The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Texans Stay #7, Norte Dame Lashes Out, Dana & Espada Speak At Winter Meetings

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Texans Stay #7, Norte Dame Lashes Out, Dana & Espada Speak At Winter Meetings

This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 10-0-1 in H-Town. What's happening? Mid-morning brunchers? Hello and welcome into a Tuesday edition of, you know what I'm not, you see this, Jonathan? You see what's happening?

A Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas for the moment, but with Matt Thomas on the phone. Hey, Matthew, how are you? Way, send him back. Send him back. Oh, you know what? Did I have the, yeah, are we on the wrong mode here on my thing?

That's how things happen over here. Okay. There you go, Maddie. Hello, Matthew. How are you? I want to wish everybody a very happy Tuesday. I hope everybody is in a good mood. Got a great four-hour show coming up today.

This is great. And things are all great so far. I like to be at the office. usually a half hour before the show begins, if not a little sooner. Sometimes it doesn't work that way, and today would be one of those days, but I'm feeling great. My blood pressure is relatively low. Things go well, but I miss you already.

I'll be there shortly, I think. Where are you? I'm about to get on to 610, and we know that's 59 sucks. 610 sucks. Every freeway in this town sucks. Traffic sucks. And I'm officially, I'm going to tell my wife and my children today, This is my last thing, King, when I am moving in to the gallery area.

It'll be first with you, and then I'll be looking for somebody else, eventually, for a roommate. Yeah, there's a couple of nice high rises around here, and yeah, I got the pull-out couch for you. It's ready to go. Fresh sheets and everything. Yeah, but that thing's got stains and, like, bacteria and stuff on it. I don't want any part of that. I said fresh sheets. Every hotel mattress you sit on, somebody's done something on it, and they just put fresh sheets on it, and you don't say a word.

All right, let me tell you, I'm going to do this, and we're going to do this, and we're going get this out of the way and we're not going to discuss it again the rest of the show okay so i wake up at 715 every morning and i hit the maps app on my phone to see how long it's going to take to get to work okay judges how fast or slow i can go and today was not a good day it was showing an hour 19 hour and 20 which is just horrendous now it typically gets lower as we get later in the morning yeah but it was really not getting any lower so i left the house today at 820 okay i have four different routes i can take to get to work from uh my house which is primarily 59 and then you can do 610 you can do 45 you can do side streets you can also do the h o v lane which i did today

thinking all right i'll pay the 250 and that's fine i can live with that um well i get the hob lane and i'm humming along beautifully i'm i'm putting middle fingers up everybody on the side of the road they're just caught in this terrible traffic and i'm laughing my ass off like i normally would because I'm petty like that. And then I get to a standstill at I-10, which is still about two miles away from the downtown exit off of the HOV. And I look at my,

and I wanted to go look at my phone. There was only one problem in sports RV. My phone fell on the right side of the passenger side by the door, so I couldn't get to my phone. Uh-huh. So I had no idea what was ahead of me. Okay. So at a stop, in the middle of the HOV lane,

while a woman was putting her makeup on in front of me, I happen to pick up my phone and it said 40 minutes just to get off the HOV lane off of 59 And Was there like a bus wreck on the on the HOV? What happened? No, there is simply traffic at the exit So there is construction

I mean major construction And there was a cop who looked like a fat Greg Cook Was on his cell phone 80% of the time And I'm sure he's a very good person We appreciate his service It doesn't seem like you're appreciating his service. Well, I mean, he was waving with one hand and obviously talking to somebody on his other phone. And eating a donut with the other hand.

I didn't say that. You said that that was sports RV that said it not me. And so needless to say, then I got a memorial and memorial's isn't okay, but then 610 sucks. It usually does. And I'm now crawling along the feeder road. Okay. I can see our building. So we're down the home stretch.

I want you to know that when I get to the office today, I will not be cranky. I will not be upset. Okay. Okay. Sorry, go ahead. I will be fine because I've been in this car for an hour. Now I'm officially one hour and 40 minutes because I left the house at 825, so it's hour 40. And I've been listening to some good sports radio, some horrific, but I won't really tell you which is which.

and we'll be ready to give you the best. I can possibly give you for three hours and 50-something minutes when I eventually arrived at our offices in the gallery. Okay. Thank you, T-Pot, Thomas. We'll see you in a couple minutes. Bye. Matt, we got to get you on the app, W-A-Z-E. We'll get you on way.

Well, also, he said he dropped his phone, so he couldn't see where he should have turned or turned off or anything. If it makes you feel any better, Matt, I'm watching KPRC Local 2, and there's a massive wreck on 610.45 northbound. So there's just a mess all over Houston. All right. So Matt Thomas is called in the show from the middle of traffic.

Pray for me and Jonathan. Matt has said this on air. He can be prone to what you just call a teapot? And then after he lets a little steam off, then he's okay. So hopefully Matt's all right as he gets into town here. It's to Matt Thomas show with Ross. But temporarily without Matt Thomas, he'll be joining in just a second. Okay, phone lines open.

713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We got gut feelings coming up at 1130. It'll be a normal Tuesday here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Once Matt gets here, gut feelings at 11.30. At 11 o'clock, I believe, are we going to try to find some kind of feed for the Notre Dame athletic director? Yeah, he talked about that. But did you go ahead?

I know you worked all last night and you tracked down a feed. I was looking Notre Dame Fighting irish.net Notre Dame dot com Gildedshalele.org I don't know

We can figure it out We'll find it So Pete Bavakwa The athletic director for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Is going to make an announcement Or they're doing a press conference

Are they just going to do more whining About the ACC I don't know I mean He's just coming off as a cry baby Notre Dame's coming off is holier than thou And Pete Bavacua sounds like a crybaby

They were talking about the ACC and whining about how their social media account that, I mean, come on, is anybody following the ACC on Twitter? No. And that the ACC network was playing the Miami game over and over and over, which I find hilarious. And that the social media account was talking about head-to-head via Notre Dame and Miami, which if there's one team you shouldn't complain about being ahead of you in the playoff, it should be the team that beat you head-to-head and also has a decent enough resume. even though Miami's couple of losses

aren't great. But hey, bad losses only matter for Texas. But I digress. Oh, Notre Dame's got the press conference, like, timed an hour beforehand. They're doing it like a New Year's Eve. There's 280 people waiting for this stream already. They're doing a New Year's Rocking Eve-style countdown

for the Notre Dame. For the Notre Dame press conference? Oh, they're serious. Are they about to stand on business, as the kids would say? Are they leaving the AC? are they going back full independent or are they going to join people have speculated they're going to join the big 12 there was some guy who was on locked on and our local locked on mr gordy locked on cc said that guy may not be 100% reliable so i don't know if they're going to join the big 12 the big 10 would make a lot of sense just geographically and historically it feels like a regional there's a lot of rivals over there but the big 10 doesn't the big 10 have 18 teams now at this point We were supposed to look at this yesterday. So I don't know what's going to happen.

This is, is this some big domino to fall? Is Notre Dame going to take their ball and go home? How major of announcement is this is going to be at all? Or is it just going to be more whining against the ACC? I don't know. We're going to find out coming up. I believe that's going to be, what's the countdown? Give us the live countdown right now, Jonathan.

50 minutes and 47, 46. That count is down, for real. It's 11 on the dot. Okay. 11 on the dot. We will be churning the Notre Dame game clock here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So we got that coming up.

We have NFL stuff to get to. Thanks for nothing, Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles weren't able to get a victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. So now the Chargers are nine and four, which means the Texans are planted firmly in the seven seed in the AFC. And we are 13 games in the season of a 17 game season. So it's definitely time for standings watch right now in the AFC. If the Texans could have gotten a little bit of help from their friends, they would have been tied and held the tiebreaker over the chargers.

That would have put them in the sixth seed, which is huge. Because if you're one or two, I think you don't want to go on the road and face Denver or New England. Jacksonville, not scared. Pittsburgh Steelers, not scared. So you don't want to go on the road to face those two teams. It would have bumped the Texans at the moment from playing on the road at the Patriots to on the road at the Jaguars and it really would be twofold

because if you are the last seed, the NFL playoffs reseed, which they should, I love reseeding, and that means you would face the higher seed, you would be guaranteed to face the team with the buy, the Denver Broncos, as the last seed, they would face

the lowest seat. So you would have to go on the road to beat the Patriots who are, I think, probably the best team in the AFC. Then you would go on the road to be to play the Broncos, both times in the cold, both times potentially in wintery mixes and all that type of stuff. Not the Texans be scared. Just another factor for a Houston team that's maybe not used to that.

And then face the Broncos. So you'd have to go on the road to beat the two best teams in the AFC just to make the AFC championship game. So that was kind of a huge swing for the Texans last night that the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hertz through like 75 interceptions last night. And even though Sequin Barclay had a good night, Jalen Hertz did

not. Zero touchdowns. Four picks. Just 21 of 40. A bad night for Jalen Hertz, which turned into a bad night for your Houston, Texans. Okay, Matt Thomas, looks like he's not going to yell at anybody. So I'm feeling pretty good about this.

We have to carry this press conference. I just heard what y'all said. Yeah. They got a timer on it? Oh, my God. They're trying to drop bombs. Let's go. All right. Let's completely shake everything up. Okay.

They're going to have this press conference. Five, four, three, two, one. We're still very disappointed at how the agency is. Is Ryan Seacrest calling this thing? Like, what are they, what's going on? Yeah. I mean, is there like a pregame show to this? They probably want to have one.

Is Brady Quindo on the things? Boy, he's been out there offended it. I'm telling you, and look, I think Notre Dame is one of America's finest institutions. It's got a rich tradition of athletics success. really, frankly, a lot of sports. But are they not being whiny bitches? And if they want to come to the Big 12, welcome. Oh, please.

Oh, come on. I would take... Come on to Heart Me. You're so terrible. I would take Notre Dame over Iowa State. Whydy bitches, Notre Dame. Please come to my little Big 12 so you can help us out with our prestige. We have the power of a big 12.

We got Texas Tech and be playing for a national championship. You got Texas Tech dropping 50 mill a year on their roster, but you're playing well. And nobody else is any good. You're the one leading the charge of this. No, not leading any charge. I'm not leading any charge. I'm saying this. good. You got one good team because they're dropping a bunch of cash.

Hey, we got Houston in a bowl game. We got TCU in a bowl game. You're about to be outdrawn in your own city. What else we got going on? The Kansas didn't want to play in one. Candice didn't want to play in one. Yeah, you got a bunch of decliners. That's because it's the decliner conference. You got like five guys are getting fined. You know what we want? We want to give it opportunity to others. No. How many teams in the Big 12? It's the big Arizona declines? How many are declining? How many teams? Five at least, right? It's got to be several. Well, some of them are five-win teams, so we can decline at that point. Okay. Well, it sounds like it's not that good of a conference.

The big decliner. Why? Because we beat each other up. Oh, really? Everybody's, well, the walking wounded. Yes. Playing Kansas State. Yes. And don't forget Iowa State. Oh, okay. Don't forget Colorado a couple years ago. Yeah. Terrible. But I think, you know, look, the great decliners. Can we guess? I mean, do you want to guess what? this is about? I mean, can we, you want to try to get into the ACC for something else or for independence? All right, we'll get more to that. We've got, you mentioned NFL from last night. Yes. Thanks for nothing. Jalen Hertz. Yeah. How about those multiple turnovers in one play last night?

Yikes, that was weird. My brother lost a fantasy game by like two points and he got minus four on that play. Oh, Lord. I'll get a quarterback get minus four on one play. We're going to hear from Joseo, not Joseo, we're going to hear from Joe Espada from the baseball winner meetings. Uh-huh. There's a soundbite about Joseo Tube that you're not going to like. I'm just going to say this. I think you know what it is already. If his name was Brother Jones, that brother betrayed.

Okay. Joe Espada or Joseo Tube? Jose Al-Tubei. 713-212-790. We have gut feelings at 1130. We are definitely carrying the press conference. I guarantee you, here's a new rule in the Matt Thomas Show Ross. If there is any press conference that starts with a timer and goes down to zero, we're carrying it.

It could be about a high school recruit in Orlando. It could be about an upcoming women's volleyball game in Detroit. If you are doing a press conference, when there is a clock on it, how holier than now are you? That's basically a Notre Dame in a nutshell. I figured out why you're so excited for this. You live for drama. I drove it in drama today. You live for drama and you're living for this.

I love it. Why live a stretch of your life? Yeah, I was going to say. All right, 10.50, it's a Matt Tabasio, Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. 1021, Sports Talk 790. You know, we have an incredible city. We have really, generally speaking, nice people,

except some of the fake media that cover these sports teams in town. But other than that, we have... Are you all right? Yeah, I'm doing good. Amazing food. I love our climate. I mean, look, you can't be hot enough for me, frankly. After living in Minneapolis, I told them.

I don't love our climate. I love our climate. I like what we're getting right now. We're getting 70s later this week. That's perfect to me. Give me 75 every single day. Yeah, I mean, L.A. L.A. weather, San Diego weather.

Yeah, but I don't want the smog and the mudslides. And look, we have our share of tornadoes and hurricanes. Hurricanes and Direchos. But the one thing I don't think we're ever going to get fixed, even though we continue to try is we're just never going to get traffic. I mean, we're always going to, look, major cities have traffic, but I think we do an extraordinarily worst job at it.

Like our construction takes longer than most cities do. I think our, the architects that put together these plan Bs, they never seem to make sense. It seems like they built, now I don't know this. I'm not a city planner, maybe somebody can speak to this. It seems like they do construction. to get us to where we need to be, like population-wise,

rather than where we're going. If you're going to shut everything down and make construction, don't make it so we're good now. Make it so we're good 10 years from now. Yeah, it's like, 20 years from now. Because when I was a kid, Katie Freeway was three lanes, each direction.

And then they expanded it to five. And they said, well, hey, we're going to do this to five lanes. Everybody's going to be fine. You're going to be able to go out to this way out community called Katie and be just fine. Five lanes is okay. But Katie's explosion and population went 25 fold. And again, you can't create 19.

It's like 13 lanes and it's not enough. Yeah, I mean, you can't. There's always so much you can do. But it just feels like that every time there's something that's been fixed with traffic, the next layer of trouble. Like this new downtown area, apparently it's going to be a hot mess in the Edo area. It's going to be, I mean, it was a disaster getting off of the HOV lane today at 59. Look, not that I spent all the time with my friends in Dallas or in San Antonio or. Austin or other major cities and say, how's your traffic?

Is everybody going to say traffic sucks? But do we do a good enough job? I don't think so. I just, I don't know if we have, if it's our leadership or it's just, we just, we hired the Acme School of Engineering or whatever the case may be. And if you work for the city and you're engineering and turn traffic, I'm sure you've got a very difficult job. We only have 7 million people in our metropolitan area, so somebody's going to get screwed.

But like my main entrance on North Park to where we're going, what I'm going, what I'm I get off the 59 to go into my neighborhood. North Park has been a complete disaster for three or four years. The Grand Parkway, this amazing, immaculate toll road, by the way, on the far north end of the town, if you're coming from 45 to connect to 59 through the Grand Parkway, you have to get off and go on the feeder road for three miles. Why didn't they engineer it to connect the Grand Parkway all the way to 59 and then get on to 59? It adds 10 minutes.

You know, it's the category on Thursdays. I just don't get it. I don't get it. I don't know either. Maybe it's just they keep on making deals with construction people and getting kickbacks, and then the wheels just keep on turning. Park barrel. Please tell me you're not suggesting kickbacks. Oh, please.

