The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Texans vs Seahawks Tonight! Durant Gets An Extension, Coogs Are Going Bowling

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Texans vs Seahawks Tonight! Durant Gets An Extension, Coogs Are Going Bowling

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-1H-Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. We have got a lot to get to for a Monday that does not feature a game to talk about from yesterday. It does not feature a game involving a Houston sports team, at least tonight. well, one team will be playing.

The other is, we'll be watching two other teams play for the American League supremacy. It was just a very interesting sports weekend with a lot of coaching changes in sports. Amazing NFL games yesterday. We had a climactic game six of the American League championship series, which now sends us to a game seven. And finally, finally, and I don't know why we're doing so much bitching about it, but I am the leader of it, and for that I apologize. The Texans are playing tonight at 9 o'clock. Everybody gets a bye week.

Excuse me. Everybody gets an off week. So it's not, we've done this before. We've gone a Sunday without the Texans playing. The weird part of it is it just feels externally longer because, A, there was a second consecutive Sunday where the Texans did not play. They can play on a Monday night, but they're playing at 9 o'clock local time. So it feels like it has been forever and ever and ever.

And perhaps the biggest indication of that is the fact that if you look at the AFC standings, if you look at the AFC South Sandstandings, the Indianapolis Colts are six in one after disposing of the L.A. charge of, and they're horrific, horrific uniforms. Jonathan Allen is a producer of this radio program. I know you were going to ask for this. Did you see the yellow-on-yellow gear that the Chargers wore yesterday? Yeah, it actually looks really horrible.

I'm not going to sit here and try to defend. It looks so bad. I'm going to be honest with you, and I love you like a brother, younger son. You're supposed to get your ass kick when you're wearing yellow-on-yellow. You just are. Go ask Baylor. They know these things. I'm good for a little bit, but yeah,

it was... I had to turn it off after that time. Yeah. So, not only did the Colts play yesterday and beat the Chargers rather convincingly in Los Angeles, if my math is right, they have a three and a half game lead

over the Texans in the AFC South. And I'm right, because Indianapolis is 6 and 1, Houston is 2 and 3. If the Texans lose this game, game, they'll be three and a half back. Let me make sure this is right. Two and four, three, five.

Yeah, three and a half back. So right now they are, the Colts have played seven, the Texans have played five, so they're four right now. This is nuts. Point being is this. It'll be finally nice to have football back with a team that we actually care about watching. Now, I will say this. And I don't know how many of you within the sound of my voice. Now, yesterday, the over-the-air games on the CBS game was Las Vegas, Kansas City.

That was a dud. The Fox game was Philadelphia, Minnesota, and then Washington against Dallas. Now, Philadelphia, Minnesota was really good. Dallas, Washington was good for a while, but then Dallas pulled away. For the second consecutive week, I was able to watch Red Zone for seven consecutive hours. Now, truth be totally told, because I am a man of honesty on this show, I did take, I think, at least one lengthy nap during the seven hours, and I think I snuck a mini nap in as well. Point being, it's not bad to not have a dog in a fight and just watch other teams do their thing. And I will say this.

I don't know how many of you happen to be doing this exact same thing that I was doing. I don't know how many of you are Giants fans or Bronco fans or just watching the red zone and how that thing turned out or happy to see what was happening on your phone as you were watching your fantasy football yesterday. But did you see what happened? And have you heard since then what went on in Denver yesterday? Now, you know me, if you've listened to show for any length of time, I am an obsessed standings watcher. it's probably to a fault of mine and for that I apologize

but I am obsessed with standings magic numbers division leads seating I started really last year when the rockets were winning games trying to figure out who they could potentially play and if they were going to have a home court and I have not stopped I will be one of the only sportscasters in Houston

on April the 19th of next year when the astros start their season telling you how far they're in front or behind in the American League West I have a problem, folks, and I'm sorry. But I'm standing's obsessed. So I'm looking around going, you know what, who is in front of the Texans if the Texans are going to try to make a playoff spot if indeed Indianapolis is going to run away with this AFC South, which clearly they are at 6 and 1. New England leads the AFC East.

Denver leads the west. Pittsburgh leads the north. Now, obviously, each division has to have a division winner, so there's guarantee. teat spots there, but you kind of look to see how the Waldcards are doing. Jacksonville got its ass kicked yesterday. By the way, I tried to get up at 8.30 to watch that for a little while. Those poor people of London, they have to watch Jacksonville once per year.

Do you think Londonites are like, oh, the Jaguars are on our schedule to have an international game? We'll pass. How in the world, ladies and gentlemen, Are the Jacksonville Jaguars 4 and 3? They're putrid. Trevor Lawrence sucks. I'm sure he's a wonderful human being,

but as a football player, he's not very good. And you're saying, well, you don't, you know, you can't do. Of course I can't. But, I mean, we're, okay, maybe I shouldn't say sucks. He's just not very good. And if I want to Trevor Lawrence right now and said, describe your play, he'd say, I'm not very good.

Now, it could be the weather yesterday. It was raining in London. It could be the offensive line. It could be the fact that his team can't stop anybody. And last night, Matt Stafford yesterday morning, through a boatload of touchdown passes. But Trevor Lawrence has been a seismic disappointment as a 1-1-1. I think nobody could potentially argue that.

So I was looking at Jacksonville. Like, all right, Jacksonville lost yesterday. That's good for the Texans. Chargers lost yesterday to the Indianapolis Colts. That's a good thing. Kansas City is winning, and they're just really good. I mean, they're, you know, how bad I think Jacksonville is at 4 and 3. the opposite of what Kansas City is.

They're really good four and three. And then you got Cincinnati who got a big victory late Thursday night against Pittsburgh. They're in front of the Texans to just by a number of games played. They're three and four while the Texans are two and three. So I am standings watching. And I'm thinking to myself, all right, something's got to go right. Denver may lose, which will help because you don't want a team in front of you to be

taking a spot of yours. And then they score 33 points. Let me tell you something, Houston, Texas. We have had a terrific amount of despair in our life. It has been hard to be a Rockets on Astros in some respects. Not all respects, but in some respects, hard to be a Rockets fan, hard to be an Astros fan, hard to be an Oilers fan. And in many respects, hard to be a Texans fan.

All these years and the furthest have ever gone is the AFC Division around in the playoff. That's hard. It's hard being a Cougar fan. Two final four appearances going down, championship game appearances going down on the final seconds. That's difficult. And everything is relative, because if you're a fan of a sports team,

things are going to be hard. You're going to have much more despair than you are going to be joy. You're not talking about a world, if you're a Yankees fan winning nine World Series in 13 years. You're not talking about the Lakers and Celtics basically rotating NBA championships for 20 years. It's hard to be a fan of 98% of sports teams.

It just is. But I want you to imagine what your life would be like today being a New York Giants fan. You are on the road. You have a rookie quarterback. You have a rookie running back who are taking over the Giants. You are thinking this is on our way to respectability. you've got a lead for much of the game. I mean, up until the fourth quarter.

You don't allow a single point to the Denver Broncos. You have a, what I see, 18 point lead with six minutes left to go on the game. And the Broncos score 33 freaking points in the fourth quarter and win the game. and large part because the Giants had a backup kicker who missed two extra points. Extra points matter. That happened in college football all the time. We don't typically see it in the NFL. We saw it yesterday.

So for me, that didn't have anybody to watch because of a local angle, putting on that red zone and watching the fourth quarter of that Giants Denver game, that was brutal for New York. Pure ecstasy for Denver Bronco fan? and in my opinion totally relatable to us as a Houston fan so when we feel sorry for ourselves about a lot of things just remember how New York's feeling today not that we feel overly bad for the Giants or for any New York fan but you get my drift the New York Giants were disposing of the Denver Broncos and the Giants defense allows 33 points in the fourth quarter.

They were up 19-0-0 at the end of the third. Denver fans like, I want to go get some weed and get out of this stadium. Instead, the Broncos score 20 more points than the Giants in the fourth and win 33-32. That, my friends, feels very Houston-esque, does it not? 713-212-5-7-9 if you want to jump in today on a variety of topics let me give you in no particular order very quickly I mentioned the NFL weekend crazy we finally have a Texan's NFL game to discuss the Seahawks tonight we have a game seven in the american league championship series Seattle playing Toronto now listen to me very carefully as we go to break here just a second

you know our buddy softy who does a very successful afternoon drive show at kjr in seattle we have him on three, four times a year, we bust each other's balls, it's good-natured fun. I'm going to have to walk delicately with him today because he's a Seattleite. He has grew up and has been Seattle sports forever. He's like you and me. I mean, those that have lived here most of our lives, and I've lived here, I'm 53, I've lived here 40 years of my life, 41 years, whatever the case may be.

I got to tread lightly because I don't want his Mariners to win. But I'm not going to tell him that. I'm just rude. So we're going to focus on the Texan Seahawks game a little bit. But I'm going to have to gingerly bring in the what's the tenor of the city today because the Seattle?

Mariners were up to nothing, winning two games in Toronto. The series is back in Toronto. The Blue Jays won yesterday. and now they're facing game sevens. We'll talk to Softia at 11 o'clock. Also, to Tell the Truth is coming up today at 1130. You're going to have a chance to win some fabulous prizes.

Since Ross is off for a couple days, we're going to give you a chance to play to tell the truth, where I'm going to tell you a bunch of statements, and the key today is, are you ready for this? You are going to have to understand which one I'm telling a lie and which through three are the truths. I'll be telling three truths and one lie today here on sports talk. And if you get it right, you'll have a chance to win either tickets to see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest

or the preview college basketball exhibition between the Cougars and Mississippi State and A&M against Arizona. So we've got some nice prizes for that. Also, speaking of the Cougars, we're going bowling, baby. And if you don't appreciate good time management, you better start because Willie Fritz put on a clinic in terms of milk on the clock in the fourth quarter of that game against Arizona. Cougars win their sixth game, and celebration should be abound throughout the Houston area. Plus, Aggies with a nice win against Arkansas. And what in the hell of the Longhorns doing playing a three-point overtime game with Kentucky?

Plus a coaching change in the SEC school. A lot to get to today. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-6. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross a couple days off. I'm here with you until 1 o'clock. Cole Thompson's going to jump in for the final hour of the show today

because I'm headed off to Oklahoma City for the Rockets against the Thunder to open up the season tomorrow. And Kevin Durant has himself a brand new contract extension, which puts him in a rocket uniform for at least the next three seasons. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Sports Talks.

790. We are with you today until 2. I will be with you till 1. Our buddy Cole Thompson is going to hang out for the final hour of the show. Kevin Durant gets his extension yesterday, which is, I think, from what people tell me, below market value, which is good, which means, you know, first of all, he's making a lot of money, so it's good for him. Second of all, he wants to save some money for teammates, which is awesome. He is now, when this new deal is done, or finished off in terms of money, He will have been the highest paid player in NBA history. There is no one will have made more money in the NBA than Kevin Durant. And he's like, I want to go to him 41, 42 years old. Good. I hope it's as a rocket.

I hope it's relative. I hope he's healthy and ready to go. But it's exciting to see that Kevin Durant in the world where everybody's going to grab every bit of dollar they can, said, you know what, I'll help the rockets. if I got money for other players, let's get it to them. And that very well could be impactful where Tauriessen could be getting a deal later today. So, yes, everybody, you've got a situation where Kevin Durant will be a rocket for the next three seasons. It's hard for me to really get into a deep dive on how much money a player is worth.

It's all about what you can get and what you're willing to spend and get. But I can't imagine anybody's going, oh, no, the Rockets do. It's terrible. No, it's a good thing. it's a good thing that Kevin Durant has committed to the city of Houston and it will hopefully be the place where he never has to put on another uniform again so yeah good news for the Rockets getting that extension done before the start of the season

Rockets against Oklahoma City tomorrow night that'll be a 630 start time right here on Sports Talk 7 and I'll be on I'll be on the call from that from OkC we got a lot to get to including coming up at the bottom of the hour we have some really mean Seattle fans out there that weren't very nice to me over the weekend so I'm going to read you some of those tweets I got from Mariner fan

just to point that out let's go to Ray in Miami at 1023 we're always going to South Beach for our first call today Ray good morning to you nice and hot here good morning I just want to talk about one issue Sohei Otani is the perfect example of how you play baseball as a child and as an adult. He's a good character guy.

And the performance he put on, he's the MVP at the whole weekend to strike out three in the top of the first, then the bottom of the first hit the bomb, strike out seven more, then hit two more bombs, and the second bomb out of the stadium. That guy's an amazing baseball player. And I know that, you know, the Astros like to go Spanish, but they wouldn't got Yal Ming in Houston. Why can't the Astros start looking like the Dodgers and go to Japan? Those guys can see the ball amazingly. It's amazing how this guy hit three home runs as the starting picture of that game and struck out 10 people.

That is simply amazing. I don't doubt. I totally agree with you on the amazing part of it. I mean, you talk about a single greatest maybe individual game for any human being alive in baseball, yes. But two things. With the same arm, it's not like he was switching arms. I know. The same two arms.

But, Ray, you get to realize with Yao Ming, the rockets won the draft. Yao Ming didn't choose the rockets. The rockets chose Yao Ming. I mean, he's the number one picking the draft. So that was just luck of the draw. And as far as why Japanese and Chinese players tend to go to other cities, it's because the West Coast has an inherent advantage for some reason, because they feel like it's a larger segment of their culture in their population is in those cities, which is the truth. Those cities also tend to have a lot of extra money to spend, like the Dodgers are spending thrifty, are very loose with their cash.

And the Giants have certainly spent money in the past. But, again, though, the Asian players have just naturally gravitated more toward, like Seattle and Ichero, to Seattle's in the West Coast than they have for Middle America and the South. There's one more thing, Matt, and I'll hang up. Sure. I know it's Monday, Matt, but tour, shut your bum ass up. You called out the team after you threw three picks, and then you threw three more picks. You two, in eight quarters, where they have to pull you, they had to take you out for the rookie from Texas tour.

So seven quarters, six picks. Shut your bum ass up, tour, and get out of here. All right. Well, look at that. We got our first Miami Dolphins call the show today. So, so far on the ledger. I have one Dolphins call and zero Texans calls. Are we your unofficial home of Miami Dolphins football?

I don't think we are, but I guess we could be. All right. So Texans fans, you're down one-nothing when it comes to calling in about what's going on with your favorite football team. Time to even it up. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 713-212-1-7-90. If you want to talk about Durant's extension,

you want to tell me how tonight's Texan Seahawks game is going to go? I'll be willing to listen to that. If anything from college football this weekend, tickles your fancy, come on in and do that as we've got the Cougars winning, A&M winning, and Texas winning. That's all a good sign. The NFL was crazy yesterday. And what is going through your mind today

as you watch our friends from the Pacific Northwest, Seattle, potentially waking out and losing the American League championship series after being up to nothing in the series. We'll get to more of that as the afternoon progresses. 713-212-5-790. So far, dolphins calls one. Dolph, Texans call zero. 7-13-212-5-790. It is the Matt Toppa show with Ross.

Ross couple days off back with us on Wednesday. I will be with you from Oklahoma City tomorrow. Rockets and the Thunder. Our buddy Softie from KJR is going to join us in about a half an hour from now. And so, I was waking up on Saturday morning and just kind of perusing the 4U tab. And John Schneider, the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, was not happy with the way the Seattle fan was booing George Springer after he got hit on the kneecap. and didn't appreciate the way that his player was treated after an injury. So I'm watching this video of the manager speaking to this.

