenthal, which, by the way, I mean, if you, you know, follow Ken Rosenthal on Twitter, he's a big Chandlerone guy. XMLB catcher, Eric Crats claims Rockets were caught, I mean, Rockies were caught using Astros-esque sign stealing scheme in 2000. 2018. There you go. Anyways, as we all know, it wasn't just the Astros. But anyways, you said, who is taking a shine in Chandlerone Rome? Oh, Ken Rosenthal's a big Chandlerone guy.

Well, he should be a big Chandlerone guy. They work together on the athletic. Chandler Rome, I think, I mean, look, he's breaking news like nobody's business. I think he's a great writer. And I always enjoy his article. Dude's a word smith. He's a genius. But anyways, welcome back in to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Or as Tim called it on Twitter, the Ross Show with Dan. That's what we've got for you for about an hour and a half. Coming up at 1 o'clock, we have ain't nobody got time for that slash shut Joe, bum ass up. You guys can get in at 7-13-212-5-790 as well, mentioning in the last segment. Titus Howard is still practicing with the guards. So it sounds like the offensive line is going to stick at least for a week, barring injury or some other shuffling. And Joe Mixon at practice for the Houston Texan.

So that's good news. feels like he's going to be trending in the direction of playing, but it also does feel like Pat Mahomes is trending in the direction of playing with the full practice yesterday. We'll wait to see if he is another full participant in practice. Today, although I will say Adam Schaefter throwing kind of a qualifier or a, hey, just FYI talking about it being a light practice for Pat Mahomes.

So even though he was listed as a full participant, maybe some gamesmanship, maybe Andy Reid putting him as a full practice to get the Texans more prepared for Pat Mahomes and hopefully fingers crossed. I don't want Pat Mahomes be hurt, but if I had to choose between Carson Wins or Pat Mahomes on the field, I'm choosing Carson Wins. I talked about this a little bit last night, though. I mean, wouldn't it be even that much sweeter if you go up there and you pick up a win?

I talked about how this is a chance for the Texans to really get people on their side if they go to Kansas City and win in a way that I think you could also eliminate some of the qualifiers, just to steal a word that you just used right there, is that if Patrick Mahomes plays. Yeah, that's fine, though. I don't care. Get to wins the best as you can get them. It doesn't matter. Whoever's on the field is, whoever's ready to play. But I understand. I get you.

From a narrative standpoint, if you want to bolster some confidence of the fan bases, it has, I mean, as low confidence you can have for a 9-and-5 team. I mean, come on. I think that would be huge to win on Saturday at Arrowhead. But line right now started with the Texans at minus, really minus two and a half, went down to minus one, now swung four points already in then 24 hours to the Chiefs is a four-point favorite. I was going to say, so, I mean, the three of them playing at home.

So basically a pick-em game, I guess, if you will. Ooh, I like that way. I like that way of thinking. Pick-em game. Could be anybody. And Harrison Butker's hurt. He'd been out for a while. I can't remember if he came back or.

No, Young Way Coo just got put on IR. But anyways. Really? Stephen in L.A. has been holding on the phone line. So let's get to him real quick. What's up, Stephen? Hey, guys. how you doing today? Thanks for taking my call.

We're doing great. Thanks for getting in. Appreciate you. Go ahead. I just wanted to get you guys two cents on this NBA Cup, and if you see it sticking around. I was watching a little bit of it last night, and, you know, obviously, O.K.C. did their best rocket's impression. But, you know, I don't know if you've seen that photo that was kind of circulating where they had set up the Bucks locker with, quote-unquote, Champaign, but it was just a bunch of of McLeop Ultras and like safety goggles and nobody attended.

And, you know, it was kind of just funny. Just like, I mean, I get like how like a team like the Rockets would, you know, be motivated to win something like this because they're kind of like up and coming and want to make their presence known. But, you know, you got a team like the Bucks who won a championship

a couple years ago in the Lakers last year that, you know, it doesn't really matter to them. And I just and it's so gimmicky too. Like, do you guys see the same 15 here in five years? I think they're going to stick with it for right now. And I'm going to tell you why they're doing it, Steve.

And they're just doing it to try to gain a little bit more extra interest because, as you know, people, well, first of all, people aren't paying attention to the NBA at all, unfortunately with the ratings and the way the things are going there. But it certainly doesn't pick up until after Christmas. Now the NFL is like, hey, we don't care if it's on a Wednesday. We're playing on Christmas. So they're taking that away from the NBA as well.

So they're scrambling. scratching and clung and fighting for any sort of market share they can get. So they came up with this, and they have it end in the early season to try to kind of garner and drum up some interest before the Christmas threshold hits to keep ratings up. It was a success in terms of rating last year. This year it has been down, but I imagine that Adam Silver is going to certainly give it a few more years. Yeah, I mean, I totally get why they're doing it. but I just think it kind of adds like these weird quirks in the season that if you're watching it, like you're like, what the heck?

You know, like obviously because of the, because the Rockets were playing in the semifinals and they lost, you know, they have five days off in between their next game. You know, and you've got these weird things where like running up the score on cup games, which kind of pisses off other teams, you know, in the process. The point differential? Yeah.

So it's, I don't know, it's like, I enjoyed obviously seeing the Rockets make it this far, but I just don't see teams, you know, especially with mega stars that, you know, where 500,000 isn't really much to them, sadly,

that them really like being motivated to win this thing. So, but anyway, thanks for taking my call, guys. I mean, I think it's just more, I mean,

you ended up, the two teams you ended up with are the bucks in the, and the thunder. I mean, that's, I mean, not crazy to think that could be like an NBA finals preview. So the team,

I mean, I think the players are caring and they care about regular season. It adds maybe, let's say if an NBA finals game is 10 out of 10 and a regular season game is like 7 out of 10, it probably puts them, I don't know, 7 and a half, 8. So it's at least a little extra something. Well, I mean, and you know, I don't blame Stephen for the mega star comment, but I do push back on that because that's the problem with the NBA right now. Everybody wants to wonder, hey, what's the issue with viewership?

It's just really unwatchable for the most part. if you don't have a rooting interest in a team because it's not good basketball from the style of the game. And it's also, as well, you don't have stars right now. LeBron James is a shell of what he used to be. Some nights he will show up, but for the most part, he's towards the end of his career.