Come on now. Corruption in this city? I'm just saying. All right. So we mentioned last night the Texans do not get any ground on the AFC. And they're in the playoffs. Thanks for nothing, Eagles. No, but I mean, being the six is so much better.

than being the seventh seismic change yeah by way i'm going to send jonathan i'm going to send you some audio uh jose and herbert i don't i didn't watch a lot of the game because it is what it is you get family time okay but i watched after the game what's that after the game his interview or we're going to play that yeah okay he he wasn't overly interested in talking to laura rutledge no he was not and i'm going to send it he looked kind of pissed well you know again i first well, you're a quarterback, so you have to do it. But I thought, frankly, he was borderline rude to her. Yeah.

And this is not like he's a rookie. I mean, his hand, first of all, I did feel bad for him during the course of the game because he was having a, he was constantly getting hit. He was, well, you go out there with a broken hand in an NFL game. What do you think is going to happen? But he's not going to survive it. It's not going to happen. He's going to not finish the season. I mean, there's my gut feeling an hour ahead of time.

every time he was throwing the ball he was holding his hand the one he doesn't throw with and then he gets sacked and then one time his hand hits his own elbow yeah as he's falling I mean I give him credit for being gutsy and trying to play through pain but Jesus you you have to have there's kind of rules I believe both your ankles should work your knees should work your shoulder should work your hand should work offhand for a quarterback he'd be fine I don't think they won the game they didn't win the game but it wasn't pretty he's going to be out there. All right. So here is Laura we send it to Jonathan. This is

Laura Rutledge last night. After the game, I mean, overtime win they're one step closer to making the playoffs. It felt like the crowd in L.A. last night was about 75% Eagle fans, which is per the normal for the Charger games. And Laura's going to do the

ridiculously easy layup drill, three or four questions. And it just sounded like that Justin wanted to be anywhere except be on national television. Here it is. Yeah, I'm trying to celebrate with my team. Oh, I know. Can we just talk to you really fast? What was it like to watch the interception there that sealed this game for you guys to get this win?

Yeah, the defense played incredible. You know, they came up with so many big stops today. So, so proud to be able to play for those guys. And the way they compete down in, down out is really fun to watch. We know you were dealing with the broken hand tonight. You gutted it out. You were hit multiple times. How are you feeling right now?

Feel pretty good. Thank you. And then what can you say about the way that this team? was able to pull this off and over time you guys know how important this game was and how good the opponent was on the other side yeah not the way we drew it up but uh the battle in these guys you know it's it's so much fun and i'm so honored to be a part of this team and they never quit and you know it's uh just fun to be a part of and uh we'll watch the film and have to get better at it it appreciate man you too um but we'll have to get better at it and uh we'll keep moving forward

all right thank you jesson yep thank you clearly again this is in the moment the game just ended It's celebration. It's insightful. Wow. Okay. I mean, first, groundbreaking stuff. Thank you for, again.

These are lay-up drills. Laura Ruches will never be a Woodward or a Bernstein. I mean, it is. But that's the case that every sudden reporter. That's after the game's sideline report. I mean. But the reality is this. And people say, well, you know, he want, let him go celebrate with his bros.

He's got hours and a whole day to celebrate with his bros. The NFL does not make its money. Or to the level that they enjoy right now. without their television deals, period, end of story. You must play by television rules. They're the ones that cut the biggest checks. And as part of these checks, game coverage, network, day, time, media responsibilities. And one of them is if you are an instrumental part of a football game,

an ESPN or Netflix or Prime or anybody else wants to talk to you, you've got to suck it up and answer three to four. for softball questions for 90 seconds. It didn't look good on his part at all. I didn't really, it didn't bother me. He wants to go celebrate with his teammates. And he's got hours to do it. Well, he answered the questions.

Yeah. But he's like, did you hear what the very first thing he said, I want to go celebrate my teammates? Yeah. Answer your questions. He didn't want to talk to, you didn't want to take softball questions from Lord of Rutgers. That was a complete waste of everyone's time.

No, but that's what the networks demand. And when the television networks demand something, you have to do it. I understand that, but I understand why he doesn't. want to do it. Travis Kelsey didn't speak to the media after the game against Kansas City Chiefs. And he got in, and that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a fault on him. You got, you know what, you can't, you can't, you can't go run to your broadcast, a podcast with your bro and do all these little funny little things on the NFL today when things are good

and then when things are bad, you shy away. Media responsibilities, and I've learned this more than anything else, these television deals count. That's why, and I know that the NBA, the players right now are running into the situation where they're being interviewed in the locker and they're interviewing before the game. You've got these silent reporters sitting next to the benches. You want this check,

not the individual player, but the check that goes into the big call for money that comes with responsibilities. And these NFL networks want more than just the games. And so I just thought, come on, Justin, you won a game, answer the softball, you're done in 90 seconds. He's terrible.

His hand's throbbing. Let him walk, let him go say hi to his bros and they get some treatment. He needs to get that new injection. He's still parting with his bros right now. He needs to get that. And he went over and said, I would have been with you guys a lot sooner

if Laura Rutledge would have to make me ask those hard questions. He needs to go get that injection. He's going to have to get that injection. Maybe he's got beef with Laura Rutledge. How could you have beefed with Laura Rutledge? I don't know. I mean, she's nice. Who knows? You don't know that?

I pretty much know. How many times you met her? Zero. Okay. I mean, if, who is the meanest sonom reporter that you see out there? Like, who's our own, Rosenthal? I don't think so.

I don't think the bowtie makes him look mean. No, remember when he got all mad at that camera guy got in his shot and he fell down and he's death stared at him? Yes, but that was a fellow employee. I'm talking about it to an athlete. Like, who is the, who among the Sodom reporters asked the most probing questions? I mean, Aaron Andrews hugs people after she does the interview. Does she? Oh, yeah.

That's good for her. Her and Aaron, Aaron Rogers have hugged multiple times. Yes. And then she goes home and cries because she's missing holidays. I'm kidding. Now you just don't know, but I'm a new kid. It works. I'm just kidding.

Hey, Jonathan, how's the clock for the Notre Dame Press guy? Where are we at? He says it's up to 11 on the back. Right now we're at 29 minutes and kind of down. Oh, there is. There's one clock. 57. Oh, man.

I love this. 500 people are waiting in right now, 30 minutes before. Okay. So we have to make sure we take our top of the hour break way early because we don't want to be any even a second late for. this thing. Okay. Because you know if they're doing the clock... You're going to break on time? That feels fair. That does feel

fair. 1031. We're going to hear from Joe Espada next. It is the Matt Toma show with Ross. 713-212. God. I bet you're not even a full... Not even in 20 minutes. You're doing great. Thank you. 713-212-5-790.

A couple of baseball notes to bring in. Kyle Schwerber is going to stay with a Phillies and a five-year deal with $150 million. Rossi. Five years. Now, Schwerber is significantly older than Kyle Tucker, so. I feel like I'm getting false hope. Stop laughing. Not even laughing on Mike.

Oh, my God. All right. Okay, that's enough from you. And then Edwin Diaz. is moving from the Mets to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I mean, they need more relief help, for sure. Well, I don't know why you're playing sizzle.

That's nothing to do with the Dodgers of the Mets. Oh, sorry, my finger slipped. Did I play the Habachi sizzle? That was rude. John, isn't there a party unit? now with him his skin and his cockiness and wants me to be right. Isn't there just a small part?

Yeah, Kyle Schwerber is 32. He'll be 33 in March. Five years, 150. Maybe you've got hope. I mean, nothing's happened yet. I don't want to say it's dragging on. It's only December. But there is an impending lockout?

Impending, it's going to happen. Or is it a lockout or is there a strike? Lockout probably? Yeah, the lockout will be the, Do not show up. Do not come. We don't want to hit you there. It's going to be a battle.

So maybe nobody ahead of this lockout wants to hand out some giant mega deal. Oh, the players want it for sure because they're definitely afraid what's going to happen after. And it is interesting. Who really is going to have the power on this? Because as I've talked about before,

and we don't mean overly simplify this, but I don't, there's no way that Cleveland Guardians philosophy and ownership and baseball rules have the same philosophy of the Dodgers and Mets do. They're just no way. the major league baseball players union though is the strongest in major american sports so i feel like

they're unified but the owners are not unified i mean i'm presuming yeah i i don't think i don't think the new tampa bay ownership is going to be on the same page with the dodgers winning all these championships and signing edwin diaz and then heaven forbid they signed kyle tucker or something like that like this is this is just absurd they're playing a different game than everyone else, basically almost to the level of the Yankees. Oh, and oh, by the way, speaking of the Dodgers again, did you see this little nugget from yesterday? But the Detroit Tigers are...

Yes, I saw that. ...are certainly willing if the price is right to move Tarek's scubal. And the Dodgers are being brought up. And the Dodgers are interested. Hmm. It's a great sport. But it's almost like college football. You got the 15 or...

Not even that many. You have the eight power teams, you have the 22 that just want to be there. And you're going to have to decide who you're going to be. Are you going to be one of the eight halves or the 22 have-nots? Or you're going to be in between, like the Astros. That's true. All right. So Joe Espato was on MLB Network yesterday.

And there was a new reporter. He's not even an inside. He's just a guy that talks about the Astros. He's an analyst. That's the name is Ross, Villarreal. That's like, man, we've got to figure out a way to get Jose Al-Tubi off a second base. The numbers bear out that he is the worst in terms of coverage second baseman. No, he doesn't throw the ball away and doesn't, he can't not, but he's got no zip on the ball like he used to.

This is what father time does. And the range is, it was never great to begin with, but it's certainly now limited. Limited now that was, say, even five or six years ago. So last year, they're like, hey, we're going to put you out at Dyken Park in the offseason. and we're going to hide you out in left field. You're going to be playing the the Crawford Box Wall and all that kind of good stuff. Have a good time out there.

And it lasted for a short time. But then slowly but surely he would trickle back into second base. Yes, he did. And, I mean, that's a lot of that was injuries. And the way the roster was contracted. You play a lot of DH because your honor was hurt so much. Correct. And second base because you had injuries there.

And you had Bryce Matthews who just couldn't do it. I mean, Paratus got hurt. Dubon, you didn't want to play six days a week. Pena missed some time. Yeah. And it opened up some things in the infield. So what's you going to do? Well, here's Joe Espada on Jose Al-Tube, perhaps in his role in 20206.

I like the fact that he is open to help him, to do whatever it takes to help the team. But I think second base is his prime position. I think we're going to see him play there more this season. You know, giving us some starts in left field. That's something that I will sit down and talk to. tell him about that. But right now is, I need to keep our guys healthy. I think a lot of these players can play multiple positions, Paredes can play some second, third, and first base, allows me to keep Korea and Walker healthy. The DH spot, I'm also going to use that spot to keep

those guys off their feet some. So, you know, I got some really good players that once they're healthy, it's a really good team to, it's going to be a really tough team to beat. Did I hear what I thought I heard? You heard it. It's still too congestive and infield. We kind of talked about this. Can I say right now? Go ahead.

And it would be, again, I'm trying to gut feeling here 1130. How is Paredes was really redefined himself as a third baseman last year and probably played beyond expectations. because, man, you and I were literally in front of Joe, I was like, he's good, and he's all right, he's all right, and we can live with it, you know, kind of that kind of thing. His third base, yes, and he wanted to be, not exemplary,

but he was above average at his position, yeah. He caught everything, his range isn't there. No, but he caught everything that came to him. It was a vacuum cleaner at third, he was. So the question's going to be at the end of the day, who is better at second base? Is it Issaac Peretti's with a hamstring in limited range? That's the reason.

why he's always been primarily a third baseman? Uh-huh. Or do you go with Jose Altube, who they a year ago tried to say, you know what, Jose, your time as a second basement is limited. I think we are going to see a fair amount of parades at second, first, and third, depending on moving guys around. Carlos Correa is now going to be, what, 33, 34. So you're going to see him not play 162,

and Joe is going to have to fit the puzzle pieces together, They're getting Yordon off of his feet in D.H. Getting him in left field at Diken Park or, you know, when there's a ground ball pitcher or whatever, it's going to be a lot of mixing and matching. For those guys who get mad, why is Joe Espada changing the lineup every day? Get used to it for next year, too. And by the way, I'm getting late where the Astros are partitioning baseball for two DHS per game. Yeah, that'd be nice.

It would certainly help. Because Al Tuve, he was, by the numbers, he was the worst second baseman and maybe the worst left. fielder in baseball last year. But he's our guy. Exactly. He's our guy. We can't touch our guy.

Like I said, if his name was Steve Jones, and he would be... He would not look like a Steve Jones. They'd be renegotiating his deal or working something out to trade him or get him somewhere else. But his name is Jose Al-Tuv. And he's the greatest astro of all time. And he's the greatest astros of all time.

He's the most beloved astro of all time. All right. For sure. More on Joe throughout the course of our program. today. He's got stuff on Paredes and Yordon, which we can get to that as well. Yeah, we will definitely do that for sure. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Gordy's going to come in. We're going to predict what Notre Dame's going to do next, and we are 50 minutes away from the press conference here on 790.

Matt and Ross returned on Sports Talk 790. Nine minutes away. Nine minutes 40, nine minutes 40. Keep the clock going. What do you get that clock? So, Gordy, can't be long-winded here. Gordy's here to hang out with us for a couple minutes to predict the tone and the essence of the press conference that Notre Dame will be having with athletic director in about nine minutes from now. What you're thinking? Well, nobody's saying anything yet.

You got to understand a few things with Notre Dame. They are an independent in football, have been for a long time. Years ago, they made the decision to join the ACC in all the other sports. I believe, well, I think in baseball, they competed in the Big East for a bit. I don't know. It's very strange. But basketball, their ACC, right? They made a deal, you know, whenever, all the conference stuff was happening.

Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC, the Pac-12 going kaput, all that stuff. They made the decision, you know what? I think it was during the COVID year, right? They played ACC teams and they went, you know what? We'll be one foot in, one foot out with the ACC. We're going to make an agreement with them to play five ACC teams a year. So it's this really half-ass, like, we're kind of in the conference, we're kind of not. Because, again, they play the service academies and they play USC.

And that's kind of the Notre Dame schedule every year. So in a way to boost their schedule, they thought, okay, we'll kind of come to this agreement with the ACC. Well, the problem is, the ACC is as crappy as it's been, and so they really got no boost from playing those games. So I think the announcement is going to be they're ending that agreement with football, that we are still a true independent. We will remain a true independent, and we ain't playing these ACC games that we agree to. So your predictions are going to end their five-game ACC requirement. Yeah, and I think that's silly because read the – the tea leaves. The SEC and the

Big Ten are, they've been talking about this for a while about doing a non-conference challenge. The SEC already has a rule that you have to play one power five opponent in your non-conference. So if they come to that agreement, guess what the SEC's going to do? The SEC next year is going to nine conference games. So now you're down to three non-conference games. If one of them is going to be a big ten opponent, guess what the other two are going to be? Cupcakes.

Nobody's going to schedule Notre Dame. So Notre Dame goes, say, SEC, we'd love to schedule some of your teams. Nope, not interested. We're already playing a Big Ten team, and we need the two cupcakes. So is there any part that says the ACC says, oh, you don't want to play us? Well, guess what? You're out of our league completely. Do not schedule basketball?

Why don't you go and try to be independent as a basketball school? And I guess, granted, another conference will scoop them up right away. Yeah. Yeah. The ACC sounded pretty, I don't know what the word is. Like, they wanted to mend that fence yesterday. So it sounds like they are. They are coming to the table going, hey, what can we do Notre Dame to fix this? But Notre Dame's the one trying to go, we are the biggest brand.

We have a deal with NBC. It's like, all right, but you've been largely irrelevant for the last 25 years. Yeah, I just seems like they're throwing a huge hissy fit right now. So I don't know what they're going to be prone to do. Cooler heads prevailing after 24 hours. I don't know. But look at two years ago. Georgia was 12 and 0, went to the SEC championship, lost by 3 to Alabama,

and dropped from the number two team in the country to, What, six or seven? Yeah. And that was the 14th playoff. But Georgia did not go to a ball. They didn't go to the playoff that year. I was very happy about that. They put on their big boy pants.