So I go on Twitter on Saturday morning. Matter of fact, I did it at 7.15. What was it doing up so early? Oh, no, why. The Cougars played at 11. I had to get up early anyway. And I said on Twitter, very, very unassumingly, not trying to troll, just pointing opinion, because,

you know, Twitter can give you opinions on things. I said, try to appreciateing what longtime ends fan has gone through all these years, but yikes. It wasn't a classy look at all. Now, I didn't see it firsthand because I was watching my daughter play volleyball, so I had to go back and look, but there was a fair amount of people

you know, booing that George Springer was hurt and suffering and delaying the game and it wasn't a classy look at all for Seattle. So I got a fair number of likes. I got 171. I got seven bookmark so I don't know who did that but shout out to you did I got 40 comments and three retweets well as you guys know um when you put the word mariners into your uh tweet line it does uh tend to

fire some people up just like if other cities were to put the word astros into your for you and you looked out you'd be you'd be quite upset as well so needless to say Seattle fan is or some of them are not very happy with me I'll give you a few of examples. Add Otter Adrian says try again. I mean, that's okay. That's fine. We can agree to disagree.

Let's see. Ray says, sounds like he heard what he wanted to hear, not reality. If it was true, there would be video proof. Thousands of Blue Jay fans in the audience would have posted it. Okay, trying to defend the side. It is what it is. next um here's one this is from rooftop sports with a seattle sonics logo in his avatar i really hope i can convince you to still see how much we are starving for a world series

because i can tell you that i was embarrassed when they were doing that the other reason why i was against doing what the mariners fans did is because it may open pandora's box for the blue jays to be motivated to beat up the mariners in game six which they did last night and possibly game seven I hope you see me as a fan that has deserved to see the Mariners winning a World Series Rooftop Sports, I respect the hell out of you. You're going to get a like from that.

Nice job. Next. Let's see. Jonathan Deal says, don't fall for this. I was there. This didn't happen. All right.

Chris said, this is Chris DeGiGestos says, Spare me the patronizing AstroFestos. Would you consider me Houston to be a patronizing astro fan if you do? 713-212-5-790? Where a Houston listener responded back to Chris and said, You look like you've been kicked out of a strip club for being too handsy. Jonathan, that's one of the funniest sweets I've ever seen in my entire life.

Husband of AAA, which I'm assuming triplets, shout out to you, my friend. That tweet was awesome. Something called Devin Schofield? Bruh. There were also 10,000 J's fans there, and you can't blame an entire fan base for what could have been 10% of the people there doing something you don't like.

Just like any fan base, we have bad apples, but most of us don't want to see people hurt, even the ones we hate. You know what, Devin? I'm going to give that a like. Because you know what, that seems reasonable, so I'm going to give him a like. Let's see here.

I'm going to run through. here. Here is at CMB 1689. You want us to feel bad for a cheater? Astro fans are such hypocrites. Give us a break. Here's one from at GG String 2.

Change your tampon, you effing CP. I can't say the other words. Instruct your goon squad to be in us back and see what happens. You all need to stf you and stop whining at we bay Bryce yikes what dude has a bruise knee he's not fighting for his life in the hospital my god next at miss

realist 284-878 that's quite an average that's quite an address there nobody cares what some clown who shows for cheating cheating organization thinks. Of all people, we don't need or want your appreciation. Hope this helps. Oh, they came straight for you that time. Okay. People, it's easy to come out. It's easy to come right

out to the king, right? This is crazy. I'm like, this is so bad. So let's take a look at the old retweets. Let's see if there's anything on this, any quotes. No, no, just three repost. Okay. So that was just a sample. So I just want to tell all you Seattle

fans who may be listening to us on the I Heart radio app. Jonathan, I have feelings. I'm hurt by this. That I was just going off of what the manager of the Blue Jay said. He was unhappy that thousands of people were booing George Springer.

Maybe not thousands. Whatever the number may. It doesn't really matter if it's, I mean, it was 10 or 15. You wouldn't hear it. But it was obviously enough people to make it at a note. Yeah, for the coach to come out and say it. For the manager to say something, it must have been

something. So Seattle fan, please be nice to me. just like my friends of kug fans are nice to me be nice let's not let's let's let's start loving each other more right jonathan let's end this hurt in the world that we have on the social media streets do a love mt segment the love mt segment that's exactly what this was so as i saw these tweets coming in i'm sick of myself man it would be awful wouldn't it be jonathan if they lost game six last night and they did I don't know I think

Karma's gonna get them that's real bad I'm just saying karma works in strange ways ladies and gentlemen it just does so that's why when we have softy on the show and coming up

in 20 minutes from now I'm going to have to walk the tightrope on this because he could have said look mad I'm too emotional for this I don't want to go on a show in Houston but he's our friend we have the Seahawks Texans game tonight we can get into we have that the chew on because that's the most important thing down here look our life is not going to change one way the other whether

the Seattle Mariners win or the Blue Jays win tonight we're just innocent we're just we're just observers and it kind of sucks honestly I feel it my bones it's haven't been as much fun doing the show this month as compared to like the last seven or eight or nine octobers I get that so I'm going to be respectful unlike some people in Seattle were not respectful of me it's time to it's time to end the Twitter hate ladies and gentlemen it's and by the way I don't use tampons but thank you very much

whatever I don't think you had to clarify that well I mean I you never know you never know these things but man that dude went to Twitter and told me to change my tampon he called me every possible hate word you could possibly put in 140 characters. Yeah, he was mad. I'm reading it right now. Like, ugh.

Just miserable. Just miserable. I wonder if we could figure out who that person was. If we were to like, if we could geo spot where he lives, fly up to Seattle or wherever he lives, knock on his door and say, hey, I'm Matt. Remember that tweet you sent me a few days ago? do you think he would back down and say yes that what i said or do you think he would shrivel up and get in the fetal position it's probably some nerd behind his computer just going out to anybody with the mirror and the

keyboard warrior bit is strong as is strong in 2025 as it's been ever been before it's interesting but yeah um again i didn't i didn't say seattle fan y'all trash i mean look jonathan if we want to s talk other fan bases we can do it pretty easy, right? Everybody can s-talk everybody else's fan base for something. But what I feel you said was pretty, you know, respectable and just, you know, kind of disappointed. That's all it was. It was like, yeah.

So I will politely say at 1042 on this glorious Monday, go Blue Jays. But man, I have a, this is why I'm torn. Because I've known Softie for a long time. And I've been Softie. I've been, there are generations of Seattle Mariner fan

that doesn't know what it's like to get to the fall classic they have never been to the world series never ever ever so if there's any fan base in america that could probably at least empathize with them it might be a city that has had its share of despair it'd be like if softie was calling me if i called uh if uh i went on his show before the national championship game and he's like yeah you of h got a great chance to beat in florida the night in san antonio yeah i feel pretty good about it. And the very end he goes, hey Matt, thanks for coming out on the show and, and with all due respect, go Gators. I wouldn't, I wouldn't like that. So I'm not going to say go anything. I promise you, I will handle it with the classic dignity that my Seattle

brethren on Twitter did not do. And what I try to do is, I try to have them follow me in sports empty, but I got no, I got no followers from Seattle for some reason. I don't know why. You think, you don't know why? Really? Yeah. I know why. I'm just trying to be affable. Now, let me ask you this, John. Let me ask you this question. If the Mariners lose tonight, I have receipts on every one of those people that send those tweets to me, right?

Especially the ugly ones. Do I send a sorry for your lost tweet? All day. All day, every day. I feel like you miss an opportunity if you don't. You got to do it. You got to do it. I'm going to put a poll question up and see how we do this.

but we're not going to wait until tonight because if they wind up winning it I'll all look bad so yeah yeah you're right you're saying I'm saying I'm saying I'll save that for a little bit 1044 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross 713-213-2-5-790 7-13 212 579 I was talking about the University of

Houston we're going bowling gang Texans and Seahawks tonight how are y'all handling this 9 o'clock bit like y'all going to nap what's the game playing Tell me what you're going to do, because if you're going to watch this all the way through, it's not going to start right at 9 o'clock, I would assume.

And if that first game runs late, do they push that game back? I don't know. In college, they do that all the time, but in the NFL, I don't know what they do. So we're looking at about a midnight, 1215, 1230, maybe ending. I'm going to put that on Twitter, see what you all are saying. How are you going to handle this 9 p.m. kick? 713, 212, 5 is 790. 719. 7.19.

Sobs is with us at 1051 on 790. Subs, what's a good word today? Hey, so I just kind of let you know the Twitter crowd you're dealing with. So remember I told you, I was stationed out there from 0-2 to 2009. And, you know, I'm not trying to tie politics into this. But when I got back from Afghanistan, I went to lunch with a couple guys from my unit. And this is in Tacoma outside of Seattle. and I kid you not

guys yelling, spitting at me talking crap and insulting Bush, you know, because he was president at the time. And I took three guys to hold me back because I wanted to shove a guy's nose in the concrete. But my sergeant's like, no, we're going to talk with him, we're going to be civilized because that's his right, right?

And so, anyway, long story short for that part, we talked to when we hashed it out and he apologized and whatnot. But what I was going to say is, a lot of these Seattle fans are alike, when they were losing, you couldn't fit when it was called Safeco. You shouldn't fit like 3,000 people

in the fact. I remember the Astros came there. I think it was like 0,6007 with the red jerseys are probably later after that. And like there's more Astros fans than Mariner fans. And so now that they have something to root for

because, you know, the Somics are gone. The Somics are in OKC. I'm sure they're better about them winning again. And the Seahawks haven't really been relevant for a while. But now that, you know, they saw the Astros and years

and years looking from the ground, looking from the bottom up. And now that they're kind of in this position of, okay, well, we're the big dogs in the division for this year only, you know, any type, anything that comes up, Astros related, you know, they're going to, there's just natural hate and, you know, it's not all of them because I'm in contact with a lot, it would probably like maybe 15 or 16 to have known from out there. And of the 15 and 16, there's just one idiot that no matter what, you can't tell them that,

you can't convince them that, uh, uh, too, Lee wasn't wearing a buzzer. So, and I'm not going to apologize for them, just letting you know, like the mindset that, you know, the one of 15 are twits and then they go on Twitter. I guarantee you there's about 30 or 40 that's listening to your show right now. And I wouldn't be surprised if two of them called in today or tomorrow or whatever. I think the area code's like for it. I can't remember the area code. But anyways, and then about the texting game tonight,

I'm going to see I have to watch because I'm not going to lie. The stadium, the way they have is set up for both stadiums. You get to see Mount Rainier, beautiful site. Outside of that, the fans are idiots. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. They get into the, we're high and mighty, but they get humble. when they're at the bottom, you know, when they're looking up or not. And that's when they're easier to talk to.

And now that the mayor or the Seahawks and the Mariners kind of like on the upy-up, you're going to have these entitled fans on Twitter thinking that, you know, we're supposed to kiss their feet and whatnot. And we're the opposite of that, especially, you know, down here in this region, that's not going to happen. Like, do we appreciate good winning teams? Yeah. But when the fan base is a bunch of privileged jerks, we're not going to tolerate that.

So Astro, Twitter, Merrier 20, a couple of years, it's going to be fun. In regards to Texans, I think it's going to be close. The only thing I'm scared of is this has been McDonald's defense. Remember, he was a coordinator with the Ravens, Straught's first year. Of course, ESPN, excuse me, of course, other networks that bought that out there. Oh, CJ's own. I'm like, okay, well, the first was his rookie game.

And the other, like, nobody wins in Baltimore in the playoffs. So I'm hoping that the, I'm hoping that Marks has a decent game tonight, like 70 yards, and Chubb's getting one TD, like 50 yards. And then we just don't need turnover. and we got to find a way to slow Sam Donald down. Donald has been on the chair, and even when he was at Minnesota last year,

he got a good of us. And so I'm expecting another low score kind of like that Rams game. Yeah. Probably about a 1916, and I'm hoping it's us, but I got to be honest, man. Us on national TV, NFC,

and Seattle's like 21 and old the last, like, I think like 10 years of national TV games at home, so we got to fight that too. All right, man, good luck what you call with Softie and tell him that, you know, Houston, well, we'll watch them, but we're not going to say anything.

Correct. We're going to stay very quiet. Thanks, Super Bowl. I appreciate it. And, you know, this always is worth saying. We shouldn't let a handful of fans in any market to dictate how we feel about them in general, but we just do. It's just honest.

I mean, there were 40-something thousand people in T-Mobile Park in Seattle on whatever that was Friday night. and most of them mean I would say probably what 80% of them didn't say a word when George Bringer got hurt so we're going to let the 20% be the ones that we characterize yeah we kind of do it by default don't we because what happens is if you go to your social platform and say man I can't believe what that particular fan base did well that fan base is it's going to find you on what you said whether they follow you or not and they're going to you know they're going to they're going to come after you so basically what it is is that we respond to a small minority, no matter what it is,

whether it's Longhorn fans, Cougar fans, Aggies, Arkansas fans, Milwaukee Buck fans, whatever. We take, we take a very small sample size, and we basically explain that's who we think all their fans are. It's not right, but that's what we do. people have done it to us for years and years and years and years and we're doing it to other people it's really no surprise it's it's not going to change but for instance we talk about how laissez-faire ranger fans are they won the world series they had a parade at arlington around the walmart i mean we have a parade we have a million people downtown houston they have a parade it's uh in between the wendies and the golden corral i'm sure people in dallas wanted to

celebrate and do all the thing, but it wasn't their decision they put the thing in Arlington around a bunch of pawn shops. So, yeah, we're guilty of it. All of us are guilty of taking a very small group of whatever that fan base is and embellishing it to make it sound like the entire group. And then those people come after you, come after me asking me to change my tampon. That's just not nice. Before the top of the hour, Willie with his son, 790. Hello, Willie. We were at the game Saturday

and disappointed in the attendance It looked pretty low But what an ending that was I had to cover my eyes when Sanchez Attempted that field goal I do have one question Is he back for another year or is this his last year Because I think definitely he's going to go pro

He has quite a leg Well that first goal he had for short that when he missed. So you're talking about Ethan Sanchez, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, let me look and see what he is, what his classification is. He is a senior. So this is last year.

He played previously at Old Dominion. Yeah, I was looking at the CBS sports rankings also. I know that Arizona State is ranked in the top 25 now. Yeah. And I watched them on TV. They're not going to be easy. But I see that the line on the game, we have it by seven.

The CBS rankings have us 28 and have them 27. So, God, with a win, we might push ourselves up in the top 25. What do you think? Yep, I think absolutely, Willie, you're right. If the Cougars can beat Arizona State and Sam Levin in Tempe next Saturday, they will be a top 25 team. Pretty far cry from where this team was just a year ago or two years ago. Willie Fritz should get some national coach of the year recognition.

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 11.03 Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas with Ross. Ross back in a couple of days. It's you and me, and we'll visit with Softie from KJR Radio in Seattle coming up in just a few minutes. He is on a call right now,

and we'll be joining us here in a matter of moments. We've got a game seven of the American League championship series tonight, and that will be at, I think the game is at 7 o'clock. It's going to be on the main Fox channel tonight, is there is nothing else going on on that network. So, yeah, it's a 7-10 first pitch on Fox. Texans will play the Seahawks at 9 o'clock. We've got to tell the truth coming up at the bottom of the hour.