Shea Gilgis Alexander, most people, I mean, we know them just because the Rockets play against the Thunder so much. But I guarantee you, most casual NBA fans have very little knowledge of who Shea Gilgis Alexander is. Luca, I mean, he's okay, he's a terrible defender, but, and it's also too, I think he turns people off with him completely, you know, just continuously bitching at the referees about calls that are, yeah, well, his own organization supposedly is told him to stop it.

So, I mean, I think that's the heart of all of this, is it's not even necessarily about, you know, oh, well, the NBA Cup, it's hokey, all of these things. No, it's just the game is just not in a good place right now. You have guys coming out of college who are not ready for the game, You have guys even going into college who are not ready to come out of college just yet. And, I mean, you just, you know, it's one of those things that take a look at Jalen Green. I mean, he's sort of looking like the player that we hoped he would look like.

And it's been about three years that we've needed to get to this point. And he's still an inconsistent offensive player. So that's the problem the NBA has. It's not about the NBA Cup. And I did like what the Bucks did last night of just saying, here, I'll take a beer. But aside from that, I'm just going to shower, put all my stuff. we'll get to the plane and get out of here. Adam Silver will strong arm him and force him to put up a banner for it

because he wants to continue to try to prop this thing up. He did it to the Lakers like, y'all better put an NBA Cup banner. And everybody made fun of him. I'm sure the commissioner was like, y'all better put up a banner. Y'all better do this now. Because we're trying to, I invented this thing.

This is his baby, so I think Adam Silver is going to give it every chance. But you don't have generational stars. We're talking about it earlier on the show to where before Larry and Magic came, the NBA was like, There were franchises on the verge of folding. The league was on the verge of folding. So I feel like more than other leagues, they are more dependent on transcendent stars than the others. And there just isn't anyone out there outside of LeBron and Curry.

Janus, kind of arguable. Yokic kind of arguable, but not to the level of those. The all-time greats, the Michael Jordan, the LeBron James is the Steph Curry's. And somebody needs to ascend to that level. multiple need to ascend to that level, I think, to help the league going forward. And to your point, I mean, it's not like we haven't seen this before. I mean, at the end of the 90s and the early 2000. Yeah, I mentioned that as well.

You kind of had that as well after Jordan was gone. After, I mean, you know, pretty much, Hakeem was not what he used to be. Charles, the same deal. That's when you kind of had a little bit of a lull of people being like, do I even really like watching this anymore? And then finally, at Shaq and Kobe. And the games were like 79 to 76. That was the problem, too.

Yeah. I mean, we got our taste of that around here during Van Gundy Ball as well of an 80 to 78 final tonight, a defensive struggle inside Toyota Center. But, I mean, that's what, you know, you're just kind of waiting on as the NBA at this point,

is you're hoping that the next generational talent is not too far away. But until then, I mean, that's really at the heart of the struggle here, is that, I mean, I'm a Rockets fan. I'll watch the Rockets, but if they're not on and it's a TNT or ESPN, night. I'm not compelled.

Yeah, all right. We're going to take a quick break here. Dan Matthews is here. I am here, Ross Vee. I'm out. Matt Thomas is out. He'll be back tomorrow. Those of you on hold. We'll get to you next. We also got ain't nobody got time for that slash shut your bum ass up. Coming up at 1 o'clock. Don't go anywhere here on Sports Talk 7.9.

Rip it H-Town, light, 5, slam a jama. Yo, what's up? This you boy, Bumbee, the Trillo G with the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in the Sports Talk 790, man. Go. All right, now we're jamming.

Let's go, baby. Kevin! Comin the hair? Yes. Now he's about to put the after shave on. Yes. Thank you. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show.

Matt Thomas isn't here. Have you ever heard Joe Pesci's Christmas songs? They're actually not bad. I know that he's actually a semi-accomplished singer. Like, he's come out with albums. Literal albums. He's a good singer? Yeah.

He's like a crooner style, right? Yeah, it is. And it's actually not. Not bad. Oh, you know what? Yeah, now we're going to have to ask. Connor, bring up some Joe Pesci Christmas classics. Okay, we got calls to run.

Okay, later, later, later. We got like three calls to run before the top of the hour. And you nobody got time for that. So everybody be quick. We got to get you all in. Mike has been holding longest. Go ahead. Hey, guys.

Good afternoon. I do like Christmas music. I just want to talk a little bit about calls me. I'm a Longhorn fan. I know you are. And I'm just curious to hear how you think they might do. and just who, you know, you kind of, predict Clemson to win the whole thing.

They, you know, they bracket out. And I was like, Clemson. I also enjoyed hearing some of your stories about traveling to the Asian country. Like, you know, I felt like it was on the line and some of the traffic. Just for traffic. So good, good stuff. But anyway. Thank you, Mike.

Yes. My heart is still recovering from those Taiwanese cab drivers, but that's another story for another time. But I like Sam Macho. Sam Acho is quite intelligent. Sam Mancho was a great. great player for the Longhorns and for the Cardinals for many years. Sam Acho is either concussed or is just trying to get noticed if he's picking Clemson of all teams to win it all.

Now, I mean, I'm not one to watch the morning talking head shows on the four letter. And the only thing I can. Is he on one of those? Yeah, he will be a contributor sometime, I think, to first take. So without really knowing the context, I would have to believe that. it was probably Mike a give me your craziest champion like give me the the the one we're not talking about who could make a run in this yeah there you go and clemson might be one of those teams but i don't see it from clemson i i do like kate klubnick a lot i think that he probably

is a little bit more underrated than people give him credit for being um so i mean he's they are a shell of what they were back when they were winning champions where they had an outstanding run game, an outstanding defense. Their receivers were all NFL caliber guys, but you don't have Mike Williams anymore. You don't have T. Higgins anymore. So I just don't see it being the case. And also, too, I mean, for Texas, you've got to believe that there has been a lot of film study, just every single diagnosing it that you can do for, hey, once we get into the ends,

or once we get into the red zone, why aren't we scoring? Why aren't we putting in arch? Let's go, baby. See, that's the one, too, in the SEC. championship game, I just could not understand. Don't even get me started, please. And my buddy Roddy Nebolecy, who covers Georgia, I had him on that Saturday to preview the game from the

Georgia side, and I said, how prepared are they for Arch? He goes, they could be prepared, but they're not going to stop it. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. Arch's biggest problem is he kind of drives the ball downfield too far when he should take the underneath? Well, there's nowhere to drive the ball down field in the red zone. He's going to be fine. Are we setting up for

a potential Jalen Hertz to a Tunga Vailoa kind of situation here, where where Sark kind of gets to the point where he says, hey, Quinn, appreciate it, go finish off your career at Ohio State next year. Arch, you're our guy. I don't know. I thought the reports were that Arch was going, I mean, that Quinn is going to declare

for the draft after this year. I think it's going to be Arch starting next year no matter what. We'll see what happens there. But I mean, look, Clemson can upset the Longhorns. It could happen. I just don't think it's going to. As you mentioned, Clubnik has been good, but I just think the Texan defense is too elite, and they're going to do enough on offense.