They went about their business. They beat the crap out of Florida State in whatever bowl that was. Yes. And Georgia's back in the playoff the next year. So Notre Dame, you can do the same thing here. You can bitch for a day. Put your big boy pants on. Go play your stupid Pop-Tard bowl and try to make a run next year.

But they're not doing that. They choked that game against A&M, by the way. Notre Dame? Oh, yeah. What? A&M's backup. tight end on a fourth down you know come on all right before we get to that press conference let's remind the folks how uvh is going to beat the hell out of lSU coming up

December the 27th what's the line on that game uh well just got news today lsu's uh about five or six big name guys will not be because they're scared oh my god let's do coogs getting ready everybody is scared of playing the coogers in ball west virginia wasn't scared getting ready for the NFL draft because that's what lSU guys do But December 27th, 815, I love that it's on a Saturday this year. The Texas Bowl, Kinders, Texas Bowl.com is where you can get tickets. The 21st rank Houston Cougars and the LSU Tigers battling it out of the grid iron at NRG in the 2025, Kinders Texas Bowl.

All tickets on sale. Now, the Coogs, the Tigers at NRG, what more could you be looking for? Tickets are going fast, Kenders, Texas Bowl.com for tickets. Thank you very much, Gordon. And if you want to pop in again after this go, let's say, a little post, post-gorty reaction. Well, let's see what happens. Houston minus three.

What does they come to the table and announce, we're assigning a multi-year deal with U of H to play them in football? That'd be worthy of a press conference for sure. We'll find out in five minutes here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. GFP in the national press over the course of the last 24, 36 hours. And like Claire said, we thought this would be a great opportunity to get everybody together. You know, people we interact with day in and

day out and answer any questions, you know, but not just about, obviously, one of the key topics out there right now, the CFP and the process, but about all of our programs. Notre Dame, any one of our sports, kind of what's going in in the college space. This is something we want to do at least once a year just to spend time with all of you and give you an inside look of what's going on here at Notre Dame. But no secret. We were shocked, I would say, mystified by what happened. on Sunday. And just, you know, where my head and heart go, and I know Marcus feels the same way, you just feel for those student athletes on our football team. You know, as I said yesterday, as I said on Sunday, we felt we did everything we could over the course of the season. You know,

we lost our first two games. We're not hiding from that. We lost against a really good Miami team. We lost a nail biter against Texas A&M, two great teams by a total of four. points and then we did everything we needed to do. We had one of the most ten, one of the most dominant ten games runs in the history of college football. And on top of that, we felt that the CFP committee, the ranking committee felt the same way. You go back to that first ranking where we were six and two and Miami was six and two and they had already beaten us. And we were 10th and they were 18th. And the only thing that happened from that point forward is we both went on these amazing runs and through no fault of our own we wake up and find out that

you know we're the odd man out we're on the outside looking in and it's just you know as i've said all the credit in the world to the other teams that are in they are 12 terrific teams teams that have won conference championships Miami i think the world of the program i think it's one of the great universities in this country Dan radikovych is a good friend Miami deserves to be in the CFP. Of course they do. And Alabama does as well. And you could make that argument for Texas in Vanderbilt. And you could go right on down the list. But, you know, we were just led to believe all season long, if we took care of business, we were going to be in. And then to have that shock, that surprise on Sunday in that room with those kids who have given everything that they have

since August to put themselves in that position, to be told week in and week out that you're in that position, provided you win. And we certainly won when you think about these last 10 weeks. And it just boggles my mind that when we got off that plane, that Sunday morning in Snowy South Ben after the Stanford game, that that was it. And that's not the way this season deserved to end with the performance of our football team. And I'm biased. Of course, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, a million percent biased when it comes to Notre Dame. But you ask anybody in college football, we're one of the best teams in the country. We're one of those handful of teams that could absolutely win the national championship this year.

And then standing up here today, knowing that we have zero percent chance of proving that on the field, is a bitter pill to swallow. But it's a situation we're in. And, you know, what frustrates me, and I know what frustrates Marcus is there's just no good explanation. And normally when you stand in front of these young student athletes who've poured their heart and soul, and they have limited opportunities in life to do this. You're only 18 to 22 for so long. There are only so many seasons. There are hundreds of seasons in the history of Notre Dame football, and hopefully there'll be hundreds of more seasons.

But it's a finite amount of time in these kids' lives, and they put everything they had into it and positioned themselves and thought they did everything they needed to do. And it was just the ultimate gut punch to know that this team doesn't get to proceed and try to play for a national championship. So you know where my head is. I know, you know, Coach Freeman, I spent most of the days Sunday with him. You know, and he's going through the same emotions. But, you know, you've got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start thinking about next season. And really now our focus is on those guys on the football team are student athletes.

It's what's best for them because they're, you know, these are tough days for them as well. And that's a lot more important how I feel about this is how they feel about this. So I wanted to get that, you know, state that up front. And, you know, when you think about Notre Dame right now, you know, we've got a lot going on, you know, a lot going on in the college space. This is a time of unprecedented change. Luckily for us, and because of the history of Notre Dame, we have a seat at the table in terms of talk. talking about what's next for college sports, what's best for college sports, maybe perhaps what needs to change for college sports.

So we have our eye on the national landscape about what needs to happen in college sports to preserve something that's so great. And then we're kind of hitting the ground running, obviously, really excited about the start of our men's basketball season. You know, Coach Shrewsbury doing an amazing job. We had an unfortunate injury, as you all saw, with Marcus, and I'm sure Micah will address that, you know, later on today. but a great start to the season, young talent playing unbelievably well.

And on the women's side, the job of the Yale is doing with a different team than last year. No secret about that. There's a secret. Nobody cares. Having the most talented player in the country and Hannah Hidalgo. Okay, Hannah's, I'm sure, lovely. Let's get to football. Come on now.

See how that season progresses as well. Let me, don't bring up cross country. Our other programs here that are, you know, really gearing up for an exciting winter and an exciting spring. But with that, I'd love to open it to questions and answer and try to answer. Why aren't you playing the ball game? Why aren't you playing the ball game? Why aren't you playing the ballgame? I don't need a mic.

I can hear you. I was curious, you mentioned permanent damage with ACCC. What is the next step in assessing that relationship? Where do you go? And what was the damage specifically? Yeah, I would tell you, you know, again, and we have the ultimate respect for our, the fellow universities in the ACC wonderful universities with wonderful athletic programs so it's not about the universities it's it's not about Miami you know I've texted back and forth with

Dan Radicovis I sent him a text last night saying so happy you guys made it and I hope you go deep I think you have the talent to win it all but what is this get to guys by and disappointed was how the ACC conference really went on a social media campaign, in my opinion, attacking our football programs. Oh, come on. They didn't. I get it. You know, all's fair. You know, there's a great rivalry, decades-long rivalry between Notre Dame and Miami.

And that's the spirit of the universities and the football programs and fandom. And that's what makes college football special, whether it's Notre Dame Miami, Notre Dame. USC, Michigan, Ohio State. Notre Dame, Wake Forest. And it raised a lot of eyebrows. And, you know, we made our feelings known that we didn't particularly understand this. And it just kind of puzzled us that a conference that's home to over 600 of our student athletes walking around this campus today, I guess chose to go down that road.

I guess intellectually, I understand it, but I certainly don't agree with it. and why would you attack an unbelievably important business partner of yours in football and a member of your conference in 24 other sports? I'm one person. I don't see the logic in that. I know other leaders at the university didn't see the logic in that. And the ACC is important to us, and, you know, we're important to the ACC. And think about football for a minute.

You know, those ACC teams want to play us in football. You know, interesting stat. Since 2014, when we started our football relationship with the ACC, if you look at stadiums, they sell out, ACC games sell out roughly 23% of the time. Oh, here comes. When the name goes to an ACC site, it's 90% of the time. When you think about ratings for ACC football games, there's a tremendous lift. I don't understand why you would go on a social media campaign to attack an important partner.

You know, who's some of our important partners in the football space? NBC. We wouldn't do that to NBC. Now, I understand they have to stand up for their teams in football. We just think there's other ways to do it. And it has created damage. I mean, I'm not going to shy away from that. And that's just not me speaking. People a lot more important at this university than me feel the same way. So I think it has done some real damage. And I think the ACC knows that. and my follow-up is beyond expanding at some point to 14 or 16 teams what needs to be fixed with the process because you question the process not necessarily who's in and who's out and how do you Pete Bavakwa go about helping to fix that yeah you know there's human beings making these decisions so they're never going to be perfect

that's understandable but you get with these weekly shows in weekly rankings, very strong signals are being sent. Okay, Notre Dame, in the first ranking, you are 10 at 6 and 2. Well, we did nothing from that point until last Sunday, but to prove to the world that we've gotten better each week, progressed each week, have the best player in the country on our team in Jeremiah Love. We've done everything from that point, not even to put into question whether we should stay at 10 or get better to me all the empirical data in the world suggests we should get better so we have the starting point of being 10th dominated the rest of the season and are on the outside looking in so how do you fix that either have a really series a

series of defined metrics that everybody can rely on and see and know what they're going into or you have one ranking show at the end and say okay here's what it is and here's why we thought. And that would have been less of a shock to the system to our team than what happened was. Because if you wake up every day for five, six weeks and say, you're in, you're in, you're in, and what you do in response to that is you win in dominant fashion, you know, 70 points, 50 points, 49, I mean, just week in and week out, and you have Jeremiah and Jadarian, you know, they look like they're out of the matrix. And it's just everything going well. And then you wake up on Sunday and you're in a room

with these 18 to 22 year olds who were like all right are we 9th or are we 10th let's get to practice let's get going let's win a national championship oh wait a second sorry you know what there was a game where a team went through it and forked down

answer a question about wearing out of a bowl game or uh well you lost to this team in week one and we asked everybody to go back and watch it well you feel sorry for another day we don't see the logic and all that is this doing in the many favors something that has to be fixed because you know I said it yesterday we we take this very seriously at Notre Dame Marcus Freeman takes this very seriously our coaches our student athletes our administration these rankings and I said it so I'm repeating myself but they can't be a a game of musical chairs at a fifth grade birthday party and that's what it felt like to us and don't appreciate that because of the impact it's had on the kids in that room and the university quite frankly these are big decisions and we just

have not had anybody answer us in a way that that gives us any satisfaction at all as to what happened all game let's go last question what went in just to the sequencing of the social media posts that that caught your attention but then also what communication did you have at that point with the conference specifically with Jim and then what happened next if you could just take us through that timeline yeah i mean i don't have the exact timeline in front of me so i'll give you general generalities about the timing of it you know this i think it was like a three three and a half week campaign saw the first social media post and my gut reaction was somebody in their social media media department got over their skis and did something that the acc was going to correct

and quite frankly i was kind of expecting a phone call saying hey sorry about that it won't have again. But then it did happen again. And we started to communicate with the ACC, texts that I sent, emails that I sent, and it continued to happen. And I had a conversation. I had a phone call with Jimmy. We could go today saying, hey, listen, you know, that's a conversation I want to keep between me and Jimmy, but certainly got the point across that this was raised eyebrows and you've got to know it's caused damage here between the university and the ACC. And just to play his side or their side, hey, we're promoting our team. We're also doing other comparative tweets or whatever it is.

Why did you still feel like you guys were being targeted throughout that period of time? Well, we were definitely being targeted. And for better or for worse, we have a different relationship with the ACC than any other team in college football other than the teams that are in the ACC. Because we're in the ACC for 24 sports. We have a scheduling agreement with the ACC. And again, the ACC does wonderful things for Notre Dame, but we bring tremendous football value to the ACC.

And we didn't understand why you would go out of your way to try to damage us in this process. Have you spoken with any power for commissioners since Sunday? And if so, what were those conversations kind of focused on? Since Sunday, the only commercial. Commissioner, I've spoken to on a couple of great conversations with him as Greg Sanky. Greg and I talk all the time. I can't tell you how much I admire Greg and his leadership.

And, you know, good conversations, really about format process. Yeah, sure. Gave him my viewpoint on the process. He shared some thoughts that he had with me that, obviously, between Greg and me, format. Greg knows, they all know how I feel about the format, go and put the process aside, the format. I mean, you know, four teams, 12 teams, 14 teams, 16 teams, 1,000 teams, should be 16 teams, in my opinion, with five automatic qualifiers and 11 at large. Think about that this year, if we had four teams, it would have been perfect. I don't think anybody would argue that those aren't the right four teams that are one through four, right?

The way they're playing, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Indiana, and Georgia, you know, particularly Indiana, what an unbelievable season they've had in Georgia. Georgia looks fantastic. 16 would have been perfect. Notre Dame, Texas, Vanderbilt, you know, who else is in there? It's never, you know, a year by year, you're never going to have the same data points each year. It's never going to work out perfectly whether you had four teams, 12, 14, or 16. What I like about 16 is it does create for more opportunity, does create more narratives around more schools. More cash.

And yet preserves the integrity and the importance of the regular season. And I think that's one of the greatest things college football has going for it. The regular season is more important in college football than it is in any other sport by a mile. You know, think about college basketball. It's just different. Think about the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA. College football, I mean, hey, we see it. We see it last year.

We saw it this year. We knew last year when we lost to NIU. We had no wiggle room. Every game was a bowl game. Every game was a CFP game. this year after we lost in the last second to A&M, zero room for error. Turns out we didn't even have zero room for error. But we think, I think, 16 teams with that 5 and 11 breakdown is the way to go.

And I think the vast, vast majority of people in the CFP management room feel the same way. And then it seems like some schools have found a way to work around the house cap. Is there any update from your end on where that kind of stands just with new information coming out? Yeah, I would tell you, you know, we are huge proponents of the House settlement. Notre Dame, give credit to Notre Dame before I arrived here in this role, was huge proponents and endorse the concept of student athletes being fairly compensated. What you have now with the cap, I mean, let's be realistic with each other. The cap is 20.5 million.

The first 2.5 million of scholarships counts off the cap. You're left with $18 million, and yeah, you're going to, schools around the country are going to use that compensation for NIL opportunities, primarily for football, men's and women's basketball. So even if you start at 18, most schools around the country, you're starting to think about a number in the $15, $16 million range. If you're placing a great emphasis on the value of the football program, which most major power for conference schools are, and we are. But then you read things and see things about what teams are setting aside for roster numbers. You see it in news reports. You see it in the back and forth with coaches' negotiations. So the numbers you're hearing and the numbers we know that are out there don't compute

with the cap number. So I think we have to be honest and forthright with ourselves and have a set of rules that are realistic and reflect what's happening. reflect major college football in 2025 and beyond. I think the cap's too low. And I think if we keep operating under this rule of where the cap is, most major programs are going to have a heck of a tough time going backwards. Because you read the same news reports that I do.

You read and know about the same roster numbers for NIL and compensation that I do. Instead of making pretend that doesn't exist, let's deal with it and come up. with a set of rules that can be followed and then hold people's feet to the fire. All right, ballgame. Here we go. This is it. When a decision is made to skip the postseason, how are postseason bonuses that are part of standard coaching contracts and staff contracts,

compensation handle? Yeah, we talked a bit about that. The way we structure them is we never want things just to be about one game. And national championships different. Obviously, you know, there's a great bonus structure for our, coaches if you win a national championship. But I can tell you that the coaches' compensation contracts and the bonus concepts, the difference between the decision that we made and going to play in one of these other

bowls is inconsequential. We'll up in the middle of Pete Byrne. Hey, Pete. I wanted to follow up on some of your thoughts on the ACC. Excuse me. We're done. Well, let's pull up. We're good.

let's marinate on what we just heard no bombs yet but he's mad and didn't want to tell us exactly he was probably swearing this is a bunch of whining god it was it was nothing but whining good god he's crying over spills he called a press conference to cry more over spilled milk there's no announcement of anything

and nobody asked him the first six questions about why you skip in the ball game I thought it was about the student-athletes. 1121 on Sports Talk 7-0. All right, look. I'm not totally surprised with what we heard for the last 20 minutes. I was looking for a little more dirt on the Y. We went on the most dominant run in college football history. This is their dominant run of 10 straight wins.