We'll be playing for some nice prizes. Hope that you'll be playing out with us for that in about 20 minutes from now. So the question I put up on Twitter about 10 minutes ago was, how are you scheduling the rest of your day if you are staying up for all of Texan Seahawks? Our friend Grace says she's napping from 5 o'clock until 8. Greg Tuey, who's the producer of the Colin Coward Show, great friend of the program, lives in Los Angeles, says this is why we live on the West Coast.

I love the West Coast. I used to do. Time zone thing, big deal. Darren says, I will take you four-hour nap before the game. I will work from home, so I'll be okay. So if you want to tell me how you're handling your day, 713-212-5-790, 7-13-212-5-790. I've got to ask you one question,

and maybe there's somebody in the audience that will do this. Are any of you just going to watch for as long as you can, hit the record button on your DVR and then just go to bed? Now, I could see doing that if you're disciplined enough not to check your phone the next day. See, I think you have to be very methodical about this because when I want to watch something later and not the result, you can't go to your phone. you can't ask anybody about it you can't I mean and you also have to make sure your TV is set properly

because what you don't want to do this is how I live this is how quirky my life is if the game is on ESPN tonight and you turn your TV on in the morning if you don't stay up for it you do not want to hit power on it flips on to ESPN

and then they're talking about the game. Now, I don't know where the Texan Seahawks game will be. By the way, Jonathan Softys is you can call him right now. I don't know if it's Topic A, but if it's an incredible game, it'll be Topic A, right? But my guess is Topic A will be Buccaneers Lions. Maybe if Mike McDaniel gets fired today in Miami, that will be a topic. maybe there's something dramatic in the Seattle, Toronto game 7 tonight. That'll be dramatic as well.

I just don't know. I don't know how the plan on the schedule. Plus, you don't know when you're going to wake up. So how do you avoid turning on the TV? Do you close your eyes? Then you've got to massage your way through this? These are the conundrums that a bizarre man like myself has to live through. Now, I'm going to be in Oklahoma City tonight calling Rocket's Thunder tomorrow,

so I will have to watch the game live, and I'll be up and we'll be able to talk about it tomorrow. But this 9 o'clock bit is crazy. So if you are in that mode where you've got to go to bed early tonight for some reason, got to get up work, how are you handling this? Because we don't have these 9 o'clock NFL games very often. Our next guest is a great friend of the show. He is one of the most influential sports personalities, not only in Seattle, but across the entire country. He's been on KJR Radio, the sports leader forever.

He is a diehard Washington fan, a diehard all-Seattle fan. and softy I'm going to walk very, very softly on this because we in Houston have been through your situation. First of all, what is your current mental state? Petrified about tonight. Seahawk game is not even a fart on my radar, to be fully honest with you. You know, I mean, this is game seven of the ALCS first time in their nearly 50-year history. The Mariners have played a game seven.

and it happens to be up against the Seahawk Texan game tonight. You mentioned 9 p.m. Central, 7 o'clock Pacific. And on top of that, we have a crack in broadcast that is going to interrupt our show that we will be off the air for at 4 o'clock this afternoon. So we will be off the air and not even discussing this thing, you know, within the first hours or the final hours of the game. So it's an unusual situation to be in, Matt, in Seattle, because a lot of us have kind of wondered what would ever happen

if the Mariners had a game like this up against the Seahawk game. And we're kind of finding out. And I think it's appropriate. It's appropriate for people to be gravitating towards the Mariners tonight. You know, this is, again, something that's never been done in Mariner history. You know, you think about, you know, when this current regime in Houston made that first run to the World Series and how much it captivated your town. You know, I'm curious where.

Texan fans were at with that. You know, how many people were even paying attention to what was happening with Texan football, where the Astros made that first run, you know, a decade ago, you know, whatever it was now. So that's the situation that we are in today. And honestly, ticket prices are kind of reflecting it. Like, you look up at like a ticket resalear, and we like to use, you know, it's venue kings. com.

Quick click for them, by the way. Thank you. 70 bucks. Matt, 70 bucks to get in the door for tonight's see you. I mean, those are preseason prices for tonight's Monday night game. If this game is close in the bottom of the seven, bottom of the eighth, and the Seahawks are kicking off at five, there's going to be a lot of people that will either be on the concourse

watching the baseball game or will stay at whatever sports bar they're at, you know, before kickoff and not going to the stadium. We had that issue, you know, nine days ago when the Mariners were in game five against the Tigers and we were at Husky Stadium doing a frickin' record. We literally go on the air for a post-game show, and seconds later, Jorge Polanco delivers the game-winning RBI single and the Mariners win. This is about 45 minutes technically after the Washington Rutgers game had ended, but

a thousand people stayed in the stadium to watch the baseball game. Didn't want to get in the car. And the Huskies, their security staff and their ushers had no choice but to stay at the stadium and work overtime so people can stay there and watch the baseball game. So this thing has really captivated the entire town, but after the way they played last night and the way they just didn't even show up, the lapses offensively, the lapses defensively, the lapses on the base paths, I think a lot of people are just petrified that this is the last thing anybody wanted anything to do with, which is a game seven in Toronto.

Yeah, every time I watch the game and I had some family things because I was watching football all day long, the number of double plays last night had to be just crushing for you. brutal three in a row actually and two of them swinging at the first pitch cow raleigh basis juice one out first pitch splitter from yosevage ground ball double play julio rodriguez same thing ground ball double play uh jp crofford at minimum saw at least you saw three pitches and then he grounds into a double play and the eating's over i mean it's like those opportunities where you've got a rookie on the ropes you've got to be able to get some runs on the board right then and there and then they just the defensive lap and then they just the defensive last

You know, third inning, second inning now, whatever it is last night, it's all running together now. Julio Rodriguez can't corral a base hit in center field goes off his glove and leads to a double. Eugenio Suarez has a hard time, you know, picking up a ball and can't make a play at third base. Cal Raleigh with an error going down the line and Vlad Guerrero scores from third base on a play that should stop right there. Matt, it was the first freaking time all year long that they had three errors in one game. and it happened last night in game six of the ALCS.

So it was absolutely maddening. All right. I want you clear something up with me because it has obviously been a big bono of contention with people in your great part of the world. Were you in the stands when George Burger got hit? Yes, yes. I was sitting 15 rows right behind home plate. All right.

Would you describe the fan base as booing or was it something else? Okay, so let me just explain something to you guys. and I cannot believe that this is not being talked about. What do people talk about when they talk about how well Blue J fans travel, especially to Seattle? Why Seattle at all places? That's far. Because Vancouver is two hours away from Seattle.

Okay. And there's a boatload of Blue J fans that live in Vancouver, Canada. So they come down for the game because Toronto is the only team Canada has, as you know, and a lot of them are in Vancouver and they gravitate to Seattle. there probably were in that game that you're talking about, Matt, maybe 7,500 Blue Jay fans in the stance. And I'm telling you, they're not, this isn't just Mariner fans booing George Springer. This is Blue Jay fans hammering Brian Wu for hitting George Springer.

So when John Schneider goes to the podium after the game, the Blue Jay manager, and starts ripping on Mariner fans for booing George Springer, I'm like, how the hell do you know? know that. You got 5,000 Blue Jay fans, minimum, right there in front of your face between first and third that are hammering Brian Wu for hitting George Springer. He goes down to first face. He can't even walk. He's limping all over the place. So if you tell me that there were Mariners fans that were booing George Springer, I could buy that. If you're also telling me that there were Blue Jay fans that were booing Brian Wu, I could freaking buy that too. But you know what?

The George Springer thing obviously goes back to the Astro days. You know that. You know that. All that nonsense that happened between Seattle and Houston. So a lot of that wasn't even George Springer getting booed because he got hurt. It was George Springer getting booed because he was an astro because George Springer has been booed every at Baptist series, even before he got hurt. All right, I got you for two more minutes here. Let me get some football in. Jaguars huge win for the Seahawks going across country winning last Sunday. I watched that game.

Before that, a knockdown, drag-out offensive firepower game between the, Hawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. First of all, a thought or two about Sam Darnel wearing the gear? I don't think you missed Gino Smith, frankly, after what he did yesterday. Generally speaking, how confident are you about tonight's Seattle performance against the Texans? I mean, here's the problem with Mike McDonald, Matt. Pete Carroll was known for winning games in prime time, especially at home. Mike McDonald's 4 and 8 at Lumen Field and he's 10 and 1 on the road since he took over as the Seahawks head coach.

So Mike McDonald really has to kind of figure it out at home because it's been kind of a disaster in these home games for him. So that's number one. And then number two, I mean, look, I think the Seahawks are a way better football team with Sam Darnold than they would have been with Gino Smith. I mean, like you said, the numbers obviously bear that out, you know, and you give John Schneider, who happens to be the name of the Seahawks GM and not just the Blue Jays manager. You give John Schneider credit because this is the second consecutive time where he has jumped off. the quarterback wagon at the exact right time. Gets rid of Russell Wilson at the exact right time, signs that massive deal with Denver, and then he falls apart.

Now he jumps off the Gino wagon. He signs a big deal with the Raiders, and he's falling apart, right? So they've really played this perfectly, I think, the last couple of go rounds with this quarterback situation. Sam Darnold, I'm telling you, man, if not for Baker-Mayfield, would probably be in the MVP conversation. He's not going to win it, but is he top five? Is he top seven?

I think he is. His numbers are marvelous. He's ridiculous right now. He's not making mistakes. And you can argue that they're actually a fumble away from being maybe five and one after that nine or loss at home about a month ago. So look, man, they're in a good spot. They got some guys coming back tonight off the injury update. Tarik Wollin, their corner should play. Devin Witherspoon should play as well. Their best backup offensive lineman Josh Jones and their safety, Julian Love should also play in this game tonight. but I think this is a football game that Seahawks if they're healthy should win. Jackson Smith & Jigma have a chance to be the second greatest

wide receiver ever in Seahawk history, yes or no? Yes, he does. He does. He's got a chance to be maybe the greatest single season Seahawk wide receiver year ever in history. I mean, there's nobody else getting a ball, right? I mean, nobody else is getting a ball besides Jackson's Frith and Jigman. You know, Cooper Cuff is an old man.

Yeah. Not as old as us, but he's an old man, and he's doing what he can, but there's really no other option. And even if they do have Cooper Cup, it's the rookie Torrey Horton from Nevada, who's their third option. So Jackson Smith and Jigba is averaging about 17 yards of catch right now. And he has really been the absolute security blanket for Sam Darnold. And it's amazing to see because every single week, teams try and take him away. And they can't do it.

For whatever reason, they can't do it. And we're not just talking about, you know, a slot receiver. We're talking about a guy who lines up on the outside as an ex-receiver. He'll go downtown. He'll go to the post. he'll run drag routes he'll run slants he's all over the field this guy so it's amazing to me how with how little they have behind him at wide receiver this guy is able to put up the numbers he's putting up all right how you're taking the edge off between now and the first pitch what are you doing

a bottle of pendleton whiskey is already halfway gone and that started at 5 a.m. this morning that feels fair uh we'll talk down the road my friend thank you you tell me what do you do Never been in this position before. Okay, let me tell you what's going to happen, okay? And you don't want to hear this. The Seahawks are going to beat the Texans. I don't even know who the Cracken are playing, so I can't get to that. I think Toronto's winning tonight.

I think when you could not finish it off in Seattle, that was the fate of complete. But I could be wrong. Hell, you won two games there before. I actually would feel worse if you told me the Mariners are going to win the game tonight, so thank you for that. And I can do for you, friend. Talk to you soon. Thank you. The one and only.

Softie. KJR. Seattle, our hero, our friend. If the Astros are playing at Game 7 on the Royal American League Championship, are you a half bottle into whiskey? Just throwing it out there. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We're going to play the Tell the Truth for some fantastic prizes coming up

at the bottom of the R. Yeah, I don't like the Texas come out. I just don't. I think even if the building is like 80% interested, the Seahawk building, it's still a lot of place to go. Not the Texans have not won road games before, but Darnel's playing well. The defense is playing well. As softly brought up a minute ago, they're getting guys back.

Jackson, Smickson-Thigba's been, I mean, one of the best receivers in the game. As he said, if not for a couple other quarterbacks, you know, like Baker-Mayfield, Sam Darnel would be going for MVP. I mean, yeesh. By the way, we got to tell the truth coming up at the bottom of the hour. This is where you get a chance to win tickets to see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest or some college basketball double-headed tickets with the Cougars against Mississippi State and A&M against Arizona. So we'll be giving those away today on the Tell the Truth at 1130.

I will give you four sports takes and there will be three truths and one lie. You've got to figure out which of the four I'm lying about. So three truths, one lie on today's edition of Tell the Truth. and we'll do that at the bottom of the hour. So, Kenny, who doesn't follow me on Twitter, and I've asked him 10 times because I always read his tweets. Come on, Kenny, let's step your game up. The guy you just interviewed, that's our buddy Softie,

almost makes me want to root for the Mariners. I said almost. Go Texans, go George Springer. Jonathan? Yeah. I thought Softie was thoughtful, was he not? You know what? I thought this was going to be a lot more talking mess,

like it was last time, but he was rarely, like, you know, very respectful and was just telling us what's going on. Yeah. And he made me think that there were some people that were anti, you know, there were some that were barking at George Springer and some that were not. The problem is that there have been so many people that have booed George Springer no matter what uniform he's been in that it's hard to give any fan base of benefit of the doubt on that. Right.

But yes, I mean, here's the thing, from just dumbing it down to a human aspect of this. We've been in soft these shoes before, right? We know what it's like to be on the edge of our seat for a game seven of something. I don't blame them being down half a bottle. I don't. Yeah, but it's only 925 Pacific time. Look, I don't blame it. I don't blame it at all.

I don't know if I could get up and knock back some whiskey or bourbon or something that early in the morning. I mean, you got to just kind of work your way. I mean, I've never had, I'll be honest with you. I've never had a shower beer in my life. Really? You know, Dan put me on. I tried it. It's actually very refreshing. See, you know what? I think I'm,

I got to break that street this year because everybody else seems to say I was refreshing. I've never also had morning beer. Me either. I haven't done morning beer. Like getting up in the morning, turning on, you know, Sports Center or Today Show and going, you know what, I'd go for a cold, you know,

whatever generic beer. Are we, are we, I would think if you're morning beer guy, that means you probably have a problem, right? Shower beer I kind of get because you're going to go out with your buddy. maybe you're in a hotel, maybe you're in Vegas, something. I get the shower beer thing, but getting up and going,

hey, I got to get to work in a morning, I don't go work out, I'm going to have me a cold one before. That comes across to me. It's perhaps borderline alcoholism. You're telling me if U.S. Coogs football right now was undefeated, let's say they're ranked seven, and they have what, maybe, let's say, two more games they need to win, and they're going against Georgia. Let's say, let's put out there.

All right. You're not going to be out your mind like Softty was? Oh, I'd be out of my mind. I've been out of my mind before. Do you understand my Cougar fandom? I flew from San Francisco to San Antonio on a red eye and did a four-hour show that day just to make sure I was there in person to see the game.

Do you understand these things? And y'all weren't here to hear how sick he was doing this. Then I go back to L.A., get COVID and miss two games. that's my fandom so I know what's off he's going through but if you watch any of that game yesterday between the Mariners and the Blue Jays that one didn't look competitive

it did not look competitive if you ask me right kind of being underwhelming to me in this postseason who has the dumper I haven't you know he's got that one home run over to cut the lead to 12 to 4

but he's been very underwhelming to me every time I see my bat Yeah. By the way, everybody said to me tweets about our podcast in our commercials on the IHeart app doing a Dodger Blue Dream podcast. Yeah, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to probably get that removed. Yikes. What are we doing? Thank you for listening on IHeart Radio app, by the way.