Could it be a close game? Yes, but I expect the Longhorns to win. After that, we can discuss. Let's get Joe in the gallery real quick here, head of the top of the hour. What's up, Joe? Hey, what's going on, guys? I just started listening to you guys a few minutes ago. I don't know if you already talked about it.

You know, correct me if I'm wrong. The Texas already won their division, right? Yes. The worst division winner plays the top wild card. If the second in the right now, we'd probably be playing the Ravens. Correct. The good thing is we're only one game behind the third division winner, Pittsburgh. So this game is very important.

I just want to, am I correct? Yes, but I mean, the Ravens could beat the Steelers and end up as a division winner anyways. Yeah, but we play the Steelers. The Steelers, sir. I'd rather play somebody else. Right. Well, I'm telling you, the Ravens play the Steelers. Yeah, I got you.

I appreciate you, Joe. Yeah, we'll see what happens and how it shakes out. I mean, I think certainly avoiding Lamar Jackson is something you want to do, but that Steelers' defense against this Texans' offensive line has me terrified. So I think no matter who you play, it's going to be a tough game. But avoiding Lamar Jackson at all costs, I think is something that is important, despite the fact that Lamar Jackson's had some bad playoff games on his resume. Your best opportunity to make a run in the playoffs is getting to the three seed.

I mean, just looking at all of it, like you said right there, of whoever wins this Saturday between Baltimore and also Pittsburgh, they'll probably win the AFC North. And I mean, I'm not as, I'm trying to think how to award this as best as possible. I mean, Buffalo up there will be tough. But Buffalo is also a team that's given up some points. And I don't see Josh Allen having as bad a game as he had the first time around. But I also don't think, I mean, how much better.

or can he necessarily be in order against this defense for you to necessarily have concerns in that game? I think a divisional round game, you go up to Buffalo, you can win that game. I think philosophically, though, I'd rather the Texans play a team with a really dominant defense and not as good as an offense. Because Josh Allen can be special and the way that the rules are set up, they're set up for offense to where, you know, a couple of holdings or a couple of, you know, defensive holdings or rough in the passers. And then, boom, all of a sudden they're in the red zone. and Josh Allen is doing his thing and being special. That scares me more than, say, Russell Wilson or Bo Nix or even what Justin Herbert is. That's where I was going on with Bo Nix is.

I mean, I think that Denver is a nice enough story. They're a well-coached team. They have a good defense with Benito and those guys. But, I mean, I still think that you would be looking at kind of a similar matchup to what you had last year against the Cleveland Browns. Nice story, but they're not on your level. All right, real quick, about 30 seconds for you, Roger. What's up? what's going on for us?

My poem with the NDAs, they fixed it wasn't broken. The CBS had it right when that back in the day, when they would start the playoffs. In the 80s? In the line stories. Yeah, that's when the NBA was at is great. You know, with Michael, you know, 90s, but it was really good.

Everybody had, like, a story itself about the series. It was about to start. And throughout the series, they would have these, you know, these little monologues about what's going on in the series. And that would make, that would, that would, that would help the fan, uh, gravitate to the, to the, to the players. And that would, you know, get to know about that. There's no personality now.

There's, there's, there's a rip. There's no, it's a void. There's like, nobody knows these guys. There's nobody really talks about them, you know, other than the NBA, and kids, yeah, all they're doing, crack of jokes and just talking about themselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, Roger. Sorry, we had to let you go.

But I agree with that. They, they've devalued. We've talked about this earlier, too. too, Dan. We got into this discourse with the NBA where it's all about ring culture. Rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings. And what does that do? When everything revolves, when 24-7, 365, every NBA show

they're talking about rings, rings, rings, rings, rings. That devalues the regular season. Nobody's going to care about the regular season when there's 82 games and there's a big matchup. Well, wake me up when it's the playoffs. Wake me up when it's the finals. And oh, by the way, LeBron James is load managing. he's not even playing against the Boston Celtics this week. Like it's just the regular season being so diluted has hurt the overall product as well. It used to be that the Eastern Conference was so top-heavy and the rest of the league sucked.

But now I would say that it's the NBA is so top-heavy and the rest of the league sucks. You have too many teams that are have-nots that are just awful in unwatchable basketball teams. Like the Detroit Pistons come to town. Hey, hey, you want my tickets tonight? I mean, that's that's immediately what comes up. whenever, you know, you bring them into the conversation, the Washington Wizards. I mean, you know, even tomorrow night against a Pelicans team that's basically telling everybody, hey, who do you want?

We'll give them to you. Yeah, everybody's been hurt. All right. We got to get to the top of the hour here on Sports Talk 790 KBME Houston. Ross Vieri out with you. We got ain't nobody got time for that slash shut your bum ass up coming next. If you want to get in, 713, 212.5.790 is the phone number. 713-21-2-5-790.

Back in a minute here on Sports Talk 790 in the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. It's that time of the time for day. It's that time of the week where we find somebody or something or some person. or some thing.

Yes. That's what's called poetry, folks. That's how we roll here on the bathtub show with Ross. Now, is that a haiku? Is that a sonnets? A little 575. Yeah, we'll, I am a pentameter for you. Oh, okay, very good.

A rhyming couplet. That's how we roll here. There you go. High school English class. Or I blinked out because I'm in vacation mode. It's fine. All right, anyways, something, someone you want to rail against,

you're having problems with, something that, you know, just bothering you. You ain't got time for it. You say, ain't nobody got time for that. Hey nobody got time for that. 713, 212.1.790.