Purdue, Arkansas, Boise State, NC State, USC, Boston College, Navy Pitt, Syracuse, Stanford. That's the 10-0 that is the most dominant run in college football history. How many of those ACC schools are they playing? Did they play are in the bowl?

Pittsburgh's in a bowl. Boston College, no. No. Stanford, no. Syracuse, I don't think so. No? I don't think they're. NC State, I don't... But they're all mids.

NC State wins. seven and five. Okay, so they're in. And let's see what happened. Syracuse, no. They're three and nine. Syracuse went three and nine. One of the most dominant ten game runs in college

football history, and it's those teams I just named. By the way, he was cute when he dropped the SEC. The SEC, under no circumstance, is going to allow them to be on NBC. If Notre Dame can, we'll get off their high horse, and

end their ties with the NBC folks they might consider it but hell if you're the SEC you don't need Notre Dame

tell me why you would need Notre Dame mid you don't need television sets you've already every one of your games even your mid-level Mississippi State Arkansas games draws 10 million people

you don't you don't need them you don't need their television sets you just don't I dropped the most I said it yesterday The most watched college football teams I mean let me count them real quick Five six seven

Eight eight of the top ten SEC teams Yeah you don't so back 15 years ago You wanted TV sets The only the only two in the top ten That were not SEC teams Were Ohio State and Michigan To all the big ten Again

Would these schools take them yes But they're not going to let Notre Dame Have its own deal They're going to Notre Dame is going to have to take is going to say no thank you to the check from NBC and again if I'm the SEC I don't know

do I want to rock the boat and then another team yes you think so they're accumulating they're trying to accumulate every the more brands you have you're shutting everyone out I mean this is just basically monopolistic I mean this is the American dream here

what's happening eat it all up Netflix is buying Warner Brothers Discovery like you just go go more more more more more. It's like Walmart. Buying out a little small-and-pop stores. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, if you really want to corner the market, you keep acquiring. You get all, you know, Matt, like Danos.

He's getting all the stones. Okay. Notre Dame's another stone. And then really, you're just missing Ohio State and Michigan. See, to me, to me, to me, I think the Big Ten makes, not necessarily geographic sense. For sure. but you are lagging the SEC in significant numbers and everything

Notre Dame could get you even closer to the supremacy of the SEC You also have to get votes from the other schools I think the commissioners would probably agree to some sort of deal where Notre Dame makes more than everyone else Right now he's saying that it was the right decision just for this season to not do a bowl game Okay, he's still talking?

Yes, and the next game The next season might be a different situation Well, of course, because he feels like his team's not going to be in that position ever again. It's easy to say that. It's easy for him to say this is only a one-time thing. If they're bitching and moaning about this year, they'll bitch him on it again in the future. As I tweeted out yesterday, there's a conference that would take them with open arms and let them have NBC and let them have more money than everybody else. It would be the Big 12.

The Big 12 would get a significant boost. by bringing Notre Dame in. Now, would Notre Dame go, do I, would Notre Dame go, I can be independent and maybe play five Big 12 schools a year? Big 12 would get on their knees for Notre Dame. Big 12 would do that in a heartbeat. And let them make a bunch of more money than everyone else. Now, there is, now, the athletic director is honest.

When Notre Dame comes to your building, you're going to have a bigger crowd. For instance, Wake Forest has Syracuse come to them. their games. Nobody cares. Notre Dame comes to Wake Forest. They're filling out the stadium. They just are because Notre Dame is a national brand. I guarantee you, Houston gets Notre Dame once every four years as compared to Houston getting Arizona once every one four years. Go Irish. Bring your people in. So yeah, I mean, I do believe there is some national cachet with Notre Dame, but what Notre Dame thinks it's national cachet and what it really is, it's certainly up for interpretation. They think they're bigger than they, they, they, they

Yeah, that's right. But I guess that's all of us. But that's, yeah, I mean, look at our show. We think we're the best thing going on Earth, but clearly... Oh, yeah, you already had somebody calling me cussing you out because you was talking over the Notre Dame preference. Was he a Catholic? I guess so.

Well, we had to. Sorry, Father O'Grady. We had to. We had to add something to it. It was just... It was a good instinct by you, man. She was mad. She was real bad.

It was a woman? Oh, yeah. I think it was a... Shout out to Debbie. Debbie, call the show right now, if you're really that mad. Come on. Debbie, press conferences largely are really boring, and there were semantics involved with it, and so we had to add something to it.

Now, I don't like to typically talk over press conferences, but that needed to be done. Let's get a quick timeout, and then we'll go with Anthony, and then we're going to get to the gut feeling. 713-212-5-7-90. And don't mind if you got to complain about the show, call us. Don't call Jonathan. He's busy. Busy texting his girl.

Wait, wait, wait. I'm over here working. Yeah. So I'm saying. And texting your girl. And that's fine. We've got a nice message from Stephanie. She says, Matt, I'm Catholic and would like to thank you for talking over that press conference.

Why did he call it in the first place? ZZZZ. Yeah. I have to make the editorial decision as the host, co-host of this show, whether to talk over press conferences or not. And if there's relevant, interesting things, I certainly under zero circumstance, want to speak over them. But he was blabbering. whining, whining, crying, crying, bitching, moaning. We hit some coverage.

Apparently, he's still, is he still talking? I'll turn it off, I'll turn it up, see what's going on for five seconds. He's still bitching about it. So's Joanna, so are his kids. Who's typing back there, by the way? He said, as you've heard me say before, he's at soccer games, women's and men's basketball games. Oh, Jesus, that's enough, that's enough, turn it off. It's almost 40 minutes, man.

Man. Good God. He's having an open therapy session. Everybody's a bill him. Now, you know, Chicago is a huge Notre Dame market. So I wonder if their sports radio is carrying the whole thing. I mean, that's 40 minutes.

You go get some lunch, Rossi. That's fine. I got to go. Let me tell you, when Chris Del Conte and the Texas Longhorns get screwed out of a national tournament in a couple of years, we will carry it live. I don't hear a good. Did Chris Del Conte call a press conference? No, he didn't.

Okay. Because he's a grown-ass man. That's crazy. We were led to, we were misled. We were misled for weeks. Listen, I told you last week. Listen to the committee. They said head-to-head will matter when the rating, when it's closer.

This should not be a shock to anybody that was paying attention. Which clearly, Pete Bovacqua was only talking to people that are slurping up Notre Dame. And so he got blindsided. This is what happens when you get in a bubble and everybody's loving on you and telling you you're the greatest thing ever. and then you get out of your bubble and find out maybe you're not. Yeah. By the way, I had to do it for the audio. There was the typer in the background. There was somebody eating

something back there. It was my responsibility. Yeah. I take great, you know, again. Unwrapping candy? Yeah. Is he going into the second hour? Do you think we open the news at noon with him to start? Do you think so? Maybe. I'm still going. Keep it ready just in case. Is he doing a Senate filibuster? What is going on?

Sheesh. Ridiculous. I mean, oh, man. I mean, look, Rossi, if you and I are Notre Dame grads, we're super pissed. Because, again, the rankings ahead of time had us ahead of Miami. Oh, because I'm presuming you're going to know. Yeah. So I get it. I, you know, the category of I just don't get it.

I get it. I totally get it. Totally get it. By the way, I did a little quick search. on the worldwide Googles yesterday. ESPN and the CFP as part of their agreement, five weeks of CFP polling results go out ahead of time.

So they have to do five ranking shows, as you said, to build an audience. So there will be no elimination of, we'll wait till the final day to announce the brackets, and you won't be surprised me. I think it's good. Now, of course, this is collateral damage. Yes. At the AD,

gets his few wings hurt. We want good enough and I've got to call it press confluence but it's good it's good for the that's we've been talking about this every week and I've been telling you like I don't care I'm gonna I'm gonna wake me up if and when Texas is it but I know that people get into it you make content off of it we talk about it on this show oh I've found it very interesting yeah it's it's interesting week to week but I'm not going to invest my life in it like Pete Bavacca did no I'm more interested in people this meltdown I'm trying I mean you know what you don't get this meltdown without these shows that's right

I mean, this, keep them. Oh, it finally ended. Oh, my God. That's too bad. Somebody pull a plug. We were going to do the news at noon with it. Damn. I think the engineer probably pulled the plug.

All right, we got to get to gut feelings. They shut the power off. We'll do the next segment here about the God feelings. But let's go to Anthony on seven on it. Anthony, good morning to you. Hey, good morning, fellas. So I have a couple of problems with the narrative that Notre Dame's pushing here. So his first thing was I think that there should be a clear-cut standard.

or metrics that the committee looks at well there is and to me the top eight teams were solidified so you had you had four teams or five teams vying for four spots well uh James Madison and Tulane were always getting in because they were conference champions so now you have two spots for three teams Alabama was never getting punished for losing to Georgia they've already beat Georgia in Athens so now you have two teams for one spot with identical records, identical strengths of schedule, with a head-to-head games. So I don't understand, like, what's the complaint here? Because to me, the committee got the entire rankings perfectly based on the systems

and the metrics that they have in place. Now, you disagree with the metrics, and that's a separate conversation. But based on what the committee has in place right now, Notre Dame was never getting into this playoffs. But their argument is, and Anton, I don't disagree with you, their argument was we were given the impression we were going to be in because of the rankings going in. And the fact that they didn't play a game, the fact that Miami didn't play a game, they're going over what they saw the Tuesday before the Sunday release. And they're saying there's nothing we could have done to change the way you saw us. There's nothing that Miami could have done. So if we're going to go

off of what you said before, I mean, Ross, think about this. You're to, I don't know, give me, give me an analogy. You are told that you're going to get a promotion because your sales are higher than the guy behind you, but the guy the last second gets the job because he got one sale. Yeah, but he beat you head to head. Yeah, I get it. I don't know what it doesn't work. It doesn't work.

We're trying to think of it. We'll get the break. Yeah. But, Anthony, my point is that they kept looking and going, we were always ahead. What, what things changed? And I think that's what their main argument is. So my problem with that is is that James Madison

and Tulane were never in the top 12th you had to slide them in and so when you have one spot left and sure Notre Dame may have been ahead of Miami in the previous rankings but now we have one spot left in these final rankings

and we have to compare two teams' resumes that are pretty identical but they played each other So to me, I just don't feel like Notre Dame has an argument here. Yep. Thank you for the phone call, Anthony. I appreciate it. And you can say, well, if not for James Madison or if it was for Tulane,

okay, then you've got to get rid of the automatic qualifiers. If you don't, it could have been an ACC championship team, which Notre Dame would not have been. Right. You know what I'm saying? You can blame GMU if you want to, Tulane, but you still have to get five conference. Under the current rules, five conference champions get in. So it's kind of moot that

it's James Madison and Tulane Quit your crying Get better It just quit In your games Three minutes ago All right Gut feelings are up next

It is 1144 on You're dealing gut feeling Because I got so many right We're going to find out next here on Sports Talk 790 Listen up girls and boys That's been so appealing You're Ross and Matt Thomas

Yo they got a gut feeling This is their gut feeling On the Matt Thomas show shout out to burn orange taking over the press coverage is necessary appropriate and funny again i i don't do it very often but we have to sometimes to step in when wine comes into play and there was lots of wine speaking of whining uh how did you last week and your got feelings i was not here last tuesday so i did not partake in such you weren't but we can check yours from two weeks ago i guess we can go ahead let's see uh jake myers is no longer an astro by next week that's wrong wrong strong now he'll be gone at some point you're going to be right you're going to be early you can be early on that oh oh I don't think you had the sound effects

oh well he's going to want to hit it for this one too Chiefs beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving oh wow hit that one you know what you can get another one Cougars beat Baylor by 10 plus no I'll let him slide on that one

what was the final I don't think they beat him by 10 plus I think it was a one score game wasn't it you tell me Mr. Cougars I wasn't there I was busy. You weren't there. Why not? I was there in spirit.

Hold on. I gotta get out of the top 25 tab because they're not in there. Stop. What? They're in the top 25 in the football pole. Yes, they are. They must have got back. They weren't that week.

You're welcome. Go ahead, find it. You keep going. Was that the big rivalry game? Was it the last game of the year was against Baylor? Yeah. Hold up. I'm looking.

Go ahead. I'm still looking. Hold on. I got to get back to the big 12th tab. 31, 24. I was off by three points. Okay. So not a not a,

So go ahead and hit the bump up and dump again. God, dang you. You've got this one right. Jonathan Taylor runs for under 100 yards against the Texans. He was under 100. I'll be fair. Thank you. Thank you.

And Verlander is an astro. It's TBD. That's, I feel like it should have already happened by now, right? It feels like they're going to get that done. Yeah. I mean, come on. That's a very astrophime. All right.

Last week, I said Georgia would cover the two and a half versus Alabama. easily which was correct 28 to 7 final there thank you yourself some props I said the Texans would pull off the upset Sunday night at Arrowhead that is correct

give myself a prop and this is where Chris Gordy got mad at me because he was sitting in and gut feelings I said tell me what you think about this one man Lane Kiffin leaves LSU in unfavorable circumstances within four years I disagree with you on that

you think in five years We already talked about this Yeah I think If you're Lane you can't be done in four years You just can't You're gonna ruin whatever legacy you've got left Yeah I'm saying with it He was at Ole Miss for seven I think right

Six I think Okay six Okay He was out of USC within My God tells me he was out of USC within four years My God tells me he stays longer than four He was out of Tennessee in one year He was out of Florida at

Atlantic in two years. He's a carpet bagger, that's for sure. Yeah, six years at Ole Miss. And, okay, we'll see. By the way, did you notice one thing about Pete Bevaluqua's comment about the... Bavacca. Bevacca. Bevalo. Same. Pete B.

P.D. So he wants the 20.5 raise, which is going to happen. That's the money that you can spread, that the school can directly pay the athletes. That's going to go up with inflation. He also brought that up higher because of the fact that he must not be getting the NIL money that other people are getting. You know what else I noticed? He kept on mentioning Marcus Freeman. You mean future New York Giants head coach?

That's what I'm saying. Don't you think he's like, you know, I'm working with Marcus? I spent all day to somebody with him. It's funny you say that because he's kind of bring him up too and his family and his daughters. You know who's the best, Marcus. You know who should never leave us, Marcus. You know who Notre Dame loves more than anything? Marcus.

I like Marcus. I love Marcus, but it kind of, he kept bringing him up, like, out of nowhere. I'm glad you noticed it, too, Jonathan. Yeah. Oh, he kept going. When I, we thought he kept going and then, like, three more questions about him. When I was, when I was holding Marcus in bed, you were embracing and rubbing his head because he was so upset.

I was a show at Notre Dame that we really care. Here at the University of Marcus Freeman, I mean, Notre Dame, we're thinking about naming Marcus Freeman Stadium right in the middle of campus. Pretty funny. How you want to keep talking about it? how close they were. Is NIL trouble to Notre Dame? I don't know.

If he's worried about paying the kids and getting a larger share, now he can do that because he's got a separate television deal. He's got money coming in that nobody else in the country has. It goes directly to Notre Dame. Plus, he shares on a revenue of the ACC, not named football. Okay. Can I put this one way down? Notre Dame is out of the ACC.