Two different people sent me. That's too funny. Let's see. Dan Matthews just texted. Two places where morning beer is perfectly acceptable. The airport, because you might have some flight anxiety. Okay, okay, yeah. Yeah, I could see that.

Football game day, but I would say it has to be your team or you're at a tailgate. So if it's an 11 o'clock game, yeah, you know what, that makes sense. You can do a 9 a.m. beer on that, right? Yeah, you guys start to tell get an early. You got to be in the building, get a little buzz. Yeah, no, I get that. I get that. Okay.

So there is a spot for it. 713, 21, 2, 2, 5, 790. 713-212-5-7-90. We need to play to tell the truth. We're playing for tickets to see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest live October 26th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com. Or you can win a pair of tickets to see the preview college basketball exhibition between the Cougars and Mississippi State and A&M against Arizona. That's Sunday, October the 26th as well.

For information and tickets available at FBepicenter.com. I'm going to tell you the truth about one thing. We have to run these national sports promos on the IHeart app, so we have no control over that. So, I mean, if you want a Dodgers podcast, enjoy it, I guess. We did not say over here. But it's out of our control. We have, I don't know if you'll notice this,

but we're run by a big media conglomerate that doesn't let us do a lot of things we want to do. So just throwing it out there, right, Jonathan? Anyways. Anyways. We're having to banner week, aren't we? All right, we're playing for either Alice Cooper and Judas Priest tickets or you can see tickets to see the college basketball exhibition between U.H, Mississippi State, and A&M versus Arizona.

Gentlemen and ladies, we have four guys on the line. If you want to get in to play, we've got two more spots at 713-212-5-7-9. 713-212-5-790. If you're new to the show, this is called The Tell the Truth. I have four sports takes, Jonathan, correct? Four. Four, yeah. I tell the truth on three of them.

I'm lying about one thing. You have to tell me which of the four I'm lying about. Here we go. Take number one. There are too many good jobs out there for Nick Saban to stay on television. Florida just fired their coach. My guess is Florida States can be looking for a coach.

Maybe Auburn, definitely UCLA, definitely Florida. While he's good on television, he's better as a coach. Nick Sabin, you need to get back into coaching for one more run to prove that without a doubt, you are the greatest college football coach of them all. Okay. That is my take number one. Number two, Monday night, NFL double-headers and staggered games. Now, tonight's not staggered, it's a six and a nine.

These things are dumb. I want my Monday night football to be one game and one game only. Okay, that's take number two. Okay, completely dumb. All right. Take number three. Congratulations to our friend, my new bestie Kevin Durant, for becoming the all-time NBA salary leader. My take is he will not have it for very long.

LeBron James wants to leave a long string of legacies. All-time winning score, maybe top two and assist, maybe most championships. He also, I think, wants to be the all-time money salary leader. He will not retire until he has that throne. LeBron James won't retire until Kevin Duran is long gone so he can become the all-time NBA salary leader. That's my take on that. Okay.

All right. And number four, the Texans I still think need to trade for a running back before the deadline. I know Woody Marks is getting some more work. I know Nick Chubb is a responsible guy that probably had an opportunity to feel better about his performance against Baltimore, but it was Baltimore's defense. Let's not kid ourselves. The Texans need to 100% get a running back before the trade deadline. Well, they, I don't know, but I think they do need one.

Which one of the four am I lying about? Three truths, one line. Really quick. Jonathan, here we go. Nick Stave Nick Saban needs to get back into coaching Monday night doubleheaders and stagger games are dumb

LeBron's not retiring until he becomes the all-time NBA salary leader in my mind and the Texans in my mind need to get another running back before the trade deadline Which one of the four am I lying? And you're lying about one of them

Lying about one of them Which one do you think? All right I think I'm pretty good of these I think I'm also be very impressed with this Okay I'm just going to have to trust my gut

I know you like fast game days, you know, you don't like that stuff. You don't, I think you can think they're dumb for double. Just one game from Monday night football. But saying Nick Saban needs to go back to coaching. I'm trusting that. That's your lie. There's no way you think that he needs to go back to prove himself. I don't believe that.

Okay. So you think I'm lying about Nick Seven and going back into coach? I'm going on one, yeah. All right. Let's have got six people on the line. We've got lots of prizes. Let's see what we do here in figuring out which. Which one of the four am I lying about?

So make sure, Jonathan, you write down which one's the lie, whatever he says here. All right. Ruben on line two. Rubin, which one am I lying about? I'm going to say Nick Sabin, only because he's going to make more money on TV. Well, I don't think if he'll make him more money on TV, they're not going to pay him like $9 million a year. So do you mean, does that change your opinion, or do you want to stick with that? Well, I'll go ahead and stick with it since I already picked it.

All right, very good. Thanks, Rubin, for calling in. Let's go to Ken. Ken, which one of those four are my lying about? I'm going to go with number one also. All right. You don't think Nick Saban wants to come back for one more time? Okay.

Now, why did you hang up? You get a chance to win. I don't know what he aimed up. Hung up, yeah. Felipe, which one am I lying about? Of course is number one. Nick Sabine doesn't have to come back to solidify his legacy. he, in my opinion, the greatest college football coach of all times.

Okay. Thanks very much for that. Let's go to Scott in Jersey Village. Scott, which one am I lying about? You lying about KD and LeBron. All right. Do you think I'm lying about that? You think that LeBron's going to retire before that?

Okay. Thank you very much for that. A couple more here. Colby. Colby, which one am I lying about? Which one of those four? I think it has to be number one. I don't think there's no way Nixon.

haven has anything less left approve of coaching anymore okay now this is the question is you know even on another approved just to add one more little uh resume builder there uh anybody else am i going to line three jonathan is that what i'm going with there yeah and that's the last one i think keith which one of those four am i lying about nick saven number one all right thank you very much so of the six people jonathan we have five people to believe i'm lying about Nick Saban. Now everybody is what he believes. Oh, no. Here we go.

I'm saying thoughts now. Everybody's on the same side. Including you too. I thought I forgot about it. Usually you're terrible at this. You're not wrong. All right, number one, I do believe the Texans seem to trade for a running back before the trade deadline. I think I've been pretty adamant about that. I think they've got to get some additional umph there, okay? Number two, I do believe that LeBron is going to think, thinking about pocket watching everybody. I do believe that LeBron James

will not retire until he becomes the all-time sour leader. Now, will he do it? I don't know because if Durant plays for four or five more years beyond this contract, he's playing to like 42, 43, 44, then he'll be out of it. But I think LeBron is thinking about that all the time, so do believe that.

Okay, okay. Then it comes down to the final two. Nick Sabin could go coach tomorrow and win some serious football games. He's a program builder. He still is very relatable to the kids. He's relatable to the boosters.

He could turn around a program overnight. But why do you want to do that? You're 70-something years old. You're making a great salary with ESPN. The NIL transfer portal world is for youngans. Nick Saban, I was lying. He does not need to get back into coaching. He needs to stay right where he is at ESPN.

Yeah. Good for you, Jonathan. That makes you feel like I didn't do a good job of trying to lie to y'all. No, you did a good job. I think you did a good job. I think you probably shouldn't have made it number one, though. Well, I was just trying to mix it up. Now, let me tell you, the reason why, first of all, I don't like staggered doubleheaders. I certainly don't like tonight.

Why would you put an NFL game on? I don't care who's playing. But, Jonathan, this Texas-Syattle game, which is an NFL game involving two teams, right? Any team teams? You're not putting that guy in a game. It won't start before like 10-15 Eastern Time Time Time Zone. That's ridiculous. You are literally wasting an NFL game that time by they doing this.

I know. I wanted to why they do that. That's a good. That's a good. I don't get it. Plus, because they get in a certain number of games, so they like to do these little staggered double-headed. This is not a staggered.

This is a full A game that's played and finished. Then you play the B game. It's stupid. It's 100% stupid. And I hope the NFL stops doing. And that is to tell the truth. So to our five winners. Congratulations.

You've got either tickets coming your way to see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest or the college basketball exhibition doubleheader. Good for you all. Now I'm worried because Ross may get it really good. I don't know if Ross is listening or he's napping or whatever the case, but when he's back on Wednesday, we may have to stink that in there on that. All right, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9.

We've got the news at noon coming up, and a lot of other things to get to between. me now and 1 o'clock. My buddy Cole Thompson's going to fill in for the final hour as I make my way to Oklahoma City. Time is 1144. I'm questioning myself whether I got the right to tell the truth or not. Why are you getting black on Twitter or what? No, I'm just like usually I do. I like to get like one or two winners, but man, y'all figured me out quick. By the way, Keith, call back, may I apologize? You last call I got to submit in, man. Just keep call back and I'll get you your tip. So what are people taking? Judas Priest or the basketball team?

I got one, yeah, Judas Priest, but I got one person that took the exhibition. All right, very good. All right. By the way, shout out speaking of the exhibition. Thanks to the Cougars for securing a bowl game win on Arizona on Saturday. That was cool. So we'll be bowling somewhere fun. Hopefully it's a really good bowl game, but you never know of these things.

Texas with a win over Kentucky in overtime. I mean, Texas is back, I get. I don't want to do that. I don't want to poke the bear like that because I guarantee you Texas fans not thrilled about beating Kentucky. and they and when the game in Arkansas was impressive as well. So a lot of good things on the college front. Also, and we'll get to this at the news at noon, Kevin Durant's got himself a brand-new extension beyond this year.

Remember when he was traded from Phoenix here, this was the last year of his deal, so he's got a two-year extension on that. You know, I always think about how important contract talk is for sports radio. And I only think it's important, honestly, when you grab a player, like you get a free agent from somewhere else, now we've spent a lot of time talking about where Alex Breggman's going to go.

We spent a lot of time Tom talking about whether Kyle Tucker was going to stay. We've actually been teasing with Ross about how many years Kyle Tucker's going to get somewhere else. That kind of contract talk is interesting to me. But when someone gets an extension that's already with you that you really weren't worried about whether he was going or not, it doesn't necessarily move the needle as far as I'm concerned. So I don't know if Rocket fans are going,

shoo, thank goodness. Or like, oh, that's kind of cool. Because as soon as I woke up Sunday morning and found out that he was getting a new deal, I thought to myself, oh, this is cool. I like it. But then my day moved along. Because I never thought that Kevin Durant was ever going to be a guy that was not going to finish, or at least have more than just one season as a Houston rocket.

And I'm just telling you, being on the inside a little bit, the vibe is really, really, really. really, really good. He is very chill. Now, he's not very chill on the social media streets, but that's, you know, everybody chooses their own avenues. But he just plays ball. He practices.

He works hard. He leads by example. He's not a guy that's a rebel rouser. He's not a guy that's going to try to get in your face. If you're not playing the way that he thinks he'll play, he's not going to make sure and let the whole world see. he's going to probably probably privately tell you that. And again, the little dealings I've had with him,

and hopefully a few more over the course of the year, it's been nothing but very professional. Now, we've not broken bread yet. I don't know if I have dinner together. I don't even know if he'll ever know my name. I don't worry about these things. Just score points and get the rockets to a place that haven't been in a long time,

and that's going for an NBA championship. You know, it is interesting that, you know, in this job, I'm starting my 10th season calling Rockets Radio, five full-time and five doing half PA and half radio. I've been very blessed to have a lot of guys wearing the Houston gear that you have this perception of them as one thing when they're not in your gear and then another perception of them when you're in your gear. Like James Hardin, look, James was a spectacular player for the Rockets,

but James was aloof, kept to himself, kept to his very, very small core people. And what you saw out on the court is what you saw behind the scenes. Nothing really surprising there. Chris Paul, I mean, irritant for the Rockets for the longest time. Couldn't have been a better guy with the team. Just worked on his craft. Did all the things he had to do to be the best he made possible.

And obviously things with him and James weren't as great as I thought they were going to be, especially in the second year of their relationship, but obviously they've mended fences because the two of them are now teammates in Los Angeles with the Clippers. Russell Westbrook, that's another one. I had very little dealings with him, but to me, Russ was, for the one season he was here,

he was fine, just fine by me. I'll tell you one that really struck me funny is I was a big Dylan Brooks guy, and if Dillen Brooks guy, If Dylan Brooks is wearing the team's uniform and the team that you're playing or the team you don't like, you hate him. You despise him.

You can't believe that guy gets away with all that mess. But boy, did he fit in perfectly here. He took on the characteristics of his coach, the vibe, the leadership, and oh, by the way, he played. You know, some guys are all noise, and all they do is just bark and yell and try to instigate fights and can't do anything offensively or defensively to help your team? That's not the case with Dylan Brooks.

He was, remember, think about this. Dylan Brooks was the best three-point shooter on this team of year ago. Now, that may not be great. And he was about an average above-average three-point shooter. You don't want him to be your best, but he was by far not the worst. And I respected the hell out of him. I liked him. Again, didn't break bread with him.

He had no idea what my name is, was, is don't care. But he was very professional everywhere we went. hello on occasion and I like the guy and I think he'll be missed and I think it's going to be part of the characteristic of this year's team is where does that come from whether that's a man Thompson taking it up a notch I'm not saying trying to instigate fights but just that kind of moxie that I think Ema adocan carries hard nose tough not going to put up with anything and a man's got a lot of that already in his system now what I don't want the rocket to do is I don't want this to have become such a problem that they get a lot of cheap technical fouls called against and flagrant fouls,

don't get the benefit of the doubt, and gather that kind of reputation. And that's why the on-the-court play will be the most important thing. But it has been kind of fun for me to travel these NBA streets and to have some of the greatest players ever in uniform, you know, me calling the games for the positive side of things. Because Lord knows, Kevin Durand has been a disaster for us many times against the rocket. It's kind of nice now that he's playing for the rockets, and you can actually root for his success. Yeah, Kevin Durant, two-year extension,

and I believe after that it's a player option for the year after that. So this could be a bear, it could be right now as it stands. He's got one year left, the two years, and then the extension of the option for that could be four years at minimum. And we'll see where he is physically and where he wants to be in terms of how much NBA basketball he wants to play. But if Kevin Durant can get this team over the hundred, hump and get them to the championship level and get where we were back in the mid-90s.

Those of you that don't know, the mid-90s were awesome. Being a basketball town for as long as we were in the mid-90s with Akeem and Clyde and Sam and Robert Orie and Bull and Carl Herrera, Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell, such fun times. And hope we get some more of that. Probably John Hollinger, this dude from the athletic, says it's going to be three. three Texas teams in the playing round of the he is such a Rockets hater. I mean, I get it.

Bring him up because that actually makes me mad back here. I don't mean to do that to you, but it just pissed me off. I got the article today for the athletic things where we should be some of his bold predictions for the NBA season, and he has all three teams playing in the playing in round. I mean,

I cannot wait for the, for that matter, I can't wait for the Mavericks on to be in the playoff rounds so we can tell John Hollinger to shut his bum ass up. But have the rockets in there? I mean, I know Fred Van Blit's a loss, but my God, it wasn't like Kevin Durant unless he's predicting Kevin Durant's going to be hurt. Or many multiple players, and you can say that for anybody.

I got news for you. Luca goes down for the Lakers. They're going to, and LeBron doesn't play more than 25 games. They're going to be in the playing in the lottery. Nothing really analytical about that. So, I had hit the trash on that really quick. I just, I want to know part of that. 1159. We've got the news at noon coming up.