713. 212 5790. Perhaps there's someone you heard speaking publicly. I don't know. Maybe it's a commissioner of basketball. Maybe it's a pundit. Maybe it's a former Longhorn picking against his own team. And you want to tell them to shut their bum ass up.

Shit your bum ass up, man. Oh, Christ. Here we go. And, well, also, maybe if it's a co-host that you really hate, you don't like and you don't care for him and you want to tell him to shut his bum ass up. You can do that as well. Dan, do you got anything?

I was going to say, is that me that you're talking about right there? No, look on the phone board. Oh, oh, okay. Do we make him Brad? No, just go. When I'm going him, wait. Ain't nobody got time for that. Ain't nobody got time for every single time

I'm going home on I-45. There's a wreck. Pay attention to what's going on around you. I heard I'm worried about this. Lake Pontchatrain, the bridge got all jacked up. I'm still to go to New Orleans today. Is everything okay over there? It was like 40 to 50 cars piled up right there.

Apparently it was really foggy and everybody was just slamming into each other. It always happens when you go I-10-Ease. Ain't nobody got time for that. Hey nobody got time for that. Look, folks, it is as simple terms as I can tell you right here. Driving is really not that hard. It's about paying attention. Just pay attention.

That's all I ask you to do. Pay attention. You don't have to slam one. You don't have to slam one. your brakes because the person in front of you tap their break. I just got a like on threads. I got to check it out. See what the deal is. It'll be there. Trust me. You can wait. All right, fine. Two for right here. Can I give you a shut your bomb ass up?

Sure, let's go. Jason McIntyre of the herd. Oh, don't even pay attention to him. I've muted him for decades. He is on. So a buddy of mine had a list called the Pay No Mind list. And, you know, Danny Connell is on there. Yes. But apparently yesterday he had talked about the Giants, wondering if the Giants were going to cut Daniel Jones this offseason. to which fan house, of course, is one of the troll accounts. Bingo.

And then not only that, what we were talking about earlier, why is NBA viewership down? He wondered out loud if inside the NBA was a reason because of how much they clown on players. That was an actual take that he had on the show yesterday. Oh, God. Jason McIntyre sucks, but go ahead. You can tell him. So Jason McIntyre shut your bum ass up. Take some added vacation time.

Shit your bum ass up, man. 713-212-125790. Let's go out to the phone lines. I mean, they're absolutely lighting up. Okay, maybe they're not. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. Matthew, are you on staycation? Where are you?

I'm on the 59, headed southbound toward U of H. Complete standstill. Ain't nobody got time for this constant traffic. Hmm. Hey, nobody got time for that. See, move to the city, Matt. Matt knows.

Oh, God. That wasn't the reason why I called, though. Okay, go ahead. So Saturday, after the Rockets lost to Oklahoma City, I went to the casino where I was at a casino, where I was playing $50 a hand. Oof. And this cowboy and his girlfriend, and she was hot. It is what it is. Basically, we're sitting down, and she had never played blackjack before.

Why is the music so loud, by the one? That sounds fine. We can hear you. Cut the music down. little bit, Connor. We can hear you fine. It's how it sounds on the phones. Okay. And I told the guy I said, this is a pretty pricey hand for a Saturday and he goes, oh, I know what I'm doing. And she's like, but I never have. The boyfriend's like, oh, I'll take care. We'll make sure you play with

the rules. He's hitting on 14s against four. He's staying on 14s against sevens. I'm playing third base, getting my ass handed to me. And I'm like, sir, I really want to help us. I want you to win. I want the table to win. Can I help you? He goes, no, we got this. So I'm losing about $3,400 in about five minutes. I finally get up. And I'm like, sir, please go to a lower table because ain't nobody got time for me. I'm going to my hands and the blackjack table.

No, the rules. Especially in Vegas, I would say that Matt's 100% correct on that, especially. That's the big leagues in Vegas. I guess. I don't need somebody. I don't need some Wyoming cowboy, his little hussy girlfriend, ruined my night after the Rock is lost. 50 bucks a hand. He just, he said, ain't nobody got time for you? Low rollers.

Hey, you know, the cattle sales are good. That's, that's all I can guess. You know, the, the horse trading. It's, it's, it's going well. Yeah, it was, uh, NFR was going on this weekend, uh, out in Vegas. Oh, maybe he's a road. Was he a rodeo guy, man? Yeah, yeah. Yes. Big ass belt buckle. He had a mustache, no beard. He was about 6-2-165.

His girlfriend had a huge rack. She was lovely. She didn't know anything about it. I'm like, I want to help. And she's like, what are you thinking? Bubba's like, no, I got this. We're good. And I'm like, oh, damn. I'm sorry, Matt. That's unfortunate. Thank you. Appreciate it. Those Cowboys have

had a man strength, too, man. You got to watch out for those guys. I don't think he had probably a young man strength. I was going to say. He's pulling what Matt said he's on. All the roping and you know, bull riding, everything like that. Strong hands. You think you can last eight seconds? I would think that probably so. And then the question is, can

You last eight seconds fighting him. If I can run. I can duck and run for a good eight. All right, anyways, 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790 is the phone number. 713. I see writing down things over there, Connor McGovern. Shut your bum ass up. Go ahead.

I did it up. Shut your bum ass. I got to make sure I get the timestamp. I did it on purpose anyways. Go ahead. What do you got? Went to the Nutcracker last night. Took the lady friend there.

Nice. show, never experienced the art form that is the ballet before? Was she your sugar plum fairy? Sorry. Go ahead. Yes, never experienced the ballet before. Dancers obviously very talented. I was, I was pleasantly surprised.

I thought it was a good time. Yeah, Nutcracker's a good time. Shout out, Chikowski. And I don't go to the theater often, but I do know that ain't nobody got time for your phone ringer going off in the middle of a dramatic scene. There's just no excuse. It's standing. They remind you before the show. But if your phone goes off, then you should just be escorted out.

Ain't nobody got time for that. Wow. It was loud, too. They had it on full volume. Oh, my gosh. It was almost like it was on purpose. Over under 55 years old for that person. Did you see who it was?

No, I didn't see who it was, but it's got to, yeah, it's got to be 60. I was going to say, I mean, isn't it kind of on the performers right there to kind of like stop and stare into the audience at that point? No. Hey, please, why don't you go ahead and take the call? We're performing up here. That's the other part of it as well is in public having your ringer on. Like I don't really understand. I never have my ringer on ever.