They're going to jettison the ACC. Okay. They're going to let the 24-year-old kid making $21,000 a year at ACC.com affect the future of Notre Dame Athletics. And again, he called a press conference to cry about getting cyber bullied. On at the ACC. I mean, okay, I'm going to go check right now. How many followers does the at ACC have? They said mean tweets about me.

Did you see the mean tweets? I mean, my God. This is unbelievable. Okay, ACC football. Yes. 93,000 followers. Really? I mean, that's low for a conference.

For all the schools, come on now. You're really pissed off because 93,000 people saw your tweet. Oh, my God. That's so funny. Okay, your gut feeling is no. By the way, Jonathan had the Hoosiers upsetting Ohio State. Buckeyes. That is correct.

By the way, I'm putting my name on it. Another name is not going the SEC. Not unless they just say F you to the NBC money Gordy said that the winner of the Heisman would go to the Big Ten champ So that would be Fernando What is his last name?

Mendoza Yep Yeah We need a Fernando Mendoza Winning the Heisman That sounds great Are we gonna have a first round quarterback? Yes

We are, okay I can't remember I was actually looking at a draft board yesterday Good for you I don't know why I didn't look at one. That's why I asked the question. I'll tell you why I was looking for longhorns and I only saw one.

I mean, the cougars you see. Washington State Cougars? Got feelings. Rockets beat the Clippers by at least 10 on Thursday. Okay, they better? Clippers suck. You went one by one. You said, no, what was the rest of your thing?

Notre Dame is out of the ACC. Oh, I don't know. Within this year? No, no, no. Within five years. Okay, well. I think everybody's out of, without every conference within five years. Unless there may not be some great shakes because everybody's moving around.

I do believe, here's a gut feeling. I do think you will hear rumors of the Big 12. Now, do I think the big, the Notre Dame will scoff at that and say, you know what, I'm choosing one set of problems for another set of problems. That could be the case. I don't know. But I can tell you that Notre Dame. If the Big 12 wants Notre Dame, they should give a Notre Dame ever than they want.

Notre Dame would add some serious cash aid to the Big 12 conference. Okay. It was Oregon's Dante Moore, who I saw in the top 10 on a board, and PFF has Fernando Mendoza in the top 10 as well. Okay. Okay, I got that. Oh, Astros. They're signing people I've never heard of before.

I got to go back on a gut feeling I had. Yeah. I had a gut feeling that I had. either Walker or Paratus is going to get moved. These latest comments from Espada? They're keeping Paredes. Well, I guess they could still move Walker. But you have to pay.

You're going to have to send money that way. And I don't know if Jim Crane's a big fan of that. He's not a big fan. But when you send money, it doesn't go against the threshold. And you can lower your threshold. You know what? Maybe I'm back it off. Never mind.

Chris Walker. Maybe he's going to be the one. That's why you got rid of all the utility guys, although you get that one guy from Atlanta who bats is 140. This is your utility guy. Bryce Matthews going to get some looks. You're going to have Jose Altovae playing more second base, according to his spotta. I'm sticking.

I'm going to give you a rando. I don't think this is going to hit gut feeling. Okay. Bryce Matthews gets traded. Bryce Matthews? Yeah. Okay. Really?

That's just a rando. If that one hits, I'm going to be beyond excited. Who is Dana Brown's first ever draft bit? That's what I'm saying. It doesn't sound right. Okay. It doesn't sound right. But I'm just said

That's a segment in a nutshell. Okay. It's gut feelings. And then you said something else that I missed. You got the Notre Dame. You said the Bryce Matthews. Oh, Rockets beat the Clippers. Procets beat the Clippers by 10.

Sure, why not? All right. And anything from you, Jonathan? Uh, you know what? Let's just keep it simple. Chargers, even with the mess-up hammer, Herbert. Just keeps a pummel it up on the Chiefs. Oh, wow.

Chargers beat the Chiefs. We got Chargers fan I forgot we got Chargers Jonathan here It's okay I keep a low key back here All right I got one for you Montana State beats SFA by two touchdowns You know what put that hey put the reverse for me right now

Two touchdowns over Montana State I got Montana State I think we're favored actually I got the bobcats beating the lumberjacks I think we're favorite hold on You let me tell you some You go from Nacadoches to wherever the hell Montana is They're gonna freeze your asses off there

You can't play in that weather. It gets cold over there a knack. Oh, please. It gets cold in the neck. It gets cold over there. 703 is not neck. It's got cold. Where is Montana State?

What is it in Montana State? Let me just find a rando city in Montana. Would you say, can I go Butte? Let me check the Butte forecast. This is going to prove my point once my phone works here. Okay, here we go. Butte Montana forecast. This is for Saturday.

Because I mean, once, I'm just picking a rando town. high temperature on Saturday will be 42 degrees 11% chance of rain Oh you can't you can't compete in that Two touchdowns go Bobcats Or Cougars whatever the hell they are All right and that's the gut feelings for this week I didn't make any

Oh please I don't know Give one How many more rockets Rockets play Just one Thursday Oh they don't play that after that No Monday in Denver

Oh Well, Reed Shepard, Reed Shepard 20 plus points is the next game. I like that. And... But if he didn't start, is that going to make a difference to you?

CJ Stroud three touchdowns this weekend. Oh, we didn't even make a Texas prediction. What is the current line on the game? Texans Arizona, nine and a half. Is that really? True. Texans getting some big respect. This is the Matt Thomas show.

With Ross All right 1207 Remind me on Thursday for I just don't get it because it really needs some link to this

What needs length? Disney World. Disneyland. Okay. Just remind me. Disney adults? Thursday, 1130. Okay.

Just remind me. Let's get to the news at Dune. Is the athletic director at Notre Dame still bitching? I don't think so. No, he turned it off at the 40-minute mark. Well, he's calling people now. One of the reporters should have hit him with, sir, this is a Wendy's. Now, if he was in a waterburger drive-thru, he had plenty of time.

Hey. Wow. So you know what? Oh, too soon. Fresh. Fresh-ish. I'm sorry. Everybody cooks it fresh.

Get me out of there in 40 minutes, please. All right. I'm just going to lead the news with doing this. Apparently, it's happening. Philip Rivers, who has not played in the NFL since 2020, a hollow fame finalist, correct? And I think should be in. It's five years.

Yeah, he should be in for sure. Is signing to the Indianapolis Colts practice squad, according to Adam Schaefter. Daniel Jones is out for the season due to his torn right. Achilles. Riley Leonard is dealing with a knee injury. Philip Rivers, who is a literal grandfather, is an emergency solution for the Indianapolis Colts. He tried out and has now been signed to the practice squad.

Could be elevated this weekend and play for the Colts. He hasn't played a snap since 2020. He's 44. I don't know if this is remarkable, embarrassing, or a combination of both? I don't think it's embarrassing to who? I mean, look, Daniel Jones went down, Anthony Richardson is hurt, Riley Leonard is hurt. This is crazy. You need to tell me there isn't a Division I quarterback.

We know his legs are limber. That could take a few snaps that had, that it either got, I was in a training camp or got released. You may tell me they're having to go to a guy that has not taking a snap

in five years? Are we sure this is intriguing? Yeah. I'm intrigued. You don't want to see this? Oh, is it going to be a trade wreck?

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to be, I want to find, yeah, we need Colts on who are they playing this weekend? Are they in Seattle this? I mean, let me look. Oh, they're going to play the Seahawks?

Hold on, no, no, no, don't hold me to do that. Don't hold me to that. I know they got to play the Seahawks on the road against that. Seahawks. Yes! On the road against that Seahawks.

It is. It is the Seahawks. All right. Listen to me. You got the real 12th man. Hold on a second. And then you got... We got a hard tire with Channel 11 here real quick. Yes.

There are two 325 games. Yes. On Channel 11 this week. That's used from. Green Bay at Denver. Indianapolis at Seattle. Channel 11. Matter of fact, I'm going to text Jason Bristol right now.

Please, please, please, please, please, put Indianapolis at Seattle on. Because if... He's going to get broken in half. He's getting wheeled out of there. We will see something we've never seen before in an NFL game. This is must-watch television. It is literally going to need a spatula to pick him up. man that's going to be must-sieve TV all right I'm sorry all right let's see what else in the world of sports Matthew you have Kyle Schwerber back to the Phillies finalizing a 150 million dollar five-year deal according to Jeff Passon so Phillies not afraid he is 32 years old he hit 56 home runs this last year and

And I didn't realize this. I think it's something like only 30 or 32 players have ever hit 50 home runs. And he's in that club. So congratulations to Kyle Schwerber. Five years, $150 million. All right. We were going to cut the news at noon short because Ray is sending me tweets. He's got to get back to lunch.

So he's got to get on his lunch. Are you serious? Ray and Miami has got something he's got to say. and we can't interrupt his going back to work. So, Ray, the floor is yours because we love you down in South Beach. What you got? Thank you, thank you, man. We love you.

I love you, I love you city. Houston, 7-1-3 is my home. I love it. I have three. First of all, I have a good feeling that, well, you already, I told you, you're going to call game one of the Western Conference Finals. And since I pulled that rookie card the other night, I have a gut feeling. Hunter Brown is going to get 18 games, 18 game winner, and I feel really

confident about that. And the third one, I have a gut feeling that Larry and Starrford likes to floss his teeth with C.J. Strauss, Jock strapped, because he disagreed with Cole, and I have to finally agree with Cole on this one this morning. The quarterback, I haven't seen anything either, Larry. If you're listening, I haven't seen anything on offense just like Cole's said and he said what do you want him to do put 40 points he has to do something this guy was negative 12 in the third quarter larry i know you saw that this guy was overthrew a wide open touchdown pass i don't know if he's scared i just don't like c j straws game and i'm a huge texas fan since the beginning since since bob mcnary wrote the check i've been a texans fan

and i i don't believe in his game i don't like c j straws game It's too weak. If we go to New England, Drake May is going to break the play down, extend the play, and beat the Texans. CJ is going to go off the iPad, first down, do this, second down, do that. Oh, you said third down, okay, let's punt it, eight times in a row. He's going off of the iPad. You have to go off the schedule after what they tell you to do.

But if it breaks down, forget the schedule, make a play. And I don't see that in C.J. Stroud. I don't care who call in after me, C.J. Stroud, and then he said he's one of the top five quarterbacks that, and when he's sitting on the couch, dude, you're not even in the top 15. If it wasn't for this defense, the Texan would only win two games. You started off, O. and three, with a good defense. He's not, he's mid.

I'm just going to say it right now. He's mid, and I'm tired of people up in him like he's a top five quarterback. He's not. He's in a top 15. And Gary and Spring, you may call in or whatever. I don't care. I'm telling you how I feel. All right.

There you go. Thank you very much. I don't like his offense, Matt. Matt, Matt. I don't like his offense, Matt. I don't like the entire. One more thing, Matt. One more thing, man.

Hang on. Ray, ring. Hang on. I don't like the offense, period. Nobody likes this offense. No, I don't like. No one likes this often. You're not by yourself.

But I could bring to, I could bring a reincarnation of Steve Young back to this offense. It doesn't have enough weapons. It doesn't, the offensive line is not good enough. There is no running game to speak of. It's not C.J. Stroud's fault. One more thing. One more thing. One more thing. Can you, on February 28th when you come play the heat, can you dress like Calvin

Murphy so I can recognize you? Because I want to meet you. I will be in a... I'll be in a quarter zip with khaki pants or black pants and either black shoes or brown shoes wearing my Rockets badge. And I'll be the most handsome ball man you'll see in that arena. It shines in the stadium. I've seen it.

That's enough from you. That is enough from you. You've had your fun already. Montana State by 21 now I've just upped it over SFA 1215 it is the Matt Thomas show at Ross 713-212-5-790

7-1-3-212-5-7-90 today's edition and believe or not does your AD bitch Notre Dame Believe it Believe it Believe it

I gotta be honest with you I thought my man Ray you were way too hard on C.J. Strave I'm sorry I just did. And by the way, we're not going to do comparisons or quarterbacks until the offseason. To decide whether or not C.J.

It's the top five, top 10, top 15, top 20. Who cares right now? I love you, Ray. Hope you enjoyed your lunch. Yes. But come on now. He's the best option. And he's not even close.

Correct. And teams would take him. A lot of teams would take him. Not every team would take him, but a lot of them would. He's probably going to get paid. He needs to play better. he was under a lot of duress pressure rate was high the third quarter his offensive line i mean i don't pfs tomorrow i know

the offensive line was terrible yet uh yeah it was terrible yesterday someday it was and it's been better but i thought dan arlovsky's praise was a little foe was a little little micro looking at things they still surrender way too much pressure they have CJ running for his life CJ made three throws in particular this week that were how in the hell did that bat ball get completed they still commit way too many penalties

false starts illegal formations especially in the red zone too how come they don't know the rules of football how many times is there some kind of illegal formation or legal shift yeah yeah yeah I mean that's coaching now remember there are a lot of teams in the NFL that have porous offensive lines with great quarterbacks

the number one man raising his hand is Joe Burrow Well, he's raising his hand from the, from a gurney. Yes. He's getting hurt a lot. Yeah. He's, he's IP. It is what it is. He's, he's under duress a lot in a violent sport.

Correct. So that makes him prone to injury. It does. It really does. Football board any else. But, no, again, CJ's, put this way, his rookie year, you got an A. Last year, you got a B minus. C.

See? Okay, he's playing a B. He's a B quarterback. Probably a C right now this year. How many good games has he had? The Niners game was good. First of all, you missed three. That doesn't, it goes into it.

And he missed part of another one. I would say he missed the Bronco. Yeah, Broncos game and then miss three. Rossi, I'm going to give him a. Oh, the Baltimore game, four touchdowns. No picks? I'm giving him a B this year. So he's a B quarterback.

2100 yards, 12 TDs, six picks. Now, the argument is this, and you and I have had a little bit of conjecture about this. I mean, I know where you're coming from, and I understand it. It's not me. No, where I'm coming from. I know, I know. But can you give a B quarterback $60 million a year? Yes.

I guess the question is, you're going to have to do it. How are you else are you going to manage your salary cap? You're going to have issues. It happened to the chiefs. They paid Pat Mahomes. They paid Chris Jones. They paid Travis Kelsey. And they didn't pay him in there all.

offensive line. They had, yeah. And then when that average offensive line gets hurt, it becomes vulnerable. This is how it's supposed to work. This is why it's so hard to be a dynasty in the NFL. You're not supposed to have every team. This is why it's the best league and the most interesting league, because everybody has a chance. But tell me again.

Because of parity, because it's salary cap. But can we get mad at me? let's put a salary cap on the quarterback spot. Let's at least give some balance. Okay. I mean, I know it's the most important position. It's the most important position in major American sports. But the dollar amount between that guy, meaning the quarterback, and the next highest paid guy.

It's not that different from left tackles or edge rushers. How many million is, uh, did Mike's point making what, 40? I guess 60 to 40 is pretty, what's Michael Parsons A.A.V. Who's the second most important player in a football team? And that guy, it's always... It'd be the edge rusher and the left tackles, whichever one you want to put them in. So what is the average... It's the quarterback, the guy who protects a quarterback, and the guy who gets the quarterback.

That's all centered around the quarterback. That tells you how important it is. Maybe to balance my argument a little bit. Give me the average amount of money a left tackle makes, the average amount of money, a linebacker, I mean, an edge rusher makes, and give me an average amount of money a quarterback makes. And I think there's... Yeah, the quarterback makes more... Your white is a scraper. The quarterback's way more important than those two guys.

but in the interest, and again, the players don't care, namely 32 people don't care because the quarterbacks, but in the interest of roster construction. Like, for instance, I'll give you, let's give you a small example. I don't know what DeNeil Hunter's situation is, but the thought of the Texans being able to keep DeNeil Hunter, Will Anderson, and C.J. Stroud is 0%. That's how it should be.