We have another hour of the show. And then my buddy Cole Thompson is going to fill in for the final hour as I make my way to Oklahoma City to call that Rockets game with Oklahoma City coming up tomorrow night. It'll be a 630 start time. It'll be the very first game as part of the new NBC 11-year broadcast deal. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1206. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross back with us on Wednesday. You and me at 713, 212, 579, 7190, 713, 212, 5790.

I'm with you until 1 o'clock. My buddy is going to step in. Cole Thompson between 1 o'clock until 2. I'll be heading up to Oklahoma City later this afternoon to call tomorrow night's game between the Rockets and the Thunder. We'll have it here at 630. Right now, it is time now for the news of noon. And quite a double-header for the people of the Pacific Northwest. will take on the hated Seattle Seahawks.

Is it really hated? I don't think so. Right now, Seattle's a three and a half point favorite. If you're so interested, the over-under is 41.5. It's a 9 o'clock start time. Texans at 2 and 3 find themselves three and a half or four games out of first place because the Colts yesterday knocked off the Chargers. And then they've played two more games than the Texans have because the Texans had to buy a weekend still didn't play until tonight. So it's a skewed schedule.

but the Colts are 6 and 1 on the season. Texans are 2 and 3. As again, Indianapolis beat the charges yesterday. Seahawks last week won at Jacksonville. They are 4 and 2. The Seahawks, again, right now, are a 3.5. Point favorite, the early Monday night game is the Buccaneers and the Lions, and that starts at 6 o'clock.

As far as Major League Baseball is concerned, it is game 7 of the American League Championship Series. George Kirby will throw for the Seattle Mariners. Shane Bieber will throw for the Blue Jays. First pitch for that is at 7-10. If Seattle wins, the Dodgers and Mariners will start the World Series Friday in Los Angeles. If the Blue Jays win, game one between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays will be Friday in Toronto. Right now, the matchup predictor on ESPN.

It's just one little goofy. Tempted stats off of a algorithm. has the Blue Jays is a 65% chance of winning compared to 35 for Seattle. Mention Kevin Durant earlier today. Kevin Durant has got himself a brand new contract for the Rockets. It's a two-year extension worth $90 million. It does give a little bit of flexibility of the Rockets

that they want to add an extension to Tari-Eason. Durant was eligible to make as much as $120 million over two years, but because he got to choose basically where he wanted to play, he's taking less money. 37-year-old, Durant has now made, we'll have made when this contract is done. Are you ready for this?

Hold on to your hats or hold on to your wheel if you're driving right now. His career earnings at the end of this contract, $598.2 million. That is $15 million more than LeBron James at $583.9 million. So again, the Rockets have until 5 o'clock today to extend Taris if they wanted to

or he will become a restricted for agent at the end of the year. And what else is going on in sports? Oh, if you didn't catch it over the weekend, Billy Napier was fired as coach of the Florida Gators. Florida State at this point with Mike Norvel as their head coach says they will reeval the situation and decide at the end of the year whether or not Norville comes back at Florida state, I would not be surprised if he is let go. And that, my friends, is and will be the news at noon. 1209 on Sports Talk 790.

So the question I brought up today, and we're going to get to some calls here in just seconds. Those of you online, standby, how are you staying awake for tonight's 9 o'clock kickoff? I've gotten responses from napping from 5 o'clock until 8. This is why we live on the West Coast. That's Greg Toey, not you and me. I will take a four-hour nap. Ebo says midday evening nap. Jared and Houston says working.

Ken says, luckily, I was off today, so my day just started eight hours left. We can do this. That's funny. That's interesting. And then I got this one, too. Not a Texans fan, but I am a football degenerate, Bonnie Joe. We'll watch as long as I'm able to stay awake but won't alter my day. No matter who will be playing.

I do not like these 9 o'clock starts for college or NFL. prediction Seahawks 27 Texans 21 that's how I kind of feel too I think look if you don't know who Jackson Smith and Jigba is you're going to probably find out tonight he's really special

he is a guy that has been as as a soft dimension last hour Cooper Cup has done nothing for Seattle and it hasn't mattered and Jigba has been absolutely phenomenal this year as a primary go-to threat for Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold we can't sleep on him

he was good in Minnesota, surprisingly good, getting good enough that he got a huge deal to go to Seattle, and they moved Gino Smith from Seattle to Las Vegas, and he's been excellent since drawing the Seahawks. Seahawks are four and two on the year. So that's going on. And the reason why I kind of lied during to tell the truth, not a lie I told the truth about this,

is that you're the NFL. If you're going to put NFL games on, you put them out where people can catch them. Now, 8.30 on a Sunday morning for the London games kind of makes sense because that's a six-hour time difference, at least here. And people will get up on Sunday morning while they're tailgating. They will watch their footballs are getting ready to watch their favorite teams play. It'll be on the background or it'll be at your tailgate. Nine o'clock.

I mean, come on. You're starting a game at 10 o'clock Eastern Time where at least 50% of the country lives in the Eastern Time Zone, at least if not more. Now, the West Coasters love this because they never get normal time that they can go tailgate properly and have time. But my thought is, even for people on a Monday night at 7 o'clock in the Pacific time zone, that can't be great for them. Because a lot of the people that work on the West Coast have to work on East Coast time because of their jobs. Now, this is only a one-off. They don't do this on a regular. But I think the NFL is making a big mistake by putting this game on.

And obviously, I think they'll change it for the future. but imagine if both teams were undefeated. Imagine if both teams were legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Now, the Seahawks could very well win the NFC, and look, the Texan season is not done, but they've underperformed so far. A lot of things the NFL does right. This one, I think, is a misstep.

And to think this game was originally supposed to be on ESPN Plus, that's why they probably said, you know what, we'll put it on the mainstream ESPN because we know that we're going to get very few views. people staring at their phones or their computers or if they have a smart TV at 9 o'clock at night. Because let's be honest, probably 75% of the country is not going to see how this game ends.

Now, I'll stay up late. We'll talk about it tomorrow for sure. And we'll help you at the best we can and recap in things. But, yeah, 9 o'clock for anything. I don't even care if it was do West Coast teams. If the Seahawks were playing the Niners, I wouldn't care.

If it was the Chargers against the Rams at 9 o'clock, you should put games on when people can actually, most of America can see him. And the reality is, even the West Coast time is good for them. Most of us are either getting our kids to bed or we're going to bed ourselves. And I just think it's a lot of the situation, but to each his own. 713-212-5-79. If you want to jump into the conversation, 7-13-212-5-7-90.

We'll start taking phone calls next. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Ross back with us on Wednesday. 7-13-212-5-790. And again, if you want to follow us on Twitter, that'd be great. we certainly would appreciate that at SportsMT and at SportsRV. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk 790.

1220 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross back with his on Wednesday. Kevin Durant just called his Rockets contract extension, quote a no-brainer. Yeah, of course, you're getting $90 million. I called a no-brainer too. $90 million. $1, for two additional years.

Oh, why wasn't I a basketball player? Oh, gosh. Maybe because I was six feet and out of shape and couldn't shoot. Shy that. Also, E. Mae Dukas said the starting five for tomorrow's game will be the jumbo lineup. Amen Thompson, point guard, forwards. Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith.

They'll go with the double centers. Alperin Shangoon and Stephen Adams Jumbo lineup, Rockets and O KC tomorrow night. We'll have the game for it at 630 right here on Sports Talk 790. 713212-5-790. Let's go to our buddy Biscuit on 790 at 1221. Biscuit, what's the good word?

Cougar Matt, Cougar Man. A man, a couple things. First of all, for me, Nonna Clark's start is perfect, man. I don't get off to eight anyway. No, wait, but you're in the minority, Bisckey. You know better than that. I know. I'll say I'm in the minority.

I say I'm in the minority. But it's cool for me. Instead of checking out the second half, I get to check out the whole game. I will say this, Matt, being an RTV guy, I think the NFL, they're doing the way they want to do it, you know what I mean? Meaning they got the first game.

That's their real Monday night game. The Texans and Seahawks, that's just maybe a net. network thing. They mean me and you had to have so many prime time games and you can just throw one in you know. Yeah. You know Unfortunately for Houston and correct me if I'm wrong, I think the first game

they had two Monday night games too, didn't it? They've done a fair number of double headers. What they've done is they've staggered them biscuit where they'll have one game at six and one game at seven. Now they have done some double headers in the past but the double headers usually involve obviously a West Coast team but they usually take

on another West Coast team so they're not really bothered Now, I remember the few years ago, the Texans opened up a year at San Diego when the charges were still there, and that was a doubleheader night. So the Texans are not foreign to this. It's just not great for us. Right. I mean, but it just tells you how they feel about the Texans, you know. Well, that's fair.

Yeah. Yep. Let me say this, Matt, before I get to my rocket state, I can't remember the last time, Matt, that we've had two good coaches over there on Cubs. me and football and basketball coach both being good and it's been a minute i think you had to go all way back to guy v and yoman probably that's fair that's fair yeah two good coaches i mean that's britch you can say what you want to say man fritz is a good coach man he's not like he's a good coach he's a great coach first of all he's an awesome human being and there's so many bad coaches that are bad human beings that run their operation and willie is just the opposite of that i'm

such a fan of his and secondly damn good football coach. I don't know if you saw the end of the game internet, but using timeouts effectively, calling plays. I mean, it was, there are so many coaches that butcher the two-minute drill, that was an act of perfection internet.

And Coach Fritz, you know, usually we'll be at a game and, like, what the world was the coach thinking? But I can't you, you might be to get them as far as talent-wise, or this, but it's not going to be some kind of, something that the coach did that was out of whack or you thought there

was crazy. I mean, excellent coach, man. That was a great hire. I mean, great hire. Last name, Matt, and I told you, man, Yoko was showing you, man. He's not going small. He's going to play big and he's going to, maybe a lot of zone or

whatever, matching up, this and that. You got your bar and Duran who can kind of move their feet for big guys, so you know, we can get out on the wings and cover some of them corner shots, even though we're in a kind of a zone or whatever. And I see a six

game improving. How many games they win last year, Matt? 52. 52. I see six game improvement, Matt. Let me tell you something. I think of the floor. Well, man, from your mouth to basketball God's ears.

I'm telling you, Matt, mark it down. All right, 58 wins in the Western Conference Finals. I'll accept that. Thanks, Biscuit, for the phone call. I appreciate it. 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to James at 25. James. Hey, how you doing?

You know, of all the Saturday in college games, which do you think was the biggest upset? Do you think LSU over, I mean, Vanderbilt over LSU or Arizona State over Texas Tech? No, Arizona State would not be an upset over Texas Tech. I think Sam Levitt

is a really good quarterback. Arizona State was at home. Texas Tech was maybe right for a loss. I don't know. I didn't see any of the LSU Vanderbilt game, but isn't Vanderbilt a top 30 team now? I don't know if it's... I would characterize either one as a massive upset.

My guess would be if you had to name one, LSU losing it to Vanderbitt would probably be the one. Yeah, well, I kind of about Arizona State beating Texas Tech as good as Texas Tech played us, but it is what it is. I guess we've got to play them next, and I have them ready. I hope so. I'm looking for...

I'm going to Phoenix for the game. I'm excited about it, but I hope Texas Tech tired them out. That's all I'm asking for. I hope so, too, because the way U of H is going, they can get the top 25, maybe Texas, Arizona State easily. Oh, for sure. Yeah, they got some, UBH got some top 25 votes. Thanks for the phone call, James.

But they're going to have to beat Arizona State to get the top 25. Not that it matters. We're going to a bowl game. We're probably going to go hopefully a decent bowl game. I hope. Now, the biggest detriment, honestly, is we're not going to be able to travel very well because we don't have a history of traveling well.

We travel well to the final four. That was cool. We travel really well for that one. But bowl games, unless they're like, you know, BCS Bowls in the past, we travel really well for the Florida State game in Atlanta. But we haven't typically drawn very well. And look, our home attendance this year, except for Texas Tech, wasn't great. And so, you know, bowls do look into that kind of stuff.

It's not the end-all. But part of it also is, too, if the bowl game is in a place that you just don't want to go, man, I want to spend a lot of extra money. I see why people kind of, you know, again, under the categorization of there are too many bowls, I know there are. Some of these bowls aren't just mid-cities. I mean, you know, look, I was in Birmingham last week. It's fine, but I'm not going to go, I don't know if I'd spend $2,000 or $3,000,

or, you know, depending on how big my travel party was, to go watch, you know, a 7-and-4 versus a 6-and-6. Hopefully, with us being in the Big 12, we get a better draw of games, and don't have to play somebody that we would not want to play, and that both sides will have full crowds and be able to sell their tickets. But the biggest detriment right now about Houston is the fact that we just don't do particularly well selling tickets in our home stadium for that matter. I mean, unfortunately, the game against Arizona was not full. And it's too bad because those kids, Willie Fritz, and his staff deserve it.

713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 i'm here leaving another half an hour so come on in and join me before my buddy cole thompson jumps in and finishes off the show 7-13 two-12 5-79 7-1 3212 579 jonathan the arizona state versus houston smack talk has already begun already a friend of ours the show teacher on break one Stephen went to Arizona State. He just sent me a tweet. He said, hey, sports, M.T. Make sure you go visit the best journalism school in the nation while you're in Phoenix. By the way, Sun Devils by two touchdowns as long as Leavitt is playing.

It's up. So, you know what I'm going to reply? Follows sports M.T? No, he follows me. Good guess. I'm typing in right now. Here it goes. I'm saying back to him.

isn't Arizona State in an open enrollment school? Oh. Do you think I'll get some Arizona State fans hating on me? You might get a little, you know. So if he's saying hashtag forks up, what should I say? No, I'm going to leave it just that. I'm not going to do any more of that. All right, here we go.

Let's take a look. Let's see how the responses go. So I got Seattle fans mad at me for what I was, for the, for the comments that John Schroeder, the manager of the Blue Jays said. I'm just passing that along. I got Cooke fans for me, mad at me for what happened last week. I thought nothing to do with it,

and Ross is apologetic. And not going to have Arizona State fans coming after me. You get to me first, right? Talking about the best journalism school. Best journalism school in the country is Kansas. I'll tell you the truth. Print journalism.

Broadcast journalism. It's probably Syracuse because all the grads get network jobs but U of H, we're right there. Me, Jim Nance, Bill Rell, boom. 713, 212, 5, 7. You see what I just did? I threw myself in that group.

I did. I didn't do that. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. It's charged. Let's talk to Ethan on line two on the Matt Thomas show at 1236 with Ross. Ethan, good afternoon to you. Hey, Matt, how you doing?

Good, buddy. How are you? I'm great. Yeah, so I know you were talking. about some fan base, you know, ridiculousness earlier in the show. And I don't know if you saw this, but Texas Tech fans last week were not all of them. And I know Twitter isn't real life. Right.

But quite a few tech fans on Twitter were saying that they were too good for the Big 12, that, you know, the SEC would be a better fit for them. And I was just really puzzled by it because, one, Texas Tech has been in the Big 12 for 30 years. and has never won a conference championship in football. And then two, you lost Saturday to a school who last year spent one year in the Big 12 and won it in the first year. And you lost to Jordan Tyson on one leg and Sam Levitt on one foot. So that just kind of puzzled me. And I don't know why Texas Tech fans feel like they're bigger than the rest of the conference when they haven't done anything in 30 years.

Let's take a look at this for a second, Ethan, okay? Let's go with a parallel. So I wouldn't say Texas Tech has been poverty, okay? That's too strong of a term. Okay. But they haven't been royalty. Does that make sense to you? Perfect sense.