I don't ever. I don't have it on ever unless I'm at the house. Literally. I know that someone's calling. So then. If I'm expecting a call, if I told somebody to call me back or who knows, doctor's appointment, disappointment, or something like, or whatever, if I literally expecting a call back or if I'm, I don't know,

somebody's getting me on a radio station in another market. Literally, unless I'm actually actively expecting a call, I never have my ringer on. Ever. Am I weird? It's not only that. It's also, too, I mean, along the same lines of what Matt was talking about last week, the person in the bathroom that was in full conversation conference call. They're playing videos.

I don't, I don't, videos are fine. No, they're not. Why? Nobody wants to hear your videos at full blast when you're in the, you're in the pooper? Then turn it down. Then turn it down. Oh, come on. A phone conversation is pretty weird.

That is. Come on, man. Hey, guess what? If you're on the toilet and I call, you do not pick up. Call me back. The full on speaker phone conversation in public, I'm like, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? In the age of AirPods, what are you doing?

All right, real quick. Mike and Clear Lake, what do you got? Well, this is to shut your bum ass up for all the people that are advocating a change on first base. We've got the solution. We've got John Singleton. Let the guy along. Let him play ball. and let's move on.

Shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. Is that Lizzie Singleton's dad? John Singleton, 119 games, 405 played appearances, OPS Plus, average league average being 100. He was 103. Wins above replacement, 0.3.

Look, he's a fine. Shut your bum ass up. He can improve with John Singleton. Why are we acting like the guy is a goal of Glover and mashing 35 home runs? Come on. This is not an American League contender with John Singleton being an everyday first baseman. It is not.

No, there's much, much more room for improvement there. John Singleton is a guy that should probably get about 40 or 50 starts a year. Decent enough pinch hitter off the bench. But that's pretty much as far as John Singleton needs to go. All right. Quick break. But if you want to get one in, ain't nobody got time for that or shut their bum ass up. You can 713, 2, 1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90.

I'll tell you something. Ain't nobody got time for. Ain't nobody had time for you to continue to every year you put off your New Year's resolutions. And it's not even New Year's now, but you can book an appointment, get the ball rolling. If you've been feeling a little bit low energy, you're like, I need to get testosterone replacement therapy. Where do I go? Go to synergenics because you're going to get a personalized plan, more advanced and basic standard therapy. Some of these advertisements do you hear, that's stuff out of a bottle. Is stuff out of a bottle tailored to your needs?

Of course it's not. That's why you go with synergenics. They have clinics all over town. They're going to take care of you. You're going to get your results back at your very first visit, and you're going to get treatments tailored specifically for you. They're also experts at Centrogenics with G-L-P-1 weight loss. You can be evaluated for prescription weight loss medication. So you want to look and feel your best.

Get the ball rolling now. Don't wait. Centrogenicshealth.com. S-Y-N-E-R GenX Health.com. CentrogenicsHealth.com. Matt and Ross return. Return on Sports Talk 790. I believe this is the song that made me want to play piano

as a young lad. It's very soothing. The Vince Goraldi trio. How's Vince Goraldi doing these days? Alive or dead? Let's guess. I was going to say, I'm going to go with probably no longer living. I'm going to, I'm with you. Feels like he's probably dead.

Yeah, 1976. Okay, so long dead. Vince Goraldi. Long before me and you were even thought about it. And the guys. All right. Well, Linus and Lucy Classic. We're playing the Christmas songs here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross,

without Matt Thomas, who continues to drive on 59 and apparently get stuck in traffic. And why did he say Cougars something, Cougars basketball going on or something like that? He just said he was going over to U of H. I'm not necessarily sure. Oh, no, there is. He's going to drop off an NIL check, I believe. Maybe so, maybe so from some of that gambling earnings he got over the weekend. It sounds like he was getting crushed by he and the, he and the,

Wyoming Cowboy. 50 bucks a hand, by the way, that is weekend prices in Vegas, brother. I was going to say, unless you want to go to the Ellis Island or any of the other casinos. I'm going to, I'm headed to see you at the, oh, yo, bro. I'll see you downtown. I don't care. I'm getting my, if it is

6 to 5 odds on blackjack as opposed to 3 to 2, I will not sit down. I have planted my flag. If it ain't 3 to 2, I'm not sitting down. The hot button? Do you ever play the hot button or whatever they call that? No, that's carnival games. I don't play those either. Yeah, there's all of that.

But yeah, U of H plays against Toledo tonight, so it must be a Matt Thomas. Oh, the Toledo Rockets, the big matchup. The TV call tonight. Oh, could be. I don't know. Six and three. I'm just pulling up the ranking. Okay, they're still ranked. They're still 15th. That's good. Wishing the

Cougars the best as they go forward. Here, all right. 713-1-2-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. We've been talking a lot of stuff. A lot of calls on the date of the NBA and what's wrong with the NBA and how to fix it. I think we're mostly on the same page, Dan, there's like 10 things wrong with the NBA, but it all starts, a lot of

it goes away when you get sustained, charismatic stars that people care about. That's what that league has always been about, really since its inception. And every league is a star-driven league, but to me, the NBA much more so than the others. Well, I mean, it was

the league of all of them that really focused on the individuals of propping up their stars. And the fact that you don't really have marketable players at this moment. When we talked about Luca earlier, you brought up Joker. I don't even think Joker cares. I don't even think Joker really likes playing basketball, other than

just he's good at it. I think if we're up to Joker, he'd be living in Serbia and running horses. Yeah, he wants to get back. He's looking to just make some money to get back to his horses. I'm with you on that. I think, I mean, you need somebody who cares about being a star. LeBron James very much cares about

being a star. He cares too much. Michael Jordan cared about being a star. I think that he was fine with it. I think that probably Michael could have cared less. I don't think. Well, I mean, maybe to... At least that's the perception he gives off to people. Yeah, exactly.

Come on now. I think to him, it became a competition with him. That's why he cared. He cared because it was a competition. Being the biggest star in the league was, you know, obviously he's hyper... The dude was like hyper-competitive about playing table tennis. So to him, being the big star in the league, I think also came a competition to him. And that's where he cared deeply about being a big star.