Well, see, I like, but see the things I want to reward teams that make good decisions. Well, you've got to continue to make good decisions under the hard cap. You've got to figure something out. I want C.J. Stryor to be fairly compensated for what he has done. He's not worth $60 million a year. You get five years of Will Anderson. That's a good reward. But if I drafted him and I've got him for five years.

But the number one reason why I'm getting hurt by it is because I had picked the same guys in the same drafts. I should be rewarded for having two first round picks. You can find them. Well, they traded away a first round for that pig. Those two picks cost you three first round picks. I just, I in theory, don't want to pay a quarterback just because that's what the position gets. You should pay the quarterback, crazy amounts of money. If he does crazy things, and C.J. Strata's on a nice NFL career, it has been by far no means worth of $60 million your contract.

But just to pay him because he happens to be the signal caller, pay him for what he's worth. If he's the highest paid player in your team, I get it. but to put 60 million behind the cat that's going to really hamper things now here we are now if he went the Super Bowl no one's going to care we're putting the cartwell before the horse on this Dak Prescott's making 60 a year

Joe Borough 55 Josh Allen 55 Jordan Love 55 Trevor Lawrence 55 That's painful for people to hear Ed Rusters Parsons 46 and a half Aiden Hutchinson 45 T.J. Watt 41 Miles Garrett 40 So you're talking about a $15 million dollar

difference. Danil Hunter's next 35. Then there's a pretty big drop-off. Okay. I'm telling you, Texan fans. What's about $15 million or more a year? Do not go buy a Daniel Hunter jersey. Oh, don't become... Mama don't raise your baby to come left tackles. How bad? Roshan Slater, 28 and a half, making the most.

Worf's 28. Trent Williams, 28. Derisal's really good. He's making 26. So if you're big and strong... Oh, yeah. I mean, the Lerman Tensel is not going to be QB. Got to give her a try at least. On the phones next, 1229 on Sports Talks 790, 713-212-5-790, NFL rewant at 120, believe it or not, 150. We've got a lot to get to between now and 2 o'clock. Plus, we've got to get some more, some Joe Espada from the winter meetings in Los Vegas.

It's in Orlando, usually in Las Vegas. Orlando, it's fine. Well, it's not great. Good hotels. Mid-food. Lots of amusement parks. In Atlanta? You've never been.

You've been to Orlando. Oh, actually. I was three years old. My parents took us to Disney World. You changed plans in Orlando. Okay, that doesn't count. To pick up a bunch of children with Mickey Mouse hats on. 1230, Sports Talk 790.

Channel 11, we want the Colt Seahawks this week. We do not want the Packers Broncos. Think it'll work? No. I mean, what are we getting? What's in the guide? It doesn't say yet. Okay.

Can we check our TV here? Or we have a Tulsa station? Oh, yeah, we're in Oklahoma, according to this thing. Yeah, we need it. I said, please, please, hey, show you, we want Colts at Seahawks this week. Hashtag Rivers, No Packers, Broncos. That's it for it. We don't know the River is going to play. I don't care.

I somewhat the Colts. Doesn't it mean more to the division race anyway? I guess so. Now, the Texans, now, Channel 11 did the smart thing last week. They gave us Indianapolis, Jacksonville. The main game was the Pittsburgh, Baltimore game. But they gave us Colts Jaguar. So there's somebody in the programming office at Channel Lemonosa that are doing.

Mm-hmm. So let's go two for two. If not, you know, you know, I'll be red zone. I'll be red zone no matter what. I'm going to be on a plane Sunday. Okay, I won't be. I've got to figure that out. Good luck with that.

Wishing you the best. This will be the longest road trip I've ever been on in the 10 years to call on the games. Oh, okay. They'll leave Sunday and back on the 26th. All right. You may take care of your plants or anything? Everything good? taken care of at home?

What are you asking for? If things are being taken care of at home? Yes, they are. I was what I was saying, I don't know. You need to plants water? Yesterday was. Let me flip the lights on. Especially yesterday.

Pick up a package. Things were taking, oh, I could use your help on that. We're only getting but 23 Amazon rhyme packages per day. You need to do a Amazon audit. You know what? I audit myself. Let me tell you something, Ross. And say, is this necessary or not?

I don't disagree with you. First of all, it's Christmas. It's a holiday gift this season. And so you can never buy enough gifts. Secondly, I would have to say if you took 10 married men that lived in middle class, upper middle class or rich, whatever the demographic is, we all have the same complaints. Every day we get home, there's four Amazon packages in our house. Okay.

Well, grow some nuts. Let's go. But you know what, though? In fairness, we ramazon paper towels, toilet paper, dishwashing tablet, we ramazon everything. Okay. So we're going to get more than the average person is. How many dish towels you're running through? Everything okay over there?

We clean a lot. How often does the maid come over? Every Friday. You know what? You know what? Hey, I got to start lying more. I should have said, what made? I don't know.

I do it too. I mean, I order from Amazon too much, too. I was checking. I was actually running through my orders like this week. I was like, that's, probably didn't need that. Batteries, snacks, socks, underwear, I mean, we don't, literally everything. It's, you know, poor rate re-reeds just really mad at us because we don't buy that stuff of there.

Groceries? Oh, Jeff Bezos. They keep growing. It's doing well. Stana, on 790 at 1236. Stana, how the hell are you? What's up, man? I was trying to catch you on Friday, but, you know, you had a lot of stuff going on.

But, hey, Matt, man, I'm upset with this college football playoff bracket, man. It was, you know, they led us astray last year saying the top 12 teams was going to be in it. But they didn't say about the smaller schools. You know, I think they should add that in like, hey, like how the college basketball do. hey they got their own little groups that win and get in we already count for them but it was a

it was I think they really led the league straight this year they follow the rules there was nothing they didn't they didn't circumvent the rules they didn't create new guidelines the top five conference champions get in

and that's what it did it and when there's five that are in it bumps out it bumps out teams that are at large it just does now if you want to get rid of the

conference automatic qualifiers and just say the big best 12 teams regardless of conference whether you win a championship or not you could do that and maybe that comes into play but they absolutely have to put five conference champions in there that's that is

in the rules they didn't create this for just for 2025 yeah I agree with that but what I was saying was they should have at least made it clear that, hey, look, the smaller schools meet a spot. Okay,

let's give them a spot. Just like the just like I said, the college basketball, hey, them smaller schools know they got to win a tournament. They get in there. The bigger schools know that. But they didn't make that clear enough.

And, by the way, if you want to find Matt out there, hey, just look for that eye candy next to a Mike and you'll find Matt. Who's the eye candy? Whoever you find every time I see you on TV, I see you next with my eye candy.

You dirty dog. Thank you, Sonna. It is true that I do work with attracted people on television. Thus, that's television. Yes. Radio, we don't have the requirement. No, we do not.

Thus, I work with you. I'm sorry, you're a handsome man. itself. Thank you. The girls do like your hair. Some ungodly reason. Very confused by the way. I got no comment. You shouldn't. Let me do the commenting for you.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to comment on the people I work with, except they're beautiful, and we appreciate all of them. Yes. Happy to be here. Every day, 10 to 2. Go Team 790. We are Team 790. We are the backbone of 790. They wouldn't never get rid of us.

That's not true. James on 790. James, what do you have? Yeah, didn't the coach draft Ellinger about three or four years ago, the Texas quarterback? He never could payout. He was like a six-round pick. I think he's with the Broncos. So the Broncos?

Who? Ellinger. Yeah, he's moved around. Where did he was go? Ewers, didn't he was gone to the Broncos? Ewers? Uh, wait. yours is with the

Dolphins He was he in a seventh round pick Was he not? Yeah Okay Yeah well I thought Well I thought As bad as a co-steen quarterback

So I thought he would make it easily But He's on the Broncos this year Okay All right Well I just kind of wonder What happened That's all I got

All right thanks guys James James, come on That's not a phone call for a radio show That's Googling He's need to handling longhorn quarterbacks, Matt. You've got to pick up the subtext here.

Oh, I wasn't really paying much attention. By the way, getting work from a couple of people. You've got to learn James' schick. He hates the longhorns, and so he brought up two longhorn quarterbacks that aren't doing well in the NFL. Oh, come on. Come on, Maddie. Let's go.

I mean, I'll be honest. I usually tune out of James calls. Okay. By the way, I'm getting some good news that maybe Channel 11 is going to have the cults game on. Okay. Because, again, they're smart. Channel 11, you're smart. Now, some of the things you've done aren't very bright, but most things you've done pretty good.

Here, look at me fast forwarding all the way to my Sunday. You are obsessed with this right now. Because I want to make sure that's the right game. Actually, I'm going to be on a plane. What doesn't matter to me? Yeah, you're really getting fixated. Yeah, you'll be fine. Don't you have direct Sunday ticket or whatever?

No, I've got, I've got Red Zone. Oh, I thought you had a Runday Rickett. No, I don't have Runday Rickett. Can't afford it because I'm doing Ramazon too much. You've had it for years. No. I used to have it in the old, but I'm not going to get boo-boob, TV, because that's just a waste of time.

So I'm going to Denver. I'm not going to be able to see the Indianapolis Hale game because I'll be landing in Denver and then we put the Denver game on. Okay. The nerve are those people. You're going to be fine. Red zone it is. Yeah, catch the extended highlights. Yeah. And plus, the Texans will dispose of the Cardinals by at least 10,

so that won't be... Hopefully. Some Monday I'm going to do the show from Denver. We're not going to have a lot... Jacoby Brissette is a certified Texans killer. Somebody said that he's beaten him three times? With like three different franchises, I think. How does Jacoby Preset We have three NFL wins, period. He's not that bad, Matt.

He really isn't that bad. He's a good backup. He's a top-tier backup. Let me give you this one. In their prime, Jacoby Percette. Okay. Or Tyrod Taylor. Jacob Percet.

Jacoby Percette or Keenham in his prime? Jacobi Percet. I don't know. Who cares? Chase Keenum. Or Chase Daniel? Chase Daniel hardly started a game. That's true.

Jaco Berset or... Here's a tougher one. Garner Minchew. That is a tough one That's a knock-down drag-out battle right there There is not another radio show on this market But it's giving you backup quarterback talk like ours That's the Hagler-Herns of backup quarterback matchups

I'm gonna go with I gotta go with Chikob because he's still in Jacoby Burset or Kirk Cousins Cousins That's true but he hasn't been backup that long Is there anything else I could possibly throw at you in the next 60 seconds I don't know Davis Mills

Where are the Mills Jacoby Bresset or Davis Mills That is a quality Davis Mills all day. He's a future Hall of Famer According to some. Will you please tweet out

what you didn't do it out last week? I meant to. Because I want to see the hate coming. You're going to do it now? Was it too late? It's too late. No. It would feel forced to be late now.

All my tweets are forced. Clearly. But if you do it at Sunday, 1230, it'll come across organic. Okay. A little secret here. He's going to tweet out something about when C.J. Stroud goes three now at some point in the game, he's going to say Davis Mills would have got that ball completed to Christian Kirk or to whomever. Higgins.

People are going to, you just want me to get more hate. You like what I get hate on social media. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. The NFL rewinds at 120. What is today's edition, believe or not, which is just over an hour from now? Kyle Schwerber Five years One Fitty He's doing okay Edwin Diaz The Dodgers

2026 World Series championship You know what I want them to win again I want them to win again So all these other owners get upset And realize this league is broken Or

As Jeff Passa would say You can spend like the Dodgers Yeah I'm going to carry water For the Dodgers And Major League Baseball And the owners Who carries more water?

Medianaker crunch for Texan's games or Jeff Passon? Adam Schaefter. There's only going to be one minute of spots on Red Zone. Where's the update, Schifty? Where's the update? You can't call him, Sheffty. You're not close enough. Whatever.

Mr. Schaefter. Adam. There you go. 713-212-5-790. All quiet at the Astros in the winter in meetings. Is that surprise to anybody? Although we can do a believe it on the brand-new Astros of which one's a royal.

713-212-5-7-90. 12-51 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Willie is with us on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Willie, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon to you. I am thrilled about the Texas Bowl.

It's local. And LSU is not that far away. I think we'll have a good crowd. Now we're waiting for the price of the tickets on Wednesday. Debra has tickets for $1,000. Are they out of their minds? I think the average ticket to get in, if you go through the stadiums, like I think it's $150, somewhere in that range.

Yeah, well, we're going to buy the tickets regardless because we went to the Peach Bowl and that wasn't cheap. Buying tickets here is just nothing to me dropping the bucket. But anyway, did you make a comment last week about the... Cougar's not getting the Texas Bowl with some reason. Did you make that? I didn't think they were going to go to the Texas Bowl. I didn't guarantee it, but

from what my well-placed sources told me it was not how do I put this delicately? I don't think it was the first choice of either the Texas Bowl or the University of Houston. And let's put it that way. Oh, okay. Well, when my husband found it,

And I thought, oh, wow, I just couldn't believe it. So more power to the Cougars, great season. And I understand we have a five-star recruit. She's going to be a good one. Yep. Yep. Yep, he's going to be a good one. I hope so.

Yeah, I don't envision him playing for a string, but Wigman, if he stays around, should be playing the first string, don't you think? In the coming season? I think, Willie, and thank you for the phone call. It's going to be very interesting to see how that plays out, because you are paying him good money and he is the number one dual threat quarterback in the country and

it's coming from the spring school of sports witchcraft and wizardry I think. And by the way, we've hired their coach. Oh, really? Now, stay with me on this. Stay with me on this. Oh, man.

There is a Kevin Bacon six degrees. The coach of the quarterback, named Michael Bishop Michael Bishop started his junior college career I believe at Blin where the coach of that team was Willie Fritz So Willie and Michael had a relationship

And relationships tend to grow and manifest and they gaslit this poor young man He didn't gaslight anything. He can't wait Did you see his signing day? and nothing about UH gear everywhere. He loves a place. With the enrollment of about 56 people, they're all football players.

The point being is it's not out of the ordinary. Truth be totally told, this happens a lot. Yes. But Michael Bishop. The coach comes with the player. It happens a lot. But Michael Bishop obviously loves Willie. What's his role in the staff?

I don't know. I just saw a photo of him on Twitter a little while ago. Okay. I don't, I'm going to assuming quarterback assistant. Getting a good recruit is a good way to get yourself into a college staff. It happens all the time. All the time. All the time. All the time. All right. So this is all becoming a clearer picture for me.

I don't care how clear your picture is. I'm going to muddy it up for you. He wanted to go to a tier one school. He said the only one place I want to go to U of H. And again, there were very few schools at the jump that told Mr. Henderson, we want you to be a quarterback. A lot of people wanted to turn him into a wide receiver. And he didn't want to do that. Will he says, you come to U of H, you'll be our quarterback. Boom. Done. Now, as far as a ball game is concerned, I really, really believe in my heart that it will, Well, they wanted to take his kids in the road somewhere to get the true bowl experience. You won't obviously get that being in Houston.

You get a little staycation. Well, I think they're going to do it that way. Yeah, you stay downtown, down, you know, when you don't get the budget, go to a nice restaurant downtown. Yeah. Hit the mammarium. Get on the Ferris wheel. I don't want my offensive linemen on the Ferris wheel. You got a horse and carriage ride around Discovery Green.

Act like you're in a different town. A little staycation with a little, you know, get a nice weekend with your wife in town. Go to Phoenicia and get some of them. You can stay vacation in Houston, it's fine. For four days, five days. There's only so much to do with the Georgia Brown. So, and that's not a, and that's also not atypical of schools that are in the city. Like, for instance, SMU doesn't want to go to the Dallas Bowl because they want to get away for a little while.