Seven and five, eight and four, six and six, always known for great offenses, defenses, very much optional. They've tried to bring great defensive coaches. there. They've tried to recruit the best defensive players. It just hasn't worked out. So all of a sudden, Cody Campbell, the oil and gas energy guy, whatever he is, makes all this money and says, I'm going to put all this money into Texas Tech. I'm going to make sure that the salaries are funded. I'm going to make sure these kids get NIL deals. We're going to cash infuse. We're going to cash with everybody

else so people can come to Lubbock, Texas. And it's all done above board. It's all done legally. So if you got the cash you got us and somebody wants to spend it good for them but it's help me with a parallel on this is it like is it like the ugly guy in school getting the one good looking girl and now he thinks he only can date now is supermodels i mean is that a terrible parallel i mean if it is you know i'm terrible on analogy so help me out with this uh i think that's that's probably pretty pretty accurate in my opinion um i will say because you just said you're going to to Phoenix or Tempe for the game. Yeah.

I spent a couple semesters at ASU. Great town. You ever have the chance? I mean, it's kind of a younger crowd, but Mill Avenue. If you want something a little more proper, head up to Scottsdale, man. There's plenty to do out there.

Great weather. And honestly, the fan base at ASU, you know, you were kind of concerned about them coming after you. They're used to it. They only hate one school,

and that's U of A. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You're going to have a great time. Yeah. I'm just teasing my guy here because I was just, I'm not trying to

control Arizona State fan. I just, you know, like, my philosophy is this, and thank you for the fall call, Ethan, and I've said this before to you guys, especially those of you new to the show, college smack talk to me is more than acceptable. As long as you don't insult someone's integrity or insult a member of their family or what your kids look like or make fun of your dog. I mean, you know, when Texas Tech and Houston were smack talking each other a few weeks ago, I wouldn't bother by it.

In fact, there were people that were attacking. me, you know, again, because you don't, you can't follow everybody in the world. You don't know what everybody's all about, but there were people in Lubbock that were like, oh, here's a Cougar fan going after us. Like, you all don't know if you listen to show for anything like the time. I do love Texas Tech. I want Texas Tech to be the second best team of the Big 12 every single year. I, my oldest son went there.

I've talked about that multiple times. I love it. I like Lubbock. I think Lubbock gets a terrible rap. If I was a college kid and I didn't choose Houston because I, I was already working in the radio industry, I would have loved to go on to Texas Tech. I don't know if their broadcast schools any good,

but it doesn't really make a huge difference, but it's a good college town. Now, I'll say this, people about kids that go to Lubbock, either love it and can't never want to leave or they get out of there as fast as they can, just because, again, homesickness, and it's out in the middle of nowhere, but I've always enjoyed the experience.

But maybe Texas Tech is feeling a little bit of the bravado. And maybe that Sam Levitt, as the caller said, on one foot was, you know, won the game because he looked battered and beaten. And frankly, if you watch any of that Texas Tech game against Arizona State on Saturday, and I know the Fox broadcasters have been to know to this, there were four or five different dropped interceptions, there were 15-yard penalties, there were some pass interference calls, there was a variety of things that really precluded Texas Tech from winning that football game. And Sam Levitt made a huge fourth-down conversion in the game.

Arizona State's good. I mean, they played in the Big 12 championship. They went to the college football playoff last year. I mean, that's not a bad football program. And the caller's right. I've been to Arizona State's campus. I did a week of shows there when Utah played Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl, way back when the BCS allowed one non-power-5 to play.

I had a great time. I love Phoenix. I still love going to Phoenix. I go to Phoenix twice a year, at least for the Rockets. and I love the experience. Scottsdale, Phoenix, and if y'all just go, if y'all are going to the game this weekend

or ever need to go to Arizona State, hanging out in Tempe is spectacular. It's a great atmosphere. It's kind of a little of a college-y feel in the middle of a big city. And let's face it, a lot of big cities that have schools in them don't necessarily draw very particularly well,

and Phoenix is the minority on this. I mean, it looked like to me a pretty full crowd at the game last Saturday, and I wasn't staring at the stadium crowd, but I mean, every time I saw a crowd shut, it looked like there was a lot of people there. So I'll have a better feel of it this week

as I'm going to be in Phoenix for that game on Saturday and look very much looking forward to seeing Arizona State, who's hopefully tired and burnt out and over-exhausted from their big win against Texas Tech, lose to my beloved Houston Cougars. Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues. Tomorrow I'll be with you from Oklahoma City.

We'll have gut feelings, the news at noon, and we'll get a perspective from a couple of different folks on the Rockets Home Opener, or Rockets Road Opener, Season Opener, against Oklahoma City. We'll also dive into the Texans versus the Seahawks. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to join the show. I'm with you for another 10 minutes.

Come on and say hello before I get out of here. And Cole Thompson, thank you very much for stepping in and helping out in the final hour of the show as I make my way towards Oklahoma City. 713-212-5-790. Now, Jonathan, let's try this for the last time. before game seven before we go back to the phones. Okay. I want you to utter each of these two sentences

and then I want you to tell me how you feel after you say them, okay? Number one is go Mariners, you've been waiting a long time. Say that first. Go Mariners, you've been waiting a long time. Or, go Blue J's, M's fans, you suck.

Go Blue Jays In fans, you suck. I feel good, I don't lie. Which one? Tell the truth. I felt good. The second one, I don't know. That's not good.

Go Mariners. You've been waiting a long time. Go Blue Jays. M's fans, you suck. Hell yeah. Now, the bigger question is, if the Blue Jays win tonight, Do I go to the five or ten people that called me names from Mariner Nation?

Do I say sorry for your loss? I do, don't I? You can't, you could. You really could. But do you really want to do that? Is that what your heart tells you to do? You know my heart is black and cold, don't you? See? That's what I'm saying.

Whatever the heart wants, you've got to go for it. Okay, I'm doing it. Listen to me very carefully. If they, if the, if the Blue Jays win, I'm going for sorrow for your loss and I'm tagging all those people. Especially the guy that called me that told me to take my tampon out. Oh, uh, G.D. String us. It's all fun in games, right? Social media is nothing but a nice bunch of nice people just having a good time teasing each other, right?

He called me a bunch. He called me an F and P and took my tampon out. And he called me a C word too. He called me all the word you can't ever, ever supposed to say to anybody. much less an affable guy like myself. Let's go to Koso at 1251 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Kesa, what you got today? Hey, Matt, what's going on?

Quickly, I was in Seattle earlier this year, and I was wearing my Astros hat, and they were all just super nice to me. I don't know why. I guess you have to separate the Twitter and the Reddit people from actual real-life people. I mean, they were just super, I don't know, just super nice. and generous to me with my ayesha as we talked baseball so even with all that saying you know let's go blue jairs my my question is though I wanted to see what your three I want three takeaways for opening night tomorrow what are you looking for for the rockets you specifically and I think just recently

daniel learner just dropped the starting lineup with it's going to be the jumbo big so we'll read on the bench What are you looking for and what can you tell your fans looking to the Rockets fans to look for tomorrow night? My second question is without Tari's inking his extension, do you expect a moody, mopey Tari-eason this season? Or are we just going to get that same high motor, high defense, off ball, offense, tarry that we're so used to. And I'll hang up and listen. Thanks, man. Thank you. Let me answer the second question first because I just remembered it.

If Tari does not get his extension done today, I can't imagine he'd be mopey and depressed. I mean, I'm sure he would like to get it done. But you should also use that as a way to fire yourself up and play as good as you possibly can. Because remember, he will be a free agent at the end of the year. Now, he'll be restricted, meaning the rockets can match any offer that he gets. so if he plays well, he's going to get paid. No one's going to say, well, you know, times are tough here in the NBA, and we had to make some cutbacks, and it's not your fault, not the local fault, it's the corporate level.

No, they don't do that in the NBA. They like, if you are good, and we have app space, we're going to pay you. So the market's going to be out there for him as long as he has a successful season. So I can't imagine him being that quote-unquote mopey person. And if he is, it's going to cost him. The Rockets love Tari. I think they're going to get this thing done. They've got until 5 o'clock today.

But I think they're going to get it done. I think they want to get this so it's not a distraction. And hopefully it will never be a distraction. But even if it is, then that's going to be a distraction on Tari to play as hard as it can again. If the deals come through and he gets an outrageously big deal, then good for him. And if the Rockets match it, everybody wins. I'm a person, I like to deal with my contracts, get him done six months earlier.

They're having to wait a month too late. But again, it's got to take two to tango on that. As far as takeaways, very early, I think you're going to be hearing a lot about EMA talking about he wants his defensive intensity to step up. You lose defensive work with Fred's professionalism and great ability to be in the right place, right time. Dylan was a good defensive player for this team. You lose some of that. Who's going to handle the ball handling?

Does the turnover count remain relatively low like it was last year? A lot of it was because Fred didn't turn the ball over. Reed Shepard, I think, is going to be improved year to date. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be all the way through to what he can be as a player. So be patient on that. And number one thing for me, and I've been asked this so many times. where this team takes the next super jump, obviously Kevin Durant being in your team is a big help on that.

But to me, the big thing is, does Alpi and Amman even take their games even a higher year to date than they were a year ago? Because we know who Kevin Durant is. We know what he's going to bring at the table. Does Amend become a more of a perimeter threat? Does the ball handling remain good? Does the defense remain stout on both ends of the floor

with so much ball handling responsibility. And has Alpi become the guy that hits key free throws down the stretch, that use the three-point shot a little bit more, and defense improves? Those two things to me. The Alpi amend development is even more important to me than having Katie on the floor. And I'll leave it at that. Cole Thompson, thank you for filling in for the last hour of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I'm back with you tomorrow at 10 a.m. from Oklahoma City.

Do not go anywhere. Cole's going to entertain the hell out of you. I hope so. Are you going to do an hour of Texan Seahawks preview? Would you please do that for the audience? No, I'm not going to do that. Come on. I want not, when I'm in the car driving in the airport, I want nothing but Texan Seahawks pretext.

We're going to talk Texan Seahawks for probably 30 minutes. I nearly crashed my car driving here when I heard that you were talking about Nick Sabin maybe wanting to get back into coaching. Thank God you actually have a brain when it comes to college football. Thank you. That was a lie. I'm going to talk about your Cougars because I'm furious right now at the AP poll. Seriously, you're six and one.

You've turned the corner. You have one loss to a team that currently is at the same record, and we can't get them ranked? What are we doing, voters? That's what I'm talking about. You know the name of your show? It's going to be called Piss and Vinegar with Cole Thompson. Ah, you're too kind. And it's up next year on 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Right here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And there is no Matt Thomas. And there is no Ross. It is Cole Thompson filling in for the very last hour getting you prepared for tonight's. name, which is going to be one, the Texans have to win. 713212-579 if you want to chime on in.

For starters, Jonathan, who let the producers take on over this network? That's what I want to know at this standpoint. What you mean? Who let us be in charge for the next hour and a half? Gordy, Brian, are you really going to trust us to handle this? Either way. We got to put the work in, man. We got to put the work in.

How was Dallas, by the way? How was the Texas State Fair? Oh, dude, it was fun. A lot less people than was the last couple years, but I know my mom was telling me that they didn't give high school free tickets and it's actually a lot better experience you can walk around

and not have to bump in everybody but... What was the worst thing or the best thing that you ate there? There has to be something. I tried like that ox tail. I don't know, dude. I didn't really like none of that.

Did you try the pickle pizza? Pickled what? Pickle pizza. No. You didn't try that? Why not? You know, I did get my... Of course you got a turkey leg

and you got a sausage on a stick. Dude, that's the way you have to start your morning. Like, I kicked off my day when I was at Red River 9 a.m. with the turkey leg. That's the breakfast of champions. If you don't do it in the morning, you don't do it right. That's just my standpoint. Of course, man.

Get a funnel cake too, man. It was a good experience. Did you try the fried butter? No, but I saw that and I saw a lot of people getting that. I'm not, dude, I'm going to get a heartburn. Dude, I like my life too much to be able to function for the rest of the day. Like, if you have a fried stick of butter, your day's over. There's nothing else you can do with your society. You have to move on with basically, you got to go home at that point.

That's the dessert because it's going to knock you out. And if you do it at like 10 in the morning, you're screwed for the rest of the day. You got to go on rides. You got to have fun with the carnival games. You can't do it. You got to be messed up too. I saw this one thing. Fried Dr. Pepper.

How do you do that? That's what I want to know. How do you take a soda and make it fried? Is it like chips afterwards? Is it like what you would consider pork rinds? That to me is just so weird at that standpoint. I kind of want to try after you're saying it. Exactly.

I need to go back to Dallas. 713, 2, 112, 5, 790, you want to. on in Texans taking on the Seattle Seahawks. By the way, Matt was 100% right on one thing that he said. I cannot stomach the fact that we have two doubleheaders on Monday night football. And specifically, the 9 o'clock kick, who are you entertaining at this standpoint? Like, if you want to do anything, move the first game up to 5 p.m. And then the second game come on at 7.30.

But 9 o'clock, who is waiting around for Texans versus Seahawks outside of the market that we see out west and the market that we have here in Houston. Because again, you have the game with baseball going on in Toronto, what, 608 first pitch? So it's like you're really going to have those two games at the same time. And it's game seven too. So I mean, I mean, they couldn't predict that, but. We know exactly where we're going.

I will say that I think of this game is actually a lot more unfavorable of Houston than people want to give credit to. Because if I do think that there is a way to beat the Seahawks. And it's very simple. You got on Jack Smith and Jigba. I was listening in when you were, when you were, guys were talking with Softie earlier. And he brought up some good points about Sam Darnold.

Darnell has been a resurgent process this year. 70.8 completion percentage, over 50-100 passing yards, 11 touchdowns, only been sacked seven times. Good offensive line for Seattle. They do a job of being able to open up creases for the rushing attack to be able to make plays. But when you look at this offense, Jonathan, can you tell me off the top of your head, do you know how much the offense runs through Jack Smith of the Jigma?

From the, one, no, but from hearing from Softy, it sounds like that's the only threat they have. 38.2% of all offensive production comes through one player. So, doing it by the process of elimination, if you were to take out 38% of an offense and your offense is functioning at 66%. Doesn't that give you an advantage? The guy currently has 696 receiving yards. he's making plays 16.6 yards per catch. He has seven plays of over 50 yards downfield. He has 13 explosive plays of 20 plus yards.

He's averaging 116 yards per game. Can you tell me what the rest of the offense is averaging besides that? I'll save you the trouble, Jonathan. It's 114 total yards per yeet contest in the passing game. So if you take away the explosives of Jacksman, the Jigba, you've got to feel confident if you're the Texans. Well, and to be fair, if you look at the Seahawks schedule, they really haven't versed a defense that was at our caliber other than Tampa Bay and they lost that game. And honestly, if you look back at this matchup for Houston, Houston probably should have won that game, but they just get a fourth downstop against Baker Mayfield.

If it's not a fourth and nine and Henry Toa actually finishes the damn play, we're talking about the Texans coming in at three and two. We're talking about them beating a common opponent where they were able to handle business. and we're talking about them at least having a defense that knows how to handle a quarterback that fits a proper system. Because Sam Darnold, whether or not you want to call him a reclamation project, whether you want to call him a resurgent player, whether you want to call him a pro bowler. The dude's working out in Seattle. I mean, massive upgrade in my opinion over what you have with Gino Smith. Geno Smith is throwing duds week in and week out. It was horrendous yesterday.