But I mean, like maybe it was more of the admiration from people. I mean, I think he cared about getting it from, you know, players in the league and coaches and people around there. I think it was the other parts that necessarily it seems like LeBron cares too much about. I mean, he's one of these people. Oh, I'm leaving X. Okay. See you.

Go and go. Yeah. What do you necessarily have to say that I care about? Not a whole lot. Not a whole lot. Yeah, once you get the stars aligned, everything else I think will come into play. But I think we are going to end in maybe for a couple of years. We'll see who emerges and what happens as far as that, as you kind of mentioned,

the late 90s, early 2000s, while Kobe was a star and they won three straight championships in that era, he just quite frankly wasn't, he became a bigger star when Shaq left. And then Kobe came into his own. And then he was one of the faces of the league, along with maybe Steve Nash, others. but it was kind of that late 90s, early 2000s, and how many times do we say, is this guy the next Jordan, the next Jordan, the next Jordan, and it kind of, it never came.

Well, it was also, too, I mean, you know, look at the team that was dominating during that 2000s period. It was the Spurs. They're boring. Like, they're boring, and they're intentionally boring as well. And, I mean, it was, you liked watching it because it was good basketball, but aside from that, they were all a bunch of stiffs in terms of personality. Yeah.

So, I mean, and the state of, play. They made some rule changes at that time. As we mentioned, it was 79 to 73 every game. They opened things up. They changed the hand-checking rules. They did things that was going to allow a little bit more scoring. Adam Silver talked about the three-point games state of the league. What if, I don't know if you were listening when I was talking about this? What if you put a cap? What if you said you can only take 43s? After that, they only count for two. I know that's crazy, but would that help? Is that something that people would be looking for? I mean, I almost kind of think that's entering goldenat bat rule

territory. Matt Thomas said you loved the golden at bat. I didn't say I loved it. Matt said you couldn't wait to have the golden at bat and that's your favorite rule in the history of bass space. I just said it wasn't that big of a deal. I'm just kidding. I'm overselling it. I'm just trolling you.

No, trust me. Trust me. I know. I know what I step into when I hop into this room from 10 to 2. I know what it is. Yeah, yeah. We're going to have fun. It's what we're going to do.

But no, okay. I didn't know exactly what you're a person. opinion was Matt Thomas, I guess, lied. He said you loved it and it was the best rule in the history of baseball. Now go back to that last part. You just said it right there about Matt Thomas. What did he do? Said?

Well, I mean. Spoke? Said you loved it? Yeah, I was going to say. I mean, Matt. Matt sometimes can stretch the truth. An unreliable narrator, as we were saying earlier. All right, let's take quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. He'll be back tomorrow. I'm with you until 2 o'clock and I'll be taking three days off. So passing of the baton will happen.

A team is coming up as well. You want to get in. You can 713, 212, 5790. 713-212-5-790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Continues on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back here on Sports Talk 790, bringing you some Christmas cheer here on a Wednesday.

Hang all the mistletoe. I'm going to get to. Donnie Hathaway Gone to sound There we go Get it in there, Dan Underrated Gets the people going

Donnie Hathaway or this song Both Okay I mean I don't know much about Donnie Well he died at the age of 33 I think he had paranoid schizophrenia And then he got cancer Oh God

Rough rough Rough draw on the deck for Donnie Poor God Great voice though Oh fantastic voice I mean the voice of an angel Donnie Hathaway Someone would call him the songbird

of this generation. I would call him. I mean, he would have been one of the songbirds of the generation, but unfortunately gone too soon. Get up there. Get up there, Brennan. He's drowning up there. Donnie Hathaway, greater singer than Brennan Huff. Ding. There we go. Movie reference. I like it.

Conner's on top of it. Although Brennan saved the Catalina Wine Mixer. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. That's almost worth two dings. I think that's two references, even though it's the same movie. There we go, Connor. All right, welcome back. to the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas.

I'm going to be honest. My brain is gone. I'm in vacation mode, but we're going to tough it out the next two segments with you. And thankfully, Dan, you're here to help me.

I was going to say, I mean, you're already thinking of the Sazeracs, the gumbo, the, you know, the poe boys.

Jazz brunch is going down. Okay. Concerts on Frenchman Street. We went to a jazz brunch once, and it was great. it was fine but it was like every few songs the guy would like have his band start playing and he'd go around with the hat and it's like you can only do the hat once maybe twice a performance i was i had uh it was called the drinkery on bourbon and i think it was the same as the owners of the drinkery here i don't know

if it's still going on new orleans but yeah that guy was putting around he was like he had a a wireless guitar and he was like play with one hand and then walk around he had a boot and and i was like bro two songs ago you just went around with the booth it's gonna say you're You can't go around the hat, the boot, the helmet, the buckets, any of them. You can't go around too much. Once a set. I was going to say. If you're like, you know, I'm playing an hour, hour and a half set, at the end of the set, come around and then wait to the next set.

This guy was doing it like every three songs. We're going to have, and it might have been the same guy, too, for all I know. Maybe. We're going to have a fun of blues guitarist, good guy? No, he didn't have the guitar, but he had like kind of like one of those limine-snicketts hats. Oh, okay. No, it wasn't that guy. Yeah.

He was wearing like one of those. And I would say that probably you can do like almost like a inset intermission while the music is still playing. And then maybe at the end you can go around. Hey, it was a pleasure playing for you all. Please support me and these great artists. Yeah. Then people are willing to give. Yeah.

But to your point, when you do it every so often, then it's, you know, one of those. You're trying to eat your eggs Benedict. And you're like, hey, buddy, no, no, no. You already hit me up. Get out of here. I've already given you all the cash that I have on me, which I don't keep a lot of me because it's 20, 24. I'm not going to donate. Look, I like to support live music.

I always tip the band. But, I mean, come on, man. We've got to relax. There's two times when I'll carry cash. And, you know, I get this all the time. I think Matt. Vegas. Vegas is one of them.

And if... The Red Light District. Traveling. Traveling. Okay. Yeah, traveling because you got to tip out people. Parking shuttle. Maybe if you do the curbside, you know, checking the bag.

Yeah. Tipping. Or if you're in a foreign country, then they take a lot. Although, I mean, credit cards are a thing. most places, depending on where you are. It'd be a little iffy, you know, away from the U.S. soil, I think. Okay. All right, I got you.