I mean, that's the kids that do want, they want to go somewhere else. But the reality was, there were some big 12 schools that bowed out. and there was a lukewarm interest from a couple other bowls about Houston and concerns about travel numbers so it just kind of gelled properly and the reality is

LSU Houston not only set you up to have a good bowl game with lots of people in it and my guess is there maybe one or two thousand LSU fans there is it also gives you a nice precursor

for what 2027 will be when the two teams meet and energy stadium to open up the college football season. Yeah it's a nice dress rehearsal This game doesn't matter. Nobody cares. Half empty stadium. It would be full.

Full of Cougars. Full of Cougars. Let's go Cougars. Here we go. 7-1-3-go Cooons. I would say, Willie, wait for the secondary market around kickoff. You'd be all right. You can find a pair. Willie, you better get there quick.

Because it's going to be inundated with nothing but red and white. And maybe a smackling, is that a word? Smattering? Smattering. A smattering. You've had some doozys. I know. A smackering?

That's why I said. It didn't sound right. That's why I didn't go with it. A smattering of LSU fans sprinkled. It'll be sprinkled in throughout the crowd. Largely U of H, though, dominant. Let's go to the top of the hour. We'll talk to Kyle to open up the 1 o'clock hour.

We're going to hit a break on time once for today. No, we did it at 11. That's true. We didn't do it at 12, though. That's okay. 713, 21, 2, 1. Getting the flow of a good show. Yeah, it's a good flow.

713-1-2-5-79. We owe you some Joe Espada audio. we owe you can we if we cut up the uh the Pete Bevalaqua audio whatever I'm not going to call me as our name we have one of our producers do it okay I mean the one that's not working on our live show we got a long team we got a lot of team get our research assistant we made I'm gonna keep using this kind of fits what a cry baby we'll paraphrase I will paraphrase that was the paraphrasing that was the paraphrasing right there was a paraphrasing

they're going to leave the ACC, aren't there? Are they that butt hurt over this? I think you should have put your gut feeling within two years. Yeah, I couldn't do that. Because I think logistically there could be some issues. Nobody's going to remember your gut feeling two years later. I hope they do. 713-212-5-790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 102 Sports Talk 790. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790 7-13-21-2-5-7-90 Headlines the day Notre Dame 80 bitching and moaning I think he's still speaking right now

This is going into hour number two At the press conference Where he's answering every question About how much he loves The head coach of the time Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame He's tall, dreamy He's Rico Suave of college football apparently

Dresses well, eats well Deserves his more money well we'll see was that as much about buttering up to freeman than it was about complaining about the atlantic coast conference what are the NFL head coaching salaries relative to the top college guys aren't guys isn't uh everybody's making like 13 million a year and stuff now oh yeah the NFL still pays better does it but it's college is getting close okay Kirby smart's making 13 million i don't NFL ones aren't released but if something that's people dig them up. Yes, the agents that want it to be released, make it released. Oh, Andrew Reed's making 20? No way. For making bonehead four-time decisions? That was a good fourth-down decision.

It was not universally... You can say it was the wrong one, but bone-headed is incorrect. How about a massive mistake? I'll go with that, and I'm not... I'm not falling on... Sean Payton's making 18, Harbaugh... John Harbaal 17. What do you think... What's the Miko making? We have any idea? He's not listed. Only the top ten is listed.

on this Sportico I want to say that DeMico got a pretty good chunk of change because wasn't he being courted by the Denver Broncos too at the exact same time and when you can get into it and you get to a bidding war

that helps. He's not listed at this top 10 from the Sportico article that I just pulled up. At winter meetings continue with the Astros I mean not that we should expect

a lot out of it but we're seeing other teams making moves Edwin Diaz going from the Mets to the Dodgers? This front office sports article has Domingo Ryan's 15th, that 8 million a year. It's good money. Hmm. Lowest, this can't be right.

Mike McDaniel, three and a half million? Why would you question that? That seems extremely low. Have you met Mike McDaniel? Yes, I have. He wears the same outfit. He's a great offensive mind. They've won five games in a row.

Yeah, but he didn't sign that contract making winning five. games in a row. He was a hot name coming from the Shanahan tree as an offensive mind. Well, he left his library shift to be an NFL head coach. He's doing all right. They've won how many games in a row now? Three and a half million in Miami, that isn't going to

be a very far. They've won four in a row. They're six and seven. And they're still eligible for the playoffs. As are the Bengals surprisingly. They're not making it, but no. Colts making the playoffs yes or no. No, right? No. Are we bumping in Indianapolis and Kansas City out? Miami's remaining schedule. Steelers, Bingles, Buccaneers, Patriots.

Yeah, two and two. I'll finish eight and nine. So do we, do we right now have, and we're going on the phones in just second here, do we have our seven teams locked in now? No. In the NFL? No. Let's take a look.

And AFC, you mean? Both. Let's look at the AFC first. Well, okay, let me put it this way. If we're knocking Indie out, I guess the question would be, we could take Baltimore and supplanting with Pittsburgh, because Pittsburgh only has a one game lead. But if we're down on KC and we're down on Miami and we're down on Indianapolis,

could both Baltimore and Pittsburgh get into the playoffs? I mean, it's a possibility. That's not crazy. Yeah, we'll see. Probably the seven that are in now or the seven that are in. With the Texans being seventh, they need to win some games. I do not want them to be the seventh seed. That would be at New England probably on a 3.30.

Oh, you know what they would do? Oh, we got a bet. Oh, no, no, no, no. Here's the thing. I would lose that bet. But I'd be okay with it. You know why? I love snow and cold games

They'll put that bad boy And it's Saturday 9 at 8 o'clock at night No our bet is Saturday 3.30 You have the field Oh I have the field? Yes So I would win Yes

Now that when I win the bet You're not winning that bet It's gonna be Jaguars Texas No no no no no no no if it's 3-6 Yes But if it's too not winning that bet Hold on what did we even bet Let me look

Hold on hold on hold on Now wait a minute Wait a minute. If it's Texans, Jacksonville, it's 3-6. Yeah. Or 6-3. Saturday 3. That's 3.30 Saturday.

That's a done deal. Patriots, Texans might be there too. Nope. They're going to put the Patriots. Are you kidding? A huge television market? They're putting that in prime time. Look at the other match.

Let's see. What would be the other match? Well, Jaguars Bill's. Oh, hell yeah. Steelers Chargers could be three. You know what? You might win. Yeah, yeah.

The only way the Texans play three. 30 Saturday is if they're playing Jacksonville. I'm checking the file to see what we bet. This is why we keep a file. We make too many bets. That's our number one problem. I don't have anything on the line.

I didn't write anything. I believe he was a large bag of chips. We didn't write anything. I think it's a large bag of chips. Other bets we have pending. Ross has for a deli lunch. Texans over seven and a half wins. That's a dub! Woo! Deli lunch!

Deli lunch! Coming my way! let's go Habachi on Kyle Tucker we have a drive-thru lunch on Yordon Alvarez ever playing 130 games bet is in the bet is over at 2036 I feel good about that

and we have a gentleman's bet nothing on it Frumber five and a half years AAV I'm feeling good for you there I don't know I mean his name is being brought up way more than I was I'm sorry, under over five and a half years, no AAV. I have over five and a half.

See, but that was before he hit his pitcher in the gut. His catcher, I mean. But he's been spending the entire winter meetings and talking to team saying, hey, that's not me, bro. We made this bet before he crossed up his catcher and lost his mind five times in a row. This is BS. All right. In 2026, less betting.

No, more betting. No. It's feeling like we took a picture When you and I took the hot The hot pod video Your Don Alvarez is playing 130 games next year Yeah, let's go By way, we need to make a bet on the

Zion Williamson's 70 games or less Because I would have that 1-1-1 Not playing again 70 games this year I'm not counting an 83rd game Sorry, you don't get it No you don't He's played 70 You don't get it when an 83 game schedule

I'm sorry, 82 He's only like 24 years old In a long time But the NBA ecosystem As guys don't play every night save yourself in the playoffs especially for him rings rings rings rings ring culture ring culture we want guys ready to go for the rings or in his case uh jamaican vacation and there can be no rings in new orleans maybe wherever it gets traded that's you can't

win with zion william wilmson he's a great player uh you can't win with zion wiam wilmson can't you cannot why not doesn't play enough oh okay no man i'm serious i'm serious it's a heart attack I can't my alpha my dog can't play 48 games a year sorry Anthony Davis did that for a while Chris Paul was hurt every year you could win with him well you'd win championships with them Anthony Davis won a championship he had LeBron with him yeah but you won a championship with him LeBron was so the alpha on that team

okay 80 played amazing he was amazing but he was dropping like 25 a night in those playoffs also didn't have to travel I'm saying didn't have to step of toe I'm saying I'm gonna win Kyle on 790. Hello, Kyle. We both went McBrown for some reason. May McBrown. We went some apple pie with Sally Brown. Hello, Kyle.

Good afternoon, y'all. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Just wanted to see what y'all's opinion was on the college football playoff bracket. And I just want to preface. I went to Baylor, so I have no stake or bias in this. But just looking at all the controversy with teams getting knocked out and Tulane and James Madison getting the 11 and 12 spot. I'm just curious, I know that the top conference champions get those spots, but I'm curious why it is that way and why we wouldn't want it to be as competitive as possible with teams, you know, with the top 12 teams just from the regular season making it into that. I guess I just wanted to see what y'all's opinion was on that. I think, I don't know exactly what it was, Kyle, but there needed to be.

a vote like this the to form the college football playoff the way that it was there need they needed votes there were like 10 conference commissioners voting i don't know why or how or if the NCAA delegated that or whoever else made it that they needed 10 conference votes and the only way you're going to get enough votes to to pass the playoff the way that it was was to make the automatic qualifying caveat i see okay so is that why they're wanting to expand it to 16 yes well part of of it. They want to keep the automatic qualifiers in, meaning they want to give the non-power fours, that's everybody else, the non-power fours, a shot in a national championship. But this has exposed that more because of the fact that's 12. If you do it at 16, you can kind of swaddle that

notion and be okay with it. At 12, it becomes much more of an argument of, wait a minute, you're going to kick out Miami, or you're going to kick out Notre Dame, you're going to kick out Texas. You're going to kick out BYU for James Madison and for Tulane. I don't like it. So that's why. That's number one reason. Number two, that creates two more games, additional revenue, and everybody loves in college football revenue. I hear that. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for calling, Kyle. Appreciate you getting in. Yeah. All right. I love 12. I get 16. You know what 16 does? It gets everybody having to Ross.

Money, money, money, it gives you more money. And it also allows James Madison and Tulane to be in, and no one gives, no one's going to argue about it. And now the number one team, the number one through four teams get home games too, so you get a revenue boost that way? Yeah. Everybody, I mean, beyond 16 would make it a complete joke. I like, let's say, I mean, I like the thought of a team going 13 and O and winning the SEC or Big Ten or whatever conference, like getting, getting the opportunity. to have that buy. So, okay, let's do this.

If it's 16 teams, four get the buy, right? Or how am I get the buy? In Indiana went 13 and 0 and won the Big Ten. They should get a week off. Yes. Not only do you get a, not only for the week of rest, but the week of not being exposed to danger,

or being exposed to possibly being out. So help me with my bracket then. Who plays whom then? If it's a 16 team and the four teams get the buy. You can't do that. Eight teams need to get a buy. Eight teams are going to buy, and then they'll play the top four. You'd get double buys in the top four then.

I don't think, do you want to play three weeks in between, four weeks in between games? I guess you do. You've done it before. All right. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put together the chart. You need double buys then if you do 16 and you're going to incorporate buys. Or what if you give eight teams a buy?

Yeah. Well, because then you only have four teams left and you're down to 12. Nine play 16, 10 plays. 10 plays 15 11 place 14 you end up with 4 teams you end up 4 teams then you're back to 12 and you can't play 6 on 6 Oh that's true

So you got to do double buys So if you get a double by that means you You end your season You end your season December the 6 And 4 through 8 Or sorry 5 through 8 gets 1 by 1 through 4 gets double by They're not going to do that

I don't think Do you want to go forward to between games? I'm going to be down with it because I don't think you want you don't want a no-by system correct how about this what if you push everything back three weeks and started that and started late

and everybody plays I don't know this is for the commissioners to figure out and I got one for you too how are you going to go tell the number three seed that has six players that want to go to the NFL draft we need you in this long-ass tournament And does that affect how you see these teams if you have players that are leaving to go to the portal or go to the pros?

Do you give that up? I'll tell you what, if I'm paying these kids, you are finishing out the season. If you don't want to finish out the season, you owe us some money, right? How do you balance the money that you get from a school to the money you potentially been making the NFL if you're going to be in a long, exhaustive playoff tournament? I think you play for a championship. I do. I do, too.

I would hope they would. You haven't had any major opt-outs in the, among playoff teams. You're at 12. It probably wouldn't happen at 16. Yeah. And you don't have the opt-outs in the college basketball tournament. All right, 115 on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Up next is NFL Rewind.

What's going on around the NFL's we have wrapped up this latest week? We have a little bit of breaking news here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Rossi, a second one or no? Ah, sure. The Astros announcing they have sold their AAA, double A, and single A affiliates to a group called Diamond Baseball Holdings. Diamond Baseball Holdings is a private equity group. We were just talking about private equity.

It's everywhere. Private equity is going to be rule our lives, or more than it. already does. It owns 45 of a potential 120 full season minor league baseball teams. What is bro planning? What are they going for here?

Go ahead. They've purchased the all three affiliates? All three affiliates. We have more than three, right? What's that? Don't they? Low-A, high A, AA, double A, triple A? I don't know. I guess those are the ones that the Astros have owned.

Okay. Cowboys, Hooks, Woodpeckers. What about the, there's like Greenville Astros or something like that? Yeah, I don't know if they own that in a lot. That I can't speak to. But, so what you got out here is you got a private equity company that has said, we're going to invest in minor league teams, and we believe that we're going to have strength in numbers. So they must believe that buying minor league teams and operating them as one big corporation can help,

can turn a private for this private equity group. I wonder they have to be planning something TV packages or I don't know No no I would they bought they bought 50 clubs within the last five years Yeah my there's got to be a master plan Yeah master plan would be All right

Aren't most of these are not profitable A lot of there are not hugely profitable How much money are the Albuquerque isotopes pulling in a year I don't know I don't know what their expenses are Yeah so I can't tell you what that is I mean from revenue I mean It's not exclusively revenue from stadium C or exotic schools, and they have no television deals

to speak of, radio deals. They have sponsorship deals. My guess is you go to love, I'll just throw a company out there, Loves Travel Stop. And you tell Loves Travel Stop, loves, would you like to be on in 50

ballpark outfields in small to medium-sized cities? And Love's like, yeah, that's our audience, perfect. Yeah, see, that makes sense. Maybe it's so they can pool together. advertising. They obviously have a plan. Private equity ain't buying all this for for bleeps and giggles. No, no, no, no. They're not. They're not treating this as a they love baseball. They're having a master plan to make some money. So I mean, to buy 45 clubs within five years is pretty, they're moving and shaken and they have a master

plant. Because I looked it up. This Diamond Holdings is owned by Silver Lake investment firm which owns EA they own Klarna they own Expedia they have billions invested in Twitter

AMC credit karma SOFi yeah this is this is major they bought up Michael Dell at Adele so what they'll do now is they'll take all those companies in which they own

and they will plaster advertising in those stadiums. Great. Because they're under one umbrella. I mean, this is, Ross, I hate to tell you this, this is not out of the ordinary. All the major, all the minor league affiliates getting bought up by one company? We're watching. Our conference is about to be bought up by private equity.

I know. Private equity is not out of the ordinary. I'm just saying this is crazy. So the reality is this. Private equity is getting into sports more so than ever. Yes. We are owned by a private equity company. Yes.