I mean, 40 plus yards total passing. I mean, he leads the NFL in interceptions. Night and day difference are what you're seeing with Clint Kubiak run the system with Sam Donald. So massive win in that standpoint. But I truly think that this really comes down to stopping Jack Smith, the Jigba. If you find a way to lose because of Kenneth Walker and Zach Sharmanet are averaging 4.5 yards a run, if you're seeing A.J. Barner and Cooper Cup, who basically is a shell himself from the offensive player of the year a few seasons ago getting open, if they're beating

you, it shows you that you're an inadequate team and that there are so many faults that currently on your disposal that you probably are not going to be able to fix without making some dire changes before the trade deadline. And that means giving up massive draft capital. That means moving off of players that you know are already signed to these long-term deals. That's making changes that are not going to be sustainable for one season in a span of two weeks. That's just the bottom line.

But if you allow Jackson Smith and Jigba to beat you, basically you're just saying that this one dude who is constantly being able to get on open. Again, he's averaging 116 yards per game. the rest of the offense is averaging 112. That's where we are. It comes down to stop in whatever you're seeing from number 11.

He gets on open, you find a way to shut him down. This is one of those games where, again, we don't like talking about with the Texas defense. They like playing a coverage standpoint where you're getting a locked down man corner where it's Derek Stingley playing, playing the boundary and being basically in lockstep with him. It's one of the games where you have to have it.

Simply put, because I can tell you what, Camarie Laster will be able be able to run bump and run when it comes with a Cooper Cup. You'll be able to get Jalen Petrie covering AJ Barner. You'll be able to get Kalin Balak taking the top off of the defense when it comes to like Tori Horton, the other rookie from Colorado State. Like they'll be able to shut them down. This is one of those gains where you basically are a follower if you are Derek Stingley

Jr. And you make sure that if Jack Smith and Jigma beat you, he beat you on a short route. He beats you for a gain of three. He beats you for a gain of two. That's all you need for the officer side of things. Now, on the other standpoint, here's where I do for. fear for Houston. And tell me if I'm wrong to think this way, Jonathan. Okay.

Texans were playing elite offensively the last five quarters when we saw them. 44 points. Right. 44 points against Baltimore. 26 points all coming in the fourth quarter against Tennessee. And we could say bad defenses versus what is going to be a top 10 defense for sure. We could say that definitely was a factor. But there's something about building confidence, having more consistency. back-to-back games where it felt like this offense

finally figured out how to run the show underneath Nick Cayley. You're running the football efficiently. You're winning on third down. Other wide receivers are getting on open. X-Nay Nico Collins. You're not fumbling the football inside the red zone. You're making plays. You're able to go ahead and be consistent when you're inside the 20.

And then you have a buy weekend. You're off for 15 days. It felt like a long time. My fear is that those 15 days, you can't keep that inertia. you can't keep that identity and then it's going to come back and it's going to hurt you. Yeah, and they're going to be smack dive in Seattle. And you're playing against a team that's number two in run defense in the NFL.

So they automatically make your offense one dimensional. You're playing against a team that is top five in sacks, top five in pressure rates, top five in pass rush win rate. They got a great defensive line on the interior where Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams that are going to be a challenge for Jake Andrews, be a challenge for Drew Scruggs. Even you can say Ed Ingram, who has been probably one of the biggest fines of the offseason for Houston and a really good addition to this line, they're going to get worked.

And if they don't get worked, Titus Howard and Arionte Urstree, they got to go up against Ernest Walker. I mean, Ernest Jones, DeMarcus Walker, Boye-Moffey, they can get after him. My question is to you, like, now if, say we don't, say we don't win. Say it's... Say Houston doesn't win? Right, say it's 27-21. Sure. Do we still feel somewhat

motivated? Okay, we still have something that we just got to figure out last couple pieces before we move on in the season or is it like everything's over? You know what's going to be interesting to me is seeing what this rushing attack looks like? Because I have been pro, let's not trade for a running back. You don't want a Breece Hall? I'm not paying a third round pick for Breece Hall to be here for four months at us to go 10 and 7 and lose in the first round of the playoffs. Like that's the thing is that when you trade for a Breast Hall,

you know that he's going to want top dollar else. And what if he ends up hitting in Houston? What if he ends up being a godsend? He's averaging 110 yards per game, finds the end zone seven times, he's averaging 6.2 yards of carry. You know what that's doing? It's allowing his agent to go out into the open market and say,

look at what my running back can do behind a mediocre offensive line. Imagine if you give him protection up front, how much he's going to be able to pile drive forward, how much we're going to be able to see yards after contact and making place, how versatile he can be with a certain offense. So you're giving up a third round pick to land a guy that's only a rental that probably gets you to the playoffs, maybe as a wildcard team. Because whether or not we want to admit it, Indianapolis is good. Like Indianapolis is no longer a team that we can just sit around and say, oh, they faced off against mediocre competition.

They can only win when they play at Lucas Oil Stadium. They went on the road. They took on Justin Herbert and they made Indiana Jones look like an MVP. I mean, that's what we saw yesterday. Whether or not you want to, oh, by the way, the other thing, Jonathan, their defensive line is elite. Their offensive line can make Houston's offensive line look mediocre. I mean, defensive line look mediocre. Can.

So you got to take them in consideration at this point. They are a legit threat. So adding in Brise Hall, what that's going to do for you is at most probably gets you to 10 and 7. You're not hosting a playoff game. You're on the road. You may or may not win that game. And then he becomes a free agent. Oh, and by the way, if I didn't mention this before,

remember how you had a third round pick that you got to give up for Brees Hall? Right. Do you know who else to give up a third round pick for? Who? Woody Marks. Trade it into the fourth, traded in two, day three, by giving up your third round pick next year for the New York Giants. So you have Woody Marks for a third round pick.

So I got to give that up. So I'm team. Let's not move for a running back. That's a rental. And also, I'm not going to go after Alvin Camaro. Like I understand. Yeah, I wouldn't. Because here's the thing.

getting beating up too, man. Here's the thing, Jonathan, can you tell me the year that he's rushed for a thousand yards? It's got to be since I was in high school, man. He has a rush for a thousand yards. Never happened. See, I mean, I've never seen it.

It's total yards that we got to talk about with him. He gets most of his yards after contact as a receiving threat. Who did you just draft that was known as a receiving threat at Mississippi State and USC? Woody Marks. So we're really going to add in a more expensive running back that probably is going to

not fix our team in other areas. when we already have a running back that was known for being a pass catcher and good yards after contact, what are we doing at that standpoint? But if the Texans show you enough offensively tonight when it comes to the passing game, if the pass protection is good enough to keep C.J. Shrout upright, and we see another performance like we watched against Baltimore or against Tennessee. But the rushing attack is obsolete. It's a conversation Nick Casario has to have.

It's a legit one. Because this is a team that does feel like it's missing an element offensively. You're watching as Jaden Higgins is growing in. to a quality wide receiver number three. You're watching as Xavier Hutchinson stepping on up and being a capable complimentary piece to Nico Collins. Nico Collins is still Nico Collins.

Top 10 wide receiver in the NFL. Dalton Schultz is who he is. He's not athletic to say the least, but he'll get the job done at tight end. Your offensive line looks better in past protection, but again, the bottom, you were at the very much rock bottom last year. So the only place to go is up.

You're missing one thing. So if the Texans can show me tonight, they can run the football at an efficient level. Even in a loss, you may feel like there's enough here to say, listen, we beat up on Denver. They had a comeback against the New York Giants who gave them the game. They beat up on Matt Jones. They find a way to beat Jacksonville. Okay, they're about 500.

They're right back in the hunt for at least a wild card spot. And we can make maybe a conversation on adding in some depth on the offensive line. Maybe we can go bring in a veteran receiver that can take a little bit of pressure off of Jalen Knoll because we don't. don't know the status of Christian Kirk long term with the hamstring issue. We still don't know Joe Mixon if he's ever. We don't know if Mixon's going to be back this year. So there's a lot of things that you can learn in a loss to where the Texans can fix

some things. But bottom line, in my opinion, is that if you can have the same offensive identity that we watched the last five quarters that they were on the field and you could shut down Jack Spitt the Jigba. I mean, the Texans, in my opinion, should be favored in this game. I know that's a homerism pick, but still, I think the Texans, when you look at how they've looked as of the last two games, if that's the version that we see in Seattle, Number one, it's going to be a high-scoring affair.

And number two, Texas may end up pulling this one out. And it may be really promising. 7-13-2-1-2-5-7-90. Texans talk. I also want to talk about the Cougars. I also want to talk about tonight's game between Seattle and Toronto. I do think that there is a reason why, regardless of who wins, Jonathan, we have to root for the American League to beat the Dodgers. And there's a big factor in it.

But I do want to talk one more thing about the Texans. I agree with you. What was that? I agree with you with the American League. Got one tonight. Got to figure out a way. For whoever wins this one, you got to be pulling for, I'll explain that. Do you want to talk about the Texans?

One thing that I am looking for in tonight's game. And a ton of other things in the Matt Thomas show featuring Ross with no Matt Thomas or Ross right here on Sports Talk 790. Oh boy, bad news. More time, over time. For the Seattle Seahawks. According to the Texans PR team, the Texans have activated the following.

following players from the physically unable to perform list. De Nico Autry. Jalen Reed. The Texans have also waived Zion Childress. I know I set that up for probably something that was a lot bigger. I don't care. It's more depth for the defense for Sam Daraa to have to deal with. I'm fine with that.

That's big. I'm content with that. You get another name in the trenches. The pair alongside with DeNeil Hunter, pair alongside with Will Anderson, take some pressure off of what you get in Tim S. settle, Mario Edwards. It's another rotational option.

It's a better fit potentially than Daryl Taylor. It's a better name than maybe Derek Barnett. You're adding in another safety. Get some reps away from M.J. Stewart. Maybe Jalen Reed is going to be that thumper that takes the place to C.J. Garner Johnson long term. I'll take it.

I'll take whatever it takes to be able to get the Texans a victory tonight in a game that should never have been scheduled for 9 o'clock. I'm sorry. I'm, be honest, guys. I don't think I'm watching all that.

I don't know. See, you're lucky because I have to write about it for Texans Wire. So I got to stay awake for every single snap, then post game, then recap,

then I get to come back here on like four hours of sleep and do this whole shindig again tomorrow. So it's going to be a day for me. It's, I am... Long Monday. It is the case of the worst Monday as possible.

Because of, again, long weekend, Texans, 15 days off since the last time we saw them. And we got to wait until 9 o'clock just to be able to see them on the field. Case and point. It's frustrating. Who is the one player that you want to see something from tonight, Jonathan Allen?

Dude, I truly want to see that we can trust Nick Chubb as much. Yeah, we had against the Ravens defense in Tennessee. I really want to be confident enough to be like, you know what? Okay, Nick Chubb realized he might get a job took as RB1 and he's going to handle business. You get what I'm saying? Because if not, what are we doing here? Like how you said, they might be eager to get Brice Hall and really it's not smart to, but they might get desperate enough if Nick Chub doesn't show up for the job.

You get what I'm saying? It's a good pick. I will not push back on that one at all because you know what? You brought in Nick Chub on a very cheap friendly deal. And the reason why is because of you realize he needed to go ahead and have a home. Nobody was going after him. we'll pay $2.5 million if you end up hitting $5 million, that's chum change to us. And that's nothing.

If we get vintage version of Nick Chubb, 4.5 yards of play, bulldozing over defensive backs into the end zone, first downs galore. Yeah, I'll take that. I'll pay $5 million for that. We need to hit desperately, and that would just be amazing just for these, and be even three and three to say we win that, man. Do you want to who I'm looking at tonight? Tell me.

Jalen Noel. Jalen Lowe. Let me explain. So when the Texans decided to move out of the first round and not draft an offensive lineman, which I thought was massive mistake to begin with, I figured okay, you go bring in a wide receiver. My favorite wide receiver in this draft class was Kyle Williams out of Washington. My number two is Jalen Knoll. I love Jailen Null's tape. If you watch him at Iowa State, the way he was able to get in and out of small little creases and be a security blanket for Rocco Becked,

in this high-tempo scoring offense from Matt Campbell, you would have thought day one Pellier. If he was not 5'10, and by the way, they lie. I'll tell you right now, ladies and gentlemen, they lie on the stat sheets. They lie on the website. He's not 5'10.

He's probably 5'9 on a good day. But if he was 6 foot, after what he did last season at Iowa State... They say he's 511 right now, ESPN. Lies. Lies. I'm 5'7. which means I'm actually probably not 5 foot 7.

I'm probably 5 foot 6. That's how short I am. We lie about our height all the time. They're lying to you. They're telling you that. But if he was 6 foot, 6 foot 1, first round pick, not even a second glance, incredible change of direction, good speed, exceptional hands, did not drop any balls, special teams galore superwiz at that standpoint.

And he was splitting reps with the other Texas receiver, Jaden Higgins. Now I like Jaden Higgins. And Jaden Higgins, I think, is a very good complimentary receiver in today's game. I think Jalen Knoll can be a game changer. But this season, five catches for 22 yards, one touchdown. Yeah, I said you haven't seen much of him. You have not seen a lick of him. And the frustrating part is that even when you didn't have Christian Kirk out there

and you didn't have Braxton Berrios out there, Nick Cayley in the offense said, hey, we're going to turn to Justin Watson. Watson's going to see the field and he's going to make an impact for our team. He's going to play 45% of reps. What are we going to learn from him? A guy who's been in the league for seven years and is best known for being a special teamer at most. What are we going to see from this guy that was, as in the words of what, Kurt Warner, oh, a reliable security blanket as the number six receiver for Patrick Holmes?

Like, give me a break. The dude barely saw the field last year of Kansas City. Yeah, you're a very big team on developmental, like, especially with Woody Marks, like keep Woody Marks. You're very big on that. Jay and the Null finished with over a lot. 1100 receiving yards last year was should have been an all-American 14.9 yards of play, eight touchdowns.

He had seven plays of over 50 yards downfield. And Christian Kirk is on a one-year contract. Christian Kirk is dealing with a hamstring injury. And this is not the first time that we have seen him dealing with a lower body ailment. He may miss some time. This is your opportunity to really take over as that future slot receiver, that chain mover, that guy who is able to turn a five-yard slant pattern into a 45-yard gain. And in my opinion, I think that Jalen Knoll from a talent perspective,

just from a talent perspective, may be the better of the two Iowa Statewide receivers. So if I get him more involved in the game, if I'm able to get six, seven completions, and in this offensive line that we know going against, one of if not the best NFC defensive line currently in the NFL

the dink and dunk passes if he's able to make defenders slip if he's able to go ahead and turn small little quick passes into immediate intermediate 12 15 17 yard gains chain mover

keeps defense is guessing it forces you to have to maneuver and make some switches for your defense right now Devon Witherspoon has been probably one of the better nickel defenders in the NFL a name that people continuously sleep on because we don't think of the nickel defender.

We think of the outside guys. We think of Soss Garner. We think of Derek Stingley Jr. We think of what we're seeing with guys like even Terry and Arnold who's not meeting the goals. The nickel defender at this point has become so influential on the status of great defensive play that if you're able to embarrass him with Jalen Old,

I mean, you got yourself a bona fide stud. And you got yourself somebody that you can now envision past this season having a good repertoire with Nico Collins. And then the other thing that you're going to have to realize is, if you have a good slot receiver, especially in an offense that's going to rely on tempo more than anything else, there's an opportunity for you to then force defenses to have to pay attention to him. Which, what does that do, Jodden?