All right, anyway, 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9 of the phone number. As we continue along here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Jeff on the east side of downtown is next up. What's up? Hey, guys. One of the first things I talked to you guys on the radio, I think you were still taking calls, but you have all those information at your fingertips and you don't know anything about the league. You talked about the exception of the league, and you only go back as far as your

frame of reference. You can do a little research every now and then, and he might want to talk about better players, personality, cities, teams. And the idea that the spurs were boring is ridiculous. Look at the ratings. I don't care about the ratings. The ratings is what that

Magic Johnson into play. He's not the best player of all time. Charlie Polo put the question out and you asked me if I was crazy because I called it and said he wasn't. I know this is probably a little bit of the game. What are you talking about? I told you that Magic Johnson isn't the greatest player of all time, and I've never held that opinion,

so you're thinking of somebody else. He said Michael Jordan. You have this dogmatic view of Michael Jordan, everything all the time. He's a punk. Michael Jordan is a punk? He's a punk. Who's the greatest basketball player of all time? Either Kramer or the Big O, or West.

I can either about five more, but I'm sure I'm yelling at you. Let me calm down. Yeah, will you freaking relax, Jeff? You're passionate, Jeff. It's okay. No, no, no. This is between me and Jeff right now. All right, Jeff, well, I think, first of all, I think Kareem has an argument.

To me, I don't know who you were talking about, or maybe this was, you could be talking about somebody else. If you were talking about somebody being hardlined that Michael Jordan is unquestionably the best player of all time, you were talking to somebody else. Because my opinion, you were taking calls and you couldn't believe. I didn't think he was the best of all. You are confusing me with someone else. I know you're confusing me with somebody else. You have to be because it's my opinion that there are three candidates in my mind. The three candidates are LeBron James

If you want to go with the longevity and if you want to argue with that And I think Kareem absolutely I've said this on air for decades That Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has an argument for the greatest of all time He's got six championships He was the all-time leading scorer And he did it with two different franchises And coaching situations

And I think he still has the most MVP's ever at six So if you think I was telling you that Kareem is I mean you're like I said you're confusing it for somebody else I probably if I said magic I was wrong I thought you said Jordan. I think Jordan is over-exposed and his timing was right, and he's not the best ever. He's the greatest winner of all time. Well, I guess probably that's Bill Russell.

It's a nuanced conversation. And if somebody was telling you that one person was unequivocally the greatest of all time without argument, that person was not me. Well, it's also, too, I mean, Jeff, frame of reference does matter. It absolutely does. I mean, if you're talking about guys that were in the 70s and 80s, most of the people in our audience have to go on YouTube to watch them. They have no frame of reference of those guys.

Let them do it. It's right there at front of them. their fingertips. Go and do it. It's fun. Okay, so anyways, is there any other point besides yelling at me and confusing with somebody else? It's a beautiful game. Well, you're yelling at me, and you're wrong, Jeff. It wasn't me. No, I, that was fine. You've been on the station a long time. I've been a huge fan of yours and the station. Thank you. You work your ass off. This is a fun topic.

I got you. But is there anything else about the NBA you want to talk about? I look back at the old team The old Chicago Bulls in the 70s was all working class Just take a look at some of those teams They weren't his talent And some other teams But they're a lot of fun Okay, you're going like Jerry Sloan and the boys

Yeah, that's Nate Thurman Coming off the bench, Tom Borwickle I'm not from the up there But it was a cool team to watch When you got to see him There was no cable They were rarely on TV Oh well sounds like you didn't see him that much than Jeff

Oh, but Bob Love and Chet Walker The up and under move is classic It still works against people. All right, Jeff. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Like, okay. I think if you call one per single person, the greatest of all time, I think it's a different argument.

The most dominant player of all time is Will Chamberlain. The greatest winner, at least of the modern era, is Michael Jordan. And the greatest winner of the old era is Bill Russell. The greatest longevity, as far as longevity, the greatest NBA career, I think, arguably, is LeBron James. because, I mean, he's going to end up, he's the greatest score of all time. Is he top four or top three in assists already? He's already number one in no turnovers as well. He's going to end up top 10 rebounds.

And he's already got the most NBA All-Star appearances. It's different conversations. Well, it's also, too. I mean, again, to frame of reference matters, I mean, for me, it is Michael. He was the best competitor of all time. He was the best closer of all time. He was the best winner of all time. I mean, all of that does matter.

Absolutely. it does and it's also too the competition he was playing against. He could not get through those Detroit Pistons teams to save his life and then he decided one off season it's time for me to get in the way room. Then he got Scotty Pippet. That was helpful too. Well if you ask

Michael, Scotty didn't matter. Yeah, of course. Because Scotty twice of you know, hey, I'm going to not undergo knee surgery because I don't want to mess up my summer or hey, I'm not going to play in this game because I've got a migraine. Yeah, well, if you ask Scottie, Scottie had a Jones against Michael after that. Well, Scotty's got a different

version of events as well. But yeah, I mean, getting Scotty Pippin teammates help. Of course, situations help. And having the greatest coach of all time helped as well. I'm not going to let you besmirch the good reputation that is BJ Armstrong, okay? Yeah, exactly. I mean, they had good teams and that's one of the reasons they didn't win in 95. They didn't have Dennis Rodman. They got another Hall of Famer and we'll have a funny how it goes. You start winning a little bit better. But you must say this, the disingenuous nature of, you know, Michael Jordan's, uh, post-playing career is, of course, I mean, we all watched the last dance. And Michael Jordan is fully to blame for when Jerry Krause's widow went back.

And I think they either honored the team or put him in like the Hall of Fame or something like that. And he got booed. And it's just kind of like, come on, man. Like, I understand this was a guy who believed that Tony Koo coach was going to be the future. But to act like that guy was the reason why it all broke apart, things come to an end. And we're seeing that here in Houston. Yeah, I mean, and also when Michael Jordan went away, they won 55, they won 57 games the year that he wasn't there. They won 55 games the year he was gone. Just saying, it was a good team.

It takes, it takes a village. It takes good teams. It takes good coaching. It takes some luck as well. Once you got Doug Collins out of there, you're able to start winning. Yeah. And the greatest coach of all time helps as well, in my opinion. Unless you want to go, I don't know, Popovich, Red Hourback.