So we have firsthand knowledge of it. When I first got in with IHeart, which before that was called, Kluner Channel. I was owned by radio people. Yes. The Mays family owned and created radio stations and built this company, this company off of their philosophies about radio. Private equity came in and bought them, changes to IHeart, hired some radio people, but also hired some people that did not have radio experience that were running businesses and we are operated much more like a business and we are at a radio company. Founded by Lowry Mays and Mark Mays. And in some respects Red McCombs. Red McCombs. Look at this guy. Radio

Historian. Dude, I had been with... I didn't know that Red McCones. This is 1991. Shout out Red McCones. May he rest? May he rest? Former owner of the San Antonio Spurs. And owner of the Cowboys, too. No, Minnesota Vikings. And major donor to the Texas Longhorns. Yeah. Mocon's Business School. Right. McCombs Business School. Yeah. One of the most highly respected business schools in the country. And is alongside the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M. So, point being is this, private equity. And for anybody that works in a normal nine to five world. You and I don't do that. But private equity is owning a lot of things. Yep. Buying up all the property and all the companies. So what you

will do is the foxy little minor league product. Yes. Of watching Grandma's biscuit barn. They're not, if Grandma's biscuit bar wants to advertise, they're going to have to advertise with seven or eight teams. Get your way to what. Grandma? Yeah. Let's go. I can't believe I thought of Grandma's biscuit barn. But I did. See, a lot of. See you later. See you later, mom and pop. Now, minor league, sadly. Relations.

They will also take administrative teams. For instance, they're going to wheel down. If there are three teams in Northern California they own, they will have one PR person, one marketing person, one ticket person, social media managers. Social media, so they will, it will be shaving down and making them leaner. Fantastic. And there's your news. But, I mean, again, my guess is Jim Crane does.

and turn a bad business deal down and the deal was probably offering a I'm sure they're overpaying for these to try to get them all accrued I guess yeah to make the big conglomerate bigger and their reach bigger yeah from coast to coast and if you're telling me the company that is this private equity firm is buying all these teams with all those other relationships yeah guess what expedia is going to handle their travel I bet you their plan is to own all 120 we saw in in some respects with MLS but that hasn't worked out well because they just keep change in ownership's left and right teams are buying multiple teams at one time they were they were but it wasn't private equity in that well the soccer sucks we do owe you audience to watch

that crap we own the nf we owe them NFL rewind oh well we also owe them joe spot updates we didn't even get to the parades and yord on stuff you know what i'm gonna we're gonna we're gonna skip nfl rewind dang and here and here i had so much prepared and you had nothing prepared oh i don't believe you well let me delete all this all this hard work ross you and i are shutting up Espada speaking, run through the cuts. Then we'll comment. Okay, well, I won't shut up to some extent, but Jose Al Tuve, what will his

role be in 2026, Mr. Espada? I like the fact that he is open to help him, to do whatever it takes to help the team. But I think second base is his prime position. I think we're going to see him play there more this season, you know, giving us some starts

in left field. That's something that I will sit down and talk to him about that. But right now is, I need to keep our guys healthy. I think a lot of these players can play multiple positions. Paredes can play some second, third, and first base allows me to keep Correa and Walker healthy.

The D-H spot, I'm also going to use that spot to keep those guys off their feet some. So, you know, I got some really good players that once they're healthy is a really good team to to, it's going to be a really tough team to beat. Just, you know what, accept it. Jose

likes playing second base. He's the greatest of all time he played nice last year he's the most beloved astro of all time he played nice last year he hates playing left field he'll never say it the asser will never say it but clearly there's more room for him in the outfield there is an infield there's no argument to that but they don't want to put him there yeah uh i mean it'll be he'll play everywhere to an extent because where where is the room for him in second base if esac paratus is playing at second base you're going to spell korea some jeremy payne had probably Probably not that much.

He's pretty young. Could it be first base? Wouldn't it make a lot of sense for Christian Walker to move on? And Isak Paredes to play a lot of first base? So tell Dan to make the move. Well, here's what Joe Espott had to say about Isak Paredes. We're going to ask those questions here in the coming weeks, right? We're trying to improve our roster.

I need to keep all those guys healthy, right? But I'm going to ask those guys to play multiple positions so I could keep them all in the lineups. I could keep that offense. together and give us a chance to win every single night. So, you know, they all have done it in the past. And we're going to continue to explore our options and see how we can improve our club. But I'm excited about these guys. Once we're healthy, we are going to be a very tough team to beat.

So conversation is going to be had, hinting in the first bite that Paredes could be playing some second base. But then Altuva is playing second base. Where does Bryce Matthews? I mean, you had that gut feeling that he'll be traded or moved. it's possible maybe as a sweetener and a walker deal I don't know

I mean is the guy that they got from Atlanta Braves does he even make the roster oh Nick Allen yeah we don't even know his name I know he's like a backup I've got two months to figure it out

he's like a backup utility you've already got one of those you've already got one of your backup utility Paredes does not have a starting spot right now I think you can piece it together with your outfielers and with with Altuvei with with

potentially Bryce Matthews. I don't know. Or maybe there are some more moves to be made. But one thing that hinders everything is a spot has said this in the first bite. Like, oh, he wants to use D.D.H. as the day off place, as the day off spot for everyone. But he also says Yordon Alvarez is going to be playing a lot of designated hitter.

Not much left field. I can't give you the numbers of it right now. But, you know, we're going to try to minimize the volume of innings and left, trying to keep his bat in that lineup every single day it's our number one priority he's one of the best hitters in the game we can probably argue here all night

that he's probably top two hitters is number one in my opinion but keeping your done healthy what he brings through our lineup what he brings through our clubhouse suppresses in that game he's a game changing player number one ahead of judge huh let him

have his shine come on come on nothing Come on. Come on. I love Yordon. I love Yordon. I love me some Yordon Alvarez.

Team Yordaddy. He has not hit 40 home runs, let alone 50 or 60. And he's hurt. True. But Aaron Judge had the, he had the injury prone label in New York as well when he got hurt for a couple years in a row. But what happened? Got out there and he was healthy. Yeah.

Good massages. People slap around that injury prone label a little too quick. What's my gut feeling on, Jordan? You said he's never going to play 130 games ever again in his career. I cannot wait. I will apologize to the people that he apologized. You should apologize to the Alvarez family. His wife, his children, all of them.

Let me tell you, Alvarez family. I love your husband, your son, your father. I am a big fan. But I know his history. And he knows his history. And the reality is he's going to get some time off Because they do not want large chunks of him being gone Like chunks of his body

No like chunks of playing time In the left field fence They don't want large chunks in that outfield scoreboard We have creaky knees All right Creaky hands His hand's fine Are you sure?

No You don't even know You can't even say it with a straight face He's good to go for a spring training spot I did say that All right So Let's go

We said Paratus is going to be good to full go as well we're going to call about jason verlander coming up here oh jason jason jason verland it must be a second cousin to justin john on 790 at 140 hi john how you doing guys i just wondering where jason verlanders going to be playing uh jason is uh right now a free agent great and when will the team be signing him you're okay john is it something funny i mean i think he's really going to be coming here i i don't i do too yeah i do too and maybe you think it's comical that he's coming i'm i can get that but some hypertension i don't no no john's fine he's fine he's doing great yeah he's he just he's not i don't

i don't sense a lot of excitement in your voice would that be accurate that'd be accurate yes sir okay see i do i know i know john thank you john appreciate it yeah i don't you okay he's fine he was smirking are you sure yes he wasn't like he took off his oxygen mask no he was probably I'm worried about the guy I want him to be okay John we asked John if he was okay he said he was fine yeah but a lot of times people say they're fine they're not mad

I would be one of those people I'm not fine I wasn't going to name anybody I know you should say you should name me that's exactly right I'm more worried about Ben is Ben is he going to try to gravy train on the A team again Maybe Be nothing but Shoheyotani love and Justin Verlinder love

O'Tani's great so is Verlander Two Hall of Famers I can do the same thing I'll get paid less Okay Why are you worried about him I'm just telling gravy trainers And you're so weird I'm telling you the truth

Guy's name is Ben Miller He wouldn't be out of radio shows Oh he got lucky We got lucky to some extent I don't know I'm self-made You're self-made Yeah but we're lucky we're here We are lucky we're here

We are lucky were here. Oh, now this is something I want to get into right here. Jonathan and Fulcher. Oh, my God. Jonathan and Fulcher, I put up on social media a couple days ago, Jonathan. I am low-key obsessed with Jalen Petrie's helmet. How about you?

I am, too. Like, I was making fun of the helmets, but it seems like his is bigger and fluffier and taller than everyone else's and you know what it reminds me of it reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with the whiz and maybe y'all might have seen it where the guy like he comes in he's like I'm the whiz and he's got like you got to look it up yes no nobody beats the whiz that is his helmet Jonathan how old are you may ask I'm 44 perfect I'm your noble seeds age. Yes, you are. That's right.

We're like right there. Yeah, you guys are like brothers. I'm 40-year-old. Jonathan, do me a favor. I want you to go look for the great gazoo on Google. He knows the great gazoo. I'm going to have to look it up. See, he doesn't know the great gazoo is. How do you not know the great gazoo? Come on now. Well, what is that

what is there a reference to? Jonathan, you go Google. You'll recognize you'll call back and you'll say, thanks, guys. I need to see that. He's seen the great gazoo. You know what? And I'm very anti-social media. No, it's on the internet.

You're not anti-Google. You're not to go to the social media. I will join Twitter. I will join Twitter just to link up with both of you. I'll take a look. Follow me on Instagram, at SportsRVee. Yeah, Instagram, too. At SportsMT for everything.

Thank you, Jonathan. By the way, go look at the Great Gazoo, and you can thank us later. Everybody, he knows the Great Gazoo if he's 44. Yeah, I was going to say 44-year-olds know the Great Gazoo. Jonathan, you know the Great Gazoo? Oh, me, Jonathan. Yeah, I know this is from the Flintstones. Yeah, it's the Boomerang back in a thing.

It's on my ESPN. I mean, that thing is just, it's glorious. Have you all not been watching football all season? No, but you know, when Matt made that tweet, I was watching the game, and I was telling my girl the same thing. Like, his helmet looks different. He's been wearing it. I know he's been wearing it. But not on a national television audience.

Okay. You don't count when you got the number six NFL crew call on your game. You got the number one crew. Yeah, it does. he's been wearing it he got he came back I liked I loved that he's wearing I came back from a concussion I want him to wear for the rest of his NFL dudes across the NFL been wearing the Guardian cap well I'm not calling it a guardian I'm calling it a great gazoo cap the guardian cap uh Romeo dabs has been wearing one there was a lineman wearing one who else Steve young used to be the OG one he used to wear he was wearing a Darth Vader helmet that thing was like three times it was a little bit different and was it Mark kelso of the bills way back in the day I don't know I'll take your word for it all right Speaking of the bills, a friend of the show, Steve Tasker, there was erroneous reports of his death.

And he goes, he went on Twitter and said, I'm here. Oh, really? He didn't respond to my text, so he's dead to me. That's fair, actually. Jacob, before we play Believe it or not, hi, Jacob. What's happening, guys? Hi. I had a random Justin Verlander question.

So I think everybody thinks he's coming back to the Astros, which, whatever, it is, what it is. when he goes to the Hall of Fame, does he wear a Tiger's hat or does he wear an Astros hat? It's not his decision any longer. I believe it's Major League, it's the Hall of Fame decision. You can still say who, yeah. I mean, I would still say Tigers probably at this point, but it's close. You can suggest, Matt. He can make a recommendation.

He cannot, you cannot demand it because Wade Boggs demanded he would be a Tampa Bay Devil Ray. Right. When he was a Boston Red So I think they would honor whatever suggestion he made. So it probably is up to Justin Verlander. Like, he's not going to say, make me a giant. They would throw out if he said the Giants. I think if he says, make me a tiger or make me an Astro, they'll do whatever he says. Yeah, yeah.

But it's up to, it's still a final call. It's still their decision, but they will listen to your suggestion. All right, really quick. Thank you, Jacob. One, two, three, Ross. Oh, my God. Tiger or an Astro. Can I pull up his resume?

Yes, you may. All right. I think I'm ready. Yes. One, two, three. Tiger. Yeah. I think it's close, though.

If he came back and I don't know They won a World Series or something again Then He won two World Series here And you know he loves winning He did he also think part of him's like I don't want to be associated with this tainted team Not a no no no rise in Houston

But nationally the team is tainted They just are And you know how he But he was never affiliated directly with it None of the pictures were honestly Who loves his image The White Belt Who loves the way that he's

perceived. Ben Verlander's brother. I just, you know what? I just convinced myself. I said, eh, kind of half-ass, Tiger. No, I'm ready. Here we go. One, two, three.

Tiger. He was younger, too. That's when he was his most dominant. That's how he came up. But it's closer than I thought it was going to be. Believe it or not, is up next 146 on Sports Talk 790. Five minutes, let's go on the show. What should we do?

We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not. Here's how it works. You call 713-212-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Today's edition, people don't even know what today's edition, believe it or not is. I don't think I mentioned it one time. It's all things about Kyle Schwerber.

I'll read you a statement about Schwerber. Statements is completely utterly accurate. Schwabes. Savants, erroneous full of bunk and made up. You will say this. I think you're saying something. Did I hear it? Yeah, you got it.

Okay, I didn't make sure. Two in a row, when you won of three prizes, we got some really nice prizes, in fact. And they will include the following. Either a $7.90 T-shirt, tickets to see never-ending 90s with Ezra Ray Hart. 90s hits in Christmas rifts. Woo! That's December the 13th at the Smart Financial Center at smartfinancial center.net. or a pair of tickets to see the Monster Energy AMA Supercross.

January the 31st at NRG Stadium. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. Let's play, believe it or not. Brian on Sevenoni, Brian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Oh, yeah. Okay, Brian, good luck to you, my friend. Kyle Schrober was drafted second overall by the Cubs in 2014. Did not sign until the Cubs up there off or minutes before the deadline.

Believe it or not. That's correct. Same number two for the waiting. Kyle Schwerber's major while at Indiana was communications. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's recreational sports. Too.

When in doubt, it's always recreational sports. Daniel on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Coming out of college, draft scouts compared Kyle Schwerver's swing mechanics to those. Jeff Bagwell, believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. statement number two for the win.

In high school, Kyle Schrober was also a standout football player, earning all Ohio honors at linebacker his senior year. Believe it or not. Oh, that's a believe it. That is. Nicely done. It's like you had the answers already in front of them. Thank you very much.

Congratulations. Let's go next to Dave on 790. What was your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show? My favorite part, He is Matt Thomas. Kyle Schwerver was slighted to represent Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic before being sidelined with an oblique injury. Believe it or not? Not. That's correct.

Statement number two for the win. Kyle Schwerver was the cover athlete for the mobile baseball game MLB Perfect Game, 24. Believe it or not? Not. That's correct. Another winner. How about that? John on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? I'm always ready, Matt Thomas.

Kyle Schwerber's younger brother, Taylor, is in the Phillies farm system as an outfielder. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, we made that up. I'm sorry. He's his brother's a great guy, but didn't do it. Roger on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it! Kyle Swarber's nicknames include Hulk, Schwabes, and Warbird.

Believe it or not? believe it believe it oh my god you want it because you can't play for 30 days how are you going to price whore then congratulations how many aliases do you have no kidding let's talk about serda pearl painters where we get you out of here

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Serta Pro does. C-E-R-T-A-P-R-O.com. That's Serta with a C. Tomorrow, shut your bum-ass up. Notre Dame style for basically the entire half hour. More from the winter of meetings, probably. You never know. And just four hours of general happiness.

That's Ross and Matt. Show about happiness. Up next, two mean dudes, Wexler, Clanton. The A. on Sports Talk 7-90. Woo-hoo!