Open up the run game. Opens up the outside for Nico Collins to where you have to play one-on-one. And you're telling me at this point that anybody is going to be able to stop. but Nico Collins one on one. Just spare me. This is not a good secondary for Seattle. He was ranked like, what, 45 best player NFL preseason in Nico Collins? So, I mean, dude.

He's going to be fine. Nico Collins and I, I think it could have a day. And the reason he could have a day is because of Jalen Knoll is consistently moving the chains early on to take pressure to where Mike McDonald's defense is going to have to make some switches. Here's another reason why I think the Texas could win tonight. And Softie brought this up on your show earlier. Okay. What's his, what's Mike McDonald's? record at home.

It was four and eight, right? He's four and eight. He's a better road coach than he is a home coach. Which is, can you give me an explanation? I actually can't. Dude, there's nothing behind it. I mean, sincerely. Because last season they went 10 and 7.

They were sub-five, I think they won three games at home last year, Regina Smith. They lost already one game this year to Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers at home this season. I mean, and we are talking about, again, a team that probably should be sitting at 5-1. If not for the fumble against San Francisco, they win that game. And it's a completely different conversation that we're having about this new version of Seattle.

I mean, it works in your favor. So I personally think that Jalen Knoll is the guy that you have to target in tonight's game. If he ends up, if you told me his stat line, if I knew what he was going to finish with, with receptions and receiving yards, I could tell you if the Texans offense does enough to beat Seattle. I personally think that because the run game is going to either be there early on or not and Nick Cayley is either going to have to scrap that and say we're throwing the football 40 times tonight

and that's the way we're going to win or it's finally going to get there and then teams are going to begin to convey and load the box Seattle is going to take away that is going to lead the passing attack open and you're going to have the creases of the 5 to 8 to 9 to 10 yards downfield where Jalen Knoll is going to be able to turn a quick little slant pattern

into a first down gain, fresh set of downs, and maybe an explosive play. So I think that if you told me his stat line, I would be able to see if the Texas have enough offensively to win this game. Personally,

that's just my two cents of the word. You got me intrigued, man. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to make a little over under for Jaylon Knowles receptions or something, you know? I will set the over under tonight. And if you want to listen to the NICAP later,

I'll reintroduce this at 6 o'clock. Okay. The over-under tonight, four and a half receptions, 45 receiving yards. If he gets more than five catches and he gets over 45 receiving yards, which would basically double his total this year in both receptions and receiving yards. Because I don't think that we're going to see much of Xavier Hutchinson in the slot, and I definitely do not think that we're going to see Braxen Barrio at all in this game. I think if anything, you will see him be the inactive,

or if he plays, he is the last resort wide receiver. if he gets five catches in 45 yards to Texas win the football game. I will stand on that take right now. You got to get the football to number 14. He ends up having that stat line. Texans win. 713, 212, 5790.

We'd love to hear from you, what you think is going to be the stat line that gets the Texans over the top. Take quick time out when we come back. Jonathan, I brought this up. I think the Blue Jays are winning tonight. I think the Blue Jays are going to get the victory at the Rogers Center.

The Blue Jays! I agree with Matt Thomas. Seattle needed to close the job done at Team Mobile Park. They couldn't. So guess what? Sorry, guys. You're losing. But I want to explain why they're going to lose and why we need to root for Toronto despite being from Canada.

Imagine living in Canada, gross. Why we have to root for them to win the World Series and end the Dodgers reign of being the villains of baseball. There is a reason behind it. And it does affect your Astros. I'll explain why next right here on Sports Talk 790. Matt is 100% right about one thing.

And I can't believe I giving the man. Just credit to credit, too. Come on, man. In Houston, we do not need to hear about a Dodgers podcast. I don't care that it is part of I heart. Why in this market would anybody want to hear about a team that constantly likes to ridicule us and say that we cheated when clearly they have a Mickey Mouse championship before last season, which was their first one in four decades? I mean, do we really want to hear about that? Does anybody really care at that standpoint about what goes on?

You know what? And that's the other thing, Jonathan. By the way, if you haven't figured out, this is the Matt Thomas show featuring Ross. Ross and Matt decided to take the day off so Cole Thompson is filling on in and Jonathan Allen doing a phenomenal job. Not only producing, but also keeping the conversation flowing. Like honestly, everyone cheats in baseball. Everyone does it. If you're not cheating in some capacity, whether it's the cork band.

You're not trying to win. Or you're not trying to win, which is why again, also we have to break. up that the Dodgers cannot win the World Series if we want baseball in 2027. But before we do that, Roger Saturday Night, Blue Jays, Mariners, Game 7, Jonathan, the, the Blue Jays are winning this baseball game. They're going to the World Series. They need to. It's not that they need to.

They're going to, and I can explain why. So what was so funny is, when I filled in last week on 790 in the mornings, I told Dan Matthews, the Blue Jays are going to win the series. And it gave me a look of, you could be right. Last week, they were down 02. You could be right. You know, times could change. But do you know what happened after they tied the series of 2-2?

We saw history be made once again. So Shane Bieber, who was traded for the Cleveland Guardians over to the Blue Jays at the deadline, is a former Cy Young winner. Max Scherzer, who gave us 5 and 2 thirds. And one of the best gifts that's currently trending on Twitter of him screaming at his manager, the hell you're taking me out. The hell you think that I'm believing this game. I'm 41.

I may not get another opportunity to pitch again. This may be my last time. You're giving me the field. Also pitch to win. What do those two have in common? They are Sye Young winners. It's the ninth time in Major League Baseball postseason history that back-to-backed Sye Young winners

have won consecutive games in a post-season. Say it one more time. Wait, repeat that. Hold on. Shane Bieber and Max Scherzer are Cy Young winners. Yeah. Their wins in game three and game four on the road. Yeah.

Is the ninth time that back-to-back Cy Young winners have won consecutive games in the postseason. Would you like to know the last time that it happened? What? Some crazy like 45 years ago? No, it was 2017 right here in Houston with Dallas Keikle and Justin Verlander. Who went to the World Series that year, Jonathan? I'll save the trouble. Come on now.

We know who, and we know that that title is not tarnished. It's actually very much intact. Do you know the last time it happened? 1996, Greg Maddox and Tom Glavitt. Do you want to know who won the World Series that year, Jonathan? It was the Atlanta Braves. And the time before that it happened. Don Drysdale and Sandy Kofax in 1965

when the Los Angeles Dodgers, that cesspool of an organization that bought itself a championship in 2020, also won the World Series. Well, you can say they bought their championship last year, too. So either way, you got a Cy Young winner on the Mount tonight. And if things go south for him, you want it who's going to come on in and replace him? The guy who was out there for Game 4.

Max Scher. Back-to-back-back, Cy Young winners pitched in Game 3 in Game 4. They won the series. they won that moment, they will win the series because of that. I've stood on business because of it. I stand on business tonight. Also, the offense was dreadful for Seattle last night. I mean, it was pathetic.

It was honestly laughable. And as somebody who could not wait to see Seattle find a way to mess it up for themselves, I was kidding. I couldn't lie. I was having a good chuckle last night as we were watching Randy a Roserana and Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor and Gino Swarer. and Gino Suarez and everybody else from that team that loves to make fun of Houston because for the first time in a decade they didn't make the playoffs had to walk back to the dugout as a young kid by the name of Trae I said them down and they proceeded to win six two. I was telling Matt earlier watching these games compared to when the Yankees are playing with Aaron Judge. Kyle Raleigh, if you, I don't think he's the MVP because he hasn't even rarely showed up at bad man.

like oftentimes trying to swing up the first pitch not really swing out of his shoes and I just I don't know he's very underwhelming when I was walking this playoffs man I don't know so he was very underwhelming in this series but he does have arguably the biggest home run of the season for Seattle because if he did tie the game to make it 3-2 in favor of Seattle to go to the Rogers Center

because remember if somehow some way we see Toronto actually sweep out in Seattle the series is over last night Toronto versus Los Angeles for the World Series Championship, and we could see a winner for the first time since 1993 across the border. So, big time difference. But you are right. This offense is a whole. You're not winning with the long ball.

You're not really putting the ball in playing. Josh Naylor's been somewhat okay. Jorge Polanco came back down to reality after what we saw in game five. That's depressing. I was actually working for him real bad after that too. You know what? I wasn't because you want to why he was supposed to sign with the Astros and imagine what this offense would have been like if he was here.

That's just me. I'm just saying it. So I'm not ready to go that far. But I will tell you why, regardless of who wins tonight, by the way, we have a 608 first pitch. Also, we will see Shane Bieber take on George Kirby. Kirby is a 707 ERA in the playoffs. He was awesome in game one for Seattle. And then he decided to play what, 10 runs in his next game. So bad performance.

Regardless if we win tonight, there's a reason why you need to root for the winner of the American League Championship series. Do you want baseball in 2027? That's it. That's what this comes down to. You think it's going to ruin it that bad? Do you want baseball in 27? Because Jeff Passon came out with an article and he talked about how the CBA agreement is up after 2026.

And what is something that Major League Baseball, mostly owners, want when it comes to the future of baseball? they want a salary cap Jonathan they want to be able to say as small market teams we need to be able to have a fair level playing field with the major markets that can win because of they have evidence of money evidence of resources because of television deals

because of what they're able to afford because of there's no salary cap this happened earlier in this season when Bryce Hopper kicked that dude out right and the thing is is that the major league baseball players association is vehemently against a salary cap. Because why would you not want to be? If I'm Bryce Harper and I'm getting a 15-year deal, I want as much money as humanly possible.

I want to be able to guarantee that I will never have to work a day in my life after I retire, and my children's children will never have to work a day in my life after I retire. Just at the ballpark, yeah, exactly. And I also want to go to a pro, I want to go to a team that has history,

has ambiance, certainly has a livelihood that can certainly be promising. I don't want to go to Colorado. Why would I want to go to Colorado again? Why would I want to go to Pittsburgh where they're a factory of sadness and they never win anything? When I can go to Philadelphia and get paid countless sums of money to be a part of a team that may or may not be good enough to win a championship, but certainly has the resources to. So they want a salary cap in baseball. If the Dodgers win the World Series over Toronto or over Seattle, it will then give owners a reason to believe that once again,

After spending countless money on Roki Sasaki, on Yamamoto, on bringing in even guys like Tyler Glass now and signing him to a seven-year deal, re-bring him back in Kike Hernandez, making sure that you bring in Tommy Emin on that deal. You sign Freddie Freeman. And then there's rumors that they're going to make a play for Kyle Tucker this offseason on a 14-year deal. So it's like, again, let's just build the negative avengers of society and ruin baseball as is. They'll have the evidence in the ammunition to finally say, hey, We want to make this fair. We don't want to see another dynasty run

where a team is basically built like the Yankees of 2000 to where we're going to have to just consistently lose. And what's so funny about the Yankees is, Jonathan, is that in 1990, in 2009 and 2000, we saw the Yankees went back-to-back World Series championships. Last time it happened, right? This would be the first time it would happen since 1999-2000. So what happened in Major League Baseball

when the Yankees won back-to-back championships in 99 and 2000. They implemented the luxury tax in baseball. So financial changes came. So that way there was an evidence that owners need to spend more money for them to be able to get the luxury tax. So when the Yankees won, they forced ownership to finally have to start actually opening up its wallets and spend some money. So now Dodgers win two, back-to-back, potentially a third in 2020.

and the CBA agreement comes for close. And they say, we need to implement a salary cap. Players union goes on strike. They don't want to play when it's a current salary cap structure. And there's no more baseball for it. They can try to set it out. So if you're a fan of baseball in general, the only thing that you're rooting for is that Seattle or Toronto,

march on in to Dodger Stadium and lay waste to the most expensive roster money can buy in baseball. and prove that even when you have a big salary, because again, Toronto has a salary, they're willing to spend money like crazy. They just paid for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. They swung and missed on the Anthony Sontan-Dare deal, but at least they took a shot.

And you also got throwing Seattle. They like to go ahead and throw out money. As long as they can win, they can put themselves in a position where you can guarantee the salary cap will still be available, and there will not be a limit. 713-212-5-7-90.

You're rooting for Seattle, or you're rooting for Toronto or you are not an American that loves baseball. We will close out the Matt Thomas show featuring Ross right after this talking about the Cougars. Really? Six and one and still not going on to be in the AP top 25? What are we doing, voters? Sincerely, what are we doing? Right here on Sports Talk 790. One final segment on the Matt Thomas show featuring Ross without Matt Thomas or Ross.

And then you get to listen to Adam Wexler, Adam Clinton, and I guess yours truly a little bit on the EA team. 713-2-12-5-7-9 if you want to chime on in the eight people once again consistently proves to me and everybody with a functioning brain that they are morons they are nitwits and they do not belong in the stratosphere of college football i apologize if i called out anybody who is offended but also do your job a little bit better and maybe i won't have to offend you if i can just be honest the houston kugers are bull eligible in year-or-two underneath willie fritz they got a massive win over Arizona. They were the underdogs, Jonathan. Do you know that they was a road favorite? And yet somehow, some way, Houston was able to secure a win. Ethan Sanchez, congratulations.

You sent Houston to bowl eligibility before we ever even reached November. You know how challenging that is for most teams? And yet somehow at 6 and 1, Kroger's not ranked. And their only loss is to rank 11 tech, man. That's crazy. And Texas Tech found a way to lose this weekend. So are we saying that because of they lost Houston has to be penalized because of it. That seems interesting. So I did a little bit more research.

Okay. Jodden, do you know that the Houston Cougars currently are only giving up 19 points per game? You know that that's better than Georgia? That's better than Vanderbilt. That's better than Washington. That's better than Georgia Tech. Better than Louisville. Better than Tulane, better than SMU, better than Ole Miss.

All teams that are currently ranked in the AP top 25 or at least. received votes from AP voters. You know their offense is currently scoring an average of 25.6 points per game? You know that that's actually better than LSU, who currently is ranked? You know that's actually better than Texas?

Now you're going to get to... And I'm SEC through and through, ladies and gentlemen. I am SEC through and through. I call it as is. I'll tell you right now, the best conference of college football year in and year out resides in the southeastern region of the United States and you could take that to the bank. But if you want to talk about fairness, you want to talk about opportunities. Houston has one of the best scoring units inside the Red Zone in college football this year.

They have a running back that currently is averaging six yards after contact and five yards per play. Connor Wigman has six rushing touchdowns to go along with his 11 through the air. He only has two turnovers this season. Amari Thomas is making plays left and right and averaging 18.9 yards a pass and is constantly finding ways to get on open. Tanner Coiziel has been phenomenal inside the red zone. He is a mismatch nightmare. And currently, the Kruger's are favored in three of their next four games.

The only one that they're not, Arizona State this weekend at 7 o'clock on the road. But they're favored everywhere else in their next four of West Virginia, UCF, TCU. And we can't get them ranked. We can't even have them in the conversation. What Willie Fritz has done in year two has been exceptional. And that, my friends, is why once again, when you hear voters and they have opinions, you don't need to listen to them. Because we all know how big a moronic nitwits it is because they only care about the big logo attached the name.

Houston was dressed up as Alabama. They'd be a top 10 team. That does for the Matt Thomas show. Not with Ross. Special thanks to Jonathan for holding down the fort. I'm Cole Thompson. Next up, Adam Wexler, Adam Clinton. In my best Matt Thomas' voice, the A team, right here on Sports Talk 790.