He's in the conversation, certainly. But anyways. Pat Riley I guess I could buy that We can make that argument All right time for a break here If Riley were still around He'd still be wearing the suits

He's still around Well but I'm saying like on the floor I wonder if he would Was a slick back hair Yeah He wouldn't be going to EMA Udoca pull over with the shoes And all of that

It kind of got relaxed Right around COVID And then it's never come back Yeah after COVID That's when coaches said Yeah I'm not wearing the suits anymore I don't wear stuffy suit There's a few like I think

What's his name the coach at Alabama will I want to say that Petino still wears suits probably or he's wearing a luke sweater I think he did you do that the other day let's take a break here one segment to go on the Matt Thomas show with Ross

the A team is coming up next and you can get in real quick if you want to if you want to yell at me like Jeff and be wrong I mean there's just no way I was going that hard line for Michael unless literally he was calling me in 1998 that's when I believed he was unquestionably the greatest player of all time and I wasn't working on this station

713212-2-5-790 is the phone number 713-212-5-790. Right, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt, love your show. Look, what was he talking about? And by the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790.

Little Lou Rawls for Matt. I don't know if he's still listening. The biggest Lou Rawls fan on the planet, Matthew Thomas. It's very soothing. Yeah, he's got a great voice. does one Lou Rawls. May he also rest? Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Phone number 713, 212, 5, 790.

He got like a couple minutes to get in. Maybe you don't have time. Who knows? But anyways, if you want to yell at Ross, 713, 212, 5790. Once again, that's 713, 21, 5, 790. Yeah, you can do that. Jeff did it. I swear, there's no way. I have never been like an all-in Jordan guy. It's just not, I don't think so. Unless he literally called me in 1998 after Jordan made that shot.

And I was like, he's the greatest of all time. I'll wear that hat. That's fine. Yeah, you can't. And I'm not going to, I mean, look, I think, of course, he has an extremely good argument. Does Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player of all time? Anyways, so something I do have to get off of my chest before,

since I'm not going to be on Thursday. I'm not going to be on Friday. Texans prediction, Dan. Okay. Unfortunately, start of the week, I was feeling optimistic. We'll see what happens with Joe Mixen, apparently practicing again today. Is he going to be available? Pat Mahomes.

I haven't seen the latest on whether or not he's been practicing, but I think they're going to keep that close to the vest, line holding at three. But I keep getting in my mind, even though Kenyon Green isn't going to be inserted back into the starting lineup, on the road, offensive line issues, Steve Spagnolo, this chief. front at Arrowhead.

I'm going to be real with you. When I get to New Orleans, I'm going to head to that Caesar Sportsbook and probably put the under on the Texans team total. I just don't see a way they're going to score enough, and especially if Pat Mahomes is going to play. I think they will. So I will put it on the record, my prediction for the Houston Texans this weekend against the Chiefs. Chiefs 19. Texans 13. Yeah, I heard you say that earlier.

So I guess a field goal late to kind of, you know, pad the lead there where the Texans have to go down and score touchdown or otherwise they don't win the game. I mean, I like the under in this one too as well. Cold weather game. Chiefs offense has not been great. The Texans defense has. And that's true. So, I mean, that's a little bit of a good matchup right there. I've got stone cold locks coming up on Friday.

Okay. So you're going to hold off. I was going to say, I'm going to call it a preliminary gut feeling. I don't have to put you on the record. It is Wednesday. I'm just going on the record because I'm not going to be here for a couple of days. I like the under in this. Under.

Okay. Not to say that's going to be my stone cold locks play. Wow. Steelers line keeps moving. Baltimore was a, I think it opened up at like five and a half. It's up the six and a half. Now, or no, maybe it opened up six and a half and now it's moved down and now it's back. Baltimore, six and a half over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That's quite the market movement from, I mean, week to week before that, when the Steelers were winning, they were thought of as one of the best teams in football, but obviously bad performance against the Eagles and that really good defense in the squad they have over there. Maybe some concern over T.J. Watt is a possibility. He, like Mahomes, rolled an ankle last week. I don't know anything about status-wise for him this week, but I've got to believe that. Probably plays into it. M&T Bank Stadium is a tough place to play, although the Eagles went in there and beat him just a couple of weeks. weeks ago. So, yeah. It's obviously a big one for that division in the north. What do you feel like as far as the seating for the Texans? I mean, obviously, I would like, I would say you want to avoid the Ravens if you can,

but the rest of the AFC playoff teams pretty darn good, no matter who it's going to be, I think, especially if it's like the Chargers, Broncos, who, Steelers, who have really good defenses, we're probably going to be talking about a low-scoring, squeaker type game with the Texans being involved, where it's going to be, I mean, might be a little similar to what you see this weekend with a knockdown, dragout type of defensive game. When two out of these last three finish 11 and 6 on the season, that probably could put you in position to be the three seed. So I would say that their best bet to be able to make a move in the AFC playoffs is to get to the three. You play Denver. You can beat Denver.

Then more than likely you play against Buffalo, although maybe Harbaugh's guys go out there and pulling off, then that way you'd have them back here for the divisional round. I bought this guy up yesterday. Ben Baldwin, he does, he just looks at the Vegas markets and then puts what every team would be based on a neutral opponent, based on a neutral field. Texans listed as 1.3 points better than the average NFL opponent. Slightly better, the charges at 1.4 and then the chiefs at 4.1 points above market. So interesting there. The worst team, minus 8.5.5.5. So interesting there. The worst team, minus 8.8 points against that average team, the New York Giants. Horrible. All right.

Well, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That's going to do it for me for the week. I will pass the baton to Matt Thomas. He will be on tomorrow and Friday and Monday. I'll be with him on Christmas Eve and then we'll take Christmas off. I don't know. It's the end of the year. It's wonky schedules.

But thanks for hanging out, Dan. It was fun, man. I enjoyed it. Have a safe drive to New Orleans. I am Nola Bound. And I will be knee-deep in Ben-Jays and gumbo and all that good stuff. I've got stops for you along the way, too, if you want them. I'm good.

Thank you, though. I appreciate it. We're going to stop at Prejons and Lafayette. Okay. That's good call. I don't know if you've heard of that one. Yeah, yeah. That's a good place.

Prejones in Lafayette. I'm coming to you, baby. I'll talk to you folks next week. Thanks to all of you for listening, calling. Thanks to Connor McGovern, producing and doing a great job as he always does. I'll talk to you folks next, but stay right here. The A team is coming up next on Sports Talk 790.